> The Secret of Harmony
>  by Brassboy212
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: A Mental and Magical Discovery
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Footnotes are numbers inside parentheses.  Example: (1)


Three months had passed since the beloved mane 6 defeated and imprisoned Lord Tirek back in the prison of Tartarus. Now the young princess, Twilight Sparkle, was having the pleasure of enjoying her new castle home. She walked throughout her new library double dusting off bookcases and checking to make sure every book was in the right spot.

Ever since they heard of Twilight’s house being destroyed in the battle with Tirek, ponies from all over Equestria generously donated books by the box loads to replace the ones that were destroyed. In a matter of weeks, she had nearly every book she once had and then some! Luckily, the larger space was more than capable of shelving them all. As she walked around, she gave another glance to a unique set of objects in the center of the room. It was a glass case containing perfect replicas of the Elements of Harmony; made by the Equestrian Historical Society as a gift to the princess. Sure the mane 6’s new “rainbow power” worked just as well, but these were the artifacts that brought them all together; the artifacts that helped show Equestria that friendship really is magic; the artifacts that freed Princess Luna from Nightmare Moon’s control and imprisoned the now free and reformed lord of chaos, Discord. Twilight began feeling the warming effects of nostalgia and decided to savor it as much as possible. She sat in one of the comfortable chairs in the room continuing to fix her eyes on the replicated relics. Eventually, she shut her eyes and began reminiscing the times she and her friends united to defeat their foes. 

Each of the experiences created the same feelings in her mind. They all felt as if harmony was the most powerful thing in the world; a true taste of heavenly peace ending with a sense of cleansing as if all the evil brought upon by her foes melted away. However, there was something different about the sensations this time around. Every time she replayed that cleansing part of the memory, it always seemed like something was off. It was a very subtle feeling; so subtle she had to replay the memories numerous times to make sure she was thinking straight. A beautiful melody of images and feelings played in her mind, but every time, a singular note in the same spot was skipped, creating an awkward ending. She seemed to have uncovered a grey area within the recesses of her memories, but had no idea what it was or what it meant. After realizing this was a mystery she could not solve on her own, she decided to do the next best thing. 

She called out to her dragon assistant. "Spike? Spike could you come here for a second?"

The little dragon came into the room. "What do you need Twilight?"

"I want to have a meeting with you and girls. Stay here and ready the throne room while I go round them up."

"Sure Twilight, what's the meeting for?"

"It's a long story. I'll explain everything when we're all together." Twilight immediately turned around and headed for the front door.

"Well, okay. See you later then!" Once he heard the front door shut, he grabbed the broom and duster and made his way to the throne room.

"So she's having a royal meeting and wants me on it as well." he said to himself. "I wonder what it's going to be about."

Twilight lifted herself off the ground and flew towards her friend Rarity's house first since she lived the closest to Twilight. "I don't know what this missing feeling is all about, but once I get my friends together, I know we'll be able to unravel this mystery!"





A large yet skinny demonic centaur slept in his enchanted cell within the confines of the ancient prison known as Tartarus. Believe it or not, this weak centaur nearly succeeded in stealing all the magic in Equestria, including alicorn magic, and becoming the most powerful being in the world. This creature's name was Tirek. 

Now, back in prison after his second defeat, he did his best to get reacquainted with his cell and its hulking guard, Cerberus, the three-headed dog. His unpleasant nap on the cold metal floor was rudely interrupted by a light flurry of black fur falling on his nose causing him to sneeze and wake up. As Tirek propped himself up, he noticed that the hairs were coming from Cerberus eagerly scratching himself with his hind paw; completely oblivious to the stream of shedding fur drifting into Tirek's cell. He tried to call out to the dog, but his voice was too hushed an weak to be heard over the scratching. Seeing a pebble in his reach outside the cell, he picked it up and tossed it at Cerberus hitting him right on his middle head. Cerberus took notice of the pebble, stopped scratching, and turned around towards the prisoner. Tirek held up a fistful of the hair. 

"Do you mind?!" he said as loud as his frail voice could let him. 

Cerberus' middle head, named Julius (1), made a confused-sounding yelp with a matching facial expression in response. Luckily, Tirek taught himself to speak dog during the extended time of his first imprisonment (he had nothing better to do) so he could understand and communicate with the dog perfectly.

"Don't play Mr. Innocent with me Julius!" he said glaring at the middle head. "That's your brother, Orthrus' (2) job! How many times have I told you not to scratch your flea ridden body NEAR MY CELL?!"

The right head, or Tirek's left, named Augustus (1), snarled and gave out a series of angry barks.
Translation: "Quiet centaur! We don't take orders from incarcerated scum like you!"

"Said the ferocious beast who submitted to a pony in a matter of seconds!"

The left head, or Tirek's right, named Tiberius (1), barked back in a way that caught Tirek's attention.
Translation: "Hey! Fluttershy is the sweetest pony in Equestria! It's only fair that we repay her for her kindness!"

"Fluttershy? You mean that yellow pegasus was the one who tamed you?"

Tiberius barked once and nodded back.
Translation: "The very same!"

Tirek put a hand to his face as his frustration reached a whole new level from all the praise given to the ponies. "First I put up with Discord succumbing to them and now the beast who watches me 24/7 is part of it? I swear there's no escape from those insolent equines!"

Julius wagged his tail and growled at Tirek with a toothy grin.
Translation: Should've thought of that before you tried to take over Equestria!
Augustus and Tiberius snickered.
Julius gave another series of barks.
Translation: "Haven't you noticed that your resistance against friendship has only ended badly for you?"

"What?" Tirek growled.

Julius continued barking.
Translation: You go on and on about how friendship is meaningless, but at the end of your day, it becomes your downfall."

Augustus chimed in with more barking that sounded like sarcasm to Tirek's ears.
Translation: "Clearly your brother Scorpan was more in the wrong for befriending the ponies despite him being allowed freedom, unlike you."

The vision in Tirek's black and yellow eyes grew blurry as the rage in him continued to boil. 

His throat stung as he shouted:

"Don't you DARE mention that traitor in front of me!!"

Tiberius barked back.
Translation: "And what makes you think we'll listen to you?"

More rage continued to fill Tirek from the insults. 

His temper was as close to breaking as it could possibly be. "I swear, once I get out of here I'll make sure to have you neutered while you're awake so that all three of your slobbering heads can witness the whole thing!!"

Julius joyfully howled as a form of laughter and was followed by barks from Tiberius, and then Augustus. As this went on, the beast began walking away from Tirek's cell.
Translation: "Oh please, like I've never heard a threat like that before!" (3)
"Need we remind you that you're the frail centaur in a cage!"
"Indeed, even compared to us you're the weaker one. Nothing but a powerless criminal!"

That was it for Tirek. He could handle being called frail or skinny, he could handle being reminded of his imprisonment, he could even handle being called weak now and then, but never, NEVER in the history of his existence would he ever tolerate being called "powerless". Being powerless reminded him of the ponies, and he would never compare himself to the beings he despised most. 

"I'VE MORE THAN ENOUGH POWER TO PUT YOU DOWN, MUTT!!!" he called back to them. 

In a fit of his wild rage he focused his power to use his dark magic. He knew that his power would be weak in his state, but he didn't care. He wanted to show Cerberus that no one calls him powerless and gets away with it. After a great deal of straining, a baseball-sized fiery colored sphere appeared above his head and fired a beam at the dog's back, causing him to fall unconscious.

After Tirek collected himself, he saw how effective his magic really was. He was very familiar with how strong his powers would be in his current state and he never remembered them being this strong. However, upon further inspection, he started noticing some other strange things. For one, he noticed that his body was a bit bigger compared to the first time he was imprisoned. Since his size changed based on his power level, he knew something was up. He shut his eyes and accessed his inner self. It was his way of seeing how much magic he had inside. At first, all he saw was black nothingness, but suddenly, five faint beacons of magic appeared in the darkness. He immediately recognized the owners of each beacon and was quite surprised by this.

"How is this possible?" he thought. "Surely, all the stolen magic in me was taken after my defeat. How could I be able to retain some of it? I don't even possess an ability to do so." Whatever the case, he was more than pleased by the little miracle he was given! 

Immediately, he decided to seize the opportunity to break out and planned to get some much needed revenge on Equestria. But the plan had to be good; something they would never expect; something that they could not possibly challenge. As he leafed through ideas, he remembered the words of the Julius head of Cerberus

"Haven't you noticed that your resistance against friendship has only ended badly for you?"

Friendship. THAT'S IT! Perhaps Tirek WOULD need to make some friends in order to defeat his foes. Perhaps the idea of having friends wasn't such a bad idea. After all, what better way to bring down his mortal enemies than to use their own idea of friendship against them? Now the question remaining was how would he get these friends. Obviously, he couldn't do much inside his prison cell, but once he remembered who the remnants of magic belonged to, he came up with an idea so brilliant that it made him smile more than he ever had in his life. Remembering that Cerberus would wake up soon from his "nap", he knew he had to put his plan into action ASA-Now! So after sitting down and cracking his knuckles, the centaur went to work.





Spike, just finished the last touches on the throne room he heard the sound of the front door open followed by numerous hoof-steps and the chatter of six familiar voices. Quickly, he put the cleaning supplies in the closet and headed downstairs to greet his friends. After their share of greetings, the gang headed upstairs and took their respective seats in the throne room. 

Rainbow Dash was the first to break the ice. "Well Twilight, we're all here. What's this really important thing you wanted to tell us?"

Rarity spoke next. "Yes Twilight, do tell us. Is there a problem?"

After a minute or so, Twilight finally attempted to give an answer. "Yes....well, no....I mean, there IS a problem, but it's not REALLY a problem..." The difficulty of explaining the situation was so great that it was causing the purple alicorn to ramble.

"Oh, well that's good to hear, so why-" 

Twilight cut off Applejack with more rambling before she had a chance to finish.

"At least, it doesn't SEEM like a problem....but, then again, it COULD be a problem....just not a MAJOR problem...."

Pinkie Pie stifled a laugh. "Man Twilight, you sound like me after the time I ate two-year-old Nightmare Night candy from the back of the cabinet.....It didn't end well."

"Don't you start too Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash ordered.

"Even though it doesn't sound like a big problem, it's easy to see this possibly small problem for the possibly big problem it may or may not possibly be..."

"Um...Twilight, you're scaring me." Fluttershy softly protested.

"HOWEVER, despite all the possible risks of this being a possible problem, we should, from here on out, keep to the possible theory that there is no problem at this very moment!!"

Everyone gave a sigh of relief thinking that her spastic report was over.

"But we should still keep the possibility of this being a possible problem on the table."

"TWILIGHT!!!"

"What?"

"Whether this is a problem or not, we need to know so we can help you." said Rarity. "That's what you brought us here for in the first place."

"You're right girls, I'm sorry. It's just that I'm so confused with what's happened recently. My head's been going in circles from thinking about it so much."

"Well, like Rarity said, if you tell us we can find a way to help you." replied Fluttershy. "Just start from the beginning. (4)"

"Yeah! Yeah!" responded Pinkie. "And when you come to the end....Stop! (4)"

"Alright," Twilight took a deep breath and made sure she was calm and collected. "It all started earlier today in the library..." and with that, Twilight began telling her story.





Tirek continued to concentrate his magic. The strain and the exhaustion was unbearable; unlike anything he had ever done in his life. The small fiery sphere of magic continued floating over his head as he waved his skinny arms around slowly, yet randomly, to control the magic. 

"If only I were just one level higher, then this would be so much easier to handle!" he thought.

Suddenly, something appeared to him slightly above his forehead. He looked up as best he could, and saw what looked like a small colored beam of magic swirling inside the red and orange sphere. Then he saw another, and another, and another, until he counted four beams. Tirek smiled knowing that this ritual was so near completion.

"Now, the final touch!" he panted.

Tirek held his hands close to the sphere of magic and concentrated once more. The fifth and final beam appeared above the sphere; a beam much darker and more unstable than the other four. Then, in one swift motion, Tirek brought his hands together, locking the sphere and the five beams within his clutches. Hints of bright red and orange lights coming from Tirek's hands flashed around the cell. His hands started to shake from the sudden fusion of magic. To him, the magic felt like a bunch of tiny fish flailing around in a tiny puddle of water cupped between his hands. It also felt like one of the fish had teeth since he felt an occasional sting within his grasp. But, stinging or not, he knew he had to keep his hands together if he wanted to get this spell right.

After a few minutes of this phenomenon, the red and orange lights began to turn an ominous purple, Tirek's hands stopped shaking, and the "flailing fish" sensation he was feeling died down as well. Seeing the changes, Tirek slowly opened his hands and saw that the sphere of magic above his head looked as though it was a sphere made of purple fire. It trembled and pulsed from the overwhelming power it had just received.

Overjoyed at the next to last phase being a success, Tirek pointed his head to the shadowy corner of his cell and discharged the purple magic. A purple beam shot out and exploded when it made contact with the target. His sphere of magic turned back to it's normal color. Soon he was hit with blurry vision as a symptom of his exhaustion and collapsed on his side due to his body giving out. As the dust lifted and he regained his vision, his yellow embers for eyes widened from what he saw standing in the corner of his cell. He was speechless from disbelief. He even rubbed his eyes and squinted several times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating the five silent figures standing before him. The moment of silence was broken by a group of voices calmly yet chillingly speaking in perfect unison,

"Lord Tirek, we are here to serve you!" they said.

The demonic centaur was filled with elation as he looked upon his new "friends". With his spell a success, he knew for sure that this was the end for his rivals, the ponies of Equestria, and the rest of the world. 

"You want to learn about friendship, my little ponies?" He said bellowing to the heavens. "I'LL GIVE YOU A FRIENDSHIP LESSON THAT YOU'LL NEVER FORGET!!!" 

Tirek began to laugh maniacally and was joined by his band of 'friends'.
> Chapter 2: Improper Introductions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Footnotes are numbers inside parentheses.  Example: (1)

Each of Cerberus' heads throbbed as he slowly came to. His clouded vision revealed six figures standing in front of him. He knew immediately that one of them was Tirek, but the other five standing around him were impossible to identify since they were completely wrapped in cloaks of shadow. Realizing that Tirek was out of his cell and had company with him, he did his best respond as quickly as possible. But just as he was about to jump to his feet, one of the figures lowered it's head and several black vines with aqua colored thorns, known as plunder vines, sprang out of the ground and tied up the dog. Tirek stepped forward and got down to the dog's level of vision. 

"Hello Cerberus," he said nonchalantly. "did you have a pleasant nap?" The three heads violently snapped their massive jaws at the escapee in a desperate attempt to grab him, but Tirek easily avoided them.

Augustus barked at the centaur.
Translation: Tirek, what's going on here? How did you get out of your cell?!

Julius joined in after him.
Translation: More importantly, who are these...things with you?!

"Oh, you mean these five?" Tirek replied. "Why they're my new friends of course!"

Tiberius was shocked from hearing the words 'my friends' in a sentence coming from someone like Tirek and barked in protest.
Translation: You...You of all creatures...have friends? How does that work exactly?"

"I'd love to explain, but my friends and I are on a pretty tight schedule, so I'll just take what I came for and be on my way." Tirek retorted.

Julius whimpered in a concerned tone.
Translation: What do you mean "take what you came for"?

Suddenly, three of the figures held the heads to the ground.

Tirek grabbed Julius' ears in his hand and grinned. "This is for the shedding."

He conjured his sphere of magic over his head and took a deep breath. White beams emerged from the three mouths and traveled into Tirek's mouth. When he finished, a thin yellow aura surrounded the centaur and small black bolts of electricity appeared around him. He slowly started to grow in size; his muscle mass increased from wiry and bony to fairly cut, the dull redness of the skin on his arms and face became slightly brighter, the charcoal grey fur on his chest and the back of his head turned a sinister black, and the small nubs for horns on his head grew much larger and thicker like bull horns. Basically, his power had increased by one full level.

As for Cerberus, he grew incredibly weak, like all the strength inside of him had disappeared. His eyes grew cloudy after the beams stopped emerging from him. He looked up and saw Tirek's new form. 

"Interesting." said the centaur with a much clearer voice. "For a creature that doesn't use magic, you had much more energy than I expected. Last time I had to eat the magic of ten or more unicorns just to become this strong." 

His grin shifted to a look of seriousness as he turned to four of the figures standing near him. "Do it!"

"Yes, Lord Tirek!" the four replied. 

They lowered their heads and lifted Cerberus off the ground, throwing him into Tirek's former cell. The door slammed and locked, but that was only the beginning.

Suddenly, more plunder vines came out of the ground and whipped themselves around the cage, turning it into a cube of thorny black vines. Next, the ground rumbled and out from it sprouted dark purple crystals. They grew and contorted until they completely surrounded the cell in a small crystal dome. Immediately after the crystals encased the cell,  a shroud of darkness emerged and covered the entire area around the cell in another, yet larger black dome. Finally, a spark appeared and tall crackling flames sprang up and created a ring around the dome.

"AND THAT'S FOR CALLING ME POWERLESS!!" Tirek exclaimed to Cerberus, hoping he could still hear him.

He turned to the four figures responsible for the cell's new look. "Excellent work. Now with that mutt out of the way, we'll give Equestria what it truly deserves! Let's go!"

As Tirek and his new "friends" began to make their way to the exit of Tartarus, he suddenly remembered something. 

"Oh yes, I almost forgot." 

He turned and nodded to the fifth figure; one that was just as tall as Tirek. 

A snapping sound was heard followed by a faint poof from inside the cell. Cerberus heard the poof and looked around as best he could to see what had changed. 

Augustus barked at the noise.
Translation: What was that? What happened now?

Julius barked in response.
Translation: I don't know. Everything looks the same. Tiberius, do you notice anything?

Tiberius shifted around from inside the vines around their body. He started barking, but a sudden feeling in their groin area stopped him.
Translation: Not really I-...

Julius shifted to looked at Tiberius and whimpered, but also felt the same thing Tiberius felt.
Translation: Tiberius? Is everything...Oh no...He didn't.

Augustus realized it too. They remembered what Tirek said earlier, but they never thought he would actually go through with it, but he did.



He had Cerberus neutered while awake, and the three heads got to realize it without warning.



The three heads howled in despair for the loss of their cohones.
Translation: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Tirek and his gang laughed at the faint howling and continued walking toward the exit.

Now freed from incarceration, Tirek was ready to reap the world of its magic and become its new, all powerful master.





So what you're saying, Twilight, is that despite both the Elements of Harmony AND our new rainbow power working, you still think that there's something about the magic that we're missing?" Rarity asked.

"Yes" Twilight replied.

"So what's the big deal?" asked Rainbow Dash. "If the magic did its job, then there shouldn't be a problem."

"But that's just it Rainbow." said Twilight. "I don't know if this is an actual problem or just some delusion caused by my memories. If it were just any old vision, I would have disregarded it, but that fact that it keeps happening with these memories, is really concerning me."

Applejack, wanting to bring a little more positivity to the situation, tried to divert things to the delusion theory. "Well, Twilight, it's not too big of a surprise if it's just your thoughts. After all, it has been a good amount of time since those events happened. Maybe it's just you forgetting certain details. It happens all the time with dreams or memories of any kind; ponies just forget."

"I want to think that, Applejack, but something inside me is always telling me otherwise. Plus, every time it happens, it feels like that missing feeling is linked to something very important, but I don't know what it is." 

Considering that the five ponies didn't come close to knowing magic as well as Twilight, this issue was becoming more and more difficult to comprehend. 

Twilight sighed. "I really wish there was someway I could explain this so that the rest of you could understand." 

The other ponies had a touch of guilt on their faces seeing that their confusion was only making things worse. 

Spike pondered for a minute and then snapped his claws. Everypony looked at him as he eagerly stepped off of his chair. 

"I think I know what Twilight is talking about! Wait here. I'll be right back!" 

The little dragon ran up the stairs to the next floor leaving everyone else to question what he was going to do. A few minutes later, Spike came back down holding something in each fist. He placed the objects on the table to reveal an ordinary stone and a gem of equal size. Everyone was confused as to why he brought these two things down.

Spike cleared his throat. "Okay, what we have here is a gem and a stone."

"Well we can see that." said Rainbow Dash.

Spike made a quick annoyed look on his face before continuing. "Anyway, let's pretend this gem and this stone are the types of ideas that Twilight was talking about. Now, let's pretend that this ordinary stone represents the visions of you girls using the harmony powers in the past, and this gem represents you using the harmony powers in, let's say, a different way. Here's the thing, when we compare the two, we know that these are both technically types of rocks, right?" 

Everypony nodded back in agreement. 

"However, despite them both being a type of rock, we all know they have characteristics that make them their own types, correct?"

"Yep, that's why they all have different names!" said Pinkie Pie.

"That's right, Pinkie." 

Pinkie thanked him with a big smile.

"So what exactly is the point of this Spike?" Rarity asked.

"The differences between these two types of rocks can represent the missing part of the magic that Twilight mentioned. For example, the gem is shiny and colorful while the stone isn't. That certain shine and color quality represent the missing factor. Sure, both ways end up giving us a rock, but what we really want in the end, is the gem! Like Twilight said, the powers did their jobs in the past, but what we've been getting is a rock instead of a gem!"

