The Negative Six

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I am sorry for my reply being so late but I had to save Manehattan from a parasprite invasion. I honestly cannot see why you would need a book on cloning spells. As I have never had any use for them, I do not have what you are looking for but I believe there may be a copy in the castle Luna and I lived in prior to Nightmare Moon.

While I think you could perform some impressive acts of magic with it, such magic is not something that should be used without caution. Whatever you do, don't actually try to cast any of those spells or the consequence may be dire.

Princess Celestia

Twilight Sparkle rolled up the scroll she had received just minutes ago.

"Spike, send a scroll to each of my friends. Tell them to be here in an hour." The purple and green dragon disappeared up the stair to do exactly that. Twilight started pacing nervously. There was one reason and one alone that she needed a cloning spell. She glanced at the mirror, scanning the mangled, disfigured mess that was her hind leg. She doubled over in pain as her legs suddenly failed her. She stared in horror as the infection spread, distorting her skin as it went before stopping just below her cutie mark. She slowly rose to her hooves, making sure she could support her own weight. 'If I survive that long...'

Before she could contemplate her impending doom any further, the doors to the throne room burst open and her friends entered the room.

"Good, you're all here. I'm sure you're curious as to why I called you all here."

"Get your parasprite repellent, everypony! We're going to the Everfree to find new spells!" Pinkie Pie swung by from a vine that seemed to come from nowhere. Twilight shook her head to clear her confusion.

"What she said..."

The Mane Six slowly trekked through the uncontrollable mess that was the Everfree Forest. It had been here for centuries but nopony really knew how it came to be. The only thing that was certain was that it was too powerful for even Celestia to control.

"Ugh, my hooves are all muddy and my mane is full of leaves. Could this get any worse?" Rarity said as she tried to remove some of the leaves.   She soon regretted it as she carelessly walked face first into a tree, landing on her rump just as a large amount of rainwater came down upon her head from the branches above. "Sorry I asked..." she muttered.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were in the middle of an argument about who was more athletic.

"So you think you're faster than me? Let's race. First to that tree wins!" Rainbow challenged.

"You're on!" Applejack replied and they took off full speed until they disappeared from sight. Pinkie was swinging from vines screaming 'I saw this in a movie once!' and Fluttershy was, well, Fluttershy. Twilight sighed inwardly. She needed to get to the castle and find a suitable spell and fast. She estimated that she had a day at best.

After a long walk, they arrived at the castle.

"All right everypony, when we get to the library I need you to look for something, anything I can use to make a fully functional clone of myself. We have a day or so before we're too late!" Twilight grimaced at the last sentence.

"Don't you worry, Twi. I'm sure we'll find something," Rainbow said as she dashed off to find the library. The others followed suit. They searched for hours, finding nothing. Twilight sat at a desk covered with very tall stacks of books which had proven useless. She slammed her face into the desk, ready to accept her fate when Pinkie called out.

"Hey I think I found something!" Twilight perked up at that and rushed over to join her pink friend.

"What is it? Where is it?" Twilight asked desperately, to which Pinkie pointed to a lever that was hidden behind some books. She eagerly flipped it and the entire bookcase turned ninety degrees, revealing a secret room within. The ponies cautiously entered. The room was lined with ancient symbols, no doubt words from a language long lost, and seemed to have a red tint to it. In the center, there was a single pedestal with a red and black book on it. Twilight read the title and her spirits were instantly lifted. "Cloning and Genetic Modifications. Girls, I think this  is it!"

"Twilight, darling, are you certain you're willing to stake your very life on a spell that has been hidden away from prying eyes for centuries? There's probably a reason for that," Rarity said, eyeing the book.

"I don't have a choice. I'm out of time to find anything else." As if on cue, Twilight fell to the floor, clutching her sides in pain for a few seconds before rising again.  She wasted no time in flipping open the book looking for the correct spell. She would create an uninfected clone of herself and transfer her conscience into it, leaving her old body to rot, hence not killing anypony. She charged up her horn to cast the spell. When she did, however, she was not prepared for the effects.

