40 Years

Chapters

Chapter 1 - Admiral Producer
Chapter 2 - BronySonicFan
Chapter 3 - Starcoder
Chapter 4 - The Blue EM2
Chapter 5 - The_Ind1e_Us3r
Chapter 6 - Forcalor
Chapter 8 - Starcoder
Chapter 9 - The_Ind1e_Us3r
Chapter 10 - Visharo
Chapter 11 - Admiral Producer
Chapter 12 - Starcoder
Chapter 13 - The Blue EM2
Chapter 14 - Visharo
Chapter 15 - Admiral Producer
Chapter 16 - TheBlueEM2
Chapter 17 - Visharo
Prologue - bookhorse125
Chapter 7 - Admiral Producer

Chapter 1 - Admiral Producer

It all began on a particularly beautiful afternoon in Maretime Bay, a relatively humble Equestrian settlement sitting atop a massive hill that overlooked the pristine ocean. It had become known throughout history by traveling ponies as the “Brightest Light In The Night” due to the lighthouse that used to stand majestically on the outskirts of the town, guiding all boats and ships safely through rough weather and harsh seas.

It was also known as the “City of Great Change” due to all of the recent events that had occurred within its borders of late and that could not be understated. So many things had happened to the town that it could be considered a miracle that nopony had gone insane from it. There was once a time in which Maretime Bay was ruled by fear and isolation and it was now the home to all ponies of all kinds.

Maretime Bay was always crowded in the early afternoon as the ponies were going about their daily lives. It was a bright and sunny day like every other, yet there was a sense of peace in the air around that time that could not be explained by anypony. It was always a phenomenon that just happened and nopony questioned it. The Sun was shining brightly, lighting up the streets and environment in its warm embrace, and all the clouds were clear. The birds chirped and sang on the branches of the trees and everypony was enjoying the beautiful morning.

Earth ponies walked briskly across the crosswalks, talking with friends. The pegasi practiced their flight, spinning merrily in the huge blue canvas they were born to dominate. Their powerful wings beat against the current of the air, propelling them higher and higher in their conquest of the skies. Unicorns carried their groceries with their magic, a feat that seemed easy for them even though they had just gotten it back. Huge delivery trucks rolled down the streets, threatening to crush the little fillies who always played nearby.

The town was filled with chatter and lighthearted banter between all three pony races. It had been two days since the ponies had almost lost their magic forever once more on Maretime Bay Day and the experience had brought them all closer together in ways that they could not describe. Gone were the days of paranoia, mistrust, and segregation, and in its place were friendship and harmony, two sacred virtues safeguarded by the three Unity Crystals that protected the land. Stored in the Crystal Brighthouse of where its guardians resided, the Crystals were responsible for containing all of the realm’s magic and maintaining the coexistence between the tribes.

As the cheerful atmosphere permeated the town like friendly morning perfume, an orange earth pony with a pink mane and tail zoomed by on roller skates, waving hello to everypony she passed. Her name was Sunny Starscout, self-proclaimed history fanatic, savior of Equestria, and best friend to everypony in Maretime Bay.

She was humming to herself merrily as she skated by, the soft breeze blowing through her mane. Everyone she passed waved back to her. Sunny was a respected figure within the town now, having saved the magic not once, but twice. But it didn’t start out that way. Before the unicorn incident that had kickstarted the quest to retrieve the Unity Crystals, Sunny used to be an outcast and looked down upon.

It seemed like only yesterday that she was the most wanted pony in all of Maretime Bay for her reckless antics. She used to be the town’s radical activist whose ideas no one listened to.

However, after bringing the magic back and proving that all ponies could be friends, Sunny was not only a friend to everyone in town, she was their hero. Her life had been permanently altered for the better the moment she broke into the Canterlogic factory that fateful year. Since then, she had met friends of all different races and saved Equestria from her childhood friend-turned-maniacal-fascist. She and her friends had accomplished feats that the townsponies could only dream of accomplishing and for that, they were eternally grateful.

As she sped by the townsponies, the familiar outline of the Crystal Brighthouse soon began to take shape and Sunny propelled herself faster towards it, an excited grin plastered on her face. This was her home and the place where most of her friends lived with her, save for Hitch Trailblazer, the sheriff of the town. Her friends were all waiting for her by the entrance; a hyperactive and open-hearted unicorn named Izzy Moonbow, a fearless pegasus named Zipp Storm, her social media-obsessed pop star sister Pipp Petals, and of course, fellow earth pony Hitch.

“Hey Sunny!!” Izzy called out. “There you are!!”

Sunny skidded to a halt next to her friend. “Hey there, Izzy!! Great to see you. I was just doing my morning skating rounds as usual.”

“In the afternoon?” Zipp inquired, chuckling. “That’s new for you.”

Sunny blushed sheepishly. “Well okay, maaaaayyyyyyybe I overslept a little bit, but I just can’t help doing it anyway! Anyway, how’s Sparky, Hitch?”

“Oh he’s fine,” Hitch replied. “He’s back at the station sleepin’ the day away! This is the most he has slept in a good while. So that gives us all day to spend together!”

“Splendiiiiiiid!” Pipp exclaimed in a sing-song voice.

The ponies went inside the Crystal Brighthouse where they all sat at the breakfast table for a belated morning meal. Sunny cooked pizza as usual and everyone had an individual slice of it. As they ate, each discussed their plans for the day, as well as their daily lives.

“So Hitch,” Zipp asked curiously, “Any luck figuring out why Sprout’s been ditching his community service duties?”

“I’ve been giving him stern warnings left and right,” complained Hitch in an exasperated tone, “But he doesn’t take me seriously anymore! He thinks I’m going soft due to me taking care of Sparky! Well, I’ll show him soft!!”

“Well,” Sunny reasoned. “I think before we worry about that, we should focus on the day before us. Since we’re all not busy, we could use some time to ourselves. And you know what that means!”

“Shoppiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnng!!” Pipp declared, earning herself a glare from Zipp. “What? I need to be the first one to buy the recent fashion trend! If I wear this, it’ll be a massive hit! 400k views in the first eight hours!”

“Wow, 400k views now?” Hitch remarked. “You sure mean business this time.”

“That I do, Hitch,” Pipp replied proudly. “That I do.”

“Well,” Zipp said, “While Pipp is chasing after the next viral trend, I’m going to do some investigating. The townsponies need its detective.”

Hitch was about to reply when suddenly, there was a bright flash of pulsating white light. Sunny and her friends shielded their eyes from the brightness as they began to hear the sound of vibration, which only got louder and louder, building in intensity until…

The light faded and behind them was a giant blue portal, swirling with dark energy.

Izzy squealed with excitement. “OOH!!! A mysterious portal!! Come on, let’s goooooo!!” Before any of them could react, she leapt into the portal.

“IZZY!!!” Pipp cried. “Oh no no no no no!! Don’t worry, I’m comiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnng!!!!!” She jumped into the portal next.

“Pipp!!” Zipp facehoofed in exasperation. “Ugh, why doesn’t she ever think things over?!” She looked back at Sunny and Hitch. “You two coming?”

Sunny glanced cautiously at Hitch. “Look, I know it’s dangerous, but we really have to get Izzy back.”

Hitch sighed deeply. “I know. I may have my reservations, but we must find out the truth behind this mysterious portal before it hurts anypony else. Show me the money!!”

Without a second thought, Hitch dove headfirst into the portal with Sunny following closely behind him.
———————————————————————————————————————————————
CRASH!!!!

Lightning flashed across the stormy and dreary skies of Equestria and struck the ground below it in a powerful display of fury. The only source of light came from a barely visible patch of the Moon, which was hidden amongst the omnipresent darkness. Storms were not usually this powerful, but outside of the protected pony civilizations, nature knew no bounds and was free to do what it wanted. Ponies had no control over the weather here. This was uncharted territory for them and nopony dared wander outside the protections of their kingdoms.

Another bolt of lightning flashed across the sky and roaring thunder sounded in response as the clouds grumbled angrily. The surrounding trees and shrubs shuddered as every fiber of their being was rocked back and forth, side to side, and every which way from the strong wind.

Out in the unknown regions, atop the tallest mountain known to ponykind was Opaline’s Dark Castle, an imposing structure that commanded authority from its presence alone. There were many unoccupied castles throughout the land, including the famous Castle of the Two Sisters Ruins. However, this castle was not one of those abandoned structures forgotten to time. In this castle existed the one and only alicorn left in the entire world:

Queen Opaline.

The dark purple alicorn had once tried to rule Maretime Bay and drive the three pony races apart through orchestrating simple fights that would drive Earth Pony against Earth Pony, Unicorn against Unicorn, and Pegasus against Pegasus. However, the plan failed and she was defeated and exiled by the legendary Princess Twilight Sparkle, who banished her from Equestria and created the three Unity Crystals. This ended up dividing the ponies further, allowing the force field to weaken year by year until Twilight and the Guardians of Harmony became nothing more than a myth, and Opaline was finally ready to exact her revenge and retake what she felt was rightfully promised to her.

Opaline stood on the balcony of her castle, staring out into the far reaches of the realm with a sinister grin on her face. This was the moment she had been waiting for. Equestria was finally going to be hers once more.

One final fight.

She cackled with the sort of maniacal delight that only the craziest of ponies would ever have the capacity to let out as she thought of her rival Sunny Starscout and her friends lying before her. Oh how wonderful it would be to see them in her clutches, the last hope of harmony gone.

“You see this, Misty?” Opaline gestured for her henchpony, pointing at the world below her. A smaller blue unicorn mare with no cutie mark timidly walked beside her. “This is our future domain. Everything the light touches shall be our kingdom.”

“All of this will belong to you?” Misty asked in a confused manner, indicating the horizon off in the distance. “But it’s just so…expansive! How will you rule it all?”

“Us, Misty,” Opaline attempted a warm smile, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. “You’re an equal part of this too. As soon as Sunny Starscout and her friends are down, I shall give you what you’ve always deserved.”

“A cutie mark?!” Misty bounced up and down with excitement.

“Yes Misty. But only if we win.”

They headed inside the dark and claustrophobic walls of the throne room. This was where Opaline came up with all of her plans. As Misty began to walk away from the alicorn she considered to be a mother, there was a blinding flash of pulsating white light.

Misty shielded her eyes from the brightness while Opaline stared at it with a mix of skepticism and curiosity. Finally, the bright light faded and in its place was a blue portal, swirling with dark energy.

Misty took a few steps back in fear. “O-Opaline, w-what i-is th-this?”

Opaline walked next to her and examined the strange portal. “I do not know. But I sense there is a sort of raw power contained inside. It could be mine. I WANT THAT POWER!!!!”

“Opaline, no!!”

Misty was too late, however, as Opaline had already leapt inside. She considered running for her life, but curiosity eventually got the better of her and she hopped inside as well.
———————————————————————————————————————————————
Meanwhile in G3…

It was the biggest Rainbow Celebration in the history of Ponyville and everypony from across the land had gathered their friends and loved ones for a festive celebration. Invitations spread like wildfire as ponies from all across Unicornia, Breezie Blossom, and everywhere else had promised their attendance.

The festivities had lasted all day and Princess Rarity had delivered the traditional rainbow that gave the ceremony its name after giving a rousing and motivation speech. Now it was time to dance under the moon. The Breezies strung the nighttime banners along the walls of the houses, decorating the whole town in a beautiful display. The Unicorns used their magic to create a makeshift northern lights to adorn the skies in order to set the mood.

As ponies danced the day away, a blue earth pony named Rainbow Dash walked leisurely through the crowd, humming the “My Little Pony” theme song to herself as she strolled through the quaint town she called home. She was relieved that the party had gone as well as it had due to all of the last minute planning, but all of her friends had pulled together and helped bring everypony in time. It was certainly a relief that there was no trouble this time around, that was for sure.

Rainbow loved the celebration as it was all about rainbows and she looked forward to it every year. She was so distracted with her thoughts that she didn’t notice the pink pony in front of her and bumped into her, sending them both falling over.

“Oh I’m so sorry, darling,” Rainbow apologized. “Completely my fault, I-“ She instantly brightened upon seeing who it was. “Pinkie Pie!!”

“Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie exclaimed. “So great to see you! Guess who else is here?” Emerging from the corner of one of the houses were Scootaloo, Cheerilee, Toola-Roola, StarSong, and Sweetie Belle.

“I never got to properly thank you all for pulling this together,” Rainbow Dash thanked them. “I can’t believe we actually pulled it off.”

“You’re welcome,” Cheerilee replied. “You know we always pull through with the Rainbow Celebration. It’s a relief that nothing went wrong!”

“Tell me about it,” Sweetie Belle added. “I brought cookies! Baked them myself, can you tell?” She pranced excitedly.

Rainbow laughed. “No wonder why they tasted so good. I take it that it was your idea for the art competition, Toola Roola?”

Toola Roola nodded enthusiastically. “StarSong wrote the song for the winner. Tell her how you did it!”

“Spike and I rehearsed the song all night!” StarSong explained. “I literally thought it up in a dream and…well…Spike liked the song when I sang it, so we gave it a go.”

Rainbow smiled warmly. “We’ll always pull through together.”

Pinkie was about to reply to the positive when all of a sudden, there was a blinding flash of white light that illuminated the entire area. The ponies all shielded their eyes from the harsh brightness until it gradually faded.

Rainbow Dash peered curiously at the sight that beheld her. Right in front of she and her friends was a pulsating, blue portal.

“Ooh!!” exclaimed Toola Roola. “A portal!! See you guys on the other side!” Before any of them could react, she hopped into the portal, disappearing into it.

“Toola Roola!!” Cheerilee called after her. She turned towards the others. “We have to follow her, girls! Come on!”

Rainbow Dash sighed in exasperation. “Of course. Adventures always seem to find us. Alright, hopefully this won’t take long.”

With a single deep breath and a single prayer, the six remaining ponies took off with a running start and leapt into the portal, heading into the unknown.

Author's Note

Special thanks to Admiral Producer for writing this chapter!

So, I know that it's still early on, but we still need more people, more authors, in order to make this project really happen. So if you would like to help, let me know and I'll get you added to the schedule! If you know someone who might like to help, share this story with them! This is going to be a huge undertaking, and I need everyone's help to make it happen. So, yes, that includes you! This will not happen without you!

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Chapter 2 - BronySonicFan

Ponyland.

That's how this magical place is called.

As the name already implies, it's a place full of and inhabited by ponies. No matter if they're pegasi, unicorns, sea ponies or earth ponies, they all live in piece and harmony in the Dream Castle, a big light pink castle with several towers (each containing a blue cone shaped roof), lots of windows and a drawbridge.

Every day for these ponies is a new adventure. Even the easiest of the tasks becomes a journey and a life changing lesson for everypony in Ponyland.

There's also plenty of ponies in here we could talk about, but let's just focus on our seven protagonists:

First of, we have Twilight. She's a unicorn with a light pink coat, a white mane with a dark purple streak, purple eyes and a blue tail bow. Her Cutie Mark is five pink stars. She's considered by everypony in Ponyland as a motherly pony who with everyone, but she's specially protective with a little filly named Ember, or Baby Ember as everyone else calls her. Twilight also has the power to teleport with her magic by saying 'I wish, I wish, I wish'.

Next, we have Firefly. She's an adventurous, danger-seeking pegasus pony pink fur, a purplish blue mane, purple eyes and two purplish blue lightning bolts as a Cutie Mark. Again, she's the adventurous type of pony, and she was a key helper when Scorpan and his dragons kidnapped some of her friends, because she brought a human girl named Megan, and along Twilight and two other mares, they managed to reach the Midnight Castle and save their friends from Tirek.

Moving on, there's Applejack, one of the mares that helped Megan, Twilight and Firefly to rescue their friends in the Midnight Castle. She has an orange coat with a yellow mane and tail, as well as green eyes and a blue bow on her tail, and her Cutie Mark is five red apples. Her friends, and sometimes even herself, describe her as silly and clumsy, as well as quite unlucky. But above anything, she loves apples and applesauce, a lot.

Then we have Glory. She is a white unicorn with light blue eyes, and a purple mane with a blue streak. She wears a pink bow on her tail, and her Cutie Mark is a purple shooting star. It's hard to describe her personality, but she's usually kind and generous with anypony... yet, she's not the kind of gal you wanna make mad. In other words: mess with her or her friends, and start praying for your life.

Next is Posey. She's a yellow earth pony with green eyes, pink mane and tail, a green bow on her tail and her Cutie Mark is six pink flowers. She's the gardener of Paradise Estate, she's very motherly to all the baby ponies, she loves flowers and other pretty things, and she's always willing to help anyone in need.

Now we have Surprise, a white pegasus pony with purple eyes, yellow mane and tail, a purple bow on her tail and red four balloons as her Cutie Mark. She's very giddy and excitable, and she's laughing most of the time, to the point she once scared the other ponies for fun as she laughed. Still, she cares deeply for her friends, coming to save them on multiple occasions that they needed help.

Finally, we have Gusty, a white unicorn with a lavender bow and a green mane and tail with a red streak on them. Her eyes are teal and her Cutie Mark is composed of five maple leaves. Unlike most of the other ponies un Ponyland, Gusty is very grouchy, impatient, and sometimes rude. However, she is very brave, loyal and often she's the first to take action or charge. She can make hurtful commentaries at some of the other ponies, like when she remarked Wind Whistler had no feelings, or when she said Shady was bad luck. But she still cares very much about her friends, and often tries to help them.

The list of ponies in Ponyland is pretty big, but there's no time nor budget to keep talking about them.

One day as any other, these ponies, along with many others, were outside of the Dream Castle, playing around and mostly enjoying the peaceful day.

But that peace didn't lasted forever, unfortunately. A white portal opened up suddenly in front of the ponies, and they all started to ran away to safety, since they didn't knew for sure if the portal was dangerous or not.

The problem, however, is that Firefly literally flew towards the portal instead of away from it.

"Firefly!" Glory called out. "Wait! Don't go there!" she added, and then she began to run to follow the pegasus.

"Glory, wait!" Twilight shouted as well.

The unicorn decided to follow both Firefly and Glory, and then Applejack, Posey and Surprise.

Gusty saw all of this and groaned in annoyance. "Why do I always drag myself into this stuff?!" she complained out loud, before following the group of mares that wanted to stop Glory, who wanted to stop Firefly at the same time.

Once Firefly was near the portal, she couldn't felt but gasp in amazement at how big it was.

"Firefly!" Glory's voice called out, and Firefly turned to see her unicorn friends, who was panting exhausted as the other mares joined soon enough.

"Hey, girls!" Firefly called out by waving one of her hooves in the air. "This thing looks amazing, doesn't it?!" she asked with a smile.

"No, it doesn't!" Twilight said with worry. "We have no idea of what it is! It could be dangerous, you know!" she pointed out.

"But how we'll ever know if it's dangerous if you all want to run away from it?" Firefly asked confused.

"You stubborn idiot, come down here before something bad happens!" Gusty called out with a frown, but also worried about Firefly's attitude and about the portal.

However, the portal suddenly glowed brightly, and some kind of gravity began to pull Firefly towards the portal. Firefly tried to fly away from it, but her wings were not strong enough to move her away.

"Firefly!" Surprise cried out, before opening her wings and fly as fast as she could towards her friend.

Then, she grabbed Firefly's hooves and began to pull her back slowly from the portal. At first, it seemed to work, since Firefly could now fly on her own and pull herself away as well... but then, the gravity from the portal became stronger, and now both Firefly and Surprise were bein dragged towards the portal.

Twilight immediately moved and grabbed Surprise's tails with her mouth and began to pull, while the white pegasus grabbed Firefly from her hooves again. Soon, Applejack joined Twilight by grabbing the unicorn's tail with her mouth, and then Glory did the same with Applejack's tail, with Posey being the last one and making the same thing with Glory's tail.

The four mares on earth began to pull the two pegasi away from the portal, or at least tried because now it seemed like they were dragged towards it as well.

Gusty frowned and groaned again, before moving towards the rest of her friends, grabbing Posey's tail with her mouth and using all the strength she could to pull the rest as well.

"If we get out of this..." Gusty spoke with anger as she kept pulling from Posey's tail. "Please let me smack Firefly for being such a reckless pony!" she begged in grunts.

"Oh, definitely!" Twilight replied.

"Absolutely!" Glory stated.

"Please do it." Applejack said in-between grunts.

"Can't say she didn't asked for it." Posey said calmly, but also grunting in effort as she kept pulling.

"Yeah, go ahead!" Surprise said as well.

"Hey!" Firefly complained, although deep down she knew she deserved it.

Unfortunately, the gravity from the portal was stronger, and soon enough the seven mares were screaming in fright as they crossed the portal, that closed as soon as all the mares' sight was lost.

Where did they go remains a mystery... at least for now...

Welcome, once again, to Ponyland!

Despite not being magical like other worlds, this land is still full of surprises.

This Ponyland is a society of anthropomorphic ponies, centered in a group of seven protagonists as well. They live like humans as they attend school, frequent the local ice cream shop, enter talent contests, and why not? Even roller skate.

Unlike the previous world, male ponies exist here, and some of the girl ponies began to show romantic interest in them, even going on dates with them.

Our protagonists here are known as the 7 Pony Friends:

First, there's Starlight, a pink pony with golden-yellow hair and blue yes, known as the sensible and responsible leader of the group. She regards school teacher Miss Hackney highly, and aspires to become a teacher herself. Her mother owns the Rainbow Beauty Salon and an ice cream shop, and her Cutie Mark is a yellow star that is surrounded by four blue stars.

Next is Sweetheart, a white pony with dark pink hair and purple eyes that dislikes letting anyone down, however, she occasionally finds herself in the middle of fights between her friends. She tends to see the good in ponies, including ones that seem bad like Teddy, whom she likes. She wants to be a doctor when she grows up, and her Cutie Mark is a big red heart that is surrounded by three little orange hearts.

Now we have Melody, a dark pink pony with sea-blue hair and blue eyes. She's the lead singer in the band The Rockin' Beats. She has a somewhat shallow personality and likes to gossip. She occasionally acts spoiled and puts her own interests ahead of those of her friends. She sometimes offers beauty advice to the others, and aspires to become a famous rock star. Also, her Cutie Mark is a yellow microphone that is surrounded by several music notes.

Moving on, there's Bright Eyes, a bluish pony with orange red hair and yellow eyes. She loves to learn things, and she tends to think things out logically whenever there is a problem. She wants to be an environmentalist when she grows up, and her Cutie Mark is a notebook and pen.

Patch is a peach pony with dark pink hair and yellow eyes as well, who is a member of the soccer team. She acts like an adventurous tomboy and is constantly looking for something to do. She enjoys practical jokes, and she wants to join the circus when she grows up. Also, she has a patch of pink cloth as her Cutie Mark.

Next is Clover, a lavender purple pony with rose-pink hair and pink eyes that tends to be accident prone. She frequently bursts into tears because of her ineptitude, but things generally work out for her in the end because of either luck or because her friends help out. She is very superstitious and gullible, and she wants to become a ballerina when she grows up. Her Cutie Mark is a clover leaf.

Finally, we have Bon Bon, a yellow pony with burgundy purple hair and blue eyes. She enjoys food and cooking, but she hates getting dirty. She wants to become a fashion model when she grows up, and her Cutie Mark is a piece of blue candy.

We also have the male ponies, as well as adult ponies with important roles around Ponyland, but again, the time and budget is limited, so we must keep going,

An apparently normal day as ever, the 7 Pony Friends were having a picnic away from the city.

Everything was going well so far: they chit chatted within each other; they ate, they even played some games around the field they decided to make the picnic. Yeah, everything was fine...

But then, a massive white portal opened up out of nowhere, startling the 7 Pony Friends, but surprisingly not scaring them.

"Whoa!" Patch exclaimed in awe at the sight of the portal.

"What is that thing?!" Clover asked, surprisingly not at the edge of tears as any of the others could usually expect from her.

"It seems... like some kind of portal." Bright Eyes pointed out, placing a hoof on her chin.

"A portal?" Bon Bon questioned confused.

"A portal to what, exactly?" Melody asked, just as confused as her friends.

"Honestly, I can't tell." Bright Eyes admitted as she shrugged. "I can tell it's a portal by the size and color, but I can't say for sure where it came from, nor where it leads." she added with concern, but also with a dangerous light of curiosity on her eyes that could tell she wanted... no, she needed to know where this portal takes.

"Bright Eyes.... no." Sweetheart said with a warning tone and a frown, but her warning just made Bright Eyes grin.

"Oh no..." Bon Bon deadpanned.

"Oh yes!" Patch said with a grin as well, but a deadly glare from both Melody and Sweetheart made her gulp and smile sheepishly, also shutting her mouth before winning a smack from any of her friends.

Bright Eyes really wanted to move forward and see where this portal could lead her, but when the portal suddenly glowed brightly and her friends and her were being dragged by it, she immediately regret it.

Her mind began to think, almost working like a machine as the engines there moved as fast as they could while Bright Eyes tried to find a solution to sabe her friends and herself from whatever was happening... but she couldn't find a solution fast enough, because they were all dragged into the portal, and soon enough they disappeared from Ponyland.

The portal closed, and the only thing left now was silence and the unfinished picnic of the 7 Pony Friends. Where did they go? Well... you're about to find out...

If you tell me you have no knowledge about Equestria, I know you're lying.

Equestria is, with no doubt, the biggest land in every existent world. This magical land is home of not only ponies, but many other talking creatures as well, like dragons and griffons. This world, however, does not limit itself to Equestria: this is a vast land with many other kingdoms, such as the Crystal Empire, Dragon Lands, Mount Aris, Changeling Kingdom, and a long etcetera.

It's pretty hard to say when was the last time this land had peace and harmony, since they used to be on constant danger almost every day. Nightmare Moon, Queen Chrysalis, Lord Tirek, King Sombra, Discord (before reformation, of course), they're just a few of the long list of villains that tried to conquer or destroy Equestria in the past.

However, the ponies always had hope when a crisis like this arrived, because they counted with the help of 6 ponies that always faced danger with the power of friendship! And no, this is not just talkery, because friendship is the most powerful magic source in Equestria.

Now, these 6 ponies I'm talking about have lots of nicknames: Guardians of Friendship, Guardians of Harmony, Elements of Harmony... Yeah, the list keeps going, but they're better known as the Mane 6.

First off, we have Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic. She used to be a purple unicorn with purple eyes, cobalt blue mane and tail with a pink and a purple streak, and her Cutie Mark is a pink six pointed star with 5 white sparkles around. Emphasis on used to be, because she became an alicorn after passing through a series of tasks entrusted to her by her mentor, Princess Celestia.

