PART 1: ENZA-Chapter I: The Unknown Mare

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It was a long day for Shining Armor. He had so many assignments to do for his teacher Princess Celestia that he was just warn the heck out. So, he decides to go and visit the one place that he knows that would calm him down, The Crystal Empire.

His beloved crush Princess Cadence was the ruler of The Crystal Empire and he wanted her more than anything in this entire world. But he knew that most likely wasn’t going to happen, even though he is the student of Princess Celestia it still didn’t make any difference whatsoever…

There was a beach not too far from The Crystal Empire that stretched roughly ten miles or so across the entire empire. Shining Armor never really had the inspiration to walk around the entire thing but he does plan on it. Heck he might even do it today he’s so tired.

“Ugh, what a day,” Shining Armor exclaimed as he was walking towards the beach. A recent storm recently flew over Canterlot so the beach was dirty, but still looked rather nice. He looked up at the massive crystal castle that stood towering over the entire empire. He squinted to try to see if he could see Princess Cadence doing her usual clean sweep of the entire land, but he unfortunately didn’t.

He reached the beach and instead of walking down the usual path he took, he just sat down and took in the sight. He looked around at the sea that looked endless from his point of view, probably was endless for all he knew.

“Man, would I ever love to sail this seas and find something amazing! Maybe a new county. I mean, Princess Celestia does think Equestria is the only country in this world, I still think to this day she’s wrong,” Shining Armor was thinking out loud.

He sighed. “Well, I guess I’ll never really know for sure, whatever!” He got up and looked down his usual trail. He wanted to start walking down, but something stopped him, he didn’t really know what. He was lost in his imagination about another possible country out there! He wanted to shout out to the world what he thought, but he knew that was pointless because, well nopony could hear him!

“Hey Shining Armor!” a familiar voice called out. He looked around to see who it was, and to his surprise, it was Princess Cadence!

“Oh, hey Cadence what’s up?” Shining Armor felt weird talking to her.

“I was just wondering if I could possibly come with you on this walk! It is a nice day after all. Besides, an awful storm was supposed to hit us but it went in a different direction so it missed us by a hair or two!” Cadence was so invigorated for some reason.

“Uh, sure why not!”

“Sorry if I seem kind of hyper today, I honestly really don’t know why I am. I guess I’m in such a good mood today. I dropped by Ponyville earlier today and I met the most spunky party pony ever. She’s really nice and extremely random.”

“Really now? I haven’t been to Ponyville in a long time, how is it down there?”

“Amazing actually, everypony there is so pleasant to talk too,” Cadence looked at the endless sea.

“Interesting, I might have to check that place out next time I get a chance. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get a chance anytime soon based on how much worked I’ve been getting from Princess Celestia, but I will most certainly check it out next time I get a chance,” Shining Armor began to walk down his usual trail.

Cadence followed closely. “I bet working for the Princess is hard work isn’t it Shining Armor?”

“Yes it most certainly is. Oh my goodness I’ve never been so busy in my entire life. It’s fun however, just a lot of hard work. But whatever, I’m just glad I got in.”

“How did you get in anyway?” Cadence was glancing from left to right as they were walking down the trail.

“My parents enrolled me when I was only a filly. There was an entrance exam but I blew that away. Wait a second, what’s that?” Shining Armor spotted something not too far from them.

“It’s probably a log or something Shining,” Cadence spotted the object too.

“It’s not a log, I saw it move,” Shining Armor dashed towards the unknown object.

“Oh crap, wait for me!”

Shining Armor and Cadence ran towards the unknown object as fast as they could, as they were getting closer it started to move more and more, then it finally came into full view. It wasn’t no log, it was a mare lying on the ground, covered in splinters and bleeding at an alarming rate.

The mare used whatever strength she had left to lift her head and look Shining Armor and Cadence in the eye. She smiled at them and left her head fell back onto the sandy beaches.

“Oh man I have to get her to the hospital. Cadence, go warn Princess Celestia about this and meet me at The Crystal Empire hospital when you reach her okay?!”

“Alright, I’ll try to be back to you ASAP!” Cadence flew off towards Canterlot.

Shining Armor kneeled down to be eye level with the unicorn’s face. “Are you okay? Can you hear me?”

The unicorn mare only slowly blinked, as her eyes slowly fell shut. Shining Armor knew he had to act fast, he picked up the bloody unicorn with his magic and dashed towards the hospital. The unicorn’s eyes were closed so she probably passed out but she was still breathing to his knowledge.

The hospital wasn’t too far from where he was, he did have to hurry however because he didn’t know how fast the unicorn’s heart was beating, so for all he knew she could be in the edge of dying.

Shining Armor reached the hospital just in time. He was exhausted from running almost three miles just to get to the beach all the way over to where he was. But he was finally at the hospital and that’s all that matter.

Couple of the crystal ponies offered a hoof or two in transporting the blood covered mare all the way to the hospital. Quite honestly, it could have been what saved her life.

Doctors of the hospital rushed out of there designated stations and grabbed the mare and placed her on a medical bed. The bloody unicorn regained some consciousness as she was moaning continuously.

After finally finding the nearest surgery room, they transported the mare inside and proceed to clean her coat. They made a discovery that her whole torso and parts of her face were hammered by splinters.

The doctors went to work quickly. Shining Armor was present in the room, he was using
a healing spell to try to keep the mare alive.

The first thing they did was clean her coat, it would make the splinter removing job much easier. Shining Armor didn’t pay attention to the mare’s physical appearance, being that she’s probably really rough looking.

He did glance at her quickly before going back to full focus on his spell. She was a purple unicorn with what seemed to have a purple mane. He couldn’t really tell because of the blood
stains but that was his best assumption.

The doctors cleaned the mare's coat head to tail and began working to remove the splinters. Her mane was finally bleached of any blood that previously stained it. Her mane and tail as a matter of fact revealed to be a dark purple with two stripes both with a different shade of pink.

She looked rather graceful in a sense, plus her cutie mark was two crossing stars with five other stars around it, it looked rather odd but Shining Armor wasn’t questioning anypony’s destiny.

The massive surgery was finally over and the purple unicorn’s body was rid of any splinters that it previously had. Once the doctors were done wrapping her body in bandages, and putting stabilizers on all four of her hooves, they took her to a room.

“I don’t know what happen to her but something massive must have happen, and by our calculations she was only mere minutes from dying. Shining Armor, you saved a life today,” the lead surgeon told Shining Armor.

“Thank you doctor, but I have to ask, who is that mare? I don’t think I’ve seen her around Equestria before,” Shining Armor and the lead surgeon were standing right next to the purple unicorn.

“We ran scans not to long after we finished the surgery and we found no match for this mare. Thankfully Princess Celestia rolled in not to long after the surgery started so she helped with that. She can’t stand blood so she didn’t want to view the operation underway.”

“Yeah, I don’t blame her,” Shining Armor occasionally glanced at the passed out mare. “So she’s not dead right?” Shining Armor could see the heart monitor, but he was still worried about her.

The doctor sighed. “No Shining Armor she isn't, you can clearly see the heart monitor and for the fact that her heart is beating at a normal rate and her breathing is steady.”

“I’m sorry, you know me. Besides, if this mare is not Equestrian, then she must be from a different country! Think about all the discoveries we can make!” Shining Armor was obviously excited.

“Take it slow Shining Armor, you don’t know anything about this mare. She could be the nastiest mare in this country! Who knows, she could be a fugitive that escaped her homeland and came here to wreak havoc on us!”

Shining Armor wasn’t sure to take this guy seriously or not. “I think you’re just tried from that twenty-four hour surgery. Why don’t you just call it a day?”

“Very good point, have a good night Shining Armor!” the doctor started walking towards the exit.

“You too doctor!” the doctor stepped out the room and headed toward the exit. Shining Armor walked right next to the mare and sat down. It felt weird but Shining Armor had a hunch that the mare could hear him, understand him.

“Hey, um, whatever your name is,” Shining Armor felt weird. He was also exhausted by the surgery, being that he was basically her life support. “I just wanted to say, even though you’re asleep right now, that you’re going to be okay.

“And I know the doctor thinks that you might be some psychotic maniac, but I personally don’t think so, I think you’re going to be a sweet and nice mare. I will have some question when you wake up, but I hope you’re not too astonished when you wake up to answer them.”

Shining Armor just sat there for a couple of seconds waiting to see if the mare might respond. To his surprise, she didn’t. Her breathing and heart rate are at a normal rate, she’s just knocked out. Then it hit Shining Armor for the fact that she could possibly be a coma. He looked around the room in a panic to see if any doctors were present, he got up and ran out into the hall to see if any doctors where passing by. Luckily there was one that was walking down the hallway and Shining Armor was able to flag him down.

The unicorn doctor rushed into the room and performed a test to see if she was in a coma or not. The test to his knowledge came out negative. “Well it doesn’t look like she’s in a coma, but just dead asleep. Thankfully the cranium wasn’t a place that contained too many splinters.”

“No kidding, however parts of her face did contain splinters like her muzzle for example. On top of that all four or her hooves were broken somehow! We’re trying to figure out what I the world had happen to her but we don’t have the slightest clue.”

“I doubt you’ll have any lead on where on how she got to be that. But being that you are the student of Princess Celestia I’m sure you can probably find something. Or maybe wait when she wakes up from her deep slumber and ask her!” the doctor put his hoof on her forehead.

“Well she isn’t hot however it doesn’t seem she’ll be waking up anytime soon.”

“Why is that?” Shining Armor looked worried.

“When I was scanning her for a coma she had no brain activity whatsoever. She’s not brain dead or anything like that but when unicorns especially have no brain activity going on, something massive is preventing so. Even a regular sleep can’t flush out a unicorns total brain activity, which means she in a very deep sleep.”

“Wow, well I might as well head back to Canterlot. There’s no real reason why I should be here right now being that she’ll probably be asleep for possibly a long time. Just let me know when there’s any sign of her waking up okay?”

“I most certainly will Shining Armor, I’m guess you’ll be leaving now?” the doctor stepped away from the unconscious mare.

“Yep, bye doctor,” Shining Armor was making his way to the exit.

“Bye Shining Armor,” the doctor waved goodbye at him.

An entire week has pass since the purple unicorn was performed surgery on. The wounds were making a swift recovery but still not to one-hundred percent. Celestia occasionally visited the mare to treat her wounds and broken bones.

Normally Shining Armor would follow Celestia to The Crystal Empire hospital to check on the mare, but seeing her still in her unconscious state would doing nothing but tantalize him more. He doesn’t know why he cares about his unknown mare so much, there’s something about her that just wants her to survive. It’s probably for the fact that this is the first time he has ever saved anypony’s life before and he didn’t want it to be all for nothing.

Celestia appeared in Shining Armor’s room one day. Shining Armor was perplexed why his teacher would appear unannounced.

“Shining Armor, the mare’s recovering brain activity, she’s waking up!” Celestia’s face brighten like the sun.

“Really? We shall go right away!” Shining Armor and Celestia teleported right to the mare’s room.

The mare wasn’t awake, however she was breathing heavier than before. Her mouth was bandage, however almost silent muffles were retracting from her muzzle. She was most certainly almost fully awake now.

Celestia, Shining Armor, and the present doctor stepped back from the mare, she could open her eyes at any moment. It’s all possible for her to be frighten at the sight of the three ponies when she woke up.

At long last, after a painful twenty-four hour surgery and a week and a half of a deep sleep, the unknown mare, opened her bright purple eyes. She did a quick glance at the three ponies right in front of her then looked down at her bandaged body and muzzle.

The doctor was the first to step up to the now-wake mare and ask her the first question. “Hi there, my name is Doctor Sternheiss. I’m just going to ask you a simple question, and that’s all. Can you hear me?”

The purple mare nodded.

“Well then I’m assuming you want me to take that bandage off you muzzle don’t you?”

The purple mare nodded again. She was rather calm even though she’ll finally get to talk again.

Sternheiss walked over and carefully removed the bandages off the purple mare’s mouth. The mare then popped her jaw, then opened it to talk but was stopped by a violent cough. The three ponies around her were spooked for a brief moment, but it didn’t last long when she stopped herself from coughing.

The purple mare, finally spoke. “First question for you all, where am I?”

“You’re in Equestria. More specifically The Crystal Empire,” Shining Armor spoke up. “Might we have your name?”

The purple mare got conferrable. “I’ll answer that question in due time, but I have a couple of question I still want to ask. Sorry if I’m being rude.”

Shining Armor didn’t agree to the purple mare’s standards but he complied. “Go right ahead.”

“I only have two more question so fret not. Is that the ruler of Equestria over there, Princess Celestia right?”

Celestia stepped up. “Yes I am.”

“That’s one mystery solved. Next question, how far is Canterlot from here?”

Shining Armor went next. “On the other side of the mountain, why do you ask?”

“Let me answer your previous question before answer that current question, my name is Twilight Sparkle. I have been sent by the Princess of my land to gather information about this country. I’m assuming that city Canterlot is where all the Equestrian archives are?”

“Indeed you are right Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia went next. “Before you ask anymore question, can the doctor ask you some question regarding you and your health?”

“Fire away,” Twilight replied.

Doctor Sternheiss stepped up. “Are all five of your natural senses functional?”

“Yes, but I think my legs are broken,” Twilight felt a shooting pain in her leg when she tried to move it.

“Indeed they are. Next question, do you have any medical history or any disabilities such as brain disorders at all?”

“Hardly, I have autism but that’s about it,” Twilight felt weird answering that question.

“Almost done, do you feel any scorching pain in any areas around your body?”

“Besides my four broken hooves, not really.”

“Last question, do you have any information on family records? This question is optional by the way.”

“I would rather not answer that question, if that’s alright of course.”

“Of course it is Twilight, alright that sums up the test. Celestia, over to you,” Sternheiss stepped back as Celestia walked right next to the mare’s bed.

“Twilight Sparkle, you are not from Equestria,” Celestia could hardly believe it.

“You don’t say?” Twilight laughed.

“Seriously Twilight, I thought Equestria was the only country in the world. Well, at one point I thought a power unicorn Star Swirl the Bearded was from a different country called “Enza” because he talked nonstop about it during his spell making but I thought that was a part of the enchanting process.”

“Really? Because, I’m from Enza,” Twilight didn’t find this ironic at all.

Celestia jumped back a couple feet. “What? Really? So he wasn’t lying!”

“He wasn’t lying. In fact it’s how my country found out about Equestria. According to his journal, the western stars pointed towards Equestria. After he stayed in Equestria for who knows how long, he went back to Enza and passed away shortly after.”

“Interesting, if only I could go back in time for long enough to ask him why he left Equestria. But anyways I have one final question for you Miss Twilight Sparkle. What exactly is your purpose for being here in Equestria and how did you get here and finally why were you battered and bloody?”

Twilight took a deep breath in. “Well you see, the Princess of my country wanted to know more about this country. She appointed me to sail over to Equestria and gather information about this country so we can teach out it in our schools. Why she appointed me to travel over here? I’ll never know. Probably because I hated Enza so much. Plus I worked with the Princess of Enza as a teacher in her magic school so she always knew what was going down with me.

“Anyways, we set sail from Enza bright and early one morning, it was going to take roughly four days to travel all the way to Equestria so we knew it was going to be a long journey. On the fourth day, a massive storm blew right over our ship and lightning even stuck our ship. I was about to teleport away from the ship to the beaches of Equestria but it was too late and I got hammered with splinters. I wasn’t able to save anypony else on the ship sadly,” Twilight almost shed a tear.

Celestia felt abominable. “I’m terribly sorry Twilight Sparkle, I do have a couple more questions in mind right now, but would you like me to take you to the Canterlot Archives to gather your information?”

Twilight raised her head up the best she could. “That would be lovely.”

Shining Armor and Doctor Sternheiss stepped back as Celestia teleported Twilight to Canterlot. Celestia of course took the entire bed with her, Sternheiss didn’t mind as long as she gave it back later. Shining Armor had some suspicions about this new comer. “I don’t know if I’d trust her or not Doctor.”

“What’s not to trust about her?” Doctor Sternheiss was confused.

“She’s from a different country Doctor, being that she said that she hated it means that she might try to do something heinous to this country!”

“I think you’re just paranoid about seeing a foreigner for this first time Shining Armor. And if you noticed during her story she showed immense emotion which is something common witches doing show.”

“Very good point Doctor, goodness I need to story worrying so much.”

“That might be a good idea Shining Armor, well I’m going to head back home I’ll see you around,” Doctor Sternheiss made his way towards the door.

Shining Armor followed. “Bye doctor.”

Back at the Canterlot Castle, Celestia started unraveling the bandages off Twilight. It did her Twilight quite a bit, but she felt so much better after they were all off. Her hoof bones were still broken however and a couple places around her body such as her ribs were fractured however.

“Well I don’t have a spell that can heal your bones right away, however I can make them heal faster,” Celestia’s horn lit up as she poked Twilight’s head. Twilight felt a weird sensation rush past her as Celestia lifted her horn. She then had an idea.

“Hmm, I might have something that can accelerate my healing!” Twilight’s horn began to glow. Celestia became perplexed at this sight and just stepped back and let Twilight do whatever she was doing. It lasted a rather long time and Celestia became ennui by it, but it didn’t last long when Twilight’s body jolted violently.

Celestia was startled by this but was relieved when Twilight started moving her hooves. “What just happen Twilight Sparkle?” Celestia asked.

