The Lightningverse

by Streakofscarlet

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Trixie, Comedy, Other, Adventure, Adagio Dazzle, Sunset Shimmer, Lightning Dust
Length: 5063

Sunset Shimmer gets wrapped up in Lightning Dust's situation and learns the hard way that destiny CAN'T be altered.

Lightning Dust is Rainbow Dash's young daughter. She and her twin sister don't often argue, but they also don't interact much either.

Sunset Shimmer is a former villain turned nice. By influence of the Alicorn Amulet, Sunset gets involved in one of Queen Chrysalis' plans. Unfortunately for her, it ends with her and Lightning Dust being sent back in time.

Can Lightning Dust and Sunset help each other get back to their own time without messing everything up? Short answer: No. Destiny CAN'T be altered.

Pre-read and conceptualized by StarryOak and authored by me. Tags will be added as the story progresses.

Published 2015-11-01 01:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-11-08 18:16:39 UTC

Trixling

On any other day, Trixie Lulamoon would have been angry. Her rage would have been annoying. What else would you expect from her bumping into a random delivery stallion?

But in this case, her attention was diverted away from the stallion and to a book that had fallen off of his cart due to impact.

Instead of tearing the stallion a new one, Trixie picked up the book and read its title. "Myths and Magic of Equestria: From Windigos to Sparkle Ascension." Ignoring the reminder from the title that Twilight's now a princess, Trixie pondered. Her mind went back to the scam she and Gilda had pulled on the Crystal Ponies, the scam that Twilight had revealed, filling her necklace with luster. That necklace... Trixie needed it.

Trixie then looked at the author's name, which turned to be none other than Sunset Shimmer.

"Well this is a pleasant surprise," Trixie said. She knew Sunset from their days in Canterlot. Sunset had also been inside Celestia's dark magic library. The chances were next to zero that Sunset wouldn't know about the necklace. She turned back to the stallion. "Wait for just a minute." Trixie looked at the illustrator's name, which happened to be Elite Pony.

Trixie dropped the book and looked up to the sky with a WTF expression, wondering what kind of pony name that was. The stallion contemplated leaving the book with Trixie. After all, it's not like he cared about the princess...

Trixie went back to the book's index; the stallion could tell she was trying to keep from giggling madly. "Come on, come on... Aha! Necklace..."

Trixie's first course of action was to make sure the stallion was still there. She secretly hoped he would give up and leave, but he stayed there. Trixie resolved to remember what the book would say once she began reading a page that the index led her to. "Wow, Sunset Shimmer knows her stuff."

The stallion just wanted to go home, but he knew Trixie would get suspicious if he left without the book. Trixie had got to be Equestria's slowest reader.

"It says that Cadance gave it to Twilight, and it was last seen in the Golden Oak Library before it blew up. It can be used to manipulate love." Trixie shut the book, snickering. "Here," she told the stallion, putting the book towards the back of the pile.

The two ponies parted ways, but Trixie had something else on her mind. This was her chance at fulfilling her goal. She hadn't thought this through, however, so she wouldn't know that this would change literally everything. Trixie telekinetically grabbed the book and was about to run off, but something else happened.

Trixie heard a sound behind her. She wasn't entirely sure, but from her time in Canterlot, Trixie remembered that sound as being similar to that of a paper copier. When Trixie turned around, she dropped the book and gasped at the changeling in front of her.

Trixie wasn’t about to let a changeling disrupt her goal. While she knew that she couldn’t win in a fair fight, especially against a changeling, her mana pool has quite the repertoire of spells compared to…

Um…

All right, fine, Trixie wasn’t among the high-tier unicorns. But Trixie like to convince herself otherwise using a speech she gave most times someone tried to heckle her during her performance.

