The New Spark

Lost Before it Started

Apple Jack shoved the Changeling into the path of another Changeling's spell and ducked as Rainbow Dash darted over her to push another one of the dark insect-like ponies out of the train's window. A second later, Fluttershy came running into the compartment, screaming her head off with two more on her tail before a light blue Earth Pony pushed them both out the already shattered window.

When the Changelings had invaded Ponyville, Apple Jack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were hanging out with Pinkie Pie in Sugarcube Corner, trying to get her pet alligator, Gummy out of the gutter. How it got there, Pinkie didn't explain, but it proved to be more difficult than having a casual conversation with Big Macintosh as Fluttershy strictly made sure neither Rainbow Dash, nor Apple Jack could harm Gummy in any way.

They never did get Gummy out of the gutter, though. Changeling invasions can be irritatingly distracting. Fortunately, Pinkie Pie had her party cannons handy. And they were very hand indeed.

Most of town's population was still back in Ponyville, trying to fight back the swarms of Changelings that attacked in large groups and many ponies tried to run away, but ended up running straight into more enemies. But a group of about twenty ponies as well as Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and the Apple family went straight to the best mode of transport there was to get to Canterlot: the Friendship Express train.

A trip to Canterlot would usually take about half an hour. That meant that they had to endure half an hour of constantly being assaulted by an endless number of Changelings that came out of nowhere. This made the ride appear to last three times as long as it was supposed to be.

Rainbow Dash kicked the last Changeling's senseless body out of the train compartment and threw herself onto a seat, panting. Apple Jack took the chair beside her and Fluttershy ducked underneath the row of seats, shivering.

"Yah OK, Fluttershy?" Apple Jack questioned, looking under the seats at the yellow Pegasus.

"F-fine." She stammered back, burying her face in her hooves.

The three of them sat in silence as the train rattled along the tracks through the rugged mountain path on the way to Canterlot. The train had been damaged badly from being hit by many spells and having Changelings thrown through the windows and in some cases, walls causing massive jagged holes to be made in the colourful material. A strong breeze ruffled Apple Jack's tangled hair, threatening to pull her frayed hat off. "We should have waited."

"Wha?" She turned to Rainbow Dash who appeared to have gotten her breath back.

The rainbow-maned pony looked back at her, a hint of anger in her rose eyes, "For Rarity and Twilight!" She exclaimed, "You know that the Elements of Harmony are the best weapon we've got and we need them to help operate them!"

Apple Jack looked away, trying to push her feelings of guilt down, "We couldn't have waited." She told her, "We needed to get out with all them ponies-"

"What, so that's an excuse to abandon your friends?"

Apple Jack whirled around, her green eyes blazing, "Now don' ya call me disloyal, I had teh do it! I had to save them ponies in the station!"

"Why not?" Rainbow Dash retorted, "What if Twilight or Rarity got killed? Would you still be so proud about saving 'them ponies in the station' then?"

The orange pony jumped to her hooves, "Twiligh' an' Rarity can look after themselves!" She shouted, "They've been through worse, but them Ponyville citizens? They only saw Nigh'mare Moon, an' didn't even fight her!"

Rainbow stood up to face her, "Oh, so that makes Rarity and Twilight invincible, doesn't it?" She spat, "That means that they can't be hurt by just a measly little Changeling invasion? Wise up, Farm Girl! They're mortal, they can get caught, they can get hurt, they can d-"

"Stop, please!" Fluttershy pleaded, sticking her head out from under the seats, her eyes shimmering with worry, "You're making me scared!"

Rainbow Dash sighed, "You're always scared." She mumbled, sitting down again and huffing angrily, but she stopped her argument all the same.

"Sorry, 'Shy." Apple Jack apologized. She knew that Rainbow Dash was in more shock than she would want to admit to anyone and this wasn't a time to argue, but Apple Jack had a problem with beginning arguments when in difficult situations, especially when with Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy dragged herself out from underneath the seats, sat down beside Rainbow Dash and patted her comfortingly on the back. The other ponies practically had to drag her onto the train as she refused to leave without all of her animal friends. Though the Beaver, Chipmunk and Raccoon families as well as Angel the bunny were safely hidden away in one of the train compartments and most of the families of birds that Fluttershy had befriended had already taken refuge in the Everfree Forest, the yellow Pegasus reluctantly boarded the train with some persuasion from Mr and Mrs Raccoon.

"I'm sure the others are just fine." Fluttershy assured Rainbow, "They're just two ponies in the middle of an invasion of savage, Alicorn-like creatures that are merciless to all their enemies." Nopony returned her warm smile.

The compartment was silent once again before an emerald coloured Unicorn stuck his head into the compartment, "Hey," He said, "Um, Supreme Captain Pinkie Pie wants to see you. She says that we're almost at Canterlot."

"Thanks for telling us." Said Rainbow, getting to her hooves, "Tell the other ponies on board to get ready, we might have to fight our way through the city."

