Flawed Harmony

Crystal Empire, Icy Tundra

Solid will and Thanos walked effortlessly through the deep snow thanks to their heights. They had no issues with the temperature itself as Solids fur was thicket than most Minotaurs and Thanos' scales were thicker than the average dragon. As they walked they spotted a mountain in the distance with a soft red glow. The two generals looked to each other and nodded. Thanos spread his wings and hovered just above Solid. The Minotaur jumped and grabbed onto Thanos' feet. The two slowly flew up to where the red light was located, upon reaching their destination Solid dropped to the ground and walked over to investigate.

A small crater had been made in the side of the mountain, created by the fragment of King Sombras horn. When Solid looked into the crater his eyes widened in shock.

"Solid, what's wrong?" Thanos asked as he landed beside the cave. "Is the horn fragment still in there?"

"It's in there alright, it's what else that's in there is what I'm so shocked about." Solid stepped out of the way and allowed his fellow general to look inside. Once his sights landed on the object beside the glowing horn fragment Thanos rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

"We have to get this back to King Anon, now."

Canterlot Castle

Luna sat alone in her room, pondering over her husbands return and what he plans to do.

'Anon, now that you're back, what do you plan to do?'

'Spend time with you of course, I do have to make up for the past thousand years.'

'I mean what do you plan to do with your empire?'

'...'

'Anon?'

'Luna... I'm... Im going to finish what I started.'

'You'll be banished again! I don't want to lose you a second time! I can't take another thousand years of loneliness.'

'You won't have to.'

'What do you mean?'

'Do you know what the first thing on my agenda was when my empire reached full strength?'

'N-No, you never told me.'

'I'm going to destroy the Elements of Harmony.'

Snapping out of her flashback from the previous night she looked around her room. "How can I choose?" She got up, walked towards her mirror and stared at her reflection. "How can I choose between love and family?"

"You follow your heart." Luna perked up and stared to the dark bipedal figure leaning against her wall.

"How are you free?" Luna asked as she walked towards the figure.

"How do you think I got free? The King returned and used his magic, now it's just a matter of freeing 'him,' then everything is set in motion." The figure turned his head to Luna with glowing yellow eyes. "You know you want to rejoin the King so just do it, you aren't choosing between love and family, you're choosing between success and failure, as a spouse, as a princess... as a mother." With that the figure faded into shadow.

Luna sat down and held her chest, a pain stabbing through her heart. Her pained expression turned to one of determination. "I've chosen."

Badlands, Empire Castle

Anon stood in one of the rooms of the castle in front of a large round table with a map of the planet Gaia (Or Equus if you don't like that). He placed blue pins on the settlement areas in Equestria that had allied with the Shadow Empire, while placing red pins on the areas yet to ally, with purple pins being neutral areas and black pins being undecided.

As he scanned over the map his sights fell on Cloudsdale, a stern expression forming on his face. Placing a small red flag on the cloud city marking it as a priority target, he moved on. Looking beyond the borders of Equestria he smiled as he saw a blue pin on the Land of Behemoths (what I call the land Tirek came from). "I always could rely on Scorpan, glad to see he still agrees." Satisfied with the current results he nodded and turned around.

Once he closed the huge doors that led to the map room he turned to the newly appointed captain of the castle guard.

"Make sure that the current soldiers are battle ready captain, I may need a few units to take care of a priority target soon." The stallion gave him a salute and went to carry out his orders. "I really have to give credit to Sonar, she really does know how to get a military force together in such little time." As he walked down the vast hallways, passing a few of his new soldiers, staff and just ponies, Griffins or any other creature in general, his thoughts moved back to the events that had happened the previous day.

'Did Celestia really think she could trick me with that disguised guard she sent? No, she's trying to lower what I expect from her, but t won't work. One of my golden rules are to never underestimate an enemy, always overestimate.' Shaking his head and laughing he took out the element of magic.

"All I need to do is confront Celestia and have her hit this with a beam of magic, then the elements will be rendered useless. Such a blessing it is to have sun magic on her side... but what a curse it can be, as it is one of the only things that can shatter these gems." As he gave another laugh he held out his hand and it glowed with magic. A second later he was in his bedroom that was lit by a large blue crystal in the centre of the circular marble floor.

Walking over to his black dresser he pulled out a drawe, inside was a small silver bracelet with a small glowing blue gem. Placing it on his wrist his body began to change into that of a pony.

"Now... it's time to do a little infiltration of my own." He gave one last laugh before teleporting away.