"It's like a cake with frosting versus a cake with no frosting!" said Pinkie. "Both can be eaten and they both taste yummy, but everyone knows a cake with frosting is better in the end!"

"Exactly!" 

After a minute of thinking, everypony else started to get a better idea of Twilight's predicament thanks to Spike's presentation.

Twilight was pleased. "Wow Spike, that was pretty impressive! How'd you figure it out so easily?"

"I've been reading some of those works by Clopcrates (1) you got. Since then, they're really changing my way of thinking." 

Twilight was proud of her assistant. She could really see him turn into an amazing dragon over the years. "Maybe amazing enough to finally get Rarity's attention," she thought.

"Alright, we now have a better understanding of Twilight's problem, but the question still remains: what exactly is this missing part of the magic? If the clue in Twilight's vision was that subtle, how do we figure out something like that?" Applejack asked.

Suddenly, Fluttershy came up with an idea. "Maybe we're looking at this from the wrong angle." 

Everypony looked at Fluttershy which shot her back into her timid self.

"What do you mean, Fluttershy?" Rarity asked.

"Well...um...it looks like we're...um...looking at this more from...our point of view. Maybe we should look at it from the view of somepony whose had the harmony power used on them?" That gave Fluttershy another idea. "Maybe...Discord...might be able to help us."

Rainbow Dash immediately objected. "Oh no! No way! Not happening! After what he did with Tirek the last time, I'm not trusting him for another second!"

"I concur with Rainbow Dash." chimed in Rarity. "He may act like he's our friend, but he certainly has a questionable way of showing it!"

"Now wait a minute girls." intervened Twilight. "I think Fluttershy may be right about this one."

"WHAT?!" everypony else said in shock.

"Think about it. Discord has had the elements used on him twice; more than any creature we've used them on. Plus, unlike our other adversaries, he survived. And because he's reformed, it shouldn't be too big of a challenge trying to get the information from him." 

Everypony else still shared a look of disbelief from Twilight's elaboration of Fluttershy's idea.

"Even if he doesn't help us find the answer right away, I'll bet a testimony from him can surely point us in the right direction."

"Well, when you put it that way, I guess it's worth a shot." pondered Applejack.

"At least we'll make him happy by letting him see us again!" said Pinkie.

"I suppose any friend of ours should deserve a chance, even if it is Discord." said Rarity.

Rainbow Dash was the only one to stay silent due to her remaining grudge with the Lord of Chaos. 

Everypony turned to her waiting for a response. "Rainbow?"

"I think this is totally insane, but if you really think it'll work, Twilight, let's give it a try."

"Then it's settled!" said Spike "Twilight, do you think you and the others can still use that summoning spell to call Discord like you did last time?"

"Well, we had the elements last time, but I think it might still work."

The girls stepped off their thrones and made a tighter circle in the center of the room. Just as they were about to start concentrating, a white flash appeared in the middle. Out from the flash appeared the Lord of Chaos himself, Discord. He stood there panting and sweating like he just ran all the way across Equestria to get there, but the girls barely noticed. They were too surprised at how sudden the arrival was.

"That worked out rather well!" Rarity said.

Twilight was equally impressed. "Wow, it really did! Anyway, Discord we're glad you could make it. We need your help with--" 

She stopped for an instant when she noticed Discord's condition. "Discord? Are you alright?"

Discord snapped out of his exhaustion and said frantically: 

"NO TIME FOR QUESTIONS! YOU SEVEN! ME! THE PRINCESSES! CANTERLOT! NOW!!!" 

He immediately scooped up the seven as if they were a bunch of plush toys and used his magic to teleport them to Canterlot Palace. 

As soon as they got to the palace halls, he put them down, and said: 

"I'll tell them you're all here!" 

He dashed into the room so fast that he could've made his own version of a sonic rainboom. 

Seeing that this might be something incredibly important, the seven ran into the chamber. Inside, sitting at the large round table with Discord, were Princess Celestia, her younger sister, Princess Luna, and the rulers of the Crystal Empire, Princess Cadance and her husband, as well as Twilight's older brother, Prince Shining Armor. Twilight expected to see the Two Sisters, but was surprised that her brother and sister-in-law were there as well. 

"Cadance! Shining Armor! What are you two doing here?"

"Your guess is as good as ours," said Cadance.

"Discord brought us here a minute or two before you came." said Shining Armor. "Princess Celestia wanted to wait for everypony to get here before telling us the news."

"What news? What's going on Princess?" Twilight asked Celestia.

Celestia lowered her head sighing in fear and frustration. "It's Tirek."

Everypony gasped. After what Tirek did the last time, anything associated with him couldn't be good.  

"I'm afraid he has somehow managed to escape Tartarus again."

"That's it?" asked Rainbow Dash. "This is what Discord was freaking out about? We'll just blast him back to Tartarus like last time!"

"If only it were that simple." said Princess Luna. "Unfortunately, this third comeback is even worse than the previous two combined."

Celestia continued. "Based on reports from some of the pony guards at the prison, not only was Tirek able to get out of his cell, but he was escorted by five other creatures who defeated them easily. We don't know for sure what these five are. The only other description they gave was that they 'possessed great power'."

"Now that he has these five assisting him, he's stealing magic from ponies at an alarming rate. In fact, in less than an hour, they have stolen magic from every pony in the Northeastern part of Equestria; including Manehatten, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare. Now he possess enough magic to raise his power up another level."

"To make matters worse, this army of his has become so strong that they've been able to overpower the dragon lands to the south and force the creatures to work for them. Word has it that he's not far from the Foal Mountains and is moving west towards Canterlot." 

Everypony was speechless knowing that it wouldn't be long before Tirek's forces made it to the palace.

"He could be here in minutes at the rate he's going!" exclaimed Cadance.

"Plus, Ponyville isn't far from there either!" said Applejack. "What do you think we should do, Twilight?"

Twilight thought for a moment and then said:

"We should get everypony to evacuate as soon as possible." 

"Easier said than done." said Rainbow Dash. "There are hundreds of ponies in Ponyville! It could take hours to get them all out! We don't have that kind of time!!"

"Rainbow, you're not helping!"  Interrupted Applejack.

"Rainbow's right, we can't get everypony out before Tirek gets here." Twilight continued to go through ideas in her head, until finally she came up with one. "But, maybe we could all engage Tirek for a while. That should buy us some time."

"You mean...we're going to...fight him?" Fluttershy asked nervously.

Rainbow Dash patted her worried friend on the back. "Don't worry, Flutters! We got ourselves a dream team here. Check it out! We got the Two Sisters, the rulers of the Crystal Empire, and us seven! There's no way we can lose!"

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Discord asked feeling somewhat offended.

"Who's that?"

"You know; brown coat, gorgeous yellow eyes, has a lion's paw and an eagle's leg."

"Gilda?"

"Me, you twit!"

Rainbow Dash cracked up laughing. "You should see the look on your face! Priceless! Ok, I suppose you can fight with us."

"What was that all about?"

"Now you know how it feels to be the plot of your own mischief! Pretty shocking, huh?" she asked triumphantly.

"Not really." 

Rainbow Dash's feeling of victory came crashing down knowing that she had just been counter-trolled.

"I'm used to having a lot of things backfire on me. Being one of the Elements of Harmony, you of all ponies should know that by now. However, I'll give you points for effort."

"Oh, you want to see effort, huh?"

"That's enough, you two." interrupted Twilight. "I'm trying to concentrate. Now, where was I? Oh yes! Spike, take two letters; one to Ponyville and the other to the railway headquarters. Princess Celestia, could you handle the evacuation of Canterlot?"

"Of course, Twilight."

Spike pulled out two pieces of paper and a quill. "I'm ready Twilight. Let 'er rip!"

"Tell the railway to send every available train, each pulling with as many coaches as they can pull, to Ponyville as soon as possible. Once there, tell them to load the entire train with passengers and don't leave until they are completely full. As for Ponyville itself, tell all the citizens to pack their things and be at the train station inside two hours. All access will be free of charge in order to speed up boarding. We'll also send a small group of soldiers to assist them with the evacuation. They will all be going to...to...oh yes, to the Hollow Shade Village and that they are to stay there until further notice. Say that these demands are by royal decree and that evacuation is mandatory to all citizens."

Celestia pulled out some paper of her own and began writing as well. "I'll send a message to everyone in Canterlot to take the airships to the Crystal Empire; they should be safe there. I'll also send messages to all the other cities to remain on high alert until further notice."

Luna started walking towards one of the doors in the room. "I'll tell the captain of the guard to send forces to the surrounding area." She opened the door and called down the hall. "Capt. Sentry! Capt. Flash Sentry! Your presence is requested at once!"

Just then, the light orange coated, blue mane pegasus, Flash Sentry, entered the room dressed in his gold armor. 

Twilight blushed slightly at the sight of him since she had a crush on him for quite some time. 

"What is it, your highness?" he asked.

"Send forces to all of Canterlot's entry points including the area around the base of the mountain!"

"It will be done, princess!" The pegasus saluted and sprinted out of the room shutting the door behind him. 

Celestia took the notes and made them vanish in a beam of magic. "I used a spell that will send multiple copies of the messages to their respective recipients."

"Now what, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked.

"Now, all we can do is wait," answered Twilight. 

For the next 10 minutes, there was nothing but silence. Everypony was too nervous about the recent events to say anything. The silence was broken when earth pony soldier, Sgt. Phalanx (2) burst through the doors. 

"Your highnesses!" he called. "I've just received word from our ground forces...he's here!"

Everypony quickly ran to one of the windows in the room, and off in the distance, they saw a decent sized spec of red and black and some flying specs moving slowly toward the eastern base of the mountain.

Twilight asked the other princesses:

"Are you sure you three want to help us? Tirek might end up stealing your alicorn magic like last time. We can't let that happen again! Besides, our rainbow power is the only thing that can defeat him."

Celestia turned to her student. "Twilight, this encounter will be unlike any other challenge you have faced. True, you defeated Tirek last time, but that was before he had an army. Even if your powers can defeat him, his army might try to interfere. With Discord and us on your side, we can protect you while you carry out the spell."

"Well...alright...But we'll make sure that we'll have your backs if you need us! Right girls?"

"Right!!" They said enthusiastically.

"Well what are we standing around here for?" Discord asked with equal enthusiasm. "We've got a centaur to beat! Everypony grab onto me!" 

Everypony placed a hoof on Discord's body and Discord warped them all to the bottom of the mountain.

Tirek was finishing the last of the magic from the ground troops when he noticed them. As Celestia said earlier, he was now in his next level of power. His horns were much longer and curvier than before. He was much more muscular and was now slightly taller than Discord at this point. He had grown so big that every step he took towards the group was accompanied by a loud thud.

A small band of large adult dragons landed on the ground behind him and started following him. 

Tirek turned around to them which made them stop immediately. "Stay back! I'll deal with them!" 

The dragons snarled at Tirek before stopping in their tracks and sitting down right on the spot. 

When Spike looked at the dragons, one in particular caught his attention. It was an adult dragon that almost looked just like him. The purple scales on his body were a much lighter shade of purple that almost looked pink and the spines on his back were a much darker shade of green. His underbelly was a powder blue instead, his shiny eyes were purple as opposed to Spike's green ones, and he had wings. 



The two dragons made eye contact for a brief moment.

"That's funny." Spike thought. "That one dragon kind of looks like me. He must be a rare species cause I've never seen one with scales colored like mine before.

The bigger one was thinking to himself as well. "Ah, young Spike; at last we meet. Don't worry, I'm sure we'll have a better chance to speak with each other in the near future. It's time you learned the truth!"

Suddenly, Tirek started speaking and the two dragons directed their attention to him.  "Well isn't this great?" he said "Here I am coming after the most powerful sources of magic in Equestria, and now they're all here in one place! I'm surprised you didn't show up inside a giant gift box!" Tirek laughed and the dragons behind him joined in.

"ENOUGH!" Shouted Celestia. "Not only were you foolish enough to escape from Tartarus a third time, but you have also shown yourself to the ones who imprisoned you twice before!"

"SAYITH WHAT YOU WANT FOUL BEAST!!" Shouted Luna with her Canterlot Voice. "THOU KNOWEST AS WELL AS WE DO THAT YOUR TIME OF RAMPAGING ENDS HERE AND NOW!! SURRENDER NOW AND WE MAY CONSIDER NOT FEEDING YOU TO CERBERUS!!!"

Tirek smirked, amused by the younger sister's outburst. "Oh please! After what Cerberus went through, I don't think he's in any condition to eat or even do anything! Besides, even if you wanted to try something like that...." 

The sky became filled with big dark grey clouds like the ones a pony would see before a massive rainstorm. As the clouds completely blocked the sun and turned the land dim and grey, the wind began to pick up and the rolling of thunder was heard from above. Tirek looked at the clouds above in satisfaction seeing how it was almost time to unveil his surprise. He fired up his magic sphere between his horns before finishing the last of his statement:

"I don't think my...friends...would like that!"

Tirek shot a beam of his magic into the sky which caused big bolts of lighting to burst out from the cloud layer, making tremendous cracks and striking random parts of the ground they were standing on. He watched as the enemies before him started moving closer together in an attempt to avoid the bolts. Suddenly, five individual bolts of lightning, bigger than any of the ones before, each struck the ground one at a time in a horizontal line. The cracks from these bolts dwarfed the sound of the previous ones. Afterwards, the lightning subsided, but was immediately followed by the ground shaking violently. 

"Get ready for anything, girls!" warned Twilight. 

Out from the points of impact, different occurrences happened one after the other.

The first to Tirek's right was a large dome of dark purple crystal growing out of the ground. The next one down was a tall stream of raging fire that completely incinerated the ground it ignited. The middle spot had four giant plunder vines burst out of the ground and wrap themselves around one another to form a twisty spire of black vines and aqua thorns. The first one on Tirek's left was a spec of thick black fog that formed out of thin air and continued to grow in size until it was a small cloud-like blotch of darkness. The final one, appearing on Tirek's far left, was a orb of sinister purple magic that shook and convulsed violently from it's highly unstable nature. After the five occurrences were finished, each one of them revealed a creature inside.

The dark purple crystals shattered to reveal what looked like an alicorn. Everypony was shocked to realize that this alicorn looked like a different version of Princess Cadance! Her coat was a very dark grey with a faint dark purple tinge added to it. The color style of her mane and tail were the same, except they were darker shades, like a small amount of grey was mixed into them. There were also some sparkles in them as if there were shimmering gems inside.  Her cutie mark was ruby red version of the Crystal Heart with a jagged crack going all the way down the middle. She also wore a neck band with a small blue heart shaped gem with a crack going down the middle as well. Her purple eyes had diamond shaped slits for pupils and the lights reflecting off them looked like small hearts.

The flames began to die down in certain parts and out from them stepped another alicorn with a sadistic look on her face; this one looking just like Princess Celestia. Her white coat and her cutie mark of the sun were the same, but the mane and tale were frighteningly different. Instead of a flowing blends of sparkling green, blue, and pink, they were made of blazing orange and yellow flames. The heat coming off from them was so intense that Twilight and her friends felt as though they were standing inches away from her. The gems on her gold crown and neck band were a bright red. Her eyes had no pupils or even irises; just bright empty spaces with a thin orange trim around the edges; almost like they were smaller versions of the sun.

The plunder vines slowly unwrapped themselves and descended back into the ground uncovering a third, yet smaller alicorn. Twilight was dumfounded to realize that this next friend of Tirek was a new version of her! While her coat was the same color, her mane was the same shade of black as the plunder vines. The two streaks of color in her mane and tail were a shade of purple and a shade of aqua that matched the same color and the plunder vines' thorns. Her cutie mark was a large, thorn aqua, six pointed star at the center with five smaller vine black stars around it and a slightly bigger, vine black, six pointed star jutting out from under the aqua one. She had deep, purple, slit pupil eyes which rested in two pools of thorn aqua and gave off a thin stream of smoke-like magical vapor from the corners; very reminiscent to the eyes of the late King Sombra. She wore a vine black version of Twilight's crown with thorn aqua gems, a neck band with the iconic aqua star in the middle, and vine black royal slippers with the star on the front of each one. A chill ran down Twilight's spine as her duplicate fixed her menacing eyes on her and made an equally sinister grin. 

The cloud of darkness drifted away from its spot as if a gust of wind blew it in another direction. Out from the shadows emerged the fourth and final alicorn in Tirek's army. Seeing how the other duplicates turned out, Princess Luna had a feeling that one of the last two would be hers. What she saw was so horrifying that it made Nightmare Moon about as scary as a butterfly.

She looked just like a younger version of the princess. However, nearly her entire body was pitch black. The only exception was a few streaks of dark grey mixed in with the black in her mane and tail, like clouds in the night sky. The shade of black was possibly the darkest looking black one could possibly imagine. The only thing that could match a color that dark would be the lightless void inside a black hole. Her cutie mark was an image of the moon with the "mare in the moon" image inside. Instead of regular feathered wings, she had large, black, bat-like wings. The most frightening thing about her was that she appeared to have no eyes on her face. Actually, she did have eyes but both the whites and irises were black so they blended in perfectly with her coat. Luna glared at her in hopes of getting a reaction, but all the duplicate did was stand there looking directly at Luna with a cold, emotionless stare. 

Seeing the orb of purple magic as very chaotic and unstable, Discord came to the conclusion that his was last. Unlike the others, Discord was rather excited by all this. Impressed by how the other duplicates turned out, he was anxious to see, what this version of the Lord of Chaos would look like.

The orb of magic swelled and burst in a flash of light. When the light dimmed a creature kneeling on the ground rose to its feet to show it's true form. Like Discord, he was a draconequus. His head took the form of a light dirt brown deformed pony head with a short black mane. Right below his thick grey shaggy eyebrows were two eyes that were completely bloodshot; as if each eye was just a black slit in a pool of blood. His right eye had a dark red scar running down the middle of it and a dark red spot between the eye and the eyebrow. Two sharp, long, white, saber tooth cat fangs stuck out of his mouth and two antelope horns stuck out of the top of his head. Like Discord, he had an eagle claw for a left hand and a lion paw for a right hand, except the eagle claw was black and the lion paw was a dirty tan with blood-red claws and a few strange symbols of the same color written along it. He also had the green clawed dinosaur leg on his right and a brown cloven hoof on his left, but they were both darker shades of color than the original's. Even his dark red snake tail was similar to the original Discord, but the white tuft of fur on the end was replaced with three white spikes. Finally, the duplicate's wings were both large navy blue bat-like wings instead of the original's smaller bat wing and feathered wing.

Discord admired the overall style of this duplicate, but he couldn't help but be bothered by him looking more organized in his appearance. He found that his features lacked the chaotic randomness that he was all about. He teleported to the duplicate's backside to get a closer inspection, but seconds later, the duplicate grabbed Discord by the neck with his black eagle claw and chucked him back to his original side. Tirek was on the verge of bursting into laughter from seeing the dumbfounded looks of his enemies. 

Finally, Celestia broke out of her stupor and spoke up. "T-Tirek, what sorcery is this? Who in Equestria are those creatures?"

"Don't act like you don't recognize them, Celestia." Tirek answered. "They are you four princesses and your Lord of Chaos, Discord!"

"If they are us then who are we?" asked Discord.

"They...I mean you are...No they aren't...or are..." Tirek's mind was boggled for a minute for Discord's question, but shortly gave up, finding this a waste of time. "Don't bug me with details, pony errand boy! You five are yourselves also!"

"CEASE THY STALLING!!" Luna shouted. "WE ASKED YOU A QUESTION AND WE EXPECT YOU TO ANSWER IT!! WHO ARE THESE CREATURES AND WHY DO THEY LOOK LIKE US?!

"Simple," Tirek replied. "I made them!"

"You...MADE...these creatures?" Cadance asked.

"That's right. It seems that a small remnant of magic from each of you five stayed with me even after my defeat."

"But our rainbow power freed all the magic you stole!" protested Twilight.

"Yes, I thought so as well, but I suppose something allowed a part of your magic to stay with me. After realizing this, I managed to extract those remnants and corrupt them with a combination of my power with Discord's corruptive magic, and then I simply used my own power to physically manifest the remnants into the forms you see before you. In other words, these five are your dark sides! Not only do they look like dark versions of you, but they are just as powerful as you since they were made from your magic! And by the way, you can stop calling them 'creatures', they have names; ones that I came up with myself might I add!" 

Tirek pointed to each duplicate and introduced it to it's proper original.

"Princess Cadance, I'd like you to meet SHATTERED HEART!"
"I can sense your fear towards me, Crystal Princess." she said in a bitter but identical voice to Cadance. "And a fearful heart is more likely to crack!"

"Princess Celestia, I present to you SEARING NOVA!"
Searing Nova giggled at Celestia "The great Solar Princess. I've been looking forward to meeting you!"

"Princess Twilight Sparkle, I give you the mistress of the plunder vines, TWIVINE SPARKLE!" (3)
"PRINCESS Twivine Sparkle, to you!" shouted the small alicorn back at Tirek.

"Whatever." 

Tirek continued. "Princess Luna, meet an alicorn even stronger than Nightmare Moon, STARLESS NIGHT!"
"...Charmed..." she said in a hushed emotionless voice similar to Luna's.

"And last but not least, Discord, presenting the new Lord of Chaos, HAVOC!"
"You're former glory is a thing of the past, Discord." said Havoc with a deeper toned version of Discord's voice "It's time for a real chaos master to take your place!"