“Healer acceleration spell, hard as heck to pull off, but it’s a true life saver,” Twilight was panting heavily.

“That isn’t possible! I know of every spell ever created!”

“Celestia, I come from a different country,” Twilight wanted to face hoof.

“Oh yeah, maybe I should go to, um Enza I think it was called and learn some of their spells!” Celestia laughed.

Twilight did a caustic laugh. “Trust me, you do not want to go to Enza. I’ve only been awake for what about an hour and I admire this country exceptionally better!”

“Really know? You should tell me all about it later. By the way why didn’t you use that spell on yourself earlier?” Celestia curiosity got the better of her.

“I was still hurting all over, plus remember when I said it was difficult to pull off? I’m not kidding. Thankfully with the spell doing its magic right now I should be fine within a day or two.”

“Well that’s good.”

“I do have one last question for you Princess Celestia,” Twilight was contemplating wherever to ask it or not.

“Sure go right ahead!” Celestia was for some reason excited to hear Twilight’s question.

“Who’s Nightmare Moon? In Star Swirl’s journal, it said something about your sister turning evil somehow and turning into something called Nightmare Moon?”

Celestia closed her eyes for a few seconds then opened them up half way. “Nightmare Moon is my sister, Princess Luna. She turned evil after becoming selfish that ponies slept through her night, because, she is the Princess of the night. Now I raise both the sun and the moon and I have been for the past one thousand years.”

“Wow, I’m, sorry for asking by the way,” Twilight started feeling bad.

Celestia cheered up. “Oh it’s okay Twilight. Tell you what, since it is rather late I’m going to roll you over to one of our rooms in the castle and let you recuperate there for the night.”

“Thank you Celestia, I should be fit a wheelchair tomorrow. Then I can begin the research right?”

“Yes you can, I also need to return that bed to The Crystal Empire hospital tomorrow after you are set in the wheelchair. But that’s beside the point, off to your room Twilight!”

Twilight rested her head on the pillow. “Thanks Celestia,” she then began to drift off to sleep.

Twilight woke up in the middle of the night, she looked outside to see the moon was directly overhead. “Equestria’s timeframe must be different than Enza’s. The ponies of Enza always thought the Sun and the Moon did raise up and down by themselves. I thought so too before reading Star Swirl’s journal. Hmm, I should probably try to get back on my hooves.” Twilight thought as she tried to move her right and left hooves.

When she tried to move them, surprisingly it didn’t hurt when she moved them! However it felt rather weird, like a piece of string was holding her hooves to the floor and she had little room to move them right or left or up or down.

Celestia’s healing spell on top of Twilight’s did its job rather well, almost too well. It was rather had to move all her hooves, she mustn’t have regained nerve control of them yet. Was the damage that was done to her greater than she had thought?

After exercising her hooves, she was able to regain full control of them within a matter of minutes. Then finally hopped off her bed. She was rather wobbly, you would think she had never had walked before.

After regaining her bearings, she decided to go for a walk around the castle. She thought it was probably the best course of action for clearing her head off all the trauma that has been happening for the past couple of days.

“I hated Enza, that’s why one of the reasons why Princess Mespha has sent me overseas to this country. However what little friends I had back there I do rather miss quite a bit. I don’t like making friends that often, and they’re probably the only friends I actually accepted, they were always so wonderful. When I worked at the library, Serah my manager always listen to my problems and worked with me on whatever crap that was going on in my life. Even if I were to lash out at her she would still put up with me and work out my problems.

“I’m surprised I didn’t lash out at that so called doctor for asking about my family history. Thankfully it was an optional question and I wouldn’t have answered it even if it wasn’t. I still wonder to this day why I’m so mean and I’m constantly anti-social, I guess it’s how my quote on quote ‘mother’ raised me. Whatever, who needs her and my father. I’m just glad to be alive to-” Twilight was brought back into reality after running head on head into one of the night patrol guards. This did not help Twilight’s throbbing headache one bit.

“Hey what the heck?” Twilight looked up at the guard whose face was covered by his helmet.

“Oh I’m sorry! Here let me help you up,” the royal guard held out his hoof.

“Best not lash out at him, he could probably have Princess Celestia throw me out of the castle into the streets. And I still need that information,” Twilight thought as she grabbed the stallion’s hoof.

The royal guard brushed her off a bit. “I’m Flash Sentry, nice to meet you!” Flash was blushing a little bit.

“I’m Twilight, not if you’d excuse me I must be getting back to bed,” Twilight turned around.

Flash grabbed her tail. “Wait! Don’t you want to talk for a bit?”

Twilight took her tail back. “Okay fine, but what do you want to talk about?”

“Uh, uh…” Flash felt awkward.

“Exactly, you’re not interested in starting a conversation with me but you only like me because you think I look pretty. That’s sweet however annoying, I’ll still give you this,” Twilight walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek.

Flash’s whole face turned red.

“Cute, well goodnight!” Twilight turned around and headed towards her room.

“Goodnight, T-T-Twilight,” Flash was smiling weirdly.

After getting back to her bed, she just crawled back into it and covered herself up. The moon was still shining overhead and it looked rather beautiful. Twilight thought about her very few friends back at Enza.

“Now that I think about it, if any of the crew survived? Captain Baskon was actually pretty nice to me, I’m surprised since I was rather mean to him on the voyage. I guess he’s just one of those captains that treats everypony on the ship equal. I honestly don’t even know if that’s a good thing or not, but whatever, he’s probably dead right now. He did get hit with splinters just like I did.

“I honestly don’t know what I should do anymore after I get the information from the Canterlot Archives. Should I just saw screw it to the entire mission and live here in Equestria? I probably shouldn’t, Enza is inferior compared to Equestria, but it’s still my country. Nobody loved me in Enza, however ponies did support me, immensely. I’m being very bipolar about my relationship with Enza, but I honestly don’t care.

“Princess Mespha was also very kind to me. Heck she sent me here because she knew how much I hated Enza! I should give her some credit, plus if it wasn’t for her I still wouldn’t be alive today. But she was a rather harsh ruler, but it wasn’t towards me so. Heck I was the head teacher at her magic school. Come to think of it, another reason why she did send me here was to gather information about this country to teach about it at her school. I’m so freaking random I don’t even know why.

“Well I should probably stop keeping myself up, I’m exciting to go ahead and start my research in the morning,” With that said, Twilight closes her eyes, and shortly falls right to sleep.

The next morning, Twilight woke up as sick as a dog. She was coughing so hard she started coughing up a little blood. Celestia could even hear it from all the way over in her chamber which was only a couple doors down from Twilight’s room.

The coughing sounded awful, it sounded like Twilight was having a sword shoved down her throat. Celestia walked into see Twilight’s face was almost as white as a newborn foal. It made Celestia sick to the stomach to see blood on the sheets in front of Twilight, but she held back from upchucking.

“What’s wrong Twilight?” Celestia asked.

“Sick as a *cough* *cough* dog!” Twilight could barely take in a breath.

“What, what happen?” Celestia walked over and started feeling her forehead.

“Must have caught some sort of disease *cough* *cough* during the surgery maybe!” Twilight was barely getting out a word.

“Must have, don’t talk for a second, I’ll heal you,” Celestia’s horn started to glow as she touched Twilight’s forehead with it. “Thankfully it’s only a simple common cold, which I can heal.”

Twilight felt a warm sensation rush threw her body. Like a fairy enchanted her with life again, it felt amazing. Twilight sit up from her bed amazed.

“In Enza, we can heal broken bones like nopony’s business but infections like the common cold take weeks to cure. I guess there is a huge difference between the unicorn magic here and Enza.”

“Well Twilight Sparkle you can learn all about our magic and our history in the Canterlot Archives. That is what you wanted to do right?”

Twilight squealed. “Yes please.”

“Come this way, if you can,” Celestia started walking out the door. Twilight hopped out of her bed with no problem whatsoever and started to follow the white alicorn to the archives. It wasn’t that far from Twilight’s room, maybe like five or six rooms down.

They reached the Canterlot Archives and were greeted with a lock door. Celestia’s horn glowed for a couple seconds and the lock from the door fell to the floor.

“It’s an enchanted lock acquainted with a spell only I and a couple of the guards can access. I’ll give you permission as well,” Celestia lifted up the lock with her magic and put another enchantment on it allowing Twilight to unlock the lock.

“Well Twilight, the entire library is yours,” Celestia gestured Twilight to enter the library.

Twilight ran up and hugged Celestia. “Thank you so much Celestia, did I ever tell you how much I like to read?”

Celestia was patting Twilight’s head. “No Twilight, but you can tell me all about it later, for now you need to go do your research.”

Twilight let go of Celestia. “You’re right, I’m sorry.”

“Celestia pointed towards a pile of notebooks inside the library. “Those are notebooks are
took the liberty of gathering last night. I hope your research goes well Twilight!”

“Thanks you so much Celestia, how could I ever repay you?”

Celestia winked at Twilight. “I think I have something in mind, but we can discuss that later.”

“Okay, talk to you later Celestia!” Twilight waved to her goodbye.

“Bye Twilight, I’ll come check on you at the end of the day!” Celestia vanished out of sight.

“Alright where should I go first?” Twilight thought to herself. She picked up one of the notebooks and the quill and started looking around for a place to start. She settled with the founding of Equestria.

She had learn that Equestria was founded after the three types of ponies settled an agreement. They came from a different land and eventually stumbled upon Equestria.

“I wonder what this previous land was,” Twilight thought to herself. “It couldn’t have been Enza, it’s on the other side of the world. Ah I’m sure it doesn’t matter.”

Next was the rise of the royal pony sisters. According to the book she read, two of the leaders got married after Equestria was founded and had to babies. Their two babies, turned out to be alicorn! One was as white as the morning sky, the other one was as blue as the night. Their names were “Celestia, and Luna.”

Twilight wondered to herself how they have lived for this long, are alicorns immortal? She decided to ask Celestia herself later.

After the three leaders had died, Celestia and Luna rise up as the new leaders of Equestria. More and more ponies came in from far and beyond to Equestria after the two royal pony sisters had control of the land.

“Could Enza been one of those lands that ponies came from? After all, Enza has been around much longer than Equestria. I couldn’t really ask Celestia being that all ponies pretty much look the same, but I guess it’s all possible,” Twilight became more curious by the second.

Later in the book, it talks about how an evil being named “Discord” conquered Equestria for a short time before being turned into stone by something called “The Element of Magic”.

“Discord, Discord why have I heard that before? Isn’t he Enza born? Wasn’t he some sort of fail experiment to create a powerful creature but turned evil? I think so. Wow, I wonder how he got to Equestria,” Twilight continued to write all this down, she was assured that this was truly something worth bringing back to Princess Mespha.

Continuing through the book. It talked about how multiple cities throughout Equestria were built to support the large population of Equestria. There were cities such as: Fillydelphia, Manehatten, Cloudsdale for the pegasi, and Ponyville.

“I wonder how Equestria’s population got so big so fast. They must have had a boomer-foal period like Enza has sometimes.”

She was reaching the near end of the book. The last part was the part where Princess Luna became Nightmare Moon.

“Celestia pretty much already told me what happen so I think I’ll skip over this section and write it down on my own time,” Twilight flipped ahead.

The next couple parts of the book weren’t really worth writing down. The book stated some outburst by the other cities in Equestria but that’s about it. Twilight put down the book, and made her way outside the archives. When she looked outside, it was pitch black dark, Celestia must have already lowered the moon so I think it was time to pack it up.

Twilight thought about visiting Celestia right before she head to bed but for all she knew Celestia was already in bed. On her way back to her room, she didn’t pass any of the royal guards, must have been in a different part of the Castle.

One of the royal guards stumbled upon Twilight and was curious why she was still up. “Why are you still awake? Do you know what time it is?”

“Hardly,” Twilight started feeling nervous.

“It’s like two in the morning, you should really be getting back to bed.”

“Good point,” Twilight walked around the royal guards towards her room. The royal guard didn’t bother looking back, he just went along his usual way.

The next morning Celestia woke up Twilight rather late in the day, it was around noon when she woke Twilight up.

“Hello Twilight Sparkle, I know you are anxious to return to your country, but I want you to interact with the ponies here in Equestria,” Celestia started fixing Twilight’s mane.

“Celestia trust me, being social is something I’m terrible at,” Twilight hopped out of bed.

“All the more reason why you should head to Ponyville! I think you would like it anyway. It’s a small town and all the ponies there are wonderful!”

“You’re making sound like I’ve interacted with millions of ponies before Celestia.”

“You’re probably right Twilight, but I still would like you to do this, please?”

“Fine I guess, but for how long?”

“Not too long, maybe a couple days? A week?”

“Well I really don’t have a reason not too so I guess.”

“Thank you Twilight, I already booked you a train to Ponyville, have fun!”

“Wait I’m leaving right now?” Twilight started getting slightly irritated.

“Of course! It’s like twelve o’clock, you know that right?”

“I didn’t know that, okay fine I’ll go, will my notebooks be safe up here with you?”

“Of course they will, I’ll make sure nopony touches them.”

“Thank you,” Twilight started making her way out of the castle towards the train station. Lots of ponies were gathered by the train station today for some reason.

“Was there some sort of social gathering today I didn’t know about? Eh probably so, I wouldn’t have gone anyway.” Twilight thought to herself. “I really need to stop thinking to myself like this. I won’t do it as much when I get to Ponville. Considering I’m going to be forced to be social with other ponies here they’ll probably think I’m insane or something.”

The train arrived and everypony started gathering onto it like a pack a dogs at feeding time. Everypony took their seats but thankfully because of Princess Celestia, Twilight had a special reserved seat for herself. There wasn’t much chattering going on in the train, some ponies were talking about the latest Canterlot news but that’s about it.

“Oh my goodness darling thank you so much for carrying this heavy luggage for me!” Twilight turned around to see whose loud voice was it.

“You’re welcome Miss Rarity!” the luggage guy set her luggage in one of the doors above the seat.

“Oh my goodness there’s no seat anywhere on this forsaken train! What should I do?” Rarity exclaimed.

Twilight turned around back in her seat. “My goodness she is such a whiner and darn it I was going to stop doing this.”

Rarity walked up and down the train to try to find a seat then she noticed Twilight’s seat but ignored the sign on the table that stated: “VIP Only”.

“Excuse me, may I sit next to you please? There’s not where else on this train to sit and there’s no way in Celestia that I’m sitting next to one of those farmer ponies in the very back!” Rarity was disgusted by just looking at them.

Twilight looked up at Rarity then pointed a hoof at the VIP Only sign.

“I know darling but you have to understand, I’m a fabulous ponies that needs to be in a clean environment!” Rarity was being selfish at this point.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Fine, just don’t complain.”

“Thank you darling! And I won’t I promise,” Rarity sat down next to Twilight. She got quickly conferrable in the VIP leather seats.

Twilight just looked out the window at the world passing by, Rarity however tried to be social with her. “So what’s your name?”

“My name is Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight turned her attention towards Rarity.

“That’s intriguing, why are you going to Ponyville?”

Twilight didn’t feel like making up a reason. “Because Princess Celestia wants me to be social with other ponies because I’m not from this country.”

“Really? Where are you from?”

“I would rather not talk about it here on a train, maybe when we get to Ponyville?”

“Sure, do you have a place to stay?”

Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. “Oh crap, I forgot to ask Celestia about a place I would be able to stay!”

“It’s okay darling, you can stay with me! I have an extra room adjacent from my own room. Of course I would have to clean it up a little but it’s better than nothing!”

“Thank you, um Rarity right?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you so much again, you’re a life saver!”

Rarity laugh. “Don’t mention it darling, anything I can do for a friend!”

The word ‘friend’ echoed in Twilight’s mind. She had a couple friends back at Enza, but not many. The only reason why she really wanted friends back at Enza was because you really always need a couple friends to have your back. But this time that wasn’t the case, she was, actually grateful to have a friend.

“I’m your, friend?” Twilight was lost in her mind.

“Yeah of course, I’m guessing making friends isn’t something you’re really good at?”

“No it is not. But I guess that more reason to back up what Celestia told me.”

“Don’t worry darling, you’re going to make lots of friends here in Ponyville. The ponies here are nice and friendly. Some are obnoxious but I doubt you’ll be seeing any of those types of ponies, you should be find darling.”

By the time Rarity had said, the train had already arrived in Ponyville. Only about half of the train passengers piled out of the train being that some of the other ponies on it were probably heading towards other places in Equestria.

Twilight followed closely behind Rarity as they started heading towards Rarity’s house. Once they finally reached her house, the “Carousel Boutique” as she called it. They were both greeted by Rarity’s little sister.

“RARITY! I’M SO GLAD YOU’RE HOME!” the little foal exclaimed as she ran up and hugged her sister.

“I’m glad to see you too Sweetie Belle,” Rarity tried prying the foal from her.

“Hey sis, who’s the purple unicorn?” Sweetie Belle looked behind Rarity.

“That’s Twilight Sparkle! She’s going to be staying with us for a couple of days.”

Sweetie Belle became annoyed fast. “Whatever, as long as she doesn’t take my room.”

Rarity looked back at Twilight with a dab of sweat running down her face. “Don’t worry about her Twilight! She’s leaving later tonight, so you won’t have to worry about her for the rest of the time you’re here!”

Twilight became relieved. “Thank you Rarity, now you wanted to know about where I came from?”

“Yes please!” Rarity and Twilight sat down on one of the nearby couches.

