"Are you sure this is the way through?" The cautious Bloom asked the almost strutting Star Shine as Luna held tightly to Lyric's pant-leg. The group had wandered from the White Tail Woods to the back roads of Ponyville at Star's request of taking her 'cool' way home and through the dark alleyways of the small town's most frightful area; one that children were to stay away from in fear of seeing something they wouldn't wish to, or meet somepony that wasn't exactly... Proper.

"Are you sure we should even be here right now..?" Celestia worried to the obnoxious grey filly.

"Oh don't be such a lame-o, Tia. It's not like we aren't going to get there or something; if anything it's a shortcut." She told her friend sternly and snootily. She had taken the alleyways so many times there's no way she could get lost... At least, that's what she told herself.

Back At The Castle

"FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS PONY, WHY ARE THEY STILL CIRCLING?!" The king screamed at the top of his lungs, looking as frightened as he ever had before; and for good reason, too. There was now a total of five Phoenix's circling the top of their grand chandelier, circling over and over, waiting for the rest of their kind to show.

Queen Galaxia was like a kid in a candy shop. She didn't know which was better; the fact that she had actual Phoenix's inside her castle, acting as dossile as a lamb; or the fact that her husband was near weeping point. "This is the most brilliant thing to ever happen to us! I can't believe it, I can't believe it!" She hollered like a school-filly.

You see, Galaxia was in charge of all the life that was needed to grow and thrive; meaning she could feel the very life-force of almost every creature and life form. This was incredibly hard to deal with as everything must come to an end; all life dies throughout every day we live, and she feels every moment of it. After millenia with dealing with her power and realizing that this is a way of life; the Queen of Equis came to terms that all things, even loved ones, must come to an end eventually. The only creatures to have ever slipped by her sight have showed themselves in the passed week... And now there was another four right above her; living, breathing, Phoenix that have the power to hide their own energy without even trying. This was her nirvana.

An Hour and Exactly Forty Two Minutes Later

"If you just admit you're lost, I'm positive we can get home..." Bloom told her small companion leading the pack.

"I'm not going to admit anything, because I know where we are!" Star said loudly enough to cause them to almost backpedal.

They had been going in circles for almost two whole hours now, looping around the same dirty and grungy looking alleyways. Eventually Celestia got tired of all the filth they had been walking in and put a very easy encasement spell on her hoovelets; the smaller princess choosing a much different route.

"I still don't know why you like it up there so much..." Lyric tried to say in any way that wasn't a happy tone as he tried his hardest not to break a smile at the tiny filly princess dangling her fore-hooves of his face and playing with his stands of brown hair.

"Because I can do dis!"She said incredibly cutely as the small filly puffed up his hair in a ball and started forming it into the shape of a doll and leaning it forward to show Lyric.

The rest of them chuckled immediately, spare Star who was struggling to the highest degree. "Oh. Well then, by all means~" Lyric told her in his most royal of voices with a stare at his new appendage sticking out his head.

Star began to get worried and looked back at the ponies following her lead, giving a less than hopeful stare at them right before she bumped into something... Or somepony. "Oof!" She collided and rubbed her nose, looking straight at the foreign object she had just bumped into.

It was a rather average looking stallion turned the other way. His coat was a deep orange with a rusty mane that look haggard and torn; almost barely hanging on like a rat tail dangling over his nape. He slowly turned and faced the group of ponies, a sly smile of greed ever-plastered on his unknown visage. "Why hello, little ponies... What brings you to my side of town?" He asked in a strange way, almost as if his question wasn't real; a deceit to draw them in.

"U-uhm... H-hello Sir..." Star stammered as she realized how much bigger he was than them.

"Oh my, you seem to have run right into me, haven't you?" He said with his grin gleaming in the growing darkness around the town. It was at least five in the afternoon now, and it was already beginning to slowly become sunset; the light still around but casting an eerie red and orange glow across the land.

"I-I'm v-very s-s-s-sorry s-s-s-s-s.." Star was too terrified to talk. Her parents always told her to never walk down the back alleys in case there was dangerous ponies, but she had never run into them before, so why now? Why now!? She screamed in her mind.

"Oh please, don't be so scared my dear. I don't think I'm all that scary." He said as he began to take a step towards her, leaning down to take a look at the filly. That's when a certain sight caught his attention; two little princesses and not a guard in sight... Perfect for a low life; and he was most definitely a low life.

Lyric stood as still as a wooden board. He had seen this look in many Zebra and creatures he studied in the woods; this was the look of evil in a ponies heart. He knew this feeling he was getting from inside this pony... "Hello mister." He said with a hand outwards to shake.

The stallion gave a slight eyebrow raise as he had just noticed this bipedal thing with a royal atop his head. His smile only grew in surprise and greed. "Hello there, who might you be, my boy?" He asked as he very slowly shook the child's hand.

"I'm Lyric." He stated sternly, not a sound of happiness or joy left in his words. The others instantly noticed this and all stared at each other in worry. "You're not going to." He told him, still shaking his hoof in his hand.

