Terror in Equestria: Rise of the Dark Queen

Chapters

Sombra's Return to Power
An Awful Reality Realized
The Corruption of Princess Twilight Sparkle
The Royal Meetings
The Raid on Fillydelphia
Rise of the Dark Tower
Gathering of the Dark Forces
Preparing for the Assault
The Fall of Canterlot
A Time to Regroup
Rise of the Dark Queen
Friendship Conflict
Final Preparations
The Final Battle for Equestria
A Return to Normalcy
Purple Reign (Alternate final chapter)
The Dark Alliance
The Calm Before the Storm
The Final Battle For Equestria (Alternate ending)

Sombra's Return to Power

Back in her southern realm, Chrysalis had handpicked the drones she wanted to take with her for the attack on the crystal empire. "Colonel Thunder Rage, Captain Green Haze, Lieutenant Dark Cloud, you three will accompany me along with the drones to Sombra's castle. From there us along with his army will prepare for the assault. Once we return to his realm, all of what we need to do will be discussed in further detail. Do you understand?" said Chrysalis

"Yes my queen, we understand. What about General Iron Sheath? What will he be doing? asked Colonel Thunder Rage.

Chrysalis looked at him with a scowl and said, "What does he usually do? He stays here to protect our realm. He is the second in command after all."

Chrysalis and her army then headed towards the realm of Sombra, knowing that they needed to hurry and get there.

Sombra watched over his army preparing for the coming assault. He was very pleased with what he saw. He said to his general, "It appears as though you are training them well. I need to let you know something. We need to prepare for the full assault on the 23rd, as that is the one year anniversary of them last firing up the crystal heart. If we can stop them from doing that, the empire will be much easier to take." said King Sombra

"Yes my liege, I will have them fully ready by the night of the 22nd." said General Dark Night

Sombra patted his general on the back knowing that he is doing a good job preparing the army for this assault. Sombra then returned to his castle and said to himself, "That crystal fair starts in four days, I certainly hope Chrysalis is back here before then. I don't feel like having to rush our preparations and not be fully prepared and I certainly don't want to have to do this alone."

In the Crystal Empire all is going well, the preparations are going great, a smile is on the face of everypony as they know the crystal fair is coming. Cadence and Shining Armor stand out on their balcony watching the preparations when Cadence said, "You see honey, everything is going to be fine. The chances of us having to worry about an attack are next to zero. But I know that if you don't do your patrol on the day it is scheduled, you will freak out and there won't be complete harmony here."

Shining Armor told his wife that it was tradition for the prince to go out and do a last minute patrol before the crystal heart was powered up. Cadence understood this and realized that if tradition is not followed entirely, that it may as well not be followed at all.

The 19th arrived and as the crystal fair was getting underway, Chrysalis and her changeling army arrived at Sombra's castle. "Hello Queen of the Changelings! How was your trip?" asked Sombra

"It was long but not really tiring. I have a question, when does the crystal fair start? asked Chrysalis

King Sombra replied, "It starts today, you arrived exactly on schedule. We need to go into my dining room and have a meeting which will be followed by a lavish dinner. I have information regarding the timing of things that is vital to our success."

The Changeling Queen and King Sombra head into the dining area where they begin to discuss the best strategy to take the Crystal Empire.

Queen Chrysalis asked Sombra, "So what do we know about their scheduling and when will be the best time to capture Shining Armor?"

Sombra replied, "I know that pony's schedule and his mindset. He will go out on his normal patrol of the arctic, four hours before the ceremony to power up the crystal heart. His patrols always last three hours and he will return to the Crystal Empire around four o'clock. We must make sure the real Shining Armor does not make it back to the Crystal Empire."

"And how do you know all this?" asked Chrysalis

King Sombra replied, "I have been tracking this pony's patrols regularly and their schedule. He does his patrols every 14 days, at the exact same time for months. Trust me, he will do a patrol before the ceremony just to be on the safe side. He is as paranoid over things like that as his sister is."

Chrysalis smiled and suggested that they have their forces do training exercises together. King Sombra thought this would be a good thing to do as neither army had done joint exercises with other forces.

King Sombra walked up to his highest commander and said, "General Dark Night, Chrysalis and I believe that it is best if you have our soldiers do joint exercises with the changeling soldiers."

"Yes my liege," replied Dark Night, "consider it done."

Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra then returned to the dining hall to have a lavish feast. There they talked about their pasts and why they hate the royal pony sisters in Canterlot. Chrysalis asked, "King Sombra, I have heard rumors that Twilight Sparkle is now a princess, is that true?"

Sombra replied, "Unfortunately yes, she is an Alicorn princess now, but I don't think that could necessarily be a bad thing."

The changeling queen looked stunned and replied, "Are you nuts Sombra? Of course it is a bad thing. She was powerful enough as a regular unicorn and now here you think a powerful princess isn't a bad thing?"

Sombra grinned and said, "No, I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing. After we take the Crystal Empire, I am thinking we should go on a covert mission to Ponyville and pay the princess a little visit, well, you should take a visit there."

"And do what?" replied Chrysalis

"We will discuss this further once we are in the Crystal Tower." replied Sombra

The Changeling Queen had an unsure look on her face as she wondered what the unicorn king had up his sleeve.

The 22nd, the day before the crystal heart ceremony arrived. The two leaders went into the training grounds Sombra had built after he re-established himself and gathered an army 9 months ago. Sombra saw his general and asked, "General Dark Night, how have these training exercises been going? Are both armies going to be ready for tomorrow?"

His general smiled and said, "Yes my liege. If the mission were today they would be ready. They are focused, have honed their battling skills and have told me that they are loyal to both of you."

"That is great news." said Sombra, "I think both sides should get some well deserved rest before tomorrow."

Queen Chrysalis agreed with her ally and together they shouted, "At ease soldiers! You need your rest before the mission tomorrow!"

The soldiers stopped their training exercise and went in with the leaders to Sombra's castle and had a supper consisting of steak, potatoes, corn and oats. Sombra and Chrysalis told their soldiers that they need to get plenty of rest tonight and stay focused, as tomorrow is going to be the biggest mission they have yet to face. Sombra suddenly realized that he would have to go out on the mission to capture Shining Armor. He remembered that he needs to render his horn ineffective. He told his ally of this and she smiled and said, "This is going to be easy. By this time tomorrow, he will be our captive and so will his wife."

Sombra replied, "You bet they will. The VIP sleeping quarters are located in the second door on your left down that hall. We better get some rest."

The two leaders and their armies got plenty of rest that night and they awoke to have a filling breakfast before their mission. They headed out in the direction of the Crystal Empire at 10 in the morning as it is more than a short distance. By noon they could see the bubble surrounding the empire. "Now we hide in the cave in this mountain and wait. Shining Armor will be starting his patrol in one hour." said Sombra

"Alright, I'm ready for this." replied Chrysalis "Are you ready soldiers?"

"Yes my queen, we are ready!" cheered the soldiers

Shining Armor headed towards the edge of the empire as one o'clock arrived. Cadence was by his side. She said "Please be careful. I know there isn't anything out there anymore but still, I worry about you. And remember sweetie, you need to be back before five."

Shining Armor replied, "Don't worry sweetie, you know I'm always back on time. This is too important to be late for." With that Shining Armor exited the empire and went out to start is patrol in the arctic.

It was a cold, windy and snowy day in the arctic. Shining Armor could not see very well as it was a full blown blizzard. Shining Armor was walking around doing his patrol. Around 2:30 his patrol led him over by the mountain that Sombra, Chrysalis and their soldiers were hiding in. Shining Armor said to himself, "Did I hear something?" After he didn't see anything he figured that it was just him being paranoid.

As he turned around and headed back towards the empire, Sombra told Chrysalis and their soldiers, "Let's go get him!" With that they charged towards him. Sombra transformed into the black cloud he used in the past to jam Shining Armor's horn. With it being a white out, Shining Armor couldn't see much of anything. He could not detect Sombra's presence.

Sombra suddenly charged down and leveled a direct hit on Shining Armor, covering his horn in black crystals. Shining Armor screamed, "My horn! What has happened? I thought Sombra was dead! I have to get back to the empire, NOW!"

Before he could take another step he was grabbed by 10 changelings. They immobilized him by covering him in green ooze. Captain Green Haze walked up to Shining Armor and placed his hoof upon his head. Suddenly Green Haze looked just like Shining Armor. "Looks like I'll be going to the ceremony!" laughed Green Haze

"You tyrant, you'll never get away with this!" shouted Shining Armor

Chrysalis walked up by Shining Armor and said, "Yeah, that's what they all say. Have fun crashing their ceremony Green Haze! The rest of us will be there soon!" laughed Chrysalis

Within an hour the rest of both armies arrived and were waiting outside the Crystal Empire, waiting for the protective shield to weaken to the point to where they can break through.

At four o'clock Green Haze returned to the crystal tower to a worried Cadence. "You see honey, I told you I would be back in time!"

Cadence replied, "I'm so happy to see you! We only have one hour before we renew the spirit of love and harmony. We need to get down into the town square so we can power up the heart with the crystal ponies."

While they walked down to the town square Green Haze thought to himself, "Oh Cadence, you are going to be in for the shock of your life when that heart doesn't get powered up."

Soon it was five minutes before five. Princess Cadence and 'Prince Shining Armor' arrived down at the base of their castle. Cadence started out by saying, "Thank you for being here everypony! This is an important tradition that dates back to the founding of the empire."

'Shining Armor' continued, "It has long been tradition that we do this. I hope you have enjoyed the past four days of food, music and fun. Now we need to do what this whole crystal fair is about, power up the crystal heart."

The crystal ponies along with the royal couple put their heads down to pump the energy into the crystal heart. As hard as they tried, they could not get it to work. Cadence yelled, "We need to do this everypony. It is almost five. We must try again."

Again the crystal ponies put their heads down to transfer the power of their love and unity into the ground so the crystal heart will be activated. The energy reached the heart. It began to spin slowly. For it to work though, it must spin fast. The clock tower struck five. The blue sky began to flash a putrid shade of brown and there was lightning. The crystal ponies saw this and their coats went dull. They could be heard shouting, "It's him, It's Sombra! Run for your lives!"

Suddenly a whole army of changelings and dark unicorns came storming into the empire. Sombra entered the empire in his smoke form. moving through the ground, leaving a row of black crystals behind him. Cadence suddenly saw a larger changeling in the sky. "No, it's her! It is Chrysalis! Save me honey, save me!"

Captain Green Haze revealed himself. He said, "Oh sweetheart, there is no help for you now! Your sweetie has been taken prisoner! My queen, Cadence is over here!

Sombra came out of the ground and hit Cadence, covering her horn in black crystals, rendering her magic useless, just as he did to Shining Armor. At that time, Chrysalis landed next to him. Both stood before her and Sombra laughed and said, "Oh my dear Cadenza, there is no stopping us now. Don't worry though, your sweet husband is in good hooves!"

Chrysalis then fired a bolt of energy at Cadence and covered her in green ooze, causing her to be unable to move. "Oh my dear sweet Mi Adore Cadenza, this time there will be no Twilight Sparkle to save you!" laughed Chrysalis

Cadence began to cry and shouted, "Why are you doing this to me? What have I ever done to you?"

Sombra replied, "What have you done to me? It was one year ago today when you and your crystal ponies activated that crystal heart, tearing my body apart and causing me a great amount of pain."

Chrysalis continued, "Don't you remember how you and your husband used your love to cast me and my changelings to the distant realms of southern Equestria? Do you know how hard we hit the ground? Do you know how much that hurt? It was horribly painful. These are good enough reasons for both of us to want revenge."

Sombra started laughing and then reared up on his hind hooves and then slammed his front ones down, dislodging the crystal heart from the crystals that were holding it in place. Sombra fired a beam of energy at it and cut it in half as it hit the ground. Cadence stood there in horror as the allies levitated the two pieces of the heart and devoured it.

"You monsters!" shouted Cadence, "How could you just eat the crystal heart? Do you know what you have just done?"

Both replied at the same time, "Yeah we know what we have done, we have just had a tasty meal!"

Chrysalis looked at her and started laughing, "And it was fitting that you were the one to watch us eat it! We are so sorry we didn't save a bite for you!"

Sombra shouted in triumph, "Unity and harmony in the Crystal Empire is forever dead. Let the despair and fear last forever!"

Chrysalis and her changelings then took Cadence to the dungeon and put her in a cocoon of green ooze. "Oh it looks like you're stuck in something princess! I would help you get out of it but look at the time, I have other things I have to do!" laughed Chrysalis.

Chrysalis then headed to the now black tower's balcony to find Sombra standing there, with an evil grin on his face as he looks out over his triumph. He notices her and said, "Thank you my dear friend and ally. This is OUR triumph. Now we need to know what has happened with Shining Armor."

As darkness was setting in over the now conquered empire, Colonel Thunder Rage arrived carrying something. It was a severely frostbit Shining Armor. Chrysalis got a smile on her face and told her colonel, "Take him into the dining hall." With that Thunder Rage carried him into the dining hall and asked the king, "Sombra, what shall we do with him? Shall we throw him into the dungeon as well?"

"No." replied Sombra, "We must keep them apart at all costs. Yes their magic is useless now but we can't take any chances. I would suggest we hang him in a cocoon in the throne room as a reminder of our triumph."

Chrysalis said, "Well it is up to you. After all, this is your tower now."

King Sombra decided that he would make a good wall decoration in the throne room, so Chrysalis wrapped him up in a cocoon and her changeling drones hung him in there.

"Now we need to discuss what we were going to before we did this." said Sombra

"What is that?" replied Chrysalis

Sombra said, "Well, you remember how I said that Twilight Sparkle being a princess may not be all bad and suggested that you go pay her a visit in Ponyville? Well, I have a strong feeling that you will be able to brainwash her."

Chrysalis looked kind of puzzled and said, "And what will that accomplish?"

Sombra got an evil grin on face and started laughing, "Princess Twilight is the bearer of the element of magic and is now extremely powerful, yet you have a great ability to brainwash ponies. If we can get her to defect to our side and be our ally, we will be unstoppable and we can easily take ALL OF EQUESTRIA."

Chrysalis thought this would be a great idea and agreed with the king completely. With the entirety of Sombra's army and all of the drones and officers Chrysalis brought with her in the Crystal Empire with them, they had no problems getting to sleep that night. The same could not be said for the crystal ponies though, as they turned in for the night with the fear that they would be bound in chains again very soon.

An Awful Reality Realized

The following morning the light awoke Sombra. He woke up wondering if the conquest was just a dream or if it was reality. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes to find himself in the royal sleeping chambers of his dark tower. It was then he realized that his conquest was indeed reality. He got out of bed and headed out to the balcony to see what was going on.

The sky was a putrid brown, the crystal ponies were hiding in their houses and all the crystals had turned black. Sombra said to himself, "Oh how beautiful victory is!"

Chrysalis walked up to his side and said, "Yes, victory is beautiful. This was a team effort. Neither side could have done it without the other."

Sombra naturally realized this and told her that without her and her changeling army, that this would not have happened. Sombra felt a growl within him and said to Chrysalis, "As much as I love admiring the beautiful scenery, I am hungry, let's have some breakfast."

Chrysalis nodded and said, "Yes, let's do. I am hungry as well but I believe that our armies need to join us. Without them, this would have never happened.."

Sombra agreed with the queen. They proceeded to round up their armies and took them to the dining hall. There they had a massive breakfast which consisted of eggs, bacon, toast, sausage, toast, oats and wheat. "To our leaders, King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis!" shouted General Dark Night

"Here here! To our leaders!" shouted their soldiers

For the first time in her entire life, Chrysalis blushed in amazement as both armies were honoring her. She had never even been fully honored by her own army, much less any other army.

"Wow," said a flattered Chrysalis "I have never been honored like that before. Sombra, how does it feel when your soldiers honor you like that?" asked Chrysalis

King Sombra looked stunned that she had never been honored that way before. He then said, "Well, I don't know. This is the first time I have ever been honored by my soldiers as well. Well this is the first conquest we have ever done, so naturally there has never been any reason for them to do so."

After breakfast Sombra asked what her plans were, Chrysalis replied, "Well we really need to return home to our realm to rest and I know that we will need more changelings than just 100 to launch our next attack."

"You're right, and also it will be far easier to get to Ponyville from the south than it is from the north. You will be far less likely to be spotted that way." said King Sombra

Chrysalis nodded and said, "What will also help is that I am going to take the form of Princess Twilight Sparkle before I leave. I will avoid detection much better that way as well."

"You always have excellent plans Chrysalis" replied Sombra

"Well I must get going now." said Chrysalis, "Thunder Rage, Lightning Wasp, Green Haze, it is time for us to get going. Come on my changelings, time for us to head home." shouted Chrysalis

Sombra watched his ally and her army disappear over the horizon as he started to wonder what he should do as far as what to do about the crystal ponies.

A couple days pass and Applejack and Big Macintosh are applebucking through their orchards. Applejack sees an unfamiliar pony walking through the other side of the orchard. Her and Big Macintosh run in the direction of this pony. "You get out of our orchard this minute." shouted Applejack

The pony collapses to the ground as Applejack and Big Macintosh get over to where he is. They find a pony with a dull blue coat, a yellow mane and tail and a yellow bow and arrow cutie mark. They can tell that he has been through a lot of trauma and terror. Applejack asked the pony, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

The pony replies, "My name is Accurate Aim and I escaped from the Crystal Empire and his wrath. I do not mean you any harm. I have been running for nearly three days and I just can't run anymore."

"Wait a minute. You said you 'escape his wrath?" Are you talking about Shining Armor? He would never harm anypony!"

Accurate Aim got a sad look on his face and said, "No, it is King Sombra I am running from. The royal couple up there has been taken prisoner and the crystal heart has been eaten by King Sombra and this half pony half insect hybrid thing that calls herself Chrysalis."

"Oh boy, this is not good." said Applejack "We need to get some food and water in you and then we need to get to Canterlot at once."

Applejack knew that Twilight was having a long meeting with the mayor that day so she thought it would be best if she took Accurate Aim to Canterlot herself. She knew that Princess Celestia had to be informed of this at once. They took Accurate Aim to their barn and got him some apples and water. He was starving and ate the apples quickly. After about an hour he looked better and had more strength.

"Are you feeling any better?" asked Applejack

"Yes I do feel better. Thank you so much, You are a life saver. What is your name by the way?" asked Accurate Aim

"My name's Applejack and this here is my brother, Big Macintosh." replied Applejack

Accurate Aim thanked both of them by name and then asked when they were going to notify the princess of what has happened.

Applejack said, "We need to get to the train station right away. There is a train leaving for Canterlot in around 20 minutes."

The two headed to the train station and got there just in time to catch the train. The ride to Canterlot seemed to take forever in Applejack's mind, as this is an emergency. Accurate Aim was just happy to be alive but the ride seemed to take a long time in his mind as well.

Applejack and Accurate Aim got off the train and headed towards the castle. They were greeted by two members of the royal guard. "Who comes here and what do you want?" said one of the guards

"Hi, I'm Applejack and this is Accurate Aim. We really need to speak to the princess. Accurate Aim is a crystal pony who escaped the empire after King Sombra took it over." replied Applejack

When the guards heard that they let them into the castle and escorted them to the throne room, where both Celestia and Luna were eating lunch. They were greeted by the princesses as soon as they got there.

"Why hello Applejack!" said Celestia "What brings you here and why aren't your friends with you?"

Applejack said, "This is an emergency princess. This here is Accurate Aim, he is a crystal pony who fled the Crystal Empire and he has something he needs to tell you two."

"What do you have to tell us?" asked Princess Luna

Accurate Aim told them the entire story of what happened. "Well everything was fine up until it was time to power the crystal heart. We tried twice to get it going but it would not work. Then five o'clock hit on the 23rd and the sky started flashing a putrid brown color. Suddenly these dark colored creatures that look like a cross between a pony and an insect came flying into the empire while Sombra and a bunch of dark unicorns came through as well. What was Shining Armor turned into one of those creatures and he went by the name of Captain Green Haze."

Celestia interrupted him and said, "What? King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis joined forces and brought down the Crystal Empire? I thought Sombra was dead and Chrysalis was flung into oblivion."

"Apparently not big sister." said Luna "I told you had a bad feeling about things but you wouldn't listen to me."

Accurate Aim then said, "They have also coated the royal couple in some sort of green ooze and they ate the crystal heart."

A stunned Celestia stood up quickly and shouted, "They ate the crystal heart? This is bad, very, very bad."

Applejack ran up to the princesses and asked, "What does that mean? I didn't even know that crystals could be eaten."

Princess Luna walked up to her and said, "King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis are not your normal beings. They can digest things that ponies can not. Accurate Aim, do you know what they did with Princess Cadence and Shining Armor?"

Accurate Aim told them that he saw them take them into the castle and overheard something about putting them into a cocoon before he fled into the arctic. He said, "That is all I know. I am sorry I don't know more. I was just afraid for my life and didn't want to wind up being bound in chains again."

"That is ok." said Celestia "That is understandable and I am glad you were able to escape. Applejack, do you know what Twilight is up to today?"

"She left the library early today. She said something about having a long meeting with the mayor on learning how to govern." replied Applejack

Celestia then said, we must get in touch with her immediately. She then wrote a message that read, "Princess Twilight, there is a huge emergency. The Crystal Empire has fallen to King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis. Applejack is already here but I need you and the rest of your friends to get here as soon as possible. Sincerely, Princess Celestia." She then sent the message. Unfortunately Spike was at home taking a seven hour bubble bath and Twilight was at the mayor's office.

Spike was in the tub when "belch" he coughs up a letter from the princess. It lands in the water and sinks to the bottom. He pulled the letter out of the water but it simply fell apart. Spike said to himself, "Oh it must not have been anything important."

Applejack said, "I hope Spike is with her so she can get here as soon as possible."

"You and me too." said Celestia

In her southern realm Queen Chrysalis was standing on her balcony looking to the north, getting ready for her flight. Her trusted general, Iron Sheath walked up to her and said, "Where are you headed off to?"

Chrysalis looked at him with a scowl and said, "I am heading to Ponyville to brainwash Princess Twilight Sparkle." Chrysalis suddenly transformed herself into Twilight and continued, "I am going to brainwash her and get her to betray Celestia and join our side. How do I look?"

"You look wonderful my queen. You be careful and don't let them spot and catch you." said Iron Sheath

"Don't worry, with me looking like this, this will be a piece of cake!: said Chrysalis

The Corruption of Princess Twilight Sparkle

It was afternoon in Ponyville and everything was going as it normally would. The ponies were going about their regular business, laughter was coming from Sugarcube Corner, the Apple family was bucking their way through the orchards, the market was open for business and the construction ponies were putting up a new house. While all this was going on, the newly crowned princess Twilight was having a meeting with Mayor Mare.

"Madame Mayor, what do you do when ponies start complaining about how well you are doing your job?" asked Twilight

The mayor gave her a smile and said, "Oh Twilight, if anything like that happens don't let it bother you. With some ponies there is just no satisfying them. You can't please everypony all the time."

That reassured her but then she got a worried look on her face and said, "But mayor, with you if they don't like the job you are doing they can just vote you out of office. With me, what would they do? Would they chase me out of Ponyville, would I be forced to return to Canterlot or what if they did something even worse, such as *GASP* tried to kill me?" Twilight started crying after she said this.

"Twilight your Majesty, they aren't going to try to kill you! Nopony has tried to kill Celestia or Luna and ponies complain about them all the time. Come here princess, let me give you a hug, it might help calm you down."

Twilight went over to the mayor and received her hug. She said, "This does make me feel better Madame Mayor."

At the library Spike was asleep when Chrysalis, disguised as Twilight, came into the library. She decided that she would lay low and wait until Twilight got home. Spike woke up and was afraid to let Twilight know about the letter that got ruined. He went into the main part of the library where 'Twilight' was. She turned around and said, "Oh, hi Spike. How were things for you today?"

Spike replied, "Uh, well, everything went ok. I took a seven hour bubble bath and then I took a nap."

'Twilight' looked at him with a puzzled look on her face and said, "How in Equestria can you stand to sit in a tub of water for seven hours straight. I would think that would really wrinkle your scales."

"But Twilight, you know I always take them and you have never asked me that before." replied Spike "Are you ok, something doesn't seem right with you."

