The Tyrants Return
It has been 2 years since the evil known as Zoor has been put to rest and everyone who was able to settle down and go about their daily lives. In those two years, Spike was now an 18 year old dragon and had started going out on dates with his new marefriend, Rarity. The two couldn't have been more happier than anyone else and Twilight was happy that her little dragon brother found happiness. Meanwhile, she and Sunset still live in the Castle of Friendship, keeping things organized. Now that Spike no longer lives with them, they have the whole entire castle to themselves, which can get boring sometimes.
Rainbow Dash had been promoted to Captain of the Wonderbolts while her coach, Spitfire was promoted to the rank of Major and Spark Burst, the 2nd-fastest pegasus, was given the title of Lieutenant, which made sense considering how new he was. During her time in the Wonderbolt's Academy, she had her eyes set on a certain stallion she's known longer than Spark Burst. And it was Soarin.
Fluttershy still cares for the animals that get sick or hurt and looks after the animal sanctuary. She's also become a lot more independent, yet still remains as kind as ever. And every now and then, Hurricane Breeze takes time out of his schedule to help her with the animals. Fluttershy even introduced him to her best friend, Discord, the most chaotic and probably the funniest draconequus he's ever met. At first, Discord was skeptic about Hurricane, but he later accepted him as his friend.
Applejack had gone about through her daily life at Sweet Apple Acres. With the help of her new resident, Ground Breaker, working on the farm had gotten a bit more easier. Granny Smith and Apple Bloom would joke around with AJ by asking when she's gonna marry him. She would blush so hard, it puts even the ripest of apples to shame.
Pinkie Pie stilled works at Sugar Cube Corner, working with the Cakes and caring for the twins, who were going to be turning 7 years old in just a few short months. Recently, Pinkie Pie had been receiving some postcards from a stallion she hadn't heard from in a long time: Cheese Sandwich. He had been party-planning around the world quite a long time and told Pinkie he might actually stop on by and say hello. The party-thrower extraordinair was filled to the brim with excitement.
As for the Elements of Freedom, Tidal Wave had been living in a nice, humble home with his new marefriend and soon-to-be wife, Melodia, the daughter of the very first dragon lord. He got a job working at Town Hall with Mayor Mare, helping her out as her assistant while Melodia worked at the post office, delivering a lot of packages all across Equestria.
Hurricane Breeze and Spark Burst both got jobs in the weather control business. Both Hurricane and Spark live in their very own comfortable homes, earning their livings independently while sometimes using their freetime for Hurricane to go and visit Fluttershy and for Spark to train for an upcoming performance, or just use his freetime to relax and eat something at home or just rest up a bit.
Spark Burst did end up joining the Wonderbolts and because of his determination and strict training, he earned Spitfire's respect and worked his way up from Private to Corporal in the span of those 2 years.
During his stay as a Wonderbolt, he noticed how Rainbow Dash was getting rather close with this other Wonderbolt who goes by the name of Soarin. He was a Sergeant just like Rainbow Dash, so that made both pegasi a rank higher than Spark. It didn't bother Spark that the two were forming a connection. As a matter of fact, there was another mare who caught the spikey-blonde pegasi's eye. Though, Spitfire was sort of a hothead, she still had some amazing qualities about her.
Back on the subject with the rest of the stallions, Ground Breaker obviously became a permenant resident of Sweet Apple Acres after displaying his expertise in farming and everyone welcomed him into the business and family with open hooves. In that 2 year span, he had grown really close to his good friend, Applejack, conversing over just about anything in general.
As for Eternal Flames, Shadow Force and Heat Blitz, all three stallions still live with the princesses and Blaze Burn up in the Canterlot Castle. Eternal and Shadow picked up a job, keeping the peace while Celestia and Luna gave them a couple of Royal Guard escorts, which they thought was unnecessary. However, the princesses begged to differ and explained to them that everything can't be done by a single pony; a harsh truth neither of them liked, but the boys learned to live with it.
Heat Blitz, on the other hand, was struggling to find a job until his older brother, Eternal allowed him to tag along by helping resolve any conflicts that go on in Canterlot.
