The cold wind blew through the snow covered plain, though the forests of naked trees and between the towers of a great castle at the top of a small lonely mountain, carrying with it the contents of snow filled clouds. The castle stood tall and proud with a great view over the massive city at the foot of the mountain to the west, and the ever expanding sea to the east. The castle consisted of three layers of walls, each more fortified than the pervious.
The first layer was filled with barracks and all kind of training grounds so the defenders of the great castle could get to their posts on the outer wall within minutes.
The second layer of the castle could only described as a small ring formed town of overly wealthy mansions. It was here the elite of this country’s society lived. Most of the citizens were of noble blood.
In the third and last layer of the great castle was a beautiful place as the rest of the castle it wasn’t very old, a decade tops. It was a mix of many cultures from many different races that once upon a time would have thought this marvelous construction impossible. The corridors were massive, with furniture and decorations of all types. From the selling hung great banners in different colors with the nation’s symbol in the middle. Right now the great castle was silent. It was long past midnight and the only sounds were coming from the steel clad guards patrolling every corner of the castle grounds. The guards who were outside in the cold weather constantly shifted their graze to the heavens with the dark clouds. The rookies were always told by the old veterans to watch the sky closely.
“You should watch the sky more closely than what’s in front of you. You will never know when the enemy will swoop down out of the blue and take your head. My entire battalion was wiped out by the enemy before we even knew what had hit us. I only survived because the guy in front was launched right into me and knocked out cold.”
That was only one of many telling of the clashes with the enemy. The old veterans talked about them as if the enemy was monsters spawned from deepest and darkest corner of hell, but not all had that view on the enemy, though she still hated them to no end for what they had done. Right now she sat in one of the highest towers of the castle, looking out of the windows facing the sea. She toke a deep sigh, it was a sigh full of tiredness and heavy sorrow. She looked at her reflection in the windows.
On her head right behind her long horn rested a golden tiara with a shining purple crystal formed as star in the middle. The star had two scratches crossing each other in the middle, smaller scratches sprung from the two bigger ones. Right now she was wearing a beautiful decorated dark purple dress with dark blue and pink patterns and designs over her lavender colored coat, covering everything from her chest to her tail. There was a hole on each side of her back to make room for her great wings, which for the time being was folded along her sides.
She turned her back to the window and looked around the room. To her right were the decorated gold double doors that lead out of the room and into a small corridor. At the end of the corridor was a spiral staircase that led down to the other levels of the tower. On the other side of the room was a large bed, big enough for three regular ponies to sleep comfortably beside each other. At the nightstand beside the bed were a lot of old pictures of old times. At the opposite side of where she stood was a fireplace, a small fire lit the room and pushed the cold from the outside back. Just above it was a beautiful set of dark purple armor, designed just for her. She had never used it but that was just a question of time, she knew it better than anypony else. To the right of the fireplace was a small writing desk with lots of tall stacks of scrolls on top of it. Most of them were about national affairs like taxing, request from nobles, military reports and laws that needed her signature.
She trotted slowly over to the writing desk with tied steps and sat down, quill and ink at the ready, she began looking through the many scrolls. There she sat for a time in complete silence looking through the contents of the scrolls and signing. She had just finished what must have been 25th scroll when somepony knocked on the double doors. She looked over to doors.
“Come in” She said with a low voice although it was with as much strength she could muster at the moment. One of the doors opened a little and a little filly’s head came into view.
“Mommy, sis and I had those nightmares again. Can we stay with you tonight?” The filly looked at Twilight Sparkle with begging eyes full of fear.
Twilight looked from the filly in the door to the stacks of scrolls. She let out a small sign and turned to the filly once again.
“Of course Dusk, please come in and bring your sister with you.” Twilight said. The little filly lit up with an expression of relief and looked over her shoulder and said something, which twilight didn’t catch, to her sister, who must have been right behind her. The door was pushed open further and the two fillies walk in.