"As much as I enjoy having a second me around, I'm afraid I can't let you do that." replied Discord.

"Why are you doing all this, Tirek?" Cadance asked.

"Well, my dear, I remembered how I worked alone the last two times I tried to take over Equestria and only ended in failure, and I also remembered how you ponies keep preaching about how powerful friendship is, so I decided make some friends of my own. I want to make this the worst defeat of your lives, and what better way to do that than having  your own power turned against you? Now, with all the formalities out of the way, prepare to be vanquished!!"

Sgt. Phalanx, along with two pegasi guards and a unicorn guard, watched the banter from a distance; still lying on the ground incredibly weak from losing their magic. Phalanx slowly struggled to his feet. "No...We can't let...those imposters...harm...the princesses...Come on men...We have to stop them!!!" With every ounce of strength they could muster, the four guards rose up and made a headlong charge to Tirek's side.

"DON'T CHARGE YOU IDIOTS," yelled Luna. "They'll destroy you four easily!!"

"If it means keeping your highnesses safe...THEN SO BE IT!!! FOR EQUESTRIA!!!" Phalanx called back.

"FOR EQUESTRIA!!!" the other soldiers echoed.

The duplicates were not impressed in the slightest. 

"Look at them." said Shattered Heart shamefully. "Trying to protect their rulers even though they know they stand no chance in their condition. Pathetic."

"I'd hate to just stand here and do nothing while they throw themselves at us." Searing Nova commented, growing eager to enter the battle. "What should we do with them, Lord Tirek?"

"Their magic is already gone." Tirek answered nonchalantly "They've got nothing left to fight with. Do what you want with them."

The four guards decided to gang up on the Twivine, thinking they would have the highest chance against her. Their formation started with the three soldiers running ahead of the sergeant while he brought up the rear. The unicorn guard locked his disenchanted horn with Twivine's in an attempt to distract her for an instant. Next, the two pegasi, though rendered flightless thanks to Tirek, hurled themselves off the ground and got just enough of a gust under their wings to glide a few feet off the ground and make a slight dive into the alicorn. Both of put as much weight as they could on her from both sides to keep her in place. Finally, Phalanx prepared to charge into the restrained Twivine in order to knock her down and subdue her. He was only a few feet away from his target when...

"GET YOUR FILTHY HOOVES OFF ME, YOU PATHETIC LITTLE WORMS!!!" Twivine reared up on her hind legs knocking back the unicorn and slamming her front legs on the ground. 

Suddenly, three massive plunder vines sprang out of the ground, tied up the guards, and lifted them off of their mistress. The counter that Phalanx had just seen made him freeze in his tracks. The vines had the guards' entangled up to their necks, completely immobilized, and dangling above the ground in the black coils.

Starless Night started walking up to Twivine. "If thou art going to waste thy time on these peasants, at least give the rest of us us something to do."

A plunder vine shot out of the ground behind Twivine and pointed the tip of its coils inches away from Starless Night's face.

She was furious at the black alicorn for wanting to interfere. "NONE OF YOU WILL DO ANYTHING!!! I HAD THEM FIRST, SO THEY'RE MINE TO FINISH!!! ANY OF YOU TAKE ONE MORE STEP AND YOU'LL GET THE SAME TREATMENT I'M GOING TO GIVE THEM!!!"

Starless Night wasn't intimidated at all. "So this isn't similar to the way thou has been treating us all? Personally, we don't really see the difference."

"SHUT IT, NO-EYES!!!" 

"Let her have her fun, Starless. Your time will come." said Tirek. 

Starless Night, slightly frustrated, but still obedient to her leader's demands, stepped back to her spot which caused the plunder vine to retreat.

Twivine tightened her grip around the captives. Aqua thorns of all sizes and lengths were piercing the entangled areas of their flesh, causing them to scream from the excruciating pain.

"We've got to help them!" said Twilight. "Come on girls!!"

The girls tried to act fast, but Tirek thought faster.

"Havoc, keep those equines in their place!" he ordered.

"Yes, Lord Tirek." Havoc snapped his eagle claw and a clear force field trapped the gang inside. 

Twilight tried to use her teleporting spell, but every time she tried, it just kept sending her back into the dome. The other princess tried teleporting, but they were stopped too. Even Discord's teleporting magic couldn't get out.

"Nice force field." said Tirek listening to his enemies' demands for freedom. "It's transparent AND it doesn't muffle their voices! Excellent job, Havoc!" He gave the draconequus a friendly slap on the back.

"Thank you, Lord Tirek."

Twivine smiled, incredibly satisfied by her work and happy to know that her "display" would go uninterrupted. 

She looked up at them. "Since you're all without magic, and you won't be getting it back anytime soon, I don't really see the reason to keep you around anymore!" she lifted her left hoof and the top part of the plundervines wrapped around to face their captives. 

A giant, long, and needle sharp aqua thorn sprang out and pointed directly at the captives' heads. Then, with a simple wave of her hoof, the three thorns ran through the guards' necks like swords, killing them in seconds. Twivine turned to Phalanx, still frozen with a terrified look on his face. He nearly heaved up his stomach from seeing the impaled cadavers above him. She looked him in the eyes with her malevolent gaze and whispered:

"Your turn!"

Before the sergeant could move a muscle, something stopped him cold again. Twivine watched as the pony's eyes started to turn into the same eyes as hers. They even gave off the purple vapor as well. 

Phalanx quickly looked around back and forth "What happened?" he asked in a panic "What did you do to me?! Wait a minute...WHERE DID YOU GO...WHERE IS EVERYPONY?!" Everypony was still there, but the hallucinating spell Twivine put him under made him think that everypony was gone. 

"SHOW YOURSELF YOU FIEND!! What the...what in Equestria is are those things?!" Suddenly, Phalanx start to go into a psychotic episode. 

He fell on his back and started thrashing around like he was being mauled by a horde of some sort. 

He screamed hysterically "GET AWAY FROM ME!!! BY THE LIGHT, PLEASE, STOP!!! NO...NO...NO NOT THE FACE!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! MY EYES!!! WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME?!?!? MAKE IT STOP!!!"

Twivine was enjoying this thoroughly, but grew bored of her fun after Phalanx's episode reached three minutes. By now, his voice was incredibly hoarse from all the screaming; any more and he would have torn his vocal cords. 

"Your shouting is getting on my nerves. Might as well end it now." She bent her head down closer to the still flailing Phalanx. 

She took a deep breath and exhaled what looked like aqua colored fumes. As the fumes surrounded the stallion, he slowly became less and less frantic and stopped his screaming. However, his screaming was replaced by frequent bursts of violent coughing and hacking. It was then that everypony realized that the fumes Twivine created were the exact same fumes given off by the poison vines. Phalanx tried to move, but the toxins from the fumes and the coughing that came with them kept him from escaping the small cloud he was trapped in. 

"What's going...*cough*...on...what's...*cough*...*hack*...that smell? Why is...*cough*...*hack*...*HACK*...*cough*...Why is everything...*HACK*...*HACK*...*cough*...*cough*...*HACK*...spinning?" His voice grew more and more frail with each passing second as the poison filled his lungs. 

"I...I...I...can't...breath." 

At last, with his very last bit of power, he croaked out, "Your...high-highnesses...Captain...Captain Sentry...my...three c-comrades...everypony...I'm...so...s-s-sorry...forgive...me." And with that, Sgt. Phalanx of the United Equestrian Army, toppled over. 

Seeing that the stallion was dead, Twivine stopped her poison breath and blew the cloud away with a gust from her wings. She looked down at the corpse at her feet. "It's ironic. They say earth ponies are known best for their strength, yet they are so easily broken." 

She looked at the bodies one last time, then to her enemies. 

"We have no use for these mangled things, so now you can have them back!" Twivine summoned another plunder vine which ran through Phalanx's corpse and had all four vines hurl the bodies towards the gang in front of her. 

All four of them landed in a pile only nine feet away from the force field. Everypony was in shock. They had a feeling that these duplicates were evil, but they never thought they would go as far as to kill another living creature. To make matters worse, it was a pony killing another pony, and in Equestria, spilling the blood of a creature from your own kind is one of the most unforgivable sins one can commit. Tirek didn't care. As long as he was able to steal the world's magic and gain the power he desired, he wouldn't care if it meant blowing up the entire planet. He had big plans, and he wasn't going to let those ponies stand in his way for a third time.

Tirek nodded to Havoc who disabled the force field around the ponies. "Such an impressive display of power, isn't it?" he asked rhetorically.

"It's not impressive, it's disgusting!" exclaimed Celestia. "You're just using these duplicates to do the dirty work for you. You're nothing but a coward and a murderer!"

"Those fools knew how much power these five possessed. They should have seen this coming!"

"If you're so confident in your new friends, then stop using them on weaker ponies and focus on us!" said Luna.

"Finally we agree on something." Tirek turned to his friends. "Alright you five, it's time to show your other halves what true power REALLY is! Do whatever you can to defeat them, but keep them alive so I can take their magic!! I can't take it from them if they're dead!"

"Come on everypony!" said Twilight. "Let's do this!"

"HA! This is gonna be fun!" said Twivine.

And so once again, the fate of Equestria was dependent on this battle. Equestria's greatest spellbinders versus their own darker halves. It would be the ultimate test of power and skill on their part, but as they say, 'before you conquer your enemy, you must conquer yourself'. The power of friendship helped them win many battles in the past, but would it be enough to overcome their own worst enemies? Will their ultimate weapon pull through or will it be outmatched by the powers of darkness? Is this the extent of Tirek's plan, or is this just the tip of the spear?

Only the outcome of this battle will decide which path fate will choose to put each side on.
> Chapter 3: Dragon Rage
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Footnotes are numbers inside parentheses.  Example: (1)

Nothing but a small span of grassland stood between Equestria's Heroes and the five duplicates under the command of Lord Tirek. When Celestia looked at Tirek's 'friends', her body shivered from the pure darkness emanating from them. Not even Nightmare Moon possessed such an aura. She could see the intent to kill in their eyes. Even with Tirek's orders to keep them alive to steal their magic, it was clear, they wanted blood. 

Celestia turned to Twilight, Luna, Cadance, and Discord and said:

"They're going to come after us. We'll have to take them one-on-one. Anypony who manages to win their fight sooner should help out the others."

"And if no pony wins?" Luna asked.

"Why wouldn't we win?"

"Hypothetically speaking."

Celestia remembered this exchange of dialogue. It was the same one she had with her sister one-thousand years ago before they engaged King Sombra (1). She tried to think of a different answer this time around, but just as she was about to speak...

"Then we'll keep fighting until one of us does!" exclaimed Twilight. "As Equestria's guardians, we must do whatever it takes to protect it...even if it means losing everything!"

"YOU WON'T BE PROTECTING ANYTHING ONCE I'M DONE WITH YOU!!" Tirek roared. "Now, my friends, CRUSH THEM!!!"

"YES, LORD TIREK!!!" They called back before charging head on towards their opponents.

"Quick, everypony spread out!" said Luna.

The five bolted in different directions and the duplicates quickly followed. When they stopped, the matchups were several hundred yards away from each other. 

"Let's go girls!" said Rainbow Dash. "We have to get to Twilight and help her out! Shining Armor, you go help Princess Cadance!"

"Right!" replied Shining Armor.

Unfortunately for them, Tirek took notice of their plan. 

He turned to the dragon that looked like Spike. "Spine, go in there with your Draconic Guard and keep those seven busy! Make sure none of them interfere with any of the battles!"

"Yes, master!" answered Spine. "Garble! Malik! Gronkle! Come with me!" He sprang forward and landed in front of the team, crouching low to the ground and using his body and tail to keep his prey from moving around or away from him. "I will not allow such insignificant equines like yourselves to stand in the way of Master Tirek's plans!" he growled.

"You have no idea who you're dealing with, dragon!" said Shining Armor.

Pinkie Pie looked at Spine. "Hey, Spike, that dragon almost looks like you...except bigger...and meaner...and he has wings."

"I know." replied Spike. "I was thinking the same thing earlier, and if I heard Tirek right, his name is almost the same as mine too."

Spine chuckled. "Oh, I can assure you, young Spike, our similarities go far beyond names and looks."

"What do you mean by that?"

"It's a long story and I'm short on time."

Shining Armor turned and whispered to Spike and the others. "Girls, I'll distract the dragon while you six try to get around him and help Twilight."

Spine clearly heard Shining's plan. "I don't mind taking on the Crystal Prince one-on-one, but just to make sure the rest of you don't slip past me..."

Suddenly, three figures, smaller than Spine, but still larger than the ponies, landed behind them.

"Well, well, well." said one of them. "Look who's still hangin' around with ponies!"

"Man, he's still as shrimpy as ever!" said another.

"Now with that purple one gone, they won't get away so easily!" said the third.

Spike's jaw dropped when he saw who was behind him. "Aw no, not these jerks again!"

The other ponies turned around. Rarity and Rainbow Dash got a similar feeling to Spike. What they saw were three young-adult dragons; a red one, a skinny purple one, and a fat brown one. They appeared to be wearing some kind of makeshift battle helmets and chest plates made out of stones and gems. They even had jagged pointed gems tied to their arms and wrists. The red dragon's armor appeared to be more decorated with gems than the other two.

"You know these dragons, Spike?" Applejack asked.

"Yeah. They were some teenage dragons I met when I joined the dragon migration." 

Spike noticed that the three had gotten bigger and had more mature body appearances .

"At least...they were teenagers last time I saw them. Even so, they would have beat me to a pulp if Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash didn't come and help me." He pointed to each of the dragons and told them their names. "The brown one's Gronkle, the purple one's Malik, and the red one is Garble."

"That's Talon Master Garble, ya little twerp!" answered Garble.

"Talon Master?"

"Yep. Talon Master Garble; leader of the Draconic Guard, the elite warriors to Emperor Spine!"

"Emperor?" Asked Shining Armor shockingly.

"You heard 'em," said Malik. "Emperor Spine isn't just any dragon; he's their RULER!"

"Your prince is in for the fight of his life!" said Gronkle.

"Alright, enough chatter," interrupted Spine. "You heard Master Tirek's orders, don't let them interfere with the other battles! Bring them to him when you have weakened them!"

The three saluted with a fist to their chest. "Yes sir!"

Spine turned to Shining Armor. "Now, to deal with you."

Shining Armor charged his horn with his magenta colored magic. "Bring it on, sulfur breath!"

Despite outnumbering them, the ponies were greatly overpowered by the dragons. 

While Spine only had to watch for Shining's magic, which had little effect on him to begin with, Shining had to avoid Spine's jaws, tail, and talons! He also had to withstand the gusts of wind Spine made with his wings, which were nearly strong enough to throw him off balance. Shining was growing tired from the constant dodging and failed spell casting which made him realize his window to victory was rapidly closing. 
As for Spike and the girls, they were doing just as bad, if not worse. Garble, Malik, and Gronkle surrounded the ponies in a triangular formation. They were easily fast enough to stop the ponies' attempts at getting past them. Garble used his brute force to keep them crowded in the middle to prevent them from spreading out. Whenever they would try to run away in another direction, Gronkle would use his massive fire breath to block their path with a wall of flames. Finally, Malik would use his speed to drive the six back into the middle and back to Garble.

Spike caught a brief glimpse of Twilight going up against her duplicate in the distance. "I sure hope Twilight's doing better than we are right now."
> Chapter 4: Trial of the Four Crowns
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Footnotes are numbers inside parentheses.  Example: (1)

Twilight and Twivine had locked their horns together, both of them pressing with all their might trying to knock the other back. The force was so evenly matched that they both knocked each other back in a stalemate. Twilight fired a beam of her magic at Twivine who attempted to counter with a beam just like hers, except her magic was colored thorn-aqua instead of purple. The two beams clashed yet neither of them seemed to be overpowering the other. Eventually, the two spells caused an explosion, cancelling them out. 

Twivine was to first to break their silence. "I've been waiting for this moment, Twilight. Ever since I stepped out of Tartarus, I've been eager to finally face you in battle and achieve my objectives!"

"I don't care what objectives Tirek gave you, Twivine." Answered Twilight. "We are not going to let him steal our magic, and creating some imposters to do it for him isn't going to make a difference!"

Twivine smirked. "Please, I'm only following Lord Tirek's orders because they share common interest with mine. Ever since I heard about your existence, the only real goal I've had was to destroy you."

"Because you're my 'dark side'?"

"Believe me, Twily, this is more than just being your dark side. You claim that your skills in magic are part of your destiny? Well, I disagree. A gullible pushover like you should never be given such power!" 

"What are you saying?"

Twivine grew increasingly angry as she continued to rant. "Don't act like you don't know. How is it that a unicorn, who  was able to defeat some of Equestria's greatest foes, could tolerate going nearly unrecognized by her subjects?! How could you have achieved so much, receive next to nothing in return, and allow all those around you to take your power for granted?!"

"How do you know about my accomplishments? They happened ages ago. Plus, Tirek was still in Tartarus so there's no way he could've known what happened back then!"

"Didn't you hear what Lord Tirek said? I'm born from your magic! I'm a part of you! I am your past, present, and future!"

Twilight was astounded. It was almost like she was speaking to a part of her that had been locked away within her mind and was now released. 

"If you truly are me, then that means I exist in you as well and my presence would make you realize that everything you're doing is wrong! It would never allow you to turn away from OUR destiny!"

Twivine slowly began to walk towards the alicorn. "Come on, Twilight, be sensible. Surely you didn't think that I was going to come all this way to destroy you just to continue your legacy as the insignificant 'Princess of Friendship'? No, once Lord Tirek takes your magic and puts your fate in my hooves, I'll take your place and forge a new legacy! One that will rewrite the pages of history when I use this magic the way it was meant to be used and become the greatest spell caster in Equestria!!"

Twilight grew more enraged as each word from the dark alicorn's mouth spilled into her brain. "You're lying! Princess Celestia is the greatest spell caster in Equestria!!"

"Princess Celestia's title has been put into question by your existence alone! If anything, she's intimidated by you!"

"Stop it!" Twilight fired a bullet at the approaching adversary only to be cancelled out in another stalemate by an equally powerful bullet.

"Don't deny it. Why would the 'most powerful spell caster in Equestria' rely on a bunch of run-of-the-mill ponies to deal with her adversaries?"

"You don't understa--"

"Why would she have the gall to make you share your role as a princess with a band of peasants?!"

"Don't call my friends--"

"Why?! I'll tell you why! In order to keep you from surpassing her, that's why! She couldn't bare to see another pony take her place at the top, and with Luna and Cadance tamed, you were the only threat she had left! So, when you questioned your role as a princess, she gave you a meaningless title because she knew that having a kingdom of your own with you as its sole ruler would only feed your ego, allow you to recognize your talents more, and give you the idea of demanding a larger role! She's been keeping you at the bottom for her own gain and you were too easily influenced to notice!"

"Shut up." Twilight was on the brink of losing it.

"THERE IS NO 'PRINCESS OF FRIENDSHIP'! YOUR ROLE IS NOTHING MORE THAN A POLITICAL SCAM!!"

The last sentence rang in her ears and caused Twilight to finally snap.

"I SAID SHUT UP!!!" Twilight lowered her head and strained herself harder than ever firing a very large beam of magic at Twivine. 

Twivine did the same and fired an identical beam as if it were nothing. Another explosion went off between the two spells. Still boiling with rage, she continued firing spell after spell at her foe only to have them end in stalemate after stalemate.

Seeing the fight go nowhere only made Twilight all the more angry. "WHY...WON'T...YOU...GO...DOWN?!?!" she screamed as she continued shooting spells with every word she spoke. "How are you able to cancel out my attacks so easily?!"

"What part of 'we're just as powerful as you' don't you understand? Since I'm a part of you, my magic has the exact same strength as yours; no more, no less. No matter who attacks or how strong the spells are, yours will never overpower mine because our magic is one in the same! The same rule applies to the other duplicates as well!"

"I don't believe you! It's impossible for two ponies to have the exact same amount of strength in their magic!"

"See for yourself." 

Twivine pointed towards Celestia who was fighting Searing Nova. Her beam of yellow magic had clashed with Nova's stream of fire. Neither side appeared to be moving. Eventually, the clash grew unstable and caused an explosion similar to the one Twilight was making with her spells.

"No way, if our magic is equal, then neither side would win because we would always end in a tie! But, why would Tirek make us have a battle where no pony can overpower the other? It doesn't make any sense!"

Twivine laughed. "Ponies of flesh and blood like yourself grow tired after extended spellcasting, but since I'm made entirely of magic, I don't have that limitation, so my stamina is infinite! Guess that means I can't share the pain with you, I feel so left out! So you're in this alone, get it? THIS WEAKNESS ONLY AFFECTS YOU!! I'll just keep bombarding you with spells and attacks until you're too tired to match me. When that happens, I'll easily overpower and weaken you enough for Lord Tirek to take your magic!"

"We'll find a way to defeat you phonies! We always find a way!"

"I highly doubt that, princess. I'm sure your friends have figured out this disadvantage already; hopefully without the need of the other duplicates to spell it out for them." 

Twivine quickly summoned a plundervine beside Twilight's legs and knocked her to the ground. "See? Your reflexes are getting slower already!" 

