Chapters Early on a Wednesday morning at Canterlot High School, a forty-three year old, female, unicorn twelfth grade teacher, with her classroom door closed, is cleaning her room at a fast pace. The frantic pony multitasks by straightening her students' desks with her magic while organizing paperwork spread everywhere on her desk. She takes the paperwork with her front hooves and crams it in one of the desk's drawers. Then, she slams the drawer making a loud banging sound echoing in the room. Just then, a younger female Earth pony knocks on the door, and the teacher sits in her wooden chair, takes a deep breath, and says, "Come in."
The door opens slightly, and the younger pony steps in and says, "Mrs. Lily, your guest speaker is here."
Mrs. Lily swallows nervously and responds, "Please bring her in."
The Earth pony completely opens the door and bows her head for the special guest, the majestic Princess Celestia. As Celestia walks into the room, Mrs. Lily steps off her chair, walks up to the princess, bows her head, and says, "Welcome, Your Majesty. It is an honor having you in the school and classroom."
Celestia with a kindly smile responds, "Thank you for inviting me. I'm very anxious in telling the students about my cousin. If I recall, you are a history teacher, correct?"
Sweating profusely, Mrs. Lily lifts her head and responds nervously, "And the students will enjoy it, hopefully. Uh, do you need anything like water? I have bottles in my little fridge beside my desk." Celestia tries to answer, but the unicorn unintentionally interrupts her. "Would you like a snack? I have granola bars. Oh, I know, would you like a chair or a stool?"
Celestia finally responds, "Mrs. Lily, don't be so nervous. I know your students will do fine. Also, thank you for the offers but I'm perfectly fine. Now, when do the students arrive?"
Mrs. Lily slows down her breathing calming herself and answers, "It's about 7:25 now. So, in about ten minutes, the students will start coming in, and the bell rings at 8:00."
Celestia responds, "Until then, we can just talk."
The two ponies start and carry on a conversation throughout the time while teenage ponies, unicorns, and pegasi formally enter the room staring at Celestia in disbelief that she is actually in the classroom. Many want to ask her questions but are too shy or even scared to ask the princess.
Eventually, the time reaches 8:00 and the bell rings to start the school day, and all the students sit silently giving Princess Celestia their full attention. Celestia instantly knows how they are feeling by their body language. Some students either have widened or shrunken pupils, while others are shaking constantly, or even licking their lips, but Celestia knows this is normal for teenage ponies and proceeds to speak. She stands from the extra chair beside Mrs. Lily, walks in front of the students, and says politely with a smile, "Good morning, class." All of the teens stay quiet.
Mrs. Lily then yells, "Class, respond to the princess!"
This startled the students, and they say at once, "Hello, Princess Celestia."
Celestia turns to the educator and responds to her, "Mrs. Lily, please don't do that again." The teacher blushes in embarrassment, and Celestia turns back to the students. "Class, please relax. I am simply here to tell you a story about an event that occurred twenty-one years ago, but first, does any pony know who Triton was?"
An eerie silence dominates the classroom atmosphere for a couple of seconds, then a male unicorn with a deep voice sitting in the middle of the room breaks the silence by answering to Celestia, "My mom told me that he was your relative."
Celestia responds, "You're correct, and, specifically, my cousin."
Then, a female pegasus sitting in the front row to Celestia's left raises her right hoof, and Celestia looks at her giving the young pony her attention. The teen asks, "I know he was a mean ruler, but how was he before that?"
Celestia's smile deteriorates and forms into a slight frown, looks down at the floor and answers, "He was... a wonderful alicorn. In fact," she looks up to look at the class, "he was my and Luna's favorite cousin.
"When we were little, we played all the time. He was sweet, caring, and he never thought about himself. When he was somewhere else, Luna and I sent letters to him all the time. We loved him dearly, and I wish he was here and his former self. This is where the story starts.
"Triton became the ruler of the once great city of Pandora twenty-one years ago, and, at first, he handled the city and the citizens with great care, and the ponies of Pandora loved him. He was a symbol of hope because Pandora just like most of Equestria was harshly affected by Discord's chaos. During Discord's reign, the cowardly mayor of Pandora abandoned the city leaving it and the citizens to perish. Even after defeating Discord, the city was still in great peril. Many ponies tried to run for mayor, but no one seemed suited to run the city. Violence and hatred were destroying the city. It seemed nothing could save it or the innocent ponies. As a result, Luna and I contacted Triton and asked him to take care of Pandora. Triton accepted and flew to the city immediately. From what I know, when he arrived at Pandora, the ponies greeted him, and since he was of royal blood, the citizens accepted him as their new mayor immediately. In fact, they refused to call a mayor but instead a leader. We thought he was the perfect choice...but we were wrong, and what he did was beyond belief.
"He did as he promised: rebuild Pandora. He pushed employment, tax cuts, and orders to make the city's economy strong once again. Additionally, he had hired many ponies build homeless shelters, repair apartments, and reconstruct local businesses. Of course, he was viewed upon as a great leader. He constantly sent Luna and I letters informing us about his progress, and it sounded like he was doing magnificently. After about two months, he had told us the city had reclaimed its former glory, and we were happy for him. However, about a month after that message, the letters had stopped. Luna and I thought nothing of it at first. We figured he was busy and had forgotten, but when we had not received a letter after three months, we became worrisome. Eventually, we sent him a letter asking if he was okay, but instead of sending us a message back the next day, we did not receive one until four weeks later. He responded with a single sentence, 'Everything is fine.'
"As soon as we received that letter, we knew something was wrong and flew to Pandora immediately, and we took the Elements of Harmony if it was something crucial. I'm glad we did. When we arrived at Pandora, what we saw...was disturbing. The city had regained its size before Discord, but it had a, you could say, gloomy and threatening atmosphere. No ponies expect for ones wearing black metal armor walked down the streets. Hanging on every street lamp were flags each with a blood-red background, a six-pointed black star in the middle, and Triton's face in the star looking forward, as if he was looking at you, with solid black eyes. Those flags though simply designed sent chills down my spine, and we wondered what had happened to our dear cousin. When we got to the middle of the city, we saw a massive castle. This was not in Pandora before Triton came, and it was black with dark blue markings all over it with those disturbing flags hanging on nearly every wall. Of course, we knew Triton had to be in there.
"We landed in front of the entrance which was composed of two massive wooden doors, and as soon as we landed, the doors opened and standing in wait was Triton. I could tell immediately something he had changed. His iris was completely black with no sign of the bright blue color his eyes had, and his eyes were bloodshot. He was wearing a dark blue crown and a black amulet around his neck, and both items had various gems and diamonds all over them. Luna and I didn't want to believe it, but it was true: Triton had embraced the dark magic within himself in the form of pride and greediness, and his behavior definitely showed it.
"Luna and I tried to persuade him to stop his tyranny and be his former self, but he believed he was living in our shadows, being disrespected by all ponies, and being mocked and criticized behind his back. He said when he had Pandora, he did not want to let it go and wanted all political power and fortune he could have. Also, he blatantly told us he made a law in the city to obey and worship him, and all male ponies were soldiers of the city and all gold went to him. I don't remember all of the things he said...but I do remember one. He said, 'I am greater than all ponies in this world! I...am...God.' We tried to tell him that we all loved him and convince him to turn back into his former self, but he did not listen and attacked us.
"It was an intense fight, and with the dark magic, he was stronger and more powerful than Luna and I had thought. He was one of the most powerful enemies either of us had ever faced. I remember one moment of the fight where he demonstrated his power: I had charged at him and we were in a horn lock, which for those who don't know is when two unicorns' or alicorns' horns are side by side and one tries to overpower each other by magic and strength. Anyway, Triton and I were at a horn lock, and he overpowered me with ease pushing me down to the street below. Luna who was hit by one of his magic beams prior the horn lock rushed in and joined me in the lock, but Triton continued to push forward with no difficulty. He definitely had a strength and power advantage, but we had speed and experience. I know you're wondering how we defeated him. Sometime during the fight, we were in the air, and we tried to force him to the street so we can use the Elements of Harmony against him. I charged at him with everything I had, and he and I got into another horn lock. However, I was distracting him while Luna stabbed into his right shoulder with her horn. With Triton in intense pain, we overpowered him forced him to ground level. To make sure he would not escape, I broke his left wing by landing on it with intense strength. Then, Luna and I used the Elements of Harmony to turn him into stone, but before we did, I remember saying to him, 'How could you, Triton? We asked to bring peace back to Pandora, not tyranny.'
"In tears, Luna then said to him, 'You were our favorite cousin! We loved you.'
"Triton wallowing in pain responded, 'I hate you, and I will kill you both! Go ahead, do whatever you wish to me with those stones but heed my words. I will return and this world will be mine! I am darkness! I am Triton! I AM GOD!' He broke our hearts, and with tears dominating our faces, we turned him into stone. He's still in his stone imprisonment in the Canterlot Garden."
The students with faces of awe sit silently while Celestia looks at the classroom clock on the wall to her left. She then says, "According to your classroom clock, you have a couple of minutes until the next class period." She turns back to the students and asks, "Any questions?"
After asking the question, a young male pegasus raises his left wing. Celestia looks at him, and he asks, "I know he did terrible things, but he was your cousin. Do miss him, even a little?"
Celestia with a neutral expression answers, "Yes. Just like how I miss Luna when I banished her ten years ago, I miss Triton a lot."
Then, a female unicorn raises her right hoof, and Celestia looks at her. The young unicorn says, "I know this is off topic but…"
"You know the class rules, Firefly" Mrs. Lily interrupts the teenage pony, "we don't ask questions off topic."
The princess looks at the educator and says, "It's quite alright." She turns back to the curious unicorn and says, "What's your question?"
"Well," she hesitantly starts, "I was wondering where your husband is. I have heard of him but never seen him."
Celestia smiles and says in a polite yet sad tone, "He's not with us now. He's not dead but on major royal duty elsewhere that has consumed every minute for the last sixteen years."
The same unicorn asks, "Do you miss him?"
"Of course." As soon as the princess finishes, the bell rings. Before leaving the classroom, every student approaches the princess, bows their heads, thanks her for the story, and politely leaves the room. The last student in the classroom is a pink alicorn who stands up to Celestia's chest, has a mane and tail of gold with silver lines, golden eyes, a blank flank, and a bookcase containing three massive textbooks on her back approaches the princess.
"Great job, Mom," she says to her mother.
"Thanks, Amity," Celestia says to her daughter in a cheerful tone. "Now," Celestia tilts her head slightly to her left to where her horn is pointing at the classroom door, "get your butt to class. Don't want to have a tardy on your class day of school." Amity chuckles and walks out the door.
Throughout the day, Celestia tells the same story to the other class periods, and after finishing the story to the last class, just like the classes prior, all the students before leaving bow their heads, thank the princess, and leave politely. The teacher lifts a pink and white purse with her magic and wraps it around her neck and approaches the princess. She says in a clear tone, "Thank you so much for being here for the entire day, Your Majesty."
"Thank you for inviting me, Mrs. Lily," Celestia replies with a smile. Mrs. Lily bows her head and heads for the door until the princess says, "Before we leave the school, I would like to ask you a question." The educator turns to her, and the princess asks, "May I see Amity's for this nine weeks grades?"
"May I ask why?” the teacher asks.
“Just to see how she did on her last nine weeks of school,” Celestia answers.
“Of course," Mrs. Lily responds. She walks back to her desk, opens a drawer and takes out a file with "Amity" written on the file tab. She places it on her desk and opens the file which contains with highly graded tests, quizzes, and rubrics. Using her magic, Mrs. Lily lifts the graded material in the air in a straight line. Celestia looks at each graded item while the teacher says, "She is or was a fantastic student and one of my best students without a doubt. So bright, responsive, respectful, and..."
"What is this?" Celestia asks in concerned tone. With her magic, she brings one test closer to her face and stares at a red eighty written on the top of the assessment. Then, Celestia turns her head to her left to see Amity with an empty bookcase standing in the classroom doorway.
After about ten seconds of silence, Amity asks her mother, "What?" Celestia with a stern expression shows the young princess the paper. She looks at it, her pupils slightly dilate, looks back at Celestia, makes a smile, and says in a nervous tone, "Uh, that was...uh...a hard test."
Celestia raises her left eyebrow and says, "I thought you knew the material."
"Your Majesty?" Mrs. Lily interjects. "That test was about a week ago. It didn’t affect her average. Also, she made the highest grade on that assessment. Don’t be mad at her. Besides, she’s this grade was practically pointless for her." Celestia places the test back in the row of tests and places them back on the teacher's desk in a tall stack.
Celestia approaches Amity and says, "From now on, you will tell me every single test you will have and what grade you receive."
As Celestia passes Amity out the room, the young princess lowers in eyebrows, follows her mother, and says, "But today was my last day of school."
"Exactly," Celestia replies. "I was referring to when you go to college." Amity rolls her eyes behind her mother, then Celestia responds, "Don't roll those eyes behind my back. I'll roll that little head of yours." Amity sighs knowing anything she does is pointless. Celestia continues, "Now, let's go home and practice your magic. I have something unique to teach you."
Amity darts beside her mother and responds, "But I wanted to help see the hoof-ball game tonight. It’s the last sporting event of the school year."
Celestia looks at her and says, "You can go to the game later, but you need to practice your magic first."
Amity breathes out and replies, "Okay."
Thirty minutes later, Celestia and Amity stand in the middle of the Castle Ballroom alone. Celestia stands in front of Amity and says, "Like I said earlier, we’re going to learn something new today."
Amity enthusiastically replies, "Alright! Let's do it! Is it a powerful magic beam?"
Celestia calmly answers, "No."
Amity then asks, "Is it a powerful spell in controlling all the natural elements? Will my eyes glow when that happens?"
Celestia shakes her head, and Amity responds in a less excited tone, "Uh, going to a different dimension where we stand on two legs and wear the same clothes all the time?"
Celestia with shrunk eyes and raised eyebrows responds, "I knew you were creative, but…wow.” She then shakes her head and reverts back to her prior expression and continues, “No. It's something you'll like but first practice your teleportation spell."
