"Thank you. For everything."

Twilight Sparkle had just accepted her new role as ruler of Equestria. A big title for a very small pony, but one that would be of great importance.

It was a title that she was determined to fill.

She looked teary-eyed at her predecessors as she thanked them for all they had done for her over the years. Everything they had shown her and taught her.

Twilight's friends were all standing behind her, the ponies that had helped her through thick and thin, the ponies that had helped her realize what friendship was all about, and the very same ponies that had fought beside her when the evil of the world would come to bring about another catastrophic event.

After a week of planning and coming to terms with a significant life change, it was a relief to have a moment to reflect on everything that had happened. Not only in the past years but in recent events as well. Twilight felt like the retirement of the two alicorns who had been in power for over a thousand years symbolized the passing of their title and acted as a final farewell between them.

Feeling overcome with the finality of it all, Twilight jumped into Celestia's hooves and hugged her tightly, and her friends joined them shortly after.

The day of the celebration was over sooner than she would have liked, and Twilight had to see her friends off at the train station much sooner than she wanted to. It was as if they were already on a different path, and she still hadn't fully adjusted to that fact. Before she knew it, she and Spike were introduced to their new rooms at the palace.

In the following weeks, after Twilight and Spike had gotten to know their surroundings a bit more, she had to start the process of legitimizing her new title as princess of the country. Nopony had replaced the rulers for thousands of years, so a lot of documents needed to be updated to the modern age. Celestia, Luna, and other government officials would assist with that.

Twilight was told she had to wait a few months before all of that would be dealt with so she could start signing papers. So, until then, she would spend her time adjusting to calling Canterlot Castle her new home. Spike and Twilight had been placed in Celestia's old chambers. Some changes had to be added to the interior decor around the palace to suit the new theme. Having Celestia's colors and characteristics everywhere didn't feel right to her; she needed to make it her own.

It was hard having to say goodbye to her friends, but it wasn't goodbye forever. They knew it would be this way and were all prepared for it. Twilight was ready to lead as a good and kind princess, and the others stood behind her to help her reach her goal.

It helped her more than they could ever know.

The elements of harmony had decided to create a monthly gathering called 'The Counsel of Friendship,' aptly named by Pinkie. The first meeting happened during Twilight's first week of ruling after the crowning ceremony, and it was mostly spent laughing about how silly the ceremony had been.

Without having officially been given the title of princess yet, despite the coronation, Twilight couldn't hold day court, nor would she be able to host any important events anywhere in the country. Those were the most ordinary duties for the princesses, and it would be a big part of her life from now on. At least, she had Spike by her side, which helped her keep her mind in check.

Twilight's friends in Ponyville promised to meet whenever they could outside of her duties and their monthly counsel, but other than that, Twilight wouldn't see them as much as she would have liked. She would mostly read through previous court cases that Celestia and Luna had been through and get tutors for etiquette and whatnot. Things that were needed for diplomacy, addressing subjects properly, and everything in between. There was not a guidebook on how to be a monarch, sadly. There were only guidelines, and most of those came from Celestia and Luna.

Twilight had her own ideas about how to address her own subjects. Still, even Celestia had told her to avoid getting too familiar with the elites, as they would likely try to take advantage of Twilight for their own benefit, especially now that she was ruling alone.

Twilight had a faint idea of what she was heading into. She had read the princess' diaries several times over, and she was getting lessons from them directly, lately. They both had come by personally several times in the first few weeks to see how Twilight was adjusting, which was a big help to her. Just seeing the two gave her a sense of familiarity that she sorely needee.

The previous princesses had undergone a few changes just weeks after they resigned. They still had magic, but they gave Twilight a large amount of what magic they possessed in order for her to lower and raise the moon every day.

In summary, it was a huge responsibility. Never the less, she remained faithfully determined to make her mentor proud.

During the third week of Twilight's rule, she, Celestia, and Luna were all chatting outside in the castle courtyard, making their way towards the main gates of the castle grounds.

"Oh yeah, the girls should be arriving soon, and we plan to go to get some baked goods for the picnic later. Did you two want to join us?" Twilight asked as she walked.

The two sisters looked at each other amusedly, and Celestia spoke up. "Oh? Skipping duties, are we?"

