A Little Equestrian Destruction Never Hurt Anypony
“But, what if Trixie really was just using me to one up you?” Starlight gazed at Twilight with a dejected look.
Twilight looked back at her, half lidded eyes and a smile apparent on her face.
“From what I’ve seen, she’s the real thing.”
The two watched from the top of a small hill as Trixie with her strangely rather cone-shaped helmet positioned her cannon in the direction of the crowd of ponies, stage, and ferocious manticore, lighting the fuse at the back with her magic.
The ponies glanced at one another again.
“But it’s not my place to judge. It’s all up to you.” Twilight confided as the mare placed a comforting hoof on Starlight’s side.
The two mares glanced back at the cannon, and one could cut the anxious tension in the air with as knife as the fuse burned ever closer and closer towards what seemed like sure disaster.
The without-a-doubt doomed magician Trixie muttered what everypony believed to be her last words with a great somber and desperate tone in her voice.
“Starlight… if you’re out there… and you still want to be friends… let’s be great and powerful together…” the blue mare receded before sticking her head out one last time, “please?”
A couple fateful seconds later, the fuse reached its end. Everypony watched in utter shock and horror as Trixie catapulted through the air at a similar speed that Rainbow Dash would towards the bookstore upon the release of the next Daring Do book. The unicorn covered her in eyes in anticipation of what seemed to everypony her impending doom.
Trixie shot directly into the manticore’s open and hungry mouth, which swallowed her whole with a burp. Everypony gasped in complete shock, some overly impressionable ponies such as Fluttershy going as far as fainting at such a ghastly scene.
For a few more chilling moments ponies in the crowd muttered words to one another before everypony noticed a flash of light emanating from the magic box on stage. Out fell Trixie, her mane in disarray and her hat and magician’s cape in tatters. She had done it! Two extremely audacious magic tricks in one act as Trixie had also taken her magician's hat off before entering the cannon. Not that anypony noticed the latter of the two, however. Anyhow, the likes of such a stunt had not been seen since the days of Hoofdini!
“Behoooold… the pait and growerful Triskieeee,” the frazzled magician was able to get out before fainting and falling on her side.
The crowd immediately erupted in cheer, miraculously overjoyed at the amazing stunt they had just witnessed. Out of nowhere, Starlight appeared behind the blue unicorn and helped her to her hooves. She gave the magician a big wink, Trixie waiting a couple moments before winking back.
Suddenly, a large black alicorn mare with a flowing light blue mane and accents stepped out from behind the right side of the curtains. She was much larger than everypony else, and boasted an ominous glare and smile with sharp teeth. She levitated a necklace-like triangular object with a large red ruby in the center through the air in front of Trixie’s current position.
As quickly as it began, the cheering from the crowd abruptly ceased and was replaced by looks of oh no not again shock and terror once again at the site in front of them. Twilight Sparkle, still situated atop the small hill, sat there with mouth open and tongue hanging out, completely aghast.
“Nightmare Moon! The Alicorn Amulet! How can this be?”
The Princess of Friendship stood up and galloped in the direction of the crowd and stage, for the three ponies on stage either had a lot of explaining to do, or actually a lot of lecturing from Twilight to receive. Or maybe this just really could not be good.
Nightmare Moon, Starlight Glimmer, and Trixie peered at one another with devious grins, then back out at the stunned crowd. The Alicorn Amulet floated in front of Trixie, who voraciously seized it and placed it around her neck. Her eyes flashed red as it clicked.
Trixie noticed the purple alicorn galloping through the crowd in an apparent B-line towards the stage. She rolled her eyes and chuckled.
“Well, well, look what we have here.”
Trixie shot an intense red lightning-esque magical beam out of her horn, the other ponies in the crowd looking on in horror as Twilight was enveloped in a red orb of magic a couple feet in front of the stage. When the magic finally ceased, the princess was wrapped inside of a see-through magical bubble of sorts.
Trixie snickered and looked at Starlight, the two miraculously having become best friends in less than a day. Clearly nothing odd about that, and Twilight was supposed to accept that.
“That’s much better, don’t you think?” The blue unicorn rubbed and admired the Alicorn Amulet around her neck with a hoof. “It’s been far too long since the Great and Powerful, no, the Great and Powerful and Wise Trixie has had this grand amulet around her neck, and the legendary power that comes along with it that Trixie has always deserved.”
