Chapters Celestia was woken by the sound of her bedroom door opening. As she crawled out of bed, her sister Luna walked in, followed by the newest Princess, her favorite student, Twilight Sparkle. At first, Celestia was glad to see her two favorite ponies, until she saw the glow surrounding Twilight's horn, and the knife hovering around her. Celestia's smile quickly faded, to be replaced by a serious look.
Looking directly at Twilight, Celestia spoke, "I would have expected this from Luna, but not from you, Twilight. Why are you doing this?"
"For too many years, you have frivolously spent the tax bits of our loyal citizens, slowly pulling our nation into a debt that you didn't even notice. My own family suffered from the slowly increasing taxes until you took me on as your personal student. Now, it is time for a new era to begin," Twilight said, contempt filling her words as she spoke to the Solar Princess.
Celestia then turned to Luna, "Surely she jests, my sister. Our subjects have never been happier. I'm always seeing smiles and laughter wherever I go."
Luna turned away from her sister before speaking, "What you see is a facade the people show to keep you happy, sister. They believe you are an idiot who cares about nothing more than her own personal pleasures. But you are their leader, so what can they do? No, it is best that they show you the fake smiles."
Celestia looked incredulously at the pair of Princesses. Never had she noticed any of the things these two said, but then, she had never paid attention to anything beyond what interested her. But this, this coup, was the wrong way to fix the problem. Just as she was about to say this, Luna spoke.
"Don't try to persuade us that this is the wrong way to solve the problem, sister. We do this only as a last resort, because all of our attempts to show you only met with failure. You were too absorbed with your fun and games to pay any attention to what was happening in front of you. Now, do not worry about your death. It will help us recover from this debt you created. Surely you recognize the engraving on the handle of the blade, don't you?"
At that moment, Celestia saw the emblem on the knife. "Gryphonia? Why would you frame Gryphonia? What have they ever done to deserve the war this will bring?"
Twilight moved the knife closer to Celestia's heart. "Oh, dear Celestia, it's not what they did. It's what they have. The natural resources of Gryphonia could solve our debt problem." Celestia was about to say something, but Twilight interrupted her, "And do not fret. We have already discussed our plans with every nation involved in a sort of 'back door' world summit. Legally, Gryphonia has already been annexed into Equestria, but if we just did that, then you'd spend us into another debt and we'd have to annex another country. But, after we presented our plan to all of our neighbors, they all agreed, even my dear, sweet, sister-in-law Cadence, because they know that if Equestria prospers, the world prospers. And we were not the only ones to point out that if you continue to rule, then Equestria most certainly will NOT prosper. Now, Celestia, my favorite teacher, you must die."
With that, Twilight plunged the knife into Celestia's chest, quickly manipulating it to cut out her heart. Luna looked at Twilight and said, "Now, all we have to do is bring the Gryphonian 'Assassin' in so we have someone we can pin this on."
"Not yet Luna. There's still one more thing that needs to be done."
"And what might that be?" Luna asked, right before Twilight sank the knife to the hilt in her chest.
"Why?" Luna managed to mutter before the darkness took her.
Twilight stood over the bodies of the two Princesses as she spoke, "Oh Luna, if you had stayed for the second half of the summit, you would have known this was going to happen. You see, the conditions of the deal were that BOTH of you had to die, otherwise no one would have agreed to it. I truly regret that it had to end this way, but it's the only way Equestria can survive."
THE NEXT DAY
"I regret to inform you that our dear Princesses, Celestia and Luna, were murdered by a Gryphonian assassin last night. But rest assured, the assassin has been captured, and will face punishment. But that is not all I have to tell you today. We found this in the gryphon's possession," Twilight said as she levitated a bunch of paper for the thousands arrayed before her, "These are orders directly from the Gryphonian Reich to carry out this assassination. I assure you, justice will be met. This moment marks the beginning of the end for Gryphonia, and the rise back to power of Equestria. Under my guidance, we will conquer Gryphonia, and expand the Equestrian Empire! THE HOUR OF TWILIGHT BEGINS NOW!" Twilight's speech was met with thunderous applause as she walked off the balcony and back into the palace. Her friends waited there before her.
Rarity was the first to speak, "Twilight, I know this must be difficult for you, seeing as how Celestia was your oldest friend. I just want you to know that I will be here for you if you ever need someone to talk to. We all will." The others nodded their agreement.
Twilight felt tears forming in her eyes as she spoke, "Thank you girls. You have no idea how much this means to me."
After saying this, Twilight walked up to her friends and gathered them all into a hug, her wings wrapping around them as the tears began to flow down her face. While they hugged, she thought to herself, 'I wish I could tell you the truth, but you wouldn't understand why it had to be done. I'm sorry for this, and I hope you never find out the truth, that I killed the mare who was more of a mother to me than my own, and Princess Luna, who had only just returned, not even having a chance to prove her worth as a ruler."
Pinkie Pie spoke then, "Don't worry Twilight. Your secret is safe with me. I Pinkie Promise," she said as she did the motions.
Three days after the deaths of Luna and Celestia:
"Are you sure, Dash?" Twilight asked, looking at her best friend, "I don't think you could handle the restrictions the Equestrian Military would place on you, even in a laid-back branch like the Air Force."
Rainbow Dash looked offended that Twilight didn't believe in her, "Of course I can handle a few restrictions, Twilight. I AM a Wonderbolt after all, and they have one of the strictest set of guidelines I've ever seen."
"The Wonderbolts don't have anywhere near as many restrictions as the Equestrian Military, Dash," Twilight tried to explain to her friend, "I just want you to -"
Twilight was interrupted by Spike poking his head into her office, "Twilight, the rest of your friends are here."
"Send them in, Spike," Twilight said, glad to have a chance at a conversation that DIDN'T involve the military. She watched as they walked in, first Pinkie Pie, then Applejack, followed by Rarity, and then Fluttershy, last in the room, as usual. "It's so good to see you girls. I trust that all of you have been doing good?"
Fluttershy was the first to speak up, surprising everyone, "Oh Twilight, I've been just awful. I haven't been able to sleep for the last three days since those ponies started cutting down the Everfree Forest for the wood. Not to mention all the little animals I've had to take in because of the loss of their homes."
"What do you mean, they've been cutting down the Everfree Forest? I specifically told them not to, since the Everfree is a national wildlife preserve. They were told that they could cut down the Whitetail Woods, and that was it. I shall head out to Ponyville as soon as I can to stop this before it gets any worse," Twilight said, anger showing in her voice, despite her calm face.
Rarity was the next to speak, "Twilight, dear, I know this might be a sore subject, but do you think the Princesses will ever come back? They were Immortal, after all."
Twilight visibly perked up, obviously excited about this coming up, which confused her friends, "Thank you for asking Rarity. I had much the same thought, so I did some research over the last couple of days whenever I had spare time. From what I read, since they were the physical embodiments of the Sun and Moon, and not just Immortals, they will be reborn eventually. But I did see something that was a little disappointing. If an Immortal is killed by having their head cut off, or their heart cut out, as Celestia was, then they will never be reborn as we knew them. Luna, on the other hand, was left relatively whole, and so could be reborn at any time, from a couple years -"
Twilight was interrupted as a bright light filled the Throne room, blinding the 6 friends. When the light (And the stars filling their vision) faded, they were left staring at the Lunar Princess, reborn as she was before her murder.
"To a couple days later," Twilight finished.
Upon hearing Twilight's voice, Luna quickly transformed from her small, adolescent form to that of Nightmare Moon, her rage at hearing her murderer's voice accelerating her body through centuries of growth in an instant. "HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME? WE HAD A DEAL!"
Twilight quickly used her magic to hold Luna in place, and calmly said to her friends, "Please leave us. There are things the two of us need to discuss in private."
After her last friend walked out and Spike shut the door, Twilight placed a Magic Barrier around the room, preventing all spying, either from her friends, who were leaning against the door, or from magical sources, of which she felt several, and then released the holding spell from Luna, who quickly lunged at Twilight. Twilight threw up a magical barrier that stopped Luna from hitting her, and spoke quickly, "Luna, listen. I knew what I was doing when I killed you. I had done plenty of research before I ever presented the idea to you, much less to the Summit, and I knew that I could 'kill' you while still being able to have you around to help me with our deal. Once I told The Council this, they presented the idea of both the Princesses being 'assassinated', to add to the plausibility of the plan. I couldn't tell you this, though, because you would never have agreed to it. No one likes feeling the pain of dying, not even an Immortal. I know I didn't like it when I tested that theory."
Luna looked shocked that Twilight had been so thorough in her planning, but then remembered she was talking to Ms. By-The-List herself. All she could say was, "What do you mean, you tested the theory? I never knew of your death, and neither did Celestia. When did you have time to test it?"
"Do you remember about 2 months ago, after I had been a Princess for almost a year, when I disappeared for a week?" Twilight asked, "I was in Draconia, where I was helped in my research by Auream Regina herself. To be honest, I was surprised by that myself. I figured she would just assign me to one of her students as an extra credit assignment or a test."
Luna was quick to interrupt when she saw the chance, "Wait. The Dragon Queen herself helped you? Why would she do that?"
"Apparently, she was just as curious about it as I was, and she wanted to make sure nothing went wrong with my experiment," Twilight said, "Maybe because, as an immortal, though not an Alicorn, like you, me, Celestia, or Cadence, she could possibly be affected by that theory. I just don't know, and she wouldn't tell me why.
"Anyways, now that you're back, a little earlier than I expected though, we can proceed to the next step of my plan. How do you feel about having green eyes?"
"What do you mean, how do I feel about having green eyes? If I had green eyes, everyone would think I was a changeling. Where would the benefit in that be?"
Twilight explained quickly, "Who was the last changeling to imitate a member of the Royal Family? Chrysalis. What happened to her after she was kicked out of Canterlot? No one knows. No one but me, that is."
Luna, starting to think Twilight had been planning this for longer than she let on, had to ask, "What happened to her?"
"After she left Canterlot, I found her and drained her magic from her, making me part changeling. How did you think I could become an Alicorn? Unfortunately, the process left her weaker than a newborn, so I've kept her in my basement, that way she can teach me how to fully utilize the changeling magic," Twilight said, a flash of green in her eyes, "Now, I can transfer that magic, and the knowledge of how to use it, to you. This way, we can tell my friends that you're Queen Chrysalis, and through you, create a treaty with the Changelings."
Luna could only stare dumbfounded, but one more question slipped off her tongue, "Why would we need a treaty with the Changelings? What could they offer us that we don't already have?"
"Remember Luna, we are going to war with Gryphonia, even if it's a fake war. Neither the Gryphonian people nor the Equestrian people know that this isn't a real war, so they will go into this with everything they have. And so, to prevent useless loss of life, we could use the Changelings to sabotage the Gryphonian equipment and weapons, learn where the largest concentrations of Gryphonian troops are, and even convince some Gryphonians to stop fighting before they even start," Twilight was obviously frustrated that Luna (who was more involved with the military than anything else) hadn't thought of the potential Changelings had, "And don't worry, I've already talked this over with Chrysalis, and she says all the Changelings wanted was to be a part of our society, not rule it, as Chrysalis had. So I'm sure that, if you agree to receive the Changeling magic from me, you could kill the two proverbial birds with one stone, removing the Changeling threat, and ensuring we don't lose Equestrian lives needlessly."
Luna only had one problem with Twilight's plan, "How can I pass off being Chrysalis? I'm nothing like her."
"That's where you're wrong, Luna. The two of you are more alike than you know, and don't worry, you'll have her memories as well, allowing you to be Chrysalis when you talk to the Changelings."
Luna, seeing that there was no way out of this, finally agreed. The feeling of the foreign magic inside her, mixing with her own magic, the feeling of increased power, was intoxicating. No wonder Twilight was always studying rare and hard to find magics. After the transfer was complete, the Changeling magic settled into a 'corner' of Luna's Magical Core, where she barely felt it. Looking at herself, Luna could see nothing different about her, until Twilight held a mirror up to her face.
"Green Eyes. Yes, I think that is a worthy trade for having this power inside me. Now I know why you are always studying magic, Twilight, if learning new magic feels like this."
Twilight seemed glad that the magical bonding process had worked, "Now that you look like a Changeling, you need the memories of one too," she said as her horn flashed, flooding Luna's mind with Chrysalis' memories. After she was done, and Luna had recovered enough to be able to stand and speak again, Twilight opened the Throne Room door, causing her friends to spill onto the floor.
Applejack was the first to apologize, "'Am sorry, Sugarcube, but we wanted to know what was going on. Ah hope you can forgive us."
Twilight only smiled at them, "I think you five should know the truth about who this really is," she said as she magically closed the door, "This isn't actually Luna. It's Queen Chrysalis. Don't worry, she's here to help us," Twilight quickly added, seeing the hostility in her friends faces, "you see, all the Changelings wanted was to be part of our society. Chrysalis here was the only one who wanted to rule. But I was able to find her and convince her that, if something were to happen to any of the Princesses, I would attempt to bring her in to help me. With the murder of both Celestia and Luna, I was faced with a tough choice about who she should imitate, but in the end I went with Luna, because she was more involved with the Military than Celestia ever was, and right now, since we are at war, we need more knowledge about the art of war than about politics. Please just give her a chance."
Rarity spoke up next, "Very well Twilight, but I hope you know what you're doing, bringing that monster into Canterlot. If she gives us any reason to mistrust her again, we will forcefully remove her from the castle."
"I would expect no less, Rarity. Now, the two of us have much we need to discuss and plan. If you would, please return to your homes. I have a carriage waiting outside for you."
The fighting didn't really start until a Unicorn accidentally killed a Gryphon during a routine sweep of a Gryphonian village. It can't really be called his fault; he was a new recruit who had signed up, along with all of his friends, in a surge of patriotism after hearing of the Princesses' deaths, barely trained, and he jumped at every little thing. It's no wonder that, being how he was, as soon as he saw the Gryphon running towards him, he used his magic to kill her, as he had been trained. It probably didn't help that said Gryphon, whose name was Gilda, was the daughter of the Gryphonian Reich, or that she was an old friend of the Element of Loyalty.
Once the Gryphonian people found out about the death of the beloved daughter of their leader, they went into a craze, fighting fiercely against the Equestrian invaders. Many lives were lost on both sides, and the Gryphons, though less trained, had succeeded in pushing the Equestrian forces all the way back to Stalliongrad, over halfway to the Equestrian capital of Canterlot. There, the Equestrian forces were able to halt the assault, but neither side could push the other any farther.
When Rainbow Dash found out about the death of her friend, who she hadn't seen in several years, and the fighting that had started because of it, she pushed even more for Twilight to allow her to join the military, "Come on, Twilight. If I was out there, in the field with those recruits, there wouldn't be any more pointless deaths. I could rally the troops, push the Gryphons all the way back to their capital, and then take it, forcing a complete surrender."
Twilight looked at her friend with a calm face, betraying none of the pain she felt at hearing one of her friends talk about violence like it was nothing. 'No, she wasn't talking about it like it's nothing,' Twilight thought to herself, 'she's talking like a soldier, not thinking about anything beyond what needs to be done.'
To Rainbow Dash, she said, "Rainbow Dash, I know how you must feel. But believe me when I tell you that you do NOT want to be anywhere on the ground near the frontlines. They are no place for someone like you. You belong in the skies, where you've always been. So I have a surprise for you." Twilight used her magic to levitate a folder, about two inches thick with papers, towards Rainbow Dash. "In here, you will find all the information I've put together on a special project I've been working on, and I think you might be just the pony to lead it."
Dash quickly opened the folder, eager to see what was inside. As she read, her face shifted from excitement to curiosity, and then to confusion. "Why would we need to alter the properties of the clouds?
"Just keep reading, Dash. I know you can."
Dash finishing reading the first page, and looked up at Twilight, her jaw almost on the ground. "A Cloud Carrier, Twilight? You want me to build a Cloud Carrier?"
Twilight shook her head, "I want you to captain a Cloud Carrier. And this won't be your average, everyday Cloud Carrier. Didn't you notice what the altered properties of the clouds it would be built from are?"
Dash looked at the paper again, then back at Twilight, "Wait, if I'm right, these changes to the clouds would allow anypony to walk on them without that enchantment you found? How did you figure out how to do that?"
Twilight giggled slightly, enjoying the look on Rainbow Dash's face, "The same way I figured out how to give Rarity wings, and allow the rest of us to walk on the clouds."
"Research," they both said together, causing them both to laugh.
Twilight was the first to recover, "Look through the rest of that folder when you have the chance. It shows all of the other modifications I made to the Cloud Carrier, as well as who I believe would be good crewponies to run the ship under your command. Every single pony in there, I hand picked because of their intelligence and adaptability," she said, watching as Dash stopped on one pony in particular.
"Adamant Will? I've never even heard of him. But he looks familiar."
"Of course he looks familiar. You went to the Wonderbolts Flight Camp with his younger brother, Iron Will. You will find that Adamant Will is much calmer than his brother, though. He'll be your Chief Gunnery Officer, or head of weapons, if you prefer to call him that."
Rainbow Dash flipped to the next pony in the folder, "Who is Evening Star? Says here she's my Navigation Officer."
"Think of her as a wing pony, telling you where you can go safely, or making course corrections to the Carrier as you ask for them. And she's also Adamant Will's wife. When they're together, everyone calls them Adam & Eve, and they make a good pair. I recommend you keep their stations close together on the bridge if you want them to be most efficient. The rest of the ponies you'll have to look at on your own when you get back to your rooms. I'm expecting Chrysalis to return soon, and report on how her conversation with the ponies cutting down the Everfree forest went, as well as her meeting with the Changelings. So, if you'll excuse me, I must prepare to receive her, and that means you have to leave. Sorry, Dash. Tell everyone I said hello, and that I'm sorry I can't tell them myself."
