4th May, 69 BNM
South-Western Equestria
Galloping Gorge

The battlefield was a maze of scars and lost bodies.
The large iron mine had been defended, at great cost. Of the two Alicorns on each side, one of them, on the Nationalists, had perished. But the Royalists lost the most despite their victory.
Use of the celestial magic granted the Alicorns powers unnatural, and to that end, entire attacks wiped out whole squads. Cliffs turned to mud and sliding down to swamp their opponent, the ground opening up and swallowing entire troop brigades whole, or sudden blizzards out of thin air that froze the wings on pegasi and air forces to send them crashing down.
As the Royalist pegasi guards flew over though, the sight of sunken wagons, troops and burnt/disturbed ground across the gorge was a chilling sight to behold.
Suffice to say, the heavens themselves seemed to tremble from this battle.

7th May, 69 BNM
Late Evening
Tartarus, Main Gate courtroom

As the dark looking, looming gates inside this darkened stone hall were opened before him, the Centaur merely sneered as the unseen ponies passing their sentence onto him right before sending him down echoed their voice through the announcing judge:
"Tirek. For the crimes of theft of magic and anarchist activities, including conspiring to overthrow the royal family, the council has sentenced you to 2000 years in the lowest pits of Tartarus, in hopes of you learning the error of your ways, or suffering enough to be deterred from future crimes. Do you have any last words before we pass sentence?"
Stifling his words he wanted to immediately say, Tirek merely spoke as coldly as he could:
"My weak willed brother hadn't even the stomach to witness his betrayal of me through to the end... For his sake, I hope he is not around when I make my comeback. I wish not the same on you and your pathetic kind... Unity, friendship as a collective power, lead by the Alicorns, champions of such power... Phegh!"
Tirek spat in the direction of the councillors, at which point the mask some Unicorns had ready was slammed over his face. Tirek's eyes burned as he was now fully restrained in body and voice.
As the restrained centaur was dragged through the gates, he was utterly stoic in his burning gaze towards the council members who had come to see his imprisonment.
The gates began to shut, while walking behind the massive centaur and his guards, the mighty dog Cerberus growled, all 3 heads focused on its prisoner for a long time seen. It had its first prisoner to ever have an entire level to himself.
The chain linked platform that held Tirek's restrained form began to lower, creaking as it descended the abyssal depths of the main chasm that served as the 'stairwell' to Tartarus's many levels.
Just two years ago, beings of great power had broken in through the bottom and escaped. Thankfully, beings of such power had died off, so stories said. Not even Alicorns could repeat such feats.
Though none had yet been mad or determined enough to do so. And with power some Alicorns were wielding more and more, that feat was well within their power.

Time would show however, that all it took was a single lapse in Cerberus's guard duty for one as determined as Tirek to slip through to freedom however. But that time was far away yet.

8th December, 69 BNM
Late Morning
Nokotaford Royal Palace
Main training hall

When not in use by the royal garrison, Starswirl used this to the advantage of him and his two pupils, practicing magic in safety, alone.
Ever since the 'Royalist' headquarters of government had moved to Vanhoover, Starswirl felt as if Nokotaford lost some of its pomp and circumstance. Frankly, he didn't miss it at all. He'd had too much happen to need to put up with frivolous tradition and jabbering in politicians seeking more power then they could already muster, Alicorned or not.
Tutoring the 2 remaining 'heirs' to the Royal family was one thing that gave Starswirl some peace of mind in the war.
Behind him, the pink and blue maned sisters finished practicing the spells Starswirl had assigned them, before they saw their tutor staring out of the window of the palace hall, up at the sun.
Sighing, Starswirl admitted:
"Winter, and the sun is up this late again. I wonder who is in control right now?"
"Master?"
Celestia's words reached his ears as he stroked his beard worriedly, while Luna shared her look of concern at him.
Turning to offer a reassuring smile, Starswirl stated:
"Its nothing."
But it would be so much, just not yet.