Twilight struggled to break free from the spell, but it was no use. Her almighty alicorn magic was useless, just like it often was in other dire situations in the past. She could only elicit a flabbergasted expression towards the mares on stage.
Knowing something was clearly very wrong, her best friends and elements of harmony present in the crowd Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy, who had regained consciousness, rushed through the crowd to their friend’s aid. However, no amount of bucking from Applejack or hoof-hitting from Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy could even make as much a dent in the powerful forcefield around Twilight.
“Release her this instant Trixie!” Applejack blurted before giving a pleading look to Starlight Glimmer.”
“Yeah, if this is apart of your magic show Trixie, I like soooo want my money back,” Pinkie Pie added.
Fluttershy focused her attention towards Starlight Glimmer, tears rolling down the yellow pegasus’ cheek. Shockingly she was only completely speechless and confused.
The three mares on the stage just laughed, a bit maniacally. Starlight Glimmer then promptly cast a spell in the direction the crowd creating a giant magically-impervious barred cage around everypony in attendance behind Twilight and her friends. Most of Ponyville had in fact turned out to see Trixie’s comeback “magic show”, and screams of horror could be heard as the townsfolk panicked and futilely struggled to break free of their sudden prison.
Nightmare Moon trotted to the edge of the stage, her piercing neon green eyes focused on Twilight’s.
“You fools! Your pathetic levels of extreme naivety has lead to yours and Equestria’s complete and utter demise tonight.”
Twilight could only stare daggers back at the three mares. “P-Princess Luna, Starlight… Why are you doing this? Why did you give the Alicorn Amulet back to Trixie? How did you even get it? And anyhow I thought all of you had changed!”
With the most satisfied of expressions Starlight shifted towards the edge of the stage next to Nightmare Moon, her face only mere inches from Twilight. She rolled her eyes. “Oh, pleaseeee Twilight. I never cared about you, putting plates and silverware on the table correctly, or any of your silly friendship lessons as your pupil. After I learned about what happened to Luna in her past, it didn’t take too many letters between us to convince her to see things my way and embrace her true nature.”
Starlight glanced up and down Princess Luna’s alternate form, ecstatic to notice a devious grin present on the black alicorn’s face as well.
“You were right to be suspicious of me after I ‘joked’ about enslaving the entire population of ponyville, you really shouldn't have ever trusted me,” Starlight averted her gaze to the struggling mass of entrapped Ponyville citizens behind Twilight,” speaking of which…”
Starlight’s horn glowed, and suddenly all the ponies in the cage found themselves in shackles on all hooves as well.
Nightmare Moon laughed. “You are a fool Twilight Sparkle, and so is my sister and all other authority in Equestria. Did you really think that I would forever abandon my true nature and desire to be the sole alicorn ruler of Equestria?” the black alicorn directed her sight across Twilight and her friends and everypony there watching, most of whom had stopped the pointless struggling and now watched in complete horror.
“How could you all have been so stupid as to forgive us immediately and let us roam free after each of our past evil and shameless deeds? It’s pathetic, really.”
Twilight gulped, but her anger was beginning to boil. “How could you two especially just turn your backs to Equestria like this? Luna, I thought Princess Celestia, Friendship and Equestria meant something to you. You even helped saved it a couple times! Starlight, I thought you cared about—”
“Oh it did mean something to her," Starlight interjected, “but the promise of power and a large swath of Equestria to rule for herself was just so much more enticing. After Sunburst left me I for one was never interested in what you call ‘friendship and harmony’ even if I did see him again in the Crystal Empire,” all three mares let out another twisted of chuckle kind of noise,”when you told me that Princess Celestia would be arriving at your castle tonight for dinner, unguarded, Nightmare Moon and I knew it was finally the time to act. Little did you know you were also right to be suspicious of my new friendship with Trixie. This diversion of a magic show worked perfectly to separate you from Celestia.”
Trixie now took a step forward and joined in the collective fun. “Starlight Glimmer here let me in on her little plans after we quickly became best friends, and the Great and Powerful Trixie simply could not resist this ultimate chance of getting the Alicorn Amulet back and was happy to help these two in one-upping you once and for all.”
