We stand together

Chapters

Prelude
Chapter 1: Awakening
Chapter 2: Revelations
Chapter 3: A new beginning
Chapter 4: A new home
Chapter 5: The oncoming storm
Chapter 6: The endless swarm
Chapter 7: Preparations for war
Chapter 8: Dragon diplomacy
Chapter 9: Recruitment complete
Chapter 10: Daemons and Dragons
Chapter 11: Tricks and Treachery
Chapter 12: The third rising
Chapter 13: Code A-46
Chapter 14: Bloodstone
Chapter 15: More than bargained for
Chapter 16: Theorycraft
Chapter 17: Into the Warp
Chapter 18: Afterlife
Chapter 19: Another day, another fight
Chapter 20: Squadmates

Prelude

It was a dark, autumn night, the sky was cloudless and starry. The ponies of ponyville had taken this as a perfect opportunity to stargaze. The six ponies who held the elements of harmony sat together, staring up at the twinkling sky.

‘Isn’t it wonderful?’ said Fluttershy dreamily, the other ponies nodded in unison.

‘It makes you wonder whether Nightmare Moon had a point...’ started Rainbow dash, but that received a lot of strange looks from the ponies sat on the hill ‘Hey I was just messin’ with ya!’ she said quickly in her defence.

‘That’s not a thing to “mess” about Rainbow’ said Twilight.

‘Yeah! That crazy pony damn nearly put the land into eternal night!’ butted in Applejack.

Twilight sighed and looked back up on the stars, ‘I wonder if there’s anypony else up there’ She thought, ‘looking back down on us...’

As if on cue, a huge explosion appeared in the sky, in the middle of the Orion constellation, and shot out what appeared to be shooting stars everywhere.

‘What in the hay!?’ yelled Applejack, ‘Twi what was that?’

Before Twilight could answer though, one of the comet-like chunks of whatever exploded turned in midair and started screaming towards them.

‘Look out!’ She screamed, but it was too late, everything went white...

When Twilight awoke, she was in the hospital wing of the castle in Canterlot, but there were white curtains thrown around her bed. She tried to call out but couldn’t seem to find her voice, all that came out was a weak splutter. Obviously this was heard though and a nurse came rushing to her side,

‘Princess!’ She began in relief, ‘Your student! She’s awake!’.

Twilight heard a rustling sound and Princess Celestia came through the curtain and stood beside her bed, she could see that she had been crying.

‘Twilight!’ She exclaimed in obvious relief, this was strange because Celestia almost always referred to her as ‘My faithful student’ but Twilight didn’t mind, ‘You’re alright!’.

She bent over and nuzzled her gently, a magical warmth spread through her body as she did this. After a while of hugging, Twilight finally found her voice,

‘My... Friends?’ she spluttered, clearly making a great effort to speak.

‘They are OK’ Celestia assured her, ‘But...’ she hesitated for a second.

Twilight managed to ask a faint ‘What?’ but Celestia still looked unsure.

‘Are you sure you’ll be alright with any news I give you in this state? Don’t say,’ she said as she tried began to splutter and wheeze, ‘Just nod or shake your head’ Twilight nodded as vigorously as she could manage. ‘Very well...’ She began, ‘You and your friends weren’t the only ones found in that crater.’

Twilight was stunned, they were sitting well away from any other ponies that night, Celestia obviously saw this and put her hoof on her shoulder. ‘Don’t worry about it for now, we’ve got it all handled.’ And with that, she walked away.

Chapter 1: Awakening

The pony suddenly sat bolt upright in his bed, he had no idea where he was. Come to think of it... he had no idea who he was. He lay back down, whatever was happening he seemed to be in a safe place. A white pony with a strange red cross on her flank poked her head through the curtains surrounding his bed, saw that he was awake and squeaked in surprise.

‘Princess! Princess!’ she squealed, ‘It’s alive! It’s awake!’

He heard a clatter of hooves and a tall, regal looking pony came through the curtain, obviously not as scared of his presence as the other.

‘Who are you?’ She said in a voice that made him relax for some reason.

‘I-’ he began, but stopped. What was his name? He rolled the thought over in his head for a while and a single word came into his mind.

‘Yes?’ asked the tall pony inquisitively.

‘My name’s Bowdler’ he said, clearly unsure of what he’d just stated.

‘Hm? OK then, hello Bowdler’ said the pony apprehensively, ‘I’m Princess Celestia, I am the ruler of this kingdom, well, joint with my sister. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions about yourself?’

Having nothing better to do, Bowdler replied ‘Sure, ask away!’

‘Good.’ the Princess stated, obviously intending to have asked him even if he did mind, ‘First of all, have you got any idea how you got here?’

That, thought Bowdler, was a very, very good question.

‘No’ he said, completely honestly, ‘In fact, I don’t remember much about anything’

‘Oh, really?’ she said, sounding disappointed.

‘Yeah, all I can remember is that I woke up here, not knowing anything other than my name, and how to talk and function, of course’ he went on.

‘That’s, odd’ said the Princess, ‘I would have thought you’d remember the fashion you arrived in’

‘What? How did I get here? Do you know?’ he asked quickly, the more he could find out about himself the better, but the Princess just smiled.

‘Nurse Redheart?’ she called and the white pony walked back in, cowering before Bowdler, ‘Don’t worry, he’s perfectly sane,’ she assured her, ‘If a little amnesiac, I need you to nurse him back to health so that he can begin his new life down in ponyville’

‘Yes Princess,’ said the nurse, ‘but, and I know I’m not really one to question your judgement, are you sure you trust this strange pony?’

‘Nurse’ the Princess chuckled, ‘I’d trust him to the end of the world’

And so, she left.

‘Oh dear, oh dear,’ muttered the nurse and she turned to Bowdler, ‘well, you’d better get some peace and quiet hadn’t you? I’ll just leave you alone for a while’ and she began to back out of the curtain.

‘Thank you!’ said Bowdler just before her head disappeared from sight, ‘I don’t know where I’d be without you’

‘Oh that’s fine dearie,’ she whimpered, ‘just fine!’. Bowdler was now alone.

He decided to use this time to study his form, he looked himself over in the mirror beside his bed. He appeared to be a Purple pony with bloodstain-like markings all over his body and a dark red mane, styled over his head. He had wings that were large and spiky looking.

‘That,’ he thought, ‘makes me a Pegasus doesn’t it?’ He continued checking himself out, noting that he had purple eyes and strangely battered ears, as though he had been in a fight. On his flank, there was the shape of a golden helmet, with two daggers emerging from underneath it, he had no idea what it meant. He could see something poking out of his hair though, he fumbled at it with his hooves but suddenly stopped when he saw what was under his mane. There was a jagged stump, which looked like it once had something attached to it. His forehead suddenly burned with pain as his body registered the existence of the broken part. He sat down heavily on the floor.

‘What is this?’ he muttered to himself quietly. He suddenly felt a wave of tiredness overcome him, as if he’d not slept for days, and he slumped back into the bed. He wondered what Ponyville was like, he wondered what his life was going to be like, he wondered what his life was like before this, he wondered whether he even had a life before this. These thoughts occupied his head until he drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 2: Revelations

Over the next few days, he spent most of his time in bed. Nurse Redheart sometimes came and checked up on him, to see if he was OK. He’d asked about the stump on his head once or twice but the nurse had just shied away or changed the subject, leaving him confused about the whole thing. Princess Celestia had not yet returned but Nurse Redheart said that when she did, she would be bringing news of his new life. He still wondered why this was a new life and if he even had an old one, but felt grateful that he was being offered one. One day he was sitting quietly in his bed, contemplating himself, when a purple pony burst in.

‘What do you think you’re doing!?’ she yelled, ‘You scared the hay out of me and my friends! You hurt us! You could have killed us!’

‘What!?’ He replied with a start, he was never told that he’d nearly killed anypony.

‘Don’t act like you had nothing to do with it!’ she carried on shouting, her hair was now starting to set ablaze, ‘You know what you did!’

‘I, I,’ he started.

‘SHUT UP!’ She screamed, there were tears in her eyes now, ‘Just SHUT UP! You tried to kill us!’

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about!’ he cried, hurt by the pony’s allegations.

‘TWILIGHT SPARKLE!’ shouted a familiar voice from outside the curtain, ‘Just what do you think you’re doing?’ Princess Celestia walked through the curtain and the purple pony broke down in a flood of tears.

‘Princess!’ she wailed, ‘Why do you keep him here? Why do you help the pony who tried to kill me and my friends?’

‘Because this pony has at no point in his life tried to kill anypony’ she stated sternly, ‘he has no memory of anything before he arrived here’

‘So he probably did try to kill us!’ the purple pony wailed, ‘He either doesn’t remember it or is just lying.’

‘Even if he did try to kill you, that wasn’t this pony,’ the Princess argued, ‘This pony is completely different to what he may have been before the crash, and if you think he’s lying, you’ll have to convince me and that will be no easy task’

‘But...’ the purple pony whimpered, her eyes filling with tears.

‘No buts Twilight. Leave the poor pony alone’

At this, the purple pony stormed off, enraged.

The Princess turned to Bowdler, ‘I am sorry for the outburst from my student, she is still in shock about the whole thing’

‘It’s fine’ he assured her, ‘But what did you mean by “the crash”?’

‘Oh, I still haven’t told you?’ the Princess asked sheepishly, ‘it must have slipped my mind, I thought I did’

‘What happened the night I arrived here?’

The Princess sighed and began, ‘On the night you got here, there was a huge explosion in the sky...’

Bowdler was confused. ‘So,’ he asked, ‘I came from space?’

‘We’re still not quite sure about that Bowdler, it’s complicated’ the Princess replied.

He thought this over for a second and decided to change the subject as it was obviously making her uncomfortable.

‘How are the plans doing for my new life in town?’ he asked.

‘I haven’t told you that either?’ she said, ‘dear me, I’m being really forgetful this week... I’ve got you a house in ponyville and Nurse Redheart says you should be ready to leave here in top condition next week!’

‘Really?’ he piped up excitedly, ‘That’s great!’

The Princess beamed at him, ‘I’m glad you’re happy with it, I’m sure you’ll find some good friends down in ponyville’

A thought struck him all of a sudden, ‘Princess?’ he asked. The Princess turned to look at him just as he began to ruffle his hair off of his forehead.

‘Wha- oh my...’ she said, stunned.

‘What?’ he asked, assuming the worst, ‘what’s wrong? Is this a bad thing?’

‘Bowdler...’ the Princess nuzzled him, as she did this he felt more comfortable than he could ever remember being, ‘I think you are, or at least were, an Alicorn’

He poked the stump on his head, ‘so this used to be a horn?’

‘I do believe so, why didn’t you tell me when we first met?’ she asked, that being a very valid point.

‘I sort of didn’t know’ he replied, stirring in the bed as if he’d forgotten something extremely obvious.

‘That’s fine dear, you didn’t remember anything’ the Princess said reassuringly as she nuzzled him again, ‘although I’ll have to have to keep a closer eye on you than I once thought, when you get to ponyville try not to tell anypony about that stump OK?’

‘OK’ he said, not wanting to ever do anything to disappoint her. ‘When you get to ponyville next week I’ll have my personal student give you a tour, she-’

‘What?’ he butted in suddenly, ‘that purple pony? She’d kill me!’

‘She would never do such a thing’ the Princess stated firmly, suddenly looking quite offended, ‘Twilight Sparkle is one of the best ponies I know’

‘Alright...’ he muttered uncomfortably.

Princess Celestia looked up at the wall behind him, ‘Oh dear, look at the time! I must be going Bowdler, I will see you again’

Then she was gone.

Chapter 3: A new beginning

The last week went by slower than Bowdler thought possible. He was looking forward to Ponyville so much that he found it hard to sleep.

‘Although,’ he thought, ‘I’m still kinda’ happy here, Nurse Redheart isn’t even scared of me anymore’ He still wanted to see the outside world though.

When the day finally came, he was more riled up than he could ever remember being, although that wasn’t really that hard. Princess Celestia arrived to pick him up at dawn, along with another pony who looked as if she’d been up all night.

‘This is my sister’ the Princess said, noticing his curiosity, ‘She’s called Luna and she watches over the night, she was the one who told me when you first arrived’

‘Hi Luna!’ he said, anxious to make friends as soon as possible.

The dark blue pony yawned, gave a faint smile and replied, ‘Morning!’

Somehow, Bowdler thought of this as his first great success.

The Princesses escorted him to a chariot, where Luna promptly passed out.

‘Get the chariot pullers to take you to the library’ Celestia said as she hoisted Luna up onto her back, ‘You’ll be fine, I’ll catch up with you later’ and so, she took Luna up to her chambers to get a good day’s sleep.

‘Uh...’ he started as he turned to face the four Pegasi attached to the chariot.

‘Yeah we heard her’ said the one at the front, ‘to the library?’

‘Yeah, if that’s OK with you?’ he replied.

‘Hm!’ exclaimed the dopey looking Pegasus in the middle, ‘You sound just like that Fluttershy’

The other Pegasi chuckled at this. Bowdler wasn’t sure whether to feel offended or not, so he just clambered onto the chariot and the ponies took off.

The feeling of flying over the grasslands and forests in a chariot was fantastic, the wind rushed through Bowdler’s mane as they swooped over the green landscape below. He truly felt alive. The ride was over much too soon though, as ponyville was less than 10 miles away from Canterlot, and the Pegasi were faster than he’d ever seen.

‘Thanks guys!’ he called after them as they took off after dropping him off at the library.

‘You’re one to be being nice’ said a voice from the library that he recognised, and his face fell.

‘Whatever I did, I’m sorry’ he said as he turned around to face Twilight, who was standing in the open library door, ‘I wouldn’t do a thing to hurt anypony, seriously!’

Twilight frowned at him. ‘I’d better give you the tour then’ and she began to walk out towards the rest of the town, he ran up to her and walked beside her. He noticed that she was walking with a limp and that two of her legs had been bandaged, this made him feel really bad, was he really capable of doing this to somepony?

‘This is the town square,’ she said as she gestured lazily towards a clearing surrounded by shops, ‘this is where most ponies hang out’.

Bowdler noticed some ponies looking at the two of them and giggling, he ignored them and followed Twilight who was heading towards a particular shop called ‘Sugar cube corner’.

The smell in the shop was amazing, he could have just stood there and smelled it for ever, but he was distracted by a bright pink pony jumping out of seemingly nowhere and pushing herself right up against his face.

‘Uh... Hi?’ he spluttered at the pony, whose eye’s were fixated on his forehead. He was sure he’d covered up his horn stump, how could she know? Suddenly she jumped up in the air, gasped loudly and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Twilight giggled but stopped as soon as she realised Bowdler was smiling at her.

‘You just met Pinkie Pie,’ she said, stifling her laughter, badly, ‘She’s a little...’ and she made a strange gesture with her hooves. He laughed and she gave him a stern look, then walked out of the shop towards the edge of town. Bowdler followed,

‘Why is she so determined not to like me?’ he thought.

A bit down the path, something bright blue shot right past his ear and raced up to Twilight.

‘Hiya Twi how’re you doing?’ she said gleefully.

‘Not amazingly’ She replied, nodding her head towards Bowdler.

The blue pony landed next to her, ‘Who’s that?’ she asked.

‘I-’ he began,

‘He’s the pony who fell from the sky’ Twilight interrupted and the blue pony froze solid.

‘What?’ she asked as she stared at him.

‘Oh come on!’ he yelled, frustrated, ‘I swear I don’t remember anything! I wouldn’t hurt any of you!’

‘You sure about that?’ questioned the blue pony, who had now flown right up to his face and was obviously trying to interrogate him.

‘Yes! I can’t remember what happened that night and I would appriceate it, if a certain pony didn’t keep bringing it up!’ he looked at Twilight, ‘I can’t actually remember much at all!’

‘Pinkie Pie swear it!’ the blue pony said sternly.

‘What?’.

The blue pony sighed, ‘You say, “cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye” and that’s a Pinkie Pie swear, if you break it, you’ll lose our trust forever’

‘Alright then,’ he said, wondering why Twilight hadn’t just used this in the first place, ‘Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye, I would never try to hurt any of you and can’t actually remember hurting you in the first place’

The blue pony’s stern face suddenly snapped into a look of joy. ‘Hi I’m Rainbow Dash!’ she said friendlily, ‘I’m the best flyer in all Equestria, do you wanna be friends?’

Bowdler could see Twilight frantically shaking her head behind Rainbow Dash.

‘Sure!’ he said, happy to be making friends at last.

Rainbow giggled and hugged him, ‘You seem cool, I can’t wait to hang out more... uh... what did you say your name was?’

‘Bowdler’ he replied.

‘Hm, seems a bit plain, but I can’t expect everypony to have a name as awesome as mine!’ she said with a look of smugness in her eyes, then she sped off.

Twilight began to walk down the road again, obviously a bit peeved that he’d made amends with Rainbow so easily.

They eventually reached a barn building, ‘This is sweet apple acres’ said Twilight gesturing at the barn and the surrounding apple orchard. ‘This is where Applejack lives’.

As if on cue, an orange pony trotted out of the barn and started making towards them.

‘Hey there newcomer!’ she said excitedly, grabbing his hoof and shaking it vigorously, ‘What’s your name?’

‘I’m Bowdler’ he said stuttered, his arm beginning to hurt from the shaking.

‘Nice to meet you Bow-dla!’ she said with a strong southern accent, ‘Ah’m Applejack and I own this here barn!’ she let go of his hoof but his arm carried on shaking, which made her laugh. ‘Haw, that’s exactly what our Twilight did when ah first met her!’ she looked over at Twilight and noticed her sullen face, ‘What’s wrong Twi?’

She beckoned her over and whispered something in her ear. Bowdler prepared himself for what he expected was coming next.

‘What? This pony!?’ she yelled, appauled, ‘he doesn’t look like he’d hurt a fly!’ a wave of relief surged over him, this new pony trusted him.

‘But it really was him! He was the one who fell from the sky!’ Twilight replied.

‘Key word right there, fell! Even if it was him, he probably never meant to hurt anypony!’ Applejack countered.

Twilight looked as if she was about to explode, her hair was flickering with flame like it did the first time he’d seen her. Suddenly, a large red pony stumbled out of the barn, towing a large cart full of apples.

‘Whats up sister?’ he said to Applejack as he walked past, breaking the tense atmosphere.

‘Ah, not much.’ she replied, ‘but there’s a nice pony here ah want ya ta meet!’

The red pony looked at him, ‘Howdy!’ he said, sounding tired but also slightly dumb.

‘Hi’ Bowdler replied, thankful to him and Applejack for breaking the mood, ‘Who are you?’

‘Ahm Nicolas Macintosh, but most folk just call me Big mac,’ he replied, ‘You?’

‘My name is Bowdler, I’ve sort of only just got here though...’

‘Well you’re gonna need some friends ain’t ya? I’m sure Pinkie Pie will be sorting that out,’ he chuckled, ‘I’ve got to deliver these apples to town square, I’ll see ya around Bowdler!’ and he walked off.

While he and Big Mac had been having this conversation, Twilight and Applejack seemed to have sorted out theirs, Applejack waved goodbye to him and Twilight turned and started to walk back towards Ponyville.

The journey back to Ponyville went slowly, Twilight refusing to speak to him during any of it. He was glad that he was making friends already, he’d always imagined it as a really hard task but it seemed quite easy. They arrived at what looked to be a giant cake, with windows and doors.

‘This is the clothes shop,’ Twilight began, but was suddenly interrupted by a white pony with a long purple mane seizing Bowdler and dragging him inside.

‘OH GOD WHAT!?’ he yelled, scared out of his wits.

‘Don’t worry dear!’ the pony squealed, sounding just as scared as he did, ‘I’ll have you all fixed up in a jiffy!’

‘What!?’ he yelled, but his voice cracked and it came out as a high pitched squeak, ‘What’s wrong with me!?’ The pony had dragged him up the stairs into a large room full of models of ponies.

‘Your mane! Darling it’s horrible!’ she screeched back at him.

‘what.’ he said, sounding slightly disappointed, but then he remembered his stump, ‘oh god, don’t touch my mane!’ He wrenched himself out of her grip and backed right up to the wall.

‘But dear! It’s hideous!’ she cried.

‘Look I appreciate the offer’ he replied, ‘but I like it how it is!’ suddenly, Twilight decided to run in.

‘Rarity what are you doing!?’ she asked.

‘Trying to fix up this poor pony’s mane!’ she replied, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world, ‘have you seen it?’

Twilight looked at him as if she was about to say something but thought better of it.

‘Rarity, don’t you think you should ask ponies permission before you start giving them makeovers?’ she queried.

‘You’d know wouldn’t you,’ the white pony replied, sounding frankly quite smug. She turned to face him and cleared her throat, ‘Would you like a free makeover?’ she asked, almost pleadingly.

‘No thanks,’ he replied, actually quite shocked that Twilight had just saved him, ‘but I appreciate the offer’.

‘Okay...’ she said, looking thoroughly disappointed, ‘I do believe I haven’t introduced myself, my name is Rarity, I’m Ponyville’s very own fashion designer.’

‘oh?’ he replied, trying his best to sound at least slightly interested.

‘Yes, I’m very proud of it!’ she went on, and if you could power a city on pure smugness, she’d be a nuclear power plant.

‘I think we should probably get going,’ Twilight said quickly, predicting where this was going, ‘Bowdler’s still got to see the rest of ponyville!’

‘Oh that’s his name! Alright then... Come and see me whenever you want that makeover Bowdler!’ Rarity said, sounding quite put down.

They exited the shop at a quick pace and headed to the edge of town where there stood a cottage, wrapped in ivy and looking completely let out to nature.

‘This is Fluttershy’s house, it’s also the animal rescue and care center for the region’ Twilight explained, ‘It doesn’t look like she’s in at the moment’ they peered in through the window and saw that the house was full of wild animals, bunnies, squirrels, birds and even snakes but there wasn’t a pony in sight.

‘Twilight?’ said a quiet voice behind them, ‘Who’s this, and why are you looking in my house, I mean, it’s OK for you to do that but, you know...’ they turned around and saw her, a yellow pony with a pink mane, she looked like she was scared out of her wits. She squeaked as Bowdler looked at her and tried to avoid eye contact.

‘This is Bowdler,’ Twilight explained, quite (to Bowdler at least) uncharacteristically, ‘he’s new in town’.

‘Hi’ he said, but this appeared to terrify the yellow pony even more, ‘it’s ok, I won’t hurt you’

Twilight snorted.

‘I’m... I’m...’ the pony whispered, barely audible, ‘I’m Fluttershy’

‘Well hi Fluttershy! Glad to meet you’ he said and smiled. This seemed to make her feel a bit better and she managed a faint smile back.

‘It’s getting late...’ Twilight stated suddenly, ‘we’d better get to your house Bowdler’. This made him feel a bit put down, as he wouldn’t be able to converse with Fluttershy anymore, but he was longing to see his new home.

They walked back down the road towards Ponyville and stopped at a quite sizable house.

‘Well, here it is’ she said and turned to leave, ‘Enjoy your new life in Ponyville’. She began to walk away, but Bowdler suddenly didn’t want her to, he wanted to make it up with her.

‘Twilight?’ he asked quietly and she stopped and turned around. ‘Twilight, can you ever forgive me?’ he said pleadingly, ‘Whatever it was that I did, I’m truly sorry. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you, or anypony else here, you’re all so kind. I would feel terrible’

Twilight looked right at him and started walking back towards him. ‘You shouldn’t be the one apologising,’ she said quietly, ‘I’ve seen the real you today and I’m ashamed that I ever accused you of anything. I’m sorry for the way I treated you and I forgive you for what you did, even if it wasn’t really you’

She nuzzled him on the neck and, for a moment, he felt like his life was complete.

