Celestial Tortures Book III: Changes

by Rarity Belle

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Other, Queen Chrysalis, Adventure, Princess Celestia
Length: 40989

With Luna banished to the moon itself, it's queen Chrysalis that sees an opportunity to dethrone Celestia once and for all. There are however a few complications not even she had taken into account. The soils of Equestria, will be shocked and burned.

Having banished her own flesh and blood to the moon high in the skies, Celestia had done the seemingly impossible. Torn apart by both sadness and depression, the mighty alicorn of the sun has to learn to live with her mistakes. Fallen into a deep depression, Celestia can only pray that time would be kind to her.

Sadly enough for her, other creatures in the land think it is the perfect time to strike there and then. The ever so illusive race of the changelings is knocking at her doorstep and they are everything but kind. A plan treacherous enough to make the princess fall even further from the stand she once stood on. But as with everything, one can only push a pony so far until the wires in the head snap.

A thing which both Starswirl the Bearded and queen Chrysalis will discover by time itself. And that very thing, is not in their favor. Unlikely heroes, villains and alliances will be forged when Equestria itself is heading towards the darkest twilight.

==================================================================================
The final piece in the trilogy that began ever so long ago.
The entire story was written in just 3 long days, but so worth it in my eyes.
Credit for the coverart goes to the original creator!

Published 2014-01-31 00:50:09 UTC
Last updated 2014-04-16 21:26:23 UTC

Every creature tells its tale

Days without end seemed to have passed by as if it was nothing. Long and terrible days of living in nothing but darkness and solitude, waiting for that one perfect moment to arrive. Simply letting time wave by as it passed by the second. Thoughts that shouldn't be spoken through the mouth as many raised from deep inside of her blackened heart. A heart that had been lurking on vengeance for a very long time.

A heart that wanted nothing else but the utter destruction of a certain somepony. A pony who had been in the lights of the sun for ever so long. A pony who was more venomous than Nightmare Moon could have ever been in the literal sense. A pony that wielded the very power to create and destroy races. The being that made nothing else, but her.

For days on end was the silence kept from her side. Hidden in the darkest part of a place that was never quiet. The endless buzzing roaming through her ears with the screeches of a million children rushing through her brain. Children to whom she was all mentally connection to. She was the queen of a hive minded race. She was nopony else then queen Chrysalis.

A vile creature with a jagged horn, holes in the legs and hair that was poisonous green. Her coat didn't exist anymore as it had formed into an exoskeleton. She wasn't a pony anymore because she was the result of a terrible punishment. A hybrid and horrible combination of both pony and bug. She was a frightful creature that was known among the land simply was a mighty, changeling.

It were beings that could take the form of any living being and with the act done right, could fool every creature they came across. But there was one of her so called ‘children’ who brought her the best news in the days she had lived. The very one that spoke about the princess her broken mental state. It was almost exactly what she needed to make sure that she would get what she wanted.

The eyes opened themselves and the green rimmed eyes revealed themselves in the darkness of the room she stood in. Her lips curled up and opened to reveal the fangs she carried in her mouth. The aura around her horn appeared. “And so it shall be, maker, the creature turns itself against its creator for the ultimate revenge,” she spoke in a echoing, feminine voice. The light green aura became only brighter the longer she kept charging her powers.

In the darkened room did the torches on the walls caught fire. Finally there would be some light upon the room. A room that was located deep under the soils of the ground. In a place where no living pony had anything to search. For the light revealed the fleshy and even spongy walls together with the thick black vines that went across the room.

It was nothing else but a beehive located deep under the ground and stretching itself like an ant’s. A place where hope never had seen the light of day much as the room itself. And in that room, on the throne itself, she sat. The very queen of the changelings, queen Chrysalis. A name that send shivers down the spine of many ponies. But also one that didn't started out like that. History was rewritten for her and her kind. Her empire was lost through the ages because of one simple things that she desired: power.

Chrysalis stood up from the throne and walked down the pathway that stretched in front of her. Her legs carried her throne one of the many pulsing tunnels. Tunnels that were used by her children as manners of getting around. Things created out of organic material and literally functioning as the veins of the hive itself.

The almighty queen took a turn at an unexpected place. Moments later she literally disappeared inside of a wall. She hadn't truly gone though. Chrysalis found herself standing in a room that she had despised to her very soul. A room locked for every living being except herself. The room that held the very truth of that one thing that happened to her on that cursed day ever so long ago.

While only she knew what happened that day, she didn't wanted to let the rest of the land knew whatever happened to her. Because if it only as much as leaked what her true story of origin happened to be, the entire view upon her would be changed forever.

No more would the ruling queen be seen as a dark mare who ruled over the species with an iron hoof. No more would the mare be seen as the almighty force of the forest of Everfree. No more would be even be a queen. She would be nothing but a sad and misunderstood little filly.

And that was about the last thing she wanted to be witnessed as.

With a deep huff had she walked up to the green cushioned sofa. Chrysalis dropped her insectoid body right into it. The back met with the fabric of the sofa and she glared up to the ceiling. On that very ceiling they could be seen with her green eyes. Those strange, organic pods that were filled with all kinds of unspeakable contents.

Some carried different fluids that she would either drink or feed to some of her children, whereas others contained a feeding of a different breed. Knowledge. And to be a lot more exact: her own memories from the day she became what she was. The day her world was ruined through her eyes and she left with her dignity broken.

Memories that were forced right outside of her own head through a set of powerful spells. And it was exactly that pod that she ordered herself to be lowered. It had been years since she last had a look into them. Something that resulted in her eventually forgetting the details that were exactly. Before she would open the hunt on the only remaining princess of the land, the queen needed to be fueled with an anger so pure for the fact that she would be going up against the one mare who was more powerful than she could ever have dreamed to be.

The pod came closer and closer towards her. The lids at the underside gently opened themselves under the sounds of some fleshy rips and tears. Chrysalis took a deep breath and exhaled it all just before the lowering pod latched itself against her face. With her mouth and nose fully covered by the organic pod , the lids clang against the cheek and chin of the queen.

Chrysalis took a deep breath in and the liquids inside of the pod started to bubble. Her eyes closed themselves and before the queen even knew it she was gone from the world. Her mind started to travel back several decades. Screams could be heard in her ears…

---

…while she woke up from yet another nightmare that had plagued her. Chrysalis was panting almost for her life. In an instant she sat up right in her bed. Her mind had gone haywire and it didn't matter where she looked but everywhere she saw them. The creatures of her mind, her own creations of fright that came to get here. Those horrible insectoid ponies.

The buzzing of their wings could still be heard right inside of her ears as she reached for them. A buzzing that was like those of normal houseflies but a hundred times more stronger. It was a sound that drove her insane. It had been plaguing her for weeks and before she could even give a cry to herself, guards entered her room and turned on the light.

Four sets of eyes looked over to the alicorn with the blond coat and slightly green mane. “Milady Chrysalis,” one of them spoke in true worry. “Did you had another nightmare?” All that the alicorn could do was to give a nod to the words. The power nor the will to reply to them simply didn't happen to be there as a deep sniffle was released from her.

“May, may I suggest that you take a walk through the garden? Your sister might be there as well. She, would still be attending the crystal trees. Maybe the two of you speaking might help to clear some things for your mind,” another guard suggested with a calm voice. They knew how the younger sister of the pair would be. Even though she wasn't assigned to be of royal status yet, Chrysalis possessed powers where none of them would ever be met with.

Suggestions were welcome in Chrysalis’ eyes and ears but they had to be to her liking. Otherwise they were given not a single hearing. But on that night she voted in and gave them a nod. She had agreed to the proposition made. It was something that the guards had actually hoped for and one of them even offered a hoof to help the alicorn out of her bed.

“I, I thank you kindly,” she replied to the four of them. With a simple charge of her magic was the nightie wrapped around her body. The days in the Frozen North were as the name implied: frozen. They could shield themselves from the snow and hail but it was the wind they couldn't do anything against. A wind that was cold enough to make cuts on the face. A thing that through the years the ponies had managed to live with.

And with the passage of some minutes could the young alicorn named Chrysalis be found wandering through the magnificent garden of the Crystal Castle. A place where only the most extraordinary flowers and trees managed to grow. Sometimes with the help of the alicorn and other times with the love given to her from her sister. A sister she both loved and hated at the same time literally all of the time. Sibling rivalry would always find its way, even in the most precious of homes.

There she sat while watering a tree that was bigger than anything in the whole garden. A tree that grew out of the seed of one that her aunts had originally found. “Harmonious, Accentratious, Felixia,” spoke Chrysalis in a normal tone. That way she made her presence known.

“Hmhmhm, so you do remember the name, don’t you ,little sister?” the other pony replied calmly. The blond alicorn nodded from behind while she approached the tree. In her eyes fell the pink coat and the three toned mane of her older sister. Yet that fact alone was more than enough to make her sigh deeply through her nose. A sigh that was caught by the ears of her sister. “Seems like something is weighing on your mind. Something that caused you to come out of your bed. You, aren't turning into a night owl here, are you?”

It was meant to be a little good joke but it never was received that way sadly enough. As Chrysalis herself almost never made a joke and if she did, it was horrible to say the least. So instead of making a reply, she walked up to her sister and sat down next to her. “Harmony tree, one of the Crystal Kingdom as well for Canterlot Castle. Twelve elements of harmony hidden inside of them.”

“Cut it out sister, you’re here for a reason. We both know that something has been troubling you again. So, I’ll be straightforward with you, where it those creatures of yours, yes or no?” the other mare asked with a stern and sharp voice. Chrysalis shocked up a little bit from the sudden outburst of words before she regained her strength and had to admit her fears.

“Y-Yes, they have been haunting me again…”

“You really don’t seem to be liking them inside of your head now do you? But what does it feel like to have bugs crawling under your skull?”

“That’s enough Cadanza!” Chrysalis almost shouted against her sister.

“Don’t be like that, I’m merely asking questions on how you’re feeling here!” Cadence replied in her defense. The watering of the tree stopped almost abruptly.

“Asking how I’m feeling is not done in that manner! You’re making nothing but a mockery of me. I may not be a princess like you are, but we are from the same bloody race!” Chrysalis spewed out in a hatred that was more than genuine. It was honest hatred, possibly the worst kind of hatred that anypony could give to another.

“Part of a race that barely survived the darconi-war! And even to this day, many are dying because of the fact that they can’t shed blood of others. So they do it with their own throat. Don’t forget this, sisterly dear.” Cadence stood up from her position and turned herself around in order to remove herself from the tree. In public she was an angel of the heavens but against her sister she was totally different. She could be the most nastiest wench that the world had ever seen.

There was a reason why Chrysalis had the hatred for Cadence. Combined with the one simple fact that the other alicorn just loved to exploit, the hatred only grew. “You’re adopted. If I had never taken you in, you would have probably done the same! Because I still see it right inside of those eyes of yours Chrysalis, that will to fight. That fire to burn down everything you see in your sight.”

“And has caused that!? I may have fought in the draconi-war myself, but it is nopony else then you who keeps that fire going in side of my heart. You hear me Cadence? You caused me to burn for eternal damnation!” Chrysalis shouted in a shrill yell of utter hatred. “You keep me this way while I want to change!”

But Cadence herself never gave word or hearing to them. She just started to walk away from the scene and left the blond coated alicorn in not only ruins but also in tears. Her broken mind allowed her to go even further back in time. To the moment where she met the princess in her shining armor.

---

The ground was filled with red from both draconequus and alicorn. The battle had been heavy and Chrysalis had lowered herself upon a rock. She had nothing left except her tears. Which streamed richly down her cheek below the helmet. Tears of sorrow for the lives she had taken, the families destroyed and the revenges called upon her. She never wanted to fight in the great war but all the other alicorns made her to do so.

It was within that moment that she felt something lying over her shoulder. A warm hoof of a pony that was meant to help her. The mare turned herself around and saw the face of nopony else but the mother of Cadence herself below the helmet. Words weren't spoken between the two of them. Though they immediately felt a click between them, something in their personalities matched.

The eyes irradiated a kindness that Chrysalis hadn't seen during her battles in the war, she strongly believed that that alicorn could be her possible salvation from her terrible past. Or at least a piece of her tainted past.

The young alicorn was brought to the lands most frozen solid place where shelter awaited her. Even the parents of Luna and Celestia were there the day she was first let into the castle and met her newest sibling. It was in the very second that the two looked over one another, that the deepest rivalry had been born between the two of them. Neither of them wanted to admit it but it was there already. A rivalry that would exist until the end of time itself.

To make matters probably even worse, all three of the older alicorns felt it right away. But time came and went and all the ponies had to move on. Cadence herself was considered too young by her mother to have entered the war while Chrysalis was actually sent by hers. Two parents whom she never would see again. Two other lives that would lost in the terrible battle that waged. Long before the peace between the two races was being made.

It was a peace with which Chrysalis couldn't be happier about. Yet the embers for power and might, never died down.

Because on the day that Cadence was declared to be the new Princess of Love, Chrysalis didn't show up at the ceremony. Not even to praise her stepmother one last time before she would disappear for all eternity. Some called it a wasted opportunity but the reality of the situation was the fact that the two of them had made peace with one another the night before.

It was done in secret as their mother treated them equally. For her, they were both her daughters. Yet in their own eyes, they differed like day and night. Or as love and hate, as they liked to compare themselves. It was a hard thing for Chrysalis to say goodbye as it meant that she was being with Cadance all of the time. A fact that seemed to be somber but nothing compared to the trouble and pain that was lying ahead of her.

The blond coated alicorn had managed to rise herself in front of the crystalline harmony tree, she wasn't crying anymore. Instead she was wheezing deeply to herself. The plans inside of her mind were being made as she would use that what plagued her in her dreams a dreadful reality.

“I’ll get you little sister, just you wait for that to happen.” Chrysalis snarled to herself. She then turned into the other way and began to walk into the direction of the northern tower of the castle. Her eyes gave a stern, calculating look. She could make anything happen that time.

Her legs started to carry her up the stairs of the highest tower that the Crystal Castle had her to offer. Step after step was being galloped up by her legs as she panted for breath but never showed any sign of being tired whatsoever. It was the sheer determination of her mind that was the only thing who kept managing that she could make the massive climb all in just one go.

Some of the guards who were patrolling the place looked up strange as they saw the alicorn moving up but she was always gone like the wind long before they could even question what was her purpose up there. But none of them seemed to be surprised by the fact that she went up.

They had a good reason for it though, as at the top of the tower was the attic. A place where the alicorn had been going ever since the first week of her arrival in the castle. It was her place to work around and spend the time as she liked. Not even Cadence was allowed to come into the room. It was the only place in the whole of the castle that she truly had claimed to be hers, and hers alone.

---

At the end of the long steps up, the blond alicorn found herself standing right before a massive wooden door that was locked with a magical lock. But not just any lock that could be opened with a key or a spell. She had to sing a line of a song that only she knew in order for it to open. It was a failproof manner to make sure that nothing else would be able to get inside of the room outside of her. The very last thing that Chrysalis wanted, were ponies sniffing through her gear.

The mare cleared her throat a little bit before the tunes and tones would began to leave her. The words of magic were sung to the door in delight. The words themselves came from an ancient unicorn verse that originated back in the time that princess Platinum still lived. Translated it meant almost literally: the horns as sharp as the blade, the wings steady in the skies and the minds powerful as any spell, let them come for we shall be ready.

The words weren't from any old song but the one of the songs used by the ancient unicorns to make their soldier be filled with hope and lift their spirits up when one of the other two races would be attacking them. The art of war had always fascinated the titleless alicorn for some reason. Though it also had left the deepest cuts into her existence.

The door started to open itself after the words were sang and under a click and screech of the hinges it opened right before her. The blonde coated alicorn entered the room and closed the door behind her. Once against she found herself in the one spot in the whole of the castle that wasn't affected by her stepsister’s ‘love’.

Her eyes looked over the circular room that seemed to be bigger on the inside. For not only had she managed to get an entire alchemy laboratory right inside of it, but also a couple bookshelves filled with books on the profession. Quite the little mastermind had the mare become on the subject through the years. When she looked to her right, Chrysalis saw the shelf with the potions just standing there. Moments later there was a grin that came to her face.

Everything happened to be right there for her. From a deadly neurotoxin to something that would shut the heart down the moment it was swallowed. But also potions to cure the deepest and nastiest cut in a manner of days instead of weeks. Liquids to cure broken bones and to feel happiness. One by one they were deadly in their own manner, but somehow the alicorn had always managed to keep her cool.

With all the power in the potions she had been brewing, the ability to kill her stepsister in an instant was there and it would be something she loved to do. Yet if any traces were to be found, the hooves were easily pointed. She happened to be the only alchemist in the entire castle and their hate-filled relationship was something known to the guards.

“I shall give you a new trick, sisterly dear. A trick never seen before as it comes straight out of my mind. Suffer, what I suffer from!” she spoke to herself in a whisper. She walked up to the ingenious looking set-up that stood in front of her. With a single and simple charge of her horn were the fires lit to let the liquids bubble in their vial’s. Whatever she was planning, it was happening one way or the other.

---

The night turned into the day who on its turn once again turned into the night and it was Cadence who walked through the castle with a semi worried expression. She had been looking for somepony that she hadn't found all day. And that pony was Chrysalis. “Have you seen my sister by any chance?” she asked to one of the guards.

The crystalline guard pointed his hoof towards the northern tower and the eyes of the princess followed them right up towards it. “So, she has retreated herself into that once again? Suppose she can’t hurt anypony like that. Carry on. I’m heading off to bed.” The guard gave her a salute which was returned by the princess with a simple nod.

Cadence turned herself around in order to return to her sleeping chambers and started to hum some sweet sounding songs to herself while behind the guard himself, a set of blue insectoid eyes as well as a hiss could be heard.

The guard turned itself around in order to see just what it was and only saw something that struck fright right into his body. Because he saw himself, looking at himself, without the aid of a mirror. “I-Impossible!” he stumbled out to his literal even image before he shook his head a little bit. But it wasn't enough to keep him standing right unto his legs.

The day had been terribly tiresome for him though. To add insult to injury, he could fall asleep any second. Which was what eventually happened to him. With a thud he fell on the ground and his even image hissed gently to itself before it carried the guard into a dark corner of the hallway and looked over and into the general direction the princess went.

The eyes were narrowed as their yellow rims disappeared in a green flame. Once the flame was gone again it revealed a set of blue, insectoid eyes as the skin around the eyes was nothing but black. The hunt of the princess had been opened by a mysterious creature without any actual meaning to it.

Meanwhile in the tower, Chrysalis had fallen in a coma-like state. Yet the door stood open at a tiny notch. Something had come out of the chamber, that much was certain. But what was uncertain was just what and even how. The blonde coated alicorn had much to answer for as her arts of alchemy had gone clearly too far.

The mare herself didn't even appear to be breathing yet her heart was pulsing like mad. The eyes were closed as the wings had sprung open. It was uncertain of what happened to her, all that was known was the fact that she did something.

Cadence on the other end was still oblivious to the facts as they were. She would have made herself nice and comfy right inside of her bed. With the blanket covering most her body and the forelegs placed on top of it were her eyes closed and she almost seemed to be like a sleeping beauty. The soft snoring of the princess of love was released through her nostrils and the dreams of fun and games were entered.

Yet it was only then that the door opened itself and something black entered into the chambers. Silence dominated the room and the creature simply returned the silence. For every move that it made was done without a single sound and it looked over the massive bed where she laid in.

The blue insectoid eyes once again were looking over most of the room before it made the decision to walk up right to the hoofend of the bed. Without much hesitation that came forth from it, it dared to make jump right on the bed. The mattress shifted due to the weight that it placed on it.

The creature looked at the princess while the prayers were spoken in a buzzing, unable to be worded. Yet the princess never seemed to be moving a muscle. Inch by inch it started to crawl up to her while hissing louder and louder with almost every single step that it did until their noses almost could touch one another.

In that moment there was a much louder hiss was released from the creature's throat and the wind traveled up against the nose of the princess. A wind that was as cold as the ones outside. It was certainly enough to make her eyes spring open.

Cadence was treated with a view of the being that had launched the attack on her. But with one massive charge of her horn it was flung right against the opposing wall. With a thud came the creature to a landing and it tried to stand up again. Though the princess wouldn't allow it as she held the thing right in a tight magical grip. The alicorn of love removed herself from her bed and walked up to the thing that had attacked her. She was curious to see who had the guts to do such a thing.

It was a being unlike anything she knew from her own history and it didn't even appear to be made by nature. As their eyes met with one another, the eyes of somepony rather well known to her could be seen within them. “Chrysalis," was the name that she mare mumbled to herself and growled in hatred. “You, stupid, ignorant, filly.” Both of the forelegs were placed around the head of the creature. With one motion and without remorse was the neck snapped.