“I’m from a place called ‘Enza’. It’s smaller than Equestria, but has a smaller population. Most of its population is mainly Pegasus believe it or not so we don’t really have to worry about overcrowding. However Enza is not a good country to live in. Reason being is that it’s so war ridden and really everypony their hates each other.

“The Princess of the land, Princess Mespha tries to keep order in Enza and nine times out of ten, she does a really good job. But that doesn’t stop crime from happening. From other ponies perspective it may seem like a fairly decent country, but in my eyes, it’s terrible.

“Thankfully Princess Mespha knew how much I hated Enza so she sent me on a mission trip to Equestria to gather information about this country so I can teach it at her magic school. That’s also the reason why she knew me so well.”

“Interesting, if I were you, I would probably want to leave that country too. But how did you get here anyway?”

Twilight explained the whole catastrophe with the ship and her almost dying.

Rarity almost jumped out of her skin. “How are you still alive? How haven’t you died from blood loss?”

Twilight shrugged. “The doctors say it’s a miracle.”

“It honestly it darling, you must have some special purpose in life if you escaped a near death situation like that!”

“Maybe, we’ll have to see,” Twilight got up from the couch. Twilight stood there standing for a couple minutes, she became lost in her thought about Shining Armor and some of the crew members on the ship she was on.

There was only one in particular that she really cared about, and that was the captain. He was pretty much the whole reason Twilight was able to keep her sanity the entire ship ride. All the other crewmates were utter jerks to Twilight and he was able to make them behave and such.

“Uh, Twilight you alright?” Rarity became concern.

Twilight snapped back to reality. “Oh, yeah, sorry became lost in my thoughts.”

“Oh that’s alright, say I why don’t you go ahead and head to bed? It’s rather late out and I don’t want my parents see you and know that you’re spending the night. They kind of treat my friends rather weirdly.

“Oh my goodness I almost forgot, I need to clean your room! One second, stay right here and don’t move!” Rarity walked upstairs to start cleaning Twilight’s room.

“Okay Rarity!” Twilight chuckled.

“Man what a diva she is. Although she is rather annoying, I still made a friend today, I just hope the other ponies here in Equestria aren’t fancy pants like she is. I highly doubt they are anyway but still.

“What I’m most worried about is that she said that some of the ponies here are obnoxious, one of my biggest pet peeves is obnoxious or dumb ponies. I really hope I don’t meet one of those ponies. But whatever we’ll have to see and I’m not going to do this anymore! C’mon Twilight we have to stop thinking to yourself like this.”

Rarity walked down the stairs with a huge smile on her face. “Okay Twilight your room is neat, ready for you to sleep in! Now get to bed!”

Twilight giggled. “Someone’s assertive today.”

“Nah I’m just joking around with you, anyways goodnight Twilight!” Rarity started heading towards a closet next to the stairs.

“Goodnight Rarity,” Twilight walked upstairs.

Today was a weird day for Twilight. It was her first official time seeing other Equestrian Ponies and interacting with one! Today went rather well but she didn’t know how her further days in Equestria will affair. However, she was indeed, prepared for the worst.

Chapter II: Making Friends

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(Three days after the ship went down) “Princes Mespha! Princess Mespha!” a castle royal guard busted into Mespha’s throne room.

“What is it?” Mespha asks.

“The recovery team has come back with the bodies of a couple of crew members and Captain Baskon! Only Captain Baskon made it out alive, even then he’s hanging on by only a string or two. We found him a rogue island not far from the crash site.”

“How far where you from Equestria?” Mespha looked worried. “And what about Twilight Sparkle?”

“Equestria was about eight or nine miles from the crash site of the ship. And Twilight Sparkle, we weren’t able to recover the body, we think she was swept by the ocean current during the storm,” the royal guard bowed his head.

Princess Mespha got up from her throne room and looked out at the night sky. “For all we know Equestria could have been the one who caused this. We have no choice, we have to launch the attack on Equestria sooner than we thought. I was hoping Twilight’s information on Equestria could help them find the weak points but looks we’re going to have to go head on head.

“Start the preparations for the attack on Equestria. The priority objective, recover Twilight Sparkle if she’s there, also I would like Captain Baskon debriefed to see if he knows anything useful. For all we know he might know something about where Twilight is. Is he okay?”

The royal guard lifted his head. “He’s coming along but it might be a couple of days before he’s fully ready to be questioned.”

“Thank you so much. Remember, recover Twilight Sparkle at all cost. If her body is even in Equestria,” Mespha wanted to see her best teacher again.

“Yes ma’am! I’ll get the army ready!” the guard put back on his helmet ran out of the door.

Mespha was still looking out her window. “I shouldn’t have never sent her to Equestria. I know she hated Enza but she’s not expendable. I just hope she’s still alive. ”

Twilight woke up, for the last couple of days she has had been having an awful sleep because she hasn’t gotten use to the Equestria hour system rather than Enza’s hour system, even after being in Equestria for over three weeks. Night in Equestria was like day in Enza and vice versa.

Twilight walked out of her room and saw that Rarity was already awake. Twilight also heard talking coming from downstairs, this disturbed her because she hated guest unless told in ahead of time, even if it wasn’t her own house/room.

She walked downstairs to find Rarity talking to this cyan coloured Pegasus with a Rainbow Coloured mane and tail. Her rosy eyes looked rather pretty, but Twilight still wanted to know why she was there.

“So Rarity you have my flight suit for when I go and tryout for the Wonderbolts?” the cyan coloured Pegasus asked.

“Yes Rainbow Dash I do, let me go find it,” Rarity turned around and walked towards her closet.

Rainbow Dash decided to sit down where she was until Rarity come back, she looked up and noticed Twilight halfway down the stairs. She quickly got up and ran right up to Twilight’s face.

“Hey who are you?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Um, nobody?” Twilight responded wanting to hit the cyan coloured Pegasus out of her face.

“Liar!” Rainbow Dash was getting irritated. “Now tell me who the hell you are!” Rainbow Dash was getting closer and closer to Twilight’s face.

Twilight lost herself at that point. She grabbed Rainbow Dash with her magic, “GET OUT OF MY FREAKIN FACE!” she threw Rainbow Dash against the adjacent wall with a great force.

The impact almost made Rainbow Dash go into shock. She got up but was panting really fast, she could barely stand up.

It didn’t take long for Rainbow Dash to regain her bearings and stand back up straight. She prepared to lung at Twilight and Twilight was ready to fight back but as soon as Rainbow Dash took off, Rarity stopped her with her magic.

“Rainbow Dash! I know she probably made you mad somehow but don’t hurt her!” Rarity was fighting Rainbow Dash’s struggles.

“JUST, LET ME, AT HER!” Rainbow Dash’s attempts to break free of the magic bond where futile.

Twilight just sat there with the straightest face you can possibly ever see. Rainbow Dash finally decided to stop struggling and Rarity finally released her.

Rainbow Dash decided to comply rather than to resist so she just sat there looking at Twilight like she wants to kill her. Twilight simply got up from her spot and walked back up to her room.

Rarity punched Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow! If you didn’t get in her face in the first place, she wouldn’t have to knock the wind out of you!

Rainbow Dash was confused. “Wait, were you watching us the whole time from the other room?”

“Yes I saw the whole thing, I didn’t interfere at first because I knew Twilight was going to do something similar to me just like with you.

Rainbow Dash glanced upstairs then walked back over to Rarity. “What’s her problem anyway?”

“She’s not from Equestria, she’s from a faraway country called ‘Enza’,” Rarity suspected Rainbow Dash to not know what Enza was.

“Enza, Enza was does that sound familiar? Eh maybe I heard about something else that sounds similar to it. But why does that relate to her being an asshole?” Rainbow Dash was still confused.

“I might be because you walked in without me telling her, and according to her ponies from Enza hate newcomers,” Rarity was convinced that was the reason.

Rainbow Dash seemed satisfied, but still had one more question. “Why do ponies from Enza hate newcomers?”

“I don’t know I didn’t ask. I’ll ask next time she comes down.”

“Well good good luck asking her, I’m going to head back to cloudsdale. Bye Rarity,” Rainbow Dash took her flight uniform and walked towards the door.

“Bye Dashie.” As Rainbow Dash walked out the door, Rarity walked upstairs to Twilight’s room. Twilight was sitting at her desk looking at one of her note book filled with notes that she took from the Canterlot Archives. Rarity got her attention.

“Hey Twilight, sorry about that, Rainbow Dash’s gone now,” Rarity tried her best to put on a believable smile.

Twilight still had her straight face, then smiled. “Okay then. Also next time you see that ‘Rainbow Dash’, could you tell her I said sorry for slamming her against the wall knocking the wind out of her?”

Rarity was baffled. “I thought you hate newcomers and didn’t feel bad for them?”

“This is not Enza Rarity, I don’t have the right to treat Equestria’s subjects disrespectfully,” Twilight looked back down at the notebook.

Rarity smiled the biggest smile in the world. “I’m proud of you Twilight for being a good sport!”

Twilight chuckled. “I know, I know, I try.”

“Say Twilight, since you haven’t really seen Ponyville that much, why don’t you run an errand for me!”

Twilight looked back over at Rarity. “What kind of errand?”

“Just a simple pickup from the local bakery,” Rarity handed Twilight the order. Twilight studied the order form closely.

“Sugarcube Corner? Where the- oh directions are right here. Thanks Rarity.”

“No problem Twilight!” Rarity and Twilight walked downstairs and headed towards the door going outside.

“So you just want me to pick up these cupcakes?” Twilight was studying the order form closely again.

“That would be it!”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what are these cupcakes for?”

“I’m having a party over at one of my other friend’s house and the cupcakes were for that! Do you want to come with me?” Rarity happier than usual.

“Haha no. I’ve only been to one party in my entire life, and it was for my mom,” Twilight looked sad.

“And how was it?”

“Awful, I vowed I’d never go to another party after that day.”

“Would you like to talk about it?” Rarity looked sad as well.

“It was when I was like seven besides I want nothing to do with my parents ever again, not even tell ponies why I hate them. I’ll tell you one day, just not today,” Twilight tried to look happy.

“That’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it or go to this party, it’s your choice.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, who’s the party for?”

“It’s for Fluttershy, one of my friends.”

“I don’t know who she is,” Twilight laughed.

“I figured as much,” Rarity opened the door for Twilight.

Twilight walked out the door waving back at Rarity, she took a good look around her, not many ponies were out today. Twilight strayed from her path a little bit and walked by the Ponyville School. She saw the fuchsia coloured teacher, plus she saw a glimpse of some of the students. She then walked past the city hall and decided to visit it for a little bit. There was a beautiful theatre, and saw an office at the very top, but that was about it.

Twilight decided to stop horsing around and get to Sugarcube corner. She looked at it and thought to herself, “Why the hell does this place look like a freaking gingerbread house?” She rolled her eyes and walked in. There was a pink mare with a pink fluffy mane and tail at the counter. She was organizing some of the cakes and looked up and noticed Twilight.

“Hi welcome to *gasp* have I seen you around here before? Are you new here? Huh, huh, huh?” the pink mare got in Twilight’s face.

“Uh no?” Twilight was confused and getting aggravated with every passing second.

“That means you’re new here and you probably don’t know any pony in Ponyville and I should make arrangements for you to meet everypony in Ponyville! Because if you don’t meet everypony in Ponyville that means you have no friends and-” the pink mare was cut off by Twilight.

Twilight pushed the pink mare off of her. “Look, I don’t know who the hell you are and quite frequently, I don’t give a crap. So just please fill my order and I’ll be on my way.”

The pink mare didn’t seem affected by Twilight’s words. “I’m Pinkie Pie and I want you to be happy! Not the saddy sad frown you are being right now!” Pinkie Pie got back in Twilight’s face.

Twilight tried her best to keep her anger in. “Look, can you please just go get my order?” Twilight shoved the order form in Pinkie Pie’s face.

“Sure thing whoever you are!” Pinkie Pie went behind the counter and grabbed the cupcakes Twilight wanted.

Pinkie put the cupcakes on the tabletop and Twilight handed her the order form. Twilight took hold of the cupcakes with her magic and headed towards the door. As soon as she was about to walk out the door, Pinkie Pie jumped right in front of her.

“By the way I never got your name, what’s your name?” Pinkie’s smile almost ran off her face.

Twilight coughed and put on the best smile she could muster up. “My name is Twilight Sparkle.”

“Nice to meet you Twilight Sparkle I’m Pinkie Pie!”

“Yes I know that already,” Twilight tried to slip behind the pink coloured pony.

“I know! Well I’ll let you go on your way, bye!” Pinkie started hopping back to behind the counter.

“Thank you goodbye,” Twilight rushed out the door as fast as she could.

Twilight didn’t make any side trips on her way back to Rarity’s house. But once she got there, Rarity was already ready to go.

“Twilight Sparkle, why don’t you come with me? Make some more friends!” Rarity insisted.

“I’d rather not,” Twilight handed the cupcakes to Rarity.

“Come on! Celestia told you to make friends! You’d love my friends I promise!” Rarity started tugging on Twilight’s tail.

Twilight ignored the tugging. “Is Rainbow Dash or that pink annoying mare going to be there?”

“Pinkie Pie? Yeah they’ll be there!” Rarity was surprised she knew about her.

“Then hell freaking no,” Twilight took tail back.

“Twilight please? For me?” Rarity eyes almost popped out of her head.

“Fine just never do that again.”

Rarity eyes widen less. “Thank you.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and walked out the door with Rarity. The part was hosted at Sugarcube corner oddly enough and when they walked in, there were only four other ponies there. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie where there, but two other mares where there also. One was a light orange with a blonde mane, and the other was bright yellow with a pink mane. The one with the pink mane and yellow coat was wearing a crown so she was the one having the birthday.

“Happy birthday Fluttershy!” Rarity announced as soon as she walked in.

The other five mares start cheering, Twilight just sat there and watched.

After everypony got done cheering, they all settled down and got to the stereotypical party activities.

Twilight ignored the other five mares and went straight to the punch. She poured herself a glass only to turn around to the orange pony smiling at her. Twilight got startled by this and spilled her drink all over her.

“Dammit!” Twilight used her magic to clear herself up.

The orange coloured mare grabbed some napkins and started rubbing them all over Twilight's face and back.

“Ah’m so sorry partner! Ah didn't mean to scare ya. Please forgive me,” the orange mare walked over and threw away the napkins.

Twilight was enraged, but she was able to keep her anger in. “Oh it’s okay, I’m Twilight Sparkle and you?”

The orange coloured mare grabbed Twilights hoof and started shaking it rapidly. “I’m Applejack nice to meet you!”

Twilight pulled her hoof back from Applejack’s grasp and smiled weirdly. “Well it’s nice to meet you, by the way what’s the name of the mare having the birthday today?”

“Her name is Fluttershy!” Applejack pointed a hoof towards her. “You’re the only pony she don’t know at her birthday so she probably won’t talk to ya right away.”

“Thank god I’m not the only one who hates being around new ponies,” Twilight thought. Twilight wasn’t shy, she’s anti-social. It’s sadly the way her mother raised her to be.

Twilight walked over to Fluttershy but was soon stopped by Rainbow Dash.

“Hey look I just wanted to say I’m sorry for getting all in your face,” it was hard for Rainbow Dash to say ‘sorry’.

Twilight put her hoof on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder. “No, no, I should be the one saying sorry. I was being the huge jerk after all.”

Rainbow Dash smiled. “If you don’t mind me asking, do you generally act like that?”

“Not really, as Rarity probably told you I’m not from here and where I’m from, I didn’t interact with that many other ponies at all. The only time when I interact with a large amount of ponies is when I’m teaching, I love to teach other ponies. Other than that, I only hang out with like four or five ponies that I designate as my ‘friends’. I guess you can say it’s social anxiety.”

“I understand, why did you come down here in the first place anyway? Why are you not in Enza?” Rainbow Dash has the question burning in her for a while.

Twilight explained why she came to Equestria in the first place and the shipwreck, and Celestia’s assignment for her.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes almost popped out of her head.

“Dang! You gone through some hell!” Rainbow Dash couldn’t keep her mouth closed.

“Tell me about it, but I’m alive today and at this part so that’s all that matters,” Twilight seemed happier than before.

“Tell me about it! That’s so awesome though, you surviving that siege of splinters, and all that! You even got to meet Princess Celestia, I would kill to meet her any day,” Rainbow Dash admitted.

“She’s really nice, and you can ask her pretty much anything and she’ll answer truthfully.”

“That’s awesome,” Rainbow Dash still had one more question in mind. “Also going back to you saying you had social anxiety, do you have, autism or something like that too?”

Twilight was quick to reply. “Yes I do, I can’t stand meeting new people so sudden. I have to get to know a little about them beforehand. The only exception is if I have to, or it’s absolutely necessary. My mom raised me to be slightly anti-social, but then I kind of made it worse as my life went on, and being diagnosed with autism when I was a filly didn’t help with it too.”

“Wow, I never actually meet a pony with autism before, I only know about it because we studied it a little in school,” Rainbow Dash was surprised with Twilight’s answer.

“It’s not common, and little known fact about autism is ponies who have it are twenty-five percent smarter than your average pony, and I never made anything below a A in school.”

“I didn’t know that,” Rainbow Dash started thinking.

“A lot of ponies don’t I think.”

By the time Rainbow Dash and Twilight got done with their conversation, Rarity got up on a table with Fluttershy. “Everypony! We all need to sing the birthday song for good old Fluttershy today!”

