The CMC Defense of Equis

Chapters

The Dream
The Fall Of Mare Do Well
A Meeting of Generals
Deadly Thorns
Breaking the News
A Sleepover and Another Fight
Roots of Darkness, Part 1
Roots of Darkness, Part 2

The Dream

Chapter 1:The Dream

Darkness, that's all there was, only darkness could be seen as an orange filly descended into the abyss. Eventually she gently landed on a platform that looked a little less than solid but proved to be more than capable to hold her weight. She got to her hooves and looked around the platform. Two ponies were depicted on the surface. A cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane and herself were immortalized in the center of the platform. After a minute or two she finally spoke up.

“Hello?” She said to the blackness “Rainbow Dash? Girls? Anypony?” She desperately called out into the empty air, hoping that one of her friends would arrive to save her from this dark and scary world where she now found herself, unfortunately her calls were answered by an unfamiliar voice that did nothing to reassure the confused filly.

“You’re here,” a voice said in a distinctly masculine tone. The filly looked around nervously trying to locate who was talking to her but, despite looking around the entire platform, she could not find the source of the mysterious voice.

“Huh? Who are you? Where are you? More importantly, where am I?” She called out, desperate to know what’s going on. “You better get me back or I’ll be forced to beat you up!”

“There’s no time left,” He said in response, showing no reaction to the filly’s warning, “You must awaken the power within you for the tragedy that will come to Equestria.”

“Tragedy?” She said in a confused tone.The filly did not understand what was going on, but those words alone were enough to keep her interested and scare her at the same time. This combination allowed the voice a chance to speak while she was quiet.

“Don’t be afraid,” He said, “you hold the most important key deep within.”

“Within where?” Just then a light shone from above and illuminated the area in front of the orange filly. In the beam of light she saw herself with her two friends.

“There is still time... The door to the darkness is closed on Equestria, for now...” the voice said with a tone that held both importance and indifference.

“Huh?” The filly was confused by the words of this voice. The light faded and a door appeared in front of her.

“Proceed forward,” The voice said.

The door opened. The filly saw this as an opportunity to maybe get out of here. As she stepped forward a light surrounded her. It died down to reveal some kind of weapon on the ground in front of her. The pommel was decorated with an orange wing and near the tip of the blade. The blade itself looked like it was made of glass with curved, orange and black strips of metal running through it.

Before she could ask what she was looking at, the voice spoke. “This is a Keyblade.”

“A what?” She said confusion loud in her voice. Scootaloo wasn’t as good with words as her friends were but she knew what a blade was, despite the rarity of a weapon in Equestria. What she did not understand was why she would need a weapon. “Why are you giving me this?” She asked the voice.

“You and your friends are the only ones who can stop this threat,” the voice responded.

“You mean Applebloom and Sweetie Belle? Awesome! We get to save the world!” The filly’s mind suddenly became filled with what a ‘saving the world’ Cutie Mark would look like.

“Be careful. Your enemy will stop at nothing to achieve his goal. There will be all kinds of obstacles on your journey to save Equestria from its ultimate doom.”

Suddenly, something tried to attack her. She dodged and turned around, the Keyblade somehow in her mouth. The thing was black and had yellow eyes. It was about the same size as she.The filly didn’t have time to think, as the creature lunged for her, she swung her weapon immediately vanquishing it.

As the filly pondered about how she had wielded the weapon with such skill another one of the dark creatures was sneaking behind her before the creature could attack the filly it was hit by a fireball.The filly staggered to her hooves and turned around to see a silhouette of a bipedal creature, completely covered in shadows. Before she could identify the creature it spoke.

“You’re ready,” he said in the same mysterious voice that had been talking to the filly while she had been in this odd realm, ”Remember you are your friends’ power and they are yours.”

“That’s kind of cheesy but I’ll keep that in mind,” The filly responded, unsure of what else to say.

“Stay strong... Scootaloo” The figure said with a pause in his voice before he disappeared.

“Wait, what?” Scootaloo managed to say before her vision faded to black and she fell to the ground.

Scootaloo woke up in cold sweat as she just realised that she was in Applebloom’s room. Her mind tried several attempts to make sense of the situation before she remembered that she and her friends were having a sleepover at Sweet Apple Acres after a long night of crusading. It was at this point that Scootaloo noticed that Sweetie Belle and Applebloom woke up at the same time as herself.

“Did you have a nightmare?” Scootaloo asked.

“Yeah...it was scary,” Sweetie Belle responded.

The fillies decided to share the nightmares that each of them had been in. Much to the collective shock and surprise of the group each of the dreams had been exactly the same in regards to events and occurrences.

“What do you think this means?” Scootaloo said to her friends.

“’s just a dream,” Applebloom said, “Prob’ly means nothin’,”

“I don’t know... it felt pretty real,” Sweetie Belle said, uncertain.

“Well, worryin’ about it ain’t gonna get us nowhere, let’s just go back to sleep,” Applebloom said. The others nodded in agreement. In a short while they were all asleep, tomorrow is going to be a tough day for the fillies.

In a dark world a figure was standing in a tower of white stone. The man was wearing a black coat, the coat was adorned with a hood and two white drawstrings. The hood was pulled over his head and blocked his face from view.

“The time is near,” he said. “The time for Equestria to fall to Darkness.”

He jumped off the tower and flew to the top of the castle, the moon was close to the top of the castle. He opened up a portal and in there he saw a pegasus with a rainbow colored mane saving a baby, everypony was cheering for the hero, everypony bar the mare’s five closest friends who stood off to the side, less than impressed at the amount of selfish pride the athlete was showing.

“I can see where this is going.” The figure said.

A/N:
Moon_Fire~ big thanks to N64Fan for editing the story (and putting up with my randomness)

Blazer300~ and my self depreciation

The Fall Of Mare Do Well

Chapter 2:The Fall Of Mare Do Well

A celebration, unique unto itself, was being held in the Ponyville town plaza at midday. Over the past few days a new pony called Mare Do Well was being a heroine to the town and a celebration or parade of some kind was being held in honor of her. This was different because the only thing any really knew about her/it was that the odd pony always wore a mask and had been rumored to use both pegasus wings and unicorn magic.

The mayor introduced the town’s heroine and stepped off the stage to go take her place in the seats below, at the same time a cyan pegasus was about to go up on the stage until...

“FIRAGA!” Was spoken in a voice so loud it overwhelmed all other noises in the area and brought everyone’s attention to the giant fireball that was approaching the stage at an incredible speed.The masked pony jumped high off the stage seconds, before it was blown sky high.

As the masked pony looked up, she saw a bipedal cloaked figure along with four ponies and some kind of dragon descending to the ground.There was a black Pegasus stallion with a white and grey mane, a unicorn mare with a clear blue coat and a red and white mane, another had a tan coat with large forest green splotches and a chestnut mane with dark green highlights,the last one was a unicorn stallion with coat that looked as dark as the night sky with grey spots all over him and a mane that looked like fire itself.

“The Mysterious Mare Do Well I suppose?” The cloaked one said, “Let’s see how mysterious you are under that mask of yours!”

Everypony panicked and all chaos broke out as the crowd split up and ran off in different directions, trying to get as far away from the fire throwing creature as possible. At the same time Mare Do Well had managed to recover her senses after the fireball had sent her sprawling, with a look around the masked pony decided that now was as good a time as any to run away as well and made a break for one of the alleys.

“Fools!”The cloaked figure said with a smirk, ”Spread out and find them.”

“Right!” The group responded simultaneously to him as the four ponies and dragon spread out around the alleys to surround the masked pony.

Meanwhile Rainbow Dash had been confused. She hadn’t expected others wanted to expose Mare Do Well, but they looked like they wanted to kill her. Dash hated Mare Do Well for making her look ridiculous but she hated more when something tried to kill somepony else. She rose up from her hiding spot and flew to the alleys to save Mare Do Well, she didn’t like working with her but it appeared she had no choice.

The masked pony was running as fast as she could as she was being chased by the tan and green pony that was catching up with the masked pony as she tried to find some sort of exit but she got caught in a dead end.

“You have run out of options Mare-Do-Well,” the mare said with a wide, twisted smile, “Since you are about to die I see no reason why you can’t learn the name of your killer.”

“Herbtail!” Came an indignant cry.

“Why Fleetrain, how nice of you to interrupt,” Herbtail said as she looked up at the pegasus.

“You know the boss’ orders: no killing them,” Fleetrain said with a stern look.

“Fine I won’t kill her,” Herbtail said with a frown on her face, greatly disappointed by the lack of killing she would be allowed. She turned back to where Mare-Do-Well was supposed to be, but saw only a wall. “Great, you let another one escape, Fleetrain,” Herbtail said as she ran out of the dead-end alley.

Meanwhile two other masked ponies reunited and took off their masks to reveal an orange earth pony, and a lavender unicorn.

“What was that?” The lavender pony asked.

“Ah’ Don’t know Twilight, but those guys looked dangerous if ya’ ask me,” the orange pony said.

An alabaster unicorn with purple mane and a light yellow Pegasus joined them to plan what they were going to do against these new enemies.

“Wait, where’s Pinkie?”

“You’re looking for this pony?” Asked a new voice which none of the ponies were familiar with.

Turning around they saw the cloaked creature holding the unconscious Pinkie. He threw her to the ground in front of the group of ponies.

“PINKIE PIE!!” They all yelled as they ran to help her friend. Even from the distance they had been at it was obvious she had been hurt, but as they approached they could see that it wasn’t a lethal wound. After they realized that their pink-maned friend was fine the group turned to face the creature once again.

“What IS that thing?” The white unicorn asked slightly repulsed by the appearance of the creature, “And why is it wearing such a horrible looking coat, honestly, black was so last season.”.

“I don’t know, but if he did this to Pinkie it must be powerful,” Twilight responded as she and her friends got into a battle position around the wounded pink earth pony.

“How cute. You actually think that you can beat me,” He said laughing. “You’re nothing compared to me!”

A green energy was forming around the area the figure was about to make his move.

“LUMINAIRE!!” He yelled as the area around the ponies shone and a big green explosion overtook them.The explosion could be heard across all of ponyville. The cyan pony saw where it came from and decided to fly to the source.

After the smoke cleared the five ponies were all lying unconscious, Pinkie much worse for the wear then she had been prior to it although her earth pony genetics allowed her to take a lot more punishment then her pegasus and unicorn friends. The remainder of the group were knocked unconscious after receiving the Luminaire attack, including Applejack who had been at the center of the explosion.The cyan Pegasus arrived at the scene and what she saw gave her a major shock.

“Wha-what’s going on?” She asked. On the ground she saw her friends in their Mare Do Well costumes unconscious. She then noticed the two-legged creature crouching at the edge of a nearby roof. The pegasus was stunned at the sight of this foe that had easily decimated almost the entirety of the elements of harmony.

The creature was unaware of the rainbow mare’s presence as it let loose a short, hearty laugh. “Success in every degree, almost too easy.” He said as he disappeared into a dark torrent that had suddenly surrounded him. The torrent dropped away a second or two later to reveal an empty rooftop.

“Wait!” The pegasus tried to call to the creature but it had already disappeared, unaware of the cyan pegasus who was at the scene.

Though her consciousness yelled at her to do something in regards to the escaping entity. Her loyalty to her friends came first, the mare quickly dove towards her friends to check if they were ok. They were not. The mysterious and powerful attack had left them gravely injured. They weren’t gonna make it if they didn’t get to the hospital fast. The Pegasus carried her friends as fast as she could to the hospital. At the speed she was travelling she easily missed the fact that one of the costumes slipped out of her grip and fell into the lonely, empty street.

............................................................................................................................................................

The three fillies were on their way to the Mare Do Well parade that was being held in town. The reason for the late arrival was due to the fact Applebloom and Sweetie Belle had both had a large amount of chores they needed to do before they were able to go to the event. The three fillies had opted to use a scooter and wagon combo rather than go on foot, because of this they were moving at quite a fast speed through the streets in hopes of making it to the event before it was over.

As they entered the town they noticed that everypony was panicking and running around wildly with little thought but to get away from something. It appeared that they were all running away from something.

“Why is everypony in such a hurry? It’s not like something horrible has happened,right?” Sweetie Belle said with a confused form of doubt clear as day in her voice.

