Twilight faces the Dark Martial March

Hello, this story is a fanfic of mine, the events of this story take place three years after the defeat of Danu and the Knights of the Order.

If I had to summarize it is like a continuation. Although with a darker tone.

Once you read it I would like to know your opinion of it.

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In Canterlot castle, Twilight with a step worthy of a princess entered a room and closed the door behind her.

This was a room for the exclusive use of herself and a select group of ponies.

The room, which was undoubtedly the most comfortable in Equestria, welcomed her with a pleasant scent of lavender and the gentle evening breeze filtering through one of its windows. The temperature was perfect and it was illuminated by the fire of a fireplace.

Slowly Twilight advanced into the room.

Little by little she left behind her noble walk.

With each step, she removed her princess attire.

Her dress magically slid aside.
Her hoof guards rolled away until they hit a piece of furniture in the room.
The crown was the only thing she carefully deposited in a special bust for that use.

Finally, without any more accessories, he jumped onto the fluffy sofa at one end of the room, using his wings he fell slowly like a feather.

The crushing of his body with the furniture was perfect, there was no noise. He remained silent for a few minutes.

Slowly Twilight stretched her body pressing it against the couch, seeking to feel as much coolness as possible in her fur.

Twilight was tired.

The celebration of the “Festival of the Two Sisters” was tomorrow, she had been busy with applications all day, plus there was the matter of the closing of Equestria’s fiscal year, plus her presence at the awards ceremony at the school of friendship and the school of magic, and so on. All in all, an exhausting week.

She was an alicorn, time was not an issue, but she felt like she had aged centuries since her coronation.

It had only been three years. Only three years.

Twilight hit the couch with her hoof, it was a hard hit, then she hit about four more times. After a moment she stood up and examined it briefly to verify that she had not damaged it, when she confirmed that it was fine she fell heavily on it.

The fluffy couch held his hooves like no other couch in Equestria could. She had acquired it on the advice of a good friend. At first Twilight thought the cost of that piece of furniture was outrageous, but so far it had been worth every penny she paid for it.

That was the super fluffy and soft couch recommended by Rarity, in her words “it was worthy of a princess’s ‘royal’ rest” and it had Rainbow Dash’s special approval. Of course the ‘special approval’ was the fact that Rainbow Dash used it first and then refused to leave it because of how comfortable it was, they had to use magic to get her out of it.

Twilight smiled a little at that memory, she scanned the rest of the room with her eyes.

There were more familiar objects.

Pinkie Pie’s mini automatic confectionery machine. It always gave her just the right flavor to revive her on a heavy day.

Fluttershy’s library of relaxation books. Whenever she had trouble sleeping she would start reading one at random, so far she hadn’t finished any of them as she would fall asleep as soon as she finished reading a page.

Applejack’s standing coat rack. Oddly enough it was the one she had used the most, but not to put up her dresses or other royal clothes. But rather to make a literal ‘idea tree’ or ‘idea rack’ when she had a tricky problem to solve.

They were all gifts from her friends, which brought back fond memories and tomorrow she would meet them all again.

Twilight frowned, the day was almost over, but there was still work to be done. She had the energy to finish it.

Someone knocked on the door.

“Twilight, are you there already? I have the papers you asked for.”

“Yes Spike, hold on.” Twilight arranged her posture to a more ‘noble’ one, using her magic she arranged her royal attire scattered around the room to where they should be and finally opened the door. A stack of scrolls entered with Spike underneath them.

“Well, here are all the scrolls, wow they are lighter than last year.” said Spike sarcastically as he dropped them in the center of the table.

“Yes this year we’ve solved a lot of problems, but look on the bright side, next year you’ll have less weight to carry.” Twilight began to magically pick up some scrolls that had fallen to the ground.

“I just worry that it’s not more than we can solve.”

Twilight didn’t respond and began sorting the scrolls by the color of their label.

Each of the scrolls were a summary of some issue, problem or event that had been labeled ‘observed’ over the course of the year. Unfortunately some were from the previous year.

The color of the scrolls varied in four shades representing the reason for the labeling. Green for opportunities, blue for strengths, orange for weaknesses and red for threats.

This was a basic management exercise and needed to be done as it would be the preamble to the annual analysis she would do after the holidays.

Twilight using her magic reached into the ‘idea rack’ and pulled out a clean set of notecards. She was ready, she would start with the green and end with the red.

“Spike get some pudding and chocolate, will you?”

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About two hours had passed. Twilight was just finishing reviewing the second to last scroll and closing her notes.

She noticed the plate of pudding crumbs on the table.

Spike had been a great help in the beginning, making suggestions and arranging the notes on the ‘idea rack’. Now he was comfortably seated on a couch drinking his chocolate while reading a bulky, gilt-framed book.

Twilight’s innate curiosity kicked in.

“What are you reading Spike?”

“Mmm, it’s A.K. Yearling’s latest book, ‘Daring Do and the Unfinished Journeys’.”

Twilight bit her lip. After a long absence from author A.K. Yearling, the publisher had finally released a new Daring Do book earlier in the week.

Spike took one more sip from his chocolate mug, he had noticed Twilight’s distress, then took a cocky stance. “It holds the record for the best seller in the first week of its release and it’s also the longest book she’s ever written. It’s an anthology of short stories in different genres chronicling her travels around Equestria and the world, it has autobiographical stories and material …”

“Please don’t go on Spike.”