The body was dropped to the ground. Then the signal was given by Cadence to do whatever it would take to get themselves right inside of that tower chamber. She had enough of the games as they went on for decades.

---

Inside of that very chamber moaned and groaned Chrysalis as she came back to her consciousness and noticed all of the guards surrounding her. “W-What in the…ugh, some, somepony tell me what the meaning of this is?” she brought out to them in a civilized manner while her mind still laid in shatters. The neck was being cracked as if she made certain that it wasn't broken or anything the like.

Those motions alone were enough to trigger some of the guards their minds. They knew more than enough. “Chrysalis, you are being placed under arrest for attempted assassination of the princess.” That were the words spoken by one of the guards, a captain no less. Chrysalis had done it.

Those words caused a shock to travel through the alicorn as she had not even a single clue of what they were talking about. But opposing them wasn't going to be much of a useful idea. Not against the crystalline guard. So the alicorn did the only she could do and that was to come with them, awaiting her trial and judgment for her charged crime.

All the way down in the throne room did the two stepsisters stood. Cadence and Chrysalis didn't spoke a word to one another. They both looked into the direction of a golden orb above the throne. Yet what shocked the blonde coated alicorn the most was the fact that the creature was laid before the steps of it.

“So,” a deep voice from inside the orb started to speak. A voice from which it was uncertain to tell whether it was male or not. “Chrysalis, isn't this your creation of alchemy? This, husk, of a being that you controlled with your mind?”

There wasn't anything else she could do, other than to nod. Which on its turn caused Cadence and herself to be involved in an argument beyond their years. “Silence!” the voice of the orb yelled at the both of them. “Attempting the assassination, shall be paid with the highest judgment I can give for it. Chrysalis, you shall live the rest of your days stripped of your own immortality and like the creature you created.”

“W-What!? No! You can’t do that to me! You can’t turn me into my own creation! You can’t!” Chrysalis shouted against the orb but it was hopeless. The changes had already set themselves in, changes that would make her look hideous for the remaining years of her life. “No! I, I shall end each and every one of you! You can’t make this happen, not to me!” Tears were flowing from the eyes of the mare as her beautiful blonde coat, started to dissolve itself into a black exoskeleton. The changes had started, but not just on the outside.

---

The lids of the pod gently removed themselves from the cheeks and chin of the changeling queen, after which it started to rise up again. Chrysalis released a couple of deep coughs before she rolled off of the sofa and unto her hooves. The moment they touched the ground started her bug like wings to flap around in order to hoist her from the squishy floor.

Her memories were relived again and the feeling pulsed through her body like nothing else. Hatred was the only feeling that she felt through her and with every pulse that her blackened heart made, she only became more and more angry. The rage was visible deep within her eyes as the fangs had given themselves bare. Venom was even running out of two of her larger canines before a deafening roar was released.

A roar that was so powerful, that it actually managed to crawl its way right into the mental connection of her children to be shared with. For a small moment in time stood all the changelings in the land still. They brought their hooves over to their head to make it stop and not blow the disguises they were wearing.

Yet the ones in the hive had it the most difficult as each of them didn't just hear the roar but also felt the pain she carried. It was something that made them screech all at once. For a second that screech alone could be heard all the way in Canterlot itself as something that could be classified as trouble.

All the guards that were on duty would have glanced into the direction of Everfree. All of them began to fear for the worst. But not even they could possibly predict the trouble and problems that would be coming their way. They would all be in trouble sooner or later. If it would be measured on a scale of one to ten, it would be an eleven without a doubt.

While the sounds gently died down in the room where the queen was hovering in, her eyes never lost their passion as she knew that her plan would be set into motion. A plan to use the state of Celestia’s mourning to her very own advantage. Through lies and a powerful deception did she wanted to get control over the most powerful being in the land and use it for her own goods.

Yet next to her own plan of ultimate destruction of her creator there laid a much more simpler reason. She had to feed her children. Each of her changelings required emotions to survive on and what better way than to extract it out of the fear of the princess being used against them. Canterlot would become the new central hive of the species while the princess of the sun would be reduced to nothing but a guard dog.

That happened to be the plan inside of the head of the queen herself but if it would work was going to be another question. A question to which she may or may not wanted to have the actual answer on.

Either way, the queen began to hover towards the entrance of the chamber and moved herself through the enchanted wall. Her body slowly appeared once again into the organic tube. Though instead of going back into the depths, she turned around. Her way would lead her topside and eventually to the very surface of the hive. To a place she would rarely visit.

The very place where the sun shone brightly on a cool spring day. A day that caused many ponies to have nothing to not much on their head as they were enjoying the time off as much as they could. Not a cloud in the skies and it was that, that bugged the queen as her green rims looked over it with all of their sickening and insectoid glory.

With the wind that was blowing it caused her nostrils to twitch as she also sniffed out the many scents it carried with them. Scents of many emotions that were to be harvested right in the capital of the land the species claimed as theirs. “You just wait, Celestia, once I’m done with you and you alone, your little precious land shall be nothing more than a ravaged battlefield where nothing will grow.” Chrysalis narrowed her eyes, as if she wanted to spy on the castle itself.

In her mind she had the plan worked out into every single detail. Yet if one of those little details would happen to be failing her, Chrysalis would be standing powerless and had to come up with something. And it needed to be right on that very spot. It was that feeling that filled her with the emotion of concern.

A concern she hadn't felt in a long time and possibly didn't even wanted to feel it anymore. Either way, the eyes of the queen lowered themselves from the skies as they turned over to the woods of Everfree. They were narrowed to look through the thick treeline in an attempt to see what possibly could be lying beyond.

It was only after a few seconds of staring that she saw what was lurking right back at her. A timberwolf the size of herself had hidden itself among the vegetation. The set of yellow dots appeared inside of a bush and the queen’s locked right unto it. Though she wasn't foolish as many would have thought or even considered her to be.

Because in the corners of her eyes she caught the two other sets of eyes. She had lived long enough in the woods to know how a timberwolf’s mind would actually work and where there would be one, two more would be revealed sooner or later.

“Not today boys,” mumbled Chrysalis to the three of them in a seductive voice. The creature rose up a shield to protect herself. A shield that had a dark green coloring yet was translucent enough to look straight through it. Her eyes kept themselves locked upon the wolf in front of her as she started to make the retreat back into the hive.

Even with the sun shining down upon them, the woods of Everfree were still cloaked in the shadows of itself. Little light would actually fall through the trees as the leaves blocked lots of it. Something that created an advantage to the wolves. Yet Chrysalis managed to get away unharmed as her shield would be able to hold at least two to three head on charges.

Once she had disappeared into the safety of her hive, the queen made the return to her little sanctum all the way in the bottom of it. The buzzing of her children as well as the screams of ponies that were captured by her might could be heard echoing flawlessly through the organic tubes and sounded like music to her ears.

Though there was one song that she would love to hear. One cry that would shiver her bones for good and give her almost the ultimate satisfaction. And it would be the cries of those same ponies that still lived and roamed on the surface of the land, once her diabolical plan had been a success.

Life must go on

Depression was the thing that had managed to not only hit the princess of the sun, but also to knock her out. Her regret for banishing her own flesh and blood to a place as harsh as the moon itself wasn't something she had expected to be doing once she was crowned as a princess. Yet the result would be visible to her every single time she looked at the night skies.

It had been a torment for her ever since the horrible deed had been done. She couldn't see the lines between the reality and her mind straight anymore because of her sadness. For days on end she looked up to the skies alone and prayed in silence to nopony else but herself and her beloved sister. The treatment that was given shouldn't have been done to her, but it still had happened.

The mighty alicorn walked the halls of the castle. She looked over the valley it was build right next to. The sight, as wonderful as it had been playing out before her eyes, didn't even manage one bit to actually lift the mood of the mare. Some of the guards would have called her over protective and perhaps even over exaggerating on the matter. Yet they didn't knew what it felt like to banish flesh and blood that belonged to them, to a place like it. Celestia’s regret was something to be careful around for certain.

The next thousand years of her existence would become the most difficult ones she had ever faced.

---

While the day itself kept on going, there were some clouds which formed themselves over the woods of Everfree. It wasn't anything noteworthy as the woods were known to do such a thing and therefore was simply discarded. The evening approached calm and slowly as the time to raise the moon would be there again sooner or later.

But in one part of the castle, in a wing of the place that was usually left unattended by all the guards, there was one unicorn stallion who happened to be almost around the clock. Starswirl the Bearded had said his tower goodbye for the time being and lived inside the royal walls for as long as it would be needed. He was just about the only support that Celestia had from the moment she was just a filly. The stallion had been there since her birth and there simply wasn't anypony else in the entire land whom she could trust even more then him.

Yet being inside of the castle walls didn't mean that the stallion would give up upon his own duties either. He would have continued on with them like he always had. Tables filled with enchanter’s equipment occupied the once so wonderful looking bedroom. The bookshelves were filled with books of his and others their findings, parchments with scrabbled notes in the tongue of the ancient unicorns to hide his most recent discoveries until he was certain. Spellbooks with tomes he made and learned through the years were nicely sorted on the bookshelves on the other end.

It was busy to say the least. The guard didn't had the preference to actually go in there because it was never certain just where he was working on. Not to mention the fact that he himself had spoken that everypony needed to knock on the door before entering.

That mostly came into play after the stallion had practiced with a creature called a fire wyvern from one of the volcanoes to the south. A guard was nearly set ablaze if he didn't close the door right away. Though the creatures were generally peaceful around the folk they knew and this particular wyvern had been under the care of Starswirl ever since he found it years ago in the woods of Everfree. The events of that day still made the two chuckle softly and purr almost like a cat.

The unicorn himself was just reading through a couple of books at once. Each of them was held in his magical field while he sat behind the desk. The little wyvern laid curled up in a comfortable basket and was peacefully asleep. Starswirl loved the silence around him though. It meant that he could do a lot more work while he read in mind and spoke to himself every so often in a whisper. Outside of the occasional papers being turned and the snoring of the little dragon, the place was a silent as a graveyard. Just the way he preferred it.

From time to time there was the occasional knock on the door though. But those were never answered by the stallion and thus the knocker gave it up after the second attempt. Silence was one of his biggest friends in the castle. It gave him the space and time to do whatever he wanted.

Yet when the evening rolled in and the darkness of the twilight had taken over the land, it was only then that he lowered the books back to the desk and closed them. A deep sigh was released through his nostrils and a hoof started to stroke the beard. The aged stallion leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes for just a moment. And behind those closed eyes there were the arcane symbols that started to travel over the lids. The tomes of spells were whispered inside of his ear and the horn’s glow become a little bit more intense for a few seconds.

All of the gotten information he had been reading through, was stored nice and tidy in the rightful parts of his brain. Knowledge that most likely would become of usage for his own books on the looks of magic and the arcane arts. But most likely it would be used for something a lot more simplistic. For his own thirst of knowledge of course.

The eyes opened themselves again while another sigh left through his nostrils. He felt content with the information and spells he had learned during the day and was more than ready to give himself a wonderful night off and just walk through the lovely gardens that the castle was known for. Perhaps he would even make a little stroll through the town as a whole. There was just so much that he could do, but first things had to be first. And that happened to be dinner with Celestia.

It didn't took the stallion all too long to enter the wonderfully looking dining room and he noticed the princess already sitting at her usual spot. “Good evening Tia, I see it that you have started already,” the stallion spoke up in a chuckle to himself before he joined her.

The majestic alicorn allowed herself a gentle giggle before she gave a nod to him. “I did, some of the servants did knock on your door, Starswirl, but you never seemed to have given an answer to them. So do tell me, what was that mind of yours working on?” Celestia asked him while she gained a curious look in her eyes.

Though the stallion took his time by answering the question. All because he poured himself a nice and refreshing glass of red wine. Starswirl took a sip from the drink before the glass was set back on the table. He turned his eyes back over to Celestia herself and glanced at her for just a moment. The words he would speak, would come under a faint smile. “Well, I can honestly say that there isn't anything in particular that I’m working on except of getting more and more knowledge to me.”

The princess of the sun nodded to the words he spoke before she released a giggle. “You’re never too old to learn, now are you? And how’s your wyvern doing?”

“You mean Sparky? He’s doing excellent really. Still needing to be a little comfortable but he’s adapting well enough. As long as there isn't anypony that comes barging into my room that is. You know how fire wyverns are shy or hostile against creatures they don’t know,” he replied to her with a nod. After that would he have started to eat from the dinner.

“Oh tell me about it, even around me he still has troubles,” the alicorn replied before she took a sip from her drink and smiled at her old friend.

“Hm, speaking of,” Starswirl started after he had swallowed the bite, “perhaps you two can get along with one another a bit more if you spend a bit more time with each other. A pet yourself might actually do wonders. But, how have you been today, Tia?”

---

The change of the subject was something that came hard against her and the mare released a deep sigh through her nose as she didn't had even the slightest of clues on how to reply against it as her mood had been the same for days. “I, I would say the same. Just, the same. Nothing increased or decreased. Just, the same,” replied Celestia as honest as she could.

There really wasn't any point in lying against a stallion like Starswirl. He had known her for so long that he could even smell it if she was even thinking about lying against him. Yet the stallion gave a nod and a thoughtful groan to the words that she spoke. They were of interest for him both on scientific reasons as well as personal. He cared for the alicorn with all his life and wanted her to be nothing else than happy. A seemingly impossible task given the circumstances.

But whether she would actually become happy again was a question that had been weighing on his mind ever since the events in the old castle. The genuine sadness he saw in her eyes back then was something he hadn't seen in a long time. The only time he could ever imagine her entering such a state of mind was when she was crowned a princess. Other than that there wasn't even any moment in her life as he could recall it.

“Something the matter?” the mare replied after the grown had entered her ears. Starswirl simply shook his head. He silently spoke that it wouldn't be of any significance to either of them. “Well, if there is, just tell me right away, alright. Promise me that.”

“As long as you do the same,” Starswirl countered with a faint smile.

The two of them continued on with their dinner and spoke about the daily going. They also tried to avoid any touchy subject for either of them. Once the two of them were full of the food, it was the stallion himself who was the first one that stood up and thanked her kindly for the dinner.

Then he was just gone like the wind. Gone to stroll through the at his own mind and discover what could be discovered. Celestia on the other end, she simply closed her eyes and started to hum to herself on her seat. That same little lullaby in which she asked for nothing but her sister’s forgiveness. Whether she would actually receive it was matter only time could be able to tell her. And that wasn't something that she truly liked.

The eyes of the alicorn opened themselves and she removed her body from the seating in order to look over at the balcony of the dining room. The same room to which she once brought the draconequus that fell in love with her. Her mind traveled all over the place as the memories were dug up and buried again.

Her horn charged itself up a little bit before the doors to the balcony itself were being opened. A gust of fresh wind and air was the first thing she was greeted by. After which her hooves set themselves before the railing. The eyes would have simply looked over the land she could call ‘hers’. The mare then released a deep sigh in response to it.

Thoughts traveled through her mind and went literally to every possible place she could imagine herself being. Time and space didn't matter in her eyes anymore as all the events were happening at once in her mind. The horrors and the joys up until that evening. The days that were still unlived weren't even touched by the alicorn. As those days would be the subject of another time.

“Your highness,” a guard spoke up from behind her. The tone in the voice was something that caused the alicorn to wake up from her fantasies and she turned herself around in order to see who happened to be talking.

“Speak you words, guard, something the matter?” Celestia replied to him after she made a step closer towards him. She was all ears of anything had happened, but whether she would make the right decision to deal with it would be another question. For even her judgment feeling had been clouded ever since the events.

“No, your highness, there is nothing wrong. I was just concerned about you not being in bed yet, to save your strengths for the coming morning,” the guard replied in all of his honesty towards the mighty princess.

A princess who released a deep sigh in response to the words of concern. She could see the corner he was coming from for certain, but it wasn't anything she was particularly fond of. Nonetheless, the mare nodded to him as she started to walk again. “I bid you a goodnight,” where the last words she spoke against him before disappearing in the dining room again.

The guard himself released a deep sigh through his mouth as he felt the sheer tension with which Celestia had seemingly anchored herself to the ground with. He knew something still bugged her, the entire castle did to be exact, so everything needed to be done in calm and peace before she would snap from anything that would be too much for her.

Celestia wandered within the walls of her wings. She headed over into the direction of her sleeping chambers. The more she thought about it all, the more pleasant softness of her bed seemed to be feeling to her. It was something she had been waiting for if she had to be honest with herself.

The alicorn of the sun released a deep sigh though her nostrils before she opened the door to her chamber. The guards on either side of it made a salute toward her. The mare nodded to the both of them before she passed through and closed the massive doors again.

Once again she stood within her true domain. The realm of the very sun. Her very own chambers which were lit by a star that acted like the actual sun in so many ways. A deep sigh was released through the mouth of the mare who dropped herself upon the bed. Thoughts ran wild as the only true desire she had was to do nothing else but sleep.

Her horn charged itself up and the curtains were closed while the blanket was brought over her as well as the eyecovers. Celestia snuggled up against the blanket while her head did the same with the pillow. Once she was comfortable with her position, the covers placed before her eyes and with one last spell she slowed time itself around her down. Seconds became hours for her feeling.

It was something that she needed if she wanted to be a fit as a fiddle in order to raise both of the celestial bodies in the skies. All of her powers had to be present and sharp in order to accomplish such a feature. Time ticked away as it only took her mere minutes in order to fall in a deep slumber for the night. A slumber that she needed more than anything at the moment.

The waving patterns in both her mane and tail reduced themselves to nothing as the pinkish coloring gained the overmight in her mane. It was a true sight to behold though. One only a few managed to actually get to see. The princess herself locked inside of her own little timelock and was sleeping like a rose from the looks of it. She would be sleeping for as long as she needed.

---

Yet in the garden of the castle was the elderly stallion simply wandering around with his own mind in the clouds high above themselves. His old eyes looked at the skies and all of their wonders. The stars that illuminated them were a true marvelous sight and therefore a treat to the eyes. Though it was on the very ground that the biggest eyecandy could be found. Because next to the wonderfully maintained garden of the castle, there also was the statue garden.

And it was that place he had taken his interest in. For the first time in days had he given himself the time to actually come down there and look at the statues of the guards who had fallen under the spell cast by Nightmare Moon. A spell he had taught the alicorn of the night long ago.

With a slow pace did he came closer and closer towards the massive statue and could only feel the sadness that was going through him. The feeling of guilt that was going through him seemed to be the kind as if he had caused it directly. As if they were part of one his experiments that seemed to have gone wrong.

But the statue that got the most attention out of them all, happened to be the one of Blitzwing himself. The more he looked over to him, the harder it became for the old stallion to keep his tears under control and eventually allowed one to flow through his closed eyelids. A gentle sniffle was what followed up just before he sensed the presence of another creature that happened to be near him.

Starswirl didn't gave it much attention at first as he kept himself strong. “I, I am sorry for the deeds that were done against you, against all of you. When, when I taught Luna the spell, I could have never predicted the facts as they became that single day. I know it is hard and perhaps even impossible, but I beg all of your forgiveness for my actions,” he spoke against them in compassion.

Only after the words had been spoken did the stallion turn himself around. Where he looked over a pony who he could have sworn to have seen before. The posture, the armor, everything rang bells to him yet no name came up to him. “And, how might you be called, if I may ask?” Starswirl spoke into the direction of the mysterious pony.

The pony only huffed like a stallion could do before he spoke his short answer to him. “Captain Warding Scale of the lunar guard, mister The Bearded.”

“Warding? Is that, is that really you?”

“Yes it is, Starswirl, and you have some explaining to do to me. Because I heard the little chat that you had just yet. It only rose more questions than answers. And if there is one thing I don’t like, it is not knowing the answers,” spoke the captain while he closed the gap between the two of them.

“I do not know how much of my words you have heard, but if you think about charging me, you are not coming at a good day,” Starswirl countered. He never gave up an inch of ground to him.

“I am not planning on having you charged, old stallion, I just want to know how on earth that creature of darkness knew a stoning spell! Because I don’t know if you like it or not, Blitz was the best friend I ever had!” Warding replied in a slight tone of anger.

Of course Starswirl could have expected the tone as it was spoken to him and he did it, yet the way he needed to answer him had to be with caution. But also with honesty. “Walk with me for a moment, captain Scale, than I shall explain to you, the very question that troubles your mind and soul.” Warding simply released a huff before he could only agree to the words and the wizard guided him through the statue garden.

The two stallion would be walking over paths and small hills in silence while their minds were formulating the words they wanted to speak against one another. But neither of them could actually come up with just how they would word them.

