The Crystal Eclipse

Chapters

The Fall of the Hanging City
The Five Elements
My Precious Wings are Broken
The Hive
Surrender
The Re-Mark of a Cutiemark: Part One
The Re-Mark of a Cutiemark: Part Two
The Icy Snowfield
Pure Hatred

The Fall of the Hanging City

Everything seemed to stop in Equestria as the Moon rose to cover the sun. The logical assumption was that Luna had turned into Nightmare Moon again. Celestia was missing and the power had gotten the best of Luna. Making her crave it so much that she turned into Nightmare Moon again.

The ponies of Canterlot knew better.

Mere minutes before the Solar Eclipse, a young filly unicorn trotted out of Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. She pulled out a book from her saddle-bag and began to carefully read through it. She weaved and maneuvered in between crowds until she reached her home. She smiled. Thinking about how her dear mother was probably making her favourite dinner to celebrate her first day in the best school in Equestria.

Suddenly, there were screams of alarm as the world around her darkened. She looked up and also cried to alarm as the moon moved in the sky, to block out the sun. Strangers looked at strangers. Hopping that somepony had an answer. Then there were sounds of an explosion in the distance. She watched as guards galloped past her, yelling at anypony outside to get inside.

She felt her mother grab her and began pulling her into their house with fear. The little filly's curiosity got the best of her. She broke free of her mother's grip and galloped into the middle of the street. She squinted her eyes as they adjusted to the unnatural darkness and watched as an Alicorn slowly made her way down the main street of Canterlot.

Guards were too determined to stop the new threat to notice the filly and immediately started attacking her. The Alicorn looked familiar to her. But the darkness was affecting her vision so much that she wouldn't tell who exactly it was. The alicorn bucked a few earth ponies as she blasted pegasi out of the fire. The blast hit a nearby building and set it ablaze. There.

The fire illuminated the figure.

It was Princess Celestia.

She made quick work of the twenty or so guards with mild destruction to the buildings surrounding the area. She slowly marched forward and stopped and stared back at the small filly, who at this point was too confused and scared to even move.

"P-Princess Ce-Celestia?"

The figure, who resembled Celestia in almost every way gave her an evil toothy grin with sharp teeth. The Alicorn flared up her horn. The filly shielded her eyes. Waiting for oblivion when she felt the ground shake at the impact of something hitting it at great speeds. She opened her eyes once more to see Princess Luna in front of her. Her mother galloped forwards and picked her up. Rushing her back into the safety of their home as Luna stared down at her sister.

"Celestia? What has happened to you, sister?" She asked with concern. Celestia chuckled and flared up her horn. There was no longer compassion or kindness in her eyes, which scared Luna more than she predicted.

"I have seen the light."

Celestia blasted a shot at Luna. Luna flew into the air and fired a shot at Celestia. Celestia blocked it with a shield and slammed it into Luna. Luna went flying into one of the nearby buildings. Her fur and wings were cut and bruised from the impact with even a few splinters. She stumbled out of the rubble and was tackled by Celestia.

Celestia's eyes glowed green and red with purple as she pressed her hoof against Luna's throat with a sick twisted smile.

"This is more fun than I thought."

Luna used her back leg to kick Celestia in the stomach. She yelped in pain and stumbled away before Luna encircled her in an orb of pure darkness. It was a spell Luna invent generations ago. It was supposed to encase the victim and make them go to sleep. Dreaming of nightmares so awful as to break their mind. It was mostly made to give Luna time on how to handle the pony in question.

She only ever used it once on Starswirl to get the spell to make her Nightmare Moon. It nearly made him go insane. She never thought she would be forced to use it again. She never thought she would have to use it on her own sister. But, the spell was not built to contain Alicorns.

Celestia burst out of the bubble and landed on the ground as if nothing happened. Luna stumbled away in surprise.

"Give me Equestria, Luna. Or...I will have to take it by force." Celestia snapped. Luna's mind frantically tried to come up with some other plan when Celestia conjured up a sword and held her in place as she brought it up to her throat. She knew that Celestia was going to kill her any second now. Whatever was attacking Celestia's mind was much more twisted and cruel than Nightmare Moon ever was. "Surrender or die."

Luna knew she couldn't do anything. She had to retreat and come up with a better plan.

"I...I surrender."

"Pity. I was hoping for more of a fight so this would be more justified in the history books. Oh well. History can be manipulated." Celestia muttered. Luna felt fear at unknown levels. She closed her eyes as she felt the blade slice across her throat.

Blood spilled onto the streets and any bystander screamed in horror as Luna dropped to the ground. Gripping her throat in an attempt to stop the blood from leaving her body. She looked up at her sister's red and green eyes as her vision faded to black.

Twilight Sparkle had arrived in Canterlot sometime in the past week. She must have been over-exhausted from studying all week so that is probably why she didn't remember any of it. She had bigger problems now than just Celestia's disappearance. There was a Solar Eclipse and a wave of destruction going through Canterlot. Her friends were still in Ponyville and this was one of the moments she wished they were with her. She was terrified. Something told her this was going to end very badly.

She galloped onto the main street and came to a halt when she witnessed Princess Celestia holding a sword, almost as bright as the sun itself, against Luna's throat. Princess Celestia didn't look like her normal self. Her eyes were green and red with purple emanating from them. There were dark veins sticking out of parts of her body. Her mane was limp and she had battle injuries, such as deep lashes, scratches and bruises all over her body. The worse ones were noticeably on her back.

She and Luna seemed to be exchanging a few words when suddenly the blade sliced across Luna's throat. Blood spilled onto the streets and Luna collapsed. Twilight screamed along with a few others and managed to have enough courage to gallop towards the elder Alicorn. She fired at Celestia.

She was too enraged to care how it hurt her teacher. Celestia screamed as the purple energy hit her body and flung her back. Leaving very bad burns of charred fur and flesh on parts of her body. Twilight took a sharp left turn towards Luna. Who had passed out from lack of blood. She teleported the pair to Ponyville medical hospital. She had never done that big of a jump before, it caused her lots of pain and disorientation.

The nurses and Doctors quickly rushed around them. Immediately going to help Luna while some tried to get Twilight's attention. She stumbled and swayed and managed to see Luna being rushed into the emergency wing before her vision completely faded into black.

Bini and Arone were being escorted by Shining Armour and three guards towards the throne room. They had told Cadence everything they thought she needed to know and desperately had spent the past half an hour convincing her that Arone wasn't evil like the rest of the Changelings.

Chocolate and Rocky were being escorted to another part of the castle where the guest rooms were located while Cadence had requested their attendance in the throne room to discuss the whole "Celestia killing Sombra" situation further. They passed a series of large windows and paused when the daylight started to rapidly fade. Everypony looked outside the window in alarm as the Solar Eclipse took place.

"Oh no," Arone muttered. Shining Armour looked at them. His eyes pleading for answers.

"Do you know anything about this?" He asked.

The pair shook their heads. Unable to look away from the event taking place outside. Shining Armour motioned the guards to hurry everypony up. They broke into a gallop towards the throne room.

Celestia stared down at the pool of her own sister's blood that started to attach itself to her own hoof. She lifted her hoof up to examine it. Deep buried emotions were horrified at her actions. They struggled to the surface but lost the battle within moments when the sick and cruel emotions flared in her mind.

Luna was dead.

She was, now, the true ruler of Equestria. She let out a series of evil laughs that shook most ponies to their core. The citizens cowered in the safety of loved ones of just strangers as the Royal Guard and Lunar Guard joined forced to take down the sun Princess. She looked at the approaching ponies. A large group moved to surround her in the skies and an even larger group filled the streets around her.

"Fools." She growled and reared up on her front hoofs as they all moved to attack. She hit the ground hard. Causing a shock wave to knock everypony off their hoofs. She snarled as they looked around the city. Canterlot was useless, It was going to crumble sooner or later. The Crystal Empire was home to the Crystal heart. With the crystal heart gone, with the elements gone. No pony could stop her.

You see, Celestia had come to the conclusion that Twilight had teleported Luna to the nearest medical hospital. Which, of course, was in Canterlot. So even if Luna did survive, which Celestia doubted would happen, when the city crumbled it would take the Element of magic and the Moon Princess with it.

It was true she would lose a few hundred citizens but most of the unicorn population lived in Canterlot. Unicorns had the highest chance of hitting Celestia with their unicorn magic. That was another threat eliminated. Celestia flared up her horn and caused the foundations of Canterlot to crumbled.

The hanging city fell down the mountain. Thousands of screams filled the air and were silent within seconds as the city hit the ground below. Celestia flew above the destruction. Feeling absolutely nothing.

---End of Chapter One---

The Five Elements

It happened within seconds. The five elements bearers and the dragon assistant Spike were worrying about their friend Twilight Sparkle as the darkness of the world around them from the Solar Eclipse allowed them to watch the destruction that befell Canterlot.

Then the foundations began to crumble and the city fell off the mountain. The ponies of Ponyville swore they heard screams of horror for even a few seconds as it crumbled to the ground below. Everypony stayed in silent shock. Unable to believe that they had just witnessed the fall of the Capitol City of Equestria.

"No-No. There is no way..." Rainbow Dash was the first to speak as she lowered herself to the ground and tears prickled her eyes. "That-This is just a bad dream..."

Pinkie's mane instantly deflated and she collapsed to the ground in sobs. Applejack pulled down her hat to hide her tears, think about how just a few hours ago everything was normal in Equestria. Well, other than Celestia's disappearance. Rarity pulled a sobbing Fluttershy into a hug and buried herself into her friend's mane to avoid the others seeing her makeup run down her face as grief overtook her.

Spike took a few more steps in the direction of where the former Capitol City of Equestria once stood proud. He didn't know what to say or do at the sight or thought of a pony he considered his older sister to be dead. He didn't want to believe it. He refused to accept it.

Suddenly there was the sound of somepony screaming for assistance. The ponies who weren't able to witness the destruction of Canterlot peeked out of their homes and drew attention to the frantic nurse Redheart galloping towards the five elements.

"T-Tw-" Redheart paused to breathe as Applejack rushed over, trying to calm her down. Pushing back her own emotions for the sake of others. Redheart took deep breathes of the air and laid a hoof on Applejack's shoulder.

"C-Calm down, Sugarcube. Tell me slowly..." Applejack insisted as Redheart studdered as if she had seen something so awful that she couldn't express it in words.

