29th May, 71 BNM
Early Morning
Fillymore village

"When did it start?"
Starswirl's pointed question had its reasons before him and the Earth Pony farmer. All around the village, equipment lay unattended, ponies lay about, loafing around and doing barely anything as they sat in a mixture of drunken and sleepy states. Even Starswirl had to shake off some drowsiness from time to time as the farmer explained:
"Hard to say, but nearly a week, 6 days ago. We don't get many travellers who stay more then a night or two, but there was a mare, some Alicorn, she kept to herself. Talk is spreading, there's something odd about her to the village elders."
"In what way?"
"Almost as if she casts a spell wherever she goes. Enchanting them, they can't stop but slip into a dreamlike state, sleepy on too many jobs, ponies utterly unconcerned to work."
Mouth thinning at what he was hearing, Starswirl carefully asked yet another query:
"So what's stopping some others from falling to this?"
"Nothing. I left for about two days for some mushroom shipments, those two days it felt like I'd been sobered up."
It was at this point that Starswirl's eyes lit up slightly, though he kept it hidden. The Wizard maintained a stern expression as he saw one drowsy looking, lazy Pegasus offer a stare at him from atop a village rooftop. Many ponies resembled dozing sea lions in their lethargic states around the village right now:
"So why was a mage or wizard not contacted until AFTER four of your elders died of old age inexplicably in the night 2 days ago?"
At the Wizard's rather blunt question, the farmer Earth pony looked down, his grey and brown mane scruffy as he ran a nervous hoof through it:
"We were, uncertain. We have not had good history with magic users, not since they come and take any children who are born Unicorns, serving the war they said on too many occasions."
Ignoring this plight of a village in wake of the Civil War for now, Starswirl pressed the issue:
"But where is this Alicorn now?"
"We don't know exactly. She drifts in and out, living in the small forest nearby. She's almost like a ghost at times."
"Light blue fur and wings? Blond mane?" At Starswirl's guess, the farmer's expression changed to surprise:
"How did you-."
"Just a lucky guess. Thank you." Starswirl nodded to the village chief, the Earth Pony nodding as he left too, walking to the run down, harvest starved market areas.
Sparing a glance towards the small woodlands beyond the village's farmlands, Starswirl knew he'd found her.
But he was perhaps too late to find her before worse actions began to take shape.

Same day
29th May, 71 BNM
Midday
Crystal Empire, main palace courtyards

From up on the balcony, as she glanced down at the courtyards and gardens below, Princess Amore felt a sense of pride in the relative peace the Empire enjoyed.
"I almost feel guilty for how peaceful this place has been in this war..."
"We do our part, paying taxes to fund our royal allies, though we do maintain neutrality when it comes to battles."
"And providing sanctuary to Aurora's daughters to soothe her nerves." Amore remarked, though with a hint of melancholy to it. Noticing this, as befitting his role as a member of the Crystal Empire's council, head in fact, Sombra noted this to the Princess:
"Another blessing to the empire, even if the reasons they are here are more sinister then many would prefer."
As Sombra remarked, he couldn't help but approach the balcony edge where Amore stood beside him, looking down on the Crystal Heart's courtyard below.
The heart pulsed silently, but it was what happened with a group of young foals and fillies in the courtyard below.
The two Royal Princesses played with the foals, a rare period of downtime from their often busy lives. Celestia had a radiant smile as foals played with the moving images of ponies she created out of whisps of light coloured energy, ribbons and swirls of light cascading like streaks as the wisp-like ponies galloped ahead of the cheering foals who tried to catch them. She even leapt in to jump about with them, decidedly behaving younger then one would expect for one who was nearing 40, even for an Alicorn.
Lune meanwhile, was more subdued, as she sat with a group of fillies, a book open as she read to them of the constellations and her love of the lore around astronomical names.
But as he stared down, Sombra still couldn't help but look skywards, with a frown, before Amore sensed his anxiety:
"You are still wary of the strange signs from the skies?"
"Yes. The night lights, the aurora, it has been faltering and swelling. Ever since the Battle of Tartarus, that new powerful magic out faction has developed, something is going on in the world that we can't see."
"One problem after another. Take it from somepony who knows Sombra, being a ruler is far from glamorous." Princess Amore replied with a forced grin, before Sombra gave a small laugh, replying with a reply:
"The beauty of some Alicorns would beg to differ, and you."
"You flatter me Sombra, but what of the sisters? I know you sometimes have a glance towards Celestia from time to time, whenever you are not holed away in your studies or duties. Don't think I haven't seen it." Amore pointed out coyly, as she turned to leave the balcony, a messenger pony bringing the day to day paperwork to her waiting in the hallway.
Sombra said nothing, as the dark Unicorn cast a glance back down to the courtyard, glancing at the royal sisters and their foal/filly entourage. But as his eyes turned darker with a hidden desire, craving almost, he found his gaze shifting between Celestia, and the Crystal Heart.
Shaking his head, the dark Unicorn turned to leave, shaking off these strange feelings he was sometimes getting out of nowhere.
Such tranquillity was so easily shattered however. And not just by the looming signs of the aurora borealis not showing up on a few nights when it should.