Dusk was the first to enter. She was an alicorn just like Twilight and her sister, Dawn. Dusk was the oldest of the two sisters. Dusk had a shinning orange coat that best could be described as color of the beautiful setting sun, her mane and tail floated in a non-existing wind. Just as her coat the mane and tail resembled a setting sun. She was a born leader, had a sharp mind, even though she didn’t use it more often as she should and therefore always ended up in trouble, she was also quite athletic. She did however often lose control of herself when somepony bullied or in any way hurt her sister.
Her sister on the other hoof was completely the opposite of Dusk, both in colors and personality. Dawn was quiet and shy. She didn’t have many friends and was often found right behind her sister or mother, trying to be as invisible as possible. She got a good taste for books in her early ages and can always be seen with a saddlebag full with books of different kinds science and magic, a trait she inherited from her mother.
Twilight got up from her place at the desk and walked in front of the fireplace, using a little spell to make the fire pulse up a little, while the two small ones jumped up in the giant bed. When twilight had walked over and laid herself between the little fillies on the bed with a wing folded over each of them and hugging tightly into the sides of her body and levitated the bed covers over them, Dawn asked “Mommy could you please tell us a story, if you don’t mind?”
“I don’t know it’s late. And it’s already way over your bedtime.” Twilight said softly as she looked at Dawn.
“Argh, come on mom, it’ll be just like old times, and I always love your stories about your adventures.” Dusk said with puppy eyes. Dusk knew that Twilight couldn’t resist those eyes for long, and yet again she was proven right.
“Alright, alright, you win. So what story do you want to hear tonight?” Twilight asked while she folded her wings again and shifted to a sitting position, the fillies doing the same.
“The story about how you and your friends fought the enemy back on the old continent?” Dusk asked very carefully. Twilight had always answered with a stern no. She would never tell why she didn’t want to them this story, but the fillies could feel the sorrow and pain in her answer, this adventure hadn’t gone as well as all the others.
“Alright I tell you the story. I think you two are old enough now to hear it.” Twilight said, as she prepared to begin her tale but was interrupted even before she could begin.
“Come on mom! At least give us a chan… Wait, what did you say? Did you really agree to tell the story?” Dusk asked in disbelief as she looked up to her mother to try to find any trace of her lying to them.
“Yes I did Dusk” Twilight said, with a little smile. She heard a little, yes, escape from Dusk. “But I warn you, this story is filled with those who hunt you in your nightmares” Twilight said in a serious tone.
“Really? M-maybe we should choose another story instead.” Dawn said fear of hearing a story about those who haunted her dreams was clear in her low voice. Twilight just lowered her head and nuzzled Dawn on her cheek, bringing a smile on the little filly’s muzzle as she felt safer, knowing her mother was right next to her.
“Don’t worry dear, I am sure that the ones you see in your nightmares are more horrifying than the ones im telling you about. Maybe this story will actually help you overcoming your nightmares.” Twilight said as she cleared her throat and levitated a few of the pictures of her friends, family and the princess from the nightstand over to them.
“Alright now this story is long and dark so we spread it out though the next few weeks ok... Good now it all started in the magical land of Equestria, ten years before I was queen and we came to these lands we now call Unitatem(1), and Discord had just escarped from his stone prison for a second time…”
(1) Unitatem is the Latin word for unity
Chaos and madness. Those were the two words to describe the once proud and beautiful city of Canterlot. The houses were turned into everything the mind could possibly come up with, the ponies of all three races doing the most incredible and hilarious deeds ever seen by pony eyes in all of Equestrias’ long history. Now and then an explosion could be heard in the distance, shaking the ground underneath everypony in the effected area of the city. But in the midst of all the chaos were six mares, untouched by the madness, making their way up the street to Canterlot castle as fast as this chaotic city would allow them.
“Come on girls, we got to get to Princess Celestia and Luna so we can help them defeat Discord!” Twilight Yelled at the others in the small group while picking up more speed as she maneuvered between all the craziness that was the main street of Canterlot city. The others following her lead. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flying just above the group, avoiding high speed clouds made out of candy floss which came from all directions.
