“Luna? Luna!? Luna! Art thou listening!?” Shouted the the pink furred alicorn at her little sister who was staring out the window at the sunset. The two sisters were planning an expedition into the newly grown Everfree Forest that had grown up from the desolation caused by the Green Star as it fell in the Night of Terror ten days ago.

In mere days after the star fell and the Stallion of Torment emerged out of the burning ruins, were things starting to act strange. All over the impact crates and near all nearby water flows were rapidly growing strange plants emerging. Also the weather was starting to act wonky. It didn’t follow the laws of the magic airflow, it was harder to alter with weather magic and the pegasis couldn’t find anyway to change or alter it for more then a few hours at best.

The Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters was cleaned up from the tragic event of the Night of Terror, the corpses that had decorated the spires had all been removed and carefully buried with tender care. There were so many pieces that some ponies were not intact enough to be identified.

Both of the alicorn sisters had taken it hard. Celestia was trying to bury herself with work to not collapse in tears, but she would find herself crying every night into her pillow. Luna would act irrational, go from silently depressed to explosive rage within moments. Things were tense and even worse, the Stallion of Torment’s screams could be heard still now and then as his running form moved through the land like a spectral reminder of the horror that had happened.

All attempts of isolating or capturing him had ended up in failure, for being a half regenerated corpse it was surprisingly fast and powerful. Tearing apart enchanted chains with ease with its warped undead strength.

At first Luna wanted to shout, she wanted to scream, she wanted to cry. But she grit her teeth and spoke back to her sister, not looking away from the window. “We… We art listening sister… Captain Heavy Stomp shalt be leading ten patrols of ten guards to investigate the wild woods.”

“...” Celestia fell silent as she watched her sister. Before suddenly launching herself off her chair and hugged her baby sister, babbling and crying. Letting go of her persona as a perfect pretty princess and just collapse into a mess of tears. Or that is what she wanted to do. Yet she could not. All she could do was give humm of understanding and gently fold the paper work into piles before slowly moving over to her sister’s side and gently hugged her side before leaving the room for her office.

Starswirl had told them to not let their emotions run rampant. It was uncertain how intense emotional outburst would behave for an alicorn. Although it was doubtful even the old unicorn was feeling well after that night considering his many late hours of research the last few days.

Luna remained where she sat, just staring out the window as the sun began to settle as her sister called forth her power. Almost absently the Moon Princess called up her own equivalent, but not even the soothing light of her moon could make her sorrow cease aching not even for a moment. *Why? Why did it happen?* Her mourning thoughts echoing in her head.

“Attention!” Shouted out an Earth Pony wearing golden plate mail, the cutie mark of a boulder with a hoofprint smashed into it. In front of him were ten squads of ten guards. A total of one hundred ponies armed in the regular armour of the Novice Ranks of the Equestrian Day Guard.

The squads stood in lines of two in front of the gates of the castle. It was the early morning and each of the ponies were armed and ready for their mission. A few civilians were taking a peek at the activity, even as they were rebuilding their homes.

The big wizened pony officer trotted back and forth in front of his troops, shouting out his words like a drill sergeant, every word reaching to every single guard. They were well trained and disciplined, they knew how to fight and how to act. And this was their leader, using inspiring words to make them gain morale and courage to face the unknown.

“We shalt be going into unknown territory! This new wicketh forest hath surrounded our beloved home for too long! We shalt march out and clear out the infection! Now! We want thy gear ready and thy mind sharp! For our Princesses! We march! For Equestria!” The squads saluted and shouted out, “For Equestria!”, to their commanding officer who smiled at his troops’ discipline.

In steady columns of two by five the soldiers moved out into the twisted wilderness. The ponies of the town made cheers as the soldiers marched out, intent of fulfilling their mission.

Yet, no pony of the expedition force would live to tell the tale of what happened within this wilderness.

The Squad designated as Seven Pointed Star was made up by a group of rookies and a few veterans. Five earth ponies, three pegasis and two unicorns. Creeking Hill was the Sergeant of the squad, an old wizened earth pony older then Captain Heavy Stomp. Some ponies say that he’s the oldest guard, having been around since the time of the Platinum Guard before the reign of Discord. He was well past one hundred and fifty summers of age, yet nopony dared to challenge his authority.

His coat is a dull faded crimson red, his mane is pale grey while his cutie mark is that of a grass covered hill with tall dead trees growing on top of it. He was in a full plate armour and armed with a two handed battle axe.

Then there were the two groups of twins. Tearing Pear, Streaking Bolt, two earth ponies, sisters, whom were an excellent combination of defence and range. Tearing Pear was a dark green pony with a teal mane, with the cutie mark of a pear smashing a shield. She uses heavy armor while equipped with a large tower shield and a short sword while her sister Streaking Arrow used medium armour while wielding a heavy crossbow augmented with an axe edge to act as a close range weapon. Streaking Bolt was teal in fur and green in mane, the opposite colouring of her sister, with the cutie mark of a crossbow bolt flying through a cloud.

The other twins were the two unicorns. Fire Ball and Frost Ball, brothers, one was red in fur with yellow mane, with the cutie mark of a ball of ice, while the other was light blue in fur with a white mane with the cutie mark of a ball of fire. Their opposite colouring was bit of an inside joke between the squads, though they never understood it themselves. Both of them were armed with magical focuses, golden staffs with crystals.

Then there were the individual earth ponies. There was Rock Bottom, an overweight dark brown middle aged pony with a dirty short cut chestnut coloured mane and tail, with an empty tankard as his cutie mark. He was the slouch and slacker, equipped in heavy armour with a warhammer for a weapon, but he barely seemed to use it.

The other was Grass Whistler, a silent scout who was about as much of a conversationalist as Rock Bottom was a non-alcoholic. He is light green in colour, with a mane of blue with streaks of turquoise, his cutie mark is a leaf shaped like a flute. He is armed with two daggers and wears a camouflage enchanted cloak over his light armour.

Finally there were the three pegasis. Storm Wing, Solid Gust and Prancing Cloud, each of them wearing light armours while wielding javelins and light shields. They looked like twins, sharing identical colourings, yet were not related in any way. All of them had dull dark grey fur with manes of white with streaks of light blue. Storm Wing had a pair of open wings surrounded by an arch of lightning as his cutie mark. Solid Gust had a tornado shaped as a brick as his. While Prancing Cloud had… a cloud wearing a flamboyant hat.

