The Journey Against Tyranny

by Gaius Stephanus Caesar

Rating: teen
Tags: Cutie Mark Crusaders, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Sad, Other, Princess Luna
Length: 5412

A despicable evil from thousands of years ago has returned, and he is out for reclamation and revenge. With the lives of the royal sisters in danger, can Twilight and her friends save them and the kingdom and defeat the tyrant before he kills them?

A despicable evil from thousands of years ago has returned, and he is out for reclamation of his kingdom and revenge on the two who overthrew and imprisoned him. With the lives of the royal sisters in danger, can Twilight and her friends save them and the kingdom and defeat the tyrant before he kills them?

Using the classic Disney and Don Bluth formulas, it is an adventure beyond the modern human's eye. With all the action, the romance, the darkness, and the fear of a traditional Disney story, this MLP fanfic is a story today's children may never forget.

Credit goes to 90sigma of DeviantART for pony vectors in cover.
http://90sigma.deviantart.com/gallery/38307429#/d5moy4p
http://90sigma.deviantart.com/gallery/38307429#/d5kyncx
http://90sigma.deviantart.com/gallery/?q=shocked#/d4va2hi
http://90sigma.deviantart.com/gallery/?q=celestia+down#/d5prrzn

UPDATE: 1/9/2013: I am deeply sorry to announce this story's cancellation. It has not been getting enough attention, as well as the fact that I am unable to revise the story any further. I dearly thank all those who supported this fan fiction, but unfortunately I cannot go on. I may think of another story later on, but until then, farewell.

Published 2013-01-02 21:10:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-01-06 20:51:34 UTC

Narrator's Prologue

Light-years away, in a planet far away from our Solar system, there was a small system with a single blue planet similar to our planet Earth. Unlike our planet, though, this planet had unusual inhabitants. This planet was compromised of multiple kingdoms, yet none of them were ruled by us humans. Instead, they were ruled by creatures that were unusually intelligent, including creatures that, in our planet, only existed in Greek, Roman, or another type of mythology. The most common of these kingdoms, Equestria, had a long history of peace, struggles, happiness, and magic, a talent almost all of Equestria's inhabitants, specifically ponies and dragons, had learned.

During the kingdom's deadly struggles, thousands of years ago, before the reign of Discord, Sombra, and the Nightmare Moon incident, a more menacing, deformed alicorn, sinisterly named Saddamius, reigned the kingdom in a period of turbulence. Unlike Discord, Sombra, Nightmare Moon, and the Changeling Queen Chrysalis, Saddamius had a number of characteristics that made him the most feared monster of Equestria. His fur was a mix of red and black, creating a color so horrifying, even his own men feared him. His face was half burned, as if he had carelessly played with fire when he was just a colt, and his eyes were red, completely red, always looking redder when he caught sight of his next victim. He had a cutie mark in the shape of a pony’s skull, showing how deadly he was to anypony.

The truly evil demon’s regime was marked with corruption, destruction, torture, imperialism, senseless violence, repression, censorship, brutality, and notoriously, death. In the middle of his regime, he began a campaign to destroy any resistance, local or national, against him, and the millions who were condemned were tortured brutally, forced to work in emaciated conditions, or were executed in the most brutal ways possible, either being dipped into an alligator pool, chopped into six pieces, burned, or, in cases of high treason, instantly poisoned to death by his long, sharp teeth. The poison was so quick and powerful, death would occur exactly two seconds after the victim was pierced by the diablo's teeth . Lasting for hundreds of years, the campaign resulted in the deaths of millions of ponies, including members of the dictator's cabinet that had fallen out of favor. Many of these victims were innocent of any crime, no matter if it was treason or simply not showing up on time at the labor camps. Nopony could escape his wrath; not even the smallest filly or colt was safe from being sent to work at a sweatshop.

