Rediscovering Equinox

Chapters

The Announcement
Remembering what was
The end of a world
The ocean wakes up
Fighting magic with firepower
Lunimere
From disaster comes miracles
Rebuilding two empires at once
Epilogue

The Announcement

Luna took a deep breath. After thousands of years, it was time to tell not only Celestia, but everypony from Equestria about one of her haunting failures. To say she was nervous would be an understatement. As the clocks on all of the ships ticked over to 12 PM, Luna's camera turned on, and she looked into it as TVs and monitors and projectors all throughout the fleet of ships began to light up. Celestia was on the bridge of her own ship, and she smiled as one of the big screens in front of her lit up. She was alone, other than one of the ship's pilots, a mare sitting in one of the other bridge chairs.

Luna offered the camera a gentle smile. "Hello, everypony..." She began. "I have good news, though it is intertwined with sorrowful news" She said. Collectively, the ponies watching began to look worried, but Luna continued to smile. "You see, we are approaching Equinox, a beautiful planet just like our own. As you may know, or have guessed, me and my sister are capable of teleporting great distances, from planet to planet. Centuries and centuries ago, I discovered this planet, and I gave it its name. But... that is not all" She said. The mare cleared her throat, her jar tightening up as ancient emotions of pain and sadness threatened to bring tears to her eyes. No, she wasn't going to cry, damn it.

"As you all know, me and my dear sister Celestia had a fight in the past, a fight which ended in me summoning the spirit of Nightmare Moon, which led to my banishment in the moon" She said. "However, before that happened, one of the issues we fought over was the harsh treatment of equestria's Batponies. After all, they were my children". She smiled a little bit, saying, "I'll interrupt myself with something interesting... in case you batponies have ever wondered where you came from, you originate from the everfree forest, where you lived in beautiful treehouses... I was the one to discover you, and I was the one who rushed to your aid when I heard news of a fire in the same area of forest. To my surprise, I found out that the tribe was the last known population of such wonderful ponies, and I was the one who did my best to reintroduce you to ponykind, to keep you alive..." She said, her gaze drifting as she went over all of the memories.

Another sigh. "But", she said, "It didn't go as well as my younger self hoped. Change is slow, I know that now, and achieving harmony with ponies and batponies was as difficult as it was with Zebras, which some of you older ponies might still remember" She said, smiling a small bit. "Back to what I was saying, after discovering Equinox, I devised a plan to create a world of only batponies, and though it was incredibly difficult, I transported many of them here, and we built an empire together" She said. She paused, her smile wavering, then she said "We named it the Lunar Empire, even though I thought it was silly... I traveled back and forth between the empire and Equestria, and I suppose my absences didn't help my relationshio with my sister" She said. "When I had summoned the nightmare, I was so wrapped up in my anger that I had forgotten all about my little batponies... and when Celestia brought the elements to bear, by the time I realized, it was too late" She said.

The mare took a moment to wipe away tears she could feel approaching, then she said, "So, as you know, I spent a thousand years trapped in the moon before Twilight and her friends saved me. As soon as my power had returned to me, I traveled straight to Equinox, but..." She said, gritting her teeth as she tried to hold herself together, "It was gone. I don't know what happened to the ponies, I found little in the way of remains, nothing but some bones among the ruins. The city is still there, the empire was still there, but the ponies living within it? They had all disappeared... at first, I blamed my sister for it. But it was my fault, because if she hadn't stopped the nightmare, I would have ruined Equestria, and I may have done the same to the empire, with that monster in control" She said, taking a small break and pausing for a few deep breaths.

"Now, I do not intend to establish some sort of batpony leadership" She said, changing the subject. "The great majority of you ponies have learned that we are all equal, and those who haven't? Well, I have little sympathy for a pony who believes otherwise" She said, with a thinly veiled harshness to her words. The mare took in yet another deep breath, then let it out as a drawn-out sigh. "But I don't want to go off track too much... that is the story of Equinox to date, and I would like to welcome everypony to such a beautiful planet as we turn another page in its book" She said, smiling once more. "I am glad that my empire will be able to function as the first step to what I'm sure will become a great nation of ponies..." She said, looking rather excited to see the legacy of the Lunar Empire brought alive, if just to act as their new home.

"One final thing" Luna said, leaning on her desk. "When we land, I would like every batpony who is able to come with me into the city. I would like to tell you all about their history before we begin to restore the old city... and I suppose I should admit, I wish to see those old walls full of my children one last time" She said, feeling her voice start to crack. "T-That is all, everypony!" She said, putting on a smile as she stopped the broadcast.

Closing her eyes, Luna sagged in her chair, letting it hold her weight as she relaxed back into it. "Maybe I'll find out what happened to you" She said quietly, a few tears seeping from her eyes as she mentally explored the abandoned landscape yet again. Where had they gone? What could have happened to stop an entire empire? Was it as simple as a disease that took all of them out? Or was it something worse? Maybe it would be worth giving everything a closer look during her little tour that she planned.

Author's Note

btw thank, Zomb, for planet name

Remembering what was

Loudly hissing, the landing arms of the SS Twilight flexed against the ground, holding the weight of the massive spacecraft. It was the last ship to land, and ponies within all of the other ships cheered as it stopped moving. Without a single hitch, every ship in the fleet had landed safely! The Lunar Empire had been built next to both a forest and a massive grassy plain, and the plains made for plenty of room for the fleet to land.

As Luna had requested, all of the willing batponies in Equestria came out of their ships, gathering around her in a large crowd in front of the old city. At first, she didn't even seem to care about the city, since she was much too busy making sure she gave each batpony an affectionate nuzzle, and in some cases, hugs. Once everypony had gathered, and there weren't any stragglers, Luna led them into the city.

On the plains, ponies from all of the ships began to exit, not for the city, but to stand on solid ground again. Many of them began to unpack, and it wasn't long before building supplies and vehicles and tents were being brought out of the ships. On the bridge of the SS Twilight, though, things were somewhat tense.

"I don't know, Fluttershy! Something is wrong, though!" Polaris said, giving the robotic mare a worried look. She looked even more worried though, and so did Silver, standing at her side. Ever since the ship had landed, the blue stallion had begun to look unnerved, and it was clear that something was bothering him. He took deep breaths for a few moments, then he sat down, saying, "Okay, I'll try to explain this as best as I can". He glanced back as the door opened, and he nodded a bit as Northern and Pearl, his parents, came into the room, followed by Tinker the Dragonpony. "Tell me if you guys feel this too, okay?" He asked. Turning back to the AI, he said, "So, you know about my magic, right? Dark magic?" He asked. He didn't give her time to answer before he continued, "So, I can sense other dark magic users, no matter how small- Dad feels strong, since his magic is kind of like mine, and mom is a bit more faint, since hers is kind of dormant. Now, are you able to sense static electricity? I think you mentioned that at some point?"

Fluttershy frowned as she looked through her memories, and she shook her head. "I can sense the other ships, and the power they make, if that's what you mean?" "Even better!" Polaris said. Northern went to the window as his son talked, looking out with an expression of worry. "Okay, so you know how the other ships feel? Imagine that, as we landed on this planet, you felt the same thing, except incredibly more powerful, coming from that city". he said, pointing a hoof at the windows. Silver glanced outwards, but all he saw was the ruined city, and the forest behind it. Looked fine to him...

"But what do you think that means?" Fluttershy asked. "I.. I don't know!" Polaris asked. "But I've never felt something this strong! Not even when Sombra took over that one time! Hell, I doubt that every pony in DarkRock combined could put off magic that strong!" This time, Northern spoke up, as Pearl sat down next to Polaris to try comforting him. "I have to say I agree, and so do all the ponies from DarkRock... I'm hoping that it's just the planet that feels like this, but after what Luna said about the original empire's ponies...?"

Fluttershy sighed softly, then she said, "I wouldn't ever accuse you guys of lying, but I don't know what to do about it... could it just be stored magic? I think you guys told us that dark magic can be stored away?" She asked. Northern and Polaris looked at each other, then they nodded, and Northern spoke up as he said, "It would have to be an ocean of magic stored away for us to feel it this strongly..."

"Well, let me call Celestia and Cadence..." The AI said, as a nearby screen swapped to the call interface. Meanwhile, Tinker looked out at the city, his leathery wings shifting on his back. He and most of the other dragonponies had wings similar to batponies, but none of them had gone with Luna, as they weren't actually batponies. He sighed a little, watching as the last few ponies disappeared behind the city's walls. He had known Polaris for most of his life, and he had never seen him so worried before. Scared, even, and Polaris never got scared unless there was fire around. He trusted Luna though, she had built this place after all.

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The tour hadn't been going as well as Luna had hoped. She had been taking the tour of the city slowly, and as they went along, the group began to point out things that she had skipped over during her last visits. A sword embedded in a wall, a cart on its side, the remains of a steel door across the street from where it had been mounted. Armor scattered in alleyways, homes disheveled with furniture scattered everywhere. Sure, that might be normal for abandoned houses in Equestria, where ponies would vandalize things, but who was here on Equinox to vandalize the homes, if anything? And from the dust, the broken and scattered furniture inside the old homes had laid such for a long time.

"Oh, and this is what used to be the market..." Luna said, as she watched the last few ponies come into view. As they went through the city, Luna's guide of the old city had slowly turned into an investigative expedition, and at one point, she had commanded that all of the batponies who wanted to help her investigate stay with her, while the rest headed back to the ships. She could do the introductive tour later, right now, she wanted to use her clear head and the batponies she had with her to try solving the ancient mystery. "Look!" cried out a younger batpony, as he pointed down an alleyway. At one end of the alleyway was half of a skeleton, and quite a distance from it was the other half. Luna made her way over, and she glared into the dark pathway. She sat down to talk to some of the more knowledgable batponies, making extra sure to listen to the one with a Fossil for a cutie mark, since she knew her way around artifacts. "Princess, everything I've seen so far is textbook for... for a battle site, or an evacuation, all these buried weapons outside? And the armor scattered around?" She said, looking up to her. "I don't gotta be an expert to assume that that dude got ripped in two..." Grumbled a stallion to he other side.

"Something awful happened, I know it did... but what?" Luna said, standing back up. "Maybe it was changelings!" One batpony said, getting the blue mare to roll her eyes. "Chrysalis hadn't even been born at the time, and it was her that turned her hive against us" Luna said. "I'm wondering if this planet holds danger that went undiscovered during my time" she said, frowning down at the ground. "Come on, we want to be back at sundown, for the sake of seeing properly" She said, starting to walk. As she did, a mare came closeby, saying, "Maybe it was somethng on this planet? Like, we haven't seen any animals yet..."

