Of time and hatred- Book 1: “Preparing the stage”

by JoseLVG

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure
Length: 12794

The calm had reing in Equestria for a while until a common night is disturbed by a group of mysterious ponies bursting into Twilight's castle, starting a chain of events that will show Equestria is in danger again, from the inside...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XugU_7HLF2rMNT7juHwKqw80nKf9uCRaCUa5rWhcbds/edit?usp=sharing

The calm had reing in Equestria for a while until a common night is disturbed by a group of mysterious ponies bursting into Twilight's castle, looking for Twilight magical mirror and probably something else, but when their mission complicates, the night suddenly turned into a race between this group and the main six, this will just start a chain of events that will show Equestria is in danger again, from the inside…

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-10-29 07:25:32 UTC

Test 1: Infiltration

The night falls upon Ponyville, the moon bright in the sky and the stars decors everything with a thrilling perfection, Princess Luna might fell specially magnanimous today, everything looks so calm, so peaceful that anyone would even think that something would disturb this beautiful scene, unfortunately this night and this very moment were perfect for a group of unseen silhouettes that swiftly move across the town heading to Twilight’s castle, which they reach in few minutes.

Just as they arrived to the innocently unguarded castle, they scattered into several points below the castle and, at the signal of one of them, everyone take out crossbows loaded with hooks and shoot to the castle cornices, after securing the rope lines, they start they ascension in complete silence and carefully enter the little and charming castle, inside of it their form could be seen more clearly, a group compose of land ponies and unicorns suited in a form of dark colored armor with their snouts fully covered leaving at sight only their eyes, the one that has previously give the signal enter the last and the unit had completely entered the castle, 4 ponies, the last one, the leader, a tall and slender land pony, look steadily  at them, signalize with the head one of them, a unicorn, this one immediately move one step forward, took a deep breath and the tip of the horn start to glow very softly and a decided and clear feminine voice came out of her snout whispering, at the time she point with her hoof to the left of the corridor:

-This way, follow me-

And the group starts to move fast but carefully enough to make very little sound, they seem to move almost across the entire castle, every corner is a turn: left, right, up, down; they seem to be lost, and the guiding unicorn was always looking to the central walls of the castle like looking for something that obviously wasn’t there; but suddenly she stopped, turned to a door on her left side, look to the group an signal with the head to the door; immediately the group took positions on the door sides, two on each side, the leader do a signal strongly raising the right leg and the enter the room like a lightning.

Despite they wait to find a type of security measure on the room it wasn’t, in fact it was just a “simple” library, very big yes but a library after all, after look around for some seconds, still searching for any sort of security, they approach their objective: the magic mirror.

Once in front of the mirror, everyone starts to look it confused, especially the set of devices around it, then, like an expression of the collective bewilderment, the subordinate land pony said, trying to reduce the volume of his deep voice, that match perfectly his big and muscular body:

-What’s all this? We never received information of… that things-

In that moment he was interrupted by the second unicorn of the team, who spoke with an eloquent academic- like voice, like if he was a professor at a college:

-We could still remove the mirror from those devices, after all the magical component is the mirror… as far as we know-

-And I suppose you know how to do it, “Shimi”-

Immediately replied the guide unicorn to her companion, who response just a second later to this arrogant sentence:

-No I don’t, but if you give me some time and with your help “Compass” I could find the way to…-

-Does your arrogance know no limits?!-

Compass said, interrupting again to her companion. Before Shimi and Compass start arguing, the biggest one of the team stops them, again lowering the volume of his voice:

-Stop! We don’t have time to loose arguing here, remember?-

Both understand and calm themselves, after check that they were back to normal he continued:

-Good, now… our only chance to accomplish this mission is to let Shimi find a way to take the mirror out from those devices and help him how we can-

Just when Compass and Shimi were about to start arguing again, a clear feminine voice said shortly:

-Or maybe we have another option-

It was the leader, who has been watching the mirror since they find it. The rest of the team look at her, intrigued, meanwhile she continued explaining:

-Pops is right about we don’t have time to lose arguing, but also we don’t have time to explore all this machinery and separate its components one by one-

After a few seconds of silence Shimi asked in a paused, intrigued way:

-And… what’s that other option? Commander

The commander calmly continues explaining to her ponies:

-Like you said Shimi, the magical component is the mirror but what we know is that the glass is the only magical part, so we can take the glass from the mirror and leave the castle-

Then all of them replied, complementing each other with almost perfect timing, saying the following phrases.

Compass: But we could break the whole mirror in the process.

Shimi: Or make the glass loose it’s magic, making it useless

Pops: And we would need to be more delicate carrying the lone glass, we would still lose time.

In that instant the Commander turned in front of her ponies and she stared at them while she said:

-What is our motto?-

The team looks stunned at her but remain in silence which only made her to ask with an angry tone the same:

-WHATS OUR MOTTO?-

Now the team members stand at attention while they said the following words in a similar way to their last answer, taking turns:

Shimi: Dare

Pops: Adapt

Compass: Succeed

Then the Commander proudly lifted her head, stared them again, and in emphatic fashion said:

-So let’s dare our chances here, adapt to our situation, and succeed in this our task-

-Am I right?!

She decidedly spoke to her ponies, and these answered her with the same decision:

-Yes ma’am-

And with these words they put their hoofs on work; since Pops and the Commander weren’t precisely the most qualified for delicate duties but were the strongest of the team they will only hold the glass and be the responsible of carrying it outside the castle, being careful of not breaking it, this would mean that during the extraction they will surely need to move slower than the originally planned but more importantly that Compass an Shimi will have to work together in both, the removing of the glass from the frame and covering the Commander and Pops during the transportation and extraction of it, in order to do that both, Compass and Shimi, would need to work together, similar to the original idea of Shimi, much for Compass’s regret.

Meanwhile they were in the removing process Compass stared at full moon, apparently thinking, Shimi, that noticed this situation, spoke to her the following words in a singed tone, taking her out of its “trance”:

-“You will have your pony, brown skin”-

In that moment, Compass stops watching the moon, cleared her mind a little bit and turned to Shimi as she ask:

-Uh, what? What do you said?-

Shimi immediately answered:

-You were conjuring the moon or Luna, and I humbly tried to give you an answer-

Compass did a question face and, after a few seconds, asked again:

-Yeah but, why did you said that?

-Oh, because I supposed that you were looking for love that makes a mare-

Calmly answered Shimi, answer that obviously didn’t was well received by Compass who almost launches herself against her fellow as she said:

-You son of a …..!-

(Click)

And the glass was successfully separate from the frame, interrupting the raging act from Compass, giving to her no option but to left aside this until the mission is over.

