Chapter One - Midnight Gloom's Reign
"Years have passed since Celestia was our ruler. She made life worth living. She raised the sun and was a calm and collected ruler. And if she wasn't there, Princess Twilight would come and take over for a while. All that ended a few decades ago, when a greedy Unicorn named Midnight Gloom came. He used advanced magic that only alicorns could do. He cast a shroud of darkness over the castle and took the Royal Guards by surprise, leaving them all under a sleeping spell. He trotted towards the throne room, no one to stop him. He confronted Celestia.
"Celestia, I would have thought that your Royal Guards would have put up a fight, instead of rolling over and sleeping."
"Who are you, and why have you come?"
"I am Midnight Gloom, and I am here to control all of Equestria. I plan to take over Canterlot first of course."
"Well, you seem to have underestimated me, Midnight Gloom, for I shall not roll over and sleep!"
And at that, Celestia's horn flared up and a wave of powerful yellow magic swept over the room, stunning Midnight Gloom. But that spell could not stun him for long enough, as his horn lit up before Celestia could ready a spell. A single, concentrated blast of navy magic erupted from the Unicorn's horn, incapacitating Celestia. Midnight Gloom readied his horn once more, preparing to end the battle. Celestia also readied her horn. The navy magic raced across the chamber as a yellow shield rose up around the Alicorn. Celestia rose to her hooves, horn flaring. Yellow magic spurted from her horn, creating a soft glow across the room. Sparks then flew from the tip of the horn, which transformed into blasts of pure magic. A navy shield sprung up to deflect the blow, sending the blast back towards Celestia. She ducked, and the magic flew into a nearby stained glass window, which shattered into a million pieces. Celestia watched as the shards landed at her hooves, and she saw pieces of Discords defeat on the tile floor. Horns flared once more, and magic flew across the room. A stray bolt of navy magic flew towards Celestia and hit her on the flank. She fell to her knees and watched as Midnight Gloom cam towards her.
"Well Celestia, it seems that you weren't true to your words. You shall roll over and sleep."
Midnight Gloom's horn flared, and he sent out a bolt of magic at Celestia. It drained a yellow stream of magic from her and Midnight Gloom absorbed it.
"Ah" he said. "Alicorn magic. It is the most powerful of all. Now, I shall do a magic trick."
Navy magic with hints of yellow surged towards Celestia. Navy magic enveloped her and her wings and horn disappeared, as did her Earth Pony strength. Defeated, she lay at Midnight's hooves and waited for what she knew would happen shortly.
Midnight's horn flared once more, and he surrounded himself with and aura of blue. Wings sprouted from his back and he became stronger. He let out a chuckle as he completed the spell.
"Come in everypony, it is now The Reign of Midnight Gloom!" the new Alicorn shouted.
At his call, dozens of ponies came in to the chamber, ranging from Earth ponies to Pegasi and Unicorns. They all entered and bowed before Midnight Gloom, as he stood in front of Celestia and her throne. Celestia could only look at the floor in defeat.
"Now," shouted Midnight to his minions. "Bring me every Alicorn in Equestria! They shall all bow down to me and accept my reign! I will execute the ones that object!"
All of the pegasi flew off at once, and the unicorns all teleported away.The earth ponies all ran out into the courtyard and towards Princess Luna's tower. Celestia and Midnight were left alone in the room.
"What will you do to them?" asked Celestia, trying to maintain her strong voice.
"Oh, nothing much. Except strip them of their rank, and their horns, wings and strength. Oh, and if they don't accept my rule,I will kill them. That isn't a problem, right Princess Celestia?" he spat out the word "Princess" as if it was poison in his mouth.
"You will not get away with this!" said Celestia, her voice failing her.
"I'm afraid I already have, Princess. My men should be back here any minute. Oh? Do I hear footsteps? Are they my Earth Ponies? I think so!"
Several Earth Ponies trotted into the room, holding Princess Luna in their teeth. She thrashed and kicked, but they wouldn't loosen their grip on her. A thick cloth that seemed to shine was wrapped around her horn.
"Unhoof me you ruffians! How dare you! Let me go!" she shouted.
"Ah, Princess Luna, Princess of the Night. How nice it is to see you in pony! But I'm sorry to say that you won't be going into anypony's dreams anymore." said Midnight Gloom
"What do you mean? I demand that you tell me!"