"Well, when I first explored this planet, I spent... stars, it must have a year I spent here, flying through the forests, poking through bushes, I looked everywhere for anything that woulkd pose as danger, but all I found were plants and bugs" Luna said. "That's why I built this empire, i thought it was safe..."

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"Hey guys, look at this!" chirped a mare, from the group of batponies who were heading to the ships. Some of the batponies who were leaving the city with her stopped, turning to look. She had found a statue, standing in quite a weird spot. It was a pony, and it looked remarkably clean compared to everything around it. But its cleanliness was strange, considering where it was- it was hidden away in a tiny alleyway, most of which had collapsed behind it. "Poor thing looks scared..." She said, giving it a worried look as she poked its nose. With it, she felt a shock. "Ow!" She squeaked, pulling her hoof back. Where she had touched the statue, it had begun to glow. Then, it turned black. The blackness seeped along the entire pony, going down its head and to its body.

The mare took a step back, and as she did, its eyes opened. She yelped as its dark red eyes took focus on her, and it lunged towards her. It couldn't do much, since it was still mostly frozen in place at the moment, but her friend pulled on her and said "We gotta go!" Tentacles shot out from the pony as the small group started to run, and they called out the other ponies who were going back to the ships, yelling "Run for it!" Some of them looked back, some of them began run, and a lot of them flinched as the mare who had discovered the statue was tackled by it. She let out a scream as the Inky magic began to cover her up, and within moments, the freed monster tackled a batpony stallion who had turned around to help. It also snared another pony with magic tentacles that it shot out ahead of them, dragging them backwards as the magic began to cover them up, too. And as it did, the mare, now transformed into another one of the Inky monsters, snarled as she took off running to hunt down another batpony.

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As his blue friend rambled about his magic to the princesses over video, Tinker was watching the Lunar City. It really was a cool looking place, and he was wondering if he would prefer living on the ship, or moving out to a real home in either the city or an actual house. He was pulled from the fog of his thoughts as he saw movement, and his ears raised as he saw three batponies come racing out of the city. Then, he spotted the horde of beasts behind them. Without thinking, he turned, and he raised his voice to yell "Polaris!". Tinker was not a pony to raise his voice, so Polaris looked at him right away, giving up on the argument he was having with Celestia. "Look!" Tinker said, meeting his confused gaze with one of rising panic as he pointed outside with his paw. Polaris teleported to the window to save time, looking outside, and his own eyes widened just as Northern's did when he came running over too, not wanting to bother teleporting such a short distance.

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"They're faster than us in the air, too!?" Yelled a stallion. By the time the batponies got to the exit of the city, the ships were now in sight, but only three of them were left by that point. The rest of the group consisted of a horde of inky black ponies, which flying after the bats using wings of their own. Polaris whipped around, jabbing a hoof at the camera. "Stay in your ship, but I fucking told you!" he said, before turning to North, saying, "Get DarkRock, I want every magic storage crystal they have" He said, before teleporting away.

"Where-" Tinker said, before he looked out the window, and down... Polaris had teleported outside. Not only that, he had tapped into his own magic, his fur darkening to gray as he grew a bit larger in size, his eyes turning red to match the monsters on the approach. The three batponies flying towards him looked terrified at first, but they didn't have time to react as Polaris' magic grabbed onto them, teleporting them to the bridge of the Twilight, since it was the first place he had in mind. They were understandably terrified, but they had Tinker, Pearl, Fluttershy, and Silver to help calm them down and check them over.

With their prey suddenly gone, the group of ponies came to a stop, landing on the ground. Some of them looked at Polaris, and when one of them snarled at him, the others turned to look. Realizing that they had identified him as a danger, Polaris took his chance, and with a growl of his own, he shot tentacles of his own magic into the fray. He used it to ensnare all of the ponies in the crowd, much like they grabbed their prey, though he wouldn't know that. He tightened it, trapping them in place, where he intended to drain their magic from them. Draining such a large amount of magic, though it paled in comparison to what he was feeling in the distance, was a lot for one pony, and he hissed as the enslaved batponies began to try breaking free. Some of them did, and they came running towards him, but he grabbed them in his magic like the others to try to keep them in place.

Still, it was clear he was fighting a losing battle by the time Northern teleported outside, holding a gemstone as big as his head. Each time one of the ponies escaped, it got harder for TInker to re-trap them, and one of them got dangerously close to him before Northern grabbed onto it, and he pinned it to the ground. Northern's magic surrounded him as he switched over to his own darker form, and he yelled "Polaris!" as he held up the gem for him to see. Polaris glanced over, then he reached out to the gem, grabbing onto it just like Northern was. North looked to the crowd of cursed ponies, and he fired his own magic into them, joining Polaris' efforts to keep them contained. With both of the stallions at work, they could hold the ponies in place, and then they set to work draining the magic.

One by one, all of the snarling batponies lost their magic coverings, collapsing onto the grass. The gem between Polaris and North began to glow as it absorbed the magic, and by the time it was finished, it was shining brightly within their magic's grasp. Once all of the ponies had been freed, Polaris and North put the gem back in its box, and they both let their magic retreat as their gray fur went back to being blue and darker blue. Since the action seemed to have stopped, Celestia teleported out to the two ponies, immediately asking "What WAS that!?" As she looked back and forth between them.

"Dark magic!?" Polaris said, as if it was obvious. Northern had better control over his racing emotions, and he waved to the gem, saying, "Something ensnared these ponies with an awful curse, they're going to need to rest and eat a good amount of food to regain the energy it took to manifest itself, thankfully, we were able to sap all of its power away and store it in this". Celestia started to speak, then she paused, then she gasped. "Luna!" She said, turning to look at the city. "A-Ay, wait!" Polaris said, but Celestia's sister was more important to her than the words of the former King and his son, the space-tech inventor.

A lot of ponies had come running once the magic fight had ended, and Northern and Polaris set to work placing batponies on the backs of rescuers, so they could be taken to the medbays in the nearest ships. All except for one. "Dad, look at what this one's wearing..." Polaris said, as he gently nudged one of the sleeping ponies. The mare was wearing tattered, ripped clothes, but they looked nothing like any of the clothes from the ships. Northern frowned, then he pointed to her flank, saying, "Her cutie mark, is that a hat?"

"A... that looks like a hat from the middle ages" Polaris said, looking back at him. Northern frowned, and he picked up the mare himself. "I want to check on this one when she wakes up..." He said, and Polaris nodded before they continued on their work. With enough time, all of the batponies were taken to safety, and Northern had left Fluttershy with a request for Luna to meet him once she came back.

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"Luna! Luuunnnaaaaa!" Celestia yelled, as she flew overtop of the old city, It was quiet, and she hoped that the blue mare would hear her. She saw movement in the distance, and she gasped as she spotted a brightly colored batpony fluttering up onto a building to look at something. The stallion in question looked up just in time to see a white missile coming towards him, and he let out an "Eep!" as she landed on the structure next to him. "Luna!" Celestia yelled, looking down into the street, "What?" The blue mare marked, looking up at her with an annoyed frown. When she saw the look of panic on Celestia's face, her mood changed, and she immediately asked "What's wrong?"

"I-I don't know, how are you okay? Three batponies just came barreling out of the city, being hunted down by a bunch of other batponies who'd been turned into monsters by some sort of dark magic!" She said. "I- they- what?" She asked. "The ponies we told to go back?" Gasped a mare nearby Luna. "Oh stars, that's... are they okay?" Luna asked, her eyes widening as she looked back to her sister. Celestia glided down to her, then she briefly hugged her sister, saying, "Yeah, they're all fine, Polaris and his dad took care of it with one of those crystals from the underworlders, but it didn't look like they had an easy time with it"

"I thought one of them was supposed to be as good with magic as Sombra or something?" Luna asked, a frown on her face. "Uh, Polaris, I think, and you're right, that just worries me more" She said, shifting her weight at the idea of encountering such a powerful source of dark magic that not even Polaris, his dad, nor those underworld dark magic users could handle. Suddenly, she wanted to agree with his rants about an ocean of dark magic.

Luna frowned again, then she looked around at the crowd she was investigating with, saying, "Come on, we're getting out of here" As she took off into the air. The entire gathering of batponies took off into the air, and once Luna and her sister picked up the ones that couldn't fly, they headed for the plains where all of the ships rested. Thankfully, not a single hitch came of their plans. They filed back into the ships, and Luna headed to the Twilight, where the odd-batpony-out was resting.

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"Ow!" whimpered a mare, as she poked her hoof on a jagged shard of rock. Misty, a red-velvet-cake-colored batpony mare, had gotten lost a long while ago on her mission to help Luna figure out the fate of the old city, since she had decided to follow what looked like a scrape in the stone to see where it led to. She had managed to follow it to a dirt road, where tons of old hoofprints were still visible in the dirt. It looked like a whole city had walked through here! And well, wasn't that a clue? Maybe all the ponies of the Lunar City had walked out one day! But why?

Misty could take off and fly back to the ship at any time, so she figured it was fine to explore this new lead on her own. It's not like she could get so far away that she couldn't see her way home, the ships were like giant brightly colored boxes even at a huge distance! Misty had followed the trail to the outer wall of the city, and boy, there was a big hole in it. Something had broken through the wall, it looked like, with a lot of force, too. The wall looked fine to either side, and the rocks were pushed away to turn the jagged hole into an entryway, but why? For who?

Well, those were the questions, weren't they? So, Misty kept walking, following the hardened ground towards the forest. Maybe the ponies had moved into old fashioned treehouses and Luna had missed them! Or maybe she'd find a bunch of skeletons... Misty hoped it wouldn't be that one, but it would solve the mystery. She wouldn't know how to bring the news home though...

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"So this one was with the group, then?" Luna asked, as she sat down next to Polaris. He nodded, looking back to the sleeping mare. "With those clothes, too" he said. Luna sighed, then she said, "So, you're theorizing that everypony in the empire was turned into these monsters? And that they somehow survived all the way to now...?" She asked. "And somehow, that group stumbled onto this one" Northern added. She sighed, saying, "That's... what could have done this?" Polaris weakly shrugged, saying, "I mean, it's super rare, but ponies can manifest dark magic without actually coming into posession of any... or you could have brought over a dark magic user who went mad? Or something?" He asked.

Luna sighed, shaking her head, and she grumbled "I don't know, Polaris... what am I supposed to tell the others? I'm sure the rumors are going wild, I've already had ponies asking me about the monsters". "No idea..." He said. She glanced at Northern, but he shrugged. Luna stood up, coughed, and she gently set a hoof on the pony's leg, saying, "We're going to fix this..." in a somewhat soft voice. She wiped away tears, saying, "I hate the idea that I could have brought a traitor to this planet... but how would they have done it?" She aked.