Of course there were a couple of times that the two of them opened their mouths. Almost as if they wanted to say something but never spoke a single word. They passed by statues of fallen heroes and ponies who had contributed to the land. They even passed a couple of statues that were of nopony else but Starswirl himself.

When they walked past the statues of his liking, Warding assumed he was going to stop and tell about them. But instead they kept on walking. The legs of Starswirl brought them over to one statue in particular. One statue that was of a mish mash of creatures that was trying to stop an incoming blast of some kind.

“Why did you bring me to the statue of, him?” Warding asked in a genuinely confused tone. He turned his eyes over to the wizard in the hope that he could provide the answer he was looking for. But whether he would get more than he had gambled for was something to be figured out.

“Because, captain Scale,” the bearded stallion started, “this is the reason why I thought the spell to your princess to begin with. He is captured by the magic I taught the two of them. But Luna must have found a much severe tome that could actually turn cells into nothing but rock. Perhaps, if I didn't taught her the spell, Blitzwing’s fate, as well as the others, would have been different. Perhaps, even more bloodier…” That final word was spoken with a shudder that went from his ear all the way down to the hoof. Starswirl thought about the things that could have happened.

The more Warding actually listened to the words and thought about them, the more he could understand the reasoning of him. If the draconequus was indeed as dangerous as they were told he was, just giving the spell to Celestia alone would be suicide. Though the words that he added over another possible future had a rather deep impact on him and shared the shudder.

“Mister Scale, I do hope that my words had giving you some kind of answer you were looking for. If not, then I do not have the power of answer your remaining questions. I told you the facts as they were known to me from back in those days and I could only assume how it went further on. May you have a good night,” the bearded stallion spoke to him. After that he turned himself around to make the departure.

With the rather unexpected visit of the captain, the stallion had grown tired and desired to have nothing more but a good night’s rest. Something of which he hoped that would make him a lot more fitter for the following day.

---

The following day had Starswirl woken up from his sleep like every other day. Much to his own surprise had the little fire wyvern actually left the basket and made itself comfortable between his beard and blanket. It was a rather surprising sight at first.

Though the stallion couldn't do much else than to release a soft chuckle and stroke the head of little creature in order to wake it up. It released a small sneeze that composed out of a small fire ball that disappeared out of existence and a small plume of black smoke started to travel up. “Hmhmhmh, bless you, old friend. Come, the time for a new day has fallen upon us and there’s lots to do.” The wyvern itself had not a single clue where he was talking about but did started to float into the air as the stallion removed himself out of the bed.

Starswirl went into the bathroom in order to refresh himself as well as properly dress for any occasion that the princess would be needing him for. It only took him a couple of minutes before he was completely done and dropped his body once again back down within the chair.

The wyvern itself knew what time it was and chuckled gently to itself before starting to hover through the room on its own. Almost as if it was willing to explore the area a bit more. And much to its surprise was the door of his room was open. A golden opportunity did its chance for the being and without a secondary thought in the mind it just went for it. It left his master behind him and starting to explore through the castle.

Starswirl himself didn't even notice the extra silence that was created with the disappearance of his pet and simply was looking through the books and scrolls. “Impossible that she could have made the species herself, right? They must have been around longer, we aren't looking for them, because they can’t be found,” the stallion mumbled to herself before a switch inside of his mind turned on. “Eureka! That’s why we never heard of them, oh, oh, oh, sneaky little buggers aren't you?”

The mood to explore and delve into an ever deepening spiral of Equestrian lore and myths boiled up from the stallion’s heart and every book and scroll he had, was set upon finding that one thing. Any similarities to the creatures supposedly created by Nightmare Moon. The strike force that she had called nothing else but the elusive and dangerous nightmare forces.

---

Meanwhile in the throne room had the wyvern found the very royal seating itself and had laid down rather comfortable upon it. It didn't happen often, but the entire room happened to be nothing but empty. Not a single guard or servant could be found within it, giving the fiery creature ever so much room to hover and rest.

Yet the feeling of freedom was short lived as a pink maned Celestia entered the room and saw the creature itself floating just above the throne. She almost froze upon her spot as she couldn't do anything else but to blink towards it. “H-Hallo,” she managed to bring out before giving a gentle shake with her head. Fire wyvern, right. Starswirl must has lost him this morning, the mare thought to herself before she simply charged up her horn and locked every door in the room.

Celestia passed through the one door that was still open and locked that as well. Her eyes never took themselves away of the creature while she slowly sat down upon the ground. She knew just how hostile the creatures could get when threatened so it was only out of sheer luck that the chamber was empty.

And with the space given to the creature in the closed off throne room to begin with, there wasn't any need to actually attack Celestia. The mare had assumed a relaxed pose herself. She laid on the ground, the fire wyvern glanced over her with a tilted head and landed upon the throne itself.

The fires cracked from its body. Though it never tore the eyes away from Celestia for whatever reason. To her it didn't matter how long it would be take, she was having the time and could take as long as she needed before the creature was near her and she could pet it. Much like with the bunny family so long ago in the grassy fields of the valley.

---

Minutes turned into hours, the day passed by like a breeze for the stallion. Book after scroll was being read with his eyes and the notes written down to his findings. Astonishing results he got already out of nothing but reading the myths of the shadows but also came to one horrifying conclusion.

He had cracked the code that had caused Luna to fall into the state of her horrible alter ego. And once that code was known to him, he finally leaned back into his chair for the first time in hours and simply shook his head while rubbing the eyes. Clearly there must have been made a mistake on his department. Yet going over the pieces of paper and even setting everything below one another still added up to the terror that was Nightmare Moon.

“But this, but this is highly impossible. There isn't anything known to the equine that can be that powerful to take over, unless, it isn't equine. Oh goodness me, this is some terrible news right here. Though should I bring it to her, at this time?” It was a question that would be chewing upon his very conscious until he had spoken the words of truth against her.

He held the relieving words right in his hooves but was held back by a little thing that happened to be his own moral. How would Celestia react if he brought her the news like that? But how would she react if he didn't? Would she still be able to trust him as a friend? All of those kind of question soared through his mind while even he had not even the slightest of clues on how to tackle the situation as it was given to him.

He was knowledgeable on a lot for certain but some things were even for him impossible to truly figure out. Emotions being one of the things that sat on top of the list. His own feelings tore himself apart on the matter as he paced up and down in his room. At one end he could tell her and pray for the best. Yet on the other he would tell her when the time would be over. When her depression had sunken away. Yet who knew how long that was going to take.

Minutes long he would have just pondered his mind on the matter whether or not he should tell her the words or not. Whether or not he should make or break any dreams that the alicorn still had. It was a delicate decision and one that didn't needed to be made over hasted. And that was exactly what he intended to be doing. Keeping his cool while trying to figure out what happened to be the best for him to say.

---

“Who’s a cute little fire wyvern, hm? You, yes you,” spoke Celestia in the tone of her foolish self. The princess found herself snuggling the creature that had escaped the room of Starswirl. Over the passing of literally hours, it hovered closer and closer to her, judging her with every motion to see if she was to be deemed as worthy. It didn't care for the amount of power that was surging through her but the emotions. Her true emotions was the thing that it cared for most. Not the sadness for her sister that had dominated her for the past days.

It certainly happened to be a wonderful relief to the alicorn, to be able to get her mind off of the matter as it were. Not to mention the wyvern who received all the snuggles, cuddles and nuzzles. It could almost be viewed as a therapy for her to a certain degree. One that she actually liked as it didn't involve speaking about her troubles to any other pony.

Of course there had been knocks upon the door that caused the two of them to look up at the doors and hearing the mumbles on the other side, but they never gave anything about it. That was at least, until a golden orb formed itself into the room. Both the alicorn and the wyvern looked at one another before their eyes turned back to the sphere. Something was about to happen.

Out of it stepped nopony else then Starswirl himself, panting deeply to himself like if he had lost something. Something that seemed to be rather dear to him. His body turned itself around on the spot as he kept on looking just where it could possibly be. “Starswirl,” spoke Celestia calmly.

But an answer was never given to her as he kept on turning and mumbling to himself. It almost seemed as if he happened to be deaf by both of his ears. “Starswirl!” the alicorn spoke up in a louder tone and finally caught the attention of the stallion. Because he turned himself around and looked over to her with a few blinks with the eyes. “I think, you were looking for…” She then nudged her head down a couple of times. At first he didn’t caught it, before he then followed her.

Then he finally got to see the facts as they were. The fire wyvern that laid in the forelegs of the princess with a calm expression on its face. He laid on one of the forelegs and looked over to his original owner but didn't wanted to move as it was a little bit too comfortable.

The stallion was relieved to a degree that was indescribable for him nor Celestia. He silently walked up to the two of them and dropped his body against a wall of his own and looked over the two with a nod and a kind set of eyes. “So it seems that all what was needed was an empty throne room and hours of time. Heh, what did you know,” the stallion spoke up in a chuckle before he petted the wyvern over the head in a slow manner.

“You had lost him, didn't you?” Celestia spoke teasingly to him.

The old stallion could only nod towards the words as it was the truth and that alone. “I, indeed had lost the little fella yes. But, can you truly blame me after having delved so deep in my research?”

“Hmhmhmhm, no old friend, I can’t blame you for that. Besides, you grow a day older as well,” replied Celestia with calm after her giggle had died down.

“That I certainly do. Whether I’m happy about it is something else. E-Either way,” Starswirl started.

“Is there, something you mean to tell me?” Celestia asked. The entire expression of her eyes changed itself one that irradiated uncertainty and suspicion.

“Well, one can say that yes. I, have been doing some research and came out with a result that is everything but pleasant, your highness. Minutes I was thinking whether or not I should have told you or not.” The glance that he had in his eyes revealed that he had some true difficulty with it.

“Well, where are you waiting on? Any news that’s not pleasant should reach my ear as soon as possible, even during my depression,” replied Celestia with courage in her tone. Though there was nothing could prepare her for his next words.

“It’s, it’s about your sister.”

Celestia was simply baffled by the truth as the stallion spoke it to her. His words, his story even, it all seemed to be just so out of place that it had to be made up. Yet it seemed to be fitting just so well with the darkened theme of Nightmare Moon. Once again she was caught in two fires and the wyvern had left the alicorn to rest upon the shoulder of Starswirl. “This, this isn't, what I had expected when you spoke about the news.” Celestia dared to bring out.

The old stallion nodded to her words in agreement. A simple, yet powerful nod confirmed her words. “Heh, you weren't the only one who thought of that. But it’s true, the nightmare forces had slowly taken control of their host, in this case your sister, and morphed her into the being known as Nightmare Moon. Sneaky little buggers they are. And they had been present throughout all of time and space. Never even knew they were there.”

The alicorn of the sun tried her utmost best to keep her tears under control and did a couple of deep breaths before she actually managed to do such a thing. Still, it was hard to believe for her and to add insult to injury, the moon needed to be raised. “Starswirl old friend, could, could you leave me be for the evening, please? There are a few things that I need to look at myself.”

The bearded stallion nodded to her words as he understood them more than anything else at the time. “I wish you the best of luck Tia, you’ll need it,” he replied to her with another nod and teleported himself back to the room.

With Starswirl gone, Celestia stood up and she walked over to one of the many windows that the throne room was rich about and she charged up her horn in a blue color to raise the rock where her beloved sister had been banished to. The aura of the horn went over to the coat and under some moans, groans and trembles did the thing reduce the terrible twilight and allowed the night to begin.

A night in which Celestia herself would be on a tour through the library and the vault. There where she had stored many objects that were deemed to be a hazard.

---

Meanwhile, back in his own room, had Starswirl once again taken a seat behind the desk as the little fire wyvern had taken his place back in the basket and had curled itself up to sleep. Something that the stallion couldn't do yet. He had his very conscious chewing on him. He still doubted whether or not it was good that he spoke the truth against Celestia. “A lie, is easier to take,” he mumbled to himself before he conjured something into existence.

Something of which only he knew the place of where it was stored. A maroon red piece of cloth was surrounding something and it was gently levitated towards the desk before it was revealed to his very own eyes.

What laid beneath the cloth was a fire red ruby that he had held dear to him for years and was something many only could dream about. Yet normally when he would look at it there was a smile that would come to his face. That time only a deep sigh was released before the right hoof moved itself over to the precious stone. The one stone he held more dear than any other.

Deceptions are only the beginning

Later that night had once the moon traveled about halfway over the over the skies. Celestia had found herself deep within the Canterlotian caverns for the time being. A place where she and her sister once had set up a vault to hide the things that shouldn't be seen in the eyes of any mortal pony or immortal alicorn. Objects that could spread havoc through all of the land could be found there.

But not just any kind of object laid there though. Things that went back from before the great war that eventually led to the formation of Equestria were stored there. Unspeakable things were hiding inside of the mountain caverns but the princess of the sun was only interested in one item. An item that she knew laid around there somewhere. The question itself only happened to be: where had she placed it?

“For the love of it all, I need to categorize all of the stuff inside of this place soon enough,” the alicorn muttered to herself while she went through shelves of forbidden items. But just when she was about to give up the hope of finding where she was looking for, her head turned itself to her right. And there it stood. Her eyes widened for just a moment, fear filled her heart.

Hidden among the darkness of the caverns, never mentioned to have seen the light of day and night to begin with. The white alicorn moved herself slowly to a pedestal at the end of the makeshift hallway. A pedestal that held a glass bubble and the content inside of it was something so powerful that when landed in the wrong hooves, powers beyond anypony’s belief would be shown.

With the greatest of care and the fear for her life, she approached the red glowing necklace under the bell. Every fiber of her body wanted to just get the living hell out of there and never even look back at the cursed item. All of her body agreed except for one thing, her brain.

In her eyes she thought that perhaps a shimmer of why her sister became corrupted, or perhaps even part of the corruption itself could be found right within that very amulet. It was worth a shot of course but the question simply would be the fact if she did had enough willpower to make sure she wouldn't end like her sister?

But if she did, the land could be ravaged like no force had ever seen before. She, princess Celestia of Equestria happened to be the most powerful pony in the land –if not the universe. If something happened to her in the form of corruption, not even the prayers of a million subjects would be able to change her back. Every living being would have been doomed then.

She had seen the power, the domination that it claimed of the wearer yet still she wanted to know if the thing held any form of answer inside of it. Wearing it she had forbidden herself, she only wanted to examine the thing in her own room where the light always shined. It would be a daring operation for certain as she had not a single clue of the how’s, the why’s and the when’s.

The alicorn released a deep exhale through her nose and closed her eyes for a couple of seconds. And once they were opened again, the look of determination was spreading itself right through it up to the point where her horn charged itself into the golden aura. “Never shot is always missed,” she mumbled to herself as the magical aura started to levitate the glass bell from the pedestal.

---

Back inside of the chambers had Starswirl released a deep sigh as he had laid his body to rest upon the bed. With the thoughts that there grinding through his mind he needed to have some place where he could just sit upon and have everything clear to him. Silence was what he needed most but the room got filled with the moans and groans of his brain working at the fullest of capacities.

The little fire wyvern was even concerned about the health of the stallion as not even the creature had ever seen so much brainpower lying behind the aged bearded pony. But if it looked over to the desk could that same maroon red piece of cloth be seen upon it and the connection was made quickly for it.

Inside of Starswirl’s head kept everything on turning and twisting. The arcane symbols appeared and disappeared from before his eyes. Symbols that spoke of tomes that he shouldn't have known, information he shouldn't have shared with a particular princess and above all, the shiver that went down the spine. Whatever the stallion was doing to not only himself, but also the surrounding he was in, it had to be severe. Because the ripples of hot air could be seen all around him. And when everypony least expected it, there was a groan which came from the stallion together with a loud yell that was deafening to say the least. Something had gone wrong, that much was true.

Orders might have been orders but that yell alone was more than enough to make two guards look up. Without actual thought did they just storm right into the room. One in which they expected to see the worst of the worst. Their eyes looked over one another before one of them just busted through the door and they could only pray that nothing bad had happened. But that thought backfired at the both of them just a little bit.

Because when they rampaged through the door, the fire wyvern ignited itself unto a ball of fire and it was just ready to throw the flames right at them. Hisses and growls of anger were being made by the creature. The two guards looked up to the thing and didn't believe what they saw. Yet one of them removed his eyes and dared to look around the room of the wizard. “Mister the Bearded, are you alright?” the guard spoke up in a deep voice as he looked over the bed.

They felt themselves a little bit cornered even though they had access to the entire castle if they wanted. But just the sheer feeling of being in one room with the most powerful unicorn and a fire wyvern was still nerve wrecking to them.

Some moans came from the bed as the aged stallion rose his head up in order to look at the commotion that had been going on. Once he saw the things that were going on released Starswirl a deep sigh through his mouth as his head started to slowly shake itself from side to side.

“We, we do apologize for busting in like we did but we heard screams so we thought that you might have been wounded,” the guard spoke again. Though he could read the disappointment in the eyes of the wizard. Starswirl wasn’t happy at all from what they did.

“Master guard,” Starswirl started while he left the bed and made a couple of silent hoofmotions to the wyvern to calm down. “That still isn't enough reason to just bust through my doors like that. The mysteries of the arcane arts are not something every single soul can learn. Sacrifices must be made in order to extract the answers one happens to be looking for.” The wizard fell a little in silence. He turned himself away from them and looked out of the many windows his room was rich. He needed to have some form of distraction in the moment.

The view was worth a kill for, but where the guards thought that he was done with the both of them, they never had been so wrong. Because even with his words already spewed out, there was still a lot more to come. “What if my wyvern had actually fired at you two? Or possibly even worse, what if I was cloaked in one of the elemental whirlwinds and you just walked in like you did? Magic, is, deadly. And therefore should be treated with respect beyond belief!”

The wizard never even looked at the two guards but the tone in his words stood on such a high level of seriousness that they only could believe them where they stood. Starswirl leaned against the chair of his desk while the eyes kept on looking to the world outside and his ears twitched a little bit. But the sounds in the room were nothing more but the breathing of four being.

“Did, did you two heard that as well?” he asked the two of them. Then he finally turned his body around to face them with worried eyes. “Please do tell me you heard it.”

The guards looked at one another with a confused looked. “I’m sorry mister The Bearded, but we hadn't heard anything. What did you hear if I may be so free to ask?” he replied to the stallion.

The stallion narrowed his eyes as he looked over to the pony who had kept himself silent all of the time. “Wings of a bug that seems to be the size of a pony…” The rims of Starswirl kept themselves locked upon the face of the silent stallion to see the changes that occurred on it.

Yet both of the guards blinked at the words and did a step closer to him with a gulp. Neither of them could believe that there was a bug that could grew into that size. It could mean a national threat if they didn't treat it with care.

But the monitoring of Starswirl didn't deliver anything. The silent guard was just what he happened to be, silent. Everything looked genuine in his eyes so it simply couldn't be one of them. “Go, go back to your stations and don’t mention this to anypony. I need to look for a couple of things.” It was a single and simple order given by the stallion, one they should heed.

“But, with all due respect sir, we have to make a report to this by the princess herself. If this is a threat then, then we must act straight away,” the guard replied in his own defense.

“No you do not have to do it. Bugs can be dealt with pretty good, if you ask me. Now go back to your stations. The words of a madstallion are not to be trusted anyway,” mumbled Starswirl to them. Something that caused a confusion by the two of them. The words that he spoke seemed to be something that nothing and nopony could have ever even come up with.

Once again they blinked to him and the wizard gave them a small chuckle. “I start to hear things lately. You two said it yourself, you didn't hear a single thing now did you?”

Those words caught the two guards more off than they should have. He was right though as it seemed that only Starswirl had heard the sound and if there really was a bug the size of a pony, the flapping of the wings would be going through marrow and bone.

“Alright then, Starswirl. Have a good night,” one of the guards spoke before the both of them made a little bow before the stallion and then made their departure through the busted door. It was odd that the two actually managed to close it again as it seemed that the eventual damage done to it was less than expected. Something that was much of a relief to him, only the lock was actually broken.

With a simple magical spell would he have been able to fix such a thing.

With the two guards gone from his room looked the stallion back over to the windows as his mind never stopped repeating the sound that he did heard. He had been living in his tower in Everfree for years and knew every single creature that lived inside of it. “This is not good,” muttered Starswirl to himself. The horn charged itself up and picked up the maroon colored piece of cloth. It was brought before him and he gave one simple glance over it before it started to burn.

Flames emerged within it from the inside out and were burning both the cloth and the stone carried within it. If it were the creatures he thought it were, he needed to hide that one stone from them. “In the wrong hooves, disaster will strike and the prices to pay be too big.”

