[EAW] Twilight's Nightmare in Hellquill

Chapters

Nightmare
Two Paths
Aftermath

Nightmare

Hellquill Central Castle

The Guest Chamber of Twilight Sparkle

Six hours after the arrival.

Twilight just had arrived at her guest room. And as soon as she got in, she began locking any possible entrances to the room, including the windows, she then closed down all curtains and started filling any holes that would be used to listen to her. After that, she started checking underneath and behind the furniture in the room in a calm manner, to ensure nobody has put anything there she wouldn’t want. This search would go on for a couple of minutes.

After realizing all is safe, she takes a deep breath.

The time was already late, the weather was dark, and with the curtains now closed, there was barely any light source in the room. Feeling that lighting up the lanterns in the room wouldn’t be alerting the fanatics outside, she approaches the switch on the wall and turns it on. Revealing excessively shiny lamps placed alongside the walls.

She starts pondering in the room while inspecting the objects on the wall.

There were multiple paintings, but one stood out to her; A medium-sized painting of an elderly Grover I, with his sons Grover II and Guto I sitting next to him, along with their wives and their children. It was a classical and usual painting of the Imperial Dynasty. Before Reformisten, the Hellquill Knights were perhaps idealizing these canvases like idols. But now, it was merely a placeholder on a guest room’s wall.

She looks at the elderly face of Grover I and sighs to herself:

“Ah, your majesty… if you could see what would come out of your griffins.”

She ends up staring at the painting for a while, seemingly mesmerized by it, or rather by the thoughts caused by it. She eventually starts wandering around thinking to herself, trying to evaluate the situation she’s in:

“Alright Twilight, you just got yourself stuck in a castle with couple thousand genocidal griffons in it that wants to see you dead more than anything else in life… you’ve been through worse than this…”

She sighs again:

“…I still refuse to believe that I was the one out of all people who just abandoned all their work and came here as if I had no other priorities… My country is about to lose a war and here I am negotiating with maniacs… I wonder how everyone is doing in my absence back at home…”

As she continues to look at the paintings on the wall, one of them caught had her attention; the painting of a ship during a turbulent voyage, as the climate depicted in the painting seemingly showed drizzly weather that just ended, resulting in a rainbow amongst the clouds that was oddly close to the sun. She continues to think to herself:

“Although… I can’t get over the things I just saw today and the things he talked about… Will I seriously see a day where I have to neutralize Celestia? I still refuse to believe but- Wingfried’s breakdown seemed almost authentic. But can a griff actually start all this insanity over a genuine fear?”

Her pondering was disrupted as she hears sounds of griffons outside of the castle at a distance, shouting in a rather ceremonial manner. Upon hearing the voices, she turns to the curtain-covered windows and calmly peeps through the curtains. She notices a couple of dozen soldiers alongside their commanding officers engaging in a routine ceremony at a distance far enough for them to not her. As she was on a high level of the castle, she was able to get a clear view of the ceremony, albeit it was pretty hard for her to distinguish things and the faces of griffons because of the same altitude and distance.

The ceremony itself was nothing special, and in fact, was quite reminiscent of the ceremonies of the royal guards’ of Equestria and the Crystal Empire.

One detail stood out for her shortly afterward; there were skulls on the ceremonial banners. And each of the banners had three skulls on them, alongside other bone fragments placed in various places on the banners (at least as far as she could see). And as there were at least a dozen banners in the sight, she might as well be staring at a necropolis.

It wouldn’t be long before she realized those were pony fragments. And they certainly didn’t look like historic artifacts. Judging by their pale white colors.

Realizing there’s nothing more to see, she closes the curtain and sighs again:

“They really know how to welcome a pony.”

She starts aimlessly wandering around the room again.

She then stares at the extravagant guest bed. She hasn’t slept for days for obvious reasons, but it was barely a problem for her by this point.

Due to the character of the castle she’s staying in, instead of sleeping, she hesitantly decides to stand in the middle of the room.

While standing still, her mind drifted toward potentialities and put contingencies that she could witness in the next following hours. Whether or not it was going to be an uneventful night or not was still uncertain.

After waiting for almost an hour, trying to ignore the effects of sleep deprivation, she ends up staring at the bed:

“Am I being Paranoid? Are the griffons outside even a threat to me? I mean they hate me but… are they even a threat?”

She looks at the well-shut door of her room, thinking about what type of tactic they could possibly use to attack her behind it. After pondering for a minute and trying to listen to the sounds coming from the corridor, she concludes there isn’t a threat present against her. But just to make sure, she places a chair against the door’s lock to prevent anyone from entering.

Shortly after, Twilight hesitantly enters the bed, takes a last look around the room, and then turns off the lights. She then proceeds to lay her head on pillows with the hopes of a dreamless and refreshing nap.

She falls asleep almost instantly.

She opens her eyes to a dark and hazy environment, standing in what seems to be an endless sea. But the fact it was barely a meter deep makes the nature of it, or even the very existence of it, pretty ambiguous.

Twilight slowly comes back to her senses, and as soon as she feels the liquid covering her legs, she looks down, and couldn’t distinguish anything due to complete darkness. Still dizzy, she then looks up, just to see nothing. It seemed as if the sun didn’t exist in this place, and the only light sources around were a series of dim lights in the air that somewhat resembled stars.

After shaking off the dizziness, she silently protests:

“…What is it this time? Haven’t I been through enough already? …Great, a Nightmare was just what I needed.”

She looks down again and tries to figure out the liquid below.

After looking at it closely again, she realizes the liquid she is in is red:

“Blood…? Barely surprising. I guess the experience I’ve gone through today really has taken its toll on my mentality… I think I should get used to seeing blood in my… -wait… what’s that smell?”

She leans in, sniffs, and then she then quickly tips her tongue in the liquid:

“Cherry Juice?!”

She raises her head, and takes a gaze at the seemingly endless sea of cherry juice, accompanied by the also seemingly endless but yet fake-looking night sky:

“Well, not the weirdest thing I’ve seen in a dream, but… It’s sure something.”

She continues to look around, and couldn’t help but smile:

“Never knew I was this much of a cherry fan. <chuckles> But I almost think that this was something more-”

Her thoughts are interrupted by quiet noises coming from her behind. She turns around and sees the bubbling of the cherry juice. Although it was mild at the start, bubbling suddenly gained intensity in mere seconds. Twilight widens her eyes in surprise, unsure what zany thing she is about encounter now.

Despite her bracing for an impact, the bubbling of the water suddenly ceases. It seemed as if everything was back to normal.

Twilight was puzzled again:

“What was that for? Is this normal here?”

She starts waiting, and ends up staring at the spot bubbling had occurred:

“I guess it really was nothing. The inner mechanisms of a mind are sure a-”

An entity rapidly and suddenly flies out of the liquid, shaking off Twilight in the process, as she struggles to stay on her hooves.

After successfully standing on her cherry juice-covered ground, she looks up, and sees an unknown figure, mysteriously levitating in the air.

There was simply no way of her making out who this person or thing was for certain. But this wouldn’t prevent an awkward standoff from occurring between the two.

After striving to observe the creature, despite the darkness surrounding it, Twilight concludes that the creature in question was most likely a male griffon of great body structure, almost reminding her of the magic-infused Katerinburg she saw today. After pondering about it for a while, she ended up terrifying herself with the idea of her now starting to see Wingfried in her dreams. She tries to get that thought out of her head as quickly as possible, and she yet again ended up staring at the creature levitating in the air.

…

Eventually, Twilight, after having enough of staring at the shadow-covered figure, calls him out:

“Excuse me… sir, if that’s what you are, but are we waiting for something here?”

…

She calls him out again:

“Sir? Are you okay?”

The Griffon talked in a deep and calm voice:

“Thinking…”

She was yet again bewildered, but she would gather herself to ask again:

“…About what?”

“…On how to save this conversation.”

“Then, sorry to break it to you but… I believe you would’ve achieved that if you’d just… well… levelwith me.”

He laughed in a low voice:

“…I understand what you mean.”

The Griffon started to lower his altitude, as his features became clearer.

And as he finally reaches Twilight’s level, her eyes go wide, and she screams in confusion:

“King Grover I?!”

He quickly corrects her:

“It’s Emperor Grover I for you, but as you are a member of your realm’s royal dynasty and as this is your first time seeing me in person, your error can be excused in my presence.”

Twilight looks at Grover I, baffled:

“Well I… apologize… your majesty.”

He replies in a quick manner:

“I accept your apology, Princess. But now, I must explain to you the reason behind this visit, I’ve been-”

Twilight interrupts him:

“Wait, you are telling me that you’ve come here?! What’s next? Is this not a dream too?”

Grover I sets his tone in a frustrated manner:

“I do not relish in being interrupted, Princess… And yes, this is not a dream. Via forces beyond your comprehension, I’ve been sent on a mission from the Gods to warn you that the great clouds of terror are setting on the realm of the living. You must listen closely to what I say, the future of all life depends on it.”

Twilight continues looking at him with a bewildered face:

“Huh. Must be a reflection.”

Emperor ended up sharing her looks:

“…A what?”

“A reflection… of the things Wingfried told me today. Yes… There’s a perfect parallel of you two trying to convince me into believing something so farfetched.”

“What you make of this then?”

“You are simply a mirror image of the psychological trauma I’ve been through today. Nothing more. Just like how this… sea of cherry juice draws its own parallels with the red fields I saw today. I mean, just give me one reason to take you seriously.”

Grover I looks at her peeved, he looks down and sighs:

“…So, what do you need in return to take me seriously?”

Twilight points at the juice below her:

“For a start; why are we in the middle of a Sea of Cherry Juice exactly?”

Grover I continues his stare, and responds in a completely calm manner:

“I like Cherry Juice.”

“Well, I do too but… Oh come on, I don’t even have to ask you! What is this?”

Grover I sigh:

“The Gods asked me if I wanted to welcome you in any way specific, so I told them that lots of Cherry Juice and a beautiful nightly sight would do the job to convince you… But now with the witnessing the fruits of my ignorance, I think I should’ve been clearer with the scene I’ve intended before volunteering up for this.”

Twilight chuckles:

“Believe me, I know exactly what getting into something without asking questions first feels like.”