Dash stood up from her seat and hugged her friend, "Don't worry Twilight, they understand that you have a country to run, and that that's more important right now, especially with a war going on. See you later," she said as she walked out the door.
Twilight poked her head out her door and said to Spike, "Spike, could you please make sure I'm not disturbed for the rest of the night? I haven't been sleeping well lately, and I need some time to myself."
"Of course, Twilight. No one will bother you for the rest of the night."
"Thanks, Spike," Twilight said as she pulled her head back inside her room.
"Um, Twilight?"
"Yes, Spike?"
"Where should I put your food when it gets here?"
"You can have it tonight, Spike. I know you haven't been eating well lately, and you're really starting to show it. Maybe we should start including meat in your meals. You are a growing dragon after all. The protein might do you some good."
"Thanks, Twilight," Spike said, glad she still cared about him, since she barely ever talked to him anymore, "But I don't think I could handle eating meat. I mean, I've never even tasted it, growing up around ponies and such, who only eat plants."
"Don't worry so much, Spike. Dragon's are omnivores, so you shouldn't get sick from eating meat, unless you don't like the taste. And besides, it will make you stronger and smarter if you do eat meat, so just try it, and if you don't like it, we'll never make you eat it again. Deal?"
"Deal. Goodnight, Twilight."
"Goodnight, Spike. See you tomorrow."
Twilight hadn't even finished closing the door to her personal quarters before Luna appeared in a flash of Midnight Blue light.
"Please wait a second," Twilight said, as she cast a Magical Barrier around the entire suite. Finishing, she turned to Luna, "Now it's safe to talk. Tell me, how did your meetings go?"
"You should have seen the loggers at the Everfree Forest when I teleported right into the middle of their camp. Priceless," Luna said, laughing, "They were quite quick to leave the Everfree after that. I believe they were screaming something about ghosts and demons as they ran away. Needless to say, I don't think that they'll be returning there anytime soon. I took the liberty of enchanting their equipment so that it would follow them all the way to wherever they're going."
Twilight was glad she had sent Luna there, and not gone herself. It probably wouldn't have been as quick or as easy to get them to leave. "And what of the Changelings? How did that go?"
"They have agreed to help us, but there was one more condition than just them becoming part of our society."
"And what was that?"
"Do you remember the ruins in the Everfree where you found the Elements of Harmony, and cleansed the evil from my soul?" Luna asked, waiting for Twilight to nod her head, "They wish to rebuild the castle that was there, so that they may live where they won't be bothered."
"I can understand their request for privacy, and the location is superb, but I sense that you have a problem with them living there. Care to explain why?" Twilight asked, a little bit curious as to why Luna was hesitant to give them the ruins.
"Those ruins have great significance to my family, Twilight," Luna explained, "Those lands have been in my family since the creation of Equestria, some 65 million-odd years ago. That castle was where both Celestia and I grew up, and where our parents grew up, and their parents before them. It's where all of our family ruled from, until my banishment, when Celestia had the capital moved to Canterlot. And it should hold significance to you as well. It's where you learned the true Magic of Friendship, which started you on the path towards becoming the Princess you are today."
Twilight was surprised. She had always assumed that Equestria had only been around for as long as Celestia had ruled, not that it was older than even her. But her reasoning mind quickly found a solution to her and Luna's problem, "Luna, since you are acting as Queen Chrysalis, you would be required to live there as well, to watch over the Changelings, and show them how to prosper. This would allow you to rule from the rebuilt castle, just as your ancestors did before you. Would that not be acceptable?"
"Twilight, you don't understand. I don't have a problem with the Changelings joining our society, but I simply cannot allow them to live in the castle where their ancestors killed my parents. It would not be right," Luna stated, her voice beginning to crack as ancient memories, long suppressed, began to surface.
Twilight had only ever seen the Lunar Princess cry once before, when Celestia had just forgiven her and brought her back to Canterlot so they could rule together, as they had 1000 years ago. And Twilight knew she had to point something out, no matter how dangerous it might be, "Luna, I know this may not be the best thing to say right now, but you have to hear this. When I was transferring the Changeling Magic to you, along with Chrysalis' memories, your entire body changed. Not physically, mind you, but on a cellular level. I hadn't counted on what the combined transfer of both her memories AND her magic to you at the same time would do."
"What are you saying, Twilight," Luna said, steel edging her voice.
"What I'm saying, Luna, is that, when I transferred those things to you, it changed you into, well, a Changeling. Only a half Changeling though, seeing as how you weren't born a changeling. But what's more, you aren't just any changeling. You are Queen Chrysalis, in more ways than just her memories. Her ancestors are now your ancestors, which means that all Changelings are now family to you. So that means -" Twilight was interrupted by Luna finishing the sentence.
"The Changelings have already become part of Equestrian society, even if no one knows it yet."
"Well," Twilight said, "That isn't exactly what I was going to say, but you seem to have grasped most of it. So, now that you know this, do you still wish for them to find somewhere else to live?"
Luna straightened up to her full height, barely as tall as Twilight (For she had gone back to her adolescent form after Twilight explained why she killed her), and locked her piercing green eyes on the Princess of Magic, "No. They will receive what they have asked for. I intend to show them a better way of life than they have ever known. And truly, if the Equestrians can forgive me for what I did to them, than surely I can forgive these Changelings for what their ancestors did over a thousand years ago. It is not right to blame the children for the actions of the parents. If you will excuse me, I must deliver 'your' answer to them as soon as possible. By your leave, Twilight."
"You are excused, Luna. I cannot wait to hear when the reconstruction is complete. Please keep me notified"
Luna disappeared in another bright flash of Midnight Blue light, leaving Twilight alone with her thoughts.
Luna teleported from Twilight's room to the outskirts of the Everfree ruins, where her Changeling advisors waited for 'Twilight's' answer.
"The Arcane Princess says we are allowed the Ruins to build our capital." Luna's statement was met with quiet congratulations and hoof shakes.
One Changeling, who went by Black Jack, was especially excited, visibly shaking from head to hoof. Luna couldn't help but notice his name was a good match for his Cutie Mark, an Inverted Spade (where the spade looks like it was cut out of a circular piece of paper, and the paper that was left stuck on his flank), like you might see in a deck of cards. Other than that, he didn't really look like a Black Jack; his coat was white, and his mane was red and black (the left half was black, the right half red), though Luna could see brown near the roots of his mane, indicating that he had either dyed it or had simply been too lazy to use his magic to fix it. His tail didn't match his mane in the pattern of the colors though, which was odd for anypony, even a Changeling: it was mostly black, with a single red stripe, right down the middle.
Luna turned to him, "Why dost thou get so excited, Black Jack?"
Black Jack turned to Luna, confusion on his face, "Now we can uphold the deal we made with the Diamond Dogs."
"What deal? I was never informed of any deal with the Diamond Dogs."
One of the other advisors, who looked like a pure white Pegasus with a Olive Branch Cutie Mark (Dove, she called herself, though Luna didn't know that yet), leaned over and whispered into Black Jack's ear.
Black Jack's eyes filled with understanding from whatever was whispered to him, "My apologies, dear Queen. I forgot you were not here when we made the deal. Well, did you notice how much our tunnels had expanded in the short time you were gone?"
Luna shook her head, indicating that she had not noticed it, "No sir. I assume that the Diamond Dogs had something to do with it?"
"Yes ma'am. Shortly after you left, the current leader of the Diamond Dogs proposed an 'alliance' of sorts. We were running out of space, and they were running out of gems. Through an agreement, we allowed them to keep half of the gems they found as they expanded our tunnels."
Luna was surprised that the Diamond Dogs could work with anyone, much less help them, but something was nagging at her thoughts, "Something tells me this isn't the entire deal."
"Very astute, ma'am," Black Jack noted, wondering why Chrysalis was being so observant. This wasn't like her, usually she was very single-minded, never noticing anything beyond what she wanted at that moment, "Before your return, we had been sending scouts into the old ruins, to map it out. One of these scouts found an ancient crypt, with a plaque that read 'Here lies the Crystal Hound, father to all Diamond Dogs, precursor of their race'. The Diamond Dogs wish for the body, if there is one, to be brought to their capital, near Appleloosa."
"That's impossible. I've been over every inch of those ruins, and I've never seen any crypt. Where did you find it?"
"It was behind a false wall, ma'am. We think it only collapsed recently, if the way the plants are growing tell anything about when it collapsed," Black Jack responded, wondering when Chrysalis had explored the ruins. She hadn't been seen by any of the scouts during their forays into the ruins, and he had been at her side every moment before she left for Canterlot 2 years ago. So when did she explore the ruins?
Then he remembered: she was imitating Princess Luna. She must be remembering Luna's memories. Satisfied with that answer, he dismissed all of the strange thoughts he had been having about her.
But there was one advisor who wasn't so easily convinced that it was Chrysalis who was walking with them, and so he hung back from the main group, watching this imposter in his mother's skin (when Luna was with the Changelings, she took the form of Queen Chrysalis). And to be honest, it wasn't all that hard for him to disappear from their attention; the black coat and blue hair of his assumed form allowed him to blend into the shadows at the edge of the light given off by a nearby torch. Scanning with his magic, he assessed the magical wavelength of the imposter.
"Impossible," he whispered to himself, "How can this imposter have the exact same wavelength as my mother, while still having another I have never felt before? What black magic is at work here?"
Luna was not oblivious to the magic being used on her, despite the fact that she showed no reaction. Meanwhile, she used her own magic to 'piggyback' the foreign magic back to it's source.
There! In the shadows, barely visible to even her nocturnal eyes, was a solid black pegasus, with a multi-tone blue mane, and a splash of blue on his face and hooves. How had she not noticed him, when she had been watching every shadow for movement, and how had he cast magic, seeing as how he was a pegasus?
Then the results from her counter-scan returned to her: this pegasus had almost the exact same magical wavelength as her. And she wasn't just talking about Chrysalis' wavelength, but hers as well. How was this possible, when hers and Chrysalis' didn't match at all? Who was this mysterious pegasus that could use magic?
At that moment, Luna felt a mental connection attempt from the strange pegasus, prying at her to open up a mental link with him.
As soon as she did, Luna was assaulted by a barrage of questions, one standing out more than the rest, "WHO ARE YOU?"
How had this mysterious pegasus seen through her disguise? Had she slipped up in a way that anyone who was paying attention could see she was an imposter? No, she was sure that she hadn't. So how had he seen that she wasn't Chrysalis?
"What do you mean? I am your queen, Chrysalis. Is that not obvious?" Luna responded to the only question she had understood.
Almost immediately, his answer was booming in her head, "YOU ARE NOT MY MOTHER! WHO ARE YOU?"
So that's how he had seen through her disguise. He was the child of Chrysalis, meaning he knew all of her mannerisms and habits. But that still didn't explain the matching Magical Wavelength. And it was odd, but, try as she might, Luna could not remember anything about this 'Changeling Prince', if he truly was Chrysalis' son. Twilight had given Luna all of Chrysalis' memories, so why wasn't this young stallion among them? What had he done to cause his mother to completely forget him?
Luna completely forgot that she was in the middle of a mental conversation, so all of her thoughts were broadcasted to the 'Changeling Prince'.
"Ah, so that's who you are."
The message, much calmer than the others she had received from this pony, shocked Luna out of her thoughts, "What?"
"My apologies, Princess Luna. I did not mean to startle you," the (now) much calmer pegasus replied, "I was simply stating that I know who you are now. It would seem that I should introduce myself now. My name is untranslatable to English, but you can call me High Roller. Everyone else does."
"Well, 'High Roller', just how is it that you figured out who I really am?"
"You really should pay more attention to what you think when you have a mental link open," he responded nonchalantly, "Otherwise anypony can just listen in your thoughts and learn things they shouldn't."
Luna felt embarrassment color her face, glad that her almost black coat hid the darkening of her cheeks, "Well, seeing as how you haven't told any of the others who I really am yet, I assume you want something?"
High Roller's response completely threw Luna's train of thought off the rail, "Now why would I do that? Not only would it be bad for you, but it would also ruin everything we've achieved already, from the peace accord with the Diamond Dogs, which rides on us recovering the body of the Crystal Hound from these ruins for them, to becoming part of everyday life in Equestria, with these ruins as our first settlement on the surface. Not to mention, you would lose the spies you want for your war.
"So I really don't see the point in revealing who you are to everypony else. Unless you want me to," he added with a grin.
Luna didn't know what it was, but something about this Changeling struck her as familiar, like she had heard him, or someone like him, before (Indeed she had, but Honesty isn't always recognized immediately).
Right then, Luna picked up on a very strong wavelength of magic, emanating from Canterlot, and she recognized the wavelength immediately. It was Twilight sending a message, that much was Luna was sure of, but to who? Who could Twilight be calling to this late at night? Luna pondered that before she simply decided to ask Twilight the next time she saw her, which would be in about a week.
Pinkie Pie was enjoying a very pleasant dream (See other story, S&M) involving herself and Rainbow Dash when Twilight's call woke her up. Pinkie knew the call wasn't meant for her, but her Pinkie Sense had picked up on the large amount of magic used to send the message to whoever Twilight was sending it to, so Pinkie was fairly certain that Twilight REALLY needed cheering up.
She slid out of her bed real slowly, so as not to disturb Rainbow Dash, who was laying right next to her, but planted a kiss on Dash's forehead before she left. Pinkie was sad that she wouldn't be there when Dashie woke up from last night, because Pinkie was sure the hangover was going to hurt.
'Oh well,' Pinkie thought to herself as she bounced along the road to Canterlot, 'I'm just glad that Dashie came to party with me in celebration of Twilight allowing her in the military. Otherwise, my night wouldn't have been anywhere near as fun as it was. But I didn't think anypony could drink that much and still be able to stand, much less do what we did.'
'Too bad Dashie really is the Fastest in Equestria,' Pinkie pouted, 'We could have had so much more fun!'
She was interrupted from her thoughts by the door that ran into her. 'When did that get there?' Pinkie thought, before she realized she was already at Canterlot, and that she had hit the door to Twilight's personal quarters. Twilight answered the door, but her expression fell a little when she saw Pinkie in front of her.
"What are you doing here Pinkie?"
"Oh, I heard your magical call, and I figured I'd come see what I can do to help," Pinkie explained.
Twilight looked confused, "But I sent that message to Mrs. Cake. How did you hear it?"
Pinkie tilted her head to the side, giving Twilight a look that said 'Did you really just ask that?'.
Realization dawned on Twilight, and she could only shake her head, "Someday, I will figure out how your Pinkie Sense works."
Pinkie laughed at her friend, "Oh Twilight, didn't you learn last time? Nopony can understand how my Pinkie Sense works. And speaking of my Pinkie Sense, it wants me to ask you something."
"And what's that?"
"Who's the lucky stallion?"
"Pinkie," Twilight said, trying to get her friends attention.
"What's his name?"
"Pinkie," Twilight's voice was getting louder, her frustration at not being able to get Pinkie's attention growing.
"Do I know him?"
"PINKIE!" Twilight shouted, finally shutting Pinkie up. "Thank you. Now, how did you know I was pregnant?"
"OH!" Pinkie exclaimed, "It's all over you, kind of like an aura. There's a vibe or something that pregnant mares give off, and you are positively radiant with it!"
"How do you know what this vibe feels like?"
"Simple, silly-willy. I've been pregnant before and I spent a lot of time around Mrs. Cake when she was pregnant. Duh," Pinkie said, twisting her neck so her head was almost completely upside down.
Twilight looked at Pinkie Pie with confusion clearly written on her face, "What do you mean, you've been pregnant before? Where's your kid now?"
"It was shortly after I left my family's rock farm. I was in Manehatten and I couldn't find anywhere that would hire me, so I was a little depressed. During that time, I met this wonderful stallion; he was very kind to me, and took me in. After a while, I guess I started falling for him, and well, this led to that, and I ended up carrying his foal. He left me shortly after he found out. I can't even remember his name. Funny isn't it? How somepony was so important to me, and now I can't even remember his name."
Twilight was surprised. She had always assumed that Pinkie had come straight to Ponyville after she left her family's rock farm. But this wasn't anywhere near what she would have guessed Pinkie's life was like.
"So what happened to the foal?"
"Oh, I see her with her friends almost every day, and sometimes I talk to her, but she doesn't know who I really am to her. I had put her up for adoption, because, at the time, I couldn't afford to raise a foal. I'm just glad she ended up in Ponyville."
"Well, what does she look like?" Twilight asked, eager to know more about this mysterious foal of Pinkie's.
"She's a pegasus with an orange-ish coat, and her hair is almost the same shade of pink as mine."
"What's her Cutie Mark? Do you know?"
"She hasn't gotten it yet, but she and her friends are always trying to get them, sometimes putting themselves into danger."
"That sounds like what Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scoot…" Twilight's sentence trailed off as she figured out just who Pinkie's foal was, "Oh, Pinkie. It must be so difficult for you, seeing her everyday and knowing she's your daughter but not being able to do anything about it.
"Wait. Why haven't you told her?"
Pinkie's bubbly mood deflated a little at Twilight's question, "It was my first Pinkie Promise, and you know nopony can ever break a Pinkie Promise."
"But why would you make a promise that could only cause you pain?"
"Because otherwise I could never see her. I would have been forbidden from living in Ponyville, since it's such a small town. Her adoptive parents don't want her knowing who her real mother is," Pinkie said as tears started to fill her eyes.
"It's alright Pinkie. I'm sure I can find a way to let her know who you really are without getting you kicked out of Ponyville. Call it a Princess' Prerogative," Twilight said as she wrapped her wings around Pinkie, giving her some much needed comfort.
"Thanks, Twilight. Now it's your turn to answer some of my questions. Let's start with who the father is."
Twilight's voice shook with nervousness as she spoke, "There wasn't a stallion involved with me getting pregnant."
"Oh, you went to the hospital, and got an artificial baby?"
