Terror in Equestria 2: Quest for the Jade Alicorn

by StormLuna

Rating: everyone
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe
Length: 34915

The Dark Queen Twilight has just cemented herself as the sole ruler of Equestria. She is extremely powerful, but she wants a power only the Goddess LaurFa had, to see all. To achieve this, she must acquire an ancient relic in a guarded city.

The Dark Queen Twilight has just cemented herself as the sole and supreme ruler of all of Equestria. She is extremely powerful yet she thirsts for even more power. She thirsts for the ability to be able to see anything she desires in the whole world. To achieve this, she must launch an attack on a heavily guarded city that is protected by numerous Alicorns. Will she achieve her goal or will she be driven out and risk losing her own empire?

Published 2013-08-18 03:50:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-08-18 03:50:02 UTC

The Ponyville Archives

A new day started as the sun rose in Ponyville. Despite the fact that Twilight was the Queen of all Equestria things seemed to be going on normally. The vendors in the market set up their stands to sell their goods, the foals headed off to school, Applejack and Big Macintosh were bucking their way through their apple orchards and Rarity was opening up her shop. The only difference was that it was all happening in the shadow of Twilight's black tower.

Twilight woke up and decided it was time for breakfast. She headed down to her dining hall where she would have her meal with her military officers. "Good morning Twily, did you get much sleep?" asked General Dark Night

"Not really, I just had things on my mind last night." replied Twilight

"What sorts of things?" asked Lieutenant Dark Cloud

"The Canterlot Archives." replied Twilight "We need to go to Canterlot and relocate them here. I can not have the ponies of Canterlot having access to such vast knowledge. In fact, I can't have anypony except for myself having access to them."

Major Lightning Wasp asked, "When will we go and retrieve the archives?"

"After breakfast," replied Twilight "but right now let's enjoy our breakfast."

After they finished their breakfast they began to discuss what they needed to do to accomplish this mission. Twilight told them that she would need approximately 100 changelings and 100 dark unicorn soldiers to accomplish this. She told them of large storage boxes that are in the archives that would have been used in the event of the need of an evacuation.

Colonel Thunder Rage asked, "Ok, we will put them in the boxes, but how will we get them back home?"

Twilight replied, "Once we pack the boxes I will levitate them onto the emergency freight train that Celestia had made to transport larger items in the event of an emergency."

"So when are we going to begin our march on Canterlot?" asked Major Black Mist

"We aren't going to march there." replied Twilight "We are taking the train up Canterlot. It will be much quicker and since this isn't an invasion, getting there will be a lot easier for all of us. Let's go. We have a huge addition to my library to go and collect."

Twilight along with her top two military officers of both the changelings and dark unicorns along with 100 soldiers of each cram into the train and head up towards Canterlot. The trip took around 35 minutes, which was way too long to have that many crammed into those cars.

"Twilight, how much longer are we going to be crammed into these cars?" asked Colonel Ice Storm

"Not much longer." replied Twilight "On the trip home I will probably have the changelings fly alongside the freight train. You guys will have to ride in the cars with the material from the archives while I steer the train back home."

The train finally arrives in Canterlot. A whole herd of unicorn soldiers and swarm of changelings storm out of the train and are followed by Twilight. The ponies in the streets went running and screaming, "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES, WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

Twilight heard this and was not amused. Using the loudest form of the royal Canterlot voice, she shouted, "BE STILL! YOU ARE NOT UNDER ATTACK!"

The ponies of Canterlot realized that it was Queen Twilight and figured that they better do as they are told, because they know how short her temper is and what she will do to those who disobey her.

Twilight's parents were out and about when she arrived. They ran to her and greeted her. "Twilight, what brings you here and why did you have to bring so many soldiers with you?" asked Twilight Velvet

"Mom, I came here because I need to relocate the Canterlot archives to my tower in Ponyville. As for why I brought so many soldiers, I did it to keep order while I am here."

Crescent Sparkle asked, "Twilight, why couldn't you have just kept the capitol here? This has been the capitol of Equestria ever since it was founded."

Twilight replied, "I like Ponyville better. There are too many aristocrats here, too many rich ponies that I simply can't relate with. Besides, my friends live in Ponyville."

Twilight's parents were not amused that their daughter was throwing thousands of years of tradition away just to suit her own preferences. They headed back home without even saying goodbye. Twilight didn't even notice though, as she was too busy getting ready to relocate the archives.

"Major Black Mist, Major Lightning Wasp, I need you and 50 of your soldiers to stay out here and keep order. I can't have there being any panic and I definitely can't have anypony trying to sabotage me moving these archives." ordered Twilight

"We gotcha Twily" replied Lightning Wasp

While the two officers and 50 of each type of soldier stayed outside and kept order, Twilight and the rest of her forces headed to the archives to pack things up and transfer them.

"Twilight, how are we going to pack these books and the old scrolls in the back?" asked Thunder Rage

Twilight replied, "I will use my magic to levitate everything into those large boxes. You guys just stand guard and make sure nopony comes up here."

Twilight began to levitate the books into the boxes. While normally she would sort them by category, she thought to herself, "I will just keep the Star Swirl the Bearded material in separate containers, I can sort the rest when we get home."

"Twily, somepony is coming up here! It is one of the old royal guards." said Dark Night

"Let me handle this." said Twilight

Flash Sentry got to the top of the stairs and shouted, "We have changelings and unicorn soldiers here. Get up here so we can drive them out!"

Twilight went to the top of the stairs and said, "Flash Sentry, you will wish you had never shouted out to the rest of the guard. Just in case you have been living under a rock for the past couple weeks, I am the Dark Queen Twilight Sparkle. These guys are the royal guards now."

The rest of the royal guards arrived, rushed into the archives and grabbed Twilight. Flash Sentry said, "This pony claims to be the Dark Queen Twilight Sparkle. I know this is not Twilight Sparkle. Haul her to the dungeon."

Twilight's eyes began to glow a radioactive green as she shouted, "You boys are going to pay for this. I am the Dark Queen Twilight Sparkle. Get over there in that corner or die!"

All ten members of the royal guard gathered over in the corner as requested. Twilight, her eyes still glowing green, pointed her horn at them and recited, "You have committed treason and that is not in season, you are a threat to me and I simply can not let that be, I can no longer be annoyed so you shall be cast into the void."

A dark vortex opened up and swallowed Flash Sentry along with the rest of the royal guard. Twilight said, "Alright, now that this problem is resolved, back to loading these boxes."

Three hours later Twilight exited the archives, deciding to put the freight train on the tracks before she would bring out the boxes of material. "Thunder Rage, Dark Night, you keep your soldiers up here and guard the materials while I go down and put the freight train on the tracks."

"Yes Twily, you can count on us." replied Dark Night

Twilight headed down to the tracks and levitated the passenger train off of the tracks and set it next to the train station. She headed over to behind the old depot and levitated the old freight train onto the tracks facing so that it would be headed to Ponyville. She then headed back up to the archives and started levitating boxes down to the train.

"What are you going to take first?" asked Ice Storm

"I am going to take the Starswirl the Bearded materials first. They are the most valuable books and scrolls in here." replied Twilight

It took eight trips from the archives to the train for Twilight to get all the material down to the train. When she finally did she called out to her soldiers. "Alright everypony, let's get headed home."

Lightning Wasp offered Twilight a suggestion. "Twilight, why don't we take both the passenger train and the freight train back to Ponyville. That way we can take all the materials and have room for everyone to travel back on the train."

"Great suggestion Lightning Wasp. I'm going to get the passenger train." said Twilight

Twilight headed over to where she had placed the passenger train and levitated it back on the tracks, right behind the freight train. She said, "Alright, we're just about ready to head back home. We do need around 10 unicorns to ride in the car with the Canterlot Archives material. I don't want it sliding around."

"I've got you covered" said Major Black Mist

Black Mist gathered 10 unicorn soldiers and they went into the freight car with the books Twilight was relocating. Both trains headed back to Ponyville in the afternoon. The Canterlot elite watched the trains leave with tears in their eyes as they knew that the relocation of the capitol was complete and that Twilight would not allow them to move to Ponyville, as she did not like the Canterlot elite one bit.

Thirty-five minutes later the trains pulled into the Ponyville Depot. Twilight got out of the train and said, "Good job guys, you served me well today. Now it is time to get these boxes over to my tower!"

It took eight trips for Twilight to levitate the archives to her tower. The other ponies in town saw her taking the boxes to her tower. As she got the eighth box into her tower Rarity ran over to her and said, "Twilight dahling, whatever are you doing?"

Twilight replied "I have just finished relocating the Canterlot Archives to my tower. All the books there many of which contain information regarding magic, especially those from the Starswirl the Bearded wing, must be kept with me. I can not let important information such as this fall into the wrong hooves."

Rarity looked stunned and said, "In other words, this is just you trying to prevent anypony from even knowing anything involving magic so that you can stay in power without any threats."

Twilight glared at her and said, "No Rarity, this is a matter of Equestrian security. You never know who might go in there and look at them. Celestia never let the public go into the archives, so why would I?"

Rarity said, "Whatever Twilight." She headed back home thinking to herself, "Twilight is probably going to study more and more and learn about things that will allow her to go and conquer the entire planet."

Twilight levitated the boxes into her library and naturally, she put the Starswirl the Bearded books and scrolls in a locked room in the absolute back of the archives, for additional security. She then sorted the rest of the books and shelved them accordingly. By the time she was finished it was time for supper. She headed down to the dining hall and was greeted by her officers.

"Hi Twily, how did the shelving go?" asked Thunder Rage

"It went well" said Twilight "I have something I need to discuss not just with you, but all of the changeling officers. Because of losses we suffered in the past two battles, you guys are getting promotions."

"Really?!" said an excited Thunder Rage

"Yes." replied Twilight "Thunder Rage, you are now a general, Lightning Wasp, you are now a colonel, Dark Cloud, you are now a major. We need to find a couple of drones who have the mindset and self awareness to become officers. You guys know each other much more than I do. I know a spell that will make them self aware so that they can become officers. General Thunder Rage, go get the two most self aware changeling drones so that I can cast the spell on them to make them officer material."

"Yes Twilight, I will be right back."

Thunder Rage returned with two drones, Storm Force and Biting Wind.

"Which one would make the better captain and which one would make the better lieutenant?" asked Twilight

"Storm Force is a bit more self aware so he would make the better captain and Biting Wind would make the better lieutenant." said Thunder Rage

Twilight told the two drones to get together. Her horn began to glow purple as she recited, "those without a mind are in a bind, no longer shall they just be, but they will still be loyal to me, for officers they are now but they don't ask how."

A beam of energy hit them and they wiped their eyes and immediately knew their new roles.

Twilight asked them, "Who are you?"

Storm Force replied, "I am captain Storm Force."

Biting Wind replied "I am lieutenant Biting Wind."

"Excellent." said Twilight "Now my rank of changeling officers is complete again."

Storm Force asked, "Are we supposed to call you Queen Twilight, your Majesty or some other royal title?"

Twilight replied, "No. Just call me Twilight or Twily like everyone else does. Like I have told the other soldiers and officers, I hate the royal traditions of the past. I want things to be much more laid back."

Finally supper was brought to Twilight and her officers. They had a very filling meal of steak, oats and apples. They engaged in simple chit chat as Twilight does not like military talk or discussing anything else involving future plans during meals.

Twilight decided to have General Dark Night and General Thunder Rage move into the tower to provide additional security for her.

"Twilight, I am glad that I along with Thunder Rage get to move into the tower now, but why are you having us move into here." asked Dark Night

"Well first, there are a couple of other bedrooms that are going unused and I don't want them to go to waste. Second, while I know I don't have any immediate threats and there is security outside the tower as well, I want to be sure that there are no threats at all." replied Twilght

"Alright, good night Twily. You have a good one." said Dark Night

"You two have a good night as well." said Twily "Don't let the bed parasprites bite!"

The Alicorn Stallion

Twilight woke up the following morning happy that she was able to consolidate all of the most important information in Equestria into her tower, knowing that no information on magic was available to the general public. She headed down to her dining hall and was greeted by her generals.

"Good morning Twilight." said Thunder Rage

"Good morning you two, did you sleep well?" asked Twilight

"Yes we did." replied Dark Night "What sorts of plans do you have for us today?"

"Well after breakfast I want you two to go over to the military instillation and just do some general exercises but for the most part, just remain alert and relax." replied Twilight

"Why do you want us to do so little today?" asked Thunder Rage

Twilight replied, "Given that we have that force field around all of Equestria we don't have any external threats and there are no internal threats. Also, since I have all the archives relocated here, I really want to do some studying. I have a feeling there are many things that I have yet to learn and you know that my quest for knowledge is infinite."

"Alright Twily," replied Dark Night "we will do some simple exercises and stay alert, you have fun studying."

"Oh, one more thing" said Twilight "I have decided that the name of our military instillation will simply be Ponyville Military Base. Nothing fancy, but just call it the base for short."

"Alright Twily," replied Thunder Rage "we will let the rest of our forces know about this."

After they ate their breakfast Dark Night and Thunder Rage headed out to the base while Twilight headed to the Ponyville Archives to do some more studying. While she had read a decent portion of the material there, there was still a lot in the Starswirl the Bearded wing that she has yet to read. She thought to herself, "I remember overhearing Celestia and Luna discussing some ancient relic on Alicorn Island, but I really need to read and see if it was a joke they had or if it is true."

Thunder Rage and Dark Night headed over to the base and addressed the rest of Twilight's military. Dark Night said, "We have a message from Twilight. She has decided to give our instillation a name. She has named it Ponyville Military Base, but she wants us to simply call it the base for short. Do you guys understand?"

One of the changeling drones shouted out, "Yes sir! We understand, sir!"

"What about the rest of you?" said Thunder Rage

The whole army shouted in unison, "Yes sir!"

Thunder Rage replied, "You know guys, while I appreciate you calling us sir or addressing us by our rank and name, just call us by our name. I think that is what Twilight would want. She utterly despises things being overly formal and I think we should adopt her laid back ways."

"That sounds like a good plan." replied Colonel Ice Storm "After all, Twilight is the queen and commander in chief, so let's do things her way."

The whole army cheered over this idea and then started their daily exercises before relaxing and conversing among one another.

Back in the archives Twilight was in the very back of the Starswirl the Bearded room when she discovered an ancient scroll that spoke of a jade alicorn that was located in Faustica, the capitol city of Alicorn Island and home to LaurFa, the Queen of all Queens.

Twilight said to herself, "Yeah, it WAS her home until she so foolishly challenged me and actually believed she could remove me from power!"

She continued to read through the scroll and discovered it was the jade alicorn that gave LaurFa the power to see everything from afar and for it to work that it must be placed in the hole in the center of the magical emerald plate. The scroll continued, "For many millennia the jade alicorn has been kept in the bedroom of the goddess LaurFa, as having it close to Her makes it's effects the strongest."

Twilight shouted, "A-Ha! Now I know where that relic is kept and I know how to maximize it's effects once I acquire it and bring it home with me!"

Twilight continued to read through the most ancient scrolls and found a scroll that designated the library on Alicorn Island in Faustica to have the largest collection of books on magic and especially hold ancient, one of a kind scrolls from the greatest unicorns in the history of the world.

Twilight thought to herself, "I am going to need a lot more than just changelings to help me empty out that library. I am going to have to convert many unicorns here into Alicorns and I am going to have to take the biggest risk of all. I am going to have to release LaurFa. Wait a minute, I will just cast the loyalty spell on her! I can do that since she is so much weaker than me now! Twily, you are a genius!"

Twilight realized that before she releases LaurFa, that she needs to gather other unicorns and transform them into Alicorns, whether they have written their own magic or not. She knew her brother was going to be visiting her today so she waited at her tower for his arrival.

Around noon Shining Armor showed up. "Twily!" shouted Shining Armor "How is my little sister doing?"

"I am doing great big brother! I have just been doing a lot of studying today. How are you doing?" replied Twilight

"Well I am doing ok. I heard you relocated the Canterlot Archives to Ponyville." said Shining Armor

Twilight replied, "Yes, I did. I just wanted all the information closer to me and since I moved the capitol here, I figured they should be in the capitol city."

"Good move," replied Shining Armor "I wouldn't trust having it in another city and being vulnerable to those who should not have access to them."

Twilight smiled and said, "You know big brother, we are way too much alike! It is lunch time, what would you think of joining me for lunch. I know you have always had a huge appetite and there is plenty of food to be had!"

"I would never pass up a free meal Twily," replied Shining Armor "especially one you are having prepared!"

Twilight and her brother began to sit down for lunch and he asked her, "Twilight, now that you have the archives here, what other endeavors will you be leading your forces on?"

"Big brother," replied Twilight "I do not discuss anything involving military action or future endeavors during meals. I have studied and it has been proven that leaders, commanders and soldiers who refrain from discussing such things during meals have a much higher success rate than those who do."

"Wow Twily!" said Shining Armor "Here I was captain of the royal guard but you know much more about battle plans and other military tactics in general than I do!"

After they finished their lunch Twilight told him about the vast knowledge in the Faustica library, which holds even more information than her archives do and how she wishes to get that information to Ponyville. She also told him about the jade alicorn and the emerald plate it needs to work and how she wishes to bring those back home as well.

"How are you going to get those?" asked Shining Armor "Faustica is the most heavily guarded city on the face of the planet."

"I have plans big brother, don't worry! I do have a question, what would you think of becoming an Alicorn?"

"WHAT?" said a stunned Shining Armor

"Yes, an Alicorn big brother. You are of royal blood since you are my brother. Your powers will be far greater." said Twilight

"Wait a minute," said Shining Armor "You want me to aid you in your raid on Faustica, don't you?"

"Yes big brother, I do. Your efforts will be well worth it. How would you like to be a five star general, the general of the army?"

Shining Armor asked, "Would I still be able to be a prince as well?"

Twilight replied, "Well sort of. I would elevate you to Grand Prince and you would be first in line to the throne, given that you are my brother."

"Alright Twily," replied Shining Armor "you have got yourself a deal!"

This pleased Twilight very much. She figured that instead of making Shining Armor write his own magic that she would simply transform into an Alicorn right away.

"Shining Armor, I need you to go over into that open field for what I am about to do." said Twilight

"What are you going to do Twilight?" asked Shining Armor

"I am going to transform you into an Alicorn now. Being the most powerful pony in the universe I can transform ponies into Alicorns without them writing their own magic." said Twilight

Shining Armor nodded and they went over into the field she requested.

Twilight pointed her horn at Shining Armor as it began to glow a deep shade of purple. She sent energy to Shining Armor as she recited, "The unicorn who has no wings is bound to the ground, they can not really get around, their smarts are great yet without flight they will be late, with these smarts they will be great and they shall never have a bad fate."

The energy hit Shining Armor and he began to levitate and great amounts of energy gathered around him. This lasted for three minutes before the energy dispersed and he floated to the ground using his new wings.

"It worked!" shouted an ecstatic Twilight "Big brother, or should I say Grand Prince Big Brother! You're an Alicorn now!"

Shining Armor looked at his new wings and said, "Twilight, this is awesome but I just want you to call me big brother or Shining Armor like you prefer to be called Twilight or Twily by those close to you, or in the case of me, sis or little sister."

"Alright," replied Twilight "Wow, I did a lot of studying in the archives but I never thought this would actually work!"

"I have a question Twilight," asked Shining Armor "Are my wings supposed to be this big compared to my body?"

Twilight replied, "Of course they are. All Alicorns have wings that are large compared to their body."