"Twi-Twilight S-Sparkle and Pr-Princess Luna are in- T-The Ponyville General H-Hospital!" Redheart finally blurted out. The elements perked up immediately with Spike and rushed over to join a stunned Applejack. Rarity knocked Applejack over and pressed both her hoofs on Redhearts chest. Causing her to stumble back.

"Alive!? A-Are you sure, darling? Absolutely sure?"

Redheart had nodded and finally gained enough air to speak normally again without wheezing or pausing to breathe some more.

"They teleported in a few minutes ago. Princess Luna was severely injured and Twilight had overused her magic to teleport from, I assume, Canterlot. Tw-Twilight passed out and we started to move her into a room when she briefly woke up and muttered to get her friends and baby brother dragon. I immediately thought of you ponies and...Erm...Dragon. Then galloped over here. Come, she might wake up again..." Redheart said. The group immediately started to gallop to the outskirts of Ponyville where the hospital was.

(An hour after the fall of Canterlot)

Cadence was pacing and panicking. Pacing and panicking. Bini thought she looked pretty good for somepony who just figured out that her aunties were lying to her and now had to explain to an empire full of confused crystal ponies why the moon was blocking out the sun.

She looked briefly up at the solar eclipse through the large crystal windows then back to Bini and Arone.

"When did Celestia say she was going to kill Sombra?" Cadence asked with a shaky voice.

"A little more than a week ago. She planned on leaving as soon as her injuries from a...The recent battle in the badlands healed." Arone said. Being careful of his every word. Bini leaned into Arone's ear as Cadence became distracted once again by the situation.

"You should just tell her the truth." She whispered. Arone drew back from her and scowled before whispering into her ear.

"You don't even know the whole truth. We kept the truth from Luna for a reason and I am not going to give up Celestia's secrets all because the moon blocked out the sun. For all we know, this could be Luna's doing."

"Luna wouldn't dare turn into Nightmare Moon again, knowing what the elements could do to her. Besides she was willing to risk our mental health to figure out what happened to Celestia. For all we know, this is Celestia's doing! And if she planned on doing it when her injuries healed...Then will all her medical knowledge, she should have had them healed right about now or earlier."

"You are jumping to a conclusion that we have no proof of." Arone snapped a bit louder than he would have hoped. They both looked up to make sure they weren't being heard. Cadence had moved to the entrance of the throne room to talk with her husband. Arone and Bini bowed their heads again to whisper into each other's ear. Bini discreetly pointed to the solar eclipse.

"There are only two ponies in our life that can move those big things in the sky. One of them is missing. The other was clearly terrified for her sister and took whatever action she could to bring her back. She didn't come back. Celestia is either still missing or-"

Bini stopped talking and her ears perked up in alarm. Arone looked around, then back at his friend with narrowed eyes.

"What is it?" He asked. Then tried to listen for any unusual sounds other than the sound of distant galloping echoing across the halls thanks to the Crystal material of the castle. "I don't hear anything."

"That is just it." Bini muttered. "We don't hear anything. We should be hearing Princess Cadence and Shining Armour still arguing near the entrance."

They looked towards the entrance of the throne room and noted the absence of Princess Cadence and Shining Armour. All that was left was a scroll on the ground. Bini and Arone approached it slowly as if it was some sort of trap. Bini picked it up and began to read the letter out loud.

"Dear Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Prince Shining Armour of the Crystal Empire,"

Bini paused and looked up at Arone for silent confirmation that it was OK to read the letter. Arone nodded and urged her to go on. Her eyes shifted back to the letter and she took a deep breath before continuing.

"We regret to inform you that Twilight Sparkle and Princess of the Moon Luna were admitted to the Ponyville General Hospital. Twilight Sparkle presented with severe symptoms of magic overuse. Princess Luna's throat with sliced deeply with battle wounds. She is currently in Emergency Medical care and it is too soon to tell if she will survive.

According to Twilight Sparkle, during her brief time of being conscious, she informed us that Canterlot had fallen. Which was confirmed by numerous eyewitnesses in Ponyville that watched the Capitol City of Canterlot crumble from its mountain mid-afternoon today.

Recuse teams from Manhatten and Ponyville are headed to the remains of the city to search for survivors. By order of Princess Celestia, if Canterlot was to fall. The Crystal Empire was to be the temporary capital of Equestria until a new one could be established.

May the sun and moon be on your side.

-Ponyville Medical Association (PMA)"

Bini let the letter fall out of her grasp and they both stared up at the solar eclipse once again.

"We are so screwed," Bini muttered and Arone started to twitch nervously. This was getting to be too much for him. He was in way over his head. "W-What are we going to do?"

Arone moved around erratically. Hoping that looking at the decor of the Empire would stir some sort of emotion or plan for him to answer her. After a tense few minutes of Bini following Arone as they trotted through the castle with no true destination.

"Well? Answer me!" Bini barked. Arone spun around to face her with aggression.

"I don't know Bini! I can't be the one that always finds the stupid little plan that moves our lives along! Which, to be honest, usually don't even work so really everything is screwed. As you said, we are screwed. We failed and there is nothing else we can do."

"There are other things we can do. W-We can try..." Bini's voice faltered and trailed off as she couldn't come to a conclusion. "Well, there has to be something!"

Arone scoffed.

"Yeah. Come up with a plan that would ACTUALLY work and then come back to me." Arone said and then galloped off. Looking for Cadence and Shining Armour. Bini turned around in the corridor and spotted a guard near her. Trying to pretend with a straight face that he didn't just hear their argument. She sighed and sat beside the guard.

"What would your plan be?" She asked in a weak attempt of humour because she is well aware that the guards never respond.

"I have no clue what the context of that argument was about but I suggest go to the reformed Lord of Chaos." The guard replied with a completely straight face. Bini was too emotionally exhausted to even muster up a surprised reaction at that response. She simply gave him a tired look then looked back down at her hoofs.

"That's too easy."

Bini hurried off to the Library. Which took longer than she expected to find. She wasted another hour and a half of her life before she found the biggest Library in her life. Her heart tightened at the thought of her former job. Sure, the Canterlot Library wasn't the best but...It was like a second home to her.

She shook the thoughts away and brushed away her tears. She talked with the Librarian and was soon delivered a map of Equestria and its borders. She grabbed a bunch of books about fighting, different armies in the past and Alicorn magic. Bini began reading her books as she headed back to her room followed by a guard. She shut herself away for many hours. Arone hadn't found Cadence and he wasn't sure he wanted to.

He headed back to his room. Occasionally stumbling because of his Changeling form. Thanks to the ring on his horn he wasn't allowed to change form at will. Pretty creative. He paused when a guard handed his armed guard a scroll. He looked it over and then handed it to Arone.

"Meet me at 9 pm. I have a plan on how to stop this. -Bini Filters"

9 pm passed and went. Arone was a good 30 minutes late to Bini's meeting in her room.

Bini tapped her hoof impatiently as Arone entered. Rocky and Chocolate were looking over Bini's crazy rantings and Arone looked around Bini's guest room to see scrolls littering the floor and parts of the bare wall.

"What is this? The ravings of a mad mare?" Arone commented. Bini rolled her eyes and grabbed the papers Rocky and Chocolate were holding.

"Why were you late?" Bini asked with a sideways glance. Arone moved to sit on the bed next to Bini and Rocky and Chocolate lounged on the pillows on the floor.

"Doesn't matter. What's the plan?" Arone asked. Bini sipped her Hot Chocolate and circled some of her notes around her.

"We are going to-"

They all screamed as an explosion hit the castle. It vibrated across the crystal structure.

"WHAT THE BUCK WAS THAT!?"

The window shattered as a bright-line flashed outside and more explosions were heard. The group piled into each other as they stuck their heads out the window to look at the city below. They saw two Alicorns fighting in the air near the crystal heart. The snowstorm had been worse when the eclipse happened but it had somehow gotten worse. The streets started to fill with snow. They watched the pink Alicorn being flung across the ground and slammed into the castle.

They saw a white alicorn, that blended into the storm flap their powerful wings towards the Princess.

Rocky took out binoculars from...Somewhere. Bini, Arone and Chocolate were too interested in the fight to notice. He put them on and zoomed in on the mysterious Alicorn. He slowly brought them down with a terrified look.

"It's Celestia."

Arone immediately grabbed the binoculars and flowed his action. Then gasped. They were given to Bini, then Chocolate. The circle was complete. Princess Celestia was attacking the Crystal Empire.

"You really should have seen this coming." A male voice spoke between the shocked silence. They screamed in surprise and turned to see Discord on a lawn chair, looking over Bini's notes with glasses and a magnifying glass. He looked over to them and tilted his glasses down slightly.

"You didn't actually believe I wouldn't figure out this was going on, did you?"

---End of Chapter Two---

My Precious Wings are Broken

Author's Note

Halfway through this chapter, it gets pretty mushy pretty fast. Cringy is more like it. Just a warning. Hint: It involves Dislestia.

My Precious Wings are Broken

Bini let out a dry laugh and then doubled over. Which actually concerned Discord for a moment. It concerned everypony for a few minutes. Bini was laughing so hard that she was crying when she pointed at Discord.

"You could have fixed this!" She yelled. Her cries of laughter started derailing into cries of sorrow. "You knew what was bucking going on with her and now Canterlot is gone! My remaining family is dead along with it. We are all probably going to be next because you decided that Equestria wasn't worth saving!" She yelled.

Discord opened his mouth to defend himself when Bini used her magic to shut his mouth shut.

"I AM NOT FINISHED!" She yelled and slammed her hoof into Discord's chest to make a point. "All you did was make goo goo eyes at Celestia and probably told her everything was going to be fine. Look around Discord! If you don't figure out a way to either help us or remove whatever parasite has attached to her brain then so help me-"

It was Discord's turn to shut somepony up. He snapped his fingers and closed Bini's mouth with a zipper. She kept yelling at him, which the group was sure were curse words that no pony had spoken in quite a few hundred years.

"We have already been over this. You can't hurt me. I can hurt you. Just shut up and listen." He snapped with anger meant for Celestia directed at Bini. "I tried to fix Celestia the night after our little pep talk. I tried to suck the presence out of her mind with all my magic. It didn't work. I tried again. Then I tried a few hundred more times. I tried until sunrise. I tried three nights after that in secret. I don't have pony magic. My magic isn't stable enough to rip something that influential out of her mind."

Discord finally unzipped her mouth. Bini jumped on Discord, knocking him to the floor and pressed all her body weight on him.

