For longer than Twilight could remember, she had been approaching her mistress with a single request. The routine was always the same: she would climb up to the black throne, bow as was expected and repeat the words: “Let me go.”
And for longer than Twilight could remember, the answer had been: “Never.”
Queen Chrysalis. Her captor. Her tormentor. The changeling that had taken her from her bright world and brought her down here, away from the sun, away from her friends and family, away from even her magic. Her horn was bound, her wings were wrapped in that changeling goo, the dignity and pride that should have come with her Alicorn status was long gone, all thanks to Her. Twilight wanted to hate her so much, wanted to just hate the mare who had enslaved her, but something in that forlorn look the queen got every night when she asked…
Shaking her head to clear it, Twilight returned her attention to the task at hoof. For the past couple weeks, she had been picking at the lock at the collar around her neck, and now she thought she finally had it. It was only logical: the only time she was left alone was for sleep periods, during which she was left chained up in a small bedroom, a padded metal collar locked around her neck. This, of course, would be her chance to escape. It was the only time she was left actually unobserved by the changeling guards, if she could just…
One more twist of the hairclip in her hooves, and the collar suddenly popped open and clattered to the ground, the long, twisted length of attached chain clanking with it. Twilight sighed with relief and rubbed at her neck, grateful to finally be free. At least that part had gone well. She had stolen the clip nearly a week ago while she was being led through the barracks, down to the mines where she spent her days. The work wasn’t nearly as hard as she’d thought it would be, and better yet, it cleared her head, giving her a chance to think while the meager magic she was allowed worked on clearing rocks for another group of changelings to begin work on the next tunnel.
Twilight didn’t know what the changelings were working on that required so many tunnels. Perhaps another route into Canterlot? Another way to conquer the city? Either way, she knew she couldn’t keep on like this; whatever the changelings were working on, Princess Celestia would have to be warned!
Escape while she was working would seem the obvious choice: it was the only time she was allowed any magic, albeit just a tiny bit. She’d been quick to dismiss that possibility, though. Any attempts to free up more of her magic would undoubtedly shoot up an alert to Chrysalis herself, and she was constantly surrounded by guards while she worked. A small army of them, in fact. If, by some miracle, she did manage to free her magic, she could never defeat the sheer amount of guards surrounding her before reinforcements arrived, and she was in no shape to take on the changeling army. So, a stealthy escape it would have to be, but even that would be terribly complicated.
The only time she was left alone for any length of time was right now, during what she could only assume was nighttime. Even though her magic was restrained the entire night and she was forced to wear the collar that kept her leashed to the wall, like some kind of pet, she knew it would have to do. Well, she had just taken care of the collar, but what now?
Tip-hoofing quietly, she slunk to the door, still aware that her magic was completely restrained. She could do nothing except crack it open and peek, praying she wouldn’t be noticed. Taking a deep breath, she slowly turned the door handle, surprised when it clicked open. Well, okay then. At least she wouldn’t have to put her newfound lockpicking skills to the test. She cracked the door open and peeked through, grimacing at the pair of changeling guards standing just outside. It may have only been two, but they could probably still call for help before she managed to defeat them. This would have to be quick, which meant being less gentle than she would usually care to be.
Yanking the door open, Twilight sprang at the guard nearest her like a coiled cobra. She struck him against the back of his head, knocking him out cold. The guard next to him proved to be a slight problem, but she easily back-flipped off that first stallion and landed on his back, only to discover that he was actually a her.
Blinking away her own surprise at her sudden gymnastic ability, Twilight remained focused on the changeling mare beneath her, clamping a hoof over the changeling’s muzzle and pinning her to the ground.
“P-please,” the mare quivered, but Twilight didn’t even give her an opportunity to finish the sentence before knocking her out with a hoof to the back of the head. With both changelings unconscious, she dragged them back into her room and bound them with her chain, locking it in place with the very same collar that had been used to contain her for weeks. The irony was not lost on her.