Her personality can be described as an organized mare that always tries to fix 'regular problems' with facts and logic. She loves to read and research in general about anything, but she tents to loose her cool on certain circumstances. At first, Twilight used to be an asocial pony that had little to no time for her friends, since she preferred to study for hours than spent time with her friends.

Eventually, she learned the importance about friendship, to the point that she couldn't imagine a life without her friends that were always there to support her. In fact, once she became ruler of Equestria after Princesses Luna and Celestia decided to retire, her first decree was to create the council of friendship, so she could still see her friends every moon. Now days, she's been ruling Equestria for a few months, and while it took her time to adjust, everything's going well so far.

Next is Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty. She's a light blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail and pink eyes. Her Cutie Mark is a cloud letting out a rainbow lightning. She's a very self-centered pony, competitive and, sometimes, she's also a little brat since she likes to make fun of others just to kill some time.

But no matter what, Rainbow has demonstrated multiple times to be a loyal friend. She was tented to betray them in multiple occasions, and yet she always choose them above anything or anyone else. She's also a brave pony that almost fears nothing, or that's what she says, but she has shown fear multiple times. She's a member of the Wonderbolts right now, and she aspires to became the captain one day.

Now we have Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter. She's a pink earth pony with pink poofy hair and tail, as well as blue eyes and two blue balloons and a yellow one as her Cutie Mark. Positivity, randomness and lots, lots of parties and confetti are the best words to describe her. She's happy pretty much all of the time, but you better not make her mad: her randomness gets way worse when that happens, and some could even say she becomes some sort of maniac.

Laughter is her element because she can always provide a good laugh, even in the worst of the situations. However, she tends to feel insecure sometimes, like when she's assigned to do a specific task she's entrusted with, or when her friends show signs of feeling overwhelmed by her actions and her attitude. And still, she cares a lot for them, to the point she has been a key fighter against some of Equestria's biggest foes.

Moving on, there's Applejack, the Element of Honesty. She's an orange earth pony with yellow mane and tail, both tied with a red hair tie, and she has green eyes, as well as a cowboy hat that used to be from her dad, and her Cutie Mark is five apples. Applejack is a brave, reliable, strong, mature, and hard-working pony, although headstrong about doing things on her own. She always speaks in a country accent, which means that she hates/dislikes anything fancy or 'girly'.

She's the most honest mare in the group, and she hates lies, even tho she have lied before. She has a lots of crashes with Rarity because of how opposite they are in terms of hygiene and appearance. She also crashes a lot with Rainbow Dahs in a competitive way, but sometimes their competitiveness reaches a dangerous point that can put themselves and others in danger. And even so, their still the best of friends that learn to recognize their mistakes.

Next is Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness. She's a yellow pegasus with pink mane and tail, blue eys and three pink butterflies as her Cutie Mark. As her own name implies, she's a very shy pony, and she always speaks in a low tone, to the point that anyone barely hears her when she tries to gain everyone's attention. Yet, when she's mad, you better be prepared to be destroyed physically, mentally and emotionally at once, because she's the opposite of 'kind' when she's not happy.

However, that rarely happens unless her friends or any creature gets hurt, because she's usually the sweetest and gentle pony in the world. She loves animals with her heart, even having her own sanctuary where she takes care of all kinds of creatures, and she even teaches some ponies about how to take care of them with the help of Discord. Overall, Fluttershy appreciates her friendship with all the manes, specially with Rainbow, since they've known each other since they were fillies.

Rarity follows up, and she's the Element of Generosity. She's a white unicorn with purple main and tail, blue eyes and her Cutie Mark is three diamonds. She has a 'fancy' way of talking, and she use to refer to any of her friends as 'darling'. She has an immense love to beauty, and she's really obsessed to always feel prepared for the occasion (that is, being dressed if the situation requires it).

Sometimes, Rarity gets carried away with her attention to detail, and she absolutely despises getting dirty. She also loves to be the center of attention, although she gets carried away with it sometimes. But even if she cares about her appearance quite a bit, being averse to stepping in mud or risking getting herself messy, she is not above getting her hooves dirty when it comes to helping her friends or creatures in need. For example: she literally ripped off her own tail and used to restore a sea serpent's mustache that got cut off.

Finally, we have someone that might not have an element, but he's still a hero too: Spike the Dragon. He's a pre-teen purple dragon with with green eyes and scales. He's known as Twilight's best friend and number one assistant, and unlike any other dragon, his fire breath has magical properties, although he uses it mostly to deliver letters to Princess Celestia.

At first, Spike used to have a crush on Rarity, even if he knew that she wouldn't feel the same way with him. It's hard to know if Spike still likes Rarity, but their really good and close friends, so that's not really important. Spike is occasionally sarcastic and sometimes laughs at others' misfortunes, even though he usually means well. He's also a fun-loving dragon, but he has an insecure and jealous side whenever he sees his spot as Twilight's number one assistant in danger.

Spike is often defensive about his masculinity and dismissive of things he considers 'girly,' although his outward disdain is often a front. He also loves to collect and eat gems, and he eventually grew a pair of wings after a developmental stage for dragons called the 'molt'. Overall, Spike is a very loyal dragon to her friends, and even if he often feel scared on certain situations, he always shows a braver side willing to fight if necessary.

Now that we have introduced our protagonists, let's move on to the day that things began to change...

Twilight was just having a nice and quiet breakfast with Spike on Canterlot's Castle's dining room. It was one of the few times of the day were Twilight could have some peace and quiet before starting all her duties of the day.

As stablished before, it took her quite some time to get used to her new life, but she has more or less gotten the hang of it, and with Spike as her royal advisor, she really hasn't gotten any problems ruling Equestria. After defeating Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow, Equestria has witnessed 6 beautiful months of peace and harmony...

But nothing lasts forever.

"Princess!" one of her guards shouted suddenly as he entered into the dining room, panting as he tried to catch his breath, and also kneeling in front of Twilight to show respect.

"Gael?" Twilight called out confused, while Spike had to punch his chest to spit a gem that got stuck on his throat, since he felt startled from Gael's sudden entrance. "What's the matter?" Twilight asked.

"I'm really sorry to interrupt your breakfast, your majesty..." Gael apologized, before removing his helmet and looking at Twilight with a concerned look. "But we got several calls from Ponyville, Appleloosa, Manehattan and... the Everfree forest." he explained.

"Several calls?" Twilight questioned, as she stood up and approached Gael, with Spike following up as he hold a bowl with gems. "From who? And why were they calling for?" she asked.

"The callers said they'd rather stay unknown, your majesty." Gael replied. "As for why they called... they all said something very similar. They said that weird looking ponies came out of a white portal and landed in the middle of the town, or city in Manehattan's case." he explained with a worried frown.

Twilight frowned as well after hearing that, and Spike raised and eyebrow. "Weird looking ponies?" the dragon questioned.

"I cannot give you all the descriptions, but I heard something about a 'low budget Applejack copy', and someone said something about a mare looking like a grown up Scootaloo, but with a rainbow streak on her mane and a different Cutie Mark." Gael replied with a look that clearly said he though those were weird assumptions.

"Hmm..." Twilight muttered, placing a hoof on her chin while thinking on what to do. "Call my friends immediately and tell them to see me on the Throne Room." she instructed to Gael with a determinate expression. "We must find out what's going on, and who are these ponies." she stated.

"As you command, Princess." Gael replied with another reverence, before putting back his helmet and then leave the dining room quickly to make the news spread around ASAP.

"What are you planning, Twilight?" Spike asked to her.

"If the callers said they saw some kind of terrible doppelgänger Applejack and a grown up Scootaloo, then something's clearly wrong, Spike." Twilight pointed out. "I have no idea if we're dealing with Changelings that aren't happy with reformation, or with something else. So, I need to investigate this deeply, and our friends will help me out! Now come on!" she stated, before opening her wings and boost towards the Throne Room.

Spike smiled and nodded with a determinate look, opening his wings as well and flapping them to follow Twilight.

Author's Note

Thanks to bookhorse125 for letting me participate on this! :twilightsmile:

I know that everything in this story is gonna be great, and I cannot wait to see where it goes from here!

Enjoy the rest of the story, everyone! BYE, BYE! :pinkiehappy:

Special thanks to BronySonicFan for writing this chapter!

As a reminder to anyone who would like to participate in this story, we accept anyone, and all you have to do is let me know! Read this blog post that has all of the details.

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Chapter 3 - Starcoder

Princess Twilight arrived in Ponyville, soon followed by Spike. She hovered around town and found her friends together running in the opposite direction she was, possibly crashing into her. As soon as they spotted her, they stopped and crowded around her, talking over each other. She raised her hoof to get them to quiet down which, surprisingly, they did. She was more of a friend than a princess to them, but her orders were still a princess’s orders.

She took a deep breath. “I’ve already heard about what happened. Applejack?”

With shock, Applejack shrugged. “I mean, if it’s changelings, then I’ll be as shocked and angry as Winona when we rid ‘er of a mud-stained coat.”

“And if it’s not?” Fluttershy squeaked, covering her face with her wings.

“I guess I’ll still be shocked. Maybe even more than I would be if they were changelings. But what else could it be?” That question silenced the rest of them as they asked themselves just that.

Rarity closed her eyes to imagine. “I have no idea what it could be, but it probably isn’t changelings, right? I mean, they were all reformed.”

“Well, we only know some of them were reformed,” Rainbow Dash reasoned. “What about the others that weren’t there when it happened? The ones who didn’t get the chance to witness the Magic of Friendship? The ones that managed to escape, unknown to us all?”

Rarity sighed. Rainbow did make several good points. “I suppose you’re right. Anyone else have ideas?”

“It could always just be costumes,” said Pinkie Pie. “Costumes are no harm, just fun! And they do look very silly often.”

“But what about the portal?” Rainbow Dash protested. “Ponies don’t wear costumes while jumping through portals. And how would it even open in the first place?”

Fluttershy decided to speak up. “There are ponies who have magic powerful enough to open portals. And there are others who understand enough to possibly also open a portal. Take Twilight here, or even unicorns like Starlight and Sunburst.”

Twilight considered her friends’ views. “How about we contact Starlight and Sunburst?” she asked them. “They probably understand as much about magic as I do, maybe even more.”

They all nodded in agreement. “What about the weird-looking ponies, then?”

“Just ignore them for now. If they become a disturbance, then we’ll worry about what happens next. But right now, they seem to come in peace,” Twilight explained as, through the corner of her eye, she watched a mint-green coated earth pony write things about Ponyville in her notebook. Although she had an uncanny grin on her face and a strange yet fascinated stare, it seemed to fit, as her cutie mark was a pink notebook and a blue pencil to go along with it. Her objects in reality were also these colors. She seemed so intrigued by this world that didn’t fit her, or more, she didn’t fit. She took notes on almost everything she saw, and approached ponies with a big smile, strangely as big as her big face.

Her pink eyes reminded her of Pinkie Pie. It gave her a sense of curiosity, friendliness, and playfulness as anything pink did. The color pink was just a symbol of Pinkie Pie’s joyousness, and Twilight could not unsee it in any way.

Twilight shook her head to clear the interest of these ponies, but she couldn’t manage to get them off of her mind. As she looked around, she noticed that nopony could. And she was one of the few ponies who thought about them in something better than a negative light. Not quite positive, but definitely not negative. She didn’t seem like much of a threat to Equestria. Then again, there were a lot of ponies, not to mention creatures, that didn’t act as expected. This pony could be one of them.

She turned around to face where Canterlot Castle was. She then looked at the town, which was now almost all locked up inside, and heaved a sigh. “Can you go get Starlight and Sunburst in my old castle? I want to go see how things are going back in Canterlot. You know what? Let’s meet up there, too.”

Her friends nodded, Pinkie giving her a full salute, as they headed in the direction of the Castle of Friendship. She looked down at Spike and finally showed her true emotions, her extremely concerned face. She put a hoof to her head and sighed. “Let’s go, Spike.”

“Sure, but is there something you need to say, first? Something specific that you want to get off of your mind?”

Twilight just shook her head. “All of Equestria is filled with these strange things. I’m the ruler of all Equestria. It’s not like there’s a problem I have with keeping all of this under control,” she finished with a slight eye twitch and a bit of hyperventilating.

“You may be a lot better at managing your Twilighting, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ask for help every now and then,” Spike told her, softly resting a claw on her shoulder.

Twilight groaned, stressed. “Whatever. Let’s just get back to Canterlot. Are you riding me or what?”

Spike crossed his arms, frustrated with Twilight’s stubbornness. He flew onto her back as she spread her wings open and took off to Canterlot. When they arrived, all of the gates were locked as far as she could see. “Could somepony let me in?” she shouted into the possibly empty halls of the castle.

One guard stepped up, not allowing her to see anything beyond him. Soon, her eyes adjusted to the darkness, allowing her to see the symbol on his helmet which marked him lead guard. “Gael!” she exclaimed with a breath of relief. “Could you please let me in?”

“I’m sorry, Princess Twilight,” he said while slowly shaking his head. “If that really is your name.”

“Of course it is!” Twilight shouted! “Well, I mean, the ‘Princess’ part is just a part of my title, but my real name is Twilight Sparkle. I need to get inside! Please!”

“I’m so sorry, ma’am, but we cannot let anypony in without identities being checked,” he confirmed, blocking the entrance.

Twilight groaned in frustration. “How do you check my identity, then?” she questioned him. “Please, I just need to protect Equestria from whatever threat this could be.”

“It’s true, Gael,” came a soft, comforting voice from behind her. Twilight and Spike turned around to see the rest of the girls, along with Starlight and Sunburst.

He heaved a heavy sigh. “Security is my number one job, so if the real Twilight, if she isn’t you, finds that I disobeyed my job and punishes me for it, I’ll blame you for it all. You hear me?”

Twilight closed her eyes. Just the smallest things could stir up the wildest reactions of mayhem throughout the streets of Equestria. “Okay, Gael. We just need to head to the meeting room to discuss this crisis. If you’d like to come, too, then by all means, please do.”

“Of course,” he replied in his booming guard voice. “I need to keep an eye out for any threats, and that includes you. Sorry.”

Rainbow Dash was about to protest, but Applejack grabbed her tail and pulled her back, allowing Twilight to speak for them. “Of course. I completely understand. Now let’s go.”

Spike noticed that this was all said in a somberly formal tone. He wondered when the Twilight he knew would come back. He sighed and hoped that it would be soon.

They all reached the meeting room after several seconds of silent, uncomfortable walking. When they all arrived, they sat down in their designated seats, which were the ones they usually sat in when in Canterlot Castle.

They stared at each other’s faces, not knowing what to say, not with a guard watching every small move. One wrong word could result in something terrible. It was Twilight who decided to break the silence. Not with something crisis related, more some random feeling that was just nagging at her mind. “This day isn’t going the way I expected. At all.”

“Well, duh. It’s not like anypony would expect such a beautiful day to be filled with chaos, weird-looking ponies, and portals.” A glare from each of Twilight’s friends told Spike that was the wrong thing to say. He sank back down into his seat and watched for Twilight’s next reaction.

Twilight then lit up and smiled. “No, don’t feel bad, Spike. That’s the keyword, right there! ‘Chaos!’ Do you have any idea of who it could be now?”

They almost all eyed each other before saying it simultaneously. “Discord!”

“It was right under our muzzles this whole time!” Rainbow Dash angrily decided. “Where is he, anyways? We’ve got to go take him out!”

“Now Rainbow Dash, you can’t just jump to conclusions like that,” Fluttershy scolded in her quiet voice. “What if we all went to him and demanded that he send ponies back to their worlds when it wasn’t even him?”

“Now, Fluttershy, that ain’t a bad idea, really. Discord’s magic is real powerful. Even if it weren’t him, he could still send them all home and rid the chaos in Equestria,” Applejack thought. She kept to herself after examining her words in her mind.

Starlight sat back in her chair. “I don’t know. That could have extreme consequences for them. Have we ever even tried to hear their side of the story?”

“Starlight,” Twilight warned. “Maybe this is one of those times where we can ignore friendship and try to address the problem directly.”

Starlight looked down, ashamed, as she mumbled “Just like what happened with Stygian.”

Twilight groaned, and although she needed comforting, Fluttershy had to side with Starlight. “She does deserve to be listened to, Twilight. Just like Stygian. Just like those mysterious ponies who just appeared. What if they’re lost and need a friend? Are you just going to leave them there because they seem different from us?”

“Well, no,” Twilight grumbled, clearly aggravated. “But copying looks? That’s wrong of them, too.”

“Who said they knew about Applejack and Scootaloo at all? What if they think Applejack and Scootaloo copied them? That’s just two examples. Come on, Twilight, you need to learn to be more understanding,” Fluttershy said. When she was like this, fighting for a strong cause, Pinkie Pie often liked to say “Flutter-bold.” It fit, but it was only because she was the element of Kindness. To be judgemental and make assumptions was cruel, and extremely wrong in her book.

After this, everyone seemed to see Fluttershy’s view, the one on listening to everybody. Rainbow Dash had learned this lesson once before, so she already knew how efficient it was. Twilight was probably the most reluctant of them all, but she gave in. “Alright, we’ll do it. Let’s hear their views on this before we take any further action,” she humphed.

Half of the group smiled, the other frowned, and there was Twilight, who was pretty ambivalent about the whole situation. “So, where to, Twilight?” Applejack asked.

“How about we split up?” Twilight asked. “Some of us can go ask Discord for help, others will help calm down the chaos, a few will go confront the strange ponies, and others can work on magical portal solutions.”

Everypony nodded in agreement as Twilight assigned groups. “Of course, Starlight, Sunburst, and I will be working with magic. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, you can go see Discord. Rarity and Rainbow will calm everypony down. That would leave Fluttershy and Spike to talk to the ponies. Everyone understand?” They all nodded once more, each going with their groups to fix the problem that had been started.

Once they left, Gael closed the windows and sighed to himself, slowly walking back to the Castle’s entrance to complete his duties. “I really do hope it was them,” he whispered to himself. Nopony knew how disastrous another changeling outbreak could be. And, most likely, nopony wanted to know. With a sigh, he prayed, “May Equestria remain safe, like it has for many generations.”

Author's Note

It was so fun to participate in this event! I hope I get to do more like this in the future, and I’m glad to have been able to experience this. I can’t wait to see the next chapters, which I know for a fact will be amazing. Thanks for reading!

Special thanks to Starcoder for writing this chapter!

And special thanks to you, dear reader, for being so patient with the delays on this chapter. We had a bit of a conundrum, but now it's all sorted out, so thank you so very much!

As a reminder, if any of you would like to participate in this project (and we do need the help!), you can find all the details on this blog post here. Although, due to recent events, I will only add you to the project list if you are willing to commit to it. We've had far too many people drop out without letting me know, so if something does come up, I promise I will be understanding, but only if you effectively communicate. Thanks again!

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Chapter 4 - The Blue EM2

As the bright light that had consumed their vision faded, Sunny blinked as she looked down. "Well, that was weird."

There was a momentary silence before Pipp broke it. "What's wrong with this thing?"

Izzy looked over. "What's wrong, Pipp?"

"I have no reception whatsoever!" Pipp replied. "No bars, no Wi-Fi, nothing. How am I supposed to stream in places with no coverage?"

"I think we have bigger problems to deal with than whether you can get a phone signal," Zipp said firmly. "Any idea where we are, Sunny?"

Sunny glanced back. "I think it's less a case of where we are and more a case of when we are."

"Sorry?" Hitch asked. "You're not seriously thinking that-"

"I am," Sunny replied, and pointed her hoof downwards towards the ground. "This hill is overlooking a field. And I know this place from dad's research. This is where the Battle of the Bell happened."

"The what now?" Izzy asked.

"Right at the end of Imperial Equestria, and in the final days of Celestia's reign, three villains siezed Grogar's bell and and tried to use its power to take over Equestria. They would have succeeded were it not for the other races coming to Twilight's aid." Sunny sighed. "Sadly, it also showed how easy we are to manipulate. A few rumours was all it took for the pony tribes to go their separate ways."

"Sounds like the last few thousand years," Hitch quipped. "But we shouldn't just stand about gossiping. I have absolutely no clues or ideas about this era of history, and I think we need to find a way out of here."

"Agreed," Zipp said, and popped a compass out of her bag. "Broken. It can't make its mind up where north is. You may have to guide us, Sunny."

"I'll try," Sunny replied. "Unfortunately I don't have my maps or books with me, so I'm not sure which way to go. Zipp, could you take a look from the air?"

"Sure," Zipp replied, and leaped into the air with her wings. After a few seconds in the air, she descended with the grace of a gliding machine. "There's a town that way. Though I did notice some hippos standing around it for some reason."

"Hippos?" Izzy said. "Those are jinxy! I've heard they can be really hungry!"

"Hungry?" Pipp asked.

"Hippos?" Zipp added, with a somewhat quizzical and skeptical look in her eye. "I don't think we have those where- sorry, when we are from."

The conversation was suddenly interrupted by Pipp. "Err, guys, I don't know if this important or not, but there's somecreature down there, with an old friend of ours."

Hitch looked down. "Sprout? How did he get here?"

"Presumably the same way the rest of us did," Zipp noted.

"And who is the big creature with him?" Izzy asked. "He looks familiar. I think I saw something about a ram in one of my collections of folk tales."

Sunny nudged Pipp. "Can you record this?"

"Filming things is my specialty!" Pipp smiled, and set her phone to record- in the wrong aspect ratio. "Sorry! Still not used to the exterior camera on this thing."

Down below, blissfully unaware of the conversation going on up above, were Grogar and Sprout, currently discussing their game plan. "So," Grogar said, "you attempted to take control of Equestria with your machines, right? And you failed?"

"Yeah," Sprout nodded. "They got lucky. But they won't be so lucky this time!" He grinned. "I'm back, and better than ever!"

"You lost because you lost the support of the people in your army," Grogar said bluntly, cutting straight through all of Sprout's delusions of grandeur. "Luckily, what I have, my ace in the hole so to speak, will ensure no such problem occurs."

He waved his hoof. There was a fizzing sound followed by a pop, and suddenly about thirty things appeared. They were tall and gaunt, and moved about on two legs rather like dragons. In their long, spindly arms were held strange devices, and their thin heads looked ahead, uncaring and unthinking. Two green eyes glowed beneath the sockets.

"Err, what's this?" Sprout asked.

"My solution to the oldest problem all would-be rulers of Equestria have faced, and failed to account for," Grogar replied, mild mirth in his voice. "Equestria has always relied on magic to see it through, and time and again those who would overturn Celestia's order have been beaten by it. Tirek, Sombra (twice), Chrysalis, Stygian, Cozy Glow. All of them defeated by the Magic of Friendship. Not even an attempt to overcome this by allying several of them together worked. It turns out putting such varying personalities into the same room leads to bickering and hostility, severely impairing their skill as a fighting unit. Not to mention their habit of standing there like idiots whilst their enemy delivers a big speech."

Grogar shook his head. "This will not be a problem this time around. These machines have been in development for thousands of years, designed to account for every weakness and problem my predecessors have come up against. These machines have no thoughts of their own, as they solely take orders from their commanders assigned to them. Furthermore, they are completely impervious to magic of any sort. Each carries an incredibly powerful weapon based on my studies of alien technology, that should have absolutely no difficulty carving through magical shielding and spells."

"How do I fit into this, boss?" Sprout asked.

Grogar looked at him. "Any good commander ensures that a distraction is made before a major attack. You will be that distraction. I am putting you in command of a division of the machines. You are to launch an attack on a small town called Ponyville, whilst I lead the core of the army against another, much larger target. You will have vehicle support to take the city, which I am aware you have familiarity with. Do not fail me."

"Yes sir!" Sprout said, and moved forward. "Are these ones mine?"

"A part of your force," Grogar replied. "You and them will be teleported forward to Ponyville to launch the assault." With a sudden blast of energy, Sprout and the other machine disappeared.

"Did you get all of that?" Sunny asked Pipp.

"Yeah!" Pipp replied. "I'm so glad I upgraded my phone with the better microphone. That caught most of the conversation."

"But I've never seen those machines before," Sunny said. "Impervious to magic? This is gonna be a problem. I barely have control over my own!"

"There's just five of us," Zipp said. "No way we could fight those things on our own. What should we do, Sunny?"

Sunny looked at her friends. "If I've figured out when we are correctly, there's only one figure we should go and find."

"Who?" Izzy asked. "I'm loving the suspense, by the way!"

Sunny shook her head in bafflement. Izzy sure said some weird things sometimes. "Twilight Sparkle."

The five set off over the hills and in the direction of the town, with Pipp and Zipp hovering in the air to act as early warning spotters.

Sunny and company had not been the only observers. Opaline and Misty watched from a nearby hill, interested and intent on finding out more. "Opaline, I noticed something strange."

"Yes, Misty?"

"Some of the ponies we saw earlier have a cutie mark on each side. But the ponies we know only have one! Why is that?"

Opaline smiled. "It's because we've travelled backwards in time, Misty. We are now in Imperial Equestria, although I am not sure of the exact date. But that ram seems to be quite the strategist. What I could have achieved with machines like that of my own when Twilight stole the magic for herself! I must get my hooves on some!"

"I heard the ram say something about them only obeying orders from their commander. Why not offer your services to him and then betray him later?"

Opaline thought for a moment. "Too obvious. It's happened many, many times in Equestrian history, and he'd almost certainly see it coming. No, we need to try a different approach, whilst avoiding a temporal paradox. After all, I was alive during this time."

The two ponies set off in a different direction to the others, wandering further and further north. The stage was set, and now there was no turning back.

The war for Equestria had begun... again.

Author's Note

This chapter draws on some ideas that myself and friend brainstormed back in 2019 for a rewrite of The Ending of the End, a story that was ultimately cancelled. The addition of G5 characters is, of course, more recent, given that we knew next to nothing about G5 back in 2019.

The machines that Grogar creates are loosely inspired by the Necrons from Warhammer 40,000, a machine race completely impervious to psychic powers (the Warhammer 40,000 universe's equivalent of magic).

The final bit is a slight prod at Equestria's apparent security issues. Given all the disasters that occurred between seasons 1 and 9, and this era apparently being 'Equestria(s)...longest period of harmony in recent years', I can only wonder what the preceding 1,000 years were like.

Special thanks to The Blue EM2 for writing this chapter!

As a reminder, if you would be even remotely interested in participating in this fanfic, please let me know - I only have one or two people lined up after this, I think. So we need all the help we can get!