One of the members of the Black Army, an immortal black dragon named Corinthians, was in the position of High General at the height of the campaign. He felt sympathy for the families of the victims who were purged, and felt guilty for the atrocities he was forced to commit under Saddamius's orders. Saddamius grew suspicious of Corinthians every time he discovered the High General feeling remorse for killing an innocent condemned person. One day, the dragon defied Saddamius when he was ordered to kill a family, and the diablo tried to execute him. Corinthians and several of his troops managed to escape the scene and went to the Everfree Forest for refuge. Saddamius issued an all-out ponyhunt for the four traitors, which ultimately ended in failure.

As the deadly campaign came to an end, two young immortal alicorns, named Celestia and Luna, used their powerful magic to challenge and imprison Saddamius in a huge tree down in the Everfree Forest. The magic was so powerful, Saddamius’s evil magic could not stop the transformation. He screamed as the tree completely sealed him in, his hooves now trapped in branches and his wings almost crushed to break. This tree Saddamius was trapped in was unusually large in size, and could easily be spotted as the biggest tree in the dark and largely feared forest. Corinthians and his men witnessed the battle while hiding in a camouflaged hut. Following the battle, they decided to remain in the forest, knowing that the public won't recognize them, and instead wrote what they saw in their journals.

The two young alicorn sisters, happy that they had ended perhaps the most brutal regime in Equestria’s long history, assumed leadership of the kingdom and began a long period of reconstruction, abolishing Saddamius's constitution of injustice and separation, jettisoning unfair laws, and rehabilitating many of his prominent victims. Canterlot, which was in a severely dilapidated state thanks to Saddamius's actions, was reconstructed back to near-perfect state in only a few years. As harmony returned to the kingdom, justice was put in force and stability was restored. Everypony was happy thinking the evil leader had been sealed from the public forever.

But his imprisonment was never guaranteed to be forever.

As the years passed, he used telepathy to learn about the events that were happening in Equestria. He smiled to himself when anything dismal happened, such as Nightmare Moon's return and attack on Ponyville, or the Changeling invasion of Canterlot, but his smiles fell to frowns every time these events failed. He vigorously struggled his way out of the tree, his deadly magic growing more powerful in his attempts. The branches that had trapped his hooves began to go up in smoke, slowly. Nopony in Equestria knew that the tree was about to fall, because the tree was too big for anypony to notice smoke coming out of it.

Those thousands of years later, six ordinary ponies from Ponyville now hold the Elements of Harmony, three of their filly friends become desperate to find their talents to get their cutie marks, two of the Canterlot Siblings lead a Crystal Empire in the Arctic north, and the two alicorn sisters, now grown, continue to rule the rather peaceful kingdom, controlling their large planetary stars and raising them when time passes. They are all unaware, however, that an unspeakable evil from thousands of years ago is returning, not only to reclaim the kingdom he nearly destroyed, but also to hunt and splatter the blood of those who replaced him.

A Rebel's Prophecy and Past

The night was dark and gloomy at the Everfree Forest, and the only sounds that could be heard there were the sounds of crickets doing their usual chirping. It was pretty somber given that not much has happened in the forest, and the awful smell of the merciless Timberwolves doing their nightly hunt kept frightened ponies away from the large and expansive forest.

Deep in the forest, far away from any ponies’ sight, was a large, rusted hut that had been unnoticed for almost all of its lifetime. The hut was severely dilapidated, as if it had been untouched for thousands of years. The hut was in a completely blackish-greenish color, in an attempt to adapt to the forest’s own color. The creatures who painted the hut didn’t really do a good job.

Inside the hut was a single room. It was quite large and expansive, despite its extremely poor quality. The hut was mostly crowded with one bunk bed and one smaller one, each of which were occupied by skeletons of ponies in black armor, as if they had stayed in those beds for two thousand years. The skeletons stayed in their position, not moving their muscles, if they had any. There were nests of small parasprites inside the skeletons, treating the skeletons as a home or den. They laid on the skeletons, sleeping and enjoying the open air around them.

A shadow of a large dragon illuminated the room as it slowly walked to a small desk and sat down in its chair. Dragon fire illuminated a small candle on the desk’s overhead and cleared out much of the darkness. An old black dragon with glowing orange eyes slowly picked up a dusty feather on the left side of the desk, dipping the tip of the feather into a pot filled with some sort of magical ink, an ink that nopony had ever recognized before.