Amity's smile and enthusiasm quickly deteriorates, and she lowers her lips and raises her right eyebrow. She then says, "Mom, really? That's like the most basic spell I know. Heck, I learned when I was two."
Celestia shows an expression of annoyance with her right eyebrow raised high. Amity then breathes in and out heavily, makes a neutral expression, closes her eyes, and thinks of one of the corners in the ballroom. She concentrates her magic to her horn, and then a golden-colored aura glows around her entire horn. Suddenly, a white flash engulfs her, and the flash disappears from in front of Celestia and reappears at one of the corners behind Celestia. Celestia turns to her left to see Amity standing staring back. Her daughter calmly says, "Now what?"
Her mother responds, "Do it again." Amity still with the annoyed expression repeats the same process but now appears in front of the ballroom doors which lead to the Canterlot Garden. As soon as Amity appears, Celestia says, "Keep doing it until I tell you to stop."
Amity simply replies in an annoyed tone, "Okay." Amity continues practicing her teleportation but after the sixth time teleporting and standing in the middle of the room, she realizes Celestia has vanished. Amity looks around and says out loud, "Mom? Where did you go?"
"Nowhere," Celestia's voice echoes in the room. Amity looks all around the room but does not see her mother. Suddenly, Celestia spooks Amity by whispering in her right ear, "Boo."
Amity shrieks and jumps in the air, and her wings start flapping keeping her in the air. The spooked alicorn in an irritated tone shouts, "Mom, that's not funny!" Celestia giggles which Amity can hear directly underneath her and prepares to fly straight down hoping to tackle her mother. Suddenly though, she feels a slap across her bottom, and she yells, “Ouch!” and turns swiftly to see nothing. She is then tackled from above by nothing and is pinned to the floor which did not hurt her.
"Gotcha," Celestia says to Amity in her left ear. Amity turns to hoping to see Celestia but sees nothing. Amity still feels Celestia holding her down for a brief second until she is free. Celestia then says from a distance, "This is your new lesson but answer this question first. What are the five senses?"
Amity stands up and answers aloud, "The five senses? Touch, hear, taste, smell, and see. Why?"
"Well," Celestia replies still invisible and from a distance, "there is a sixth sense that only unicorns and alicorns have: the sense of magic." Amity shows a confused expression by raising her lower eyelid and lowering her eyebrow of her left eye and raising her right eyebrow. Celestia continues, "Basically, because alicorns and unicorns are active with magic, both species can use their own magic to sense the magic within others including the passive species, Earth ponies and pegasi. You will not be able to master this tonight, but it is a start.”
“Mom,” Amity replies, “I have mastered ‘tough’ spells quickly before. What makes this one so different?”
“Excluding I, your father, and your aunt, less than fifty ponies in existence have mastered it.” Celestia answers. “Listen carefully because it is confusing at first. Close your eyes, think about me, and concentrate your magic just like you did with teleportation, but don’t try teleporting yourself."
Amity closes her eyes and concentrates with great effort. Her horn glows gold again, but she is unable to sense Celestia. Amity stops and breathes heavily and says, "Can't sense anything."
“You’re doing something wrong," Celestia replies.
"What is it?" Amity asks.
"Try to find out," Celestia asks.
Amity thinks about what she just did and still does not understand. She concentrates hard again but still with no success. She stops again and breathes again. Celestia becomes visible then grabs her daughter again and says, “Gotcha again.”
Amity playfully responds, "Not for long." Amity rolls on the floor with her mother still holding on, but Celestia then starts grinding her left hoof against her daughter's head. Amity squeals a bit and slides out of her mother's arms. Both princesses stand and stare each other down with playful smiles. Amity suddenly leaps at Celestia, but within a second, Celestia teleports herself right above Amity wrapping her arms around her daughter again, and both princesses drop to the ground laughing. Celestia calmly says, "You've grown up so much, Amity. I’m proud you’re graduating. I love you.”
"I love you too, Mom," Amity replies.
"After the graduation ceremony next month, what do you want to do to celebrate?" Celestia asks.
Amity merely shrugs and turns her head to look at her mother, but she stops her head when she sees her blank flank. Her playful smile slowly turns into a frown of disappointment. She lowers her head and stares at the floor.
Celestia raises her head looking at Amity and asks, "What's wrong?" Amity just keeps looking at the floor. Celestia then looks at her daughter's flank and says, "Oh." She looks back at her daughter sympathetically says to her, "Amity, how many times have I said to ignore it?"
Amity sighs and responds, "Too many, but I can't let it go. Your and Aunt Luna's cutie marks represent more than just raising or lowering the sun and moon. They also represent the marvelous wonders you both had done in the past. I'm 19 years old and still don't have one. When I look at my blank flank, it just reminds me that I’ve done…nothing. What kind of princess am I?"
Celestia lays her head on her daughter's cheek and replies, "I understand how you feel, but you can't let it haunt you. If you work hard and stay true to yourself, destiny will reward you someday."
"I hope so," Amity says.
"It will, and I know it will be astounding," Celestia replies and Amity’s smile returns with a blush. Both princesses then stand up and Celestia says, "Go ahead to the ball game." Amity hugs Celestia and runs through the ballroom doors.
Just behind Canterlot High School, two teams of hoof-ball players entirely composed of teenage male Earth ponies are playing on a seventy-five by one hundred yard field. Behind both teams are stands filled with ponies of all three species, and the ponies behind one of the teams wearing white and blue colors are Amity and her friends. Both teams have been playing for an hour and thirty minutes and are sweating profusely. The opposing coaches' voices are raspy from yelling at their players, opponents, and referees throughout the intense game.
The score is two to two, and the game will end when the next team scores. In the field are twenty-two players with two in the center, and a male unicorn referee wearing a vertical black and white striped shirt and a whistle hanging from his neck stands between the players holds a thick black and white ball with a hexagon pattern with his magic. He sets the ball down on the grassy field and walks away leaving the two tired conflicting ponies staring each other down. With is right hoof, the referee brings the whistle to his mouth and blows through it, and within a second, the player for the home team kicks the ball to the right with his front right hoof with his rival following close behind.
The audience behind the home team cheers in great enthusiasm as the player controls the ball. He passes through all of his opponents with all of them trailing behind him. He then passes the ball to another player to his right and that player passes the ball to another member to his left who kicks the sphere to the goal. However, the goalie from the contrasting team blocks the shot by jumping in front of the ball and pushing it away from the goal, but instead of grabbing the sphere and throwing it to a team member, it bounces back onto the field where another home player controls the ball. However, a rival player dashes in front of him and tries to steal the object. The two struggle to take control of it with their team mates circling around them to pass the sphere. Suddenly, the home player kicks the ball to his left to a team member. The player sees a small opening between his member who just passed the ball and the rival member in front of him where the goalie is not near, and hesitation and relying on luck, the player kicks the ball between the two ponies which catches the goalie off guard who lunges to block the shot but misses. The home team has won the game.
The audience behind the home team cheers extremely loud and ponies all in the stands start hugging and jumping in the stands including Amity and her friends. After screaming in excitement, the ponies release each other, and Amity’s unicorn friend says, "They won! Thank Celestia, they won!"
"Too bad it's the last game of the school year, though," Amity's Earth pony friend replies.
"True, Vanilla," Amity responds, "But at least they won the last game and can leave the school year on a positive note."
"Yeah," the unicorn friend says. She then notices a tall, tan, muscular team member giving hoof bumps to his team mates on the field. She elbows Amity against her shoulder and says playfully, "Hey, Amity. There's your boyfriend."
She and Vanilla giggles while Amity sees the player and blushes. She then yells at them, "He's not my boyfriend! Sure, he’s a sweet guy, and I like him but not that way."
"Sure, we believe you," the unicorn friend says back sarcastically.
"Shut up, Evening! I mean it!" Amity yells at her unicorn friend.
The crowd exist the stands by walking to the bottom row and walk either to the left or right onto the ground and being directed where to walk off the school property by school faculty. The three young ponies exit as well and walk off the school property. After leaving the school grounds, the band of friends and walk down a road which leads to downtown Canterlot which the girls must walk through in order to reach their individual homes, but no more than twenty feet after leaving the school area, a female Earth pony with an arrogant smile approaches the trio.
The teenage pony stands in front of the trio and says, “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the great Princess Amity, or should I say ‘Princess Blank’?”
Amity stares at the Earth pony with an egotistical smile of her own and replies, “Good to see you too, Jiggy Rich, or should I say ‘The Idiot Not Graduating with Her Classmates’?”
“Oh,” Evening behind Amity shouts excitingly, “you got burned!”
Jiggy Rich shows the bottom of her left hoof to Evening and replies, “Whatever, talk to the hoof.”
Amity then asks, “What do you want?”
The overconfident Earth pony lowers her hoof and answers, “Nothing from you! I’m here for something of mine that you don’t have: a boyfriend.”
“So?” Amity sharply replies, “That makes you better than me? Let me remind you something, I’m a princess and graduating high school, and you are part of a family filled with their heads up their plots and the only one of our entire senior class not graduating. So, who’s better here?”
Evening and Vanilla simultaneously holler, “Oh!” which makes the young princess proud and puts on a proud expression.
Jiggy drops her mouth wide open and responds furiously, “What does make me better is actually being a somepony like being cheerleader captain, having a cutie mark which makes you pathetic for being a freaking princess, and not having a thousand year, benevolent, hypocritical hag for a mom!”
Amity’s smile quickly fades away and turns into an intensely irate scowl. Keeping her eyes on the cocky pony, Amity lowers her head and breathes slow while Jiggy Rich makes a supercilious smile. Evening then steps in front of Amity and shouts at Jiggy Rich, “How dare you?! Do you have any idea what Celestia has done for you?! Heck, if Celestia knows you’ve been talking about her like that…”
Vanilla then steps beside her and yells, “Insulting Amity is one thing but insulting Celestia is going too far! I should shove my hoof down your throat!”
“Move,” Amity tells her friends in an angry and even scary tone. Her friends turn to see her breathing heavily with intense eyes, but they quickly notice something odd about them. The iris of Amity’s eyes was not gold as usual but rather an eerie blood red color. Evening tries to ask about her eyes but is suddenly halted by Amity by screaming at them, “Move!” Even though they know something is wrong, they move out of her way slowly. As soon as her two friends move, Amity dashes at Jiggy and head-butts the spoiled pony in her face.
Jiggy falls to the ground, rubs her forehead, and screams in pain. Suddenly, she picked up by Amity’s magic, but instead of her regular gold aura, the aura is blood red as well. Then, Amity with Jiggy constricted in her magic flies straight up into the air. Amity’s friends try to stop her but are not fast enough to do anything and can only watch Amity fly to the sky. With Jiggy screaming, Amity flies higher and higher. Once she stops, Amity turns Jiggy upside down where she is staring at the ground, and she immediately sees they are so high in the sky the tallest tower of Celestia’s castle is several meters below them.
Jiggy starts to cry, looks at Amity with the blood red eyes, and pleads, “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! Please put me down!”
Amity responds in a deep sadistic voice, “You pathetic, worm. I have tolerated you for nearly five years, and I have had it! I should let you drop right now! In fact, I will because I can’t stand your guts! I absolutely and always have ha…”
“Princess Amity!” Celestias voice suddenly echoes from below the two ponies. As soon as she hears her mother, Amity’s eyes and aura turn back to their gold color, and her anger vanishes. After her aggression disappears, she sees Jiggy being held in her magic, upside down, and several meters in the air. Celestia flies in front of her and yells, “What do you think you’re doing?! Lower her down, now!” Amity starts descending to the ground slowly with Celestia following her. After a couple of minutes, Amity, Celestia, and Jiggy all touch the ground near in front of Evening and Vanilla who both have expressions of shock, and as soon as she touches the ground, Jiggy Rich runs away quickly. Celestia orders her daughter, “Meet me in the throne room.” She then flies into the air and heads to the castle swiftly.
Before leaving, Amity looks at her friends with expressions of fear. She walks towards them, but they move away with every step. Amity stops walking and then says, “Girls. I…I…” She starts to form tears and flies to the castle without finishing talking to her friends.
Minutes after ordering Amity to meet her in the throne room, Celestia lands on the balcony outside of her bedroom and storms through the balcony doors into her room. She takes her crown, necklace, and shoes off and places them on top of the drawer next to her bed. Then, she calmly walks to her larger drawer across her bed and observes a picture which shows her smiling and lying on grass beside a muscular, maroon, male alicorn with his front hooves in the air holding happy foal Amity.
Using her magic, she lifts the picture up and says "If only you were here, my love... You have no idea how hard it has been raising Amity for these past fourteen years. We need you. Better yet, it's probably best you not being here. I broke our promise made before Amity was born: I yelled at her." A tear from her left eye streaks down her cheek. She continues, "Please forgive me, Amyas." She hugs the picture and says, "Amyas, please be careful at the Ancient City and never forget us."
Five minutes later, Amity with dried tear streaks on her cheeks approaches the throne room entrance doors thinks to herself, "What is Mom going to do? Is she going to order me to take over my maid's position for a month? That would suck! Wait, is she going to banish me like she did with Aunt Luna? No, she turned into Nightmare Moon. What I did wasn't as bad, or was it? Mom..."
Amity then breathes in slowly and opens the doors, and steps in to see an empty throne room with no ponies in sight expect for Celestia sitting in front of a colorful picture glass window. The window shows a maroon male alicorn and a white female alicorn with the tips of their horns together, eyes closed, and smiling, and over their heads is a pink alicorn baby curled up with a white star around the infant. Amity walks beside Celestia, sits next to her, and looks at her with a guilt expression.
Celestia turns her head to stare her daughter and says, "Amity, I am very disappointed in you. What were you thinking? You would have killed that pony." Amity looks away but does not respond. Celestia continues now in a calm tone, "Now, tell me what happened."
Amity says in a nervous tone, "Vanilla, Evening, and I were walking back home after the game, and she came up to us and started insulting us, especially me. I stood up for myself by talking back at her, and it was working. Then..."
"What?" Celestia asks.
