Gems

Chapters

Prologue: Breaking Free
Chapter 1: Manehattan Madness
Chapter 2: Terrible News
Chapter 3: New Arrivals
Chapter 4: Royal Home Invasion
Chapter 5: Tak's Hostile Takeover
Chapter 6: Race to the Edge
Chapter 7: Turn of the Tables
Chapter 8: Night-time Mischief

Prologue: Breaking Free

The Tunnels, a place so simply named and yet so filled with such complex history. According to most records it was a grand stone city deep underground at the far reaches of Equestria, that served as home to a great number of highly intelligent Diamond Dogs that lived over 800 years ago, ironically they had very little imagination when it came to naming their home. But for some reason the entrance to the Tunnels was sealed off and no creature has ever seen any one of these Diamond Dogs ever since, centuries past and still there was nothing, until today…

“FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!”

That was the last word to be screamed before another digger pony pushed down on the TNT detonator, setting off yet another small explosion to blast their way through the stone caverns. As it turned out, after 800 years of being sealed up, a great number of Equestria’s explorers and Archaeologists alike had become interested in the Tunnels, some of which only due to the potential profit in selling whatever was in there. Of course those who were more interested in the historical possibilities had the gumption to go into the Tunnels first, even if it meant bypassing any permits required for a dig in order to beat the treasure hunters to the punch. As such all it took was a few sticks of dynamite and a small group of explorers were able to finally open up the Tunnels for the first time in centuries. It was no mystery that Diamond Dogs and ponies didn’t really get along, in fact in some cases they very much despise each other simply because of their perspective on the gems they each desired, but when news that the Tunnels were home to Diamond Dogs reached their ears, this particular group of explorers sought the chance to learn all that they could, even if it was just out of their own curiosity. After 5 days of digging their way through endless caverns, all of which were encrusted with an assortment of gems, each bunch growing larger and larger the deeper everyone went, the explorers finally reached the largest cavern of all. It was a large, circular space that made the explorers feel like they were inside a massive dome, the very stone walls etched with carvings of an assortment of Equestrian creatures, most of which consisted of Giant Diamond Dogs battling said creatures, and each one containing a single gem encrusted where the eyes should be. Needless to say, each and every explorer was impressed by the chamber’s extravagance.

“We’re almost there boys,” their leader declared. “I can feel it,”

This was Bright Eyes, Professor of Archaeology, and a highly intelligent Earth Pony Mare with a pale blue coat stained with dust from the cave and a straight orange mane tied up into a small ponytail. As a filly she always loved to learn, and even now her pursuit of knowledge has driven her to attempt every possible discovery she could imagine, hence the reason she chose to ignore regulations and gather up her group of explorers consisting of friends and work colleges. Those included were Professor Chisel, a silver coated Unicorn, fellow Archaeologist to Bright Eyes and sculpture in his spare time, then there was Boxer, Biggest and Strongest of any Earth Pony Stallion Bright Eyes had the pleasure of knowing, and finally there was Galaxy Quill, a young, pink Unicorn mare with moon-shaped glasses who studies in Bright Eyes’ classes in the Equestrian Societal University. Of course there were other ponies on the dig, all of whom were paid quite well for their efforts, but it was these three in particular that Bright Eyes trusted the most, and it was because of their particular talents that she chose them for this expedition.

“Hey guys!” Galaxy Quill cried out, her gaze not leaving the centre of the stone floor. “Check this out!”

Within a matter of seconds the other three explorers gathered around the young Unicorn, their sights soon staring upon the strange mound carved into the centre of the stone floor, at first glance it appeared to be nothing more than another part of the decorations that adorned the stone walls, however this one seemed out of place, not only because it was the only one coming out of the floor but also because to was the only one that didn’t have any gems, the carving itself appeared to be of a Diamond Dog’s open mouth, a long tough hanging out of it like a level of some kind, and as curious as she was Galaxy Quill wasted no time in pressing a hoof down on it. At first nothing happened other than the dust being lifted away after not being moved for so long, but after a few moments everyone in the chamber began to feel a rumble beneath their hooves, the very ground vibrated violently, before long all four explorers had to jumped back as the carving sank downward, along with a portion of the floor. After the cloud of dust finally settled, every pony was astounded to see that whatever Galaxy pressed, it seemed to activate a small opening, revealing a spiral staircase made from the stone floor, disappearing into darkness as it descended into a lower level.

“Ladies First,” Chisel gulped nervously.

Bright Eyes couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that, Professor Chisel always was a Nervous Nelly whenever it came to the unknown, still she did what she needed to and led the group down the stone staircase, her vision soon clouded by darkness as she went further down. With only Chisel’s and Galaxy’s horns to light the way, along with a few other unicorns joining the explorer on the dig, Bright Eyes soon found herself leading everyone back onto solid ground, her hooves once again hitting a level floor, however unlike the one above, this one felt smooth like glass, as though it wasn’t naturally part of the chamber she and the others now found themselves in. Suddenly she felt something blocking her path, after ushering Chisel and Galaxy to bring their horn’s closer she could see that it appeared to be a pedestal of some kind, shaped in the form of a shallow goblet and filled with a strange-smelling liquid, after giving it some thought Bright Eyes finally took a box of matches out of her vest pocket and ignited it, after which she dropped it into the liquid. As she had expected, the liquid was a flammable substance that provided an even brighter light than a unicorn’s horn can, however it didn’t stop there, after a while the explorers discovered that whatever was in the goblet appeared to be part of some inner pipeline that seemed to connect to several other similar goblets surrounding the chamber the explorers were in, as soon as the last flame was lit the explorers all dropped their jaws in shock. As they had suspected the floor they now stood upon was no mere gravel of a bare cave, but rather a sheet of polished marble, one of which that served as a pathway that weaved through a series of buildings, all of which seemed to have been carved and hollowed out of the very stone of chamber walls, and all of which contained a series of gems faded with age encrusted into the outer walls. Had this once glamorous city been the only thing the explorers had discovered at that moment then their emotions would have been of pure joy at discovering such a historical place, however there was something else in the city that only made everyone stare in horror.

“Sweet Celestia’s mercy,” Boxer uttered in shock.

It was never nice to see skeletons, especially when one was not used to doing so, but the amount of canine bones that littered the stone streets were beyond the count of grief, had there been any living Diamond Dogs amongst the explorers, then all of them would have been howling with sorrow. After taking a moment to absorb everything, the explorers divided into two pairs, each one taking half of the city to explore the ruins.

“What do you suppose happened here?” Chisel asked as he and Bright Eyes passed another Diamond Dog skeleton, this one holding what appeared to be the remains of her own pup.

“A plague maybe,” Bright Eyes answered, though in all honesty it was merely a theory. “Could be the reason why the entrance these caves was sealed off.”

Upon hearing those words, Chisel couldn’t help but gulp.

“You’re saying they could be infectious?” he asked nervously, causing Bright Eyes to chuckle.

“Highly doubtful Chisel,” she replied. “Even if it WAS a plague then chances are that it would have died out ages ago along with everything else here.”

Though this explanation wasn’t that solid, it still made Chisel calm down a little bit, thus allowing him to fully absorb the sight before him. With each skeleton they passed both ponies couldn’t help but feel sad, to think that such a large city of such magnificent craftsmanship was built by these poor dogs, clearly more intelligent than the ones that roam Equestria today, only for them to be entirely wiped out by some unknown cause. However despite the emotion they felt, the explorer keen sense of observation never faltered, which in turn made them notice something odd about each of the skeletons.

“They all seem to be facing something,” Bright Eyes noted, noticing the fact every skull seemed to be pointing in the same direction.

With that piece of info now in their minds, the next logical step was obviously to follow the direction of where all the skeletons were facing, after all if every Diamond Dog was facing the same way when they died, then chances are that the last thing they saw might have been the cause, which in turn would make an interesting discovery. After what felt like an hour of following the hunch, the two explorers finally reached what appeared to be the largest building in the city, which seemed to reside in its very centre. It was a massive, hour-glass shaped building, with the largest sections carved both out of the floor and the ceiling only to meet with a large diamond in the centre, there were no windows like the rest of the buildings, and only had a single pair of double iron doors, both of which were ripped right off their hinges as though someone had kicked them in. Once inside said building, Chisel and Bright Eyes found yet another stone spiral staircase, one which they didn’t hesitate the climb, after reaching the second level, the two ponies were met with yet another incredible sight.

“Woah!” Chisel exclaimed.

However this wasn’t a reaction of awe, at least not the impressive kind, in fact what they saw made their whole bodies shiver. There, in the very centre of the circular room, surrounded by even more Diamond Dog skeletons, all of which were clad in aged armour, was another goblet. However this one wasn’t like the ones that lit up the city outside, in fact the only light source in the room was the light from Chisel’s horn, instead it stood at least 2 feet tall, made out of what looked like jaggedly sculpted stone blackened with age, but weirdest of all, the top seemed to be sealed with an iron cap, which only made the display all the more curious.

“What in Celestia’s name is this?” Bright Eyes exclaimed, her curiosity reaching critical levels upon seeing something so mysterious.

“No idea,” Chisel admitted. “But one thing’s for sure, whatever this thing is, it has got to fetch a fine price for the highest bidder somewhere, every Museum in the world will want it. Maybe whatever’s inside will be worth even more.”

Once again Bright Eyes felt the need to eye-roll

“Must everything come down to money with you?” she asked sarcastically, knowing full well that Chisel’s nervous disposition was only matched by his love for extra Bits. “Alright, let’s get Boxer in here.”

About an hour later, over half of the digger ponies as well as all four of the explorers and an assortment of lit torches and horns were inside the chamber, a large chain attached to a harness around Boxer’s neck with the other end connected to the lid of the black goblet, whatever was inside this strange vessel it needed to be seen.

“And… HEAVE!” Bright Eyes called, shepherding Boxer to his job.

Since Boxer was clearly the strongest out of all the ponies there, it was no surprise that it only took less than a minute for him the pry off the lid, which was easily weakened from age. However while everyone merely expected nothing more than a cloud of dust, what happened next gave every pony an even bigger shock, for as soon as Boxer managed to pull off the lid of the goblet a gush of pressurised cold mist burst from every available crevice, crack and any other opening, blanketing the room in a white fog.

“What the heck…!?!” Galaxy exclaimed.

Luckily the fog wasn’t too thick as to allow everyone to actually see what they were doing, though it didn’t stop it from being any less cold, but in any case every pony was now able to peer into the strange goblet, what they saw, however, wasn’t a pretty sight.

“So… you called me in here just to open up a tub of blue snot?” Boxer asked, snorting in frustration.

Needless to say, seeing the pool of gelatinous blue goop inside the goblet wasn’t something any pony was expecting, no one even dared to poke their hooves in it in fear that it could be acidic. At first glance, the only solid thing that any pony could see was its sky blue colour, after tapping the outer rim of the goblet, they then saw that it has the consistency of paste. After a few minutes of looking over this strange liquid, the explorers then turned away from the goblet to have a small talk

“What would a bunch of ancient Diamond Dogs be doing guarding something like this?” Chisel asked, taking note of the skeletons surrounding the strange liquid.

“Maybe this is just the result of rotting?” Galaxy theorised. “Could have been something else in there before now.”

However Bright Eyes merely shook her head at that.

“No, it’s too old,” she calmly argued. “Any decomposition would have dried up by now, besides that seal would have kept a lot of harsh elements out in order to prevent decay.”

“So you’re saying that goop’s some kind of preservative?” Boxer asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Maybe,” Bright Eyes replied with a shrug, “We’ll have to get some more of our special tools to know for…”

“Uh… guys?” one of the digger-ponies uttered, cutting Bright Eyes off mid-sentence and pointing back towards the goblet.

Of course Bright Eyes hated to be interrupted, but in this case the interruption couldn’t have been more appropriate for at that moment, all the while the four explorers were distracted to notice that the blue liquid had begun to slowly rise out of the goblet, shifting itself into a tentacle-like shape like a cobra rising from a basket. As soon as they finally turned to see what was happening, all four explorers’ jaws dropped once again.

“Oh my…” Galaxy uttered.

At first the tentacle only stood there for a few seconds, the tip of it turning in all directions as though it were trying to feel around for something, needless to say it was a curious sight, in fact it almost seemed hypnotic. Suddenly the feeling was curiosity was instantly replaced by fear when the tentacle suddenly snapped towards the direction of the explorers and wrapped itself around Boxer’s belly.

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!” he screamed as he was suddenly pulled into the goblet, only to disappear into the abyss of the strange goo.

After that the entire chamber was filled with chaotic screams as more and more tentacles sprouted from the goblet and began to attack every pony in sight.

“RUN!!!” Chisel screamed, desperately trying to run towards the staircase.

However the sheer speed of the tentacles was so astounding that he too was snatched up and carried into the goblet. One by one, every pony had suffered the same fate, snatched up by a tentacle and consumed by the ever-growing mass of sticky goo, until finally only Bright Eyes remained. After seeing her friends disappear to a terrible fate, Bright Eyes couldn’t help but shed tears of sorrow as she held poor Galaxy’s glasses in her hooves, in fact she was filled with so much sorrow that she didn’t even care when the final tentacle wrapped around her throat. However while every other tentacle consumed the other with great speed, this last one took it’s time as it slowly brought Bright Eyes closer to the goblet, almost as though it were toying with her. Then something happened that Bright Eyes could never have expected, while the final tentacle continued to hold her in the air by her neck, the rest of them twisted, stretched and merged like blutack, before long the entire mass of goop had completely left the goblet and took its first step onto the solid floor. Where a puddle of slime sat, now stood a large bipedal figure that stood at least seven feet tall, though that would have been more accurate if the figure’s entire body bended and crouched as though he didn’t have a single bone in his body, he had skin that was the same light blue as the goop he once was, had two toes on each bare foot, wore a purple turtle-neck sweater and brown pants underneath a mossy-green coat, and had a noseless face that only a mother could love, consisting of three tiny tentacles above and below his lips that acted as a goatee and moustache, had a gruesome smile that show a large gap between his two front teeth, and a pair of dark eyes that glowed with green, pupiless irises. If his appearance wasn’t scary enough, what made things even more terrifying was when the figure brought the larger tentacle, now shifted into an arm that ended with a four-fingered hand that was still clasped around Bright Eye’s throat, even closer to his face, a large sinister grin plastered upon it.

“So sorry Darling,” he hissed mockingly with a deep, slippery voice. “But you cannot IMAGINE how hungry I am.”

That was the last words Bright Eyes ever heard before the hand that held her neck once again shifted and covered her body like a cocoon before shrinking back into the figures arm, and thus Bright Eyes, along with the rest of her digging crew, were never seen again. After this horrid act was complete, the figure then casually walked away from the goblet.

Once outside the building, the blue figure stretched out his arms further than anyone could even think possible and took a deep inhale through the gap in his teeth.

“Aaahh… it’s so nice to breath in the free air again,” he sighed, clearly glad to be finally free from the goblet that held him.

It was then that the figure took a moment to take notice of his surroundings, a look of amusement spread across his face as he knelt down and touched the marble beneath his feet.

“Such strange terrain,” he commented, taking note of the aged decay around him. “So is this what happens when one goes away for a few hundred years?”

Of course no creature was around to hear him, any pony that was lucky enough to survive consumption had clearly exited the Tunnels by now, but the figure didn’t care for it was the first time he was able to hear his own voice for so long. After getting back to his feet, the figure then walked towards a nearby Diamond Dog skeleton and casually picked up its skull with little to no respect for the dead, in fact he was so disrespectful that he was basically tossing the skull up and down like it were nothing more than a baseball.

“Oh you poor mutts,” he said mockingly, soon tossing the skull into the air and kicking it away like a soccer ball. “So your efforts to keep me imprisoned have failed huh!?! Not so smart now, are ya!?!”

At that moment the figure couldn’t help but quiver with delight, it had been AGES since he was able to express himself so freely, after all being trapped inside a goblet only allowed so much functionality in his body. But now he was free, and with his freedom came a whole swarm of ideas.

“… but perhaps you can provide a better service in death than you did in life,” he thought aloud, twisting his moustache with sinister delight as old memories came flooding back into his head.

Upon remembering a certain thought, the figure then opened up his palm and a small orb sprouted out of it like a flower bud, the blue skin becoming more translucent as the orb suddenly become as clear as crystal. Inside the orb, a series of even smaller ones appeared to be floating like bubbles in water, each one giving off a flicker of white light.

“Ah yes…” The figure hissed, smiling with delight upon seeing the lights inside the orb. “Even after all these years your souls still remain intact, pure and blank like a canvas waiting to be painted. All you require now… are the proper vessels.”

At those words the figure then reabsorbed the orb back into his hand and began to scan his surroundings, trying to see what he could find that would be suitable for his needs, the skeletons were basically useless, and anything else had been ravaged by the teeth of time… all except a certain item that seemed to be encrusted into every building.

“Yes…” the figure contemplated, plucking a small ruby out of the nearest stone wall and giving it a small examination. “These materials shall do nicely.”

With that final word, the figure then tossed the ruby over his shoulder and clasped his hands together, closing his eyes as he began to focus, after a moment of silence, the figure screamed as loud as his lungs could muster.

“FUSION DISCHARGE!!!”

With those words echoing throughout the entire cave system, another crazy event occurred. As soon as the words left the figures mouth, small blue tentacles by the hundreds all burst out of the figures back and stretched themselves far and wide into the city, each one piercing a single gem without so much as cracking it. After that the same lights that had been inside the figure’s hand was now being pumped out of his back, a single one traveling down each tentacle and into the awaiting gem, as soon as that was complete the tentacles then retracted and withdrew into the figures back once again, leaving a now violently glowing gem in their wake. Before long, each gem then began to double, triple, and quadruple in size, all of them falling out of the wall and landing onto the ground with a small crack, had anyone else been in the Tunnels at the time, jaws would have dropped for sure if they were to see what happened next. After growing to a big enough size, each gem then exploded from the inside like an egg hatching in a most violent way, and stepping out was a creature that no one had ever seen before. At first glance, each one looked like a small canine, each one different in colour and size, though the average was the height of a common pony, with some reaching double that mass, what’s more, every single one of them had gems sprouting out of their upper-bodies as though they were naturally growing out of them, some even had sharpened gems in place of teeth. Needless to say, it was a sight to behold, especially since each and every one of these creatures now seemed to be converging onto the figure’s location, all of them bowing at his feet upon arrival as though it was expected of them.

“My children,” the figure spoke, with cold voice reaching out even to the furthest reaches of the cave so every creature could hear him. “Welcome to the land of the living. For too long has our purpose been postponed, now is the time we can finally do what we are meant to do!”

The creatures all cheered at those words, only then to be silence by the figure raising his hand.

“Now my dear Gemnites,” he continued, giving name to his creations for the first time. “You will scout out the land far and wide, you will learn all that you can about those who inhabit it, and then you will… DRIVE THEM INSANE!!!”