Shining Armor was impressed with Twilight's ability to write magic so advanced and with his new title. "Twilight, what are my new responsibilities as general of the army, Grand Prince and first in line to the throne?"

Twilight replied, "Well, your role as general of the army is to supervise our army to make sure they are remaining focused and that the generals are doing their jobs. As Grand Prince, if I can't make it to a speech to our subjects, you will go in my stead. You will also join me with the ones I do make it to as we will address our subjects together. As far as first in line to the throne goes, if I die you will become King."

"But I thought Alicorns didn't die." said Shining Armor

"We can not die of old age or any kind of ailment, as we are immune to them but we can die on the battlefield just the same as a regular soldier can."

Shining Armor understood this and they went into her throne room to engage in discussions with their officers. General Dark Night and General Thunder Rage joined them.

Twilight addressed her generals, "Dark Night, Thunder Rage, this is my brother, Shining Armor. I have just recently transformed him into an Alicorn Prince. He has an immense amount of military and battlefield knowledge. He is the General of the Army. While you will still oversee the forces you have commanded, he will oversee all military issues, including your performance. Do you understand?"

"Yes Twily, I understand." said Dark Night

Thunder Rage was not quite so impressed with the idea of there being a commander above him. He said to Twilight, "Twilight, I thought I was the highest rank within our army."

Twilight replied, "Before my brother became general of the army, I oversaw everything you did, so this is no different."

"Oh, ok. I understand Twilight. You are our leader and anything you do is good in our eyes." replied Thunder Rage

After Dark Night and Thunder rage left she told him that she needs to release LaurFa from the void to aid them in their next campaign.

Shining Armor said, "What? You know that you can't make a pony more powerful than you loyal to you."

Twilight replied, "Big brother, don't worry. In the battle where I fought off the royal family's takeover I drained a majority of the life out of her. I will easily be able to cast the loyalty spell on her. It will be the reeducating of her that will take more time."

"She will have to be reeducated?" asked Shining Armor

"Yes." replied Twilight "When I drained her I transferred her knowledge to myself. However, to bring her back from the void, we must go to Canterlot to the exact place I banished her to the void."

Twilight and Shining Armor discussed how this would be a difficult endeavor but Twilight told him that if they take some changelings with them, it will be easy as pie.

"Ok," said Shining Armor "When do we do this?"

Twilight replied, "Tomorrow after breakfast. Let's just relax for the rest of the day. When it is time to go to bed, there is a VIP bedroom that is the absolute best of all of them. It is across from my bedroom. That will be your living quarters. I am sure you will enjoy it."

Shining Armor replied, "I'm sure I will. I have a feeling that this will be the best time of my life!"

Further Studies

The following day Twilight and Shining Armor are discussing matters involving their trip to Alicorn Island to transfer the library materials from Faustica to Ponyville when Shining Armor realizes a few things.

Shining Armor said, "With as powerful as they are, we are going to need more than just two Alicorns in our forces. I am not sure about you but I think we need to transform more unicorns here into Alicorns. I think we should first start with your unicorn soldiers. Giving them the ability to fly would increase the strength of your forces dramatically. They are stronger than the changelings so they could handle the energy beams from the Alicorns better."

Twilight replied, "You know big brother, you are right. I have also thought of something. Once I release LaurFa and cast the loyalty spell on her. She will go with us. The Alicorns there would never use their energy against her. She could have them all gather in an area away from her library while we pack the library materials into boxes and then transfer those to our ship. During that time, I will go and retrieve the jade unicorn and the emerald plate. But I do think we need more than just the unicorn soldiers being able to fly. We also need other normal unicorns transformed."

"I do have a question Twilight, are there any unicorns here that have written their own magic? They would be a lot easier to transform." asked Shining Armor

"Actually, yes we do." replied Twilight "Colgate has written her own magic but the only way I could get her to agree to becoming an Alicorn is to allow her to remain being a dentist. Since the capitol city is Ponyville now, all I have to do is let her remain a dentist and she will agree to this for sure."

Shining Armor and Twilight discuss how long it would take to do all of this. Twilight said that she would need to transfer each unicorn soldier individually, which might take a week to ten days. Since they already are loyal to Twilight, she would not have to cast a loyalty spell on them. With the other regular unicorns she would have to cast the loyalty spell on them.

Shining Armor gave Twilight a suggestion, "Twilight, what if you were to transform your friends into Alicorns. Is there anyway to transform other types of ponies into Alicorns?"

Twilight replied, "Well I would need to do some studying to see if there is any way to do that. I would also need to cast the loyalty spell on them. Yes they are my friends but I would need them to be unquestionably loyal. I do think that besides Colgate, Lyra Heartstrings and Lemon Hearts would be good Alicorns as well."

"When do you think we should start transforming all these ponies into Alicorns?" asked Shining Armor

"I think we need to start working on the unicorn soldiers today. Once we get them taken care of, then I will work on the other unicorns and Rarity will be the first of my friends I will transform. I will then study on how to transform Pegasus ponies and earth ponies." replied Twilight

"I have a question little sis," asked Shining Armor "is there any way you could transform all of the unicorn soldiers all at once? That would make things go a lot quicker."

Twilight replied, "I will need to go and study to see if there is a way or if there is any information that will guide me to write the spell to do that. We will put off any transformations until I get every spell I need."

Twilight headed back up into the archives to study and see if there are any spells or at least clues as to how to write magic to perform the tasks she desires. Shining Armor headed back towards the base when he ran into Rarity.

Rarity said, "Wow Shining Armor, how did you become an Alicorn prince?"

"Well Twilight transformed me into one and she made me a Grand Prince." replied Shining Armor

"I do have a question," asked Rarity "what happened to Princess Cadence?"

"Well Twilight and I caught her spying for the enemy and we had to send her into exile. I'm not sure where Twilight sent her, but her and I are no longer together." replied Shining Armor

This caused Rarity to get overly excited and she started jumping around Shining Armor giggling and batting her eyes at him. Everypony in town could tell that Rarity was wanting Shining Armor to be her special somepony. Rainbow Dash saw this from the other side of town and shouted, "Rarity, everypony knows you want him, just ask him to be your special somepony!"

Rarity and Shining Armor both had stunned looks on their faces as this had suddenly turned into one of those awkward moments that anypony would want to get out of.

"Well, I think I better get back to my boutique." said Rarity

"Maybe we can talk later, I need to get over to the base to make sure everything is going alright, besides it is getting close to time for supper for our army and I need to make sure that they are fed." replied Shining Armor

In the Starswirl the Bearded room Twilight was going through some of the same scrolls where she found the transformation spell and she found a lot of information on how to transform more than one unicorn at a time. She continued reading and the spell came to her. "The unicorns without wings can not fly, that can make their plans go awry, when they need to get there in great haste, without wings it is like they are stuck in paste, to be assured they get places fast, their wingless days must be a thing of the past."

Twilight ran to her balcony and flew off to the south towards the Ponyville Military Base. There she ran into Shining Armor and said to him with great excitement, "I think I have it!"

Shining Armor replied, "You think you have what?"

"The transformation spell!" replied Twilight "I think I have it right to where I can transform our unicorn soldiers into Alicorns."

Shining Armor said, "When should we see if it works?"

Twilight replied, "When I get all the other spells figured out. I think it would be best if we waited instead of transforming the unicorn soldiers now and waiting until later to take care of the other ponies."

"Alright, you're the top pony in charge." replied Shining Armor "I'm just as excited as you are to see this work."

"It is time for supper." said Twilight "Go get our officers to join us for supper."

After supper they headed into the throne room to discuss their plans involving the transformation of the unicorns and the plans involving the other ponies.

Twilight addressed her officers, "General Dark Night, you and all the other dark unicorns are going to be transformed into Alicorns so that you can fly. That will make our traveling to battles quicker and easier. It will also strengthen the power of your energy and give you more protection from energy beams of other Alicorns."

"What about us?" asked General Thunder Rage "What about my changelings and myself?"

"That is a good question Thunder Rage. I don't think there is any information regarding changelings in any of the books or scrolls that I have gone through. I do think I can find a spell to make it tougher to kill you though." replied Twilight

"So what are our plans for tomorrow Twilight?" asked Shining Armor

"I want our plans to just be the same as they were today until I get every spell figured out that I need to get figured out. Once I have everything in order and everypony ready for their transformation, then we will see a change in routine." replied Twilight

"Sounds good to me. I am enjoying the more laid back schedule you are having us do. Sombra nearly worked us to death even when he wasn't planning any military action." said Dark Night

Twilight woke up early the following morning so that she could go catch Colgate outside of her office before she got to work. "Hi Colgate, how is your morning treating you?" asked Twilight

"It is going well your Majesty, how is your day going for you?" replied Colgate

"Colgate, you can just call me Twilight or Twily. I hate the formal ways of the old royal family. I do have something I want to say though." said Twilight

Twilight pointed her horn at Colgate and it began to glow. Colgate looked kind of scared but knew better than to say anything. Twilight 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 sent a beam of energy to Colgate while she recited this. After it reached her she appeared stunned but then she wiped her eyes and said, "Twilight, your are the one and only leader I will ever recognize and be loyal to."

Twilight gave her a smile and said, "Colgate, before you get to work I do have a question. What would you think about becoming an Alicorn?"

Colgate replied, "I don't know. When Celestia told me that I couldn't be a dentist if I became an Alicorn that sealed it for me. I am loyal to you but I just want to remain a dentist. I don't want to be royalty."

Twilight said, "Colgate, of course you can remain a dentist. That is what your special talent is and nopony, not even me, can take that away from you or change it. You will just assist me in some overseas endeavors, that is all. I promise you it won't keep you away from your dentist office for long."

Colgate put her hoof on her chin and thought for a minute. She got a smile on her face and said, "You've got a deal Twilight! Since the capitol is here and I will still be able to be a dentist, I am ready to become an Alicorn!"

Twilight said, "That is wonderful!" Twilight pointed her horn at Colgate. It began to glow purple as she recited, "The unicorn who has no wings is bound to the ground, they can not really get around, their smarts are great yet without flight they will be late, with these smarts they will be great and they shall never have a bad fate."

Like Shining Armor, Colgate began to levitate and great amounts of energy headed to her. She was encircled in this energy for three minutes before it dissipated and Colgate floated to the ground using her new wings. Just to test them out though, she flew around her office a couple of times, a little bit wobbly but very well for a first time flyer.

"Twilight!" said Colgate "I love these wings! Now I can fly around everywhere and have a whole lot more time. I won't have to scarf down my lunch so fast at the cafe. Now I can fly back here instead of run! I better get to work Twilight. You have a great day!"

"You too! Come by my tower tomorrow after you close your office so we can talk about important matters." said Twilight

"I will! See you around 5:30 tomorrow." replied Colgate

Twilight flew back to her tower as she was late for breakfast. When she finally arrived Shining Armor and her generals were waiting for her before they took a bite of food.

"You guys didn't have to wait for me to eat." said Twilight "I don't want your food to get cold!"

"It is just a matter of habit." said Thunder Rage "Chrysalis would never let us eat anything until she started eating first. A lot of times we wound up having to wait until our food was cold."

Dark Night added, "Sombra was the same way as Chrysalis. You are a breath of fresh air Twilight. You are the type of leader that everypony deserves."

"Well thanks guys. I think we better chow down before our food does get cold!" said Twilight

After they finished their breakfast Twilight told Shining Armor and her two generals what she had done this morning. She figured that it would be a good idea to transform Colgate early since she had written her own magic.

"Twily," said Shining Armor "I think it was a good idea to transform Colgate early. She is more powerful than Lemon Hearts and Lyra anyway."

Twilight replied, "Well they will all have the same strength of power once I transform them all. The main difference is that Colgate can perform pain free root canals and the others can't."

Dark Night asked, "Will she wind up being the dentist for the military?"

Twilight replied, "Probably not. She is a civilian dentist and loves her practice. I could never ask her to give that up. I am heading back up to the archives so I can figure out those other spells so we can have everything in order for our mission."

Twilight spent a very long time in the archives, she even missed lunch. She was bound and determined to find information that would aid in her writing spells to transform Pegasus ponies and earth ponies into Alicorns. She finally found a scroll that pointed her in the right direction. It mentioned something about the pegasus having flight but no power and the earth ponies desiring the qualities of both. Twilight spent around an hour trying to figure this out and then it hit her.

"That's it!" shouted Twilight "I have figured them out! Now I just have to hope that they work."

Twilight was confident that they would work but realized that it was already time for supper as her stomach growled loudly. Twilight said to herself, "Hmmm, I better get down to the dining hall for supper. After all, a pony with an empty stomach is not a happy pony!"

The Great Transformations

The next morning Twilight woke up realizing the day had come to transform the unicorn soldiers into Alicorns and that she would need to start educating Colgate so that she can do more than just levitate things and perform pain free root canals. Twilight headed down to the throne room and was greeted by her generals along with Shining Armor.

"Good morning Twily, did you sleep well?" asked Dark Night

"Yeah, I did. Dark Night, are you and your soldiers ready to be transformed into Alicorns today? I need as many Alicorn soldiers possible for our trip to Canterlot." said Twilight

"We attacked and seized Canterlot with us just being unicorns." replied Dark Night "Why do we need to be Alicorns when there will be no threat to us?"

"I want you all to be Alicorns so that those who go with the changelings that I am taking and myself being able to fly. It will cut the time it takes to get there by 80%." replied Twilight

"Ok, I understand that. Did you create a spell that will transform all of us at once?" asked Dark Night

"Yes, I have. After breakfast we will go down to the base and I can transform all of you. This will increase our power immensely and make the chances of acquiring what I want abroad much easier." replied Twilight

They headed down to the dining hall for a filling breakfast before they headed to the base. Once they arrived at the base Twilight ordered all the dark unicorns to gather together.

Colonel Ice Storm asked, "Why do we all need to gather together? I don't like being squished into tight spaces."

"This won't take long." replied Twilight "Besides, once I do what I need to do you won't have to worry about being squished so much anymore."

Twilight pointed her horn at the unicorn soldiers. She began to glow a deep shade of purple and her horn began to glow brightly as she recited, "The unicorns without wings can not fly, that can make their plans go awry, when they need to get there in great haste, without wings it is like they are stuck in paste, to be assured they get places fast, their wingless days must be a thing of the past."

A bright beam of energy struck her soldiers and they all began to levitate with massive amounts of energy encircling them for around five minutes. The energy then dissipated and they began to fly around before landing on the ground in front of Twilight.

"Wow!" shouted Lieutenant Iron Chains "You are amazing Twilight! I never imagined that I would be able to fly!"

"Thanks," replied Twilight "now we will be able to get to battles much quicker. Along with that, your powers are now much greater. Shining Armor, I want you to just have our army to relax today. While we do have an important mission coming up, I figure they may as well get some rest. Just keep them alert and keep an eye out for danger."

"Alright Twily, that is what we will do. Relax but remain alert." replied Shining Armor

Twilight headed over to The Carousel Boutique to transform Rarity first, since she would be the easiest.

Twilight headed into the boutique and said, "Hi Rarity, how is your day going?"

Rarity replied, "Oh, I am doing ok. What are you up to? Making plans for global conquest or putting everypony in chains?"

"Rarity, now why would I want to conquer the whole world and why would I want to put everypony in chains?" asked Twilight

"Well, you did that to the ponies of Fillydelphia that you brought here and you still haven't let them go home and you brought the entire Canterlot Archives here to where you would be the only pony to have access to them." replied Rarity

"Well ok, I should let the Fillydelphia ponies go home, you are right there but like I said about the archives, it is a matter of Equestrian security. Celestia kept them under tight security and that is one thing from the past that I will keep going." said Twilight

Rarity asked, "Now what really brings you here? I am sure you aren't here to buy anything."

Twilight replied, "Rarity, I thought we were friends. Can't I just come and give a friend of mine some company? Besides, there is something very important I need to say to you."

"Well yes you can come and provide me company but what is it that is so important you want to say to me that you have to tell me it is important?" asked Rarity

Twilight began to glow and pointed her horn at Rarity. Rarity shouted, "Twilight, what are you doing? Are you going to kill me or something?"

"No," replied Twilight. "I am not going to kill you, just let me do this."

As Twilight glowed she pointed horn at Rarity and her horn began to glow 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."

After the energy hit Rarity she looked stunned and then wiped her eyes. She said "Twilight, I am so sorry for doubting your plans. I am ready to do whatever I can to aid you in your cause."

"That is wonderful to hear Rarity!" said Twilight "Now I need you to go outside for what I need to say next."

"Alright," said Rarity "what is it that you want to do?"

"You'll see. I'm sure you will like it." replied Twilight

Twilight and Rarity went outside so that she could perform the transformation spell. Twilight began to glow a deep shade of purple and her horn began to glow brightly as she aimed it at Rarity. She recited, "The unicorn who has no wings is bound to the ground, they can not really get around, their smarts are great yet without flight they will be late, with these smarts they will be great and they shall never have a bad fate."

Great amounts of energy began to encircle Rarity and she began to levitate. This lasted for around three minutes and then the energy disappeared. Rarity began to fly around giggling like a school filly shouting, "I'm flying, I'm flying!" Rarity then landed in front of Twilight. She was ecstatic as she said, "Wow Twilight dahling, I didn't know you could turn ponies into Alicorns! Thank you, thank you! I simply look divine with these wings!"

Twilight gave her a big smile and replied, "You do look amazing with those wings and you are flying much better than I did when I first got my wings! Maybe you will have you teach Colgate how to fly better."

"You have transformed her into an Alicorn too?" said a stunned Rarity

"Yes," replied Twilight "I need as many Alicorns as possible for my plans. I plan on transforming Lyra, Lemon Hearts and the rest of our friends into Alicorns as well."

"Twilight, how are you going to transform non-unicorns into Alicorns?" asked Rarity

"I did a lot of studying and the materials in the Starswirl the Bearded material gave me the information I need. I am going to take care of Lyra and Lemon Hearts first, then I will take care of our friends." said Twilight

"Alright, I really have to get back to work, I have a lot of orders to fill. Talk to you later Twilight." replied Rarity

"Talk to you later Rarity." said Twilight

Twilight saw Lyra and Lemon Hearts having a mid morning snack at the cafe so she decided to go over to talk to them. "Hi Lyra. Hi Lemon Hearts." said Twilight

"Hi Twilight, how are you doing?" asked Lyra

"I'm doing good. I need to say something very important to you two. But I need you to stand right next to each other." replied Twilight

"Why do we need to stand together?" asked Lemon Hearts

"You just do." replied Twilight

Twilight's horn began to glow purple as she pointed her horn at them. They looked scared but knew that if they didn't stay still Twilight would punish them. Twilight began to send energy to them and 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."

After the energy hit them they said in unison, "Queen Twilight, we are at your service. We shall do anything you ask of us!"

Twilight replied, "That is good to hear. You can just call me Twilight or Twily. I prefer things to be more laid back. I need you two to stay standing together."

"Alright Twilight, we will do that." said Lyra

Lemon Hearts and Lyra did what Twilight requested as they knew that disobeying Twilight would not be a very wise Idea. Twilight pointed her horn at them and it began to glow. She recited, "The unicorn who has no wings is bound to the ground, they can not really get around, their smarts are great yet without flight they will be late, with these smarts they will be great and they shall never have a bad fate."

Energy began to envelop them and they began to levitate. The energy encircled them for three minutes and then the energy dissipated. They floated to the ground using their new wings.

"Wow," said Lyra "I can fly! How did you do that?"

"This is amazing!" said Lemon Hearts "Now we can get to where we're going a lot faster!"