“Watch out!” they heard somepony yell.

Scootaloo barely had enough time to stop both the scoot and wagon, this was only possible because both of the fillies in the wagon applied their hooves to the wheels to try and stop it. With a sigh of relief they fillies looked towards where the cry had come from and realized they had almost ran into Ms. Cheerilee, who looked as scared as if she just seen a ghost.

“Oh hay Ms. Cheerilee, what’s going on?” Applebloom said. This was certainly a new side to their teacher they hadn’t seen in the classroom.

“oh, it’s you, Girls, I have something I need to tell you.” Cheerilee said in a tone that sent a small shiver up each of the filly’s spines.

“W-what is it?” Scootaloo asked, not sure if she wanted to know what news could make their teacher act like this.

“How should I put this,” Cheerilee said slowly as she carefully choose her next words. ”Applebloom, Sweetie Belle?”

“Yes?” The two fillies answered looking at the purple earth pony mare with tilted heads.

“Your sisters.....are in the hospital.” Cheerilee finally said.

The three fillies had shocked looks as they wondered what could have possibly happened to put both Rarity, who was better at fighting then she first appeared, and Applejack, who had more endurance than just about any other pony in the town, into the hospital.

~A/N~

Moon_Fire~ another chapter edited by N64Fan for ya!

A Meeting of Generals

Chapter 3: A Meeting of Generals

Arriving at Ponyville’s hospital, the three fillies and Cheerilee rushed in. It was obvious to any who witnessed the distressed ponies that they were worried about what had just happened. The group hurriedly approached the desk and called for a nurse. When she arrived the group hurriedly asked her for the room numbers of both Applejack and Rarity.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t see them right now.” the nurse said, sadness plain in her voice.

“Why not?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“They are still in the ER.” the nurse said.

“Can you at least tell us what happened?” Scootaloo asked.

“I’ll tell you what happened...” came a familiar voice from behind the fillies, said as she walked up behind the three fillies. The three turned around to see Rainbow Dash, in all her athletic glory. Scootaloo was overcome with relief, she ran to Rainbow Dash and gave her a hug when she saw that her idol was alright.

“Rainbow Dash! You’re ok!” Scootaloo said excitedly.

“Of course I’m ok, I don’t go down that easy.” Rainbow said cockily. Her expression then changed to one of worry as she said, “I don’t know if the others are going to make it though.”

The thought that their sisters might die within the next few hours had a very sobering effect on Applebloom and Sweetie Belle. The air was filled with nervous tension as the five ponies waited for news of some kind to come. As they waited, Rainbow told them everything that she had seen happen that day. The attack at the parade, the big explosion, and then the finding of the other Elements injured in the alley.

“Woah,” Scootaloo said, ”I wonder where those guys came from...”

“Yeah, one second they weren’t there and the next they were blasting the stage to bits,” Rainbow said.

A white Earth pony with a red cross for a cutie mark came out of the ER and approached the group to tell them the news.

“Miss Dash,” the pony said, “I am Nurse Redheart, I have some good news... and some bad news.”

Those words didn’t bode well, everypony was now more worried than ever, wanting to know what had happened.

“Well what are you wating for? tells us!” Rainbow said.

“Well, the good news is that everypony has survived and now they are resting,” the nurse said. Everypony gave sighs of relief knowing that they are going to be ok.

“What’s the bad news nurse?” Cheerilee asked.

“The bad news is, well...” The nurse said looking for the right words to say “Rarity has suffered a severe internal damage.”

Sweetie Belle panicked at hearing this. She wondered what horrible thing has happened to her big sister “Wh-what do you mean?” She asked with fear in her voice.

“A part of her magic has been locked away, so the spells she use will be very weak,” The nurse said, remorse coming into her voice. ”But that is only half...”

“W-what is the other half?” Cheerlie asked.

Nurse Redheart had a hard time trying to work up the courage to tell them.

“Well... Her uterus was almost completely destroyed and-”

“You mean she won’t be able to have foals?!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

“I’m afraid so.”

Everypony, with the exception of Scootaloo, was taken aback. At that time Cheerlie and Sweetie Belle had fainted on the floor since the news where too much to handle. Rainbow Dash and Applebloom had remained strong but they still were as shocked as everypony else.

“How are foals and Rarity’s urte- utre... whatever it is, part of the same problem?” Scootaloo asked.

“I’ll tell you when you’re older, kid,” Rainbow said awkwardly. “Anyways, can we see them?”

The nurse nodded and motioned to the two to the rooms where the five Elements were sleeping. ”Be sure not to wake them.”

The five ponies were resting peacefully, evident by the serene looks on their faces. This was despite the fact that almost every part of their bodies were bandaged up. Rainbow Dash took a look to her friends, this had been an unbelievable day; Not only had she discovered that her friends were trying to steal her thunder, some guys came out of nowhere and had tried to kill them, and now Rarity couldn’t give birth anymore. This lead Rainbow down a different path of thought, how would Rarity react when she heard the news?

Cheerilee and Sweetie Belle were taken to a pair of unoccupied beds in the same room as the five sleeping ponies so they could comfortably sleep off their unconsciousness.

After a few moments of silence in the presence of the sleeping Elements Applebloom slowly walked over to her sister’s bed. Time ticked away so slowly to the little filly and after what seemed like an hour at her sister’s side she finally spoke, “Ah don’ know why this happened... Any of this.” She stopped for a moment, tears beginning to form in her eyes despite how much she tried to hold them back, “jus’ don’ die sis.”

“Don’t worry Applebloom,” Scootaloo said, ”She’ll be alright. The nurse said so.”

“We need to tell Princess Celestia about this,” Rainbow Dash said with a determined tone that broke the forming emotional silence.

Applebloom nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes, Cheerilee began to regain consciousness. “Wha- where am I?” Cheerilee said as she took in her surroundings, with a growing confusion.

Sweetie Belle was still unconscious of course and the other three ponies were looking at the resting ponies. They noticed that the magenta earth pony had just woke up and they had an idea.

“Hey Mrs. Cheerilee.” Scootaloo said, “Could you write a letter to Princess Celestia for us? she needs to know about... well... you know...”

“Oh, you’re right I guess,” She said as she recalled the exact reason for why she had fainted.

Taking a pen form one of the nurses and a piece of paper she began to write the letter according to what Rainbow Dash said. After a few minutes she finished writing the letter and she wondered how they would deliver it.

“I could take it,” Rainbow said.

“Wait, what?” Cheerilee said obviously confused.

“You did just ask who would take it,” Scootaloo said.

“I did? That’s odd.. Oh well, I guess I was just thinking out loud.” Cherilee said with a shrug before holding the letter up. Rainbow Dash immediately took the letter and bolted out of the room via a window and was flying as fast as she could, keeping in mind her endurance flight training, to deliver the letter.

.....................................................................................................................................................

Meanwhile in the dark world’s castle Fleetrain and Herbtail were discussing the masked pony’s escape and eating some cupcakes.

“It was obviously your fault that the master had to catch that one, Fleetrain.” Herbtail said.

“You were the one that was trying to go against orders, Herbtail,” Fleetrain said.

“UGGHHHHHH, you two are bickering like a married couple,” Said a third voice.

“I see you’re back, Frostfall,” Fleetrain said.

“We are not bickering, we are trying to decide who’s to blame,” Herbtail said.

“Sure, and I’m Queen Faust herself,” Frostfall said. Frostfall took a light blue cupcake from the platter. “by the way, where did you get these from?”

“Let’s just say Moonfire might not be happy once he sees that they are missing,” Fleetrain said.

“Looks like he outdid himself this time,” Frostfall said while taking a bite of the cupcake.

“Just so you know, I felt a presence in that town that might be a problem,” a dragon said as it walked into the room to meet up with the rest of his fellows.

“And what, Flare, would cause such a problem?” Herbtail asked.

“A Keyblade.” Replied the dragon, his words carrying a worried undertone.

“A Keyblade? Seriously? We killed every Keyblade bearer between here and Earth,” Frostfall said with finality.

“Apparently not the ones that have been born in the last fifteen years,” Fleetrain countered.

“And it’s not just one that I sensed, it was four. And it felt like I had known one of those before...”

“You can’t mean-” Frostfall replied with a glance towards Flare.

“It has to be her. Who else could it be?” Herbtail responded.

“But how has she stayed alive all this time?” Fleetrain asked.

“What’s going on here?” A new voice asked which all of them were familiar with. Entering the room was the two legged cloaked figure who apparently had been standing there the whole time.

“We were talking about a new threat that Flare sensed in that town that we raided, Boss.” Fleetrain said as he swept into a bow.

“Rise up,” Commanded the boss. “What do you mean by ‘a new threat?’”

“I had sensed four Keyblade wielders, one felt like... HER,” Flare said.

He was taken aback by this new information, this certainly complicated issues. “...Interesting.” The boss said. “What about the other three?”

“I didn’t find out anything about them except that they were around ten years old.”

“They could be a problem; by experience I know that Keyblade wielders at that age tend to be powerful,we must make our move.”

“But they could be-”

“A problem! If we don’t do something they will ruin our plans to destroy Equestria!”

“I agree with you Master.” Frostfall said.

“First, let’s see how strong they are, send some Shadows after them.” The boss said.

“As you wish.” Herbtail said with a bow before fading into a dark portal.

“I see that you’ve persuaded Moonfire to give you some of his cupcakes.” The boss said with a glance to the confections that sat on the platter.

“WHERE THE HELL ARE MY CUPCAKES?!” could be heard coming from the other side of the castle.

“Looks like he finally saw that they were missing,” Fleetrain said with a wide grin.

“Not again...” The boss said as he face-palmed.

A/N

Moon_Fire~ another chapter edited by N64Fan, please go look at his stuff (it really needs more attention)

Deadly Thorns

Back at Canterlot Rainbow Dash was flying as fast as she could to the castle ignoring the other pegasi in the skies. As she landed in front of the castle gates she encountered two guards that were blocking her way.

“Let me in!” She said to the guards.

“What business do you have here?” the guard on the left said.

“I have to deliver this letter to the princess, it’s very important!”

“Nopony is allowed in the castle without an appointment.”

“It’s about the bearers of the elements, so let me in right now!”

The guards perked up at hearing this. Normally they wouldn’t let anypony in without a good reason and this was more than a good reason.

“Alright, you may enter,” The guard said, stepping aside. As the gates flew open and Rainbow Dash rushed in to deliver the letter.

Ten seconds later she arrived at the bottom of the Dias in the throne room.

“And what brings you here, Rainbow Dash?” said the white alicorn sitting in the throne.

Rainbow Dash bowed and said between gulps of air, “Princess... Celestia... I have... a letter... for you.”

The princess grabbed the letter with her magic and slowly began to read it’s contents. After she read it she looked with astonishment at the cyan pegasus and read it again.

“Alright Princess, I’ve finished- hey Rainbow- taking... RAINBOW DASH?! What are you doing here?” a small dragon said as he walked into the room.

“Oh my goodness!” Celestia said after reading the letter for the second time. “We have to get to Ponyville NOW!”

“What’s going on?” the dragon asked.

“There’s no time spike we have to go now,” Celestia said panicking. Her horn had begun to shine as she prepared the teleportation spell taking Rainbow Dash and Spike along with her.

Not much later they reappeared in the hospital entrance.Upon entering the hospital Celestia walked to the counter to talk with the nurse.

“Where is Twilight Sparkle’s room?” she asked.

“Room 696 B, your majesty,” the nurse said with a bow.

“Thank you,” she said to the nurse. During the walk to the room where the injured ponies were, Rainbow Dash told Spike everything that had happened today.

When she got to Rarity’s injuries Spike said, “Those monsters. I’m gonna... just- PAIN lots and lots of PAIN!”

“Whoa, calm down,” Rainbow said trying to keep the baby dragon from rampaging.

Before they knew it they where standing in front of the room door where their friends where resting.

“Look, I know that you’re worried about her, but getting angry won’t resolve anything,” Rainbow said.

They both entered to find that Sweetie Belle was fully conscious and Princess Celestia was looking at the beds that the poor ponies were in. After a while Celestia called Rainbow Dash to find out more details about the strange creature.

After Rainbow Dash explained with more detail Celestia had a sense of dread. She now suspected everything or everypony suspicious.