And with that final call, the Gemnites then roared with applause and began running towards the nearest exit like a swarm of bees leaving the nest. Before long the figure once again found himself alone in the tunnels, placing his hands behind his back as even more memories began to fill his mind.

“Fear not Mistress,” he muttered to himself. “I shall NOT fail this time, soon you shall be awakened and we SHALL be reunited once again!!!”

Chapter 1: Manehattan Madness

Ponyville, a quaint little town that represents the best qualities of Equestrian Harmony, a place where ponies of all kinds live together in peace. There were many great locations in this town, from the delectably appealing bakery, Sugarcube Corner, to the humble farm of Sweet Apple Acres, however one place in particular that stood out the most... a magnificent castle. A first glance it looked very much like it were literally a crystal tree, which in a nutshell it was, it had golden roofs, purple and pink walls and had a shimmering crystal star decorated at the very top. Inside the castle it was just as beautiful, with crystal hallways leading into a huge assortment of rooms, one of which was a HUGE library, and inside this library was where our story truly begins.

“Starlight?” a voice called out and the doors opened up to reveal a lavender Alicorn coming in from the hall. “Are you in here?”

This was Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic and the Princess of Friendship, she along with the rest of her five friends, who were of course the OTHER elements of Harmony, were the main reason that this castle existed in the first place, and needless to say having to navigate through the every hall can be somewhat of a chore, even if Twilight DID live here. The reason why Twilight was navigating the halls at this moment was for a reason that she seemed to find herself meeting every so often since a certain light purple Unicorn with a dark purple and green mane became the newest member of her household.

“Ah, there you are,” she said, greeting the said Unicorn and making her look up from the newspaper she was reading. “I was wondering where you’ve been all morning.”

This was Starlight Glimmer, Twilight’s first and only student, she may not have been assistant material like Spike, Twilight’s baby dragon was, but she was definitely a hard worker. Ever since Twilight gained her wings became the Princess of Friendship, she always felt that someday she would become the mentor for some pony just like Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, was for her. And Starlight Glimmer couldn’t be any more a perfect candidate, after making some… questionable choices in her past, Starlight Glimmer wasn’t exactly one for making friends, but after reconciling with Twilight, she now has a fair few friends, including all six Elements of Harmony, Spike and a traveling showpony named Trixie. After moving in with Twilight a few months ago, Starlight always liked to pay visits to the castle library, however in this case it wasn’t a book that she seemed to find her nose stuck in.

“Oh, sorry Twilight,” she said, finally noticing her friend’s presence as she put the Newspaper down on the nearby. “I just got caught up in reading this news article, I just can’t seem to put it down.”

Twilight couldn’t help but giggle at that, it was times like this that she was glad that she wasn’t the only pony among her friends who enjoyed a good read now and then. However once her gaze began to fixate on the particular newspaper that now rested on the table, she couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

“Is that the Trottingham Gazette?” she asked, lifted up the newspaper with her magic. “I didn’t know we got that delivered here.”

“We don’t,” Starlight explained. “Trixie sent it over while she was there last week, though I can clearly see why.”

This of course wasn’t anything new, ever since Trixie and Starlight met and became friends a while ago they both have been sharing letters to each other to keep in touch, sometimes they would even send care packages, so it only made sense that this particular newspaper was something from Trixie’s travels. That fact, however, didn’t stop Twilight’s curiosity from peaking.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Take a look at the headline,” Starlight stated in response.

Inquisitive as she was, Twilight wasted no time in complying with Starlight’s request and proceeded to read the front page of the newspaper:

MADNESS SWEEPS EQUESTRIA
Reporter: Fedora Green

For the past three weeks, several areas of our great country have been plagued with reports of a series of events that has a great number of ponies concerned for their safety.

The first of these reported incidents was a series of fires that spread throughout Trottingham, many of which has caused the destruction of many businesses throughout the area. Upon further investigation, it should be noted that each other theses fires were all seemingly set simultaneously throughout the city, thus stretching the availability of all firefighting teams, also due to lack of evidence at each fire, there has been no such luck in finding any suspects.

In related news, a series of robberies have swept across Appleoosa, all of which had resulted in severe property damage and has been discovered to have the same lack of evidence as to who performed such deeds as the fires. Upon further inspection, it has also been discovered that during both events, a great number of prisons across Equestria, including Trottingham Penitentiary, Appleoosa County, and Dagport Asylum have been exploding with riot after riot, thankfully no known prisoners have managed to escape confinement and each of these riots were dealt with in a controlled manner.

While these events appear to be unrelated, eyewitness reports have claimed to have spotted creatures during and/or after these events took place, creatures that have been described as canine in body, some to have also been described to having crystalline appendages protruding out of their upper bodies. However many ponies have speculated that these reports are nothing more than a fictionalised scapegoat to blame for a number of accidents that no one desires to claim responsibility for.

SEE PAGE 4 FOR FULL STORY:

After reading just that one page, Twilight couldn’t help but cringe at the thought that just a thing could happen, after all, Equestria was supposed to be a place of Harmony, and all these fires and riots were far from anything harmonious. Needless to say the photo amongst the article didn’t exactly help ease her tension, in fact upon seeing the image of burning building only made her feel worse.

“By Celestia, this IS pretty disturbing,” she finally commented, putting the newspaper down.

“You really think what those ponies say is true?” Starlight asked curiously.

At those words, Twilight began to scratch her chin in thought, WAS it really true? Were there really creatures out there causing such mayhem, or was it in fact a cruel hoax? Either way, it certainly gave twilight something to think about for a while.

“I’m not sure,” she finally admitted. “But if there really was a threat then Princess Celestia certainly would have written to me about it.”

Starlight couldn’t help but sigh at that, even she had to admit that Twilight had a good point, if these events in the newspaper were really as big of a threat as it was making them out o be then Twilight and her friends would have definitely been the first to know about it, after all all six of them have saved Equestria more times than anyone.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Starlight finally said with a small smile. “Maybe I AM reading too much into this.”

At those words Twilight obtained a smile of her own.

“Nothing wrong with a bit of curiosity Starlight,” she joked, giving Starlight a playful nudge in the shoulder. “Now come on, everyone’s waiting for us. You know how Rainbow Dash gets if we’re late for one of her performances.”

Starlight couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that, ever since Twilight’s Pegasus friend joined the Wonderbolts, she has been performing many aerial shows with them more and more frequently than when she was in the reserves, which in turn meant that all of her friends wanted to be there for her to offer their support whenever they got the chance. In this case Twilight, along with Spike and her friends Pinkie Pie and Applejack, were the only ones able to get some free time to watch her perform, and Starlight, who always wanted to see the Wonderbolts perform ever since she was a filly, was more than happy to come along.

“Alright,” she said, her smile growing wider. “I’m coming.”

And with that, the two mares, exited the library and made their way down the hall, towards the front door. However even with the subject changed, Twilight couldn’t help but wonder whether what she read in the Trottingham Gazette was true or not, mainly because she had never heard of any creatures canine in body with crystalline appendages, but if such creatures DID exist, then where were they now?

Meanwhile, about a train ride away from Ponyville, stood the distinguished city of Manehattan. Though extremely different than the rusty town in terms of comparison, it was no less spectacular for being home to a great number of successful businesses, celebrities and many other attributes that play part in making this city a great success for it was not only home to the Haypacking District, it's also home to the Fashion District too. Another certain aspect of this city were the use of the many taxis that ran through the streets, yellow carriages pulled by a great number of strong ponies for just a small fee, some were opened up like a convertible so the passengers could enjoy the city air while they rode, and others were completely closed off for privacy. With one of these closed off taxi’s, a lanky looking Earth Pony stallion with a pale-brown coat and orange mane continued to pull the carriage through the streets with a cheerful grin upon his face.

“Big day today?” he asked, turning his head slightly behind him.

He was of course, talking to the passenger he picked up inside the Taxi, being a Taxi Driver, he always enjoyed getting into conversations with many different ponies that take a ride with him, after all some of the best stories he ever heard and he always looked forward to hear them every day. Today he was in the middle of transporting an elderly stallion up to Saddle Row, most likely a pony with a shop there based of his flashy jacket, so of course the Taxi Driver was curious.

“You could say that,” a voice answered from inside the Taxi, the figure completely blocked from view but still able to hear the one pulling his Taxi. “I’m actually meeting up with some friends in town. If I may ask, what’s your name?”

The driver couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow upon hearing that, they’re aren’t normally a lot of ponies who ask their Taxi Driver’s names in this city, even if they were having a good day. Still, he didn’t want to be rude and gave his passenger an answer.

“Oh, uh… Copper Shoes,” he said, with a sheepish smile. “Metal names run in the family.”

“I should imagine so,” the passenger chuckled. “You can call me Topaz by the way.”

Yet another oddity the driver, now known as Copper Shoes had noticed, it was weird enough that his passenger asked his name but now he was giving away his own? This stallion must have been friendlier that he looked. Suddenly Copper Shoes’ passenger said something else that made him raise his eyebrow again.

“That you’re mare-friend?” he asked.

At first Copper Shoes had no idea who his passage was referring to, did he spot a passing mare on the sidewalk through the side window? It was then that he remembered that the front window of his Taxi was only tinted from the outside, and his passage could obviously see the photo of the pretty mare that was attached to Copper Shoes’ harness. Though he didn’t really want to say anything, Copper Shoes still didn’t want to be rude and gave his answer anyway.

“Afraid not,” he sighed. “Unfortunately she’s under the spell of my brother, Iron Horn, all because he’s just a little taller than me… and much handsomer.”

It may have been a bit of a too personal detail to tell someone he had just met, but unfortunately Copper Shoes was just too honest of a stallion to even twist the truth even a tiny bit. Surprisingly enough, his passenger didn’t seem to want to make fun of him like many others would have.

“Oh don’t say that,” the passenger, now known as Topaz, said. “I’m sure she’ll see that you’re the better stallion somehow, after all the heart will always get what it wants eventually right?”

Copper Shoes couldn’t help but smile at that.

“Thanks,” he replied. “I appreciate it, Mr Topaz.”

“And if waiting doesn’t work…” Topaz continued. “Then you can always shave Iron Horn’s head with a rusty breadknife and ship him off to Saddle Arabia in a trunk!”

If Copper Shoes had been taking a drink at that moment then he would have instantly have spit it out in shock, he even took a sudden stop for a moment and was almost backed into by another Taxi, thankfully he was able to regain himself long enough to avoid just a catastrophe and keep going.

“Excuse me!?!” he exclaimed.

“I’m just kidding!” Topaz quickly responded, making Copper Shoes feel a little more at ease. “Oh am I?”

Of course that last part he merely uttered in a sly whisper so Copper Shoes wouldn’t hear him, though it still didn’t stop the Taxi Driver from hearing his giggles for the next few minutes. Finally, after traveling down Saddle Row, Copper Shoes finally stopped the Taxi right in front of a shop known as “Rarity for You”, a brand new boutique that had only opened recently as the destination which Topaz had requested.

“Okay, here we are,” Copper Shoes declared, smiling respectively as he opened up the front window of his Taxi slightly. “That’ll be 8 bits.”

Now normally Copper Shoes would receive his payment via his passenger passing the bits owed through the window, however in this case the passenger in question seemed to be a little hesitant.

“Uh… do you accept teeth?” Topaz finally asked after a brief period of silence.

Needless to say, that question only confused the Taxi Driver.

“Uh…” he uttered, trying to find the best choice of words to respond with.

However, Copper Shoes wasn’t even given the chance to finish his answer, for at that moment, the muffled sounds of impacts and yelps rang from inside the Taxi. Needless to say this sudden episode instantly drew Copper Shoes’ concerns, but before he could even properly react, a small, orange limb poked out of the window and thrusted three golden molars into the Taxi Driver’s hoof.

“One tooth for the ride, one for the damages, and one to buy your mare something nice,” Topaz explained. “Have a nice day!”

And with that, the limb instantly flew back into the Taxi, leaving Copper Shoes completely befuddled. So say that this entire trip to Saddle Row wasn’t weird in general would have been an understatement, however upon seeing just what gave him the golden teeth in payment, Copper Shoes couldn’t help but grimace, for he remembered a fair few facts about the stallion who actually stepped into his Taxi, firstly his voice was definitely a lot more gruff when he first stepped in, his coat was white, not orange, and most importantly, he had HOOVES, not the paws that had gave him the teeth. However before he could press the matter further, Copper Shoes suddenly remembered the last sentence that this “Topaz” said to him as he received his odd payment.

“Wait…” he uttered with a raised eyebrow. “WHAT damages?”

Suddenly, as if giving a visual answer to Copper Shoes’ question, something burst out of the side of the Taxi, leaving a gaping hole in the side of it and startling Copper Shoes so much that he fell back with fright. As it turned out, while Copper Shoes’ REAL passenger got into the Taxi and gave him the location of which to go, someone, or rather someTHING, snuck in from the other side, bound and gagged the passenger up, and hitched a ride, paying the Taxi Driver with the passengers own golden teeth after he punched them out. Needless to say, upon seeing the small creature that caused such damage to his Taxi, Copper Shoes wasn’t one to stick around.

“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!” he screamed, instantly taking off down the road, his broken Taxi still rolling behind him.

Now that the Taxi was gone, every pony within a small radius was able to see the creature that had burst out of it in full detail. It was a small creature no less than a head shorter than the average pony, from first glance, its body resembled that of a Diamond Dog, however it also had many key differences. For starter’s his fur was bright orange over which he wore a pale blue vest top, he had crazy looking eyes that spiralled with blue and yellow colours, thus making him look even more insane, but the strangest detail of all was the fact that the entirety of the creature’s body was completely encrusted with gems, as his given name suggested, both his arms and head had several topazes sticking out of them, even his jagged teeth were completely made of the jewels. As the creature known as Topaz laughed maniacally upon seeing Copper Shoes’ frightened departure, every onlooker ran away in panic, not one of them wanting to be in the way of this creature’s rampage.

“YEAH!!!” Topaz screamed, his eyes fixated upon the boutique in front of him. “IT’S SHOWTIME BABY!!!”

And with that Topaz jumped and smashed his way through the shop window, destroying the display mannequins and all, and forced his way into the shop, where he found none other than the Manager of the shop… all bound and gagged while five other creatures similar to Topaz guarded her.

“You’re late,” one of them said unenthusiastically, her white fur shimmering underneath the shop’s studio lights.

This was Crystal Dust, Topaz’s leader and big sister figure, like Topaz she too resembled a Diamond Dog with gems growing out of her, of course there were many differences too. Standing at least a foot taller than Topaz, Crystal had pure white fur, had a long flow of light blue hair atop of her head which she had tied into a ponytail, and like Topaz had jewels growing out of her upper body, only hers were literal diamonds, many of which encrusted the skirt of her metal armour.

“Hey, you try catching a cab in this city!” Topaz argued, Crystal may have been his leader but he wasn’t one to take a lecture from anyone.

It was then that another creature from the group spoke up.

“Well if SOMEONE hadn’t stopped to snack on that falafel cart…” she commented, her eyes peaking over a pair of sunglasses carved out of sapphires.

This was Misty Blue, and like her the others she too had gems growing out of her light blue fur, these being sapphires like her sunglasses, she also had dark purple hair with two bangs that framed her face and droops down towards her brown body suit. Of course Misty wasn’t alone in her comments.

“It WAS pretty foolish of you, Topaz,” the red group member added, causing Topaz to roll his eyes. “We were supposed to stay together.”

Ruby Rock, and as her name suggests her gems were that of large rubies poking out of her dark pink fur, she also wore a light green dress and a small, timid frown that she hid beneath her light blue hair. Of course, that wasn’t the ONLY thing Ruby was hiding behind, standing a foot taller than any of the others was a massive creature with deep purple muscles that looked as though they could crush steel, all of which were encrusted with amethysts, the same ones that made up the teeth in his massive under-bite, his name: Roughcut. And though Roughcut didn’t speak, his disappointed shake of the head was enough to give Topaz reason to smack himself in the head. However that was when the final group member spoke up.

“Oh come now fellas,” he said, casually trying on hats while looking at himself in a nearby mirror. “There’s no harm done. But now that you ARE here, Topaz, perhaps now we can start the fun. Right boss?”

At those words, he of course looked towards Crystal Dust, who in turn rolled her eyes at his statement as her second-in-command finally settled on a brown Fedora hat and placed it upon his head. This was Sheen, a creature with light green fur with shimmering emeralds sticking out of it and a small blue goatee sticking out of his chin, and as Crystal’s second-in-command, it was his job make sure things went smoothly amongst his peers… even if at times he can be a little self-obsessed. Either way, that still didn’t make him any less ecstatic when Crystal gave her command…

“Let’s get crazy, guys!” she declared, earning herself a roar of cheers from the others.

At that moment, every single creature in the room, lifted up their hostage over their heads and carried her towards the front door, kicking it open and then tossing the poor mare head-first into the garbage can on the sidewalk. After that they all ran back inside and started tearing up the place with manic ferocity, some even setting fires to some of the clothes, Topaz obviously being one of them. Once they were finished there, they all then ran upstairs and started to do the same thing to the Dance Club upstairs, scaring whoever was there off and then tossing the DJ’s turntables out of the window, causing it to smash onto the road below, and yet somehow was still able to play music, in fact the beat was so loud an intense that it completely echoed through the streets, so much so that the little creatures found themselves singing a merry little tune along with it as they walked out the front door:

CRYSTAL DUST:
Some call us mutts, some call us freaks,
Well they may be right, we’re somewhat… unique,

At those lyrics, Crystal then pulled out a small device from inside her armour and pushed the big red button upon it, revealing it to be a detonator for at the same time, a huge explosion burst out of the top floor of the building, instantly setting it aflame. However neither creature payed any mind to the explosion and simply began spreading their own forms of mayhem, all the while singing their own verses to the song.

TOPAZ:
I like to bite, she likes to scratch,
But you must admit, we’re quite the catch,

SHEEN:
We don’t follow no rules, that’ll just be sad,
So it’s just so thrilling, our nature’s to be bad!!!

So then, after smashing windows and spray-painting graffiti for a minute, all six creatures jumped into the middle of the street, instantly causing a massive carriage crash behind them, after which they all began dancing in unison whilst singing the chorus to the song, revealing their name in the process.

GEMNITES:
Gemnites love being bad!
From nosies to footy pads!
We’re lunacy in every shape or form!

We burn up all the crud!
Dunk poor saps in the mud!
Anything to keep us from the norm!

At that moment, almost every other shop window burst open and even more of these “Gemnites” all jumped out, all of them encrusted with many different jewels and causing all kinds of mayhem in their wake. As it turned out, the initial plan was to lay low and wait for the opportune moment to make their move, and THIS was it, now it was time for the real fun to begin as the song continued.

