Flawed Harmony

Badlands, Empire Castle

In the large dining room of the castle many members of the Shadow Empire sat at round tables chatting amongst themselves as they waited for the night to begin. A few waiters walked in and out of a large door leading to the castles kitchen after taking orders and delivering wine to each table. Soon the room went quiet as the main door opened and Anon walked in with his five generals, Luna and Nightmare Moon. As they reached the large table that faced the others Anon took a glass of wine in his hand and walked forward to address the crowd.

"Mares, gentlecolts, Griffins, Draconequi, Minotaurs and all other species gathered here tonight. It is with great joy that I am able to speak the following sentences. First, the Chaos Capital has dropped the peace treaty with the Solar Empire and have allied with us!" There were multiple cheers from the crowd and many of the Draconequi sighed in relief. "Secondly, our Queen and my loving wife, Princess Luna, has returned to us!" This was met by applause and cheers. Anon smiled and held his glass high. "Eat well tonight my friends, for this is a night of celebration." He chuckled and spread his arms. "TONIGHT, THE SHADOW EMPIRE, IS REBORN!!!" Everyone in the room yelled in determination and happiness, clinking their glasses and all taking a sip of their drinks.

Anon returned to his seat beside Luna who had a loving smile. "You always were the best at dramatic speeches dear." She said as she nuzzled his side.

"Only because you helped me overcome my shyness over five thousand years ago." He kissed her on the cheek and turned to Thanos. "We will talk about what you found after this, for now let's just enjoy ourselves." The half-dragon nodded and returned to his conversation with Sonar.

Anon looked out at the crowd that had gathered in the great dining hall, there was close to a thousand people in the hall alone, various others were having dinner in different halls and restaurants with his little speech being broadcasted through magic screens created by Mist Hunter.

'One year Celestia, that's all you've got.' His mind wondered to Abigail. 'She must develop her skills further, I gave her the instructions, now she just has to follow them.'

Two months later, Ponyville

Abigail charged up her magic in her temporary sword and charged a test dummy. As she came to a halt as she passed it, the dolls upper half slowly slid off. Looking back at her work she smiled. "I'm improving, but I need to get better. Carmine gave me those institutions for a reason, maybe there was still a reminiscent of his old self that had made its way to the surface when we fought." Looking over to Screwball who was floating in midair with a newspaper she sighed.

"Look at this, 'Within two months the Shadow King known as King Anon has successfully brought a sixth of the world to his aid, it is expected that his empire will only continue to grow as the King continues his unknown mission.' I still can't believe Daddy would ally with the Shadow Empire, that technically means I'm part of the empire too." Screwball sighed and tossed the paper away and it turned into a paper bird and flew away.

"I honestly don't think that Carmine is trying to do anything villainous." Abigail stated as she cut down another test dummy.

"What makes you think that?"

Abigail sheathed her sword. "Think about it, with the power he's got and the things he can do he could have taken the Solar Empire down weeks ago, but he hasn't. He hasn't even forced anyone to join him, he leaves the decision to the ponies and other creatures he seeks out."

Screwball rolled her eyes and floated over to her friend. "I know he's your brother and everything, but you can't seriously think that he's a good person can you?"

"That depends on your viewpoint." Both girls tensed up and looked over to see Anon standing under a tree.

"Carmine?" Abigail asked. As soon as he heard the name Anon felt a small pain in his head.

"I don't know who this Carmine is. I am here to tell you something then I will be off." Screwball flew up to him and stared him in the eye.

"We don't have to listen to you. You're trying to overthrow the Princess and take over Equestria, why should we trust you?" Anon looked to her and raised a brow.

"I never said anything about trust, I'm just here to give you two a message." Abigail walked over to Screwball and placed a hand on her back.

"Let him talk, it sounds important." Screwball growled and backed away. "What is it you want to tell us Carm-Anon?"

Anon just looked at her suspiciously. "Thank you. As I said, the answer to whether I am a good person or not is based on opinion and your own standpoint. In the viewpoint of the members and nations of my empire I am doing the right thing, in your viewpoint I a, doing the wrong thing. Evil is subjective, not fact, but opinion." Abigail let the words sink in.

"Anon, what do you really plan on doing, if you do conquer Equestria?" Anon sighed.

"That is something I will tell you at a later date, as I am sure you have many things to tell me. Right now my empire takes priority, I see you've improved your swordsmanship, keep training and you may stand a chance against me the next time we duel. Fir now though, I bid you farewell." With a snap of his fingers he disappeared.

Abigail sighed and began walking towards Ponyville. Screwball looked to her confused and floated in front of her. "Why aren't you telling him that you two are related? You've had two opportunities now and you've given both up."

