The Ballad of Xyclone

Chrysalis' castle, Equestria, midday

"XYCLONE!!" exclaimed Lyra at my arrival. She dove over to me and hugged my two hind legs. "YOU'RE ALIIIIIIIVE!!!!" I was still standing infuriated in front of Queen Chrysalis. I blushed slightly at her reaction. "CHRYSALIS TOLD ME YOU WERE DEAD!!"

Chrysalis herself then started to get up. "How...How did you—?!"

"She said you had been eaten by The Scaly One!" continued Lyra.

"Huh?!" I asked, confused. Then I spoke to The Queen. "I managed to escape your changelings with the help of Bon-Bon..." I pointed over to Bon-Bon and Twilight, who were once again standing in Chrysalis' doorway. "...And then I saved Twilight from your husband-to-be." I stated smirking evilly then. "By the way, Sombra is...'waiting' for you in his room."

"Oh, I'm so glad you're alive, Xyclone!" Lyra said to me, hugging me even tighter and sobbing.

I smiled back at her gently. "I'm glad you're okay, too, Lyra."

"How did you even manage to find me?"

I grinned. "I followed my heart and it led me to you."

"D'awwwww!!!!" I heard Twilight swoon in the background. "That's soooo cute!"

Bon-Bon stared at her with disgust. "What's gotten into you? I thought you hated Xyclone!" She looked around shiftily. "I thought the plan was to kill him, remember?" she said under her breath.

"Well, yeah, that's what I wanted to do at first, but Sombra made me realize how absolutely horrible we've been to Xyclone; how horrible I've been to him. When I get the chance, I really would like to apologize. I want to make amends. He's not a bad guy; he's been so nice and helpful to pretty much every one of us. I should've realized that in the very beginning."

"Are you kidding me? Please tell me you're kidding, Twilight!"

"I'm not, Bon-Bon," replied Twilight stoically, not looking at Bon-Bon. "This is iron-clad."

"So you're telling me that I'm the only pony here who still believes that he's evil?! ARGH, WHY WON'T ANYPONY LISTEN TO ME?!" She turned away suddenly. "It seems like I'll have to take matters into my own hooves..." she said under her breath again.

"SILENCE!!" boomed Queen Chrysalis, finally standing back up. "ENOUGH NONSENSE!" She approached Lyra and I (we were still hugging) and began smiling, which I did not like the looks of. "Well, isn't this just wonderful?" she said happily. Lyra and I stared blankly at her. "The two lovers reunited!" continued The Queen.

"'Two lovers reunited'?" we asked simultaneously.

"Miss Heartstrings here just finished pouring out all her emotions on me! She loves you dearly, Xyclone! Isn't that fun?"

I looked back down at Lyra in awe. I don't think I'd ever seen her face look so red before.

Chrysalis began walking closer to us. "Although, in reality, it's more wonderful for me than it is for you! Combined, your love should keep me and my changeling children sustained for months!"

I then reared back up onto my two hind legs and stepped in front of Lyra. "You lay a single hoof on her, I swear I'll—"

The Queen cut me off. She opened her mouth to once again reveal her fangs, and she drooled as her tongue stuck out. "Oh, relax! It won't hurt! You shouldn't feel a thing!"

"I SAID DON'T TOUCH HER!!" I yelled, impulsively aiming my horn at Chrysalis as she approached and shooting a laser beam out of it. She slid backwards from the force.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed in awe, gazing up at my forehead.

"Didn't that hurt?!" Lyra asked me.

"I barely felt it!" I answered. Not to be outdone, The Queen angrily started shooting beams back at me through her horn. Unsure of what to do, I remembered the advice Bon-Bon had given me earlier that morning: step, duck, block, punch. As those thoughts kept replaying in my head, I jumped back, dodged one of The Queen's beams, deflected another with my horn, then sent a very powerful one through my horn again, which easily hit its target. Chrysalis was knocked onto her back. I was about to finish the job, just like what I had done to Sombra, when I suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of my head. Bon-Bon had snuck up behind me and karate-chopped me. "AAAGH!!" I cried out in pain as I collapsed to the floor.

"BON-BON!!!" shrieked both Twilight and Lyra.

Wait, why is Twilight mad at her? I thought to myself.

By this time, Queen Chrysalis had gotten back up and was walking towards me. She once again opened her huge gaping maw. "Well, well, well," she taunted when she got up to me. "So much for being a hero." She then planted both her front hooves on either side of me, pinning me down. Opening her mouth even wider, she slobbered all over me. This was probably one of the most humiliating moments in my life: being slobbered on by a hungry insect in the form of a pony. Licking my face with her sharp tongue, she said, "Forget that worthless little green pony; I'll get to her later. But you, on the other hoof, look much more...tantalizing."