"No. I never left my room."
"Then how did you get pregnant? Did a doctor make a house call?"
"No Pinkie, I was alone when I got pregnant. It was an ancient spell, and I sort of messed it up. On the bright side, I do know what gender the foal will be, even though I just got pregnant tonight."
Now it was Pinkie's turn to be confused, "How could you know the gender of the foal already if you just got pregnant?"
"Can you Pinkie Promise not to tell anypony what I'm about to tell you?"
"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," Pinkie said/sang as she performed the motions, "Now tell me."
"The spell I was using was a spell designed to summon and bind a soul of the caster's choosing to an object of the caster's choosing," Twilight looked back at Pinkie and noticed her confused look, "It means I can choose to bring anypony I know who has passed from this world and put them in anything I want, so I can always have them with me."
Understanding filled Pinkie's face.
Twilight continued, "Only, I forgot to choose an object, and so the pony I was summoning ended up inside me as a developing foal, causing my pregnancy."
"Who exactly were you summoning, Twilight?"
"Someone I miss very dearly," Twilight said, then remembered what Pinkie had said after Twilight had told Equestria what had happened to Celestia and Luna, "It was Princess Celestia."
"OHMYGOSH! THISISWONDERFUL! SOONWE'LLHAVEALL3PRINCESSESAGAIN! ICAN'TWAITTOTHROWYOUABABYSHOWER! IT'LLHAVECAKEANDICECREAMANDSTRE AMERSANDBALLONSAND…"
"Take a breathe and calm down Pinkie." Twilight was hoping nopony had heard Pinkie's excited shouting, "Remember, you Pinkie Promised not to tell anypony."
"Oh, I know Twilight, but I was just so excited that we'd have all three princess' again that, well…"
""I understand, Pinkie. You've always been big on parties, ever since I met you, so I can't fault you for wanting to throw me one, but I don't want anypony finding out just yet, and I think Luna should know before I tell anypony else. Don't you?" Twilight asked.
"Of course Luna should know before anypony else, but if that's the case, why did you not call her first, instead of Mrs. Cake? It is her sister you're pregnant with."
"I know I should have called her first, but she was in the middle of a meeting with the Changelings, and I didn't want it to seem like she cared more about me than her own people, since she's posing as Queen Chrysalis right now."
At that moment, Spike finally returned from the library (or wherever he had been for the past 6 hours, most likely the kitchens). He stopped in his tracks when he saw Pinkie standing in Twilight's door, talking to her.
"I'm sorry Twilight. I should have been here to keep her from bothering you," he said as he started pushing Pinkie Pie away from Twilight.
Twilight stopped him by using her magic to levitate him away from Pinkie, "It's quite alright Spike. I asked her to come here, so it isn't your fault. And besides, Pinkie was just about to leave, weren't you?"
Pinkie walked back up to Twilight and responded, "Yup, I was just about to head home. Hey, Twilight."
"Yes, Pinkie?"
"Can you teleport me back to my room? I want to be there when Dashie wakes up, and walking would take too long."
"Sure Pinkie," Twilight said, "But could you please explain why Rainbow Dash spent the night at your place?"
"I'll tell you next time I see you. Pinkie Promise. But right now, I really need to get back home so I can be there when she wakes up."
"I'll hold you to that promise Pinkie," Twilight said as her horn began to glow, sending Pinkie back to her room in a split second.
BACK IN PINKIE PIE'S ROOM
Pinkie arrived back in her room without the bright flash that normally accompanied Twilight's teleportation spell, allowing her to slip back into her bed without waking up Rainbow Dash. She knew she'd have a few hours before her Dashie woke up, so Pinkie went back to dreams of Rainbows and Cupcakes, and how much pleasure they brought when together.
"Twilight, Luna, please listen," High Roller pleaded, "It isn't safe for you to be in Canterlot anymore. We need to leave. NOW."
Twilight was slightly annoyed, having listened to H.R. (as she called him) tell her she needed to leave for the whole day, "And where would we go, hmm? Canterlot is the last place in Equestria that is still controlled by Equestrians, and I don't plan on letting those damn Gryphons take this city anytime soon."
Luna cleared her throat, "There is the Hive. The Gryphons don't know where it is, so we should be safe there."
"How could the Gryphons not know where it is?" Twilight practically yelled, "It's a giant bucking castle!"
The Crystal Hound, who nopony had noticed in the room, spoke up, "That's not technically true."
Twilight turned to the Crystal Hound, "How so? In what way is the giant bucking castle in the middle of the Everfree not a giant bucking castle?"
High Roller (For ease of typing, I'm going to put H.R. from now on when he's talking or used in a sentence) spoke up again, "Because the Hive isn't the castle. The castle is just one of many entrances to the Hive. You see, the Hive is actually about a mile under Equestria. All of Equestria, not just the castle. How do you think the Changelings were able to sneak into your brother's wedding so easily?"
"If that's the case, then why have we not been able to slow down the Gryphonian advance? Why have your spies done nothing to stop them?"
Luna addressed Twilight, "We have been doing everything we can to slow their advance. That's why it took as long as it did. Their racial fanaticism allows them to recruit the numbers they need to counter our advanced training and weapons."
Twilight sighed, "This isn't how this war was supposed to go! We were supposed to take over Gryphonia cleanly and without any lives lost, but now look at us! Half of our people are dead, the rest are in hiding, and Gryphons control almost all of Equestria!"
"What about your special project," Luna asked, "That 'Shadow 1' that you were building for Rainbow Dash? Was it ever finished?"
Twilight shook her head, "I don't know. I've received no word from Cloudsdale, so I don't even know if we still have control of it. I hope we do, because if the Gryphons get a hold of that carrier, we are finished. There will be no second chance at success. It will be The End of Equestria as we know it."
At that moment, Spike poked his head into the room, "Um, Twilight. We have a problem."
"What is it, Spike?"
"There are Gryphonians coming up the stairs, and they're headed right here."
"Very well. Spike, go with Luna and H.R.. They will take you to the Hive. You'll be safe there."
"And where will I be going?" the Crystal Hound asked.
"You'll be staying with me for a few minutes," Twilight said, "Do you think you can keep those Gryphons out of this room for a few minutes?"
"Easily," he responded, extending his crystalline claws to their full length (almost a full foot, if that tells you anything about the size of the Crystal Hound) as he stepped outside the room.
Luna turned to Twilight, "What are you planning?"
"I'm just going to leave a little surprise for any Gryphons that may try to enter my room. Phylactery isn't the only magic I learned from the Necronomicon Equus. I also learned a new kind of construction magic. All that's left is for me to put the finishing touches on my creation."
"Just make sure you survive to come to the Hive. I will never forgive you if you cause my sister's death a second time. Do you hear me?"
"Don't worry, Luna. I will make it to the Hive. It should only take me a few minutes to finish my creation."
Luna and H.R. teleported out of the room in twin flashes of light, one Midnight Blue, the other Navy Blue.
"Now to finish this," Twilight said as she walked into her Isolation Room, looking at the massive stone pony in front of her. Twilight's horn began to glow as she magically carved runes of animation on the golem. A Chant of Command followed the runes, infusing the golem with the orders it would carry out until it was destroyed.
"Now to name you," Twilight said, tapping her hoof against the ground as she thought about what the golem's name should be (because everyone knows that golems don't work until you name them). Then it struck her, "Midnight Rumble. Arise, and do your master's bidding."
The Stone Golem rumbled to life and began walking out of Twilight's Isolation Room to protect all of her personal quarters.
"Hound! Time to leave!" Twilight called.
The Crystal Hound walked into the room, his claws stained red over their natural green color. "I assume that that is your 'surprise' for the Gryphons?" he said as he looked over Twilight's creation.
"You assume correctly," Twilight practically giggled, "Shall we leave now?"
"Of course. I'm ready when you are."
The two teleported out of the room in a single flash of pink light, leaving Midnight Rumble behind to follow the commands of his master. What Twilight didn't realize was that she had bound an infinitesimal portion of her soul into the golem, giving it true sentience, which allowed it to think for itself and carry out it's orders how it saw fit, so long as it thought it was following the orders handed to it. And right now, it did not think that these rooms were 'Twilight's' room; it viewed whatever room Twilight was in as Twilight's room, so it began stomping down the hall, using the small portion of Twilight's soul inside of it to track the rest of the soul. Gryphons practically fell over each other in their hurry to get out of the golem's way, having never seen such a monster before. The golem barely noticed them in its single-minded determination to protect it's master, even when it stepped on one.
The cries of a newborn foal shattered the early morning silence hanging over the Everfree Forest. But nopony would have ever guessed that the incredibly loud noise was coming from the tiny red Alicorn in Twilight's hooves.
"She's beautiful," Luna said, nuzzling her (now) baby sister, "What will her name be?"
"Crimson Dawn," Twilight responded, drawing inspiration from the red sun that was rising before her.
"This is a very touching moment," H.R. stated, "But need I remind you that there are Griffons looking for us right now? I recommend that we head back into the Hive with all due haste."
The four ponies (Including Crimson Dawn) and the huge diamond dog turned to reenter the castle behind them when the Crystal Hound's ear twitched.
"Hold. I hear somepony coming."
Now that they were listening, everypony else could hear it as well: a very deep booming, almost as if a statue were running towards them. But the Crystal Hound's more sensitive hearing picked up on something else, a pony talking to herself in third person, which was starting to irritate him.
"Twilight, can you conceal us with your magic?. We do not want this person to see us. They might be a gryphon spy."
Twilight's horn glowed and the group faded from sight. They watched as an azure unicorn, draped in a purple cloak splattered with stars and a hat to match, rode up on a giant stone pony, (also a unicorn) to whom she was constantly chattering about how amazing and powerful she was, all while talking in third person. This didn't seem to bother the stone unicorn, though nopony could tell his feelings since his face was literally made of stone. He just walked right up to where Twilight was standing and stopped, nearly throwing the azure unicorn from his back.
"What is the idea, attempting to throw the Great and Powerful Trixie from your back like she was some common pony?"
The stone unicorn just raised his front right hoof and pointed right at Twilight.
"She's here then?"
The stone unicorn nodded.
"It's about time we found her," Trixie said as she walked up to where Twilight was standing, even though she couldn't see her, "Hello, Twilight. The Great and Powerful Trixie hopes you have been well for these last few years."
Twilight, stunned, let her invisibility drop, revealing the entire group to the azure unicorn. "How did you find me? Nopony outside the Hive knows where I am."
"That's because of this impressive bit of magic right here," Trixie said, patting her hoof against the stone Unicorn, "The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn't know how, but he always seemed to know exactly where you were, and he never stopped moving."
Twilight looked closer at the stone Unicorn and finally recognized the golem, "Midnight Rumble, what are you doing outside of my quarters at Canterlot Castle? I left you there to guard them."
The golem shook his head, indicating that he disagreed.
"Your orders were to guard my room. That means you disobeyed my orders."
Again, the golem shook his head. Twilight, tired of the one-sided argument, magically inscribed runes of animation on Midnight Rumble's jaw, allowing him to speak.
Midnight Rumble's voice sounded like 2 boulders crashing together when he spoke, "Your orders to me were to protect your rooms. This is the orders I must carry out. However, we see your rooms as 2 different things. You see it as those rooms in Canterlot. I see it as whatever room you are in at the moment. This is why I am here."
"This shouldn't be possible. You shouldn't be able to think for yourself. What did I do wrong to cause this?" Twilight was pacing across the open courtyard, trying to figure out how Rumble was sentient.
Rumble used his magic (He is a unicorn, even if he's made of stone) to lift Twilight up and set her down in front of him, "You did nothing wrong when you cast the spell. It's simply that your magic is the first in thousands of years to be an exact match of the writer of the Necronomicon's magic, and so, when you cast a spell from that book, even a simple one like the one you used to animate me, an infinitesimal portion of your soul is infused in the magic. This fraction of your soul inside me allows me to experience true sentience as a result."
Twilight looked up at Rumble, "How can you know all of this? Where did you learn this?"
"The writer of the Necronomicon was a very powerful necromancer, among other things, and he wrote the book in his own blood. And you, having the exact same magical wavelength as him, activated the special properties inherent in the spell when you cast it. This transferred all of his memories to me. In essence, I am him, but more importantly, by knowing his entire life, I know his soul wavelength as well.
"You have his soul, Twilight Sparkle. You are Starswirl the Bearded reborn. This is why magic comes easy to you."
Twilight was shocked speechless. Was this why she was able to change Starswirl's spell, allowing her to be turned into the Alicorn she was today? And what about everything else? Had Celestia known she was Starswirl reborn, and was that the reason she took her on as her own personal student?
At this moment the Crystal Hound spoke up again, "There is someone else approaching. A gryphon, I believe."
The entire group tensed up, and Rumble moved to shield Twilight from the approaching griffon by standing over her. A few seconds later a chip of stone fell off of Rumble's back as a quarrel (fired from a Gryphonian Crossbow) dug into his back. The Crystal Hound was the first to track the shot back to it's point of origin, and was already halfway up the wall by the time anypony else knew where the shot had come from. In a few seconds, he was back in the courtyard with everypony else, a struggling gryphon held in his right claw.
This gryphon wasn't much to look at. He was solid black, from beak to tail, and his wings were covered in early morning dew, giving them a frozen look. His left eye was missing, though the empty socket was partially hidden by a bandana. Held in his talons was a crossbow, which he was attempting to reload, hence the struggling. A quick shake of the Crystal Hound's claw caused the gryphon assassin to drop his crossbow, where it broke against the solid ground.
Twilight walked out from under Rumble, but left Crimson Dawn with the golem, having ordered him to protect her. As she walked, she encased the gryphon assassin in a telekinetic grip, "You can let go of him, Hound."
The Crystal Hound did as he was told, releasing the gryphon and allowing him to float in Twilight's magic.
She strode up to the gryphon, stopping several feet away, and began to talk, "Who are you?"
"I will never tell you who I am," the gryphon responded, no emotion evident in his voice.
"How did you find me?" Twilight continued.
"You will get nothing out of me," the gryphon spat on the ground in front of Twilight.
"Very well," Twilight said with a sigh, "You leave me no choice."
Twilight magically called the Necronomicon to her, and started flipping through the pages, muttering to herself, "Embalming, Infertility. Ah. Here we are. Interrogating the dead. Shall we begin?"
As her horn began to glow, the assassin began to feel a pain in his chest, almost as if his heart were expanding (Which it was). "WAIT! I'll tell you everything."
"It's too late now," Twilight said in a flat tone, "You'll say anything to save your own hide. Everyone here knows it. Besides, it's much easier to get honest answers from the dead."
"Very well then," the assassin said, somber once again, "If I have no chance at living, you shall get nothing from me when I'm dead." Upon finishing that sentence, the assassin triggered a hidden mechanism in the armor he was wearing, which caused his body to start burning with white hot flames. Within seconds, there was nothing left of the assassin but ash.
"Idiot," Twilight said, "Hound, please fetch me a container. His ashes still hold his essence, which I can use to track down his soul. One way or another, he will tell me what I want to know, whether he tells me willingly or I rip it from his mind by force. And I might even give him a new body if he behaves."
The Crystal Hound ran off to find a container and returned with an urn.
Twilight laughed at that, "How ironic. Giving an urn full of ashes to a Necromancer. Any other stereotypes we can perpetuate here?"
Trixie spoke up again, "Can anypony here tell the Great and Powerful Trixie what happened to the Twilight she used to know, and who this pony is that looks like Twilight?"
"Come with me, Trixie, and I will tell you what happened to me," Twilight said as they all walked back into the Hive, the urn of ashes floating along behind them.
Twilight, Trixie, and H.R. walked into Underground, the most popular club in the Hive, west of Ponyville, after Twilight dropped off the ashes of the assassin in her quarters (Luna and the Crystal Hound had gone to talk with their Changeling and Diamond Dog advisors, respectively, and Twilight had left Midnight Rumble with Crimson Dawn to protect the newborn filly). The reason the three of them were there was because Trixie, in her own words, 'needed a drink' after Twilight told her all that had happened to her since Trixie had left (minus the part about Twilight killing Celestia and Luna. She let Trixie believe that it was still a gryphonian assassin), and the sheer amount of things Twilight had gone through had left Trixie (mostly) speechless.
Upon entering, they were greeted by the singing voice of Rarity's younger sister, Sweetie Belle (Who was technically the legal age (18) to work at a club/bar like Underground, even if her sister didn't like it) as she finished her cover of Paradise Lost by Sympony X (A somber song, very appropriate for everypony who was in the club, seeing as how they were hiding for their lives).
As the three ponies sat down at a table, the owner of the club, Vinyl Scratch, came out and announced that she was going to start playing something a little more upbeat. As the heavy bass of the electronic music reverberated through her body, Twilight looked around the club, trying to spot any potential threats. What she saw instead was a little surprising, but not much. Sitting by herself in a corner booth, Twilight saw Pinkie Pie slowly sipping on an Appletini. This wouldn't have been so abnormal if Pinkie's hair was it's usual bouncy self, but right now it was perfectly straight, indicating that she was sad about something right now.
Worried about her friend, Twilight teleported over to Pinkie and sat down next to her. Pinkie didn't even notice Twilight, she was so absorbed in her thoughts (Or the Appletini, which was an amusing shade of pale pink), until Twilight gently nudged her.
"Oh. Hey Twilight," Pinkie's voice was a shot of depression and longing, on the rocks (Meaning she spoke with low volume, and the sort of cold feeling you get from depressed people), "When did you get here?"
"Pinkie. What's wrong?" Twilight's voice was full of concern for her friend, whom Twilight hadn't seen so sad since the Pinkie Copies incident, "And don't try to tell me nothing."
"Am I annoying, Twilight?"
The question caught Twilight off-guard, and her response wasn't fast enough to make Pinkie believe it, "Of course not, Pinkie. Why would you think that?"