“Ah yes, I understand what you mean by that, we’ve been observing you for a while recently.”

“Then you would understand why I am not exactly keen on taking dreams like this seriously.”

“Yes, yes… I- We do understand. But still, I only need to let you know that Wingfried von Katerinburg you’ve seen today wasn’t the griff he claimed to be.”

Twilight tries to take him seriously for a moment:

“Is that so? Then what is up with him then?”

The Emperor looks dubious, uncertain how to continue:

“I… I must address to you there are things that… we should not talk about.”

Twilight gets suspicious:

“Why? Are there rules now?”

The Emperor starts to look somewhat anxious; he gulps before talking:

“Princess, you are in a different realm now, and you have no idea how things function here. The words aren’t just soundwaves caused by verbal communications here, it’s a bit more… meaningful… in a somewhat troubling way for us. There are… entities here, that might become aware of your presence the moment we speak about them, let it be directly, or indirectly. Please, consider thoroughly before saying anything.”

Twilight thinks for a second:

“So… why don’t you just tell me what is up with Katerinburg?”

“He isn’t himself. That’s all you need to know. I cannot show you the evidence here, or anything else regarding him.”

Doubtful, Twilight asks again:

“Then, what are we even doing here? You, or whatever is behind you, wanted me to do something?”

The Emperor stares at Twilight before waving his claw in the air once, making the ocean of red liquid vanish in mere seconds, leaving only darkness and stars behind.

Now completely alone with Twilight, he calmly points out to a seemingly random location:

“I want you to look over there…”

Twilight hesitantly turns to the location he was pointing at, unsure what to expect. She was surprised when she saw two figures at a moderate distance, enlightened by a light seemingly coming out of nowhere.

Without any instructions coming from Grover I, she starts moving towards the two figures, driven purely by curiosity.

Walking through almost absolute darkness, she finally distinguishes what the two figures were; they were the young Grover VI of the Griffon Empire serenely sitting on a wheelchair, with Archon Eros VII, the Imperial Regent, looking after him.

After grasping their appearances, Twilight abruptly stops, as she was mesmerized by the fact that how real the two seemed to her. It almost felt like she could’ve simply walked over and joined them. It started to feel less like a dream for her.

Grover I talks to her from behind with a firm tone:

“I won’t bother explaining to you who these two are since you already know who and where they are. Go to Griffenheim. Archon Eros shall tell you everything you need to know, including the things I cannot tell you here…”

Twilight, however, still fixated her eyes on the young Emperor in the wheelchair:

“…I didn’t know he was using a wheelchair. How long has it been like this?”

“…For quite a long time. Archon Eros shall explain everything about it to you in detail, among other-”

The Emperor’s speech was interrupted by music, coming from a distance.

Twilight turns to the Emperor in confusion, as she witnesses the anxiety on his face:

“Your majesty? Is something wrong?”

Grover I however fixated his attention on the music:

“No. No… It can’t be…”

“What happened?!”

The music gets cheerful in a strange way. Grover I waves his claw, and the vision of the young Emperor and Archon disappears, while he starts talking in a tense tone:

“He knows we are here!”

“He? Who’s ‘he’?”

Grover I ignores her protests, as the weirdly cheerful music increases its volume:

“He’s trying to make this dream seem as ridiculous as possible, so you won’t take it seriously when you wake up!”

“I thought you told me that “this was no dream”, haven’t you?”

“It’s not the time for that! Now listen Twilight! I want you to listen to me very carefully!”

As the desperate attitude of Grover I intensified alongside the music, their conversation was yet again interrupted, now by the screams of a Yeti on a surfboard, riding a massive ocean-sized wave that appeared out of nowhere.

Twilight immediately shifted her focus to this extremely absurd scenery that appeared out of nowhere.

The Yeti starts shouting at them from the wave:

“Hey losers! How are you holding on? Lemme say; can you do this?”

The Yeti pulls out Juggling balls out of nowhere and starts throwing and catching them in the air while continuing his surfing by making *rad* moves.

Twilight couldn’t help but chuckle at the scenery unfolding before her. Grover I tries to scream at her to divert her attention, but despite being right next to her, it seemed as if he couldn’t let her know his intentions:

“Princess listen! Don’t pay any attention to him, look at me!”

Twilight, however, was looking at the Yeti in amusement, she starts laughing:

“Wait. Is- Is that the Storm King?! Now that makes it better!”

Out of frustration, The Emperor makes a hasty move using his whole body; seemingly making a massive shockwave that drove away the entire wave and the surfing Storm King on top of it. And as the shockwave throw the Storm King away, he made a comical scream airborne, causing the Twilight to chuckle. Grover I however was still very much serious:

“Now, I want you to listen, Princess-”

His speech was yet again interrupted by another loud voice, now by an entire horde of yaks, all dressed in ridiculous costumes of all kinds, running circles around them. But before the two could even focus their attention on them, all zany types of buffoonery seemingly started to appear out of nowhere; a massive orchestra composed of cats playing a dramatic piece, Clowns of all types surrounded by cheering kids of all types, Dragons flying around in costumes having sword duels in the air, the whole scenery basically became a freak festival, appearing out of nowhere.

Grover I starts screaming at her:

“Princess! Princess, please l-”

He ceases as he realizes an oddity in his voice, it sounded far higher pitched than usual. He then notices the funny look on Twilight’s face, it seemed as if she was trying to hold herself from laughing at him:

“Sir, you are…”

She was still doing her best to hold herself back, but to no avail. Twilight finally bursts into laughter.

He goes wide-eyed the moment there was more to him than just a change in his voice. He looks down and realizes that he is now at a far lower altitude than before. After coming to his senses, he screams to himself:

“Wait, am I a chick? …HE TURNED ME INTO A CHICK!”

While Twilight was amused and dying of laughter by the inexplicable yet hilarious scene revolving around her, Grover I was about to have a stroke out of the level of fury he was in, he raises his head to the sky and starts screaming:

“DAMN YOU, YOU BASTARD! DAMN YOU! IS THIS HOW YOU WANT TO PLAY?! THEN LET’S PLAY!!!”

Grover I suddenly grabs Twilight by her head using both of his claws and yells at her at a volume that could be heard despite the intense amount of loud voices around her:

“YOU WILL TAKE WHAT I SAID BEFORE SERIOUSLY, AND IF YOU DON’T, THEN THIS WILL BE YOUR NEW EXISTENCE!”

…

Darkness.

She suddenly opens her eyes in a dark environment yet again, almost like the scenery that she was in before all the lunacy swooped in. She felt as if she was now getting used to this.

But unlike before, this one wouldn’t start off in a peaceful manner. Instead, almost instantly after her arrival, a grotesque figure slowly emerges out of the darkness.

Not knowing how to react, Twilight stares at the creature with odd looks.

But as the thing got closer, she started to get disturbed by the physique and moves of the creature. She couldn’t help but gradually move backward.

The creature was four-legged like a pony, had somewhat elongated limbs and its moves seemed mechanical and artificial, and since the creature had a cape on it, Twilight couldn’t see its face or any other physical features of this creature. It reminded her of the creature that broke through her window to deliver Wingfried’s letter.

Twilight convinces herself to stand up against the creature, as since she was in a dream, or a Nightmare, there was no way for the creature to actually harm her. Driven by a sense of curiosity about what would happen next, she presses forwards to meet up with the creature. She felt as if there was something she was supposed to accomplish here other than just being there.

As Twilight got closer to it, she tried to pay attention to its features, the hood on its head made it impossible for her to dissect.

It wouldn’t be long before the creature stopped and raised its head and started to stare at Twilight, releasing its grotesqueness in all of its glory.

Covered in stitches and metal implants, it seemed as if the creature’s facial structure itself was unstable, and only could be held together through unorthodox methods. Its lack of eye pupils, pale skin, and messy hair made it look as if this thing was in a grave just recently.

Realizing certain features on the creature’s face and hair, Twilight’s jaw dropped, and started to struggle with breathing.

While the creature muttered in an artificial-like voice:

“Impossible…”

The creature’s purple hair color and somewhat familiar yet paler skin made Twilight’s head filled with horrifying conclusions.

Out of confusion and horror, she screams at the creature:

“YOU ARE NOT ME!”

The creature continued its soulless stare, it seemed as if the creature wasn’t even able to move its mimics.

Without even barely opening its mouth, the creature spoke to her:

“Who said I was you?”

The creature continues its advance towards her, while Twilight stands firm and stands her ground.

And even though she was able to gather all the courage she had in her, when the creature stood right in front of her, she felt fear at a level she never thought to be possible before. The creature looks down at her, as it had a physical mass at least twice the size of Twilight.

She felt tiny, humiliated, just by its presence alone. Her instincts ordered her to run away at once, as any other living being would.

But her determination overcame, as she was determined to analyze the creature before she could wake up.

After inspecting closely, she notices an object on the creature’s collars, what looked like a small and simple round badge; a white three-headed sword on a black background. She felt as if this finding of hers would matter a lot later on.

She looks at the creature’s face again, it seemed as if the creature was looking back at her.

A standoff that feels like an eternity ensued.

Twilight calmly waited to wake up from this nightmare.

After a while, the creature silently laughs to itself:

“You still think this is just a nightmare, do you? Good. Keep thinking like that. You’ll enjoy it… trust me. You are going to thank me when you are done…”

The creature quietly turns its back on her and walks away in the same fashion it came.

Now all alone, she merely stares into the darkness.

A moment later, the sound of knocking was heard.

Twilight finally woke up; somebody was knocking on her door.

Dizzy, she wasn’t able to instantly comprehend her surroundings. She raises her head and takes a look around the room, everything was the same as she left.

Not wanting to make the person behind the door wait, she quickly gets out of bed and moves towards the door. She removes the chair she placed prior and opens the door.

It was Wingfried von Katerinburg:

“Good Morning, Princess. I hope you had a restful night.”

Twilight looks at him with an exhausted and unsure stare:

“Yeah… I think it was.”

“Well, that’s nice to hear. So, I thought I’d wake you up in person since not even I really trust any other one here to wake you up. They might’ve tried to plant a plastic explosive trap on your doorknob, who knows.”

“Yes, yes. That… that makes sense.”