Returning to the door, Twilight crept into the hallway, her wing bindings actually working for her to keep her wings covered and inconspicuous. Again, irony. She easily navigated the halls into the large network of tunnels she was familiar with. Once there, she knew just one direction: up. She had to keep going up. She approached the first tunnel she’d ever noticed that led up, away from this level, which was the highest she’d been allowed to travel since being captured and enslaved by the changelings. She crept up the tunnel, mindful of any other changelings she might come across, and…
It was so exciting: a portal to another dimension! Something like that just appearing right in their own backyards, what were the odds? More importantly, what was beyond it? Oh, if only they could see…
Twilight blinked. What…what was that? A memory? Why had it just come to her now, out of the blue!? It had seemed pretty recent, which only made sense. She knew there was a gap in her memory from when the changelings had kidnapped her. All she remembered was going to sleep in her own palace one night, and waking up in this awful place. But just how big was that gap in her memory?
Twilight grimaced, her eyes burning with determination. Whatever spell the changelings had placed to lock up her memories, a little of it had come undone by ascending up these steps. Maybe whatever kept the spell in place was further on, deeper into the Hive, and the further from it she got the more of her memory would come unlocked? Either way, she knew she absolutely had to get out. Equestria was probably still in danger, and whatever was locked away in her memory might hold the key to saving it!
A few more minutes passed unhindered. Again, she blessed the bindings around her wings. She might have been tempted to take flight if the option hadn’t been taken from her. This way might have been slower, but it was certainly quieter. Besides, now she had time to slow down and think before the next memory got called…
They had learned so much! That portal’s mere presence had thrown Equestria’s understanding of magic ahead by centuries! And now, the readings coming off it must have meant something was coming through, something new…
She shook her head again. Seriously, what were these memories? They all centered around some portal popping up in Equestria…why? What was so special about a portal? Perhaps it was some strange, naturally-occurring one unlike any detailed in the Canterlot Archives? Or perhaps…
Her head swimming with questions, Twilight didn’t notice the changeling laborer trundling along with a couple buckets of gems until she was practically muzzle-to-muzzle with him, staring right into his eyes. The changeling blinked. She blinked back, a hoof still pressed to her chin in thought.
“Escape!” He screamed, turning to run. “The Princess has gotten…”
Once again, she didn’t give the changeling time to finish his sentence, bounding off the wall and coming down on his back as hard as she could, pressing him to the ground. Too late. She could hear shouts further on down the cavern, the clanking of armor, the stomp of hooves. Just great. Now, she wished for her wings to be unbound. Twilight took off at a dead gallop, shooting through the tunnels, praying for the strength to make it to the surface. At the very least, let her see the sun with her own two eyes before being dragged into the darkness again.
“Where is she!?” A voice cried faintly behind her.
“I can feel her emotions…she went this way!” Came a reply.
“Oh gods…if the Queen finds out we let her get this far…oh gods!”
Twilight focused all her might into galloping. She had never been much for physical activity, and now she regretted every day she’d spent ignoring her physical well-being in favor of her mental. Sure, a sharp mind had been her saving grace on more than one occasion, but fast hooves never hurt either. Oh, how she wished Rainbow or Applejack were here!
As she ran, she kept an ear out for the voices and hoofsteps thundering behind her. She had to know if the changelings were getting close. What’s more, she had to know if Chrysalis was joining the chase. She didn’t know what she’d do then, but it would have to be rather drastic. Much like this entire escape. But most of all, she had to ignore the snippets of unclear memory flashing before her eyes. There was no time to stop and piece them together, she would just have to wait to be out in the sunlight before trying to work it all out in her head. Though what she did have time to pick up wasn’t all that encouraging.
Lost…all hope…lost…
Rarity, just run! I’ll hold ‘em off, just…NO!
Kill me…oh Celestia and Luna please, kill me…
That last one almost made her pause in her step, despite knowing that would be the end of her escape. The changelings were almost on top of her now. Even the smallest trip-up would be enough for her to fall into captivity, inexplicable kung-fu powers or not. But she stayed on her hooves anyway. There seemed nothing else she could do.
