Flawed Harmony

Ponyville, Everfree Forest

The group began running towards the rioting town where an airship had landed. Once they broke through the treeline they all saw the airship floating slightly above the ground with a ramp leading to the deck. Looking around they saw a few Shadow Troopers (what we will call the members of Anons army) helping the human family onto the ship as well as a few ponies that had decided to join the empire. At the top of the ramp was Sonar in her armour as always, she was scanning the area for something and welcoming a few ponies on board while ordering a few Troopers to help the humans.

Abigail looked at the scene confused, wondering why her family would be willingly boarding the ship. She unsheathed her sword and began running towards the site with her friends behind her, minus Slender who stuck to the trees. As she and her friends ran across the ash covered grass Sonar noticed them and flew down to meet them. Abigail and the armoured Thestral stared each other down, remembering their previous encounter in the Rainbow Factory.

"What's going on here?" Abigail demanded.

Sonar snarled at her before regaining her composure. "My King has offered you and your fellow humans sanctuary from the violence in the Shadow a Empire capital."

Abigail looked up at Megan and Becky who were leaning over the railing after hearing her voice. "Girls, why are you going with them?!"

"They told us what is about to happen and what King Anon is going to do, and trust me when I say we don't want to be anywhere near Canterlot and its surrounding towns!" Megan yelled down.

"What's happening?!" Abigail called up.

There was silence as both of the girls looked up at the sky in shock. "Turn around and you'll see!"

Abigail turned around and gasped, there were hundreds of airships floating around Canterlot, with a huge ship the size of a town leading them. "What the?!"

"You and your friends may want to get on board." Abigail looked down to Sonar. "Personally I would leave you here to face the chaos rant is coming, but my King has ordered me to bring all of the humans to Empire Castle, and I would sooner die than disobey an order from him so I suggest you get on."

Abigail looked to the mare, then to her cousins and then to Canterlot before sighing. "Come on everyone, let's get out of here."

As Sonar noticed Screwball she walked over to her. "Your father has requested your presence back in the Chaos Capital, it's important this time."

Screwball sighed and nodded, teleporting away. The group got onto the airship and sat down with the rest of the passengers below deck. Abigail choose a window seat and looked down at the Everfree Forest where Slender was looking up from. Abigail placed a hand on the window and Slender waved a tendril before teleporting away to a place Unknown.

Besieged Canterlot

Anon looked out at all of his airships with a confident smile. He didn't give the order to deploy the Shadow Troppers yet, that would only be necessary if his plan didn't go along perfectly which it most likely wouldn't. He saw the panic in the streets of Canterlot as ponies ran around screaming, he felt guilty for making these misled ponies feel scared and confused, but he would make it up to them soon enough.

Turning around he deflected a magic blast from Solaris with a backhand. "Come on Pops I know you have more in you than that."

Solaris snarled and began charging up a large beam of solar energy. As he pointed his her towards Anon his target disappeared and reappeared right in front of him, nailing him in the chest with his boot. The spell cancelled itself and Solaris was thrown backwards. Solaris got to his feet and caoted himself in a blanket of magic, covering his body in a suit of armour made of his energy.

"Now that's more like it." Anon unsheathed his sword which he had turned back into a rapier and the blade glowed purple with the new magic flowing into it. "Have to learn not to depend on your magic alone Solaris, why do you think I prefer melee combat over magical combat?"

Solaris shot forward and attempted to pierce Anons chest with his horn but was blocked by Anons blade and the two of them pushed against each other in a a battle of strength. As the two clashed Anon clenched his fist and hit Solaris with a right hook, creating a crack in his magical armour but not phasing the King within.

Anon proceeded to strike the armour multiple times as more and more cracks appeared. Solaris pulled back before the armour could break and began firing a steady stream of magical blasts at his attacker. Anon teleported away from each individual blast in a taunting manner until he shot forward and swung his sword at Solaris. As the sun King stopped and looked to his armour he saw a line where the blade had pieced and saw some of his blood pouring out of it as a gash appeared on his chest.

Solaris roared in anger. He took Anon in his magic and gena slamming him into the walls, ceiling and floor of the room in a fit of rage while also blasting him with all his might. As the dust settled Anon lay in a small crater, his clothes slightly burnt and several burns and bruises covering his body. Everything was quiet as the wind coming through the hole in the wall blew his fedora off his head. As it was about to fly out with the winds it was wrapped in a dark purple aura and pulled back to Anons head.