All four mares including Twilight sang the birthday song to Fluttershy, after it got all over and everypony started cheering, Fluttershy whispered something into Rarity’s ear.

“Um Rarity, who’s that purple coloured mare? I don’t remember inviting her,” she asked quietly.

“Oh that’s Twilight Sparkle! She’s really nice, you should meet her!” Rarity immediately regretted saying those words.

“Are you sure? I mean, you know me and meeting new ponies,” Fluttershy looked worried.

“Yeah come on! She’ll think you’re cool!” Rarity didn’t know what she was saying at this point.

Rarity walked Fluttershy over to Twilight who was still talking to Rainbow Dash. Rarity was beyond baffled to see Rainbow Dash and Twilight talking like old friends. Rainbow Dash noticed Fluttershy and Rarity walking over towards them.

“Well it looks like the birthday pony is walking over here to see you so I’ll let you two meet up!” Rainbow Dash walked over to Applejack and Pinkie Pie who were talking about why you should never trust guinea pigs to bake your cake.

Twilight walked over to Fluttershy and stuck a hoof out. “My name is Twilight Sparkle and I’m guessing you’re Fluttershy?” Rarity couldn’t believe in what she was seeing.

Fluttershy noticed something about Twilight, something different from when she meet Rarity all those months ago. She knew she could trust Twilight somehow, somehow. Fluttershy lifted her head and immediately complied and shook Twilight’s hoof.

“My name is Fluttershy, nice to meet you!” Rarity almost lost her mind.

In Enza, it was rude to ask ponies their age, especially on their birthdays. Twilight assumed it was that way in Equestria too. “So you having a good birthday so far Fluttershy?”

“Yes I am, and if you don’t mind me asking, when’s your birthday?”

“Mine’s on December 3rd, so not for a couple months from now.”

Rarity was too mind blown to see Twilight actually interacting rather than getting mad. So she just decided to go join Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash in the guinea pig conversation.

Twilight’s and Fluttershy’s conversation didn’t last too much longer. They talked a little about Fluttershy’s care for animals and all that. Twilight told Fluttershy about how she was autistic and such. Fluttershy didn’t really know about autism, but she knew she had social anxiety. Twilight and Fluttershy had a lot of things in common. They knew they’re going to make good friends.

Twilight’s social anxiety started kicking in and she asked Rarity to head back to her place. Rarity said yeah sure and Twilight left Sugarcube corner right away.

Applejack was standing right next to Rainbow Dash when she left. “I wonder why she left so soon.”

Rainbow Dash turned her head towards her. “Social anxiety and autism, she told me all of this.”

Applejack turned towards her surprised. “She told you? She spoke to you?”

“Yeah I was surprised she cooperated with me too. She’s actually really nice if you can get pass autistic her.”

“Ah never actually met a pony with autism before,” Applejack was slightly puzzled. “Ah know what it is and everything, just never met a pony with it before.”

“I haven’t either, but I wonder if that’s what all ponies with autism look like,” Rainbow Dash wondered.

Twilight decided to take a detour to Rarity’s house. She walked pass the Ponyville spa. She saw ponies walking out of there looking better and more relaxed than ever.

“I have to stop by there some time,” thought Twilight as she found herself right outside the Ponyville School.

It was around that time where the fillies got out of school so there were a mob of extremely small and cute looking fillies walking out. Even the same fuchsia coloured mare walked out too and noticed Twilight. She walked up to her and greeted her respectfully.

“Hi there! My name is Cheerilee, and I don’t think I’ve seen you around, what’s your name?” Cheerilee looked happy.

“My name is Twilight Sparkle and I’m guessing you’re the teacher here at this school?”

“Yes I am! And I couldn’t be anymore happier doing so!” Cheerilee looked back as the students continued to pour out of the school.

“You know, I’m a teacher too, but I’m a magic teacher, not a regular teacher like you are,” Twilight told Cheerilee.

Cheerilee looked amazed. “Wow! I wish I was a unicorn. That would make my life easier. Say, do you want to be a co-taught teacher with me for a day?”

Twilight thought about it for a second. “Sure why not!” Twilight couldn’t believe she agreed to this.

“We’ll start tomorrow! Meet here at the school house at eight o’clock sharp!” Cheerilee turned around. “Have a nice day!”

“You too Cheerilee!” Twilight waved goodbye.

Twilight decided to stop fooling around and head back to the Carousel Boutique. She got there but instead of heading to bed she went up to the room she was staying in and sat down at the desk that was there. She wrote down everything that happened today, because to her it was a day to remember.

“Today was a good day,” Twilight was talking out loud while walking around her room. “I can’t believe I actually made new friends, I haven’t made new friends since I got to Equestria! It was, nice, yeah, that’s the word, nice.”

Twilight walked into bed. She thought about her new friends, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash! Of course she was going to apologize to Pinkie Pie and Applejack tomorrow and make more friends! She couldn’t be happier.

(One week later) The same royal guard ran into Princess Mespha’s throne room.

“Princess Mespha! Baskon was feeling well enough to talk and he told us everything he knew!”

“What’s the most important detail?” Mespha demanded to know.

“Twilight Sparkle’s body is in Equestria, we don’t know if she’s alive or not all we know is that it’s in Equestria!”

Mespha was furious. “I’ll ask him personally how she got there later, but for now need to focus on building our army stronger!”

The royal guard bowed down. “Yes Princess Mespha, I’ll bring Captain Baskon in here as soon as he feels better to talk!”

“Thank you, you are dismissed,” Princess Mespha got up from her throne.
The royal guard ran out of the room and Princess Mespha walked over to the same window as before. She saw all of her subjects in Flancess running to their houses about to go to bed. She could only hope.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Mespha was talking to herself. “Dead or alive you’re coming home. If you’re dead you’ll receive the most formal funeral in Enza. If you’re alive you’ll join me by my side as Princess of Enza. But either way, you’re coming home. So please, hang on. I know you don’t like Enza and want it to burn to the ground but hopefully this will be enough compensation for you to return home.”

Chapter III: The Calm Before The Storm

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Twilight woke up bright and early, or so she thought. When she got up from her bed and looked out the window she noticed that the sun was fully visible in the north, so it must be way past eight o’clock right now.

Twilight grabbed her bag and rushed out the door as fast as she could towards the direction of the school house.

“Alrighty class!” Cheerilee started. “We’re going to go ahead and start even though our co-teacher isn’t here yet-” Cheerilee was cut off by Twilight entering the school house.

“I’M HERE!” she sprung in breathing heavily. “Sorry I’m late, I over slept.”

“I’m guessing you don’t start school quite as early?” Cheerilee turned towards her.

“Hardly, we start at ten o’clock, not freaking eight.”

“Now that that’s over welcome to class everypony!” Cheerilee walked in front of her desk. “I would like you to meet Twilight Sparkle, our helper for today!” Cheerilee pointed a hoof at her.

None of the fillies spoke a word. “Good morning everypony!” Twilight walked up next to Cheerilee.

Nopony still didn’t respond. Cheerilee didn’t know how to respond, most of the time the ponies would start commenting or giggling to what she was saying.

“Okay then let’s get started on today’s lesson! Today’s we’re going to be learning about different types of brain disorders!” Cheerilee walked behind her desk and Twilight followed her.

Diamond Tiara broke the silence among the group. “Like the stupid disorder that Applebloom has!” she started laughing.

Applebloom looked over at her enraged. “Hey!”

Twilight quickly turned around and had the nastiest look on her face ever. “HEY YOU!” Diamond Tiara quickly snapped into attention.

“What’s your name?” Twilight walked around to in front of Cheerilee’s desk.

“D-D-Diamond Tiara,” Diamond Tiara didn’t want to respond.

“Get up here!” Twilight pointed a hoof at the ground next to her.

Diamond Tiara got up from her desk and slowly walked to the front of the class.

“Any day now,” Twilight was growing impatient really fast.

When Diamond Tiara finally reached the front of the classroom, she had the saddest look ever on her face and she was looking down at the floor.

“Let me make this simple Diamond Tiara, you’re going to apologize to that filly over there, and you’re going to do it in a way that Cheerilee and I find satisfying.”

“How s-so?” Diamond Tiara asked.

“First of all apologize, then give us a good reason why you are sorry,” Twilight smiled evilly.

Cheerilee joined in on this. “And if you don’t, it’s a week of detention!” Cheerilee was enjoying this more than Twilight.

Twilight and Cheerilee stepped back waiting for Diamond Tiara’s ‘apology’. Diamond Tiara stood up there for at least five minutes without saying a single word.

“Well Diamond Tiara, we’re waiting,” Twilight was tapping her hoof on the floor.

Diamond Tiara’s head hanged low again. “I got nothing, apologizing isn’t my thing!”

Twilight smiled. “Well than, a week of detention. You may go back to your seat.”

Diamond Tiara slowly walked back to her seat and sat down, Applebloom couldn’t stop laughing at what she just saw.

Cheerilee got back in front of the desk. “Back to today’s lesson, we’re going to be talking about different types of brain disorders. The first one we’re going to be talking about is Autism!”

“You know Cheerilee, I have autism,” Twilight openly attempted.

Cheerilee turned towards Twilight. “Really now? Would you like to teach this lesson today Twilight?”

“Certainly,” Twilight walked behind her desk to the board.

Twilight grabbed some chalk with her magic and began her lesson. “You see students, we call them ‘brain disorders’ because there’s a genetic mutation in our brain that causes it. You brain is made up of billions of chromosomes which carry our genetic code.”

Twilight drawled on the board what a chromosome looks like. “The whole chromosome is made up of genetic code, for example this part of the chromosome may make up ABCDE. Or this part may make up EDCBA.

“By the way chromosomes are all around our body, it’s what makes my coat purple, or Cheerilee sound what she sounds like for example. Anyways! A disorder such as autism is born when one letter of the genetic code in any chromosome is altered. For example is a chromosome is supposed to be ABCD but if it's altered to AACD, it ain’t good news.

“And there are different types of autism too. For example I have Asperger. I’m very socially awkward and I tend to repeated weird crap I do such as write the same word twice. There’s also Pervasive Developmental Disorder, which can delay your development of your mind so you might not act your age.”

Twilight on for an hour or two about autism. The students were actually very interested rather than bored like they would be if Cheerilee was teaching.

It was the end of the day and the final bell ranged. The fillies where walking out of the school house talking about how good of a teacher Twilight was. Some of the fillies asked her to come back again but Twilight had to decline because she had other plans.

“Well I got to say Twilight you taught those kids better than I ever would have been able too. What’s your secret? How did you get them to comply so easily?”

Twilight shrugged. “I’ve been teaching for four to five years so maybe I picked up some tricks during that time.”

“I guess so, but I’ve been teaching for a lot longer than you,” Cheerilee looked slightly down.

“How about this, try seeing what your students want. What do they want their teacher to teach them you get it?”

Cheerilee mood brighten up. “That makes a lot of sense actually.”

“That’s good, well I got to get going, talk to you later Cheerilee,” Twilight was walking towards the door.

“You too Twilight!” Cheerilee was waving goodbye to Twilight.

Twilight was walking past all the Ponyville stores. She started thinking to herself, “When do I get to go back to Canterlot? When I do get to go back to Enza?” But she started second thinking herself, she made so many wonderful friends. She doesn’t even know if she wants to leave them or not. She also thought about how much she hated Enza. She was having second thoughts about ever returning to Enza.

Twilight sat at a park bench and continued to think. “I want to get back to my few friends at Enza, but I made better friends here. I miss Serah, she was always so nice to me, even those days where I was mean to everypony. Then again Enza was a pretty crappy country. Is it worth going back to see the three to four friends I actually had there? Even go back to teaching?”

Twilight went into a laying position on the bench. “What should I do?”

Twilight got up from the bench and walked back towards Rarity’s house. She made it
back and saw all the lights were off. Rarity must have been out with her friends or something.

Twilight walked in and turned on the lights to see Rarity on the floor looking like she was drunk.

“Uh Rarity, are you okay?” Twilight asked.

Rarity’s eyes popped wide open. “Huh, what? Oh hey Twilight. Sorry I got home from an exhausting day of shopping and fell asleep on the floor.”

Twilight laughed. “Who where you shopping with?”

“My dad!” Rarity smiled big.

Twilight felt a shiver run down her spine. “Your, father?”

“Yeah, I think he’s upstairs, I’ll go get him!” Rarity turned towards the stairs.

“No, no, that won’t be necessary,” Twilight smiled nervously.

“What’s wrong Twilight, never seen your father before?” Rarity jokingly asked.

Twilight looked down very sad. “Yes…”

Rarity frozen and turned around. “Wait what? You know I was just joking right?”

“I know, but I’m not, I’ve never seen my father before a day in my life. He died when I turned three years old. On my birthday….” Twilight began to cry.

Rarity walked over to her and hugged her. “I couldn’t be anymore sorry, I didn’t know.”

“I understand,” Twilight could barely talk because of the tears. “I try not to think about it, and when I went to Fluttershy’s birthday party it was very hard not to think about it.”

“I bet it was, is that why you were refusing to go to the party?” Rarity felt more awful than any other time in her life.

“Kind of, also for the fact that being with a large group of ponies makes me feel uncomfortable.”

“Well, I’ll never make you go to a party ever again! Well that make you feel better?” Rarity smiled wide.

Twilight shrugged. “It’s fine I promise. I’m not mad at you or anything.”

By the time Twilight finished her sentence, Rarity’s father started hopping right now down the stairs.

Twilight felt more discomfort than she has ever felt before.

“Ey Rarity! Who’s yer friend?” Rarity’s father asked.

“Dad, this is Twilight! Twilight say hi,” Rarity put on the best happy face she could put on.

Twilight instantly hung her head down. “Hi…”

Rarity’s father walked over in front of Twilight. “What’s wrong? Never seen your daddy before?”

Twilight's head snapped back up and her eyes glowed red. “What did you say?” she got right in his face.

“Uh, did I make you mad?” he nervously asked.

“Make me mad? MAKE ME MAD?” Twilight back off a little bit. “Not only did you offend me in every possible way, YOU INSULTED ME IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY!” Twilight didn’t even know what she was saying at that point.

“Look, I’m sorry okay? I didn’t what I said offended you! I’m sorry please!” Rarity’s father never felt so scared in his entire life.

Twilight took a deep breath and looked at him. “I lost my father, on my third birthday. So yes, I’ve seen other pony’s fathers before, I’ve just never seen mine.”

Rarity’s father got back on his hooves and walked over to Twilight, he all the sudden got super serious. “I’m sorry Twilight dear, honestly I didn’t know. I’m sorry you lost your father at a young age, I feel your pain.”

Twilight’s head perked up. “You lost your dad too?”

“No my mother actually, but I have suffered a heavy lost as well. Do you at least know your mom?” Rarity’s dad smiled.

Twilight’s mood went down again. “My mom….”

“Did you ever meet you mom?”

“No I did, it’s just-”

“Don’t want to talk about it?” Rarity’s dad smiled again.

“Yeah, I would rather not,” Twilight smiled too.

“That’s mighty fine Ms. Twilight. Well, I’m going to go ahead and head back out. I’ll see you later Rarity and Twilight Sparkle!” Rarity’s dad was walking towards the door.

Rarity was caught in a maze of emotions. “Bye daddy!”

“Goodbye,” Twilight smiled.

Rarity’s dad walked out the door. Rarity tugged at Twilight’s tale. Twilight turned to see Rarity eye’s almost drowned in tears.

“What’s wrong Rarity?” Twilight was slightly confused. “Did you know about your grandmother?”

“No,” Rarity was getting worse emotionally by the second. “My father always told me she went and lived in a different part of Equestria, I didn’t know she was gone!”

Twilight walked up to Rarity and hugged her. “I’m sorry, my father died when I turned three due to being caught in a giant machine when he worked for Enza’s power factory. My mom abandoned me six years later due to the stress of not having him around.”

Rarity looked up, she whipped the tears from her eyes. “What did you do after your mom abandoned you?”

Twilight stopped hugging Rarity and walked over to a window and started looking out of it. “I was on my own. I was young, confused, and helpless. I didn’t have a home, a mother to nurture me, a father to protect me, I was honestly helpless.

“The only thing I had during that time was my life, and quite honestly, I was giving up hope on that. I just wondered Flancess Enza, looking for a place to hopefully start over! I was a stupid filly at the time and didn’t know crap.

“That night when it got dark, I had given up all hope, I walked into a back alley and sat next to a dirty old dumpster. I found a pair of dismantled scissors on the ground next to the dumpsters. That’s when it hit me, nopony needed me, and I was just taking up space at this point. I was about to jab the dismantled scissors into my neck until something grabbed them like magic and pulled them out of my hooves.

“It was Princess Mespha. Somehow she knew I was about to kill myself and stopped me from it. Like I said I was a stupid filly at the time so I didn’t ask how she knew I was going to end it all, but she knew somehow. I didn’t bother asking her when I became older because it didn’t really matter at that point.

“Anyways, Princess Mespha was not a nice Princess. She was strict ruler, and a harsh pony. But something inside of me gave her sympathy for me, and she decided to let me stay in her Castle. I wasn’t necessarily her student or anything, she just took care of me. When I turned older, I got a job at a local library and worked there for two years. Then Princess Mespha saw how smart I really became after so long so she let me become a teacher at her unicorn school. But she knew how much I hated Enza, I wanted Enza to go down to the reaches of the underworld! So she decided to send me here for a while to gather information on this place for her school. And I think you know what happens after that.”

