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                     My Little Ponies                      
                     -by Hopeful Soul-                     
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                         Chapter 1                         
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Chapter 1
My Little Ponies
Chapter 1
        Nighttime in Ponyville, a time where the Princess of the Night herself watches over the dreams of all her subjects and protects them from any and all nightmares they may be having.
        Usually, it was a quiet time, a time of peace, tranquility and undisturbed sleep, but for Ponyville’s resident princess; Twilight Sparkle, it was a time of restless sleep, at least for her that is. Inside the castle and the room where she slept, the Princess of Friendship tossed and turned in her bed constantly while moaning in fear, one would guess that she was having a bad dream and that pony would be right.
        Inside her dream, the Princess seemed to be galloping away from something and she didn’t seem to want to stop. She huffed and panted as she continued to run and run in a pitch black area where no light was shown.
        She looked back and gasped when she saw a pair of yellow dotted eyes open up inside the dark abyss while a low growl came out of nowhere.
        “Princess…” A familiar and scary voice hissed. What was really scary about this voice was that it seemed to be coming from every direction, filling the young Princess with even more dread. “…Twilight…”
        “Gah! Who are you!? Where are you!?” Twilight called out, looking around for wherever the voice was coming from.
        Soon enough she bumped into something that knocked her right onto her back. She groaned as she sat up and saw an individual wearing a cloak in front of her.
        “Hello… Twilight…” The person said, in a low tone.
        “Who… who are you?” Twilight asked, a little nervous.
        “It hasn’t been that long, has it? I’m almost disappointed that you don’t remember me, Princess…” The cloaked one said.
        Twilight regained her composure and fully stood up, preparing herself for a potential fight.
        “Just tell me who you are! What is this place? And what do you want!?” she demanded.
        “What should have been mine a long time ago… does that help?” The hooded individual inquired in a sinister tone as his eyes flashed yellow.
        Twilight gasped in shock as a familiar memory that she nearly forgotten was reawakened, sending a shiver down her spine. Her fear increased as the dark stranger raised his head a little more, revealing his red skin, white beard and nose ring. “No… you can’t be here… this can’t be possible!” she gasped. The stranger chuckled more as he revealed more of his skinny looking face. “Lord Tirek! But your… your…”
        “Hardly.”
        “But… but how…”
        “Come now Princess Twilight… you didn’t really think you could get rid of me that easily, did you?” The still weak centaur remarked as he stepped closer towards Twilight, who backed up in fear.
        “Stay away from me… I’m warning you!” The Princess of Friendship said, trying to be as brave as she could be and not stutter or tremble.
        Tirek then pointed a claw at her. “No, Princess. I’m warning you. Give me your magic and will consider sparing you and your friends, refuse and… well… you know fully well what I am capable of, so choose wisely,” he threatened.
        “Never! And you can’t make me! I don’t care what you do, my friends and I will find a way to stop you, just like we did before! Now leave me alone!” Twilight ordered him.
        The centaur just chuckled evilly. “You don’t get it, do you Princess?” he inquired before his body began to glow while also growing and slowly towering over the young Princess. “By the time I am done… ‘friendship’ will be no more, and it starts… with your extinction.”
        By the time he had finished his sentence he had become the size he was when he successfully absorbed all the magic in Equestria and Twilight was paralyzed with fear as she gazed up at him, unable to move her legs or cast a spell.
        Tirek then opened his mouth and began to charge a magical energy sphere that grew bigger by the second. As Twilight stared in fear visions of the citizens of Ponyville, Canterlot and Cloudsdale all galloping and flying in fear as their homes burned flashed across her memory.
        Before she knew it Tirek had just fired a magical energy beam, and it was headed straight for her.
        “NO!” she cried as she raised a foreleg to shield her eyes while the blast slowly closed in on her…
        Twilight suddenly sat up with a sharp gasp and panted, out of breath. She slowly gazed around and saw the familiar contents of her room in the Castle of Friendship. She was home. It was just a dream. The realization of this made her sigh in relief.