He nuzzled her back, but then she realised what she was doing and jumped back. They looked into each other’s eyes for a moment and then she turned and ran away, towards the library. Bowdler stood there for a second, unable to believe what had just happened. He walked into the house.

Chapter 4: A new home

The house was dark when he walked in and he couldn’t even see his hoof in front of his face. He sighed, it had been a long day and he was tired. Suddenly, the lights flicked on.

‘SURPRISE!’ yelled a huge host of ponies standing around him, scaring him senseless.

‘OH GOD!’ he screamed, disorientated.

‘Oh don’t worry silly!’ said a pink pony bouncing up and down in front of his face, ‘It’s just a party! Were you surprised? Were you?’

‘Whu?’ he spluttered. Looking around the room, he could see dozens of ponies, Rainbow dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Big Mac and loads of others who he didn’t recognise.

‘Oh wow this is so exciting!’ squealed the pink pony, who he now recognised as Pinkie Pie ‘I’ve never been so excited, well, except from the time I saw Twilight walking in and I went HNNNNG! but really, what could top that?’

‘Pinkie Pie, I have no idea what the hay is going on’ he replied, Pinkie gasped.

‘You know my name already? Wow you catch on fast! I mean I know everypony’s names like you’re Bowdler even though you’ve not told me personally but I didn’t know that you knew my name without me telling you! Oh wow! Oh gee! This is amazing! We’re gonna be great friends!’

By this point he had recovered from the initial shock of the party and laughed,

‘Yeah, I’m sure we’ll be great friends too’

The pony squealed and bounced away, leaving him alone in his house, which had been converted into a massive party room. He decide walking up to Big Mac and the stallions he was talking to would be a good idea.

‘Howdy partner!’ he said as he noticed him walking up, ‘Ah don’t usually turn up to Pinkie’s surprise parties but seeing as it’s yours, well, me and some of mah buds decided to mosey on along’ the two stallions stood with him smiled and waved, they were both quite large (but not as large as Big Mac) stallions, both were brown and one had green framed glasses.

‘My name is Dallas’ the one with the glasses stated, ‘and this is the doctor’.

‘Hi!’ said the other pony.

‘Doctor... who?’ asked Bowdler.

‘Exactly!’ he replied.

Dallas and Big Mac laughed, obviously used to the doctor’s rambling.

‘So who might you be?’ Dallas asked after the laughing died down, ‘I’ve not seen you around here before, well, that’s a bit obvious though isn’t it?’

‘I’m Bowdler, I’m new here’ he replied.

The doctor suddenly looked quite worried, but it passed over him quickly.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked slowly.

‘Nothing, nothing!’ the doctor replied.

‘You looked really worried when I said my name.’ he continued, ‘what’s wrong?’

‘Spoilers’ he said, shrugging. Dallas decided to change the subject.

‘This is a nice place you’ve got here isn’t it?’ he said, admiring the furniture.

‘I wouldn’t really know...’ he replied, looking around at the surging party.

Dallas noticed this and replied, ‘Oh, I see, we’ll leave you be for a bit so you can explore, I’ll see you around!’

Bowdler walked away and observed his house. He could see a grey Pegasus at his fridge, gorging herself with babybels. He chuckled and looked away, pretending he hadn’t noticed. The room was spacious and well lit and, he supposed, it would be cosy and comfortable after it emptied a bit. There was a door on the far side of the room which he made towards. He opened it and saw a spiral staircase leading up the top floor, he walked up it and saw a quiet room, with a bed and a few pointless cupboards. He felt a wave of tiredness, similar to the one he felt in Canterlot and flopped down onto the bed, not bothering to put on the covers, and fell asleep instantly.

The next morning Bowdler woke up feeling even more groggy and tired than usual. He walked over to the window and looked out over Ponyville, the sun was only just rising over the forest in the distance. He felt as if he could have just gone straight back to sleep, until he felt his stomach rumble and remembered he hadn’t eaten anything last night. He stumbled down the staircase and into the main room. It wasn’t a pleasant sight. There was a white pony with blue spiky hair passed out on his sofa on top of the grey pony he’d seen at his fridge. The said fridge was open and completely empty. There was mess all over the floor, this was going to take a while to clear up. He cleared his throat loudly. The white pony jerked awake and looked around frantically.

‘What?’ she spluttered, ‘Where am I? What happened? Who’s that?’ she looked down at the grey pony underneath her, ‘Oh lord...’

She got up, looking dazed and slightly tipsy and stumbled out of the door without even a backwards glance at Bowdler. With the white pony out of the way he turned to look at the grey pony, who was still fast asleep. He poked her gently. She jumped up and looked around, wall eyed.

‘Muffins?’ she asked.

‘What?’ Bowdler replied.

‘Muffin! Muffin babybel fridge!’ she continued.

‘What the hay?’ he asked, utterly dumbfounded, he shook his head and looked at her sternly. ‘I saw you last night, you ate all my food. You’d better help me clear up!’

She looked at him, sort of, and said, ‘Muffins and cupcakes and Muffin Muffin doop’

‘What?’ he began, but she flew up in the air, smashed his ceiling light and flew straight out of the window.

‘Fuck’ he stated plainly. It wasn’t like there was anypony else around. He decided that the cleaning could wait until later, he might even find a cleaner. He walked outside and squinted as the light burned his eyes. He decided that the town square was probably the best place to go. On his way there he passed the library, he wondered whether he should go and visit Twilight, but, judging by the state she was in after their, ‘encounter’, last night he decided it would be a bad idea. When he got to town square, he immediately ran into Dallas.

‘Mornin’ Bowdler!’ he said cheerily, ‘I didn’t see you after you left last night, where did you go?’

‘Bed’ he replied, Dallas laughed.

‘I s’pose you had a pretty long day then eh? Anything particular you want to do today?’

‘I’m glad you asked’ he replied, ‘I’m looking for a cleaners.’

‘What’d you need a cleaner for?’ he asked, sounding genuinely confused.

‘Well, the party...’ he began, but as soon as he got the jist of it, Dallas chuckled and corrected him,

‘Pinkie Pie always clears up the party mess, even if she comes at about midday, no matter how much mess there is, she’ll clean it somehow.’

Bowdler shrugged, he seriously had no idea how Pinkie Pie planned to fix his window. Suddenly, Big Mac and the Doctor appeared next to them.

‘Morning’ he greeted them.

‘Morning to you too’ they both replied, near enough simultaneously, which made everypony laugh for some reason.

‘Ahm not gonna be able to stay’ said Big Mac after the laughter had died down, ‘Ah’ve gotta harvest some apples, there’s always a few early ones.’ he chuckled as if this was extremely amusing and everypony else joined in so as not to look rude.

‘I’d come and help you if you wanted me to Big Mac,’ said Dallas, ‘it’s not like I’ve got anything else to do’

‘I’ll come along too!’ piped the Doctor, who obviously wasn’t one for missing out on doing stuff with his friends.

‘I’d love to help,’ Bowdler began, ‘but I think I’ve got a few things to patch up’ He had started to feel really bad about not going to see Twilight.

‘That’s just fine’ Big Mac reassured him, ‘We can handle it’ and he and the others made off for sweet apple acres. Bowdler stood there for a moment, watching them go, but as soon as they disappeared from sight, he whirled around and started running towards the library.

When he got there, the door was unlocked so he walked right in. Nopony seemed to be around.

‘Hello?’ he called, ‘Is anypony there?’

‘Nopony is here right now.’ came a voice from another room.

‘Really?’ he replied, obviously thinking this was some sort of childish joke, ‘Then who might you be?'

A small, purple, lizard-like creature walked into the main room. ‘A baby dragon’ he replied bluntly, then laughed. ‘I’m just messing around with you man, I’ll take your order’

‘I’m not here for a book...’ he began.

‘Then what are you here for?’ he asked, looking him up and down, then suddenly a realisation popped up in his eyes. ‘Say...’ he questioned, ‘You aren’t called Bowdler are you?’

‘That was my name last time I checked’ he replied in a very sarcastic manner, the dragon giggled.

‘I’ll just go and get Twilight, she’s feeling a bit 'ill' but I’m sure she’d come down to see you’ he said cheekily and ran back into the other room and clattered up some stairs. Bowdler couldn't hear what they were saying and waited nervously. Eventually, he heard somepony come back downstairs, or more accurately, somedragon.

‘She says she’s still feeling tired and ill,’ he said as he walked into the room, shrugging, ‘I doubt it, she was talking in her sleep last night, I think she’s into you’

‘SPIIIIKE!’ came Twilight’s voice from up the stairs, ‘IF YOU’RE SAYING WHAT I THINK YOU’RE SAYING I SWEAR I WILL TELL EVERYPONY’

Spike jumped about a foot into the air, ‘I’m not saying nothing!’ he yelled, logically perfectly truthfully. The shouting from upstairs stopped. ‘Please don’t tell her I told you!’ he begged him, dropping down to his knees, ‘I’ll do anything!’

He laughed devilishly, ‘Don’t worry, I won’t. But could you please have one more try at getting her down?’ he said, ‘I really want to see her’

‘Okay,’ the dragon replied, ‘but don’t get your hopes up...’ he wandered back up the stairs.

Bowdler decided that he’d look around this time, to keep himself occupied. The library was, unsurprisingly, filled with books. He thought about the stump of his horn, could he still do magic with it? He concentrated on a book on the table on the far side of the room, willing it to float. He felt a tingling sensation on his forehead and could see a faint purple glow just above his eyes. The book started to shake violently, but didn’t move an inch. He was starting to get really tired, the stress of it was making him woozy. He stopped looking at the book and staggered around a bit, his vision blurred. When his sight re-focused he could see a familiar purple pony standing in front of him, her mane was uncombed and she was blushing vividly.

‘I saw what you were doing there...’ she said and a sense of dread crept into his heart. Would she still like him if she knew what he was?

‘I’m really not sure what to make of it though... You can’t be an Alicorn, the only Alicorns in Equestria are the Princesses’. He suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to just show her the remnants of his horn and tell her all he knew, but the only thing that stopped him was the thought of Princess Celestia, looking down on him with deep disappointment in her eyes. He didn’t want that at all. He walked up to Twilight slowly and put his head against hers,

‘Twilight...’ he began, but wasn’t sure why he’d started, he couldn’t think of what to say, he was just overjoyed at the sight of the pony he now knew for sure he was in love with. She looked like she felt the same way, he could feel the warmth of her cheek against his. She backed away and looked deep into his eyes and he looked back into hers, they were the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen, a deep purple colour, not dissimilar to his own.

‘Yes?’ she asked, obviously intent on getting information of some sort.

He didn’t know what to do, what should he say? He’d started a sentence that he didn’t know how to finish. There were two things he could tell her and he wasn’t sure which one he’d rather leak.

‘I... I...’ he spluttered, his mind on the blink, but suddenly, he perked up a bout of courage. ‘I think I love you Twilight’ he finally said, looking at the floor and digging at it with his hoof.

He looked back up at her, she looked stunned but also, somehow, rather pleased. There were tears at the edges of her eyes. She walked over and threw her arms around his neck.

‘That’s ok,’ she whispered softly, her words choked with tears of happiness, ‘I think I love you too’. Never before did he feel so happy, his heart leaped and he buried his head into her shoulder. He could feel tears rolling down his eyes.

‘Jeez guys get a room!’ came a cocky voice from the doorway, Spike stood there looking utterly disgusted. This completely shattered the moment.

Bowdler and Twilight moved away from each other and looked into their eyes. Twilight appeared to be worrying about something, like she’d just broken an extremely important rule.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, paranoid that this relationship would come to an abrupt end, but she just stood there. He realised that this was an extremely awkward moment as the initial surge of shock and joy passed over him, he felt nervous and dug at the ground.

‘Fine, I’ll go’ said Spike as if he’d just been told to do something completely unreasonable and he walked back up the stairs. This didn’t break the silence for long though.

‘You should probably go now’ Twilight stated quite clearly, but still obviously choking back tears of joy, ‘I’m feeling a bit ill’. He took the hint and turned to leave.

‘When should I come back?’ he asked hopefully.

‘Tomorrow hopefully’ she said with a smile.

‘Ok, I’ll see you then’ he replied, then left, still thinking over what had just happened.

Chapter 5: The oncoming storm

It was starting to get dark as Bowdler walked back to his house, which was strange. He felt as if he had only been up for a couple of hours. He saw that other ponies obviously felt like this too, closing their windows and doors, nudging their foals into their houses. He ignored it though, he was too happy to think of anypony other than Twilight. He wondered how far this relationship would go, how long it would last.

‘As long as possible’ he said to himself as he finally arrived back home.

He noticed that his broken window was miraculously fixed, as if nothing had happened and when he walked in, the mess he’d woken up to in the morning, had completely disappeared.

‘Gee’ he thought, ‘I guess Dallas was right about Pinkie Pie’. He looked at the clock. The hands showed that it was half past two in the afternoon. ‘Must be broken’ he muttered, but then he looked out of the window and saw that the clock on the bell tower showed the same. He got worried all of a sudden, what was happening? He burst out of his house and started running towards sweet apple acres to join Big Mac, the Doctor and Dallas. At least he’d feel safe there.

By the time he arrived at the farmhouse, it was pitch black and he couldn’t even see his hoof in front of his face. The moon was not out, nor were the stars. A bad feeling washed over him, had this got something to do with him? From what he gathered he’d fallen from space, could this be something coming to collect him? He ran, he didn’t want anything to take him away from his new home, his new friends, his new life. Something hit his flank, hard. He toppled over and looked around frantically, then he heard Big Mac’s voice.

‘Whoa! I jus’ hit something!’ he said, sounding somehow unfazed about the pitch blackness.

‘Yeah, me’ Bowdler replied, extremely relived that it was just Big Mac.

‘Bowdler is that you?’ came the voice of the Doctor, ‘Where are you?’

‘Over here!’ he shouted, hoping they’d come to his voice. He wondered whether he could use magic to cast a little light on the situation. He started thinking really hard.

‘Light’ he thought, but nothing happened. ‘Light’ he said out loud, still nothing.

‘Light?’ came the voice of the Doctor, ‘where?’

‘Uh...’ he said quietly, thinking about what to say, ‘Let there be light? No...’ and then it came to him. ‘Lumos’ he said sternly and a dim, purple light floated just above his head.

He could see Big Mac and the Doctor, hanging on to each other. The Doctor was looking worried, but not shocked about the light, as if he’d known all along. Big Mac however, started to get freaked out.

‘How in the hay are you doing that?’ he spluttered, spitting out a blade of grass which was hanging out of his mouth.

‘There’s no time to explain’ Bowdler replied quickly, he’d just seen something else in the darkness, something big, ‘We have to get to the farmhouse’. They started running towards the door and quickly went inside. The first thing they saw as they walked in was Applejack and Rainbowdash, sitting there looking utterly stunned.

‘What’re you doing here?’ Rainbow said quickly.

‘We were about to ask the same thing’ replied Big Mac, who was also looking confused. The subject was dropped.

‘Why is it so dark outside?’ Applejack asked. The stallions all shrugged.

‘No idea’ said Bowdler, feeling confused and shocked. The Doctor bolted the door shut.

‘If this is what I think it is then we should stay here for as long as possible’ he said sternly, as if their lives all depended on it. Bowdler was about to agree when he remembered something. Something he really didn’t want to leave out there in the dark with all those things.

‘Twilight!’ he yelled and ran for the door. The Doctor jumped in his way.

‘I’m sorry but I can’t let you do that’ he stated, all his heart going into it.

‘I have to get to her’ he yelled, ‘I can’t leave her!’

‘If she has any sense she’ll still be in the library!’ he replied, at that, Rainbowdash and Applejack jumped up too.

‘Ho’ shit!’ Applejack yelled worriedly, ‘Our Twilight ain’t one for stayin’ out of danger! You have to let us go!’ They ran up and stood behind Bowdler.

The Doctor sighed, ‘I thought you’d have more sense than this Bowdler...’ he moved out of the way of the door, ‘Go, if you don’t value your lives.’

Bowdler strode forwards, not caring about how dangerous it was, all he could think about was getting to Twilight. ‘Lumos’ he said, before he, Applejack and Rainbowdash stepped out into the dark.

The darkness was total, other than the faint light coming from Bowdler’s horn. He could see some of the shapes making towards them.

‘Run with me, quickly!’ he yelled to Applejack and Rainbowdash. They sprinted down towards ponyville, nearly running into the shapes several times. The light seemed to keep them at bay. All the houses in town were utterly silent, the ponies obviously scared out of their minds. They never really got a good look at the the things that were chasing them, not daring to turn around and look. When they got to the library, they noticed that the door was ajar. Bowdler looked at the other two ponies nervously, they seemed to not mind the total peril of the situation, acting as if it was just another day in their bloody exciting lives. He however, was scared, more scared then he had ever been, not just for himself, but for the one he loved, for Twilight. He opened the door to the library and walked in. It was a tip, there were books everywhere, as if the place had been looted.

‘Shit!’ he yelled and started throwing the piles of books away, seeing if Twilight was under any of them. Applejack and Rainbowdash got the picture and started to join in.

‘Spike?’ he heard Rainbowdash say. He ran over and saw that she’d just uncovered Spike, who was lying unconscious under a pile of books. Applejack joined him and poked Spike.

‘He’s out cold’ she said worriedly, ‘Ah’ll take him back to the barn, for safety’ she picked him up and slung him over her back, then walked over to the door. She stopped just before she got there though, because a huge force had just slammed into it. Luckily, they had remembered to lock the door behind them, but nevertheless, the force nearly threw the door off of its hinges.

‘Bowdler!’ she yelled at him, ‘You’re obviously a unicorn or sumthin’, telly port us outta here!’, but he just stood there, unmoving, flames beginning to erupt in parts of his mane. He could think of nothing but the sheer hatred he had began to have against the creatures outside, it burned through his mind like some sort of tsunami of pure rage. The red markings on his body began to glow brightly and his mane set fully ablaze.

‘Unbolt the door.’ he said firmly, ‘let them come.’

‘Are you outta your mind?’ Rainbowdash yelled, her voice cracking several times in panic.

‘Let them in here now’ he stated, his words filled with fury. He was going to destroy these creatures like the vermin they were. Applejack started to unbolt the door when the thing outside smashed into it again, knocking the door off of its hinges and sending Applejack flying off of her hooves. It walked into the room and stared at them, with drool emerging from the sides of its mouth. For a moment, Bowdler considered whether taking this thing on was a good idea, but that was pushed to the back of his mind by a single thought. They had taken Twilight. They had taken his love.

Chapter 6: The endless swarm

The creature stood in the doorway seemed to be a sort of giant armoured bug, bipedal, but with six arms and stooped so far forward, that it probably normally walked using its front claws. It was black as space but its carapace and claws were bright gold, they did not yet appear to have been used. Obviously that was about to change.

The creature opened its mouth and let out an ear splitting cry at Bowdler. Applejack and Rainbowdash covered their ears, screaming, but Bowdler just stood there, his mane ablaze.

‘You BASTARDS’ he yelled at the thing, ‘You ENORMOUS cock ends! You took her! You took Twilight! YOU WILL PAY!’ he lowered his head and began to charge at the thing, willing with all his might for him to fell it quickly. The beast recoiled in confusion, then charged towards him, its claws high above its head.

While he was running, Bowdler felt a strange sensation, it was as if something new was on him. He looked to his left and right. Beside him, were hovering two, long swords which glinted with the light of the room. But he didn’t stop to think about how they got there, he collided with the creature. It flailed and screeched and tried to slice him with its claws, but to no avail. He had used its own size against it and had got it pinned on the floor, levitating one sword by its neck and the other, pointed to what appeared to be its head.

‘You will pay’ he spluttered, ‘With your life.’ He plunged the sword into its mouth and up through the top of its skull, it screeched in pain, then slumped to the floor. Outside, there were similar screeches from other creatures and Bowdler could see them starting to run away from the library.

‘Get back here you cowardly shits!’ he tried to yell, but he could only splutter. He collapsed to the floor and the last thing he could remember seeing, was the light of the sun starting to appear from behind a vast, black cloud.

Bowdler woke up on top of a stack of hay in the barn, beside him lay his swords and what appeared to be a silver helmet, with a space for where his horn would have been in the top, but he still didn’t have time to ponder over these strange artifacts, there were more pressing issues to attend to. He sprang up and started to make towards the barn door, there was nopony else in the barn with him so he thought he’d just have to find them. He opened the door and jumped back. Standing at the other side of it, was Princess Celestia.

‘Princess’ he exclaimed, dropping to one hoof.

‘Stand up Bowdler,’ she said sternly, ‘We need to talk.’

He jumped up and stood at attention, ‘Yes ma’am!’ he replied enthusiastically, he had no idea why he was acting so militaristic about the whole ordeal, he had met the Princess before and it didn’t seem like such a big thing. She walked him back over to the haystack that he’d been sleeping on and told him to sit down.

‘Last night,’ she began, ‘You performed a brave and valiant deed, saving not just the two ponies who were with you in the library, but also, apparently, the whole town’

‘Unless I’ve been asleep for too long to know better, then it’s not the whole town.’ he replied, a tone of sharp bitterness in his voice.

The princess stood up, ‘and this is why I have called on you,’ she replied, sounding determined, yet understanding, ‘Equestria is going to war with the beetle-like invaders, we have called a council between the residents of the many lands and I’d like you to be there.’

Bowdler got down to one hoof again, ‘It would be an honor, Princess’ he replied.

‘Good, I will give you some time to prepare yourself, meet me in the ponyville town hall when you are ready for the meeting.’ she turned and walked away.

After Princess Celestia had left Bowdler started looking more closely at the weapons and armour by the side of his hay. He had no idea how he’d managed to wield them, bearing in mind he couldn’t levitate a book. He focused on one of the swords, it glowed purple and raised about an inch into the air, then spazzed out and landed on the floor with a clatter.

‘Damn it!’ he yelled, he’d been sure that he could use his magic properly on these, but evidently not. He picked the sword up in his mouth, it was surprisingly light. He waved it around a bit and accidentally took off a chunk of his hair.

‘Oh for Christ’s sake...’ he threw the sword down on the ground, ‘useless piece of shit’

He walked towards the barn door and out into the world. The sun shone down on him and he had to shield his eyes from its brightness. All of a sudden, a thought struck him.

‘What happened to Dallas?’ he said aloud for no particular reason.

‘Right here bro’ came a familiar voice from the side of the barn.

‘Dallas!’ Bowdler shouted as he ran up to him, ‘where were you last night?’

‘Oh? Didn’t I mention?’ he replied, sounding a little shocked, ‘I’m leaving for home.’

‘What!?’

‘I don’t live around here,’ he continued, ‘I just come down every other season to see Big Mac and the Doctor, I usually live down near Appaloosa and last night I’d already headed off home, I came back today though because I saw what was happening, I had to fight off dozens of those bug wankers on the way here.’ he laughed.

‘You don’t have to go you know, you could stay and help fight them’ Bowdler said hopefully.

‘Nope, that’s just it,’ he replied, ‘I’ve got to help defend Appaloosa, they can’t hold on without me’

‘I understand’ They looked at each other for a second, an awkward silence appearing.

‘Chicken sandwiches’ said Dallas, breaking the silence.

‘Lolwut?’ Bowdler laughed.

‘Just breaking the silence bro’ they bumped hooves. ‘I’ll be seeing you then!’ he said and turned to go. ‘See you!’

After Dallas went out of sight, Bowdler decided it was time to head off to the town hall. There was no time to bring the blades or helmet so he just walked down there. In the hall there were all sorts of ponies and other weird creatures. Princess Celestia noticed him and gestured for him to sit by her with Luna and blue pony wearing cool looking armour. He nodded at him but before they had time to talk, a pony on the stage in the hall called for attention.