Rarity was amazed by Twilight’s story. “I know I said this before Twilight Sparkle, but your story is nothing like I’ve ever seen before. I’ve never meet a pony who’s been through so much emotional pain and still can bare herself.

“I can’t bare other ponies though! Did you see the way I acted to your friends?”

“True, but think about it Twilight, if this was any other pony they would probably be just like you!” Rarity was trying to cheer Twilight up.

“That’s true, thanks Rarity, you’re a true friend,” Twilight turned back around and smiled at her.

“One more thing that I never really understood, why do the ponies of Enza hate newcomers? You told me that when you first arrived here.”

“Oh yeah! About 100 years ago, Enza had the worst civil war ever. Flancess lost a great bit of money and neither of the other cities in Enza didn’t offer their support. Akane Village didn’t, neither did Cloudheavan. Princess Mespha was enraged by this and sent her royal guards to Akane and Cloudheavan to try to see why the hell they wouldn’t comply.

“Turns out, the mayor of both cities were rebelling against Princess Mespha and refused to offer any support even money to Flancess because they know that’s where the Princess lived. Akane and Cloudheavan both sent their loyal soldiers and the worst war in Enza history broke out.

“It lasted for seven years, and ended with Princess Mespha almost being assassinated. And ponies hated it when newcomers come into their house because Akane and Cloudheavan assassins use to roam Flancess entering pony’s houses and kill them and move on. About 1000 Enza civilians died because of that. Ever sense then, you had to make arrangements with the pony before they could come over to your house and so on and so forth.”

“Honestly, I can’t blame you for wanting to get out of Enza so badly. I don’t think anypony can!

“I know, I just hope Princess Mespha thinks I’m dead or something and won’t send some sort of rescue team after me,” Twilight rolled her eyes.

“Do you want to stay here forever Twilight Sparkle?” Rarity didn’t seem surprised.

Twilight turned towards Rarity. “At first I didn’t, but now I’m starting too. The funny thing is I thought Enza wasn’t that bad until I saw how the ponies here in Equestria are.”

“I can’t blame you,” Rarity heard a huge thump outside. “Did you hear that?” Rarity got up and walked towards the window.

“Yeah I did, what is it?” Twilight joined her.

They looked out the window, they didn’t see anything, until they saw a flag waving back and forward, left to right. It was coming from the north side of Ponyville, near the entrance. Once they got a full view of the flag, Twilight started shaking.

“What is it Twilight?” Rarity looked worried.

“That’s Enza’s royal army. They’re here to take over Ponyville! And maybe even Equestria!” Twilight started panicking.

Rarity joined in on the panicking, then she had an idea. “Twilight, you have to Teleport yourself to Canterlot and warn Princess Celestia about this.”

“What? You know what happen to me on the ship! I don’t want to lose any more friends! They’ll kill you Rarity!” Twilight started crying.

Rarity walked over to Twilight calmly and put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “We’re all going to die if you don’t warn the Princess right away. Go now!”

“Are you sure?” Twilight didn’t want to do this.

“YES GO!”

“Okay then,” Twilight had been studying the magic spell a lot since she got to Equestria so she fully knew how to use it now.

Twilight horn glowed brighter and brighter with every passing second, then she teleported away. Rarity looked back outside, Enza’s army were already patrolling Ponyville, and thankfully everypony was in their house so they hopefully haven’t found anypony yet.

Twilight appeared right outside Princess Celestia’s throne room. She barged in while Princess Celestia was sitting by a window replying to some letters.

Princess Celestia turned around confused to see Twilight. “Twilight Sparkle! What are you doing here?”

“Come quick Princess Celestia! We have a dire emergency!” Twilight looked like she was about to cry.

“Oh no,” Princess Celestia got up and followed Twilight all the way up to the top of the castle. Twilight focused the Telescope on Ponyville and made Celestia look through it.

“Oh no,” Princess Celestia said again, she could see Enza’s troopers marching through Ponyville taking ponies captive. “We have to do something about this, Twilight, warn the royal guards and I’m going to go find Shining Armor.”

“Yes ma’am!” Twilight and Celestia rushed out of the balcony and went separate ways. Twilight found one of the officers of the royal guards and ordered him to meet Princess Celestia and Shining Armor in the courtyard.

Twilight had an army of guards right behind her as she walked out of the castle and went to the castle courtyard. Princess Celestia ordered the guards to stand right in front of them and she even called Twilight for a mini-meeting.

Twilight and Celestia talked behind Shining Armor as he was gathering the troops. “Listen Twilight, I want you to be a one of the Commanders in this hold out against Enza’s army, if you’re up for it.” Princess Celestia knew she could trust Twilight with this job being that she’s the one who reported it to her.

Twilight put on the most serious face in the world. “Princess Celestia, after seeing the life here in Equestria, I hope Enza burns to the ground. I will happily fight for you against Enza,” Twilight bowed before Princess Celestia.

Twilight and Princess Celestia joined next to Shining Armor who had already arranged all the guards. Princess Celestia stood up and was ready to make a speech. “The land of Enza is invading Equestria, right now they’re making a raid in Ponyville and who knows how many ponies they have already taken captive/killed.

“Our job is to is to kick there asses back to Enza forever! We might face heavy casualties, or maybe hardly and casualties. The point is, defeat is not an option! Is everypony ready?!”
They were beyond hundreds of guards sitting in the courtyard. They were all cheering at Celestia’s speech.

Princess Celestia stepped back and Twilight Sparkle took her place. “Alrighty everypony, Enza’s army is very, very strong. I know, I lived in Enza.”
The army started getting suspicious. “How do we know you’re not a spy?” one of the guards called out.

Celestia stood before Twilight. “Enough, Twilight Sparkle is not a spy, she’s the one who reported this to me so she’s not spy, and anypony who objects can speak to me personally later!”
The guard who was talking sat back down and stayed quite. “Now then, Twilight what were you saying?” Celestia turned back over to Twilight.

Twilight stepped back up to the plate. “Enza’s strong, I don’t know how strong you all are, but I bet if we worked together, we can beat their asses down to the ground!” Twilight held up a hoof.

All the guards seemed satisfied with Twilight’s attitude and started cheering for her. Twilight stepped back and Shining Armor was the last one to step up. “I haven’t know Twilight Sparkle for long, but she seems like a perfect commander. She will serve by my side and Celestia’s throughout this whole battle. Everypony, ARMOUR UP!” the guards cheered one last time and got up and started going into the castle one by one.

Twilight and Shining Armor turned towards Celestia, Celestia stepped to the side to reveille three suits of golden coloured armour. Twilight and Shining Armor didn’t show any emotions when they first laid eyes on it. They thought it looked really cool, but that was beside the point.

“Since I’m the leader and you two are my loyal commanders, we need different coloured armour. Anyways, armour up everypony,” Celestia started putting on her personal suit of armour.

Twilight and Shining Armor put on their set of armour. It covered their backs/stomachs, all parts of their legs, and all of their necks, it was also in a scaly format for better protection. They had helmets that matched their armour and covers the back of their heads, and had a long strip of metal that ran all the way down to their noses, and of course they had heavy boots on all four their hooves. Twilight also decided to braid her mane and tail.

Celestia’s armour was the same way except she had wing protects on some of the edges of her left and right wing. Her mane was also braided so it wouldn’t get in her way. The three commanders walked to the front of the castle where their army was ready for the battle.

Celestia stepped up. “Remember, no mercy.”

“NO MERCY!!” the massive army chanted. After they said they, all of them turned around, and marched towards the exit towards Canterlot.

Celestia flew off and Shining Armor was about to run off with the army until Twilight stopped him.

“Shining Armor,” she started off. “I haven’t known you for that long, but thanks for saving my life that day.” Twilight smiled.

Shining Armor turned towards her. “Twilight, I don’t have many friends, and you’re, a friend. This for all I know might be the last time we see each other, but your optimistic attitude may and great knowledge on Enza maybe what leads us to victory.”

Twilight walked up Shining Armor. “Thank you Shining Armor, now let’s do this thing and let’s come out alive.”

Shining Armor kissed one of Twilight’s exposed cheeks, Twilight blushed. “Well, we have a war to fight.” Shining Armor walked down the steps and followed the rest of the army. Twilight was still blushing but came to her senses.

Twilight walked down the steps and trailed behind Shining Armor. Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor, and Princess Celestia were ready for the battle, of Equestria.

Chapter IV: The Battle Begins

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Twilight was shaking in her boots. She was nervous, very nervous. She was one of three commanders for Equestria, which means she has a lot of responsibilities on her shoulders. But she was able to remain calm and not show any signs of being weak, but that could work against her.

Twilight, Shining Armor, Celestia flying high above, and the rest of the army were just about to reach the exit to Canterlot. Random Canterlot pedestrians were cheering on the army as they marched to their certain death. All of them were primarily looking at Twilight and Shining Armor, their armour standing out from the rest of the army.

Twilight looked back at herself, she thought she looked really good in the golden armour. Her tail braided, it looked rather pretty in her opinion. Also her mane was braided, it was hanging off the left side of her neck but she couldn’t feel it because of the armour.

The army were about to reach the exit to Canterlot, and you could tell just by glancing at all of them they were ready. Shining Armor never felt so ready in his entire life. He was ready to blast those retches back to Enza for good. Twilight was still very nervous, but just as ready as Shining Armor was!

The entire army reached the main gates to Canterlot, Princess Celestia swooped down and touched downed right in front of the army. Both Shining Armor and Twilight could tell she was just as ready as both of them.

“Alright everypony!” Princess Celestia was ready to give a mini-speech. “I cannot guarantee we will all come back alive, but I can guarantee that we will wipe Enza off of Equestria, FOREVER!”

The entire army and some of the crowd around them started cheering.

“This isn’t the first time Equestria has fallen into war, and I know some of you know what I’m talking about! While we can’t stop further wars from happening, we can stop this war ridden country from taking over us!”

Twilight and Shining Armor stepped up right next to where Princess Celestia was. Just like Celestia, they both kept the straightest poker face you’ll probably ever see. Celestia walked over to the doors and used her magic to open them.

“Alright everypony! Move out!” Celestia and the two other commanders turned around and walked through the gates.

The army didn’t cheer, just walked through the gates silently. Twilight started lagging behind the two other commanders, she was slightly doing it on purpose so just in case there was a barrage of magic bolts she wasn’t the first to get hit. One of the soldiers decided to step up and try to talk to Twilight.

“Um, hi Commander T-Twi-Twilight,” the soldier started sweating.

Twilight didn’t even look at him. “Hello, what do you need?”

“I was just, um, saying, h-hi and that I w-wish you, um, good luck!” the soldier felt like the biggest idiot in the world.

Twilight looked over at him. “I’m not special, you don’t have to talk to me all hesitantly,” she was trying not to get annoyed at him.

“I know it’s just, you kind of pretty,” the soldier smiled weirdly.

Twilight stopped and looked him in the eye. “You’re sweet, but sweetness won’t win us this battle, however I will give you this.” Twilight kissed one of his exposed cheeks.

The soldier started to blush as Twilight turned back around and caught up with the two other commanders.

“Wow, she’s amazing,” the soldier thought as he fell back in line.

They were still marching down the hill to Ponyville. All of them could see the destruction that was happening. Princess Celestia flew up to have a good view of the entire army.

“I want the Pegasus guards to follow me, the rest of you all follow Commander Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle!”

All the Pegasi lifted up from the crowed and followed Celestia towards Ponyville. A lot of them had spears, axes, and swords. The earth ponies also had the same weapons, except the unicorns, they could use their magic to deal damage.

They were about half way to Ponyville, they were expecting some sort of squad to run into them but nope, it was a smooth march all the way down. Twilight and Shining Armor were marching in front of the army, keeping a steady pace all the way down.

“So Twilight is this the first time you’ve ever been into battle?” Shining Armor looked over at her.

“Yes it is, and it’s slightly pressuring knowing I’m a freaking commander,” Twilight smiled anxiously.

“I don’t blame you, this isn’t my first battle. I would go into what my previous battle was, but I think we’re almost to Ponyville so I wouldn’t be able to finish my story. Plus you never know of a surprise attack,” Shining Armor was looking into the air.

“We did have some pretty incredible fliers, but they’re not that battle worthy. Our earth ponies however, watch out for them,” Twilight was checking her surroundings.

“What’s so special about them?” Shining Armor looked afraid.

“They’re really fast, really clever, good with weapons, know how to freaking kill in every way possible!” Twilight was scaring herself hearing her say this.

“Okay that’s enough,” Shining Armor had a frightened look on her face. “One more thing Twilight, do you feel bad, ashamed, or even awful for killing ponies from your own home?”

Twilight looked at Shining Armor with a blank face. “I hated Enza. When I first came to Equestria I didn’t as much. But then I saw how peaceful loving this country is and it made me hate Enza. And to answer your question, no I don’t feel awful. You know what they say, ‘All is fair in love and war’.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Shining Armor turned his head back to centre.

They weren’t too far from Ponyville. They could already see the havoc that was going on. Somehow they didn’t see them walking down the huge hill. Probably didn’t notice, or they already knew they were coming somehow they were on the way. Hopefully not option two.

They hit a fork in the road. Both ways lead to Ponyville, just one path led to the western side of Ponyville and the other path went east. Shining Armor had an idea and turned towards Twilight.

“Twilight, I want you to take the unicorns and go right to the western front of Ponyville and I’ll take the Earth Ponies the other way,” Shining Armor was satisfied with his plan.

Twilight started having an anxiety attack. “Shining Armor, not only is this my first time fighting in a battle, this is my first time ever having a massive about of responsibility. What if I mess up? Can you even trust me?”

Shining Armor walked over to Twilight and put his hoof on her shoulder. “Twilight, you’ll be fine. The only pony you should worry about is yourself. Even then you’re wearing the strongest armour in the world. You’re pretty much fully protected besides the face.”

“Still, what is one of the soldiers has some sort of problem and he’s relies on me to-” Twilight was cut off by Shining Armor.

“Twilight Sparkle, listen to me, you’re going to be fine. The soldiers here know how to take care of themselves. You’re going to be one-hundred percent fine, do you trust me?” Shining Armor smiled. The army of soldiers just sat there behind them and didn’t say a word.

Twilight took a deep breath in and out. “Yes, I do,” she then cracked a smile.

“Good, now I’m going to take the Earth Ponies that way and you’re going to take the Unicorns towards the right, okay?” Shining Armor started walking towards the left
.

Twilight raised her head with great inspiration. “Okay!” she then turned towards the army right behind her. “ALRIGHT I WANT ALL THE UNICORNS TO FOLLOW ME AND ALL THE EARTH PONIES TO FOLLOW SHINING ARMOR!!” Twilight shouted as she walked towards the right.

The entire army agreed and walked to their respected commander. Once all the ponies were grouped, Shining Armor waved goodbye to Twilight and Twilight waved back really sad. For all she knew this could be the last time she saw him.

Twilight and the other unicorns traveled the western road. Twilight was in front of the pack with nothing but a long face. One of the soldiers caught up to her and tried talking to her. It was different guard from before.

“Hey Commander Twilight, you okay? You seemed kind of stressed talking to Shining Armor,” he said.

Twilight didn’t turn her head towards her. “Yeah I’m okay, but I’m very freaking nervous. Is this your first battle?”

“Yes however I know a lot about it because my father fought in the royal guard before he retired. He used to tell me all kinds of stories from his battles. Some of them were just horror stories.”

“Where I come from, war was really common. Until the Princess almost got assassinated then whenever somepony tried to start something she would have them executed with no trial. May sound terrible, but it worked.”

“Is where you’re from really that bad?” the guard couldn’t close his muzzle.

“Afraid so. I use to think it wasn’t that bad until I saw how wonderful and peaceful this country was. Now I’m glad to be fighting for Equestria to eradicate Enza from this wonderful country!” Twilight was sounding more serious than ever.

The soldier was getting slightly afraid. “Wow, I would kill myself if I lived there.”

“If you lived there your entire life and didn’t know about any other country you probably wouldn’t.”

“True,” the soldier fell back in line.

After about a good half an hour of marching. They finally reached the outer wall of Ponyville. They silently navigated their way through the bushes (not all at once of course). Twilight whispered to an officer who was sneaking by her.

“On my mark, we jump out and strike them all in the rear flank. Right now Shining Armor has them distracted and we shouldn’t have to worry about an air assault. Telegraph the message to the two other officers via magic sense. Okay?”

“Alright Ms. Twilight!” the officer horn started glowing.

“You can just call me Twilight, if you were a regular soldier it would be fine but you’re not so.”

The officer finished telegraphing the message. “I know but it’s respectful.”

“Whatever,” Twilight peeked over the edge of the wall they were leaning on. “Hmm, looks like Shining Armor doesn’t have the attention of all the Enza soldiers. However looks like the ones that aren’t distracted by the fight are in limited numbers. Which might give us the upper hoof. This might just work.”

The officer liked the plan. “I think it might work. Ready to give the signal?”

“Yep, you ready for the fight of your life?” Twilight walked over closer to the edge of the wall.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” the officer braced himself.

Twilight’s horn started to glow then start to flickering rapidly. The guard to the north of her nodded. Twilight then jumped out of the bushes. “CHARGED!!!”

