A thousand years have passed since the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle reclaimed the world as her own but when an ancient sect of ponies are discovered in the Everfree Forest, Twilight's reign could be brought to an end.
A thousand years have passed since the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle reclaimed the world as her own but when an ancient sect of ponies are discovered deep in the Everfree Forest, Twilight's reign could be brought to an end.
One thousand years had passed since the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle had reclaimed the world as her own and for the most part, things were relatively normal. The foals headed to school, the local shops opened up for business, the sun rose over a purple sky and Twilight woke up, holding Celestia close. The only thing different is that for a little over a thousand years, no apples had been harvested from what was once Sweet Apple Acres.
By this time Dark Goddess Twilight and Celestia were no longer mere marefriends or lovers, they were married. Twilight broke her embrace from Celestia and headed over to take a look through the green eye to make sure nothing unusual was going on in her world. As she scanned the planet she said, "Well everything here in Equestria looks alright, the Crystal Empire looks fine, Alicorn Island is fine, the Equine Empire is having stormy weather, Saddle Arabia looks boring as normal...." She then took a close look at Neigh Zealand as it was still dark there. She couldn't help but notice that it was no longer glowing green. She finished, "and in Neigh Zealand it looks like the radiation is gone! Yes, now ponies can repopulate that place, woo-hoo!"
Twilight's louder than normal speaking finally woke up Celestia. She looked over at Twilight with a smile and asked, "Twily, what's going on? Why are you so happy?"
Twilight exclaimed, "Neigh Zealand is finally free of all that radiation! It can finally be repopulated!"
Celestia was happy to see Twilight so happy. She got up, embraced her wife and asked, "That's good. I take it you are going to find some officers to send down there to take over things?"
Twilight replied, "Yes but also some ponies who are good at growing things. Food will need to be grown before we can repopulate that place with a decent population." Her stomach began to growl and she continued, "Speaking of food, I'm hungry. Let's go down and eat some breakfast."
The two headed down to the dining hall, to the same table that had been used by either her or Colgate for the past five thousand years. Things changed not too long after Twilight defeated Colgate as all the soldiers ate at the base and her friends ate at home. Now, Twilight and Celestia eat their meals alone. When the chef noticed they had arrived at the table he asked, "The usual?"
In unison both mares nodded yes. While they were waiting for their meal Celestia asked, "So Twily sweetie, what are your plans for the day?"
Twilight replied, "Well the first thing I'm going to do is head over to the base and notify my top officers that Neigh Zealand is ready to be repopulated and after that, I plan on going down to the archives to do some studying."
Celestia could understand her need to go to the base but she was shocked over her sudden desire to study as she had not done any in quite some time. She asked, "Studying? But Twily, you haven't done any of that in ages and besides, haven't you read every single book down there multiple times?"
Twilight replied, "Yes but I have a nagging voice in the back of my head telling me I need to study some of the oldest books down there. Something is telling me that I may have missed something."
Celestia sighed, "Well I was kind of hoping that we could have a day where it was just us bonding."
This did not sit well with Twilight. She was irritated that Celestia would even mention such a thing, especially given what is going on with Neigh Zealand. She snapped, "Look Celestia, I know you love it when we bond BUT I have business to take care of, maybe sometime when I don't have so much on my plate."
Twilight had not snapped like that in some time so it caused Celestia to shy back, "I'm sorry Twily, I didn't mean to anger you."
Twilight simply grunted as their meal arrived. Celestia could tell by Twilight's demeanor that until everything in Neigh Zealand was taken care of, that her beloved wife was going to be a bit more like she used to be, unpredictable and very irritable.
Unlike most mornings when Celestia and Twilight ate breakfast at a casual pace and talked among themselves, Twilight devoured her meal quickly and headed out to the base before Celestia was even half done eating hers. When she arrived at the base she saw the soldiers leisurely talking and doing pretty much nothing given that Equestria had been at peace for ages. She yelled, "ATTENTION!"
Almost immediately the troops stood at attention waiting for her to begin speaking. Once she noticed that they were all focused on her she began, "Alright troops, as you all know, it was one thousand years ago that Neigh Zealand was transformed into a nuclear wasteland by Colgate and her uranium atom splitting spell. Well I have some good news."
Her top dark Alicorn general, General Black Night asked, "What is this good news?"
Twilight replied, "The radiation that had made Neigh Zealand uninhabitable for so long has finally dissipated so that means that we can get it populated again."
Black Night asked, "Does that also mean that some of us are due for promotions to be stewards?"
Twilight replied, "Yes, you and General Green Death need to get ready. I will likely send you along with some farmers down there within a month."
One of her lower officers asked, "If you send them down there, what does that mean for us?"
Twilight replied, "It means you will get promoted up to the next rank and a couple of regular soldiers will become lieutenants."
This caused not only her other officers to cheer, it also caused her regular soldiers to cheer knowing that maybe they could become officers. The cheering did not exactly sit well with Twilight but unlike she would have in the past, she didn't blow up. Instead she simply gave them a glare until the cheering stopped.
After a minute of cheering Green Death asked, "Is there anything else you wish to discuss your Majesty?"
Twilight replied, "No general, that is all." She cast her gaze out at the whole army and yelled, "Dismissed!"
Twilight felt that things went rather smoothly and decided that soon she would need to travel across Equestria to find it's finest farmers. She wasn't sure if the rumors were true or not but she had heard rumors about a family that lives in the Great Smokey Mountains that can grow food like it is nothing. She thought to herself, "Hmmm....perhaps I should force them to relocate!"
Once her meeting with the soldiers was over she decided to head down into the archives to do that studying that she had been planning on. Once she arrived back in the tower she would be greeted by Celestia right at the door. She embraced Twilight and asked, "Twily, how did things go over at the base."
Twilight was in a hurry and when she was in a hurry, she was not in the mood for anything that would slow her down, even from her wife. She shoved her back and yelled, "Not now Celestia, I have studying to do."
Celestia protested, "But Twily, it isn't even 1000 yet! You still have plenty of time to study."
Despite Celestia being her wife, this was really beginning to wear Twilight thin. She snapped, "Look, your Dark Goddess must find something out. You know a voice has been nagging her telling her to study something."
Twilight shoved her further back and stormed off towards the archives. This left Celestia in a state of shock. Twilight had not spoke like that with her in a millennium. She thought to herself, "Oh please Mother LaurFa, don't let the old Twilight return."
Once Twilight got down into the archives, she decided she would lock herself in to distance herself from what she thought of as a distraction. As she locked the door behind her she grunted, "Ugh, this is one of those moments when I wish I would have just sent her off with her parents to Alicorn Island."
She headed into the Starswirl wing and also locked the door behind her. Finally, she felt like she could study in peace without having somepony annoying her. Twilight almost felt free in there, almost. She took a deep breath and asked, "What was I thinking when I decided to marry her? Why didn't I just keep her as a lover? Why did I bound myself to her?" She then began to laugh, "What are you talking about Twilight? You rule this whole planet, you could just dissolve the marriage and throw her out!"
Twilight soon stopped with the questioning about her past decisions and then headed straight towards the book she was looking for. It was one of the earliest ones in the old Faustica collection, one that predated Celestia and Luna's arrival in Equestria. On the fourth page of the book she read a passage by LaurFa,
"When I first discovered this new land, the land of Equestria, I believed it to be free of other intelligent life forms but I was mistaken. Deep in the forest known as Everfree, under the ground, live a powerful sect of ponies, ponies who simply wish to be left alone so alone ponykind shall leave them as long as peace exists between us and them."
When Twilight finished reading this she angrily yelled, "What? There are ponies living in Equestria that I don't know about? Ponies that are not paying tribute?" She slammed her hoof into the floor and screamed, "Well I'm going to fix that! If they think they can live in complete isolation and not pay me what they owe me, they've got another thing coming!"
Despite finding the information that the nagging voice had guided her to, she wanted to remain in the archives longer so that she could think about what part of the forest those ponies may live in and because she liked feeling free, free from Celestia.
She sat deep in thought thinking about where they may live but then something hit her, she remembered the old legends of a cave in the deepest, darkest part of the forest that nopony had ever dared think of venturing to. She said to herself, "That's it! That has to be where they live!"
After realizing this, she headed back to the main part of the archives where she found the most detailed geography book she had, one which she had placed in the archives just last month. She began flipping through the pages until she found a detailed map of the Everfree Forest and discovered that there was a spot in the eastern portion of the forest, where not only was the forest the densest, but also there were hills. She got a smile on her face and laughed, "Well, it looks like me and some of the soldiers have a little trip to make!"
Almost immediately Twilight had put her plans for Neigh Zealand on the back burner as she was planning on who all she would take with her to punish these ponies for thinking they could get away with living in Equestria without her knowledge until she heard a knock and a yell, "Twily, are you ok! I'm worried because you've been down here for a long time."
Twilight angrily screamed, "I'm fine Celestia, just leave me the hell alone!"
Twilight's yell scared Celestia and she quickly headed back upstairs. Twilight was sitting there in the archives feeling frustrated and angry, not just because of those ponies, but because of Celestia as well. After a thousand years of being happy with her, she suddenly saw her as a burden that must be purged from her life. She sat their and grunted to herself, "When I get back upstairs, SHE'S GONE! The Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle can not have her holding her down anymore! The Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle will be truly free once again!"
Twilight then began to think about where Celestia would go. At first she was thinking about simply sending her to Alicorn Island to live with her parents but then thought of a better place. She laughed to herself, "There's always the void! She can't bug the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle from there!"
Several hours had passed since Twilight headed to the archives and after finding what she was looking for, she was irritated but more determined than ever. The only negative she truly felt was that Celestia would have the audacity to disturb her while she was in the archives. Finally once 1400 arrived, her stomach was growing loudly letting her know that it was well past lunch time.
She shut out the lights as she exited the archives and headed back upstairs. While she did look forward to going up to get something to eat, she dreaded having to deal with Celestia as she knew that she would ask her why she was so late. Once she arrived up in the dining hall she would be proven right when Celestia asked, "Twily, are you ok! You're never late for lunch!"
Twilight gave her a glare and replied, "Look, your Dark Goddess had studying to do and you should know that when she is busy, she may not run on time."
The fact that Twilight had been talking to her like that all day was really bothering Celestia and she wanted to know why. She asked, "Twily, why have you been referring to yourself like that for most of the day? You haven't done that in ages!"
Twilight snapped, "You do not address me as Twily, TIA. You address me as Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle, got it?"
This brought Celestia to tears as the last time she made her refer her to that was back when they were adversaries. Celestia began to cry, "What's gotten into you Twilight? First you refer to yourself in a formal way and now you are expecting me to address you formally?"
Twilight stormed over to Celestia and smacked her. She yelled, "Oh this is how it's going to be huh? You're going to be the same little crybaby you were when I ran you and Luna out of Canterlot?" Her eyes began to shine a darker green and her voice became more snide as she continued, "Same old crybaby Celestia, wah-wah-wah!"
For the first time since before Twilight had defeated Colgate, Celestia was mad at Twilight, truly mad. She yelled, "You know what? I can't deal with this, I'm going to Alicorn Island to be with mom and dad until you lose this attitude."
Twilight snapped, "Oh no you're not little filly! You're not going anywhere." She fired a bolt of energy at Celestia, knocked her to the ground and yelled, "This is it Tia, I've had enough of your whining and holding me back!"
Celestia began to sob, "What do you mean you've had enough of me holding you back?"
Twilight snickered, "You'll see! Oh yes, you'll see!" Celestia looked in horror as Twilight began to glow a darker purple, a black aura formed around her horn and she continued, "You have committed treason and that is not in season, you are a threat to me and I simply can not let that be, I can no longer be annoyed so you shall be cast into the void."
She fired a powerful bolt of black energy at Celestia, causing a black vortex to open up and swallow her. Once the vortex closed up and disappeared Twilight was ecstatic. She began to fly around the dining hall cheering, "Yes, yes, yes! Free, I'm finally free! Woo-hoo, now the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle can do whatever she wants!"
The chef heard her cheers coming from the dining hall. He headed in and asked, "Your Majesty, are you ok?"
Twilight happily replied, "Yes, I'm doing much better than I was earlier, much better!"
The chef gave her a smile and asked, "Well it is good to see you happy your Majesty but what do you want to eat? I know it is late but what would you like for lunch?"
Twilight replied, "Iron Skillet, just call me Twilight please. You know I don't like formalities." She paused for a minute, licked her chops and continued, "Bring me a steak, rare along with some hash browns and a pitcher of cider." She paused for a couple of seconds before continuing, Tell you what, fix yourself something too and join me for lunch. I haven't had a good conversation over a meal in over a thousand years."
Iron Skillet replied, "One rare steak, hash browns and a pitcher of cider coming right up."
As he headed back into the kitchen Twilight sat in the dining hall filled with happiness and satisfaction. For the first time in over a thousand years, she was able to banish somepony to the void. As she began to remember how much she missed the old days she began to wonder, "Hmmm....I wonder, should I send her parents there too?"
After a longer than normal lunch and a good conversation with her chef, Twilight headed out to the base in a good mood. Once she arrived she yelled, "Attention!"
Immediately her soldiers stood at attention and were giving her their full, undivided attention. She began, "Well troops, I have some interesting information you might want to know about."
General Black Night asked, "What is that?"
Twilight continued, "Well I was reading through one of the oldest books I have and apparently there is a group of ponies who have been living undetected deep in the Everfree Forest, dating all the way back to when LaurFa discovered Equestria."
Her entire army gasped in shock that she would not have seen them with the great eye. She continued, "Yeah, I know. I'm surprised I never saw them when I surveyed the world everyday."
One of the soldiers asked, "Why do you think you never saw them? Do they live underground or something?"
Twilight replied, "Actually yes, I think they do. The great eye can see a lot but if they live underground deep in the forest, then it wouldn't be hard for them to escape detection."
Green Death asked, "Twilight, I am assuming you want us to march on these ponies and punish them?"
Twilight replied, "Not exactly. What I am planning will require that you, Black Night and a few regular soldiers along with myself go out and pay these ponies a visit. I really don't feel like using all my resources on just one small sect of ponies that I could probably handle on my own."
Many of the soldiers and even the officers that she had were not even alive back when Twilight fought Colgate for control of the world so they were relieved that there would not be any sort of war where their lives would be put at risk. Black Night asked, "Twilight, so when are we going to do this?"
Twilight replied, "We will leave in two days time, for now though, I want you and Green Death to pick the two best soldiers of your kind and I am going to simply kick back and relax." She looked out at her soldiers and asked, "Any other questions?"
In unison her forces shouted, "No ma'am!"
Twilight gave them a salute and finished, "Dismissed."
The two generals immediately headed to their regular soldiers and began to talk with them to figure out which ones would be the best for this mission while Twilight headed back to her black tower. The first place she headed was her bedroom where she saw some of Celestia's possessions, including her delicate feather pillows. Twilight tossed them off the bed and grabbed a couple more of her regular pillows and laughed, "Now that Celestia is out of the way, I can fix this my way and my way alone!"
Halfway across the Pegasus Ocean on Alicorn Island it was a rather ordinary day for Queen Galaxia and King Cosmos. For the past one thousand years they had held stewardship in relative peace. There were two ponies that they missed though, their daughters, Luna and Celestia.
The two began to discuss their daughters and Cosmos was the first to mention Luna. He commented, "You know Galaxia, I can't help but wonder how Luna is doing since she left with Brevity and Colgate. I wonder if she will wind up getting some sort of leadership role on that world they left for?"
Galaxia replied, "She probably will and if that world is a carbon copy of this one like Brevity claims, whatever would be the Equine Empire over there, Colgate will make sure she gets it." She then got a worried look on her face and asked, "I know Luna is likely doing fine and will have a wonderful life in that new world but it is Celestia I worry about. What if Twilight isn't treating her right? What if Twilight was to get mad at her and punish her somehow?"
Cosmos couldn't help but laugh, "Galaxia honey, I'm sure Twilight is treating her just fine!" He calmed down a bit and continued, "We have visited them hundreds of times in the past thousand years and you see how things are, Twilight is as sweet as can be to Celestia and you can read Celestia's eyes and you have never once read anything negative, have you?"
Galaxia replied, "Well no but you know how a mother is, she always worries about her daughters." She headed to the balcony and looks off to the east towards Equestria and continued, "You know, I'm thinking it is time we go and pay Celestia a visit."
Cosmos asked, "Don't you think it is a bit soon? We were just there a couple months ago and you never know how Twilight might react to us coming back so soon. What if she was to banish us or something?"
Cosmos could sometimes be a bit paranoid and while Galaxia did find it mildly annoying, it was also part of what attracted her to him to start with. She laughed, "Come on Cosmos, you know Twilight enjoys our company" her voice became a bit more concerned as she continued "and besides, a mother can never spend too much time with her daughter."
Cosmos knew that his wife would not bend on this and would continue to bring this up until they visited Celestia so he asked, "So do you want to go by ship until we hit the coast or do you want to fly the whole way?"
Galaxia looked at the flags on the castle towers and noticed that they had a westerly wind that would push them along. She replied, "Well I think we should go by ship. We have a westerly wind that will push along and then once we hit the coast, we can fly to Ponyville."
Cosmos said, "Very well then, we will need to get the ship stocked with food and water and we shall leave tomorrow morning."
All of a sudden Galaxia broke into a shiver and Cosmos noticed that. He asked, "Galaxia, what was up with the shiver?"
Galaxia went into a panic, "Cosmos, I don't know what happened but we have to get to Ponyville as soon as possible!"
Cosmos asked, "So now you want to fly instead of sail?"
Galaxia yelled, "Yes, something has happened to Celestia and we have to get there soon. Like I said, something bad has happened."
Cosmos knew plenty of things about his wife and one of those things was that she has a sixth sense and can tell if something bad has happened to one of their daughters. He sighed, "Alright, let's get going. It is a horribly long trip but when we reach the Equestria coast, we will have to eat and drink."
Galaxia replied, "I know but still, we need to leave now."
Without notifying anypony of their departure, the two headed east. While Cosmos knew that his wife can be a bit overprotective when it comes to their daughters, this time she seemed frantic, as though something truly bad had happened. All he could do was hope that Galaxia was just being an overly worried mother and hope that nothing bad had happened to Celestia.
Departure of the Dark Goddess
Two days had passed since Twilight notified her army about what she discovered in the archives and after a hearty breakfast, she headed down to the base to notify them that the day to go take care of that sect of ponies had arrived.
Twilight headed down to the base and would be pleased by what she saw. Both of her generals had two regular soldiers with them and were standing at attention. When Twilight arrived she gasped, "Wow, I certainly didn't expect to see this! I've never had soldiers standing at attention like this before!"
Black Night replied, "Well your Majesty, I know what time you eat and roughly what time you finish so I figured we better be ready."
Twilight looked off towards the east and suggested, "Well shall we get going? I'm not sure exactly where these ponies live but I do have a pretty good idea."
Green Death replied, "Well it sounds good to me."
Once they were all in agreement they took to the air and flew east before taking a turn to the north. At first Twilight was frustrated because she did not see any part of the forest that had hills in it. She screamed, "Where the hay is it? I thought those hills would be right here!"
Black Night looked off to the east and saw some hills off in the distance. He nudged Twilight and said, "Your Majesty, do you think those ponies might live off in that direction, where those hills are?"
Twilight looked off to the east and replied, "Well I guess we'll find out."
Twilight and her forces headed off to the east and while they didn't seem to appear too far away when her general pointed them out to them, it seemed like the longer they flew, the further away the hills seemed. After two hours of flying, Twilight and her troops landed in a rather dense part of the forest. Given that she had not done a ton of flying in centuries, even Twilight was a bit wore out.
She turned to her forces and sighed, "I don't know what's going on but there has to be some sort of protective magic in play here. We should have reached those hills not too long after we headed east."
Black Night replied, "I know your Majesty. I'm thinking we should look for some food and water, I'm so thirsty."
Twilight added, "As am I. Perhaps if we walk east we will run across some and perhaps we can reach those hills."
