Don't Bug Me, Chrysalis...

Chapters

Prologue - Morning in Ponyville
Chapter 1 - Panic at the Discord
Chapter 2 - Confrontation of the Changeling Queen
Chapter 3 - Slight Overreaction
Chapter 4 - Calm Before the Storm
Chapter 5 - In Love and War
Chapter 6 - The Confrontation Situation

Prologue - Morning in Ponyville

It was an ordinary day in the small town beside the Everfree Forest. Morning in Ponyville shimmered, and also in fact, did shine. Not that Twilight would have noticed, the town's resident ex-librarian turned princess locked away in the archives of her massive crystal castle, where she had spent the past week sorting through the scorched remains of her old library's book collection. Even with her Class-7 flame retardant enchantments that the entire tree house had been warded with (In case of Spike getting a cold), nearly all of her old belongings were nothing but ashes. Sighing, the alicorn lifted up another ruined book before slowly placing it in the ever-growing burlap sack of burned parchment and singed paper. Blinking away tears at the crumbling, unsalvageable remains of her favorite first edition copy of “An Egghead’s Guide to Advanced Thaumodynamic Constructs”, she looked wearily at the large pile of scorched timber she had left to dig through.

Luckily, libraries and archives across Equestria had begun to donate scrolls, books, tomes and papers towards what was now being called "The Vaults of Friendship", a massive spiraling underground library extending dozens of floors into the earth. Despite the thousands of articles she had already received and sorted, the shelves were mostly bare. It seemed the castle had overdone its growth slightly, in regards to how many books would be accumulated.

Levitating the sack of tomes that had not survived incineration, she gently set them into an overflowing open pit of desolated knowledge. With a sigh, Twilight lit her horn and vanished from space, her atoms bending through the fabric of reality to reappear in the slowly growing archives beneath the castle. The alicorn was distraught and did not want to deal with any more ‘salvaging’ for today, instead she was planning to just relax with a good textbook by one of the archive’s many crystal fireplaces. Unfortunately for her, before she could even open the book, a sound caught her attention. She looked up at the sound of claws scampering wildly down the hard crystal staircase.

"T...Twilight!" Shouted Spike, her faithful assistant as he practically tumbled down the spiral stairs in a panicked manner. "Y...you've got a visitor!"

Twilight rolled her eyes in response. "I've had visitors here every day for the past week, Spike." She spoke patiently as she placed the book on the ground and stretched her wings. “What is so important about this one?”

"It’s... sh... ...bu...just come up! Quickly!" Her assistant replied, his stubby arms flailing wildly to try and express his point. He then proceeded to run into a nearby closet, the little dragon looking terrified for his life.

"Ugh, fine..." Twilight replied in a somewhat downtrodden voice. She still had not gotten over the total destruction of her belongings that occurred less than a week ago, but she couldn’t just sit around moping when she had guests to meet. Guests that were apparently important enough to make her little assistant panic like this. Deciding to take the fast route to see what the big deal was, she flapped her wings and propelled herself out of the archives and back into the main hallway towards the entrance of Friendship Castle. "I really don't get what you're freaking out about. None of the princesses are due to visit for weeks."

"I-it's not a princess I'm worried about!" Spike shouted from the bottom of the stairs, only his eyes visible as he clung to the side of the doorway terrified. "It's a queen!"

Twilight snorted. "Spike, don't be silly. The only pony one Equus that goes by that title is..." Twilight stopped suddenly, her eye twitching as she came face to face with her visitor.

"Twilight Sparkle." Chrysalis sneered, her eyes filled with hatred, her horn aglow with sickly green energy and an eerie hiss to her menacing voice.

The two creatures stood there, staring at each other with drastically different expressions. On the face of the lavender alicorn was a mixture of confusion, surprise, and fear. Contrarily, the Queen of the Swarm looked mostly menacing, furious, and... slightly nervous?

Twilight was fast to react, instantly blasting off a class 9 containment spell, followed by seven separate null-magic wards and a thaumic refraction field just in case. The sheer onslaught of magical power knocked the queen off her hooves, only for her to slam against the back of Twilight's force field with a chitin cracking crunch. Letting out a shout of pain, the changeling ruler doubled over before falling flat on the ground unconscious. This all took place in less than three seconds.

Blinking, Twilight stood still for ten seconds before a thought came to her head. D-did I just kill somepony? Twilight stared for a moment longer, before letting out a scream loud enough to reach the edges of Ponyville. Not even a minute later, the sound of smashing glass came from the second floor, followed by a muffled curse and the flapping of wings. Jumping with a start, Twilight looked around wildly, panicking at the idea of somepony walking in and seeing her like this. Oh crap... I can’t let anypony see her! The alicorn thought to herself. Acting quickly, she activated the refraction field around Chrysalis, causing the changeling to vanish from sight just before a prismatic blur shot into the room.

