The mane six are given a rude awakening when the demon queen Homura Akemi invades Pony, in hopes that they will blindly accept their new ruling.
Homura Akemi invades Equestria in hopes that it will be the utopia that Madoka deserves. But her dark magic creates an imbalance in their world that the princess cannot let roam free. The Equestrian world crumbles before them, and as it continues to fall, more secrets of Equestria past begins to reveal. [Also just sort of seeing where this goes, it is a really bad description but I started a RP and then it stopped, but I still need my fix]. PS- this is in a novella rp style.
It's a shame that the morning wasn't like any other. Although the morning had risen to it beautiful potential, the sun wasn't what the other ponies had awoken to. There was a bellowing scream that echoed through the morning air , the shriek was one that brought a twitch to any ear that came in contact with it, especially Fluttershy's as it was her living room that it originated form.
Fluttershy still had her sleeping mask on when she jumped out of her bed. The sudden break of silence was a shock but nothing that she found alarming ; as the voice was one that she could identify any day of the week - Discord. She came down in a pink and yellow robe and turned into her living room where Discord was waiting for her. She continued to rub her eyes while she walked in, when she was done rubbing her eyes and she had finally looked up at her friend, she couldn't help but gasp to Discord's apperance.
Discord was no longer the Chaotic serpent with hooves and claws, instead, he appeared to have been man. He wore a grey suit vest and with a beige undershirt that was rolled up to his elbows along with skinny suit pants with thin white lines. His hair was slicked back with grey streak running through it and two small pale blue horns protruded from his head. He couldn't stop looking at his newly formed hands and the symmetry his body had decided to take, it was a chaotic form that left him dumbfounded.
"Fluttershy, look at me!" Discord started. Fluttershy was still in a loss for words. what was he, was he playing some sort of joke, if so, she didn't understand it.
"Discord, what are you doing?" Fluttershy's voice cracked. She didn't know whether to be more disturbed over his new appearance or the fact that Discord looked more terrified than she did.
"Nothing," Discord started. "I woke up this way, and each time I try to turn back a few minutes later I start to fade away, and I can feel it, there's something terribly wrong darling and I can't identify it."
Fluttershy was still taken back and at a loss for words. "What do you mean by that," Fluttershy quivered into the far corner of the living room.
"I don't think Ponyville is safe anymore."
The morning downfall didn't end with Discord's rude awakening, the village square was just as odd. Where the gazebo used to be was no longer there, instead there was a pedestal with a black orb floating over top of it with purple lighting that ran through it. Discord had arrived with Fluttershy in his arms and large black feathered wings that had a phantom like appearance and vanished once his feet touched the ground.
Ponies screamed out at his form and looked in awe at the orb that had destroyed their gazebo. Twilight and the other mane six were already there and circling around it to figure out what it was.
"Everypony calm-" Twilight started to say but passed when she saw the Discord that was pushing through the crowd of confused ponies. "Everyone needs to calm down and go back to their homes, until we learn what this is I don't think it is safe to be outside." With the aid of Rainbow Dash and Applejack the ponies were eventually brought back to their homes and the town square was empty except for the mane six and Discord.
"What happened to you?" Rainbow Dash started, she seemed annoyed overall from Discord's appearance, although that might have been because the sun had barely risen and she was still struggling to support the weight of her eyelids.
"At the moment I can't answer that question, but I have some distressing news for you. Whatever this is, it is dangerous and I don't think you will be able to defeat it, you need to evacuate Ponyville - that is hoping that it is just Ponyville that is in danger."
"Discord, if this is one of your tricks again you need to end it right now!" Twilight said and stomped her hoof onto the ground.
"I assure you this is not my doing!"
Before they could continue, a figure passed in front of them and vanished just as quickly.
"What'n the hoot was that?" Applejack looked around where the figure had appeared to come from.
The figure appeared once again, and again, until they were surrounded by scurrying dolls? Each of them looked different, but they all had long slender bodies and overly large heads with large and eerily blue eyes. They all laughed at the ponies and as quickly as they came, they vanished.
"What were those?" Rarity said, "Creepy little things, but their skirts were adorable."
"I think we have bigger things to worry about!" Rainbow Dash spoke out. She was still flying in the air, at this time, Cloudsdale was closer to Ponyville than usual, and it looked as though things were falling through the clouds. "You guys . . . Cloudsdale is falling," Rainbow said. Without any say Rainbow Dash was gone, and the other mane six were lost for words.
"I guess the danger goes beyond just Ponyville." Discord said.
Twilight's magic failed to affect the orb at all, it still hovered over it's alter as if it were waiting for the ponies to come out and bow to it. The majority of the day had passed before Rainbow Dash had returned, but the other mane six were still there. There was a lot of confusion as to what to do. Was it a good idea to leave the orb unattended or was it safe to leave and regroup?
Eventually, the rest of the mane six thought it wise to rejoin at the castle, but as they continued to run they seemed to have been being followed by the dolls. Their laughs were even scarier as they waved in and out of reality. None of the six could tell if they dolls on their tales were trying t hurt them or not.
"Hurry Girls," Twilight said.
As they ran, chills pierced through their backs with each laugh and sight of the doll as they hopped from side to side of the road. The sight of the dolls were beyond any nightmare that the ponies could have ever imagined.
As they ran the dolls came closer, Twilight spread her wings and her horn began to glow , within an instant they were in the walls of her castle surrounding the Cutie Map that seemed to have changed. There was a dark wall like barrier that surround the edge of the table.
“What in the heck was that !” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she swooshed through the air in hops that no one would notice her trembling lips.
“My goodness, the horror of it all, Darlings that thing is horrid and seems to be something that should NOT be in our beloved ponyville.” Rarity commented, although she seemed to be fine, there was a lingering queasiness in her stomach from the sight of the dreaded Clara doll, the thought of her helpless Sweetie Bell and of course her beloved Opal.
“We Shoot, We ain’t never managed to lose a fight when we’re all together, I say we mosey on up with a plan, and chase it out of ponyville like a wolf in a sheep herd.” Applejack said and continued to swing her rope around and snage things with the looped end that she continuously threw around.
Fluttershy curled in a corner with spike in her lap, they still couldn’t force the sight of the dolls sligh smile from their heads. And of course, Twilight paced. When she stopped to look at her friends who were scurrying around and Discord who was observing the map, she still didn’t know what to say.
A green flame flew in front of her followed by a sealed scroll and a stack of books covered in parchment paper and string. The arrival of the letter had brought everyone to a stop. All except Discord and Fluttershy surrounded her. Twilight took the liberty of reading it allod, however it seemed to be different than the average letter she received from Princess Celestia. As she unrolled the scroll, the surface was a deep navy blue written in a light shimmering blue ink, and sealed in the corner with a crescent moon.
My dearest Twilight,
I will start with acknowledging the odd circumstances it requires for me to send you a letter rather than my sister Celestia.
As she is busy calming down the ponies of canterlot and the few from far and wide who have sensed a presence of danger, it is my duty to inform you on the situation, although I am sure you have already sensed the new presence that has overcome Equestria. Keep note, Celestia thinks that it is impossible for our land to have been taken into a different realm, however, I do not agree.
I warn you Twilight, there is a dark presence and you can no longer trust anyone blindly. If we do not do something quickly, we will perish. The world is beginning to take a mind of its own, Pegassi have lost the power to stand on clouds, resulting in the loss of their homes, i no longer have the power to lift the moon and Celestia has lost the ability to lower her son.
The parsal I have given you is forbidden and should have been burnt ages ago. It is the Journal of Queen Chrysalis. Long before her era of changelings, she was known as a great wizard far more powerful than Starswirl. We had brought her to our old castle as our royal Wizard to continue her practices and experiments in hopes that we would benefit form them. But as time went on, her intentions had become more sinister. She created amulets and warps that contained dark magic that was beyond our world. As her last chance to dominate our world and the others she had claimed to discover - she decided to create life through her image, but she failed. Resulting in weakening her magic through creating a new race that was defective and knew nothing but cruelty.
Her dreams of creating this new world however, was a dream created from what she saw through one of her creations - The Crystal Mirror: A mirror capable of showing not only other realms, but alternate universes of our own reality.
Chrysalis kept all of her spells, inventions and discoveries in this journal, As you are the strongest of all of us when we are to deal with magic, it would only make sense for you to have this.
I warn you now though, casting these spells is far greater than King Sombra’s dark magic. Study it and know what you are doing, make sure you have no doubts in your mind, and please - don’t do it alone.
Best regards,
Princess Luna PS. I will be in contact again with you soon, but it is best that this is kept from Celestia until you can find anything that can help us understand what is happening to our home.
Although Discord was listening to the shocking news, he could care less about hearing the mane six’s brainstorming session that was guaranteed to follow immediately after. Instead, he continue to trace his finger through the map, it wasn’t on;y the barrier that was new, the land had all shifted to some degree - but for what reason, he thought to himself, what was it, the the land was making room for? After a few minutes he had spotted it. The mountain that sat just outside of ponyville didn't seem to have been really there, it was as like Discord's realm; a realm that was there but couldn't be seen unless entered. The phantom realm govered over all of ponyville, and took the same landscape as Ponyville except for a few minor adjustment - he was sure that he was the only one who could see this labyrinth. The mountain just outside of Ponyville once had a cave through it for the sleeping dragon that fumed smoke over their town, but where it once stood was now half of a mountain with greenery growing along the sides of it. As his new form started to feel a bit more natural, his confidence had started to grow again - he was going to investigate. With a nap of his fingers, he was no standing behind a tall chair and beside it was the Clara doll. He curled his fingers along the head of the seat and came around to find a girl sitting there and looking up, as though she was waiting for him to appear in that exact spot. She had a smile on her face as well. “Hello,” Discord started, “and who might you be?” He asked and returned her grin as he brought a hand out to her.