Her forces nodded and as they headed east, they noticed that they slowly but surely were heading up hill. Twilight couldn't help but wonder why they were proceeding along normally walking while they seemed to go nowhere flying. She was not about to just take it for granted though.
After landing from a long flight, Twilight and her forces began their march east, not only to search for the sect of ponies Twilight learned about in an ancient book, but also food and water. After a long hour of walking, they finally found a stream with apple trees growing along it. When Twilight saw this she sighed in relief, "Thank goodness, I never thought we were going to find anything."
Green Death replied, "I know but after we fuel up, hopefully we can find those ponies."
Twilight said, "Let's hope so, your Dark Goddess didn't come all this way for nothing."
Twilight and her forces began to guzzle water and eat the apples and while they were unlike anything they had ever tasted before, the apples did satisfy them. After twenty minutes of refreshing Twilight ordered, "Well let's find these ponies. Your Dark Goddess is not happy knowing ponies have been getting away without paying her tribute."
They began to walk around the hills, sometimes climbing up steep hills and sometimes descending down into deep valleys. Given that the area is not small, Twilight expected this to take a while. At first they were searching the perimeters but soon began to work their way further in, into the most heavily forested and darkest part of the hills, where the temperature began to drop a bit.
Several hours later they were still searching and darkness began to set in. Twilight was not impressed and yelled, "Damn it, how are we supposed to find those ponies....."
Before she could finish her sentence she heard a sound, something coming from the north. She calmed down and asked, "Did any of you hear that?"
One of the dark Alicorn soldiers pointed his hoof north and replied, "Yes your Majesty, I heard it come from this direction."
Everypony took off in the direction of the sound and soon found themselves in a narrow chasm. While her troops thought nothing of it, this unnerved Twilight a bit. She asked, "Where do you think this chasm leads? Do you think it leads to where those ponies....."
"FREEZE!"
Captured
Before they could do anything, they found themselves being held in multiple auras and surrounded by approximately twenty ponies with spears. Twilight immediately began trying to break free from their hold and wondered why she could not escape the hold of mere unicorns. She would soon find out though, a white Alicorn with a blue mane and tail and a blue star for a cutie mark had her in his hold. He ordered his forces, "Get them into our territory, now!"
The Dark Goddess continued to try and break free from this Alicorn's hold but simply couldn't. He saw her trying to do this and said, "Don't bother Equestrian, your magic is nothing compared to ours."
Twilight snapped, "Give me a break. Nopony is more powerful that the Dark Goddess Twili......"
The Alicorn intensified his hold on her as they continued deeper and deeper into the chasm until they entered a cave. After what seemed to be forever there was a gray vortex that they passed through. When they got to the other side Twilight and her soldiers were shocked by what they saw. The Alicorn and his forces had led them into what appeared to be a completely different dimension. The first thing Twilight could think of is that this portal reminded her a bit of the one that separates the realm of the breezies from Equestria, except that this realm was far, far larger.
Once they were completely in this other realm, the Alicorn ordered that his soldiers release them from their hold. Despite releasing their hold, the unicorns and the Alicorn continued to surround them with their spears. Not too long after their hold was released, Twilight tried using her magic against these ponies but could not. She could not even get one spark of magic out of her horn. She screamed, "What kind of magic is this? Why can't I use my magic."
The Alicorn poked her with his spear and yelled, "Silence Equestrian! Not a word until we take you before King White Magick!"
For the first time in as long as she could remember, Twilight truly felt scared. She knew that where ever she had been taken, that her magic was useless and that these ponies had something against ponies from Equestria. After what seemed to be forever Twilight saw the palace.
As they entered the palace gates they were poked by spears and the Alicorn ordered, "Not one wrong move unless you wish to never see your homeland again."
The attitude of the Alicorn made Twilight shudder. She began to think back to what LaurFa said about these ponies so long ago and realized why ponykind would simply leave them alone, she could tell that they would have absolutely no problems killing them.
Meeting King White Magick
When they entered the throne room they saw two much larger Alicorns, a white stallion with a blue mane and tail and a blue pentacle cutie mark. By his side was an ivory colored mare with a red mane and tail and a red jewel heart cutie mark. White Magick looked at the other Alicorn and asked, "Blue Star my son, who is this you and our soldiers bring before me?"
Blue Star poked Twilight with his spear and said, "Introduce yourself, Equestrian."
Twilight stood tall and boasted, "Well I am the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle, the ruler of not just Equestria but the entire planet." Despite being unable to use her magic, her eyes began to shine green as she continued, "And you ponies are living on my planet without paying tribute to me and I have come to collect what...."
White Magick grabbed Twilight in his aura and growled, "You do not hold any rights over our land as we are not part of Equestria." He began to laugh, "We may be part of what you call your world but we pay tribute to nopony."
Finally one of Twilight's officers spoke up, Black Night. He bowed and said, "Your Majesty, we mean you no harm. Our Dark Goddess has simply come to collect what she believes is owed her."
His statement angered the king but given that he did show respect, he held his anger. He motioned for him to step closer and asked, "Soldier, what is your name and what role do you play for this so called dark goddess?"
Black Night replied, "My name is General Black Night and I am her top dark Alicorn officer. I am in charge of keeping the dark Alicorn soldiers focused and ready for battle."
White Magick sighed, "I see." He cased his gaze at Green Death and continued, "You, step forward and introduce yourself."
He stepped forward, bowed and replied, "My name is General Green Death and I am her top changeling officer. Like my dark Alicorn counterpart, I keep the changeling army focused and ready for battle."
He again said, "I see." He then looked at the soldiers and asked, "I take it these are your hoof soldiers?"
Green Death replied, "Yes, these four are ordinary soldiers that are part of the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle's army."
He grabbed Twilight in his aura and pulled her up to him. He gave her an intense glare and asked, "May I ask what it is you were doing in the hills? Were you attempting to invade my kingdom?"
Twilight in her usual attitude boasted, "Yes, I was. Like I said before, you ponies are living....."
White Magick intensified his hold on her and said, "Silence! We already know about your attempts to collect this tribute you seem to think we owe you." He ordered his soldiers, "Take her to the dungeon, we can not allow her kind to go unpunished!"
Prince Blue Star asked, "Father, what about her soldiers? What are your plans for them?"
White Magick replied, "They shall remain here with me as I have business with them, business that must be dealt with."
Twilight heard this and yelled, "What are you going to do? What are your plans for the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle's soldiers?"
White Magick simply ignored Twilight's questions as she was hauled down to the dungeon. Once she was gone he more closely began to analyze the soldiers before him. After a minute of close analysis he asked, "Soldiers, why do you hold this loyalty to this so-called dark goddess? Can you not see she is a tyrant, an evil tyrant?"
Black Night attempted to light up his horn and fire energy at the king but could not. White Magick saw this and chuckled, "Soldier, just like your leader, the magic of outsiders does not work in our land." His voice became more stern as he continued, "Tell me soldiers, why are you so loyal to this so-called dark goddess?"
Black Night replied, "Because she is our leader, because without her we would have nothing."
Again White Magick began to analyze the soldiers closer and realized that they had been corrupted by her, that they had a loyalty spell cast on them. He gave the six a curious look and asked, "Soldiers, what would you think of being free from her control? What would you think of no longer being bound to a leader who truly cares about nopony but herself?"
One of the dark Alicorn soldiers yelled, "She is not like that! Our dark goddess cares about each and every one of us as though we were her own children!"
White Magick laughed, "You may think that but deep down you know it isn't true. Deep down you know she sees you and all your comrades as nothing more than disposable resources."
Despite them all being unquestionably loyal to Twilight, one of the changeling soldiers asked, "And what makes you say that? What makes you think our Dark Goddess, the ruler of the entire planet, including your realm, would see us that way?"
His statement about Twilight ruling over his realm did anger him but he knew that anger would not work in his favor if he was to do what he planned. He pointed out, "I know all of you are duplicates from members of your own kind. I know she has duplicated your kind for many, many millennia."
Black Night asked, "How did you know that? How did you know that we are duplicates of others of our kind?"
White Magick replied, "For the citizens of Equestria you will seem the same but I can sense things most, of both my realm and yours, can not." He got a grin on his face and asked, "How does it feel knowing that you are mere duplicates of others of your kind? How does it feel knowing that Twilight could simply make a new you and sacrifice you without a care in the world?"
The six began to look around nervously until Green Ooze held his head down and sighed, "It does not feel good your Majesty, it does not feel good at all."
White Magick felt as though his tactics were beginning to work with them. He knew that perhaps the time had come to take over their allegiance. He asked, "I shall ask you again, what would you six think about being free from this so-called dark goddess's control?"
Finally they broke and in unison they replied, "We would love it your Majesty. We would love to be able to think for ourselves again."
White Magick's horn began to glow as he said, "Good." He pointed to a spot right in front of him and he continued, "I need you six to stand right there, close together and I need your full attention."
The six did as the king wanted and once they were giving him their full, undivided attention White Magick said, "Those who have been brainwashed must be free, they can't be like a dog chained to a tree, they deserve their own free will, not to be stuck with the bill, their minds shall belong to them and them alone."
He unleashed a calm beam of white energy which enveloped them and quickly seeped into their bodies, freeing them. Once they came to White Magick asked, "Soldiers, who do you serve?"
In unison they replied, "We serve nopony nor shall we ever serve anypony, we are our own individuals."
White Magick gave them a smile and said, "Good, I am happy to hear that." He pointed his hoof at them and continued, "Now I need to do one more thing to make sure nopony can cast another loyalty spell on you should you return to your homeland."
The six gave the king a smile and stood at attention. Once the king had their undivided attention again his horn began to glow white and he said, "From another to me, that is where your allegiance will now be, you thought your old commander loved you like pie when all they wanted was for you to die. With me all shall be great, there shall be no hate."
Again he released a calm beam of energy into them which was quickly absorbed into their bodies. Once the magic had fully been absorbed by them they stood tall and shouted, "All hail King White Magick, our one and only leader!"
White Magick replied, "Thank you soldiers and welcome to our military. Once my son returns from taking your former leader to the dungeon, I shall have him lead you over to our base and you can get to know your fellow soldiers."
Once he finished saying this Prince Blue Star returned from the dungeon. He said, "Father, the so-called dark goddess has been secured." He looked at the soldiers and asked, "What is it you wish for me to do with her soldiers? Do you wish for me to haul them down there as well."
White Magick replied, "No son, they are loyal to us now. Take them to the base so they may get acquainted with their fellow soldiers." A smile developed on his face as he continued, "While you do that, I shall pay Equestria's leader a visit of my own."
Visiting with the Dark Goddess
While Blue Star was leading their new soldiers to the base, White Magick headed down into the dungeon. When he opened the door he heard the screams and yells of Twilight demanding that they let her go. He yelled, "Silence Equestrian!"
Twilight continued to yell until White Magic arrived at her cell. He gave her an intense stare until she finally calmed down. Once she had remained quiet for a minute White Magick began, "Twilight......"
Twilight yelled, "You do not simply refer to me as Twilight. You refer to me as Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle or die!"
Normally White Magick would be angered over such a yell but with Twilight being powerless, he found it rather amusing. He chuckled, "You are powerless here so I think I'm pretty safe."
Twilight yelled, "You let me go or else!"
White Magick laughed, "Or else? What are you going to do, yell me to death?"
Twilight yelled, "When I don't return, my whole army will come looking for me! My soldiers I brought with me will make sure you free me!"
White Magick laughed, "About them, they're loyal to me now and you want to know something funny? I was easily able to get them to doubt you before I freed them from your control." His laughter subsided as he continued, "And then I decided they needed to show allegiance to a new leader so I cast my loyalty spell on them."
Twilight yelled, "You lie! There is no spell out there that can counter the loyalty spell of the Dark Goddess Twilight......"
White Magick found it amusing that Twilight would think that the spell was actually hers. He asked, "Twilight, I know that Equestria has many types of magic spells but I think you need a little history lesson regarding where your land got its magic."
Twilight immediately knew where he was headed with this and yelled, "If you think I'm going to believe our magic came from you....."
White Magick interrupted, "Silence Equestrian!" Once Twilight went quiet White Magick continued, "Many, many millennia ago, this land was shrouded in darkness after we had to face dark forces, forces much darker than you could ever dream of being."
Twilight laughed, "Something darker than your Dark Goddess?, I think not!"
White Magick rolled his eyes and continued, "We can discuss the dark forces in better detail later, this is about what you think of as your spells." He stared Twilight down and continued, "While you may think those spells were written by your own kind, they weren't. They were spells used by us long ago against those villains and their minions. Some were even used to brainwash the minions of those dark forces."
Twilight began mouthing something mocking her captor and asked, "Look, just because you used similar spells...."
White Magick was quickly getting tired of Twilight's constant interruptions and disrespect. He interrupted, "You want to know how the ponies of Equestria gained access to most of your spells?"
Twilight scoffed, "Let your Dark Goddess guess, you gave them to somepony important in our past?"
White Magick replied, "Well it was several millennia after the fall of evil but also after the ponies of Ponyland seemed to have vanished that a white Alicorn with a red mane and tail, LaurFa I think her name was, showed up hoping that this land was void of other intelligent life but she was mistaken." He began to become angry and continued, "And this LaurFa, threatened to come in and purge us unless we gave her something to help protect her subjects."
Twilight mocked, "Oh, you had to give her copies of your spells, didn't you?" She began to laugh further, "Is that why you hate Equestrians? Is it because LaurFa demanded copies of your spells?"
White Magick fired a bolt of energy at Twilight, burning her. He again became angry and yelled, "It is not because of that. It is because when we gave her copies of our spells, she told us that her kind would give us our space and leave us alone but she obviously LIED!"
Twilight again mocked, "Oooh, so we broke LaurFa's promise!" She began to laugh as she lied, "Well I don't know anything about LaurFa finding disobedient ponies and deciding to leave them alone!" Her voice became more intense as she continued, "Well LaurFa is gone and the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle is in charge now and your Dark Goddess does not follow somepony else's decrees."
White Magick sternly replied, "You will if you know what is good....."
Twilight sneered, "Spare your Dark Goddess your non-sense. She is sick of your lies that you call history!"
White Magick grunted, "Well then, I shall stop with my history lesson." He paused for a minute before continuing, "And now my family and I shall discuss what to do with you. We shall discuss whether we should simply kill you, turn you loose or attempt to cleanse you."
Twilight mocked, "Oooh, the big bad king has consult with his wife and son, ha-ha-ha!"
White Magick gave her no more attention and headed out of the dungeon. After he headed back upstairs Twilight got an evil grin on her face and laughed, "When they decide to free me, I'll go home, cast a spell on me and my army to protect us from this place's magic, march in and wipe them out! Nopony escapes the wrath of the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle, nopony!"
After returning from the dungeon White Magick was met by his wife, Queen Ruby Heart and his son, Prince Blue Star. They both could see the frustrated look on his face and figured that the conversation with Twilight did not go well. Ruby Heart asked, "So honey, how did your talk with their so-called dark goddess go?"
White Magick sighed, "Well it went."
Blue Star asked, "What do you mean by that?"
White Magick replied, "Just that. Nothing special went on, she was behaving like she was when we brought her in, arrogant and referring to herself as a dark goddess."
Ruby Heart asked, "Regarding that, what are we going to do with her? I certainly don't want somepony like her in our realm for too long. Yes I know she can't access or use her magic here but still, I would feel better if she were back in Equestria."
Blue star added, "I agree with mom. I get very bad vibes from her and yes she can't access her magic but what if it were to be seeping out from her? What if enough of it were to leak into our realm that it caused either some dark force to rise or it at least disrupted the harmony we have?"
White Magick looked at his family and said, "Well I was going to try and cleanse her but that would release a ton of negative energy and we certainly don't want or need that." He sighed in frustration and continued, "As much as I don't want to, I think allowing her to return to her home would be the best option."
Ruby Heart added, "And we will have her escorted out of the hills before we turn her loose on her own."
White Magick continued, "That sounds like a plan and I have decided that I along with some soldiers will handle this." He turned to his son and ordered, "Go get twenty soldiers and have them waiting for me by the portal."
Blue star replied, "Yes father, will do."
Ruby Heart added, "Good. Now let's get her out of here, I don't want her around any longer than she needs to be."
Release of the Dark Goddess
It wasn't even ten minutes after leaving that White Magick returned to the dungeon to immediately be greeted with, "Oh hello your royal lowness, did your family allow you to make a decision regarding me?"
White Magick rolled his eyes before replying, "Well I have some good news for you, very good news."
Twilight grunted, "Oh and what is that? Have you decided you're only to hang me instead of gutting me alive?"
White Magick fired some energy at her and snapped, "Don't you sass me little filly. The good news it that we have decided to release you."
Twilight began to laugh, "Ooooh, the big bad king's little wife probably doesn't want the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle around here anymore, does she?"
White Magick's patience was already wearing thin, he had no desire to resort to any more violence than he already had so he unlocked the cell and led Twilight out. As they were leaving Twilight sneered, "Ha, ha, ha! Even the big bad king can't keep the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle imprisoned forever!"
White Magick grunted, "Give it a rest already."
It seemed forever to him but finally White Magick and Twilight reached the portal and were greeted by Blue Star and twenty soldiers with spears. When Twilight noticed that her soldiers were not there she yelled, "Where are MY soldiers? You release them too or else?"
White Magick simply patted Twilight on the head and laughed, "Remember Twily, they're loyal to me....."
Twilight threw a hoof at the king and yelled, "Nopony calls me Twily....."
Before she could say anything further she found herself being prodded by many, many spears. It was at this moment that Twilight figured that it would be best if she remained quiet. Once they figured Twilight had calmed down enough they began to lead her through the portal and out of their realm. White Magick grabbed Twilight in his aura and ordered, "Soldiers, grab her as well. Once we are back in Equestria who knows what she is capable of."
Being held in so many auras Twilight was unable to speak which angered her greatly. She kept on trying to speak but all that came out were angry muffled sounds. After a two hour march they arrived at the edge of the forest, well south of the hills that White Magick warned her to stay out of. Finally he ordered his soldiers to release their hold on her but his remained. He warned, "I have some advice for you Twilight, you and your kind stay out of these hills, OR ELSE!"
Twilight snapped, "Oh and what are you going to do? Invade Equestria, try and depose me, come and yell at me about breaking LaurFa's promise? Whatever it is, if you try it you'll be sorry!"
White Magick finally released his hold on Twilight and again warned, "Now go home but be warned, I will have these hills more heavily patrolled so if you even come and attempt to invade my kingdom, you and your soldiers will be executed on sight."
Twilight laughed, "Nothing can kill the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle so I'll do as I please."
White Magick again fired energy at Twilight and ordered, "Now go before I decide to carry out that execution now."
Twilight was sick and tired of putting up with what she considered a mouthy, disobedient subject but knew that at this time it would be best to go since she had lost six of her soldiers. She simply grunted and took flight west. Once she was out of earshot he told the soldiers, "Well troops, we need to prepare for war."
Blue Star asked, "Prepare for war? But you said that you'd only invade Equestria if her forces were caught in the hills again."
White Magick replied, "I lied to her son. She broke the promise LaurFa made us so many millennia ago and besides, if she has her guard down, we can march into her capitol, slay her and her army and take Equestria as our own."
This was one thing that Blue Star was really unsure about, especially given they had no knowledge about where Twilight's capitol is. He asked, "But father, how will we know where to go? We know nothing about the geography of Equestria!"
White Magick replied, "Those soldiers that were hers do. They know where her capitol is, they know her weaknesses, they know the makeup of her army and they know the makeup of the population of her capitol. With them being loyal to me now, we can do this and we will win."
Blue Star sighed, "Alright father, you know what is best. When do you want to start training for this?"
White Magick replied, "We shall start training in three days time. I want to be ready to march on her capitol within a month."
Blue Star asked, "What if she has a large army with many, many of those types of soldiers we captured?"
White Magick replied, "Simple, once we are within eyesight of her capitol I shall duplicate the hoof soldiers we brainwashed many times over and victory will be certain." He looked back towards the hills and continued, "Let's get back home, we need to clear our minds before we begin training for this."