“Tell Twilight when she wakes up to send me a letter about what has happened I need to hear her side of the story,” Celestia said to Rainbow Dash as she left the room. The visiting hours had just ended so they had to leave, for the element bearers had to recover from the wounds that had received.

Cheerilee led the three fillies to Sweet Apple Acres where they were to stay for the night. When they were inside Cheerilee had offered to tell the news to Big Mac.

“I’m afraid that Applejack won’t be coming home for a while” She said to the red stallion.

“Why?” Big Mac asked.

“There was an accident. She got severely injured, but she will make it.”

“Oh C’lestia, that don’t sound too good.”

“I know but can you take care of the fillies until they recover?”

“eeyup.”

With that, Cheerilee said her goodbyes and returned home.

They prepared the rooms for the fillies to sleep.

After this rough day the fillies where not sure if they could sleep peacefully knowing that their sisters were inches from death. Finally exhaustion overtook them and they fell asleep.

A little after midnight, Herbtail and thirty Shadow Ponies came out of a Dark portal at the edge of the Apple family orchard. Alright, Herbtail thought to herself, now where are those three foals? She saw a building off to the left and trotted towards it. While she was walking she decided that it would encourage her targets if they saw her alone and dismissed the Shadows until they were needed.

When she arrived at the door, she felt for a lock with her magic and found that there wasn’t one. Looks like they are very trusting of other ponies, she thought as she tried to open the door. Damn, guess they aren’t as naive as I thought they were.

When she felt for the three presences, she found that they were on the second story, but, they also were not there at all. Strange, that could only mean... Her eyebrows shot up as she realized that they were using a Wayfinder.

The three fillies awoke to see that they were in a white room that seemed to have no ceiling. The room had only one door and the room looked pretty much empty and some strange symbols were on the walls and floor.

“Hey, what are you two doing in my dream?” Scootaloo asked.

“This is YOUR dream? I thought this was mine,” Sweetie Belle said.

“We’re having the same dream again? What’s happening here?” Applebloom asked.

“I’ve been expecting you ever since I felt your Awakening,” a voice said.

The door opened to reveal a bright light and an outline of a pony. Due to the blinding light, the fillies could not see what the pony looked like.

“You’ve you been expecting us?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“You have a powerful gift and the time has come to use it.”

“What do you mean?”Applebloom asked.

“If you want to protect those you love, I recommend you wake up and use the Keyblade while you can,” The pony said.

“The Keyblade?” the fillies asked.

“Yes, each of you have your own version of the Keyblade, an-”

“But, how can each of us have a Keyblade if there’s only one?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I was about to explain that,” the voice said with a hint of amusement .The pony summoned a sword of some sort. It looked somewhat like a key, but the fillies could not mistake it for anything but a sword.

“Hey! That’s the one I saw in my dream!” Applebloom exclaimed. It was mostly white with a faint rainbow going up the blade to what looked like a blossom with two leaves forming the point.

“Whoa, cool! That’s almost as awesome as mine,” Scootaloo said.

“Only you could say that, Scoots,” Sweetie belle said as she rolled her eyes.

“Is this one mine?” Apple bloom asked the pony.

“Please take it so we can move on. We have barely enough time as it is,” the pony said.

Applebloom walked up and took it with her mouth.

As soon as she grabbed it, another one appeared next to it. This Keyblade had a white and gold blade with what looked like a wing near the tip. Above the handle were three small saphires and there were six of the small gems running down the blade.

“How did you know what mine looked like?” Sweetie asked the pony.

“I merely asked it if it would show itself,” was the reply.

“Looks like we’re back in the ‘riddles’ section,” Scootaloo said as Sweetie Belle reached for her Keyblade, and like before, when she grabbed it, another Keyblade appeared. It was the same one that Scootaloo used in her dream.

“And that’s why I said that mine was cooler,” Scootaloo said as she walked up to it. “But your’s looks way more awesome than mine Sweetie Belle.” When she touched her Keyblade they were back in Applebloom’s room standing on the bed with their Keyblades ready.

Down in the kitchen, Herbtail had run into the table and was rubbing her chest when she heard three voices coming from the stairs.

“Are you sure that you heard something, Applebloom?” said a young voice.

“Ah know Ah heard somethin’ down here,” another voice said.

“I heard something as well right after we woke up, Sweetie Belle,” a third voice said as the three fillies walked around the corner. They noticed Herbtail right away.

“I presume that you three are the Keyblade wielders that I’ve been sent to kill?” Herbtail asked.

The three fillies responded by summoning their Keyblades.

“I take that as a yes.”

“Why don’t we take this outside then,” the mysterious unicorn asked them while turning around. As soon as she was out the door Scootaloo asked, “Who was that?”

“I think we should go ask her,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Didn’t you hear her? She said she was sent here to kill us!” Applebloom said.

“Yeah, and that pony in the dream said that if we don’t do anything everypony would die.”

“I’m wait~ing,” the unicorn said in a singsong voice.

“Fine, we’ll try ta talk ta her,” Applebloom said.

Once outside, Scootaloo asked, “Who are you?”

“I am Herbtail, Mistress of the Roses and the herald of your doom!” the unicorn said with a haughty smile. “Have at thee!” she shouted as Shadows came into existence.

(music for the fight)

“Looks like it’s time to take out the trash, girls!” Sweetie Belle said while jumping at the nearest Shadow.

“Hey, I was about to say that!” Scootaloo said as she sliced one in half.

They finished off the last Shadow after two minutes of intense fighting. “Looks like I’ll have to test you myself,” Herbtail said as she summoned her scythe. It was a scythe that had a sword where most of the handle was supposed to be. It had a rose surrounded by black on the flat of the blade and the edge was blood red.

“Come at us, sister!” the fillies said together.

The three fillies started to circle to Herbtail’s left. In reaction to that she made sure to keep them infront of her. Scootaloo tried to attack her but she used her scythe to deflect the attack, the other two followed, but she pushed them back with thorny rose bushes that she had summoned.

“Is that the best that you can do?” she asked. “Rose Of Destruction!” she shouted as her voice echoed with power. Rose petals soon came out of nowhere as they flew towards the three fillies and started forming a rose. The fillies jumped out of the way right before it exploded, and galloped straight at Herbtail with their Keyblades low to the ground, ready to strike.

“You are no match for me,” Herbtail cried, “Thorns of Oblivion!”

Thorny vines sprouted from the ground right in front of Herbtail and more spread out like a wave towards the CMC. The fillies didn’t slow down as they sliced through the wave of thorns and didn’t waver from their path.

“Still trying to pass this test? Well then, Black Rose Storm!”

The stars were slowly blotted out as a dome of roses formed around the fillies, who had stopped. Then glowing, pink petals formed a loose dome around the fillies and after a few seconds, the petals hurled themselves, with a speed that rivaled a sonic rainboom, at the fillies, who sliced each petal as they jumped and weaved around each other. When all the petals were gone the dome of roses shattered and revealed Herbtail about to strike Sweetie Belle.

An inch from her neck, the blade was stopped by Applebloom’s Keyblade.

“Looks like you’ve been beaten,” Scootaloo said cockily as she swung her Keyblade at Herbtail’s spine.

Herbtail managed to dodge the blow enough that it landed on her left foreleg and jumped away from the fillies. “You may have won this battle, but the war is far from over,” she said as she walked though a dark portal that appeared behind her. As soon as Herbtail was through, the portal closed.

After talking about the battle for a few minutes, Sweetie Belle spoke up, “wait, what about your brother, Applebloom?”

“Yer right, we DID forget ‘bout him,” Applebloom replied.

“Why don’t we see if he’s up then?” Scootaloo suggested as she walked to the house.

The three fillies walked up to Big Mac’s room and slowly opened the door. The red stallion was still sleeping. Even while the battle was taking place he had slept.

“What?! He’s still asleep?” Scootaloo whispered.

Suddenly, the stallion jumped out of bed. “Wha- who’s there?”

Breaking the News

The next morning the three fillies took Big Mac to see the hospitalized ponies, after they were done with some chores for Sweet Apple Acres. The ponies on the street were repairing the damage from yesterday’s incident, and the four ponies found it hard to get anywhere fast.

Eventually they made it to the hospital room without problems. When they arrived they found that the five ponies were awake and had three visitors already. Rainbow Dash, Spike, and a dark blue pony with wings and a horn just like Celestia, turned to see the three fillies and Big Mac enter the room.

“I assume these are the fillies you told me about,” the alicorn said.

“They sure are, princess,” Apple Jack said.

“Hey there Scoots,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Who’s this?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Sweetie Belle! That is no way to act in front of a princess. I’m sorry princess, she do-” Rarity said.

“Please, Rarity, don’t start acting like this again,” Twilight interrupted.

“We are Luna, and We assume that thou art Sweetie Belle,” the dark blue alicorn said.

“Yes, I’m Sweetie Belle,” Sweetie Belle said.

“And Ah’m Applebloom,” the cream colored filly said.

“I’m Scootaloo,” Scoots said.

“And we’re: THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!” all three fillies said together.

Just then the doctor walked in. “Well, I have good news and bad news,” he said after looking at his charts. “The good news is that you will be able to leave in two weeks.”

“What’s the bad news doctor?” Twilight asked.

“The bad news is that, Miss Rarity here, will not be able to have foals, and her magic was severely weakened from what ever happened to you.”

“WHAT?!?” The other ponies said except Rarity.

“Wha- I...no...it can’t be! this has to be a cruel joke,” Rarity said looking at the doctor.

The doctor, however, had a serious face as he said, “I wish I was kidding, Miss Rarity, but I am nothing but serious with my patients.”

At that, Rarity had fell silent for what she had heard taking a moment to swallow the news. After what felt like an eternity she spoke again, “Wh-what about my magic?”

“You will be able to cast spells, but it would require all of your concentration to do so.”

At that moment Rarity had begun to cry, sure she can still make dresses, she only needs to focus a little more. But she can’t start a family. Her dreams of finding a stallion and have beautiful children with him had been broken like a mirror.

Sweetie Belle moved towards her sister to give her comfort and her friends did the same and gave her a hug.

“It’s ok Rarity, we’ll get through this... somehow,” Twilight said.

“Yeah! How about if we have foals, we let you foal-sit them?” Rainbow Dash said.

“B-but I wanted to have my own foals, a-and it won’t be the same,” Rarity said between sobs.

“I know I know but there’s no other way” Twilight said placing a hoof on Rarity’s shoulder.

After thinking for a minute Rarity decided it would be best to accept her friends offer. For a long time she was generous to her friends and now it was their turn to return the gesture. Rarity would be happy at the decision she made this day.

“We need to know what happened, who did this to you?” Luna said.

Twilight looked at the princess direction she tried to remember the events at the parade and it all came back.

“Well here’s what happened...” Twilight told everything that was going on. Rainbow Dash was letting the fame go to her head, so her friends had gone with the Mare Do Well plan to teach the cyan pegasus a lesson.

“I...I don’t get it, don’t you wanted me to become a hero?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“We DO wanted you to become a hero, you just got carried away,” Rarity said.

“But a real hero doesn’t brag” Applejack said.

Princess Luna had been listening to Twilight’s side of the story with an intense look of interest. The ponies that the lavender unicorn had described sounded awfully familiar the princess hopes that it’s not the same enemies that she think they are.

“I see,” Luna said “ It would be wise to send a letter to my sister explaining the situation Twilight Sparkle.”

Using her magic Twilight began to write the letter to Celestia. A few moments later she had finished writing the letter and gave it to her dragon assistant to send it after burning it with his green flames.

Back at the dark world Herbtail was sitting at a table with the boss on the other side.

“Tell me Herbtail, how strong are the fillies?” the boss asked.

“They were strong enough to weaken me a little, but not enough to stop our-- I mean, your plans,” Herbtail replied.

“Really? Then we don’t have much to worry about,” the boss said. “We just need to send Fleetrain and Frostfall in and they will be dead in no time.”

“Why not just me, master?” Flare asked as she appeared in the room from a portal.

“You can’t do this job alone,” the boss said looking at Flare. “United, they are strong, but...”

“We separate them, and they fall,” Fleetrain said as he glided in through a window.

“It’s possible,” the boss replied, “To be honest I’m kind of wanting them to survive for a while.”

“Sounds like someone wants a final battle with three Keyblade masters,” Moonfire said as he walked into the room.