Who cares what the power of illusion is? It does not matter to the Great and Powerful Trixie, so it should not matter to some ingrate like you. While illusion might not be the most powerful magic, because Trixie would put that power into an actual fight against a foe as opposed to the illusion, but it could easily be the greatest depending on what the illusion is. As long as you can conduct your foe’s discernment, they’ll be like putty in your hooves. Who cares if it’s an illusion? The point is that they will react just as you want them, and you will be successful with the sleight of hoof sort of thing.

Why do you think Snips and Snails did not use actual magic in the talent show? Because it would seem less impressive if they used what little power they had as opposed to creating an illusion. It is common sense for any mage such as Trixie. So congratulations, you are less knowledgeable about the technique involved with sleight of hoof than the two idiots who went into the forest to bring an ursa into town. Way to go, loser.

Trixie wondered if she should give the speech to the changeling right now, but she decided it was better to not let the changeling know what skill Trixie had with illusions. Besides, this thing was trying to fire green power blasts every which way hitting everything in sight except Trixie. Trixie figured she had nothing to worry about.

Trixie subsequently picked up the book and began walking away. This changeling is really bad at fighting. Trixie put up a better fight against that ursa minor…

Trixie stopped walking, remaining unaware of the fact that the changeling was getting closer. She needed to plan this out. What was she going to do next? She could easily go back to the Diamond Dogs.

Just then, Trixie felt the fringes of a green blast bristle against her coat. She almost didn't notice something biting her tail to pull her behind a rock.

"Trix!" said a voice. Trixie felt something slap her across the face. She came back to reality as she noticed an eagle-like figure in front of her. She noticed something protruding from it: a lion's tail.

There was only one griffon that knew Trixie personally enough to address her as "Trix". Actually, there was only one griffon that knew Trixie at all.

"Gilda!" Trixie said, as the rock she and the griffon were hiding behind exploded in a blast of green. "I haven't seen you since... uh..."

"The last time I saw you was those games! I was in the crowd, remember?"

"No time for that now," replied Trixie. She fired a blast of her own at the changeling. What are you doing in Ponyville?"

Gilda tossed a chunk of rock at the changeling's horn. "To fight."

"You came all the way to Ponyville to protect me from that changeling? Doesn’t really matter. He’s a terrible combatant.”

"No, not that Alicorn/insect abortion. The rest of Equestria outside of Griffonstone. Griffon attack. Targeting your princess' castle over there."

For whatever reason that Trixie couldn't grasp, those words appeared to make the changeling's mana shut off entirely. Trixie caught a glimpse of the changeling gaping before turning and flying towards the castle. Seeing the only source of answers leaving, Trixie shot him down.

"All right," said the blue unicorn as she straddled the creature. "Trixie and her griffon friend want—actually, no, NEED—some answers! One, why did you turn upon her reveal of the attack? Two, why are you... um..." Trixie pointed at the cart. "Yeah, that? And three, why did you attack Trixie?" The unicorn pony turned to Gilda. "And I also want to know WHY THE TARTARUS ARE GRIFFONS ATTACKING?!"

"Suspicions, conspiracies, stuff that I'll explain later. Probably has to do with this whole 'spreading friendship' thing. Or maybe we just ran out of good scones. My dad’s a baker, you know? He’s leading the first charge. Or whatever you call it. Don’t know. Griffons aren’t wont to this whole war thing.

"But back to something I do know about. First thing’s first. Get this wildlife abortion back to his mommy."

Gilda held up a menacing claw. The changeling would've cringed if Trixie's magic hadn't held him still.

"You know," Trixie said, holding up the book, "with the thing that I just read, we might actual get some help from the changelings." Trixie explained about the necklace of luster.

"We'll see," said Gilda. "I just want get away from the war before it gets too ugly."

"Trixie... wishes to sympathize with you, but she does not know how the griffon feels."

"Thanks for that."

Soon, the changeling's directions led them to his hive. "Well, we're here."

"Wow, this... looks way less drearier than I thought," said Gilda. "I thought that since that thing looked like some wildlife abortion, his home would look like—"

"Trixie doesn't need to hear that."

"Fair enough."