"If you want a future with Celestia. You are going to help us. Even Alicorns can die." Bini growled. Discord made her float into the air and dusted himself off dramatically. As if Bini's words didn't have an effect on him. They did. But Discord wasn't about to admit that.

The group heard shouts outside calling for backup as screams of pain and terror echoes across the empire. Discord turned to them with a sad expression.

"As I am sure somepony has mentioned before. I can't bring ponies back from death. He opened the door to Bini's bedroom slowly. "Be careful."

The group nodded their silent thanks and started towards the exit of the room.

"Oh, and Filters..."

Bini stood with everypony else.

"Consider your plan more. We aren't at war yet."

Cadence slammed into the castle. She heard the crystal crack beneath her body. She allowed the cold to numb her pain from what she was sure was a broken back hoof. She really didn't want to hurt auntie Celestia. She stared back at the white Alicorn with eyes that stood out with their green and red colours. No longer magenta and white. Her black veins were sticking out. Her skin was tighter along her body. She was overall thinner. Probably from not eating since she was missing. But there was no way Cadence could prove that. Her mane wasn't flowing a sparkling like it usually was. It was limp and dull. She had royal armour on that was clearly made by her own magic.

"Auntie, this isn't you." Cadence whispered weakly. "Come back. Be the Princess Equestria needs."

Celestia punched Cadence hard. Flinging her back to the ground near the Crystal heart. She groaned and felt magic pushing her down on her back. Her vision shook as Celestia stared down at her with what almost looked like remorse.

"I have already fallen to hell and I can't fly up. My precious wings are broken." She said as if reciting a song. "It was part of a song my mother sang to me whenever I got in trouble. It was meant to scare me. Unfortunately that song...That verse has become true. My mother was a Queen. She died a villain. It seems to run in the family. Except for the death part. I am not going to die."

Cadence's eyes widened as she completely understood the pony before wasn't her auntie. At least not at that moment.

"I am..." Celestia conjured up and the sword of light with corrupted parts flickering around and she pointed it directly at Cadence's heart. Cadence struggled with her earth pony magic to get free. She tried to use her alicorn powers but they fluctuated thanks to Celestia's magic draining her power at that moment. "Queen Celestia. Queen of the sun and moon."

Cadence started letting out a delusional laugh and coughed up some blood. Then smiled with bloody teeth at Celestia. Her brain was probably concussed and damaged. The fight had affected her judgement and she could help but laugh at how stupid the pony was before her.

"Only of the sun, you idiot." She snapped. She no longer was seeing her auntie and was staring down a creature of darkness. "The Moon has a will of its own."

Celestia's dark eyes grew wide and she twisted her head slightly at Cadence with clear pure confusion.

"What do yo-"

Celestia cried out as Shining Armour blasted a lazer of hot plasma at Celestia. She stumbled away with the first half of her body badly burned. Shinning Armour ran over to his injured wife with a backup of guards behind him. He teleported her to the medical wing and faced down Celestia.

Celestia healed her injuries like it was nothing. She returned. Unwounded.

"How do you expect to kill the immortal, mortal unicorn?"

Shining Armour backed away and looked around at the dead guards littering the streets. The blood spilled on the streets. He turned to see the visitors and Discord exiting the castle and coming to a stop just behind Shining Armour. He didn't like the Changeling, Discord, or even the Librarian who worked in the Royal castle for that matter, he was fine with the other two. But even on his worse enemies. He wouldn't wish death here and now.

"Run!" He barked and gestured his guards to follow him. He had trained them well. They galloped after him as he approached Celestia. He didn't want to die today, tomorrow, or next year. But it was going to happen.

He will die for the good of the Empire.

There was a white flash of light. Shinning Armour expected to be dead at that very moment. Instead, he felt the cold air still hitting his fur. Her armour freezing up and restricting movements. He slowly opened his eyes to find himself floating in the air and moving farther away from Alicorn and...Discord.

Discord stood in front of Celestia was Bini, Arone and the two assistants.

"Get out of Tia's head." He growled with venom that Shining Armour had never heard before. "Get out."

"Aw." Celestia said with fake softness. "Still pretending to care about me despite abandoning our relationship for your own selfish reasons. Can't I be selfish once in a while, Dizzy?"

"I made awful mistakes and decisions that I regret every day. My biggest regret was leaving you." Discord said. Bini had started to visibly gag from being subjected to this lovey mushy mojo. This sick dance that those two have been playing might finally start coming to an end soon.

Yet Bini was afraid that one of them would die before it came to a satisfying conclusion. Before the dance number ended. Bini rolled her eyes at her own mediocre metaphor. If she could just shut her mind off, this would be a lot easier.

Discord leaned forwards slowly and gulped. He was acting very unusual. Arone was very confused as to why Celestia didn't blast him across Equestria. Then her eyes changed. A few seconds revealed magenta eyes staring back at him. Not evil.

"Dizzy,...I...I want this to stop."

Discord planted a soft kiss on Celestia's lips which caused tears to fall from her cheeks.

"I know."

She screamed in pain and reared back. She stumbled away and her eyes formed back to green and red with purple emitting from her eyes.

"Damn it!" She screamed and raised her head to the sky. "That pathetic Princess WON'T STOP FIGHTING ME!"

"I think she is having an identity crisis because of the magic." Arone muttered out loud. Bini nodded and started to back away and Celestia grabbed her head. Trying to push down the better part of her.

Discord looked towards the group.

"Have you made up your mind about the plan, Filters?"

Bini nodded.

"Don't fail, you below-average unicorn." He said with a smirk. Bini shrugged.

"At least I don't have to deal with an insane Alicorn."

Discord snapped his claws and they were dropped in the middle of a forest. They groaned as they landed and Bini got up on shaking hoofs to noticed that her saddlebag was attached to her back with all the essentials. She smiled as Arone pulled himself up and touched his horn. Finding that the ring holding back his magic was gone.

He wobbled over Bini and leaned against her for support. He glanced into the dark woods as Rocky and Chocolate helped each other up.

"Wh-What did you do, Bini?" He asked as he rubbed his eyes.

"We are going to get the Changelings help," Bini said as if that was some sort of normal statement. She pointed to a barren wasteland past the lush forest they could see in the distance that had a deformed castle the seemed to be built by nature and bugs in the distance. "This is going to get bloody."

"I hate this plan already," Rocky mumbled with Arone and Chocolate nodding in agreement.

---End of Chapter Three---

The Hive

Bini took a step forwards toward the badlands. Arone blocked her path and glared at her.

"I want details as to what this plan of yours is because thanks to you, we are thousands of kilometres away from the Crystal Empire." Arone barked. Bini rolled her eyes and took a few steps back for the sake of her personal space.

"We need help! Celestia is clearly going to destroy Equestria until she has complete control of the population which will lead to war. The Griffins won't help. The hippogriffs are all extinct and the Dragons hope that we plunge ourselves into war so that when everything is said and done, they can swoop in and take over Equestria. The only species that we have a chance of alliancing with the Changelings. They need us to be able to survive. When we are all gone, the changelings can't survive on wild animals alone. You, of all ponies, should understand that." Bini explained.

"We don't know that the hippogriffs are dead! We could still go to mount-"

Chocolate and Rocky joined the argument. Chocolate cleared her throat to interrupt Arone.

"I am sorry, Arone. But Bini has a point. It is true that the history books have no proof that the hippogriffs became extinct but at the same time, there is no proof that the hippogriffs are alive. But let's say, just for a moment, that they are. It wouldn't matter because they have no trade negotiations with Equestria. They aren't negatively impacted by Equestria falling. I can't believe I am saying this but...We need to see the Changeling Queen."

"There are other options! Options that won't get us killed!" Arone yelled. Rocky moved to stand beside Arone. The group was divided. They were at war with themselves. They had to end it before they would make the next decision that would either destroy Equestria further or end the tyrant.

"The longer we stand here arguing about it! More and more ponies are going to die in the Empire! It will end up like Canterlot again. Only the city won't crumble down a mountain, it will probably burn by the power of the sun. So let's go to the damn hive and get this over with." Bini explained.

"Oh sure. So Hypothetically. We walk into the hive. Three of us are ponies, one is a Changeling who commits treason. You know what equals immediate death. And while we are dead, no pony else thinks of a plan and they are all focusing on the present. Not the future. We are the only ones who can fix this. Getting ourselves killed isn't going to-"

"Have you never heard of the Elements of Harmony? They are probably thinking of a way to fix this." Chocolate said.

"The element of magic is in the hospital. I think they are busy making sure Twilight Sparkle doesn't die!" Arone argued.

"Twilight Sparkle isn't the one who is going to die. Princess Luna will with her cut throat!"

"Wait, wait, wait." Rocky said. Waving his hoof to get their attention. "First you mention that Chanterlot crumbled off a mountain, now you are telling me that Princess Luna is about to DIE!? What is going on?"

"Arone and I read a letter that said Canterlot was destroyed and Twilight and Luna were injured. There. I said it. We are beyond screwed and we need a plan right now or the entire Empire is the next city to crumble. The Crystal Empire is the next Capitol city of Equestria once Canterlot was destroyed. So, let's go!"

"We can't use unicorn magic in the hive." Arone blurted out.

Everypony slowly turned their heads at Arone, who looked down in shame.

"W-Why?" Bini stammered out.

"Some ancient powerful curse connected to the throne. I don't know! They didn't exactly explain it very well in our education system to prevent any deserters to use it against the hive. If you plan on using magic, too bad. We can't."

Bini looked towards the hive and sighed.

"Alright. New plan."

"Finally," Rocky said with a smile and fluttered his wings. "What is it?"

"I am not going to tell you guys what it is because I would rather not stand here and argue more. Come on." Bini ordered. She slid down the cliff that separated the forest from the badlands. She hit the ground hard and stumbled. The three ponies at the top of the cliff looked at each other. "Fine, I will go alone."

"Now, hold on. We might strongly disagree with this plan but you might end up killing yourself and the rest of Equestria based on your track record." Arone said and he joined her at the bottom of the cliff. Chocolate and Rocky soon followed and they started their journey across the badlands to the castle in the distance.

Twilight's eyes fluttered open and she groaned. Her vision cleared to see her friends staring down at her with small smiles that didn't quite reassure her. The memories of the events came flooding back to her and she struggled to get up despite the protests of her friends and body.

"P-Princess Luna. I gotta-"

Rainbow Dash held her down to the bed and Rarity started brushing her mane as the rest stood back and watched around her. Applejack was the first to move forward.