"Twilight! What's wrong! Is it Discord?! Trixie? Who's flank do I get to kick!?" Rainbow Dash hollered while brandishing her forehooves like fists.

"Uh... it's... n-nothing! That's right! N...uh...nothing!" Twilight responded with a transparent grin.

Rainbow only glared in response, raising an eyebrow. “Then what was that scream? You sounded like somepony getting a wedgie from Discord.”

"I...uh... was... uh... pranking? Yeah! That’s right! It was just a prank! Uh... gotcha!" Twilight said, the lie so painfully obvious that even her over enthusiastic grin hurt.

"Uh... huh." Rainbow replied in clear disbelief. She noticed Twilight jump suddenly away from where she was standing, like something touched her hoof. "You sure you're alright? I could hear the scream from my house. And I live halfway to Cloudsdale!"

Twilight grinned in response, her eye twitching slightly while she attempted to wipe something unseen off of her hoof. "Y...yeah! Never better! Alrightthanksforcheckingbye!” With a flash of her horn, she warped Rainbow Dash exactly ten feet to the left, dropping her right outside the front door before magically locking every entrance and window. Letting out a sigh of relief, she released the cloaking charm only to cringe at what she saw. The queen's carapace was cracked along her back, green blood pooling on the floor and... onto Twilight's hoof. Flinching, Twilight walked closer and lit her horn, biting her lip as she began to slowly repair the queen's chitin.

After ten minutes straight of white tier healing magic, Twilight let out a pant and practically collapsed on the floor. It had taken nearly all of her considerable pool of magic, but nothing had changed! It made no sense, that amount of magic should have been able to regrow an entire ponies lower half, yet Chrysalis was still lying there in intense suffering.

Despite her intense exhaustion, Twilight was immediately on her hooves again. Gently lifting up the queen in her magic, she carried the changeling towards one of the spare rooms before slowly lowering her into a bed. Biting her lip, Twilight glanced around for something to secure Chrysalis with, before deciding finally to just cast a Mithril Weave charm on one of the blankets and then tie the chitinous pony to the bed. After which, she reached into her personal sub-dimension with the last of her magical energy and pulled out a small ebony ring, one that she had not needed to use since she was a filly with uncontrollable surges of power. Slowly, she placed it on the queen's horn before letting out a sigh.

"Okay..." Twilight mumbled to herself, rubbing her temples with the tips of her hooves. "What the buck just happened..."

“You just mauled a foreign dignitary who is wanted for crimes of impersonation, kidnapping, assault, and restricted mental manipulation charms.” Answered Spike who was sipping tea slowly, the young drake clearly in shock. Twilight responded with a deadpan glare.

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” Twilight said with a sigh, before her expression softened and she brought the drake into an embrace. “I’m sorry Spike, I didn’t mean to snap at you. I’m just... really confused.” She said with a worried smile. Her number one assistant didn’t respond verbally, instead just hugging the alicorn back as best as he could with his small limbs.

Author's Note

Alright, I'm actually going to finish a story for once! Sorry for the extremely short chapter, just wanted to get the setup out of the way in its own little 'Prologue' chapter.

Chapter 1 - Panic at the Discord

Author's Note

I'm surprised by the amount of positive feedback I got from the prologue. So, in all of its ~~glory~~ cringeworthy terribleness, here's chapter 1! I hope I played Discord well enough to honor John De Lancie's name.

Chapter 1 - Panic at the Discord

Twilight paced back and forth rapidly just outside the room of her newest 'guest'. Spike, on the other hand, was content to just sit against the wall and sip his soul-calming tea in order to relax the sheer amount of panicked signals his brain was releasing. "What am I going to do?!" Twilight asked for the thirty seventh time. "I attacked a foreign dignitary on my doorstep, I'm harboring a known criminal, and worst of all, I lied to my friend!" At this realization, tears began to burst from the alicorn's eyes. "Have I learned nothing about friendship?! Princess Celestia's going to send me to princess kindergarten!"

Spike sighed after sipping another mouthful of tea. "I don't think there is such thing as princess kindergarten, Twilight." Muttered the drake.

"That only makes it worse, Spike! Now she'll have to make a princess kindergarten... which will increase the already substantial education expenses and put our entire economy at a deficit! This is bad... this is really bad!" The lavender pony mumbled to herself. "There's probably going to be an entrance exam... and I haven't studied! I'm going to fail princess kindergarten! What's going to happen then? Will she remove my wings? Is the process magical or surgical... will I be able to afford anaesthesia? What if-" Twilight's nonsensical stammering of negative thoughts was finally brought to a halt by the presence of two talons holding her mouth shut.

In front of her stood a quite displeased looking chaos spirit, with a paw on his hip and a claw on the panicking pony's mouth. "Alright Sparklebutt, that's enough. This reality only has enough room for one being of insanity, and you're giving me a real run for my money!" Discord spoke, before picking up Spike and thwapping him against a line chart like a pointer, eliciting a pained yelp from the young drake. "In order to maintain a stable level of chaos, I'll have to cut back on my shenanigans this week. And you know how I love my shenanigans!"