'Twilight' looked at him and said, "Yeah, you're right. I have just had a long day. Spending 9 hours in a meeting with the mayor is really tiring."

Suddenly around 9 o'clock Spike heard somepony at the door and the door opened and in came Twilight. Spike said to her, "What? Are you future Twilight coming to warn present Twilight about some future event?"

Twilight looked at him with an odd look on her face and said, "What are you talking about Spike? There is only one of me here, there is no second me around here!"

Twilight walked into her bedroom and ran straight into 'herself.' She had a stunned look on her face and said, "Wait, you're me but I'm me. What sort of event have I come to warn myself about this time? Let me guess, I am going to get all worried over nothing again?"

Her likeliness replied, "No Twilight. I have come to have a staring contest with you."

"What? I came back in time just to have a staring contest with myself? Why would I do that?"

Spike runs up to the bedroom in excitement when he heard this. He said, "This going to be so awesome Twilight! You are going to have a staring contest with yourself! I am putting my bet on you present Twilight!"

Twilight said, "Oh ok me. I will have a staring contest with you."

The staring contest began as Spike stood there excitedly watching the two in their stare off. Three hours had passed and neither Twilight had blinked yet. Once the fourth hour hit the real Twilight began to grow weary, she blinked and then fell to the floor.

"Twilight, are you ok? I thought for sure you would beat your future self."

The impostor Twilight then told Twilight and Spike that she had to get going. She also said, "You have a good night princess. Don't have too much fun! Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" With that she left the library and sped off to the south as fast as she could.

Twilight finally was able to pull herself off the floor and said, "Ugh, I feel horrible Spike. I didn't think I could come back to visit my self for that long. I never even told myself why I came back."

Spike told Twilight that he had cleaned the library for her and fixed her some supper but it had gotten cold. Twilight said, "It's ok Spike. It is late, we really need to get to bed."

With that Twilight and Spike went to bed. Twilight had horrible nightmares that night about Equestria falling into a horrible state of chaos and hate. She dreamt about Celestia becoming a horrible tyrant and casting everypony into chains and made Sombra look like a sweet angel. She tossed and turned all night long and when the sun finally rose the following morning, she woke up sore but she was not the same Twilight.

It was morning when Chrysalis finally got back home. She transformed herself back into her own form. She is greeted by her general. He asks, "My queen, how did things go. Did it work?"

Crhysalis replied, "Yes, I am certain it worked. She was a lot tougher than anypony i had ever tried to brainwash. It took four hours but she finally blinked and fell to the floor. It was amazing, she saw through me when I was disguised as Cadence but disguised as her, she was oblivious to me."

"So what did you reprogram her to do?" asked Iron Sheath

"Well Iron Sheath, I have brainwashed her to rule her realm with an iron hoof. I now believe that it will be in our best interest if I give her a couple thousand soldiers and have Green Haze become her military officer." said Chrysalis

Her general told her that he isn't sure about that idea. He asked her about how the changeling army would get to Ponyville unnoticed.

"Don't worry about that Iron Sheath. I have a feeling she will be coming to pay us a visit very soon. That is when I will give her the soldiers she will need to gather the ponies required to build her own dark tower." said Chrysalis

When Twilight got out of bed she was sore, tired and had a different perspective on the way things should be run. "Spike! Get out of bed, we have things to do! " shouted Twilight

"Wha-what?! Why do you yell at me like that Twilight, you know it scares me." said a startled Spike

"We have a lot of things to do. First off, I need a different crown. This crown is too girly, I need a crown that symbolizes my power and I need equally impressive armor to go with it. Second, that mayor better resign or I will not so politely force her out. I need all this done as soon as possible! But first I have some business I need to take care of in Canterlot." said Twilight Twilight then took flight and sped off towards the south.

Spike ran out the door and saw her flying south. He shouted, "Twilight, Canterlot is off to the west, not the south."

Twilight was already way too far away to hear Spike when he shouted. It wouldn't have mattered. She was a pony on a mission and nothing was going to stop her. As she sped southwards, she saw a green haze on the horizon. She thought to herself, "I am getting close, that haze is her shade of green."

Chrysalis was standing on her balcony and saw a figure of an Alicorn flying in her direction. She said to herself, "That must be Twilight Sparkle. The brainwashing was a success."

Once Twilight got within hearing distance of her balcony, Chrysalis shouted, "Twilight my friend, I'm over here."

Twilight flew over and landed on her balcony and said, "Chrysalis, how is everything going?"

Chrysalis looked at her with a smile and said, "We're friends now Twilight, you can just call me Chrysi. There is no need for us to be so formal!"

Twilight smiled back and said, "Well in that instance, you can just call me Twily."

After the two new friends engaged in some minor chit chat and Chrysalis told Twilight about how her and King Sombra took the Crystal Empire she said to Twilight, "Twily, now that you are a princess you are going to need an army if you are to stand a chance against the royal pony sisters in Canterlot."

Twilight replied, "Yes Chrysi, I know that. I am just wondering where in Equestria I am going to get one." Twilight knew that if she just went around asking strong looking stallions to join her army they would simply think she was nuts.

Chrysalis proceeded to tell her that she is willing to give her half her army along with Captain Green Haze as a military officer. Twilight enthusiastically accepted her offer. Twilight discussed with Chrysalis how to do duplication spells so that she can easily rebuild her army.

Chrysalis looks shocked and said, "Wow Twily, I didn't know you can do that! How do you know all this stuff?"

Twilight laughed and told her that she had been studying ever since she was a little filly and has studied pretty much everything that could be studied. This caused Chrysalis to be even happier. Having an ally with that much intelligence and a continued hunger for knowledge will be to her advantage.

Chrysalis had a huge grin on her face and said, "You know what you need Twily? You need a more impressive crown and some armor to protect yourself. That decorative princess apparel, while it looks fashionable, won't help you in any battles."

Twilight replied, "I know Chrysi, I need something that will make me look tough. What I would like is a crown made out of black iron and some steel armor. Something that will make me look tough, mean, commanding and fearless."

Chrysalis went on to tell Twilight that she should travel to the Crystal Empire and pay King Sombra a visit, as he is the one who could provide her with the crown and armor she desires.

Twilight then asked Chrysalis, "If I am to go to the Crystal Empire, I better leave soon. Also, when will I be able to take the portion of your military that you have offered me?"

Chrysalis laughed and said, "You can take them with you now Twily! Captain Green Haze, gather 2,500 drones and come here. You are being promoted to general and you will not only swear allegiance to me, but to your new leader, Princess Twilight Sparkle."

The new general replied, "Yes my queen." Green Haze went and gathered 2,500 changeling drones and stood by Twilight's side. "Princess Twilight, we give you our allegiance. We will fight to the death for you."

Twilight got this evil grin on her face and said, "This is excellent! With us going to be flying over mainland Equestria though, I am going to have to cast an invisibility spell on all of you."

"Why?" asked Green Haze

Chrysalis then shouted, "Because if she is spotted with an army of changelings flying over Equestria, not only will you guys be captured, but she would be captured as well and probably hung for treason."

"Ok, here we go." said Twilight "Whether it be one or a bunch of ones, nopony needs to see so that we don't have to flee, invisibility is the treat of not having to retreat." Suddenly Green Haze and all of Twilight's new changeling drones became invisible.

Chrysalis asked Twilight what the duplication spell was so she could regenerate her army. Twilight pointed her horn towards Chrysalis's remaining army and said, "From one to two, from two to four and much more. When one is simply mere, more and more shall appear." She cast the spell on Chrysalis's army and suddenly her army had returned to it's original size.

"That is the duplication spell Chrysi my friend. I hope you remember it and my invisibility spell to make attacks much easier. I could write them down if you wish" said Twilight

Chrysi has a great memory and told Twilight, "It is alright Twily, I can remember them, my mind is like a steel trap."

Before Twilight and her army of now invisible changelings took off for the Crystal Empire, Chrysalis suggested something to Twilight, "You know, you should adopt a new name. The title princess does not sound very intimidating. You might want to consider yourself a queen. Queen Twilight Sparkle fits you more and sounds intimidating."

Twilight gave her a grin and said, "I like that idea! Queen Twilight Sparkle! Well I am off to the Crystal Empire now!" With that Queen Twilight and her army sped off at a great pace towards the north.

The Royal Meetings

In Canterlot Celestia is pacing back and forth wondering why she has yet to hear back from Twilight. She writes another letter that read, "Princess Twilight, I sent you a letter before but maybe you did not get it. Applejack is here with news that the Crystal Empire has fallen. I need you to gather the rest of your friends and get here immediately. Sincerely, Princess Celestia."

Celestia sends the letter. Spike is over visiting Fluttershy telling her about Twilight's odd behavior when suddenly "Belch", a letter arrives from the princess. Spike and Fluttershy read it and Fluttershy says, "Oh no! What are we going to do? Don't we have to have Twilight with us when we go up there?"

Spike replied, "Fluttershy, we don't have time to wait for her. She will get her flank there when she gets there. We need to notify the rest of our friends and get up there, with or without Twilight."

Fluttershy and Spike go and let the rest of their friends know and they all head to the train station and catch the next train to Canterlot. Once they arrived they headed towards Canterlot Castle. The royal guards see Spike and his friends and one of the guardsponies says, "Hi Spike! I am guessing you need to see the princess? Go on in, you know the way to the throne room."

"Thanks guys! You have a great day." replied Spike as they ran into the castle.

They rushed into the throne room and Celestia said to Spike, "Where is Princess Twilight Sparkle? Does she not know how important this is?"

Spike replied, "I don't know where she is. She woke up early this morning and wasn't quite herself. She said she had business here in Canterlot but took off and sped towards the south."

Celestia was shocked that Twilight would head south for any reason, as there isn't much of anything in the southern region of Equestria. Luna had an odd look on her face and said, "You don't think she went to try to defeat Chrysalis do you?"

Celestia was not even aware that Chrysalis lived in that realm. Celestia said, "Wait, you mean to tell me that Chrysalis is still in Equestria?"

Luna replied, "Big Sister, I have tried to tell you this on many occasions but you always just brush me off. Sometimes I feel like I am the only one of us that actually pays attention to what is going on."

"Ok Luna. I get it. You are the one who pays attention and I sit here in my own little world. There is no reason to rub it in my face." said an irritated Celestia

Applejack said, "No disrespect your Majesties, but shouldn't we be focusing on what brought Accurate Aim here in the first place, the fall of the Crystal Empire?"

Luna replied, "Yes dear Applejack, we need to address this."

Celestia continued, "Well given that Cadence and Shining Armor have been taken captive, they are probably in green ooze cocoons and separated. Since the crystal heart has been eaten, I am not sure what can be done for the Crystal Empire. We will be lucky if we can rescue the crystal ponies and just let Sombra have the empire."

"What about Cadence's magic? If she is freed she could use her magic to protect the empire for a while." said Rarity

Accurate Aim then entered the conversation and said, "I don't know if that would help, Sombra put some sort of spell on her that made her magic unusable. He covered her horn with black crystals."

"Oh horseshoes." said Luna, "Now her magic will never work given the conditions that exist. No crystal heart exists anymore to cleanse those off of her and Shining Armor's horns. Celestia is probably right. We just need to get the crystal ponies out of there and cut our losses."

Accurate Aim said, "Sombra has somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 dark unicorns in his service. They are fierce guards who won't let anypony get into the empire without being punished. I am sure Sombra has given them orders to guard the crystal ponies at all costs."

Pinkie added, "Even worse, Twilight has the sixth element in her crown so we can't use the elements on them. The other five won't work without it."

Rainbow Dash looked stunned as she was thinking to herself that was the smartest, most well thought out thing that Pinkie has ever said in her whole life. She then stated, "Pinkie is right. I don't know what options we have now."

Celestia replied, "I am at a loss of words still. I don't know where Twilight is, for all we know she could have defected and joined the side of Chrysalis and Sombra. I doubt it, she is very loyal to Equestria and maybe thought she could take down Chrysalis on her own, but she has to be here if we are to have any chance of repelling threats from the Crystal Empire."

Luna said, "Celestia is right. We need to do what we can right now and I think that we should sit down and eat. Perhaps it will calm our nerves."

In the far north of Equestria, Twilight and her army approach the Crystal Empire. She orders her army to stop and gather together. She points her horn at them and recites, "The unseen shall now be seen, with their friends being present, hiding only shows resent, those who have disappeared, shall now appear." Her army of changelings are now visible. Twilight says to her general, "General Green Haze, we are heading in."

Green Haze replied, "Don't worry my queen, I know Sombra and he will be happy to see us."

Twilight and her army flew through the protective bubble and left the arctic cold and entered a realm with brown skies and black crystals. They headed towards Sombra's black tower.

Sombra was standing on his balcony and saw the massive army approaching. He saw Twilight and he first said, "General Dark Night, we are under attack! Stop them, kill them!"

Twilight landed on his balcony and said, "King Sombra, we are not here to attack you. I have just met with Chrysalis and she said that I need to come meet with you so that everypony in our alliance is on the same page."

King Sombra said, "Wait a minute, you are part of our alliance now? I have another question, are those your changelings?"

Twilight looked a bit irritated but said, "Yes, I am part of the dark alliance now and yes these are my changelings. This is my highest military officer, General Green Haze."

The general landed next to Twilight and said to Sombra, "Yep, we are loyal to Twilight and the rest of the alliance now."

Sombra smiled and said, "So you got a promotion, eh Green Haze? It is about time! It seemed like you shouldered most of the burden for Chrysalis."

Twilight then suggested that they need to go and have a meeting on what their next plan of action is since the first phase of the take over plan has succeeded.

Twilight asked Sombra, "I know I am new to all of this, but I need to get a tower built in Ponyville but we don't have sufficient labor and I don't want my changelings to have to shoulder all the burden of that, they deserve better."

Sombra sat there and thought for a minute, and then replied, well Princess...."

Twilight interrupted, "I am Queen Twilight now. The title princess makes me sound weak."

Sombra replied, Ok Queen Twilight. As I was trying to say, you have a large number of changelings and I think there is a city that you can raid and take plenty of ponies from to be your slaves. I would suggest you launch a raid on Fillydelphia as it is not that far away from Ponyville."

The new queen told Sombra that is a splendid idea. She also told him that she will need to double the size of her army to do this.

Sombra replied, "And how do you plan on doing this? I don't know how many of my unicorns I can spare."

Twilight replied, "Don't worry about it. I know a duplication spell that I could double or even triple the size of my military."

Sombra looked shocked, he very soon realized that he needed to not even think of stabbing the new queen in the back, as she has the power to create an army so powerful that she could crush any enemy that got in her path.

"Wow, that is amazing your Majesty. I am wondering if I needed it, if you could do that with my army as well?"

"Just call me Twily, as I consider us friends and strong allies. I can't stand the overly formal situation. It is something that Celestia has always had in place, all the way back to when I was a filly and long before then I am sure."

"Aright, just call me Sombra like you have been. I think this would be a great point to launch your attack on Fillydelphia to round up the slaves you need to get that tower built."

Twilight proceeded to ask Sombra, "I do have another question. Could you help me get a new crown and some true body armor? The crown I have now is too girly and I need actual body armor, not just a simple chest plate. I want to have armor like you have."

Sombra replied, "Oh we can do that. We can make you look like me, look powerful, strong, fearless and have that fight to the death look. What specifically do you have in mind?"

Twilight went on to tell Sombra how she would like a crown made of black iron that would make her element stand out more and that she wanted stainless steel body armor. She also asked Sombra if there was anyway to get a robe like his but in dark purple as that fitted her personality better.

"Sombra replied, you bet we can get that done. You want perfection and that we can easily get done."

Later that day Sombra came to Twilight with some armor and a black iron crown. "Is this what you were looking for?"

"This is perfect." said Twilight. Twilight put the body armor on, the crown on and the dark purple robe. "How does this look on me?" asked Twilight

"Well take a look in the mirror. I think you look like a true leader, but it is up to you."

Twilight got this evil grin on her face and said, "This is beyond perfect. This is what the ponies of Fillydelphia will see as they are taken off to their new home and build my tower!"

"What about the books in the library Twilight, what do you plan on doing with them? asked Sombra

Twilight replied, "I am moving them into the tower with me. I can not have anypony having any access to knowledge whatsoever. Allowing them access to such knowledge is not in the best interests of our alliance. Their ignorance shall be our bliss."

Sombra looked at Twilight with an odd look on his face and said, "I like your way of thinking. No wonder you are an Alicorn and I'm not!"

Twilight looked off towards the southeast and realized that she will need to head to Fillydelphia tomorrow to round up her new slaves.

It was getting late in the day so Twilight and Sombra headed to the dining hall and ate supper as they discussed how they are going to do this and how Chrysalis will launch her attacks from the south. After that Twilight headed to the VIP sleeping quarters and hit the hay. Sombra stood out on his balcony and thought to himself, "This is turning out even better than I could have ever imagined."

The Raid on Fillydelphia

Twilight awoke the following morning to find Sombra standing by the dining hall. "Twily, I have had my chefs prepare a meal for you and your changelings before your assault on Fillydelphia." said Sombra

The queen walked into the dining hall with General Green Haze and said, "Thank you Sombra, we are going to need it if we are going to have a successful raid."

Sombra told Twilight that he thinks she will need to gather around 2,000 ponies to build her tower along with the new housing they will need.

"What kind of material would be good for their dwellings?" asked Twilight

Sombra looked around for a minute and said, "Wood. You have the Everfree Forest right there at your doorstep. Is that part of your realm?"

Twilight grinned and said, "Yes, my realm covers Ponyville, the Everfree Forest and the surrounding areas, some of which do have iron deposits, so I am thinking we should be fine."

Sombra said, "Twilight, iron rusts. I think you will need something stronger for your tower. Wait a minute, you are an Alicorn. You could put a spell on the iron to get it to where it won't rust. Also, you can meld the iron together to where your tower will not leak."

"You are a genius." said Twilight. "I can have the Fillydelphia ponies haul the iron in but then I can use my magic to turn all that iron into a tower. Perhaps I won't need 2,000 Fillydelphia residents, but I will still round up that many for the fun of it. Besides, with that many, their own dwellings will be built much faster."

Sombra agreed with Twilight and said, "I think you and your changelings should be on your way. You want to get this raid done by nightfall."

"Agreed," said Twilight "Green Haze, we need to head to Fillydelphia, now!"

"Shouldn't you put that invisibility spell on us before we head out?" replied Greed Haze

Twilight looked at her general and agreed. She had him gather all the changelings together and then recited the invisibility spell, "Whether it be one or a bunch of ones, nopony needs to see so that we don't have to flee, invisibility is the treat of not having to retreat."

Twilight's changelings became invisible and her along with her army sped off to the southeast. Very quickly they exited the empire and all that could be seen was Twilight flying through the arctic.

It started out as another normal day in Fillydelphia. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and the market was open for business. It was a busier than normal day in the market as this was the first sunny day in a week. The nearby park was also full of ponies and their foals playing and laughing. Their mayor was also present and said, "I know this is two weeks away but we will soon be having Princess Celestia visiting us. I want us to work on cleaning up any loose branches and I want us to have the lawns of every park and every house nice and cut. Everything has to be perfect for her visit."

Within a couple hours Twilight and her army could see Fillydelphia off in the distance. She said, to drive the ponies out into the open, they will have to see you. With that Twilight cast the counter spell to the invisibility spell, "The unseen shall now be seen, with their friends being present, hiding only shows resent, those who have disappeared, shall now appear." With Twilight's changelings now visible, they speed into Fillydelphia.

A sudden dark cloud spreads over the city and the ponies began to run around in terror. Twilight's changelings began to swoop down to gather as many ponies together as they could in one place. Those they could not simply herd into the same area had bolts of energy fired at them to the changelings to force them into the same area that the other ponies were located. Finally a little over 2,000 ponies were crammed into the town square when Twilight descended into the city and cast a spell putting a forcefield around the ponies. This led to them leading the citizens of Fillydelphia out of the city southwestwards towards Ponyville.

Twilight landed down by her general and said, "We have the sufficient labor force we need, now to get them to Ponyville. This however is going to take a couple of days, which will make it far too easy to spot us all". She ordered her changeling army to gather around her captives and she cast the invisibility spell upon them and began their march towards Ponyville.

Back in Canterlot Celestia was getting very worried. She was wondering why Twilight had yet to arrive. Celestia said, "I really hope she did not fall in her quest to vanquish Chrysalis, if that was her plan."

Luna replied, "I have this bad feeling that she did not head south to try to defeat Chrysalis. I am worried that she went down there to join forces with her, to stab all of Equestria in the back."

"Oh Luna, you are such a worry wart." laughed Celestia "With you it is always the worst case scenario! I am sure that everything is just fine."

This angered Luna and caused her to storm out of the throne room. "What was all that about?" asked a worried Accurate Aim

"Oh Luna just gets frustrated when I brush her off like that. I know she sometimes is right in her worrying but the very idea of Princess Twilight stabbing us in the back is ridiculous." laughed Celestia

Applejack interrupted and said, "No disrespect your Majesty, but she was right about the fall of the Crystal Empire. What if she is right about this as well?"

Celestia gave Applejack a strange look and said, "Has Luna been teaching you things? Has she been putting all these worse case scenarios in your head? You're such a silly filly!"

Deep down this irritated Applejack greatly but she did not wish to show any disrespect towards Princess Celestia, so she just kept quiet. Fluttershy then said, "Your Majesty, I don't want to sound awful or anything, but what would happen if Twilight fell to Chrysalis?"

"Fluttershy, I don't think you want to know. The Elements of Harmony would no longer work and we would have adversaries on two sides that we may not be able to stop. We would not only have Sombra and his dark army in the north but we would have Chrysalis and her changeling forces in the south. It could be a true disaster for every living thing in Equestria." said Celestia

Fluttershy got really scared and hid behind Applejack and said, "Oh no, Princess. I hope this doesn't happen. I hope Twilight is ok." Fluttershy then grabbed a hold of Applejack and began to cry.

"It is ok Fluttershy. We will figure something out. What it will be I am not sure of right now, but we will figure out something." replied Celestia

A couple days later Twilight, her army and her captives arrived back in Ponyville. Twilight knew she had to do something to keep her activities minimally visible and needed to put a barrier around Ponyville and the surrounding areas. She first cast the counter spell to the invisibility spell to make sure all her captives and her army were all there. Then Twilight began to focus very deeply, her horn began to have a black and purple glow to it and she recited, "The realm must be guarded, for we must not fall, this is vital for all, we need a protective dome to call our home." With that a huge purple force field covered not only Ponyville, but the Everfree forest and the nearby iron rich soils.

Celestia and Twilight's friends then head out to the balcony facing the east in the direction of Ponyville. They could see a huge purple dome covering everything that was within Twilight's realm. Celestia said, "Well I guess we know that Twilight did not fall if she did indeed go south to battle Chrysalis. She probably didn't defeat Chrysalis but is putting up a force field to protect her realm from the massive changeling army that Chrysalis has."

Applejack replied, "Well it is good to know that she is ok, but I am still wondering why the hay she hasn't come to visit and I am really wondering about that force field she put up. I know she can get paranoid but I don't think she is so paranoid that she would shut off her whole realm like this."

Rainbow Dash, being skeptical said, "Perhaps she has decided to keep everypony that she does not trust out? You don't think that maybe she has decided to try to make her realm like the Crystal Empire do you? To make it a closed off domed empire?"

Celestia replied, "The reason the Crystal Empire is under a dome is because it is located in the arctic north. If it weren't for the dome, it would be a frozen wasteland and most likely wouldn't exist. I don't think Twilight has any bad intentions. She is as paranoid as Luna is, she probably just wants to protect her realm."

Applejack told Celestia that she was probably right, that Twilight isn't the type of pony to shut herself in like that. Spike said, "We should get back to Ponyville and see what is up with her. Then we can get her to come back here with us and she can tell us what happened in her confrontation with Chrysalis."

"That is an excellent idea Spike. Alright my ponies, have a safe trip back and I will see all of you with Twilight very soon." said Celestia

Spike and Twilight's friends headed to the train station and headed back home, not knowing that a not so pleasant surprise would keep them from getting back to Ponyville.