‘Residents of Equestria!’ he yelled, ‘Dark times are upon us!’ there was a wave of mutters of agreement, ‘A threat like no other has descended upon the land! A swarm of ravenous creatures, who have no goal other than to strip our world of all life! But we shall not let them complete this goal! We, the men and women who live in this land shall stand together, to halt the oncoming fleet of horrors! We have with us today, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna of Canterlot!’

There were cheers from the crowd,

‘We have Chief Thunder-hoof of the Buffalo tribes!’ More cheers,

‘We have King Spicer of the Diamond dogs!’

This was followed by an awkward silence, which made the diamond dogs look annoyed,

‘and we have also decided to put our differences aside with the other kingdom of ponies, here with us today, we have Overlord Dark Specter of the cult of Nightmare’ he waved over towards a Black pony with glowing white eyes.

The crowd in the hall let out a gasp as they noticed the cult of Nightmare for the first time, these ponies were the supporters of what they called ‘The fallen Queen’ Nightmare moon, they left the main kingdom of ponies and set up a splinter faction on some of the outer colonies of Equestria, they were despised by all.

There was a shout from the crowd, ‘Why are those traitors here!?’, a ripple of unrest went through the gathered ponies, this could turn into an all out brawl at any moment.

The black pony stood and spoke with a voice which echoed with darkness, ‘We are here to pay off the debt we owe to the main kingdoms of ponies, perhaps if we do this with you, you will all forgive us and let us live apart from you in peace’. As he spoke a bluish fog leaked from his eyes and mouth, like a thing possessed, this made all of the ponies in the hall hesitate to talk back.

‘We choose to trust you Overlord, but only if you work by us completely’ said Celestia warmly.

‘Celestia, you speak as if you expect me not to’ he replied with a grin, the cultists chuckled. The blue pony stood next to Bowdler narrowed his eyes.

‘Calm down Dasher’ Luna whispered to him, ‘You’ll just make things worse’

‘Anyway!’ shouted the brown pony stood on the stage, ‘We’re all here for the same reason! To stop these things from destroying Equestria!’

The ponies in the crowd nodded excitedly.

‘To do this, we will have to gather an army, good enough to fend off invaders from another planet, this task will be overseen by the Celestian ponies. The buffalo will attempt to provide a diplomatic resolution, the Diamond dogs will provide resources and the Cult of Nightmare will begin the training of new recruits to the united Equestrian army. Does that sound like a plan?’

A shout of agreement came from the ponies, buffalo and dogs.

‘Well, let’s get this thing on track!’ he yelled, ‘For Equestria! Meeting adjourned!’ he stamped his hoof on the stage.

Chapter 7: Preparations for war

Bowdler sat in the throne room of Canterlot castle with Celestia, Luna and the armoured blue pony.

‘But Celestia!’ the blue pony was shouting, ‘We can’t trust the training of new recruits to the Cult of Nightmare! What if they’re corrupting them into some sort of thing like that Dark Specter?’

‘Dark Specter is not a thing!’ Celestia objected, ‘He is a good pony who I would have trusted my throne to!’

‘Sister, that was before the second coming of Nightmare!’ Luna put in, seeming to be all with the blue pony on this matter, ‘You don’t know what he’s become now, for all we know the spirit of Nightmare may have possessed him!’

‘Nightmare moon was completely destroyed by the elements of harmony Luna!’ Celestia said sternly, ‘Not even her spirit lives on to corrupt anypony else’

‘I’m not so sure, she survived 1000 years on the moon, she could probably survive a rainbow, who’s to say she’s not behind all this?’ she whispered, worriedly.

‘Luna,’ Celestia began, ‘I know Nightmare Moon is not behind this. I would have felt her presence.’

‘I’ve got a feeling we should probably trust Celestia on this one’ Bowdler said quickly, this actually being the first time he’d managed to get a word into the conversation.

‘And who are you to be the judge of that boy?’ the blue pony sneered at him, ‘I’ve never seen you before in my life, and I know everypony.’

‘Oh? I haven’t introduced you two?’ Celestia said suddenly, ‘Silly me, Bowdler this is Lieutenant Dasher, he’s the head of the Equestrian military, and Lieutenant, this is Bowdler, he’s a good friend of mine who was found...’ she hesitated, ‘in the Everfree forest, not knowing who he was.’ she finished quickly.

‘Nice to meet you’ Bowdler said and stuck out his hoof, Dasher shook it instinctively but not with much vigour.

‘Celestia!’ he yelled suddenly, Dasher cringed, ‘When are we rescuing Twilight?’

‘Sadly Bowdler, we do not know where she is,’ Celestia said, her face falling, ‘I have tried scrying all over Equestria, but to no avail. I think they may have taken her with them, if that is the case then we should be able to rescue her when we assault them.’

He held back a tear, he’d hoped that rescuing Twilight would be their top priority, evidently not.

‘I do however have a task for you and Dasher,’ she continued, ‘in a war against an unknown army, a great ally would be found in the Dragons who live in the land beyond Everfree’

‘What!?’ Dasher shouted, sounding appauled, ‘You expect us to be able to pull the Elder Dragonkin onto our side? That’s a near impossible job, I’ve had run ins with them before, it wasn’t pretty.’

‘I don’t expect you to be able to do it Dasher, I know you’ll be able to do it’ she reassured him, ‘You shall take with you the Dragon known as Spike to be your interpreter and help you communicate with the Elder Dragonkin, I have a friendship with the dragon known as Rok’thalon, who should be able to get you an audience with the court of Elders, go now and find this Dragon.’

Bowdler and Dasher stood to attention, ‘We will not fail Princesses’ Dasher said, not sounding completely confident, ‘or at least, I won’t’ he muttered under his breath.

‘I’ve got total faith in you two,’ said Luna, obviously trying to sound as regal as her older sister, ‘go get ‘em’.

‘You want me to help you talk with the Elder Dragons?’ Spike yelled, dumbfounded, ‘They’re bloody scary guys! C’mon! I hear say they’re cannibals!’

‘The princesses order it civilian’ stated Dasher, ‘you are to come with us’

‘Dasher, shut up’ said Bowdler, who was sick of him acting like he was better than everypony, ‘Spike, you don’t have to come with us, but if you do, it will really help in saving Twilight’

At the mention of Twilight’s name, Spike welled up slightly, but then shook his head and stood as tall as he could manage,

‘Alright Bowdler! I’ll go with you! For Twilight!’ he punched the air and jogged out of the door.

‘You just need to show a little kindness sometimes, it can really help’ he said to Dasher, who was looking shocked, he snorted and walked out of the library to follow Spike, Bowdler went after him. Before long they had reached the everfree forest.

‘How’re we going to get through there?’ asked Spike nervously, but, almost simultaneously, Bowdler and Dasher cleared their throats and opened up their wings.

‘Ah, right’ he spluttered, sounding relieved. He climbed up onto Bowdler’s back and they took off. Dasher had folded the goggles attached to his helmet over his eyes and Bowdler wished that he’d been sensible enough to do that too, his eyes were full of weird insects, and judging by the shouting coming from behind his head, so were Spike's.

‘Dasher!’ he yelled over the deafening sound of the slipstream, ‘We’re going to have to land somewhere!’

‘What!?’ he yelled back at them, ‘Why do we have to do that!?’

‘We don’t have goggles you moron!’

‘Gah!’ he swooped down towards a clearing and Bowdler followed. When they landed Dasher immediately presented them with two pairs of goggles.

‘Luckily, I keep a few spare. Don’t lose them or I swear I’ll kill you.’ He took off again with blinding speed. Bowdler and Spike put on their goggles and flew after him.

They flew fast and hard for hours, but the forest still seemed to stretch out in all directions as far as the eye could see. It was starting to get dark, and Bowdler was getting tired. Suddenly, Dasher let out a red flare, which soared into the night sky and exploded. He then turned at an almost 90 degree angle and flew straight down into a clearing. Bowdler practically fell after him, but unfolded his wings and glided to safety at the last second.

‘We make camp here for the night,’ said Dasher ‘any other time I’d just fly through it but it seems that our interpreter needs some rest’

Bowdler turned his head around just enough to see Spike curled up on his back, but with one clear thing. He’d dropped his goggles.

‘Shit’ he muttered quietly, hoping Dasher hadn’t noticed.

‘There is a cave nearby which we can use.’ Dasher continued, ‘follow me’ he turned and trotted away.

The Everfree forest glittered with luminescent insects at night, looking like some sort of giant Christmas tree grove, full of sparkling fairy lights. But it was also full of danger, they were at risk of attack from Manticores, or worse, out in the open. This was why they needed shelter. But even a cave may not be Ideal, it might give host to Ursas or Lupises, bear and wolf spirits of the stars, who would rip them to shreds in an instant.

When they finally reached the cave, he let out a sigh of relief, there wasn’t a monster in sight. He slumped down onto the cave floor, but Spike rolled off of his back.

‘Ow! Hey!’ he yelled, ‘What did you do that for?’

‘Sorry Spike,’ he apologised, ‘my bad’.

Spike huffed incontently, ‘I was having a great dream too, now I’ve got to think of Rarity for a couple of hours again’ Bowdler heard him mutter. He rolled over and closed his eyes.

‘Don’t feel too safe just yet Civilians’ Dasher said quietly, ‘This cave could be home to anything.’

‘Hey relax bro!’ said Spike tiredly, ‘it’s great in here, I even found a little fur mattress!’

‘What!?’ Bowdler and Dasher both said at the same time. A low growl came from the same direction as Spike’s voice.

‘Oh, I see,’ Spike spluttered, his voice cracking, ‘Nice doggie!’ The Lupis minor, which had now began to glow in the way that all star spirits do, barked loudly at him. ‘Gah!’ he practically squealed and dived away.

‘Stand back citizens!’ bellowed Dasher, producing a long knife from seemingly nowhere, ‘I’ve got this!’ he charged towards the Lupis on his hind legs, somehow holding the knife in his hooves. This caught it by surprise, a pony on its back legs? how could it be? This gave Dasher enough time to deliver the first blow, he didn’t quite hit his target of the head, but left a long slice mark down the side of the beast. It roared in pain and leaped at him, trying to bite at his legs, but to no avail, Dasher took the opportunity of the open mouth to plunge his knife deep into the Lupis’s throat, slashing its windpipe. It gasped for breath and staggered around for a second, before collapsing onto the floor. Dasher threw the blade into the air and the blood on it splattered onto the ceiling, he caught it, sheathed it and said to Spike, ‘Now you’ve got your mattress’. He walked to the other side of the cave and sat down, not a scratch on him.

‘Uh... Bowdler?’ Spike asked, ‘Am I actually awake?’. Bowdler let out a long sigh at his and lay down at the opposite side of the cave from Dasher. The last thing he could hear before he drifted off was Spike ranting about how bloody his mattress was, then silence.

Bowdler woke with a start, Dasher had kicked him.

‘Wake up Civilian’ he said, ‘we’re moving out.’

He got up ‘Why is it always ‘Civilian this’ or ‘Civilian that’ with you Dasher?’ he asked.

‘Remember your place, I’m head of the guard, you are a lowly, brain-dead, amnesiac Civilian fool’ He snorted.

‘Woah!’ Bowdler yelled, ‘That was uncalled for!’

‘For Celestia’s sake, you’re an idiot!’ he yelled, but then smiled, ‘It’d be a real shame if that lupis were to have got you last night.’ Bowdler saw him stroking the hilt of his knife and backed off slightly. ‘What are you? Scared? Is widdle Dasher gunna hurt woo?’ he sneered.

‘Dasher, stop this. Why are you doing this?’ he began, stunned by his aggression.

‘C’mon guys!’ came Spike’s voice from outside the cave, ‘we’ve got to get going!’

‘On my way Spike!’ he spluttered quickly and cantered towards the cave mouth. When he got outside, Spike jumped onto his back, he snapped his goggles on.

‘Hey, where’s my g-’ Spike began, but Bowdler quickly did a back-flip. ‘What was that for?’ he asked. He raised his eyebrows and looked over to Dasher. ‘Oh, right’. Dasher was just emerging from the cave, his goggles already on when suddenly, a deep booming voice filled the clearing outside the cave.

‘pok mobi mabliki!’ it roared bestially, ‘wux re ti shalada tenpiswo!’

‘Uh, oh!’ yelled Spike, ‘I know that language’

An enourmous silver dragon stepped out into the clearing in front of the cave and stared them down. Its horns were massive, but not quite as scary as its serrated teeth, which were showing through its low growl.

‘confn mrith ve mabliki vur pothoc darastrix’ it said. Bowdler and Dasher looked at Spike,

‘He wants us to come with him,’ he gulped, ‘and he called me pothoc!’

Bowdler gathered that pothoc was probably some sort of dragon insult.

‘Why should we go with you?’ Dasher yelled at it, seemingly unfazed by its massive size. It looked confused, then turned to Spike,

‘Darastrix?’ it asked. Spike looked at the floor. ‘svabol tira wer mablik yenta hofibavi darastrix!?’ it roared.

‘jaci tora kii yth jalla confn mrith wux!’ Spike squealed.

The dragon snorted in disgust, ‘tagoa sjek wux tir ti, si geou sone wux!’ it yelled at Dasher, who backed off slightly.

‘You should probably follow him’ said Spike quietly, ‘he just threatened to eat you if you didn’t.’

‘That’s a good point.’

The dragon took off, making sure to keep an eye on them to follow, which they did without question. Even Dasher seemed to have lost a large chunk of his bravado.

‘sia ominak ui arth'alaki vur si nishka qe claxir wux ekess rok'thalon, wer darastrix di wer siksta’ boomed the silver dragon, Spike suddenly seemed immensely relived,

‘He says his name is Arth’alaki and that he’s going to be taking us to Rok’thalon!’ he translated quickly, ‘I’ve heard Celestia talk about Rok’thalon before! He’s the Elder Sun Dragon, she saved him when he was just a whelp from a swarm of Daemons in outer Equestria! We’re going to be ok!’

‘What?’ asked Dasher, ‘The story of the dragon and the daemons was an old pony tale that the elder ponies of the outer colonies would tell to the foals to stop them from going into Everfree, I didn’t know it was true!’

‘Exactly!’ Spike squealed, ‘and if this is Arth’alaki, he’s the Elder Moon Dragon, and he won’t hurt us! Everything’s gone better than expected!’

This, was asking for trouble. Suddenly, a massive green shape, not quite as big as Arth’alaki but still pretty huge, burst out from the treetops of Everfree.

‘ihk wer vis darastrix daariv!’ it screeched and dived towards Arth’alaki,

‘gethrisj mojka hofiba’ he said, sounding extremely bored and shot out a jet of flame, which burnt the green dragon to a crisp. Spike loosened his grip on Bowdler’s mane, which had suddenly become very tight,

‘That went well’ he said. Another five dragons flew up behind them and formed a V.

‘Spike?’ said Bowdler, ‘Next time we kill one, shut the fuck up’. He and Dasher dived to avoid the dragons which were soaring towards them, Dasher very narrowly missing getting his tail bitten off.

‘I’m no good at airborne fighting!’ Dasher yelled.

‘What!?’ asked Bowdler over the wails of another dragon which Arth’alaki had just torched, ‘I thought you were a Pegasus!’

‘That doesn’t mean I’m good at air to air combat though does it?’

‘I guess not’

‘Here, see if we can team on that one there!’

‘Alright, get your knife!’

‘What do you have?’

‘Jack shit!’

‘Oh crap!’ they smashed into the dragon furthest away from Arth’alaki and began to try to kill it, Dasher slicing at its wings with his knife and Bowdler grappling its throat and trying desperately to summon his swords again. He imagined that Twilight was there, egging him on. He heard her voice,

‘You can do it Bowdler, I believe in you’. He felt a surge of power run through his body and he willed for the dragons neck to be slit. Sure enough, one of his twin blades flew from nowhere and almost cleaved its head right off. He caught it in his hooves as he took off from the back of the falling dragon and gave the other one to Spike, who was still on his back.

‘Hey Bowdler? Will you do something for me?’ Spike asked as Arth’alaki cleaved a dragon in two, leaving only two left.

‘What?’

‘Can you charge right at that one on the left?’

‘Okay...’ He swerved around and started flying at full speed towards the dragon

‘ALRIGHT LEZ’ DO DIS! LEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY JENKINS!!!!!’ Spike yelled at the top of his voice as they soared towards it. Just as they got to it, he swung the sword as hard as he could at its face, and the bottom half of its jaw came clean off. It let out a screech of agony and plunged back into the treetops, just as Arth’alaki caught the last one in his mouth and began to devour it.

‘vi kobtish algbo authot’ he muttered contently after he had swallowed it.

‘si jiilral batobot’ said Spike. Bowdler didn’t give a damn what they were saying, they’d done it. They’d survived an attack from the forest Dragons.

Chapter 8: Dragon diplomacy

Writer's note: This entire chapter will be rendered completely unintelligible without this link

Arth’alaki led them to a large mountain in the middle of Everfree and landed inside a vast cave.

‘ifni naktar! evnek doutan!’ he bellowed.

‘Alright, alright’ came a voice extremely similar to Spikes, ‘but I still don’t see why we have to speak Draconic all the time!’

‘tagoa yth re darastrixi wux jietin malai!’ yelled Arth’alaki as a small blue dragon, a bit bigger than Spike came out of what appeared to be a solid wall. ‘svaklar tepoha wux moved wer ifni nilakanta?’ Arth’alaki asked.

‘Seriously, why do I have to keep telling you to call me Nil? Nilakanta is a stupid name. The door’s over there.’ he gestured towards another solid wall.

‘vinxa nilakanta’ he replied.

‘Oh for Rok’s sake!’ Arth’alaki grinned, which was absolutely terrifying and walked into the solid wall, expecting to go through it but instead crashing straight into it. Nilakanta fell about laughing.

‘You should see the look on your face now Arth! Haha! I can’t believe I got you again!’ Arth’alaki snorted flame all over the ground.

‘wux hofiba! yth tepoha fevekic!’

‘What? Visitors? Here? And I just made you look like an idiot? HAHA! That’s just made my day!’ Nil started laughing even harder, ‘Where are these guests?’ Dasher, Bowdler and Spike came out from behind Arth’alaki,

‘Hi!’ said Spike cheerfully, happy to see another young dragon.

‘Oh hi! Say, you’re a southern dragon aren’t you? Wow, I’ve never seen one of those before, what’s your name?’ he replied.

‘I’m Spike, son of Twilight. Well... Hatched by Twilight... I don’t know my real parents...’ he looked at the floor.

‘Oh, ok.’ Nil said, ‘My name is Nilakanta, son of Agra’thon, but please call me Nil, I hate being called Nilakanta’ he glared at Arth’alaki, who was nursing his snout.

‘What do you guys do up here?’ asked Spike.

‘Sit around being bored and,’ he put on a low pitched voice, ‘Obeying ancient traditions!’ he and Spike laughed for a second. ‘I don’t really like speaking Draconic though, or eating meat, give me the Equestrian language and a pile of jewels any day!’ he held his hand out in a fist and Spike punched it. ‘Alright Arth! Sorry about the joke, the door’s over there!’ he gestured to another patch of solid wall.

‘wux geou notfool ve tenamalo, wux gethrisj irral’ he growled.

‘You’re getting cleverer Arth, fine, have it your way.’ and he walked through the wall. Arth’alaki smiled smugly and walked through after him. Dasher ran straight in after him but Bowdler and Spike hesitated,

‘at the same time right?’ asked Spike, he nodded.

‘Alright, let’s go’ They ran at the wall.

On the other side of the wall there was a huge cavern, which was a lot bigger than the outside of the mountain. There were immense nests lining the walls and in the middle was a huge spire, covered in all sorts of jewels. Dragons of every colour flew everywhere, except for green ones.

‘Green Dragons dropped out of the Order of the Dragonkin at about the first fall of Nightmare, they’re still hostile.’ said Spike, as if reading his mind.

‘I was just wondering about that’ he said. Dasher and Arth’alaki were walking towards the spire in the middle of the cavern and they had to fly a bit to catch up.

‘wux geou tepoha vin audience mrith Rok'thalon persvek tairais’ said Arth’alaki, ‘hak wux shilta kikrem kii wux re tenpiswo’

‘He says we’re seeing Rok’thalon soon and we’ll be able to explain why we’re here.’ Spike translated.

‘Good, I’ll be happy to see the end of this excursion, the sooner we rescue Twilight the better.’ sighed Bowdler. Inside the spire there were jewels everywhere, of all types, from diamond to ruby to amethyst. Sitting on top of the largest pile was a vast golden dragon, at least twice as big as Arth’alaki. He looked down on them and snorted.

‘renthisj, mabliki’

‘Spike, tell him we’re friends of Princess Celestia and we’re here to discuss an alliance with the dragons against the aliens that have been attacking.’ ordered Dasher

‘fekiikiri darastrix daar! yth vinult de wer pony zaneunisali di equestria, yth re thurirli di wanotreyxkaiv celestia vur yth huven ekess propose vin gebalam seanf wer alien lekiji batobot tepoha coanwor lowdir wer treskri’ Spike said to the golden dragon, who reared up in surprise,

‘wux re thurirli di wer wanotreyxkaiv? vur wux vucot zahae nomenoi youwei batobot tepoha coanwor lowdir?’ he replied.

‘axun, ornla wux hefoc ekess letoclo udoka ekess gjahall astahi?’ Spike continued.

‘si nishka relgr vi biwheg di tilabili ekess siofme acht wer selgtarn, persvek wer jatil tairais, kiwieg duulo ekess tepoha creol kethendic’ the golden dragon stated after a short period of thought.

‘vinxa daar rok'thalon’ Spike replied.

‘So how did it go?’ asked Bowdler.

‘Very well actually, he’s getting an elder council together and he says I can have some of his gems, of course I won’t be having all of them to eat...’ he replied and then turned bright red.

‘What’s thank you in draconic?’

‘Vinxa’

‘Alright, Vinxa Rok’thalon!’ The golden dragon nodded and then started speaking to some of the smaller dragons around him, one of each colour. The council was about to begin.

After some time of waiting around with Spike stuffing his pockets, and face, with jewels, 7 other large dragons walked in to the room, along with Nilakanta, who stuck with the blue one. They sat in a semicircle with the ponies in the middle.

Rok’thalon (Dragon king), Arth’alaki (The moon Dragon), Agra’thon (Blue dragon aspect), Herensuge (Red dragon aspect), Volj’alar (Brown dragon aspect), Glaurung (The Elder), Fáfnir (Of the Stone dragons), Amelinda (Bronze dragon aspect), Tan’alzath (Purple dragon aspect) and Bek’kiliip (Black dragon aspect) all sat down and stared at them.

Rok’thalon began to speak ‘nomenoi mabliki relgr acht udoka darastrixi ekess letoclo astahi persvek asta darkest klewkin, wer alien jedarkic re lowdir equestria vur coi ui hesi ofdio oath ekess troth wer realm di celestia. naeck, yth nomag fulfil batobot oath. shar irral yth zklaen rechan vi vote, tir yth gethrisj ekess aryte? usv tir yth thesek equestria valignat?’

Bek’kiliip stood up ‘coi ui ti hesi bisai ekess troth equestria, si yenta yth thesek coi valignat vur raise wer zaneunisal di darastrixi de coita vignari!’

‘Bek’kiliip, have you lost your mind?’ yelled Amelinda, who obviously preferred equestrian to Draconic, ‘We must protect the land!’

‘myvish! wer thaczil ui ti hesini ekess troth!’ he replied.

‘si mi mrith amelinda shafaer nomeno ir, yth shilta ti filki shala nomeno treskri ekess wielg ekess vignar’ stated Volj’alar firmly.