Each of these ponies were green as may come, having only finished their basic training a month before the Night of Terror. The only experienced guards were the old sergeant Creeking Hill and Rock Bottom who was about as useful as a bag of socks.

Currently the group was moving through a clearing in the strange woods. They could not notice much of anything except for the occasional rabbit, insect or bird flying around without a care. Which was weird since they were used to seeing animals being cared for by ponies and not handling things on their own.

Rock Bottom fiddled with his weapon nervously as the birds flew into the sky, he was feeling uneasy. Moving ahead of the others the old guard pony muttered to their squad leader. “This place be givin’ me da creepsies Sarge. Somethin’ ain’t right ‘ere.”

Creeking Hill hummed in agreement as he saw a strange blue flower bloom from the soil in front of them. “Indeed. But this is the safest place we have found thus far for camp. But it is strange. There be a small spring here of fresh water. Yet there are no animals here to drink from it. And these flowers that art growing here... I hath never seen anything like them.”

“Oh lay off already old timer, what can some water and sprouts do to us?” Came the brash and synchronized voices of the Ball Twins, Rock Bottom and Creeking Hill just snorted at the brash youths and moved ahead past.

“Bloody unicorns got nothin but magic in them pointy noggins.” Muttered Rock Bottom as he took a seat on a big rock, pulling out a leather flask with some strong wine.

“”Lay off the grog Rock Bottom, we art in unknown territory. Keep thy ears and eyes sharp.” Creeking Hill stated as he moved over to the stream. Lowering his head the old pony sniffed the water, he could not sense anything wrong with it. Pulling out a wooden cup the sergeant filled it from the flowing waters before carrying it over to the others.

“Inspect this.” Was his short words to the unicorns and the pegasis who all did as they were told. The unicorns scanned the entire thing, while the pegasis used their abilities of weather magic to inspect the water. Yet they could not find anything dangerous or out of place within the water.

“It be safe old timer. Nothing in it.” Fire Ball and Ice Ball said together as they floated the cup back to the officer who nodded before carefully licking the water in the cup, it tasted a bit too sweet, almost like it was flowing with brown sugar, but it didn’t tingle with anything he could point in as dangerous. It was just very clean and fresh water, the cleanest he had ever tasted in fact.

“Good. Put up the tents, I want at least two ponies at guard at all time.”

The rookies went to put up the four tents, of the ten guards would eight be resting, that would mean two ponies per tent at any given time. And two keeping watch.

As the night time began to fall and the moon rise was Rock Bottom and Storm Wing given the first watch.

The older earth pony took a drink every now and then while his companion kept sharpening his weapon, or checking his gear. The blue flowers had spread through the entire clearing by now, but other then that had nothing out of the ordinary happened. Rock Bottom drained his flask before looking at the blue flowers illuminated by the moonlight. He had always preferred the moon to the sun, it was gentle in its glow and soothing in the warm summer nights when you lay out cold from a night of drinking. *She too liked moon lit nights. If only she could be here today.* Sighing softly the earth pony looked at the treelines, nothing out of the ordinary yet.

Young Storm Wing seemed intent on being silent for the entire watch, so not much of a conversation there. Hopefully his other flasks were yet to be empty. Reaching for one of his spare bottles Rock Bottom uncorked it before chugging down a mouthful. In his drinking he didn’t notice a dull blue glow coming from the flowers even as the moon was covered by clouds for a short moment he, nor the pegasus, noticed.

The old Earth Pony drained his flask in another heavy gulp and as he pulled it away from his muzzle he barely had time to react as Storm Wing fell forward into the flowers, unconscious. Rock Bottom tried to reach for him when he felt his body seized up, as if he was paralyzed. His head turned to look at his own body but got stuck as his neck shifted, the only thing he could see was the moonlit field of flowers, the beautiful moon above glowing upon it. Before his thoughts faded his stony lips cracked into a fond smile as a name rang through his head one final time. *Moon Gaze...*

His still shape stood still in the field, even his armour losing its golden hue, turning into a black rougher surface. Standing like a statue of a solemn hour the earth pony seemed to sag together, the soil beneath his still shape unable to hold his uneven weight. The still shape of the pony stood upright for a few seconds before he began to tilt and then fall to the side. A loud crumbling echo of rock breaking apart was the last sound to be heard in the glade before the eerie silence of the night returned.

The night was silent and calm. Even as Luna laid down on her bed early, exhausted and tired, yet she could not sleep. Her heart ached, her mind was at unease and her thoughts heavy. While lying down on the cover she looked up at the night sky, watching the stars tinkling as her moon gently shone upon the land below.

It didn’t make her feel at ease, but it distracted her for a few moments. But it didn’t take long for her heart to clench and for her dry eyes to ache as she wanted to cry, but no tears were to be found. Burying her head beneath her pillow Luna wanted to scream but found herself too exhausted to do so.

Then a soft humming filled her ears. It reached over her body and made her relax.

“Through wind so calm, moon so bright. Hear our song through the night.”

“Let thy soul be at rest. Our voice ringing like a chiming bell, lifting thy pain away.”

A white hoof gently pulled the pillow of the princess’ head, an aura of magic grasping her head gently and lifting it up before pushing the pillow beneath her head.

“Through wind so calm, moon so bright. Hear our song through of the night.”

“Let our lullaby bring you to sleep. A soothing sound of a melody. That puts all at ease.”

Then an aura gently grasped the cover and pulled it up to her neck.

“”Through wind so calm, moon so bright. Hear our song through the night.”

“Sleep peaceful sister dear. And let thy soul be at ease.”

The moon princess had fallen asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. After having been tucked in properly the voice stopped singing and just kept humming as it gently drew the curtains over the window, covering the room in darkness.

“Hummmmhummmhum. Hummmhummmhummm. Hummmhummhummhummmmmmm.”

Then a low creak was heard as the door to the room was opened and then silent steps moved out of the room before closing gently.

The white alicorn behind the doorway let out a soft sigh before walking down the silent hallway. How she missed the happier times they used to have.

Walking through the silent halls of the castle Celestia looked out the windows as her sister’s beautiful moon shone upon the recovering town below. She then noticed a green glow coming from Starswirl’s tower, she was starting to feel a bit concerned for the old Unicorn, he had not come out of his tower for three days now.