The alicorn of magic responded by giving Discord a deadpan stare, and levitating her assistant out of his paw. "Look, Discord, I know you're trying to be helpful here," Twilight said patiently, with a sickeningly sweet smile. "But, I want you to know that you're being the opposite of helpful!"

Discord leaned in next to Spike, holding a hand in front of his mouth to hide his lips from the peeved purple pony princess's penetrative perception powers. "Psst..." He whispered. "What's the opposite of helpful?"

Spike gave the chaos deity an unimpressed look. "Unhelpful, Discord. Unhelpful"

Discord gasped before turning back to Twilight. "Why I never! Here I am, being a nice friend, and you go and tarnish my good name with such slanderous accusations! I'll have you know, I'm one of the most helpful villains you've ever reformed!"

Twilight just stared unamused. "You're the only villain I've ever reformed. Except for Luna, but that doesn't really count since it was the Nightmare that was the villain, not her."

Discord frowned, reading through a large stack of paper labeled ‘Head Canon’ with a groan. "Oh that's right. Marylight Glimmersue doesn't exist in this reality..." He mumbled.

"Who?"

"Nevermind." Chaos incarnate responded, waving a paw nonchalantly and tossing the hundreds of notes behind his back, burying Spike in all of the badly written papers. "The point is, you should be more thankful that I'm trying to be helpful. After all, you can use all the help you can get with Ms. Bugbrains snoozing in the room next store. And let me say, what a brilliant idea that is. The sheer amount of chaos that this situation will create is absolutely wonderful!"

"Wait!" Spike called out, struggling to extract himself from the giant pile of parchment. "I thought you were upset about Twilight causing chaos. Something about you not getting to do your job?"

Discord rolled his eyes, looking at Spike with the same annoyance a pony would display towards a badly made deviled egg. "Pish posh, I can always work overtime! Even if I couldn't, a vacation from Ponyville and Canterlot is always appreciated. I wonder if Vanhoover would be a good place to establish some chaos... I doubt they'd argue with it. Those ponies are way to polite for their own good. Anyways, I believe your guest is about to wake up, and I don't want to be in the room when that happens, so... toodles~!"

Twilight and Spike both broke into coughs as Discord disappeared in a bursting cloud of strawberry colored smoke that smelled of elderberries. Rolling her eyes once she could finally breathe, the studious alicorn removed the discordant berries with a second-ring banishing spell. "Yeah right. I saw how hurt she was. It'll be a week before she wakes up. A few days at the very lea-" The sound of a pained groan slowly emanated from the door behind her, causing sweat to form on the pony's brow. "Oh buck."

The first thought that came to Chrysalis's mind was pain. Burning, white hot, excruciating pain. She let out a soft groan as she searched into the hivemind for the cause of her agony. This was when the second realization hit her. The loud, deafening silence. Never in her life had she heard such quiet. Even in times of starvation and disease, when her people's numbers were dangerously low, the constant buzz of thoughts always sat in the back of her mind. Never before had she known anything to be this still, it was maddening. Groaning, she slowly opened her eyes and looked towards the black chitinous roof abov... That wasn't right. Instead of the smooth, curved ceiling she was used to seeing lit by the faint green glow of her hive’s rapidly diminishing love energy, her eyes were met by the sight of faceted crystal in shades of lavender and periwinkle. It almost looked like...

Her eyes shot wide open as she realized where she was. Struggling wildly, she attempted to remove herself from the surprisingly soft bed, only to realize her hooves were held down by a mere scrap of fabric. Grunting, she strained her normally powerful limbs against the cloth, but it did not rip. Chrysalis was panicking now, looking around wildly as she struggled to make use of her magic. Unfortunately, every attempt to do so was only met with painful feedback as the thaumic waves rebounded inside of her horn.

"Oh... uh... you're awake." Came a nervous voice from the doorway. Turning her head as much as she could, she narrowed her eyes in burning fury towards the pony standing there.

"Twilight Sparkle." The queen spat, before flinching slightly as she remembered what happened the last time she spoke those words. "Release me now!"

"If I release you... what will you do?" The alicorn asked in a timid voice that would have made Fluttershy ask her to speak up. Luckily, changeling hearing was much more advanced than the senses of a mere pony, so understanding the quiet mumblings was not a difficult task.

"I'll rip your kidneys out through your throat!" Chrysalis bellowed at the top of her lungs, causing the pony to yelp in fear. "I'll tear your feathers out one by one and use them to carve a hole in your horn! I'll stab yo-" The queen's rant was cut short by a ball of fabric being stuffed in her mouth, effectively muting the threats into mere grunts. Twilight had stuffed a sock in the screaming changeling’s mouth, before darting out of the room in fear.