        “Dream… whew… it was just a… bad dream…” she breathed. She groaned as she rubbed her head. “I got to stop reading so late…”
        She slowly pulled herself out of bed and began to trot towards the door, still feeling a little bit drowsy though as she wobbled slightly.
        “Oh… why didn’t Princess Luna show up when I started having it?” Twilight asked, out loud. “Maybe she was busy with some other pony’s bad dreams… hope they’re doing better then me…”
        As she exited the bedroom, she failed to notice that a small crack had appeared in middle of the bedroom floor, and it was glowing.
        Twilight soon found herself in the kitchen, where Spike was already hard at work at making breakfast. The smell of it was enough to wake Twilight up a little more, though she still yawned, which alerted Spike to her presence.
        “Morning, Twilight!” he said.
        “Oh… morning, Spike.” Twilight smiled, still a bit sleepy.
        “Sleep ok?” he asked as he turned and began to approach her with some pancakes in the pan.
        “You could say that…” Twilight sighed as he placed the pancakes on the plate in front of as soon as she sat down at the table.
        “A nightmare?” Spike guessed. Twilight nodded. “And Luna didn’t show up?”
        “No… and that’s the weird thing. She’d never turn her back on a nightmare as bad as that… which makes me wonder…” Twilight mused, as she turned away,
        “Wonder what?”
        “If that was even a nightmare at all…”
        “Not a nightmare? Then what was it?”
        “My guess? I think it was some kind of vision… Princess Celestia said that she sometimes has some as well.”
        “A vision? Of what?” Spike questioned.
        Twilight gulped a bit as she recalled the memory. “Of Lord Tirek…”
        Spike looked a bit fearful as well. “Tirek!? That centaur that destroyed our home, got Discord to betray us and hurt our friends?”
        “That’s him…” Twilight nodded, nervously. “I thought I was done with him… that he didn’t scare me anymore… but I guess he still does…”
        “Aw, come on Twilight, there’s no need to be scared, I mean he’s locked up in Tartarus, right?” Spike pointed out.
        Twilight nodded and sighed, knowing he was right. “Yeah… he is…”
        “So you see? There’s nothing to worry about!” Spike assured her.
        Twilight smiled, comforted. “Yeah, your right, thanks Spike.”
        “It’s what I’m here for, sister.” Spike smiled, proudly. “Want some juice?”
        “Please.” Twilight nodded as Spike went over to get her a nice glass. “I can’t believe I was worried about Tirek showing up again…”
        “Stranger things have happened.” Spike reminded, as he poured some juice into a glass.
        “Good point, but still what…” Twilight started to say as Spike approached her with the glass before something else happened…
        The ground beneath both of them suddenly began to shake, startling them and knocking the alicorn and the dragon off balance and onto the floor below. They both grew fearful as the castle continued to shake.
        “What’s happening!?” Spike cried.
        “I don’t know!” Twilight said, fearfully. “Just hold onto something!”
        Just then, thin cracks began to come into the kitchen, cracks that appeared to be coming down a hallway nearby them and were now heading straight towards the two.
        “Is it an earthquake?” Spike asked, fearfully.
        “There shouldn’t be… so why…” Twilight began to say before she noticed a faint glow coming from the cracks. “What is that…?”
        “What?” The baby dragon inquired.
        “These cracks… they haven’t been created by an earthquake… they’ve been created by something else!” Twilight realized.
        “Something else? Wha…” Spike began to ask in confusion.
        “Come on! We have to get to the throne room!” Twilight told him as she used her magic to levitate him onto her back before galloping towards the door.
        “The throne room? Why?” Spike questioned.
        Twilight quickly teleported to various spots down the hall, avoiding the ones with major cracks that were slowly getting bigger and bigger.
        “It’s where the source of the cracks is!” Twilight explained as she teleported.