1 week later
15th December, 69 BNM
Late Morning
Nokotaford Royal Palace, Main Gardens

Later that same week, as Starswirl met with his chimera friend of recent times, he couldn't help but voice his concerns to Scorpan.
"If this keeps up, who knows what the heavenly bodies will be like if left alone."
"Ah, like children fighting over a toy. Eventually, it will break under their conflict."
Scorpan's comparison didn't help to dissuade the Wizard Unicorn's fears.
Walking along, Scorpan recalled a painful memory of recent weeks:
"Speaking of fighting children, or maybe older, I, want to thank you for, being there, when Tirek turned on me. I know we came here looking to take advantage of the instability, but-"
"You grew to like Equestria too much. Unlike me, you saw more good than the bad. But, I have to go where the fighting is, hence my envy of you."
"Envy? Me? You are Starswirl the bearded, lauded and known worldwide, the time traveller, and the inventor of hundreds of spells."
"One more, if I could get that cursed mark switcher to work properly." Starswirl muttered.
True, he was lauded, but there were many he appreciated today, even with other Equestrian factions, especially Meadowbrook the Mighty. She was the holder of 8 magical artefacts, but had recently gone into exile when the fighting began over controlling the Sun and Moon cycles, exploiting the magical energy that could be harnessed from them.
She had been adamant in her distrust of the period where Stasrwirl indulged in dark magic, in a time when Siral's beasts seemed to be wreaking havoc without an end in sight.
To think that, and much else, had been only 2 years ago.

Scorpan would leave for his homeland a few days later, eager to be off and spend time with his parents in wake of his brother's imprisonment.
Starswirl would miss him, though he never truly had close friends now. Nor had he now that he had plenty of time to think on it.

Same day
Late Afternoon
Royal Sisters' private quarters, main lounge

As the servant bid them farewell until dinner, the two sisters were left alone to their passtimes. As Luna continued to read her book, and Celestia write a few letters, the younger sister suddenly let out a sigh before remarking:
"Another Council meeting in Vanhoover... I feel so useless. We should be helping in the council's affairs..."
"They are more experienced then us, mother didn't teach us enough before she passed." Celestia tiredly explained, to which Luna looked at her sister with an apologetic expression.
"If not us, they should heed Starswirl's words more. They seemed eager to push us aside, but they reject advice he could give, experience none of them have." Luna admonished, to which Celestia arched an eyebrow with her sad smile, though it devolved into a more conciliatory grin as she finished her reply to her sister:
"If he wanted to give it that is. You know he hasn't been the same since mother died, but he has a new friend in Scorpan at least."
Nodding in agreement, Luna couldn't help but remember what little she saw of Chack when he was around, in all the years they'd ever seen him:
"I don't think that Salamander was ever really a friend to Starswirl anyway."
"No. Especially if he disappeared like he did."
Truly, Celestia didn't think Chack would have vanished for no reason. Starswirl said he just disappeared of his own choice, and nothing else mattered about it. She knew he was hiding something.
But with a history of hiding things, she'd given up trying to get Starswirl to open up if he didn't want to.
At this stage, she wondered how much more the Wizard could take.

Same Day
15th December, 69 BNM
Late Night
Mid-North Equestria
Colossi Valley, Citadel ruins

The land was utterly dead here. Stone and skeletal remnants of the old fortress stood, old bones protruding from the earth, and a hidden world of lower levels kept intact after all these years.
No life grew here, the rock and mud all that coated the ground where the Citadel once rose tall, before it crumbled on itself. A cursed land.
There were places where it was said once could feel as if they were being watched all the time, and here was one such place.