MISTY BLUE:
Ponies are fools, a bunch of saps,
They’re just so boring, I just wanna nap,

TOPAZ:
Let’s spice things up, bring back the fun,
Then burn some stuff, when we are done,

CRYSTAL DUST:
Time for some mischief, time for our games,
By the time we stop, they will go insane!!!

It was at this point of the song that many of the other Gemnites joined the six on the street to join in as they sang the chorus.

GEMNITES:
Gemnites love being bad!
From nosies to footy pads!
We’re lunacy in every shape or form!

We burn up all the crud!
Dunk poor saps in the mud!
Anything to keep us from the norm!

It was a chaotic nightmare, with all the Gemnites swarming the streets like ants, no pony had any idea what to do other than their go-to method of panicking and running away, all the while their shops, and in some cases homes, were being trashed or burnt left and right. It was of course at that moment, Topaz and Misty Blue felt the need to smash the window of a nearby music store and snatch up a couple of electric guitars, feeling the need to let out a few shreds. Around the same time Roughcut and Ruby Rock and starting up a conga line with the other Gemnites, it was at this point that Crystal couldn’t help but laugh for things were going brilliantly.

“One more time!” she screamed, bringing everyone in for one last chorus.

ALL GEMNITES:
Gemnites love being bad!
From nosies to footy pads!
We’re lunacy in every shape or form!

We burn up all the crud!
Dunk poor saps in the mud!
Anything to keep us from the norm!!!

On that final note, the Gemnites then all finished their tune by striking a pose, a small explosion of flame bursting out of the shop behind them to give an epic finish, after that the Gemnites all laughed maniacally and proceeded to continue their rampage.

During this time, watching all of this from the roof of a nearby building, another figure chuckled, his toothy grin shimmered in the light of the flames below as he chewed on a toothpick. Ever since he had escaped his tone prison a month ago, this blue figure’s crystalline creations have been providing him with the perfect amount of chaos in their wake, perfect for whatever plans he has in mind.

“Hehehe, nothing like a bit of mayhem to lift one’s spirits,” he chuckled.

Suddenly another voice rang in the figure’s non-existent ears.

“I couldn’t agree more, Tak,” it said, causing the figure to widen his eyes in shock, for no one had uttered his name in over 800 years.

Instantly the figure, now known as Tak quickly turned around to see nothing but the rest of the roof and the air, at this moment he quickly smiled for he knew of only one creature with such a unique voice.

“Discord!” he cried out, swinging his arms into the air with praise. “So nice to see an old acquaintance!”

At that moment, the roof suddenly became slightly more populated for in a bright flash of white light, another figure magically appeared on the roof, a creature with a head of a pony, a lion’s paw, and Eagle’s claw and a snake tail, the Spirit of Chaos, Discord. At any other time, Discord would have had a large grin plastered across his face, however in this situation he wasn’t in just a jolly mood.

“I’m sorry to say the feeling isn’t mutual,” the Draconequis said with a scowl, clicking the talons of his Eagle claw.

In an instant, Tak suddenly found his wrists bound in heavy shackles due to Discords magic, something which he only chuckled at as he easily shifted his hands into skinny tentacles, allowing the shackles to easily slip off.

“Oh come now, don’t be like that Discord,” Tak mocked. “After all you and I actually LIKE a bit of chaos, do we not?”

Discord only growled at that.

“Only if it’s MY chaos Tak,” he pointed out. “Yours is a little too dark for my taste.”

Once again, Tak chuckled.

“Yes, I should imagine so,” he replied, causally spitting out his toothpick and flicking it into Discord’s face. “Especially since you’ve actually joined up with those do-gooders up in Canterlot like a pansy.”

At those words, Discord’s scowl suddenly changed into a nervous frown as all of a sudden giant flower petals sprouted around his head, emphasising Tak’s comment on him being a pansy.

“Oh don’t act so surprised Discord,” Tak continued, easily taking notice of the Draconequis’ sudden change in emotion. “I’ve been doing a bit of traveling this past month and let’s just say everyone talks.”

It was then that Discord quickly regained himself long enough to rip the petals off his head and set them on fire, his scowl quickly returning as he gave Tak an angry glare.

“If you’re going to try to make me betray the ponies, let me assure you that I don’t intend of making that mistake again,” he declared, pointing an accusing finger at the blue figure in front of him.

Now it was Tak’s turn to scowl.

“On the contrary,” he said, casually putting his hands behind his back. “I don’t even intend on making such an offer, not after what Tirek said to me when I made a visit down to Tartarus last week.”

Discord’s jaw couldn’t help but drop with shock upon hearing that.

“You… you’ve spoken to Tirek?” he asked nervously, earning a sly grin from the blue demon.

“I’ve been speaking to a LOT of creatures recently,” he replied darkly. “Of course Tirek wasn’t one of my most pleasurable of conversations, especially since all he wanted me to help him escape again.”

“And you didn’t?” Discord asked in response, his fear of the answer easily noticeable by the waterfalls of sweat running down his face.

At those words, Tak scowled again.

“I only serve ONE master Discord,” he stated proudly. “And I won’t have a worthless centaur desecrating her presence with his own, so I did the whole world a favour and took advantage of his weakened state.”

Discord gulped at that.

“Meaning?” he asked, earning himself another grin.

“Let’s just say that for such a dark soul, he certainly made a very light meal,”

It was even worse than Discord first feared, not only has Tak returned to Equestria, but he has even gained enough strength to consume he who took his own chaos magic, albeit temporarily. In any case, whatever Tak was planning it needed to be stopped NOW.

“If you are seeking who I know you are, then you know I can’t let you go,” Discord finally declared, his magical flash of light donning him a military uniform. “This land ain’t big enough for both of us maggot!”

However, much to Discord’s surprise, Tak merely laughed out loud at the statement, a cold laugh that sent chills even down his spine.

“Oh Discord, you poor sap,” Tak finally replied after his fit of laughter. “You really think I would have been talking this long without something up my sleeve?”

At first Discord had no idea what he was taking about, however he soon came to realise what Tak meant when all of a sudden he found himself hoisted up by his legs by a blue tensile that used to be Tak’s forefinger. As it turned out, while Discord was distracted with the conversation, the blue demon kept his hands behind his back to hide the fact that one of his fingers was stretching out, slithering like a serpent across the roof and wrapping around Discord’s feet, now the Draconequis found himself completely helpless as Tak’s tentacle coiled around him like a python and spread across his entire body like a cocoon, leaving only his head free so he could breathe. Normally Discord could have easily have escaped this situation with just a click of his talons, but in this case he wasn’t so lucky, for whatever Tak was made off, it cancelled out all forms of magic.

“Now I’m gonna need you to send a little message for me, Discord,” Tak mocked as he swung Discord in front of his face like hypnosis watch. “Just a little message to dear Princess Tia, that’s all.”

Seeing that there was no escaping from Tak’s clutches after a series of struggles, Discord finally sighed in defeat.

“Just say what you want to say, Tak,” he growled angrily. “Then let me go so I can deliver it.”

However Tak’s grin only widened and he leaned in closer.

“You misunderstand me Discord,” he whispered darkly into the Draconequis’ ear. “I don’t mean to SAY anything, well except for this… DEFUSE.”

After that no other words were said, all that was left was a loud scream and a blinding blue light shining from the roof.

Author's Note

Original Song Lyrics written by yours truly, sorry, not music to go along with it

Chapter 2: Terrible News

Around noon the day after Starlight Glimmer showed Twilight her Trottingham Gazette, things seemed to have gone just as smoothly as they would normally have, both mares enjoyed watching Rainbow Dash perform the previous day and now Starlight was spending the day with Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. However it turns out not all was well in Ponyville that day, particularly in the shop known as the Carousel Boutique, home and business ran by one of Twilight’s closets friends, Rarity. To be more specific, while Rarity’s little sister, Sweetie Belle, paced around the floor with a nervous manner, Rainbow Dash was opening the front door for Twilight all the while both of them heard the loud wailing coming from upstairs.

“We got here as soon as we could,” Twilight said as she and her friend Applejack walked into the boutique with concerned looked upon their faces “What’s going on?”

It was at those words that Sweetie Belle stopped pacing for a moment and was the first to answer.

“Oh it’s bad, Twilight,” she said, with a worried look. “So VERY bad.”

“What happened?” Applejack asked in response, raising an eyebrow.

That certainly was the million-bit question, ever since Rainbow Dash flew to each of their homes to tell them that Rarity needed help, only to rush off just as quickly as she arrived, both Twilight and Applejack couldn’t help but wonder was going on. Rainbow was of course the first to know of this predicament after she came in to have her Wonderbolt uniform repaired that morning, but while she liked to go solo on many things, in this case she knew Rarity needed the support of as many of her friends as possible. Before long all four ponies stood outside Rarity’s bedroom, where all they could hear was the upset cries of their friend through the door.

“Rarity’s been in there, crying her eyes out all morning,” Rainbow Dash explained, finally letting out some details on the situation at hoof. “We’ve never seen her like this before.”

“It all started when she opened up her mail today,” Sweetie Belle added. “After that she just wouldn’t leave her room.”

Twilight instantly raised an eyebrow at that.

“Her mail?” she repeated, clearly confused on the matter.

To emphasis her explanation, Sweetie Belle then ran downstairs, only to come back up again with a small letter floating in front of her face surrounded by her magic, eager to find out more about what was going on, Twilight graciously accepted the letter with her own magic and proceeded to read it aloud:

Dear Miss Rarity,

Hope this finds you well,
It is with deepest sympathy and regret that I inform you that your place of business, known as “Rarity for You”, has met with unfortunate circumstances and has been severely damaged by a fire that has almost destroyed the entire building.

Thankfully no pony was harmed during this terrible event and injuries were kept to a minimum. In regards to your…

However after the Twilight couldn’t bear to read anymore, Rarity’s Boutique in Manehattan has been destroyed!?! No wonder she was devastated.

“After that it just drags on about insurance and how she not going to get much since the building wasn’t technically hers!” Rainbow Dash pointed out, sensing Twilight’s distress and filling in the blanks that she missed.

“Mr Stripes is going mad with rage over this,” Sweetie Belle added, her look of worry worsening as Rarity’s wails seemed to get even louder at the mention of Mr Stripes’ name.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that.

“Hey, I don’t blame him!” she stated bluntly. “I’d be upset too if my building was burnt to the ground by a punch of little monsters.”

At those words both Applejack and Twilight shared a confused glance, did they really just hear what they thought they did?

“Say what now?” Applejack asked, raising and eyebrow.

“Monsters?” Twilight added, sharing the same expression.

“You guys didn’t see the Equestria Daily this morning?” Rainbow Dash in response, earning herself a shake of the head from both mares before pulling out a newspaper from under her wing. “Well then, take a look, turns out Rarity’s shop wasn’t the ONLY place that got fried.”

Needless to say, this sudden bit of extra info certainly got Applejack and Twilight’s attention, and they wasted no time in looking over the front page of the newspaper Rainbow just passed to them:

MONSTERS IN EQUESTRIA!
Reporter: Quill Sleuth

After what can only be described as the most chaotic day in Manehattan’s recent history, ponies are still reeling over what happened during the terrible events of yesterday. With many of the populous of the city losing both businesses and homes due to severe fires that has destroyed many of Manehattan’s buildings. It has come to the attention of this reporter that these events were the fault of strange creatures that had begun swarming the city during the hours of yesterday morning.

As per eyewitness reports, these creatures seem to be canine in shape and seem to have crystalline appendages growing out of their fur, and many photos were taken of some of the events, thus confirming the description. Of course no known creatures of Equestria has ever matched this physical description so no pony knows their exact name and biology at this time.

It should also be noted that these creatures’ appearance in Manehattan was not the only reported sighting, upon further investigation it has also been discovered that they had also been sighted in towns such as Trottingham and Appleoosa, and just like those towns, these creatures disappeared almost as quickly they had appeared in Manhattan.

SEE FULL STORY ON PAGE 4:

“And that was just the tip of the iceberg,” Rainbow Dash explained after Twilight and Applejack read the last few words on the page. “There’s like 3 pages of that story in there.”

But after finishing just that one page, both mares didn’t even need to go to the other pages for the rest of the story, the mere summery of it on the front was bad enough. In fact now that Twilight thought about it, she felt like she should have been more shocked, then again she did technically already read about these creatures the previous day. However since the Trottingham Gazette was merely tabloid stuff, she didn’t really give it much thought at the time, but the Equestria Daily was a high-standing newspaper AND it actually had a photo to go along with the story, either way the fact that she already read about them softened the blow a little.

“I just can’t believe it,” she gasped, looking over every detail of the photo on the newspaper with keen interest. “I’ve never seen creatures like this before.”

“Me neither,” Applejack added as she looked at the photo with a little disgust. “Ugly little critters ain’t they?”

“I guess I owe Starlight an apology for not taking that Trottingham Gazette seriously,” Twilight commented in response, though more to say it to herself than anything else. “Though on the plus-side, the paper doesn’t seem to say that anyone was really hurt during the fires.”

Applejack couldn’t help but sigh in relief upon hearing that.

“Ah hope so,” she said. “Ah mean ah got family up that way, Celestia knows what ah’m gonna tell Apple Bloom if something happened to Cousin Babs.”

Needless to say the feeling of anxiety was completely shared between all four ponies at this point, for Sweetie Belle it was mostly for the concern for her sister at first, but after Applejack mentioned Babs she couldn’t help but feel even worse, after all Babs was a good friend to both her and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders. Rainbow Dash on the other hand was more angry than scared though, mostly due to confusion.

“And they just disappeared?” she thought aloud. “How the heck do a bunch of little monsters just disappear!?! I mean, I’m practically waiting for the other Wonderbolts to come knocking on my door to get me to join a hunting party any time now!”

Angry outburst aside Rainbow Dash did have a good point, thus filling Twilight’s mind with many questions, how DID those creatures just disappear? More to the point, what could have brought them to Manehattan in the first place? But the most important question of all… Just where we these little demons now?

What no pony realised however was the fact that the creatures never even left Manehattan, in fact every single one of them were smack dab in the centre of it… within the walls of Maximum security Prison, Steel Cage Penitentiary. Built 100 years ago and named after one of the most well respected ponies in Equestrian History, this prison prides itself on being able to keep the most dangerous and powerful criminals in Equestria locked up, thus allowing the outside world to retain its status as a Land of Harmony. Seconded only by Tartarus itself, Steel Cage Penitentiary has housed many dangerous criminals and as such it’s fully equipped to handle each one specifically… and for the past hour the guards have been trying to settle down a riot caused by said criminals. Of course they couldn’t have done it on their own, and that’s where the Gemnites come in, since the guards weren’t expecting anyone to break INTO prison, they were completely shocked and were unable to stop the swarming creatures from opening at least half of all the cells and letting the prisoners out, allowing them to run amok. However for some reason they didn’t let any of them actually get outside, the only reason that the Gemnites did such an act was to keep the guards occupied while their boss visited a… special prisoner.

“Nothing like a nice riot to keep everyone distracted,” he asked as he leaned outside a large iron door. “Am I right?”

Of course the prisoner in question had no idea who he was talking to at the time, a fact which Tak loved taking advantage of, after all his particular cell didn’t allow him any clear vision. To put it in simple terms, the cell was one of many that remained on the lowest, darkest levels in the prison, it was little more than a 9x9 foot square made out of hollowed-out stone, the outside of which was reinforced with steel and magic-dampening enchantments for any Unicorns that may find themselves in there. However these details were merely for any standard prisoner on this particular floor, what made THIS cell so specific for this prisoner was the severe lack of light, in fact it was so dark in there that the prisoner’s ability to see was depleting badly. But despite this, his hearing was more than sharp enough to hear the riot a few floors up, in fact some of the prisoners in the cells next to him were cheering along, it was so chaotic, in any case, he was perfectly able to tell the difference between a guards voice and the slippery tone a complete stranger was using.

“Who are you?” he growled, instantly suspicious of the new arrival.

“Someone who’s a fan of your work, Mr Zeb,” Tak replied casually, pulling out a toothpick from his pocket and chewing on it. “And I have to say, I’ve NEVER seen a thief with your talents before.”

Indeed he hasn’t, for there was no other thief like Zeb in all of Equestria. Unlike most of the prisoners in here, he wasn’t a pony, at least not the usual kind, as his name would suggest he was in fact a zebra, a very suave zebra. Of course no one else would have been able to pick up on that particular fact if they had been in the cell with him, for it was his particular set of skills that made the prison guards reduce the light inside to such extremes. To be more specific, Zeb’s method of thieving involved the use of certain dark spells from his homeland which in turn made him one of the most successful crooks in all of Manehattan. Of course it was also this set of skills that became his downfall once the local police discovered his abilities and set a trap for him, thus the reason why he was stuck in Steel Cage Penitentiary in the first place. Of course in all his time on the inside, he never once got a visitor, until now at least.

“What’s it to you?” he snapped, finding even more suspicion in Tak’s statement.

Tak merely chuckled at that.

“Ah… a zebra who doesn’t take any nonsense, I like that,” he commented with an impressed tone, before changing it to something more stern. “But a zebra who is still trapped behind iron bars for some crime that those goody-goodies out there didn’t fully understand the potential for. How long have you been in here again?”

Of course Zeb was a little hesitant to answer that, after all he had no idea who this guy was or even why he was here. Then again, he didn’t exactly have a lot of conversations with any of the prison guards, so he was at least welcome to the chance for a real talk.

“20 years and counting,” he growled, practically disgusted by the amount of time he had spent in such a place.

“That’s right,” Tak replied, chewing his toothpick with keen interest in the subject matter. “20 years since those gold-plated morons put you away, and I dare say that’s quite long enough, don’t you agree?”

Had anyone be able to see inside the cell, they would have noticed Zeb’s eyebrow raise in confusion upon hearing that statement.

“What are you getting at?” he asked curiously.

“You’re not the only jailbird having this conversation, my friend,” Tak replied bluntly. “I’ve recently broken out of a pretty nasty prison myself, and needless to say I’ve made a few plans since then. YOU, are a key element to those plans.”

Now Zeb was beginning to become invested, was this stranger really implying what he thought he was?

“What’s in it for me?” he asked, his excitement starting to grow as he listened intently to what Tak had to say.

“Your freedom,” Tak replied with a sly grin, giving light to Zeb’s suspicions. “Along with a few other rewards should you accept my offer, all you need do is follow my instructions to the letter.”

Zeb’s jaw couldn’t help but drop at that, judging from the sincere tone this stranger was using, he seemed to be telling the truth. But this sounded just too good to be true, he was finally getting out? No, it couldn’t be, he must have finally cracked after spending 20 years in the dark and now Zeb was hearing voices in his head. Suddenly a loud creak echoed in Zeb’s ears and a small sliver of light caught his attention as the iron door to his cell opened, allowing the zebra to see his own hoof in front of his face for the first time in years. Like all zebras, his entire body was covered in black stripes over a white coat, however after years without bathing, it was a little hard to tell that fact with all the grime matting his fur, especially when most of his body was covered in a tatty orange prison jumpsuit. After taking a few moments to try to adjust his vision, Zeb soon found that after years of being in the dark, his eyes have gotten so bad that he could only see blurry shapes amongst the dim light, meaning that his eyes had deteriorated more than he thought, had they gotten any worse than he would have been completely blind. But with whatever vision Zeb had, it was enough to see the stranger casually standing in the doorway, looking directly at him, granted the guy looked strange, especially with Zeb’s bad eyesight, but whoever or WHATever he was, the guy was offering him freedom, a statement that was clearly proven by the mere fact that he was actually opening the door.