"Well, what have you brought here?" came a rather distorted voice. Trixie swore that the voice would've resembled her own if the distortion wasn't there. "Or rather, what brought you here?"

...Yeah, it's Chrysalis.

Before the changeling could say anything, Trixie blurted out everything, from the necklace, to Gilda's problems, to what little there was that Gilda told her about the war.

"And we wish to help you," concluded Trixie.

"'We'?" questioned Gilda.

"Hush!"

"No, seriously. What do you mean 'we'? I'm not helping you attack my friends."

"Yes, but you are my friend, right?"

Gilda held her claw to her beak. "I'll think about it."

“You’ll ‘think’? That’s not enough, Gilda! Trixie wants revenge!”

“And I want to stay out of this war. No offense, Trix, but you aren’t too bright on this whole friendship thing.”

The queen pondered. "Hm. First we need to get around this war to recover the necklace. You said that it was still in the library when Tirek blew it up?"

"Yes," replied Trixie. "And with the knowledge from this book about creatures called Diamond Dogs, I know how we're going to get it."

"Who wrote this book, and how do they know so much about these things?" asked the queen.

"A former student of Princess Celestia named Sunset Shimmer. Her magical talent rivals Twilight's. She wanted to be a princess but ran away to the human world."

"Next time a changeling goes into the human world," said the queen, "it'll find Sunset Shimmer and bring her to me!" The queen punctuated the statement with an evil laugh that left Trixie and Gilda looking blankly at her.

Inescapable

Queen Chrysalis continued cackling while Trixie sighed. Gilda started messing with the male changeling. The queen didn't notice. Trixie looked behind her. At the end of the hall was a pair of doors, the kind that slid apart. To the left of them was what appeared to be a keyhole, except it was circular.

The blue unicorn turned back to the queen. "What's behind those doors?"

That instantly made the queen snap out of laughing. She leaned down, eye-to-eye with Trixie. "Young mare, why do you want to know?"

Trixie backed away, dragging Gilda with her. Muffled, she answered with, "Trixie doesn't have a valid answer to that, but she'll find one eventually."

The queen hovered. "What's with the talking in third person?"

"You get used to it," said Gilda. She turned back to Trixie. "Do you mind?"

Trixie spat out Gilda's tail. "If it's something you're unable to open, then Trixie will open it for you! She's pretty sure she knows how to open it." Trixie turned back to the door, reared back onto two legs, and shot a pink beam into the keyhole, which responded by deflecting it back at her.

Gilda toppled over in a laughing fit. Unable to stop himself, the male changeling joined her, borderline hysterics. Even Chrysalis coughed up a chuckle, but she returned to her serious look as she lowered herself to the floor. "Now that this foalish mare has demonstrated how only changeling magic can open the doors, can I please continue?"

Gilda got back up. "Continue what? Your cringe-making cackling that was just faceclawable?"

Now it was Gilda's turn to be met eye-to-eye by the queen. "Unless you also want to get zapped, I suggest you shut that beak of yours."

"No, thanks. I like defending my friend... s through insults."

"Very well." Chrysalis stamped a hoof sharply. "Changelings!"

An abundance of changelings materialized around Gilda with their horns glowing, inching closer and audibly sneering.

Gilda stuttered. "Come on, you wouldn't—AHHHHHHHH!"

As a cloud of dust surrounded the area where Gilda was getting mobbed, Chrysalis sighed heavily and turned back to Trixie. "Can I please continue?"

"You might as well. Trixie's messed up mane will have to wait!"

"All right then. The story of my plan to drain Twilight's magic went a bit differently than how Spike narrated it. The rest of my army fell into the town of kitties, while I flew into the ice thing that Sombra was banished to. My horn was a tad broken, but I was able to free Sombra of his prison, meaning that the Crystal Empire would return with him. His spells and curses don't disappear upon his banishment or death, but upon the latter, they gradually weaken. In return, he cast a spell that would make my horn gradually heal over time if any pain was inflicted onto it. We... got busy.