She gagged you and tied you to her bed... Came a smart-ass thought from inside the queen's head. Kinky.

Chapter 2 - Confrontation of the Changeling Queen

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 3 - Slight Overreaction

Twilight paced back and forth, staring at the melting candle. Even in the middle of the night, the red ribbon was supposed to signify a message of extreme importance that requires an immediate response. What could be keeping Celestia from writing back? Another half hour passed, before she finally heard the telltale belch of dragonfire. Moments later, her assistant stumbled quickly into the room, a scroll held tightly in one hand and another thermos of tea held in the other. She was going to have to get him to start cutting back on his tea drinking, that much fluid couldn't be healthy for a creature that small.

Taking the parchment carefully from the drake's digits with a thoughtless levitation charm, she brought the paper up to eye level and began to read out loud.

Twilight,

Get out of your castle immediately. Leave the convict bound in whatever location she currently is in. Make sure to secure her fully, you have authorization to use containment spells up to and including Atlus's Eternal Sealing.

Twilight stopped and reread the first section multiple times to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Atlus's Eternal Sealing was an ancient spell composed of some of the most vile black magic. Its design used the magic of the victim against themselves, allowing anypony who learned it to trap even the strongest unicorns for an unlimited period of time, assuming the victim stayed alive. Spending eternity in Tartarus was generally agreed as preferable to having your own thaumic energies driven into your flesh as chains. The pain was supposedly unimaginable, and using it would normally cause global sanctions.

Being told she was allowed and encouraged to use such a spell by somepony who she always believed to be the pinnacle of pacifism was not processing well into Twilight's thoughts, her brain rejecting such an idea absurd. Filing the thoughts away for later review, she continued reading.

The First, Second, and Third wings of the unicorn corps are on there way via chariot, along with the full day and night guard. Additionally, I have summoned the full Wonderbolts squadron, including those in reserves. Reinforcements are on the way from the Crystal Kingdom, including both Prince Armor, and Cadenza. Luna and I are on our way, though we will be a few minutes behind the calvary due to certain circumstances.

For safety reasons, I'm going to disable your dragon's fire temporarily after this message sends. I'll restore it once this whole fiasco is over, but I don't want the Queen tracking you down based on the thaumic pathways.

Princess Celestia

Twilight slammed the parchment down onto the table in fear, pacing back and forth. "Oh Spike... what do I do?!" She asked, her expression frantic with worry. "P...Princess Celestia always knows best... b...but she clearly wants to hurt Chrysalis! The Queen is nearly dead already!" She bit her lip, staring out a nearby window with worry. "What's wrong with the princess? That doesn't sound anything like how she normally writes. It was so overly formal... is the situation that bad?"

Spike frowned, sitting himself down on a nearby beanbag chair. "I dunno, Twilight. I dislike Chrysalis just as much as everypony else... but Atlus's? I... wouldn't even wish that upon Tirek. And she doesn't seem to be much a threat right now. As wise and wonderful as Celestia is... she could end up killing Chrysalis way too easily. Maybe you should just... uh... stay in your castle and not let anyone in until the princesses get here? If you could talk to Celestia, I'm sure you could find a better way to do things."

Twilight looked out the window, before turning back to the clock. "You're right Spike. That would be the best thing to do... if we want to keep Chrysalis safe. Then... I guess we're... going to have to prepare the castle for a siege. We probably don't have any more than an hour before the wonderbolts are fully assembled."

Spike hopped back up, looking at Twilight with worry. "A siege? Can't you just... tell them not to enter? You're a princess too!" He said, pointing towards Twilight's wings for emphasis.

Twilight shook her head. "No Spike. They're going to think I was brainwashed by Chrysalis. We're going to have to hold out as best we can with them fighting their way in." Spike only gulped in response as Twilight began casting protective wards over the windows and closing the shutters. "Spike. I need you to find Rainbow Dash before any of the wonderbolts do. We need her on our side... I have enough troubles keeping her out of the castle when she smashes through the windows by accident. I don't want to see what happens when she forces her way in on purpose. But... don't tell her about Chrysalis. Just tell her that I need her help immediately, and I'll explain when she gets here. If you see any of the other girls on your way, get them to come too. We'll need all the help we can get."

Spike bit his lip, thinking for a second before nodding and jumping to his feet. With one last look at his mother/boss/sister, he darted towards the door, hearing the sounds of spells being cast behind him. This was going to be a long day.

Chrysalis meanwhile had started to panic. She wasn't able to hear much more than panicked yelling and shouting, muffled by the dense crystal walls around her. Moments later she began to hear the telltale sounds of runes being etched into crystal, and her eyes bugged out... uh... excuse the pun. If I don't get out of here soon, this place is going to be impossible to escape! The bug pony thought to herself. I know ponies hate me... but this level of protection is ridiculous! It's like she's trying tot keep all of equestria trapped inside, not just me!

