"I can't believe we lost so badly!" Shining Armor cried for the umpteenth time. Him, his wife, his sister and her friends, as well as the diarchs were all in Canterlot, relaxing after the Festival they attended just a few days prior, their trip back taking at least a week to be completed. And, as they had been since they arrived back in their familiar setting, they were mulling over and discussing all of which they had seen and witnessed at the Festival the Storm Queen had hosted.

"It is quite disheartening to know even our best could not do much in the Festival," Luna agreed, taking a bite of her salad.

"And you're certain nothing fishy was going on, AJ?" Rainbow asked, turning to her farmer friend.

Applejack sighed deeply. "Like Ah said before, she weren't lying, but she certainly weren't being, uh..."

"Forthcoming?" Twilight supplied.

Applejack pointed a hoof at her. "Yeah, that."

"I find the most frightening thing to be her apparent military might," Celestia started, finally speaking after having been silently drinking her tea for so long. She had not spoken much since they returned and settled back in.

"It was pretty scary..." Fluttershy admitted.

"Yeah, and her brothers were really mean and rude. But Runny was kinda fun, too, when he wasn't being creepy," Pinkie pointed out.

"True, but still, Aunty's right. The Storm Queen has some frightening resources behind her," Cadance added. She shuddered. "And honestly, after just a while of sitting near her as we all watched, I got a little scared."

"I can see that. She was quite imposing, wasn't she Spikey?" Rarity asked the drake sitting near her.

"Yeah, she was. But she seemed kinda cool, too," Spike admitted.

"I'd stick with imposing, myself," Starlight added, taking a sip from her mug of cocoa. "Honestly though, the whole place was imposing. The buildings, the soldiers, the people, it's like it was made to say, 'fear my power' or something."

Luna nodded. "That is not uncommon for rulers. Back in my days, I would frequently visit grand gothic cathedrals or castles."

"Her might is still true, however. She has levels of technology we've never seen, weapons we've never seen, strong, elite soldiers, and a terrifying family tree to boot," Celestia said as she took a long, drawn-out sip of her tea. "There's also the matter that she herself was a soldier, and from a foreign nation we have not heard of, much like the supposed kingdom in the West." Luna looked to her sister with a tinge of worry in her eyes.

"What do you think we should do, Princess?" Shining asked.

"..." Celestia stared at the tea she held in her magical grasp, as if the amber liquid within the cup would hold the answers she needed. Eventually, she sighed and put the cup down before looking to her nephew in-law. "We hasten our plans to integrate her into the Council. From there..." She sighed again and looked to one of the windows above. "...We hope to keep peace."

A cold, lonesome song played in the tavern in the capital of Yakyakistan. Many of the Yaks present simply quietly drank their alcohol as the skilled yovidaphone player played the song. Prince Rutherford himself was even present this time, in his own private booth at the back of the tavern, watching with a sad smile.

All the Yaks present, in fact, were listening with a sad smile on their faces. For this was a sacred song to their people, a song of honorable defeat. Prince Rutherford took a gulp of his expensive ale, letting the buzz fill him as his mind filled with memories of his youth.

He recalled how his father died to save the kingdom from Wendigoes, the spirits of icy hate most ponies save two still thought long gone. He recalled how valiantly his father died, and how he managed to drive the spirits off by unleashing the power of his ancestral helm, the Helm of Yickslur, forcing the spirits to bend their knees to him. The death tolls were staggering enough, however, that most Yaks considered it a defeat.

This very event had happened throughout the generations, for the magic of the Helm lasted for only so long. Thus, over the years, this song had been written.

Rutherford watched the Yovidaphone player for a while longer before finishing what was left of the Whitened Beard Ale in his mug. As he placed the mug down on his table, his smile only grew into something more daring, more competitive.

"Yak will fight you again, Queen..." He vowed. "And Yak will win!"

"You colossal idiots!" Ember raged, wings flared in anger as she snarled at the three dragons before her throne. She stomped up to one, nostrils flaring as she poked him in the chest. "I could have had an awesome fight with the Queen, and you asshats went and ruined it for me!" She sucker-punched him, making him double over as he tried to get his breath back. She turned her fiery gaze on the other two, who were more than nervous if their profusely sweating bodies and shaking was any indication. "There was one. ONE! Major rule you had to follow, but you fucking broke it!" Ember let out a jet of white hot flames at the two other drakes, who dove for cover. As the flames cleared and the hole in the stone wall dripped molten rock, she growled.

"Now, because of you idiots, I'm going to be the laughing stock of the Council!" She held her head in her hands. "Aaaah! I had to do that embarrassing apology and everything just so she wouldn't declare war!" She looked up at the two dragons again, and grabbed her scepter, pointing it at them. "You're all going to pay for that." She snarled, the scepter's namesake gem glowing ominously.