Polaris hesitated, but he lit up his horn, enveloping himself in his magic. Instead of taking his beefier, darker form, Polaris opted to use the magic to change his eyes, add some batpony wings and fangs, and then he looked up at her, showing off the fangs as he (clumsily) fluttered his wings. Luna looked him over, and well, if she didn't know better, she would have assumed he was a batpony. Polaris turned back to his normal self, and Luna closed her eyes, muttering, "Wouldn't put it past myself to unknowingly doom a bunch of ponies to their-"

That was when the pony finally woke up. Their eyes shot open, they gasped, and they sat up on the bed with a wide-eyed look of terror, looking around the room until their eyes settled on Luna. "L-Luna?" She asked, and the princess' eyes widened. She hadn't heard her name in that accent in so very long... the pony, struggling against their weakness, pushed themselves to the edge of the bed, pressing against the alicorn mare. "W-Where am I? Is it over? Is everypony okay?" She asked, as Luna laid a wing over her. She looked to her, saying, "Y-You were gone for a century, what happened? Did you come back to save us?" She asked. Luna's heart twinged with pain as she listened to the mare, and she climbed onto the bed, sweeping her up in her arms and hugging her tightly. "Oh, my child..." She whispered quietly. "I didn't think any of you remained... I was gone for a thousand years, and when I came back, you were all gone".

Polaris and Northern had connected the dots, and they gave each other wide-eyed looks, since this mare was far older than either of them. "A thousand? But... it hasn't been that long" She said. "What do you remember?" Luna asked. The mare shivered, then she said, "I... the bells, they rang the alarm bells... my husband, he took his sword, he ran into the street, and these... these monsters came, they had this terrible magic, we tried to fight them but all they did was turn ponies into more of them" She said, shuddering. "I... I tried to hide, but one of them found me, and... it wrapped me in that magic, and I... I couldn't breathe, and... and here I am?" She said, looking at the room again. It was completely alien to her, and Luna sighed quietly. "You've missed much, my child..." She whispered. "Bring food, please?" She asked, and both Polaris and his dad looked to each other before getting up, rushing out of the room. Luna kissed the mare's forehead, and she couldn't help but smile as it got her to smile. "I'm glad you ponies didn't forget about me, then... you look too young to have been there during my last visit" She said.

"No, I... but my mom was" She said softly. "Everypony knows about you, Luna..." she said, putting on a happy smile as she gazed up at the princess. "I guess mom wasn't kidding when she talked about how beautiful you were" she said, giggling shyly. The way she acted and spoke sent both happiness and anger through Luna. Happiness, because ponies would usually behave in that manner around her sister. Well, most of them, Luna was surprised to learn that many ponies lived their lives at night when she returned to Equestria, and she gained a reverent following of her own. But the anger... the dark blue mare nodded slowly, and deep within herself, she vowed to save every last one of her batponies. Whatever happened, it had not killed them, it had kidnapped them, and she was not going to allow the pony or creature responsible to live any longer on her planet. Before she let her anger stew enough for the batpony to notice. Luna let out a gentle sigh, clearing her mind. Now wasn't the time. She settled down on the cushions, and she held the little hatmaker close, giving her snout a gentle little kiss.

The cute smile she got from the little mare nearly brought a tear to her eye, but instead of overwhelming the mare with her own scattered emotion, Luna made herself comfortable on the bed, and she began to tell her about everything that had happened while she slept away as a statue. Luna was a good pony for the job, too, since she herself had to be educated on everything that had happened during her time on the moon!

Author's Note

misty no don't do it

The end of a world

Silently, the sun slipped below the horizon. It was not Equestria's sun, but Equinox's sun. It had been one full century since Luna stopped visiting the empire, and a batpony stallion in the highest tower of the empire quietly sighed as he looked out the window. He didn't remember Luna, but his dad before him had, and he had grown up as a prince to stories of the beautiful, caring mare. His dad was long gone now, and he was the king of the empire, a position that asked much of him. After all, even after decades and decades, there were still new problems every day for a growing empire.

Behind him, his bedroom door opened. Perking his ears curiously, he turned arond to see what it was, since his guards usually asked if somepony could be let in. The sight that greeted his eyes was not a pretty one. Both of his bedroom guards were laying on the floor, frantically struggling against deep, black magic that was enveloping their bodies. And between them, stood the shadowy form of what looked like a mare, except with deep red eyes that sent chills all the way to his bones. The other defining feature of its face was a wide, sharp toothed grin, which didn't bear fangs like the batponies themselves did. In fact, it had no wings either.

It took a step into the room, and the king decided right away that this was not something to be bargained with. Being one of the rare batponies who were born with a horn, he lit it up with his magic, picking up the two decorative swords in his room. One of them, he flung at the beast, and the other he used to cut open the curtains to his balcony as he dived towards it.

A wave of the inky magic crashed into the wall where he had been, and the mare let out a screech of anger as the sword impacted her, the first few inches of it sinking into her chest. What would be a mortal wound for a normal pony was a mere annoyance to her, and the stallion's own sword came flying over his head as he took off from the balcony. Catching the gaze of some of the guards stationed outside of his castle, he barked "Sound the alarm!" as he turned to look at the beast with his sword held in front of him. He wasn't fast enough, though. Tentacles of magic wrapped around his body, knocking the sword aside and he let out a scream that was muffled halfway through as the magic coated his body, dragging him back onto the balcony where the mare was waiting, flanked by what were originally his guards. Now they wore similar smirks to her, just with fangs, and they looked to her as she wordlessly gave them her commands.

As the bells in the city began to ring, the city began to swell, as ponies waking up were welcomed to alarm bells instead of their usual quiet breakfast. Every mare and stallion with a weapon began to step out of their houses, searching for whatever the danger was, but none of them were able to do anything about it. Every time the deep black mare wrapped a pony in her magic, her power grew stronger and her army grew larger, and within a minute, she had captured every pony within the central castle. With a loud bang, the doors to the castle flew open, and her army of enslaved ponies flew out into the streets, her infectious magic snagging every pony she could find.

As the streets began to overflow with her magic, ponies still within their houses tried to hide, but every stallion and mare and foal inside of the great city was eventually hunted down and captured. By the time the moon was in the sky, the bells had fallen still, and everypony within the Lunar City had been enslaved, now obeying the mare who had brought their lives to a halt. In one large group, the mare marched nearly every single batpony from the city into the forest, to a clearing that she had prepared. Once she gathered the empire in place, she commanded them all to lay down, then her magic began to solidify around each pony, sealing them each in a rock tomb in the shape of their own body, just like the Equestrians had done to Discord to end his maniacal reign.

Once they were all imprisoned, the mare left, to round up what was left of the Empire. To make it even easier, ponies had begun to travel into the city to find out what the alarm was rung for, which made it even easier for her to find them. And even the ones who hadn't, or the ones who were in hiding, well... she had years and years of hunting experience.

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Miles from the city, a batpony stallion was asleep at his post. He was at the top of a watchtower, one of hundreds that were posted around the borders of the empire. Equinox had no actual animal life other than the batponies, but the empire had decided to post guards around the borders of the Empire, just in case. Most of the planet was still unexplored, so it was seen as essential to keep watchponies at the border. Little did they know, they would be the last free ponies of the Lunar Empire.

It was quiet at the watchtower. The stallion posted there had slept in, and he grunted as he opened his eyes to see that it was dark out. "Ugh..." he grunted, rubbing the back of his head as he tried to sit up. When he did, he bumped into something above him, and he fell back onto his bed with a confused grunt. He opened his eyes again, and this time he realized that it wasn't just dark, he was staring up at something that seemed devoid of light.

Not only was it devoid of light, it had two red eyes and a wide smirk full of sharp teeth... the creature, a pony he realized, was standing over his bed, black, wispy magic encircling both him and it. His heart began to thud with fear as he stared up at her, unable to look away from her eyes. She brought her snout closer, and her nose came within an inch of his as she opened her mouth. The guard was the first- and last- pony she spoke to that night. "You are the last batpony to take a breath on this planet" She hissed, her voice filling both his ears and his head with its malice.

Following the words, the stallion felt a terrible surge of fear, and he squirmed on the bed in desperation, trying to push her off, but his thrashing was useless against her magic. She watched with a perverse smirk as her magic enveloped the helpless stallion, and minutes later, she left the watchtower with him in tow. By the time the sun rose again, the bustling empire was dead silent, devoid of all life or movement. And it would stay that way, for Centuries.

In the dark forests, as the sun continued to rise, the blackness-enveloped mare relaxed, laying down among two frozen batponies. Instead of killing them, she had decided it would be more fun to turn them all into little statues. After all, she would need help if anypony came to rescue her prey, and what better fighting force than the very ponies they hoped to rescue? For now, though? She closed her eyes, and she fell asleep. Her magic began to fade, and she closed herself off within a statue, just like all the others.

Author's Note

F for all the house plants that ain't gonna get water no more

The ocean wakes up

"Yooo... another one?" Misty asked, as she walked up to another one of the weird batpony statues she had been finding in the forest. They kind of creeped her out, so she didn't get too close, but... they did look nice. Misty continued to trot into the forest, along the trail. Well, it seemed more like a road, really. But that only reaffirmed her guess that everypony had gone into the forest!

Ahead of her, Misty could see the sun shining through the trees. Misty spent a lot of her time in the forest back home, and she could tell that this meant there was a clearing nearby, a break in the tree cover that was letting the sun in. Misty made her way towards it, and after squirming her way through the weird-looking alien bushes, she stumbled into a grassy clearing.

And its contents made her shudder a little. Misty's ears went down as she looked out at the massive crowd of sleeping pony statues, which were all slightly different. Finally, it had begun to dawn on her that these could be the missing ponies of the Lunar Empire. But that was silly, right? How could they have all been frozen in stone like Discord?

But why would there be a clearing full of batpony statues, if that wasn't it? Misty walked into the field, going off of the assumption that there's no way these statues would be moving after centuries of being asleep. In the center, there was a much bigger pony than the others, and Misty gravitated towards it. Just the sight of it made her chest tighten up... sure, it was just a sleeping mare, but it was huge. And unlike the others, it had no wings! Misty walked in a circle around the statue, only feeling more uneasy around it the longer she was there.

FInally, she decided to leave. Misty shook herself, opened her wings, and she flinched as the tip of her wing brushed against the statue. She glanced at it, as if it had touched her, then she froze as she saw it begin to glow, then turn dark.

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When Luna transported group after group of batponies to the Lunar Empire, it made sense that she would miss a few things. But in reality, only one bad apple slipped through the cracks. One nasty, rotten to the core, twisted apple. There was a reason that only one batpony tribe remained at the time Luna discovered it, and much of the reason could be narrowed down to one single mare.