Everything that went on in the past 2 years have been nothing but peaceful and quiet, except for some minor conflicts that took little time to fix. But other than that, life in Equestria has remained peaceful and it seemed like it was going to stay peaceful for even longer... until one day, deep in the outskirts of the Crystal Empire, underneath a frozen lake in the snowy terrain, a violent earthquake shakes the land. The tremor cracks open the surface of the land and slowly splits open.
From within the crack, comes out dark smoke and what sounds like a low growling sigh. Within the dark smoke, a figure steps out. A figure whom almost everyone has not seen in years.
The figure... was a dark grey stallion with a pitched-black mane. His eyes were red and sclera was colored green with purple magic smoke coming out. His horn was black and red. The evil unicorn stallion also wore a silver suit of armor while baring a red cape. This stallion was known only as... King Sombra. That's right, King Sombra has returned and is ready to take his revenge on the pony who took everything from him, only this time, the evil Crystal Empire tyrant is not alone.
Within the black smoke, a pair of red eyes stare directly at Sombra. "As promised: you are now free from your cold prison, and now... you must hold up your end of the deal," the mysterious figure says as it remains hidden within the dark mist.
"Ah yes... of course. Truth be told, I am a stallion of my word. Follow me, I know of a place," Sombra replies before the evil tyrant creates an even larger black mist and surprisingly travels away from the Crystal Empire and heads down south... where the rich city of Canterlot resides.
Meanwhile, back in the rich city of Canterlot, Spike and Sunset arrive at Canterlot Carousel, bringing in a shipment of some ensembles Sassy Saddles asked Rarity to make. Sunset offered to help Spike deliver the shipments since Twilight and the other girls went all across Equestria to solve friendship problems.
Ever since Spike moved in with Rarity, it's been a bit of a struggle just to keep himself from pigging out on the jewels that he and Rarity get from the mines. Despite the struggle, he keeps his dragon instincts under control and with a little practice, Spike won't have to worry about his urges by the time that he's at least 5 or maybe 10 years older from now. Anyways, he and Sunset walk inside the shop and are greeted by the manager, Sassy Saddles, giving the two a big hug.
"Oh, I'm so glad you two finally made it," Sassy says. "Come on in, follow me, I'll show you where you can put the ensembles and then I'll let both of you be on your way."
"Thanks, Sassy," Spike replies. Sunset's curiosity piqued her interest. She expected Sassy Saddles to act somewhat sassy or a bit of a smart-mouth, but she's more professional than she thought. Spike follows the busy mare into the back while Sunset waits near the exit. The whole time she waits, she begins to think about the incident with Zoor and... how Eternal risked his life to save her. She still remembers the sting coarsing through her body as Zoor tried to sap her magic energy and even her life energy.
But then, at the last moment, just when she thought she was done for, Eternal saved her. At first, she was very grateful for his help and she still is, but now her mind is all flustered. Every time she even pictures the dedicated prince, her face gets all red, but not too much.
Pretty soon, Spike comes out of the back room and walks up to Sunset, immediately catching a glimpse of her blushing like she's done before they arrived here. "Sunset, what's gotten you all flustered? You've been acting strange lately for the past few days," Spike says, gently planting a claw on her shoulder. Just like before, Sunset snaps out of whatever daydream she was having and now has her attention turned to Spike.
"Sorry, Spike. I'm alright. I just... haven't been feeling well lately," she replies, looking down. Spike gets curious and places a claw over her head.
"Hmm, your temperature seems to be normal. Do you have an upset stomach?" Spike asks. Sunset merely gives her a small and sad smile while shaking her head. "Well, if anything's wrong with you, you can always tell me and I can try and help fix the problem for you. You know I do the same for all of my friends if they ever need my help, especially Rarity."
"I know that, Spike. And I'm very grateful for that, but I think this type of strange feeling is something I'm going to have to figure out on my own," Sunset responds.
Spike gives Sunset a pat on the back. "I understand. You just let me know if you need some advice and I'll see what I can do to make you feel better," he says. His reassurance gave Sunset some comfort. She gives Spike a friendly nod before both of them say their goodbyes to Sassy Saddles and head out. Once outside, Spike and Sunset quickly head over to the train station and wait for the next train to arrive. It was going to arrive in the next couple of minutes, so Spike and Sunset don't have time to stay in Canterlot for much longer.