The commander and Pops hold the glass, carefully assumed their positions for transporting the “objective”, one holding the top and the other holding the bottom, Shimi and Compass also assumed their positions for covering their companions, now with everyone in position the group could advance out of the library, and so they did, but, at the moment they cross the entrance and turn following the direction of Compass who apparently was the guide again, a magical wall appear in front of their eyes at the same moment an angered female voice screams:

-ALL OF YOU STOP!-

As they can no longer continue with their path blocked, they effectively stopped in that moment and stand stunned for a few seconds, after whom Shimi and Compass turned to see each other, like trying to say with their glances: “It is she”, in that same instant the voice speak again, with the same previous anger:

-Who are you and what are you doing with Princess Celestia’s magic mirror?!-

There was no doubt, that voice could only come from one pony; so after the Commander and Pops put the glass down the whole team turned to see the pony that stopped: the Princess Twilight Sparkle, who stand right there in front of them with a firm look in her eyes, a strong breathing that could be seen at the distance, and standing ready to attack. Twilight speaks again immediately, this time could be perceived that she was threatening her home invaders:

-ANSWER ME! Who are you and what are you doing with Princess Celestia’s magic mirror?!-

The whole team just stands there, in silence, meanwhile Compass and Shimi look to each other and their companions worriedly, the Commander and Pops just look at the Princess with the same decision she look at them. The tension was growing each second, the confrontation start to feel inevitable, and even if the team defeats Twilight it was still the possibility of she have already call for help which will mean their doom, the same could be told for Twilight’s case even if the help could come it surely will took some time and that leaves her in danger in the meanwhile.

However before the situation breakout and the fight explode Shimi decided to answer the princess’s questions like he was doing an exposition:

-Well in the order you asked them, my codename is “Shimi”, the mare by my side is “Compass”, the big one behind me is “Pops” and the last one but most important is the Commander “Phantom”; oh and what we are doing is transport the mirror’s glass out of the castle because of the… “Particular” modifications that you did to the mirror-

-Now that we have answered your questions your majesty, could you please quit the magical wall you have put in our way-

At the same moment he said this, Shimi bowed properly putting his head down, making his horn touch the floor. His words produce a weird reaction in Twilight, who don’t know if feel even more angry or feel satisfied with the actually respectful answer, however due to the time she take to consider this the team interpreted their silence and expressed in the following way:

-Oh, so you won’t- say Shimi, and continued:

-In that case we have to…-

And suddenly the Commander Phantom interrupted with a direct order:

-Compass, now!-

In that moment Compass shot a magical energy ray from her horn directly to Twilight, the ray flight swiftly and almost hit twilight, if not was just cause she move just in time to avoid being impacted, however when she moved the magical wall give signs of vanishing as she lose some concentration put in that spell to dodge the attack, but before twilight could recover her posture, part of the floor start to glow in a distinct way, caused by the spell Shimi have just used at the moment he distracted Twilight and it was intended to produce an explosion, fortunately Twilight know what it means and at that moment she teleport herself a few feet backward just before the explosion happened, she was safe but to teleport herself she have to quit the magical wall.

In the moment the wall was gone Commander Phantom ordered Pops to attack Twilight: -Pops, charge!

Thereupon Pops rush towards Twilight when she was trying to stand on her hoofs and tackle her crashing the princess directly in the castle wall, in that same moment Commander Phantom order Shimi and Compass to carry with their magic the glass out, but in that same moment shot a ray to get Pops off her, making both of them to doubt in continue with the order they have just received, it was in that moment that Commander Phantom stand proudly in front of them and calmly but decidedly said:

-Go!-

-I’ll handle this-

And with that words this two members of the team, sure that their backs are covered, continue with their new task at the same moment that their commander turn back, look at her pony standing in front of the princess just after he dodge on attack of their enemy and prepare herself, just as Princess Twilight and Pops seem to be doing so, to face the fight, in more than one sense, that was about to begin.

But when the fight was about to begin, Twilight barely glimpses how the other two thieves take part of her beloved mentor’s mirror and said:

-I have no time for this-

Therefore she teleport just behind Commander Phantom to start pursuing the forenamed thieves, however the Commander have other plans in mind and when she saw Twilight vanishes she confidently jump turning backward and landed with her hind legs directly on Twilight’s head just in the moment she appeared at the same time she cry in anger, when the Commander’s hoofs kick Twilight’s head, her face distorted and it almost lost its shape at the moment it hit the ground, and her action was properly crowned by the painful scream of Twilight after been attacked.

With Twilight stopped from catching the rest of her unit, Commander Phantom took her from the tail with her snout and throws her back to Pops, who at the signal of his commander kick Twilight just like Applejack kicks a tree for the apples, making her feel like she was going to broke her spine would split in half, making her scream of pain again while she was getting literally her ass kicked, crashing her on the roof.

After Twilight stop screaming Phantom approach where she was, look at the brutalized princess, give a signal to her companion, and immediately after she jump to Pops who used his front legs to impulse her easily to Twilight who she took from her tail with the snout while staying in the air for a few seconds and throw her again to Pops, who was about to kick her again with his hind legs, but just before he kicked the princess again, Twilight open her eyes, looking directly to Pops, and teleport herself right in front of him and, barely standing and with an angry expression on her face, cast a magical energy wave that send flying both of her foes, who hit the floor some meters away.

A few seconds after they have been surprised by the still combative, and conscious, princess’s counterattack, Commander Phantom and Pops stand up while look to each other surprised, and in the case of Commander Phantom also pleased by Twilight’s resistance and power, and then both turned on Twilight, who was still trying to stay standing, after a few seconds she could stand firmly and look in an even more firm way the two foes she have in front of her and angrily said:

-If you want to fight, then you’ll get a fight!-

These words were well received by her two opponents who, after all, were fine doing a prolonged fight as they were trying to make some tome for their companions, and gather some extra information about from the princess personally; after a few seconds of thinking Twilight give her very last words before she actually start fighting:

-You will pay for what you done to my castle, to princess Celestia’s mirror, and TO ME!-

Pops and the Commander put in guard, as this last one subtly smile, and the fight resumed. This time Twilight did the first move and shot a magical light beam from her horn directly to her enemies, Phantom and Pops avoid it just in time and run toward her for counterattack, as they run, Twilight shot again and hold her beam against the faster and more mobile Commander Phantom, of who Twilight need just a few painful actions to have an idea of how dangerous this particular enemy can be; when it seems that Twilight got cornered her first target, this pony slid across the floor just below the powerful beam to Pops who took her from the tail with his snout and throw his commander, who would use the impulse to deliver a stronger hit, the same way she did before with Twilight, who have just stopped shooting her beam, and immediately took off the ground and fly avoiding the attack.

Phantom leaned on the castle wall that was behind Twilight; jump a little backward and swiftly landed on the floor, as Pops roped Twilight when she turned to attack them again, he pull the rope to bring Twilight down, but she teleport herself again out of Pops sight, however in that moment the Commander Phantom shout:

-Behind you Lieutenant!-

Pops immediately turned back and saw Twilight aiming at him, with her horn glowing, and he instinctively react by blocking directly her horn using his own hoofs, comments apart, Pops was able not only to resist the magical energy Twilight was casting but also avoid the princess be able to attack again, conscious of this, Twilight reduced the scale of her magical shot, make her magical beam just of the size of her horn’s tip and shot directly to her enemy’s head, hurting him a little and leaving an injury on one side of his head.

When Pops received this more precise attack he did not scream or make any kind of noise, but it wasn’t necessary to hear him, but to see him to know the pain this was causing, his teeth were clenched while his facial muscles were contracted and his eyes were injected in blood and look like they were about to jump out of his sockets, this undeniable expression of pain was been watched by Twilight while she continued shooting her beam until her enemy, when suddenly Pops released her horn, allowing now Twilight to shot at her full potential again. When Pops find him about to being attacked again he covers himself using his front legs; then Twilight shot a powerful magical beam at him.

