Princess Celestia awoke laying on the ground of her throne room. It felt as if she had been passed out for days, and her head ached with a throbbing pain. She tried to remember what had happened when she was last awake. She looked around, the tattered room, flags and furniture had been singed and burned to ashes, as the stone structures barely hung onto the walls. She tried to move her legs to survey the rest of the area, but the quivered at the weight of her body and gave out before lifting her enough to even get a pegasus feather under her. She laid her head down on the cold stone floor, unsure of what had happened. As soon as she started to think, she remembered the terrible fate that had befallen her kingdom. Queen Chrysalis and her Changling army had broken through the barrier and attacked all of Canterlot. She had fought valiantly, but could not overcome Chrysali's power and was knocked out on the floor. She heard hoofsteps from across the chambers, they were ominous and terrifying as they echoed in the empty throne room. The hoofsteps grew closer and as they did they began to move quicker, longer strides. As Celestia contemplated her life, and all that she had done wrong, a soothing voice that lifted the weight of Equestria off her shoulders rang out.
"Sister!" Luna's voice shot out in the loud tone that she had used ever since arriving back from the moon. "I thought you were dead since the battle! Here, let me help you up." she knelt down to her sisters side, helping support her weight as she stood to her hooves. Luna could see how badly her sister had been wounded and wondered if she would even survive. When they began to walk back to Celestia's chambers, she spoke for the first time.
"Luna, what happened to my subjects? Is anypony hurt?" She asked, her voice wavering with pain. Luna winced at the sad excuse her sister had for a voice, knowing that the pain she felt five days ago must have been much more than anything she had experienced. She gave her sister the good news of what had happened, even if it wasn't as good as they had hoped.
"After Queen Chrysalis defeated you, Shining Armor and Cadence used some strange ability to banish Chrysalis and her army far from Canterlot, but not before they were able to destroy most of Canterlot and Ponyville. It will be a long time before we restore the town to what it once was, but nopony was seriously injured and no fatalities have been reported." Celestia's expression was not quite as serious anymore as she let a slight smile cross her face, knowing that her failure did not cost anypony their life. She tried to stand on her own, wobbled, and then soon found her balance and began to walk slowly with her sister, who was ready to catch her on a moment's notice.
"What exactly happened when they used this mysterious magic, Luna?" Celestia asked her sister after a few paces down the hall. Luna was unsure how to answer her sister, as she herself had no idea what it had done. She explained as best she could.
"Although I was not there to witness it myself, their joining of magic allowed them to send out a giant force field that swept all the Changelings far away."
"Where are they now." Celestia continued her battery of questions on her sister. Luna had become used to this, remembering the time that her sister had banished Discord and how hectic life was in the palace when he ran free.
"As you may expect, they had to be sent somewhere, but we are unsure of where exactly they have gone." Luna said, knowing what her sister would ask next, she continued. "We have Twilight trying to find out exactly where they were sent, and I was just about to go back to her lab to check if she had made any progress." Luna told her. Celestia nodded her head, telling her sister without words that they should head there right away. Luna lead the way to a hidden bunker that the Changelings did not find. They walked down in the darkness following a faint purple light that had been coming from the very bottom of a stairwell. They could hear machinery and the sound of a quill and paper writing.
When they arrived at the chamber, they found Twilight, pacing back and forth from one machine to another, occasionally going back to her desk to write down calculations. She was so engulfed in her work that she hadn't even noticed the Princesses come in from the stairwell. Celestia waited a few moments for Twilight to finish her calculations, and then knew that her student would notice her right away and address her properly. When she finished the calculations, she returned back to the machines, as Celestia became a bit upset at her student.
"Twilight, you know better than anypony that you should address your teacher when she enters a room." When Twilight heard the voice, spun around to make sure her mind wasn't playing any tricks on her. Her surprise turned to joy and excitement as she saw Celestia's face again.
"Princess! I'm so happy you're all right!" She bounced over much like Pinkie did when she walked around Ponyville, and almost tried to jump onto the Princess neck and hug her. Before she could finish jumping, Luna's magic caught her in midair and set her back down on the ground.
"I'm sorry Twilight, but my sister is too hurt for any kind of physical exertion, she's even having trouble standing at this point." Luna told her. Twilight looked at her and then knocked on a door.
"We have someone who can help heal her wounds." Twilight told Luna. Cadence walked out from behind the door, they could see a bed and a few medical machines that had recently been built in Equestria, top secret only for Canterlot at the moment. "Cadence has great healing magic, she'll have the Princess back on her hooves in no time." Twilight told Luna.
"Thank you Twilight, but before I go to get my injuries healed, do you have any idea where those little demons have run off to?" Celestia asked her.