"Twilight. Princess Luna is severely injured but she is going to be fine but...Something more awful has happened, sugarcube." Applejack said with tears starting to slowly fall down her cheeks. Twilight looked up at Applejack. Oblivious to what had happened after she came to the hospital.

"What could possibly be worse than...Celestia turning corrupt and slashing Luna's throat? You weren't in Canterlot to witness all the dead guards and citizens. The burning buildings..." Twilight said. She sobbed and wiped tears away from her face. "I hope my parents are going to be OK."

Applejack gestured Pinkie to move the curtains in the room window. Pinkie nodded and moved them to reveal the dark outside world. Twilight squinted her eyes and noticed that the large mountain that Canterlot was attached to didn't have brilliant shining lights from the city. It was just pitch black and empty. Almost as if a city never existed. She looked towards the base of the mountain where there was activity by the red, blue and white lights dimly flashing.

"What is going on in Canterlot? There should be at least some lights on..." Twilight muttered as Rarity and Rainbow Dash helped her up and she slowly moved towards the window. Her friends seemed to grow more and more distressed the closer she got to the window. She looked at the place Canterlot should be. She knew it was dark but she was still able to make out the basic features of the large mountain. She couldn't see an outline of the city. "Where is Canterlot?"

"Twi..." Spike said. Resting a claw on the pony he considered like an older sister. Twilight stared at the mountain. She was beginning the stage of denial.

"Maybe my magical overload has...Affected my vision. Canterlot must be there. I just can't see it." She mumbled to herself. Spike shook her and she looked down at him with a smile. "Thank goodness Luna is OK. Now I need to get to Canterlot to do some research."

"Canterlot doesn't exist anymore, Twilight." Spike said. Twilight stared at him as if he had just punched her in the face. Her shock morphed into anger.

"Don't even joke about that, Spike-"

"He isn't joking, Darling." Rarity snapped and mascara ran down her face. "According to witness reports. Princess Celestia caused the foundation of Canterlot to crumbled and the entire city fell off the mountain. First responders and anypony who has basic medical training near the area are at the base of the mountain where the city hit. Looking for survivors."

Twilight sat on the ground in disbelief. Applejack looked over to the monitor to see Twilight's heart rate increase.

"Twilight. Ya'll need to calm down." Applejack insisted.

"CALM DOWN?" Twilight yelled and spun around to face her friends with fury. "My teacher, who I trusted with my life, who I have strived to be all my life, just killed an entire city and possibly my parents. Don't you dare tell me to calm down, Applejack. I deserve to be hurt and angry."

A nurse slowly opened the door. Clearly nervous to walk in as she probably heard Twilight's outburst in the hallway.

"Um...Princess Luna is able to have visitors now. She is weak and is getting replacement blood. We have been able to repair her vocal cords but her voice will be weak. Try not to upset her. Please." The nurse pleaded. The group silently followed her down the hall to an emergency medical room. She opened the door and it revealed Luna strapped to a bed with wires sticking out of her body giving her blood and nutrients.

"Hello, Twilight Sparkle," Luna said weakly. "I am sorry about Canterlot. I just received the news."

"I need time." Twilight said. She gave her a small smile of forced happiness. "H-How are you doing, Princess?"

"I could be better." She said and coughed a bit before resting back on her bed. "I-I need you six to do something for me."

"Of course. We will get the Elements right away and-"

"No, Twilight." Luna said and slowly put her hoof on Twilight's hoof that was resting on her bed. "I need you to find out how this has happened to my sister. I would but...I am unable to be let out of the hospital and the ponies who have the info...I have hurt badly."

"Princess?" Pinkie's voice cut through. Her mane was still deflated and she didn't have her usual bouncy energy that made ponies smile even in the darkest of times. "Why?"

"My sister forgave me when I fell to evil temptation. She deserves that same treatment. She isn't acting like herself. Something has taken over her mind. It was stronger than the nightmare entity that affected me. I am not going to abandon her." Luna explained and she took in a deep breath.

"You killed ponies in the Castle of the Two Royal Pony Sisters. Princess Celestia...Destroyed an entire city." Twilight argued.

"Who's to say I wouldn't have done the same if I had been Nightmare Moon longer? My main goal was to have an eternal night. The planet would freeze, animals and crops would die from lack of sunlight if I won. I would have made an entire species extinct. Probably several species if I had my way."

Twilight opened her mouth to argue but she couldn't come up with an argument that would convince Luna otherwise. Luna looked up at her sister's student. A student who had been so faithful up until today.

"Why is your faith wavering for my sister, Twilight Sparkle?"

"She killed 73,360 ponies." Twilight snapped and she removed her hoof from Luna's bed and began to pace. Rainbow Dash and Applejack began ushering the rest of the group out of the room so that they could have time alone. "You killed 395. That is a big difference."

"The population of Chanterlot is 73, 361. Yes. It is true that the city fell. But that doesn't mean everypony is dead. Yes. Most probably are. But not all. You don't have faith in my sister anymore because she has proven today that just like anypony else, she can fall to the temptation of the darkness in her mind. There is more going on here than either of us know. My sister wouldn't turn unless it was her last option. Unless she was desperate. That is why I need you and your friends to find Bini Filters, Arone, Chocolate Shadow and Rocky Snow."

"No." Twilight snapped. "I am going to get the elements and end this before any more bloodshed takes place."

"I am giving you a direct order." Luna snapped with her voice almost being normal but filled with anger. "At this very moment, I am the only ruler in Equestria. You will obey me. If not...I would rather not say."

Twilight looked down to the ground. Her face conveyed many emotions.

"I am going to the rescue attempt at the base of the mountain. My friends can deal with the traitors." Twilight mumbled. Luna shook her head and used her magic to make Twilight look up at her.

"They aren't traitors. I said they commit treason because I made Bini and Arone go to sleep in the interrogation room. I went into their dreams and manipulated them to be their memories. I forced Bini to give me an answer and Arone revealed one of his deepest secrets to making sure I didn't know the truth of what was corrupting Celestia's mind. From Bini's mind, I was able to find out that Celestia's mind was corrupted. For how long, why, how, I do not know. She had planned on killing Sombra and the next day she disappeared with her injuries still there. When I saw her last, they were all gone but she clearly wasn't herself." Luna explained. "Bini and Arone escaped the dream realm and managed to escape the castle with her two assistants. Last I heard they were in the Crystal Empire. The current capital of Equestria until a new city can be built to replace...Canterlot."

"She killed part of my family." Twilight sobbed and buried her face against the bed. Luna warped her wing around Twilight's shaking body. She sat up with a grunt, her body protested against the movement but that didn't stop her. She pulled Twilight into a hug. Her uneven weak breathing strangely brought some comfort to Twilight yet she still cried harder at the thought of her parents.

She couldn't even say goodbye.

---End of Chapter Four---

Surrender

Bini faced a Changeling guard that was patrolling around the hive with a group of five others. They had circled them the moment they saw them. Arone had shifted back to being his pony self to avoid detection and the Changelings were pointing spear weapons at them with tough Armour that would rival the Royal Guards.

Bini put up one of her hoofs in a sign that she was surrendering. Much to the surprise of everypony present.

"We are surrendering."

The Changelings looked at each other. The group (Except Bini) Looked at each other than Bini.

"Was that your plan?" Arone hissed with restrained anger at Bini. Bini gave him a cocky smile.

"Yup. Trust me. This will work."

"How, exactly?" Rocky asked.

The Changelings looked at each other, then to their patrol leader for instructions. The leaders just stared at Bini before gesturing Bini to give him her bag.

"We are placing you under arrest. Give us your belongings and we-"

"We demand to see the Queen for negotiations on peace with Equestria." Bini snapped. The leader stammered and looked to his fellow Changelings for help. When he woke up this morning he wasn't expecting to deal with a Solar Eclipse and now ponies willingly surrendering to negotiate peace. Not to mention they were still starving from lack of Love. "OK...Guard them while I inform the Guards and Queen of the...situation."

The Queen of the Changelings was angry. She sat on her throne which had the ability to soak up unicorn magic and she had to constantly shift her position. Was the throne big? Yes. Was it comfy? Sorta. Did it make her feel small? Yeah. Feeling small is not what a leader should feel on their own throne. She thought about Celestia's throne as she ran her room across the smooth surface of the black rock that made up her majestic throne.

"Maybe I should redecorate?" She muttered out loud to no pony because thankfully all her guards were in the room in front of the throne room. Guarding their Queen with their life. She quickly decided against it. If she changed the way the throne looked, the next thing you would know is that it would look like a distorted version of Canterlot's throne room. Geez. She always hated how bright that stupid room was.

She pushed her insignificant thoughts aside and her horn flickered as a signal from somewhere in Equestria called to her. She sighed in relief. Her mind was hoping it was her Canterlot spies she had sent a few minutes after the solar eclipse happened earlier that day. They were supposed to report to her two hours ago.

She flared up her horn and formed a portal for communications between her and her loyal spies. Her face slightly fell when she realized it was the spies from Ponyville calling her as they looked back at her with great concern on the other side of the portal. In the background, she was able to see they were in a dark boarded-up house. Their green magic was the only thing liting up the room other than their bright blue eyes.

"Report." She snapped. She didn't have time for pleasantries at the moment. Even if redecorating was still in the back of her mind. Which it wasn't...It totally wasn't. The Changeling followers looked at each other before finally collectively nudging forward the spy who they considered the leader of their little group at that moment. The Changeling, who she identified as Clark, gulped and moved closer to the portal.

"My Queen. We have some bad news to report." Clark said with a pause. Chrysalis rolled her eyes. She already saw this coming. Nightmare Moon is back and that is why there is a Solar Eclipse. She didn't need her spies to tell her that...Well, she did. But she only set them out because the hive went into a panic and she thought it would be their best option of calming down to know that their queen cared enough to send her subjects into Equestria to find out what was going on. "Princess Celestia...According to eyewitnesses has destroyed Canterlot and cut her sister's throat. Sending her and Twilight Sparkle to the hospital."

And just like that, Chrysalis's day, night, week, month, year, and probably decade was ruined.

"Send all spies back to the hive at once. We need to protect our species." Chrysalis barked with rage. Mostly fuelled by an overwhelming fear of the sun goddess. Yes, it is true she beat her at the wedding. But that is when she had so much love to consume that she hardly knew what to do with it. Now...She was barely surviving on the scarps of wild animals. The spies nodded and bowed in respect before Chrysalis ended the communication and sat in silence in her way too big throne room. She looked around at the dull green lights above her and sighed.