The dragon took a deep breath as he began to write on an old journal that he had written since he was living in exile with his men. “It has been a thousand years,” he said to himself as he wrote in his journal, taking deep breaths every time he paused, “since I have written in this journal. All of my guards have died, and now I am all alone,” He wrote whatever he said to himself in his journal, “I have spoken to the gods of our planet. An evil being that I had worked for and defied thousands of years ago...is returning.”

The dragon stopped writing for a moment, because his hands were cringing. For much of his life in exile he had feared that Saddamius would return from his imprisonment and nearly destroy Equestria again. Earlier that night, he was visiting the large tree where the notorious dictator had been imprisoned when, after looking around it, he noticed large amounts of smoke coming out from the branches, and at the same time, the ground began to shake, immediately realizing the former High General's fears. He quickly ran back to the hut and wrote down what he had saw.

The nervous dragon shook his hands and continued writing, “If any action is not taken, the lives of everypony in Equestria will be in great danger; Even the royal sisters are not safe from this...diablo.” The dragon knew that if the royal alicorn sisters were captured by Saddamius, he could not imagine what he would do to them. His fears only grew more steeper.

“It is perhaps best that I do nothing at present. I shall pray for them all.” After finishing the entry, he signed his name, Corinthians, on the bottom right side of the scroll.

Corinthians stood up from his desk, extinguishing the candle with his large hands. He walked outside, closing the door behind him. He looked up at a constellation that resembled five small stars being somehow connected to one big star. “The Elements of Harmony,” he mumbled, “I hope they are safe, too. Children, if you can hear me, your friends and families are in great danger, you must prepare for this era, or Equestria…is doomed once again.”

He closed his eyes in fear, and returned to the hut, closing the door behind him. Directing his attention at the bunk beds where the dead pony skeletons were sleeping, he spoke to them, “My sons, if you all were still around, you would help me stop this catastrophe before it would begin.” Corinthians paused as his thoughts collected from those fateful thousands of years ago. He could still remember the time he defied Saddamius by extinguishing a torch the demon had given him to burn down an innocent family’s home.

A brilliant flash, and then a familiar scene appeared in his mind. Hundreds of ponies, all dressed in black and red armor, surrounded a small straw house in Appleoosa, with other citizens and several buffalo spectating the event in horror. A simple family, compromising of a stallion, a mare, a colt and a filly, had been suspected of treason after false rumors began circulating around Equestria that someone in the town had been making blueprints of an assassination plot against Saddamius. The dictator, covered by High General Corinthians and several of Corinthians’ highest-ranking pegasus guards, had been inside the house questioning the father, the master of the household.

“We’ve heard from our advisers that you have been conducting activities against the Fatherland. Do you have blueprints in here?” Saddamius asked sinisterly. The father was shivering lightly, fearing not only for his life, but for the safety of his family as well.

"Our family would never betray the kingdom of Equestria. We’re always open to anyone no matter who they are. Please believe me, my Lord!” the stallion begged to the supreme leader of Equestria. Saddamius was undeterred, “Until I get to the bottom of this, I am placing you and your family under house arrest. If what you say is true and you and your family are indeed innocent, then you have nothing to fear.” Saddamius grinned as he left the house, taking General Corinthians and the three guards with him.

The father gulped, “But we are innocent, I assure you!” Just as the father finished his begging, Saddamius slammed the door shut. Just as the General was about to disperse with his three loyal troops, the dictator halted them, and barred the front door shut with a piece of wood. A unicorn guard used his magic to give Saddamius a torch as the dictator turned to his highest-ranking General and handed him the torch with his magic. The General took the torch with his own hands, looking perplexed.

“Burn it,” Saddamius ordered. Corinthians shook his head in shock, “What?”