She couldn't lie to herself, there was a bit of a shock when Discord managed to apparate himself into her labyrinth, she had thought that no one would notice her arrival as they did, all that had occurred wasn't part of her plans. The sighting of her clara dolls, the orb in the center of their little town and of course, the frightening of the civilians. She was still under the delusion that she could fix all of this, but with her demon form consuming her more every second, her intent to fix all these things she had broken in their world and live quietly in peace would soon develop into an invasion - just the teasing thought was enough to bring a crocked Grinch like smile to her face.
Homura didn't know what to do yet, was Discord someone she could trust, it was just in her nature to plot for the worst, no matter what she did there will always be someone fighting against her. She waited for Discord to come around, when he revealed himself she couldn't help but think that for a rather old gentleman he was on the handsome side, although that might of been because of the overpowering amount of dark magic that came off of him.
"I think it's only fair that you introduced yourself first, as it stands it was you who came into my house after all." She said. She didn't bother with shaking his hand. "And of course, explaining why you are here." Discord pulled his hand back and polished his reformed nails against his chest. He laughed under his breath and cleared his throat before speaking. “Well, first of all I would like to say that you of all -” he eyes the woman up and down before choosing a term “creatures,” he emphasized. “Should be the last to questions my presence, let’s not forget that you’re the one invading here.” Discord vanished and re appeared above her, with the other half of his body stuck in a black hole that had a faint glow on the outside as he forced the tear in reality to keep itself from closing. “However, since I have taken the responsibility of welcoming our new guests.” He brought a mirror to her face, “-you. I can do nothing but be polite. Oh, and no worries,” Discord started. He vanished and reappeared in front of her with a white leather couch for two and a glass table with a tea set and platter of cucumber sandwiches and biscuits. “Allow me to provide the tea.” There was a disturbed looked on the Homura’s face, or possibly annoyance; either way, Discord couldn’t help but smile - this was after all, what he was born to do. And as time continued on, he realized that his body had changed for the sake of maximum power - magic was changing, and more power meant more chaos for Discord to cause, to some degree. “Would you like one or two sugars?” he teased, as had the two cubes circling around the rim of the china. She waved her hand away and the china vanished. Discord tried to keep his face from moving into a sour expression. “I was sleeping on my ceiling, I had the nicest dream about the glory days when the roads were made of soup and the clouds rained chocolate milk and bits of cotton candy fluff. But you see, when I woke up, it turned out that rather than being the predatory, I was the victim. At first I didn’t sense much of the new magical presence of your labyrinth here popping into Equestria because I myself live in a different realm that has much more dark magic rather than your good old boring balanced magic and harmony nonsense. However the new form got me a little spooked (this is the only time I will admit such a thing) so I brought my way to Fluttershy’s cottage, as you might have seen, and that’s when the presence of your Labyrinth really shook me and well . . . well, you know the rest.” Discord chuckled.
“I fail to see how this has brought you to the decision of coming here.”
“Well,” Discord continued, “Your question is the same as mine darling, why are you here?” He asked and came closer to her with each word.
Discord made the table and tea vanish and floated in front of her on his back. “You see, at my side are six very powerful ponies - one of which whom is both compulsive and (as much as I hate to admit) excellent in magic. So consider this a warning. Sooner or later, it doesn’t matter.” He started to say. Discord vanished into thin air and continuously re appeared in different areas around her. “There will come the time that the six will find you and bring your schemes to an end. But because of my soft spot for those who want a little bit of fun, I thought that I would warn you. Clearly you have quite a few number to support you so I know it won’t be easy, but I suggest you leave sooner than later or else a war between us will release.”
"My presences will start a war?" Homura mocked. "Well that's unfortunate, and I assure you I will do everything in my power to prevent this from happening, I am here as refuge, to find peace."
"You mean to reform? Well as one who has recently reformed (ish) I will tell you now that creating pods of dark magic throughout Equestria and causing ponies to lose their homes is not a good impression."
"I will fix all of it." Homura insisted.
"Well to convince me, how about we start with introductions? My name is Discord."
Homura was against sharing her name, if he was able to apparate into her realm and detect her magic, she didn't know what he could do with a her name - nevertheless, she gave it to him anyway.
"My name is Homura," she said. She knew that it would be her last chance to make some sort of impression that would change her chances of success with her plan. She knew that she would have to choose her words carefully, as a creature of chaos there was no doubt that he would be able to pick up on any false words - so she spoke as carefully as possible, and tried to look him in the eye as she avoided topics about her past. "I would like to assure you that my intent is not war, and I do want to fix any misconceptions. If that means that I have to see to your civilians each have their homes restored and give gifts for their troubles then I will do so, in hopes that we can all live in peace."
Of course, Homura's choice of words still ran some alarms in Discord's ear, she was still [planning on staying, and to some degree take the responsibilities of their current rulers to keep this peace. Although Homura might not have known it yet, but Homura was invading Equestria, now the question was, was Discord going to share this information or keep it for himself? He couldn't' help but feel a rush from knowing something before the mane six, like old times, he had the upper hand.
“Hmm,” Discord started and stroked the hair on his chin, “I see,” he said. A door appeared behind him, one that didn’t fit with the rest of their surroundings in the heart of the Labyrinth. “Well I guess I’ll see you later then,” he proceeded to walk out the door, but quickly peaked his head through the door again before shutting. “Remember, next time it’s your turn to supply the tea.” Discord waved his hand through the crack of the door that was shutting on its own and sang out his last words, “Chow!” Although he only needed to be in between the tear of reality for a second, there was a lot that managed to pass through his mind - what in the Celestia was this thing doing here, what was she planning? Discord could feel his curiosity overriding his newfound morals, friendship was one magic, but chaos has recently jumped a few leagues.
When he opened the second door to pass through, Discord was back in the castle where the Mane six were still brainstorming. They all turned to look at him, it took them a few moments to remind themselves of his knew form, it was only Twilight who was unchanged by this, as she had gone to another realm where she was surrounded by humans and had become one herself.
“Where have you been?” Twilight asked with a raised brow; as one of the four princesses, she had to investigate every possibility even if that meant suspecting recently reformed allies, especially the ones who have betrayed them before during their “truce”. The rest of the six nodded in agreement, they wanted to know the answer just as badly.
It was Discord’s last chance to come to his decision, was he going to chance it or make the proper decision?
He stuck his index finger up as if her were going to lecture them. “First of all, I would like to express the pain I feel from the tone of suspicion that you feel towards me. And I would also like to expression my pride over your wrongfulness.”
“Discord!” all except Fluttershy shouted out unanimously.
“I went out of my way to investigate and see if I could find anything.” Discord went up to Twilight. “You aren’t the only one who knows a few magic tricks.”
“Well,” Rainbow whaled and flew in Discords face. “Did you find anything?”
“I did,” Discord pushed Rainbow away from him. “I believe you people call it.” glasses appeared on his face and a dictionary in his hand with pages that flew from both sides and vanished in the middle, “nothing,” he ended. “That book is your best bet.”
“Alright girls, well it is up to us to figure this out and protect Equestria. We haven’t lost any battles yet with as long if we have -”
“Yes, yes the magic of friendship.” Discord dismissively waved his hand in the air as he crouched over the map, if they could only see the chaotic labyrinth that hovered over their beloved Equestria as he did. “Twilight darling, could I make a copy of this?” He snapped his finger and a humongous map on parchment appeared in his hand that exceed his arms length. On the parchment was Equestria, but what hovered over it, was a the physical form of that creature’s labyrinth. Even from a quick glimpse they could see that the map had more than just Equestria on it.
“What is that?” Twilight started, and Rainbow came up behind him to look at the map, but he rolled the map up and folded it into a small square and placed it in his pocket. “Ah, ah, it’s rude to snoop,” he sang out and vanished - leaving the main six alone to ponder over what he was up to, In Discord’s mind, no matter what side he chose, the ponies will end up suspecting him for the darkness that would eventually start affecting them, so why not get ahead of the game?
As Discord vanished, Rainbow Dash's coat had darkened for a moment, and her eyes had gone black, much like the orb in the town square. She fluttered down to the ground with her hoof on her head. The other five and Spike surrounded her with concern.
“Rainbow, are you alright?” Applejack started.
“Well that was was a nasty thing to do, even for Discord’s standards.” Rarity spoke in disgruntled disgust.
“You guys!” Rainbow exclaimed and waved them off of her so that she could breath in fresh air. “I’m fine, but whatever was on Discord’s map, wasn’t Equestria.” There was a faint disturbance in the tone of her voice, which was alarming to the rest.
“What do you think it was?” Twilight asked after the brief moment of silence that followed after Rainbow’s statement.
“I don’t know, it was just dark and chaotic, I think it was a map of Discord’s realm.” Rainbow said.
“Well why’n the hoot would Discord need a map of his own realm?” Applejack asked.
“Maybe he wants to start letting more people visit?” Fluttershy suggested. “Remember, he’s reformed now and I don’t think he would betray us again.”
“Well, he knows something and isn’t telling us which is the first step of betrayal, we should warn Princess Celestia and Luna!” Spike exclaimed.