"I did it using a spell I wrote that I created after studying information in the archives. I need you two to come over to my tower at 5:30. Colgate will be meeting me at that time as well. There are things we need to discuss. After that, you will be treated to a supper like you have never seen." said Twilight

"See you then Twilight, we are going to get back to our meal!" replied Lyra

The two new Alicorns sat down to finish their meal while Twilight headed to Sugarcube Corner. She figured the rest of her friends would be there since it was their normal get together time.

Twilight got to Sugarcube Corner and was greeted by Pinkie. "Hi Twilight, you want to join us? We're having some cake!" said Pinkie

Twilight replied, "Sure. But first I need all four of you to stand together over in that corner. This is important."

"Oh, and what is so important about it that we have to stand in a specific place Twilight?" asked an irritated Rainbow Dash

Twilight glared at her. Rainbow realized that she better do what Twilight says because even though they are friends, not listening to her would not be in her best interests.

Twilight lowered her head, pointed her horn at her friends and it began to glow. Twilight recited, "From another to me, that is where your allegiance will now be, you thought your old commander loved you like pie when all they wanted was for you to die. With me all shall be great, there shall be no hate."

The energy hit her friends and stunned them. They looked like they had just woke up and they wiped their eyes. In unison they said, "Twilight, we are willing to do anything you want us to."

Twilight replied, "Well how about we have some snacks before I do the other thing I want to do."

Applejack replied, "What do y'all have planned for us Twilight?"

"I want to keep that a surprise girls." replied Twilight "But I do think that you will like it."

They wound up having a snack that was large enough that it could be considered a meal. Twilight replied, "Wow, I think this is the first time I have ever stuffed myself so much here."

Fluttershy said, "Well the food is even yummier today than it normally is. When were you going to do that other thing that you wanted to do Twilight?"

"Now." replied Twilight "I need the four of you to go outside. Applejack, Pinkie, I need you two to stand together first. I promise you this won't hurt.

"Okie dokie!" replied Pinkie

"Ah certainly hope it doesn't hurt." replied Applejack

Applejack and Pinkie stood together as Twilight lowered her head and pointed her horn at them. Applejack looked scared but Pinkie looked as excited as she could be and started jumping up and down.

"Pinkie, I need you to stand still for this. If you are jumping around it won't work." said Twilight

"Ok Twilight, I'm sorry. I'm just excited!" replied Pinkie

Twilight again lowered her head and pointed her horn at them. It began to glow and she recited, "The ponies without magic or flight are in a bind, for they feel like they have fallen behind, they work themselves to death, even to their very last breath, for now with magic and wings, great things shall be what life brings."

This spell required much more energy than the spell for unicorns. Her energy hit her friends with more power but it did not harm them. They began to levitate and they realized strange things were happening to them. They felt a horn growing out of their head and they felt wings growing from the sides of their back. After five minutes the energy dissipated and they floated back to the ground with their new wings.

Pinkie began to fly around shouting "Weee, this is fun!" She then crashed into a tree and shouted, "Twilight is this supposed to happen?"

Twilight replied, "Pinkie, you are going to crash until you learn how to fly. Applejack, why don't you give flying a try."

"Ah don't know Twilight," said Applejack "Ah am not sure about this whole getting off the ground stuff."

Twilight replied, "Applejack, we need you to fly for everything we need to do."

"Oh ok, Twilight." said Applejack "I'll do it for you and whatever it is you have planned for us."

Applejack began to fly around, a little wobbly at first but very quickly she mastered flight and was soaring around the sky.

Rainbow Dash said, "Wow Applejack! You and I are going to have to go flying sometime!"

Applejack landed down in front of Twilight and asked, "Well, how did I do?"

"You did great Applejack! Maybe you and Rainbow can help Pinkie with her flying skills. We can't have her crashing into trees all the time." replied Twilight

Rainbow Dash said, "Applejack, are you sure you didn't already have a bit of pegasus within you because you flew like it was natural for you!"

Applejack replied, "Ah shucks Rainbow, I don't know if I did that good."

Twilight said, "Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, I need you two to stand together now."

Rainbow said, "You got it boss!"

Fluttershy said, "Will it hurt me?"

Twilight replied, "No Fluttershy, it won't hurt you. It hasn't hurt anypony else so let's do this."

Rainbow and Fluttershy stood together as Twilight lowered her head and pointed her horn at them. It began to glow and she recited, "The ones who can fly like to fly free, they desire the powers that allow the unicorn to be, they wish so much to levitate and create, rather than berate, for the winged ones now have magic, without that it would be tragic."

Like with every other transformation she has done, they began to levitate and energy encircled them for three minutes. They began to feel a horn growing from their heads. Rainbow Dash thought this was awesome while Fluttershy was scared of what it might do to her. The energy dissipated and they both floated to the ground.

Rainbow Dash put her hoof up to her head and felt her horn and she shouted, "THIS IS SO AWESOME!"

Twilight addressed all of her friends. "Now that you are Alicorns, I am going to have to teach you magic since it doesn't just come naturally to ponies who were pegasi or earth ponies before their transformations."

"Study? Really?" said a shocked Pinkie

"Yes Pinkie, study." replied Twilight "I can't teach you everything in a matter of one week but I will teach you enough that we can make my next endeavor a success. That will require learning how to levitate things and firing bolts of energy just in case we are fired on. We probably won't but it never hurts to prepare for anything and everything."

"Ah'm hungry Twilight. I better get back to the farm so I can eat some lunch." said Applejack

Twilight replied, "Actually, I need all of you to come with me to my tower. We will have lunch there and relax for the afternoon. Rarity, Colgate, Lyra and Lemon Hearts will be arriving around 5:30 for a big supper which will be followed by discussing our plans for what I want to do. Shining Armor and my generals from each type of army I have will be joining us as well. All of you go ahead to my tower and get ready for lunch. I have one more thing I need to take care of."

"What is that Twilight?" asked Fluttershy

"I am going to release the ponies from Fillydelphia. I probably should have let them go sooner but it didn't cross my mind." replied Twilight

"That is so nice of you Twilight. Ah was wondering when you were going to let them go." said Applejack

Twilight headed over to the area east of her tower where her slaves were being held. They all rushed to the base of her tower causing her to have to circle back.

The Fillydelphia mayor asked, "Queen Twilight, what do you wish for us to do?"

Another pony asked, "Why haven't you had us doing anything since we mined all that iron for you?"

Twilight replied, "Well I haven't had you do anything for me here lately because there really hasn't been anything to do. As far as what I wish for you to do. I want you to return home, I am releasing you. I have a passenger train large enough for all of you to ride home in comfortably over at the train station that will leave for Fillydelphia once all of you are on board."

"Seriously?" asked the mayor "You're letting us go?"

"Yes," replied Twilight "I feel really bad for what I did but you may return to your homes and families."

The Fillydelphia ponies headed over to the train station and got aboard the train. Once all of them were on board it took off to the northeast to take them home. Twilight knew that what she did was wrong but she thought to herself, "I needed laborers and I didn't want to make my changelings do the work. Now that I have let them go I feel like I have made everything right."

Rarity saw what Twilight did and flew over to the train station. Rarity said, "Twilight, you let them go home?"

Twilight replied, "Yes Rarity, I let every single one of them go home. I need you to close shop early today because you are invited to lunch and then we have things to discuss."

"I just closed for lunch. I will keep the boutique closed for the rest of the day so we can do what we need to do." said Rarity

"Good," replied Twilight "let's go get some lunch, I'm starving. Besides our friends are waiting on us."

The Return of LaurFa

The following morning after they ate their breakfast, Twilight and her generals gathered in the throne room to make sure they were all on the same page.

"Dark Night, have you picked the soldiers we will be taking with us?" asked Twilight

"Yes Twily," replied Dark Night "I picked them out last night and they are ready to go."

"What about you Thunder Rage? Have you picked the changelings that will be going with us?" asked Twilight

"Yes, I have." replied Thunder Rage "They are ready and raring to go. They are excited to help you out in this."

"Good!" said an excited Twilight "Let's get going! I want us to be back in time for lunch. Like I said, my new recruit will be hungry and I want the whole afternoon to start reeducating her to where she will be useful in our endeavors."

They went down to the base and gathered the soldiers they would need to keep order in Canterlot while they were there.

In Canterlot it was a sunny day and the ponies were out doing their normal business. They just didn't seem to be the same now as they did when the capitol was there. The city just didn't have the same sparkly appearance it once did. Twilight's parents were out and about looking at the depression among the citizens.

"You know, I am really disappointed in Twilight." said Twilight Velvet "I don't think she realizes what she has not only done to this city, but to everypony here."

Crescent Sparkle replied, "I know how you feel. I feel a lot of sadness myself. Canterlot had always been the capitol and the cultural center of Equestria. Ponyville never had anything like that and it still doesn't have all the elegance that Canterlot does. It just has a dark tower and a military base, which makes it look like more of a dump."

Twilight Velvet said, "I know. It still has that earth pony feel to it but now it is a military town as well. Don't tell Twilight this but I think she has become unrefined since she went there. I think that is what caused her to want a totally new start for the royalty of Equestria."

Crescent Sparkle replied, "I know. That along with her having her friends, family and military to simply call her Twilight or Twily shows that she is nothing like Celestia or Luna. I could easily see her becoming a ruthless ruler though. That is how they always start out. They act like a leader that cares about their subjects, wants a laid back atmosphere but then becomes a brutal tyrant."

Twilight Velvet looked off to the east and saw what looked like a huge flock of birds heading their way, but very soon she knew it was Twilight and her army.

Twilight and her forces landed in Canterlot right in front of her parents. They looked stunned when they saw that her dark unicorns could fly now.

"Twilight, how did those dark unicorns become Alicorns? Did all of them write their own magic?" asked Twilight Velvet

"No mom," replied Twilight "I needed all my forces to be able to fly so I transformed all my unicorn soldiers into Alicorns."

Crescent sparkle looked shocked and asked, "How were you able to transform them into Alicorns without them writing their own magic?"

Twlight replied, "Once you study enough, you can do anything you want to. It's not just them that I transformed into Alicorns, I transformed my friends and three other unicorns in Ponyville who I thought would have the wits about them to help me in my next endeavor."

"NEXT ENDEAVOR?" said Twilight Velvet "What is that going to be, global conquest?"

"No, it isn't global conquest. But it is classified information that only those who will be aiding me need to know." replied Twilight

"What are you doing here anyway?" asked Crescent Sparkle

"Dad, I have something very important to do. I need to go over to that corner of the courtyard to do it. I will be right back." replied Twilight

Twilight headed over to the very area where she had banished LaurFa to the void. She began to glow very brightly and pointed her horn to the exact spot that LaurFa had been sucked into the vortex and recited, "The one who has been banished has done their time, they are now forgiven for their crime, their time has come, now they need to contribute some, it is Equestria that they must serve or into the spiral of the void they shall curve."

A white vortex opened and out came LaurFa in the exact same shape that she was last seen in. She looked around and saw Twilight.

LaurFa said, "Mommy, thank you! I thought I was stuck forever!"

"I had a change of heart but there is one thing I need to say to you LaurFa." replied Twilight

LaurFa looked scared and asked, "Mommy, what do you have to say to me? Am I in trouble?"

"No LaurFa, you're not in trouble." replied Twilight

Twilight began to glow a very deep shade of purple, her eyes began to shine a radioactive green and her horn began to glow purple and black 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."

Twilight used even more power with LaurFa than she did with Rarity. Her energy hit LaurFa like a ton of bricks, knocking her to the ground. When LaurFa got up she wiped her eyes, looked at Twilight and said, "Mommy, I am loyal to you! You are so pretty and powerful!"

Twilight replied, "LaurFa, that is great to hear. You need to come with me to Ponyville. There are very important things we need to discuss."

"Ok mommy! I am glad we will be going home!" said LaurFa

Twilight's parents walked over and looked shocked at what their daughter had just done, "Twilight," asked Crescent Sparkle "why does LaurFa think you are her mother?"

"Dad, I just released her from the void. Ponies often think that the pony that releases them from the void is their mom or dad for quite some time after they are released." replied Twilight

Her parents looked stunned that this was the case and wondered how is Twilight going to handle a pony who thinks that she is her mother with as short as her temper is along with the fact that she doesn't know how to nurture anypony.

Crescent Sparkle said, "You know, the way she is acting, you are going to have to act more like a mother than a commander. You have to nurture her while she is like this instead of barking orders at her. That will scare her."

Twilight replied, "I know dad. Right now I need to get back to Ponyville. I am sure LaurFa is starving and I told my forces we would be back by lunch time."

Crescent Sparkle said, "Twilight, before you go back to your precious Ponyville, where is Shining Armor? Have you heard from him?"

Twilight replied, "Yes, dad. He lives in my black tower and is a five star general."

Twilight Velvet said, "A five star general? You made him general of the army? How does he keep up with all your forces since all of them can fly now?"

"I made him an Alicorn as well." said Twilight "Now if you will excuse us I need to get back to Ponyville. I don't feel like being late for lunch."

"Fine, bye your supreme highness." said her parents in unison

Twilight never heard that because her, LaurFa and her army were already headed east back towards Ponyville. When they arrived back it was almost lunch time. LaurFa appeared to be weak as even that short of a flight wore her out.

LaurFa siad, "Mommy, thank you for releasing me! Do you think I could have something to eat, I'm so hungry!"

Twilight replied, "LaurFa, why do you think I cut my conversation with my parents short? I wanted to be back for lunch because I knew you were going to be hungry. Don't worry, my chefs know about you coming with me and they will have a feast prepared for us."

LaurFa and Twilight arrived up in the dining room right as lunch was being served to Shining Armor and her generals. LaurFa was amazed at the meal that was being served. Twilight made sure she got an extra large amount of food.

LaurFa said, "Wow mommy! This is amazing! I have never seen so much food!"

Twilight said, "Well LaurFa, eat as much as you want, we don't have any shortage of food around here."

LaurFa devoured four plates of food before Shining Armor, who has a huge appetite, could even finish his first plate of food. Shining Armor looked at Twilight and said, "Wow Twily, I never imagined a pony that small would be able to eat so much. She acts like she hasn't eaten in weeks."

Twilight smiled and said, "She is eating like that because she hasn't eaten in weeks. Besides, she won't be a small pony for long, I plan on restoring her to her normal size this afternoon."

LaurFa finally emptied her mouth and asked, "Mommy, what do you mean you will restore me to my normal size this afternoon?"

Twilight replied, "It's nothing to worry about LaurFa. For right now eat to your heart's extent. We have things we have to do this afternoon."

LaurFa finally got full after eating six plates of food. Twilight was happy to see this as she knew that a happy and well fed LaurFa would remain an obedient LaurFa. Twilight and LaurFa first headed to the throne room.

LaurFa asked Twilight, "What are we going to do this afternoon mommy?"

Twilight replied, "Regarding me returning you to your normal size, I need you to stay where you are so that I can do this."

Twilight began to glow purple. She pointed her horn towards LaurFa and recited, "The small one wishes they were tall so that they won't have to crawl, with height their future is bright and everything will be alright, for the small one is small no more, with height their happiness shall be galore."

Twilight shot a beam of purple energy at LaurFa. Very quickly LaurFa grew to her original size, although she was still not as large as Twilight.

LaurFa began to jump up and down and shout, "I'm big mommy, I'm big!" She seemed happier than a school filly who just graduated kindergarten.

Twilight smiled and thought to herself, "This is perfect! She is innocent and ready to be rebuilt, with the guiding of my hoof, everything will be beyond perfect!"

Twilight said, "Yes LaurFa, you are big now! Now we need to see how you are with magic."

LaurFa replied, "Mommy, what is magic?"

This was one of those facehoof moments for Twilight. She was thinking to herself, "I know when I drained her I took a lot of power from her but I didn't know I would take her maturity as well. Now I know why some parents go crazy and wind up in the insane asylum, all this 'mommy this, mommy that, what is that?' Grrr... Now I know for sure that I never want any children. Putting up with LaurFa is bad enough. At least I can hopefully fix her in a hurry."

Twilight said, "Well come over to the base with me, I want to show you."

Twilight and LaurFa headed over to the base where Twilight planned to see how much she could levitate and how much power and accuracy she still has in her energy beams.

Twilight said, "LaurFa, you see that big rock over there? I want you to try your hardest to levitate it."

"Mommy, what is levitating?" asked LaurFa

Twilight replied, "It is where you use the energy within yourself to pick up an object without using your hooves or your wings."

LaurFa replied, "Ok mommy! Wish me luck."

LaurFa pointed her horn at the rock and tried her hardest but she could only levitate the rock for a couple of seconds. While Twilight was happy that LaurFa was basically like a young filly that she could easily mold she was frustrated because LaurFa thought she was her mother and seemed like a newborn straight out of the womb.

"Mommy, I can't levitate it. It's too heavy." said LaurFa

"It's ok LaurFa," said Twilight "It will take time. It took me a while just to be able to turn the page of a book when I was a filly."

Twilight then took her over to the target range. There were targets there that could measure the energy output of a beam of energy.

"LaurFa, I want you to see if you can hit those targets. Try to put as much energy into this as possible." said Twilight

"Ok mommy!" replied LaurFa

LaurFa fired her energy at the targets and hit them perfectly. Twilight flew over to the targets to see how much energy she had hit them with. Twilight was shocked when she saw the results. While LaurFa didn't have as much energy as she does, she still hit them with a great amount of energy. Twilight thought to herself, "Wow, she still has a bit more power than I thought. This will be perfect. I need to work on her with her levitation skills though, because if she can't levitate things for more than a couple of seconds, she isn't going to be very useful."

LaurFa flew over to Twilight and asked, "How did I do mommy, did I do very good?"

Twilight smiled at her and said, "Wow LaurFa, you hit those targets with a ton of energy. Let's go back to the tower so I can help you with your levitating skills."

On the way back LaurFa asked Twilight, "Mommy, are you a Goddess? You are so powerful and so pretty!"

Twilight smiled and said, "Yeah, you could say I'm a Goddess! Don't tell anypony though, I don't want them to crowd around me too much!"

"Don't worry mommy, I won't!" said LaurFa

Twilight smiled as they returned to the tower but realized that she needs to mature LaurFa. Right now she is acting like a very young filly and talked to her more like she was her mother. Twilight was thinking to herself, "I have got to figure something out. I can't take her to Faustica like this! They would know that she isn't the LaurFa they worship."

LaurFa went to Twilight and said, "Mommy, I'm tired. Can I take a nap?"

Twilight replied, "Of course you can! Let me show you your bedroom. I know you will like it!"

Twilight and LaurFa arrived at her bedroom and she shouted, "Yay! Thank you mommy! I love it!"

"I knew you would!" replied Twilight "Now you get some sleep while I go and do some studying."

"Mommy," said LaurFa "what is studying?"

Twilight was a bit irritated by this question but she smiled and said, "It is when a pony reads books and learns what is in them. You get some sleep, I will be back and check on you later."

Twilight headed off to the archives thinking to herself, "I hope I can find a spell to mature her and make her stop thinking I am her mom. I don't know how mom put up with Shining Armor and I when we were like that. I am about to go nuts already."

Finally Twilight got to the archives and locked herself in the Starswirl the Bearded room. She could not handle being called mommy anymore and was going to stay in there until she found something to mature LaurFa into an adult. She was in there for an hour reading through the ancient scrolls and finally found the answer.