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Chapter 5 - The_Ind1e_Us3r

Tick-tock went the time by the second, as the Mane Five reached the castle in Canterlot.

“Is that Twilight’s castle?” said Sunny. “We must be in Canterlot!”

“I’m sorry, what?” pondered Pipp.

“The original princess lives in that very castle! I think there’s a good chance we might meet her!”

As the five ponies reached the castle gates, guards around the wall stopped them. Gael was one of them.

“Who goes there?” he yelled.

“Us?” answered Sunny. She was astonished, but surprised by the guards immediately grabbing their attention.

“Why are you in Canterlot at this time?” asked Gael.

“We’re here to see Princess Twilight Sparkle?” answered Sunny.

Gael leaned over to another guard. “Sterling, ponies don’t seem harmful at all. Should we let them in?”

“And get fired?” the other guard said. “No! Absolutely not!”

“Hey, listen to me. Whatever they’re here for, I know it’s our duty to make sure they don’t get into trouble at all. But they don’t seem like trouble either way. So please, just follow me on this one.”

Sterling stuttered. “Okay, fine. But only this one time.”

Gael pulled a lever that opened the gate to Canterlot. He, Sterling, and a few other guards jumped from up above and surrounded the Mane Five.

“Come with us,” commanded Gael. “You’re not going anywhere at our command.”

“What’s going on?” asked Izzy.

“I don’t know, Izzy,” replied Sunny.

Inside the castle, Twilight worked with Starlight and Sunburst to conduct potions for the so-called “changelings”. She was still worried about the unusual phenomenon taking place. Then, Gael arrived.

“What’s going on, Gael?” asked Twilight.

“Some visitors are here to see you.” Gael stepped aside to show five ponies guided by Sterling and the other guards. They were amazed by everything they were seeing. All except Zipp.

“This” — said Zipp — “was the castle back in old times?”

“Hey, don’t judge a princess’s castle,” whispered Sunny. “Princess Twilight Sparkle owns it.”

“Oh, hello!” called Starlight.

“What brings you here, my little ponies?” requested Twilight.

“Oh. My. Gosh.” Sunny was beaming from head to hoof when she saw Twilight looking at them. “Are you the Princess Twilight Sparkle?”

“Yep,” answered Twilight, smiling down at Sunny. “You look pretty stylish, by the way. What can I do for you?”

Sunny was so surprised by Twilight complimenting her that with a loud thud, she fell to the ground. The other ponies looked at her.

“Is she okay?” asked Sunburst.

“She is,” replied Hitch. “It’s just that she’s a superfan of Twilight.”

“Okay? That sounds weird.” Before Twilight could say anything else, she noticed the ponies had one cutie mark on one side, so she was puzzled. “Why do you have one cutie mark on one side and not both?”

“What are you talking about?” Izzy wondered. “We’ve always had cutie marks on one side!”

“Yes, but here,” Twilight implied, “we have cutie marks on two sides.” She turned around to show them the two cutie marks near her tail.

“What…?” said Zipp quietly.

“Yep. I don’t know how yours work, but it certainly isn’t common here. Unless…”

“We’re from the future,” Zipp denoted. “There. That’s it.”

“Wait, wait, wait a minute, back that up,” stuttered Twilight. “Did you just say you’re from the future?”

“Yeah,” answered Pipp. “Here’s proof. Look at this device here called a ‘phone’. I assume you don’t have anything like this in this timeline?”

“No, we don’t.” Twilight walked back to the science desk and continued her conducting with potions. “Anyways, what are you doing here, you five? Can’t you see we’re working on something right now?”

“Yeah, we get it,” said Zipp, “but I think there’s something you’d like to see. Hit it, Pipp!”

Twilight, Starlight, and Sunburst stopped working and Pipp played the video she took earlier with Grogar and Sprout. When the video finished, Twilight stepped away from the Mane Five.

“No… it can’t be, can it?!” Twilight panted as she began to hyperventilate.

“What can’t it be?” asked Izzy. “That it’s high-definition?”

“No! This has nothing to do with that ‘phone’ or whatever you call it! I think he’s back!” Twilight rambled through the bookshelves to look for a book.

“Who’s back?” questioned Hitch.

“Grogar!”

Everyone in the science room gasped, including Sunny, who had just gotten up.

“Wait, what?” gasped Sunny. “Grogar? Like that old-looking ram from the legends?”

“I know about a ‘Grogar’ in an old library book I borrowed once!” recalled Izzy.

“I think you’re looking for this one, Twilight?” Starlight was manipulating an old history book.

“That’s it! That’s the one, Starlight!” Twilight took it from Starlight and placed down the history book with a symbol of peace and prosperity on the hardcover. She flipped through the pages to find a short excerpt from the book.

“Here it is.” Twilight cleared her throat. She read aloud from the excerpt.

“Grogar is a blue ram that once ruled the land of Tambelon. His time came when a unicorn named Gusty the Great banished him to the underworlds of Equestria. Though gone, but not forgotten, there is a claim that a certain pattern of stars in the night sky could respawn Grogar back into the world of Equestria as we know it. And if it does happen, a group of ponies from generation after generation shall be summoned in hopes that they are Equestria’s last and only hope.”

“So that’s why we are here right now?” gasped Sunny. “A unicorn named ‘Gusty the Great’ thinks we are the only ones that could finish the job of defeating Grogar forever?”

“Seems about right,” disclosed Zipp. “Not really! Why us of all ponies?”

“Don’t ask me,” replied Twilight. “I wasn’t the one that banished Grogar.”

“Well, let’s not debate now,” said Starlight. “Let’s focus on Grogar.”

“But what about our work, Starlight?” asked Sunburst.

“Both of us will take care of it. But for now, let’s have Twilight solve her problem first.” Starlight went behind the table and continued working.

“Gael,” requested Twilight, “call in the other ponies and tell them to meet back here. We’ve got a bigger situation on our hooves.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!” Gael left off in a hurry to notify the rest of the Mane Six.

“As for you five,” Twilight continued, “you’ll be staying with me. I can’t have you roaming about in Canterlot without knowing what this place actually is.”

“Fine by us, Princess!” Sunny obeyed.

Only an hour had passed. Twilight was sitting on her throne with the Mane Five sitting right beside her. Sunny stared at Twilight, admired by her looks. Pipp kept navigating around the room to find a cellular signal for her phone, but to no avail. Just then, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash walked in.

“Girls!” cried Twilight. “Did you do what I asked you to do?”

“Yeah, about that,” said Rainbow Dash, “no one in Ponyville or anywhere else in Equestria wanted to listen to us. They were caught up with those so-called ‘changelings’ coming to attack us.”

“As for Discord,” added Applejack, “he’s busy with whatever he’s doing in a place called Chaosville. But he’ll come to help us whenever he can.”

“Are you kidding me?” snapped Twilight. “He’s unavailable at the wrong time? What about you, Fluttershy and Spike? Did you manage to talk with the other ponies or whatever they are?”

“Well, it’s kind of a funny story, but… C’mon in!” Fluttershy whistled.

Twenty-one ponies of unknown origin simultaneously entered the throne room. Every pony was surprised.

"Wow," an amazed Izzy gasped. "That's a lot of ponies."

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” exclaimed Twilight. “How many ponies from different worlds are in this timeline?”

“Twenty-one,” answered Spike. “Yes, I took a full body count before we came here.”

“Twenty-one ponies?!” Twilight could not believe her eyes. “This is bigger than I thought.”

Let’s not waste time introducing the characters to each other, so in favor of that, let’s just say introductions were made. And on top of that, they also explained how they were transported to Imperial Equestria via a portal.

“Interesting,” said Twilight. “So you all came here the same way those five did.”

“Correct!” said Gusty.

“Well,” Twilight began, “let’s paraphrase why we’re all here. A ram named Grogar is coming to destroy all our worlds as we know it. And we’re the only ones who could stop him from doing such.”

“And that’s why we’re all here!” said all the other ponies.

“So you’re not changelings… right?” Rainbow Dash had a keen attitude toward them.

“No, we’re not,” replied Surprise.

Twilight thought long and hard. She didn’t know what to do in a situation like this. But then, a thought popped into Sunny’s head. A thought that might be crazy, but should buy everyone enough time in Equestria.

“We have to make the announcement,” said Sunny.

“What? But why?” asked Rainbow.

“Everyone in Equestria has to get a warning first,” explained Sunny. “Or else they’ll be unprepared!”

“You know what, Sunny girl? I think that’s a good idea!” agreed Applejack.

“Wait-” Twilight said, but knowing this was a last-ditch effort to warn everyone in Equestria, she had to follow. “Ugh, okay.”

Meanwhile, not so far away, Opaline and Misty were sitting atop a hill, overlooking Canterlot. Misty was holding a pair of binoculars.

“Do you see them anywhere, Misty?” Opaline solicited.

“No, Opaline,” answered Misty. “The only thing I could see is a lavender alicorn.”

“A lavender alicorn,” said Opaline. “Now where have I heard something like that?”

“Wait a second! I see something over there!” Misty pointed to a machine just from across a river. It appeared motionless.

“Who is that?” questioned Opaline.

“I think it’s the same obeyer we saw before.” Misty kept a close eye on it.

“Really?” Opaline laughed. “Then it’s about time we strike soon.”

Hours passed. At Canterlot, many Equestrians are gathered in the Canterlot Castle to listen to the announcement from Princess Twilight Sparkle. Every civilian, ranging from Earth ponies to yaks, is talking about what the announcement might be. Some have theorized that the announcement might be something new for the land, while others think it’s a warning. Either way, they all waited patiently for Twilight to listen to her announcement. Guards roamed and guarded every corner around the castle to make sure that no one breaks in.

“What do you think it is?” one pony asked. “You think something’s coming? Like what’s to come for the future?”

“I don’t know,” another replied. “Maybe it’s a warning of some kind. Considering that there haven't been a lot of attacks ever since those three took over Canterlot, there might be one coming soon.”

Then, a female pony interrupted their conversation. “I think it’s a new gala!”

The two ponies looked at her confused.

“Depending on the gravity of this situation, I highly doubt it,” a pony said. "Why would something that is probably very serious to take notice of would be an announcement of a new Grand Galloping Gala?"

“Whatever,” the pony said. "Probably just to strengthen the excitement."

Inside the castle, Twilight and Spike are ready to give the speech to everyone in Canterlot. However, something caught up in Twilight's mind. The other main ponies from the other generations are there too.

"You ready?" Starlight said to Twilight. "You got the speech memorized and everything?"

"Yeah," said Twilight. "But there's just one thing, everyone."

"What is it?" Pinkie Pie asked.

Twilight exhaled. She wanted to get this out now because she knew something wasn't right out of this.

“I don’t know about this, everyone,” she said, completely worried. “I don’t think now’s the right time to reveal this information to anyone in Equestria. Because think about it, hysteria might ensue. And not to mention that the Grogar they know about has remained a myth for such a long time. Once they hear my speech, they’ll just brush it off as fake news.”

"Come on, Twilight!" said Pinkie Pie. "They'll want to listen to your speech! Let them know! Don’t delay!"

"Yeah," added Rainbow Dash. "Who cares what they're gonna think about your so-called 'false claim'? They just don't know what's soon about to hit them!"

"And not to mention that you'll do something about it," said Izzy. "You're the leader of Equestria, for crying out loud!"

“You have to do this, Twi,” said Applejack. “They need to know what's to come in the future. Or else, like Sunny said, they’ll be unprepared.”

Twilight exhaled. “You’re right. They need to know. We mustn't keep this a secret any longer. Thank you, everyone. Come on, Spike; we've got some civilians to address."

Both Twilight and Spike walked out slowly from the castle. The ponies waved to say good luck.

“Good luck, Your Highness!” said Sunny. Everyone looked at her in confusion. “What? It’s the right term to call a princess!”

“It’s not bad, by any means,” said Fluttershy, “but I think she prefers to still be called Twilight Sparkle.”

As the two enter the balcony, the Equestrians spot Spike.

"Hey look, there's Spike! Twilight's assistant!" a yak said.

Everyone clamored as Spike walked to the microphone.

"Come on, Spike!" said a pony. "Tell us what's going on!"

The crowd continued clamoring to tell Spike to give them the news.

"We need to know!" a dragon said.

Spike wanted to get everyone to be quiet. So he said the one thing he thought could shut them up immediately. "Silence!" he yelled, and everyone went quiet. "Thank you."

No one in the crowd said a word after that. Spike's order was clear.

“Fillies and gentle colts, Princess Twilight Sparkle will speak to all of you very shortly. Please pay attention to this speech, as it may be vital for your safety in what’s about to come for the foreseeable future. Anyone who cannot make it to this address, the message will be sent via newspaper across all cities and towns in Equestria.”

He walks aside to have Twilight take the microphone. Twilight walked up to the microphone. Everyone took notice and paid attention to her and her speech.

“Fillies and gentle colts,” she announced, “I regret to inform you all that we have recently received from an anonymous source information regarding something that may very well be hard to comprehend. Equestria, the land we all know and love, will be a target of an unspecified extinction-level attack.”

Everyone gasped at those words. An extinction-level event in Equestria? the crowd thought to themselves. That’s something they’ve never thought or heard of in a while, ever since the Legion of Doom tried to take over Equestria.

“As a result of this attack, a state of emergency has been declared for all of Equestria and other surrounding kingdoms, including, but not limited to: Yakyakistan, Maretonia, and Saddle Arabia, all three of which have their own emergency plans. Now the attack, in question, is commanded by an unknown entity that was spotted deep in the Crystal Mountains, as stated by the anonymous source who spotted this entity last night. No tolerance for ignoring this emergency is allowed. I want everyone across Equestria and beyond to heed this warning. But do not panic. I will be giving out a set of instructions on what to do during this situation.”

Everyone was more concerned than ever, especially since this so-called “entity” was crossing their minds at this point. They didn't know what to say, or what to do. All they knew was that they had to listen to Twilight’s speech, so they would know what to do, and know more about what was to come in the future.

“To prevent any more hysteria on the streets during this situation, as of 8 a.m. local time, I am initiating a contingency plan to ensure that Equestria would continue to live on. This plan is codenamed ‘Loki’.”

Then she went over to Spike. “Spike, where’s the contingency plan outline?”

“What contingency plan outline?” he asked. “You mean this one?” He took out a piece of paper titled “Emergency Plan: Loki”, which contained all the emergency details to comply with should an emergency like this take place.

“Yes, that one! Give me that!” She took the outline from Spike and walked back to the mic. She cleared her throat and spoke to the mic, reading aloud from the outline.

“The following contingency plan goes as follows: effective immediately, all areas in Equestria are declared under martial law. The nationwide curfew of 7 p.m. tonight to 7 a.m. has been put into effect, and anyone caught outdoors between these hours will be subject to arrest without question or warning, and be charged with severe consequences. To ensure that no one breaks this contingency plan, the Earth, Unicorn, and Pegasi Guard will be deployed in all areas in Equestria to be on the lookout for any civilians outside and will keep watch in the skies and landscapes for any more sightings of the entity and try to stop it. Anyone who rebels against this will be given severe punishment by the E.U.P. As for sheltering in place, stock up on any non-perishable food, and water shall any food outside go to waste. Do not try to resist the danger of this situation, as it is something that shall be taken seriously at all times. Nor shall you try to stop the entity on your own, as you may be putting your life in danger. Any and all communicational services, including postal mail, will be shut down and reserved for military use. No questions.”

Before Twilight could even exit the balcony, the crowd clamored again. They demanded more answers regarding this situation, something they all wanted the most. No one was safe from this attack, so they needed more info on what was going to happen soon, regardless if they'd die or not.

“Who is this ‘unknown entity’?” a yak asked. “We can’t do anything without knowing who the entity is.”

“That is classified information, sir,” Twilight answered. “We cannot disclose this information to you at this time.”

"This has something to do with those weird-looking ponies ever since they arrived, right?" a pegasus pony asked.

"Now, hold on, everyone-" Twilight was about to say before she was interrupted shortly by the crowd.

“Come on, Princess!” an Earth pony yelled at Twilight. “Tell us!"

"My foals are scared right now!" a unicorn pony said. "And you're not helping at all!"

Everyone in the crowd clamored and protested against Twilight to tell them who the “unknown entity” is, no matter the severity. Now it didn't seem like the contingency plan was going as expected, because everyone wanted the answer to everything. And that "everything" was the "entity".

“Wait, everyone!” an old gray Earth pony called out, silencing the protest. “I think I know who this ‘unknown entity’ is. It’s all been over the conspiracy theories!”

“Who is it?” the crowd asked him as they all turned at him, wanting to know his answer. Twilight was worried.

The old pony laughed to himself. He moved his lips to say, “Grogar.”

The crowd then turned back to Twilight to demand if the old pony’s word was true.

“Is this true, Princess?” a changeling asked her. “Is this ‘Grogar’ character the thing that’s causing all of this to happen at this very moment?”

Twilight didn’t say a word. She still wanted it kept confidential.

“Tell us now” — shouted another pony — “or we will use heavy force to rebel against you!”

“Yeah! We want answers!” shouted a dragon. “And very serious ones!”

More clamoring and protesting were made to convince Twilight for more answers to this crisis.

Twilight moved her lips to the microphone closely. “Yes.”

The crowd became silent, looked at each other, and then they all continued protesting angrily even more. They could not believe that such a rumor about Grogar's existence would catch up to a princess's mind, especially since the princess is Twilight, a pony who warned them about some danger in the past. But what makes this warning even worse is that no one, not even a single soul in the crowd, believed Twilight, and they all thought she was lying.

"Grogar is just a dead-on myth of the past!" a pony said.

"And he hasn't laid a single leg on this land ever since then!" another called out. "It's all just lazy, baffling, flat-out appalling lies!"

"Don't believe in everything you hear about, Princess Nerd!" a yak yelled.

The crowd then began to boo at Twilight and Spike, and some even went as far as throwing things at both of them, such as vegetables, hay forks, and even sharp glass bottles. Twilight looked away and went back inside the castle, feeling ashamed of herself for not being able to warn everyone. Spike went to the microphone to give an after-speech.

"Now, everyone," he announced, "no more questions until further notice. Like Princess Twilight Sparkle said, a mandatory curfew is in effect, and you all should take action now! Whoa!" He narrowly dodges a glass bottle meant to be thrown at him and leaves the balcony, as everyone continues to angrily protest and yell at them.

Twilight and Spike walked back to the castle in dismay. The other main ponies saw them, confused as to what they were feeling.

“How was it?” asked Twilight. “Did you get them to listen?”

Twilight was upset. “No, Twilight Two. It’s not working.”

“Why?” asked Hitch. “Are they in denial?”

“Yes, Hitch,” said Twilight. “They just denied all the warnings and now they’ve rebelled against me. At this rate, there’s no way we’re going to prove to everyone that Grogar is coming to destroy everything and that we should all take action immediately. We are on our own now."

Everyone felt bad for her, especially since the crowd thought she caused a lot of controversy during the speech. Now they don’t know what to do. All hope seemed lost now, or was it?

“So what are we gonna do now?” asked Rarity. “We’re not just gonna sit here like cowards. We have to do something!”

So everyone had to think of a way to save Equestria and abroad. Then, Sunny had a plan. A plan that is their last resort to everything.

“I know, everyone!” she announced. “I think I know what to do to stop Grogar from destroying us all!”

“What is it?” the other ponies asked as they turned their heads to her.

Sunny grinned. “We’re going to confront him ourselves.”

Everyone gasped at her idea, especially since Grogar is too strong compared to all of them.

“What?” asked Zipp. “Us? To confront that big old ram? That’s impossible!”

“We can’t do that, Sunny!” said Pipp. “He’s too strong, and not to mention he’s probably plotting something that maybe we can’t stop!”

“Sorry, Sunny,” said Gusty. “Normally, I want to agree with you on this, but this is probably a bit too much, even for me.”

"What? Come on!" yelled Sunny. "Just like Rarity here said, we're not just going to give up and let Grogar destroy all of us! We need to do something about it!"

The main ponies argued with each other, debating whether or not they should just go and defeat Grogar on their own. It was either too risky if they go or too hopeless if they stay. Then, Twilight used her horn to shut everyone up.

"Everyone, shut up!" she yelled and everyone went silent. "Sunny's right. We're going to find Grogar."

"Finally!" Sunny said. "Thank you, Twilight."

"Wait, what?" asked Zipp. "You want all of us, small little ponies who don't have enough power like a god, to go against him?"

"I mean, yeah," Twilight replied. "Why shouldn't we?"

"You heard what Hitch said!" Zipp bellowed. "He's too strong compared to all of us combined!"

"I did, Your Highness," Hitch added. He winked at Sunny.

"Just because he's over-the-top strong doesn't mean we can't beat him," Twilight said. "We all have to try."

All the ponies and Spike listened to her carefully.

"All of us were chosen by Gusty the Great to defeat the one enemy capable enough to destroy all the pony worlds as we know it. If we give up now, there won't be a world to live in."

The ponies and Spike listened to Twilight. It was a life or death situation: if they gave it a try, they might still live. But if they don't, all hope would be lost. So it was up to them to decide.

"So do you want to get up and save your world from total annihilation? Or stay here and have the one enemy we were meant to defeat destroy everything we know and love?"

All the ponies and Spike had made their choice. "Get up and save our worlds from total annihilation!"

"That is what I'd like to hear," Twilight said.

Just then, Starlight walked in. She was exhausted from all the clamoring and protesting outside the castle on their way inside. “Twilight, Sunburst and I were at your speech just now, and we heard what’s going on. The Grogar coming to destroy us all? We believe in that "myth". This is something we want to help you all with; so can we come with you all?”

Twilight looked at Starlight. “I’m sorry, you two, but the prophecy from Gusty the Great states that us ponies are the only ones who can stop him. Speaking of which, where is Sunburst?"

Starlight frowned but understood Twilight's words. "Eh, it's okay. I don't feel cut out for that, anyway. Also, Sunburst is out there. He’s trying to keep everyone calm. But what else can I do, at least?"

Twilight didn't know what Starlight should do. There was nothing else that she could do while they were out. That was until an idea flew into her head. "You know," she pointed out, "since we're all going to stop Grogar and I'm not going to be here to look over Equestria, I need someone to fill out for me, and I think you'd be my perfect temporary replacement."

"Like, ruler of Equestria?" Starlight asked.

"Exactly," Twilight answered. "Well, until I get back, of course."

“Fantastic! Sounds like I’m in charge again!” Starlight exclaimed. The other ponies looked at her.

“What do you mean ‘again’?” Sunny asked.

“It’s a long story,” Starlight replied.

Just outside the castle, the crowd is still protesting over the existence of Grogar. “Grogar is a myth!” they all chanted. The guards did their best to push back the crowd from overtaking the castle. Unfortunately, the guards were overwhelmed by the high number of ponies, yaks, dragons, and changelings, so they had to call in backup from all corners of Equestria.

“Requesting backup in Canterlot, over,” requested Gael.

"No myth will stop us!" a dragon yelled. "Equestria can stand on its own!"

“Hold on, everyone!” called Sunburst before being crowded in by two yaks.

Meanwhile, from behind the castle, Twilight, and the other ponies snuck out from the castle and into the mountains, where no one could see them.

“You sure you know what to do?” Twilight asked Starlight. “The speeches, orders, everything?”

“Don’t worry!” Starlight replied confidently. “I know just what to do! It’s like controlling my old town!”

“Okay,” Twilight said. “We’re all counting on you.”

“Anyways, good luck!” Starlight called. “Take care!”

The main ponies left the castle and deep into the mountains. Starlight went back to the castle. As she walked around, she found “Emergency Plan: Loki” on a table and picked it up.

“All areas in Equestria declared under martial law…” she read to herself. “A-ha, this might be a piece of cake!”

Then, she heard the angry crowd noises just outside of the castle. It's gotten all out of control now.

“Oh dear, I need to do something about the protests,” she said.

Starlight went over to the main balcony of the castle, witnessing thousands of Equestrians attempting to get over to the castle. She didn't want what happened to her last time to happen again, so her anger got the better of her, and she strolled to the microphone.

“Quiet!” she yelled into the microphone. Everyone, including Sunburst, went silent and stopped trying to go over. “Thank you. On behalf of myself, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and the rest of the royal family, we trust that you all adhere to the contingency plan the Princess has provided for you.”

“Who are you?!” a pony asked Starlight.

“That’s not important right now,” she answered. “What’s important is that I want to make sure that all of you are safe.”

“And why should we?” a yak asked. “The Princess is giving us nothing but vile lies about this so-called ‘Grogar’ coming to attack us!”

“I can assure you that the Princess knows what she’s doing and that she is taking care of the situation as I speak,” she also answered.

“And you’re just going to follow her orders?” the yak asked again. "Everything she told us earlier here sounded completely asinine!"

“Hey, I know Twilight Sparkle is doing the right thing!” Starlight bellowed. “And it's now my responsibility to make sure that none of you Equestrians get hurt by Grogar!”

"As if. Say it with me, everyone: Grogar is a myth!" a pony began the chant again. And the rest of the crowd chanted the same thing for the second time, as if chanting it only once wouldn't make anything different.

"Wait-!" Starlight stuttered before her reply was long interrupted.

The crowd angrily yelled at Starlight for having to listen to Twilight’s orders. They all still think she's lying, even though she isn’t. Starlight gulped.

“Oh boy, this is gonna be harder than I thought.”

Author's Note

The_Ind1e_Us3r would like to apologize for any political/controversial reference spotted in this chapter. These references, if any, were by no means intentional. But either way, I hope you enjoy the story so far, and continue supporting it. I guarantee the rest of the story will keep you hooked. Until then, enjoy the rest of the show, everybody! :twilightsmile:

Special thanks to The_Ind1e_Us3r for writing this chapter! And as a reminder, if anyone else would like to participate (and we do need the help!), you can find all those details in this blog post.

This is the first chapter that has characters from multiple generations with the same names, so they have to be color-coded so you know which character from which generation it is. The names will be coded like this: G1 - Pink, G2 - Green, G3 - Blue, G4 - Purple, G5 - Orange.

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Chapter 6 - Forcalor

Atop a certain hill, overlooking a certain Canterlot, a certain small light-blue unicorn was holding a pair of binoculars. A certain alicorn was looking through them, not bothering to pick up binoculars herself.

"What is this I see?" Opaline grinned madly, observing the situation from this impromptu lookout point. "Are they failing? Ahaha! That's just hilarious!"

"Yeah, I'm afraid so." Misty was noticeably more solemn about the whole endeavor.