The Commander Phantom saw all of this and the she turned her sight on Twilight and said while she took out something from one of her armor’s bag:

-So, it’s time to do serious business-

She does a little smile, while make a discreet laughter, and finish saying:

-Perfect-

And she put on her front hoofs what she took out, a pair of metal- builds and apparently combat designed “gloves” with sharp ends, and launch on Twilight. She runs directly to her objective and use the inertia of her run to deliver a powerful punch on Twilight using one of her front legs, however the princess, cleverly wait until the last second to teleport herself again and make her opponent miss her hit; but Phantom again knows where she teleport, this time above her, so she do a reverse punch by spinning her whole body and delivering her hit up with an incredible force, but Twilight avoid it by little simply flying a little bit higher, nevertheless the Commander embedded the hitting hoof while she said:

-Not this time filly!-

Then she embedded the other hoof using the rotation force and, now with both front legs giving support, she impulse herself to Twilight making a kick, this last one barely escaped this attack by rapidly flying to the floor, but the Commander Phantom took advantage of her position and the impulse she have by changing her direction to Twilight’s position when her back legs touch the ceiling, now she “fly” directly to the position of the princess, the expression of the two combatants was like Alexander’s and Darius´s faces in the mosaic of Issus, one seems brave and even suicidal, meanwhile the other have an expression of mortal terror; but suddenly Twilight remember she have another resource and used it just in time, she created a magical force field that covered her whole body, like the one she used during the fight against Tirek, and then Phantom’s punch hit the force field but not Twilight, she was saved.

However Phantom wasn’t precisely surprised by this cast and said:

-Good defense, I wonder if it can prevent grips-

Then she grab Twilight from her front legs using her own back legs, despite of the force field, and make a reverse rotation and stamp Twilight, who in that moment have lost her force field, into the floor again, making her fell like her head was about to explode by the mere force used in that projection and even make her felt her head was beating as if her heart was now inside her head, but surprisingly this time Twilight didn’t scream or yell. Then Phantom rose and stood in front of Twilight doing a gymnastic move to then approach her defenseless opponent, only to get caught by surprise when Twilight raised her head and cast an energy wave at close range, making impossible for her to dodge the attack, Phantom coverer using her front legs like Pops did it before and received the attack that Twilight cast even with the pain she was suffering in that very moment.

The Commander flew across the corridor and rap into the wall; however she did not show any kind of pain, except for the anger expression she had at the moment of getting back to the ground and confront again Twilight. Who decidedly walk to her and ask:

-How did you know it?-

-Know what?-

Replied Commander Phantom, at the same time that she had an inquisitive expression in her face; Twilight continued with her interrogation:

-How did you know where I’m going to teleport, what to do against my “magical shield”, or how to resist the offensive spells?-

-Oh! That, well in the case of the teleporting I didn’t “know” where you go, but I “feel” it, and I some cases “read” it-

In that very moment, Twilight react surprised and confused, while Phantom continued explaining:

-And about the rest, well, the only I can say is that me and my companions trained a lot fighting against ponies with similar or greater abilities, so my companions and I learned one or two things-

After hearing this Twilight stayed in silence during some time until she asked confusedly and worriedly, again:

-But what’s all this of “feel” and “read”, how does it works?-

Phantom laughs quietly and answered slightly arrogant and calmly:

-You’ll know it at its time your Excellency; you are a smart mare so I’m sure of that-

…

-Unfortunately, you can’t feel the attack from my companion right now-

Immediately after that Twilight look at her side and was only able to see her other opponent for a few seconds before he tackle she with so much force that the princess landed some meters away in the corridor.

After he tackled Twilight, Pops stay in front of his commander, he was also wearing some “attachments” on him, specifically a large shield on his left “shoulder” and a spear attached on his right leg; he approach the Commander and said gasping:

-When are we going to take this as seriously as her? She is trying to kill us; we should at least stop goofing up with her-

-Remember we cannot kill her, yet-

Answered Phantom, while she keep watching Twilight’s movements, prevention that proved being useful when Twilight shot a magical again directly to Pops, who, with an incredible calm and ease, just cover behind his shield. After a few moments later Twilight realized that her attack wasn’t doing anything and stopped. Pops and Phantom watch to each other again, made mutually a signal with their heads and attacked Twilight at the same time.

This time Pops give the first “punch”, he try to thrust his spear on his target with a lot of force, Twilight very easily dodge his attack by flying back, but then Phantom jump over Pops and attacked Twilight trying to punch the princess with her “gloves”, but Twilight teleport, again, and the Commander again known where she moved and try to warn Pops:

-Lieutenant! She’s…-

-This time I know! Thanks ma’am-

Suddenly interrupted Pops his commander, and immediately he turn back trying again to thrust Twilight, who again avoid the aggression by flying upper, but Pops haven’t finished his movement and he make a twirl leaning in his spear to gain altitude and deliver a strong blow on Twilight, who crashed in the wall near a window, fortunately enough Twilight create another magical force field to protect herself, few moments after this, she levitate down to the floor, and then, unexpectedly her foes speak to her:

-We have admire how combative you are-

Said the Commander, who then was complimented by Pops:

-Even though you handling this fight at the cost of losing that important mirror, the mirror of your mentor-

Twilight then put an anger expression on her face, but suddenly she changed that expression for a smile, but this was a sort of cocky smile, and the she said confidently:

-I’m not losing that mirror-

In that moment, her always confident and under control opponents felt truly surprised, and after a few seconds of astonishment, they talked again, Phantom for being precise:

-What do you mean with that?-

Twilight made her smile even bigger and answers clearly:

-I’ll never confront something like this without a plan, in a few moments my friend would be here to stop your “companions” and help me deal with you-

Suddenly a loud noise was listened from within the castle, producing surprise, even fright in the two home invaders; then Twilight continued:

-Probably they are already here, or maybe is Spike dealing with your friends-

The two other ponies watch to each other and start to talk between them:

-The Spike she is talking about, is her dragon assistant?-

Said Pops, who was answered by Phantom:

-I’m pretty sure, but that still surprise me-

Then both of them look at Twilight and the commander spoke to her:

-Do you really expect us to believe that a baby dragon is holding on his own against our companions?-

Then Twilight laughed a little and responds to their question:

-Don't underestimate Spike’s abilities, he has proven to be a helpful and true friend, and an example of how a dragon must be, do not judge him only by his size or he could surprise-

In that moment, like crowning her speech another and louder noise came from inside the castle, then Twilight confidently finish:

-Maybe you’ll like to ask your friends if I am right-

Then the two foes that Twilight apparently have outsmarted start to watch to each other again for some time and at the end they made at the same time an affirmative gesture with their heads and immediately the Commander Phantom start running along the corridor away from where they were fighting; Twilight, almost like a reflex, tried to stop her putting another energy wall in front of her foe using her magic, but she was stopped at the moment because of Pops, who attacked her trying to stab her using his spear, and who, while the commander was still running, start to talk to Twilight:

-She is too far from us for you to stop her-

-And don’t even try to teleport yourself, because I will find the way to stop you either-

In that moment Twilight looked steadily at her foe as he continued:

-Despite I can’t take this as seriously as I want, I will take just a little bit more seriously-

So now Twilight might have a more equal fight, but the general situation was more than ever a race against the clock, and this particular fight was also more irrelevant since the rest of the team will have support no matter what and Spike or Twilight’s friends will also be taking care of them with or without Twilight’s help. But now both of them Twilight and Pops were ready to fight, however the question of does Twilight have the situation secretly under control from the beginning was repeating over and over in Phantom’s and Pop’s heads.