Intend on speaking to the old stallion tomorrow the princess of the sun left for her own tower to try and sleep. Unaware of the horrors happening in the night.

The Tower of Starswirl was the tallest of the towers of the castle, also the only one equipped with a proper telescope. Here Starswirl’s workshop and personal library could be found. And before the Green Star it was a source of working students, princesses and a laughing little filly.

No pony knew of the secret life of Starswirl the Bearded. In his youth he had been a filly chasing play-colt, an arrogant genius with an iron solid belief in his own capabilities as a Magus and a Unicorn. His full name had been Starswirl Bloodbeard, of the Blood Clan, one of the older noble families of the Unicorn Nobility.

He had been through it all, the rise and fall of the Windigos, the Rise of Discord, the Ascension of Queen Tender Crown and the two Princesses, the fall of Discord, the Fall of Tirek, the Disappearance of the Crystal Empire, and many more incidents. But one incident, the most recent, had made a deep scar in his soul. The Fall of the Green Star, which brought about the destruction, and following mutation, of the forest. The source of the aching in his heart and soul was the Stallion of Torment, the physical embodiment of the Green Star, the thing that killed his former student, and secret wife Sparkling Cupcake.

He had found her as a young mare struggling through a mire of chocolate fudge filled with gummi snakes, she had used magic and herbs to discourage and clear her path through the candy horror land. She had been a beautiful mare, enough to make the more then eighty years old unicorn feel like a hot blooded rascal once more. She had enchanted him with her mind and looks and he in turn had ensnared her with his intelligence and wit. He took her in as an apprentice, not openly, he was still teaching the two princesses by this time and could not openly accept another apprentice.

But it soon grew past that stage and into a secret relationship. For a nearly century old Unicorn Lord and Archmagus to enjoy the tender touch and love of a much younger mare would have been a scandal and disaster not just for them but for the kingdom they were founding as well. Of course such things were much more acceptable, but it would still have made a smear upon his image, and by association the image of the princesses. So they kept it secret, even from the princesses, who were too busy working their courts to be safely told of the relation. Starswirl had intended to tell them of it, but never did, too much work and too little time. A few years into their relationship they had a daughter, and that brought a much needed warmth into his life.

And it also brought a lot of danger. A child born of noble blood outside of an official marriage was a capital offence to the unicorn nobility, it would lead to his and Cupcake's execution as well as the adoption of his little filly into an orphanage. Thus they had to separate from one another, and his little filly, Clever Clover, was never told of who her papa was, unaware that he was the old kidn unicorn who said he liked her hat.

But then came the Green Star. Destruction. Pain. Despair. All was brought by its coming and the Stallion of Torment's rise acted like a cataclysm, a scapegoat, for Starswirl's rage when he found out the fate of his family. His secret wife had been at the point of one of the impacts her ashes scattered over the land, while Clover had been torn asunder by the shock wave by the impacts.

Starswirl wanted justice, no! He wanted revenge! He wanted to hunt down the source of his pain and cause it so much more agony in return.

But he remained silent for the first week, only doing menial tough labor to find survivors, to keep his mind focused. And his workshop had remained dark and barely lit for days. And yet this night, it was a dark and gloomy place, but one of activity. Once bare and unused tables were covered and filled with open tomes, boiling concoctions and tools of magical origin and purpose.

Upon a white block of marble, strapped into contraptions and holders of black iron, was a long black horn, glowing with a green flame like aura. And examining it with all manners of magical glass lenses and chemicals was a white old unicorn by the name of Starswirl. His once clean and well kept beard, fur and clothes covered in days’ worth of grime, dirt and chemicals.

Voiceless whispers were echoing through the room, the old unicorn seemed to mutter along with them from time to time, speaking words of no more reason then gibberish.

His purple eyes were focused on the horn to the point of mania, his magic absently writing down notes into a scroll of parchment as he kept muttering. Inbetween the mad gibberish his words were clear and coherent. “The scale of the horn’s interior would rate the body to be above the average height registered for an Alicorn. Around seven point two feet in height, two feet above the tallest registered pony in existence, High Club. And one foot taller then Celestia, the tallest registered Alicorn. The horn appears to be made not out of bone or hardened hair but some sort of metal.”

Using a black knife of obsidian the unicorn began to try and scrape off parts from the horn, yet nothing seemed to damage it. The old unicorn had found the horn a few days after the disaster when he volunteered to look for survivors.

Amongst the ruins of the town was Starswirl, his once clean blue robe now dirty brown from the many hours of looking for survivors or deceased. As he pushed aside a wall of crumbling bricks with his magic he saw a dead pony, a mother covering her foal with her body, the foal seemed to be breathing however.

Reminded of the reason whyhe was volunteering for this grunt work Starswirl covered up his sniffle with a dry cough before gently pushing away the rubble from the foal and his mother.

“Come on little one, let’s get you to safety.” The old unicorn murmured as he levitated the little colt free from his mother’s corpse. Carefully handing the little one to the guard accompany him Starswirl turned to move forward through the ruins once more when he spotted something just past the ruined house he was standing by.

There was something sticking out from a small crater. A black pointy object. Curious the old unicorn walked over to the object, grasping it with his magic he pulled it out from the soil. It was a horn, a long unicorn- no, this was an Alicorn’s horn. It was radiating green energy, similar to that of the Green Star and the flames that had been burning for so long.

A sound of something small hitting stone alerted him from his memories. Looking down he saw a small amount of metal shavings hit the white marble, small pieces of metal fragments from the horn. The first damage upon the horn and it had taken the use of a reinforced obsidian blade.

An unhinged and creepily wide smile grew upon the unicorn’s muzzle and a hissing manic monologue ran through his head as he levitated the pieces of metal shaving towards another work bench. *Yessssss!! With this We shalt begin Our Vengeance!! Clover, Cupcake, just wait for Us.*

Pulling out more tomes and tools the unicorn set the obsidian blade to a continuous, scraping against the horn, while pulling out a mirror frame and a necklace. “First We shalt use the power of the fragments of the horn to power some of our older projects. We need to discern the energy’s potency, structure and effects. So many thingsss will be realized if we can unlock the secrets of the metal and this green energy. And thus we can find a way to destroy the beast from which it came. Yessss… That is good.”

Unhinged chuckles fills the laboratory as the unicorn begins to experiment, analyzing and combining the fragments of the horn into his contraptions and unfinished projects. Not noticing how his once violet eyes, are slowly turning green.