“So what do you say, Zeb?” Tak finally asked, casually flicking something into the zebra’s face. “You in?”

Though he couldn’t see just what the item was due to his vision, Zeb easily figured it out merely by touch, as such a large grin spread across his face for this was no ordinary item, in fact for Zeb they held so much value that he was devastated when he was forced to part with it. The item: a pair of translucent blue sunglasses infused with pure magic, sunglasses that not only shaded the eyes from the sun, but also improved eyesight 100 times over even in the most blinding of conditions, not only that but it was the spoils of Zeb’s very first steal. With both his freedom at hoof AND his treasured prize back in his possession, Zeb’s grin became too wide for his muzzle to handle.

“I’m listening…” he said, suavely putting on the shades, eagerly waiting for his new assignment as his vision finally returned.

But in other regions of Equestria, the mood wasn’t so cheerful for a certain white Alicorn. As she brought the sun down for the night, Princess Celestia, Monarch of the Sun and Ruler of all Equestria alongside her younger sister, was suffering with the terrible thoughts that have been plaguing her mind for the past two days. These thoughts were of course because of the series of terrible events that have occurred throughout certain areas of the land as of late, fires, riots, and now reports of creatures resembling small Diamond Dogs with gems growing out of their very skin? Over time it became so much that her concerns would have put Twilight Sparkle’s frantic episodes to shame, of course being royalty she tried her best not to show it. It was when her younger sister, Princess Luna had finished rising the moon, that Celestia had been given the chance to really go over everything in her mind, all day she had been running through reports and other assorted pieces of paperwork, many of which revolved around rebuilding of certain buildings and the temporary relocation for any pony who have lost their homes. Now that she had time to relax a little, Celestia took the time to visit her own private library to see whether any of the creatures mentioned in the reports were mentioned in any books in her collection. Normally she would have also asked Twilight to assist via letter, but given the uncertainty of everything going on, she felt like her dear student had no need to worry about it… at least for now. After skimming through the first book for several minutes, Celestia soon found herself no longer alone in her library.

“Sister?” Luna uttered as she walked in, her star-spangled mane flowing with radiance.

“Ah Luna,” Celestia replied with a small smile, her own colourful mane flowing with the same radiance as she casually sat down on the large, velvet pillow. “I wasn’t expecting you tonight, do you not have dreams to watch over?”

Luna couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that, while it was true that as Princess of the Night it was her duty to enter dreams and help out with any nightmares that may occur, it wasn’t that big of an issue for the moment, especially when her sister was clearly troubled.

“I believe the ponies of Equestria can make do without me for a short while,” she stated bluntly. “However I couldn’t help but notice your behaviour over the past two days, Tia, you seem distressed.”

At those words, Celestia sighed for she knew all too well that it was pointless to keep anything from her little sister. Besides she did have a point, even if Celestia did try to hide it, there was no denying just how worried she really was.

“I am Luna,” she admitted, ushering Luna to take a seat on the cushion next to her. “Ever since those newspaper reports came out, I’ve been having… suspicions.”

Luna raised an eyebrow at that, her worries for her sister turning even worse as she took her seat.

“Suspicions?” She repeated. “What do you mean?”

“There’s too much oddities for it to be merely coincidence,” Celestia explained bluntly. “Fires, prison riots, not to mention those creatures in Manehattan simply disappearing like that, there’s just simply too much chaos happening all at once.”

Listening to every word her sister had to say, Luna soon began to understand just why Celestia seemed so worried, it was just like when Tirek was roaming Equestria not too long ago, only this time there was the clear feeling of uncertainty thrown into the mix.

“You believe that these events really are connected?” Luna asked, wanting a little more confirmation in the matter.

“I’m afraid so,” Celestia answered solemnly, though in truth a little unsure of her own words.

But uncertainty aside, it was still enough to arouse Luna’s own suspicions in the matter, if her sister believed that there was a connection between these recent events then perhaps it was worth looking into, after all whenever Princess Celestia was worried about something it was usually right on the money.

“Perhaps it is Discord who is responsible?” Luna suggested, only for Celestia to shake her head in response.

“No,” she replied bluntly. “Even if Discord wasn’t reformed, this isn’t his style of madness. “Whatever is going on is something else entirely.”

Luna nodded her head at that, even she had to admit the idea of Discord doing this was unlikely, if he had caused this mayhem then there would be a lot of chocolate rain and floating pies involved.

“In that case, we may need to investigate this further,” she finally proposed. “The sooner we find out what really is happening, the better.”

“Agreed,” Celestia replied, also nodding her head. “Though we may have to do so with the utmost discretion…”

Suddenly, before Celestia could properly finish her sentence, one of the palace guards, a white unicorn stallion all clad in golden armour, came bursting in through the double doors and ran up to both the princesses.

“Princess Celestia!” he cried, his face plastered with an expression of panic as he tried to catch his breath after running for so long.

Easily noticing the guard’s current state, it was needless to say that both Celestia and Luna were instantly worried about what he had to say, obviously it must have been important otherwise he wouldn’t have burst in the way he did.

“What is it?” Celestia enquired anxiously.

After taking off his helmet and taking a few moments for some heavy breathing, the guard soon answered.

“Your Majesties,” he said “It’s…”

“Discord!?!”

No pony could believe their eyes at this point, and yet what they were seeing was indeed a figment of reality, there, lying unconscious on the table in front of them was none other than the Spirit of Chaos himself… or at least what was left of him. Oh don’t misunderstand, he wasn’t dead, far from it, but at this point in time he was no longer a spirit of chaos, or any spirit for that matter. To be more specific, where once a Draconequis would have been laying was now nothing more than a simple grey Earth Pony just like any other in Equestria, he had no Lion’s paw, no eagle’s claw, no snake tail, not even the single pointed fang that stuck out of the right side of his mouth. Instead all there was four hooves, a simple grey coat with no Cutie Mark and a black mane and tail, the only way that any pony was able to recognise him in the first place was the fact that his face still resembled his old one, mainly due to the skinny structure added to the fact that he still had his bushy white eyebrows and goatee, in fact even his coat was the shade of grey as his old face was now that every pony thought about it. In any regard, this WAS Discord, and judging from the fact that he was now lying in a bed in the palace infirmary, his current form is obviously not of his own doing.

“By the stars,” Princess Luna gasped, turning her head towards one of the guards who brought him in. “What happened?”

“Honestly, we don’t know,” the guard admitted. “We were in the middle of changing the guard for the nightshift and then we found him dumped just outside the front gate.”

“Is he okay?” Celestia asked, her enquiry directed towards a nearby Unicorn with a light green coat wearing a stethoscope around her neck, this being the palace doctor.

“I’m afraid he’s unable to speak at the moment,” the doctor explained in response. “Whatever was done to him has made him severely weak, aside from that I have absolutely no idea what’s going on.”

Though this answer wasn’t exactly something Celestia had hoped for, she nodded with understanding regardless, however that still didn’t stop her from narrowing her eyes in apprehension. First the random acts of madness around Equestria, then strange creatures tearing up Manehattan, and now Discord being turned into an ordinary pony!?! Now she was SURE that there was connection to everything that has been happening recently. As both Princesses looked down at the pony that had once been Discord, laying there all draped up in a hospital blanket, groaning slightly as his head rested upon the pillow, both Celestia and Luna couldn’t help but look at each other with discomfort. Granted Discord still had the habit of causing mischief everywhere he went, but he never takes it too far anymore, in fact he was becoming quite the good friend to Equestria now that he was reformed, and he certainly didn’t deserve this... whatever THIS was.

“He looks so… ordinary,” Celestia commented, being unable to describe it any other way.

“It’s as if he were any other pony,” Luna added, her solemn expression noticeable by all as she caressed Discord’s cheek with a hoof. “But what could have done this?”

Celestia merely shrugged at the question.

“I’m not sure,” she sighed. “I haven’t seen anything like this since…”

That was when Celestia’s eyes widened, at first with realisation, but soon enough it was because of fear for she HAD seen something like this before... a long time ago.

“No…” she gasped, her voice no more than a whisper as she felt a lump form in her throat. “It can’t be.”

Needless to say, Celestia sudden reaction drew some concerns, especially with her younger sister.

“What is it, Tia?” she asked. “Since… when?”

But before Celestia could even muster up a single word to give her sister an answer, another voice joined in the conversation.

“He’s trying to say something!” the doctor cried out, alerting both Princesses to Discord’s now awakened body.

He may not have been fully awake, in fact he was so weak it looked as though he would slump back in unconsciousness any second now, but Discord’s will was still keeping him up long enough for him to say what he needed to before then.

“T… Tia,” he mutter, his voice all raspy as he tried his best to stay awake.

Upon hearing her name, Celestia instantly leaned in close to look Discord in the eyes, both of which were still red and yellow like they should have been. As soon as she was close enough, the Alicorn of the Sun tried to be as comforting as possible despite her current state of fear.

“What is it, my friend?” she asked gently. “Who did this to you?”

What Discord said next, she would never be able to forget.

“Fu… Fuser…” he uttered. “The Fuser.”

After that Discord couldn’t force out another word and fell back into unconsciousness, almost falling off the side of the bed as he tried leaning in closer towards Celestia, who only stepped back with a look of terror etched across her face. After hearing the words that came out of the former Draconequis’s mouth, the Princess of the Sun almost fell over given how petrified she truly felt.

“Sister?” Luna said nervously, easily sensing Celestia’s distress. “What did he mean by that?”

Obviously Luna was trying to listen in when Discord spoke, and even more obviously she recognised when her older sister reacted in such a matter once hearing him, almost as though she knew exactly what he was talking about even though every pony else wouldn’t have had the slightest clue. But before she could question any further, she found herself cut off by the palace guard who she addressed earlier.

“Hey, there’s something written here!” he stated, pointing towards Discord’s back.

Now that the former Draconequis had turned over slightly, it allowed some of the blanket to slip off him to reveal his wingless spine, revealing that something was in fact written upon it. Of course no one really noticed thee words at first when they actually brought Discord in, after all at the time their main concern was simply making sure that the now-turned pony wasn’t seriously hurt. But now that everyone had a clear view, a series of gasps echoed throughout the room, however the worst reaction of all came from Celestia herself, her eyes filling up with tears of dread as she let out a single sentence.

“Mother of me,”

Of course no pony else knew WHY she would say such a thing or even why she was reacting in such a way, but had they realised what the Princess of the Sun knew of the words written in blue ink upon Discord’s back then they would know the significance of what they meant when they say:

TAK IS BACK!

Chapter 3: New Arrivals

It must have been at least 10AM by the time Twilight had come back from the Carousel Boutique the next morning, after 24 hours of non-stop sobbing, Rarity STILL refused to come out of her bedroom, not that any pony blamed her for she had every right to be upset… even though she may have been overdoing it just a little bit. With her boutique in Manehattan now nothing more than a pile of ashes, the poor unicorn’s dream of spreading her fabulous fashion ideas throughout Equestria have taken a massive blow, thankfully she still had the Canterlot Carousel and friends here in Ponyville who were more than willing to help cheer her up. After Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were finally informed of the situation, they too tried their best to comfort her, unfortunately they too were having a bit of trouble coaxing the Unicorn out of her room, and thus the cycle continued with one of Rarity’s friends taking shifts at staying at the Carousel Boutique just too at least keep her company, of course none of them had made it past the bedroom door yet since Rarity still just wanted to be left alone. At this point in time Twilight had left to go home after waking up early and spending a couple of hours at Rarity’s place before Fluttershy took over, now she was just looking forward to having a small bit of breakfast.

“Hey, any luck with Rarity yet?” Spike asked as she entered the castle kitchen, earning a shake of the head from the Alicorn.

“No,” she replied with a heavy sigh. “She STILL won’t come out of her room.”

Spike looked to the floor with shame upon hearing that, it was no surprise that he felt bad for Rarity too, after all it wasn’t really much of a secret that he’s had a crush on the unicorn since they first met. In any case he wished that he could do something to cheer her up, but like everyone else the most he could do was try to talk to her through her bedroom door like her other friends, and like the others it was to no avail so he too took part in the shifts. Of course Starlight Glimmer would have helped out too but she felt it would have been better if this situation was dealt with by Rarity’s closest friends, and since she was technically still new to the group she felt that she wouldn’t be much help anyway.

“She really is that upset, huh?” she asked, taking a sip of tea as she sat down at the kitchen table.

Spike couldn’t help but growl at that.

“Are you kidding!?!” he snapped. “She put everything into setting up that boutique, and now it’s gone! Frankly I don’t blame her for being so upset!”

Despite being taken aback by the baby dragon’s sudden outburst, Starlight nodded with understanding, after all she wasn’t a stranger to acting out herself in an upsetting situation… though hopefully Rarity wouldn’t go a little overboard like she did back then. Not only that, but after being informed about the situation itself, it got Starlight thinking about that news article Trixie sent her along with the one Twilight brought back yesterday.

“Still, I can’t believe it was because of a bunch of those… things,” she admitted, thinking back to the photo of the creatures in question that was on the front page of the Equestria Daily.

“Yeah, and we STILL have no idea what they are,” Twilight replied, almost stopping her hoof out of pure frustration. “I’ve written to Princess Celestia about them, but she haven’t responded yet, it’s very strange.”

Spike couldn’t help but roll his eyes at that.

“Yeah, add THAT to the list of things that have been happening lately,” he commented, earning himself a small glare from the Alicorn.

Comments aside, nothing else said at this point could change the fact that Rarity was suffering all because of these creatures, and Twilight was struggling just as badly at the realisation that there was barely anything she could do about it. Thankfully Starlight was there to give her a few comforting words.

“I’m sure you’ll find something,” she said, walking over and placing a comforting hoof upon Twilight’s shoulder. “I mean, you ALWAYS do.”

At those words Twilight allowed herself to show a small smile.

“Thanks Starlight,” she said gratefully. “You really…”

Suddenly Twilight found herself being cut off mid-sentence as three loud knocked echoed through the halls and rang in everyone’s ears, knocks that were clearly originating from the front door. Upon hearing this, everyone raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“We expecting anyone?” Spike asked, earning a shrug from both mares.

Curious as she was, Twilight wasted no time in heading towards the door, the castle may have been big but it wasn’t really much in comparison to the palace in the Crystal Empire of the even the Castle in Canterlot, in fact you could say it was more along the size of a mansion that was triple in size, in any case it still wasn’t easy to navigate. Luckily Twilight knew her way enough to reach the front door with little ease and time and proceeded to open it, what she saw then, she certainly didn’t expect.

“Mom? Dad?” she gasped, her jaw hanging upon the two unicorns at her front door. “What are you doing here?”

Indeed it was her parents, her mother, Twilight Velvet, and her father, Night Light, both of whom were brilliant unicorns in their own right, but at this point in time both looked simply exhausted… and for some reason they also had luggage.

“Hey Twilight,” Night Light greeted, forcing a smile even though Twilight could easily tell that something was bothering both him and her mother. “Sorry to bother you, it’s that that your mom and I are in a bit of a pickle.”

Needless to say, that statement instantly gave the young Alicorn a nervous feeling.

“What are you…” she tried to asked, only to stop in mid-sentence once she took a peek of her father’s shoulder. “What the hay!?!”

To say that the sight before Twilight’s eyes was astounding would have been an understatement. As it turned out, not 10 minutes after she had come home from Rarity’s place, a train completely filled to the brim with ponies of different shapes and sizes, Twilight’s parents included, arrived at the station and thus Ponyville was now subject to a massive hoard of new ponies. Obviously Twilight wanted to know what was going on, though thankfully she didn’t really need to ask anything since her mother already began to explain the situation.

“For some reason, the whole of Canterlot is being evacuated” she said, making Twilight’s jaw drop even more.

“Evacuated?” she repeated, finding herself in disbelief. “I wasn’t told about anything like that.”

Night Light couldn’t help by sigh at that.

“Well it was all last minute in all honesty,” he said, though none the less confused about it himself.

At this point Twilight began to understand why her parents looked so tired, clearly both of them must have been woken up at the crack of dawn, if not sooner in what must have been a mandatory evacuation. Upon looking at the new ponies in further detail, that very well may have been the case since they all seemed to share the same tired look as both parents did.

“Every pony seems to be struggling just to find a place to stay,” Twilight Velvet continued, adding further explanation to the predicament. “Luckily many seemed to have friends who live here willing to help them out.”

“I don’t suppose you can put up with your folks for a while, could you?” Night Light added, practically pleading with his daughter to let them in. “At least until everyone’s aloud back into the city?”

Hearing this, Twilight couldn’t help but roll her eyes and smile, as much as she loved her parents, they always did have a poor method of asking for something.

“Of course, you don’t need to ask,” she said, earning herself a grateful smile from the pair. “Come on in.”

“Oh thank you sweetie,” Twilight Velvet sighed as she and Night light both picked up their bags and made their way inside the castle.

But as much as Twilight enjoyed the fact that here parents had come to her home, the circumstances of their arrival were far from pleasant. Why would Princess Celestia initiate an evacuation like this? Did this have something to do with what’s been going on in Manehattan? Did she know something everyone else didn’t? Whatever the case may be, Twilight didn’t like this situation one bit.

Of course, what Twilight didn’t realise at the time, was the fact that her confusion wasn’t just shared with the residents of Ponyville and Canterlot, but also a number of the Princesses themselves.

“A citywide evacuation!?!” Princess Luna exclaimed. “Isn’t this a little extreme?”

“I agree,” Princess Cadence added. “When you summoned me from the Crystal Empire last night, I must admit, I wasn’t expecting something like this.”

In all honesty no pony expected something of this scale, not even Luna and she was with Celestia the entire time when she announced the evacuation. Ever since Discord was delivered to the castle with a threatening message inked onto his back like a tattoo, Celestia must have been more scared than she had ever been, or at the very least allowed to show. Needless to say such a sudden act wasn’t really expected, even when they knew there was a threat just before Cadence’s wedding, they took precautions such as a magical force field, but never once did they evacuate. Something was definitely up, and both Luna and Cadence knew it had to be serious otherwise she wouldn’t have gathered all three of them in the throne room that morning.

“I’m afraid it’s necessary,” Celestia explained, feeing the need to finally shed some light. “We cannot allow innocent ponies to get caught up in the crossfire of what’s to come.”

“But what IS coming, Tia?” Luna asked worriedly. “Does it have something to do with what was written on Discord’s back?”