/\/\/\/\/\/\

From the sky, the city didn't look like a mass Changeling invasion had broken out. Most of the buildings were intact and the posh citizens were cowering in their houses, too afraid to come out.

Twilight took off into the sky once more, her wings aching from the long journey there and surveyed her surroundings. She expected Canterlot to be just like Ponyville, crawling with Changelings but instead, it looked like the Changelings hadn't even been there yet. Strange. She thought, if somepony were invading, she expected them to attack Equestria's capital first...

Despite the fact that the sun was beginning to rise early over the mountain range, the starts and moon still shone brightly as ever. Twilight guessed that Princess Celestia had risen the sun early so that the soldiers could see who they were fighting. She hoped that the rising sun and the moon still hanging in the sky meant that the Princesses were nearby. It did, didn't it?

Then she saw it. Off to her right on the ridge of one of the many mountains that surrounded the city, Twilight could just make out brief flashes of light and the glint of armour in the dawn sunlight as Celestia's warriors flew and ran through the commotion. A large, dark, shadowy vapour had gathered somewhere in the centre of the fight. Taking it on where the two Princesses, but neither the shadow, not the Alicorns appeared to be doing much damage on each other.

Folding her wings back without hesitation, the young Alicorn dove straight down towards the battlefield. As she approached it, she noticed other soldiers fighting. She recognized the darkly coloured warriors that served Luna, she'd seen them on many occasions, especially Nightmare Night when they'd visit the town of Equestria and scare the living daylights out of the trick-or-treating fillies that roamed the streets. For some reason, there were way more of them than there were of Celestia's soldiers and there were probably even more of them than Changelings.

That made Twilight relax a little, but she still had bad feeling about what was to come.

The opposing side had unarmoured Changelings that, although they were exposed, easily outnumbered Celestia's forces. For some reason, most of Luna's soldiers were ignoring the Changeling ponies that they were supposed to be fighting, which confused Twilight greatly.

Twilight saw Queen Chrysalis hovering in the air, her see-through green mane fluttering in the wind as she picked off the Canterlot guards one by one. Twilight tried to hurl a Freezing Spell at her, but she turned in time to deflect it with a spell of her own that not only completely destroyed Twilight's spell, but it too shattered on impact, sending shards of green light flying in all directions that Twilight was barely able to dodge. Queen Chrysalis flashed Twilight a cocky smirk before turning back to the fight as if she knew that the small purple pony wasn't a threat.

Twilight angrily stuck her tongue out at the Changeling Queen and continued her descent into the war zone, trying to land as close to the Princesses as she could without having her head taken off by an enemy Changelings' razor sharp horn.

Cursing as she clumsily landed, she just managed to jump out of the way of a Changeling's path as it charged at her. She could barely see anything through the throng and was about to take off again when a soldier with dark armour knocked her to the ground.

"What do you think you're-" Twilight began furiously, who did they think they were? Until she saw the pony properly.

It looked almost exactly like on of the Royal Guards that Twilight and her friends had seen in the Crystal Empire, except it's armour was much darker, dented, scratched and had almost completely lost it's shine as if it was never properly cared for. But the pony that was wearing it was what freaked Twilight out the most. Unlike Luna's ponies, who were simply dark colours, this pony appeared to be made completely out of shadow with glinting, ruby red gems for eyes. It didn't look like an entertainer from Nightmare Night.

The pony reared back, ready to stamp it's front hooves down onto Twilight's face. The young Alicorn hurriedly rolled out of the way as the pony's hooves came crashing down where she had been just moments before. She hurriedly took off into the sky, praying that it didn't have shadowy wings hidden under it's armour.

Back in the sky, Twilight suddenly realized that many of the ponies that she thought were Luna's were actually the Shadow Ponies. Whatever they were, they appeared to have sided with Queen Chrysalis and to Twilight's horror, appeared to be forcing the Equestrian ponies back. Now I really have to find Princess Celestia! She thought desperately, If she falls, this will all be over!

Frantically, she searched the battlefield for the majestic white Alicorn, where was she again? She caught sight of the dark cloud that the two Princesses were fighting before she saw the two ponies, themselves. The cloud looked oddly familiar somehow...

Twilight streaked down to the three figures fast enough to make Rainbow Dash jealous, but landed terribly enough to make her blue and rainbow friend laugh her head off. She crashed into a Shadow Pony and plowed through several other warriors, both Canterlot and Changeling before smacking into a rock and knocking the wind out of her.

She lay splayed out, gasping for air and utterly helpless as a group of Shadow Ponies approached her, their shadowy faces devoid of any emotion. Twilight tried to back away as best as she possibly could, but the rock behind her prevented her from going far.

She flinched as the Shadow Ponies began to charge at her, but right before they got to her, they were knocked aside by a blinding golden ray of light and Twilight was pulled to her hooves.

Twilight looked up to see none other than the Princess of the Sun standing before her, "Princess-" She began, but she was immediately cut off.