“How are we even going to get to the castle with all this in our way,” Rainbow Dash asked annoyed, “can’t Discord take a break from all the chaos for just two minutes?” Just as she finished asking her question, everything went silent. The six friends stopped in the middle of the street and looked around. The street was completely deserted not a single pony could be seen or heard. It was like everypony in Canterlot had vanished without a trace except for the six mares. But it wasn’t just the ponies that had vanished, all the candy floss clouds and other chaotic things had also vanished. It just looked like a normal midsummer day in Canterlot, just without the entire population.
“What in tarnation has happened to everypony?” Applejack asked while she looked around nervously and on high alert, as if a pack of wild animals would jump out of the shadows and rip them to shreds.
“M-maybe the princesses defeated Discord a-and turned him back into stone?” Fluttershy whispered nervously, just loud enough for the others to hear her. Rarity answered Fluttershy, “I wouldn’t think so dear, why would all the ponies in Canterlot just vanish into thin air just because the princesses defeated that dreadful thug?”
“Ya’ve got a point there Rarity” Applejack said, then turned her head and looked up the empty street while narrowing her eyes, trying to get a better look at the castle at the end of the street “Maybe we should check on the princesses and see if everything is alright up in there?”
“Applejack’s right, we have to make sure the princesses are alright.” Twilight said as they made their up the street again, this time glaring around for anything that might would try to surprise them.
After 10 minutes of careful walking they finally reached Castle gate. The gate was strangely open and the courtyard behind was just as deserted as the street save for a few spears on the ground which the guards must have carried before all this happened. On the other side of the courtyard the door into the castle was ajar.
“Hey, did you guys hear that?” Pinkie Pie suddenly asked as they were halfway through the courtyard, her ears raised as she tried to catch the sound. The others stopped to listen, but everything was quiet. “Pinkie, I don’t hear anything at all. Let’s keep go-” Rainbow dash interrupted by a sharp “shh” from Pinkie Pie “There it was again, it’s coming from inside the castle.” She grinned as she bolted of into the castle, leaving the others in her wake.
“Pinkie wait!” Twilight called after her. “Argh we have to find her, let’s go girls,” they all went inside the castle and followed the sounds the Pinkie Pie’s hoofs hitting the polished marble floor. “She’s heading towards the throne room.”
As they made their way through the castle to the throne room, not a single pony could be seen. When they were just a few turn away from the throne room they began to hear weird noises. “What are those noises? Well, whatever they are we’ll the hay out of them right?” Rainbow said acting tough, although you could hear a hidden nervousness behind it.
“I-I think it sounds like chickens,” Fluttershy said with a low voice. They turned around another corner. At the end of the corridor was Pinkie Pie. She was sitting on the floor with a look of held back laughter and a look of utter confusion. Twilight walked up beside her. “Pinkie are alright, what happened?” Pinkie just brought a hoof slowly up twilight face and turned it in the direction of the throne rooms’ double doors. Right in front of the doors were three unicorn guards, one of them was Shining Armor. Twilight looked dumbfound as she and the others took in the scenery before them. Shining Armor and his two companions acted and sounded like chickens with their forelegs folded behind their backs acting like wings. There were even a few eggs lying around the floor.
“Shining?” Twilight said a bit louder than she had wanted, startling Shining armor who let out a surprised chicken noise. Shining and the other two unicorn guards ran in circles around each other before running past the shocked mares and around the corner. Right before shining past them an egg popped out from him behind and landed on the floor with a low splat.
It was quiet for few seconds before Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie fell backwards and almost laughed their lungs out. Twilight, Rarity and Applejack Just looked at them with stern expressions.
“S-s-sorry everypony, but you must agree with me and pinkie that it was just way too funny. Did you guys see the expression on Shining armors face? It was priceless, I feel kind of bad not having my camera with me now,” Rainbow Dash pulled herself to her hooves, Pinkie Pie following suit right after.
“Alright, let’s go in there and kick some meany Mc’Meany plot!” Exclaimed Pinkie as she pulled out her party cannon out from behind her back and fired it at the doors in front of her.
The doors into the throne room were blasted off their hinges and landed on the marble floor with a loud boom. The six mares rushed into the throne room.