"A-Are you going to...eat me?" I asked her, terrified. "I th-thought you changelings only fed off love!"

"Oh, we do," slurped Chrysalis. "But I'm always open to trying new experiences, so I figured what the hay?"

This is it, I thought. This is how it ends: being devoured alive by a giant bug. Just terrific.

Lyra's voice suddenly brought me out of my thoughts: "Your magic, Xyclone!" she called out to me. "Use your magic!!"

I felt so stupid. I had completely forgotten about my magic for a moment. I looked around the room and saw several armored uniforms, exactly like the ones in Sombra's room. Every one of them also had the exact same speartipped staffs I used to kill King Sombra with. I remembered all of Lyra's magic lessons and focused all my energy on the staffs, successfully levitating them from their origins. I blended that concentration with that of Queen Chrysalis'. Then I sent all the spears flying towards her.

"What the—?!" she yelped, noticing the soaring daggers. She was able to duck her body, but she didn't have time to retract her wings, and the spears easily ripped into them. They lifted her up off me and carried her by her wings to the far wall. The scepters stuck Chrysalis' paper-thin wings into the marble, pinning her to the wall. She started thrashing and flailing about, but to no avail; the staffs held their grip. "RELEASE ME, YOU FOOL!" commanded The Queen. "I DEMAND THAT YOU RELEASE ME RIGHT THIS SECOND!!"

Lyra galloped over to me and helped me up. "I buried those spears deep into the marble," I told Chrysalis. "You won't be getting out anytime soon!"

"AARRRRGH!!!!!!" she roared. "LET ME GO!!!"

Ignoring her, Lyra and I ran over to the door to meet Twilight and Bon-Bon. Twilight looked angry, and she refused to look at Bon-Bon. Bon-Bon, however, just smirked evilly at me and twitched and giggled unstably. I gave her a dirty look.

Lyra spoke then. "Those spears won't hold her there forever. We need to find that dungeon fast." She looked over at Twilight. "I know your friends. They're not just gonna let themselves get eaten by that monster. They must still be alive. Does anypony have any idea to where the dungeon might be?"

None of us had any clue. We started looking around for anything, maybe a hall or some sort of pathway leading to it.

"Wait...what is that?" asked Twilight, gesturing to a large stone padlocked door in the distance of one end of the hall.

"That looks like it could be it," Lyra said. "Good eye, Twilight!"

The alicorn princess smiled. Then we all ran down the hall, hoping to not get detected. Although, we were probably going to, what with Queen Chrysalis back there, refusing to shut the hell up:

"YOU'LL NEVER GET AWAY WITH THIS, PONIES!" her voice echoed in the distance. "MARK MY WORDS, I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!!!!"

We all ran faster. Just then, Twilight ran up to me.

"Xyclone, I...I have something I'd like to say to you—!"

"Oh, what?" I replied coldly. "How you and Bon-Bon plan to kill me when this is over? Just leave me alone, you psychopath!" I ran even faster to avoid her.

"Xyclone, no! Wait! I wasn't going to say that! Stop!" I ignored her.

When we finally reached the end of the seemingly endless hallway, we found the door. I trotted up to it and pressed my ear against the huge object. I could faintly hear the ponies' distinctive screaming. "This is it," I said, backing away from the door. "This is the dungeon. The ponies are still alive in there, but they're in trouble. We need to figure out a way to open this door. Now, I know how to pick locks, but it's going to be nearly impossible to do with hooves—"

"RRRRAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" Bon-Bon suddenly pushed me aside and violently kicked the massive stone block open.

"Or we could just kick the door down, that works too, I guess." The four of us all ran through the opening and started descending a long flight of spiraling stairs leading to the dungeon. I was really surprised that there were no guards blocking the entrance. The terrified screams of ponies got louder and louder as we ran. I was a bit frightened by the atmosphere; it was dark, and I could see what looked like bats hanging from the staircase. One of them in particular really scared me. I saw a glowing pair of upside-down orange eyes glare at me as I ran down. It was a huge creature. I didn't know what the hay it was, but it definitely was too big to be a bat. When the long staircase finally ended, we were in a huge room, about the same size as King Sombra's and Queen Chrysalis'. And towards the back of the room, next to a wide window, we saw a huge cage. The cage had several ponies cowering together and screaming in the corner as a buff brown earth pony harassed them.

"Somepony help!" I distinctively heard Applejack say. "Fer Celestia's sake, somepony help us!!"

"GUYS?!" I blurted out suddenly.

