o0 1000 years ago 0o
'She knows...' the alicorn thought to herself as she looked out the window. In spite of all her careful planning she had found out. Her mind quickly ran through all the ways this could end badly for her. Banished to Tartarus, maybe. Or perhaps turned to stone. She shook her head rapidly to clear her thoughts. She froze when she heard a knock on the door and cautiously opened it. She was greeted by the sight of the one pony she didn't want to see.
"Stay back, Celestia!" She lit her horn, preparing to attack the sun goddess. She got a reaction she did not expect: fear. 'Celestia' staggered back, a look of sheer terror on her face.
"Perdition, wait! Don't shoot!" screamed Celestia as she covered her face with her hooves. Suddenly, 'Celestia' burst into flames as her skin burnt away. When the dust settled, where Celestia once stood, was a bipedal creature with bronze for skin and fire for hair. It had black eyes and had a glowing, black gem in its chest, just beneath its neck. Its overall shape suggested it was female. Perdition knew what she was, of course. The monster before her was really nothing more than a soul, housed within the gem embedded in her chest.
"For goodness sake, Fallacia, I could have vaporized you!" the alicorn exclaimed as the glow around her horn dissipated.
"Well I had to get in here somehow. I really don't think the guards would allow some strange creature they'd never encountered before just waltz into the castle," Fallacia replied, walking into the room. She took a moment to look around the room before saying, "Nice place you got here."
"It is, isn't it. But we're not here to discuss the state of my room. We have to accelerate our plans, for Celestia knows exactly what we've done!" Perdition was pacing nervously now. "At the first opportunity, she will surely turn the Elements against us."
"I may have a solution. When I was disguised as Luna, I found out that whatever the Elements do to their victim only lasts for a thousand years before wearing of. To send them back to their prison, the Elements must be used again." Fallacia grinned evilly. "But what happens if there's nopony to use the Elements again? You have seen the future. Set a trap for the future Bearers and make sure they can never get out of it!"
Perdition stopped her pacing and jumped onto her bed. She dragged her hand across the blankets, knowing this would probably be the last time she would ever use it. "Our army is ready. Tomorrow, we march upon Everfree. We shall tear the entire city apart while I make my way to the library. I know the future Element of Magic will not be able to resist trying out some new spells. Now go!"
Fallacia took the form of a pegasus and flew out the window.
"Tomorrow, Celestia. Tomorrow you shall burn!" Perdition muttered under her breath as she watched her ally disappear into the night.
o0 The Next Day 0o
Perdition was deep in thought as she neared Celestia's room. She knew she had no time to waste, yet she was still nervous. What if the Elements just destroyed her entirely? Nevertheless, the slammed open the door to Celestia's room.
"Perdition! What is the meaning of this!?" Celestia demanded as she leaped out of bed, ready for a fight.
"What is this? Why, it's the end of your rule, of course!" She grabbed Celestia with her magic and slammed her head first against the wardrobe. Before the sun goddess could get up, Perdition picked her up again, this time holding her against the window. Celestia was forced to look and was horrified by what she saw. The city of Everfree was being swarmed by rather demonic looking ponies with black coats, soulless eyes and fire for manes.
"Nightmares? You summoned nightmares on our city?" Celestia could not believe what had happened. The nightmares were the most violent and uncontrollable of the five races and summoning them usually led to whole towns being wiped out of existence. Perdition's only response was to throw her into the mirror, shattering it. She held Celestia's head in front of the shards of glass.
"Don't you see it?" Perdition asked, using her magic. Celestia was no longer looking at her own bloody reflection, but instead saw the Everfree castle in ruins. She saw six young mares crossing the bridge. "The city you built will fall to ruin!" Perdition screamed. The image suddenly changed. It now showed a black mare in dark blue armor, with a mane of pure magic that sparkled like the night sky. She gasped. Celestia recalled seeing her own sister turn into that monster. "All those demons from your past-" she leaned in close, whispering in Celestia's ear "-shall come back to haunt you forever." The glass started showing her her worst fears come true. She saw Discord, the chaos god, making mischief in a small town, Tirek, the centaur conqueror, locked in battle with a lavender alicorn. The worst was the last; she saw a black mare with insect wings, a twisted horn, and holes in her hooves leading an army to Canterlot.
"Enough!" Celestia screamed, forcing her way out of Perdition's magic. She landed in a heap next to the window.
"Indeed. I believe it's time I ended this." Perdition used her magic to grab the shattered pieces of the mirror and send them sailing towards Celestia, impaling her. It wasn't fatal, but serious enough to cause unbelievable pain. Ignoring Celestia's screams of pain, Perdition threw her out the window as hard as she could, sending her crashing into another tower. She glanced out the window, seeing the Royal Guard responding the ongoing invasion. She stepped onto the balcony, scanning the area around her.
She noticed a few nightmares being surrounded by Celestia's soldiers on a stone bridge. She fired a beam of magic, destroying the entire bridge and everypony on it. She landed on a nearby castle tower. The soldiers were shocked to see her.
"Princess Perdition?" one asked, shaking his head in disbelief. "Get to safety! We'll handle things here!"
"Oh please. I have nothing to fear from them," Perdition said as she tossed him off the tower, sending him falling into the abyss that led to the Tree of Harmony. She promptly moved on to the next guard, effectively sawing his head off with her magic. Despite their best effort, the guards were quickly executed.
"Perdition! Stop this madness before I am forced to destroy you!" Perdition turned to see Celestia, covered in dried blood but furious. Behind her were three of the highest ranking members of the royal guard. Without warning, one of those guards aimed his spear at his comrades, ruthlessly murdering them both before rushing over to join Perdition. As if to answer Celestia's confusion, Fallacia revealed her true form while laughing cruelly.
"Don't believe everything you see, princess!" the demon practically spat out the last word. Without a word, all three of them engaged in a magical battle that left most of Everfree in ruins. Perdition bombarded Celestia with a barrage of magic missiles, with Fallacia occasionally tearing at the sun goddess with her claws. Eventually, Perdition believed Celestia had no chance, taunting her and showing her visions of her worst fears. It was only a matter of time before Celestia snapped. With a scream of rage, she grabbed both alicorn and demon, flinging the latter into a wall, bringing the whole building down on top of her. She turned to Perdition, using her magic to hold her still while she got out the Elements of Harmony. Perdition looked on with a growing smirk. Celestia was unaware of the trap she had set for the future Bearers.
The rainbow beam struck her and she felt pain like she had never felt before. She didn't realize such agony was even possible. Just as soon as it began, the pain dissipated. She felt a strange warping sensation, as if she were being turned inside out before being turned back to normal. Suddenly, the ruined castle disappeared and she saw something that would drive most ponies mad. She was in a strange blue void that seemed to contain things from all across the multiverse. There was a metallic, spherical space station with what looked like a giant satellite dish on the side. There was a city with a bald man in a yellow costume tearing through enemies with just one punch suspended in the empty void. There was even a blue police box flying through space. She couldn't see more as a box of black crystal formed around her, trapping her in its walls.
She spent hours trying to get out. Lasers, explosions, everything she knew but it was all in vain. In spite of this she laughed. She would be forced to spend a thousand years in a box but the trap was set. When she finally got out of here, there would be no stopping her.
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."
