Chapters 1 - The Rise of Night Spectre
In a hallway, there stood a pony. To be more specific this hallway was located in the maternity ward and the pony was a lilac coloured unicorn with a black mane who was watching the foals with his full attention... After a while, the pony watched the nurse leave the room and then stealthy entered in and quickly grabbed the first foal closest to the door and then put it in his bag and departed from the hospital shortly afterwards.
After a short journey home, the pony locked his door and took the sleeping mare and put her into a crib and decided to write observations about this pony. Here is what he observed:
Name (Indicated by the tag): Midnight Madness
Sex: Female
Race: Degauss
Coat Colour: Black
Mane: White
Age: Two Weeks
The Pony Looked at the pony in disapproval of her wings and sex as he would have preferred a male unicorn but as the saying goes 'beggars can't be choosers.' The pony decides to open the thick diary he had brought recently and sees no text within it and then he decides to write his observations under the date.
You are probably asking yourself “why was he expecting text within a brand new diary?” and “why did he just take a child?” Both these questions can be answered with a bit of back story.
Night Spectre is the fifth child of the Spectre household and the Spectre family lived in Canterlot in a very expensive mansion. Not much was expected by Night, he had only achieved average scores on both his tests and magic levels and was overshadowed by his elder siblings who had achieved higher places within parliament and society. But Night was not stupid, he was intelligent in fact and was very perceptive, and when he heard his eldest sibling discussing with the family about enemy states trying to take out PrincessCelestiaa to try to steal the lands from her. Night was struck with an idea on that day but it was an idea he hated. An idea which stuck with him for years afterwards eventually driving him to research into the subject and interestingly finding out that the griffins were on shaky ground with the Equestrians and only really needed a nudge to go into war but what Night took a real interest in was biology. More specifically he took an interest in how sapient creatures develop and what makes them become the creatures they are today discovering the double helix and the chromosomes within them but discovered there was no easy way to alter a creature's body structure when they had grown up. Night had decided to bide his time and research all possible solutions until Nightmare Moon's return which ended with the return of Princess Luna and the elements of harmony being revealed causing Night to give up his efforts due to too many powerful beings sitting on the throne.
Night led on to become a junior biologist researching pony anatomy and accelerating through the company gaining more powerful positions. Night had learned some illegal spells from the company including one which allowed him to absorb magic like photosynthesis within plants and ever wanting to increase his magic pool he decided to cast the spell out of view every morning at 8:00 just before work and continued to do this for about three months until one day, when he started the procedure, he heard a large boom just as the spell activated and felt a strange feeling forced down his horn causing his view exploding into a multitude of colours and him to collapse into pain. Night next experience was waking up in the hospital finding out that some sort of spirit of chaos had managed to escape his tomb and let out a flood of chaos into the world which sent him into a comatose state and when they checked what his last cast spell was they had noticed that it was illegal and notified the police of it. This is when Night noticed something was wrong as he tried to teleport away and found his magic was not obeying him forcing him to wait until the police arrived.
A large investigation was put into Night and the company and they found that the research pass provided to research chromosomes had been exploited into creating untrustworthy spells and they had been ripping off customers making them think they were going to achieve immortality. Another factor researched was that Night had completely lost all magic traces and somehow was still alive albeit without the magic of unicorns but no evidence could be found for this and was completely forgotten. Many employees were arrested for their crimes and were waiting for sentences but Night had managed to talk himself out of a punishment, as he had lost his magic due to the company and then provided vital evidence for every pony else's arrest.
There are many rules in Canterlot among the community, with most of them unspoken, but one of the main ones is that crimes can be committed with a general blind eye, unless it was an unspeakable crime, until you are convicted of your crimes and then you will be disowned by the community and struck off every record of ever living there which in Night's case even included his family which led Night to leave his hometown in shame and buy a house in the nearby town of Gonville.
I am guessing that you're starting to guess what will be occurring next. Night is not an idiot, I am just restating this for every pony to remember, he knew that the spell could be dangerous to perform but he did need power for his personal projects but he was unable to access his magic as well as apparently not having a drop of unicorn magic within him which as someone whom had being working and reading on ponies for a huge section of his life knew it physically could not be possible as magic forced the electrons, neutrons, and protons to condense into the atoms holding him together so he must have had a different force of magic holding him together and considering whose magic had exploded when he had cast his spell he could only assume his magic had been converted to chaos magic... Night decided to spend the next two years researching the magic he had managed to acquire to find out that chaos magic is not within the user's actual body instead drawing in magic from outside sources and chaos magic requires very little magic to cast the hardest of spells but the real issue is that using the magic reveals all information about that item which will flood the mind with information. Night had assumed that draconequus species must have had near omnipotent intelligence levels while ruling the land as their magic was touching large regions of land and for them to decipher all of that and be coherent is astounding while Night could barely deal with a 1 meter square as information as the information he collected was down to the atoms creating it which showed to Night how the magic worked as the creatures manipulated the items on atomic levels causing drastic changes to take place. Night had also researched time travel and found out that chaos magic broke the bounds of time travel magic but if you opened yourself up to the time stream then an infinite amount of information would flood into your brain so he decided that sending packets of information would be better than it would minimise your contact with the time stream.