Rise of the Dark Tower

Queen Twilight Sparkle has cut Ponyville off from the rest of Equestria. Like the Crystal Empire, it does not experience the weather of the surrounding areas. The skies are a shade of purple similar to the new queen's coat and the sun shines a similar hue. Twilight walks over to where her new tower will be built and sees the iron piling up. This pleases the queen greatly. Her general along with half of her forces are there making sure her slaves are doing their jobs.

Twilight says, "You know Green Haze, this is going better than I could have ever imagined. Soon they will have gathered enough iron for my tower."

"I know my queen. The other slaves are over gathering wood for their dwellings. Things are going very well." replied Green Haze

Twilight smiled and said, "You don't have to call me 'your queen, your majesty or any other formal title', just call me Twily. I want things to be much less formal around here."

Twilight was walking around town and she ran into the mayor. "Queen Twilight, what is my role in this new Ponyville?"

"Well, given that I am now the queen and not a mere princess, you will have a different role. You will no longer have any role in governing this town. That is my job now. I do have a very important job for you though." said Twilight

The mayor looked sad and full of despair knowing that her days of governing are over. She looked up and said, "What is that your Majesty?"

Twilight led her over to the train station and said, "You see this, I need you to make sure there is no train traffic coming into Ponyville. I don't trust anypony to come here. They may be agents of Celestia seeking to overthrow me. I can't have that. Yes, I have made the force field so strong that nothing can penetrate it but still, I need you to guard this. Don't worry, you will get paid well."

"Yes my queen. I promise to serve you well." said the mayor

Twilight continued to walk around Ponyville and realized that under this dome of hers that the pegasus ponies have no way to bring rainfall to her new empire. She mutters to herself, "Oh this is just dandy, how could I have forgotten about the need for rainfall?"

Twilight then realizes that she knows plenty of weather spells and that she can make her own weather. She then heads over to Sweet Apple Acres to see how the crops are doing. She is greeted by Apple Bloom. She asks Twilight, "Twilight, ah am wondering when Applejack will get home. Do you know when she will be home?"

Twilight looks down at her and says, "That is Queen Twilight to you now. As far as Applejack goes, I am not sure when she will get home. She said something to me about relocating permanently to Canterlot. Where are Big Macintosh and Granny Smith? I need to speak with them."

Apple Bloom started to cry and said, "Applejack ain't coming home? But I thought she loved it here."

Twilight became irritated and said, "No, she ain't coming home. I asked you where are Big Macintosh and Granny Smith."

Apple Bloom looked very scared and told her that they were over by the barn. She then ran off crying to find her friends. Twilight rolled her eyes and headed over towards the barn.

"Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, I have come to see how everything involving your crops are going." said Twilight

Granny Smith said, "Well your Majesty, they are coming along just fine. Applebucking is going slow without Applejack. What happened to her anyway? Do you know why she hasn't returned home from Canterlot?"

Twilight looked at her with a smile and said, "She was telling me something about relocating to Canterlot and starting from scratch. She said she wanted to tend Celestia's apple orchards. I'm sorry you two, I really never imagined she would do this."

Big Macintosh looked up and uncharacteristically said, "My sister's not coming back? I feel like she has abandoned us." Big Macintosh then shed a few tears and walked back into the barn.

Granny Smith then said, "I feel the same way Big Mac does, she abandoned us. We weren't good enough for her anymore. She had to go work for those high falootin ponies up in Canterlot. If she tries to come back, we won't let her back!" Granny Smith then kicked a can into the barn and headed towards their house.

Twilight walked away from Sweet Apple Acres with a sadistic grin on her face. She felt proud of herself for convincing the Apple family so easily that Applejack had betrayed them. She said to herself, "With that taken care of, it will be beyond easy convincing the rest of the townsponies that the rest of them don't want to come back either."

Twilight suddenly realized that there is a bridge that lies at the fringe of her empire, so much at the fringe that half of it is outside of her empire. She knew that something had to be done about it. She flew with great speed to the location of that bridge. She could see the train coming, so she fired a bolt of energy at the bridge vaporizing it. Twilight then flew back in the other direction so the engineer would not see it was her that vaporized the bridge.

On the train the ponies were talking about what they thought was going on with the force field. Rarity was the first to offer a suggestion. "Perhaps she just thought it would be fashionable. I for one think it looks marvelous!"

Applejack interrupted and said, "I highly doubt it Rarity, Twilight ain't the type to do things like that. She would only do it if she thought her realm was at risk of being attacked. She ain't going to do something just to make it pretty."

Fluttershy said, "Maybe she did it to protect my woodland friends. With us being such good friends maybe she did it to make me happy."

Rainbow Dash looked out the window and said, "What the hay is that building going up over there? I thought Twilight wasn't going to build a castle."

Rarity interrupted and said, "Well maybe she decided that she needed to conduct herself like royalty and have a home as fabulous as she is."

Suddenly the train ground to a screeching halt and started going in reverse. The engineer shouted back towards the passengers that the bridge was out and that they had to return to Canterlot. It took a great while to return to Canterlot as a train in reverse does not go very fast. Five long hours passed before they got back to Canterlot.

When they got back they rushed to the castle and headed to the throne room. They were greeted by Princess Luna. Princess Luna asked, "What are you guys doing back so soon and where is Twilight?"

Spike replied, "Well we were never able to get to Ponyville. There was a bridge out right before we got to Twilight's force field. Do you know where Celestia is?"

Luna had a scowl on her face and said, "Oh, Celestia is in her bedroom reading a book reminiscing about the days when the Crystal Empire was not in the hands of evil doers. Typical Celestia, live in her own little world while I have to keep an eye on things. Wait a minute, did you say force field?"

"Yes your Majesty, we did." said Applejack "And also we saw some sort of tower being built over on the east side of Ponyville. I thought that Twilight wasn't going to build a tower."

"I have a very bad feeling about this." said Luna "It is not like Twilight to do things like this. I would figure that if she thought we had any threats coming she would come up here and tell us instead of isolating her realm by putting up a force field. That can mean only one thing."

"What is that princess?" asked Fluttershy

Luna went on a rant about how Twilight must be hiding something and complained about how Celestia seems to be oblivious about anything and everything here recently. Luna then said, "Wait a few minutes, I'm going to go get Celestia. Well if I can get her out of her dream world and back into the real world." Luna stormed back towards Celestia's bedroom.

"Celesita, we have company. You need to get out here. It involves Twilight." shouted Luna

"Oh alright." shouted Celestia

Celestia arrived back in the throne room with Luna and saw Twilight's friends. She said, "Where is Twilight? Why didn't she come back with you?"

Pinkie said, "Well we were on our way home when we approached a bridge that was out. It was right there on the edge of where Twilight's force field is. So the engineer had to put the train in reverse and we had to come back."

Celestia was not pleased. She threw her front hooves over her head and said, "If it isn't one thing, it's another. If I didn't know better I would think that some sort of dark force doesn't want Twilight to come up here. Why she doesn't just fly up here is beyond me, she is an Alicorn after all."

Luna replied, "Big sister, have you ever thought that perhaps Twilight is the dark force? The normal Twilight would not put up a force field, the normal Twilight would not ignore a request to come up here, the normal Twilight would have come to check on her friends by now and the normal Twilight certainly wouldn't have a black tower built in Ponyville. I think Twilight took out that bridge to keep outsiders out of her empire."

Applejack said, "Ya'll know what, I think Luna could be right. The only way Twilight wouldn't be acting like herself is if she has turned on us. That is why she is keeping us out."

Celestia slammed her hoof into the floor and screamed, "Look Luna and Applejack, my Twily wouldn't do anything like what you are suggesting. You can claim all this rational thinking hogwash but it is just a matter of either jealousy on Applejack's part or extreme paranoia of both of you."

"CALM DOWN BIG SISTER! You need to calm down. Something strange is going on and you seem to be completely oblivious to it. I know Twilight was your student ever since she was a filly but you need to take into account every single possible scenario. The fate of all Equestria could be at stake here. You need to stop being so sentimental and keep your composure." shouted Luna

"Ok little sister, you are right." said Celestia "I still don't think Twilight would do anything like that but I will not count it out completely. I am sorry you had to see me lose my temper like that everypony."

Fluttershy was hiding behind Applejack when Luna said, "My dear Fluttershy, you don't need to hide behind Applejack. No matter how angry either one of us gets, we would never harm anypony."

"Ok princess, a lot of yelling just scares me." said Fluttershy timidly

Celestia got herself together and went out to her balcony with Luna and said, "I don't get it, after the coronation Twilight said that living in the library would be perfectly fine for her. I wonder what caused her to change her mind?"

"I'm not sure," said Luna, "but I can tell one thing. That tower she is putting up is made out of black iron. I didn't know there was that much iron in the area around Ponyville. She must have enlisted every pony in her empire to mine it for her."

Celestia shook her head and said, "What a shame, forcing those ponies to build something that unnecessary. She could have at least asked me if she could hire Canterlot's best builders."

Luna shrugged her shoulders in disgust and said, "I guess sometimes everypony can surprise you with her actions."

Celestia headed back into the throne room and said, "I guess you are right. I didn't expect this from Twily."

Back in Ponyville Twilight was levitating all the iron her laborers had brought and was using her magic to weld it together. She used the last of the iron to finish it. Her tower was much taller than Chrysalis's tower in the south and far taller than Sombra's castle in the Crystal Empire. Twilight looked up at her new tower with a big smile of her face. She looked over at her laborers with a grin and said, "Thank you everypony. I know you didn't like the way you were brought here but don't worry, you will not be bound in chains here. There will be plenty of things to do here. I will need ponies to patrol the outer realms of my empire."

Twilight looked at her tower and then remembered Sombra talking about iron rusting. She knew a spell to prevent iron from rusting, she recited the spell, "The iron must not rust, this is a must, the tower must always stand, so I may watch over my land, for this shall be my home from which I can watch everypony roam." Her horn began to glow black and purple and her energy went to the tower. She could tell by the appearance of her tower that the spell worked.

Twilight started flapping her wings, flying up and down along the outside of the tower. It was everything she ever wanted. She started screaming, "Yes, yes, yes! This is perfect!" Twilight then landed at the base of her tower, went into her new tower and took a look around. She walked up to the upper floor to find her master bedroom was attached to her balcony, which faced the west. She thought to herself, "I love this! I can't wait for Chrysi and Sombra to come visit!"

Twilight flew off her balcony down to where the housing for her slaves was being built. She was not impressed at how slowly the construction was going on. She looked at the foreman with a scowl and said, "Forget it, this is going to be far too slow and my slaves do not need to wait a month and a half for their houses to be built."

"What do you expect us to do? We are building these as fast as we possibly can." said the foreman

Twilight's horn began to glow and she shot multiple bolts of energy at various places on the ground, causing barracks to appear. She created enough of them to accommodate all the ponies she had brought here. "There," said Twilight "this is more like it."

The foreman looked in shock at Twilight and said, "Your Majesty, those look amazing!"

Twilight replied, "Well if you are loyal to me, you will be rewarded handsomely. The ponies I brought here from Fillydelphia have proven themselves worthy of my rewards. However, if anypony is disloyal to me, they will wish they were never born."

Twilight then decided the time had come to launch the attack to take Equestria. She decided the time had come to attack Canterlot. She would need to travel to Chrysalis's southern realm to get her and her army and then she would need to travel to the Crystal Empire to get Sombra and his army if they are to succeed.

General Green Haze walked up next to Twilight and said, "You appear to be deep in thought. What is running through your mind?"

Twilight replied, "Well I have some traveling to do. I need to get our allies and their armies here to Ponyville. Once they are all here. The time for the assault on Canterlot will have come. I need you to stay here and keep things in order. I will be gone for at least three days."

"So when do you plan on leaving to gather our allies?" asked Green Haze

"I will leave in two days. I do want adequate rest as this will be a lot of traveling. Besides, I do want a couple of nights rest in my new bedroom before I head out." said Twilight

Twilight then walked into her new tower, she was still as ecstatic as a school filly that her tower was done. She went into her bedroom and sprawled out on her new bed and thought to herself, "This is going to be tough but in the end I will be on the throne in Canterlot."

Gathering of the Dark Forces

Twilight had been in her tower for two days when the day arrived that she would go and gather her allies. The sun woke her up and she headed out to her balcony. She looked out from her balcony and scanned her empire. Her general landed next to her and said, "You have a absolutely spectacular view from up here, don't you?"

Twilight replied, "Yes Green Haze, I have a view to die for. I suppose I better eat a good breakfast before I head off to the south to visit Chrysalis. I am going to need all the strength I can get. Let's go eat."

Twilight and her general headed into the dining hall and had a tasty breakfast which consisted of eggs, bacon, toast, sliced apples and hay. Twilight ate a double serving of everything and downed a pitcher of cider with it.

Twilight then went back to her balcony ready to take off. Green Haze ran to the balcony and said, "Do you want me to come with you?"

"No," replied Twilight "I need you to stay here and make everypony know that I am just on a trip and not abdicating the throne."

"I understand that Twilight. You have a safe trip." said Green Haze

Twilight spread her wings and took off towards the south. Once she left her empire she sped up and broke the sound barrier, creating a loud boom accompanied by a purple wave. She very quickly reached the realm of Chrysalis. Chrysalis was looking off towards the north when she saw a purple figure approaching. She said to herself, "That is Twilight coming, I bet she has got everything ready for our assault on Canterlot."

Twilight reached Chrysalis's tower, landed on the balcony and said, "Chrysi, how is everything going! It is good to see you again."

"It is good to see you again too Twily! How is everything going?"

Twilight told Chrysalis that everything was going alright. She also told her that Sombra is with them regarding the attack on Canterlot and told her about her successful raid on Fillydelphia and the completion of her tower.

Chrysalis said, "Wow, you have been busy here lately. You are definitely dead set on conquering all of Equestria."

"Of course I am!" replied Twilight "You honestly think that I am just going to settle for the realm Celestia gave me? We didn't form this alliance to have three separate small empires. We formed it to conquer all of Equestria!" said Twilight

Twilight and Chrysalis went into her throne room and discussed their plans. "Are there any of Canterlot's royal guard living in the southern realm of Equestria?" asked Chrysalis wondering if it would be safe for her to take her whole army with her.

Twilight replied, "Nopony lives within 300 miles of your realm. Southern Equestria is an uninhabited wasteland, well that is what Celestia called it." replied Twilight

Queen Chrysalis realized that she would be able to take her whole changeling army to Ponyville to prepare for the assault on Canterlot. This made both leaders very happy.

"Before we leave we will need to cast the invisibility spell on you and your army. We can not have Celestia or anypony else in Canterlot seeing you guys heading into my empire." said Twilight "Once you are ready to leave we will do that. Do you remember the spell or do you want me to cast it?"

Chrysalis replied, "I am ready. Iron Sheath, I need you to gather every single changeling and gather around me. I am about to cast an invisibility spell on us."

The general replied, "You know that kind of magic now? How did you learn it?"

Chrysalis said, "Twily taught it to me. We are allies now and she wants all of us to know the same magic before we go to war against Canterlot."

General Iron Sheath then gathered all the changelings around Chrysalis. As her horn began to glow green she recited, "Whether it be one or a bunch of ones, nopony needs to see so that we don't have to flee, invisibility is the treat of not having to retreat."

Suddenly Chrysalis and her army were invisible. Twilight said, "Let's get going. It is a long flight back to Ponyville and I still have to head to the Crystal Empire today." Twilight, Chrysalis and her army then sped northwards towards Ponyville.

Back in Canterlot Celestia has shut herself in her room and can be heard crying all the way out in the throne room. Spike and his friends are wondering what is going on. "What is going on with her Princess?" asked Applejack

Luna replied, "Dear Applejack, I am not 100% sure what is going on but I think the horrible reality that Twilight has betrayed Equestria has finally hit her. She loved Twilight like she were her own child. I think that she loved Twilight even more than her own parents did."

Spike went on to say, "Yeah, I know she loved Twilight more than anything else in the world. Why do you think she helped her out any way she could? She loved Twilight so much that she even let her stay in Ponyville after she finally discovered what friendship is. It may not have seemed like it, but I know that was tough on her."

Nopony had ever seen Celestia so distraught. Soon she could be heard crying all over Canterlot. This caused a lot of ponies to wonder what was going on. Very soon Twilight's parents, Crescent Sparkle and Twilight Velvet came rushing to the castle. The royal guard, knowing they are Twilight's parents, let her in. They ran to the throne room to find Princess Luna, Twilight's friends and Spike. Twilight Velvet looked at Luna and said, "Your Majesty, why is Celestia crying so hard?"

Luna replied, "It involves Twilight. There is a strong suspicion that Twilight has betrayed Equestria and has joined the dark alliance of King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis to conquer Equestria."

"Why would you think that?" asked Crescent Sparkle. "Twilight is as loyal to you two as they come"

Luna then took the two to the balcony and had them look off to the east. "You see that purple force field and that dark tower? Twilight has shut off her realm from the rest of Equestria and that tower closely resembles Chrysalis's tower in the far south of our country." said Luna

"Is there anyway we could speak with Princess Celestia?" asked Twilight Velvet

Luna replied, "I will go see if I can talk to her, but I don't think she will be in the mood to talk. I have never seen her like this before. I will be back."

Luna headed back towards Celestia's room and knocked on the door. "Luna said, Celestia, we have company and it is very important that you be out here. They want to talk to you."

"Go away!" shouted Celestia "I don't want to talk to anypony right now."

Luna replied, "It is Twilight's parents. They are wondering why you are crying so loudly. They thought maybe something horrible had happened to their daughter."

Celestia jumped up off her bed and said, "Ok, I will see them." Celestia walked with Luna back out to the throne room to find Twilight's parents waiting.

"Your Majesties, we are wondering why you are crying so hard. Did something happen to Twilight or did she do something to hurt your feelings?" asked Twilight Velvet

"I'm not sure what happened with Twilight. Ever since not too long after the coronation something didn't seem right about her. She stopped replying to my letters." sobbed Celestia

Spike continued, "Yeah and then one night she got home and there was another her waiting for her. They had a staring contest and the other Twilight won and then headed back towards the south."

Luna went on to tell them about how Spike had said that the next morning Twilight said she had business to take care of in Canterlot but sped off to the south where Queen Chrysalis lives and how not too long after that she put up a force field and started having a tower built.

Crescent Sparkle had this worried look on his face and said, "I have a very bad feeling that she did indeed turn on you two. I know you may think I sound crazy but sometimes I get these feelings, kind of like a sixth sense."

Celestia looked at him and said, "No, I don't think you are crazy. Luna has these feelings all the time and I have always ignored her and now I have come to the realization that she is right."

Twilight Velvet then asked the two if they know why they hadn't heard from Shining Armor in a while. She said that normally they hear from him regularly.

Luna replied, "Well, I have a bad feeling that the Crystal Emire fell to a joint force between King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis. Naturally my big sister just blew it off and now there is nothing we can do because rumor has it that Sombra has a massive army in the empire with him."

Crescent Sparkle and Twilight Velvet both started to cry knowing that their son is most likely being held captive by the evil unicorn king and that their daughter has been corrupted into a wicked mare.

Luna told the two, "We will figure something out. What, I don't know yet but we won't just let things remain the way they are."

That made Twilight's parents feel a little better and then they headed home.

Back in the far south Twilight departed with Chrysalis and her army. It took a while longer to fly back to Ponyville than it did for Twilight to get to Chrysalis's realm because changelings can not fly as fast as an Alicorn. They finally arrived back in Ponyville around 3 in the afternoon. Once they got to Twilight's tower Chrysalis cast the counter spell to make herself and her army visible again.

"Twily, what are you going to do now?" asked Chrysalis

Twilight replied, "I must now fly off to the Crystal Empire. I have to leave immediately so I can get there at a decent time. I will not return until tomorrow as it will be too late to fly back after I am done meeting with him."

"Why do you say that Twily?" asked Chrysalis

Twilight told Chrysalis that she and Sombra will have to round up the necessary forces for their assault on the capitol and that since Sombra and his army can't fly, that it won't be a quick trip, even to the northern edge of the Everfree Forest, much less Ponyville.

Twilight took off towards the Crystal Empire with great speed. She arrived there much sooner than she had expected, around 4:30. She crossed the dome barrier and headed towards Sombra's tower.

Sombra was looking off to the south when he saw a purple figure approaching. He shouted, "Twily, how's it going?"

Twilight flew in and landed next to him and said, "Everything is going alright. Chrysalis and her forces are already in Ponyville. I think we should leave early tomorrow morning to get your forces inside my realm. From here it is approximately an eight hour march from here, across the arctic and to the northern most part of the Everfree Forest, where my force field starts."

Sombra nodded and said, "Wow, I didn't know it was that far. So if we leave tomorrow morning and we hit the northernmost part of your empire around 4 in the afternoon, when do you think we would arrive in Ponyville?"

Twilight told him that it would depend as to whether they marched over night or if they rested for the night once they got into the forest. She told him that if they took a short rest and then marched through the forest at night that they may arrive around one in the morning or if they rested until dawn the next day that they would arrive around four in the afternoon.

Sombra asked, "Which would you do? We don't know our way through the Everfree Forest and I know that you do."

Twilight thought about it for a minute and said, "I would suggest you guys get a little ways into the forest and then rest for the night. I will rest with you because that forest is hard enough to navigate during the day, much less at night. I know that forest like the back of my hoof so I will be able to guide your forces through the forest easily."

Sombra said, "Thank you Twily, you are probably the best ally anypony could ever have. Let's go get some supper. I am guessing that you are probably hungry."

"Yes," replied Twilight, "I haven't ate anything since breakfast as I have already been to Chrysalis's realm and got them back to Ponyville. So yeah, let's eat."

The two ate and laughed about how well things are going so far. Sombra went into more detail of how easy it was to conquer the Crystal Empire and Twilight went into detail of how she used her own changeling army to round up the necessary labor from Fillydelphia to get done what she needed done.

Sombra asked, "What are you going to do with the ponies you took from the big city?"

Twilight went on to tell him about how she will make some of them her personal chefs, how some will become groundskeepers for Ponyville and how those who are the strongest she will turn them into soldiers.

Sombra asked, "Wait a minute, aren't you worried that the soldiers will defect and aid Canterlot and that the chefs will try to poison you?"

"Don't worry, I have already brainwashed them. Chrysalis taught me how she did that when I joined the dark alliance." replied Twilight

Twilight told Sombra that they along with his army need to get some rest because she wants to leave before dawn. She said that maybe, just maybe if they leave before dawn, they can reach Ponyville just after sunset tomorrow.

They, along with all of Sombra's soldiers, retired for the night. Twilight woke them up at 3 in the morning so they could have a bite to eat before they headed off on their march. They got done eating just before 4 and they started their march southward.

The arctic was unusually calm that morning. It was cold but the wind was not blowing and the snow was not falling. They ultimately reached the end of the arctic and temperatures started to rise and there was no snow on the ground. off in the distance there was a purple haze. Sombra asked, "What is that purple haze on the horizon?"

Twilight replied, "That is the beginning of my realm. I think we should take a short rest once we get through my force field. There is some food in the northern part of the Everfree Forest to fill up on. It will primarily be leaves but it is better than nothing at all."

Right around noon Twilight, Sombra and his army crossed into Twilight's empire. They were glad to get out of the chilly norther realm and actually had something to eat.

"Twily, how long will we be resting for?" asked Sombra

Twily replied, "We will be resting for an hour. If we leave around one, we will reach Ponyville by 8, just as the sun is setting. We can then fill up and then the three of us can discuss our battle plans."

The hour passed way too quickly for Sombra's army as they were still quite tired. They continued their march southward towards Ponyville as time seemed to crawl for Sombra's forces. They felt like they were going to pass out as they exited the Everfree Forest and entered the outskirts of Ponyville. They finally reached Twilight's tower and they were greeted by Chrysalis, "Twily, Sombra!" shouted a happy Chrysalis, "How is everything going?"

Sombra replied, "Well I'm a bit tired and my army is dead tired. I didn't know if they were going to make it."

Twilight said, "Well let's all eat, us three and our armies. "Sombra and I are hungry and I know his army is starving."

Sombra's army, Twilight's army and Chrysalis's army all had their meal outside in the training area while the three leaders had a lavish dinner, the biggest one that both Sombra and Chrysalis had ever seen.