29th/30th May, 71 BNM
Midnight
Crystal Empire outskirt mountains

The summer part of the years meant that, this far north, even midnight held a small degree of sunlight just barely poking over the horizon. A faint band of bluish light hung over the east, but the kingdom below remained bathed in the lightest possible darkness.
Staring out at the dimly lit kingdom below and in the midst of the grassy plains, courtesy of the crystal heart they harnessed, the black and golden creature, centipede legged and with a serpentine body of 4 wings added on, stood like a marauder. The ex-dragon's greedy yellow eyes narrowed at the distant sight of that gem, contempt on his scaly face at the thought of what was his being out of reach. His gem, his crystal heart.
"Be calm Golmov, you will reclaim it. Just be ready where you arranged, and I shall fulfil the more delicate parts we need."
"And what if she does not come? The Queen will not be lured here so easily, not when the armies of the Empire are bolstered by the heart enough to not need much in the way of new defences."
"Which is why, like you with the Heart and your pride, I shall make sure the stakes are personal enough for her to come out."
"And will you tell me what those stakes are before we do this?" Golmov asked, to which Teal Quirt merely offered an offhanded wave of her gorilla arm, replying coyly:
"It will be as much a surprise to you as anyone else. Unlike all others however, you will enjoy it. Now please, you do want this right?"
"For too long I have wanted it..." Golmov rumbled, as he spread his 4 wings to take flight, heading into the wastes further north.
Watching the dragon-centipede depart, Teal Quirt turned back, her scorpion/ape bodies centaur shape standing more upright as she gave a small smile at how everything was going.
"Things are coming together."
She vanished in a faint flash of green light, her sights set on the empire.

Minutes later
Midnight
Crystal Empire, Royal Palace
Guest rooms

The guards patrolled the hallways, unicorns, pegasi and earth pony alike, on high alert.
But one guard, patrolling an upper corridor, noticed something off with one of the guest rooms. The door was ajar.
"Princess Luna?"
The Guard's gruff inquiry met silence, as he peered into the room.
Upon seeing the interior, he saw the wide bed's covers pulled back and dishevelled, no signs of movement anywhere. The only movement came from the fluttering of the curtains at the balcony doorway.
Fluttering as if wind were on them.
Rushing forwards, the guard Unicorn's magic wrenched the curtains aside, revealing the opened doors and the slight scrapes and scratches on one window pane, showing something broke in, and took her.
More cries came from elsewhere, as Princess Celestia's screams came from the next door room.
As he made a mad dash to the room, the guard slammed into the door, finding it inexplicably sealed. Inside the room, a green light flared underneath the doorway, as Celestia's screams suddenly vanished.
The door rushed open, and the guard glimpsed a strange looking figure he could barely get a good look of vanish in a green flash, the flash of white fur of the Princess, and the blue fur of the other princess, in its grip.
Chaos engulfed the castle as the alarms were raised about the kidnapping of the two Royal princesses.

