Twilight fidgeted as Able Hazard hoofed through another page of her notes. Able had the Neighcronomicon sitting next to him, and from time to time would glance at the cover before flipping to another page of notes. Twilight swallowed reflexively when Able briefly put a hoof on the Neighcronomicon, sparks of amethyst magic crackling around her horn as she prepared to snatch the book away from the young prince.

The whispered conversations behind her unnerved Twilight somewhat, but she bludgeoned the irrational fears down, rationalizing that her friends were likely far more bored with Able's painstaking review of her notes than she was. And given that Applejack and Rainbow Dash could clearly be heard debating who was the better musician, Elvis Parsley or Van Haylen, Twilight knew she had no reason to entertain her bout of paranoia.

Well, from that bit of the room at least. Beside Able Hazard was the immaculately groomed Chain Censer, as well as two other ponies she'd been introduced to as they had entered the throne room. Able had introduced his court magician, a dark blue unicorn stallion named Hazy Reply. Though his eyes were milky white, Hazy had reached out to politely shake Twilight’s hoof and clearly had no trouble moving about the throne room. What was more disconcerting was how much attention he seemed to pay the Neighcronomicon. Though Twilight knew logically that there was no way a blind stallion could read a book, a tiny voice of irrational terror continued to whisper poisonous fears into her mind.

Lastly was the good general Pyrrhic Victory, a very stern looking unicorn mare clad in reinforced leather plate dyed blood red. Her own coat was like a lava flow, where gashes of scar tissue darkened the brilliant crimson of her coat, and her ashy black mane and tail gave the ever twitching mare the appearance of being on fire when viewed in the right light.

As the morning dragged on, Twilight’s friends excused themselves one by one. Rainbow and Applejack bowed out first, their own stomachs betraying them despite promises to stay by Twilight. It couldn’t be helped, reasoned Twilight. Everypony knew that both Rainbow and Applejack burned energy like coal furnaces, and the last few days had not been all too kind to their bodies. With promises to bring Pinkie Pie back with them, the farmer and the speedster quietly let themselves out.

Next went Rarity. Even after ‘borrowing’ Fluttershy’s sketch pad, Rarity all too soon ran out of space for her many visions of fashion. With a dramatic, if appropriately quiet, cursing of her ‘glorious visions and destiny to revolutionize all of fashiondom’, the seamstress slipped away to procure more paper.

Fluttershy left last. Complaining of feeling faint, the yellow pegasus heeded Prince Hazard’s murmured advice to go lie down. Assured by Sparks that Twilight would be fine without her there, Fluttershy left, ever so softly promising to find and stay near Rarity until she felt better.

Sparks didn’t leave, though she was almost as fidgety as Rainbow Dash or Applejack had been. Twilight tried to put it out of her mind, but the way her doppelganger occasionally stared into empty space for slightly too long was disconcerting. Right around noon, after the dark purple unicorn hissed in a breath and suddenly sat on her haunches, Twilight had had enough.

“Sparks, I really appreciate you trying to wait with me, but if you need to excuse yourself…” Twilight mentally cheered herself as she trailed off; truly she was the pinnacle of politeness.

Sparks spun on her flank, eyes wild and piercing. Tiny arcs of raw magic crackled along the length of her horn, and it was all Twilight could to to keep from yelping in fear. “No…” Sparks rasped, her ears swiveling as she shakily stood up. As Twilight watched more and more magic pour off of Sparks, somewhere, a bell began to toll.

Letting her own magical energy fill her mind, Twilight cast a simple shield spell between Prince Hazard and Sparks. Wisely, Hazy Reply and Pyrrhic Victory took a few steps closer to the prince so they could also take advantage of the magical shield. Chain Censor actually stepped slightly in front of the Prince, as though Twilight’s spell would not be enough to protect the young prince.

The bell rang through the throne room as Sparks began to shake in place.

Twilight felt the need to reach out to her friend, as it became increasingly clear that Sparks was in pain. Raw, guttural noises tore themselves free of Sparks’ clenched teeth, and her ragged breath was flecked with blood.