Nobody would realize the horrors born from that fateful meeting between Starswirl the Bearded and the horn left by Stallion of Torment. But if anyone had any hints or foresight of it, they remained silent.

Young Storm Wing had never experienced a hangover before. Yet he had heard plenty of descriptions of it from his ma whenever he asked why his pa would act like such a grouch every saturday- This felt a lot like how his ma had described it so he was certain that the pounding pain in his skull could attribute to a hanover. Now he was all the more certain that he would never drink alcohol then ever before.

His vision cleared as the sun rise began its rise from the edge of the world, granting the world its warm glow. Looking around the camp he felt a rising panic as he tried to find the others, that’s when he noticed two things. One, there was a big pile of rock just lying on the ground next to him with a familiar looking warhammer and leather flask lying next to it. The most disturbing thing though was that the pile of rubble looked way too much like it was once in the shape of a pony.

The second thing was the most disturbing, his wings were sparking like a lightning filled storm cloud, the feathers puffed up like a porcupine’s quills!

Opening his mouth to scream out in fear, all that came out was the sound of rumbling thunder, sparks of lightning arching out from his teeth and tongue. Startled but determined Storm Wing tried to stand up from the ground, finding it difficult with his deranged wings.

For a few minutes the young pegasus struggled himself upright and then began to step slowly towards the tents, not wanting to trip. Struggling towards the closest tent he looked inside only to let out a crackling thunder as he gasped at what he saw in there.

Where there had been two sleeping bags laid instead a pile of ashes and a pile of melting ice. Within each pile laid what could only be the bones of ponies within them, in fact the ice itself looked like it had been around every single piece of bone, as if replacing the flesh, before melting.

Now even more frightened Storm Wing scrambled as fast as he could towards the second tent. Inside laid not two guard ponies but two skeletons of two ponies. Both of the skeletons were covered in small cocoons of what Storm Wing recognized as the cocoons of some kind of insect. The left corps had pieces of branches sticking out of it ,as if they had laid root in it, while the right hd patches of rotten flesh.

Storm Wing could not run but he made a good effort as he ran towards the third tent, when he got there, he saw two ponies sleeping, sighing in relief that at least two were alive he tried to wake them up. But they didn’t react to his rumbling. His heart clenched with concert and worry, slowly he strode over to the two ponies, the two sisters from what he could make out. And as he moved aside the covers he hag to prevent himself from puking.

Tearing Pear’s flesh was no longer flesh, but the sweet smelling fruit meat of a pear, her eyes, nostrils, ears and mouth were gone, replaced with solid texture of pear. While Streaking Bolt looked like she had been skinned before her flesh had been replaced by wood and gears, her mouth shaped into a wooden barrel, a bolt head sticking out from it, a lever replacing her tail, two bent wooden frames sticking out from her wides, a long slot on her spine, with ten holes in each of her hips, with ten large crossbow bolts inside them.

Screaming out thunder and lightning Storm wing ran for the last tent, had the poor colt had any sense he would have realized it was futile, but panic gives no place for common sense.

The fourth tenth was probably the worst and Storm Wing made no effort to keep himself from throwing up, releasing a bile of lightning sparking black storm clouds from his mouth.

A tree shaped as a pony’s skeleton was growing out of a pile of rock and dirt. The treeäs dark, old and withered frame groaned and moaned in a tone and manner similar to the old sergeant, and it did that at the slightest shift in the wind. A wind caused by a floating white cloud, shaped like a certain childhood friend. And the fact that out of the cloud were bare pony bones sticking out at odd angles, as if it was hanging limp within the cloud itself, even as its cloud frame floated gently around, producing gusts of wind, made Storm Wing lose all sense of reason.

Screaming bloody murder the pegasus tripped and stumbled as he frantically tried to run out of the glade, leaving the remains of his comrades behind as he tried. Frantically thinking how he did not wish to die and how he wanted to see his family again. Uncaring for anything the young mutilated pegasus fled through the woods in the direction he and the others had come from.

He ran, tripping, falling and stumbling, but never stopped. For what felt like forever he soon enough stumbled upon another glade of blue flowers and spotted at the other side of the glade the tents of another squad. Feeling hope and joy Storm Wing ran towards the glade, but as he crossed the tree lines he suddenly felt something sharp bite into his left thigh.

Screaming crackling noises the pegasus looked back and stared in fear at the sight of a pack of wolves, one of which was biting into his leg. Brutally kicking the wolf’s skull he fled into the glade. Hoping the wolves would be frightened of the flowers like the animals before had been.

Yet the wolves were mad with hunger and followed.

The young pegasus barely had time to rush into one of the tenth, and felt all hope die at the sight of the tree shaped corpse of his sergeant and the cloud corpse of his friend, he had gone around in a circle.

Then his body jerked as a big furry shape slammed into him and knocked him down. And even as his throat was ripped open he just cried and and cried, begging for the nightmare to end. *Mom, please… save… me...* As the pegasus fell limp the wolves joined in on the hunt for meat on the carcass. But then as one of the wolves tore into the dead pegasus’ wings, the energy within was released like a storm burst. With a massive crack of lightning and thunder the entire glade was torn apart, chunks of earth and soil flung away into the sky.

What remained were the corpses of ponies and wolves. Yet as the hours went by, lightning began to arch through the tree that had once been Creeking Hill. The roots of the corpse tree was sucking up the blood of the pegasus, the wolves and the rotting remains of the other ponies, along with the energy from the lightning. It kept doing so, until a loud zap like sound was heard, and in bright flares of white light, emerged rainbow coloured apples from the branches of the tree, and all the other trees around the glade.

Then the wolf corpses began to twitch and turn, before their flesh eroded, their bones twisted and their organs dissolved, and then this mass began to turn and turn upon the ground of the glade, turning it into a swirling soup of flesh, wood, soil and dirt. Then the rainbow apples fell down upon this murky mixture. which went still.

Not an hour later the substance hardens into a wood like texture before breaking apart like an green goo filled egg. And from out of this goo, and from the shards of the ‘egg’ came thin wolf like beings made out of wood with green glowing eye sockets.