“No one is warning anyone about anything.” Twilight took her hoof to her chest and took a deep breath. “We are going to calm down and think about this, Discord said that we’re on the right track with Chrysalis’ journal, so let’s study that and see if we can find anything, and then we should go out and see if anything new has shown up.
“Or we can do this whole study session fiasco later Twilight. Look at the map, we have a black wall around us, Luna said it herself, nature is moving without command and ever pony in canterlot has lost their home because we can’t stand on them anymore - oh my gosh, Tank!” Rainbow screamed and Dashed out the window.
“I do have to agree with Rainbow Dash Darling, we should investigate and see that everyone is okay before we take a back seat for a while and create theories. There is a horrid wall surround Equestria after all, that color alone is dreadful.”
“Girls, we need to stick together!” Twilight exclaimed, only now starting to panic.
“I think it’s best if we split up, you stay here, if we need you we will come and get you, but stay here and study the book with spike, and we’ll go help the ponies and fight off anymore of those creepy doll things.” Applejack said with a shiver in her voice when she mentioned the dolls.
Twilight froze as she watched they rest of them leave, Applejack pulled Fluttershy by the tale as she begged to stay in the castle with Twilight, and Rarity trotted off behind the two of them. It wasn’t until Rarity shut the door that Twilight snapped back into reality, the scroll and book still in her hand.
Homura enjoyed sitting above them all, but it was still a shame that the harmony that had drawn her there was crumbling before her eyes, and she was still in denial that their fall through was entirely her fault; even though she was a demon, she still liked to think that she had control over how much evil she let out, but she was coming to a slow realization of the truth. She could fix it though, whatever she broke she would make sure to fix, this will be Homura and Manoka's new home, their doo over, where they didn't have to worry about the magical girls' fates or the incubator. She didn't know how she was going to take care of the nasty little creature yet, but it would all soon be figured out.
For now, her concern was the destruction that she had caused, but she didn't understand how anything was abnormal. The flying ponies flew around catching belongs that she assumed they had dropped, possibly a government accident of some sort? Homura was confused as to what could have truly happened, but she did know that it wasn't her fault, the idea of placing thigs on clouds was ridiculous, they were made out of vapour, nothing solid that one could physically stand on.
The orb in the centre of their village was another problem that Homura couldn't understand, was it the incubators doing, she thought that she had cast them out to other universes, and since she had discovered this universe after the fact, there was no way that it could have been here - she hoped.
Homura watched the funny god of chaos for the brief moments that had passed and watched as he took a copy of the map, it frightened her that he was able to have a copy of her labyrinth, much like the rainbow coloured pony her Clara doll took its distance and peaked over Discord's shoulder, it was mimicking her labyrinth's every move.
The other ponies had left the horn and winged one to herself with her - pet dragon? The rest of them had responded to the further destruction that was being caused in the town, it had appeared that these six were the caretakers of the other ponies, she wondered if that was the concept for every town in this realm, if so, she somewhat enjoyed the concept; it meant that everyone was being taken care of, no one was being ignored by their leaders. As much as she wanted to further explore these ponies methods, she still needed to learn the basics as soon as possible before she was declared as an enemy, after all, her invasion was meant to be a peaceful one - not even an invasion, more or so a refuge or immigration. Having the one pony alone, (and judging from the amount of chaos that had started up again with ore falling items), for a very long time. It was the perfect time to smooth some misunderstandings.
One of her Cara dolls responded to her metal command and came back with a phonograph and began cranking the lever, and Homura began to spoke through it.
"Hello, do not be frightened, I see that there have been disruptions in your world, I wish nothing more but to fix it," Homura said, and thought she worked well, all she could do now was hope that the leading pony would respond with kindness and understanding, enough so that it wouldn't jeopardise her plans for a peaceful move in.
The voice made Twilight scream (she betrayed to reconsider if she wanted to take the responsibility as a princess if these were the problems she would have to deal with on a daily basis). Spike ran underneath her, Spike standing underneath her was enough to remind her that it was her duty to protect and that no matter how high of a rank she held, it was still okay to be afraid.
“Hello?” Twilight started, she brought a good to her chest again and took a deep breath. As the origin of the voice was a mystery, eventually she managed to stand still and stare at the tree chandelier that hovered over their cutie map. “I am Twilight Sparkle, one of the four Princesses of Equestria.” It was hard to decide which was more frightening, that she didn't know who are what she was dealing with, or that she still didn’t know who she herself was yet. “Your presence has disrupted the nature of our world. The clouds held homes for winged ponies and cities that have fallen from the skies. Our rulers have been forced into a panic, secrets have begun to develop within our system of ruling.” Twilight didn’t realize that she had started pacing again. “ You’ve started to corrupt our world, and you need to leave before it gets even worse. Tell us what it is that you want or what it is that you are in search for and we will help you so long as our world - so long if Equestria, is braided of this darkness that you’ve implemented upon us.” There was yet another pause before the echoing voice responded. “I am sorry for the discomfort my presence, please believe me when I say that that was not my intention. Tell me how the clouds held the cities, show me the darkness and I will take it away.” Her voice was persistent. Homura had hoped that the darkness she spoke of was anything but the orb that even she had no control of or what it was for the matter.
“Come and meet me face to face, tell me why you’re here.” Twilight hit her hoof against the crystal floor.
“I am afraid I cannot bring myself to appear in front of you, I am trapped in a realm that hovers in a parallel of your own.” (Of course what Hokuma was saying was lie, however, it seemed that it would be better if she could be viewed as some kind of victim as well, these creatures at the end of the day, were begging to forgive their enemies and trust them blindly as soon as they sang out their reformations, it was the only explanations for Discord’s freedom). “The only thing I can do is use my magic, spread my voice and see what you are doing, my physical form is restricted. Tell me how to fix these mistakes,” she repeated.
“Return the clouds to their formal state, give the pegasie their ability to walk amongst clouds again.” Twilight explained.
That explanation was enough. ‘ Ah I see,’ Homura thought. The clouds are treated as floating grounds, the soft material can make structures, the rainbows in the sky are physical materials that they have to create and can manipulate, in a certain sense, these ponies have managed to be their own gods and have created their own world to their own liking, is this how they managed to bring this world to one with next to no dark magic? Homura thought to herself, this world was becoming more interesting by the second - and she hadn’t even started digging yet.
“I understand,” Homura replied. “I will do just that.”
Twilight had her eyes closed and was ready to state her next argument as she become more comfortable with the situation, but ended up stopping in the middle of her step and tripping forward. “Really, and then you’ll leave? I assure you if you are trapped then we will find who or what is was that did this to you and find you a new home, one that will give you the freedom you deserve.” Twilight monologues.
“I do not need rescuing,” Homura enssured, although the idea of being the damsel in distress did seem to be amusing.
“Is that because you know how to leave on your own?”
“I don’t see why I need to leave if I have ensured you that I will fix what has been broken and leave you all to live in peace.”
“You may be able to fix the clouds, you may even be able to stop the darkness from passing through into our realm where we can see it, but you can’t erase it, it will still be there, and it will fester and grow until it can no longer be contained and harm all of us.” Twilight state with the confidence that almost convinced Homura that she could have dealt with a situation like this one before.
“I’m sorry but you will still need to leave, or you can tell us where you are and try to help us so that we can help you and pull you from this trapped world of darkness that is affecting the magic of our world.” Homura couldn’t help but laugh at the idea of their help (little did she know that these ponies were more than what met her eye).
Discord had very little idea as to what he was actually doing, but he still needed to feed his curiosity, where he teleported wasn’t his realm, but rather, a realm where only the guilty lived.
“Well now, I know it’s only been, what-” Discord had fourteen fingers appear on one hand and rolled his finger through them “two weeks already?” Discord followed it by a chuckle. “Oh how time flies!” he exclaimed.
“What do you want.” The weak voice hissed out from the darkness.
“I know we aren’t on the best of terms, although that is entirely your fault. I have a few questions for you.”
The voice laughed before responding. “And what is in it for me?”
“Hmm,” Discord stroked his beard and had his eyes roll along his arm and through his ears before returning to his sockets. “Let’s say a pony per answer . . . of course, you will only receive the pony once your answer is put the test and proven innocent of any misleading evidence.” A wicked smile curled on the side of Discord’s face, he couldn’t help but love it.
“What is it that you would want to know?”
“Oh, just a few brief history lessons.” Discord brought his face closer to the bars that separated them. “What do you say Terik, do we have a deal?”
Homura had left the conversation while Twilight still looked flustered, as expected she went back to crossing ideas over with the only listening ear there - the pet dragon, which she though was quite impressive in concept, she hoped that this ponies dragon would grow into a great weapon one day. She continued to watch Twilight's bantering brainstorm until one of the Clara dolls tugged at her arm.
"What is it now?" Homura was scared that there was yet another disaster that might of been due to her unintentional doing - this demon thing still needed some getting used to. The clara doll made a television screen appear that featured the one and only Discord. The Clara Doll took a remote that had come out of thin air and rewind to the proper segment that the doll thought it important for her to see. Homura was uncomfortable when she saw that there wasn't just one Discord standing in front of her, but at least five, and they continued to walk through his door.
Discord was almost where he wanted to be. Playing detective was going to be fun, and if he could also find out where this magic was coming from, and why it made him change forms and how it was more powerful, then that was a bonus. Honestly, the more he thought about it, the more he thought about this whole situation, the more he liked it. And somehow he managed to convince himself that feeding his curiosity was in no way betraying his beloved Fluttershy, out of all of them, she was the only pony who understood that despite Discord becoming reformed, he would always be a creature of chaos by nature.