For the first time, in a very long time, Chrysalis didn't have any plan on how to save her hive if the worst came to their beloved home. She started tapping her hoof against the throne in an attempt to come up with ideas. She heard that it worked for a few of the lesser Changelings so why wouldn't it work for her.

She tapped and tapped away. She abruptly stopped when the head of her guard poked his head in. She gestured him to come forward with as much grace as she could muster as he moved closer to her throne. He paused to bow and started to speak.

"My Queen. There are a group of four ponies outside. They are surrendering themselves to the hive in hope that w...You negotiate with them peace in Equestria."

Chrysalis considered the proposal. If this were any other situation, she would have the guard bring them to her so that they could be sucked of love and then promptly thrown into the deepest reaches of the hive so that they could continue to be fed on until their deaths. But she didn't have a plan. Didn't even know where to start and as much as she hated to admit it, those stupid ponies were her best option at the moment.

"Send them in." She barked.

The guard bowed and left the throne room. Only to return with five guards surrounding a group of pathetic-looking ponies walking towards her throne. None of the ponies looked confident in what they were doing. Her eyes rested on a male stallion who she recognized without hesitation.

She waved the guards away and the group of ponies bowed before her in respect.

"Arone." Chrysalis announced. The stallion's ears flew up in alarm and he was the first to slowly get up. His friends looked at him with wide eyes and were speaking silent words to him as he began to sweat. "Drop that ridiculous disguise. I already have a very low option of you. It doesn't need to be any lower for your sake."

"Of course...Queen Chrysalis." He said with a snarl at the end. He dropped his disguise and was back to the regular form of a Changeling.

"What are your names?" She barked. Trying to look intimidating as possible when she flew down from her throne and landed in front of them. A unicorn mare who had the biggest fake smile she had ever seen, used her scarf to wipe away some sweat and quickly fixed her glasses before stepped forwards and holding out her hoof.

"M-My name is Bini Filters." The unicorn mare stammered with nervousness and fear. Then she pointed to the pair behind her. She first pointed to a pegasus stallion who was trying to make a mare Earth pony uncurl herself from his leg in fear of the Queen. She then pointed to the earth pony as she mentioned their names. "This is Rocky Snow, and Chocolate Shadow."

Chrysalis snarled in disgust at Bini's outreached hoof. Bini took the signal and slowly retracted with awkward silence falling between the group.

"So...Um...We are here to negotiate peace for Equestria." Arone said. He moved to stand beside Bini. At least his training did go to complete waste, Changelings are always taught to take charge of the group and beat down the others. Chrysalis couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous that sounded. "We are being serious, Queen Chrysalis."

"Why would Celestia send pathetic ponies to negotiate peace?" Chrysalis snapped as she started to circle them. Choosing her words carefully to pretend she didn't know Celestia turned evil in fear that it would give her spies away. Arone looked over to Bini for an answer and she simply stared up at the ceiling to show that she didn't want to answer. He glared at her and looked back at Chrysalis.

"Celestia is...A tyrant at the moment." Arone claimed.

Rocky and Chocolate paused and slowly turned their head to Arone with wide eyes. Bini choked on her own spit and simply stared at the floor. Chrysalis couldn't be more delighted that Celestia's pathetic ponies were finally learning the truth about Alicorns.

Even if their leader really did turn into a tyrant.

She gestured for them to follow her. Which they did without question. She lead them to a room next to the throne room that had a long table with many chairs. Chrysalis sat at the head of the table and encouraged the others to sit. The room had not been used in one hundred years. It was usually made to do negotiations. You can see why it was neglected.

"Now this is interesting. Ponies going against their own leader for the sake of self-preservation." Chrysalis commented as they all sat down.

"Now hold on!" Bini barked. "It's not like we asked Princess Celestia to go crazy and destroy the capital city! We would have gone to her if she wasn't the one who just single hoofed destroyed my job and-"

Arone used his changeling magic to shut Bini's mouth and smiled at his former leader.

"Ignore her, Queen Chrysalis. We have an offer. You and your hive help us defeat Celestia and we allow Changelings and ponies to live together." Arone said. The room was silent for a few minutes. Chrysalis, couldn't be more delighted. But her heart sank when she thought about how her mother was treated all those centuries ago in Canterlot.

Her mother, the former queen of the Changelings had help Princess Celestia extinguish cults of ponies against her ruler in the early days after Nightmare Moon was defeated in exchange for peace between the species and to live among ponies. Celestia agreed that they could until the time came that they were to finally be accepted and Celestia banished them because she felt it was for the benefit of Equestria.

"What makes you think that you can enforce that rule?" She snarled. The ponies looked at each other than to the Queen. Looking very unsure of themselves.

"W-Well...Um...I am sure Princess Luna would agree to these terms. Then she can talk to Princess Ce-" Arone stopped when Chocolate elbowed him and whispered in his ear. He nodded and then made a funny face before looking back at the Queen. "Some of my...friends feel that Princess Celestia will be banished from Equestria based on her recent actions so really all we need to consider is if Luna will agree. That should be easy so yeah."

The Queen considered her options. She didn't want to fall prey to the fake kindness of ponies as her mother did. She brightened up as an option came to her head. She teleported a scroll and quill to her position and wrote out a contract for Princess Luna to sign. She enchanted it with a spell that, if Luna broke the agreement, there would be severe problems. For example. Her magic would be drained until she had none left. But if Luna was so desperate for help, she would sign. Chrysalis knew it.

She handed it over to Arone, who stuffed it into his saddlebag as she explained the rules of her new game. They nodded and Chrysalis teleported them out as the meeting came to a close. She let out a sigh of relief as a guard entered the room to check up on her safety.

"Are you alright, My Queen?" He asked. Chrysalis nodded silently and slowly moved from the head of the table towards the throne room once again.

"Make sure that the hive has increased security. We don't want any unexpected issues to arise." She ordered. She shook her head and considered the meeting once again when she took the first few steps into the throne room. She hoped Luna wasn't as cold as Celestia was. She prayed she wasn't.

Twilight Sparkle and her five friends sat on the train to the base of the mountain. They all sat in silence as each considered the events of what had happened. Twilight was going to go alone, but all of her friends convinced her that it was better for them to go along in case Celestia came back and they needed to use the Elements against her. She adjusted the crown of the Element of Harmony on her head before looking back out the window. The mountain was getting closer. It was becoming more and more clear that there was no city on the edge of the mountain despite the Solar Eclipse blocking out the sunlight. Twilight looked down at the small pocket watch that she had received from her father last year. It wouldn't have mattered anyway. It was almost midnight.

She inhaled the stale air from the bus and yelped, like the rest of her friends when the train came to an abrupt halt. A conductor walked into the train car that they were seated at and gestured to the outside world.

"We are at the base of Canterlot Mountain. The rescue teams are just ahead. Follow the lights please."

The girls said their thanks and piled off the train. They followed the trail of lights until they stepped into a clearing the was covered in the remains of the Royal city. There were outdoor lights set up everywhere illuminating the area as if it was daylight. What seemed like thousands of ponies were crawling, moving, and flying over the disaster. Pulling out injured ponies and dead ponies.

The injured ponies were moved to the medical outside area while the dead were moved to a spot deep within the surrounding forest to prevent any pony from seeing them. The volunteers and ponies whose duties it was to be there didn't care who the Elements of Harmony were at that moment. All they cared about was saving the citizens of Canterlot.

Twilight tried to block out the sounds of distress as Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were sent to help with the medical staff and Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Twilight were meant to help out with the recovery aspect. Rainbow Dash flew into the sky to join the other pegasi in finding any survivors in the surrounding area as the debris had fallen and scattered over a large area. Applejack helped lift heavy pieces of buildings off ponies so that they could be rescued and pulled out by other earth ponies and unicorns.

Twilight lit up her horn and tried to find her parents' magical signature. She climbed, crawled and maneuvered over large broken buildings. Some she even recognized as parts of her old home, shops, the school for gifted unicorns and of course, the Canterlot Castle.

She had been searching for a good two hours. Just as 1 am was closing in. She had entered an area that the search teams had not yet reached. She was starting to lose hope of finding her parents when her ears jolted up at the sound of somepony in distress. She cancelled her spell and cast light area the area. No lights had been moved to that part of the city yet so she had to depend on her own magic. She moved slowly as the call for help got louder and louder.

"H-Help me! IS anypony there!?" The female voice begged. Twilight gasped as she thought she recognized the voice as her mother. She held herself back. Not wanting to have too much hope in case it was somepony else.

"Helloooo!" A male voice called out in the same general direction. "I think I hear somepony, honey."

Her father. That sounded like her father.

"Where are you? I am coming to help!" Twilight called out and scrambled through the dangerous area to reach the pair.

"Twi? TWILIGHT! IS THAT YOU!?" The female voice yelled louder. "IT'S YOUR MOTHER! I AM HURT!"

"M-Mom!?" Twilight said. Her eyes started to blur from tears that she wiped away as fast as she could. She reached the remains of one of the towers in the Canterlot Castle. She looked underneath a large piece of marble into a room that was destroyed and barely being held together by the walls that had crumbled at an unnatural angle.

She saw her mother, Twilight Velvet who was holding her father, Night Light close. Her mother's horn was broken. The remains of her horn were in little bits and pieces around the floor. They both had scratched and bruises on their body and her father had a shield around him and his wife in case the room fully collapsed.

She opened a small hole. Careful not to make the entire tower all and poked her head in. She shined her light against her parents who had to shield their eyes momentarily. Her mother was bleeding from her horn. Which was understandable. Twilight couldn't help but worry more now that her mother's horn was gone.

"Mom? Dad? I-I am going to get you out. Hold on!" She said. "I am going to go get somepony to help me-"

"Twi! Please don't leave us! We can wait a few more hours. We are just so happy to see you are alright!" Her father said. Both of her parents were on the verge of collapsing into sobs. "W-We thought...Well, we thought the worst! You said you were going to the castle and then...Then everything fell apart..."

Twilight nodded with grief. The last few moments she spent in Canterlot came flooding back to her.

"I-I know. I am sorry I left. I should have stayed with you guys a little longer. Something really bad happened in the streets so I got sidetracked and had to teleport to Ponyville." Twilight admitted. Her parents nodded in understanding.

"I hope Princess Luna is OK. The collapse happened so suddenly..." Her mother said. Looking over to Night Light.

Twilight bit her lip. Considering if her parents could take the news of how Canterlot came to its end.