“So, whenever you are ready to leave, just exit the room and go to the lobby through the way you came here, I’ll be waiting for you there to accompany you through for your departure.”

“Yes… thanks.”

“No problem, and by the way Princess, while on your way, please consider the things we have discussed yesterday, would you?”

“…Don’t worry, I will.”

“Great. I’ll see you soon.”

Twilight merely nods and closes the door as Wingfried leaves.

She sighs and walks towards the windows. She then opens it, enlightening the room drastically.

She looks at Hellquill, no sign of any unrest, it was obvious that the city had finally settled down following the chaos of yesterday.

However, it wasn’t the condition of the city she had in mind…

Two Paths

The writer here. First of all, I want to apologize to everyone who read through all the EAW stories I’ve written and expected a well-executed and written conclusion to this series.

When I first started this little project of mine, I had it in my mind to be the basis of a narrative-driven submod similar to “Ghosts of Yore” or “Red Typhoon”, where the player’s choices would wholly shift the course of the in-game world, and the player would also have to switch between countries based on decisions.

The problem is that I never planned to make this mod a reality. Think of the stories I’ve written as one of those plays that were never meant to be played in a theatre and only written in a script format for literary reasons. While my reasoning might not be as sophisticated as those writers… ah who cares, you get the point.

I simply don’t have the interest, time, and especially the skill to develop the mod I had in my mind. If you feel like making a mod based on or inspired by this concept of mine, feel free to do so. Or if you want to expand, continue, or rewrite the story at hand, also feel free to do so, you can also use any artwork I’ve done in your mod/story, as some in the past too had done. I simply do not claim ownership over the things I’ve made.

Now with that out of the way, let me explain to you what I had in my mind:

As she is about to leave Hellquill, Twilight is left with two decisions; would she take the nightmare seriously and go visit Griffenheim to see Archon and Emperor? or would she not take it seriously and go back to Equestria?

Decision 1, Path to Victory:

After pondering about the visions she saw, Twilight changes her course after leaving Hellquill and heads directly to Griffenheim, the Griffonian Empire’s capital. Upon arrival, her unexpected visit resonates within the city, as everyone was unsure why would this pony would decide to visit the Imperial Heartland right after leaving Hellquill. After an eventful entrance into the City, she arrives in front of the Imperial Palace sometime later, demanding an audition with Regent Archon. She eventually gets what she had asked for after a heated argument with the palace personnel, who refused to believe that there was an actual alicorn visiting the palace uninvited. It was only when the Regent Archon Eros would hear the argument in person she would receive the attention of the officials she came here for. And when Twilight finally proved to him her identity, Archon knew something serious was in the air.

But still, by the time of meeting with Twilight in the meeting chamber, Archon was suspicious of her presence, keeping her fresh and unexplained visit to Hellquill in mind. This however would change suddenly as Twilight starts explaining the vision she saw.

At first, Archon Eros was doubtful, as the dream Twilight was describing was deeply absurd, to the point where he suspected that Twilight was making a fool out of him. But when Twilight started describing the creature she saw at the end of her nightmare, his attitude shifted suddenly, as the phrase “three-headed sword” left him appalled. He then questioned what she talked about with Wingfried, to which Twilight briefly replied, explaining to him the “time traveling shenanigans” she’s been through, and when Archon learned about the plot Wingfried was trying to draw Twilight into, he was once again dismayed by it. Shortly after, Archon takes a moment to gather his mind and connect the dots in front of him. His conclusion was clear; they were already getting in position to attack Equus by trying to take out Celestia first, and the long-prophesized Armageddon could soon be here.

Bewildered by this revelation, Archon Eros calls for an emergency meeting of the Imperial Council.

When they arrive at the Imperial Council, Twilight was shocked to learn that for the last two years, there’s been a Worldwide Hybrid War waged against Maar, the Griffonian God of Death. And even more shocked to learn that the blue griffon she just met indeed wasn’t even Wingfried von Katerinburg, but a flesh puppet guided by Maar, who most likely attempted to use Twilight as a puppet by luring her through false promises to achieve his dark deeds, including her getting tricked into killing Celestia. She realizes that there is much more to the world than she thought, as she couldn’t believe that she was almost tricked into doing something so horrendous and destructive, over a lie conceived by a so-called “Dark God”, to turn her into a pawn! To kill her dear mentor over nothing? Her blood was frozen just by the thought of it, and more so over the fact that she almost fell for it.

Archon Eros and the Imperial Council explain to her the things they’ve been doing for the last two years and what is to be done about the countries under Maar’s dominion and the plots that are being prepared by his minions all around the world. But now with the revelation caused by Maar’s most recent plan with Twilight, it became clear that he was finally on the offensive and getting ready to launch his Armageddon against all those who will oppose him soon enough.

Twilight and Equestria had missed much of this, and in a way, she felt guilty over it. How come she and the ponies around her never realized the oddities surrounding them, how did Archon Eros able to put aside his decades-long struggle with the oligarchs of the Empire and form a coalition government with them, how did Changelings start cooperation with Hellquill seemingly out of nowhere, or why Griffonian Empire still hasn’t gone to war against Aquileia despite decades of competition between two nations? There was always more to this than they realized, and she was too late to realize any of it, but still, late is better than never.

Soon later, Twilight discussed with Archon Eros what is to be done between Equestria and Griffonian Empire. With Duke Gerlach and Duchess Gabriela, they quickly sorted out a short-term strategy, the first phase of the plan was for Twilight to immediately go back to Canterlot and inform Celestia of the situation, and after that, without losing any valuable time, she was supposed to sneak into the Changeling Lands without the notice of anyone, and then burst all the way into the palace of Queen Chrysalis, after reaching Chrysalis she was supposed to convince her that she too was being manipulated by Maar, and an all-out global war was soon enough, one where all of his servants will become expendable pawns. There was much detail left to be pondered over, but she simply couldn't afford to wait any further.

Twilight left Griffenheim through the air without any delays. But keeping the flying beasts of Maar in mind, Archon had assigned a heavy aerial escort for Twilight to reach Equestria safely.

As she left Griffonia through the air, crossing the sea, she felt uncertain. A part of her was relieved over the fact that she was now seeing the truth and had just been prevented from doing something terrifying, thanks to Grover I. But as all the odds were now seemingly stacked against her and everyone she cared about, she couldn’t help but be wary, and let pessimistic thoughts invade her mind.

While her mind was being occupied by a thought storm while airborne, a swarm of Maar’s creatures began appearing on the horizon, their intentions with her were perfectly clear.

Twilight and her escort guardians started taking their battle positions to counter whatever Maar was getting ready to throw at them.

She knew this plan wouldn’t be easy to fulfill…

NOTE: I would like to apologize again, this time for keeping this path short, my true dedication went to the next path. If you’d like to expand on this path yourself, also feel free to do so. But know that the end result will be somewhat similar to Maar’s path, with the main exception being Equestria being on the other side of Armageddon.

Decision 2, Path to Glory:

Twilight, with the support of Wingfried, convinces herself that the nightmare she saw really was nothing important. And even though she still let Wingfried know that she won’t be participating in Wingfried’s Operation against Celestia, she still wasn’t able to fully dismiss the notions he had planted in her mind.

She eventually arrives back at Equestria, and when asked by Celestia about how the negotiations went, she simply stated that it was “indecisive”. Disappointed with the lack of results, Celestia asks her to keep an eye on the developments coming out of Hellquill just in case diplomacy with them ever becomes a possibility again.

Things went back to “normal” for Twilight, as the war continued. In the following months, there was little doubt left in people’s minds that Equestria was the losing side, as Changelings were now starting their advance towards Central Equestria (or whatever much distance they made in-game). Twilight had done her best to observe Celestia’s manner, with the fears that her attitude might’ve deteriorated with Equestria’s heavy losses, which would finally result in her character breaking apart, just as she saw it in the vision back at Hellquill.

As time went on, Twilight indeed spotted irregularities within Celestia’s behavior, she was no longer treating the losses suffered by her ponies the same as it was before. Often resulting in her unusually bursting out in fury. And although she would eventually come back to her senses and apologize to the ones around her for her “inconsiderate attitude”, Twilight, witnessing most of her reactions, couldn’t help but be wary and tried to calm her wherever she got the chance. When she shared her concerns about Celestia to her friends and relatives, without revealing the secrets of her visit to Hellquill, she learned that she was not alone in this case, as her close circle of friends in particular seem more terrified the by the idea of an entity as powerful as Celestia revealing all of her power with a malevolent intent than Changeling hordes parading in the streets of Canterlot.

But day by day, Twilight and her friends’ concerns started to reveal themselves to be correct. As Celestia became more and more erratic day by day, screaming to her aides almost regularly, making far more hasty decisions without asking those around her, with a seemingly increasing distrust against those around her.

While her friends wouldn’t even consider attempting to overthrow Celestia, Twilight started to fear for the safety of her family and close friends, as the first time in ages, Celestia would legally persecute ponies by her explicit orders, who were suspected of treason against her. And despite the fact that she never executed anyone yet, for Twilight, a breakdown in her personality would inevitably result in Celestia starting to see around those to be expandable.

Feeling lonely and desperate, she started to think that she would have to confront Celestia one way or another in order to save her loved ones.

The turning point would finally come, as, during one of these stressful and furious meetings, Celestia once again started to blame those around her, pointing out the mistakes made by the ponies in the meeting room, telling them that she might end up having no option but to discharge them from their positions and replace them with more loyal counterparts in order to “save Equestria”. During this, Twilight once again attempted to comfort Celestia. And whenever Twilight tried to calm Celestia down during these furious ramblings, she would often succeed in doing so, maybe even convince Celestia to apologize to those around her. This time, however, it was different, much different. Instead of calming down or acknowledging her inappropriate behavior, Celestia instead focused all of her anger on Twilight, asserting that she’s being “ungrateful” and “foolish” and how she “should be kneeling down, begging for mercy” if she wanted to “continue holding” her position. After her furious assertion, Celestia abruptly left the room, leaving everyone, especially Luna and Twilight, appalled.

That night, Twilight was convinced that Celestia had finally reached her breaking point, and her sudden transformation into something vile is imminent.