"She insulted you by called you 'a hag'," Amity answers. Celestia raises her left eyebrow, and Amity continues, "I got frustrated and tried to control myself, but thoughts of hurting her went through my mind. I gave in and then...I don't remember anything after that, until you yelled at me when she and I were in the sky."
Celestia then responds calmly, "So, she was being a bully. Amity, tell me, is this the first time she or any pony bullied you?"
Amity shakes her head and replies, "She's been like that towards my friends and me since we were freshmen."
Celestia says back, "Why haven't you told me about this? If you're in that situation, you always come to me immediately. Why didn't you tell?"
Amity looks at her mother with tears about to run down her face and answers, "I...I did it for you." Celestia lowers her eyebrow and listens to her daughter, "Since Dad is not here, I thought keeping it a secret and taking care of it myself would give you less stress. I didn't care what could have happened to me if she took it too far. I didn't want you to worry. There are more important things you have to deal with."
Celestia makes an expression of shock and says, "Amity..." With her right hoof, she brings Amity close to her and hugs her daughter tightly. "You are the most important thing in my life. You should never ever think like that. I love you more than thing or anyone in this world."
Amity asks, "Even Dad?"
Celestia hesitantly answers, "Y...Yes. I love Amyas so much, but no one is more important than you." She breaks the hug and asks, "But there is something you need to understand outside of the castle. You need to maintain your role as a princess and never act like that."
"I know," Amity replies, "But I just couldn't take it anymore and insulting you was too much!"
"'Too much?' What else did she say tonight?" Celestia with her eyebrow raised again asks
"Well..." Amity responds and looks at her blank flank. Celestia leans to look at what her daughter is staring at and immediately knows Amity is referring to her lack of a cutie mark. Before Celestia could respond, Amity says, "She says that I should be embarrassed being your daughter, and I am a 'nobody' and having a blank flank shows it. I know. I shouldn't think about it, but whenever Jiggy brings it up, I can't help but think that she's right. I don't show that it bothers me in front of her, but when she's not around, it her insults come back and can't get them out!"
"Amity..." Celestia interrupts in a calm voice.
"No, Mom!" Amity shouts, "You know she's right, and if she doesn't respect me for being a princess with no cutie mark and doing nothing, why should all of the other ponies in Equestria? They all think that! I know they do! There is no pony out there who respects me, including you, Aunt Luna, and Father! All of you think that don't you!"
"Stop it right now!" Celestia shouts back in her royal voice. Then, she calmly continues, "Just stop it. I know you're thinking I'm going to repeat what I said earlier today, but I'm not. Instead, I'm going to tell you something I should have told you long ago. No matter who you are, there will always be those who will hate you." Amity looks at her mother with a confused expression with her left eyebrow lowered down and her right raised high.
Celestia continues, "Not all ponies or any other individuals living in Equestria respect or like me. I've heard and read criticisms towards me, and many call me a hypocrite, a tyrant, a liar, and even a bum who makes others carry out my tasks instead of me doing them myself. They have their right to their opinions upon me, but there is one thing I always do no matter how many critics are out there, I make decisions for all of the residents of Equestria. I have never made decisions that benefit me. I protect them and as a princess, everything I do as a leader centers around them. If I attack any of the critics, I will appear to be selfish and many would turn against me. I have to do what is best for them. Amity," Celestia places her front hooves on her daughter's shoulders and continues, "no matter what they say, you need to protect them your own way. Even with the ponies criticizing you, many will follow you and respect you with or without your cutie mark. Heck, I bet you would make a great role model for those who don't have one. You could show them that you don't need one to accomplish wonder things. Amity, promise me, you will always protect all of the citizens of Equestria."
Amity with a smile and tears running down her cheeks hugs her mother and says, "I promise. I will protect all of them with my life. I'm sorry, Mom. I love you."
Celestia hugs Amity back and replies, "You are forgiven, and I love you too." Celestia breaks the hug and says, "It's late. Let's go to bed." Amity nods and walks along with Celestia to the hall containing their bedrooms.
A couple minutes later, they come across Amity's bedroom door, and Amity opens it and walks inside the bedroom. Before Amity closes the door, she smiles at her mother. Celestia smiles and says, "Goodnight." Celestia turns to her left but stops and says to Amity, "Oh, by the way, you're grounded." Amity's jaw drops and her eyebrows raise high in shock. Celestia smirks and walks to her bedroom just ten feet away from her daughter's room.
Four weeks after Amity's outburst, early in the morning of a Friday, Celestia is sitting in front of a mirror combing her hair with a brush being held by her magic. She places the comb on the counter and wears her crown on her head. She looks at a picture to her left which shows her wearing a straw hat and sunglasses and beside her is Amity at 14 years old wearing braces and an orange swim suit with a white flower pattern at a beach.
Celestia smiles at the picture and says aloud, "Amity, how much you've grown. It only seems like yesterday we were there."
Then, a knock on her bedroom door catches her attention, approaches the door, and opens it to see her unicorn assistant with a clipboard and pen in her right hoof. The assistant says, "I'm here, Your Majesty."
The princess interrupts by whispering, "Sh. You'll wake up Amity. Her room is close to mine. Come inside my room and we'll talk." The unicorn enters Celestia's bedroom quietly, and Celestia closes and locks the door. She continues in a slightly louder tone, "We can't let her know about this. Also, tell all of the guards, maids, chefs, and any pony else you can get to not let her go into the dining room." Her assistant nods and with her magic lifts the pen and prepares to write, and the princess says, "Now, this is what I was thinking..."
Just down the hall is Amity's room which is shut and locked from the inside. Inside the room, the young princess is on her back fast asleep on a queen size bed. Her mouth is wide open making faint snores, and her sheets are only covering her legs and waist. As she sleeps, she dreams she is walking down the streets of Canterlot with her friends Vanilla and Evening. All three are wearing highly expensive clothing, jewelry, and other accessories. The three walk into a random clothing store and grab various clothing such as shirts, pants, and dresses off the shelves and hangers and quickly try them on and take them off. Then the friends leave the store with all of the clothing they tried on in bags that around their necks, back, waist, and hooves. Suddenly, all three come to a halt and stare at three tall, muscular, handsome Earth stallions who give the three teens flirtatious smiles. The group smiles and let their jaws hit the concrete floor, and their eyes grow at a cartoonish size. The teenagers breathe heavily as the three stallions approach them. Amity looks at her friends who each take one of the stallions, and each pair enter in a small room that spontaneously appears in front of them, and each of her friends with their stallion enter the room and closes the door which has a sign that says "Whoopee Room". The princess hears her friends moaning loudly from the rooms. With an excited, flirtatious expression, she turns back to the attractive stallion, but instead of the stallion, a slightly taller dark blue alicorn with a long flowing blue mane stands in front of her with a smile.
"You're lucky I'm not telling your mom about this," the blue alicorn says to her. Amity is shocked by the alicorn appearing before her and backs away quickly, but then she feels something hard against her bottom and stops as soon as she feels it.
"No way," a deep male voice behind her says. "There is no way you will be with a stallion like him."
Amity recognizes the voice and slowly turns her head to see a massively tall, muscular, red alicorn who stares down at her with his eyebrows raised high. She backs away from him and looks at the two alicorns intensely and asks, "How are you two?"
"Why, Amity," the blue alicorn replies, "don't you remember us?"
Amity observes the two more carefully and recognizes their cutie marks which the blue alicorn's cutie mark is the moon and the red alicorn's mark is a golden crown. She relaxes; widens her pupils, and responds in a shocked tone, "Aunt Luna? Dad?"
The two alicorns nod their heads simultaneously, and Amity instantly forms tears in her eyes, runs up and hugs them tightly, and the two alicorns hug her back tightly as well. Amity then breaks up the hug and asks her aunt, "Aunt Luna, I thought you were banished to the moon." She turns to her father and asks, "Dad, I thought you had to stay at the Ancient City."
Luna answers in a gentle voice, "When your mother raised the moon earlier, she used a powerful old spell to contact my alter ego Nightmare Moon in spirit form instead of meeting physically for safety reasons. Long story short, she granted me one night to talk to you in your dream before you wake up."
"Wait," Amity asks, "this is all a dream?"
"Yes, my niece," Luna answers. "Even if this is a dream, it is still wonderful to see you again, and I can say that for the both of us. Right, Amyas?"
She turns to see Amity's father staring at his daughter with a big smile on his face and widened eyes. He and Amity look eyes, and he says, "Amity, my little girl, it's been so long since I have seen you."
Amity almost cries but holds back to ask him, "Daddy, how come you're here?"
Amyas answers, "Well, your aunt contacted me in my dream."
Luna then says, "After I and my sister negotiated about this, I proposed the idea on bringing him here for you, and Celestia agreed and gave me my power to go into his dream and connect both of your dreams together."
"Tell me," Amyas continues, "how do you feel about this surprise?"
Amity with a joyous expression answers, "This is...unbelievable. There aren't words to describe how I feel. I missed you two so much. I wish this was real."
Her father responds, "Don't fret. One day we will all be together again. It takes patience." Then, the environment all around the three alicorns slowly start turning black. "Is it already done?" Amyas asks Luna.
The princess of the moon answers, "I'm afraid so. You are waking up Amity. This is all the time we have with you."
"No," Amity replies with tears slowly streaking down her face. "Please no. You just got here."
Luna explains, "Celestia fears that if I have too much freedom such as this, I would turn into Nightmare Moon and somehow escape. Even if I did, I made deal with her and I must keep my side of it. I must return to the moon, and Amyas must return to his dreams."
Amity closes her eyes causing more tears to run down. She approaches her aunt and hugs tightly, and does the same with her father crying harder and burying her head in his chest. "Daddy, please not leave me again! Stay, please!"
"I'm sorry," her father responds in a calm voice. "I can't but promise me and your aunt this: stay strong and never change who you are."
Luna then approaches the couple with a single tear down her left cheek and places her head on Amity's left shoulder. Amity then says, "I promise. I love you both."
The world around the alicorns turns completely black with the group contrasting the blackness. Then, Luna and Amyas slowly fade into the black as well. Amity opens her eyes to find herself on her bed. She sits up and looks around hoping to see her aunt and father but to no avail. However, instead of crying, she smiles and cross her arms across her chest as if she is hugging some pony, and she whispers to herself, "Good bye for now."
Several hours later, Amity wearing a graduation gown which covers her body and a cap stands at the edge of a white wooden stage which set up in the center of the same field where the last game of the school year was held weeks ago, and the stage is facing in front of a massive audience of ponies wearing formal attire. On the stage are the school principal, vice principal, school board, and Princess Celestia. All of the graduates expect for Amity have walked across the stage, received their diplomas from the principal, thanked all of the ponies on the stage, walked off, and stand on the other side of the field. Amity waits for her name to be called by the principal so she can repeat the, but the principal hands the diploma to Celestia and walks up to the very front of the stage.
"Now," Celestia says to the crowd, "the only alicorn in the entire graduation class, my daughter and the future of Equestria, Princess Amity!" The crowd spontaneously springs out of the stands and a roar of cheers erupts.
Amity with blushes dominating her face walks up to her mother. Celestia hands her the diploma and the two hug, and as soon as they hug, Amity whispers in her mom's ear without moving her lips, "Don't ever do this again! It's so embarrassing! "Celestia chuckles and breaks the hug for Amity to walk off.
About thirty minutes after the ceremony ended and celebrating with friends and fellow graduates, Amity and her friends return the gowns and caps in the school's main office where an assistant takes the graduation clothing. The group leaves the main office and waiting for them is Celestia. She says, "Congratulations, girls." Evening and Vanilla bow their heads before her and then raises them. "Evening and Vanilla, would you two like to come to the castle to celebrate?"
The pegasus and unicorn stare at each other with shocked faces and then look at Amity who has an excited expression with a gigantic smile and widened eyes and nodding her head frantically. The two friends then look back at Celestia and answer, "Yes!"
Celestia responds, "Excellent! You both can ride with Amity on her royal carriage. As soon as we arrive at the castle, just follow me." The group then exits through the school doors to see two massive golden carriages both with four white pegasi guards. Celestia walks and climbs on the carriages up front while Amity walks to the one behind her mother's. Evening and Vanilla follow their alicorn friend and excitedly climb on the golden carriage and sit next to Amity who is between them. Celestia then says to all eight guards, "To the castle." The guards of her carriage pull with ease and take off into the air, and as soon as Celestia's carriage gets off the ground, the guards attached to Amity's carriage pull as well and follow suit. As they head towards the castle. Amity's friends look at the breath taking scenery below them making Amity chuckle.
She then says, "I know. It's...so...awesome!"
Only five minutes after leaving the school, the ponies arrive at the castle, and Amity and her friends step off the carriage and follow Celestia who has already entered the castle through two beautiful painted doors with golden edges. They catch up to the princess, and the unicorn and pegasus observe the amazing, massive interior design of the castle. Celestia takes them through the main hall and into the dining room where a long undecorated table is set up.
"Please take a spot," Celestia asks the group of friends as she sits at the table. The younger ponies do as she asks.
They awkwardly sit for a minute until a male unicorn butler enters the room, bows his head, and asks the princess, "Is this the entire group, Your Majesty?" Celestia nods her head, and the servant replies, "Very well." He leaves the room politely without saying another word. Suddenly, a large number of maids, butlers, and chefs barge in giving all four ponies white napkins, glass cups, and golden plates in front of them. Amity's friends are shocked by all of the servants and treatment they are receiving, but Celestia and Amity simply smile. Then, a cart with salads, steamed carrots, five star soups, and various other foods with steam eliminating from them enters the room.
Celestia looks at Amity's friends who have excited faces and asks, "Surprised?"
"Yes, ma'am," Evening answers.
"Thank you so much, Your Highness," Vanilla also answers.
Celestia chuckles and looks at Amity who has a smile and asks, "Well, Amity? Are you surprised?"
"Kind of," Amity responds, "but you do this call the time." Celestia simply shrugs.
