The Path to Decay

They made their way towards the palace's dirt road entrance, when suddenly two guards were seen patrolling the grounds by the palace's entrance path. They were armed with strong body armor from head to toe, but still leaving wings and horns exposed with daggers sheathed on the back, in case someone tried to access and put up a fight. The empire's guards were not afraid to use deadly force when challenged.

"Girls, wait" Twilight called out to her friends, halting them with a hoof signal.

"What is it sugarcube?" Applejack asked.

"There are some guards patrolling the path, we need to find a way to get past them" Twilight replied.

They all pondered of ways to possibly get past the heavily armored guards. Mostly to no avail, but Rarity had an idea to get by the guards.

"IDEAAAAA" Rarity cheered, as an idea had hit her.

"What do ya have in mind, Rarity?" questioned Applejack.

"Well, some of you might not like this but it's a great way to get into a king's palace, we put on some dancer outfits and say we're here for the king!" Rarity told her friends.

They all just looked at Rarity with unsure looks. Put on dancer outfits to get past guards and access the palace?

"Excuse me?" Twilight wasn't sure if she had heard her friend correctly.

"Well, you know that Morior is a king, right? Well, don't kings usually have entertainers?"

"Yes, but normally it's jesters and jokers, not dancers" Twilight retorted.

"Just trust me on this one girls, this is sure to work!" Rarity assured.

A while after, the six mares got dressed into outfits that would resemble the typical exotic dancer, including face veils, earrings and skirts with leggings underneath. They were quite uncomfortable with their current wardrobe, but Rarity being knowledgable on the subject of fashion and beauty, they went along with it.

"Are you sure this will work, Rarity?" Rainbow asked.

"Yes darling, I can tell this will work, not to mention I think we look great!" Rarity responded

"Whatever you say, Rarity" Applejack commented.

They made their way over to the two patrol ponies, who were watching the grounds in case anyone had tried to get into the castle without authorization. Once they got close enough, the guards were able to spot the six mares and Spike, and walked over to them for questioning.

"Halt, who goes there?" the unicorn guard asked the ponies.

"We're here for the king, he requested dancers for his banquet tonight for the after-dinner entertainment!" Rarity told the guard, lying to the best of her abilities.

"Hmm, you girls do look quite the part, come on in" the unicorn guard said.

"Thank you, dear" Rarity replied to the guard, giving him a kiss on the cheek to not rise suspicion.

The ponies and Spike made their way to the front door to find that the door was wide open, with no protection. Unusual for a palace to have it's main doors open, but they didn't question it and just walked into the palace.

The palace looked the same as it always did, grey walls coated with torches, black chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and stained-glass windows all around the front room.

"This place could seriously get some better interior decorators" Rarity commented.

"Now's not the time for telling if the ceiling matches the chadeliers, Rarity, we have to find Cadance and Morior" Twilight snapped.

"Now, this palace is big, so let's all take a hallway. Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie, you all take the left corridors, me, Rainbow and Applejack will take the right corridors" Twilight gave instructions.

"Got it" all six said at the same time.

"Spike, you go with Pinkie Pie, I'm going this path alone" Twilight ordered.

"Uh, alright Twilight, whatever you say" Spike obeyed, and followed Pinkie down the center left corridor.

Twilight stripped off her exotic outfit, and went down the center right corridor. Around the corner was another door, protected by a pegasus guard similar to the one outside, donned in full body armor with a dagger in it's holster. A sign by the door clearly read "Holding cells", so she knew that she went down the right path. She was pondering of a way to get past the guard, when she spotted a piece of crumpled up note paper and picked it up. She threw it around the corner and that alerted the guard.

"Who's there?" he called out.