Chapter 4 - Calm Before the Storm

Spike raced out of friendship castle, not even bothering to shut the heavy crystal gate behind him. He didn't have time to waste if he was going to get to Rainbow in time. He had to find her immediately, before the Wonderbolts did... or else things were not gonna end well. The little purple drake was using his tiny limbs to their furthest extent, running on all fours for extra speed. As he ran, he heard a magical pop beside him, before the tell-tale tone of Discord's sing-song voice. "Now, now, Spike. You're never gonna find Rainbow Crash like this. She'll probably be napping on a cloud till noon!"

Spike skidded to a halt, looking at the chaotic entity with a panicked expression. "But I need to get to her now! Tw-"

Discord placed a single talon over the dragon's mouth, silencing him mid-sentence. "Oh, I know about your bug problem already. Why, I'm here to be a good friend and help you." With a wiggle of his talons and a flourish of his paw, he pulled a propeller beanie out of nowhere and placed it on Spike's head. The chin strap instantly locked up and tightened, fixing itself to the drake's scaly cranium like a vice.

"Gah!" Spike coughed out, the strap almost choking him with how uncomfortable tight it was. "How is this supposed to he-" He was once again interrupted, this time not by a finger to his lips, but by a sudden switch in momentum. Discord had given the propeller a gentle flick, which somehow caused it to begin spinning at an extreme speed, somehow quickly lifting the young drake off of the ground.

"Bon voyage!" The god called to the quickly disappearing baby dragon, waving and smiling innocently. Spike on the other hand was thrashing around wildly, trying in vain to gain some sort of stability or control over the ascending apparel strapped to his noggin. Unfortunately for him, chaos magic did not appreciate being controlled, and so it only sped faster towards whatever destination it was dragging the drake to. That destination turned out, unfortunately for the baby dragon, to be a large cloud. Had he been a unicorn or earth pony, this wouldn't have meant much, but he was neither. He was a dragon, a creature of the skies, so the massive volume of fluffy white moisture was much more like a wall than he would have appreciated. Upon coming in contact with the cloud, he bounced twice before coming to a skidding halt on his face, the hat getting knocked off and soaring off into the skies on its own.

"Uh... Spike?" Spoke a familiar gravelly voice beside him. The panting and gasping drake looked up to come face to face with the exact cyan mare he was looking for.

"R...Rainbow... Twilight... needs.... help..." Spike managed to say in between loud panting gasps. Rainbow stood up immediately, and turned towards the direction of the castle, her face suddenly serious.

"On it." She spoke simply, used to being called to action for adventures by now. With a flex of her powerful wing, she lifted the wheezing baby dragon onto her back. "Hold on tight!" She spoke to the little drake with a grin. "Cause we're going to get there i-"

"Hold it, rookie." A slightly less gravelly voice interrupted, as a pony in full blue spandex landed on the cloud, only to be flanked by two identically dressed pegasi. The wonderbolts had arrived, and the pony in front was clearly Spitfire, from her two-hued fiery mane and tomcolt voice.

Meanwhile, back at the castle, Twilight was scurrying around as fast as her hooves, wings, and horn could take her. Flapping, teleporting, and running around the palace in the most efficient way possible, she rapidly began casting as many protective charms over the contents of the building as she could. She knew it would be hopeless to try and reinforce the walls, as warding the entire castle against three fully grown alicorns would not be easy. Instead, she was focussed on making sure as few of her belongings were damaged in the possible destruction. The only walls she did end up reinforcing were the ones both restraining, and protecting, the changeling queen. Sigils danced up and down the walls as she etched runes directly into the crystal itself, imbuing them with as much magical power as she could spare. Unfortunately, she couldn't spare a whole lot, since her reserves needed to stay full for the upcoming siege.

Every single inch of the crystal wall soon had azure and white streams of energy bouncing around in complicated patterns, strengthening the very bonds of the molecules to where they could withstand the heat of a blazing sun. In between the atoms, she erected barriers of lavender magic, preventing any unicorn from projecting their physical or magical will into the room through teleportation.

Lastly, she put up a cubic barrier of null emotion. The very use of the spell disgusted Twilight, and she knew that for a emotion sensitive creature like Chrysalis, being in such a room would be extremely painful, but it was the only way she could protect the queen from an ECME (Emotional Catalyst Mana Eruption) like the one Shining and Cadence used to claim victory at the wedding.

From the outside perspective, it might have looked like Twilight was taking the news of the coming armada calmly and processing the next course of action with a clear frame of mind. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The poor alicorn was in shock, her teacher whom she placed so much trust in having gone against everything that Twilight had been taught. Instead of the usual advice of friendship and forgiveness, her teacher had sent a full scale army to the purple princess's door, and recommended Twilight torture the already grievously wounded queen. As much as she loved Celestia and hated Chrysalis, she could never stand aside and let such a thing happen.