"Don't lie to spare my feelings, Twilight. I can tell you think I'm annoying. What is it about me that's so annoying?"
"Pinkie, there is nothing annoying about you. Why do you think you're annoying all of a sudden?"
As if the just the thought was painful, Pinkie started to sob as she spoke, making it almost impossible to understand what she was saying. Out of everything she said, Twilight only understood two words: Rainbow Dash.
Twilight interrupted Pinkie, "That's it. Come with me. I'm going to see if we can cheer you up."
"What do you mean, we?" Pinkie asked as Twilight led her back to the table Trixie and H.R. were sitting at.
"Me and the ponies I came here with," Twilight explained as her and Pinkie sat down, "I'm sure you remember Trixie"
"Greetings, Pinkie Pie. Trixie hopes that you get to feeling better soon, if the state of your mane are any hint as to how you feel."
Pinkie was surprised by the amount of caring in Trixie's voice, and was unable to speak as more tears came to her eyes.
"And this quiet stallion is High Roller, though I've taken to calling him H.R.'
H.R. spoke, though his voice was noticeably different, "Pinkie and I already know each other"
Pinkie stiffened up at the voice from her past, "Is it really you?" She asked as she turned to face H.R..
Before their eyes, H.R.'s coat changed from solid black to the blue of his mane, and his mane turned a dark green, while his Cutie Mark changed to a deck of cards, and his eyes turned a pale Magenta.
"It is you," Pinkie said after H.R.'s transformation was complete. But Pinkie's mood quickly changed from surprise to anger, and her voice reflected it as she yelled at him, "HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME AND YOUR UNBORN FILLY?! WHY DID YOU LEAVE?!"
Ponies' heads were turning at the loud yelling, but seeing who was involved in the conversation, they quickly turned their heads back around.
H.R. just accepted the yelling, knowing he deserved it and more, "Pinkie, I know it was wrong to leave you, and I know that it is unforgivable, but please just try to listen to why I did what I did." H.R.'s voice was perfectly calm, betraying no emotions he may be feeling.
"I did not want to leave you, but I had to, to keep you safe. As you've no doubt figured out by now, I'm a Changeling. At the time, I was on an assignment from my mother, and if she found out I had sired a foal with a normal pony, she would have had you killed, and I didn't want to see you harmed in any way."
Pinkie didn't know how to respond, because she had never known any of this (Nopony did, except H.R.). Instead she silently nodded.
H.R. continued, "This doesn't mean I was never there for you. I've been watching over you since you told me, keeping you safe and making sure you could keep going from day to day. I'm the one who convinced the judge to allow you to be in the same town as our daughter, and the one who hung the Help wanted sign for Sugarcube Corner where you would see it, because I knew you loved baking. I also paid the hospital bill for your birthing, and any other medical bills you or Scootaloo may have had over the years, because we both know our daughter is prone to reckless actions that, more often than not, end in her injuring herself."
What none of the group knew was that, in the week since they had been to Underground, Scootaloo had started working there, and she happened to be walking by when H.R. said that. Looking closely at the quiet Pegasus, Scootaloo saw that she had his eyes.
Knowing she was serving ponies who were waiting for their drinks, Scootaloo promised to herself to find Pinkie and this mysterious pony who claimed to be her father after her shift ended.
Twilight knew she should have stopped after her 7th one of Pinkie's "Derpy Hooves" shots (Who knew that Sambuca, Fireball, and Gin could cause a pony to do the unmentionable things that Twilight had done last night?), and now she was paying for it with a massive headache that was only made worse by Crimson Dawn's refusal to stop crying. While Twilight was trying to quiet the crying foal, Midnight Rumble answered a knock on the door to Twilight's rooms.
"Can I help you?" his deep voice rumbled to the orange pegasus standing before him.
"I was looking for Twilight. Is she in at the moment?" Scootaloo responded.
"One second" The door quietly shut, leaving Scootaloo waiting in the hall.
"Mistress, there is a visitor for you," Rumble informed Twilight. Relief flashed across her face.
"Thank you for telling me this. I will see to this guest immediately. In the meantime, could you try to get Dawn to stop crying? Nothing I've tried has worked."
"As you wish, Mistress," the golem responded, immediately walked over to the crib, and looked down in it. Dawn instantly stopped laughing and started giggling at the sight of the stone face looking down at her. Twilight shook her head as she opened the door, wondering how the golem did it so easily. She was surprised to see Scootaloo waiting for her.
"What brings you here, Scootaloo?" Twilight asked.
"I'm looking for Pinkie Pie. Do you happen to know where she is?" The orange pegasus replied.
"Why are you looking for her?"
"I'm going to get some cupcakes for my parents, and she makes the best around. Can you please tell me where she is?"
"Oh, well, she's at Sugarcube Cavern right now," the purple Alicorn barely had time to finish her sentence before Scootaloo was flying down the tunnel on her scooter (Which she had pulled out of nowhere, further proving that she was Pinkie Pie's daughter).
Almost as an after thought, Scootaloo yelled over her shoulder, "Thanks Twilight!"
Twilight could only laugh at the orange pegasus' antics, until she remembered something very important: Scootaloo's adoptive parents had died in the gryphon attack on Ponyville and their bodies had never been recovered. So how could she be taking them cupcakes? Then Twilight recalled something she had seen out of the corner of her eye at Underground the night before: an orange pegasus with a brightly glowing (Due to the black lights) pink/purple mane.
Meanwhile, at Sugarcube Cavern…
"And I guess that's how I became a filly fooler," the pink mare concluded.
H.R. was truly surprised that he hadn't seen any of what had led her to prefer mares over stallions, but he could not say that he was surprised that she was a filly fooler. He prepared to respond to Pinkie's story when she started shaking uncontrollably, causing H.R. to think she was having a seizure.
Pinkie just waved him off while saying, "Don't worry. This is part of my 'Pinkie Sense'. It just means that there's a doozy coming."
"What do you mean, a 'doozy'?"
At that moment, there was a knock heard at the door to Pinkie's personal room. Pinkie quickly moved to open the door for whoever it was that had come to visit. She was startled when Scootaloo leaped forward and put her in a rib-crushing hug (Also a Pie family specialty).
"Scootaloo, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with your parents?"
"What do you mean? I am with my parents."
"Do you mean they're waiting out in the foyer?"
Scootaloo shook her head. Pinkie then received a very brief mental message from Twilight, only containing two words: She knows. This brought mixed feelings of happiness and panic; happiness, because she could now be completely honest with Scootaloo about everything, and panic, because she was sure that Scootaloo's adoptive parents would have the court revoke her permission to see her daughter.
"How did you find out?" the party pony asked, concern in her voice.
"I overheard him talking to you at Underground last night during my shift," Scootaloo said, pointing her hoof at H.R., "Are you truly my father?"
"Yes I am."
"Then that means you were telling the truth about watching over us?" H.R. nodded. "If that's the case, then that means you were disguised to keep us from recognizing you. Am I correct?"
"Eeyup," the completely dull inflection on that single word said more than the word itself. Both mares only knew of one stallion who could say that one word with so little character.
Pinkie was the first to break the silence, "How long have you been Big Mac?"
"About 20 years," H.R. answered truthfully, hoping they wouldn't ask why he had chosen to impersonate him. But a certain law of Reality (Discovered several million years ago by a bipedal race called 'Humans', known as Murphy's law) kicked in, making one of them ask.
"Why did you choose Big Mac?" Scootaloo asked.
H.R. sighed and began, "When he was younger, Big Mac used to love going into the Everfree by himself for hours at a time. At least, that's what he let everypony believe. In reality, he was going to talk to me. You see, it was quite by accident that he met me. I had been napping in a tree, which means I was in my true form because changeling magic doesn't work when the Changeling is asleep, and he found me while I was asleep. Not knowing what I was, he managed to knock me down and tie me up before I was even fully awake. When I finally woke up fully, he started asking me questions that I answered to the best of my abilities. He untied me after about an hour of questions, knowing that I wouldn't do anything to harm him, and started talking to me like an actual pony. We began to have conversations like that every day for about 4 years.
"Then, one day, he arrived at our usual meeting spot before I did. I don't know exactly what happened, but when I got there he had been beaten almost to death, and I could tell he wasn't going to last much longer. He seemed to know this as well, but he didn't cry. Even at such a young age, he was unnaturally quiet," H.R. tapped his lips with his hoof, looking very pensive, "Anyways, since he knew I could shape shift, he asked if I would do him a favor and live as him so his parents wouldn't have to face the lost of their only son and AJ wouldn't have to deal with losing her brother. I promised him I would, and that allowed him to die with a smile on his face."
The two mares were stunned speechless at the story, and Pinkie had some tears in her eyes.
H.R. continued to speak, "Once Equestria is back under pony control, I plan on telling the Apple family what really happened to Big Mac, and I will show them where I buried him."
After sending the message to Pinkie, Twilight allowed herself to relax, finally able to seriously think since her daughter had stopped crying. Within seconds, she had remembered a spell that would get rid of her headache. After casting it, Twilight was able to think easier.
But, inevitably, her thoughts strayed to why she had woken up with a headache at all: finding Pinkie Pie drinking in a bar because she was upset. And that led to the cause of Pinkie's sadness, Rainbow Dash, who Twilight hadn't heard from in a few weeks.
Deciding to find out what had happened to one of her best friends, Twilight cast her cloud walking spell on herself, then face hoofed when she remembered she was an Alicorn, and that she didn't need the cloud walking spell anymore.
As she prepared to teleport up to Cloudsdale, Twilight addressed her golem, "Rumble, please stay here and protect Crimson Dawn."
"As my mistress commands," the rumbling voice replied.
In a flash of light, Twilight was gone from the room, only to reappear instantly in the Cloud Factory several miles above where she had been. Before her was a monstrous storm cloud, but it didn't appear to be throwing off lightning or holding any more rain than a normal cloud. This perplexed her, because there was no plausible explanation for the large black mass in front of her.
But before she could take a single step, a chromatic streak knocked her to the ground and pinned her there.
"State your name, rank, I.D. number, and hourly clearance…" the cyan pegasus trailed off when she realized just who she had trapped underneath her, and quickly jumped off, "Sorry Twilight, but there have been recent attempts by Gryphon Sympathizers to sabotage the cloud carrier, so we've been screening everypony who comes in here."
"What do you mean, Gryphon Sympathizers?"
"Don't worry about them, Twilight. We clipped their wings and threw them out of Cloudsdale. I don't think there were any gryphons waiting to catch them with open arms," Rainbow Dash chuckled.
"Very well then. Now would you please explain what this giant storm cloud is?" Twilight said, still utterly confused by the large storm system in front of her.
Rainbow Dash tilted her head, giving Twilight a 'Did you really just ask that?' look before responding, "That's the Cloud Carrier."
"What happened to it? I expected it to be white."
"Remember that process you found that could make clouds solid enough for anypony to walk on without your spell? Well, there was an unintended side effect: it turned them into high voltage storm clouds."
Now Twilight was really confused, "But if they're high voltage, where is all the lightning?"
"That's the beauty of it. Because of their electric nature, they can serve as the power source for the entire carrier. All we had to do was make about 2000 miles worth of ¼ hoof (equivalent to ¼ inch) Crystal Wiring so we could wire the entire ship together, as well as contain the lightning so it wouldn't shock anypony inside," Rainbow Dash looked pleased with this unexpected turn of events.
"But there must be extra power. Where does all that spare lightning go?"
"Follow me and I'll show you," Dash said as she walked away.
Twilight could do nothing but follow, listening to Dash as they approached the core of the carrier.
"And so, when we had discovered that there was still extra power, even after we had everything wired up to run on the lightning, we started making these," Dash opened a set of double doors, exposing a room that held several very large Crystal tanks (Not those armored land assault vehicles, I'm talking aquarium-style tanks, but cylinders instead of rectangular prisms). Inside three of the tanks was enough lightning to destroy Canterlot several times over.
Dash walked up to one (which was at least 5 times her height on its side, and ten times her length), and patted her hoof against it, "This one was the first we had filled. Well, overfilled really. We didn't know the full capacity yet, so we accidentally overflowed the tank. But after that, we pretty much had the process down, so we started filling up the rest.
"Looks like Double Jeopardy finally finished filling up," Dash said as she walked up to the third tank with lightning in it.
"Double Jeopardy?" Twilight asked, wondering why the tank was named.
"Yeah. Once a tank starts filling, the tank crew names the tank. That first one by the door is called Last Resort and the second one is Paradise Lost," Dash explained.
Twilight noticed release mechanisms on the arms holding the tanks above the floor, "Are these tanks just to hold the extra lightning?"
"No. Why do you ask?"
"These release mechanisms on the sides here. So what else are they for?"
"It'd be easier just to show you. If you'd come over here please," Rainbow Dash said.
"What's going to happen?" Twilight asked as she stood beside Dash.
Ignoring her, Dash pressed a switch on the wall and said, "Please open Circuit 15."
Before her eyes, the floor of the room started to recede into the walls until the only spot left was where her and Dash were standing, which allowed her a straight view to the floor of the cloud factory. Slowly, Twilight's mind began to fit the pieces together, and the conclusion scared her more than anything she had ever faced before.
"Rainbow Dash, are these Lightning bombs? They've been illegal since the last Continental War, over 5000 years ago!"
"Twilight, there hasn't been an international war since then either. And hardly anypony besides yourself even remembers that old law anyways."
"That's besides the point, Rainbow Dash, and you know it! Just having these is a violation of the Everfree Accord, or where you not paying attention during history class when you were attending Canterlot University?! Not to mention that these are at least 20 times bigger than the one that was dropped on Everfree Castle 5000 years ago!"
Rainbow Dash's face darkened in anger from its usual Cyan color to a deep navy blue, "You swore to never bring that up again," her voice was cold and full of malice.
"Bring what up? The fact that you have a college degree, or that you were forced to go to college as part of your probation?"
"Shut up," there was a chilling lack of emotion in Dash's voice now.
"Why? It's the truth! Can the fastest pegasus in Equestria not handle it?"
"SHUT UP!"
YOU WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ARRESTED IF YOU HADNT BROKEN INTO CELESTIA'S ROOM FOR A PANTY RAID!"
"Get out," this time, there was emotion, but it wasn't anger or anything that could be dangerous to others. It was apathy (Does that make sense? Considering apathy is not caring about anything, would that be considered an emotion?), which could be more dangerous to the pony feeling it than anything else.
"Fine, but don't think we aren't done talking about this," Twilight teleported back to her room, leaving Dash to sort out her thoughts.
"Why did she have to bring that up? I had almost forgotten about it," Dash muttered to herself, "Why did we have to end up in the same Advanced Chemistry and Equestrian history classes?"
After a few seconds, she started giggling, "I guess, now that I think about it, getting a master's degree in Ecochemistry (Like Geochemistry, but dealing with the weather instead of the ground) was worth seeing Celestia's unmentionables. I just hadn't expected Celestia to be changing at the time."
Back in Twilight's room
After taking a few minutes to calm down, Twilight was able to think clearly again. And as soon as she started thinking again, she realized that she had forgotten the entire reason she had gone up to Cloudsdale: to ask Dash how she had made Pinkie cry.
Before she forgot, Twilight levitated a quill and paper to write 6 simple words: How did you make Pinkie cry? She then teleported it to Rainbow Dash's room in the Cloud Carrier, where it landed neatly on her desk.
Finally able to take a minute to seriously think, Twilight remembered the Urn of Ashes sitting in her Isolation Room. Walking over to it, she prepared Runes of Sealing, to keep Rumble and her daughter out while she interrogated the 'dead' gryphon (Because nothing is really dead when it comes to a Necromancer, especially Twilight, who was The Necromancer).
After sealing the only entrance to the room, Twilight began to flip through the Necronomicon, though this was little more than a formality since she already had the book memorized exactly. Horn glowing, she empowered the Summoning Rune on the floor, drawing the soul of the gryphon assassin into the room, where it was held in place by the Rune.
"What do you want?" the disembodied voice was cold and metallic, "Who are you to call a soul back from it's Eternal Rest?"
"You know who I am, assassin. And as to what I want, that should be obvious," Twilight's voice was even colder than the soul's, "You are going to answer my questions, honestly, or you will regret it."
"What can you do to me? I'm already dead."
The soul began to scream in pain as a sliver of magic, blacker than the darkest night, started to pierce it.
"That is what I can do to you. It's a spell of my own design. Don't you love it?" There was a slight trace of joy in Twilight's voice, as she dismissed the black magic.
The soul coughed, even though it had no blood, "What are you? I've never seen any kind of magic like this."
Twilight giggled, "That's because there hasn't been a magician like me in several hundred years. And there has never been one as powerful as me."
"That doesn't answer my question. What are you?"
"Surely you've heard of Starswirl the Bearded, yes? I am him reborn, but I am more powerful than he ever was."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Starswirl was a necromancer, the best of his time, though I've surpassed him," Twilight shook her head, clearing her thoughts, "Enough of your questions. Now you're going to answer mine. First things first, what is your name?"
"I am known by many names."
"Don't be difficult. You wouldn't want to feel the Void again, would you?"
Another sliver of black magic materialized, slowly inching towards the assassin's soul.
"Death Strike!" the soul quickly said, "My name is Death Strike!"
The black magic disappeared again, scant centimeters from the soul.
Twilight looked pleased, "Very good. Now, who sent you after me?"
"I wasn't after you."
"I don't appreciate lying," Twilight said as she created another Void Sliver.
"I'm not lying!" the soul exclaimed, "I wasn't hired to kill you! I was hired to destroy that giant stone pony!"
"Midnight Rumble? Why were you hired to destroy him?"
"Fear."
This statement confused Twilight, leaving her silent for many minutes before she could respond, "What do you mean, fear?"
