Guardians of Equestria : The Emperor's March

After the big battle for Canterlot, everyone had nearly forgotten about the final loose end, Devil Kong. Now, he was much bigger, almost twice his previous height. His fur had turned a dark purple and his skin, grey. In addition, he had grown a second pair of arms behind his shoulders as well as two spiky appendages. His tie was now torn off, with only a small part remaining. Lastly, his hat was gone but his previous self-inflicted scars did remain.

“You’re going nowhere!” shouted the demon. His voice sounded no longer raspy. Now it was booming with power and confidence.

Twilight backed off from Applejack and Devil Kong, hiding her fears behind a determined, yet angry expression. “Devil Kong! I should have known you were going to come back!”

The beast grinned at the mention of his name. “Devil Kong?” He began to cackle loudly. “I am invincible now! Know me by my godly new name; Star Kong!” With that, Star Kong vanished, leaving Twilight face to face with her corrupted friend.

Sure enough, there were more. Everypony in Ponyville came out of the shade, their eyes all black with small white pupils, their tears having turned into blood. Applejack stepped forth, her indifference quickly turning into unreasonable anger.
“Darn city girl! Your kind ain’t welcome here in Ponyville!”

Twilight was taken aback by the violence in the earth pony’s voice. “But Applejack! It’s me, Twilight Sparkle! Don’t you remember me?”

Applejack’s steps were clear and decisive. “Oh I know who you are. That still ain’t gonna take back what I said to you.”
Twilight began to back away from the approaching mare, clearly feeling a murderous intent coming from her. “Applejack! Snap out of it, De- Star Kong has clearly scrambled your brain to turn you against me. I know this isn’t you!”

“Didn’t you get the memo already? Scurry off from our town, gosh darn it!”

More of Ponyville’s resident joined Applejack in her crusade against Twilight. It was now clear to the lavender unicorn that she was indeed, yet again, all by herself to deal with the demon now made, a God. Stallions, mares, colts and fillies all banded to give her a good wallop. Three of them particularly made her double check.

Diamond Tiara, Filthy Rich and Spoiled Rich were also amongst the mind-controlled crowd. That was impossible, for they were dead. Unless, Star Kong somehow brought their spirit back from the grave to lynch her, which is very in character for the demon. The entire town had surrounded her, leaving no room to escape.

“Lookie here, Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn who hogs away all the fame from me! Me! I deserve to be more popular because I've always been with you on your adventures to save Equestria! I want to be noticed by the Wonderbolts!” That voice belonged no doubts to Rainbow Dash, angrily soaring above Twilight.

“You never have the time to come to my parties and it’s making me unreasonably angry! Why can’t you just cut some time for your friends, Twilight Sparkle!” And that voice was that of Pinkie Pie, bouncing around the crowd in fury.

“You care more about your friendship studies than you do your own friends. I do not like violence but I swear, I will tear your insides out and spill it all over town!” Twilight was quite surprised to hear this much violence in Fluttershy’s voice. Star Kong’s magic had sent all her friends into a blind frenzy.

“Your sense of fashion is quite simply abysmal. You’ve ridiculed my work in front of the whole town alongside these other fashion buffoons. I care much about beauty, but I much prefer to destroy what is ugly both on the inside and out.” Now Rarity was joining on the fun, taking much pleasure in insulting her friend. All her friends had turned on her, which was already kind of bad enough. But to make it worse, they were going to eviscerate her on the spot. Quite the terrifying thought that was running through Twilight’s mind.

Star Kong appeared behind her and laughed at her visible fear. “You always rely on your friends to overcome your enemies. Sadly for you, a God doesn’t need help to smite down his foes.” His eyes flashed red and that signaled his slaves to begin their attack on the lavender unicorn.

Dash swooped in to attack, Applejack pulled out her lasso and Pinkie Pie was now rolling on a boulder, aiming towards Twilight. She teleported out of the way just in time to avoid a brutal beatdown from her friends. No longer surrounded on all sides, Twilight made her daring escape.

“Don’t let her get away folks! Catch her before she escapes from our lovely town of Ponyville!” shouted Applejack as she let go of her lasso, now crushed underneath Pinkie’s boulder.

“Hey! No fun, she’s using her magic to run away!” pointed out Pinkie Pie.

Rainbow Dash braced herself to take off to the skies. “I’ll just gun it then!”