"Wow Twily, you really outdid yourself this time!" said Chrysalis

"It was my chefs that put this together. They know that when I have company, especially company as important as you two, that a huge meal is necessary. When Luna asked me if I was going to build a tower and I initially said no, she had this odd look on her face. Now I know why she thought I was nuts for not wanting to have one built. This is how a queen should live!"

Chrysalis asked her allies, "So what are our plans involving the upcoming assault?"

Twilight replied, "Chrysi, let's just relax for tonight. Sombra and I just got back from a very long journey. We have time to discuss this. Besides, we have to train our forces for this anyway."

Sombra added, "Twily is right, let's just relax for the night. This meal is way too good to discuss military matters over. It is a time to relax and laugh over the lighter things in life."

They stayed up until 11 when Twilight told them it is time to go to bed. She said, "We need to get some rest. Tomorrow we start training exercises for our military and we can start discussing the best routes for our attack. Good night everypony."

Her allies wished her a good night as well and they all fell asleep and got plenty of rest.

Preparing for the Assault

Morning came too soon for Sombra's army as they were still exhausted from yesterday's long march. The sun shined in through Twilight's window and she headed to her balcony to look over Ponyville. All seemed calm and there were no problems going on. She then cast her sights towards Canterlot wondering if they know anything about what is going on in her realm.

She then heads to the dining hall and is greeted by Sombra and Chrysalis. Chrysalis said, "Twily, we thought you weren't coming. We were thinking we could have one more pleasant meal before we discuss any plans."

Twilight replied, "That is a good idea Chrysi. Personally I am thinking that perhaps meals shouldn't be a time to discuss business at all."

Sombra agreed with Twilight and said that he had done some research and that leaders who do not discuss battle plans over their meals are much more likely to lead their armies into victory. He also told them of how armies that keep battle plan discussion out of their meals are almost always more focused and have a much higher morale. Twilight told them that they need to let their armies know this.

They marched down to the base of the tower and all their soldiers stood at attention. Twilight said, "Today we are going to start our military exercises, but there is one thing I need to tell you first. It involves something that successful armies all around the world have done since the first war. Do not discuss battle plans during your meals. Don't even discuss the battle or war itself. Just discuss ordinary things among yourselves. Just relax and perhaps tell funny jokes you know. Your breakfast is coming, fill up guys! And remember, no discussing the upcoming war. Don't even discuss the military exercises, enjoy yourselves!"

The three leaders headed into the throne room and began to discuss battle strategy. "Twilight, you know what sort of defenses Canterlot has." said Chrysalis "What do you suggest we do."

Twilight replied, "We need to use a plan similar to what you used during the time of the royal family. There will be no force of love to stop such an attack this time. Cadence and Shining Armor are imprisoned in the Crystal Empire. Sombra, there is a ramp that goes around the mountain that your forces can go up. It leads into the backside of Canterlot. Your forces can get into the city unnoticed."

Sombra said, "Wow Twily, you have this planned out very well."

Twilight replied, "Well I know the city like the back of my hoof. An aerial assault will distract the royal guard while our ground assault will catch them off guard. Also, the only real threats are Celestia and Luna. There is no actual army that protects any part of Equestria, because it is full of love and harmony and the princesses have never thought there would be any threats, either from abroad or from within."

Chrysalis asked Twilight why she was so worried about Celestia and Luna. She said that they were only two ponies and that they should be able to take them down easily. She reminded Twilight about how she knocked out Celestia during the royal wedding.

Twilight replied, "That is true. Celestia may not be that big of a problem but it is Princess Luna that could be a problem. She has a different type of magic, a type of magic that requires different energies to defeat. She also has the ability to turn into Nightmare Moon. When she does that, she uses energies very similar to what you two have used for ages and to what I now use. Also, when she is in her Nightmare Moon form, she is far more powerful than anypony I know."

Chrysalis asked, "Twilight, you have all of the Elements of Harmony with you now. Couldn't you just use those to defeat Nightmare Moon?"

Twilight replied, "I wish, but I can only bear one element, the element of magic, and this element now has different energies and will not work with the other five. I am thinking the best way to defeat Luna, whether she is herself or if she is Nightmare Moon, is to keep her from leaving Canterlot. If she gets out of Canterlot, she will be impossible to find and we will always have that threat out there."

"Wow, you really know your stuff." said Chrysalis "Think we should go have our armies start their exercises."

"Yeah, we should. We need to have them ready for the assault. The new moon is in seven days and I think an attack at night will be the most effective. Luna takes off to do her night time patrols shortly after she raises the moon and everypony else becomes pretty oblivious to everything else going on at night."

In Canterlot Celestia is quickly becoming a nervous wreck. She is still trying to come to terms with Twilight's betrayal and the sudden risk that could soon strike their city. Luna was standing out on the balcony facing Ponyville. She then sees something going on to the south of Ponyville. It looks a lot like a war but it is too well structured to be any kind of battle. She then looks harder and sees King Sombra standing their by the exercises. She also notices Twilight and Chrysalis floating above their soldiers. Luna has a worried look on here face and rushed back to Celestia's room. She found Celestia back there sobbing and covered up entirely with her blanket.

Luna shouted, "Snap out of it big sister! You need to come to the balcony now. We need to do something. Twilight and her allies are prepping their forces for an attack of some sort."

Celestia got up reluctantly and said, "Ok little sister, I will take a look but I have a feeling you are just seeing things."

Celestia followed Luna to the balcony and looked off towards the south of Ponyville. She is shocked by what she sees. She sees an army of over 5,000 dark unicorns and well in excess of 10,000 changelings. She said to Luna, "What have I done? I have created a monster. I should have never taught her the duplication spell. For all we know, she could turn those forces into a huge army of over 100,000."

Luna patted her sister on the back and said, "You didn't know this would happen big sister. You never thought that Twilight would become the way she has."

Celestia said, "I think we need to go to the dining room and have a snack. I think some food will comfort me."

Luna said, "Good idea, I am hungry anyway. We do have one thing we can hope for. We have to hope that something will cause those three to turn on each other. Chances are though, it won't happen until they achieve their objective, which is to take Canterlot, which would make Equestria theirs."

"How are we supposed to stop a force that large? "asked a sobbing Celestia, "We don't even have a normal army, we just have the royal guard and I don't know if our magic will be enough to counter theirs. I know Twilight has become far more powerful now, and her powers are probably increasing exponentially by the day. I just feel like it is my fault."

Luna replied, "Big sister, the first thing we need to do is have composure. If we don't both have our composure, Canterlot will fall in less than 5 minutes. Our city needs both of us to be at our most aware if we are to defeat them. We are the only two here that has the power to do this, the royal guard, while they are strong, does not possess the powerful magic we do. If you are distraught like this, your magic will not work and I can't do this alone."

Celestia looked up and smiled, realizing that Luna has complete and absolute confidence in her. While both of them have always had their differences on everything, Celestia finally felt like they were on the same page. As they got into the dining hall, Celestia looked at Luna with a determined look in her face and said, "Canterlot will not fall, Equestria will not fall. We will do this little sister. Thank you so much for snapping me out of my despair. The citizens of Canterlot and all of Equestria need to be our top priority."

"Now that is the big sister that I love and hold so dear." said a happy Luna. "The new moon is in seven days. I have a feeling that they will attack on that night. Twilight knows that I go out on my nightly patrols every night. That night though, I will remain here. We will defeat their dark alliance."

Celestia looked at Luna and asked, "What will we do with the three leaders?"

Luna replied, Well with Sombra and Chrysalis, I want to cast them into the void, from which they will never escape. Regarding Twilight, I am hoping there is some way to cleanse the darkness that has overcome her. I believe that since she has not been corrupted for that long, that she can be brought back to what she used to be."

"You really think so?" asked Celestia

Luna knows how much Celestia loves Twilight and while she won't admit it, she loves Twilight a lot as well. Luna replied, "Yes Celestia, I believe she can be brought back. Now we need to clear our minds and focus. You and I are the only two who can defend our city. If we fail, I don't even want to think about what sort of fate awaits us."

Celestia said, "I know, if we fail being kicked out of Equestria would be an easy punishment. I don't think those three would go so easy on us."

"Me either," said Luna, "while Sombra and Chrysalis are pure evil, I could see Twilight trying to prove to her allies that she is equally as evil if not more evil and give us a terrible punishment. Enough of all this negative talk, let's go have a snack and clear our minds."

Back in Ponyville the three leaders watch their soldiers' military exercise and are pleased with what they see. The three grin and talk among themselves how they have this in the bag, how there is no force in Equestria that could stop them.

Chrysalis realized something and said, "Wait a minute Twily, you said that Canterlot does not have a standing army, just some royal guardsponies. Why are we having them do these exercises then?"

Twilight replied, "We need to keep them focused. Yes the royal guard consists of mostly pegasus ponies and a few unicorns but we need our forces to be a well oiled military machine. We need them to be as focused as possible."

Sombra added, "It is always good to have your forces prepared for anything. Twilight has been away from Canterlot for a couple of weeks now. They may have actually formed an actual military since then."

This caused Chrysalis to realize that her two allies are right, that simply firing bolts of energy may not be enough, that there may be hoof to hoof combat in the streets. Chrysalis looked up in the sky as Luna raised the moon and asked Twilight, "How much longer until the new moon?"

Twilight replied, "It is four more days until the new moon. I believe that on the final day before our assault, we should have our forces rest. The absolute best military is well rested, has a full stomach, alert, well composed and loyal. We have the loyal part down, we just need to make sure that the other four attributes exist as well."

"Let's all get some rest." said Twilight "the leaders need to have all five of those attributes as well."

With that the three leaders turned in for the night and the armies headed to bed as well, getting some much needed sleep.

The Fall of Canterlot

The day of the attack finally arrived. Twilight and her allies were in the throne room discussing their final strategies. Twilight offered a suggestion. She said, "I know of an even better way to sneak up on them, we need to make ourselves invisible. Yes I know it will be very dark given that it will be the new moon but there will still be a bit of light radiating from the torches around the city. We don't cast the counter spell until we are right there in their faces."

Sombra replied, "You know Twily, you have to be one of the smartest leaders out there."

Chrysalis added, "You don't seem to be afraid of anything. I am guessing that your advanced knowledge of magic is probably part of that."

Twilight nodded and signaled for them to head down to the base of her tower. She stood before the massive army and said, "All of you have done well in your training. The attack is tonight. There will be no training exercises as I need you guys to be well rested, have a full stomach, have plenty of composure and be alert."

General Iron Sheath said, "My queen, what time do we plan on launching our attack?"

Chrysalis replied, "We will start to head towards Canterlot shortly after the sun has set. There is a new moon tonight so there will be no moonlight to alert them of our coming."

Sombra added, "Also, Queen Twilight Sparkle has a master plan to make detecting us all the harder. Tell them about your plan Twily."

Twilight said to them, "I know an invisibility spell. It will allow us to attack them completely by surprise. I will cast this spell on all of you. We will be sending Sombra's unicorn soldiers in first. There is a ramp on the side of the castle that leads to the back of Canterlot. That will allow the unicorn soldiers to get to the main part of Canterlot undetected while our changeling army attacks from the air."

General Dark Night said, "Your Majesty, that sounds like a great plan. No wonder King Sombra is always talking about how smart you are when he is around me."

"Well when you've had your nose in books since you were a young filly, you tend to have a great deal of knowledge." said Twilight

In Canterlot, Celestia is not nearly as calm and collected as the leaders of the Dark Alliance are. She is in the throne room pacing back and forth frantically. Luna enters the throne room and tells Celestia, "Big Sister, what did I tell you about not being so nervous? You need to calm down and focus. Like I said before, I can't do this alone."

Celestia replied, "I know little sister but still, the fate of all Equestria rests on what happens tonight. I don't know how you can be so calm right now. Do you even care about the battle tonight?"

Luna looked at Celestia with a scowl and said, "Yes, I care Celestia. I just know that you can't be a nervous wreck going into battle. I know that we can accomplish this. Yes 2 alicorns versus an army of over 15,000 sounds like a suicide mission, especially when one of their leaders is an Alicorn herself."

Celestia replied, "I am sorry to have doubted you. I do know though that Twilight knows all my weaknesses and she has probably shared them with not only Sombra and Chrysalis, but with all their soldiers. I wonder if we shouldn't just surrender and see if they will let us go into exile somewhere else?"

Luna's jaw dropped open at this comment and suddenly she became very angry and shouted, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME? YOU WANT US TO JUST SURRENDER? FINE, BE MY GUEST. I WON'T GO DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT."

"But Luna, what are you going to do if things get bad during battle and it is a matter of us being put in chains or us having to flee the battle and go into exile, what are you going to do?" said Celestia

"Good point big sister, " replied Luna "we will figure something out."

Back in Ponyville the afternoon was transitioning to the evening. Twilight gathered her allies with all their soldiers out in the courtyard and said, "Ok everypony, i can see in your eyes that you are just as focused as I am. It is time for our last meal before we go into battle. Clear your mind, enjoy your meal and the company of one another and stay relaxed. I along with Chrysalis and King Sombra will be eating out here with you. We are not a bunch of individuals. We are one, well oiled military machine."

The changeling army and the unicorn soldiers cheered loudly hearing this coming from Twilight. All at once they shouted, "To our leaders, to the dark alliance, to Queen Twilight, to King Sombra, to Queen Chrysalis!"

The three leaders stood before their armies with big smiles on their faces, even blushing a bit. Twilight's chefs brought out a massive feast for the leaders and their massive army. This was a feast that even Twilight had never seen as a filly up in Canterlot. Everypony was eating when Green Haze sat down next to Twilight and said, "Twily this food is delicious! Where did you get it?"

Twilight replied, "We have a lot of good farms around here. The farms here produce the finest food in all of Equestria, whether it be apples, beef, carrots, oats, hay, etc. The soil here is nutrient rich and that is why the food is so good."

Green Haze replied, "I am so happy you have such good food for us. I am happy as can be right now!"

"That is good," replied Twilight "enjoy the rest of your meal, the sun is setting." replied Twilight

In Canterlot Celestia just set the sun and Luna raised the dark new moon. Yes, even though you can't see it, a new moon has to be raised just the same as any other. Luna stood guard out on the balcony facing Ponyville. Celestia walked up to her and said, "Any signs of the invasion yet?"

Luna replied, "No, not yet. I would not count on them launching their attack until after the sun has been down for a while."

Celestia looked confused and asked Luna why they would wait.

Luna said, "They want to wait until a decent portion of the city is asleep. They figure that if some of the city's residents are asleep, there will be much less resistance. I have studied war tactics and that is how night attacks work."

Celestia was trying to calm herself down as she was standing by the more alert Luna but she just couldn't do it. She was thinking to herself, "If we lose, I have a bad feeling it will be because I can't control my fears the way Luna can."

A couple hours had past since the sun had set when Twilight gave her allies and their armies the signal. She said to them, "The time is now, the time to complete our conquest is upon us. We shall not fail." She then went on to tell them that she needs to put the invisibility spell upon everypony, including herself.

Twilight gathers in the center of the army with Sombra and Chrysalis, her horn begins to glow purple as she recited," Whether it be one or a bunch of ones, nopony needs to see so that we don't have to flee, invisibility is the treat of not having to retreat"

Suddenly Twilight, her allies and the whole army become invisible. Twilight shouts, "TO WAR, TO VICTORY!"

The dark alliance's soldiers cheer loudly and then go quiet as they leave the protective dome of Twilight's realm. They stop about one mile east of Canterlot. Twilight tells Sombra, ok, you see that ramp on the left side of the city. It will take you to the back of the city and you can launch your attack from back there."

"I can see it. There is just enough torch light coming from the city to see it." replied Sombra

"Chrysalis, you along with our changelings will continue to fly towards the city. We will stop about a quarter of a mile away from it. You see that balcony way up there?" said Twilight

"Yes, I see it Twily." replied Chrysalis

"It has not been used in over a hundred years. I am going to go land on the top of it. When the time is right, I will perform a reversal spell for the invisibility spell. This is going to behave differently. Since we are all spread out, this one will show up as a large purple ball of energy at the top of my horn and then it will release, making us all visible and then we can attack them. It will be as though we have come out from nowhere." said Twilight

Chrysalis asked, "Why do we have to be visible during the attack? Why can't we just attack them while we are invisible?"

Twilight replied, "Magic used for attacks is very weak when one is invisible. Also, if you are to try to physically attack an enemy, such as kick them, you will simply pass straight through them, the same way a spirit does."

"Ok, that makes much more sense Twily. You really had me confused there for a minute." said Chrysalis

Twilight, Chrysalis and their changelings reached the point that they would wait for Sombra and his unicorns to reach the main level of Canterlot. Twilight flew up to the top of the old balcony and waited.

Luna was standing on the balcony facing east and waiting for any signs of trouble. Celestia asked "Luna, any signs of trouble yet?"

Luna replied, "No, there are no signs of any attack yet. I am wondering if perhaps they knew we were expecting them tonight and decided to push their attack back."

Celestia said, "You might be right Luna. If that is the case all it will do is push back the inevitable, that we will have to ultimately face.

Luna replied, "I know big sister." Suddenly Luna saw a bright purple light glowing from the top of one of the towers. She could not figure out which one though.

Twilight, up on the tower recited, "The unseen shall now be seen. With her friends being present, hiding only shows resent, those who have disappeared, shall now appear."

The ball of purple energy exploded going in all directions, making Twilight and her allies visible. Luna saw changelings charging towards the castle. "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK! CELESTIA, GET OUT HERE! WE NEED TO DEFEND OUR CITY!" shouted Luna.

Celestia came running to the balcony and was terrified by what she saw. She began to panic and fell to her knees. Luna began firing bolts of energy at the changelings and yelled, "Celestia, you can't panic right now. We are under seige!"

Luna continued firing bolts of energy at the changelings, killing them as she hit them. Celestia was on the balcony when suddenly a very familiar figure landed in front of her, Twilight Sparkle.

"Twilight, what has happened to you? I never thought you would do this." sobbed Celestia

"That is QUEEN TWILIGHT to you Celestia. I always knew that you would be the one to panic in the event of an attack. Luna is up there killing changelings while you are here crying your eyes out. Quite funny I think, if I were her I would banish you to the sun for a thousand years for being a coward." shouted Twilight

Luna continued to kill changelings as Sombra and his unicorns stormed through the main level of Canterlot. They fired bolts of energy at the residents of Canterlot, scaring them immensely. The changelings flew above the main level and fired bolts of energy, damaging buildings and scaring everypony.

Spike and Twilight's friends were in the VIP room when they heard and saw all this happening. "What in tarnation is going on out there?" asked Applejack

Fluttershy replied, "Oh no, we are under attack by the changelings. What do we do?"

Rainbow Dash said, "Look, there is a closet. Let's hide in it for now. I am sure Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are doing their best to handle the invasion."

They all ran and hid in the closet. Spike said in a low voice, "Geez I wish Twilight were here. I don't know what has happened to her, if she is still alive, if she has gone mad or if she simply doesn't care."

Applejack said, "Shhh. We don't want them hearing us."

Back on the balcony Celestia finally got up on her hooves and saw a wrathful Twilight stand there laughing at her cries. This put the fight in Celestia that was so important at this time. She said, "Alright Twilight, this means war!"

Celestia began to shoot a beam at Twilight but she fired her own energy back. Their energies met and the two were trying to knock the other one out. Celestia said, "Twilight Sparkle, you little tyrant, I wish I had never taken you in as a student. After we win this, you're going to the moon forever!'

Twilight using as much energy as she had to repel Celestia's energy replied, "In your dreams commoner. Bow down before the Dark Queen or you shall meet your own death."

This struck Celestia wrong and she got sad, at the absolute wrong time possible. Twilight easily overpowered Celestia and knocked her out cold. Twilight saw that Luna was killing off a lot of her changelings so she aimed her horn at where a lot of them had bunched together and shouted, "From one to two, two to four and so much more. When one is simple mere, more and more shall appear."

This more than countered the changelings that Luna had killed. Twilight was flying through the battle when she saw Green Haze in Luna's cross hairs. "Green Haze, move! Luna is about to kill you!" Before he could react, Luna's powerful bolt of energy incinerated Green Haze. This enraged Twilight, she knew that trying to attack Luna was a mistake, so she went back after Celestia.

Celestia was coming to when she saw Twilight return. "Twilight, please stop. What did I ever do to you? I always treated you like a daughter." said Celestia as she started to cry harder and harder.

Twilight yelled, "What did you do? What did you do? Does it matter? You sit up here acting like you are the greatest thing in the world when you aren't any different than anypony else."

Luna saw Twilight yelling at Celestia and shouted, "Celestia, the city is lost, we must retreat. We have to go some place safe. Come with me and you will soon discover where."

Twilight looked up and shouted, "Come take your precious big sister. Just get out of Equestria, IT IS MINE, ALL MINE!"

Luna levitated Celestia and carried with her as she sped off to the west, heading towards the Pegasus Ocean.

Twilight shouted, "AT EASE!"

Suddenly the battle stopped and Chrysalis flew over to Twilight and said, "Twily, why did you stop the battle, we were winning."

Twilight got a smile on her face and said, "Chrysi, we won. Luna and Celestia are leaving Equestria. They fled towards the Pegasus Ocean. Equestria belongs to us now."

Twilight and Chrysalis fly down to Sombra and tell him that they had won and that they now had rule over all of Equestria. Sombra smiled over this news and said, "This is truly a great day for our alliance. We were able to drive out Celestia and Luna! Equestria is ours, forever!"

Twilight replied, "Yes this is a great triumph for all of us but now we need to figure out how we are going to rule. Are we going to rule everything together, making decisions together or are we going to divide Equestria into three large empires and each one of us rule that?"

Chrysalis told them that this was a very important thing to discuss but that they along with their soldiers should get some rest, as it has been a long day and that they had just fought a very tough battle. Both of her allies agreed and they all headed to their new sleeping quarters.

Twilight headed to what was Celestia's bedroom and thought to herself, "I have to share power? Well I can not let that happen. I think I know what to do." Twilight left Celestia's old bedroom and headed to the Canterlot Archives, which survived the attack unscathed. She said to herself, "I know there are spells in here to banish those two and spells to brainwash their forces to be loyal to me and loyal to me alone. I will not share power with anypony. Equestria shall belong to Queen Twilight Sparkle and nopony else."

A Time to Regroup

Luna and Celestia continued flying west as they finally started crossing the Pegasus Ocean as they headed towards the place Luna knows they will be safe. She is still levitating Celestia as she is not sure if she can fly on her own yet. She yells to Celestia, "Do you think you can fly on your own yet?"

Celestia can barely hear her but replies, "Yeah, I can try."

Upon hearing this, Luna stops levitating her. Celestia at first fell a decent distance but then started flying like normal. Celestia said to Luna, "I think I'm going to be ok now. Thanks for getting me out of that situation."

"I could tell you were not in good shape and I was starting to wonder if Twilight was going to try to kill you." replied Luna

They continued to head west at a faster speed. Finally they see land on the horizon. Celestia asks, "What is that on the horizon? Are we approaching Saddle Arabia?"

"No," said Luna, "we are approaching Alicorn Island. This is where we will be safe and it is where we can regroup and hopefully get some allies to take back Canterlot and hopefully all of Equestria."

Celestia asked with excitement, "We're going to see mom and dad?"

Luna gave Celestia a smile and said, "Yes, we are going to see mom and dad. I know they told us to only come to them if there was an extreme emergency. Well, this would be classified as an extreme emergency."

They started to cross over the land as they could see Faustica approaching, the city where their parents live. Tired, they landed down on the main street. "Do you even remember where mom and dad live? asked Celestia

"Big sister, they are the king and queen here, they live in the palace up there on that hill. Did you forget?" replied Luna

Celestia said, "I did forget. I had a nervous breakdown before the battle, thought I was going to get killed in battle and am very tired now."

Luna seemed a bit irritated but told Celestia that they need to get up to the palace as she is also tired and that she is hungry. "I miss mom's cooking so much. I just hope she will still cook us something to eat. After all, nothing beats mom's cooking." said Luna

They approach the castle where two guards who appear to be in the military stopped them. "Who are you two?" asked the guard

The other guard interrupts and said, "Can't you tell by their cutie marks, mane and coat colors that they are the daughters of the king and queen? Come on your Majesties, I will lead you to the throne room."