Crawling out of the murky mixture the wooden constructs snarled and growled at one another. Until one large growled them all into submission. The green goop had disappeared into the soil of the glade, and as if acting as a powerful fertilizer, the glade was being filled with blue flowers once more. Then the big wooden wolf howled into the air, and the rest followed. Howling as one the flock of wooden canines let their unnatural voices sound through the woods, then after having given their announcement to the world the tree creatures sprang and leaped away from the glade, dispersing into the forest.

And this was but one of the thirty squads to meet their doom within the new Everfree Forest.

None of the soldiers returned. Days and Months went by with no response from the expedition force. The Princesses did nto dare to send out another expedition force and only allowed certain volunteers to enact further expeditions into the forest. And so it was realized by the ponies of Equestria that they were isolated within their own lands by the nightmarish forest that now surrounded them. The nights were filled with the sound of monsters, tortured screams and the howling of abnormal wolves.

Little by little the ponies tried to survive, the Princesses performing all manners of magic to keep the creatures of the forest at bay while trying to find a solution. Yet there was none to be found. It would seem that the ponies would soon have to abandon their new home after only so recently building it.

And the Princesses would not accept this. This was more then a new beginning for their species, this was their foalhood home, this was the last place they saw their mother. They could not abandon it.

So the sisters began to work, training more guards, developing new gear and new spells for them. Working the best they could. And for a time they were making progress.

Celestia looked up from her notes as she stirred the chemical filled cauldron in front of her. It was a mixture of herbs and plants she had, had her guards gather after they had been discovered through out the edges of the forest. It had taken some effort but she had managed to identify some of their properties and even found a decent amount of use in them. But some of them were down right hazardous and were to be burnt before they could spread into the town.

The mixture would grant high nutrition to soil, making it an excellent fertilizer, but not only that it would also make it possible for the plants to grow at a much faster rate, making it possible ot make two harvests a year if they were properly used. Of course the only way for that to work was with the new glass houses Luna had made, they worked perfectly for keeping in plants and when built in large enough scale they could be used to keep making crops even during the winters.

And since the weather of the Everfree Forest was now out of their control were these glass made houses a blessing, winter and summer seemed to follow a twelve month pattern within the forest, yet was random at how harsh either weather condition would be. Luckily had old Starswirl managed to discover a spell that allowed the unicorns to clear out the clouds above them in case of a particularly harsh storm, blizzard or other hazardous weather.

Stopping her stirring for a bit Celestia looked at her mentor who was making a rune line smith hammer, for making the enchantments of the royal guards without having to scratch every inch of the armour. He looked so tired and spent. Like he was not sleeping, she was getting increasingly worried, as was Luna but she didn't take it so seriously.

"Starswirl, art thou alright? Thou looks like thou hath not slept for days." Celestia's question made the old unicorn stumble in his work and he nearly carved a hole in his table.

"Huh!? Uh! Whut?" He asked tiredly, rubbing his sore eyes with his left hoof. Summoning a cup of water he drank it up before turning towards Celestia. "Oh, We art fine Celestia, just a bit too much focus on this hammer. We art to be done soon, then we shalt take some rest." In truth that was a lie, but Celestia didn't realize that and only smile in relief and gave the old unicorn a peck on the check before returning to her pot.

"Oh don't be such a grump darling. Go have some rest now, work later." Came a lovely voice ringing through his ears, the sweet voice of the mare he had lost during that day.

Following it was a voice he wanted to hear just as much, but would never be able to hear again. The voice of his little filly, lost forever. "Oooh! Papa Starswirl's be a grumpy! Get some sleep papa! Thou can carve that there scorpion lion corpse later!"

*Not yet. Too much work. Need to finish. Yesss. Need to finish.* The old unicorn thought to himself and his delusions, his eyes shifting green for a few moments as his thoughts came upon the black horn in his secret study. He would need more material, more subjects, the scorpion and lion hybrid he caught and killed last night was proving fascinating buti t was not enough. *No. Not enough. Need to do more, need to finish. More subjects needed, get hold of them. Another squad lost in forest. Get their bodies. Yessss. That is good.*

Things were looking up for the society, ponies were surviving, and the alicorn sisters and their mentors worked to find a way to clear a path out of the forest.

But then it happened. After over fifty years of experiments and research Starswirl the Bearded, made his move. The stallion was over one and a half century old by now and had isolated himself within his tower for years. Not even the princesses could bring him out from his research, only visit him whenever they could, which was few times and far between.

His experiments had grown more bold, more daring, more… dangerous. He had made so much progress with the horn, its metal and the metal’s properties. It had progressed his research centuries ahead of its time. And yet he had not unlocked all of its secrets, and time was running out for him, literally.

Starswirl was getting past his magical prime, he was already past his physical prime by twenty years. And even if he was magically strong, even for an unicorn, would his physical shape not be able to handle much in thirty more years, he knew it. He had another fifty years at best then his magical potential would begin to shrivel and degrade until he would die at maybe three hundred years of age as a magicless unicorn, if he was careful. No he had to enact his plan now and get justice, there were no more time windows.

And thus began the fall of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, not by an outside force, but by the actions of an insider.

Celestia knocked on the door to Starswirl’s lab, hoping to speak to her mentor about the efforts on the magical barrier system that would enable them to protect the town and the roads without constant guards. Yet nobody responded. Curious she knocked again, it was rare for her mentor to not bark out in a grouchy tone nowadays so what was so different today?

After another five minutes Celestia pushed the door open and entered, finding nobody, only scattered notes, tools and other things. Hoping to find her mentor she went towards his private study, yet there was no one there either, only his bed and wardrobe. Turning to leave she stopped, as she noticed something strange.

The wall by the wardrobe, it had a shadow lining in the middle, where it was supposed to be flat. Curious and now slightly concerned Celestia walked over to the wall and noticed how there were scrape marks on the the floor.

“A hidden doorway? Why would Starswirl have something like this?” Murmured the Princess of the Sun before grasping the doorway with her hoof and pulled it open. A vast well lit laboratory greeted her, it was filled with all manners of objects, blackboards, notes, books, tools, components, reagents, strange machines and… corpses.

All over several different tables, dissected, dismembered, mutated, mutilated and preserved. Corpses of animals, sentient animals, diamond dogs, lion scorpion hybrids and… ponies. Dozens of different ponies, some of the few corpses retrieved from the Everfree Forest, supposed to have been cremated before returned to the families, yet that was obviously false. Instead here they laid, cut open on dissection tables with notes stapled upon their various mutations or mutilations.

