Back in Empress Midnight’s castle, the captured versions of the Grump Brothers are in a large forgery, working hard on Midnight’s armour. As the two unicorns pour chunks of metal and rock into a furnace, Daniel begins to complain, “How long have we been doing this for?”

“Only five hours, it’s barely past midnight.” Aaron replies, rolling his eyes in annoyance.

“That long? It feels like we’ve been doing this for days.”

“That what you said a minute after we got in here.”

“Don’t judge me, I don’t have a cutie mark in time, just one of a potion, so do you.”

“Well excuse me, Sherlock Whooves,” The two brothers then burst out in laughter, dropping a crumpled chunk of metal onto the cobblestone floor.

“Oh, I couldn’t take it, the build-up was too much for me.”

“You were always the one to crack up first bro,”

“But really, five hours?”

“I think so; the moon’s been sitting sit up there since we got in this weird place. Find out anything about the minions’ armour?”

“Oh yeah, from what I can tell, the metal that goes into those suits is the same alloy that we’re working on.”

“Really? But this stuff we’re throwing in the forge is the rarest form of tungsten and obsidian in all of Equestria.”

“I know right, and the metal shard we got from her suit was the exact same material as the Mork armour.”

“What about the visors?”

“Highly conductible to magic, very thick, molecularly stricter, very compact, and very adhesive, the only thing that could possibly break it is if the Mork was traveling at a vicious velocity or fly into the sun.”

“How fast?”

“Fast enough to shatter the transonic-sound spectrum, that’s faster than 1500 kilometers per hour!”

“Okay, what are our chances for us to convince the Morks to fly into the sun?”

“Face it; these minions will not be freed once these things are attached to them. Should we still tell Jack and Atlas about our findings?”

“We have to, am I the type of pony that would ditch my only friends in this place when things seem bleakest?”

“Sort of,”

“Mostly no, I am your brother, I’m not gonna ditch you.”

“You actually mean it this time, you’re not punking me or anything?”

“Despite our moment of fun, this is a serious situation, and we may still have a chance.”

“How?”

“I don’t know…”

Upstairs, inside the Mork armoury, Jack is directing three unicorn Morks next to him on how to bend and put together plates of black armour while Atlas is a drawing table, staring intensely on his designs.  “Hey, is this good?” Jack asks, his partner looks up and his face turns disgusted at the side of the hovering piece of armour.

“Why are the ears so pointy and tall?” Atlas complains, “Do you want her to kill us when she gets caught in a doorway.”

“I thought they’d be more intimidating, like a bat.”

“I still don’t why she chose bat, there are hundreds of good choices, why a bat?”

“Well what do you want me to do with the helmet then?”

“Bend the ears, make them look like horns instead.”

“That sounds nothing like a bat.”

“Ever heard of Count Dragonla? Even if it looks less like a bat, it will be at least associated with a bat.”

“Whatever, just wait till Midnight comes around here and says-”

“I love it!” A deep female voice exclaims from the doorway behind him.

“Empress Midnight!”

“You’ve read Count Dragonla? I love it! Oh, did you ever read the Daring Do and Dragonla crossover series?”

“Well,” Atlas Goni pridefully replies, “even though it wasn’t very well publicly received, I though the crossover series was decent.”

“How has your work on my new suit been?”

“A little frustrating, but we managed to get third of it established and now working on this before we work on the other two parts.”

“Well get it done in ten hours.”

“What?!”

“You heard me, I’m going to lay a final assault on the RAEM and wipe them off the faces of both Equestrias before Nightmare Night ends.”

“How do you propose we’ll be able to do so much work in so little time?”

“I believe a little leverage would suffice, some regal weight if you know what I mean.”

“You wouldn’t hurt the princesses!” Jack interrupts, “What have they done wrong?!”

“Then I suggest you work harder.”

“Fine,”

“Morks,”

“Yes empress?” The three reply in unison.

“Have you seen one of Boris’ journals, volume 17 to be exact?”

“No empress.” A low grumbling can be heard from the opening in Midnight’s helmet, her metal fists crunching and grinding in her anger.

“Need a mint empress?”

“Shut up.”

“Yes empress.”

“What did I just say?”

“’Shut up,’ is what you said empress.”

“And what are you doing right now?”

“Answering your question, empress.”

“I swear… I have to deal with this idiotic robotic behavior every day.”

“Did I do something that upset you, empress?”

“…”

“Empress, are you well?”

“I’m fine! Shut up!”

“Yes empress.”

“…”

“…”

“Now, where were we restrained-minds?”

“You evilly gloating about your evil plan of evilness.” Atlas sarcastically replies, Midnight squints her exposed eyes at him. He replies with a shrug, “It’s true…” Midnight opens her chestplate and pulls out the Alicorn Amulet with the claw not holding the other one. She then stretches her arms towards Jack and dangles the two pendants within his reach.

“Take these, but don’t wear them!”

“We’ve seen what happened when you wore just one of them, I’m not taking the chance.”

“Ha-ha, very funny, use them to find a decent place to store them.” Jack grabs one in his left hoof, yet before he can grab the other in one swing, Midnight pulls up and screams, “DON’T LET THEM TOUCH!!!”

“What in the-the-wha-why?!” Jack shudders after his leap of surprise.