"What is there to be "afraid" of, Misty?" Opaline quipped vehemently, "Soon our enemies will annihilate each other, and all that's left to us will be to pick up the scraps!" Opaline rubbed her hooves maliciously. "Soon revenge1 will be mine! All magic will fall right into my grasp2, and my reign will be undisputed3!

"Ah, uh, but Opaline!" Misty interjected, "In case that Grogar fellow wins, isn't he might just take everything for himself first? Or-or worse yet, Opaline, he can just destroy everything! I think there was something about an extinction, uh, event?"

"Hm! As hard as it is to admit, you might be onto something there. Very well then! Paradoxes be damned!" Opaline put hooves down, stood up, and spread wings outward, saying, "I'll not give out my victory to any upstart. Let us observe the situation closely. It's time dramatic beat to strike!"

1 - possibly
2 - maybe
3 - doubtfully

Do you know what happens when a lot of technicolored magical ponies are stuffed in one place?
Well, you might say that it's called a "herd", but no.
It's utter chaos.

Under the pressure of the angry crowd, most of them pretty much began panicking. And if you know anything about magical ponies, "panic" for them means to stand their ground and begin to stubbornly confront every possible obstacle, until the solution to a problem is found. Because they are a sturdy, hearty lot.

"Are y'all with manure in y'er heads or somethin'!" Applejack was yelling, "Twilight never lied, not to one of us! And y’all know I'm not lyin’ either!"

"Yeah! I will kick flanks of all who say otherwise! Just come here, just try it!" Rainbow Dash wrestled with her hooves in the air, dancing around on her hind legs.

"They are so silly," giggled Applejack, looking at both of them, while Cheerilee was at her side, laughing.

"You know, I think it's a good time to sing some sort of song to calm everyone down," said Melody cheerfully. Toola-Roola, StarSong, Izzy and Pipp began to nod eagerly.

"Anypony knows a good opening lyric?" asked one of them, which then veered into its own fascinating discussion in the background.

"Maybe rainbows will help," excitedly smiled Rainbow Dash, looking around.

Starlight, Starlight, and Gusty were standing with Twilight and Twilight. Firefly was nearby, while Sunny, Sunburst, Hitch, Zipp, Sweetheart, and curious Bright Eyes were all grouped slightly aside, just trying to take it all in.

There were, of course, some of them who took a moment to use these precious seconds for some bonding.

"Oh, I so like your mane and style, darling!" Rarity had been heard, complementing Glory.

"Such a nice cutie mark!" Surprise gasped, looking at bouncing Pinkie Pie.

"I know, right!" gave out her biggest grin Pinkie Pie.

"Right, right!" butted in Pinkie Pie.

"Can someone quickly brush my hair?" asked Bon Bon, and at least four different ponies were already at her side, with brushes in their hooves, no less. One of them rode up to her on a scooter, for some reason.

"Um.." was saying meekly Fluttershy, trying to get attention and tell something important, but the only pony around willing to listen was Posey, who was already comforting crying Clover.

Twilight frowned, quickly looking back. Then she looked down on the roaring crowd, this amalgamation of different creatures. After that, she turned to Spike. He shrugged weakly, mirroring her cluelessness.

"Everyone, please!" Twilight exclaimed, firing in the air a beam from a horn, but her voice, even with a microphone, was drowned out by the whole bedlam.

"Grogar is a myth!" shouting was heard.

Dragons were bellowing. Yaks were shouting. Changelings were fluttering wings and hissing. Ponies were stomping.

In fact, everyone was stomping, for sure.

"Yeah! Nothing but a legend!"

"You just want to control all of us!"

"No to curfew! No to contingencies!"

"It's some kind of conspiracy, right? Am I right!?"

"Down with the Nerd! Down with the royalty!"

"Hey, can we teleport somewhere out of here, or something?" immediately asked Pipp, turning to Sunny and Hitch, "I suddenly really do not want to be here right now. This ancient Canterlot stinks. I'd prefer our quiet place, even if it's low on magic."

"Can I come?" asked hopefully Bright Eyes. Crowd, prepared to lynch a nerd, was giving her the heebie-jeebies.

"I think rainbows can help here," Rainbow Dash frowned, not understanding why no one was listening.

She then smiled widely when Pinkie Pie bounced closer with a yell, "You're right!", and quickly hugged her.

"Ugh!" with a groan, Twilight caressed her temples, trying to remain completely calm and focused. She turned with a start to Twilight, Starlight, Starlight, Firefly and Gusty.

"Look, girls, I need to get everypony's attention. Any ideas?"

"Everybody," immediately corrected her Twilight, "You know, it's kind of rude. At least half of them aren't even ponies!"

"Don't be a smartflank, Twilight Two; it's really not the time," frowned Twilight.

"I wish you didn't talk like that, that's all. Why am I Twilight Two, anyway?"

"I'll get their attention!" yelled Firefly and leaped into flight over creatures, expertly dodging the miscellaneous projectiles they were already throwing at the castle and ponies in it.

"No wait, it's me who needs their attention! I need to speak to them!" tried to stop her Twilight, but it was already too late.

Starlight facehoofed immediately, all the while Rainbow Dash excitedly exclaimed "Wow! Awesome!". Looking at her, Starlight promptly came up with an idea, and she hurriedly trotted over to pegasus.

"Quickly, do a sonic rainboom!"

"Right on. Just watch!"

Rainbow Dash took off, and everyone involuntarily went silent, looking at the performance with widened eyes. With a trail of a radiant rainbow, the pegasus made a huge circle around the castle and rose in the air, before plummeting down. A wide rainbow wave covered the sky, with a tremendous sound of whiplash in the air.

Everypony gasped in reverence and awe. Rainbow Dash almost fainted, overwhelmed by emotions. Firefly landed on the wall and sat there with a smile, crossing her forelegs, mumbling: "Showoff.."

Most of the ponies cheered and laughed, and there were cries of "More! More!", but firstly, the crowd finally went silent, which was exactly what Twilight was waiting for.

"Friends!" she cried into the microphone with a heartfelt voice, and it drew all eyes upon her.

"Yes, you heard that right. We all are friends here. We all are on the same side," Twilight continued, slightly nervous, but with a voice full of sincerity. "Look, all of you. We all know that these times are very trying and scary, but this is especially the moment when Friendship must shine through.

She gripped the amplifier harder. Her eyes brimmed with tears.

"For many years, we, all together, stood against the villainous darkness. We fought, and we prevailed! Against all possible odds, we are here now, still spreading the message of kindness and goodness!"

"But why did you lie to us!?" yelled someone bold enough.

"There was no lie!" replied Twilight.

"Are you seriously declaring martial law?" "What's all this?" "Are you for real!?" other voices shouted in quick succession.

"It is all because I care for you, my subjects. We care! And we do not know how else to stop this! So please, we need everyone to cooperate and help each other. There is no other way. Listen—"

"Your leadership is weak!" a sudden new voice breaks out and joins the fray, and everypony goes silent for a second time.

A certain alicorn with a purple coat travels through the crowd, and creatures are moving to the sides, giving her wide space. She grabs with an aura a teal unicorn at her side and effortlessly flies on the wall of the castle for all to see.

Unicorn, who is known as Misty, sheepishly smiles and waves to Sunny and her group.

Alicorn, who is known as Queen Opaline Arcana, grins royally and smugly. Her voice rises:

"I am—"

"Wait!"

Opaline stops, mostly because she is completely unexpected to be cut off like that. She lowers her gaze to a little white unicorn with a green mane, who stands right in front of her.

"What—"

"It was not your turn to speak, tall, dark, and mean," said Gusty.

"Yeah! It was Twilight's turn!" adds Cheerilee, "Wait for your own!"

"You must be daft to interrupt Twilight," frowns Applejack, "Some crazy palleted mare. It was a great speech, I tell you what."

"Why, you—"

"It's Princess' Twilight's turn!" yells Zipp.

"Yes, let Twilight finish talking!" Starlight chips in.

One by one other ponies joins the shouting, and even some of the would-be rioters from the crowd follow suit. Opaline just stood there, blinking. While no one paid to her attention, Misty shuffled over to Sunny and others.

"Um... If I may..." tried to speak Fluttershy, looking around all these almost unfamiliar faces. She looks at Posey again, who is almost identical to herself in appearance and feels uneasy.

"Thank you very much, everypony," not noticing, said Twilight in the microphone, still with the same earnest voice, "It touched my heart."

"Grogar!" from the crowd, the older pony yelled, his voice overlapping any other noise, "It's all about Grogar, you fools!"

"Yeah, what's up with Grogar!" someone yelled again.

"He's not real, is he? There is no Grogar!"

"Everypony, listen!" taken word Twilight, once again.

She inhaled sharply, turning to all below.

"It doesn't matter if Grogar is real or not, right now. I'm speaking this from the bottom of my own heart! It is not what you need to be concerned with! Be concerned about your own feelings. They are real, and if you give in to fear, then this fear is real for you too! And that is what gives Grogar strength and life, it produces this enmity between us. Without it, he is truly nothing. Whether he exists or not, he craves our fear! He wants us all to argue, to spread disharmony!" Princess Twilight drew another breath, seeing that many from the crowd finally heard her words, "Listen, my friends. You do trust your mind, don't you? Do you trust your hearts as well? If you perceive, if you feel, that it is real for you. But it is you who ultimately decides what to focus on! In which thoughts and feelings to invest!"

The crowd murmured. Many look between themselves, not truly understanding what to take from it, but there are a lot who got the message. Finally, someone yelled:

"And what about martial law?"

"If there is no Grogar, then there is nothing to be afraid of, right? If all is calm, it soon will become more lenient, even lifted in mere days. I promise you! Let Magic of Friendship guide you!" responds Twilight, feeling herself at ease.

Suddenly Pinkie Pie snatched the microphone from the Princess and began to bounce on the very edge of the wall. Her chipper voice traveled across the whole Canterlot, and every living soul in it stayed still and listened.

"Hey, don't mind me, not to be a sourpuss, bu-u-u-ut~..."

Pinkie Pie pointed at an unassuming older pony in front row. "Here's your Grogar!~ In disguise!" she giggled.

"Wha—! How!" Grogar opened his mouth in a state of utter shock, and Pipp promptly snapped a picture with her phone.

"Yes! That's going straight to Ponygram."

"Mare to mare, what's a Ponygram?" behind others, swiftly asked Sweetheart, looking at Rarity. She shrugged in response.

"Hold it, horses." Grogar looked like he was taking none of this. His magic sizzled, and he teleported on top of the wall, in his real form, in all his goatly glory, "How did you know, you, pink one?"

"Easy peasy lemon squeezy!" giggled Pinkie Pie excitedly.

"Oh, I know, I know this one!" Izzy chimed in, no less excited, "Let's do this together!"

"So he sent a bunch of icky clanks to Ponyville, right?"

"Yeah, and then crept up to us to spy on what we'll do, and to lay discord!"

"No relation to Discord!"

"Oh wow, you have one too?"

"Yeah! I send my hugs to yours!"

"Wait, so should I say you sent a hug, or do I need to hug him away?"

"Just take me with you to him, I'll hug him myself, you silly filly!"

Grogar growled, they laughed, and finished both in sync:

"Well, here he is now!"

"That didn't explain anything at all!" groaned Sunburst, while other ponies were giving him confused looks.

"Wait, Ponyville is under attack?" frowned Twilight worriedly.

"Oh yes, you all are under attack, Twilight Sparkle!" injected Opaline with malicious laughter, "Now, you will—"

Grogar moved up closer to her, giving an unsettling glare of crimson red eyes, without any visible pupils. Opaline scowled, but then relented, taking a small step back.

"That's better. Now all of you ponies, listen here!" Grogar bellowed with his raspy arrogant voice, "I've heard all of your pompous little speeches. And you know what? I'm not impressed. Despite your incessant talks of unity, you always were broken down and driven apart, animated only by some lines that brought you all together. I've seen the nature of your universe. I've seen the nature of all your universes! So, you say your fear might not be real? But you yourselves are not real either!"

He delivered it like it was some grand revelation.

But most ponies just laughed.

"So what of it!?" defiantly said Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah, so what of it!?" stomped her hoof Firefly.

"Does it even matter?" looked to others StarSong with a smile.

"No." Twilight shook her mane defiantly, her gaze ablaze, "It does not matter at all. As with feelings, everypony is real as long as they exist in someone's heart, in whatever shape or form. And a rainbow of that existence, with all colors and their hues—this is what binds us all together, Grogar, not just "some lines". It is something that you will never comprehend."

Grogar met this with his own laughter. He looked over all those who gathered here, his malicious smile plastered all over his smug face.

He turned to Twilight. "All that is empty words, you, lavender little pathetic thing." Goat sorcerer gazed at other ponies. "As well as all of yours!"

"Proclaim me as not truly real, proclaim fear of me as not truly real, and that means proclaim yourself no more real than me. Say it!"

He raised his voice, still looking at the ponies. "And if none of this is truly real, then nothing of this matters! Then you do not matter! No more than I do. Say it! Say, that my darkness doesn't matter more than your feelings! I dare you!"

Twilight looked stoically. She turned, and her wary and deep gaze went out to everypony.

They smiled, encouraging her. She thought about the long history that was behind them all. She thought about everything that happened over decades, good and bad.

Different scenes went through her mind. Twilight thought about how ponies reflected within others and, what was equally important, reflected within themselves and each other too. Twilight could almost see all these different versions all around her now, and all of them were representing someone's heart, or at least someone's feelings, someone's effort, and imagination.

Truly, like gradients of color, all different, but together, they painted a marvelous picture.
And this picture wasn't done yet.

Twilight turned towards this stupid old goat sorcerer and answered valiantly.
"Yes, you are somewhat right. On its own, nothing of this matters that much. It all might be even superficial in the grand scheme of things. But what matters, is what we inspire."

"What!?" Grogar barked reflectively, biting his tongue—but it was too late. He is an old-school villain after all.

"Kindness!" said Fluttershy no more meekly, and then adorably hid behind her hair.

"To prevail and hope!" raised her head Firefly.

"Laughter and joy!" ponies like Pinkie Pie, Pinkie Pie, Surprise, Izzy, Toola-Roola, Melody, not to mention others, pulled each other into a big group hug.

"Loyalty!" stroke a pose Rainbow Dash, of course.

"Creativity and persistence, naturally!" exclaimed Rarity, and other ponies laughed and cheered.

"Forgiveness! Understanding!" chimed in Starlight.

"And not least of all! Friendship!" finished Twilight with a radiant smile.

Winking at Sunny, who looked at her with starstruck eyes, Twilight turned to Grogar.

"We will live on in stories, while you and your impotent darkness will be forgotten. Because superfluous fears are meant to be beaten! Now begone!"

Grogar grimaced like he was in pain.
But he wasn’t gone anywhere.

"I do not comprehend, at least in that, you’ve been correct, annoying pony. Where’s the real power? Where’s your fabled Magic of Friendship? What, I guess I was supposed to be blown away by some rainbow by now? Seems you out of juice…" he laughs wickedly, and snarls, "Just DIE."

From his horns, a bolt of dark purple lightning rushes to the ponies. Grogar almost savors victory already. But something collides with magic in mid-flight. A ghostly apparition of his mortal enemy! Gusty the Great herself!

Gusty met the magic with his chest and, once more, like in legends, protected others against evil. Ponies whinnied and gasped in surprise. They rushed forward, looking to assist him.

"YOU!" howled Grogar in disbelief, trying to stop the flow of his magic, but he is forced into lockdown by a pesky hero, once again, "But I SAW you dissipated! You're dead, dead, DEAD!"

"Quick, heroes! His bell! Get his bell!" cried Gusty, struggling against Grogar.

"The bell! The bell!" Fluttershy's yells are heard.

"Bell! Magic bell!" Glory and Applejack cried almost in unison.

"I'm on it!" suddenly, Spike rushed forward, leaping and gripping with his hands the bell, hanging from Grogar's collar. It didn't budge and only attracted the attention of the old goat. Spike smiled awkwardly, meeting the intense gaze of Grogar face to face: "Uh... I'm not bothering you, am I?"

Grogar reared with a roar, tossing the little dragon away. He landed on ponies, who didn't dart out of the way fast enough. They were soft, so Spike remained unharmed.

"Twilight! Look! The bell, I've got his bell!" cried Fluttershy intensely, at last showing Grogar's old Bewitching Bell from past adventures, in her possession.

"Oh, yes, that's right! We had this all along!.. I need your help on this one, everypony!" excitedly beamed Twilight, grabbing the Bewitching Bell.

Grogar roared once more, pumping out smoke through his nostrils. He wasn't going to surrender just yet. Gusty began to be pushed away, but he was quickly being reinforced by ponies, firstly Twilight and Sunny standing side by side, and then by many others as well. They all were gripping an ancient artifact, and the radiant beam of energy now danced between two bells, as their magics tried to overpower one another.

Grogar gasped in disbelief, once more. Will it truly be the end of him? Like that? He just couldn't withstand it. No, it was too soon, just too soon…

But then a certain alicorn trotted onto the scene, smiling wickedly.

"Hahaha! Now I've got all of your attention! NOW I've got you in my grasp!" laughed Opaline, "What!? Nopony to cut me off this time!? You all at my mercy now, you commoners, brigands, false royalty! I will RULE you all!"

She danced on her hooves, twisted and turned triumphally, getting closer to both parties, locked in a magical battle. Her horn shone brightly, and her grin flared with white teeth on dark-purple skin.

"You will all learn to love and fear me! You all will learn my name!.. I will steal all your magic! I.. Oh.. No.." she got too close. Opaline suddenly started to feel the pull, which drew her toward the beam of energy. She began to kick her hooves helplessly, flapped her wings, and tried to get away.

But it was all for naught.

Everypony (and Grogar with Spike, who isn't a pony) saw how energy surged to fire an alicorn's horn, like to a conductor. She screamed and disappeared in a flash, only her white outline had been seen for a split-second.

"No!" gasped Misty from behind others, and she was, basically, the only one who cared.

But this intrusion by Opaline changed everything. Before everyone's eyes, the tethered beam danced erratically, flared with intensity—and a loud cracking sound was heard.

With a shockwave of force, the beam ceased, and supposedly indestructible bells were shattered, both of them. All present looked at how they broke into six uneven pieces in total. Four of them rose in the air and disappeared, while two launched like shooting stars somewhere toward Ponyville.

Grogar quickly recovered from the ground. He still had magic, still a threat. He quickly realized what happened, his horns flared up. He disappeared right then and there, with another flash of light.

Ponies meanwhile were scrambled and in total disarray. Gusty was nowhere to be seen anymore. Twilight looked around, her face grim and filled with determination.

"If I understood what's going on correctly," she exclaimed, "This is far from over, but we're nearing the final stretch. Everypony! We need to form a plan!"

Author's Note

A little challenge for you now, my successor writers. Pieces of the bells are implied to have been scattered across all possible timelines and settings of the MLP universe, so essentially you have the possibility to take any combination of characters from the franchise and set them on a quest to get those macguffins, racing against Grogar. Also, maybe Opaline too; her fate was left ambiguous after all.

Can we save the world? Or maybe it doesn't even need saving anymore and we are here just for fun? Or maybe we will now steer in a completely new direction?
Let's find out.

Scene with Bon-Bon is a reference to these cool guys; just look at them:

https://youtu.be/XBO8AcMxaYA

Maybe she is the best pony all along.

Special thanks to Forcalor for writing this chapter!

Hey guys! What's up. I've been gone for, like, two weeks, and I very much apologize, but things were too chaotic for reasons too numerous to list here. I thank you all SO MUCH for being patient with me and am SO SORRY that I've been keeping you without updates for this long!

This week (and the next) are the fun, much-anticipated weeks of standardized testing... ugh. So there will be no chapters (sorry!) because I need to focus all of my energy on that. This doesn't mean that if you want to write a new chapter that you can't do that, but I just won't be uploading. Thank you for understanding.

So, more writers are needed, as always, and if you are even REMOTELY interested, please contact me and read all details in this blog post. Thanks again!

Chapter 8 - Starcoder

Starlight poked at the flat glowing box on the dresser. She had forgotten what it was called. A phone? Yeah, a phone. Twilight and her younger friend, Sunny, had given it to her in case she would need it to talk to any one of the groups. So she texted Pipp saying she needed some proof that Grogar was real. Pipp replied soon after with a video of a conversation between Grogar and a pony with a light yellow mane, green eyes, and a red coat. She also sent a bunch of things Starlight didn't understand.

omg tfw recording 😱😱

Starlight stared. She blinked. Well, she had the proof. It was all she asked for, whether it came with new words and pictures or not. All she needed now was a way to show a whole crowd one tiny screen. If only she could silence them and turn the volume all the way up.

Wait.

Spike.

Spike had the power to silence the crowd! He had respect, very much unlike her. If he could just silence them all for just a minute, she could play the video and make sure they all heard it. With a smile, Starlight called out, "SPIIIIIKE!"

It had been what felt like three hours in the snow, and yet there was still no luck of finding a bell part. But there was no turning back now. Still, nearly half of Hitch's group felt as if it would be best if they turned back.

Hitch looked at the rest of them. Gusty said she was too weak and tired to make a gust to push them all. StarSong felt too weak to even sing, and that was her favorite thing. Bon Bon said she could make it and that she would never give up, but Hitch could clearly see that her energy was starting to drain, too. Applejack looked like she was in the best condition of all of them, even Hitch himself. Hitch knew that he looked about as tired as Bon Bon. Maybe even more exhausted.

A few more minutes and Hitch chimed in, "How do you all feel about a break?" The others looked at each other with relief and fell to the ground on top of each other as if they were acquainted with one another very well. Friends, although each came from their own world. They had been marching side by side, equal distance between them, hooves digging into the snow with each step as they searched for a part of the bell. And for the most part, they had done that for no reason.

Hitch came to realize this as he lay in the snow, sitting up to make sure he wasn't just hallucinating because he wanted this journey to end. No, if he was right, this was a cave very similar to the one that Gusty the Great had hidden Grogar's original bell in. But if that was true, there was also some force of magic blocking the cave. That meant no one could get through.

He took one more glance at his group. They were staring at him and had followed his staring, so now they were staring, too. There really was a cave, and there really was a chance. A chance this journey would end and a chance they would fine a broken part of a bell. There was a big chance.

Applejack walked up to the cave, everypony staring at her. No one dared to talk. No jinxies, as Izzy liked to word it. She lifted her hoof and poked a forcefield...

That was nonexistent.

Sunny grinned. She was on an adventure. And, no, not just another one in her dreams. A real live adventure with a real live hero, alicorn princess of the past, and the actual Princess of Friendship! Twilight Sparkle was intrigued by Sunny's story. She was also confused, and that was for sure, because she kept asking questions since she couldn't understand. Honestly, the questions probably just made her even more confused. Through a text exchange with Hitch, she believed that the first shard of the bell was found.

And with a smile that could easily be seen by her four other group members, Twilight, Misty, Twilight Two, and Bright Eyes. Misty had to be snuck into the group because Zipp refused to let her be anywhere near her or her friends. "Don't worry, Zipp," Sunny had assured her. "We've already got our teams assigned."

What Zipp didn't know was that Misty was assigned to be in a group. Twilight's group. That way, she could watch over Misty to make sure she didn't try any funny business. But Twilight was high on a second chance for her, and so was Sunny.

Sunny wanted to call Zipp and confront her, but she feared that she would find out about Misty's presence and act terribly. She had given her phone to Starlight Glimmer back at the castle to make sure that she could communicate, so she now had a backup phone. It was one of the older models: her dad's. Since she didn't want to talk to Zipp, she opened her chat with Hitch.

YOU: how's the search going?

HITCH: dunno- we split the group

YOU: think ur close?

There was no response for a little while after that, so Sunny tucked her phone away and glanced at Twilight. "Why are we here?"

"I know this would be better suited for Pinkie or Rainbow Dash, but here we are, in Griffonstone. Welcome, and I hope you all have enough strength," Twilight said, trying to be encouraging while she was scared herself. Sunny put on a brave face, but in reality, she was twice as scared as Twilight was. Twilight Two hugged her friend Bright Eyes, and Sunny opened her arms for Misty to fall into. When Misty finally did so, she risked sneaking a look at the phone.

Hitch had responded:

HITCH: ...
HITCH: well-
HITCH: talk later. bye.

Gusty pushed the forcefield that was slowly forming with as much wind as she could possibly conjure up in the limited time she had. Hitch tried to use plants to pull the walls outward and create more space. Applejack came just in time, holding a shard of the bell, smiling as if she had just won every competition against Rainbow Dash and gotten money from it to support her family. Her friends. The citizens that needed help right now.

The shard had an interesting design in it. Hitch thought it was like a stop sign. Applejack said it was an eye. Grogar's eye, with a squared shape. She tapped it and it glowed faintly. She and Hitch eyed each other.

Hitch was speechless. But he wasn't wordless. He texted Sunny.

YOU: WE'VE GOT IT!

SUNNY: woooo!!!
SUNNY: get over here!!

Hitch would've texted back saying he would come immediately, if he had not just spotted another perfect hiding spot just a few miles away.

Author's Note

Sorry if this seemed short or rushed (that's because it is). I'm not that great a writer of adventure stories, but I can do mystery and foreshadowing, so I tried my best and incorporated my own skills into this. I hope it turned out well enough and I can't wait to see future chapters and how well they succeed, too!

Special thanks to Starcoder for writing this chapter!

Yup, we're back! We should hopefully have a more steady rotation for a few more weeks, and we'll worry about what happens at the end when we get to it. Maybe we'll just keep rotating through for the rest of the year...

There is something I do need to figure out, and that is the fact that I only have access to this site during the weekdays when I have school. This means that, once summer gets here, I won't be able to access it on my home Internet for reasons that are too complicated to explain. I will be able to pop in and check on this every once and a while throughout the summer, but I'll need to come up with a more consistent system. I'll figure something out and let you know before summer gets here so that this story can keep going! Thank you all so much!

Chapter 9 - The_Ind1e_Us3r

It was only a matter of time before our heroes could find all the pieces of the bell across Equestria and stop the evil Grogar for good. For Twilights One and Two, Sunny, Misty, and Bright Eyes, Griffonstone was a big challenge, mainly for its wide variety of griffons. One must not know if they were aware of such an object falling from the sky, nor were they aware of what was happening at the time.

“Twilight!” exclaimed Sunny. “I’ve got some good news!”

Twilight turned her head to Sunny. “What’s up?”

“Hitch just told me that he and his crew managed to get one of the crystals.”

“Great! So that’s one down, five to go.” She took out a piece of paper that consisted of a list and crossed out the first crystal from the list. “I just hope they get back safe. Where they were headed is perilous to begin with.”