Already horrified Celestia tried to find reason and sense for this senseless butchery, when she stumbled upon a desk with notes and a small painting. It was a painting of three ponies. One was Starswirl, another was a beautiful mare with chocolate brown fur, red mane with yellow streaks, with a cupcake for a cutie mark. A small filly, barely a month old from the looks of it, with a silly looking hat, Clever Clover, Celestia recognized her immediately.

Looking at the back of the frame Celestia saw the words written by an elegant hoof, a style she recognized anywhere

“‘The True Treasure Is Family.’ Oh Starswirl. We hath no idea.” Celestia murmured with tear glistening eyes before looking down at the desk, and immediately felt a shiver down her spine at the complex pentagram painted upon it. It was the same pentagram he made as an attempt to kill Discord, only for it to fail when the chaos god made the pentagram into a bowl of spaghetti and eating it with a pair of wooden sticks after shouting ‘This Ramen Pentagram is the Food of the Gods! Believe It!’ in Starswirl’s face while wearing some goofy orange outfit while wearing some kind of weird headband.

Yet it was altered, and it was also with several notes of ill note. Starswirl wanted to kill the Stallion of Torment, he thought of it as the true form of the Green Star that killed his family. It noted how he found a horn after the disaster and had theorized that if used as a catalyst for his ‘Soul Ripper’ Ritual, it would be able to kill the Stallion of Torment as the horn was once part of it. Using its own power against it.

But the power required to kill an Alicorn, or at least Alicorn-like being, would be enormous. Even if the horn was from the Stallion of Torment would it not nearly have enough power to kill it. And even then, killing the being would more then likely only bring more disaster, its powers were too unstable, too irrational for a proper containment.

What Starswirl intended to do was to lure the Stallion of Torment into the pentagram, bind it to place, then stab it with the horn, and enact the ritual. But these alterations had turned the Soul Ripper into something new. It was not just tearing out the soul, it was to use the powers of the soul and energies of the Stallion of Torment to enact a secondary ritual.

Oh dear… oh my. That was not good. Starswirl intended to use the ritual to resurrect his dead family, by using the Stallion of Torment as a sort of crude catalyst and power source for the ritual. But the calculations, theories and experiments on resurrection magic was centuries from being completed. And Celestia could tell, this ritual would not be a true revival, it would repair the bodies and make them live, but there was no anchor for the soul, and that was far more complex then anything ever made.

If Starswirl attempted this he would have to make a pentagram the size of a town square just for it to be able to contain the energies and not disrupt itself. And to lure the Stallion of Torment here he would have to be able to draw it here somehow, and it was just randomly running around. Unless… unless he was going to use the horn. Use it like a lure, using its energy resonance as a call for the Stallion of Torment to reach for.

And even then he would have to do it in an area where the energies would resonate strong, and the only place where the Stallion of Torment was noted for having been in for more then a minute was… here.

“Oh by Our Sun!” Celestia shouted out as she realized just what Starswirl was planning. IT was insane! To enact such a powerful ritual in the middle of the settlement would not only risk the town but the ponies in it as well! The Soul Ripper ritual would draw in the souls of all within its range and use them as a power catalyst for the incomplete revival ritual!

She had to get help! She had to get Luna! Starswirl must be stopped before he could destroy the entire town! Grabbing the ritual notes Celestia rushed out of the hidden lab, out of the workshop and down the halls. Her hooves clopped upon the solid stone floor and guard ponies all around could only stare in shock at the sight of the terrified princess running down the halls clutching a stack of paper in levitation magic.

“Sister! We art in most dire need of thy assistance!” Celestia shouted out in the Royal Princess Voice as she entered the night court, barely anybody entered it now-a-nights with the creatures and dangers of the Everfree getting more active during the nightly hours.

The dark blue alicorn, who had been sitting on her throne looking out at the beautiful moon, jumped in her seat at the shout and looked at her sister with wide yes. “Wh-what be thy concern Sister?”

“Starswirl! He hath gone mad!” Those were not the words Luna had been expecting, ever.

“”Starswirl? Mad? Art thou sure thou did not just fall asleep on thy paperwork again?” Celestia growled and ran over to the balcony and pointed out with her hoof.

“Look for thyself!” Running over to the balcony Luna looked down and saw a large runic circle drawn upon the courtyard. Down there Starswirl was standing within the middle of the massive runic array, using his magic to carve it out of the stone of the courtyard. Several guards were trying to call out of him but a magic dome shield was preventing them from entering.

“He plans to call the Stallion of Torment to the town! For the purpose of sacrificing it in a modified Soul Ripper Ritual to empower a Revival spell to bring back his dead family! But the ritual is incomplete! If he enacts it, it will kill everypony within our settlement!” Luna stared in shock for about five seconds before she looked at her sister and spoke up in an emotionless voice. “Bring out our armours, now. We need to get down there in full gear. We will hath to arm ourselves on our way down.”

As the sisters scrambled to reach the courtyard in time they summoned their armours and weapons forcefully from the armoury, not intend on putting them on properly, only swiftly and loosely fitting for them to do their purpose. The view of the princesses running down the halls, pieces of armour attaching to their bodies while an array of weapons floated behind them was enough to make the guards scramble for their own gear, if the princesses were reacting as they did, it was for the best if they brought out the newly built bolt throwers.

“Yesssss! Soon! Soon! Hehehehehee!” Starswirl muttered in a disturbed giggling voice as he carved the final rune into place. The runic array circle was complete, in its center was an oval shaped table of black marble, upon it laid the horn. Now all he had to do was call the beast, and all would go according to plan.

“Time to bring in our guest!” Starswirl stated with a wicked smirk as he lit his horn, casting a spell upon the air above the altar. Just before he was about to activate the beacon spell was he interrupted by two desperate voices.

“Starswirl Stop!/This is madness teacher!” Looking over his shoulders, Starswirl looked upon his two students, their bodies covered by hastily put on armour. The old unicorn’s eyes were no longer a gentle violet in colour, but pure poison green, his once brilliant white coat a dirty mess of grey and brown, while his robe and hat were damaged and filth with years of dirt.