"A-ha! I think I have figured out how to write this spell. I just hope that it works." said Twilight to herself

Twilight headed towards LaurFa's bedroom just as she was waking up. She ran over to Twilight, gave her a hug and said, "Mommy, what do we get to do next? That shooting beams at those targets was fun and trying to levitate that rock was fun too! What do we get to do next mommy?!"

Twilight said, "LaurFa, I need you to stand in the center of your room for what we will do next."

"Ok mommy! I'm in the center of the room. Will what we do be fun?" asked LaurFa

"Yeah, it will be fun." replied Twilight

Twilight pointed her horn at LaurFa and it began to glow. She recited, "The innocent pony is unsure of who she wants to be, that may be cute but it is not what is good for me, she needs to mature if she is to be strong for without maturity she won't last for long, the naive one shall be so no more, for her maturity will carry her into lore."

As soon as Twilight said this a bolt of energy hit LaurFa knocking her backwards but did no harm to her. LaurFa got up and said, "Where am I? How did I get out of the void."

Twilight replied, "You are in the black tower of Queen Twilight Sparkle in Ponyville. I don't know if you remember this or not but I released you in Canterlot."

It all came back for LaurFa. She said, "Yes Queen Twilight, I remember that. I am at your service. You are the one and only leader I will recognize. I do have another question though."

"Yes, what is it?" asked Twilight

"Did I think you were my mother there for a while? I don't know if I was hallucinating or what, but I remember calling you mommy." said LaurFa

"Yes you thought I was your mother." said Twilight "Do you remember your performance out on the firing range?"

LaurFa replied, "Yeah, I remember you telling me that I had done an excellent job and had plenty of power, but I also remember not being able to levitate a rock."

Twilight said, "Yes LaurFa, that is right. With you being more mature now I want you to try both levitation and do the accuracy and power test again."

They flew down to the base again and Twilight said, "LaurFa, I want you to see if you can levitate that rock."

"Alright, wish me luck." said LaurFa

LaurFa was able to easily levitate the rock, which made Twilight breathe a sigh of relief. She was thinking to herself, "I just hope she doesn't have more power than me with her energy bolts."

The two flew over to the firing range where Twilight ordered LaurFa to fire energy at the targets. LaurFa fired at the targets again and hit each of them with plenty of energy. Twilight flew over to the targets and found that LaurFa did not have any more energy now than she did in her child like state.

LaurFa asked, "Your Majesty, how did I do on those?"

"LaurFa, you have done well. You easily levitated the rock. Also, your energy is good and strong and your aim is deadly accurate. If we were to be attacked, you would be able to take out our enemies easily." said Twilight "Also, you don't have to call me any sort of royal title. Just call me Twilight or Twily, I prefer a laid back atmosphere."

LaurFa replied, "Alright Twilight, will do. I have a feeling that you have some sort of big plans for me. Is that true?"

Twilight replied, "Yeah, I do have plans. It will involve you, me and a large portion of my military going on a mission to retrieve a relic that I need and I need to relocate a library here as well."

"Why do you have to do that?" asked LaurFa

"It is a matter of Equestrian security. You will soon find out what my plans are as you are vital to the success of this operation. Enough discussing this for now though, I'm hungry and it is close to supper time. Let's go eat."

"Same here Twilight, I'm starving. Acting like a very young filly must use a lot more energy than I thought!" laughed LaurFa

"Yeah, I hear you. Trying to play the role of a mother uses a lot more energy than I thought. Let's go. I don't want to keep my brother and my generals waiting." said Twilight

Twilight and LaurFa then flew off towards her tower for supper as it had been a very hectic day for them all, Twilight in particular as she learned that even a few hours of having to be a mom was more stressful than any battle she has ever been involved in.

Preparing for the Mission

The next day Twilight, Shining Armor, LaurFa and her generals met in the throne room after breakfast. They could feel that Twilight was just itching to go and get that relic. They could see it in her eyes and in her actions.

"Alright everypony, we need to start preparing for our trip to Faustica. We need to start preparing our forces for our mission. Remember, this is not an invasion, so we will not fire upon them unless they fire on us first." said Twilight

LaurFa asked, "How are we going to prevent them from firing on us? I am pretty sure that when they see us they will think it is an attack."

Twilight replied, "Thank you for bringing that up LaurFa. I was going to wait until later to address it but I will address it now."

Shining Armor asked, "What will her role be in our mission?"

Twilight replied, "LaurFa looks a lot like a pony they used to worship as a goddess. We will send her in first. They will see her coming and run straight towards her, as they will think their goddess has returned. While they are gathered around her we shall take our ship in on the northeast shore of Faustica because it is hidden from view from the rest of the city."

LaurFa asked, "What do I tell them when they come flocking to me thinking I am their goddess?"

Twilight replied, "You will simply tell them that you have returned. Anything you can do to draw their love and adoration is what we want you to do. That will give us time to gather the materials from the library and transport them to the ship. That will also give me more than enough time to retrieve that relic."

"Alright Twilight, I'm not overly good with words so you may have to help me out with making them love me." said LaurFa

Twilight replied, "I am more of a commander. I think that perhaps having you read a book about giving good speeches might be the best option. Giving them a pep rally speech like I do my soldiers won't win them over."

With it being a Saturday Colgate did not have her office open and Lyra and Lemon Hearts were not busy either. They showed up ten minutes before ten in the morning to start training.

"Twilight," said Colgate "We are ready to start training."

"Wow Colgate. You got here even earlier today. I like that, you are any commanders dream come true. You arrive early, you are focused and you inspire those around you." said Twilight

Colgate replied, "Well I am getting Lyra and Lemon Hearts to put a lot of importance to being on time. If we are to succeed, we can't be late and we must be focused."

Twilight said, "Alright, my friends will be here this afternoon but I think we need to go over to the target range at the base. There I will have you practice levitating skills and firing beams of energy at targets that measure your power."

"Alright," said Lemon Hearts "I'm ready for this!"

Twilight took her new recruits over to the base where she took LaurFa. There were no military exercises going on at the time so there would be no danger of her recruits getting int he way.

"Colgate," said Twilight "I want you to go first. I want you to try to levitate that rock as high as you can and for as long as you can."

"You got it Twilight." replied Colgate

Colgate pointed her horn at the rock and levitated it well over 100 feet in the air and was still holding it at that height three minutes later.

Twilight said, "Colgate, you can put the rock down. You did a spectacular job there. Were you getting tired levitating at that height for that long?"

Colgate replied, "Nope, not at all. I didn't even feel any kind of stress. I was out to the west of Ponyville practicing levitating rocks last night after work. I wanted to be ready."

Twilight smiled and realized that Colgate was the model Alicorn. She said, "Wow Colgate, now that is what I love to hear. Not only do you come here and do a good job, but you practiced after a long day of work as well."

Next it was Lyra's turn. She pointed her horn and levitated the rock at a height of around fifty feet for a couple of minutes before getting a grimace on her face and set the rock down.

"Lyra," asked Twilight "were you starting to get a bit tired there?"

"Yes, I was. I am sorry that I did not do all that well." replied Lyra

Twilight replied, "Hey, it isn't that big of a deal. You still levitated the rock higher and for longer than LaurFa did."

Lyra asked, "Who is LaurFa? I have never even heard that name before, much less seen her here around town."

Twilight replied, "LaurFa is a recruit from abroad who has sworn her allegiance to me. She also possesses a quality that will aid us greatly in our mission."

Lemon Hearts asked, "What is that Twilight?"

Twilight rolled her eyes and replied, "That is currently classified information. Right now the only ponies that know that are her and me. It is your turn now. I want to see how you do on levitating this rock."

Lemon Hearts pointed her horn at the rock and began to levitate it. She had a performance exactly like Lyra. Twilight was pleased, but hoped that they could improve their time and height.

"Colgate, Lemon Hearts and Lyra did pretty good on this, but I want you to work with them on getting their performance to equal yours. Can you work with them?" asked Twilight

Colgate gave Twilight a huge smile and said, "Yes, you bet I can! I am honored that you want me to lead a training exercise!"

Twilight replied, "Well you have proven to me with your promptness and devotion that you are leadership material. Now it is time for us to do the accuracy and power test."

Lemon Hearts asked, "Twilight, what do we do here?"

Twilight replied, "I want each of you to fire beams of energy at those targets. They are able to measure the amount of energy your energy beams have when you fire them. Colgate, you are up first."

"Alright Twilight, let me know when you are ready." said Colgate

Twilight replied, "I am ready for you to do this now, FIRE!"

Colgate aimed her horn at the three targets and fired energy at them, getting direct hits on all of them. Twilight flew over to the targets to read the results and thought to herself, "Holy moly. She has power almost equal to me. I had no clue she was that powerful."

Colgate flew over to the other end of the range and asked Twilight, "How did I do?"

Twilight replied, "You got direct hits on all three targets and your energy is almost as powerful as mine is! I don't know where you got that much energy from, but this is beyond amazing."

Colgate replied, "I didn't know I had that kind of energy. I guess you never know until you push yourself."

Next up it was Lemon Hearts's turn. She fired energy at the targets. She was not as fast as Colgate was but she did hit all three targets. Lemon Hearts flew to the other end of the range and asked, "Twilight, how did I do?"

"You did well Lemon Hearts." replied Twilight "You hit each target directly but your power is average for a new Alicorn. I am impressed with your accuracy though. Lyra, it's your turn."

Lyra stood at the other end of the range and pointed her horn at the targets, she hit each target directly. As she was flying to the other end of the range, she was hoping that she did not disappoint Twilight.

When she reached the other end of the range she asked Twilight how she did.

"Lyra," said Twilight, "Your performance was the same as Lemon Hearts. Your accuracy is good and your power is normal for a new Alicorn."

Lyra replied, "That is good, I guess."

Twilight said, "Colgate, I want you to help Lyra and Lemon Hearts increase their power. I want you to be the team leader among the three of you. I am sure that after you work with these two for a few days, they will have the same abilities that you do."

"Thank you Twilight for having so much confidence in me! I have never felt more appreciated in my life." said Colgate

Twilight smiled and said, "Let's head back to the tower and discuss some things. My friends will be here this afternoon and will be doing the same skills tests that the three of you did. Colgate, I want you to conduct the tests this afternoon as I have a meeting with my generals."

"You can count on me," said Colgate "I will not let you down!"

Twilight said, "I know you won't. It is getting close to time for lunch. Let's go eat."

After lunch Twilight's friends flew down to the base of the tower and was greeted by Colgate. Colgate said, "Twilight has put me in charge of your training exercises this afternoon. She has an important meeting with Shining Armor and her military officers."

Applejack said, "Why can't Twilight just wait. She knows us more than you do and I trust her completely."

Rarity added, "Why you? You are nothing special."

Colgate replied, "Applejack, we need to get started on these as soon as possible, that is why she is having me conduct them. Rarity, she is having me conduct these because my power is almost equal to hers."

Rarity looked shocked and shouted, "HOW ARE YOU ALMOST AS POWERFUL AS HER? YOU'RE NOT ROYALTY!"

Colgate glared at her and replied, "No, I am not royalty but I have written my own magic. That is probably why my abilities are almost equal to hers. Let's go, there are five of you and Twilight wants this done before supper time."

Colgate and Twilight's friends flew over to the training range. "Alirght," said Colgate "There are two exercises Twilight wants you to do. First we will test your levitation skills using that large rock off to our left, then we will do the energy and accuracy tests using those targets at the other end of the range. Applejack, you will go first."

Applejack asked, "So what do ah do with that rock?"

Colgate replied, "You need to levitate it as high as you can for as long as you can."

Applejack pointed her horn at the rock and lifted it up into the air to a height of 100 feet. She was still levitating it three minutes later when Colgate told her she could set it down.

Colgate asked, "Applejack, did you feel any stress while you were levitating that rock?"

Applejack replied, "No, ah didn't even feel any stress. Is that good?"

Colgate replied, "That is spectacular Applejack. That is the same performance I had doing the rock levitation. Twilight will be very pleased with your performance."

Next it was Rarity's turn. Rarity said, "I don't know why we have to engage in such ridiculous activities. How is this going to help us?"

Applejack said, "Just levitate the rock Rarity. Complaining and whining isn't going to help us any."

Rarity rolled her eyes and pointed her horn at the rock. She was not able to lift the rock even ten feet and dropped it after only ten seconds.

Rarity sighed and said, "Let me guess, you and Twilight are not pleased with my performance."

Colgate replied, "Twilight will not be pleased at all. If you lose the attitude you could have potential. Focus is key Rarity. Complaining will get you nowhere and on the battle field or even on a simple mission like what we have planned, it could be the difference between success and failure."

Rarity replied, "Oh, you're talking about her plan to go and steal that relic and library from Faustica, aren't you?"

Colgate said, "I will pretend I didn't hear that. Pinkie, you're up next!"

Pinkie said, "Weeee, this is gonna be fun!"

Colgate smiled and said, "Give it your best shot Pinkie, and yes it can be fun!"

Pinkie pointed her horn at the rock and levitated it to seventy feet in the air easily and was throwing it around in a circle watching it with a big smile on her face. After three minutes Colgate told her to gently set the rock down.

Pinkie asked, "How did I do? That was fun. Let's do it again!"

Colgate replied, "Well we don't have time for you to do it again but you did spectacular. I am amazed how you threw that thing around so easily. I need to try to do that myself. I am sure Twilight will be pleased."

Next it was Fluttershy's turn. Colgate knew of how tender Fluttershy has always been and was not expecting too much of her but knew that she would give it her best.

Fluttershy pointed her horn at the rock and elevated it easily to a height of 100 feet and held it there for over three minutes when Colgate told her to put it down.

"How did I do?" whispered Fluttershy

Colgate replied, "No need to whisper Fluttershy! You kicked that rock's flank! Twilight is going to be thrilled. I am proud of you! We just need to get some fighting spirit in you. That I will leave up to Twilight."

"Thank you commander!" said Fluttershy

Colgate replied, "Just call me Colgate. I like things more laid back. Rainbow Dash, you're up next. Let's see how you do."

Rainbow Dash replied, "You got it boss!"

Rainbow levitated the rock easily. She flew around the rock while she was levitating it and just to prove her awesomeness, she carried the rock with her while she did a sonic rainboom. She then slammed the rock down away from everypony else.

Colgate said, "I was expecting that out of you Rainbow. I am pretty sure Twilight would have expected the same thing. Now for the target practice."

Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rainbow scored perfectly on the targets before it was Rarity's turn.

Rarity was just standing around playing with her hair not paying attention when Colgate yelled, "RARITY, IT IS YOUR TURN!"

"Oh Colgate, be a dear and just tell Twilight that I did fine." replied Rarity

Applejack said, "Rarity, the rest of us did that now you need to do the same. We're all getting sick of your whining."

"Oh ok Applejack. I'm only doing this because you said so." said Rarity sarcastically

Rarity aimed her horn at the targets and started firing beams of energy in a pattern rather than aiming for the targets. She left burn marks in the grass in the shape of her cutie mark.

"Colgate, you have to give me credit for that. It is simply magnificent!" said Rarity

"RARITY, YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO HIT THE TARGETS, NOT MAKE PATTERNS. TRY AGAIN! THIS TIME, AIM FOR THE TARGETS." ordered Colgate

"Oh fine!" said Rarity "Nopony appreciates art anymore!"

Rarity pointed her horn at the targets. She fired her energy at the targets but missed two of three of them and the one she did hit the results were not good.

Rarity flew down to the other end of the range where Colgate was standing and said sarcastically, "So commander, how pathetic was I?"

Colgate replied, "There is no need to sass with me. By the way, I think your cat could have hit that target with more energy and she doesn't have magical powers at all. Twilight will be disappointed in your performance and unhappy with your attitude. Come on everypony. It is getting close to supper time. Let's head back to the tower."

Twilight's Frustration

Colgate and Twilight's recruits returned to the tower shortly before supper. When they arrived in the dining hall Twilight could see that Colgate seemed a bit frustrated. She was wondering if her friends did terrible at the range.

"Colgate, how did things go out there at the range this afternoon?" asked Twilight

Colgate replied, "I will talk to you after supper about this. For the most part I am impressed with your friends, but there is one issue we must discuss."

Twilight replied, "I take it we can't discuss it now?"

"No." replied Colgate "Besides, supper is getting here. You're the one that doesn't like to discuss matters such as this over a meal."

"Alright Colgate. We will talk in the throne room after supper." replied Twilight

Twilight's friends were hungrier than normal that night. This was the first time in a while that Pinkie had filled up on normal food instead of sweets. Rarity wasn't overly thrilled by the meal as it wasn't a fancy meal. Applejack looked across the table and noticed her actions.

"Rarity, nothing is good enough for you now is it? You should be happy Twilight is feeding us." said Applejack

Rarity replied, "Well, I was thinking that with Twilight being royalty now that she would serve food more like Princess Celestia did in Canterlot."

Twilight frowned at Rarity and said, "Rarity, I am not Celestia and this is not Canterlot. The food I serve comes from local farms. Nothing is imported from any further than 30 miles away. If you don't like the food, then wait until you get home to eat."

Rarity replied, "But Twilight, you have discarded everything from the past. You live in a black tower, you hide the archives, you have a standing military, you don't want anypony calling you queen and you serve your guests commoners' food."

"COMMONERS' FOOD?" shouted Twilight "If I remember correctly it was just a while back that you said to me in Sugarcube Corner 'oh hi your royal highness, what are you doing down here with us commoners?' Do you remember that?"

"Yes I do your royal highness." said Rarity

Twilight said, "Look, if you're not going to eat your food, let somepony else have it. I am sure one of the rest of us would love it."

Applejack said, "Ah'm still hungry Rarity, if you don't want it, I'll eat it!"

"Fine, take it. I'm going to go home and eat something more refined than this swill." replied Rarity

Twilight interrupted and said, "You're not going home until Colgate and I have a meeting with you in the throne room after supper."

"Ok Dark Queen Twily." grunted Rarity

After supper Twilight, Colgate and Rarity headed to the throne room while the rest of Twilight's friends headed home. Rarity looked like she was about to snap as they entered the throne room.

"What is that scowl for Rarity?" asked Twilight

"You want to know what my scowl is for your royal highness? I am upset because you expect me to take part in those idiotic exercises you had your little lap dog Colgate put us through. What is the point of those? You could at least have decent food around here. Potatoes, steak, apples and corn are not something a queen should be serving her guests and I still have no desire to help you in your ridiculous treasure hunt." ranted Rarity

"You see why I wanted to talk with you after supper?" said Colgate "She was whining and complaining all afternoon and complaining because the rest of your friends did good and she didn't. I think she has potential. It isn't a matter of that she can't, she just doesn't want to take part in the exercises."

Twilight said, "I agree Colgate. What I see here is a jealous friend who wishes that she were the one who was in power. Rarity is not used to things like this. Ever since she was a filly she never had to do much of anything that she didn't want to. Am I right Rarity?"

Rarity replied, "Twilight, you make me sound like a spoiled brat. There is a big difference between a spoiled brat and a pony who is used to the finer things in life. In Canterlot Celestia served the finest food in all of Equestria. You feed us the same mess hall food you feed your army. How in Equestria anypony else can like it is beyond me."

Twilight and Colgate headed over to the far end of the throne room to talk about this situation and what needs to be done about it.

Twilight said, "Good grief, is there any kind of loyalty spell that will work on her? Am I going to have to use more power on her than I did LaurFa?"

Colgate replied, "Chances are you will Twilight. I am planning on putting Applejack in charge of handling her since they are friends. Rarity basically just sees me as your lap dog and won't listen to me."