As they went into the throne room they could see Queen Galaxia and King Cosmos sitting on the thrones. Galaxia saw her two daughters and ran up to them and said, "Celestia, Luna! How are my princesses?"

This caused King Cosmos to trot down to where they were and say, "How are you doing Celestia" and "How is daddy's little filly?" to Luna

Luna said, "Things are not going well at all. There is a major disaster that has happened in Equestria."

"What sort of disaster? asked Galaxia "Why aren't you two there taking care of the problem?"

Celestia replied, "I will tell you why, I was nearly killed by a student of mine that I had transformed into an Alicorn princess."

"What the hay?" said a shocked Cosmos

Celestia then proceeded to tell them in full detail about Twilight, her obsession with studying, her writing her own magic and her becoming an Alicorn.

Galaxia replied, "Well that still doesn't explain why she tried to kill you. What caused her to try to do that and how does such a young Alicorn become that powerful?"

Luna replied, "She became that powerful because she has been obsessed with studying from even before she was accepted into Celestia's school. As far as why she tried to kill Celestia, after she was crowned princess and given her own empire, she was corrupted by King Sombra, who has conquered the Crystal Empire for the second time and Queen Chrysalis, the queen of the changelings. They decided to form a dark alliance and brought a massive army of changelings and dark unicorns to take Canterlot."

Cosmos said, "Ouch, that would be a tough force to handle for anypony."

Luna replied, "Yeah and the thing is, I killed a bunch of them but Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's former student and now self-proclaimed Dark Queen, knows a duplication spell and kept on making more and more changelings. I couldn't even put a dent in their forces."

Galaxia had a horrified look on her face and said, "This is going to require something far more powerful than even an army of 100 Alicorns could provide. This is going to require the aid of one whose magic is infinitely powerful. We have only one choice, we must ask 'The One' to assist us in taking back Canterlot and Equestria."

Celestia replied, "The One?"

Luna said, "Yes big sister, 'The One.' We need to ask for help from Goddess LaurFa."

One thing that Luna does not realize is that even getting in to see LaurFa is a high honor, but to actually get Her to help you in any kind of cause is impossible, as She has yet to intervene in any conflict.

Cosmos said, "Well we can try. I know the guards up there so I am hoping they will tell Her that we would like to see Her."

Celestia asked her dad when they should try to go and see if they can see Her. Cosmos told his eldest daughter that they will wait until tomorrow.

"Besides my daughters, you must be tired and hungry. I know how much you two always loved my cooking so I am going to tell the chefs to take the night off and I will do the cooking." said Galaxia

"YAY! Thank you mommy!" shouted Luna and Celestia in unison.

Cosmos gave them a smile and said, "I miss Galaxia's cooking as well. Once you become a king or queen of a decently populated country you don't have much spare time on your hands."

Celestia replied, "But back when you two were the king and queen of Equestria you had plenty of time for us."

Cosmos said, "Well Equestria had just been founded by LaurFa and very few ponies lived there. Back then it was more like we were property owners than rulers."

Very soon Galaxia came into the dining hall and said, "Dinner is served!"

Cosmos and their daughers rushed to the table waiting for Galaxia to give them their supper. Galaxia said, "I don't think I've done this in over 3,000 years. I almost forgot how to do it!"

Over supper they reminisced over the old days when Luna and Celestia were fillies. Galaxia, even after 3,000 years, still gave Celestia a hard time over the one time when she tried to raise the sun in the western sky and brought out Luna's moon by mistake. Luna laughed, "Yeah Celestia, you were trying to do my job. Either that or you loved the night so much you couldn't bear to bring it to an end!"

Celestia blushed and said, "That was a long time ago. I was just a little filly learning how to do it."

After supper and some more reminiscing about the past Luna and Celestia headed to the VIP sleeping quarters, "Good night mom, good night dad." said Luna and Celesita

"Good night girls." said Galaxia

"Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed parasprites bite!" said Cosmos

Luna and Celestia got the best night of sleep they had gotten in a very long time. Perhaps it was because they knew they were safe with their parents and far beyond the reach of any of Equestria's evil doers. They woke up the next morning well rested and headed to the dining hall for breakfast.

"Morning mommy, morning dad." said Luna

"Morning sweetie." replied Galaxia

Once they sat down for breakfast they began to talk more about what is going on and when they would go and see if they can see LaurFa. Cosmos said, "We will head up to Her palace as soon as we get done eating."

Celestia said, "It is so high and the cliffs are so steep, how are we going to get there?"

Luna snickered and said, "Oh silly sister, you know we have wings. We can fly there."

Celestia feeling quite embarrassed said, "How could I forget that? I have been forgetting way too many things here lately."

After breakfast the royal family headed up to the Grand Palace of Laurfa. They were met at the palace entrance by two guards. One with a stern look on his face said, "Who are you and what brings you here?"

Galaxia replied, "Well I am Queen Galaxia, this is King Cosmos and these two are Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, our daughters."

The attitude of the guard changed completely and he said, "Geez, how could I not have recognized you. I will lead the four of you to Her throne room."

When they entered the throne room they saw LaurFa, the most regal, powerful and beautiful Alicorn there was. She was solid white with a flowing red mane and tail with an ink jar and a quill for a cutie mark. This was the first time Celestia and Luna had ever seen Her. They were amazed by Her beauty.

LaurFa looked up and said, "Queen Galaxia, King Cosmos, how are you two doing today?"

Galaxia knowing Her better walked up Her and said, "Your Supreme Highness, my daughters are the two princesses over in Equestria and three villains led by an incredibly powerful and tyrannical Alicorn have taken over Equestria and we are here to see if you would be willing to help them get their country back."

"I have seen what is going on over there from afar. I have been contemplating what needs to be done since your daughters were ran out of there. At first I thought that sending members of our military there but then I saw how powerful Queen Twilight Sparkle has become, and realized that will not work." said LaurFa

Queen Galaxia looked with concern over what She had said. She replied, "What sort of things are you planning?"

LaurFa replied, "I am not sure, I want to see what continues to happen over there. I have a feeling that those three who took over there will probably start a war of their own against each other."

They continued to discuss things involving the situation. LaurFa told them of how she thinks that very soon those three will not want to share power and that after they have their war or one of them deposes the other two.

Luna said, "How would one of them depose the other two? They would have to learn how to banish the others out of Equestria and the only two ponies in Equestria that know how to do that are myself and Celestia."

LaurFa replied, "Twilight Sparkle is the one that would be most likely to know how to do that. She does have the ability to write her own magic."

Celestia said, "All she has done is rewrite that one spell of Starswirl the Bearded. I wouldn't think she would have the ability to do that."

LaurFa interrupted, "I have seen her write plenty of her own magic in just the past week. She has written an invisibility spell, a counter spell for it and a duplication spell. she has done all of this in just three days. Luna, Celestia, do either one of you know what kind of spells are in the Canterlot Archives or what kind of information she has access to now?"

Celestia told the Goddess that Twilight has access to all sorts of information. She also told Her that while there are no actual banishing spells in there, there are spells she could use to brainwash all their forces to be loyal to her and her alone.

"Oh my!" replied LaurFa "If she does that things will not look good. I want all four of you to meet me in three days after you eat breakfast. I will go with you to Canterlot and take care of this problem."

"Thank you your Supreme Highness, we greatly appreciate it." said Galaxia

"Anytime, I will see you on Friday morning." said LaurFa

The royal family headed back home as it was getting close to lunch. "I hope we can win this and take back Canterlot and all of Equestria." said Celestia

Luna replied, "Big sister, we are talking about Goddess LaurFa, the absolute most powerful pony on the face of the planet. With her on our side, victory is guaranteed."

Rise of the Dark Queen

Twilight woke up the next day and realized that splitting Equestria into three parts is going to be far more difficult than anything else she has faced in her life. She stands on her balcony facing the east with the thoughts of what is going to happen if they can't hammer out a deal. She does not like the idea of all three of them sharing power over the whole country yet at the same time she did not want to have to give up an inch of Equestria to anypony else.

She arrived in the dining hall late for breakfast, as Chrysalis and Sombra were waiting for her. "Sorry I'm late. The sun didn't wake me up this morning." said Twilight

"Oh it's ok Twily." said Chrysalis "After how hectic our lives have been here lately, you deserve a bit of extra rest."

The chefs brought the three leaders a good sized breakfast. When Sombra saw this, he said "Wow, all of this looks so tasty Twily. I tell you, since we have been allies I have had the best meals of my entire life!"

Twilight blushed a bit and said, "Well my allies deserve the best food out there. After all, I treat those who are loyal to me like I would treat myself."

After breakfast they headed to the throne room where they were going to try and hammer out a plan on how Equestria will be split or decide if they will all have equal power over all of Equestria.

The three looked over the map and Twilight said, "Ok, how about this, Sombra, you can have the northern realms where the Crystal Empire is, this would include Marentreal, all of the arctic, the northern realms of the western deserts and Neigh Hampshire. Chrysalis, you would have the southern realms. This would include the southern parts of the western deserts, including the city of Las Pegasus and off to the southeast, including the city of Tampa Neigh"

"What about you?" said Sombra

"Oh, regarding me, everything else would be mine." replied Twilight "What do you think of my suggestion."

Sombra banged his hoof on the table and said, "Are you kidding me? Under your plan you would get over 95% of the forested regions. What, you think your realm would be the only one that needs wood?"

Chrysalis added, "You do realize that there is very little in the way of population in the realm you would be giving me don't you? It is basically a wasteland. The only reason I chose to take my changelings there was because it was the only place we could live undetected."

Twilight replied, "Ok, so this wasn't the best plan. How about the two of you draw the borders on the map."

Sombra and Chrysalis sat together over the map and drew the borders on how they think it would be fair. "Twily, here is what we think would be a good plan." said Chrysalis

Twilight replied, "Ok, let's take a look at it."

Twilight was not amused when she saw the map. It had her realm fairly small and had it completely land locked. It had Chrysalis's realm stretching further to the north to cover Fillydelphia while Sombra's would dip down and cover Manehattan and Neighark. It had Sombra and Chrysalis controlling over 80% of the population of Equestria. While Twilight would still have control over 60% of natural resources, her realm would be vulnerable to attacks.

This enraged her. "Are you kidding me?" yelled Twilight, "My realm wouldn't even have any access to an ocean. My realm would only have around 20% of the population, which would not be at my realm's best interests. Let's just stop for the day and resume these negotiations tomorrow." After that Twilight stormed out of the room.

"We are really going to have to find a way to figure this out," said Chrysalis "She is very powerful with advanced magic but I know the two of us together can keep her in check."

Sombra replied, "Yes, together we can keep all of this fair. I am thinking that if we let her have her realm spread out to the east to Baltimare she might accept it. After all, Baltimare has ocean access and it will even out the population percentage. It would give you 33%, me 33% and her 34%."

Chrysalis thought about Sombra's plan and replied, "Yes, that is the most fair we are going to get things. Yes she will have a little bit more in population but if we can present this to her tomorrow and she accepts it, we can start to establish our empires and secure our borders."

Sombra also told Chrysalis about how he thinks that they need to forge a secret alliance without Twilight knowing about it. He told her that he is worried that she may use that duplication spell to increase her forces and that they need to work together to if they want their empires to avoid being taken over.

"I agree." replied Chrysalis, "I know Twily is an ally of ours but I have this feeling that she is becoming power hungry. She is already extremely powerful but I have noticed her spending a great deal of her free time in the Canterlot Archives, learning more and more magic. She could very well be learning enough that she could do something to us."

King Sombra said, "That is something I really wish that I could say that Twilight wouldn't do that, but deep down I know her thirst for absolute power is growing. I can see it in her actions and the proposal that she gave us regarding splitting our realms."

One thing that Chrysalis and Sombra did not know was that Twilight was standing around the corner and that she heard every single word they were saying. Twilight stormed off to the archives and said to herself, "Tonight is the night those two are getting banished. They know my true desires and they know my thought process much too well. I will perfect an alliance spell for the soldiers and the banishment spell to send those two into the void. They're finished!"

After what was a relatively normal supper with no stress, Twilight headed to the archives, to figure out the spells she would need. She was going through some of the oldest books and scrolls in the back of the archives, as those are the ones with the most ancient and most powerful spells. While they did not provide any actual spells, they provided Twilight with the direction that she would need.

She saw a bumble bee had landed on a table in the archives. She realized this would be the perfect opportunity to see if her banishment spell works. Twilight recited, "You have committed treason and that is not in season, you are a threat to me and I simply can not let that be, I can no longer be annoyed so you shall be cast into the void." Twilight fired her energy at the bumble bee and it simply disappeared as it was sucked into a vortex.

"Excellent!" said Twilight " "Now it is time to wipe out those who pose a threat to me. Very soon all of Equestria shall bow down before Queen Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight and her 'allies' headed to their rooms to go to bed.

"Wow, am I tired." said Twilight "I am looking forward to a good night's rest. Good night you two."

Chrysalis replied, "You too Twily. We will see you in the morning."

Sombra said, "I shall see you two tomorrow. Sleep tight everypony."

Twilight headed into her room but she had no intentions of going to sleep and she is anything but tired. She is a pony on a mission to take what she believes is rightfully hers. She waits for three hours until she is sure they are both asleep.

Twilight knows that Chrysalis is the more powerful of the two, so she sneaked into her room shortly after midnight. She noticed that Chrysalis was in a deep sleep. She stood over her bed with an evil grin on her face and thought to herself, "Not only good night but good riddance!" Her horn then began to glow purple as she recited the spell, "You have committed treason and that is not in season, you are a threat to me and I simply can not let that be, I can no longer be annoyed so you shall be cast into the void."

Suddenly Chrysalis woke up but it was already too late for her. She was shouting, "Nooo, Sombra, help me!" Her screams did no good though, as Sombra did not even hear them. Chrysalis finally disappeared down the vortex into the void.

Twilight was very pleased with this, She said to herself, "One down, one to go."

She then headed down the hall to where Sombra was sleeping. He tends to be a lighter sleeper than Chrysalis so this would be a bit more difficult for Twilight. She stood over him and her horn began to glow purple, before she could start reciting the spell, Sombra woke up.

Sombra screamed, "What are you doing in here Twilight?"

Twilight replied, "Just checking on you to make sure you are ok. After all, I heard Chrysalis talking to herself saying that she wanted to kill you since you are a stallion."

"That is a lie you tyrannical mule! You just want to kill the two of us or banish us or something so you can have all of Equestria for yourself" screamed an angry Sombra

Sombra and Twilight started firing bolts of energy. Sombra tried to hit Twilight multiple times but missed her as she was flying around the room. Twilight fired energy at Sombra and finally struck him hard, vaporizing his horn and temporarily paralyzing him. She then floated above him and said, "You are partially right Sombra, I had no plans to kill either one of you but banish you, yes. Your little girlfriend has already been banished into the void. Now it's your turn to be banished forever!" laughed Twilight

Sombra had a look of pure horror on his face as Twilight's horn began to glow purple and she recited the banishment spell, "You have committed treason and that is not in season, you are a threat to me and I simply can not let that be, I can no longer be annoyed so you shall be cast into the void."

As soon as she finished reciting the spell, a black vortex opened up and sucked him in as he was screaming "Noooo, somepony help me."

Suddenly everything was calm, Twilight left Sombra's bedroom and headed back towards her own. She went out onto her balcony and said to herself, "Equestria is mine, all mine! Now all I have to do is cast the loyalty spell upon the whole army and nopony will stop me. The reign of the Dark Queen shall begin!"

The morning sun woke up Twilight and she knew she had one thing she had to do before breakfast. She had to go down to the main level where all the changelings and dark unicorns were resting. She stood on her balcony and took flight down to where they were just waking up. General Iron Sheath said, "Good morning Queen Twilight, how are you feeling?"

Twilight replied, "I am feeling good this morning general. I have some news for all of you regarding King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis."

Sombra's general Dark Night replied, "What is going on with them?"

Twilight went on to tell all the forces that they must have had some bad food last night as they are ill this morning but that they will be feeling better tomorrow.

"So what are your plans for us today my queen? "replied Lieutenant Iron Chains

"I need all of you to gather together, over there in that large open area." said Twilight

All the changelings and dark unicorns headed over to the open area. They weren't sure why Twilight wanted them to do it but they knew that disobeying a queen is not a wise thing to do.

Colonel Thunder rage asked, "Queen Twilight, is this some sort of exercise you are having us do?"

"No Colonel, it is not" replied Twilight. Twilight's horn began to glow purple and she recited, "From another to me, that is where your allegiance will now be, you thought your old commander loved you like pie when all they wanted was for you to die. With me all shall be great, there shall be no hate."

Twilight fired a bolt of energy at the entire army. At first they looked stunned, then they began to wipe their eyes. Then in unison they shouted, "All hail Queen Twilight, our one and only leader!"

"Thank you everypony." said Twilight, "You are serving our alliance well. Here comes your breakfast! You shall enjoy many more great meals like this!"

While the army was eating their breakfast Twilight headed up to the dining hall to have her breakfast. The chef came in and said, "Your Majesty, where are Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra? Are they not coming to breakfast?"

Twilight replied, "I'm not sure what happened to them. I headed to their rooms this morning to see why they weren't getting up and they were gone. I don't know if they had to go check on something in their realms or what, but they just left."

The chef replied, "Well it looks like I only have to cook for one for right now. Don't tell your allies but I am glad I don't have to cook for three."

Twilight said to her chef, "Don't worry about it, I am not going to say a word to them."

After breakfast Twilight headed up to her balcony and looked off to the east. Knowing that all of the army is now loyal to her and her alone and that Chrysalis and Sombra are gone for good, she fired a bolt of energy towards Ponyville, lifting the force field she had initially put in place.

Twilight felt calmer than she had ever felt in her life. She felt as though nothing could stop her and that there was absolutely nothing that could even pose a threat to her. She stood out on her balcony and started singing to herself,

"Everything is finally perfect, I've dreamed about this day since I was small, my conquest is finally complete, with me nopony can compete, the war is complete, my enemies fell in defeat, this is proof that a mare can really have it all!" sang Twilight

Twilight heard some noises in a neighboring bedroom so she thought she would go and see what it was. What she would find will be what she least expected.

Friendship Conflict

Twilight was happier than she had ever been in her life. She felt at complete ease and peace. She felt so happy she even sang a song about how great things were. This is very unlike Twilight, especially now that she is a queen. Twilight heard a noise coming from another bedroom so she went to go check it out. She heard noises coming from the closet.

"Great, just great. I am feeling so at ease and now there might be a spy in here." said Twilight

She went over to the closet and opened the door. In there she found Spike along with her Ponyville friends.

"WHAAAT?" screamed Twilight "What are you guys doing here?"

Spike said, "We were hiding out during the whole invasion and then last night we heard a bunch of screaming. We figured it would be best if we just hid."

Twilight replied, "Oh your going to wish you could have done a better job. How do I know you aren't spies for Celestia?"

Fluttershy interrupted, "Look Twilight, just because you have a huge crown, body armor and a fancy title doesn't give you the right to treat us this way."

"You tell her Fluttershy!" replied Rainbow Dash

"Listen Fluttershy, all of you. You do not simply call me Twilight, it is Queen Twilight to you now. Also, I want to know how long you have been here and why you didn't return to Ponyville after your meetings with Celestia."

Applejack replied, "Look Queen Twilight, we couldn't get back to Ponyville because of your force field and a bridge that had collapsed. We have been up here for a week at least. I would like to know why you are all of a sudden so mean and rude."

Twilight replied, "First off, I am not mean or rude. You don't know what it is like to have fought in a battle, you don't know what it is like to have to worry about other ponies stabbing you in the back and you have never experienced ruling over an entire empire."

Pinkie got a big smile on her face and said, "Queen Twilight, do you think we could throw a huge party with confetti, balloons and cake to celebrate you being a queen now?"

Twilight stood there for a minute and then realized that Pinkie had no bad intentions and said, "Of course we can! I have plenty to celebrate and all of you should be here to celebrate with me."

Her friends suddenly felt a little more at ease to see Twilight still showing some of her old self, yet they knew that they had to be very careful as to what they said, because the slightest little thing could anger her and things could get nasty if that happens.

They all head into the dining hall where Twilight summons her chef and tells him that they need a cake for the party they are going to have. He headed off to the kitchen to get it made.

Rarity asks Twilight, "So what happened to your old crown, why this huge, iron crown? I think gold looked a lot better on you."

Twilight replied, "You know what Rarity, I will wear the type of crown that I want to. I rule Equestria now. There will be no more of these formal rules stating that royalty has to dress a certain way. I wanted something that shows power, strength, brutality, something that shows invincibility. I am not just a queen, I am also a military leader."

Rainbow Dash said, "You're a military leader Twilight? That is a good one! What do you do, read books about the battles and play them out in your head?"

This sent Twilight into a rage. She shouted, "You DO NOT disrespect me like that." Twilight fired a bolt of energy towards Rainbow Dash, but intentionally missed her.

"What the hay are you doing Twilight, you could have seriously injured me." screamed Rainbow Dash

Twilight was ready to fire another bolt of energy when she said, "First off, it is Queen Twilight to you. Second, I do not take your mockery of my military leadership lightly and third, you do not mock my love of reading."

Applejack sighed in disgust and said, "Ya know Your Majesty, I would love to know what happened to the Twilight we used to know, the Twilight that was a rational thinker, the one who didn't just scream and yell at everypony and toss those who you view as a threat into the void."

"Wait a minute," said Twilight "How did you know about me casting Chrysalis and Sombra into the void?"

Rainbow Dash told her about how they heard her going into their bedrooms and casting these spells and how they would scream as they were getting banished into the void.

Pinkie Pie got a big smile on her face and said, "Well I think it is really awesome how you got rid of two of Equestria's biggest villains. It makes me feel safe."

Twilight replied, "Well thank you Pinkie. At least somepony is appreciative of what I have done."

"Look your Majesty," said Rarity "the rest of us just wonder what happened to the warm, loving, caring Twilight that we used to have."

Twilight decided to hole her temper back a bit as she said, "Rarity, I am still loving and caring. Why do you think I banished Chrysalis and Sombra. I did it for the best interests of Equestria."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and said, "You didn't do it in the best interests of Equestria, you did it for your own best interests. I heard you talking about how you would not share power or give up an inch of Equestria to anypony else."

"Look at it this way. Who would you rather have ruling the empire you live in, Sombra, Chrysalis or me?" said Twilight

Rainbow Dash sighed and said that she would rather have Twilight as the pony in power than the other two.

Rarity replied, "What happened to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna?"

"Well, let me tell you about that Rarity. The other night when we launched our attack, we caught Celestia off guard. I know Luna was ready for us but Celestia was an emotional wreck. While Luna was up killing my changelings, I had Celestia cornered out on the balcony. I overpowered her with my magic and knocked her down. She was basically begging for her life when Luna came in and saved her. Luna took her and flew off to the west. Where they went, I'm not sure but they aren't around here. That is all that matters to me." said an arrogant Twilight

"Wait just a goldarned minute," said Applejack "you mean to tell me that you are more powerful than Celestia?"

Twilight replied, "Yes, I am much more powerful than her. I have a feeling I am by far the most powerful pony not just in Equestria, but in the entire world."

Fluttershy said, "I know this is off topic your Majesty but with you as queen of Equestria now, what is going to happen to all my critter friends?"

This brought a smile to Twilight. She replied, "Fluttershy, nothing will change. You will continue to care for them like you have ever since you fell to the ground from Cloudsdale."

"That is wonderful to hear your Majesty. Thank you so much." said Fluttershy

This made Fluttershy feel much better. She knew that it would be wise to get on Twilight's good side instead of questioning what she does and getting on her bad side.

Twilight's chef brought out the cake once it was done. "Yummy!" said Pinkie "You should get the first and biggest piece Queen Twilight because you're awesome!"

"Thank you Pinkie, with an attitude like this, maybe I should invite you to come live up here and be my personal party organizer. With you around, parties would be a great thing to have. Even if it was just you, me and my military officers." replied Twilight

Rainbow Dash put her hoof over her face and said, "Pinkie, Fluttershy, can't you two tell that she isn't the same friendly pony that she used to be? Can't you tell that she is obsessed with power and cares about nopony but herself and her military?"