The fire wyvern looked over to the stallion with a confused gaze in the eyes before it simply gave up trying to actually understand the words that were spoken by him. The creature curled itself up within the basket as the desires to fall asleep simply had grown in it. One good night of rest, would do miracles and that little fella, was living proof if it.

But if Starswirl would be sleeping like a rose the coming night was something that had to be discovered. If his feelings were right, he was on the brink of not getting any sleep to begin with.

---

Within the darkened streets of the Canterlot settlement, one pony had actually dared itself to be out there and didn't even seem to be caring one single bit about just who and what happened to be out there. There was a flame visible within the eyes that spoke of both hatred and power. Even in the darkness of the night was it visible as the day. Luck had to be on the being’s side as not a single pony actually happened to be out there.

Step by step did the distance between it and the castle became less and less. On the upcoming intersection it could hear the marching of the nightly patrol of guards. Yet what then happened was something that wasn't seen in decades if not centuries. Something that shouldn't have been seeing the light of day to begin with.

While the pony neared the intersection there were flames which started to emerge around it. A pattern of fire suddenly shot up and then disappeared into nothing but just thin air. On the spot where the pony used to be walking then walked a captain of the royal guard. A smirk grew on the face of the broad stallion all the while a ‘hmm’ was released through the nostrils.

Marching over the intersection with all the confidence it had, the guards that came from both the right and left side started to follow him without any questions asked. Marching guards were always a sight in and of themselves to behold and witness, but that particular squadron of guards had a scent to it. A scent of the forest that trailed them.

---

Back inside of his chamber couldn't Starswirl place the sound of the wings by any known creature he had stored inside of his mind but the records needed to have something over it. A bug the size of a pony wasn't all that hard to miss at least not in his eyes that was. No rest for the wicket was a saying that was as old as he was. And it was right once again. All because of the notes and scrabbles he found throughout the ages about such a creature made only more and more disturbance to his mind.

It would have seemed to be just impossible that the words written so long ago, actually were the things that what was going on in the world outside. It had to be nonsense in his eyes. It was a race that shouldn't even be in existence. Nothing more but a hoax to scare fillies and colts, yet the fact of the buzzing wings ringing in his ears was still there. It was something that became all a little bit too much for him.

The wizard needed some fresh air and he needed it fast. As quick as his hooves could carry him, he galloped through the halls of the castle. All in order to go to the front entrance of the castle.

Though while the stallion was galloping and nearing the place he wanted to go, he noticed the marching guards that came in. The pace he had was reduced to nothing but a small and gentle trot. All while the distance between him and the captain became less and less.

Where the wizard kept his eyes upon the captain, he kept his always straight ahead through the hallway. Not a single motion or emotion was given to Starswirl and that caused the first signs of unrest in his body. In silence did the two groups of pony just walked past one another.

It was Starswirl himself who even stopped and looked at the squadron as it kept on marching towards the throne room itself. He simply shook it off as he needed to have some form of refreshment to clear the blockades inside of his mind. “Must be a new one,” the wizard mumbled to himself before he managed to leave the castle.

When he left the place, there was a scent that entered his nose. A scent that he knew all too well though. Because the scent that he recognized was nothing else but the free and wild nature of the woods of Everfree. Something that seemed to be highly impossible even to a mind like his.

A could quick wind measurements were taken and much to his own surprise, the wind was blowing into the direction of Everfree instead of coming out of it. The mountain itself didn't curved the wing back down as it always would curve up once it hit it. “Impossible,” was the only word that he could mumbled. The aged stallion shook his head at the conclusion he came at. It seemed to be too ridiculous for even his own mind to fully understand what was going on.

It was impossible for such creatures that he had inside of his mind to be the same as those who marched into the castle. It was just not possible in his eyes. They never would have been coming up that far into actual land ruled by ponies. Nothing made sense anymore in his mind and he started to walk again.

Fresh blood needed to be given to the brain while the hurricane of thoughts needed to do nothing but calm down. Only through that would he be able think straight again. He could be walking all over the settlement as he pleased. Starswirl would have liked but that hurricane wasn't going to lay down in his skull. It would only expand as the questions and theories kept on coming the more he made a bigger distance between him and the castle itself. A castle that was secretly under siege.

---

Yet the captain and the squadron of guards were in fact the ever so elusive changelings and their by madness driven queen. The plan that she had forged inside of her brain had been put into motion and there wouldn't be any stopping of the train of insanity that she happens to be leading.

There would be only two possible results to the plan that the queen herself would accept. The first being it becoming a complete success while the other was a little bit more somber. It would be a total failure and she ended up somewhere in a jail never to be returned to her children again.

Chrysalis had literally gone all-in on the bet that she had made herself. Not just her reputation stood on the line but her entire life and everything she stood for. The plan simply couldn't fail or the price to pay would be far too severe.

The changed queen and her children walked through the hallways of the castle and went straight for the room where they hoped and prayed to find the one mare they were looking for. A mentally tormented Celestia whose mind would be rather easy to be molded with.

It would be reformed into something that only she could control, giving her indirect power to drop herself down upon the throne of the almighty alicorn of the sun. It was a plan calculated to in the detail but each and every single of them had to work. As even one little thing was out of the alignment everything would be devastated.

The risks were there for the changeling queen and she had taken them all.

The doors of the throne room opened themselves. The literal changing of the guard was about to happen. The guards who had been standing on duty inside of the room would be relieved by the changed guards. When the captain and the squadron made their entrance through the door, the usual ceremony was given by saluting to the captain. And then all the guards that stood on duty marched out of the room. Leaving only the army of changelings, Chrysalis and a Celestia sunken deep in her thoughts in the room. If war would break out, it was in advantage of the queen.

The signal was given by the changed Chrysalis and all of the guards assumed their positions. It would be slow for certain but haste wasn't something one needed to give to the most powerful pony in the land. While the doors of the throne room were closed, every other exit was placed under a tight security and it thus left only the queen and princess to converse with one another on their own. Something of which Chrysalis had wanted to do for a long time.

She wished for a conversation that would crush the weakened barrier of the princess her mind even more before the queen could have her little way with it and force her to become what everypony feared she could be. But as the changed captain looked over to the princess herself it became known that she held a strange looking amulet before her face and didn't even seem to have noticed the whole changing of the guards. That, or she didn't wanted to see it.

Fear and frights already had boiled up right inside of Chrysalis as thought that it would be over before it had even began. Yet even with the fear pulsing through her veins she straightened herself and walked closer towards the princess in her changed form. The eyes looked over to the windows in either side of the room and saw a sight she loved to see.

For under the right angle could not the captain of the guard be seen walking up to the princess in the glass’ reflection. Instead it was the being that Chrysalis really was. The changeling body that she was cursed to live in until the day she died ever so long ago.

It seemed to be an odd thing for certain but through the gears of time itself, the queen of the changelings had made peace with her new form. Quite frankly she didn't even had the desire to return to her old form as the blonde coated alicorn. The changeling was what she was, always had been. It was only a visual representation of the horror that was the truth.

Slowly she approached the throne and stood still a couple hooves away from the first step. The head rose itself up in order to fully get the mighty alicorn in her view before she simply stood there. She was waiting, waiting to be noticed by the alicorn princess. One who never took her visible eye off of the amulet for some reason. Things were about to be turned interesting.

---

Meanwhile in the garden, Starswirl had taken the refuge upon a bench. The stallion had his head aimed towards the stars high in the skies. Something about them stood odd on that particular evening. The constellations weren't on their usual spot and some didn't even shine at all.

It all added up to one possible outcome. The one was that Celestia herself happened to be sitting somewhere else with that head of hers. A fact where Starswirl could be coming in well enough given the most recent circumstances. But it wasn't something that he would let go without speaking to her. The entire situation between the both of them was delicate, they were delicate.

A deep breath was taken by the stallion before he coated his horn in the magical aura and pushed his abilities probably further than he had ever done. Moans and groans were being made by the stallion as some of the guards that were patrolling the gardens saw what happened.

As much as they wanted to stop the wizard, they hadn't even a single clue on they could possibly stop him and allowed him to continue without a hitch. But they would never remove their eyes from him until he was just done with whatever it was he was doing.

Rumbles and powerful tremors could be heard high in the skies and the guards finally dared to look up and view the clear skies. Much to their own surprise they saw a thing that was thought to be just impossible for any unicorn. Even for one like Starswirl himself.

For that what the guards caught within their eyes was nothing else then the stars moving. Every single star that was placed wrong in the nightly skies hovered to its respectable place. Both of the guards were looking in both wonder and terror for the sights that were given to them. Neither of them could actually believe the facts as they were presented to them and shook their heads as if it never had happened.

Their minds simply weren't ready to witness such magical power to surge through such a unicorn, like the stallion himself. A strange, terrifying and spectacle sight it was.

---

Back in the throne room had the changed captain already spoken harmful words against the mentally absent Celestia. The words of pure venom about that she was the one pony to whom everything could be blamed upon. Everything that went wrong in the land was her doing. Discord, Sombra and many other crises that had occurred during her time of reign.

Even though they were spoken by a poisonous mouth, the tone in which they were said was one that was still polite and filled with dignity for the ranks of the army. Perhaps that was why the alicorn hadn't reacted to anything that was spoken yet. Something that came much to the annoyance of the changed queen.

She wanted to see some life in the empty husk that remained of Celestia and prepared herself to make possibly the boldest move she had ever done in her insectoid existence. And that was nothing else then opening an old wound that was starting to close and pour salt in it, lots of it.

Celestia herself on the other end was just mesmerized by the sheer beauty that the amulet gave off. It wouldn't be something that she would openly had admitted but in her eye it could be seen. She was immobilized by it as the words of power echoed faintly through her ears. Words of power that could make her subjects love her even more if she would have liked.

Or that she would be having more than enough power to crush her enemies in one single blow so that her soldiers would be safe. All lovely little promises which the alicorn loved to see fulfilled but the whispers of her mother’s voice spoke against her that she didn't had to be doing it.

Her mother spoke about the facts that she didn't need such a hellish piece of jewelry in order to do those things. She needed a clear mind that was willing to listen and reason with any being that threatened her. Not to mention the fact that she had the power of the sun at the tips of her hooves. Only in the nights she would be mere mortal when it came down to her powers.

And let that be something that the whispers of the amulet offered. Power surging through her body of both day and night. Making her unstoppable and practically invincible for any force that would as much try to deliver a blow against her. All nice words but also as hollow as the haul of a ship. Treacherous words to which she shouldn't fall for. Yet her mind gently brought her back as the echoes of words of a third party entered her ears.

Words that didn't spoke nice about her, or a pony she cared for the most in her entire life. Celestia’s head turned itself gently over to the talking guard before she returned the words of her own. “Excuse me, captain, but what were the words that you spoke, just yet?” Her own tone was curious, ominous even as she didn't had a single clue on how, what, why or when. But she would hear the words again, one way or the other.

The captain in disguise gulped a little bit. The queen wasn't expecting her to interrupt her in the midst of her speech. However, instead of taking steps back before leaving the mighty alicorn alone, the unthinkable did happen. The words were repeated while the stallion remained firmly on the ground. “If you had taken action long before, your sister wouldn't have turned herself into such a being and therefore she wouldn't be on the moon right now. It is all your fault, my princess.” And once again they were spoken in the tone of pure venom, to tear open the wound and pour the acid right into it. Celestia just looked at him, aiming her one visible eye to him, haunting him.

Though like a fish nibbling at the bait, Celestia just took it as she rose herself up from the throne. The wings spread themselves to their furthest width as the hatred was already flowing into her one visible eye. The mane started to wave around even more then it usually did. Whether Chrysalis knew it or not, she had angered the princess to levels nopony in the room had before.

Her enormous sadness had made place for an anger that could come from the ancient gods. An anger powerful enough to start wars over just the tiniest of things. The hateful look never left the captain’s eyes as Celestia meant to have seen a shimmer of green inside of them. But her time to think wasn't there. With the amulet still in her magical aura, she huffed deeply to the captain before she spoke her words.

“You are having, no idea, what, you’re talking about!” Celestia yelled at him in a truly angry sounding tone. “You never had to do it now did you!? You never had to banish your own flesh and blood to a place where nothing could as much as even get it. You, you don’t have any idea what I’m talking about right here now do you!? Because you don’t know what it feels when you lose something that you have loved with all of your heart and life! You don’t know, the creature that she had been turned into!” When she was done, the sadness was visible through the wheezes she made.

Every word that she spoke sounded even more angry and more hateful than the last. There was a lot that she could tolerate and even would. But if as much as one pony would place the blame upon her for the events that occurred when Nightmare Moon was released, all the wires inside of her head just went haywire. No more miss pretty princess would be shown.

Yet with everything single word appeared the mane of the princess to be losing the essence in it before being replaced with something not even the changed queen could have expected. It started out as little sparks that were unnoticeable to the naked eye but the more she spewed her words in return, the more they did became visible. Until they had turned into a reddish hellfire that waved like her original mane.

The crisping sounds that it created really caught the queen on her nerves as she even felt the heat. The eyes looked at the changes that had already happened to the alicorn before they looked over to the amulet and she quickly made the connection inside of her own mind. “Impossible,” was the word that was mumbled by the changed captain.

All of the changed guards that were standing on their posts could only pray for their lives that the ending would be a good one but given the situation, that hope was gone sooner than anything else. All of the changelings that were present could only pray on the fact that the mighty alicorn wouldn't be firing any of the flames that she carried with her.

Celestia herself on the other end just stood there with the fiery mane waving over the throne as her one visible eye gained a small line of water below it. Tears were forming themselves below it and they started to travel down the cheek while she spoke up again. But that time she spoke in a calmer tone than before. A sorrowful voice filled the throne room. “I’m so sorry, but the might of the amulet, has become too strong. I need, I need to wear it. The whispers, the whispers filled my mind.” It was a plea for a help that would never arrive. “They, clouded my vision.”

Her magic had tried its utmost best to fight the whispers of the amulet but she had lost that mental battle ever since the changed queen had gotten her attention. For the events that would be happening from there on outward, only one pony was to blame and that was nopony else then queen Chrysalis.

Because the amulet was placed around her neck, which caused the golden aura to disappear from the horn and necklace while the changes began. The shoes of the princess grew in size as her chest and crown formed itself into an armor set much like Nightmare Moon. Forges were not needed to craft the pieces as her body was a massive one. The sheer heat that she irradiated together with the flames she wore for a mane and tail, burned like the sun itself.

Yet the armor and the fire weren't the only changes that happened to her. Right inside of her eyes had the pupils changed to a cat-like size and the intelligence of the princess reduced itself. More and more she became like an animal in her doings, but never lost her posture of being intimidating.

The changed captain had to do a couple of steps backwards for the intense heat that the mane were giving off and Chrysalis had not even the slightest of ideas just what she had done or what had happened to the princess of the sun. She could only assume that such a horror had to be the result of that amulet.

---

Back in the garden of the castle smiled the wizard upon the two guards as he explained the very thing he had done to them and they left him for what he was. The last thing they wanted was to get in the biggest of troubles with that wizard and let him be. They returned to their patrol while the stallion himself, remained on the bench for a little bit longer.

His old eyes looked over the stars in the skies and just loved their natural beauty. Starswirl gave himself a small pat on the shoulder for the fact that he had done something very few could have done. A tiny tear of joy flowed out of his right eye just before it was wiped away with a sniffle.

The old bones of the stallion then started to carry him through the garden a bit more. The weather was still something nice and everything felt good in his mind. A mind that needed to cool itself down from the intense power output it had given when it relocated the many stars in the skies. Something that left him oblivious to the current state of Celestia.

With hums and whistle did their turn as he kept on walking through the wonderful looking gardens and the wind carried the many scents of the flowers with it. It was a cent that was almost priceless to smell and no amount of aromatherapy would be going up against it. As that what he smelled was just pure nature. Starswirl just loved it as the hurricane inside of his mind was finally coming to just a simple breeze of air.

---

Yet inside of the throne room stood Celestia, still growling softly towards the changed captain with her mane waving like a hellfire. It with one powerful roar like only a beast could give it, the red and orange coloring changed itself to a light blue one with purple on the edges. The blue fires of the royals was something that all of the guards feared yet they still managed to remain on their posts.

Fear had filled the locked throne room and the captain changed itself back to the original form. Chrysalis appeared out of her disguise and she flapped her own wings a couple of time in pure joy. She didn't just found Celestia mentally devastated, she had discovered her new weapon of war. “I do not know whom you are at the moment, but I’m queen Chrysalis, queen of the changelings and ruler of the central Equestrian hive. And I have an offer for you, mighty creature,” said Chrysalis in the hope that she would be given an audience or a chance to speak the offer itself.

The eyes of the changed Celestia looked down upon the bug like creature and in a deeply changed voice of her former self, she spoke her response, “speak.” Her posture remained the same except it looked it just so much more powerful with the fires as her hair and the armor on her coat. Nopony dared to anger Celestia, and the reason because could very well be the being that the queen stood again.

Chrysalis smiled slyly at the response given to her and nodded. “I offer you, to become my weapon of destruction, in trade you shall be taken good care of by the children you see around me. The land will fear you and you shall become a being more than you could ever thought to be.”

The dices were cast. The cards laid open. The plan was revealed. All that the mighty changeling queen could do from there on out was to wait and pray on her dear little life that the words would be taken into the right gullet.

Solarflare

The beast heard the words that were spoken by the changeling queen. It also noticed how all of the guards that stood on their position changed into the same creatures. A couple columns of flames shot up before the insectoid race was revealed. Perhaps it was a good thing that they kept the entrances locked like a stone for any other pony to enter because the sight of this new Celestia wasn't something all too pretty or to write home about.

Stronger even, it almost seemed like that the events as they had occurred at the time when Nightmare Moon had been formed, had been repeating itself. Each of the beings were well aware with the terms that history would repeat itself. Though that it was going to be that quick was unforeseen by anypony.

Yet Chrysalis would have only stared at the celestial beast with her green rimmed eyes. She was waiting for any kind of answer that she would get out of it. Though her patience had been running thin. As a matter of fact, she hadn't even planned the fact as it played out and her entire original plan was dumped out of the window and had to be replaced with a new one. One that did involve the mighty alicorn to be her workhorse, literally.

“It’s an offer you can’t refuse and you know that as well as I do. Join me and become the destructive beast that you always were, Celestia, unleash your fury over those pesky subjects and roast them like nothing. I know you want to, you know you want to. All you have to say against me, are those little words of I agree and everything will be taken care of from there on,” spoke Chrysalis in a taunting tone towards the beast that stood on the throne.

Her words were spoken in a persuasive tone for certain but it would be taking a lot more to actually contain the being in which Celestia had morphed herself. Not to mention the fact that even the changeling queen had seen the amulet and grew more knowledgeable with every passing second about it. Every second that it hung on the neck of Celestia could the power that it irradiated be felt clearly. Even to the point where it called to her.

But that wasn't going to be a thing that would happen. Because the more that the changeling stared at it, the more the plated armor of Celestia started to enclose the amulet as a whole on her crest piece. It actually even formed a layer of protection for the gem that laid underneath it. Though it was all done to make sure that the alicorn amulet wouldn't have been able to be removed from either her neck or the body unless she desired so.

Chrysalis watched the changes happen and released a deep sigh through her nostrils. The only way it seemed that she could actually manage to capture the thing of the princess was to end her life and that was just about the last thing she wanted to do.

Celestia on the other end never even set a step forward or backward as the queen spoke her venomous words against her. It almost seemed as if her beastly form even liked the offer that was given to it. Except if there wasn't one little catch right on it. It would work as the laborer horse for the changeling queen and that was something it didn't saw sitting whatsoever. It would probably fight for her but not as the offer currently stood for her.

Inside of the mind of the wise princess had the gears stopped and a new set was being installed. A set of gears that caused her to be wanting nothing else then to see the entire destruction of everything it came across. Fire was the only thing that it wanted to see. The entire world set ablaze like the sun. A place clenched of all the evil in the world so it could be reformed to her way.

A land where the sun always shone and the ponies were obedient to only her alone. More or less and in a way, the thoughts came that started to take over the mind of the once so graceful princess indeed the very thing which her sister had not only feared for but also predicted and spoken about. The way that the world would be build was almost exactly like the words said that it would.

What really had happened to the princess was that the power of the amulet had a terribly close connection with the nightmare forces. Because of the fact that their queen had been banished to the moon with them, the only inside of the amulet had been saved.

One way or the other had Nightmare Moon managed to get one of the shadow creatures right inside of the gem. It was that force that had a peak in the brain and thus saw the moment in which Luna had spoken those exact words and suggested it to the brain. Celestia herself already was nothing more but a slave to her own mind, except she didn't know it and probably never would.