“He hadn’t texted me back yet.” Sunny looked at her phone a second time before she put it away. “But that shouldn’t be a problem! Knowing Hitch, I bet he knows what to do in a jiffy, regardless of where he is!”

As the five approached the kingdom, they saw Gilda, one of the griffons of the kingdom. Gilda roamed the rocky paths of Griffonstone, kicking the pebbles as she strolled by.

“Gilda!” Twilight yelled.

“Oh,” she muttered. “Ponies. And rather strange ones too. What are you doing here this time?”

“We just want to know if you noticed anything… weird fall out of the sky?” Bright Eyes asked.

“Something weird?” Gilda was immensely confused. “Can you describe what it looks like?”

“Really?” an annoyed Twilight said. “You’re still calling us that? Whatever, I believe the object appeared to have been a red diamond-shaped shard that flew off in this direction, and we assume that since Griffonstone was that way, we followed it and look where we are now. You know Grogar?”

Then, with a sudden jolt, Gilda’s eyes widened. “Grogar? That thing? Ha! What makes you think of this Grogar coming back to life?”

“You still got proof, Sunny?” Twilight turned to Sunny to show her.

“Say no more!” Sunny took out her phone and showed Gilda the video that Pipp took earlier involving Grogar and Sprout, having sent it to Sunny beforehand when they all reached Canterlot.

“Looks fake,” Gilda said.

“What?” exclaimed Sunny. “What do you mean this ‘looks fake?’ We are showing you one-hundred percent physical evidence of Grogar in this very world, coming to destroy us all! And the clock to doomsday is ticking, so lead us to the direction of the shard, or so help me!”

“I think that’s enough talking, Sunny.” Twilight quickly covered Sunny’s mouth to shut her up. “So is there anything you, at the very least, remember?”

Gilda took a moment to respond. “Actually… I think I saw something land on the other side of that mountain over there.”

“Is it one of the shards?” Twilight Two asked.

“I think it is,” replied Gilda. “I did see a streak of light following it. So maybe that answers your question? I don’t know.”

“Did you even attend my speech earlier today?” asked Twilight.

“Nope. I wasn’t interested, so I shook it off.”

“Then that must explain why you’re answering your answers right now.”

“Whatever,” said Gilda. “Go do whatever you want to do. I won’t stand here and let you interrogate me. I have things to do, you know.”

“Like what?” Misty questioned.

“Well… uh…” Gilda tried to think of an excuse to get out of their conversation, until… “Ah! Alright, fine! You caught me! I have nothing to do other than wander around the kingdom, so I guess spending time with you dweebs shouldn’t be bad, I guess.”

“Excuse me?!” yelled Twilight. “Are you still calling us ‘dweebs,’ even now?”

“Well,” Gilda answered back, “I may be on good terms with Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash now, but for you? Maybe not so much.”

Twilight’s anger had gotten the better of her until Sunny grabbed her by her head. “You know,” Sunny suggested, “let’s put this thing behind us and start the hunt for the shard!”

Gilda rolled her eyes. “Maybe I should’ve attended the speech so that I wouldn’t have to deal with this.”

Meanwhile, back in Canterlot, Sunburst, Starlight, and Spike grabbed a projector and placed it on the floor. The former also placed the phone next to the projector and stared at them.

“How the heck does this thing work?” Spike said.

“This shouldn’t be too hard,” said Starlight. “I think that Pipp mare gave me instructions on how to convert this into the projector.”

“And how exactly would you do it?” asked Sunburst. “This is something we’ve never discovered before. We best be dead if we continue.”

“Don’t be hopeless, Sunburst,” replied Starlight. “I’m sure that as long as we’re optimistic, we’re sure to get this thing up and running in no time! Plus, you don’t know what would happen next.”

“Be my guest then.”

“Okay. ‘Step one: Look for film frames.’ Film frames…” Starlight looked for some more tools that could help them convert the video into film. “Now I’m sure they had it somewhere…”

“Had what?” asked Spike.

“I think there were some film frames Celestia had at the time before she and Luna retired.”

“Did they?” asked Sunburst. “How do you know?”

“Something one of the new ponies told me when they rummaged through the rooms.” Then, after a minute of searching, she found a large roll of frames inside one of the cabinets. “A-ha! Here they are!” Starlight placed the frames next to the projector.

“Okay, so now what?” said Spike. “We’ve got those, so what’s the next thing to do?”

Starlight read aloud from the instructions. “Step two: print out the frames into the tape.”

“Printers,” said Sunburst. “Do we have one?”

“Beats me,” replied Starlight.

“Wait!” Spike snapped his fingers. “I think there’s one in the library!”

“The library?” replied Sunburst.

“Yeah. All the good stuff is there, especially books.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” said Starlight. “Let’s go!”

The three managed to reach the library, carrying all the things they needed inside a large box. They arrived at an old but functioning printer.

“So what’s the plan here, Starlight?” asked Sunburst. “You’ve got the instructions, right?”

“The instructions did say to print them,” replied Starlight. “But how?”

“Oh, well. We tried.” Spike was about to leave the library when Starlight captured him with her magic.

“No one is leaving this room until we can find a way to get this onto this,” Starlight said sternly.

Sunburst looked through both the phone and the printer to see what and how converting the video into the roll could be done. He then remembered that Pipp had a cord connected to her phone at the time of her arrival. “Ah! Guys, I’ll be right back!” And he stormed off.

“What was that all about?” said Spike.

“Oh, I have no idea,” replied Starlight.

Sunburst came back using teleportation, startling Starlight and Spike.

“Whoa!” they both cried.

“Sorry about that, you two,” Sunburst apologized, “but I think they’ve had something that could help us at the time of their arrival.”

“And that is…?” Spike questioned.

“This.” Sunburst took out what resembled a USB cable. He connected it to both the phone and the printer.

“Oh, ho, ho,” Starlight chuckled. “When did you get so smart, Sunburst?”

“What are you talking about?” Sunburst laughed. “I’ve always been smart.”

The phone then displayed a message about the video file, which showed about printing it onto the frames. “Ah, this must be it,” said Starlight. “Click ‘confirm’, and let it do the rest.”

Starlight pressed the “confirm” button with her hoof and then the printer showed the progress of the printing of the video onto the roll. The printer began to shake and vibrate, as it had never endured a file from the distant future. But neither Starlight, Sunburst, nor Spike lost hope and placed their bets on the finished product.

Come on… Starlight said to herself.

Ding!

The final product of the film slid out from inside the printer and out into the table. The three took a glance at it.

“Okay, good,” muttered Starlight as she looked through the frames; all of which were complete with the video file. “Alright! We did it! Hoof-bumps, everyone!” The three took the hoof bumps simultaneously.

“Now with this finished,” Sunburst added, “we’ve gotta take it out and show everyone in Equestria that Grogar is real! Along with that other assistant of his.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot about him!” Starlight groaned in frustration. “Whatever, we’ve also got him on the video, so that should help us at the very least then.”

“Speaking of whom, what is he doing right now?”

Not too far away from Ponyville, Sprout was wrapping up his cranking of a machine that resembled the vehicle he used to operate back in his world.

“And now, to show Grogar and the ponies how powerful I really am.” Then he began cackling before closing the hatch leading to the vehicle.

Author's Note

Sorry for any mistakes in this. I've been losing interest in writing stories on this site. :twilightoops: Here's some things I'd also like to say.

Since Griffonstone is the destination, I thought it'd be cool to write Gilda in, since she's one of the griffons we know in the show.
If you didn't know, yes, you could convert a digital file into a film reel. It was a challenge to see if it was possible, but thankfully, it was. If it wasn't, then I wouldn't have known what to do with this chapter.
We barely heard anything from Sprout for some time, so I knew I had to rewrite him back into the story. Because if I didn't, then what was his purpose?

Alright, with that out of the way, I'd like to say good luck to the future writers who are willing to wrap up the story, because we are so nearly there now!

Special thanks to The_Ind1e_Us3r for writing this chapter!

Guys, we still need help. The story is getting close to conclusion, but it still needs a few more people to successfully make it happen. If you have even the slightest interest in helping out, it would be very much appreciated. Please let me know if you would like to help! Thank you again for your patience, sorry this one took me a bit to get out.

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Chapter 10 - Visharo

Hitch, Applejack, Gusty, StarSong, and Bon Bon trotted back to Canterlot, their job done. The bell fragment packaged safely in Applejack’s saddlebags. StarSong was trying to comfort herself by humming a little melody, but from her sour expression, it didn’t look like it was working. Bon Bon also looked depressed, her treasured coat was splattered in with mud and snow and was whimpering as she tried, fruitlessly, to get it off her fur. As for Hitch, he was trying to look upbeat, but he never had to trot so much, he looked like he could use a nap. Applejack sympathised, but she worked on a farm, that and all the adventuring she’s done, she was practically built for stuff like this.

“Are we there yet?” Gusty complained, the job was done so there was nothing but to complain. Her impatience finally shining through.

“Sugarcube, we ain’t close at all. Ya just have to keep on walkin’ like the rest of us.” Applejack scolded the older pony. She got a sigh in response.

***

Sunny, Twilight, Misty, Twilight Two, Bright Eyes, and Gilda were heading towards Griffonstone, the location of the second bell fragment.

Twilight Two still looked mad at being called Twilight Two. Misty was hanging back, looking around shiftily as if she were expecting an attack from somewhere. Gilda was flying up ahead, saying that ‘ponies are still boring, no matter which dimension.” Twilight, Sunny, and Bright Eyes were in a deep conversation about Grogar and his bell.

“So, what’s so special about Grogar’s bell? What does it do?” Bright Eyes asked, her eyes shimmering at the prospect of learning something new.

“Doesn’t it steal magic?” Sunny questioned, recalling some of her dad’s research.

“It does more then steal magic, unfortunately. It consumes all magic, no matter what, and then it can redirect that stolen magic to the wielder. It is quite painful I am told and a fate worse then death, because not only would you be out of magic, you wouldn’t be yourself. Your very identity, gone and then given to someone else.” Twilight Sparkle answered, the mood suddenly dropped. Those who were listening, which was everybody except Gilda, started looking anxious and fidgeted around a bit.

“Do not worry, my little ponies, I have confidence in our friendship.” Twilight tried to harness her mentor’s ability to diffuse the situation, but form their looks, it didn’t work.

***

The third group rocketed through Equestria at super sonic speeds, heading who knows where, scaring creatures at every corner. This group was not decided by Twilight, much to her dismay, but the six of them chose each other the moment she started forming groups.

Pinkie Pie and Surprise were at the lead with manic grins. Patch was close behind, leaving Pinkie Pie and Izzy at the back, wearing smiles but exhausted ones.

“Why do they have to be so fast? These speeds shouldn’t be normal!” Pinkie Pie galloped with all that she was worth.

“I know…huff…but their luminescence are shining so bright right now!” Izzy giggled which spluttered into heaving. Her lungs were not having a good times right now.

“I don’t know what that means. Also, what did Twilight say about clones?” Pinkie was talking about when a third Pinkie popped out of nowhere that looked exactly like this world’s Pinkie. Pinkie was confused.

“No idea!”

Meanwhile at the front of the group.

“Oh my gosh, you didn’t tell me you had a twin sister!” Surprise waved her hooves at the Pinkie clone, her wings buzzing at hyper levels to keep their tempo.

“I don’t!”
“I don’t!”

“Well, that’s not confusing.”

***

Applejack, Starlight, Sweetheart, Scootaloo, Cheerilee, and Rarity took off, heading towards the Crystal Empire after getting a letter from Princess Cadance. In her letter, she said that the bell fragment hit the Crystal Heart out of the dias, causing the shield to slip and letting the storm inside. They havent had time to do anything about since she and Shining Armor had to cast the shield spell before the empire was swallowed by the North again.

Rarity and Starlight walked at the front, trying to plan out their approach.

“Okay, Rarity, since this is your world, what can you tell me about the Crystal Empire?” Starlight asked, wanting to know what was in store for them. Behind them there was a crash and the two looked back to see Applejack face down in the dirt and Scootaloo laughing up the storm. Sweetheart went to comfort the mare while Cheerilee immediately went to scolding her younger sister.

“Mmm, that could be a problem.” Rarity mused before turning back to the earth pony. “Darling, the Crystal Empire is magnificent! Truly a splendor! The sights wiil leave you breathless. Although, now it would be just snowy and cold.”

“Should’ve packed something then.”

“Not to worry! We’ll just visit Manehatten and get some clothes at my boutique! I made the them myself.” Rarity giggled modestly.

***

The fifth team was comprised completely out of flyers due to news of a bell fragment being in Cloudsdale. Cloud Kicker burst through Canterlot doors demanding they send helpd because an object had caused the clouds go haywire, attacking innocent ponies and creating crazy weather patterns. The Weather Factory was taking the hit the hardest.

Rainbow Dash took off with Firefly at her heels. Zipp and Pipp quickly flew after them, determined not to be left behind. Well, Zipp was, Pipp was worrying too much about how the winds might mess with her mane.

“Wow, I’m impressed. You guys are pretty fast.” Rainbow said smugly, glancing back at Firefly and Zipp. “What about her, should we worry about her?” Pipp on the other hand was flying as fast as she could while simultaneously trying to keep her mane in its state.

“Nah, she’ll be fine.” Zipp was in awe. She heard all about the legendary Rainbow Dash from Sunny and how she was considered to be the fastest flier in all of Equestria, fast enough to do a Sonic Rainboom.

“You’re not bad yourself.” Firefly grinned, daring to poke at the bear.

“Not bad!? I’m awesome!”

“Awesome you say? Do you want to race?”

“Prepare to be left in the dust.” The two mares grinned feral at each other before disappearing in a blur. Colorful contrails were left by both. The winds that buffeted from their wings was enough to catch Zipp unawares and threw her against Pipp, causing both sisters to fall out of the sky before they righted themselves just in time.

“Ugh, ZIPP! MY MANE!” The younger pegasus looked ready to blow her sister into next week but Zipp was already flying ahead.

“Come on, Pipp! They’re already far ahead!”

***

The sixth and last group was the largest due to the fact that reports say that the last shard fell into the Everfree Forest and having a small group would be unwise.

Glory, Posey, Melody, Clover, Toola Roola, Rainbow Dash, Sweetie Belle, and Fluttershy stepped over the line and into the dark forest. Toola Roola was clutching Rainbow Dash incredibly tight, whimpering every so often. Clover was quielty weeping while Glory and Posey tried comforting her. Fluttershy was left to lead with Melody and Sweetie Belle by her side.

“I…I don’t like this.” Toola’s quivering voice rang out. The echoing elicited another squeak of fear.

“We’ve got this, right Fluttershy?” Glory asked, her eyes flashing with some hidden meaning.

“Rig…right, we’ve got this.” Fluttershy has had many trials over the years and her friends slowly got her out of her shell and got her more confident, but this was something altogether. She had no idea who these ponies were and she was back in the Everfree forest for Celestia’s sake! She felt like curling up into a ball, but she couldn’t. She had a job to do. She took a step, and then another, and soon enough, they were deep in the forest.

***

Starlight, Sunburst, and Spike were wrestling with the supposed projector. The films weren’t going in no matter what they did, it infuriated Starlight to no end. It got the point where Sunburst and Spike had to physically restrain but it wasn’t enough and before they knew it, the thing was on fire.

“Serves it right.” Starlight scoffed and attempted to trot away before suddenly realizing what she jad just done. “Oh no! What are we going to do now?”

There was an awkward pause but then Spike spoke up. “What about the projector spell? Twilight used it once before Countess Coloratura’s concert. Did she teach you that one?”

“Oh Spike, you’re a genius!” Starlight immediately brightened and dragged the two guys back to the announcement balcony. “Take it away Spike, we’ll handle the spell.”

The dragon waddled off while Starlight and Sunburst committed the video to memory and then waited for their queue. It didn’t take long and soon enough the whole video played out on the wall. The audience was quiet, then erupted into angry shouting.

Half of them were clamoring to get back to their homes and families, prepare for the oncoming doomsday while the other half were claiming it was a fabrication. There was shoving and several creature had fallen, vegetables and fruits were thrown, there was even a stallion who lit a bottle of cider on fire and threw it. It would have exploded if not for Sunburst.

Starlight was at her wits end and was about to blast them all into silence but then she noticed that the temperature had fallen slightly. She looked up and saw clouds were gathering and snowflakes had started fall.

“Nooooo, not again!”

***

In some undisclosed location, something was happening. Grogar was bellowing from pain and power. He was so close to finding the first of the pieces of the bell before agony had struck him. He had found a cave for himself to hide out and prepared to weather the pain surges.

He had no idea what was happening or why it was so painful, but it felt right. An hour passed, then another, enough time had passed for Grogar to be lost, and then the pain stopped. He stood up, confused as to why nothing had happened. The more time passed, the angrier he got. This phantom or whatever had wasted his time. He prepared his magic to blast himself out of this cave just to make him feel better, before the sharpest pain he ever felt spasmed through his body.

When he came to, he realized that his body had changed. His blue coat was now more purple and his back bore two majestic wings. He even had a unicorn horn set in the middle of his ram horns. Looking inside of him, he found an abundance of alicorn fire and to his eternal surprise, the darkness that controlled him was now his to wield. He grinned evilly, perhaps he should thank these ponies for this gift with eternal balefire and and enough darkness to make eternal night a child’s dream.

With a boom that shook the mountain side, the cave he came out of crumbled under the onslaught of his power before he rose into the sky. Things were about to change and Grogar couldn’t wait.

Author's Note

Special thanks to Visharo for writing this chapter! And special thanks to all of you, amazing readers, for having the patience to bear with me as I try to get around only having access to this site once every week. I appreciate your cooperation more than words can say.

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Chapter 11 - Admiral Producer

It only took five more hours for all assigned groups to return to Canterlot with all shattered pieces of the Bell. They were all weary and exhausted and Twilight instructed them to retire to their chambers until it was time to reassemble the Bell using the Spell of Relic Constitution that was used on the Crystal Heart not too long ago.

When the next morning arrived and the Sun rose high into the sky, the ponies all met in the throne room, where Twilight was about to give instructions on what was to be done. Sunny was fangirling like mad over the idea of actually getting to see her idol perform this spell, and she begged the Princess of Friendship to let her help out.

Twilight reluctantly agreed, but only on the condition that the earth pony followed all instructions to a tea as anything could happen if the spell was to go wrong. There was no time for doubts, only action. If they pulled this off right, then they could restore the Bell and use it to defeat Grogar once and for all.

As the ponies all stood together in a massive crowd, Twilight faced them all and laid out the ground rules for how this spell was going to work. Her face was one of determination and confidence. Despite the looming threat of the ram on the horizon, she knew that they could do anything as a team. It didn’t matter how different they all were or what world they had come from. They were all in this together and had formed bonds unmatched by even the strongest of evil.

This mission had proved that.

“Alright,” Twilight spoke. “I have all the pieces of Grogar’s Bell right here. We’re going to reassemble it together. You may not be all unicorns, but there is one thing that unites you in magic. Your cutie marks. As I lead with the spell, you will all summon your innermost magic and charge it at the pieces.”

“Will it work?” Toola Roola asked from the back. “I didn’t even know my cutie mark contains magic.”

“Well it does,” answered Twilight firmly. “That magic comes from your inner being, part of the spectra that makes up who you are. All you have to do is think about what you are most passionate about for your cutie mark to glow.”

“Feel the magic flowing through you,” Sunny added. She was standing next to Hitch in the front of the line. “It’s easy, trust me.” She stepped towards the front and stopped right next to the purple alicorn, staring at her nervously. “Are we ready to start?”

Twilight nodded. “We are. Make sure to get into your Alicorn form. We’re going to start in a few seconds.”

Sunny nodded back and thought of how happy everypony would be once they returned home successfully to their timeline, which filled her entire being with warmth as she loved helping others. Her forehead and back began to glow, morphing into translucent yellow wings and horn.

“Everypony, get in rows of five.” Twilight ordered them. The other ponies did as they were told and separated into single-file groups as she faced the middle of the crowd. “Sunburst, the book, please.”

Sunburst passed her the spellbook using his magic. She caught it and motioned for him to walk up to the right of her as she needed his help as well. He did so, and she took a few deep breaths to calm her nervousness.

Everypony stood with trepidation and nervousness, for it was now or never. If this spell failed to work, then nothing would. Time was not on their side and they had to do this before Grogar found out about it. Twilight knew that if Grogar attacked again before they were ready, then they would be unprepared to deal with him.

Twilight levitated the pieces up into the air using her magic. “Prepare yourselves, everypony. Once we do this, there’s a good chance that Grogar will sense it and come for it.”

“But surely he would be preoccupied trying to find the other version of the Bell, right?” Sunny asked her.

“I wouldn’t be too sure.”

Sunny gulped with fear at that. Her mind raced as she realized just what she was getting herself into. It was an honor to stand alongside her idol, but at what cost would her wildest dream be?

Twilight turned towards her. “Sunny, I’m going to initiate the countdown. 5…”

Sunny nodded. “5.”

“This is a bad idea,” Sunburst warned, turning towards Clementine.

“We know it is. Keep going!” Twilight insisted.

“4…”

“4.”

“We need to abort now!” Sunburst shouted angrily.

“JUST DO IT!!” Twilight shot back with equal manner of anger in her voice. In her mind, they had gone too far to back out now.

“3…”

“3.”

“2…”

“2.”

“1…”

“1.”

Suddenly, Twilight’s eyes went wide and she clutched her temples, dark thoughts filling her mind. All at once, she was assaulted with a vision.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————-
First, she saw the entirety of Canterlot blow up in a massive burst of flames, burying everything within a thousand mile radius under a mountain of ash and smoke.

As the dust settled, she heard the sound of footsteps. A blue ram with red eyes and a greying mane and tail walked slowly towards the wreckage, a look of pure anger on his face.

He stopped at the explosion, sniffing around. Twilight felt her heart beat faster and faster. Yet, even when he was looking directly at her, he didn’t seem to notice her.

The scene abruptly shifted to a funeral and a flaming casket being burned. The deceased occupant was none other than Fluttershy. Around her was a crowd of ponies, all with their heads down. They all had shackles on their hooves like slaves, every one of them gathered in a circle around the funeral pyre.

Twilight was in the middle, tears streaming down her face as she stared at her dead friend, completely helpless to do anything against the old ram that was approaching the funeral site.

The scene shifted again to a fight in the Hollow Shades. Rainbow Dash was fighting the ram from earlier in hoof-to hoof combat. With a yell, the ram viciously stabbed her through the heart. As the blue pegasus fell to the floor bleeding, the scene shifted again.

This time, it was in the ruins of the Crystal Brighthouse. The Unity Crystals were on the floor, shattered into a million pieces. Sunny was holding the burnt, dead body of Hitch. She was crying, tears of anger and pain streaming down her face as the ram slowly approached her.

He placed a gentle hoof around the earth pony, the sobs turning into subdued breaths as a look of anger overcame her.

The scene shifted one last time to Sunny hovering above the ruins of Maretime Bay in her alicorn form, with an army of hellhounds and other demonic creatures, holding the severed head of Zipp Storm, her eyes now a pupiless red.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Twilight gasped as the vision abruptly ended, the thoughts still coursing through her head like a river flowing through a creek. She took a few shaky breaths to calm herself as she attempted to process what she had just seen.

“Twilight?” She heard Sunny ask from where she was. It was clear that the younger pony was waiting for the signal to go. No way were they going to proceed with it now.

The alicorn shook her head. “No…”

Unfortunately, Sunny seemed to take it as an affirmative, repeating it as “go.” Starlight and the unicorns reacted in an instant, their horns lighting up one by one with arcane magic and shooting blasts at the assembled pieces.

Twilight sighed and shot a blast of her own into the magic bubble. Sunny did the same, followed by Sunburst. The pieces shook and trembled under the combined power of the unicorns, slowly moving closer and closer together.

That was when the rest of the ponies’ cutie marks activated and magic shot out of them and at the pieces of the Bell, causing the magic bubble to grow bigger and bigger. The room was lit up by the colors of the rainbow, beams of all colors imaginable illuminating it and the surrounding area.

Sunny and Twilight’s foreheads were sweating as they gritted their teeth, struggling to maintain control on the spell. The pieces shook and shook with greater intensity until there was a blinding flash of light and all three of them fell back on their haunches.

The Bell’s remains were pulsating with a blinding, pulsating white light as they slowly pieced themselves back together one by one, reassembling themselves. Twilight covered her eyes as the light got brighter and brighter as they crackled with electricity and power from all of the ponies present.

Sunny’s mouth opened in shock upon seeing this. As the Bell finished reassembling itself, it shook once more before the light dimmed and it fell to the ground with Sunburst managing to catch it in time.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then, the ponies began to hear a loud vibration sound and the sound of a mysterious voice coming from the Bell saying:

“The future has taken root in the present.”

“GET DOWN!!!” Sunny screamed, her eyes going wide.

Before they could all blink, a blast of rainbow magic shot upwards, breaking right through the ceiling. They all looked up at the destroyed ceiling, all knowing the deed had been done.

Outside, everypony could see what was going on. As the citizens talked amongst themselves worriedly, the shockwaves from the explosion cascaded throughout the land in every direction, the sound of the crackling magic being carried along with it.

The shockwaves reached a cave in the EverFree Forest, with none other than Grogar himself picking up on it. He smiled sinisterly as he realized what had just happened. Those foolish ponies had restored his Bell, and he was coming back for it.

“So begins the end…” he stated, grinning from ear to ear.

Author's Note

Well, I finally did it. I would like to sincerely apologize for having you and everyone else wait so long for my chapter, but life ended up getting in the way. Plus, I got my video to worry about and the ever-changing release dates for this bad boy. But it’s finally here and you might have noticed some references to Zack Snyder’s Justice League thrown in there. It’s my favorite movie of all time, so I couldn’t resist upping the stakes by teasing a “Knightmare” future where Grogar rampages throughout the multiverse and turns Sunny evil.

Yeah, evil Sunny seems to be something I’m doing a lot now, huh? Well, I had to resurrect Zack’s Justice League sequel plans somehow. Whether or not you (referring to bookhorse125) take these ideas up for a potential future sequel is up to you, but I’m just laying the groundwork here in case this interests you in any way. Again, sorry I took so long on this. I promise I won’t take this long again. I’ll have more time once my video is posted.

Thanks for having me on again! :pinkiehappy:

Special thanks to Admiral Producer for writing this chapter! And special thanks to you, the reader, for having superb patience. I really appreciate you working with me here! Enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 12 - Starcoder

A young unicorn skipped along the roads, her green and pink mane blowing in the wind, just like the leaves on her cutie mark did.