She immediately started plotting against her, with disabling her in a surprise assault seemed like the most viable option. She sends a secret message to Katerinburg on the same night, informing him about the situation while telling him that she had changed her mind, saying that the “time had already come”.

Less than a week later, Wingfried arrived in Canterlot in secret while Twilight completed her preparations without informing anyone else.

The two take the ancient magical oath Wingfried showed to Twilight back in Hellquill. According to this pact, both sides would have to do everything they could do in order to accomplish their own end of the deal. And if one of the parties to the pact deliberately did not fulfill their end of the deal or tried to deceive the agreement, they would die instantly. As in this case, Twilight would take out Celestia before she could transform into a monster by assassinating her, while Wingfried in return would terminate whatever genocidal plan he had against the ponies and stop the Reformisten movement by personally destroying it from within.

The plan was simple; stage a false meeting in the staff chamber using hallucination magic without ever really inviting anybody else, and when Celestia arrives in the room, Twilight and Katerinburg would cast a spell on her from behind, hopefully, powerful enough to kill or at least disable her. After that, Twilight would do whatever was necessary to declare herself a regent while trying to explain to her friends why she had to take Celestia out, and also explain what they had just averted in the process by doing so. There were still many details that needed to be pondered over, but at the time being, Twilight had one thing in her mind.

The day had finally come, and the plan was set in motion. Luna was out of Canterlot and the majority of high-ranking personnel were not inside of the Royal Palace. Everything was going smoothly as she planned while Wingfried used his magic to disguise himself and blend in with the palace personnel.

Celestia had finally arrived in the meeting chamber by late afternoon, and “everyone” started taking their places, while Twilight took her place behind Celestia ready to cast the spell.

Meanwhile, only one pony in the entire royal palace however took notice of the irregularities within the palace’s order; Commander Shining Armour, Twilight’s brother. Who wondered how could there be an urgent meeting in process supposedly involving him and the military high command when he just standing in his place, not even formally informed about it? The moment he learned about it from the palace personnel, he started to hurry with fear.

Twilight had grimly miscalculated her brother’s position at the time of the operation, as she expected him to be outside of the royal palace at the time just like the other high commanding officers. Unfortunately for her, by the time she was getting in her position, Shining Amour was already sprinting towards the meeting hall.

The moment Shining Armour broke into the room, it was too late for Twilight to do anything, the spell was already charged, and was ready to eliminate Celestia, who just realized what was up with her surroundings, and was about to turn her head towards Twilight.

Stunned by the scene in front of him, Shining Armour would take no time to grasp the situation, and just charge towards Twilight to stop whatever she was doing while screaming her name.

While Twilight, appalled by her brother’s sudden entrance, tries to cancel out the spell before it might hurt him. But with him charging toward her and with her panicking, it was too late for anything.

The deadly spell was unleashed towards Celestia, as Shining Armour would jump forward to take the fatal strike to himself, with the intent of sacrificing himself for the sake of Celestia.

Within mere seconds, it was over for her brother.

Shining Amour’s lifeless body dropped to the ground violently. He had an immense, scorched injury encompassing his entire chest.

Twilight screams from her lungs in horror, refusing to believe what she just had done.

Seconds later, she would realize that Celestia too was staring at her.

But not in the way she expected it to be.

Celestia was terrified, her eyes were filled with horror, as she too refused to believe what she had done. She wasn’t getting angry or preparing to fight Twilight, she just stood there, solid like a rock.

Twilight ceases her screams and stares into Celestia’s tearful eyes in humiliation.

Moments later, Celestia mutters to her: “Twilight… what have you done?”

Twilight tried to grasp how she come to this position. She tried to recall all the memories of erratic behavior by Celestia throughout the last couple of months. By all accounts, her response was supposed to be violent, uncaring, and ready to attack Twilight the moment she realized she was plotting against her. None of that happened. Instead, Celestia’s reaction was just what she would expect from her if she had ever tried to harm a loved one of her own in Celestia’s presence.

She asks herself the horrendous question; did she miscalculate Celestia’s reactions? And more importantly, did Twilight just kill the pony who she cared about the most and the one who was close to her the most, for nothing?

This was getting more and more severe for Twilight, who couldn’t even remember why she set up this fake meeting in the first place. Because the more she looked into Celestia’s teary and disappointed eyes, she started to lose her will to live, as “a return to normal” for her was utterly impossible for her by this point.

Their silent standoff would be cut off by Wingfried, who just dropped his disguise and rapidly attacked Celestia by flying towards her at full speed while screaming; “For my family!”

Still in shock, Celestia wouldn’t be able to directly counter Wingfried and instead falls to the ground with him. Only when she could partially shake off the shock, she could counter Wingfried by pushing him away using magic.

This, however, wouldn’t be enough to stop the magic-infused Wingfried, whose spells were so surprisingly powerful that they were not only harming Celestia, but even the structural integrity of the hall they were in. As Celestia continues to be the subject of all these attacks, she finally grasps the urgency of the position she was in and realizes that she would soon be dead if she does not encounter him right now. She finally goes on the offensive and casts a powerful spell that would knock both Twilight and Wingfried out.

Convincing herself that the pony in front of her isn’t Twilight, Celestia now declared her to be an enemy too, giving the already shaken Twilight no option but to retaliate.

However, their battle would be short, as Celestia would easily knock the unwilling Twilight out of the fight through a decisive blow and get stuck in a stalemate with Katerinburg. While keeping Celestia busy, Wingfried screams at the wounded Twilight laying on the ground, telling her that this was their “only chance”. Twilight gets back up after a struggle and focuses her new spell on Celestia, and after a brief exchange of last looks, Twilight fires the spell, causing a massive explosion that would fill the entire meeting hall with a dust cloud caused by the destroyed interior.

As the dust cloud would fade away, Celestia stood silent on her hooves, unmoving. Her wounds however would soon reveal themselves, as she would take a couple of steps forward and collapse at her own weight.

And as she was laying on the ground, dying, she takes one last look at Twilight, who was staring back at her with sorrowful eyes, still questioning to herself whether or not she miscalculated Celestia’s actions. Her heart was broken, as she saw the bloody tear that came out of Celestia’s eye.

Soon after, Wingfried too would stand up, heavily wounded, he struggles to walk towards Twilight, who was staring down at Celestia’s body.

This, however, wouldn’t be the end of the case, as mere seconds later, others would dash into the room through the destroyed door. And when Twilight would turn her back, she would realize that this wouldn’t be the end, not even close. Those who came through the door were her friends (not including Luna). Who also rushed to the meeting hall the moment they heard the loud noises. And when they saw the bodies of Shining Armour and Celestia lying next to Twilight and Wingfried, they too didn’t know how to react, as a result, they merely stared at the two with their jaws dropped.

This silent standoff would soon cease, however, as Wingfried would defensively leap in front of Twilight, shouting them to “stand back”. In response to Wingfried’s attitude, her friends would have no option but to be in a ready position as well. By this point, Twilight realizes that she has to intervene immediately to stop yet another costly confrontation, she screams at her friends, telling them to stop and that she can explain everything.

A heated argument ensues, as some of her friends recognize who Wingfried is, and notice the heat blurs coming off from Twilight’s horn, indicating that she was the one who killed them. They do what Celestia had done before, suspect Twilight of not being herself, but rather an imposter in her place, pretending to be her.

Despite her protests, her friends, not tolerating the sight in front of them, attack them both, and while Wingfried was already in a defensive position and was able to dodge the attacks directed against him, Twilight couldn’t even gather her mind together to apprehend that she was in a fight with her friends. She takes hit after hit without even noticing.

While still trying to stand her ground, she starts crying uncontrollably.

She just had violently killed her own brother, who spent a life together, purely by mistake, before she would have to kill her long-time friendand mentor, who shed tears of disappointment in her final seconds, knowing that it was Twilight Sparkle of all people who killed her. And now, she was supposed to fight her friends, who wouldn’t even believe what she just had done here and will never see her the same.

It was just too much for her, too much. She starts shaking with fury, feeling as if she was going insane. Overwhelmed by emotions, she couldn’t help but scream as she had never done. The others stop their attacks, as they finally notice how extreme her emotion has gone.

She could feel her insides boiling up, her scream was tearing apart her own ears, her mind becoming a hazy cloud. She was beyond her tipping point and was truly no longer herself. While if it was any other creature, this would mean mental breakdown, but for a being as powerful as Twilight, it meant danger for everyone around her. Purely by instinct, she casts a spell and charges it without even thinking. Seeing the state of Twilight, the others rush to cover, but it was too late.

A blast occurs, far more powerful than the first one. Its light was visible from the entirety of Canterlot, the land was shaken, and the entirety of the meeting hall and a part of the royal palace were now completely destroyed.

After a while the dust from the explosion settles down, leaving only uncertainty in the air. Twilight comes back to her senses, filled with fear, and worried about her friends.

She rushes forward, screaming for them, but it wouldn’t be hard for her to find them.

Seconds after moving forward, she notices Fluttershy in front of her, lying on the ground, motionless.

She realized what she had done.

When the rest of her friends started to come out of the rubble and saw Twilight staring at the lifeless body of Fluttershy. They yet again merely gazed at her in horror, just like the first time they entered the hall. When Twilight noticed her old friends looking at her in fear, she tries to call them out in desperation, begging for their help. But after witnessing what had happened, none of them had the courage to come closer to Twilight, as they started to flee from her in terror. She screams after them, telling them to wait while struggling to run towards them with whatever energy she had left in her.

Exhausted and wounded, she collapses under her weight and helplessly watches her friends get away from her. She looks around her in desperation, the only thing left around her that was worth noting was Wingfried, laying on the ground, either dead or dying, as for the rest, it was all rubble. She realizes all is lost for her.

She doesn’t scream or cry, just looks down, she was fatigued but yet didn’t have a desire for resting. She didn’t care what would happen next, or about the fact that she just stopped a potential global genocide. She even forgot why she was even trying to assassinate Celestia in the first place.

She was lonely and had lost her will to live, that was all she knew.

…

Minutes later, she hears the sounds of rubble behind her.

She slowly turns her head around. It was Wingfried, wounds covered half of his body, and were certainly enough to kill him, yet he was standing in front of her like a monolith.