Saddamius stepped back from the house. “Until there is nothing but ashes left. These ponies are traitors to the Fatherland and should be eradicated from this planet.” Saddamius pointed at the house to the General. The General felt that this raid was more like a kangaroo court, which Saddamius was notorious for implementing many times.

“Forgive me, sir,” Corinthians asked with the highest respect, “But I cannot carry out your order. I was never told that I was going to murder innocent ponies.”

Saddamius became furious; his red eyes grew redder, “But you were told about the penalty for any insubordination.” He did not appreciate it when his High General was hesitant to carry out an order he deemed to be atrocious.

Corinthians did not appreciate Saddamius’s anger. He remembered all the crimes he was forced to commit under Saddamius’s supervision. He felt tears going down his eyes. The growing remorse he had thanks to his actions made him slave to Saddamius. The three guards looked at each other, feeling sympathetic toward the General.

No longer willing to be treated like a slave to the dictator, Corinthians fought back tears and, in an act of defiance, swallowed the torch, the whole stick. The dictator's eyes grew redder, his hooves shaking on the ground.

“You incompetent traitor.”

Deciding that it was every stallion for himself, Saddamius used his magic to take another guard’s torch and, standing on his two hooves for a few seconds, threw it above the hay-styled chimney, instantly setting the house ablaze. A brave and desperate Corinthians broke into the house and saved the family just as the roof above them collapsed.

Immediately after the family gave Corinthians their gratitude, Saddamius sneaked up behind him and, using his magic, threw a large rock at the General's head, knocking him out . The dictator later attempted to bite down the dragon’s neck with his poisonous teeth, intending to finish him off, but Fire Twister, one of the three loyal guards, flew right past the dictator and set his mane on fire, distracting him as he screamed in anguish. Seizing upon the opportunity, Corinthians threw Saddamius off of his neck and fled quickly with his loyal guards, getting caught in a storm of arrows by other guards in the process. During the escape, Twister tumbled on the ground and cried out pain. Corinthians stopped, turned around, and noticed that the guard who had saved him had been hit by an arrow through his left wing. He quickly ran back and retrieved the injured pegasus as he and the rest of the unscathed guards escaped from Appleloosa and fled into the Buffalo Territory. Saddamius, now without his mane, stopped his guards, knowing the consequences of what would happen if Equestrian officials trespassed on foreign territory.

He carried a disgruntled look; he realized that he had a new traitor in his midst.

The flash subsided, as present time returned to view. Corinthians looked at Twister's skeleton. “If you hadn't saved me,” Corinthians said, “everypony in Equestria would have been caught unaware of this catastrophe.” He rubbed the skull of the deceased pony. "Thank...you."

Corinthians caught glimpse of a small flash of sunlight, implying that the early morning hours were had come. He went to his old, small bed, bowed his head, and made his nightly prayer to the Princesses. After his prayer, he climbed into his bed, covered himself with a blanket, and closed his eyes. Before going to sleep, he muttered to himself, “Elements of Harmony, heed my warning: the turbulent past you may never had heard of before is revisiting us.”

He closed his mouth, and said nothing further.

An Unsettling Day

The royal alicorns were outside the main deck of Canterlot Castle. Celestia was just raising her sun after her sister raised down her moon.They both smiled as they expected yet another bright day in the kingdom of Equestria. Just after Celestia finished raising the sun, she and Luna returned to the castle. Two guards saluted them at the door as the two sisters entered the room with the stained glass windows. Each side of the room featured different types of windows, which basically outline Equestria's long, troubled history.

“Tia?” Luna humbly asked.

“Yes, little sister?”

“I'm worried about what's going on. There has been reports of calamities all across the kingdom,” Luna said in a concerned tone. It was earlier that night when they felt the castle shaking and heard the shattering of their bedroom windows. They had no idea what was going on.

Celestia frowned. She didn't want to see her little sister worried. "I'm not familiar with this phenomenon," Celestia told her, "In fact, I don't think this ever happened before."

"The fault lines have been stable for thousands of years," Luna added, "They can't be acting up right now. It's too soon!" The moon princess became distraught as tears began to fall down her eyes.