Despite how she acted on the outside, she knew she lived in a world of horror, that the place of Equestria was filled with monsters and dangers. An old song based on a tale she loved went, “The Fire of Friendship lives in our hearts.” But what did the Fire of Friendship really mean if it was discovered by fearing monsters? Did everything have a dark side? Did she have a dark side?

I only wish she did.

She was a curious young mare, with a hatred for all things evil in the world. She didn’t realize, though, that the drive she had was going to lead to her becoming such a recognized pony. And for what the monsters thought was nothing but bad for them.

She ignored the fact that she was hated by many, the fact that the ones who didn’t hate her didn’t even notice her at all. She didn’t care if she had only a few days left to live. She was going to make the most of it.

She was a tough mare, that one. She hated me for all my worth, and she equally hated my beloved Bewitching Bell. It held much of my own magic, including a spell that meant it could not be destroyed.

Years ago, she stole the bell from me, hiding it at the top of Mount Everhoof, the tallest mountain in this cursed place. When I finally discovered it, I was distraught. First, I’d finally learned that my old nemesis was far stronger than I’d like to ever admit. Second, she placed a shield that was also stronger than what I could bear to destroy. With her strong wind magic, she cast a spell that caused the bell to be hidden by lots of snow and strong winds.

And so there the bell remained, at the top, where it was impossible for most feeble creatures to reach.

And so in peace Equestria forever remained. In peace my nemesis rested. And in peace, and sometimes exhaustion from trying to break free, I will forever lay. One day, I hope someone will find and free me.

One day, I hope some almighty creature will destroy the Spirit of my nemesis, Gusty the Great.

“Wait, what?” Sunny stood up from where she was sitting, knocked out from the blow, and looked at her oldest friend, wondering what the hay he was talking about.

Hitch showed her the ancient-looking paper he held in his hooves. “I found it while we were searching for the shards of the bell. I don’t know if now is the right time to show it to you. Actually, I didn’t know if there would ever be a right time, but I figured—”

“No, no, no,” she interrupted. “Anytime would’ve worked. This is perfect! An account from the monster we’re facing himself. We have to show Twilight!”

Hitch smiled and followed his excited friend to find the face of a less enthralled pony. The Princess was crying, and neither of them had any idea why. They’d followed her instructions, lit up the sky with rainbows like the Crystal Brighthouse happened to do, and cast an amazingly powerful spell. So why was Princess Twilight Sparkle so sad about it all?

That was just what Sunny asked her.

Instead of getting a teary-eyed explanation, which she expected, Sunny received a yelling-at from the pony who taught her not to do this. Maybe it wasn’t to her directly, but it felt just as horrible. “We should never have done any of this! The fact that we continued with the idea was preposterous!”

“Twilight…?”

She cried, “It’s insane! Now the world is filled with chaos magic!”

“Technically,” a familiar and tiring voice rang out, “it’s not chaos magic. That’s my magic. Grogar’s is more of, say, Bewitching spells and such.”

“Discord,” Sunny said in a monotone voice, “just shut up.” His eyes widened, but he did follow Sunny’s instructions.

“And Twilight,” she said slowly, not sure how to console her own idol, “it’s alright. The good guys always win, no matter what it takes.”

They all watched as Twilight stood at the balcony, facing the crowds of ponies and beams of magic—Bewitching magic. “That’s in the stories, Sunny. This is real life.” Her voice was less harsh as she spoke. “While I appreciate your optimism, I can’t understand it right now. And…”

“And?” Normally, Sunny would’ve squealed at a compliment from Princess Twilight. But, as Twilight was implying, her cheerfulness wasn’t going to help them at all.

“Nothing. Just something I was thinking about. I saw something earlier, a vision. But I’m not sure what it’s supposed to mean,” she explained.

“Oh.”

They remained silent for a while, although the scene was filled with screams from those outside. “You know,” Sunny said, finally breaking the silence, “Hitch did find this account from Grogar. I don’t know if it’s supposed to help at all, but it’s worth a try, right?”

Twilight had no answer. She skimmed through the passage, her eyes filling with worry. “Can I… see that thing again… That high-tech future thing you have captured of Grogar and your friend?”

Sunny only nodded as she handed her phone to the Princess, the video Pipp had sent to them all displayed on it.

So many lines stuck out to Twilight. What would she do now?

“Sooo…” Starlight said, finally speaking up from the back of the room. “Do you think there are any more accounts? I mean, Grogar had to fill his time up with something, right?”

“He did fill his time up,” her alicorn friend answered. “He spent his time building machines, trying to escape from the prison Gusty the Great trapped him in. He’s got determination, that’s for sure. But that’s a bad thing in this case.”

They all stared.

“Do you think you should search for more?” Sunny asked Hitch in a whispery voice.

He shook his head. “No. I’m going to go try and stop Sprout.”

“You mean kill yourself,” she retaliated. “You saw those machines. You can’t do this, Hitch. And, remember what he said? ‘I’m coming back stronger?’ He was already strong enough when he destroyed my old home. With Grogar and powerful machines on his side, you’re going to—”

“Stop,” Twilight declared calmly. “Hitch, I’m sorry, but your friend here is right. The vision I saw earlier. It’s not that… It’s just… I don’t really think it’s a good idea, let alone the best.”

But when she turned, in tears, to face him, the sheriff was already gone.

Author's Note

I really hope that the line, "The good guys always win, no matter what it takes," will turn out to be true in this story. And I can't wait to see how amazingly the other authors are going to make it happen!

Special thanks to Starcoder for writing this chapter!

Guys, in just three weeks, I will be able to resume frequent activity on this site! I really cannot express how thankful I am to all of you for hanging in thus far, thank you so much!

I know that you just got a new chapter a couple days ago, but I don't know when I will be able to release this next, so I'm doing it now. Thanks again!

Chapter 13 - The Blue EM2

Queen Haven certainly felt things were back under control in Zephyr Heights.

After the experience of being branded a criminal by her own citizenry and imprisoned, followed by an escape across the wilds and finally helping to defeat Sprout and his big robot pony, Queen Haven certainly knew what a brush with the real world felt like. She still hadn't gotten all the mud out of her fur.

Luckily, the citizens had been more than understanding, and it seemed that something Zipp had said after the entire fiasco had turned out true. Upon getting the power to fly back, the pegasi had forgiven them, and had in fact welcomed them back into power. As she finished checking the settings on her throne and glanced around the familiar room, with the sun streaming back in through the windows, all seemed like it was back to normal.

Though there were two major reminders that things were different to before this all happened. The first was all the pegasi flying around- and sometimes into each other. Perhaps some form of air traffic control was required to prevent the growing numbers of air to air collisions. The second reminder came with her crown. Instead of the former blue gem that had been set into it (and which she had last seen in Maretime Bay), a purple one now sat in its place, another firm reminder of what had changed.

Not that she had much chance to perceive much change. She had left Pipp and Zipp in charge of the cleanup effort in Maretime Bay, and gone with Thunder and Zoom back to Zephyr Heights to start the long process of clearing up legislation to potentially welcome unicorn and earth pony visitors to their city.

She groaned as she felt her joints ache. Clearly all the running about of the last few days had taken a toll on her. That or age was finally catching up to her. She shook her head and glanced at a display. A news report displayed concerned messages from Pegasus Airways, a bulk aviation carrier. The founder feared that, with pegasi now able to fly, there would be no business for them.

Queen Haven got up from her throne and began to pace around the quiet room. The quietness was both comforting and threatening. Whilst the lack of sound allowed her a chance to more easily examine her own thoughts, the silence also reminded her of the absence of her daughters. Had the time truly come that they had fled the nest?

Speaking of Pipp and Zipp, they still weren't responding to messages on their phones. Odd. Then again, Maretime Bay and Bridlewood lacked C-Net towers, so it would make sense that coverage was poor at best. They may not have received the message, but she was certain they were in good hooves with the other three.

She looked at a portrait on the wall of the three of them. A pity three could not have been four, but Faust giveth, and Faust taketh away.

There was a knock at the door. "ENTER!"

A guard stepped through the door, and bowed so low his helmet scraped the floor. "Your Majesty," he said, "you have a unicorn who wishes to visit you."

"Show them in," Queen Haven replied.

The guard went out, and then brought the figure through before shutting the door behind him.

And the figure certainly was a familiar one. Alphabittle had even brought some things with him. "Hey, Merry," he said. "I brought flowers." And he had.

Queen Haven momentarily forgot the restraints of her office of state, and made her way over beaming with a large smile. "Alphy!" she said. "It's been too long!"

"It's only been a few hours at most!" the unicorn laughed, as he levitated the flowers out of the way to take the hug. "But still, the throne room certainly beats dodging war machines or being stuck in place with splatapault balls."

"Shall we head into the garden?" the Queen suggested. "It's a good deal more private, and it's easier to hide. We wouldn't want those nosey journalists finding out about us yet, would we?"

Alphabittle nodded. "Lead the way, Your Majesty."

A few minutes of walking brought them out in the garden, and they stopped by a waterfall to talk. "Nice to be able to do this without having to find random bushes and trees in Bridlewood to hide behind," Alphabittle joked. "Hiding a romance with another leader, let alone a pegasus, was pretty hard work back in those days."

"You weren't the only one," Queen Haven admitted. "Years of loneliness can rather do that to a pony. I should know, given the passage of time takes all those we love away from us."

Alphabittle nodded. "I know the feeling. It must've been tough having to be both a mom and a dad to them on top of all the Queen stuff."

"It was," the Queen sighed, looking up at the sky. "I can only hope he's truly in a better place now. And I still don't know if my girls are leaving home yet. I don't think I'm ready for the nest to be empty."

Alphabittle saw she was getting a bit emotional, and as such decided to change the topic. "You know, I'm not entirely sure why we didn't go public. It could have brought us back together much quicker."

Queen Haven sighed. "As much as I would have liked to, I couldn't. At least not then. The populace wouldn't have reacted well. Imagine the headline! Queen falls in love with enemy leader! They'd have cast me to the looney bin and found somepony else." She paused. "And even if you had gotten through that, you'd have my girls to contend with." Another pause was filled only with the rolling waterfall. "They still deeply miss their father, and I don't blame them. And another stallion rolling in after years of a single parent dynamic would naturally trigger concerns that a gold digger had arrived."

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion on the other side of the garden. "What was that?" Alphabittle asked.

Queen Haven dashed over to the other side, and her jaw dropped in surprise. "Good grief!"

A group of metal bipedal machines were advancing through the garden. The one at the front was larger than the others, and was carrying a bigger weapon. "Target spotted," it spoke. "Queen Haven. Engage."

The Queen dived into a bush as the area sounded to the hail of green energy fire which vaporised leaves and exploded things nearby.

Queen Haven activated her hidden distress beacon, before spotting Alphabittle charging in, his horn glowing.

The unicorn fired off a blast that slammed into one of the machines and bowled it over. "How'd you like that, huh?!"

The machine responded by suddenly getting back up. Another blast of energy roared towards Alphabittle, before Queen Haven dived out of her hiding place and knocked him out of the way.

"Thanks for the save!" Alphabittle responded.

"Saving you is getting to be a habit, Alphy," Queen Haven replied, before swinging back and bucking one of the machines into a tree.

The remaining machines began to focus fire as the duo focused their attacks.

"Thunder and Zoom on approach. Mark targets for bombing run."

"Light your horn and point!"

Alphabittle complied, with the glow visible from overhead.

"Marker sighted, preparing for drop."

Moments later two pegasi roared over, and a pair of improvised mortars fell from underneath them. They landed and exploded, blowing the remaining machines into pieces and leaving them scattered and confused.

The duo on the ground approached the wreckage as Thunder and Zoom touched down, looking at the scene before them. "Your Majesty, are you alright?" Thunder asked.

"We're fine," Queen Haven replied, as she stepped through the scene of destruction. She indicated to one of the machines, the larger one. "It's still functional."

Its head turned to her and looked. "We cannot be stopped," it said. "We are numberless. We blot out the sun. We are Legion. You cannot hope to stop us."

"We shall decide that," Queen Haven replied. "Take the unit away. Military intelligence will be able to decode this, I have no doubt."

As the two guards hauled the machine away, Alphabittle glanced at Queen Haven. "What were those? And how did they find us?"

"Those are questions that will have to wait," Queen Haven replied. "But I have never seen a threat like this before. If we are truly in danger like this, what other threats may await us out there?"

Suddenly, all sorts of bizarre sounds could be heard in the distance. "To the balcony!" the Queen said, as she set off at speed.

"Your stamina is pretty good for your age!" Alphabittle quipped.

"You're no spring chicken yourself!"

The scene before them soon killed any desire for jokes. Enormous siege works spread out down below.

As they watched, a series of large cannons began to glow an ominous and sickly red.

Author's Note

Long before it was made canon in The Jinxie Games, fans had long speculated that Alphabittle and Queen Haven were romantically involved (the first such stories appearing within days of the film's release). Seeing as the G5 components of this story occur shortly after the film, it felt fitting to pay tribute to that era of writing.

I also took the opportunity to move the struggle back to G5 Equestria as it allows us to focus on what the other characters are up to. With Zephyr Heights now under siege, can the city hold out?

Special thanks to The Blue EM2 for writing this chapter!

Great news, guys! School has started, and I can be on the site from Monday through Friday from 8 to 3! Thank you so much for bearing with my crazy schedule and sporadic appearances here all summer!

Chapter 14 - Visharo

The world was on fire.

Twilight Sparkle, alicorn and ruler of Equestria stood there helpless. Creatures were scattering in pure terror. Heroes of past, present, and future all looked to her for guidance, for some glimmer of hope. The healed bell lay at their hooves, dull and forgotten. Grogar in his new form laughed with glee, raining carnage. Mechanized ponies roamed the land, destroying homes and causing general chaos. On the horizon, in four different directions, cracks of blue light split the sky, depicting similar looking worlds on fire.

You failed.

Several of the heroes were crying, looking around in terror. Twilight, Posey, Sweetheart, Rainbow Dash, Starlight Glimmer, and Pipp were trying to comfort them, casting worried glances with each other.

Everycreature will die.

Glory and Rainbow Dash were both struggling to get out there and fight Grogar and those robots. Applejack was holding both of them down.

Grogar won.

Gusty, Starlight, Pinkie, Sunburst, and Zipp were huddled and talking low. They looked like they were trying come up with a plan. Meanwhile, Sunny and the rest of her friends were all looking at Twilight weird, and deservedly so. She failed them all.

Time to lie down.

“Twilight. Things look a bit dire, don’t they, darling?”
“Couldn’t agree more. Ah sure wouldn’t want to be out there.”
“Yepperooni! I’ll make sure to host a party for us later.”
“Right! When we kick their flanks to next millenia!”
“yay!”

Twilight looked up from her twisting thoughts and stared in the faces of her smiling friends. They didn’t look happy, yet their eyes and mouths said something else. And for a single split second, it was small, but it was exactly what she needed, Twilight felt hopeful.

“It’s just like all the other times, isn’t it?” She smiled, a warm feeling spreading all over her body.

“But of course, darling. Like we would let that beastly beast win.” Rarity flicked her hoof through her mane before striking a pose.

“Darn right it is. Time to give that Grogar a rodeo he won’t forget.” Applejack yeehawed, rose to her backhooves and pinwheeled her front ones.

“We’ll drop a giant cake on top of him! With extra dark chocolate!” Pinkie Pie cackled like dark chocolate was the most devious thing in the world.

“Yeah! And we’ll do all of that in ten seconds flat.” Rainbow Dash boasted with an incredibly smug grin, her wings buzzing keeping her aloft.

“I believe in us!” Fluttershy said with such determination, everypony looked at her surprise. She then noticed the attention and hid behind her mane once again.

“You’re right. You are totally right, girls! We got this!” The Princess of Friendship rose up and lifted her head up high. When she needed it most, her friends got her back. Now it was time for her to have Equestria’s back. “Listen up, everypony! Our enemy is Grogar and whoever is making those robots.”

“His name is Sprout.” Sunny interrupted, looking shy and apologetic that she just interrupted her hero. Twilight just smiled serenely and nodded to her.

“What we know is that Hitch went after him and I know that one pony can’t do it alone, so, I need volunteers to go after him and together, with the power of friendship, defeat Sprout and his robots.” Twilight paused, gathered her thoughts while she watched Zipp, Firefly, Patch, and Applejack moved up. “Right, I need to know what those blue rifts in the sky are and what they do. If they’re dangerous, I don’t want anypony trying to go in.” She looked into the eyes of everypony present, making sure they knew she was serious. “I need volunteers.” Surprise volunteered almost immediately. Scootaloo was next, Cheerilee sighed and volunteered too. Rarity and Izzy as well. “The last group will be mine. I’m going to face Grogar. I don’t expect many of you to come with me and that is perfectly okay, but any help will be helpful. Is that okay?”

There was a moment of silence in the room before everypony who was left took a single step forwards, determination in many different forms in every face. Terrified, hopeless, tired, anger, sad, happy, even indifferent. Twilight was taken aback and was touched. She smiled gratefully before spreading her wings and took off, straight towards the creature who caused this Tartarus on Equestria. Behind her, everypony charged with her. Flying, teleporting, bouncing, galloping, hovering, plants pulling ponies along. These were the heroes of past, present, and future. Gathered together to fight one being. It was poetic and beautiful if Twilight thought a lot about it.

***

Grogar spotted something on the horizon and looked up. To do so, he had to temporarily stop his carnage with his newly acquired alicorn fire. The world beneath him looked tiny from his swelled up perspective. He squinted to make out the figure but before he could get a good look, a purple blast him right in the face. The alicorn/ram hybrid stumbled backwards in shock more than anything.

Instinctually, Grogar puffed out his purple wings and spread them out wide and he snorted. His three horns sparked with hybrid magic. The world shook as Harmony was unbalanced. Discord, who was also following Twilight, collapsed onto the ground. His magic spasming, the unnatural and darkened chaos was too much for the draconaquus, leaving him incapacitated.

“Attack! Protect your fellow pony, give friendship when needed, and above all, do NOT lose hope!” Twilight gritted her teeth and blasted again.

The impassioned roar that resounded after her battle cry was so loud that Grogar had to step back again from shock.

Twilight got there first with her ability to teleport. She chanted “I wish, I wish, I wish…” and materialized on top of Grogar. A few problems with his unnatural ascension was the sensitivity. Being an alicorn was no joke and when a pony landed on top of his skull, it rattled his brain. The ram threw his head back, dislodging the unicorn and sending her flying. Pipp got to the screaming mare and caught her before anything bad could happen.

Sweetie Belle yelled out loud and put a sudden burst of magic to her horn. The beam unleashed was massive and devastating. Even Twilight had to marvel at the sheer power this unicorn had. Seeking her chance, the enraged Glory was up next and released a powerful blast of her own. With the combined might of two very angry unicorns, Grogar fell. His massive bulk crushing trees and cracking ground. But he wasn’t out.

The many, many earth ponies finally got close enough to start using their hooves. Without needing to talk, every earth pony lined up next to Grogar and prepare to buck. When Starlight counted to three, the resounding kick was heard all the way to Mount Aris. As for Grogar, he was sent to the otherside of the Canterhorn by nothing but anger and sheer earth pony might.

Twilight and co. charged after the ram, determined to end this once and for all. The alicorn looked back at the heroes and was surprised to see that the group nearly doubled in size. Some of her subjects had joined in, rallied by the fighting spirit of these strange looking ponies and Twilight’s actual participation in the eventual defeat of this monster. Equestria as a whole has faced too much to be scared of yet another monster.

Then everypony stopped when Grogar stood back up with nay but a scratch and glared at them. There was a collective gulp as everypony tried to calm themselves, force themselves to face this monster head on. Then the ram roared, fire spewing from his mouth, lighting up the fractured sky, creating an eerie landscape.

“My turn.”

Author's Note

The blue things are portals btw, portals to the other worlds/timelines. An explanation to the previous chapter. Good luck with the rest of the story! :)

Special thanks to Visharo for writing this chapter!

We're in the home stretch, guys! This story should be wrapping up in the next few chapters here. Any authors who still want to participate, post your ideas for an ending on the group chat or the Google Doc. Thanks to all who have participated thus far! And thanks to all the readers who have made this story possible!

Chapter 15 - Admiral Producer

“Shields, now!!” Twilight ordered using the Royal Canterlot Voice, her command reaching the entire army of ponies behind her.

Without missing a beat, the unicorns collectively nodded and threw up their shields as a torrent of fire rained down towards the ground. The many auras of magic combined together to generate a massive rainbow dome around the entire area. The flames hit the top, but were unable to penetrate it and soon sizzled into nothing.

Grogar roared and tried again, shooting one ball of fire after another. He screamed with unrelenting fury with each attempt, the sheer bravery of his combatants frustrating him further and further. He had never seen such defiance on a level like this before.

After the ninth attempt, the shield broke and he launched himself at the ponies, intending to crush them once and for all. The ponies scattered into several different directions as he hit the ground face first. He stood up, shaking the leaves and branches off of his face.

He roared and charged after the earth ponies, only to be met by a barrage of pegasi blocking his path. Led by Rainbow Dash, they held them back, grunting as he fought against them. He bucked and growled, eventually sending them tumbling through the sky.

“Clouds!!” Rainbow Dash commanded them.

The pegasi reacted and flew up to the skies, grabbing multiple clouds of different shapes and sizes, before hurling them at him as hard as they could. With each cloud that landed in his face, Grogar was momentarily blinded each time, allowing two herds of earth ponies to charge in and take turns bucking him across the field. He teleported away from them, only to be met by more unicorns.

A squad led by Minuette blasted him across the field, scorching the ground beneath him and setting it ablaze. Grogar was on his hooves in an instant once more as the unicorn squad charged at him again. Reacting quickly, he blasted them all back with a powerful beam of yellow magic, sending them flying in opposite directions and landing with a thud.

“You have exhausted my patience,” he seethed. “I offered you a chance to surrender. But know now, that even as I do this, this is me being reasonable.” His body shimmered with golden energy as he prepared to fire a lethal blast of energy.

However, just as he was about to do so, he was tackled from behind by Sunny in her alicorn form. She blasted a powerful beam of yellow magic at Grogar, but he anticipated her move and threw up a shield. He then proceeded to pick her up with his magic and throw her all the way across the field where she landed in the dirt.

Sunny groaned, her forehead beginning to bleed with the massive gash she had received upon impact. She gritted her teeth and pulled herself up, feeling an extreme amount of pain as she did so. She blinked back tears and launched herself at the demonic ram once again. The two engaged in a tustle on the ground, both trying to get the upper hand by beating each other up with their hooves.

She clawed at his face and in response, he grabbed her in a chokehold by the neck using his magic. She struggled and twisted in his grasp, only to be rewarded for her futile efforts by being thrown in the direction of the dirt once again.

She coughed out blood and stood on trembling hooves once again, now severely weakened from all the fighting.

“Son of a bitch…” she cursed.

Within seconds, he had her underneath his weight, hitting her over and over multiple times across the face. She cried out in pain as he did so, her pleas only making his sadistic smile grow wider. She screamed as she slowly felt herself slipping from consciousness. It was at this moment that Twilight reacted. Together with Misty, the two ponies pounced on Grogar, knocking him off the orange earth pony.

He snarled and threw Misty off him as the unicorn attempted to hit him back. She was sent barreling into Pipp and both of them toppled like dominos. Twilight then punched Grogar into the sky before flying up to meet him.

The two titans pummeled at each other, engaging in an all out aerial battle. Grogar levitated himself using his magic in order to keep himself from falling back down, all the while reading his hoof back to deliver a devastating blow. Twilight noticed this action and charged up her horn, emitting a pinkish yellow aura that she prepared to throw at him.

With a loud cry, she launched a beam just as Grogar launched his. The two beans collided, creating an explosion of energy that knocked them both out of the sky. As Twilight began to fall, she caught herself and flew down towards her opponent, landing on his chest and hitting him over and over until they both landed on the ground. Twilight skidded her hooves to avoid falling and then punched Grogar again.

The ram landed several feet away and opened his eyes, only to be met by a barrage of magic beams sent hurling his way by several unicorn citizens. It was then that Glory and Starlight ran up from behind with their attacks. Starlight's eyes were filled with anger as she sent a massive blast of magic hurling at Grogar, sending him flying for several miles.

She took a deep breath, only to see the ram reappear in front of her in an instant, hitting her across the neck. She felt her neck bone snap and she cried out as she caught in his grip. He then proceeded to blast a massive beam of magic at her chest. Starlight screamed as she was caught in the magical grip once again, now inches away from the ram’s face.

Grogar smiled. “Die with the knowledge that you tried.” It was then that he sent her flying several meters into the air. She screamed at the top of her lungs as she spiraled through the clouds. As the air became thinner and she began to suffocate, she thought she was going to die.

But it was right at that moment when Rainbow Dash rocketed into the sky after her faster than the speed of light. As she soared after the lavender unicorn, the air in front of her began morphing into a cone shape before it exploded into a Sonic Rainboom. With a rainbow contrail streaming behind her, she caught the panicked Starlight in her hooves as she flew back towards the ground. The rainbow ring expanded out behind them as they headed downwards.

As Dash landed, wings folding, Twilight disengaged with Grogar, who was still being distracted by the other unicorns, and ran up to see if her apprentice was okay.

“Starlight!!” Twilight cried. “Oh please be okay, please be okay, please be okay…”

That was when eyes fluttered open and she weakly croaked out: “T-Twilight?”

Twilight’s eyes were full of worry. “I’m here, Starlight! I’m here!” She turned towards Dash. “Put pressure on the wound, she’s bleeding out!”

Dash nodded, lowering her towards the ground and putting her hooves on the massive hole in the unicorn’s chest. All the while, Twilight kept shaking her head and pleaded for her not to die.

After a while, the bleeding stopped and Starlight looked up at her former mentor, coughing out tiny pools of blood as she did so. “T-Twilight…I-I think I’m d-done…”

“Yes, yes, you are done.” Twilight agreed. “You did well, you can rest. You can rest. Please…rest your voice.”

“N-no, T-Twilight, I-“

“What is it?” Twilight asked, her voice growing increasingly more panicked. “I’m here, Starlight. You can tell me.”

“I-I-I’m s-sorry f-for…” Starlight didn’t get to finish her sentence as that was the moment when her eyes rolled back and her head went limp in Rainbow Dash’s hooves, all the life having gone out of her.