Night knew that he had the tools to create a weapon and he was going to but he was unable to train the weapon himself and if he managed to take down four princesses, one spirit of chaos and the elements of harmony he needed an army to subdue every pony else so he decided to take a holiday to Griffonstone... “Some rich stuck pony wants us to go to war against Equestrian. Are you completely idiotic for coming here or did somebody hit you over the head?” say one of the griffon leaders.
“Why should we? Ponies have the superior armies in number and have magic supporting them as well as controlling our sun and moon” responds another. Night managed to get to the five leaders of the griffins and asked them to attack the country and their responses were as expected.
“I want you to invade Equestrian as I have found out how to take out the princesses and their weapons easily but I am going to have problems dealing with the public rebelling and such. And the sun and the moon can be given to the unicorns under your enslavement and if you want an example of my superior magics then.” responds Night and the room interior instantly has a gold plating with only a barely audible spark from his horn, Night had figured out that Discord snapped his talons while casting his magic as it meant that minimal information was absorbed as it is not a constant spell but an instantaneous one.
A griffin had managed to come out of the trance to ask "What is your plan then pony?"
Night grinned and began to describe that he would use a mix of time travel and gene modification to turn a foal into a weapon...
2 A Clean Slate
Night knew he had to take precautions with the pony and made sure that she was hidden whenever the police decided to come knocking and looking for the precious little foal who was taken from her mother at only two weeks old. He decided to set a hidden cupboard up which will send her to a predetermined location.
Night decided that while the pony will be taught knowledge by him and fighting skills by the griffins that he will not manipulate the genes of her on his first run and then record the data of her invasion and then change her to allow for her to progress further.
Multiple things became evident to Night over the years as he was raising Midnight, the first of which is that she was a highly intelligent individual able to be a natural at most subjects he had taught her and she had become fluent in the language by the age of six years old. He had also worked out that she was interested in trying to play chess creating ingenious traps whenever he played against her, he had given her a rulebook for chess and she had engorged herself into it.
When Midnight turned eight Night decided to introduce her to the griffins to start training her in the ways of fighting.
"You want to train this scruff ball? Are you mad? What do you think she is going to fight with, her hooves? I know you're supposed to be a genius pony or something but she has nothing notable!" said the griffin train.
Night examined the griffin for a few seconds and replied "Why do you think I came to you? It is not for the science I assure you. Ponies are capable of wielding blades as you know and we have better strategies than your weapon relying upon griffins. I want her trained to a stage to where she can conquer a unicorn at sword fight unless you think you don't have the brains to even do that." while slamming his hoof down in front of him.
The griffin in front of him visibly recoiled and lifted up his claw in defense seeing the aggression from the pony in front of him and then replied shakily "I understand."
Night casually walked across the griffin outpost towards the commander post on the other side watching the griffins in their business making weapons and tools and carving the meat of recently captured prey. it made him sick to even watch these animals be eaten, even though he had understood that Griffins grew up eating meat, and the Canterlot within him hated the fact that he even had to walk among these barbaric soldiers but he was patient enough to wait until the day where he could stand on Equestria's ashes and taken back his lands using the weak ponies as slaves following his every command.
As Night arrived at the commander's tent he heard a heated argument from within and then saw a griffin leave the tent in anger and towards the woods the camp was parallel to. Night walked into the tent and saw the general in front of him was reading the map of Equestria intense curiosity.
The general was quite possibly the only griffin that had gained Night's respect as he had experienced a whole great deal of pain to get into his position. There was once a young griffin named Gilded Thorn who was brought into Equestria by his dying mother to make sure that he wasn't harmed in the great civil wars between the Griffins. He rose until his eighteenth birthday where he was kicked out and he forced to join the Equestrian forces. It was said that during his time in the army he was completely merciless using his natural skills as a griffin in an army of ponies and using his intelligence to create scenarios for the enemies slaughter. As he climbed the ladder in positions he acquired the nickname 'The Carnivore' as he was eating the flesh from his enemies as ponies were not bringing the right nutritional products for him to survive, although as he rose through the ladder he still ate his enemies even though meat was being stocked for him to invoke fear within the enemies. He quickly obtained the level of general and was using his forces to quickly destroy the enemy and was living the happy life until Nightmare Moon returned... The problem was that he was supposed to defend Equestria against all threats, and he had as well as sacrificing a wing and a claw towards the effort, but could not defend Equestria against a being that fast and powerful and it ruined his reputation. He then got drummed out of the military when Celestia decided to reinstate her sister as the royal general of Equestria's Army. The disgraced general decided to leave Equestria soon after and retire in the suburbs of Griffonstone.
