Overthrown Book 2: Dulling Armor

Twilight Sparkle was determined to get back to the castle in time to save Equestria from the ruins of Moondust Bloom and Scootaloo. She was determined to make Princess Celestia proud, do her legacy good, and claim the rightful place as the Princess of Friendship. The Main Six had saved Equestria many times before. So this was meant to be a breeze, right? Well, not really. You see, to complete a mission successfully, it's smart to do so on a full stomach, which the girls didn't have.

"Come on, Twi! How much longer do we have to walk?!" Rarity whined, looking like a starving puppy. "We've been walking for days!"

"We haven't eaten in days, I must add," Pinkie Pie chimed in, her bounces not as charismatic and flamboyant as they usually were. "We're starving!"

"Guys! Just be patient!" Twilight snapped, with annoyance in her voice. "As soon as we find a place, we'll stop for a quick bit to eat. But you all need to realize we're literally in the middle of the flipping woods!"

"Fair enough," Applejack said, still somehow keeping her strength given the situation. "She's right, girls. We'll find something soon, I'm sure of it."

"Like that giant tavern up ahead?" Pinkie asked, pointing to a building.

The girls stopped and looked ahead. The building was a grayish color with a wooden roof and a standard brown door. To put it more simply, it looked like one of those old taverns that you would see in adventure movies. In fact, the name on the wooden pink sign out front was "The Adventure Tavern". The Six eyed the tavern intentionally, desperate to get a bite to eat.

"Well girls," Rainbow Dash said. "This looks like where we'll be eating."

The girls meandered into the tavern and noticed a tone that was set throughout. It was as if Discord had cast a huge spell in the tavern that caused it to go crazy. Chairs were flying everywhere, patrons were fighting each other, other patrons were simply having an overly competitive game of pool amidst the chaos, and at the bar, there stood a mysterious pony, looking sorry for himself. He had a black mane with gray skin, a purple horn sticking out from his mane, and a cape wrapped around his rear. The cape was black, with shades of red throughout. Pinkie Pie noticed the figure and said, "Oooh! Let's see who that is!"

The mysterious pony was tending to a now-empty pitcher of cider and tapped the pitcher on the bar to get the bartender's attention.

"Another!" The depressed unicorn commanded.

"I told you," the bartender, a green pegasus with emo hair, told the sad excuse of a unicorn. "You're not welcome here! You're not welcome anywhere. Now get the fuck out of my bar!"

"Just get me one more pitcher and then I'll leave," The unicorn commanded.

"That's not how it works," The bartender said, growing impatient.

"It is now," Pinkie said, pulling up a stool next to the sorry sap of a unicorn. "Leave the bottle."

"Do I know you?" The unicorn asked, surprised at the sudden appearance of the pink pony.

"Now you do," Pinkie said. "I'm Pinkie Pie and back there are my friends, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Twilight. What's your name?"

"Don't act like you haven't heard of me," The purple-horned pony said. "I'm The Purple Horn. Or I used to be anyway."

"Oooh, really?!" Pinkie Pie said, still full of her signature energy. "You should totally come with us! We're on a mission to save Equestria from this scary alicorn named Moondust Bloom. You look nice and strong..."

"Look kiddo!" Purple Horn said, interrupting Pinkie. "I'm not interested."

"Purple Horn, are you and your girlfriend here done flirting with each other?! We wanna see some action if you catch my drift!" The bartender yelled, much to the laughter of the rest of the patrons.

"Just ignore them," Pinkie reassured her new friend.

"It's OK," Purple Horn said, in a depressed tone. "I lost pretty much all of Equestria's respect a long time ago. So a lot of this is my karma."

"OK!" Pinkie said, dragging Purple Horn to her friends. "Well, this is your chance to start anew. So upsy Daisy! Here we go!"

Pinkie hauled Purple Horn to the rest of the Main Six, much to his dismay. Twilight looked intently at the new comrade and an idea came to her head. Purple Horn looked like a strong warrior and he was the stuff of legends, served with a heaping helping of foreshadowing. Therefore, he could know the key to defeating Moondust Bloom and saving Equestria. Now all it took was convincing.

"So you're Purple Horn?" Twilight asked.

"Yes ma'am," Purple Horn said. "I heard a lot about you and your group here. You saved Equestria countless times. So I don't get why you would want someone like me to join you."

"Well, Moondust Bloom has caused a civil war throughout Equestria," Twilight stated. "Therefore, we need to head back to the castle to defeat him. I've heard legends about how you saved Equestria, long before we even existed."

"Well, they probably didn't tell you the bad stuff, huh?" Purple Horn said. "That's OK. A lot of towns in this country try to spin the narrative out of pity for me."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked.

"He's right, Twi," Rainbow Dash said. "Cloudsdale's told his story multiple times. Purple Horn let down his entire group of friends. What he did? Well, some things just can't be forgiven."

Twilight was shocked to hear all of this. But she still needed his help. If such a legendary warrior could save Equestria like her, he had to know his way around defeating Moondust. But what she said next was about to dig her into a deep hole that would take a long time to get out of. You see, she was so desperate for his help, that she ended up telling a lie.

"Well, what if we fix whatever it is you did?" Twilight said.

"What?!" Purple Horn said, in shock. "You'd do that for me?!"

"Of course," Twilight said, further digging her hole. "My magic is just as strong as Celestia's was. In fact, I can even revive people from the dead if I want to. So if you come with us, I'll see if I can fix whatever you did."

Purple Horn thought for a moment. He would've given anything to fix the mess he made long ago. But he wasn't sure if he could trust the colorful bunch that were in his presence. After some consideration, he gave a simple nod yes. What he didn't know was that Twilight didn't know if she could fix things with him and was about to dig her hole further.

But what mattered now was that the girls had a new friend to join them on their mission.