The soul started laughing, "You don't know, do you? What that thing did trying to find you? It has destroyed countless villages and killed countless gryphons while running randomly around Equestria looking for you."
"How does that make it worth destroying? You have done the same thing to us. Following your logic, we should try to destroy every one of you gryphons."
"The only difference between us and it is that we have reason for doing what we did. You invaded our country and killed the daughter of our Reich. This required retaliation."
"We invaded Gryphonia because your Reich authorized the assassination of both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. And the death of Gilda was an accident. Do you think I would have killed one of my best friend's friends?"
"We both know that's a lie. The Gryphonian Reich never authorized any assassination. It was part of an international plan to annex Gryphonia into Equestria."
Twilight was startled by the knowledge of this 'average' gryphon assassin, "How could you know this? Nobody outside the Continental Summit knew of this plan. Who told you this?"
"Nobody told me anything, besides you. I was there during the Summit, Princess. I heard your entire plan, how you were going to kill both the Princesses and then frame Gryphonia, giving you an excuse to invade us and take control of our country."
"Where were you at the Summit? I don't remember seeing you anywhere or anytime during the Summit."
"That's because I was hidden in that over-extravagant chandelier that was hanging over the table. I was there by the request of the Gryphonian Reich. Where do you think he got the knife that he gave to you? Speaking of which, where'd that knife go? I'd like it back please."
"What do you need the knife for? You're already dead, so you can't do anything with it."
"It's a family heirloom, and I was hoping you might have a way to send it through to the afterlife, so that I may always have something to remember my family by."
"I'm sorry, but I do not have a way to send it over the barrier between life and death."
The soul sighed, "Very well. Please release me, so that I may return to my rest?"
"Now hold on. I said I didn't have a way to send the knife over to you, but I do have a way to bring you back to this world so that you may continue to carry the knife."
"I suspect that this will not be free. What is the price?"
"You must abandon your previous contract and protect my daughter, until such time that she is able to defend herself. Then you will return to me, and I will give you any further assignments that need completion. Do you agree to the terms of the contract?"
"If that is all I must do, then you have my word that I will follow your orders to the letter."
"Very good. Please wait a few minutes while I prepare your new body."
Twilight levitated the Urn of Ashes over to where she was standing and began to remove the ashes, placing them in a Creation Rune she had inscribed. Activating the Rune with the appropriate spell, she invoked the latent powers held within the Rune, causing the ashes to start swirling upward like a tornado. Inside the 'tornado', you could see the ashes starting to solidify. But what was formed was not what Twilight was expecting: instead of reforming Death Strike's original body, the ashes had made a bipedal form, completely different from anything that had been seen on Earth for over 65 million years. It was the form of a Human, though this one was slightly different than the ones in the Ancient History Museums or the College History Textbooks, in that it had the wings of a gryphon.
A magical scan revealed other differences as well: the body was capable of Shapeshifting and making itself invisible, even though it was completely devoid of all magic. There was also a curious mutated Helix in the body's DNA, whose effects were unknown to Twilight.
Vowing to look into the effects of that mutated helix, Twilight cancelled the magical scan and turned back to the soul, preparing the Phylactery Spell (Though this time, she would not end up pregnant again since she had chosen a vessel for the soul, unlike last time).
Casting the spell, she watched as Death Strike's soul moved into the newly made body and slowly spread through it, assuming control of the body. She watched as he reacted to the unexpected form, moving his limbs slowly as he adjusted to the greater strength in them, and spreading his wings, getting use to the feel of having wings again.
"I do not understand," his voice was a deeper baritone than even Midnight Rumble's, surprising both himself and Twilight.
"I don't either," Twilight admitted, "I had been trying to recreate your gryphon body, yet this is what the spell made."
"How am I supposed to guard your daughter when I look like this?"
"There is more to your body than just how it looks. Try imagining yourself as looking how you did when you were a gryphon."
Before her eyes, Death Strike transformed from his new bipedal form back to his original gryphon form.
"What is this madness?!" Death Strike was obviously distressed by what had happened to him.
"Do not worry, Death Strike. I am not sensing anything wrong with your body. Quite the opposite, really. You are the healthiest being I've ever seen."
"But how is this possible? I've never heard of magic that allows a creature to change shape like this!"
Before she could respond, Twilight sensed a third presence in the Isolation Room. This was impossible though, since she had sealed the room with the strongest Sealing Rune she knew.
Looking around, she yelled out, "Who's there? Show yourself!"
A cloaked pony rose out of her shadow and spoke, "Long have I awaited the birth of another Archangel."
Twilight immediately recognized the voice, "Shattered Silence (The Librarian in charge of the Restricted Section in the Canterlot Royal Archives. See chapter 5, Parthenogenesis, if you don't remember this)? How did you get in here? And what do you mean, you've waited for the birth of another Archangel?"
The librarian pointed to Death Strike, "He is an Archangel. A being who can assume any form, whether it's Pony, Gryphon, Dragon, or Human, and use all of the abilities that come with that form. And as to how I entered this chamber, Archangels are immune to all magic, a side effect of not having any magic in them. My creator, your past life, Starswirl the Bearded, called us Pillars of Creation, because we are capable of impossible feats of magic, despite the absence of magic in us. He called the magic that we use 'Vita Magicae', or the Magic of Life, since we use the life force of any living thing around us to fuel our casting."
"How is that possible? Parasitic magic doesn't exist."
Looking directly at Twilight, Shattered Silence responded, "Neither does Teleportation."
Twilight had no response to that, and simply sat down.
Turning towards Death Strike, Silence began speaking again, "This Archangel of yours is incredibly powerful. I can barely fathom the impact he will have on the world."
Curious now, Twilight thought about the next question she would ask, "What do you mean, the impact he will have on the world?"
Silence turned back to Twilight, "The birth of an Archangel is no little thing, Mistress Sparkle, but he is like no Archangel before him. If we were to compare him to his predecessors as a rock being thrown into a pond, they are large rocks, while he is a boulder, and the ripples of his impact will be felt all around the pond, which, in this case, means the entire world"
"How can you possibly know this just by looking at him?"
"Because Archangels are clairvoyant to an extent," Silence began tapping his hoof to his mouth, "If memory serves, you've met several Archangels. One of them is the most powerful Clairvoyant among us, and her daughter will be one of the best Shapeshifters ever once her Archangel DNA awakens. The other, everypony in Ponyville saw as a klutz.
"Between the three of us, we should be able to train this new born and the other once she awakens as an Archangel. But we need your permission to train this one," Silence said as he pointed to Death Strike again.
"Why do you need my permission?"
"Because he is your creation, and we cannot train him without your permission, as it would interfere with the assignment you have given him. You see, if an Archangel performs an action that interferes with the assignment given him/her, they will feel the most unbearable pain until their master/mistress dismisses it."
"Very well. You have my permission to train Death Strike, until such time as he can return to his assignment with complete control of his powers."
"Thank you, Mistress Sparkle," Silence said as he walked over to Death Strike, then turned back to her, "One more thing: Since you killed Celestia, all Archangels now answer to you. And with the creation of this one, that means you will have 87 Archangels under your command once the child awakens. Now that you know of our existence, the rest of us will start to report to you to receive their new assignments."
After finishing that sentence, Shattered Silence placed his hoof against Death Strike, and the two Archangels melted into shadows on the floor.
Alone in her Isolation Room, Twilight began to massage her temples with her hooves, "This is going to be a serious headache."
"I can help with that!" The bubbly voice practically yelling in her ear made Twilight jump almost to Cloudsdale.
Turning around, Twilight saw a certain pink pony.
"Of course, it had to be her," Twilight muttered to herself, "It had to be her."
"What do you mean, it had to be me?" Pinkie asked as she bounced in place.
Twilight sighed, "I mean, you had to be an Archangel. And I guess that means Scootaloo will also be an Archangel."
Pinkie laughed, "Of course, silly! How did you think I was able to do half the things I did? Very few Archangels, and no normal pony, could do even one of the things I can do."
"Wait," Twilight said, realizing something, "If you're an Archangel, doesn't that mean you've died before? When did you die? Was it after you left your family's rock farm?"
"No, silly. It was 1000 years before that."
Now Twilight just looked confused, "What? How could you die 1000 years before you were born?"
"I didn't die before I was born, Twilight. That's just absurd. I was born during the Reign of Discord, back before the Princesses overthrew him and claimed Equestria as their own."
"Wha-Huh?"
"You're so cute when you're confused, Twilight," Pinkie giggled.
Completely flustered now (and with a hint of color on her face), Twilight was unable to string her thoughts into a coherent order.
Sensing this, Pinkie elaborated on her history, "As I said, I was born as a pegasus during the Discordian Reign, which is the time period that Starswirl lived in. In fact, the two of us were friends growing up, along with Shattered Silence, who was also a pegasus. The three of us joined the Equestrian Resistance pretty early in our lives, and while we weren't able to perform any field operations, we were able to help the resistance in other ways. Mainly this meant researching new magics and finding ways to give us a chance against Discord. When we were first introduced to the directors of the R&D division of the Resistance, we didn't think much of them. They were just a couple unicorns, though their magic was a little stronger."
Taking a breath, Pinkie continued, "Under their guidance, we developed many advances in science and medicine, but it was Starswirl who was singled out as a genius, and as such, was assigned to more 'theoretical' magics, namely, Necromancy. And Starswirl was a prodigy of this Forbidden Magic, though the Directors had to keep a close eye on him, due to the Chaotic nature of Necromantic Magic. After almost 20 years, he developed what he called the 'Alicorn Effect'. He said it would allow us to take down Discord, but that the procedure was incredibly risky, and those involved weren't guaranteed to survive. The Directors jumped at the chance, willing to take any risk if it meant defeating Discord. After he explained the process, that it was a simple limb transplant which required that both subjects voluntarily take part, Shattered Silence and myself volunteered our wings for the process. Using our wings, Starswirl made the Directors into the first Alicorns, whom you know as Celestia and Luna. The sisters were lucky. They didn't have the difficulty that we did; Starswirl had had to cut our wings off, and quickly transplant them onto the Directors before the wings 'died', that is, before their nervous system shut down, so that the Directors would have fully operational wings. Because of this, Starswirl wasn't able to clean and close the joints where our wings had been, so we ended up bleeding out."
Twilight interrupted Pinkie's story, "What do you mean Celestia and Luna weren't always Alicorns? Why did they let everypony assume that they had been born as Alicorns?"
"Let me finish!" Pinkie said to Twilight, "As I was saying, me and Shattered Silence died from bleeding out during the procedure, and according to the Princesses, Starswirl spent the next 30 years researching, trying to figure out how to bring us back. It was during this time that he developed the Phylactery Spell and the Vessel Reconstruction Spell that you used to make Death Strike into an Archangel. Just like you, Starswirl didn't understand why our bodies ended up looking like humans, or where our Shapeshifting ability came from, so he had to figure out the source. He spent the next 200 years figuring out everything he could about us by creating more of us, until there were about 84 Archangels in existence."
Again, Twilight interrupted Pinkie's story, "Wait. If Starswirl was a normal unicorn, how did he live for over 200 years?"
Pinkie's mood (and hair) deflated a little, "He was using his Necromantic Magic to steal the life energy of any pony he came across. By doing this, he killed them, while expanding his life beyond any normal pony's. The sheer amount of ponies he drained would have allowed him to live for thousands of years quite easily. Of course, it was easy for him to hide what he was doing, since Luna had unleashed the De Manis Queen, Nightmare Moon, on Equestria, who was determined to destroy all ponies in her quest for revenge. Once Celestia was able to banish Nightmare Moon to the moon, she noticed that not all of the dead ponies were because of the De Manis Queen or her creations, but were the result of having their life force drained by Necromantic Magic. Knowing that there was only one pony in all of Equestria who was capable of Necromantic Magic, she tracked down Starswirl, and found him, almost 200 years after she had defeated Nightmare Moon, when he was creating the 85th Archangel. I don't know who this Archangel is, since I was off on an assignment at the time he or she was created. Anyways, once Celestia found Starswirl, she teleported him and herself into the sun, where she incinerated his body and purified his soul in the Corona of the Sun."
Twilight was stunned, both from the fact that Starswirl, her idol, had been a mass murderer, and that both the Princesses had actually killed ponies before.
Noticing the look on her face, Pinkie quickly started speaking again, "Twilight, please try to understand. Sometimes a ruler has to kill in order to insure the safety of their people. Don't hold Starswirl's murder against Celestia. She was only doing what she had to do, in order to be a fair ruler. And Luna was suffering from severe depression and loneliness when she created Nightmare Moon for company but she had no idea that the De Manis would corrupt her and take control of her body, so you can't hold her responsible for all the deaths she caused."
Shaking her head, Twilight banished her thoughts to a distant portion of her mind, and turned to Pinkie, "Thank you for telling me all of this, Pinkie. I'm glad you were honest with me, and I do hope that you will continue to be my friend."
"Of course I'll still be your friend, Twilight," Pinkie giggled, her naturally bubbly attitude surfacing again, "I've gotta go now, though, so I'll see you again soon. The next Archangel should be here soon, so I'd start preparing your thoughts if I were you!"
"Thanks Pinkie," Twilight said as Pinkie slipped under the rug, not even leaving a bump where she had gone under, "Now to meet Archangel 4 of 86... This is going to be a long night."
"You can say that again," Big Macintosh said as he walked out of the door to her Isolation Room (Twilight still doesn't know that High Roller is Big Macintosh).
After spending the better part of the evening in the Carrier's onboard gym in an attempt to calm down, Rainbow Dash was finally heading to the showers.
"Ah," she said as the water washed the sweat off her, "There's nothing like unwinding in a hot shower after a good workout."
Finishing her shower, Dash started heading back to her personal quarters, eager to go to sleep. As she stepped into her room, she noticed a roll of paper, with a neatly tied bow holding it together. Walking up to it, she pulled the ribbon with her mouth, allowing the scroll to unfurl. Looking at the six words written on it, she could only stand there with a confused look on her face.
'I haven't even seen or spoken to Pinkie for over 4 months,' Dash thought to herself, 'So how could I have made her cry?'
Meanwhile, outside the Carrier
"All troops are in position." (Translated from Gryphonian)
"Acknowledged. Begin operation."
As one, 200 wings expanded, allowing the gryphons to fly through the high windows of the Cloud Factory.
"Contact," A few seconds passed, "Neutralized."
"Neutralized."
"Neutralized."
"All outer patrols eliminated. Now comes the hard part. Prepare to breach!"
Two gryphons walked up holding a metal cube. Setting it against the carrier, they flipped a switch on the side, activating the cube. Slowly, the clouds touching the cube began to disappear, revealing the crystal wire mesh underneath.
"Bring up the clippers."
The gryphon cut through the crystal wires and pulled the section away, leaving a hole big enough for them to go through one at a time. Jumping through, one gryphon called out the all clear, and was quickly followed by his 99 comrades. Pulling a copy of the Carrier's blueprints out of a pouch on his back, the commander traced the fastest path to the Bridge and the Captain's Quarters. After ordering his commandos to spread out and capture the Carrier, eliminating any Equestrian forces they may find in the process, he started toward the Captain's Quarters. On the way there, he was stopped by a Unicorn who was bowing before him.
Speaking in Gryphonian, the Unicorn addressed him, "I trust the blueprints are helping?"
The commander only smirked as he sank his talons into the Unicorn's chest, puncturing it's heart and killing it instantly. "Knobruhey ryc hu ica vun dnyedunc" (Not translated from Gryphonian)
Stepping over the dead traitor, he continued on his way to the Captain's Quarters, reaching it without any further delays. Opening the door quietly, he snuck in and looked around. Not seeing anypony in the room, he closed the door behind him so that they couldn't escape without him noticing. Quickly searching the rest of the rooms, he found that there was nopony in them.
The commander's radio came to life, "The Carrier is secure. All Equestrian forces eliminated. You're not going to believe this, though. We found the Bomb Bay, right where you said it would be, and there were Lightning Bombs, three to be exact. What should we do with them, sir?"
"We're going to use them. Leave one here in the factory and attach a Long Range Detonator to it. We're going to make sure that the Equestrians aren't able to make another Carrier."
"Yes Sir."
Rainbow Dash heard all of this from her position in the vent above the Gryphon Commander.
'I'm glad I took Gryphonian as a second language in college,' She thought to herself, 'But Twilight's going to be pissed when she hears this.
Quickly crawling through the ventilation system, Dash exited the Carrier and flew straight to the entrance to the Hive, rushing to get to Twilight with the bad news. Arriving at her rooms, Dash continued to fly straight through the door, causing the splinters to fly across the room.
"TWILIGHT! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Dash yelled at the top of her lungs.
Twilight heard her and muttered some unladylike words under her breath before leaving her Isolation Room.
"This better be good, Rainbow Dash. I was in the middle of a very important meeting."
"Gryphons have taken the Cloud Carrier!"
Twilight locked up. Of all the things Rainbow Dash could have said, this was the worst one possible.
"What do you mean, Gryphons have taken the Cloud Carrier?"
"I mean, I'm the only pony left out of the entire crew that was up there!"
"This is bad," Twilight said as she started to pace, "How close was the Carrier to being finished?"
"We could have been in the air a few hours ago."
Twilight froze, her eye starting to twitch. Turning to face the Spectral Pegasus, she used her magic to force Dash into one of the cushioned chairs strewn about her room.
"Please stay here while I make sure those Gryphons aren't able to do anything with that Carrier," she said as her magic caused the stitching of the cushion to tie Dash to the chair.
"WAIT!" Dash yelled as Twilight teleported out of the room.
Appearing in the courtyard of Everfree Castle, Twilight was surprised to see Fluttershy standing there, looking up at Cloudsdale.
"Fluttershy?"
The yellow pegasus jumped, startled by Twilight's voice, "Oh. Hi Twilight. What are you doing here?"