Celestia became concerned. She knew that while she was too familiar with quakes striking Canterlot, she never thought that a stronger one would strike the capital of Equestria. This type of quake was unusually stronger than a normal, small quake most ponies expected.

The sun princess placed a wing on Luna's back. The tearful moon princess turned around and looked at her big sister. "Why are you crying all of a sudden, little sister?" Celestia asked.

"I'm scared, Tia," Luna replied, "These events could be linked. I'm afraid that something awful is about to happen." She cried as her fears began to heighten.

"Of course note, Luna," Celestia assured Luna, trying to comfort her shivering sister, "I'm sure these events will stop soon. Nothing bad will happen to this kingdom. If our subjects need help, we can go down there and investigate." Luna gave a small smile to her big sister her sister after hearing her words of confidence.

Their train of thoughts were then cut off when there was a knock on the doors. The princesses' ears perked up and the two alicorns faced the doors. “Come in,” Celestia asked.

The large doors opened, and a few moments later, a dark Pegasus in Royal Guard attire came into the room. It was Isaiah, Princess Luna’s highest-ranking lieutenant. He gave a bow to the two alicorns for a few seconds, then refocused on his task.

“Your highnesses,” he said, “The delegates of Trotlanta have arrived. There is a deadly plague going on down there.”

Celestia and Luna exchanged worried looks, then the latter spoke up, “We will be down there immediately.”

Isaiah nodded appreciatively and left the room. Celestia and Luna soon trotted their way down the castle's chambers. As they left the room, Luna asked her sister something that had been on her mind for a while, "I wonder how your faithful student is doing?"

Celestia's somber expression fell further as she thought about her student. The poor unicorn hadn't gotten much sleep in the last few days thanks to the quakes. She spoke in a worried tone, "I'm not sure she knows what is going on, either."

With their magic, the two alicorns closed the doors behind them.

The Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville was noisy and filled with ponies.

The quakes that were felt in Canterlot were even stronger in Ponyville. The ponies were unable to sleep last night thanks to the powerful quake. Though there wasn't much damage from the quakes, nopony there had been able to understand what was happening. So later that morning, much of the city's populace stormed into the library demanding answers from Twilight Sparkle, the city's librarian and Celestia's protégée.

The crowd's uproar only got louder, and there seemed no way to calm them down. Panic was gripping the city harder than someone holding on a tree branch to keep him or herself from falling.

"Everypony settle down, please!" Twilight asked loudly, with her number-one assistant Spike cringing on her back. The crowd, however, was too loud to listen to her shouts. Eventually, she bolted.

"EVERYPONY QUIET!"

The crowd settled down, finally lending their ears to Twilight. Their moods went from angry and worried to cooperative and calm. The young unicorn took a deep breath as she tried to keep the crowd calm and patient.

"Look, everypony," Twilight told the crowd. "I haven't been able to get much sleep with these quakes as well. I'm not sure what is causing this phenomenon, but I assure you I will get to the bottom of this and tell you all what is going on." She carried a confident look, trying to assure the crowd,

Apple Bloom, the youngest of the Apple family, came forward and began to speak in her western accent, "Twilight, we are all sufferin' for no reason. Ah don't want these quakes to mean something terrible is about to happen." Fear began to build up in the crowd, agreeing with the teared filly.

Twilight put a hoof on the filly's back, trying to comfort her. "Of course not, Apple Bloom." Twilight said comfortingly, "I promise I'll find out what is going on and think of a way to stop it." Apple Bloom smiled, holding faith in her friend.

"I don't understan' though," Applejack, one Twilight's friends, spoke, also in her western accent. "There hasn' been much activity goin' on in those fault lines. Why are they actin' up all of a sudden?"

"I'm not sure," Twilight replied. "In fact, I don't think these quakes are originating from there at all." The crowd began to turn clamorous again.

"Impossible!" The young filly Scootaloo shouted out, next to her idol Rainbow Dash. "The fault lines have got to cause all these quakes! They're always the place quakes originate." Dash backed her statement further.