White Magick and his forces headed back towards the portal and his son couldn't help but wonder what his father was thinking. What he was wanting to do was not something that he would have wanted to do in the past but all he could do was trust his father's judgment.
Once Twilight got headed back towards Ponyville, she was irritated with what had happened involving White Magick. For her it wasn't just being captured and detained like a common criminal, it was the threats involving what would happen if she were to return to the hills.
After a long while of flying, Twilight finally saw Ponyville and her tower on the horizon. Her scowl turned into a smile and she said to herself, "Finally, I'm home! I can have a decent meal again and I can sleep in my own bed again!"
When Twilight landed at the base of her tower she was greeted by her highest remaining dark Alicorn officer, Colonel Dark Storm. He saw that Twilight was alone and couldn't help but be concerned. He headed to where she landed and asked, "Your Majesty, what is wrong? Where are our soldiers."
Even mentioning this did not please Twilight. She yelled, "Where do you think they are you idiot? They certainly aren't with me."
Unlike some of the other soldiers, Dark Storm was not scared of Twilight. He asked, "I simply asked where they were. There is no need to get mad at me."
Twilight could see his point and sighed, "Well let's just say that they were captured by the enemy and were not allowed to return with me."
Dark Storm asked, "Why didn't they return with you?"
Twilight decided that this would be best addressed in front of the whole army so she replied, "Let's head over to the base. I think this would be best addressed to the whole army."
The two headed to the base where Twilight simply found them standing around conversing with one another and this did not please her one bit. She barked, "ATTENTION!"
Almost immediately all the soldiers stood at attention and faced their leader. Twilight began, "Troops, I am guessing you are wondering why I called this meeting."
One of the soldiers replied, "Actually yes I am."
Twilight continued, "As many of you know, I along with two generals and four regular soldiers headed east to confront those ponies that were living without paying tribute but we ran into a few problems."
Her top Changeling officer, Colonel Green Mist asked, "What sort of problems your Majesty?"
Twilight continued, "Well we were captured by their army in the hills of the Everfree Forest and taken into their territory, which just happens to be some realm only accessible through a portal inside the hills." She began to become agitated and continued, "And once they got us in their territory none of us could use our magic anymore! I couldn't use magic to repel them and neither could my troops, or should I say what were my troops."
The whole army gasped in shock when she said this. One of the soldiers asked, "What do you mean by were your troops?"
Twilight became angrier and yelled, "I say were because they brainwashed them using the same type of loyalty spell I use and now they are loyal to their leader, King White Magick."
Another soldier asked, "Wait a minute, they know your spells? How could they know your spells?"
Twilight snapped, "Well their king claims that those spells are his and that many millennia ago he gave LaurFa copies of those spells and that is how those of us in Equestria got our advanced spells." She realized that being overly emotional would not aid her any. She calmed down and continued, "And thanks to those spells, we are short four hoof soldiers and two generals."
Dark Storm asked, "So what are we going to do? Are we going to invade their territory and get our comrades back or are we going to send a couple changelings in on a covert mission?"
Twilight replied, "Well I like both of those ideas but neither will work because our magic will not work in their realm. I couldn't use my magic there nor could they so I'm certain none of you could either. They said something about Equestrian magic not working there....oh and speaking about Equestrians, they seem to harbor some sort of grudge against us."
Dark Storm asked, "Why would they harbor a grudge against Equestrians if they have lived in isolation like that?"
Twilight replied, "It has to do with LaurFa and their king from what seems to be at least 10,000 years ago. I'm not sure what it is but this king of theirs is ancient. The way he talks I'd think he is probably the oldest pony alive on this planet."
One of the soldiers asked, "So I take it he is an Alicorn?"
Twilight replied, "Yes, he, his wife and their son are all Alicorns and if the wife has as much power as their king and their prince has, we could be vulnerable to an attack from them."
Her army was in shock to see how she was behaving. The ones that had been alive the longest remember how Twilight used to do nothing but boast about how she would easily defeat and kill them but here she was actually admitting that a foe might be a challenge.
One of the changeling soldiers asked, "So what do we do right now? Do we wait for them to attack and bring them down here since we can use our magic or what?"
Twilight held her head low and sighed, "I don't know, give me some time to think about it." She held her head up again and finished, "Dismissed."
As Twilight left the base she felt something that she had never felt before, self-doubt. As she headed back to her tower this was consuming her. While part of her was angry over the whole situation, one part of her was frustrated with herself for not knowing exactly what to do.
Confrontation With Celestia's Parents
Just as Twilight was arriving at her tower two figures landed right in front of her, two figures she recognized away. She was not thrilled when she saw them and asked, "Galaxia, Cosmos, what the hay are you doing back so soon?"
The two noticed that Twilight seemed irritated but that would not stop Galaxia from bringing up what had brought her there. She asked, "Twilight, we came to see Celestia."
Twilight grunted, "And why would you come to see your precious little daughter again so soon?"
For both Galaxia and Cosmos this seemed to be proof that something bad did indeed happen to Celestia. Galaxia glared at Twilight and asked, "Where is Celestia? Where is our daughter?"
Twilight gave them a smirk and replied, "Oh she went out of town. She started crying and whining about my behavior so I sent her away for a bit."
Cosmos got in Twilight's face and asked, "What did you do to our daughter? Where is she?"
Twilight couldn't help but laugh, "I didn't do anything to your daughter. Like I said, I sent her out of town while I get a few things taken care of!"
The way Twilight was dodging their questions with half-truths caused the two to know what probably happened. Galaxia snapped, "You sent her to the void didn't you?" She grabbed Twilight in her aura and yelled, "If you did so help me LaurFa, you'll be sorry."
Twilight broke free of her aura and snapped, "Oh I'll be sorry huh? What will you do, bring your army here so I can kill them? Yell at me? Grab me in your aura again? Whatever it is, it won't work!" She smacked Galaxia and continued, "Remember Galaxia, I am the most powerful pony in existence. There is no force that can do anything to me!"
Cosmos smacked Twilight in return and yelled, "Whatever you did to our daughter, where ever you banished her to, you better unbanish her now!"
Twilight was quickly getting fed up with this and was seriously thinking about banishing Galaxia and Cosmos to the void or somewhere else but then it hit her, with as old as they were and with as close as they were to LaurFa, maybe they would be able to help her learn more about her enemy but first she realized that a new loyalty spell was needed.
Twilight sighed, "Oh alright, I'll unbanish the little crybaby but you must do something for me first." She pointed her hoof a few feet in front of her and ordered, "Stand right in front of me, NOW!"
The two knew that Twilight meant business and knew what was going to happen so they obliged. Once they were in front of her Twilight's horn began to glow a dark purple as she recited, "From another to me, that is where your allegiance will now be, you thought your old commander loved you like pie when all they wanted was for you to die. With me all shall be great, there shall be no hate."
The energy gently was absorbed by their bodies and after a few seconds of being disoriented, they completely forgot about Celestia and yelled, "All hail the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle, our one and only leader!"
Twilight replied, "Good, it's good to have you as part of my extended family again." She gave them an intense stare and asked, "Do you think we could discuss something in the throne room? What I need to discuss is very important."
Cosmos replied, "Of course we can Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight said, "Oh and could you just call me Twilight or Twily, you know how I feel about those old rigid traditions."
An Important Meeting
Twilight and Celestia's parents headed to the throne room to discuss things involving the distant past. Once they arrived Galaxia asked, "So Twilight, what is it you wished to discuss?"
Twilight replied, "I know you two were fairly close with her but did LaurFa ever mention anything to you two about the distant past, such as the past involving dark forces here in Equestria and her finding ponies she didn't expect to find here in Equestria?"
Cosmos replied, "Actually, she did. There weren't a lot of us she shared ancient history with but we were among the few."
Galaxia added, "She mentioned something about a sect of ponies led by this King White Magick, the leader of a sect of ponies that lived in some sort of other realm on the other side of a portal."
Twilight sighed, "Well I read about these ponies in an early book from the old Faustica collection and she brought them up. Obviously when I learned about them I was angered that they were not paying me tribute so I payed them a visit but they captured me because I can't use my magic in their realm."
Galaxia continued, "Well she never mentioned anything about that but she did mention about them sharing some of their spells with her as an act of goodwill. She said something about them resembling us more rather than the ponies they used to share the land with and that they felt like they could relate with us."
Twilight yelled, "What? He LIED to me! He said something about LaurFa demanding that they give them those spells or they'd attack them! Even in LaurFa's book, it said something about ponykind going to leave them alone."
Cosmos suggested, "Well she did tell us about how powerful they were and that she felt ponykind should just leave them alone."
Twilight sighed, "Ok, I get that but what about these dark evils that White Magick brought up while I was in captivity? Did she ever mention anything about those or did they ever share that information with her?"
Galaxia replied, "That is something that would take a while to talk about but I will let you know this, it involves things that all ponies in Equestria have been taught that are either myths or at most legends."
Twilight's jaw dropped open when she heard this. She had a feeling about what it was. She asked, "Are you talking about that Ponyland place I was taught about in mythology class?"
Cosmos replied, "Yes, that and some place called Tambelon that was ruled by a necromancer named Grogar but she went into very little detail about it so both of us figured that it was likely some lie they told her so I wouldn't put any stock into anything they would mention about that."
Twilight said, "Well they never brought such a thing up, just ancient evils so that could have been anything." Twilight then remembered their hatred of Equestrians and asked, "Also, they seem to have this hatred of Equestrians. Did LaurFa ever mention anything about that?"
Galaxia replied, "Actually no. She told us that they received her very well and said that as long as we are not hostile towards them, that they will welcome us with open hooves."
Twilight sighed, "Well perhaps since I had soldiers with me, they took that as Equestria being hostile and that was why they were so hostile towards us." Her stomach began to growl and she asked, "What do you say we stop with all this negative talk and have something to eat!"
Galaxia asked, "You wouldn't happen to have any fritters would you? Those sound so good right now!"
Twilight replied, "Yep, I have fritters. Yes Sweet Apple Acres has not been around for over a thousand years but I still get them imported from the Vanhoover area." She gave them a sigh and continued, "Alright, now no more serious discussions for today. If I need to know anything else I will ask you."
The two nodded and Twilight summoned the chef to get them some fritters. While Cosmos said not to put any stock into what LaurFa told them about Ponyland and Grogar, she couldn't help but wonder if all of that was true. Some nagging voice in the back of her mind was telling her that LaurFa hid a lot of information from them and simply didn't want to leave such scary information in their hooves and risk scaring ponies of the post-Ponyland world.
One month had passed since the capture and release of Twilight and White Magick had had his military taking part in intensive exercises, exercises that he and his son had been taking part in as well. Despite not having trained for an invasion before, the soldiers did quite well but the ones that did the best were those who were once Twilight's soldiers and White Magick couldn't help but notice.
He approached them after a daily exercise and said, "Troops, you have done quite well. It is obvious that your former leader knew how to train you."
Black Night said, "Well I was in charge of training the dark Alicorn soldiers and Green Death was in charge of training the changeling soldiers. Twilight herself hasn't engaged in any sort of exercise in a thousand years."
This brought a smile to the king's face and he replied, "Seriously? A leader who claims to be unbeatable and invincible has done nothing but set on her flank for the past thousand years?"
Green Death overheard them and joined the conversation, "Yeah, she doesn't do much except study once in a while, visit with the stewards she has placed around the world" he then began to laugh as she continued "make love to her wife!"
White Magick didn't pay too much attention to the whole making love to her wife part and replied, "In other words, she is likely out of shape, may not have her wits about her in battle and could easily be caught off guard?"
Black Night replied, "She may be out of shape but she is quite alert and she does have this green eye atop her tower that she can tap into to monitor the activities of the whole world."
Green Death added, "Yeah, she has this jade Alicorn up in her sleeping chambers that creates the eye so she can monitor everything."
One of the dark Alicorn soldiers continued, "I'm surprised she never noticed you. I thought for sure she would have sent troops out sooner to collect the tribute she thinks everypony owes her."
White Magick asked, "Regarding Twilight, what sorts of weaknesses does she have? Are there any ways to catch her off guard and what could cause her to become so emotional that she would lose her focus."
Black Night replied, "I haven't seen a lot of weaknesses in her but she does have a short temper and that could cause her to lose some focus but probably not enough to really harm her."
Green Death added, "Regarding catching her off guard, don't count on doing that. Like we have said, she has that green eye that she monitors things with so once we do decide to march on her, she will see us and be ready."
White Magick chuckled, "Oh we'll see about that." His voice became more serious as he continued, "Now you will be giving us instructions on how to get to her capitol, right?"
Black Night replied, "Of course your Majesty."
White Magick said, "Good. Now you and the rest of the troops rest. I plan on having us depart tomorrow morning and I want us to be well rested and alert."
The following morning arrived and while the soldiers were eating breakfast together, the royal family were also enjoying breakfast. While White Magick was eating his breakfast at a leisurely pace, the same could not be said of his wife nor his son. Ruby Heart asked, "Honey, how can you be enjoying your meal so easily? You're marching off to war today for pony's sake!"
Blue Star added, "Father, aren't even a little bit worried about their leader? She will be in her own realm and will be able to use her dark magic against you."
White Magick could understand their concerns but also felt that they were being overly paranoid. He replied, "Look, I know you're worried but I've dealt with much worse things in my life than arrogant green eyed Alicorns. Compared to the ancient evils I faced, she shouldn't cause me too many problems."
Blue Star asked, "Father, I know you dealt with ancient evils the ponies of the modern world could only dream of but still, don't go in there over confident. I don't feel like having her either kill you or capture you and then us have to send in reinforcements just to save you."
Ruby Heart added, "Our son makes a good point dear, I don't feel like having to worry whether or not I'll ever see you again and I'm sure our kingdom doesn't want to lose the rock that has kept this place stable since before the fall of Ponyland."
White Magick replied, "You do make a good point but I do plan on taking 300 unicorn soldiers with me as well as those that used to be Twilight's."
Ruby Heart was unsure about this and asked, "Are you sure you should do that? What if that loyalty spell was to be broken when they saw her? What if simply seeing their old leader made them loyal to her again?"
White Magick replied, "Honey, don't worry, they'll be fine. I've used this spell before and I'm certain she used it against her enemies in the past and it worked just fine and besides, we need somepony to lead us to her capitol."
Blue Star asked, "Regarding the unicorn soldiers, you're only taking 300? I'm sure she has thousands of soldiers like those ones we took in. This is going to be a suicide mission."
White Magick replied, "Son, you know how they are duplicates of others of their kind? I will simply do what Twilight does, duplicate them."
Blue Star asked, "When do you plan on duplicating them and how will you know how many you will need?"
White Magick replied, "I will duplicate them once I see their capitol and see how many soldiers she has. I'll simply create more of our own than she has, we can march in there, take the city for ourselves and in the case of their dark goddess, I shall slay her."
While Ruby Heart loved her husband dearly, the thoughts of him killing a mare disgusted her. She gave him an intense glare and asked, "Seriously, you're going to kill a mare? I know she is your enemy but couldn't you do something else, like try and cleanse that evil from her after the battle?"
Blue Star was in the same mindset as his mother, he did not like the idea that his father was planning on marching in there and killing a mare. He suggested, "Father, I'm in the same mindset as mom. I know you have a spell that can cleanse evil from foes such as her. I think you should just do that instead rather than taking an unnecessary life."
While White Magick did hold a deep respect for mares and believed that they should always be treated with respect, he also believed that those who are evil, regardless of sex, need to be taken care of using any means necessary and with evil ponies, that death would be the only option when it came to her. He replied, "Look, you two know she is evil just as much as I do and I don't want an evil pony being spared."
Ruby Heart snapped, "Look, you have that cleansing spell so you could cleanse her of the evil and she wouldn't be evil anymore." She stood up and raised her voice, "Who knows, you could cleanse her and she could go from being a foe to being a friend."
White Magick gasped, "Seriously, you are wanting me to spare the life of a pony you wanted out of here so badly?"
Ruby Heart replied, "You know what, something in the back of my mind is telling me that she may make a good ally in the future. It is telling me that we will wind up facing an enemy someday that both our kind and their kind, if we joined forces, could bring it down so just listen to me, ok?"
What Magick was shocked by his wife's demeanor. They almost never got into arguments and her being so intense regarding what to do in a battle made him wonder if perhaps he should listen to her. He sighed, "Oh alright, I'll simply cleanse her rather than kill her. She has lived in Equestria for a very long time so she may know things we may not."
Ruby Heart replied, "Thank you honey, you have no idea how relieved I am that you aren't going to go and kill her." She knew that it was getting late and she asked, "Well don't you think you better get the soldiers and get going? I have a feeling the march will likely take days."
Blue Star had always wanted to do more than just routine patrols with some of the soldiers, he had always wanted a chance to prove himself as a vital part of the royal family. He asked, "Father, would you want me to come with you since I took part in the training exercises? I think having two Alicorns in the battle would be better than one."
White Magick replied, "I'm sorry son but I think you need to stay here with your mother. In the event both of us were to fall in battle, I really don't know if she would......."
Ruby Heart yelled, "Honey, if you both fell I could rule this place perfectly fine on my own so just let him go with you."
White Magick sighed, "Very well son, let's go get in our armor, grab the necessary troops and get going."
Blue Star hugged his father and said, "Thanks father, I won't let you down."
White Magick nodded as they headed to the base to round up the soldiers they were taking. When they arrived they were just finishing breakfast when he yelled, "Attention!"
Every single soldier stood at attention awaiting what their king would say next. He began, "Alright troops, we have been training hard for a month but today is the day we depart for Equestria's capitol." He cast his gaze at Black Night and asked, "What is the name of their capitol anyway?"
Black Night replied, "It is called Ponyville."
White Magick continued, "Alright, today is the day we depart for Ponyville to punish their so-called dark goddess for attempting to invade our territory. We shall march in there, remove her from power and seize Equestria for ourselves!"
His troops began to cheer as he continued, "And once we take it over, we will have much, much more territory in which to live and many more resources at our disposal."
Again the troops cheered and he turned to his son, "Blue Star, gather 300 unicorn soldiers along with those who used to be loyal to Twilight and let's get going. I want to get out into the open by noon."
Given that he was actually going into battle with his father rather than just doing a regular patrol, he threw his father a salute and yelled, "Yes sir!"
As Blue Star began rounding up the soldiers he thought would be best for this endeavor, White Magick pulled Twilight's old soldiers to the side and asked, "Are you six ready for this? Are you ready to face off against your former leader."
In unison the six said, "Yes sir!"
White Magick replied, "Good, very good." He saw that his son had gathered the forces he requested and continued, "Alright troops, let's get going. It is likely a very long march to Ponyville."
His troops gave him a salute before they headed towards the portal and crossed over into Equestria. While White Magick was wanting to take the most direct route out of the hills and the forest, he figured that the easiest path would be the wisest route given he did not know what lie between the forest and Ponyville.
Once they exited the hills and the forest, White Magick turned to Black Night and asked, "General, which way is Ponyville from here?"
Black Night pointed his hoof to the right and replied, "Ponyville is to our west. As we continue on our journey we may have to make slight adjustments to our direction but for now, we should go west."
White Magick said, "You hear that troops, we go west."
As they headed west they could see nothing but flat lands as far as the eye could see but it wouldn't be so much what they saw to the west before too long, it would be what was to the west that saw them.
It was morning in Ponyville and Twilight was woken up by the morning sun. Like she always has, but especially since she banished Celestia to the void, she rolled around in her bed and stretched. She let out a huge yawn, "Well I better see if anything is going on." Once she got out of bed she laughed, "You know Twilight, I don't know why you do this. Nothing has happened in over a thousand years!"
Twilight headed over to the jade Alicorn and used it to scan the world. As she began to scan everything she said, "Well the Crystal Empire looks fine, Alicorn Island is looking normal, Saddle Arabia is boring as usual but when she looked to the east it was not the Equine Empire, but something closer to home that she saw. She was at first shocked by what she saw but soon became angry, "That bastard, that bucking bastard!"