It was not minutes later that the bedrooms were swarmed, overturned to find any other hints about what took the sisters. But stood by the doorway, Princess Amore was mournful, and angry, as she whirled to the nearest guard, the same one who had witnessed Celestia's taking and found Luna's room empty:
"How could you let this happen!? The Heart should block even Alicorns from such entry!"
The guard nervously gulped, but a dark, rich voice interrupted with a bitter tone:
"You must forgive your guards, this was the work of no ordinary creature. Which makes it all the more dire..."
Turning to see Sombra approaching, Amore flicked some of her dishevelled red mane aside as she remarked with a calmer demeanour, the guard she'd near shouted at slowly backing away to his duties in searching for clues in the room.
His black mane and grey coat contrasted with his green eyes, though she had noticed the faintest hint of red creeping in at times, and slightly sharp teeth that were not always there. Even so, he was a welcome sight:
"Do you have any theory of what it was?"
"I sensed a presence, it was one of odd, powerful magic. Pure, yet dark, corrupted would be the best way to describe it. Unlike anything I've felt before."
"I sensed it too. Too late to stop whatever it was..." Amore remarked with regret, to which Sombra began to offer:
"It will not have got far, so there is still time."
"Your majesty! From the Queen!"
A messenger madly dashed down the hallways to them, panting wildly as the maid pony carried a message scroll in her side bag. As the maid came to a halt, exhausted from the pace, Sombra levitated the scroll letter from her bag in his black magic, handing it over to Princess Amore for her to read.
"She knows. They want her to come, and bring the Crystal Heart with heart with her, alone."
Sombra's eyes narrowed at this, as the guards began to slowly cease their search. Clearly this was a ransom kidnapping of both Princesses. As Amore read Queen Aurora's letter, her face became more and more grim, shaking her head as she rolled it up. Clearly sensing the same unease, Sombra remarked bluntly to the Crystal Princess:
"It is an obvious trap, and if it was powerful enough to take two Alicorns from under our noses..."
"I know. But Aurora's letter is clear, she won't let them take what family she has from her."
"So did she say what we can do? The garrison?"
"Nothing, until she gets here and readies the exchange."
"There must be something..." Sombra mused, to which Amore could only offer her doubts:
"But why now? The heart has its power, yes. But these extremes?"

20 miles north west of the Crystal Empire
Crystal Caverns

In the dark depths of the caverns inside one of the far north's mountain ranges, the strained cries of two Alicorns sisters echoed from the depths. In the chamber, blue and pink crystals poked out of the ground like old bones, while the Being of Envy stood before her charges.
Straining, Celestia and Luna were helpless as the green magic from this horrific creature forced the crystals to grow around them, restraining them uncomfortably as the cocoon of crystal slowly engulfed them.
"What do you want from us!?" Luna screeched, appearance dishevelled as she yelled. Turning her gaze, Celestia saw the scorpion/ape hybrid merely flick her fingers together to entice the crystal growth to go faster.
"Me? Nothing. But others, you have your uses. Everypony does."
"You think you will get away with this!? Others will come for us!" Celestia barked. Before her Teal Quirt merely shrugged as she focused her magic once last time, her 4 horns that adorned her ape-like head like a headdress lighting up as she remarked with an almost unconcerned tone:
"You'd still be in your beds if that weren't the case..."
With a last scowl at Teal Quirt, Celestia was frozen inside the crystals, restrained, able to see out, but helpless to do anything. Even her horn was blocked. Beside her, Luna struggled as the crystals solidified around her at last, the younger Alicorn sister frozen in place by the magic draining crystals.
Staring with satisfaction at the crystal prisons, Teal Quirt cast her gaze upwards to a large crevice higher in the chamber, her voice carrying:
"Now all you need do is wait where we arranged. Then we'll both get what we want."
Out of the crevice, scuttling on many legs, the centipede/dragon hybrid crawled from his hiding spot, landing as he fell to tower over her in his full sized 200 foot long form. 4 wings folded inwards, Golmov's mandible flecked mouth clicked in disdain as he saw the two Alicorns before him.
"Keep them unharmed, you'll get what's deserved and more."
"Don't lecture me, I know the plan."
"Be ready then, when the time comes. You'll be told when that is, but you'll likely know it anyway."
With that last sentence, Teal Quirt slowly scuttled up the crystal caverns, her green magic levitating her up through the caverns towards the cave mouth.
Left with the two princesses, Golmov turned his burning gaze towards them both, expression hardened, yet gleeful in anticipation:
"You do not recognise me, do you? Perhaps your father might, if King Nova were still alive that is. He died a brave fool, not fearing me. I see now where you got it from..."
As he murmured this, he began to shift his form to his old dragon form. As he changed, Celestia and Luna's outraged expressions turned to horror as they realised the dragon before them was who he was.
"Yes. You humiliated me, robbed me of the crystal heart, that which is mine. You will learn that pain and more soon enough..."
As he spoke, he leant out one of his clawed wings, poking the two crystal prisons as if tapping glass, while he slowly morphed back to his centipede-dragon shape.
As he burned his gaze into her and her sister, Celestia's eyes flickered in her restrained state, burning as they beheld their father's killer, and with the other, co-killer.