Terik had no trouble agreeing to help Discord, although Discord was still a little hurt by the betrayal. In all honesty, getting Terik to help him was just for the sake of gloating-now the real challenge would be to find a way to create ponies with a sort of magic that will make him grow, but still remain weak - of course all of this would have to be achieved without draining Discord’s magic in the process. This was a challenge that he was willing to accept, if worse came to worse, he could always go to the Celestia’s dungeons and steal a pony or two from there and tweak them up a bit before handing them off as Terik’s dinner. There was no harm in giving bad ponies the fate they deserved - if anything, he was giving them a second chance to gain their own freedom, without magic they wouldn’t be a threat and could roam freely among the other ponies. Once Terik had accepted Discord’s alliance, Discord made it clear that he would be coming back to him soon, and while he waited, to think hard about anything that would be deemed as useful - he even mentioned something about bonus ponies if the info was especially juicy; but until that time came, it was time for Discord to do some major brainstorming. Of course doing so would involve an invite to his other brainstorming buddies.
He patiently waited at his throne like chair up against the magical map he had created that was floating in the center of five more chairs that had yet to be filled. There was then a knock on the door. “Well, don’t bother knocking on the door, it will just make you later than you already are!” Discord exclaimed. “I would say sorry, but it would make no difference with you, you of all people should know that it has been a very rough morning for us.” A hoard of Discord’s pushed through the door and took their seats - each of them putting on different colored pretentious reading glasses that hung from the tips of their noses. “And on top of that there was this creepy thing that has been following us all day.” “Say what now?” Discord had a newspaper opened in his lap that was tall enough to cover half of his body, he folded the paper so that he could see the other hims who surrounded him. “Yes!” another shouted out, as though it was the top of all gossip right now. “It keeps a rather large distance away from us, but it is impossible to not feel those dark magical eyes staring at our backs.” The Discord speaking brought his hands to his shoulders and shivered to the lingering thought of it.
“Ah, yes I see.” Discord mumbled.
“Well, much like me, I am feeding my curiosity - so I can hardly be mad, if anything I am honored that our little friend wishes to keep an eye on us.”
“Alright, well let’s get down to the core of our session here.” One of the Discords spoke out with an mallot in his hand that he proceeded to hit against the table.
“Right, well we’ve got Terik wrapped around our finger. Now what we have to do is figure out how we are to go about feeding him without causing a Terik war 2.0, we also need to know how we feel about this new magic and all that.”
“Well I personally think it’s all fun, but I think it’s wrong that we are leaving Fluttershy in all this, we just gained her trust back.”
“Yes I know,” Discord sighed.
“One the other hand, it has been a while since we’ve been able to have any fun, and pinning all of our nature up inside us is a huge disaster waiting to happen, this is an opportunity and we should take it.
“Take it?” another asked. “You mean becoming alli’s with that . . . thing?”
“That thing, looks like us - speaking of which, I love the new form.” Another one chuckled.
“No no, I have a better idea, let’s figure out why she’s here -”
“How are we going to do that?” one of the Discords interrupted. Discord gave him a sour look that forced the Discord to slump down into his chair.
“Out of all of you, I was the only one that was there. The girl was being strategic, she’s hiding something. There is a reason that she claims is more important than herself. I think we should find that reason, maybe get a leg up on the situation -”
“ooh , and then we can dangle the answer over the ponies head and make them play for it?” Another Discord exclaimed.
“Exactly!”
“Wait, then why are we siding with Terik again?”
“Because there are clearly things about Dark magic and chaos that I am unaware of. And me - a God of chaos, can't just walk around unaware of what he represents.” Discord said.
“And it’s interesting that Equestria clearly wasn’t as lighthearted of a kingdom as Celestia and Luna would want us to think.” The Discord with the professional looking glasses stated.
“Well that’s al fine, Luna has already shown that she’ll share her sisters secrets under the right circumstances.”
“Exactly.” the profesional Discord said.
“And Celestia knows that, which means she herself has secrets. Think of it, she used to be much more powerful and now she has to rely on six ponies to use elements and save the world when she used to be able to do ten times as much as they could, on her own. You need to figure out what Celestia is hiding, you need to learn more about dark magic and the darker ages from Terik, you need to learn why those dolls are traipsing around Equestria and you need to figure what that thing wants and maybe figure out her name !” One of the Discord was typing up everything on a typewriter.
“Hmm, all of those are valid points,” Discord started. “Which is why you’re my favorite!’ He exclaimed and hugged himself, the others sulked a bit to his favoritism.
“Last question before the meeting adjourns - should we, or should we not use prison ponies as Teriks reward, and if we do, how are we going to prevent his magical enhancement?” Discord waited for the vote, he scurried through the ballots that they all handed over to him. “Alright, prisoners it is. Next meeting make sure to come up with ideas on how to prevent the enhancement.” Discord said. The other hims, all nodded and then vanished into thin air. “And now, should I start with stealing those ponies, or should I snoop around in Celestia head for a while?”
How could these ponies trust such a creature like Discord, yet they refused to accept her? This creature wished to use their own people as bait for the sake of feeding his curiosity? But at the same time, he was powerful, there was no doubt that in the future, his loyalty would be based on self benefit, but he would all in all be a powerful ally to have if things came to the worst scenario such as war, although she didn't think it would be too much of a fight to begin with.
For now on, Discord would be a priority for her, and the idea that she could sense her Clara dolls watching him was also alarming, with this creature she didn't have the upper hand, the only thing that gave her a chance at the moment was because Discord had decided not to tell the ponies anything and Discord decided not to block her Clara dolls away.
Living in peace with these ponies would be a bigger challenge than expected.
The mane six stumbled onto their hooves, “alright, one at a time.” Spike said, he was somewhat annoyed by the situation, and he didn’t even realize how much time had passed, the day was almost over and as his bedtime came closer, the more aggravated he became, and the tense sensation of the entire day wasn’t helping. Somehow, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy ended up together, of course, Fluttershy was still struck with terror, but at least she was standing on her own again. “Okay okay, so I was using my Pinkie sense to catch all the falling items from Cloudsdale, and then out of nowhere, everything stopped! But there was a small moment when things froze and the clouds were covered in this black and purple void thing and then, everything just stopped falling. But before that, I saw some more of those scary little doo-hicky doll things run across the clouds and hop into those void things before they shrunk down into nothing and left . . . basically frozen clouds.” Pinkie said, and ended with the question, “what is going on!” and paused at each syllable.
“That’s exactly what happened with me, everything in my house just stopped falling, and we saw a leg of one of those doll things, but wait, there’s more. I dropped Applejack so that she could see that void thing in the walls of my house, and I dropped her, but she didn’t pass through the cloud.”
“What?” Twilight said.
“What’s happening to our beloved Equestria, who is doing all this, although I wouldn’t mind being able to stand on clouds, I do after all have some fans who miss me ever since that wing competition.” Rarity smirked at the memory and fixed the curls of her mane. Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but roll her eyes, but since she WAS the savior of the day, she didn’t bother saying anything.
“Alright, well now we know that things still aren’t right around here. But I have some more problems for you all. I ended up speaking with the person who is behind all this.”
“You what!’ they all screamed out. “Where, when?” Rainbow Dash asked, her voice was somewhat whiny, like she couldn’t believe that Twilight would do such a thing without her. “Who is it?”
“I don’t know, I never got it’s name, or her name - I think. But there is a problem, this thing doesn’t plan on leaving, I don’t think. It seemed surprised when I still said that it would have to leave after fixing everything. I am afraid that this thing might put up a fight, we need to go to Canterlot. ”
“To Canterlot?” Rarity expressed, however instead of with excitement, she to a questioning tone in her voice.
“Yes, we need to go find Princess Luna, I think she has information that will help us.”
“And Princess Celestia?” Applejack asked.
It hurt Twilight more than she could admit to herself, but she knew that for now, she couldn’t let Celestia know about the snooping, not until she knew for sure that Celestia wouldn’t lock any secrets away that would help them sae Equestria, rather than their souls or royal pride. Twilight shook her head, “she can’t know that we are snooping around for information yet. “Twilight responded. To her relief, none of them opposed.
“Alright, then we leave tomorrow, say your goodbyes, I don’t know when we will be back.” Twilight said.
By this time, the moon should have been rising, which reminded Twilight that the princesses no longer had power over their precious sun and moon. Twilight carried Spike back to the castle, and before shutting the blind and lying down, she wrote a letter to Princess Luna, announcing their visit for the next day.
Ever since Luna had received the letter, she remained awake in her chambers, however she found it difficult to keep herself awake. She was both tired and depressed. Without her connection to the moon her energy and magic continued to drain, and her depression which came from a a sense of uselessness - these emotions only made her magic drain away from her faster. The doors to her chambers opened and the voice of a Guard announced himself and the ponies that stood behind them, although there wasn’t much need for it.
“Your Majesty, I present to you Princess Twilight and the saviours of Equestria.” He bowed and shut the door behind him, leaving them inside to their privacy.
Luna kept her back to them; dreading the moment when they’ll discover her sunken cheeks, dying mane and thinning body - she had never checked since she discovered that she had lost control of her beloved moon, but she would be surprised if her cutie mark was fading as well,
“Princess Luna?” Twilight asked as she walked up to her.