Hoofsteps could be heard coming from around the corner, and now Twilight was caught with a problem, but Twilight remembered a certain spell she could use on the guard that could get rid of him for good. So, she started to conjur a magical spell, but this was no ordinary spell, it was a dark magic spell. Once the guard turned the corner, Twilight fired off a magical beam that engulfed the guard in a blast with a cloud of thick, grey dust. Once the dust cleared, there stood the guard frozen in glass. This spell was something she had learned on a very thorough study of dark magic, she had found a spell to turn any living organism into a full glass figure, so Twilight simply knocked over the now-glass pony and watched as he shattered into pieces in front of her eyes.

She made her way to the dungeon's door, which was down this long corridor, until she heard the recurring voice call out her name.

"Twilight Sparkle...." the voice called out.

"Who is that? Show yourself!" Twilight yelled.

Suddenly, the lights in the corridor all flickered out, leaving her in the darkness. Then, a small light source appeared, coming from a forest green horn that now revealed a shadow-like face appearing from the dark corridor with eyes that matched the horn. Twilight started to panic, and was breathing heavier than before as the figure got closer. Once it made it to a face to face distance, Twilight screamed out in terror, to which she heard hooves running across the brick floor of the castle, at which point the lights all came back on, and Twilight's friends made it to her. Twilight was visibly shaken by the visual she had just seen.

"Twilight, what's the matter?" Fluttershy asked first.

"We heard a scream, are you okay?" Rainbow also asked Twilight.

"Th-there was a shadowy figure that just appeared, I saw it!" Twilight yelped, still shaking in fear.

Her friends looked concerned at this point, she was breathing heavily, visibly shaking and her whole body was cold like a corpse. They came over to comfort the unicorn who was not well, when suddenly, the lights in the corridor went out again, and this time all the ponies and Spike could see the source of light emitting from a forest green horn. Ominous laughter could be heard coming from the shadowy figure which vanished a few seconds after and the lights all came back on. They instantly believed that Twilight was telling the truth, and to seal the deal, the voice was now audible to all of them.

"Perfect....." taunted this voice.

Then, out of some feat of magic, Twilight's friends were teleported away to an unknown location, followed by Twilight being teleported to an underground throne room of sorts. The floor was surrounded by a sea of lava, and the floor was made of solid stone hovering only a few feet above the hot lava. The room was visibly empty, until Twilight was able to spot two cages on the left and right side of a large, rock throne perched ahead of her. Inside the cage on the left of the throne were Twilight's friends and Spike, and in the cage on the right contained Princess Cadance, whom Twilight seeked to find as soon as she heard the news.

"Cadance!" Twilight yelled out to Cadance, who was visibly weak.

"Tw..Twilight!" Cadance called out, too weak to even stand.

"Girls! Spike!" Twilight called out to her friends.

"Help us!" called out her friends.

Twilight then saw a mysterious green cloud circling her legs, which ascended to the throne and started to take a form, first spawned the very ghoulish figure Twilight saw only moments ago, with a forest green horn and eyes, but started to take the form of a pony. It spouted a head, a torso, hair and then legs. The figure was revealed to be none other than King Morior, who was able to transform himself into a cloud of green mist under his father's teachings, the only difference is that his father was a cloud of orange dust, but it was the same element spell with a different cosmetic effect.

"So, Twilight Sparkle, we meet for the first time, I am King Morior!" King Morior introduced himself.

"Let my friends go, Morior" Twilight demanded.

"Hah, Twilight Sparkle you are so naive, do you honestly think I would let your friends go?" Morior questioned Twilight.

"I know all about your little "Elements of Harmony" adventures you've had, and knowing that, I could never release your friends. I'm not an idiot" Morior snorted in derision.

"Oh yeah?" Twilight responded, and suddenly shot a magic blast towards Morior's throne.

Morior ducked and watched as the blast smashed a wall behind him, and collapsed a pillar, which came towards Morior, who turned into his green mist form and hovered away before the pillar crashed into the throne.

"Oh Twilight Sparkle, you're so cute when you're angry, you know that?" Morior taunted Twilight.

"Well alright Twilight Sparkle, you want a showdown?"