The Shadow King slowly got to his feet, his clothes mending themselves as the tears and scratches glowed a soft purple. The bruises and burns on his skin faded as well. He turned to Solaris with piercing purple eyes, disappointment evident in his eyes. "I expected better from you Solaris, you talk big game but in truth you are just a lonely stallion that refuses to let go of the past ways because those were the days when everything was great for you, until one day when Qu-"

His sentence was cut off by Solaris sum,owning a war hammer and nailing him in the waist causing him to collapse to his knees as his magic healed him. "Don't you dare say that name!"

As he fully recover Anon gripped his sword and pointed it towards the King. "Way to prove my point there sunshine, even at the slightest mention of her makes you angry. You know what that is? It's weakness!" Anon began to furiously slice at Solaris with his glowing blade. "A good ruler knows when to put his morals and emotions aside when the fate of his subjects is at stake! A good ruler knows the difference between generosity and selfishness! A good ruler does what is good for his kingdom! You have done none of these things Solaris, you have brought nothing but destruction and anguish to those in your kingdom and focused on your own selfish goals!" Ano stopped slicing and grabbed Soakris by the horn. "YOU ARE THE REASON THE HARMONY IN THIS NATION IS UNBALANCED!!!" With that Anon slammed Solaris' head into the hard marble floor with mighty force.

Celestia watched as Anon slowly straightened himself with an lifeless Solaris laying down in front of him. Anon nodded in satisfaction before walking over to Celestia with his sword in hand. Celestia prepared herself for he chosen fate... but she felt no pain. She opened her eyes and saw the chains around her were cut, freeing her. She looked up at Anon who turned towards the fleet of ships. "Why did you free me?"

Anon just looked at her from the corner of his eye. "Do you really think I'd be dumb enough to free you if I knew you could actually stop me?"

Celestia remained silent for a moment before sighing in defeat. "You're right. There is nothing I can do to stop you at this present time, you have won, I admit defeat." She straightened herself and glared at her brother-in-law. "Now that this is over, you have to promise to treat the subjects fairly."

"You're a fool if you think this is over." Celestia raised a brow as Anon walked over to Solaris. "While we were fighting Solaris activated a certain spell, a spell that awakens a certain army." As Anon was about to finish his foe Solaris was teleported away by an unknown force. "Damnit, oh well, it's too early for this all to end anyway." Suddenly the ground began to shake and multiple flashes of light stated appearing all over Canterlot. Anon and Celestia walked up to the hole in the wall and saw groups of what seemed like walking suits of gold plated armour appearing and attacking the residents of the city. Anon looked up to his airship and cast a telepathic link between himself and Luna. 'Luna, Solaris activated the army, send in the Shadow Troopers.'

'Ok, I've gave the word and the generals are joining our men in deployment. What happened to father?'

'He got away before I could finish him, he's most likely past Equestrias borders in one of his allies countries. We can deal with him later, right now we need to get the situation here under control.' With that he cut the link and watched as multiple ropes dropped from the airships above Canterlot and various species dropped down in dark purple armour and proceeded to battle the groups of Golden Knights. They couldn't be beaten with just one Trooper so they attacked in groups.

Anon looked to Celestia and gripped his sword.

"You do whatever you want, I'm helping my soldiers. The world needs you to control the sun, try to stay alive." With that Anon jumped out the hole and into the streets of Canterlot to join the Shadow Troopers. As larger Knights began to appear the airships began to fire some canons on clearer locations to avoid as much damage as possible to the residents hiding and the buildings.

About half an hour later Canterlot had become a war zone, all of the residents were evacuated via airship and brought to Empire Castle. A squad of Shadow Troopers lay behind cover as a large Knight was blasting the area with magical blasts. As one of the stallions looked over the fallen stone pillar he immediately ducked to avoid having his head blown off.

One of the Griffins in the group looked to his bow and arrow and sighed. "Don't think we're getting out of this one."

As he said this Anon dropped down from a building and hid behind cover with them. "What's the situation men?"

A Thestral in the group saluted his King. "Sir, more variants of these Knights have been appearing, we are unable to get close enough to take this one down and none of us are fast enough to dodge the magic fire."

Anon nodded. "I will deal with this Knight, there is a squad in need of assistance in the next street, go and provide reinforcement." The group saluted and did as ordered and walked behind cover to the next street. Anon peeked over the pillar and then ducked back down. Unsheathing his sword he jumped over the white pillar and ran towards the huge Knight, running in a zigzag pattern to avoid the blasts. As he got close enough he began spinning and began drilling through the Knights armour until it crumbled.

Nodding in satisfaction Anon looked around and saw he was surrounded by a large group of Knights. He twirled his blade for a second before taking a defensive stance.