The four ponies eat dinner in the dining room and have a massive marble cake with vanilla and strawberry flavors and chocolate icing for dessert. After eating, the ponies talk, tell jokes, and play board games in the dining room for several hours. Eventually, the two friends have to leave the castle and the guards who pull Amity's carriage take the two teens to their homes. As soon as they left, Amity immediately goes to her room, takes shower, and goes to bed while Celestia lowers the sun and raises the moon. However, instead of going to bed instantly, Celestia flies to Amity's balcony and knock on the glass doors that lead to her room getting her attention. Amity in her bed hears the knocking and sees Celestia on her balcony with the moon brightly shining behind her. Amity stares at the moon with a gapping mouth and lets her mom in. Celestia enters and sits next to her and looks at the object as well.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Celestia asks.
Amity whispers, "Yeah."
"Amity," Celestia says, "since your friends have plans with their families this summer, do you want to go to Orange Beach?"
Her daughter darts her head at her mother and responds excitedly, "Yeah. I would love that."
"Glad to hear that, but..." Celestia replies, "I have royal duties throughout Equestria for two weeks. Once I finish, we'll go, but you have to do something until then. "
"What?" Amity asks.
"You will go to Ponyville and stay with and learn from Miss Remedy. She is a behavior specialist and a master in magic. I asked her the other day to take you in and give you some training in magic and help with your behavior, specifically your anger."
Amity with a confused face asks, "What do you mean? I don't…"
"What happened weeks ago," Celestia snaps. Amity then stops and makes an expression of shame. "Look, I and your friends have already forgiven you, but we need to make sure this doesn't happen again. This isn't to punish you. It's to help you. Please take this seriously. It'll be worth it and even fun."
Amity nods and says, "Okay. When will I go there?"
Celestia answers, "Tomorrow! Now, get to bed and have a goodnight." Celestia exits her daughter's bedroom leaving Amity speechless with a stunned expression.
In the middle of a beautiful day, Amity is riding on a train to the small town Ponyville, and she has sat in the steam locomotive for thirty minutes. Throughout the majority of the thirty minutes, the many passengers including fillies take notice of her presence and ask her questions and autographs. The ponies on board were very excited to meet a princess which is a once in a lifetime opportunity, but despite appearing calm and tolerable, Amity slowly got irritated with the attention. At one point, she wanted to lash out on all the ponies. Eventually, the attention stopped, and Amity gained a terrible migraine. Currently, she is simply staring out of the window looking at the various landscapes passing by.
Then, a female stewardess enters the passenger cart and says to every pony in the cart, "Attention passengers. We are arriving at Ponyville. Please see if every pony in your party is present." Amity gives sighs and raises her right hoof. The employee sees the princess' hoof, swallows in nervousness, and approaches the young royal alicorn. She bows before Amity and asks, "Yes, Your Majesty?"
"May I have some of the apple cider?" the princess asks.
The stewardess swallows again and replies, "...I'm sorry, Princess, but we have sold all the cider we have. We won't have any more until we get to Ponyville."
Amity lowers her eyebrows, widens her eyes, turns her head back to the window, and says in an irritated tone, "It is fine."
"We have water if you like Princess," the nervous pony replies.
"I said no," the alicorn loudly snaps at the employee.
The stewardess swiftly jumps backwards and says, "I'm sorry," and exists the cart. The rest of the passengers stare at the young princess with expressions of shock and fear. Amity looks out the window once again and notices the landscape slowly stopping and then comes to a halt. She steps out of her seat, opens a small cabinet above her, pulls out a saddle with her two luggage bags attached, places it on her back, and follows the rest of the passengers out of the cart. She passes by the same stewardess but says nothing to her.
Amity steps out of the door to find an adult and a filly unicorn standing in front of her. The filly is peach colored with bright blue eyes, a combed straight mane and tail, a darker blue hair bow, and a blank flank. The adult is dark orange with a dark blue mane and tail in spiky fashions and dark green shades and vest with a cape attached. The two approach the young princess, and Amity in return walks towards them. The adult approaches Amity and says, "Welcome to Ponyville, Your Majesty. I'm Remedy's daughter."
Amity replies in a tone indicating tiredness, "Thanks. Nice to meet you."
The unicorn turns to the filly behind her who has her mouth open and widen eyes and pupils and asks, "Amber, would you like to say something?"
Amber simply stares at Amity with her ears back; eyes widen, and mouth open. The princess breathes out through her nostrils and approaches the filly and says, "Hello, Amber."
"I…I…" the little filly replies, then she leaps up and hugs Amity tightly. Amity rolls her eyes and hugs the filly back with her left front hoof.
"Amber," the adult unicorn says, "let the princess go. She ain't a teddy bear."
Amber breaks the hug and excitedly says, "Sorry, Mommy. It's just…" She squeals in excitement and continues, "so cool meeting you!"
Amity smiles and replies, "Well, it's pretty cool to me you."
"Allow me to introduce myself now," Amber's mother says. "You can call me DJ-R. It's my nickname around here and I prefer that."
"Um, okay," Amity replies. "So, where is your mom?"
DJ-R answers, "She's in the forest taking a walk. She will be home by the time we get there, but before we go home, I need to do something, if you don't mind."
Amity replies, "Fine. Let's get it done with. I have a terrible headache."
"Yeah, no problem," the unicorn says. "A friend of mine wants to me to hear his latest mix. He's a local DJ too."
Amity grinds her teeth and silently says, "Fine."
The three ponies walk through town with residents starring in awe at Amity, but surprisingly, none of the Ponyville citizens approach her. The ponies of the town simply kept their distance from the young princess and bow when she passes by them. For a brief minute, Amity did wonder why they were acting in this fashion, but she dismisses the thought and accepts their behavior and giving her space. Eventually, the trio approaches a small brick house with loud music coming from the inside.
The orange pony knocks on the front door hard, the music stops, and a white male pony with spiky hair and shades opens the door. "Yo, DJ-R!"
"What's up, VJ?" R answers.
"I'll be one minute," DJ-R says to Amity and Amber and walks inside the house, and loud music starts emulating from the house. Amber and Amity back away from the house, sit on the ground against a wall, and wait and wait and wait.
"Tell me Amber," Amity asks, "why do you like me so much?"
The filly blushes and answers, "Well... you're a princess, awesome, and smart without a cutie mark. I want to be just like you when I grow up! I want to be some pony others can look up to and show them that being a blank flank doesn't mean a thing. You showed me that when Mommy showed me a picture of you in the newspaper."
Amity with widen pupils and blushes on her face asks, "How long ago was that? When you saw me in the paper?"
Amber immediately answers, "Three years ago, and I haven't stopped trying to be like you! Work hard, be nice, and love family."
"I inspired you to 'love family'? You didn't love your mom at one point?" Amity asks with a tone of concern and curiosity.
The filly shock her head a continued, "I didn't love Mommy because I wanted to be with Daddy. Dad told me one day that I had to be with her, and I was really upset. I promised him that I would love her, but I didn't keep that promise. I just never talked to her or anything. Then, one day, Mommy told me Princess Celestia and you were coming to Ponyville for the Summer Sun Celebration at year. I couldn't meet you like this because we were behind a crowd. Mommy put me on her head so I could see you and Celestia, and I saw how you and you mommy talked. I thought about how I was acting and if I want to be like you, I had to love my mom too. Now, I truly love my mommy."
Amity with her jaw open, pupils dilated, and a single large blush consuming her cheeks says in a soft tone, "Wow. I've made that much of an impact on your life?" Amber nods her head and nuzzles against Amity's leg. Amity with a smile pats on the filly's head. Amity then thinks in her head, "I can't believe it. I've affected this little filly's life this much? Maybe...I'm not useless as I thought. I can only imagine what Mom, Father, and Aunt Luna would say to this. This is one of the best moments of my life."
Five minutes pass and Amber asleep on Amity's leg and the young princess has grown very impatient with the unicorn. "Oh my mother's name," Amity says without waking the filly, "how long could this possibly be? Listen to the music, if you can even call that mess music, judge it, and leave it. How long could it possibly be? I should barge in and..."
Then, the front door opens with the orange unicorn stepping out and says to her friend, "Keep it up, dude! Later!" The door closes behind her, and DJ-R approaches the two. She sees her daughter sleeping on the leg of the princess. "Aw. That's so adorable. You have no idea what you mean to her."
"Yeah, I do." Amity replies. "She told me a bit, and I'm proud that I have affected both of your lives."
DJ-R smiles and says, "Well, if you can lift her up and carry her on your back, we'll be on our way to home."
Amity then asks, "By the way, why do you have the cape on?"
"It's to keep cool. It's hot out here," DJ-R answers.
"True," Amity replies.
The alicorn lifts Amber with her magic and sets the filly on her back and follows the unicorn through the rest of town. With the sun close to setting, the trio reaches a beautiful forest. The group walks through it and they can hear and see wide life animals such as squirrels, birds, and even deer eating, sleeping, and gathering food for the night. Eventually, they come across a wooden two-story house with windows on the sides, a wooden front door, and a blue painted roof.
"Finally," the DJ says, "we've made it."
Amity sighs and follows the unicorn to the front door. She opens the door to see a staircase to the upper floor in the middle; to the right is a small kitchen and dining room next to it; and to the left are a couch, two chairs, and a large bookcase. The filly on her back yawns and hops off her back and walks up the stairs while rubbing her eyes.
"Go upstairs, Amber and get a bath. Dinner will be ready soon," her mother says. The filly runs up stairs to the bathroom.
DJ-R then walks over to the dining table with a concerned face and picks up a letter. "Uh-oh."
"What?" Amity asks. She approaches the DJ, and the unicorn hands her the letter and reads it aloud, "'Dear Princess Amity, I am sorry to tell you that I had to leave to see a sick relative today. I will be back in two days, and when I return, our first session will begin. Again, I am truly sorry.' Really? Really?! She's not here after what I went through?! Annoying ponies bothering me today, and the train staff that can't even give me a drink I wanted!"
The princess stops when she feels some pony's head on her back, and an orange hoof wraps around her forehead. Amity pauses in shock, and then she feels the head and hoof back away. She jumps forward, turns around, and sees the DJ right in front of her with a disappointed expression. The unicorn takes off her clothing and hangs all clothing attire on individual hooks on the wall, and she reveals green eyes and a cutie mark of a ying-yang mother unicorn lowers her head and swiftly jerks it back which straightens her mane. Then, she says in a formal tone, "Just as I thought. You have no patience, flexibility, or ways in controlling your anger. You will be a difficult one. "
"You're Remedy?" Amity asks.
The unicorn nods her head and continues, "You immediately assume that the way I look mean that I am not a genius in magic and behaviors? Before you ask, the DJ gimmick was your first test. I wanted to see who you really are. If I had told you right away what I would look like, you would act polite and formal which would hide who you are. I had to catch you off guard and see the problems you have. Also, don't think what you did on the train won't come into play. While you were talking to Amber, I asked the stewardess if anything happened, and she told me your sudden burst. Also, my friend really is a DJ, but the loud music was a cover up so I could read your lips. From that, I saw that others leave an impact on you, but I read your lips after Amber fell asleep, and you have very little patience."
Amity looks down with an expression showing shame. She asks, "Everything was a set up to see what my problems were?"
"Most of the things," Remedy continues. "What Amber said was absolutely true. We had a difficult relationship after her father and I had a divorce, but we came closer after she saw you and Princess Celestia. Now, to the matter at hand, don't apologize for what you did or said today. Reflect on those events and think what you should do when it happens again. Our real first session will start tomorrow, but for now I need to get supper ready." Remedy goes to the kitchen and opens drawers to start cutting a head of lettuce. "There's a room upper stairs to the right."
Amity walks up the stairs, enters a room with a medium-sized bed, puts down her luggage, and lies on the bed. She stares at the ceiling and says, "I was impatient, harsh, and when something like that note happened, I went out on a rant. I see what she meant. These next two weeks will be…intriguing."
Later that night, Amity, Amber, and Remedy are all asleep in their beds, and Amity is having a dream about the animals she saw in the forest earlier. She is interacting with them, petting them, and giving food off her hooves. Suddenly, everything turns black. An eerie laugh echoes all around her, and she hears Celestia scream, "Amity! Amity, is that you?!"
"Mom?!" Amity shouts to Celestia.
"Oh," the voice making the laugh suddenly says, "how precious. Your little girl, Celestia? I can't wait to see her bleed." The voice then makes an evil giggle.
"Don't you dare touch her!" Celestia then shout out.
"Who are you?!" Amity then yells.
"You know me," the male voice answers. "We'll meet soon, Amity, and I'm expecting a lot from you."
Then, silence dominates the dream with nothing to see. Suddenly, a white alicorn figure fades in from the black scenario. "Mother?" Amity asks. The white figures then turns to its left to look at Amity, but she immediately knows the figure is not Celestia. The alicorn has bat like wings and a mane, a tail, and many stripes all over the body fading in quickly in a blood-red color. The figure stands in front of Amity with its eyes closed, and Amity cannot believe her eyes. This is her. The white Amity then opens her eyes quickly to show blood-red cat-like eyes and makes a horrible spine tingling scream. Amity then wakes up and leans forward sweating profusely. She breathes heavily and looks around. "It's just a dream. That's...it," she says to herself. She lies back down on the bed and hesitantly goes back to sleep.
Early in the next morning, the sun shines through the window of Amity's temporary room and shines right on her face waking her up in the process. The young princess rubs her eyes with her hooves, sits up, yawns, and steps off the bed. She stumbles a little but quickly regains her balance. She breathes out through her nose slow and rubs her head with her left hoof. She then hears three knocks at her door and approaches it. She opens to see Amber standing in front of her with a smile of her face.
"Good morning, Your Majesty," the young filly says.
"Morning, Amber," Amity says quietly.
"Mommy wanted me to see if you were up," Amber replies. "Breakfast will be done any second."
"Amber! Amity!" Remedy says aloud from down stairs. "Breakfast is ready!"
"Right on time," Amity responds. She follows the filly down the stairs and to the kitchen. They sit at the round dinner table where Remedy is waiting for them.
The unicorn mother says, "Good morning Amity. Looks like you're having a bad mane day."