Long before the times of Celestia and Luna, the forest held many batpony tribes, who lived in harmony in the forest, though apart from the main bulk of ponykind. That is, until a single mare's life spiraled out of control, and with it, came a monster. Brook was a mare, living in the tiny, tiny town of Ponyville. She lived a simple farmer's life like most other ponies of the time, and she married a stallion named River. The two ponies were truly soulmates, until River found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. River was visiting a friend of his, a batpony in the nearby batpony village. He was about to head home when he stepped on a fragile piece of wood, and it snapped. The railing he tried to grab had been damaged by a storm the night before, and none of the batponies in the town had been fast enough to prevent him from hitting the ground far below.

Sometimes, ponies must deal with a lot of loss in their lives. For example, a pony's parents may pass away within mere weeks of each other. But on rare occasions, disaster may strike not only multiple times, but all within the same day. As River went to visit his friend, Brook headed for the town's doctor, for what was supposed to be a normal visit to check on the health of the foal she had inside of her, since she had been feeling a little sicker than usual. She didn't realize she would be leaving without it. Something had gone wrong with her, and a normal appointment turned into Brook having to decide between her own life, or the extremely unlikely life of her foal.

If that wasn't enough to break her, she came home to her house in flames, part of a fire that enveloped an entire street of the old town. All she could do was stare at the chaos as ponies ran back and forth with buckets of water, trying to fight the flames. And then, a teary-eyed batpony got her attention, bringing the worst of the news to her.

Something broke inside of Brook that day. The chances of something so horrible happening to one pony, all in one day, was small, but the chance of a pony successfully summoning dark magic with no prior experience was even smaller. And yet, Brook found herself staring down at the bleeding corpse of a batpony she had been talking to just moments before, dead at the forces of powerful, pitch-black magic that was flaring from her body. The ponies of Ponyville began to run from her as she looked up from the dead pony, and without a word, Brook sprinted into the forest, leaving her ruined life behind.

When Brook snapped, the dark magic she had created took hold of her, and it set its sights on aone goal, one outlet for the twisted emotions that had created it. She could handle the foal, that was her body failing her. She could handle the fire, early ponyville homes tended to go up like tinderboxes at times. But River? Her husband? Dead at the hooves of batponies? Brook wasn't having it, and the cursed mare declared war on anything that happened to have four legs and leathery wings. Yes, sometimes a dragonpony or two would perish at her hooves.

As time went on, the mare became a terror for batponies. A spirit in the darkness, glowing eyes that stared from the shadows, sharp teeth that could rip out your neck in a second, the monster that had once been Brook hunted equestria's batponies, and she didn't stop there either. When normal ponies tried to help, they became targets as well. Her twisted plans had been going nicely until Luna discovered the last living group of them, and she didn't want to try fighting a Princess.

With Luna's involvement, it became harder for Shadow to enact her twisted 'revenge'. The name came from the way she hid away in the shadows, using darkness to snare her prey. She resorted to hunting down any batpony that left the sight of others, and she was personally responsible in some ways for Equestria's ponies labeling the Everfree forest as a dangerous place to be avoided. They say that if you are in the everfree forest at night and it starts to become cold, dark, and quiet around you, the Shadow Mare is watching you, checking to see if you are a batpony. It's unknown how Shadow learned that Luna was putting together an empire consisting of only batponies, but it was a simple matter for her to disguise as one of them and get her ticket to Equinox.

Dark magic is not inherently evil, as most ponies believe. Though, it certainly makes it easier for a pony with evil within their heart to act on those desires. Dark magic 'feeds' on emotions and feelings, somewhat like a batpony, and in exchange, it allows ponies to perform feats of magic that are difficult or impossible for normal Unicorns. In the UnderWorld, DarkRock was a cavern populated by dark magic users, who followed strict laws to prevent anypony using it for evil.

Polaris, and to a lesser extent, his father, are other examples. The blue stallion was cursed with dark magic, such an amount of it that he was overwhelmed. For a short time, Polaris became a monster much like Shadow, and he did kill ponies, until he was able to turn it around and gain control. During WWII, which Polaris was a part of, he met a mare named Lunimere, who became his soulmate much like Shadow and River. Lunimere was killed in an accident, much like River, except Polaris was actually the one to witness part of a collapsing, burning mansion come crashing down on top of her. He briefly reverted to the hate-filled state that he once held, the state that Shadow has never left, but he managed to hold himself together and come out stronger from the hardship.

Still, Polaris' family was the exception, and it's theorized that the ability to handle dark magic may have genetic ties. There was a reason that Dark Magic only thrived within a small town with strict rules in the UnderWorld, and it is mainly devoted to how volatile it is. If Shadow hadn't managed to create dark magic inside of herself, she may have been saved, if somewhat heartbroken and discouraged. Or at the least, she wouldn't become responsible for so much death. In the same vein, experiencing enough of any extreme negative emotions is enough for dark magic to overwhelm a normal pony, which is why the ponies of DarkRock almost seem emotionless- controlling emotion means controlling the magic, but ponies are emotional beings.

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Misty stayed there for a moment, watching as the blackness began to spread across the statue. Then, it moved. It took a step forwards, and Misty shuddered, taking off into the air before its head turned back into the blackness that the rest of it was.

That hesitation would cost her. As she took off into the sky, she looked down and noticed that in a wave around the huge mare, the other statues were unfreezing, and much faster. To her alarm, a sea of red eyes loooked up at her, then over at the big one. She looked up at her, and without even speaking to it, one of her minions launched into the air towards Misty. Misty tried to dodge it, but the older mare just wasn't fast enough, and it shot out magic which wrapped around one of her hind legs. She screamed as it dragged her back down to the ground, and it shoved her in front of the mare she had awoken.

Misty rolled onto her back, looking up, and her blood ran cold as she locked eyes with the Celestia-sized pony. "How nice of you to deliver yourself~" She crooned, and Misty had little time to do anything other than squeak in fear as a wave of black magic crashed over her, turning her into the monster's newest slave.

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Polaris walked into the room with Luna, and he smiled as he set down a tray, loaded with food and water for the batpony she held. The large mare smiled at him, saying, "Thank you... I've just now gotten to about the 1800s". The mare in her arms grinned at him, saying, "Steam trains sound like wonderful inventions! And guns, too!" Polaris chuckled, saying, "Well, I certainly know a lot about both of those, since-"

And he stopped. Polaris tensed up a little, and he closed his eyes, shuddering heavily in front of Luna, as if ice-cold water had just been splashed in his ears. "I... I... did you feel that?" he asked, looking up at Luna with fear in his eyes. Luna looked worried, since she hadn't ever seen Polaris of all ponies look that scared. "No..." She said, and she watched as he backed up to the door. "I-I gotta... sorry, I'll uh, sorry!" he said, before hitting the button to close the door and taking off running down the hall.

Luna was worried, but she didn't want to scare the pony she was holding any more. "I'll see what's going on with him later, don't you worry" she said, lifting the tray up so she could give her something to eat. The mare took hold of an apple, and Luna nuzzled her before saying, "Now, about the trains, you might like the story of how all the tracks were laid down..."

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It had been so long since Shadow had gone for a walk! Well, more of a march. Shadow was gathering all of her ponies in what had once been farmlands behind the lunar city, and they were all accounted for. All except one. Shadow hadn't bothered to gather all of her ponies in the forest when she rested, and she had left one of them in the city. Having them seperated wasn't supposed to become a problem, but now it had.

Leaving her army to stand where she commanded them to, Shadow walked into the city, right to the spot where she had left her. Some mare, she remembered. Had a vest on, maybe? But she wasn't here. All that remained were hoofprints, leading towards the main entrance. Were there more batponies here? Now that was a delicious idea...

Off she went, to the main entrance. When she got to the city gates, Shadow expected ponies. Did she see ponies? No. But she did see massive, box-looking... things in the distance. What was going on? Were these mountains? She growled, stomping at the grass with a hoof. Whatever was going on, it annoyed her, and she would tear one of these dumb mountains in half to figure it out if she had to.

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"Um, Flutters? Do you see something at the city?" Silver asked. He had been sitting at one of the Twilight's bridge windows, resting his snout against it. Fluttershy was at work sorting the ponies on the ship, so he was hanging out with her. She had time, so she came over to the window, her eyes focusing on the distant gate. Immediately, she put in an emergency call to Celestia, Cadence, and she patched one into the room Luna was in.

To all three of the princesses and to Silver himself, she said, "I uh... I see a very big mare standing at the gates, and she looks angry". "What in... what is that?" Celestia asked. "Dark magic?" Fluttershy asked. "Sure looks like it... Cadence said. Just on time, Polaris stumbled onto the bridge, saying, "F-Fluttershy! W-We got problems! Dad and everyone else from DarkRock all felt it, something is going on!"

The princesses were treated to a somewhat frantic looking Polaris as Fluttershy turned her eyes to him, and she put her feed on a TV, saying, "Well, look at this". As he watched, she panned back to the gates, to where the mare was using her magic to throw a large chunk of rock at the Lunar City's walls, obviously annoyed at something. To Polaris, it was like looking in a centuries-old mirror.

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Ponies screamed as Polaris burst out of the second floor of the TreeVale inn. He thought he had been controlling his magic, but a 15 year old colt who had just lost his family wasn't really the prime canidate for dark magic usage, and he was wearing a powerful magic curse. The mix was about as safe as dropping a nuclear bomb into a car crusher, so... not safe. The monstrous stallion pounced on the nearest pony, and their screams were silenced by his claws before he lunged for another.

He didn't stop until he couldn't find any more ponies to hunt. When he ran out of targets for his shadowy claws, he took off into the distance, not caring where he ran to, not caring what happened to him, only caring that he couldn't hurt another pony. It wouldn't be for a long time that he was around ponies again, and even after centuries' time, he carried that burden with him.

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When Polaris' dark magic consumed him, he had turned into a monstrous, dragonpony looking creature. He had claws, wings, a tail, and a massive maw full of teeth that could cut through stone. This mare didn't, though. She looked like a pony, but larger and angrier, magic wafting off of her body as if she was constantly on fire, fire which was pure black.

"T-T-That's... that thing is a pony, wrapped up in... in a lot of dark magic" Polaris said, his voice shaky and fearful. "I... w-what are we going to do about something like that?" Celestia sputtered, saying, "I would hope that you know! You and those UnderWorld ponies are the ones who can control that stuff!"

"Y-Yeah, some of it!" Polaris said. "Stopping that thing is like one pegasus controlling a hurricane!" Luna was thankful that the batpony in her lap was asleep, because she did not want the mare to feel the terror she was feeling. "What about all of you, then? You and those other ponies?" She asked. "Can we help?" Cadence added.