Wanting to spare her sensitive friends feelings, Twilight only told a half truth, "Something bad happened in Cloudsdale, and I'm going to make sure nopony else gets hurt."
"I want to help," Fluttershy said, surprising Twilight.
"What?"
"If there are ponies in harm's way, I don't want them to be hurt, so I'm going to help you get them away from whatever the danger is."
Seeing that if she rejected Fluttershy's help, it would look suspicious, Twilight had no choice but to agree.
The two were about halfway up to Cloudsdale when the sky turned white. Gale force winds and large streaks of lightning threw them around like toys. Twilight could only watch in horror as a lightning bolt struck Fluttershy, turning her to ash. Looking down, she saw that Everfree Castle was gone, a large crater where it had stood. Acting on instinct, she used her magic to summon a shield around herself. This saved her life, as another bolt of lightning struck the shield. The residual energy from the strike caused Twilight's body to freeze, and she could only watch as the ground flew up to meet her.
Nothing. That's all that Twilight could see.
Pain, crippling, paralyzing pain. Thousands of red hot needles going into every part of her body, mainly her horn.
Slowly, Twilight's sight came back, albeit with a lot of stars. Looking around, all she could see was the sloping curve of the crater walls as they expanded past her vision. Forcing herself to look up, Twilight was shocked to see a miniature sun where Cloudsdale used to be.
"Over 25000 pegasi, gone," she muttered to herself.
Extending her wings, Twilight flew up to the new sun hovering where Cloudsdale had been. Attempting to use her magic to scan it caused searing pain to flash through her body, almost causing her to fall again. Running her hoof through her mane in frustration, she jerked it back when she cut it on the jagged edge of something in her mane.
"No," Twilight said, "Please not that. Anything but that."
Feeling with her hoof, she found that half of her horn was missing, leaving a broken stump. After crying to herself for about an hour, Twilight finally stopped and focused again. This new sun was more important than a broken horn. Flying closer to it, she raised a hoof towards it.
"Odd. It feels almost like pure magic, but that's impossible. Magic can't exist in this world without something channeling it."
Finally placing her hoof against it, Twilight was startled when the 'sun' started to flow into her hoof. The sheer amount of power the 'sun' held was equal to double the magic of all of Equestria's unicorns and Alicorns casting at the same time. Unable to contain so much raw power in it's current form, Twilight's body started changing. It grew until she was as big as Celestia had been, but that wasn't all that happened. Her mane transformed into pure magic, while still keeping it's coloring pattern. Not only did her horn grow back, it also became longer, almost twice as long as Celestia's had been. Continuing it's transformation, her body manipulated the excess magic into armor that formed over her head, chest, and legs, much like Nightmare Moon's, but with some changes. Each piece of armor took on a different color, the same colors as the coats of her friends. Her helm was the same Orange as AJ, her chest was purple just like herself, her front left leg was Cyan, the front right, Pink. The back left was Yellow, and the back right was White. Emblazoned on each piece was the Cutie mark of the pony it was colored after.
After the 'sun' finished flowing into her, and her body finished transforming, Twilight landed back in the crater, using her magic to scan for the entrance into the Hive. Quickly finding it, she began to walk towards it until she noticed some of the ash under her hooves begin to move. Watching it, she stood there as a large amount of ash formed a pile in the middle of the crater. The ashes caught fire soon after, surprising Twilight. From the smoke created by the fire, a form began to take shape. Slowly, the form became more defined: it was a pegasus. After a few more seconds, standing whole and healthy before her was Fluttershy. Twilight watched as a phoenix feather fell from Fluttershy's mane onto the ground.
"Fluttershy?"
Seeing the large Alicorn in front of her, Fluttershy squeaked and hid behind her mane, "D-do I know you?"
"Fluttershy, it's me Twilight," Twilight said as she took a step towards Fluttershy.
Looking up, Fluttershy finally recognized the Alicorn standing in front of her, "Twilight? What happened to you?"
"I could say the same about you. How did you do that?"
"Do what? I don't remember anything besides flying up to Cloudsdale with you, and then I was standing down here," Fluttershy looked around, "Wherever here is…"
"This was Everfree Castle," Twilight said as she wrapped a wing around Fluttershy, "Do you not remember that storm we got caught in while we were flying up to Cloudsdale?"
"All I remember is a bright flash, and then I was standing down here with you. Where did that storm come from?" Fluttershy asked with a confused look on her face.
Twilight sighed and decided to be honest, "That storm was the result of a Gryphonian attack on Cloudsdale. It destroyed both Cloudsdale and Everfree Castle."
Before she could continue, Twilight was distracted by the phoenix feather flying into her face. Trying to remember, she looked at Fluttershy.
"Fluttershy?"
"Yes, Twilight?"
"Where did this feather come from?" Twilight asked while holding the feather out to Fluttershy.
"Oh. That's the feather Celestia's phoenix gave me for trying to help it, remember?"
Twilight quickly did a magical scan of Fluttershy, and was stunned by what she found, "Umm, Fluttershy. You aren't going to believe this. It would appear that, by having this feather, you have the same regenerative capabilities as a phoenix."
"I have the same what?"
"When you die, you'll be reborn exactly how you were when you got the feather."
"Oh," Fluttershy said, sounding depressed, "That means I'll outlive all of my friends."
"No you won't, Fluttershy. You'll still have me and Discord and P-" Twilight stopped herself before she finished Pinkie's name.
Fluttershy noticed Twilight's sudden stop before she said who the third friend was, "Who's the third friend, Twilight?"
"I was going to say Princess Celestia, but then I remembered that she was murdered," Twilight quickly lied.
Fluttershy could tell Twilight was lying, but decided not to push the subject. Changing the subject, she asked, "How did you change so much, Twilight? What happened to you?"
Twilight was honest when she replied, "I absorbed all of the excess magical energy from the Gryphon attack on Cloudsdale. I guess my body changed itself to hold all of it."
"But what's with the armor? None of it matches?"
"As near as I can figure," Twilight said, looking over her armor, "This is a physical representation of Harmony, much like the Elements are. At least, that's what I'm guessing, since they all have the color and Cutie mark of an individual Element bearer."
"… Perhaps we should go back into the Hive?" Fluttershy asked suddenly, taking Twilight off guard.
"Why is that?"
Fluttershy pointed up to the sky with her hoof. Following the angle, Twilight saw a giant mass of storm clouds sitting overhead, but the clouds produced neither rain nor lightning, which could mean only one thing.
"I do believe you may have the right idea, Fluttershy," Twilight said as she teleported both of them to her quarters back in the Hive.
Twilight and Fluttershy appeared in Twilight's rooms, to the sight of Dash pinned face-down against the floor by the chair she was bound to. Judging by the scrape marks on the floor, she had managed to move the chair over almost every surface in the room, most likely looking for something to free herself with.
Sensing their presence, Dash started trying to hop the chair over to them, clearly intent on trying to get help with freeing herself.
"Hey. Could you by chance help me get out of this chair?" Dash asked, oblivious as to just who it was in the room with her.
Using her magic, Twilight flipped the chair back over and released Dash from its grip.
"Thanks, whoever you ar… Whoa," Dash said, finally getting a look at Twilight, before she noticed Fluttershy standing beside her, "Fluttershy, who's your friend? How long have you been hiding"
Dash paused for a second before continuing, "Her?" she said, examining Twilight, trying to discern what gender she was.
Twilight nodded, not wanting to speak because she was enjoying messing with her friend. Sending a mental message to Fluttershy, she explained exactly what Fluttershy should say.
Speaking softly, Fluttershy began, "This is my older sister," her voice a mumble as her natural shyness kicked in.
Dash leaned in closer, trying to understand what her shy friend had said, "What was that?"
"I said, this is my older sister," Fluttershy said, her voice barely audible, but understandable just the same.
"Sister huh? What's her name?"
"Autumn Bloom," Fluttershy's voice returning to it's normal volume.
"How come I've never met her before?"
"She's been attending college in Gryphonia," Fluttershy hid behind her hair, "Or at least, she was, before the war started."
Dash turned to Twilight, "Well, Ms. Bloom, how is your Gryphonian?"
Twilight sparked her magic (Just a quick flash, too fast for either Fluttershy or Dash to see), changing her voice, and started to speak in perfect Gryphonian, "So Knobruheyh ec ihtancdyhtypma pid dnimo, Nyehpuf Tycr, ruf famm tu oui cbayg ed?"
"E't cyo ouin Knobruheyh ec suna dryh ihtancdyhtypma, Sc. Pmuus. Oui cbayg mega y hydeja," Dash said, though her speech wasn't as clear, and it carried an unmistakable Equestrian accent.
Twilight laughed to herself, then cancelled the magic changing her voice, "It would seem that you did remember something from class, Dash."
Rainbow Dash, who had been about to speak again, simply started choking on the words she was about to say, coughing violently until Twilight used her magic to clear her throat.
"T-Twilight," Dash said, her voice rough from the coughing, "What the heck? What happened to you?"
"When the Gryphons set off that bomb, it left a giant ball of magic where Cloudsdale was. When I went up to examine it, I touched it, and all of that magic flowed into me. I guess all of that power changed my body so it could hold it."
"Ok. So what's with the armor?" Dash asked, "It doesn't even match."
Twilight sighed. 'How many times am I going to have to explain this?' she thought to herself.
"I'm guessing it's a physical manifestation of Harmony, a way of showing our unity as Element bearers and as friends."
"Uh huh," Dash said, "That sounds a little far fetched, don't you think?"
"It's all I can figure that can explain what this armor is for."
Dash moved closer, examining the armor closer, particularly the piece with her color and Cutie Mark. Hesitantly at first, she lifted her hoof to touch it. Upon touching the armor, her hoof sank in to it.
Freaking out, Dash tried to pull her hoof back, but only succeeded in pulling the piece of armor off of Twilight. Slowly, it started melting and flowing up Dash's hoof, before re-solidifying as chest armor, with her Cutie Mark proudly emblazoned over her heart.
"What the heck, Twilight?" Dash said, as she tried to pull the armor off, "Why won't this come off?"
Fluttershy, curious, walked up and did the same thing as Dash, with the same results, "Oh my. What could this mean, Twilight?"
"Your guess is as good as mine, at the moment."
Twilight started a scan, trying to find out the purpose in what the armor was doing. Sensing nothing, she sighed and gave up.
"I can't figure out why it's doing that. Sorry girls. Can you come back tomorrow? I really need to sleep."
"Sure Twilight," Fluttershy said as she and Dash walked out of her room, "See you tomorrow."
Shortly after Fluttershy and Dash left, Twilight called the rest of her friends to her quarters. There, they took their pieces of the armor (though Rarity complained for an hour about how fat it made her look). After they left, Twilight walked back into her Isolation Room.
Upon closing the door, she noticed that the Necronomicon Equus was floating in the middle of the room, turned to the last page.
"That's odd," she said as she walked up to examine the book, "I don't remember enchanting the book to do this."
Quickly reading the page, she was surprised to discover it was an unfinished spell, designed to create Archangels from the living, not from a soul placed in an artificial body. As to why Starswirl would leave it unfinished, there was a small footnote, written in flowing script, on the right margin of the page:
BUCK! Celestia found me sooner than I expected. If only I had a little more time. Then I would have finished this spell and performed it on myself, as it was designed for. All I can hope for now is that my next life proves to be at least as competent a necromancer as I am. Otherwise, this spell will never be finished.
Looking back over the spell, Twilight could see the general path that Starswirl had been following. Quickly fixing a few arcanomathematical errors, she was able to see how the spell was supposed to be finished.
"A choice for the one in control of life
A choice that they behold
To control from now on all their strife
Or simply let Fate go
And upon this choice a sacrifice
To become Balance to hunt what upsets it
To protect the innocent from the Demons they create
To become an Archangel, without a Master
To grant purity and sacrifice to all living things
This is the Spell of the High Archangel
And the High Archangel serves until the End of Time."
Upon completion of the spell, Twilight felt something tug at her soul. Quickly allowing it access, she 'watched' as her body changed before her eyes into a 'human' version of itself.
The changes, besides the obvious pony-to-human one, were subtle. Her mane remained on her head, though her tail disappeared. Her horn was no longer there, though Twilight could sense that she still had magical capabilities. But what really baffled Twilight was the fact that her teats (What we call tits) were on her chest, higher than they should have been.
Slowly, she felt her soul starting to drift back towards her changed body. The feeling of it spreading throughout her body wasn't all that new to her. It sort of felt like when you sit on your hoof for too long, and it becomes all tingly. Her knees buckled from the feeling, and from the fact that she didn't know how to stand like this.
"How did Death Strike not fall over when I made him an Archangel?" Twilight thought out loud to herself.
With a quick thought, she transformed back into her Equestrian form, right before Silence showed up.
"Mistress, what have you done?"
"It's simple. I've made myself an Archangel."
"Never before has a living being been made into an Archangel, and the Embodiment of Magic at that. The shockwaves from your actions will be felt across all of reality, Mistress."
"What do you mean?"
"Archangels are never supposed to have their own magic. That's the reason we are made from the dead. We are nothing but souls in artificial bodies. It allows us to use parasitic magic, as all undead can."
Quickly performing a magical scan on herself, Twilight ascertained that she had the modified genetic code that allowed for the use of Parasitic magic.
Focusing on Silence again, she spoke, "I am still capable of Parasitic magic, Silence. I simply have my own magic as well. And I still fail to see how this would affect all of reality."
"Were you not fully paying attention when I explained what Archangels were? That Starswirl called us Pillars of Creation?"
"What does that have to do with me affecting reality?"
"YOU IGNORANT CHILD! If you understood even a single thing about the undead, you'd know that our parasitic magic is what keeps us alive! What allows us to ignore the laws of reality! When one combines the ability to ignore reality with the amount of raw magical power you have, change is inevitable! This is the closest anybody, pony or otherwise, has gotten to godhood!"
Silence suddenly calmed down, "The consequences of your actions cannot be avoided, and I fear that they may arrive sooner than we'd like. I shall inform the rest of the Archangels of this development, and we will follow the necessary protocols to make sure this doesn't affect the general population of this planet. I only hope we aren't too late."
Twilight stopped him before he could leave, "What do you mean, necessary protocols? You planned for this specific scenario?"
"I didn't. Starswirl did. He knew the ramifications of what his spell would do, and laid the groundwork for a plan that he believed would protect this world from any external threat that may be attracted by the massive amount of power the spell would create in the target."
"External threat? What could be out there that classifies as an external threat? A bunch of lifeless rocks?"
Silence facehoofed, "Do you honestly believe we are alone in this universe? What about that activity you saw near the Horsehead Nebula?"
"Of course we're alone. And that was probably just a meteor storm passing through."
"You really are ignorant. If you'll excuse me, I must notify the other Archangels, though they no doubt already figured out what happened. In the mean time, go talk with Luna. Tell her I said to take you to the Observatory. She'll understand."
"Wait. Where are you going?"
"Archangel Headquarters. Again, ask Luna. She'll explain where, and what, it is to you."
Before Twilight could ask any more questions, Silence disappeared. Instead of immediately leaving to talk to Luna, like she'd normally do, Twilight just sat down. There were too many things she had to wrap her mind around.
How could her becoming an Archangel affect reality as much as Silence had said? What did he mean when he said that they weren't alone in the universe, and how did he know about the activity near the Horsehead Nebula? Most importantly, what was the Observatory, and how did Luna figure into everything?
Making up her mind, Twilight stood up and performed a magical search for Luna. Finding her, she teleported out of the room.
Twilight appeared in a flash in Luna's chambers, surprising the Princess of the Night, as well as causing her to drop the tea she had been magically lifting to her lips.
"I assume you have good reason for intruding upon our personal time without prior notice, Twilight. Princess of Magic you may be, but that does not put you above common courtesy," Luna said with a hint of irritation in her voice.
"Spare me, Luna," Twilight said, "I'm just here because Silence said I should ask you about a couple things. The first was something called the Observatory."
Luna stiffened up.
"And the other was Archangel Headquarters," Twilight said, apparently oblivious to Luna's first reaction.
Luna sighed, "I suppose this was inevitable. I guess I should start with the Observatory. If you will allow me to, I will teleport us there."
Twilight nodded her head. In a bright flash, the two disappeared, only for them to reappear in front of a giant observatory, appropriately enough. But it wasn't the observatory that had Twilight's attention. Rather, the ground she was standing on had sparked her interest. It was completely different from any surface she had ever seen, almost as if it had never been exposed to air.
Luna spoke before Twilight could even ask, "We are not in Equestria anymore, Twilight. Technically, if you look up, you can see Equestria. You see, we're on the moon."
"THE MOON?! WHY ARE WE ON THE MOON?!" Twilight yelled, "HOW CAN WE BREATHE?!"
"Relax, Twilight Sparkle," Luna said as she magically stopped Twilight's pacing, "We are on the moon because the Observatory had to be made somewhere nobody, pony or otherwise, could stumble across it by accident. And you don't have to worry about us breathing, or have you forgotten that you are immortal?"
Relaxing, Twilight turned to Luna, "If this Observatory is so important that it had to be built on the moon, what exactly is it for?"
"Why, it's for observing extraequestrial movement of meteors and other celestial bodies, as well as tracking the movements of extraequestrial life forms, of course. For what other purpose would you build an observatory for?" Luna laughed, "Honestly, Twilight. For somepony so smart, you sure can be dumb at times."
"Wait. Back up. You said extraequestrial life forms?"
"Yes."
"So we aren't alone in the universe?"
"Of course not. Our world is not the only one capable of supporting life, so it is highly unlikely that we are the only sentient life in all of existence."
"But what would happen if one of these 'alien' species were to come here? Won't they bring any conflicts that may exist on their world here?"
"There is always that possibility," Luna said without breaking her calm demeanor, "However, there is also the possibility that they can and will make our world a better place in the process."