“Yeah, I’m still a little sketchy on those details myself,” Cadence added. “Discord was REALLY turned into a real pony? And who is Tak?”

Of course Cadence was informed on some of the detail beforehand before she arrived from the Crystal Empire a few hours ago, goodness knows how much sleep she had lost with the urgent letter added to the fact that she had an infant at home. But even so the details themselves were vague, and it seemed that it was only Celestia who knew more about it than even Luna did.

“Do you remember what I told you about the Year of Despair?” she asked, catching both Alicorns by surprise. “The one which had been wiped from all historical records because such terrible events would have been too devastating for the public to bear?”

Upon hearing the words, “Year of Despair” both Alicorns cringed with dread, for they did indeed remember the details even though neither of them were there to witness it, with Luna being banished to the moon as her evil counterpart, Nightmare Moon at the time, and Cadence certainly wasn’t even born yet. But regardless they had been told enough tales by Celestia herself, who actually did witness the events, to know that particular year wasn’t one they cared to bring up in any conversation.

“Yes?” Luna answered, fearing just where her elder sister was going with this.

After a moment of silence, Celestia finally let out a heavy sigh and explained in further detail.

“I’m afraid there was more to the story that I let on at first,” she said, giving shock to both Cadence and Luna’s minds.

“What do you mean?” Cadence asked, wanting to know more.

“After the crisis was over, a creature appeared from the ashes of what was left of our former castle,” Celestia continued, trying desperately to swallow the lump in her throat as she forced out the next few words. “A creature who serves… her.”

Upon hearing those words, both Luna and Cadence felt even worse, if they weren’t scared before they certainly were now. The one particular piece of the story Celestia told about the Year of Despair was the fact that it was brought about by a single individual, neither Alicorn could believe that any single creature could do such evil, but then again they have faced creatures like Tirek so it wasn’t impossible. In any case, to hear that this evil being had a servant was complete news to them, especially since they’re only now just hearing about him.

“I thought he was defeated for such a long time,” Celestia continued, almost grinding her teeth in anger upon recalling the horrid memory of him. “But now I’m afraid he has resurfaced.”

It was at this point that both Luna and Cadence began to understand what Celestia was referring to, after all the evidence was winking them in the face when a certain Draconequis was dumped on the castle’s doorstep.

“The message on Discord’s back?” Cadence queried.

“A message from the servant himself,” Celestia replied solemnly, another heavy sigh escaping her lips. “His name is Tak the Fuser, a gelatinous creature made from pure fusion magic, made by none other than the one who brought about that Year of Despair in the first place.”

Upon hearing the name, Cadence and Luna looked at each other with concern, whoever this Tak creature was, he certainly sounded like bad news.

“And you believe he has come to seek his revenge?” Cadence asked, earning herself a nod from the Sun Princess. “And that is why you evacuated the city?”

“Is he truly that dangerous?” Luna asked in addition, earning another solemn nod

“Worse,” Celestia replied bluntly. “As I’ve already mentioned, this creature is made of pure fusion magic, meaning that he not only has the ability to magically fuse and defuse any elements he sees fit… living or otherwise, thus twisting all life into his playthings in any sick game he wishes. Not only that, but for some reason no other magic can affect his body in any way, making him impervious to any direct assault.”

However judging from the look of dread etched across her sister’s face, Luna knew that there was more info that she didn’t really want to talk about.

“Go on,” Luna said, pushing Celestia to continue.

“Even worse than that,” she said, almost crying upon remembering this certain detail. “Unlike Tirek who only absorbed the Magic from ponies, Tak takes it too far and consumes the pony itself. Rumour has it that he even consumed a dragon at one point, I tell you, there is just no depths to which this creature wouldn’t sink to indulge his disgusting appetite.”

Upon hearing that both Luna and Cadence gasped in shock, if the tails of this creature’s master was bad enough, then Tak certainly came up to a close second of how truly despicable he was. And to think that such a demon was roaming free throughout Equestria at this very moment, doing who knows what to helpless innocents just for his own twisted enjoyment. However the more both princesses thought on the matter, the more another certain subject came to mind.

“Shouldn’t Twilight be informed of this too?” Cadence pointed out, speaking for both herself and Luna. “After all she’s a princess the same as the rest of us.”

Of course Celestia was expecting such a question, after all ever since Twilight had successfully graduated from being Celestia’s talented student to being the Princess of Friendship, then she has become more involved with certain royal duties such as summits and the like. And while Celestia would also admit that it was a mistake that she and the other princesses didn’t make sure that she and her friends were more involved with the incident with Lord Tirek, especially in the earlier stages of it, she also knew far more about the danger ahead than even Luna and Cadence did, so she felt no guilt whatsoever when she spoke her next sentence.

“That may be so, but she is still young, still getting used to being an Alicorn and all the responsibilities that come with it,” she explained, not trying to sound harsh but also making sure her tone was clear enough that Luna and Cadence understood her assertiveness in the matter. “I won’t have this burden placed upon her shoulders when it’s mine alone to bear, after all it was I who sealed Tak away in the first place.”

Luckily Celestia’s tone seemed to have worked since both Luna and Cadence picked up on her insistence in an instant, and while Cadence especially didn’t like keeping Twilight out of the loop, she also knew that Celestia must have had a good reason to do so.

“So what exactly do you want us to do?” she finally asked, wondering what the next stage was.

At this point, Celestia’s gaze hardened and she forced out any despair that may have lingered within her, if only for a moment, after all she cannot allow herself to break down at a time like this.

“You two must join in with the evacuation,” she instructed, surprising the both of them. “The ponies of Canterlot will be scared, and there’s only so much Twilight can do on her own since many of them will be heading to Ponyville.”

Hearing this both Princesses nodded with understanding, however there was one thing that Luna still wanted to know.

“What about you?” she asked, wondering what Celestia’s role was to be in this situation.

At first Celestia didn’t give an answer, instead she merely sighed and turned towards a nearby window, looking towards the vast landscape that reached beyond the walls of Canterlot as the thought of what was to come entered her mind like a horrifying nightmare.

“If it’s me that Tak wants, then it’s better for me to stay here while the city remains empty,” she finally said, solemnly at first but then regaining some form of confidence. “Fear not Sister, I defeated him once, and I shall do so again.”

Needless to say, hearing this came as yet another surprise for both Luna and Cadence, so much so that the Princess of Love wanted to protest the very idea of leaving Celestia behind. However before she could say anything, much her disbelief, Luna stuck a hoof in front of her and shook her head, silencing her in an instant.

“We understand, sister,” she said calmly. “Good luck.”

And with that, Luna turned away and led a reluctant Cadence out of the room, Leaving Celestia alone with her thoughts.

After a few minutes of walking down the corridor in silence, Cadence felt that what was on her mind desperately needed to be said, she may have been a bit more resistant to the urge before Luna had led out of the room, but finally she couldn’t take it anymore.

“I don’t think we should just be leaving like this,” she stated, her face painted with an agitated scowl. “I mean, you really think that Celestia is going to be okay?”

Obviously Cadence wanted to know just why Luna of all ponies was so quick as to just accept her big sister’s instructions, luckily Luna had a straight answer to give her.

“It is obvious that if this Tak is as dangerous as Tia says, then obviously I wouldn’t feel right leaving her like this,” she said with a heavy sigh, he gaze suddenly softening from a glare to a look of contentment. “But as much as I don’t like it, I have to trust in my sister, after all despite certain mistakes she has performed quite a few feats in her time. Besides she is right, the ponies will be scared, no doubt they are confused, so we must do whatever we can to help out in Ponyville.”

As much as she hated to admit it, Cadence knew Luna had a point, after all she did have more experience in matters like these, and in turn Celestia had more experience than HER, in which case Cadence had no choice but to just her judgement.

“You’re right,” she finally said with a heavy sigh. “Come on then, we better hurry up before the last train leaves.”

On that final word, Cadence then picked up the pace and led Luna further down the corridor, little knowing about the shadow upon the wall behind then as they turned a corner… a shadow that seems to be smirking all by itself.

Back in Ponyville, the continuing floods of new arrivals began to spread through town like wildfire amongst dry grass. After getting her parents settled into the castle, Twilight felt the need to go outside just to see just how many new arrival there actually were, with Spike tagging along to indulge his own curiosity.

“This is madness,” Twilight commented, after nearby bumping into the third pony that walked her away.

“You’re telling me,” Spiked added in agreement. “It looks like half the ponies in Canterlot are here.”

Little did Spike realise at the time, he was more than likely extremely accurate with that certain statement. It was common knowledge that compared to Canterlot, Ponyville was a pretty small town and as such even if only a fraction of Canterlot’s residents were to flood it all at once then Ponyville’s streets would have been absolutely filled with ponies, which in turn was exactly the case right here and now. After what felt like half an hour of weaving their way through numerous ponies, all of whom were completely clueless as to what exactly was going on, Twilight’s ears suddenly picked up two district voices having an argument just outside Sugarcube Corner.

“Father, please!” one of them stated in a Neighsian accent.

“No, I don’t care!” the second one retorted, this one baring the same accent. “They drag us out of our restaurant at the crack of dawn and stick us on a train without any explanation!?! I refuse to accept such disrespectful behaviour to us!”

Needless to say, the ponies’ frustration was completely understandable, in fact it was shared amongst pretty much everyone from both Canterlot AND Ponyville, the latter mostly due to the sudden incontinence of a bunch of newcomers invading their town all at once. However it was these two ponies in particular, that Spike found to be somewhat familiar.

“Hey, aren’t they the owners of the Tasty Treat?” he asked, recognising the garbs the ponies were wearing.

Now that Twilight thought about it, Spike’s observation was indeed accurate, for these two Unicorns WERE the owners of the Tasty Treat, a restaurant in Canterlot well known for making exotic cuisine, one of which her friends, Rarity and Pinkie Pie had the pleasure of visiting recently. Judging from their attire and their accents, this must have been Coriander Cumin and his Daughter Saffron Masala, after all Twilight had heard plenty of stories about their food to know in an instant.

“Guess it really IS the whole city being evacuated,” Twilight commented, not really knowing what else to say for the realisation was too much too take in all at once.

It certainly was a sight to behold, with ponies ranging from the upper-class aristocrats, to the simplest shop owner, the entirety of Canterlot must have been emptied out for some purpose, including two more faces that Twilight recognised as they both came running up towards her.

“Twilight!” one of them cried, her think glasses sliding down her muzzle as she came to a stop in front of the Alicorn.

“Moon Dancer? Minuette?” Twilight gasped upon seeing the two unicorns in front of her. “You too?”

Of course Twilight had friends before she moved to Ponyville that lived in Canterlot, two of which were the Unicorns that stood before her now with a suitcase each levitated in their individual magical aura. Minuette being the Unicorn with a light blue coat, an even lighter bluish grey mane and tail with darker blue streaks, and an hourglass cutie mark, and Moon Dancer being the Unicorn with a light yellowish coat, brilliant amaranth mane with purple and greyish violet streaks, brushy eyebrows wearing, and wearing a dark purple turtle-neck sweater. While these two unicorns may have varied in physical appearance, a common factor both of them shared at this moment was the look of distress plastered across their faces.

“I’m afraid so,” Minuette sighed in response to Twilight’s question. “We don’t know what is going on but the whole of Canterlot was being emptied since the crack of dawn this morning.”

“Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine are staying with Lyra and her friend, Bon Bon for the time being, but…” Moon Dancer added, almost hesitant in what she wanted to say next.

Needless to say, Twilight and Spike instantly picked up on where her friend was going with this, after all her parents came to her requesting the same thing, obviously it was no surprise that after being forced from their home, Moon Dancer and Minuette needed a place to stay, and given the fact that there was a strong chance that the local hotels were more than likely full by now AND Lyra’s place already began housing two more of her old Canterlot friends, then Twilight’s castle was the only option left.

“Hey don’t worry about it,” Twilight said reassuringly. “There’s plenty of room at the castle, I mean chances are I’m probably gonna have to let out a few rooms after all this anyway.”

At those words, both Unicorns couldn’t help but smile.

“We don’t really want to impose or anything…” Moon Dancer said, trying to be as humble as possible in the matter.

Twilight, of course, couldn’t help but giggle at her friend’s awkwardness.

“Nonsense, you girls are always welcome,” she replied before turning to the dragon next to her. “Spike, would you mind taking them back to the castle?”

“On it, Twilight!” he stated, giving a small salute in response. “Right this way ladies!”

And with that, both Unicorns followed the baby dragon towards Twilight’s castle, more than likely becoming the first of many to do so that day. After all three of them left, Twilight couldn’t help but let out yet another heavy sigh, just how bad was the situation that everybody had to be evacuated all at once? Deciding to investigate further, she then decided to carry on walking through the heavily busy streets, if she couldn’t contact Celestia then maybe she could at the very least ask one of the Canterlot arrivals what was happening. Unfortunately, no matter who she asked, Twilight received the same answer: “I don’t know anything”, needless to say with every conversation she had Twilight’s frustration only grew more and more. Finally she came across yet another familiar face, one of which she was glad to spot.

“Rainbow!” she cried out, running up towards the Pegasus.

Upon hearing her name, Rainbow Dashed turned away from the other Pegasus she was talking to and smiled, her Wonderbolt uniform clinging to her fur as she took a few steps towards the oncoming Alicorn.

“Hey Twilight,” she greeted, allowing th other Pegasus to join up with the crowd. “Pretty crazy huh?”

“Tell me about it,” Twilight deadpanned in response. “You have any idea what’s happening here?

Obviously twilight didn’t expect much of an answer, but at this point it became habit to ask.

“Afraid not,” Rainbow replied with a shake of her head, confirming Twilight’s scepticism. “If any of the other Wonderbolts know then they certainly aren’t telling me, we’re even helping ponies who are evacuating here from Manehattan! I tell ya, everyone’s spooked!”

As much as this answer came as yet another disappointment to Twilight, it did however explain why Rainbow Dash was in her Wonderbolt Uniform, not to mention the few others that the Alicorn had managed to spot every now and then on the way over plus the occasional Palace guard in their uniforms, of course Twilight asked every one of those she came across, only to have the same answer as all the other ponies she had asked. But despite this knowledge, that still didn’t stop Twilight from letting out her frustrations in a loud manner.

“Ugh, this is so infuriating!” she snapped, rubbing her temple. “JUST WHAT IS GOING ON!?!”

Ignoring the fact that her outburst was drawing the attention of a few bystanders, Rainbow Dash could easily understand her friend’s distress in the matter, in fact one could say that the only reason she wasn’t letting loose herself was the fact that she had to keep herself composed while in Uniform. Of course it was at this point that Twilight said something that Rainbow Dash didn’t expect to hear.

“That’s it!” she stated, turning away and stomping back the way she came. “If I can’t get a letter from Princess Celestia then I’m going up to Canterlot to talk to her myself!”

Rainbow couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that, and Twilight was supposed to be the smart one?

“Ha! Good luck with that,” she retorted. “All trains leaving Canterlot are still running, but all trains GOING to Canterlot are completely halted.”

However at those words, Twilight merely smirked, much to Rainbow Dash’s confusion.

“Who said anything about the train?” she asked, opening up her wings to emphasise her point.

It was only then that Rainbow caught on with what the Alicorn was referring too, she was actually planning on FLYING to Canterlot!?! Granted she managed to do it before, but given the current circumstances she didn’t feel right in letting her go, especially on her own. After a few moments of silently debating with herself with what she must do next, she finally let out a heavy sigh and spoke up, grabbing Twilight’s attention once again after she turned to walk away.

“Hang on Twi!” she said, quacking her pace to a trot to catch up with her. “I’m going with you!”

Meanwhile, back in the now-empty city of Canterlot, another lone Alicorn stood at the stain glass window of the throne room. It had been hours since Celestia had issued the compulsory evacuation in the city, and so far things seemed to be going as smoothly as she had hoped, not only have the regular citizens been completely cleared out, but also the palace staff, the aristocrats, not even the royal guards were here. Not only that but even a bed-ridden Discord was transferred to Ponyville at the personal request of Celestia herself, no doubt his dear friend Fluttershy would be greatly disheartened to discover the condition he was currently in, but even so it would probably be best if Discord was taken to someone he trusted given the circumstances. As she watched the last train out of Canterlot pull out of the station, believing that both Luna and Cadence were on board, Celestia couldn’t help but let out a heavy sigh.

“My sister,” she whispered. “Please be safe.”

However Celestia’s sense of solitude wouldn’t last for very long, for at that moment, she found herself no longer alone as a faint chuckle rang in her ears, a sly voice following after.

“How sweet,” it chuckled. “I simply love the way you care for those close to your heart, Princess.”

Upon hearing those cold words, Celestia snapped her head around, her eyes going wide with terror as they spotted a figure emerging from the darkened doorway of the throne room, a tall, blue figure with a snide grin as he bit down on the toothpick he was chewing.

“YOU!” Celestia growled, her eyes soon changing into a fierce glare as Tak the Fuser came within only a few feet of her, his voice slippery and dark as he uttered his next sentence.

“Did you miss me?”

Chapter 4: Royal Home Invasion

“Tak the Fuser!”

Those words easily made Celestia sick to her very stomach, worse still the fact that he who bears that name was now standing directly in front of her, a cocky grin plastered across his face as he spat out his toothpick and once again started speaking to her.

“Celestia,” he said mockingly. “So good to see you again.”

“I’m surprised you got here so soon,” Celestia growled in response, trying desperately not to show her fear. “What I would like to know is why.”

Tak couldn’t help but chuckle at that.

“Oh you know me, I was simply in the neighbourhood and I thought I’d invade,” he said, taking a few steps towards the white Alicorn. “How about a little kiss, I hear you’re still single.”

At those words Celestia grit her teeth in fury, not only does this vile creature invade her home, but he has the gall to mock her!?! Before Tak could even take even a second step, he soon found himself dodging a scorching beam of light from Celestia’s horn as it narrowly missed his foot and left a blackened spot on the carpet.

“That’s far enough, Tak!” she snapped angrily, not wanting him to come even an inch closer.

After shaking off the initial shock of what had just occurred, Tak chuckled again.

“Still feisty as ever I see,” he mocked.

“And you haven’t changed in slightest, have you?” Celestia retorted. “You’re still just as vile as the last time we met.”

Tak scoffed at that.

“Oh put a sock in it C,” he said casually. “One month out of the slammer and I’m already listening to one of your prissy lectures.”

Celestia couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that, he really DIDN’T change in the slightest, even his sarcasm hasn’t improved since his imprisonment.

“What do you want?” Celestia demanded, earning herself a glare from the blue creature.

“You know perfectly well what I want!” he snapped in response. “You and those mutts down in the Tunnels rounded me up and tossed me away like some piece of gutter trash! Do you have any idea what it’s like stuck in a stone goblet for 800 years!?! It’s boring!!!”

Now it was Celestia’s turn to scoff.

