So, it was, officially, officially set in motion. I had committed several crimes, and multiple countries were fighting alongside the splintered Equestrian military.

Well, let me back up a bit. It wasn’t until several days after I had practically killed the princesses, and literally destroyed the vast majority of Equestrian state heads, that the military was informed. The Royal Guard thought they could handle the culprit on their own; they didn’t know it was me at first.

After the party, I immediately set out to take as much energy as I possibly could. I only understood the basics of Tirek’s magic and wasn’t able to steal from more than a single being at a time. I had since learned to hold the vast amounts of magic on my own, though.

The first night, we went out and picked ponies off the street.

And so it began. Some call it the War of Extermination. It wasn’t much of a war though… just an extermination.

In the beginning, Deathwing and Steelwing, or Scootaloo, took care of most of the ponies. I still didn’t fully understand how to steal magic from multiple ponies, so often Steelwing would bring me individual soldiers from the battlefield.

Deathwing was fearsome. Not long after the dinner, I infused Spike with a dark magic I picked up in one of tomes found in the restricted section of the Canterlot Archives. It gave him wings and made him powerful, and Deathwing took him as her steed.

However, sadly, it warped his mind. Over the years he began to become insane, and there was little I could do for him.

Regardless, both he and Scootaloo changed their names. He changed his to Thorn, and she made herself known as Steelwing. I didn’t seem a like a hard choice for them; their names weren’t very intimidating to begin with.

The first battles were miniscule. The Equestrians managed to muster a few hundred soldiers. They were easily wiped out, and I absorbed the magic of about fifty of them.

The next time, thought, they were not as easily defeated. The remaining Equestrian heads had went to the griffins for support, and we met with an army of nearly ten thousand.

It was, however, still incredibly easy to defeat them.

Deathwing and “Thorn”—he’s still Spike, to me—would fly over the battlefield, slashing and charring the ponies.

At first, they didn’t know what they were doing. They failed to realize that a battle would not work, as we simply did not have an army. It was a moot point to go in an open field and fight us.

When I learned how Tirek was able to take the power of many, many beings at once, the armies stood even less of a chance in defeating us.

The last great “battle” was simply me taking the power of nearly thirteen thousand ponies and griffins, whilst turning them all into dust. About fifty survived because they were lagging behind, and quickly spread the word of the massacre.

Eventually, they began to take more covert and sly measures.

I remember one such occasion.

Most days, my friends—well, really it was just Steelwing, Deathwing, and occasionally Envy—would go around and nap unsuspecting ponies and bring them back to my castle that I constructed at the base of Canterlot Mountain.

That day, that’s what they were doing.

Steelwing was the first to come back, flying in with two stallions held by the scruff of their necks. They were still conscious, but Steelwing poisoned them with an agent causing paralysis that she tipped her wings with.

Next was Deathwing, carrying a young dragon that had been knocked out. I could stand dragon magic, but it was not my goto choice.

Deathwing was disturbed. She was… almost sadistic, but… recklessly so. She didn’t purposely cause pain to herself, as far as I could tell, but you could tell that she felt the most minute amount of pleasure from self injury. More so the injury of others.

And finally, Envy returned. She was carrying a changeling.

It didn’t set off any alarms immediately; she was a changeling herself, so it didn’t seem far fetched that she found a changeling.

I had absorbed changeling magic before, and it was… an experience. It was not chaotic and inherently entropic like Discords, but it flowed in strange ways. It was like the tides, I suppose; raising and lowering, if that makes any sense.

“I guess it does.” Luna shrugged.

She dropped the helpless bug at my feet. I looked down at it’s face, and it wore a scowl. Not an angry one, but of course, a frightened one. I took it magic without hesitation.

At that time, most ponies barely did anything to improve upon my magical reserves. I only took their power as a pastime.

“What are you planning on doing tonight, Twilight?” Envy asked, nonchalantly.

“I will meditate on some things.”

“I see.”

After consulting with Monotone, I went to my balcony to meditate. The evening air was crisp and cool.

Behind me I heard Oracle call my name. “Twilight, look out!”

And then, just like that, I turned around to find Envy charging at me with a dagger. I assumed that it was laced with a magic poison; a normal stab wound would do very little to me.

I grabbed her with my telekinesis and her eyes widened.

“What are you doing?” I asked calmly.

It didn’t matter what her response was; she was probably going to die, anyway. She seemed to realize it too. “I’m trying to kill you, you vile monster! How does it feel to be called a monster by a changeling; one of the very beings you call an insect?”

I looked at her with a blank face. “Why should the opinion of an insect matter? You are just as you say: insects. Whatever opinion an insect has, it surely is not worth the time of a being such as myself. Who sent you, and what have you done with Envy?”

The changeling sighed. “I was a prisoner that was condemned to die for treason. I was offered this task, and was told that if I came back alive my charges would be dropped and instead I would be regarded as a hero.”

“Where is Envy?”

“She’s being held captive in the hive.”

I scoffed. “So they are still too soft to kill one such as her? A changeling who has killed hundreds?”

“I… yes.”

“Because your information was helpful, I will not kill you right this moment. Hm…. For now, stay here. I will think about what to do with you.”

Her eyes again widened, but I didn’t wait for her response.

Finding the hive was a simple matter. Envy had told me where it was located before.

I won’t tell you. That’d be wrong.

I scouted the tunnels with my magic and found where they were keeping her. I teleported her out, and onto the surface.

I didn’t feel like stealing all of the magic in the hive at the moment; I was still stuck on the squirmy feeling it gave me.

“You know, I’m confused. What ever happened to Discord?” Celestia asked.
“I never absorbed his magic. It would eventually corrupt all the other magic and make it uncontrollable. You see, Discord is not ‘chaotic’ because he likes chaos; it’s simply how his magic works. It wills itself to do things, he simply lets those things happen.”
“And what of… us? What did you do with the princesses after you… regressed them?”
“I stored them in a stasis where they could grow and regain their magic. You and Luna get your energy directly from stars, something that I was not able to do for over a thousand years. And indeed, even then I had to force it. Yours are innate.”
Luna nodded. “What about Cadence?”
“She…. wasn’t very special. She had much more magic than the average pony, but she was not connected to vast reserves a star has. Keeping her around was… sentimental.”
“So, then, what happened to the changeling?”
“Nothing. She lived with us until she died. I did not grant her immortality. Maybe I should go find her in this time….”
Celestia spoke up. “I would not recommend that. She wasn’t very important, and that would… cause unnecessary commotion, to be honest.”

Author's Note

Yep.