        “And we’re going towards it!?” Spike asked, incredulously.
        “If it means figuring this out, then yes, we are.” Twilight stated, determined.
        Spike gulped. “Great…” he muttered.
        They continued to make their way through and around the cracks that were slowly covering all the hallways and rooms inside of the castle before they finally reached the door that lead to the throne room. Spike hopped off Twilight.
        “Ok, this is it… stand back, Spike.” Twilight told him. “This could be dangerous…”
        “I thought that it already was.” Spike pointed out, dryly.
        Twilight quickly charged up her magic and blasted the doors open before both she and Spike rushed it, and gasped in shock at what they found. The map, in the center of the throne room, had broken in half, a bad omen indeed. But what was even more disturbing was the intense light shining from the large crack, and it was even brighter then the glow coming from the smaller cracks.
        “What is that…?” Spike questioned, clearly freaked out.
        “A bad thing… a very bad thing…” Twilight muttered with fear as the shaking around them increased before finally a red, clawed hand emerged from the glowing crack and grabbed the edge of one of the broken pieces of the map before scratching it with it’s claws.
        Another clawed hand followed soon afterwards and grabbed the other the other broken piece of the map before both of the skinny arms started to pull the rest of the body out, which was covered in a cloak. As they did so, the skinny arms slowly grew redder and more muscular, and the cloak covering the body started to become shredded as a magic aura glowed around the whole body.
        Twilight recognized who it was right away. “No… it can’t be…” she muttered in fear.
        “What? Who is it?” Spike asked, quickly and nervously.
        “That… that… that dream really was a vision after all…” Twilight realized in horror.
        “Wait… you mean that it’s…” Spike began to say before a horn headed, white bearded, red faced and yellow eyed minotaur suddenly rose right out of the crack and roared a thunderous roar.
        “Lord Tirek!” Twilight cried.
        “In the flesh…” he hissed.

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                         Chapter 2                         
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Chapter 2
Chapter 2
“But… but how!? I-I thought he was still locked up in Tartarus!” Spike said, scared.
“So did I…” Twilight breathed.
“That is what you get for assuming too quickly and letting your guard down, Princess.” Tirek smiled, evilly. “I told you I would return, I told you I would have my revenge!”
“Explain yourself Tirek! How did you escape Tartarus!?” Twilight demanded
Tirek chuckled darkly as he stepped out of the crack and towered over the young Alicorn and dragon.
“It’s quite simple Princess, for your see when you and friends defeated me you used your new power to banish me to that loathsome prison, but little did you all know… I managed to absorb a small piece of it, granted it was hardly enough to restore me to full strength but all I had to do was continuously absorb the energy coming from this map until I had enough power to defeat even Cerberus and break free of those troublesome shackles.” The centaur explained.
“The map?” Twilight echoed in surprised. “But how…? Wait… the Rainbow Power… the castle… they’re both…”
“Yes…” Tirek confirmed with a hiss. “They are both connected since they both came from the Tree of Harmony. To be honest it was poetic to use the same power you used to defeat me to escape from Tartarus, and you cannot begin to imagine the depths of my suffering there! I was going to rule over all of Equestria, until you lowly ponies ruined everything!”
“Don’t try to make me feel guilty about that, Tirek!” Twilight told him, harshly. “You’re the one who tried to take the magic from everypony in Equestria! Including Discord, who you tricked into betraying us!”
“Not to mention the fact that you destroyed our home!” Spike added, just as angry as Twilight was.
“Those are the reasons for your imprisonment Tirek, and I can clearly see that you have learned nothing from your stay there.” Twilight stated, glaring at him.
“Like what? About how ‘friendship’ is important? Don’t make me laugh.” Tirek sneered. “Miserable ponies like you have nothing to teach me but very soon you ponies will be exterminated, and this entire world will be mine.”
Twilight snorted and pawed at the ground with her hoof as her horn glowed. “That’s not gonna happen!” she stated, firmly.