Twilight replied, "I'm not sure if putting Applejack in charge of handling her is that good of an idea. She views Applejack as unrefined. Let me handle her. I am thinking a night in the dungeon will straighten her out."

Twilight and Colgate returned to the other side of the room with stern looks on their faces. Just about as Twilight was about to address her, Rarity said, "Oh, so what were you and your little lap dog saying over there? Are you going to send me to the void? Are you going to turn me back into a unicorn? Whatever it is, I don't care."

"Colgate," replied Twilight "Could you go get my brother and General Dark Night? I am going to need help with this."

"I will be back Twilight. I agree, you will need lots of help. She can get feisty." said Colgate

While Colgate went to get Shining Armor and Dark Night Twilight put her hoof on Rarity's shoulder and said, "Look Rarity, I don't think you understand the importance of what needs to be done. I made you an Alicorn because you are one of my friends. I should have listened to my instincts when they were telling me that Sweetie Belle would make a better Alicorn."

"WHAT?" shouted Rarity "You think Sweetie Belle would be a better Alicorn than me? You do know that she knows absolutely no magic don't you?"

"Yes Rarity, but I saw how she was when you and her were fighting and she wanted Applejack as her sister. I saw how much she wanted to help out over on the farm and had fun doing it. You just can't chip a hoof now can you? You can't eat normal food except for the sweets Pinkie fixes and you just can't not be in a position of authority now can you?" said Twilight

Before Rarity could say anything Colgate returned with Shining Armor and Dark Night. "What do you want us to help you with Twily?" asked Shining Armor

"I need you and Dark Night to help Colgate and I take her down to the dungeon. I am thinking that if I can't use magic to make her obedient, perhaps imprisonment will." replied Twilight

Rarity shouted, "WHY TWILIGHT? I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS!"

Twilight sighed and said, "You know Rarity, I should have known that this would not be for you. I know you like the glamour of being an Alicorn but you can't handle the responsibilities than come with it."

Rarity growled, "Twilight, the only responsibilities than an Alicorn had when Celestia was our princess was to live in Canterlot and be loyal to her. They never had to do anything like you want us to do, and Colgate, how can you stand having a boring regular job now that you are an Alicorn?"

Colgate replied, "You know what Rarity? Life is about a lot more than being pretty and sitting in some ivory tower. Twilight is in charge now and being an Alicorn doesn't make you better than other ponies. Regarding my job, I love being a dentist and that is something that Twilight didn't take away from me."

Rarity shouted, "Fine Dark Queen Twily, fine Commander Colgate, have your bouncers take me to the dungeon. I will get out sooner or later."

Twilight laughed, "You know Rarity, you still don't know how to teleport and the locks on the doors can only be unlocked by a spell that only I along with Shining Armor knows. So until you calm down and quit being a spoiled, disobedient brat, you will remain locked up. Even if I free you before our mission to Faustica, you aren't going. Right now I think you are a threat to national security."

Rarity continued shouting as they were all hauling her down to the dungeon. Shining Armor led her into her cell and locked the door. She was enraged glaring at Twilight shouting, "You won't get away with this! I will go to Faustica myself and let the true royal family know about your tyranny!"

"Rarity, with the way you have been behaving your sentence is thirty days. More outbursts will lead to a longer sentence, increasing in one month increments, so if I were you, I would shut up." said Twilight

"Colgate," said Twilight "could you go and take Sweetie Belle to Sweet Apple Acres and take Opal to Fluttershy's cottage since Rarity won't be home for a while?"

"Of course I can Twilight! Consider it done!" replied Colgate

Rarity shouted, "YOU CAN'T JUST TAKE MY SWEETIE BELLE AND OPAL SOMEWHERE ELSE!"

Twilight replied, "Rarity, I don't think Sweetie Belle is old enough to be left on her own yet and with Applejack having a dog, I don't think Sweet Apple Acres is the best place for a cat."

Colgate said, "Yeah Rarity, cats and dogs just don't mix. I'm off Twilight, I will see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow Colgate. Get plenty of rest." said Twilight

"You too." replied Colgate as she left the dungeon and headed off to take care of Sweetie Belle and Opal.

Rarity replied, "Well ok, I understand your reasoning there. But what will I eat down here in all this muck?"

Twilight laughed, "Oh don't worry Rarity, you will get a decent portion of the commoners' food you complain so much about."

"And what if I refuse to eat it?" said Rarity

"Well I guess you will starve then. Even I don't eat fancy Canterlot food so why would I give a prisoner of mine that expensive stuff." replied Twilight

Dark Night said, "You know Twilight, she is your first prisoner. I am thinking you should make some sort of plaque commemorating this event since she seems to be such a drama queen and loves attention so much."

"You're right Dark Night!" laughed Twilight "Then she will forever have fame here in the black tower! I know she will love that!"

Rarity just rolled her eyes and sulked in her cell knowing that it was going to be a long thirty days.

Twilight said, "Come on everypony, we need to get some rest. I'm getting tired anyway."

Twilight, Shining Armor and Dark Night left the dungeon, slamming the door behind them. Rarity sat down there and used her horn to make some light. She was thinking to herself, "Ok Rarity, just keep quiet and when thirty days have passed, we will head to Faustica. I overheard Twilight and LaurFa talking about how that is where Celestia and Luna went to with their parents. We will join their side and defeat the dark queen."

Upstairs Twilight and Shining Armor were having a final snack before they headed to bed.

"You know Shining Armor, Rarity is a friend but I just can't have somepony disrespecting me like that." said Twilight

"I know," said Shining Armor "not to mention criticize you over your plans."

"Well she has thirty days to think about it. By then we will have recovered that relic and relocated that library so I'm not overly worried about it. I'm off to bed." replied Twilight

Twilight headed to bed feeling a bit more at ease. She stood on her balcony facing to the west and thought to herself "If she does move to Canterlot after she finishes her sentence, there won't be any gourmet food left there to have!" Twilight decided to turn in for the night and very quickly fell asleep.

Touching Base

Ten days had passed since Twilight began training her new recruits for the upcoming mission. Twilight had been walking around the base and is impressed with what she has seen. Shining Armor has the dark unicorns and changelings ready for the quest and Colgate has trained her friends along with Lemon Hearts and Lyra to perfection.

After eating breakfast Twilight headed down to the base and addressed her soldiers and recruits. "I have been watching over everything that has been going on and I am very pleased. Shining Armor, Dark Night and Thunder Rage, I think your forces are well prepared for our mission. Colgate, from the results everypony has had out on the range, both accuracy and power, I think we are ready to head off on our mission."

Dark Night asked, "Twilight, when are you going to tell the whole army what this is about?"

Twilight replied,"I am going to tell them now. Everypony, the mission we are going on is to retrieve a relic I desire on Alicorn Island in the city of Faustica. Not only do I need to retrieve that relic, but the library there contains a lot of special materials."

Lemon Hearts asked, "Why do you want that library so much?"

Twilight replied, "I was studying up in the archives and I read in one of the oldest scrolls that Faustica was designated as the place where the absolute most powerful books and scrolls regarding magic would be held. I do not think it is in the best interests of Equestria for some other nation to have that information."

Lemon Hearts said, "I understand Twilight. We can't have another nation having the ability to learn magic that would allow them to attack us or try to remove you from power."

Twilight smiled and said, "That is right Lemon Hearts. I see you are just as focused as I am."

Lyra added, "I trust Twilight entirely and I know that this is a national security issue. I am more than ready to help her out with this. What about everypony else?"

All of Twilight's armies and new recruits shouted, "WE'RE READY TWILIGHT!"

Colonel Lightning Wasp asked, "Twilight, what are we going to do regarding all our changelings. They are fairly vulnerable to attacks from Alicorns. Is there any sort of spell you know that could at least give them more protection against their energy?"

Twilight replied, "Yes, I do have a spell that will allow them to have that protection. I am going to cast that spell once we get a couple of miles away from Faustica. The sooner before the mission I cast it, the stronger it will be."

Applejack asked, "Twilight, are we going to take the entire army with us on this mission or will some of them be staying here?"

Twilight replied, "Thank you for addressing that Applejack. We have around 10,000 changelings and just over 5,000 Alicorn soldiers. My plan is to take half of each with us. If on the way I feel that we need more, I will simply use my duplication spell to make more. After all, we do need some of our soldiers to stay here at home to crush any rebellions or disorder of any sort."

"Which officers will be staying at home and which ones will be going?" asked Colgate

"Colgate," replied Twilight "The generals, the majors and captains will be going with us. The colonels and lieutenants will be staying here. We can't have all the officers going in the event the Alicorns there become hostile, attack us and potentially kill some of our officers."

Shining Armor added, "We will be tomorrow. There will be no further training exercises of any sort until after we complete this mission. It is a long enough flight to the coast where we will set sail and then it is a four day trip from there to Alicorn Island."

Fluttershy asked, "Will we all be on one ship Twilight?"

Twilight replied, "No, we will be taking two ships. One will have myself, my new recruits and my Alicorn soldiers. The other will contain Shining Armor and all the changelings. That way we don't have to worry about being cramped."

Colgate said, "Alright everypony, those who will be going with us need to be ready to start flying to the shore tomorrow at 9 in the morning, after breakfast. It should take us five hours to get there. Twilight has already stocked both ships with enough food for decent sized meals for the trip there. Once we arrive, we will set sail, does everypony understand?"

Twilight added, "I need all of my recruits to join Shining Armor and I in the throne room. Dark Night, Thunder Rage, I want you to make sure that both armies get plenty of rest. Just keep an eye out for things like you normally would. Otherwise, just relax and enjoy one another's company."

"Alright Twilight, will do." replied Thunder Rage

Twilight, Shining Armor and the new recruits headed up to the throne room. Twilight figured she needs to make sure they are all on the same page before relaxing for the rest of the day.

"Colgate, how is this affecting your appointments at your office?" asked Twilight

Colgate replied, "Twilight, I closed for three weeks so that I can be as ready as possible for this mission. I love being a dentist but I know that if Equestria is not as secure as possible, that I might not be able to be a dentist at all."

"Good to hear that Colgate." replied Twilight "Once we get back from this mission, even if it is before you plan on reopening, I want you to do what you hold so dear. Besides, Spike really needs to see you anyway."

"Alright Twilight," replied Colgate "but we need to focus on the task at hand."

"LaurFa, besides keeping the citizens of Faustica occupied, I am going to need you to give me a detailed description of where in that palace I can find the relic I seek. I know there are two libraries there. There is the public library which I know holds vast knowledge and then there is the Goddess's library. I need to know where both of those are. I want you to wait and tell me this until right before we get there."

"I know that whole city like the back of my hoof and I know how I can make the relocation of those materials much easier. Since they think I am their goddess, I will just tell them that the libraries need to be temporarily relocated for security purposes. They will believe anything I say." replied LaurFa

"Excellent!" said Twilight "I think this mission should go fairly easy but we still must be just as prepared as though we were going to war against Alicorn Island."

Fluttershy asked, "Twilight, who will take care of my critter friends while we are gone?"

Twilight smiled and said, "I will have Spike take care of them like he did when we went up to the Crystal Empire to shore up the Equestria Games for them. If he needs any help, I have told him to get Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to help him. Maybe they will get their cutie marks as animal caretakers."

Rainbow Dash asked, "What happened to Rarity? I know she was being really rude to you and complaining about everything, but I haven't seen her since the first day of our exercises."

Twilight has become a pathological liar by this point and had no problems telling flat out lies if it will benefit her. She said, "Rainbow, I am not sure what happened to her. I know she was complaining about the food and how much better Canterlot food is. My guess is that she decided to move there."

Rainbow replied, "That little backstabber! We ought to go into Canterlot and drag her flank with us!"

Twilight replied, "No, I do not want us to do that. She has proven that she is not loyal to us or our cause. She wants to live like Alicorns did under the old regime. She can't handle anything that might cause her to chip a hoof. Just let her go be a diva and attend all the fancy parties there."

Applejack said, "Ah agree with Twilight. She ain't loyal to us and she sure ain't loyal to Equestria. The only ones she's loyal to is herself and those high falootin Canterlot ponies."

Twilight said, "Ok, it sounds like we are all on the same page. I want all of you to do what you would normally do for the rest of the day. I want you to get here around six in the morning so we can eat breakfast, have one final meeting and then fly off to the coast. It is a long flight and we need all the energy we have."

All of her friends and new recruits left the tower while Twilight and LaurFa discussed things further. Twilight knew this was extremely important and decided that just to be safe that another loyalty spell must be cast on LaurFa, even stronger than the one she used before.

"LaurFa, I need you to stand in the center of the room. This is very important." said Twilight

LaurFa replied, "Ok Twilight. Your wish is my command."

Twilight pointed her horn at LaurFa. She began to glow very brightly, her eyes were shining radioactive green and her horn had a purple and black bulb of energy at the top of it 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."

While it did not harm her, Twilight's bolt of energy threw LaurFa across the room. Twilight flew over to check on her to make sure that she was ok.

LaurFa looked at her and said, "Twilight, I know every single detail of that city, that palace and the location of everything you need to know. I will create a detailed map of everything. Don't worry, I will keep all the city's citizens occupied."

Twilight asked, "LaurFa, does Alicorn Island or Faustica have a standing military?"

"No," replied LaurFa "since Alicorns are extremely powerful they just use their own energy to fend off danger. Galaxia and Cosmos look at it as the whole city being like one big militia. Don't worry though, there are only 1,000 ponies that live there and with our forces, dealing with them should be easy."

Twilight was pleased with what she was hearing so she let LaurFa have the rest of the day off to relax. She headed to her balcony and looked out over Ponyville realizing that while she has it good now, that soon she would have the relic she needs and all the information required so that if she decided she wanted to conquer the world, she could easily do so.

Shining Armor walked up to Twilight and said, "Twily, what are we going to do in the event that both of us were to be killed. Who would rise to be king or queen?"

"Don't worry big brother," replied Twilight "I have spoken with both the Alicorn officers and the changeling officers, and they have agreed to share power and turn Equestria into a nation led by the military."

"Wow Twily, you really think ahead don't you!" said Shining Armor "What if there is a lot of protests against the military sitting on the throne?"

Twilight replied, "I told them that if this situation were to rise that they should do what I would do. Go and crush the rebellion and do what they see fit with the disobedient ones. Don't worry though, I doubt there will be much risk to any of our lives on this mission."

Retrieving the Jade Alicorn

The morning of their departure had arrived. Twilight made sure that everyone had a good breakfast. After they finished their breakfast she addressed them down at the base of the tower.

"Alright, the time has come for us to head out. We are prepared for anything that they can throw at us and I have an armor spell that will allow all of us to take many more strikes from them than we normally would otherwise. Colonel Ice Storm, Colonel Lightning Wasp, you two are to keep order while we are gone. Do you remember what I said?" asked Twilight

Lightning Wasp replied, "Yes, I remember. You said that if there are any rebellions to crush them and deal with the disobedient ones accordingly."

"That is correct," replied Twilight "alright everypony, let's get going. There is plentiful food by the shoreline that we can eat before we set sail. Our first meal on our ships will be supper. Let's get going!"

Twilight and her forces flew west from Ponyville towards the ocean. In Canterlot it appeared as though Twilight and her forces were paying the city a visit again.

Twilight Velvet said, "Oh great, we have to put up with Twilight and her thugs again."

Crescent Sparkle replied, "It looks that way. Why must she continue to come here and rub it in everypony's face that Ponyville is the capitol now?"

They looked in amazement as Twilight and her forces flew directly over the city without stopping. Twilight was thinking of swooping down and scaring all the Canterlot elites but figured that would only waste time. She needed to get her forces out to the coast as soon as possible.

It was early afternoon when the coastline and their ships became visible on the horizon. They sped up a bit seeing this and landed along the coast.

"Wow, that was a long flight" said Colgate

Twilight replied, "Yep, but we got here sooner than we thought. I thought we wouldn't arrive until around two and we got here just after one. Let's eat."

Twilight and her forces found lakes with fresh water and bushes that had small apples on them which everypony found to be delicious.

"Wow," said Applejack "These small apples are delicious! Ah'm thinking that once there is time, that we should transplant some of these to Sweet Apple Acres. Ah'm sure everypony would love them!"

Twilight replied, "I am glad to know that you like them and once we have everything taken care of, we will transplant these. The apples that grow from them are very tasty."

They all spent around an hour eating their lunch before Twilight addressed them.

Twilight said, "Alright everypony, now we are going to board our ships and set sail for Alicorn Island. Depending on the wind, this could take as long as four days and if we have easterly winds, our trip may only take three days. While we will not be crammed in these ships like sardines, we will be seeing a whole lot of one another than normal. Just relax, enjoy one another's company and enjoy your meals. I will provide more information once Alicorn Island is visible on the horizon."

"What direction will we be approaching Faustica from?" asked Lyra

"Lyra, we will be approaching the island from the northeast. We will be much less noticeable going in from that direction. Like I said, once we get close to the island, I will provide detailed information on what we will be doing." replied Twilight

Everypony got aboard their assigned ship and they set sail towards the west. Twilight was pleased with the easterly wind that was pushing them along. She thought to herself, "I hope this wind keeps up because I don't want us to have to be out here at sea for too long."

Twilight was looking off to the southwest as the sun rose on the fourth morning. She could make out something on the shoreline. Once they got a bit closer she shouted, "THAT IS ALICORN ISLAND ON THE HORIZON! EVERYPONY FLY OVER TO MY SHIP SO I CAN GIVE YOU THE FINAL DETAILS."

After everypony had gathered on her ship Twilight addressed them, "Alright everypony, our target is within sight. Here is what we are going to do. Once we get about a mile from the coast I am going to have LaurFa fly into Faustica. They believe that she is their goddess and they will flock to her and have all their attention and focus aimed solely at her. The rest of us will then go in and retrieve the library materials while I go get the relic."

Colgate asked, "Twilight, how do we know where all this stuff is? It could take us a very long time to locate the library and then how are we going to transport the materials."

Twilight replied, "LaurFa has told me where everything is. I am going to have a lot of you head to the main library which is about six blocks south of the king and queen's palace. Luckily for us they have large boxes to pack all the materials in. They have these in the event it had to be relocated in the event of an emergency. The other library is located in the basement of the castle of the goddess."

Applejack asked, "Who will be going into the goddess's castle to retrieve that material along with the relic with you?"

Twilight replied, "Applejack, you and the rest of my friends, along with Colgate, Lyra and Lemon Hearts will be coming in there with me. Shining Armor will take the unicorn soldiers and changelings in with him."

Rainbow Dash said, "Twilight, the changelings can't levitate things and they can't carry anything, what will they do?"

Twilight replied, "They are here primarily for security detail. If any problems arise, they will cover those who try to stop us in green ooze, which will render their magic useless. Around 100 of them will be coming with us into the goddess's castle while the rest of them will join Shining Armor and our Alicorn soldiers in the main library."

"Are there any other things we have to be concerned about?" asked Fluttershy

"Yes Fluttershy, there are. Faustica is where Queen Galaxia, King Cosmos, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna all live. If Celestia causes any problems, I can deal with her and I most likely can handle Galaxia as they use the same type of magic."

"What about Cosmos and Luna?" asked Colgate

Twilight replied, "They use a different kind of magic, something similar to mine. I have not engaged in any battles against Luna so I am not sure how we would deal with those two. That is where we would need changelings to surround them and cover them in ooze."

"Regarding getting close to them," said Thunder Rage "When are you going to cast that armor spell on us?"