Trixie sat down and raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"The one you brought here.

"Anyway, my time with Sombra lasted less than an hour. My son and I staged falling into the town of kitties to get back with the rest of the army. You know what happened next."

"Yes, you bloodily MURDERED a kitten in front of three kids! Who does that?!"

"Me. Anyway, I was left imprisoned in the castle. That Strawberry—"

"Pinkie."

"... Pie replica was SO ANNOYING. Anyway, OVER FIVE FUCKING YEARS LATER, I was able to use my magic to break out of there."

"Why couldn't you have done that earlier?"

"Because my horn was severely damaged, and Sombra was low on power throughout that fiasco and was spectacularly murdered shortly after. I didn't even bother trying to kill that replica, I just wanted to get out of there!"

"And I'm getting out of here," said a voice. Before Trixie could process this, the dust surrounding the changeling mob rose, revealing Gilda casually laying atop a pile of changeling organs and meat that was oozing with green blood. She was gnawing on a bone, and the male changeling looked like he was about to throw up. "Those thing were total wimps, but they were delish!"

Trixie turned back to the queen. "Your blood is green?"

"Yes... Anyway, I was going to send your attacker to the castle to attack Princess Twilight once more, but you just had to interfere. Of course, with this necklace, I now have another chance!"

"You know," said Trixie, "There's a very powerful amulet locked away in Zecora's hut, which is in walking distance of Ponyville."

"Already covered," said the queen. She levitated the Alicorn Amulet and put it around Trixie's neck. "I know you've handled it before. Therefore, I'm trusting you with it."

"Thanks! But how did you get it?"

"Simple." Chrysalis reared back, and she shot a beam at the keyhole. The doors opened loudly, revealing none other than Zecora, Luna, and Luna's bat-pony guards, all tied up back-to-back. Luna's horn had a black ring on it that prevented her from using magic. "I caught them making out on the moon."

Trixie grimaced. "Moon-butt was making out with Swirly Sun-butt?"

Gilda rolled over onto her chest, still on the blood-covered pile of organs. "*cough*Sunset Shimmer*cough*"

Trixie looked back at Gilda without turning her head. "You're lucky you're Trixie's only friend right now..."

"You might find a friend in me," said a menacing male voice. Without warning, a purple haze was conjured up and culminated in front of Luna. It lifted, revealing none other than King Sombra, complete with horn and everything.

"Sombra?! But thou is dead!"

"Yes, Sombra is dead. But technically, I'm not Sombra. I'm... the Pony of Shadows!"

Gilda coughed up a laugh. "Great. First changelings that are actually succubi and incubusususus, and now flippin' SHADOW ponies? Give me fucking break!"

"I'll gladly break you..." muttered the male changeling.

"You guys are familiar with the legend of Nightmare Moon, right?" asked Chrysalis.

"Yeah, so?" asked Gilda.

"Well, when Princess Celestia—"

"Totally rainbowed Luna's moony ass!"

"... Nightmare Moon's magic wasn't completely dissipated. You all know the tale of the Pony of Shadows, right?"

"Not all of us!" shouted Gilda.

"Too bad, I'm not going to waste majority of this chapter with needless exposition that bronies already know. Are you aware of how hard it was to type this one?"

"Isn't '[wasting] majority of this chapter with needless exposition that bronies already know' what you've been doing this whole time?" asked Trixie.

"Yeah, except bronies DIDN'T know all that."

"Thou is greatly bewildering us right now... Are we witnessing mass genocide beneath that griffon?"

"Yeah. Want some?" Gilda tossed a stomach with a bone jutting out of it, which the Pony of Sombra/the Sombra of shadows/Sombra the Pony of Shadows caught with his magic and shoved into Luna's mouth. Luna turned her head coughed the meat out toward Trixie.

"Hey, give me that here," said Gilda.

"You want meat that's been in a pony's mouth?" deadpanned Trixie.

"I want meat that has been in a PRINCESS' mouth."