“Such a shame you could have stayed in there at least ANOTHER 800 years,” she said sarcastically.

Hearing this Tak couldn’t help but grin, albeit a little forcefully on his part.

“Funny Celestia,” he stated. “But as much as I enjoy a good joke I’m not in the mood for humour. You may have evacuated the entire city, but I’m not interested in eating a bunch of bystanders today.”

“I can’t imagine why,” Celestia replied, yet another example of how her sarcasm shows how little she cared for this creature.

“Don’t try to be smart with me, C!” Tak retorted, his grin soon turning into a fierce snarl as his green eyes glowed violently enough that they could be mistaken for Changeling fire. “I spent 200 years searching all of Equestria for my Mistress before spending 800 more locked up in that prison you and those dogs made for me, that’s 1000 years of wasted time spent apart from she who deserves my loyalty.”

As much as she hated this creature’s very existence, Celestia couldn’t help but admire Tak’s devotion, such a shame that such devotion was wasted upon a being dark enough to make Queen Chrysalis herself run for the hills, then again Tak didn’t have any kind of heart any less dark himself.

“Now if I couldn’t find my Mistress in any other place in Equestria after 200 years, then it stands to reason that I was always looking in the wrong places,” Tak continued, his egotistical rants ringing in Celestia’s ears as he continued to stare her down. “Then it finally hit me, the one place I didn’t check was also the one place that I would have never have thought to check… right under the nose of the one who stole her away from me in the first place.”

Needless to say, Celestia didn’t like where this was going in the slightest, but regardless she kept her composure intact, readying herself for whatever strike Tak was planning, after all if there was one thing Celestia remembered from her last encounter with him, it was Tak’s dark sense of cunning. Soon enough, Tak dared to take another step closer and fix gaze soley upon Celestia’s face.

“Now I’m going to ask nicely here…” he uttered, his voice turning darker with each word he spoke. “Where is she?”

And there it was, the one question Celestia knew from the start that it would come to, a question that Celestia almost found herself laughing upon the very mention it.

“You’re a smart creature, Tak,” she said in a cocky tone. “I’m surprised you even need to ask.”

Once again Tak merely chuckled.

“Oh don’t get me wrong, I’ve looked into this VERY thoroughly,” he said. “Your old castle: nothing but ruins now thanks to yours truly, nothing there but a bunch of old junk. Everfree Forest: Dead-end, too many dangerous creatures for even you to handle. Which brings us right here, in the city of Canterlot, built shortly after I was imprisoned if I’m not mistaken.”

At those words, Celestia’s glare hardened, now Tak was starting to become more serious, granted he was serious before now but in that case he always covered it up with a cruel sense of humour, much like a wild beast who likes to play with his food before he eats it. But now, Tak wasn’t playing around, then again since he had been sealed away for 800 years then it was only understandable that he would be so serious.

“So I’ll ask you again…” he growled. “WHERE is she?”

However Celestia wasn’t going to give Tak the satisfaction, whatever attack he’ll use, whatever scheme he’ll try, there was no way in Tartarus that she was going to give Tak what he wanted. Seeing Celestia’s determined silence as the sign of defiance that it was, Tak let out a heavy sigh.

“We gotta do it the hard way,” he said, his gaze suddenly turning to the wall behind Celestia, much to the Princess’s confusion.

It was only then that Celestia came to realise just how bad things had truly become… and just how much danger SHE was currently in, for at that very moment she took the moment to turn her head just for a moment, just to see what Tak was staring at. As it turned out, what she first thought was her own shadow was something else entirely, after all… shadows don’t usually smile back at you. Within a matter of seconds, Celestia was temporarily deafened by the ear-piecing shriek that came surprisingly enough, by the shadow that stood before her upon the wall, after which the shadow then slithered down the wall and onto the floor beneath Celestia’s hooves, taking advantage of the sudden distraction it had created by pulling them downward, soon enough Celestia found herself trapped inside her own floor.

“What!?!” she gasped, desperately trying to absorb what happened as she tried desperately to pull herself free, but to no avail.

However that was just the tip of the iceberg, because seconds later the shadow moved away from Celestia and moved further along the floor, growing in size as it reached further towards the centre, after that Celestia’s jaw dropped in horror as she witness what occurred next. Much like how she was pulled into the floor via the shadow, something, or rather SOMEONE was now beginning to rise out of it, no, a great many someones, not all of them even ponies. But worst of all, even as the shadow faded away and returned to its owner, a zebra by the looks of it, Celestia’s face remained plastered with her look of terror, as she spotted two ponies in particular that she instantly recognised among the new crowd.

“Sister!!!” Luna yelled as she tried desperately to pull free from her capture’s grip, only to be instantly pulled back by a large canine encrusted with opals.

“No,” Celestia gasped, tears instantly filling her eyes as she witnessed her little sister AND Cadence struggle from their bonds.

Needless to say, Tak took a bit of pleasure in seeing Celestia so pathetic, of course he knew Luna and Cadence would be the perfect hostages for the “all-powerful” ruler of Equestria, after all no creature is without vulnerabilities. However even as he relished in the Alicorn’s misery, Tak wasn’t done yet.

“GEMNITES!!!” he screamed, his voice echoing throughout the entire room as the glass shook within their windows.

However all three Alicorns soon found that the shaking was merely due to the fact that even more new arrivals were simply smashing their way in. Within moments, even more gem-encrusted canines had broken almost every single stain-glass window, destroying countless recorded historical moments in the process, all because they wanted in. Afterward, the entire room was filled with these canines, now known as Gemnites, all of whom seemed to be looking up at Tak with evil grins plastered upon their faces like the obedient dogs they were. However even while Celestia watched her throne room ransacked by these Gemnites, she couldn’t help but notice that while they took up a good majority of Tak’s new forces, there were a few that still stood out, and as luck would have it, Tak felt the need to speak up again.

“Allow me to introduce my new cohorts…” he said, casually gesturing towards the arrivals that came via the shadow, specifically the Zebra. “Mister Zeb, finest thief in all of Manehattan, swiped quite the bundle using shadow magic from his old country back in the day.”

Zeb? The name did sound familiar even to her, after all his acts of thievery were none short of legend even if it was only in recent years, which in turn did explain how a shadow was able to move about on its own AND make living creatures come from one place to another, after all, that was supposed to have been his magical talent, but he was supposed to be locked up, wasn’t he? Looking him over, Celestia, Luna, even Cadence couldn’t help but think he was quite the handsome Zebra, like all zebras, he had a faded white coat with black stripes, his mane was styled into that of a Mohawk, albeit a small curl just over his forehead, and he wore a pink buttoned shirt under a red jacket that barely covered up his tribal paw-shaped cutie mark, along with a pair of translucent blue sunglasses and a smirk that would make even the most humble of ponies cringe.

“What can I say?” he said, taking Tak’s introduction as a compliment. “I’m just THAT good.”

At those words, another, much older pony rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“Yeah, good enough to get caught!” he commented in a strong southern accent, much to Zeb’s annoyance.

However all this quip earned him was a smack across the back of his head much a much younger mare.

“Shut it pa!” she snapped, her accent matching that of the older pony.

Upon seeing this display of family dispute, Tak was then alerted to the presence of his next introduction, and so gestured towards the two ponies, along with a third to the older stallion’s left side.

“Ah the Brittles,” he said. “Appleoosan bandits, robbers and rustlers, And they are all just one family, Old Moonshine here’s the daddy, and May Bell and Cornpoke there are his two kids. Now that’s what I call a family business, eh?”

To say that these “Brittles, as Tak had called them were a trio of scruffy looking ponies would have been an understatement, in fact they would even the lowest of outlaws to shame just from their appearance alone. The oldest, Moonshine, was an elderly, lime-green pony with a shaggy grey beard and mane, that which was covered by a filthy brown Stetson hat, he also had a gold tooth and as his name suggested, a bottle of moonshine for a cuties mark, giving some indication as to what he favourite beverage was. The two younger ponies, his children, were slightly better on the eyes than their father was, though still a little scruffy, both wore a pair of messy blue overalls, hiding both their cutie marks, and both had a snarky grin plastered upon their faces. The mare, May Bell, had a pink coat, freckles upon her cheeks and a pair of pigtails tied into her blond mane, and the stallion, the one named Cornpoke, seemed to be the more… simple of the two, with a goofy look plastered upon his face, he wore a straw hat over a mess of a dirty blond man, which in turn covered his eyes from view, and he had several oversized teeth sticking out of his bottom jaw, giving him a massive underbite and making him seriously look like he needed a dentist.

“Hehe, I love family time,” he said goofily, showing just how dim-witted he was by the way he spoke alone.

Of course neither his father nor his sister appreciated his comment, in fact both of them seemed to just roll their eyes at it. At that moment Celestia’s attention was soon drawn to a high-pitched squawk, one that belonged to a strange metallic bird that was perched upon the shoulder of an even larger bird.

“Can we please hurry this up!?!” the metal bird screeched, much to Tak’s chagrin. “I’m getting bored here!”

Needless to say Tak was unamused by the metal bird’s rude interruption, luckily her owner was there to calm her down before Take could let out his anger on her.

“Calm yourself, Razorbeak,” the larger bird said in a relaxed tone, stroking her metal beak with one of his flippers. “We’ll be wrapping this up soon.”

Not wanting to become distracted by a mere show of defiance by some pet, Tak shrugged off the metal Bird’s, now known as Razorbeak’s comment, and continued his introductions by gesturing towards the larger bird.

“And of course, the infamous Don Charlatan, Master Crime Boss,” he said, almost chuckling at the very sentence. “He’s got so many criminals under his flipper that I had graciously let out along with him, I barely had to ask for his assistance once I sprung him from jail.”

Now Celestia, Luna and Cadence were really confused, for they had never seen a large bird like Don Charlatan before, especially one that was wearing such a fancy suit, although now that Celestia thought about it, she did recall hearing about such birds living in the far north, but never actually seen one herself. He was an overweight, stumpy Penguin with a long blue beak and feet, and wore a fancy grey suit with blue trims and carried a diamond tipped cane in his flipper. His pet, Razorbeak, was much smaller, no bigger than the size of Celestia’s own pet phoenix, in fact she even looked like a phoenix herself… albeit a phoenix with metal feathers and blades sticking out of her wings and tail, either way it made her look intimidating. Add these vicious looking characters, along with all the Gemnites currently in the room, and Tak seemed to be more threatening than the last time he and Celestia encountered each other. But something just didn’t seem to add up, from what Celestia could remember Tak NEVER needed help, nor wanted it, in fact Tak would rather EAT ponies than work with them, so what was going through his mind here? However before Celestia could think more on the matter, she found her train of thought interrupted by Cadence’s voice.

“How are you able to block our magic!?!” she demanded.

That was indeed a good question, even if Tak DID have help no pony, nor penguin could ever be able to capture an Alicorn much less restrain them with their strength alone, it just made no sense, the Alicorns could have easily kept them at bay with their magic. Suddenly it was then that Celestia finally noticed a small change in both the restrained Alicorns’ appearance, specifically a small accessory that was firmly clasped around the necks, one that looked almost exactly like a shiny version of Tak’s own skin. Taking notice of where exactly Celestia was staring, Tak couldn’t help but smirk.

“Impressive right? Made these little babies out of my own slime,” he said, giving the collars he made a small flick, causing a small ding like a spoon being tapped against another.

Now things were beginning to make a little sense, if those collars were blocking their magic that it stands to reason that Tak made them out of his own body, after all she herself said it was impervious to any kind of magic, thus making it the perfect tool to cancel it out. What’s more, while Tak was keeping Celestia busy, his goons must have used the slime to apprehend Luna and Cadence before they even got the chance to leave the castle. Once again Tak’s cunning was beginning to rear its ugly face, and now Celestia’s dear little sister was paying the price for it.

“You see I learnt from my mistakes, Celestia,” Tak continued, feeling the need to pour salt into an open wound. “The reason I failed last time was because I did things alone. But now, I have a whole army of little helpers.”

At those words, every single Gemnite cheered with delight, feeling glee at the very mention of their existence. Celestia on the other hand, merely glared again.

“So you WERE responsible for everything that’s been happening lately!” She accused, remembering all the terrible events leading up to this day.

Once again, Tak chuckled.

“Yeah, pretty much,” he replied casually. “But the thing is, the Gemnites are only good at causing mayhem and destruction, aside from that, they’re all completely useless. But they did provide me with the means of recruiting some of the most brilliant criminals Equestria has to offer, after all this job required someone with plenty of cunning to go along with their talents.”

Now it was the criminals’ turn to chuckle, each and every one of their laughs ringing in Luna and Cadences ears like nails of a chalkboard.

“And each and every one of them are as cold-blooded as they come,” Tak continued, his smirk once again turning into a cold glare. “So unless to want something… messy to happen to your little sister, I suggest you tell me what I need to know.”

At those words all three Alicorns gasped in terror, Luna and Cadence because of what might occur next, and Celestia in fear for Luna’s life for she knew full well what lengths Tak would take to get what he wanted.

“Celestia, don’t do it!” Luna screamed, only to receive a smack across the back of her head from Charlatan’s cane, knocking her face-first into the floor.

“Quiet you!” The Penguin snapped, poking the tip of his cane into the centre of Luna’s back, causing her incredible pain in the process, but not enough to give Charlatan the satisfaction of hearing her scream.

Upon seeing this, Celestia had the right mind to use her magic to blast that miserable penguin into dust for causing her little sister such pain, unfortunately Tak was able to since such a notion.

“Oh and before you get any ideas…” he said, suddenly taking a deep breath and hacking up a large blob of saliva directly at Celestia’s face.

However, while this act was nothing short of all counts of disgusting, it wasn’t the neck the saliva hit, but rather it hovered in mid-air for a moment and wrapped itself around Celestia’s neck, solidifying until it finally turned into a shiny collar, one that resembled the ones Cadence and Luna were wearing to an exact match. That was when Celestia mentally smacked herself for not acting sooner, now SHE was powerless, had she not been so distracted with Tak’s conniving acts of cruelty then she may have been able to avoid being stripped of her magic and perhaps had a chance to free herself from the floor and save both her sister and Cadence from Tak’s clutches. But now, all that was left for any of them was to endure the gelatinous monster’s evil.

“Now I won’t ask again,” Tak growled angrily, taking a few proud steps towards the Alicorn and leaning in so that his face was mere inches from hers. “Where is my Mistress? Tell me or Luna loses the wings!”

At those words, Tak then snapped his fingers, and a few members of the criminals took it as their cue to act. Within a matter of seconds, Princess Luna found herself pinned down against Charlatan’s flabby foot, while May Bell and Cornpoke each took one of her wings and stretched them out as far as they would go, after that Razorbeak smirked and flew off Charlatan’s shoulder, perching herself in front of Luna’s face and brandishing her bladed wings, indicating that she was readying herself to slice something up. Knowing full well just what that something was, Celestia’s eyes flowed with tears as she watched Tak’s grin widen with every step Razorbeak took closer to the base of her little sister’s wings, finally she couldn’t bear to keep her composure any longer.

“STOP!!!” she screamed, throwing any sense of pride out the window and revealing her vulnerability without a single care. “Alright, I’ll tell you!”

Satisfied with the result of his threat, Tak’s smile instantly returned.

“That’s better,” he said, clicking his fingers once again, forcing Razorbeak to stop in her tracks.

After Razorbeak took a few steps away from her sister, Celestia knew then that she no longer had any choice but to comply with Tak’s demand, lest Razorbeak makes another attempt on Luna’s wings. With tears of shame flowing like waterfalls from her eyes, Celestia then allowed Tak to lean in close as to hear her confession as she whispered it into his non-existent ears. With this new piece of information, Tak’s grin once again returned and he turned to his Gemnites with a newfound determination.

“Check the lower levels boys!” he commanded. “At the very bottom!”

Unfortunately, the Gemnites took things a little too literally and started using their gigantic paws to claw at the floor beneath their feet, much to both their frustration and Tak’s embarrassment.

“Use the stairs, you idiots!” he grumbled, feeling the need to smack himself in the forehead.

Upon those words, the Gemnite who were digging instantly stopped what they were doing and turned back to Tak with sheepish smiles upon their faces.

“Heh… sorry boss,” one of them chuckled nervously.

Of course Tak wasn’t amused, in fact the second the words left the Gemnite’s mouth, he snarled at them like a wild animal, instantly scaring them enough that they ran out of the room screaming their heads off. After they and a few other Gemnites left, Tak managed to calm himself down long enough to regain his composure, now that things were beginning to go his way, he had no reason to stay angry over something so petty.

“You know C, all this could have been avoided had you been more co-operative in the first place,” he said calmly, once again getting in close to Celestia’s face. “But I guess that’s just how you are… too proud for your own good.”

Upon hearing that disgusting whisper in her ear, Celestia couldn’t help but cringe, never in her life had she been so ashamed and terrified, it was without a doubt one of the worst moments in her life. After what felt like an eternity of waiting, one of the Gemnites finally burst back into the room with an excited grin upon his face.

“It’s there, boss!” he yelped. “The door is there!”

Upon hearing those words, Tak’s grin became so wide, the sides of his head started stretching just to show all of his teeth as once.

“Excellent,” he uttered, the glee in his mind too large for description.

Celestia on the other hand, couldn’t feel any worse.

“Okay you have what you want,” she growled angrily. “Now let my sister and Cadence go!”

At those words Tak almost laughed, here Celestia was with no magic, no ability to move, and yet she still makes demands? If he didn’t know any better, Tak would have believed that this Alicorn was as cocky as he was. Still now that he DID have what he wanted, he saw no further use in carrying out this charade any longer.

“Very well,” he replied before turning to the other criminals. “Release them all.”

Even though all the Brittles, Zeb AND Don Charlatan were taken aback by this request, they didn’t find themselves in need of a death-wish and felt no need to argue with the monster that sprang them from prison, thus they quickly complied with the command. After releasing Luna and Cadence from their grasp, the criminals looked on as Zeb used his shadow magic again, raising a hoof as a guide, Zeb quickly moved his own shadow back towards Celestia’s hooves and forced them out of the floor, freeing her from her own confinement and allowing her to embrace Luna and Cadence into a tight hug, tears of despair flowing down their faces.

“Oh Tia, I’m so sorry,” Luna sobbed, burring her face into Celestia’s shoulder.

At this point, all Celestia could do now was wrap her hooves around her little sister as much as she could, she couldn’t remember a time where she had been so scared, so helpless. It was downright degrading for all three of them, which was made all the more worse by the fact that everyone else in the room was sniggering at their dismay.

“It’s okay, Luna,” Celestia said, trying desperately to give her little sister some comfort. “We’ll be alright.”

However those words only brought on an even louder snicker, one that came from none other than Tak himself.

“Oh I highly doubt that sweet-cheeks,” he mocked, causing all three Alicorns to glare at him with fury. “As I’m sure you’ve already figured out C, your time of power has already come to it’s inevitable end.”

