Chapters Eighteen years ago…
Cozy Glow had attempted to use her learnings in friendship as a source of power in order to overthrow Princesses Celestia and Luna. She did so by getting advice from Tirek to use six powerful artifacts to siphon magic from all over Equestria and create a vortex to another world.
Luna had managed to infest Cozy’s dreams to force her to realize how overthrowing the Diarch could have led to the end of the world, and now her sentence was dropped and she would be released. Unfortunately, after the 18 years, which included Equus being modernized, Cozy has mysteriously vanished from Tartarus, along with Tirek. Will Cozy Glow turn up, and if so, how will she be different than she was in the beginning?
When Cozy woke up, she was in a dark cavern along with Tirek, former Changeling Queen Chrysalis, and King Sombra. Seeing all three of these villains made her chatter her teeth in nervousness. Suddenly, the cave was illuminated with an eerie glow from a crystal ball. Behind this ball was a blue-colored ram with a mean look in his eyes.
“I am Emperor Grogar. I am disgusted by what that Princess Twilight Sparkle is doing with all of her friendship. I have brought you four together to stop her in her tracks and destroy anything and everything related to friendship as a whole.”, said the ram.
“NO! STOP!”, shrieked Cozy.
All of the villains turned to look at her with fury in their eyes.
“Don’t tell me that you have been reformed by that Princess Luna.”, spat Tirek.
“She turned my dreams into nightmares to make me realize what would happen if I had succeeded with my plans. So, I have been reformed, and I am GONE!”, Cozy yelled back as she turned to run out of the cave.
“STOP HER!”, yelled Grogar annoyedly.
Sombra charged out of the cave and shot a beam from his horn that hit Cozy in the face.
“I CAN’T SEE!”, cried Cozy as the beam burned her eyes and blinded her.
Sombra watched with an evil grin as Cozy crashed between two trees and dislocated both of her wings.
“My turn.”, said Chrysalis.
As Cozy struggled to get up and limp out of the woods, she began screaming out for help. It just so happened that Discord was passing through and heard her cries. As he started swooping in to rescue her, he deviated to hide from Chrysalis, who was closing in fast to kill her.
“You’ll NEVER get word to Celestia, nor Luna, nor Twilight.”, she cackled.
*THONK*
Suddenly, Chrysalis could not see straight. Discord had whacked her on the head with a thick tree branch.
“Keep dreaming, EVIL INSECT QUEEN!”, hissed the draconequus as he scooped Cozy up.
Chrysalis took Discord’s words as an insult and charged up her horn to kill Cozy Glow. However, due to the fact that she was dizzy, she missed Cozy and the blast clipped past Discord by a millimeter, slowing down his flight.
“I must get word to the princesses.”, Cozy said weakly.
“I know, but you also need medical attention at once.”, Discord replied as he flew to the Ponyville Hospital.
After the allies had arrived, Twilight gave Link and his branch the news that Cozy had died and that her parents wanted to see them at once. At the hospital, Link and Brandon met with Citrus and Hickory.
“We want her to be cremated, but we don’t know where to look for a place to do that.”, said Hickory.
“We have the equipment for that on the Lemurian Star , and we will inform you once we are ready.”, said Brandon.
After obtaining Cozy’s body from the hospital, Link had the medical team start the sanitization process to prep it for the crematory. Once the equipment was prepped and preheated, Brandon and Colin put on heat suits and then placed Cozy’s casket on the platform to move it into the chamber. Then they did something that was surprising to Cozy’s parents. They flipped a panel around to reveal the start button for the cremation.
“Why are you delaying?”, asked Citrus in a confused voice through her tears.
Brandon nodded to Link who flipped a safety switch and put in a keycode as Colin explained what was going on.
“For a cremation, it is common for a family member to press the button.”, he said.
“All set.”, said Link once the start button was lit up.