He threw up a hoof, saying, "I-I... maybe? We might be able to trap most of her magic in a gem before she realizes, then overpower her for the rest? Because if you lose a dark magic fight, you've got nothing stopping the other pony from stealing your very soul". "I wonder if I could do anything... does her magic work on non-ponies?" Fluttershy interrupted, keeping her eyes on the mare for now.

Silver looked appalled that she had even suggested it, but Polaris sighed and said, "I... not really, she can still just throw you into orbit if she wants... maybe your core could be enough to wreck her, but..." He said, expecting Silver to interrupt. He did, immediately saying "No!", and Fluttershy didn't comment, not sure if she was willing to even entertain the thought.

"Okay, Polaris, what got you to control your magic when you were like that?" Cadence asked. He sat down, trying not to feel as sick as he did, and he rubbed his head as he said "I... I dunno, it just took a long time... and I wanted to control it, but if this is a pony who's genuinely evil at the core, then..."

"I do not like this" Celestia growled softly. "If I hadn't already gave it a shot with Sombra, I'd try to take her out myself". "Well, if this is what took out the original Lunar Empire, then she might not even know what a spaceship is?" Cadence said. "We could try to fire one of the asteroid cannons at-" "Yes!" Luna suddenly gasped. "We'll have to fight her with something that she won't understand! She can't protect herself against something she doesn't know how to! Like... like guns, or perhaps a ship's cannon, or..." she said, trying to come up with ideas. "Remember how I had no idea what all our new technology was when I came back?" She said, and Celestia smiled just a little at the memory, nodding back to her.

"Well, I could remotely pilot one of our smaller ships directly into her and see what it does" Fluttershy said. "She would see it coming..." Polaris murmured. "You can adapt quick with this stuff, but bullets is one thing I couldn't really handle, however with as much magic as she holds she might just be able to stop them before they hurt her..."

"She's coming this way!" Fluttershy said, gasping as she kept her cameras on the pony. Polaris hissed, saying, "I... I have to... oh, I hope this works" He whined, as he lit his horn up and disappeared. The princesses and the couple on the bridge watched as he teleported out into the grass, transforming over to his darker self, then wrapping himself in magic to make himself look like the other mare. Polaris had a backup plan, if he needed it. The gem where he had gathered the power from the ponies they had sapped the curse from, he had it behind him, hidden away in case he needed it.

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Shadow had been trotting towards the large shapes for a while, but then she noticed a pony. Not a batpony, a pony. And she sensed magic just like hers! Her curiosity flared, Shadow slowed to a trot, then came close to the stallion, frowning at him. "Who are you?" She asked, sitting down as she kept her eyes on him.

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Polaris smiled, despite the panic and terror eating at him. "Why, I'm Prince Polaris, at your service" He said, bowing gently in front of her. She seemed to approve of the pleasantries, and she asked another question. "I want you to explain, what are these mountains? Where did you come from?" Polaris had been rehearshing all sorts of questions that she may ask, and he cleared his throat before saying, "Why, I traveled here on these! And sorry for the size of them, I didn't even know that this planet already had a ruler"

He felt some relief as she smiled. But then she snarled. "You better not have brought filthy thestrals onto my land" She hissed, stepping closer to him. Despite his senses screaming at him to run, he put on a laugh, saying, "Those creatures? Please, I haven't seen one in centuries! Why do you ask?" He said, giving her a curious look.

Shadow pawed at the ground, standing up and turning in a circle with an angry growl. "I hate them", she spat, "I used to kill the monsters, but I managed to sneak onto this planet, which was going to be populated by them! I waited long enough so that I was sure their ruler would not be coming back, and I've trapped every last one with my magic~" She crooned, her anger fading into a prideful boasting near the end, a smile returning to her face.

As much as he hated the words, Polaris chuckled, saying, "That's quite an impressive feat! I hope they didn't cause trouble..." She laughed harshly, saying, "Of course not! I captured every last one... except... are you the reason one is missing from the city?" She hissed, stepping close to him. Her smile had begun to grow, going from polite to disturbing. Polaris took a step back, his ears twitching as they tried to lower. "Me? I... I wouldn't know, I haven't been into the city yet".

"Oh, I'm sure" She hissed, stepping closer, bringing her snout against his. "And I suppose you couldn't explain why I was woken up by a batpony I have yet to see!?" She yelled, and Polaris' mask finally broke as he stepped back again, saying, "I-I uh, I can't imagine why-"

"Silence!" She barked, her voice shaking the ground as she raised a hoof and hit him, sending him sprawling into the grass quite a distance away from her with a weak yelp. He just barely managed to bring the gem with him, holding it tight in a hoof. The mare ran towards him, and she pinned the stallion to the ground, holding him down with magic tentacles that sank into his own magic to grip him, regardless of his attempts to prevent it. "Tell me where they are!" She screamed, staring down at him.

Well, things had gone downhill real fast. Polaris tapped into the gem, and he used the overwhelming power it held to fire his magic at Shadow's chest, throwing her backwards and high into the air away from him. He used the magic to also heal his shoulder, which he was pretty sure she had broken. He frowned as he watched the mare stand up, fire bursting from her eyes as she looked back at him. The fall hadn't even hurt her!

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"Found it!" Barked a white stallion, as he yanked a beastly looking gun out of a crate. "Give it to me!" Northern said, watching impatiently as he the stallion loaded the rifle, then handed it over. "Well, be careful with it, that thing can punch a hole in anyth-!" He said, but Northern had already teleported away. The royal armorer sighed, resting his head on the crates. They woke him up from his nap just to get out a .50 rifle?

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Polaris looked down as he heard a flash of magic, and he laid eyes on a big rifle. It looked like a .50, but he didn't care. He knew why it'd been teleported to him, and he picked it up with a brief glance to the bridge of the purple ship. He raised it, aiming at Shadow, right as she began to charge towards him.

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Shadow didn't care what the stick was for. This stallion dared to lie to her, and he had brought BATPONIES onto HER planet! She was going to rip his limbs off, then throw him in a pit, then-

Pain lanced through the mare as the object he held flashed smoke and fire, bucking against his magic. What had he DONE to her!? She fell to the grassy floor with a scream of mixed pain and rage, and she shot magic towards him to subdue whatever that blasted thing was.

It flashed again, and she roared as even more pain tore through her, crimson blood flying behind her as the bullet punched through her magic hard enough to expose her to the air. For the first time, Shadow began to feel fear, and she watched as he worked the mechanism again, pointing it... And she yelped, jumping to the side as it cracked once more, throwing dirt and grass into the air next to her. Suddenly, capturing him wasn't as important to her.

Without another word spoken, Shadow turned around, and she began to sprint for the Lunar City, wanting to get away from the weapon he was using. As she ran, she heard another crack, and pain lanced through one of her flanks. She almost fell, but Shadow had enough magic to heal herself as she ran, and she just ran through the pain. As she approached the gates, she started to run even faster, sprinting out of desperation. Right as she turned a corner into the city, she heard another crack, and she flinched as rock and stone broke free from the wall, falling around her. It could even destroy stone!?

The weapon terrified Shadow, though even as she ran, she tried to think of how to handle such a thing. She didn't understand it! How did it make noise, then tear through her flesh like an invisible, unseen arrow!? She didn't know, but she wasn't going to try fighting it. She could heal her body, but if one of those awful things hit her in the head, she didn't think she could withstand it.

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After she disappeared behind the walls, Polaris realized that he was shivering. His magic held the gun steady, sure, but he couldn't stop his body from shivering as he sat down on the grass, letting his magic melt away. He looked at the gem, but it was spent. He had needed all of its power just to get her off of him... that wasn't good, at all.

He felt magic wrap around him, and he didn't even try to resist as he was teleported onto the Twilight's bridge. Immediately, he was smothered in the arms of both of his parents, and he closed his eyes, going limp in their embrace. He could hear the princesses, it sounded like they were talking to Fluttershy, but he couldn't really hear them over Pearl muttering something about how she wished he wouldn't do such a stupid thing.

Author's Note

not a practical problem but gun still solved it

for now

Fighting magic with firepower

"So, she's scared of the gun, then? Maybe we can hold her off with it?" Celestia said. "Well, looks like it" Silver said, shrugging a little. Cadence had left, so the call was now just him, Fluttershy of course, and the sisters. The mare who had woken up the pony in the city had woken up during Polaris' fight with Shadow, and she had told Celestia about what happened. "Do you think she turned all the ponies of the empire into those statues? She mentioned a batpony, did someone get lost and stumble into her...? Or did waking up the one pony wake them all up?" Luna asked, worry written across her face. She was in her office now, as was Celestia.

"I think she must have been woken up seperately, else she would've shown up during the fight with all the transformed ones" Celestia pointed out. Luna nodded a little, saying, "I guess somepony else... oh dear..." Fluttershy sighed quietly, saying, "Sombra also had the power of an enslaved empire at his hooves, and it took the elements to stop him both times". Celestia nodded slowly, a frown on her own face. For now, Polaris was laying in Pearl's lap, eyes closed, trying to relax as she sang a lullaby to him. He wasn't really even shellshocked by the fight itself. He was more terrified at the idea that he and his father were the best dark magic users in Equestria, and yet... he was nothing against the power of that beast. Northern had gotten up, and he walked over to where Silver and Fluttershy were. "I feel like I should be the one who tries to deal with this mare, really" he said softly, looking at the camera. "I've learned a lot from the ponies in DarkRock, and... and while I know Polaris is skilled with using this stuff to fight, I don't think he's going to be able to handle another one".

Celestia nodded, and she said "I want to agree... I'm worried that if this mare has an empire's worth of ponies, she's gong to use them as cannon fodder". Luna's face flashed with anger for a moment, "She had better not, I'll... I'll..." She said, her expression falling as she remember she didn't know what she would do. "What about taking off?" Celestia asked, though she could guess at the answer. Fluttershy shook her head, saying, "We haven't checked any of the ships for takeoff, and that takes time..."

Northern took a deep breath, then he said, "I want to say that our best option is that somepony tries to siphon her magic away, like we did for those cursed ponies. Most likely me, so I would transfer all of that magic into every vessel that we have, and perhaps I could burn off a lot of it doing something excessive like tearing a chunk of the earth away and holding it in the air" he said, waving a hoof. "Is it at all possible for you to simply steal her magic yourself, then once the threat is gone, dispose of it?" Luna asked. Northern shrugged a little, saying, "I... maybe, but it would be like trying to steer an ocean liner with a paddle, with large amounts of this stuff the only control you can assert is using it somehow". "What happens if you begin to steal her magic, then use it against her?" Celestia asked. He smiled a little, saying, "I wish it worked that way! Maybe we could..."