"Let's do it" Twilight replied.

Morior took back to his decayed pony form, and then his green eyes started to glow a dark scarlet like the sky in the empire, as he shot a simple green energy blast at Twilight, hitting her and knocking her backwards.

"C'mon Twilight Sparkle, show me what you've got!" Morior taunted.

Twilight focused her magic, and shot a steady beam towards Morior, who fired a beam back towards Twilight, causing each magical energy blast to be cancelled out.

"Surely you can do better than that" Morior yawned.

She then focused, her eyes turning green and emitting the purple smoke similar to what Celestia taught her during the events of the Crystal Empire, which made Morior confused. Then, suddenly a dark green blast emitted from Twilight's horn, striking Morior in the chest and sending him backwards.

"You mean like that, your highness?" Twilight taunted.

Morior moaned and started to stand up again.

"Okay, so you can also use dark magic, big whoop" Morior said, not as confident as he once was.

Morior started to conjur a magic spell, his eyes glew the dark scarlet they always do, and the fired off a large blast of energy that started to shatter large areas of the stone floor beneath them, to reveal the lava below the platform. This extra obstacle frightened Twilight, as even one screw-up could end with her falling and burning alive in the lava below.

"What's the matter Twilight Sparkle, are woo a wittle scared of witte bit of wava?" Morior taunted with baby talk.

Twilight then fired a magical energy blast at Morior, which whizzed right past his head, and hit the cage that Cadance was being held in, destroying the cage. Cadance was able to crawl out of the cage, but peeked out at the lava below and just stayed where she was, too weak to move or fly, and her magic being restrained by her inhibitor ring.

"Ah ha ha, is that all you did was free her from her cage? She's way too weak to even fly, that was of no use!" Morior roared..

Morior fired another magical blast, but this time it had hit the base of the platform Twilight was standing on, causing it to fall into the lava. Twilight was quick to react and jumped to the rock platform to the right of her before it sank in the inferno.

"You're quite quick for being such a foal, Twilight Sparkle, perhaps I should make this harder?" Morior asked, before conjuring another magical blast.

He shot this blast at the ceiling, causing jagged chunks of rock to come falling down from the roof, right above Twilight. As the rocks began to fall, Twilight used a levitation spell to the best of her abilities, and was able to drop two of the rocks into the lava safely. With the third one now falling, she used her levitation magic and threw it at the platform Morior stood on, shattering the platform, but not fast enough as Morior avoided death by changing into his mist form and floating to another platform before changing back.

"Aha, very well done Twilight, I can see Celestia's abilities are rubbing off on you nicely" Morior complimented her magic abilities.

Suddenly, Cadance had gained back her strength, as was visible by her standing up, flying over behind Morior and hopping onto his back while covering his eyes, blinding him temporarily as Twilight blasted him with with an energy blast back to his throne area, or what was left of it.

"Cadance, you're alright!" Twilight yelled in glee, as she hugged her old foalsitter.

Twilight then removed Cadance's inhibitor ring, and then had a magical surge which caused her to send out a blast that shattered a pillar, causing it to fall into the lava below.

"I've read that happens with inhibitor rings" Twilight giggled.

The ominous laughter could be heard coming from over by the throne, as Morior started to slowly stand up. Twilight and Cadance were horrified with what they had seen, as Morior's face had been partially ripped off after hitting one of the jagged rocks, the flesh hanging off of his head before falling off into the lava.

"You think a simple accident like that can stop me?" Morior yelled, as part of his jaw was visible when speaking.

Morior conjured a spell, and now Twilight was trapped in a force field surrounding the platform she stood on, leaving Morior and Cadance alone to duel amongst each other.

Blast after blast, spell after spell, but Cadance was much too strong for Morior to conquer. Cadance had blasted Morior to the ground, and he had fallen weak to her magic. Then, Cadance made a daring leap towards Morior's weakened body, flew up in the air and aimed her horn. She was planning to impale him with her horn to finish him off, and that's what she went to do. As she reached close enough to him, it turns out he was playing possum, as he reversed the situation and impaled Cadance with his jagged horn, right through the chest. Her body just went limp and fell onto the platform he was on, then he turned to his mist form and floated over towards Twilight.