Twilight began screaming every obscenity in the book which immediately caught Colonel Dark Storm's attention. He flew up to Twilight's balcony and asked, "Your Majesty, what is wrong? Why are you yelling?"
Twilight screamed, "Because we have an army marching on us. The leader of that sect of ponies is leading his army here, he is going to try and take the world for himself!"
Dark Storm knew how Twilight has acted in situations like this so rather than trying to calm her down, he let her continue screaming in a rage uninterrupted for fifteen minutes. Once she calmed down she was sweating heavily and had wore herself out. She looked at her colonel and asked, "Dark Storm, could you have everypony ready for a meeting at the base within the hour?"
Dark Storm replied, "Yes your Majesty."
Dark Storm took off towards the base but Twilight deviated from her normal morning routine. Rather than heading downstairs to have breakfast, she flew to Sugarcube Corner to not only have something sweet for breakfast but to do something that has not had to be done in over a millennia.
When Twilight arrived at the sweets' shop her friends were shocked to see her but at the same time they were scared when they saw her eyes shining a darker green than normal. Rainbow was the first to say anything, "Twilight, what's wrong? I haven't seen your eyes like that since we defeated Colgate."
Twilight replied, "I came to notify you all that effective immediately, you three are on active duty."
Rarity gasped, "Active duty? Twilight darling, whatever has happened to cause this?"
Twilight yelled, "I'll tell you when we have our meeting over at the base." She calmed down and continued, "Before we go over there though, could I have my usual Pinkie?"
Pinkie replied, "You bet! A dozen donuts with extra sprinkles and a pitcher of cider coming right up!"
Twilight sat down and her friends again began to ask her what was going on causing her to reply, "Girls, just like it was in the old days, no business talk during meals, especially when I'm having donuts!"
For the remainder of their breakfast, despite the three being very nervous as to why they were on active duty, they discussed normal things with Twilight such as what they had been doing recently. Once they were finished though Twilight ordered, "Alright girls, let's get to the base."
The four Alicorns flew off towards the base and once they arrived, Pinkie, Rainbow and Rarity landed down with the other soldiers while Twilight landed on the platform she had addressed them from for ages. Immediately she yelled, "Attention!"
Immediately she had the attention of every single soldier. Once they were quiet and facing her she began, "I'm not sure how many of you heard me yelling this morning but there is a reason for that."
Dark Storm asked, "What was it your Majesty? I know you started right after you started looking through the eye."
Twilight continued, "This involves those ponies who I along with our generals and a few soldiers headed out to force them to pay me the tribute they owe me."
Dark Storm asked, "The ones that brainwashed some of our troops I take it?"
Twilight replied, "Yes them." She began to become agitated, "Like I told you earlier I was scanning the world this morning and their king and prince have their army and they are marching on Ponyville! Their king wants the world for himself!"
Everypony she was addressing gasped in shock, especially her friends. Rarity asked, "Twilight darling, why would their king want the whole world? Don't they know what a wonderful leader you are?"
Twilight replied, "Well I think it involves us invading what they think is their territory and also I think it involves them thinking I'm evil and need to be done away with."
Again everypony gasped and Pinkie asked, "Why would they think you are evil Twilight? You're the nicest pony in the world!"
Twilight blushed, "Thank you Pinkie." She dropped the blush and continued, "I think it has to do with my green eyes and something is very odd with their monarchs, especially that king of theirs. They are Alicorns but the way they talk and what they talk about, it seems as though they are so old that they were here prior to the discovery of Equestria by LaurFa."
Green Death asked, "Seriously, they were here prior to the discovery of Equestria?"
Twilight replied, "That's what they claim." She then began to laugh, "And get this, from the way they talk they act like they were here back when Ponyland existed! Ponyland!"
While her soldiers knew nothing about ancient history or Equestrian mythology, her friends did. Rarity couldn't help but laugh, "Ponyland! They actually wanted you to believe in that myth?"
Twilight replied, "Yes they did but there is another thing that is odd about them, they seem to have something against Equestrian ponies."
Rainbow asked, "They do? Do they look different than we do and they think of us as inferior?"
Twilight replied, "No, they resemble us and have the same body structure." She began to become agitated again and continued, "Their king claimed something about LaurFa saying that ponykind would simply give them their space and claimed that we broke LaurFa's promise when we went there and that is why he suddenly had something against Equestrians."
Dark Storm asked, "Alright, we know about their king and what he told you but what about his army? What is the makeup of his army?"
Twilight replied, "Well besides him and his son, who is also an Alicorn, they have those soldiers of mine that they brainwashed and it appears as though he has roughly 300 unicorn soldiers."
One of the regular soldiers commented, "So you should be able to duplicate us many times over and we can easily take them out?"
Twilight got a smile on her face and replied, "Yes, that will be the case." She then puffed her chest out and boasted, "And your Dark Goddess shall slay their precious king and his son! The last thing they will see before they die will be your Dark Goddess's shining green eyes!"
Everypony began to cheer loudly seeing Twilight's old confidence shining through until Rainbow asked, "So Twi, are we going to fly out and kill them now or do you want to fight them here?"
Despite knowing that flying out and catching them off guard would be the best idea, she boasted, "I want them to come here and see your Dark Goddess's black tower. I want them to see the great green eye and I want to kill their king at the base of MY tower!"
Twilight's enthusiasm over wanting to kill them there in Ponyville caused all the dark Alicorns and changelings to cheer loudly while her friends were not so thrilled over her plans. They knew how things had been in the past and felt that Ponyville had seen more than enough battles in its long history but one of her friends was hoping she could change Twilight's mind on where the battle would happen. She asked, "Twilight, must Ponyville host another battle? Can't you and the soldiers just go out and defeat them?"
This did not sit well with Twilight. Her eyes began to shine a dark green and she yelled, "What did you say?"
Rarity repeated, "Twilight darling, I just want to know why you think Ponyville should have to host another battle? It has hosted so many over the ages."
Twilight flew over to where Rarity was standing and knocked her to the ground. She yelled, "Rarity, don't start this again." She placed her hoof on her and continued, "Are you with me or are you against me? Are you going to be with me like you were when we defeated Colgate or are you going to be a mouthy, disobedient little brat like you were when I went to get the jade Alicorn?"
Twilight continued to hold Rarity down with her hoof and yelled, "Which is it Rarity? Are you with us or are you against us?"
Rarity was terrified at this moment but still held out hope that they could spare Ponyville any more war. She defiantly asked, "Twilight, I don't get why you want to put this town through more war? We don't want it here nor do we need it here."
Twilight began stomping on Rarity and yelled, "Didn't you hear your Dark Goddess you disobedient little brat?" Rarity gave her an intense glare and Twilight realized that just like it was so long ago, that Rarity was a liability who would only cause problems. She grabbed Rarity in her aura and recited, "You have committed treason and that is not in season, you are a threat to me and I simply can not let that be, I can no longer be annoyed so you shall be cast into the void."
As everypony stood there in shock and horror, a black vortex opened up and swallowed Rarity. Suddenly the base was so quiet one could hear a pin drop. Twilight flew back up to the platform and with a scowl on her face she continued, "You see that? Just like it has always been, anypony who dares to challenge me, question me or cause any other kind of problems will get sent to the void."
One of the changeling soldiers asked, "Seriously your Majesty? You'll cast anypony into the void just like that?"
Twilight pointed her horn at the soldier and continued, "Yes soldier, I will." She then cast her gaze at everypony in front of her and continued, "And if any of you have a problem with it, the void never runs out of room."
Again silence filled the air until Twilight continued, "For now your Dark Goddess shall continue to monitor the enemy and decide how many duplicates she will need and in the mean time, I want ALL of you to train as hard as possible." She glared at her friends and continued, "You two too. Your Dark Goddess does not want any weak links."
Everypony, including her friends shouted, "Yes ma'am!"
Twilight glared at them and barked, "Dismissed!"
As Twilight stormed back towards her tower, all the soldiers were nervously talking among one another. One of the younger soldiers, one who knew that Pinkie and Rainbow were good friends with Twilight asked, "Excuse me, if you don't mind, can I ask you something?"
Rainbow looked over by the tower and saw that Twilight was not on her balcony. She replied, "Yeah, sure."
The soldier asked, "Has she always been like this? Has she always banished ponies to the void that anger her?"
Rainbow replied, "Ever since she learned how to after her corruption, yes."
The soldier's jaw dropped open when he heard her say this. He asked, "Corruption? Do you mean to tell me that Twilight hasn't always been a dark goddess."
Rainbow replied, "Nope, over 5,000 years ago she was a normal pony like me. She didn't even know what dark magic was, much less use it."
The soldier gasped, "Seriously? She was a nice pony like you a long time ago?"
Rainbow replied, "Yep. It wasn't until she was corrupted by an evil unicorn king, King Sombra and a wicked changeling queen, Queen Chrysalis that she turned evil."
The soldier wanted to know more about the old Twilight. He asked, "So did Twilight banish ponies to the void back then?"
Rainbow replied, "Twilight had never even heard of the void back then...."
Before she could continue she heard an angry voice yell, "Rainbow Dash, get to training unless you want to join Rarity in the void."
Rainbow yelled, "Sorry Twilight." She then turned to the soldier and continued, "Well we better get to training."
The soldier nodded and both joined in on the training exercises that Pinkie along with the other soldiers were engaging in. Twilight stood up on her balcony with a scowl on her face as she watched her army preparing for the upcoming battle. She shook her head and growled, "If I catch her being lazy even one more time, Rainbow's going to the void."
Well to the east of Ponyville, White Magick and his forces were heading west at a steady pace. Despite knowing that their march would end in a battle, all of the soldiers and even the king and prince found it nice to be outside of their realm, in Equestria. As they were marching west, Blue Star asked White Magick, "Father, if we defeat this dark goddess, are we going to take Equestria for ourselves and leave our closed off realm?"
White Magick replied, "You know son, I haven't even thought about that." He began to look at the vast, seemingly endless lands around them and continued, "I know your mother would likely oppose it but I would love to have a much bigger realm again, I'm sure our subjects would love it here, I would love it if we could have room for a larger military and I would love to not have to live isolated behind a portal."
Blue Star suggested, "Well after we defeat their dark goddess, I think we as a family should discuss it. I think we've lived in isolation for far too long and like you, I like what I see around us....."
Before he could say anything further his father got a case of the shivers. Blue Star saw this and asked, "Father, what is wrong? I have never seen you shiver like that before."
White Magick turned back to his troops and ordered, "Halt!" His troops stopped marching and he continued, "Troops, we have been spotted. I don't know how but I felt as though our enemy was piercing my very soul with her evil eyes."
Black Night knew what it was that made him feel that way. He said, "Your Majesty, I think I know why you felt that way."
White Magick asked, "General, what is it then? Does she have some sort of special ability that other ponies don't?"
Black Night replied, "Yes, she does. She has this great green eye at the top of her black tower that she uses to scan the whole world to check for trouble. When you got the shivers that was likely when she was looking in our direction."
White Magick asked, "General, do you know if she can see forces that are invisible with that thing or not?"
Black Night replied, "I don't think so." He had a feeling as to what the king was going to ask next so he continued, "I would advise you cast an invisibility spell on us and not reverse it until right before we attack."
White Magick said, "You must have been reading my mind." He paused for a minute before continuing, "Troops, I need you all to gather right here in front of me. I am going to cast an invisibility spell on us so our enemy can't see us."
Black Night nodded and ordered all the troops to stand right in front of their king. Once everypony was in place, White Magick's horn began to glow and he recited, "Whether it be one or a bunch of ones, nopony needs to see so that we don't have to flee, invisibility is the treat of not having to retreat"
As the energy spread out from his horn, he, his son and all of his forces were invisible. Despite being invisible, since they were invisible as well, they could all see one another. White Magick said, "Alright troops, now we can continue our march undetected."
Black Night advised, "I don't mean to tell you what to do your Majesty but I would advise we march until Ponyville is in our sights, take a look at what they have there, then go to the Everfree Forest and then reverse the spell so we may eat and drink."
White Magick replied, "You must have been reading my mind general." He looked forward and continued, "Come on, let's get going."
White Magick and his forces continued their march west under the cloak of invisibility. With them being invisible, White Magick felt far more confident but knew that since Twilight had seen them, that he would need to duplicate the dark Alicorn soldiers and changelings many times over as Twilight would likely duplicate her forces many times over.
Two long days had passed of nearly non-stop marching with little to eat or drink and finally Twilight's dark tower was becoming visible on the edge of the horizon. When White Magick saw this he ordered his troops to stop. He turned to his general and asked, "General, where is their military base? We need to see how many soldiers they have."
Black Night replied, "That is it right to the south of her tower."
White Magick saw the base and noticed that Twilight did have a fair amount of soldiers but not nearly as many as he thought she would. He looked more closely and began to count them. He couldn't help but chuckle, "Five hundred soldiers overall, that's it? Talk about being unprepared!"
Black Night suggested, "Your Majesty, I would advise that you do not underestimate her. If I know her as well as I think I do, she will likely have calculated how long it will take us to get here and will duplicate her forces after they are well fed, right before she thinks we will attack."
While White Magick was the one who originally wrote the spell, he had forgot about duplicates being exact copies of the originals, including whether or not they had full stomachs. He replied, "That's right general. It has been so long since I've had to use these spells that I completely forgot how a few of them work!"
For another hour they stood there watching the activity at the base until they saw Twilight heading out to the base to check on things. The very sight of the dark goddess made Black Night, Green Death and the hoof soldiers shudder while the rest of the army just watched her in disgust as they saw how she was carrying herself, strutting around like she was the best thing in the world.
White Magick remembered Black Night discussing how she had likely calculated how long it would take them to get there. He asked, "General, you said that Twilight has likely calculated how long it would take us to get here?"
Black Night replied, "Yes your Majesty, she most likely did that."
White Magick said, "Well I'm betting she is going down to duplicate her troops. I'm thinking perhaps we should stay here and monitor what is going on until we know for sure."
Black Night replied, "I agree. I have a feeling that she is likely going to duplicate her troops and have them stand guard, waiting for our arrival."
Green Death overheard them and suggested, "Your Majesty, before she starts duplicating them, I think we should charge in there and take them down."
White Magick gave him a slight glare, "No general, we will not be doing that. All of us are tired, hungry and thirsty and I'm sure there is a place in the nearby forest that we can refuel and besides, I think if we wait a couple or three days, especially if she duplicates them now, that her forces will not have enough to eat and then we can go in and win this after I duplicate our soldiers."
Blue Star, who had been quiet for the most part interrupted, "Father, troops, watch her. I think she is going to duplicate them! I can tell by the way she is acting that she is going to."
The whole army went quiet and focused on Twilight and her forces, monitoring what she was doing. While Blue Star thought that she was going to duplicate them, given the time of day it was, Black Night and Green Death knew different. Green Death said, "Prince Blue Star, I know it looks like she may be getting ready to duplicate them, I can tell that she isn't."
Blue Star asked, "What is it you think she is going to do?"
Green Death replied, "Given that it is a day she thinks an enemy will attack, she is likely going to have breakfast with them first and then duplicate them."
White Magick asked, "Really, she would have breakfast with her soldiers on a day like this?"
Black Night replied, "Yes, she would. She thinks of it as a way to say 'thank you' to her troops and improve their morale so I don't think she will be doing any duplicating for a couple of hours at least."
White Magick knew that his generals, given that they used to be part of Twilight's army, would know what they were talking about. He said, "Well troops, we will stand here and monitor what is going on until she has duplicated her forces."
One of the unicorn soldiers asked, "And then can we go into the forest and eat and drink some water? We're all famished and dehydrated here."
White Magick pointed his hoof towards the north and replied, "How about all of you go and wait for us in the forest. I along with our generals will stay here and monitor her. Once we know more what is going on, we will come, I will reverse the invisibility spell and then we can eat and drink some water." He cast his gaze towards his whole army and continued, "Dismissed."
His army and his son headed into the forest while the king and his generals crept right to the outskirts of Ponyville so they could get a much closer look at what Twilight was doing. As they were monitoring her activities, they could hear her and couldn't help but sigh in disgust as they heard Twilight giving an arrogant speech to her soldiers, basically guaranteeing victory.
It was morning in Ponyville as Twilight woke up form a less than peaceful slumber. That morning she was tired as she had nightmares about the enemy that had suddenly vanished coming in and not only dethroning her, but managing to undo everything she had built in Ponyville. She stretched and said to herself, "Ugh, I hope those are only nightmares and not visions, I have worked too hard over so long to build what I have here."
The first thing she did when she got up was tap into the eye and scan the world. She was pleased as she saw nothing bad happening around the world but was frustrated as she continued to look closer off to the east and no matter how hard she looked, just like it had been every time since she first saw them, nopony at all was to be found. She yelled, "Where the hay are they? Why can't I see them?" Then it hit her, she realized that they must have cast an invisibility spell on themselves. She groaned, "Ugh I wish I could see them when they were invisible!"
That morning Twilight decided that she would do something that she had not done since the defeat of Colgate, she decided she would eat with the army. Unlike it was in the old days when she would have just the officers with her, she headed to the base to join the whole army and just like it was in the old days, she ate the same food that they did.
When she arrived the army was shocked that she was going to eat with them but one of the officers was wondering if something else was going on. Once Twilight got sat down, her dark Alicorn major, Black Cloud asked, "Your Majesty, what is going on? Why are you eating with us instead of in your tower?"
Colonel Dark Storm added, "Does it involve that army that is marching on us? Are they getting close?"
Twilight replied, "Actually yes, it does. If my calculations are correct, they should arrive today and I want to get everything taken care of, including duplicating our hoof soldiers." She looked around and noticed that two ponies who were on active duty were not at the base like they were supposed to be. She continued, "Have any of you seen Pinkie Pie or Rainbow Dash this morning?"
Dark Storm asked, "No, I haven't. Where are they usually at this time of morning?"
Twilight replied, "They are usually at Sugarcube Corner." She looked around and noticed that breakfast was not being served yet and continued, "Well I will go and get them. Today is the day I can least afford them to not be present."
Her officers nodded as she took flight for the sweets' shop. When she arrived she headed in and found the two casually eating cupcakes laughing over silly things. She approached them with a scowl on her face and ordered, "To the base, now."
Rainbow replied, "Twi, why do we have to be at the base this early?"
Pinkie added, "Yeah, we just got started on our cupcakes!"
Twilight ordered, "I'm not going to ask you again, either you go to the base or you go to the void."
The two gave her a nervous look and simply nodded. They followed Twilight to the base where they joined her and her officers right as breakfast was being served. When breakfast arrived Rainbow and Pinkie were shocked by what they were getting, eggs, bacon, toast, cider and hash browns. Rainbow looked around and saw that all the soldiers were getting the same thing. She asked, "Twi, your whole army is getting this today? Is it like this every morning or is there something important going on today to warrant this?"
Twilight replied, "They eat like this every morning but the reason you are here is that there is something important going on today that warrants you being here."
Pinkie commented, "Well whatever it is, thank you for having us over here!"
Twilight replied, "Don't mention it Pinkie, just promise me you'll be ready for what will happen later today."
Pinkie simply nodded and began to dig in on her meal. Despite doing a good job in hiding her anxiety about where the army was that she had seen headed towards Ponyville a couple days ago, Twilight couldn't help but be nervous. Something in the back of her head was telling her that they were likely much closer than she thought.
After she and her army had finished eating breakfast, Twilight ordered them to gather in front of the platform she always addresses them from. Once everypony had gathered and she had their attention she began, "Alright troops, I'm sure you are wondering why I joined you for breakfast this morning."
One of the changeling soldiers replied, "Actually yes, I am."
Twilight continued, "As you all know a couple days ago I saw the army of those ponies that I went to demand tribute from marching this way. Given the rate that I saw them marching at, I am guessing that they should arrive sometime today so I'm sure you all know what that means."
Dark Storm asked, "Does it mean that the hoof soldiers are going to be duplicated so that we will be more than prepared?"