"Your demands will not be listened to anymore Princess! I rule here now!"
And with those words navy magic with yellow streaks surrounded Luna as she was lifted into the air and blue magic was drained from her. She fell to the floor as more magic took away her wings, horn and strength. She was tossed next to Celestia.
Pegasi flew into the castle with Cadence in their teeth. Soon after, Unicorns teleported into the room with Twilight Sparkle. Cadence looked weak and had bruises on her body, as did Twilight. Both of them had their magic, wings horns and strength taken from them, as Luna and Celestia watched. All of the Princesses were left next to each other.
"Now that I have everypony here, let's get started. Who here objects to me ruling? Raise your hoof please." said Midnight.
No pony raised their hoof.
"So, I guess that no pony wants to live then?"
"Not if we have to join forces with you!" shouted Cadence, with fierce hatred in her eyes.
"Oh, well that's OK then, one moment please" said Midnight.
Midnight Gloom's horn glowed with blue, navy, purple and yellow, and all of that was concentrated into a beam of magic. Three pegasi held Cadence down as he released the blast. Cadence shrieked in pain as her body stiffened, and she was frozen into a position of fear. The pegasi that held her down brought her to a room in the Castle. There, she was put onto a podium, like some living prize.
"Well, who else objects?" Midnight said, looking at Celestia in particular.
"I thought you said you would kill us!" said Celestia.
"I lied. Problem?" replied Midnight.
"Why would you want to keep us alive?" asked Twilight, her voice shaking and quavering slightly.
"As reminders to everypony else that I defeated the Royal Alicorns, robbed them of their power, and turned them into living statues."
"That is monstrous! Cadence will be stuck like that forever? Who would do something like that? Can she still hear us?" asked Twilight, hate in her voice.
"Well, she's in another room, so I doubt it, but if she were in here, she would definitely be able to hear us. Well, now that I've started this job, I might as well finish it" he said.
Midnight's horn glowed, and a beam of navy washed over the remaining Princesses, freezing them into the positions they were in. Different ponies brought them into different parts of the room Cadence was brought into, and they were put onto podiums.
"Well now, I think I should change the looks of this castle! Maybe give it a paint job, what do you think, boys?"
All the ponies nodded their heads, and Midnight Gloom's horn shone once again and he had changed Canterlot Castle into a castle of different shades of navy, black and grey. It's water features were turned to stone, and the castle looked darker. The roofs were turned blood-red, and the outer walls were turned black. The tiles were turned navy and grey, and the throne was turned navy, with red accents. The throne had much more spikes on it as well, all of which were red. Midnight Gloom sat upon it and smiled.
All of Equestria will be MINE! he thought. No pony will be able to stand in my way! NO PONY!
Midnight Gloom continued to take over Equestria, little by little. No Unicorn's magic was strong enough to defeat him, and no pony that opposed him stood a chance. But five ponies stood in his way of conquering all of Equestria. They stood by the Tree Of Harmony, and it's magic protected them and one small town. But Midnight Gloom wouldn't give up. He cast the most powerful and destructive spell he knew, and destroyed the Tree Of Harmony. He captured the small town and froze the five who stood against him, putting them on podiums with the Princesses. As time went by, and he had conquered all the land, he grew tired of optimistic ponies trying to make the most of things and cheering other ponies up. So a thought hit him. He created three fenced in cities and gathered up all of the different types of ponies. He separated them, and penned them inside the cities. He assigned his different types of guards to guard the areas and make sure no pony got out. Some ponies didn't even know what the other kinds of ponies looked like. Some were even sceptical that other types even existed. No pony ever saw another type of pony again. And so, Soaring, that's the end of my tale. What d'ya think?"
"But Granny, how do you know all this? Were you there in the castle?"
"Nah, but Midnight Gloom told us all what had happened when he conquered Cloudsdale."
"Were you there then?"
"Of course I was! I was only a filly, 'bout the same age as you at the time. Wasn't nice y'know. Getting told that the most amazing ponies in the history of Equestria were basically dead."
"But you told me they were living statues!"
"They are! But being a statue and all, you wouldn't be able to do all that much eh'?"
"I guess not..."
"That's a good little filly, go off and play now, Granny Sunburst needs a rest..."
And with that, Granny fell asleep in her chair, and Soaring Flame was left sitting near the fire.