100 miles north east of Las Pegasus
Nimbus mountains

Night before

The red flashes of lightning lit up within the confines of the mountains, the flares visible from Las Pegasus. Something raged in the mountains, some sort of storm, but red lightning was not normal by any means, not was it a signifier of anything good.
Such fears were well founded, and accurate.

Word spread to Las Pegasus, and the military garrison called upon any who could deal with this mystical threat. But no army could deal with it, especially as it had been confirmed by a few daring spies as a creature seen at the Battle of Tartarus.
So the task was left to the elites, and more specifically, ones who could use newfound power to great effect alone, power to deal with this threat.

30th May, 71 BNM
Morning
Nimbus mountains
Inner valley

The valley was charred, scarred with craters, trees felled, the land scorched black. Nothing alive, save one creature, roamed here. It was as if anything living had suddenly been wiped out.
The culprit of this, and the one responsible for the red energy flares last night, had awakened groggily from the mountain stream's side a few minutes ago.
No birdsong, no sounds of forest life, as the charred state of the valley, the desecrated landscape, held only the sounds of the trickling stream, and the grey being that sat among the ash and debris covered slopes.
The bald Earth pony stallion, his skin a pale grey, sat on the stream edge, one of his hooves turned into a bony/stone skinned claw of sorts. The living weapon that was Odi-Viscer merely focused on the hunk of half charred wood he held in his other hoof, itself split apart into bony clasping digits to keep it steady. With his clawed appendage's very sharp edge, he gently shaved away at the wood's burnt outer layers, a pile of shavings beside him as he quietly carved the wood into shape.

Flying through the early morning clouds, an Alicorn mare pumped her wings as she came to a stop, twisting to land atop some cloud banks hanging low in the sky, peering over the edge as her 2 flanking, elite pegasi landed beside her on the cloud banks.
"There it is, the monster. Disguised as a pony, just as the one who came to this place was said to be."
Nimbaa Flintwing was a lesser member of the Las Pegasus nobility, and she had always been more inclined towards the meritocracy of the military then the prestige pandering of the gentry Alicorns had a natural leg up in. As such, she now ranked as a General in the Royalist militia, though not for front line battles, but rather home defence.
And taking the most dire matters into her own hooves was something she prided herself upon.
"Keep your eyes on him. I want him still when I charge and fire."
"Yes General Nimbaa."
As the Alicorn mare went into a slightly hunched, sitting position, the sandy red Alicorn's horn began to glow very slowly in a white light not entirely her own, as she mumbled a magical language under her breath. Beside her on the clouds, her two elite Pegasi kept their eyes on the Earth pony down in the charred valley below.
Many seconds passed in silence, but as one Pegasi glanced upwards, he sore he could see something akin to an aurora borealis beginning to form overhead, barely visible, almost like a ghostly copy of it.
Her eyes ablaze with the white cosmic energy from the stars and world, Nimbaa kept her horn focused, concentrating the energy she gathered.
"It did damage before... This time, you won't be ready for it."
As she spoke, her two elite Pegasi guards gave some coy smiles, though these faded as the energy buildup in her horn began to emit quite a fair amount of heat and light, enough where it began to get rather blinding.

The ground suddenly seemed to light up, as if noon was fast approaching.
Pausing as he finished half carving the intricacies of his wooden owl's wing, Odi-Viscer's expression turned puzzled as he stared up towards the clouds overhead in the morning skies above the valley.
A strange sight was before him, as he saw not one, but two bright specks within the clouds, as if there were two suns obscured behind the cloud banks.
The bald grey Earth pony's expression turned suspicious, as his eyes took on a brighter red colour. At that moment, the clouds ripped open above, and a gigantic ball of energy, propelled by what looked like a million lightning bolts crackling in a beam behind it, roared down towards him.
His eyes widened briefly as the light slammed into him, the wood carving and his surroundings consumed by the burning attack.
His world turned white, as the burning white energy consumed him, tearing the ground he'd already charred and scarred the night before even worse somehow.