Twilight was making a mad dash towards her home, she wasn’t foolish enough to believe that she could simply outrun Applejack and Rainbow Dash, the two best athletes in all of Ponyville. But what she lacked in sheer physicality, she made up for in her strength of mind. Inside, Twilight could easily hatch a plan to save everypony and stop Star Kong.

All the while, the new God taunted her, being very transparent about his hatred for her. Singing a powerful sounding melody all the while his words expressed nothing but violence. “Die die die die and paint the town red! Break break break break and break all her little bones!”

Suddenly, an entire wheelbarrow flew straight at her sides, hitting the unicorn full force. All of Rarity’s family had banded together to make this precise shot. “Ah! You should probably pay more attention to your surroundings, my dear!”
Twilight got up, her sides now aching but she wasn’t going to slow down. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were hot on her trails. Good news, the Golden Oak Library was just a couple of meters away now. But wait! The front door was probably locked, and with everypony in town being against her... It wasn’t unreasonable to assume that Spike wasn’t going to be there to help her.

Much to her surprise, the door did open, but it wasn’t Spike on the other side. Donkey Kong was standing by the library’s entrance. “Still alive? Well come inside, it’s fun inside! Plus, it’ll shelter you from their fury!”

Between choosing to face all of Ponyville or comply with the demon’s game; Twilight knew that she only had the illusion of a choice. She sprinted for her home, and Donkey Kong closed the door and locked it. The unicorn quickly created a force field around her home.

“Now that was close little buddy! Look out the window! These ponies are really looking forward to give you the banana slamma!”

Twilight looked out the window and could see the entire town glaring at her with malice in their eyes. They were now surrounding the entire building, with Dash and Fluttershy roaming around the upper floor’s windows. Now that she was safe and sound, the lavender unicorn wasted no time fumbling through the many books regarding magic in hopes of finding a solution to revert the demon’s magic.

“Uh, don’t you realise that Spike is here?”

Donkey Kong’s words caught her off guard. Twilight spun around in search of Spike. She moved up to her bed where Spike usually slept near to. Her guess was proven correct when the baby dragon popped in from underneath the blanket.

“You’re raising me as a pony, completely ignoring the fact that I’m a dragon! I hate how much I'm being called adorable and what not! I want to be respected and seen as a mighty dragon!”

“No Spike, I'm not trying to force you away from your roots as a dragon!” responded Twilight out of despair. Spike tried to pounce on her, but quickly fell into unconsciousness the moment he heard Donkey Kong’s fingers snap.

Twilight rushed to her apprentice’s aid before he could hit the floor. “Spike!” She turned her attention back to the demon. “What, what did you do to him!” she shouted in fear.

“I made him lose consciousness. My point here is to show you that their fates lie entirely on my fingertips.” The demon’s face slowly morphed back into his normal appearance. Black eyes with two crimson pupils, sharp fangs and the bloody tears. The usual pretty much. “You see, I've thought a lot about how I wanted to kill you. At first, I just wanted to MASSACRE you with my bare hands, but... I figured it would be poetic justice to watch you being torn apart by the very ponies you hold dear to your heart.”

The ponies outside were now banging and hitting the force field with all their might. Though at first it didn’t appear to cause any damage, small cracks began to form, indicating to Twilight that she won’t be safe for long. She quickly returned to her books in hopes she could find something in time. Donkey Kong laughed as he began to transform back into his new form.
“It’s useless and I'll say it again; I am invincible, I can’t be defeated!” Now being in his Star Kong form again, Twilight could feel the intense power emanating from the demon. No doubts had he now surpassed every living creature in Equestria, alicorns and Guardians alike.

The demon’s skin was now glowing with the colors of a rainbow, with small white stars forming all around this new coat. “I can now mimic the effect of a Power Star! Let’s see how you’re going to break through this tough shell!” Star Kong simply moved his hand to the side and that created a shockwave strong enough to send Twilight flying into her bookshelves. This hit caused her force field to weaken. Now, the residents of Ponyville were causing some noticeable damage to it.

Twilight Sparkle spat some blood and got up on her shaking hooves. As she did, she noticed that the effect of the so-called “Power Star” had stopped on the demon. His skin was now normal again.

Outside, Applejack was bucking the force field as hard as she could. The bones in her legs were starting to crack and give in under the relentless beating she was dishing out. “Ugh, how much beating can this gosh darn bubble take?!”
Many of the earth ponies accompanying Applejack suddenly heard something coming from behind and immediately moved out of the way. Confused, the Element of Honesty spun around only to see Pinkie Pie coming full force with her boulder.
“Make way everypony! I’m breaking in!”