Amity chuckles a little and in a clear voice, "I guess I am." Suddenly, a sharp pain rushes through her head, and the alicorn rubs her head again.
"You okay?" Remedy asks.
"Just a headache," the princess replies.
"Well, maybe food will help with that. Please sit." Remedy says. Amity and the two unicorns sit in chairs in front of the round table where a wooden bowl and a wooden spoon sit in front of the ponies. The princess uses her magic to lift the spoon which she uses to scoop some of the oatmeal and tastes the food.
"Hmm," Amity loudly hums. "This is delicious. Is this peach?"
"Why yes," Remedy answers, "with a dab of cinnamon."
The three ponies continue to eat until the bowels are empty. Remedy with her magic takes the bowels to the kitchen sink and proceeds to wash them. Amber with a book bag on her back hugs her mother and Amity and leaves through the front door. Amity stands up and walks back to her room and makes the bed. While she makes the bed, through the window she sees magic dust from the sky head under her and hears a pop sound.
"Please don't tell me that's Mom's letter," Amity says to herself with an expression showing concern. She finishes making the bed and walks up to the mirror attached to the room's drawer, and she uses her magic to lift a comb on the drawer and straighten her hair. As she straightens her hair, she thinks about the voice and white alicorn from the night before. "Who had that voice?" She thinks to herself. "I don't recognize it, but he said I knew him. He also said he wants to see me bleed?" She places the comb back on the drawer and walks downstairs. As soon as Amity reaches the bottom of the stairs, she sees Remedy outside with the door open and sends a letter via magic dust into the air.
"Was that from Mother?" Amity asks in a somewhat concerned tone.
Remedy re-enters the house and answers, "Why yes it was. Don't worry. She was just asking what I was going to do today, and I simply told her on that letter." Amity breathes out in relief. "Amity," Remedy continues, "you don't have to worry about being in trouble. Everything that happens here, stays here."
The pink alicorn nods her head then asks, "By the way, what are we going to do today?"
Remedy sits on a wooden chair against the round table and replies, "Simple. We're going to talk. Please sit down so we can start."
"Talk? That's it?" Amity asks with a confused expression.
Remedy brings her hooves together, clears her throat, and responds, "Excuse me. Yes. You see I've found that the best way to help my patients is getting to know who they are. Not their problems like your anger as an example but rather personality. That way I know how they think and how hard I should push them during the sessions. Additionally, my patients should know who I am through conversation so they can trust me. Understand?"
Amity nods and sits in the chair across from her instructor. She then says, "So...where should I start?"
Remedy lies back on her chair and replies, "Whatever or whenever you want."
"Okay," Amity calmly replies. "As you probably know, I was born in Canterlot and my mother is Celestia and my father is Amyas."
Back at Canterlot behind the castle, numerous unicorn and Earth royal guards are patrolling the Canterlot Garden while pegasi guards are flying over the maze. The captain of guard standing at the entrance removes his helmet and bows before Celestia with her unicorn assistant who is holding a clipboard in her left hoof and a quill placed on her right ear standing beside her.
"At ease." Celestia orders the captain who rises after the princess' command. Celestia and the assistant walk past the captain who stays at Celestia's side, and the princess asks in an intense voice, "Did you find him?"
"I am sorry," the captain replies "but we did not find a trace of him. However, we can confirm that he has..."
The trio turns to their left past a corner to find a statue base with shards of broken marble scattered around it. Celestia stops immediately and her pupils shrink quickly. She approaches the base and the shards and observes them intensely and notices that the base shows no signs of damage. Celestia then uses her magic to scan over the debris then says, "Captain."
"Yes, Your Majesty?" the captain marches behind her with his helmet on.
"Tell the guards stay alert of an enemy who could strike Canterlot. However, do not alert the citizens. I don't want them to panic. Have guards patrol all streets of the city. That will be all for now." The captain nods and rushes to the middle of the garden to gather all the guards. "The assistant who is beside the corner then receives magic dust and transforms into a letter before her. She holds it with her magic. "Raven," Celestia calls to her.
The assistant walks beside the princess and asks, "Yes?"
"Take a letter," Celestia tells the unicorn. Raven places the letter on her left ear and picks up the quill with her magic. Celestia continues, "After writing this, send it to the Wonderbolts immediately. Write:
General Purple Dart:
The following is top-secret and only the best Wonderbolts are to take on this mission. I need the very best Wonderbolts to fly to the abandoned city of Pandora and search for any evidence of any pony being there. I understand that no pony should set hoof there, but I and the E.U.P. here in Canterlot have evidence that my cousin Triton has escaped from his stone imprisonment. I scanned the base and shards where he once stood and he somehow broke freely on his own. I have a strong suspension that he would be heading towards Pandora to reclaim his power he once had. Whoever you send must stay alert, and if he is there, they are not to confront him or follow him. Tell the members on this mission to return and inform me immediately.
- Princess Celestia "
Raven rolls the letter and send it via magic dust, and the dust goes into the sky quickly. Celestia then asks, "Where am I to go to next?"
"Let me see," the unicorn replies. "You are to appear at the Rich's Annual Fine Wine Tasting Convention. Do...do you want me to cancel it?"
The white alicorn looks at her with a neutral expression and asks in a calm tone, "Why you ask that?"
"Well," Raven responds, "because of what's happening here."
"No. Don't cancel it. I cannot ignore the citizens of Equestria, and if I suddenly cancel all of these appearances, they will grow worry. I don't want them to worry. Not to mention, there may be a small chance that he left Equestria. His defeat may have affected him emotionally so much that he would want to leave. Even if that's proven wrong, I don't want the citizens going into a panic unless we know where he is."
"Yes, Your Majesty," Raven replies.
"Let's head back to the castle," Celestia says.
On their way out of the Garden, Raven says, "Oh, Princess. I almost forgot that Miss Remedy responded back."
Celestia stops, turns to her, and orders, "Read it to me."
Raven with her magic lifts the letter from her ear, opens it, and reads aloud,
"Princess Celestia:
Thank you for informing me about this. I will ask Amity if she had the same dream last night after our first session. Also, please don't worry about her. I know she will be a great pony to work with.
- Remedy "
"Your Majesty," Raven speaks, "if I could recommend something. I think we should tell Princess Amity. Maybe if you two fight him together like you and Princess Luna did, both of you could stop him."
"Absolutely not," Celestia snaps at the unicorn. "I'm sorry for snapping, but despite Amity being powerful and knowing a lot about magic, Triton is too deadly for her to face even with me. I fought him, and he's beyond anything I had faced before. If she were to fight Triton..." The princess stays silent.
"But can't you two control the Elements of Harmony?" the assistant asks.
"No." Celestia swiftly answers. "Only Luna and I were the ones to wield them. Without Luna, the Elements are worthless. She and I found them together before I was pregnant with Amity. Maybe if I was when I used the Elements, the Elements' power could have transmitted into her because their power circulated through my entire body when I used them."
"Then," Raven replies, "how can he be stopped?"
Celestia lowers her eyes, turns back to the castle, and walks without making a sound.
"My high school experience wasn't much different expect I had a bully, Jiggy Rich." Amity tells Remedy. "Yes. She is part of the Rich family that owns three five-star restaurants in Equestria. Anyway, I guess that's a brief overview of my life so far. Is there anything else you need to know?"
Remedy with her left hoof on the table and resting her chin on her right hoof simply replies, "Hm. That's actually very good description for a 'brief' overview. However, you didn't say a whole lot about Prince Amyas. Why didn't you?'
"Well," Amity answers, "like I said, he departed when I was two. I don't remember practically anything about him outside that when we were together, we had a lot of fun."
"Do you miss him?" Remedy asks.
Amity responds, "Yes. Actually, I remember several says ago on the night before graduation, I had a dream where Aunt Luna and Father were there with me." Remedy lowers her left eyebrow and raises the right. Amity explains, "Mother even told me this was true. She used her magic to contact Aunt Luna and Father by spirit one night and allowed her to use her dream spell with Father to see me as a gift on graduating this year."
"Ah," Remedy responds. "I see. That's very sweet of her to do. Speaking of dreams, tell me about some of the most recent dreams you've been having like last night. If you can remember that is."
Amity with a confused expression asks, “Why?”
“Well,” Remedy replies, “I have always believed that dreams in a way show us something about ourselves.”
Amity thinks about a possible dream she had last night then answers, "Yeah. I remember one that has been bothering me today. It was a completely black with no lights or scenery anywhere. Then, I heard Mom screaming for me, and a voice from a stallion was mocking her and said that he knew me and wanted to see me 'bleed'. Then there was silence and a white version of myself with a blood colored mane, tail, stripes, and eyes appeared in front of me. I or she looked at me with cat eyes, screamed, and then I woke up. I didn't have that dream when I went back to sleep. What does that mean do you think?"
Remedy with a neutral expression looks at the floor and placing her hoof against her mouth thinking about the dream. She breathes in and out slowly and says, “Let’s go outside and walk for a little bit.”
Amity raises her right eyebrow and says back, “Okay.” The two ponies walk through the front door and begin to walk through the woods with the birds chirping while flying over the unicorn and alicorn. “So, why are we here?”
“It’s not relaxing to you?” Remedy asks. Amity does not answer but instead let’s the fresh air flow through her mane, listens to the birds sing their songs, and the sun shine upon her. Indeed it is relaxing to the princess and Remedy knows she enjoys this.
About three minutes after walking, the two come up to a small sparkling pond. The ponies sit at the edge of the pond and admire its beauty. Then, they see a pair of birds drinking and bathing in the pond. Beside Remedy, a beautiful deer walks beside the unicorn and drinks from the same pond. Amity watches in awe at the peaceful scenery.
While looking at the pond, Remedy asks, “What are you feeling?”
Amity looks at her with an expression of peace and relaxation asks back, “What do you mean?”
Remedy still looking at the pond responds, “How do you feel right now?”
Amity closer her eyes, breathes in, lifts her head to the sky, and answers, “Peaceful. Like, I have no worries in the world and totally…calm.”
“I call this place Eden.” Remedy says. “‘Eden’ is a name meaning peaceful location. I come here everyday to clear my mind and think about my life. I also bring my patients here to clear their minds.” She then looks at Amity. “Looks like you love it.” Amity with her eyes close and a smile nods. Remedy continues, “Anytime you get stressed or face a difficult task, think about this place and the feeling you have while being here. I guarantee it will help you become calmer and clear your mind.”
Amity responds, “Thank you.”
The two ponies at the pond for an hour and then start to head back to the wooden house. Remedy then says, “Now that you have cleared your mind, I will tell you about your dream.”
“Wait,” Amity interrupts, “why didn't you tell me before we went to…” Amity pauses then recalls what Remedy said about the purpose of the pond. Then, she says in a calm tone, “Never mind.”
Remedy continues, “I cannot explain the voice or your mother because that could just be a bad dream, but the white version of yourself I believe was a warning.”
“’A warning?’ How?” Amity asks.
“A warning that if you do not take my teachings seriously and do not change, it could turn you into that. You see, every pony has dark magic with themselves. It is fueled by seven sins. They are pride, envy, gluttony, lust, greed, sloth, and anger. The more a pony welcomes these sins, the stronger the dark magic within becomes. Now, just because a pony maybe full of themselves like a unicorn who shows off his or her magic, does not mean they are evil. Rather, they have let one of the sins turn them into that kind of individual. However, if one lets the sin consume their life and embrace it as their life, the dark magic will control them and turn them into a pony of evil, and even hard to believe, the dark magic changes the ponies appearance and even mind such as the pony thinks he or she is a completely different individual.”
Amity asks, “This is sounding like what happened to my mother’s cousin Triton and my Aunt Luna.”
Remedy replies, “Sadly, that’s exactly what happened. Triton had let pride and greediness consume him, and he eventually embraced it and turned him into the dictator as we know him today. The same happened with Princess Luna but with anger and thus became Nightmare Moon. Amity…” Remedy looks at the princess, and the alicorn turns back at Remedy. “If you don’t control your anger, you will become that white version of yourself. Please, take everything I am saying and everything we are and will be doing seriously.”
Amity still calm nods her head and responds, “I will and am. I must ask: what will we be doing for the rest of the day?”
Remedy answers, “Since you are a princess, you will have to experience some situations where you will have to fight much like Princess Celestia and Luna. In those events, thinking about Eden or a place that relaxes you won’t work because you must concentrate at the task at hoof.”
Amity replies, “Okay. So, how will you teach me?”
The two come up to the wooden house, and Remedy steps in front of Amity and answers, “Simple.” She stretches her head to her sides making popping sounds and continues, “We’re gong to fight.”
"What?" Amity asks.
"We're going to fight." Remedy replies.
Amity responds, "But how is fighting teaching how to control my anger? It seems contradicting."
"You'll see." Remedy says back. "Try to hit me."
Amity raises her eyebrows and asks, "Are you sure? I don't want to hurt you. Also, that doesn't answer my question on lecturing."
"Bring it," Remedy sharply replies.
Amity breathes in and out and says, "Okay." Amity then walks jump to her, raises her right hoof, forms a fist, and throws it at Remedy's face, but the unicorn moves her head back dodging the hit. Amity tries throwing a left punch, but Remedy jumps to her left about a meter away dodging that second fist.
Remedy with a smile says, "Those were slow."
"I don't want to hurt you," Amity responds.
Remedy rolls her eyes, smiles, and says, "Disappointing. I thought you were a princess." Amity lowers her eyebrows making an irritated expression. "The great daughter of Celestia can't even hit little ol' me. I guess that blank flank really does show that you can't do or be anything."
Amity with a shocked expression starts breathing in and out trying to relax. She then closes her eyes and imagines the lake she and Remedy were at earlier, but her concentration is broken when she hears hoof steps swiftly approaching. She opens her eyes to see Remedy right in front of her, standing on her back right leg, and throwing her left leg at Amity's head, but the unicorn stops the leg barely making contact to the princess' temple. Amity is spooked by the sudden action of her teacher and tries to run to her right but falls to her side. She then realizes that Remedy is still with her hoof still in the air, and the unicorn is looking at her.