The bell tolled again, and Sparks' eyes rolled back in her head.

But Twilight stayed her hoof. Hadn’t she done something very much like this under the influence of the Neighcronomicon? Could she risk getting closer to Sparks if she was being forced to channel the same darkness Twilight was touched by?

Discordant, the bell roared, and Sparks screamed in terror.

“So it has come to pass.” Twilight whipped her head around to stare at Hazy Reply. The aged stallion had a wide, gleeful smile on his face, and his dead eyes seemed to drink in the sight of Spark’s suffering.

For the fifth time, the bell tolled, and Sparks fell over, still screaming.

“By the word of the Eternal Prince, we claim the future for ourselves.” intoned Chain Censer. The butler had pulled a tiny censer from somewhere within his robes and with a match lit the incense within. As yellow-green smoke coiled around his hooves, Twilight became all too aware that the shadows of the room weren’t where they ought to have been.

The bell rang again, and Sparks began to shiver and shake, her screams reduced to the terrified cries of a lost foal.

Twilight began edging away from Prince Hazard and his retinue. Something within her howled in fear, demanding that she spin on her hooves and flee. But the Neighcronomicon ... Twilight skittered back, suddenly aware of an absence in her own mind. Like a weight being lifted from the back of a galloping mare, Twilight's mind sped up frantically, trying to deduce exactly what was wrong.

The seventh toll boomed, and Spark’s magic surged, enveloping her entire body in a rippling halo of dark purple light.

“By our dark devotions and the blood on our hooves, we welcome the Eternal Prince home.” cheered Pyrrhic Victory. Tendrils of magical energy sprouted from her horn and lashed at her face and neck, drawing blood which hissed and smoked as it fell to the floor.

The eighth and ninth toll sounded almost as one, and Sparks opened eyes of pitch black. Glimmering light shone from her eyes, like the stars in Luna’s mane, and the dark purple unicorn snarled around blood stained teeth, “I will never bow! Not to you, not to anypony!” Sparks flailed her hooves about, roaring curses into the empty air.

Twilight flattened her ears to her head as the tenth bell crashed through the throne room, shaking flecks of paint from the walls. Staggering over to Sparks, Twilight almost caught a hoof to the jaw for her troubles. Throwing her hooves around the crying Sparks, Twilight dragged the struggling unicorn up and onto her hooves. The uncontrolled magic felt uncomfortably warm, but to Twilight's delight didn't sear the flesh from her bones or anything.

The eleventh time the bell sounded, and Twilight almost missed it as the doors to the throne room were thrown open. Dozens of red robed servants galloped into the throne room, screaming questions at anypony they could see. As the shadows danced and jerked in a foul parody of celebration and the incense smoke painted flickering nightmare visages in the air, Twilight had no answers for them.

The bell tolled one last time. The dark halo of magic that shrouded Sparks came rushing off of her like a torrent, and slammed into the shield spell Twilight had erected. The shield didn't last even half a heartbeat, and like some foul serpent, Spark's magic spiraled up and came crashing down on the young prince, bypassing his advisers.

Able Hazard burst like a balloon pricked with a pin. Gore rained across the throne dais, and everypony screamed. Twilight and a hoof full of the servants screamed in terror; it was unthinkable, to watch a young colt suddenly cease to be in such a violent fashion.

Chain Censer, Hazy Reply, and Pyrrhic Victory screamed in rapturous joy. Though smeared with the remains of their prince, the trio cheered and capered like ponies possessed. Many of the servants fell to their knees and began chanting in a blood curdling cadence, their words of worship like so many iron hooks being dragged across a chalkboard.

Sparks, wrapped in a much diminished haze of her own roiling magic, screamed in anger and sorrow. “Twilight! Twilight, you need to get out! You need to escape with the others!"

As Sparks stumbled and staggered towards her, Twilight saw the rebirth of a … Her mind rebelled. The simple truth of it is that any pony, no matter how smart, how well educated, how magically gifted, will eventually reach the ends of their own mental fortitude. And though her own thoughts betrayed her, Twilight did see it all.