"CADANCE!" Twilight screamed, devastated at what had just happened.

"Don't worry, she's not dead...yet" Morior said, as he began to laugh.

Twilight started to cry, she just lied down, covered her face with her hooves and was absolutely crushed as her favorite foalsitter, and sister Cadance was dying because of the evil king.

Morior released Twilight from her force field prison, and came over to comfort the crying mare.

"Don't be sad, Twilight Sparkle, we can start a whole new life together" Morior told Twilight.

"Wh..what do you mean?" Twilight asked.

"If you join me, and become my apprentice, nothing but good will come your way, I can guarantee you that" Morior commented, hugging Twilight.

"So, would you like to join me in my rule, and become more powerful than you could possibly imagine?" Morior gave Twilight the decision.

Twilight stopped her crying, to look at the face of the king, still visible was half his face that was ripped off from hitting that jagged rock.

"I'll do it, your highness" Twilight answered.

Twilight's friends were all shocked at her friend's decision, as she shook hands with the king.

"Oh no, Twilight...." Spike commented, with a sad tone of voice.

"Your highness, can I say something before we go?" Twilight asked her new teacher.

"Yes you may, my apprentice" Morior replied.

"You truly are as dumb as they come" she said with a sly tone of voice.

Then, Twilight kicked Morior's prosthetic hind leg, causing him to fall over as she tore it off of him, the king simply just roared in pain. She then found the bolts that had kept the leg together and blasted them off using her magic, destroying his leg. She restrained him using a spell she had learned to keep ponies in a certain place for as long as it was conjured, and destroyed his other leg as he was helpless. He was roaring in pain and struggling to become free from her magical restraint, which was not working.

Twilight magically crafted a blade from the steel from his prosthetic legs, and had a devious look on her face. She crawled towards Morior's head, and wielded this blade. Then, she started to violently hack at Morior's horn, causing him to yell out in agony and still trying to escape her restraints. She continued until his horn was severed and all that was left was a bloody crater where the horn used to be, and she then tossed it into the lava below.

"Please, Twilight Sparkle, let me go, I won't hurt your friends and I'll free my citizens, just please don't kill me!" Morior started to beg, and he was weak and powerless.

Twilight simply smiled, freed him of his restraints and he was trying to stay balanced with two missing limbs that were still there, but worn down to the bone.

"Thank you, Twilight Sparkle, I am forever grateful" Morior applauded.

"Heh, you had your chance, but you blew it Morior"

Twilight said that, as her eyes started to glow green once again and emit the purple smoke, conjuring a dark magic spell. Morior was being targeted by Twilight's horn, and he desperately tried to turn into his green mist form to escape her, but that was impossible, as he was now weak and helpless. Twilight started to hover in the air, as she was beginning to cast her spell onto Morior.

"Noooooooo!" Morior yelled out.

Twilight then fired off her magical aura onto the king, surrounding him with a thick, grey smoke as his scream was cut short. Twilight knew her spell worked, and that the once boastful king has been defeated and now fallen silent. Once the smoke cleared, it was revealed Twilight had used the same spell she had used earlier on the door guard to the dungeon, and had turned King Morior into a glass figure, sitting down with his hands covering his face completely frozen in glass. Twilight then turned around and bucked the king's now glass-formed head, causing it to shatter into pieces and ultimately killing him, and she then pushed the rest of his glass body into the lava pit below, to sit there for the rest of time.

Twilight used her magic to break open the cage her friends were locked in and freed them, then looked over and saw Cadance, still lying there.

"Oh no, Cadance!" Twilight shouted, beginning to cry once again,

Twilight hopped to the platform Cadance was lying on.

She expected the worst...