Twilight, finished with all the preparations she could spare magic to make, let out a sigh and stood outside on the balcony, watching the morning sun begin its rise. Just like her teacher, the massive fiery orb felt somehow wrong, like it had been tainted. Closing her eyes, the Alicorn of Magic spread her wings. Today, she stood alone against the world.

Author's Note

Yeah, I know you guys might think Spike being able to walk on clouds isn't canon, But...

Chapter 5 - In Love and War

Author's Note

It's been a long time coming, it's mostly unedited, and it's nearly triple the length of the other chapters... But here you go, everypony! Enjoy, and make sure to be as relentless as you can with my grammar and spelling errors, as most of this was written during inspired bursts between 1-2am every other morning or so.

Chapter 5 - In Love and War

Twilight had known fear before. Every pony had, it's a natural reaction caused by a pony's instinctive fight or flight instincts. Of course for ponies, the 'flight' side of the equation was significantly more common than the 'fight' response. Twilight however, did not display this common trait of equinity as she stood just inside the entrance to her castle, runes etched into every surface and spiral circles spinning in geometric designs around the floor where she stood. While her face was clearly full of fear, one other emotion had enough sway over her mind to allow her to stand her ground. Determination.

Yet despite all of her extensive preparations, Twilight knew she wasn't going to last long. She just hoped she could keep everything up until Celestia arrived, at which point she could hopefully speak to her teacher, and find what was causing this drastic behaviour. Murmurs began to grow outside the massive crystal entrance as the sounds of ponies approached. Twilight bent her neck and lowered her body, her eyes staring forwards with all the focus she could muster. The moment they pound the doors open, she would let her prepared barrage of non-lethal enchantments fly.

Yes the slam of ponies forcing the door open never came. Instead, a rapid knocking, followed by a familiar voice. "T...Twilight! Open up! T-They'll be here any minute! I brought the girls!" Spoke her assistant from the other side of the door. Twilight let out a relaxed sigh and stepped forwards, quickly opening the massive gate to allow Spike and whoever he brought with him inside. The lavender alicorn's eyes widened as she took in the sight of each of the five ponies standing before her, each with different degrees of worry and confusion on their faces. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and even Fluttershy had dropped everything to help her.

She nodded for them to enter and they did so quickly, sensing the tension and speed of the situation. Immediately once the door closed, Rainbow pounced Twilight, slamming the poor princess's back against the floor and leaning in with a frenzied look on her eyes. "What is the name of my favorite stuffed animal?!" Rainbow Dash shouted, her voice sounding strained and panicked, her hoof held just inches above Twilight's face.

"Gah! S-Spits! Spits! You named her after S-Spitfire the first time you saw her fly!" Twilight shouted back, causing Rainbow to let out a sigh of relief, before blushing when she heard a slight snicker from Rarity. The athlete gave the fashionista a death glare before helping Twilight back to her hooves.

"Sorry about that, Twi. Spitfire told me something crazy about you being taken captive by a changeling queen, and I needed to make sure you were the real you." Rainbow said, shrugging slightly. Twilight was about to point out that had she been mind controlled, she still would have been able to answer the question correctly, but decided that it would not be a good idea to mention at this time.

The rest of the girls were staring at Twilight, their mouths slightly ajar. Rarity was the first pony to recollect herself as she gave an awkward smile. "Twilight, darling, I think it would be easiest to everypony if you would just explain what's going on here, and why there's an army the size of Manehattan just outside your castle?" Asked the fashionista with a worried grin.

Twilight let out a sigh and nodded. "Alright, I'll give you the simple version. But I have to ask that none of you interrupt me until I'm done. We don't have much time." The five ponies quickly nodded and crowded inwards slightly, forming a crescent around Twilight as she began to speak quickly. "Three days ago, I received an unexpected visitor in my entrance room. That visitor was, indeed, Chrysalis." Pinkie and Rainbow both opened their mouths to interrupt her, but were both stopped by an identical orange hoof. Applejack nodded at Twilight to continue, her expression focussed. "Sensing that she was about to leap at me, I casted a number of defensive spells. Unfortunately, I overdid it, and caused severe damage to her carapace." Fluttershy gasped loudly, placing her hooves against her mouth.

"I held her contained in a guest room for a couple days as I tried to mend her shell with magic, but it resisted all known healing incantations. Fearing the worst, I sent an emergency letter to Celestia." The five ponies smiled in relief. Celestia would handle everything! "She responded telling me to contain her with an illegal spell designed to trap powerful being in searing agony, the kind of pain that none should wish upon any pony in existence." She spoke, watching as her friends expressions turned from hopeful to horrified. Nearly all of them tried to speak up at once, but she silently shushed them with a hoof before finishing her tale. "The letter continued to list every military unit she was sending, which included the majority of Equestria's armed, winged, or arcane forces, and a sizable portion of the Crystal Empire's. Additionally, she called upon Cadence and my brother to lead the attack. Lastly, she stated that I should leave the castle immediately and seek no further contact with the queen." Twilight's jaw was set in a firm line as she let her friends take in the news.