"Xyclone, is that you?!" asked Rarity frantically. "Oh, thank heavens! Please, save us from this vile ruffian!"

"What's going on?! 'Ruffian'?" asked Lyra.

Just then, the pony that was antagonizing the others turned around, revealing his face to me and the other three. He had razor-sharp teeth, and the eyes of a lizard. His face looked so familiar to me for some reason. "Who the hell are you?" he asked.

Wait a minute, I thought. That voice, that coat color, that attitude...he looks like— "No...No, it can't be..." I said out loud.

"What's wrong?" Lyra asked me.

"That pony, he...he reminds me so much of my old friend Veloci...he's like the ponified version of him..."

"Veloci? But you told me he died!"

"He did die...or...at least, it looked as if he did..." I took a few steps forward, not laying my eyes off of the familiar-looking pony. "E-Excuse me...what is your name?"

"The Scaly One," responded the brown earth pony.

"No, not your nickname...what is your actual name?"

The stallion looked a little creeped out now. "Uh...V-Veloci..." he said. "Why do you ask?"

I felt like vomiting right there. I grew weak at the knees and I dropped to the ground.

"Xyclone, what's wrong?" Lyra asked me.

"It's him..." I gasped, biting my hooftips. "It's Veloci...he's...he's alive...and he's a...pony?"

"Oh my goodness..." said Lyra.

"Veloci," I said, my voice quavering. Tears began to fall. "You're alive. I can't believe you're alive!" I started walking closer to the cage.

"Uh, d-do I know you?" Veloci asked. "Because whoever you are, you're really starting to weird me out—"

I ran up to the cage to meet my old friend. "Veloci! It's me! Skyler! Don't you remember?!"

"How do you know who Skyler is? He was my best friend from long ago."

"THAT'S ME! I'M HIM!"

"No you're not, you're..." he looked me up and down. "You're, you're a...horse!"

"Well, so are you!"

"Oh. Well, I suppose you're right on that one," said Veloci, inspecting himself. "Look, buddy, I think you're mistaken, 'cause I—"

"VELOCIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!" I screamed with joy, breaking through the bars of the cage and pouncing on my old best friend. I was absolutely positive now that it was Veloci. I just had to prove to him that I was still Skyler...just with a different appearance and name. Then I remembered: the memory spell! I could perform the memory spell and bring him back! I once more remember Lyra's lessons. I tried my best to hold Veloci down so I could perform the spell on him.

"Jeez, get the heck off me, you psycho! I'll have you know that I'm—!"

I finally wrestled him into submission, and our minds locked together. I injected all the memories of us together back into his head, then I showed him the memories of how I got here. It took about a minute before I finally finished the spell. By the time it was done, I was sweating. I got off Veloci and rolled over onto my back on the floor, exhausted. Derpy Hooves greeted me by trotting over to my position and fanning me with her wing.

Veloci was slow to get up. He stared at me in utter awe and amazement. "Skyler...i-is that really you?"

I sat up and looked at him. "Yes, Veloci. It's me. I'm here."

"You look so...different." He came over and hugged me tightly. "Oh my God, Skyler, it's been so long."

The both of us were sobbing at our emotional reunion. "I've missed you so much, Veloci," I said, my voice cracking.

"D'AAAWWWWW!!!!!" went Twilight again. Bon-Bon punched her on the shoulder.

"Okay, seriously, stop it. It's beginning to get annoying."

"It's been a rough eight years since you left, Veloci," I sobbed.

Veloci pushed me away suddenly, ruining our beautiful moment. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the phone. 'Eight years'? I've only been here for about 5 months."

"What?" I asked him, confused as all hell. "But you disappeared 8 years ago. Actually, how did you get here in the first place."

"You know, I don't know. It's a weird story."

"Please explain, because I'm confused."

"Well, I—"

"Start from the last day you saw me; the day the time machine malfunctioned."

"Oh yeah, I remember that fateful day. Well, uh, the last thing I remember was seeing your face along with Devon's and Renaldo's fading away. I was being sent spinning into a brightly-colored vortex. Terrified, I kept screaming—"

"Which is what I heard..." I said, continuing to interrupt him.

Veloci glared at me, to which I just smiled at him. I can't believe he's still alive, I thought to myself. This is just too awesome for words!

"Anyway, I was so scared that I passed out. When I awoke, I was in a strange new world; a very beautiful new land. Before I had even figured out where I was, I was approached by two really tall...horses. Both of them had horns and wings, one was white, one was blue—"

"Princess Celestia and Princess Luna!"

He glared at me again. "You know, I'd really appreciate it if you'd stop interrupting me."

"Heh, sorry," I chuckled. "I'm just so happy that you're alive!"

