Life was good as it could be for the ponies of Equestria, Canterlot was finally finished and the nobles of this fair land had begun moving in. The train was invented and several wealthy ponies were laying some tracks from Canterlot to Manehatten. It was also the year that I appointed my youngest ever advisor Rolling Thunder, a young grey blue pegasus that was calm most of the time but could be a little... lets say protective. My story begins on the day that there was an attempt on my life...

I had thrown a party to celebrate the completion of Canterlot, I was in the middle of greeting the guest when I heard a loud booming sound. I ran to investigate with several guards accompanying me. I found a hole in the wall of the new palace, there were scorch marks around it. Immediately several of the guards moved the ponies away from the hole, and began to question them.

Then the second explosion happened, the blast knocked me several feet and though the hole left by the first one. As I lay in the short grass all I could think of was that my left foreleg felt weird, but as my vision slowly returned I saw three ponies, one from each of the three tribes. The earth pony was wearing heavy polished armor and helmet, the unicorn was wearing a hood and cape with a shadow over his face, and the pegasus was wearing a flight suit and mask that covered her hair.

The unicorn addressed the other ponies with a bow "Greetings and salutations my fellow ponies! We are the Trio! And we stand here to proclaim the truth about 'our' Princess! For you see you have been foaled by her, and what is this deception you ask?! Nightmare Moon wasn't..." He was stopped by the guards starting to attack.

As the guards rushed them the earth pony jumped in the way and managed to knockout all of my guards. Then the pegasus tied them up with the drapes. The unicorn continued, "now that they've been taken care of, I can continue..."

"Halt!" Several more guards yelled racing into the room.

"Oh what now?!" The unicorn asked.

By this time I had gotten up, "You use their name but you do not understand what they were" I said.

"We know what we're doing!" The pegasus spat at me.

"You have warped history!" The unicorn yelled as he teleported the three of them away.

"Your highness are you alright!?" One of the guards asked joining me outside.

"I'll be fiahh!" I yelped as pain shot through my leg.

"What's wrong?" The stallion asked as he gestured for me to lean on him.

I obliged and told him, "my foreleg is hurt." then I gestured to my left leg.

"Don't worry mam, we'll get you a good doctor." He assured me.

One of the well-dressed ponies ran over to us, "you need not worry, I had the guards escort all the ponies out of the room" the grey blue pegasus told me.

"Why did you move them all Thunder?" I asked not seeing his point.

"Surely you're in shock," he assured me, "we don't want word to get out that you were hurt. Especially since the ponies who attacked you are clearly trying to destroy your image and you, just imagine what they could do to you image if they were to learn you can be hurt. After all, my family didn't go through all the trouble of playing you up as a god just for you to be knocked down to our level in less than a day."

I nodded my head and the guard helped me out the room. He led me to my chambers where several doctors had been waiting, along with several jewelers and silversmiths. It turns out the landing the way I did left caused me to sprain my ankle, so the jewelers and silversmiths worked together to make me a new set of shoes that would double as a splint. Rolling Thunder had made sure that all these ponies wouldn't let loose the information of my injury.

The next day Thunder already had wanted posters spreading across Equestria. Over the next few weeks I didn't go out much, other than to make speeches, and it didn't help that I work from home. The ponies understood why I had to take such precautions, especially after Thunder began to spout anti-Trio propaganda for about a week before I caught him.

But after two months and no attacks I was getting restless and thought it might be nice to go to a party that one of the nobles were throwing. After picking my dress I was about to head out when Thunder ran up to me, "You can't go out, what if the Trio tries to kill you again?!"

"It's been two months, besides the guards will be with me."

"Forgive me Princess" he said, "I'm just a bit paranoid."

"Don't worry I've faced worse threats than the Trio, you need not worry."

"You say that now, but I can't wait around here forever, if I don't go then they'll say I'm not a god..." I trailed off to let him draw his own conclusions.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, "you are right, besides it's not like I could keep you here anywise" he sighed and walked away.

I went on my way, with a guard escort for protection and made it to the rather done up party. It was a wonderful evening as I caught up on the local gossip. The pony that had thrown the party had spared no expense, even having cider brought in from the unicorn valley. The cider was a bit too good, it seemed as the night went on the ponies around me were becoming more and more out of control. It was then that a blue unicorn came up to me, "Hiya beautifullill," He started, "Ya know if Ia could put the alphia alphabat tha way I wanted I'dd put i and u togater." He managed to get out, then he fell over, asleep.