With her wings still spread out as if she happened to be the queen of Equestria and her posture irradiating both her regal and beastly size, huffs and puffs were made with every exhale as she kept on thinking about the order. Her blue and pinkish hellfire mane kept on waving and giving off the heat as they had done since their origin.

Yet it were the eyes that looked every time to one of the changelings as she thought that it would make a move. The last thing she wanted was for any other creature to close the distance and if a changeling as much as tried it, a dark and beastly growl was released. A growl that was in fact so strong in fright that the insectoid creature just rushed back to its original place.

If Celestia dared to actually charge the queen, it could be too late for her very own children to give her any form of protection. Because they all implied that her elemental magic had turned itself into nothing but fire given the type of armor as well as the flaming hair for her mane and tail. All of them found themselves standing on thin eyes as it was thawing below their hooves. None of them knew exactly when they would be sinking through it.

“Well, what happens to be your answer?” Chrysalis spoke to the beast in a tone that wasn't even changed. Her eyes lied the goodness that laid inside of them but the cat like pupils had seen through them almost instantly. It would be hard to lie against the creature but it was unknown to the queen that she had already been seen through. That alone made the situation a whole lot more dangerous for each and every single one of the beings inside of the room.

“The time for me to consider the offer is still here. Have your patience,” replied the changed Celestia in the same tone as before. Which had been the deeply changed voice of her normal self, but also with an echo inside of it that time. It was almost terrifying to hear.

The answer that was given to her wasn't something where the queen had actually hoped for it at least it was some answer that wasn't a growl or a roar. Her wings were allowed a couple of flaps and that caused the highly annoying buzzes to travel through the throne room. Also right into ears of the beastly Celestia. If there was one pony in the room who wouldn’t like that, it was her.

Her head turned itself almost instantly to the queen as a cloud of black steam was huffed out of the nostrils. Chrysalis saw the cloud and gulped lightly to herself as she knew that it was angry at her. But she didn't know just how angry it was and rather didn't wanted to find it out either. She more or less loved her life as it was and would do fairly much anything in order to preserve that.

---

Back inside of the gardens was Starswirl still oblivious to the terror that was going on in the throne room. He would have just continued on with his stroll without much on his mind. He couldn't resist himself from going all over the place. From the beautiful sun garden to the statues, to the lunar yard.

Though it was in the statue garden that he really took his time and didn't just look at all of the statues that he could find but also read the information that was available with them. Ponies throughout history that had a great influence in the land were all mentioned. Heroes of their own times forever to be remembered in the never fading stone.

It really felt like a dream to him in one way or the other. Mostly because each of the statues told a story that went just so much deeper than just the words on the small brass plates which stated a name and a small inscription of the deeds that were done.

It was his mind that allowed him actually to mentally travel back in time itself to the moments in the lives of the ponies whose statues he was looking at. The ability to travel back in time was actually one of the very first spells that he had learned himself but also happened to be one of the most difficult to master.

Because so far only his mind could travel back and not his body. Although Celestia sometimes praised that simply because of the fact that it meant he couldn't hurt anything in the timeline. What Starswirl could though, was to look through a window in the time that had gone by. The thing that he wanted pretty much more than anything else was to have an actual door that could lead him right inside of the times long gone.

Yet time travel always had been a risky operation. There were even stories going about of ponies who had attempted it and succeeded but never returned to their own time because of a collapse of unknown origin. It was rough and difficult to achieve it but when done right it was worth it in everypony’s eyes. That was with a few exception.

“Mister The Bearded? What are you doing still out here?” an all too familiar voice spoke to the old wizard. But only after he returned from one of his many time travels. The bearded stallion turned himself around and noticed that nopony else than Warding Scale had walked up to him.

“Warding my boy, anything I can help you with on this lovely evening?” Starswirl spoke up with a chuckle in his tone. The captain of the Lunar Guard gently returned the chuckle as she signaled the wizard to walk a bit with him.

It took the other stallion only a few seconds before he realized just what the plan was and nodded in return. And together they started to travel down the path of the garden. A path that walked all around the castle.

---

Back inside of the throne room grew the changeling queen tired of the waiting game and silently demanded an answer in any shape or form. But what she would eventually get was something a little bit more than she originally had bargained for. Because of the offer to work as a labor horse of destruction, wasn't something to be agreed on any day of the week.

The incarnated Celestia released another deep breath through her nostrils before the words echoed through the room. “I deny your offer. I reject it because I shall never work for a second rank queen of an army of bugs!” she spoke in response to the mighty queen. The horn charged itself up for an attack. Judging her fiery mane, it would most likely be a spell revolving around the fires.

“Fine, you are going to be like that, come at me sister!” Chrysalis returned in a snarl just before the green aura started to cover up her own horn. The two of them were preparing themselves for an attack that would define their course of battle and scar them for the rest of their lives.

The horn of Chrysalis charged itself up with the regular green magical aura surrounding it. All while the humming became more and more audible for the changelings in the room. The horn of Celestia on the other end happened to be a little bit more of a show. The more she charged her powers up in the form of aura, the more the golden ray around the horn got company of little fireballs that started to spiral up and down the entire length of the horn.

Even the queen of the changelings didn't know what she saw. Yet that moment of awe quickly turned into a matter of life and death. When she looked at the horn of Celestia, that same horn released a massive blast of magic that was surrounded by the same spiraling flames.

The changeling queen was unable to return the blast with the charge she had been building up and did the only thing that she possibly could do and that making sure she got out of the line of fire. Time slowed itself down in her mind while her eyes stared right at the column of magic and fire.

Though it where the hooves that managed to set themselves aside and she literally missed the blast by a hair. Not even that as a small flock of her mane had managed to be caught by the fire though. Time returned to the normal speed and the green rimmed eyes looked straight into the magenta coloring of Celestia, who stood panting almost for her life on the throne.

Just the sheer rage and anger that she had built up over the hundreds of years, was something that finally had seen the light of the night. But the she wasn't done. She wasn't done by a long shot. Because the thing that the creature desired was the death of the queen and her servants.

Celestia readied herself for a new blast. Though it was Chrysalis who then managed to shot hers first. A powerful and massive beam of green magic hurled itself towards the beast of a princess.

The beastly and almost nightmarish looking princess of the day fired her second, half charged beam back at the incoming one. Moments later had the two beams met one another almost at the midpoint. At first glance it seemed like that Chrysalis was gaining the upperhoof on the matter. Something that boosted her self-confidence to unseen levels.

Hoof by hoof did the green beam of magic travel into the direction of the horn of Celestia. Despite being the most powerful being in the land she still needed to take her time when it came down to her magical spells. A recharge time of a couple of seconds was required even for her at any given time. It was on that little fact were the queen played in on almost directly. It was her who fired the blast directly.

More and more did the beam scrawl up towards her and Celestia could only do one thing and that was to give up on that charge right there and then. The tug of war had to be won by one pony alone and she allowed it to be nopony else then Chrysalis. There simply wasn't any other option left that she could have done or even would have done for that matter.

The charge of Celestia was released and it simply faded right out existence. With the counterforce gone, the beam of the queen went straight up the path and made contact with the horn of the recently changed alicorn. A secondary roar of pain was released while the sparks of green magic didn't just travel on the horn, but also on her skull, almost frying and corrupting the brain.

The beastly Celestia lowered herself just a little bit through the knees and elbows before the eyes were closed. In the darkness of that came, time itself almost to a standstill for her. There was a scene that played itself out before her eyes. A scene that she rather had forgotten then remembered. Something that would give her new existence some form of purpose.

---

Because she saw the six elements of harmony in their stone orbs in the old castle. Three of them were already cracked it were the very three that Luna once represented. But as she looked closer upon the mythical artifacts, the horror became true. The three elements that she once represented in her fight against Discord, had begun to crack. She had just lost her only connection with the elements and that caused her to get a power surge through her heart.

Everything that she once stood for was just ripped out of her. All because of one thing, that cursed amulet that hung around her neck. But it wouldn't just stop there though, it would only be getting much worse for Celestia from that point onward. Behind the alter they appeared with a slow pace in their hooves. Both her beloved mother and father walked to the front of the stone thing with their heads down and eyes closed. Celestia felt the disappointment rising from deep inside of her heart. Everything she once was was her right on that spot. Seemingly unaffected by the beast or force that had morphed her.

“So this is who you too decided to become, daughter of mine?” her mother spoke in a tone that was filled with nothing but the purest of sadness. She couldn't believe that both of her daughters had chosen for the paths as they did and probably would never understand it. Or didn't wanted to.

“Why do you want to disappoint us like this, Celestia?” her father said in his usual stern voice. Though not even that couldn't hide the sadness it bared.

The white alicorn stood powerless against her very own parents. She didn't had any normal words as all she brought out was gibberish that didn't make any sense to all three of them. It was only after she had taken the deepest breath ever since the casting of the stoning spell against Discord that she was able to speak again in a proper manner.

“Mother, Father, you have to believe me that I didn't chose to become like this! The amulet that my sister forged had a too powerful influence! Not to mention, that creature that looked like a guard! It, it is not my fault that I turned into this! I never wanted to wear it, I wanted to study it and perhaps find the way of why Luna had forged it in the fires! You have to believe me!” The more she spoke her words against her parents, the more she couldn't help herself but to burst out in nothing but tears. Tears of utter sadness streamed down her face as the wings hung flat against her body and she had lowered herself on her hunches.

Never in her life had she cried that hard before the both of her parents for one of her mistakes. She wasn't just begging them for any kind of forgiveness, she was begging them silently to make the pain she felt stop. To make the pain in her head just come to a standstill so that she could take her mind back and removed the cursed object.

Yet where she hoped on one thing, the mare got the other and it wasn't something she was happy about. Because her father simply turned himself around and shook his head as he looked at the altar. He wished with all of his heart that there was something he could do in order to help his only remaining daughter so much, but the reality wouldn't allow it. “I’m sorry Celestia, there is nothing I can do to help you,” he spoke in a tone filled with just his own sadness before he faded from reality.

“No! Don’t do this to me, father, don’t do this to me!” Celestia yelled in a scream that went through marrow and bone. The mare had no idea on any manner of how she could actually help herself to stop it. Her attention turned over to her mother. Her eyes spoke the begging alone.

The mother looked back into the watered eyes of her daughter and she couldn't bare seeing her in the state she was. A filly trapped inside of the body of a mare, perhaps the worst thing that could have ever happened to anypony.

“P-Please mother, s-save me from this, I, I’m begging you, now more than ever,” Celestia spoke with all of the courage that she still had in her body and mind. She remembered the promise that was being made on that day, long ago. “You, you promised the day, that you faded away!”

Even though the words were true and that she had promised it, even the mighty Mother was unable to help her daughter in the current situation. She wanted to help Celestia as much as she could, but there wasn't anything she could do. “I’m so sorry," she spoke in a voice that was filled with emotions. Emotions like sadness and sympathy for the white alicorn, for her daughter.

The curtain had dropped as there wouldn't be any other help left for her except to just delve into the pits of her own utter insanity. “No! You promised me! You had promised me that you would help me mother!” yelled Celestia with streaming tears.

And then she was just gone. Gone like the wind that first carried her there. The lights slowly faded away from the altar and Celestia was left with nothing else but the darkness that had taken place in her heart. With the six elements shattered, there was nothing else she could do then cry her eyes out in silence. Sniffles were done every so often as she couldn't keep the emotional pain to herself. “Y-You promised, mommy,” the white alicorn mumbled to herself with streams of tears.

---

It was only after what seemed to have been minutes after one another that the hoofsteps of another creature did their turn in the darkness. For the first time since she started to cry, Celestia turned her head up and looked straight ahead. She wanted to know the thing that was coming right for her.

In the distance it could be seen already, that blazing hellfire of a mane and tail that only came closer. The regal alicorn didn't even made an effort on the fact of standing up and simply kept on sitting on her hunches. The steps kept on coming closer and closer as they sounded like real heavy duty metal that was set on a stone surface. The eyes of the alicorn were closed so there was not even the slightest degree of sight.

All that she knew about the creature's presence was the heart of the mane and the fact that the sounds had stopped and were replaced with another one. One that was the sound of a deep, almost animalistic breathing. All she did was turn her head away in the faint hope to hide the tracks that the tears had made over both of her cheeks.

Though nothing would have ever remained hidden inside of the light created by the fire mane. The creature that stood before her was nothing else then her nightmare version. Where Luna had Nightmare Moon, Celestia had her own version. A version of which she wouldn't be remembered about yet the creature of darkness had called once. “Leave me alone…”

“Not without you giving up that body of yours. I want the fullest of control over it right here and right now. You either give it to me or I take it by force,” her alter ego replied in a calm but also sinister manner. The plan had almost become a success. Celestia was almost broken whole.

“Take it. Just, take it,” answered Celestia with a broken tone. She had been defeated.

Though it was an answer where even the monster didn't had any idea on how to reply against. She had expected that the princess would be fighting to the death before she gave up the total control of the body. The horn of the beast charged itself up. It seemed to scan the almighty alicorn to see just what happened to be the very reason of why she was that willing to give it all up.

It was a reason that became quickly known to her though. As the results of the scan appeared as arcane symbols in her eyes, a grin formed itself below the muzzle and the lips curled themselves up into a smirk. “Mentally not just broken, but devastated I see. Come come deary, this isn't something that’s going to hurt,” her counterpart spoke in a tone filled with compassion. The good believing Celestia turned her head back towards the monster.

It seemed like a dream coming true. That she was being released from all the pain that had been plaguing her for all those decades worth of time. She would feel the peace itself for the first time in ages long lost and all it required, was for the horn of the monster to touch her chest.

“D-Do it, set me, free,” said Celestia while another tear traveled down her cheek.

Her alter ego just gave a nod and aimed the horn for the chest. The almighty princess of the sun spread her forelegs and closed her eyes in simply wait for the things that were about to come. Slower and slower was the distance between the uncharged yet surging horn and the chest away from one another.

Celestia shuddered a little bit before she felt the small electric currents to travel from the horn and unto her chest as well as vice versa. But then the moment was there. The moment where the princess gave up all her power to the beast. A beast that would use the power to her own liking. With a moan of pain, the horn just touched the chest and the white coated alicorn felt all of the life floating right out of her. The last thing she could remember, was that she fell down to the dark ground and her bounced off of the floor once before the eyes closed themselves forever.

Or until she was woken up again.

Inside the throne room was the beast allowed to be fully awoken. It seemed to have recovered from the shot that was fired by Chrysalis as well. The entire scene that played out in the head of the alicorn only had lasted for about a second in the real world. Something that the creature was truly happy about though. It meant that the fight was still going, that she could win it.

Not to mention that it wanted to have a taste of the action. Both of the mares were recharging their powers as it was Chrysalis who noticed the change in posture. The alicorn had charged from regal, into a true animal-like pose in just the matter of second. As she was panting deeply to recollect her energy, she dared to ask the fatal question. “Who, or what, are you?”

The beastly alicorn looked over to the changeling queen with a smirk of her own before she would reply to the question in the fullest and perhaps sickest of glories. “I am, Solarflare!”

“…Pretty original name you got there,” answered Chrysalis quickly, only a mere second after she had heard the truth of the being. What else could happen next?

“Silence foal!” bellowed Solarflare towards the queen, shutting her in an instant.

---

Starswirl the Bearded and Warding Scale had done their turn through the garden. They could be found in one of the guard towers around the castle. While officially being used for duty, the two stallions had settled the differences they had with one another. The captain even apologized for his actions to him. Though the true reason why they were there was because of the stunning view.

Even though it was unusual for a stallion like Starswirl himself, he could be found with a bottle of mead in his magical aura and wanted to cling the bottle with Warding. The captain almost immediately know what he wanted and a mere second later, the sound of two bottles clanging together could be heard. “To a good health, Starswirl,” said Warding with a smile on his face clearly visible. That smile remained just before he took a swig of the mead itself.

“Aye, to a good health indeed,” the wizard replied before he too took a deep swig.

Despite the fact of not being used to the stuff whatsoever, he still took it like the stallion he was. Even the captain had to give him a compliment on the fact that he could actually hold his liquor. “Isn't this, where life is all about?” he spoke in a tone of beauty while he looked over the never ending valley. “Don’t you agree that on calm nights like this, you just picture the land before you clenched from all that is evil and ponies just, being themselves without a worry on their head?”

Starswirl released a well meant chuckle to his new found comrade and placed a hoof on his shoulder. “Warding, keep that thought in your mind and perhaps one day sooner or later, that beautiful thought might became a reality.”

“Yeah right, when I’m either dead and buried or nearing the end of my life. No Starswirl, I may not be around to see that day. I’ll be joining Blitzy up there. Watching over those who need it until that day truly comes,” replied Warding in a serious tone. It had been hard on him that the stallion had been turned into nothing but stone. A fate he wished to nopony. Blitz was a good pony.

It was a feeling that the wizard could completely understand. One that even he seemed to have some difficulty with accepting.. Nonetheless was the wish something of beauty. That much had to be admitted by him.

---

Chrysalis and Solarflare stood still in front of one another albeit one standing elevated on the throne itself. Their battle had only just began but one of them would be the one that would be coming out of it alive. The both of them counted on themselves for that.

With their magic being restored, it was Chrysalis who charged up and she was ready to release the blast once again over the mare before her. The adrenaline was pumping through both of their bodies as the downfall of the other was the thing that fueled the both of them.

“Fall on your marrow-bones and pray!” Chrysalis yelled to the alicorn milliseconds before the charge was released. Solarflare saw the beam coming right at her. Though the time to release a counter beam just wasn't there. So the only thing that she could do was to raise a shield to protect her even a little bit of the charge.

The magic of Chrysalis may not have been as powerful as that of Solarflare, but the recharge rate on it was something where even the mighty alicorn could look up against. With the shield blocking the move –if not spreading it out into different angles and thus spreading it all over the place– actually proved to be a lot more difficult. She needed a new plan and she needed it faster than anything in the world at that moment. She needed time and that just wasn't there.

While the charge of magic became fainter and fainter, it eventually faded away into nothing but just some sprouts that came off of her jagged horn. Once there was no power felt against the shield, it started to crack and shatter on the spot. The many trillions of pieces fell down near the hooves of the mighty Solarflare whose eyes looked over to Chrysalis with a huff. “You’re nothing but a bug. And I’m here to exterminate it once and for all! Exterminate you from the fabric of reality!” the being shouted to the queen as the ultimate insult towards her.

Knowing that the insult didn't help a lot but her magic even less, Chrysalis had to keep her cool in order to play the games right in her books. She had to find –how crazy it even sounded– a way to talk to the creature. And somehow gain the trust that it still possessed. But seeing how her first attempt with the offer failed right where she stood, there was another way she could perhaps work.

It would be risky but it just might be able to save her flanks from being exterminated. Her eyes never left the horn of Solarflare as she started to take steps backwards. Mostly to make it look like she was terrified for her life. All a trick but it might just work well enough.

The golden armored alicorn on the other end made the final decision to remove herself from the throne. Every step that she took was heavy, clunking with the metal in her shoes and imposing a power no mortal pony had ever seen. The heat of the mane and tail were enough to melt some of the gold that was worked in the throne itself but it never seemed to be setting anything ablaze. A fact that was calculated in but would change the moment it came in contact with the exoskeleton of Chrysalis.

“You will be, exterminated, you filthy bug!” Solarflare growled to the queen. The power began to surge once again through her horn. In the eyes of Chrysalis was it there or never. While the power kept itself building up inside of the horn it regained the golden aura regained the fireballs spiraling around it and the mighty alicorn looked down upon the changeling as if she was an everyday cockroach.

But then, in a moment of defeat, Chrysalis dropped herself down upon her hooves and she made a deep bow before the alter ego of Celestia. Solarflare was taken by a moment of surprise in response to the bow. Yet she simply rose her eyebrow in reaction at first. Then the words followed from her mouth in the never changed tone. Except that there was a tiny hint of confusion hidden inside of it. “What is the meaning of this bug? Too scared to meet your end?”

“No, mighty Solarflare, I have seen the power you possess. It was wrong of me to think of you for my own plans. Instead, I want to make a new offer to you,” said Chrysalis in a humble sounding voice. But there was nothing humble about her or the words she spoke. Because right out of her mouth, drops of her neuron venom dripped right out of the fangs and dripped on the floor as a green liquid goo. “A-Allow the changelings, to work for you, instead of the other way around.”

It was an offer that certain sounded tempting in the ears of Solarflare. One she perhaps would have agreed on if it weren't for one simple fact. She wouldn't go in with any reason given by any other pony else then her own mind. The words could be sounding as wonderful as they did, the alicorn wouldn't agree on them. “So, bug, you dared to break into my home,” the alicorn started before she just walked through the room with her horn charged and kept on charging it, “you have the guts to fight against me and now you have dropped herself on your knees? You’re not a queen, just a husk that’s too big for you!” A deep and audible annoyed huff left the mare as she once again stood before Chrysalis and smirked.