Fluttershy replied, "Rainbow, you're wrong. Queen Twilight is just stressed. I am sure I would be the same way if I was in her situation."

Pinkie added, "Yeah, be nice to Queen Twilight! Fluttershy is right, she is just stressed."

"Thank you girls," said Twilight "I know you two are true friends because you accept me no matter what."

Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash sighed and said, "Fine, you two stay here with your precious queen. We're headed to the train station and going home."

Twilight replied, "You won't be able to get back to Ponyville, that bridge is still out and I have no plans on fixing it and I know Rarity doesn't know a spell to fix the bridge. She spends so much time with her fashion that she doesn't bother to learn magic any more advanced than levitating things."

Rarity said, "Hey, don't go knocking me just because I haven't had my nose buried in books my whole life. I only learned as much magic as I would need. I had a lot of fun as a filly and I still have fun now."

Twilight looked at Rarity with a scowl and replied, "Who is to say that I didn't have fun studying? Learning new things is something I am very passionate about and I will continue to learn new things every single day for the rest of my life."

Rainbow Dash interrupted and said, "Oh, so you're going to be learning new things for all eternity since Alicorns don't die? I'm sure someday you will run out of things to learn."

Twilight finally had enough of their disrespect so she flew down to the bridge that was out and fired a bolt of energy at it, fixing it. She then flew to the train station and told them that train service to Ponyville could resume.

When Twilight returned she could tell that Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were not happy and wanted to hurry up and get out of there, but figured they better not because they did not want to anger Twilight.

Twilight walked up to the three and said, "I fixed the bridge and I told the pony at the train station to resume service to Ponyville. So you can go ahead and leave if you wish. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, you can stay or go home, I won't think any differently which decision you make."

"Really?" asked Pinkie Pie

"I'm going to be honest you two. I am worried that there may be a counter attack brought on by Celestia and Luna and I don't want you and Fluttershy to get caught in the cross hairs of this conflict. So I think it would be best if you two return to Ponyville." said Twilight

"Ok your Majesty," said Fluttershy "I'm glad that you care about us and don't want us to be here if you are attacked."

"Anytime Fluttershy, you guys better get going, the train to Ponyville leaves in ten minutes." said Twilight

The ponies and Spike head to the train station to catch the train home. Fluttershy and Pinkie argue with Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Applejack over what is going on with Twilight. Twilight is happy to have Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie on her side, but is nervous about her other three friends, wondering whether they are true friends or if they are backstabbing snitches.

Final Preparations

It was the third morning after the royal family's meeting with LaurFa. They got up early and ate their breakfast so they wouldn't be late. "Dad, how do you think things will go today?" asked Celestia

Cosmos, once he swallowed his food, said, "I am hoping it goes well. I am thinking that LaurFa will want to do this attack at night, when they will be more laid back. Attacks like this are always better conducted at night anyway."

After they finish their breakfast they fly up to LaurFa's castle and are greeted by the guards. One of the guards says, "Cosmos, Galaxia! How is everything going?"

"They are going well." said Galaxia "We are here to see LaurFa."

"I know, she told me to expect you four this morning. Sounds like you all have a major mission today." said the guard

The royal family told him that they do have a major mission but that they can't disclose much of anything because they swore to LaurFa that they wouldn't say a word. LaurFa comes out the door and says with a smile, "Is my guard keeping my guests from seeing me?"

"I'm sorry your Highness, I just tend to talk a lot with ponies that I am friends with." replied the guard

"We better get going." said LaurFa "It is an extremely long flight to Canterlot and I do want us to be able to rest a bit before we launch our attack"

"What time will we launch our attack?" asked Luna

"We will be launching our attack around midnight, when they will not be expecting one. I do not want to launch it too early in the night because some of them will still be alert." said LaurFa

Luna told LaurFa about what types of forces they have. She told her about the changelings and that they are relatively easy to defeat. "All you have to do is hit them with your energy bolts and it incinerates them. Yes they have their own energy they can fire as well so you have to be careful about that, but it is weak compared to the energy of an Alicorn."

Celestia added, "They also have an army of 5,000 dark unicorns but they should be easy to defeat since they can not fly. All we would have to do with them is hover around 100 feet above them and strike them with energy."

LaurFa asked, "What about Queen Twilight? What kinds of things do we have to watch out for with her?"

Luna replied, "Twilight is extremely powerful. Since her corruption, she has become much more powerful, powerful enough she was able to defeat Celestia, but I know she will be no match for you your Highness."

LaurFa told them that having this information will increase their chances of winning this and taking Equestria back. "Thank you Luna and Celestia, I am pretty certain that we will win."

"What do you plan on doing as far as Twilight is concerned?" asked Cosmos

"Dealing with Twilight is going to most likely have to be my job. Considering she defeated Celestia, I think that the four of you should take out the changelings and the dark unicorns while I battle Twilight."

"Sounds like a plan." replied Galaxia

In Canterlot Twilight is getting ready to sit down for lunch with her officers. She seemed to be a bit paranoid and was biting her hooves.

"What is wrong my Queen?" asked Iron Sheath

Twilight looked up and said, "I have a bad feeling that something is going to happen tonight. What it will be, I'm not sure but it will not be good."

Colonel Ice Storm said, "Is there anything we can do to help ease your nervousness?"

Twilight replied, "Yes, there is. Monitor the skies closer than normal, especially the western horizon. I have a feeling that whatever it will be, will come from that way."

"Your HIghness, I don't know what would come from the west. The only thing that lies out that way are the towns of Appaloosa and Dodge Junction, which are earth pony communities." said General Dark Night

Twilight looked at her general and replied, "Yes, you are right. Maybe it is just going to be a nasty storm that will come our way. I have nothing to worry about. I can just use my magic to fix any damage it does. Oh wait, I can use my magic to divert it around us!"

LaurFa and the royal family reached the coast of Equestria around 2 in the afternoon and decided to land for a short rest. The coastline of Equestria is a largely uninhabited place but does have plenty of bushes with wild berries and even small apples. They decided to have some lunch.

"These apples certainly taste different than anything I have ever ate." said Celestia

"I think they are delicious." replied Luna "When we take back Equestria I think we should get some seeds and plant them in the areas around Canterlot and Ponyville so we won't have to fly so far to get them."

"I am thirsty." said Galaxia "Is there any fresh water around here?"

They discovered a fresh water lake not too far away from the bushes. They went over and drank water for what seemed to be quite a while as they felt a bit dehydrated. Around 3 they took off again for Canterlot, feeling much better with food in the bellies and re-hydrated they felt much more confident in their chances of winning the upcoming battle.

Finally around 6 they flew over the last ridge and could see Canterlot off to the south and landed in a depression as to where they would not be detected by Twilight's lookouts.

LaurFa asked, "Does anypony here know where we can go to get some supper and water so we will have full strength when we launch our attack?"

Luna replied, "Yes, follow me. There is an area along the western fringe of the Everfree Forest that has a lake, has plentiful food growing and is within eyesight of Canterlot. This will be a place where we can eat, drink and launch our attack from."

LaurFa and the royal family took off for this place as it was a short distance from the depression they had landed in. It was not a dark area of the forest so everypony found it comfortable. LaurFa said, "Wow Luna, this place is perfect for us. It has everything we need!"

"Sometimes when Celestia and I would be fighting I would come here to calm down until I regained my composure." said Luna

"I guess there is one good thing that came from you two fighting after all." replied Galaxia

Back in Canterlot Twilight was standing over balcony looking over her empire. She was looking towards the Everfree Forest. She just couldn't help herself but think that the storm would come from there. Then she realized that she was looking to the north, not the west where she thought it would come from. She thought to herself, "Oh Twilight, her you go getting overly nervous again."

Twilight was getting hungry so she headed to the dining hall for supper. She was greeted by her military officers. Colonel Ice Storm said, "You made it my Queen. I was worried that you weren't coming."

"I was just out on my balcony looking towards the Everfree Forest. I think my paranoia is getting the best of me because despite me thinking the storm would come from the west, I still worry about something coming from that direction as well." said Twilight

General Dark Night told Twilight that Sombra once told him that in ancient times when he would visit this area that rogue storms would emerge from the Everfree Forest and join with a storm coming from the west, creating huge swirling columns of wind that can do great damage.

"Wait a minute" said Twilight, "those are known as tornadoes and they are fairly common in the areas between Wheatland and Neigh Orleans. I think once 9 o'clock arrives, we should all hunker down in the lower levels of the city. That is the safest place to be during a tornado. You let all of our forces know."

"Yes my queen. I shall go and do that now." replied Dark Night.

Twilight told her general that he does not need to do that until after supper since it is still a while before 9. Despite Twilight not appearing all that nervous she still had trouble eating and was biting her hooves.

"My Queen, are you sure your ok?" asked Lieutenant Dark Cloud "You seem really nervous."

Twilight replied, "Oh, I'm ok. Just the idea of a massive storm moving into the area makes me nervous. When I was a filly one of those types of storms moved into Canterlot and my family's home was damaged and a large rock nearly fell on me."

"I can understand why such a storm would bother you. I think you should probably stand in the back while we will gather around you to keep you safe from any falling rocks." said Lieutenant Dark Cloud

"Thanks." replied Twilight "You guys are truly loyal to me and I appreciate everything you do for me."

Twilight was right about there being a storm that would strike Canterlot that night but she was mistaken on what kind of storm it would be. The storm coming could do much more than damage to the city, it could determine the fate of all of Equestria.

Very soon 9 o'clock arrived in Canterlot. Queen Twilight and her army gathered in the lowest level of the city and waited for this storm to arrive. Twilight asked, "What time did these storms usually strike?"

"Sombra told me that they would usually strike shortly after midnight and that they even scared him, and it took a whole lot to scare him." replied Dark Night

Twilight let her forces know that once midnight arrives, that the storm will most likely arrive.

In the Everfree Forest LaurFa and the royal family have one last snack before they took flight for Canterlot. Laurfa said , "Alright, let's get going. Midnight is approaching. This attack will determine the fates of us all. If we start to lose this battle and it appears as though we will be taken captive, we need to return home."

Luna replied, "I am ready but the thing is, if it seems as though we will be taken captive, we can just teleport out of here."

"Good point." replied LaurFa "Let's go, let's reclaim Canterlot and ensure a peaceful future for everypony in Equestria."

It was right around midnight in Canterlot. Twilight asked General Dark Night, "Is this storm coming or was I being overly paranoid?"

Dark Night replied, "It should have already moved into the area. I don't know about you but I think it should be safe to get out from under here."

"Alright, let's get out from under here." replied Twilight "It's ok everypony, we can head out. The threat has passed."

Very soon they would realize that they had left their shelter too soon.

The Final Battle for Equestria

In Canterlot midnight arrived and their was still no storm, which Twilight thought that there would be, so she along with her army left the low level shelter and headed outside. Twilight said, "Well I am glad that all my paranoia was over nothing."

General Iron Sheath replied, "I am happy as well my Queen. I think we should all get some rest."

Then it hit. Bolts of power came striking down from the sky. These were not lightning bolts though, these were bolts of energy coming from Alicorns.

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" shouted Twilight "General Iron Sheath, get your forces in position to fight them off. General Dark Night, make sure your unicorns are in sheltered areas but to where they can still fire bolts of energy at the enemy."

Luna shouted to her family, "Be careful of the changelings, when they fire their energy they will start to cover you in green ooze. Try to wipe as many out as you can!"

The royal family was battling the changelings when suddenly red bolts of energy started being fired from the ground. "It's the unicorn soldiers!" shouted Galaxia "We need to take them out. Celestia, let Cosmos and Luna handle the changelings, you need to help me with these things."

"I'm coming mom. I just need to maneuver through these changelings." replied Celestia

Luna shouted, "Be careful of those things. If they hit you, their energy will leave burn marks and cause great pain."

While Luna and Cosmos were battling the changelings, frying many of them with each bolt of energy, Celestia and Galaxia started to take out the unicorn soldiers. Doing this was tricky as their bolts of energy were more powerful than those of the changelings.

While Luna and Cosmos were battling the changelings Cosmos began to have trouble flying and using his magic. "Dad, your covered in ooze!"

Cosmos replied, "I know what do we do, am I a goner?"

"No," replied Luna "Let me free you from this nasty stuff". Luna sent a calm beam of energy to Cosmos removing the ooze.

"Thank you princess!" said Cosmos

"The thank yous can wait for later, we need to keep killing these things. We need to use energy balls to take them out!"

Cosmos shouted, "Luna, are you more powerful as Nightmare Moon? If you are, you need to transform into her!"

"Yes, I am much more powerful as her!" shouted Luna

"Transform yourself into her, we need as much power as we can get!" replied Cosmos

Suddenly a powerful wind struck the battle scene, thick clouds shrouded the sky as Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon. Beams of powerful energy began flying around the battle scene killing changelings left and right.

Twilight saw how her forces were being decimated and flew up to the upper courtyard and started firing her own bolts of energy at Luna and Cosmos, but they were able to get out of the way numerous times and caused Twilight to kill some of her changelings. Twilight realized that she needed to beef up her forces. She said to Iron Sheath, "Gather as many of our forces as you can over there, I need to cast a duplication spell."

"Yes my queen. I will get them together." replied Iron Sheath

Iron Sheath gathered about 1,500 changelings into the same area. Twilight's horn began to glow and she recited, " From one to two, two to four and so much more. When one is simple mere, more shall appear."

That part of her force had doubled, she ordered them to stay in place and she cast the spell again, now having many more changelings than before the battle. She said to the changelings, "Get back out there and fight! This is not a social gathering!"

Before they could spread out a massive, extremely powerful bolt of energy came out of the sky, killing every single changeling Twilight had created along with Iron Sheath. Nightmare Moon could be heard screaming "Death to the changelings, death to the dark unicorns, victory is near!"

Twilight got fed up with trying to stop those two and saw Galaxia and Celestia taking out her unicorn army. She used her power to pick up Celestia and drop her on the courtyard floor in front of her.

Twilight said, "You will not stop me this time either, your royal lowness. This will be a matter of student crushes teacher. Get ready to meet your own mortality!"

This enraged Celestia and she shouted, "You ungrateful, spoiled brat. You want a war, you got a war!"

This would come down to a matter of whose energy was more powerful. Twilight fired a bolt of energy at Celestia but she missed. The two Alicorns then fired bolts of energy at one another. The energy beams met in the middle. Now the power struggle would begin.

Celestia shouted, "Come on, more power Celestia, more power."

Twilight shouted, "Why bother Celestia, you can't beat me, nopony can beat me."

Twilight suddenly sent a surge that knocked Celestia backwards and rendered her unconscious. Twilight was thrilled with this and started dancing around Celestia. Twilight started shouting, "Student crushes teacher, this makes your defeat complete, now you must retreat!"

LaurFa saw this and realized that now was the time to make her return to Equestria official. Suddenly a light as bright as the noonday sun came down from the sky. She knew it was time to put an end to this. She decided she would first destroy Twilight's armies.

She flew upright, the light radiating from her became brighter as she recited a spell to destroy Twilight's armies. "The enemy is full of tyranny, their soldiers are many. For without them the enemy is done and they will have to run. The enemy's defeat is certain, so upon their rule falls a curtain."

A bright flash of light spread across all of Canterlot, killing every single one of Twilight's soldiers. Once this happened, Nightmare Moon transformed back into Luna since she wouldn't need massive amounts of energy to kill off enemies.

LaurFa landed in the courtyard in front of Twilight. She glared at Twilight and said, "What has become of you Twilight Sparkle? I have watched you from afar and you went from a wise, caring mare into a total monster."

Twilight looked back at her and said, "That is Queen Twilight to you, your are probably insignificant in their cause. I can beat you just like I beat Celestia."

This angered LaurFa greatly, she began to glow white and said, "I am Goddess LaurFa, the Queen of all Queens. It is not wise to speak to me that way."

Twilight began to mock LaurFa dancing around and chanting, "ooh, look at me, I can glow! I'm the best thing in the world! Ooh, look at me, I'm some kind of goddess!"

LaurFa pointed her horn directly at Twilight and said, "Your time has come Twilight Sparkle, your tyranny will be crushed and the ponies of Equestria will be freed."

Twilight aimed her horn at LaurFa and both ponies fired bolts of energy at one another. Twilight was fighting LaurFa as hard as she could, but she felt her own energy getting shoved back inside her. She thought to herself, "Come on Twilight, we need one massive surge of energy."

Twilight began to glow purple and green energy began to radiate from her eyes and a massive surge of power came from her horn, throwing LaurFa backwards. Twilight began to shout, "Call me Goddess Twilight, I am more powerful than the allegedly all powerful LaurFa! Bow down before me!"

LaurFa was helped up by Celestia who had came to. Celestia said, "You can do it your Highness, you can defeat her."

Luna landed next to LaurFa and said, "Your Majesty, she has probably wore herself out with that one bolt of energy. Now it the time to take her out! Go and finish this battle!"

Twilight was standing over on the other side of the courtyard shouting, "What's the matter, you scared LaurFa?"

This caused LaurFa to charge towards Twilight, her horn began to glow and she prepared to fire at Twilight. Twilight fired just as LaurFa did and another battle began. Twilight tried her hardest, but she could not get another power surge to defeat her enemy. LaurFa reached deep inside herself and fired the most powerful bolt of energy she had ever fired in her life. This sent Twilight sailing clear to the end of the courtyard. LaurFa and the royal family then flew over to where Twilight lay.

Celestia started to panic and asked, "Is she alive or is she dead?"

Luna put her hoof on Twilight's side an said, "I'm sorry Celestia, but she has passed."

Despite the way Twilight had treated her recently, Celestia was devastated. "NO, NO, NO! MY TWILY IS GONE! NO, NO!" cried Celestia

Celestia ran off in the other direction as she could not stand to look at Twilight's body anymore. Celestia's cries were so loud that they could be heard five miles away.

Luna looked down and saw Twilight's spirit next to her body, but this was not the spirit of Queen Twilight, it was the spirit of the little filly right after she got her cutie mark.

Luna looked over at LaurFa and said, "Do you see what I see?"

"Yes, Luna. I see what you see." replied LaurFa

Twilight's spirit cried to LaurFa, "I'm so sorry for everything I have done. Please don't let me die. I was corrupted. I promise you that I will be good."

Knowing that she has to be revived quickly, Luna asked LaurFa, "Do you want to bring her back?"

"Yes, I do," replied LaurFa "I believe that once she is reborn the evil effects of Chrysalis and Sombra will be gone."

Luna pointed her horn at Twilight's spirit and motioned for her to reenter her body.

Twilight's spirit began to return to her body as LaurFa's horn began to glow white as she recited, "The fallen one's time has yet to be, she still has many days to run free, for potential she has a lot, without life it would all be for not, for life shall be renewed, her past decisions need not be reviewed."

With that a gentle flow of energy went into Twilight. Twilight came to in a way more like she was waking up. "Uggh, what happened" said Twilight

Twilight looked up to see Luna, Galaxia, Cosmos and LaurFa standing over her. She said, "Princess Luna! It is so good to see you! I mean no disrespect to the rest of you, but I don't know who you are."

LaurFa replied, "It is ok Twilight, very few ponies even know I exist, much less know who I am. These two with me are King Cosmos and Queen Galaxia, they are the parents of Princess Luna and Princess Celestia."

"Wait a minute?" replied Twilight, "Where is Princess Celestia? I need to see her and apologize for everything."

Twilight heard crying coming from the entrance to the castle so she flew over there and landed in front of Celestia. "Princess, are you ok?" asked Twilight

"Go.....Twilight, is that you?" asked Celestia

"Yes, it is me princess. Why would you ask me if it was really me?" replied Twilight

Celestia told Twilight about the whole battle and how she had powers strong enough to defeat her and that she was killed by LaurFa.

"LaurFa killed me?" asked Twilight "I only remember her bringing me back from the dead."

"Yes Twilight, you had become extremely corrupted and you nearly killed me with your powerful magic." said Celestia

Twilight started crying and begged for the princess's forgiveness. Celestia wound up telling her that there was nothing to forgive since Twilight was not herself when all of this happened.

"I have another question Princess?" asked Twilight

"What do you want to ask me Twilight?" replied Celestia

"What am I doing in this ugly crown and this tight body armor? My guess is that I discarded my old crown for this one when I was corrupted. Do you think I could have my old crown back?"

"I am not sure what happened to your old crown but we can have a new one made for you since you have your element." said Celestia

"Wait a minute," said Twilight "isn't my element corrupted now. Will it no longer work?"

Celestia replied, "Don't worry Twilight, when LaurFa brought you back that cleansed the element to the state it was in prior to your corruption."

"Oh thank goodness," said Twilight "I was worried that I had put all of Equestria in danger."

"Twilight, so many things happened after Chrysalis corrupted you, but I think that we need to get ready for sunrise and then breakfast. We can discuss all that later, let's get some rest." replied Celestia

"I agree princess, I am horribly tired." replied Twilight

After an epic battle that cost Twilight her life only to be brought back they headed to the castle to get some much needed rest.

A Return to Normalcy

Nopony got much sleep that night, as the battle raged until 3 in the morning and soon it was time to get up because Celestia needed to raise the sun. She raised the sun like normal and Twilight saw something off to the east in Ponyville that she wasn't familiar with.

"Princess, what is that tall tower and those other buildings in Ponyville? I don't remember those being there before." said Twilight

Princess Celestia told Twilight about everything that had happened involving those buildings. She told Twilight about how her and some changelings raided the city of Fillydelphia for slaves to gather the material for that tower and that those other buildings were built for the slaves.

Twilight had a horrified look on her face and started crying "I feel so bad that I did that, I feel so dirty, immoral and evil."

Princess Celestia told Twilight that she did not need to feel that way because just like when she tried to kill her, that she was not her normal self.

That made Twilight feel a little better, then she asked Celestia, "What happened to Chrysalis and Sombra? Were they defeated during that last battle as well?"

Celestia replied, "No, they were not defeated. Shortly after you three took Canterlot you decided that you did not want to share power so you banished them forever into the void, which I am very thankful for."

"Really?" said Twilight "I banished two of the biggest threats into the void forever?"

"Yes Twilight, you did. Right now though I think we need to go and eat some breakfast, I am starved!" said Celestia

While they ate breakfast they discussed everything that they would need to do to get things back to normal completely. Celestia told Twilight that Equestria is going to have to be told that her along with Luna are back on the throne in Canterlot.

"Princess Celestia, I have a question. Will I still be the princess of Ponyville, the Everfree Forest and surrounding areas?"

Celestia looked at her with a smile and said, "Of course you will. I would advise though that you let the ponies from Fillydelphia go home, level that tower and remove those barracks so there will not be any trace of the time that you were corrupt."

Twilight replied, "You bet princess! I don't want to see those things. They bring much sadness to me and hurts my heart."

Celestia then told her about the attack on the Crystal Empire and what Accurate Aim told her and Luna about the fate of Cadence and Shining Armor and the Crystal Heart.

"What?" screamed Twilight "My brother and Cadence are still trapped in green ooze up there? We have to get up there right away and rescue them!

Celestia, Luna, Twilight and LaurFa headed off to the Crystal Empire with great haste, getting there in only two hours. Once they entered the empire, the skies were no longer brown and all the black crystals were gone, everything had returned to normal since Sombra's banishment. They landed in front of the castle and confronted one of the crystal ponies.

"Princess Celestia? Is that really you?" asked the pony

"Yes, I am princess Celestia. We are going in to rescue Cadence and Shining Armor as one of the crystal ponies who escaped made it to Canterlot and told us what happened." said Celestia

The crystal pony replied, "Oh, you're talking about Accurate Aim, aren't you? He was the only one who escaped Sombra. What happened to King Sombra anyway?"

Celestia replied, "You don't have to worry about Sombra anymore, he has been banished into the void forever. He will no longer be a threat to you or anypony else. Just don't tell anypony yet. Once we rescue the royal couple from their green ooze cocoons, we will announce it to everypony from the balcony.

They went rushing through the castle trying to find where they were being imprisoned. LaurFa ran into the throne room and yelled, "I found Shining Armor, he is in the throne room." LaurFa send a gentle beam of energy towards Shining Armor, freeing him from his cocoon.

Shining Armor wound up falling on the floor. He asked LaurFa who she was and where Twilight and Cadence were. Twilight wound up running into the room and shouted, "Shining Armor, I'm so happy to see you!"