"Well, Princess Tuna and Princess Molestia, or whatever you said their names are, looked at me angrily, as if I had done something wrong. They called me a...'changeling', and banished me from the land. I hadn't even done anything! I started walking, looking for a place where I might be able to find refuge. Eventually I came across this castle. I met someone named Queen Chrysalis, and she said she would help me get by. I happily accepted her offer to stay here. Instead, once I did accept it, she just threw me down here in this dungeon, and this is where I've been for the past couple of months."

Everypony gasped. By now, Twilight, Bon-Bon, and Lyra had reached the busted-open cage.

"So it sent him into the future and into another dimension? That time machine was actually an early version of The T.A.R.D.I.S...My father had perfected his design eight years early!" I thought out loud.

"A Tar-What?" Veloci asked.

"It's hard to explain..." I replied.

"Being trapped in here isn't all bad, though," continued Veloci. "The changelings come and throw captured ponies in here for me to eat a lot!"

I backed away from him, slightly more scared. "S-So wait..." I gulped. "Y-Y-You eat ponies n-now? You know I'm a p-pony now, r-right? You're not gonna eat me, a-are you?"

Veloci playfully punched me on the shoulder. "Now, come on, why would I do that to the best friend I've ever had?" He smiled at me, and I smiled back at him. Then he looked around at everypony else and licked his lips. "Everyone else here, though...now that's a different story..."

Everybody took a few steps back, a scared expression on all of their faces. "Y-You wanna hear how I got here?!" I blurted out, frantically trying to change the subject.

"Actually, yes, how did you get here? As a matter of fact, could you tell me about everything that's happened during the eight years you said I was gone?"

"Well, it's kind of a long story..."

"You were the one who suggested it!"

"Well, okay...here it is..." I tried m hardest to try and accurately explain how I got here.

I finished my long and epic story about half an hour later. "...So, I changed my name to Xyclone..."

"I have so many questions," said Veloci, interrupting me this time.

He realized his mistake, then shut up and let me finish. "...And I became friends with all these awesome ponies." I gestured towards everyone around me and listed off their names. "Veloci, I suppose I should finally introduce to everypony. This is Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Derpy Hooves, Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Pinkie Pie, Spike..." I smiled dreamily at my secret crush. "...And this amazing pony is Lyra," I finished. She blushed again.

"Wait a minute," Veloci said. "All of these ponies are your friends? And I was about to eat them?! Oh my God, Skyler, I'm so sorry! I never knew!"

"I don't think I'm the one you should be apologizing to." I gestured at the ponies again. "And it's Xyclone now, okay?"

Veloci nodded and turned to the ponies. "Look, guys, I'm...I'm really sorry I almost ate you a minute ago." He chuckled nervously. "Well, eh-heh, this is a bit awkward, isn't it? Hey, anyone who's best friends with Skyler—I mean Xyclone—is best friends with me!" Veloci smiled, and then he collectively shook the hooves of everypony there.

"Well, aren't you nice all of a sudden!" said Vinyl when Veloci shook her hoof.

"Yeah, he's really just a big softie," I replied to her, smiling. "He just gets a little crazy when he's hungry...which is a lot." I chuckled sarcastically.

"Wait," said Veloci suddenly when he reached Twilight and Bon-Bon. "Who're these two? You never introduced me to them!"

I frowned at the two ponies. "Oh, that's just Twilight and Bon-Bon."

"We don't really take too kindly ta them anymore!" growled Applejack.

"Yeah, seeing as how they both have tried to kill Xyclone every chance they get!" yelled Rainbow Dash.

Twilight shuffled her hoof awkwardly and stared at the ground, a depressed expression on her face. Bon-Bon just twitched. "GUILTY!" she exclaimed crazily.

"You two ruffians sicken me," said Rarity, angrily shaking her head.

"C-Can...can I just say something?" asked Twilight nervously.

"Oh, can it, traitor!" shouted Pinkie Pie at her.

"You should be ashamed!" scolded Lyra.

Everypony started screaming and shouting at Twilight, making her sadder and sadder. "I'm sorry, okay?!" she screamed finally, her voice cracking. A melancholy silence fell over all the ponies. "I'm...I'm sorry...honest."

"Ah'm afraid a simple 'I'm sorry' ain't gunna cut it, Twilight," said Applejack stonely.