The rest of the unicorn army jumped out of the bushes and from behind walls and joined Twilight in the rush. Twilight and the rest of her army charged at the distracted Enza soldiers. By the time one of Enza’s soldiers turn around, he was already blasted by a massive bolt of magic created by Twilight.

The other unicorns started joining in the slaughter of the Enza soldiers. This gave the Earth Ponies and Shining Armor a quick breather. Twilight looked up to see Celestia and the other Pegasus doing surprisingly well against Enza’s fliers.

Twilight stopped for a sec and looked around. She was looking left and right Enza’s soldiers getting slaughtered, killed, but she could only think one thing to herself. “This is too easy. Why aren’t they fighting back at all?”

That’s when she heard two officers not far from her talking. “Half of our soldiers our dealing with the prisoners south from here! We need their backup! We’re getting slaughtered!” one of the officers said.

“I’ll make the trip over there! You try to rally everypony up and we might just have a chance!” the other officer said.

Something about Enza’s soldiers, they didn’t know how to cooperate. Which so far Equestria exceeded at.

The two officers were about to break but then Twilight started running towards them. It was weird, she started thinking her armour made her much faster and stronger. Maybe that’s what Shining Armor meant by ‘strongest armour in the world’?

Twilight killed one of the officers with a magic bolt and jumped on the other. The force of her pounce was strong enough to knock his helmet right off his head. Twilight was about to jab her horn right into his throat until she got a good look at who he really was.

“T-Twilight?” the officer spoke.

“Captain Baskon?” Twilight’s eyes started glowing red.

“Twilight, sweetie why are you fighting for them?” Baskon felt tears approach.

“Why are you fighting for them?” Twilight felt no sympathy whatsoever. “You know how awful and war ridden Enza is and how shitty it is!”

“I know but it’s still my country. And you’re not fighting for your loyal country!” Baskon couldn’t hold back the tears anymore.

“Screw Enza! If you lived in Equestria even for an hour. You’ll see how much better it is than Enza! Besides, how are you even alive? You got impaled with the splinters just like me!”

“I drifted to a rogue island not far from the crash site. I pulled all the splinters out of me and wrapped the wounds in spider webs. I was later found on the bridge of death by an Enza search and rescue team. Took a couple of weeks but they found me,” Baskon was hoping to get through to Twilight.

“I would tell you how I stand here today, but I don’t feel like it. Too bad you escaped death once to be taken by it again,” Twilight was getting ready to kill him.

“Twilight, sweetie, why are you like this? You weren’t like this at all when I first met you before we set out on the voyage. What happen to you?” Baskon started crying.

Twilight didn’t shed a single sign of emotion. “I’m never nice. I was only nice to you that one day and during the voyage because I knew if I pissed you off you would be on my case throughout the entire voyage. That goes for all the other crew members.”

“Did you even have any other friends while you were in Enza?”

“Like two or three, and that’s only because you pretty much need at least one or two friends to fall back on,” Twilight smiled evilly.

Baskon had a lot more question he wanted to ask Twilight. But he knew he was only delaying his death so he just decided to accept it. He knew all the other soldiers where either fighting Equestria’s soldiers or getting killed by Equestria soldiers, so he wasn’t getting out of this one this time.

“Alright Twilight, if you’re going to kill me, just do it,” Baskon braced himself.

“One more thing, where are the prisoners that you were speaking of earlier?”

“Head down the southern gate, towards a huge river, the first two ships should be the ones holding all the prisoners,” there was no point in lying, she would have found out eventually.

Twilight was satisfied but was still going to kill Baskon. “Any last words?”

“I love you,” Baskon smiled.

“That’s sweet,” Twilight kissed his cheek. “Well bye.”

Twilight raised her horn up and jabbed it into Baskon’s throat as hard as she could. Blood was flying everywhere and Baskon started coughing up blood. He eventually stopped coughing and stopped moving. Baskon slowly passed away.

Twilight got up, rubbed her horn of the blood and looked around. “I need to find my other friends.” The closest house from her position was Sugarcube Corner. She rushed over to Sugarcube Corner as fast as she could and barraged into the door.

“PINKIE PIE! PINKIE PIE???” Twilight yelled.

She didn’t get a response. Twilight started shaking. “PINKIE PIE? IT’S TWILIGHT! I’M HERE TO RESCUE YOU!”

Pinkie appeared from inside a cabinet. She saw Twilight’s golden armour so she knew she was safe.

“Twilight, thank goodness you’re here. They came in here and took Mr. and Mrs. Cake! And I bet you they took our other friends!” Pinkie was scared.

Twilight tried to calm the pink pony down. “It’s okay Pinkie Pie, I know where all the Ponyville prisoners are. Would you like to come with me to try to find them?”

Pinkie shook her head. “No, I don’t want to get killed. But you should probably go find our other friends. I’m assuming you already know where Rarity is. Rainbow Dash is safe, I know that for fact, Fluttershy and Applejack I don’t know however. Applejack might be at Sweet Apple Acres which is north from here. Fluttershy has a tree like cottage which is west from here. Please look well.”

“I will Pinkie, thank you.” As soon as Twilight said that, the door busted down behind her. Two Enza soldiers were standing in the door frame.

“Halt, both of you just lay down and come with me.”

Pinkie fell to the floor covering her head while Twilight just laughed. The two guards didn’t recognize her armour and they thought she was just a regular soldier. They got even more pissed.

“I’ll say it again, LAY ON THE FLOOR AND ARMOUR OFF TOO,” the guards approached Twilight.

Twilight turned around revealing her face and the Equestrian insignia on her helmet. Her horn started to glow.

“IT’S COMMANDER TWILIGHT! RUN!” considering they were both Earth Ponies, they couldn’t teleport away or something.

Twilight grabbed both of them with her Magic and slammed them against the wall. Twilight approached both of them slowly while Pinkie rushed over and tried fixing the door.

“I’m going to ask both of you a question, and if you don’t answer it in a way I find satisfying, your neck is going to be in two,” Twilight smiled with no remorse.

“Y-y-yes ma’am!” both soldiers replied.

“Oh my so polite, I love it when ponies turn into a goodie-goodie two horseshoes when they’re looked into the eyes of death!” Twilight giggled.

Twilight went back to being mature. “Anyways. Did you take anypony that has the following features: a dark blue mane and tail, and white colour coat?”

“Yes, I know that for fact,” one the guards spoke.

“Prove it, where did she live?” Twilight got closer to his face.

“Um, it was some sort of tent like house with a tone of unfinished dresses and like beyond thousands of sewing machines.”

Twilight was satisfied. “Very good, next question. Did you take a Pegasus pony that has the following features: A pink mane, and yellow coloured coat?”

“No and that was because she had a freaking bear come and through me out and left a huge scar on my left hoof!” the other guard spoke.

Twilight saw the scar but wasn’t satisfied. “That could be any old battle scar. TELL THE TRUTH!”

Pinkie jumped in for a second. “Actually Twilight, Fluttershy does have a brown bear that she takes care of and that does look like a mark he would have made.”

Twilight’s eyes fell half shut. “Oh, well okay! Final question then I might set you free. Did you take a pony with the following features: A blonde mane and tail, and an orange coloured coat?”

Both guards looked at each other and hesitated. “Uh, nope!” one of them said.

“Yep, haven’t see anypony like that,” the other one spoke.

Twilight become enraged. “There is hesitance in your voice. You’re lying!”

“We’re not, we’re promise we’re not!” one of the guards said.

Twilight ran up and punched the wall right next to the left guard’s head that it made it crack. “Listen, if there’s one thing I know about Enza’s soldiers is that they’re liars. Now if you could just make things simple for me that would be great.”

“Look Commander Twilight,” the left guard said. “We’re not lying. We were supposed to go and investigate this one other part of Ponyville but another squad took care of it. We saw them carrying some ponies out of there but we didn’t get a glimpse at who they were. So to answer your previous question. Yes, we did.”

Twilight back off and walked around for a bit. She was thinking, she knew she didn’t have much time so she had to think of something fast. “Hmm, okay, I’m satisfied.”

“Does that mean you’ll let us go?” one of the guards asked.

“No,” Twilight smiled.

“You said after we answered all your questions you would let us go!” the same guard yelled.

“Yeah, I said ‘maybe’, and to my knowledge, maybe generally means no,” Twilight laughed.

Both guards started to struggle to find a way out. Twilight laughed and decided to end it. “You want a way out? Find here you go, have a nice trip.”

“Wait wh-” with a quick and fast snap, Twilight snapped both of their necks and they fell to the floor with a huge thump.

Twilight didn’t seem the least bit astonished by what just happened. But Pinkie Pie was sure as hell was.

Twilight turned around to see Pinkie Pie backed up into a corner shaking and looking like she just saw a ghost.

“Uh, Pinkie are you okay?” Twilight looked worried.

“I-I-I’ve never seen anypony killed in front of me like that ever before! Especially in cold blood!” Pinkie wish she could disappear behind the wall.

Twilight thought to herself for a second. If Pinkie was a citizen of Enza, she wouldn’t be acting like this at all. She has to remember she’s not living in Enza anymore, nor fighting for them.

Twilight walked over to Pinkie and brought her up to her feet. “Pinkie, I’m sorry you just had to witness what just happened. I slightly did it for my own selfish desire to kill everypony in Enza but if I didn’t, they probably would have captured or even killed more Equestria’s locals!”

Pinkie got up from her sorrow and thought about what Twilight had just said. “That’s true, but still, it’s frightening seeing some pony die right in front of you, you know?”

“Hardly, remember Pinkie I come from a very war ridden country where death is not uncommon.”

Pinkie shrugged. “That’s true I guess.”

“Well Pinkie I got to go find Fluttershy, stay out of sight while I’m going and pick a better hiding place by the way,” Twilight was walking towards the now fixed door.

“Okay, thanks again Twilight,” Pinkie walked towards the stairs.

“Alrighty Pinkie Pie,” as Twilight walked out the door Pinkie Pie went upstairs to find a good hiding spot for her.

Twilight walked out of Sugarcube Corner and took a good look at her surroundings. When she entered Sugarcube Corner, it had looked like Equestria was pounding them, now it looks about even. But to Twilight’s knowledge Equestria was still winning.

Twilight looked around for the path that led to Fluttershy’s cottage, it didn’t take her long to find it. It was oddly enough behind a flower shop. Twilight proceeded to rush down the path as fast as she could, trying to keep out of sight of any of the Enza soldiers.

Twilight was looking around at the trees while she was heading to Fluttershy’s cottage. She didn’t want to get backstabbed by any sneaky Enza soldiers. But everything was clear pretty much throughout the entire walk there (which took a whole five minutes).

She finally caught sight of the cottage to see all the windows boarded up and the brown bear the Pinkie mentioned sitting in front of the house active. Twilight knew she had to be careful or else she might be without a head. Ah who was she kidding, she could easily take that bear.

She walked across the mini-bridge and that’s when the bear spotted her. As soon as the bear looked her into the eye she stopped moving. She knew she couldn’t call on Fluttershy to help her, the house was too boarded up.

“Please don’t attack, please don’t attack,” Twilight kept telling herself. The bear squinted at her, but he wasn’t attacking. Twilight started sweating, she was starting to worry. “Why isn’t he moving?” she thought.

The bear went into a laying down position and went to sleep. Twilight broke from her current position. “That was too close,” she was relieved.

Twilight walked up to Fluttershy’s boarded door and looked over at the sleeping bear. She had a nervous look on her face, Twilight never really liked animals. She knocked on the door waiting for a response. She knew Fluttershy wouldn’t comply at first, according to Rarity Fluttershy was a huge scaredy pony. Rarity, Twilight had to go find her and Applejack after she dealt with Fluttershy.

“GO AWAY, I’M NOT COMING WITH YOU, wait, how come the bear hasn’t dealt with you yet?” Twilight could hear Fluttershy’s hoofsteps come closer.

Fluttershy took out one of the boards from her window and looked at Twilight who was giving her a ‘really?’ look.

Fluttershy gave a sigh of relief and walked over and took down the rest of the boards from the door and ran out and hugged Twilight tight. The hug didn’t last long because the scales on Twilight’s armour started poking her.

“You don’t know how better I feel now you’re here!” Fluttershy really wanted to hug Twilight longer.

Twilight felt weird. “Thanks, I guess. Anyways do you know if Applejack is okay? And where’s Rainbow Dash?”

“Applejack’s been taken, Rainbow Dash is hiding upstairs in my cottage because she almost got taken until one of the Equestrian Pegasus freed her,” Fluttershy walked over to the staircase leading up to her bedroom. “Do you know if Rarity’s been taken?

“Rarity has been taken I know that for fact.”

Fluttershy walked upstairs to get Rainbow Dash. Both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash walked downstairs together. Rainbow Dash smiled big when she saw Twilight. She flew over and hugged her really tight, but encountered the same problem Fluttershy did for the fact that Twilight’s armour was poking her.

“Hey Twilight, sorry about that,” Rainbow Dash laughed.

“It’s okay,” Twilight smiled.

“So Twilight what’s the plan?” Rainbow Dash got serious.

“Well, I want both of you to go get Pinkie and take her here, and I’ll go get Applejack and Rarity.”

“Wait, you get to rescue them, what if I want to?!” Rainbow Dash was slightly annoyed.

“Rainbow Dash, look at me carefully, then look at yourself,” Twilight had an annoyed look on her face.

Rainbow Dash took a good look at Twilight’s golden armour. “Good point…” Rainbow Dash felt like an idiot.

“Yeah, well you all know you’re mission, just don’t get killed.”

“I’m not going, good luck Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy stepped back a little bit. Rainbow Dash and Twilight gave Fluttershy an ugly look.

Twilight walked up to Fluttershy and got in her face. “Look Fluttershy, you have to be brave. If you’re not, they’re going to come and find you again and this time your little bear might not protect you. Besides, Rainbow Dash is smart and athletic, she can protect you, won’t you Rainbow Dash?” Twilight looked over at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow saluted. “Absolutely!”

“Thank you, now, Fluttershy, are you in?”

Fluttershy thought about it for a sec. She knew she had to be brave, but she didn’t know if she could do it. “Twilight, you know I’m not fit to fight, could I possibly come with you?”

“Fluttershy, if you come with me you’re guaranteeing your death. I’m going to the camp where all the Enza soldiers are. I don’t know if I’m coming back alive, even with this armour.

“Look Fluttershy, you can stay here as long as you stay hidden and stay safe, and I’m pretty sure you can do that.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Yeah, I most likely can.”

“Okay then, Rainbow, you have your mission. If you find a fallen Equestria Pegasus soldier, take his armour, it’ll put you on equal ground,” Twilight started walking towards the door.

Rainbow Dash followed. “Yeah, don’t want to pick up the armour from an Enza soldier or else Equestria’s soldiers might get me!”

“Yeah, and I don’t think that’s really good for the soul.”

“No it is not.”

Both of them stepped outside, the sun was still shining bright. But they could see all the battles that were being fought up in the skies.

“Rainbow, don’t fly too high, you might get caught and might have a million and one Enza soldiers on your ass. You should be fine however,” Twilight smiled at Rainbow Dash.

“Thanks Twilight, and thank you for forgiving me that one day at the party. You’re a great friend,” Rainbow Dash smiled back.

“You’re a great friend too,” Twilight kissed Rainbow Dash’s cheek.

Rainbow Dash put her hoof on her mouth and blushed. Twilight just smiled, she didn’t feel ashamed in the slightest. Fluttershy then walked out of the cottage.

“Will you too stop making out and get going?” Fluttershy laughed.

Rainbow Dash give her a dirty look. “Hey, we weren’t-”

“Just let it go Rainbow Dash, we got a war to win,” Twilight started walking towards the trail. “I’m going to head out towards the camp, Rainbow Dash you know your mission.”

“Yes ma’am Twilight!” Rainbow Dash was still smiling weirdly as Twilight left her sight.

Fluttershy leaned towards her. “You have a crush on her don’t you?”

Rainbow Dash broke her smile and looked towards Fluttershy. She opened her mouth about to say something, but she just closed her mouth hesitantly and flew off. Fluttershy tried her best not to laugh at the irony she just witnessed.

Twilight didn’t check for any sneaking soldiers coming out of the forest. When she jumped out of the path, everything looked the exact same. Twilight wasn’t that sad by what she was seeing. She’s seen this too many times, too many times to count.

Celestia touched down in front of Twilight. She didn’t look angry in the slightest, not like she was when she first took off.

“Hello Princess Celestia, how is the fight going on up in the skies?” Twilight smiled.

“Could be better, but we’re winning. Where you off too?”

“I’m off to end this war. The Enza camp is south of Ponyville, right by the huge river,” Twilight walked in front of Celestia looking for an opening from all the fighting.

“How do you know this?” Celestia looked confused.

“I’ll tell you later, could you give me a lift, the path is kind of, bloody?” Twilight turned towards Celestia.

“Yeah, sure hop on,” Celestia walked to the left of Twilight. Celestia extended a wing so Twilight could get on easier. Celestia took off, she looked slightly nervous however. “Twilight, any Pegasus that decided to follow me, blast them out of existence will you?”

“Absolutely!” Twilight looked ready.

Celestia and Twilight didn’t run into any Pegasus until they saw sight of the campsite. A bunch of enemy pegasus suddenly circled them with swords, axes, and spears. Twilight started to panic but Celestia looked calm.

“Twilight, cover your eyes, or you might go blind,” Celestia closed her own eyes.

“What wh-” instead of asking question, Twilight lowered her head and covered her eyes with her hooves.