The whole time they were waiting, Spike suddenly feels an uneasy rumble coming from his stomach. He knows it all too well that a message is being sent to him. Sunset quickly backs away and Spike burps out a purple magic mist, which immediately shifts into the form of a rolled-up parchment. It levitates down into the purple dragon's claws before Spike unwraps the seal and begins to read the letter to himself.
And the letter says, 'Dear Spike, this is an emergency! I need you to get in contact with Princess Celestia and Luna and fast, I saw some dark smoke out in the frozen north. It seems to be making its way over to Canterlot, but I'm not exactly sure why and I've tried to reach the princesses earlier, but they're just too far away for me to even try and reach them both. We need your help, Spike! This is a matter of life and death and everypony's lives could be at stake here, so please hurry!
Signed Princess Cadence'
Spike is unsure what kind of danger this "dark smoke" has in store, neither does Spike want to find out what might happen if he stands around doing nothing. "Hey Sunset, there's been a slight change of plan, we have to head on over to the castle and talk to Blaze Burn," he says.
"Why? What's going on, Spike?" Sunset asks.
"Cadance alerted me of a suspicious "dark smoke" heading towards Canterlot. I think I might know what she's talking about, but we have to tell Blaze Burn about this so we can be ready," Spike replies.
"We?" Sorry to break it to you, Spike, but Twilight and the others are off on friendship quests. There's no telling how long it's going to take for her and the other to get back," Sunset replies.
"Then maybe we can ask Discord for help. He might be able to help us with this problem," Spike says. And right on cue, this hole opens up on the ground like a trap door and out pops Discord, who seems to be eating a delicious carrot and looking straight at Sunset and Spike.
"Eh... what's up, doc?" he asks "Need something?"
"Judging by this message, I'd say we're gonna need your help," Spike replies, showing him what Cadance wrote and Discord levitates it over to him. Discord reads the letter and scratches his chin. Soon, a big smile forms on his face and he grabs both Spike and Sunset in a big hug.
"Oh, how I've longed to travel on another quest. I haven't had any kind of fun since that Queen Chrysalis incident when she took my dear friend, Fluttershy. Allow me to take us to the castle, free of charge. Fasten your seat belts and off we go!" Discord says.
Within a fraction of a second, he teleports the three of them inside the castle. "Oh Blaze Burn, wherefore art thou, Blaze Burn, come out, come out, wherever you are!" Discord calls out, teleporting from different random spots, looking for the sun princess' husband. Then, out of the corner of their eyes, Sunset and Spike see one of the doors open up and Blaze Burn walks out. He is carrying a few documents with his magic, highly likely that he's dealing with issues in Canterlot.
"What's all the commotion here?" the orange and red alicorn asks. He's surprised as Spike and Sunset run up to him with concern in their eyes. "Spike? Sunset? Discord? What brings you here to the castle, don't you know that Celestia's out on some very important friendship business?"
"Of course we know that, but Discord teleported us here to come talk to you! Look, earlier before we were about to leave, I got this message from Princess Cadance!" Spike says. Right before he hands the letter to Blaze Burn. Discord poofs it in front of the orange alicorn, levitating it with magic. "Discord!"
"What, am I not allowed to help in any way?" Discord asks, poofing up a halo on top of his head before poofing it away and turning towards Blaze Burn. "Now then, if you'll kindly read this carefully..."
"I think I can manage on my own, thank you," Blaze Burn replies. He reads the letter to himself, becoming more anxious the more he reads. The others just wait in anticipation over what Blaze Burn might be thinking about this latest news that has come to light. "Discord, was it?"
"The one and only," Discord says, proudly.
"I need you to do me a huge favor. Cadance wasn't able to get this message out to Celestia, so since you're the only one who can get to her quicker, I need to take this message and give it to Celestia. She might know some more information about this dark smoke heading this way," Blaze Burn says.