‘si jahus filki yentair!’ said Bek’kiliip, ‘ithquent!’

Glaurung raised his claw, ‘ghent siofmeir drong vur tonn zahae nomeno, si tepoha confn ekess sia decision batobot yth jalla aso wer equestrians, ihk yth owe ekess astahi throden youwei’ he said in a tired, croaky voice.

‘algbo said juanth ir, si mi mrith wux shafaer nomeno’ said Fáfnir, patting Glaurung on his shoulder.

‘zyak batobot ui|ulph coi, si iaco ekess eligne wer thaczil, zyak tangis sjek jiakali tir ti tuor ekess save equestria, wer majority vote ui save coi’ said Herensuge.

‘si ornla tepoha said axun ilrigan’ said Arth’alaki and Agra’thon at the same time, they looked at each other and gave a deep booming laugh.

‘zyak coi ui settled, si nishka inform wer mabliki, dryic dout reabi darastrix aspects, yth vihaga ekess canterlot sva irral mitne’ finished off Rok’thalon. He cleared his throat.

‘Mortals, we have come to a decision’ he practically spat, pronouncing all of the words wrong, ‘We dragons are to aid you in your fight against the alien threat. As long as Celestia stands, we will fight by your side.’

Bowdler practically cheered with glee.

‘Vixna Rok’thalon! Vixna!’ he shouted, ‘when do we leave for canterlot?’

‘At first light tomorrow, do not worry, I shall carry you and your friends, you have suffered enough en route.’

Bowdler and Spike bowed down low to the dragons but Dasher just stood there.

‘Thank you Dragon king, we shall see you in the morning’ he turned and left. Bowdler and Spike followed and the Dragon aspects left the spire shortly afterwards.

Chapter 9: Recruitment complete

The next day was spent flying over everfree far faster than they had one on the way, on the back of Rok’thalon, the giant golden dragon king.

This gave Bowdler some time to think, ‘Why would they have taken Twilight yet nopony else? Why was he here? Where was he from?’ his thoughts suddenly turned to Dasher, ‘What’s with that Dasher guy? Why is he so aggressive? Has he got any friends? Was he actually going to try to kill me?’

Dasher was sat on Rok’thalon’s head, sharpening his knife on his horns. Suddenly, Bowdler thought of his shattered horn again, was it even ever a horn in the first place? It must have, he can still do some magic with it, if not any good. Being on Rok’thalon’s back was extremely distracting. He’d never seen anything go so fast, the smaller dragons around him were constantly going in and out of sonic rainbooms, and people called them old pony tails until somepony, whose name escaped him at the time, actually did one.

If only those ponies had seen these dragons. The sound of slipstream in his ears was deafening, he could barely hear himself think. Soon enough, the trees of everfree were thinning out slightly and he could see the edge of the forest on the horizon. Never again was a sight like that seen from ponyville, thousands of dragons flew straight over and onward to Canterlot and when Rok’thalon flew over, his shadow covered the whole of ponyville. He landed just outside of Canterlot, where minimal destruction would be wreaked when he landed. Even to this day, the park built on the land he flattened is called the scar of the dragonking.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna came down from the castle and actually used their own wings to hover in front of Rok’thalon’s head.

‘sia darastrix daar! si tepoha missed wux!’ said Celestia and she nuzzled the top of Rok’thalon’s right nostril.

‘si tepoha missed wux kiri Celestia, shar jaka ui ti wer tairais ihk svihelen reunion, coi ui wer tairais ihk aryte’ he replied.

Celestia nodded solemnly and flew onto his back to talk to the ponies and Spike.

‘You boys have done so well, I’m almost obliged to ask you what you’ve learnt about friendship.’ she said to them, laughing at her own joke, ‘but your journey doesn’t end here, there are still many tasks to overcome and many hardships that you will go through, but I’m sure you’ll come out of the other side, as friends.’

Bowdler and Dasher looked at each other for a second.

‘Go on’ urged Celestia.

‘You are a good tactitican Bowdler, and quite a good fighter at that’ Dasher said.

‘Thanks for the compliment Dasher, you’re a brilliant fighter too, and thanks for not killing me’ Bowdler replied. He chuckled at this last remark.

‘Well I’m glad you two can put your differences behind you, for friendship. And yes, I have been watching you in the scrying orb this whole time.’ The Princess said, ‘Dasher, I’m ashamed.’ He looked at the floor.

‘It was only a joke ma’am, to scare the Civilian back into his place’ he tried to explain.

‘There are no excuses for death threats, I shall be removing one of your Lieutenant stars, back down to grade 15 for you’ she stated plainly, ‘the three of you are to get some rest and then see me in the morning. If the beasts attack during the night you are to gather your weaponry and close friends and report to me.’ she turned to have a conversation with Rok’thalon and the two ponies headed back to ponyville with spike.

Bowdler and Dasher parted ways on the road to ponyville, Dasher taking off to go to cloudsdale, where he lived, leaving Bowdler alone with Spike, who exited on the road to Rarity’s house shortly after. He was on his own again. He wondered what everypony else was doing, Big mac, The Doctor, Dallas, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbowdash, Pinkie pie... Twilight... He wondered what Twilight was thinking about right now. He looked up, the sun was beginning to set on the horizon, he remembered one of Twilight’s letters to Celestia,

‘Is Twilight looking at this sunset right now?’ he thought aloud.

‘Probably not...’ came a depressed sounding voice from behind him. He turned around, it was Pinkie Pie. But it wasn’t Pinkie pie. Her colour was off and her mane was flopping down around her head like Twilight’s.

‘What’s wrong Pinkie?’ he asked her.

‘I’m missing Twilight, and I was missing you too Bowdler.’ she looked up at him, ‘where have you been? I’ve been to your house every night to see if you wanted to hang out, but you weren’t there. I thought you’d abandoned me.’ Her eyes were filling with tears now.

‘Pinkie pie, why would I abandon you?’ he asked her, confused.

‘Because you like Twilight better, that’s why. You went off to try and save her didn’t you? But you failed! She’s not here!’ she was crying openly now. ‘You left to fail and you left me to cry alone! Why would you do that to me?’ she ran forwards and threw her arms around him. ‘Don’t leave me... Please...’ she whispered.

‘I’ll try Pinkie, but I can guarantee it. I’ve got work to do, and I didn’t leave to try to save Twilight, heck I wanted to but the princess wouldn’t let me’

‘So you do prefer her?’ she squeaked, he could feel her tears running down his neck as she hugged him.

‘Of course not, I don’t prefer anypony, you’re all equal in my mind!’ Pinkie pie hugged him a little tighter,

‘Thank you Bowdler. Thank you’ She let go of him and stood there, a smile forming on her lips. ‘Do you want a welcome home party tomorrow?’ she asked excitedly, Bowdler noticed that her hair was slowly inflating again.

‘I can’t I’m afraid, the princess wants me to come and see her’

‘Oki doki loki’ she said, smiling quite widely now. She looked him straight in the eyes, it was as if she was staring into his soul. She leaned forwards and kissed him quickly, then giggled and bounced away.

Bowdler stood there for a second, watching her bounce away. Had she really just done what he thought she’d done? Had Pinkie Pie really just taken his first kiss? He felt a moment of confusion. Why was he ok with this? Why have two chapters ended with shipping now? Why the hell did he just think that?

Writer's note: OH GOD! WHAT HAVE I DONE!?

Chapter 10: Daemons and Dragons

Writer's note: This is where it gets interesting, prepare yourselves

The next morning, Bowdler rushed back to Canterlot to meet with Princess Celestia. What had she got in mind for today? He burst into the throne room, where Celestia was sat and Luna was sleeping.

‘Good morning Bowdler, up bright and early I see?’ said Celestia cheerily.

‘Mornin’ princess,’ he yawned, ‘what did you need me for?’

‘I’d like you to take a look at this’ she gestured to a large telescope, ‘it’s a magic telescope, capable of playing back what it has already seen, and it’s seen something very bad.’

Bowdler put his eye to the telescope.

‘Is it on?’ he asked, but the princess was giggling.

‘What? Oh, not yet, let me just turn it on for you’ she poked it with her horn and the golden decorations on it began to glow, ‘Nice monocle by the way, very fetching.’

Bowdler looked in the mirror of the throne room to see that there was a black ring of ink around the eye that he’d put up to the telescope. He forced a laugh and then wiped it off and put his eye back up to the telescope. He realised that that was a bad idea when Celestia burst out into a laughing fit.

‘Bowdler you’ve only just wiped it off! How’ve you managed that?’ she spluttered.

‘Ah, damn’ he said wiping the ink off of his eye and this time off of the telescope too.

He put his eye up to it and watch its recorded events unfold. Strange, beetle like things floated through space, past the moon and began to hover far over the surface of Equestria, more and more poured in from the void of space, until not even the stars could be seen through the telescope, just these beetle like transports.

‘Has it finished?’ asked the princess.

‘I’m not su- AUGH!’ he jumped back as a gory pony had popped up on the viewscreen right in front of his eye. Celestia fell on the floor laughing again,

‘I know this isn’t the time for joking but your reactions are so hilarious!’

‘Jesus, princess, you scared the life out of me.’

‘Yes, quite. But what do you think of the actual video in question?’

‘It looks like something is getting ready to invade to be honest.’

‘That’s exactly what my advisors said’ Celestia looked gloomily at the floor, ‘we’re not ready for an attack on this scale yet...’

‘I will do what I can to get into a defensible position.’

‘That will be a good thing. On a lighter note, would you fancy looking at an amusing video that I captured on the telescope of a cat with a pop tart on it shooting out rainbows?’

‘No thanks, I’ll be alright for now.’ at that moment, Lt. Dasher burst in. He had what appeared to be a small rainbow on his arm.

‘Sorry I’m late miss, I uh... overslept.’

‘I know exactly what you were doing Dasher, now, come and see this video.’ Dasher shifted uncomfortably and went to look through the telescope. Bowdler decided it would be a good time to leave before Celestia fell into another laughing fit.

Bowdler cantered down to ponyville to warn the mayor to set up the town’s defence system, but before he could get there, a familiar face popped up in front of him.

‘Hi!’ chirped Pinkie Pie, ‘How are you today?’ she bounced up and down in front of him

‘Not now Pinkie Pie, I’ve got something important to do.’ she stopped and looked at him awkwardly

‘Implying?’

‘No, you are important, but this is a matter of ponyville or no ponyville!’

‘Ooh! Adventure? Can I come this time?’

‘I’m not su-’

‘Please?’ her eyes seemed to triple in size.

‘Oh alright, follow me.’ He carried on running to ponyville, but with Pinkie Pie bouncing just behind him squealing

‘Adventure time! C’mon grab your friends!’

When they got to the mayor’s office in the town hall they found that she wasn’t there.

‘Where could she have gone?’ asked Pinkie pie.

‘I don’t know’ he replied, becoming increasingly worried, ‘How are we going to get the defenses up now?’

‘By ourselves of course silly!’ Pinkie picked up a megaphone somehow and began to walk outside, Bowdler followed not sure about what was coming. They stood in the center of Ponyville, the crowd was going about their normal daily buisness, oblivious to the enormous fleet of ships hovering just above the clouds. Pinkie pie raised up the device and turned it on. Her voice was amplified tenfold.

‘Hey! Everypony! Bad things are coming and stuff!’ she yelled through the speaker, ‘Help us fight them! Alright?’.

Everypony stared at her. Bowdler grabbed the speaker.

‘The aliens are coming back!’ he yelled, sounding a lot more serious than Pinkie (which wasn’t hard), ‘Gather all military personnel and get to the battle stations!’. This, Everypony did get.

They ran about everywhere, crashing into each other and into houses in the panic to hide from the swarm.

‘Everypony stay calm! We’re better than them!’. Through the seething crowds of ponies, he began to be able to pick out a few trying to make their way towards him. They were all wearing combat armour, ranging from standard guard armour to master crafted Cirrus City armour. One of them started yelling towards him,

‘We fight by your side Bowdler!’.

He nodded at them and took off towards the edge of ponyville, but then remembered Pinkie pie was with him, and she didn’t have wings. He turned around.

‘Pinkie w-’ he began.

‘I can jump silly, don’t worry!’ she chirped. He raised his eyebrows but turned and flew to the edge of ponyville anyway. Somehow, Pinkie was there waiting for him.

‘How did you...’ he started, but then shut up, deciding that it was better not to ask. The sky was already beginning to darken, signalling the coming of the creatures. Armoured ponies gathered around him and began to set up their weaponry, Battle-axes, swords, maces, staves, pretty much everything. They were all there. Lieutenant Dasher landed beside him, holding his shortsword in one hand and his knife in the other.

‘You ready for whatever comes?’ he asked looking him over.

‘Yeah, I’m ready’

‘You don’t seem to have any weapons’ he laughed.

‘Trust me, I’ll have them when I need them’. A black dot appeared on the horizon.

‘That it?’ shouted one of the guard ponies, ‘I could take that any day!’. Another dot appeared and another, until the whole horizon was blacked out by the oncoming swarm.

‘You just had to open your big mouth didn’t you Leroy!’ another pony yelled.

‘Quiet in the ranks’ Dasher bellowed. A few dragons had begun to land behind them, erecting their claws and spines.

‘yth slathalin ulnaus, schakri ir’ a large red one said. Bowdler nodded, not quite understanding.

The black dots began to get closer, their shapes now visible. It wasn’t just the little bug ones this time, there were towering, tank-like things among their ranks.

‘Brace yourselves!’ Dasher yelled. The creatures picked up speed, coming towards them faster than Bowdler thought possible for such large things. A smaller one jumped ahead of the group and charged, headlong at the line of pony guard. It took the guards by surprise and managed to claw at one of them before they impaled it with pikes. The main bulk of aliens screeched and began to charge, just as fast as the small one.

‘ihk wer darastrix daar!’ the dragons yelled and began to surge forwards, through the ranks of the ponies. Spears and flames flew towards the charging line of black creatures, but to no avail. They bounced off of them like they were a wall of steel. The dragons and aliens collided.

Screams emanated from both sides as both elder dragon and alien were torn apart, torched or crushed. Some of the smaller beasts managed to weave through the dragons and throw themselves at the ponies. Most of these were met with a well disciplined stab to the face but some of them broke through the less battle hardened ponies. A few of them banded together on a small group of recruit guard, who just stood there, frozen with fear, but before they could get to them they were crushed utterly, beneath a giant silver foot.

‘thesek ekik ihk wer moxt iri! astahii shilta qe braneir!’ yelled Arth’alaki with a terrifying grin on his face. He whipped around and began to devour one of the larger tank ones.

Bowdler looked on over the battle. He was disappointed that he’d not got in on any action yet. He and Dasher had been stood right behind where the dragons obliterated the center mass, so no stragglers for them to mop up. Suddenly, he felt a nudge on his leg. He looked down to see a small, snakish thing with large eyes.

‘Hey there!’ he said to it, ‘what are you then?’. It looked up at him, its eyes bulging. Then it sank it’s teeth into his leg. ‘Gah!’ he screamed, ‘Get it off me!’.

Dasher’s knife plunged into the beast, which erupted into a small pool of green gore.

‘Don’t trust small, bug eyed snakes Bowdler’ he said as he cleaned the blood off of the blade.

Bowdler rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the main battle. He was just in time to see one of the major checkpoints of that day.

Arth’alaki was right in the middle of the alien horde, clawing and burning his way through anything which dared to attack him. But some of the tank creatures had wizened up and banded together to climb up onto his back. He roared and flailed around, but he couldn't dislodge the creatures. They were stabbing into his back and he couldn’t do anything about it. He screamed with pain and fell to the ground, his sacred blood spilling all over the field of battle. More of the creatures jumped onto him and began to stab at his head, but the job was already done.

The moon dragon meets his end...

Of all the dragons witnessing that fateful event, none screamed for longer than the silver dragonkin. They had just lost their aspect and by extension, their father. They turned back the the swarms of aliens and began dismembering them with double the vigour. But now that the beasts had figured out how to slay a dragon, they weren’t going to stop at Arth. More dragons fell to the ground, screaming in pain as the aliens ripped their heads and backs to shreds.

‘Dasher!’ Bowdler yelled, ‘They just killed Arth’alaki!’

‘What, do you think I’m blind!? We’re charging for the beasts now!’ he turned and faced the guards. ‘You heard me! Charge!’

The ponies ran towards the creatures, yelling things like, ‘For Equestria!’ or ‘OH GOD I’M GOING TO DIE!’. Sadly, the beasts heard these battle cries and turned to face the charging ponies.

The first kill was of a smaller one whose head was torn clean off by the swing of Dasher’s sword, the second, a tank who was impaled with two swords, which had appeared from seemingly nowhere.

‘I told you I’d have them when I needed them’ Bowdler, who was now suddenly wearing full battle armour, yelled with glee.

‘What the hell?’ Dasher replied, whilst wrestling down another one of the small ones, ‘How did you do that?’.

He grinned, ‘I have no idea!’. His swords ripped out of the tank and cleaved another two small ones in half. ‘That’s three now! How’re you doing?’. Dasher quickly pulled his knife out of the tank he’d just killed,

‘Celestia damn it! I’m only on three as well!’. He threw his knife at one of the snake things. ‘Four!’. Suddenly, something happened. A huge creature, bigger than even the tank things, burst out from the ground. It whipped around to look at Dasher.

‘I’m sorry, was that your kid?’ he asked sarcastically, ‘Tough luck sunshine’. It stared at him, quickly stabbing a dragon in the face as it tried to tackle it. Electrical currents started running between it and the floor and small bolts of lightning fell from it’s head.

‘Want to get this over with or what?’ he shouted at it. A flash of red and purple shot over his head and collided with the creature. All Dasher could see was Bowdler slamming into the thing’s nose and starting to hack at it’s eyes with his swords. It screeched in pain and tried to rip him off. He took the distraction as an opportunity and charged at what appeared to be it’s torso, stabbing his sword and knife into it as hard as he could. The creature screamed again and fell to the ground. He pulled out his blades and turned to Bowdler, who had just landed beside him.

‘Bitch, you nearly stole my kill!’ he yelled. Bowdler quickly stabbed a tank in the head as it charged at him.

‘It’s called an assist mate, think about the odds for once’.

Dasher snorted and flew back off into combat.

‘OH CELESTIA!’ came a voice, ‘WE NEED BACKUP! SOMEPONY GET THE LIEUTENANT!’

Dasher and Bowdler raced towards where the it sounded like it was coming from. A brown pegasus was wrestling with one of the smaller ones, it’s teeth were getting dangerously close to his face.

‘Gah!’ he cried, ‘I can’t hold it off for much lon-’ he was interrupted by a flash of blue which practically tore the beast off of him.

‘Wha?’ he spluttered.

A blue pegasus had wrestled the creature to the ground and had got an axe held up against it’s neck. He quickly decapitated it.

‘Ah, Captain Bluewing, I was wondering when we’d see you’ said Dasher warmly, ‘How’ve things been holding up?’

‘Good,’ he said as he got up from the headless corpse of the creature, ‘I’ve got about 30, 40 kills to my name, how about you?’

‘Uh...’ Dasher started, obviously a bit embarrassed, ‘only 10 but we’ve only just started’

‘Who’s your friend?’

‘He’s-’

‘I’m Bowdler, nice to meet you’ he butted in, preferring to make his own introductions than have Dasher talk about him.

‘Good to meet you too Bowdler, may we yet meet on the field of battle, where I will destroy you utterly’ he laughed, ‘Jokes’.

Bowdler and Dasher forced a laugh, but their attention was soon turned back to the battle as another of the giant snakes had burst from the ground and had begun to strike the dragons with lightning. A shadow fell upon the battleground, darkening the night made by the hive ships even further.

‘wux mablik rekisixi tepoha xurwka vi phlita baclax!’ boomed the voice of a familiar dragon, ‘kiwieg wer skriiod di Rok'thalon wux ustdan!’. Rok’thalon himself descended onto the field and began to totally decimate the alien forces.

‘Berundur!’ came a screech from a bipedal alien. They began to run into the everfree forest to escape the wrath of the Dragon King. He stood for a second and smiled as the creatures surged back out of the forest, chased by Manticores, Chimeras, Lupises and Ursas. He took a deep breath and torched the last remnants of the alien attack force.

‘Oh Celestia!’ came a voice, ‘We’ve done it! We’ve sur-’

Rok’thalon sat down.

Chapter 11: Tricks and Treachery

Bowdler felt an immense feeling of joy. They had done it. They had successfully repelled the wave of alien attackers.

However, their losses were great. Many ponies had fallen on the field of battle. Guards crouched beside their dead comrades and wept openly.

A thought suddenly came into Bowdler’s head, ‘wasn’t Pinkie pie here a second ago?’. He started searching among the survivors but he couldn’t pick out her bright pink mane. He turned to the battlefield again, where Rok’thalon and the other dragons were mourning Arth’alaki. But then he saw it. The distinctive mane of Pinkie pie. He cantered down the field, jumping over alien corpses, trying to get to her.

‘Pinkie pie!’ he yelled as he reached her.

‘Bowdler...’ she spluttered, ‘you left me, again...’. Their eyes both filled with tears.

‘Pinkie pie no!’ he cried.

‘I can’t carry on if you’re just going to abandon me, but do this last thing for me Bowdler, at my funeral, it will not be sad. There will be a party? Ok?’

‘Pinkie...’ he whimpered.

‘Bye then’ she closed her eyes.

‘No.’ he said sternly, ‘No more will die today, especially not you’.

He pointed his stump at her and willed with all of his might for her not to die, not just yet. A red haze began to grow around him and Pinkie, glowing and hilighting their features. He could feel his eyes and horn stump glowing with arcane power, then he heard an explosion.

‘Bowdler?’ he heard Pinkie pie say quietly. Then everything went white.

Bowdler awoke for the second time in his life on a bed surrounded by white curtains. He correctly assumed he was back in the Canterlot hospital wing. Nurse Redheart poked her head through the curtains and saw that he was awake.

‘Oh!’ she said quickly, ‘I’m dreaming’ and retreated suddenly away.

He thought that wasn’t a very good sign. Over by his side was a heart monitor, and this is what made him jump. The reading was on 0bpm. A straight line. He felt his chest. Nothing. Technically, he was dead.

‘So this is the afterlife huh?’ he thought aloud, ‘Neat’

‘No Bowdler, this is not the afterlife’ said a voice that he recognised and Princess Celestia walked in through the curtains, ‘however, I’m not sure how you’re not on your way there now’

She looked over to the heart monitor and watched the unmoving green line for a second. ‘Before you ask, Pinkie pie is fine.’ she said as he opened his mouth to ask that exact question, ‘She spent most of today here mourning over your “dead” body. The question is, how are you alive?’

‘I have no idea’ he replied, shrugging.

‘This is certainly unnatural, even for an alicorn, we are not undying’

‘Really? I thought that would be it’

‘Hmn, it appears you, however, are undying. Internal damage as bad as yours would kill even me or Luna’

‘I’ve got internal damage?’

‘Yes, extremely bad’

‘But the aliens didn’t as much touch me!’

‘This is indeed strange...’ Celestia began pacing up and down by the side of his bed, ‘Oh! Bowdler!’ she said suddenly, ‘I have good news, bad news and ugly news’

‘Oh?’

‘The good news is we’ve found where they’re holding Twilight,’ Bowdler immediately sat bolt upright, ‘The bad news is that the hive fleet has not been totally destroyed, in fact not even crippled’ she paused. ‘The ugly news is that Dark Specter and the Cult of Nightmare have all disappeared, along with Bek’kiliip.’

His eyes widened, ‘Oh shi-’

‘Swearing in front of a Princess is inappropriate, you fucktard’ she said, grinning.