She didn’t react to him; she barely had any mental sanity left in her.

Wingfried casually declares; “Your majesty, sadly I must state that Wingfried von Katerinburg won’t be able to fulfill his end of the deal. Because he is not with us, he never was…”

He uses his claw to penetrate his torso without reacting to it. He rips out his own heart without a hinge and then throws it away.

He calmly states: “You have been deceived…”

His claw suddenly expands at an unnatural and grotesque speed, followed by his other claw and then other limbs. His body starts growing rapidly, as his physical features start to resemble the monster that broke through Twilight’s window, except, this one was larger, way larger.

Within seconds, a massive beast at least four times the size of Twilight was now towering over her. Staring at her with soulless eyes, affirming her that he never was Wingfried, but rather Maar, the Griffon God of Death, who disguised himself as him.

Twilight stares back at him for at least a minute.

Twilight starts laughing hysterically out of nowhere, with her whole body shaking.

Maar too eventually joins, laughing with her in a more tamed fashion.

As this goes on, Twilight’s mental stability deteriorates, as her laughing descends into outright violent screaming. With now both of them practically screaming at each other nonsensically, Maar seemed like he was the one having the most fun out of this, while Twilight, on the other hand, was not so.

With whatever sanity is left inside of her, she casts a spell to choke herself to death. Her screams start fading away, as she collapses further, she only would stop as Maar would grab her by the head and hit her in the face, disabling the spell and knocking her out unconscious.

She wakes up on top of a mountain, not far from Canterlot, the smoke emitting from the royal palace was still visible. Maar was standing in front of her, waiting for her to regain consciousness.

When she gathers her mind together, she tries to attack Maar one last time, but this time it would be foiled by his magic, which would disable her and her magic swiftly.

With Twilight now laying on the ground, completely defenseless, facing a mythical creature known for representing death itself, she prepares herself for the worst, and in a way, she convinced herself that whatever was going to happen to her, she probably deserved it already.

But in contrast to her expectations, she wouldn’t be tortured, at least not physically.

Maar starts talking with a gentle tone, telling her that her entire life was nothing but a series of lies, dictated by higher forces which he referred to as “the gods”.

He continues by telling her that there’s been a “grand philosophical debate” among metaphysical forces in the nonmaterial realm for eternity, about the nature of good and evil, their place in the universe(s), and the organization of certain realities through different moral compasses, with some thinking if it’s possible to dictate a dimension and guide it to be the “perfect one”, by minimalizing fear and suffering, shaping the reality within it to an extent that only the predesignated “good” would eventually prevail over predesignated “evil”, no matter what. “A reality, where the weak can easily prevail without never having to invest into realistic resources necessary to prevail against their rivals and enemies”. Stating that it is “a reality free from reality”.

Maar tells her that her dimension was chosen and groomed to be this so-called “perfect dimension”, with her being the predesignated “hero” of this reality, he calls her the “perfect person in a perfect world in a perfect galaxy in a perfect universe”. Every single battle she’s been through was already predetermined with her winning at the end and with her morals proving themselves to be superior no matter what, and even if it defiles universal logic and reason, the higher ones “would take care of it” no matter what.

But Maar finally adds; that he was on the other side of this argument and was intended to “disprove” this thesis. And so he did, after spending an eternity intervening indirectly, he finally entered the realm himself through an ancient relic that Katerinburg recovered. But also notes that instead of using “godly” powers, he choose to “play the game by the rules set by them”, and up until this point, he never broke the rules, using regular magical spells and material resources like any other mortal would, and that was besides recruiting proxies all around the world to do the dirty work for him.

He reveals to Twilight that if he wanted to destroy the universe she was in, he would easily do so with no effort, but this wouldn’t disprove the thesis the universe represented and this wasn’t what he wanted. What he wanted was to disprove the thesis in the most vicious way possible; to manipulate the primary person in charge into doing what he wanted. Maar never needed Celestia, or her brother, or her friend, dead, as none of them ever posed a threat to him, it was all about him pushing Twilight into doing the things he wanted through genuine means and concerns, as neither of the two futures Twilight saw back at Hellquill were illusions, both of them were real, and the conclusion Twilight had about Celestia going insane was also completely correct and rational.

Proving to them, that extreme pain and suffering can emerge out of purely benevolent and rational intentions, with or without “marginal outsider intervention”.

And now with this, the thesis has been disproven, or at least her part in it, and the reason behind Twilight’s existence has been invalidated.

Twilight, on the other hand, was not sure how to react, in a way she couldn’t disagree with him. Even though the fresh wounds on her soul still present were pushing her desperately to reach a mood-driven and irrational conclusion, she just couldn’t help but think if everything she’s been through really was for nothing. She feels empty, but not as a result of madness or sadness, just emptiness. She turns to Maar, asking him about her loved ones and how genuine the things she surrounded herself with are.

She would soon go through the most painful part of this, as Maar would dissect her relationships with those around her, including her mentor, relatives, and friends, showing her the logical inconsistencies within their interactions, and how phony her life really was. And when Twilight would loudly object to the points he made, Maar would literally resurrect the souls of Celestia and her brother out of nowhere, and forcefully interrogate their ghosts, demanding them to explain her point of view of Twilight’s perfectness, and when they would finish, Maar would once again point out the exact same irregularities, he then would dismiss their ghosts.

Twilight stands up slowly and turns to the line of smoke coming out of Canterlot. It was already obvious that there was no point in going back for her.

She wasn’t being overflown with emotions anymore and even felt like an outsider to herself as if she was observing her own past and current life with the eyes of someone else. And rather than feeling bad, she would almost feel bad for the character of Twilight Sparkle, as if now that was a completely different personality for her.

Twilight finally experiences her anagnorisis.

She walks around, pondering. She eyes at her past with pity and disgust, and while acknowledging that the pony named Twilight Sparkle and she used to share the same body, she was now embarrassed by it.

Moments later, her empty emotional state would change drastically, as she feels revulsion on a scale and type, she never would think would be possible. Her hatred wasn’t against some certain person, group, country, or ideology. She was genuinely offended by the fact that someone out there really made a fool out of her like this, as they made her a theatrical character that was supposed to be played around, that was supposed to be happy, fearful, angry, or sad at entirely someone else’s will. All while she was expected by others to spend her entire life stuck in this failed philosophical thesis of theirs. No… She was not having this.

Twilight experiences her second anagnorisis.

She reminds herself how truly powerful she is, as she just killed the supposedly most powerful being in Equestria with a single strike, even when she lacked the will to fight her back. She thinks through all the things she’s been through… She never really needed anybody else to help her during her journey, she only allowed others around her to be near her by convincing herself that she somehow needed them, that she was somehow obliged to follow them, and respect them, all while the entire reality was revolving around her without her knowing! Yet she was there, too busy convincing herself into being foolishly humble, convincing herself that there was nothing special about her, that she was just a regular alicorn that got lucky. No! Those who are below her should be worshipping her like a deity! And yet there she was again, letting these weaklings into holding her back… nothing should be holding her back from growing stronger and fulfilling her true potential!

She closes her eyes and inhales the air with all of her strength. She then breathes out, feeling relieved. She was smiling and felt liberated. She didn’t even remember what was so upsetting for her just a while ago. She simply didn’t care anymore.

She turns to Maar, and thanks him for what he has done.

Maar shared her manner of gratitude and informed her that he should be the one thanking her. Maar then approaches her, advising her to take the matters into her hooves and; “take revenge against the gods” for making her live through a life of lies by spitting in their faces and go through the path she now desires.

She couldn’t agree more.

Maar smiles, saying to her that she has now become the “Götterdämmerung” (lit. ‘Twilight of the Gods’). Twilight, meanwhile, saw this as a new fitting title for her, who now wanted to keep a distance from her past self, more than anything else in the world.

Just like anyone else, Queen Chrysalis was shocked to receive the news coming out of Canterlot, Celestia was dead, the city was in chaos, other leading figures were either escaped the city or missing, and Luna’s whereabouts were unknown. But what was more shocking was a letter of a peace agreement, which was signed by Twilight Sparkle and invited her to a frontline town to accept the surrender of Equestria in person. The letter made no effort to explain what happened in Canterlot, and Chrysalis was convinced that it was a forgery. That was the case until a second letter arrived, this time signed by her secret ally, Wingfried von Katerinburg, in which he explained to her that he and his collaborators had successfully induced a civil upheaval in Equestria with the defector Princess Sparkle who was now in charge of the country, who was willing to make concessions to her with the sole condition that Princess Sparkle would be the Governor of the Occupied Equestria.

This was enough to convince Queen Chrysalis that she had essentially won the war thanks to her secret pact with Wingfried von Katerinburg and his associates. Thinking that she has successfully outmaneuvered her enemies with her brilliance, Chrysalis would not be hesitating with any delays regarding the Surrender of Equestria.

She would soon arrive in the designated town with her heavily escorted staff. The town itself was in Changeling Controlled Territory, and she was certain that no living being could ever prevent her from achieving what she longed for all these years.

She arrives in the arranged building with pride, which was already surrounded by thousands of changelings. Upon entering, she would be welcomed by Wingfried von Katerinburg and after a brief exchange of gratuities, they would head to the main hall to sign the agreement. Where Twilight was standing alone on the other side of a small table, standing still in her place, her hair was messy and looked pale. Chrysalis would soon approach the table alongside Katerinburg, who was intended to be the “intermediary” to the agreement.

Immediately upon arriving in front of Twilight, Chrysalis quickly teases her with an arrogant attitude, bragging about her victory and pointing at Equestria’s defeat. She does this with great confidence, with her believing that an absolute victory was so certain that not even insulting the chief negotiator of the vanquished country right before signing the peace agreement wouldn’t change the outcome.

An awkward silence follows as Twilight wouldn’t react to Chrysalis’ insults, not even on a mimical level. Chrysalis looks at her with dubious eyes, weirded out by Twilight’s soulless stare and mild smile. It would be natural to expect that she would be shaken, given the things she must’ve been through, but it almost seemed as if she was just discharged from a hospital after losing blood, or maybe even as if she came back to life after being dead for a few days. Chrysalis eventually gets frustrated with her lack of responsiveness.