---End of Chapter Five---

The Re-Mark of a Cutiemark: Part One

They were guided by guards to the outskirts of the badlands. They quickly flew off to the hive in the distance as Arone brought up his disguise once again. They looked back at the hive until Bini went through her saddlebag and pulled out a map of Equestria.

"So next we..."

A flash of light appeared and Discord stood in front of them with bandages cuts and bruises. The group cringed, yelped and took a stumbling route away from him until the shock wore off and they slowly approached him together. He groaned and moved to lay in a tree to relax.

"Discord? What are you doing here?" Bini asked.

Discord groaned as a response and mumbled something under his breath.

"Are you...Okay?" Chocolate asked. Discord glared at the group and gestured to the bandages on his lion arm, then on his midsection, and the one on his wing.

"Do I look Ok? What a silly question." He snapped back then relaxed against the tree again. Arone opened his mouth to ask a question but stopped once Discord held up a single finger in their direction as a signal to keep quiet. "I know what you next stupid question will be. Why won't you heal yourself? Well, I can't because even with my infinite power I can't heal wounds caused by dark magic. It is much too complicated to explain to little minds."

Bini rolled her eyes as Chocolate narrowed them and stepped closer to him.

"Alright. Are you here to take us back to the Crystal Empire?"

He shook his head and adjusted his position on the tree.

"No. The Crystal Empire is currently under the rule of Tia. The other Royals are in hiding in the icy caverns with a few of the guards as they come with a plan to take back control. I am here to prevent you from going back...At least for now, to the Crystal Empire." Discord revealed with a hint of hurt.

"W-Why? We need to help out!" Arone barked in protest. Discord yawned and rolled his eyes dramatically.

"What you need to do is deliver that scroll to Lulu." Discord said as he pointed to the scroll. "But first I am sending you on your own private trip...A week from now."

"We don't have time to wait around for a w-"

A smaller Discord ran up and zipped Bini's mouth shut before giving a thumbs up to the original Discord, then disappearing from existence.

"I am altering time for you four to a week ahead." He explained. "Twilight and her fluffy friends will be at the town on their way to the Crystal Empire. I am sending you four as well. But only a day before you. Not long. It will be more entertainment for me! It is better than watched fifty guards, a prince, and a princess arguing about battle strategies in a dark cave."

"If you can do that, then why not send everypony a week before this disaster took place!?" Rocky asked.

"If I were to do that then everything would be messed up. I can freeze time for a limited number of ponies, while everypony else continues on with their life, and then drop them a week later. Use your tiny heads please." Discord said. "Besides. It is more chaotic this way."

Discord snapped his fingers before the four could respond and suspended the four ponies in the air. They were frozen in time. Nothing else was amiss, just them. He snapped his fingers again and they vanished. At the moment they were in his realm. In a week, they would be near Manhatten in a small town called "Our Town."

Discord couldn't think of a stupider name to call a Town.

Bini found herself faceplanted into the ground, her mouth was unfortunately open when Discord used his powers on her. She was going to ask why they needed to go to that town. On that exact day. Well. It didn't matter anymore as Bini pushed herself up and started spitting out the dry dirt.

She looked around and found herself near the edge of a cliff with the rest of her friends in a barren wasteland. She could barely see Manhatten far in the distance but her eyes moved to the "town" a few meters away from the cliff. The town was made up of two columns of houses with one house at the head of the area.

The group argued among themselves about what they should do before finally deciding that they would play along with Discord's game for one day as they already lost a week of progress, thanks to the Lord of Chaos. Also, Bini was infinitely curious as to why they were here.

They slowly slid down the cliffside and approached the town slowly. They made their way through the one street and looked at the residence. They all had the same hairstyle. They all had dull colours. They all had the same creepy smile and worst of all. They all had the same cutiemark.

"OK. I might have nightmares from this." Bini announced to her friends as they stood and watched the strange actions of those ponies.

"Do you know what this is?" Arone asked as the smiling ponies gave them waves. "This is a cult."

"I don't know." Chocolate said as she looked around. "It doesn't look like there are any issues here. It looks like a peaceful place to live."

"Maybe you aren't seeing it right because of the Eclipse," Rocky stated and pointed to the ponies around the street that could be seen in the artificial light of the two. "Look very closely."

"I am!" Chocolate snapped back with a tone of defence. "Sure, their cutiemarks are all the same but they aren't hurting anypony."

"By the way, they are looking at us, I think they might eat us before we can even think they are hurting us." Bini muttered as a group of curious smiling do-gooders started to come closer. "Damn me and my curiosity."

"They aren't zombies!" Chocolate demanded.

A purple unicorn, whose colours stood out more than the rest came up to them with a surprisingly more screwed up smile than the rest of the villagers. Bini mumbled something under her breath that Arone was able to make out as "I don't know what time it is but it is too early to have my brains eaten."

"You don't have any brains though." Arone said as a reminder. Bini growled at him and swatted him with her hoof against the back of his head.

"Welcome to our little town!" The pony greeted. The group did a collective gulp and gave a small unconvincing wave of friendship. "I am Starlight Glimmer. We are so happy to have more ponies to come to join our family."

"F-Family?" Bini stammered as her thoughts shifted back to her family that was in Canterlot. She pushed it down and took a few steps away from the Starlight Glimmer character. "W-What are you talking about?"

"Well, we all have a similar goal. To make sure that everypony is treated equally! This is why we all have the same cutiemark for Equality." Starlight said and pointed to the equal sign on her flank. "No pony is better than the other pony here! We are all equal! No fights, no arguments, no special talents!"

Chocolate stepped forward with a big smile.

"That sounds lovely! How did you accomplish this?" She asked before Arone could come up with a clever response to get them out of that wackjob of a town. Village. It was more like a village. Maybe it was even too small to be a village. He hit his hoof against his face and prayed to the Alicorns that he didn't actually believe in.

"How about we show you!" Starlight suggested.

Then a three-minute song took place that looked way too planned as they marched to the outskirts of town surrounded by singing crazy ponies. They entered a cave and travelled deep within to stop in front of a shelf full of cutiemarks with a wooden staff in front of it on a pedestal.

"I'm delighted you're interested in our cutie mark vault. We hope someday every pony in Equestria will make a pilgrimage here to our little village to have theirs removed too, and our message of perfectly equal friendship can finally spread across the land." Starlight explained.

"That wouldn't fit in that shelf," Rocky said. Only to get a glare from Starlight.

"Anyway." Starlight barked with a roll of her eyes and used her magic to levitate the staff and whirled it around to amuse herself. The group moved closer to themselves as the crazy ponies moved closer around them. Bini's magic flared up but flickered and died out.

"Oh no...My magic is still recovering from being drained at the hive. Arone, you try." Bini said. Arone attempted to teleport the group but was met with flat denial from his mind.

"I-I can't. I am running low on love. I can not teleport all of you..."

"You know that every time you say something about feeding off love it makes me cringe to unbelievable new heights every time. Every time." Bini snapped. Arone used his back leg to buck her to the floor. Her face planted to the floor as Starlight gave them a curious look. "Spoiled."

"Oh! We have a changeling in our presence." Starlight said with a giggle and clapping her hoofs together.

"Why don't we just announce to the world that I am a Changeling!" Arone snapped back in sarcasm. "I am friends with idiots!"

"Let's see if those bugs have any...Special Talents." Starlight said with an evil grin.

"I really don't like how she said that." Arone said as Starlight got closer to them as she twirled the staff.

"Here is the Staff of Sameness. It was one of the great Mage Meadowbrook's nine enchanted items. We are incredibly fortunate to have it here. This is the tool that allows us to free ourselves from our marks!" Starlight explained as the crowd nodded together.

The group looked for disparate ways to escape but the weirdos had blocked any exit.

"I told you we should have just left this town before we even entered it." Chocolate cried out as her nerves started to fry from fear.

"You never said anything! Maybe you should talk more!" Bini said to Chocolate who had curled herself into a ball.

"Why can't we ever have a normal conversation!?" Rocky asked. Chocolate, even in her crazed state, Bini and Arone looked at Rocky slowly.

"Now? Can't we discuss this later?" Arone hissed at Rocky. Starlight was losing her patience quickly.

"I have had enough of this show." Starlight barked and blasted the staff at the group. They were lifted into the air and groaned and yelped and maybe screamed in pain as their Cutiemark's were ripped from their bodies. Their talents and basic personalities and interest disappeared with the special marks that floated to the shelf and disappeared behind a glass wall. Even Arone's talent was stripped from his pony body, his green flame, that was his cutiemark. Took a bit more but finally loosened to join the others. Arone's disguise dropped and he went limp to the floor like the others.

---End of Chapter Six--

The Re-Mark of a Cutiemark: Part Two

Author's Note

Sorry for the lack of Chapters. Writer's block hit me real hard and the lack of ideas didn't help.

The Re-Mark of a Cutiemark: Part Two

"In sameness, there is peace. Exceptionalism is a lie. Free yourself from your cutie mark. Choose equality as your special talent. The difference is frustration. To excel is to fail. Be your best by never being your best." The muffled voice of Starlight Glimmer said to the six elements of Equestria, currently trapped inside one of the many houses of the town.

Twilight's ears flickered in irritation as she was laying on her side on the cold floor. Looking up at the window through tattered curtains that Rarity decided that she liked and was currently sobbing her eyes out. Applejack as pacing the room. Desperately trying to come up with countryisms as Pinkie flipped through a book that had the same image on every page. An equal sign.

Fluttershy had given up all hope and fell asleep, curled up into a small ball in the corner. She didn't even stir as Rainbow Dash slammed her body weight into the door again for the hundredth time. Twilight's ears flickered again as she considered what her teacher would think of her now? Then she had to remind herself that her teacher wouldn't care because she turned into a tyrant and have killed thousands.

She might be having an existential crisis. It would have continued if the door had not opened and three ponies and a changeling were thrown into the door. Rainbow Dash made a break for the door but it shut and locked before her face hit the wood.

Twilight and the rest scrambled up in alarm as the three ponies and changeling immediately started arguing.

"You know who's felt this is? Discord's!" The mare wearing a scarf with glasses barked.

"If you tried harder to stop him, we wouldn't be here without our cutiemarks!" The Changeling snapped back. The mare earth pony scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Neither of us would be here if we just asked Luna's option!" The earth pony mare pointed out.

"Stop arguing! That isn't getting us anywhere!" The pegasus stallion said.

"Who the hay are ya'll!?" Applejack interjected which made the new ponies stop fighting and look around them.