She saw the slick membranous wings, offensively boneless, like great sheets of wafer thin flesh.

Twilight saw the writhing mane and tail, colored like straw soaked in kerosene and a moment away from burning a condemned soul at the stake.

She saw the dark green coat, and watched as muscles and otherworldly things squirmed and thrashed just beneath the surface.

She couldn’t help but notice the horn, as black as jet and crackling with barely contained eldritch energies. How the skin around the base of the horn bleed clean red blood and wept oily black fluids in equal measure, until a surge of vile green and tar black magic sealed the unholy stigmata.

And Twilight saw his sea foam blue and green eyes, as Prince Able Hazard sneered at her from his new height. From the entrails and viscous soup of his former body, he had been reborn an alicorn.

"Ah, my dear pen pal, I really must thank you for pouring so much energy into the Neighcronomicon for me to use." Twilight shuddered at Able's words. Not only was the implication that she had somehow fueled this unhallowed ascension troubling, but the dark prince's words made her feel unclean. As though the act of listening to Able was enough to soil her soul with corruption.

The newly made alicorn strode back and forth along his dais, smiling with teeth that would be more at home in the mouth of a manticore than a pony's. His tail swung about, seemingly of its own accord, to lash out at many of the prostrate servants around him. Bloody wounds were torn open along those servants backs, but rather than cry or scream such injury only seemed to drive the many mares and stallions to roar their praise even louder.

Mind reeling, about to break, Twilight could only stammer “W-what? No, no, How!? Why!?!” Hooves flew to her lips, and Twilight’s eyes grew wide in fear of her words.

Concern, or at least a most convincing simulacrum of that emotion briefly washed over Prince Hazard’s features. Slowly stepping down from his dais, the unhallowed alicorn prince waved his horn in Twilight’s general direction. A breeze, ripe with the scent of ash and laden with unimaginable cries of sorrow, rolled over Twilight. The sheer magical potency of whatever Able had done made her fur stand on end, and Twilight slammed the lid on her mind. Walls of half-thought runes and ancient words of power became ramparts of (hopefully) unassailable mental energy.

Sparks, equally caught in the wave of magical wind, barely had time to turn her face away from Twilight before the retching started. Brackish water, sea shells, and dozens of tiny (and quite offended) crabs soon lay in a puddle by Sparks’ hooves. Though her knees shook ferociously, the dark purple unicorn still had the grit to spit the last mouthful of briny water at Prince Hazard.

Twilight couldn’t help but idly note the way Sparks’ projectile arced gracefully through the air; how the sea water shimmered in the fire light; and how thoroughly put out Able looked with his mane sodden wet and clinging to his face.

Sighing, Prince Hazard let more aetheric energy pour down his horn, drying his mane. “I had hoped that we could be civil about this.” he said, his tone equally regal and terrible.

Sparks could barely stand. Her mouth was smeared with bile and seawater, and her coat was thick with sweat and blood. Her eyes were still filled with dark and terrible stars, and her horn leaked raw magic like a broken faucet. In spite of this, the dark purple unicorn snarled “And I had hoped that Mocha Whip would call me into one of those fancy side room and jump me, but we don’t always get what we want buck face.”

Able Hazard smiled sadly and nodded his head. “Too true young Sparks.” Turning to face Twilight, Prince Hazard looked down on her with what could only be true beneficence. “I never wanted to use you like this Twilight. I never truly wanted to take such drastic steps to gain the power I need. And I absolutely never wanted you to suffer as you have journeying here.” The newly minted Alicorn sighed. “Perhaps I should have invited you here first? Maybe under the pretext of having you verify for me that I had found a genuine copy of the Neighcronomicon? Ah well, live and learn.”

Twilight boggled at Prince Hazard. “So this was all a ploy? You were only my friend so you could use my power?”

Prince Hazard looked ashamed “At first… yes. When I first contacted you, it was only because I knew how much raw magical force I could siphon from you." Regret danced behind the alicorn's eyes, and Twilight could feel the same sense of kinship she got when she first read his postcards. "But I grew to consider you a true friend. I mean it when I say I would never wish you harm."