A red unicorn came up and bowed to me, "Poor old champ," he said shaking his head, "He never did know how to hold his cider. Forgive my friend Princess." he picked him up and placed him on his back. Then he took him out the door grumbling something about how his friend was going to live this down.

When I got tired and just a little tipsy I decided to return home. Once I got there I was greeted at the door to the palace by a distraught pegasus, "You're here!?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" I asked and tried to get in.

"Well um...I figured that you might have taken all night at the party." He said stepping in my way.

I smiled, "I didn't. Now let me in."

"Well since the night is young I think you should get back to the party." He said sort of nudging me.

"The party's over and I want to get to sleep! Now let me in!" I shouted my patients completely lost.

"Is that an order?" He shouted back.

"Yes!" I glared at him.

"If it is an order then I can't argue it." He said grimly, "Sorry mam, but I quit!" He flew into me and knocked me back. The guards tore him off of me and held him down.

"Have you lost your mind?" I asked him as I got up.

"I'm not allowed to say."

"The guards could make you." I pointed out.

He smiled, "Oh princess...I know you, and you won't condone the interrogation of me."

He was right, "You're trying to call my bluff?"

"It's not trying if it actually works." He said.

"Fine! I'll deal with you in the morning." I said as I entered the castle.

The guards put him in his sweet and I went up to my chambers. As I stepped through the doorway I felt the the net lift trap pull me up. I was caught in a golden net, and I heard laughing, "You know 'princess' you should have heeded Rolling Thunders warning." A hooded figure said lighting a candle.

I charged my magic, and he laughed some more, "It's a magic proof net, the only thing that you can do in there is waste your magic."

"Uni! Let me down!" I ordered glaring at him.

"Who?" He asked.

"That's the name of the unicorn you're impersonating." I told him.

"Really now, Uni? That's what he called himself?"

"Yes! He embodied everything about unicorns..."

"It's a stupid name."

"Do you even know anything about the Trio? They would be disgusted at how you conduct yourselves, all this skulking around in the shadows. They would have accumulated a great deal of political power by now. All you've managed to do is ruined the names of some good friends of mine, and make a few holes."

"Oh you're not foaling me princess, I know about the Trio. I may not have known their names but I know that they hated you and your sister..."

"They hated the idea of us! Not us personally! They saw us as figure heads more than anything else, they believed that we weren't fit to actually rule. You claim to know them and yet all you've proven to know is a warped version of their doctrine!"

"It doesn't matter I still have you and you can't escape."

"'I'? Where are the other two?" I asked just know noticing their absence.

"Dealing with your guards..."

"Yet another thing that the original would never do. The very thought of hurting or restraining another pony of the three tribes would bring them to nausea, despite there training."

"Then it's a good thing we aren't the original" He said as he began to leave the room, "Hope you can go a long time without water 'princess' because I have a feeling that you won't be getting some for a long time."

He was gone and I was alone, suspended about a foot above the ground, in a golden net. "You know one day I will succeed in having all of these destroyed" I spoke to myself aloud.

I spent five hours in that net calling for help. I preoccupied myself by counting the things in my sweats, looking out the balcony window, and playing memories in my head. After the fourth hour the sun rose to my horror, and I called out significantly louder.

My throat was sore when and I could barely get out any more words when a grey blue pegasus opened my door, "Oh thank...um well...you, I was starting to think that I was alone and old Nightmare Moon came back or something" Rolling said short of breath.

"Pl...Pl...Please...cut...me...do..." I tried to get out.

"Very well Princess" He said as he walked over to the support rope. He released the rope and I fell to the floor.

"Tha...thank..."

"Don't worry princess I'll get you something for your throat" he said helping me to my hooves and leading me over to a couch.

He left me for a few minutes to get me that 'something for my throat', I couldn't help but notice that he was the only pony left in the castle. But then again the unicorn had only said that they were taking care of the guards, not my advisor. I still wondered about the other staff.

When he returned he had a mug of a red syrupy liquid that smelled awful. As I took it from him he said, "There you go Princess, an old family remedy."

"What...is...it?" I asked flinching at the smell.