“Not only that Moonfire I want them to experience the maximum level of despair” The boss said chuckling.

“Setting up a battle that you will be able to win hands-down? I thought you were better than that,” Frostfall said as she stepped out of a dark portal.

“Oh you’ll see what I mean soon enough, Frostfall” The boss said laughing, “I have a hell in store for the Keyblade masters.”

“Oh, I forgot to mention that they took out thirty Shadows before I fought them,” Herbtail said.

“That doesn’t matter. We will succeed! We will make the ponies of all of Equestria suffer!” The boss said standing up

“And then ‘we’ will rule over all,” Frostfall mumbled under her breath.

The boss suddenly perked up as he felt a familiar force on the land of Equestria, it belonged to one of the ponies who had locked them up in this world of darkness.

“So, you know that we are awake, huh?” the boss said to himself.

“Did you feel that as well, master?” Fleetrain asked.

“I TASTE that,” The boss replied to Fleetrian.

“Should we do something about Her?” Moonfire asked.

“No, she can’t do much by herself, She’s alone,” The boss said.

“So, we wait for Her to make a move?” Frostfall asked.

“Even if She DID something she still wouldn’t stand a chance” The boss said.

“Yeah, it’s not like anypony can stop us-- I mean you, master,” Herbtail said.

“Whatever, the important thing is keeping the Keyblade masters occupied for a while,” The boss said.

“Yes, let’s keep them busy for a while,” Herbtail said maliciously.

“Let’s not hurt them too badly though,” Moonfire said.

“You’re such a sissy Moonfire,” The boss said.

“Hey, I just don’t like hitting mares, or fillies for that matter!”

“Can you remind me why I recruited you?”

“I’m extremely smart, I can make anything with just a box, and I can cook better than those other idiots,” Moonfire said with a smile.

“Oh, so we’re ‘the idiots’ now?” Herbtail said, slightly annoyed.

“Just who was it that came up with an ‘unbeatable plan’ that got our tails kicked ten thousand years ago?” Frostfall asked.

“If you don’t want my foot up your flanks you better shut up!” The boss yelled.

All three of them stopped arguing and turned towards their master, fear evident on their faces.

“I guess Frostfall and I-” Fleetrain began a few minutes later.

“Enough!” The boss commanded “Let’s just prepare the next assault!”

The bipedal cloaked figure had left the room with anger in his voice leaving the generals to carry on the orders he gave.

“looks like we’re in for some punishment,” Herbtail said dejectedly.

“Frostfall, come with me,” Fleetrain said. “We need to gather the Shadows for the next battle.”

“That’ll be better than sitting here waiting to get punished,” Frostfall said as she created a dark portal.

“What about me? I didn’t do anything here,” Flare said as Fleetrain disappeared into the closing portal.

“Who knows what he’ll do to us,” Moonfire said.

“All I know is that I’m tired from fighting those foals,” Herbtail said.

“Oh yeah, who was it that took my last cookie?”

“That was yours?”

“... You’re lucky that I don’t hit mares,” Moonfire said maliciously.

“And you’re lucky that I’m tired right now.”

“Why do I always get stuck with you two?” Flare asked.

A Sleepover and Another Fight

Two weeks have passed and now the element bearers have recovered from their injuries and moved on with their normal life. Except for Rarity who had received an intense amount of internal damage resulting in her not being able to have foals, not to mention that most of her magic has been locked away leaving her to give all of her concentration to continue her work.

Over the past few days Rarity had to overcome the events that had left her in such condition, she had a hard time falling asleep, she turned to drinking and many other things when she knew the lonely future but, with the help of her friends she knew that she was not truly alone.

While their sisters recovered, the three fillies had been training their skills with their Keyblades; learning a couple skills and magic to fight the new menace. The three fillies finished their training for the day and headed to Rarity’s for the sleepover that was gonna take place.

The white unicorn was busy working with her dress. She had gotten an enormous order and she could not afford to waste time. She was searching through her materials when a loud bang interrupted her.

“Hi Rarity!” Two fillies said as they ran past her and up to Sweetie Belle.

“Hi Applebloom! Hi Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle said as they reached her.

Rarity turned around to see the three fillies along with Fluttershy in the room.

“I’m sorry girls but, I have too much to do right now and can’t watch you tonight,” Rarity said.

“I could watch them for you... um... that is... if you don’t mind...” Fluttershy said.

After some talking Rarity finally relented and let Fluttershy watch the three fillies. On the way to Fluttershy’s cottage they met up with Twilight,she looked like she going somewhere.

Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Sweetie Belle ran past Twilight while saying, “Hi Twilight!”

“Hi girls,” Twilight said walking over to Fluttershy. “Hi Fluttershy, are you looking after them for the night?”

“Oh, yes, I am,” Fluttershy said.

“Weren’t they having the sleepover at Rarity’s house?”

“Oh, she was very busy so I offered to take care of them.”

“Are you sure you can handle them yourself?”

The two mares turned to see the three fillies playing near a well. Scootaloo was about to fall when the other two fillies grabbed her before she fell.

“Don’t worry I can take care of these sweet little angels” Fluttershy said.

The two mares were talking for a while before they had gone to their respective destinations. Twilight was going to the Everfree Forest Fluttershy suggested that she should bring company but Twilight insisted that she will be fine.

Later that night Fluttershy was having a hard time taking care of the three fillies. Luckily she managed to tuck them in bed after dealing with some chickens that were trying to escape, having damaged a table and singing them a lullaby song which somehow ended up as a rock song.

At the top of the dark world’s castle Fleetrain and Flare were waiting for the right moment to strike. They were watching the three fillies and a yellow pegasus entering the forest searching for the animal they had lost.

Frostfall scoffed and said, “Those are the fillies that beat Herbtail? They look more like foals than what she made them out to be.”

“But we still have to fight them, Frostfall,” Fleetrain said.

“Let’s just get this over with then.”

“Don’t rush blindly into battle Frost, you might find out that there are traps too late to stop.”

“How can they set traps for us?! They’re just foals!”

“Anypony, no matter what they look like can set traps.”

“Fine, lets wait for the most opportune moment then.”

Looking back at the portal, the yellow pegasus and the three fillies made their way inside the forest searching for the lost chicken.

After searching for a while, the group had continued their search in the forest at one point, Fluttershy had gotten separated from the fillies, on her way she found Twilight turned to stone meaning that a cockatrice was nearby.

Not much later the yellow pegasus had found the fillies and warned them about the danger they were in, but Applebloom paid no attention to the warning and started to walk to a nearby bush.

“Ah think Ah see the chicken,” Applebloom whispered.

“Don’t get too close, Applebloom, it might be the cockatrice!” Fluttershy warned.

“Well if Ah ever saw one of those cocka-thingies, I would just laugh at how silly it looks like-”

Just then the filly bumped into something. At first it looked like the lost chicken but, when she looked closer she saw that it’s body was snake-like; it was the rampaging cockatrice.

“Come on girls follow me!” Fluttershy said running into the woods thinking that the fillies were behind her.

But then the cockatrice ran away terrified as if it felt that something of great evil was getting near.

“Why did it run away?” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo asked at the same time.

“Ah don’t know, but it must mean something REALLY bad is coming this way,” Applebloom said, her eyes darting from around the forest.

“And it is right to run away, little fillies,” a voice mysteriously said from their left.

“Who are you? And where are you?” Sweetie Belle asked looking for the source of the voice.

“So many questions. What do you think we should do, Frostfall?” another voice said from their right.

“I think we should let the Shadows take care of them... for now at least,” said the first voice.

“You’re sayin’ that you’re with that ‘Herbtail’ mare?” Applebloom said.

The fillies could hear clopping coming from the left as the voice said, “I guess you aren’t as foalish as I thought you were.”

“Hey! I know I’m not the brightest filly in our school, but that doesn’t mean you can call me a foal!” Scootaloo said.

“Hehe, one even admits to being dumb, Frostfall. Looks like this will be easier than we expected,” the second voice said.

“Show yourselves! Nopony, and I mean nopony gets away with calling my friends dumb!” Sweetie Belle said.

“I guess we should, shouldn’t we, Fleetrain?” the first voice said.

“I think we should, Frostfall,” the second voice said as the pony stepped to where the fillies could see him. “I am Fleetrain, dealer of Shadows and master of storms.”

“And I am Frostfall, mistress of ice and maiden of sorrow,” the first pony said as she came into view.

Sweetie Belle’s anger was rising now that the ones responsible for her sister’s condition had appeared.

“So YOU’RE the ones that ruined Rarity’s life?!” Sweetie Belle asked with a great rage in her voice.

“Who, that white mare? I can assure you that that was my master’s doing, not mine,” Frostfall said.

“And how do I know that you aren’t lying,” Sweetie Belle said through clenched teeth.

“If I had had my way with her and her friends, they would be frozen into lovely statues right now.”

As Sweetie’s anger was still rising the fillies had summoned their Keyblades and prepared to fight.

Fluttershy was running through the woods trying to escape the cockatrice she slowed down to find Twilight who was walking down the path when Fluttershy came around the corner.

“Oh, Twilight! Thank goodness you’re back to normal!” Fluttershy said as she trotted up to the unicorn.

“Hi, Fluttershy. What do you mean by ‘back to normal’?” Twilight asked.

“Oh... um... a cockatrice turned you to stone and-”

Fluttershy suddenly noticed that the three fillies were not with her,she began to panic fearing that something bad has happened to them.

“Oh no! Where are the girls?! I thought they were still following me!”

“You brought them here?! Why would you do that?!”

“Well, one of my chickens escaped and they ran in after it to try to bring it back and I ran in after them to make sure they were alright... ”

“Do you have any idea what monster would be lurking around here?”

“Yes... and I did try to get them return to my house... but... please don’t be mad at me!”

“We don’t have time for this come on let’s go look for them before they get hurt!” Twilight exclaimed as she ran in the direction that Fluttershy came.

Meanwhile deeper in the woods the three fillies had begun to get ready for their assault, however the two ponies had something else in mind.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did we forget to mention that it is not us you will be fighting right now?” Fleetrain asked.

“We did forget, Fleetrain.” Frostfall affirmed.

“I guess we did... Nevermind that, first you three will go up against a Behemoth,” the forest shook suddenly as something started moving their way, “Ah, here it comes now, I hope you three don’t disappoint us.”

The forest began to shake more furiously as the beast that Fleetrain and Snowfall had summoned got closer with every step.

The beast had finally showed itself. It looked like a purple bull only that it has yellow eyes and his horns were sticking out of the sides of its mouth. The fillies were now starting to feel a small bit of fear as they looked at it.

“Wow, that’s huge!” Scootaloo said.

“More like scary,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Ah don’t wanna die!”Applebloom cried.

The beast was about to begin the attack and the fillies tried to be brave as they took their offensive stances again.

Fluttershy and Twilight were running through the woods searching desperately for the missing fillies eventually they found their way back to the clearing. Fluttershy immediately spotted the fillies relieved, she decided to go get them.

“Gir-’’ Fluttershy managed to say before she was swept back into a bush by Twilight’s magic.

“Wait! Who are those two ponies they are talking to?” Twilight whispered.

Looking more closely Fluttershy noticed a black pegaus and a clear blue unicorn barely visible in the shadows.

“Who are they?” Fluttershy asked.

“I don’t know but they look familiar” Twilight replied.

Giving a closer look the mares noticed a purple bull-like creature that was about to attack the fillies.

“Oh my goodness! Twilight we have to help them!” Fluttershy said panicking.

“Wait, what is that?” Twilight asked pointing a hoof at the fillies.

She noticed that they were holding sword-like weapons having a key shape at the edge.

(music for the fight with the Behemoth)

The monster charged at the fillies which were lucky enough to dodge it in time. Scootaloo attacked the monster’s feet striking it a few times only to be swayed back by a stomp it didn’t hit her but the impact force was strong enough to push her back; while Applebloom attacked from above, hitting it successfully in the head, Sweetie Belle cast a weak fireball spell at it and hit its horn.

The monster flinched a bit as it prepared its next assault. Its eyes on Sweetie Belle, the monster charged at the white filly but then a orange blur hits him stopping his assault. Another hit was given and the monster still didn’t know where it was coming from.

