The Tephra Empire

by TrippyHooves

Rating: everyone
Tags: Dark, Sad, Adventure
Length: 2220

The Tephra empire isn't all that great, but we'll give the a chance with a clean slate.

Trippy Hooves learns more about a new empire to come to Equestria even though it has been there all along. The Empire was considered a dark empire because they had kidnapped Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and nearly killed them. The kind heart of Princess Celestia is giving them another chance and giving them space above ground in Equestria to maintain their empire's reputation.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-03-06 10:00:01 UTC

Chapter One

Trippy awoke in canterlot to the sun coming through the window. He looked outside to see the position of the sun. He saw it was nearly noon and he had a meeting with Princess Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Shining Armor. He quickly got ready, put on his glasses, and left in a hurry.

He arrived seeing no one in the hall. He turned around to hear the door close he turned back to see a grey coated mare come from behind Celestia's throne. She was a unicorn and had a dark shaded mane. She came closer and said, "Why have thee come?" Trippy looked closely and then asked,"Why are you here, and who are you?" She smiled and closed her beautiful eyes.

"I asked first! Why are you here?" She yelled as her eyes turned to total black and her horn sparked as rocks bursted through the side windows.

They looked like Tephra rocks. Trippy backed up and then produced a fix it spell to repair the hall and blast the strange mare back.

"I'm the higher authority! Why are you in the royal hall?" Trippy said with fierce attitude.

"What makes thee high in authority?" She asked in pain.

Trippy gladly responded, "I am Princess Luna's student who has finished his studies!"

She stood up and said, "That makes you high in authority?"

Trippy then finishes off with,"General of the New Lunar Republic."

She walked closer with enthusiasm on her face. She smiled as she walked closer. Trippy back up admitting fear. She then said, "You're here for the meeting?"

Trippy then moved forwards toward her and answered, "Yes, where are the others?"

Then she turned and said quietly, "I do not know. I'm part of the Tephra empire."

Trippy looked interested as he said, "Tephra? I haven't heard of this empire."

She turned back and explained, "We live underground beyond the forgotten caves beneath Canterlot. It takes a while to come up here to see others, that's why we are unheard of."

Trippy looked as if he was looking at a dead flower."I'm so sorry for your trouble." Trippy said.

They then heard the door open behind them to see the others. "Trippy, Serine, we are sorry we are late. There was trouble in Ponyville, again. That strange pony with the weird eyes was causing trouble, yet again."

Celestia walked with Luna to her throne. "Alright, shall we get to business?" Luna said with a sigh.

"Trippy, I see you've met Serine."  Celestia said while winking.

"Why are there rocks everywhere? Its a mess!" Luna complained.

Princess Celestia rolled her eyes and then said,“ Never mind that little sister, we have deals to be made with the speaker from the Tephra empire.”

Trippy looked at Serine for a brief moment, She looked scared, nervous, almost like she was about to fade into a darkness.

“Serine, welcome to above ground Equestria!” Celestia said joyfully.

Serine looked up with fear in her eyes as she said, “Thanks for allowing me to be up here princess. Normally us Tephra aren’t appreciated around Equestria.”

Luna stopped running her hoof through her mane and interrupted,”Maybe, just maybe, it’s because your empire nearly killed me and my sister.”

Celestia’s eyes widened as she said, “Luna, how dare you talk to our guest like that!”

Luna started playing with her mane again and said, “Well it did happen!”

Celestia snapped back, “You and I both know they had no power over what they nearly did.”

Trippy looked at Serine to see a tear running down her face. Trippy went over to her to tell her she was fine.

Princess Cadance and Shining armor came through the doorway as Celestia and Luna were arguing. Cadance saw Serrine’s emotion on her face. Cadance walked up to the arguing princesses and used a spell to shut them up. She then said, “What is going on here!” Luna looked down with a small frown on her face.

Cadance walked over to Serine and said, “Serine, thank you for coming. Celestia, Luna, Trippy, Shining, and me couldn’t be happier.”

Shining then came in saying, "Yes, we understand that you would like claim part of equestria as your own?"

Serine looked up and said, "Yes, above ground would be nice."

Shining sighed, "I'm afraid Equestria is limited on space."

Serine's face filled with darkness. "But we have came across some unknown space that is being inspected right now.” Shining said with a smile.

Serine then looked up and wiped the tear from her face then smiled. Trippy looked over at Luna to see her with a unenthusiastic look. As the meeting drew to a close Trippy said his goodbyes as he walked out and flew back to his home.

The meeting was quite long, it was nearly time for Trippy to get some shut eye. As Trippy began to doze off he thought about Serine and tried to imagine how tough her life must be. He then fell into a dream in which he was with Serine. They were just talking, nothing else was happening. As they talked a faint sound could be heard in the distance. Trippy looked up to see the skies turn to grey as the sound grew louder. He looked back at Serine seeing her changing. She changed into Luna.

“Trippy! My student, what are you dreaming about?” Luna said with anger.

“I was dreaming about Serine and well, thats it.” Trippy said honestly.

Luna’s face grew with disappoint and then she said, “Trippy, You may have finished your studies but that doesn’t mean I'm not in charge of you anymore. You’re still my student.”

Trippy looked up at Luna to see her smile. She then said, "This empire nearly killed me Trippy, I don't want the same for thee."

"Luna, I am fine, I feel I can watch my actions.” Trippy said with confidence.

“Trippy, I am in charge of you, I must watch over you no matter the concern. I am the one who took you under my wing since you were a foal!” Luna informed.