With a shaking hoof, Hickory pushed the button and the platform started moving into the chamber. As soon as the chamber’s door had closed, both of Cozy’s parents closed their eyes and cried their hearts out. Their sweet little daughter had been critically injured to the point of death by the villains, and now she was being reduced to ash by propane gas flames.
Once Brandon had said the gas flames had shut off 30 minutes later, Link led Cozy’s parents to a waiting area. Brandon came in an hour later with a sealed clay urn that contained the remaining ashes from the cremation and gave it to Citrus and Hickory in silence. After the funeral service was held in Canterlot, Cozy’s parents left to go home and the soldiers began setting up their vehicles and defense equipment around the world to take down Grogar’s attacks. They did not know when the attacks would start, but they had to be ready.
Prior to Cozy’s funeral, Queen Chrysalis had flown unseen over Equestria and witnessed the troops arriving and gearing up. She returned to the cave where the villains were gathered. She explained to everyone what was going on. Grogar was confused.
“I've never heard of these soldiers. Who exactly are they?”, he asked with a grunt.
King Sombra rolled his eyes in annoyance at the mention of the fleet while Chrysalis explained everything.
“This fleet is a group of warriors that is spread out across the observable universe. Some of the soldiers reside here on Equus. Together, they fought to protect every single inch of space from an evil entity that is more powerful than you.”, she said.
“Who could possibly be more powerful than me?”, Grogar asked.
“These soldiers fought to protect the universe from the devil, Satan. He is the master of lies, stealing, temptation, and many other bad deeds. At this point, they have destroyed him for good. However, your decisions to bring down Twilight and her friends were likely part of Satan’s work before he was destroyed.”, Sombra grumbled.
Grogar was speechless. He continued to explain his plans to team up, but Sombra wouldn’t listen. He was focused on fighting alone. Grogar relented and allowed him to attack by himself. Sombra had initially planned to take back the Crystal Empire, but he switched targets and chose to attack Canterlot first. During the 18 years of planning, Grogar had secretly taken bits and pieces of failed vehicles to build two aircrafts for the attacks, and one was for Sombra. He got into the cockpit and took off once he was confident that his weapons were primed and ready.
**
Before dawn the next morning, everyone was roused from sleep by the loud and ear-piercing SCREAM of air-raid sirens. Celestia rushed to a lookout and got word of Sombra’s aircraft entering the area. She called out over a loudspeaker and soldiers began running out to defend. At the same time, Cadence and Flurry Heart began getting troops ready to protect the Crystal Empire.
“OPEN FIRE!”, Brandon shouted.
The sky was illuminated in a heartbeat with spotlights, laser shots, flashes from gunshots, and exploding anti-aircraft shells. Sombra’s bomber jet was struck on the starboard wing slightly and his fuel tank was ruptured, but he was able to drop three bombs on the capitol and cause a raging fire near a weapons storage silo. Enraged, Link shot a heat seeking missile to chase Sombra down. No one was killed in the attack, but there were many wounded.
“The Crystal Empire is mine again.”, Sombra said to himself as he flew further north.
He knew that he was losing fuel, but he didn’t realize how fast he was running out until the gauge light started flashing when he was two-thirds of the way to the Crystal Empire.
“CURSE YOU, CHRISTIAN FLEET!!”, he growled as his plane tipped into a steep dive.
He managed to eject from the plane before the missile struck and detonated the remaining bombs, but he landed so hard that he broke his horn off. He had also knocked himself unconscious from the hard landing. When he woke up, he was standing on a trapdoor with a rope in front of him and his hooves were shackled. Looking around, he realized that he was in the Crystal Empire, but not how he wanted to be. He was standing on the gallows and looking into the eyes of Flurry Heart and Cadence who were burning with anger.
“ANY LAST WORDS, EVIL KING?”, Flurry hissed as she grabbed a lever with her aura.
Sombra said nothing and spat in Flurry’s face. Disgusted, she nodded to her mom.