As she prepared to hit Twilight with a spell, a flash of yellow magic came out of nowhere hitting Twivine in the side and knocking her to the ground. Twivine growled from frustration at the interruption.

Twilight looked to her side and saw that the bolt came from Celestia who had managed to fire the beam at Twivine in a split second during her fight. 

She smirked at the dark princess struggling to get off the ground. "Still think she's a fraud, Twivine?"

Twivine didn't answer, she just turned to the nearby fight, glared at the white alicorn, and shouted: 

"STAY ON YOUR SIDE!!!" She turned back to Twilight. "Now then, let's see how long this renowned magic of yours can last!" 

Twivine wasted no time hitting Twilight with multiple spells. At the moment, the Princess of Friendship was able to block them with stalemates, but she knew that wouldn't last forever. All she could do was try to think of something with the limited amount of time she had.





Celestia was satisfied that she was able to help out her student in a tight spot. However, this joy was short lived due to her ruthless opponent, Searing Nova.

"You're dealing with me, princess!" said Nova swooping downward trying to hit Celestia's side. 

Luckily she was able to get out of the way in time. Seeing that her enemy's back was turned, Celestia took the opportunity to charge Searing Nova in hopes of catching her off guard. Immediately, she sprang forward at full speed, but as she drew closer, she noticed something was up. She couldn't tell if it was from her adrenaline or her constant movement, but it felt as if the temperature in the area was getting hotter as she drew closer to Nova. It felt like she was speeding towards a massive bonfire. At first, she took no notice...but then she made contact.

As the Solar Princess, heat was never a major issue for Celestia. Equestria's hottest summer days were plenty bearable, she never had a sunburn in her life, and even accidentally burning her hoof on the stove didn't hurt her that much compared to a normal pony.

The heat coming from Searing Nova was nothing like that.

Celestia screamed in agony from the amount of pain she was in. Searing Nova remained firm on the ground, not moving an inch after the collision. To Celestia, it felt as though she had thrown herself into a brick wall, except instead of brick, the wall mas made out of hot metal taken straight out of the forge. Searing Nova grinned from the near sensual delight of her opponent's screams. Only wanting to continue this feeling, she opened one of her wings, placed it over her opponent's body, and held her in between. Her wing was just as scorching as the rest of her body, which caused even more screaming. In an attempt to break herself free, Celestia charged up her horn with magic and aimed right at the duplicate's face. Quickly, Searing Nova jumped back and cancelled out the spell with her own magic. Celestia looked at her body. It was covered in deep red burns; all of them incredibly sensitive to the touch. If it hadn't been for her god-like heat resistance, every one of those burns would have easily been third degree.

"She must have the ability to create heat waves from her body." Celestia thought.

Searing Nova frowned in disappointment. "Your power is strong, but not as much as it should be."

"What's that supposed to mean?" replied Celestia.

"Come on, sweetie. You know as well as I do that this isn't the extent of your power. And here I thought you were Equestria's strongest princess."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Of course I'm the strongest of the four princesses."

"Then why don't you show it? You lead an autocratic government, yet you share your reign with three other princesses; all of them inferior to you. You should allow no creature to threaten your position of leadership. Assert your rightful dominance over your subjects. Forget about all those complicated layers in your hierarchy and cut it down to two: yourself and everypony else, with you alone at the top!"

Celestia was shaken by the images she envisioned with those words. She remembered the shame she felt during the time of Luna's absence when some of her subjects called her a tyrant. Even one of her closest friends went as far as trying to attack her when a disagreement drove him to adopting this belief. (1)
It was even more frightening how they were coming from somepony who sounded exactly like her. Imagining herself like this filled her with complete disgust. "How dare you suggest such a thing?! Even if I was capable of doing so, I would never lead this country as a tyrant!"

"Why not? You could bend anypony to your will and use your power to its full potential! Who cares if those peasants don't agree with your demands? Since they can't match your power, they pose no threat to you!"

"Any servant can still have feelings to his or her master regardless of how much they control them. How could I live with myself if I ruled a nation knowing all of my subjects hated me?"

Searing Nova giggled and licked her lips slowly as if what she was saying gave her some kind of arousal. "The feeling of your unbreakable dominance over them is all you need to be sustained!" she opened her wings as if she were about to take off. "I've seen how you've used this power, Celestia, let me show you how I use it!"

She sent a bolt out of her horn which zoomed past Celestia and struck the ground several feet away from her backside. Suddenly, massive scorching flames sprang out of the ground making a large ring around Celestia. Just as she was about to try and fly out, Searing Nova burst through the flames and locked horns with her. She forced the original all around the ring making swings and jabs with her horn like a mad swordsman. Celestia did her best to stand her ground, but it proved difficult in the position she was in. She tried throwing Nova off with spells but Nova countered them with stalemates without even breaking her stride. Never in her life had she been in a battle so intense. She wished that Luna was fighting alongside her, or at least not locked in another battle, to give her the confidence to stay strong. However, the sight of her duplicate and the words she said only made her feel confused and afraid, and it was clearly showing in her fight.





Luna was firing multiple spells at Starless Night. Unfortunately, Starless easily countered by absorbing them into miniature black holes. Luna grew frustrated from her opponent only using defenses against her.

"Fight back, you coward!" Luna shouted. "You can't keep hiding behind those vortexes forever!"

"In our case, we could if we wanted to," replied Starless in a chillingly hushed Canterlot voice. "but if that's what thou wishes, we shall show you the consequences of thy choices." Starless concentrated her magic and summoned a large shroud of darkness which surrounded both of them, creating a large black dome around them. 

Once the dome finished forming, it lit up with a swirl of two conflicting colors. One was a mixture of blues with white star-like sparkles illuminating it, the other was numerous shades of orange accented by black spots in the same star-like shape.

Luna was surprised at where her opponent had taken them. "I know this place. We're in the Dream World, but it looks different than usual."

"It should. The orange is from our domain, the Nightmare Realm. Originally, that would be all thou can see, but since thou has control over the Dream World, thy side and ours are conflicting and they change based on the battle. This place is where our true strength lies. For in this realm, we can harness the night terrors of those who enter it. Every single terror they have experienced in their history of slumber is accessible for our use."

When Luna realized this, she started to smile. "Have you forgotten? Stopping the terrors of other ponies' dreams is part of my job!"

"Thou may be there to save ponies from their fears...but who is there to save thee from thy own?"

"I don't need somepony to save me from my fears! I've proven many times that I am capable of defeating them on my own!"

"It seems a reality check is in order." Starless Night concentrated her magic again, and several dark tendrils popped into existence and began feeding her with magic. 

Luna looked away when she saw that Starless was beginning to transform in that mass of darkness. After a minute or so, Luna heard an all too familiar voice.

"Hello again...old friend!" it said

Luna looked up and right in front of her eyes was the creature she had feared since the day it took control of her.


For Starless Night had turned herself into an exact replica of the one and only, NIGHTMARE MOON.

Luna shuddered in horror but still tried to keep her composure. "Y-You're not fooling me! I-I know you're just using her appearance to mess with my head! Well, it's...it's not going to work!"

Starless Night rolled her eyes and spoke in a perfectly executed Nightmare Moon voice. "Behind your words of bravery is nothing more than a fragile little filly." 

"If you're trying to say I'm still the same ignorant child I was back then, you might as well save your breath."

"I'm not trying to say it, I AM saying it. Do you honestly think that you have changed since your freedom? Does everypony treat your role as Princess of the Night any way better than they did 1,000 years ago?"

"Of course things are different! I'm a completely different pony than I was 1,000 years ago and Celestia as well as everypony else are more than happy to have me back!"

"You can change yourself as much as you desire, but there will always be somepony who is better than you at something. Put as much effort into it as you want, but everypony will still focus on those more skilled and more popular than you."

"That's not true!" Luna charged at Starless and the two began to lock horns.

"Don't believe me? Just look at your friend, Twilight Sparkle. She's helped Equestria more than you, she's more popular than you, and she may even be more skilled at magic than you. She may even be more fit to rule beside Celestia than you will ever be. And as for you, Luna, you would be better off out of everypony's way like you always are!"

The old feelings of insignificance Luna had were returning to her. She tried to fight it, but they were slowly getting the better of her. "N-N-No...it can't be true...it just can't be true...Everypony still loves me, don't they? Celestia loves me...She'd never let Twilight replace me...I may not be the strongest, but that can't mean I'm liked less because of it!"

"Open your eyes and you will see the truth. Why do you think your night has less appreciation than Celestia's day? Was there any REAL difference between the time you ruled and the time you were banished?"

"SILENCE!!" Luna had enough and fired a spell at Starless Night.

However, Starless Night took to the air and dashed above her. Luna tried to shoot her down with her magic, but Starless countered her once again using a beam of black colored magic. Luna took off after her and the two began an intense dogfight in their nocturnal realm. As they fought, the colors of the colliding Dream World and Nightmare Realm swirled around, reacting to each and every clash like an insane light show. Luna tried waiting for Starless to attack with a spell so she could counter it with a more powerful one and turn the tables, but it seemed Starless Night had already taken that plan into account and only used physical attacks with her hooves and horn; only using her magic to cancel out Luna. Luna kept trying to take down her enemy, but she wondered if Starless Night's words were really true. What if she did win the battle, but wasn't able to help any of her other friends with their battles? What if they had already won theirs and she was just holding them back? What if they moved to different battles thinking hers wasn't as important? Starless Night could tell that her words were taking more and more control over Luna, and while Starless Night didn't show it emotionally, she was content with her results.





Cadance looked amongst the chaos unleashing in the grasslands. Nearly everypony around her was fighting. She grew tense as she saw Twilight becoming weaker and weaker from Twivine's unrelenting assault as well as Spine, Garble, Malik, and Gronkle wiping the floor with Shining Armor and Twilight's friends. She wished she could help them, or at least somepony else, but her heart sank every time she remembered she had to deal with her own duplicate, Shattered Heart, first. 

"I know I have to go through this monster first," Cadance thought as she looked at the other battles. "but there has to be someway I can help my friends and keep her occupied. Maybe I could draw her closer to one of them and-" 

Suddenly Cadance's thoughts were interrupted when something small and rock-like hit her in the side of the head while she was turned away. Seconds later, a barrage of these objects began flying at her, hitting multiple parts of her body. They weren't sharp enough to stab her, but they were hard enough and coming at her fast enough to make some pretty bad bruises along with mild scratches and cuts. When Cadance got a clear look at the source of the projectiles, she saw Shattered Heart summoning large mounds of dark purple crystals out of the ground, smashing them with her magic, and launching the fragments at Cadance like bullets. With all her might, Cadance was able to endure the barrage long enough to concentrate her magic and create a protective shield to block the onslaught. 

Being the Princess of Love, she attempted to reason with her other half. "Listen, we don't have to do this! Can't you see that this fighting is only going to make things worse? We should be out there helping our friends, not quarrelling amongst ourselves."

"Defeating you is my objective." replied Shattered Heart. "Why should I care about the others' battles? They aren't my problem."

"How can you say that? Aren't you worried about the safety of YOUR friends? Wouldn't you feel anything if they were to lose?"

"From the way things are going, it doesn't look like the others will be losing. Besides, I don't care if they win or lose. I wouldn't feel anything as a result because I view neither them nor anypony else as my friend."

Cadance was stunned. "That's impossible! Companionship is one of the most important parts of living. It helps us become who we are!"

Shattered Heart rolled her eyes. "Oh, so you're one of those? The kind who thinks love is something beneficial to your well-being? Well, I have news for you, Cadenza, that theory is nothing but lies! If you go about life gaining loved ones, you'll only attach yourself to them and when times like these come around, you have to take them into account which distracts you from what's important. I don't view the other duplicates as my friends or loved ones because that would cause me to worry about them like you do with your friends. As I showed you earlier, that would only lead me to making the same mistake you made."

"How could not have any compassion towards your own comrades?"

"Who WOULD?! You haven't had the misfortune of listening to those four! Twivine's an egotistical brat, Searing Nova's a psychopath who gets turned on by dominance, Starless Night's voice is just annoying, and don't even get me started on Havoc! Plus, let's face it, your friends aren't exactly the cream of the crop themselves. If you had any common sense, you would forget about them and focus on your own objectives and nothing more."

"I would never discard my friends for my own personal gain!"

"Why not? It's obviously worked for me. Since I have no connections I have nothing to worry about except defeating you."

"You're awful!"

"And you're delusional! But, perhaps you need to experience my ideas first-hand." Shattered Heart lowered her horn and charged up her magic, aiming it at Shining Armor and Twilight's friends in the distance. "Maybe if I take out those seven over there you'll be a little less distracted."

"Leave them alone, it's me you want!" Cadance was growing angrier after hearing such a threat.

"Then why don't you be a good mare and FIGHT ME!! Or would you rather stay in that bubble while I dispose of that washed up husband of yours?"

"You WITCH!!!" 

Cadance couldn't take it anymore. She leaped out from inside her force field and clashed with her duplicate. At this point, she envisioned Shattered Heart and herself being the only two ponies on the field of battle. She didn't care what was going on with everypony else, all she cared about was silencing her other half. She had never felt this way during a battle before and it started to feel exhilarating. However, this feeling turned into intense disappointment when Shattered Heart started getting the upper hand. Cadance had only dipped her hooves in the pool of fury while the dark princess was completely adapted to its power. As Shattered Heart continued to resist the Princess of Love, she knew it was only a matter of time before her overloaded emotions would bring her to her knees.





Discord looked at his duplicate. He knew that he could do some major shenanigans on his own, but now that two Lords of Chaos were about to throw down, he had a feeling things were about to get pretty crazy.

> Chapter 5: The Chaos Has Been Doubled!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Footnotes are numbers inside parentheses.  Example: (1)

Discord was thrilled at the idea of facing someone who was almost exactly like him. It had been over a millennia since he had faced off against a fellow draconequis. Havoc was also intrigued at how this fight would carry out, even though he was sure of himself that he would win.

"So, Discord, are you ready to be reeducated by a REAL chaos master?" Havoc asked.

"We'll see about th--" Discord responded, but something came to his mind. "Hang on a sec, if you're a part of me, and you're just as strong as me, that means you know everything that I know which also means that you don't know anything I don't know. This means that you couldn't really reeducate me in anything because you don't know anything that is beyond my knowledge. Now, perhaps if you had a different variation of what I already knew--"

"Someone like you shouldn't be thinking about these kinds of things so hard. You might hurt yourself. Now, do you wanna talk all day, or do you wanna fight?"

"Sure, I don't see why not."

Havoc opened his bat wings and readied his interspecies arms for snapping. "Okay, Discord, prepare to witness TRUE CHAOS!!!"

"WAIT!! WAIT!! WAIT!! WAIT!! WAIT!! WAIT!! WAIT!! WAIT!! WAIT!!" 

"What is it now?"

Discord smirked. "A battle this epic...needs an EPIC INTRO!!!" 

SNAP!

The two adversaries were standing in opposite corners inside a large boxing ring; complete with spotlights, loudspeakers, and even a jumbo screen above the ring. A tall brown podium sat on the outside of the ring.

"And now, for the announcer!" 

Discord snapped his fingers again and this time a small explosion went off around the podium. As the smoke lifted, a figure was revealed standing behind the podium. The figure was a small, humanoid, felt  puppet. He had orange-yellow skin, a pill-shaped head, a large pointy nose, round ears, a large chin, pure white eyes with black pupils, thin black eyebrows, and perfectly-combed black hair. He was also wearing a white bathrobe and holding a pink bar of soap in his one hand.

"Hey," said the puppet. "this isn't my shower. Where am I?" He turned and saw Discord and Havoc standing in the ring and was very shocked by their appearances. "AAAAHHH!!! And who or what are you two?!"

Discord tossed him a small laundry bag with a little index card pinned to it. "Just put your clothes on and read what's on the card when you're done."

The puppet caught the bag and ducked behind the podium.

Havoc felt ripped off by this part of the arrangement. "A puppet? Really? You want to put together an epic intro and you choose a PUPPET as the announcer?"

Discord laughed. "He may be a puppet, Mr. Havoc, but he's not just any puppet!"

"That's right competitors! We have a very special guest here with us today!" said a booming male voice over the loudspeakers.

The voice was followed by a roar of clapping and cheering from an unknown source.

"And what's all that?" Havoc asked.

"Oh, that's just the voice that introduces him and the live studio audience that comes with him. You don't usually see them."

The voice continued as a thrilling timpani roll was played while spotlights moved throughout the ring. "And now, here's your host for today's show, all the way from Sesame Street, USA in the human universe, 'America's Favorite Game Show Host' for over 46 years, GUUUUUUUUUY SMIIIIIILLLEYYYYYY!!!" (1)

The crowd roared with excitement and epic fight music was played as Guy Smiley popped up from behind the podium wearing a white collared shirt, a navy-blue blazer, and a red necktie.

"Yes, yes, thank you, thank you very much!" said Guy Smiley. "I'm your host, Guy Smiley, and welcome to everyone's favorite show, CHAOTIC CLASH!! Now, without further delay, here are our two challengers!" 

He turned towards Havoc. "In this corner, he's a dark minion created by Tartarus escapee, Tirek, he's a physical manifestation of chaotic magic, heeeeeeeere's HAVOC!!!"

A chorus of boos was heard from the invisible crowd. Havoc rolled his eyes.

"And in this corner, the original Lord of Chaos, one of Equestria's greatest foes, turned great protector, close friend to the princesses and the Mane 6, the Sultan of Snapping, the Ruler of Random, the Meister of Mischief, the Count of Crazy..."

"GET ON WITH IT!!!" shouted Havoc.

"It's DIIIIIIIIIIISSSCOOOORD!!!"

The crowed cheered as Discord waved and blew kisses to the air.

"There's only one rule in Chaotic Clash," said Guy. "whoever is left standing wins! Havoc, are you ready?"

"Yes, yes, whatever, just start already!"

"Discord, are you ready?"

"After an intro like that, I feel like I'm ready for anything!"

"Alright, here we go! 3...2...1...CLASH!!!!"

Havoc was the first to make a move. "Let's see what I have to work with."  

SNAP!

A large cannon appeared behind him. He lit the fuse on the back and shouted: 

"SUCK CANNONBALL!!" 

The cannon fired a large cannonball at Discord.

Luckily, Discord was quick on his mismatched feet and came up with a counter move. 

SNAP!

Nothing appeared to happen until he reached out his paw and caught the cannonball. He smirked at Havoc as he dropped the cannonball on the ground; it bounced like it was made of the same material as a basketball. Discord began dribbling it and performed various tricks with it like he was a player on the Harlem Globe Trotters before chucking the ball across the ring and back into the cannon. Suddenly, the cannon exploded in a display of bright streamers and shiny confetti. Despite the startling explosion, Havoc didn't so much as flinch.

"What an amazing counter move by Discord!" shouted Guy Smiley. "Not only did he stop Havoc's attack, but he blew up the cannon in the process!"

Havoc was not impressed. "Matter change? Really? Preschool stuff, Discord! Honestly, I expected more from you. I think that reformation of yours is slowing you down."

Discord laughed. "Slowing me down? And why on Earth would you think something like that?"

"Just look around you. You want to make an 'epic intro' and you use some of the most predicable elements for the setting. The only real crazy thing you did was get some puppet as the announcer, and even that wasn't too impressive."

"Hey!" protested Guy.

"Shut up! Like I was saying, I think your reformation has led to you abandoning your old ways. Now, you're no longer as chaotic as you used to be."

"Now wait just a second!" objected Discord. "Maybe I don't have as much freedom to do what I please as I used to, but that doesn't mean my power has diminished as a result."

"Is that so? Well then, let's test that theory, shall we? It's time I took control of this fight!"

SNAP!

The boxing ring transformed into a small stone Japanese street. There were even small stores and equine pedestrians on one side watching and walking along the sidewalk. Guy Smiley, to Discord's dismay, was nowhere to be seen.

However, his dismay turned into sheer excitement as he realized the setting of their battle.

Havoc opened his arms. "Welcome, Discord, to the world of--"

"STREET FIGHTER!! YES!!!" interrupted the geeking out draconequis. "Oh, Havoc, did you ever make a mistake to bring us here! I used to kill at this game back in the day! OO, and I know just who to pick!!"

SNAP!

Discord had donned a white sleeveless karate uniform with a black belt, red gloves, and a red headband. "You're in for it now, buster! Ryu was always my best character, and now I can harness his power without the need of a controller!! So, who are you gonna choose, huh? Ken? M. Bison? Guile? CHUN-LI?!"

"I've got a better idea."

SNAP!

Havoc was wearing what looked like a black and yellow ninja outfit with a black hood and a golden facemask. 

"Scorpion?!" questioned Discord. "Hey! No fair! He wasn't in Street Fighter!"

"FAIR?! Did I hear that correctly? The so-called 'Lord of Chaos' just cared about fairness for a second? Who said anything about this fight being fair?! If you were a real Lord of Chaos, fairness would mean nothing to you!"

"NO! I just...well...I just...thought we would be sticking to Street Fighter. Yeah, that's it! I just didn't expect it to be a free-for-all in terms of characters. Well, regardless of this technicality, I'll still beat you! I was better at playing Street Fighter than Mortal Kombat anyway!"

"Fine, now get your butt over here and fight!" Havoc flung a chain with a pointed blade at the end of it which stabbed Discord in his midsection. 