Fluttershy was the first to find her voice, somehow. Her timid squeak barely audible over the deafening silence. "But... the Princess would never do something like that. Even as cruel as Chrysalis is... that's... that would be k-k... killing a defenseless being." She mumbled, turning to look at the doors.

Rainbow Dash responded to that with a grunt. "But, Chrysalis is a bad guy! Maybe she just... really wants to ensure that she gets captured!"

Applejack scoffed. "Enough that she tells 'er student to use torture? Ah don't think so." Rarity had nothing to say, her mouth still slightly agape as her brain processed the news. Pinkie Pie had disappeared halfway through the story, and was nowhere to be seen.

"Now... I know Celestia is a wonderful ruler, and the wisest pony I know... but I disagree with her orders. I have the right as a princess to grant sanctuary to a foreign being under conviction if I do not agree with the penalties assigned to them. This protection is guaranteed until an agreement has been reached between all current princesses. For some reason, Celestia is not granting me this right... which brings us to now. I need your help to keep the Queen safe until Celestia has arrived, where I can talk to her under the rules of parlay." Twilight stated, sounding exactly like a military tactician.

Applejack blinked. "An' how do you know all this fancy war stuff?" The farmer asked, raising a suspicious eye.

Twilight smiled sheepishly in response and levitated up a stack of three books labelled 'The Genhoova Convention', 'The Ethics of War', and 'Rights and Responsibilities of Equestrian Government (Second Edition)'. "I... read when I'm panicking."

Rarity stepped forward, nodding her head to Twilight. "You read all the time, darling. Regardless, of course I'll stand by you any time, dear. I trust you completely, and it would be horrid of me to turn you away."

Fluttershy followed behind the alabaster unicorn quietly, giving Twilight a soft smile. "I might not be able to do much when it comes to fighting, but I'll stand by you. As a true friend, it's the right thing to do."

Applejack soon trotted steadily on her hooves. "The princess is the wisest pony ah' know. But she doesn't sound too wise right now, and ah have a feeling you're being honest with us. I'll stand by you Twilight, as ah don't know what else ah could do."

That left Rainbow, who despite symbolizing loyalty, looked extremely conflicted. "You're one of my best friends Twilight, and if what you're saying is true, then I have to be a loyal friend. But Celestia... and the Wonderbolts..." She looked off and out towards the door, biting her lip before she narrowed her eyes and shook her head "...buck it, I'll stand by you too, Twi."

Just as Twilight was about to ask where Pinkie had gotten to, a loud crash sounded from her basement. Turning to face the stairs, all of their eyes widened as a familiar pink pony strode out of the basement, a helmet loosely sitting upon her fluffy mane and two blots of war paint staining her cheeks. In each front hoof she leant against a wheel mounted party cannon, and her eyes were narrowed in a grimace. Chewing a toothpick between her lips, she spat it out onto the crystal floor. "Let's roll." The pony spoke in a short, clipped voice as she pushed her cannons into a barricaded position facing the door. The five other ponies and one drake who had just reentered the room blinked in confusion. They were used to Pinkie being Pinkie... but... this was another level entirely.

The train station was a frenzied area of soldiers running left and right, grouping and regrouping to the orders of their superiors. As Shining Armor stepped off the train, he laid a hoof around his wife's shoulders. "It's gonna be okay. We're gonna find Twilight, and free her. Then we're gonna find Chrysalis, and let that whorse know what happens when you hurt the two most important mares in my life."

Cadence nodded sadly, though bit her lip in doubt. "I know... but the letter from Celestia was so informal. If it wasn't for the perfect hoof writing, I don't think I would have believed it to be real. And it was sent through the right dragonfire channel... so it had to be her... but..." The Alicorn of Love spoke, staring out towards the Crystal Castle.

A brown coated soldier trotted up to Shining, giving him a firm salute. "Sir, the Element Bearers have been seen entering the building. No visual or auditory contact since.

Shining cursed under his breath before nodding towards the soldier. "Lieutenant Zinc Helm, Let the others know that the other Elements are to now also be considered possible hostiles. Use stunning spells only. Do not harm them if possible." The soldier nodded and trotted away to relay the orders and Shining let out a long held breath.

The first sounds the elements heard were the shouts of some indiscernible pony, followed by what sounded like a large swarm of bees. Twilight carefully lifted the blind of one of the windows to look out, but her heart nearly stopped at what she saw. A squadron of unicorns stood in line, at least a dozen a row and half as many again thick. Each one of them had they horns charged identically with a spell ready to be released against the crystal castle turned fortress. She saw some unknown unicorn in a bright vest and hat at the front, holding his hoof in the air. The hoof then lowered, and all hell broke loose.