“Hey! I’m over here you big dummy!” A voice said to the creature before it was hit again.

Sweetie took the chance to regroup with Applebloom while the creature was being attacked over and over again by the orange blur.

“Is that Scootaloo doing that?” Sweetie Belle asked Applebloom.

“Ah guess she saw it flinch when yer fireball hit it’s horn.” Applebloom said.

“Wait, it flinched at my Fireball?”

“Yeah! That there horn must be its weak-spot!”

“Well let’s not let Scoots have all the fun!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed as she started galloping towards the Behemoth’s left foreleg.

“Right behind ya!” Applebloom said as she started for its right foreleg.

They reached the legs and jumped into the air above the colossal beast. At the same time they maneuvered through the air and aimed their Keyblades at the horn. Scootaloo had seen them and ran to the back of the creature’s body and timed her run with the other two’s fall so they all struck the horn at the same time. When their Keyblades struck home the beast let out a terrible roar as it reared back and began to fall on its side. Before it hit the ground it’s body turned into soot and was dispersed by the wind.

“And that, Fillies and Gentlecolts, is how the CMC take care of business!” the fillies said together as they struck a dramatic pose.

“Well what do we have here? They actually know how to fight?” Frostfall asked.

“... That move... I know I have seen it before... But where?” Fleetrain said to himself.

“Hmm? You say something Fleetrain?”

“Nevermind what I said, we have a fight to finish.”

“But we haven’t even started.”

“You know what I mean!”

“Sheesh, you can’t take a joke?”

They began to summon their weapons as they walked out into the clearing made by the Behemoth. Frostfall’s weapon looked like a spear made of light blue, transparent ice. Fleetrain’s weapon was a halberd with a black handle and a crescent shaped blade and strange markings near the middle of the blade.

“Heartless Devastator, how long it’s been since I last held you,” Fleetrain said to his weapon.

“You’re still talking to it like it’s a pony, Fleetrain?” Frostfall asked him.

“And you still have no respect for weapons, Frostfall.”

They stopped near the middle of the clearing, weapons gleaming in the moonlight.

“Guess you two want your flanks kicked as well!” Scootaloo said as she crouched into her defensive stance.

“Do not be so arrogant as to assume you will win, little foal,” Frostfall said.

“And don’t be so foalish as to think we will be pushovers!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

“Insignificant little whelp! I will teach you how to talk to your elders!”

“Bring it on!” Sweetie Belle said as she leaped at Frostfall and swung her Keyblade.

“You are wishing for your own death!” Frostfall exclaimed as she blocked the swing.

“Let’s let Sweetie Belle focus on her, and go after the other one,” Scootaloo said to Applebloom.

“Ah’m already ahead of ya!” Applebloom said as she ran towards Fleetrain.

“Hmh, this should be interesting...” Fleetrain said with a smirk.

“Don’t you think you’ll have all the fun either!” Scootaloo said as she caught up with Applebloom.

Applebloom aimed for Fleetrain’s leg but he managed to block it with his Halberd and pushed her back. Scootaloo took a leap to attack but Fleetrain used a wave of dark energy to interrupt Scootaloo’s attack making her fall to the ground.

The two fillies rose up to strike Fleetrain again. Charging at the black pony, they used their momentum to slide far to either side of him and came to a momentary stop before galloping as fast as they could straight towards him with their Keyblades lowered to strike. Fleetrain saw what they were doing and leaped out of the way right in time to make the fillies collide, only to hit Frostfall himself.

“Ah! Watch where you’re going, Fleetrain!” Frostfall exclaimed as she parried another blow from Sweetie Belle.

“It’s not like I meant to do that, Frostfall!” he shot back as he started his own attack on the two fillies that were after him.

Sweetie was having a difficult time fighting Frostfall, every strike she dealt was being blocked or dodged.

“Can’t you STAY STILL?!” Sweetie Belle yelled, becoming more and more frustrated with every swing of her Keyblade.

”You’re just too slow, dearie,” Frostfall said as she dodged another swing.

“I’m slow, am I? Let’s see how you like THIS!!” Sweetie Belle said as she stopped and backed up a out of Frostfall’s range. Her horn started to glow as she began to cast a spell. “HASTEGA!” she shouted as she finished her spell. Sweetie Belle then launched herself at Frostfall, swinging her Keyblade twice as fast as before.

“Looks... hfm... like you know how to use... gah! spells to your advantage. Ahh!” Frostfall went down with multiple blows to her, the last one being a strong hit to her back.

“Frostfall!” Fleetrain yelled. “You three will pay for that! DARK DESTRUCTION!“

A wave of dark energy came off of him and left what it passed over blackened as it sped towards the edge of the clearing. The fillies were thrown back by the wave, when they landed they were at different ends of the clearing.

Fleetrain ran to Frostfall and said, “Are you alright?”

“She got lucky there, Fleetrain, now let’s finish them off,” Frostfall said as she stood up.

Fleetrain focused his attack, engulfing the fillies into a deep darkness. The forest could not be seen anymore only pitch black could. While the fillies looked around to locate their enemy Frostfall took her chance to attack the defenseless fillies.

“WINTER’S EDGE!” Frostfall shouted. Ice shards rapidly formed in the darkness heading towards the three fillies. The shards that hit the fillies gave them cuts and made them stumble. The fillies remained strong and tried to evade Frostfall’s attack while searching for the ponies hiding in the dark.

“Hahaha, how feeble you are compared to us!” Frostfall said.

“Indeed, they do seem to be weakening,” Fleetrain said as he appeared in front of the fillies swinging his halberd.

Scootaloo barely blocked the attack but she fell down due to her fatigue, she didn’t know how much longer they could last before these ponies killed them. “Girls, I don’t think I can take much more of this,” she said.

“Come on, Scoots! We cain’t give up! If we stick together we can beat these guys and their boss!” Applebloom said as she helped Scootaloo to her hooves.

“Yeah, together we can take anything these ponies throw at us, and dish out twice as much right back at them,” Sweetie Belle said from the other side of Scootaloo.

“Well then let’s give them a taste of what friendship can do!” Scootaloo exclaimed, her fatigue forgotten about.

A flow of magic began to surround the three fillies becoming stronger every second as it grew, a pattern began to form surrounding the fillies and spreading outwards until the edge was a circle. Blue lights began to shoot up out of the design. Then it turned into a column of light that began pulsating, and lights began to pop into existence as it shrank and imploded sending out three shockwaves that flung Fleetrain and Frostfall into a tree and dissipated the darkness.

The fillies were speechless at what they had done just now. They had cast a powerful spell that took down the other two ponies easily and healed all their wounds!

“How did that just happen?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“... Ah don’ know Sweetie Belle, but what ever that was is-” Applebloom began.

“It was awesome, that’s what it was!” Scootaloo finished.

“Ugghh... huh?” Fleetrain said as he looked around, trying to find Frostfall. “Where are you, Frostfall?”

“I would appreciate it if you would kindly GET THE BUCK OFF OF ME!” Frostfall said as she hit the back of Fleetrain’s head with her hoof.

“OW! It’s not like I tried to land on you!” he said as he jumped off of Frostfall.

“Let’s get out of here before they decide to finish us off,” Frostfall said as she opened a portal.

“You are right, and besides, we do need to report what happened,” Fleetrain said as he followed Frostfall into the portal.

In a nearby bush Twilight and Fluttershy had their jaws drop, trying to figure out what just happened before them. They saw three little fillies take down a giant monster, cast a spell that even Twilight didn’t know, and finally defeat two of the ponies that tried to kill her and her friends two months ago.

Fluttershy was the first one to speak after what they just saw, “Twilight did you see that?”

“I saw it and I don’t believe it,” Twilight replied, “I mean, how did they do that? What are those swords they are carrying? And how do they know how to fight?!”

“I’m just as clueless as you are, Twilight.”

“Anyways we have to see if they are alright.”

The yellow pegasus nodded before they stood out of the bushes to check up on the fillies and maybe get some answers to what was really going on.

The fillies’ weapons disappeared as they sat down on their haunches relieved that victory had been theirs.

“Man... *YAWN* I’m beat,” Scootaloo said.

“*YAWN* so am Ah,” Applebloom said.

“Hey, there’s Fluttershy and Twilight!” Sweetie Belle said.

“What the hay just happened?!” Twilight asked the fillies as she trotted up to them.

“Um... I - We - uh... nice to see you back to normal?” Sweetie Belle said as she nervously glanced at Scootaloo and Applebloom.

“Yes, it is good not to be a statue -- why are you trying to change the subject? And what were those swords you were using?”

“Umm... I think it would be better if we went back to Fluttershy’s now and got some sleep,” Scootaloo said.

“You’ll be able to after you answer my questions,” Twilight said.

“Why... *yawn* cain’t we answer them when we ain’t so tired?” Applebloom asked.

Twilight saw that everyone was tired not only because it was late but also of the events that took place just moments ago. She gave a sigh in defeat. As curious as she was she could get her answers tomorrow morning.

“Alright we will discuss this in the morning, for now we will sleep” Twilight said.

Their trip back to Fluttershy’s cottage was uneventful considering how many dangerous creatures live in the forest. They put the fillies back into bed and not much later everyone had fallen asleep.

Roots of Darkness, Part 1

A pegasus, with a tan coat, galloping at a Behemoth with a Keyblade in her mouth, jumped on top of it and headed straight for its horn, aiming to finish it off before sunrise. With ten swings of her black and silver Keyblade with a reverse spiked edge, the giant went down.

That’s the last of them, she thought, I wonder how those fillies held against Frostfall and Fleetrain? Well, just one way to find out!

With that she turned towards the clearing that the first Behemoth headed for.

Maybe I’ll see the end of the fight and find out what they know already, or I’ll see them- no! No... don’t think like that, they might be teaching themselves right now, but, in a few days time you will be able to teach them all you know, she looked into her saddlebags that she wore whenever she left her house, BUCK! looks like I need to pay that ole’ Fountain of Youth another visit soon... or maybe... these fillies will be able to finish what we started... If only you were here Doctor, you had a way of pulling together plans of the wildest sort... hehe, guess that last one was a little too wild for you.

While she was thinking, she almost walked right into the still occupied clearing. Whew! they didn’t see me, she thought as she peeked out of a bush. Looks like Fleetrain somehow blinded them... There’s Frostfall trying to use- oooohhh... spoke too soon. And there goes Fleetrain, trying to finish them off with his Halb- WHAT IS THAT?!

She stared in wonder at the column of light that appeared around the fillies. When it was over she saw Fleetrain and Frostfall scrambling to get off of eachother.

Hah, serves you right for underestimating your opponents, ya lame excuses for generals! She then looked towards the fillies, who are those two mares? They don’t look like they’re related to the fillies but... they seem vaguely familiar... ah well, at least those three are safe now. Guess my work here is done, and a little ahead of schedule!

She waited until the clearing was empty and flew up out of the forest. Now, I know I put the map somewhere in my Canterlot apartment, just need to remember exactly which room I put it in...

..........................................................................................................................................................................

“... And then we came back here,” Frostfall said.

She and Fleetrain were explaining what happened during their mission to their boss. They were back in their headquarters in the dark world.

“I see” said the boss sitting on his throne “And what was the attack they used to defeat you?”

“... We don’t exactly know... But... They fought like the Keyblade Masters,” Fleetrain said

“I told you that those fillies were strong, don’t you ever listen to what I say?” The boss said in an angered tone.

“Yes, you were right about them, I just... got a little mad at that white one for hitting my back,” Frostfall said.

“Nevermind about that, we have bigger problems than that.”

“Yes, the Princesses... You never really told us how we were going to beat them,” Fleetrain said.

“That’s easy, we will have you and the other generals - except Moonfire - to gather the armies for a full scale assault on Canterlot.”

“We talking Behemoths and Dark Dragons?” Frostfall asked.

“Do you even know who we are dealing with?” The boss countered even angrier.

“What? Those are the most powerful Heartless I can summon.”

“Exactly, you and the Heartless will attack the city and the guards, while me and Moonfire take care of the princesses.”

“Guess I’ll need to call up The-” Fleetrain began.

“You know it's practically useless against anything but thousands of Keyblade masters,” Frostfall said.

“You’ll see Frostfall, you’ll see; but we need to attack soon, they know too much about us,” The boss said.