Trippy could understand where Luna was coming from. Luna was almost like a mom Trippy never had. Luna had then flew away as Trippy awoke from his dream to see it was about sun rise. He got out of bed and tried fixing his mane to look at least respectable. He then grabbed his bag of missionary plans and headed towards the New Lunar Republic base to meet this weeks new recruits.

Once he arrived he walked to his office to prepare for the newbies. He set down his bag and then left out to the recruits to introduce himself. As he walked and paced in front of them he looked at one particular pony. Trippy asked the pony, “What’s your name?”

The pony said, “Thunder Eclipse, sir.”

Trippy smiled at the name and then said. “What kinda a name is that?”

Thunder then answered. “My family’s name, passed down from generations sir.”

"How in the blue hell does thunder relate to an eclipse?" Trippy said with a hint of laughter.

The widened eye pony did not respond showing off his fear. Trippy liked seeing fear brought to others eyes. It gave him a reason to go through the day. He then walked away from the new recruits and headed straight for his office to work on the plans for protection to the new Tephra empire.

Trippy couldn’t help but think about a new empire being part of Equestria. He was happy that the protection was being handled by him and his troops but it was concerning. Trippy wanted to find out more about this empire and try to find out what happened between them, Luna, and Princess Celestia. He then decided to go and ask Luna what had happened back then with the empire.

Trippy wasted no time trying to find Luna. He searched high and low, low and high, and high to low. It was clear she wasn't there, Trippy had to go to see Celestia to find her sister’s location. Trippy then went to find Celestia but failed. No Royal Guard knew where she went. One Royal Guard said, “All the Princesses are gone! None of them were seen since this morning!”

Chapter Two

Trippy rushed to celestia’s throne to see a small piece of paper in front of it. The paper had a drawing of a map of equestria. The Tephra empire’s soon to be location was circled. Trippy then grew with anger knowing what was happening.  Trippy was in agreement with Luna. The empire that he was planning to protect was about to murder the princesses of equestria. Trippy then rushed out of Canterlot and flew straight towards the new Tephra empire. His recurring headaches were distracting him from the conflict at hand. When he arrived to the location he saw nothing there. He then remembered the empire was underground. He then went to a library in the nearest town. It was Ponyville. His head was filled with voices he hadn’t heard outside of his dreams. He could barely think on what to do. He tried magic to get to the library but failed as the attempts would hurt his head even more. He decided to fly, but it was still a challenge to stay in the air. This library was where Princess Twilight Sparkle lived and obviously no one was here. He found a book on the Tephra empire, which was well organized. The book had nothing on its location.

Trippy was stumped on ideas. He were to give up if he didn't remember one faint detail he was told by Serine. Trippy remembered her saying something and tried to remember her exact words. Beyond the forgot caves of canterlot? Trippy knew that must’ve been it.

He then traveled to the caves and went through them trying to find a way. His mind felt empty.  He then saw everything turn to black until he was floating in a empty black room.

“Trippy Hooves of The New Lunar Republic.” A voice said with an echo.

“Wha-, what is going on. Where the hell am I?” Trippy asked.

“I have been watching you since you’ve met with Princess Luna.” The voice said calmly.

“Please, Don’t do this. I hate this!” Trippy demanded.

“You may wonder why you are an alicorn, correct?” The voice asked as if it knew the answer.

“Well, yes. Only Princesses can be alicorns! Why am I special?” Trippy explained.

“Trippy, you have done well with your task, your destiny must be fulfilled though, where you belong.” The voice then stated.

Trippy was highly confused as his horn’s aura turned from light blue to dark purple. Trippy closed his eyes and then opened to see him as a foal. He was underground in the Tephra Empire.

“What, Why am I here? I’m not, what?” Trippy said as he was greatly confused.

“Trippy, You are... I wanted you to go above. Live a better life than the dreadful one underground. You are truly a Tephra pony.” The said very calm like.

Trippy’s view then faded as a pony then faded in in front of him. The mare was a dark blue unicorn with dark black hair.

“No, I can't-, please, can’t be.” Trippy screamed.

“Trippy, You were meant for this empire. Please come back and fulfill your destiny.” The pony said.

“No! Let the princesses go!” Trippy demanded!

“I don’t understand. What has happened to them?” The mare asked.

“You and your empire took them! You are going to re attempt to kill them!” Trippy said with fury.

“We are not and never had tried to kill the princesses.” The mare said with confusion.

Trippy than closed his eyes and didn’t open them for at least 2 minutes. When he did open them he was in front of Celestia’s throne to see Celestia standing in front of him. Trippy had a extremely bad head ache.

“Trippy, are you okay?” Celestia asked.

“Wait, how do I get-, What happened? Wheres the mare? The blackness?” Trippy screamed.

“It was strange. You ran in here then your eyes turned to black and then you fainted. You’ve been lying there for about 2 minutes.” Celestia explained.

“The room around me was dark. Complete black, and I heard a voice. It was very calming but didn't make sense. It told me I was truly a Tephra pony.” Trippy said very fast.

“Trippy, go get some rest. You need to fight those visions and voices in your head.” Celestia suggested.

Trippy always had weird day dreams but never of this form, it felt too real. The way Celestia explained things made it seem like his mind was taken over.

“Um, Celestia? Where is Luna?” Asked Trippy.

“I’m pretty sure she is at the new sight of the Tephra Empire.” Celestia answered.

Trippy then walked away not saying a word. The royal guards looked and stared at him. The royal guards saw what had happened to Trippy earlier but Trippy wasn't aware they did.

Trippy tried thinking more about the vision and what happened within it. He knew he doesn’t have parents. He didn’t need parents, Luna was the one that took care of him when he was a filly and she still does. Infact, Trippy didn’t want parents.