Twilight replied, "I will do it now. I am not only going to cast this spell on the changelings, but all of us, including myself. Everypony gather around me, we need to form a giant ball."

All her soldiers and recruits gathered around her. She began to glow a deep shade of purple, her eyes were glowing green and her horn glowing purple as she recited, "The ones without armor do not stand a chance, so it is what we must enhance, the unarmed ones will likely receive death, with armor they shall continue to draw breath, without armor they will be torn to shreds like a rag but with armor victory is in the bag."

A bright flash of purple energy enveloped them all strengthening their resistance to Alicorn energy. Twilight said, "Ok, all of us can take a lot more hits from the Alicorns than we could before. LaurFa, are you ready to go in?"

"Yes Twilight, I am ready to go in. Let's get this done, in the name of Twilight, in the name of our army, IN THE NAME OF EQUESTRIA!" said a determined LaurFa

"Alright LaurFa, go distract them while we take care of the rest." replied Twilight

It was an ordinary day in Faustica while the royal family was sitting out on the balcony of their palace. Galaxia said, "What is that coming in from the northeast? Is it a huge bird or something?"

Luna looked off that way and started to shout, "IT'S HER! IT'S LAURFA! SHE HAS RETURNED!"

LaurFa landed down on their balcony and said, "It has been such a long time since I have seen you! How is everypony doing?"

Galaxia hugged her and asked, "How did you escape the void your highness? How did you regain your power and size after Twilight drained you?"

LaurFa replied, "Galaxia, I am a goddess! Twilight may have knocked me down and banished me to the void, but I escaped and now I think we need to go to the town square to address my subjects."

LaurFa and the royal family headed off to the town square as Twilight's ships were docking on the northeast side of the city. The citizens of Faustica saw LaurFa flying with the royal family and began to cheer as they ran to the town square.

LaurFa said to the citizens, "I am sure everypony has wondered where I have been. I had a run in with a powerful Alicorn in Equestria who had banished me to the void."

The crowd sighed in concern. LaurFa continued, "But I am a goddess and while even a goddess can get banished temporarily, she will never be trapped forever. I had the power to get out and now I rejoin the royal family in ruling here."

While LaurFa was addressing the crowd Twilight and her forces headed into the city to achieve their objective.

Twilight, her recruits and 100 changelings headed into LaurFa's old palace while the rest of her forces headed to the main library, which was a mile away from the town square so the ponies were oblivious as to what was happening.

Shining Armor and the Alicorn soldiers headed into the main library. "Alright guys, this library has 5 stories to it. Since you know how to levitate, I do not have any concerns as to getting these books in the boxes. Do not worry about sorting them. Twilight will handle that once we return to Ponyville. I need to head to the basement to retrieve the most sacred scrolls this place has. General Dark Night, you will supervise these operations while I am down there."

Dark Night replied, "You can count on me! I will make sure this goes flawless."

At the goddess's palace Twilight and her recruits headed in. Twilight said, "Ok, LaurFa said that the private library is down those stairs and to the left. She said that the relic can be found three flights up and is the room at the end of the hall attached to the balcony. Let's do this."

Twilight headed up the stairs and didn't have a hard time locating LaurFa's old bedroom, as a banner above the entrance read, "Bedroom of Her supreme highness, LaurFa."

Twilight was thinking to herself, "Was LaurFa really so narcissistic that she had to have a banner above her bedroom saying that? Well it just made my life a whole lot easier!"

Twilight headed into the bedroom and on LaurFa's nightstand, she saw what she had came for, the jade alicorn and the emerald plate that it sat in, just as it had sat for thousands of years. Twilight also saw the huge bed that LaurFa had. She decided that she would go and try it out. She sank into it and was thinking to herself, "I have to have this bed! I am the most powerful pony in the universe so I should have a bed designed for the most powerful pony in the universe."

Twilight went downstairs and ran into Major Black Mist. "Black Mist, I need you and thirty changelings to follow me upstairs, now."

Black Mist replied, "Alright Twilight, we are coming. What do you need us for?"

"I have found what I am looking for. I am going to levitate them to the ship and I will then need you and your drones to guard the ship." said Twilight

"Them?" asked Black Mist "I thought there was only one item you wanted."

Twilight replied, "I want LaurFa's bed as well. I tried it out and it is so comfy!"

Twilight, Black Mist and thirty drones headed back up to LaurFa's bedroom to take care of this. Twilight also saw a gold box in her closet. She opened the box, put the jade Alicorn and emerald plate in it and locked it. She then flew to her ship levitating the bed and the box. Black Mist and his changelings followed her. Once they got there Twilight put them down in her bedroom.

"Black Mist, you and your drones guard this ship with your lives. Do not let anyone other than my forces on this ship. Do you understand?" said Twilight

Black Mist replied, "Yes, I understand. You can count on us!"

"Good to hear." replied Twilight

Twilight then flew back towards the goddess's palace and checked on the library. All the materials had been neatly packed and were ready to go.

Twilight said, "Good job girls, good job. Let's get this stuff back to the ship. Thunder Rage, grab your changelings and let's head back to the ship."

Thunder Rage said, "Boys, Twilight said it is time to go. Come on! Follow Twilight and her friends."

Pinkie said, "Wow Twilight, we get to go home this quick. This was easy!"

Twilight replied, "We're not done yet. Shining Armor and the Alicorn soldiers are still handling the main library. Come on, let's go. We can't hang around all day."

Twilight and her friends levitated the boxed up materials and flew back to her ship with great haste. Once they arrived they took all the library materials below deck to a storage compartment.

Fluttershy said, "Twilight, what do we do now?"

Twilight replied, "I want all of you to stay here and guard this ship with your lives. If any of the island's inhabitants come towards these ships, fire on them. Thunder Rage, if you see them coming cover them in ooze and then let the sea handle them."

Applejack asked, "Twilight, what are y'all going to be doing while we are guarding the ship."

Twilight replied, "I am going to go see how things are going at the library and when that is all ready to go, I am going to get LaurFa so we can head back home."

An Unexpected Alliance

LaurFa was still addressing the crowd when Twilight returned to the library. One of the citizens of Faustica raised his hoof and asked, "LaurFa, do you think that we will get attacked by this dark queen from Equestria?"

LaurFa replied, "I don't think we have to worry about her. It is a very long flight from the west coast of Equestria to here. Despite her being extremely powerful, I don't think even she could make the flight here."

Galaxia said, "Well you flew back here and we all flew here, so what makes you think that Twilight couldn't easily fly here?"

LaurFa replied, "Well Twilight is still a relatively new Alicorn, so she isn't going to have the same endurance that we do."

The citizen replied, "Well that makes me feel a lot better."

Celestia saw something off to the north, something that resembled birds flying back and forth but could tell that they were levitating things. "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" shouted Celestia

The citizens of Faustica went into a panic while LaurFa and the royal family headed over towards the library where all the activity was taking place. When they arrived they saw dark Anicorns levitating boxes of books and scrolls off towards the northeast where Twilight's ships were docked.

Celestia shouted, "What do you things want with our books and how did you get here?"

The royal family started firing beams of energy at the dark Alicorns and changelings but the energy simply bounced off of them and hit the city's buildings, causing damage.

A very familiar figure landed in front of Celestia. "You are going to wish you kept your trap shut Celestia." said Twilight

"Twilight, you drove us out of Equestria, isn't that enough for you? LaurFa, get her, drive her out!"

LaurFa replied, "Celestia, don't you remember how she defeated me in Canterlot. I think it is best if we just let her take the materials from the library. I don't feel like going to the void again."

Galaxia asked, "So you are just going to let her win? That is not the LaurFa I know."

Twilight interrupted, "Galaxia, LaurFa was talking to me and said that she believed that an attack on Faustica was imminent and that the library materials must temporarily be relocated and decided that I would be the best one to handle all of this."

Luna asked, "Oh and where are they being relocated to?"

Twilight replied, "She asked me to help her with this because we are taking them to Ponyville."

Galaxia shouted, "BIG SURPRISE. ANOTHER ADDITION TO THE DARK TOWER'S LIBRARY! LUNA, COSMOS, GET TWILIGHT! SHE CAN'T HANDLE YOUR MAGIC."

Twilight took off towards the north. Cosmos and Luna took off after her and chased her all the way to the coastline. They both fired energy at her but the energy bounced off of her and hit them and they fell to the ground. Twilight flew back and landed in front of them.

"You can't stop me, nopony can stop me. Your attempts to bring me down are fruitless. Just let us get what we need and we will leave you alone." said Twilight

Cosmos shouted, "NEVER, YOU THREW MY DAUGHTERS OUT OF EQUESTRIA BUT YOU WILL NOT TAKE WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY OURS."

Twilight laughed and said, "Oh what a naive statement. I would have expected more from you Cosmos. Luna, don't you ever wonder why your mom treats Celestia better than she does you?"

Luna replied, "I never even noticed she did Twilight, what does this have to do with anything."

Twilight said, "I have seen it Luna. I saw how she wanted Celestia, not you, to help her out with my unicorn soldiers in your bid to take back Canterlot. Any good commander would have had Luna help. Using two kinds of magic on both foes would have been the best plan. Didn't you notice how you and your dad had no problems with the changelings but Celestia and Galaxia could hardly make a dent in the unicorn army?"

Luna put her hoof up to her face and thought for a minute. "Actually yes Twilight, I did. I wondered why she wanted Celestia to help her with them."

Cosmos, have you ever wondered why she took it upon herself to take on the more powerful foe when your magic is more powerful?"

"I never thought about it," replied Cosmos "now that I think about it, you are right Twilight."

Twilight asked, "I do have a question, who do the citizens of Alicorn Island like more, you or Galaxia?"

Cosmos replied, "They like Galaxia and Celestia more. They don't flock to me the same way they do her and they seem a bit scared of Luna."

Twilight said, "Hmmm, I wonder why. I have a hunch it is because the both of you have midnight blue coats while Galaxia has a whitish pink coat and Celestia is solid white. That sounds rather judgmental if you ask me."

Cosmos and Luna looked at one another and nodded, "Twilight's right" said Luna "That is very judgmental."

Cosmos added, "It is, and I have noticed how Galaxia and Celestia just gobble up that attention, not even noticing that we are not looked at the same way."

Twilight said, "There is something extremely important I must say to you."

Cosmos said, "Ok, Twilight. What is it?"

Twilight pointed her horn at them, she started to glow a deep shade of purple, her eyes began to shine a radioactive green and her horn began to glow purple as she recited, "From another to me, that is where your allegiance will now be, you thought your old commander loved you like pie when all they wanted was for you to die. With me all shall be great, there shall be no hate."

A massive surge of energy came out of Twilight's horn that hit Luna and Cosmos. They were flung a great distance but were not harmed. Twilight flew over to them to find them wiping their eyes. They stood up and looked at Twilight in a different way.

"Queen Twilight, what can we do for you? We are at your service and at the service of Equestria." said Luna and Cosmos in unison

Twilight replied, "Well first I would prefer it if you just call me Twilight or Twily. I hate those old rigid traditions of the past. Second, I need you two to stay here. I want you to act like nothing at all is wrong. We will all be back later on. I'm not sure exactly when, but it will be sometime within the next year or so."

Luna asked, "What about LaurFa? Why isn't she attacking you or your army?"

Twilight replied, "Don't tell Galaxia or Celestia, but LaurFa is loyal to me now. She did not escape the void on her own, I am the one who freed her believing that she would aid me in my cause."

Cosmos asked, "How did you handle her thinking you were her mom after you released her?"

Twilight laughed, "Oh I thought she was going to drive me up the wall! She was always saying, 'mommy this, mommy that, what is magic?' Luckily I learned a maturing spell so that I could mature her back to being an adult."

Luna said, "I bet. It is a good thing you did, you could never have brought her here in that childlike state."

Cosmos added, "Well we better act like we are chasing you around. You fly to the south and get LaurFa. Once you guys head back to your ships we will act like we are chasing you away when in fact we will be protecting your departure."

Twilight flew back towards the town square being followed by Luna and Cosmos. They saw that the last of the boxes were being transported from the main library out to the ships. Twilight flew down and landed next to LaurFa.

A citizen in the crowd shouted, "It's her! It's the dark queen of Equestria. Kill her!"

The entire crowd started firing bolts of energy at Twilight but the energy just bounced off of her hitting and leveling buildings in the city.

"LaurFa, help us! She is right there, take her out!" shouted Galaxia

LaurFa began to laugh and said, "Oh, why would I want to do that to Twily? She doesn't mean us any harm!"

Celestia shouted, "LaurFa, then why the hay does she have her soldiers carting away every last bit of information in this city away?"

LaurFa replied, "Like I said before, I have a bad feeling that forces from the west will be attacking us and all that information must be secure and Ponyville is the most secure place on the planet to keep this information until this threat passes."

Celestia realized that LaurFa had been corrupted by Twilight, that she had a loyalty spell cast upon her.

Celestia stood in front of LaurFa, pointed her horn at her and recited, "The one who has been brainwashed must be free, she can't be like a dog chained to a tree, she deserves her own free will, not to be stuck with the bill, her power shall be her own and her's alone."

Celestia fired the energy at LaurFa but it bounced off of her headed towards the library and leveled it, just as the final box of material was being transported back to the ships.

Celestia shouted at Twilight, "You little tyrant! How do you know so many spells? How did you learn of a spell that would make all your forces immune to our power?"

Twilight started to laugh and said, "You know Celestia, didn't you hear what I said in Canterlot? If you would have ever bothered to read more than just the easiest works of Starswirl, you would know this stuff. But you just preferred to sit there on your throne being pretty and acting like you were a prize rooster. The irony with you just gets better and better every time I see you."

Celestia started to sob and said, "Twilight, why did this happen to you? I thought you were a gentle, caring mare. I never thought you would become a dark queen bent on taking anything and everything."

Twilight replied, "Cry me a river Celestia. I have had just about of your tears. If I thought you wouldn't drive Sombra, Chrysalis and Cadence up the wall, I would banish you to the void."

Celestia shouted, "You banished Cadence to the void? What does Shining Armor think of this. I am surprised he put up with it."

Twilight replied, "Oh, regarding Shining Armor. It was his idea. I was just going to let her come here for exile, but he warned me that she might try to start a rebellion so I took his advice and banished her."

Celestia continued to sob realizing she created a monster. She felt like everything was all her fault.

LaurFa said, "Oh come on Celestia, I didn't know you were such a crybaby. Twilight, think we ought to get going? If I have to hear one more ounce of her whining, I am going to snap."

Twilight said, "Yeah, let's get going. Celestia's whining is very irritating."

Twilight and LaurFa sped off to the northeast. Luna and Cosmos took off after them to ensure they got back to their ships safely and get out to sea with no problems.

Once Twilight's ships got back out to sea Cosmos and Luna returned to Faustica. They were met by a shocked Galaxia and a devastated Celestia. Luna and Cosmos were there for Celestia and Galaxia, but their true allegiance was to Twilight now.

Luna said, "We better go check on LaurFa's old palace. We need to make sure that nothing was taken from there."

The royal family headed up to the palace to discover that not only had LaurFa's private library been taken, they discovered that the jade Alicorn, the emerald plate it must be placed in and LaurFa's bed were gone.

Celestia saw this and began to cry harder and harder. She knew this was her fault and realized that at this point there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

Luna said, "You see what you did Celestia? I warned you for years to not teach Twilight so much magic, that she might develop the ability to learn on her own. Would you listen to me? Oh, no. You thought of her as your own daughter and just couldn't say no to her. She asked you to teach her more, you did it without even thinking."

Galaxia shouted, "Luna, have you always been this hard on her?"

Celestia sobbed, "Not all the time, it was just when Twilight started learning a lot more than any other student I ever had."

Cosmos said, "Well I guess you live and learn. Sometimes the results of your actions are great, sometimes they lead to disaster."

The royal family decided that since LaurFa turned on Faustica and Alicorn Island, that they would just move into her palace. The raid on Faustica showed that every single place on the planet is vulnerable to an attack from Twilight.

Galaxia asked, "Will LaurFa use that jade Alicorn to see all or will it be Twilight that uses it now?"

Luna replied, "LaurFa is nowhere near powerful enough to use it. Twilight is the only pony on the planet that can use it now. She will now watch over the whole world and probably conquer everything within a couple of years."

This only caused Celestia to cry more and more. She headed to her new bedroom in a great amount of despair. She crawled under her covers and continued to cry harder and harder.

Out at sea Twilight's ships had got far enough out that Alicorn Island was no longer visible. She went to LaurFa and said, "You did an excellent job back there."

"Thanks Twily," replied LaurFa "Will Equestria be safe from the royal family's wrath?"

Twilight replied, "Of course it is! Despite us having all this information and the relic I needed, I also have that force field around Equestria that keeps anything and everything out."

Applejack asked, "Twilight, Ah don't mean to rain on your parade, but once we get back to Equestria, how are we going to get all this stuff to Ponyville?"

"Excellent question Applejack. Since our Alicorn soldiers can levitate things, they will be levitating everything, except for the relic I needed and the bed I took. Those I will handle." replied Twilight

Applejack asked, "What about those apple bushes? Can we take any of those with us?"

Twilight replied, "Of course! You are great at levitating things so take as many of them as you want!"

Finally after four days at sea they reached the coast of Equestria and docked. Twilight decided that they should have a bite to eat before they make the long flight back to Ponyville.

"Alright everypony, after we eat we need to get all of this stuff back to Ponyville." said Twilight

Colgate replied, "Thanks Twilight, I am starving! What sorts of endeavors do you have planned for us after we get back to Ponyville?"

Twilight replied, "Well none for the foreseeable future, well except getting Spike in to see you because I think he might have a cavity or two."

Colgate said, "Alright Twilight! I will check my schedule in a couple of days and see when I can get him in!"

After lunch Twilight and her forces took flight for Ponyville levitating all the material they had acquired from their mission. Once they returned to Ponyville it was almost time for supper. Twilight took all the material into her tower and then addressed her forces.

"You have served Equestria well everypony. I think we need to have a huge feast to celebrate our accomplishment. Thank you everypony!"

After supper Twilight took all her new acquisitions into the library and since it was getting late, she decided she would sort and shelve them tomorrow. She took her relic up to her bedroom and set it up on her night stand. She realized that to make the relic work that she would need to do research to find the spell that makes it work. After setting up her new bed she sank down into it and had the best night of sleep in her entire life.

The Great Green Eye

The following morning Twilight was late waking up and had to rush down to breakfast despite her mane being a total mess. She was greeted by Shining Armor and her generals.

"Twily, what took you so long to get down here?" asked Shining Armor

Twilight replied, "I overslept. That bed that LaurFa had has to be by far the most comfortable bed in the universe! Sleeping in it would cause anypony to oversleep."

"Twilight, what happened to your mane? Did you forget to brush it this morning?" asked Dark Night

Twilight replied, "Yeah, I woke up late and was hungry. I figured that you guys wouldn't mind if I came down to eat with my mane being a mess. I will brush it after breakfast."

"Of course not Twily!" replied Thunder Rage "You could come here with your mane and tail in a mess and we wouldn't think any differently of you."

"Thanks." replied Twilight

"So what do you have planned for today Twilight?" asked Shining Armor

Twilight replied, "Well I have a lot of sorting and shelving that I have to do. I also need to look through the books from LaurFa's private library to find information so I can write a spell to make that jade Alicorn work. I want to have that thing working as soon as possible. After all, I didn't have us go to Faustica just to get a pretty decoration."

Thunder Rage asked, "Twilight, with all that extra material are you going to need more space?"