The queen dared to look up and noticed the near devilish smirk and her eyes grew bigger. She knew what was coming next but didn't know the way or form it would be done in. Though there wasn't anything in the world that could have prepared for the sheer power she was about to meet.

“Duck!” Chrysalis shouted just before she dropped herself through her hooves. But it was too late. The order was given too late, Solarflare had released a horizontal column of fire into the air and started to turn around on her spot. The blazing inferno went over every corner of the throne room and those unfortunate enough to be hit suffered severe burn injuries.

While the changeling queen laid on the ground, she could only pray to herself that she would survive. Though luck wasn't on her side as the sounds of the fires became fainter and fainter. Before she even knew it entered the scents of things burning her nose and she blacked out right on the spot. The last thing that she actually heard before losing her conscious was the sound of glass breaking.

She didn't felt the fires raging over her head every so often and felt a cool breeze of air making its way in between her ears. And that was that, Chrysalis simply fainted in the throne room there and then. She had no idea of just what happened or how everything looked. The queen could only assume the worst of the worst and that possibly would be been the best.

Solarflare on the other end, the creature had busted out one of the throne room’s many windows and she had started to cloak her entire body in the flames she possessed. That was all just before the wings allowed her to take off into the air. It only took a breeze of air for her before she was shot right into the skies that could be found high across Equestria. She simply soared through the skies like a comet that came down to the earthly realm.

While she soared through the skies surrounded by the flames that pulsed from her horn, the trail of the fiery and living comet was a blue fire that the ponies hadn't seen in a very long time. The sheer sight of Solarflare traveling across the skies made it seem like a comet that fell from the skies and some fillies and colts even made a wish for themselves in the hope for better times.

But deep inside of the slits that she had for pupils, six orbs could be seen. Three in each of the opened pupils. The elements of harmony were the things she had set her eyes on. Her left eyes possessing the three she once represented. While the right eye carried the three that Luna once could call as hers.

Unlikely alliance and hellfire

The breaking of the glass window alone was something that both of the stallion up in the tower didn't expected to happen. They gently looked each other in the eyes with a raised eyebrow. “Don’t suppose you know…” said Starswirl before he finally set his bottle of mead on the floor.

Warding shook his head a bit from side to side before he placed his own bottle back on the floor and stood up. But the two of them had been sitting in the same laid back position and as he stood up, the bones in all four of his legs were literally being snapped into their respectable places.

The sounds that were released because of it went through marrow and bone for the wizard. He didn't happen to be actually fond of the sounds. More correctly, he hated it to his very soul. But he never made any complaints about it. Starswirl rose his body up after Warding had stood up and looked over the railing towards the castle. They scanned the horizon for anything, everything.

The sight that the two stallions saw was something that neither of them could have ever predicted to have happened but the facts were given straight in their faces. In their eyes they both caught the ball of fire that left the throne room in glory. Something had gone wrong, that was clear.

Both the wizard and the captain of the guard knew one thing for certain though. That whatever the force happened to be that just left, it was everything but a good thing. Their eyes followed the trailing comet through the skies before it was Warding himself who nudged Starswirl to break the attention off of it. “Come on, we need to go to the throne right now.” His tone was urgent as he literally feared for the sights that he would see inside of the place.

The worst fears raised up in the both of them but for different reasons. Warding prayed with all of his soul that Celestia wouldn't have been harmed and hoped that it was a spell she had used. Although the mere shadow inside of the comet itself strongly resembled the princess of the sun.

Starswirl on the other end feared the fact that even Celestia had made the transition over to the more darker side of her magic. The thing they saw was only the first thing that would be going down for the land only weeks after Luna’s banishment. Dark times had been entered, that much was certain to him in the moment. Little did he knew that the scale would be going up to eleven –if not twelve– of how much trouble they had on their hooves. Though neither of the two stallions had even the slightest of clue that Chrysalis and her changelings also happened to be inside of the room itself.

Starswirl nodded to the words that were spoken by Warding about going to the room. “Go captain, inspect the situation as it is and do everything to secure it without ending lives. Contain but don’t destroy, I’ll be with you shortly. Trust me. It, will only take ten minutes or something the like.”

The bat pony captain nodded to the words. He turned himself around and spread the wings. With one powerful gallop and a jump in the air, Warding Scale had come off from the ground and flew through the air like an eagle. Except the fact that he was going literally the opposing direction.

The old wizard looked over to the captain and started to actually think that he happened to be that stupid but the thought itself was quickly discarded as the batpony showed some excellent flying by doing one of the sharpest turns there was and he then soared right over the tower. Starswirl had to duck if he didn't wanted to get hit by the low flying captain and turned himself around in order to see there where he was going.

With military precision did the captain of the Lunar Guard fly through the broken window of the throne room and was the first of the two stallions to actually be right on the scene, with all the horrors that came with it.

The wizard charged up his horn and poofed himself out of existence. Then he reappeared into his room. There was something that he needed then more than anything and he was in a hurry. Two items where that what he needed to gather from there. With the horn still charged, the power itself increased as he started to search through the room.

“Where did I leave it? Where did I leave it?” Starswirl repeated to himself. He searched vividly through the cabinets, wardrobes and closets. But on the desk, small and little particles of light had begun to create themselves. They formed a small vortex which brought little pieces of a maroon red color right back into existence. The stallion kept on looking for his missing object while the fire wyvern opened one of its eyes and looked over its master.

“You, are coming with me as well,” mumbled Starswirl to it. Then both of the eyes opened. It could hardly believe the words that were spoken but if it was the wish of the stallion, he could only obey it. Whether the fire wyvern liked it or not. “Bingo!” the stallion spoke up as he found the thing he was looking for. A wooden staff that had given him a lifesaver more than once in his lifetime. The very staff with which he stood on top of the hill when the final draconi-war had emerged. “Hello old friend, it has been far too long since we did anything.”

Starswirl turned himself around to face the desk and discharged his horn as he noticed that the thing he had summoned was fully there and touchable. With a nod to himself he walked over to the piece of cloth and gently removed it in order to reveal the ruby.

Though that ruby wasn't like any other one that could be found in the ground by a spell. His ruby like rock was something that gave him life every time as he touched it. The product where the art of alchemy saw as their holy grail. A stone that could extend the life of the creator indefinitely and thus give it a form of immortality. The one and only, true philosopher’s stone. Somehow and somewhere had Starswirl actually managed to create the item were thousand would commit a murder for. The one magical item that would grant him his life.

That was his very secret of being alive for as long as he was. No magic from the arcane arts were being used as it would cause suspicion by both of the princesses. Instead it was nothing else but pure alchemy and a little bit of black magic that extended his life. And at the moment he could use a boost in his muscles to make him feel young again.

With great care did the stallion touch the stone and the tingles that it irradiated started to pulse through his body. The aging process on the inside of his body was reversed by a couple of decades as he held his hoof on the stone for half a minute. But the pain that surged through his body was something that was simply unbearable for the poor stallion.

It extended his life for certain but at a terrible price. That being the pain he was suffering every single time he touched it. Yet it was a price he was more than willing to pay for it.

When the time was over and he had removed his hoof from the stone, Starswirl’s body age had turned back into that of a stallion in the mid of his life. Filled with life and every possible muscle still working in the proper order. He panted a couple of times as both his hoof and the stone itself started to smoke a little bit.

With his mind focusing itself upon the events that had happened covered the wizard the rock once again by the piece of cloth and he nodded his head to the fire wyvern. The creature almost right away understood the signal and it started to fly over to him.

Starswirl shook his head a couple of times as the wyvern landed on his shoulder and back. “There must have been a mistake right into it, it shouldn't be hurting that much whenever somepony touches it,” he mumbled to himself before the departure of the room was being made and the journey to the throne room could begin. Outside of his hooves was the staff held in a magical field and when needed it would either work as an extender of his horn or he would let the magic flow through the staff in his hoof and then cast.

But that was the least of his worries in the moment. What he could possibly find right in the throne room was the thing that worried him the most. He prepared for anything behind the doors.

---

Once he finally arrived in the room after a stroll that took him a minute or three, one of his worst fears became true there and then. The entirety of the room had flooded itself. Warding Scale aimed his blade for one of the changelings that was unaffected by the cast flamethrower-like spell.

Six of them stood around the pile of burned changelings, as well as their apparent queen. A queen who was left powerless in the moment. But surrounding the creatures, was a horde of guards that were ready to attack if the signal was given. The sight in and of itself was something that was somber to see but little did any of them knew that the burned changelings was only the beginning of the troubles that had been given to them.

“Captain Scale, removed your blade at once! Don’t you see these creatures are defending as well?” Starswirl said in a confident tone. He stood in the door opening and looked over to the scene as a whole. Furious didn’t even cover the emotions that were going through him.

Though where the wizard thought that the captain wouldn't listen to him, Warding was quite aware of who was in charge on that moment. It wasn't himself for certain. Thus the blade was sheathed and the sounds of hooves moving again fell in his ears. From his right side did Starswirl appear and judging the looks in his eyes, he wanted to know what happened.

“Can’t identify the creatures sir, but we found them in the formation and they haven’t moved a muscle ever since except of their buzzing and hissing.” Warding spoke up and the wizard gave a nod to the words. At least he had listened to the words that were spoken to him.

One thing had to be given to Warding Scale, was that he knew the ranks better than anypony else in the entire guard. With the absence of Celestia, it was Starswirl who was automatically put in command. Something that by far not every other guard actually knew or had thought about. ”Let’s see what they want, shall we?” the wizard replied with a soft tone. Then he did a couple steps further forward and nudged some of the circling guards away. The wyvern hissed softly to them before it turned the attention back to the changelings and tilted its little head to the side.

Even the wizard had to admit the fact that he was impressed. He was impressed by the appearance of such a creature right in the throne room. His honest eyes looked straight into the stroking blue ones of the changeling and to everyponies surprise, he then too began to talk in a buzzing and hissing back to the creature.

The entire room was caught by surprise from that action alone. Nopony, guard, captain nor changeling had ever expected the fact that a pony could be speaking the other language. It was something that proved once again, that the wizard was full of surprises even to that day.

But the words that he spoke against the changeling were not words that it needed to leave or anything the like. No, all that Starswirl wanted there and then was information on what happened. “What happened here and who is responsible for this all?” questioned Starswirl in the buzzing tone. The thing that followed was an entire conversation with the changeling who had stared at the blade.

“First things first, pony, how did you manages to speak our tongue?” the changeling replied in buzzes, hisses and even wheezes of its own. He didn’t trust him at all, and for good reason.

“My dear boy, I’m capable of many things that ponies in this very room haven’t even seen. But you wish to know how I manage to speak it so well? Years of listening in the night while the moon shines.” Starswirl gave off as an answer to the creature.

The changeling first didn't believe the words while the mouth opened itself and the fangs were revealed. A dark sounding hiss left the throat but then it looked into the eyes of the wizard, seeing something unusual to say the least. What it saw in the rims of the old stallion was nothing but the truth. The mouth was closed again and the buzzing continued in a normal speech pattern as the wings flapped a couple of times.

“Our queen is mortally wounded by a creature that called itself Solarflare and came forth out of the princess of the sun. You speak our tongue, help her. Without her, we’re nothing more but aimless,” the changeling replied in return as a desperate cry for help. The tone had turned into a sad sounding one as the head turned itself over to the passed out queen and then back to him. “Help her!” it then spoke up in a demanding tone. There wouldn’t have been much of a choice.

Though the stallion didn't even move a muscle in response to the threat. Although the possibility of his life being ended right there and then was something he was quite aware of. Though the fire wyvern on his shoulder wouldn't be intimidated that easily. It returned the hiss right back at the changeling and Starswirl shushed his pet down.

His honest eyes looked back over to the creature and nodded. “I shall do my best for your queen. But, I require full cooperation from you and your, friends, I presume?”

“They are my brethren and you shall gain that cooperation, the moment they are gone from here,” the changeling spoke in return. It was a demand that couldn't be neglected and the stallion released a deep sigh through his nostrils. But then gave a nod that spoke he accepted their terms.

To Warding Scale and all the other guards that were in the room, were the words the two exchanged nothing but complete and utter gibberish. All they heard was buzzing and hissing. But when Starswirl turned himself back around and walked up to the captain, his head signaled him to come alone for a little bit.

The captain could only do that what was silently asked from him and went with the wizard to the far end of the room. It was there were their whispers started to take and make their exchanges.

“So let me get this straight here,” Warding spoke while his hoof rubbed his face in disbelief, “those things, want all of us out with the exception of you, so that you can patch their queen up who is having more information about this, Solarflare? How do you know they are not lying against you and the minute you have send us away, they make their charge?”

The wizard shook his head at the words of suspicion against him and replied with a confident tone in his voice. “I can not tell whether or not they would turn themselves against me, but if there is one thing I do know, is that they have information about Celestia and what happened here. Captain, I know the secrets that she tries to hide. If it is true that even one of them had come out, you need to pray for your dear life that you don’t end up burning in an inferno of Tartarus, on the land.”

Those words made Warding gulp deep. It was about the last ending of his life where he had ever thought about to happen. So with that information known to him and Starswirl having the highest authority of them all, he could only retreat the men in the room.

“Fall back to behind the doors and resume posts there,” the captain spoke up in a loud tone into the direction of the guards. Each of them looked a bit strange in response to it. Though they executed the order that was given. Warding then calmly turned his head right back to Starswirl as he stared at him with a stern look in his eyes. Not to mention the fact he spoke some words in a deeply unpleasant tone. “One wrong word, and we’re back inside of here. You understand me?”

Starswirl never lost even a bit of his cool and gave a simple nod to the words that were spoken. “Naturally, you’re just doing your job,” he replied calmly. After that had Warding also removed himself out of the room and closed the great doors behind him. All that remained inside of the room were the changelings, Starswirl the Bearded and his fire wyvern.

While the massive beam was cast from the staff, Starswirl poured all of his energy right into one massive healing spell. One that would be having the capability to heal pretty much anything that was wrong inside of the changeling queen. Though the fact that scared him was that her injuries were far greater than he had imaged them to be. The wounds that were created by the fires had an interesting effect. Simple water would only worsen it, as he had seen in the first seconds.

Though it also happened to be a great indication of what had actually happened and what type of fires were used. But nothing happened to be confirmed there and then. The eyelids of the queen began to twitch very gently. Then they opened up again and her legs started to kick as she laid on her side. Chrysalis seemed to have made it, but at what price of her pride?

Unknown to the things that had happened after she had blacked out, her head rose itself up as she looked for the creature that was Solarflare but all she saw was Starswirl with the beam. Hisses of anger and hatred were being made into all the directions. Once those hisses came into the ears of the stallion, he knew that she had regained enough of her powers and stopped casting the beam.

The light faded from the room and he fell through his forelegs in the position of a bow. Going by the information that she was of royal in the minds of the changeling, she needed to be treated with respect. And that was exactly what Starswirl was going to be giving her.

“Queen..?” he spoke up in a humble tone of his voice but in the tongue of the changelings.

“Chrysalis,” the changeling queen replied in the normal tongue of the ponies. “Do tell me, why did a filthy sack of emotions like yourself, as much as consider to heal me from my injuries?” Being friendly against ponies was another thing for the queen.

“Because, queen Chrysalis, one of your own children asked me to do so,” Starswirl replied in his normal tone before he went over into the hisses and buzzes that were the changeling tongue. “And because it was told that you held the answers on what happened here. Answers that I want.”

That their tongue was spoken by a pony even surprised her further. Even though she didn't showed it to him, he had gained the respect of the queen herself. For a pony speaking the changeling tongue as perfectly as he did, wasn't an easy feat to say the least. “What do you require to know, foal?” she returned in the same buzzes and hisses.

“I need to know everything what happened here, queen. Every, last, detail,” the wizard replied in a stern sounding tone while the words were spoken in the normal tongue again.

“On one condition, neither myself nor my children will be persecuted for the deeds we originally were here for. Is that clear?” Chrysalis demanded from him as her green rimmed eyes looked over to him and she arose on all four of her legs.

For the first time since he had ever laid eyes upon her, Starswirl saw Chrysalis in her fullest of heights and overall glory that she carried with her. A glory that appeared like she had fallen off of her stand and scattered in thousands of pieces. The aura of an ancient force not just surrounded her, it could be seen within her eyes. The being was cursed to live like it did, that much was obvious.

The wizard chuckled to her words. The lips slightly formed a smirk to her. “Queen Chrysalis, do you see any guards around here?” he asked her while he spread one of his forelegs.

Though the queen herself wasn't satisfied with the answer as a whole by the judging expression on her face. He could be lying against her of course and she gently charged up her own jagged horn. Her vision then turned itself from normal to heat seeking and turned her head and body to every possible corner of the room.

Yet the things that she saw weren't there at all. She had expected a horde of guards stacked upon one another and invisible in corners of the room. But there was just nothing that she caught in her eyes. That was until she looked behind the doors. Guards that were ready for the attack whenever it was going to be needed.

Her horn discharged itself as she started to speak in the tongue of the changelings again. “Since you’re the only one who understand it, I do not see any harm in telling you the information that is known to me,” replied Chrysalis before she told the tale. The tale of the events as she knew it. Yet what was striking for every soul present in the room had to be the sheer honesty her hisses and buzzes gave of.

---

Soaring through the skies and not seeming to slow down, Solarflare flew through the air of the land. Yet her trajectory seemed to have not only slowed down but was also flying lower to the ground. Almost as if she was making herself ready for the landing of a lifetime. With the orbs of the elements still visible in her eyes there was only one thing where she would be going after.

Then it came into her view, the woods of Everfree were revealed. Together with the place where the mythical elements were stored until they would be used again. She knew the place all too well and the fiery comet crashed down just before the valley that had the rope bridge. An explosion of fire was what happened when she made touchdown to the ground itself and the fires died down almost instantly. The almighty mare was revealed once again in her white coat and golden set of armor. Both the mane and tail never seemed to have changed from their blue hellfire state.

With a deep exhale towards the castle in the distance she looked over it with her sharp eyes. There was a mission she had to fulfill to herself. Which was to figure out how she could actually reconnect herself to the elements of harmony. How she could gain even more power than that was already surging through her body, through and because of them.

Their destruction wouldn't be needed whatsoever, for all she needed was to melt them and absorbed their powers before they would be refined into fuel for her own. It was a risky plan and one not even Nightmare Moon could have come up with. But would it worth in the end of it all?

The white alicorn of fire landed in the room that housed the mythical elements on their altar. The magenta colored eyes of the mare looked at the stone structure at the far end of it. They were just simply stone orbs, six of them hidden deep inside of it. Breaking stone wouldn't be something done that easily. But melting them might just be doing the tricks she was after.

While her horn charged itself up in an attempt to smelt the very stones or at least liquefy the elements for absorbing as her powerful steps were set closer and closer towards the mythical altar. One that was designed by Celestia and Luna to keep those who wanted to harm the elements out. A calculation that Solarflare had forgotten in her mind.

The massive charge was released in the form of another column of fire. The glittering in her eyes struck like thunder to the six orbs she also carried inside of them. Solarflare just kept on looking at the facts as they were. Her fires would be strong enough to do some harm against the elements. Except, there was one little part that she had forgotten. One tiny miscalculation.

For the moment that the fires had reached one of the stone orbs of the elements, a magical shield was raised that would protect said stone from any harm. Not even the hellish fires of her could as much as make a dent right into them. But she didn't wanted to believe it the first time around and started to actually increase the charges that she was giving.

The shields were too powerful to even penetrate. They were created with a combination of both Luna’s and Celestia’s magic. The binding of the magic made it virtually impossible to get the fires to the orbs and thus any hope of absorbing the power of the elements was no more either.

The fires that were cast from the horn became less and less, until the column just faded out of existence. The golden aura around the horn disappeared and the alicorn released a deep sigh through her nostrils. The eyes closed themselves while her right foreleg kept on tapping the stone floor and thus sending metallic clunks through the air as she sank away in her thoughts.

But in her pupils didn't the six orbs just disappear but they shattered on their spots what caused the created debris to fall to the bottom of her cat like pupils. But it didn't just remain with that. As a matter of fact, the fine stone dust caused the creature to tear up a little bit and as those two tears traveled down her cheeks before they eventually fell to the ground.

Inside of the tears was the fine stone dust of the six orbs. Whether she wanted to believe it or not, she had actually cried out the connection that her sister and herself once had with the powerful elements of harmony. Their connection wasn't broken with a bang, but with a silent cry.