‘What’s our priorities Princess?’ he asked, ignoring the fact that the Princess was once again oblivious to the danger at hand. ‘I’ve consulted my chief strategist and she’s called a meeting on the matter, you and the leaders of the Equestrian army have been invited, but I’m not sure if you will be able to make it.’

‘Relax Princess,’ he said smugly, ‘it’s not even a flesh wound’.

Bowdler and Princess Celestia made their way up to the very top of Canterlot castle, where the strategist had called the meeting.

‘Who is this strategist anyway, Princess?’ he asked.

‘Miss Hooves is her name, she’s been our strategist for quite a while now, seeing as she does such a good job at keeping her intellect hidden.’ she replied.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ but then the door opened into the top room and he saw ‘Miss Hooves’.

It was the grey pony who had smashed his light and window. She sat at the head of a long table and stared at him, with one eye, the other was apparently looking at the wall.

‘Ah, hello Princess. And hello Bowdler, it’s been a while since we last met.’ she said with a smile.

‘Good morning Derpy’ said the Princess as she took a seat at the other end of the table, ‘What have you got planned for us today?’

‘Well, since everypony is here, I’ll tell you. What we’re going to do is send out the dragons to scour Equestria and also send a small task force of ponies into the place they are holding Twilight.’

‘Where would that be?’ asked Captain Bluewing.

‘It would be the Old Palace, in Everfree. Except it’s not quite how it used to be. The aliens have... redecorated’. There was an awkward silence. ‘Anyway, the task force of ponies will consist of Bowdler, Dasher, Bluewing and any other ponies they wish to bring along, as long as they are willing’.

Dasher and Bluewing both stood up and saluted, then made for the door. Bowdler followed closely after.

‘Good luck you three’ said Luna, ‘you’ll need it’.

Bowdler didn’t know what to do. Surely Dasher and Bluewing would arrive with loads of companions, but he couldn’t think of one pony who would want to come with him.

Dallas was busy defending Appaloosa, Big Mac was working the farm to provide the supplies for the guard and The Doctor... The Doctor... Would The Doctor want to come with him?

Hadn't he been really worried about what might happen to him in the future? He decided that he would ask him.

But wait... Where did he live? He actually had no idea. And who else would know? He’d leave it, it wasn’t worth the trouble.

Bowdler, Dasher and Bluewing met up at the edge of Ponyville, they were unaccompanied.

‘I thought you’d have brought some friends’ said Bowdler.

‘Who needs friends when you’ve got allies like you guys, we’ll easily solo this’ replied Bluewing, sounding completely confident. They took off into the forest, which was unnaturally safe because the residents of Everfree had joined with the Equestrians for the war.

They caught glimpses of the aliens between the trees but ignored them to speed up the task ahead.

‘The Princess has got hold of some experimental stealth technology for us’ said Dasher, handing them what appeared to be necklaces, ‘put these on and will yourself to be invisible’. They did and they became translucent.

‘Get ready to move out’ said Bluewing under his voice, instinctively going into stealth mode. They crouched close to the ground and crept up to the site of the old palace.

‘Woah’ Bowdler breathed as it came into view. The stone ruins were covered in a chitinous structure, rising high up into the sky. How nopony had seen this, he would never understand.

Dasher raised his hoof, then made a gesture over his mouth for Bowdler to be quiet. They slowly walked up to the sides of the building and started to move around it, pressing themselves up against the wall, looking for an entrance. There wasn’t one.

‘I remember where the original entrance was’ whispered Dasher, ‘Stand back’

Bowdler and Bluewing melted back into the forest and left Dasher to do his work. He stood and inspected the structure and drew his shortsword. He smashed it against the wall as hard as he could, but to no avail. There was barely a crack in the surface. Bluewing held up his battleaxe and waved it around for a bit. Dasher saw, ran over and grabbed it. He held it aloft and charged at the wall. The axe swung around so fast that it left a silver trail in the air. It hit the wall and shattered. Bluewing let out a wail of agony.

‘That was my first ever axe!’ he cried disdainfully. The wall however, was no worse for the wear. Dasher threw Bluewing his shortsword to use instead of the lost axe. He gathered up the pieces of the axe and put them in his bag though, just in case they could be reforged.

‘Bowdler,’ Dasher muttered, ‘Use your magic sword things’. He concentrated and summoned his swords. They floated beside him, glowing faintly, then flew up towards the wall. They left two perfect slices down the front of it. He hacked at it again until it fell apart, revealing the old entrance to the palace. Inside, it was abandoned. There were no signs of life anywhere. They stepped inside and began to explore. Most of the corridors and halls of the palace seemed to be completely untouched, even though the outside was encrusted with alien walls.

‘This is odd...’ said Bluewing quietly, ‘It’s a little too easy...’ There was complete silence. Then suddenly, they heard something. An all too familiar squeal came from deep within the bowels of the ruins and Bowdler’s heart raced. Twilight. He let out a roar of vigour and charged into the darkness towards where he had heard the voice.

‘Bowdler no!’ yelled Dasher after him, ‘Stick together! It could be a trap!’ but he just ignored him. He had heard the voice of his one true love and she had sounded to be in pain. He had to find her.

Twilight sat alone in her cell. She was barely conscious. How long had she been here? She didn’t know. All she knew is that she’d been taken by the alien creatures.

They fed her on some sort of green goop that she’d downright refused until she was literally starving to death. She looked at the small chink in the wall which she used as a window.

Would Bowdler ever come for her? A tear rolled down her cheek. She knew she could never give up hope, because if she gave up hope... what would living be worth? She knew the answer to that. Even if all hope was lost, she’d never let herself go. For one reason. One pony. For Bowdler.

Bowdler could hear things stirring in the hall around him. It appeared that his battle cry was a little too loud. He ignored them. Nothing would stop him from getting to Twilight now. Not even an entire army of those tank aliens. He heard Twilight’s sobbing again, growing ever louder, echoing off of the walls. A pang of sadness went through him. Was she hurt?

The thought of that replaced his sadness with rage. He could feel magic coursing through him. The aliens were starting to erupt from the walls, only to immediately be struck down with arcane lightning. Electricity and fire washed over his body. It felt good. The creatures that tried to get near him, the ones who had hurt Twilight, were burnt to ash.

The corridor in front of him began to light up with the flames that were pouring off of his body. He could see a door, one that was locked and barred. He flung his swords at it and it buckled. It collapsed in on itself and he heard Twilight gasp from inside.

‘I’ve done it’ he thought, tears welling in his eyes, ‘I’ve saved her.’

Twilight heard the aliens who were outside her cell gibbering unintelligibly to each other. They had obviously adopted a broken form of Equestrian. All she could make out was. ‘News’ ‘Warrior’ ‘Forward base’ and ‘Fooled’. Her pupils dilated. Bowdler was coming for her?

‘Twilight!’ he exclaimed as he ran into the dark room and saw the purple pony sat on the ground, facing away from him, ‘I’m here! It’s going to be alright.’ He threw his arms around her neck.

‘Get off of me’ she said sternly.

‘What?’ he replied in surprise, obeying her, ‘Why?’

‘You’re a bastard, you know that?’ she muttered, her face still staring at the ground, ‘You abandoned me to the aliens! I thought I was wrong about you trying to kill us, but NO! Obviously you let them take me! You’re still in league with them!’

‘Twilight?’ he whispered, tears in his eyes. Was this really the pony who he knew and loved? How could it be? ‘Twilight look at me’ he said softly, ‘let me see you.’

‘No!’ she cried, ‘You don’t deserve me! You don’t deserve anypony!’ She backed off into the corner, still facing away from him.

‘Twilight, please.’ he begged, ‘I’ll leave you alone, I’ll do anything. Just let me see your face one more time.’ She snapped him a quick look, but her eyes seemed to be obscured.

‘Go away now.’ she yelled at him, ‘Leave me be!’. This was the moment Dasher and Bluewing decided to run in.

‘Twilight!’ said Dasher, sounding unendingly relived, ‘Thank Celestia you’re all right!’ She snorted.

‘Thank her alright, don’t thank that sorry excuse of a pony’ she gestured over to Bowdler, who broke down into tears.

‘Twilight I’m so sorry!’ he cried.

‘Fuck off!’ she yelled at him.

‘Twilight, turn around.’ said Bluewing suspiciously.

‘Why should I?’ she retorted.

‘Let me see your eyes Twilight.’ he said, reassuringly. She flicked him a quick look and he jumped back.

‘Dasher! Grab her!’. He obeyed quickly.

‘What the fuck are you doing?’ Bowdler and Twilight both yelled simultaneously.

‘Let’s get a closer look at those eyes shall we?’ Bluewing asked as he walked up to her. She’d clamped them shut.

‘Never!’ she shouted, but this was not the voice of Twilight any more.

‘Twilight Sparkle!’ he shouted, ‘I, Captain Bluewing of the Equestrian army, order you to open your eyes!’. She smirked.

‘Fine.’ she opened her eyes. They were not the beautiful, purple eyes of Twilight Sparkle. They were a deep blue and the pupil was especially strange. They were slits, like those of a cat. Bowdler jumped back.

‘Twilight!? What have they done to you!?’ he practically screamed.

‘Oh quiet you dimwitted mortal’ she snapped, ‘Quit calling me that anyway! Address me as who I really am.’

‘Who?’

‘Bowdler...’ Bluewing began, ‘It’s Nightmare Moon.’

‘Took you a while, didn’t it?’ she chuckled, ‘Now, release me mortal, or I shall have to smite you’

‘Oh but you can’t do that, can you Nightmare?’ Bluewing said, smugly, ‘You’re not at full power yet, you’re still recovering from the attack by the elements aren’t you?’

‘I could still make a mess of all three of you foals!’

‘Not if I could help it’ Bowdler said sternly. The others looked at him. He was billowing with arcane magic once more, his mane had set alight and lightning was pouring out of his eyes. He flicked his flaming mane to the side, revealing his horn.

‘Impossible!’ she yelled, ‘There are no other Alicorns!’

‘You’re mistaken, bitch’ he said firmly and grinned, ‘Let her go Dasher, but only if she wants to duel me.’

‘Bowdler, are you insane? Alicorn or not, this is Nightmare Moon we’re talking about!’

‘I accept your terms!’ she butted in, ‘I win, you let me go, you win, you take me in. Deal?’ Bowdler nodded and looked at Dasher.

‘Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.’ He released her and jumped back, along with Bluewing. Nightmare Moon, still looking like Twilight turned to stare at Bowdler.

‘You’ve just made a huge mistake, you foal’.

Chapter 12: The third rising

Bowdler summoned his swords and battle armour, he would need them more than ever now. He stared at Nightmare Moon who had just summoned her own armour, which didn’t really fit over the form of Twilight.

‘You fight with swords?’ she said in mock disappointment, ‘Fine, I’ll get my own’. A long, black greatsword appeared out of thin air and hovered next to her.

Bowdler flicked his blades impatiently.

‘Ladies first’ he spat.

She snorted and charged at him, her sword poised to strike. He raised his own blades at the last second an parried expertly. He span around to get a stab in at her but, expecting to see the full alicorn Nightmare Moon charging back at him, he saw only Twilight, the pony he loved.

This put him off. He couldn’t bear to hurt her while she looked like this. As if she’d read his mind, Nightmare Moon smirked.

‘Aw,’ she mocked, ‘Does widdle Bowdler not wanna hurt his marefriend?’ she swung her sword at him again, but he blocked it, ‘Give in Bowdler, you can’t win.’

He threw one of his swords at her and looked away, not even trying to hit her. She caught it with magic.

‘Bad move, mastermind’. She propelled the sword back at him like a bullet, but he caught it with ease.

‘You forget I’m an Alicorn too Nightmare’

‘Don’t call me that! I am Nightmare Moon!’ She threw a ball of magic lightning at him, which he struck with one of his swords.

‘Elementium blades I see.’ she said, looking at his swords, ‘impressive.’

She ran forward for another stab with her sword. Bowdler deflected it, but only just. It left a graze on his face which burnt like fire. He recoiled with the pain and immediately she was on top of him.

‘It doesn’t have to be like this you know,’ she whispered softly to him, holding him down with her blade and magic, ‘You could join me! We could rule together, you and I. King and Queen of the night in the world after the invasion.’

‘I’ll never join you! Never!’

‘Think about it Bowdler...’

Suddenly, it all seemed to make sense to him. He felt a burning hatred towards his friends. Why weren’t they helping him? Why did Princess Celestia even send him out here to do this? Why couldn’t she come herself? She and Luna were doing a horrible job of running Equestria in this crisis, He and Nightmare Mo- What?

He suddenly realised what he was thinking. The blue haze that had formed around him retreated back up to Nightmare Moon, who was now stood back, grinning. The grin quickly faded.

‘That’s impossible! Nopony can resist me!’

‘Yeah well I’m not just anypony am I?’ said Bowdler as he got to his hooves again, ‘I’m Bowdler.’

He charged at her and finally perked up the courage to get a slice in at her head. She wasn’t ready for it. She only just managed to get out of the way in time. If it wasn’t for her helmet he’d have probably taken her horn off. He flicked his swords and ran at her again.

But then, she spoke. It wasn’t the voice of Nightmare Moon any more. She was Twilight Sparkle, with her own body, her own voice, but somepony else’s eyes.

‘Why would you do that to me?’ she asked, ‘why would you hurt me?’.

Bowdler lost concentration and dropped his blades. “Twilight” smirked, which made him realise that it wasn’t Twilight at all. He steeled himself and picked up his blades.

The smirk disappeared off of her face, ‘Bowdler?’. He swung his swords down and sliced the tendons in her front legs. She screamed in agony.

‘What have you done!’ she wailed, back to her own voice, ‘Now that the aliens have smelt blood they’ll come after us!’

‘Correction’ he replied, ‘They’ll come after you. Dasher? Bluewing?’ He looked over at the two ponies.

‘Crap’. Their pupils had just faded away, leaving only the whites of their eyes. Nightmare Moon’s voice echoed from the the two of them.

‘If I die, we all die’. Dasher and Bluewing drew their weapons.

‘For Celestia’s sake Nightmare, I thought the queen of darkness would be at least a bit more cunning.’ he quickly shot two bolts of stun magic at his friends. Not being all-powerful alicorns, it knocked them straight out. He ran over to them and caught them, then began to picture the throne room of Canterlot in his mind. ‘Later!’ he shouted, just before he disappeared.

Bowdler, Bluewing and Dasher landed in a heap on the cold, marble floor of the Canterlot throne room. This scared Princess Celestia quite a bit.

‘Oh god! What the Christ!?’ she yelled when they materialised out of nowhere, but then she recognised them, ‘You three! Did you complete your quest?’. Bowdler stood up, Dasher and Bluewing were still unconscious,

‘Princess, I bring dire news’. She raised her eyebrows. ‘An ancient enemy has returned, one Nightmare Moon’. The Princess laughed out loud.

‘Oh Bowdler,’ she chuckled, ‘That’s a good one, we all know Nightmare Moon can’t exist without a host body, she’s not that powerful’

‘But she can and she is!’ he replied, exhausted after the fight with Nightmare Moon and the effort of non visual teleportation, ‘Nightmare Moon has returned and I think she’s working with the aliens’

‘I doubt that’ coughed Dasher, who had just regained consciousness, ‘Remember what she said? The creatures would get us all, not just us’

‘You saw whatever hallucination came over Bowdler too, Dasher? I thought you’d have the strong will to brush off alien gases’ She was obviously trying hiding her fears now.

‘It was no hallucination, Princess. Nightmare Moon has risen once more.’

‘Wrong again Bowdler, you cut her tendons and left her for the aliens’

‘Are you implying that she can’t still turn into that blue cloud thing and get away?’

‘Oh... right...’

By now Bluewing had started to get to his hooves shakily, using his wings for balance. The Princess looked solemn,

‘If what you say is really the truth, then we have more things to worry about than the aliens... The dragons we sent after Bek’kiliip and the cultists of nightmare dropped out of contact just a few minutes ago, over Bloodstone falls. If Nightmare Moon really has returned, then Bek’kiliip and the cultists may be meeting her there.’

The three ponies looked down, they knew what was coming.

‘I’m going to send the three of you out to Bloodstone falls with some of my most trusted ponies, you will find the dragon and the cultists and do whatever it takes to stop them.’

‘Who are these ‘most trusted ponies’?’ asked Dasher, sounding slightly hurt.

‘Oh you’ll see. I’ll get in touch with them and tell you to meet them at the statue of Discord later today.’

They nodded and filed out of the room.

‘So you’re an Alicorn then, are you?’ asked Dasher suddenly as he, Bluewing and Bowdler were walking down to the palace gardens.

He nodded and moved back his hair to reveal the remnants of his horn.

‘You could have told us sooner you know? It’d have been useful on the way to the dragon hold,’ he shrugged, ‘I always wondered how you held your swords’

Bowdler swept his hair back over his horn, it was still something he was uncomfortable about sharing with the world, although his friends had seemed to take it pretty well. They turned to go into the statue garden and saw the statue of Discord.

‘This bastard took a lot of beating, according to the Princess’ said Bluewing, kicking the statue.

‘Doesn’t look too hard’ said Bowdler, shrugging. Dasher flew up and tapped the chest of the statue with his hoof. It chipped slightly.

‘Crap!’ he yelled and flew back down to the ground, ‘Act casual’. He looked away from the statue and whistled. The sound of hooves came from around the corner.

‘This’ll probably be Celestia’s ‘most trusted’ coming’ muttered Dasher, he would have gone on but he saw who it was who came around the corner.

‘Well howdy you three!’ said Applejack as she, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie pie and Rainbow dash came into view, ‘I hadn’t bet on seeing y’all here.’

‘Are you here for-’ began Bowdler, but Applejack interrupted,

‘Yeah, we’re here to come to Bloodstone with ya’. He looked over and saw Dasher and Bluewing. They had frozen, motionless and their wings had unfolded. He raised an eyebrow,

‘Guys?’

‘Wurp?’ asked Bluewing dumbly.

‘Guys, snap out of it!’ he yelled. Dasher shook his head furiously and stood at attention.

‘Right then everypony, to Bloodstone!’ he shouted and jumped into the air.

‘Dasher?’ sighed Rarity and looked over at her back. There was a distinct lack of wings.

‘Ah,’ he said, landing, ‘right...’

‘Oh this is so exciting!’ squealed Pinkie Pie, ‘I get to go on adventure with all-’ she stopped and looked down, ‘Well... most of my friends...’

Bowdler put his hoof on her neck, ‘Don’t worry Pinkie,’ he assured her, ‘I’m working on it’.

She smiled and began to bounce around again.

‘Are we going to go get all our stuff then?’ whispered Fluttershy, sounding just as timid as the first time they’d met.

‘Sure, why not?’. The eight ponies walked out of the gardens and back towards ponyville.

Chapter 13: Code A-46

Writer's note: Let's have a change of perspective shall we?

Dark Spectre looked out over Bloodstone falls. The Cultists of Nightmare looked miserable. He knew that they hated working with the Black Dragons. He didn’t like it either, but it wasn’t his choice. He felt his body jerk away from the outcrop.

‘On the move again are we, my queen?’ he asked himself, bitterly.

‘Shut up you!’ came a voice in his head, ‘Nopony must know!’.

He smirked, pleased with himself for this act of defiance. ‘I still don’t see why you can’t just do this yourself, being an almighty and powerful goddess like yourself...’

‘Didn’t I tell you to shut up!?’

‘Implying I’m going to let you control my brain too? Not likely ma’am’.

He knew this was risky, but hey, he despised the pony he was talking to. The pony he had once looked up to and worshipped. The pony which had taken over his body.

‘Dark Spectre... I have no idea whose idea it was to put a coward like you in charge of my cult’

‘Oh I don’t know, maybe it was father Nagarváx? You know, seeing as he loved you so much?’

‘Shut up Dark Spectre, or I’ll give you another pain rack’

‘How kind-’ he began, but stopped as a surge of pain ripped through his body, as if it was trying to tear itself apart.

‘Yeah, I can hear you thinking too boy! Don’t even try to call me that’

‘I could just tell them you know? Tell the cultists that their leader is being... mistreated, by none other than Nightmare Moon herself! Ha! What a story that’d be!’

‘Dark Spectre! Shut your sly little trap and let me move you more easily!’

He relaxed and felt his body begin to walk normally, propelled by some unseen force.

‘Still having trouble with Bowdler?’ he asked smugly, knowing full well that this pony had beaten his queen senseless. An unbearable pain shot through him, but he’d got used to it and did little more than flinch.

‘Shut up you insufferable oaf!’

He reached the great hall behind the falls and felt himself open the door. Inside was Bek’kiliip. He sighed, this was a dragon who he had known personally. It was sad to see him in such a way. He was bound in purple chains which sparked with arcane lightning. His pupils had vanished, leaving only the whites of his eyes. Deep gashes covered his body and a dark blue haze poured from his mouth and nose.

‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’ said the voice in his head, ‘I even amaze myself sometimes. Look, I can make him scratch his back!’

Just as the voice said this, the mighty dragon scratched it’s back, screaming in pain as his sharp claws ran over the various wounds there.

‘You’re a monster Nightmare... Now I see why the Celestian ponies hate you so much’. Pain shot through him again.

‘Don’t call me that! I am NIGHTMARE MOON!’. Bek’kiliip stared at him angrily, but in the whites of his eyes all Dark Spectre could see was sadness.

‘Don’t worry Bek’kiliip, we’ll come out of this all OK, alright?’

‘Shut up Dark Spectre!’

‘What’s the agenda for the day then, my queen?’

‘Nothing much more than usual, make an inspiring speech, worship me, stare at this sorry heap of a dragon’ his head cracked to look at Bek’kiliip again, ‘you know? To remind you of what I could have done to you?’

A pain went through his leg, but not a big one, more of a playful tickle. He dismissed this thought. Obviously he’d just got used to the pain. He jerked around and trotted awkwardly back up to his outcrop.

‘Oh, it’s not that bad,’ he thought to himself, ‘It’s only code A-46, just think what’d have happened if she’d done you in with code X-973 like Bek’kiliip back there! She’s a good and merciful queen!’

‘That’s the spirit Dark Spectre! I knew you’d come round to my way of thinking!’

‘Ugh, I forgot she could hear my thoughts...’

‘Come along now, address our minions!’. He looked out over the side of the outcrop and saw the faces of the cult of nightmare, stained with blood, dirt and tears. He sighed. ‘How could this day get any worse?’

Writer's note: I've just realised how similar to GLaDoS NMM sounds in this chapter, bear in mind this was unintentional and I am in no way breaking any copyright laws, amirite companies that can't count to three?

Chapter 14: Bloodstone

The 8 ponies had gathered their things and were ready to head out towards Bloodstone falls. Each bearer of the elements brought along their element of harmony, and Applejack brought along Twilight’s too.

The trouble was, nopony really knew where Bloodstone was. It was once a large town, similar to ponyville, but in the first rising of Nightmare it was contaminated with such evil that Celestia was forced to lock it in a temporal rift inside the Everfree forest. This rift moves about every now and then, so that ponies can’t stumble upon the corrupted town more than once.

They’d need to fly to find it properly and the ‘only’ one who had powerful enough magic to cast a wing spell was Twilight. Bowdler, Dasher and Bluewing knew differently, but they couldn’t tell the ponies about it for fear of any tensions or uncertainties it might cause. Therefore the only means of flight were either Pinkie Pie’s balloon, which was slow and cumbersome, not to mention easily spotted, or Dragons. As soon as they mentioned dragons though, Fluttershy seemed to melt.

‘Y-y-you can’t g-get me to r-r-ride a d-dragon!’ she whimpered, ‘They’re so sc-scary!’.

Rainbowdash sighed, she knew what was coming.