A tiny fissure had appeared on one of the slopes a year ago, and soon water flowing into it had widened it, forming an underground stream into which rainwater fell like a small waterfall. But the chamber was wider here by there already being an unusually intact cavern here, remnants of an old escape tunnel from the Citadel.
But in this cavern, a sharp drop to get down, there were no usual occupants. No bats, no worms or bugs, no snakes, not even the luminescent moss one sometimes found. A dead cavern.
Further away, down the tunnel, a tunnel that had been buried, a former escape route for leaving the Citadel, and a labyrinth if trying to get in, the crumbled wall loomed in the darkness.
In that crumbled wall of rock, a single crack suddenly appeared at the base. And as the crack rang out like a set of popped knuckles, a rush of air escaped it, almost like a long held sigh of relief.
On the other side, the presence sensed the outside world once again.
Out of its black, jagged line, smoke seeped like a tiny candle's fumes, eventually congealing into a viscous black liquid that bled from the tiny wound in the rock like a cut on a living creature's skin.
As the black liquid trickled down, staining the ground, black vapour wisps were given off on the slight wind current into and out of the cavern. Yet with renewed vigor, the winds carried the black smoke traces too precisely from the crack to be normal.
And on those winds, a dark whisper in an unintelligible tongue was carried.

Meanwhile
Late Night
Eastern Equestria
Applahaychian mesa
Stone Quarry village

The bakery was busy as usual, the cakes, buns and stores of grain for other produce later being stored for the night. Shutting the stone walled doors, the exhausted stallion trotted off into the late night streets, eager to return home to his family.
Inside the storehouse however, the produce wasn't left alone.
A few slits, glowing purple, appeared in midair before the shelves. An eagle clawed hand reached in and yanked cake after cake, bun after bun, and even a few jugs of milk and cider, anything the being could get its hands on.
Then, as swiftly as they appeared, they vanished, a substantial amount taken, but not enough to arouse too much suspicion.

Sub-dimension realm

Inside the home away from home, situated in a pocket dimension where physics seemed to not cooperate, the being reclined in the small island he sat upon, the pile of food beside him as he tucked into the food stash.
Quietly, as he ate his stash, the Draconeraqus absentmindedly flicked his fingers in his free lion paw hand, as he kept trialling a new spell he had yet to come up with a name for.
It was simple really, he wanted to be in a place, but not be able to be disturbed. So he tried to create a copy of wherever he was. It didn't work out entirely, but he got a way to interact with the world without consequence to him. When one used a teleporting spell, they passed swiftly through this realm. All he did was simply decide to stay in here when he wanted alone time.
Even so, this chaotic dimension was not exactly the most entertaining place.
As Discord finished trialling his new spell, and finished gulping down a large glass of milk, he saw a small bag of a brown powder he'd taken, a rather strong tasting powder, and put a claw to his mouth in thought. Soon, he poured a tiny amount of the cocoa powder into the milk, the first of many taste tests.
Yet even making new spells or food combinations wasn't enough to fight off the crushing sense of monotony that Discord felt, as he was the only occupant here. He wanted something more.

Same night
Equestria's north eastern wildnerness

The Salamander knelt down, his sword glowing green as he checked the ground, the scars on the tree trunks.
"2 weeks old..."
His murmur carried on the wind as he glanced upwards to the moonlit skies. He had been pursuing her on and off for two years, but she was elusive. They had not met once yet, and Chack knew she was out there, moving about as swiftly as he chased her.
Sometimes he wondered if she was toying with him.
With a snarl, Chack took off into the night, another day gone in his search for her.
Yet in the back of his mind, as Everfree often spoke, he sensed sinister events on the horizon, though from more then one looming source. He was adamant in stopping any that occurred as a result of Siral's legacy and Teal Quirt however, and had been ever since the Crystal Empire incident.
Yet this lonely hunt brought him back to his Ronin days in Salaman, before he met Starswirl. Such memories stirred melancholy in him, which he would swiftly bury whenever he found another sign that Teal had been here.
The only conciliation he had was that Starswirl had taken his advice, and slain that Being of Sloth. He cared not if she was regretful, she had to go.
And so did the Being of Envy, as soon as he caught her.

Author's Notes:

I'm bringing the focus more back onto Starswirl, and in turn Chack, at least until his arc ends.
More to the point, the war has continued regardless, but signs are on the horizon of looming disaster, and not from the usual evil places one expects.