The throne room looked like it always had, except for a whole lot of small scorched spots all over the place and random things cataloging from small plants to complex science equipment. On the podium, where the two thrones of princess Celestia and Luna are, was now only one big ugly throne with Discord sitting in it and laughing at what played out before him and the six friends.
In the middle of the throne room sat a little white alicorn foal with pink mane and tail. The little foal, also known as Celestia, lit her horn and right in front of her burst the floor on fire. She laughed happily and clapped her forelegs together, thinking she had done a great job. To the right corner of the entrance was a unicorn guard pushed up against the wall as much as possible, trying to get as far away from the still advancing little blue foal but was now trapped and could not get around the little blue abomination.
“P-please help me! S-she turned everypony else into all those random things! Get her away from me!” The guard begged the six mares as if his life depended on it. The girls didn't even had time to react, Luna lit her horn and shouted some foal noises at the guard. The guard was wrapped in a dark blue aura and with a loud poof the guard was gone, replaced with a pacifier which Luna scoped up and into her mouth and fell asleep on the spot she stood on.
Discord continued to laugh at the scene before him and fell out of his throne, he went right though the floor like a shadow crawling back into a dark hole, just to reappear on the throne out of the thin air.
“Ohoho did you see that girls? It was wonderful, wonderful I tell you! I don’t think I could have that better, if I dare say so myself!” Discord as he removed the tears forming in his eyes.
“What have you done the princesses and ponies of Canterlot!?” Twilight shouted, she had trouble hiding her anger.
“Uuh, somepony here is a little crummy today hmm? Well, it’s also nice to you girls again. As for your question, I simply casted an aging spell over both of them, turning them into foals. The ponies of Canterlot are fine too, I just send them somewhere else, you guys were way too slow to get here, I was waiting for you, you know.” Discord said as stood from his throne and walked down the podium and over to Celestia, who he lifted up in his arms.
“But I had a lot of fun with these two, they are so chaotic in this age that they put some of my wonderful work to shame” He said as tickled Celestia, in one of her weak spots. Celestia grinned cute and lit her horn. Discords face burst into flames and yelled at the surprise and dropped the little, who just unfolded her wing and floated down to the floor as light as a feather. Discord finally killed the flames in his face by summoning a glass of water and tossed it at his face.
“Ahh you see? They are totally chaotic little monsters. Well now down to business, now I’m going to kill you all.” Discord said with the most serious and cold voice the six mares had ever heard him use before.
“What in tarnation do ya mean by that?!” Applejack asked shocked, the others just as shocked and with wide eyes that only showed that they didn’t believe what they just had heard.
“I’ll kill you all, because you are the Elements of Harmony, the only thing powerful enough to stop me and I…” Discord said his face now a few inches away from Applejacks. “My dear little friend, am not going back into that stone prison again for a long, long time.”
He teleported up on top of the podium again, looking down on the six mares with a feeling of total victory with in his hands. He held out his in front of as a blood red tiny orb of magic was concentrated between them, increasing in size by the second.
“Come girls, we have to do something, and I think he’s dead serious about this” Rainbow Dash said, with fear laced into her voice. She look around at the other mares only to stop at Pinkie Pie who was waving one of her hooves in the air, trying to get the others attention.
“Hey girls, hey girls why don’t we just use elements on him like we use to do?” Pinkie asked as much enthusiasm as always while she pulled the chest containing the five necklaces and tiara out of nowhere. The others first looked at the chest then at Pinkie Pie and at last at each other, all of them thinking the exact same few words, don’t ask how.
“Alright girls let’s do this before he turn us into a giant pile of ash.” Twilight said as she levitated the elements to their representatives. When they all had their elements turned to face Discord again and they all took step forward, determination of ending this once and for all shinning in their eyes.
Discord shifted his focus from the now basketball sized red orb in his hands to the six bearers. First he felt confused when he saw they had the elements, they should have been locked up tight somewhere else in the castle. Second was the felling of understanding when he looked at Pinkie Pie, he had always love her for her randomness and it pained him a little to destroy something as chaotic as Pinkie Pie. The third and final feeling was a mix of fear and anger. Damn it! My spell isn’t ready yet and I can’t cancel it, I can’t move! He could do nothing but watch as the elements started glowing and lifting the six ponies up into the air, their eyes glowing white with magical power. And then the rainbow colored blast came.