Seventy two identical concussive blasts fired out from the squadron's horns, smashing into the castle one row after the other to cause six consecutive tremors to shake the crystal structure, and all the ponies held within. Luckily, the polyshape forcefield held and dissipated the forces, allowing the building to stand with no structural damage. Unfortunately, less than a minute later, the horns were already charging again, this time with not with a destructive spell matrix, but just with pure energy.

Twilight yelped and shut the blinds, trotting quickly behind the barricade. "They're going to overload the shield! There is no way it can hold that much energy!" She shouted. The theory of how it worked went over most of her friend's heads, but the idea they understood: The shield was going down, get ready.

The sound of the shield failing was so quiet, it was almost too easy to miss. The first sign that they were truly unprotected, was the flashing blue of a wonderbolt flying in at high speed to scout the place out for any traps. And a trap she did find, when she was shot out of the air by a temporal stasis charm, leaving her suspended in place for a moment before being flung back out of the building harmlessly.

Two more high speed fliers were dealt with identically before they decided to go in without scouts, sending in a full wave of armored earth ponies equipped with spears so sharp they could split a pony in two. Luckily for the ponies inside the castle, those spears were not drawn in the guard's hooves, and instead they held large black tower shields in their mouths. Each obsidian barrier was covered in a swirling design of a glowing purple metallic substance that seemed to grow in luminosity with every step the ponies took into the castle.

Twilight recognized the material immediately as peredium, an artificial alloy created through intensive alchemical processes. The name came from the ancient Romane word 'peredo', meaning to consume or devour entirely, as the substance absorbs thaumic mana endlessly, storing up the energy until the point at which it becomes unstable and shatters. Most commonly used in null-magic rings, it seemed that the guard had recently upgraded their equipment to deal with more competent spell casters.

Luckily she didn't have to panic about her magic being ineffectual, as the advancing guard soon found just how ineffective peredium was at stopping physical blows, such as an apple farmer's hooves, for instance. While the shields did take most of the brute force, crumpling in the ponies' mouths, their armor was less suitable for cushioning the blows as they flew backwards out of the castle and into trees, other guards, and one poor mailmare who didn't get the warning to stay indoors. She would wake up ten hours later in Ponyville General with no clue as to what went wrong.

The next squadron of ponies was much more substantially armored, these ones carrying their shields on their backs and leaving their hooves and heads free to protect themselves as the unicorn corps behind them began to fire a barrage of spells in through the open doorway. Twilight began to alternate casting complicated counters to the incoming hexes, knocking the bolts of magic out of the air with split second blasts of her own identically resonating arcana. Rarity stood beside her, launching stunning spells at whoever was unlucky enough to drop their shields as Rainbow Dash and Applejack continued to tussle with the newest wave of guards. Fluttershy stood in the back with Pinkie, helping the partymare turned demolitionist reload the cannons with hard packed balls of confetti.

Things were looking quite positive, the six ponies somehow managing to hold their ground against the approaching forces. Twilight even managed to put on a small grin, her confidence growing that they might make it long enough. That was, however, until a massive azure implosion ripped the entire front wall away from the castle's entrance room, removing the six ponies' choke point that was their only advantage.

Standing before them was the princess of the moon herself, and she did not look pleased. In fact, she looked outright furious. "You DARE?!" She shouted her eyes trained on all of the element bearers at once. "You DARE turn them against us? Use our friends as your pawns?!"

Twilight gulped, her knees weak as her mane blew in the approaching storm. She attempted to speak up, explain why she asked her friends for help, why everything was how it was, but she didn't even get a chance. "Do not speak, witch!" The lunar goddess belted, yet her eyes did not lock onto Twilight's own. Instead, Luna continued to scan the room with her orbs. "We do not care what you have to say through the mouths of your unwilling puppets! Show yourself and end this charade!"

"W...what?" Twilight whispered, her mind a swirling vortex of confusion as she stared at Luna with wide eyes.

Luna growled in response, slamming a hoof against the ground and leaving a small crater. "Do not play dumb with me." She hissed. "We'll just free the bearers and they themselves can point me to your wretched self!" She began charging an incantations, tendrils and bolts of lightning swirling and jolting around her horn in a cacophony of light and sound, before she released the massive blast which quickly cloaked all the bearers inside. When the opaque aura of magic finally fled, the six harmonic ponies remained standing, but looked slightly confused.

"Uh... what was that supposed to do?" Applejack asked.

This was apparently not the correct question, as Luna only let out an annoyed huff."You think you're clever? You used drones instead of the real bearers?"

A large alabaster hoof, donned in a golden shoe, stepped out of the shadows behind Luna. The massive white alicorn narrowed her eyes and grimaced. "Guards. Eliminate the imposters immediately."

Chapter 6 - The Confrontation Situation

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