“Yes, what with those three and Her... ”

“They won’t make it.”

“But all of us know that She has escaped many of Moonfire’s ‘inescapable’ traps, in fact the only pony he managed to kill was the Doctor, and that was no more than an accident.”

“Moonfire’s plans might not turn out well, but in combat, he will be more than enough. Besides, the moment that She finds out, it will be too late.”

“And what of the Element bearers?” Fleetrain said.

“Just leave that part to me”

“Still... it feels like we’re missing something...”

“Like what?”

“I can’t place my hoof on it, but it does seem like something is staring us right in the face,” Frostfall said.

“She might be listening to us,” The boss said interested.

“If that was the case, we would know exactly whom it was,” Moonfire said as he walked in the room, “well... I would know at least seeing as how I made the protection spells for us and the castle.”

“Well, anyways go and prepare for the invasion of Canterlot, while you’re at it keep an eye out for something strange while you’re preparing the army,” the boss said to the other generals.

“Yessir!” Fleetrain and Frostfall said before stepping into their portals. When the portals closed Moonfire said, “now, I’m still not clear on which of the sisters I’m going to be fighting.”

The boss turned to face Moonfire and said, “You’ll be fighting princess Luna, I’ll take care of Celestia... You better not lose this battle.”

“I will try my hardest to beat her... I still don’t like the fact that it has to be me that fights her...”

“Stop being such a pussy Moonfire! if we lose this battle all of our plans will be ruined!” The boss shouted.

“I’m not saying that I won’t fight, just that I strongly dislike the idea of hitting a mare.”

“Well, like it or not you will do it if you don’t they won’t think twice about killing you.”

“Why can we not try a peaceful way of-”

“Listen to me,” the boss interrupted him, “Do you think they will forgive you or any of us after what we did? No, once you get in the darkness there’s no turning back!”

“I know... it’s just, sometimes I think that it would’ve been better if I hadn’t left them,” Moonfire said quietly to himself.

“Looks like you need some time alone, I’ll call you once we are about to start the invasion,” the boss said quietly while leaving the throne room.

..........................................................................................................................................................................

The next morning Twilight along with the fillies had gone to the library. Twilight asked Fluttershy to tell the others to meet in the library.Twilight, the fillies, and Spike were waiting in the living room for the others to arrive. Hearing a knock on the door Twilight opened to see all her friends standing in the doorway.

“Glad you could make it,” Twilight said welcoming her guests.

“What’s goin’ on Twi?” Applejack said.

“It appears that these fillies have some things to explain” She said pointing at the three fillies.

“What do you mean by that?” Rainbow Dash said.

“It wasn’t exactly a secret, you guys just didn’t ask us what we were doing most of the time,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Sure...Anyways, apparently they know how to fight now,” Twilight said.

There was a few seconds of silence when Spike fell on the floor laughing meaning that he didn’t believe that what Twilight said was true.

“That’s a good one Twilight,” The baby dragon said before he started laughing again.

“I am not kidding, Spike! Last night Fluttershy and I found them in the forest fighting a giant monster-”

“Twilight, I think you hit your head with something ‘cause I don’t think that such thing like that can happen,” Rainbow Dash said.

“You don’t believe me? I’ll give you proof, girls” She called out the fillies, “Show us your weapons!”

“Dear I don’t think they ha-” Rarity tried to speak but she was interrupted to see the three fillies holding their Keyblades.

“What in tarnation?! How the hay did they get those?!” Applejack asked.

“Ah’ don’t know some guy gave them to us in a dream,” Applebloom replied.

“And that they were called Keyblades,” Scootaloo added.

“Yeah, he said that something tragic will happen to Equestria,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Did this pony say what the tragedy was?” Twilight asked.

“No, but those two that we fought were with the pony that attacked you!” Scootaloo replied.

Twilight had never been more impressed than now. Not only she just found out about a dangerous threat but also found out that these three fillies had mysterious power that might save Equestria.

“Man, you three must be tough if you can withstand what they can dish out!” Pinkie said with her usual over excited voice.

“Look at that Scoots, it’s your turn to be the hero now,” Rainbow Dash said while Scootaloo was blushing at her idol’s compliment.

“I think we should go to the princess about those ponies and what ever their weapons are,” Twilight said.

She took a piece of paper and a quill out and began to write the letter.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I have figured out what kind of enemy we are facing, I have also found three fillies who can save Equestria from the tragedy that’s going to happen.

These enemies are the same ones that had attacked us two weeks ago and stripped my friend, Rarity, from her magic and future family, they showed an incredible power we barely had time to strike back. We still don’t know what their motives are but we must take action right now before it’s too late.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

Twilight folded the letter and gave it to her dragon assistant and he blew his green fire sending the letter successfully to it’s destination.

“Now all that we can do is wait,” Twilight said.

“Sssssooooooooo... what do we do while we’re waiting?” Scootaloo asked.

“Purple waffle eggs!” Pinkie Pie suddenly shouted.

A few minutes later the letter from Celestia had finally arrived. Twilight opened the letter and read it out loud.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

You and your friends should join my sister and I in Canterlot as soon as possible to talk about these new enemies that you’re facing. We will explain the rest when you get here.

Signed,

Princess Celestia.

“Everypony grab your stuff we have to go to Canterlot!” Twilight said after reading the letter.

The six ponies and the three fillies headed out the library to the train station that leads to their destination they didn’t have to wait long because the train was leaving already so they hopped on the train and it took off in no time.

Moments later they were in the castle halls searching for the throne room. A royal guard walked up to them and motioned for them to follow him, stopping at some gates the guard opened the door to reveal the princess waiting inside. They bowed down to them before standing up again.

“Good morning, my little ponies,” Celestia said with a small knowing smile.

“Princess what is it you wanted to talk to us about?” Twilight said.

“This enemy that you’re facing... is not to be taken lightly like NightMare Moon and Discord,” Celestia said in a serious tone.

“Sorry I’m late Tia,” Luna said as she teleported into the room.

“What do you mean?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“These ponies... are just horrible...heartless monsters that will do anything to make you suffer,” Celestia replied fearing at the memories of these monsters.

It was not normal to see Celestia this terrified that could only mean that these ponies were beyond dangerous: Rarity was the living proof of that.

“Wha-What are we dealing with? H-how can they be beaten?” Twilight asked.

“You might want to take a seat because we are familiar with these ponies” Luna said.

“Wait, you know who they are?!” Twilight said, astounded that even Luna knew of them.

“Yes, they were - for a time - normal ponies.”

............................................................................................................................................................

Luna and Celestia nodded to each other and began to cast a spell.

“What we are about to show you is how They came to be,” Luna said as the spell finished. When the flash of light dissipated, they saw that they weren’t in the throne room, but instead were floating inside a house next to the creature that had attacked them sleeping in his bed.

He had woken up put on a blue shirt and some shorts he began to run down the stairs to prepare his breakfast. After finishing his breakfast he sat down on the couch in the living room to watch a metal box that displayed some images.

“What’s that he’s looking at?” Twilight asked.

“He said that it was called a ‘TeeVee’,” Luna answered.

“We interrupt this program for a special news update,” a voice said from the box. “It appears that a huge ship of some sort is floating above New York City and... wait a moment, something’s happening to the ship, It looks like-”

Just then the power went out.

“What?” the boy said looking around, “What happened to the lights?”

“Princess? What was that ship doing?” Twilight asked.

“... You will see shortly,” Celestia said.

The boy stood up from the couch; he heard something outside so he took a knife out of his pocket and went to see what was going on. The scene before him was intense, there were short, gasmask wearing aliens attacking everything they find.

He could not believe this this was a day that no boy thought would come, this was The End Of The World. He saw his best friend and his family go down under a hail of pink needles and kids from his school get blasted by a green missile that a huge armor-wearing beast shot from a gun attached to its right arm.

“This can’t be happening,” The boy said dropping on his knees.

One of the aliens saw him and headed towards him. This was it there’s nothing that he could do to save himself the boy just sat there waiting for his death. But it didn’t come. He looked up and saw a man in green armor standing over him, “Get up! This is no time to pray!” the man said.

“Alright,” the boy replied standing up.

“We need to get to that carrier... Do you have a Warthog we can use?”

“A what?”

“Ah, a civilian. Do you have a vehicle that we can use?”

“Well... no.”

“Looks like you’re out of options, Chief, we’re walking,” a feminine voice said.

“Who said that?” the boy said looking around.

“That’s Cortana, an AI that is tough to destroy, and even harder to lose. I couldn’t ask for a better roommate.”

“I’m confused.”

A row of explosions appeared and both of them took cover time was running out the aliens were going to destroy the planet any minute now. Just then the boy saw a truck going down the middle of the road mowing down aliens as it headed towards them.

“Wha- How- Why- ” Twilight stammered.

“Sssshhhhh, it’s just getting good!” Pinkie exclaimed as she ate some popcorn.

“SOOOEEYYY! Come get some you freaks of nature!” a man yelled from the back of the truck.

The boy just stood there, not understanding what was happening, not to mention that he wasn’t getting answers either. The truck stopped right in front of the boy and a girl said, “Get in! We’re gonna go get them varmints before they destroy th’ city! I’m Caroline by th’ way.”

“Do I have a choice?” the boy replied.

“No, you don’t. Now get in before you get killed,” the man in the armor said as he shoved the boy in.

“Chief, be nice, they are just civilians,” Cortana said.

“Get us to the nearest airfield,” the ‘Chief’ said.

“Why there?” Caroline asked as she floored the gas.

“We’re going to drop onto that carrier and destroy it.”

“Well, looks like you have a humdinger of a plan and I’m commin’ along t’ be yer pilot.”

“ARE YOU CRAZY?” The boy screamed.

“Are you crazy?” Twilight shouted “that’s suicide!”

“You have perfect timing, Twilight. You two said the exact same thing at the exact same time!” Pinkie happily exclaimed.

“The story isn’t over yet, my little ponies,” Celestia said.

“Sorry princess, I guess I get too deep into books... well, stories in general,” Twilight sheepishly said.

“His plans are crazy, but we always survive them,” Cortana said.

“Hey, Carol! Can ya toss me another box a bullets?” the man in the back said, “I’m Cletus by th’ way!”

“Sure,” Caroline said as she picked one up from the floor and tossed it through the small window in the back of the cab, “there’s th’ airfield off ta th’ right!”

The boy looked to the right around the Chief and saw a field between them and a hangar.

“Are we going to do a little off roading?” the Chief asked.

“You bet yer britches we are!” Caroline said as she turned the wheel and headed straight for the hangar.

“What kind of plane is there?” Cortana asked.

“’S a twin engine Cessna 421, ‘s got enough power ta get us ta that there ship, but not enough ta get us back.”

“Looks like we’re getting out my way then,” the Chief said as the truck stopped next to the hangar.

They piled out of the truck and opened the hangar.

“Looks like Caroline wasn’t kidding about the plane,” Cortana said as the vehicle in question was pulled out.

“Here,” Caroline said as she tossed the boy a bag, “we’re gonna need these parachutes if we’re gonna survive, you need one as well, big guy.”

“We don’t need one, thank you anyways,” Cortana said.

They climbed into the plane and Caroline started the engines.

-o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o-

As the plane was rolling down the runway, five flying things started shooting and diving towards them. Then one of the flying things shot a green missile at the airplane and destroyed it.

“Blargy blarg honk,” one of the pilots in the flying things said into his radio.

(A/N: that means: The Demon has been killed)

Roots of Darkness, Part 2

“So, what? They’re dead?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Rainbow, nothing could’ve survived that explosion, so yes, they are dead,” Twilight said.

“Wait, what is that?” Scootaloo asked pointing a hoof at the plane.

A ball of light was coming out of it and rose to the sky until it couldn’t be seen anymore.

“That would be His Heart, Scootaloo,” Celestia said as the scene faded.

The scene changed into an alley in Canterlot. The ball of light flew into the alley and the ball of light grew into a human form, the same boy that they saw earlier. In the alley were four foals that looked vaguely familiar.

“Those are the ponies that we fought! But... are they our age?” Sweetie Belle said.

“Yes, those are four of His generals, and yes, they are your age here, Sweetie Belle,” Celestia said.

The boy woke up to see that he was in some sort of alley. He stood up confused, the last thing he remembered was Earth getting invaded by aliens, someone took him to safety and then he died in an explosion. Looking deeper into the alley he saw four foals sleeping there.