A half minute passed, before General Nimbaa finally snapped, her stamina failing at using such a powerful spell alone, and at such a low level.
"Las Pegasus is safe from him. That spell really drains me, but, at least it does the damage it...."
As she slowly shuffled to the edge of the cloud banks, her twin pegasi helping her to her wobbly hooves on the cloud banks, she saw the ground she'd just incincerated below.
Now even more charred black, with not even tree stumps left over. Steam flickered on the mountainside as the stream had been evaporated.
But there, in the middle of the charred black valley floor, stood an imposing figure. shuffling to his feet, slowly changing as the smoke from the charred valley, after the meteoric attack from her faded, swirled through the air like a dense, choking fog.
Upright, heavily built, spikes protruding from his back, shoulders and arms, it had the shape of an ape, but wielded plating of sorts, almost as if wearing rocks as skin.
The world held its breath, before she saw its silhouette light up with a pair of glowing red eyes.
A blast of air was left behind as it flew towards them in a massive jump, clawed hands outstretched as a pair of beams shot out and hit both of her pegasi elite, the beams piercing their chest armour and blasting them apart in a pair of blinding, hot blasts of steam and dust, a few flecks of blood flying in Nimbaa's face as she shielded her eyes instinctively.
As she opened them, she saw a pair of red eyes rushing towards her, as well as a pair of clawed hands shredding the air towards her. Her shield instinctively rose in a flash, as sandy red magic formed a bubble around herself right before Odi's claws crashed into them. Imbedding in the magic shield, claws piercing slightly enough form cracks like glass, Nimbaa gasped as Odi-VIscer collided with her sphere shielded form, tackling her out of the air in his clawed grip like a cat clawing at a ball of yarn. The ground rushed up to them, as Nimbaa strained to fired her magic at Odi-Viscer, who merely snarled as the ground came up fast.
Dust rose as the ground cracked violently on their impact, the sphere shield around Nimbaa faltering, and finally breaking as the impact shattered her back leg. Odi-Viscer got off, and the impact had left a round crater beneath where Nimbaa's shield had impacted.
As the golem like being rose above her, Nimbaa almost hissed as the white light burned again in her horn, a holdover from the powerful spell, and surging her head forwards, she let loose again.
The white light blasted forwards, crackling like lightning as it impacted the creature it obscured in daylight level intensity.
But through the beam of intense light, a grey and stone laced hand surged through, gripping her neck and diverting the beam upwards, away from scorching him anymore.
Her strained eyes whipping to see his face as he slowly choked her, the much larger ape-shaped golem being glared at her, black scorch marks all over his body to the point where his skin looked like hardened lava.
As her spell faded, exhaustion setting in, he growled to her with grit teeth:
"That trick did not work at Tartarus the first time. Why did you come here?"
"This place was, beautiful, once-URK! Why, why do you destroy as tales say?"
Nimbaa choked slightly as she spoke, while Odi-Viscer kept a rather quiet state:
"It is all I can do. It is all I can do to ensure others alive do not cause me grief ever again."
"What did anypony ever do to you?"
"Life is full of misery, life is cheap, we all die at some point. And if we live our lives as we are happiest, it is the only mercy there is. I kill, because it makes me feel better, makes me feel free, in control."
"You're a monster..." Nimbaa croaked, as Odi-Viscer's expression didn't change at all, as he admitted with a slightly soft growl:
"But I am free by being one. No lies, no fear, only joy. Your allies from wherever you came from will understand after you."
The golem creature slowly stood over the crippled Alicorn, as he raised a fist, itself beginning to glow red as he raised it. With his other hand, he grabbed Nimbaa painfully by the horn, the Alicorn screaming as he hoisted her up by the sensitive appendage. Throwing her up a few feet, she regained her senses as she began to plummet again.
But a red hued first rushed towards her, an air cone forming around it at the speed and power behind it.
Red energy burst across the valley again, scorching even more of the blackened valley as Odi-Viscer obliterated the Alicorn mare.