Finally, a light appeared! At last! Ignoring the cries behind her, Twilight poured on whatever speed she had left in her body, ignoring the aches in her knees and the sweat matting her coat. All that mattered now was the light, feeling her mentor’s sun on her face again would set everything to rights, she just knew it would! Whatever was really going on, as long as she could feel that sun again, she would be able to piece it all together.
Oh Celestia, what is that thing!?
Breached! The castle walls have been breached! Oh Luna above, help us!
KILL ME! PLEAAASSSSEEE! JUST…
“Twilight! Stop!” Chrysalis’s voice! Ohnononono…this was bad! She was so close! She just had to…
Using whatever will she had left, Twilight summoned every scrap of magic the goo permitted. It turned out to be no more than was allotted during her hours toiling in the mines, but that was enough. If it could open up a cavern, it could close one up too. Twisting in place, she unleashed a single burst of magic at a spot of roof between herself and the changeling horde. There was a quick roar, then a crack, then the entire section of tunnel collapsed, creating a perfect blockade that would take the changelings hours to get through.
Oh Celestia, this is the end…they’re dead, the princesses are really dead…
Gritting her teeth, Twilight turned to the light. Whatever was going on, it would all be clear in a short while. All she had to do was take a few steps, and she would be in the sun again. Then everything would make sense, she felt it. So she ignored the twist of anxiety deep in her gut and the pleading voices on the other side of the barrier, begging her not to leave, probably out of desperation to keep her as a trophy. Fat chance of that.
Twilight trotted off, shaking her head with each new memory as it bombarded her skull.
Hell. It’s hell on the other side of that portal.
Celestia and Luna above…are you all seeing this? What is that thing!? WHAT IN…
She stumbled, losing her balance and slumping against the cave wall, dirtying her coat even more. Streaks of mud and dust clung to her, and for some reason, tears were soaking her cheeks. But she wouldn’t stop, she couldn’t because…
Because…
Dead. They’re all dead. Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow, Pinkie…all gone…what’s left?
“Nuh-no…” she mumbled, taking off for the light at top speed, desperately reaching for it, needing to drink in Celestia’s sun and gaze out over the green pastures of her homeland, because the alternative…the alternative…it couldn’t be true, it couldn’t be…
This is Princess Twilight Sparkle broadcasting on all magical frequencies: Equestria has fallen. I repeat, Equestria has fallen. To anypony left alive, listen to me. Don’t fight. You can’t fight them. Just run. Pick a direction and run. Doesn’t matter where. The Minotaur Lands, the Griffon Empire, hell, even the Changeling Badlands would be decent. Maybe they’ll have better luck fighting these things than we have, and a lifetime in a pod is a better choice than what THEY have in store for you.
One last thing: if THEY are about to capture you, kill yourself. That would be better too. That is all. Goodbye…oh Celestia and Luna, no…get off me, please…no! NO! LET GO OF ME NO PLEASE…
Twilight looked out from the top of the changeling hive, perched on a charred, scraggly remnant of rock. Her chest heaved, her cheeks soaked with tears. A scorched hellscape stretched out in every direction. Twisted remnants of trees barely poked out of the tortured land next to the dried mud patches that had once been lakes and rivers. At the base of the mountain stood what had to be the ruins of Sugarcube Corner, the patched-together, shaky wooden structure the only thing recognizable. Celestia only knew where her old library, her palace, and her friend’s houses would be.
All at once, Twilight Sparkle sank to her haunches, weeping openly as it all came to her.
The portal had opened up just outside Canterlot last summer. Celestia knows why. Perhaps it was a weird twist in the interdimensional magics, or perhaps it was created by someone…or more accurately, something…on the other side. Either way, the initial reaction had been of mixed curiosity and wariness. The thing had the potential to throw understanding of teleportation magic ahead by decades, if not centuries, even if nopony could say what might have created it.
Then it actually opened, and all hell came pouring through. Leather-winged things with razor-sharp talons and eyes as black as night, tentacle-covered things that oozed acid from every pore, creatures with eight arms clenching a sword each, fat-blanketed things the size of villages with mouths like caverns, lined with razor-sharp teeth.