While Discord felt no pain, it did allow Havoc to yank over his opponent. While Discord was aware of the situation he was in, he knew exactly what to do. At just the right moment, he said tauntingly: 

"Thanks for helping me get close to you!"

He clenched his fist and shouted at the top of his lungs: 

"SHORYUKEN!!!"

In and instant, he jumped off the ground and punched Havoc with a powerful spinning uppercut. He wasn't finished yet. Discord flipped through the air landing behind Havoc and went crazy on him with a series of punching and kicking combos all while accenting each hit with a loud grunt. After knocking Havoc a few feet away with a strong punch, he leaped forward, and shouted:

"TATSUMAKI SENPUU KYAKU!!!"

He lifted one leg up and began to spin towards Havoc with a whirling mid-air roundhouse kick. Havoc seized the opportunity and threw his pointed chain at Discord again. This time, Discord's attack caused the chain to wrap itself around him and stop his attack.

"COME HERE!!" Havoc yanked the chain hard, pulling the stunned Discord over to him. As soon as he stopped, he flipped Discord over and swiped him in the shoulder on the way down with his lion paw. As Discord turned around, Havoc gave him a slash to the chest with his eagle claw followed by a smack to the face with his right wrist and a kick to the head with his hoofed leg, which knocked Discord off the ground. Fire began emulating from Havoc's body. Before Discord even began falling downward, Havoc bolted in the opposite direction in a fiery blaze, only to reappear on the other side of Discord and kept the target mid-air with three more kicks. His limbs looked like speeding balls of fire as they moved and even made small explosions as they made contact. On the third kick, he did his fiery dash move again and slammed Discord hard on the ground with a strong downward punch (2). 

After a second of lying on the ground, Discord rose to his feet.

"You know," said Havoc. "As much as I'm enjoying this, I don't think I'm getting the full experience of this fight. Perhaps I'll changed the rest of the battlefield too. Maybe everypony fighting on a giant lava pool will spice things up a little. It'll be interesting to see what everypony else does after this! I'll bet Searing Nova will have a ball."

Discord was worried now. Though he thought a change in scenery would be nice, he was afraid of how that would effect the rest of the other battles around him. He couldn't tell for sure which side was winning, but he didn't want any of his randomness to affect anything, just in case. 

He tried to reason with Havoc. "Hey, come one now, the other's look busy enough as it is. We don't want to anything to interrupt them. Besides, wouldn't your boss have a problem with this?"

"I'm sure Lord Tirek won't mind as long as it's a benefit to us. Now let's do some redecorating!"

"Not today you won't!" Discord put his wrists together, threw them outward, and shouted:

"HADOUKEN!!!"

Out from Discord's hands shot a large blue fiery ball of energy. At the speed it was going, he had a sure feeling that Havoc wouldn't have enough time to counter it, but just when it seemed success was confirmed, Havoc twisted his body like a bendable doll to evade the attack without even moving his feet.

Still determined to land a blow, Discord continued to spam the attack.

"HADOUKEN!!!"
"HADOUKEN!!!"
"HADOUKEN!!!"
"HADOUKEN!!!"
"HADOUKEN!!!"
"HADOUKEN!!!"
"HADOUKEN!!!"
"HADOUKEN!!!"

Just like before, Havoc twisted and contorted his body this way and that; slipping by every blast without a scratch on him. 

"If that attack didn't work the first time, why keep doing it over and over again?" he asked.

"It used to work pretty well in the game."

"For shame, Discord. Now if you don't mind, I need to charge up the transformation spell." He held up his eagle claw and began concentrating his magic. The limb became more and more illuminated as it slowly charged up.

Discord had to think fast. He knew a spell like that only needed a minute or two to fully charge. There had to be something he could do to interrupt it. Suddenly, he remembered something. Using his one hand, Discord stretched open one of his nostrils wide as if it were made of rubber. He shoved his other hand into the nostril and began digging around. After a few seconds, he pulled it out and it was holding a cannon just like the one Havoc used earlier, but covered in green snot.

"Hey look!" he said to no one in particular. "Here's my cannon! It was up my nose the whole time!" He fired the cannon and out shot a snot-covered cannonball.

Havoc, still focusing on charging his spell, didn't move, but he wasn't going to let a giant snot-ball get in the way of his spell casting. His red tail sprang to life and the spines on the end of it moved like fingers. 

SNAP!

"Wipe your nose, you oaf!" 

A giant white handkerchief appeared and flew toward the ball catching the ball and covering the cannon in the process. The tail picked up the edge of the handkerchief and yanked it away revealing the cannon and the ball to be gone. Discord looked at Havoc's claw, the spell was just one second away from being ready. In his panic-thinking, he came up with only one more idea. His instincts yelled at him to not do it, but his conscience was yelling just as loud for him to do it. The sudden wave of stress in that one second was driving him crazy. As he watched Havoc start to move his fingers to make a snap, his mind blanked letting his body move on it's own. 

"STOOOOOOOP!!!"





SNAP!





A giant flash of white covered the area. It only lasted for a second, but it was enough to get everypony's attention. Even the duplicates and the dragons stopped fighting for an instant. When the flash faded, a lava pool was present, but it only covered the area inside the large pink bubble that surrounded Discord and Havoc's section of the battlefield. Discord was standing on one of the rocks panting with his arms spread out. It seemed that at the very last instant before Havoc casted the spell, Discord created a bubble reality to keep the spell from affecting the rest of the battlefield (3). Since the bubble had to match the strength of the spell, it left Discord exhausted.

Havoc looked at Discord with an expression of anger and disappointment like a father would have if his child did something wrong. "Do you realize what you just did, Discord?"

"I...*huff*...told you...*gasp*...don't...*pant*...get them...*huff*...involved!"

"Is my mind playing tricks on me? Did you, Discord, of all creatures, choose ORDER over chaos?!"

"So?"

"You are supposed to be the Lord of Chaos! Fairness, control, and especially order should be the last things that comes to mind when creatures hear your name. Even though I knew you would be no match for me, I still gave you the chance to prove me wrong. I really did. I gave you the chance to prove yourself as the better Lord of Chaos, and what you give me is...this. See what your glorious 'friendship' has done to you? Look at yourself! You've grown predictable, tame, and above all, weak! Plus, you let these equines make you think that friendship is supposed to make you stronger! How can you even call yourself the Lord of Chaos after everything that has happened since your reformation?!" 

Havoc shook his head in disapproval. "Lord Tirek was right, you really are nothing more than a pony-errand-boy. You're just as weak minded as Scorpan!"

Discord wanted to speak out against all this, but as each word worked its way through his brain, the undesirable truth slowly drowned out his voice of reason. Ever since Fluttershy had taken him in, everything had changed. Before, he never had to think about the consequences of his actions. Since his reformation, he realized them several times now. Back when Tirek made his second escape, he could have turned the tables and stabbed Tirek in the back rather than the other way around. Instead, the manipulator, who once bested the Mane 6, was beaten at his own game.
What good was he even getting out of this friendship thing? Even with the acceptance of Fluttershy, the rest of her friends still treated him like he hadn't changed at all. For the most part, they were right, but even when he was willing to try and be a good friend, most times it would end in him making more a fool of himself and less of friend to the ponies around him. What was the point in trying to change if every attempt to do so ended in failure?

"Havoc is right." he thought to himself with a tear in his eye. "Ever since my reformation, nothing has gone well for me. Maybe the only reason they think it's good is because I'm no longer a threat to them. I'd bet my ability to snap that they wouldn't even care if I fell in this battle."

Havoc watched with satisfaction as the distraught Discord's body color turned slightly greyer than normal. (4)

"You're a rate amateur compared to me!" said Havoc. "Watch a true Lord of Chaos take the wheel!!"

SNAP!

Everything inside the bubble turned into darkness. However, Discord couldn't see Havoc anywhere. Suddenly, he heard his booming voice coming from every direction.

"Now, for something I'd like to call, CHAOTIC OVERLOAD!!!"

SNAP!

Discord was now in the middle of a shoe factory. A clown wearing a business suit made out of pasta and a tie made out of silly putty came up from behind him and smacked him in the back of the head with a wooden rod shaped like a stalk of celery. He tried to grab the clown, but it disappeared before he could reach him.

SNAP!

On the banks of the Nile River, a pine tree wearing designer shoes fell out of the sky onto Discord and did a Cossack dance on top of his body. Discord was once again unable to grab it.

SNAP!

In the Artic North, two giant elephants wearing biker outfits played a fast game of patty-cake throwing Discord around in the middle.

SNAP!

Discord was being closed in on by an army of giant fried chicken legs wearing pajamas in a gym.

SNAP!

Now, he was being chased across a bridge near a fountain by a band rocking horse people with marshmallow pies driving a newspaper taxi(5).

SNAP!
SNAP!
SNAP!
SNAP!

No matter how much he tried, Discord couldn't get a chance to fight back without having the scene completely change. All the creatures were getting their share of hits, but he could barely get any. His exhaustion and his growing doubts were only making things worse for him.

Meanwhile, on the outside of the bubble, Havoc was lounging on a floating recliner chair laughing his head off as he continued whipping up more bizarre things to hurl at Discord. He watched as the bubble slowly increased in size with every creation he shoved in. Not only was he trying to overwhelm Discord, he was also trying to the bubble large enough to cover the rest of the battlefield. He knew that a downside to the spell was that it expanded with the more chaotic energy it was given. With enough energy, he could get it big enough to cover the rest of the battlefield and weaken his opponent at the same time. He could tell by the voices inside the bubble that time was growing short for the draconequis.





Elsewhere, a large group was watching the fights from the hilltops not too far from the battlefield.

"Alright, I'll go in alone while they're busy." said one of them. "Once I make my move and give the signal, you all come in and give 'em everything you got!"

"Yes, sir!" responded the rest of the group.

"Have the others arrived?"

"They're all here, sir, and ready to fight!" answered another group member.

"Good, because I think it's time we made our presence known."

> Chapter 6: FRIENDSHIP IS...Magic?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Footnotes are numbers inside parentheses.  Example: (1)

After an hour or so of much conflict and violence, the fighting finally slowed down. However, when the dust settled, the results were nothing like anypony had expected.

Each one of Tirek's 'friends' were standing tall over Equestria's protectors.

The Four Princesses, Discord, and Twilight's friends were all battered and completely exhausted. Each of their opponents made the finishing touches for their final attacks.

Twivine had Twilight wrapped up to her neck in plunder vines, Searing Nova's ring of fire was slowly closing in around the weakened Celestia, Starless Night had Luna tied down with her dark tendrils, Shattered Heart had encased Cadance's horn with her crystals rendering the source of magic completely useless, and Havoc had Discord hogtied on a silver platter complete with all the trimmings and an apple in his mouth. All the duplicates had one final spell charged up, ready to unleash on the heroes and have  them ready for Tirek.

Tirek's mouth watered with anticipation knowing the post powerful magic in Equestria would soon be his.

Twivine was the most excited of the bunch. She slowly walked up to Twilight until she was mere feet away from her face. Her horn was glowing with her thorn-aqua magic. The dark alicorn giggled and lowered her horn so it pointed right at her captive's face.

"Well, Twilight, I'd say you put up a good fight, but I know how you are with fudged details." 

Twilight shut her eyes tight. She could have easily gotten out of her restraints, but her magic was nearly drained and she couldn't muster enough strength to do so. Tears leaked out from her squinted eyes as she mentally lamented her defeat. "I failed." She thought. "How could this happen? I've failed Celestia. I've failed my friends. I've failed Equestria...Please forgive me everypony."

Twivine was sure she had victory in her hooves, but just as she was about the discharge her spell, she felt a hoof tap on her back. The princess was furious

"WHAT?!?! How DARE you interrupt my moment of triumph?!?"

Twilight opened one of her eyes as Twivine started to turn around. Both of them were stunned at who the 'distraction' turned out to be.

It was Captain of the Guard, Flash Sentry dressed in his gold armor, orange-yellow wings out, a spear strapped on his belt, and inches away from Twivine's face. He looked at Twivine in the eyes with a fearless glare and snarled:


"Get away from my princess!"


Finally, with one quick motion, Flash Sentry punched Twivine hard with his left hoof across her face, flinging her several feet to the side, and knocking her out. Without any hesitation, he pulled the spear out of his belt, raised it to the sky, and shouted: 

"ATTACK!!!"

Just then, a massive hoard of soldiers poured over the hills and toward the battlefield like a tide. Armored ponies by the hundreds armed with spears, swords, daggers, hoof blades, and other weapons charged in and began engaging the duplicates to aid their weakened rulers.

Flash Sentry ran up to Twilight, pulled out serrated dagger from his war bag and began sawing away at the plunder vines. "I have got to find better ways of running into you."

Twilight blushed. "After saving me at the last second, I'm certainly not complaining." She was too overwhelmed by adrenaline to remember being nervous around her crush. "Flash, where did all these guards come from? Did you have anything to do with this?"

"Yeah. Tirek defeated the eastern ground forces just before you and the others came down. Knowing that we were in a bind, I snuck off, rounded up the other troops around the castle, and we called in for backup."

"Well, you certainly got it."

"Exactly. Every one of our military factions are here with their leaders. Along with the Solar Empire guard and myself, we also got Capt. Midnight Blossom with the New Lunar Republic guard as well as her stealth force, and Gen. Diamond Shield with the Crystal Guard. We would have been here sooner, but the general and the others had to take one of the airships to Canterlot, which was already busy evacuating the ponies." 

Flash sawed through the last of the vines and helped Twilight step out of the coils. "There we go. Are you alright?" 

"Yeah. A little tired and banged up, but I'll be fine."

Flash noticed that Twivine was beginning to stir. "SQUAD 5, OVER HERE!! My troops and I will hold off that imposter. Meanwhile, you go try to find your friends."

"Okay, once I reach them, we'll all come back here to help you."

"No way! You should be focusing on beating Tirek! After all, you six are the only ones with the magic to stop him! It's time we defend you for once."

"But she's just as strong as me. How are you going to stand up to her?"

Flash looked Twilight in the face with his blue eyes. "We'll do everything we can, and if nothing works, I'll let you know."

Twilight was so touched by the captain's loyalty that she wanted to kiss him right there on the spot. Unfortunately, her moment of passion was cut short by the sound of Twivine grunting as she started getting onto her hooves.

Flash shoved Twilight in the opposite direction. "GO! NOW! HURRY BEFORE SHE GETS UP!!!"

Twilight obeyed Flash's command and flew off to find her friends.

When Twivine finally collected herself, she looked around to find that Twilight was gone, only leaving a pegasus captain and his troops in her place. Suffice it to say, Twivine was not happy with this. 

"You...You stole my PREY!!!"

Flash smirked. "Prey, huh? That's a new one. Usually I get teased for stealing 'waifus', whatever those are." (1)

The squad behind him snickered at the joke.

Two short plunder vines sprang out from Twivine's sides and thorn-aqua fumes began to seep out from between her clenched teeth. "You're going to regret that, peasant!" 

Flash gripped the spear in his hoof and turned to his squad. "Back me up boys, this ain't gonna be pretty!"





Tirek was furious at the interruption. Everything was going according to plan, and now he had an army of equine soldiers to deal with.

"Master Tirek!" called Spine. "These pests are everywhere! What are your orders?"

Tirek scowled. "You're orders are to keep those five ponies and that dragon in place...or at least those were your orders until YOU LET THEM ESCAPE!!!"

"What are you talking about? They should still be right here." He turned to where the other three dragons were.

They were busy fighting off the other guards, but the six were nowhere to be seen.

"GARBLE!!!" roared Spine. "Why are those six not with you anymore?!"

"Gronkle was supposed to keep them in place!" protested Garble as he fought off the guards.

"No, that's Malik's job!" replied Gronkle.

"You're both wrong!" said Malik. "Gronkle blocks their path, I drive them into the middle, and Garble keeps them crowded. It's easy!"

"Zip it, Malik! If keeping them in the middle was your job, THEN WHY ARE THEY NOT IN THE FREAKING MIDDLE?!?"

The bickering was getting on Spine's last nerve. "HOW COULD YOU THREE MESS THIS UP?!? Why I put TEENAGERS in charge of my elite guard, I'll never know!"

Tirek, at this point, had no time to listen to arguing. "SHUT UP!!! ALL OF YOU JUST SHUT UP!!! Spine, tell your other forces to move in and deal with the soldiers!"

"But, what about the other six, master? Shouldn't we go after them?"

"Forget those brats! I have something else planned for them."

Spine looked down at the exhausted Shining Armor who was being protected by the reinforcements. "What about the prince?"

"You four bring him to me. I could use a little snack."

"Of course, master. Dragons, attack!" 

On command, the adult dragons who were standing with Tirek took to the air and began raining fire down on the soldiers, severely burning anypony who was unlucky enough to get caught in the blaze.
Spine grew annoyed from being reminded of the soldiers trying to hold him off. He felt like he was surrounded by bugs. He raised one of his fists in the air and slammed it on the ground creating a shockwave of dark green energy that knocked back all the soldiers standing between him and the prince. Shining Armor couldn't believe what he just saw. It looked as though a dragon used some sort of magic, but he thought that was impossible considering that dragons have never been seen using magic before; not even the most legendary ones were believed to use it.  He tried to get up, but his exhaustion and injuries made him too weak to stand.
Spine slowly took a deep breath. The prince realized he was about to breath fire and frantically tried to get away. However, his current state only allowed him to slowly drag himself a foot or two at a time. The dragon ordered the teenagers to grab him once he was done with his attack.
Shining Armor shut his eyes. Spine lowered his head and exhaled a massive stream of dark green fire at the unicorn. However, after a few seconds of this, Spine began to sense something amiss. He felt as though his attack was making contact, not with his target, but with something else. He lowered his head a little more and saw a crystal-blue wall of magic in the shape of a shield blocking the fire with another pony behind it. 

"Somepony is stopping the attack!" Spine roared. "Boys, grab the prince, now!"

But, just as the dragons started moving in, they were stopped in their tracks by something dark blue and blurry rapidly striking them from all directions. In their attempts to catch it, they were hit with punches, slashes, and, oddly enough, small electrical shocks. Shining Armor opened his eyes to see who had saved him from capture.
Standing behind the magical barrier was a purple crystal-unicorn stallion wearing a more elite version of the Crystal Empire's armor. He had a slightly elderly appearance with his short grayish mane, a small goatee, and some light wrinkles around his face and legs. Next to him floated a cavalry sabre made entirely of hardened and sharpened blue crystal. 
The pony was Diamond Shield, general of the Crystal Guard, and one of the strongest crystal-unicorns in the Crystal Empire. He was a legend when it came to defensive magic. Shining Armor had heard stories from his soldiers about his famous shield spell, but never actually saw it up-close until now. It was just as amazing as they said it was and looked even more powerful than the shield spells Twilight could use. At his age, he was the eldest serving military leader in Equestria.
Facing the three dragons was a young mare dressed in the armor of Princess Luna's guard. Her short, messy, purplish-blue hair and yellow slit-pupil eyes  complimented her grey coat. She had wings, but instead of normal pegasi wings, they were purple bat wings. On both of her front hooves, she had two dark blue hoof blades which gave off small bolts of electricity.
This bat-pony was Capt. Midnight Blossom (2), the leader of the New Lunar Republic Guard and the Lunar Stealth Force. The speed she and her troops could achieve in combat flying surpassed even the Wonderbolts. Rainbow Dash would have been left speechless if she saw her in action.

"My prince." said the general. "Are you alright, sir?"

"I'm fine, general." replied Shinning Armor. He tried to stand, his legs gave way from their condition and he collapsed back onto the ground.

"Don't move, sir. My medics will be here soon to tend to you. In the meantime, I'll handle this beast."

"Thank you, general."

The two leaders began to fight the dragons. Midnight Blossom easily avoided the teenagers' attacks. So easily that she started taunting them before dodging just in time to land a few more attacks. As for Diamond Shield, he was holding his own rather well against Spine. His shield magic was an excellent defense and he succeeded in a few attacks. One of them being a beam of magic that was only inches away from the dragon's eye.

As the two continued to fight, they began exchanging words between each other.

"Didn't know you still had it in you, general." Midnight Blossom teased.

"Well, I didn't think you'd do so well fighting in broad daylight, captain. Usually you just stay in the dark and let Celestia's troops handle things."

"Nah, I could be at my a-game anytime I want. I just prefer to fight at night. It's such a pain that we have to do this when it's so bright out."

"Save you fickle attitude for when we're not in the middle of a battle, maggot!"

Blossom laughed. "Maggot? Oh, when I'm done with these scale-brains, I'll show you who's the maggot!"

Diamond Shield chuckled. "I'll be looking forward to it."





By this point, the soldiers had only made things worse for Tirek and his forces. Because of them, Twilight and her friends had escaped their captors, the medical troops were able to get a hold of Shining Armor and the princesses and escort them to safety, and even Discord was able to get free with their help. Though the duplicates and the dragons were easily able to injure the enemy forces, the soldiers still had plenty of fight left in them. Now fed up with this sudden turning of the tables, the centaur decided to take matters into his own hands. He stomped into the battlefield and began absorbing the magic from the weakened troops. Anypony who tried to stop his absorption were hit by his energy blast and stripped of their magic shortly after. Each time he finished a chunk of soldiers, he would trample them beneath his hooves as he moved on to find his next victims. Too weak to get out of the way, the ponies were either severely injured or killed. With Tirek in play, the soldiers were starting to wane and realized that their lead ahead of the enemy was becoming smaller and smaller.
While Tirek continued his feeding frenzy, slowly growing larger and stronger with each bit of magic consumed, he constantly scanned the battlefield for either Twilight or her friends.