Twilight sighed, she had her own personal copy and hadn’t read it, too much work in the last week had deprived her of such juicy reading material. No doubt Rainbow Dash would be rubbing it in her face all night tomorrow. But, if she took a quick glance at the summary now ….

“NO” Twilight internally curbed her thinking. She had to finish today’s work and there was only one scroll left.

It was red, the only red one, she knew what it was.

“Thanks, but let’s save the ‘Spoiler’ for later, okay?” Twilight opened the last scroll and began to look it over. Spike watched her worriedly as she finished her cup of chocolate. He knew what that scroll was about too.

The ‘Knights of Order’.

It was a difficult subject that he simply couldn’t put off any longer.

After the disastrous attack on Canterlot and their subsequent defeat, Danu and the rest of his group, were imprisoned and taken to the Tartaro. They had remained there ever since, they did not attempt to escape, nor did they agree to cooperate in order to improve their prison situation. Despite Twilight’s best attempts to fraternize, Danu maintained an inflexible stance of not speaking to her during her visits, and the same was true for her companions. So apart from what they learned at their first meeting, nothing else was known about them.

Cunabula was also a difficult subject of research. It was not found in any Equestrian history book and it was the same in the allied kingdoms. In a letter from Star Swirl from Ornithia, he claimed to have discovered the flag of that nation, it was a green flag and had a silver tree surrounded by six stars as a shield, and he concluded that its location was probably somewhere in the South Seas. Unfortunately that was all, that discovery occurred in the first month after the crisis and since then nothing more had been found, in spite of that, Twilight decided to extend the investigation one more year, then another year …

Twilight sank into her couch. Again her worries resurfaced in the form of a mental examination.

“Question, why had no one from Cunabula attempted to contact Equestria since the defeat of their supposed leaders?”

A. Danu and his companions were hated by their people.
“Unlikely,” after receiving the attack from the elements of harmony, she perceived that Danu was not particularly evil, he acted according to what he believed to be just. Danu acted like a ‘king’, while she and her friends rejected his motives, the people of Cunabula could easily accept them.

B. The kingdom of Cunabula was in a power vacuum and unable to make decisions.
“False”, in the battle of Canterlot it was observed that they were very well organized and were able to make decisions quickly to change the flow of the battle, that same could apply to their kingdom.

C. The kingdom of Cunabula lacked the resources to undertake any diplomatic or retaliatory missions.
“False”, soon after activating the trees, the knights of order hatched a plan to stop the activation of the missing ones. Ornithia’s conspiracy proved they knew the kingdom and how to get it under their control. Cunabula had a lack of diplomacy, no doubt it was so, but it was a fact that he did not lack resources.

D. The situation was under control, other unknown factors guide the decision making.
“Very likely”, this was the scenario Twilight feared the most, the existence of other actors who would go against Equestria and who would do so from an advantageous position. That would explain the behavior of the ‘Knights of Order’, Danu was just waiting for his time to come.

Twilight looked at the ceiling, “What should I do?” she blurted the question into the air.

Should she just file the case, that would leave the ‘Knights of Order’ in the Tartarus for a thousand years, that’s only if nothing happened. Or on the other hand should he …

“What if you just let them go?” replied Spike.

Twilight looked at him annoyed.

“Well…, I’m just saying that if it’s too much for us… maybe we should let them go…” Explained a nervous Spike.

“Discord suggested that to you?”

“Ahh…, yes” Spike had already consulted the ‘Lord of Chaos’ on that matter, after all he was responsible for the current situation. Of course the answer he gave him was very much his own.

“I think he’s right” Twilight sighed again. “But it’s not a decision I have to make alone. I need the other kingdoms to consider my point of view. But I have no valid argument to support that decision…only a good intention.” Twilight looked dejectedly at the scroll.

If she asked Discord for help with a trial, he would soon turn the case against her. Nor could she imagine the ‘Knights of Order’ accepting the ‘Chaos Lord’s’ apology.

If he only ‘released’ them, the other kingdoms might think that Equestria was not to be trusted. This by allowing those criminals, who had sworn to destroy them and had already attacked two kingdoms, to return to their home country to continue their conspiracies. Twilight did not believe they would intervene again, but she was only being positive. Reason told her that would not happen.

In the end, she could not make a decision yet…, she would have to wait.

Twilight with her magic placed the scroll in a special box, in it there were already other scrolls that would be taken care of again next year.

“At least it’s a lot less than last year” Twilight thought as she finished sorting the rest of the documents.

The work was over. But now she was in high spirits.

The clock struck the end of an hour, it was still three hours to midnight.

“Wow it’s still early, Spike how about we do a surprise inspection to assess the state of this year’s decorations.”

“I don’t know Twilight, I’m feeling kind of tired today” Spike feigned a yawn as he tried to hide the thick book he was holding. “Why don’t you better go by yourself this time?”

“Is that so, well I thought carrying my number one assistant on my ‘royal back’ would be a fitting reward for her hard work” Twilight said with a knowing look as she slipped back into her royal attire.

With a flutter Spike jumped onto Twilight’s back.

“I just remembered I have some special messages for the head chef, you don’t mind going there first do you Twilight?”

“No, if on the way you tell me some stories from the new Daring Do book” The royal crown levitated and gently perched on Twilight’s head.

“Say no more, have you ever heard anything about the ‘Hill of Eternity’?”

They both smilingly departed the room leaving behind an untouched pudding and cup of chocolate.