Shining Armor replied, "Twily! I am so happy to see you survived all this."

Twilight asked her brother, "Do you know what happened to Cadence?"

"Yes," replied Shining Armor "They took her down to the dungeon because they could not risk her getting loose or being anywhere near me."

"We need to get to that dungeon now." shouted Twilight

They headed down to the dungeon and searched every cell and crevice until they reached the very back. There was Cadence, wrapped up in a green cocoon and looking like she had very little life left in her. LaurFa did the same with her as she did with Shining Armor and Cadence fell to the floor. When she looked up Twilight was the first one she saw.

"Twilight!" shouted Cadence

"Cadence! replied Twilight

They ran to each other and sang in unison "Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake, clap your hooves and do a little shake!"

Cadence then saw Shining Armor. She ran over to him and said, "Honey! I'm so happy to see you! I thought they had killed you!"

Shining Armor replied, "I'm happy to see you too sweetie. I thought they had killed you too. I was devastated but I couldn't do anything being trapped in that cocoon."

LaurFa told the royal couple, "You two must be starved. It has been a long time since you ate. We need to get up to the kitchen and see if there is anything to eat."

"Well we'll see if there is anything even left up in the kitchen. Chance are that Sombra, did not leave much of any food here when he left to join the alliance's attack on Canterlot." said Luna

They get up to the kitchen and much to their surprise there was more than enough food for everypony. Celestia then told Cadence that she really needs to announce to the crystal ponies that she has returned and that Sombra has been banished into the void.

"Alright, that should return the empire back to it's normal, happy self." replied Cadence

They went out to the balcony and Twilight shouted, "Hear ye, hear ye, Princess Cadence has returned and she wants to address you."

The crystal ponies came out of their homes. Their coats and mane were dull and they had a very depressed look on their faces.

Cadence began to speak to the ponies, she said, "I am back everypony and I want you to know that King Sombra has been banished to the void and will never be a threat to any of us ever again."

This caused the crystal ponies' coats, manes and tails to become sparkly again and they all cheered hearing the wonderful news that their princess told them.

Princess Cadence asked LaurFa, "What are we going to do about a crystal heart? Sombra and Chrysalis ate it as soon as they conquered the empire."

LaurFa smiled and said, "I think we can take care of that." She took a piece of crystal, shaped it into a heart and beamed some energy into it so that it would work just like the old one did.

When the crystal ponies saw the new crystal heart they cheered as loud as they could and despite it being late, LaurFa led the crystal ponies in their re-powering the heart with love and unity.

Twilight smiled at Cadence and said, "Well we have to get going, we have a lot more to do to restore things back to normal, especially in Ponyville."

Cadence replied, "Alright Twilight, Luna, Celestia and LaurFa have a safe trip."

The ponies then sped south towards Ponyville knowing that Twilight would not be very well received. Once they got there they first land on the far eastern side of town near the tower and the barracks.

The ponies from Fillydelphia see Twilight and they line up and say, "What do you wish for us to do your royal highness?"

Twilight started to cry and said, "I need to let all of you know what happened. I was corrupted by Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra and it was that corruption that led me to launch that attack on your city and bring you here. I hope that you can forgive me. I urge you to return to your homes in Fillydelphia. I am sure your families miss you. I also want to let you know that I am no longer a queen. I am a princess but you can just call me Twily."

One of the Fillydelphia ponies replied, "I forgive you Twilight. I don't have any bitter feelings towards you and I hope that we all can forgive you."

The whole crowd of ponies agreed and congratulated Twilight for finding her way back to good.

LaurFa said, "I am going to lead the Fillydelphia ponies home and then I am going to return to Canterlot and get Galaxia and Cosmos and we will return home."

"Do you think you could do one more thing for us before you leave?" asked Twilight

"Sure, what do you want me to do?" replied LaurFa

"'Could you vaporize that tower and the barracks so there will be no sign of my dark, tyrannical rule?"

"Of course!" said LaurFa. LaurFa then fired bolts of energy at the tower and barracks and vaporized them. Everything looked normal again, as though they had never even been there.

"Thank you LaurFa!" shouted Twilight

"Anytime Twily! I have to get going now! Goodbye everypony!"

Now they realized the toughest part of their mission would be getting the ponies in Ponyville to accept Twilight again and to get her friends to forgive her.

Celestia and Luna call for a meeting in the town square and ask that everypony come to it. An hour later everypony in town was in the town square. Celestia starts out by saying, "We are glad you are here, as I have a very important thing to ask of you."

Applejack replied, "Yes princess, what do you want us all to do."

She signaled for Twilight to step up on the stage. Luna then said, "I know Twilight has put all of you through very tough, harsh times lately. But we know why, she was corrupted by Queen Chrysalis and she has now been restored to normal and Chrysalis and Sombra have been defeated and banished forever into the void. Do you think you can forgive her and accept her as your friendly princess?"

The ponies started cheering that their beloved Twilight is back. Twilight's friends and Spike ran up to the stage and told Twilight that they loved her and were so happy that she was back to normal.

Pinkie said, "You know what this calls for? A PARTY!"

Everypony agreed and one of the biggest parties in Ponyville party took place later that day.

Luna said, "I am so glad that this was easier than we thought it would be. I am so happy to see things have returned to normal."

Celestia added, "With Sombra and Chrysalis defeated, Discord reformed and Luna returned back to normal long ago, I don't think that Equestria will have any more threats."

Twilight, returning to her normal self, "I certainly hope so princess, but we can never let our guard down."

Celestia laughed and said, "Oh Twilight, I knew that was what you would say! We must return to Canterlot now so we can give a send off to LaurFa and our parents."

Luna and Celestia then sped off back towards Canterlot.

Rarity said, "Twilight, I am glad to see that you are back in your normal crown and chest plate. That gray crown and full body armor looked horrible on you."

Twilight laughed and said, "I know! I don't know what I was thinking!" It is so good to be back to normal."

Spike ran up to Twilight and said, "Twilight, I thought I had lost you forever. I hope this never happens again."

Twilight said to Spike, "Take a letter please."

Spike said, "Alrighty!"

Twilight said, "Dear Princess Celestia, Today I have learned that regardless of how dark and corrupt a pony becomes, there is always a little bit of good that resides within her, even if it does not show. I am so glad to have earned back everypony's trust and friendship. Your faithful student and princess who is still learning how to do her job, Twilight Sparkle.

Spike sends the letter to the princess and says, "I am so glad you are back, that rabbit of Fluttershy's was about to drive me nuts!"

Twilght replied, "Well you don't have to worry about that now, you will be sleeping in the library again!"

Spike said, "Thank you so much Twilight, finally, a good night's rest!"

Twilight replied, "You're my number one assistant, I could never not have you around!"

With that Equestria returned to peace but the cities of Ponyville, Canterlot and Fillydelphia would always remember the dark times that they experienced. Their innocence of always knowing peace was gone but were happy that peaceful and happy times had returned.

Purple Reign (Alternate final chapter)

Twilight and her forces slept much longer than they had anticipated. The next morning the sun woke up Twilight and she headed out to her balcony and felt complete and absolute peace within her. She realized that there is no force that can ever remove her from power. She realized that she is the most powerful pony in existence. She walked down to where her army was and had some breakfast with them.

After breakfast, she addressed them. "Alright guys, now that our victory is absolute, we need to take care of something very important to me. We need to get you proper living quarters and we need to station some of you out across Equestria so that you can crush any rebellions that may take place."

Colonel Thunder Rage replied, "So what are you going to do, are you going to evict the ponies here in Canterlot out of their homes?"

Twilight looked at her colonel with an odd look on her face and replied, "Well yeah, except for my parents who will be coming to live with me in the castle if they wish. If they don't, they are obviously traitors and will be exiled elsewhere."

Even her armies were beginning to see that she is truly a cold, heartless dark queen but knew better than to say much of anything.

Major Black Mist made a suggestion. "Twilight, with as powerful as you are, couldn't you just use your magic to make more housing for all of us? That way nopony will be displaced and everypony will be happy."

Twilight looked stunned that a dark unicorn would suggest such a thing. She replied, "Yeah, I can do that. I never thought of that before. Thanks major, doing that will make me look better in the eyes of the public not just here, but all over Equestria."

Twilight's parents finally came out of their home and went down to where Twilight was. Twilight Velvet said, "Twilight, what has happened to you? You have grown so much since we last saw you!"

Twilight replied, "Yeah, I have. Being battle tested and becoming a queen will do that to you."

"A QUEEN?" said a stunned Crescent Sparkle "I thought you were a princess and what happened to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna?"

"Yes dad, I'm a queen now. As far as Celestia and Luna go, they abdicated the throne when Chrysalis and Sombra attacked the city and I had to fight off those two on my own." replied Twilight

Twilight Velvet asked, "Why do you have their armies then and why are they so loyal to you?"

Twilight replied, "I know many spells mom, and a spell to make an army loyal to me is one of them. With this spell, I could make the whole world loyal to me and me alone."

Her mom looked stunned when she heard her daughter telling her this. She began to realize that Twilight had become so powerful that she might seek global conquest and rule the whole world with an iron hoof.

Crescent Sparkle said, "Twilight, you just don't seem to be the same pony you used to be. Please don't take this as offensive, but you seem to be power hungry now and you don't seem to care about anypony but yourself."

Twilight replied, "Dad, I care about mom and you, I care about my army and my friends. As long as somepony doesn't cross my path or try to be a backstabbing traitor, I will care about them."

Her parents felt a bit uncomfortable around their daughter now that she is a powerful queen and told her that they needed to head home and take care of some things. Twilight said goodbye to them and let them know that she had other things to do anyway.

Twilight flew over to Colonel Thunder Rage was standing and said, "Good news Thunder Rage, you've been promoted. You are a general now! Also, we need to go and take care of the Crystal Empire. With Sombra banished into the void, who knows what kinds of threats could be lurking there. We must go and take care of it."

Thunder Rage replied, "Thank you Twily! I never imagined I would make it to general. I do have a question, are you going to curse the Crystal Empire like Sombra did or are you going to do something else with it?"

Twilight was thinking that cursing it would be a very good idea, but she figured that she would merely take the crystal ponies with her and incinerate the empire.

Twilight told Thunder Rage, "Gather 250 changelings, we are headed to the Crystal Empire. I have very important business to take care of. The trip should take just a few hours and there will be food once we get there, let's get going!"

"Consider it done Twily!" replied Thunder Rage

Twilight and her changeling army headed north towards the Crystal Empire. The weather was very good for the trip. Even when they got into the arctic the wind was calm and there was no snowfall. Very soon they could see the dome that encircled the empire.

"Alright guys, let's get in there and take care of business!" shouted Twilight

"What are we going to do?" asked Thunder Rage

"I will tell you all what we are going to do once we reach the crystal tower." replied Twilight

Twilight and her army crossed into the Crystal Empire. With Sombra banished, the skies were blue and the weather was pleasant, but the crystal ponies were still depressed and their coats were dull.

They saw Twilight coming with her changelings and starting shouting, "Run, it's him and his changeling queen! Run for your lives!"

Twilight landed there at the tower and shouted, "STOP RUNNING! I AM YOUR QUEEN NOW AND I MEAN YOU NO HARM!"

The crystal ponies stopped panicking. One of them came up to Twilight and asked, "Your Majesty, if you're not Sombra or Chrysalis, why do you have their army with you."

Twilight replied, "I reformed them and cast a spell on them to be loyal to me alone. Don't worry, they won't harm you at all."

Twilight, Thunder Rage and the rest of the changelings headed into the crystal tower. They first went to the throne room where they found Shining Armor. Twilight walked up to where he was trapped in a cocoon and thought to herself, "I have to cast a loyalty spell on him as soon as I free him. I can not have him being loyal to Cadence. With her being an Alicorn, albeit a weak one, she may try to start a rebellion."

Twilight shoots a gentle beam of purple energy at Shining Armor. The green ooze vaporized and Shining Armor fell on the floor. Twilight waited for him to come to his full senses before casting the spell so it would have the maximum effect.

"Oh, my head." said Shining Armor "Twily, you saved me! Wait a minute, you are Twilight aren't you?"

"Of course I am big brother! Why would you ask such a thing?"

Shining Armor told her that he asked because she had grown to be bigger than Celestia and was wearing a different crown and was wearing body armor.

"Oh, don't worry about that! How are you doing big brother? I have missed you so much!" said Twilight

Shining Armor replied, "I am feeling much better now that you have rescued me from that ooze. We need to go find Cadence, I have a feeling they took her to the dungeon."

"We will, don't worry big brother." said Twilight "But first, there is something I need to say."

"Alright little sis, what do you have to say?"

Twilight pointed her horn at Shining Armor and it began to glow as she recited, "From another to me, that is where your allegiance will now be, you thought your old commander loved you like pie when all they wanted was for you to die. With me all shall be great, there shall be no hate."

Shining Armor appeared stunned for a minute but then followed Twilight and General Thunder Rage down into the dungeon. They finally reached the back of the dungeon where Cadence had been wrapped in a cocoon. Twilight was thinking to herself, very soon all my problems will be solved.

Shining Armor said, "Twily, are you sure you want to free her? What if she tries to overthrow you?"

"Don't worry big brother," said Twilight "I have everything covered."

Twilight pointed her horn at Cadence and sent a gentle purple beam of energy towards her. The ooze vaporized and she fell to the ground. Despite being weak she first saw Twilight and ran up to her and started singing, "Sunshine Sunshine, ladybugs awake, clap your hooves and do a little shake!"

Cadence noticed that Twilight did not do the song with her and that her appearance had changed dramatically. She saw a Twilight that was larger than Celestia, wearing a huge iron crown and had body armor on. "What happened Twilight, how did you get so big?" asked Cadence

"Oh, things happen. You take part in battles, you win wars, you know, typical things that make Alicorns grow in size." replied Twilight

"I don't get it," replied Cadence "how does doing that make you bigger?"

Twilight was getting irritated with her questions and was waiting until the right moment to take care of this problem once and for all.

Shining Armor said, "Twily, she is a spy for Celestia. You need to do something!"

Cadence started to cry "What honey? I don't get it, a spy for Celestia? We are all on the same side!"

Shining Armor told her that Celestia is a tyrant and that he is loyal to Twilight and no other, that he would bow down to no monarch other than Queen Twilight Sparkle.

Cadence replied, "QUEEN TWILIGHT SPARKLE? How did you get that title?"

Twilight replied, "Well let's just say that when Sombra and Chrysalis laid siege on Canterlot, Luna and Celestia abandoned the throne and left everything up to me to save the city."

General Thunder Rage came out from behind Twilight to take a look at the situation.

Upon seeing him, Cadence shouted, "How did he get in here? Stop him, he will cover me in green ooze again. Please stop him Twily."

This irritated Twilight a lot. She gave Cadence a scowl and said, "This is General Thunder Rage. He is my top changeling officer. I would have brought my top dark unicorn officer but that would have made the trip here much longer."

Cadence was completely shocked. She asked Twilight how she managed to take control of the forces of both Sombra and Chrysalis. Twilight, being able to tell lies easily now told her that they simply like her more and were sick and tired of being treated like slaves by their former leaders.

Cadence then asked, "Where are Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra anyway Twilight?"

Twilight began to laugh and said, "Do you want to find out where I put them?"

Cadence got a lump in her throat and said, "Twilight, what do you mean where you put them? Did you banish them to the moon or something?"

"I banished them alright," said Twilight "but it wasn't to the moon. Do you honestly want to know where I banished them?"

"Yes Twilight please! I want to know that I will be safe!" shouted Cadence

"Alright then Cadence, I will let you know and you will know for sure that the Crystal Empire is safe." said Twilight

Twilight pointed her horn at Cadence and it began to glow. Cadence got a horrified look on her face as Twilight began to recite the spell, "You have committed treason and that is not in season, you are a threat to me and I simply can not let that be, I can no longer be annoyed so you shall be cast into the void."

A black vortex opened up and began to suck Cadence in. As she was being sucked in, she shouted, "You're sending me to the void, aren't yooooo......"

Cadence was gone and the vortex disappeared. This was the final banishment Twilight felt that she would need to do.

Shining Armor asked her, "What do we do now Twilight?"

Twilight replied, "We all get out of the Crystal Empire and I will destroy it completely."

Shining Armor asked, "Are you going to destroy the crystal ponies as well?"

Twilight replied, "It may seem cold and callous but we can't bring 2,000 ponies with us."

Shining Armor saw the point that Twilight made that they would just slow them down and that they need to hurry up and get going. Once they all got about a quarter of a mile away from the edge of the empire, they stopped and Twilight looked back.

Shining Armor asked Twilight, "So what are you going to do Twiight?"

"You'll see," replied Twilight "you'll see."

Twilight began to glow, her eyes glowed a radioactive green and a bulb of black energy formed at the end of her horn as she recited, "The empire shall be no more, what is it's existence for, fire will do the trick, it will incinerate it like fire does a stick, what the arctic now lacks, it shall now take it back"

She fired a powerful beam of energy at the empire, as it struck the crystal tower there was a huge explosion that leveled every building in the empire and the dome that protected it was gone. Snow began to fall in what was the Crystal Empire. Twilight had accomplished her objective, she destroyed the Crystal Empire.

Shining Armor asked Twilight, "So where are we off to now sis?"

Twilight replied, "We are headed to Ponyville. I am going to levitate you while we fly there because walking will take a very long time."

Twilight levitated her brother and took off towards Ponyville as General Thunder Rage and the rest of her changeling army followed them. Several hours later, they finally arrived in Ponyville. It was already dark so Twilight took her brother and her changelings into her dark tower she had built there.

Twilight put down Shining Armor once they got inside. He said, "Twilight, are you sure we're in Ponyville? I don't remember there ever being a tower here before."

"Yes we are in Ponyville." replied Twilight "Before I had to defend Canterlot from its enemies I had this tower built as I figured I should have a home like other royal ponies do. Get plenty of rest, tomorrow is going to be busy. I have some public relations issues I have to handle."

Shining Armor did not ask his sister what she meant by that as he was very tired and knew that Twilight was tired as well so they decided to get some rest.

The following morning they woke up and Twilight told General Thunder Rage and the other changelings to stay in the tower as her and her brother would be going out for breakfast that morning and that there should be food in the kitchen.

"Twilight, why is everypony looking so oddly at you? You don't think they are wondering what I am doing here do you?" asked Shining Armor

"No." replied Twilight "They probably don't recognize me because of my size, my crown and my body armor."

They arrived at Sugarcube Corner to find her friends having a get together. Pinkie was the first to greet her, "Hi Queen Twilight, how's it going? You want some cake?"

Twilight replied, "Yeah, sure. Just as long as my brother can have some as well."

"Okie dokie." replied Pinkie

Rarity said to Twilight, "Oh hi your royal highness, what are you doing here among us common folks?"

Twilight said, "Look Rarity, I am coming to make peace with all of you. I am sorry about the way I acted towards all of you up in Canterlot. I have taken care of everything and Equestria is safe now so I am no longer stressed."

Applejack said, "Well let's hope so your Majesty, I am still not sure whether I can really trust you anymore or not."

Twilight replied, "Just call me Twilight or Twily like my brother and soldiers do. I would rather my friends be themselves around me and not go calling me anything other than what they did before."

Twilight's friends gathered together and talked for a minute.

Rainbow Dash said, "Do you think she is being serious or do you think she is trying to put us at ease only to enslave us later?"

Fluttershy said, "I think she is being truly genuine. She said she is no longer stressed."

Applejack said, "Y'all know what, I can tell a liar from a hundred miles away and she is telling us the truth. It bothers me that she has a military but I think that she truly wants us to still be friends."

Applejack told Twilight that they have decided to forgive her for everything and that they hope that things can return to normal.

Twilight replied, "I am thinking of returning here to Ponyville but I will need to put a military instillation about a mile south of town so my soldiers will have some place to live. Besides, they will protect Ponyville from attacks."

Fluttershy asked, "Twilight, will this military instillation harm my critter friends any?"

Twilight replied, "No Fluttershy, the areas south of town do not have many animals living there and all your critter friends live in the Everfree Forest, which is to the north of here."

Her friends then asked her where she was going to live and what would become of the library.

Twilight replied, "Well since nopony here ever checks out any books I am going to move the library into my tower and it will be my living quarters. You will be free to come visit me at anytime just as you did when I lived in the library."

"I am so glad to have you back dahling! Are any of your soldiers looking for a special somepony by chance. I have always dreamed of having a stallion in uniform as my special somepony."

Twilight replied, "Well, unless you will date a changeling or a dark unicorn then no."

Spike had been hiding in the back the whole time and when he heard that things were going fine, he ran out to Twilight and her friends.

"Twilight!" said Spike "I have missed you so much!"

"I missed you too Spike! Guess what, you are now going to have your own bedroom and there will be a lot more to eat!"

"More to eat? My own bedroom?" said an excited Spike "I get to live in that tower with you now don't I?"

"Yes Spike!" replied Twilight "I have a feeling you will be one happy dragon!"

Very soon the capitol had been relocated from Canterlot to Ponyville. Twilight used her magic to create the military instillation just to the south of town and moved the library collection to her new tower. It is a good thing she did as well, because lightning struck the old library that night and it burned to the ground. Twilight is the great deceiver though, she is re-earning her friends trusts but little do they know that their friend Twilight is in fact the Dark Queen that everypony will one day fear.

The Dark Alliance

Equestria is an empire full of love and harmony with the exception of two areas, the far northwest region and the southernmost region, it has a fairly temperate climate and order is the norm. In the southernmost region of Equestria, lies a shadowy realm filled with fear and hate. Unlike the rest of Equestria, a greenish haze is always present and almost nothing grows. A large tower rises above the landscape, and inside this tower resides the realm's leader.

Queen Chrysalis sat upon her throne starving for the one thing that feeds her the most, but none was to be found, love. Chrysalis called out to her highest commander, "General Iron Sheath, what is the word involving that potential ally?"

The General was one of the few changelings that had a mind of his own, but was fiercely loyal to the queen. He stated, "I have yet to hear anything from him. Word travels very slowly along the fringe areas of Equestria."

Queen Chrysalis looked frustrated even though she knows that her General speaks the truth. "I suppose there is one positive here." replied the queen, "At least he didn't die. The leaders in Canterlot think he is dead. If he does indeed aid us, they will be in for a big surprise!"

Chrysalis had more than just one officer, she has several self-conscious yet loyal changelings which she has as her trusted advisors and military officers. She also has a massive army of over 5,000 changeling drones, who are fiercely loyal to the queen but have no minds of their own.

Chrysalis looks off to the north from her balcony tower, where she can see a speck of blue sky. She says to Captain Green Haze, "Someday Captain, we will return to that realm and claim it as our own. Those royal princesses in their ivory tower will bow down to the Changeling Queen."

"Yes my Queen," replied the Captain, "and what will come of the royal pony sisters once we conquer Canterlot?"

Chrysalis, always the one to add sarcasm to things, said, "That sun princess will be cast into the caves under Canterlot and will never see the light of day again!"

"And what about Luna, the moon princess?" asked Green Haze

"Luna is the one I worry about Captain, as she has the ability to transform herself into the mare of nightmares. When she takes on that form, she can transform into a purple mist and easily avoid detection. We will cross that bridge when we get to it." replied the queen

The southern realm of Chrysalis is a lonely place, a place she detests and wishes so much she could find a better place for her changelings and herself. She paces back and forth on her balcony when suddenly one of her officers comes running in her direction. "My Queen, I have just returned from the far northwest, the unicorn King says he will help us in our mission." shouts Colonel Thunder Rage

The Changeling Queen gets a grin on her face and replies, "Excellent! We must now head to his northwest realm to meet with him. Major Lightning Wasp, Captain Green Haze, you two shall accompany me on my trip to the northwest. General Iron Sheath, you will remain here and keep an eye on things given that you are my second in command."

"Yes my Queen, you have a safe trip." replied the general

"Lightning Wasp, Green Haze, we must fly along the outer fringe of Equestria to get there. We can not fly directly over the main realm of Equestria or we will be spotted." said Chrysalis

"Yes my Queen." replied Green Haze

With that Chrysalis climbed onto her chariot and her changeling officers took flight, carrying Chrysalis towards the northwestern realm.