"Not a problem," Discord salutes. He grabs the message and floats in the air. "Don't miss me too much while I'm away now, you three. Ta-ta." he says before disappearing without a trace.
"Now then, as for you two, I'm gonna need your help in evacuating the citizens out of the city. But first, you'll want to go and get the boys. It's gonna take our combined efforts to teleport them all to safety. Can I count on you two to fetch the boys?" Blaze asks.
"Don't worry, sir. We'll get them right away. Come on, Sunset!" Spike says.
Sunset nods and follows Spike out of the castle and into the city. They split up the moment they reach the bottom of the stairs to cover more ground. Their search starts out slow and can't find any leads on where the boys might be in this entire crowded city of nobles. There was no sense in asking the nobles where to find Eternal, Shadow and Heat Blitz because they won't help out "commoners." At some point, Sunset understood the other reason why she left Canterlot in the first place.
Finally, Sunset catches a break. "You're wondering where the young prince and his friends are? Oh yes, I think I saw the three stallions pass by this street earlier," this mare says. Said mare had a silky snow white fur coat just like Rarity, though she seemed a little tall. Her eyes were purple and her mane was a faded pink color and also looked to be silky smooth.
"Really? Where did they go?" Sunset asks.
"I think the prince headed for the West side of Canterlot with his little brother. He asked if there was a lookout in this city and I told him yes," she clerifies.
"Okay, thanks for telling me. I really appreciate it, miss..." Sunset says, not knowing her name.
"Fleur. Fleur de Lis," she responded.
"Thanks again, Fleur," thanking her again, Sunset rushes off to find where this lookout was. Meanwhile, with Spike on the other side of Canterlot, he catches a lucky break when he bumps into Fancy Pants. He tells him he's looking for Eternal, Shadow and Heat Blitz.
"Oh yes, I do remember this dark grey stallion passing by, he asked me if I knew where he can get a sorbet. I told him there was a shop that served them Southwest from here," Fancy says, pointing in said direction.
"Alright, thanks for your help, Fancy. Oh, and I'm really glad you and Fleur are expecting a foal," Spike mentions, making the rich, kind stallion smile gratefully. Since last week, word got out about Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis about how they were finally having a baby. Everyone in Canterlot was happy for the married couple and wished them both a life of eternal peace and prosperity.
"Thank you, Spike. And best wishes to you and Ms. Rarity," he says back as Spike takes his leave. Flying off to the location of the shop Fancy mentioned, he keeps an eye out on whether or not Shadow's still eating sorbets or if he left some time ago.
He arrives at the shop and sees Shadow Force in an outdoor cafe, finishing up his scoop of sorbet. Spike goes over to the dark grey unicorn and alerts him. "Hey, Shadow!" And the dark grey unicorn looked over at the purple and green dragon with curiosity.
"Oh, hey Spike. Care to join me for a 2nd round?" Shadow asked.
"No time, Shadow. Blaze Burn asked me to come and get you, Eternal and Heat Blitz. It's an emergency, so I need you to pay your bill quickly and follow me. Sunset's probably found the others already."
And Spike's guess was right on the bits. Sunset's walking up a flight of stairs and comes across a familiar unicorn stallion with snow white fur and red mane, Eterna Flames, as well as a pegasus stallion with light yellow ur and orange mane, Heat Blitz, both are staring down at the land.
Sunset only takes a few steps and then stops when she notices Eternal Flames looking down at the land and she couldn't take her eyes away from him. Her face, just like before, turns slightly red. As if it wasn't anymore uncomfortable, her heart starts beating fast. Her mind seems to be wandering around on its own until Eternal takes notice of Sunset and he approaches her. Sunset shakes her head and clears her thoughts in order to avoid being found out by the young prince.
"Ah, Sunset, Spike, what a pleasant surprise. What seems to be the trouble?" Eternal asks.
"We just got a message from Princess Cadance. She's detected some strange dark smoke heading our way and she's been trying to get a hold of Celestia, but was unsuccessful. Her next best option was sending the letter to Spike since he usually stays closer to home. We showed the letter to your father, who asked Discord to go and deliver the letter to Celestia. And now your father told us to give you a message: we have to evacuate everypony out of harms way, Cadance senses that the dark smoke could be dangerous," Sunset explains.
