The Alicorn War

Immediately, the jaws of everypony in the room dropped. The form of the alicorn became clear. She was tall and thin, with beautiful lavender fur. Her mane flowed just as Celestia’s did, but it wasn’t multicolored. It was white, made of pure magic, and almost too bright to look at directly. There were no irises in her pupils, just the same white as her mane and tail. When she finally spoke, it was the best and worst thing that had ever happened. Her voice was beautiful and painful at the same time. In it were the echoes of power, weakness, joy, misery, love, hate, and many millennia of life. It also brought hope. Not the sound of the voice, but the words it formed.

“We are here to help you.”

Nopony answered. They were all speechless. They felt the need to bow, but could not make their bodies perform this action. The Upper Being blinked a couple of times, and the brilliant shining light in her eyes, mane, and tail disappeared. The color of her eyes appeared, matching her fur. She spoke again, and this time it was in a normal voice.

“Ah, I am sorry about that. The journey from one realm to another uses an awful lot of energy for an Upper Being, and drastically changes their appearance. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Queen Solaria, former ruler of Derantrov, current ruler of the First Realm. Before Equestria was called Equestria, it was called Derantrov. I am the mother of Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Prince Silverbolt.”

Nopony moved a muscle. Not even a twitch.

“Oh dear. It would seem that you are all still in shock. Hmmmm. This could be a problem.” She thought for a second. “Ooooh! I have a fun idea!” She giggled like a little filly. “I’ve always wanted to use this thing.” She walked over to Silverbolt, who was still in shock, and touched her now glowing horn to his metal hoof. It glowed, and sent out a tremor through the floor. That was enough to make everypony come out of their state of shock.

“Um- er- “Twilight stuttered as she tried to figure out what to say. “Your majesty! Queen Solaria! Umm, welcome to Equestria… and the Third Realm, I guess.”
“Well, thank you Twilight Sparkle. But there is no need to call me “your majesty”. Queen Solaria is fine.”
Luna stepped forward.

“Mother, I have missed you. It has been over two thousand years since you died.”

“Has it? Time passes differently in the First Realm. It feels like it could have been month.”

“Guys?” Silverbolt stepped up to stand beside Luna. “I hate to interrupt this lovely conversation, but we can catch up later. Right now we have some big problems. Like taking care of The Darkness.”

“Well,” stated Solaria. “You actually have another problem; you just don’t know it yet. I will offer some insight. Have any of you thought about where your friend the Prophet has gone?”

“Well, yeah!” answered Rainbow Dash. “He’s right heerrrrrre…. Umm guys? Where did he go?”

“I’m right here, of course!” He walked into the Great Hall. His timing was perfect. “I’m not much for fighting, so I was scouting around the castle a bit. And I’ve found something you should see.”

“What is it?” asked Twilight.

“Just come and see.” With that, he walked out of the room.

Silverbolt went after him first, followed by everyone else. Twilight brought up the rear, deep in thought.
“We can’t trust him. But I can’t let him know I don’t trust him. I’ll just watch, and make sure he doesn’t do anything suspicious.”

The Prophet led the group down a lot of stairs, going lower into the earth than any living pony had ever gone. They were in the catacombs of Canterlot. Finally, they arrived at a small cavern, with the dark maw of a deep cave facing them.

“It’s just through here.”

“Wait!” Twilight’s yell stopped everypony in their tracks. “Guys, there’s something I haven’t told you. About a week ago, I was visited by myself from the future. She told me not to trust the Prophet. I really don’t think that we should follow him into that cave. I’m also kind of wondering why you all just decided to trust him when we’re at war and you don’t even know him.” She gasped. “Ohmygosh! He must be casting some sort of spell on you to make you trust him!”

The Prophet smirked. “Twilight, do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?”

“No!” shouted Silverbolt. “She’s not ridiculous. You’re casting a spell right now, with dark magic. I can feel it! You lied to us!” His horn glowed silver and revealed the dark mist oozing from the Prophet and swirling around everypony present.
The Prophet’s smirk turned into a frown. He spoke, and his voice changed drastically. It was much deeper and more evil.

“Well, well, well, Twilight Sparkle. You are smarter than I originally thought. It would appear that I have underestimated you. To be honest, which is not something I do often, I had not planned on revealing myself this early in the game. Unfortunately, you have forced my hand. And now, my little, puny ponies, you will feel the might of Dyvrex, general of The Darkness armies.” He grinned. “That’s me, in case you hadn’t guessed!”