“Yes Twilight it is I, I am glad that you have come to me so quickly. Did my sister see you?”
“No she’s been in the throne room, I did see a glimpse of her though, she looks sick.”
“Yes well, that is in both of our cases.”
“What?” Twilight asked. It was then that Luna thought it best to turn around and reveal her withering body. They all tried to remain calm, but Rarity was the one who gasped out loud and quickly covered her hoof. They all looked at her with a look of disapproval.
“Luna!” Twilight yelled out, but Luna extended her arm before Twilight could push against her side.
“No, I am fine - please don’t worry yourself.”
“Why is this happening to you both?” Rainbow asked.
“It is not important right now.”
“Did all this suddenly start yesterday, because if that’s the case, then it’s EXTREMELY important!” it was a surprise that Rainbow Dash didn’t add a ‘Duh’ to the end of it.
Luna sighed and went up to her bed to lay down - she could feel her legs starting to collapse from under her.
“Is your illness why the moon and sun have been slower lately, tell me how I can help.” Twilight begged at her bedside.
“I have thought about it thoroughly, you Twilight, have the strongest magic out of any of us. I do not know about princess luna, but I do know that for myself - the moon continues to yell out to me, trying to find a way back to me as it too continues to weaken alone in the dark. I have been attached to the moon for my entire life, and I have lived with in it for a thousand moons - our connection is beyond any others. I believe that I can break whatever force that is severing our connection to one another, but I will need to ask you a favor that is far greater than anything I will ever be able to repay in full.”
“Luna, Just tell me what you need!” Twilight was surprised with the lack of formality, although they were both princesses so - formality wasn’t required between the two of them.
Lujna hesitated and looked at all of them before she revealed her intentions. “I will require your magic Twilight, just for a moment, and soon after I will return it. But I do warn you, that this will not be the same spell that we used when Terik threatened to obtain ours. When I am done, some of your magic, you talents will remain with me, as some of my magic and talents will remain with you, gaining this kind of magic will be difficult to control and will eb a risk to the rest of our magic, as I do not know what will happen when our magic manifest throughout one another, but it is a risk that I am willing to take, so long if you are okay with this as well.”
Twilight knew there was a shocked look on her face, but it was an incorrect expression to how she truly felt. She was shocked that Luna would even ask if it was okay with her, and honored that she could once again help her fellow princess.
“Luna, I will do anything for you, especially if it involves saving your magic and your life.”
Luna bowed and gave a smile of relief. “Thank you Twilight, I will be forever in your debt, please, that black book that sits on the edge of my table, bring it to me.”
The book that Twilight brought was one that she had never seen before. Saying that the cover was black was an understatement - it was a replica of Luna’s mane, it even moved like her mane, and the pages were a light navy blue that had a faint glow to them. In the book was a bookmark that she opened to. On the page was the title “Lunar Gentem”. The spell looked complex, and surprisingly, was one that she had never seen before.
“We will need to be precise, nevermind the core of the spell, that is for me to worry over - you are to focus on this. She pointed to a small circular spell that seemed have a little familiarity to Twilight when she first started studying ancient spells. Remember to feel you magic and bring it to your core, but do not drain yourself of all your magic, if you do so, then when I try to return your magic to you, it will not recognize you and remain with me as it’s new owner.”
“Magic can think?” Rarity asked, and applejack seemed to have looked just as confused.
“Yes, these are one of the many secrets that I wish to be strong enough to tell you if this goes right, but Equestria wasn’t always a realm of harmony.”
Twilight stood at the head of Luna’s bed and focused on her magic - it worked! She had never felt the presence of her magic before, not like this. There was so much of it she didn't’ even recognize, as if she hadn’t yet discovered her true potential yet - she was much more powerful than she had realized. As instructed she focused on cutting some of it away, there was a slight pinch as she did so and she then hid it in the corner of her body and opened her eyes again. The glowed which, pink an purple (like her cutie mark) and she brought it all up to her horn. Luna was chanting something and her eyes went dark and her horn began to glow - ready to receive Twilight’s magic. The last of Luna’s chant was “Lunar Gentem” and Twilight released the ball of magic and struck against Luna and was absorbed through her horn.
Other than Twilight’s dulled coat and her faint dizziness, she seemed to be fine - it was much like a filly who had just discovered their magic, they were just weaker than most, but still functional. Luna on the other hand, had regained her former beauty, and more. She stood up on her hooved with her mane flowing and opened the doors to her balcony.
Twilight was the only one who was brave enough to join her, the others stood behind whispering to each other - even Pinkie Pie looked worried. Although they didn’t understand it, there was the presence of indefinite change that would be occuring that was too soon for comfort.
There was only the top of the moon that was still above the horizon, but it was enough for what she intended to do. “Brace yourself,” Luna said - although Twilight didn’t fully understand, Luna had faith that she could properly predict the aftermath of the spell. With her newly gained power, Luna spread her wings and flew out and slightly above the balcony. She lowered her head in concentration and then opened them, once again revealing her glowing eyes. The light went through her entire body before her horn brought out a huge cluster of magic that radiated into a ball bigger than the castle and struck into the top half of the moon. As if the moon had hit the earth, the ground started to shake from the impact.Instantly, the bond had started its restoration with Luna, the link between them was a missing love that was indescribably. Lost memories were restored - what many didn’t understand was why Luna and Celestia gained the power to rise and lower the moon and sun - it was because they had the power to gain their trust. The moon had been there before the beginning and has every memory of what has happened in Equestria, and the moon has shared these memories with Luna, and her imprisonment only grew that bond to a state that has made them inseparable, they are reliant on one another. Luna focused her love for the moon, and the memories that they had created together, and above all else, the time that they had together when they thought that nothing would be able to seperate them like this.
Within an instant, the magic of the moon had found its way to her and link to Luna, now all that stood between them was the dark magic that had placed a border between them. Both of them were chanting the spell to one another and a tremendous pressure had fallen over luna, the pain was almost unbearable, but with the amount of magic inside her - thanks to Twilight, she was still unbreakable. /I will defeat this, I will be with the moon again/ she said thought to herself as she continued to grind her teeth. Luna had no choice but to defeat the darkness - something that she wasn’t new too, so she new that it was going to be difficult. Both the moon and Luna sent out yet another blast that had the goal of linking to one another by breaking through the dark border.
Their magic only became stronger as the continued to chant further, and instantaneously, A symbol appeared in the sky that covered the sky, circles upon circles all attached by diamonds and squares, and within those were what looked like stars and a crescent moon that glowed a navy blue against the black backing of the spell. The moon and stars in the symbol where something that none had ever seen before, it glowed brighter to the point that the mane six had to cover their eyes from the instant burn that struck upon them. The symbols glow radiated to the center and struck below it where the dark border was, and like glass, shattered it to pieces, and as the pieces fell the the ground, the fades, and vanished before they could touch Equestria’s crust.
The bond between the moon and Luna and finally linked to its fullest potential and Luna had started to come back down to the balcony. Her mane had completely changed, somehow she had become more gorgeous. Although she was weak, she was still strong than where she had started, and the remainder of that forced her to continue. “Twilight,” she said, “are you ready?”
The moon’s magic was still attaching itself to her horn, that was now in the form of a mist of pure magic. Twilight nodded and bowed down. Luna bowed down as well, so that there horns were at the same levels, and with the aid of the moon returned her magic. The symbol that had appeared in the sky now took a smaller form and went hovered in front of Luna’s newly reformed horn and took the power to restore Twilights. Once it touched her horn Twilight began to change. The shock of her magic returning and Luna’s talents entering her body was painful. She could feel her hooves shifting and gaining golden coats, her torso thinning, her wings growing and her mane elongating and - shimmering, it was moving on it’s own. And last of all, her cutie mark. What used to be a shining star was now a shining star with a sliver of the symbol that had appeared, specifically the area with the crescent moon placed behind her cutie mark.
When the spell was over, both Twilight and Luna collapsed, Princes Luna’s cutie mark seemed to have gone under some changes as well, she now had an additional start to her cutie mark and a faint purple shadow that now outline her original cutie mark. And of course the full symbol that was no sitting on her flank, but unlike Twilight, Luna had gotten up again.
“I will need to see if the spell has worked, if so, this interference will not happen again, “ Luna started.
Luna faced the little bit of the moon that remained, she took a deep breath, and started to raise the moon. A beam of power shot out from her horn, it was still a mist and gave no signs of changing. The change in how much magic she had was a shock, she too had underestimated the amount of power that Twilight truly had, even though she had thought she was still overestimating her predictions beforehand. Eventually, she managed to take some control and bring her beam of magic to the moon where the moon raised to her command and sang out to her in glee for their rejoinment, and soon after - she lowered it again, in hopes that the sun would find its way to the morning sky.
Other than Twilight, who was proud to be a part of this, and was still shocked from the little bits of her new form that she could see - the other mane six were looking at Luna in awe. The magic that they had witness was a spectacle that before then, was a myth at best.
“Wow,” Applejack said. “I’ve never been so happy to be an Earth pony, all that is just too much for me.”
Luna gave a slight chuckle. “Come,” she said. “Now we can go and speak. I have a hidden room that no one knows of, we will be safe there as they try to look for us.”
As soon as she said that, the door started banging with guards, because of the light, they weren’t able to do anything until it had faded.
“Your majesty, are you okay?” one of the guards said.
“Hurry,” Luna insisted.
She went to her bedside and pushed on a stack of books, a false flooring had vanished and revealed a set of stares. She grabbed the spell book on the table and Twilight, who was still in a bit of a daze.