‘Fluttershy, we’re going to have to, unless you think you can keep up with a fully grown dragon’ said Bowdler apologetically.

Fluttershy looked at the ground and tears began to form in her eyes.

‘Now look what you’ve done!’ shouted Pinkie Pie, ‘The fanbase is going to hate you!’

‘Fluttershy...’ he pressed, ‘Don’t cry over it, we all have to face our fears someday’

‘I already d-did’ she blubbered pitifully, ‘Th-there was this b-big dragon up on top of the m-mountain and I told him to go away because he was b-b-being a meanie!’

‘And I bet it felt good didn’t it? Not being scared of that dragon.’

‘I... I guess...’ she looked up at him and smiled faintly.

‘You don’t have to be scared of these dragons either! Even less so! These dragons are our friends, like Spike, not wild forest dragons or something’

‘Well... If-If you put it that way...’ she sniffled a bit and smiled at him.

‘So you’ll do it?’

‘O-okay...’. Rainbowdash looked at him as if he’d just achieved the impossible.

‘How did you...’ she pointed at Fluttershy, then at random places whilst mouthing random words.

‘Bowdler, you need to remember to turn off your swag more often’ said Pinkie Pie sternly.

‘Pinkie, what the hell are you talking about?’

‘Oh, don’t mind me, just breaking the fourth wall, you know, completely uninteresting. Oh hey look! The Hub logo!’ She stared at a patch of grass to her left. The other ponies began to back away.

‘Does she do this a lot?’ he asked Applejack.

‘Yep, all the time’ she sighed.

‘Do we have to take her? She doesn’t seem mentally stable enough for military actions to be brutally honest with you’ asked Dasher, but this was met with a death stare from Fluttershy. ‘I’m just saying!’.

Princess Celestia had approved of the ponies choice to use dragons to find Bloodstone and Fáfnir the stone dragon offered to take them.

They hovered around Everfree for a while, trying to catch a glimpse of the infamous Bloodstone falls, which were made of red water. Every now and then Bowdler thought he’d seen something in the distance, but it was always a feral dragon or a bird.

‘Mobi’ yelled Fáfnir suddenly, and he began to fly towards a point in the distance that they could just make out to be a red blob. Luckily, he was correct that this was Bloodstone falls. Unluckily, however, the cultists were prepared.

A volley of flaming arrows flew up from the wrecked buildings of Bloodstone. They bounced off of Fáfnir like they were hitting a stone wall, mostly because they were.

‘vinxa mabliki, si jahus persvek rigluin di vi mot’ he sneered, then sent a bolt of fire down on one of the buildings, destroying it utterly. A few ponies clad in black robes ran out of the wreckage, their robes alight. Fáfnir let out a deep booming laugh. ‘vhira yth gethrisj hak, mabliki!’

He landed on top of the smouldering ruin that was once a house and let the ponies off of him.

‘si geou hetha wux de wer thrae, gethrisj!’ he took off again and drew the fire of the archers. Dasher immediately took charge.

‘Get in cover everypony!’ They dived behind one of the broken walls and drew their weapons. The 5 civilian ponies had been given weapons of their choosing. Applejack had a hefty mace, Rarity had a butterfly knife, Pinkie Pie had two cleavers, Rainbowdash had a pair of shortswords and Fluttershy, who had refused to pick a weapon, had a medipack.

Pinkie had developed a maddening tic in one of her eyes.

‘Are we gonna kill us some traitors? Are we? This is gonna be so fun!’ she giggled.

‘Quiet down you psycho’ whispered Bluewing, sounding genuinely scared.

‘Imma gon’ kill ALL the things’ ‘Pinkie...’ Her hair deflated and her pupils became incredibly small. ‘Eheheh!’ she squealed.

‘Pinkie, quiet down!’ said Bowdler sternly, as a few fire arrows had just bounced off of the wall that they were hidden behind.

‘Fine... But I still get to kill stuff right?’

‘Only if we really have to’

‘Okay...’ Suddenly, there were some more voices.

‘Anypony there?’ somepony whispered.

‘No you moron!’ came another voice and the sound of a hoof to the face, ‘We’ve got to actually check it out!’

‘Do we have to?’

‘Yes!’

‘Alright then, but if I die, I’ll kill ya!’

Two unicorns in black robes suddenly vaulted the wall and flew right over the ponies hiding there. Pinkie scrabbled to get up but Bowdler slammed her back down.

‘See! I told you! Nopony’s here!’ the one on the left said triumphantly, obviously he’d not seen them. Bowdler wondered if they could capture them, there were only two of them, they were outnumbered four to one, but then he noticed the long spellblades dangling from their legs and thought better of it.

‘Any exit from here? Or did that dumbass dragon blow it up?’

‘Don’t think so, back the way we came?’ the one on the right turned around, ‘Well fuck me...’

‘What?’ asked the left one, not turning round, ‘What is it?’

‘Don’t turn around, Voigan, there’s ponies here’ ‘You serious?’

‘Why wouldn’t I be?’

The ponies got up, ‘Put down your weapons and surrender, cultists’ demanded Dasher as he drew his blades.

‘They outnumber us bro, better do what he says’ the one facing them unsheathed his spellblade and threw it to the other side of the room.

‘You imbecile! That’s a spellblade! You can’t get that back with magic!’ the other one yelled furiously.

‘I wasn’t planning to! There’s 8 of them!’

‘Really? Crap!’ He threw his spellblade away too.

‘Anypony got anything to tie them up with?’ asked Bluewing.

‘As a matter of fact I have!’ exclaimed Rarity, pulling some rope out of her saddle bags, ‘You never know when you’ll need some rope!’

Bluewing tied the two ponies together, back to back and gagged them with rope. He took the spellblades and put them in his saddle bag.

‘Let’s move out, the cultists will no doubt come looking for these two’ said Dasher, ‘I sure hope they won’t remember we were here’ he nodded at Bowdler, who understood and nodded back.

‘You guys go ahead, I just need to summon my stuff’. The other 7 vaulted the wall. Bowdler summoned his battle armour and turned to face the cultists. ‘Relax,’ he said reassuringly, ‘You won’t feel a thing’. His horn flashed and the cultists stared at him blankly. ‘You’ve been practicing taking prisoners and mucked it up, remember?’

‘Mmmph mmph’ one of them said, dumbly.

‘Good, see you later’. He vaulted the wall.

Bowdler looked up to see Fáfnir lazily swooping around the sky deflecting fire arrows on his stone skin, looking as if he was thoroughly enjoying the experience.

Dasher called to him, barely audible, from a building just to his left. He ran towards it and dived inside. It still had a sort of roof so it felt safer than any of the other wrecks. Pinkie pie was banging her cleavers together.

‘Why couldn’t I kill them?’ she wailed, ‘Couldn’t I have at least just cut them?’

‘We won’t harm anypony unless it’s absolutely necessary’ said Bluewing firmly, ‘besides, if you’re going into a bloodrage like this, we’d better not let you near anypony for what you might do to them’ he shuddered.

Suddenly, there was a large explosion outside. Fáfnir had destroyed another building.

‘We’d better get moving towards the falls’ said Bowdler, ‘We don’t want to be in here when Fáfnir destroys it’.

The others nodded and began to file out of the door, keeping to the shadows. They didn’t need to. Fáfnir had the total attention of the cultists.

‘Over there, at the edge of the cliff’ whispered Rainbowdash, pointing at a relatively new looking stone bunker.

‘That’s gonna be full of them cultists Rainbow...’ said Applejack, ‘You think we can take ‘em?’

‘Less of I think, more of I know’. The 8 ponies ran towards the bunker and slammed themselves against the side.

‘Door anywhere?’ asked Dasher.

‘There’s one here!’ chirped Pinkie Pie overexcitedly, obviously revelling at the thought of slaughtering a bunch of cultists.

‘I’ll go first’ said Bowdler before she could kick down the door, ‘I’ve got the hardiest armour’.

Pinkie frowned but saw his logic and let him past. He performed the same trick as he did on the walls of the old palace and ran into the bunker.

Inside were about 25 cultists, who had just stopped shooting at Fáfnir in a moment of shock. Without thinking, he charged straight at them, swords spinning. 6 cultists dropped dead, and a further 9 lost limbs. 10 to go then. The remaining cultists drew their spellblades, only to be jumped on by Pinkie Pie.

‘DIE YOU PARTY POOPERS!’ she screeched as she hacked at their skulls. She murdered all but one of them in the most brutal and imaginative ways possible in the amount of time she had. The last one backed up to the door.

‘What are you?’ he asked.

‘Who me?’ she replied sweetly, ‘YOUR UNDOING!’ But before she could jump at him, a butterfly knife plunged into the back of his skull.

‘Ugh!’ whined Rarity, ‘Now my hoof is all icky’

‘You stole my kill!’ Pinkie spluttered in outrage, ‘WHY DID YOU DO THAT? I HAD HIM FAIR AND SQUARE!’

‘Well I had to do something darling, or I would have felt useless, so to say’

‘Hmph!’ she snorted and decapitated one of the crippled cultists. The other 5 came in right afterwards, expecting a fight. What greeted them was a bloodstained room full of corpses.

‘Well that was easy’ said Bluewing, putting away his newly reforged battleaxe.

‘There’s a ladder over here,’ said Dasher, ‘It looks like it goes down behind the falls’

‘How can we use ladders?’ asked Pinkie Pie, ‘We’ve got hooves’

Rarity shrugged, ‘Magic?’

Chapter 15: More than bargained for

They somehow climbed down the ladder into a large, empty room. There were a few doors leading off into other corridors, but nothing more.

‘Odd’ said Dasher, ‘I was expecting much more of a fight’

‘Where do we go though?’ asked Rainbowdash.

‘Oooh! I love guessing games!’ squealed Pinkie Pie, ‘I say this one!’

She bounced towards one of the doors and flung it open. ‘Oh! There’s cultists in here!’ she hopped in and the sounds of screaming and breaking bones emanated from within.

‘You can come in now!’ she chirped gleefully from inside.

The scene that met them was indescribable, so I’m not even going to try.

‘You could have at least kept some of them alive for us to question, Pinkie!’ scolded Rarity, who seemed to be getting into this whole idea of butchering everything.

‘Don’t worry Rarity, Bowdler here’s good at bringing things back to life!’ she pointed at Bowdler who suddenly dropped his swords.

‘Who me? No powerful magic here!’ he spluttered uncomfortably.

‘Oki doki loki...’ she said suspiciously.

‘Guys!’ yelled Bluewing, breaking the tension, ‘Over here, I’ve found something!’

Everypony ran over to see what appeared to be a board full of moving pictures.

‘What in tarnation kind o’ sorcery is this?’ asked Applejack, sounding utterly dumbfounded.

‘No idea,’ replied Bluewing, ‘but it looks like it’s showing every room in the place as they are now!’

He looked to be right. In the top left was a picture of them, in the room full of corpses, looking at the pictures. There were mostly empty corridors or rooms full of talking cultists, however a few stood out. There was Overlord Dark Spectre’s office, where he sat, leaking blue gases all over the floor. There was a room full of ponies who appeared to be chanting and there was a room with a large black shape in it, looking like nothing on earth.

‘That black thing...’ said Dasher, ‘We’ve got to find out what that is’

A voice came from the other side of the door, ‘Bring heavier weaponry! One of these ponies just slaughtered the entire intelligence room!’

‘We have an intelligence room? I could use one of those!’

‘Just get the warp fiends!’

‘Looks like we’ve got company’ smirked Bowdler, ‘Good, we could use somepony to tell us where this room is’

‘Room number 81H!’ said Pinkie Pie, ‘it says, right here’

‘Oh... Right... Off we go then!’

‘Crap! Crap! They’re coming this way! Run!’ The clattering of hooves outside the door told them that they didn’t need to kill those poor cultists. They came out of the room and back into the hallway.

‘Here, this corridor has the letter H over it,’ said Rainbowdash, ‘This’ll be our one! Let’s go!’

‘Hang on a second everypony!’ said Bluewing, holding up his hoof for silence, ‘Where’s Fluttershy?’

They didn’t need to look far to find her. She was stood, frozen at the picture back in the intelligence room.

‘Fluttershy, what’s wrong?’ asked Bowdler.

‘Well, you have sort of stuck the most sensitive pony in Equestria into a room full of corpses!’ shouted Rainbowdash, which was a really good point.

‘So much death...’ she whimpered, ‘Why does it always have to be this way?’ tears began to form around her eyes. She couldn’t believe that her friend Pinkie Pie was capable of causing such a bloodbath.

‘Hey,’ Bowdler softly whispered into her ear, ‘it’s not always a bad thing. These were evil ponies, who would have caused even more death and destruction had they been kept alive.’

‘But why so many? How can this many ponies be that bad?’

Rainbowdash was keeping tabs on this whole conversation, eager to learn how Bowdler managed to get through to Fluttershy.

‘There’s not much good left in this world to be honest, Fluttershy. Corruption and greed flow through everypony in this day and age, it’s just that some ponies are more prone to letting it out’

‘But how could Pinkie Pie do this? They’re all dead!’

‘Pinkie did what she had to do-’

‘PINKIE CHOSE TO DO THIS!’ she squealed, but then looked surprised at the tone of her own voice. She pressed herself against him. ‘The world isn’t what i thought it was, Bowdler. It’s much less than that...’

‘And that’s why we’re doing what we’re doing! To make it what you thought it was, a good place full of kind and true ponies. Doesn’t that sound worth fighting for?’

‘I guess so...’ she perked up a little and shook herself off, ‘In fact, that sounds like something that would definitely be worth fighting for!’

‘Glad you’ve come to your senses! You ready to go?’

‘You bet I am!’ she galloped out of the door and joined the other ponies who were waiting out there.

‘I still have no idea how you do that,’ coughed Rainbowdash, ‘But it won’t work on me, my faith lies somewhere else!’ she flew out after Fluttershy, leaving Bowdler alone with Bluewing.

‘Well that went well’

The eight ponies began to walk down corridor H. It was long, narrow and dark, feeling similar to the interior of the old castle. Bowdler shivered, it was also extremely cold.

There were doors along the sides of the corridor, seemingly placed randomly. All of them appeared to be empty. One however, had a faint orange glow emerging from it.

‘Here, room 81H!’ said Pinkie Pie.

‘How did y-’ began Bluewing, but then he noticed the 81H written over the handle, ‘Never mind...’

‘You two still got your stealth equipment?’ Dasher asked him and Bowdler.

‘Why wouldn’t we?’

‘Alright. You five, wait out here. Be careful, I don’t really want to meet any of those “warp fiends” they were talking about. Me, Bluewing and Bowdler will go into the room, stealthed of course, and see what it is in there.’

Bowdler nodded and turned on his stealth equipment. When the three of them entered the room, they couldn’t believe their eyes.

The once mighty Bek’kiliip lay in chains, blue gases erupting from everywhere it could on his body. He was bound by magic and covered in deep gashes. He let out a moan of disapproval. Bowdler started to stay something but Dasher quickly covered his mouth.

‘The black dragons are in league with the cultists, don’t fall for this trick’

He nodded and began to move closer to Bek’kiliip. The dragon coughed feebly and began to speak, in Equestrian no less but in a weak and strained tone.

‘I can see you, mortals. There is no point trying to hide from an Elder dragon.’ The effort of speaking seemed to be tearing his mind apart. ‘You have to get out of this place... Nightmare moon... she’ll come for you as she did for me...’

‘But Nightmare moon was killed by the aliens, we saw it!’

‘As you said yourself, young Dasher, the dark queen is still capable of warp travel. She escaped and possessed myself and Overlord Dark Spectre, she chose him over me. He has been enacted with duty code A-46, she has total control over him. Myself however...’ he coughed up a welt of black blood, ‘I have been bound to code X-973. I am doomed to die slowly, as the fallen queen takes command of my aspect. I cannot allow this to happen. My little ponies. You must kill me.’

‘Bek’kiliip, we can’t do that. A powerful dragon aspect has died already this week, another death would upset the balance of the elder powers!’

‘Oh be quiet Dasher. I know of this. However, my death will show the Black Dragonkin that something is wrong and they will flee back to the Equestrian army. Most of the cultists will probably follow suit. Either way, I wish to join Arth’alaki... He was a close friend of mine...’

Bowdler summoned his swords. He could see the sincerity in the whites of the old dragon’s eyes. He truly believed his death would be for the greater good of Equestria and he wasn’t about to let the last wish of an elder dragon go unnoticed. He stepped forwards.

‘Bowdler...’ said Dasher and Bluewing at the same time, but they stopped themselves.

‘You prove yourself to be the bravest of your kind, Bowdler. Do it, do not hesitate.'

Bek’kiliip closed his eyes for what was to be the final time. Bowdler plunged his swords into the top of his head and destroyed his brain utterly. He lay silent. Suddenly, there were screams of distress from the hundreds of dragons inside the complex. They had realised what they were doing.

Dark Spectre’s ears perked up. This had been the first time he’d had any real control over his body for a while. He felt a wave of agony crash over him. Bek’kiliip had died. The dark queen was not amused.

Bowdler stood and looked at Bek’kiliip’s corpse for a while. He couldn’t believe that he’d just killed an Elder dragon.

‘We’d better get going’ said Bluewing, choking back some tears.

‘Agreed,’ replied Dasher quickly, ‘We’d better not let Fluttershy see this’

‘We’ve gathered enough intelligence to leave anyway, we’ll be fine’ Bowdler added. They went back outside the door.

‘What’s in there?’ asked Applejack.

‘Nothing...’ replied Bowdler quietly.

‘We’re leaving this place now, we’ve gathered enough intelligence to report back to the Princess!’ said Dasher, avoiding the awkward conversation that was looming around the corner.

‘DEE COLON!’ yelled Pinkie Pie, putting on the most disappointed face she could manage, ‘But I only killed one room full of cultists!’ she suddenly tackle hugged Bluewing, ‘Just a few more? Please?’

‘No Pinkie!’ he said firmly, ‘No more will die today’

‘Unless, of course, you count yourselves’ came a threatening voice from just down the corridor. They turned to see Dark Spectre staring them down, arcane magic pouring from his eyes and horn.

‘Dasher! Tell Celestia it’s not me! GAH!’ He blurted out suddenly, but flinched like he’d just been stabbed. ‘QUIET DOWN AND LET ME KILL THEM YOU MORON!’ he screamed, sounding like a completely different pony. Dark clouds erupted from his mouth as he spoke.

‘The pass-code is 42-1337-69-15! Use it to get out quickly!’

‘IDIOT! DON’T TELL THEM THAT!’ The ponies turned and ran, now knowing full well what was going on. They got to the main hallway and began to somehow climb back up the ladder. ‘You can’t hide from me you ignorant ponies!’ came Dark Spectre’s voice from back down the corridor, where his legs had suddenly seized up.

‘FÁFNIR!’ yelled Dasher, ‘GET US OUT OF HERE!’

‘si mi shafaer sia idol!’ The stone dragon replied as he began to descend from the sky. They ran up his tail and onto his back. He flew up into the air as fast as he could and tried to get his bearing from the ever changing skyline of Bloodstone.

‘mabliki, shala ve vi klewar ekess ehtah creolnali... si jinthil nomeno goawy...’ said Fáfnir quietly, sounding like he was beginning to well up. He flew down to a nearby mountain, with a clearing by the side of it. There was a large chunk out of the side of it. ‘wer dask verthicha... svanoa shilta nomeno qe? coi jahus sventa persvek wer irral lleisgarir di malrunwa welun! Vucoti wux tir ti vucot svabol si mi yentair, shar shala ve ekess demak wux svadrav wux renthisj mrith Celestia.’ He took off again, leaving the eight ponies completely lost for words.

Chapter 16: Theorycraft

Fáfnir flew a lot faster on the way back to Canterlot than he did on the way to Bloodstone. The ponies weren’t quite sure why, but he seemed to be extremely determined to do something. They ended up going so fast, that they went into sonic rainboom, causing Rainbowdash to be a little annoyed.

‘I thought I was the only one who could do that...’ she muttered.

Fáfnir smirked. ‘yth tir coi shio wer tairais, moxt ir’ he replied, smugly. She caught on as to what he was saying by the tone of his voice.

‘Showoff...’

‘Hypocrite’ he snorted with laughter, then carried on flying with a steely look on his face. Dasher moved slightly closer to Rainbow.

‘Hey, even though dragons can do it, there’s still only one pony for me.’ She blushed slightly, but then looked right at him

‘What?’

‘Oh? Did I say that? Uh...’ He moved back a bit.

‘Don’t worry, it’s not a bad thing to be honest’ she looked down and blushed some more. Dasher looked around at Bowdler, made sure Rainbowdash couldn’t see and then grinned wildly. He chuckled and nodded back at him. He moved closer back up and stopped just beside her. She looked back up and smiled at him, then shuffled the extra distance and sat down, almost touching him. They looked at each other for a second.

‘GUYS!’ yelled Pinkie Pie, ‘Get a room! For Celestia’s sake!’

The moment broke instantly and the two ponies moved apart, realising what they were doing. Dasher coughed and looked back ahead of Fáfnir.

‘We’re nearly out of the forest by the looks of things!’ he shouted over the slipstream.

‘kwi, nafl? si siofmea wer skjalli jahen filki tsydanir ihk thric dril!’ replied Fáfnir, sarcastically. He laughed loudly and began to descend upon Canterlot mountain.

When they reached the entrance and the ponies disembarked from Fáfnir, they noticed that he had started to become noticeably smaller. His shape changed and he began to look like a stone pony. Eventually that was exactly what he’d become.

‘svabol? tira wux ti vucot yth re arcaniss kiri?’ he said when they stared at him, ‘si rigluin ekess soyol crodr ekess renthisj mrith wer wanotreyxkaiv’

‘Look I’ve no idea what you’re saying, could you please try to speak Equestrian?’ asked Bluewing, as politely as he could.

‘thric! Kara wux!’ He snorted and led the way into the castle, stumbling on his smaller form. ‘nomeno geou clax creol itrewicir used ekess...’

The halls were a lot more empty than usual, the guards must have been posted further down into the outskirts of the castle or in Ponyville. The throne room, however was guarded by double the amount of military ponies as usual.

‘Password!’ shouted a green and brown striped one.

‘There’s a password?’ asked Dasher, ‘Since when?’

‘Since this morning’s forum!’

‘We weren’t here this morning. We were on a quest!’

‘You still need to know the password!’

‘We don’t know the password!’

‘Well how we know you’re not a spy?’

‘Because I am Lieutenant Dasher of the Equestrian army head of defence, over there is Captain Bluewing and right here is Fáfnir of the stone dragons!’

‘That’s not a dragon!’

‘axun si mi wux hofiba!’

‘How can a pony speak Draconic? Only the Princess can do that!’

‘BECAUSE HE’S A DRAGON!’

‘But he’s a pony!’

‘Let us in you oaf!’ he stormed forwards but the guard stuck out his pike.

‘You cannot pass without the password! Celestia’s orders!’

‘Oh ho, I am going to have so much fun with you... you will wish you were never in the throne room that day!’

‘Dasher! There’s no need to get violent!’ Bowdler said as he began to pull out his knife on the guard.

‘THIS FOOL IS IN THE WAY!’

Another green and brown striped guard came up behind the original and poked him with her pike. ‘Stormie, I think this guy’s legit. He looks a lot like the Lieutenant.’

‘Who’s to say it’s not Nightmare Moon in disguise?’

‘Me’ came a voice from behind them. The door had opened without them noticing and Princess Celestia had stepped out.

‘Princess! You’re not supposed to leave the room! What about assassins?’

‘I do as I please thank you very much Storm Shield!’

