Chapter 8

Celestia was tired. As the piercing white light faded with the magic from her horn, she slowly began to stagger forward. She took no notice of the unicorns running around her, and made no attempt to determine where Discord and Tinkertoy had gotten to. All she saw was her sister lying on the floor, not moving. Celestia prayed she was all right.

As Celestia approached, Luna's eyes fluttered open. She looked at her sister and asked weakly, "Celestia? What happened? Why is it so noisy? "

"Don't worry about it, Luna," Celestia answered, breathing heavily. "I'm going to get us out of here."

Luna nodded, then she looked at Celestia's flank and gave a small gasp. "Sister!" she cried, "You have a cutie mark!" Celestia looked down, and saw that where her flank had once been bare, was now emblazoned with a large, orange sun.

"Huh," said Celestia, "how about that..." her vision darkened. She stumbled forward, and wrapped her hooves protectively around Luna as they both lost consciousness.

* * * * * *

Tinkertoy looked around. His entire laboratory was gone. In fact, the entire structure was gone. There was nothing left but a giant, gaping hole in the ground. All his unicorn test subjects were currently rushing out of the hole through a mixture of levitation and teleportation, with the older unicorns aiding the younger ones. Discord was nearby, brushing himself off and looking surprisingly unfazed by what was happening. The young white alicorn's magic had fizzled out, and the sun was rapidly returning to its original setting position. In the fading light, Tinkertoy could make out the shapes of pegasi flying through the sky, heading straight for him. The old pony knew he and Discord needed to act fast. He ran and collected the Elements of Harmony in his hooves.

"Discord!" he called. "Get us out of here!"

"What about all our unicorns?" asked Discord. "Sombra's not going to be happy about this."

"It doesn't matter," answered Tinkertoy. "The pegasi are coming, and we need to be gone before they get here and stop us! Now teleport us away!" Discord walked forward, put his hand on Tinkertoy, and snapped his fingers. With a pop, they both vanished.

* * * * * *

When Thunderbolt arrived on the scene, most of the unicorns had climbed out of the large hole in the earth. Those that were not fleeing north were staring into the hole anxiously. There was nothing down there but two small ponies lying unconscious in the middle of the floor. Thunderbolt sent his men to round up any unicorns that were fleeing.

"It's too dangerous for them around here," he said to Whirlwind, his second-in-command. Whirlwind was a mare with a light blue coat, light grey mane, and blue eyes. Her cutie mark was a tornado, symbolizing her ability to conjure them up in an instant. "Make sure all the unicorns make it to a safe area. I'll see to those fillies in the pit. How much time do we have?"

"Judging from what I'm seeing to the south, we have no time," answered Whirlwind grimly. Thunderbolt turned. Rising up out of the south was what looked at first like a big cloud of dark smoke, but Thunderbolt knew all to well what it really was.

"Double time it, pegasi!" he shouted. "Changelings are coming!" All around him, the Seraphim Guard sprang into action. Most of the unicorns did not need any urging to get away, but the young, weak, and elderly were scooped up by the Guard and flown away. As they worked, Thunderbolt leaped into the hole. The two fillies there were both unconscious and unresponsive, so he placed them on his back and flew back to Whirlwind. Most of the unicorns were nearly out of sight, but the Changeling swarm had come so close that it was looming over him. He passed the fillies to Whirlwind.

"Get them out of here," he said.

"What are you going to do?" asked Whirlwind.

"I'm going to have to stall them," said Thunderbolt. "Now hurry, go!" Whirlwind wasn't one to disobey a direct order, so she took to the skies, flying after the other pegasi. Thunderbolt turned, staring at the huge horde that was flying straight at him.

"Starswirl," he said quietly, "now would be a good time for you to show up,"

"You rang?" a familiar voice ask. There was the sound of jingling bells, and Starswirl the Bearded stepped up beside the pegasus general. "You didn't think I was going to stand by and let you save all those unicorns by yourself, did you? I am the leader of the Free Unicorns, after all." Starswirl closed his eyes and concentrated. Magic bolts shot out of his horn and into the sky. With a deafening bang, the magic bolts exploded like fireworks, right in front of the Changelings. The swarm stopped, those in front shrieking in surprise and pain as they were blinded by the light and heat. The Changelings not immediately affected by the fireworks were startled by the cries of their comrades, and many of them began flying backwards, trying to get away from whatever was assaulting their front lines. After the initial explosions, the magic bolts flew forward, straight into the midst of the horde. Then they went off again. The Changelings panic increased tenfold as many of them fell to the ground, burned to a crisp by the heat. The great mass of Changelings was beginning to disperse.

Starswirl turned to Thunderbolt. "Come on Thunder," he said. "The Changelings are broken, but they're not shattered. They'll soon rally, so we'd better get moving."

"I found two of your alicorns," said Thunderbolt. "Just a couple of fillies, but I sent them off with Whirlwind. Where do you want me to bring them?"

"Have Whirlwind take them to my base in the mountains," answered Starswirl. "She knows where that is, right?"

"I can show her," said Thunderbolt. "I'll need to go there myself. We will need to talk about our next moves. What happened today could potentially lead to war unless we cool things off."

"I agree, but we got the alicorns, so that is a reason to be thankful."

Author's Note

One or two chapters to go, and we'll be at the end of Book 1! I think things have gone pretty smoothly, all things considered.