A flash of red light and three howls of pain saw the three running out of the cavern with crimson, magical flames on their backs and tails. Ember sighed deeply as she lowered her scepter and slowly walked over to her throne, sitting in it and slumping in it.

"Ughh... What the Tartarus do I do now...?"

"Grrah!" yelled Pharynx, lashing out at a dummy with a strong hoof. "Rrrah!" He did the same with his other hoof. "Take this!" He cried, spinning around and bucking it hard, breaking it in half. He panted for a bit before noticing the other soldiers around him were staring at him. "Well? Get back to training, wimps!"

They immediately did so, practicing their attacks whilst transformed, and whilst in their normal state. Meanwhile Pharynx simply summoned another dummy for himself, horn glowing once more to transform into something monstrous before he was interrupted.

"Hey bro-," came the voice of Thorax.

"Gah!" Pharynx cried, magic surging and shooting at a random dummy, transforming it into a teddy bear and causing the soldier about to punch it to fall over. Pharynx groaned as he turned to his brother. "I told you not to bother me when I'm in the middle of training!"

Thorax chuckled nervously. "Heheh... Sorry Pharynx," he said, rubbing the back of his head.

Pharynx sighed. "So? What did you want?"

"Weell... I uh... I gave your proposal some thought, and uh...After talking to Princess Celestia and Luna, I thought I might as well go through with it," Thorax decided. Pharynx blinked a few times before a large grin split his face.

"Awesome! So you'll petition the Queen for some of her guns at the next Council meeting?" he asked excitedly. Thorax nodded, and Pharynx pumped a hoof. "Sweet! Can't wait to have one of my own!" He wrapped Thorax in a one-armed hug. "Thanks a lot, bro!"

Thorax smiled lightly. "Anytime, bro. Anytime."

"Has there been any reply from the Storm Queen yet?" Gilda asked her advisor.

"No, My Queen," the grizzled old griffon replied.

Gilda groaned. "Ugh, the one time I wish I had teleportation." She sighed, resting a cheek on her claws. "How hard can it be to get through a magical storm, anyway? I just wanted to have a one-on-one with her, maybe ask her if I could get one of those 'gun' things..." She groaned again before looking once more to her advisor. "We sent an official petition for guns too, right?" He nodded. "And no reply yet on that either?" He shook his head. Gilda groaned once more, slumping into her throne.

Suddenly, a scroll appeared in a wave of magical fire, and Gilda deftly caught it. She read it over, and as she did, she could only frown more. When she finished, she tossed it to the ground. "Aw come on! 'Wait until the Council meeting', pfft, screw that noise!"

"My Queen, I'm afraid that if she does not want to negotiate now, then we can only do as she says and wait," her advisor advised.

"Yeah, no," Gilda said, hopping off her throne before looking back at her advisor. "Come on Blue, we're heading to R&D." She looked ahead once more. "If the Storm Queen won't give us guns, we'll just make our own." She smirked. "Ours'll be better anyways."

A certain horn, housed within a glass case in the bowels of the Crystal Empire's castle, was once more emitting a dark, sickening magical glow. It had been doing this for months, but none had noticed. Today, they noticed. Today, they heard voices, whispers in the backs of their minds. It made the guards eyes shift from side to side, corner to corner, in increasing worry and even fear. And then, suddenly, the horn turned black, and disappeared, along with the voices and whispers. The guards noticed far too late.

Sombra's horn was gone, and the mad king with it.

Chrysalis, after months of scouring the depths of Black Skull Island, after months of digging with a makeshift shovel, had found what her master sought, and what she was to procure. After knocking down a wall, the basalt rocks fell to reveal a massive chamber ringed with lava and lava waterfalls, the collective heat forcing Chrysalis to cast a spell to hold back her sweat and keep her cool. But inside the ring of lava, was her true prize.

For what laid there, all covered and nestled in sealed stone sarcophagi, were the remnants of the Blighted Horde, the rotting, soul-hungering, immortal army she would groom into a fighting force. Chrysalis grinned a fang-filled grin as her horn glowed, and started to sing as she unlocked the seals on them all, the Blighted, ones of every race, slowly rising. Her horn glowed again, and their rotted eyesockets glowed an eerie green as they joined in her song.

The whole Island now hummed with Darkness, and the world...

Was next.

EDIT: Added a new, better intro, complete with a new, more fitting song.

Welp, this took me longer to do than I wanted, but that's nothing new, now is it? Anyways, here it is, folks, the chapter I promised you, the chapter many of you wanted. Hope you like the ending, but just as a note...

There won't be a war for a few arcs.

Let me explain a bit on why. See, Black Skull Island, if you look on the MLP Map, seems to be volcanic. So, likely no trees. That means, Chryssy and her army can't make boats to get around. So, they have to wait.

For what? Well, you'll see. I can't explain everything, after all, gotta keep that lovely mystery~

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and thank you all so very much for the likes, faves, views, and of course, reads. I hope to continue pleasing you all with my tales.

-Timeless Celestial