2 hours later
Las Pegasus farmland plains
Las Pegasus sentry tower

Smoke, fire, and death. That was what greeted them when their General was supposed to return, not the monster that came in her stead and that of her two elite soldiers.
The Earth pony scrambled away as the wooden fort tower collapsed under the flames, the culprit forcing aside the collapsing wall as he brought his bulky frame through.
Scrambling for a spear, the Earth pony saw a few weapons of other fallen, or what was left of them, ponies across the sentry tower. Raising it to the creature, the guard pony cowered as Odi-Viscer loomed over him.
The creature came without warning, hours after their Alicorn leader set off to deal with an unknown menace in the nearby mountains. There was no time to grieve the obvious loss at the hands of the new monster, and their attacker.
In a minute, he'd savaged the base in ways that no weapon could stop, let alone harm him at all.
Shaking uncontrollably, the Earth Pony saw the stony claws on the golem creature's hands extend as he raised one over his head, about to strike.
Yet at that moment, he swore he saw a glint of green appear in the creature's red eyes, right as he became distracted.

Unseen in his psyche, Odi-Viscer warred a battle in his mind, with an invading presence from afar to the north.
Teal Quirt's greenish presence fogged his mind, as he found himself in a swirling mass of clouds hued red, but permeated by a sickening green hue in the part the invasive message came from.
Odi-Viscer...
GET OUT OF MY HEAD!
You can try and resist, but if you really feel that way, why do you run from us?
You know how to end us as annoyances... You know where to find us, just focus.
YOU WILL SEE ME THERE, AND THEN YOU DIE SWIFTLY.
Bold words Odi, see if you can uphold them.

The guard shook all the while as Odi-Viscer loomed tall, the stone skinned, apelike creature's height over four times his own. But the creature looked away suddenly, his gaze turning north, eyes smouldering red all the time.
To his everlasting surprise, the creature mumbled back to him:
"Spread word to fear me, to leave me in peace. If you do not, know that I never forget a face."
With that, the creature slowly walked away, picking up speed before it made a ground cracking leap skywards, heading north.
Amidst the daylight reflecting dust and smoke, and the crumbling wooden fortifications, the lone surviving Earth Pony guard trembled as he got up, staring at the departing creature, so hateful and destructive, one who killed his Alicorn general and came here soon afterwards, his wrath on all but him for an unknown reason.
Perhaps demons needed one being to survive to spread their tale.
Suffice to say, the creature wouldn't return, but the guard would spread tales of woe and despair of the demon being of wrath.

Far north, 20 miles north west of the Crystal Empire
Mountain ridge

As her eyes stopped glowing green, Teal Quirt couldn't help but smile at how everything was coming together.
"So easily moved, all the pieces..."
Her scorpion mandibles clicked on her lower body, like a nervous ticking at her anticipatory state. Now all she needed was to ensure the Queen played as expected.

Next Day
31st May, 71 BNM
Early Morning
Nokotaford, Royal Palace
Main entrance foyer

"Your majesty, I urge you to reconsider!"
"Spare it Blacksaddler! I won't let those monsters harm one hair on my daughters' heads! But if you so insist on aiding me, do so in case I cannot handle it as you say in a lack of confidence. Do as you see wisest, but do not expect me to wait. This being was a fool to hold me to ransom, and she will pay the price!"
Queen Aurora was livid, as she had abandoned her usual attire of court for a more armoured appearance, her white body and dark mane covered in a silver coloured armour with black crests on its sides and helmet.
"What can you do alone your majesty, even with you learning that weapon spell that does damage to these creatures?"
"I have already sent word to Starswirl anyway, to see if he can handle these things he should have already."
Before the Unicorn General could say anything, Queen Aurora glowed a bright white, and vanished in a flash of light that lit up the dawn lit gardens even more.
Standing there, stunned, General Blacksaddler looked down in disappointment and fear, as he remarked more to himself if anything: "So falls the House of Canterlot..."