The stallion's eyes opened fully from their half closed position and his smile almost wavered. "Not going to do what, child?" The rusty stallion started to have his words more firm now.

"You aren't allowed to have them." Lyric said as angry as possible.

Now it was the stallions turn to laugh whole-heartily, "Hahahaha. You could tell, couldn't you? I always let it slip when the children are around me..." His image changed to a unicorn with green hair and dark yellow coat. "It's honestly too bad no one will see me. I think I would like to be known as the one who got away with the princesses own crowns!" He quickly yanked on Lyric's arm but Lyric was fast; he knew what his plan was the very moment he looked at them and tossed Luna off his head, directly into Celestia and was pulled right over the stallions shoulder, sending him flying... Or so the stallion thought.

"You can't get rid of me that easy." The small boy said as he held on to his hoof, trying to pull the stallion over his own shoulders but he wasn't strong enough, not by far. The changing stallion yanked back the other way and made Lyric slam into the coarse gravel-dirt alley, leaving him winded and coughing on the ground.

"My my... A young knight I see. I was wrong when I thought there wasn't a guard around, now wasn't I?" He smiled with an evil glare and stood atop Lyric, closing his lungs and reprieving him of oxygen. He walked right over the young boy's chest and back-kicked a small amount of dirt into his face, now only a few feet from the huddled fillies; terrified and scared for their own lives.

"P-p-please s-stop... I have bits! I have lots of bits!" Celestia tried to reason with him one last time before she knew he would try something else.

"Oh you royals are all alike, you know that? You think the world revolves around bits; the currency your family produces. Not everything in this world is bits, little brat." He snarled, creating a wall to part the other three fillies trying to block the robber from the ones they knew he wanted. They were forced back onto the wall without pain, simply being held there to cry out to the coming sunset; to call for anypony that might hear and come to their aid.

As he reached for the youngest princess, making her eyes erupt in a fountain of pained tears and cry out for their mother, a small hand yanked his stringy mane down roughly to meet eye to eye with an extremely angry Lyric; eyes wide and bloodshot from his pain and fear. "If you touch her I swear to the gods I will bury you in the dirt." He growled at the stallion, reaching into his chest pocket and taking out the small metal ball, seeming to constantly rotate even though it was solid and formed a fist around it, punching his eyeball with all his might and slid back in front of his sisters, arms stretched out with fists clenched to protect his family.

The pony of a thousand faces changed yet again, holding his eye and howling in pain, trying to open it but all he saw was black when he tried to see. Now he was that of a large blue and lime green pony with a full mane and anger to match his size. "You little piece of scum. You dare you get in my way?!" He screamed in frustration, having to work for his prize. "I admire your spunk child, not to mention your magic, but it isn't I who will be buried this day." He swore to him.

Lyric didn't move a muscle; unwavering in his strife and standing between his loved ones and certain death. It wasn't the first time and it will certainly not be the last time that Lyric will protect those closest to his heart. "If you want what they hold, you have to take care of me first." He even grew a tiny smile, "Filth." He finished.

"Urrgh!" The stallion shot a powerful vibration spell towards the trio, causing Lyric to have to dive with his sisters to the side, almost nearly being shot in any direction by the spell that bounced shrapnel everywhere from the wooden fence it exploded. This was beginning to irritate the pony above them.

"Quickly. Go. NOW." He yelled at his sisters, making them jump at his harsh words but none the less they tried to stand; they couldn't. They were too scared, Celestia's legs couldn't even move; she was almost going limp in terror. Seeing this, Lyric only had one choice. He placed his fingers together and whistled as loud as he could, a high-note being the very key in the whistle causing the stallion's magic to waver and his hooves to cover his ears. They all had to cover their ears from the sound.

"What in the world is that sound!?" Eternia almost screamed as he covered his ears with his queen following suit. For the first time in hours, Philomena stopped dead in her tracks making the current rulers stare up as she almost looked to be falling down through the air, she suddenly stopping the flapping of her wings; dive-bombing the ground and screeching as she shot out straight in a powerful spiral directly through the door as her flames became huge, burning a perfect hole through the center of their main door and shot through the castle, defying speed and sound as she went around the halls, calling out to her brethren as she shot out the castle walls and right out to the sky, calling upon the help of her family; to save her family. The others quickly followed suit, dive-bombing the ground one after the other almost identically. The rulers were at a loss but the most horrible feeling welled up inside Galaxia as she remembered Lyrics whistles when they met.

"THE CHILDREN!" She screamed as she tried bolting after the birds, being held back by her husband. "WHY, WHY DO YOU HOLD ME BACK?!" She screamed in horror.

His stoic face should have been enough. "Have you felt them?" He stated. Her mind was racing and her magic lit up almost instantly after he asked the absurd question and she slowly let her strength fade; for he was right... They haven't been harmed... But for how long will that stay? She wondered to him in her own brain, knowing he knew her well enough to read it.