“Luna!” Celestia cried out form the other side of the door, although she seemed to be more angry than concerned.
When they managed to open the door from Luna’s spell, the floor had taken its proper place once again.
Celestia was beyond exhausted, at her fullest potential, life was already as difficult as it could be. The throne room was crowded with pony civilians that were demanding answers, and screaming out their concerns. After enough of them had realized that they weren’t the only ones who felt the odd sensation of a dark presence and the dissolving clouds. She had been sitting at her throne for hours, and for once, she need the guards to be at their fullest attention, midway through the day she had doubled the guard count as the count of ponies got higher, and they become more riled.
The voices of the ponies started to blur together to the point that everything seemed to take a muted back seat as Celestia fell into her thoughts. She was well aware that something worse was coming, but she failed to be able to grasp the concept. Her thoughts were disrupted by a scream that was too loud to be justified in her throne room, but before she could ask why the screams continued to grow the throne had gone dark from the sky that had seemed to reverse itself from morning to night. The darkness was quickly replaced with blinding light.
A sense of loathing washed over her, there was no doubt in her mind that it was Luna’s doing, she was unaware what she was doing or why, but she knew that the ending would conclude with Luna attempting to reveal Equestria’s hidden past - a choice that Celestia will always stand against.
She didn’t bother to give any announcements, she spread out her wings to move her subjects away from her and escaped into the hall before she started into a trot; eventually, her guards began to follow her as the extras stayed back to keep the civilians from mobbing after her.
“Luna!” Celestia bellowed. Her voice shuck the walls, as she used her old pony traditional royal voice - something that this century of ponies had never heard from Celestia before.
When that had gotten to the door there was a blue mist around the door, most likely the doing of Luna’s, which angered her more - was it Jealousy that she felt. Her magic was the most limited it had ever been, and the fact that she was now facing the oddly regained magic of Luna was aggravating - how did she do that? “Luna!” she screamed again as the Unicorns used their magic and hit against the door. Celestia could hear nothing from the other side, and when they finally managed to open the door, there was nothing there. “Search the room.” Celestia’s voice had changed, her brow was furrowed and her voice was stern, something that the guards had never seen before, for once they could see her being a queen - although it was unknown to them whether or not that was a good thing or not. They staggered at her demand - “Search!” she repeated, and the guards finally did as they were told. “You will not stop until you find her.” Celestia said, and walked off in furry.
Celestia made her way to the library and went to the highest floor where there was an iron door sitting behind the Equestrian flag. There was a key that separated into five pieces that Celestia brought from different areas of the room and pieced them together. When she opened the door, she didn't bother to step inside, instead, she took a book from the otter area and brought a flame to the corner of it and threw it into the center of the room and watched the fire grow before she left and commanded a guard to see that it didn’t eat too far into the castle.
Everyone held their breath as they listened to the thumping of Celestia and the guard's hooves above them. All except Luna seemed to have been phased by this.
"I suggest you follow me, if we stay here too long they will detect us." Luna said. Her new form was still a miraculous sight to them all, but Luna treated it as if she had always look that way; other than the odd little spark from her horn, she seemed to have phenomenal control over the strength of magic she had inherited. Twilight started to bite her lips to thought of when she had inherited magic, her ability to control it was almost nonexistent. Luna light one of the torches which took a domino effect and lite the rest in front of it one after the other on both sides, revealing a short tunnel that at the end had yet another set of stairs.
The mane six all kept close to Luna as they followed the hall and descended down the stairs . At the end was a door that revealed a bright room. The walls were moving much like the space that surrounded Twilight when Celestia brought her through her memories before gaining her wings as the newest of Alicorn princesses. The floors were made of white tile that had the faintest glow to them, and of course there were shelves and furniture that matched to Luna's mane. "Please, sit," she started, and they all obeyed.
"Uh," Applejack started after too much silence had passed between them all for comfort. "Does anyone want to answer why we are running away from Celestia, you know, our ruler who has never done us wrong and (correct me if I'm wrong) hasn't done anything to wrong us yet?"
"That is where it get's complicated" Luna said, and raised her horn to lift a table form the ground. It looked exactly like the cutie-map that the mane six had all just been introduced to, except it was bigger than the one Twilight had at home. They all circled around it in awe. What appeared over top of the map had a few similarities to Equestria but it looked larger. And the oceans seemed to have been darker and harsher. Underneath that, was a much lighter land that Twilight and the rest could identify as their home of Equestria, and the bottom layer was something that nopony could identify - they weren't even sure if it was land that they were looking at. Rainbow Dash continued to look at it with the feeling of familiarity, but said nothing.
"What is this?" Twilight asked, she had never seen this kind of map before or references to the lands in any book she's read.
"This is proof that not only Celestia but also I have wrong you and the rest of Equestria." Luna sighed. "There is a reason why we never told you, but there is a deeper and darker history to how Equestria had come to it's present glory."
"Cool!" Rainbow Dash said and flew in the sky. They all looked at her and she flew down with a sheepish look on her face with deep apology, just, the idea of Equestria having a dark secret for all these year and her being one of the few ponies to know the truth was right up their with the awesomeness of Daring Do.
"It's is alright, I can see how one might find it exciting to learn their homes darkest secrets, but I assure you it is more heart breaking than anything else. I brought you here because this map will help me show you everything there is for you to know about how we got here, and what you need to find in order to defeat this . . . creature that has been tampering with our world." The Table then glowed and the light consumed them all.
“As you know, when I had become consumed with dark magic there was no consideration for redemption, I was banished to the moon because it was the first time an outburst of dark magic had erupted for three centuries. It is unknown how the dark magic had overtaken me, but it is too risk to experiment on so everything that had to do with dark magic was blocked off. This is why you never hear about dark entities until they find a way to resurface through the gate - the power of knowledge alone is enough to bring the darkness to its former glory if you fear it, if you admire it or if you are vulnerable, it will grow and over take you.
When this dark magic consumes enough it take an effect on the rest of the world, which is what we have been hiding from our civilians for years.Before Equestria had found its unity the lands were boarded into section by race There were the griffons, the earth ponies, Pegasi, unicorn the hippogriffs, Zebras and of course the dark creatures that lived in their own mirror realm parallel to ours. The mirror realm is a dark world where all of our enemies originated from including the corruptive magic that saturated our world. They were monsters that very few were able to see - the life in that time was unbearable. Any creature without their own land would constantly go from kingdom to kingdom and invade like parasites and suck each kingdom dry of everything before moving to the next and the next -”
“And the Alicorns, Princess Celestia, you?” Twilight asked.
Luna sighed and continued on. “I am afraid that the Alicorns were not as glorious as we seem today. The alicorns were a race that were to be feared, we lived beyond the cloud, we lived in the sky. Because of this, the darkness took longer to hit us, but when it did, A war had struck out upon us, until we realized something far more terrifying, our superiority. We looked down onto the earth with a new perspective, the perspective of a gods, and we wanted what was rightfully ours to rule. This is Equestria’s darkest secret - The Plague of the Alicorns. We had come down to their worlds and defeated the evil spirits and monsters, but we had no idea that the dark magic had a mind of its own. We locked them all away into the caverns in the deepest parts of the crystal sea. But there was further terror to come. When we had come down, the myths and ancient drawings they had of us had become true, and they did not know what to do, they feared us, threw stones at us and their best spells and curses against us, but nothing could affect us.” Luna stopped, and looked off into the distance, her eyes were quivering as she tried to hold back tears, she took a breath before she continued. “This angered us all, we had all risked our lives to save them and expected glory and praise, but that was not how they viewed it, we too were beasts, tricksters and thieves, but there was one Alicorn who refused to take the abuse from these creatures that had been formed of an Alicorns image - Celestia. In that moment, she had taken charge and started her new ruling. There was disorganization within the pony races and Celestia and fixed it by giving them all purpose - to see what they would be most useful for, she created a spell that would affect every generation to come from the infected for an eternity: Veritas Marcum. This is a symbol spell that she dawned over all of the world, it could be seen multiple times over the skies.
The lights were mesmerizing, you had no choice but to look up at it and allow the swirling symbols to consume you. The ponies had all fallen to the ground, some of the pegasi didn’t survive their drops but those who had, had awakened with something new on them; cutie marks. It was the perfect plan, the spell would only appear when a pony found their true calling, but the spell also drew a pony as close as possible to where they would find it. Those who had their marks were chained and put to work to build the Alicron empire, but it had took longer to build the empire than it did for the Alicorns to destroy it. When we had our society, I kept to my sister’s side, I was loyal to her. But not all Alicorn felt the same. The Alicorns still lived luxurious lives, with their own ponies to do their biddings as if they were pets, but some still remembered the good lives they lived in the sky, where there was no ruler over them, there was just life and peace.
The Alicorn era had lasted no more than a half a century before the Alicorn War had broke lose, there was a rebellion against Celestia and only one out of all the ponies had come to defend her side, Starswirl the bearded. He was much younger then, but he was a pony who had never known a home before Celestia’s ruling although it was a horrid one, it was still his home that he wanted to defend. As Celestia was desperate she made sure he went through a series of tests to show his loyalty to her (horrid things that I cannot bring myself to repeat). When Starswirl gained her trust, she granted him with a double edged gift, immortality, so long as he stayed loyal to her, his death would never meet him. Myself and Starswirl fought at the front lines to defend Celestia’s crown, and with the help of the many bodies of ponies that were under her control, we had eventually won, but it was still too early to celebrate.