"I told you not to come!" Princess Celestia growled, and Twilight shrank away from her burning pink glare, "I gave you direct orders to protect your friends and the Elements of Harmony!"

"B-but I-" Twilight stammered.

"Get out of here." Princess Celestia commanded her, turning to hurl an nearby Changeling into the throng of ponies with her horn, "I can't afford to let you get hurt, go!"

"No!" Twilight exclaimed, charging through the fighting ponies, ignoring the Princess's shouts for her to come back. She'd flown all the way to Canterlot to fight with the Princesses, she wasn't going to be sent back to a charred mess where her home used to be!

She skidded to a halt in front of the black cloud. Luna was circling it, trying to land a spell, but the cloud dodged every one of them.

The back cloud.

The shadowy ponies with jewel eyes.

The familiarity.

"Impossible." Twilight breathed, staring up at the cloud, frozen with shock. King Sombra was dead! She'd seen it, herself! He'd shattered into a million dark pieces like the black crystals he created! How could he be right in front of her?

Luna dived down toward the cloud, her flowing blue mane and tail streaming out behind her. As she got closer to the King, glittering silver stars began to forms around her body. Just before she hit him, she suddenly stopped, though the stars kept falling, sinking into the cloud and causing the King to roar in pain and solidify into a large gray Unicorn.

"Die." Sombra snarled, his voice scratchy as black crystals began to grow over the grass under his hooves.

Luna lowered her head, ready to charge, "I intend to go on living for many years." She said, "It is thee who must die."

The dark King gave an animal-like snarl and charged at the dark blue princess, his horn glowing with a curse he was about to fire. Luna stood her ground and sent a spell to meet it. The two ponies' magic met between them, but Sombra's curse went right through Luna's and continued to travel right toward her.

Twilight darted forward and at the last second, shoved the princess out of the way. The curse just lightly brushed by her tail, but that was all it needed as an uncomfortably cold feeling spread through Twilight's tail and horn.

Luna hurriedly got to her hooves and stood protectively in front of Twilight, "Th'art a very disobedient young pony." She told the younger Alicorn under her breath, "Now thou can't fight."

Twilight slowly up, wincing as every move felt like something was digging into her back. When she twisted around to see what damage Sombra caused, her eyes widened when she saw her wings pinned down by tiny black crystals. She was sure that the same crystals were on her horn, preventing her from casting any magic like what had happened to her older brother, Shining Armour when he tried to fight King Sombra.

King Sombra's red and green eyes bore into her as if somewhere in his twisted, broken mind he remembered her. "You." He rasped, his gaze turning murderous, "You dragon lover."

"Run." Luna commanded and Twilight didn't have to be told twice. Se spun around and sprinted through the battle as fast as she could, skirting around soldiers and dodging spells cast in her direction the best she could.

I'm so stupid! She cursed, Did I really think that I would be able to help anyone? I've just messed everything up!

She didn't get far when an explosion of green light sent her rolling across the dusty ground along with all the other Canterlot fighters in the battle. She cried out as she crashed into a guard's hard metal armour and finally came to a stop among other Equestrian ponies on the ground.

"Whoops, my bad." A large insect-like pony none other than Queen Chrysalis fluttered down from the sky, landing in the centre of the battlefield, "It appears that we have won this fight! To bad, so sad, princess." Twilight looked up to see that she was addressing Luna.

"What do you want?" Luna spat, glittering black crystals were dotting her wings and horn.

Queen Chrysalis threw back her head and laughed as if it was the most funniest thing she had ever heard, "We want forgiveness!" She exclaimed, "What else?"

Forgiveness? Twilight thought, That makes no sense! "There are other ways to be forgiven than marching in here and getting ponies killed!" She shouted, feeling that by now, she really had nothing to lose.

The Changeling Queen turned and smiled cruelly at Twilight, "If we had tried to talk, would you have listened?" She asked coolly, "You hate ponies like us, we're like monsters to you. You would have driven us off and claimed that you were doing a good thing." She sighed and shook her head sadly, "All us Changelings want is love and you can't even give us that. King Sombra felt that he could rule better than his arrogant family members and he was banished and driven insane because of that."

"He enslaved an empire!" One of the guards shouted angrily, "He deserved what he got!"

"Princess Celestia said that he enslaved an empire." Chrysalis corrected him frostily, "I suppose that she's always right, isn't she?"

How dare she? Twilight thought angrily, stumbling to her hooves, "You won't get away with this!" She exclaimed, "Princess Celestia will-"

"Will what?" Chrysalis asked calmly, "If you have a scrap of common sense, you would find that if you wonderful Princess Celestia was still alive, this pointless battle would still be raging and more ponies would be getting hurt."

Twilight's heart stopped as well as every other Canterlot guard's. In unison, all of them looked to the edge of the battlefield where a white Alicorn lay motionless, her eyes closed forever.