He must have seen the look on my face because he said, "don't worry it taste better than it smells. Now, you should just drink it straight, no sips, you need to down the whole thing at once for it to work."

I did as he said and I found out quite quickly he was lying as the vile liquid touched my tongue. I put down the half empty mug as I gaged from the mixture, "what is this?"

"Good it's working, but you need to finish it or its effects will wear off." He instructed.

"You didn't answer my question."

"That's only because you definitely won't take another swig if I did."

"I won't take another sip if you don't."

"Are you sure? You know what they say after all, ignorance is bliss."

"Tell me!"

"Fine! Frog mucus, rainbow extract, timberwolf eye, pegasus down, elk antler shavings, salt, and a sprinkle of hoof clippings".

I gagged at the thought of ingesting such things.

"I warned you. Now come on you need to finish it otherwise the effects won't last."

"Fine." I said closing my eyes and swallowing the rest of the putrid solution. "We have big problem to deal with now. The sun is up and I didn't put it there, the Trio must have somehow gathered enough unicorns to perform the ritual."

"Great! So now a huge amount of unicorns is standing against you." Thunder said throwing his hooves up. "I give up, we lost, and you can't go attack them. If you did your godly image would be ruined. Maybe I'll join the pegasus legion once it's reformed.

"Yes but there is another way to stop them. If I battle them for control of the sun, when they go to set it then I can interfere and grab it from them, I'll be able to feel where they are for a moment."

"Then what? I mean once you've taken the sun back it's not like you can just go and lock up all of the participants for treason."

"I plan to make an appeal to them to abandon the Trio."

"You can be very convincing but do you actually think that they're going to convince them to change allegiances...again."

"Do not worry, I will prevail in the end now go and free the guards. I'll need time to prepare myself it's been a long time since I've had to fight for control over the sun."

"I'll do that, all I have to do is figure out where they're being held." He he grumbled leaving. I began to prepare myself, I had no Idea how many unicorns they had I would need to be at top magical fitness if I was to ensure a win.

I spent the entire day in preparations and as the day was about to end I saw the sun start to move and I reached out to it with my magic. It was not as easy as I expected and once I had a hold of it I began to tug gently and they responded with a tremendous pull. I retaliated with my own pull and managed to get the sun out of their grasp. As expected I was able to follow their magical reach as it returned to them and I realized that it was one being. I shuddered as I felt the familiar power of the alicorn amulet and on top of that I felt it coming from Canterlot. The Uni impersonator had found that cursed amulet and put it on, he would lose himself if he didn't take it off soon and probably destroy Canterlot in the process.

I quickly set the sun and brought up the moon and I went to leave the castle, I knew where he was and I wasn't about to risk losing him. I took flight and went to the spot I had felt him at, I found the manner of one of the lesser nobles. I lit down and knocked on the door, then I realized that I had come without telling anypony that I was coming here. I thought of ways I could possibly get the guards attention when the door opened and a blast of red magical energy sent me flying.

The unicorn stepped out of the doorway, "how did you find me?"

"You know for a member of the Trio you sure don't care for the other two."

"Answer my question!" He demanded.

"I know the sun and it helps me whenever I need it to." I answered. "Now care to tell me where the other two are."

"No!" He shouted then shot a red wave at me.

I took flight to dodge it, "so where did you find that cursed amulet?"

"During one of my archaeological trips to the north." He answered shooting again and missing.

"But where? I've been searching for that thing ever since Sombra's banishment."

"I found it buried about a foot underneath the snow." He said grinning.

"You don't know what powers you’re meddling with" I told him and dodged another blast.

"I beg to differ, as I see it I have enough power to replace you..."

"And what of the other two! Have you forgotten what the Trio stands for?"

"Do you really think that I care at all about the Trio, I was using them to help me overthrow you? After all the unicorns aren't the master race for nothing. Once I had you out of the way I'm going to dispose of them and take everything for my own!" He shouted unleashing a barrage of energy.

I put up a shield spell, it faltered and I was hit causing me to fall to the ground. He stood over me, "Now Princess you die and I take your place!" He said his eyes glowing red.

"What about them" I said gesturing towards the earth pony and pegasus that had arrived in the middle of the fight.

"Hello pals" He said turning to them and smiling widely.

"So you never wanted to rule side by side?" The pegasus said crossing her hooves, "Rock, get him!"