Celestia knew that there would have to be a shift if she wanted to keep her throne, and so she did. Her castle was rebuilt, but it was larger than before, it was a wall. Behind the wall like castle were rows of concentration camps where the ponies who still remember would mate and have their offspring taken away from them and placed on the other side of the castle where a Utopia had waited for them as they left their forgotten generation. As for the darkness, there was no true way to get rid of it, but it could be bottled up into one being which is how Discord was created. He kept by our side and was happy to do so, there were a large amount of ponies in the forgotten generation and they would not go extinct for quite some time, Discord had even made himself a pet, that is now the enemy of i believe, Daring Do Ahuizotl who was a vicious beast who guarded the outer rings of the camp, hoping that there would be a pony trying to escape so he could tear them to shreds and being bits and pieces to his master. And with the aid of Starswirl and my patrol from the moon during the night there was no chance that either side would come in contact with one another, everything was perfect.
The ponies grew up and had found a way to live with one another despite their differences for once, and it was all to their glorious princess Celestia, all the ponies had come to her when they had realized this themselves and bowed to her. The moment was magical to her and for the first time, she felt as though she had belonged as they continued to give her their love, so she deemed that day Hearth’s Warming - a holiday where one brought their loved ones gifts and showed their appreciation for one another, but as the ponies were confused by this, Celestia had given them the story that you all have grown up with today.
Celestia used the her servant to find the last of the gold in the lands from the few creatures who had managed to survive before her forgot generation of ponies would die off. With the gold, she brought the lands together and created an empire which she named Equestria.
Why my sister worries is because in order to save our world, there is a chance that her secret will come to the surface, if this happens she will lose her power and the love you ponies have for her - this is something she will not be willing to give up, she needs her power and your adoration because she never received it when she lived in the sky empire of Alicorns,a s she was the runt of the liter. If you need to go and banish the creature for good, you need to trap this beast into the crystal caverns and find Star Swirls journal, in it are two spells that you will need. The first is a portal spell, it will allow you to see and enter the world of our enemy so long if they are connected to our reality which will work, and the second spell is the dimension spell - it is the only spell that will work, as it is irreversible. Because there is an endless amount of dimensions, the spell was designed to go to the next one each time it is used, the spell will never go back and there for the seal of the previous dimension, will never be able reopen, anything that falls into it will be trapped and unable to make their way back to Equestria, If you manage to bring the Cavern into the dimension, our world will be saved, and there will be no more dark magic to release and hopefully, that will help my sister, as I am afraid that she may still have dark magic in her that blinds her from her humble sefl and forces her to believe that she still has a right over all of you. If you can do that, our Equestria will once again be a utopia.” Luna had ended.
“Again?” Rainbow Exclaimed. “You just said that before, Celestia was a crazy ruler who killed a bunch of Ponies and that our cutie marks are a category tool” Rainbow shook her head in shock of all this new information, this couldn’t be true? “I’m getting out of here.”Rainbow tried to swarm atay, but was stopped by Luna’s magic and slammed to sit onto the floor.
“You will do no such thing. I am not asking you ponies, I am telling you.”
“But if Celestia is as evil as you said, then why are we helping her by getting rid of the fews that know the true history of Equestria?” Twilight asked. “Because either way Equestria had been invaded, so shall we all live in misery as this new ruling or should we continue to fight our land have yourself rules by two princesses who have been fair to you all for as long as you can remember? Luna asked. “I don’t know,” Twilight said, “right now, there are no words fo me to process the information you’ve given me. Twilight had then left the room and went farther up the path to be alone and sit in a corner to cry in her legs.
"I've come as the weaker link," Homura began and bowed once again to show that she truly believe in the words she was speaking out to her majesty. "I have come to find sympathy and aide in understanding. Homura was going to stop there, but had realized that she already tried this technique. with the stubby princess who was clearly much stupider than this princess who was worthy to be a queen - this wasn't going to work on Luna. Sympathy was an impossibility, but gaining respect wasn't fully out of the question.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: CELESTIA'S JOURNAL
SYNOPSIS: When Equestria started to crumble, Celstia had her plans to call the mane six in hopes that as always, they would save the day, but this magic quickly proved itself to much more powerful than the average magic that now runs free throughout Equestria. She would need to do this herself, the presence of this dark magic was going to stir up the beloved kingdom that she had created, but celestia still said nothing, until she saw the blast of light that overcame the night sky once she had realized that she no longer had the power to life her sun. Luna was gaining power - is she trying to over throw her, is she beginning to go back to her old ways? Celestia's new missions is not her beloved ponies, but to keep her secrets as secret, and find her sister to keep her quiet before she feels the need to share Equestria's oldest history.
For the first time in many moons, Celestia opens her journal, giving the readers to learn more about her feelings, her past and of course her plans for her sister's future as she begins to creep back into her old ways.
Luna had left the ponies to think about what she had said, as expected, they looked at her differently, with small traces of discomfort across their faces, but the world was in too much stake for her to be alarmed by it.
"Twilight," Luna said. "I want you to take these, it is the true history of our ways and the completed text on the arts of symbol magic, this is the only magic that will help us defeat this omnipotent creature." Twilight did nothing but bow her head and take the books from Luna's magical hold. Luna directed them to the tunnels where they would be lead to the waterfalls of the castle and leave without being detected. In a perfect world, Luna would be able to lay down and say that it was now in her chosen ones' hands, but that could no longer be the case.
"I see my mistake in taking your moon, although it was not intentional. All the dimensions I have been in have solar systems that are independent." The voice echoed throughout the room.
Luna was unmoved by the voice, if anything, it seemed as though she had expected it.
“I agree, you did fail by taking the moon, but as I have reclaimed it and have gained more power, I see no need in focusing on the past.” Luna said.
Homura was intrigued by the darker pony, there was an essence protruding from her that she could relate to, although as a demon she made sure to quickly push the compassion to the back of her mind.
“Unlike the rest of my fellow ponies, I do not see you as my superior, you underestimate others because of the large amount of power you have, and because you are alone, there is no one to sensor you from falling too deeply into your head. You may be the God of the world you have brought down, but do not forget that I am one of many gods in this world and you do not have a say in how this world functions,” Luna began, she was annoyed by this, but also proud to once again defend her beloved Equestria. “You may do this the easy way, and return thing to how they were, my sister's power over the sun, and leave our realm or we can do this the hard way, when I force you out of my realm. I know that this island may seem cheerful and much like a utopia of sorts, but keep in mind that the lands that live in a perfect world are the ones that have the darkest history.”
Luna appeared to have closed her eyes and in that time (through her perspective) time had stopped and she connected with those who were sleeping, specifically discord. She made sure not to disrupt him as she went through his memories and hopes that there was any information on her - if she were to have spoken to anyone, it would have been Discord, she then opened her eyes again, but to the rest, it seemed to have just been yet another blink. “What is your answer, Homura?”
For the first time, Homura was shocked for all the right reasons; Luna's tone against her held accountability towards Homura's actions - there were no more maybes, whether or not Homura's choice had been out of love or not did not was irrelevant. Homura was the demon who had invaded a realm and caused chaos - she was the villain in all this. The thought what have I done, coursed through her mind on repeat, yet she was still stone cold. Luna might have been on a mission, but so was she. Homura still planned to keep this realm safe from the incubator by continuously paralyzing in realities where they could do no harm to her or Madoka. And last of all, she would make sure that this world accepts her so that they - Madoka could finally be happy, without the need of her sacrifficing her life, family and world for the sake of dumb, selfish little girls who traded their life away for a meaningless wish! "Have you run away again?" Luna asked the dead air.
Homura's reaction was one that she didn't have in months - a human one; her cheeks had gone red. It was official, Homura had had enough, her clara dolls started dancing in circles around her and waving their hands as if they were trying to get her to change her mind against whatever plans she had created in her mind. But with the most innocents of flicks of her fingers her Clara dolls had been forced to stand at attention and organized themselves in a single filed line behind her. She took a breath and blew out, releasing the molecules around her, like a thin dust - it blew away and revealed a tear in reality, on the other side was Princess Luna, she passed through the void before it repaired itself and stood in front of Luna who was unshaken by the uninvited visit (however, she had been more invasive already). There were no words spoke between them, but a reluctant respect to bow to one another before continuing their civil debut. There was a comfort that came to her from the similar color scheme that they shared.
"I have not abandoned our conversation, and I do not appear in front of you to attack."
Luna lifted her brow and gazed at Homura and the small beings that dwindled around her feet. "i sthat why you bring you minions that have been distressing my ponies throughout Equestria?" The dolls knew that Luna was referring to them, and lower their heads and brought their hands behind their backs as they kicked the air around the ground, Homura didn't look down at her dolls, rather Luna who still kept her eyes on them, more so in annoyance than guard.
"Is that why your horn continues to glow with magic read for attack?" Homura pointed out.
"Let me remind you that I am not the one who came to you, nor the one who invaded your world. I have every right to keep my guard at its sharpest and more. But as I am sure you saw when I took the moon back from you, I also took a new form as my magic became even stronger," Luna finished.
"Once again, I apologize. I was unaware of your world's . . . nature." The pause made Homura sound insincere.
"You're stalling." Luna said. And despite the fact that it was the first time Homura was meeting Luna, she could that the tone in her voice was a protective and prideful one that she did not get to use often; Homura hoped that she could use it to her advantage.