“Wuh?!” Applejack dove out of the way just as the boulder crashed into the force field, completely destroying it.

Inside, Twilight noticed the commotion just as Star Kong looked out the window in amusement. “They’re coming to get you, Twilight!”

There was only one way out for the unicorn, and that was the window near her bed. Just as her pursuers were pouring in, she jumped out the window, her hooves shielding her face from the glass shards. Thankfully, she landed at a good distance from the corrupted ponies, giving her a good head start.

Her only option now was to call for help, to go back to Canterlot in hopes of rallying every single person that could fight to stop Star Kong from destroying all of Equestria. She ran as fast as she could, hoping that somehow, she could evade the mob.

Her daring escape came to a stop when Star Kong appeared before her out of the blue, causing her to fall on her flank. He was now grinning and, in his eyes, was only death. “You’re. Too. Slow!” He lifted both his hands up in the air, ready to strike down Twilight and leave the town to finish the job.

Twilight closed in eyes in fright, knowing all too well that there was nothing she could do against a being this powerful. The demon brought his hands down in a blitz, and Twilight heard something big hitting the floor, but strangely, she felt no pain whatsoever.

Hesitant, she opened her eyes and saw Star Kong laying on the ground with a large axe lodged in his chest.
“Yo! What’s up dog!” That voice, Silas was here! The unicorn stood up and looked in disbelief at the Reaper. Even stranger to her was the fact that Trixie was also there with him.

“Tr-Trixie?”

The showpony flipped her cape, trying to look cool. “Yes, it is I, the Great and Powerful Trixie. We’re here to save you!”
Twilight couldn’t believe it; Silas and Trixie were here to save her life. “But why, Silas? Why are you suddenly helping me?”
The undead lifted an arm and his axe flew back into his hand. “Well, you see. I was obligated to murder because of my contract. However, I eventually found out that I could just flip off the contract and get away with it, so I did. Just know that I don’t actually hate you or anything.”

Star Kong levitated back on his feet, looking somewhat unamused. He cracked his knuckles calmly, staring directly at Silas in particular.

Silas looked at the two unicorns, clearly knowing where this was gonna go for him. “Okay, this is the epic moment where I sacrifice myself, except not really since I'm just gonna come back from the dead. Here's the deal; I’m going to distract him for as long as I can while you two just gtfo, hopefully you’ll get far away in time.”

Twilight and Trixie didn’t object at all. They both took off running out of town while the two fighters stared each other down. Silas had a slightly worried look in his eyes while Star Kong was slowly losing his patience.

“What is it you think you’re going to accomplish? You won’t last long against me.”

“Heh, that’s what she said.”

The two unicorns finally made it out of Ponyville just in time to hear a large explosion go off. Tons of bones and chunks of pumpkins flew up in the air. The two looked back in horror as they realised, they clearly weren’t out of the demon’s reach. Silas hadn’t distracted the beast long enough.

“Say goodbye Twilight!” shouted Star Kong as he lifted a group of trees up with telekinesis. Then, he used his magic to chop off the trees into large stakes. With one swift movement of his hands, he launched the stakes at the two escapees.

Both tried to avoid the wave of death flowing at them. Twilight’s skills in magic allowed her to narrowly avoided the stakes thanks to her skills with teleportation and telekinesis magic. Trixie wasn’t so fortunate, one of the projectiles impaled her stomach. She fell to the ground, writhing in pain as blood was dripping from her mouth. Her breathing had turned into wheezing as she struggled to take even a single breath.

Twilight wanted to run away as far as she could from Star Kong, but the look of pure terror on Trixie made her reconsider. She stopped and looked back at the injured unicorn. The beast wasn’t too far away from them, now slowing down to take it’s time pursuing them. It was pointless to run and he was right; she wasn’t going anywhere now.

“You’re mine!”

The lavender unicorn went back and sat by Trixie’s side. “Don’t... let me die alone.” she said weakly, coughing out blood in the middle of her sentence.

“I won’t... I won’t.” replied Twilight, her voice losing any semblance of determination it previously had. Her face had now given into despair, but she tried nonetheless to comfort Trixie in what would soon be, their last moment.

The thundering footsteps became louder and louder until they came to a stop. Both could feel the imposing presence of the demonic God standing behind them. The two rivals closed their eyes in acceptance as Star Kong opened his mouth wide, revealing multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth.

“See you next time.”