Abigail looked up at the passing clouds and took in a breath of the fresh morning air. "I don't know, it's like there is something telling me not to just yet, like I'm not supposed to."

"Maybe we should get Twilight to take a look at you, you've been acting differently the past month." Screwball stated with worry.

"I'm fine Screwy, just happy that I know my brother is doing fine." Abigail resumed walking, Screwball shook her head and followed her.

Badlands, Empire Castle

Anon and Luna walked side by side as they approached a large room in the castle. The object that Thanos and Solid Will had found was of extreme importance, having great value to both King and Queen. They approached a large door with Lunas cutie mark with two swords behind it, symbolising both Anon and Lunas emblems.

Placing his hand on the door a few gears turned and the door unlocked. Inside the room sat a glowing red black cube in a glass container with two key holes on one side. The two looked to each other and nodded, Anon pulled a black key out of his pocket. Soon the black figure that had visited Luna appeared.

"So, it's time then?" It asked, it's glowing yellow eyes staring into Anons glowing blue eyes.

"Yes, it is time to release him." The figure nodded and his body began to shrink. In the place of the figure sat another black key. Holding both keys Anon turned to the black box. Using her magic Luna lifted the glass container off of it and took one of the keys. Each of them stood on one side of the box and nodded to each other. Placing the keys in there slots at the same time they turned together and the box began to give off flashes of light. Anon and Luna backed away from the box as it began to give off violent waves of energy.

Soon the box stopped as a ball of light floated out of it and flew down to the spot in front of Anon and Luna. The ball began to take shape, the shape of a pony. It was too big to be a filly and too small to be a fully grown pony, it was somewhere in the middle. It's flowing black mane was short and gave the impression of slow moving black fire. It's coat was dark blue, it's cutie mark being a five pointed white star with small tongues of black fire on each tip. Las it stood up it held its horn in its hoof for a second before stretching its strong wings. The young alicorn opened its piercing purple eyes and looked to the couple.

"Mother? Father?" The young colt looked to them with hope. "Is that really you?"

Anon knelt down and held out his arms. "Yes my son, it's us." The colt started to tear up and leapt into Anons arms. Luna joined in on the hug and wrapped her wings around them both. "You're back with us Moonlight Flare, you're back with us at last."

A few hours later the five generals sat in their private break room. Solid Will had a small pair of glasses on and was reading a book. Mist Hunter and Sonar Wisp sat playing a game of battleship. Thanos was carving a piece of wood into the shape of a penguin to add to his small collection of tiny wooden animals. Eris sat on her new beanbag chair, a slice of pizza in her claw with the pizza box resting the coffee table in the middle of the room. When they had nothing to do they would often go to this room to relax and unwind with their own little hobbies that they had grew over the years.

"Anyone else feel that magical surge earlier on?" Asked Eris while chewing a piece of pizza.

"I wouldn't worry about it, it was most likely just King Anon with one of his relics." Replied Solid as he turned the page in the book that was tiny compared to his body.

"Are you not the least bit curious about what's going on?" She asked while reaching into a mini fridge and pulling out a bottle of strawberry milk.

"We all know it is best to leave Anon to himself when it comes to these things, remember the ice jewel incident?" Replied Thanos.

"Don't need to remind us, that still sends a shiver down my spine when I think about it." Eris shivered before slumping back in her beanbag chair and taking a sip of the strawberry milk.

Mist Hunter brought a slice of pizza over to himself with his magic and looked to his board. He still had a few ships left while Sonar still had all of hers. He sighed and took a bite out of his pizza before talking. "We can find out what the magic surge was after our break, I'm sure King Anon and Queen Luna have everything under control." The rest if the generals nodded in agreement and went back to their little activities.

Underground, Anon, Luna and Moonlight looked out at the settlements bellow the surface of Equestria, where their forces and most of their staff lived. "So son, what do you think?" Anon asked as he placed a hand on his sons shoulder.

"It always amazes me how all of this could be underground while the main part of the castle is above the surface." Moonlight replied as he looked down at the busy streets in the city bellow.

"It would have been unwise to build the settlements in the desert, the people living there would not be able to handle the heat." Luna said while nuzzling her sons cheek.

"Besides, it's cooler to have an underground network than to have a city in the middle of the desert." Said Anon with a playful smile. Luna bumped his side with a wing and turned back to Moonlight.

"So son, what do you plan to do now that you're free?" She asked with a motherly tone.

Moonlight placed a hoot to his chin in thought before turning to Anon with a determined smile. "I'm going to help lead the Shadow Empire to help bring a balanced harmony, right beside you guys." Anon smiled warmly and ruffled Moonlights mane before walking inside.

"Come on son, the generals will want to see you after all this time." Moonlight smiled and ran after his father with his mother close behind.