"This is why that fails," Remedy replies. She lowers herself down and stands on all four legs. "I won't hit you. I promise. Now, no mater how much I insult you, don't take it personal. However, you will come across enemies who will be ruthless and will say anything to anger you so you will focus. Now, I want you to try to hit me again and don't hold back. We'll stop until you say to."
Amity stands up, nods, and prepares by lowering her head and torso down. Remedy hunches her shoulders ready for the first attack. Amity the dashes to her left and then forward towards Remedy. She throws a punch but the teacher dodges with ease.
Elsewhere in Canterlot, a team of three pegasi wearing blue army suits with lightning bolts at the sides is flying through thick dark gray colored clouds. The leader of the trio who is a male pegasus with a purple mane and tail looks down sees a massive abandoned city underneath them.
He shouts to his companions, "We have entered Pandora. We are directly above it. Let's fly down, split apart, and see if any pony has been here. If you do make a thunder sound without the pony you have spotted seeing you."
The other pegasi shout back, "Yes sir!"
The trio separates and flies down towards the city with intense speed. Once they get near the abandoned buildings, they slow down and glide over the buildings and streets. The streets are cracked and show no sign of life. Rust, moss, and plants have consumed the buildings of the city. Some buildings have collapsed due to the rust and others are almost completely green because of the algae and plants. Pandora is nothing more than a ghost town. The Wonderbolts continue to fly over the city and search for any pony but to no avail.
Then, the leader of the trio comes across a massive black castle in the middle of the city and sees the entrance doors are open. He flies into the clouds above, kicks on a small portion of the clouds, and creates a thunder sound from it. The companions rush towards him, and he leads them to the ground where they land in front of the opened entrance. They walk forward with caution but are halted immediately by a scream illuminating from the castle.
A loud voice can be heard and it says, "My city! It's dead! Damn you, Celestia!" Suddenly, the castle starts to crack and pieces of it start to break off. The pegasi the fly into the clouds and watch as the castle cracks and falls apart. Then, a bright light from the center of the castle can be seen shining through all of the cracks. It glows brighter, then a shock wave of black aura explodes from inside the castle destroying what was left of the building. The shock wave slices through all of the buildings of the abandoned Pandora, and all of them immediately come debris of their former shape. Dust dominates the debris and is too thick for the pegasi observing to see anything.
"We need to inform Celestia..." the leader says but is interrupted when a massive dark blue alicorn with a black mane, long tail, and eyes and a cutie mark of a black crown with blood red jewelry on it. The Wonderbolts turn to see the alicorn staring at them.
The alicorn smiles and says in a polite tone, "Hello subjects. I'd like to ask you something." Trio of pegasi swiftly fly away but are caught immediately by the alicorn's magic. A black aura has engulfed their entire bodies. The dark blue pony brings them before him and continues, "That's not way to treat royalty. Now, let's try this again."
"Let us go," the leader of the group shouts.
Still with a polite tone, the alicorn responds, "You don't know who I am, do you? Don't even answer. I am Triton. I have returned to try to reclaim my city, but as you can see, it's a bit...damaged. I knew you three were here, and thought to ask: Who are you?" The three pegasi stay silent. Then, they feel the magic around their necks squeeze tight, and they can barely breathe. "Let's make a deal. If you tell me, I won't kill you and you can go home. If you don't I'll kill you right here." The magic around their necks squeeze harder, and the trio are gasping for air. "Well?"
The leader in a weak voice says, "We're...the Wonderbolts...Celestia...wanted us to..." The leader can't finish and is trying to fight off the magic to breathe.
"And?" Triton asks but with no answer. He then loosens the magic and the pegasi breathe in heavily and cough. "I guess that's all I need. I f you had only told me you were from Celestia, that would have been just fine. I don't like being spied on. I find it very rude. Now, I know you want to continue to admire my magnificent presence, but I have something for you to do. I will let you go and you tell Celestia I will be at Canterlot tomorrow night."
"Why are you telling us this?" The leader Wonderbolt asks.
"Why, so I can give my cousin a chance to prepare." Triton politely answers. "There's no chance in Hell of her winning, but I like to see what she can do. Go. Oh, and be sure to tell other ponies that God has returned." He releases the trio, and they pegasi fly towards Canterlot quickly with Triton simply walking on the ground. I makes sadistic smile and says, "Dear Celestia, death is upon you."
After about ten minutes, Amity says to Remedy, "Stop. I...need to catch...my breath." She falls to the ground and breathes heavily while sweating is pouring from every gland on her face. She rolls on her back and lets the sun's rays shine on her, but Remedy blocks the sun by having her head over Amity's. Remedy is breathing and sweating too but not as intense as Amity. Amity asks, "How come...you're not like me?"
Remedy answers, "Because I am controlling my breathing and my fighting. Stand up and let's see what you did." Amity stands up, and the unicorn continues, "When you throw a punch, you force so much energy unto it that you mind as well throw your arm out at me. When it comes to the breathing, instead of holding your breath and breathing in whenever you can, take short breathes in and force it out with every attack or movement. Stand on your back hooves." Amity does so, and Remedy walks behind her, stands on her back hooves, and presses her body against Amity's and lays her front hooves on top of Amity's front legs.
Amity blushes and asks nervously, "Um, what is this?"
"I'm going to show you how to properly fight by being in control of your front legs," Remedy replies. "Why?"
"It feels...odd," the princess answers.
Remedy responds by asking, "Like how? Give me a scenario."
Amity with heavy blushes answers, "Hypothetically speaking...it feels like a stallion is trying to have 'his way' with me from behind."
Remedy starts laughing and backs away from Amity. Amity stands on all four, turns, and seeing Remedy laugh turns to make her laugh too. Remedy then says, "That's great! I have never heard it that way before."
Amity replies, "That's how it honestly feels. Hypothetically, of course"
Remedy with a smirk and raising her right eyebrow says back, "Sure, it's 'hypothetical'." She starts giggling again.
"I'm serious!" Amity loudly responds to the laughing Remedy. "Remedy! I can't believe you! I would never do that until marriage! Besides, it's not that funny." Amity immediately contradicts herself by chuckling.
The chuckling Remedy now starting to calm down replies, "It was to me. I needed that." The teacher stops laughing and continues, "If it makes you uncomfortable then I won't do that."
"No. Let's do it," Amity says, and she stands on her two feet again. Remedy comes around and presses herself onto Amity and places her front legs on Amity's, and the unicorn makes magic bracelets around her and the princess' front and bottom ankles.
"Now," Remedy says, "Just follow my lead." Remedy brings Amity's front legs close to her face. Then, Remedy forces Amity to throw quick controlled jabs in the air, but the alicorn is having difficulty following the quick punches with their hips and legs moving along with the attacks. Remedy suddenly moves Amity to her right and throws more jabs. Amity struggles to follow her teacher's movement, and out of desperation to learn, Amity tries to predict Remedy's next movement and manages to throw a few jabs along with the unicorn.
The two continue to throw jabs, crosses, uppercuts, and other forms of attacking in the air. Amity manages to keep up with her teacher but is still struggling. Remedy stops and says, "You're sort of getting it." The magic disappears and Amity falls to her feet. Remedy continues, "Did you notice a difference between those punches than the previous ones?" Amity nods her and the unicorn says, "The way you were throwing them was unbalanced and predictable. You were JUST throwing them as if they were rocks. These however..."
"...had more control by having the entire body move." Amity interrupts while catching her breath.
Remedy nods and responds, "Exactly. Now let me ask you something." Amity turns to her mentor. "I haven't taught you how to breathe during that. Care to guess how you breathe properly?"
Amity shakes her head and replies, "I honestly don't know how. I guess during the punches."
"Actually," Remedy answers, "you're right, but instead of heavy breathing, make quick breaths in and out with every punch." Amity still breathing heavily lowers her eyebrows making a confusing expression. Remedy continues, "Simple as that. Don't force your breathing. Control it."
The tired alicorn responds, "I don't know what you mean. Your body needs oxygen and if you need a lot, you have to breathe in heavy."
"Very good and smart argument," Remedy acknowledges. "But I'm not as tired as you and I've been moving just as long and hard as you. Why is that?"
Amity answers, "I don't know."
Remedy says back, "It's quite simple. Do a small exhale with every punch, but that'll be all for today. We'll continue to do these exercises as the weeks go on." The unicorn then goes inside the house with the princess following behind. "Oh, before I forget, if you get married, that is a great position for your honeymoon." Remedy chuckles and Amity blushes.
Once the ponies walk into the house, Amity asks, "So what needs to be done in the house? Sweeping or cleaning?"
Remedy replies, "Nothing. I already cleaned the house before you woke up. You can read any of the books I have, go to the town, or do whatever that won't enrage you."
Amity says back, "I think I'll read a book, but I do have a question about the dark magic. Is dark more powerful and can exceed one's true potential?"
Remedy sits in a recliner, breathes in and out, and answers, "Yes, but it destroys who you are. It's not worth it."
"But," Amity continues, "...what a pony's dark magic is the key to saving lives?"
Remedy replies, "I don't know." Amity nods her head, selects one of Remedy's books, and reads it.
Later that night, Amity steps out the bathroom with her mane wet and heads to her temporary room. She opens the door and stares at the bed from the hallway. A sudden chill runs down her back because of the previous night's dream.
Remedy exiting Amber's room and closing the filly's room on the other side of the stairs sees Amity standing in the hall. She approaches her student and says, "What is it? That dream?" Amity nods, and the unicorn continues, "Listen, as long as you remember what we have done today and take all of my advice seriously, you won't have anything to worry about it. I bet you that this will be a pleasant dream."
Amity looks at her mentor and says, "I do take your stuff seriously and I trust you, but..."
Remedy interrupts, "You're afraid we're wrong and something awful will happen, and not to mention dreams are unpredictable. However, things you learn in real life do affect and change dreams." Remedy walks pass her and opens a door to a room close to Amity's, but before going in, she says, "Also, don't be scared in confronting your that dark magic form of yourself. Make her submit to you." The teacher then walks into her room and closes the door.
Amity turns back to the bed, breathes in and out heavily through her eyes, smirks and enters the room, closes the door, and gets inside the bed. She closes her eyes and tries to sleep. After about thirty minutes lying in the bed, the alicorn falls asleep.
The alicorn turns and stares at Amity. He says, "Ah, Amity. Good to see you again. I'd like a word with you if you don't mind."
As the stallion spoke, Amity is shocked that his voice is the same from the previous night. She stares intensely at him and says, "You're the voice from the nightmare."
The male alicorn asks, "It's good you remember my fabulous voice, but you don't know who I am?" Amity shakes her head, and the blue pony continues, "How sad. I figured my dear cousin would tell her own daughter everything magnificent about me."
Amity's expression changes from intensity to shock, and she says, "Are...are you...Triton?"
With open arms, the alicorn in a roar like voice answers, "Yes! That's right, my dear! The God of Earth, Triton is standing before you!" Amity makes an intense expression again, and Triton continues, "Oh come on, Amity. Don't be like your mother and think I'm a monster. She's just jealous on how great and powerful I have become."
Amity then loudly asks, "Where are we? Where have you transported us?"
Triton responds, "Ha! Transport? You sure have your mother's intelligence, don't you? We're in your dream."
"Wait," Amity interrupts, "this is a dream? I thought Princess Luna is the only one who can have this ability."
"When you embrace dark magic," Triton replies, "you have do things beyond your and others expectations such as being able to do things that only Luna and Celestia can do. Oh and speaking of the devil, I am going to reunite with your mother and have a good old fashion fight to the death. You should come and see."
Amity in the bed breathes in and out slowly, and in the dream Amity asks, "Why are you telling me this? Seems pretty stupid to tell me."
Triton answers, "Right you are, but it's simple. I want to piss you off and fight you in your dark magic form. You know the white alicorn." Amity then widens in eyes and in the bed starts breathing loudly and heavily. She even starts tossing and turning in her bed making groans and moans.
Remedy exists in her bedroom and walks past Amity's room but is stopped by Amity's moans and groans. She opens the door to see the alicorn tossing and turning in her bed. Remedy closes the door and stands beside the bed and whispers, "Amity? Are you okay?"
"What's the matter?" Triton taunts. "Afraid to get mad? Scared to embrace the dark magic? OH! HOW SCARY THIS IS! MOMMY COME HELP!"
Amity in the bed breathes harder and starts to sweat, and Remedy starts to shake the princess trying to wake her up. "Stop it," Amity says in the bed. Remedy lowers her eyebrows in confusion.
"Embracing the dark magic is the only way to stop little princess." Triton continues to taunt. "If you don't, then you and your mom are dead. Besides, dark magic is almost indescribable how it feels. If I can think of one word to describe it, it would be..." Triton breathes in and out slowly with a devious smile. "...orgasmic. Trust and believe Amity. If you don't..."
Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blows Amity away. She tries to stay on the ground, but the wind is too powerful to get her balance. Then as quickly as the wind came, it disappears just as fast, and Amity sees a horrifying sight. Triton is standing over a dead Celestia with a mangled neck, thick cuts, a broken horn, disjointed wings, and half of a face. Blood drains from the wounds and make trails towards Amity who is speechless by the gruesome display.
In the bed, Amity is crying and tossing in a violent matter, and to try to wake and calm down the princess, Remedy jumps on the bed, sits on Amity's torso, and pins the alicorn down to try to get her in one place. "Amity! Wake up! Can you hear me?!" Remedy screams at her student but to no avail.
Triton in the dream laughs maniacally at Amity who is being sitting on the ground motionless. The blood from her mother then floats above the young princess and drops on her making Amity soaking wet of her mother's blood. Triton continues to laugh and then says, "I'll be going now. See you soon."
"NOOOOOOO!" Amity screams in the dream and charges at Triton, but then a white horn pierces through the stallion's chest. Amity stops and watches the body of Triton fall to the ground, and behind the blue alicorn's body was the white, blood-red alicorn of Amity whose horn is dripping of Triton's blood. Amity closes her eyes and shakes her head, "No! I can't kill and I won't let you..." She opens her eyes to see the alicorn and the bodies have disappeared. She looks to her left and right but sees no one expect for the grim scenery, but then she feels something wet underneath her right hoof. She looks down and sees the bodies of Celestia and Triton before her and brings her right hoof up and sees blood on it. Amity starts to shake uncontrollably and looks down at a massive puddle of blood and sees her reflection which shows the dark magic form of herself. Amity screams in the air and wakes up.