Cadence put a hood over Sombra’s head, and then put the noose around his neck and tightened it. Flurry yanked the lever and Sombra dropped toward the ground. He felt the rope cinch against his throat and he felt his vertebra snap. Once it was confirmed that Sombra was dead, His lifeless body was cremated and his broken horn was sealed in a crystal and taken to a top-secret location deep underground. This location was designated for relics that were too dangerous to be possessed by anyone. After Twilight had conned Trixie into taking off the Alicorn Amulet, Celestia gave orders that it be taken to this location so it would never be used again.
**
Back in the cave, Grogar and the other villains observed Sombra’s demise.
“Serves him right for trying to attack alone.”, Tirek laughed.
Grogar nodded and continued setting plans for how the rest could attack if they worked together.
Celestia and Luna sent Brandon to sneak into the cave and gather some information about the villains’ attack plans. It took four days to reach the cavern, but he was able to sneak in without being seen. Since he was wearing a chameleon suit, he was completely invisible, and he had also silenced his boots. He found that even though the villains were discussing together about how to carry out the attacks, each one would have their own mission. He took notes and pictures of the plans and began his trek back to the princesses. When he reached them, he explained what the plans were and how to counter them.
“Chrysalis will go first. Her targets are the Crystal Empire and the Changeling Kingdom. Ground troops and air force will need to shoot at her and hopefully bring her down. Delaying her weapons might help out as well.”
“Mom and I can handle her when she is at both the Crystal Empire and the Changeling Kingdom.”, Flurry said confidently.
“Not only that, but Thorax told us that Ocellus has recently been designing a missile that can seal cargo doors shut by spewing molten metal.”, Cadence added.
“Tirek will try to set fire to the land next. Our best plan of attack is to spew a supercooled fluid at him, such as liquid nitrogen, to freeze him solid. Then we can remove his power and get rid of him properly.”
“Leave it to us for killing Tirek. We beat him once, and we can do so again.”, said the Main Six together.
Brandon accepted all of the claims and everyone got to work drawing up plans for their methods of defending Equestria. The most intense part of the war was about to begin.
Cadence rushed to the Crystal Empire and Flurry Heart headed to the Changeling Kingdom to get everyone ready. They spread the word that Chrysalis was attacking and that some of her bombs were enhanced with changeling slime to maximize power. Brandon had reported that the changelings would be the first target, so Thorax had everyone get up early to get all of the defense systems up. Chrysalis’ plane was spotted on radar two hours before dawn and the guns rang out as soon as she was in sight.
She was about to drop her first round of bombs when a flashbang blinded her. The bright flash gave an opportunity for Ocellus to fire her custom-made experimental weapon. As Cadence said, the missile spewed molten metal and sealed the doors shut on Chrysalis’ plane, making it temporarily impossible for her to drop bombs. She began firing her guns and took out twelve changelings along with four defense turrets. One of her missiles reached the castle and weakened a pillar. Thorax would have been crushed to death, but Pharynx pushed him out of the way in sacrificing himself for his brother. Devastated and enraged, Thorax climbed to the castle’s pinnacle and fired a blast from his horns. The blast shattered Chrysalis’ cockpit window and forced her to put on an oxygen mask to breathe properly.
“If I can’t exact my wrath here, then I will do so at my other target!”, she shouted as she left the Changeling Kingdom and flew north.
Brandon climbed on Flurry Heart’s back and gave pursuit. He received a radio call from Cadence that Chrysalis had struck. He urged Flurry to fly faster and they soon reached the Crystal Empire. They were met with chaos. Fires were raging from several of her bombs being dropped and many of the houses had been burnt to the ground. Chrysalis was using a tactic of swooping down and then turning around again to drop her bombs incrementally. When she pulled out of another swoop, she flew over his head and turned back to drop more bombs. Flurry noticed that the strong force had yanked twenty of her feathers off and she began screaming angrily.
“HOW DARE YOU MESS UP MY WINGS!”