"I am Bini Filters." The mare wearing the scarf said. Then she pointed to the changeling, pegasus and earth pony. "This is Arone, Rocky Snow, and Chocolate Shadow. Ignore Arone."

Twilight and her friends backed away from the group. Mostly because of the Changeling.

"W-Why are you, friends, with a Changeling drone!?" Rainbow Dash snapped and knocked Arone on his back and held him down with her front hooves.

"Hey!" Rocky barked and put his hoof on Rainbow Dash's chest, giving her a light shove off of his friend. "For the record, Celestia knew that he was a changeling so show some respect, element of Loyalty."

"Oh! Excuse me for not 'showing respect' for a species that has been proven to be evil!" Rainbow Dash snapped back. Shoving Rocky with her wing back.

"We...I am not evil! I am...Was...Princess Celestia's personal assist-"

"She is currently a tyrant, darling." Rarity growled as she moved to stand next to Rainbow Dash. "That argument doesn't prove anything."

"Twilight Sparkle was Celestia's student and I don't see anyone bashing her for that major life decision," Arone said. Twilight growled in anger and stomped over to Arone with anger practically pouring out of her eyes. "That's right! I said it!"

"Now is really not a good time for this weird..." Bini said but she trailed off as Applejack glared at her.

"Are you a Changeling, sugarcube!?" Applejack demanded.

"Obviously not!" Bini replied. Twilight backed away. Her energy was weaker than usual and she had less tolerance for all the fighting.

"Stop." Twilight said.

The arguing didn't stop.

"STOP!" Twilight yelled. Everypony abruptly stopped and faced the unicorn who was having more bad days than good. "Everypony is scared and angry. I understand that. But just because we have been having a hard time the last week doesn't mean we need to be rude to each other. I know that Changelings are our enemies. But just for a moment. Let's consider if they can change. Everypony can change."

She moved closer to the group. Giving the group a better look at Twilight's tired expression with dark bags under her eyes.

"We all need to be a bit more accepting. Can't we please try? Just this once?"

The group nodded and gave each other sympathy looks. Bini was the first to break the silence by clearing her throat and smiling towards Twilight.

"So...What's been happening in the past week?"

Starlight Glimmer would be the first to admit that she missed the sunlight. Real sunlight. The Eclipse had been up for more than a week. Starlight had been forced to make the town keep up with the news. She wanted complete isolation from the outside world but now she had to allow controlled information into the town so that she and the rest of the town could be prepared for the worst.

She had a delivery of newspapers from Manhatten. She set the stack down as she checked the time. It was around 8 pm. She walked past six jars of cutiemarks sitting on her nightstand and flopped onto her bed. She levitated the lamp over to her and grabbed a newspaper from the other room, dropping it on her bed covers.

Her eyes skimmed the headlines with worry.

"Rumors of War in the Crystal Empire."

"Alicorns. Do we really need them?"

"Rumors of Princess Luna planning to abandon Equestria."

"Are Alicorns evil? Will the Sun ever rise again?"

"Crop dying across Equestria from lack of sunlight. Food shortage."

She wrapped her blanket around her body and looked up to the ceiling of her house in the dark. She kept staring at a spot the recently received water damage a few weeks ago and couldn't help but feel guilty. She had her cutiemark and the others didn't. She kept telling herself it was for a good cause. With her cutiemark, she had the ability to take their cutiemarks. The town subjects didn't know she had hers so what they don't know, won't hurt them.

She turned to her side and closed her eyes. Trying to force her mind to calm down and allow her even a few hours of blissful sleep.

Starlight Glimmer woke up feeling worse than ever. She turned on her lamp, having the feeling that the sun should have been up by now despite her knowing better. Technically the sun was already up. But the moon was also up, blocking it out. The more she thought about it, the angrier she got at the Princesses of Equestria. If everypony was equal then no pony would be having this issue.

She slowly moved out of bed and brushed her mane and tail. Trying to look presentable. She practiced her smiles in the mirror and then proceeded to cover up her cutiemark with an equal sign once more. She heard a knock at her front door and she quickly hid her supplies then raced back to the door and opened it was a smile to see Party Favour smiling back at her.

"Hi, Starlight! Are you ready to allow the new friends out now?" He asked. Starlight nodded. The last time they attempted to let the elements of Harmony bearers out, which was yesterday morning. A few short minutes before the news four ponies came, Starlight was almost decked in the face by Rainbow Dash.

"Of course! Let's go see if they are willing to accept what we are trying to do." She replied. Party Favour and Starlight Glimmer trotted to the house with the new ponies inside. The rest of the town was starting to gather up as Starlight opened the door and the ten ponies walked out with a look of shame, anger, annoyance and...Well...More anger.

"I trust you had a pleasant night? This way, please. There are some friends who'd like to see you. Gather round, friends, gather round! We've come to ask if any of you are ready to join us! There are so many friends to be made once you realize you don't need your cutie marks or the talents that come with them." Starlight announced with her more joyful voice.

"We have a welcome ceremony for new friends! The whole village joins together to build you your own cottage-" Double Diamond explained but was cut off by Rainbow Dash letting out a sarcastic laugh.

"Not interested! You may have them now, but we're going to get our cutie marks back!" Rainbow Dash snapped.

"Y'all don't understand, do ya? You can't force nopony to be friends! It don't work like that!" Applejack announced to the town with desprate look written on her face.

"Please, join us!" Sunny Song pleaded with a big smile.

"We love new friends!" Rosemary chimed in.

"It's all right, everypony. This is a perfectly normal part of the equalization process for those who haven't... quite seen the light yet. We'll try again tomorrow once you've had a bit more time to consider our philosophy!" Starlight said as she thought back to the incident two days ago when Pinkie Pie mentioned that some ponies wanted their cutiemarks back. She pushed down her anger to keep up the lie as the ponies started trotting back into the house.

Then Fluttershy paused and nervously turned around as if she had done something wrong.

"I'd l-like to jo-join!" She blurted out with a stammer. The crowd cheered as she walked away from the group with her friends and acquaintances giving her looks of sadness, betrayal and anger. Twilight stepped towards the shy yellow pony with confusion and fury written on her face.

"Fluttershy? How could you?!" She snapped. Fluttershy gulped and gestured towards the town folk.

"If giving up my cutie mark means I get to stay in this lovely village with these lovely ponies, then I'll do it." She said with newfound confidence. Twilight growled and followed the rest of her friends inside as the town accepted another friend. Then suddenly Chocolate Shadow rushed out and came to a stop in front of Starlight Glimmer.

"OK, OK, OK. I have seen the...positive of this whole "Ban Cutiemarks" arrangement. I didn't want to admit it before, and frankly, I was in denial. But after Fluttershy stood up to her friends, it showed me that I could too!"

Bini pushed past the group and marched back outside.

"Sellout!" She yelled as Arone moved to drag her back inside. Chocolate looked down in fake shame as Arone yanked Bini by her tail back inside. Starlight shut the door and turned around to face the group.

"Now, there's one more order of business. It seems some in our midst might be... dissatisfied with the village life!"

Chocolate and Fluttershy gulped as they joined the crowd.

In the dead of night two figures slowly walked towards the lone house at the end of the village. Chocolate Shadow and Fluttershy peaked into the window on Starlight Glimmer's house to make sure she was home so that they could sneak to the cutiemark cave without being detected.

"Get the cutie marks back. That's all you've gotta do, Fluttershy. Just sneak through the dark up to that spooky old cave with the scary magical staff and get the cutie marks back." Fluttershy whispered to herself as she tried to prevent herself from hyperventilating. Chocolate wiped the sweat from her brow as she scanned the room on the other side of the window when they noticed Double Diamond step into the room with a wooden box with six jars of cutiemarks. The mane 6's cutiemarks.

"Excellent work, Double Diamond." Starlight said as she ignited her horn and brought them over to her.

"Of course, but I don't understand why you wanted me to bring them here. Fluttershy is one of us now. Surely she can be trusted." Double Diamond pointed out.

"Those cutiemarks belong to the elements of Harmony. It could be very important to our cause." Starlight replied with a roll of her eyes as she placed them down on a nearby table.

"But if the elements of harmony bearers become our friends, then why do we care about these old cutiemarks?' Double Diamond asked.

"I just want to keep them close until everything is... settled. You may go, Double Diamond." Starlight order. Double Diamond nodded and left the house. Chocolate and Fluttershy moved around the house to avoid detection. Fluttershy whimpered and moved her head with her hoofs.

"Oh, dear. How are we ever going to get the cutiemarks back now?" She whimpered.

"I-I don't k-know!" Chocolate stammered when they suddenly heard a crash and Starlight shout in pain and alarm. They returned to the window to see her carefully stepping over broken glass and wiping water off her hoofs and flank. Then her cutiemark showed underneath the equal sign on her flank. Fluttershy and Chocolate gasped and slowly moved away from the house.

Starlight Glimmer stood in confidence as the captives moved back inside the house with glares of hatred in her direction. She simply gave them a smile and then turned to the crowd.

"Well, let's try this again tomorrow, shall we? No new friends today, I'm afraid!" Starlight called out. Chocolate cleared her throat and stepped forward.

"Um, can I lock them up today?" Chocolate asked.

"Marvelous, Chocolate Shadow! That's the spirit! Party Favor, will you join us, please?" Starlight called out to the new pony in jail. Party Favor, like a true citizen, ran towards Starlight crying and begging to be set free.

"I'm sorry, Starlight! I'm sorry, everypony! I've seen the error of my ways! I never want to look at my cutie mark again!" He yelled as he grabbed Starlight's hoofs like a foal. "They tried to break me! They wouldn't stop talking about how different they are, and that somehow makes their friendship stronger!"

"Such backwards thinking."

"But I didn't listen! I knew what they were up to, and I didn't listen!"

"Well done, Party Favor! We welcome you back with open hooves!"

"Um, Starlight? I think we might have one more friend joining us today." Fluttershy called out and pointed towards the house. Twilight slowly exited the house with a guilt expression with the help of Chocolate.

"Is this true?"

"I-I think so." Twilight stammered. "But I just want to be sure. If I agree to leave my cutie mark in the vault, I'll really be happier?"

"Just look around! Equality has given us more happiness than you've ever known!"

"And you wouldn't let me just live here in the village with my old cutie mark?" Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Out of the question. A pony with a different cutie mark in our midst would destroy our entire philosophy. We are all equal here!"