"Fair enough." Trixie levitated the meat back to Gilda, who devoured it whole. Trixie's magic had returned to its vivid red glow it had when under the influence of the Alicorn Amulet.

The queen groaned. "Alright, fine! If you want me to supply an enormous exposition dump, I'll fill the entirety of the next chapter with it. But to do that..." She motioned for the male changeling to come forward. She leaned down and whispered something to him. He looked slightly embarrassed, but still went through with what the queen told him. This look was _______ _____'s current look.

Author's Note

I know the chapters are kind of short, but there's only so much you can draw out on any given moment.

Exposition

Author's Note

Had to live up to that comedy tag somewhere. Might as well be when the villains are scheming.

There were some jokes I had to take out that wouldn't make sense on this site.

There isn't going to be any actual clop until chapter 10, but I might have to change the rating for the next chapter.

Exposition

The humiliated changeling shuffled his—or rather HER—feet apprehensively. He knew of the pony he had taken the form of. He remembered kidnapping her and her friends. He remembered his queen murdering a kitten in a gory fashion in front of them. He remembered everything.

"Do you know this filly?"

Gilda jumped and fell off of the pile of changeling meat. She promptly nestled on top of it again. The voice of the queen had gotten so sharp that it had caught the griffon when her guard was let down.

"Do you know this filly?" repeated the queen, stamping her cavity-filled hoof. Trixie backed up, starting to feel intimidated. Then, she peered closely at what was in front of her. A sudden realization came to her.

Before Trixie could respond, a Pegasus pony crashed in through the glass window. As if to brandish it, she held a foal in a saddle on her back. The mare had a pale gold coat, a dull pink mane, and light blue eyes. Her cutie mark was three teardrops, even though it was the universally accepted image of raindrops. The foal had a light amber coat, a pale, light grayish rose mane, and vivid blue eyes. His cutie mark was a skull and cross bones made out of candy. Gilda did not even bat an eye.

Cognizing (and not greatly appreciating) Gilda's ignorance, the mare looked on with a determined frown. "My name," she announced with a dramatic pause, raising her chin, "is Rain Dance."

Gilda still took no notice. Losing patience, Rain Dance gesticulated towards her foal. "His name," she said with the same dramatic tone as before, "is Sweet Tart."

Gilda audibly yawned. Wings flaring, Rain Dance put her dignity aside to shout, "Gilda! Don't you remember me? We went to Junior Speedsters Flight Camp together!"

Gilda turned slightly as Trixie began to fix the glass. "Eh... I guess."

Trixie jumped at an opportunity. "Do you know me? I am THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRRRRRIXIEEE. You were watching the Equestria games of the 1,001st year of the Celestial Diarchy, right?" Trixie conjured up an image of the script. "Wait, 'cognizing' and 'diarchy' aren't actual words? Since when? And since when was Trixie's—stop doing that!—name not an actual word?"

"I think that the readers who haven't looked at the script are extremely confused right now," Gilda casually commented.

Luna and Zecora exchanged glances. Chrysalis sighed at the gratuitous fourth wall breaking. Even the most oblivious knob in the room (Gilda) could tell she had been driven to her limit.

"Um, Gilda, you might actually be offended by this part of the script," said a hesitant Trixie, taking caution of the queen's attitude.

"What does it say?" asked Gilda, gnawing loudly on a bleeding changeling liver.

"It calls you 'the most oblivious knob in the r'—. She was cut off by a green blast that vaporized her view of the script. "You know what, it would probably be better if you didn't know."

The queen sighed again. "I apologize for being a tad violent, but, and I know I've been repeating this a lot, can we please continue? Forget your canon script."

Gilda raised a claw. "What's canon?" she asked through a mouthful of changeling meat.

"It means 'to send the griffon to Tartarus where she's forced to watch Generation 3.5 of My Little Pony for the rest of her life while being slowly mutilated to death'!" replied a sarcastically rampant Rain Dance.