31st May, 71 BNM
Early Morning
Fillymore village
Outlying forest depths

A few days ago, Starswirl had come here out of curiosity, help before dire situations began to unfold. But now, he had lost any semblance of patience.
"Ave-Dol! Come out! Your friends have gone too far now!"
The Wizard was angry, as he lit up the forest in deep blue light, searching for any sign of the being of Sloth he knew was here.
"Answer me! I know you are here! Hiding away while your allies have taken royalty hostage!"
"You think I am not aware of these things!?"
A voice cried out, disembodied, from the forest as a rustle of wind carried on the air. Stomping around, Starswirl replied with some bitterness:
"You claim to be helpful, yet here you are hiding from the world as your allies commit acts that will tear Equestria asunder, first with the Nationalists, and now the Royalists!"
"And what of the new spell unleashed at Tartarus? I have felt it used by the Royals, the Nationalists are on the brink of gaining the knowledge themselves. With so much misery, why should I bother to interfere when I just make things worse? I tried to keep them together, I did, but I failed with them, as I failed them in not seeing Siral was turning them into his tools until it was too late. They didn't escape unchanged."
As she spoke, she materialised before Starswirl, the Windigo/Alicorn hybrid's voice seeming broken, sullen almost. At the sight of Ave-Dol's grief and morose state however, Starswirl was unmoved. He was past the point of sympathy for anypony in these dark times.
"I have no sympathy for a devil of idle hooves Ave-Dol."
"That is all I can do. Where I go, lethargy spreads, I calm too much."
"Which is why you are needed. You keep them in check with the very power Siral gave you, he knew there needed to be a source of control as a backup from his own in the long run. A sane head among the others."
"Wallow in your pity for others and yourself if you wish. But if you do pity them as much as you do, then staying in this forest as your aura starves a village by way of laziness is not the way to do it!"
Starswirl's words were as barbed as could be, as the Wizard turned to leave the Alicorn/Windigo hybrid behind.
She melted back into the forest, uncertainty in her light blue eyes, as Starswirl stormed out, his sights set on the north. Under his breath, he muttered to himself:
"I do not care what Meadowbrook says, morality has no play with them anymore."
The Wizard stormed from the forest, leaving the reluctant Being of Sloth inside her forest, wallowing in her surrendered state.
After the Wizard left however, Ave-Dol whispered over the wind more to herself then anypony else that might hear:
"Why did it have to come to this?"

Equestrian midlands, Everfree forest outskirts

As Chack's green sword faded in colour, and the rustling of the wind as they had been travelling reached them, the bronze coloured Alicorn stallion asked with uncertainty:
"Your forest deity friend says there are more of them?"
"Yes. In Royal territory, the Crystal Empire."
"You know I am not welcomed there..." Aubelles remarked dryly, to which Chack countered:
"To be fair, you aren't welcomed in Nationalist territory either, no thanks to that lustful witch of a being we had to bring down, and her gluttonous boy pet."
"You are not helping my decision." Aubelles replied, to which Chack began to rattle off, the Salamander listing each on his webbed fingers to the significantly taller Alicorn:
"If you are rejected by your old side, that alone means you'll be welcomed by the Royals. In the least, to help take out these creatures that are on the move."
"I remember Tartarus's battlefield. That didn't end well."
"Well now we know what to expect. And they are less coordinated without their master." Chack's last point did hold true, but all it did was cause Aubelles to think, a hoof to his chin as he thought about this whole situation.
"But this whole scheme, somepony is in control, or is trying to be."
"We will deal with that when we get there. Starswirl will be there too, but even so that may not be enough." Chack's remark was all too true, but on top of this was Aubelles's continued hesitation:
"I still am not sure about this..."
"What greater glory would there be in defeating monsters, like heroes of old tales, but for real? And you would save all this way, not just one faction."
At this, Aubelles was rather turned, as he saw the merit in this. With a slight chuckle, a nervous chuckle perhaps, he then went quiet, turning to the Salamander:
"And what of you Chack?"
"I already had some misgivings about Alicorns using power like the celestial spell, it seems to affect the heavens themselves. But I'll take them over these monstrosities. Everfree is correct, they don't belong, and they're too dangerous. We focus on the greatest dangers before all else."
"What are we waiting for then?" Aubelles remarked, to which Chack gave a brisk nod. His green sword glowing, his other sheathed, he vanished in a green light, while after him, taking a breath out of hesitation, Aubelles vanished in a flash of bronze light.

Author's Notes:

Btrayal and a culmination of many things all coming together.