Twilight said, "Yes, it does." She cast her gaze out towards the ordinary soldiers and ordered, "Troops, I need you to gather over by the base of my tower so I can duplicate you."
One of the soldiers asked, "This soon? What if they don't arrive for quite some time and we are hungry when they arrive?"
This did not sit well with Twilight. She glared at the soldier and asked in return, "So this is how it's going to be huh? You are going to dare to question your Dark Goddess?"
The soldier held his head low and replied, "No your Majesty, I'm sorry for questioning you."
The soldier along with the rest of his comrades headed over to the base of the tower and waited for Twilight to do what she has done so many times in the past. Once they were all gathered together Twilight flew off her platform and landed in front of them. Her horn began to glow as she recited, "From one to two, two to four and so much more, when one is simple mere, more and more shall appear."
She fired a bolt of energy at her soldiers and as soon as it struck them, there were twice as many as there were before. After her duplication spell, she had five hundred of each kind of soldier but she knew that she would likely need more if she is to defend not just Ponyville, but her crown. She cast the spell several more times until she had 4,000 of each kind of soldier.
Twilight looked at her vastly larger army with a smile. She cast her gaze back at the soldiers along with Pinkie and Rainbow and ordered, "Over here with the rest of the army, now!"
They all obeyed and joined the army. Once Twilight knew she had their attention she began, "Alright troops, now that your Dark Goddess has a sufficient number of troops, she is ready for battle! She is ready to wipe out those ungrateful enemies who refuse to pay her the tribute she deserves." She puffed her chest out and continued, "Now, after we kill each and every one of them we shall have more than enough to eat but remember this soldiers, your Dark Goddess gets dibs on the king! Your Dark Goddess shall feast on his flesh!"
For the most part her troops began cheering loudly but a couple of the older officers along with Pinkie and Rainbow had to fake their cheers as they thought that Twilight was being overconfident and that such arrogance could lead to her downfall.
As Twilight was duplicating her troops and then giving her speech, White Magick and his generals looked on in disgust. White Magick knew now that he was going to have to duplicate quite a few troops during the night when he could do it undetected but the fact that Twilight was discussing feasting on his flesh did more than anger him, it enraged him but he managed to keep his cool. He cast his gaze at his generals and said, "Well, now we know how many duplicates we will need and you know everything she said in her speech?"
Green Death replied, "Yes your Majesty?"
White Magick said, "We shall use that to rally our troops, we shall tell them that this so-called dark goddess not only wants to kill us but eat us as well."
Black Night commented, "She was like that in the past, always wanting to feast on her enemies and back before the last battle in Ponyville, she did that to an enemy from the Crystal Empire, well two enemies to be exact."
White Magick gasped, "Seriously? She isn't just joking about feasting on us?"
Green Death replied, "Nope, it's no joke. Her and Colgate both had a taste for pony flesh although Colgate would even eat dark Alicorn and changeling meat too if it meant she could intimidate her enemies."
White Magick knew that his generals would not lie to him but still had trouble fathoming that ponies would eat meat, especially the meat of other ponies given that his kind along with those who resided in Ponyland were strictly herbivores. He looked in the direction of the forest and ordered, "Alright generals, let's get into the forest so I can reverse the invisibility spell and we can get something to eat."
When they found the rest of their forces they were not one bit happy. They were hungry, they were thirsty and while they were invisible, they were unable to eat or drink. White Magick heard them grumbling and ordered, "Troops, now that we know what we need to know, gather here right in front of me."
His troops did as ordered and once they were all gathered together, his horn began to glow and he recited, "The unseen shall now be seen, with their friends being present, hiding only shows resent, those who have disappeared shall now appear."
He fired his energy at them and not only did they become visible, but so did he. Once the spell was complete he continued, "Troops, we need to get much deeper into the forest. Hopefully there will be some sort of lake and bushes that we can quench our thirst and hunger with."
Black Night said, "Your Majesty, I know where we can find what we need. Follow me."
White Magick and the rest of his forces followed his generals very deep into the forest until they found a decent sized lake with some plum bushes in the area. White Magick looked around and was pleased with what he saw. Not only did the area have sufficient water and food but the forest canopy was good and thick, which he felt would provide protection from being detected by Twilight.
The rest of the day and well into the evening White Magick remained rather quiet while Blue Star and the army was much more talkative, which brought about concern from his son. Finally once it had become dark enough that the unicorns had to use their horns to create some light, Blue Star was going to find out why his father had been so silent.
He headed over to White Magick and asked, "Father, you have been very quiet. What is wrong, are you concerned about the outcome of the battle tomorrow?"
White Magick replied, "No son, I am not. I am simply trying to clear my mind and focus on what the best way to deal with their dark goddess is."
Blue Star asked, "Are you going to kill her or are you going to deal with her in some other way?"
White Magick replied, "No, I'm not going to kill her. I plan on trying to cleanse her of the evil that has possessed her. There are many different kinds of evil but the evil that is in her, especially with how her eyes are, will be extremely difficult to cleanse but I know with the right amount of focus and the aid of changeling ooze, I should be able to take care of her."
Blue Star asked, "Father, are you not going to address the troops tonight before we turn in?"
White Magick stood up and replied, "Just give me a moment." He walked over to where the army was resting and said, "Troops, I'm not going to say a whole lot tonight because I think we should just rest our minds and relax but I will say this, we need to be completely alert for the battle tomorrow."
One thing that had been bothering the soldiers is that there were not very many of them. One of the unicorn soldiers asked, "Your Majesty, there are so few of us and I am certain that their dark goddess likely duplicated her forces multiple times over. Are you going to do that to us?"
White Magick replied, "For the regular dark Alicorn and changeling soldiers, yes. Tomorrow morning I will duplicate them sufficiently to where we will outnumber them so don't worry about that. For now though, just relax and get some sleep tonight because I want us eating an early breakfast so we can launch our attack before their dark goddess is ready for us."
One of the soldiers asked, "About the duplicates, won't they have to eat and drink like the rest of us?"
White Magick replied, "Actually no soldier, they do not. A duplicate is an exact duplicate so when a soldier has a full stomach and is well hydrated is duplicated, the duplicate will be so as well."
The soldier replied, "Well that makes me feel better, much better."
White Magick asked, "Any other questions?" When he was greeted with silence he took that as his cue to finish, "Well troops, get plenty of rest tonight because like I said, we will be eating an early breakfast and heading towards Ponyville early so I can duplicate the dark Alicorns and changelings to where we will have an advantage."
Earlier in the evening White Magick had been resting off on his own but that night would be different as he decided he would rest in the same area that everypony else was. While he was not overconfident or thinking that the battle the next day would be easy, he did have a feeling that his troops would prevail and that he would be able to free Twilight of the evil that has possessed her.
The following morning arrived and Twilight was frustrated, very frustrated. She was certain that her enemy would arrive the prior day but that did not happen. When she woke up the first thing she did was head to the jade Alicorn to tap into the eye hoping she would see them. As she scanned the world and looked to the east, she became frustrated, very frustrated. She was frustrated because her enemy was nowhere to be seen. She screamed, "Ugh, where the hay are they? They should have been here by now!"
She stormed downstairs and unlike the previous day, she ate her breakfast in the tower rather than over at the base. She knew that given that there were so many more soldiers, that not only would there be next to nothing to eat, but also that they would likely be in very foul moods and she did not feel like dealing with it. After eating a filling breakfast she decided to go to Sugarcube Corner to see if her friends were there.
When she arrived they were nowhere to be found and this angered Twilight greatly. She screamed, "Ugh, when I get my hooves on them....."
Then it hit her, she thought that perhaps they had headed to the base in the event the enemy were to attack so she headed there next. When she arrived she would be surprised to find them there but would not be thrilled with the soldiers' reactions towards her. Once she arrived she flew up onto the platform she always does and was immediately greeted with glares and grumbling from her forces.
The first one to say anything was Colonel Dark Storm. He yelled, "Twilight, where are their forces? Shouldn't they have arrived by now?"
A changeling shoulder added, "You said they'd be here yesterday."
Twilight's eyes began to shine a darker green and she yelled, "Look, I don't know where they are. They should have been here by now. For all I know they could have decided to return home and push their attack back."
Her changeling colonel, Green Mist was less than thrilled by her explanation. He yelled, "You promised us in good faith yesterday when you duplicated the regular soldiers that they would arrive but they didn't. Now we have soldiers who are hungry and thirsty and we don't have the provisions to solve that problem."
A dark Alicorn soldier added, "And if they were to attack today, we wouldn't have enough energy to fend them off! Ponyville would fall and their king would likely depose you!"
This sent Twilight into a fury. Her horn began to glow black as she yelled, "What did you say soldier? You think your Dark Goddess would fall just because YOU don't have enough food or water in your system?"
Dark Storm himself was quite hungry and thirsty and he had had it with Twilight's attitude that morning. He yelled, "You know what TWILY, it isn't just him, it is all of us and hungry and thirsty soldiers will not be able to fight all that well."
Twilight screamed, "NOPONY CALLS ME TWILY!" She fired a bolt of energy at Dark Storm and incinerated him. She stood tall and yelled, "You see that soldiers? If anypony else disrespects their dark goddess or questions her, they'll be dead before the enemy has a chance to kill them!"
Seeing Twilight do this to one of their fellow soldiers angered her army greatly and some of them, despite being extremely loyal to her, began to wonder if fighting for her was even worth it. Several of them began to talk among themselves and made a pact that if they had a chance during the battle that they would either flee into the forest or defect and aid the enemy forces.
Twilight could see that her forces were slowly but surely beginning to doubt her and realized that a new loyalty spell would be needed. She pointed her hoof at them, including her friends, and yelled, "In front of me, now!"
Given what happened to Dark Storm they obeyed and gathered directly in front of them. Her horn began to glow as she recited, "From another to me, that is where your allegiance will now be, you thought your old commander loved you like pie when all they wanted was for you to die. With me all shall be great, there shall be no hate."
Given the anger that she was experiencing at the moment, the energy from the spell did not gently flow into their bodies like they would when she was in a better mood, it threw them backwards like they did when she first learned the spell. Once the soldiers got their bearings straight they stood tall and yelled, "All hail the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle, our one and only leader!"
Twilight was less than thrilled that the energy didn't gently enter their bodies but all that really mattered to her was that their unquestioned loyalty was restored. She said to herself, "Well the energy didn't enter them but all that matters is that they are loyal. Now I just have to hope the enemy gets here today before they get too hungry."
Early morning had arrived in the forest and the first to wake up was not White Magick, but Blue Star. When he woke up and saw that everypony else was still asleep, he knew that he had better start waking up the soldiers. He knew that his father would be less than thrilled if they weren't ready to go at a reasonable time. After waking the soldiers up he went and nudged White Magick, "Father, wake up. We want to get the troops fed and then duplicated before the dark goddess scans the world!"
White Magick slowly got up and groaned, "Ugh, morning just had to arrive so soon, didn't it?"
Blue Star sighed, "Father, you are the one who wanted us to all get up early and prepare for this!"
White Magick stood up and replied, "You're right son, I did. Now to get some food and water in my system and then give one more address to the troops before I duplicate them."
He headed to the lake and began to drink some water before gorging on the remaining berries and fruits that his soldiers had not eaten off of the bushes earlier. Once he felt sufficiently hydrated he stood in front of his soldiers and began, "Alright troops, today is the day that we depose that dark goddess of theirs. I hope you were able to relax and clear your minds because you'll need it today......."
White Magick began to continue his address when he was interrupted by Black Night. He interrupted, "Your Majesty, I am sorry to interrupt you but I have a plan that could catch them off guard."
White Magick knew that Black Night would know what he was talking about so he asked, "What is that general?"
Black Night replied, "Back when Twilight stood her ground against Colgate, Colgate and her forces wound up circling Ponyville and attacked from the east instead of the west. While our forces did suffer some early losses, eventually we got the upper hoof and won but I think that if we attack from the west, we could win this."
White Magick asked, "General, you said that despite them using a surprise tactic, that they still lost. What makes you think that a sneak attack from the west would work here?"
Black Night replied, "Here is the thing. Twilight was able to monitor her enemies during their entire journey from Alicorn Island to Ponyville right up until they got probably fifty miles away while she hasn't seen us in probably three days and she had multiple Alicorns in her service. As far as I know, she is down to just two or three."
White Magick ordered, "Alright troops, we shall march west for now" He cast his gaze at his generals and continued, "And once we have marched far enough, we shall turn south and once we are out of the forest, I shall duplicate the dark Alicorn and changeling hoof soldiers."
All the troops yelled, "Yes sir!"
At first White Magick was unsure as to whether this tactic would work even though their enemy had not seen them in days but soon came to realize that Black Night and Green Death both were unquestionably loyal to him and would not lie about this and aid Twilight.
After receiving advice from his dark Alicorn general, King White Magick began to march his troops west through the Everfree Forest for roughly a half an hour until his general suggested they turn south towards the edge of the forest. Given that they were fairly close to Ponyville when they began their march west, White Magick figured that they would be far enough to the west that Twilight, unless she were scanning the world, would not see him duplicating his troops nor would she see them marching into town until the last minute.
Once they got out of the forest they looked off to the east and while they could see Twilight's tower as a faint speck on the horizon, they could not see any of the rest of Ponyville. White Magick looked over his troops, especially towards the ordinary dark Alicorn and changeling soldiers, pointed his hoof to the right and ordered, "Soldiers, I need you to stand over there so I can begin the duplication process."
The four soldiers headed out into the open as they knew that with as many times that they would need to be duplicated, they would need plenty of room. Once they gathered together and White Magick figured there would be enough room for what would become a vastly larger army, his horn began to glow white and he recited, "From one to two, two to four and so much more, when one is simple mere, more and more shall appear."
He continued to cast the spell until he had nearly 4,100 troops. He figured that since he also had 300 unicorn soldiers, that he wouldn't need to create another 4,000 troops that would need to be fed. He looked over his much larger army with a smile. He pointed his hoof off to the east and ordered, "Alright troops, to war, to victory!"
In Ponyville Twilight had just cast a new loyalty spell on all her troops, causing the ones who were beginning to question her to stop and those who were still extremely loyal to her to become even more loyal. Despite being hungry and thirsty, every single one of her soldiers along with her friends were ready for the enemy to arrive.
Twilight was looking out at her forces and could tell that they were still curious as to when White Magick and his forces would arrive and she figured that she should address that. She began, "Troops, I know you're upset about our enemy not arriving here, I know you're upset about not having much in the way to eat or drink but I have a feeling that our enemy is not too far away now. I can sense them approaching us."
All her forces turned to the east and Rainbow asked, "So Twi, will they be approaching from the east or do you think they may try and trick us? Do you think maybe they circled around Ponyville and might be approaching from the west?"
Twilight was not thrilled by this question as she took it as being questioned in a negative way. She snapped, "No Rainbow, I know they're coming from the east. If they were coming from the west I would know it." She raised her voice and continued, "You should know that your dark goddess would know which direction her enemy is coming from!"
This frustrated Rainbow as that was not always the case. She asked, "Twilight, what about back when Colgate's forces caught us off guard? You thought they were coming from the west but they circled Ponyville and came from the east so you never know, that king of theirs may have done the same thing."
This sent Twilight into a rage. She yelled, "Oh so this is how it's going to be huh? You're going to be a disloyal brat just like Rarity huh?" Before Rainbow could say anything further Twilight's horn began to glow black as she recited, "You have committed treason and that is not in season, you are a threat to me and I simply can not let that be, I can no longer be annoyed so you shall be cast into the void."
As soon as her energy hit Rainbow, a black vortex opened up and swallowed her. Everypony, especially Pinkie, was in shock that she would not only do that to one of her friends, but one of the two last regular Alicorns that she had in her forces. Pinkie gasped, "Twilight, how could you? She is your friend!"
This angered Twilight further. She screamed, "You too Pinkie?" Her horn began to glow black as she recited, "You have committed treason and that is not in season, you are a threat to me and I simply can not let that be, I can no longer be annoyed so you shall be cast into the void."
Once her energy struck Pinkie, she too was swallowed by a black vortex. Twilight glared out at her forces and yelled, "Anypony else going to piss me off? Anypony else want to go to the void?"
Her soldiers stood there in a nervous silence until in unison they shouted, "No ma'am!"
Twilight replied, "Good, I don't feel like having to......"
Before Twilight could finish her sentence she heard a yell, "CHARGE! TO WAR! TO VICTORY!"
Almost immediately dark Alicorns and changelings came flying in from the west. Twilight yelled, "We're under attack! Take them out, cover their king and soldiers in ooze!"
White Magick heard this and yelled, "Take her soldiers out, cover her and her Alicorn friends in ooze!"
Both armies' dark Alicorn soldiers and changelings were very agile and were able to escape hits from opposing forces but the same could not be said about White Magick's unicorn soldiers. While they were able to take down some changelings and dark Alicorn soldiers, it didn't take long for all three hundred of them to get covered in ooze. When Twilight saw this she couldn't help but smile but she had more pressing matters to deal with, her nemesis, King White Magick.
Several minutes into the battle, Twilight finally ran into her nemesis. She pointed down at his unicorn soldiers and laughed, "Ha, your precious little unicorn soldiers are covered in ooze!" She fired energy at White Magick and struck him, prompting her to laugh, "Bow down to the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle and she might let you live! Pay her the tribute you owe her and she'll let you return home!"
This angered White Magick greatly but he couldn't help but remember the words of his wife ringing in his head. He was facing off against an incredibly powerful yet corrupted mare but knew that it would go against everything his kind stood for if he was to try to kill her. Instead he yelled at his changelings, "Cover her in ooze! Take her down!"
The changelings quickly began to swarm around Twilight while White Magick began taking out Twilight's changeling and dark Alicorn soldiers. For quite some time, Twilight was having no problems handling the opposing changeling and dark Alicorn soldiers until a couple changelings attacked from behind her and began to cover her in ooze. As she began to have trouble flying and using her magic she yelled, "Free me you idiots, free me from this ooze!"
Unfortunately for Twilight, her dark Alicorns and changelings were being brought down at a rate quicker than their foes were as Blue Star was very accurate with his shots. Finally Twilight became covered in enough ooze that she fell to the ground. The rest of the battle went by rather quickly because without Twilight, her forces were taken down quickly and soon all that remained were White Magick's soldiers.
Once the battle was over the first thing that White Magick and Blue Star did was free the unicorn soldiers from the ooze they had been covered in. Blue Star and White Magick looked at their surroundings and were happy to see that only a couple buildings had sustained any damage and even that was only minor. Soon though they would focus more on the last remaining enemy alive, an angry Twilight Sparkle screaming in a rage.
After what turned out to be a relatively quick battle, the least bloody battle in Ponyville's history, King White Magick and his forces prevailed. With his victory, the king now had some major decisions to make. He wondered if he should take Equestria for himself and give his subjects a much larger realm in which to live or if he should allow some high level official from one of the big cities to take over. Before he could make any decisions on that though, he knew he had to cleanse Twilight of the evil that had corrupted her for thousands of years.
He and his son walked over to Twilight who was screaming in a fury, "You haven't seen the last of me! When your dark goddess breaks free she will kill you, she will kill all of you!"
Given that she was completely covered in ooze, immobilized and unable to use her magic, her captors couldn't help but chuckle. White Magick asked, "Oh and how are you going to break free? You are covered in ooze and you can't use your magic."
Again Twilight began screaming that she would break free, return to power and slaughter all who stood in her way. White Magick knew what had to be done but knew that he could not do this right away. He knew that to access the most powerful of the white magic that resided within him, that he would likely need a decent meal and a few hours of meditation.
White Magick began to walk away from the screaming dark goddess and his son asked, "Father, where are you going? Aren't you going to remove the evil from her?"
White Magick replied, "Son, we just fought a battle. For me to do what I need to do I need a decent meal and I need to do some meditating to unleash the most pure form of my magic."
White Magick looked around wondering where he would get a decent meal. He knew that the chances of getting a meal at the restaurant were likely zero, he knew the chances of it even being open were remote so he headed to the one place where he knew a good meal could be had, Twilight's tower. As he headed in he began to wander around, attempting to find the dining hall.