Dark fog materialized, encircled the group of ponies, and began to drag them into the cave. Silverbolt immediately counteracted Dyvrex’s magic with his own, successfully driving back the fog.

“Bah!” shouted Dyvrex. “I am far too limited in this form. But no matter! I only need you!” He turned towards Silverbolt. “Once The Darkness controls your magic, we will rule all of the Realms!”

Solaria started walking towards them. “Not so fast, Dyvrex. What makes you think you have a chance against me?”

“Me, alone? No chance.” He snickered. “Fortunately, I’m not alone.” He hissed, and a horde of Darkness poured out of the cave.

Solaria’s eyes glowed with the magic that only an Upper Being can channel. A Darkness unicorn near her screamed as it glowed, smoked, and dissolved into ash. Then another, and another, and another. Luna strafed the horde with midnight blue beams of magic, mowing down wave after wave of Darkness. Silverbolt, who had never actually shown how powerful he actually was, was at the center of the mob of Darkness. He shot silver bolts of lightning from his horn, and electricity arced from various points on his body, disintegrating countless Darkness ponies.

Twilight watched the fight in awe, suddenly feeling a little inferior. She wanted to help, but while learning the magic of friendship, she had never bothered with any battle spells powerful enough.

Hundreds of The Darkness had fallen, but more kept coming. The three alicorns all knew that they couldn’t keep up the display forever. They were slowly being overwhelmed, but they had no choice but to keep fighting until their magic was gone. Suddenly the entire cavern shuddered violently. Dyvrex looked around nervously.

Twilight heard a noise in the tunnel they had come through. She turned around just in time to see Discord stagger through. He smoking, one horn was on fire, and his eyes were desperately trying to become uncrossed. He was still, however, a welcome sight.

“Discord!” yelled Fluttershy, running up to him from the corner where she had been cowering. “Oh dear! Are you okay? Did you get Princess Celestia?”

“I’m fine, Fluttershy. Just a bit singed. And yes, I saved Celestia’s life, a fact that I will never let her forget. Unfortunately, being in the Second Realm for so long almost snapped her mind. I left her with the royal medics, but I don’t think she will be fighting anytime soon. Me, on the other hand…”

“Discord!” yelled Luna. “Help us!”

Dyvrex’s head snapped around to look at Discord. “Get him!” A wave of Darkness surged forward. Discord snapped his fingers and turned them all into pink cupcakes.

“In honor of our late friend Pinkie Pie.” he said sadly.

All of the remaining Darkness ponies looked around. Now that their ranks had been so drastically thinned, they weren’t so sure that they could win anymore. They all slowly backed up before Silverbolt’s stamped his metal hoof and let the shockwave kill the already weakened Darkness horde. However, it only made Dyvrex stumble a bit. He growled at Silverbolt.

“Next time, Silverbaby, you won’t be so lucky. The Darkness will win this war.” His eyes flashed. “But here’s a parting gift. Good luck leaving this place alive!” As he teleported away , a web of cracks spread across the ceiling. Large chunks of rock began to fall. Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash jumped off the ledge where they had been taking cover. Rainbow Dash immediately ran up to Silverbolt.

“Ohmygosh! That. Was. AWESOME! They were all like RAARRGGHH and you were all like ZAP ZAP ZAP and then they all tried to run away and- Oh, sweet Celestia. I sound like Pinkie.”

Discord smiled. “Well enough chit-chat. Time is candy! Hehehe.” The smile disappeared. “But really, we should be going. I’m afraid we have some nasty surprises to deal with.” A boulder hit the ground right next to him. “Yeah, we should really be going!”

The group began to run towards the tunnel. The ceiling shuddered and broke off more rock, causing some narrow misses with the ponies below. Rarity screamed.

“Eeek! There’s some dust on my beautiful coat!”
Applejack stopped and stared at her. “Rarity, would y’all stopped whining about-“ She was cut off when a large boulder landed on top of her.

“Oh!” Fluttershy turned her head away from the horrible sight. Rarity screamed again and began to try to dig under the boulder, not caring if her coat got dirty. Rainbow Dash flew over and tried to push it off of Applejack. Twilight used her magic to try and move it, but despite all of their efforts, the rock didn’t budge.

They finally stopped their efforts when a pool of blood began to seep out from under the chunk of stone. Twilight bowed her head and whispered “She’s dead.”

Discord walked over to them. He had a tear rolling down his cheek. “We need to leave. Now.” They all walked away from what was now Applejack’s tombstone. All sense of victory was gone. As they traveled back to the surface, Twilight had one thought running through her head.

“We may win this war, but at what price?”