"Mama, what happened to the tree?" Dinky asked her mum, who seemed to have the same shocked expression as every other pony in the camp. Except for her, because she was the adorable filly named Dinky. The Tree of Harmony, once a majestic crystal tree of wonder and harmony, now changed into something much… Darker. The tree was now a translucent crystal with ink like vines pulsing throughout the tree. As if it was alive, a heart could be seen in the center, connecting all of the black veins and pulsing the mist into the tree. Holy white energy seemed slowly flow and move around the pulsing darkness like a gel, then quickly be sucked away into the mouths of the vines. The Elements of Harmony themselves have changed as well. Each element duller in color and all having withered down in size. But the biggest change was a strange glowing symbol that seems to have been branded into the crystal oak.

"Malus." The orange farm pony answered through gritted teeth.

"He did this? How!?" Rainbow Dash blurted out, not taking her eyes off of the power drained tree.

"I reckon somethin’ with dark magic." Applejack said, observing the beating pattern of the dark heart. Everyone stayed silent for what seemed like eternity until Fluttershy broke the silence.

"How are we going to help the Tree?" She asked quietly, looking at the tree with tears dripping down her face. Everypony looked at her, feeling the sadness the Fluttershy was holding within.

"Well?" She asked, breaking eye contact with the tree and looking around, searching for an answer. Her tears seemed to flow steadily as she was met with the sadden expressions of the group.

"I... I don’t know sugarcube." Applejack spoke, leading a hoof out. This action allowing Fluttershy to cry a stream of tears into her shoulder. As she cried, Applejack motion Rainbow Dash towards Twilight, who was still sitting in the cart, her features emotionlessly empty. The Pegasus hesitantly flew over to the broken mare, checking up on her.

"Hay Twilight, Ummm..." She pause, moving her hoof back in forth in Twilight’s vision. While not getting a response, she decided to continued on.

"I know things are rough right now, but we kinda need you." She spoke softly, looking into her ever so dulling eyes.

"Twilight?" Rainbow asked again, her emotions starting to break through.

"Come on, Twilight! You gotta help us! You just gotta..." Rainbow Dash muddered. Now mumbling with her speech as her tears finally were let loose.

"Please Twilight! You gotta help us. We need you… I need you..." Rainbow Dash cried, now laying at her hooves, begging for her to save the day and end all of this. Stuttering, Rainbow Dash got back up and look directly into her eyes.

"I need you..." She spoke softly, leaning in and kissed Twilight on the lips. And as cliche as it sounds, it mended and awoke twilight, as if a curse was broken. Twilight’s eyes become full of color once again, looking absolutely confused and blushing. She quickly shook her head and began blinking a few times.

"Rainbow Dash… Why did you kiss me?" she asked, confused as ever. Rainbow Dash didn’t listen to her and began telling the others. Everypony began crowding around Twilight as if she was Daring Do at a school.

"Enough!" Twilight yelled, not liking her personal space invaded.

"What’s going on-" She cut herself off as she saw the state that the Tree Of Harmony was in.

"What happened to the tree? How did we even get here?" Twilight stated looking around, wondering what was going on.

"Ya don’t remember anythin, do ya." Applejack stated, looking at Twilight, easily telling that she had no idea what was going on.

"What? What happened?! How did I lose my memory?! This is not possible!" Twilight said, hyperventilating and began acting hysterical.

"How much memory did I lose? Oh no! What books did I forget about!? The spells I need to relearn! Will Celestia take me back-" Her ranting was quickly put to an end as she was bitch-slapped across the face by Spike, knocking some sense into her.

"What was that for!?" Twilight groaned, rubbing her sore cheek.

"To knock some sense into you." Spike stated, looking her in the eye, making Twilight realise she was over exaggerating the problem at hand.

"Guess I was over exaggerating-" Twilight was once again cut off as she felt another claw slap her other cheek.

"SPIKE! What was THAT For!?" She yelled, holding her other cheek.

"Always double check." He stated with a black expression. Twilight groaned with building up anger for the little drake.

"Spike, I'm pretty sure I'm good now-" she was, yet again, interrupted by the methods of being bitch-slapped by no other then Spike the Dragon. Twilight glared angrily at Spike who had a huge smirk across his face. This enraging her as magic ignited from her horn.

"That one was just for fun." He stated without regret. Nearly everypony put a hoof over their mouths as he stood proud. Unknowing to him, he had gone too way far. In a matter of seconds, he was blasted away with magic and sent hurtling into a stone wall, cracking something upon impact .