Though it wouldn't have been enough to make the rage of Solarflare to come to an end. Instead it was only the beginning. The moment that she opened her eyes again and looked over to the altar began the fires to rise from below of her hooves. Her breathing became heavier with each passing second. At one point she wasn't even breathing anymore, instead she was wheezing.

“So this is how we’re going to play the game, don’t we!? Well, I’ll tell you something, it’s all in or nothing,” growled Solarflare towards the altar. Though the faces of her mother, father, sister and many more ponies that she loved made an appearance on the orbs. One way or the other, she would be fighting all of them if she had to get to them. But not before she had done one last thing. And that thing was to topple the land in something it had never seen before.

“The fires rise,” said the alicorn to the stones with a growl. She turned back into the comet and shot up into the skies. Once again she soared through the skies and looked down to the land. Solarflare had find the right place and time to unleash her inferno over the lands.

No town or settlement would be saved and as the comet flew through the skies while pieces of its mighty tail fell from the heavens as massive fireballs that would set everything ablaze. Care was not given whether ponies would die from the fires. All that the alicorn wanted to see was a nationwide inferno of fires caused by her. She wanted to watch the world burn.

It was about as bad as it sounded. Where the eternal night sounded bad, there could be lived with by ponies. It would be tough for certain but it would have been better than finding death itself in a sea of flames. It sounded so surreal that something like that would ever happen but many ponies found it a shocking reality. The blue orbs of fire came crashing down upon their homes and buildings.

Water wouldn't have been able to let the fires die though. Instead it would just be more fuel for the fires. The inferno’s that were raging over the little settlements were only a percent of the power that she actually possessed. If Solarflare wanted and could concentrate her might for just long enough, she could let the sun plummet right into the land and wiping out everything at once.

Pony and animal would be dead in a matter of seconds as tornadoes of fire would be formed and ravage the land before eventually the ground itself would not only be burned but literally being obliterated from its existence. Equestria and the mighty race of ponies would have never existed. Gone in the blink of an eye and clap of a hoof. But what was the fun in doing that?

But luckily for the ponies, so far it hadn't come, yet. For some had the time come. Their houses were set ablaze with them inside of it. Horrifying screams and cries for help filled the nightly air. Mares and stallions being burned alive in the buildings that they once called their lovely homes. Prayers made by the young ones for a better ending while some of the elder had made peace with their lives and were holding hooves in hooves, they gave one another the final kiss before the fires ended their lives. The fires consumed everything that they encountered without mercy.

Three things that happened in every burning settlement and town. A pattern that kept on returning as each generation valued life differently. Some found it time to go, while others had just began. But for all of them was the end looking straight in the eyes. The only force that could make them suffer less pain was their own mind.

Though there also seemed to be a pattern in the fires that were spread by the comet. For so far only the settlements in the furthest eastern region of the land seemed to have been hit by it. And the sun itself of course would come up in the east. A clue literally as clear as day.

It would be a worry for later though. As the sun needed to be raised by Celestia herself in order to let the new day begin. As long as that wouldn't be done, the dreaded twilight would remain indefinite and the fires caused by Solarflare would be visible for hundreds of miles, perhaps even thousands.

---

Back in the throne room had Starswirl heard the entire story as it was given by Chrysalis. He was visually shocked by the words that the changeling queen had spoken. He had expected much of the events that could have happened in there. But the way she worded it, not even he could even image how much pain and sadness went through Celestia. Pain and sadness that turned in the anger of Solarflare. It made a click in his mind though. It had to happen at one point or the other.

The wizard was pacing up and down of the throne room and circling around as his mind tried to wrap all the ends together on every single detail that there was. Plans were being made while theories mumbled themselves over his lips in the two tongues. He almost seemed like an aimless projectile that went all over the place. Yet it was the fire wyvern that simply continued to lay on his shoulder, neck and back.

Chrysalis on the other end was starting to lose her patience with him and wanted the answers clear for her nose. But whether she would exactly like the words that he has to tell would be a whole other question. “Speak your words old fool, in clear tongue please,” the queen spoke in the changeling tongue. Then she jumped in the air and hovered around. Her wings caused the highly annoying buzzing to fill the room as the children that were hit by the original fire had lost their lives.

It was saddening for the queen but she wasn't all too emotionally attached to them. They were her children for certain but they also were drones and warriors. Creatures meant to serve the hive and that was it. It was the lack of patience that caught Starswirl off guard and he turned his head over to the queen with a stern look in his eyes. A look that spoke to her that she shouldn't be pushing him as much as she did.

Annoyed even more by the looks that he gave her, Chrysalis kept on hovering in the air and dropped her neck down a little bit before some hisses and buzzes even unknown to the wizard were released. Whatever they could have possibly meant, it most likely was an insult to him.

The wizard didn't even go into the words he received as his legs carried him over to the broken window and he started to look over the land as it were. Everything that came into his view was a miracle, a gift of life itself. But the gift would soon be disappearing as the moon stood lower and lower on the skies. “Twilight’s coming,” buzzed Starswirl in the tongue of the changelings before a deep sigh was released through his nose.

He knew that there only was one way how he could possibly even salvage whatever remained from the princess. And that was to declare war on Solarflare herself. But him alone wouldn't be nearly as powerful enough to piece through the thick skull of hers and make a statement inside of it. Instead he needed to have somepony at his size to complete the job with him. “One way. One way to make sure this doesn't escalate any further than it already has,” mumbled Starswirl to himself. All while the wyvern on his shoulder released a curious sounding tone for its throat.

Almost instantly turned the wizard himself around and placed his staff loudly on the ground. The negotiations could begin and all the words that would follow would be spoken in the tongue of the changelings.

“Queen Chrysalis, as my ears have heard it correctly, more or less, you are responsible for the release of this darkened version of our beloved princess. Understandable that you do not see any reason in helping me to revert her back to her original form. But we need to work together for this,” said Starswirl to her in a stern tone. Though his eyes narrowed themselves. He would be testing her just how far into the abyss of madness she had fallen and whether or not she could be saved from her own mind or not. Whatever the result may have been, he would see it from there.

Chrysalis just released a deep huff before the neck straightened itself again and she dropped back on the floor. “There is nothing in the wide world that would make us work together, wizard. Nothing in this world. I prefer to have the princess the way she is by the way. Makes things a lot easier when it comes down to the throne. No, I say just let her soar on that comet of hers in the skies. That foal is worth nothing to me anymore,” was the answer that Chrysalis gave.

But every word that she spoke, her hatred grew only more. She did a step towards the stallion. Once she stood right in front of him, the eye of Starswirl looked at the chest of the queen. A hoof was brought over to his chin and forced him to look up at her, while she looked down on him. “Any offer you’re giving me, I reject right away. So give me a good reason of why we shouldn't just make our departure straight away?”

“L-Life.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Staying, alive,” said Starsiwrl a bit louder. He did a step backwards and looked her in the eyes once again. He glanced to her with a serious set of eyes, hoping she would understand.

“You’re kidding me here, right? You are threatening me after all you did for us? You certain you aren't escaped from any asylum?” The words of the queen were a true mocking of his personality and knowledge but his words were everything but a mock or a joke.

Starswirl managed to keep his cool up and shook head in response to her words. “Not me, I’ll be toast long before you will be. No, Solarflare only wants to do one thing, reduce the world to ashes. Every, last, living, thing, burned to nothing but a crisp. Even your hive can’t stand a chance against the ever raging fires that have raised themselves in the east! Look out of the window and see for yourself! I never lied to you in the time we have known one another, why should I now?”

His words were filled with power and honesty. So powerful even, that the queen even did that he told her to do and walked up to the window. Her eyes pointed themselves to the east and she noticed the most frightful thing that she had ever seen. “Impossible… This is not happening! This, this has to be a trick from you!”

“It’s happening, queen. It already started and it won’t stop until the deed is complete.”

Chrysalis then turned herself around as she had gained a spark in her eyes. There was this one little thing that didn't make any sense in her eyes. And that was the matter of his knowledge. “How do you know that she won’t stop like you said, hm?” she snarled to him. Answers was what she wanted and she wanted them there and then.

“Celestia and I go back longer than you can even image. Much is hidden about her but not from me. The mind of a filly will often release things of the future in dreams. And those dreams can be witnessed through a window when given the right time and spell. I have seen the other self she would house queen. I could only pray it would never be released. But, you still haven’t answered my question. Will you help me to vanquish this evil from the land and spare everything that’s dear to you?” Starswirl spoke as a silent cry for all the help he could possibly get.

The words of the stallion had an effect on the queen herself as she released a deep sigh through her nostrils. So many things that could have happened to there and then. But she made the decision that went in against every single thing that she stood for and closed her eyes. “I will help you,” she eventually said in the tongue of ponies. The alliance had been forged between them.

The unlikely hero

Chrysalis just couldn't believe the terrible mess she had gotten herself into. But if there would be any help of not only saving herself but also her entire species, she had to team up with the stallion in order to stop the latest threat that the land had seen: Solarflare. Her mind just couldn't and perhaps wouldn't even understand the sheer risks that she was taking by doing the actions.

Of course could she double cross the only pony that also spoke their tongue. But that meant losing something she rather didn't say goodbye against. And that thing happened to be nothing else then a very worthy opponent. An opponent of whom she knew that she could beat in a duel of the horns because of her cunning schemes treacherous tricks. Two abilities that could become helpful in the upcoming fights for their lives.

Both Starswirl and Chrysalis knew that the battle that was about to be fought was something nothing the land had ever seen. Ponies were literally dying and each second they wasted on trying to come up with a strategy would only cost more and more. They needed to have a clear plan that wouldn't fail. But a thing like that was something that was truly easier said than done.

When both of the beings stood before the broken window, Starswirl was speaking his plan in the tongue of changelings while he kept on measuring the time they had until the dreaded twilight came. “So the best thing that we can do in my eyes is risky thing but if we both combine our magic’s during the twilight and blast at her until she’s knocked out, I can try to re-awake the real Celestia and all of it will be over before dawn.”

The plan itself and on its own sounded simply ridiculous in the ears of Chrysalis. She had her own input on the matter. Her own thoughts that required a little bit more of her own powers to be used but on the same end also had a much greater effect. “No, no, no, wizard of old, extracting the anger from her and feed it to me might cause a blackout, but she loses all of her anger. Then we can knock her out and you can perform your little tricks.”

“And you think I do not know your race? You feed of the emotions of others. It is your source of food and when consuming that pure anger she carries inside of her body, you won’t black out, queen, far from it even. You’ll become just as insanely angry as she is. Ending up with two ponies that ravage the land with everything they see in their eyes. And whose to tell that she can run out of her rage?” Starswirl replied while he rejected the plan. He knew Celestia, in a sense he knew Solarflare.

He saw what the queen was trying to do, she tried to get her own benefit out the whole mess of a situation. And why wouldn't she? Of course could he reason with her just what happened to be at stake for her but that didn't took away from the facts that the things they would be doing would be something terrible. One mistake, one slight miscalculation and the world would truly face two ponies of near equal power that were just unstoppable.

“Hmph, if your words speak the truth and my plan is indeed rubbish, then what is it that you purpose we do? Just a blind charge at her and pray for the best? Doesn't seem like her mind has gone that far back in time by the looks that were given to me. She’s a beast, a literal beast, but smart. How do you like them apples?”

That caused some worries to arise in the mind of the wizard. And every second they kept on bickering with one another, the twilight was getting closer to them. He needed more time on his hooves and knew only one way he could possibly do such a thing. “Hold on, this may get bumpy.”

“W-What do you mean? What are you planning, foal!” Chrysalis almost shouted before she caught the aura of his magic. She could only pray on the fact that it would be something good.

Though in case it wouldn't be, every one of her muscles happened to be ready to just go straight over into an attack. A devastating attack that would certainly end the life of the stallion almost instantly.

The charge kept on coming from his horn until it was finally released in one big pulsing circle. The powers that he irradiated was something that caused even Chrysalis to look up, as well as ending up getting her something in return. While he was casting the spell, there happened to be an oddly shaped green mist that left the body of the wizard and made its way over to the changeling queen.

The mare looked at it in a funny way before she just slurped it up like an everyday drink. It was the very stuff that managed to have kept her alive for all those years, raw emotions that came straight out of a pony. And the emotion she was fed with happened to be the happiness of Starswirl. Why he had given her that emotion specifically was something her mind couldn't wrap itself around.

After her little 'drink', the queen glanced to the world outside. There where the trees used to be waving in the wind, they remained in their bend position. At first she couldn't believe it and thus thought she had seen a ghost of some kind or the other. Though upon closer inspection was it revealed that time itself had actually stopped to continue forward. Time, had ceased to continue.

“W-What have you done!?” the queen asked the wizard in the normal pony tongue as she looked at him. Her wings flapped themselves a little bit and she jumped out of the way of the stallion. She assumed a stance to attack him right there and then as the venom was once again dripping from her teeth.

---

Once the cast of the stallion died down, the aura disappeared from the horn and Starswirl looked the changeling stern in the eyes. He wanted to have a plan at his side that would make sure nopony else would have been consumed by the fires. Though in order to get such a thing, he needed time. And that was just the thing he had created for the two of them.

“This won’t kill you except make you a few hours older at most. I placed the both of us in a timelock. Time around us stopped completely so we can actually figure this out while she doesn't burn down anything else. Because the both of our plans, do not seem to be cooperating with the other and from one side, only seem to benefit one individual. But go right ahead, bite my neck with your venom and kill me, at this moment in time, I’m the only one who can get us out of here.”

The tone of the stallion wasn't something that the queen had actually expected to come from him but inside of his eyes she could read him like an open book and saw that he wasn't lying the words that he spoke. But that didn't stop her urge of wanting to bite him so badly for the done deeds. “Fine,” growled Chrysalis with the venom still dripping, “purpose your offer foal and we shall go with that. Just make sure that we live to see another day!”

“Heh, oh how ironic that is going to be. Because missy, when the twilight falls upon us, the land will be shrouded in darkness and only the lights of our horns and magic, as well as her hellfire will be the only things visible. The twilight, I want to use to our advantage!” said Starswirl while he dared to make a step closer towards the changeling queen.

“And as a matter of fact, the lonely peak is in the east as well. If we can get her crazy enough to come there, we shall do everything in our might to stop here. Think about it, Chrysalis, it is her down, or the land covered in flames and only her being alive. How well does that fitted inside of your little revenge plan, eh!?”

There he got her cornered like a mouse. All the words that he spoke to her were like a sledgehammer on a wall. Pieces of stone were carved clean off of it and the queen simply didn't know on how to return from all of his words. There was nothing that came to that brain of hers with the exception of one little thing and that was to agree upon it. Even though she didn't wanted to it was better than ending up in flames. “Have it your way, foal,” she hissed towards the stallion as a strand of venomous saliva started to drip out of her mouth and travel down to the ground.

“Before we go, I want to have a truce between just the two of us.”

“That wasn't part of our deal!”

“I am calling the shots around here for this one time!”

Chrysalis huffed deep towards him before another terrifying hiss was being made into his direction. Which was the clue for the fire wyvern to return it just as terrifying. The only problem happened to be that it wasn't nearly as effective as hers. “Bah! Alright then, the truce last between us until she is back to her old self. Once she has reached that state, our deal will have never existed! Now get me out of here and make sure I can beat her to pulp,” she snarled to him.

Starswirl looked over to the changeling queen with a stern look before he gave her a slow nod. “And so it be. The unlikely alliance between the changeling and the pony is being forged. Nothing in history could have even suspected it from happening now could it?”

“Quit your words and lower the lock. We have a land to save,” answered Chrysalis in a saliva dripping grin as the lust for the fight was coming to her eyes. She had a debt to settle with Solarflare and she was going to make her pay double for it.

But the thing that neither of the two knew, was the fact that she had already tried to take over the elements but even with her magic was unable to do so.

---

Meanwhile over the settlement that laid far in the east, ponies were screaming for their lives as the fiery comet dropped the blue hellfire balls straight unto houses and streets. The destruction that was being caused by her ruined not just dozens of lives, it ruined and devastated hundreds. All of the ponies were evil beings that one day could be taking over the throne if she didn't watch out. Filly, mare or aged pony, it didn't matter one bit to Solarflare. Each of them were simply unworthy to even live in her eyes. Not just stallions were being killed, mares and foals equally.

Military forces set up by the settlement consisted out of a platoon of unicorns that would try their best to shoot the mare out of the skies with their magical beams. There was uncertainty on so many things surrounding the comet but one thing was sure, somepony had to be driving it as they always could vow for the shadow of a large mare hidden inside of it. But more than that, they didn't see. Or didn't want to.

“Squad one, I need you concentrate the beams right at the comet and take it down right now!” the captain of the platoon of unicorns shouted. He looked over to the skies and feared the worst already. “Listen up man, we have about ten minutes of moonlight left before the twilight sets in. I want it down, and I want it now! Concentrate your firepower and shoot, it, down!” The captain of the platoon was a pegasus stallion who had seen the sides of war not few had witnessed and was a truly battle-hardened veteran. Little did he sadly knew, that the battle to be fought was the last one of his life.

All of the unicorn began to prepare themselves to combine their bolts in an attempt to fire one massive bolt of magic. Six horns charged themselves up all at once in different colors of aura. From red to blue, to green and yellow, all of the colors could be seen from them. “Wait for it, wait for it,” the captain muttered to himself. He kept an eye on the comet and at the right timing he lowered his hoof down. That was the signal that they needed to fire the beam.

All six of the unicorns released their charge and a massive beam of six spiraling colors was shot into the skies. The beam went straight for the comet itself and appeared to have hit it as it lost some of it’s thought trajectory. All six of the unicorns asked every bit of energy that available in their bodies before the colors one by one disappeared out of the skies.

“Good job guys, take a rest while we continue to blast it. Next six!” the captain spoke up before he turned himself back to the comet. But what his eyes happened to be seeing was everything but something good.

High in the skies was Solarflare hit by the charge and flung off of her wanted course. Though to make matters probably even worse, she was plummeting back to the land. The mare lost some of her powers and had difficulty to get herself back under control. However, she caught the captain right in her eyes and knew that it was time for something she hadn't done since her attacks began.

While she kept on trying to regain the ever so much desired control over her body, the course of which she fell, would have her ending up in a field just outside of the settlement. Though she wouldn't just drop down, she wouldn't be defeated by a rainbow like that. She was the most powerful mare in the land and would show it to everything right there and then.

The alicorn managed to get the control back over her wings and she started to pull back up to regain her flight. She ended up in a straight line again and soared just over the land below. Nothing caught a true fire but the embers were enough to leave a trail in the grass.

The unicorns that were ordered to stand their ground and actually keep on firing against her retreated for their lives at the sheer speed she was coming at them. It wasn't something that they actually preferred. It was in the moment of their retreat that the captain made his fatal mistake.

He looked back at them in the wonder where they would be going to and to scold at them for leaving the battlefield in the manner that they did. “You are cowards! You do not have the decency to stand here and fight for your homes! I should all have you executed right on the spot!” he yelled at his men while the wings spread themselves to either side of his body. He was angry for certain, but his anger was nothing compared to the rage that was coming right at him.

It was in the corners of his eyes that he caught a light that came closer and closer to him. A light that was everything but natural. In his mind did time manage to slow down. The hooves of the captain turned his body around and his eyes widened themselves at the sight that was revealed.

The comet of fire was coming right for him and there just wasn't any way he could be jumping out of the way in time. So this, is where I die, the captain thought to himself before he made a single blink with his eyes and waited for it to happen.

While the heat of the fires became stronger and stronger with each passing heartbeat, it eventually stopped as his body was being incinerated on the spot. The heat of the fires was more than enough to do it. But the last view that was given to him was one of absolute terror, the face of an enraged Solarflare. A face that one didn't wish his worst enemy to witness.

And then it was over, with the captain being burned to nothing but ashes did the alicorn of fire shot back up into the skies. All while she released a couple more balls of blue hellfire. But none of the ponies that stood in the direct surrounding of the captain cared about it. His life came to an end so abruptly like many more that night. It wouldn't be their longest day, but their longest twilight.

All of the ponies that stood under his command removed their helmet from their head and lowered their heads as the eyes were being closed. Each of them paid a minute of respect for the fallen captain in silence.

Yet they were silent while the rage of the inferno’s that were created by Solarflare kept raging on. They fed themselves with the wood from which the buildings were created. Even one of the buildings where they had been hiding not even a minute ago was hit by one of the blue balls and completely destroyed in seconds. As the sides of the building fall down and the floors collapsed one another.

Superstitious or not, each of them had to admit that the spirit of their captain was still among them. Otherwise they all would have suffered the same fate. But the plan of attack wasn't anything that they could change. There wasn't anything that they could do to stop the fires from simply going.