"Could you all just please listen to me for once?!" screamed Twilight. She started walking into the group. "Look, I know...I know that what I tried to do was wrong. I'm really sorry that I never realized that until today. I get it now; King Sombra made me look deep down inside myself. The way I've been acting, that wasn't me. It's just that becoming an alicorn princess has just proven to be too much for me. I was so caught up in being a good princess that I let my awareness consume me." The ponies looked confused. Twilight turned to her friends. "Girls, we all have defeated so many powerful enemies together; Nightmare Moon, Discord, King Sombra...we defeated Queen Chrysalis twice already! I love all of you ponies; I never want anything bad to happen to a single one of you!" She turned to me then. "Xyclone, the reason I was so hard on you is because you're from a world that's alien to us. I didn't know what evils you could've possibly brought into Equestria! I let the fear go to my head; I became a monster." She started crying. "I-I feel absolutely horrible about what I did. I'm surprised I could even sleep at night." She turned back to everyone else. "I understand that none of you will ever want to see me again. I just hope that one day, someday, you all would be able to accept my sincerest apology." She walked back over to me. "Especially you, Xyclone." She dropped to the floor in front of my hooves. "I'm so sorry!" she bawled pitifully, dampening my front legs with her tears. "Please! Can you forgive me for all this?!"

I didn't know what to say. A disgraced alicorn princess who tried to murder me is groveling and begging me for mercy. I was speechless. Everyone was speechless.

Twilight got back up. "I...I understand," she sniffled. She walked to the edge of the crowd. "I can't live on like this anymore, knowing how much I've hurt you all deep down inside...That's why I'm surrendering myself to Queen Chrysalis. I want her to let you all go safely while I sacrifice myself to her." She began sobbing again. "It's for the best."

"Twilight, wait!" I said, stopping her as she turned to leave. I trotted up to her and put my hoof on her shoulder. "You're not surrendering to anyone." She gasped, stifling back tears.

Applejack walked up and put her hoof on her other shoulder and smiled. "Yeah! We ain't lettin' our friend die so easily!"

Twilight's lip quivered, and then Applejack and I pulled her into a tight embrace. Everypony else soon followed and we all gave the princess a massive bear hug. "I'm so sorry, everyone! Thank you all so much!" sobbed Twilight.

"It's great ta finally have ya back, Twilight," said Applejack.

Veloci and Bon-Bon were the only ones not included in the hug. Veloci sniffed, wiping a tear away from his eye. "That's so adorable!" he cried.

"This is B.S.," muttered Bon-Bon to herself, crossing her hooves and pouting.

"Oh, quit ruining the moment!" Veloci said to her.

Bon-Bon glared at the reptilian stallion with a fiery gaze. "Shut up talking to me, lizard." Veloci frowned at her.

Eventually, the hug ended. "Okay, now that we're all caught up, we need to figure out how to escape this dungeon without being detected," I said.

"Yeah, that and find me some food!" whined Veloci. "I'm still starving!"

"Veloci, you're always hungry!" I laughed at him.

"How...could you?" A voice suddenly snarled, echoing throughout the dungeon and shrouding the happy mood in a veil of silence. Just then, Queen Chrysalis came into view, descending the long spiral staircase. She had tears pouring from her eyes. "HOW COULD YOU?!" she screamed at us. We were all confused. "HOW COULD YOU KILL HIM?! WHY DID YOU KILL HIM?! WHYYYYYYY?!?!"

"'Kill him'?" Applejack whispered in my ear, slightly shocked. "What th' hay is she goin' on about? Who did y'all kill?"

I winced, suddenly remembering what had happened. "King Sombra," I replied.

"Ah'm sorry, Ah didn't quite hear that. It sounded like you said King Sombra."

"That's because I did."

"Oh...well, then, this ain't good."

"HE DID NOTHING TO YOU!! WHY WOULD YOU KILL MY SOMBRA-WOMBRA-BABY?!?!"

I sank, trying to make myself smaller.

"I—I loved him," whimpers Chyrsalis, lowering her voice. "H-He loved me. He proposed to me; we...we were going to get married. We were going to get married and have two beautiful foals together!"

TMI, Queen Chrysalis, I said to myself. TMI.

"All I wanted was to be loved," continued The Queen sadly. "I-Is that too much to ask for? IS IT?! HUH?! I've been so lonely for such a long time..."

I suddenly felt a lot more guilty.

"Oh, my poor Sombra...why? I miss you so much already." Suddenly, her depressed face turns into that of furious rage. "CHANGELINGS!!" she shrieked all of a sudden as more and more tears began to fall from her eyes. Her voice was still broken. "GET OVER HERE! NOW!!" Her minions were quick to report to her. "KILL THEM!! KILL THEM ALL!!!! MAKE THEM PAY FOR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE!! MURDER THEM LIKE THEY DID MY POOR SOMBRA!!!! GO!! NOW!" Floods of changelings began flying towards us.

So much for a happy ending.