"I see you lurking in the shadows pony, come closer I have had an idea of how we are going to get our soldiers back into Equestria on masse," said The General.
Night walked towards the table and looked at the map briefly, he had been pondering how we would get past the magical borders without being noticed, and then said: "What's your idea General?"
The General replied "When I was still in charge of the army one of the jobs was to check if the spell was not wearing and I got to understand the principles behind it. It works on the principle that a massive amount of magic cannot pass through it and as we all contain magic an army would not be able to get through and also magical beasts and criminals could also be singled out. This is bad for us as we need to send a huge amount of sleeper agents in quickly but I used to know this zebra. This guy was nuts with what he could do with the right materials with one of his spells being able to hide a presence which would theoretically get us through the barrier. I was considering calling the guy anyway, he could help us trap the elements of harmony somewhere he is quite good at support and defense."
Night pondered this information for a few moments and the nodded saying "He's perfect. Bring him in soon I would like to have a talk with him. If you don't have anything to add General I shall go pick up Midnight from her combat lesson."
The General grumbled and replied"Isn't she too young for this training? I would imagine the griffons slaughtering her."
Night coldly replied"Midnight is a tool. Tools can be damaged but can be sharpened and fixed. I do not care for her I just need to make sure that I can use her effectively as a tool."
Night watched the carnage unfold in front of him as he watched the class of griffons harming Midnight not even allowing her a moment to retaliate. Night decided to let this ensue for a few more moments and walked in to stop her from being permanently harmed.
The griffons stopped and cowered at the sight of him approaching whereas Midnight saw him and relaxed as she assumed that the pain was finished.
" I am ashamed of you" stated Night sharply.
Midnight's pupils dilated and she tried to shrink away from Night in fear.
"You think I am going to hurt you? No no. I am going to walk away and let these griffons have their fun again. You are training to become a god killer if you can't even take down multiple griffons then what use do I have for you? You are to train until your namesake tonight and every other night until you are able to take down this class of griffons with your hoofs and a sword." stated Night and walked away hearing the excited squawks of griffons jumping to harm her.
A couple of months went by very quickly after that with Midnight spending most of her time gaining strength and accuracy to be able to hold off the torment of the griffons harming her again. Night, on the other hand, had heard the word that the zebra had been found and was on his way to the camp.
"Are you sure he can be trusted general? The both of us have our incentives but I have no information about this zebra which shows me that he won't betray us" asked Night.
"Do you think I would invite someone this powerful to this camp who I can't trust? The zebra has his incentive and we do need him" replied The General.
Night nodded and sat formulating multiple plans in his head about how he could dispatch the zebra if he should become a threat.
After a few minutes, the zebra arrived into the tent wearing his head like a nobleman while coming into the tent. Night observed that the zebra was wearing a skull for a mask and various odd trinkets as well as a pair of power bracers on his hooves. Night thought himself that this zebra was not a force to be messed with and started to remember all of the zebra shaman research he decided to catch up on when anticipating this meeting.
The first zebra was a powerful mage who had been a stallion at one time and was powerful enough to be involved with the great old mages such as Starswirl and the Rune Maker. The zebra was addicted to power and resulted in stealing the power of a dragon to fuel himself but he screwed up the dragon noticed and incinerated him on the spot. While he should have died that day he managed to avoid it by cheating with magic. He tied his soul to a nearly unbreakable object with a painful procedure so when his body was incinerated his consciousness and magic was bound to the stone. The mage understandably freaked out and drew his magic in to create a new body which resulted in the common zebra body as he had no time to think about what he would look like. What the mage did not know was how a dragon's flames worked as he and every other mage had assumed that he just lit gases on fire like ponies had done for multiple years whereas a dragon's flames are a purely magical construct and when the mage pulled in his magic he had pulled in all the magic of the flames as which meant he had just created a supercharged pony look alike without a horn. One has to be said about the mage that he was not stupid and had realised just what he had just done and he decided to use his newfound powers to destroy the beast which destroyed his previous body. It was said the fight between the two was legendary and it swiftly ended with the mage decapitating the dragon as well as incinerating the flesh resulting a skull which the mage decided to wear a mask for the rest of his life. The mage had gone on to find himself a homeland far from Equestria and created huge temple devoted to himself and his many mare wives, if a zebra breeds with a pony they will always create a zebra offspring. Zebras expanded after that and created their whole society by how the original zebra lived. But here is the thing, a zebra is not as able to tap into their magic as easy as they pony race because when the zebra recreated himself he was distracted and the magic routes were altered. The math was done out of a 1 hundred unicorns 99 will be able to be taught to use their magic through their horns whereas 2 in a hundred zebras can successfully use to use their magic but those 2 in a hundred will be able to destroy the 99 unicorns as their magic is so concentrated. When a zebra shaman is identified from the pack they are put through an intense training ritual where their magic is expanded to near alicorn levels and then power bracers are slapped onto the zebra to make sure too much magic is not flowing through their bodies. The zebras usually travel the world after this and will always attempt to kill an incredibly powerful creature to wear the skull to honor the first zebra and show how powerful the individual zebra was. The zebra which just entered the tent was wearing a fabled Basilisk skull. 'No wonder he treats himself like royalty' thought Night he knew how tough the Basilisks could be...