"Nope! I did everything in a hurry today just so I could do something nice for a change." She grinned, her tired eyes evident as she gestured for them to follow. "Come on, they're probably just arriving at the cas-"

Before she could complete her sentence, a massive explosion made them cover their ears on instinct from how violent it was. It was accompanied by a shockwave not even a second later.

There was screaming heard from around them. The public outside the castle gates could be heard making a ruckus as the ground shook. Silence fell moments later.

"What in Equestria just happened?!" Luna exclaimed as she removed her hooves from her ears.

"Take cover!" Was the last thing Twilight heard before she was teleported to a different part of the courtyard. Something slammed down forcefully in the courtyard moments after, making the ground tremble once more.

Celestia and Luna stood with her still, in their new location. Celestia had teleported them both to safety.

Confused and disoriented, Twilight turned around and looked behind her to where she heard whatever it was that had slammed into the ground. She gaped at what she saw.

There was a dark, horrific creature of some sort. It looked like a massive, black serpent, covered in a flowing, jet black liquid that seemed to have a mind of its own as it moved around like rippling water over the scales of the snake. It was absolutely gigantic, a little longer than the courtyard in length, and at least five ponies thick.

"What..?" Twilight whispered when she saw some legs and armor sticking out at odd angles from underneath the serpent further up ahead. Blood was pooling underneath.

She saw at least three ponies that had met their fate under this creature.

Guards were scattered and without orders. It was absolute chaos. As the large snake creature slowly uncoiled itself, the three mares could hear guards running to them from every direction.

There was no time to react; whoever this new enemy was, it was attacking. It had killed.

As the serpent rose, it hissed in a way that sounded more like a growl. When it opened its slitted eyes, it got a good look around, apparently looking at the many ponies outside the castle fleeing to safety. It opened it's large mouth and revealed fangs which looked like they would be larger than an entire pony, and It looked like it wanted to give chase to the fleeing citizens.

However, the alicorns had other ideas.

Unspoken words were said between Twilight, Celestia, and Luna as they all channeled powerful magic into their horns to send a large amount of energy directly into the head of the snake. It was thrown back by the amount of power, but whipped it's head back only seconds later, and directed it's gaze to them instead.

It didn't do nearly as much damage to it as they intended.

That was full power... Twilight thought, a feeling of immense dread washing over her.

Moments passed slowly as Twilight saw her friends, the Elements of Harmony, enter the courtyard. A large assortment of guards were tailing them. As soon as she saw then, the feeling of dread increased. No! Get out of here, get to safety!

The serpent started to slither its way around to face the three alicorns more directly, and while it did, it dragged around the dead ponies under it and left some of them behind as they were squeezed out from its weight. Seeing the corpse of a pony being ruined in such a way made Twilight sick to her stomach.

She had not felt hate towards something like this before. She had not experienced death before.

The giant tail suddenly slashed at them, sending all three of them flying. Twilight was quick, and managed to conjure up a shield in time, though.

However, the force behind the tail was immense, and it felt like her body broke just from the amount of force it did to her barrier. She clutched her horn in pain as the hit the ground further away.

"Twilight!" Luna cried as she stood up.

She felt faint from the attack, but was able to see what was going on ahead of her. The serpent was now surrounded by guards, which were all trying to disable it with their own attacks. Attacks which did slightly more than tossing a piece of pebble on it would do. It hissed at them angrily as it whipped its tail around.

Twilight looked at Celestia standing next to her as Luna helped her get up, and she was absolutely pissed.

"This thing is strong. Our blast barely did anything," Celestia warned.

"We have to distract it before it has a chance to gain any leverage," Luna added, at which both Celestia and Twilight nodded.

"Luna, get it's attention. Do whatever you must, just prevent it from attacking anypony else." Celestia instructed. Luna nodded, and vanished in a flash of magic.

Luna appeared above the serpent and started zapping it with light blows of magic. The serpent gave the intended reaction, and started whipping it's neck toward her. Meanwhile, on the ground, guards made futile attempts at attacking the snake. The didn't get too close, seeing as how the princess got knocked away so easily. And seeing how some guards had already been crushed by its thrashing around.

The Elements of Harmony approached Twilight and Celestia, and Rainbow called out to them. "Twilight! What's happening?!"