Remedy continues to shake the princess but stops when Amity opens her eyes which are blood-red cats-like eyes. "Amity?" Remedy asks. The princess suddenly presses her hooves against the unicorn's throat, forces her to the roof, and proceeds to choke the unicorn while making an intense expression of hatred. Remedy cough and gasps for air while Amity chokes her. Then, a white magic aurora starts surrounding the alicorn and starts to engulf her. In a weak voice, Remedy shouts, "Stop it, Princess! It's me!" The alicorn manages to hear the shout, and the expression slowly changes from hatred to shock. The aurora disappears and the cat eyes fade away, and Amity's regular eyes reappear. She lets go of Remedy who falls on the bed and starts to breathe in heavily and coughs. Amity then floats to the floor, lies down, hugs herself, and begins to shake.
"What did I do?" Amity asks aloud and starts to tear in her eyes.
After catching her breathe, Remedy gets off the bed, walks to Amity, sits on all fours, and says, "It's much worse than I thought. Let's stay here until you're ready to move." Amity crawls to Remedy and lays her head in front of her teacher. Remedy starts to pet Amity with her right hoof trying to calm her down.
What feels like two or three hours after Amity choked Remedy, the young princess eventually falls asleep peacefully in front of her mentor. Once she realizes that the princess had fallen asleep, Remedy picks up the alicorn with her magic, puts her in the bed, and tucks her in like she does for her daughter. The unicorn quietly walks out of the room without waking Amity up, and even though she is tired from the ordeal hours earlier, she goes downstairs and starts scanning through her books.
"There's got to be something in here about what happened," Remedy whispers to herself. "I don't recall about this kind of incident in these books. I know ponies have nightmares about their dark form of themselves but for it to come through the dream?" She pulls out a book and flips through it for several minutes. "Nothing." She sets the book down and reads another but to no avail. She then stops and thinks, "Wait. Ponies usually embrace their dark magic through temptation. What was it in her dream that tempted her, and how did it provoke her?" Remedy continues to read for a couple of hours until she falls asleep in one of her chairs.
"Mom?" Amber asks her mother the next morning.
The filly shocks Remedy instantly waking her up. "Oh, Amber. It's just you."
"I thought you were in bed, Mommy," Amber says to Remedy.
"I was, but I couldn't sleep," Remedy says. "So I came down here to read and well that worked. Let me get you some breakfast."
After some time passes, Remedy is drinking some coffee, and Amber is packing to go to school. Before leaving, the filly asks, "Is the princess still asleep?"
Remedy answers, "I think so. She did have a rough day yesterday. Give me a hug and go to school, dear."
The filly walks up to her mother, hugs her, and exists the house. She walks on the trail to the town listening to the morning birds chirp. She sees a squirrel scamper across the trail and then runs off. Amber tries to look for the animal but cannot. Being distracted by the squirrel, the filly hits a heavy object in front of her and falls to the ground.
She rubs her head and looks up to see a gargantuan dark blue unicorn standing before her. He looks down at her and extends his right hoof to her which she grabs with her left front hoof, and the pony helps her stand up. "Are you okay, my little pony?" the stallion asks.
"Yes, sir," Amber apologizes. "I'm so sorry." She then sees that the unicorn has wings and asks, "Are you an alicorn?"
"Yes I am," the alicorn confirms.
"Wow, I get to meet another alicorn!" Amber excitedly says.
The stallion then asks," 'Another'? You wouldn't happen to be talking about Princess Amity would you?"
In the guest bedroom, Amity wakes up slowly, yawns, and sits up. Her eyes are bloodshot, mane is mangled, and mouth is dry. She struggles to get out of bed, when she does; the alicorn has difficulty standing up. When she does get her balance, Amity walks up to the mirror attached to the dresser and looks at herself in it. She gets spooked for a second by her bloodshot eyes but calms down quickly.
"Oh," Amity says, "they're just bloodshot. For a minute there I thought..." She stops and continues to stare at herself in the mirror while the redness in her eyes fades away slowly. She then says to her reflection, "You will not control me. I will not embrace you." She continues to stare at herself.
In the kitchen, Remedy is drinking coffee from a coffee mug and contemplating about last night. She then thinks, "Didn't she say she heard a voice in her dream the other night? Maybe it was Nightmare Moon? Wait, that can't be right. That's Amity's aunt. She would recognize it even if it was Nightmare Moon and not Luna." She then hears three knocks on her door and sets the coffee down, approaches the door, and opens to find a massive, muscular, dark blue, male alicorn standing before her. "Yes?" Remedy questions the stallion. At first, she does not recognize the pony because of her tiredness, then she recognizes him. "Oh my Celestia," Remedy says in shock.
"That's no way to speak to your future king," the alicorn replies. "But yes. It is I, Triton. May I come in?"
Intensely, Remedy asks, "What do you want?"
"To see my cousin's daughter," Triton answers with a devious smile.
Remedy swiftly uses her magic to put an aurora around the door and slams it shut. The sound of the door slamming spooks Amity, and she walks out of the bedroom, heads for the stairs, and even before she starts walking down, Amity sees Remedy walking away from the door.
"What's going on?" Amity asks.
Remedy turns and says, "Hide!"
Suddenly, the front door flies off its hinges and hits Remedy from behind knocking her out. Amity rushes down to her mentor and screams, "Remedy!"
"That was just rude," Triton stepping inside the house says. He sees Amity and continues, "Ah, Princess Amity. We finally meet in person. Did you sleep well?"
Amity directs her attention to the blue alicorn but does not respond. Feelings of fear and anger quickly rush through her, but she breathes in and out heavily calmly herself down. Without saying a word, she slips her right hoof under the door which is on her teacher, and with great ease and speed, she throws the door at Triton. However, before the door hits him, Triton raises his right hoof, and the oncoming door breaks into two by his hoof and the pieces fly behind him. Amity then walks up to him with an intense expression yet staying calm, and she presses her chest against the clearly larger alicorn's chest and stares directly into his black colored eyes.
"I am going to ask you once," Amity says, "leave me, my mother, my friend, and Equestria alone."
Triton chuckles while staring back at her and replies, "You stubborn brat. Do you have any idea who I am?"
Remedy wakes up and sees Amity confronting Triton, and she says to the princess, "Amity, get away from him! Let your mother handle this!"
"You better listen to that unicorn," Triton says to Amity.
Remedy stands and limps beside Amity and puts her hoof on the princess chest. "Just back away. You don't have time with this creep. Celestia will take care of him."
Triton then looks at the unicorn, "'Creep'?" Suddenly, he hits Remedy's chest with the back of his left hoof and sends her flying to her bookshelf. When she hits the bookshelf, her lower back dislocates making a loud cracking sound, and she screams in pain once her back is broken. She falls on the floor riving in pain but not making any more screams. Amity stares at Remedy in pain and rushes to her, but she cannot do anything. "Watch your mouth simpleton unless you want to die like the princess here," Triton says to the injured unicorn and makes a villainous chuckle.
Amity then stares back at Triton but does not say a word. She then swiftly flies at Triton and with her right hoof, hits Triton's left cheek, but he does not flinch or show any pain. Within seconds, Triton throws a right uppercut, but Amity doges and brings her hooves up and throws punches swiftly at Triton's face and legs while breathing with every punch thrown. However, the hits are useless. Amity quickly shoots a magic beam from her horn and hits Triton's face, then flies up the stairs and turns to her left. The blue alicorn unaffected by the beam follows her up the stairs, and when he gets to the top, he gets hit in the throat by a kick from Amity. He stumbles back a little, coughs once, and looks at Amity who is on all fours again and walking backwards with the same intense expression.
"Not bad," Triton says. "Let me ask you something, why do you keep fighting?" He starts walking towards her with an intense expression as well.
Amity responds, "Because you are nothing more than a monster! I have to do something!"
Triton then asks, "What do you think this will accomplish?"
"Stopping you from turning Equestria into a hellhole like you did with Pandora," Amity answers.
Triton asks, "Hm. Is fighting me going to help find your purpose?"
Amity then smirks, "I don't care. All I know is right now I have to stop you from hurting all of the ponies I love, and I WILL die try!" Suddenly, the flanks start glowing bright and as fast the light came, it disappears just as quick. The sides of her flanks now have a cutie mark of a silver shield with a golden heart in the middle of it.
"Oh how cute," Triton responds looking at her flank. "You have your cutie mark. That doesn't matter though."
Within a second, Triton fires a magical beam from his horn at Amity, hits her chest, and the impact of the beam sends her flying backwards crashing through the wall behind her. She falls onto a bush between two trees near the house. Amity screams in pain and clutching my chest which now has a circular, fuming burnt mark. Triton walks to the wall, uses a magic beam to make the wall bigger, steps onto the edge of the destroyed wall, and looks down to see Amity in pain.
"Pathetic," Triton says. A black colored magic aurora then glows around his horn then the plant life around the princess has the same aurora around them. The trees' limbs grow massive and quickly wrap around her almost like the trees are mummifying her. Her entire body is covered in tree limbs expect for her face. "Time to finish this." Triton then uses his magic to create thorns all over the limbs, and the thorns puncture through Amity's skin into her body. Amity squeals pain and blood starts flowing between the vines. Triton continues, "You know, I was going to have these thorns run completely through your body, but I'd figure a slow painful death is more appropriate. If you survive this..." He floats down to the ground, stands over Amity, and says directly to her face, "I'm going to see if you'll embrace the dark magic in you one more time and give me the challenge I want. If this doesn't work, then I know what will. I'm going to see your mother, kill her, and bring her lifeless body here for you to see, and when you're looking into Celestias dead eyes, you will know that not only are you the most worthless princess in history, but you caused your own moms death. Embrace the dark magic and fight me. I know you can't kill me, but it is worth a shot. If not, then you will be responsible for your mothers death."
Amity in excruciating pain screams, "Don't you dare lay your hoof on her!"
Triton makes a devious smile, "Watch me." He then extends his wings, darts through the trees, sees Canterlot on the horizon, and flies towards the city.
Remedy crawls out of the damaged house and sees Triton flying away and Amity wrapped in thorn covered tree limbs, and she struggles to crawl towards her to free the princess. However, she can barely move anymore because of the overwhelming pain to her lower back. "Amity," she says. "My back's broken. I can't concentrate my magic. Stay with me. Help will come." Amity does not respond and simply stares into the sky and barely breathing.
At Canterlot, Princess Celestia stands in her daughter's room and looks over Amity's belongings. She thinks about the fun memories she and Amity had with every item but then walks out quickly and heads to the throne room with no other pony is present, and when she arrives in the throne room, she sits in her throne, removes her crown, necklace, and hoof shakers, lowers the sun a little, and waits for Triton to walk through the throne room doors.
Triton arrives at Canterlot and quickly notices that there are no ponies in the city nor are there any guards at the castle doors. He lands in front of the doors, opens them, and shouts, "Celestia! I'm back!"
The echoes of his shout reach to Celestia and says softly, "This ends here."
"Amity? Say something." Remedy says, but the princess does not respond. "Amity? Amity!"
Amity's vision is fading, eyes are closing, hearing has vanished, and heart is slowly down. She can barely hear Remedy calling for her, but it only sounds muttered. Her eyes close and hears her own heart beating slower and about to stop. Then, in the blackness from closing her eyes, the white form of herself from the nightmares charges at her and eve screams, "We can't let Mom die!" Suddenly, Amity's eyes open.
"Speak to me please, Amity!" Remedy begs and starts to tear up. Then, a white aurora consumes Amity's body which burns the limbs off and heals her wounds. "Oh no," Remedy says aloud.
Triton walks up stairs and continues to head towards the throne room. "Your time has come Celestia!"
With the limbs burnt off, Amity sits up and stands on all fours with the white aurora still around her. The aurora then starts disappearing revealing that Amity has turned white with red stripes all over her body with bat like wings. She stares at Remedy with blood-red cat like eyes with an evil expression on her face, then she turns to the forest where Canterlot is.
"Amity?" Remedy asks.
"You know that you cannot kill me Cousin!" Triton continues to shout aloud. He then sees the throne room doors. "For I am Triton!"
The white Amity turns back to Remedy and says, "She is dead. I am Bloodlust."
"I am..." Triton then barges through the doors and sees Celestia sitting on her throne, and when she sees him, Celestia charges at him. Triton with a devious smile continues, "God!"
"I am..." Bloodlust turns back to the forest and sees Canterlot through the trees in the horizon and finishes, "Death!" She then extends her bat like wings and swiftly soars through the sky and heads towards Canterlot.
Remedy still in pain says, "I have failed."
Celestia charges at Triton with full force and Triton with a sadistic expression charges at her. Celestia lowers her horn at him like in a jousting match which Triton does the same. Before the two ponies could collide, Celestia uses her horn to teleport herself behind Triton, and then she uses her horn to stab her cousin in his left flank in the middle of his cutie mark about half of an inch. However, Triton kicks Celestia in the abdomen with the leg she had stabbed, and the princess is sent flying to the wall around the entrance doors.
Triton shoots a dark magic sphere from his horn at her, but Celestia dodges it and starts circling around the evil alicorn. Triton continues to fire magic balls at her but continues to miss. He then creates a bright flash from his horn which blinds Celestia for a second, and when her vision recovers, Triton had disappeared.
Celestia's horn glows with a yellow aurora glowing around it and senses Triton is invisible and is standing beside her, and she swiftly throws the back of her left hoof at Triton and hits the left side of his head. He is knocked to the ground then sees Celestia flying towards him and raising her front hooves in the air, but he teleports himself away from her as Celestia slams her hooves to the marble floor creating two massive hoof-prints with cracks all around them. She turns to her right to see Triton the left side of his face swelling from Celestia's attack.