The zebra walked over to the general and Night and after observing the both of them said "It's nice to see you again general and you must be Night" extending his hoof out towards Night.
Night shook the hoof with his own and then said: "Aren't zebras opposed to speaking in rhyme?"
"That's only the enchanters of our species. Rhymes boost our magic when it comes to potion and weapon making. A zebra enchanter can become very powerful if they keep their rhymes flowing but the power will stop if they stop rhyming and then they have to start off with low-level magic again. My magic is warlock line and I don't need to rhyme thankfully." replied The Zebra
Night absorbed the information storing the information and then said "By the way I didn't catch your name"
The zebra grinned and said, "My name is Zedike but I personally prefer just Zed."
Zed looked down at the general's table and decided to inspect it further and after a few moments said "They were being serious about this... I didn't think that we were literally taking over Equestria. Doesn't this break most laws that exist?"
Night grinned and said "Who cares? We will be filthy rich, nobles and have a huge section of land."
Zed chuckles and after a moment says "Well then I am in... What's the plan?"
After many years of planning and training, two perfect things were created. The first of these were the actual plan, which was planned to be able to change slightly and still be able to complete the plan to near perfection and the second was Midnight Madness herself. Midnight had taken the shame to her soul and trained until even adult griffins weren't able to lay a single talon on her but for her that was not enough she kept training for 21 hours a day nonstop until she was able to defeat all opponents in a slice! Her powerful muscles, wings, and accuracy allowed for the ability to fight her components from any directions while having the strength and accuracy to slice through iron armor, flesh and bone.
After all these years the plan was coming to completion as the last of the griffins as well as Zed, The General, Night and Midnight were escorted through the barrier.
When through the barrier Night turned to the three behind him and said "Well my fine friends, this is the day a short revolution will change the whole world and the four of us will be rewarded with the greatest of treasures to ensure that our heroic actions will be remembred.
The three of you know your positions and plans to the letter and it is essential that you do not deviate off your paths. This is the last we shall see of each other until the day we stand on Equestria's ruins standing as victors!" after the speech Night pulled up the hood of his cloak and walked into the darkness with the other three following his example...
It was a calm night outside of Canterlot Castle and no one was roaming except for some of the Nightguard and one singular pony who was hiding in the shadows waiting until the guards were out of site until activating the crystal earpiece and saying in a whisper "Base this is M.M, The ghost is all clear and waiting for orders to initiate Ruin Maker."
Night looked at the screens in his base of operations watching the cameras he had implanted into the suits of his three generals for a few moments and then activated his own microphone and said "Reading you loud and clear M.M, Z and G are you in positions yet?"
After a few moments, the speakers crackled to life with confirmations.
Night sighed with relief and then activated his microphone again and stated" Mission Ruin Makers is a go. Good luck Ladies and Gentleponys."
Midnight knew that was her queue to go and she snuck into the castle through the unlocked door to her right making sure to avoid the sight of the guard roaming around the castle as she made her way through the castle. She recognized the corridor she was approaching noting it to be close to the throne room of the two sisters but as she snuck through the first door she saw two guards come round the corner and spot her immediately. Before the first guard is even able to open his mouth to shout a warning Midnight launched forward lifting her sword up towards his neck and in a nanosecond his still conscious head is sent through the air as Midnight slices her sword back down and straight through the head of the second guards pony.
Midnight looks around for any more guards after this incident and when not seeing any decides to open the door into the throne room...
And gets completely fried with about 1,000,000 volts of electricity leaving her less than a puddle on the floor for janitors to clean up because she had not realized that a key card was needed to come into the throne room which therefore activated the lethal spell.
Night watched all of this from his video screens in shock and wrote down his notes into his book reminding his younger self to pick up the keycard and that now it was time to start having fun experimenting which he then cast his time spell and sent the book insides to the past...