Once he found and entered the dining hall, he was immediately greeted by the chef. The chef immediately began screaming at him and calling for Twilight to come and punish the intruder. It did not take long for White Magick to realize he had to stop this. He grabbed the chef in his aura and calmly said, "Listen, Twilight is no longer in power. I am King White Magick and I am your ruler now."
The chef looked at the white Alicorn who stood in front of him and realized that he was not joking. He bowed and asked, "Is there anything I can get for you your Majesty?"
White Magick replied, "Yes, I would like a hay steak, some hay fries and a pitcher of cider."
Again the chef bowed and said, "Of course your Majesty."
While White Magick was waiting for his meal, he began to go into a trance as he was gathering the energy of Twilight's tower to get a good feel for exactly what kind of energy would be needed to free her of the evil that she had been corrupted with. It would not be long until his meal was brought to him. When the chef arrived White Magick said, "Thank you kindly."
The chef replied, "Of course your Majesty."
Even while he was eating his meal, he continued to pick up on the energies of everything in the tower, including the food he was consuming. The longer he stayed in the tower and the more he ate, the more he realized that this would take a lot more meditation than he ever imagined. Once he finished his meal he knew that there was one other place he had to go, Twilight's sleeping chambers.
After his lunch he began to wander around the tower and knew that Twilight's chambers would likely be on the second or even the third level. He headed up the stairs and suddenly felt himself being guided by something. Eventually he found Twilight's sleeping chambers and as he headed in, he got a case of the shivers, much worse than he had when Twilight first saw him heading towards Ponyville.
The first thing he felt himself drawn to was the jade Alicorn. He analyzed it closely and could tell that it had not only been used by Twilight. Soon he began to see images from the past, images of LaurFa using it, Twilight taking control of it, images of Colgate altering it to where she would use it and then images of Twilight retaking control of it. The next thing he decided to do was lay down on Twilight's bed.
When he did this he truly began to realize how long Twilight had been corrupted. He said to himself, "Over 5,000 years of corruption, this is going to require a whiter form of energy than I thought and it will take much longer to do this."
He sat up and went into another trance, building up his energy for what would be the most difficult cleansing of his life. Even in the ancient days, he rarely had to cleanse ponies or other creatures of evil but it had been nearly 10 millennia since he had done a cleansing so all he could do is hope that his abilities were still as strong as they were back then.
The Cleansing of Twilight Sparkle
After three hours he believed that he had built up enough energy and cleared his mind enough to do this. He headed to the balcony and took off in the direction where Twilight and his army was. When he landed in front of the belligerent dark goddess his son gave him a strange look and asked, "Father, are you alright? You were gone for so long."
White Magick led his son away from Twilight for a moment and said, "Son, this is going to be far harder and require a lot more energy that I ever imagined."
Blue Star asked, "Her corruption is that bad?"
White Magick replied, "Yes, it is. She has been corrupted for over 5,000 years and from the energy I picked up on, it was two very evil individuals who corrupted her but I am pretty sure that I can do this."
His son nodded and the two headed over to where Twilight had been immobilized. White Magick began, "Twilight Sparkle, I know you have been corrupted for over 5,000 years and you have punished many ponies unjustly. I know you have slaughtered some ponies, banished many to the void and have been responsible for ruling over the world with an iron hoof but today, that shall come to an end."
Twilight began to laugh, "Oh and what makes you think you can put an end to what I do? Don't you know that the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle is the most powerful pony in the universe? Don't you know that you can't do anything to a pony more powerful than you?"
White Magick began to stare intently into Twilight's eyes and asked, "Twilight Sparkle, do you not wish to be free of this evil? Do you not wish to be your own pony again?"
Twilight spit in his face and sneered, "Your Dark Goddess is her own pony and don't you dare challenge her. When I break free I'll kill you! You shall wind up on my dinner plate and I will feast on your flesh like I did with Dark Goddess Cadence and Flash Sentry!"
White Magick decided that the time to do this had finally arrived. His eyes began to shine a bright white, he began to glow a bright white and his cutie mark began to shine a bright blue as he stared straight into the soul of Twilight, causing her to be unable to speak and she could not even blink her eyes. In her soul he saw all the events of her past. He saw her days as Celestia's protege, her time in Ponyville as a unicorn, her ascension, her being corrupted by Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra, her enslavement of the ponies of Fillydelphia, her stealing LaurFa's energy, her banishing LaurFa to the void, her taking of the jade Alicorn, her global conquest, her being banished to the sun, her return from the sun, her being unmade by Brevity, her return to this world, her defense of Ponyville against Cadence, her victory over Colgate and most recently, her banishing Celestia, Pinkie, Rarity and Rainbow Dash to the void. After this he knew exactly what kind of energy that would be needed.
His horn began to glow a bright white and he began to recite one of the most ancient spells known to ponykind, one that he never shared with LaurFa, one that only he knew, the rite of absolute cleansing,
"Oh mighty Creator, this pony has been corrupted my much evil and hate, In her past she was a sweet, caring mare and ahead of her was a wonderful fate The darkness that took her has her imprisoned like a beast in a crate This pony must be freed and be allowed to start with a clean slate.
Oh mighty Creator help me free this pony from the curse that has her in its poisonous hold, Allow the evil that has imprisoned her to become a thing of old, Those who cast these chains on her were very bold But the poison of their spells has left her alone in the cold.
Oh mighty Creator, this evil can no longer stay, it must be forced to flee For many millennia has this pony been chained like a dog to a tree And those days can no longer be The time has come for this pony to finally be FREE!"
As he finished reciting the rite of absolute cleansing, a massive amount of black, green and dark lavender energy shot out of her body and she began to decrease in size. As the energy left her, the spell she had cast on her black tower was broken and the suddenly rusted out tower began to collapse.
White Magick kept his gaze on Twilight to make sure the evil was completely purged but his son and army saw three ponies rushing out of the collapsing tower, Queen Galaxia, King Cosmos and Iron Skillet, the royal chef. They also saw something fall out of Twilight's chambers, the jade Alicorn and the golden plate it sat in. It landed on the ground and one final thing happened to free Twilight, the top of the tower fell on the ancient relic and shattered it and the golden plate, forever destroying the great green eye. When this happened, the ooze melted away from her and a bolt of reddish-white energy shot skywards out of Twilight's horn.
Once the energy shot out of Twilight's horn, White Magick knew that he could finally release his hold on her. It took her a moment but she finally came to, shook her head and opened her eyes as a freed pony for the first time in over five millennia.
White Magick gave her a smile and said, "Feel the light of being a free pony Princess Twilight."
Twilight looked around and asked, "What do you mean being a free pony?"
Before White Magick could say anything, a bright white light opened up by the base of the ruins of the black tower and out of it came Princess Celestia, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis. When he saw who had been released from the void he yelled, "Chrysalis and Sombra, cover them in ooze now!"
Almost immediately the two were covered in ooze and were subdued. White Magick knew that the two would have to be cleansed but freeing Twilight from her corruption had taken a huge toll on him. Blue Star saw a nervous look on his father's face and asked, "Father, what is wrong? Do you not think that you can free those two?"
White Magick replied, "Actually son, I know I can, it is just a matter of when. Freeing Twilight took a lot of energy from me and I am going to need to meditate and grab a bite to eat." He looked at the rubble that was once a black tower and sighed, "Well forget about a royal meal. I'll just have to hope that despite there having been a battle earlier today, that the local cafe is open."
White Magick headed off to see if he could find someplace to eat. He knew that if no where was open, that he would need to head to the forest and eat whatever he could find. What truly mattered to him though was that after over 5,000 years, that Princess Twilight had finally been restored to her former self.
After White Magick headed off to the forest to get some food in his stomach, four of the ponies who Twilight had banished to the void along with Celestia's parents headed over to where Twilight was sitting and none of them were particularly happy with her.
The first to say anything was Queen Galaxia. She scowled at Twilight and yelled, "I knew you banished my daughter to the void." She lit her horn up and continued, "I may not know how to banish ponies to the void but I'll make sure you never banish another pony again."
Unlike how she would have in the past, Twilight shied back and asked, "Banished to the void? What in Equestria is the void?"
Galaxia looked like she was going to fire a bolt of energy at Twilight when she was grabbed by Celestia. She said, "Mom, stop! I know she's done bad things but......." Celestia took a closer look at Twilight and noticed that she did not look the same as she did when she banished her, she saw that she looked like she did on her coronation day. She gave Twilight a concerned look and asked, "Princess Twilight, is that you?"
Despite being surrounded by six very angry ponies, she got up on all fours and rushed to her. She embraced her and looked at the angry ponies surrounding them and asked, "Princess Celestia, why are they all mad at me?" She pointed her hoof at Galaxia and Cosmos and continued, "And who are they?"
Cosmos yelled, "Don't you play stupid with us Dark Goddess Twilight......"
Celestia interrupted, "Dad, take a close look at her! She isn't a dark goddess anymore!"
Everypony took a much closer look at Twilight and realized that the cleansing spell had worked. While they were banished to the void while it happened and had no clue as to what happened, her three friends knew that their old friend was back. They rushed to her and hugged her. Rarity was the first to say anything, "Twilight darling, it's so good to have you back!"
Twilight looked very confused and asked, "What do you mean it's so good to have me back? I haven't gone anywhere!"
The way Twilight was acting those around her began to wonder why she was asking such questions. The first one to come up with a suggestion was Celestia, "You guys don't think that she has no memory of the time she was corrupted, do you?"
Twilight looked up at her and asked, "Corrupted, what do you mean?"
Another pony had been listening in on what they had been saying and wanted to find out for himself. Blue Star stepped into the circle of ponies and asked, "Princess Twilight, what is the last thing you remember?"
Twilight replied, "The last thing I remember was arriving back at the library after a long day of meeting with the mayor and for some odd reason, there was another me there."
Blue Star asked, "Is that it?"
Twilight replied, "No, I also remember this me wanting to get into a staring contest and I agreed. Well we stared at one another for a very long time until suddenly everything went black and after that, I remember this white Alicorn telling me to feel the light of being a free pony again."
As they all looked into Twilight's eyes as she said this, they could tell that she was indeed telling the truth, they could tell that she had absolutely no memory of her time of being corrupted. This caused Princess Celestia to shed a few tears of joy, "It is so good to have you back Twilight!"
Twilight was very confused. She asked, "Why does everypony keep on telling me that they are so happy to have me back?"
Celestia replied, "Twilight, we are going to have to sit down together, well all of us because what has happened over the past five thousand years will be a lot for you to take in."
Twilight shrieked, "FIVE THOUSAND YEARS? What in Equestria are you talking about?"
Pinkie looked around and saw that Sugarcube Corner had sustained no damage from the battle and suggested, "How about we go to Sugarcube Corner and let Twilight know what happened?"
Celestia replied, "I think that is a splendid idea!"
Before they headed to Sugarcube Corner Blue Star gave an order to all his soldiers. He pointed his hoof at Chrysalis and Sombra and yelled, "Keep them detained. If they start struggling, cover them in more ooze!"
All his soldiers yelled, "Yes sir!"
Celestia led Twilight and everypony else who had surrounded her towards the sweets shop. Twilight was looking around and noticed one thing, a very troubling thing. Before they got to Sugarcube Corner Twilight asked, "Where is the library? Where is my home?" She then also realized that some of her friends were missing. She continued, "Where is Spike and where are Applejack and Fluttershy?"
Before they answered her they went in and took a seat. Pinkie immediately went and got Twilight her her favorite, donuts with extra sprinkles and some cider. Once they all got sat down Twilight again asked, "Where is the library and where are Spike, Fluttershy and Applejack?" She then remembered another thing, she continued, "And what was that about five thousand years?"
Celestia began, "Twilight, you might want to hold on to your wings because what we are about to tell you is going to be very hard to take in and some of it will not be pleasant."
Twilight gave her a nervous look and asked, "What is it?"
All the ponies around here looked at one another nervously until Celestia again spoke up, "Twilight, this happened not too long after your coronation but you know how you brought up that other you?"
Twilight replied, "Yes, I did. Something didn't seem right because I know I couldn't come back and visit myself for that long."
Celestia said, "Twilight, that was not you. That was Queen Chrysalis and she took the form of you. It is believed that she stared into your eyes for so long that she was able to corrupt you to serve not only her, but King Sombra as well."
Twilight's pupil's shrank. She gasped, "I was corrupted to serve them? Are you saying that I was their puppet for five thousand years?"
Celestia replied, "No, it was not too long after the three of you took over Equestria that you wanted everything as your own so you learned how to banish them to the void and after that, Equestria was yours and soon you wanted more, a lot more."
This shocked Twilight but she was curious as to how they were able to take over Equestria. She asked, "Princess, how were we able to take over Equestria?"
Celestia replied, "Well you three marched on Canterlot with a large changeling army and a large dark unicorn army."
Twilight knew that Celestia would not lie to her but everything so far had become hard for her to take in. She asked, "What the hay? The three of us overthrew you and Luna? What did you two do?"
Celestia replied, "We had to flee to Alicorn Island to be with our parents and Goddess LaurFa."
Twilight looked up at Galaxia and Cosmos and asked, "I mean no offense but I don't know who you are. Are you Celestia and Luna's parents?"
Galaxia replied, "Yes, I am Queen Galaxia and he is King Cosmos of Alicorn Island."
Twilight knew her geography fairly well but Alicorn Island was one place that she was not familiar with. She asked, "Alicorn Island, where is that?"
Galaxia replied, "It is halfway across the Pegasus Ocean between Equestria and the eastern side of the Equine Empire."
Twilight began to look around and given that they had brought up Luna earlier, she couldn't help but wonder where she was. She asked, "Celestia, you brought up how I ran you and Luna out of Equestria. Where is she?"
Celestia and her parents sighed in a bit of frustration as they wanted to keep the timeline of what happened linear. Celestia replied, "Twilight, what happened with her is another thing that will be hard for you to take in but let's just say that she left this world entirely when you and your forces fought in one final battle against multiple ponies you had transformed into Alicorns to take control of not just Equestria, but the entire planet."
When she heard Celestia mention her transforming ponies into Alicorns, she couldn't help but look at her friends and notice that they were Alicorns. She cast her gaze at the three and asked, "Pinkie, Rainbow, Rarity, how did you three become Alicorns? Did you write your own magic?"
Rarity replied, "No darling, you needed us along with Colgate, Lyra Heartstrings and Lemon Hearts to be Alicorns to help you with a global conquest so you transformed us along with Fluttershy and Applejack."
Twilight gasped, "Seriously? I learned how to transform ponies of all races into Alicorns?"
Rainbow interrupted, "Yes Twi, you did. You wrote a ton of magic through almost non-stop studying but despite that, you did suffer some defeats."
Twilight buried her face in her hooves and sighed, "Listen, I know everything you are saying is true but this is so much to take in." She lifted her head up and became frustrated, "Ok, you can tell me about all this other stuff later but where are Spike, Applejack and Fluttershy and what happened to the library?"
Celestia replied, "Well Spike wound up dying after he grew up and aided you in an attack on Ponyville. He wound up hurting Fluttershy so Rarity took a spear and plowed it into Spike's heart."
Twilight glared at Rarity and yelled, "You killed Spike? How could you kill Spike?"
Rarity replied, "Twilight darling, you have to understand that he was no longer the Spike you knew. He had grown huge and was dead set on aiding you in taking Equestria back from Colgate." She began to become agitated and continued, "He burned Ponyville to the ground, he used his enormous tail to strike Fluttershy down and broke her wing. It was either I killed him or he killed both me and Fluttershy!"
Pinkie added, "For you to truly understand what happened, you would have to read a history book that Colgate wrote, one that went into detail about not just that battle, but that entire time period."
Twilight sighed, "Ok but still, where are Fluttershy and Applejack and what happened to the library?"
Celestia replied, "Remember how I said that Luna went to a completely different world? Well during that final battle for Ponyville when it looked like your forces were going to win, Colgate, Fluttershy, Applejack along with the cutie mark crusaders, the rest of the Apple Family, the creator goddesses Brevity Thrash and LaurFa and all their forces teleported off to a completely different planet to allegedly start a whole new world where ponies were just beginning to evolve from horses that resemble Saddle Arabians."
Twilight asked, "Ok, I hope there are books out there that will go into detail about this and speaking of books, WHERE IS MY LIBRARY?"
Princess Celestia could tell that Twilight was going to become just as belligerent as she was when she was corrupted if she didn't find out. She said, "Twilight, it was not long after you used slave labor to build a black tower that you moved all the materials in with you and a shortly after you cleaned the library out, it was hit by lightning and burned to the ground."
Again Twilight had trouble taking in what had been said to her. Her eyes shrank and she gasped, "What? I used slave labor to build some sort of black tower?"
Blue Star, who had been rather quiet interrupted, "I think we should show Twilight where her tower was and with any luck, maybe some of her books survived its collapse."
Everypony got up and headed to where Twilight's tower was. She looked around and noticed that for the most part, Ponyville was as it was with the exception of Sweet Apple Acres being deserted, the library being gone and as they continued on, a pile of rubble. She pointed her hoof forward and asked, "That pile of rubble, what is it?"
Celestia replied, "That was your home and during times when you had been banished our unmade, Colgate called it home as she ruled Equestria during those times."
Twilight gave Celestia a look of confusion and asked, "Unmade? What do you mean by unmade?"
Celestia replied, "Twilight, if any of the books in your underground bunker survived, you'll be able to read about it."
As they reached where her tower used to stand Twilight saw something that she did not expect. She saw a large army that consisted of many, many unicorns, many changelings and many dark Alicorns. She stopped in her tracks and shrieked, "Changelings, Alicorns that look like Sombra and those other unicorns, what are they doing here?"
Blue Star replied, "They came with my father and I to free you and right now they are guarding the two who corrupted you?"
Twilight shrieked, "What? King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis are here? We have to do something!"
Right as she finished this a white Alicorn with a blue mane and tail with a blue pentacle cutie mark landed in front of the group. He had heard Twilight's concerns when he was flying in and said, "Do not worry Princess Twilight, it won't be long until I cleanse them of the evil that has corrupted them, as I cleansed you of the evil that corrupted you."
Twilight gave him a curious look and said, "Wait a minute, you look like that Alicorn I saw not too long ago."
White Magick replied, "I am King White Magick. I am the leader of a closed off realm that my kind discovered not too long before the fall of Ponyland."
Twilight couldn't help but chuckle, "You're kidding, right? Ponyland is nothing more than a myth."
White Magick replied, "Actually no, it isn't. Perhaps some day you can come to my realm and read about those days in my library."
When he mentioned a library Twilight's attitude changed completely. She asked, "Really, you have a library that goes back that far?"
White Magick replied, "Yes, my kind has a library that dates back to the dark days long before Equestria came to be."
Celestia interrupted, "Speaking of libraries, I think we need to see if Twilight's library escaped any damage."
Given that Celestia had lived in the tower for quite some time, she knew where the archives were but the entrance to them had been blocked by debris. Celestia pointed her hoof at it and sighed, "Well shall we clear away the debris?"
Everypony nodded and they began to remove everything that had blocked the entrance and once it was all gone, everypony was shocked to see that no damage had been done to the door nor had any been done to the lock. Twilight looked down and saw a tile with a hoof print on it. She pointed at it and asked, "That hoof print, what is it?"
Celestia replied, "It is a lock you created to make sure that you are the only pony who could get into the archives."
Twilight looked at the lock and then looked down at her hooves. It looked like the print was larger than her hooves but knew that to get in and see if things escaped any damage. She gave Celestia a nervous smile as she went to step down on the lock. Given that she was smaller, her hooves were smaller as well and despite having had all her evil energy taken away, the lock still shocked her and threw her backwards.
"Ow!" shouted Twilight. She got up and looked at the door with a scowl. She asked, "How are we going to get in there?"
Celestia replied, "In the past when it was Colgate who controlled that lock, we had to blow the door off with our magic." She looked at everypony and continued, "Now we're probably going to have to do this together, this door isn't going to budge without a fight."