“If you want to stop me so badly Princess… come and get me!” Tirek challenged. “I’ll destroy you and this castle just as easily I destroyed your last home!”
Hearing that and remembering how Tirek blew up the Golden Oaks library caused Twilight’s blood to boil as she narrowed her eyes, spread her wings and flew straight for Tirek.
“Twilight, wait!” Spike called out.
As she flew the Princess of Friendship’s horn glowed brightly with magic while Tirek prepared to fire an intense ball of magic between his horns which he fired at Twilight just as she fired her own magic beam. Just like during their first battle their beams collided and cancelled each other out in the process and by using the smoke as cover Twilight managed to fly forward and caught Tirek off guard, striking him in the jaw, hard.
Lord Tirek growled in anger. “How dare you!” he bellowed.
“There’s more where that came from!” Twilight told him.
“I could say the same to you!” Lord Tirek shot back as he drew his clawed hand back and swung it, causing a wave of energy to appear and hit Twilight, slamming her into the wall above the door.
“Twilight!!” Spike cried.
“Silence fool!” Tirek ordered as he pointed at the dragon before crystal built up around him, trapping him.
Twilight saw this and gasped. “Spike!” she exclaimed before she struggled to pull herself out of the wall before finally succeeding. She gave Tirek a scary death glare as she floated in front of him. The centaur simply gave her a ‘come at me’ gesture, with a mocking grin on his face.
The Princess then fired another magic beam at him, but the centaur blocked it and sent another way of energy at her, though this time she dodged it and started flying around and around the room while he kept trying to blast her, sending beams of energy flying out of the castle in several directions.
“You can’t dodge me forever, Princess!?” he told her.
“We’ll see about that!” Twilight declared, as she continued to do so and as Tirek kept trying to blast her, he kept making holes in the wall of the castle, causing bits of rubble to rain down around Spike, unnerving him.
“Twilight! You gotta stop him, fast! He’s gonna bring the whole place down!” he cried.
“Sorry!” Twilight told him while momentarily stopping, giving Tirek the opportunity to grab her and slam her into the ground.
“Twilight!!!” The young dragon screamed.
“Not as sorry as you are going to be…” Tirek hissed.
Just then, the doors to the throne room burst open again and all five of Twilight’s friends came rushing in. They had obviously seen and heard the beams of magic flying out of the castle but were unaware of the cause.
“What the hay is going on in…” Applejack began to question before catching a glimpse of the menacing Tirek, causing her eyes to widen. “…here.”
The centaur turned and snarled in their direction. The ponies all gasped sharply in shock with wide eyes and slack jaws. Pinkie also screamed at the top of her lungs.
“It’s Tirek! Tirek is back! And he’s in the throne room!” she cried out.
“Yeah, we can see that.” Rainbow pointed out, flatly.
“But… how…?” Fluttershy whimpered. Then, she and the others all gasped again when they saw Twilight being pinned by him.
“Twilight!” They exclaimed.
“Let her go!” Rainbow yelled as she zoomed toward Tirek and slammed her front hooves into his face, knocking him back and freeing Twilight.
“Thanks, Rainbow!” Twilight said, gratefully.
“No prob, now move!” Rainbow told her before they managed to dodge another of Tirek’s attacks.
“Twilight! How did this happen?” Applejack asked her as she and Rainbow landed near the others.
“Tirek… he managed to absorb a small piece of the power we received from the chest… all this time he’s been waiting and gathering his strength till he was able to escape…” Twilight replied, fearfully.
“And trapped me in this.” Spike pointed out, bitterly.
“Well, he’s gonna wish he hadn’t! Because now we’re all here together!” Rainbow declared.
“That’s right!” Rarity agreed, firmly.
“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie added.
“Um… yeah?” Fluttershy said, very quietly.
“Good! Now let’s get ‘em!” Rainbow declared as she spread her wings.