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Entirely unaware that a drone was watching from above, Shadow was prowling back and forth in front of the ponies she had enslaved, scanning the ponies to see how many there were. She was clearly angry, and between angry rantings, she would sometimes stop to punch down part of an old wall, or hurl a boulder into the Lunar City wall. Of course, her enslaved ponies didn't actually respond, her orders were for them to just stand there for her.

From the way she began to laugh, it seemed that Shadow had come up with a plan. She gathered all of her ponies into a large circle, then she slammed her hooves into the ground, sprouting jagged, tall crystals that jutted into the sky, boxing in the ponies. Once the walls were tall enough, she pressed her hooves to the structure, and magic stabbed out into the crowd of ponies. As the drone above watched, the black magic coating all of the batponies began to fade, and they collapsed to the ground as the magic left each one of them. Once Shadow had drawn the magic out of all of the ponies, she looked up, and crystals grew over the top of the structure, trapping the ponies inside. The ponies inside of the structure were effectively saved, since Shadow had drawn away all of their magic for herself.

But they were only saved if Shadow herself was stopped. She would have fun recapturing them all once she destroyed the ponies who were trying to invade HER home. Perhaps she would let them out and then have fun hunting them down one by one. Maybe she would transform one, and watch as he infected the rest! With all of the magic she had at her disposal, the mare was frighteningly large, and she barely fit in the streets as she began to walk back through the streets of the empire. Certainly, with this much power, that stupid weapon they had wouldn't work on her anymore, right? She had felt her magic struggle to stop its strange powers, so maybe if the magic was thick enough, it could stop them.

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When fluttershy disconnected from the drone and told it to come home, Celestia and Luna both blinked, snapping out of the fearful trance they had been in. "This mare's worse than Sombra" Celestia said, and Luna could only nod along with her. "That's a fearsome amount of magic" Northern quietly said.

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Back at the landing site, the ponies of DarkRock had gathered on the grass, halfway between the ships and the city. Every single magic storage crystal they had was laid on the grass, all drained of their power, power that was drained into healing a stallion who had at one point lost a leg. Regrowing limbs out of nothing took a massive amount of power, so it worked as a good method to drain themselves of magic while helping somepony out in the end.

Polaris and Northern were with them, in their darker forms. Polaris had demanded to be let out of the ship, and while they were worried for him, he was one stubborn pony. Instead of hugging him on the bridge, Pearl had taken to hugging Tinker instead, and the dragonpony wasn't going to complain. Of course, the dark magic users were the backup plan. The actual plan was a line of snipers set up on top of the Twilight, sporting every .50 rifle that the armorer could find.

Their hopes were that gunfire would weaken, or possibly even kill the evil mare, and then the dark magic users could take care of her. And it almost worked. As Shadow came around the corner of a building, she glared out of the main gate of the city, red eyes scanning the grass. She locked eyes with the ponies on the ground, and then she heard the loud cracks of gunfire.

Firing as one, the line of snipers took their first shots, and Shadow cried out as the bullets dug holes in her body. However, the pain was only in her magic. Her frown turned into a wide smirk as she realized that her magic was thick and strong enough to stop their strange weapons, and she began to walk forwards despite continued fire from the snipers. Obviously, the guns were not going to work. So instead of reloading, the ponies ran back inside of the ship when their magazines ran dry.

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Two of the ponies holding rifles were stallions by the names Vector and Bitcrush, and the stallions barely spoke as they turned in their rifles to the armorer and ran back to the room they shared. Once the door had closed behind them, Bit was the one to speak first.

"T-That thing's unstoppable!" He said, looking at his friend with wide eyes. He hoped that the usually-calm Vector would have something helpful to say, but Vector looked just as scared as he felt, and the dark gray stallion nervously smiled as he said "I... They can handle it, right? You think they can stop it?"

"I thought we were supposed to stop it!" Bit said. "I... There's no way that thing is actually going to turn everypony into those black things, right?" He asked. "I dunno man, that magic's... you saw what it did to those batponies" Vector said, sitting on his bed. Coming closer, Bit sat down on the floor, saying, "I can't believe we might all... I mean... I never got to..."

Those words sent a flutter through Vector's heart. It was unlikely that Bit meant what Vector hoped he did, but he couldn't help but ask. "But what?" He said softly, looking down to him. Bit looked up, and his cheeks were starting to redden as he stood back up, making himself level with Vector. "I... if this is the end, it's not really going to matter if you say no, is it?" He said. Vector felt his own face heating up, and he managed to find the words "Say no to..." "To asking if you love me too" Bit said, finding it surprisingly easy to finally say it. "I... y-you too!?" Vector stammered in return. Bit looked confused at first, but then he connected the dots, saying, "W-Wait, you have a crush on me? But I have a-" he said, before he was cut off.

Vector usually liked to hear Bit ramble on about things, but right now, he was sure that their time was limited. And with the knowledge that Bit liked him in return, that was all Vector needed to snatch the yellow stallion, dragging him into a kiss. If Cadence had been there, she would've made sure to point out how frustrating it was to witness two ponies who obviously liked each other, yet lacked the courage to actually admit it to each other. She saw it all the time!

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Gunfire had failed, and that left the UnderWorlders. And Polaris. And Shadow remembered him.

"YOU!" she yelled, once she was close enough. She reached for Polaris, but all of the ponies shot magic towards her, and she hissed as she stumbled back a little bit. She groaned with pain as they connected her to the hoard of gems, and she could feel her power disappearing into them as she took a step forwards, still determined to reach her target. As her magic was sapped away from her, Shadow tried to pull in return, but it was difficult to focus with so many different ponies drawing magic from her at one. Still, she had enough magical power to simply overwhelm all of the ponies, and she slowly began to reverse the flow of magic in her favor. When the exchange of magic reversed, all of the ponies eventually had to let go with gasps of pain, but not before she drained the crystals dry to get her power back.

She laughed, and as Northern prepared to teleport all of them away, she reached out with her magic, ensnaring Polaris with it. The other ponies were forgotten as her magic chokingly wrapped around him, and Northern grit his teeth as he teleported himself and the others to the bridge of the Twilight. Shadow smashed Polaris against her own chest and she laughed as he disappeared inside of her, entirely unable to do anything to stop her. With kinetic weapons proving to be useless against her magic, both Luna and Celestia took to the skies above her, blasting Shadow with their magic from either end. At first, it seemed to do something, the beast screaming as her magic began to melt away from her. Only the element of surprise had allowed them to hurt her, though. Both Alicorns had to kill the spell as her magic traveled up the beams, absorbing their power instead of being harmed by it.

Thankfully, all of the ponies involved other than Polaris had made it clear, and the two sisters teleported back to relative safety when it became clear that their magic couldn't harm her. On a call, the princesses began to argue with Northern over what to do, but Fluttershy couldn't take her eyes off of the beast, which had stopped moving. "Stygian!" She gasped, her eyes widening. Turning to the screens, Celestia and Luna looked back at her, and she kept going. "T-That's how Twilight saved him! She went inside of the dark magic, because with him, the magic had grown into its own being! B-But I don't think this is the same thing! See, how it stopped moving?"

"So maybe Polaris can fix it from the inside..." Luna murmured. Celestia looked to Silver on the display, and she smiled a weak little smile as she said, "Wouldn't be the first time we all depended on one stallion".

Author's Note

this one had a lot of rewrites and one of them involved multiple tanks

no not the turtle

July 27th 2020 3PM edit: added Vector and Bitcrush to attempt to put a break in the chapter I dunno might also do a thing in the bonus story with those two

Lunimere

The first thing Lunimere heard after dying was the wind. Opening her eyes, she looked around herself, and then at herself, but she was surprised to see that she could barely see her own body. And she was floating, above the mansion that had taken her life. Starfield was missing... but somehow, Lunimere knew that he had made it, to a place she hadn't. But why hadn't she? Was it Polaris?

It had to be. Figuring out how to fly was difficult, but Lunimere wouldn't be the first ghost to figure it out. Finding Polaris wasn't easy, though. Their house was abandoned and empty, she obviously couldn't just ask somepony, and both her car and his limousine were missing. Thankfully, she spotted the armored car, her own car, and a trailer parked at the place they were going to build their radio company. Phasing into the trailer, Lunimere's heart broke, or it wouild have, if she had one anymore. She had only ever seen tears come from Polaris during their wedding, and a few really sad movies. But the way he was crying now made her wish she could hug him, more than anything else. But... she couldn't. Not for lack of trying, but for lack of a body.

And that made her mad. She was still here! Why couldn't she help him!? Lunimere didn't get an answer, of course, but from then on, she followed Polaris. As he built the complex, she stayed at his side the entire time, watching over him. When Celestia met him to ask about the bunker, she was happy to see him say yes, since she knew he liked the idea of bunkers. She watched him drown himself in his work, then in the stallions who were hired to help. Now, that was a side of him she hadn't seen before.

The project money for his bunker had run out, but Lunimere was happy to see that Celestia was going to pay him for the bunker maintinence, since it was intact and could hold all of Ponyville in emergencies. Now, she hadn't really expected him and his new friends to band together to build and launch a nightclub, but... well... it was entertaining to watch, at least.
She was excited! Polaris' music albums had taken off, and Lunimere almost vibrated with excitement as she watched him dress up in a shiny latex suit, ready to pull off a concert in Ponyville. Time seemed to fly as he sold out increasingly large concerts, until she floated along in his car with him to Manehattan, for a big concert in 1987. She was worried about the song, though... it was a song he had written about her, and he had yet to fully sing it by himself without breaking down. She watched from the rafters during his performance, and she shared his pain as he began to falter during the end. The ride home was hard to sit through, but Lunimere didn't dare leave him.
Jeez, Polaris, took you long enough to find another marefriend! Lunimere wasn't sure about this new mare, but they seemed to mesh somewhat well. Circuit getting pregnant was a bit worrying, but Lunimere was along for the ride, and while she didn't like seeing them break up in 2004, she was glad that Polaris handled it well. Changing the name to PolariSoft was an interesting change, but she was glad to see that he kept the old logo in a few places.
As time went on, Lunimere learned about computers alongside Polaris, and she watched as he began to code an AI that would eventually become Saphira. She was so happy when the digital mare first began to talk to him, since while he loved the daughter he had with Circuit, the little girl did live with her mom, not him.

Now, 2012 was wild. That was the year Polaris discovered the Underworld, and experiencing the awe he did during his trips around the underwground nation was one of Lunimere's most fun times as a ghost. Well, except for Limestone town. There were OTHER GHOSTS in that town! And not even THEY could talk to her! It was cool that his dad was not only alive, but ruling as a king down there.

