Exiled From Equestria

Shooting Star opens her eyes. The first thing she notices is that she is in a cage in a dark cave lit by glowing mushrooms. When she scrambles upward, she bangs her head on the cage door and bumps into something warm and squishy. Caught off guard, Star rubs her head and bends down lower, then looks fearfully at whatever she just bumped. She sighs a bit breath of relief when she realizes it's just her best friend.

"Midnight." Shooting Star nudges her friend with a hoof. "Midnight Blaze, wake up."

Her friend stirs, but she doesn't open her eyes or rise up. "Are...are we still glowing green?" she mumbles. Shooting Star observes them both. She even scans their back legs where the rat bites were.

"No. And the bites are gone."

"Really?" Midnight Blaze's eyes pop open. She springs upward, only to also bang her head on the metal bars. "Wh-why are we in a small cage?" Then she notices so etching around her neck. It feels like a thick necklace. "And what is around my neck?"

"Well isn't that just the question of the day?" a voice asks from behind them. They turn around to come face-to-face with an unknown creature.

Shooting Star laughs. "What the hay are you? You look like you fell into a pool of animal parts."

"I am a Draconequus. The reason why I look like this is because I am the Spirit of Disharmony, or, what I prefer to call it, chaos." He turns his back to the ponies and marches up to another weird creature who looks like a black unicorn with green wings, green hair, green eyes, and a bunch of holes inside of her. It reminds Shooting Star of Swiss Cheese.

"Well, Mr. Chaos, would you care to tell us where we are or what we're doing here?" Midnight Blaze asks. The creature turns to her, but stays where he is beside the large pony creature.

"You're in an underground cave where no pony will find you. I put a magic-proof collar around Midnight so she can't use her magic to escape."

"It's not like I know very much magic, anyway," Midnight grumbles too quietly for anypony to hear.

"As for why you are locked in a tiny cage, is so that you'll stop messing with my plans!"

"What plans?"

"My plans for Twilight," he answers Star. She narrows her eyes.

"And what exactly are those plans?"

"Secret plans. But I will say that I need Twilight to turn against friendship, and you two are certainly not helping that."

Midnight Blaze keeps staring at the black alicorn.

"What?" the creature asks.

"What are you?" Midnight raises an eyebrow. The creature laughs.

"I am a changeling."

"I see. And what exactly is a changeling?"

"I feed off of ponies' love for one another," she retorts. "And unless you want me to feed on you and your friend, I suggest you shut your mouth!"

Midnight grunts. Shooting Star rolls her eyes.

The strange draconequus snaps his fingers. An enormous pearl appears before him and the changeling. Shooting Star quickly realizes that it's a crystal ball. He snaps his fingers once more, and an image appears on the crystal. Even though Star and Midnight are not meant to see it, they still look over his shoulder with wide eyes.

The image is of Twilight just after Shooting Star and Midnight Blaze vanished. The unicorn collapses to the ground and starts crying. Discord snorts.

"She's so weak," he says. Then the image seems to change. Twilight stand back up with a confident, angry face. She says something, but the crystal doesn't project sound. Twilight then starts galloping through the desert. Discord smiles. "Or maybe taking Star and Midnight really is turning her."

"Stop it!" Midnight Blaze suddenly screams at the spirit of chaos. He and the black alicorn turn to her. Tears well up in her eyes. She can't help; everything is so confusing to her. She doesn't even know what in the wide world is happening to her life. "Stop whatever you're planning. Twilight is full of love and happiness and friendship, not hatred and darkness. You can't change her!"

An evil laugh echoes throughout the underwater cave system, even all the way to where Princess Celestia is being hidden. “She is full of darkness, because I gave darkness to her.”

“You… gave her darkness?” Midnight Blaze asks quietly. “How?”

Discord shrugs. “A certain spell book I stole might hold your answer.”

“But why?”

“For my plans.”

“What part of your plans?”

“The part where the darkness overcomes her and turns her evil.”

“Psh,” Shooting Star interrupts Midnight and Discord’s arguement. “I thought you said they were secret plans?”

The changeling has to hold a hoof to her mouth to keep from laughing. Discord’s face turns to one of rage. Although, he can’t think of a good enough combat so he turns his back to the orange pegasus and continues to watch the crystal globe.

Shooting Star smiles in accomplishment.