“What the hell?” He said quietly leaning over them, “Ponies? What are ponies doing here?”

One of them stirred at his whispering. He felt pity for the poor guys, these foals were homeless they don’t have a place to go. Without thinking twice he picked up the four foals, got them out of the alley and began to search for a place to live in.

The boy noticed that only ponies could be seen and they were giving him weird looks probably because they never saw a human before. Not too later he had left the city and was walking in an open field the boy walked for a few hours until he found a castle in the middle of the woods.

On the castle gates he found two guard ponies with golden armor and white coat.

“Hey um... me and these guys need a place to stay, so is it possible that you...” The boy said holding the foals in front of the guards.

The two guards took the foals before proceeding to knock out the human boy.

“What? Why did they do that?” Twilight said.

“Back then things were different... maybe a little too different for you to believe,” Celestia said.

The boy slowly opened his eyes to see that he was in some sort of Dungeon or prison, he stood up and walked to the iron bars, there were two guards standing outside.

“Hey! what’s happening? what did I do?” He asked to the guards.

“Oh good, looks like you’ve finally woke up,” said a young voice.

“Wait, was that-?” Twilight started.

“Yes that is Discord,” Celestia answered.

“Why in tarnation is he free?” Applejack asked.

“He hadn’t always been the spirit of chaos, in fact he was-” Luna began.

“Don’t spoil the surprise, Luna,” Celestia interrupted.

A figure came out of the darkness that looked like he had different animal parts for each limb. He started to take a look at the boy curious of where did he came from or what he is.

“Hmmm... I can tell why the guards locked you up. But please, allow me to introduce myself. I, am Malichias,” the thing said with a bow.

“Um, can I ask you something?” the boy said.

“Actually, I was going to ask you some questions myself.”

“Where to begin? Where am I?”

“Currently, you are in the dungeons of the castle, in the city of Canterlot, which is the capital of Equestria, which, I might add, is on the planet Equis.”

“Ok, second: why did you throw me in here?”

“I did nothing of the sort! By the way, whose foals were you carrying when the guards arrested you?”

“I’m not sure, I just found them when I woke up, honest!”

“... They did say that they were orphans... very well, guards, please let him out.”

The guards doubtfully opened the cell and the boy stepped out to meet Malichias face to face.

“I sure hope you know what you’re doing, Mal,” a white alicorn said as she came through the door at the end of the hall. She looked like princess Celestia, only her mane and tail were pink.

“I do, Celestia.”

“Your mane was PINK?!” Rarity said.

“Like I said, a lot was different back then,” Celestia said.

“Who is she?” The human boy asked looking at Celestia.

“That, my friend, is Princess Celestia,” Malachias said.

“Oh, hi there!”

“I hope you know, that since you found the foals, you are responsible for them,” Celestia said.

“Well obviously, but I don’t feel very comfortable talking down here,”

“I know, I was just about to take you to the foals... they do need names, don’t they?”

“Hey, you’re right, they DO need names.”

With that they left the dungeon and walked through opulent hallways to a room that had a huge bed and four foals playing on it being watched by another alicorn with a dark blue coat.

“I think my heart has exploded from the cuteness,” the boy said smiling.

The foal with a grey, speckled coat looked up and said, “If that were the case you wouldn’t be standing there.”

“WHOA! Didn’t see that one coming.”

The alicorn looked at the boy and said, “Who’s this Tia?”

“Someone from a now dead planet,” Celestia said.

“How did you know?” the boy asked.

“I watched the destruction,” she answered cryptically.

“But- It- Just- I- What?” The boy tried to speak obviously confused.

“She means that she saw it though her special mirror,” Luna explained.

“I’m...not gonna ask,”

“Luna! Why do you have to make it sound like I’m crazy?” Celestia said with comedic indignancy.

“How could that even be possible, Tia?” Malachias said.

“Jokes aside,” The boy said interrupting him, “Care to introduce us?”

“This is my sister, Luna,” Celestia said as she pointed to the other alicorn.

“Nice to meet you.”

“Same here,” Luna said as she shook his hand.

“Now, about their names...” Malachias began.

The boy began to name the foals with the help of the princesses and their....friend. Moments after, they had finally decided the names for all of the foals.

“Then it’s settled, you will be Herbtail, you will be Frostfall, you will be Fleetrain and you will be Moonfire, you guys like it?” The boy said naming the foals from left to right on the bed. They looked happily for the names that were given to them, the boy couldn’t have been more happy.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Celestia said turning to the human “You haven’t given us your name.”

“I forgot to ask that too, tell us your name,” Malachias said.

The boy took his time to look around the room seeing that everyone even the foals have been staring at him curiously. After collecting his thoughts and seeing that this might be a nice place to begin a new life the boy finally introduced himself.

“My...my name is Marcus” He said.

“Marcus? what a weird name” Sweetie Belle said.

“As time went on Marcus and the other ponies had been living a peaceful life, he had been taking care of those foals as if they were his own brothers and sister,” Celestia said.

“Then... how did he turn evil?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I think it would be best if you saw it for yourself,” Celestia grimly said.

The scene faded and the castle gardens appeared, and standing in the middle of a path was Malachias with a bouquet of flowers and Marcus standing at his side.

“It’s going to be fine, Mal you two had been really close lately after all,” Marcus said trying to cheer up Malachias.

“But what if she doesn’t want to be my marefriend? What if-” Malachias said worriedly.

“I’m sure she will accept, after all she’s been there for you when everybody feared you and now you’re like from the family.”

“Yes, but you didn’t see the way she looked at my creations...”

“Look all that matters is what’s on the inside, now go get her!” Marcus said pushing Malachias forwards.

Just as Marcus jumped into the bushes beside the path, Celestia came around the corner. She saw Malachias and said, “Hello, Mal, what brings you here?”

“I was wondering... if maybe you would like to *cough* go on a date with me?” Malachias said nervously as he held out the bouquet.

She grabbed the bouquet with her magic and levitated it in front of her. At first it looked like she was gonna say yes but the disgusted look on her face said otherwise. She threw the bouquet on the ground and began to stomp on it.

“Do you think I have not seen your latest ‘improvement’ for ponies?” she snarled.

“I said it was a new kind of pony, not an improvement. Besides those stripes-”

“And you have the nerve to ask me to be your marefriend?! I am being judged just for being seen near you.”

“Bu-”

“Good bye, Malachias, I do not want to see even one feather of yours again,” with that she turned and cantered away.

“Wha-? D-did you really say that?” Twilight asked.

“... Y-yes, I did... I have regretted it ever since,” Celestia said as a tear rolled down her cheek.

Marcus stepped out of the bush with his jaw dropped by the scene that had unfolded before him. She had rejected poor Malachias and in the most cruel way possible. Usually Celestia was kind and calm. Seeing his friend crying over the stomped flowers he rushed to his side as fast as he could.

“Wow....just wow,” Marcus said looking down at Malachias, “that was so cruel that I can’t describe what she did without swearing.”

“S-she... hates... me?” a shocked and heart-broken Malachias said.

“I’m as surprised as you are, I didn’t think I would hear that from the princess’s mouth I...I’m sorry.”

“... She... thinks... I’m a... a monster...”

“I’m afraid so my friend.”

“But... I... thought she... saw me differently than everypony else did...”

“I guess not everypony can see one’s true self, but Celestia was completely heartless back there.”

“If that is the case, then so be it. If they see me as a monster... I will become one.”

“Huh?”

“If they want me to terrify them, then I will acknowledge their desires.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Will you join me, Marcus?”

“You bet I will, nopony treats my friend like that and gets away with it,” Marcus said as he and Malachias rose up with evil looks upon their faces, “say your prayers Celestia, not that it will do you any good.”

The two of them left the garden and vowed that no matter what, justice, would be served. Malachias and Marcus called themselves Discord and Malbitorus. They took the four fillies and left Canterlot behind, not looking back. For years they perfected their chaotic powers and pillaged towns, wreaking chaos wherever they saw fit and revelling in the madness that had become their lives. Soon, they had attracted a sinister adversary that they quickly defeated and turned into their army. With legions under their control they turned towards Canterlot and burned a scar into the land in their wake.

“Princess! Discord and his army are headed this way!” a messenger reported.

“You MUST see to reason, Celestia, join your sister and be safe for when they can be defeated,” an alicorn chancellor said.

“What about the search for the Elements, Primus, how does it go?” Celestia asked.

“It will be months before Princess Luna discovers their location, if you would just join her we could-” Primus began.

“Very well, I will help Luna search for where they are,” with that she teleported away.

The scene abruptly changed to the inside of a huge cave filled with countless books, and even more numberless scrolls. At a table in the middle of the cave sat Luna, who was quickly going through thirty books at a time. Sensing her sister’s arrival she finished the books and set them down in a pile that had a sign sticking out of it that read: No Information.

“There has been no progress with the search, Tia,” Luna said without turning around.

“That is why I am here to join you,” Celestia replied.

“I thought you were going to-” Luna was interrupted by a blast outside the cave.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

The scene in front of the ponies changed to a large, technologically advanced room with two beings that looked like Marcus. One was banging on some buttons and muttering to himself; the other was looking at a small window-like thing.

“Doctor! we have a situation here!” the second one said with a feminine voice.

“What kind of situation, Daring?” the first one said as he hit a button with a hammer.

“Wait, that’s Daring Doo?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Yes, it is,” Celestia said.

“Huh, in the books she’s a pegasus.”

“That is what she looked like before she came to this universe, Rainbow Dash.”

“Wait, what?”

“She means that Daring came from a different universe,” Twilight explained.

“Come on, guys! Stop interrupting the story! The readers probably don’t want to hear what we have to say right now!” Pinkie said.

Celestia looked at Twilight with a confused expression.

“That’s just Pinkie being Pinkie,” Twilight said as she shook her head.

“There’s an anomaly up ahead, what the TARDIS means by that, I don’t know,” Daring said.

The Doctor came up behind her and looked over her shoulder, “That, would be a rip in the universe and we are headed straight for it.”

“Are we going to try to close it?”

“Yes.”

“And how are we going to do that?”

“We have to go through it.” the Doctor said as he ran around the console and mashed more buttons.

“WHAT?! We’re going into that thing?! I thought you said that we would be ripped apart if we tried to go to another universe!”

“No, I said the TARDIS would be ripped apart, and that was only if there wasn’t a rip in the universe assuming-” the Doctor was interrupted by a loud bang and sparks coming from the console in front of him. “Great, now we can’t change course even if we wanted to!”

“What do you mean ‘if we wanted to’?! Of course we want to!”

“Well there’s nothing we can do now, except close the rip behind us.”

“And how do we do that?”

“We don’t have to do anything, the TARDIS does it automatically.”

“Why didn’t you say that before?”

“Because, in order to do that, the TARDIS destroys itself and teleports us to the nearest planet.”

“You mean, we’ll be trapped on an unknown planet? With possibly hostile inhabitants?”

“Well, it’ll be awhile till we actually go through it. So I’ll see if I can find out what the nearest planet is like,” The Doctor said as he ran to another console. “Oh, well lookie here.”

“What?”

“It seems the TARDIS knows about the planet.”

“How does it know about it?”

“Because, it’s similar to a TV show.”

With that the TARDIS sped up and reached the rip in seconds. As soon as it came to the other side of the rip the two beings vanished and the TARDIS exploded.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

When the princesses got outside they saw a rainbow colored ring slowly expanding in the sky and two pegasi falling towards them; one was tan, the other brown. Without a word the princesses took off, caught the pegasi, and took them into the cave.

“Who are these pegasi?” Luna asked as she set down the tan one.

“Why are you asking me? They aren’t from this universe I can tell you that much,” Celestia said as she set down the brown one.

“I was just thinking out loud, Tia.”

“Well, until they wake up, there is nothing we can do for them,” Celestia said as she walked towards the table.

A half hour and three thousand books later, one of the pegasi woke up.

“Wha-? where am I?” the tan one said.

Celestia put down her books and, without turning, said, “You are in Grydon, the gryphon kingdom.”

“Wait, gryphons exist here? And they have their own country?”

“Yes to both of your questions. Now,” Celestia turned around to face the pony, “I am curious as to what your names are.”