A few hours before, while those still unknown ponies roamed among the castle, Twilight Sparkle the princess of friendship and her trusty assistant Spike were peacefully sleeping with the always present watch of Owlowiscious, since the last night Twilight have been studying the constellations again and expend all the night in that labor, on the other hand Spike just want to sleep all the night as always taking in count he is a baby dragon, but Owlowiscious is always wake up during the night since it is a night animal. The peaceful appearance of the scene was perfectly complimented by the hypnotic sound of the silence that could be perceived not only in the castle but in all Ponyville, all this lovely and slightly boring calm was interrupted by some unknown sounds that came from the inside of the castle and Owlowiscious decided to explore and see the origin of those sounds, since Twilight and Spike were sound asleep and it will be better if they keep on that way.

The loyal and smart owl flied silently out of the room and along the corridors in its search of that sounds source, but the sound always seems to be distant or too close but who or what is doing it was still a mystery, but then the sounds apparently stop and for some time even seem to be peaceful again, but it was just for an instant, because the sounds then return, however this time it was different and the sounds now came only from only one place that was now clear, the castle’s library.

Owlowiscious flew across the castle’s corridors and halls to get to the library, where those sounds came from, when the owl enter in it, with the characteristic silence of its species, Owlowiscious could see clearly what was disturbing the peace of the castle, the team of ponies that we already know and that Twilight will know in a few moments, the owl stay there for a few minutes watching those mysterious characters and what they were doing, mostly speaking, as those ponies start to be less mysterious and more “peculiar”, but when they start to put their hoofs on the mirror- portal that Twilight have built, Owlowiscious flew up swiftly and quietly out of the room and go as fast as possible to Twilight’s room.

When it enter the room, Owlowiscious start to owl in all the possible ways, at the distance, close to Twilight’s ears, circling around the bed, etc. but it produces no effect at all, neither in Twilight or Spike, at least if it try to wake up them at the same time, so the clever pet go directly for Twilight and make its best to wake her but she was too tired, and every time Owlowiscious get her to stop sleeping she just answer babbling something barely understandable:

-Aaahhmm, Owlowis… aahhmmm what u you whan…, let me sleep-

-Aaahhmm, tomorrow will… aaahhmmm-

Taking in count this, the owl stop trying to make Twilight wake up and decided to make its try on Spike who, for once, was more capable of waking up than Twilight and further he was more “responsive” to the owl’s attempts, also Owlowiscious try a little bit more harder with Spike, when owl didn’t work it decided to be more direct and mildly inserted its claws on Spike’s head, who immediately woke up very scared and got out of his bed in a jump while saying:

-Ah, Who?!, where?!, when?!-

This was just to see that he have been “attacked” just by Owlowiscious, this fact made him quite angry, feeling that he expressed just after:

-Oh it’s only you, now what you want?-

Owlowiscious immediately started to owl and fly around Twilight’s bed; Spike kind of got the message and said to the owl:

-You want to wake up Twilight? Then why you woke me up first?!-

Owlowiscious continue owling and landed on Twilight’s bed headboard, which the owl used to make sound near Twilight’s ears, this last one just move to get more comfortable and cover her head to stop hearing that sound. After watching this Spike got the message: she didn’t wake up; at which he respond:

-Oh, she didn’t wake up ah? Well what were you expecting? As far as I know she spend the whole past night with you and the telescope-

Then he continued speaking while he was walking back to his bed pulling his bedcover with him:

-Besides, whatever you have to do, surely can wait till morning-

Then Spike lays down in his bed and covered himself with his bedcover and try to sleep again, but then Owlowiscious roughly took his bedcover out and continue owling, understanding that the owl would not stop until he helps it, Spike decided, reluctantly, to help the annoying animal wake up the princess.

Have being proved inefficient trying to wake up Twilight in a delicate manner, Spike decided to wake up her as directly as Owlowiscious woke up him, so he go to Twilight’s bed and delicately, but some regret, throw her out of the bed; when Twilight hit the ground she immediately woke up and, as it was expected, she wasn’t very pleased.

After explaining Twilight his reasons, and apologize several times in the middle, Spike helped Twilight to know what exactly what Owlowiscious wanted that much to woke up Twilight. The owl tries to fly out of the room intending to Twilight and Spike follow it, but they didn’t want to, so the owl unexpectedly started to attack Spike, who tried to shake it off him, and in the middle of that he said:

-HEY, you’re being such a problem!-

Then Owlowiscious got out of him and owl in a very uncommon way, apparently that was enough for Twilight who got the idea:

-A problem, are you saying that there is a problem?-

Then Owlowiscious owl again in a way that could be interpreted as an affirmative answer, which led Twilight to do her next question:

-So, where is the problem?-

-And next time you could try to warn me when you use me as example-

Added Spike while he was trying to cure his very realistic wounds, anyway Owlowiscious then flied and grab a book that was aside of Twilight’s bed and start owling again, although it take both, Twilight and Spike, a while trying to get what it was trying to express, they get at the same time the idea:

-The library!-

When they get the point, Spike though that they all go to the library, but then Twilight stopped him because as she said:

-This will be a perfect opportunity to see how long I have advanced in the domain of that new spell I have being studying-

Apparently this was another spell created by Starswirll the bearded, so after Spike agreed that Twilight use that spell, the princess stay up with her four legs separated a bit more than usual, took a deep breath and, after a few seconds, her horn started to glow, first very softly, then as bright as a candle, and finally it bright with the same incandescence of a star; but also her face muscles were tightening at each second, at each bit more of brightness a bit more of her strength was needed, and it increased more and more, from her horn started to produce a form of smoke that glow softly, and that started to form an oval shaped screen and then, when her face almost looked like it was going to explode finally it happened, in that screen suddenly appeared an image, it was of the castle’s library, and it wasn’t empty.

-So this was what you were trying tell us Owlowiscious-

Said Twilight meditatively while she was watching what those strange ponies were doing, but then she saw that they started to manipulate the portal to Canterlot High and decided that they have seen enough of her house, so she send Spike and Owlowiscious to the Cutie map Hall with the mission of make it summon to the castle her friends meanwhile she will buy them some time personally dealing with this ponies as long as she can, but in case she can’t handle they it was also their labor to delay their escape until the rest of the gang come help.

With this being said they go in separate ways, Twilight heading directly to the library and Spike with Owlowiscious to the Cutie map hall.