They all nodded and readied themselves to blow that door off. All their horns began to glow brightly as they fired energy at the door. Luckily for them they were able to easily blow the door off and the first to head down into the archives was Twilight, who was then followed by Celestia and White Magick. Much to their surprise, there had been absolutely no damage done to the books in the main part of the archives. Twilight looked around and smiled, "Well everything looks ok."
As they headed further back, they again ran into another door and saw another special tile on the floor. Celestia saw Twilight looking at it and suggested, "I wouldn't step on that if I were you. We are going to have to blow it off."
Twilight looked around and saw how confined of a space it was and had her concerns about what would happen. She asked, "Princess Celestia, this space is so tight. Using that much magic down here could harm us, especially if we were to get thrown back."
White Magick interrupted, "It is alright Twilight, I want to try something."
Twilight gave him a nervous look as he lit up his horn and grabbed the door in his aura. He began to focus more intently until his eyes began to shine white and he began to see visions of the past. He began to see the dark magic that Twilight put into making the lock and the magic she used on the door so he used the polar opposite of that magic. He fired a powerful bolt of pure white magic at the door and rather than blowing the door off entirely, they all heard the door unlock. White Magick then pushed the door open and headed in, followed by Twilight and Celestia.
Twilight began to look at the wealth of information around here and was shocked that she actually had that many books at her disposal. She asked, "How did I get so many books in my hooves?" She pointed out to the main part of the archives and asked, "How did I get those and how did I get these?"
Celestia replied, "Well a few of them out in the main part are from your library and a lot of them are from the Canterlot library when you raided it and took them all but all of these in here are from the royal library in what was then known as Faustica." She gave Twilight a slight smile and continued, "Even when you were corrupted, you still had an insatiable hunger for knowledge."
Twilight gave her a nervous look and replied, "It looks that way but the way I acquired it was probably horrible."
Celestia sighed, "It was but now that we know everything is ok, we are going to have to make plans on building you a place big enough for not just you, but for all your books."
Twilight asked, "But won't I have to return all these books I stole from other ponies to their rightful owners?"
Celestia began to reply to her but was stopped by White Magick. He nudged her and whispered, "I need a word with you, alone."
Celestia whispered, "Alright, I take it involves all these books?"
White Magick nodded and led Celestia out of the archives, back outside. Once they were out of earshot White Magick began, "Princess Celestia, I know you care about Twilight deeply and want her to have all these books, I think the ones she acquired while she was corrupted need to be returned to their rightful owners."
Celestia asked, "Why White Magick? When Twilight saw all those books I could tell she was happy and I don't want her to be sad."
White Magick sighed, "Celestia, those books may have residual evil energy on them, energy that if she is exposed to for too long, will corrupt her again and I will have to do another cleansing." Celestia began to protest but White Magick continued, "Celestia, I understand the nature of magical energies very well. Just trust me alright, these books need to be returned to where they came from."
Celestia looked off to the west towards where Canterlot used to be and asked, "But Canterlot no longer exists! What are we going to do about those she took from there?"
White Magick replied, "I'm not sure but I do think it would be for the best if her new home only includes the ones that were originally in the library she lived in." He paused for a minute and continued, "Even those that were written by her and Colgate should not be in her new home. We need to try and restore things to how they were immediately before her corruption."
Princess Celestia finally realized that White Magick was right and that they would have to break the bad news to Twilight. They headed back down into the archives where Celestia broke the news to Twilight, "Twilight, about the books that you took during your corruption, those will have to be returned to where they originally came from."
White Magick added, "And those you wrote during your corruption along with those written by Colgate will need to be put in a different library. Celestia and I have our concerns that if you keep those books with you that they may radiate negative energy and potentially corrupt you again."
Twilight replied, "Alright, I understand. I don't want to become evil again." She headed out of the archives and asked, "But where will I live? The library was destroyed."
Her friends along with Celestia's parents and Blue Star had joined them back up on the ground. Rarity offered, "Twilight, I know there won't be much space but you could live with me until Celestia can get you a place of your own built."
Twilight replied, "Thank you Rarity, thank you so much."
Something then hit Celestia, she remembered that even though she wasn't evil, that Colgate had the ability to create housing in nothing flat. She asked, "Galaxia, Cosmos, do you know if there is any way that we could contact Brevity on that other world and see if she could bring Colgate with her to build Twilight a new home?"
Twilight asked, "Colgate? I thought she was a dentist. I wouldn't think she could build things."
Celestia replied, "Twilight, Colgate became even more obsessed with studying than you did and eventually she developed the ability to restore and create houses."
Given that Twilight had forgot all the magic she knew during her corruption, this really shocked her but again knew that Celestia would not lie to her. She sighed, "It is too bad you can't contact her wherever she went."
Soon they heard something unpleasant, the yelling of Sombra and Chrysalis, which immediately drew the attention of White Magick. He shook his head and said, "Well I think all of you should catch up some more while I take care of a couple things."
Celestia asked, "So are you going to banish them somewhere?"
White Magick replied, "No, I plan on cleansing them as well. I have a feeling that if we can remove the evil from them and they use their magical abilities for good, they may be able to aid us in the event any other evil creatures were to rise."
Twilight and all her friends nodded as White Magick and Blue Star headed over towards their belligerent captives. Blue Star glanced over at his father and asked, "Father, these two are going to be far more difficult. Do you think you'll be able to even handle one of them, much less both of them today?"
White Magick replied, "Yes son, I do. Don't worry, I've got them covered."
After aiding in making sure that none of the materials in the archives of Twilight's now collapsed tower were damaged, White Magick had two more things to deal with, King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis. After parting ways with Twilight and her friends, he headed over to the two who were just as belligerent and angry as Twilight was when she was covered in ooze. He could tell just by looking at the two that they were corrupted in a different way and had been corrupted for far, far longer than Twilight was.
As he stood in front of them he began to stare at both of them intently, they knew what his plans were and both found it ridiculous that he thought he could cleanse them. Chrysalis laughed, "You really think you can cleanse the Queen of the Changelings. I'm not weak like Twilight is."
Sombra added, "We're both strong, your magic is nothing compared to ours."
White Magick couldn't help but chuckle, "We'll see."
As he continued to analyze the two, he could tell that Chrysalis would be far, far tougher given that she is a changeling and even he, despite having lived for ages, had never written any kind of spell involving changelings. He got closer to Chrysalis and sighed, "Well, here goes nothing."
He leaned down to where he was at eye level with her and like he did with Twilight, he began to glow a bright white and his cutie mark began to glow blue. He lit up his horn and his eyes began to shine white as he stared straight into the soul of the changeling queen. What he saw made him wonder if this was possible. He saw all the bad things she had done in life but also he saw the moment she was hatched, that she was like the rest of her kin. Despite his doubts, he figured that he would use a much more powerful type of energy on her than he did on Twilight.
Once he felt like his energy was at its strongest he recited,
"Throughout her life, the heart of the changeling queen has been as black as night, For all the creatures of this world this is not right The darkness within her has a lot of might But the time has come for her to see the light
For too long the changeling queen has been mean, She often moves and in her natural form is unseen The darkness within her is what allowed her to ascend to being the queen Thick is the evil that lies within her but it must become lean
Now the time has come for her evil to pay the fee, She can feel that the evil is beginning to flee The evil leaving her is something that we can all see And the time has finally come, the changeling queen is finally FREE!"
As he finished reciting the spell Chrysalis was shrouded in light and a change began to happen. She shed her black coat and it was replaced with a light blue one, her horn went from being jagged and crooked to being smooth and curved, her wings lost their holes, her body went from having holes in it to being whole like that of a pony, her eyes turned blue and her mane and tail turned blue.
After five minutes the light subsided and Chrysalis floated to the ground, she was in a state of confusion. She looked around and asked, "What happened to me?"
White Magick replied, "You have become free of the darkness that you were born with."
Chrysalis continued to look around with a great amount of confusion. White Magick could understand why she was acting the way she was but even he had no clue how to handle this. He pointed his hoof over towards Galaxia and suggested, "I think you would get more answers if you talk to her, I am sure she would understand your situation more."
Chrysalis gave him a nervous smile and nodded. As she headed off to talk to Galaxia, White Magick approached an utterly shocked Sombra. He had always believed that out of all the villains in Equestria, that nothing would ever be able to cleanse Chrysalis but soon decided that he would not fall victim to his captor's white magic.
White Magick gave Sombra a half smile and asked, "So Sombra, are you still certain that you can't be cleansed?"
Sombra gave him a mocking laugh, "So Sombra, are you still certain that you can't be cleansed?" He dropped the laugh and sneered, "Yessss....I'm certain I can't be cleansed."
Given that he was a pony, not a changeling, White Magick began to wonder if perhaps a spell similar to the one he used on Twilight could be used. He replied, "Oh we'll see."
Like he did with Chrysalis and Twilight, he got down to where he was at eye level with him. As he began to ready himself to cast the spell, he began to glow white, his cutie mark began to glow and his horn began to glow white. Finally his eyes began to shine a bright white and he began to stare straight into the soul of Sombra. The first things he saw shocked him, Sombra had not always been evil.
There was a time in his distant past that he was a good, nice pony. The events that unfolded to corrupt Sombra at first made White Magick feel bad, Sombra being belittled for never getting a cutie mark and how that caused him to grow resentful and then full of enough hate that he turned evil. White Magick's horn began to glow brighter as he recited,
"The *dark Alicorn king has been corrupted by much hate, The evil he has done caused many to be treated as though they are second rate For too long has he been doomed to a terrible fate Soon he shall be allowed to start with a clean slate
His deeds of the past have caused much pain, They have caused the misery of so many to fall like rain Even parts of his own life were sent down the drain No longer shall the blood of others be on him like a stain
Over the years many he has had chained like a dog to a tree, But those days can no longer be Brighter days lie ahead as all can see The time has come for him to be FREE!"
As he finished the spell, a great amount of black, dark purple and green energy flew out of his body and after a minute, he came to. White Magick looked at Sombra and couldn't help but notice the change in his appearance. No longer did he have the same appearance as the soldiers that had been swayed away from him and duplicated over the millennia. The Sombra that laid before White Magick was gray in color, had a dark gray and purple mane, his eyes were green and for the first time in ages, he had a true smile on his face.
White Magick looked down at Sombra and said, "Feel the light of being a free pony King Sombra."
Sombra looked up at him in confusion and asked, "Who are you and where am I?"
White Magick replied, "I am King White Magick and you are in Equestria, Ponyville to be exact."
Sombra began to say something but then he saw a pony that he once cared about very much, Princess Celestia. He shouted, "Princess Celestia!"
As he was galloping towards her she took a look at the pony running her way and she couldn't believe it. She gasped, "Sombra, is it you? Is it really you?"
Sombra embraced her and replied, "Yes Celestia, it is me."
Everypony looked at the two in shock when he embraced her, especially Twilight. She took a close look at him and gasped, "Wait a minute, Sombra as in King Sombra?"
Sombra replied, "Yes, as in King Sombra."
Twilight gasped, "But, but you look so different and you seem nice. You don't seem like the King Sombra I remember."
Sombra was getting ready to say something when Celestia interrupted, "Twilight, this is something that we can discuss later." She gave Sombra a smile and asked, "I know a lot has happened over the millennia with both of us so what do you say we go somewhere and catch up?"
Sombra replied, "I think that is a good idea, let's go."
Twilight continued to stand there in shock watching who she thought of as one of the worst villains in history walking off with Celestia and the fact that they were acting more like long lost friends only stunned her further. White Magick walked up next to her and said, "Twilight, a lot of things that you once knew are different now and it will take some getting used to."
Twilight looked off to her left and saw the newly transformed Chrysalis and asked, "Who is she? I've never seen her before."
White Magick replied, "Twilight, that is Queen Chrysalis."
Twilight gasped, "That's Queen Chrysalis? But she doesn't look right, she is light blue, she isn't full of holes and she looks friendly!"
White Magick replied, "Like I have said, things have changed a lot since you last had your memory. There will be new acquaintances and eventually friendships to be made." He leaned down and whispered, "And I think a good place to start would be with Chrysalis, and once he and Celestia return, Sombra."
Twilight nodded and headed in the direction of Chrysalis to introduce herself to the new version of the changeling queen, wondering if she would remember her. White Magick looked around and breathed a sigh of relief. Not only did he cleanse Twilight of her evil on this mission, but he also freed two long time villains of their evil as well. He said to himself, "Mission accomplished."
It was a calm day as Brevity and everypony else who had escaped Twilight's wrath were leading ponies who were evolving from their larger equine kin to what would be their new homelands. Most of them had no clue where they were leading them but given that the world was a carbon copy of the one they fled from, Brevity and LaurFa knew exactly where to lead them, although they had different plans this time. Unlike it was last time, they had no plans on having individual places, with the exception of Alicorn Island and Cloudsdale, being populated by one race of ponies.
Something in the sky caught all the ponies' attention. A beam of reddish-white energy shot down and began to encircle LaurFa. As it began to enter her she began to increase in size and she began to feel like she did over 5,000 years ago. Once the light had subsided she looked up and with a smile on her face she exclaimed, "They're back everypony! My powers are back!"
Everypony who knew her began to celebrate and then LaurFa realized something, something had to have happened to Twilight for her to get her energy back. She turned to Brevity and asked, "Sister, do you think something happened to Twilight? Do you think she might have died since I got my powers back?"
Brevity replied, "Brevity is not sure about that dear sister but perhaps we should all check it out. Just like I teleported us here, I can teleport us back."
Luna asked, "Brevity, will it just be the two of you or could the rest of us join you?"
Brevity turned to those who joined her and asked, "What about the rest of you? Would you want to join Brevity, LaurFa and Luna in seeing what happened?"
Everypony began to cheer that they would but would soon be met with sighs of concerns from the ponies that they were leading to their new homelands and two of those who fled decided to stay behind. General Dark Night said, "Don't worry everypony, I shall stay here and we will wait for those who wish to return to return."
General Lightning storm added, "So will I."
The rest of the regular hoof soldiers who escaped from Twilight's wrath added, "As will we."
Brevity replied, "Good." She turned to those who would join her and continued, "Gather around Brevity so that we may return to Equestria."
Everypony that decided to return gathered around Brevity and her horn began to glow a bright pink and a ball of pinkish-yellow energy surrounded them all as she began to recite the proper spell to return,
"To the old world we shall go even if it is just for a brief while or so Whether it be simply for what happened for us to see or if it is this world some wish to flee Now the time for us to go has come and a brief stay is what awaits some."
Brevity's horn glowed brighter and then in a blinding flash of light they all disappeared. This confused some of the ponies that were being led to their new lands. Dark Night could sense their confusion and concern and said, "Don't worry, I know some of them will likely return."
A Pegasus asked, "Which ones?"
Dark Night replied, "Well Brevity for sure and most likely Colgate. I'm not sure about the others though."
A unicorn asked, "So what do we do now? Do we wait here until they return or do we continue on our journey?"
Dark Night replied, "We shall wait here for their return. This is likely where Brevity, Colgate and any others who choose to do so will return."
Return to Equestria
In Ponyville things seemed to be going on normally until everypony saw a yellowish-pink ball of energy appear in the sky. Most everypony looked at the sight in awe and wonder but two ponies knew exactly what was happening, Galaxia and Cosmos. Cosmos gasped, "Galaxia, they're returning, they're returning!"
Once the ball broke numerous ponies emerged from it, many of who were from Ponyville. As the ponies landed the first ones to rush and greet them were Galaxia and Cosmos. Both rushed to LaurFa and given that Galaxia was always closer to her, she was the first to say anything, "LaurFa, you're back! I'm so happy to see you!"
LaurFa embraced her and replied, "I'm glad to see you too Galaxia." She paused for a minute and asked, "Galaxia, Cosmos, what happened to the dark goddess? Was Twilight Sparkle slain?"
Galaxia pointed her hoof at White Magick and replied, "No, King White Magick wound up cleansing her of the evil that had corrupted her."
LaurFa's jaw dropped open. It had been over 10,000 years since she last saw him and she wondered why he would be in Ponyville and not in his own realm. She approached him and asked, "King White Magick, is that you?"
White Magick turned to her and saw that it was the pony who threatened to purge him and his kind. While he wanted to simply smite her from the face of the planet he knew that with him being in front of so many that it would be best to hold his anger. He calmly replied, "Yes LaurFa, it is me."
LaurFa got in his face and asked, "What are you doing in Equestria? What happened to your kind wanting your own space?"
White Magick replied, "Oh let's just say that before I cleansed Twilight of the evil that corrupted her that she and some of her soldiers invaded my territory so I had to make sure that she wouldn't do that again."
LaurFa was shocked that he was able to cleanse her. She asked, "Cleansed her? Did you write new magic to cleanse her or something?"
White Magick couldn't help but laugh, "New magic? The rite of cleansing is one of the absolute oldest spells in the history of Ponykind. I used it on many, many foes before you ever came to this continent."
When LaurFa heard that he had kept a spell from her, she became angry. She yelled, "You kept a spell from me when I demanded them from you? You....."
White Magick interrupted, "Listen LaurFa, the type of magic involved in using that spell is something that only I could ever use. A pony has to have pure white magic to cast it." He took a closer look at LaurFa and continued, "Besides, you should be glad I cleansed her given that she has enslaved you in the past and it was just now that you got your energy back from her, wasn't it?"
LaurFa stood there at first in shock and then a smile developed on her face, "Wait a minute, so Galaxia wasn't lying when she said it was you who cleansed Twilight?"
White Magick replied, "No, she wasn't. It wasn't just her that I cleansed. I cleansed King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis as well."
LaurFa was shocked when he said this. She realized that because of him, that the world would likely be free of evil from that point forward. She went to embrace him and said, "I'm sorry for my initial angry reaction to you withholding a spell from me. I want to thank you for cleansing evil from this world entirely."
White Magick replied, "Well thanks but I am not sure if I cleansed it entirely. There could still be ancient evils lurking, evils from well before you arrived may still exist. All we can hope for is that they will remain locked away in the deep, dark places of the world forever."
Despite LaurFa not having arrived in what would become Equestria until after the fall of Ponyland, she had a feeling as to what he was talking about. She asked, "I take it you mean the city of Tambelon and Grogar?"
White Magick replied, "Yes, I am." He saw other ponies beginning to head their way and continued, "I think it would be best if we don't discuss such ancient evils around the others, besides all the ponies here think that Ponyland is just a myth."
While White Magick and LaurFa were talking, Applejack and Fluttershy approached Twilight. The first thing that both of them noticed was that the pony they saw was not the Twilight they went to war against, it was the Twilight from before she was corrupted. Applejack rushed to her and said, "It's so good to see you sugar cube!"
Fluttershy added, "Twilight, it's so good to have you back."
Twilight embraced the two and replied, "It's good to see you too girls!"
When Twilight's friends heard their other friends and engaged in a group hug. Rarity was the first to say anything, "Applejack, Fluttershy darlings, it's so good to see you again!"
Rainbow added, "Just like old times, the six of us together as true friends!"
Despite knowing that she remembered nothing from her time being corrupted, everything still seemed so odd to Twilight. She said, "I know I don't remember anything from when I was corrupted and it has been ages since we were together as real friends but it seems like it was just yesterday."
Soon it would be more than just her old friends that would join her, it would also be the cutie mark crusaders and the rest of the Apple Family. It was at that moment that Twilight took a closer look at them and noticed that they were something they were not on the day Chrysalis corrupted her. She noticed that they were all Alicorns. She gasped, "Girls, how in Equestria did you all become Alicorns?"
Applejack replied, "Well you needed us to all be Alicorns to aid you in getting this ancient relic so you transformed us."
Granny Smith added, "And it was Supreme Commander Colgate who transformed the girls, Big Mac and myself into Alicorns."
Twilight gasped, "Supreme Commander Colgate?"
Colgate heard Twilight's voice and immediately charged over. She immediately lit up her horn, prepared to punish Twilight in one way or another and everypony saw this. Before she could say anything Applejack yelled, "Colgate stop! Twilight's not evil anymore."