Twilight was now fuming, near the point of randomly bursting into flames. Too bad the immobilizing spell around her prevented that too. “But my other friends. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Spike. Princess Celestia herself. They’ll notice something is wrong very soon—”
“Cease your pointless banter, Twilight Sparkle!” Nightmare Moon exclaimed, “I was able to recruit another into our plans. He was the only one who could retrieve the Alicorn Amulet, and to no surprise he wanted in on the ruse as well.”
Twilight and her friends were utterly dumbfounded.
“But Princess Celestia hid it away where nopony could ever find it ever again. Who could have possibly found it?” Twilight retorted.
“Take a look behind you then for the answer you seek,” announced a deep and familiar voice.
Everypony redirected towards the genesis of the voice, once again in complete shock to discover Discord sitting in the same cannon Trixie blasted out of earlier. The draconequus snapped his fingers, lighting another imaginary fuse before blasting out of the cannon just like Trixie had before landing on the stage next to the three mares.
“Did you ponies really think that I, the great Discord, could really be ‘re-formed forever’? Celestia is truly an idiot.”
Discord snapped the fingers of his paws again, causing the cannon to sprout wings and fly away. Fluttershy was now bawling, even the thought of her friend being in on something like this was too much for the poor pegasus pony to bear.
Fluttershy and Discord locked gazes. “I-I thought friendship meant something to you. I thought I meant something to you. How can you suddenly agree to be apart of something like this.”
Discord raised an eyebrow. “Oh come on now dear Fluttershy, once again I’m just doing what I was always meant to, surely you can understand that. I enjoyed some of our friendship experiences together, but these are my real friends here for wanting me to embrace my true self as the Spirit of Chaos.”
The draconequus laughed some more. “Celestia is also truly an idiot for asking me to hide the Alicorn Amulet in another dimension. I was only too happy to go and fetch that for dear Trixie, another mare with the right ideas.”
Discord and Trixie grinned at one another, before turning his attention back towards the Princess of Friendship.
“Oh and Twilight Sparkle before I forget to mention it, after I eliminate any threats to our plans by sending you and your friends here to Tartarus very shortly, you’ll be happy to know you can spend the rest of your days chained up there next to Princess Cadence, your brother, your assistant, and your other Elements of Harmony friends when they arrive soon after you. Maybe you can say hello to my old friend Tirek, who I’m surprised you didn’t also let off the hook, so to say,” Discord rubbed his beard with his lion paw, then glanced up at the moon directly overhead in the sky, ”I’m sorry to inform you, however, that Princes Celestia won’t be joining you there. At Nightmare Moon’s request she has a one way ticket to I think, with your infinite wisdom, can guess where, “Discord rubbed his hands together deviously, “Since it’s easier for me to do, I’m only too happy to oblige her request for special treatment of her sister.”
Twilight was beside herself. It was looking really bad… How could the magic of friendship have failed Equestria so miserably all of a sudden? How could anypony after being forgiven for such horrible things in their pasts and given a second chance at true friendship turn against the friendship-harmony ideals of Equestria for their own greed? Even the thought of one of them doing it was unfathomable, but four of them at once? The mare truly thought it impossible. They were going to completely destroy Equestria for so many reasons.
Everypony shuttered in fear as the formerly “redeemed” quartet of villains just simply laughed maniacally and in unison, embracing and celebrating their own new messed up “friendships” with one another, and all four absolutely positive their foolproof plan had worked. Soon they’d be reaping the benefits of ruling their own separate parts of what will formerly be known as Equestria. All hope was certainly lost… right?
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Derpy Hooves flew through the dark streets of Ponyville, really trying not to crash into anything like so many times before. After a long very awkward wait at the dinner party with the rather unusual crowd of Princess Celestia, Cranky Doodle Donkey, and Vinyl Scratch, Derpy had finally volunteered to go find Twilight and her pupil. Wherever they were. Derpy was now on a mission. Nopony could stop Ponyville’s eccentric mailpony when she was on a mission.
“They’ve just gotta be around here somewhere.” The grey pegasus muttered to herself.
She was surprised to notice practically nopony walking in the streets. It was dark out, but still evening and around dinner-time so it was quite unusual for there nopony out and about right then.
“Huh, I wonder where everypony went?”
Suddenly, she heard what sounded like a few ponies laughing and several ponies screaming. It seemed to originate from a bright light in the distance towards the edge of town.