Becoming angry himself, Brandon shot an arrow that severed the coolant line to the plane’s engines, causing them to overheat. When the engines began to glow orange, Chrysalis realized that she was in danger and ejected as she approached the Crystal Empire again. The plane crashed to the ground and exploded in the outskirts, causing a blazing fire. The blast was intensified by the remaining bombs going off at the same time, which resulted in two watchtowers being destroyed. Chrysalis thought she had evaded the explosion, but shrapnel from her plane exploding came flying at a high velocity and clipped both of her wings. This made her unable to fly properly and slow down. Without the ability to slow down, she slammed face first into the outside of the palace at such a high speed that she was squashed and killed instantaneously in a slimy and bloody mess.
The fire took three and a half hours to extinguish completely and thirty of the crystal ponies were killed in the battle. Twelve perished in fires, ten were shot by Chrysalis’ guns, and the last eight were killed in bomb blasts. Once it was confirmed that Chrysalis was dead, Brandon left the Empire and hurried to reunite with his fellow soldiers while Cadence, and Flurry Heart helped repair the damages.
Everyone charged on the cave where Grogar was and quickly had him restrained. Celestia destroyed his bewitching bell and Luna shattered his crystal ball. Once Link had shot arrows and pinned Grogar against the cave wall, Brandon drew his sword and prepared to deliver the final blow to end the war.
“You have caused your last dose of trouble for Equus! This is the end of your reign of terror.”, Brandon yelled as he raised his sword.
With a single swing, Brandon decapitated the evil blue ram. Grogar’s lifeless head and body burst into flames and were reduced to ashes.
All citizens of Equus were jubilant for three months straight after Grogar was killed, and Celestia had news for Twilight.
“It is time for me and Luna to retire and pass the torch to you as Equestria’s new ruler. May you do well.”, she said warmly.
“Thank you, Celestia. I will do my best.”, Twilight replied with a bow.
Twilight was crowned the following week and the Christians packed up to leave. Peace was finally brought to Equestria after thousands of years, and there was never another threat again.
After the end of the war, Cozy Glow watched from the heavens with Celestia and Luna’s parents, Queen Galaxia and King Cosmos, as Twilight led the world to a shining future.
“You did the right thing to warn them, young filly, even if it was at the cost of your life.”, said Galaxia.
“Yes, well done on saving the world.”, said Cosmos.
Cozy smiled as she watched the world grow with each passing year. Eventually, Twilight and her friends passed away and joined her while Flurry Heart took the throne and united Equestria with the Crystal Empire to form the Equestrian Empire. In the end, Equus was made a better place.
After Cozy Glow was admitted to Intensive Care, Discord rushed to Twilight to tell her what was going on.
“Cozy Glow is injured and needs to speak to you, RIGHT NOW!”, he said quickly.
“Say no more, Discord. I’m on my way. Alert Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Flurry Heart as quick as you can.”, Twilight replied as she rushed to the door.
Discord nodded and took off for Canterlot and the Crystal Empire. Once all of the princesses were informed, they hurried to meet Twilight in Cozy’s room. The Young Six were there as well, along with Cozy’s parents, who had been alerted by Luna. Cozy was coughing up her blood because she had broken several ribs and torn one of her lungs when she crashed in the woods.
“Emperor Grogar … has returned … and seeks … to destroy friendship. The world … will fall apart … if nothing … is done.”, Cozy said between coughs before going into cardiac arrest.
“DOCTOR, SHE’S FLATLINE!”, shrieked Citrus.
At once, the doctors rushed in with a defibrillator and started shocking in hopes of restarting Cozy’s heart.
“Oh please, please don’t let this be the end of my baby.”, choked out Citrus as tears welled up in her eyes while everyone left the room.
**
Twenty minutes later, the doctors left Cozy’s room with a sad look on their faces.
“I’m sorry, but your daughter has died.”, said one of the doctors.