Canterlot Castle

Celestia, Cadence, Nightmare Moon and Luna sat at a table with members of royalty from various empires that were not yet allied with King Anon. Only a few guards were present and even then they were specifically chosen to hear what went on in the room. One of the guards though, was smirking with a silver bracelet on his hoof.

"Thank you all for agreeing to meet with us. As you all know King Anon has returned and is rebuilding his empire and spreading his influence at an alarming pace. He has not yet reached your borders but I fear he will in the near future." Celestia stated as she looked to her other princes, princesses, Kings, queens and other royal title holders.

"What do you suppose we do about this situation, Princess Solena?" Asked a buff stallion in with a brown coat.

"No one has called me by that name in centuries King Sandrian. I suggest that we combine our forces if needs be, I'll see if I can talk Anonymous down before he declares war." Celestia replied with a sigh.

"What about his followers that are spreading out and influencing our citizens?" Asked a large griffin with an owl head and leopard body.

"Make public announcements, try to get the word out that a tyrant is trying to conquer the world." Celestia said with a stern expression.

"Sister, Anon is not a tyrant!" Defended Luna, attracting the attention of everyone in the room. The smiling guard only grinned wider at her outburst.

"Princess Celestia, do you really think it is wise to include the mare that has an emotional connection to our most dangerous enemy be present in this meeting?" Asked a tall thin Minotaur with black fur.

"My sisters and I all share emotional connection with King Anonymous, Prince Obsidian." Snapped Nightmare Moon. As Celestia was about to continue a guard burst through the doors with a letter in his mouth. He came to a screeching halt as he handed the letter to Celestia. While she read the page her composure weakened and the movement of her eyes slowed down the further down she got. She laid the letter and the table and took in a deep breath.

"The Chaos Capital have abandoned the peace treaty and have allied with the Shadow Empire." Everyone in the room gasped while the smirking guard only chuckled. His chuckles soon turned to laughter, which then turned to evil laughter. Everyone in the room looked to him in confusion. "Would you mind telling us what is funny about this lieutenant?" Asked an enraged Celestia.

As she said that his laughter came to a stop, resuming his smirking. Then his body turned white and it formed into the shape of Anon. The room gasped again as he jumped onto the table, giving slow applause as he walked across the long piece of furniture. "My my what a turnout this meeting got. I almost feel honoured that you consider me such a threat." He reached Celestia and knelt down to get to eye level. "By the way, nice try with that spy yesterday, you almost fooled me." He flicked her nose and turned around.

"Guards! Seise him!" Yelled a few of the world leaders. Instead of following their orders the various guards all chuckled.

"Sorry, looks like they're with me now." Anon mocked with a shrug. Soon his demeanour turned from comical to serious. "Now, I'm going to give you all one warning and one warning only. You are not to attack me or my allies, if you do I will immediately declare war and you will lose."

"And what makes you so confident about that? We have the Elements of Harmony, what have you got?" Mocked Cadence with a smirk. Anon just stared daggers at her.

"You mean these?" He held out the magic element, causing Cadences smile to falter. "Don't even think about taking it with your magic, I preformed my own little version of your spell Celestia, you can't forcefully take it from me." He tucked the element away and stared daggers at Celestia. "I will give you a year to prepare yourself and think about all this. Your Elements of Harmony are in my possession, your allies are abandoning you, your kingdom is slowly falling apart and your student can't solve this problem within a half an hour like she does with her little friendship problems. Join me and I can help create a better world for your people, or stand against me and suffer the consequences. Your choice Celestia, your choice."

He stepped down from the table and the guards gathered around him. As he held the transportation crystal in the air he was interrupted. "Wait!" Anon looked over to see his beautiful wife walking up to him. "I've decided, I'm going with you." Anon smiled warmly and brought her into a loving hug.

"I'm going too." He looked up to see Nightmare Moon approaching. "I've been thinking about what you had told me before my banishment and what has been happening recently, and I've decided that I will be of better use in your kingdom rather than in a society that despises me." Anon smirked and nodded.

"Sisters, please don't do this." Pleaded Celestia. "I won't let you do this."

"They are free to do as they wish Celestia, you have no control over what they can and cannot do." Anon placed a hand on Luna's shoulder. "They have made their choice, now it is time for you to make yours." With a flash of light the group was gone. Celestia looked to the spot that her sisters were previously standing and collapsed under the weight of the sadness that had fallen on her.