"Listen, everypony! Until we get to the bottom of this issue, we must live with these quakes. Rainbow Dash, I want you and Scoots to check the Equestria fault line and see if anything is going on there. Everypony else must leave me so I can research this event." Rainbow Dash nodded as Scootaloo climbed on her back and the two flew out of a window. The crowd left the library and returned to their homes, disgruntled that these quakes will continue to happen. However, the remnants of Twilight's friends remained with her, all exchanging worried looks. They approached the unicorn.

"Twilight," the shy pegasus Fluttershy spoke meekly, "My animals and I haven't been able to get any sleep. The quakes are causing all of my birds to fly away in panic!"

Pinkie Pie, the expert baker and party organizer of Ponyville, spoke her story in tears about the quakes, "One night, I cried my heart out because...my beautiful cakes...all fell from the shelf." She sniffled.

The white unicorn Rarity stepped forward and spoke, "I was busy sewing a dress, minding my own business, then suddenly, the room was shaking and I messed up. My work was ruined!" She then summoned a couch with her magic and fainted on it, to her friends' surprise.

Twilight sighed in exasperation. "Look, girls, we cannot spend the whole day complaining about these quakes. I need more information. Spike and I need some time alone, or else we'll never find out what is going on." Her friends nodded in agreement and left the library, leaving Twilight and Spike alone once again.

Twilight and Spike went down stairs to the basement, taking several books about earthquakes with them. As they reached the basement, Spike began to grow worried.

"Twilight?" Spike asked. Twilight turned her gaze to Spike, and can see he was scared.

"Are you sure nothing awful will happen?"

She looked down on the floor, worried and skeptical. "I don't know, Spike...I don't know."

Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo flew above the skies of Equestria, trying to find the Equestrian fault line. Both were flying higher in order to see the surface below them well enough. The two had been flying for thirty minutes, trying to find the highly visible fault.

The Equestrian fault line was known for its incredibly long path, ranging from the woods of Ponyville all the way up to the arctic forest. The last time a major earthquake was caused by this line was believed to be a million years ago, which formed the tall mountains that housed Canterlot.

Rainbow Dash began to grow tired. "Can you find it?" she asked Scootaloo, who was looking really hard to find the line. It wasn't until a second later when Scootaloo noticed a long, continental surface in a rugged landscape.

"I found it!"

Rainbow then landed on a nearby cloud, placing Scootaloo right next her. "Do you see anything?" she asked Scootaloo, who was an expert in examining fault lines. The young filly was looking as hard as she could to see any displacement in the fault, but she could find no movement. "Nothing," she said in distaste.

Both pegasi became dismayed, thinking that they would never find out what is causing the disasters. But Scootaloo then came to a realization, "Dash," she said, "I think these quakes aren't the only problem right now."

Rainbow raised her right brow, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

Scootaloo approached her, explaining what she meant, "There might be other unusual events going on in Equestria. We need to find out about them as well."

The blue pegasus was lost for a moment, then she questioned her again, "Are you saying that these events might be...linked?" Scootaloo shrugged, unsure about giving her an answer.

Agreeing with Scootaloo, Rainbow prepped up her wings, "Let's go!" she exclaimed. Scootaloo climbed up Rainbow's back and the two jumped off the cloud and fled the fault to investigate the events.

Miles away, all the way up to the arctic north, was Equestria's beautiful Crystal Empire. It had been only several months that Royal Guard Captain Shining Armor and his beautiful wife, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza (Cadence), had assumed the throne from the evil King Sombra after a thousand years imprisonment. Now, Ponyville was not the only place unusual events have happened: the Crystal Empire had been suffering from terrible and uncontrollable blizzards all across the north for weeks. The Crystal Ponies locked themselves in their snowed-in homes, not wanting to be tossed around by the winds and snow. Dark clouds shrouded the empire, no sunlight visible from anywhere.