When Spike and Owlowiscious enter the map hall, the owl didn’t lose the time and flied directly to the cutie map and started to look for a possible way to make it call in the rest of the elements, meanwhile Spike lay on the floor gasping because of the tiredness of running nonstop all the way to that place, Owlowiscious first tried to find a way to make the map appears, this little but tenacious owl did everything it can to achieve this, it tried to find a spot in the table from which the map could be forced to appear with no success, it tried to pull down some of the ornaments from the tree roots that the room had as candelabrum to activate whatever were in the seats that make the map appear also with no success.

By the moment Owlowiscious have tried all of that, Spike have recovered his breath and approached the table saying to the insistent bird:

-What do you think are doing?-

Spike said this waiting no answer from his partner, which explains his lack of expression when the owl stop and only watch him in silence; the dragon continued:

-If you try to make the map show off that only happens when all of them, including Twilight, are here-

-What we need to do is to make the table have the need of call in all the ponies here so they help us help Twilight-

So Spike stood there, aside the table, thinking with his chin resting on his right arm for a while until he came with an idea; he stood with his legs slightly open, took a deep breath and… he scream to the table:

-Twilight is in danger and we need our friend’s help!!!-

It didn’t work, what a surprise. After that outstanding demonstration of creativity, Spike actually had an idea after watching one of the candelabrum ornaments down over the table, probably because of the previous tries from Owlowiscious, maybe they could make the table perceive the danger in order to get it call the rest of the gang, however the problem was: how to make it happen?

Then Spike decided to take action and test the table, so he immediately spat out a flame to it and see what happen after that, unfortunately nothing happened, but Spike haven’t surrendered and he to try a little bit harder, and this time he stood the same way as before and exhaled with all his strength a big flame directly to the table, the flame could easily burn to ashes any other table or furniture in the castle but this table that again didn’t respond as this two would like making them stay in the same situation that they started.

After those infructuous attempts to make the situation go according to the plan Spike and Owlowiscious just stay there watching the table for some minutes, Spike was giving rounds to the situation trying to find the way of solving this particular problem:

-It must be a way, it must be a way; but which way?-

-This map didn’t show up until the six are sited on their seats-

In that moment Spike felt like he have revealed the most ancient of mysteries while he look at the Twilight’s seat, and he start to approach it in order to make another test but this time on the seat, so when he was close enough to the seat Spike just spat a little flare on it, resulting on the seat’s image of Twilight’s cutie mark starting to glow, and baby dragon start to smile.

Whatever he was trying to prove, the results were positive, he was pleased and now he could try again but with a different approach on this labor, so Spike stand on the table facing Twilight’s seat, slightly open his legs, set his arms in a stance similar to the guard of the wing- chun style and his fists at the height of his tailbone, took a deep breath again, and, with all the muscles of his body visibly tensioned, spat an impressive flame full charged of the strength that he had accumulated with his posture and the breathing; the flames hit with great violence the seat and they do make Twilight’s cutie mark on it started to glow, but nothing else happened that could told to them that their friends have been called.

In this situation that give the impression of their efforts been futile and nothing could make this table work as they have originally think; the logic dictate that the best they can do was to return with Twilight and try to help her as best as they could, and the heart said only to abandon and assume that they, but specially Spike, have failed and they couldn’t do anything to help her, however his very personal beliefs, his deepest self, made him acknowledge that Twilight and him were “linked”, his whole life he has been with Twilight and at this point failing to her also means failing to himself and that if he give up now it will only mean that he didn’t trust himself as Twilight trust him and that he will be putting Twilight, his very only family, in danger just because he didn’t have the will to strive more.

So Spike rose and after look for a while Twilight’s seat again said calmly to Owlowiscious:

-Hey! I need you to lift me up to that root-

Then he pointed one root of the candelabrum and took a position that could make the lift easier for Owlowiscious, but the owl didn’t lift him, in fact it stay flying up there watching Spike until he finally asked his partner for this task:

-Are you going to help me or what?-

The owl didn’t give any kind of answer, not even a corporal answer, to this question, this angered Spike a bit making he insist energetically to Owlowiscious:

Lift me up to that root now!-

But the owl didn’t show any sights of desire to help in that way, however this time something could be perceived from the way it looked Spike, concern, it was concerned about Spike idea, and the little dragon notice that and spoke again to it, but this time he low his voice and explain:

-Don’t worry I know what I am doing, besides this might be the best chance we have to actually help and not hamper Twilight-

When he ended, a slight smile could be seen in his face; his words make the wanted effect on Owlowiscious, and it immediately down to help him, while his mate was lifting him Spike just think about how unsure he was about what he had just tall to that owl, but he was sure that if they don’t do anything Twilight will be in risk of being killed or kidnaped, after all she was a princess an important figure; anyway when he was in position, Spike hanged from the root, he swayed a little bit and he launch himself to the air and start to fall toward Twilight’s seat while he relaxed himself and breath calmly, he looked his target and, again with all his muscles contracted, unleashed the whole power of his fire-breath just one second before he hit the seat resulting on an enormous explosion that crumbled the entire hall.

When the din was over a distant sound that came from the inside of the castle was heard, it sounded like a scream, after that Twilight’s cutie mark in her seat started to glow like a star, as well as the cutie marks on rest of the seats, the scene give the impression to be coordinated, like a spectacle of lights, that was finished by the appearance of the map; soon Spike and Owlowiscious started to observe it and saw that all their friends appeared, marked by their cutie marks, and Twilight’s cutie mark was glowing with more intensity, this could possibly mean that the princess needed the help of her friends, anyway the fact that all of them appeared mean that at least all of them have been called to the castle; however Spike and Owlowiscious could not have a rest cause a few seconds later another scream was heard from inside the castle, after a moment of silence Spike decided to speak:

-That’s Twilight, we have to help her!-

Then he looked at Owlowiscious with a melancholic look and said:

-She must be having trouble dealing with them, remember what she tall us to do in case, she find herself in that situation-

The owl then simply stayed flying on his position and owled a little, then Spike answered to his companion, or being more precise, he questioned it:

-So you are not complaining?-

Again Owlowiscious simply owled, in a vivid way this time, like answering positively to Spike’s question, this last one spoke again, more decidedly that time:

-Then what are we waiting for, we have little time to intercept them before they get to the exit-

Then both of them set on motion, meanwhile they were running Spike remember when he almost get lost in the castle one night he get up at midnight to eat, and due to his situation he had to learn some routes across the castle, so he said to Owlowiscious very confidently:

-Quick, I know where they have to pass necessarily to get to the main hall and a shortcut to get there!-

So then Spike guided his mate among the castle through his shortcut, finally arriving to where they can ambush the thieves, it was a little circular lounge of two floors that gave way to the reception hall, across an immense door, where converged the corridor where they came from the north and one corridor that according to Spike connected that place and the castle’s library from the east, all of this upstairs; also there converged corridors from the kitchen to the south, a multipurpose hall to the north, and the art room to the east, this last three downstairs.

In that position Spike and Owlowiscious could hold enough the mysterious ponies until the rest of their friends finally came, however there was disadvantage in that place: if they have to retreat from that place there was only the reception hall before they could get out the castle and there was only one door that linked the two places, that room and the reception hall, so it was most possible that if they have to move to the hall they will be pursuing their objectives because they lure their attacks, or they will escaping from them.