"Wow," Triton says, "looks like you want me dead."
Celestia responds, "No. I'm not going to kill you. I need to use all of my strength and power to make you submit, and once I have, I will send you to Tartarus where you can't escape."
Triton chuckles and says, "I'll just come back and you know that."
"Not as long as Cerberus is there," Celestia replies.
"That dog won't stop me," Triton continues. "...and neither will you."
She then jumps in the air, flaps her wings to keep her airborne, and fires a bright yellow beam from her horn at Triton who in retaliation fires a black magic beam at her. The two beams collide, and Triton quickly gains the advantage by his beam pushing Celestias back to her. The princess sees her beam is not strong enough and forces the beam to become stronger and bigger, but Tritons beam is too powerful and continues its advancement towards her.
Knowing she cannot win this struggle, Celestia flies out of way of the opposing beam and heads upward towards the ceiling. Tritons black beam follows the princess but is unable to hit her. Celestia then uses her magic to teleport herself in front of Triton. However, before she is able to attack, Triton swings his horn down at her. Celestia uses her horn to block the attack, and the two engage in a horn lock.
Despite Celestia using all of her strength, Triton pushes his cousin back with ease. "Just like old times," Triton taunts. Suddenly, Triton creates a beam for the tip of his horn which hits Celestia's back creating an intense burning pain in the middle of her spine, and with the beam burning her back, Celestia losses concentration on the horn lock which allows Triton to create a magic pulse from his horn.
Celestia flies backwards and lands on the ground with burning fuses illuminating from her back, horn, and forehead. Triton walks to his injured cousin slow but stops when he sees her trying to stand up. Celestia is then surrounded by Triton's black magic aurora, and she is thrown to the ceiling of the throne room with great force. Then, the blue alicorn lowers Celestia away from the ceiling just to slam her into it again, and he repeats this attack five times. After the fifth time, Triton releases Celestia who falls to the floor. The princess in tremendous agony twitches while lying on the floor. Triton approaches her with a devious smile on his face.
"Just as I predicted," Triton says to his cousin. "I knew you were never a match for me without Luna. Hell, it took both of you to defeat me the first time. Huh. I just thought of something: Where is Luna?" Celestia raises her upper torso and stares at Triton with an angry expression while breathing heavily. "It doesn't matter," Triton continues and then raises his upper half up and kicks Celestia with his left back leg which sends her back on the floor. "Once I'm done with you, I'll find Luna then every pony in Equestria will know that I am the most powerful pony in history. Now...DIE!" Triton still on his back legs arches his back with his front hooves together ready to strike Celestia on the ground.
Suddenly, one of the throne room stain glass windows breaks inward, and Triton turns to see who had broken in and sees a white alicorn with blood-red stripes, mane, tail, and cutie mark and bat wings flying towards him in a tremendous speed. However, before he could react, the intruder within a second brings her low half forward with her right leg extended and kicks Triton between his legs which sends him to the ceiling and even breaking through it. He lands on the roof of the throne room with his front hooves covering his crotch while tearing up and swearing in pain.
The white alicorn lands on the floor staring at the hole in the ceiling waiting for him. Celestia looks up at the mysterious alicorn but does not recognize her immediately. She sees that the intruder is smaller, an alicorn, and the same body and facial structure of her daughter, and has a cutie mark of a blood-red shield with a white heart with a blood-red crack down the middle.
"A..." Celestia barely speaks, "Amity?"
The white alicorn looks down at the injured Celestia and responds with, "No. I am not her. She is not with us. I am Bloodlust."
Celestia's eyes shrink in shock. "No. Amity..." Celestia says aloud.
"I AM NOT AMITY!" Bloodlust immediately shouts at Celestia.
"Of course not," Triton says as he floats down to the floor from the hole. "Amity wasn't that strong. She finally embraced you, and now I can have the challenge I have been waiting for. By the way, no more cheap shots especially down there, okay?"
The two alicorns stare each other down waiting for the other to make the first move. Triton stares with a sadistic, excited expression while Bloodlust stares with an angry, focused expression. Then, Bloodlust teleports herself in front of Triton and head-butts his chin from below, but Triton retaliates with a punch from his right front hoof and hits the side of her face. However, Bloodlust is not affected by the attack and strikes back with a fury of punches of her own all over his face while breathing in and out with every punch, and when Triton tries to punch her again, Bloodlust slides under him and fires a powerful blood-red beam from her horn at his chest which sends him into the air.
Triton tries to attack her again but is tackled by the younger alicorn who slams him into the ceiling. Then, Bloodlust still holding him turns to the floor and crashes to it with Triton hitting back first. Triton strikes back upper cutting her, and within that second, Triton lifts Bloodlust by the waist with ease and while standing on his back legs slams her to the floor then picks her up and slams her down again. Bloodlust rolls and tries to get up but is kicked in the abdomen by Triton which sends her flying a couple of feet away.
Bloodlust then flies to Triton attempting to tackle him, but the blue alicorn creates a bright flash which blinds her. When she regains her vision, Triton had vanished. She then closes her eyes and her horn makes a blood-red aurora around it and suddenly spins around and swings her horn around. A bloody gash appears in the air and Triton is visible once again with a massive cut on his chest.
Triton looks at his opponent while breathing heavily and covering his new wound says, "Clever girl. I need to try harder then."
Bloodlust mildly breathing heavily through her nose responds, "There's no point. You can't match me."
"Let me...ask you...something," Triton replies while catching his breath, "what will...killing me...accomplish?"
"Vengeance. You forced me out to Amity and I too was taunted by you, but this isn't revenge for her. It's for me and only me," Bloodlust answers.
"And what about Equestria?" Triton asks.
She answers, "What about it? To Hell all of those weak, pathetic ponies!" Hearing Bloodlusts answer, Celestias pupils shrink in shock and desperately try to get up on all four hooves.
Triton turns to his left to see Celestia getting up and asks the injured princess, "You hear that Celestia? You have another alicorn to deal with! What would you do to her? Kill her? Banish her? Don't forget, this is your daughter! Are you going to make so where YOU are responsible for your own flesh and bloods death or banishment?" Celestia however remains silent and manages to get her front hooves up.
Bloodlust then shoots a bright white lightning bolt from her horn at Triton who is still distracted by Celestia, but Triton hears the attack coming and dodges to his right. Frustrated, Bloodlust fires another bolt at Triton who keeps dodging every attack, and with every dodge, he gets closer to the white alicorn. When he gets close enough, Triton's horn glows solid black and five small magical tentacles lash from the horn and wrap around Bloodlust with one around her neck and the other four each wrapping around each ankle. The tentacles lift the younger alicorn in the air, stretch her apart, and squeeze tightly, and from Triton, light blue lightning bolts travel through the tentacles and start electrocuting her. Bloodlust yells in pain as Triton's electricity flows through her body.
During the fight, Celestia who manages to stand on all fours, teleports herself out of the throne room and into a hallway with stained glass windows of previous events. At the end of the hall is a large door with composed of light purple, pink, and dark purple with a gold star in the middle and with a gold rim around it, and Celestia approaches the door.
She says aloud, "Triton, I gave you one chance to surrender and become the cousin I once loved, but you leave me no choice but to use these and Amity..." a tear streaks down her right cheek, "...I'm sorry." In the middle of the gold star is a hole for which Celestia shoves her horn in and concentrates her magic in. Her magic expands throughout the door causing it to glowing brightly and open to reveal a box with jewels on it, and she opens it to find an orange crystal, a pink crystal, a blue crystal, a purple crystal, a red crystal, and a pink-purple jewel which is the only one in the shape of a star. With her magic, Celestia lifts the jewels and have them circle around her.
Meanwhile in the throne room, Bloodlust while fighting through the pain concentrates her magic and creates an aurora around her body, and shockingly reverses the electricity back to Triton who now is screaming by the electricity. Triton releases Bloodlust which makes the tentacles return to his horn which has stopped glowing. As soon as Bloodlust touches the floor, she darts at Triton and tackles him again and this time manages to get him on his back. Standing on her back legs, Bloodlust punches Tritons bloody chest which makes him cough blood. When she tries stomping on his head, Triton rolls to his right dodging the attack. He attempts to fly away, but the younger alicorn still on her back legs grabs his waist with her left front arm and punches his back with her right front which sends Triton back to the ground.
Triton then raises himself towards Bloodlust and head-butts her in the chin, and swiftly he pulls her left back leg which causes her to fall on her back. Triton tries to fly again and succeeds, but when he turns to face Bloodlust, she had vanished. He looks all around to find her but then feels a stab into his lower back which is from Bloodlust. However, instead of releasing him and attempting to stab again, Bloodlust leaves the horn in him and unleashes electricity through the horn which causes an excruciating pain in Triton. Suddenly, Bloodlust creates an explosion from the tip of her horn which destroys Tritons lower back and waist and makes a three inches round hole in his back After the explosion Triton falls to the floor but immediately and surprisingly stands on all fours despite the overwhelming pain.
Celestia teleports back into the throne room to see Triton standing with a bloody hole in his lower back with blood streaking down his lower legs. She starts having the Elements of Harmony spin around her preparing to attack him, but within a second, Bloodlust crashes on Tritons injured portion of his back which forces him to lie on the floor. Bloodlust then steps in the middle of Tritons horn and applies pressure on it which causes Triton to scream in more pain.
Triton while in pain chuckles loudly and says in contrast, "If you're so great, BREAK MY HORN YOU SICK BITCH!"
Then, Triton's horn cannot take any more and breaks in two, and when the horn breaks a black magic aurora with a variety of colors in and around it shoots out and goes into all directions uncontrollably. As the magic goes out of control, Triton's body is consumed by the same magic where he cannot be seen, and once it touches Bloodlust, it send her flying backwards. She manages to stop herself and stands next to Celestia who is horrified at what she is seeing. The magic eventually starts to fade away, and Triton can be seen. However, he is almost completely unrecognizable. He is now bright blue, his mane and tail are gray, eyes are white, and instead of being muscular, Triton is now shockingly skinny. Triton lies on the floor silently breathing slow and heavy, and what is left of his horn has blood slowly draining out which is making a puddle on the floor.
Celestia stares at her cousin in shock, but before she could start walking to him, Bloodlust moves first. She stands over Triton and with her right front hoof, rolls him over on his back. Celestia walks beside her and says, "Bloodlust, leave him to me. Your job is over."
Bloodlust looks at Celestia and replies, "No, it's not." She then places her right hoof over the weak Tritons throat. "He must die."
"No," Celestia shouts. "He is defeated, and he can rot in Tartarus for the rest of his! Bloodlust...Amity, if you kill him...I must send you there with him. Don't make me..."
Bloodlust stares intensely at Celestia and responds, "I AM NOT HER!" She stares at Triton again and continues, "AND HE WILL DIE!" She lifts her right hoof ready to crush his throat.
Celestia presses her left hoof against Bloodlusts attempting to push her back, but instead of being pushed back, Bloodlust does not budge and throws her right hoof at Celestia and pushes her in the face which sends Celestia to the floor. As soon as Celestia hits the ground, the Elements of Harmony fall too.
Bloodlust stares at Celestia lying on the floor, and then a feeling of shock takes over her as she continues to stare at Celestia. She observes her right hoof and says to herself, "What did I just do?" She then shakes her head and stares at Triton again with an angry expression, but she cannot keep her eyes off of Celestia. She turns to Celestia and says, "Mom?" Bloodlust shakes her head again and says, "No! He must die!" She raises her right hoof ready to crush Tritons throat but lowers it. She walks backwards from Triton and starts pacing toward Celestia then back to Triton then back to Celestia. Bloodlust continues to pace until she sits on her flank in front of Celestia who is still lying on the floor knocked out. She then starts to tear up and streaks flow down her face. Bloodlust shakes her head sending the tears everywhere and breathes quick and heavy, and then a magic aurora glows around her.
Celestia then opens her eyes and sees Bloodlust crying with her eyes closed and turning from white with blood-red stripes into solid pink. The bat wings fades away and turn into pegasus wings, and her mane and tail fade into gold with silver lining. Celestia raises herself up and stares at the crying alicorn, and says, "It's okay...Amity." The tearing alicorn opens her eyes to see Celestia with a swelled, purple cheek, and Celestia smiles at her when she sees the golden eyes of her daughter. Amity jumps into her mothers arms and sobs. Celestia comforts her daughter by hugging her and says, "It's okay. It's all over."
Three days later, Amity and Celestia are on a train heading towards Ponyville. They observe the beautiful scenery pass by through the window next to them. Celestia then looks at her daughter who seems calm with a smile on her face.
"Um," a female Earth filly standing beside their seats nervously says, "Excuse me. I'm sorry to bother you Princess Celestia and Amity..."
Celestia looks at the filly, smiles, and says, "It's alright, little one."
Amity as well looks at the filly and says, "Don't be shy."
The girl filly continues, "...well, I was wondering if you could tell some of your amazing stories at my family reunion coming up next week. It'll be here in Ponyville."
Celestia answers, "I would love to, but I have unfinished royal duties to attend to."
Amity in a calm tone says, "I however can go."
"Really?" The filly asks excitedly. Amity nods her head, the filly jumps on her and hugs tightly. The filly lets go and runs down the cart to her seat.
Amity breathes in and out through her nose and smiles and says to her mother, "I hope Remedy can further help me to prepare for that."
Celestia asks, "You don't want to go?"
Amity answers, "Honestly, no. I'd rather stay at home and sleep for a year, but I have to be the best princess I can be which includes doing little things like that."
Celestia chuckles and replies, "I know she will. I also can't wait to see her for real."
Then, the train starts to slow down ad stop at a train station, and Amity asks, "Didn't already know her?"
Celestia answers, "I know of her and communicated through letters, but I have never seen her in the flesh. I'm sure she's a wonderful pony."
Amity looks out the window to see an adult, dark orange, female unicorn in a wheel chair with a dark blue mane and tail in spiky fashions, dark green shades, a dark green vest with a cape attached being very social with another pony with a similar mane and tail style.
Amity smiles and says to her mom, "Oh, believe me. You'll it's her."