Somewhere in Canterlot, in a tower, an orange unicorn with a red mane looked up from the book she was reading. Her hooves flew to her necklace. Particularly the black gem in the center of it, which was now glowing.

"Prepare yourself, Equestria. Tartarus is coming!" she declared as she leaped off of the balcony. She suddenly burst into flame as her body morphed into that of a pegasus. All of Canterlot would have heard her cackling as she flew towards Ponyville.

"What the buck!?" Twilight screamed as she was blasted back, crashing into a wall. The book started glowing a demonic red and started floating a few inches above the pedestal, held aloft by arcs or black lightning, striking the walls, ceiling, and floor, slowly getting closer to the ponies. Most of them were screaming at this point, trying to dodge the blasts of lighting that kept following them. Suddenly, the lightning stopped, instead striking the strange symbols on the walls. At this moment Twilight realized what they were. Runes. "Everypony take cover!" she screamed as the ring of lightning suddenly reversed, collapsing back into the book as a strange humming noise kept getting louder. Suddenly, the lighting ring exploded forth, sawing the walls in half and barely missing the ponies they ran from the room as the book burst into flames, sending forth six balls of unnaturally colored fire out through the ruined ceiling. They soared through the skies in different directions as the secret room crumbled to dust. The ponies only knew that the fire was colored blue, dark blue, light green, dark green, brown and black.

"We have to get back to Ponyville! I think one of those fireballs was headed that way," Rarity realized.

"Mah family's still there!" Applejack exclaimed.

"And I left Spike at the castle!" whispered Twilight, already fearing the worst. When there were no objections, the ponies galloped back to Ponyville as fast as their hooves could carry them.

Nopony thought the Everfree could be any more disturbing and scary than it was before. They now wished it hadn't changed. Trees were shriveled up and some were charred, flames still licking the wood. The dirt beneath their hooves was baked and dry, with large cracks snaking their way down the path. The journey went by in silence, none of them believing their eyes.

Before they could reach the town, an orange unicorn with a red mane came crashing through the bushes. She was covered in scratches and her mane was full of leaves.

"What happened?" Rainbow asked. Instead of answering, she shoved Rainbow to the ground.

"What have you done!?" the unicorn demanded.

"Well there was a book and this weird room and-," Pinkie tried to say, but the unicorn removed her mouth with magic.

"You fools have doomed us all!"

"Why don't you calm down and tell us what's going on!?" Rainbow got to her hooves.

"Who are you anyway? I haven't seen you before," Twilight questioned. The unicorn took a deep breath and proceeded to explain what had happened.

"I am Diversity. I live in Canterlot as a teacher. As for what you've done, you've just unleashed one of the greatest evils Equestria has ever known," Diversity used her magic to throw all six ponies into a virtual reality. They found themselves at the Castle of the Two Sisters. It looked new and there was an entire city with the ravine that led to the Tree of Harmony acting as a defense. "In the beginning, there were four alicorns. Celestia, Princess of the Sun, Luna, Princess of the Moon, Crystalis, Princess of the Earth, and Perdition, Princess of Tartarus." The image changed, showing the four alicorns.

"For centuries, they ruled in harmony. Slowly, though, Perdition began to realize that not many ponies knew she even existed. Everypony remembers the Sun, or the Moon, or the very Earth beneath their hooves, but who remembers Tartarus? She became bitter and cold." The image shifted to one of the red alicorn sitting in a throne made entirely of black crystals. "She sent monsters and beasts to destroy the other princesses. They all failed, imprisoned by the Elements of Harmony. Discord, Nightmare Moon and Tirek were all among those beasts. Eventually, she sent somepony they would never harm. Crystalis. Perdition used her magic to transform her into the monster we know as Queen Chrysalis. Celestia and Luna could not bring themselves to destroy her, and instead banished her. Celestia eventually realized who was behind the attacks from Perdition's own son." The ponies now saw the face of their nightmares. A grey unicorn with a smoky black mane. "Sombra. He was captured and forced to expose his mother. Perdition set a trap or the future bearers so there would be nopony to re-imprison her when she was freed."

The illusion faded and the ponies gasped in realization.

"You ponies just sprung the trap."