Celestia horn glowed brighter, all the enemy pegasus around her started looking at each other in confusion. They all shrugged and lunged at her with great speed. Celestia’s horn glowed so bright, some of the pegasus had to cover their eyes. Finally, Celestia unleashed all that light built up in her horn. All the pegasus around them got stunned and all fell to the floor.

Celestia didn’t look hindered by all that magical unleashed. Twilight probably would have fainted from the magical build up alone.

Twilight opened her eyes and looked off one side of Celestia to see all the enemy pegasus falling to their doom. She could only laugh at the sight. Celestia wanted to say something to Twilight, but it was the way Twilight was so she couldn’t have really said anything to try to change her mind.

The two commanders touched down not far from the beach, they assumed that Enza was on high alert because of the light burst. Twilight hopped off Celestia and took cover by a tree. They could see some of the captured Equestrian ponies! Twilight’s face brighten we she saw both Rarity and Applejack sitting not far from each other safe and sound.

Celestia looked over at Twilight. “Alright Twilight, looks like it’s just you and me. Shining Armor probably would have come with us but he’s managing the ground control.”

“That’s okay, so you ready Celestia? If we can find their main general and take him out, we might be able to finish them all quick after that,” Twilight looked determined.

The two commander nodded and jumped out from their hiding spot. The Equestrian captives all cheered but none of the Enza soldiers aim for an attack. The two commanders looked baffled at this and thought about why they weren’t attacking. Then they heard a voice that was familiar to Twilight.

“Hello Twilight Sparkle,” Princess Mespha flyed down from one of the ships. Twilight’s eyes glowed red at the sight of her. Celestia was confused, was this the Princess of Enza that Twilight spoke of when she first got here?

“What do you want?” Twilight replied.

“It’s been a long time Twilight Sparkle, how have you been?” Princess Mespha had a straight face.

“Don’t play dumb with me Mespha, give us back the captives and we’ll be on our way!”

“Okay, fine, but first there’s somepony I want you to meet first!” Mespha smiled as she stepped aside.

One of the Enza officers stepped up in front of them. He was a dark blue with bright blue eyes. This looked strangely familiar to Twilight.

“Hello Twilight,” his voiced ringed a bell in Twilight’s head.

“Who the hay are you?” Twilight felt mixed emotions.

The strange colt took off his helmet to reveal somepony that Twilight hasn’t seen in a very long time.

“F-Father??” Twilight’s eyes glowed red again.

Chapter V: An Unholy Reunion

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Twilight looked her father in the eyes and the only thing she wanted to do right there and then was to blast his head clean off his neck. But she couldn’t for some reason, something was holding her back.

Was it Princess Celestia or Princess Mespha doing some sort of spell on Twilight that made her not be able to use magic? No, she would have noticed it.

She couldn’t figure it out, her father died when she was only three years old, how did he come back?

“It’s been a long time Twilight, you’ve grown up so much over the years,” Twilight’s father smiled.

“Don’t give me that shit!” Twilight was furious. “You’re supposed to be dead, Princess Mespha told mother and I right to our faces!”

None of the Enza soldiers nor Princess Celestia and Mespha didn’t interfere with this ‘Reunion’. “I told her to say that to you because I was trying to protect you!” Twilight’s Father was lying.

“Shut up! You got mangled in one of the machines in the work room and Mespha’s castle!” Twilight wanted to kill him so bad.

“No Twilight, that was all a story that Princess Mespha told both you and your mother, I really went and joined the royal guard for Mespha’s army. I did this because my brother was assassinated by a traitor.” Twilight’s father didn’t show any emotion.

“That still doesn’t explain why you left me with my so called ‘mom’!” Twilight was getting angrier with every passing second.

“Twilight, your mom never liked you. She was going to leave me and have only me take care of you, I learned this when I caught her praying that her plan was going to be successful. I escaped because I didn’t want to deal with you either. It sounds horrible I know but it was the right thing to do at the time.”

Twilight unleashed her raged, she ran up and kicked her father in the face with her rear hooves. Right now she didn’t care if anypony around her wanted to attack her, she just wanted to kill her father.

Twilight’s father was on the floor, he had a massive headache and he felt like his skull was broken. Twilight jumped on him and positioned her horn to jab it into his throat. But, she still had a couple of things to say to her father.

“After you left the house, my mom abused me, didn’t feed me for sometimes days, and then abandoned me too. I was nine when she left and I wanted to kill myself but Princess Mespha stopped me and took me under her wing. Something that you should have done when you left us!”

“Maybe you’re right Twilight sweetie.”

“DON’T CALL ME THAT! You don’t deserve to call me that. The only thing you deserve right now is death! However there is one thing keeping you alive right now, just one question. Where is my bitch of a mom?”

Twilight’s father closed his eyes. He knew exactly where Twilight’s mother was, but he knew she was going to kill her as soon as she finished off him. He didn’t know how to respond.

“Tick tock father, we don’t have all day!”

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you, it would only endanger your mom, and even though I left both of you, she managed to forgive me over the years.”

Twilight shrugged. “Any last words?” she knew she could probably find her on her own.

Twilight’s father shook his head. He even started to cry, he was going to actually die this time, but by the hooves of his own enraged daughter.

Twilight looked up and back at Princess Celestia who nodded, then forward at Princess Mespha who sat there for a couple of seconds then nodded.

She readied her horn then right before she was about to lung, a voice cried out to her.

“Oh no,” Twilight’s father spoke.

Twilight punched him in the muzzle. “Quite it you!” she then looked back up to find where that voice came from.

She couldn’t find the source of that voice. It didn’t sound like any voice she knew, so it was probably one of the soldiers trying to stall.

“Who was it? Who the hell was it?” Twilight was still looking around. Nopony said anything. Twilight took one more glance around the circle then prepared herself for another lung. She launched her head at her father’s throat and he shut his eyes and prepared for the worst.

Right before Twilight’s horn made contact with her father’s throat, somepony jumped on Twilight’s back and pulled her off her father. Twilight started struggling and kicking to try to get whoever was on her back off. Finally, she was able to kick the pony off her back and onto the sand. She then quickly turned around to see who it was.

A light purple mare stood up and looked Twilight in the eyes. Twilight instantly knew who it was.

“Why hello mother, it’s been a long time since you threw me onto the streets,” Twilight smiled evilly.

Twilight’s mother wasn’t wearing any armour, so she had all kinds of cuts on her stomach from riding Twilight’s scaly back.

“Shimming! What the hell are you doing? You’re not wearing any armour!” Twilight’s father called out to her.

“If it weren’t for me Dazzling you would be dead!” Shimming called back to him.

“Well you’re going to die by her wrath! Get out of here!”

“No, I’m the only one that can bring her back to her senses.”

Twilight laughed at what her mom just told her dad. Today, both of her parents were going to die, and there’s not a thing nopony can do about it.

“Twilight,” Shimming turned to her. “I’m sorry for what I did all those years ago. Can you forgive me and we can all go home?”

Twilight laughed. “Are you my mom? Are you from Enza? Last time I checked, you hated me.”

Shimming started to tear up. “Twilight, I was mad that your father had ‘died’ during that time!”

“That’s not an excuse to treat your daughter like your own personal punching bag,” Twilight was getting annoyed at these excuses.

“Look Twilight, could you find it, deep in your heart, to forgive your pour sad mother?” Shimming smiled.

“Hmm, no, DIE!” Twilight shot a bolt of magic at her mother. Shimming jolted back with a great force. She died before she even hit the ground.

“SHIMMING!” Twilight’s father got up and ran to her. He kneeled down next to his now dead wife and started crying on her body.

Twilight laughed at that sight. “What an adorable but a ridiculous couple! You two don’t know how to treat your own daughter. Leaving her to die when she was only a filly.”

Dazzling got up and looked back at his daughter with blood red eyes. He was serious now.

He got back up on all four hooves and looked Twilight into the eyes. “You’re going to die today Twilight. You’re nothing more than a cold blooded murderer.”

Twilight was flattered. “Isn’t that how all ponies that are from Enza are?”

“No, I was never, Princess Mespha wasn’t, your friends weren’t! You use to be a pacifist!” Dazzling was more enraged than ever before.

Twilight laughed maniacally. “You’re such a little kid. I can’t even believe I called you my father!” Twilight couldn’t stop laughing.

“That’s it! You’re going to die!” Dazzling readied himself.

Twilight stopped laughing by those words and ready herself too. Princess Celestia stepped up but was stopped by Twilight. “This fight has always meant to be. Just my father and I. And for this occasion,” Twilight took off her helmet and threw it onto the ground next to her. She even unbraided her mane. Dazzling already had his helmet off.

Dazzling and Twilight were staring each other down, waiting for one to bust a move. Dazzling was angry, but he knew he was at a massive disadvantage because of his magical strength compared to Twilight’s. He wanted to kill her so bad, but the odds of him losing were stacked against him.

Twilight grown bored of this stare down and decided to bust the first move. She shot a bolt of magic just as powerful as the last one at Dazzling. Dazzling jumped out of the way but the bolt barely missed him, maybe by an inch or two. Twilight wasn’t slow about shooting the next one, the only thing Dazzling could do was dodge, unless he bust a move of his own.

After he dodged the fourth or fifth bolt of magic, he teleported behind Twilight, and shot his own bolt of magic at her. It didn’t hit its intended target which was the back of her head, but instead her right back hoof. Twilight’s armour weaken the impact, plus with her own strengh added in it only took her half a second to recover. She then teleported to the right hand side of Dazzling and kicked him in the side with her two rear hooves.

Dazzling flew back a couple of feet, not as far it Twilight was hoping for. Dazzling’s armour made sure of that sadly, but Dazzling got the wind knocked out of him that’s for sure. Dazzling was worried that he might not survive the next onslaught of attacks by her retched daughter, so he had to think fast.

Dazzling took a quick look around at his surroundings and saw a sword half buried into the sand not far from Twilight. Dazzling was struggling to get back on all four hooves but he had to act quickly for Twilight was walking towards him.

“You giving up yet? Why don’t you accept your fate and just die like the rest!” Twilight was going mad. All her sanity was lost when her parents made their grand appearance. She was still able to control herself, just not that good at that very moment. Twilight was doing some sort of half maniacal half insane laugh as she was walking towards her father.

“Alright Twilight Sparkle, let’s end this!” Dazzling grabbed the sword with his magic and lunged it at Twilight. Twilight having fast reflexes overruled Dazzling’s magic with her own and took control of the sword. She then herself threw it at Dazzling, the sword impacted Dazzling’s top right hoof.

Twilight regained her bearings as soon as she just saw what happened. “Did you mean let’s end this as in I’ll end your life? Because that’s what’s about to happen!” Twilight walked over to her whimpering father and kicked the sword out of his hoof. She then pressed against his two top hooves with her own, increasing the pain of Dazzling’s top right hoof. Dazzling wanted to use magic to fight back, but he knew it was futile being that Twilight was stronger than him.

“Now then Dazzling,” Twilight had no respect for her father anymore. She looked up and took a good look at her surroundings. She saw Princess Celestia who didn’t show any emotion whatsoever. Then she looked at Princess Mespha who was also showing no emotion. Then there were the Enza some showing no emotion, some had horrifying looks on their faces. She was pearly looking to see if anypony my delay her kill. Which to her knowledge it didn’t look like it so she was safe.

“I’ll say this one more time, any last words?” Twilight readied herself for one last lung.

Dazzling shook his head, he knew this was the end, his end. The only thing he could do was pray to himself that a miracle might happen, even though the odds of that happening were zero to none.

“Hmm, okay then,” Twilight lunged at her father. Her horn penetrating his throat, ripping it open. Blood was going everywhere, getting all over Twilight’s face and armour. She pulled back and gazed at the gaping wound on her father’s throat. Dazzling’s stop moving as he slowly passed away. That was the end of Twilight’s parents.

Twilight whipped the blood off her face and armour then looked at Princess Mespha who was walking towards her. She wasn’t angry or sad, just surprised.

“You’re a strong mare Twilight Sparkle. But you didn’t need to kill your parents,” Mespha smiled.

Twilight didn’t even look at Mespha. “Says the Princess who has anypony executed whenever they commit a crime.”

Mespha shook her head. “I stopped doing that after I took you under my wing. I almost had your father executed until I found out you were alive. I was hoping that you two would unite under a more happy matter than what I just witnessed.”

Twilight grabbed her helmet. “You should have had him executed! He’s a horrible father that should have been put to death!”

“But he’s still your father Twilight.”

“No he is not. Even if he is he’s a sad excuse for a father! And as for my mother! She can rote in the underworld. You should have had her executed too!”

Mespha shook her head. “I didn’t know she slipped on the ship with us, your father must have sneaked her on when none of the guards were looking.”

Twilight decided to change the topic. “Why did you attack Equestria anyway?”

“According to Captain Baskon, you teleported to Equestria after you got bombarded by Splinters. So we thought you were being old captive in Equestria, or your body was here and we’re trying to recover it just like we did with the other crew from the ship. On top of that, we were planning to attack Equestria in the first place to try to overtake the ruler. You would have been the crowned Princess too.”

Twilight was confused and angry. “You wanted to take over this peaceful land, and crown me the Princess?!”

“Yes Twilight, and if I had never sent you here, you probably would have complied,” Mespha put her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.

Twilight stopped and thought about it for a second. “You’re right, you’re absolutely right Princess Mespha. But that was then, this is now. Now I want to stand by Equestria, fight for it, live with my new friends.”

Princess Mespha smiled. “I understand Twilight.”

“Thank you Princess Mespha. I would probably fight you right now, but since you are being so understanding and for the fact you’ve basically been my mother for who knows how long. I can’t do it.” Celestia walked over next to Twilight, who was now crying.

Princess Mespha looked back at the ships, then called a message to the head captain. “RELEASE THE PRISONERS, WE’RE GOING HOME!”

“Yes Princess Mespha!” the captain replied. The captain disappeared into the ship, and a couple of seconds later a swarm of Ponyville citizens were storming out of the ship. One of the guards even walked over and untied Applejack and Rarity.

Princess Mespha then turned towards Twilight. “If you ever want to return to Enza one day, door’s open, you can always come back Twilight.”

Twilight whipped the tears from her eyes. “Thank you Princess Mespha.” Twilight ran up and hugged her. Her armour was poking Mespha, but she didn’t mind, this was the last time ever she was going to see Twilight, she wanted to savor every moment.

She let go of Mespha and walked back over near Celestia and put her helmet back on. Celestia re-braided her mane with her magic. “Goodbye Princess Mespha, I’m sure we’ll meet again one day.” Twilight knew this was going to be the last time.

“Goodbye Twilight. And thank you.”

Twilight turned around confused. “Thanks for what?”

“Thanks for opening my eyes to see what a nice world we can live in. Enza is going to be a lot different when I return.”

Twilight smiled. “And without you, I wouldn’t be here right now.”

The two mares smiled at each other as Mespha flew up and touched down on the ship. The rest of the Enza soldiers were gathering on the ship and some were coming out of the forest from Ponyville. Mespha’s horn started to glow and with the blink of an eye, all the ships were gone.

Twilight stood there for a second gazing at the sandy beaches. Applejack and Rarity walked over next to her and hugged her quick. Twilight felt like the luckiest mare alive right now.

“We’re proud of you Twilight,” Applejack started. “Even after all that you’re still staying positive.”

Twilight shrugged. “You know what they say Applejack: All is fair in love and war.”

--END OF PART I--

PART 2: THE ELEMENT OF MAGIC-Chapter VI: Deep Depression

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Twilight wanted to be happy that the war was over and Enza was out of Equestria forever, but she wasn’t for some reason! She doesn’t even know how to describe it really, she even tried going to Princess Celestia to talk about it but she can’t seem to express her emotions.

Twilight doesn’t live with Rarity anymore and now she lives in a regular house in Ponyville that Princess Celestia bought her. She also doesn’t go out of it that much pearly because now she’s treated like a goddess by everypony in Equestria.

She was pretty much the reason why they won the war but not all of it, what about all the soldiers that gave their lives to try to liberate Ponyville? Twilight wanted to leave Ponyville and go live in Equestria but she didn’t want to leave so many ponies behind, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash!

Rainbow Dash goes and visits Twilight every now and then but Twilight runs into the same problem as Celestia, she can’t seem to explain her emotions!

Rainbow Dash was sitting on a rug on the floor reading a comic book when Twilight walked back into the room with some tea. “So yeah ever since the war ended I haven’t been able to explain my emotions that well, I don’t even know why!” Twilight set the tea next to Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash perked her head up. “Do you think it’s something that happen during the war? Like the time you killed her parents?” this conversation is taking place weeks after the war ended and Twilight hasn’t thought about it or the events that had happened.

Twilight had a blank look on her face as she walked over and sat on the adjacent rug to Rainbow Dash. She looked behind her to see the armour that she wore during the war, even a framed picture of her, Shining Armor, and Princess Celestia.

“I guess I haven’t,” then it hit her, the loss of her parents is what’s driving her insane. “It’s the loss of my parents, but I don’t get it! I hated my parents and didn’t show any hesitation killing them!”

“Twilight, sweetie, it doesn’t matter how much you despise your parents. If you lose them, especially by your hooves, you’re going to feel uncertain emotions,” Rainbow Dash smiled.

Twilight felt happy for the first time in too long. “You always know how to cheer me up Rainbow Dash.” Rainbow Dash was one of the few ponies in the world that knew Twilight so well.