A twinkle of emotions runs through his head but his eyes goes unfocused and then the giggling began, before he erupted in mad cackles. “Madness? Hehehehehheeee! No this is not Maaadness!! Heheheheeee! This is JUSTICE! Hahahahahahaaaa!” As if slamming his horn down into an invisible opponent Starswirl activated the spell, and a loud ghostly echoing dong was sounded out across the town and into the forest. And it kept repeating.

Celestia and Luna tried to focus their powers to overcome the shield but it was proving to be too strong for them, the shield felt like it was absorbing their magic and empowering itself with their energies. Desperately they slammed their enchanted weaponry against the barrier, yet it held firm. “Noo do not do it!” “Please Starswirl! This can only bring disaster!”

But their pleading was ignored as the deranged unicorn laughed, cackled and giggled as the resonating sound finally dismissed itself. But by then it was already done, it had done its purpose. And all ponies within the castle and the town around it, felt chills running down their spines as a familiar ghastly screech was heard from the Everfree Forest.

First came the voice, the howling agonized screeches from the woods. Then a green glow began to grow in the shadows of the trees. And as it got closer came the evening mist of the forest like a flowing gas, the moisture was starting to take on a glowing green tint as the green glow came closer.

The ponies grew anxious and afraid, seeking shelter within their homes, the guards pulled out their weapons, including sending crews to arm the bolt throwers at the towers surround inth the town and the castle. But it would not work. Then, Starswirl began to sing, his voice a deranged mess of dark insanity as the song carried out his desire for revenge

In a burst of green fire and swirling mist emerged a running winged pony corpse, once it had been but naught bones and a few rotting pieces of meat, now it was half covered by skinless muscles and beating organs, spraying body fluids that burst into ash and cinder as they reached the air outside the green flames. This was the spectre who emerged from the fall of the Green Star, the Stallion of Torment, not seen by any pony since the last failed expedition to contain him attempted almost ten years ago.

“Take Aim! Fire!” Shouted the grizzled officers by the soldiers. A rain of arrows, bolts, spells and ballista bolts flew towards the approaching horror. Yet even if they hit, would the projectiles be reduced to ash by the fire like aura while spells were merely dissolved by it. shards of metal and wood would scatter through the wind as the stallion kept moving, causing the ground to be littered by sharp shards of wood or shards of metal.

Shouting out orders to stop the beast the guards raised rails of sharpened metal pikes to act as a makeshift phalanx barrier. Yet the stallion rushed into the like of pointy metal without care, even as the weapons pierced its flesh and organs he kept moving, the fires coming from his body twisting and dissolving the metal touching him within seconds.

The undead creature kept running, not caring for what or who was in his path. Even as he broke the lines of pony guards trying to stop him

“Raise the barrier!” A Unicorn Captain shouted out and a squad of thirty unicorns conjured a wall of solid magic in front of the gates of the castle. The barrier was three folded with a hexagonal shape to give it strength.

It was the latest in barrier spell, a fortress of small dense focused energy lense based magical barriers put together into a network of equally strong barriers, in three layers, making it the most complex and strongest made magical barrier made thus far.

Yet the unrelenting burning undead was not to be stopped. As its burning shape reached the hexagon patterned barrier, its powerful aura corroded the spell structure and made it shatter like ice before it smashed through it. The force of the impact sent the unicorns behind the barrier flying into different directions, before those unlucky few were run over by the half shaped and half rotting beast’s flaming metal hooves. Several of the unicorns tried to body slam him with thick chains or improvised weapons, only for him to toss them aside before his running undead shape, slammed into the barrier of Starswirl, and went straight through it.

Yet even as his barrier failed to keep the mad spirit out was Starswirl not showing nervousness or fear, instead he seemed almost ecstatic with joy as his barrier fell and the Stallion of Torment rushed towards him. Standing up the old unicorn spread his front legs wide, as if greeting the approaching horror and spoke up in an unhinged voice as he began to call upon his magic. “Yessss! Come! Come and die! Eheheheheheheee! This night shall be thy last! Hehehehehehehaha! Thou shalt suffer the greatest of pain before I end thy existence! Come! Come to thy doom! Ihihihehehehahahahaaaaa!“

As the half rotten creature reached the center of the pentagram Starswirl’s horn lit up and from points within the circle came thick black chains of iron out from the ground. Two chains lashed out in front of the rushing creature, connecting to one another and bringing its charge to a halt, even as the ground holding them groaned in protest, they held for a moment. And a moment was all that needed for the rest of the swarm of linked black metal to warp around the struggling undead alicorn and binding it into place.

Smirking Starswirl dragged the rotten creature towards the altar, even as it struggled its strength was unable to break the chains. Not even the green fires burning through its flesh had any effects on the chains. “Thy foul fires will not break these chains creature! They were forged with fragments from this horn, THY HORN! Thou can not break these chains without strength! And thou art weaker then our princesses, thus thy end is neighn.”

A wicked gleeful smile erupted on Starswirl’s muzzle as the struggling mindless brute was finally chained to the altar, its body too tied up to find leverage to pull itself free. The black marble beneath it began to hiss and boil, but it would not be free by the time that Starswirl was done. The insane unicorn strode forward, the horn held within his hooves and he sang.

Striding up towards the creature he scrapped the horn along the marble of the stone altar, scratching a thin line of runes around it. Next to the slab of marble laid two bundles, each one surrounded by an encirclement of runes. The unnatural glee in the old unicorn’s eyes were as clear as day and night, and as he finished carving the final rune he strode up and raised himself on his hind legs, the horn in hoof.

Raising the horn Starswirl struck it down towards the bound creature, the princesses tried to divert the energies of the shield to drain it but could only stare in horror as the horn struck the bound creature’s skull… and shattered.

Starswirl stared at the shattered fragments of the horn, his eyes went wide, and the sound of something snapping could be heard. He frantically tried to scoop up the shards and put them together, even as they began to melt, melting his hooves in the process. “WHAT! No! No! Nonononononono! This was not how it should have been! Thou were meant to die! Our family alive! Thou need to die!”

Frantic with madness the old pony scraped up what little of the melting horn he could gather and tried to punch the bound creature’s skull in, uncaring how his hooves shattered, of how his bones cracked, or how his flesh corroded from the green flames. Finally spent in energy the old unicorn collapsed on top of the bound creature, begging for it to die as its flames began to corrode his flesh.

“No thou was meant to die. No. This is not how it is supposed to end. We can fix it, yes. We just need time… yes time. To fix this.” Standing up from the bound creature Starswirl turned to gather up more of his tools when an energy bolt of magical energy suddenly hit his side and sent him flying off the altar.