"Uh-oh, that doesn't sound good at all," Heat Blitz says.
"I'd ask what's so dangerous about this dark smoke, but since my father's going through all the trouble to ensure the safety of the ponies, I'll tag along. Heat Blitz, come along! We've got work to do," Eternal says.
"But how do we evacuate everypony quick enough to avoid getting them away from the danger?" Heat Blitz brings up a valid point, but fortunately, there's an answer to this.
"Blaze Burn thought of a plan to have us combine our magic to teleport everypony to safety. I'm sure with Blaze Burn's help, we can pull it off. But first, we have wait until we've got Spike and Shadow... that is, if he was able to find Shadow or not," Sunset says.
"If I know him well, which I do, he's probably out eating some ice cream," Eternal says.
"Not this time, everypony," Shadow says. Sunset and the two princes look and notice Shadow and Spike arriving in just mere seconds upon mentioning their names. "I was actually finishing up a frosty scoop of sorbet, which I realize, does not fall into the category of ice cream. Anyways, Spike wanted me to regroup with you guys on some important matter. So, what's going on here?"
"A message came from the Crystal Empire. A dark smoke is heading for Canterlot and we got orders from Blaze Burn to get everypony to safety while Discord delivers the message to Celestia. He says that with our combined magic, it might just be enough for us to evacuate the entire city," Sunset says.
"Hold on a second, I'm all for saving Equestria and all, but teleporting an entire city of ponies out of the crossfires is a way out of my league. There's no telling if this is gonna work," Shadow says. "I think it'd be much more logical to have Twilight to help us out." Immediately, Sunset and Spike shake their heads. "Huh, no? But she's fluent in magic just like you and Eternal. How come she can't help us?"
"Because she's off solving a friendship problem with her friends. She's not going to be helping us all the time and that's a fact we have to take into account," Sunset explains.
"I'm afraid she's right. We cannot rely on one pony to solve our problems. There always comes a time when a pony has to take matters into their own hooves. Our time is now. And right now, Shadow, doubt is a luxury that none of us can afford," Eternal explains. Turning his attention to everyone else, Sunset and Spike nod in agreement and leave the lookout to go and alert the citizens of Canterlot.
'But he does bring up a valid point. Between him, Shadow, Blaze Burn and I, I'm not so sure if 3 unicorns and one alicorn will be enough to evacuate the citizens,' Sunset thinks to herself.
Meanwhile, deep in the Everfree Forest, a tall, dark and sinister figure roams around the forest. A being who's entire body is black like the darkest parts of the entire forest. It's body, or in this case, "her" body is tall and slender and has holes near the bottom of her hooves just like her mane and tail. Her mane and tail matched each other in terms of a dark tael color. Her eyes are both green and tael colored and has pitched black slit pupils that can intimidate even the most vicious of predators in the forest.
"I've had just about enough of these constant defeats! This time... this time, for sure, I will have my revenge no matter who stands in my way!" she says to herself. While she goes about her temper tantrum, other predators that lurk within the forest cower in fear.
All of the creatures have a right to fear this individual. Despite having suffered years of defeat and humiliation by everyone in Equestria and losing her throne, former ruler of the changelings, Queen Chrysalis, took all this time to prepare herself for another hard-fought battle. And in the years she's went incognito, she fed off of hundreds of thousands of ponies, slowly regaining her strength. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to build a brand new changeling army, but only because she chose not to.
"One way or another, you will all fall before my power," Chrysalis says. As her horn illumates her surroundings, her eyes glow a bright green color. The predators of the Everfree Forest cower even more and run away from the infuriated queen.
"Just you wait, you pathetic fools. Your final days will soon be made clear!" Chrysalis then flashes a toothy grin and lets out a low chuckle and then laughs out loud. Her changeling magic surges intensely and shoots up high in the sky like a beacon in the night. Compared to the previous battles everyone else has had against their previous foes, this one was going to really put their skills to the test.
And upon this new fight for Equestria... a new enemy will soon be born.
To Be Continued...