With her horn still glowing and her eyes shining blue, Colgate began to look over her. The first thing she noticed was that Twilight's eyes were no longer green, they were how they were prior to her corruption. She lowered her guard and asked, "Twilight, is that you?"
Twilight replied, "Yes, it is." She took a look at Colgate and noticed that she too was an Alicorn. She asked, "Colgate, how did you become an Alicorn and why were your eyes shining blue?" She also noticed that even after her eyes stopped shining, that where her eyes would be white that they were a bit blue. She continued, "And what the hay happened to your eyes? Why are the whites of them blue?"
Colgate replied, "Well they are like that because I cast a strong enough spell that I became a goddess."
Twilight gasped, "A goddess, how does a powerful spell make you one?"
Colgate replied, "You should know, you cast a powerful dark spell that made you a....."
Applejack interrupted, "Colgate, she remembers nothing from the time of her corruption." She leaned over and whispered, "And don't bring up anything about her being a dark goddess, alright?"
Colgate whispered, "My lips are sealed."
Twilight saw so many other ponies around and then something hit her, the rest of her family. She asked, "Where is my family? Where are mom and dad? Where are Shining Armor and Cadence?"
Rarity replied, "Twilight darling, your parents passed long ago and I think it would be best if Celestia told you what happened to Shining Armor and Cadence."
Twilight began to cry, "They're dead aren't they?"
Colgate, despite never being the type to care for physical touch embraced Twilight and said, "I'm sorry Twilight, they are."
Twilight continued to look around and asked, "And where is Spike?" Her pupils shrank as she continued, "He's dead too, isn't he?"
Rarity did her best to try and not react to Twilight's bringing up Spike since she was the one who killed him in a past war but Twilight noticed her looking down and asked, "Rarity, you know what happened to him, don't you? What happened to him?"
Her friends gave her one of those looks that pretty much said to let Celestia tell her but she broke, "Twilight, I'm sorry but I had to kill him in a past war."
Twilight grabbed Rarity in her aura and yelled, "You did what? You killed Spike?" Her yell became more angry as she continued, "Spike adored you and you killed him?"
Fluttershy interrupted, "Twilight, he had grown up entirely and was helping you in an attempt to retake the world. He had burned Ponyville to the ground and injured me."
Rarity added, "And if I hadn't brought him down, he would have not only killed and ate Fluttershy, but me as well!"
Twilight was in a state of shock as she could not believe what she was hearing. She replied, "Spike would never do that!..."
Colgate interrupted, "Twilight, at that time Spike was no longer the Spike you knew when he was a baby. He was very aggressive and was bound and determined to aid you in retaking the world for your own."
Twilight shook her head and yelled, "I don't get it! Why would I have taken the whole world for my own and then tried to retake it?"
Colgate replied, "Twilight, you were corrupted and you wanted the whole world as your own." She took a deep breath and continued, "Twilight, I think once you have your bearings more together that everypony can sit down with you and discuss it but for now, just relax."
Sisterly Reunion
While everypony else was talking, Celestia and Sombra had returned from their walk and immediately Luna saw her sister and ran to her, "Sister, it is so good to see you again!"
Celestia embraced her and replied, "It's good to see you too Luna!"
Luna glanced to her side and saw a pony that she had not seen in eons, King Sombra but it was not the Sombra that she last remembered, it was the Sombra that she first encountered. She asked, "King Sombra, is it really you?"
Sombra replied, "Yes Princess Luna, it is me."
Despite him seeming friendly and having his old appearance restored, Luna believed that perhaps he was playing tricks and pretending to be nice. She yelled, "Sister, he is playing tricks on you! He only looks nice but I can tell he is still evil!"
Luna lit her horn up brightly ready to strike when she heard a male voice yell, "STOP!"
Luna looked back but kept her horn lit up. Luna couldn't help but be curious as to who the white stallion was that approached them. He said, "Princess Luna, don't attack him. He is indeed nice now."
Luna asked, "Who are you and how do you know he is really nice now?"
White Magick replied, "Because I used the ancient rite of cleansing on him." He pointed off to the left towards Chrysalis and continued, "And I used it on Chrysalis as well."
Luna's jaw dropped open. Never did she imagine that two of the most evil villains in the history of Equestria would actually be able to be cleansed of their evil. She turned to White Magick and asked, "Besides Twilight, Chrysalis and Sombra, you weren't able to cleanse any other evil creatures of their evil were you?"
White Magick replied, "Unfortunately no because these two were the only ones besides Twilight that were here to cleanse."
Luna turned back to Celestia and Sombra and asked, "So I take it you two have been catching up?"
Sombra replied, "Yes we have."
Celestia added, "I do hope that we can become friends again like we used to be."
Luna knew of the crush that her and Sombra had on one another so many millennia ago and chuckled, "Yeah, friendship, sure sister, whatever you say."
Decision Time
After everypony had been talking for a while Brevity decided that she wanted to go soon but was curious as to what everypony's decision would be as to whether any of them would return with her or not. She raised her voice and yelled, "Everypony, Brevity needs your attention."
Everypony stopped with their conversations and the first to say anything was White Magick. He asked, "I mean no disrespect but who are you?"
Brevity replied, "Brevity is the second Creator Goddess, she is LaurFa's sister."
White Magick asked, "LaurFa, why did she not come with you when you discovered this continent? Why did she not come with you when you arrived in what would become Equestria?"
LaurFa replied, "It's a long story, we can discuss this later."
White Magick nodded as Brevity began, "As many of thee know it has been one thousand years since Twilight Sparkle retook the world as her own but it appears as though something has happened to release Twilight from her evil."
White Magick interrupted, "It was my cleansing her of her evil that brought the old Twilight back to us."
Brevity simply nodded and continued, "Yes....well, now that Twilight is freed from her evil, Brevity is wondering if anypony who departed with her so long ago wishes to stay here or if they wish to return with Brevity to the new world she is establishing."
While most everypony knew exactly what was going on, Twilight was completely oblivious. She asked, "Return to a new world? What are you talking about?"
Celestia nudged Twilight and replied, "Twilight, that is something we can discuss later."
The first to respond to Brevity was Colgate, "Brevity, since I will have a nation to lead once it is founded, I will be returning with you."
Brevity then turned to the Apple Family awaiting a response from them. Applejack said, "Brevity your Majesty, since Twilight is good again Ah think Ah'll remain here and revive the farm."
Granny Smith added, "I will stay here as well. What about you Big Mac?"
Big Mac added, "Eeyep!"
She then turned to Fluttershy who replied, "Your Majesty, since Twilight is good now I think I'll stay as well."
In unison the Cutie Mark Crusaders added, "We will stay as well."
Luna added, "Brevity, while I know I would have a leadership role in our new world, I wish to stay here to be with my sister." She turned to Celestia and continued, "Besides, I have been parted from her for far too long."
LaurFa also added, "Sister, I know we both had big plans for that world but I believe I will remain here and resume my duties on Alicorn Island."
Brevity turned to Colgate and asked, "Supreme Commander Colgate, are thou certain thou wishes to return to the new world since everypony else who left is staying here?"
Colgate replied, "Yes your Majesty, I do wish to return with you. I have these wings and for many, many years I had a leadership role and once we get our Equestria founded, I plan on ruling over it."
Brevity looked out into the crowd and asked, "Dost anypony else wish to have a leadership role in the new world?"
Brevity was greeted with silence so she turned to Colgate and continued, "Well Colgate, Brevity supposes it will be up to us to establish and rule the new world."
Colgate replied, "Brevity, out of the ponies we are leading to their new lands, I see some who would make great leaders."
Brevity gave her a smile and ordered, "Colgate, stand by us so we may return to our world."
LaurFa yelled, "Brevity wait, aren't you two going to stay even for a little while longer?"
Brevity replied, "No sister, we have many, many ponies awaiting our return so we may continue to lead them to their new homelands."
Once again Brevity's horn began to glow again and as she recited the proper spell, her and Colgate were encircled in a pinkish-yellow ball and then disappeared. For one pony, like everything had been recently, this was so confusing to Twilight. She turned to LaurFa and asked, "LaurFa, I know I only knew you while I was corrupted but I was wondering if you would help me understand everything more since you have been around for so long."
LaurFa replied, "Of course I can Twilight!" She looked around at everypony who was present and continued, "Well we do have leadership across some parts of our world but there are some places that will need leadership in this world with everything that has happened."
Twilight asked, "What about Equestria? Who will rule Equestria?"
LaurFa replied, "Twilight, it will likely be Celestia but there are many places in the world that have no leadership" she pointed towards White Magick and added, "and I think somepony should be given a leadership role somewhere given what he has done for our world." She turned back to Twilight and finished, "But I think it would be best if everypony who has had some sort of leadership role in this world discuss this in a meeting. For now, let's just relax though. We have all been through enough for one day."
Twilight agreed and did her best to enjoy herself but she knew that she would not be able to relax entirely until she found out about everything that happened while she was corrupted nor would she be able to relax until she knew what she was going to do regarding a place to live.
After Brevity and Colgate departed and headed back to the world that they were going to build, the ponies again began to talk among one another but there was one pony who knew that there were still pressing matters that had to be handled, re-establishing leadership across the world.
She raised her voice and began, "Attention everypony, may I have your attention?"
The crowd went silent waiting for LaurFa to speak. Once she had everypony's attention she began, "Alright, now that Twilight Sparkle has been returned to us and most of the ponies that lived in this world over a thousand years ago have returned, we have an important issue that must be discussed."
Galaxia asked, "What is it LaurFa?"
LaurFa replied, "Right now many of the world's nations either have dark Alicorn and changeling officers running them or they have no form of leadership and that must be taken care of. I think we need to decide who will rule where."
The first to say anything was Celestia, "With Equestria no longer being in the state it had been for over 5,000 years, I am wondering if I along with Luna and Twilight will be ruling like we were a long time ago?"
LaurFa replied, "Perhaps but Luna does have leadership experience and I was going to ask her about something."
Luna asked, "What is it LaurFa?"
LaurFa replied, "Luna, at one time you were a good, competent queen in the Equine Empire and I am wondering, would you want to stay here in Equestria and co-rule with your sister and Twilight or would you rather have your own nation to rule over like you did once?"
Luna stood there in thought for a minute before responding, "LaurFa, I know I stayed because I wanted to be close to my sister again but I will admit, I do like the idea of being Queen Luna again so I will gladly accept your offer of leadership in the Equine Empire."
LaurFa replied, "Good. Now that the Equine Empire is taken care of, we still have Saddle Arabia, the Crystal Empire and since it has been so long since Colgate nuked it, Neigh Zealand should be ready to be re-populated."
Galaxia asked, "What about Alicorn Island?"
LaurFa replied, "I have decided that I shall return to ruling there after a 5,000 year absence."
Galaxia simply nodded knowing that she and Cosmos would no longer rule in the place they had been for a millennium. LaurFa saw curious looks on many ponies' faces, especially those who had leadership experience. She turned to Galaxia and Cosmos and asked, "I know it isn't Alicorn Island but given that you did at one point rule in Saddle Arabia, what would you think about returning to your roles there?"
In unison the two nodded yes. LaurFa continued, "Alright, Saddle Arabia is taken care of." She looked out and asked, "Alright, now who wants to take on the enormous task of not just ruling a country, but getting it re-established? Who wants to rule over Neigh Zealand?"
There was one pony who had been a second in command for ages, one who always hoped he could rule but knew that as long as his parents were alive, that would never be, Prince Blue Star. He was a bit nervous as to how his father would react but he wanted it bad enough he raised his hoof and said, "LaurFa your Majesty, I will take on Neigh Zealand."
Not only did White Magick gasp in shock, but so did his entire army. White Magick gasped, "Really Son? You wish to leave our realm and take on this endeavor?"
Blue Star replied, "Yes Father, I have been your second in command and heir to throne but since both you and Mother are Alicorns, I know I will never become king." He paused for a minute and continued, "Father, perhaps this opportunity has presented itself to me for a reason, perhaps this is my destiny."
White Magick could see where his son was coming from and realized that perhaps he was right. He embraced Blue Star and said, "Well Son, both your mother and I will miss you but I shall give you my blessing to taken on this endeavor." He developed a grin on his face and continued, "King Blue Star of Neigh Zealand, that actually does have a good ring to it."
Blue Star embraced his father and replied, "Thank you Father!"
White Magick gave his son a smile back and said, "Son, I know you are a king now BUT you better keep in touch!"
Blue Star replied, "Of course Father, you know I would never cut ties with you!"
Brevity interrupted, "Alright, now we will just need to get ponies to move to Neigh Zealand so you will have more than just two unpopulated islands to govern." She took a short breath and continued, "Ok, Neigh Zealand, Saddle Arabia, the Equine Empire and Alicorn Island are taken care of. Now who to place in the Crystal Empire."
She looked around at the remaining ponies and knew that both Celestia and Twilight would likely stay in Equestria and sighed to herself, "Ugh, why didn't I just tell Colgate I'd let her have something before she left? She would have been a perfect leader."
Eventually another pony, one who had been a second in command for quite some time raised her hoof, Scootaloo. She said, "LaurFa your Majesty, I would be happy to rule in the Crystal Empire."
Unlike the other leaders, the only leadership Scootaloo had ever had was being the head of Equestria's military. She asked, "Scootaloo, are you sure you can take this on? Ruling over an entire nation is a lot more difficult than just being in charge of the military."
Scootaloo replied, "Of course I'm sure." She turned to her friends and asked, "What would you two think about being advisors of some sort? What would you think of being there if I need somepony to bounce ideas off of."
Both her friends were shocked that Scootaloo would ask this of them but were happy as well. Apple Bloom replied, "Of course Ah would Scootaloo!"
Sweetie Belle added, "That would be delightful! I'd love to!"
LaurFa knew of Scootaloo's nature from her behavior in past wars but knew that her friends would likely be able to keep her from turning the Crystal Empire into a military dictatorship. She said, "Very well then Scootaloo, you shall lead the Crystal Empire."
She turned to Celestia and asked, "And I'm assuming you want to resume your role as the leader of Equestria?"
Celestia replied, "Yes but only if Twilight is allowed some say in things."
LaurFa said, "Well Equestria will be your country so you may rule in whatever way you see fit."
Celestia replied, "Good." She then turned to the west and noticed that Canterlot was not there. She gasped, "Wait a minute, what about Canterlot? It will have to be rebuilt because I do want it to be the capitol city."
LaurFa replied, "Don't worry Celestia, we'll get it taken care of as soon as we can."
Celestia sighed, "Great, just great. It looks like both Twilight and I are princesses without a home." She gave LaurFa puppy dog eyes and continued, "Do you think you could use your magic to rebuild it instead of it taking years to rebuild it?"
LaurFa replied, "I may not have the same abilities that Supreme Commander Colgate had with simply constructing things but I can give it my best shot but since we're here, I'm going to see if I can get Twilight a home built first."
Twilight saw LaurFa pointing her horn towards the rubble pile of what used to be her tower and asked, "Your Majesty, what are you doing?"
LaurFa replied, "You'll see Twilight."
LaurFa could tell that both Celestia and Twilight would be a bit distraught if they had nowhere to call home right away so she decided to remedy the situation. Despite this though, she was not about to reconstruct what she used to live in back to how it was, she had other plans for how it would look but she did plan on throwing a special surprise in the castle, one that she knew Twilight would love.
LaurFa lit up her horn and fired energy at the spot. The rubble along with the earth in that area began to grow into a structure that looked like a cross between a tree and a castle. When she was finished she said, "Princess Twilight, this castle shall serve as your new home. I hope you like it."
Twilight looked in awe at her new home. She flew over to LaurFa, hugged her and exclaimed, "Thank you your Majesty, I love it!"
LaurFa saw Celestia looking sad and knew why. She said, "Don't worry Celestia, I can get Canterlot restored as well."
LaurFa wanted to get this done right away to ease Celestia's concerns of being without a home. She again lit up her horn, much more brightly and fired some energy at Canterlot Mountain. She was putting as much strength as she could into this spell, so much that she was grunting as she was casting it. Celestia was watching with a huge smile on her face as the capitol was being reconstructed back into what it was before Twilight's corruption.
When LaurFa finished she gave Celestia a smile and said, "There you go, just like it was five millennia ago."
Celestia embraced her and cheered, "Thank you LaurFa, thank you!"
LaurFa replied, "You're welcome Celestia. I do hope it is just as wonderful as it was back in the old days."
Celestia again thanked her but one pony who was curious about the future was Twilight. She remembered seeing everything down in what was the archives but also knew that LaurFa would likely want everything from Alicorn Island back and that Celestia would likely want everything that was in Canterlot back as well. LaurFa saw the sad look on her face and asked, "Twilight, what is wrong? You have an absolutely beautiful castle!"
Twilight replied, "I know and it is everything I could ever dream of. I guess I'm just sad that I have to return so much of the material down there in the archives."
LaurFa couldn't help but giggle a bit. She said, "Twilight, while I know you are sad that you have to return so much information BUT if you check in the library that comes with the castle, I think you won't be so sad anymore."
Twilight's eyes grew wide in anticipation. She asked, "Did you put a library in there with copies of all the material in the archives?"
LaurFa gave her a smile, "Yes Twilight, I did."
Twilight began jumping around exclaiming, "Yes, yes, yes, yes!" She was so happy that she was not paying attention to what she was doing and bumped into White Magick. When she noticed who she bumped into she blushed a little and said, "I'm so sorry your Majesty! I'm just so happy about my new home."
White Magick gave it a close look and replied, "It does look very impressive."
Twilight exclaimed, "And I talked to LaurFa and she put a library in there! A library with all the information that is in the archives, all the oldest information in Equestria!"
White Magick gave her a smile, "That is good." He knew that she had an immense hunger for knowledge and given that she was no longer evil he suggested, "You know, perhaps you could come visit my realm sometime. You think the information you'll have in there is old, the information I have predates Equestria by many, many millennia."
Twilight's appeared stunned and confused by his use of the word realm. She asked, "Realm, what do you mean? You talk like you live behind some portal or something."
White Magick replied, "I do. My subjects and I have lived behind a portal for over ten thousand years, ever since the dark days....." White Magick stopped himself from revealing any further because he knew that like most everypony else in Equestria that she believes that Ponyland, Grogar and Tambelon were all myths. Once he continued he said, "You know Twilight, with as much as you love knowledge, what would you think about visiting my realm someday. I'm sure you'd love the library I have."
Twilight's eyes grew wide with anticipation upon the invitation. She blushed at him and asked, "Really? You want me to come to your realm and visit your library?" Her blush deepened as she continued, "I'd love to!"
White Magick replied, "I do want to warn you, my wife will likely not be thrilled to see you at first but don't worry, once she sees that you are no longer corrupted she'll welcome you with open hooves."
While normally Twilight would ask about the corruption thing, White Magick bringing up his wife caused her to be a bit sad. While she would never admit this to anypony, she felt an attraction to White Magick but that wouldn't let her pass up on an opportunity to check out all the material in White Magick's realm. She asked, "So when would you want to do this? When would you want to let me come and check out your material?"
White Magick replied, "Well we could in a couple of days. I need to help my son in getting his military and my military back up to an adequate size and then perhaps I can stay at the inn......"
Twilight interrupted, "No. I'm sure my new castle will have spare bedrooms and you can stay in one of them until you are ready to go, besides, I'm sure you're hungry and tired. I'm guessing a couple days rest would do you some good."
White Magick replied, "I think I'll take you up on your offer Princess Twilight. Some good food and some rest sounds good." He cast his gaze over towards his son and said, "Excuse me for a moment, I need to talk to my son because I have a feeling that before too long he will be wanting to head off to his new kingdom in Neigh Zealand."
Twilight nodded and couldn't help but feel happy that not only would she soon get to learn things she never knew about and check out her new, larger library but also that she would be having White Magick staying with her for a couple of days. While she knew that he is married, she couldn't help but wonder if perhaps he may develop feelings for her, feelings of more than simply an alliance or friends. One thing she did know was that regardless of what happened during her past corruption, that things can only improve from what her friends and other leaders had told her.