With this in mind they prepared the plan, it was kind of simple: basically they will wait for them in two different positions, Spike at the end of the corridor the thieves came from and Owlowiscious will wait in an arbitrary point of the ceiling, so when their objectives were in between them Spike will stop them with his fire spitting and then Owlowiscious will descend to harass them from behind (without sexual connotation) by flying near the mirror’s glass and even make some tries to take it from them, to help them in this idea Spike and Owlowiscious also filled some of the jars that decorated the corridor with flour from the kitchen and use some thin threads also from the kitchen to use the jars, this was to limit the thieves sight once the ambush commence, and as last planned resource they use one of the shelves from the kitchen’s cupboard on the door to lock it, and in case of extreme necessity Spike could merge the shelve with the door using his fire.

Their plan could sound very simple, but the idea of it was to let both Spike and Owlowiscious enough liberty to improvise and adapt to their objective’s actions, granting flexibility in their own actions for this particular purpose, the cons were obvious: if they couldn’t react properly in action and thought they will have little to do against the thieves. In general their possibilities were pretty wide, but they would need to be canny and fast to take full advantage of this. With all this preparations done, Spike and Owlowiscious decided to wait, and they not needed to do it for much time, cause in that moment they heard some steps and voices that were coming from the library corridor and they immediately took their positions, the action was about to begin for them.

While Spike and Owlowiscious were already in position, the sounds start to go bigger and bigger as well as the voices, until two figures appear and they were approaching, after a few seconds those figures became clearly visible: two unicorns; their voices could also be clearly heard for they were talking, or more like arguing, they were a male and a female, and their discussion sound a little bit weird:

-… And she believed it! Could you imagine, anyway then she finally let me…-

-Can you, please, stop!-

Compass exclaimed with satiety, and continued:

-Seriously Shimi could stop telling me your “adventures” with your students-

-Oh well, then could you answer me: Why the commander ordered us to do this?-

Asked Shimi, who immediately get answered by his companion:

-This?!, didn’t you put attention to the briefing before we were sent here?-

I don’t mean this mission, I mean sending you and me with the mirror while she and Pops stayed-

Shimi replied calmly, and proceeded explaining:

-She could easily get rip off the princess when I distracted her; I have seen her eliminating opponents in less time, and the princess seemed funnier than threatening trying to stop us-

-Did you know if she “planned” something for her? Like if she wanted her to discover us and get some “good time” with her-

Meanwhile they were talking, Spike was carefully listening to what they said and started to anger more and more as they go on and on. The two enemies continued with their conversation as Compass stayed in silence for some time before answering, and then she said:

-She didn’t tell me anything about “wanting” to fight her this time, but she said that it would be interesting to see the power of the princess that confronted Tirek-

-So she wanted to play with Princess Twilight before killing her-

Shimi said ironically as he laughed, and he continued in the same tone:

-She could at least tell us about her intentions, so we could gear up properly to take care of “her majesty”-

-Shut up!, whatever she wanted to do with princess Twilight before eliminate her is not of our incumbency, especially yours!-

Suddenly interrupted Compass who was as pissed off as a few instants before, who was immediately replied by her companion:

-Well, we could talk about your “adventures” with somepony, you haven’t said anything related with that, and I am intrigued with…-

And suddenly their conversation was violently interrupted by Spike who decided that he have listened enough and he violently jumped out of his cover and, after concentrating all his strength and capacity, he fired one powerful flame that shown up like a thunder, as his anger could be clearly seen on his eyes, and forced Compass and Shimi to put under cover, behind a magical energy shield that Compass casted in that few seconds that Spike give to them before firing, and at the moment Shimi slightly protruded from the cover to attack Spike, Owlowiscious made its part and attack Shimi by surprise, making him desist from defend himself and his companion, and the owl continued harassing the two ponies for the time that Spike could hold his flame, but this flame wasn’t eternal and it eventually ended, giving an instant of breathing to the attacked ponies, at least for the moment.

When the flames stopped Shimi and Compass instantly start to move, only a simple exchange of sights was needed and they know exactly what to do, Compass took Shimi from the hooves and give to him an impulse in order to eliminate Spike quickly, but in that moment Spike jump backward and, by also pulling his arms back, he used the strings in order to smash the jars against his foe, creating a flour screen that temporary left blinded the two opposing ponies, however this doesn’t lasted much since some seconds later Shimi simply disperse the flour with his magic, but after he do that, he could see that the dragon and the owl have actually gone.

In the instant Shimi cleared the flour cloud and there were no one, he and Compass were disconcerted about this sudden pause in the fighting, however both still had their guards up and were scanning every corner, every table, every centimeter; they knew that Owlowiscious and Spike were still there, but they still had a mission and continued their way to the exit with great caution, when they finally reached the lounge, they started scanning the place like they did with the corridor before, as there seems to be no one from where could see, both decided to proceed downstairs by the right but, when they were about to down the stairs, Spike and Owlowiscious  jumped attacking them swinging  from below the stairs where they were hanging, waiting for them, when Spike and Owlowiscious attacked they took a different opponent each: Owlowiscious, as soon as it show, clung on Shimi’s snout; while Spike jumped over his partner and foe to attack Compass, who was about to counterattack with magic Owlowiscious to took it down from Shimi’s snout, and used again his fire breathing to stop her from supporting her companion, however this time Spike used a simple burst to make Compass create another magic shield.

Meanwhile Shimi was complaining and trying to take Owlowiscious away from his head, Compass loose Spike from her sight again giving to him time to strike her head with another flour filled jar, although this impact hurts, Compass could resist it and use her magic again to quit the flour out of her head, but Spike took the chance that he had and immediately go for Compass’s neck, surrounding it with his whole body from the head to the neck, and start throttling her, as it could be seen in his face that he wanted her to pay for what they said and do to Twilight, slowly but surely Compass started to feel that she inhaled less and less air, her muscles started to contract and her eyes felt like they were about to get out from their sockets, she felt that life escapes little by little from her body, silently, making all resistance feel futile, useless; and then, finally, her eyes closed, and her muscles suddenly relaxed, her body simply felt by its own weight, everything was over.

When Spike felt this lack resistance, or life itself, he stopped choking his opponent and unrolled from Compass’s neck and looked at her while he gasped by her side, he stayed there for some time just looking until he realized that Owlowiscious needed his help, so he gave an instruction to Owlowiscious to separate from Shimi who Spike was about to attack him using his flames, but in that moment Compass strike him with a low kick, with her eyes injected in blood, exclaiming in clear anger:

Good try, you pitiful dragon! –

The strength of her kick was so big that it threw Spike across the railing and downstairs in a second, after accomplishing that she quickly turned and see that Shimi was in big trouble with the owl and she immediately aimed and fired to Owlowiscious with a magical beam from her horn, hitting it out from Shimi’s face and stamping it against the wall, with the owl problem out Compass approached Shimi who looked at her with a sight of gratitude that rapidly changed to a frightened sight as he watched her face and perceived a more violent expression, as she said sharply:

-What are you looking at?! Get the mirror and follow me downstairs, that dragon must be still alive-

Shimi stood there paralyzed for a while, as he was impressed and frightened by his companion, but eventually he realized that he have been given an order from his superior, answering:

-Yes! Comp… Captain-

And go for the mirror, meanwhile Compass go downstairs to find Spike, and at the moment she was effectively down Spike was, predictively, nowhere to be seen and make Compass start searching her target when a little noise similar to a table moving was heard by Compass by her left, and the moment she turned to see a piece of furniture flying towards her head that she dodge in the last second just to find in front of herself Spike who was about to use his fire breathing again right on Compass’s face, as the technique of Spike was about to be unleashed the this seemed to be slowing down in Compass’s eyes, but then a piece of glass felt from above, it was the mirror’s glass, that made Spike stop his attack, and on one side also felt down Shimi, who as soon as he landed exclaimed to Compass:

-Quick, hold the mirror!-

And he stopped holding the mirror using his magic and immediately turned to Spike and fired at him while his captain hold the glass, the shot hit Spike before he could even react pitting him out of combat. After that Captain Compass rose and asked to Shimi that he hold again the glass as she approached to Spike and said dauntingly to him after looking for a while his body:

-You almost make me take you seriously-

-Not bad… for a baby dragon-

And lifted him up with magic throwing him out of the lounge, with his body opening by pure force of her throw the doors into the castle’s main reception, making Spike finally land on that place’s floor, defenseless, defeated, and disconcerted. With the dragon finally on the floor, the two unicorns approached slowly at him, and when they get on front of him, holding the glass, both of the looked a t him for a while and then their horns started to glow, preparing to give their last shots, in that same moment Spike gave his last shot, that was not even aiming at his enemies, who started laughing about the dragons missed shot, until the main gates to enter the castle started to fall down because Spike’s shot was aiming to the gates as he was planning to smash himself and his enemies with the gates, but his attempt was futile as the only thing they needed to do was to create a magic force field to protect them, the glass, and Spike.

As the gates simply felt aside from them, Captain Compass approach Spike and said dauntingly to him:

-Pretty brave… for a baby dragon-

And she remarked this phrase slightly laughing at him, while Shimi down the magical force field that surround them, leaving her just one more thing to do, end with Spike. So she simply downed her head aiming her horn on Spike’s head, and this one started to gloom; in that moment Spike felt an emotional contrast between relief and fear, that mixing of emotions proper of the end of a journey, the traveling is over but you don’t want to leave it, that’s probably how it feels when life ends, and that was what Spike sincerely know in that moment, it was over and:

-I don’t want it end here-

Spike whispered, like speaking only for himself, and closed his eyes preparing for the end.

In that moment Shimi pushed aside his captain while he said:

-Watch out!-

And immediately get impacted by something that made him fly across the air towards the castle, just after that Compass get up and looked some meters in front of her and an angry expression appeared in her snout, like if someone had just played to her a really bad joke; when Spiked looked back at the same spot his enemy was looking at he realized the reason of this, both the Captain’s expression and his miraculous saving, there were the rest of Twilight’s friends.

When Spike finally saw them he deeply exhales and calmly said:

-It’s you girls; you have answered our call-

-I love you all, girls…-

After saying this Spike closed his eyes, and immediately a distinctive and stylized voce was heard:

-Spikey- wikey!!!-

-What have you done to the sweet Spikey?!-

Rarity said, clearly concerned about the situation of her little dragon friend, as she looked with rage in her eyes at Spike’s aggressor. She didn’t have to wait to get an answer from the yet unknown already disliked unicorn that all of them have in front, who, after giving a quick look at Spike, answered:

-Oh!, that dragon-

-I was going to kill him, he have become a pain in my…-

-As if we were going to let you do that!-

Suddenly said Applejack, standing in a guard- like position, that was also assumed by the rest of the ponies, the captain also stand in guard ready to fight them, as Applejack continued:

-You’ll give Spike back to us!-

The captain make a little and confident laugh before answering:

-You want it, come and get it-

And suddenly Pinky Pie decided to accept the invitation and, from nowhere, she took out a wizard’s hat and put her hooves inside it, searching for something until she apparently get it and pulled it out of the hat: it was Spike. In that very moment Rarity took him carefully down using her magic, after watching this captain Compass looked at her side, where Spike was supposed to be just to find nothing, and then she turned to see her opponents with the baby dragon, she had a questioning expression on her snout, after repeating that action a couple of times, look at her side, look at the rest of ponies, at her side, at the rest of the ponies; finally she did again a little laugh and said while she think:

“Oh yes, Pinkie Pie, who can avoid the laws of nature, or logic in general. Well she could be annoying; she already is annoying, so it might be a good idea to take care of her first”.

Once having realized that, Compass loudly said to Pinkie Pie:

-Hey you!, Pinkie!-

The extremely happy pony simply turned to her rival pony and before she could say anything a magical beam stroked at her, knocking her down at the instant; once done that Compass simply said a few words to the rest of the group:

-Well, now that your… extremely happy, pony friend is out of the play we could get serious-

-So, who of you want to try fir…-

-Get down!-

A male voice heard from behind interrupted the captain, followed by a the body of a pony flying without any sight of control on its course, Compass barely avoid the impact in the last second, just to see who was the “pony- bullet”, it was Rainbow Dash, who also had attacked Shimi a minutes before, although she was visibly hurt, she was still conscious.

When Compass looked that this pony has been beaten inside of the castle, she immediately thought in Shimi, that surely have been fighting the pegasi inside and very impressed said:

-It seems that Shimi took care of your friend, even surprised me how fast he did it!-

-Although I liked to take your endearing regards for myself, I indeed needed help to deal with her that fast-

Said Shimi while get out from the castle, as he continued:

-Helped by her-

And with a move from his head he introduced to the rest of the ponies the commander, who walked slowly and confidently out of the castle, looked at the rest of the ponies and very calmly said:

-Well, now that the rest is here, I think we might call back Pops and Twilight, may you Shimi, please-

Shimi simply nodded with his head and his horn started to glow, after a few seconds, a flash get out of his horn and flew through the castle until it disappeared inside the castle.

The group of three just stayed there, waiting, and waiting, and waiting… meanwhile Shimi nervously said to the commander:

-He is… taking his time-

-Yes-

Calmly answered the commander

-This is getting a little embarrassing-

Shimi nervously said again to the commander, who answered calmly, again:

-Yes-

-Did you thing he could be injured or something-

Nervously said Shimi, again:

-No-

-Don’t worry, he will come-

Added the commander to her sort of embarrassed subordinate, who nodded again while both kept waiting until, finally, Pops and Twilight fell in front of all of them right after breaking one of the castle’s picture windows on the second floor, fighting each other, grappled and punching each other, while they fell until they hit the ground making a big dust cloud arise, taking everyone by surprise, after some seconds recovering their composure, they slowly rose still watching at each other and get in position with their respective companions, although Twilight was a little bit surprised of finding them in that situation; once everyone was present, the four pony thieves did their next move.

When Commander Phantom was reunited with Pops after some time she immediately started to talk to him, or more like, questioning him whiteout stop watching their opponents:

-So, how does it go?-

-In general, disappointing-

Answered the big pony who continued, with a very discrete voice, after a little pause:

-But it shown potential, although it will require time to be useful in any mean-

Just after she heard that Commander Phantom outlined a discreet smile on her snout and whispered for herself, as she center her glance at Twilight pleased:

-Perfect-

Right after, she loudly exclaimed for the rest of her team:

-Everypony in your positions! We’re ending this mission now-

The team got ready, and every member got on guard, Shimi and Compass were also hanging the magic glass with their own magic, waiting, not even moving one muscle, until the Commander finally exclaimed, with a loud voice:

-Now!-

And everypony moved, but not in the same way, Phantom and Pops charged decidedly toward their enemy, while Shimi and Compass just galloped in the same direction behind Phantom and Pops, carrying the glass while they gallop.