Fluttershy was the first to go. Despite the things’ horrifying appearances, she’d had a reputation as a tamer of beasts to uphold. The winged demons ripped her to shreds and spread her bits all across the countryside, as if in warning. After that, the guard had gotten involved, as had her friends. They’d all been torn apart, the “battles” with the demons nothing short of massacres. Any attempt to stand and fight with sword, magic, or weather control had become a bloodbath. The very next day, Canterlot fell. Twilight wished the Princesses had merely been killed, but no, they had to be made an example of…there had been things done to them, horrible things that exploited every hole in their bodies with precision that suggested practice, and it only got worse when the demons had realized how durable the pair were…
Oh Lulu…kill me. Please, just kill me…
One by one, her friends had stood. One by one, they each had fallen, each death longer and more drawn-out than the last. It seemed as though the demons learned with each life they took, figuring out how much pain a pony could take and still live.
The Elements did nothing, even with what magic they could summon without Fluttershy. In the end, it had just been Twilight making one final transmission from the basement of her ruined palace, a transmission that led the things outside straight to her. Oh, if only the pain had ended there…
What followed was weeks of torture and imprisonment, right in the Canterlot dungeons. Her horn was snapped off at the base when she’d first been captured, and even that horrible pain had been nothing compared to the weeks she’d spent bound in barbed wire, kept alive on a steady diet of blood and raw flesh forced down her throat, dreading every night when her tormenters would randomly visit with tortures that were brilliant in their ability to break her both mentally and physically…
Twilight looked out over the edge of the cliff. Straight drop to the twisted rocks below. Okay, that was good. With her magic and wings still restrained, there’d be no backing out. Somewhere in another world, she heard something break, a crash, a dozen voices screaming her name. Didn’t matter. That was someplace else now. Someplace that didn’t matter.
Twilight just dropped. She simply leaned forward and went over the edge, dropping away. She anticipated the rocks far below with a tiny smile, the tears peeling away from her face from the wind now. She fell, and the last memory before her mind was suppressed reappeared in her mind’s eye:
The day she’d heard voices up above was the day it all ended. It could have been a year, it could have been a century after she’d been imprisoned, she’d never cared to keep track. After losing her friends, why would she? Then came footsteps on the stairs. She’d risen to her hooves, as instructed whenever the things upstairs wanted their fun, and a changeling had appeared before her instead.
The drop continued. Gossamer wings rustled overhead.
”Holy hell, we found one!” The changeling gasped, turning back upwards. “Everyone! We found one! Somepony’s alive down here!”
“What?” Then, Chrysalis herself appeared before her, looking over Twilight as if she were a bipedal, talking monkey. “Dearest Maker above, it’s Twilight Sparkle.”
“H-how? How is she still alive? Oh sweet chitin, look at her wings…look what they did to her wings…”
“I…I don’t know, my little drone…Sparkle? Sparkle, are you…”
The rocks approached. Twilight closed her eyes.
”…and, there!” The nurse minotaur took a step back. “That should be the last of the barbed wire.”
“Ye gods,” the diamond dog next to her shook his big, shaggy head. “Didn’t think the ugly-ones left any of the royals alive.”
“This is good,” the griffon joining them said, her head lifting in hope while she stroked her silken feathers. “If she’s royal, she’s strong. She can help take back the city.”
The ground shook, and the small group looked up towards the ceiling with wary glances. “It’s as good an idea as any, so long as it spares more of my changelings from dying at the hands of these abominations,” Chrysalis said, and the others nodded their agreement. Twilight took note of the scuffs and dents in Chrysalis’s chitin, the bags under the minotaur female’s eyes, the loose feathers covering the griffon’s coat. This was a group that had been through a long, hard war.
But Twilight had been through hell. She was done fighting.