"How could the conflict of an alien race make our world better?" Twilight asked, a slight edge of irritation showing in her voice.
"By making us forget this infernal war against the gryphons. Once that war ends, Equestria can start rebuilding itself back into the world power that it was."
"Ok," Twilight said, "But that still doesn't explain why this observatory was built on the moon."
"To be completely honest, Twilight, my sister and I had no idea why it was built on the moon, seeing as we were not the ones who built it. You see, this observatory is older than any of the races that currently inhabit our world. Magic dating spells put this structure at over 65 million years old, give or take a few million years due to it's never being exposed to the elements."
"That would make it a part of the Elder Race, the beings who lived on this world back when it was still called Earth," Twilight had a stunned look on her face.
"There is so much more to the Elders than you know, Twilight. But that is a discussion for another time. For now, let us go inside so that I can show you the records," Luna said as she walked inside the Observatory.
Twilight was awestruck by the sheer amount of 'records' that there were. Columns of papers were everywhere, most reaching all the way to the ceiling, almost 500 hooves above their heads. There was only one that didn't reach all the way to the ceiling, and it was only as tall as Luna. As Twilight watched, a sheet of paper floated from somewhere to land on the stack perfectly.
"Luna?"
"Hmm?"
"What is all this?"
'These are the Records, a log of sorts that has been keeping track of the movement of extraequestrial bodies for the past 1800 years. Every second of every minute of every day is here, from the day that Discord fell, all the way to this very second," Luna tapped her mouth with her hoof, "I guess you could say it's the biggest astrological history book in existence."
Twilight's eyes were almost bigger than her head, and she was close to hyperventilating. It was obvious that she was about to pass out from happiness. Walking over to her, Luna waved her hoof in front of her face, without any reaction on her part. Gently nudging her with her hoof caused Twilight to fall to the ground, stiff as a board. Shrugging, Luna walked away to check on the status of the Record spell, leaving Twilight on the floor.
With a gasp, Twilight jumped up and began running from column to column, attempting to use her magic to read everything at once.
"That's odd," Luna said, oblivious to Twilight's actions, "According to this, there was a large magical pulse from a world about 100 thousand light-years away from here. If the Record spell was able to pick up such a large amount of magic, I fear for the planet it occurred on."
Luna walked back to previous logs, still oblivious to Twilight's efforts, and began looking for any previous surges from that particular planet.
"There! Almost one year ago, a huge magical surge occurred that made this one look like a sneeze. According to this, it was a tight beam that continued into space for several light-years before it impacted upon a barren world. That world is nothing more than dust now," Luna ran her hoof through her mane, before another sheet floated on top of the column, "What's this? Almost immediately after the pulse that just occurred, a narrow magical beam traveled almost instantly from that planet to here. Where it impacted here I have no idea…"
Twilight walked up to Luna, a serious look on her face, "Luna, what was that just now?"
Luna jumped, "What, Twilight?"
"I just felt a very powerful magical presence pass by. What was it?"
"How…? Never mind," Luna said, shaking her head, "Look at this please," she pointed to the page she was holding.
Twilight magically levitated the paper over to herself and began looking at it. Slowly, she looked up at Luna.
"This can't be right. Magic doesn't travel that fast. It's impossible," Twilight looked confused, "But it obviously did, since I just felt it pass by. I wonder…" she got a distant look in her eye as she started thinking.
Abruptly she turned around and began to walk away.
"Where are you going?" Luna called after her.
"I'm going to see what that magical disturbance was!" Twilight called over her shoulder before she disappeared in a flash of light.
"That's odd," the blue Alicorn said, looking around, "This doesn't look anything like Equus Prime."
"Hello?" a voice called out from over a nearby hill, "Is anypony there?"
The blue Alicorn watched as a pink pony bounced over the hill.
Pinkie gasped when she saw the Alicorn, "OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH! IS IT REALLY YOU?"
The Alicorn looked confused, "I'm sorry. Do I know you?"
Pinkie facehoofed, "Silly Pinkie. Why would Midnight Moon remember us? It's been almost two millennia since she last saw us."
Midnight tensed up, the red streaks in her black mane glowing as she summoned her magic, "How do you know my name? Have you been watching me?" Her eyes started darting back and forth, showing a very deep paranoia, "How long have you known where I've been?"
"Don't be silly, Midnight!' Pinkie laughed as she trotted up to the Alicorn, completely oblivious to the lethal amount of magic gathered in Midnight's horn, "I was there when you and your mom were banished! Don't you remember?"
"How could you have been there? That was over a thousand years ago. The only ponies that were there were -" midnight was cut off by Pinkie talking.
"Celestia, you, Luna, Starswirl the Bearded, Shattered Silence, and Pinkamena. Have I really changed that much, that you don't even recognize me?" Pinkie put on a pouty face that quickly turned into a smile, "OH! Maybe this will help!"
Pinkie deflated her hair, her smile becoming a very serious face. Wings sprouted out of her back, completing her transformation into herself from 1000 years ago.
A flash of recognition flared in Midnight's eyes, to be quickly replaced by anger, "YOU! HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?! NOPONY BESIDES AN ALICORN CAN LIVE AS LONG AS YOU HAVE! WHAT DARK MAGIC IS THIS?!"
"Wow," Pinkie said, rubbing her ear with her hoof, "you are definitely Luna's daughter."
"Don't change the subject," Midnight hissed, "What magic is this, to keep you alive for over 1000 years?"
"I think I might be able to explain it better than Pinkie," a voice from behind Midnight said.
Midnight whirled around, to be greeted by the sight of a purple Alicorn charging a huge amount of magic in her horn without any sign of strain or concentration.
"Twilight, play nice," Pinkie said, "Midnight only just got back, and she doesn't fully understand what's happened yet."
"Very well," Twilight said as she released the magic in her horn, before turning to Pinkie, "But later, you are going to tell me how you know this Alicorn, especially since she just came from another planet."
"You forget, Twilight. I'm almost as old as Celestia! I know a lot more than you think!" Pinkie laughed, her mane back to it's normal poofy self.
"DON'T TALK ABOUT ME LIKE I'M NOT HERE!" Midnight yelled, stomping her hoof in anger, "I DID NOT CHOOSE TO COME HERE, NOR DO I WANT TO BE HERE! MY PEOPLE NEED ME!"
"People?" Twilight perked up, "What kind of people do you rule?"
"The usual," Midnight said, nonchalantly waving her hoof, "Ponies, Gryphons, Dragons, and the other races."
"Other races? There are races on your world that aren't native to Equestria?" Twilight asked.
Midnight laughed, "Of course not. All races on Equus Prime were brought there from here. I could show you the darkest places in this world, the most twisted creatures you don't even see in Nightmares," Midnight's eyes started glowing with a red light and a red aura began to surround her as she broke into uncontrollable giggles.
Calmly, Twilight hit her with a sleep spell, ceasing her giggling and banishing the red aura.
Turning to Pinkie again, she spoke, "I heard you say that she was Luna's daughter, but that magical wavelength just now was more like Nightmare Moon's. Just what happened a thousand years ago? Tell me everything."
Taking a deep breadth, Pinkie began.
"Pinkie, why do I get the feeling that half of what you just told me is made up?" Twilight asked, still trying to process what she had just heard.
Midnight, having woken up several hours ago, shook her head, "I have to agree with," she paused looking to Twilight, "Twilight was it?"
Twilight nodded her head in confirmation.
"Yes, I must agree with Twilight. I lived through most of those events, and I don't remember most of those things happening."
"That hurts," Pinkie said with a stricken look on her face, holding her hoof to her chest, "I thought you of all ponies would understand, Midnight."
"I suppose you do have a bit of an excuse," Midnight said, rubbing the back of her head, "If I were an undead that was over 1000 years old, I guess my memory would start to be faulty as well."
"That's not what I meant," Pinkie said with a pouty face.
"Wait a minute," Twilight said, realizing something, "What are we doing here? Shouldn't we be reintroducing Midnight to her mom? I mean, I know I'd want to see my child if I hadn't seen him or her for over 1000 years."
Midnight spoke, cutting Pinkie off before she could say anything, "It would not be a good idea to introduce me to my mother as her daughter."
"Why's that?"
Midnight sighed, "At the moment of her Banishment, mother's memories of me were wiped by Aunt Celestia, to prevent her from using me as a means to escape her banishment before her sentence was over. Unfortunately, I still ended up helping her escape before her 10,000 year sentence could be served."
"10,000 years? That's a little harsh, don't you think?" Twilight asked.
"A little harsh? A little Harsh?" Midnight said, her anger growing, "THAT WAS THE MINIMUM SENTENCE FOR WHAT MY MOTHER DID! WOULD YOU HAVE GIVEN HER ANY LESS IF YOU COULD DO NOTHING TO STOP HER AS SHE KILLED OVER ¾ OF EQUESTRIA'S POPULATION?!"
Twilight shook her head, "I would have used the Elements of Harmony to purge the De Manis Queen from her body as soon as she killed the Castle Staff, as myself and my friends did 4 years ago, instead of banishing her. But instead, Celestia did nothing as Nightmare Moon rampaged across Equestria, slaughtering thousands of ponies."
"I almost regret not killing her sooner…" Twilight added under her breath.
"What was that?" Midnight asked, her hearing catching the almost imperceptible sentence.
"What was what?" Twilight asked, feigning innocence. And failing.
"You know damn well what I'm talking about. What did you just mutter under your breath?" Midnight's anger was starting to flare up again.
"I said, I almost regret not killing Celestia sooner," Twilight looked Midnight dead in the eyes, not showing any fear.
To her surprise, Midnight started laughing, "It's about damn time that old bitch died. Tell me, was it painful? Slow? How much did she scream?"
"It was a quick, clean death," a third voice said from behind Midnight, "As my sister would have wanted."
"Why must everypony sneak up on me today?" Midnight asked as she whirled around, only to come face-to-face with Luna, who looked very much pissed off.
"A better question would be 'Who are you to speak so hatefully of my sister?'" Luna said as she glared at Midnight.
Midnight opened and closed her mouth, attempting to talk as she saw her mother for the first time in 1,000 years. Eventually giving up on talking for now, she sat down with a sigh and hung her head, exposing her horn to Luna. Recognizing the thousand-year-old gesture, Luna walked up and placed her horn against Midnight's. Memories began to flow into Luna's mind.
MEMORIA MEDIAM
Midnight hummed to herself as she walked beside her mother through Everfree Castle, over a thousand years ago. There was another pony on the other side of Luna, but Midnight didn't care. She was just happy to be with her mother. The little filly tried to fly, flapping her wings like a hummingbird, but was unsuccessful. Giving up, she settled for using her magic to levitate herself, content to float along beside her mother.
"The Changeling's are encroaching upon our Western Border," the pony on the other side of Luna said.
I was suddenly very interested in what this other pony had to say. Lifting myself higher, I could finally see him. He was a black-coated pegasus with a two-tone blue mane and had dice for a Cutie Mark. I remembered seeing him in other places, had even talked to him on occasion, but his name escaped me at the moment. But that didn't matter to me. I was more interested in what he had to say, anyways.
"And just what do you propose we do about that?" Luna asked, "Though we am in charge of the Equestrian Military, we cannot mobilize them without Celestia's approval. Why did you not bring this to her to begin with?"
The black pegasus sighed, "Because, I already know that she would do nothing about them. She has grown complacent, thinking that we are safe from any kind of attack since the two of you so recently defeated the Chaos Lord and imprisoned him in stone."
"While you speak the truth, it is not wise to talk negatively of our sister whilst trying to convince us of the need to reinforce the Western Security Force."
Some of the words they used confused me, but I understood enough. Auntie Celestia was becoming lazy, and would do nothing to protect Equestria now, so it fell upon mommy to protect everyone. But mommy still believed that she needed Auntie's permission to do what had to be done, even though they ruled Equestria together. I knew I could convince Mommy in her dreams that she needed to move on without Auntie Celestia, but Mommy hardly ever slept now, as petitioners were always coming to her instead of Auntie, even though Auntie was supposed to handle the loudmouths. It was Mommy's job to take care of the trouble makers, not the loudmouths.
Several Months Later
I knew I was getting through to Mommy. I had been slowly reducing the number of petitioners who would visit Mommy by telling them that Auntie Celestia was in charge of all things dealing with money or land, which wasn't technically a lie. Eventually, not even I would see her Mommy when she was awake, as I was too busy with my magical studies and learning how to fly. But I made sure to always visit Mommy in her dreams. From her dreams, I was able to tell that Mommy was forgetting about due to a growing loneliness.
Over the next 800 years, Mother began to believe that everypony had forgotten about her, and began to look into magic to create a pony, as she just wanted somepony to talk to, somepony besides Auntie to acknowledge that she existed. At this point, I was away in Draconia studying Draconic Magic, and I was all but forgotten by everypony back in Equestria.
When news reached Draconia that a Midnight Blue Alicorn had started to kill everypony in Equestria, I returned, trying to find my Mother. What I found instead was the De Manis Queen, Nightmare Moon, using my Mother's body to exact what she called "The Night's Revenge." When I tried to speak with her, she used Mother's superior magic to infect my mind, causing me to help her with her demonic plans. She sent me after the Changelings, and gave me a thirst for their blood, to match her taste for Pony blood.
That Thirst still haunts me today, though I can control it usually. When Mother was finally stopped, I attempted to finish what she started, as Nightmare Moon's corruption still remained in my mind. I was soon captured by Aunt Celestia, and she used the Elements of Harmony to help me reestablish control over my own mind. Once this was done, she informed me that, to prevent an event like this from ever having a chance of wiping out all life on the planet, I was going to a far away planet, which she had named Equus Prime, along with 1000 of each race, as agreed to by the leaders of every race on the planet.
During the ritual that became known as The Pilgrim's Exodus, Aunt Celestia was helped by a group of powerful ponies, some of whom I recognized from my fillyhood. Four that I recognized were at least 1,000 years old, including the black pegasus with the blue two-tone mane. I grew angry upon seeing him, as I believed it was his fault that I made Mother create the De Manis Queen all those years ago. I attempted to kill him, right before the ritual was completed, and all 20,000 Pilgrims and I were sent over 100 thousand light years away.
Since then, I have ruled over the planet known as Equus Prime, and have successfully created a Utopian Society, where all are treated as equals, though I am the final word in all things political and militaristic, as my Mother and Aunt were on Homeworld.
Recently, however, a Civil War broke out between the Gryphons and the Surface Ponies. The exact cause is unknown, but it is because of that war that I am here now.
BACK TO PRESENT DAY
Luna pulled her horn away from Midnight's as she sat down, a stunned look on her face. Midnight understood what was going through her mother's mind.
Nuzzling against Luna, Midnight spoke, "I know this is a lot to take in, but I hope that we can eventually get to know each other as mother and daughter again. I don't want to be stuck around here without being able to spend time with you,"
Luna simply nodded, still too stunned to talk. Suddenly, a mental alarm went off in Luna's head, reminding her that it was time to raise the moon and stars. She prepared to perform the extraordinary task, until she was cut off by Midnight's hoof on her horn.
"Allow me, Mother. It has been so long since I have been able to sing," Midnight smiled.
Not sure what she meant, Luna simply stopped channeling her magic, indicating that Midnight should continue.
Midnight nodded, and turned her face to the sky. Opening her mouth, she began to sing in a language long since forgotten by every living thing except for the oldest of Dragons. The melody was haunting, and left tears in the eyes of Luna, Twilight, and Pinkie, but also filled them with hope for the future. As the song came to a close, the three immortals realized that the song had not only caused the moon to rise, but had also set the sun, allowing Twilight to enjoy the beauty of the dead language. The stars shone extra bright, as if signifying that the Night was rejoicing in the return of it's daughter.
"What language was that?" Twilight asked, ending the moment, "I have never heard anything like that."
Midnight blushed, "It was Netharion, one of the languages of a long dead country called Arlwen. The entire country was almost ten times as big as Equestria, and one of its major cities was completely underground. The country itself existed over 125,000 years ago, long before Ponies began to have intelligent thoughts. In fact, it was a Human Civilization, and some of its ruins still exist today. Most of the Underground City still exists today. I believe we used part of it as the headquarters for the Rebellion against Discord," Midnight said, attempting to answer Twilight's questions before she asked them.
However, Twilight still had one more question, "How do you know so much about this country, this Arlwen, if it disappeared over 125,000 years ago?"
"There were two beings who were alive during the height of that Civilization, and watched it fall. One was the Dragon Queen, Auream Regina. The other was her consort, before he was corrupted by the Chaotic Magic he attempted to control. I believe you've all met him. I know Mother and Pinkie have. Both were instrumental in his defeat over 2,000 years ago."
"Are you talking about Discord?" Twilight asked, confused.
"So that is what he is known as now. Yes, that is an apt name for the Prince of Chaos, though he wasn't always named so. Originally, he was known as Princeps Ordinate, the Orderly Prince. By studying Chaos Magic, he went against his nature, and so became easily corruptible by the disorderly nature of the very magic he studied. But this transformation wasn't instantaneous. It took many Millennia, and he didn't fully turn into Discord, losing all semblance of Sanity, until roughly 3,000 years ago. During the 122,000 years between the fall of Arlwen and the creation of Discord, the Orderly Prince spent centuries at a time without sleep, always studying Chaos Magic, and how to control it. I believe it was this lack of sleep that eventually drove him insane, not the Chaos Magic itself, and as such, it might be possible to bring him back to sanity, at which point he would be incredibly powerful, capable of doing whatever he wanted."
Luna spoke up, "You are correct in that belief. In fact, it has already been done."
"What?" Midnight perked up, "How? When?"