Twilight replied, "Yeah, I probably am. I may have to turn two of the unused bedrooms into part of my library."

Shining Armor said, "Twilight, I personally think you should build an underground bunker to put your library in. You can think I am paranoid if you like but I think that all your books and scrolls need to be safe from any attacks. I could see dissidents trying to attack the tower and destroy the library."

Twilight replied, "While there are no ponies who have the ability to cause damage to this tower, much less my library, I think you are right. I am going to take care of that today."

Thunder Rage asked, "Twilight, how are you going to take care of that in just one day? It will take quite a while to dig out a bunker like that."

Twilight replied, "I have powerful enough magic that I can just create a reinforced bunker on the other side of the tower from where the dungeon is."

Shining Armor said, "Speaking of the dungeon, how much longer does Rarity have down there before she is freed?"

Twilight replied, "It depends on her behavior. Ice Storm told me that while we were gone she did not sass with him when he took her her meals. If she keeps up this behavior, she will get out in two weeks, if she starts behaving like a brat again, she will be imprisoned for longer."

After breakfast Twilight headed down into the basement and fired bolts of energy into the wall, creating a huge bunker with a separate back room for all the Starswirl material along with LaurFa's private library. She then transported all the material down there and began to sort through it and shelve it. By the time she finished it was lunch time.

She decided that she would go over to Sugarcube Corner for lunch as she was hungry for something sweet. She was greeted by the same Pinkie Pie she has known since she arrived in Ponyville.

"Hi Twilight! How's it going?" asked Pinkie

Twilight replied, "It's going quite well. I have the new bunker finished and all the books and scrolls sorted and shelved down there. This afternoon I need to look for a spell to activate the jade Alicorn."

"Wow Twilight," said Pinkie "It sounds like you have been busy. You must be hungry."

Twilight replied, "Yeah Pinkie, I am. I decided that I would have lunch down here today. I'm hungry for something sweet and I want to have lunch with my friends today anyway."

The rest of Twilight's friends show up a few minutes later. They are all happy to see her down there since she normally eats her meals in her tower now.

Applejack said, "Howdy Twilight, isn't it lunch time for you?"

Twilight replied, "Yeah it is. I decided that I would come down here to eat. I'm sorry for not being down here that much girls. I plan on making it down here more now since I don't have any plans for anything for a while."

Pinkie asked, "But what about your plans for this afternoon finding a spell to activate the jade Alicorn?"

Twilight replied, "What I meant was that I don't have any endeavors in the foreseeable future that requires me to be in my tower most of the time."

Fluttershy said, "That is good Twilight. We really missed having you here."

Rainbow Dash interrupted, "So how much longer will the drama queen be in the dungeon?"

Twilight replied, "She still has two weeks on her sentence, but how much longer she will be there depends upon her behavior. If she remains like she has been with Ice Storm taking her meals to her, then she will get out in two weeks. That is what I am hoping for. I don't like it that the chefs are having to cook for a pony who won't eat it unless she has to."

Applejack asked, "What happens if she doesn't eat her food. Does it go to waste?"

Twilight replied, "No, it doesn't go to waste. I have Ice Storm go get her plate after two hours of him taking it down there. Whatever she doesn't eat I told him he could eat it, which I am sure he is having no problems with since his stomach is like a bottomless pit."

Pinkie asked, "So what will you do with Rarity once her time in the dungeon is over?"

Twilight replied, "That is something that I am still trying to figure out. I have a feeling that if I just let her go that she will just cause problems for us. If I keep her in the tower but not in the dungeon she will just whine and complain so much that I will just send her to the void. It feels like a lose, lose situation."

Applejack said, "What if y'all just let her move to Canterlot since she likes it there so much. Perhaps she won't whine so much when she will be eating their fancy stuff."

"Applejack you're a genius!" said Twilight "I am thinking that would probably be the best option right now. If she will be at least a bit happy and I don't have to put up with her, everything will be fine."

Fluttershy said, "What about Sweetie Belle and Opal? Opal loves it with me but I know Rarity would probably want her back and she would probably drag Sweetie Belle with her to Canterlot."

Applejack replied, "Sweetie Belle has been telling me she wishes she could live on the farm with me forever and that she doesn't care if she ever sees Rarity again and with Opal loving Fluttershy so much, I think Rarity should just move to Canterlot on her own."

Rainbow Dash added, "I agree with Applejack. She should just go there alone."

Twilight replied, "I agree but I do think we should let her ask Sweetie Belle about this on her own so it won't make the rest of us look so bad. You know what a loud mouth Rarity is."

Rainbow asked, "If you do let her move to Canterlot what are you going to do if she tries to start a rebellion there?"

Twilight laughed, "Well if that happens I along with a couple hundred Alicorn soldiers will just have to go in and crush it! There will be rebellions across Equestria and very soon I will be able to scan things from afar the way LaurFa used to."

Pinkie asked, "Was it the jade Alicorn that allowed her to see things from so far away? That will be awesome once you can see everything from far away so you can protect us from anything bad!"

Twilight smiled and said, "Yep Pinkie! It will be awesome. Not only will I be able to see anything going on in Equestria that I want, but I can scan the whole world for threats against us."

"yay!" said Fluttershy "I feel so much better knowing that. I worry about something coming and harming my critter friends."

Twilight replied, "I know you do. After we have our lunch I need to get over to my archives to find out how to activate that thing."

After an unusually long lunch Twilight returned to the tower and headed to the back room of the bunker to go through all the old scrolls to find anything that would help her out. Three hours later she finally found the information that she was looking for. "A-ha!" said Twilight "I think I have it figured out! I'm going up to my bedroom to see if it works!"

Twilight headed up to her room and pointed her horn at the jade Alicorn. She began to glow as she recited, "The jade Alicorn will help me see all, without it I might miss a brawl, while the distances are great, I can see all the hate, wisdom is what comes along with the eye so that overthrowing me nopony will try."

She fired her energy at the relic and it began to glow green. Very quickly a great green eye formed at the top of her tower, scanning over the entire world allowing Twilight to see anything and everything. She decided to tap into it and she saw a vision of a new day starting in Marelaysia and everything going normally.

"YES!" shouted Twilight "It worked! Oh I'm so happy!"

In Canterlot Twilight's parents were looking off to the east and saw that green eye scanning the world for problems and decided that enough was enough. They were going to go down to Ponyville to confront Twilight the next day.

The next morning her parents caught the early train to Ponyville. They were hoping they could persuade Twilight to deactivate the eye. They knew that the chances of that were small, but not zero.

Twilight, Shining Armor and her generals were getting ready to sit down for breakfast when Colonel Lightning Wasp came into the dining room.

"Twilight, there are a couple of ponies who want to see you." said Lightning Wasp

Twilight replied, "Who are they and what is it that they want?"

Lightning Wasp said, "They told me their names are Twilight Velvet and Crescent Sparkle and that they need to speak with you."

Twilight replied, "They are my parents. Bring them up here so they may join me for breakfast."

Lightning Wasp headed down to get her parents. Crescent Sparkle said, "I never imagined we would have a changeling officer taking us up to see our daughter."

Twilight Velvet said, "I know. She hates the formal traditions of old but I think this whole military thing she has going is far more rigid. Why a traditional royal guard isn't good enough for her is beyond me."

They got up to the dining room and Twilight and Shining Armor ran up to their parents to give them a hug.

Twilight Velvet said, "Stop right there you two. We are in no mood for a hug from either one of you after what you have been doing here lately."

Shining Armor asked, "What have we done that has you so irritated? Is it because we haven't invited you for a meal here yet?"

Crescent Sparkle replied, "Look son, you know exactly what it is about. You and your sister have been laying siege to other nations and stealing relics and taking their libraries just so Twilight can have every ounce of knowledge in the world. That is what has us so angry."

Twilight Velvet added, "And that green eye watching everything is creepy. It makes me feel like I am constantly being watched. It makes me feel like Twilight doesn't trust us, that she thinks we are the enemy."

Twilight replied, "Mom, I know it bothers you but I am doing this in the name of national security. There are a lot of threats in this world and with this I can know about them long before they have a chance to cause any problems for anypony in Equestria."

Crescent Sparkle said, "Well what about that force field you put around Equestria, isn't that enough?"

Shining Armor said, "Dad, there are also things within Equestria that could pose problems. Twilight needs to keep an eye out for those as well."

Twilight added, "Mom, dad, why don't you join us for breakfast? It will be the best meal you have ever had!"

Twilight Velvet said, "Fine. I do want to know what is going on with your friends."

Twilight replied, "Well Applejack is probably bucking her way through the south field as we speak, Fluttershy is most likely in the Everfree Forest frolicking with her woodland friends, Rainbow Dash was going to try to teach Scootaloo to fly today and Pinkie is running things for the Cake family over at Sugarcube Corner since they are catering an event in Tampa Neigh."

Crescent Sparkle asked, "What about Rarity, what is she doing?"

Shining Armor replied "Well she was questioning what Twilight was doing and disobeying not just Twilight, but also her commander so we had to put her in the dungeon."

"WHAT?" shouted Twilight Velvet "Why in Equestria would you put your friend in the dungeon. With friends with like you who needs enemies?"

Twilight replied, "Well you know what? She did not want us to go on this mission and she had been sassing me since the first day I started training exercises."

Shining Armor added, "Yes, she was being very stubborn and she was deemed a threat to national security. Twilight cast the loyalty spell on her twice and it still didn't work."

Twilight continued, "I figured that if I couldn't get a loyalty spell to work on her, that perhaps imprisonment would work on her. Nopony disobeys me or their commanders. Colgate was not thrilled with all her whining but let me handle it since I am the commander in chief."

"So you're the commander in chief too?" asked Crescent Sparkle

"Yeah, I am." replied Twilight "Yes Shining Armor is general of the army but I am still the top pony in charge."

Twilight Velvet and Crescent Sparkle had never felt more uncomfortable around their children in their life. They never imagined that their son would become a second in command and first in line to the throne and their daughter would become a dark queen with an insatiable hunger for more and more knowledge and absolute power.

Twilight Velvet said, "You know what Twilight, I wish I would have never let you go watch Celestia raise the sun when you were a filly. She became your idol and you became obsessed with learning magic. It is a shame she taught you so much you started to learn on your own."

Twilight scowled at her mom and said, "Well you know what mom, you can't go back and change things. Equestria is far safer with me in charge now than it ever was with Celestia as the top pony."

Crescent Sparkle yelled, "Not only have you made us feel like the enemy, but moving the capitol to this dump has caused Canterlot to lose some of its glory. The parties just aren't as happy and exciting knowing that there will be no special surprise visit from our princess. Ponyville has always been a dump and now it is a military dump. I don't see you holding special parties for the elite here, oh wait, there are no elite ponies here."

Twilight shouted back, "You know what dad, I like it here. Ponyville is not a dump. It is a nice reprieve from having to deal with all those snobs up in Canterlot. You know we weren't the wealthiest of ponies up there. I can relate with the ponies here and besides, there is no room in Canterlot for a military instillation so that I can have them engage in the necessary exercises."

Twilight Velvet said, "Oh yes, here we go again with the whole importance of the military thing again. Mark my words Twilight, one day you will transform into an evil dictator who will put everypony in chains."

Twilight yelled, "If you don't like it here, then go back up to your aristocratic dump. Just wait a few years and it will be in worse shape than the slums of Manehattan."

Twilight's parents headed back to Canterlot once Twilight finished her wrathful rant. They were actually scared of their kids, which hurt both of them deeply.

"I can't believe she turned out like this." sobbed Twilight Velvet

Crescent Sparkle said, "It's not just her honey. Shining Armor is completely under her control and will flex his muscle in the name of serving her. If something were to happen to her I could see him being exactly like her, a tyrant who will lie to everypony just to gain their trust and then stab them in the back."

Back in her tower Twilight was fuming that her parents would even dare say such things to her.

"Twilight, are you ok?" asked Shining Armor

"No," replied Twilight "I am not ok. I am beginning to wonder if they aren't a threat to Equestrian security as well."

Shining Armor said, "Personally I think that if they had a way to get there, they would go to Alicorn Island and ask for help from the royal family or seek asylum there."

Twilight said, "I could see them doing that but I'm not worried. The royal family out there is powerless against me. LaurFa is on our side now and we have such a powerful army that nothing will stop us, especially with my armor spell. Let them go. That will just prove that they are traitors."

Shining Armor nodded and asked, "So what are your plans for today?"

Twilight replied, "I am going to see what is going on around Equestria today. I don't have any feelings that there will be any rebellions, but I think it is so awesome that I have this ability now. I might also do some studying. There is so much stuff in the new material from Faustica I have to learn, this is going to be so much fun!"

Twilight headed down to the back of her bunker and continued to read the oldest scrolls and books from the Faustica archives. What she would soon discover would amaze her more than anything.

The Ultimate Recruit

Lunchtime had arrived and Twilight was still in the back room of the archives reading through the most ancient scrolls in her collection. Shining Armor came into the archives concerned as to why she hadn't came to lunch.

"Twilight," said Shining Armor "are you coming to lunch today?"

Twilight replied, "It is lunch time already? I guess time passes when you are having fun! I am getting hungry and besides, I will do better reading through these scrolls if I have a full stomach."

Shining Armor said, "You will little sis, your generals are waiting for you to arrive. They are hungry as well."

Twilight and Shining Armor headed up to the dining hall where they were greeted by their generals.

"Hello Twilight, how is your studying going?" asked Thunder Rage

Twilight replied, "It is going, slowly but surely. I am searching through the oldest material from the material we brought home from Faustica trying to find out if an ancient legend is true or if it is just an outdated rumor."

Dark Night asked, "I know it probably isn't any of my business, but what does the ancient legend involve?"

Twilight replied, "For right now it isn't anypony's business but mine. But once I find out the answers and I prove that it is true, then everypony here will know."

Shining Armor said, "Wow sis, you really have your hooves full. I hope you can find what you are looking for."

Twilight replied, "Me too. If it is true, the results would aid us greatly in my ultimate desire."

Shining Armor asked, "Is your ultimate desire what our parents think?"

Twilight replied, "Our food is coming, we can discuss this when the time is right. For now, let's eat and enjoy one another's company."

After they finished their lunch Twilight headed back down to the bunker to continue searching through the ancient scrolls. Twilight sneezed as there was still some dust on the materials. Twilight was beginning to get frustrated as she could not find what she was looking for. She thought to herself, "I will dig through these scrolls to the very last scroll if I have to. I must find this out."

Twilight continued going through the scrolls well after she had eaten supper. She was getting tired and she saw the oldest scroll in one of the folders and pulled it out. This was written by LaurFa herself not too long after the founding of Equestria.

The scroll read, "The wisest one wrote many spells. He wrote so many that he will always be known as the father of all magic. Yet even the bearded one could not figure out one last spell. His frustration led him into madness. Many believed that his madness drove him to his death. Yet it did not lead to his death. He transformed into a draconequus, a creature who gets a great amount of joy and happiness out of causing discord and making the lives of every living thing terrible, thus I gave him the name Discord."

"WHAT?" shouted Twilight

Shining Armor heard her shout and went down to the archives.

"Twilight, are you ok?" asked Shining Armor

"IT'S TRUE, IT'S TRUE!" shouted Twilight as she jumped around like a school filly.

"Twilight, what is true? Be careful, you are going to knock these shelves down on yourself and get hurt." said Shining Armor

Twilight realized this and stopped jumping around. She said, "The ancient legend about Starswirl the Bearded going mad and transforming into Discord!"

Shining Armor asked, "Why are you so excited about this?"

Twilight replied, "I am excited because I believe that I can cast my memory spell on him and turn him back into Starswirl! Here, read this. I know I can trust you with it."

Shining Armor read the scroll with amazement in his eyes. "Wow little sis, the legend is true! How are you going to go about transforming him back into Starswirl?"

Twilight replied, "Well, I am going to talk to Fluttershy about this. Her and Discord are friends. I may not necessarily have to use the memory spell on him if she starts talking to him about the past. I will need the loyalty spell and the spell to transform him into an Alicorn though if he is to aid us in achieving my ultimate desire."

Shining Armor said, "I know he has a lot of knowledge on magic but I am curious as to what your ultimate desire is."

Twilight replied, "You know how you asked if it was what our parents think it is? Well they are right, I want it all, I want to control the entire planet."

Shining Armor's eyes got huge and he asked, "How in Equestria are we going to conquer every single place on Earth, much less keep order there once we conquer them. This could require an army of over 10 million."

Twilight replied, "Don't worry big brother. I have the duplication spells and you know that duplicates are just as loyal to me as the original. I have another plan up my sleeve to keep order."

Shining Armor asked, "And what is that?"

Twilight replied, "Let's cross that bridge when we get to it. For right now I need to put this back in the bottom of the box it was in and lock this bunker. I'm getting tired."

Shining Armor replied, "Studying as much as you have today would make anypony tired. You really need to eat a small snack before going to bed."

Twilight replied, "You're right big brother, after discovering what I discovered, I deserve a tasty treat. It is a shame Sugarcube Corner is closed."

Twilight and Shining Armor headed up to the dining hall to have a slice of cake before he headed out to do one last patrol of Ponyville and Twilight headed up to her bedroom to turn in for the night.

Twilight stood on her balcony looking off to the west thinking to herself, "You know what mom and dad, you're right. My ultimate desire is global conquest. If you two don't like it, you will be punished severely!"

Twilight had an evil grin and was rubbing her front hooves together as she was thinking this. She yawned, pulled the curtain on her balcony and sank into her new bed. She slept with a smile on her face all night.

Twilight woke up early the following morning because she wanted to discuss all of this with Fluttershy and bring her over for breakfast. Twilight brushed her mane and then flew off towards Fluttershy's cottage.

Twilight knocked on Fluttershy's door and said, "Hello Fluttershy, it's me Twilight."

Fluttershy got up wondering why Twilight would be waking her up so early. She opened her door and asked, "Twilight, why are you here so early?"

Twilight replied, "Fluttershy, I have something extremely important that I need to discuss with you and I also want you to come over for breakfast."

Fluttershy replied, "Ok Twilight. Just let me brush my mane, it is a mess."

Twilight and Fluttershy headed up to her tower for breakfast. Fluttershy was really unsure as to what Twilight needed to discuss with her but figured that it was nothing bad since she has never questioned her.

They arrive in the dining hall and they are greeted by Shining Armor and Twilight's generals.

"Good morning Fluttershy, how are you feeling this morning?" asked Shining Armor

Fluttershy replied, "Oh I am doing ok, I'm still tired but Twilight said she needed to talk to me about something important."

Shining Armor said, "Yeah, she does. She will talk with you in the throne room after breakfast. You know how Twilight is when it comes to meals. She won't talk about anything involving business matters no matter what."

Fluttershy asked, "What are we having for breakfast Twilight?"

Twilight replied, "We are having bacon, eggs, toast, apples and oatmeal. A yummy breakfast if you ask me."

Fluttershy said, "You always have the best meals for us. Your meals are much better than anything Celestia ever served in Canterlot. At least this fills us up and we don't feel like we are still hungry afterwards."

Twilight smiled and said, "At least you appreciate the meals my chefs prepare for us!"

Fluttershy replied, "I know. What are you going to do with Rarity once she is released?"

Twilight said, "We will talk about these matters later. Here comes our breakfast, let's eat!"

After breakfast Twilight and Fluttershy headed to the throne room to discuss things. On the way there Twilight was thinking to herself, "Fluttershy will be perfect for this mission! If I can just get her and Discord to start talking about the past maybe he will slip and say something that will remind him of who he really is."