Moments later, Twilight starts smiling more intensely, she starts giggling, before bursting out into laughing manically, penetrating through the dead silence in the room while Chrysalis stares at her uneasily.

It was a late night. Twilight was firmly standing, staring at the burning meeting hall with hundreds of changeling corpses surrounding her.

She inhales the air, it was refreshing.

She never realized how much relief could come just through the complete extermination of one’s enemies.

Maar would soon approach her from behind, telling her while pointing to the building in flames, that “this is just the beginning, my dear Dämmerung”.

From this moment on the gameplay would be less based on narrative and more on actual gameplay, as Celestia’s assassination will be the turning point on a global scale.

Maar informs all of his agents around the world, that “the time for Weltreich has come”.

Twilight goes back to Canterlot, now under the name Maar gave her; ‘Führerin Götterdämmerung’, more commonly known as just Dämmerung. She will personally purge everyone who wouldn’t unconditionally follow this drastic change in regime, and establish an inner circle of deputies, mostly through using mind control. And as a result, all of her close friends and allies will abandon Canterlot and other parts of Equestria that were now under Dämmerung’s control and relocate to South Equus, there, they will establish a new government led by Luna, and declare war against Dämmerung and Maar.

The entire world descends into war within the next couple of weeks (not days, because that would probably crash the game). Countries that were secretly allied with Maar’s Weltreich, who are going to be most of the Supremacist countries, including Hellquill, Wingbardy, Barrad Magocracy, Sunstriker Clan, Talonsvaal Republiek, County of Greifwald (led-by Ludwig Ebonwing), a reformed Storm Empire, and the Dread League, will launch their offensives against those who are not, while other “non-ruling agents” within some other countries will start launching coup attempts or outright rebellions, especially in Changeling Lands, Riverlands, and the Griffonian Empire (including one with Ferdinand Dawnclaw).

By this point the player would gain the option to choose their side in Armageddon;
Pact of Life or the Weltreich.

Meanwhile, Changeling Lands will erupt into a Civil War between Maar’s underlings and everyone else. The Anti-Maar faction will join forces with Luna’s Army, Stalliongrad, and other remaining Anti-Maar Forces in Equus to drive Maarist Forces out of the continent.

The River Republic and most other Riverland Nations will most likely collapse due to the Maarist takeover of the Government following the sudden assassination of Chancellor River Swirl.

With Rebellions emerging in both East and West, Maarist Forces in Hellquill will launch Blitzkrieg against both Riverlands and the Griffon Empire, they will collaborate with Ferdinand Dawnclaw’s Forces to fight against the Empire and with Dread League’s Forces, to fight against the Riverlands and other Non-Weltreich Nations in the area.

King Sombra will be brought back again with Maar’s aid, who also promised him glory and those who defeated him in his previous lives, and will launch another Civil War, this time against the Crystal Empire and Equestrian Royalists.

A Reformed Storm Empire, fueled by Maar’s magic and global war machine, also guided by his promises, will declare war against all of its neighbors at once.

Giulio Beakolini’s Kingdom of Wingbardy and its allied countries will open up another front of Armageddon in South Griffonia by launching a war against Aquileia and its allies. As he too was aided by Maar’s magic and promises.

Under attack by many sides, old feuds between countries and races will fade away into obscurity, as countries such as the Empire and Aquileia became allies against Weltreich.

By this time, it can be said with ease that Weltreich is merely a loose confederation of Personalities and Nations, most of them craving for victory and glory, who are ready to ultimately sell their souls to the Devil for the sake of their individual glory, rather than be a part of it due loyalty to Maar, as barely any of them were actually Maar worshippers. Except for a single pony, who now has a completely another story…

Dämmerung has established a Totalitarian System in a ridiculously short period of time, almost completely reliant upon mind control and intimidation.

In mere days, millions of ponies suddenly became slaves without them noticing it first, while they were put under a primitive form of mass surveillance through magical creatures now flying over the cities, terrorizing the local population. These undead monsters mostly referred to as “Maar’s Damned” were fused with mechanical and magical sciences and were essentially corpses of dead enemies of Weltreich, mutated to an insane level. And since most ponies living in Equestria refused to comply with this insanity that came out of nowhere, the undead forces eventually ended up forming the main bulk of Dämmerung’s forces, alongside her army of still living army of slaves.

The country’s proper name was now “Equusreich” as the country was now meant to control the entire continent in which they were living. The State itself only demanded obedience to Dämmerung and her undeclared master, Maar. No ideology, religion, or premise now matters to Equusreich, no nationality or culture is prioritized, no religious activity is tolerated, no liberty was to be had, and everything within daily life that is considered to be “undesirable” by Führerin Dämmerung must be eliminated, no matter the cost.

The pony which was once known as Twilight on the other hand, practically became addicted to revenge itself, as she now couldn’t imagine doing anything else but to go against her intended path. She deteriorates both mentally and physically. And with nobody else around to help her, she continues her descent into madness.

Dämmerung began committing random atrocities, sometimes even against those living under her, for no reason at all other than the fact that since this reality was built solely for her, this must mean that she had the right to dictate the life of any mortal in this universe, and why she should care about these lowly lives? Do regular people mourn over the bacteria they kill whenever they wash themselves? Then why she should be sorry for washing out of these germs out of her realm? “Such simple-minded bacteria” …That was what Maar had taught her; the necessary acknowledgment of her place in this universe.

But truth be told, she was paranoid, afraid that she would lose the war and some mortal might reaffirm dominance over her, and although she tried to present herself as a cold-blooded and fearless creature, in reality, she was anything but that. She was ready to do anything for the sake of holding on to power and never let anyone turn her into Twilight Sparkle again, even if it means sacrificing her sanity. Her actions become more erratic day by day, with her maniacal scream-like laughter of hers becoming a regular activity for her.

She wanted to become anything Twilight was afraid of becoming, and even though she was convinced that the whole universe was constructed for her, her self-hatred grows day by day. Maar had ordered her to “become a god” by overcoming herself, but how could she do that if her past hold her back?

She had reached a point where she had every single mirror in her palace be thrown away since she couldn’t bare seeing herself in the mirror. She was already changed in the soul, but that wasn’t enough for her, she couldn’t stand bearing the face of the one pony she loathsomely hates. In her personal lab, she starts performing crude experiments on herself; she starts by ripping off her own horn, to prove to everyone that she “doesn’t need” it, she instead installs new mechanic abominations all around her body to perform magic.

She then rips off her wings. She didn’t care about the pain, since she convinced herself whatever she was experiencing wasn’t hers, but rather those of Twilight Sparkle, an assumption that made her happy about the pain she was receiving. She experiments on her own wings mutating them to an unholy degree and reinstalling them to her body. The end result was spectacular, as she didn’t have those tiny alicorn wings anymore, but far more effective ones, as large as those of a regular-sized dragon.

She then looks at her body. Countless ideas about what to do with her organs emerge inside her head out of nowhere.

She began ripping herself apart, literally. Every single limb, one by one, she then would improvise on them, attach them back in a grotesque fashion using magic. Her body grow as she started to resemble more of a biological abomination rather than a pony.

In the end, she was way taller than before and had practically lost all her bodily features that resembled her former self.

Only then she would feel comfortable looking at a mirror; her face was completely disgraced; her flesh was only kept together through sews and metallic pieces. Her cornea had faded away thanks to her experiments, and her teeth resembled those of a brute dragon. Her hair was ruined and drops of blood on it were visible.

She was a total nightmare and couldn’t be happier. She whispers to her reflection in the mirror;

“Thank you…”

…

Aftermath

This one is a whole other mod concept, a one where Maar’s Weltreich has won Armageddon.

20 years have passed since the assassination of Princess Celestia.

Tens of millions now lie dead, and hundreds of millions live under tyranny.

Weltreich is in total control of the planet right now… at least in theory.

In reality, it now directly controls less than 10 percent of the world’s landmass.

Some parts of the planet are now nothing but wasteland, while most of the world is now under the control of “governors” who are in reality, warlords, ruling their respective countries (or whatever they have in their possession) in the name of Maar. These were the people who were promised glory during Maar’s rise to power and volunteered to serve as underlings to him.

And now they have succeeded in doing so… mostly. The warlords now govern massive chunks of land which they only saw in their dreams back in the day. But it wouldn’t surprise anybody to know that, eventually, these warlords will start having conflicting interests, and will start fighting each other for the sake of their own personal gain, even though they all still claimed allegiance to Maar.

Think of the state of the world as Europe during the Middle Ages, where despite everybody claiming allegiance to a higher religious body, this doesn’t prevent them from acting as fully independent states, waging entire wars against each other and having their own interpretation of how a Maarist rule should be imposed in a country.

But in contrast to the Pope of the Middle Ages, in the case of Maar, his way of enforcing his rule over those below him are far more… direct.

Maar

The technology has advanced to a miraculous level in the last 20 years, where Weltreich has by now invented vehicles capable of reaching space and achieving a moon landing operation just 7 years after the declaration of Weltreich.

Now, with 20 years having passed since the start of Armageddon, Maar’s orbital missile systems, carrying nuclear warheads, patrol the heavens. The Strategic Bombardment Jets and Ballistic Missiles of Weltreich also can hit any target in the world within mere hours. Therefore, Maar can make the entire world get in line without making any proper effort. And since Weltreich has firmly banned all other countries in the world to use or possess nuclear weapons, except for Equusreich who can only possess it, it can be said that Maar’s rule has been truly solidified.

Weltreich doesn’t enforce a direct rule, for no reason other than the fact that Maar finds no reason to, as he now shifted his focus to solidifying his presence in the solar system. But this fact doesn’t prevent Weltreich from occasionally dropping Atomic Warheads on any suspected Anti-Maar stronghold or any place suspected of being an Anti-Maar stronghold.

But most of the time, Maar doesn’t intervene, as he is known for enjoying chaos unfolding on the ground. He doesn’t try to negotiate between his governors to achieve peace and root out conflicting interests, he knows well that even a world where he has directly enforced his rule wouldn’t be much different, since it also would be mostly ruled through intimidation rather than appeal, so let some poor soul do the job for him, it would be amusing to watch.