"I've come as the weaker link," Homura began and bowed once again to show that she truly believe in the words she was speaking out to her majesty. "I have come to find sympathy and aide in understanding. Homura was going to stop there, but had realized that she already tried this technique. with the stubby princess who was clearly much stupider than this princess who was worthy to be a queen - this wasn't going to work on Luna. Sympathy was an impossibility, but gaining respect wasn't fully out of the question. "And for help, I have been placed in a position of which I had no choice but to enter your realm . And with the quick pace of the events, I had no chance for selection, so your world was by random. I have come here as refuge.
Luna squinted her eyes, she was still skeptical but made a faint grunt signalling her to continue. Homura attempting to keep her smiling to a minimum, and continued to justify her plans with the cold fact that what she was saying wasn't a lie, just missing minor details of the truth. Homura hopped to the opportunity and explained herself. She told Luna about about the Incubator and it's purpose of stealing energy and destruction of all the planets and realities it encounters. It explained it's strength, where it was, but Luna had had enough, she knew that there was something she wasn't telling her, and was very blunt to the point.
"And what about you main reason?"
"Pardon?" Homura asked.
"Why are you doing this for? As noble as your story is, you are a witch and you are a magical girl, so I assume you have taken a darker form, on that is superior to witch. So why are you doing this?"
"I've told you already that coming here is a mistake."
"Whether I believe that are not is still up to debate, but you staying here is a choice, are you looking for a new home?" Luna's tone had gone soft, which was confusing to Homura - was she getting an invitation to come into Equestria?
"I am looking for a home for the most innocent and wonderful person I know, who has sacrificed far too much for the world that she serves, has died for and has never noticed her. I am looking for a world where she can live in peace and be happy." It was a risk to tell the truth, but Luna had an unspeakable hold one her, Homura felt as though she was the submissive one in this situation.
"Then this is not the world for you. We often have villains here who spawn because they feel unappreciated. And ponies who are important are the same ones or - the same six. Our people are forced to be happy and ignore their problems until it corrupts them - in other words, I guess you can say that Equestria is an Incubator within itself." Luna admitted.
Homura said nothing, there was a pressure that fell over her heart - it was the same sensation that fell over her when Homura has rejected her offer to live a happy life with her and to forget the world and leave the Magical girls to face the consequences of their actions.
"Is it your family, or your people who don't appreciate you?" Homura asked, but her voice felt muted as the air around them became heavier.
"It doesn't matter, I am sorry for you lose and your friend. But you still need to leave." Luna insisted.
Homura made the risky decision of moving forward to Luna so that they stood eye to eye. "What if we make this world better then. I know the dangers of the outside world, we can make sure cast spells to protect us from such things. We can rule this world where every ... pony will be happy and appreciated. There will be no outbreaks of unappreciated ponies corroding into monsters. we can make this world the utopia that it mimics." Homura said.
"And what will we do with you and your dark magic that has been embedded into your veins. You have made it clear that restoration is something that you are incapable of."
"I only say that because in my world, there are no second chances. Once you are stuck in a corrupt state, you stay that way. If your world has the power to take away the darkness within me and allow me to keep the light magic that I used to have, then please do so . . . but only after we fix this world."
"What you are suggesting is a rebellion against my sister."
"You have said yourself that she does not appreciate you, and that she is forcing these ponies to live in a facade of happiness. Why not fight for your people as I do for mine and bring them happiness?" Homura looked at Luna who was still thinking, it was clear that she was weighting her options.
"If I were to say yes, what would you have in mind?"
It has been some time since I’ve thought it beneficial to record the occurances in my present life and thoughts; I have yet to decide whether this is something I am happy or disappointed about yet, but here it is. For the past two days a powerful presence had trespassed into our territories and I have been attempting to neglect the public eye from worrying over it and took it upon myself to deal with the matter. There was a sense of dark magic that was too strong for comfort, almost as strong as the darkness that had once wondered free over Equestria’s crust before the alicorns had rid it of it’s darkness. For the past two days, my emotions repeated itself of the times when my sister and I were in a feud over the throne. Unlike before, this time I chose to ignore it and go against my instinct and give my blood the benefit of the doubt, and so far there was more lacking of evidence that I could do so. Had it not been for the empty room, I would have never confirmed my suspicions, my sister was out to get me and my kingdom once again. The guards continued to search, I knew that she couldn’t have gone far, and it has come to my attention that the mane six warriors of the kingdom had been seen with Luna as well - but I will not have history repeat itself. Although I knew that even I wasn’t a patch for Luna’s hidden doors, I still had the guards tear the room apart in hopes that by a miracle , they would be found before any of them set hoof out of this castle, but I doubt that the gods will waver to my side, so instead, I will plan for the second war between myself and my beloved Luna.
I have never been the kind of alicorn to record her thoughts, but mother insists, as I have too much in my mind to allow it to just bottle up into a magic darker than any of our kind wish to imagine. There are some days when I wish I was my younger sister Luna, where I do not have any worries and live the role of a younger sister who can hide behind the shields of innocence - alas, that will never be the case for me. It is already hard enough to be an Alicorn, there is no such thing as an unimportant one, and then there is me - an Alicorn capable of lifting the sun, something that not even two Alicorns could do without falling into a sleep for nights, and the ponies below used to sacrifice their power and live the rest of their lives drained of their talent for the sake of one more sunny day. I always repeat these scenarios in my head, but I always fail to find sympathy in my heart. Maybe because I cannot sympathize with those who make stupid decisions when there is a much easier solution, I hate the days when I am late to my rising and I see a circle of ponies from the clouds above losing their coats unique colors and their eyes fading to gray all because they are afraid of a late morning. This is why I wish had Luna’s power, she rises the moon but is always late, and the ponies just see it as a longer day, although I forget their logic behind it, I just know that it makes summer more appealing to the younger ones. But none of that is important, what is important is the reason why I am hear, writing in this journal. Mother was surprised when I had finally accepted her invitation and took the journal she had been offering me ever since I had the ability to speak. As her talent seem to lie under the category of easing the conscious and subconscious.
For the past few days she has been telling me that I am more distressed than usual, it’s been frightening her because of the land below where the smaller ponies live. The creatures that taunt them have become greedier than usual and the effect seems to be a dark magic that rises from the grounds and effects all who come in contact with it. It is truly frightening down there, but not because of what they are doing to each other or the massacres that they force upon each other over the last slice of bread, what is frightening is us. In the end, we were all born down on the lower grounds, and then the Alicorns fled to a new found kingdom because we had assumed that we were better than them (which we are) but if we were all born down there, doesn’t that mean that we were born on the ground with lesser subjects to serve us, or to rule over and guide?
. . . I am not sure how to say this, or if it is wise to say this, but I need to let someone or something know about what has happened. In truth, I have not been seen at all for the past two days, and with good reason. Below the clouds we use as the platform to our golden kingdom is a magical barrier that none but alicorns can pass through, but also serves as a defense mechanism for magical threats, such as the rising dark magic from the earth that has made it up to the borders of our kingdom. As nopony has reason to leave the kingdom, they have yet to notice that a threat is right at our doorstep, and as much as I want to tell them, I don’t think I should - I think the exposure is what we need (am I wrong to say that).
It happened three days ago around late evening, there is a hole in the cloud grounds at the end of boarders where many have forgotten since there is little structure there, it is a nice place to get away from ponies if you wish to be alone for the most innocents things like reading a book rather than content celebrations and gathering to plan for more celebrations over their significant power and riches compared to the useless ponies below them (it gets old after . . . all of your life). I enjoy looking down at the ponies to see how they pass their time, it is very different from our own lives, what the ending in are stupid and a waste of time - hence their collapsing society, but they do these things for the sake of happiness and innocence, which I find cute. But when I had gone there this time, it was different. A cloud of black mist was waiting for me there and I had the uncontrollable urge to go towards it. It brought its hoof out towards me when I was close enough and I did the same, mesmerized by its presence and brought my hoof out to it as well , and when we touched, a new world had been shown to me - it was the vision of a lost reality that was rightfully ours, the earth was meant for the Alicorns and all that lived amongst our grounds.
My sister and parents have made search parties for me, but this dark magic has given me a power that I didn’t know existed. But I now know that I am worth so much more, and deserve everything that I see - I deserve to rule; and that is exactly what I am going to tell them all today as I take my new role over the Alicorns, before I take back the lands below. I just hope that my blood will stand by my side. I need them to understand that we fear what we do not understand, that is why this is called dark magic, because it is powerful, but it is something that is also unpredictable because it is more than magic, it is alive; it deserves respect, and that is what I will be doing as we work along each other's side. I just hope those who share the same blood as myself will see eye to eye with me, I would hate it if they chose to stand in my way.
IF THERE IS ANYOEN STILL INTERESTED IN THSI STORY I AM SORY I HAVE LEFT THIS FOR SO LONG, BUT THERE WILL BE NEW CHAPTERS COMING SOON AND HOPEFULLY ON A REGULAR BASIS - LOVE YALL SO MUCH AND SORRY FOR THE TWO YEAR HIATUS . . . LOL WHEN I AM DONE I WILL ALSO EDIT THE CHAPTERS ABOVE, AS THEY'RE QUITE TELLING OF HOW YOUNG I WAS WHEN I WROTE THEM AND . . . WELL THE GRAMMAR AND WORD CHOICE IS JUST EVERYWHERE, SO ENJOY THE NEW AND IMPROVED . . . AND DARKER TWISTS TO COME.