The blast hit him with full force, not a single drop of power was held back. He felt his skin burn, like it was touching the surface of the sun itself. He lost control of the blood red orb, which tripled in size and then imploded upon itself. The burning feeling kept growing, and yet again he could only watch as his body was being destroyed. I'm dying! That was all he had time to think before his life ended.
When the final piece of Discord was gone the rainbow colored blast turned into a giant shockwave undoing everything Discords magic had done. The throne room looked like there hadn’t happened anything at all for the past few hours.
Celestia got to her hooves again, this time in her full grown form. Her head hurt like somepony had hit it with a baseball bat multiple times. She looked around, stopping when she laid eyes on the exhausted element bearers. She walked over to them and helped up again with her magic.
“Well done my little ponies! You all defeated Discord yet again, and for that you ha…” She was loudly interrupted by somepony yelling
“By Celestia’s giant holy plot, GET. HER. OFF. ME” The six friends and princess turned their heads in the direction of the yelling. On the floor to the right of the entrance to the throne room laid a lot of unconscious ponies but it was in the far corner that drew their attention.
On the floor laid the sleeping form of Luna in her normal form with a unicorn guard warped in her hooves and his horn in her mouth.
“Please get her of me, she is biting on my horn” the guard pleaded. He was only answered with a laugh from Celestia who looked at the scene with a big grin on her muzzle.
“Alright we have to get that poor guard out of there before Luna bites trough the horn… But first I need to get my camera, and don’t do anything before I come back!” Celestia said, she also threatened to send the element to the dungeon if they did .She then turned to the exit and walked away.
“Hey wait! Your highness please tell me you’re joking!” The guard didn’t get an answer and just began sob as Luna bit his horn again.
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While the six friends calibrated their victory over Discord, and that he was finally gone forever, a giant blood red orb of chaotic magic materialized in a clearing in the deeps of North Mane Forest. The forest was located in the northern region of Stalliongrad, spreading far over the border to the Griffin Kingdoms, Equestria’s northern neighbor. The forest itself was a nice place as long as you didn’t travel too far into the forest. The forest was a great home for small packs of timber wolfs, rouge dragons and other kinds of wildlife, although they weren’t very aggressive towards ponies and other travelers alike, as long they stayed away from them.
It was now in this clearing that the blood red orb began to do its magic. It hovered a meter over the ground in its center was a small black dot. All over the surface of the orb began small cracks to form. White light poured out of the cracks with a heat that set the grass around it on fire. This went on for a few seconds before the orb suddenly exploded, no shockwave or sound came from it but if you could hear reality cry you would hear it screaming out of pure agony as it was ripped apart. All life within ten miles suddenly ceased to exist, all trees and other living beings were turned into an ash like material, giving the whole area a feeling of undesirable silence, fear and pain this world should never see. The only thing left was a black dot hovering in the now ash gray clearing. But something was different about the black dot. It was slowly increasing in size, and if you had sharp eyes you could see though it to the same surroundings with the ash like material but two things stood out. There was a Large City in the background.
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Quick Wing rushed through the corridors. The only light in the corridors was the sliver light of the moon. He turned right into another corridor at the end of the corridor stood two pegasi guards in front of a set of double doors, their eyes was closed but Quick Wing had a feeling that they were staring right into his soul. He swallowed the clump forming in his throat and walked with careful steps towards the two guards. When he was a hoof length away from them he stopped. They merely turned their heads in Quick Wings direction, still with closed eyes.
“I-I have a-a message to your lord from Lord Champion Silverstar, p-please let me trough.” Quick Wing said with shivering voice, a few drops of sweat running down his face. The guards just look at each other, like they were having a conversation without the use of word. Then one the guards turned to the doors and opened of them a little and went through, closing the behind him. A small conversation started on the other side of the doors but Quick Wing didn’t catch a thing about what they were talking about. The guard inside the room opened the door and mentioned for Quick Wing to enter. Quick complied and walked in, the guard leaving and closing the door.