Rainbow Dash immediately knew what had just happened and she hung her head low in despair, mourning for the unicorn she had once called a friend.

Twilight, however, wasn’t taking it well in the slightest. Upon feeling her former student again and realizing that the body was cold, her eyes went wide with horror. “No no…Starlight!!!!” She shrieked with grief and threw herself onto the unicorn’s lifeless corpse and sobbed relentlessly, feeling more helpless than she had ever felt in her whole life. “Don’t do this, Starlight! This is not okay! This is not okay! Please…” She shook with despair. Oh my student…no…”

Sunny and Misty came up from behind and saw what was going on, dropping to their knees in sadness. Tears streamed down their cheeks as they watched Twilight grieve the loss of the pony she practically called her own.

“Please, no…MY Starlight!!!!!” Twilight howled, collapsing to the ground and continuing to sob over and over. Sunny put her hoof around her idol, sharing in her grief. She let her own tears fall as well, which landed on Starlight's body, mixing in with the rapidly drying blood.

If only they had been there to help. This wasn’t supposed to happen. How could they let Starlight take on Grogar like that? Why would they let one of their friends die?

“You see what mess you have made, Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight looked up from the ground, her mane all covered in grass and leaves, her eyes still brimming with fresh tears. Grogar stepped towards her menacingly. He had already torn through the crowds of unicorns and many lay on the ground either injured or critically wounded. Some were even dead, their bodies impaled on the tips of magical javelins and spears that stuck out from the ground.

He flicked pieces of pony flesh and meat off him casually, his face contorting into one of mock pity. “You knew you couldn’t defeat me. That’s why you needed the help of these pathetic weaklings from different universes!! You risked your home, the lives of your friends, to fight me!! You really gonna take the coward’s way out now that your student is dead?”

Twilight punched at the ground, getting to her hooves. Her eyes were filled with a murderous fury. Her heart was now as black as stone. She felt nothing but anger and guilt. But most of all, she wanted to make that murderous scum of the earth pay for what he had done.

“Twilight, no-“ Misty began to warn her.

“No,” Twilight replied angrily, cutting both of her subordinates off. “I just want to kill you myself.”

Sunny, Misty, and Rainbow Dash gasped at the statement, never expecting to hear such words coming from their friend.

Grogar grinned maniacally. “‘Atta girl!!” He had her now, and there was nothing she could do about it now. At this point, it didn’t matter whether he lived or died. The whole world would now know how much of a fraud the Princess of Friendship was, having murdered her enemy in cold blood.

In the end, he had won.

Twilight launched herself at Grogar, pinning the ram onto the ground. With a loud yell, he blasted her back, but she got right back up again and before he could fire, she punched him several feet away. She teleported on top of him before he could even process what had just happened, proceeding to strike him across the face repeatedly. The more she kept at it, the stronger the blows got, the sheer force reverberating across the area.

Purple blood squirted out with each punch as the Father of Monsters realized he had met his match. He tried conjuring up his magic again, but before he could do so, he was grabbed in a pink chokehold and shaken violently before tossed onto the ground again like a rag doll. He grunted and got back up, feeling his energy rapidly depleting with all the fighting he had been doing.

From afar, Sweetie Belle and Gusty were watching the two go at each other with expressions of deep concern. They looked at one another and silently nodded, knowing what they had to do.

Twilight’s punches were getting even more intense. She struck at the top of Grogar’s head, severing his middle horn and sending it falling towards the ground next to him. Blood sprayed out from where it broke. He cried out in anguish as a feeling of intense pain enveloped his body. His once cocky expression morphed into one of great fear as the Princess of Friendship then blasted a beam of magic at him, severing his left horn. He screamed as she did so, before they were abruptly cut off when she lifted him up by the neck with her hooves, carrying him into the air. Tears of grief and anger streamed down her face.

Her horn emitting a purple and green, smoky aura, Twilight began conjuring up all of the dark magic she knew in order to finish the beast once and for all. She wanted to kill him. She wanted to tear him apart to pieces. She wanted him to feel the pain of several thousand ponies. As her pupils disappeared and her eyes turned completely green with smoke coming out of them, Grogar could not believe what he was seeing. This was the end.

“D-do it!!” Grogar yelled between chokes and gags. “Finish it, Twilight Sparkle!! KILL ME!!!!! AND SHOW YOUR SUBJECTS WHO YOU TRULY ARE!!!”

Meanwhile down below, Sunny witnessed what was going on and it was at that moment she knew that she couldn’t let her idol proceed with killing Grogar. The purple alicorn was on the brink of losing all grasp on reality and she couldn’t let that happen.

Without a second thought, she flew into the air and got in front of Twilight right as she was about to cast the potentially lethal spell. Seeing somepony else blocking her way, Twilight stopped the spell, her eyes still filled with rage. Sunny said nothing, only looking at her with a look of deep sadness.

Gradually, Twilight’s eyes returned to normal and she took a few deep breaths before her eyes went wide with terror upon realizing what she was about to do. The magical grip faded and Grogar dropped to the ground, landing face first in the dirt.

“Twilight, you can’t do this.” Sunny pleaded with her. “You know [Starlight] wouldn’t’ve wanted to see you do this.”

“But he-he killed her-“ Twilight started to say, tears welling up again.

“I know,” Sunny replied solemnly. “And I wish we didn’t let Starlight fight him. But…you’re the Princess of Friendship, the ruler of Equestria. You always knew how to find a better way no matter what, you…you inspired me.”

Twilight took a few more deep breaths and wiped her tears away. “You’re…you’re right, Sunny…I’m letting him win by doing this. This isn’t what she would’ve wanted…” She looked down at the evil ram below her. “If there’s one thing Starlight taught me…it’s that no creature is beyond redemption.”

The two alicorns slowly flew back down towards the ground, where they found Grogar currently trapped in a giant magic bubble made up of all the surviving unicorns. Gusty, Twilight, and Sweetie Belle were leading them, with Misty and Sunburst not too far behind.

Grogar shouted with rage and slammed himself against the bubble to no avail. He snarled upon seeing his two alicorn opponents come up to him.

Twilight was the first to speak. “You know, you nearly had me, Grogar. I’d imagine that killing you is what you ultimately wanted of me. You wanted me to finish you off in order to prove a sick point about friendship. But you failed. I’ll never turn to the dark side. I will not stoop to your level.”

“WHY NOT?!!” Grogar shrieked. “I KILLED YOUR PRECIOUS STARLIGHT!!!! YOU’LL NEVER BE ABLE TO SEE HER AGAIN!!!”

“True,” Twilight continued with hints of sadness in her voice. “But a future scholar of mine reminded me that I have a choice on how to respond. I can choose to let my anger drive me and become no better than you, or I can choose to rise above my grief and be the Princess she always knew I was, and respond with empathy, not rage. I think my answer is clear.” She turned her head to face Gusty. “Release him.”

Gusty looked confused. “But Twilight, he’ll-“

“It’s his choice, Gusty.” Twilight informed her. “We’re going to let him decide on his own.”

Gusty sighed and nodded to Twilight and Sweetie Belle. All at once, the unicorns terminated the spell and the magic bubble dissipated, allowing Grogar to step out and face them.

“We will never forgive, nor forget what you have done,” Twilight told him firmly. “But we’re giving you the opportunity to leave. You’ve been critically injured due to our attacks and your power has been depleted to the point where it’ll take you years to recover. The Bell is ours. But we’re still offering you a chance to live and reflect on what your actions.”

Grogar roared. “You can’t keep me away forever!!!!”

“No,” Sunny agreed. “But we can keep you away from our friends. The choice is yours.” At that moment, every single remaining pony from each generation gathered in a defensive position behind her and Twilight, determined expressions on their faces. It was a magical moment, the very day that her father dreamed of had come true in a way she never expected; all ponies had united together in friendship regardless of what universe they were from.

They were one.

Realizing that they were serious and too tired to go on, Grogar knew what option to take. Using his remaining strength, he conjured up a weak teleportation spell and vanished from sight without another word, disappearing to parts unknown.

Once he was gone, the ponies all breathed sighs of relief and hoof bumped each other, beaming with expressions of triumph and happiness. Many of them embraced one another and began to engage in excited chatter.

Amidst all the commotion, Twilight stared off into the distance solemnly. Sunny came up next to her. “What’s wrong, Twilight?”

Twilight looked back at her. “Oh, Sunny, I…”

“Am I bothering you? I’m sorry. I know you’re thinking about-“

“Starlight?” Twilight blinked back tears. “Yeah, I am. I feel like I failed her as a mentor by letting her die. I know I’m going to have to bury her.” She looked back off into the horizon. “And we just let one of the most dangerous creatures of all time go. With alicorn magic in his system to boot.”

Sunny nodded slowly. “Yeah, we did. But who knows? Maybe he’ll learn his lesson. I mean, the kindness we showed him was probably more than he ever got before in his life.”

“We’ll have to hope so.” Twilight replied. “All I know is, Equestria will have to be on high alert for his return. Whenever that is…”

“But are you sure you’ll be okay?” Sunny asked, her eyes still filled with deep concern.

“It’ll take me a while to process…” Twilight admitted. “Starlight meant a lot to me. She was practically my own daughter with how close we were…I’m going to miss her so much…”

“Well, at least you won’t have to go through that grief alone, right?” Sunny asked her, smiling slightly.

“No,” Twilight answered, smiling back. “No, I don’t. Now I have more friends to help me deal with it than I realized. I’ll be okay, I promise.” She ruffled Sunny’s mane playfully. “You remind me a lot of her. Thanks for snapping me out of my rage. Just like Starlight did, you taught me an important lesson. I needed that.”

“What are friends for?”

“It was exactly what I needed. Now I guess we can relax.”

“Yeah. Just as long there’s not this possibly bigger, other conflict we also have to worry about,” Sunny said jokingly. “That would be pretty lame.”

Twilight laughed. “Yeah, that certainly would be-“ Then her face changed as she realized what was still going on. “Oh my Celestia! Sprout!! Hitch is probably still holding him off!”

Sunny facehoofed. “I meant that as a figure of speech.”

Twilight ran up to the assembled ponies and addressed them. “Friends, it’s not over yet! We need to help Hitch stop Sprout from starting the robot apocalypse!”

With that, the ponies all galloped and trotted off into the distance with their final mission in mind. The day had not been won yet, but it would be soon.
———————————————————————————————————————————————
Deep within the darkest caves outside of Ponyville, Sprout Cloverleaf stood with his army of about a thousand robotic machines standing behind him. He had built the greatest army the world had ever seen and was about to show all those who had ever stood in his way what he was truly capable of.

The universe would soon know his name.

But right as he was about to activate his army and begin his long-awaited conquest, there was the sound of hoofsteps approaching behind him.

“Enjoying your little robot party, Sprout?” His ears pricked up, detecting the sound of a familiar voice. He knew who it was. It was the stallion who had always stood in his way, the pony who had robbed him of his rightful destiny.

He turned around, only to see Hitch standing behind him with a mischievous grin. “Well, it appears that we’ve gotten some neighborhood complaints.”

“Excuse me?!” Sprout demanded. “What are you doing here, Hitch?!”

Hitch smirked. “Party’s over, deputy.” Wasting no time, he reared his hood back and punched the red earth pony in the stomach, sending him flying back and barreling into about five robots, all of which collapsed on top of him in a pathetic heap of scrap metal.

Sprout threw the discarded robot parts off of him and snarled, getting back up to his hooves. “You will not steal my victory away again, Hitch!”

“Bring it on.” Hitch challenged him. “When we get back to Maretime Bay, you’re facing the death penalty.”

“So be it!” Sprout yelled and launched himself at Hitch, who quickly reacted. Stepping off to the side, Hitch watched as his former deputy unwittingly hurl himself straight into a wall headfirst.

“Oh wow. That was pathetic.” remarked Hitch, chuckling. “Fillies and gentlecolts, I present to you your new emperor!”

Upon recovering, he glared daggers at Hitch. “That’s not funny!!”

“Eh, I certainly thought it was.”

“Well then,” Sprout said, smiling devilishly. “You want to see something not funny?! Well then, I got just the thing for you.” He pulled out a remote device that was hidden in his mane and pressed the red button in the center. “Execute Order 66.”

Hitch cocked his head in confusion. “So you’re referencing Pony Wars now? I see.” But right as he said that, he noticed the robots were beginning to turn on. Their eyes glowed piercing red and they began to march in formation towards him.

“How do ya like funny now, sheriff?!” Sprout asked, grinning from ear to ear as he saw his former superior back away in fear.

“All hail Sprouticus! All hail Sprouticus! All hail Sprouticus! All hail Sprouticus!” The robots chanted in unison as they marched closer and closer towards him.

Hitch swallowed hard. “On second thought…maaaybe Sunny was right about the ‘killing myself’ part.”

The battle was on.

Author's Note

I’ve done it!! Yeah, this chapter got kinda dark in places, so you might want to change the rating a little bit. Also feel free to color code the ponies’ names for me as it kinda helps with knowing when either Twilight is talking, particularly near the end. And yes, I did kill Starlight because I wanted Grogar to be perceived more like a threat considering he’s barely done anything for a few chapters now. Plus, it does help raise the stakes a lot more. And the reason why I didn’t kill Grogar off is because I have my own plans for him in the Lunar Literary Universe that require him to survive the events of this story, due to it being a multiversal affair. Enjoy!

Special thanks to Admiral Producer for writing this chapter!

Ladies and gentlemen and readers of all ages, we are SO CLOSE to the end of this story. The final chapter is (literally) in sight. As always, I would like to thank every single one of you for either reading this story and giving it a chance or writing a chapter and helping to make this a reality. You all are the best.

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Chapter 16 - TheBlueEM2

Many miles away, an alarm suddenly began blaring on a bridge. This bridge belonged to a ship. And this ship floated in space above the void of reality Grogar had created.

A robotic machine looked as the display and checked a button. "Urgent message, sir!" they called.

And then the doors at the back of the room opened. Several machine stepped through the door and stopped in front of the main control panel, looking at the message.

The centre one of the machines was considerably more detailed and dramatic than the others, with golden and bronze plating to accentuate his existing colours. What looked like a crown sat atop his head, and he carried a metal and gold staff in his hand.

"Looks like the fools remembered to send the distress call after all," he said, smiling. "What was the location of the signal."

"One came from the world between worlds," the ship's navigator replied, looking at the display. "The other came from Equestria itself. These two positions are forces supplied with troops by us."

The centre machine nodded, his eyes glowing in the dimly lit light of the bridge which was otherwise illuminated by the sickly green light of the displays. "Indeed. This is our chance to finish what the others started. They may have challenged us in the past, but their poor usage and leadership of our assets leaves much to be desired. The Void Admiral will emerge victorious over his enemies." He stepped forward and punched a button on the display. "Prepare the fighters and the troop carriers for launch."

As this happened, the alarm shifted to a continous, high pitched tone backed by a buzzing sound. The sheer volume got the desired attention, and large numbers of the machines began to head for their designated zones. Spine like dropships sat in position, with machines stepping onboard in perfect precise movements and locking into place with magnetic clamps for the journey. Larger transporter were loaded with enormous vehicles of various functions, all to bring devastation to the enemy.

Finally, the fighers powered up, their crescent shaped hulls humming with glowing green energy as their engines rumbled into life. The pilots were already in place and ready for launch. The bay doors protecting them from outer space lifted back, and the craft took off for the void below and the battlefields of Equestria.

Back in the ship, the Void Admiral looked at his console. "Air reinforcements for Grogar, and ground ones for Sprout," he said. "They shall make their attacks, and then link up to reinforce the siege of Zephyr Heights." He looked to one of his ship crew. "Move the flotilla into bombardment position over Grogar's battlefield. Prepare the guns to fire on my order."

"Yes, Void Admiral," the operator replied, and the ships began to move to their indicated positions. The ships rumbled through space as huge numbers of transports and other craft moved about.

Victory was at hand. All that was needed was the troops to deliver it to them.

Hitch had barely any time to react before the room was lit up with energy weapons fire from the machines. He ran for it as quickly as he could, but it was no use.

"Good luck dodging all of this!" Sprout laughed, as he stood at the back.

Hitch jumped as best he could. "Really, Sprout?"

"If you're looking for a fair fight, you're doing it wrong!" Sprout replied. "KILL! KILL!"

Hitch ducked behind a rock to hide, but his luck could only hold for so long. He spotted another piece of cover before him, and dashed to it-

-only to get hit in the legs and fall to the ground. No sooner had he registered this, his world ended very suddenly.

Sprout raised his hoof. "CEASE FIRE!" He had a machine go forward to check the body.

"HITCH TERMINATED," the machine gruffly replied.

Sprout was pleased. He had finally done it. He had gotten rid of that awful sherriff that had ruined his life, and hopefully Grogar had destroyed his idiot friends as well. Now there was nothing standing in the way of his dreams of conquest.

A loud noise outside attracted his attention, and he and the machines went outside the cave to reveal huge numbers of dropships touching down, offloading combat machines and vehicles.

As he stopped, the tablet he had flickered into life, and the robotic face of the Admiral appeared on the screen. "You have done well so far, Sprout," he said. "Your new objective is to use these assets to march on and capture Zephyr Heights. The siege needs reinforcing. Expect air support within the next hour. High Command out."

Sprout nodded, seeing the enormous army positioned before him. There was nopony who could get in his way now. "ADVANCE!" he shouted. "DESTROY THEM!"

The dropships immediwtely started offloading their troops, and the troops onboard began to march in perfect unity towards their target. Behind them rumbled large machines. Multi legged walkers carried energy weapons slung below them, crackling with energy. Large slab sided monoliths hummed with otherworldly energy. Machines fitted with enormous cannons floated along, the weapons on the underside perfect for a siege.

There was no chance of the pegasi being able to counter such an army. Equestria was as good as his for the taking.

After a few hours march, the city came into view, flames and fire burning from it and holes punctured in its walls. Whilst the pegasi clearly were fighting back, it was obvious this was a losing battle. Sprout's troops marched into position to reinforce the existing besieging troops, and soon the bombardment began anew.

Sprout continued to watch from his throne as firepower continued to batter the once fine and beautiful city. He looked over to three hovering machines and moved his hoof forward. "Go into the city, and bring me back the head of the Queen."

The pilots nodded, and the three machines flew away into the darkness and smoke, to carry out their grusome mission.

Twilight looked about in confusion as loud humming sounded over the battlefield. "What the?" she asked. "I thought this was over! We've won!"

She was about to be proven very wrong. Large aircraft suddenly appeared in the skies and began blasting anything on the ground with their weapons and other tools of death. It was soon utter pandemonium, and the already tortured soil, torn up by hours of hard battle between magical adverseries, was once more being ripped apart by weapons fire. They were already exhausted, and somepony had somehow committed fresh troops to the battlefield.

Sunny looked in surprise as a single blast slammed into her, bouncing off her shield produced by her alicorn form. "This doesn't make any sense! We destroyed Grogar's forces!"

Moments later, a huge, slab sided monolith slammed into the ground, followed by many more. They activated in turn, their guns glowing and humming as they began to fire. Their front plates began to glow a sickly green colour. Out of them marched more machines into the battle, discharging their weapons into the foe.

Twilight saw her friends begin to fall, and realised their victory was undone. "RETREAT!" she shouted.

Ponies began to move in a shambles that only vaguely resembled a retreat as the previously victorious ponies were gunned down by firepower from the land and the sky. Twilight hid behind a rock and suddenly saw something flicker into life.

An image appeared before her. "Foolish ponies," said the figure, the Admiral himself. "You really didn't think I kept troops in reserve?"

Twilight gasped as she saw Rainbow Dash shot down, slamming into the ground at fatal speeds. "How? We defeated Grogar!"

"That foolish ram," the Admiral said. "He was merely a distraction, a threat to weaken all of you. The true rulers of the universe are awakening once more, and we can at last take command of this reality- as it was always meant to be."

Twilight realised what this meant. "Grogar called you in!"

"Precisely," the Admiral said. "If you mortals have a weakness, it's that you show mercy too often. If you had just killed him, you wouldn't be in this mess, would you?"

Twilight consulted her data pad as she saw their troop numbers had reduced to double digits. She saw pegasi, Zipp amongst them, be shot out of the sky by thunderous batteries. Gunfire roared across the battlefield, cutting troops down like wheat.

Twilight saw Sunny valiently hold the line, firing off energy beams as hard and fast as she could, but ultimately it proved to all be for naught. One of the massive machines trained its main gun on her, and obliterated her in a single flash of light.

Their victory was in vain. Starlight had died for nothing.

Wait... Starlight. Twilight suddenly had an idea. A way to fix this mess.

She focused her magic as the machines closed in, and before they fired she suddenly vanished into the cold void of space.

When the light had fully faded from her eyes, Twilight found herself outside a cave, not in a place she recognised. The world was different to what she had known. Even so, this was preferable to being on a battlefield being bombed flat. She stepped forward through the terrain, and notice the rock formation had carvings in it.

Each bore the inscription of a different cutie mark. She recognised most of them as belonging to those who had fought alongside her during this struggle.

Most of whom were dead now.

Twilight realised the providence of what this meant. This was the place from where they had been summoned to fight Grogar in the first place. And from what she had pieced together this place was supposed to serve as his prison.

His prison...

Twilight looked inside and heard voices from inside.

Grogar was inside the cave. And if he was in there, and not anywhere else, Twilight's plan had worked. She had been able to use the time travel spell to go backwards in time and return to the point where this timeline began.

Sometimes it is said that the only way to truly overcome a tragic event is to ensure it can never happen. This is what Twilight intended to do. She lit her horn, watching the energy build up as she prepared to unleash a truly gargantuan spell.

As she did so, memories of the journey she had gone on with the others flashed through her mind. Sunny, Rainbow Dash (the other Rainbow Dash, not the one from her timeline), Firefly, Patch, and even Gusty herself... she would never forget them, nor the sacrifices they had made to bring about this moment.

Once the spell had reached its apex, Twilight released it. A massive bolt of energy exploded from her horn and into the air, flying into the dark void and illuminating the hostile cave beyond with its power. Moments later it struck its target, and there was a massive bang.

Rock and rubble began to fall from the ceiling with intensity, smashing into the ground and producing a barrier that nothing could survive. As the interior of the cave collapsed in on itself, Twilight felt some relief. This was no longer a prison for that ram who had caused so much suffering.

It was his tomb.

As the last of the rockfall occurred and the landscape finished shifting, Twilight turned away, knowing her mission was done. Grogar could now never escape or harm the others, and her duty to protect her subjects was fulfilled.

As the world around her shifted as the new timeline took effect, Twilight felt herself be carried along by the winds of time back to her own reality.

True, her actions would mean that none of those she knew from the other dimensions would ever meet.

But wasn't preventing the pain and suffering of the war worth it?

Twilight Sparkle smiled as she saw Canterlot fade into view.

As far as she was concerned, all was good.

Author's Note

Being asked to write the penultimate chapter of the story was quite the honour, but also quite the challenge. A challenge I gladly accepted. The only question was how to suitably top the story we had so far?

The approach I chose to take, the ultimate erasure of the timeline, was taken from a Doctor Who episode, which frequently used rewriting the past to prevent disastrous outcomes as a plot device; Turn Left is an excellent example.

I would like to extend my hand and thank Bookhorse125 for inviting me to work on this project. It's been great fun being a part of MLP's 40th anniversary.

This is The Blue EM2, signing off!

Special thanks to The Blue EM2 for writing this epic chapter!

Whew! We're almost done! I think there will be one more chapter for this story to wrap things up, and then that will be it for this year. I'm going to take a little break to focus on my next project, which will be released early next year, but it's going to take some time. Also, chronologically, it takes place after Secrets of Starlight and all of Make Your Mark, so I have to wait for that to come out first...

Anyway, thanks to all of you for writing and reading this story along with me. You are the best.

Chapter 17 - Visharo

Ponyland, the place where it all started. The land of a generation long gone. Gusty the Great overlooked the country she loved with all of her heart. She would give her life to defend this place in a heartbeat and she has. She did give her life, didn’t she?

Her gaze went back onto the thriving community below. Ponies of all kinds mingled, exchanging gossip, goods, and pleasantries. A rainbow of colors blended together to create quite the visage. It was harmonious and it was beautiful.

Applejack, Surprise, Firefly, Glory, and Posey were all having fun outside of the castle, their giggles making their way to Gusty’s ears. She smiled which quickly turned to a frown when she noticed one of her friends was missing.

“Gusty? Twilight trotted up next to her. There she was.

“Yes?”

“I had a strange dream last night.” The unicorn looked a little disturbed, a forehoof dragging across the ground as if anxious. So she wasn’t the only one.

“Me too, but it’s okay. It’s just dreams.” Gusty tried for a smile. Twilight looked surprised and gave a confused look. “It’s just dreams, Twilight.”

“Alright…if you say so.” Twilight casted one last concerned look in her direction before teleporting off with a hint of, “I wish, I wish, I wish,” in the wind.

The remaining unicorn looked back down on her ponies. On a normal day, she would think this day insignificant, she would also call Twilight a scaredy pants for being scared of dreams. But, today was not normal. She knew this because it already happened, or, it was going to happen, or perhaps, history was rhyming once again.

From her vantage point, Gusty made out a white portal open up outside the castle, but before anypony could investigate what it was, it disappeared with a crackle. It was ominous, but it gave Gusty a huge wave of relief. Her ponies are safe.

***

Ponyland, the same place, yet entirely different. A place of another generation, but with the same values and creatures. Here, kindness and having fun reigns supreme. Instead of a large castle, the setting is one of a normal looking town with shops, houses, and even schools.

But nopony is at school at this hour, no, everypony is out and about, having fun. It was at this moment that Starlight, Sweetheart, Melody, Bright Eyes, Patch, Clover, and Bon Bon are having quite the lovely picnic. Lots of refreshments were spread out over the tarp, available for anypony who wishes to take something.

Starlight made sure that everypony got enough food before focusing on herself, that was what she did. But…she’s not doing it now. The mare tilted her head, somewhat confused. She’s been here, doing exactly what they were doing right now. Then a few more details leaked into her head and she went rigid.

“Are you alright?” Sweetheart, bless her, always trying to help.

“I’m fine.” Starlight tried for a smile. She wasn’t too sure it worked. “I’m fine, just…remembering a dream. Yes, that’s it. A not so nice dream.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No, no. Thank you, though.” Sweetheart beamed at the praise. The others who were looking at her with some concern, some more than others, went back to chatting after Starlight smiled softly. The smile turned more genuine when she saw her friends having fun.