The earth pony charged. The unicorn reacted by putting up a shield, but when the earth pony made contact he passed through it without hesitation. He hurled his heavy armor clad body on top of the unicorn placing a small ring around the unicorn’s horn.

"There if I couldn't break the necklace I'll remove your ability to use it." he said putting more weight on the unicorn.

The unicorn bore his teeth and shouted "Get off me you pathed..."

"Nope." The earth pony said putting more weight on him, "I'll get off when you take off the amulet."

"I can't even move! How the hey am I supposed to remove this amulet?!" The unicorn shouted.

"Figure it out smart guy."

The pegasus came up to me and helped me up, "Princess forgive us for all the trouble we caused you, all me and Rock wanted was to get rid of the remaining predigests between the races and that unicorn used us to get what he wants. I know we have to pay for our acts of terrorism but all we ever did was beat up a few guards."

I smiled at her, "He's not in control of himself, but if those were really his plans then he will be punished accordingly. But I suspect that he made most of it up on the spot...

"THERE I GOT IT OFF! NOW GET OFF!!!!!!!" We were interrupted by the shout.

"Was that so hard?" the earth pony asked getting up.

"Yes! it was!"

I rose into the air and faced the now standing unicorn "Unicorn! You have attacked me and you have challenged my right to rule. My judgment should be harsh, however with the new information that you have had the alicorn amulet on the whole time I can only conclude that the amulet's power was too much for you and made you act the way you did."

The unicorn looked down, "But I didn't..." he began but was interrupted by the pegasus hitting him in the side.

"Furthermore you did bring to my attention the fact that I wasn't treating all the races equally. Seeing how you can be reasoned with now, I propose that you three become like the Trio of old and perform the same duties that they had with my sister and I."

"You would forgive me for the attacks without consequence."

"Oh I wouldn't say that, you three will be working with less pay than you would usually start with but once you've earned my trust I'll restore your pay. I must also make you aware that one of your duties is to take on apprentices capable of performing your duties when you retire."

The earth pony leaned in to the unicorn, "I say we do it, it's better than the dungeon."

"I agree" the pegasus said speaking up.

"Majority rules, fine Princess we'll do it."

"There you go, what did everypony think." Celestia asked the group.

"Wait! I've never heard of the Trio before!" Twilight said before anypony could speak.

"I regret that they're usually glossed over in the history books." Celestia answered.

"That wouldn't be the group of ponies who are responsible for me turning into 6 would it?" The Doctor asked.

"No, those were their successors. After they caused that...incident I was forced to disband them, but as I understand there is a constant rumor that they still exist and operate in the shadows" Celestia answered.

"So I tell a story that shows how a mere mortal was able to defeat me without his own magic and you tell a story of how you defeat a bunch of foals." Discord said somewhat bewildered.

"Oh please Discord I told you your story was a bit unusual for these things." The Doctor said.

"'Oh please'" Discord mocked, "Watch! Soon all of you will be telling stories like mine."

"Chaos thought the same but it didn't work out for him either."

"Who?" everypony asked the Doctor simultaneously.

"Shall we get to the next story? We've got three princesses a dragon and well me to go so who's next?"

There was a silence, "Come on I understand that there are at least three newcomers and one who missed the last one for reasons but come on someponies got to go next."

"Why not you?" Cadence asked.

"Maybe after the next one but come on, how about you Luna surely you ran into trouble with those nasty beast up there on the moon. Or Cadence that cult give you any trouble. How about Twilight's little time paradox, yes the paradox that works, tell that story."

"What paradox?" Twilight asked.

"Oh yes, that's right when time reset you didn't retain the memories. Don't' worry I'll just set the machine to reintegrate the memories into your brain" He said twisting knobs and waving a humming piece of metal. "There we go, once you put on the helmet you'll get the memories back"

"Are there any side effects?" Twilight asked lifting the helmet and putting it on.

She just finished fastening the straps when he said, "Well your brain could explode".

"What!?"

"Don't worry it's completely reversible." He said looking away, "Just start and I'll make sure it doesn't happen."

"Ok" Twilight said looking hesitant.

"Well" Discord pressured.

"Not long ago when I was visited by my future self from next Tuesday we touched each other and it only lead to trouble..."

Author's Note

Wow that was a doozie to write, it's what I get for not wanting to split these stories into multiple chapters I guess.
Bet you can't guess what the trouble was.