-AN: Not much to say but to continue the story of our little adventure.

Chapter 2:

-Last bastion of Harmony-

Continuing around 3000 years ago…

The Empress sits on her throne of skulls and bones. The mighty alicorn is of a white coat, a mane as black as the coal her slaves mine, a tail as red as the blood of her victims and black eyes with red slits. Atop her head is a spiked crown made of black crystal and around her body a simple red cloak tied by a red gem. She slowly drinks some wine from a glass that her magic levitates as Umbra enters the throne room and kneels before her mother.

'Mother, our spies have found the last stronghold of Gusty and her band of rebels' speaks the Queen of Darkness. By the throne's side is Tyris, the Lady of Wrath and her grip on the battle axe she is holding thintens in anger 'You mean to tell me that the unicorn brat and her resistance are not yet stopped, sister? How dare you come before Mother and speak of such failures!' shouts Tyris stomping her axe down and Umbra replies with a glare of her own

'Silence, child. In case your muscle brain the size of an ant can't comprehend, I am speaking to Mother, not to you, Tyris, so hush.' Tyris wanted to argue more but the Empress raised a wing to silence her daughters 'Enough!" commands Evil herself as she rises from her throne 'Gusty the great is the only thing that stands into our path of total global domination. I do not want any of you to underestimate her. She is the one who banished the Father of Monsters, Emperor Grogar himself'. Both Umbra and Tyris are silent and bow their heads and reply in unison 'Apologies, Empress, forgive us.' The Empress sights and places her glass of wine down on the arm of her throne 'Worry not, my daughters. Tyris I leave the castle in your and Eris' care. Umbra, me and you shall march a part of my army to Gusty's last stronghold and finally bring the unruly unicorn to her knees.' Her horn slowly glows as a dark chariot appears and skeleton dragons pull it. 'Hop in, Umbra.' commands the Empress and Umbra is quick to hop on next to her mother and she waves to Tyris 'See ya in a while, sis' And the chariot flies into the dark sky as the Empress gathers her legions…

In the hidden fortress located on Mount Everhoof…

Gusty the great nervously in front of the war map along her fellow unicorns and other creatures who still oppose the Empress of Evil. 'This is not good, not good at all. The Empress knows of our fort. This is the last free piece of land in the world, if we fail then we shall be in chains for the rest of eternity.' speaks Gusty worried. One of the unicorns speaks up 'Gusty the Great, can't we combine our magics to banish the Empress like how we did to Emperor Grogar?' Gusty is quick to shake her head. 'No. Unlike Grogar who drew magic from his bell, Evil is magic herself. We are facing a deathless goddess of Evil and an uncountable army of skeletons, undead and other dark minions she might have.' speaks Gusty sitting down in her chair and taking a sip of water to calm her stress and she levitates a piece of cloth to the forehead to clean some sweat. One of the yaks speaks up as he taps the map of all the world under the Empress' banner. 'What if we just banish her body? You speak a great truth, she is deathless, so no weapons, spell or magic can kill her but we can banish her body for generations to come. Sure Evil incarnate will still exist but she will be very limited'. The room of the Harmonic Alliance falls silent. Gusty slowly smiles in hope 'I have the plan! We unicorns shall unite our magics to create a magical knife that I will drive in her chest!' She stops her hope speech and looks serious at her fellow allies 'My friends, I ask of you a lot, all creatures that have magic will have to put their trust in me. I know I ask for a lot but we only have a shot at this.' The others in the room think and nod 'We trust you, master Gusty the Great'. In a small preparation that takes 30 minutes all the magic casting creatures that make up 100 in the room form a circle around Gusty as she sits in the middle holding the empty handle. 'Let's begin' speaks Gusty, taking a deep breath and the unicorns and changelings all point their magic at Gusty and the room fills with light as Gusty takes all the magic to make the harmonic knife. It begins slowly and the blade is slowly made onto the handle, it is a light purple with blue stripes and it ends in red at the tip of the knife. After the mighty ritual all the 100 warriors who gave up their magic fall down exhausted and Gusty herself stumbles to her hooves 'We…we did it! The harmonic knife has been made!' smiles Gusty as she shows the blade to her allies. This is their hope, the salvation of peace and order in the enslaved world. Just as the other would begin to smile, the table and glasses rattle. A large force is coming. Gusty stumbles to the balcony of the fortress and her face goes pale at the sight.

Over the horizon, coming from the plains the Empress' army marches towards the fortress. The 100k strong force of minotaur skeletons thunders the ground with each step. Larger skeleton dragons play the drums and the army of death and evil flies the banner of their eternal mistress high, a skull with two blades entering in. The undead horde chants loudly as they approach…

'End of Harmony, Death shall rule over all!

Gusty you shall fall! The Empress shall spare none of you all!'

The chant gets louder as the army stops just 200 metres from the fortress and they suddenly fall silent. Gusty gulps, this army of 100k undead soldiers dwarfs the fortress' force of a mere 5000 of the last unicorns, dragons and changelings that still oppose the Empress. From the dark clouds the chariot of the Empress descends down in front of her army. The second the Empress' heel touches the soil below her army falls on one knee and their shout in union a roar that booms for miles 'ALL HAIL THE EMPRESS!'. The Empress and Umbra look at the fort before them in mild thought. Umbra narrows her red eyes to analyse this place more carefully. The Empress however glares up at Gusty and speaks with a deep commanding voice

'So you are the last to defy me? Gusty the Great, is it? I was expecting more from the most famous mage of ponyfolk. Your fort is but a joke before my army! Surrender now and I shall loosen the chains that will be placed on your alliance.'. Gusty looks at her own force. Minus the 100 creatures who used their magic to make the knife, the rest 4900 are ready for battle with bows and spears. She glares back down at the Empress and makes a mock bow trying to buy time by taunting Evil.

'Ah, my Empress. I apologise that my humble fort does not reach your eternal greatness' standards. I am sure your dark forts are better than mine' smiles Gusty with a hint of arrogance that makes the Empress's eye twitch. 'But no, your majesty, we shall not surrender to your eternal rule of whips and chains for we are the Harmonic alliance and we shall bring back the world before you came over and took over!' and her force cheers for the great wizard. The Empress laughs mockingly as a dark glow forms on her horn 'OHOHO. Don't make me laugh, witch. I am afraid your hope is on empty grounds. Enough of this.' she waves her hoof at Umbra 'You take over, dear' smiles the Empress. Umbra slowly smirks and raises her hoof 'SOLDIERS! ATTACK! SPARE NONE!' commands the Queen of Darkness and the legions charge forth with a loud battle roar. Gusty shouts her own battle cry 'FOR HARMONY! FIGHT MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS FOR THE GREATER GOOD!'

The stage is set as the undead wave will crush against the last bastion of Harmony. Will Gusty prevail with her blade or will she fall in chains before the Empress?

End of Chapter-

-AN: Again not much to say. I think it is a great chapter. The next chapter will be the battle! There will be more horrific stuff. That I warn you. Trifosu out-