The rest of the 2010s was a blur. Polaris found that not only was his dad alive, but his mom too! He turned one of his airplanes into a pony, so now he had three daughters. His mom moved in, Reeve moved in, he found Tenticla underneath the bunker, then he turned a TANK into another pony, so he had a son now, she guessed. The AI mare was pretty advanced by now, and they even gave her a body!

With his life becoming more of a routine, time seemed to speed up even more, and it seemed like it wasn't any time at all that Polaris was getting into spacecraft technology. Lunimere was rather proud that Polaris and Saphira became the leading ponies when it came to making Spaceship software and computers! She even followed him into space one time, which was an odd experience, since she could float right out of the spaceship if she wanted.

And then, everything became a mess as Equestria began to fall apart. Suddenly, Polaris was all over the place again, and the monotony of the life he had settled into was shattered. For both her and him, it was like their lives had sped up and slowed down at the same time.

Soaring into space on the SS Twilight with him was incredible, and Lunimere couldn't wait to experince his new life with him. But things had gone pear-shaped, hadn't they? Shadow was a terrifying force to both Polaris and herself, because Lunimere could feel the mare's strong magic pulling at her whenever she floated close.

But she had just taken Polaris inside of her. Polaris, the stallion she loved and followed, no matter where he went. Lunimere hesitated for a good, long while, but she flew towards the giant mare, and she shuddered as she hit the magic, which resisted her for a brief moment before she sank into it. She cried out silently as she was absorbed by the whirling mess of magic, and she felt herself fading away into its chaotic power.

Author's Note

you know all those times where you do something really, really stupid but you were alone so nobody saw it

well good thing you weren't polaris

From disaster comes miracles

Shadow was just... standing there. Her eyes were closed, and she wasn't moving. That was the only thing that gave the ponies hope, that something good was happening inside. The sky had been darkening ever since Shadow drew the full power of her magic to herself, and it began to rain, the sky soaking everything, the city, Shadow, the ships. It made it hard to see what was going on, and it didn't really help the moody atmosphere on each ship and in the tiny growing settlement of ponies in the distance.

And inside, Polaris gasped. His final trick before the magic overwhelmed him was a desperate attempt to take control of it, and everything went black before he woke up in a black void. Floating in front of him was a cute looking unicorn, an image of a cute little brook on her flank, with a little bridge and everything. "W-Who are you!?" The mare said, looking at him with fear in her eyes. She had lost control of her magic, her body, and now she was trapped in this strange, dark place, with a Blue pony that she hadn't seen before. She didn't realize it was him who ripped her magic from her grip, but only enough to prevent her from controlling it while there was another pony inside. "Wuughh... huh? Who're you...? I uh, I'm Polaris?" He said, looking confused.

The anger that twisted the mare's face alarmed him, as she said, "Y-You! You did this to me! Give me back my powers!" She hissed, as the magic began to shift and broil around them. Polaris began to look nervous, and he looked to her as he said, "Y-You think I know how? This is more magic than I've used in centuries of living!" He said, gesturing at her. Now, his emotions were getting the better of him. "And hey, now that I have you here, what is it with you? Batpony genocide, really? What did they do to you? You've enslaved an entire country! You've betrayed one of the princesses! You've terrorized all of Equestria after we came here because our home was destroyed, and now you think you can ruin our new home, too!?" He yelled, the magic growing even more energized around them.

"Yes!" She yelled, and tears began to stream down her face as she began to realize what she had become. "They took everything from me! I... I had to! I don't need to explain myself to you! You're not welcome in here!" She yelled, as her horn began to glow. She was trying to retake control of her magic, refusing to face the mountain of guilt that had been boiling within her for years. But Polaris wasn't going to let it go. "You can't hide from yourself!" He yelled, into the howling storm of magic that was forming. And she let out a sob, saying, "They killed him! I loved him!"

And that struck a nerve. "What's what this is about!?" Polaris barked. His horn glowed brighteer as he dragged the mare close to him, and he grabbed onto her. In an oddly calm voice, he spoke. "It's been decades and decades since I watched the mare of my life, the pony I've loved more than anypony I'll ever love again, die in front of my very eyes, and while I might have killed the pony responsible, I was not weak like you" he hissed. Tears ran from his own eyes, and he shook her as he said, "You think I don't know loss!? I'm not stupid enough to think that every stallion with a cigarette in their mouth is responsible for what happened to her!" He yelled.

Brook was sagging beneath the weight of her own guilt by now. For the first time, she could think without the oppressive nature of her magic, and tried to squirm away as she gave up on the magic, her horn flickering out. "I... I've killed so many... were it not for the princess, I would have seen every batpony alive to their graves..." She said, "And then I came here, and I waited for the right time to trap all of them..." she said. After so long of hunting down batponies so she could kill them, Brook had become distant from her past. She barely saw batponies as ponies, and it made it easier for her to kill them. But Polaris was a normal pony, a pony who had seen the same sorrow as her, at least somewhat.

Brook wanted it to stop. Somewhere inside of herself, she knew that she had become a monster, and she was terrified of everything she had done. She didn't want to be saved, though. Ponies were forgiving, maybe, but Brook held a death toll that stretched far beyond what any other single pony could have accomplished.

She met Polaris' gaze, saying, "I... please, you can't let me keep going..." She said, her voice breaking up. Polaris was angry, but he understood. After he had destroyed the town of TreeVale, he had wanted his own life to stop, but his magic wouldn't let him. However, he also felt that the mare deserved punishment, though wasn't the horrible realization of what she had done an awful punishment in itself? Polaris growled, struggling to process the emotions, the magic, the deep ocean of power below him, the emotions within him, and he let go of Brook, shoving her away from him.

"I don't want to go back!" Screamed Brook, as she tumbled into the magic surging around them, disappearing inside of it. To the ponies outside, the mare began to change, the form hazing between what resembled Polaris, then the mare again, and back to Polaris. Inside of it, Polaris was shaking as he tried to direct the incomprehensible flow of magic, but he could barely interact with it. There was just so much of it, stretching at the binds of the pony form it was taking.

A pair of hooves touched his face. Polaris opened his eyes, and he focused them on Lunimere. Wait. Lunimere? Suddenly, the magic began to calm around him, and while he could now hear Brook sobbing in the magic she was half-buried in, he didn't care. "Luni... I..." He said softly, but she shushed him. "Polaris..." The mare said, smiling at him. "You can hear me?" She asked. He found it hard to talk, but Polaris felt tears run down his face once more as he quietly said "Lunimere...?"

She nodded quickly, saying, "I... I've been following you ever since that day, sweetie... I just... I dove in after you, I needed to try to help" She said. Now that was a revelation to him. "Y-You have? Really? I... I guess this magic is powerful enough to... to let you talk to me..." he said. She nodded, saying, "Yeah, it... it let me form a body, kind of, but I can't do much more with it". Lunimere looked around with a worried expression, saying, "W-What do we do about this? Can you control it?" He shook his head, saying, "I... no! I don't know what to do! I-I can't try to take hold of it, or it's just gonna take the first thing I feel and run with it! I can't even think of a spell that would put a dent into it, and... and..." he said, though his thoughts ground to a halt as he thought of one spell.

Lunimere smiled knowingly, and she nuzzled him as she said "Remember when you figured out a spell to generate a body? And bind a soul to it? By the way, none of those methods actually worked, I was pretty much screaming into the EMF detector..." Polaris put on a nervous grin, saying, "There's no way... I know this is a lot of magic, but Twilight told me that spell was impossible. Hell, it took a ton of magic just for us to grow back this guy's leg" he said. She smiled, saying, "I know, like I said, I've been here the whole time".

"Well..." Polaris said softly, "I'll try it. Best case scenario, I manage to do the impossible and bring you back... worst case, I join you" He said, smiling at her. She frowned for a moment, but she knew what the third option would be, and she wasn't so selfish as to put herself or her husband above the lives of all the ponies outside. She nodded, saying, "Go ahead", and he pulled the etheral mare close, putting together the spell. It took a while, and throughout, Lunimere held herself close to him. Calling out to the magic, Polaris guided some of it into a spell, and he set it into motion. It trickled at first, but the magic began to flow into the spell at exponentially faster speeds, making him shudder at the exchanges of power at work. Everything went white for both of the ponies, and it was then that they lost their grip on the world.

Brook looked up as she felt the magic moving, and she stared at the blue stallion as the power coursed into him. She noticed a second pony, and it confused her slightly, but she lost focus as the magic began to tumble and thrash around her. The screaming in her head went silent, along with the howling in her ears, and the pain filling her body.

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To the ponies on the outside, it was only minutes since Polaris disappeared that the monster began to resemble him, and it began to move as his body became more detailed. It seemed like he was somehow taking control of it, but only at first. The pony took one step, then it collapsed, shaking the ground. And as it knelt there, it began to glow and shrink, the living well of magic draining rapidly into a spell. The glow became brighter and brighter, until even Fluttershy couldn't see into it with her eyes nearly shut off entirely. The glow began to fade, but it was still too bright for all but the robotic mare to see. Floating inside of the webs of magic were three forms. One of them was most likely Polaris, as it was bigger than the others, and the brightness was the brightest around him. One of them was almost transparent to begin with, but it became solid like Polaris was as she watched.

The third pony, it convulsed a little bit, then it disentigrated to Fluttershy's surprise. Even more light poured from its body as the spell entered its final stages, consuming the soul and body of the pony as fuel for its fire. Suddenly, the magic in the air split in two. The bigger portion of it came rushing into Polaris, and he fell to the grass. The smaller portion disappeared inside of the other pony, and it fell to the grass next to him.

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Brook whimpered as she felt a hoof poke her. Then it slapped her. With a yelp, she opened her eyes, flinching in preperation of another strike. But it didn't come. Instead, she found herself looking up into a set of eyes that she hadn't seen in a long, long time. "R-Ri..." She stammered weakly, before the stallion grabbed her, and gently lifted her up. The mare shrunk down as she realized where they were- in a ghostly, yet beautiful batpony city, high in trees that didn't seem to ever reach the ground, if there was one. River smiled a little bit, and he nuzzled her as he said "You have a lot of apologies to make, but I'm glad that you made it here, my love".

Brook latched onto him, and tears of sorrow and happiness mixed together as she started to cry into his arms. Brook was not a pony with genuine evil in her heart, and with time, she would not only make amends, but she would become a far better pony than she ever was before.

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The first pony to teleport outside was Luna, and she looked down at the two bodies with a worried frown. One was Polaris, of course, and the other one she didn't recognise. As they both began to stir, Luna glared down at the mare, and her magic wrapped around her, picking her up. At the same time, both of them woke up. They locked eyes, though the look on their faces confused her. "Is this the mare responsible for this?" She asked, turning her gaze to Polaris. To her surprise, he waved his hooves at her in a panic, getting up as he said "P-Put her down!"