The room was quit big, lots of open room to move about. To the left of the entrance were rows upon rows of bookshelves, filled to the brim with all kinds of books. The bookshelves were only separated by a few doors. To the right were five sets of giant windows, facing the massive metropolis outside the castle grounds, with half a meter between them, the moonlight shining through the windows, bathing the room in its silvery light, except for the last part of the room, the one opposite to the entrance. It was in complete darkness, quick Wing could see the front half of a desk with two luxurious chairs in front of it. Quick Wing maneuvered through the room to the front of the desk, stopping between the two chairs not knowing if he should sit down in one of them or just keep standing where he stood. He chose to stand. On the desk were a small stack of documents and a snow white hoof holding a quill, writing down something on a document. He couldn’t see the owner of the hoof, the darkness was like a soiled wall.
“I bring a report from Lord Champion Silverstar. It’s about the abnormality we discovered later today.” Quick Wing said with as much confidents he could gather at the moment. The pony on the other side of the desk just kept whiting, the scratching noises when the quill went over the piece of document was his only answer. He nervously licked his lips and gathered what courage he had left and continued his report.
“Um… As I was saying, Lord Silverstar sent me to deliver her report. She and her team of scientists think it’s some kind of portal to another dimension or universe, they can’t say what caused it. The portal is also increasing in size at an increasing speed. Lord Silverstar has concluded that it will be at the size of a full grown pony in two weeks if it keep growing like it is now, She is already working on a spell to contain it if gets too big.” quick Wing made a small pause and tried to look through the darkness, trying to spot any kind of reaction but found none. He continued his report.
“It looks like it is possible to travel through it without any injuries, the scientists tried to push small incest through and with success. And now for the final part of the report, it looks like the background magic is perfectly stable, lor…” he stopped midsentence when the hoof stopped whiting and the pony behind the desk lifted its head and looked him directly into his yellow slit eyes with its own purple slit eyes. There was no white in the eyes surrounding the irises like his. There was only purple these eyes irises was a few tones darker the rest the eye with the black slits in the centers.
“What did you just say?” said a cold female voice with a hint of interest. Quick Wing felt a shiver run down his back. It took him a long time to collect himself, meanwhile the eyes turned into an evil glare that shot more and more draggers at him.
“Um, um ,um... I-I said… t-that the background magic was perfectly stable.” He said. He felt like had been running for hours in full sprint. The eyes softened and the mare behind the desk got out of her chair and walked around the desk out in the light and in front Quick Wing letting. Her coat was just as white as the finest snow. Her mane was shot and push back down her neck in a ridge like fashion. The mane and unstyled tail was rainbow colored but it looked like the colors had faded a few tones. Her cutie mark resembled an ink black cloud with a teal colored thunderbolt shooting out of it. Her pegasi body was in perfect physical form without ruining the looks of her quit attractive body.
“That what I thought you said.” She said a small smile on her muzzle. It wasn’t a cold one nor was it a warm one. She lifted a hoof and pointed it at him.
“Here is my orders, you will go back to Sliverstar and tell her to back here as fast as possible and be prepared for a meeting, when you, Silverstar and the rest the team returns you report back to me, that is all you are dismissed.”
Quick Wing bow before he left the room without a word. The white pegasi walked over to the nearest window and looked out over the city, deep in thoughts. Then she called out for one of her guards. The pegasi guard came in, this time he had opened his eye which glowed bright yellow in low lit room with slits in the middle of his irises. He bowed from his position at the door.
“What is your bedding, my Lord Champion Chaos Storm?” The guard asked, looking up at his mistress. Chaos Storm turned to look at her guard.
“Deliver a message to the rest of the Lord Champions and High Council. Tell them that I will be calling an important meeting as soon as Silverstar get back from her little trip.” She said as once again looked out of the window. The guard just stood up and left to deliver the messages. If this goes as I hope we will have one hell of a war, it’s been to long since I had a real challenge. She thought with a sinister smile on her lips as she watched great thunderclouds pulling in from the left.