"As soon as those six are together, I'll unleash my secret weapon and put an end to their friendship game! he thought.





Twilight flew over the armies of soldiers searching for her friends until she saw a small group of six familiar colors. She happily swooped down towards them and they all cheered as they joined in a quick group hug. 

Spike held Twilight for a second longer. "We're so happy you're okay, Twilight."

"Yeah!" said Pinkie Pie. "We were afraid meanie-Twilight had our Twilight all tied up. We were on our way to surprise you with a 'Super-Special-Awesome-Surprise Rescue Mission'! I even baked a cake for it!" 

Pinkie reached behind her back and pulled out a cake designed like an orange lifesaver ring with the words 'To the Rescue!' written in icing.

"Thanks, Pinkie." replied Twilight. "You're right, I was tied up for a moment, but Flash Sentry came in and knocked her out long enough to set me free." She blushed as she remembered how brave the pegasi looked when he saved her.

"Are you blushing, dear?" asked Rarity amusingly.

"What, no...it's...it's not important. Now that we're together again, we have to stop Tirek fast! I'm not sure how much longer these soldiers can last. They've been through so much for us already."

"Awesome!" said Rainbow Dash. "Let's fire up that rainbow power and send these jerks packing!"

"What should I do, Twilight?" asked Spike.

Twilight saw two medical troops close to where they were standing. "Follow those two medic ponies. See if there's anything you can do to help them."

"Sure thing." Spike ran off to catch up with the soldiers. "Hey, medics! Wait up a sec!"

"Alright girls, let's remind Tirek of what our friendship can do!"

The six friends began charging their energy and in a huge flash of light, they transformed into their rainbow-fied forms. The magic was so strong that it even restored Twilight's strength. Their whole bodies glowed with vibrant colors as they lifted off the ground inside their orb of magic that looked like the sun splashed with color. Everypony, even Tirek's forces stopped what they were doing when they saw this feat of magic at work.

Tirek grinned. "Now is the time!" He made a tremendous leap off the ground to where he was standing at the start of the battle. "TO ME, MY FRIENDS!!!"

One by one, the duplicates left their battles and made their way back to Tirek.

"SPINE!"

"Yes, master. Dragons, return to me!" Spine took to the air and led his dragons back behind Tirek. 

With the opposing sides separated, the fighting came to a stop. All soon became quiet as the Mane 6 floated above the center of the battlefield looking down on their enemy.

"Tirek!" shouted Twilight. "You have once again brought pain and destruction to Equestria, but it will all be over once we destroy your duplicates and send you back to Tartarus!"

Tirek bellowed with laughter. "You weak-minded equines. If only you could have known the unparalleled doom your interference was about to bring upon Equestria, maybe you would have stayed out of my way, but you couldn't, and you didn't, and now you will all suffer!"

He ordered Spine to step forward.

Spine held up one of his claws. "Flesh from the servant to forever defend its master." 

In an instant, the dragon shoved the finger into his mouth and bit it off. Blood dripped from both his hand and his mouth. He took the mutilated chunk out of his mouth, placed it in front of Tirek, and used a small stream of his dark green fire breath to ignite the finger and create a ring around the six.  As the finger disintegrated, the flames went from dark green to black. With Spine's job complete, Tirek and the duplicates assembled themselves into a formation similar the Mane 6. The ring of black fire floated up to Tirek's middle, still retaining it's shape, and they were lifted off the ground, bringing them to the same height as Twilight and her friends.

"What are we waiting for?!" yelled Rainbow Dash. "Let's take him down!"

"Right." replied the remaining five.

The Mane 6 fired their six streaks of color at their target, but instead of hurting them, a translucent black orb appeared around them which blocked the attack. Everypony was speechless. They had never seen anything like this before.

Tirek and the duplicates laughed. "Fools! Once the offering is complete, nothing can stop its, return!"

Tirek charged up the magical sphere between his horns and gave a nod to his 'friends'. One by one, each of the duplicates fired a continuous beam of their magic at the sphere. The various colors swirled around and flashed violently until they slowly mixed together. Soon, the sphere had transformed into a mass of purple and black magic accented by small sparks of blue light.

Discord and the Princesses looked on with fear and confusion.

"What is Tirek doing? How could he have blocked the power of the elements?" Cadance asked.

"I don't know. There's no spell in existence that can match them." replied Celestia.

Discord looked at the dark colored magic and made an expression of pure terror "Wait a minute...the offering, the ring of fire, the six sources of magic...Oh no....It can't be...There's now way he could have done it!"

"Could have done what? What in Equestria is that thing, Discord?" Celestia asked.

Discord shuddered. "One of the oldest and most powerful dark magic spells in the history of magic...so powerful that it was believed to be in the class of the Elements of Harmony......The Rainbow of Darkness."

"I've heard stories about such a thing existing before our time, but they all said it was permanently destroyed." said Luna.

"It was, and that's what everypony thought. However, legend says that the spell can be revived when six creatures of darkness join their magic together; similar to how the Elements work, but I thought the legend was just that."

"And you're saying that Tirek has used that ritual to bring this Rainbow of Darkness back?" asked Cadance.

Discord nodded. "This clash will be the ultimate test for the Elements."

Tirek held the Rainbow of Darkness in his hands and looked at the six nervous equines across from him.

"Now, my little ponies, your downfall begins now!" he held out the Rainbow in front of him and shouted at the top of his lungs:

"BEHOLD, THE POWER OF DARKNESS!!!"

A continuous streak of magic burst out from the sphere toward the Mane 6; howling like a gale, rumbling like thunder, and flashing like lightning. Twilight and her friends responded by firing their rainbow at the oncoming attack. The two forces clashed and appeared to be perfectly even with each other. The mane 6 strained hard trying to overpower their enemy.

"Keep pushing everypony! We can do it! As long as we're together, nothing can stop us!" encouraged Twilight.

Applejack noticed something that made her feel a sharp pain in her chest. "Uh, girls, y'all are gonna think ahm crazy, but ah think that thing just got a bit closer ta us."

Unfortunately, Applejack was right. Despite their unrelenting efforts, their rainbow was resisting the Rainbow of Darkness less and less. Soon, the darkness had devoured the last of the attack and began infecting the orb of magic around the ponies. Tirek and his 'friends' watched with amusement as the harmony magic grew unstable from its dark invader until all the magic was blown away with a loud explosion. The mane 6 were turned back into their normal selves as their unconscious bodies began plummeting to the ground. Luckily, they were all saved by six pegasi soldiers. 

Tirek pulled out a small, black pull-string sack and held it open. The Rainbow of Darkness retracted back to him and fed itself into the bag. It glowed with a purple aura and throbbed with the rhythm of a heartbeat as if it were alive.

"I was hoping my friends would stop you themselves, but I was prepared to have the Rainbow of Darkness revived if something were to happen. You ponies were doomed no matter what the outcome of your battles were! And the best part is, I planned it that way all along!!"

He held the bag up so that all the ponies below could see. "Your saviors have failed you, the ultimate darkness has returned, and there is nothing you can do to stop its power! YOUR LAND BELONGS TO ME!!!"

Tirek released the Rainbow of Darkness and it struck the ground with an immeasurable force.

The soldiers scattered in terror trying to figure out what to do.

"We have to get everypony out of here!" exclaimed Celestia.

"But, what about Canterlot?" Cadance asked.

"The city should be fully evacuated by now. Besides, we don't have anything left to use against Tirek. We'd only lose more ponies if we stayed around any longer. We'll retreat to our old castle in the Everfree Forest. We should be safe there."

"But the place is in ruins. We can't send them there." protested Luna.

"It's the biggest location that's closest to us. We have no other choice."

The princesses flew over the soldiers. "FALL BACK!!!" they cried. "FOLLOW US AND WE'LL TAKE YOU TO SAFETY!!!"

Tirek watched the hoard of soldiers begin to move in a general direction. "It appears they are retreating. Havoc, take some of the dragons with you. Chase them down until you can no longer see them."

"Yes, Lord Tirek." answered Havoc.

"The rest of you stay in the area and capture anypony that's foolish enough to stay behind."

Havoc and the dragons remained incredibly close on the ponies' tails. His blasts of chaotic magic and the dragons' fire breaths from the sky rushed the army to a great extent; bringing any stragglers to Tirek. Eventually, they followed the army to the Everfree Forest. With the trees too dense to see through, thus not knowing which direction the ponies were going, the pursuers turned around and headed back to Canterlot.

Tirek unleashed the Rainbow of Darkness again, this time on Canterlot. With it's power, the pristine capital of Equestria and the home of the Two Sisters, had turned into a huge, menacing, black palace. For Canterlot had now become Tirek's new home, The Midnight Castle.

Spine flew up to the palace balcony where Tirek stood overlooking the land. "The ponies have avoided our attempt to steal their magic, master...we have failed."

"No, Spine, this...is only the beginning! Today has been a major victory! Now that I have driven the princesses into a corner and made them unable to stop me, I'll force them to watch as I terrorize this land and claim it as my own, saving them for last!"

"So, when do you plan on going after the rest of Equestria's magic?"

Tirek stroked his beard thoughtfully. "In the position we're in, that can wait a little while. First, I'm going to take Searing Nova and Starless Night with me back to Tartarus tonight."

"After just breaking out, you want to go back there?"

"Yes. There's one prisoner in particular that could prove very useful to me, should he join my side. Once all the pieces are in place, I will unleash my might upon Equestria, and then rest of the world!"

"You have my full support, master Tirek."

Spine looked at the sun, now orange-red and setting over the horizon. To him, it was a perfect compliment to what had been achieved today.

"After thousands of years, Canterlot is now ours."

As Tirek entered the castle and approached the large double doors to his throne room, two teenaged dragons pushed the doors open. Inside revealed a long red carpet running all the way to his massive throne. The duplicates and the dragons stood on opposite sides of the carpet kneeling and bowing before him as he stood in the doorway.

Spine held out his hand into the chamber.

"Welcome home!"





The war-torn princesses and their armies continued to make their way through the Everfree Forest.

Luna, crushed with grief from what happened, tried to talk with her sister for comfort.

"Celestia?" she asked. "Please tell me there's still hope for us."

Celestia held her head low with an equal amount of grief.

"I don't know, dear sister....I just don't know."
> Chapter 7: Crumbling Bridges
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Footnotes are numbers inside parentheses.  Example: (1)

After their trek through the Everfree Forest, Equestria's forces reached the Castle of the Two Sisters. Immediately, the soldiers began setting up camps and tending to the wounded. Most of the castle's ground floors had turned into medical wards. They actually ran out of bedding mats and had to use beds of leaves collected from the debris around the castle. Some of the soldiers only suffered minor injuries while others were injured so bad that they made the military trained doctors cringe. Soldiers that were unhurt or well enough move did whatever they could to help the medics. They weren't able to do as much medical work, but every little bit helped. By nightfall, things were finally brought under control. Capt. Flash Sentry, Capt. Midnight Blossom, and Gen. Diamond Shield stood at the entrance to the room looking forlorn at their wounded comrades. The three were not without their share of wounds. 

Most of Flash Sentry's hindquarters were wrapped up in white bandages and the rest of his body was spotted with smaller bandages; all of which were a result of Twivine's plundervines. 

A part of Midnight Blossom's wing was wrapped to bandage the hole one of the dragons made during their scuffle. One side of her face was bandaged due to a slash across her cheek another one of the dragons gave her.

Diamond Shield's front left leg was bandaged and he had a an ice pack wrapped around his side as a result of a burn Spine gave him when he caught him off guard. In his attempt to dodge the attack, he sprained his ankle.

Flash walked up to a nearby unicorn medic who was checking one of the patients.

Seeing the captain, the unicorn stood at attention and saluted him. "Capt. Flash Sentry, sir!"

"At e--" Flash was interrupted by a sudden coughing fit. After a few seconds, he managed to clear his throat. "Ahem, at ease, medic. Sorry, my throat is still swollen from those poison fumes. How are things looking?"

The medic looked at the clipboard he was holding with his magic and flipped through a few pages. "It's not pretty, sir. Out of the 1000 ponies in that surprise attack, we've lost about 250 in the battle and a little over 300 wounded. During the retreat, another 30 were killed and about 60 wounded."

"What are the details on the 360 wounded?"

"As I understand it, we've been able to fix up about 150 from the total, however, out of the remaining 210, we've lost 100 more. The last 110 are still being treated."

"How many soldiers does that leave us with now?"

"In terms of living soldiers, this currently leaves us with 620; 510 being battle-ready."

"What? No, this can't be. It couldn't have been that much! I'm sorry, doctor, I need to sit down for a minute." 

Flash pulled up one of the chairs next to the beds. As he sat down, an excruciating pain went through his body and he shrieked:

"YEOW!!!" He sprang out of the chair and breathed heavily, trying to will the pain away.

"Captain! Are you alright, sir?" asked the medic.

"I'm fine. I know the doctors told me not to put pressure on my flank, but I didn't think it would hurt that much if I did."

"Sweet Princess Luna, what did that Twivine girl do to you?"

The only thing Flash said in response was:

"I don't want to talk about it." (1)

Blossom and Diamond Shield had an idea of what might have happened and both of them cringed.

"So let me get this straight," continued Flash "you're telling me that in just one afternoon we've lost almost half of our forces?"

"I'm afraid so, captain...but we're still doing everything in our power to--" he stopped for a second when he noticed the pegasus' face. "Captain?"

Flash Sentry looked like he had just seen a ghost. His eyes had shrunk, his face looked incredibly pale, his legs were trembling, tears began to well up in his eyes, and he was biting his lower lip so hard that he almost drew blood. Seeing that the medic was looking at him, he did his best to keep himself together. 

"Th-Thank you...c-carry on, m-medic." Was all he managed to say before quickly running out of the room.

The unicorn was surprised by the way Flash acted. "Was it something I said?" he asked.

"I wouldn't worry about that, doctor. We'll talk to him." Said Diamond Shield. "In the meantime, you worry about helping the rest of these injured soldiers."

"Like you said, you're doing everything in your power, and that's all that matters right now." Said Midnight Blossom "Tell my boys to stay strong."

The medic saluted the two commanders "Yes, general and thank you, captain, I'll be sure to tell them."

Blossom and Diamond Shield raised their right hooves accepting the salute before leaving the room in the direction Flash Sentry left.

The two scanned the dim hallway and they found Flash Sentry sitting in a darkened corner looking at the captain's helm in his hooves and quietly sobbing. As they drew closer, they began hearing some of his mumbling.

"Such an idiot...how could I do this...I'm nothing but a failure."

Midnight Blossom approached him. "Don't be so hard on yourself. Sure, death is the worst part of a battle, but these kind of things are unavoidable."

"You don't understand." said Flash through his tears "All those soldiers died because of me. I wanted to lead them to victory, but instead I lead them to their graves! I was the one who organized the attack! I was the one who ordered the call for reinforcements! I was the one responsible for their well-being! My stupid plan is the reason over 400 of our soldiers are now dead!" 

The pegasus' sadness and guilt had reached his peak as he broke down and started to bawl.  "I should have known we couldn't handle an army like that! Who was I to think our forces could stand against Tirek, and hoard of dragons, four alicorns, and a second Discord?!" 

He looked at his helm with disgust. "I don't deserve to wear this helmet!" he picked up the headgear and chucked it across the hallway. "I've brought shame to Princess Celestia!! Princess Twilight may never look at me the same again!!"

"Oh, cut the act! It wasn't a total loss. Those minions Tirek had were about to hand over Discord and the princesses. In a way, your plan saved them. Besides, if it were me and if I had to choose between handing the most powerful magic in Equestria over to Tirek or launching some kind of attack that would stop him in exchange for a few casualties, I'd pick the latter. If my boys are willing to die to help save the princesses by fighting alongside me, then that's their decision. You can't protect everypony. If you tried to, what would you do to protect yourself?"

"How can you be so selfish?!" Feelings of anger started to mix with Flash Sentry's sadness "You lost a good chunk of your own troops and you act as though this whole situation is no big deal!"

Blossom was slightly offended by Flash's statement. "Hey, that's not what I was saying and you know it."

Diamond Shield could sense the rising tension between the two captains.

"You're only acting cool because you made it out alive!"

Blossom was becoming more and more agitated. "Watch it, Sentry!"

"I bet you'd use your own troops and meat shields just so you could stay alive!"

The bat filly finally lost her temper and lunged at the captain like a ravenous beast. She slammed her right front leg against Flash Sentry's throat knocking him back and pinning him to the wall. She raised the hoof blades on her free hoof up to the captain's face. They sparked with electricity as they were held inches away. Midnight Blossom was heaving with anger; bearing her white razor sharp fangs which were clenched together in a furious snarl. She had the same look in her eyes she would have when facing an enemy; a look that ensured the victim that it was about to get hurt...badly.
Being a member of the Lunar Guard and not being seen as much by the citizens compared to the Solar Empire Guard, Midnight Blossom and her troops had a history of being called cowards ever since Luna's return. Rumors were spread about them being a band of ruffians who were always hiding away or nowhere to be seen like Luna when something major was going on. Some even called them weak fighters who had to resort to unorthodox means in order to survive and achieve their objectives. Having an undying loyalty to Princess Luna that would make Rainbow Dash proud, she did everything she could prove the incredible leadership of her princess of the night through the skill and strength of their army. Thus, when it came to prejudices towards her and her kind, she had very, VERY little tolerance.

After a few seconds of growling, the filly spoke. "I would NEVER treat my soldiers like that! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?! I care about them as if they were my own children! I would never do something so cowardly and so despicable, and if I EVER hear say something like that about me or my boys again, I swear I will run these blades through those baby blue eyes of yours!!!"

Seeing where this could be going, Diamond Shield finally decided to step in. "That's it, I've seen enough!" The old general separated the two captains with his hooves.

For a moment, the two were surprised at the physical strength he had for somepony his age. Especially since one of his ankles was sprained.

"Capt. Blossom, that treatment was far too harsh for such an issue!" said Diamond Shield.

"You heard the things he was saying, he was asking for it!" said Midnight Blossom.

"That's no excuse, captain! We NEVER use our weapons or magic for disciplining soldiers!"

"If you were one of us, you'd do the same thing!"

"Don't you raise your voice to a fellow officer, maggot!"

"Stop treating me like I'm a private!! I hold just as much rank as Capt. Crybaby over there and I've held the position longer than him! I've charged these blades more times than he has pompfed his wings!! I am captain of The New Lunar Republic Guard and you will regard me as such!!"

Diamond Shield was barely swayed by the captain's outburst. "Capt. Sentry may be acting overdramatic, but what you did was wrong too."

"You crystal ponies are the same as all the others. Even after dealing with Sombra you still don't understand."

The mention of King Sombra and his cruel dictatorship over the Crystal Empire hit Diamond Shield hard. He was shunned that the officer would stoop to such a level. He looked away from Midnight Blossom as his face contorted into a look of repressed fury. "Get...out...now!"

After glaring at the general one last time, the bat-pony angrily trotted down the hall and turned a corner.

Diamond Shield turned his head to Flash Sentry. "Don't think you're any less guilty than she is, Capt. Sentry." he said "Her actions were uncalled for, but she's right to a point. There is no tolerance for such racial bigotry in Equestria's military. Somepony of your status should know that all too well by now."

Flash Sentry slowly nodded.

The general continued. "I'm going to go check on my troops. You do what you must." He proceeded in the opposite direction toward the medical ward and turned a corner into the next room leaving the pegasus alone with his thoughts.





Meanwhile, in one of the meeting chambers on castle's upper level, the mane 6 were waiting for the remaining princesses. Twilight was frantically pacing the room trying to figure out what just happened while the rest of her friends were sitting quietly, barely saying a word to each other. Suddenly an eruption of unintelligible bickering between several voices was heard from down the hall as was rapidly moving towards the entrance. In a matter of seconds, an arguing mob consisting of Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Shining Armor, and Discord came bursting through the door.

"Don't act like you're as clueless as we are!" yelled Shining Armor.

"What are we going to do about those injured troops?!" asked a panicking Cadance.

"Oh, so it's always my fault whenever something goes wrong around here!" said Discord sarcastically.

"Quiet! I can't think! QUIET!!" ordered Celestia

"Now's not the time to worry about that, Cadenza!" Luna shouted.

"Alright, everypony let's calm down. We've been blindsided." said Celestia.

"We should have won!" protested Rainbow Dash. "Tirek only beat us because he was hiding behind those phonies and those dragons like a coward!"

"Yeah! That rainbow power picked a heck of a good time be broken or we would have knocked him and his buddies out of the park!" said Spike.

"Correction, little Spikey, the rainbow power wasn't broken, it was simply overpowered by the Rainbow of Darkness." said Discord. "Tirek just happened to have the better magical laser thingy."

"That we can worry about later, for now we must make sense of what has happened and figure out how to fight back." said Celestia

"I too believe Tirek created the duplicates out of remnants of our magic and then used these duplicates to revive the Rainbow of Darkness and overpower the elements." said Luna. "What remains unanswered is, how could he do something like that after being weakened? How do we stop these imposters? And what does Tirek plan on doing next?"