Celestia snarled at that, not a usual expression from a dignified princess but in this case, it was warranted.

“Why are you even still here!?!” Cadence snapped, sharing in Celestia’s anger. “Just take what you came for and go, you have no further need of us!”

Of course what Cadence didn’t realise at the time, was that those particular words would soon become some of which she would ever regret saying.

“Oh I think we do,” Tak chuckled in response, rubbing his hands together with glee. “What I have planned for you three next makes me so happy, I feel like singing!”

And that’s EXACTLY what he intended to do, as much as it’ll confuse everyone else in the room, his joy was too much for him to keep in, in fact confusing everyone else made it even more fun.

“Maestro!” he declared, pointing towards a nearby Gemnite, calling him out on his command.

In an instant the Gemnite pulled out a small accordion that he had wrapped around his neck, the reason as to WHY the little creature had something like that around his neck remaining a mystery to everyone else, after which he began playing a slow, eerie tune that send shivers down everyone’s spine. Once the music began playing, it was then that Tak began to sing his little melody.

TAK:
When they invented money, they invented greed,
And so created thieves, with such a golden need,
These crooks are everywhere, beneath each and every stone,
But they were just the start, there are worse who’ll chill your bones,

As Take continued on with his tune, more and more instruments are added as the first Gemnite found himself being joined by many of his comrades, including those who were playing a broken cello and banging on pots and pans from the castle kitchen, one even managed to bring an electric guitar into the mix. Soon enough the pace of the song quicken and Tak found himself being overwhelmed by the bliss of it, so much so that he even snatched up Cadence by her hooves and started forcing her into a waltz as he continued singing.

TAK:
There are those who just seek gold, there are those who just seek fame,
Then there’s the crooks who love the thrill, of driving folks insane,
You can’t have good without bad, it simply cannot be,
But good has gone on too long, so sing along with me…

With each loathsome step of the waltz she was forced to comply with, Cadence felt more and more sick to her stomach, not only because Tak’s disgusting hands were gripping her hooves like a vice, but also because he had the gall to use his slimy, purple tongue to lick her face. Needless to say, this display not only disgusted Cadence herself, but only enraged Celestia and Luna so much that they ignored their instinctive fear and attempted to rush towards the two of them. However this attempt was short lived when a number of Gemnites blocked their path and started pinning them to the floor. After that the music’s pace began to quicken even further, and the criminals Tak brought with him started getting into the melody, so much so that they found themselves singing along when he came to the chorus.

TAK:
Cause it’s our time!

CRIMINALS:
(Our time!)

TAK:
It’s time to bring the pain,

I tell you, it’s our time!

CRIMINALS:
(Our time!)

TAK:
Now comes our evil reign.

It was then that Tak found himself growing bored with his waltz and proceeded to toss Cadence back to the other two Alicorns, who in turn received the full brunt of the impact after the Gemnites pinning them down jumped out of the way in the nick of time. After that the music became somewhat infectious to the criminals in a more vigorous way, so much so that they felt no shame in getting into the Alicorns’ faces as they took the next verse.

ZEB:
We’ve been locked up for years,

MOONSHINE:
We’ve spent too long in jail,

MAY BELL:
All the things that we have missed, why couldn’t have we made bail?

DON CHARLATAN:
The jury was just too cruel, the judge was just too tense,

RAZORBEAK:
So you bit off some guy’s ear…

DON CHARLATAN:
I tell you it was self-defence!

At this point even the Gemnites were all dancing along with the music, laughing manically as Tak did a little dance of his own.

TAK:
But now we’re running free, we’ll be all shining stars,
And soon the WHOLE world will know, just how really bad we are,
Now it’s evil’s turn to rule, it’s time for us to soar,
The skies will burn with flames, made from my Mistress’s claws,

Cause it’s our time!

CRIMINALS:
(Our time!)

TAK:
Soon we will win the day,

I tell you, it’s our time!

CRIMINALS:
(Our time!)

TAK:
Now all you chumps will pay!

With the music becoming more and more intense as it was brought into a solo on the accordion and guitar, the Gemnites soon began running about the room and beyond, spreading throughout the castle as they began trashing the building, tearing up tapestries, knocking down suits of armour, even using spray-paint on the walls. To say it was chaos would have been an understatement, and worse still, there was nothing Celestia or the other Princesses could do about it, without their magic they were pretty reliant on their own physical strength, and given the fact that they were outnumbered by well over 100 to one, then they would have been overwhelmed easily if they tried to fight. However even if they could, they would have never have gotten the chance, for at that moment, three of Tak’s fingers stretched out like tentacles wrapped around their tails and lifted them up into the air like piñatas, which in turn made the scenario even more dramatic as he brought the song to another chorus.

TAK:
Yes, it’s our time!

CRIMINALS:
(Our time!)

TAK:
I am just so amused,

Because, now it’s our time!

CRIMINALS:
(Our time!)

TAK:
Now It’s just no use,
There’ll be no truce,
After our abuse…

At this point, the music intensified and the criminals and Gemnites watched in awe as Tak brought the restrained Alicorns closer to his face, allowing him to lean in close as he uttered the last few words of the song.

TAK:
It’s now our time to say…

And just like that, he uttered the last word into Celestia’s ear in a sickening whisper.

“…Defuse,”

Upon hearing this, Celestia opened gasped in horror for she knew just what was about to happen next, but all too late she did react to such knowledge for no more than 4 seconds later, she along with Cadence and Luna became engulfed in a large cocoon of Tak’s slime, one that was created by Tak’s stretching his fingers even further combined with the collars around their necks. After that, even the other criminals couldn’t help but gulp in horror as they heard the pain-stricken screams of all three princesses as a series of cracks of white light appeared along the cocoons. But oh the screams, the sheer volume of them, it was as nothing like anyone had even experienced, at this point even the Gemnites couldn’t bear to play any more music, by any means it was nothing but silence from everyone else and the only sounds anyone could hear were the screams and Tak’s horrible laughter.

Author's Note

Original Song Lyrics written by yours truly, no music to go with, sorry.

Chapter 5: Tak's Hostile Takeover

By the time Rainbow dash and Twilight managed to make a landing, though in Twilight’s case it was more like crashing since she still hasn’t gotten used to speedy entrances yet, the Entire City of Canterlot looked more like a ghost town rather that the bustling metropolis both of them were used to, and needless to say the very atmosphere made both ponies extremely uneasy.

“Sweet Celestia,” Twilight gasped, gazing upon the vast emptiness of her surroundings. “This place really IS empty.”

That was putting it mildly in Rainbow’s opinion, even with her keen senses, she could find a single soul in these empty streets, no matter where she looked there was nothing, the roads: nothing, the parks: no one, it had to be one of the most unnerving scenarios Rainbow Dash had ever found herself in… not that she would actually admit it, of course. Shaking off any shivers they had, Twilight and Rainbow then proceeded to walk towards the direction of the castle, of course the reason as to why they didn’t FLY directly there instead of making the landing in a nearby park was mostly because they didn’t want to cause any panic. After all, with an evacuation THIS big, then anyone who might have still been here would have definitely been on edge, and a pair of ponies just flying up to the castle wouldn’t have made things easier for them. Still, even if they did fly directly there, it still wouldn’t have made things any easier on their nerves.

“So why do you think Celestia wanted the whole city evacuated anyway?” Rainbow asked, mostly wanting to start a conversation in order to bring some sound to the vast silence that surrounded them.

“I have no idea,” Twilight admitted. “But that’s what we’re here to find out.”

Seeing the stern gaze upon the Alicorn’s face, Rainbow Dash knew that Twilight was dead-set on finding answers, and every pony knows that when Twilight is on a mission then there was no stopping her. After a few minutes of walking, the tension in the air wasn’t becoming any easier on the two ponies, suddenly Rainbow Dash managed to spot something from the corner of her eye, something which caused her to react by raising her hoof and blocking Twilight’s path.

“Hey what are you…?” Twilight tried to protest, only to have Rainbow Dash’s hoof cover her mouth and silence her.

“Quick!” Rainbow Dash snapped in a hushed tone. “Behind the bench!”

Before Twilight could object, she suddenly found herself being pushed away by the Pegasus, soon being pulled behind a nearby street bench. Needless to say, Twilight was instantly confused as to why Rainbow felt the need to hide in an empty street, however as soon as she took a quick peak over the top of the bench she realised that the street WASN’T as empty as she first thought.

“What the hay?” she gasped as she saw the strange assortment of creatures that came strolling around the corner.

Needless to say, seeing these little creatures in the flesh was nothing short of astounding, granted she and her friends read about them in the newspapers recently, but actually seeing them strolling by made Twilight feel like she could just grab one and examine it just to learn everything she could about them. However curiosity aside, she also knew that despite their sparkly appearance, she also knew that they were also dangerous, given the exact details of what she read in the paper.

“It’s those creatures from the papers,” Rainbow Dash uttered, also recognising the creatures for what they are. “The ones who trashed Manehattan.”

“Some of them anyway,” Twilight added, giving a small nod.

That certainly was the best way to describe the group of Gemnites that were walking past the bench at this very moment, to be more accurate there were only six of them in total but still even at those numbers they still outnumbered Twilight and Rainbow Dash three-to-one. And even though they could take on a whole hoard of Changelings at a certain point, they had no idea just what these gem-encrusted canines were capable of, so for the moment the best choice of action was to stay hidden. It wasn’t much in terms of cover, but thankfully the bench was enough to avoid their gaze due to them being too preoccupied with their own conversation.

“Come on Topaz!” the whited-furred one called out from behind her, judging from the way was heading the group Twilight assumed she was the leader. “You’re gonna make us late again!”

It was then that the blue-furred one, wearing sunglasses made from Sapphires pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance.

“Tell me, Crystal,” she said with an irritated tone in her voice. “Why do WE get stuck with the crazy one again?”

At those words the leader, who Twilight now knew was named Crystal, rolled her eyes.

“Because no one else could handle him,” she replied bluntly, as if she had answered this question so often that the subject of the matter was becoming boring for her.

Neither Twilight nor Rainbow dash could believe what they were witnessing, not only were these creatures intelligent enough to hold up a decent conversation with each, in a language both of them understand no less, but they also have names and recognise that one of their own is somewhat bizarre, it certainly was a far different display than the hordes of manic little monsters they have read about in the newspapers. One by one the Gemnites simply walked by without a care in the world, leading the pack was their leader, Crystal, followed by the blue-furred one, then one with purple fur that what could only be described as a giant compared to the others, making him look more like a regular diamond dog. Then there were the trio of canines that brought up the rear, namely a lanky green one wearing a brown fedora, a red-furred one with an expression so timid-looking that it would give Fluttershy a run for her money, and finally there was the shortest one with the bright-orange fur, given the fact that the very same stones had encrusted most of his body, both Twilight and Rainbow assumed that THIS must have been Topaz.

“Topaz do this, Topaz do that,” he rambled before shouting at the top of his lungs. “I’m not a trained pet, you know!”

At those words, the green one encrusted with emeralds merely chuckled.

“No buddy,” he said, playfully giving Topaz a small noogie. “You need WAY more maintenance than any pet.”

After Topaz managed to free himself from the chokehold he found himself in, he couldn’t help but let his insanity shine through as a small cackle.

“Heck yeah I do!” he stated. “Yahahahahahahahaha!!!”

It was at this point, Topaz felt the need to start running ahead of the group like a lunatic and start kicking random objects, causing most of his comrades to roll their eyes with discomfiture.

“Oh Topaz,” the red one sighed, placing a paw over her eyes to shield her embarrassment.

The green one on the other hand, merely chuckled with delight.

“Oh lighten up Rubes,” he said, delightfully wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “Let the joker have his fun.”

At those words, the blue Gemnite scoffed.

“Oh yeah, says the guy who’s still drunk from that case of wine he stole yesterday,” she said sarcastically, causing the green one’s eye to twitch with aggravation.

“It was CRYSTAL BERRY CRÈME!" he snapped. “Do you have any idea how hard that is to come by at this…”

It was then that their voices began to fade as they walked further away from where Twilight and Rainbow Dash were hiding, once both ponies were sure that they were once again alone in the street, they finally came out of hiding.

“Creepy things aren’t they?” Rainbow Dash asked, feeling the need to make comment of the situation.

Twilight merely nodded at that, indicating that she agreed, however there was something a bit more pressing upon her mind right now to think on the Gemnites themselves.

“Looks like they came from the castle,” she stated, taking note as to the exact direction the creatures were walking away from.

“You sure?” Rainbow Dash asked, her eyes widening with surprise.

Once again Twilight nodded, she may not have had as good an observation skill as Rainbow Dash when it came to her surroundings but she knew the streets of Canterlot like the back of her own hoof, and there was no denying the direction of where those creatures came from. And if those creatures WERE at the castle, then it could only mean that the situation must be worse than either Twilight or Rainbow first imagined, which means that they needed to get to the castle NOW. Now breaking into a small run, both ponies wasted no time in getting themselves in the direction of said castle, however just as soon as they finally reached a few yards away from the main drawbridge, that was when they both hit yet another snag in their plans.

“Hold up Twilight!” Rainbow Dash blurted out, dragging the Alicorn behind yet another bench. “Look!”

Now that they were closer to the actual building, it soon became clear that neither pony was going to get into the castle so easily, especially given the fact that instead of the usual royal guards, someone Twilight EXPECTED to still be here, even more of the same gem-encrusted Canines seemed to be mucking around just outside the front gate.

“More of them?” Twilight exclaimed, feeling the need to smack herself upside the head for not expecting such a thing. “How are we gonna get inside?”

Hearing this, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but give out a small smirk.

“Well, they don’t have wings, do they?” she asked, smugly flapping one of her wings for emphasis.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out just what Rainbow Dash was implying, after all Twilight was the one who suggested the same method to get to Canterlot in the first place, so why not use it to get inside? Still, even as both she and Rainbow scrabbled to find a safe spot that was secluded enough to take flight from, Twilight’s mind continued to be plagued with thoughts of her mentor, why were monsters sitting at her front door? Were they what possessed her to evacuate EVERYPONY, including her own royal guard? And most important of all, was she okay?

“Oh my…”

Thought were the only words Twilight could muster upon seeing just what had become of the interior of Canterlot Castle. After taking off a few buildings away and flying through the air for about ten minutes, both she and Rainbow Dash finally managed to find a way in a few floors up, to be more specific, they found one of many shattered windows that seemed to riddle the entire floor and then some. What’s worse, as soon as they were able to fit through one of the larger holes, careful as to not cut themselves on the broken glass, they were both met with the horrific sight of a destroyed hallway, not only were suits of armour and furniture scattered all over the place, many of which were also broken due to the fact that someone decided to either throw them against the wall or out of the broken windows, but also any paintings that decorated the walls were now victims of terrible vandalism from spray-paint marks to deep gashes made by claw marks. Needless to say, the entire atmosphere reeked of a scenario gone terribly wrong.

“Whoa,” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, her jaw dropping in shock. “This place is totally trashed.”

In Twilight’s opinion, Rainbow was only putting it mildly for she had never seen such devastation since her old library was burnt to oblivion a while back. What’s more, upon seeing such destruction, such chaotic disorder, both Twilight’s mind and heart knew just what it had to mean, if she wasn’t sure about it before she certainly was now. Celestia KNEW something was wrong, she knew and she sent the entire City away just for their own protection, yes, that must have been it! But even if everyone else had been evacuated, there was no knowledge that SHE evacuated with them, which only meant one thing…

“Princess Celestia!!!” Twilight yelled, her eyes filling up with tears of terror at the very idea that her mentor was in danger.

And just like that, before her friend had any chance to even blink, Twilight broke into a gallop and began running towards the direction of the throne room, where she hoped she would find Celestia, undaunted by the amount of danger that may lay before her.

“Twilight, wait!!!” Rainbow Dash yelled out, running after her.

However no matter how many times the Pegasus called out to Twilight, her cries fell upon deaf ears as the Alicorn continued to run through the halls of the castle. Finally after an unmeasured amount of time, Twilight finally stopped running and came to a stop just outside the large double doors leading to the throne room, she didn’t know whether it was her own personal respect for the Princess’s grandest room that made her stop, or the fear of what she may find on the other side of the doors coursing through her body, but either way, Twilight couldn’t help but dread going inside. Rainbow Dash on the other hand, was more than eager to go in there and beat the living tar out of whatever beast is standing in their way, so naturally she was the one who stepped up and took the lead after finally catching up with Twilight.

“Well, at least those little freaks aren’t guarding THIS door,” she said, forcing a small smile. “Come on.”

Of course Rainbow wasn’t going to let Twilight know how terrified she really was, she had too much of an ego for that, still, that didn’t mean she was going to be reckless so obviously she was going to take the sneaky approach… especially since she could hear a few muffled voice coming from the other side. Upon carefully pushing one of the doors a few inches, Rainbow Dash was able to create a small gap just big enough to take a small peak into the room, her jaw dropping the instant she saw just what was going on inside.

“Whoa,” she exclaimed. “Twi, you gotta see this.”

Instantly reacting to her friend’s request, Twilight wasted no time in lowering her head closer to the floor and also taking a peak into the room. Much like Rainbow Dash, she too couldn’t help but feel somewhat surprised as she saw just who was occupying the room, to both of them the best way to describe the scenario that was happening before their eyes was as if Pinkie Pie threw one of her parties and it went seriously wrong on so many levels, not only was the room itself just as trashed as the rest of the castle was, but also the amount of carnage that was STILL occurring was just as hard to watch. What’s more, there even more of those gem-encrusted monsters dancing around and acting like they didn’t have a care in the world, however as it turned out, they weren’t the only ones in the room.

“You know, I recognise a lot of these guys,” Rainbow Dash commented, her gaze fixated on some of the ponies that occupied the room.

Now that Rainbow had brought it up, Twilight also had to admit that she too recognised a few faces here, though not from personal interaction, much to her relief.

“Yeah,” she replied, fixated her gaze on the zebra wearing blue sunglasses. “Isn’t that the Zebra who was in the papers 20 years ago, but I thought he was supposed to be in prison.”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that.

“You know, only YOU would know about a newspaper from 20 years ago,” she remarked, her gaze once again returning to the individuals in the throne room, specifically a trio of earth ponies that seemed to be sharing a large jug of booze amongst each other. “But I do recognise THOSE three, Applejack told me about some bandits her cousin, Braeburn rounded up a couple of years back, and those three kinda look like how she described them.”

It was at this point that Twilight began to wonder just how deep this whole situation went, because Rainbow’s observation seemed to be right on the money in her opinion, first a bunch of creatures take over the castle and now a few known-criminals were thrown into the mix? Just what was going on here?

“This is insane,” she uttered, her head pounding with so much information and confusion simultaneously being thrown at her all at once. “I think every low-life in Equestria must all be in this room.”