The tan coated pony doubted for a while see if she can trust these two other ponies but after the hospitality that she has been showing she decided that it was alright to introduce herself.

“I’m Daring Doo, and- AAHHHH!!!!” she said as she saw the brown pegasus next to her.

“Hhmmff- Daring, could you keep it down? I’m trying to sleep,” the pegasus said sleepily.

“Doctor?! Is that you?”

“Yes, who else do you think I would be?” he said as he sat up.

“I’m sorry to interrupt-” Celestia began.

“Would you look at that, I’m a miniature horse!” he said as he looked at himself, “and I have wings as well! Do you, by any chance, have a mirror?”

“As I was saying, who are you and what are you doing here?”

Both of them perked up at Celestia’s interruption. The brown pegasus wasn’t sure if he should tell them about how they ended up in here or about the adventures that they had.

“I guess it would be better if you knew that, I am the Doctor and we came here through a rip in our universe, besides that, don’t know,” he said with a shrug.

“What was that ring of light that we saw?” Luna asked.

“Probably us entering this universe... Or the TARDIS blowing up.”

“What’s a TARDIS?” Celestia asked.

“TARDIS means: Time And Relative Dimensions In Space.”

“Wait, you can not only travel through space but through time too?” Luna asked.

“Yes, I am a timelord after all.”

“Now that we have told you who we are, what about you two?” Daring asked.

“Oh, sorry about that. I am Princess Luna,” Luna said.

“And I am Princess Celestia,” Celestia said.

“Nice to meet you two,” Daring said looking around the cave “Not to be rude but, why are you hiding in here?”

“We are looking through these books to find something known as the Elements of Harmony,” Celestia said looking at various books.

“Why do you need those?”

“There is an army of dark creatures destroying our country, Equestria.”

“Wait, if Equestria is your country then why are you hiding in a kingdom of gryphons?” The Doctor asked.

“You know, I was thinking that myself,” Luna said.

“Can you at least tell us about this army of dark creatures that you were talking about?” Daring asked.

“All we know is that there are two leaders in control of the army and that they have four generals and that they are burning the land on their march to Canterlot,” Celestia said.

Daring panicked at hearing this, right now countless lives are being lost and they are sitting here doing nothing she felt that she had to do something to help those civilians.

“What are we doing here then? We have to stop them!” Daring shouted.

“We can’t stop them, not without the Elements, and besides, it won’t take much longer if you would be quiet and wait,” Celestia said.

“She’s right, we can’t do anything if they are as powerful as they claim they are” The Doctor said.

Daring was still unsure, she wanted to help those innocent ponies as fast as she could but it seems that she would have to wait for a while to actually do anything. Looking at everyone she spoke up.

“Alright, I’m gonna be patient. But I will go and take them on if it takes more than a week.”

With that the princesses walked back to the table and continued reading. Five days later, Luna cried out with joy, “I found them! they’re in the den of a dragon named Flare!”

“Flare? As in ‘The Dark Assassin’ Flare?” Celestia asked.

“Yes that one, why you ask?”

“Who’s Flare?” Daring asked.

“Flare is a dragon that has abilities that other dragons don’t have,” Celestia said.

“Like what?” the Doctor asked.

“She can control the light around her, make herself invisible, or blind somepony she has a contract for.”

“Wonderful,” Daring said, “how are we gonna get the elements from her?”

“She does have one weakness...”

“And that would be?”

“She can’t say no to a contract with a big incentive.”

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

The group began to head towards Flare’s cave to retrieve the elements. On their way there the princesses saw what the chaotic army had done; everything was deserted it was as if nature itself was dying. Looking away at the horrible scene before them they increased the pace to their destination.

They arrived at the cave in the cliffs that made up Equestria’s western border and landed a few feet from the entrance.

“And who might these ponies be?” a voice said from the cave.

“I am Princess Celestia. I have come to you with a contract.” Celestia said.

“How much are you offering?”

Celestia took a deep breath and said, “I will give you four thousand black diamonds from the royal treasury.”

“... And whom is it you would like dead?”

“I assume you have heard of the army that marches toward Canterlot?”

“I have...”

“I want you to go after the army’s leaders and generals.”

“And is that four thousand for each I kill?”

“I would say more like a thousand for each of them.”

“Three thousand.”

“How about, two thousand black diamonds for each of them?”

“... I accept your offer,” the dragon said as it stepped out of the cave. It was twice as big as Celestia and had blood red scales, icy blue eyes, and white spines going down its back.

“I expect the diamonds will be here in three weeks?” Flare asked.

“When this war is over they will be delivered to you,” Celestia said.

With that the dragon took off and faded from their sight. After a few minutes, Luna whispered, “Now we go get the elements?”

“Of course dear sister,” Celestia said and then turned towards the two pegasi, “you two keep a look out, Luna and I must do this on our own.” With that the two sisters walked into the cave to retrieve the elements.

Once deeper inside the cave their gazes were met with several enormous piles of treasure at the top of each were the six Elements.

“We found them! The Elements Of Harmony!” Luna said joyfully.

“I would say we found them just in the nick of time,” Celestia said. “Come, sister we might still be able to fight back.”

With that they each took three of the Elements and went back outside. Once outside the sisters were met with the other two ponies and gave them a smile.

“How did it go?” Daring asked.

“We have them, now let’s go get Flare’s compensation,” Celestia said.

“I knew something was wrong!” Flare said as she landed in front of her cave.

“I’m sorry we had to deceive you, Flare, but we need the Elements to end this war and the chaos.”

“You will have to do more than that, ‘princess’. In fact you can pay that fine right now.”

“What fine?” Daring asked.

“DEATH!” Flare shouted as she leapt at them.

Daring shouted, “LOOK OUT!” and pushed the princesses and the Doctor away.

Daring had been held down under Flare’s claw after landing on her, the pain was intense and she felt that her lungs would be crushed at this rate. Celestia tried to attack the dragon but she was thrown back due to Flare’s fire breath, Daring felt her energy leaving her slowly not much struggle was remaining as Flare’s presses her claw on Daring.

Is this it? She thought, Am I....going to die here?

At that moment the thought of ponies dying and screaming in pain while their homes were burned to the ground came to her, she remembered that there are innocent ponies that needed someone to save them, to help them.

No way I’m not gonna die, not here, not yet!

She pulled her back legs up to her chest and kicked Flare’s throat, making Flare release her hold to clear her own windpipe. Daring scrambled away from the dragon and stood next to the Doctor.

“Daring, are you alright?” the Doctor asked.

“I’m a little shaken, but I’m alright,” she replied.

“We need to trap her somehow...” the doctor trailed off into thought. After a few seconds he said, “Alright, I know how we can do this.”

“How?”

“Celestia, can you cause an explosion that releases 1.4723 gigajoules?”

“Huh?” the two alicorns said.

“Can you- nevermind then. Just cause something that will collapse the cave’s entrance, I’ll take care of the rest.” With that he galloped at Flare, kicked her right leg and ran into the cave with Flare right behind him.

The two sisters began to focus their magic as Flare chased the Doctor into the cave and Daring was still catching her breath.

DAMN IT! Daring thought, how can I help them when they’re doing all the work themselves?!

After a few minutes the Doctor came running out of the cave and shouted, “NOW!!” The princesses released their spells at the cliff face above the cave and ducked as the spells hit the cliff and closed the cave, covering the Doctor with a cloud of dust.

“DOCTOR!” Daring cried as she galloped over to where she last saw him, only to be stopped by a boulder. She tried to shift the rock, but it didn’t move no matter how hard she pushed. Finally, with tears streaming down her cheeks, she collapsed and said, “Doctor... W-why? Why did you have to do that?”

“Why are you crying? I’m right here,” a voice said from behind her.

She immediately recognized the voice and looked behind her, confirming that it was indeed, the Doctor. “Doctor! I thought you had been crushed... I-I thought I had lost you,” she said as she hugged him.

“It’ll take more than a trap of my own design to kill this old dog,” the Doctor said with a wry grin.

They began walking away from the collapsed cave. Before they took more than three steps, they heard a muffled roar come from the rubble and then felt the ground shake, almost knocking them down.

“Wh-what was that?” Daring asked as she looked at the Doctor.

“... She’s trying to escape, we have to move,” he said as he ran towards the princesses. “Princess, I believe we should get out of here right now,” he said when he stopped in front of them.

The ground shook again and part of the rubble moved. Another roar was heard.

“I believe you are correct,” Celestia said as she put the Elements into a saddlebag and headed back to Canterlot.

~o0o0o0o0o0o0o~

When they were back the scene before them was horrible. The skies were dark, the land looked deserted like some kind of disease had killed life around here and finally there were skeletons of ponies with wings and horns everywhere.

Horrified, Luna stared at a skeleton for a few seconds before saying, “H-how- I-I thought they were a month away...”

“It was only five days ago that we got that news...” Celestia trailed off with a tear running down her cheek.

“They... will... PAY FOR WHAT THEY DID HERE!” Daring said as tears flowed down her face.

“It seems that our enemies can now control anything about the world now...” the Doctor said as he shook his head.

“Not everything... Not yet, but... They already control the weather, soon they will be able to unmake the world,” Celestia said.

“Then we have to find them and stop them. Right now!” Daring exclaimed before darting off into the skies. The others chased off after her to make sure she didn’t do anything reckless.

They searched the land together, looking for signs of recent fighting, they found a pony after a day and saw that he was still barely hanging on. The stallion was muttering to himself and cowering under a tree, too frightened to do anything.

“Are you alright, sir?” Princess Celestia asked as she stepped closer to him.

“AH! NO! GET AWAY, I CAN’T TAKE ANYMORE!” the pony said as he tried to shrink further into himself.

“What’s happened?” Daring asked.

“The-They are monsters! They killed everypony!” He said still terrified.

“It’s okay, we’re here to stop them.”

The stallion shook his head and said, “Those... Things, can’t be stopped... I-I had to watch as they killed my family- I had to watch my son being tortured, My wife burn to death, my daughter strangled...”

“... I-”

“Don’t. I want to see my family again... please, let me die in peace...”

“Bu-”

“Daring, let us concede to his wishes,” Celestia said.

“... Okay, if you know where they are, please tell us. We are going to pay them back for every life they have taken,” Daring said, shaking with rage.

“Th-they went... north, t-to their... c-castle, please, avenge... my family,” with that his breath rattled in his throat and his body went limp.

The Doctor turned to leave, but Daring said, “Wait.”

“Yes?” the Doctor asked.

“It’s not right if we just leave his body here.”

“I agree but, we don’t have time to bury him.”

“There is always time to honor the dead.”

“Every-”

“Doctor, you know she’s right,” Luna said.

“... Okay, let’s get this over with then.”

“Tia, let’s use Number Fifty-seven.”

“Why not Number Thirty-two?” Celestia asked.

“If you’re going to bring that one up, why not Number Thirteen?”

“... You’re right, we should use Fifty-seven.”

“Might I interrupt this lovely banter-” The Doctor said before he got interrupted.

“Number Fifty-seven is a spell of our own creation that builds a tomb around whatever we focus on and it writes that pony’s name, birth date, and death date.”

“What are we waiting for then?”

The princesses bowed their heads and began the spell. As the princesses cast the spell, Daring watched as the tree slightly uprooted itself and leaned over the stallion and a stone slab slid up out of the ground to make the front of the tomb. On the stone slab appeared “Heavens Sparkle, born March third, 207 AE, died February twenty-seventh, 238 AE”

(Moon_fire’s A/N: AE means After Equestria)

Twilight’s jaw dropped as she read and reread what was on the tomb, “That’s- wait- how- but-” she stammered.

“That isn’t your ancestor, Twilight, that pony was somepony else,” Celestia said.

“How does he have the same name then?”

“Your ancestor was born five thousand years ago, not ten thousand, like this Heavens Sparkle.”

“Oh come on! What’s next? Daring Do is my ancestor?” Dash shouted.

“... That, my sister and I are not certain about,” Luna said.

“... What? You mean I MIGHT be related to Daring?”

“Like I said, we are not certain.”

“Come on, guys! stop interrupting the story!” Pinkie said.

“Yeah, I wanna see how this ends as well,” Scootaloo said.

The group turned around after paying their respects to the stallion and proceeded towards the floating white castle to end this bloody and fierce war.