The serpent screeched at Luna and whipped its enormous tail at her with surprising speed, which caused her to conjure up a shield to protect herself. Twilight was shocked to see how fast this huge thing could move around. What followed was Luna being sent flying from the force of the tail connecting with her shield.

She gaped at the creature. "I... I don't know! Thing thing just came out of nowhere!"

The other Elements of Harmony watched in horror as Luna vanished beyond the wall of the courtyard and could be heard connecting with the ground further away.

Having already made quick work of the distraction, the monster turned its attention towards the ponies trying to surround it somehow. Desperately, guards and other military units who were nearby had mobilized around the serpent, preparing for a counter-offensive.

In the short time since this had begun, a realization began to dawn on Twilight. We're outmatched.

"Girls! We need to-" Twilight shakily instructed to her friends, just as the serpent, without warning, lunged forward to snap its large maw at Twilight and her friends. She teleported herself and everypony near her away from there as fast as she could.

Once they reappeared, she saw the snake had crashed it's head into the cobbled ground, trying to rip it's large fangs out.

"Wait, where's Pinkie?!" yelled Applejack, looking around frantically.

Panic surged into the hearts of everypony as it became clear that Pinkie had not been part of the teleportation spell.

She was outside of my reach... Twilight thought panicked.

"Pinkie! Hold on!" Twilight shouted as she took off into the air to get a better view. It's not over yet... please.

Twilight begged silently as she flew above the serpent to see what was going on, and she could see Pinkie Pie running away from the monster, but she had nowhere to run to.

The monster finally ripped itself free, and took note of the fleeing pink pony as she successfully trapped herself between the snake ans the castle walls. Twilight could see the panic as Pinkie uselessly tried to climb the wall.

The serpent had her surrounded. Both ends of the snake prevented her from leaving her imprisonment.

"Twilight!"

Rainbow Dash, another one of Twilight's nearest friends, had joined her in the air above the monster. They both flew to get Pinkie Pie before the serpent could get to her. "Dash, you get Pinkie! I'll lead it away from her!"

Rainbow suddenly lunged into Twilight, knocking the breath out of the princess. Twilight could see the face of the serpent snap its jaw shut where she had been only moments ago.

I only looked away for one second...

Impossibly fast, the snake twisted its neck around and gave chase to them both. Twilight did the only thing she could think of, and teleported them both to safety.

They reappeared with the other girls once more, out of harms way for the moment. Twilight felt exhausted from the amount of magic she had to use in such short succession. However, one issue still remained.

"Twilight... Pinkie Pie..." Rainbow mutteres as she watched in frozen horror at the scene unfolding in front of them.

Guards that had been trying to grab the snake's attention had perished at the tail whipping around wildly, others were still firing off magic at it, to absolutely no effect. Luna was nowhere to be seen, Celestia was teleporting ponies away from the area, Rainbow Dash was frozen in fear, and Pinkie...

The serpent's attack was sudden and left no time to prepare. Twilight watched in horror as its large head struck the ground where Pinkie Pie was, out of sight. Rainbow was visibly shaken as it happened, pointing at the snake's head, now hidden from view.

It lifted its head, now with something in its mouth. A pony's upper body hung limp from the mouth of the snake.

A pink pony by the name of Pinkie Pie.

Twilight didn't think; she blasted the snake at its throat, and head, some shots missing entirely and flying into the skies. Her vision was bubbling over as she desperately tried to stop this thing from...

The snake barely felt the blows even as Celestia and the guards joined in with their magical barrage. It felt like hours passed by as they tried to disable the unaffected monster before-

CRUNCH

Amidst the sounds of magic, a disturbing noise echoed. The sound of a pony's body breaking, followed by a swallow. Time stood still, and Twilight's senses heightened, capturing every detail of the heart-wrenching moment she would never forget; the moment she lost her dear friend forever.

She could see particles of dust dance before her as memories with her friend flashed before her eyes once she realized what had just happened. That moment in the courtyard felt like it lasted for an entire lifetime.

The moment ended when the world was blinded by a burst of fire from above, which enveloped the beast in a sea of flames.

Author's Note

Thanks for checking out this story, hope you'll stick around for it.