But the dream persisted. It sat in the back of her head like an itch. Then, without any warning, a white portal appeared nearby. There were some reactions, especially from Patch who shouted excitedly. But before anypony could do anything, the portal dissipated and left no trace of it ever existing.

“Oh…that’s disappointing. “ Patch muttered, eyes cast low.

Starlight was too busy dealing with her joy and relief to comfort her fellow friends. The portal closed, it never happened, the dream will never become reality!

***

The land had no name, was there supposed to be a name? Ponies live here with content and their problems may seem miniscule, but they truly have major consequence if not resolved. However, the story does not take place in this country, it takes place in a small village.

Ponyville, not the one of of recent past, no, this Ponyville is a generation before. Today, the biggest celebration in pony history will happen right here, the Rainbow Celebration!

Princess Rarity has been preparing this one for who knows how long! Everypony was excited but not as much as Pinkie Pie and Scootaloo. At least, Pinkie was excited. Then she had a dream, a terrible dream. It was exciting at first, she was experiencing something new! A hyper-realistic dream.

Then it went sideways.

The fun became terrifying. Nature became upended, things left unsaid happened, the world turned black and red. The pink pony shook her head, enough with the dreams. She wanted to experience the festival and have fun!

She was prancing along when she stumbled into some of her other friends. Scootaloo, Cheerilee, StarSong, Sweetie Belle, and Toola Roola.

“Pinkie Pie!” They shouted. There, the six of them chatted away, munching on some of Sweetie’s cookies, and overall having a good time. Then, from out of nowhere, an earth pony bumped into Pinkie.

“Oh I’m so sorry, darling,” Rainbow Dash apologized. “Completely my fault, I…Pinkie Pie!”

Pinkie grinned. She was happy. All of her friends were here and safe. Safe. Where did that come from? She frowned, memories from the dream whirling through her head. Terrible ones. The happy chatter from her friends slowly faded away as it was replaced with screaming, roaring, and spell fire.

Then with a whoosh, a blue portal appeared.

“Ooh!!” exclaimed Toola Roola and made a bid for it, but before she could jump in, it disappeared. Cheerilee trotted over with a sigh and patted the disheartened earth pony.

As for Pinkie, she was back to being happy. She didn’t jump in! Happiness will remain in this town and nothing would ever ruin it.

***

The magical land of Equestria, ruled over by Princess Twilight Sparkle. Throughout the generations, this land was the most populated and the most harmonious, but in turn, it was also the most dangerous.

Twilight flew faster and faster. She went back in time to reset everything, make the apocalypse never happen in the first place. But time magic was finicky, she had no idea what the outcome would be. Did she actually save all of them?

She put on another burst of speed. Canterlot was speeding towards her and if she did not do something soon, she would crash. But, she wasn’t the Element of Magic for nothing. Despite being frantic and teetering on a panic attack, Twilight was able to cast a teleportation spell and landed inside the castle. Several guards flinched and readied their spears for an attack but then paused when they noticed who they were.

“Starlight!” Twilight all but yelled. “Has anypony seen Starlight!”

She galloped through the halls, asking and looking for her friend and protogé. From the corner of her eyes, she noticed some uneasy glances from the guards and staff, she even saw somepony mouth the word, ‘Twilighting’.

It was only when Raven Inkwell interrupted her with a polite cough. Twilight was unfortunate enough to get hit by it directly and was forced to look at her. Raven’s ‘cough’ has been honed by many years of being Celestia’s aide and now had the power to direct attention no matter how quiet.

“Your Highness, Starlight Glimmer is at the School of Friendship. She’s been there for the past year, teaching.”

“...right. Right!” Twilight grinned, some might even say crazily, before teleporting once again.

This time, she appeared in Ponyville. The quaint rustic village has been quite through a lot in the past ten years and has gotten several upgrades because of it. A crystal castle guarding over the town as well as a huge school that hosted several lessons and gave tutelage to many creatures. There was no bias and was open to all.

Twilight made a break for it. She abandoned all reason, forgoing teleportation and wings to gallop straight into the lion’s den. Several of her Ponyville friends waved or called out her name, she ignored them all.

Thank Celestia the doors were enchanted else they would’ve been ripped off its hinges when Twilight burst through them. She looked terrible, her mane and tail a mess, most of her regalia were missing, and her eyes looked a bit bloodshot. There were even hints of magic burnout evident on her horn. But it was all worth it.

Starlight Glimmer, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy looked at her like she’d gone crazy under the stress of ruling the kingdom. It didn’t matter. They were safe!

***

Equestria. It’s been a generation since it’s been seen last. It looked very different, some might not approve of what it looks like or what it represents, but it’s the present. It’s a gift that should not be taken for granted because the last one was better. This Equestria might not focus on friendship and harmony, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Sunny Starscout trotted up a hill far away from any of the pony civilizations. Her friends, Izzy Moonbow, Pipp Petals, Zipp Storm, Hitch Trailblazer, and her newest friend, Misty Brightdawn. They were following up on a lead Zipp had found in one of Argyle’s books and the journey had taken them to a cave.

They had to land the Marestream down the mountain because they couldn’t land it anywhere else and forced the ponies to travel by hoof. It had Sunny reflect on a certain dream she had.

It was a month ago and it had filled her with such dread. Maretime Bay no longer felt safe and she was seconds before galloping towards Hitch’s station when a giant blue portal opened up in the Crystal Brighthouse. Before anypony could figure out what to do, it disappeared. Normally, Sunny would’ve questioned what was happening, but she could only feel relief.

“We’re here!” Zipp called out, interrupting her thoughts.

Sunny looked up and saw a yawning cave mouth. She could feel the excitement flowing through her veins, she was at a spot her father had researched and searched but never found. She turned on her alicorn power so the glow would be able to light up the darkness and trotted forwards.

It took a while for her eyes to adjust but once the did, it was astonishing.

“Wow.”
“Nooo, I wish I could’ve recorded that!”

In front of them lay a carved out hollow with drawings on the walls. Beneath the drawings, there were some hints of spell fire and magical tampering, but Sunny was too focused on the drawings. Specifically the ones that depicted her and her friends’ cutie marks. As she expanded her glow so they were able to look at everything without much difficulty, the more impossible it became.

In the center, a carving of a beast more terrifying than anything else, but to the left and right were more depictions, one of a robot army and another one of a large construction in the sky. All three looked murderous, but the most disturbing thing was that those exact things had appeared in her dream.

“Sunny, look!” Zipp pointed at another picture, this one of a large group of ponies. To the right, she saw herself and her friends. To the left, there were other ponies, one group she recognized as Twilight and her friends, but the other three, she had no idea.

“What do you think it all means?” Hitch asked.

“I think…this was our past.”

Author's Note

HIIIIIIII, many thanks to bookhorse125 for hosting this project, it was a blast participating. I hope you like my finale, it was a bit tricky considering the last chapter, but I think I made it work. Have a happy new year!

Special thanks to Visharo for writing this stunning finale chapter!

Guys... wow. What a rush. This is... this is crazy. This is the first time I've ever done something like this, and I would like to thank every single author who contributed every single word of this incredible story. I would also like to thank every single reader who gave this story a chance and stuck with the story to the end. You all are amazing, and I appreciate you more than I can possibly say.

In other news... I am working on a very exciting project (I think) that will be releasing next year, so this is the last you'll see of me as far as posting stories and such. More information on that to come...

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Prologue - bookhorse125

It all started… he wasn’t even sure how long ago now. Just that it was very long ago, very far, and very tiring. So much had happened…

One of the downsides to getting trapped inside of a single realm for thousands of years was that you tend to forget things. You have trouble remembering what those other realms looked like, and what the ponies there were like… You have trouble picturing anything other than this small world that he was trapped in, despite the fact that he had been out there, had seen how big the multiverse was, had jumped from world to world, reality to reality, over and over again, so that he had seen more than these ponies would ever see.

And now… now it seemed unlikely that he would ever see any of it again.

He growled as he thrashed against his bindings, trying for the billionth time to free himself, but the magic held fast. And, for the billionth time, he cursed the name of that infernal unicorn who had dared to put him in this position. She had stolen his bell and used its magic to trap himself, who had been rendered powerless, in this inescapable prison before he could escape and jump to another world.

How could he have made such a careless mistake? He was the almighty Grogar, master of darkness, emperor of shadows, creator of monsters. He had been jumping worlds for as long as he could remember, and was well versed in the protocol. Get in. Assess this world for a bit, determining its strengths and weaknesses as well as any potential heroes or pesky ponies who might pose a problem. Create a new bell, dispose of those troublemakers, and take over the world. Easy. Soak in the relishing power for a while before somepony inevitably rose up against him. Defeat them, and if they defeated him, slip into a new world before they had the chance to trap him permanently.

He had to keep finding new worlds, even if he was pushed out of so many. Even if he had lost so many times, he had to keep going, to find a new place for the darkness to spread. Everywhere he went, he spread a little bit of darkness, and it inevitably had to stay behind when he left. That darkness would manifest itself in that world, creating monsters and spreading hatred and anger even when Grogar wasn’t there. It was the darkness’ nature, after all, and the reason he had to keep jumping around. The darkness always wanted more…

This was the price of power that he had to pay, but he had been more than willing to pay it. He was one of the most powerful creatures in all of existence, with abilities that no one else would ever possess, with power that most could only dream of!

But all of that could be taken away.

He could sense the darkness growing restless, being trapped here in this… this land of ponies for so long. What was it called again? After so many different worlds, he would lose count… Ah, yes. Equestria. That was what it was called. One of only a few lands that he had managed to conquer and hold on to for a while before he had to jump again…

The number of kingdoms that he had demolished and taken over were dishearteningly few for the amount of power that he had. There was Equestria, of course, and an old city called Tambelon, he believed, and a few others. He couldn’t stay for very long. If he did, the darkness would get angry that it had nothing to feed on, and would threaten to leave, and then where would he be? A powerless nobody trapped in a world that despised him and wouldn’t hesitate to destroy him. That was why he had to keep moving on, had to keep giving the darkness what it wanted, or suffer the consequences of failure.

There was only one other time that he had made this careless mistake - with Tambelon. It was one of the first cities and lands that he had conquered, and he was still getting used to the whole idea. He thought that, with the darkness on his side, he would be invincible. But those annoying ponies trapped him and the city he had conquered in a kind of netherworld, much like where he was now, unable to leave. But he was able to harness his anger and desire for revenge to create a new bell, and return to that land and wreak vengeance upon it. However, once again, he was defeated, but before he could get trapped again, he slipped away into another world.

Some of the worlds he let be - they were too pointless and lacked too much magic and importance for him to bother taking it over. Others were already destroyed, and the land was just now clawing its way up from the ashes, and there was no point in getting involved in those kinds of affairs.

When he came to Equestria, he was delighted. So much magic and power was thriving in this world, but the ponies that inhabited it didn’t realize their potential! Grogar took more than he had ever taken before, and his monsters and shadows roamed free across the land, doing what they did best. It seemed as if he had finally found a place that the darkness would be satisfied with, and that he would be able to hang on to.

But that cursed upstart unicorn Gusty had to come along and ruin everything. He hated her, hated all the ponies who helped her do it. But she was gone, and his quarrel was no longer with her… but with this world.

He couldn’t just leave and let this world, which had bested him, keep going on. He wasn’t going to let it think that it had won. It would be just like he had done with Tambelon - he would return once and make them think that he was still out there, still lurking in the shadows, waiting for a moment of weakness in which to attack. If he won, perfect! If he lost, he would move on, find a new world for the shadows to inhabit.

But that all depended on him being able to get out of this prison…

Grogar wasn’t sure where his prison was, but he did know that, while he couldn’t see anything, he was able to sense magic in itself. It was one of the abilities that the shadows gave him, and he used it to try and direct himself towards the worlds with the most magic. But magic had been very… strange the past few… years? Months? Whatever. It seemed to blink in and out of existence as fast as he was able to jump between worlds. It would be startlingly ripped away, before a magical blast would ring over the land and bring it back. It reminded him, in a way, of how he would take over Equestria and the other pony lands… and how he was always thwarted.

But his prison had been growing weaker, the bonds strained over time. He was so close to breaking free… so close to victory…

When suddenly everything was gone.

He gasped and lifted his head, and was startled to see, not darkness, as had been all that surrounded him for the past millennia, but a wall made of rock, the sheer size of it stretching up until it dissolved into shadows, and he could see no further.

The walls of rock belonged to a cave, which was almost completely empty except for a singular stone tablet sitting in the center, the granite surface carved with all kinds of symbols, some of which he recognized, some of which he didn’t. The floor of the cave was covered with… was that snow? A freezing wind blew through the cave, and Grogar shivered. It had been so long since he had last felt the cold… so long since he had last felt anything… all of it had been stolen from him…

He turned around and noticed the large exit from the cave, and snorted. He thought that these ponies would have thought that he would be able to eventually escape from the prison they forced him into. They should have come up with a backup defense mechanism… but, clearly, they were not as intelligent as he was. Sometimes he wondered how they were able to defeat him.

Laughing to himself, Grogar stepped out of the cave… and immediately ran into something.

He stumbled back, shaking his head to clear the nausea, and saw nothing but air where he had been met with an obstacle. He frowned, and carefully reached out until he felt something… something solid. But he could still see nothing except…

Where his hoof met the object, it sent out golden ripples, like an invisible-

An invisible shield.

Grogar groaned and rolled his eyes. If this was the best that they could come up with to try and keep him trapped here, then they were truly every bit as dumb as he thought they were.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and called upon his shadowy friends.

There was a screeching roar, and as his horns lit up, bright yellow crackling with black lightning, figures of shadows and beasts and monsters roared past him, summoned from the very essence of his being, and began pummeling at the shield, ripping out chunks of it, hitting it over and over again until it finally flickered a faint golden light… and disappeared.

A freezing wind roared into the cave, blasting the shadowy creatures to splinters, and Grogar raised his hoof to shield his eyes from the blast. The wind picked up flakes of snow and spun them around until they took the form of a pony standing in the cave, her pale coat rustling in the wind and her horn lit up.

Grogar’s breath caught in his throat. It was her. The cursed unicorn who had gotten him into this whole mess - the so-called Gusty the Great.

His horns lit up once again, and with a roar, he concentrated all his energy into a massive blast of energy that shook the room and caused rocks to fall from the ceiling, plummeting into the snow that was clustered on the ground. But the figure of Gusty remained the same, glitching a little, but not disappearing. He had suspected this. He had known that she couldn’t possibly still be alive, nor could any of her friends, but he couldn’t resist the chance to blast her and at least feel like he had more or less gotten his revenge.

He settled back, dousing his horns, frowning at the ghostly apparition. Shattering the shield around this place must have caused some sort of counterspell to appear, and he wanted to know what she might have done to keep him there so that he could guard against it.

The ghost of Gusty opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling of the cave. “I know it shall not last,” she said to herself, her voice echoing around the small space. “I know that you shall be free eventually - you are far too strong to be permanently restrained in such a way.”

Ah-hah, he thought smugly. Even she admits my immense power!

Gusty’s horn lit up brighter, burning away the shadows and filling the cave with a brilliant white light. “But I also know,” she said, her voice growing louder and stronger, gaining depth and volume like a hundred Gustys were speaking at the same time, growing so powerful that Grogar winced, even though this must have happened long ago, “that this land - that this universe is too vast for you to contain, and that you have made enemies along the way. I know what you have done, and I know that it is only by working together that we may permanently defeat you. And so I enchant this place so that, when you have broken free, it may summon heroes from across the stars and bring them here, to this place, so that they may unite and defeat you once and for all. And may these be my last words.”

The figure of Gusty turned around, and her piercing eyes met his and, even though he tried to tell himself that it wouldn’t be possible, she seemed to see him, to know where he was.

“I curse you, Grogar,” she said, her voice at the kind of powerful magnitude that it had been when she had trapped him in the first place. “I curse you that you may never leave this world again, that you shall be trapped here for all eternity, never able to leave, for you have done too much damage to be let free again. I curse you, that this shall forever be your prison.”

Her horn grew blindingly bright before it burst, and the figure of Gusty the Great was gone.

Grogar stared… before shaking himself and pushing those thoughts from his mind. Gust was long gone - she couldn’t curse him now. And she had nowhere near enough power to do so. Even the prison she had trapped him in had grown weak. There was nothing more that she could do - that any of them could do. Those so-called heroes that she had tried to summon from across the stars? Pah! He would deal with them. As he dealt with all of them.

Grogar shook his head and turned away, strutting out of the cave and calling the monsters and shadows he had left to thrive in this world to come to his aid, so that he may gain enough power to attack… and finally take what had always been rightfully his.

As soon as he left the cave, his hooves stepping outside of the boundary that had been once enclosed by the enchanted shield left by the pony who had created this place, the rough stone in the center of the cave suddenly lit up, each of the individual carvings and symbols glowing with a pulsing white light. Glowing cracks appeared in the stone, connecting each individual symbol and letter, and once they were all connected, the entire stone was encased in blinding light that shot into the sky in a massive column of power.

The light condensed into a shimmering orb before bursting into dozens of smaller orbs that drifted off across the night sky before vanishing into worlds unknown.

And so it began.

Author's Note

Aaand we're off! This is the start of the BIGGEST project I have EVER administered. Wow. This is... I have... so many feelings. I would first like to thank everyone who is helping with this, because without you, and without a couple dozen more of you, this project is never going to happen.

For those of you who would like to write a chapter and contribute to this project, please read this blog post with all of the details and contact me.

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Chapter 7 - Admiral Producer

It didn’t take long for our heroes to register that the bells had been shattered across all of Equestria. Grogar had vanished and was now going after the pieces of his bell, that much was certain. In the ensuing panic that followed, Twilight declared martial law and it was at this point that the formerly-doubting citizens finally believed her.

They had seen Grogar firsthoof and now it was undeniably clear that action had to be taken soon. As Twilight mulled over potential solutions with Spike back at Canterlot, it was decided that the twenty one other ponies from the other generations would have to stay with the citizens of Canterlot. Following Twilight’s federal mandate, Rarity helped make arrangements for each resident to house two of the newcomer ponies.

The citizens of Canterlot begrudgingly accepted the other ponies. They were initially hesitant as these “foreigners” looked nothing like them in any way, but they did so once it was made clear that anypony who did not comply with the mandate would be arrested.

Gael showed Sunny and her friends to their bedrooms. They would all stay in Celestia’s old suite and would have to sleep together. Izzy didn’t mind, of course. To her, anything worth doing was always worth doing with friends. Misty was also accommodated as she had no one else to stay with.

Needless to say, Zipp had some choice words for the blue unicorn once they were alone.

“I knew it!” Zipp shouted, pacing back and forth in front of the bed. “I knew it the whole time! I knew from the moment you didn’t know anything from Bridlewood that you couldn’t be trusted! You lied to me, you lied to Pipp, YOU LIED TO IZZY!!!”

Izzy sat in the corner solemnly, refusing to look at any of them.

“Please…let me explain-“ Misty tried.

“No!!” Zipp shot back. “How can we ever trust you again?! I gave you the benefit of the doubt so many times, denied my own instincts, let Izzy and Pipp stand up for you and this is how you repay us?!! Heck, at this point, how do we know that you’re not with Grogar?!!!”

Misty glared at her. “If I was with Grogar, I wouldn’t be here with you, now would I?!”

“THAT DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING, YOU BIT-“

“Zephyrina Storm!!!” Pipp scolded.

“Okay okay,” Sunny interjected. “Let’s try to approach this rationally.” She approached the timid unicorn slowly. “Misty, I’m willing to listen. Why were you with Opaline?”

Tears came to Misty’s eyes. She quickly wiped them as she didn’t want to seem weak in front of the Mane Five. “She found me when I was a filly and…she promised me that if I did what she told me to do…I would get my cutie mark…”

That was when Izzy turned her head to look at her. “You don’t have one?”

Misty shook her head. “No, I don’t…but it was all I ever wanted. I’m sorry, Izzy. I really am. You welcomed me with open hooves and I just…lied to you…”

Izzy got up, walking over slowly. “What else are you hiding, Misty…? You can tell me, I won’t judge you.”

Zipp scoffed indignantly.

Misty took a shaky breath. “My name isn’t Brightdawn, I’m the one who stole Sunny’s lantern, I tried to take Sparky, and I sent Zipp that picture of the Ocean Lily. I also never lived in Bridlewood. Are you happy now…?”

“So basically everything I accused you of was true,” Zipp said. “Yeah, checks out. I know now to never doubt my intuition again. And you are leaving at dawn! Nopony wants you here after what you did. I don’t care what reasons or sob story you have. You lied to all of us! You put us in danger, and all for what?! To get a cutie mark?!! A STUPID CUTIE MARK?!!!”

Misty looked down in shame.

“YOU TRIED TO KIDNAP SPARKY AND PUT PIPP AND I IN DANGER OF BEING TRAPPED IN A CAVE FOREVER!!!!” Zipp raged. “DO YOU REALIZE THAT IF WE DIED OF STARVATION IN THERE, ZEPHYR HEIGHTS WOULD’VE COLLAPSED WITHOUT THEIR PRINCESSES?!!!! DID YOU EVEN STOP TO THINK FOR ONE FLIPPING SECOND THE RAMIFICATIONS OF YOUR ACTIONS?!! TELL ME, DID YOU?!!!”

“Z-Zipp I-I d-didn’t-“

“DID YOU?!!! DID YOU?!!!!”

Misty was sobbing now, burying her face in her hooves as the reality of everything she did finally set in. She had broken the trust of the only ponies who ever truly loved her. The Mane Five never judged her or ordered her around. They never made her feel worthless. On the contrary, they welcomed her with open hooves and invited her to participate in their fun activities. They actually cared about her. They trusted her.

And she threw all that away.

“ZIPP!!!! THAT’S ENOUGH!!!!!” Izzy yelled at her friend.

Zipp was stunned into silence. “I-But she lied to you, Izzy. She put us all in danger multiple times!!”

“I don’t care, Zipp!!!!” Izzy shouted through tears of her own. “Misty’s had it rough already, can’t you give her a break?!! She did all this so she could feel valued and appreciated!!! That’s all she ever wanted, that’s all I ever wanted before I found all of you!! Do you really want to judge her for doing these things to us when any of us would’ve done the exact same thing if we were in her situation?!!! Even Sunny would’ve!!!!”

All eyes turned towards Sunny.

Sunny nodded slowly. “It’s true. The ponies of Maretime Bay don’t actually care about me or my causes….I’ve been mocked and belittled for my beliefs my entire life, never being able to share them with anyone. To tell you the truth, if you hadn’t comforted me there, Izzy…I would’ve fallen victim to Opaline’s grooming.”

“Opaline spoke to you…?” Misty asked.

Sunny nodded again. “She told me that the only way I could get ponies to listen to me was through being an alicorn. She wanted me to become like her. And I was so close to doing just that…”

Hitch came over to her. “Sunny…I had no idea-“

“Yes you did,” Sunny replied sternly. “I don’t blame you for thinking the way you did, but you saw how much unity with unicorns and pegasi meant to me. I told you about it for years. We played games and I told you stories about it from what my Dad told me. And you just dismissed it all as fantasy!! You never stuck up for me when Phyllis and the ponies mocked me at Canterlogic!! You even told me that if I didn’t stop fighting for what I believed in, you would stop being my friend!! Do you know how much that hurt me?!”

Hitch sighed. “I can only imagine. Listen Sunny…you have no idea how much I look back at those times with disgust, how many sleepless nights I experience just thinking about what would’ve happened if I never came around. Especially now. I should’ve listened to you. And my actions nearly resulted in Sprout causing a race war.”

“I don’t blame you for thinking that way as I said…” Sunny spoke with a shaky voice. “But it did hurt. It hurt a lot. And after what happened a couple months ago…I just can’t help but think. Am I even valued by anypony? Or is the Alicorn who everypony wants to see and not me…?”

Almost in an instant, she felt a hoof on her shoulder. She flinched, startled, and looked to see who the touch belonged to. It was Hitch’s. Then Izzy slowly walked up and lay hers down as well, followed by Zipp and Pipp walking over and doing the same as well. Finally, Misty came over and lay her hoof on Sunny’s other shoulder. They all looked at her with the same empathy, the same understanding, and the same determination. Sunny sniffled, finally smiling back as she realized her friends were still there for her no matter what.

They were her family.

Once the exchange was done, they each let go. With newfound resolve, Sunny walked over towards Misty, who was heading towards the door.

“Misty, wait!” Sunny called after her.

Misty turned, her right hoof on the doorknob. “Huh? Oh, I was just leaving now. Glad to see you’re feeling better!”

“Misty, no,” Sunny put a hoof out in friendship. “Stay. We still have a mission to take care of. We’ve got to find the pieces of that bell before Grogar does. I forgive you.”

Misty couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You-you do?”

Sunny nodded enthusiastically, followed by the others. Even Zipp nodded. “After hearing what we’ve all been through…I shouldn’t judge you too harshly, Misty. You did betray us, but…I think redemption is in store. We shouldn’t rule that out.”

Misty smiled back, her first genuine smile in a long time. “Thank you…I’ll do my best to help.”

Pipp smiled approvingly. “That’s why you’re one of us.”

“I gotta say,” Hitch piped up. “The search for a broken Bewitching Bell should be pretty easy.”
———————————————————————————————————————————————
The Arctic Wasteland
Southeast of the Crystal Empire….

“Or not…” Hitch finished.

A strong blizzard was blowing through the snowy wasteland. That morning, Twilight had assigned every pony involved in the search to get into teams of five. Hitch’s team consisted of himself, Applejack, Gusty, StarSong, and Bonbon.

Hitch and his teammates had elected to travel to the Arctic North to see if pieces of the bell had ended up there. He had decided this, thinking that it would be an easy task to search for a bell with magical properties.

Little did he know, this was not going to be an easy search in the slightest.

“How are we supposed to find Grogar’s bell in this blizzard?” Applejack demanded. “I reckon you got a plan, sheriff?”

Hitch gulped. “U-um yes. Indeed, I do. Follow me, everypony. And hold on to your scarves!!!”

Author's Note

Here you go!! This chapter was definitely on the feels side, but I wanted to get some character development with the Mane Five (and Misty) in before our fetch quest officially begins. This was fun to write. Let me know if you need my help with any more chapters in the future. I’m always open to helping with this story.

Special thanks to Admiral Producer for writing this chapter!

Hey, guys! Been a while. Sorry about that. But I have decided that, in the light of no one else volunteering, that we're just going to go back through the authors that have already contributed and see if they would like to do another chapter. Hopefully, that should result in some more consistent posts. I appreciate your patience. Thank you so much!

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!