"Twilight, did you weaken Tirek when you and your friends defeated him?" asked Celestia.

"Yes, princess." Twilight answered

"Was there anypony that didn't get their magic back afterwards?"

"No princess!"

"You're ABSOLUTELY sure?!"

"Yes, princess!"

"Tirek has to be toying with us!" said Cadance.

"Of course he is! Even the way he described how he made those things sounds iffy!" said Discord. "Casting a duplication spell without the original present is exceptionally difficult to accomplish, and even if he was able to do it, only an exceptionally powerful corruption spell could have turned duplicates of us into those things; two feats of magic that should have been way out of his reach in the state he was left in!"

"Is there any method other than that?" asked Luna.

"None that I know of. Unless he had another mirror pool in his pocket, there's no way he could have pulled it off." 

"You seem to know a lot about these kind of things, Discord." questioned Shining Armor.

"I'm the Lord of Chaos. I know everything there is to know about dark magic, Shining Armor." Discord held up his eagle hand, fingers ready to snap. "Perhaps you would like a refresher course on the subject."

"You're not helping, Discord!" interrupted Celestia.

"He started it."

As the stress continued to build in Celestia, the whispers of Searing Nova's words echoed in her mind amongst her scrambling thoughts.

"You should allow no creature to threaten your position of leadership. Assert your rightful dominance over your subjects!"

"Discord! As your leader I order you to control yourself and help figure out a solution or I will personally put an end to your shenanigans PERMANENTLY!!!" snapped Celestia.

Everypony was in shock at Celestia's outburst, even Discord. He was about to back off, when he remembered something Havoc had said to him earlier.

"You are supposed to be the Lord of Chaos! Fairness, control, and especially order should be the last things that come to mind when creatures hear your name!"

A spark of rebellion kindled in Discord's mind. "Control...CONTROL?! Have you forgotten who you're TALKING TO?!"

He pointed his eagle claw toward Shining Armor

SNAP!

In a flash, Shining Armor's armor had been transformed into a frilly pink dress.

"Discord! What the heck?!" protested the prince.

"Consider that letting you off easy! I could have done much worse!" answered the draconequis.

"Have you gone nuts? What's gotten into you?"

"Something that should have gotten in a long time ago!" 

"What are you talking about? Cadance, help me out here!"

But she too was being influenced by the words of her dark half as a result of the stress.

"If you had any common sense, you would forget about them and focus on your own objectives and nothing more!"

"It's not my problem that you made Discord angry. I've got more important things to do than solve your little problems, like trying to figure out what to do about the Crystal Empire."

"Excuse me?"

Luna, who was standing next to Twilight, wanted to step in and be the bigger pony in order to break up the argument. Unfortunately...

"Put as much effort into it as you want, but everypony will still focus on those more skilled and more popular than you."

"Since no pony wants my opinion and would rather listen to my more successful sister, I'm just going wait until they get this madness out of their systems."

"Twilight, do something!" said Spike "You're the Princess of Friendship, you should be stepping in and breaking this up!"

"THERE IS NO 'PRINCESS OF FRIENDSHIP! YOUR ROLE IS NOTHING MORE THAN A POLITICAL SCAM!!"

"What difference is my role going to make? They already know all about friendship, what do they need me for?"

Applejack looked at Twilight confused. "Uh, are you that Twivine girl we ran into earlier in disguise? Because that sure don't sound like the Twilight I remember."

"Really, darling, this isn't like you." said Rarity

"Don't you get it?!" yelled Twilight "They won, we lost, the elements failed us, they have Canterlot, and we're stuck out here in the woods hiding in some ruins!! Friendship is useless now!"

"Twilight! Snap out of it!" defended Spike.

"You know it's true, Spike. You all know it's true!"

On and on the princesses and Discord were arguing all at the same time as the words of their enemies poisoned their minds while Shining Armor, Spike, and the Mane 5 tried to talk some sense into them. Eventually it got to the point where everypony had enough and decided to discuss things further in the morning. After Luna raised the moon and brought forth the night, everypony made their way to the bedrooms.

The once mighty kingdom of Equestria had begun taking an extended turn for the worse. The armies were battered, the commanders were divided in conflict, and the rulers and heroes of the kingdom were at each others' throats. This would only be the beginning of their worries, for as this force of harmony was continuing to crumble, a new force was continuing to build.





Under the cover of Luna's darkness, Tirek, Searing Nova, and Starless Night stood at a distance from the gates of Tartarus.

"I find it wonderful that you want to recruit this gentlecolt, Lord Tirek." said Searing Nova "It'll be interesting to see what he's like after all these years."

"No doubt he'll be surprised to see the two of you." replied Tirek

"From what we have heard, he will indeed be a valuable asset." whispered Starless Night "Are thy sure he will agree to join, Lord Tirek?"

"With what we have to offer, there's no way he'd turn us down!" Tirek began to slowly proceed to the prison gates. 

"Now come!" he said. "The prince is waiting!" (2)
> Chapter 8: Ironclad Bonds
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Footnotes are numbers inside parentheses.  Example: (1)

Ever since Tirek's escape, the guards at Tartarus were put on a high alert to prevent any more prison breaks. They were posted at every corner of the prisoners' cages, random inspections were increased, and they made sure no prisoner could even pick their nose without being seen by at least one guard; if any prisoners had noses to pick that is. 

Despite all this extra protection, no other cell in Tartarus was more heavily guarded than the one all the way in the back. Chains latched on all four corners of the cell and connected to the cavern walls, guards stood on the ground and within small towers of various sizes to ensure every inch of the cell was in their line of sight. Nearby the cell was a medium sized lighted office with a large window. The office acted as both a control room for communicating with the other guards and another watch post. Inside the office sat a middle-aged earth pony stallion. He was a Tartarus warden, Sgt. Lockstep. 

Lockstep was one of several elite police and military ponies chosen by Celestia to take turns each month commanding the prison guards as the warden. During the state of emergency, Celestia mentioned in her letter of evacuation that Lockstep was to be given command over all Tartarus security, including other wardens, until further notice. She also stated that two extra wardens were to be serving alongside him in the office for extra security. 

Being the toughest, strictest warden of the bunch as well as the one with the most experience, Lockstep had good reasons for Celestia to put him in charge. He served as a staff sergeant and drill instructor in the Vietmane War for the Old Lunar Republic armed forces, and received an honorary promotion to gunnery sergeant 28 years after his retirement making him the first military retiree in Republic history to be promoted. Celestia figured a soldier with such a reputation would be perfect for keeping the guards in ship-shape and the Tartarus convicts in line.

The two warden-class officers sat with him in the office. While they were busy eating, Lockstep kept his eyes fixed on the cell with a harsh glare. At first glance, one would think a cell so heavily guarded and so deep in the depths of Tartarus was for some kind of monster more threatening than Tirek, but on closer inspection, they would be greatly mistaken. 

Inside the cell rested a very old bat-alicorn stallion, possibly in his nineties.  His coat  was steel-gray with large patches of dark chocolate brown, his mane and tail, mostly aging gray hairs with a faint mixture of dark chocolate brown and dark burgundy, were long and tangled as though he hadn't had a proper haircut in years, and his bat wings shared the same color scheme as his coat. Unlike the wings of a bat-pony like Midnight Blossom however, his were much larger. His face was covered in wrinkles, there was a thin, shaggy chocolate brown mustache on his nose, his eyes were bright blue with slit pupils, and there was a faded reddish mark going down his left eye that appeared to be a scar. His horn was broken off halfway. Judging by the pointed ends, it may have been done by some kind of blunt object. On his flank, like all other ponies, was his cutie mark: A small white humanoid skull over an iron cross; a prestigious medal in the Germanian (1) military. The alicorn tossed and turned on his metal cell floor, trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in when he heard a voice.

"Iron Skull." It whispered.

The alicorn took no notice, thinking it was just chatter from the guards. He rolled over once again, trying not to disturb his slow descent into sleep.

"Prince Iron Skull!" (2) The voice whispered sharply.

Iron Skull lifted his head and looked around the area.

"Over here." Said the voice.

Iron Skull slowly scooched over to one side of his cell. He looked down and saw a shadow attached to the cell. Suddenly, the shadow began to move and grow into a three-dimensional silhouette of a cloaked figure. At first, he had no idea who or what this thing was, but when the figure took off its hood, revealing it's glowing yellow eyes and white teeth through the darkness, the alicorn's eyes widened. The figure was Tirek wearing his old black robe. He had used his magic to take the form of his weaker self to appear less intimidating for the old stallion. Iron Skull was quite surprised to see him.

"Tirek? I sought you escapet. Vat are you doink back here?" The stallion asked in his weak, but thick Germanian accent.

"You got a problem in there you need some help with, Princy?" Lockstep asked rhetorically over the intercom inside the office.

Kaiser was about to say what he saw, but he saw Tirek put a finger over his lips telling him 'quiet'. Iron Skull kept quiet, shook his head 'no', and slowly laid back down, pretending to go back to sleep.

"That's a good boy." Replied Lockstep with the same inflictions.

"You don't have to talk out loud, Iron Skull." Said Tirek. "I can hear you when you're just thinking, and they can't hear me at all."

Iron Skull tried to get the words together in his mind. He had never talked to somepony with his thoughts before, so it was difficult for him to communicate while keeping his mouth shut.

"Vat do you vant vis mee?" He finally asked in his thoughts.

"The same thing you want." Tirek replied. "I want revenge on Equestria."

"Get...Get refenge?"

"I want us to join forces. My army can benefit greatly from your genius."

"Army?"

Tirek went on to tell Iron Skull about how he escaped from Tartarus and how he used his new forces to defeat Equestria's rulers and take over Canterlot. He mentioned his five new 'friends' and the dragons who were now backing him up.

"So vat do you need mee vor?" The old prince asked. "Vith a team like zat, zere's no vay zey can beat you."

"You didn't think Celestia could beat you in your heyday either, but she did, didn't she? Wiped the floor with you and your precious Skullzer Reich in the War of Equestrian Conquest."

"Don't talk about zat!"

"Now, you're right about my forces being strong enough to defeat the royalty; I can manage them with ease. However, I need somepony with real military experience to make them even stronger, and you're the only living military leader in Equestria who has the same interests as I do. Under your command, my army can become even more unstoppable than it already is! Help me to grow strong, Prince Iron Skull, and not only can I get you the revenge you desire, I can also restore your Reich to its former glory! Once Equestria is out of the way, the remaining kingdoms will be yours for the taking!"

Iron Skull thought hard about the offer he was given. He was aware of his experiences with Celestia and her kingdom in the past, but realizing he had a chance of not living his final years as a loser, the offer was too good to pass up. "Alright Tirek, you'fe confinced mee. Zere's just one problem sough. How doo you expect mee to get out of here? Zey got guarts eferyfere, zis cell is locked by a seal zat only Celeshtia und vardens can break, und Lockschtep is runnink zis whole zing. Lockschtep is zee vorst; I hate him!"

"You let me worry about them."

Tirek turned his head to his left and a black female alicorn rose up from the shadows. The very sight of her sent a chill down the old stallion's spine. 

"Vat is zat zing?" he asked.

"Meet Starless Night." replied Tirek "She's one of my new friends I was telling you about. Thanks to her ability to merge with the shadows, we can go anywhere almost completely undetected. Now, observe another one of her many abilities!"

Starless Night raised her horn and a black shockwave of magic spread throughout Tartarus at a breakneck speed. In less than a second, the whole prison went dark; so dark that there was no form of light to be seen. Iron Skull couldn't even see the bars to his cell that were inches away from his face.

He could hear the voices of the wardens and the guards panicking at the sudden phenomena.

"What's going on?"

"Did we lose power?"

"Stay at you posts!"

"I can't see a thing!"

"Sound the alarm!"

"Who's shoving me? Stop that!"

"Why aren't our flashlights doing anything?"

"Ow! Who stepped on my tail?"

Tirek's glowing yellow eyes were the only source of light that pierced the dark. His chuckle was heard over the madness his 'friend' just instigated. "Now, while I harvest their magic before putting them on 'permanent leave', another one of my friends will handle your cage problem."

"Tirek?" Asked Iron Skull.

"Hm?"

A vengeful tone became present in the prince's voice. "Lock Schtep. Leaven him for me!"

Tirek winked to show the message was received before his eyes were consumed by the darkness.

Soon, Iron Skull noticed the cries of panic were now being mixed with groans of fading strength followed by screams of anguish. Some screams were cut short while others were prolonged. The old stallion could only guess as to what Tirek and Starless Night were doing within the black nothingness.

As the screams began to die down, two large flames sprang out from the darkness and revealed the body of the white female alicorn they were connected to. "Look at you." She purred "I knew you'd look old after all these years, but I didn't think you'd be this decrepit."

"C-C-Celeshtia?" Stuttered a flabbergasted Iron Skull.

"Actually, it's Searing Nova, but I'm just as good as her. Now, let's get you out of that cell so I can get in on some of the fun Lord Tirek and Starless are having." Searing Nova lowered her head, inserted the tip of her horn into the small keyhole on the enchanted padlock, and said "With the magic of the Princess Celestia, I unlock the seal!"

After a few magical sparks, the lock clicked open and Iron Skull could now escape. When Searing Nova opened the cell, the lighting came back into Tartarus meaning Starless Night had taken down the darkness spell. Iron Skull saw Tirek, now back to his original larger self, and Starless Night behind Searing Nova dealing with one last guard. The guard was being severely flayed by Starless Night's tendrils and beaten by both hers and Tirek's magic.

Searing Nova was disappointed when the lights came back on. "Aw, don't tell me you went through all of them." She complained.

"Stop your whining!" Ordered Tirek. "There are more guards throughout the rest of the prison. Take care of any reinforcements that come our way, and don't forget to keep them alive until I absorb their magic."

"With pleasure, Lord Tirek." Said Searing Nova as she licked her lips with eagerness before disappearing into a pillar of fire.

"It shall be done, Lord Tirek." Whispered Starless Night as she bowed before sinking back into the shadows as if they were liquid.

Tirek turned to Iron Skull. "Lockstep should be out here in a few minutes. I'll be waiting for you at the front gates. But before I go, please accept this small gift as a sign of my gratitude for your allegiance."

Tirek fired a continuous beam of magic at Iron Skull. The old alicorn was first hit with a large amount of pain as the powerful magic coursed through his body. At first, he felt like he was being bent and twisted in all sorts of unnatural ways, but after a minute of pain, he started to notice slight changes in his body. He felt the strength he lost with his age returning to him. His muscles were tightening, bones were becoming sturdier, flesh was growing leaner, and the aches in his joints were melting away. After seeing his wrinkles fade away and his mane and tale becoming more rich in color, Iron Skull realized that Tirek was using an aging spell on him. When Tirek finally completed the spell, the once old stallion looked and felt like he was back in his thirties.

"That should make dealing with Lockstep a little easier." Said Tirek. He noticed that Iron Skull's horn was still broken and the scar across his eye was still there. "I can fix your horn and get rid of that scar if you'd like."

"Nein." Iron Skull replied in a much clearer voice. "I vill choose to keep zem as zey are."

"Very well. Do what you want with him and come to the front gates when you're done. Just don't take too long." As Tirek began walking away from the cell, he remembered something "Oh! I almost forgot. You might need this as well." He tossed a metallic object toward the alicorn and it landed right at the entrance of the cell.

The object was a small knife. The blade was straight with one sharpened edge and a sharpened point with no fuller. The handle was a black grip with a silver pommel. There was no guard except for a small round steel hook on the same side as the sharpened edge. In the middle of the black grip on the obverse side of the knife was a thin, enameled, diamond-polygon-shaped emblem. In the center of the diamond, bordered by another grey square shaped diamond, was a black diagonal swastika - the famous symbol that represented Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germania. The parts of the larger outer diamond above and below the swastika were bright red while the parts to the left and right of the swastika were white. The knife was kept in a black leather scabbard with a thin vertical strap that allowed it to be attached to a belt and a horizontal strap of equal width that wrapped around the pommel. Iron Skull, not believing this was the knife he was thinking of, unsheathed it halfway. His eyes widened when saw the letters 'F.v.K' crudely scratched into the blade; his initials that he had carved many years ago.

"My old Hitler Youth knife." Said an astonished Iron Skull. "I hafen't seen zis old sing in years. Vere did you get zis?" He called to Tirek.

"I have my sources and there's plenty more where that came from." Tirek called back as he disappeared from the alicorn's sight.

After Tirek disappeared, Iron Skull heard shouting and the sound of stumbling hoof steps from inside the control room. He immediately recognized the voice as Lockstep's.

"WHAT IS THIS MIGGIE MOUSE CRAP?!" Echoed his furious shouting. "How the flying Dutchman of a frig did those three idiots get past security ON MY WATCH?!" Lockstep came out from the control room barely managing to stand on his own legs as he forced his body, now drained by Tirek, forward. "Why are those three abominations still running around Tartarus?! Why is no pony following their invasion protocols?! WHY ISN'T ANYPONY STOMPING THOSE INTRUDERS' GUTS OUT?!" He was so caught up in his rage that he didn't notice that Iron Skull's cell was now unlocked.

Iron Skull let out a chuckle at Lockstep's outbursts which caught the earth pony's attention. When Lockstep turned his head towards the cell, he saw Iron Skull slowly emerge from the shadows of his cell into the glow of the prison lights. The pommel of his knife glinted in the reflecting light as he held it in his hoof. Lockstep glared at his former convict, trying to hide his shock from the fact that Iron Skull had gone from an old sack of bones and wrinkly skin to a strong, healthy alicorn stallion. A few seconds of silence that seemed like hours passed before Iron Skull broke the silence.

"Guten abend, scharführer!" (3) He purred. "I don't know about you, but I hafen't felt zis vonderful in decades!"

Lockstep came to his senses. He spoke in a softer voice this time, but his slow monotone of repressed anger was just as intimidating. "Now you listen to me, princy...and you listen good...I want that weapon...and I want it now! You will face that knife on the ground at your hooves...turn around...and slowly walk back into your cell."

Iron Skull remained in his place. He began straining himself and a dark blue aura of magic appeared around his broken horn and the knife. Although the alicorn was using a simple holding spell on a relatively light object, it looked as though he was using a bit more effort than an average unicorn or alicorn would. He lifted the knife, pulled it out of its scabbard, and pointed it at Lockstep. His lips curled over his now full set of teeth.

Lockstep was furious at this deliberate disobedience. He had watched over this prisoner for years and he wasn't going to let his loss of strength be an excuse for his escape. "WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNTION, DOG MEAT?! HAVE YOU BECOME EVEN MORE BRAINDEAD THAN YOU ALREADY WERE WHEN YOU FIRST CAME HERE?!" (4)

That was the Sgt. Lockstep's last coherent sentence before Iron Skull's knife shot forward like a bullet and stabbed him in the neck. Frantically working through pain and the rapid bleeding, Lockstep tried to pull the knife out, but before he could get a firm grip on it, he felt something hard ram into the middle of his back like a ton of bricks. He screamed at the combined pain from the knife in his throat and his back giving under the sudden force from behind. 

It seems that while Lockstep was distracted, Iron Skull dashed behind him, flew up above him, and drop-kicked him in the spine.

As he lay sprawled across the ground, the combination of suffocation from his neck wound and his mind shutting down from the severed spinal cord slowly blackened his eyesight. Lockstep saw a blurry Iron Skull walk back into his line of sight and pull the knife out of the sergeant's neck. He could feel a larger stream of warm blood flowing against his skin now that the entry point was unblocked. With his body paralyzed from the spinal injury, all he could do was lay there in a pool of his own blood while his convict had the last laugh. He never thought after all these years his life could come to an end like this.

Just before death had completely darkened his eyes, he heard his very last sound on this mortal plane; a short rhetorical question from Iron Skull:

"Now who's zee 'dog meat'?"





Outside Tartarus, Tirek looked behind him to see Iron Skull fly out of prison entrance. Tirek spared the stallion the questioning; he knew the deed was done. As he saw Iron Skull draw near, he turned to his remaining two 'friends'. "Searing Nova, Starless Night." He said. "Head back to Midnight Castle and ready for a meeting in the morning. I wish to speak with our new member alone."

The two obeyed and took off into the sky, flying at great speed in the direction of Midnight Castle.

Tirek looked down at Iron Skull, who was now standing to Tirek's left. "The aging spell I used on you is only temporary. I haven't gained enough power to be able to use a more permanent version. Luckily, another one of my friends, Twivine Sparkle, knows how to make a special potion that when taken can rejuvenate the spell's effects once they start to wear off. Stay loyal to me and you will get this permanent spell as well as everything else I've promised you." He said.

Iron Skull bowed his head courteously. "Vielen dank, herr Tirek (5). You vill not regret vat you hafe done for mee on zis night."

"See that I don't." Replied Tirek sternly. 

"Now, tell mee more about zis plan for refenge zat you vant mein assishtance with."

"Very well then. So, here's what I was thinking..."