The mailpony’s eyes lit up like magic fireworks and crossed further with excitement. “Hey, the circus must be in town. I bet that’s where they are! They probably just got sidetracked by all the fun.”
Derpy raced off in the direction of the noise and light.
Amazingly, the grey pegasus didn’t hit anything while flying at full speed through the streets. An especially rare feat at night.
It seemed smooth sailing for Derpy Hooves as she soon approached what seemed to be the back of some sort of stage. All kinds of pony sounds could be heard coming from the other side.
“Oh boy, this must be some show. I wonder if there’s any muffins at the—”
Derpy closed her eyes in excitement for a mere two seconds trying to imagine the warm chewy goodness in her mouth. But it was two seconds too long, as the pegasus slammed at full force into a small wooden stake planted in the ground with a rope attached she failed had to see.
The collision caused the wooden stake and the attached rope break loose and lay idly on the grass. After a few moments of seeing stars, Derpy quickly gained her composure after being so accustomed to such collisions. She gazed at the wooden stake and rope, noticing it lead into the back of the stage.
“Gee, I wonder what kind of circus act that rope is used for?”
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“We have defeated you, Twilight Sparkle. There is nothing you or your foolish friends can do to stop us!” Nightmare moon exclaimed with vigor.
“Any… last words before the four of you take your one way trip to Tartarus, and the rest of you a lifetime of slavery?” added Starlight Glimmer as she stared down her former teacher.
Discord said nothing, and just snapped his fingers, suddenly changing the sky from daytime and back to nighttime once again.
“You’ve finally been one-upped by the Great and Powerful Trixie, Twilight Sparkle” Trixie said with some extra valley-mare pizazz.
Suddenly, everypony heard a very audible but low growling-like noise reverberate from the left side of the stage. Everypony seemed to forget that the manticore that had been used for the “magic trick” deception ploy to get Princess Twilight away from Celestia had still been sitting there the whole time, unwavering.
Out of nowhere the ferocious manticore suddenly pounced at the four villains on stage, standing only a few feet away by the magic box. They had almost no time to react as in a matter of seconds the manticore first lifted and gobbled up Discord in one bite with his humongous paws and mouth, then Nightmare Moon, then Starlight Glimmer, before finally chowing down on a familiar blue unicorn again as she accidentally flung the Alicorn Amulet off her neck in the tussle. All in about ten seconds time.
Everypony in the crowd’s thoughts were simply beyond words as they witnessed the very noticeably enlarged manticore turn towards them and let out an ear-shattering belch which saw the expulsion of Trixie's magician hat and cape before dropping to the stage and dozing off from the sizeable meal.
After a few moments of everypony trying to register in their brains what had just occurred, the magical forcefields that surrounded Twilight and her three friends, as well as the magical cage that surrounded the rest of the ponies present, abruptly disappeared.
They were free. Equestria was saved.
Fluttershy had fainted again along with several other ponies. Applejack rotated her head towards Twilight, who still gazed forward and was shaking a little.
“What in Granny Smith’s fillyhood girdle just happened?”
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“So… how has progress for Donkey’s rights been coming along, Princess?” Cranky Doodle Donkey inquired.
Celestia didn’t answer, the alicorn probably feeling more annoyed than she had in half a century. She levitated another cupcake into her mouth. It was only her sixth of the night.
Suddenly the doors leading to the Castle of Friendship’s dining room swung open with great magical force, as Twilight Sparkle galloped in.
“Twilight Sparkle,” Princess Celestia screeched in a not-so-regal manner, “It’s about time you decided to show up to this dinner. Do you have any idea—”
“Princess Celestia, we have to talk privately. Right now. It’s of the utmost importance!”
To her further chagrin, Celestia noticed that Starlight Glimmer was still not with her.
“Twilight—”
“It’s about Equestria’s forgiving nature and friendship-harmony ideals. I think there might be a major problem with it!”
Princess Celestia stood up and narrowed her eyes, beginning to grasp the utter seriousness in the mare’s demeanor. “Whatever is the matter, Twilight my dear?”
“Well first of all, Equestria was almost destroyed tonight!”
Celestia sighed, breaking eye contact with her former student and levitating another piece of cupcake into her mouth. “What else is new, my dear?”