Then they all looked to one side of the world. All of their eyes were aimed to the west and there they saw it, the moon had lowered itself and the stars were going out one by one. “And so it begins, the longest twilight for all of us,” one of the soldiers spoke up as the light slowly disappeared and all they could see, was the comet in the skies and the fires it had created. “Let us pray for a miracle.”

---

Just before the moon had lowered itself completely had both Starswirl and Chrysalis teleported themselves into the room where the elements of harmony were being stored as the stallion was certain to find clues of what had happened to the alicorn on that very spot. It had to be, it would be the only way in his eyes.

Chrysalis on the other end found it all a waste of time and rather just went right for her. But once again had Starswirl kept her on a tight leash. Meaning that she had to be dragged along for the ride, even if she didn't wanted it. With time running short on their side, the changeling queen simply dropped her body right down on the floor as she let him do the work for her.

The horn of the stallion charged itself up as the eyes closed themselves. Little did she knew what he tried to do and even less did she actually care about it. A yawn came from her side before the forelegs were crossed over one another and the head lowered. She was trying to save her strengths for the big finale that was about to come but whether or not she would be prepared for it would be something that was another question.

“Come on, come on,” groaned Starswirl to himself. He increased the charge of his own just a little bit more, “you two never failed me before so why would you this time?” The eyes had closed themselves completely from the world as his mind started to wander into the dreamscape. The very realm in which Celestia gave her powers over to her counterpart.

And it was there, where the stallion himself felt the hoof being placed on his shoulder. It was a warm hoof that caught him off guard and his eyes opened up. He had no idea of just what he could be expecting to see but was greeted by the very thing that he wished to see. And the being the face of Celestia’s mother.

“Oh words can not express just how glad I am to see you again dear,” said Starswirl at her in a sigh of utmost relief. “I just, I just need to know what happened here when Celestia came. Every, last, detail, is what I need to be knowing. Without that knowledge, I’m going in blind.”

“That what you seek, old friend, is something to bring my daughter back, don’t you?” Mother asked him. He gave only a nod in response. It were his honest words as there wasn't any point in lying against the mare that stood before him. “Then so it be, turn around and see for yourself, the moment that changed our sweet Tia into the being devastating our land.”

He did what was asked from him and turned his body around, only to see the events played over again from the moment that Celestia had arrived there. The mental images of the alicorn, were the very things he saw. And he wasn't all too happy about it to say the least.

With a punch in the face was the stallion knocked back into the there and then. All while he rubbed his face. “I know, I know what to do!” he shouted over to the queen. His horn charged itself up again. “I hope you could locate the exact place of where she had been going to, as I do not desire to be late for this little party.” His lips curled up to a little, albeit sick, smile.

“A party we’re going to be crashing, I assume?” Chrysalis replied with a grin. She rose up from her position and charged up her jagged horn.

“Exactly.”

The caused the grin of the queen to become even bigger than it already was and she chuckled even deeply yet darkly to herself. “And don’t you worry, I found the exact location right here.” She then summoned an arcane map of the entire land before her and him while the location of where the comet seemed to be circling around was marked on the map.

The distance between the old castle and the place was big but their teleportation spells might just be having enough rage to get them there where they needed to be. “On good luck, queen. May this battle be over quickly and in our favor,” said Starswirl in words that he meant from the depths of his heart. They would be fighting alongside one another for just one time, they needed it.

Chrysalis simply gave a nod to the words and their horns kept on charging more and more. All the way up to the point to which the poofed out of their existence. Out of the fabrics of reality and started to travel through another dimension to get to their destination.

---

When the two orbs, one being a green fire and the other being a gold colored one, appeared out of thin air, both the queen and the wizard stepped out of them just in time to see the captain being incinerated. The sight was horrifying to say the least, even Chrysalis had to turn her eyes away for a second before she was able to face it all again. Though the sight of Starswirl had turned itself upwards and noticed how the ball of fire was being hurled towards the house where the soldiers had been hiding in.

With another charge of his horn did he try to keep the house together. Though it didn't help whatsoever. Three of the four sides still fell over while the floors collapsed. At least none of them were being hit by any debris as the still standing side had been captured by his magic.

Even though the soldiers were safe, their work had only just began. Their time had run out though. The eternal darkness of the twilight had managed to crept up with them while they were teleporting. Though while it blocked most of their view, it also gave them a clear indication of just where the comet happened to be in the skies. And much to their luck it was soaring around the lonely peak that was located a mile or two away. The exact place Starswirl wanted Solarflare to be.

Both Starswirl and Chrysalis knew what they had to do in that moment. But whether they were ready to do it was a question in and of themselves. Did they had the sheer power to actually contain the beast inside of Celestia and overmaster it? There would be only one way to find that out and that was to go head in, right into it. Whether both of the parties wanted it or not.

“Ready Chrysalis?” Starswirl asked. He gave her one last look before the battle would begin.

“Ready as can be, foal.”

“Good, stick to the plan and everything will become alright.”

“You hope..?”

Starswirl didn't go into the words that were spoken and simply poofed away and upon the peak. The changeling queen rolled with her eyes as she followed up his lead.

The two of them appeared on one of the many stone plateau’s that the peak was rich. They could feel the sheer drought that was being created by the fires of the comet. Pleasant was another thing as it felt like the two had entered a boiling pan or something. How could they be fighting the alicorn in such conditions? They both wondered to one another but that time to think wasn't there.

It was Starswirl who had looked up already and saw the formation of something that he wouldn't have even thought to be possible to create. In his eyes he caught the beginnings of a fire vortex. A tornado that was set on fire and would burn everything that came in its way. It was a manner that was a lot more effective than the blue balls of hellfire.

“Oh no, no, no, no! This was not planned at all. Words can’t speak of how glad I am that I left him at home right now,” said the wizard to himself. Chrysalis glanced over to him with a questioning gaze readable in the both of her eyes. She didn't understand a single word of what he spoke. But that soon changed as she took his advice to look up to the skies.

Even in the darkness of the twilight were the circling flames something that still could be seen clearly in the dark, together with the flaming comet itself. The driving force being the rotation was soaring fast around it. The both of them were staring at something that was physically impossible to create but yet the still looked at it. Neither of them could even understand of just how, why or when something could be created.

It was the stallion who first charged up his horn in order to speak over the gusts of wind that blew over their heads in order to lay contact with the fiery alicorn. “Solarflare! I know that you can hear me and I demand you to come down right here and right now. We have some information for you that could be of incalculable value to you,” the voice of Starswirl bellowed over the land.

“That’s your plan to lure her down here? Pretty words spoken over a megaphone? You think that she will fall for that?” Chrysalis hissed softly to the wizard. The queen had seemingly lost all of her hopes already to have good ending to the state that the land had been toppled in.

“I don’t see another way without angering her,” whispered Starswirl in return. He had a point there for certain. Neither of the two knew just what the captain had done before he was blasted out of existence so they needed to be doing it with the greatest of care there would be. The queen nodded her head towards the words after the thought had come through her mind and then she looked just back up again. Her eyes were being peeled at the comet and could only hope that everything would be going as they had planned.

Chrysalis then simply walked further up to the mountain and disappeared out of the view of the wizard. With her gone, he was faced alone to battle the mighty mare for the first round. But having a changeling on his side meant that he wasn't aiming for powerful blasts. Instead their victory would be brought through the thing that was something the changeling race had done throughout the ages. Deception.

---

The comet itself heard the words that were spoken by Starswirl himself. It had begun to make the descent down to the plateau in order to meet up with him. Hoof by hoof the distance was being shortened by the mare before she just stood on the stone and for the first time ever since she had cloaked herself in the fires again, dropped them.

That was also the first time that Starswirl was given a look at the new armor and set of eyes of Celestia, but what struck him the most had to be mane and tail that were just that hellish blue fire as the balls she fired. Solarflare’s posture alone was something that struck intimidation and power. Her pose was that of a powerful warrior filled with the regalness of the princess she used to be.

Though there was something that he noticed around her chest. There were normally the mighty crest piece hung in all of its purple glory was something else that had taken the place for it. Something that shouldn't have been there and the reasons of the mare suddenly became as clear as day itself. Because on the crest piece noticed Starswirl the infamous alicorn amulet that he once placed under the glass bell in the vault of the princesses. “So that’s what happened to you, didn't it?” he whispered up to himself. Finally he saw how the new terror really looked. A deadly beauty.

And then it were the cat like eyes that laid themselves upon the stallion was puffs of black smoke were left through the nostrils of the beast. She wasn't happy with the interruption of her work but she also was willing to listen to the words that the stallion had to say. She was willing to hear just what kind of offer he could be giving her. “Speak your words before you will be eradicated and exterminated from the face of this land,” the voice of Solarflare boomed over the plateau.

That caused the stallion to chuckle and shake his head a couple of time. For some reason Solarflare threatening him was something that seemed to be highly amusing but for all the wrong reasons. “Still the same as ever. I see. But truth be told, there isn't any actual information that I had for you. I just needed you to come down here and face me. You claim to clench the land of all the evil there is yet you didn't start with the pony that had the most potential of kicking you off of the throne to begin with,” the wizard grinned to her. He had set her check. One move and it would be mate.

The white coated, amulet wearing alicorn released a deep huff through her nostrils before she spoke up again. “And whom might that pony then be?”

The wizard chuckled a bit to himself. He couldn't believe the words that she spoke to him. However, it was also impossible to see whether or not she was lying to him. If she truly had no idea who the pony was he happened to be talking about or that she was just playing a bit with him. Either way, he was still playing with fire in the literal sense of the meaning.

“Have you truly been that blind, Solarflare? Give you a hint, you’re looking at him right now,” returned Starswirl to the mare with a smirk. His horn charged itself up for something to happen.

The alicorn noticed the glow around the horn and couldn't believe the words but she had the disadvantage of having the drop behind her. Her magic would be charged on a faster rate than his so that gave her the upperhoof. More or less.

The two titans in the arcane arts kept on charging their horns. Solarflare was the first one to actually release the charge into yet another column of flames. They were heading straight over to the stallion. Starswirl simply curled one side of his lips up into a smirk and then released his charge.

What happened next wasn't a beam to counter the incoming fire. Instead he created a shield of a waterfall that went straight up. The fires made violent contact with the liquids and steam started to shoot in literally every direction. But not just steam as the embers of the fires also flung into the air and the landed on places where they shouldn't have been.

What was unknown to all three of the ponies was that the plateau was scattered with dead trees. And those burned like a charm once set ablaze. Let that just be the thing where the sparks were good for. They set the trees in fire and created something they had been missing that whole time, light. Yet the fires also provided Solarflare with a source of power that was welcome to her.

With an intensified charge had she called upon the fires in the dead trees and used that against the watershield of the stallion was well. The added fires only made it harder for the stallion to keep it up as the steam started to blow all over his face as well. It became almost impossible to keep the shield up in the powers that he possessed. Moan and groan left the wizard as he gave himself every single ounce in order to defend himself from the fires.

“You shall be, exterminated!” Solarflare yelled against him. She didn't show a sign of getting tired. The magical reservoirs that she had had to be near infinite and he could have known it. It was only one more mistake in a line of many. Though just in the moment that Starswirl was lowering himself through his legs, he gained a burst of energy that came out of seemingly nowhere.

The stallion had no real clue of where it came from but all that he knew what that it would be some somepony that had taken refuge in the shadows. It was an odd burst of energy as he suddenly felt himself happy. Happy enough to stand back right on his legs and the power of his magic became more and more intense.

The glow on his horn became brighter and brighter as the power of the waterfall became only greater. Starswirl even dared and managed to take a step forward into the direction of the alicorn. “I’m sorry princess, but it’s time that you cool off!” he shouted towards her. Then all of the energy was combined into one massive surge of power. It would have been that single surge that would be powerful enough to make the waterfall jump forward in its own and splash itself all over the alicorn. She was given a shower like she never had even seen before.

Taken by a complete surprise of the events did the hellfire that once were the mane and tail became extinguished. The alicorn dropped down to the ground. Her fires had been dimmed and she was all wet. She tried a couple of times to charge up her horn or irradiate some of her powers, but the waters all shut it down. “I think there is somepony that wants to meet you.” Starswirl spoke up as his own horn discharged itself and he did a step or two aside for whatever it was that was coming.

---

Out of the shadows then did the clacking of heavy horseshoes their turn in both of their ears. The sound of horseshoes that belonged on the hooves of a princess who once wandered the castle in Canterlot. Out of the shadows, came nopony else then the always so regal princess Celestia of Equestria. She didn't even dare to speak a word or her own nightmarish even image with the one single exception that she simply pointed over to the alicorn amulet and signaled that it should have been removed from her neck by herself otherwise she would be doing it.

Fright and fear were the two emotions that had begun to fill the beastly alicorn. She deemed it impossible for Celestia to be there. She stood powerless and the most powerful alicorn in the land stood before her. There was nothing that she could do then to give herself defeat. It was all over for her, her cause and torment would be over in that very twilight and dawn of a new day.

With a shaking hoof was the chain of the amulet unhooked from her neck and the moment that was done, the armor opened itself up to drop the necklace over to the ground. Starswirl charged up his horn and nodded in silence as he picked the thing up and almost right away started to hear the whispers it possessed.

Surprised by them, he could only do one thing and that was to return it to the place where it belonged. The amulet started to dissolve into nothingness while Solarflare’s mind was fully opened for anything.

That was the chance where Celestia had been waiting for and she allowed her own horn to be charged up inside of the golden aura. Then it was a simple matter of releasing the charge and the other white alicorn dropped down to the ground. The spell had knocked out her brain for a good set of hours. The only sound that could be heard then, was the crisping of the burning trees and the howling winds.

---

It was over, it was all over before the words could have ever become a burning reality.

Starswirl and Celestia looked over to one another and it was the stallion who gave a nod to the alicorn. Who on her own turn raised her head up and a green flash of fire changed her back into the being that she actually was. And that being was nopony else then the insectoid queen of the changelings, Chrysalis herself.

“You do realize that our truce is over now, right?” the queen mumbled to him. Though all that the wizard did was to give a nod in response. That nod alone gave her enough information on the fact that he would remain loyal to Celestia to the very end and no matter what. “Then this is where we shall part out ways. Goodbye, foal.”

The changeling queen took a leap into the air and she began to flap her wings to keep her airborne and had one last look over to the wizard who actually returned them. “I thank you, Chrysalis, without you this couldn't have been possible at all,” he spoke up to her in a tone that truly showed just how thankful he happened to be that she actually managed to keep her promises.

Then she was just gone. Off into the darkness of the dreaded twilight. She left the fires of the settlements behind her and even left Celestia just there where she was. Her time would come again, but it wouldn't be anytime soon. The wizard had one last look over into the direction in which the changeling queen flew off to and thought she would be going back to her home. As that seemed to be the most logical decision.

Starswirl on the other end just laid down next to the defeated Solarflare and charged up his horn to create the stardust wings again and laid back to keep her warm from the winds. Even with the fires of the dead trees still going, that wind was as cold as ice. His eyes fell on the amulet that she had worn. A tear was formed below his eye. He coated the thing within his magic before it vanished from reality. The alicorn amulet had disappeared, Starswirl only knew to where.

It didn't matter to him that it took hours before he would get any form of motion out of her, he would be there for her, as her beloved caretaker. His eyes looked down in the valley and notice just how the fires had done out. That alone was a sign to him that something inside of her had changed. Solarflare started to moan and groan a bit next to him as the eyes opened themselves up and revealed the regular magenta rimmed eyes. That was all that he needed to know. “Welcome back, princess.”

Epilogue

Both Starswirl and Celestia had thought that the changeling queen had made the hasty retreat back to her hive in order to create a new plan to be used against them. But the reality of the situation laid a little bit different. The queen never returned or fled to the hive right away after her final battle. A battle which she actually wanted to be erased from the books of history and was going to be helping personally in it. Because the first stop that she would make was going to be the castle of the royal alicorn. Somewhere within the walls of that cursed place, laid something she desired.

She had disguised herself as Starswirl himself and calmly walked through the halls of the place without trying to make any contact with any of the guard. The changed queen memorized the exact place of where the chamber of the stallion was. She was searching for something precious. Something that the stallion himself held dear to him and she could make great usage out of it.

Chrysalis was on the hunt for nothing else but the stone that kept the aging stallion from actually dying. He had found the way to stay immortal and she was going to use it for herself. She wanted it so badly because with it, she could stay submerged under the ground and plotting for the coming decades of time.

And with her as well as her children being so inactive that they would be forgotten by time itself. It was that little aim she had set her eyes on. That was her desire to just disappear from history before returning on a day that would spell disaster for her ex-stepsister.

---

The changeling queen could be found sitting upon her throne deep inside of the hive as she held a ruby like stone in her magical field. The mysterious stone was hovering before her eyes and she grinned like only a devil could do so. Some of her children were of course wondering what the object was that she had managed to acquire but not a word was released to them.

Their buzzing faded away in the voices of millions and millions. They all joined their brothers and sister inside of the organic tubes. Their wings creating the highly annoying sound that was music to the queen her ears.

A queen who started to grin to herself the more she looked into the depth of the stone. Or to be more exact, to the very heart of it. The grin itself became only bigger the more she made the realization that pure immortality had once again been hers and that alone was more than enough to make her snicker and laugh like a maniac. Or, like the maniac that she happened to be.

“We’ll meet again, Celestia, and the next time I won’t be so kindly! Hahaha!” Chrysalis shouted to herself as well as the surface before the torches lost their flames one after the other. The only thing that was still visible happened to be the eyes of the queen and the magical aura. But even those lights disappeared fast enough and the inner sanctum of the central changeling hive was nothing more but a dark pit where the worst and cruelest of imagination became a reality.

---

It took both Celestia and Starswirl a bit of time before they had made their own return to the castle. The main reason for it was that they had helped with the general repairs of the places that were hit most by the rampage of the white coated alicorn.

“You certain you will see her again?” the stallion dared to ask her.

Celestia could only give a nod to those words. “One day, we shall be standing against one another again. Sooner or later, the queen shall return in order to claim that what she thinks is rightfully hers. I can only pray on the fact that wouldn't be in the near future.”

“Let’s hope that yes.” Starswirl replied before he looked into the night skies and came to a standstill. “Once the mare in the moon is set free, six children of harmony will appear and prove themselves worthy of their might by vanquishing the evil hidden deep inside of it.”

“What was that Starswirl? Why, why did you speak in the tongue of the ancient unicorns just yet?” Celestia wondered herself after she had heard the ancient words leaving the mouth of the stallion. Her head was tilted as she simply stared down at him with a confused look.

“I, I don’t know, your highness. It just, came to me, like the stars shined at night.”

“Nothing ever happens without a reason, old friend. Perhaps, it’s a prophecy to call upon the new bearers of the elements since, well, you know what happened,” replied Celestia to the best of her ability.

The stallion gave a simple nod at first as he looked back towards the alicorn with an expression of confusion on his face as well. “Words written in the stars shouldn't be taken lightly though, they are a prophecy for certain, but for whom, I can not say.”

“We shall see when the time is there,” added Celestia with a faint smile visible below her muzzle. Their story was over for the moment. From that moment on, Celestia could only repay Equestria for the wrong she had caused it. For the next thousand years, he shadow would only grow.

---

“My faithful student Twilight, you once asked me if there were things in my life for which I am ashamed of, unpleasant or downright disgust. But when you asked me the question you were too young to understand the deeper meaning of my words. Now that you are old and wise enough, the words should be clear as crystal for you. Enclosed by this letter, you will find three arcane scrolls that tell the tales of the very things that I am lesser proud on in my life. May you put the knowledge you will receive to a good use and don’t think any different about me or the choices I have made. -Your teacher and mentor, princess Celestia.”

Those words were read aloud by the mulberry unicorn named Twilight Sparkle. Her curiosity was immediately sparked by it. She looked over to the three scrolls and was just so eager to read the tales of her mentor. But a hesitation caught with her and she started to doubt herself about actually reading it.

The images of each of her so beloved friends shot before her eyes while the ears went flat. She didn't had a single clue of what to do with the arcane scrolls. That was until she gained a little spark inside of her eyes. A spark that told her something she rather didn't dream about.

If even a pony like Celestia made mistakes, they should be learned from. But if the mistakes are unknown to the mind it was the duty to figure them out.

Going with that thought did the young unicorn calmly close her eyes and she released a deep sigh just before she took out the very first scroll. The scroll that was for some reason smelling like a perfume the princess would wear.

Then she just opened it and was sucked right into the words that were written down on it. The tale that was told, was the one of the draconequus and the alicorn that fell in love.