"My sister was actually the one that figured it out. She had Fluttershy, a friend of ours, attempt to befriend him, hoping that she would be able to reform him. It worked perfectly, though not flawlessly. He does not compulsively use his magic whenever he wants anymore, but he is still not completely sane. It was through his magic that Twilight here became an Alicorn, actually," Luna tapped her chin with her hoof, "I suppose it wouldn't be too hard to believe that, if he spent more time with Fluttershy, he would eventually become completely sane again, and as such, be a useful diplomat between Equestria and Draconia. I'm sure that the Dragon Queen would be glad to have her consort back."
"Who are we talking about?" A voice above the four immortals said.
Looking up, they saw Discord standing upside down on a cloud that was raining up instead of down. While his body was still just as chaotic looking as usual, his eyes were now the same color, a brilliant shade of Gold, showing that he was, indeed, returning to his previous, Sane, state of mind.
"Come on! Don't leave me hanging!" Discord said, now standing beside Pinkie, "Who are we talking about?"
"Ooh! Ooh!" Pinkie started bouncing up and down, "I know! I know!"
"PINKIE!" Twilight shouted, silencing the Perpetual Sugar-Rush, "Thank you. If you must know, Discord, we were discussing what to do now that Midnight Moon here is back in Equestria. Surely, now that we have four fully grown Alicorns again, this war can be turned around."
"War?" Midnight asked, "What war?"
"The War between Equestria and Gryphonia, silly!" Pinkie exclaimed, before throwing her hooves over her mouth, "Oopsie. Sorry, Twilight."
"It's alright, Pinkie. She would have found out eventually. Better she hear it from us than somepony she doesn't know," Twilight said as she rubbed the bridge of her nose with her hoof.
Midnight's face showed confusion as she attempted to process what she had just heard. She held up her hoof, imploring for Twilight to be quiet for a minute while she tried to figure out everything.
Turning to Pinkie, Midnight spoke, "Just how long has this war been going on, exactly?"
"A little over ten months," Pinkie said with a grin, "Why?"
"Because," Midnight sighed, "that's how long the Civil War between the Gryphons and Surface Ponies has been going."
"You keep saying Surface Ponies. Does that mean just the Unicorns and Earth Ponies?" Twilight asked.
"No. The Surface Ponies are all ponies who live on or above the ground. This includes the Pegasi. So far, the Sea Ponies and the Changelings have avoided getting involved, but I don't know how long that will last. Last I knew, the Gryphons were setting up huge excavations, trying to gather resources for their massive war machines. This could cause cave-ins in the Changeling Empire, at which point the Changelings would swarm from their caves all over Equus Prime. If this were to occur, the Gryphons would cease to exist on Equus Prime, as the Changelings there are more feral than their Homeworld cousins, this world's Changelings.
"As for the Sea Ponies, the Gryphons should be fine, so long as they don't start dumping any trash into the oceans. If they do, their ships will never be able to leave their ports. The Sea Ponies are Sirens by nature, so they will enchant the gryphons as they swarm their ships, slaughtering any Gryphon aboard, from the Toughest soldier to the Weakest infant. No quarter will be given, for to corrupt the Pure Waters of the ocean is to corrupt the Sea Ponies, and they will not rest until all violators are sufficiently punished."
"I always thought Sea Ponies were a myth, just another part of ancient mythology. But then again, I thought Changelings were a myth as well, until they disrupted my brother's wedding, so I guess it's not that hard to believe."
Midnight looked incredulously at Twilight, "You still don't believe in 'myths', even though you yourself were a myth several years ago?"
"I'm sorry?" Twilight was utterly confused.
"When you first moved to Ponyville, what was the first thing you did?"
"Try to understand why Pinkie gasped in my face and ran away," Twilight responded with a completely straight face.
"Got Mitt Uns," Midnight said as she facehoofed, "I meant what was the first important thing you did when you got to Ponyville."
"Make sure that the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration were proceeding at the proper speed," Twilight was still trying to figure out what this had to do with her being a myth.
Midnight was about to strangle Twilight when Discord spoke up, "I believe she may be talking about you finding the Elements."
"Thank you…" Midnight started to say.
"Or she could have been talking about that massive Apple Feast you had the first time you met Applejack."
A pair of birds several miles away took off of their branch as a loud slap reverberated over the hills. Lowering her hoof from her forehead yet again, Midnight was unsurprised to see a little blood on it.
"Why dost thou keep hitting thyself?" Luna asked.
Midnight went to respond, but gave up immediately, lowering her hoof back to the ground. Twilight, meanwhile, began a conversation with Luna and Discord over whether or not Midnight had anything psychologically wrong with her, or if she had a mental disorder that caused her to hit herself.
"I'm surrounded by idiots," Midnight muttered as she sat down, shaking her head.
"It's not that bad," Pinkie said as she sat down next to Midnight, "You get used to it eventually."
"How do you put up with it?"
"By being generally random and silly, that way they don't say anything if I disappear. Usually I do that so I can go somewhere quiet and relax."
"But doesn't that get annoying? Being random all the time?"
"You have no idea," Pinkie sighed, "I may show you how I deal with it someday. Just remind me about it sometime."
"That may end up being in a couple hours, if things continue at this rate."
Pinkie giggled, then quickly hugged Midnight, "Don't worry. They only stay like this for a couple minutes at most, then they go back to normal. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go check on my daughter."
'Daughter?" Midnight asked, but Pinkie was already gone, "Wonderful. I'm stuck with them by myself now."
"What was that, dear?" Luna asked, finally able to remove herself from the now-argument between Twilight and Discord over the merits of Chaos on the battlefield.
"Nothing, mom."
"If you say so. I do think the two of us should leave now. If these two keep going at it, there's going to be a magical explosion soon. I would rather not get caught in it, as I am not sure we'd survive."
Midnight was confused, "But we are both Alicorns. How much could they do to us?"
"If it were any other two Alicorns going at it, we'd have nothing to worry about, but these two are manes and tails above even Celestia. Only the Dragon Queen could survive the explosion these two would cause unscathed."
Midnight was suddenly very worried, not only from her mother's words, but also from the fact that she could feel the magic in the air flowing into the two arguing beings.
"Can we leave now, then?" She asked.
Her answer was a flash of Midnight Blue light before she found herself in an underground room. Standing before her was a giant stone unicorn, it's horn encased in a gray light, almost as if it was channeling magic.
"Unknown Magic Wavelength Detected. Initiating Defense Protocol 17," the stone unicorn said, startling Midnight.
"Stand down, Midnight Rumble," Luna said from beside Midnight Moon, startling her yet again, "This is Princess Midnight Moon, my daughter. And she will be treated the same as you would treat me, understood?"
"New defensive parameters set. Princess Midnight Moon added to catalogued list of Magic Wavelengths," Rumble said, "My apologies, Princess. I wasn't aware you had a daughter."
"Think nothing of it," Luna waved his concern off, "Twilight would be proud that you take your charge so seriously."
"Mistress Twilight was very specific about what my punishment would be if any harm came to her daughter. I would rather that not come to pass. Though I cannot help but wonder where Death Strike is. His shift was supposed to start exactly fifteen seconds ago. Mistress Twilight will not be happy when she finds out he threw the whole schedule off."
"HEY! WHERE'S MY HUG?!" a teenage voice cried out, soon followed by it's owner.
Crimson Dawn was growing at an incredibly fast rate, even for an Alicorn. She was already as big as the three Crusaders, who happened to be her best friends. Though she wasn't even three months old, she already had the body of a twenty one year old, and the intelligence to match.
"Wow!" Luna exclaimed as she embraced her sister/niece, "You've gotten so big!"
"It's only been a week since you saw me last. I haven't grown that much!" Dawn said.
"Are you kidding? You only looked seventeen last time I saw you!" Luna said, causing Dawn to giggle.
"Stop it Auntie. You're embarrassing me," Dawn finally noticed Midnight standing by herself in the middle of the room, "Who's that?"
"That's your cousin, my daughter, Midnight Moon. She just got back from a really long trip, and I wanted her to meet you."
Dawn started walking around Midnight, making her feel like she was in the middle of an interrogation, before sitting down in front of her with a smile, raising her hoof to Midnight.
"Hi! My name's Crimson Dawn! How have you been? Where was your trip to? Was it fun? Did you regret having to come back here? Would you go back if you could?" The red Alicorn didn't give Midnight a chance to answer between her questions, which left her even more confused than before.
Midnight struggled to remember all the questions as she responded, "Um, Hi Crimson Dawn, I've been good, I can't answer that question, yes it was fun, yes and no, and I would go back if I could," She looked proud that she had been able to answer all of the questions her 'Cousin' had asked.
Luna came back out of the kitchen with 3 glasses of water held in her magic, which surprised Midnight and Dawn, since they didn't even see her leave for the kitchen. Right as they accepted the glasses from her, a deep vibration could be felt clearly.
"Seems it was a good idea to bring us here after all," Luna remarked, completely calm.
"Mother and Discord again?" Dawn asked.
Luna silently nodded.
Dawn sighed, "I don't see why they don't just get together. It's obvious to everypony that they like each other," she remarked as if talking about the weather, causing Midnight and Luna to choke on the sip of water they had just taken.
Midnight was still coughing while Luna attempted to regain her composure.
After several moments, Luna was able to talk again, "Why do you say that? What makes you think they like each other?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Dawn asked with a completely innocent face, "Yes, they fight constantly, but they always forgive each other immediately afterwards. And, you haven't heard some of the late night conversations they've had. I never needed some of those images of my mother in my head," Dawn shuddered subconsciously.
Before Luna or Midnight could respond, Twilight appeared in a flash of light, albeit covered with light singes on her coat from the explosion she and Discord had caused, "I swear, someday I'm going to stop holding back, and then we'll see if he'll still be laughing then," she muttered to herself with a half smile.
"MOTHER!" Dawn yelled, before tackle-hugging Twilight, startling her.
"It's… Good to… See you… too," Twilight said, struggling to breath in the bone crushing bear hug her daughter had her in, "Could you please… loosen your hug?"
"Sorry," Dawn said as she released Twilight, but only slightly.
"If you keep growing at this rate, you might be bigger than me in another month," Twilight said with a smirk while she messed up Dawn's mane with her hoof.
"Mother," Dawn said, exasperated, as she backed away and attempted to fix her mane, "I hope Aunt Rarity doesn't walk in right now, otherwise I won't have my mane back for hours. Again."
Twilight laughed, before finally noticing Luna and Midnight, who had finally stopped coughing, and was just regaining her composure.
Discord frowned as he walked through the halls of the Ancestral Halls, not particularly happy about recent events. His blue scales shimmered in the torch light, while his golden eyes scanned the walls around him. His immense form was dwarfed by the sheer size of the hall he strode through.
"This was not supposed to happen," he muttered to himself, "She wasn't supposed to start falling in love with me. How will my Queen react? This could ruin everything we've planned for..."
Discord stopped when he came before a door several times bigger than him. Knocking lightly, he waited patiently for a response.
"Come in," a voice on the other side said.
Slowly opening the door, Discord was slowly bathed in a brilliant golden light. Entering the room, he beheld a beautiful golden form, the only object of his desire, Auream Regina, his Golden Queen.
"Ah. My Beloved Prince," the Dragon Queen sighed, "I was wondering how long it would be until your next report. So tell me, how does your infiltration of the Equestrian race progress?"
Discord looked away and scratched the back of his head, "There's been a... complication."
"Oh?"
"It would seem that Princess Twilight has begun to fall in love with me."
"An interesting turn of events," she said as she tapped her lower jaw with a claw, "Look at me please."
Discord looked up, fear evident in his eyes.
"Oh, lighten up, my Prince. We can use this to our advantage. With their most powerful leader in your pocket, it wouldn't be difficult to weaken them even more than they already are."
"Of course, my Queen," Discord breathed a sigh of relief, "So I should allow her to fall for me even more?"
"Yes. Once she has completely fallen for you, the subjugation of their race is all but assured," the Dragon Queen nuzzles against Discord's neck, "And soon, we will again rule this world."
Discord snorted, "But why do I have to assume that hideous form? I can barely stand being in it for a day, and they imprisoned me in it for several thousand years. Can't I change another thing back to normal?"
The Dragon Queen laughed, "It isn't that bad. Besides, if you change back too quickly, they might begin to suspect that something is up. Stick to the predetermined schedule."
"I defer to your wisdom, my Queen," Discord said with an exaggerated bow and a smile.
"Your sarcasm is not required. Plus, I find your disguise to be cute, in a childish way. I do wish you'd wear it more often."
In a flash of light, the (relatively) microscopic form of the Draconeequs, Discord, was curled up in the palm of the Dragon Queen's right hand.
"Does this please you, my Lady?"
'Indeed it does, but I feel awkward being so much larger than you. Maybe I should assume my disguise."
Another flash of light filled the room.
"Is this better?" Chrysalis asked.
"Much," Discord replied with a grin.
"You know, I do believe we are due for another clutch," Chrysalis said in a sultry tone, her eyelids lowering seductively.
"You would be correct," Discord added as he snapped his fingers, sealing the doors to the great hall.
After Luna left, Twilight's thoughts traveled back to a time before she was a Princess, back when she still had Celestia to talk to.
"Oh, how I miss you, Celestia," Twilight said to the empty room, sadness in her voice, "I miss always having someone who I could talk to about anything, and, even though you weren't always the most talkative, you were the best listener. I wish you were still here, even though I know that you had to die. But someday, you will return, and I can't wait. Maybe next time you'll be a better princess, and actually pay attention to your subjects. What do you think? Can you do that?"
Twilight waited for a response. When none were forthcoming, she fell to the floor, gentle sobs shaking her body. "Why did you have to be so oblivious?" she asked between sobs, "If only you had paid attention more, then this would never have happened. You'd still be here, we wouldn't be at 'war' with Gryphonia, and I wouldn't be crying on the floor here. I'd be standing at your left hoof, with Luna at your right, watching as you ruled Equestria, learning from you. And I'd still be free to research ancient and forgotten magics, long since lost to all but the oldest books."
Twilight perked up at her last words. "OF COURSE! I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier! The book I found in the restricted section, the one that explained the magic of Immortality, oh, what was it called? SPIKE!"
Spike poked his head through the door, "Yes, Twilight?"
"Do you remember the book I was reading a couple months ago? What was it called, The Flec, no that's not it. Was it the Mec…? No, that's not right either."
"Do you mean the Necronomicon Equus?" Spike asked, a puzzled look on his face. Why Twilight would ever want that book again was beyond him. It was beyond creepy. The cover looked and felt suspiciously like a pony's skin.
"YES! That's the one. Can you bring it here please? On second thought, just send it on your fireline. I know you don't like touching it," Twilight said, noticing the look on Spike's face.
"Can do, Twilight," Spike said, "Can I get a Restricted Access Pass? The librarian said he won't let me in next time if I don't have a pass, and frankly, he creeps me out almost as much as the book, so I'd rather not deal with him again."
"Here you go Spike," Twilight said as she filled out the form and handed it to Spike, "And I don't see why you don't like Shattered Silence. He seems perfectly normal to me."
Spike quickly took the pass, eager to get this over with, "You should get the book in a couple minutes."
"Thanks Spike!" Twilight yelled after the running dragon, before closing the door to her quarters. She turned to her Isolation Room, a room she had magically remade with the specific purpose of containing magic, for when she was practicing dangerous spells, and started preparing the magical runes and wards she would need, all memorized from the Necronomicon Equus. By the time she was finished, Twilight felt a pulse of magic on the edge of her conscience, signaling that Spike had found and sent the book she had asked for. With barely a thought, Twilight used her magic to pull the book back into Equestria from whatever world dragon fire sent things. She was mildly curious about what that world, if it was a world, was like, but that was an experiment for another time.
Levitating the Necronomicon in front of her, Twilight flipped through the pages, looking for one she had seen when she had first read it. She was turning the pages so fast that she almost missed the one she was looking for. Written on this page was a spell for finding and bringing a soul into an object of the caster's choosing. The magical formulae were complex, almost too difficult for even Twilight to understand. Almost. She concentrated her magic, making the necessary changes to her technique as needed. This was no beginner's spell, that was for sure.
As Twilight neared the end of her casting, her magic suddenly fizzled out. But she didn't get mad or throw a fit, like most Unicorns did when a spell failed. No, Twilight had more patience than that; she knew that spells failed sometimes, no matter how perfectly cast. With that in mind, she stepped away from where she was standing when she attempted the spell, and cast a much simpler one, designed to show the caster what had happened in a room in the last few minutes. Twilight watched herself as she cast the spell, looking for anything that may have caused it to fail.
As she watched, Twilight noted that her front right hoof was maybe half an inch off, and though that may not seem like much, magic is a very exact art, much like engineering or construction. A single mistake can cause the death of not just the caster, but also of everypony in a certain amount of space around the caster. So, while the Forensic Spell was still in effect, Twilight used her magic to mark the exact area her hoof had to be in.
After the Forensic Spell wore off, Twilight stepped back into position and began casting the Phylactery spell again, making extra sure that her hoof was in the right position. There could be no mistake this time. Twilight finished the spell and used her magic to 'watch' as Celestia's soul traveled towards her, while her physical body looked at the clock on the wall. 3 A.M.. She had been in this room for 6 hours. But now, Twilight barely noticed the exhaustion as the soul of her oldest friend and teacher approached her.
Suddenly, Celestia's soul disappeared from Twilight's magical view, leaving the Princess of Magic completely confused. She performed a soul scan spell over the entire room, but she couldn't understand the results. The spell was detecting two souls, right where she was standing. This couldn't be possible, unless…
Twilight then felt something she had never felt before, but had heard described by Mrs. Cake, when she had been carrying Pound and Pumpkin. This feeling, it was pregnancy, but how would she explain this to her friends? To Luna? How could she tell them that she was carrying the Solar Princess, when she had never even been with a stallion?
Twilight's mental cry could have been heard all across the world if she had wished it, but she only wanted one Mare to hear it, "HELP!"