Puffing his chest out, Able Hazard raised his head. "But my goal is too important for feelings to get in the way. Even, no, especially my own feelings."

"And just what goal would that be, huh?!" snarled Sparks. "Immortality? Unlimited, cosmic powers? What do you want you sicko!?"

Prince Hazard shot Sparks a withering look. "You really must work on your impulse control young Sparks. It's unbecoming for a mare of your .... talents, to be this brash."

"Then please, Able, answer me."

Turning back to Twilight, Able Hazard smiled again, and again Twilight couldn't help but feel as though she were still talking to the same friend she would spend all night writing to. "Of course Twilight. As an aside, I'm so glad that your voice didn't undergo sufficient strain to make the, ah, challenges you faced permanent."

Flicking his hair from his eyes, Prince Hazard calmly sat down. Sparks took a moment to move over to Twilight's side, but elected to stay standing. Twilight was somewhat surprised to see that she was already sitting down.

"I sought out this power because of what I plan to do. I now have the raw power and resources to finally give Equestira what it deserves." Prince Hazard's smile grew to physically impossible proportions, and Twilight felt her breath catch in her chest. "You don't mean...?"

"Oh but I do. Finally, finally, I will give all the people of Equestria conscious control of their magic!" Prince Hazard threw his head back and laughed. Sparks swore as she dabbed blood trickling from her nose, and Twilight briefly saw double as her soul rung with Able's laughter.

Sparks gave up trying to stem the crimson tide and snorted angrily, spraying the carpet with her blood. "What's the bucking catch? There's no way the Neighcronomicon facilitated your ascendance for free. And even if it did, not even an alicorn could do what you're suggesting; it's crazy!"

Prince Hazard had to choke down another bout of laughter at the dark purple unicorn's serious expression. "That's why I won't fuel the ritual myself." Waving one hoof behind himself, Prince Hazard cocked one eyebrow. "Or do you think it's just a coincidence that my closest allies and servants seem overjoyed that I have ascended?"

While Sparks nervously eyed the nearest servants and the slow trickle of more red-robed ponies singing Able Hazard's praises, Twilight raised one hoof. Smiling, Prince Hazard nodded at the confused unicorn mare. "Yes, Twilight?"

"Have you considered the possible negative repercussions of this ritual?" Twilight felt torn between ecstatic academic interest and mind-numbing horror. "I mean, as amazing as it would be for all of my friends to know what it's like to channel their magic willfully, I can't help but worry that this might be a bit, um, disruptive."

Prince Hazard smiled and nodded. "Indeed, it will be." Standing imperiously, the dark green alicorn turned toward his massed followers and slowly made his was up the dais to his throne. "But no venture is without risk, and I have plotted for this day for too long for such things as the fear of change to stop me."

Taking his rightful seat, Prince Hazard allowed one of the chanting servents to begin draping him in his royal robes. "I am not a fool, Twilight Sparkle. I know that I will be hated for what I about to do. I know that Celestia and Luna will disapprove; perhaps they will even seek to do away with me like Discord. But if it brings Equestira into a state closer to harmony, I will make that sacrifice." The prince paused, tapping his hoof against his chin. "Though now that I think of it, I doubt either of your Princesses will even try to lift a hoof against me. After all, a projected side-effect will be the creation or sudden ascension of alicorns, and I imagine they must be somewhat starved for company after all these years. I know it certainly gets tiring, being immortal all by your lonesome."

Spark's scathing retort died on her lips, and Twilight's jaw hung slack at the implications. Sparks stuttered to life like some poorly kept construct, "W-wait. You... you're immortal?!"

Prince Hazard scoffed, "Of course, who do you think authored the Neighcronomicon in the first place?" The dark green alicorn sneered at the cursed tome. "If I hadn't spent so long on that waste of paper, I doubt I would be able to coax the blasted thing to do what I willed and bring me the power I needed to ascend."