“You are all welcome to try!” Tirek challenged. “But know this; this time… I will NOT. LOSE. AGAIN!”
As he roared he emitted a shock wave from his body that vibrated the entire chamber on its way toward the mares-but instead of being torn apart, they are each protected by a magical shield created by Twilight which does it’s best to hold against the sheer fury of Tirek’s magic but it soon shattered like glass and sent all six of them flying, while Spike remained trapped where he was.
“Twilight! NO!” he screamed.
The six heroines flew through the long, empty hallways of the castle before slamming into the front doors of it, causing them to fly right open while they flew out of it. Eventually gravity caught them and caused them to roll and tumble across the ground until they finally stopped. They all groaned as they began to pick themselves up.
“Is everypony alright?” Twilight asked, weakly.
“I think so…” Fluttershy replied, still a little shaky.
“I’ve been better…” Rainbow moaned.
“Oh… please tell me that was just a bad dream…” Applejack muttered, gulping.
“What she said.” Rarity added, a little scared.
“I’m afraid not.” Twilight stated, solemnly as she stood up straight. “Tirek has returned.”
“But… how!? I thought he was locked up in Tartarus?” Rainbow said.
“He was… but somehow he managed to absorb some of the magic we used to defeat him and has been building it up until he could break free…” Twilight revealed.
“So… how do we stop him?” Fluttershy asked, fearfully.
“You can’t.” A voice behind them boomed before the doors, and part of the front entrance to the castle exploded and revealed Lord Tirek. “Because you are all going to be too busy suffering to do anything about it.”
Rainbow quickly got into a pronged position. “Yeah? Well, that ain’t gonna happen, tomato face!”
“You dare talk to your new lord that way!?” Tirek snapped, greatly agitated.
“You're not my Lord!” Rainbow declared as she started to fly toward him at super speed.
“Rainbow Dash, wait!” Applejack called out.
“Begone!” Tirek spat as he gave Rainbow Dash a backhand strike, swatting her away instantly.
“Rainbow!!” Everypony cried, horrified.
“Well, that was easy.” Tirek smirked, sadistically. “Alright then, who’s next?”
“You ruffian!” Rarity spat. “How dare you hurt our friend like that!?”
“You it is then.” Tirek declared as he threw another fireball at them.
The group shattered before the fireball hit the ground they once stood on and exploded, sending them all flying. They got up feeling groggy and Rarity gasped in sheer horror as she noticed some of her beautiful purple tail had been burned off.
“M-My beautiful tail!'” she squeaked, tears forming in her eyes. Then, the tears dried instantly as Rarity glared at Tirek, her eyes burning. “It… is… ON!”
She whinnied and she galloped towards the centaur at full speed.
“Rarity!” Applejack exclaimed. She face hoofed in annoyed and groaned. “Oh… why doesn’t anypony listen!?”
“I don’t know, maybe because it’s not fun?” Pinkie guessed before she began hopping ahead.
Applejack sighed. “Fine… Fluttershy; you stay behind me, got it?” she told her shy friend.
“O-ok…” Fluttershy nodded, shaking with fear as they began to move out.
Tirek began to fire energy bolts at Twilight and Rarity and each dodged a bolt, but barely. Twilight levitated a boulder from behind and sent it flying towards the magician. It managed to hit Tirek and knocked her to the ground.
But he slowly got back up and levitated two more boulders, even larger then the one they hit him with and threw them. Twilight and Rarity dodged them with ease, but noticed Tirek had a sinister grin on her face. They were suddenly hit in the back by two more rocks Tirek levitated and were knocked down to the floor.
The centaur fired a another intense energy bolt at them, just as Twilight up a force field, and it exploded on impact. When the smoke cleared, the force field was gone and the lilac and white unicorn were both looking dazed before collapsing.