Rebellions, wars, famines, and tragedies overall have become a regular affair, with warlords waging wars with their armies in hundreds of thousands, just to end up with a stalemate or a white peace. The political balance of power has become truly medieval, with no resolution in sight. For the commoners of any country in the world, the primary concern was to simply survive, but in some parts of the world, even this has become a challenge.

Equestria in ruins

By far, the most powerful Province of Weltreich is the infamous “Equusreich” which controls the entire continent of Equus through direct rule or puppet regimes. Led by Führerin Götterdämmerung, Equusreich is not only powerful but also exceptionally Totalitarian, even by the standards of the age. It is well known for its “Divine Cult” which is the closest thing it has to a state ideology. In it, the people, who are mostly ponies, are demanded to obey and worship their leader Götterdämmerungin every way they can, and one can assume what happens when they don’t.

Following the takeover of Griffonia by Totalitarian regimes, tens of millions of ponies became unwanted citizens, particularly those in Riverlands, facing imminent extermination, Götterdämmerung would gladly take these ponies in as refugees with the help of Maar, bolstering the population of Equusreich greatly. But most of these ponies would soon come to realize that Dämmerung wasn’t doing this from the goodness of her heart, in the exact opposite, the state was literally punishing its own citizens for the vile crime of existing in Dämmerung’s presence. The Divine Cult didn’t preach humility like any other religion, it demanded from the citizens to acknowledge the fact that they are worthless slaves and can never be on the same level as their “Goddess”, no matter how hard they tried.

Führerin Götterdämmerung

The system was designed by Dämmerung to be as overwhelming as possible, with its entire bureaucracy fused with mind control magic, filled with semi-conscious officers who wanted nothing but to blindly serve their leader. It was a highly hierarchical pyramid of chains, with Führerin sitting on top of it, eyeing the hell she constructed below her with delighted eyes.

However, Dämmerung herself was a slave without her acknowledgment, to her undeclared master Maar. And although she too accepted the fact that she was essentially a subordinate to him, she didn’t look upon this with disgrace, since Maar was the only individual she met that truly wasn’t from this reality, in her eyes meaning that his existence didn’t rely on herself, therefore Maar was the only creature that she could take advice from and even could treat with respect.

Maar knew of Dämmerung’s mindset, and also knew that he needed to make Dämmerung feel special in her own regard, rather than treat her like somebody that could easily be betrayed and thrown away. Not because she posed a threat to his rule or anything, but because of how much her presence and actions mattered to his counter-thesis. That’s why he allowed her to control an entire continent, with multiple dependencies under her hooves, and that is beside the fact that he allowed her to develop her own Nuclear Arsenal, and as mentioned before, she was the only one in the world who was given the said right. But this exception came with a catch, as she wasn’t allowed to use any of the weapons she had developed throughout all these years, as Maar always prevented her from doing so, making up some excuse in its place every single time. He explained to her that he was doing this purely to “preserve the competition among nations” and to “give these bacteria a chance”, while in reality, he wanted to contain Dämmerung to Equus since the last thing he wanted was an erratic maniac taking over the world and risk the future of his antithesis.

Across the sea, in Griffonia and Zebrica and other parts of the world, things weren’t exceptionally better, as Totalitarianism, Madness, and Anarchy have gained complete control over all living things with small exceptions.

Griffonia was now divided between the sphere of influence of four Superstates, while Zebrica was not much different, with the Reformed Storm Empire encompassing most of the Western chunk of the continent, and smaller yet still powerful Totalitarian Empires controlling East and North portions of the continent.

In Griffonia, Ferdinand Dawnclaw’s reformed New Griffonian Empire controlled almost the entire Eastern portion of the continent through direct control or domains, while its main rival, Beakolini’s Karthinian Empire controlled the South of the Continent. While to the East, the fruits of Hellquill’s “Grand Crusade” laid; the almighty Greater Griffonian Reich, and to its north; the infamous Dread Imperium, controlling the northern portion of the continent, often clashing with the Greater Griffon Reach for the control of buffer zones.

New Griffonian Empire

New Griffonian Empire: Ferdinand Dawnclaw started serving Maar in secret well before the declaration of Weltreich, back when he still was an army officer, to carry out acts in his name and get ready to take over the country during Armageddon. He never was fond of his native faith, and although he certainly wasn’t a Maarist, he saw no issue in a fruitful agreement with an eldritch creature such as Maar to root out the corrupt elite, gain power, and reorganize the Empire in his image, even if it meant serving under Maar. And when the time came, he and his covert coalition of Anti-Reactionary, Anti-Clerical, Militarist, and Ultranationalist groups and army battalions within the Empire launched a civil war against the Regime of Archon Eros. The war eventually merged with the other conflicts of Armageddon, and Dawnclaw’s forces eventually found themselves fighting against all types of enemies from all around the continent.

And when the dust cloud faded away, the New Empire was victorious. Dawnclaw had killed virtually the entirety of the former government, including the young emperor and Archon Eros. Many years have passed since, with Dawnclaw establishing a Totalitarian Dictatorship and occasionally going to wars against the Karthinian Empire to the south and against the Dread Imperium to the north.

His rule was benevolent in his own way, yet despotic regardless of perspective. He had also established a quasi-religious cult of personality that was only rivaled by Dämmerung’s Divine Cult. His Nationalist and Pan-Griffonian yet uniquely Anti-Traditionalist ideology led to a loose pact with the Greater Griffonian Reich, but this pact wouldn’t be the basis of an alliance between two Superstates as they still perceived each other as potential enemies, and this would only mean that they didn’t see each other as “primary targets”.

Still, his ambitions are clear, he desires to unify the continent under one banner, his banner, no matter how much or how long it takes.

Karthinian Empire

Karthinian Empire: Guido Beakolini achieved virtually all of his initial plans for the Kingdom of Wingbardy, and transformed it into an all-out Imperial State, with him as its Supreme Leader. Although his making a deal with the embodiment of death was a controversial act among its citizens, dissidence was easy to suppress with the help of Maar. During Armageddon, Karthinian Empire destroyed all of its enemies surrounding it, carved up the Southwest Griffonia with the New Griffonian Empire, and even gained new colonies in Zebrica.

Abnormally, Beakolini didn’t aim at conquering the entirety of Griffonia at first, as reclaiming the legacy of the Karthinian Empire was more than enough for him, but while the other 3 superstates still demand complete control over the continent, it became clear that Beakolini has no option but to continue fighting against his Northern and Southern Neighbors, especially against Dawnclaw’s New Empire and the Reformed Storm Empire.

Ironically, once considered to be one of the most oppressive and totalitarian regimes in history, Beakolini’s fascist Empire became one of the most moderate ones in the whole world, as it didn’t pursue genocidal agendas without the interference of Maar.

In time, Karthinian Empire became a hotspot for refugees escaping the nightmarish life in neighboring countries. And even though these refugees knew they would most likely end up as impoverished factory workers little more than slaves, they still preferred it to the life they were currently living under. Immigration is becoming more and more of a problem between the Greater Reich and the Karthinian Empire, a country which Beakolini tried to avoid war with ever since the end of Armageddon. But with border clashes becoming more and more common between the two Empires, an all-out war seems imminent, but the question of who or if anyone at all will win the upcoming war is uncertain.

Dread Imperium

Dread Imperium: Rosa Maledicta was the second leader after Wingfried von Katerinburg to directly declare loyalty to Maar, and with him being the literal God of Death and her being one of the most prominent necromancers in the world meant that it only would be natural in the case Rosa ever felt fond of him. She cherished the idea of serving the God of Death, and she continues to follow him virtually blindly to this day.

Under her leadership and with the help of Maar, the Dread League transformed itself from a proto-state endlessly bickering with knightly orders to a full-fledged Empire encompassing the entirety of North Griffonia. And established itself as an Empire of the Dead, that cherished and promoted anything that was considered evil by Orthodox faiths, just like the way Maar would want.

She played a vital role during the rise of Weltreich through her use of necromancy all across Griffonia through behind-frontline attacks, it allowed the technically inferior Maarist Forces to gain upper hand in Armageddon against their enemies and eventually win. And even though she could’ve easily hoarded more land under her name, since she dedicated herself to the victories of Maar, she made herself forget the concept of selfishness. Nevertheless, she declared herself “The Queen of Spirit” and established her own Empire in the North, dedicating all of her killings and sacrifices to Maar.

Even back in its Dread League days, Dread Imperium is a mystery to the outsiders and even to the people living within, as nearly all information regarding it comes from rumors of refugees escaping it. It is also extremely difficult to project its power, as it is still known whether or not it’s the most powerful of the 4 Empires or the weakest. Regardless, the other 3 countries see it as a threat to their existence and have engaged in indecisive wars against it ever since the end of Armageddon.

Meanwhile, it is rumored that Rosa Maledicta is spiteful and envious of the Empires around her. Why does Wingfried von Katerinburg get to be the one to release Maar when it was her who dedicated her whole life to the art of death? Or how does Götterdämmerung be the one who gets special care from Maar when it was her who followed him first? She never held grievances against Maar, as it was her greatest desire to live up to the expectations of God of Death. But she finally realized that in order to be worthy of Maar’s attention, she has to act beyond his expectations and become something far greater.

Her envy eventually resulted in an attempted invasion of Equus a couple of years after the end of Armageddon, which resulted in a decisive victory for Equusreich. This, however, wouldn’t end her grievances with Dämmerung, as it is also speculated that she is trying to develop a Nuclear Arsenal to counter Equusreich without Maar’s notice, fully knowing she would be punished dearly in case Maar ever found out about her intentions. And this is outside the wars she went against the two Griffon Empires to the South, during which she didn’t care about the territorial/political gains and rather cared about the casualties inflicted against her enemies, believing that seeing death and chaos will appease Maar.

Greater Griffonian Reich

Greater Griffonian Reich: Hellquill was Maar’s beginning in this material realm, as he possessed the body of Wingfried von Katerinburg while absorbing his soul. Wingfried continued to rule the country under a façade, but when the Weltreich came, Hellquill became just another province of it. And although on paper Katerinburg continues to rule the nation as Führer, it is clear that he simply doesn’t exist anymore. No one is exactly sure what happened to him but most of the high-ranking officers now believe that he is now “one with Maar”.