She was very confused, but she let go of the mare, and Polaris tackled her out of the air into a tight hug, both ponies laughing giddily and rolling around in the grass. Celestia joined Luna in the rain with a flash of her own magic, and she quickly joined her sister in looking confused. Finally, Polaris was the one to flash a wide, but nervous smile up at them. "I... you ever hear of ghosts?" He asked, which made Lunimere bust out in giggles.

Next up was Northern, and unlike the sisters, he could recognise the mare that Polaris only ever described while sobbing into a pillow. The princesses met his expression of shock with their own confused looks, and he met eyes with Polaris as he said, "How did you... Lunimere, right?" He asked, looking to the mare. "Yeah..." She said softly, "I didn't really have a choice, I dove in after him, and with all that magic I was actually able to talk to him for the first time since, well..." Northern turned to the princesses, saying, "Well, this would be Polaris' wife, in the flesh for the first time since 1948".

"Wait, wait, wait, you get trapped inside of an even more powerful version of the pony of shadows, and you come out of it with your wife?" Celestia asked. "I remember you telling me about... well... about her dying, in like, the fifties, when I came to you with that bunker plan!"

"And I was there!" Lunimere said. "I've been watching him since the day after I died, following him everywhere he went, even into that monstrous pony, and boy, I... I can't believe that worked..." She said, letting herself collapse into Polaris' arms with a weary smile. "I thought I was dead..." Polaris said. "Oh, I uh... boy, I wish twilight was here for me to tell her, but it took the full power of that magic, and the soul of the mare who was controlling it to recreate Lunimere's body and bind her to it"

"That's got to be the costliest spell in Equestria..." Northern said. "Bringing a pony back to life..." Celestia said, her unfocused gaze stretching out into the rain. Northern shuddered, and he said "Imagine if she had used the souls of all those batponies as-" He started to say, but he was interrupted by Luna suddenly yelling "MY BATPONIES!" into the rain, and he stumbled to the side as the blue mare took off, whapping both himself and Celestia in the face with her wings. The blue mare took off for the city, flying directly for the crystal structure that Shadow had trapped all of her former slaves in.

"You know, I was blown away by how unlikely the entire series of events with Silver was, and yet, he pulled it all off, and yet, you pulled all of this off" Celestia said. Polaris and Lunimere grunted as they picked each other off of the ground, and right about then, Cadence teleported herself in. "You don't need to tell me, I already know!" She said, squeezing the two ponies in a tight hug. Then, she turned to Celestia, saying, "Okay, auntie, are you finally ready to admit that Love is the strongest magic? It's saved the flanks of everypony on that ship twice now!" She said, only growing more excited as a defeated look took over Celestia's face. But there was a smile hidden behind it, and her words were drawn out as she said, "Well, I don't know..." to the bouncing pink mare, whose excitement reminded her somewhat of the late Pinkie Pie.

"Well, we have missed time to catch up on" Lunimere said, before she nipped Polaris, then took off running towards the giant purple ship. The blue stallion grinned as he started chasing her, and Cadence trotted in place with a happy giggle at the sight. Celestia smiled again, since it did make her happy to see Cady so happy. "What a day... week... have I even slept since we landed?" She asked, taking a moment to look up into the falling rain. "Tia, again!?" Cadence huffed, making the white mare break out in giggles of her own.

Author's Note

sorry dis one got a bit heavy

at least nobody touched sasha

Rebuilding two empires at once

Luna wasn't the first one to wake up in the room full of batponies. Her ear twitched as she picked up words, and she heard a pony whispering "T-There's no way that's Luna! Why would she be stuck in here with us?" Another voice answered, saying, "Maybe she came back to rescue us and got stuck, too? W-What if those things are coming back?" Luna cleared her throat, and her horn lit up with a gentle light as she sat up. "Sorry for falling asleep, guys..." She said, as she stood up, shaking herself a little. "It's a long, long story, but you've all slept for centuries, and the mare that imprisoned you is long gone" She said. Luna gently pounced on a nearby, scared-looking mare, and she gave her a warm hug and a nuzzle to try helping her feel better.

As she did, she smirked at some of the others, saying, "We're busting out of here~". Once all of the batponies were woken up and given rough explanations of the situation, Luna lit up her horn, and with a flash of her magic, the Luna-Sized hole in the wall became much bigger, shards of crystals flying out into the grass. With Luna at the front, the Lunar empire took to the skies, flying over their ruined city to the plains where their evil ruler had been dispatched. As they landed, two batponies came flying from the Celestia. They both landed, one trotting into the crowd to find her friends, one looking into it with worry across his face. It was an older stallion, and the lines in his face weren't being helped by the worried expression. Out of the crowd came a velvet red mare, just slightly younger than him. Tears ran down her face as she dove into his arms, and she muffled the words "I'm so sorry!" into his chest.

"M-Misty, what's wrong...?" He asked, looking down at his sister. "Y-You're okay, right?" He said. Looking up at him, then at Luna, she said "I-I woke up that... that thing..." in a soft voice, and Luna's worried frown turned into a smile as she sat down next to the pair, giving them a hug. She poked Misty with her snout, saying, "Don't you dare blame yourself... if it wasn't you, it would be someone else" she said. It was hard to ignore a message from Luna herself, so Misty sheepishly smiled at her, giving the princess a weak nod. "Come on misty, you need a rest... we're too old for this much chaos" said her brother, as he stood up and took her hoof. "Yeah, yeah, Drift... t-thank you, Luna" Misty said, returning the Alicorn's nuzzle. Luna grinned a bit more, saying, "And hey, you waking them up led to them being saved ya know". That made Misty's smile widen in a more genuine way, before she took off for the ship with her brother.

The rain had stopped before they left the crystal prison, but the clouds had just began to part to allow the sun through. Luna turned around, gazing at the crowd. Tears welled up in her eyes, which contrasted with the wide, happy smile on her face. "For centuries, I've thought I let all of you ponies die, and yet here I am, standing in front of every last one of my little batponies~!" She said, prancing just a little. "I hope you all can find it in you to forgiv-" she started to say, before squeaking as she suddenly got to experience a lot of ponies yelling at her, then it was Luna being smothered with hugs instead of giving them out. Well, she considered that to be a point taken!

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After one Month, things had settled down. It was decided that the Lunar City would stay a city for batponies, and Luna and her bat winged children were all hard at work restoring it. At the other end of the grassy plains, New Canterlot was being built! The same rock quarries that supplied the Lunar City's stonework were brought back to life, and with all of Equestria working together, it seemed like New Canterlot was going to be finished before the lunar city was restored!

It wasn't a race, though. Some of Equestria's ships moved to more convient places, but the four princessly freighters stayed, resting in a line against the forest. Not everypony chose to move out of the ships and into New Canterlot, and eventually, enough ponies moved out of the hulking ships for all of the ponies left inside to have their own rooms. The top floor of the SS Twilight had become the next PolariSoft, where Polaris, Saphira, and Fluttershy had gotten to work kickstarting Equinox's new Internet. Prop and Track had settled in just fine, and so had Reeve and Tenti.

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Pearl, Polaris' mom, had invited Tinker to come live in the room next to hers, and he didn't mind. After he had moved in, Pearl came over to his quarters, not through the main hallway, but through the doorway to her own living space, which she'd covered with nothing but a curtain. "Wait, that's... there's a doorway there?" Tinker asked, looking confused to spot it. The smile Pearl gave him as she walked up to him made his chest flutter just a little, and the older mare Nuzzled him softly instead of saying anything. "So, I know we're both getting up there in years..." She said, leaning against him, somewhat like a cat. "I thought maybe you and I could keep each other company~" She said, kissing the dragonpony's jaw. The way his wings flew open gave her the answer she was hoping for, and she giggled as she pulled him down into a kiss.

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Celestia had moved into New Canterlot, along with Northern, the ponies of ThreeTown, and some of the other UnderWorld communities. It was only the ponies of DarkRock, Crystal Cavern, and Limestone town that decided to stay on the ship. Luna, obviously, had already moved into the half-restored Lunar Castle, and for now, the Crystal Empire had spread to take over most of the Cadence and the Luna, which was fine by the blue princess since she had her home picked already.

Equinox's very first Mango tree was planted in one of the Lunar City's gardens, by a very excited looking blue batpony. He also planted trees two through twenty, though not all of them fit in the garden.

Author's Note

the empire didn't actually have mangos before so a lot of batponies are gonna be seein the light

Epilogue

"Okay, I'm ready!" Chirped Lunimere. Fluttershy grinned, saying, "Awesome!" As she fluttered her wings. The two mares had become good friends ever since Lunimere's return, and by proxy, Polaris had become better friends with Silver as well. The four ponies were going on a picnic for the two month anniversary of their landing on Equinox, and Fluttershy was the one carrying the food, even though she was the only one who wouldn't be eating anything. There was no arguing with the sole remaining element though, so she held the basket on her back as they headed out into the forest.

Not only was the Lunar City being rebuilt, but some of the batponies had been building more traditioinal treehouses! One of them in particular had a wonderful view of the ships and the two cities, and Fluttershy had promised an actual truckload of treehouse supplies if the owner of the house let them have it for the night. She planned to send the truck over anyway, and the stallion who owned the house wouldn't have even asked her to pay him, but it worked out anyway.

It was quite the climb, though... Lunimere told Polaris "No shortcuts~" at the bottom, and Fluttershy only needed to look at Silver with a grin to convey the same message, and the two mares giggled as they followed their husbands upwards. At the top, Lunimere was happy to find a table and four chairs already set up, and she pushed Polaris into one of them so she could sit next to him. Flutters and Silver took the other two, and the AI set down all of the food they'd brought, cuddling up to Silver's side once she was done.

"You know, I can't believe that we're all still here just because of you and me" Silver said, smiling towards Polaris. "Says the one I carried out of Sparkle Labs..." Fluttershy said, smirking at him a little. Lunimere gently poked Polaris, saying, "I hope you don't think that I'm not the one who saved us~" She said, poking his snout with her sandwich before she took a bite of it. Polaris snorted, saying, "Oh, I don't even wanna think of what would've happened if you hadn't helped me sort that magic out...", and he nuzzled her softly once he finished.

Fluttershy turned her eyes to the sunset as the other three kept eating... Silver didn't talk much while eating, and Polaris and Lunimere were talking to each other. But she didn't mind. She wanted to watch the sunset, and a mixed expression of sadness and happiness spread across her snout as she let her mind wander.

She couldn't help but wonder if Twilight was there with her, hovering off to one side like Lunimere had done with Polaris for so many years.

Author's Note

I wanna live in a batpony treehouse