"Wait, the script actually says to do that?" squawked Gilda, who snapped into a hover with her claws folded across her chest. "Not on my turf!"

"OH, FOR THE LOVE OF CERBERUS..." Chrysalis heaved a tremendous sigh and turned to Rain Dance and Sweet Tart. "Can you please just leave?" She leaned in closer and whispered, "And you don't suppose you could take the griffon with you, do you?"

"Actually," said the mare, "Sweet Tart here failed his first flight test. The last one is where most Pegasi who fail meet their doom, but failing the first one is a serious blemish on Cloudsdale's image."

"And you think any of us care about some floating city's reputation?" asked Chrysalis. Trixie nodded before the sentence was finished.

Gilda waved her right claw around and gulped another chunk of meat. "Ahem, Cloudsdalian right over here!"

Rain Dance ignored her, mirroring what Gilda had done when the Pegasus entered. "I'm a weather pony... and Fluttershy is my younger cousin."

At the name of the element of kindness, Gilda's wings abruptly stopped flapping, prompting her to fall and immerse into the pile of changeling meat. Chrysalis snapped out of her tired state with a defined stern expression. "Did you say Fluttershy?"

"Yes," replied Rain Dance. "You know who she is? Figures, considering she saved the world multiple times and became Photo Finish's model at one point... And let's just say, she can make anything look hot."

"She is one of my enemies," answered the queen, "on a more personal level than the rest of the Mane Six."

"Um, why?" asked Trixie. "Wasn't it Prince-ass Twilight that you were after?"

"Well, yes... but you do not need to know why."

Gilda came out of of the meat pile covered in green blood. Flying back up on top of the pile, she asked, "Wasn't she the one who purposely walked her shitless ducks right into me?"

"You know," said Trixie, "you should have more respect for birds, considering you're half bird yourself."

"Why are you here?" Chrysalis asked Rain Dance, ignoring the quirky pair None of them are helping me at all...

"For reasons that the author brony who just wants to get over with this is too lazy to come up with."

"Pointing out your problems does not make them go away," Trixie pointedly stated.

Gilda wiped her right wing across her body, sending a lick of green blood splashing on top of the disguised changeling. "Like how you just did?"

Why are these two suddenly turning on each other? thought Chrysalis before realizing that she just proved their point.

"All right, now I can continue with my exposition." Chrysalis muttered, "For Nightmare Moon's sake, it's right in the chapter's title."

Gilda leaned over toward the Pony of Sombra without getting off of the meat pile. "I think the author brony is now talking out of Queen Swiss Cheese's mouth."

Sombra suppressed a smile. "He's actually talking out of all of our mouths."

Chrysalis decided to at least start her exposition before killing everyone in the room, including herself. She raised an cavity-filled hoof at Luna. "Have you ever heard of those rumors of me being you? Ridiculous. Someone of my caliber is in no way deserving to be compared to the likes of someone of your idiocy."

Gilda immediately spat out the meat she was chewing. "Swiss Cheese, future note: Never EVER say something like that in front of Trixie, or else she'll go into this long winded rant about which one of you was really more idiotic."

Trixie smirked before assuming a sensual grin. "You know me so well."

Alarmed, Gilda snapped into flight as Trixie teleported herself onto the meat pile. Then, Trixie telekinetically pinned Gilda to herself and started preening the griffon's feathers.

Chrysalis could only stare. "...What?!"

"I don't know!" said Gilda, feeling as violated as possible. "She just switches from glum and depressed to boastful and arrogant to prostitute on a whim!"

"Well, at least it's only preening," muttered Chrysalis. "Nothing that a griffon with Gilda's attitude can't take.

"Anyway, let's talk about why I have 'Sombra' here. Since this is really the spirit of the Pony of Shadows, he can implant the spirit of Nightmare Moon back into our precious Lunar princess.