She was silent for a moment after saying that too think about what Rainbow Dash had said. “I guess another thing is that everypony doesn’t like me for my personality, but for the fact I saved all of their asses. You and the other four are the only ones here that I like me for who I am.”

Rainbow Dash cracked a smile. “Well I like you for who you are, so does Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and everypony else.”

Twilight smiled brightly. “Thank you so much Rainbow Dash, you’re a great friend.”

“You are too Twilight, I’m going to head back to Cloudsdale to finish some flight training, I’ll talk to you later,” Rainbow Dash got from the rug and walked towards the door.

“Bye Rainbow Dash!” Twilight waved.

Rainbow looked back and smiled as she walked out the door. Twilight got up from her rug and walked up to her room. It was around five o’clock when Rainbow Dash had left so it wasn’t too dark outside.

Twilight couldn’t get over this wave of mix emotions hitting her constantly. She’s happy one moment she got her revenge on her parents, but sad that they’re not here anymore. She also has mixed emotions about not returning to Enza, she couldn’t figure it out!

“Oh my goodness WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?!” Twilight wanted to rip her room apart. She looked to her right to see the armour she wore in the battle hanging as display. After taking a good look at it she decided that she needed to go see Princess Celestia about this.

Twilight looked out the window and saw some of the markets were still open so she decided to go out and get some supplies. Even though she was probably good on everything, it was still good for her to get out of her house.

She grabbed her saddlebag and purse and walked out of her house. Surprisingly, nopony was getting in her face trying to get her autograph or something. It was just a regular day out today.

Twilight stopped by this tent that was selling milk, but before she could pay, the clerk wanted to talk to her. “Hi there! My name is Lyra Heartstrings and I saw what you did a week ago!”

Twilight didn’t smile. “Yeah, a lot of ponies did…”

Lyra seemed confused. “What’s wrong? I’d thought you’d be happy about the whole thing!”

Twilight sighed. “It’s just I killed my parents. I expected myself to be happy about that, but it’s driving me down to the floor.”

“You probably don’t want to talk about this, but why did you kill your parents?”

“They treated me like shit pretty much throughout my entire life.”

“I’m so sorry Twilight. I can’t say I know how you feel, but I can say I know where you are coming from. As a gift from me, take this milk, on the house,” Lyra smiled.

“Thank you so much Lyra,” Twilight felt somewhat better
.

“You’re welcome. If you would like to talk further about what happen, I live on the other side of the Ponyville town hall.”

“Thanks, I’ll keep it in mind.” Twilight grabbed her milk and decided to just head back home sense it was getting pretty late.

When Twilight got back to her house she was greeted with the mail pony at her house surprisingly late. “What are you doing? It’s like seven o’clock!”

“Sorry Twilight, this package just came in and they told me I had to deliver it right away to you,” the mail pony approached her.

“Oh, that’s okay then,” Twilight was handed the package and the mail pony flew off. She quickly ran back inside and opened up the box that wasn’t that big. Before she ripped off the last piece of tape, around the box to see who it was from, no return address.

Twilight found a strange looking book inside, then she realized what it was. It was her personal journal that she kept from the time Mespha saved her up until the day she had to leave for Equestria. She actually felt a tear run down her cheek at the sight of this.

She looked inside the box and saw nothing else so she walked over to one of the rugs on the floor, sat down, and opened her journal. She decided to flip back to the very first day, when her life changed forever.

She read the first entry. “Man, I can’t believe I almost killed myself. I didn’t realize there are ponies in this forsaken country that actually care about other ponies rather than themselves! The ponies here at Mespha’s castle are really nice too. All her royal guards are very polite and friendly. Once my mom threw me onto the street I vowed I’d never make a friend ever again, but I might just revoke that promise. I don’t know, this is only the first day so a lot could change over the years. We’ll have to see!” The entry ends there.

She flipped a couple pages to the next entry. “Today I start my first day teaching at Princess Mespha’s school for unicorns. I can’t believe she decided to open a school her being that education is not the most important thing here at Enza, but this country’s economy is getting better so I can’t blame her. I’m afraid one kind of students I’ll get however. I’ve read some books on teaching and the book states that students could either be really well behaved, or really awful and absolutely terrible. I guess we’ll have to see tomorrow, I got to get working on my lesson plan soon, probably after I finish this journal entry. Mespha wants me to teach them the basics in magic skills such as things like picking up things with your magic. That shouldn’t be too hard to do, it’s not that hard to memorize the rhymes required for spells like that, in my opinion at least.” Twilight remembered how wonderful her students were and how much they appreciated her. She wanted to put her journal down but she couldn’t for some reason, she had to keep reading.

She flipped one or two more pages to the following journal entry. “My students are absolutely wonderful! They loved me and respect me! Of course they could only be as a teacher, but who cares! I’ve gotten little to no respect from anypony in a long, long time! Man I love being a teacher, I’m so glad Princess Mespha gave me this job. I have to say this job is so much better than working in a library. However the library was rather fun, this job is better paying and it is all-around more enjoyable. The surprising thing is the students are actually understanding what I am teaching them. It could be because they’re unicorns but I really don’t know, I am happy that they’re coming around so quick! I don’t know what spell I’m going to teach them tomorrow however. It certainly not going to be teleportation spells, I’m having trouble with that on my own. But we’ll have to see tomorrow!” Twilight threw her journal against the wall. She couldn’t to stand the life she just left behind just because of her past with Enza. Sure Enza was a shitty place and everywhere she went something was going down, but what ponies she did interact with in Enza, actually treated her somewhat acceptable.

Twilight then started to pace around her living room with mixed emotions. She didn’t have any friends back at Enza and Enza was an awful place, but the ponies she somewhat knew, treated her like a friend almost! Equestria is a really amazing place to live but the ponies here only like her because she won the war for Equestria! Despite that being several weeks ago! She looked out her window at the almost pitch black sky. It was probably around eight o’clock and she knew what she was going to do. The markets were closed so she decided to go visit Lyra. Lyra told her that she lived on the other side of Ponyville city hall so her house is probably.

When Twilight walked out of her house she looked around for a little bit and saw a light greened colour pony walk into a house in her view. She looked to her left to see the town hall so she assumed that was Lyra’s house. Twilight didn’t know what to expect going over to her house but it was probably better than possibly destroying her own from utter rage.

She got to Lyra’s front door and was reaching over to knock but stopped herself. She kept asking herself ‘Is this a good idea?’ At this point, Twilight didn’t even know anymore. She took a deep breath in and out and knocked on the door.

Twilight waited not too long, like a couple of seconds before Lyra opened the door for her. She had some coffee that she was holding with her magic and offered Twilight some. Twilight respectfully declined and walked towards the living room.

“Come take a seat anywhere!” Lyra sat down on her couch.

Twilight walked over to the rug in front of the couch Lyra was sitting on and sat down there. She tried to look at positive as possible but even she knew Lyra could see right into her eyes.

“So Twilight, would you like to tell me what’s bothering you?” Lyra took a sip of her coffee.

“As you know, I saved Ponyville from Enza’s wrath, and I’ve been getting lots of love for it. You’d think I’d be happy about it! But it’s driving me crazy. What little friends I had in Enza loved me for who I am, ponies here only love me for saving damn Equestria.”

Lyra looked emotionless. “Go on,” she knew that wasn’t all.

“Also it’s for the fact that I killed my parents at the Enza camp near the Ponyville beaches…” Twilight looked down at the floor and closed her eyes.

Lyra set her coffee down by the table next to her and nodded, she knew this was the real cost. “Twilight Sparkle,” she got off the couch. “Why did you kill your parents?”

“Because I hated them. They treated me like utter crap for many years. My dad abandoned my mom and me when I was three and my mom left me for dead when I was nine. I’ve wanted to get revenge on them ever since. And I did, but why do I feel so empty after doing so?” Twilight eyes started to tear up.

Lyra walked over to her and gave her a hug around her neck. “Twilight, I never knew my parents. I was abandoned when I turned one year old and nopony wanted me up until I was old enough to care for myself. I never grew up with my parents! Sure if I were to meet them the next day I would punch them in the face but I wouldn’t kill them! Here’s what I’m saying Twilight, no matter how much you despise your parents, you’re going to still be emotionally attached to them in some shape or form. For example if I found out who my parents were and they died right in front of me even by my hooves, I would probably cry myself to sleep every night for the next month or two! You get what I’m saying?”

Twilight looked behind her at Lyra’s face. “I understand. This makes so much more sense now. I think there could have been a better solution than to kill my parents I think.”

Lyra got off of her took a couple steps back. “Maybe,” Lyra thought to herself for a second. “I know what would cheer you up Twilight! The yearly summer solstice is coming up soon! It’s going to be in Canterlot but it’ll cheer you up after seeing Princess Celestia raise the sun. It’ll probably get your mind of your parents and afterwards, you can talk to her if you still don’t feel that well.”

Twilight got up. “Thank you Lyra, you sure do know how to make a mare feel better.”

“Trust me Twilight, this isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with it, in fact I think you’re not my worst case. And going back to what we were talking about before, what was going through your mind when you killed your mother and father?”

“Revenge, if I could do something more awful to them I would have, but Princess Celestia and the Princess of Enza were both watching. They didn’t disturb me however, they knew I wanted to do this, I needed to do this, but they didn’t want me to do it. And looking back on it, I wish I didn’t do it. I could never forgive my parents for all the hell they gave me, however I wish I handled the situation better than I did that day.”

“I understand completely,” Lyra didn’t know what to feel anymore, but she still knew where Twilight was coming from, being that she is from a different country in all. “I can’t really say anything based on your front being that I’m not from Enza, but I do however understand. So you think you’ll go to the summer solstice?”

“I will most go most likely. Thanks for telling me and inviting me,” Twilight started walking towards Lyra’s door. “Thanks for helping me and inviting me to your house Lyra, but I should be getting home it’s getting rather late.”

Lyra looked out the nearest window. “It is getting rather late. Alrighty then Twilight Sparkle, I’ll see you in Canterlot!”

“Bye Lyra,” Twilight walked out of the door.

When Twilight got back to her house she saw her old journal on the floor next to the adjacent wall to her kitchen. She picked it up, dusted it off, and set it on her kitchen table. After that, she got a glass of water, then she decided she had enough for the night so she just went to bed.

The next morning she got up late. The summer solstice wasn’t for another day or two so she had time to go hang out with her friends. She still was slightly depressed, but she’s feeling better. She needed to get her depression off her mind so she decided to go hang out with one of her friends, however Twilight didn’t know what friend she was going to hang out with…

She thought about going up to Canterlot to see Celestia and Shining Armor being that she hasn’t seen since the war ended. Celestia wrote to her a couple of times but they haven’t seen each other in real life sense the war. Twilight decided against it and went to go see Fluttershy.

When she got to her cottage, Twilight could see Fluttershy in the window playing with her animals. Twilight knocked on the door and waited for a couple of minutes before Fluttershy finally opened it. Fluttershy wasn’t expecting Twilight to come over, but she was certainly happy to see her.

“Hey Twilight how’s it going today?” Fluttershy gestured Twilight to come in.

“Just trying to recover from the unfortunate events that happen during the war…” Twilight walked it frowning.

“You mean when you?” Fluttershy cut herself off.

Twilight sighed. “Yes Fluttershy, we don’t need to recap.”

“I’m sorry, would you like to cuddle with one of my animals?” Fluttershy turned her attention towards a dog.

“That would be wonderful,” sat down where she was and waited for whatever Fluttershy was going to do next.

Fluttershy picked up one of her dogs and brought it over to Twilight, then placed it on her back. The dog curled in her back and started licking her next. Twilight couldn’t stop laughing and laid her head on the floor.

The dog got off Twilight’s back and walked around to in front of her and started licking her face. The dog had brown fur and orange eyes, he was also very puffy so Twilight reached out and grabbed him. She proceeded to cuddle with him and the dog started licking her cheek.

Fluttershy giggled at the sight she was seeing. “You having fun Twilight?”

The purple coloured mare glanced up. “Yes, yes I am.” The dog continued to licked Twilight’s face then got off and walked back over to his little dog house and take a nap. Twilight got up and whipped her face. “I really needed that.”

“I figured you did Twilight,” Fluttershy thought to herself for a moment. “Would you like to talk about what happen during the war?”

“No, I’m good. I already spent like an hour or two yesterday talking about it with another mare so I think I’m good.”

After Twilight got done with what she was saying, there was another knock on the door. Fluttershy flew over and opened the door to find Rarity standing in its place. “Oh hello everypony how’s it going today?”

“Hey Rarity,” Twilight turned her attention towards her. “It’s going good, what about you?”

“Oh I’m just fabulous darling thanks for asking! I haven’t seen you in a couple of days Twilight where have you been?” Rarity walked into the cottage.

“I’ve been locked inside my house mainly. I’ve been helping Cheerilee with her teaching but I haven’t been out that much. I’ve been depressed mainly actually.”

“Why is that?” Rarity started becoming overly concern.

“Just the war was getting to me, you know killing my parents in all, and being that you saw the entire thing…”

“Oh it’s not a big deal Twilight Sparkle! Well it’s a big deal to you that you killed your parents but it’s not a big deal that I saw it! Plus you need to think about something: anypony from Enza would do the same thing if they were put into your horse shoes.”

Twilight raised her head. “I, never really thought of it like that. That’s very true, there are ponies in Enza that have an even worse anger than I.”

“I see the positive attitude in you already Twilight Sparkle! Now, why don’t you run on home and get ready for the summer solstice? Sure it’s not for a couple days, but still, the entire Canterlot Theatre is going to be packed to the brim that day!”

“Yeah you’re right, I’ll see you two later, bye!” Twilight got up and started walking towards the door.

Fluttershy and Rarity both looked at her and waved. “Bye Twilight!”

Twilight shut the door and everything grew silent for a couple of seconds before Rarity started talking again.

“Didn’t you feel a magical sensation while talking to her Fluttershy?” Rarity felt stupid for asking.

“As a matter of fact I did,” Fluttershy responded. “I just kind of ignored it because I thought it was Twilight giving off a magical aura while she was upset.”

“Could have been for all we know, I’ll ask her later on my own time.”

Couple days past and it was almost time for the summer solstice. All six mares were really excited and pumped for it! It was the one-thousandths anniversary of the summer solstice so it must be special for something! They were heading to the train station and as expected, it was packed. They even had to start calling two trains at a time just to get ponies to Equestria on time!

Finally, Twilight and her friends finally loaded up onto a train and were on their merry way to Canterlot. Just like on her first train ride to Ponyville Twilight sat by herself on the train ride to Canterlot while all of other friends sat in bunches. She just sat at one of the seats looking out the window at the nice day.

Rarity quickly noticed this and walked over to Twilight to see what was going on. “Are you still upset Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight looked over at her and smiled. “Hardly, I’ve always sat alone whenever I would ride the train or something along those lines. I don’t know, I guess you can say force of habit. Plus it’s a nice day outside right now so.”

Rarity nodded. “Understandable. But come sit with us! Be social! Please for us?”

“But Rarity, I don’t like being social,” Twilight laughed.

Rarity started pulling on Twilight’s tail. “Yes you do! Now come with me now!”

Twilight got up from her seat. “Fine if you insist.” She walked over and joined her friends on the other side of the train car. They talked little bit about the summer solstice but they never really knew why it was put in place. Was it just a cool thing to watch Celestia raise the sun? They didn’t know but they honestly didn’t care, it looked really cool!

After they reached Canterlot, they walked around the city a little. Twilight never really got to see the full beauty of Canterlot, this is her third time being in Canterlot after all. The first time was because she needed to gather the pointless information and during the march out of the city with an entire army.

They didn’t spend too much time walking around Canterlot being that the Summer Solstice was starting in a few short hours. They visited Rainbow Dash’s favourite racing track and Rarity’s favourite dress shop but that’s really about it.

The theatre that was hosting the Summer Solstice was gargantuan! It had to be four or five times bigger than any theatre Twilight had seen! Not many ponies in Enza got to theatrical events so the theatres were never really that big.

Everypony took their respected place in the theatre and waited for the main event. The theatre had twenty rows of seats stretching to at least half a hoofball field. It had a stage that had the sun beaming down from behind it and a nice view of the ocean, it truly was a sight worth seeing.

Around eight o’clock, everypony settled down as a royal guard walked on the stage. “Alright everypony, who’s ready for the one-thousands anniversary of the Summer Solstice!”

The crowd cheers roared, they were all very excited. Twilight was covering her ears with her hooves however being that loud noises do bother her tremendously.

“Let’s give a big round of applause for the great, Princess Celestia!” the stage lights centred down at the middle of the stage, nothing happened. Ponies in the crowd started having conversations trying to figure out a reason for this. Some even got up and left.

About a couple seconds later, a cloud of midnight blue smoke appeared in the centre of the stage and then it started laughing evilly. That’s when it took form into the thing that Twilight feared most.

“Why hello my subjects, are you ready for despair? For I, Nightmare Moon, have returned! Bwahahaha!” Nightmare Moon took form in the middle of the stage.

The Lost Element

by Gordon Freeman_1

PART 1: ENZA-Chapter I: The Unknown Mare

Chapter II: Making Friends

Chapter III: The Calm Before The Storm

Chapter IV: The Battle Begins

Chapter V: An Unholy Reunion

PART 2: THE ELEMENT OF MAGIC-Chapter VI: Deep Depression