Twilight shook her head. "Able, please don't do this." She threw one hoof out, broadly gesturing to the scores of servents debasing themselves, speaking in languages not meant for pony kind to know or voice, or self-flagellating in masochistic glee. "This isn't what Harmony looks like! This is madness, this is evil!

The beatific smile slipped from Prince Hazard's face, and he fixed Twilight with a gimlet glare.

Even as Sparks slow felt her way to stand by Twilight, Able's glare tapered off, and he heaved a weary sigh.

"Twilight, Sparks, I want you to understand what I'm doing. I want you to be as excited as I am!"

Able's energy quickly faded, and he sighed again. " But despite your prestigious intellects, I forget that you've only known peace."

"And so," he spat, "you cannot accept what I am doing as anything but monstrous."

"Peace?!" screamed Twilight. "We've fought Discord! Manticores! Hydras! We beat Nightmare bucking Moon! How can you claim that all we've known is peace?!"

As Twilight panted, her frustrations vented, Prince Hazard slowly clapped his hooves together. "Thank you Twilight. Chain Censer owes me a triple scoop of ice cream now."

Sparks narrowed her eyes in roughly the prince's direction. "Wait, did you really put bets on how Twilight would react to all this?"

The dark prince chortled, "No, I placed a bet on how long it would take her moral outrage to outweigh her curiosity into a new field of magic and her shock at my perceived betrayal." A stopwatch, held in the prince's pestilent green aura, floated in front of the alicorn. "Ah, just a hair over five minute, marvelous."

Twilight widened her stance, growling "We will stop you Able. You cannot do this, we will not let you."

Prince Hazard smirked at the seething unicorn, "No, no you won't."

Sparks, guided by Twilight's voice, shuffled another few half steps closer to her progenitor. "Oh yeah? What makes you say that hotshot?" she spat.

Moving faster than the eye could follow, Able Hazard suddenly loomed over Twilight and Sparks, smiling with all the warmth and joy of a rotted, raggedy skull. "Because I sent my friends to go, hmm, let's say occupy, your friends. Just, oh, a hair under five minutes ago."

Twilight goggled. Quickly, oh so quickly, she looked about the throne room. Despite all the cultists crying out their praise for Prince Hazard, none of his closest confidants were in sight. Fear boiled up within Twilight's barrel, and her breath began to catch in her throat.

"Oh yeah?" sneered Sparks. Twilight raised her head, blinking away the tears as her brash other self threw Prince Hazard's general area a withering glance. "Well I got just one word for you, tough guy."

Able Hazard laughed. His laughter held no happiness, no joy. It was the laughter of one who is convinced of their inevitable success, and it made Twilight's very soul ache with the pain of the lost and damned.

"Oh really? And what word would that be whelp?" he laughed. Cultists all around Twilight chuckled, and somehow Able's words took on an even more sinister cadence. Twilight shivered; it felt as if her body had suddenly become hallow. Cold seeped into her veins, and darkness crept into her vision.

But Twilight's hearing was as keen as ever.

"Yeah, just one word," mocked Sparks.

Twilight felt Sparks horn briefly brush against her own. Without thought, she leaned into the touch, desperately seeking another ponies touch.

And though her tear filled eyes couldn't see, Twilight could hear the smirk in Sparks' voice. "Teleport."

And with a roar of unchecked magical energy, Twilight and Sparks vanished from the throne room.

Able Hazard closed his mouth with an audible click. "Huh... clever." Shrugging his membranous wings, the dark green alicorn turned to his followers, a cruel smile playing on his lips. "So, who will bravely march into oblivion for the sake of our goals?"

And as he looked at the sea of raised hooves, Prince Hazard couldn't help but laugh.

Author's Note

Things to blame for the bonkers delay this chapter has seen:
- Fallout 4
- Video games in general
- Getting a 24" computer monitor for Christmas
- Semi-voluntary sleep deprivation
- Winter Jack
- Smith & Forge Hard Cider
- Drinking in general
- The fact that most of my writing is during boring lectures.
- Netflix
- Anime
- You know what, just blame the internet.
- Yes, all of it.
- Even the naughty bits.
Hugs and kisses,
Scruffy