In the moment Phantom and Pops reached where the six ponies stand, they just jumped over the six of them, just when both of them were in the middle of the air Shimi and Compass threw to them the glass, and in the moment their companions caught it, they attacked their opponents by casting an explosive magical bomb to them, although this ain´t do anything, however the six ponies needed to evade the attack, and by evading it, they leaved an open way to the rest of the team reunite, once they were all together the four ponies ran outside Ponnyville, with the two land ponies carrying the magic glass and the unicorns protecting them from the rear, shooting at Twilight and her friends, causing a mess and preventing Twilight and her friends reuniting for some instants until they were far enough to just keep running.

When the chaos was over, Twilight and her friends regrouped, they were very confused, as they all expected to have a big fight, but they can’t just sit there and heal their wounds, and Twilight as soon as back on her hooves, turned and said to her friends:

-They’re heading to “Bluetop hill”! We must follow them-

Right after she said that Rainbow Dash and Applejack support that and both of them get ready to go, but Fluttershy and Rarity were concerned about Pinkie Pie and Spike respectively, who were still injured, although Spike was still conscious and insisting he didn’t need help, as this was causing some troubles they decided to split in two groups, the first group (Twilight, Rainbow, and Applejack) will follow the thieves to Bluetop hill and stop them, while the second group will take Spike and Pinkie Pie to receive medical attention and seek for help in the town.

Everyone agreed and the two groups go on to their respective mission, separating, while they were going to their objective Rainbow and

Applejack started asking Twilight in what they have to do once they get to Bluetop hill:

-Hey Twilight! What are we gonna do when we reach them?-

Asked Applejack worried,

What are we gonna do?!-

-WE will kick their butts out of Ponyville and get back that mirror!-

Said Rainbow Dash, who also ad revengeful:

-That land pony is not going to get me with the guard down again!-

-Are you out of your mind!-

Replied angrily Applejack, and continued:

-That didn´t worked some minutes ago, and I´m sure it wouldn´t work now-

-We need to prepare a plan before we attack or OUR butts are going to be kicked-

Said Applejack very convinced

-What!? We can’t lose our time preparing a plan we are going to let them go-

Replied Rainbow Dash

-And we can’t risk ourselves and Ponyville just to act “brave”-

Also replied Applejack, and both of them started to argue until Twilight brusquely said to both:

-You two! Shut up!-

And Rainbow Dash and Applejack stopped arguing and stayed in silence for a few seconds, surprised; Twilight continued:

-What we are going to do once we get them is take the mirror and then go back to Ponyville, they won’t start a fight against a whole town at this moment-

-I’ve had only a few hours with them, but I felt what they can do, if we fight them, with or without a plan or bravery, we are gonna lose, our only option is to take the mirror and run-

After hearing this Rainbow Dash and Applejack looed to each other and assented with their heads, then both looked Twilight and assented, everyone had agreed, and they continued their way.

When they were about to get to the top they saw a light beam coming from the top of the hill and know they needed to hurry, so they moved faster until they got to the top. Once there, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Applejack saw the other four ponies just standing there, the three ponies were about to go for the mirror’s glass when the Commander turned to look at them, and started to talk:

-Oh, so you have come, that is… sort of surprising, you really like this mirror, oh I’m sorry, I mean “Princess Celestia’s mirror”, how cute, but you see our cause need this particular mirror a lot, and more important, we need you to fulfill your real power-

-Fulfill my real power?-

Said Twilight confused, Commander Phantom immediately answered, making a slight laugh:

-You will know when the time comes, and I’m sure you wouldn’t disappoint our cause… and me-

But then Rainbow Dash loudly interrupted:

-Oh yeah?, and you supposed we are going to let you escape!-

-Escape?, haha (doing a slight laught), rather it is or not, we’re leaving and I have two good reasons why… both of them pegasi-

Said the Commander confidently, while the three ponies confronting her stood confused until, from their back, a big chariot- like “thing” flied over Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Applejack, pulled by two pegasi, one who screamed to the Commander, from over them:

-C’mon, move, move!-

One second later, Shimi and Compass used their magic together to impulse Compass to the flying “war- chariot” on top off them, who right after landing inside of it caught with her magic the glass that the Commander and Pops threw at her and put inside the “chariot” to finally threw a rope connected to the chariot to help the rest of the team to get out, all this in a few seconds, when that was done the rest grab the rope, the Commander gave a signal to the pegasi and they started to elevate to get out.

But Rainbow Dash wouldn’t allowed them to get out that easy, and she immediately flew toward them, just to be stopped by Shimi who launched himself directly at her and used his magic to stopped her by using a magical wave, and after doing this he and Compass used their magic together to handle Shimi and avoid him to fall down.

However that wasn’t all, and suddenly Twilight also flew to the “chariot” and this time Commander Phantom was the one who go to stop Twilight, but while she was flying, Twilight was constantly thinking about that thing of “fulfilling her power” and suddenly one thought came to her mind: Friendship. So Twilight focuses on her friends, the experiences they passed together, and all they have discovered; with this Twilight prepared a magical attack, when she finally clashed against the Commander Phantom.

The clash was messy and created a big expansive wave that almost took down the “chariot”, but the pegasi that were driving it handle to keep it on flight, and the Commander was miraculously saved by Pops, but the magical glass felled off the “chariot” and was caught by Applejack before it hit the ground. And with every member of the team busy with something, and Twilight and her friends also busy or in a bad situation to continue, the fight and the strange night was over for both of the teams.

When the thieves left the field, and once Twilight has landed she approached to Applejack and both stared at each other for a while, like if they were sharing the same feelings in that very moment, before both show a smile in their faces, feeling authentically happy about they were still alive, after a few minutes Twilight exhaled deeply, letting the pressure to flow out of her body, but she still have a sensation: anxiety, uncertainty; she know this was just the first contact, and she don’t know when and how they will show.

Far away on the distance, a few minutes later, while the “chariot” kept flying, the team members were healing their wounds when Shimi suddenly started to laugh and started to speak:

-Hahaha, Woo! we did it!-

-They were though, but we did it! haha-

-We passed the test! We passed it!-

And the rest of the team started to joyfully laugh with Shimi, they seem to be happy, satisfied; all but Phantom, who was still thinking about the final confrontation with Twilight, so she immediately shout to her team:

-Shut up!-

-We are the R Detachment of the SIS, we are not only supposed to pass all the tests, but to accomplish every mission; so don’t be so sure about your ability or luck cause both are limited-

-Did I make myself clear?!-

-YES ma’am!-

Everyponny answered immediately, as the Commander gives her last order of the night:

-Good, cause the R Detachment is now getting dissolved, now all of you must report to your respective new units to command them, yes we pass the test now make the rest of the SIS pass theirs-

-This have just been the beginning-