And with that, Lord Tirek and the newest addition to his army strolled through the open valleys of Equestria under the cover of the silent night, discussing how to bring their enemies and their kingdom to their knees. Iron Skull could hardly wait to see the look on Celestia's face when they would see each other once again.
> Chapter 9: Six Hatchets Exhumed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Footnotes are numbers inside parentheses.  Example: (1)

Celestia's sun had barely risen over the horizon when Capt. Midnight Blossom and a small company of her uninjured night guards returned to the castle with a few sacks of berries, flowers, and leaves. The armies only had so much food to ration, so soldiers had to venture out into the Everfree Forest to forage for anything else they could eat. The Mane 5 and Spike watched with sadness as all the soldiers were given a small amount of food on their plates. The six of them didn't want to derive the soldiers of food, so they chose not to take a spot in the hunger line. Besides, they were running late for the meeting anyway. 

Ponies say a good night sleep almost always makes one feel better the morning after a bad day. In the case of the Equestria's higher-ups...well, the 'almost' part of that saying is there for a reason. Despite everypony in the castle getting a few hours of sleep, the continued feelings of fear and confusion didn't make their sleep that satisfying. When the six entered the meeting room, they saw that it was once again filled with bickering. The bickering was coming from the four princesses, Discord, Capt. Flash Sentry, Capt. Midnight Blossom, and Gen. Diamond Shield. 

Shining Armor rushed up to Twilight's friends. Until they came along, he was the only one not contributing to the arguments.

"Oh, Spike! Girls!" he said slightly relieved in his panicked state. "Thank goodness you're here! You gotta help me, I can't seem to be getting through to any of them. They're either talking before I can get a word in or they're shrugging off everything I say!"

"Don't worry, Shining Armor." reassured Applejack. "We'll do our best to help sort things out."

Unbeknownst to the heroes, they weren't the only ones starting the day off with a meeting.





The large doors to Tirek's throne room of Midnight Castle creaked as a pair of Draconic Guard members pushed them open. The two reptilian soldiers knelt before the small group that entered the dimly lit room. The group consisted of the five duplicates, Twivine Sparkle, Searing Nova, Starless Night, Shattered Heart, and Havoc who were joined by the dragon ruler, Emperor Spine. Spine had used a spell to decrease his actual size in order to fit into the room without causing damage. He was now the same height as Havoc. 
They walked toward a long rectangular table that was placed more than 10 feet away from the small staircase leading up to Tirek's throne. 13 tall chairs were set around the table; six on both long ends and the thirteenth being at the end opposite to the throne. The centaur's throne acted as his own chair while all the other guests sat around the table.

"Looks like we're getting some new members." said Twivine noticing the number of chairs.

"How do you know that?" asked Havoc.

"Master Tirek sent me a message earlier stating that he was heading out again after dropping off Iron Skull at the castle." answered Spine. "Plus there's six extra seats at the table. It's pretty obvious."

"More members? You'd think after getting Iron Skull we'd have enough already."

"Who knows?" assumed Twivine. "Maybe he was able to find a few more alicorns to join."

Searing Nova laughed at the thought. "Oh, now that I'd like to see!"

Shattered Heart gave a sigh of annoyance. "Give it a rest, you two. I don't care who's joining us or what they are. Let's just get this meeting over with."

A couple minutes later, the doors opened yet again and this time, Tirek stood in the doorway. Spine and the duplicates bowed to him as he walked towards his throne.

"Good morning, my friends." he said while making himself comfortable in his throne. "If you'd all take your seats, we can get down to business."

The six took their seats. Havoc was seated in the chair closest to Tirek's right, followed by Searing Nova, then Starless Night. To Tirek's left, Spine sat the closest followed by Shattered Heart, and finally, Twivine Sparkle. The remaining six side chairs and the chair on the end were left empty.

Tirek smiled. "Alright." he said. "As you can probably tell by the extra chairs, we have some new members joining us. I am well aware that all six of you and Iron Skull possess a great amount of power, but nevertheless, these additional members are required in order for my plan to succeed." Tirek looked up to the two draconic guards at the door. "Are they all here?" He asked them.

One of the guards cracked open the door slightly and peaked through. "Yes, my lord." he said.

"Good. Send them in." he looked back down at the seated six. "I should point out that you may recognize some of these newcomers; some more than others."

Spine and the duplicates turned their heads toward the doors.

When the doors fully opened to reveal these new members, Twivine's mood shifted from slight anticipation to sheer disappointment.

"You've got to be kidding me!" she said out loud.

Leading the group was a large minotaur. He had blue fur all over his body from the waist up and navy fur from the waist down. His short cow tail shared the same color as the fur on his muscular upper body while the tip was the same shade of navy. Even his big grey horns had a bluish tinge to them. Between the horns was a short navy blue Mohawk. A large silver nose-ring was protruding from his pink hairless nose. All he was wearing was a small black tie which was wrapped around his neck and what looked like a small headset microphone placed in his right ear. He squinted his yellow eyes as he looked at Spine and the duplicates and took the last seat on Tirek's right.

Slowly flying behind the minotaur was a young light turquoise pegasus mare; around the same age group as the Mane 6. Her brilliant gamboge eyes matched perfectly with the amber and gold in her mane and tail which were brushed back as if they had been forced back by constant exposure to strong winds against her face. The cutie mark on her flank was a lightning bolt with three small stars beneath it. She took the last chair on Tirek's left; directly across from the minotaur. 

The remaining four members of the group were all unicorns.

The first two were adult male identical twins. Both of them had a tall and slender physique with pale, almost light olive, coats, pistachio green eyes, and red manes and tails with white stripes. They were both dressed in matching blue and white striped vests with brass buttons as well as black bowties and straw boater hats.

There were only a few slight differences that set the twins apart. One of them had a red handlebar mustache and his mane and tail were slightly less curlier than his twin's. Another difference was in their cutie marks. Both of them had red apple cutie marks, however, one of them had only a slice of an apple while his mustachioed twin had a whole apple that looked like a slice had been taken out of it. The two looked nervously at Starless Night as they sat next to each other in the last two open chairs on Tirek's right which were between the minotaur and Starless Night.

Twivine was especially disgusted by the sight of the remaining two unicorns.

The third was a light purple, almost pink, unicorn mare; also around the same age group as the Mane 6. A strip of teal slightly lighter than the aqua one in Twivine's mane and tail complimented her long, well-brushed purple mane and tail as well as her Persian blue eyes. Her cutie mark was small purple and white star with two teal glimmering streams coming off of it. A soft "You!" was heard from under her breath as she glared at Twivine with an equal amount of resentment and sat in the chair next to the pegasus mare. It wasn't the chair furthest away from the plundervine mistress, but as long as it wasn't next to her, the unicorn didn't care.

The fourth unicorn and the last member of the group was a bit more recognizable among the four princess duplicates. He was a dashing white unicorn stallion with a blonde mane and tail that looked like it was professionally groomed. His cutie mark was that of a steel-blue and gold compass rose. 

Twivine cringed as he put on a flirtatious smirk when his sky blue eyes met with hers. She was about to voice a complaint when the stallion smoothly sauntered over to the chair between her and the unicorn mare, but realizing it was the only available chair left, she, yet very reluctantly, chose to hold her tongue.

After the newcomers were seated, Tirek spoke. "Now, just to be sure we're all on the same page here, let us take a moment for introductions. I'll go first. My name is Lord Tirek and I'm the sole reason you are all here instead of wasting away somewhere else in this accursed kingdom...You're welcome. The four alicorns sitting with you are Searing Nova, Starless Night, Shattered Heart, and Twivine Sparkle and the draconequis is Havoc. They are the most powerful forces in my arsenal. I don't think it should be too hard for you newbies to figure out who is who. Now onto the rest of you! I want to get right down to business, so just stick with your names for now. You can jabber about your motivations or whatever later on."

"Hey!" protested Twivine. "How come we don't get to introduce ourselves?!"

Havoc rolled his eyes. "Because the author already gave us that grandiose introduction back in chapter two and the readers already know who we are. We don't need to go through it again."

"Author? Chapter? Readers? What are you...oh forget it." Twivine decided not to waste her time overthinking Havoc's bizarre answer.

"I suppose I'll go first." said Spine. "Emperor Spine. Lord of all dragons and ruler of the Dragon Lands. Cross me or Master Tirek and I'll turn you into a chew toy for my Draconic Guard!"

The minotaur slammed the table with his hands as he rose out of his chair. "Iron Will's the name, assertiveness is the game!" he shouted. "Iron Will's assertiveness techniques are guaranteed to turn doormats into dynamos!"

The pegasus' ears rang from Iron Will's shouting echoed by the room which caused her to cringe. "And guaranteed to blow out any pony's eardrums in a 500 yard radius." She said. "Anyway, name's Lightning Dust. Former Wonderbolt and one of the fastest flyers in Equestria."

"Probably not as fast as that Dashie girl," Havoc mumbled loudly.

"I heard that, you freak!"

Havoc smirked. "Good."

The unicorn twins jumped in the second Lightning Dust was done talking.

"He's Flim!" said the mustachioed unicorn brightly while pointing to his respective twin.

"He's Flam!" replied the twin with equal pizazz while pointing to his brotherly introducer.

"Flam I am!" Flam tipped his hat.

"Flim says him!" Flim did the same.

"And we are..." the twins said at once "The world famous Flim Flam Brothers! The greatest sales ponies nonpareil in all of Equestria!!"

"My brother and I have sold our illustrious goods in every corner of this kingdom." continued Flim. "And each one of our customers--"

They were interrupted the unicorn mare. "Have seen you two for the tactless con-artists you are. How about sparing us your peddler act and let's move on."

"I can assure you madam" replied Flam "that our business is far more sophisticated than that of mere peddling."

"QUIET!!!" the mare roared angrily.

Deeply startled, the twins did just that.

"Thank you." she said, instantly calming down. "Now, I'm Starlight Glimmer. I'm not really sure how well this is all going to go, but knowing one of my teammates is a recolor of my least favorite pony, it's not looking very good at the moment."

"Who are you calling 'recolor', you hack!" Twivine snapped.

"You heard me. You look like something out of Hot Topic." Starlight replied. (1)

"Care to say that to my face, peasant?!"

"If you lovely ladies are done" said the white unicorn stallion cutting in. "I am Prince Blueblood, nephew of THE Princess Celestia, and the stallion of the highest caliber in Canterlot. I could buy and sell you commoners tomorrow."

"Make us an offer." Flam replied smugly, almost sounding like he was daring the prince.

"Alright, knock it off." said Tirek.

Silence fell over the room once again. 

Searing Nova was the first to speak up. "So, you mean these are our new members?" she asked.

"Ridiculous." commented Havoc. "When you said we were getting new additions I assumed you meant creatures with real power. These are just a bunch of nobodies."

"We don't see what all the fuss is about. What's so great about them?" said Starless Night.

"I wouldn't underestimate these so-called 'nobodies'." said Tirek. "Some of you may remember that others once made the same mistake. They're rivals of the element bearers whose unique talents have given those six a real run for their money. I believe their skills could prove useful in carrying out my plans which is why I have offered them to join me."

"Just remember" reminded Starlight. "you promised to help us with our personal goals if we agreed to go with you. We expect you to keep your end of the bargain."

"Don't you worry about a thing."

"So what is it about this plan of yours that required you to recruit these guys?" Twivine asked.

"I shall allow the last of our newest members to answer that." Tirek rose up out his throne. "I don't think I need an introduction for this one considering how some of you may know him either from history or from more...personal experiences." he gave a quick glance to Searing Nova. "Please welcome the commander of our army, the reenlisted, Prince Iron Skull!"

Right on beat, the doors swung open and the alicorn prince walked into the room. He still appeared to be in his 30s thanks to the effects of the aging spell. His mane, tail, and mustached were now properly groomed and trimmed compared to how he was back in Tartarus.

He was dressed in the iconic uniform of the Schutzstaffel, or SS for short, the police force of Nazi Germania and one of the most feared military police forces in history. The uniform was made up of a black wool military jacket over a white dress shirt and a black necktie. On each of the upper lapels of his jacket were matching insignias depicting three oak leaves inside a u-shaped laurel branch; the rank insignia of the 'Reichsführer', or head of the SS. Draped over the back half of his body was a rusty red officer's cape. On the right of his jacket was a silver three bar chevron on the sleeve, a silver rectangular epaulette with three metallic oak leaves in the middle on his shoulder, and a silver military lanyard hanging across his right breast. On the left of his jacket was a bold red armband just above his elbow with his cutie mark imprinted inside a white circle. Pinned above the left breast pocket of his jacket was an Iron Cross 2nd Class medal. On his head was a black military visor cap with his cutie mark imprinted just about the brim. Strapped to his side was his Hitler Youth dagger as well as a black officer's sword with the SS insignia on the handle.

Tirek smirked. "Right on time. Excellent." he took a look at the fully dressed stallion. "So, how does it feel to be back in uniform?"

"It feels vonderful!" the prince replied relishing in nostalgia. "I've vorn zose rags in Tartarus for so long zat I forgot vat it felt like to get all dresset up!" he took a glance at the newest additions to the table. "So, you must be zee newcomers. Pleasure to meet you all. Now, to explain zee plan zat Herr Tirek and I hafe put togezer."

Iron Skull flicked a switch on the side of the table and a holographic map of Equestria appeared. As the alicorn prepared to start, his examinations of the map kept getting stalled by him having to strain his eye with the scar over it.

"What's the matter?" Tirek asked.

"I vore a monocle back ven I vas zis age because of mein one bat eye." Iron Skull answered. "Guess I neet it again." he dug into one of the side pockets of his black coat, pulled out the aforementioned monocle, and placed on the eye. 

With his improved vision, he got a better look at his teammates at the table. Everyone except for the duplicates and Spine had a slight look of disbelief, confusion, and shock on their faces.

Iron Skull was unsure by the looks of his teammates. "Vat? Vy are you lookink at me like zat?" after a moment, he thought he had an idea as to why they had such looks. "I know, I know, zee monocle makes me look like a 'Chadow Shpade' fillain, but normal glasses can't vork for mee because mein fision's bad in just zis eye."

"No...it's not that..." replied Starlight hesitantly. "It's just...how...how are you alive?" 

Iron Skull cocked an eyebrow. "Fräuline, I don't sink a shtallion shtill beink alife in his nineties is ZAT surprisink."

"No...I mean...you're s-supposed to--"

"Starlight!" interrupted Tirek, almost like he was trying to stop the mare from saying something important. "If you don't mind, I think it would be prudent if you allowed Iron Skull to give his presentation."

"Ah yes, of course." agreed the alicorn prince. "Let us begin." he focused his magic on the map. "To shtart, our enemies hafe retreatet to zee ruins of zee Cashtle of zee Two Sishters here in zee Eferfree Foresht."

A tiny blue flag appeared over the castle's location on the map.

"Zee plan is to box zem in so zat zey can't get out and nothink in zee surroundink areas can't give zem support." Iron Skull continued. "To do zis, vee vill execute a huge military occupation in all zee populatet cities arount zee shtrongholt. Hopefully, zis vill urge zem to come out of hidink unpreparet vich vill give us a greater chance of victory."

Several tiny black flags appeared over all the remaining cities and towns in Equestria.

"To better manage our control of zis large territory, vee vill divide zee map into four vith Midnight Cashtle as zee central point."

Four black lines grew out from the said central point and, like the prince said, divided the land into four parts.

"Zat is vere you six come in. Vee vill give each of you an army of foot soldiers und commant ofer one of zese four divisions in zee occupation. Zink of it as your own little kingdom. Fräuline Shtarlight, you vill be in charge of zee eashtern division. I vas tolt you once ran a town of some sorts in zat area, so you chould do vell zere."

"Yes." replied Starlight. "I appreciate you taking that into account."

"Herr Bluebloot, you vill take zee norzern division. It has zee Cryshtal Empire, so I vould suggesht setting up base zere."

"Of course." said Blueblood. "I'm not surprised you would give me the more lavish division of the bunch."

"Flim und Flam, you two vill take zee veshtern division."

"Now hold on just a minute." protested Flim. "We were told that in exchange for our service we would be paid handsomely. Right brother?"

"Indeed, brother of mine." replied Flam. "Unless we have some assurance that this gig will be meeting your end of the bargin, we aren't going anywhere!"

"Perhaps I forgot to mention..." Iron Skull pointed to a certain spot in the division. "Zee vest division includes Los Pegasus."

"When do we head out again?" asked the two brothers suddenly sounding on board with the operation.

"Zat's more like it. Anyvays, Iron Vill you vill take zee south division. I sought someone like you voult do vell in a more open area."

"With Iron Will's assertiveness, no pony will be causing any trouble there!" exclaimed the minotaur.

"So what about me? What do I get?" asked Lightning Dust knowing that all the divisions were taken.

"You vill be in charge of ariel troops to keep zee skies occupiet."

"Oh, well I guess that makes sense."

"The duplicates, Spine, and I will be providing your soldiers which we will show to you now." said Tirek.

Tirek snapped his fingers and the two door guards pulled the doors open. In marched a humanoid reptilian looking soldier with pale blue skin. He was plated with dark green armor and wielded a gold two-pronged spear. His head looked like a grotesque cross between a lizard and a warthog with its bottom tusked fangs, yellow slit-pupil eyes, and bright pink nose (2).

"This creature is from my race of reptilian guards that served me way back when. They're mindless brutes, but when commanded correctly, they will prove useful in carrying out my orders. Spine will provide you with dragons and members of his draconic guard."

"My subjects will serve you well." said Spine. "But keep in mind, they hold a deeper loyalty to Master Tirek and I than you creatures. So if you don't want them turning against you and ripping you to shreds, I would suggest not getting on my bad side."

Twivine's soldiers were masses of sentient plundervines shaped like small alicorns. Some members of the group found them very reminiscent of the changelings. Their mouths were lined with sharp blue thorns and were capable of utilizing flight and magic as well as their mistress' powers of vine manipulation and poison breath.

Searing Nova's soldiers were equine and golem shaped creatures made out of burning rock. These creatures, especially the golems, were possessed with great strength and the ability to conjure up fire and lava.

The soldiers of Starless Night appeared to look like equines cloaked in shadows, but on closer inspection were shape shifters that could transform into an unfortunate enemy's worst nightmare.

Havoc's soldiers looked like he had taken a bunch of objects from around the castle and brought them to life. "This is just a small sample of what I can provide." he said. "I can give life to weapons, furniture, even the tiles on this floor can be made to serve you."

The only one who didn't have an army to present was Shattered Heart. "I don't have time to worry about the well-being of a bunch of little underlings. If we must have these soldiers, the ones here are satisfactory."

Tirek rolled his eyes. "Very well. But don't expect to get away with excuses like that all the time, Shattered Heart. Alright, now with that taken care of, you are all dismissed. Get yourselves settled in and report back here in one hour."

Every creature at the table bowed before going their own ways.

Searing Nova walked over to Iron Skull who was still getting his things on the table together. She pulled out a carton of cigarettes and tapped then on the table getting the prince's attention. "You know, I couldn't help but notice not many of us were very welcoming. Thought I'd pop over and fix that."

"Oh. Fräuline Nova. Sanks for zee cigarettes." he pulled one from the carton and took a puff as the mare lit it. "It's been a long time since I've hat a smoke."

"Glad you like them." replied Nova. She pulled up one of the chairs and sat down relatively close to Iron Skull. She had a charming look on her face. "I don't know if any pony's ever told you this, but you make quite a handsome stallion in that uniform of yours." she said almost seductively. "Pity it's taken so long for me to notice it. Even when you were a colt you such a dashing lad in uniform."

Iron Skull appreciated the compliment but was confused by how she was talking. "Vhy are you actink like you've known me for years? We just met each other like...Oh, I see vat's going on here. You're tryink to make me sink you und Celeshtia are one in zee same. Vell, let me tell you mein frient, you may look like her and even sount just like her, but I know for a fact zat you are not zee Celeshtia I know."

"Your real name is Ferdinand von Kaiser. When you were eleven-years-old, you and your family met me at the '36 Equestria Games."

"Oh, goink to zee '36 Games vas zee BESHT! How dit you know zat?"

"I'm a part of Celestia. I know everything she knows up until my creation. You're not wrong if you thought you were talking to the actual Princess Celestia. Because appearances aside, this body is exactly like Celestia's. The muscles retain all her experience and the mind retains all of her memories. They're accessible to my use!"

"Incredible."

"Are you heading to your quarters? If so I can walk you there."

The prince blushed a little bit. "Uh...yes. Lets...get goink."

Meanwhile Blueblood had caught up with Twivine and decided to make a move on her. "I hope I'm not out of order for saying this, but this look of yours is even more attractive than Twilight's."

Twivine turned her head unimpressed by Blueblood's flirt.

"Maybe I can get you into one of the palace's nicer quarters. I've been living here for years; I know where all the good spots are."

"I don't need your help." replied a still unimpressed Twivine. "I've got the Celestial guest suite."

"Well, I think you're a little mistaken, my dear. You see, the Celestial guest suite is MY room."

"Not anymore."

Suddenly realizing his place in one of the best rooms in the castle was in jeopardy, he frantically pulled over one of the draconic guards. "GUARD! Where's all my stuff?!"

The guard exchanged a look at Twivine and the two smirked. "We've put you in a very nice...junior suite on the second floor."

Blueblood's heart sank. "Junior suite?" he looked at Twivine with a heartbroken look on his face.

Twivine just smiled. "Something you should know about me...I always get what I want."