“Okay Sparkle, look, I know we’ve had our differences, but now’s the time to put them aside,” Chrysalis said, reaching to one of her guards and retrieving a crossbow. “It’s the final push, and then we’ll be rid of these monstrosities and finally be able to rebuild, but we could use your help. Your horn still looks damaged, but do you think you could use this?”
Twilight took the crossbow when it was offered. Her thousand-yard-stare rolled down to it, then back up to the changeling. She nodded, her jaw still hanging agape.
“Good,” Chrysalis nodded, then turned back to confide with the others. “We still need to drive for the palace, once we have that the city’s ours.”
“It’ll be a damned slaughter,” the griffon pointed out. “The Unholy occupy every structure along every street we could use, they’ll be pouring fire onto us the entire way.”
“This whole damned war has been a slaughter!” The diamond dog shouted, thundering his huge fist against a table. “The sooner we end it, the more lives we’ll save!”
“What’s the point though, if…”
Twilight was only half-listening. Her attention was focused on the crossbow. What little was left of her sanity knew what had to happen. Some deep, part of her gasped at the mention of this, flooding her with disgust, but she ignored it. She cocked the weapon.
The dog’s ear twitched. He turned, his eyes widening.
Twilight’s eyes opened to slits. The rocks were close now. It would be any moment.
The dog gasped as Twilight lifted the crossbow, pressing the tip of the bolt against the fleshy patch of skin beneath her own chin.
“TWILIGHT!” A voice cried somewhere behind her.
Oh no, not her. Not again.
”TWILIGHT!” That same voice cried as the group realized what was happening. Chrysalis lunged. Twilight raised a hoof to the trigger.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, both now and then. “I just can’t. Not without them. I’m not strong enough.”
She increased the pressure on the trigger, feeling it start to give. It was stiffer than she’d thought it would be, but then she’d never been interested in triggered weapons such as this.
She leaned forward, hastening her fall. This was taking longer than she’d thought, or perhaps that was just in her head?
Whatever…
…it would…
…all be over…
…soon. Twilight leaned forward, and felt…
…something was blocking the trigger….
…something snatched her out of mid-air. Twilight opened her eyes. Chrysalis stood over her, pinning her against the rock, her breath coming out in rapid gasps.
“Twilight, please,” she whispered. “Please, just stop. We need you back. We all need you back.”
Twilight regarded Chrysalis with that thousand-yard stare.
“Twilight, please!” In a flash of green flame, Chrysalis transformed into a carbon copy of Celestia. “We’re changelings! We can be anypony you want! We’ll do anything you want! But we need you to bring back Equestria, we need you to help rebuild, please!”
Sniffling, Celestia’s form vanished in a burst of green fire. Chrysalis pressed herself against Twilight. “Please, just tell me what you want. Please, I need you.”
Slowly, Twilight wrapped her hooves around the Queen. “Let me go,” she whispered.
Sniffling, the Queen pressed a kiss to the fallen Princess’s forehead and nuzzled her cheek. “Never,” she whispered back.
For longer than Twilight could remember, she had been approaching her mistress with a single request. The routine was always the same: she would climb up to the black throne, bow as was expected and repeat the words: “Let me go.”
And for longer than Twilight could remember, the answer had been: “Never.”
Queen Chrysalis. Her captor. Her tormentor. The changeling that had taken her from her bright world and bought her down here, away from the sun, away from her friends and family, away from even her magic. Her horn was bound, her wings were wrapped in that changeling goo, the dignity and pride that should have come with her Alicorn status was long gone, all thanks to Her. Twilight wanted to hate her so much, wanted to just hate the mare who had enslaved her, but something in that forlorn look the queen got every night when she asked…
Please, just tell me what you want. Please, I need you.
Shaking her head to clear it, Twilight returned her attention to the task at hoof. For the past couple weeks, she had been picking at the lock at the collar around her neck, and now she thought she finally had it. It was only logical: the only time she was left alone was for sleep periods, during which she was left chained up in a small bedroom, a padded metal collar locked around her neck. This, of course, would be her chance to escape. It was the only time she was left actually unobserved by the changeling guards, if she could just…