Snarling the half dead unicorn stood up and turned his glowing green eyes towards the spot where the magical bolt had come from. Luna and Celestia had managed to collapse the shield dome into itself and were marching with a squad of heavily armed guards towards the altar. “Starswirl! Thou need to end this foolishness now!” Celestia shouted as she swirled her newly constructed polearm, a glaive, before pointing the blades at the unicorn.

Luna had four curved daggers floating around her, her eyes were looking at Starswirl with disdain and sorrow, the same as her sister. “How low thy hath fallen Starswirl. Were it not thee whom told Us not to play with forces beyond our reckoning?”

“Kaaaahh! Betrayal! We will not hath this! We art Starswirl Bloodbeard! Archmagus and Lord of the Blood Clan! We art not finished! We shalt have vengeance!” The derange unicorn shouted. A torrent of pentagram erupted around his body and a shockwave of magic struck out at the approaching force. Only Celestia and Luna managed to push through the wave of kinetic energy, the remaining guards were pushed out of the runic circle.

Then a loud crack was heard and Starswirl, swirled around to stare in horror as the chains holding the Stallion of Torment, began to crack and melt. “No! Impossible! We made those chains indestructible! We made them with black iron and fragments of its own horn!”

“And that be thy folly Starswirl! If that horn truly hath been part of him once then it is impossible for it to harm him!” Celestia shouted as she fired a bolt of fire at the unicorn who sent it into the sky with a swat of magical force.

Snarling the old unicorn’s deranged but genius rated mind tried to figure out what the princess was talking about, then it hit him, literally. As a bolt of magic struck his face the pony found himself hitting the wall next to the castle gates, cracking the stone wall. Unheeding of his injuries the old unicorn stood up, his mangled body seemingly unshaken by his will and resolve.

“When object art removed or cut off from another object, given time or events, it changes in a different way then the other. And art thus no longer considered part of the whole! Thou kept that horn for years, using part of it, it can no longer be considered part of the Stallion of Torment!” Luna declared as she lashed out with her daggers. Starswirl sent the daggers into the ground with a direction alteration spell.

“No! We hath come too far to allow a mere technically to end our ambitions! We shalt have vengeance!” Starswirl shouted in pure lunacy as he rushed forward, his ruined hooves and legs leaking red and green blood over the floor. But then another crack was heard and the unicorn barely had time to move his head when the altar in the center of the ritual, erupted in green fire.

The Stallion of Torment leaped out of the inferno, its endless rush once more enabled, its hooves carrying it towards the direction of the main gates. Starswirl summoned more chains but the mutilated undead creature was too fast and disappeared from the courtyard. “Noooooo! Our vengeance!” Shouting out in despair Starswirl tried to come up with a way to get his revenge.

But then his body sagged as the final spurt of energy left him, and he found himself in agonizing pain as his life fluids leaked out upon the ground. Celestia and Luna moved over to their former mentor with solemn expressions, they knew he was too far gone to save. “It is over Starswirl. Please let it go.”

At Luna’s words life seemed to spring into Starswirl’s eyes and he began to cackle and cough. “Let it go? Hehhehheeheee.. Cagh! Huuk! Kooch! We shalt never let it go. Hiehehihiheehee… Thy hath destroyed mine revenge now I shalt destroy thy lives… Hak! Huuh! Heed mine words ‘Princesses’. Thou and that foul beast shalt all end up in pits of despair, as I hath. Thy end will never come! Heehihiihiieheee. Hurk! The Beast, Moon and the Sun, shalt fall and the lands shalt be covered in an everlasting darkness of despair! Let see thee care for each other now mine dear students. Hehihihiheheheheeeeeep...”

With a final laugh the old unicorn’s body collapsed, his eyes went blank, and his withered flesh and fur, began to burn in green fire, before leaving a blackened skeleton surrounded by black ash. Luna and Celestia hugged each other and wept at the lose of their last remaining friend from before the fall of Discord, even if he fell to madness, neither of the two alicorn could bring themselves to hate him.

Thus came the end of Starswirl the Bearded, also called Starswirl the Deranged for a few centuries, until the tale of his madness was lost to history except for a selective few, and only the kind mentor of the Princesses was remembered.

But his curse remained, and in but another few decades, it would have claimed its first victim. Marking the fall of the Ponies first home. Yet that was not the only situation

The Stallion of Torment ran through the woodlands without care, it's anguishing screeches frightening even the mutated monsters of the forest. Soon enough it was running over an old bridge, old, rickety and rotten. As its heavy metal hooves slammed upon the middle of the bridge it collapsed, sending the regenerating and burning creature into the strong currents of the river. It sank into the murky depths, unable to move out of the currents with its mindless motions, and soon enough it curled into a fetal position, warping its half rotten wings around itself and went still. Drifting aimlessly until it would disappear into the mud of the waters. The creature would not be seen again, at least not as the Stallion of Torment.

Author's Notes:

Staadnauthursil: Well that was a big one, I will be working on Chapter Three later, it will probably not be as big as this one, I kept adding more and more at the end as things just kept escalating. Hopefully it fell right into place, even if it was a bit rushed at the end.

Pinkie: Yeeperonies! This was the biggest one yet!

Staadnauthursil: Ah... you. Could we not do this today, I am sore in my wrists and need some sleep.

Pinkie: Okie dookie Loki! But first! Give me some of that cake of yours!

Staadnauthursil: You ponies cannot handle my cake, last time ended with disaster for all of you when you went cold turkey.

Pinkie: Ooooh! Come on! I want me some wonder cake!

Staadnauthursil: The answer is no. *Turns towards the readers* The art work I have made for this chapter can be found at the end of this note and at my blog post.

Art Work

Scene - Do It!

Scene - The Phantom and the Mare of the Moon

UPDATE!

Staadnauthursil: And we're back, with some suggestions and talk I have decided to alter the chapter quite a bit. Ending it at Starswirl's death and the disappearance of the Stallion of Torment, the art will remain since I kind of jumped the shark, or rather alicorn, here. So I will be posting a new chapter, involving a much more detailed part of Luna's degrading mind by the curse and finally her fall to Nightmare Moon, whom I will explain a bit about as well.

Pinkie Pie: Cake now?

Staadnauthursil: Still no.