"Oh, yeah. Real Equal." Chocolate said with a roll of her eyes. Her voice was dripping with sarcasm. Starlight glared at Chocolate and marched towards her. Chocolate gulped and stumbled away, only to be stopped from escaping by the town citizens.

Meanwhile, while every pony else was distracted. Fluttershy grabbed a bucket of water and flew into the air over Starlight as Starlight looked Chocolate over in suspicion.

"Do you have something to say, Chocolate Shadow?" Starlight barked. Chocolate gulped and looked around at the angry faces around her before her eyes went back to Starlight.

Suddenly, Starlight yelped as the water hit her body. She fell to the ground as the last of the water, dumped by Fluttershy above her wiped off the ink hiding her cutiemark. She slowly got up as the crowd gasped at Starlight.

"Wha... What are you looking at?! They're the problem, not me!" Starlight frantically shouted and pointed at the outsiders. Party Favor and Double Diamon were the first ones to step forward.

"How could you?" Party Favor asked with hurt.

"You said cutie marks were evil! You said special talents led to pain and heartache!" Double Diamond said.

"They do! Don't you see?! Look at them!"

"Then why? Why did you take ours and not give up your own?" Sugar Belle asked.

"I... I had to, you fools! How could I collect your cutie marks without my magic?!" She snapped.

"But the staff has all the magic we need!"

"The staff is a piece of wood I found in the desert! It's my magic that makes all this possible! You'd all still be living your miserable lives thinking you're better than everypony else if it weren't for my magical abilities! I brought you friendship! I brought you equality! I created harmony!"

"You lied to us!"

"So what? E-Everything else I said is true! The only way to be happy is if we're all equal!"

"Except for you." Double Diamond snapped. Starlight growled and stamped her hoof against the ground.

"Cutiemarks are the reason Equestria is in turmoil. Princess Celestia wouldn't have become a tyrant and divided Equestria if she didn't have her precious cutiemark. Her cutiemark gave her power. Too much power. So much power that it corrupts. If cutiemarks never existed, then Equestria would have true harmony!"

"What a bunch of horse hay!" Bini snapped. She galloped towards Starlight and knocked her to the ground. Starlight struggled under her hoofs. "You have backwards logic."

"Bini!" Arone barked as he galloped out of the house. "Get the hay off of her already!"

"No! She is going to give us our cutiemarks now!"

The crowd ganged up against Starlight. She used her magic to blast Bini away. Bini gasped for breath as she hit the ground. Starlight started to move when Sugar Belle and Rainbow Dash held her down to the ground again. Three of the town's citizens ran to the cave to break the cutiemark vault as Fluttershy and Twilight ran to Starlight's house to get their own cutiemarks.

Within mere minutes multi-coloured streaks of light lit up the sky around the village and the cutiemarks were returned to their rightful owners. The townsfolk cheered and celebrated as their talents and unique personalities came back to them. The mane 6 approached the small group of ponies who were trapped in the chaos. Twilight held out a hoof towards them with a smile.

"I am sorry that we have met on such bad terms. I am Twilight Sparkle and these are my friends. We were heading to the Crystal Empire to find you actually and had to stop at this town because of the...The current situation in the Empire." Twilight explained. The group gave each other looked of confusion before Arone stepped forward and shook her hoof.

"We were actually headed to Ponyville to speak with Princess Luna in the hospital when...Certain events took place. I hope you don't mind me asking but how bad is the situation in the Empire?" Arone replied.

"Prin-...Queen Celestia has taken over the Empire. The citizens and guards have been brainwashed and are currently preparing for war with the rest of Equestria. They have gotten support from the Dragons for help. I do not know where Prince Shining Armour or Princess Cadence is but Princess Luna has made her own army and is headed to the empire as we speak. Although there are rumors that Luna's army isn't enough...To defeat the Empire." Twilight explained with a sad expression. Arone looked in alarm to his friends, then to the scroll peeking out from his saddlebag.

"W-We need to speak with Princess Luna immediately! Do you know where she is?" Bini pitched in.

"Last time I heard from her, which was about four days ago. Before I left Ponyville. She had she was halfway to the Empire. She should be there. Or very close to the Empire by now. We were about to head back to the train station in Manhatten, would you like to come with us? We will head to the Crystal Empire right away."

The group nodded and the mane 6 with their new traveling buddies, much to Pinkie's excitement headed to the large city in the distance.

---End of Chapter Seven---

The Icy Snowfield

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Pure Hatred

Author's Note

Well, I have come up with the last few bits of the story! I have 80% of it planned out but not written so the chapters will be short and idk how long they will take. It took me a week to even write this chapter and it is pretty short. Then again most of the chapters I have written are but I hope it was worth the wait!

Thanks to everyone who is still interested in this story. You guys are the best!

I made some art for the story. One of them involves a future plan I have for the story. Can you tell which one it is?

https://www.deviantart.com/unknownfilters/art/The-Final-Boss-879008428

https://www.deviantart.com/unknownfilters/art/The-Crystal-Eclipse-879008762

Pure Hatred

Chrysalis and her army flew into the battlefield surrounding the Crystal Empire. Changelings had always been sensitive to the cold so she violently shivered despite her horn being ignited to provide some need warmth to her body. Her armor hardened as she squinted through the blizzard to see Celestia stumbled away from Luna with only one wing. Leaving a pool of blood under her.

Chrysalis motioned it was time for them to descend. She gave the order and briefly watched as her loyal grub dive-bombed to the ground below, immediately moving to defend the Royal guard as they blasted the crystal guard and stole their love from their bodies. She followed closely behind, slamming into the ground in front of Luna to face Celestia head-on.

Celestia used the only wing she had left to wipe the blood trickling down from her mouth. Her red and green eyes watched the pair with what Chrysalis believed was fear. Celestia knew she couldn't win in this position. Celestia's horn caused a bright light to go over the battlefield. Luna and Chrysalis were temporarily blinded from the light. They rubbed their eyes as it faded away to open them to see Celestia had vanished. Leaving only a burned mark on the ground.

Celestia's vision blurred as she reappeared inside the Crystal castle. She gritted her teeth against the pain and started to limp towards her next destination. She crossed the crystal halls, leaving a trail of blood as her hoofs echoes across the cold crystal walls. She finally entered the throne room where the crystal heart was being held up near the ceiling with dark spikes digging into its center.

Power.

She needed more power if she wanted to survive the war.

She had recently discovered she could take magic from the crystal heart to power her own. But not without consequences. It was pushing the darkness away and make her weaker side emerge. That side of her cared far too much. The side that delayed progress and instead wanted to sit around and wait. Wait for the situation to blow over.

Celestia's horn flared to life as it latched onto the Crystal heart above her. She bit her lip as blue magic slammed into her body, pushing her to the floor as it ran through her. It connected with her magic. Mixing like oil and water. Her eyes turned back to magenta as she was lifted into the air.

She screamed in pain as flesh and bone started to take form on the spot where her wing previously was. She pushed it down and combined dark magic to speed up the process. Soon Celestia had two wings once again. The magic started its next task of healing her body but fought for control over her mind.

Celestia used her new wing to help guide her body back down to the floor as the process completed. Her eyes flickered between red and green and then magenta but, as always, the darkness won. Pushing down the good for now. She took in a deep breath as the darkness corrupted her mind again. All of the emotions she deemed useless, like guilt, sadness, happiness, were trapped in the deepest reaches of her mind.

She flexed her new wing and started towards the entrance of the throne room, leaving to head to the highest balcony to watch the battle to plan her next attack.

Cadence and Shining Armour with fifteen guards stood near the weakest part of the shield. It had been damaged by the first round of attacks against the shield but the unicorn soldiers had given up and left it as a lost cause. Cadence carefully tapped her hoof against the shield where a little crack had formed before looked into the broken city of the crystal empire.

Unicorn magic may have weakened it, but it would still take days to breakthrough.

"Cadence, I don't want you to-"

"I will be fine, Shinning." Cadence insisted with a small uncertain smile to her husband. "My aunt has been corrupted by dark magic for decades at least. I will only be using it for a short time I promise you. There is no other way to do this. We need to get the crystal heart..." She paused and looked around at the battle around them. "Where is Discord?"

"Here." Discord floated above Cadence with a grim expression. Cadence nodded towards him in acknowledgment, then looked towards the shield. Inhaling a deep breath of cold air. She lit up her horn with the hope that they would be able to get inside. Her eyes became red and green as her horn, filled with dark magic, pressed against the shield. She grunted with strain as the shield resisted for a few seconds before opening a hole to let the group through.

They all quickly rushed in. Cadence stumbled in last. Her eyes flickered between red and green then back to her normal eye color. She moaned in pain as her head started to throb but shook her head to chase away the pain. She looked up with watery eyes, past her husband's protective eyes to the suffering of the Crystal City in front of her.

She growled as rage shot through her system.

King Sombra had tortured the poor souls of this empire thousands of years ago. They reappeared only to fall to the same dark magic by their savior, Princess Celestia...

Or Queen Celestia as she preferred these days. When Celestia first attacked the empire, Cadence wanted to find a peaceful way to fix it. But as she spent nights in the cave, starving for food. Cold to her bones. Hatred. More hatred than she had ever felt towards anypony in her life was directed at her aunt. The Alicorn who raised her.

Cadence marched into the city. She saw the crystal ponies, her once-loyal subjects hide in her presence as she was flanked by a mere fifteen guards that she knew could be turned by dark magic at any moment. Even her husband could fall to the temptations of mind control. That was certainly proved during her wedding.

She had a mission. Find the crystal heart. Use it to banish the dark from the city and hopefully it would clean her aunt from the dark presence twisting around her mind.

But if she saw her aunt while they were searching...

Cadence cringed at the rage she felt once again at the thought of the once kind ruler who wouldn't dare kill a soul unless it was her last option...

The foolish Alicorn, who, despite living for centuries and seeing just what dark magic does, fell to its embrace.

Cadence pushed her guilt down once again as the image of Canterlot. The once-proud capital city falling into the darkness of the mountain it was built on...

If Cadence saw her aunt...

She might just decide to kill her once and for all.

She looked up briefly to Discord who was floating beside her. Scanning the city with his mismatched eyes for danger as they cautiously headed towards the crystal castle that had turned black thanks to the dark influence running through the core of the empire. She couldn't help but wonder if he would turn evil again if Equestria fell to join Celestia...

But Equestria wasn't going to fall.

She wasn't about to let that happen. Not while she was still alive and breathing.

---End of Chapter Nine---