‘Wait, Storm Shield? I thought I recognised you, you insufferable oaf!’ Dasher punched the first guard in the shoulder, ‘You were the only reason I left the Cirrus Guard for the job as head of defence and now you’re here! What has the world come to? Princess, you do realise you’ve put the least effective guard in the whole of Equestria in charge of looking after the most important part of your palace!’

Storm Shield looked at the ground, feeling ashamed.

‘Storm shield may not be effective, but he is tough and trustworthy. He is up to the job in my eyes.’

Dasher sighed. ‘Let’s just get to the point, we have the intelligence we’ve gathered from the mission,’ he began to walk into the throne room, ‘We’ve got to-’

‘What’s the password then?’ asked the Princess, a smile starting to form on her lips.

‘Wait, what? We don’t know! We were on the mission!’

‘Well you’re not allowed in are you?’

‘GAH!’ Dasher kicked the wall as hard as he could. The other seven ponies and Fáfnir began to laugh at his fruitless efforts to stay calm. He sat down and exhaled heavily.

‘Oh, I don’t know. Bananas?’

‘You may enter, Lieutenant’ The Princess said, chuckling.

Dasher’s face began to go red. ‘That. Is the single worst password I have ever heard.’

‘If you don’t like it, you can come up with a new one’

He snorted distastefully ‘Fine’ he walked into the throne room but Celestia stuck out her hoof again.

‘No, no. You’ve got to come up with a new password now.’

Raging, dasher threw his knife at the floor. ‘JUST LET US IN CELESTIA DAMN IT!’

‘Alright then, that’s the password. clang, let us in Celestia damn it. Quite a good one, to be truthful’

A small tic began to form in Dasher’s eye.

‘You know what? I’m not arguing this any further. Bluewing can give you the mission report.’ He stormed into the room and sat down. Celestia turned to the other ponies and shrugged.

‘What’s got into him?’ she asked, innocently. They laughed and walked into the room, the doors swinging shut behind them.

‘So then’ she said, calming down totally, ‘What’s the mission report?’

Bluewing stepped up with Bowdler. ‘The Black Dragons and the Cultists of Nightmare were both present at Bloodstone. They appear to have technology far superior to our own and a type of guard beast called a ‘warp fiend’ that we did not encounter. At first looks it seemed that it was just the doing of the two rogue forces, but that was not the case. Bek’kiliip was inside the stronghold behind the falls, having had something called ‘duty code X-973’ enacted on him’ Bluewing explained.

At the mention of duty code X-973 Celestia’s face darkened.

‘I know of this code, do not explain it’

They nodded in unison and Bowdler continued from where Bluewing had left off.

‘We, uh... Carried out Bek’kiliip’s wishes and tried to leave with the intelligence we had gathered, including the facts that Nightmare Moon did in fact escape from the aliens at the old castle, but we were ambushed by Dark Spectre. He himself was being subject to duty code A-46, but did his best to help us escape. Apparently an important passcode to somewhere is 42-1337-69-15. That is all we know.’

The Princess nodded, then looked at Fáfnir.

‘I assume you have found something of importance, seeing as you’ve taken the effort to transmogrify yourself’

‘lae vi selgtarn di ywrats, si tepoha’ he replied, grimly, ‘svadrav yth zulf bloodstone, yth annisha persvek vi goawy familiar ekess ve. ihk coi jahus wer goawy batobot si jahus vehafora, de wer tilabil ternesj di wer verthicha di marfedelom. si bihainwor ekess visit coi, ihk wer sake di memories, vur si noticed batobot creolnali jahus xuut.’

‘Well I know what you noticed was wrong. That it was there in the first place. The mountain of death was destroyed in the first coming of Nightmare. No stone dragons have been birthed since’ she replied, sounding stern.

‘batobot ui wer montu wanotreyxkaiv. coi jahus mobi, vur wer creation reskafar jahus larger. si l'gra malrunwa welun tepohaic coanwor birthing jacioniv kurjh ternesj darastrixi ihk vin reab ekess demak mrith wer aliens’

‘I don’t think she’s allied with the aliens. But I don’t want to see this turn into a three way war’

Bluewing looked at her with a puzzled look. ‘Princess?’

‘Fáfnir here has come up with some brilliant information here. It appears that the Mountain of Death, the place where stone dragons are birthed, has re-emerged from the warp. He fears that Nightmare Moon is birthing dragons for use in her own army.’

‘That makes sense, since she was using Bek’kiliip’s black dragons, but we freed them. She can’t win a war with just tanks.’

‘That is a good point. However, if she truly can bring things as large as the Mountain of Death back from the warp, then Stone Dragons are not the worst thing that could be coming back to this world. For the warp is also linked to the moonprison and...’ she paused for a second, looking worried, ‘the afterlife’

Dasher snorted. ‘How could the warp be connected to the afterlife? There isn’t one!’

‘Don’t be so quick to judge what you don’t know about, Dasher. The afterlife is definitely a real place’

‘She’s right Dasher. There is an afterlife, I saw it, remember?’ Bluewing added, remembering a time long ago. Dasher looked like he could remember and sat down again, worrying.

‘An army of warp beasts and enemies from the past is definitely something to fear. But we shall worry about that another time. You all look shattered. Especially you three.’ She looked at Dasher, Bowdler and Bluewing, ‘You’ve been questing non-stop for a few days now. You’ve got to get some rest.’

‘With all due respect Princess,’ said Dasher, ‘I’d prefer to spend my time doing something constructive than resting. I’m fit as a whistle, just tell me what to do.’

‘Alright then. As your Princess, I order you to mow the royal lawns.’

Dasher collapsed to the floor. ‘On second thoughts, I do need some rest actually’ He closed his eyes and pretended to sleep. The Princess smiled.

‘I knew that’d work. He can ‘sleep’ here, the rest of you had better get going home before it gets dark’

‘Thank you Princess’ said Bowdler, ‘I will be here in the morning for our next mission’

The ponies walked out of the throne room.

Chapter 17: Into the Warp

‘Bluey?’ asked Pinkie Pie, ‘Was the Princess talking about the same afterlife as...’

‘Yes, I’m afraid she was Pinkie.’ Bluewing replied, trying his best not to sound scared.

She pushed herself closer to him, doing less of a good job of hiding her terror.

‘It’s going to be OK Pinkie’ Bowdler reassured her, ‘Me, Dasher and Bluewing will find a way to stop Nightmare Moon and those damn aliens and life can go back to normal.’

‘You didn’t see the afterlife, Bowdler...’ said Applejack, ‘It was horrifying’

‘It wasn’t THAT bad...’ muttered Rainbowdash, but then she apparently changed her mind ‘Yes it was...’

They got to the junction in the road that headed off to sweet apple acres. Applejack headed down that road with Fluttershy, who was too terrified to spend the night alone. Bluewing and Rarity headed back to their homes in the centre of Ponyville and Rainbowdash took off and flew up to Cloudsdale, leaving Bowdler alone.

He sighed.

He was just getting used to having that much company, but now he was alone again. The house wasn’t too far down the road, he could sleep soon.

Suddenly, a cart appeared on the road behind him, approaching fast. He sidestepped onto the grass and it ground to a halt where he was stood. A white pony with brown blotches on his fur was pulling it and turned to speak to Bowdler.

‘Do you know where I can find Ponyville?’ he asked in a well spoken manner, ‘Me and my family are just moving there from Trottingham’

‘It’s just round the corner’ he replied, trying to sound equally polite but failing due to his accent, ‘I could take you there if you wanted’

‘That would be very helpful,’ he said as he unbuckled himself from the cart, ‘Thank you. Lucy! Pip! Out you come! This nice pony is going to take us into Ponyville!’ Two other ponies came out of the cart, a brown mare and an extremely tiny colt. The colt ran up to him and started bouncing around his legs.

‘Hello there! My name is Pipsqueak and I am a pirate! Who are you?’

‘Uh... Hi Pipsqueak, I’m Bowdler and I’m a guard.’

‘Oh you’re a guard? That’s so cool! I want to be a guard when I grow up, well... That or a pirate!’ he bounced around some more.

The brown mare chuckled, ‘Calm down Pip, you’ll frighten the nice stallion.’

‘Who, this guy? He’s a big and tough guard! I could never frighten him!’

Bowdler felt a wave of pride. This young pony was looking up to him, in more ways than one.

‘So, whereabouts in ponyville are you moving to?’

‘Just on the outskirts, we’ve got a picture, we’ll know it when we see it.’

The four ponies began walking down the road towards ponyville. They went right past Bowdler’s house, which made him feel a bit tired, until they got to a small cottage just next to sugarcube corner.

‘This is the one!’ said the white stallion, ‘Thank you, kind pony’

‘Anytime!’ he replied, smiling.

‘Bye Bowdler!’ squeaked Pipsqueak, before running into the house.

‘That was nice of me...’ he thought, ‘Where did that come from?’

He turned and walked back to his house. It was getting dark by the time he got there, he made sure to check the clock so it was the correct time for night. It was, he could sleep easy. As soon as he got to his bed, he jumped onto it and fell fast asleep.

‘So then, hero. You believe it is your time? Heh! You are not the first to think such a thing. There have been many before you, only one has come close to success.’

‘What? Who are you? Show yourself!’

‘I do not need to show myself to inspire fear in your heart, foalish pony. Bowdler, I believe you call yourself? I have just come to... remind you, that I am not finished with you. And nor am I finished with your little friend Bluewing.’

‘Wait, you know about my past? And what’ve you got to do with Bluewing?’

‘You really don’t remember anything, do you? Ha! And they said you were the strong minded one.’

‘Tell me about myself! I need to know!’

‘Only time will tell, fool. But I will say this. You are not who you think you are, your dreams will never come to pass, you will fail. The alien horde will destroy this world, and from the ashes, will rise an empire stronger than the Equestrian one would have ever been. Now rise, mortal. Your so called friends need you...’

Bowdler awoke with a start, snapping bolt upright in his bed. He could remember having a weird and quite frankly scary dream, but he couldn’t remember what it was. However, he could remember that he needed to get to Canterlot.

He stumbled out of bed and down the stairs. He remembered that he’d still not refilled his fridge since Derpy emptied it, but he’d check anyway. What was inside surprised him slightly. There was a large cake, with ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ written on it in bold, pink icing. He smiled. This was Pinkie Pie’s doing from when she’d tidied up. He took a slice and bolted it down. It was the single most delicious thing he’d ever tasted. He couldn’t stay and enjoy the rest of it though, he had work to do.

He could feel a strong magic force flowing through Canterlot castle when he got there, it was as if all of the magic in Equestria was concentrated in this one place. Bluewing and Dasher were already at the entrance to the throne room.

‘We thought we’d wait for you,’ said Bluewing, ‘Something big looks like it’s going on in there’

He was right, purple arcane liquids were flowing from beneath the door.

‘Guards,’ said Dasher, ‘Clang, just let us in for Celestia’s sake’

The two guards moved away and let them go into the room. Inside there was a huge, bulging portal. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stood at either side of it, their horns glowing and their manes pulsing with magic.

‘Took you long enough,’ yelled Celestia, her voice echoing unnaturally, ‘It’s taking a lot of energy to keep this open, it goes to the warp, get in! I’ll brief you once you’re inside!’

Dasher nodded and jumped in first, not showing any signs of hesitation. Bowdler was about to, but noticed that Bluewing had frozen with fear.

‘Bluewing! You’ve got to get in here, quick!’

‘That thing goes to the warp Bowdler! Have you ever seen that place!?’

‘No, but I don’t care! Get in here!’

‘Same time OK?’

‘If you want’ Bluewing grabbed onto Bowdler’s shoulder.

‘Alright, let’s go.’ They ran in.

They fell down with a crash at the other side, the portal closing behind them as soon as they got through.

‘What took you so long?’ asked Dasher, who had already got up and dusted himself off. Bluewing groaned, he’d not been here in a long time.

They were stood on a large, red island which was floating around in a vast, empty space filled with purple stars. Bowdler felt a sharp spike of sadness, the stars reminded him of the purple of Twilight’s eyes. He shook himself out of it. He had things to do, even if he didn’t know exactly what.

As if on cue, Celestia’s voice echoed around them.

‘Can you hear me? I can’t hear you. If you can hear me, I’m about to tell you what you’re meant to do. The three of you have to travel to the afterlife, deep inside the warp, to check whether everypony who should be in there still is.’

‘Yes ma’am’ replied Dasher.

‘You realise she just said she can’t hear you?’ retorted Bowdler.

‘Oh... Right...’

‘Lucky Rainbowdash wasn’t here to see that, right Dasher?’ said Bluewing smirking.

‘Damn it Bluewing, why’ve you got to make it awkward?’

‘Because it’s uncomfortable here... I need to lighten up the mood’

‘Right!’ interrupted Bowdler, ‘Before we have an argument, let’s go find the afterlife’

He took off and hovered for a bit, hoping they’d follow.

‘To, “Find” the afterlife, so to say, won’t be easy’ Bluewing replied, ‘it’s like Bloodstone, no set location. And this time we’ve not got a dragon to help us out’

‘What, have you been there or something?’

He shifted uncomfortably, ‘Just a bit...’

Dasher sighed, ‘We’ll have to find it one way or another. I for one can’t stay in this place forever.’

‘I agree, we’ll just have to look for a while.’

A large boulder floated past, spinning wildly.

‘Follow the boulder?’ ‘Why the hell not?’

They began to fly after it as it weaved it’s way randomly through the starry void.

Chapter 18: Afterlife

The reddish boulder continued to fly aimlessly around past many strange things. Bowdler was sure he’d caught a glimpse of Bloodstone and, at one point, a quick sighting of a pony who looked extremely similar to himself. They sometimes passed huge mountains, floating in the air in much the same way as bricks don’t.

‘Now that looks familiar’ said Bluewing as they passed a gaping cavern which was mostly collapsed in on itself. There was a circular pad which appeared to be made of gold on a plateau coming off of the edge of the opening.

‘Yeah, that’s it alright’ groaned Dasher, ‘Let’s go’. They abandoned their rock and made towards the cavern, which began to flicker slightly. ‘It’s going to teleport!’ he shouted, ‘Go faster!’

They sped up and hurtled towards it at breakneck speeds. ‘We’re not gonna make it!’

There was a blinding flash and Bowdler crashed head first into the plateau.

‘Well that went better than expected’ he moaned and dragged himself to his hooves. ‘Is everypony OK?’. There was no answer. He looked around the plateau, Dasher and Bluewing were nowhere to be seen and the surrounding rocks were a lot different to how he remembered them.

‘Cock, I teleported didn’t I?’ he muttered to himself, ‘THAT’S BLOODY HELPFUL!’

He turned and looked at the rubble covering the entrance to what appeared to be an enourmous cave.

‘Better get this over with’. He began to use his immense magical powers to shift some of the boulders, but whenever he did more just fell into their place.

‘Damn it!’. He sat down with a thud. How was he going to get in there without Bluewing and Dasher to help him? And how was he planning to take on whatever was in there alone anyway?

‘No, sod that. I can do this...’ he said as he got back up and prepared to have another crack at the rubble. He summoned his swords and armor and began to hack at the boulders, smashing them to pieces. Huge chunks of rock fell from the pile as he continued to smash them up, either being deflected by his magic or bouncing off his armour. This was the first real test for his armour, no alien had ever got near him because of his skill with the swords. Progress was good, he could see some of the chamber on the other side of the rockfall. Suddenly, a voice blasted into his ears.

‘YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE COME HERE!’ it screeched, half deafening him, ‘YOU WILL FIND ONLY DEATH!’

‘Yeah,’ he replied, sarcastically, ‘That’s kinda the point’

He finally broke through the wall, only for it to collapse behind him, plunging him into total darkness.

‘Reference time!’ he said to himself, ‘Lumos!’

The purple light just above his horn flickered on dimly, illuminating the cave around him. Blood covered the walls. It looked like there’d been a quite big fight here. Shapes moved around behind the stalactites and stalagmites, reminding him of the aliens that could be attacking Equestria at any moment.

He didn’t have time to think about this though, as one of the shapes jumped out and straight at him, it’s claws extended. A quick upwards stab with one of his swords impaled it through the chest, but it was still wriggling.

‘Tough little bastard ain’t you?’ he yelled and sliced off it’s head with his free sword. It lay still for a second, but started writhing around again.

‘What the hay?’ He hacked at it, removing all of it’s limbs and the majority of it’s torso, but it refused to die.

‘Can’t do much harm as just half a chest can you?’ he said, flinging the body across the room. Seeing this, the other beasts crept further back into the shadows.

‘Yeah, you’d better run you pansies!’ he shouted after them as he carried on delving deeper into the cave.

There were skeletons of ponies and all sorts of other weird creatures chained to the walls, remnants of entrails dangling from their shattered forms. A pony skeleton moaned and Bowdler turned to stare at it. It appeared to be returning to life, it’s skin and flesh regenerating before his eyes.

‘No! Please!’ she screamed, ‘Not again!’

‘SILENCE YOU FOOL!’ came the voice he had heard earlier, ‘PREPARE TO DIE! AGAIN!’ it cackled insanely and the newly regenerated pony burst into flames, screaming at the top of her lungs. Her eyeballs popped and her limbs fell clean off. Then she was still.

This scared the living daylights out of Bowdler. Is this what death is like? Eternal torture? He hoped not, that it was just an elaborate ruse.

‘Oh, it’s not the only afterlife’ cooed the voice, apparently hearing his thoughts, ‘The world you live in yourself is an afterlife of sorts’ it laughed coldly.

‘What are you!?’

‘Who, me? I am Soulfeeder, Keeper of the dead, Mistress of the Final Afterlife’

‘I’ve fought Nightmare Moon and won! You don’t scare me!’

‘Oh, don’t I?’ a swirling crimson vortex began to materialise in front of him, ‘Well, prepare to be scared’ A tall, red Alicorn, easily as big as Princess Celestia or Nightmare Moon themselves, with markings similar to his own but black covering her body. She had a dark red mane which appeared to be soaked in blood. ‘ARE YOU NOT SCARED MORTAL!?’ she screamed in his face.

He staggered back a bit, ‘Of course not. And honestly, If you deem “immortals” to alicorns, I’m afraid you’re in for a bit of a shock’

‘Cut the crap Bowdler! I know all about your horn, you can’t fool me! In fact, I know more about you than you might think possible...’

‘Damn it! How come it’s all the evil alicorns that know about my past!?’

‘Evil am I?’ she chuckled, ‘I’m just doing my job, keeper of the dead. Or at least I was until that brat Bluewing and his little friends came and disrupted the way of things. I needed that pony’s family blood for something very important and now the third afterlife is collapsing without it! It’s driving me insane!’ as if to prove a point, all of the skeletons in the room caught fire and exploded.

‘Well I’m sorry for your loss, but I don’t have time for this. I’m here from Princess Celestia to make sure YOU and none of your little demon minions get out of here’

‘Oh I wasn’t planning on leaving any time soon, what with all those rocks in the way. Thanks for clearing them out by the way, much appreciated. But yeah, with them gone I’m afraid I’m going to have to, eh, kill you and invade the second afterlife. The more of a realm for me, the better’ A flail appeared out of nowhere and smashed into the side of Bowdler’s armour. ‘Elementium eh?’ she mused, ‘This will be more interesting than I thought’

Bowdler jumped at her, his swords spinning towards her neck, but just before he could decapitate her she disappeared.

‘Yoo-hoo!’ a voice came from the other side of the room. He had just enough time to turn around and register the fact that she’d teleported away before a powerful bolt of magical lightning struck him on his head, sending unimaginable pain coursing through his body. He grunted and began to muster up his own magic bolt.

She sent another one flying at him and the two bolts connected in mid air, causing a spectacular display of purple and red lightning. They stayed joined together and danced over the walls and the bones of the ponies.

‘You can’t win this, Bowdler. Face it. This is MY realm, I can do what I please’ she taunted. A fireball emerged from a wall and flung itself at Bowdler, catching him off guard. He fell to the ground and her lightning bolt connected with his body. He yelled in pain.

‘Can you feel it Bowdler!?’ she yelled over the crackle of magical electricity, ‘The oncoming feeling of DEATH!?’

He moaned weakly and forced himself to stand up.

‘No Bowdler, I’m no Nightmare Moon. I won’t let my guard down just because you’re a little hardy.’ She sighed sarcastically and rolled her eyes. The pain running through him suddenly doubled in intensity, causing him to fall over again. He felt blood streaming out of his nose and mouth.

‘Not just a bit you ass!’ he spluttered, spitting out the welts of blood. He got back to his hooves and staggered forwards.

‘JUST DIE WILL YOU!?’ She screamed, sounding irritated but not alarmed.

‘NO, FUCK YOU!’ he yelled back at her. Bolts of lightning poured from his horn and smashed against her. She screamed in agony.

‘WHAT THE HAY DID YOU DO THAT FOR!?’

‘Because you’re a silly filly and you need to die!’

‘FOAL! I CANNOT DIE! I AM DEATH!’ Their lightning bolts connected again and they engaged in a magical duel.

‘YOU THINK THIS IS A GOOD IDEA!?’ she moaned as she strained to keep up her magic, ‘I’LL DESTROY YOU!’

‘Doesn’t sound like it to me’ grunted Bowdler as he too struggled against her magic, ‘In fact, I’d say you’re getting weaker by the second’

‘YOU... CANNOT... DEFEAT... ME!’ she spluttered, sending smaller waves of magic up her main beam.

These waves pushed the meeting point further and further towards Bowdler, until their magic only met just above the remnants of his horn. The strain was unbearable. Floods of sweat, blood and tears streamed down his face. There was a loud ‘ping’ and everything went white for a moment, but not before the whole beam of magic connecting the two ponies exploded, sending them flying across the room. Bowdler smashed into a wall and landed in a crumpled heap on top of some gryphon bones. When his vision returned to him, he could see that Soul Feeder was out cold. He propped himself up against the wall and picked up his blades with his magic. He practically fell forwards towards her still form.

‘It’s over, you end here.’ he said, raising his swords.

‘NOPE!’ she suddenly screeched, her flail appearing and smacking him straight in the legs, knocking him to the floor. This time, he didn’t try to get up. He knew it was over with. He was on his last legs and this pony seemed to be just as strong as when they’d started. He closed his eyes for what he believed would be the final time.

‘I knew you’d come to your senses Bowdler. Now, I offer you a choice.’ she said, soothingly, ‘Join me, become King of the second afterlife, or die here and now’

He smirked, ‘Why is it that insane evil beings always offer me power?’

‘Foal. It’s a pity you have to die, you could have done so well.’ she leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. ‘Say goodbye to your precious little life.’ She raised her flail above her head but suddenly stopped when a loud crashing noise stunned her. ‘What in the hay was that?’

‘Did you miss me you crazy bitch!’ came Bluewing’s voice from deep in the cave.

‘OH GOOD! IT’S YOU!’ she practically squealed with delight, ‘THIS DAY JUST GETS BETTER AND BETTER! You wait here Bowdler, I’ll dispatch of you later.’ Before she could go anywhere, Bluewing and Dasher soared into the room, weapons unsheathed. ‘BOTH OF YOU!? Two against one is hardly fair, you should probably go get a couple more to help you!’

She cackled at her own joke and began to fire lightning bolts at the two pegasi, who were flying around the room as fast as they could. Dasher was the first to go down, his armour conducting the magic lightning like a dream. He fell to the floor and threw off the armour, which enchanted straps had frayed and snapped, it was charged with unimaginable amounts of electricity anyway so it wasn’t that much of a loss. He felt a little odd fighting without his armour, but he’d have to cope with it.

‘Still not any better a tactician are we Soul Feeder?’ he taunted, spinning his shortsword around.

‘STILL NOT ANY BETTER AT SHUTTING UP AND DYING ARE WE YOU FOAL!?’ she practically threw her flail at his head, which he dodged with ease. He sprinted right up to her and carved a gash right up her neck, which immediately filled it. ‘You’re an idiot, aren’t you? This is MY REALM! YOU CANNOT KILL ME HERE!’