"I just got the data back, I'm not sure how to explain it yet, but I'm sure when I find out how to tell you where they are, it's going to be a long story." Celestia nodded and went back with her niece to heal her wounds. Twilight continued to examine that machines and calculate new findings. Days passed, and finally, they had their answer.
"Twilight, what have you found out?" Princess Celestia walked into the lab yet again after her wounds had been fully treated. Twilight looked back at her old teacher with a slight frown on her face. Princess Celestia walked up to her and put a hoof on her shoulder. "Don't try hiding anything from me Twilight, I can take any bad news you have." She said.
"It seems that most of them were blown away to some alternate universe, I'm unsure how, but we've never had unicorn magic quite like that before, so anything is possible at this point." Twilight told her. "On top of that, since you've been getting your wounds healed, more changelings have come back, at least the ones that weren't blasted into the alternate dimension. They've been terrorizing the city and it's really gone downhill up there since." Twilight told her.
Princess Celestia paced back and forth, trying to contemplate what her student had told her. There were so many thoughts running through her head and she was unsure how to start even one of them. She felt sorrow now, not only for letting her citizens down once, but letting them down yet again while she sat licking her wounds. Princess Luna came in from the top of the staircase as Celestia heard the iron trap door slam closed behind her. One of Luna's wings was badly injured and a few dozen feathers were missing. Along with this, her crown was tarnished and her horn cracked. Although these would all be mended, it was a rather horrific sight to see her sister so hurt.
"Twilight Sparkle," Luna began to speak. "The changelings are beginning to divide themselves, forming new changelings. Their numbers are growing exponentially and the citizens of Ponyville are being overwhelmed. We ask that you give us any assistance that you ca-" Luna cut off as she saw her sister standing by one of the machines. "Sister, are you well enough to fight?" She asked, Celestia nodding to her. "Then let us be off, the citizens need their princesses." Luna ran back up the stairs.
"Twilight, find a way to that alternate universe and fast, I'm sure Queen Chrysalis knows exactly how to stop her army, and if she doesn't, I'm sure taking care of her will at least slow them down enough to where we can get rid of all of them." Celestia started running up the steps as Twilight saluted her. She knew that she'd need her friends with her when they went off to wherever the changelings had ended up, so without hesitation, she called to Spike.
"Spike! Get out here!" She used her magic to pull him out from a corner where he had been eating some of the ration ice cream. Twilight understood why he was doing this, seeing the destruction of both his old and new home was difficult to bare, and after all, he was just a baby dragon. "I need you to go get the others, and tell them to bring their elements of harmony, I have a feeling we're going to need them." She told Spike, he contemplated for a few seconds before answering.
"Should they pack anything Twilight?" the question that he asked was something that Twilight considered, and thought that the others would already know, seeing as she didn't even know what they would need. Twilight thought for a moment, making sure to think of essential things that they would need no matter where they went.
"They should bring some food, probably enough for at least a week, but make sure they don't over pack. Aside from that, make sure that Pinkie brings her party cannon, we can convert that to a weapon if need be, Rainbow should bring a few weapons, seeing as she's been developing new kinds that may prove useful. Fluttershy can bring some medical equipment, whatever is small and helpful, we don't want to be weighed down after all. Apple Jack can bring cooking supplies for any food that needs to be warmed up or prepared, as well as some premade meals aside from the food we're already bringing. And Rarity should bring some of that armor she's been forging in her shop, she should have enough for all of us by now. I'll make sure to get all the equipment here working while you are gone. Don't be too long though, the Princess is counting on us Spike, and we can't let her down. "
Twilight finished her list, almost overloading Spike's brain, but half way through he started a list, making sure that he would remember every which thing she said. He knew getting to the houses of the others would be hard enough, he didn't need to worry about memorization. He breathed a slightly purple flame on it, sending it to a storage location so he could get it back later when he needed it. He saluted Twilight and ran up the stairs as she busily started working on the machines that were there. Twilight knew that Spike would face dangers out there as well, and could only hope that her assistant would be able to reach the others in time before the changelings caught onto her plan. Luckily, the two Princesses were out fighting, so the attack would at least be stalled in the immediate area, but Spike had a long ways to travel to find some of her friends.
The machines seemed to have locked onto the location of the queen and her servants that had been blasted away, but it wasn't a sure bet that they would emerge on the other side unharmed. Twilight gave the machine a test by throwing an apple and a camera into the teleporter that she had just finished working on. The camera was connected by a wire that hooked up to some of the monitors, and the apple tied to a string, so she could pull each of them back if need be. She looked on the screen, she saw the apple, the cable that had gotten in front of the camera, and a lot of sand. It was more sand than she had ever seen in her entire life, and just as she started to see out on the horizon, the camera overheated and shut down, nearly frying the recording equipment. Twilight didn't know where they were going, but it was a land much harsher than any of them had ever faced.