Pinkie began to bounce around Tirek who started to throw various objects at the party pony, who simply bounced and dodged them. Pinkie then kicked a few balancing balls at the centaur, but he caught them with his magic and tossed them right back. While she dodged one, the other managed to bonked her on the head and knocked her out as well.
“Pinkie Pie!” Applejack cried out in shock before she quickly shifted into anger. “You rotten…!”
Tirek just laughed at her. “You want to do something little pony? Then come! Try and strike me down with all your hatred!” he challenged.
“Oh, I’ll show you a strike!” Applejack declared as she began to gallop toward him as well while Fluttershy could only watch in total fear.
As Tirek began to throw boulder after boulder at her, Applejack skilling dodged each and every one of them as she continued to gallop towards him.
Eventually, she reached one of Pinkie’s fallen bouncy items and used it to leap upward and buck the centaur right in the face, hard. Tirek reacted to his attack with a cry of pain before blasting the Earth pony down with dark magical beams from his eyes.
“Applejack!” Fluttershy cried. Her great concern for her friend quickly motivated her to fly out fast, faster then she usually goes, and catch her friend before she hit the ground.
“Whew… thanks, shy…” Applejack sighed in relief.
“Your welcome.” The yellow Pegasus smiled as she lowered back onto her hooves where the others were. They were all beginning to pick themselves up as well though they were all sore and out of breath. Rainbow Dash, who was flung the furthest back, finally returned as well, panting feverishly as well.
“Uh… is just me… or are we getting are rumps kicked?” she remarked.
“I’m afraid that’s the case…” Rarity admitted.
“Yeah… he’s tougher then he looks…” Pinkie breathed.
“And he was already tough to start with…” Twilight added.
Tirek laughed. “Face it ponies, this is the end of Equestria… and you! Finally! I will have my revenge on you putrid weaklings,” he spat.
Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “We’re not finished yet, Tirek!”
“Yeah! We still got one more trick up our sleeves” Rainbow smirked. “You girls, ready?”
“Ready!” Everypony nodded.
The six of them all closed their eyes and concentrated before beams of light shined down on all of them, consuming them all completely. Tirek growled angrily due to having seen this before.
When the light finally faded the girls all had extended manes that were infused with different colors; in the cases of Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy, their wings also become colorful. More symbols appear in the ponies' cutie marks and some gained some extra accessories.
Tirek growled even more. “Cursed rainbow power…”
“Tirek!” Twilight called out. “Prepare yourself, because you're going back to Tartarus where you belong!”
“Never! You think I wouldn’t be prepared to face the magic that defeated me before? Well, you’d be wrong… because now I will crush this magic and all of you with it!”
The centaur puts his clawed hands in front of him and lights a spark of magic between them, which forms an energy sphere that grows and grows till it was as big as Tirek himself. He held it right above his head.
“Sorry Tirek, but that’s not going to happen!” Twilight declared as she and her friend’s charged up their magic and fired a beam of multicolored light at Tirek, who fired his own energy ball their way as well.
The two energies meet at a point between them and cancel out; it becomes a tug-of-war, with the balance point shifting back and forth between them and pulse waves radiating out from it, shaking everything around them and even causing the ground to crack up a bit.
Eventually, it looked like Tirek was gaining ground and pushing the beam their way, but with one groan of effort the girls managed to push it back to the middle. But suddenly, something began to happen. Something that causes them all to react with surprise as the two energy blasts to swirled together and then compress into a large spark of energy.
“What… what’s happening!?” Applejack asked, loudly.
“I… I don’t know!” Twilight said, confused and scared.
“Impossible!” Tirek exclaimed before the large ball of energy began to charge up in front of them. Twilight’s eyes widen when she finally realizes what is about to happened.
“Oh no… everypony stay behind me!” she told them as she created a force field in front of them all while the spark of energy continued to charge until finally… it reached it’s peak. The spark then exploded with tremendous force. Tirek was quickly swallowed up by the energy wave, howling in agony while the girls are also consumed by the blinding white radiance.