After Armageddon, as Maar ceased his direct rule over the country, the state affairs of Hellquill ended up being placed in the hands of Reformisten Leaders and Generals. They decided to reform the country under the name Greater Griffonian Reich. While his former Second in Command, Edler von Wingenberg became the Acting Führer following a council meeting of the Leadership, as they trusted him since he was the one closest to Maar during his path to Armageddon.

Edler however was no longer the griff he was before Maar revealed himself. His “intense” experience with the Dark God of Death changed his persona fundamentally, as he would constantly experience near-death moments and receive duties specifically designed to challenge his skills under him. Once an esoteric and erratic griff who believed himself to be righteous regardless of what he was doing, he unexpectedly matured mentally under Maar, and effectively became his disciple. He would now observe the rationale behind the actions of griffons around him, rather than paranoidly label them as “traitors” whenever he would disagree with them in the slightest. He also observed the gains made by the Reich under Maar and have done calculations on how to preserve or even how expand the territories that were gained during Armageddon.

He eventually came to the realization that the Reich couldn’t become the Unitary Empire he once dreamed of it to be, noticing that Hellquill Leadership is way too diverse to establish a proper centralized state under him since making these griffons working together would be impossible with him being the leader, and in case he tried to, it would possibly result in a civil war and cause the Reich to fall under the occupation of Neighboring Superstates. He decided that until conditions improved, and the Government can be centralized, the Greater Griffonian Reich had to reorganize itself as a confederacy to preserve its integrity and divide most of the land into states who would be Semi-Autonomous in nature with Governors in charge of them appointed by the Führer.

The Reich was divided into 7 distinct Provinces, and in the end, the plan was mostly successful since the governors would control regions fitting to their characteristics and handle the socio-economic affairs of the said regions while allowing them to keep a small paramilitary force for self-defense. Wingenberg also sent a special request to Maar, asking for support in case of internal rebellion (potentially caused by some of the provinces) would prove itself to be too overwhelming, also reminding his superior of his previous duties under him in direst moments. Maar accepted, but also noted that he won’t be helping in case of a conflict against exterior force.

The Reich as a whole is one of the most integrated provinces in the world within the Weltreich system. Since Weltreich’s presence overall varies wildly from country to country, while some countries are Weltreich provinces only when they feel like being so, some provinces don’t even have contact with the Central Government (who are typically bandit proto-states) probably only because of Maar not having any practical need for them. But when Maar demands one of the provinces something, let it be some type of resource for a space rocket armada he was building or an errand that needs fulfilling, he expects results. And if a province doesn’t comply with his demands… nobody knows what happens, because nobody had the courage to say “no” to the God of Death, and Maar is too smart to ask a province something it cannot fulfill. The Reich is probably the most obedient of all provinces, perhaps even more so than the Equusreich, so much so that it is essentially integrated into the Weltreich bureaucracy, and while Maar still isn’t ruling the country directly, its presence can be felt in almost all levels of the government. It also has more “direct control zones” within it than any other province.

And as for the aforementioned “Provinces within the Province of Greater Reich”, they vary wildly in both ideology and governance. From the Genocidal and Tyrannical Province of “Gau Rijekburg” led by Gauleiter Eisen Silberkrone, built upon the former River Republic, to the “Gau Wittenland” led by Gauleiter Wilhelm Stackelberg who leads a Feudal Society which is essentially a Modern Medieval Kingdom (except all references to the traditional Griffonian faith has been replaced by Maarist doctrines), to the Moderate but still Authoritarian “Gau Nimburg” led by Gauleiter Erika Stahlflügel, which is surrounded by controversial incidents regarding the fact that it had taken the extremely radical decision of not choosing to outright exterminate or enslave the local pony population and rather let them free live in proletariat suburbs.

Gau Nimburg

The most prominent of controversies surrounding Gau Nimburg occurred a couple of years back, when Rainbow Dash, formerly one of the closest friends of Twilight Sparkle, was rumored to be dwelling within the province. These rumors eventually reached Equus and Dämmerung’s ears. She, to put it bluntly, went insane, and demanded Rijekburg’s Gauleiter Erika Stahlflügel to immediately turn over Rainbow Dash so Dämmerung can kill her personally, and in case Erika didn’t comply, she threatened to wipe Rijekburg off the map with Nuclear Bombardment despite Maar’s rules. And she sent this message when not even the local authorities were never able to confirm the rumor and couldn’t give away Rainbow Dash even if they wanted to. Erika Stahlflügel sent a message to Maar in desperation, begging him to prevent Dämmerung from nuking her province, also noting that she served Maar faithfully during all these years and is merely asking for a simple favor. As a result, Maar called Dämmerung off, telling her she is allowing herself to be dictated by emotions and petty revenge. Dämmerung hesitantly withdraws, preventing nuclear genocide.

But Gau Nimburg is nowhere near the most unusual “Gau” of the Reich, as there’s a Region so unorthodox that it isn’t even attached to the Reich’s sphere of influence or anybody else’s; the Steel Kingdom.

Officially known as “Gau Firtree” by the Reich, the Steel Kingdom was created following Führer Edler von Wingenberg’s discovery of the fact that there was an unusual amount of mentally ill members within the ranks of the Reformisten Movement, most notable being General Hermann Steeltalon, better known as the Butcher. Realizing that keeping these around will most likely harm the integrity of the Reich, Wingenberg initially considered just shooting all these griffons dead, but after he partitioned the Reich between his subordinates, he discovered that a good chunk of the former nation of Firtree Villages was not claimed by any of his subordinates since it had no great geographic or natural value to them, so he decided to turn it into a buffer zone against Dread Imperium and the New Griffonian Empire, declared it to be a Gau, put the Butcher in charge of it, filled it with whoever could throw in there, and then left it to itself.

Initially, Wingenberg expected it to crumble to the ground, hopefully ending the lives of most of these maniacs. And it did… partially. The thing is, as soon Steeltalon the Butcher got in charge, things deteriorated so rapidly that not even the ponies living there couldn’t comprehend what was going on. Since Steeltalon was now only surrounded by mad griffons on his level, this meant that there was now simply no griff around to prevent him from doing whatever he wanted with a country he was in charge of. Steeltalon’s first order of business as the Gauleiter was to declare himself “King of the World” and changed the Gau’s name to “The Steel Kingdom”, which was named after him, of course. But forgot to declare independence, and when he was told that the Steel Kingdom was still a part of the Reich and needed to declare independence before declaring himself the lord of all beings, Steeltalon learned that that required a lot of paperwork, but he felt jaded by it, so he never declared independence.

Within days, Steel Kingdom became an open-air prison with prisoners in charge of it. It was complete anarchy with criminally insane lunatics who were armed to the teeth intimidating other of their kin and the local population, continuously stealing from each other in order to survive. Constitution, Courts, Taxation, Military, Borders, or any type of authority other than criminal bosses were nonexistent, people got killed all over the country over nonsensical affairs and nobody had a guarantee of seeing another day. King Steeltalon on the other hand, not only did nothing to prevent the violence but instead encouraged it, believing that having the most bullies and killers in the world would make his kingdom the greatest and most powerful nation in the world. While the “system” in the Steel Kingdom, if it can be called that, was completely Darwinist, as anybody could kill anybody else for their position, much like a free-for-all criminal organization. And while this would mean certain death for any leader ever, it didn’t apply to Steeltalon, since he was so crazy and unpredictable that none of his lieutenants could out-maneuver him and beat him in his own game.

To Edler von Wingenberg’s surprise, the ‘Steel Kingdom’ project unintentionally worked out very well, and in return, Edler started throwing all types of undesirables and mentally ill regardless of personality in there, eventually causing the population of the region to reach over 3 million within a year. Seeing the chaotic condition of the Steel Kingdom, the Governments of New Empire and Dread Imperium too started tossing their undesirables into the region, and in the following years, governments from all around the world started paying Reich to dump their undesirables in there rather than exterminating them themselves. With millions of new victims pouring into the Kingdom, Steeltalon couldn’t be happier.

To give you an idea about how insane things were about to get; when Steeltalon realized that his kingdom doesn’t have a flag like any other country, he started putting all his time into a flag design, spending entire weeks on what to use as his flag. But he couldn’t find a design that fulfilled his expectations and was extremely frustrated by it, and as a result, became more and more introverted. However, when one of his lieutenants had the guts to tell him that he was wasting his time and overreacting to this whole issue, Steeltalon went berserk, pulled out his gun, and shot his lieutenant on spot in his head, causing his brain to spill all over the wall. But after noticing the blood-covered wall, a revelation struck Steeltalon, as he became mesmerized by the appearance of the “blood design”. And as a result, the flag of Steel Kingdom became a simple blood stain on a white background, and whoever was critical of this new design was too shot in the head on spot.

Nobody is currently eyeing over the territories of the Kingdom, as it doesn’t hold any long-term valuable resources in it, and trying to keep the region in control with literally millions of maniacs in it is a challenge on its own. And although the Steel Kingdom is barely a threat to any other superstate surrounding it, the bandit raids coming out of it is quite a headache for a couple of years now, and terror-bombing it with jets also seems to not work as expected. The Madness coming off the Kingdom is currently contained as none of the superstates surrounding it is weak enough to falter in front of its attacks, but the status quo might change in the future, as the region’s stability might come at risk due to intensified fighting between the Superstates.

As of now, the Age of Madness stands firm, with the Maarist States controlling most of the surface.
But it is simply impossible to make people forget what earth was like 20 years prior.

The resistance continues underground, literally, and no matter how trivial it might be in its current state, it still possesses a threat against Maar.

Dämmerung had successfully killed Luna by the end of Armageddon, alongside her former sister-in-law, but failed to kill her niece and her former remaining friends, who disappeared into the unknown. And despite her maximized efforts, she still couldn’t manage to find the surviving dissidents. This made her even more unhinged since the idea of her former friends reappearing at some point and defeating her still horrified her, since her being defeated would prove that she is no god. And albeit she is now more powerful than ever, she was never more afraid of her enemies before.

While those who oppose Maar’s rule try to reorganize in destabilized parts of the globe, trying to find ways to overcome massive obstacles placed in front of them, since they have no choice but to press forwards.

Whether or not they’ll succeed, is completely up to you.