Once they arrived in the throne room Fluttershy asked, "Twilight, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

Twilight replied, "Fluttershy, are you and Discord still friends?"

"Yes, of course!" replied Fluttershy "Why do you ask?"

Twilight replied, "We really need to discuss some things with him. I simply want his input and opinion on how he thinks things in Equestria are going."

Fluttershy asked, "Why do you want to know that?"

Twilight replied, "I just do. I think we need to get going as soon as possible. Do you know what part of the forest he lives in?"

Fluttershy said, "Yes, I can lead us there. I am sure he will be happy to see me and probably you too. He is still surprised about my transformation but he is happy for me."

"Alright Fluttershy, let's get going. You lead the way." replied Twilight

While they headed through the forest towards Discord's home Twilight was thinking to herself, "Ok, focus Twilight. Don't use the memory spell if you have to but as soon as he returns to being Starswirl, immediately cast the loyalty spell and the Alicorn spell on him. He won't be of any use if he isn't loyal and can't fly."

They finally reach an area of the forest where the trees are floating upside down and see Discord sitting outside on his porch.

"Hi Fluttershy, Hi Twilight! Come on over and visit!" shouted Discord

"Hi Discord, how is everything going?" asked Fluttershy

"Oh you know, just helping Zecora gather herbs when she needs the help, staying here having fun in my own place where I can't get into any trouble." replied Discord

"So, have you heard about what is happening outside of the forest Discord?" asked Fluttershy

"Well yeah, of course I have!" said Discord "You just told me a few days ago! Twilight, what is up with the new crown and body armor?"

Twilight replied, "Well I figured that since I am of a different bloodline I should start a new tradition."

Discord said, "Well I think you look marvelous in it! Royalty is supposed to look tough and fearless. Fluttershy told me that you are a queen and you relocated the capitol to Ponyville."

Twilight replied, "Yeah, I did. I figured that the Equestrian royalty needed a completely new start. A new city, a new attitude, a real army and a more laid back atmosphere."

Discord said, "That sounds like a good start. I never did care for the old traditions that Celestia and Luna had of having to address them as 'your Majesty' or by their title. Gag me!"

Fluttershy asked, "Do you know where they got that tradition from?"

Discord replied, "They got it from their parents. They felt that it was their job to carry on tradition. Initially Luna didn't want to until her father told her about the founder of Equestria did things that way."

Fluttershy asked, "Who was the founder of Equestria?"

Discord looked stunned and he began to get really nervous and said, "You know, well I, I don't really remember her name. I think it started with an L, but I can't remember."

Twilight said, "Well I could always travel to Faustica to look it up. They do have the most extensive library in the world."

Discord said, "F-Fa-Faustica?"

Fluttershy asked, "Discord, why are you so nervous? You seem like a foal who has been caught playing hooky by the teacher."

Discord replied, "I-It is all coming back to me now, LaurFa, Alicorn Island, all the spells I wrote, the one that was supposed to be my masterpiece but I just couldn't get it right."

Twilight said, "You wrote a lot of spells Discord? Wow, that is amazing! You should be a hero!"

Discord started to bite his claws and looked around like he wanted to cry and suddenly he found himself enveloped in a great amount of energy and there was an explosion.

"DISCORD!" shouted Fluttershy

Fluttershy and Twilight flew over to where she thought Discord was laying, but it was not Discord that they found, it was Starswirl the Bearded.

Twilight said, "Starswirl, are you ok?"

Starswirl looked up at Twilight and started crying, "Thank you, thank you your highness. You freed me from my madness!"

Twilight replied, "Starswirl, what is the last thing you remember?"

Starswirl replied, "I remember working on a spell that I hoped would be my masterpiece. It involved connecting different ponies based on their cutie marks to create a force that could defeat any evil. But I couldn't get it right and I went mad."

"What else do you remember?" asked Twilight

"I remember how LaurFa was transforming some ponies into Alicorns like her when they were writing their own magic. I asked her why she wouldn't transform me since I had written numerous books of spells and she told me that I did not understand friendship." replied Starswirl

"That is awful Starswirl. That seems like a bad reason to not transform you into an Alicorn." said Fluttershy

Starswirl looked at them and asked, "How did you two become Alicorns? Did you write your own magic and understand friendship like Celestia and Luna did?"

Twilight replied, "I did. I was a student of Princess Celestia and I learned a lot of magic. She kind of forced me into making friendships when we had to transform Nightmare Moon back into Luna after she escaped from the moon. Ultimately I re-wrote the spell you had so much trouble with and was transformed into an Alicorn by Celestia."

"You figured out how to write the spell? How did you do that?" asked Starswirl

"It just came to me after Celestia sent me your book asking me to figure out how to rewrite it. I cast it and I switched my friends' cutie marks making their lives miserable. It was through the power of friendship that figured out how to help everypony rediscover their true selves. The words then just came to me and I wrote the new spell in your book and then I found myself in this weird place where I was met by Celestia where she transformed me into an Alicorn princess."

Starswirl asked, "Fluttershy, how did you become an Alicorn. Did you write your own magic too even though you were a pegasus?"

Fluttershy blushed and said, "No, Twilight simply turned me into one. She learned the magic to transform anypony into an Alicorn. She has a whole army of them!"

Starswirl said, "WHAT? How are you able to transform ponies who have not written their own magic into Alicorns?"

Starswirl, "I was reading through a lot of the books you wrote. While they didn't provide actual spells, they pointed me in the right direction to figure out how to write them." replied Twilight

Starswirl said, "I wish I could be an Alicorn, but oh no, LaurFa said without friendship you can't be one."

Twilight decided it was time, she pointed her horn at Starswirl. She began to glow a deep shade of purple, her eyes began to glow green and her horn was glowing as she recited, "The unicorn who has no wings is bound to the ground, they can not really get around, their smarts are great yet without flight they will be late, with these smarts they will be great and they shall never have a bad fate."

Twilight's energy struck Starswirl with a great amount of power. He began to levitate while the energy encircled him for five minutes. The energy then dispersed and he floated down to the ground using his new wings.

Starswirl began to cry tears of joy and said, "Finally! Thank you your highness! Thank you so much!"

Twilight said, "You deserve it Starswirl. You should have become an Alicorn thousands of years ago. Oh, and you don't have to call me your highness, you can just call me Twilight or Twily."

"I do have a question though. Are you a princess that rules along with Celestia and Luna?" asked Starswirl

Twilight replied, "No, I am the queen of Equestria now. When King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis formed an alliance and attacked Canterlot, they fled the city and left me there alone to defeat them."

"Wow Twilight. How did you do that?" asked Starswirl

Twilight replied, "I used a spell to banish them to the void using information from your books. You are a true inspiration Starswirl."

"Oh thank you Twilight! You are the first pony that has ever said that to me." replied Starswirl

Starswirl said, "I just wish I could get out of this forest though. It is dark and gloomy."

Twilight said, "I need to say something and then you can leave the forest."

Starswirl said, "Ok, what do you have to say."

Twilight pointed her horn at Starswirl and began to glow very brightly. Her eyes began to shine a radioactive green as she recited, "From another to me, that is where your allegiance will now be, you thought your old commander loved you like pie when all they wanted was for you to die. With me all shall be great, there shall be no hate."

The energy hit Starswirl. Rather than knocking him backwards it absorbed into him as to not hurt him any. He wiped his eyes and said, "Twilight, you have my allegiance. I will do anything I can to help you in any cause you have."

Twilight replied, "That is great to hear. Let's get out of this forest. I know of a great place for you to live that won't be gloomy."

Starswirl, Fluttershy and Twilight flew above the canopy of the forest back towards her tower. While she was happy for him, Fluttershy knew she would miss her old friend Discord. She realized that now he will be involved in a lot of things with Twilight and won't be the same, fun loving individual he used to be.

They arrived back at Twilight's tower and they go into the dining hall. Twilight said, "Starswirl, you must be starving. You look like you haven't eaten much in a while."

Starswirl said, "Yeah, I am hungry. Do you or Fluttershy have something to eat?"

Twilight replied, "I will have my chefs fix the three of us a mid-morning snack. Then around noon we will have lunch. I still have an empty bedroom that is going unused. It has it's own private bath and a balcony. I want you to have that one."

"Wow Twily." said Starswirl "You must be a queen that is loved by all! With treatment like this, I am thinking you should be the queen of the world."

Twilight was sitting there thinking, "This is perfect! Now I have the greatest pony of all time as part of my alliance."

Twilight blushed and said, "Oh, I don't know about that. That would take an army of epic proportions to do that!"

Starswirl said, "LaurFa was considered the Goddess of the world and she didn't need an army."

Twilight replied, "Things have changed a lot in the past few thousand years. No longer is there a one world unified kingdom. There are numerous nations out there and for a long time, Equestria had no army until I came along. It was after I had to fight off Sombra and Chrysalis that Equestria finally had an army. I know Equestria is full of love and harmony, but every nation needs an army."

Starswirl said, "I always wondered why Celestia never had one. All she had was the royal guard and that just protected Canterlot."

Twilight said, "I know. Growing up in Canterlot I always wondered why Equestria had no army. I had read books about other empires and the powerful armies they have. I figured that since I was the sole ruler now, that I would have an army."

Starswirl said, "Fluttershy said you have a whole army of them. How did you find so many strong stallions to recruit into your army?"

Twilight replied, "Well I cast a loyalty spell on Sombra's army of dark unicorns and now they are my dark Alicorn army. I also have over 10,000 changeling soldiers as well."

Starswirl realized that the world had changed vastly since he was restored to his pony form. He wondered what kinds of enemies Equestria must have for Twilight to need such a massive army. He did know that with Twilight as the leader of Equestria, that it would never fall to any enemies, either from abroad or within.

A Very Important Meeting

The afternoon was transitioning into evening as 5:30 was approaching. Twilight was standing on her tower and she was very pleased with what she saw. Colgate, Lemon Hearts and Lyra came flying in. Colgate landed up on her balcony while Lyra and Lemon Hearts landed down at the base of the tower.

"Colgate, I'm so glad you could make it! All three of you arrived 5 minutes early!" said Twilight

Colgate replied, "Well we would have been here earlier but Lemon Hearts had to use the restroom. I thought about flying here alone but I figured that I better make sure that they showed up."

Twilight replied, "I know how you are, you are always the one who is one time. Chances are, you are more paranoid about being on time than even I am! Lyra, Lemon Hearts, fly up here, it will be quicker to get to the dining hall, my friends and my officers are waiting!"

Lyra and Lemon Hearts flew up to the balcony and the four Alicorns headed down to the dining hall where all of Twilight's friends, Shining Armor and her officers waited.

"Hello everypony!" said Twilight "I want to introduce you to three of our newest recruits. Colgate, Lemon Hearts and Lyra."

Everypony greeted them and welcomed them warmly. Twilight was very pleased with this as she could tell that things were going to work out fine between them.

Rarity said, "Twilight, I am just glad that you didn't decide to transform Octavia into an Alicorn. After all, she still owes me money and is mad that her cello is still in Canterlot."

Lyra added, "I agree with Rarity and she is still angry over me getting that discount on my dress last year."

"STILL?!" said Twilight "Don't worry, she isn't exactly Alicorn material and her cello was destroyed when LaurFa and the royal family launched the attack on Canterlot to try and remove me from power. If she tries to mess with you, hit her with a beam of energy, that will shut her up."

Lyra laughed as she said, "Serves her right after the way she took advantage of Rarity and threw away years of friendship over the price of a dress."

Twilight interrupted, "Alright, now I am sure all of you are wondering why you are here."

"Actually yeah, Ah'm wondering why we're here." said Applejack "I know we are going to have a big supper but what else?"

"Well I have plans that required the most qualified of us to become Alicorns, but first, let's eat. We can discuss this after supper. Let's enjoy each other's company while we eat." replied Twilight

They had a huge and filling supper, one that many of the ponies had not experienced before.

Colgate said, "Wow Twilight, I didn't know that there was anypony outside of Canterlot that could provide meals this filling!"

Twilight replied, "Well the way things are now, since Ponyville is the capitol, Canterlot won't be hosting meals this lavish anymore. Those are only available here now, and all of you will be enjoying more meals like this!"

Lyra replied, "You are so generous Twilight! I heard so many ponies talk about you being a dark queen but you are the exact opposite!"

Twilight replied, "Those ponies that said that just judged me over how I came to power. When the royal pony sisters abdicated the throne and I was the only princess left, I became the pony in charge and adopted the title of queen."

Twilight was thrilled with the comments her new recruits were making about her but was thinking to herself, "Once I accomplish everything I have planned, you will realize why they refer to me as a dark queen!"

After they finished their supper Twilight addressed them, "Alright everypony, I have brought you here tonight to discuss something of great importance for all of Equestria. In a couple of weeks, after I help our new Alicorns learn how to harness and control their newly increased magical abilities, we will be heading to Faustica, the capitol city of Alicorn Island, as there is an important relic there that I wish to bring here so that I can see everything going on in my empire without having to go there."

"I have a question." said Lemon Hearts "Where is Alicorn Island? I have never even heard of it before."

"Very good question," replied Twilight "Alicorn Island is an island out in the Pegasus Ocean, around halfway between the west coast of Equestria and Marelaysia. It is an island that is inhabited solely by Alicorns."

"Twilight darling, why do we need more Alicorns and why did you transform the entire unicorn army into Alicorns for us to go there?" asked Rarity

"Excellent question Rarity." replied Twilight "The thing is, they are not going to be thrilled with us traveling there, especially considering I want us to go after the relic I have discussed with my soldiers."

"Twilight, what is this here relic you have been talking about?" asked Applejack

"The relic I speak of is the jade Alicorn along with the emerald plate that it must be placed in. That is what will allow me to see anything going on in the world without having to go there myself or rely on messages of what is going on, which could take weeks to reach Ponyville." replied Twilight

Rarity replied, "So you want to take something away from another country the same way you took the archives away from Canterlot? Don't you think you are getting a little bit power hungry?"

Twilight glared at Rarity and said, "This is a matter of Equestrian security. The Goddess LaurFa no longer lives there and she was the only one who could use it. I believe that now I am the only pony powerful enough to use it and why should it go to waste sitting there being unused?"

Fluttershy asked, "Twilight, how are we going to get into Alicorn Island without them attacking us?"

"I was just about to address that issue Fluttershy." said Twilight "First, I must release LaurFa from the void and cast a loyalty spell on her. She will then enter Faustica first. The citizens there will welcome their Goddess back and we can go there and not only retrieve the relic I seek, but also relocate their library here. It has information so secret that it was only allowed there because of the powerful information it contains."

Rarity sighed and said, "So Twilight, you are going to take information away from an entire country now? I know you love to study and learn new things but don't you think that is going way too far?"

Colgate said, "Is it just me or does Rarity seem to doubt Twilight? Don't worry Twily, I'm here to help you with anything you want us to do."

Twilight began to wonder if the loyalty spell worked much on Rarity. She remembered that Rarity is the element of generosity and that she may need to use more power on her. She decided to take care of this problem now so it wouldn't be a problem later on.

"Rarity, I need to speak to you in the next room." said Twilight

Rarity replied, "Ok Twilight. Let me guess, you are going to take my wings away for questioning why you want to do the things you plan on doing."

"No," replied Twilight "just come into the other room with me. This will only take a minute."

While Rarity and Twilight headed into the next room Lyra asked Shining Armor, "What is going on? Why is Rarity questioning Twilight so much? I think she truly cares about all of us and wants what is best for Equestria."

Shining Armor replied, "Well Rarity has a unique personality. Don't tell Twily or Rarity I said this, but I don't think she should have transformed Rarity into an Alicorn. She seems to care too little about Equestria and too much about others."

In the other room Twilight glared at Rarity and asked, "Why don't you care about Equestria? You do know that with that relic and knowledge Equestria will not have to worry about being attacked by other nations, don't you?"

Rarity sighed and replied, "You know what Twilight, you are my friend and I know you think you are doing what is best for Equestria, but I think you are doing what you think is in the best interests of the Dark Queen Twilight Sparkle!"

This angered Twilight greatly and she shouted, "RARITY, GET OVER IN THAT CORNER, NOW! YOU DON'T WANT TO WIND UP IN THE VOID WITH SOMBRA, CHRYSALIS, CADENCE AND LAURFA DO YOU?"

Rarity looked scared and replied, "You banished Cadence to the void? What did Shining Armor think of that?"

Twilight replied, "He is the one who suggested it. He didn't want her starting any rebellions. I am his sister and he put blood relations above all else."

Rarity said, "Twilight, now I know you are evil. I want out of this, and I want out of it now. Take my wings and magic away, I don't care. I simply can not take part in something as evil as this."

Twilight shouted, "GET OVER IN THAT CORNER OR DIE!"

Rarity headed over to the corner and waited for what Twilight's punishment would be. Twilight began to glow a deep shade of purple, her eyes began to glow a radioactive green and her horn began to glow purple and black 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."

Twilight fired a powerful bolt of energy that knocked her to the ground. Rarity got up wiping her eyes and said, "Twilight, I am so sorry for doubting you. I am at your service."

"That is good to hear Rarity," replied Twilight "Now let's get back to the meeting so I can finish discussing what we need to discuss."

When they returned to the meeting room Rarity seemed to no longer be distracted and was ready to listen to Twilight's plans.

"Alright, regarding the release of LaurFa. I want to do this tomorrow. Dark Night, you and I along with 100 of your new Alicorn soldiers will head to Canterlot. Thunder Rage, you along with 100 changelings will be joining us. I can not have anypony distracting me."

"You got it," said Dark Night "we will be ready when you are."

"Same here Twily." replied Thunder Rage

"We will leave after breakfast. This should be a relatively quick mission since we can all fly now. My guess is that if we leave immediately after breakfast, we can get there, I can do what I need to do and we can be back by lunch. After all, I am guessing that my newest recruit will be very hungry." replied Twilight

"I am betting she will be." replied Shining Armor "What do you want me to do tomorrow?"

Twilight replied, "I want you to keep order here and do what you would normally do. If any ponies cause any problems, put them in their place. We can not have disobedience here. It will lead to disharmony and division, and that is something that we do not need."

Colgate said, "What do you want the rest of us to do while you go on your trip to Canterlot?"

Twilight replied, "I want you to do what you would normally do. I am sure you probably have a full schedule tomorrow. Speaking of that, I probably should conclude this meeting so that we won't be tired tomorrow, regardless of what we will be doing."

"Alright," replied Colgate "I really appreciate you letting me keep doing what I love to do Twily, you have no idea how much that means to me."

"Hey, like I said, dentistry is your passion and that is something I won't take away from you." replied Twilight "Well we better call it a night. We all have things we have to do tomorrow. See you later everypony."

Twilight's friends and new recruits flew off home while Twilight, Shining Armor and their officers remained in the throne room.

"Twilight, do you think Rarity will be loyal to you now?" asked Dark Night

"Yeah, I'm sure she will be." replied Twilight "I used more power on her than I did all 5,000 of you guys. If she questions my plans again I will banish her into the void, but I have a feeling that won't be necessary now."

"Good." said Shining Armor "We can't have anypony compromising the best interests of Equestria."

"No we can't." replied Twilight "Now let's get some sleep. I'm tired and we all need to be well rested tomorrow."

Twilight headed up to her bedroom pretty sure that she had used more than enough energy on Rarity to keep her from being disobedient. She thought to herself, "Rarity is a dear friend but if she continues to question me, I can't put my best interests at stake. I want that relic and that library and nopony is going to stop me from taking it."