Cozy’s parents broke down in tears and then started filling out the paperwork for Cozy’s death certificate. In the meantime, Twilight was meeting with the other princesses.
“Grogar hates friendship. Therefore, we banished him to the unknown regions. According to Cozy, he has returned.”, explained Celestia.
“IF IT’S WAR HE WANTS, THEN WE’LL GIVE HIM WAR.”, hissed Cadence.
“AGREED, Mom!”, yelled Flurry Heart.
An article went out the next morning that everyone needed to start gearing up.
**
Equestria National News
Upcoming War For Friendship
Evil Emperor Grogar has returned from his banishment and is threatening to destroy friendship completely. The princesses have ordered all who are able to start gearing up for defending Equestria and stopping the evil Emperor.
**
In a flash, soldiers from all over Equus began prepping their weapons to defend their homelands.
As everyone was getting ready, Celestia gathered Luna, Twilight, Cadence, and Flurry Heart to discuss plans for the war.
“We might have a greater chance of succeeding if we call in our allies in the Christian Fleet.”, Flurry suggested.
“I agree with you, dear. They have always been a large help to us in times of need.”, Cadence added.
Twilight and Luna agreed as well.
“Then it's settled. We will radio the fleet for reinforcements.”, said Celestia.
Flurry headed to the radio tower in the Everfree Forest in order to call out to all of the branches.
“This is Captain Flurry Heart of the E S S Harmony . This is a Priority-One call for reinforcements from all branches in the Christian Fleet. Unreformed villains are declaring war on Equestria and the surrounding regions. We stand a better chance of victory if we have more soldiers on our side.”
Instantly, she began receiving acknowledgements from the other five branches.
“This is Admiral Link. The Lemurian Star will be arriving in orbit in two hours.”
“This is Malladus. The Infinity is on her way.”
“Terran Base here, this is Admiral Valerian. We're on our way.”
“This is the Snowstar . The Brandonians are on route.”
“This is Captain Reddick from Magmux. The Sunchaser is headed your way as I speak.”
Flurry relayed all of the acknowledgements to the other princesses and the preparations continued. The ships appeared on radar and soldiers began coming down. Vehicles for all environments were sent down as well via transporters. These ranged from planes and helicopters to jeeps, snowmobiles, and battleships.
During the battle against Chrysalis…
The Main Six were getting ready with the help of Link and Colin. Colin’s troops were standing ready to deploy liquid nitrogen for putting out any fires that Tirek started. He began torching the Everfree as soon as he reached Ponyville. Stray embers began igniting some of the structures, but the fires were quickly put out. After a large struggle, the lava warriors began shooting liquid nitrogen at Tirek himself. Even though the liquid nitrogen was colder than regular water, it was getting evaporated before it could reach Tirek’s mouth.
“Link, the liquid nitrogen is not working at putting his fire breath out. I'm calling in Kirby and Fraaz to bring foam.”, Colin radioed nervously.
“Acknowledged, Colin.”, replied Link.
Seconds later, two ships came into view and began flying towards Tirek.
“The fire ships are here.”, Link cheered.
Foam began spewing from the nozzles and putting out the forest fire and the structure fires at a massive velocity. Some of the foam hit Tirek in the face and blinded him along with stopping his fire breath.
“YOU’RE UP!”, Link yelled to the Main Six.
The Main Six shut their eyes and began feeling the power from the Elements of Harmony surging through their veins and then they joined together to release a blast of the energy. Tirek was hit square in the chest, and the blast of energy froze him to the point of immobility. Once he was restrained, Link and Colin charged forth and drove their swords up to their hilts in Tirek’s chest, piercing his heart from two angles. Tirek writhed and screamed in agony as the energy burned through his bloodstream until he turned to dust.
“Now for that ram.”, said Twilight in an enraged voice.
Grogar saw everything from his cave and he instantly became even angrier than ever before.
“IT’S NOT FAIR!, he screamed.