“According to a theory in ‘Star Swirl’s Nano-Molecular Studies’, if two of the exact same particles were to touch, it would cause a paradoxical cataclysm so violent, it would wipe out a good chunk of space and time.”

“…”

“If the two amulets touch, you and everypony else will go boom-boom.”

“Oh.”

“So don’t mess it up. Mork, secure the second one.”

“Okay, I’ll try to be a tad less… careless.” One of the Morks levitates the amulet from Midnight and hoists it high above his own head.

“You better.” Midnight then hears the clomping of hooves near the entrance of the castle and slowly exits the room.

“Empress Midnight?” Ex-Marshal Rarity hollers from inside the foyer, squinting into the dark hallways of the palace. A loud thud can be heard behind her as her turns to see the red eyes of Midnight.

“Rarity, what brings you here? Tired of being surrounded by backstabbers?”

“The only backstabber around here is me!”

“Excuse me? I think a chunk of metal got caught in my ear or something,”

“I was caught and kicked out from the resistance. You should have seen their faces.”

“I wish,”

“I saw sadness, anger, disbelief, and disappointment on everypony’s faces. Do you know what that feels like, to be exposed to everypony knowing what you just did?”

“Actually, that’s exactly how I felt after you and the others exiled me.”

“Really? You didn’t run because you were guilty of stealing the Alicorn Amulet and nearly destroying Ponyville with it?”

“I was, but it was in the aftermath that I truly saw what I caused. I didn’t mean for it to go this far, but Celestia and the others didn’t give me a chance and send me to the coldest reaches of Equestria.”

“They didn’t exile you, we would’ve forgiven you.”

“Still clinging to that hopeless cause, even after all that I’ve shown you, the lies, the corruption, all of that?”

“…”

“You are merely confused Rarity, the transition from what you think is right and what is truly right is a long and difficult journey, but the rewards are immortal.”

“But,”

“Don’t say anything else, for soon, everything that’s holding you back will be gone, courtesy of me. Enter the far left corridor, take a right, and my Morks will lead you to the dining hall and you can eat all your troubles away.”

“Thanks, I guess.” As the unicorn leaves the room, Midnight turns to a dusty old mirror in a corner of the room and takes a deep glance into her reflection. Thoughts surge through her head as all of her body becomes dense as her eyes glare more and more deeply into the mirror. Her fast become clenched once again and aim themselves against the mirror as the armoured pony begins the mumble to herself,

“There is no going back, you have come so far, don’t waste it for them, they are corrupt, your friends are corrupt, your foes are corrupt, your foes are evil, your friends are evil, Discord, Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Boris, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Shining Armour, Spike, Twilight-” Her anger and depression overwhelm her mind and causes her to snap. Her metal arms quickly grab the reflective glass and smashes it behind her, sending shards all over the foyer. Midnight screams, “Twilight is gone! Who are you? I am Empress Midnight! And I am going to end all of this torture and finally get peace!” Soft crying can be heard from the hulk of black armour as the empress falls to her side and weeps on the ground, tired, angry, sad, insecure, insane, unclean, and tortured.

Meanwhile, Aaron and Daniel are sneaking their way into the Mork Armoury and come across their Earth Pony friends working on the shoes for Midnight’s new suit. “No, no,” Atlas moans, “Jack, how do we carry bats into armoured boots, it’s impossible!”

“Why are you trying so hard?” Jack replies, “She’s the enemy.”

“At least I’m trying to appeal to her good side.”

“HALT!” A Mork screeches, the two quarrelers freeze in place and look at the minion aiming his horn at the Grump Brothers outside the door.

“Don’t shoot!” Aaron yells, “We finished the metal work and are now going to help our friends with the suit.”

“Don’t say the F-word.”

“What?”

“Friend is a word associated with weakness and betrayal now. Midnight’s latest laws have stated that the use of the word is only to be used for mockery and/or belittlement.”

“Okay, didn’t get the memo, can we help our buddies out?”

“Request acknowledged.”

“Alright, at ease soldier,”

“Aaron, Daniel!” Jack exclaims.

“Guys, brainstorming session!” The two brothers and Jack gallop to Atlas and huddle together, muttering their speech to whispers.

“Any weaknesses with the Mork armour or the metal going into this thing?”

“No,” Dan replies, “they’re both made of a type of near-indestructible material that we probably can’t tamper with without Midnight noticing. Doing anything with the armour suit?”

“I’ve skipped a couple of important factors of armour construction, which will cause it to fall apart during extensive combat.”

“And with the eye-catching aesthetics added, Midnight will never be able to notice the faults.

Atlas adds, “So what can we do now?”

“We still don’t know why she’s forcing us to do all of this instead of her minions.”

“From what we can tell,” Aaron replies, “they seem like they have a free will, just a restrictive one.”

“What?”

“They know and can control what they’re doing, but it seems their control is being guided and they’re not completely aware that they know what they’re doing. They lack creativity and advance sentience, which is most likely why she wants us to work for her.”

“Sounds nerdy enough to work.”

“…”

“Hey,” another Mork barks, “get back to work.”

“Okay!”

“So,” Atlas whispers, “now what?”

“The only thing we can do,” Aaron replies, “hope and pray what little we did will cause the change needed for us to get out of here.”

“Get back to work!” The third Mork screams, stomping his hoof into the ground.

“Alright!”