Inside the Crystal Castle, the grand chambers housed the two rulers of the empire, Shining Armor and Cadence. The mood in the chambers had been bleak for a few days. Shining Armor was looking at the strong blizzard outside the large glass windows, worried about his subjects. Cadence sat in her royal throne, carrying a perplexed look. Shining looked at his wife after she gave a loud sigh.

"These blizzards are showing no sign of stopping," Cadence said in a somber tone. "I don't think these events are natural."

Shining Armor tried to cheer her up, as he had been doing for the last few weeks. "I'm sure they will stop soon," Shining assured her. "These blizzard can't go on for years."

"But what if they do?" Cadence asked him. "I've never seen a powerful storm like this ever before, even up here in the north."

Shining Armor felt worried. His wife had grown sadder and sadder every week or so. They had always always viewed the Crystal Empire as a beautiful, thriving empire that they had saved from an evil demon, but now the nonstop blizzards were making the two wonder if the Empire and themselves would be buried in by snow and forgotten again, as it had been forgotten for a thousand years.

Shining Armor put his hooves on his wife's back, trying to again comfort her. "As long as our people stay in their homes and don't come out, everything is going to be okay." Cadence smiled, believing her husband's words will b.

Just then, a green flash appeared, which transformed into a scroll, most likely a letter. The two rulers, knowing that the flash came from Spike's flames, knew exactly who it was from.

"Twilight?" Cadence said, perplexed. It had been a while since the three Canterlot siblings had got into touch with each other.

Shining Armor also grew perplexed; he hadn't expected a scroll from Twilight for a while. "Something must also be happening in Ponyville. I hope Twily is doing okay." Cadence nodded with agreement.

Using his magic, Shining Armor unraveled the scroll and began reading it out loud, his wife listening and watching:

Dear Shining Armor and Cadence,

I hope you are all okay at the Crystal Empire. I've heard about the blizzards there, and I hope that they will stop soon, but I am writing this letter to tell that something similar is happening here in Ponyville and Canterlot. For the last few days, there have been reports of unstable seismic activity, and while we have no reports of casualties, the quakes are making ponies' lives harder, and for some strange reason, they are getting stronger and stronger each day.

I told Rainbow Dash during a town meeting at the library to check on the Ponyville fault lines and see if there was anything wrong, but when she came back she told me that there was nothing wrong with the faults and that she found no seismic activity there whatsoever. I couldn't believe it! An earthquake would only happen if the fault lines were unstable! I knew something wasn't right at all.

In addition to that, Rainbow also told me that she and Scootaloo had traveled to other places in Equestria and found similar problems as well. In Appleloosa, there is a large heat wave going on and many crops there are dying, leaving the citizens and buffalo there without food. In Manehattan, the power unexpectedly went out all over the city two days ago and still the technicians are baffled and can't put it back up. In Saddle Arabia, pets began dying there for no reason and the monarchs are extremely perplexed. In Trotlanta, a deadly flu outbreak is taking place there and is becoming difficult to tame. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna went there recently with their masks on to investigate, and they too are baffled. My teacher has been barraged with confusion in her mind over what is happening.

All in all, I believe these catastrophes and events are linked, but I cannot understand what they are linked to. My books can't tell me anything, either. My poor Spike can't sleep and I'm having trouble sleeping as well thanks to all the quakes. I just hope someday I will find out what is going on and get to the bottom of this. I hope the Princesses are alright; nothing catastrophic has happened in Canterlot. I fear, though, that something devastating will happen all across the land. I won't let that happen. I must continue researching these events.

Again, I hope you are both okay, and I feel the same way about your subjects and servants. My prayers will be to everyone in Equestria to hope these events will stop.

Sincerely,

Twilight Sparkle

Shining Armor put down the letter after reading it. He looked at his wife, both exchanging worried looks.

"You're right," Shining uttered to his wife. "This isn't natural at all. Something is happening."

Cadence fell to Shining Armor's arms, tears falling in her eyes. "Oh, my husband!" she cried, "What are we going to do?"

Shining patted her with his hooves. "Don't cry, honey. We'll think of something."

Unfortunately for everypony, it may have been too late.