"Originally, there was going to be an entire rant from the not-at-all-lame griffon about the flaws in the Nightmare Moon mythology, but that was taken out. What will remain is me pointing out what they say about history being written by the victor. When you triumphed over Sombra, you took out something very important from the mythology. You, dramatic pause, yesIsaidthataloudsosueme, and Sombra are siblings." Chrysalis turned back, surprised to see the reactions. "What? I was expecting more slack jaw reactions."

"That's the author brony's old headcanon," said Gilda. "He no longer goes by it. You should know that."

"How?" The queen squinted closely at something Trixie had conjured up a projection of. "What is that?"

"The script."

-----Two torturous deaths and resurrections by Chrysalis to Trixie and Gilda later (okay, not really)-----

"Do you know this filly?" asked Chrysalis, failing to get an answer out of Luna. "Fine, she's the one you showed the ruined future of her sister to. You have the ability to see the future. You saw into the future and wrote the Mare in the Moon prophecy."

This elicited a confused look from Gilda. "Okay, that's a bit too much..."

"No, no," interjected Trixie, levitating the book. "She's right. It's all in this book written by ~~Slutset Sexy~~ Sunset Shimmer."

Chrysalis turned to Trixie. The unicorn gulped. "You mentioned a creature called a Diamond Dog earlier, right?"

"Yes," said Trixie, "I was their queen at one point. They didn't want me to leave, but Rainbow Dash helped me escape."

At the mention of Dashie's name, Gilda let a sad expression take over her face, eliciting a smirk from Sombra.

"They kicked the three that kidnapped Rarity out," continued Trixie, "so I'm sure that they'll want to serve THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRRRRRIXIIIIEE!"

"Good," said Chrysalis. "Now, do you see that red diamond-shaped plate on the magic-disabling ring on Luna's horn?" She didn't wait to see if she elicited any nods.

"Why does the author brony suddenly like saying 'elicited' so much?" asked Gilda, only to elicit a sharp glare from the queen. "...I'll shut up now."

"Good," said Chrysalis. "Now, do you know what would happen if, say, Sombra leaned in and placed the tip of his horn on that red plate while it is emanating magic?" Without waiting for any elicited answers, she continued. "Well, go ahead. Do it."

Sombra nodded, but before he could do anything, Chrysalis intervened. "I might as well explain why the Pony of Shadows is suddenly in Sombra's body. When Sombra died, his horn went flying into the old castle. Like how the Nightmare forces needed a vessel when possessing Rarity, the Pony of Shadows also needed one. So why not use the DNA of someone whose name means shadow?"

Luna tried to resist, but Sombra manged to make contact with the plate. In an overly theatrical spectacle, the embodiment of the night gave into her dark side, purging her purest nature and bringing forth a much more powerful form—Nightmare Moon.

Trixie looked at the script with a confused expression. "Okay, that detail was entirely unnecessary. I mean, we already know what Nightmare Moon is and what the transformation looks like—"

"Will you shut up for once?" an incredulous Rain Dance interrupted.

Instead of complying, Trixie took on an even more confused expression. "And just who is this bimbo?"

Rain Dance gaped before screaming in frustration. She and Trixie clearly were not going to get along.

Trixie suddenly remembered something from earlier. "Why were Luna and Zecora making out on the moon?"

Having gotten through with her exposition, Chrysalis sighed with relief before answering. "Celestia and Zecora normally do that, but Celestia decided to let her sister try."

"Huh. Okay. CeleCora is also a good ship."

"Well, now let's go and attack Twilight's castle!"

Trixie dropped the book, something that was turning into a habit. "Now?"

"Why not? We have the power; we just need to get to the mirror and bring back Sunset Shimmer." She turned to her prisoners. "Leave the zebra and the guards here. Now we can help Moon-butt bring forth eternal night! Let's go!"

Everyone charged outside with the exception of the male changeling. Chrysalis turned back towards it. "You can take the disguise off now."

After removing the disguise, the changeling asked, "Why did you need the Sweetie Belle disguise anyway?"

"Oh, I just wanted to see you cross-dress in front of Gilda."