As the phoenix's sped their way towards the oncoming storm of savior, their flames grew and grew until the birds almost tripled in size; five nearly fully grown phoenix on their way to save a lone child in battle.

"I will beat you with my very hooves if I have to!" The steed continued to fire bolts of magic towards the boy; Lyric had to abandon his sisters and simply dodge and keep the older pony away from them as much he could. He jumped in the air three feet, letting the freeze bolt that would have frozen him solid only grab hold of his right foot and drag him right back down. The unknown stallion crushed the child's frozen foot under his weight until her heard the ice shatter as well as the boy's ankle.

"Arhhhhhhhhhh!" Lyric screamed out in pain; his sisters wailing in a ball as their friends grabbed them and begun dragging them away, inch by inch.

"Oh no you little bastards don't! Those are mine!" He yelled at the foals, charging straight at them until he swatted Blossom and star away, leaving Bloom to scream and let her waterworks flow freely. He picked her up and tossed her to the side with the others; the group of friends now stark scared, none of them even able to move a millimeter. "I'm taking these and nothing is going to stop me, you hear me? NOTHING." He barked.

Lyric's saving grace was coming in hot. Extremely hot. "Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!" The legendary birds let out their warning call and swooped down, picking up Celestia and Luna in a heart beat as Celestia's leg was burnt with a small feather imprint, and glided into the air immediately. Not a second after, the rest of the foals began to be picked up until there was only Lyric and the low-life mugger left. The stallion had no idea what was happening; one minute he was about to rip the very crowns of princesses off and the next, he's jumping back in agony from being lit on fire and singed from birds lit up like a torch that carries foals into the sky... His entire form shook, "You did this," He cracked his neck towards Lyric. "Didn't you?" He seethed.

Lyric smiled and coughed, his chest immensely hurting from the constant abuse of the stallions own legs. "I... I don't know what you're talking about, haha- ow - ha... I only knew about... The one..." He laughed in pain, smiling up to his family being taken back in the direction of the castle by the only living thing he would trust with his own life as well. "It's too bad." He smiled, " I would have liked to be known as the one that stopped the low-life that tried to steal the princesses crowns..."

This was the final straw, the stallion could take no more from this boy. He stood in front of him and raised his right leg high above Lyric's head. "You die here child."

"YOU WILL NOT TOUCH A SINGLE SOUL IN THIS WORLD EVER AGAIN, Sharp Change." A horrifying and deep voice bellowed through the town like a rolling thunder; the stallion jumping back in fear as a dark cloud formed in front of him. King Eternia slowly coming into view from the smoke as he walked out of it; every step he took sounded like that of a lightning strike and every second he looked into his eyes, he could see himself burning. "FOR CRIMES AGAINST THE VERY LIFE I SWORE TO PROTECT THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO, I BANISH THEE TO THE VERY DEPTHS OF TARTARUS!" The kings horn was enveloped in a black smoke that grew and grew spinning around the ivory, even seeming to move on its own as a large skeleton leg appeared. The pony was crying and screaming for his very life while clawing desperately at the wall of the alleyway, but it was no use for as soon as he was touched by the bone, he vanished in smoke and his very existence disappeared from this world.

The town grew completely silent almost as if even sound had been stopped, nothing being heard as Eternia sucked back his magic and power, his eyes losing the fire of the depths and smoke receding back into him; leaving it as if nothing had ever happened there. He exhaled a green smoke and quickly rushed down to Lyric and immediately started healing him. "Lyric, can you hear me? Please tell me you're alright son, please, say something!" He all but begged with his hooves holding his sons shoulders tightly.

Lyric looked up from his position and smiled faintly, "Hey dad..." He spoke, trying to put his hand closer to Eternia's face. "What're yo'... doing 'ere..?" He spoke faintly.

"Don't move, Lyric. Your body has been seriously injured, what were you thinking? You have at least three broken ribs, your ankle is shattered and I can feel your shoulder is dislocated... Why? Why would you do that..?" He asked the young boy for an explanation.

"I promised 'una... I'd... always 'e 'ere... For 'er..." He managed to get out before passing out from exhaustion and pain, leaving the King to worry even further.

"LYRIC!" He yelled to the heavens as he teleported them both into the throne room; Galaxia waiting with a bed and various spells she knew could create regeneration on any living form of life... All there was to do now was wait for him to wake up

Galaxia weaved her pristine white wisps of regeneration magic into his poor body and spoke slowly. "He's going to be alright..." Eternia sighed deeply in happiness.

"Oh thank you... Thank you..." He spoke to the ceiling above.

"I could feel him..." Galaxia spoke, "I was able to feel Lyrics life-force for a total of ten minutes..." Eternia looked down at her and raised his eyebrow. "He was more powerful than me..." She said breathlessly.

Author's Note

I apologize to any who were reading during the random deletion of the chapter. It was for a reader who claimed I didn't have an update. ENJOY!