In the northwestern realm, the unicorn king awaits Chrysalis and her envoy. His realm is not frigid like the arctic north, but chilly and damp and is often shrouded in a thick overcast. The unicorn king does not reside here alone, he has his own officers and an army of over 5,000 dark unicorns in his service. While it is a chilly and lonesome region, King Sombra is not lonely.

"General Dark Night, any word of when the Queen and her envoy will arrive?" shouted Sombra as he paced back and forth in his castle.

The general replied, "Yes sire, they should be here within a couple days. They have to fly along the fringes so they are not spotted."

The unicorn king grunted but he knew what his general said was the truth. "Well I suppose good things come to those who wait." said an irritated Sombra

A couple days slowly pass while the impatient unicorn king waited for the queen's arrival. Sombra was staring towards the south from his balcony when he saw a chariot heading their way.

"She is within sight my liege." said Lieutenant Iron Chains

King Sombra got this evil smile on his face and tells his officers, "The time has come to make plans to march on Equestria and conquer it. We will have plenty of pony slaves for everything I have planned." said Sombra

The Changeling Queen and her officers land in the castle courtyard. Sombra and his lieutenant head over to the courtyard to greet their guest and her envoy.

"King Sombra, how are you doing today?" asked Chrysalis

"I am doing well thank you, how are you doing today Queen of the Changelings?" replied Sombra

"I am doing well. The time has come for us to start to make plans. What do you believe we need to do first?" asked Chrysalis

King Sombra thought for a minute and then a thought came to his mind. Sombra said, "We must find a way to infiltrate the Crystal Empire. That place has a powerful magic that spreads love and unity throughout all of Equestria. If we can find a way to get in there unnoticed, we can bring it down. Doing so would lead to the rest of Equestria being vulnerable."

Chrysalis looked at him strangely and then said, "How are we supposed to do that? Their prince does rounds in the arctic making sure there are no threats attempting harm upon their empire."

Sombra had one of those eureka moments and said, "Ah-ha! That is it. We can grab him while he is outside of the protective shield of the empire."

"Oh, and won't they notice their prince has not returned after a while." said Chrysalis

Sombra said, "Let me finish. We could have one of your changelings take his form and go back in his stead. We could then bring the real Shining Armor back here and brainwash him to serve us."

The Changeling Queen knows what kind of plans will work and which ones will not work. She sat there, scratched her face with her hoof and said, "That is an excellent idea Sombra. Without Shining Armor, Princess Cadence will quickly wither and be powerless. Her strength comes from the love of Shining Armor. Without love, she will be unable to protect her subjects."

"But Chrysalis, right now it is the crystal heart that generates that forcefield. We must find a way to retrieve the heart and get it out of the empire. Then Cadence will have to use her love spell to protect the empire. Getting that crystal heart will be much tougher." said the unicorn King

This was beginning to look like a very tough task for the pair. They knew they would have to take down the Crystal Empire to take the rest of Equestria. Suddenly Chrysalis said, "This will be a tough task, but perhaps I can get in there and emulate Cadence. As long as the newly crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle does not show her face there, I can easily go in there, emulate Cadence, dispose of the real Cadence and it will fall."

King Sombra got an evil grin on his face and said, "You know, that might just work. Crap, I just thought of something, Cadence has the ability to teleport herself like all Alicorns do. That is a problem we need to solve."

The Changeling Queen is very intelligent and knows there are ways to take care of this problem. She told King Sombra that all she needs to do is put Cadence under her spell and all powers that she has will be useless, that she would be under her complete control.

"Alright, now we need to make a list of what kind of forces we will need to infiltrate the Crystal Empire. We will need a changeling to emulate Shining Armor, you have said that you will emulate Cadence. I will send around 20 of my soldiers to subdue the real Shining Armor and bring him here. Also, they do have plenty of royal guards there, which must be brought down. I have thought of a perfect plan. Some of your changelings could go in there, emulate the royal guards and then take them down." said Sombra

Chrysalis, always willing to take a risk to conquer areas she wants told Sombra, "Yes, that will work. I will need to return home and gather the forces I need. I will bring 100 changeling drones back with me. That should be more than enough on my end to take care of this. What will you contribute?"

Sombra is the type who knows that you can't do things with a few insurgents, said, "I shall provide 100 of my soldiers as well. Both of our soldiers have the ability to fire beams of energy. Once we have the royals and their guards taken care of, the crystal ponies will be defenseless and the crystal heart shall be ours for the taking."

The Changeling Queen nodded and proceeded to say, "Major Lightning Wasp, Captain Green Haze, it is time to go home and gather the forces we need. King Sombra, we shall return in a week."

"Alright Chrysalis, we shall see you then. You have a safe trip" said Sombra

After that Chrysalis and her officers headed home while Sombra began to put his forces through training exercises to prepare for their quest.

Chrysalis returns home late that night and is greeted by her second in command. "General Iron Sheath, has everything been calm and normal here?" asked Chrysalis

"Yes my Queen, everything here has been calm. How did the meeting with the unicorn king go?" asked Iron Sheath

Chrysalis replied, "We need to round up 100 drones. King Sombra and I are planning an assault on the Crystal Empire. If it falls, the rest of Equestria will be vulnerable."

Both Sombra and Chrysalis were not the types to put on kid gloves in their conquests and they were ready to make the Crystal Empire suffer. King Sombra said to General Dark Night, "Once the queen returns with her forces, you need to have our soldiers ready. This will not be an easy task."

"Yes my leige." replied Dark Night

King Sombra returned to his castle to have a large meal before hitting the hay. He thought to himself, "I hope all our forces will be ready, I do not feel like failing and being cast into the ice of the arctic again."

The Calm Before the Storm

It was another beautiful day in the Crystal Empire as Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor awoke. The skies were clear and everypony went about their normal business. "Shining Armor, so what do you have planned today?" asked Cadence

"Well I am going to head out into the arctic to make sure that there isn't any danger. I know Sombra is dead but I still want to make sure that there aren't any other threats out there. I don't know why, but I just have a bad feeling that the Changeling Queen has been out in this part of Equestria." replied Shining Armor

Cadence stood there, got a big smile on her face and said, "Oh honey, sometimes I think you let your paranoia get the best of you. I can sense things very well and I don't think Chrysalis has been anywhere near here. She resides in the southernmost regions of Equestria and there is no way she could get here without flying across the main part of Equestria. If she did that, she would be spotted and captured!"

"Oh you're probably right. I do get overly paranoid." said Shining Armor

Princess Cadence's stomach was growling, she looked towards the kitchen and said, "So what are we going to have for breakfast?"

Just as soon as she finished that the royal chef came in and asked the couple, "I heard you ask what you two were having for breakfast? What do you want for breakfast?"

Cadence replied, "Well I think a sandwich with tomatoes, onions and ketchup sounds good."

"Yuck!" said Shining Armor "Why in Equestria would you want to eat something like that? Are you pregnant honey? Also, I would like some bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast."

Cadence laughed and said, "I don't think so! That just sounds really good to me!"

Their chef nodded and told them that he would fix them what they wanted and then headed off to the kitchen.

Shining Armor looked at his wife with a big smile and said, "I'm glad you aren't ordering for the both of us! I would probably starve!"

"Oh you wouldn't starve sweetie, you would get used to it." replied Cadence

Before they knew it, their meals were ready and they sat down to eat. Shining Armor had a thought come through his mind and said, "I wonder how my sister is doing as she is starting her role as Princess?"

Cadence looked at him with a smile and said, "I'm sure she is doing fine. I know you worry about your sister a lot, but I know how Twilight is. If she doesn't know what something entails, she will tear her library apart until she finds it. I think Spike is going to be more overwhelmed than she is."

"Yeah, you're probably right. She always was the one to study a lot. I guess that is why she became an Alicorn and I didn't." said Shining Armor

Cadence laughed and said, "Oh honey, don't be so hard on yourself. You could be an earth pony and I would still love you the same!"

Meanwhile in Ponyville Twilight and her friends had just returned home from Canterlot. Twilight was greeted by an adoring and cheering crowd. Twilight got off the train, headed to the town square and told her new subjects, "I am so glad to be back everypony! I want you to know that you can just call me Twilight like you always have. I do not view myself as any better than any other pony."

Mayor Mare joined Twilight on the stage and told the crowd, "I am happy to have Twilight as our new princess. Your Majesty, I want you to know that I will be here if you have any questions regarding governing the Ponyville region."

"Thank you Madame Mayor. I know I will have a lot of questions but I want you to remember that you are still mayor and you will continue to have control over issues within town." said Twilight

Twilight then proceeded to tell the crowd that if they have anything they want to talk about or have addressed, or even if they just want to come by and say hi, that they are more than welcome to visit her.

The crowd cheered wildly knowing that the newly crowned princess is the same Twilight that they have known for so long.

A reporter for the Ponyville Express asked Twilight, "Your Majesty, we are wondering what type of castle you will be building and if it will be as grand as the one in Canterlot."

Twilight gave the reporter a smile and said, "A castle? Now why in Equestria would I need a fancy castle built? Living in the library is perfectly fine for me. Besides, it fits my personality and I would rather just stay where I am. Castles are not easy to build and I could never dream of putting any ponies through that kind of hard work."

The crowd cheered as their princess showed that she still views herself as an ordinary pony.

"I must be returning to the library everypony. My friends and I have a lot of things to discuss and I have a lot of research to do on what a princess does. I will admit, I do not know much on what the duties of being royalty entails." said Twilight

With that her and her friends headed to the library for some time alone together and to do research on what Twilight has to do now in her new role.

In Canterlot Celestia and Luna were discussing how Ponyville will be now that Twilight is a princess. Luna said, "You know, I know how Twilight is, I honestly don't think things are going to change very much there."

Celestia nodded and said, "You are most likely right dear sister, Twilight was even nervous about wearing her crown in public as she headed back home. The only thing I am worried about is her becoming a recluse and shutting herself in the library."

Luna replied, "You think she would really do that? She only shuts herself in when she has a ton of studying to do. I have seen how she is in a normal setting there. On Nightmare Night she wasn't shy at all. She was the one who got everypony there to accept me and love me."

Celestia looked at Luna and said, "You're right. Everytime I have been down there she is not the pony that first arrived there. She mingles with everypony."

In the Crystal Empire the royal couple were addressing the crystal ponies. "Soon it will be time for the crystal fair everypony. It has been nearly a year since the crystal heart was last powered up and we need to protect the empire." said Cadence

Shining Armor said, "It doesn't seem like it has been a year but time flies during times of peace. While I continue to do my patrols out in the arctic, everything seems to be fine and peaceful."

The crystal ponies cheered in adoration of their royal couple. Never before had things been so peaceful there. It makes some ponies wonder if it hasn't been too peaceful, as there has not even been any arguing among any of the crystal ponies over anything.

A reporter for the local newspaper asked the princess, "From what many have noticed, this last year has been so peaceful. I have been told that it is too peaceful in that no pony has had an argument with any other pony. What are your thoughts on that?"

Cadence smiled warmly and replied, "Oh those who have told you that are just being silly! I am the princess of love and the energy that radiates from me prevents ponies from having disagreements."

Shining Armor said that everywhere his wife has ever been, even as a filly, that she has had the ability to make quarreling ponies stop fighting and find more peaceful ways to address and solve their differences.

"I had a feeling that you two would say something like that" said the reporter. "But coming from you two, I know it is the truth."

Very soon it was time for the crystal fair. Cadence and Shining Armor decided that this year's crystal fair would last for several days as other celebrations across Equestria are more than one day events.

"So honey, how long will this year's crystal fair be?" asked Shining Armor

Cadence replied, "I am thinking it should be four days long. On the fourth day, it will be the one year anniversary of them powering the crystal heart and they will power it up again, keeping our empire safe for another year."

Shining Armor stood there for a minute and then said, "I just hope we don't have anything bad happen like what happened last year. Waiting until the last day of its protection seems kinda risky. Don't you think maybe we should have the crystal ponies fire up the crystal heart the day before the one year anniversary?"

Cadence smiled and said, "Oh there you go with your paranoia again silly! It has been tradition to have the crystal ponies power up the heart on the one year anniversary of the last time they powered it up ever since Queen Crystal Heart founded the empire."

"Alright, I understand how important tradition is to the crystal ponies and to you. I guess this is where Twilight and I think alike. She would probably want to do the same thing I would, but you are the top pony in charge so it is your call." replied Shining Armor

Princess Cadence told her husband that the crystal fair would start in four days, on the 19th of April and that the heart would be fired up again on the 23rd at five o'clock in the afternoon.

"Alright honey, that is good because I have a patrol of the arctic planned on that day around one in the afternoon. That way I can be back at four and be sure and be there for the heart powering ceremony." said Shining Armor

Cadence sat there with a smile and replied, "You better be! It won't be the same without you!"

Cadence summoned her royal activity committee and said, "It is time to start setting up for the crystal fair. You have four days to get it set up."

"Yes your Majesty, consider it done. Getting it set up in four days will be easy." said the head of the committee

With that the activity committee headed out and started setting up for the crystal fair.

The Final Battle For Equestria (Alternate ending)

In Canterlot midnight arrived and their was still no storm, which Twilight thought that there would be, so she along with her army left the low level shelter and headed outside.

Twilight said, "Well I am glad that all my paranoia was over nothing."

General Iron Sheath replied, "I am happy as well my Queen. I think we should all get some rest."

Then it hit. Bolts of power came striking down from the sky. These were not lightning bolts though, these were bolts of energy coming from Alicorns.

Luna shouted to her family, "Be careful of the changelings, when they fire their energy they will start to cover you in green ooze. Try to wipe as many out as you can!"

"I'm coming mom. I just need to maneuver through these changelings." replied Celestia

Luna shouted, "Be careful of those things. If they hit you, their energy will leave burn marks and cause great pain."

While Luna and Cosmos were battling the changelings Cosmos began to have trouble flying and using his magic. "Dad, you're covered in ooze!"

Cosmos replied, "I know what do we do, am I a goner?"

"No," replied Luna "Let me free you from this nasty stuff". Luna sent a calm beam of energy to Cosmos removing the ooze.

"Thank you princess!" said Cosmos

Luna replied, "The thank yous can wait for later, we need to keep killing these things. We need to use energy balls to take them out!"

Cosmos shouted, "Luna, are you more powerful as Nightmare Moon? If you are, you need to transform into her!"

"Yes, I am much more powerful as her!" shouted Luna

"Transform yourself into her, we need as much power as we can get!" replied Cosmos

"Yes my queen. I will get them together." replied Iron Sheath

Before they could spread out a massive, extremely powerful bolt of energy came out of the sky, killing over half of the changelings that Twilight had created along with Iron Sheath. Nightmare Moon could be heard screaming "Death to the changelings, death to the dark unicorns, victory is near!"

Twilight got fed up with trying to stop those two and saw Galaxia and Celestia taking out her unicorn army. She used her power to pick up Celestia and drop her on the courtyard floor in front of her.

Twilight said, "You will not stop me this time either, your royal lowness. This will be a matter of student crushes teacher. Get ready to meet your own mortality!"

This enraged Celestia and she shouted, "You ungrateful, spoiled brat. You want a war, you got a war!"

Celestia shouted, "Come on, more power Celestia, more power."

Twilight shouted, "Why bother Celestia, you can't beat me, nopony can beat me."

Twilight saw her flying upright starting to recite that spell. Before LaurFa could finish the spell, she fired a bolt of energy at LaurFa, knocking the direction of her energy skywards, causing it to miss all of her armies. This caused LaurFa to decide that she would deal with Twilight's armies later. She figured she would deal with Twilight first instead.

Twilight looked back at her and said, "That is Queen Twilight to you, your are probably insignificant in their cause. I can beat you just like I beat Celestia."

This angered LaurFa greatly, she began to glow white and said, "I am Goddess LaurFa, the Queen of all Queens. It is not wise to speak to me that way."

Twilight began to mock LaurFa dancing around and chanting, "ooh, look at me, I can glow! I'm the best thing in the world! Ooh, look at me, I'm some kind of goddess!"

LaurFa pointed her horn directly at Twilight and said, "Your time has come Twilight Sparkle, your tyranny will be crushed and the ponies of Equestria will be freed."

Twilight began to glow purple and green energy began to radiate from her eyes and a massive surge of power came from her horn, throwing LaurFa backwards.

Twilight began to shout, "Call me Goddess Twilight, I am more powerful than the allegedly all powerful LaurFa! Bow down before me!"

LaurFa was helped up by Celestia who had came to. Celestia said, "You can do it your Highness, you can defeat her."

Luna landed next to LaurFa and said, "Your Majesty, she has probably wore herself out with that one bolt of energy. Now is the time to take her out! Go and finish this battle!"

Twilight was standing over on the other side of the courtyard shouting, "What's the matter, you scared LaurFa?"

This caused LaurFa to charge towards Twilight, her horn began to glow and she prepared to fire at Twilight. Twilight fired just as LaurFa did and another battle began.

LaurFa was putting as much energy into this as she could. She looked like she was going to win this battle as Twilight's energy was being shoved back into her.

Twilight said to herself, "Come on Twilight, we need to use another tactic."

Suddenly Twilight realized that she could use this situation to her advantage as she knew a spell to draw the very life out of her enemy.

Suddenly Twilight began to glow brightly, her eyes were shining a radioactive green and she began to draw in the very life of LaurFa. LaurFa began to shrink in size while Twilight grew to be larger than Celestia.

Galaxia shouted, "Twilight, you are going to kill her, please stop."

This caused Luna to fire a bolt of energy that broke the energy transfer. Twilight shouted, "You see, you can not stop me! I am the most powerful pony that has ever lived!"

Twilight's horn began to glow and a bright purple ball appeared, she shot the energy outwards, knocking LaurFa and the entire royal family backwards. She was shouting and screaming in her triumph. She headed over to where the five Alicorns lay.

LaurFa said, "Please Twilight, stop. Can't we negotiate some sort of deal? I know you are so powerful no pony that can stop you, but there has to be a little bit of kindness left within you."

Twilight replied, "Tell me what you want out of these negotiations and I shall see if I decide to accept it or not."

Laurfa said, "Ok, you can have most of Equestria but we would like to have Canterlot. That is all we ask. We hope you will find this offer acceptable."

Twilight slammed her hoof on the ground and began to levitate a much smaller and weaker LaurFa and yelled, "You have got to be kidding me. You think I will simply give you the crown jewels of Equestria? You better think twice before presenting such a one-sided suggestion to me. I will give you my suggestion. LEAVE EQUESTRIA OR DIE!"

"WHAT?" shouted an enraged Luna.

"You heard me." said Twilight "You have seen the strength of my powers. Had it not been for you, LaurFa would be laying there dead. Chances are now that she has no more power than I did before I was accepted into Celestia's school."

Celestia looked stunned at this statement but then her jaw dropped open as she began to realize that she had taught Twilight so much magic that she ultimately developed the ability to learn magic without her aid and could and did become infinitely powerful.

Twilight looked at Celestia and said, "It is ironic really. You are the one who taught me so much magic. Who would have thought that the day you asked me to be your personal protege here at the school would wind up causing you to ultimately be deposed!"

Celestia replied, "Well you know if it weren't for Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom you would have failed your entrance exam and never got into my school."

Twilight got this grin on her face and said sarcastically, "That is right now isn't it? I will have to be sure and thank her in her assisting me in becoming the pony that I am! I will also have to thank the rest of my friends for giving me the skills it took to become an Alicorn princess. Hmmm....I am wondering, since I defeated LaurFa, perhaps I should adopt the official title of Goddess Twilight."

Galaxia shouted, "The only Goddess ever is Goddess LaurFa. You are a false icon. You have not created anything but terror and tyranny."

LaurFa saw Twilight pointing her horn at them and said, "Please stop Twilight! Just let us live, that is all we ask of you."

"You know something," laughed Twilight "I will let you all live but I do have one more big surprise for you LaurFa."

LaurFa replied, "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh you'll see, oh yes, you'll see!" said Twilight

Twilight then pointed her horn at LaurFa. Her horn began to glow purple and she recited, "You have committed treason and that is not in season, you are a threat to me and I simply can not let that be, I can no longer be annoyed so you shall be cast into the void."

A vortex appeared and began to suck LaurFa in. She along with the royal family began to scream at Twilight to stop it but in a matter of seconds it was too late, LaurFa had been sucked into the void forever. Twilight began to laugh sadistically and gave the royal family a look that terrified them.

"Twilight?" shouted Celestia, "What have you done? I don't even know that spell!"

Twilight continued to laugh and said, "Oh dear teacher, the irony just gets better and better. First I depose you and Luna and now I banish the Goddess LaurFa into the void. You have no clue how much I have learned since becoming royalty. Without your hoof holding me back, I have achieved what once was thought to be impossible!"

The royal family wound up getting this look of despair on their faces as they realized that there was nothing they could do to stop Twilight. Suddenly Luna got an idea. She asked Celestia if she would be able to banish Twilight to the moon.

"Luna," replied Celestia "I could try but she has such a quick reaction time now that she would banish me into the void so quick that none of us could stop her. Also, I don't know if my spell would work on a pony as powerful as her."

"WHAT ARE YOU SAYING ABOUT ME?" asked an enraged Twilight "So, you want to banish me to the moon eh? You do know that you can't banish a pony more powerful than you to anywhere, don't you?"

Celestia looked down and realized that Twilight was right. She figured she better just keep quiet before Twilight decides to banish her as well.

"What specifically is the void anyway?" asked Celestia

Despite being the powerful Alicorns and the royalty they are, even Galaxia and Cosmos did not know what it was. The only other pony to know what the void was besides Twilight was LaurFa and she was now banished to it and Starswirl the Bearded, and he passed over 2,000 years ago.

Twilight laughed and said, "You know Celestia, you really never paid attention to the material in the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the archives, did you?"

"Uh-no, I didn't. I figured out how to banish ponies to the moon through reading some of his easier works, but I didn't even know he provided clues to do what you have done."

"The void is basically a place where you are in limbo. There is just darkness. You exist, but that is pretty much it." laughed Twilight

Twilight was getting sick and tired of Celestia and her despair. She just wanted to finish all this, drive them out of Equestria and get some rest. "Colonel Thunder Rage, let's get them!" shouted Twilight

This caused the royal family to speed off to the west towards the Pegasus Ocean. Twilight, Thunder Rage and over 100 changelings took off after them. They had no intentions of hurting them, they simply wanted to drive them out of Equestria for good.

"Celestia," shouted Twilight "Thanks for the best education anypony could ever have! You sealed your own fate by making me your student!"

"Just leave me be Twilight. You won, just let us leave peacefully." replied Celestia

Twilight and her changeling army finally chased the royal family out to and beyond the borders of Equestria as they started to cross the Pegasus Ocean. Once they hit the coastline, Twilight and her army stopped the pursuit.

"We did it guys, we did it! When we get home we are going to have a feast of epic proportions, then we are going to get some well deserved rest." shouted an excited Twilight

Thunder Rage replied, "How are we going to keep them out? There aren't enough of us to guard every inch of coastline we have."

"Good point Colonel, good point." said Twilight

Twilight began to glow a deep shade of purple and her horn began to glow as she put up an impenetrable force field over all of Equestria. She had a huge smile on her face and said, "Problem solved! Nothing whatsoever can penetrate this force field! Let's get home, I'm tired and hungry."

Twilight and her army sped to the east back towards Canterlot. When they finally cleared the last ridge before they could land they were greeted by the rest of her forces cheering and celebrating. Twilight landed on her balcony and shouted to her forces, "Equestria is forever ours! Nopony will ever pose a threat to us! It is time to feast!"

Twilight went to her chefs and said that she would be eating her meal out with her army. She said that they needed to prepare enough food for everypony. This would be a huge challenge since there are many soldiers remaining to feed after the battle. They were able to fix enough food for them and when they took the meal to the soldiers, they shouted, "ALL HAIL QUEEN TWILIGHT!"

When they started their meal Twilight shouted to them, "Just call me Twily. I'm not a big fan of the formal tradition of the royal family."

This caused them to cheer louder knowing that their queen was a down to earth pony, well at lest when it came to them anyway. After they finished their lavish meal Twilight told them that they all deserve a rest. Twilight headed off to her bedroom and took a much needed and well deserved nap.