"OOOOOOOOOOO!" Everypony sang, seeing Twilight blast the little drake like a football. After a few moments of Spike groaning on the ground, he spoke up.

"I'm sorry." he moaned, trying to get up, only to fall again on his face. Twilight turned away from the bruised drake and looked over to her friends and neighbors.

"Now, what did I miss?"

Twilight Sparkle took things somewhat well after learning what she had forgotten. While it was rather dark and horrifying to most, she was keeping her cool. Based on what they told her and what she could remembered, Twilight had somehow lost all of her memories that lead up to Malus Messor. She was shocked to learn that she had accidentally killed ponies with her magic. That alone shocked her to her core, but learning that fillies were caught in the deadly blast was enough to make her question if she really wanted to know. She felt horrified at such a tragedy, yet thing got worse from there on. Rainbow Dash being in a seemingly incurable coma. Her and friends being hunted down like animals by no other then the monster known as the media. With so many rumors and false propaganda from the media, nopony really knew the truth from fiction. All this adding up pressure drew the final straw with Celestia. She took the unwise action of attacking the source of the problem. To apprehend this monster and make him pay for all the damage, She sent Luna to find him in the Dream Realm. That alone was a grave mistake that ends bad. Really bad.

Throughout the whole week, Luna was keeping all of Canterlot terrified with her screams of tortured agony. No doctor nor magic could stop the pain. Not even Celestia knew how to save her own sister. But thankfully, Luna's suffering had finally ceased. While Luna may have been stable, Celestia was not. Some royals say that she was beyond mad with rage. That claim became true as she broke the 300 years of peace. She went out and publicly declared war all across Equestria. A war for Malus Messor's head. She then dispatched 3,000 Royal Guards from Canterlot and stormed into the Everfree Forest. But the thing that horrified Twilight is that everypony that entered the Everfree, none came back. Applejack and the others could describe the nightmarish sounds of Tartarus mixed with the screams of bloody murder. This symphony of horror lasted throughout the late afternoon and ended into the night. Two days latter, the mangled bodies of the Royal Guards were found along the border of the Everfree. No pony survived that massacre, not ever the Immortal Sun Goddess Princess Celestia made it out. On the same day of the Everfree Massacre, Luna had finally awaken from her cursing nightmare, only bringing truth and life to another.

It was her unforgettable speech that shattered country of Equestria. The raiser of the Moon and Stars, proclaimed the unthinkable to the world. Equestria's idea and basis of perfection, a lie. Their sun god, was a lie and now dead for her foolishness. Luna spoke of a greedy monster that had rewritten history for her own gain. The Lunar Princess told how Equestria truly was before her banishment. Celestia was a being of greed and had a tongue of deception. She told of the grave sins her sister did and how everything the world knew was a lie. Alicorns were not gods, they weren't even immortal! Princess Luna described how Alicorns were just ageless and having the perks of all three races. And nothing else but as normal and mortal as anypony. Celestia did not raise the sun, but was merely empowered by it. The sun had always moved on it's own accord with the same going with the moon. The Lunar Princess told of dark history that had been erased by her greedy sister. And she finished with confirming that Princess Celestia was dead and everything Celestia brought about was a lie. The speech was the final nail in the coffin of Equestrian Society. Uproars of Revolution and Anarchy sprung from the ground and raged all across the land in a matter of days.

And thus, Equestria as a country and people, collapsed completely. With Luna now fleeing the country and Princess Cadence up in the frozen north, all that was left was Princess Twilight Sparkle. And she was everypony's next target. Twilight's friends managed to snag her away and some others to escape the roaring chaos in Ponyville. It was all out war in Canterlot, the new rising factions fighting each other to gain the upper hoof over the weakened country. And most of these groups not caring if innocent blood is spilled to accomplish their goals. And since Ponyville was the key route over the railroads to Canterlot and beyond, everypony in power had eye on the small village. With deadly forces invading, ponies fled everywhere, either taking a side or dying on another. The small group were considering themselves being the lucky ones. Avoiding the coming bloodshed was a prayer answered. Yet it was answered at a very risky cost. At this very moment, they stood in enemy territory. Scratch that, they were on Malus Messor's ground and were currently uninvited. But that leave one big and strange question among themselves.

"If Royal Guards and Celestia, were killed for going after Malus, then why are we still alive?" Twilight Sparkle asked her friend, unknowing that the answer was not far away. In fact, it was no more than a few dozen feet away, watching them like a hawk.

Author's Note

If you didn't ketchup one reference in this chapter, I'ma (s)macaroni your ass!