‘I think I’m doing a pretty good job of trying!’ he shouted at her as Bluewing’s axe embedded itself in the back of her head.

‘HEY! WATCH IT!’ she screeched, ‘THAT REALLY HURT!’

‘Not as much as this will you bitch’ came Bowdler’s voice from the floor. She was suddenly showered with fireballs and lightning bolts and began screaming in agony. She collapsed to the floor and Bluewing yanked his axe out of her head.

‘Well that’s just fine then isn’t it?’ he muttered, spitting on Soul Feeder’s apparently lifeless body.

‘I’d say we’d accomplished this mission’ agreed Dasher, ‘let’s get back to the real world. Bowdler, are you OK to walk?’

He got up, deep gashes covering his face and body.

‘Yeah, I’m ABSOLUTELY fine and haven’t just used all my energy in a one on one duel with a damn powerful alicorn AT ALL! Of COURSE I can walk back.’

‘Oh, good. Come along then’

Bowdler groaned.

‘Guys, I’ll catch up with you in a second,’ muttered Bluewing, ‘I’ve just got to check up on something...’

Dasher nodded and walked back towards the entrance of the cave, which he and Bluewing had knocked a gaping hole through, Bowdler followed. He stood on the gold pad on the plateau.

‘This is a portal, I know where it goes. Wait for Bluewing and meet me on the other side, OK?’

He nodded and Dasher walked through the portal which appeared when he stepped on the middle section.

A few minutes after he had gone, Bluewing emerged from the cave, his face streaked with tears. ‘Bluewing are you alright?’ Bowdler asked, worriedly.

‘Yeah, I’m fine. Do you realise happiness can make you cry?’ he replied, sniffing a bit.

‘Hm...’ he started, but decided not to go into detail with it, ‘C’mon, Dasher told us to meet him on the other side of the portal.’

‘Alright, let’s go’

They walked through it together.

Chapter 19: Another day, another fight

(Writer's note: DO NOT translate the elder prophecy unless you want the biggest spoiler in the history of ponykind)

They emerged from the portal just outside the Everfree forest. Dasher was waiting for them.

‘We’ve got to get a mission report back to the Princess A.S.A.P’

‘You go ahead Dasher, you’re the fastest flyer’ replied Bowdler, sounding exhausted.

He looked smug for a second then flew off towards Canterlot, getting tackle hugged by what appeared to be a small rainbow just before he became to small to see.

Bluewing chuckled.

‘That’ll be Rainbowdash’ he sighed, ‘Which reminds me, Bowdler, would you mind coming to see Pinkie Pie with me?’

‘I wouldn’t, but it might annoy Dasher a bit.’

‘I’m sure he’ll understand’

‘I don’t see why not then, let’s go!’

They began to walk down towards Ponyville.

‘Say, Bluewing?’ asked Bowdler, just as the two ponies got into Ponyville, ‘What exactly were you doing back there, in the cave?’

He choked back some tears and replied, ‘My mom, dad and brother were all murdered by that bitch of an alicorn. They live in the afterlife now... I... I promised I’d visit them, last time I saw them...’ a single tear ran down his cheek, ‘I just wish they were still here...’ He looked down at the ground.

‘Hey, don’t worry bro. You’ll be OK...’ said Bowdler, nudging his shoulder with his hoof and regretting bringing up the subject in the first place.

‘I s’pose I will... But they won’t... They’ll always be dead’

‘Not if you don’t let them die. They will always live in your heart.’

‘Luna, Bowdler, I didn’t know you were into that sort of mushy philosophy’

‘It helps’ he replied, shrugging. They both laughed as they arrived at sugar cube corner. Mrs Cake was standing at the counter.

‘How can I help you colts?’ she asked, politely.

‘Jubilee, it’s Bluewing. Do I have to tell you this every time I come here?’ he replied, sounding a little irked.

‘Oh yes, I do recognise your face now. Pinkie Pie is in her room.’ She waved a hoof over to the stairwell. ‘You three take care now won’t you?’

‘We’ll try’ they said as they walked up the stairs.

There were several loud crashes and generally random noises emanating from Pinkie Pie’s room, but Bluewing just ignored them and knocked on the door. It immediately swung open and Pinkie burst out, surrounded by streamers.

‘Hey! Bluey! Long time no see!’ she squealed with delight and threw her arms around him.

‘Hello Pinkie!’ he chuckled, ‘How’re you?’

‘I’m just fi-’ she began, but stopped and narrowed her eyes, ‘Bluey! You’ve been crying!’ she cried, burying her face into his neck, ‘What’s wrong? Oh please tell me nothing’s wrong!’

‘Oh, come here Pinkie!’ he said, smiling widely and hugging her tightly.

‘Oh, I’m so glad you’re alright Bluey. And Hey! You’ve brought my favourite Alicorn, Bowdler!’ she chirped, bouncing over to hug him too.

‘Hi Pinkie-!’ was all he managed to get out before she started squeezing the life out of him.

She giggled.

‘Oh, it’s so great to have you two here! I should throw a party! Yes! A party! To celebrate... What have you guys been doing over the past week?’

‘The usual,’ replied Bluewing causally, ‘Fighting evil’

‘An evil fighting party! Yay! Wait, you’ve been fighting evil without me? Aw... I really enjoyed it last time!’

‘Pinkie you went completely mad’

‘I know right!? So did you that one time and you didn’t seem to mind!’

‘Pinkie, we went to the afterlife.’

She gasped.

‘The afterlife?! I thought I’d told you never to go to that place again just in case you see that meanie Soul Feeder!’

‘Well, I did and we did. She won’t bother us any time soon’

‘You fought the meanie!?’ she gasped again, ‘Why didn’t you bring me!? You know I’d have loved it!’

‘Because, like you said, it’s dangerous. Bowdler nearly died!’

‘Bowdler nearly died!?’ she squealed, grabbing him all of a sudden and squeezing him until he could hardly breath.

‘Pinkie... Let... Go... Or you’ll... end up... killing me...’

She let go and giggled. ‘But seriously you guys! Take me with you next time! Please?’ She stared into Bluewing’s eyes, the size of hers seeming to grow tenfold.

‘I’ll try, Pinkie. But I can’t make any promises’

‘Oh thank you!’ she grabbed him again and squeezed him tightly. ‘But yeah! About that party!’

‘Sorry Pinkie, but we’ve got other things we need to do at the moment.’

‘Aw... Okay then...’ she said, looking devastated.

‘We just thought we’d pass by and say hello, that’s all’ She leant forwards and planted a kiss on Bluewing’s forehead. ‘I love you Bluey. Never forget that, ok?’

He went bright red.

‘O-Okay...’

‘Okay then! Bye! Thanks for coming over!’

‘ Any time Pinkie!’

The two ponies walked back down the stairs.

‘Heh, you learn something new every day’ chuckled Bowdler.

‘What?’

‘Nothing’

When Bowdler and Bluewing reached the castle it had become dark. They assumed it was ok because nopony was panicking, even though there were no clocks around. Even so, it made them feel a little nervous.

When they arrived at the throne room, it appeared to be a lot busier than usual. There were pony generals all over the place arguing for a reason that could not be distinguished through the babble. Dasher was nowhere to be seen. Princess Celestia saw them enter and beckoned them over to her throne, where she sat with Luna and a brown pony wearing a beret.

‘Bowdler, Bluewing! Lovely to see you,’ she called cheerfully, seeming oblivious to the militaristic planning all around her, ‘Dasher’s already been here, I’ve sent him off to your next assignment. Good job fighting Soul Feeder, Bowdler, now you’re the third pony to have killed her.’

‘Wait, she’d died before I killed her?’ interrupted Bluewing, sounding disappointed.

‘Why did you think she was in the Afterlife you silly filly? She was originally the ruler of Equestria, called it ‘the second Afterlife’, before myself and Luna’s parents overthrew her...’ she stopped suddenly, remembering her parents.

The brown pony coughed to attract attention to himself.

‘Greetings lads!’ he shouted, in a way which seemed like a slightly more casual Dasher, ‘I’m Sergeant Jameson, newest officer of the Equestrian Military. Which is why you don’t know me, captain’ he continued, nodding to Bluewing, ‘Her royal highness the Princess has brought me up here to have the honour of sitting with her and her sister to discuss tactics for the fight in Appaloosa-’

‘THERE’S A FIGHT IN APPALOOSA!?’ yelled Bowdler, knowing who would be participating in it.

‘Yes... How long have you been away?’

‘Not more than half a day!’

‘The fight there started a week ago, it’s been stalemate for all this time. Most of the dragons are refusing to leave Ponyville to help, they say it has some sort of value in the ‘elder prophecy’. It’s all a load of bull I tell you! Nothing more than an old Dragon’s tale!’

‘Wait... What?’

‘Time passes a lot faster in the Afterlife, Bowdler’ said Princess Celestia, ‘That’s why so much has happened since you’ve been gone.’

‘And what’s this Prophecy?’ he asked, trying his hardest not to sound completely clueless.

A deep voice rang around the room, ‘persvek wer darkest tairais mobi rinov geou qe, vi seian geou lleisgar, wux shio nishka ocuir. ihk jaci geou ti qe ir di wux, shar vi mablik mrith vi kornari batobot ui vis. jacida boja geou qe unknown ekess wer treskri, shar vucot batobot jacida ominak ui ir batobot geou agantal qe nymuera. wer papref geou qe naktada untouched ini malsvir sjek wux nakta jacion takh korja mrith wer town batobot jaci naktaic persvek. wer mablik kitril di malsvir geou shartleg ekess qe wer jennuilti irlym di wer iri svaust vehafora jacida undying adon. wer darastrixi geou lleisgar vur throden geou loreat, shar agantal clax kornari persvek wer ir svaust gethrisjic ini wer ominak di vaex dler.’

‘Hello Rok’thalon!’ said Luna, waving at the golden pony stood in the doorway.

‘A very interesting prophecy indeed.’ muttered Celestia, nodding, ‘But even I cannot understand such advanced Draconic. Would you mind translating?’

‘The elder prophecy must never be translated into a mortal tongue!’ he shouted defiantly, ‘It would be an insult to the Dragonkin of old!’

‘Alright then, settle down. I think we got the jist of it, didn’t we?’ she replied, turning to look at Bowdler and Bluewing, who nodded uncertainly.

‘But yes... Your new mission is to escort Rok’Thalon to Appaloosa to help with the fighting. Dasher will be waiting for you.’

‘hefoc si nafl rigluin vin escort, wanotreyxkaiv...’

‘Of course you do. Run along you three! Wouldn’t want to lose a town now, would we?’

The three ‘ponies’ nodded and left the room.

Rok’thalon had transformed back into as soon as he had enough room. ‘Do you wish for me to communicate with you in the mortal language? Or may I speak in my own tongue?’

‘If you want us to understand you, you’d be better off speaking Equestrian. But feel free to speak Draconic if you want.’ replied Bluewing, who was getting a little tired of not being able to understand his dragon companions, ‘but honestly, I don’t recommend travelling as a dragon. You’ll be a little...’ he searched for a way to put his size lightly, ‘Noticeable?’

‘si shilta fend ihk sio, mablik. riluoh, si ocuir dout logic.’ he replied and slowly transformed back into a pony, seeming somehow reluctant to lose his magnificent horns. ‘tikil desta?’

‘Okay then, no idea what you’ve just said, but let’s go!’

The three of them took off and began to fly towards the desert. The Equestrian night is a hard time to fly, especially with the amount of cloud cover that had gathered when most of the pegasi were drafted into the military, so their travel was going to be extremely dangerous.

‘Bowdler!’ shouted Bluewing, ‘Make sure to keep an eye out for Desert Mortrexi! They’re a bit aggressive at this time of night!’

As if to punctuate this comment, a high pitched screeched caused the sand below them to ripple as they flew overhead.

‘kwi petranas. dronilnr astahi shafaer.’ snorted Rok’thalon, spitting a few embers towards the ground. An enormous, worm-like creature with a mouth brimming with teeth burst from the ground and let out a bone chilling screech.

‘batobot ui throdenilt hefoc coi!’ he yelled as he dived towards the thing, trying to engage it in hoof to claw combat.

‘Rok’thalon! What’re you doing!?’

‘ultrinninanir!’ He plowed into the side of the beast and ripped right through it, causing it to spurt orange body fluids into the air. It flailed around and snapped at him, but it was too slow to catch the king of the dragons.

‘kruth, si oontanx zaja di nomeno vargach’ He opened his mouth and breathed bright green fire onto the head of the beast, which screamed in agony and fell to the floor, the top half of it’s skeleton showing and blackened.

‘Rok’thalon! There was no need for that!’ Bluewing scolded as the Dragon king flew up beside them again.

‘There is always a need to kill Mortrexi scum, they think they’re so great with their big worm faces. But they’re not, they just dig around in the desert giving no contribution to any form of society-’ Rok’thalon began to rant in better Equestrian than he’d ever been able to manage before. However, the other two ponies got bored before he’d even started and began to fly towards Appaloosa again.

They heard the sounds of fighting from Appaloosa before it even came into sight. The screams of ponies, aliens and the occasional Dragon echoed through the eerie silence of the night.

‘yth tepohada desta qe temep,’ said Rok’thalon, ‘yth tir ti tuor ekess itrewic mobi vur tepoha ehis ekess svent, tir yth?’

‘Rok’thalon, I have no idea what you’re talking about!’ replied Bowdler, who had finally lost his temper with the babbling dragon.

‘GO FASTER. NEED TO KILL THINGS!’ he shouted at him in a brutish manner. They sped over the sand dunes until the valley where the town was situated came into view.

It was chaos. Towering aliens, as big as some of the dragons, were locked in intensive combat with the dragons themselves whilst ponies wrestled and hacked at the smaller creatures.

The tank aliens were tearing through the pony lines, annihilating anything which got in their way. Buffalo smashed into these tanks and tried to stop them, failing the majority of the time.

The ground was littered with corpses.

They did their best to ignore the fighting and dived down to Appaloosa town hall, where they could clearly see Sheriff Silver Star, his assistant Braeburn and Amelinda the Bronze dragon.

‘Rok’thalon, Bluewing, Bowdler!’ she almost cheered, ‘you could not have arrived at a better time!’

‘renthisj Vs'shtak, geou wux myvish?’

‘No Rok, those times have passed. I must speak as the residents of the land where I live speak’

‘suit doutan’

The two “ponies” embraced each other.

‘Bowdler, Bluewing,’ said Silver Star, ‘I need the two of you to help me with something’

‘Yes? What is it?’

‘Well... Just come in here’ he gestured for them to leave Amelinda, Rok’thalon and Braeburn to walk into the town hall. Inside were a group of ponies, looking off colour and shaking madly. Dasher was sat beside them.

‘Bluewing! Bowdler! Am I glad to see you!’ he said, sounding worried, ‘I need some help with these guys.’

‘Dasher found these ponies on the furthest south point of the gorge,’ said the Sheriff, ‘They were surrounded by aliens and had laid down their weapons, prepared to die. He saved them and now they’re nervous wrecks.’

‘It stared... Right into my soul...’ spluttered a yellow one with strange looking armour on his wings, which seemed to flash in and out of existence. He noticed that Bowdler had seen this and twitched his eye. ‘They’re not really there, it’s the drink bro. It gives you wings.’

He grinned maniacally and began to hit one of his legs, which had begun to spasm.

‘What have these guys been through?’ he asked.

Dasher shrugged, ‘I’d hate to know.’

Chapter 20: Squadmates

‘Engineer you ass!’ the grey pony shouted, ‘You’ve only gone and eaten the last damn Orchid!’

‘What?’ Engineer replied, grinning, ‘Those things are tasty!’

‘They’re for all of us Engie!’ groaned Lincoln, ‘I’m starving over here!’

‘You don’t need food Lincoln! You’re a unicorn, magic up some cake or something!’

‘You really think I’m powerful enough to do that? Flattered, I’m sure’

‘You two! Stop arguing!’ interrupted the grey one, ‘Engineer, since you ate the Orchids you can go to the pond to get some more and Lincoln, since you’re so keen to have a chat you can join him!’

‘Captain Suffolk, I don’t really think this is a good idea...’

‘Was that backchat?’

‘No sir...’

‘I’d jolly well hope not! Run along you two!’.

After they’d left, Bognor gave him a nudge,

‘You’re still a bit of an asshole Capp’n, just to tell you. Slacken off a bit’

‘Shut up Sergeant...’ he muttered.

There was a loud crash from quite a distance away. The orange pony named Sunshine, latched himself onto Bognor like some sort of limpet.

‘Wha- Wha- What was that!?’ he whimpered.

‘How the hay should I know?’ replied Suffolk, even though he knew that the question wasn’t aimed at him, ‘I say we go and check it out!’

Sunshine tightened his grip on Bognor.

‘Get off me ya big wuss!’ he joked and kicked him lightly, ‘Rotherham, can you tell where that came from?’

‘What am I, omniscient?’ replied the blue earth pony, ‘It sounded like it was somewhere to the south’

‘Alright then!’ shouted Lincoln, ‘let’s go!’ he began to walk off but Sunshine kept him back with his magic.

‘Sh- Shouldn’t we wait for Engie and Lincoln to get back? They- They’re our best fighters...’

‘Are you kidding me? We’re not gonna need fighters, it’s probably just a rockfall or something!’

‘But- but...’ he whined and put his head to the ground, whining quietly.

‘You know, he could have a point boss.’ chipped in Rotherham, who wanted to stand up for his friend, ‘You’ve heard about the alien attack on Ponyville, who knows how they got there?’

‘What, are you joining the sissy club now, Rotherham? I thought you were tougher than that!’

‘You know, “toughness” won’t really help you if you get mobbed by aliens...’

‘Shut up Rotherham. That’s an order!’

‘Yes sir’ he muttered and glared at the floor.

‘So are you coming or what?’

‘Go if you want to, we’re waiting for Engineer and Lincoln.’ replied Manchester, a brownish earth pony with striking red hair.

‘Well I’m not going on my own. I’ll wait here with you cowardly lot!’ he shouted, which caused Rotherham to smirk.

Nothing of interest happened whilst they were waiting for the two ponies but when they did finally arrive with the orchids, they were told to drop them where they were and move south with the rest of the squad.

‘Drop them?’ exclaimed Engineer, ‘Why not just eat them?’

‘Because we don’t have the time! We’ve already wasted enough waiting for you two to get back!’ replied Suffolk, just as Engineer shoved the entire stack of orchids into his mouth.

‘Mmph?’ he asked. All the rest of the squad snorted with laughter but Suffolk just stood there and fumed.

‘Damn it Engineer, you’ve disobeyed a direct order! I should have you deranked!’

‘And by my right as Sergeant I say you can’t derank him. That was bloody hilarious!’ chuckled Bognor.

Suffolk spat on the floor.

‘Let’s just get this over with’.

The seven ponies began to move south through the valley, towards where the sound had came from. There was no chance of ambush, as it was just flat desert and badlands, the most cover any attacker would have was a few small rocks. They eventually arrived at the southernmost point of the valley, to see that a huge rockfall had happened. ‘Well that’ll be it then!’ stated Suffolk, somewhat proudly,

‘Just a rockfall. Nothing to worry about.’

‘Well yeah,’ replied Lincoln, ‘If you don’t count a big chunk taken out of the top of the valley which just happens to be an exact cylindrical shape which points towards a place which we didn’t really look at on our way here as nothing to worry about.’

‘Uh...’ he started, ‘I knew that. I was just testing you. Come on everypony, there’s no time to waste!’

He began to walk away.

‘The direction of the hole would suggest whatever it was was over there, captain.’ Lincoln shouted after him, pointing towards the opposite direction that he was walking.

‘I knew that too!’ he yelled, suddenly changing direction, ‘Very observant today Lincoln, well done!’.

Engineer covered his face with his hoof.

‘Who put that hopeless asshole in charge?’

‘Princess Celestia, apparently’ replied Rotherham as he started to follow Suffolk.

‘Do we really have to?’ asked Sunshine, weakly.

‘Afraid so’ replied Manchester, ‘I’d hate to see what’d happen if we didn’t and it turned out to be some of those aliens.’

‘I’d hate so see what happens if we do and it turns out to be some of those aliens...’

They walked around for a while but could find nothing and by this time it was getting dark.

‘Strange...’ mused Bognor, ‘it seems a little early to be getting dark...’

‘We’re getting later on in the year,’ said Suffolk, ‘It’s getting darker earlier, nothing to be worried about!’

‘B- But... Isn’t this what happened in P- Ponyville?’ squeaked Sunshine, ‘It got dark early and then... and then...’ He let out a small squeal.

‘Ah, don’t be a baby! It’s just a little darkness, what’re you afraid of it?’

A noise similar to the scraping of hooves on a blackboard came from behind him. They could just figure out some basic language.

‘He’s not... But... you should... be...’ Suffolk whirled around to see a large, bug-like creature staring him down. It raised one of it’s pointed talons. ‘Krrcktt, Thsssh!’

It’s claw swung down, but Suffolk barrel rolled out of the way just in time.

‘WHAT THE FUCK!?’ he screamed as he drew his axes. All of the other members of the squad pulled out their weapons too. The creature stared at them, hatred burning in it’s eyes.

‘You... should... surren... surrend... give up...’ it clicked, ‘we... are more... than you...’

Other aliens came out of the shadows and bared their fangs menacingly at the group of ponies. The squad of ponies moved into position surrounding Sunshine, who was the medic.

‘Attack as one on my mark!’ yelled Suffolk, raising his axes above his head. ‘MARK!’

The six ponies (bar Sunshine) charged forward and plunged their weapons into the nearest creature.

‘We... warned... you...’ the lead creature spluttered.

Swarms of the bug-like things climbed out from behind boulders. The squad gathered again.

‘We’re way outnumbered, how’re we gonna pull this off?’ shouted Manchester, throwing his spear at one of the creatures and pulling out his sword.

‘The same way we do everything else!’ replied Engineer, ‘Together!’

He charged forwards and began hacking at a cluster of the things that were attacking. He decapitated one and stabbed another right through the top of it’s skull.

‘Come on then!’ he yelled, ‘Get some!’

He impaled a creature directly through what appeared to be it’s chest and was soaked with green blood. The other members of the squad had joined in with the butchery.

The invaders would have no chance against their finely tuned and elite fighting skills, but whenever they killed one, three more always seemed to take it’s place.

‘Suffolk! Me and Engineer are going to use the RB cans!’ Lincoln yelled over the screeches of the aliens.

‘What? Are you crazy? They’ve not been tested!’

‘But if they work, we can attack from the air!’

‘What about us!?’ shouted Rotherham and Manchester, also meaning Sunshine, who was too shy to speak up and was busy hiding behind a boulder waiting for somepony to get injured so he could heal them.

‘We’ve not got enough for everypony! Engineer’s an amazing fighter and it’d basically make me an alicorn!’

‘Fine! Go on then!’ Suffolk threw them two silver cans of liquid, which they downed.

The air around their backs flickered and robotic wings appeared out of nowhere. The two of them took off, along with Bognor and Suffolk, and began to kill the monsters from above.

‘This is easy! I don’t know how they had so much trouble in ponyville!’ chirped Bognor as he drove his longsword into the top of a creature’s head.

‘Ah.’ replied Engineer, seeing something burst from the ground, ‘It could be because of that thing.’

A vast, snake-like creature had erupted from the sand, with it’s claws flailing like mad things.

‘This doesn’t look like it’s going to turn out well...’ muttered Rotherham, just as another two of the abominations appeared,

‘Well, we may as well try, hadn’t we?’ The squad ran back into combat.