“Yeah, but where’s the Princess?” Rainbow Dash asked in response, her mind focusing on the one pony who SHOULD be in that room instead.

However Twilight wasn’t able to give an answer to that, firstly, because she couldn’t figure it out herself, and secondly, because all of a sudden both the doors began to slowly open, causing both of them to quickly jump out of the way as to not be seen by the one who opened them. Thankfully both mares were able to dive behind the door itself just in the nick of time as two individuals came casually strolling into the hallway, of course due to their new hiding place, they couldn’t actually see them, instead, all they had to go on to discover their identity was their voices.

“Now, you remember your task, Charlatan?” one of them asked, his voice all low and slippery, sending a shiver to both Twilight and Rainbow Dash’s spines.

“Yes Tak,” replied the other, this voice more calm and carried a slight accent that neither pony could clearly make out. “I assure you my efforts will not be in vain.”

At those words, the first voice chuckled.

“Good,” it said. “Now you and Razorbeak better waddle off, don’t want to miss your train, do you?”

And with that the second voice chuckled himself and began to fade away as though more and more distance was getting between the two, after a few moments the second voice vanished completely, indicating that whoever spoke was now gone. At first it seemed that it may have been safe to come out of hiding after that, however neither Twilight nor Rainbow had any confidence that the first individual was gone too, so of course they were hesitant, which in turn seemed to end up being in their benefit when they heard yet another voice coming towards them.

“I still don’t get why you brought that fat tub of lard with us,” it said. “I mean, I know he has connections and all, but he didn’t exactly do much when we took over this place.”

It was then that, the owner of the first voice, now known as Tak to the two ponies in hiding, chuckled again.

“You all have your uses, Mister Zeb,” he said, giving identity to the new voice. “YOU have your shadows, the Gemnites have their destructive capabilities, and Charlatan has… let’s just say he has a more discrete assortment of talents, many of which we will need for the future.”

“And what future are you planning exactly?” Zeb’s voice asked, a clear tone of suspicion emanating in Twilight’s ears. “I’ve spent too many years in the dark back in prison and I don’t want to STILL be in the dark when my newly found freedom is being put at risk, which I’m now certain it is thanks to our little… seizure.”

“Have a little faith Zeb,” Tak’s voice responded. “You’ll have all the information you need WHEN you need to know it. Oh by the way, are our guests all tucked up nice and safe?”

Now it’s was Zeb’s turn to chuckle.

“They didn’t even stir when I dumped their sleeping carcases in the dungeons earlier,” he sniggered. “Though I must admit Tak, I never thought someone would have been able to take those Princesses down so easily.”

Upon hearing those words, both Twilight and Rainbow Dash gasped in horror, if they had any suspicions before, then they certainly were confirmed at this point.

“What!?!” Twilight tried to snap, only to have her voice silence by Rainbow Dash wrapping a hoof around her mouth.

“SHH!!!” she retorted, scolding the Alicorn for her sudden burst of foolishness.

As much as Twilight’s reaction was understandable given the circumstances, it was still something that could have put both her and Rainbow Dash in immediate danger, but thankfully neither individual seemed to take notice of their presence and proceeded to continue with their conversation.

“By the way, I gotta ask, why keep them alive?” Zeb voice asked, causing both ponies to look at each other with surprise from their hiding spot. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not usually one to get blood on my hooves or anything, but all you’ve been taking about since you sprang me from the clink is how you’re gonna make Celestia pay for what she did. No offence but I would have thought you would have… well done a lot worse.”

At those words, both Rainbow Dash and Twilight clearly heard an angry growl coming from this Tak-person, clearly something Zeb said had touched a nerve.

“Believe me Zeb, had this been for my own personal benefit I would have eaten all three of them in one sitting,” he said, earning himself a gulp of fear from both mares behind the door. “However it is not MY vengeance to take, there is… another who deserves to make the final blow. Until then, all three of them stay alive, understood?”

That last part of the sentence, Tak’s voice raised in volume, almost as if he were shouting, not so loud as to cause an echo within the halls but enough to cause Zeb’s voice to utter a small whimper.

“Y… yes sir,” he said fearfully.

After that no other words were said, for the next few minutes there was nothing but silence from the other side of the door and needless to say, both mares quickly became more anxious, finally unable to take any more waiting, both of them then decided to take the risk and step out of their hiding place, thankfully to their relief since Tak and Zeb were now nowhere to be found. After getting some distance between themselves and the throne room, only one thing was etched into their minds now.

“Please tell me I was just hearing things back there,” Rainbow Dash asked, desperately wishing that whatever came out of Zeb’s mouth was a lie.

Of course Twilight wasn’t going to let this bit of news slide, in her mind, there was now only one course of action.

“We’ve got to get down to the dungeons, NOW!”

Unlike the rest of Canterlot Castle, the dungeons wasn’t what one would call a decent place to hang round, in fact one could say that it was the polar opposite of the normally regal atmosphere of the city outside, it was dark, it was damp, and it stank like a sewer whenever it rained for some reason. Of course there wasn’t a lot of need for such a place since it was quite rare that any pony would even dare try to commit any kind of crime within the confines of the castle itself, thus the main reason why it was so small compared to the rest of the rooms in the building. However at this point in time, at least one of the cells were occupied, namely three certain Princesses that now lay unconscious in the shadowed corner of a single cell, and just outside it’s door, a single Gemnite that was tasked for guard duty. He was a stout little Gemnite, a bulldog-like canine with muddy brown fur that was encrusted with yellow garnets, and a large underbite that for some reason he felt the need to use as a hook for the keys, with the flabby parts of his face drooping down like curtains, it was very hard to tell whether the large iron ring filled with keys were actually there or not. After being given the duty as a guard, the Gemnite in question was obviously going to become bored very quickly, so it was only natural that at this moment in time, he decided to pass the time by hacking up loogies and seeing how far he could spit them before they hit the ceiling above him, that is until he heard a faint whistle coming from the main door to the dungeons, followed by a whisper.

“Come on doggy,” it said, beckoning him over like he was a lost puppy. “Come on, that’s it, good boy, yes, we’ve got a nice bone for you.”

Needless to say, the Gemnite was curious, and as much as he hated being treated like an actual dog, his curiosity wasn’t going to allow him to ignore the voice, especially if it meant escaping his boredom.

“There you go,” the voice continued. “Bit closer, bit closer, attaboy, come on, you filthy, slimy mangy, little… Oh.”

At was at this point, that the Gemnite growled in anger and hurriedly opened the door, revealing the lavender Alicorn giving him a sheepish smile upon seeing that she had been caught.

“Ooh, you gonna pay for THAT little comment, missy!” the Gemnite growled, cracking his knuckles.

But then, Twilight’s sheepish smile was instantly replaced with smug grin, thus bringing some confusion to the Gemnite.

“You first,” she said, confusing the Gemnite even more.

It was then that the Gemnite soon found out just what Twilight meant when she said such a thing, for at that moment he sudden found himself get kicked in the face by a sudden blur of colour, within a matter of seconds, Rainbow Dash had then pinned the Gemnite against the stone floor and began yanking the keys out of his mouth, much to her disgust when she realised how much of a tendency the mutt had to drool.

“Man, these guys are total idiots,” she commented, shaking off the slobber off the ring of keys. “Whose bright idea was it to put THIS guy in charge of security anyway?”

Twilight couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that, however she couldn’t dwell on it now, the main objective was still to find the Princesses and get out of the Castle before they were discovered by anyone else. Finally after a few moments of searching each cell, both mares finally found a certain white shape sticking out of the shadows inside one of them.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight exclaimed, instantly recognising the purity of her mentor’s coat even in a place like this.

However even as she turned the key and opened the cell door, something seemed… off about this whole situation, at least in Rainbow Dash’s opinion, it was only until she got a little closer to Celestia’s sleeping body, that she fully realised how bad it truly was.

“Uh… Twilight?” she said, looking over her shoulder at Twilight with an expression of horror plastered across her face.

Needless to say, that look alone put Twilight on edge, and as such she needed to see just why Rainbow Dash had such an expression. Using her horn to bring some light into the cell, Twilight’s eyes widened with horror as she saw just what had become of both her mentor and the other two Alicorns that lay beside her. Actually, Alicorns was a word that could NOT be used to label any of them now, for there was nothing about their new forms that could give them such identification, anything Alicorn about them was all but gone. Looking over their sleeping bodies, Twilight could see no horns nor wings, not even their royal jewellery and crowns on either Celestia, Luna OR Cadence, not only that but while Cadence’s appearance was pretty much the same save for the wings and horn, both Luna and Celestia were altered in a far more drastic manner. In Luna’s case, she basically appeared like she had when Twilight first met her after Nightmare Moon’s defeat, her coat was a little fairer in colour, and her mane and tail were no longer a flow of stars but rather a simple mop of light blue hair, not only that but she also seemed to have shrunk down in size, if she were to stand up she would most likely be the same height as Twilight. Celestia on the other hand, had changes that were far worse, not only was she now the same size as Twilight, but she too was now baring a regular mane and tail instead of her usual flow of colours, to be more specific, all that was left now was a mop of long, regular hair that consisted of only one colour, a light shade of blue that used to be part of her original mane but now completely overwhelmed it. But worst of all, each and every one of them had a blank flank, not a single one of them had a Cutie Mark between them, in a nutshell, the three no longer looked like regal Alicorns, but rather nothing more than regular, markless Earth Ponies, and needless to say, the shock of it all was becoming too much to take.

“Oh my…” Twilight uttered, tears of terror welling up in her eyes as she couldn’t find any other words to say.

Was THIS what that Zeb character meant when he said that Tak took the Princesses down? Just what did he DO to them? Whatever it was, it obviously put all three of them into a state of exhaustion, almost as though every ounce of energy had been drained from them, and why was CADENCE here? Was the situation so dire that Celestia needed to summon her for extra support? Either way, the appearance of her sister-in-law only worsened the emotional blow Twilight was taking at the moment. Obviously Rainbow Dash was feeling the fear too, albeit not as much as Twilight was, but still it was bad.

“Are they…?” she asked, not really wanting to say the words that plagued her curiosity.

Thankfully Twilight managed to put at least some of the Pegasus’s fears to rest with a shake of her head.

“No,” she said. “They’re still breathing, a little worse for wear but alive.”

Rainbow couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief upon hearing that, still that didn’t stop her from worrying about the Princesses current condition.

“What could have done this?” she thought aloud.

Upon hearing those particular words, Twilight’s look of fear changed to a scowl of anger.

“Not what, WHO!” she growled, grinding her teeth with fury ad she turned her head towards her friend. “It was that Tak character, the one who was talking to Zeb upstairs, HE did this!”

Now it was Rainbow Dash’s turn to scowl, for she shared in her friend’s anger, as a Wonderbolt AND an Element of Harmony, there was absolutely no way that she was going to let some invader get away with something like this.

“Well then,” she said. “I say we find him and beat the living tar out of him, make him reverse whatever he did!”

Granted it was a vague, somewhat reckless plan, but Rainbow Dash’s determination was still admirable, and it was certainly an attitude that Twilight could easily get behind given the circumstances. However it was then that both of them heard yet another voice enter the conversation.

“NO!” it snapped, instantly surprising the two mares.

It may have sounded hoarse, almost out of breath even, but the moment she heard those words, Twilight recognised the voice in an instant. Quickly turning her head back towards Princess Celestia, who at this moment was beginning to open her eyes, she may have been severely weakened but her spirit was just as strong as ever.

“Princess Celestia?” Twilight uttered, instantly kneeling down at her mentor’s side.

But even though that Celestia’s spirit may be unbroken, her body was still trying to recover for what has been done to her, so for the moment she was feeling a little disoriented.

“T… Twilight?” she uttered weakly, forgetting for a brief moment that her student was even there. “No… you… you need to run, now!”

However, Twilight wasn’t going to have any of that.

“No Princess, we’re not leaving you!” she retorted, her determination to free her and the other Princesses remaining unshaken.

Of course what neither Twilight nor Rainbow Dash knew at the time was the fact that Celestia wasn’t referring to the current situation of the castle, but rather the situation that was happening right now in the dungeons with them.

“Well, ain’t that just a pretty picture,” said an unfamiliar voice.

Before either pony had a chance to react, Rainbow Dash suddenly found herself being bucked into the side by an unseen attacker, sending her flying into Twilight in a heap on the floor, after that both ponies heard the loud clang of metal from the door behind them. After quickly recovering, both ponies were shocked to see a trio of Earth Ponies standing just on the other side of the bars, namely a certain gang of Appleoosan bandits that were enjoying a drink upstairs but a few minutes ago.

“Looks like that Zebra’s shadow-spies made good on their usefulness,” May Bell stated smugly. “Seems like we missed one of them Princesses, Pa.”

At those words, Twilight couldn’t help but smack herself for being so careless, of course breaking the princesses out wasn’t going to be this easy, after all, why would the only security guarding the true rulers of Equestria be just a dog with a key in his mouth. There must have been some kind of spell or something that she overlooked, whatever the reason, it had clearly alerted some of the villains that were partying upstairs and thus decided to lead them down here. Although if she had to be honest, Twilight actually wished that it was someone other than these foul-smelling ponies, seriously, do they even know what a bar of soap is?

“And ah dare say, that there Pegasus is darn purty,” Cornpoke chuckled, giving Rainbow Dash a goofy grin, causing Rainbow Dash to physically gag at the very sight of his yellow teeth. “Hey, can ah keep her, Pa?”

However that little question only earned Cornpoke two responses, a look of disgust from Rainbow Dash, and a smack across the head from his father.

“NO!” Moonshine snapped, making sure his son felt that whack across the head for his trouble. “Y’all can head up and tell Tak we found ourselves another Alicorn all penned up in here! Maybe you can have her if he don’t want her for dinner or something.”

Needless to say that statement only made Rainbow Dash’s stomach turn even more, not only was some repulsive Earth Pony seeing her like she was some pretty object to play with, but his father didn’t seem to be all that different in his attitude. What’s worse, the two now seemed to be concerned with bringing the big boss down here, and obviously Twilight wasn’t just going to just stand here and wait to be this Tak’s next victim.

“If you think that we’re just gonna sit here, you’ve got another thing coming!” she stated, earning a loud snort from May Bell in response.

“Oh yeah?” she chuckled. “And what makes y’all think that you are gonna go anywhere?”

At those words Twilight couldn’t help but smirk, granted she may have overlooked the potential threat whilst coming in, but there was one thing she knew that the Brittles didn’t.

“Because you’ve all failed to realise something,” she said, her grin growing ever more so with each passing moment. “While these cells were built to keep anyone inside no matter what magic they may have… the security spells only work if you actually lock the door.”

Then at that very moment Twilight’s horn began to pulsate violent with her magical aura, seconds later a blinding light flashed within the entire dungeon, blinding the Brittles for a brief moment, when they were finally able to open there eyes again, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and to their infinite horror, even the three Princess had all vanished. It was then that both Moonshine and May Bell realised what Twilight meant when she said her parting words, and looked at Cornpoke with a stern glare since HE was the one who was still holding the keys to the cell door he had failed to lock after kicking Rainbow Dash in.

“Oops,”

That was all Cornpoke had to say in a sheepish manner before receiving yet another whack across the head from his father.

“Dagnabbit, Cornpoke!” Moonshine yelled, hitting his son a second time. “Can’t you do nothing right!”

“Sweet Nelly, Tak’s gonna have our hides for this!” May Bell whimpered, frantically chewing her own hoof out of stress.

However Moonshine wasn’t going to give in just yet.

“They won’t get far,” he declared, his gold tooth showing in full view as he grit his teeth with anger. “Even them fancy Alicorn Magics got their limits, they won’t even make it past the castle walls.”

Both May Bell and Cornpoke couldn’t help but gasp upon hearing that.

“You sure, Pa?” May Bell asked hopefully.

In response, Moonshine scowl quickly turned into a wicked smile, a plan of action quickly formulating in his mind.

“Oh absotivly,” he said. “So… shall we have ourselves some sport, youngins?”

Upon hearing this, Moonshine’s son and daughter instantly put on a smirk of their own. If there was one thing they liked more than anything it was whenever Moonshine said those exact words, because it always meant something exciting was about to happen for them, better still, if it meant that if it would get them out of trouble with Tak then they were obviously going to jump at the chance.

“Hehe, ah likes it when they run,” Cornpoke chuckled, feeling the need to dance of the spot in a goofy manner.

Seeing that his two children were rearing to go, Moonshine then wasted no time in giving his instruction.

“May Bell, give the holler!” he cried.

And with that his daughter’s smiled widened and she screamed two words.

“HABADIHOO, GEMNITES!!!”

As soon as those words left the Earth Pony’s mouth, every hall in the castle above them began to echo with the snarls and inane laughter of the oncoming swarm.

Chapter 6: Race to the Edge

50 yards. That’s as far as Twilight’s magic could take them, just fifty measly yards away from the castle gate, they may not have been in the dungeon anymore but they were in no less danger where they were now. After shaking off the light dizziness she received from teleporting five ponies at once, something which she was hoping never to repeat in the not-to-distant future, the Alicorn couldn’t help but sigh in relief upon seeing that everyone else seemed to be okay, albeit three of them still unconscious. However as much as she was relieved that she and the others were out of the dungeon, once she saw that they were once again in the empty streets of Canterlot, she growled in frustration.

“Oh great, we’re STILL in Canterlot!” she exclaimed, granted she knew she wouldn’t be able to teleport that far given the circumstances but she HOPED she would have been able to at least get them out of the city.

Needless to say Rainbow Dash shared in her frustration once she too shook off the initial dizziness.

“You couldn’t have teleported us further away!?!” she complained, clearly not any happier about the situation herself.

“Not with this many ponies at the same time!” Twilight retorted. “Just be glad I was able to teleport at all, given the circumstances, things could have been a lot worse.”

Obviously Rainbow Dash had to take a moment to regain her composure upon hearing that, but once she managed to calm herself down a little bit, she finally let out a small sigh.

“Alright, fair enough,” she said defeatedly. “So what we are gonna do now?”

But then, before Twilight could even open her mouth, both ponies felt a small rumble beneath their hooves, followed by the sound of several pieces of glass shattering as random piece of furniture were thrown out of the castle windows. Needless to say, Twilight’s first response to the new circumstances was the most preferable to follow with.

“Right now, I think running would be a good idea,” she said, her face filled with fear as she used her magic to quickly lift up the other Princesses’ unconscious bodies.

And they didn’t even have to wait long for the sounds of smashing windows to be followed by the ear-piercing shrieks of the laughter from hundreds of gem-encrusted canines, all of who were now beginning to jump out of the windows and run straight towards them.

“DEFINITELY a good idea!!!” Rainbow Dash squealed, taking a brief look behind her for just a moment to see the oncoming army of Gemnites and breaking into a gallop.

Within moments both mares, along with the three unconscious former-Alicorns being carried in Twilight’s magic, were running for their lives, desperate to avoid the clutches of the army of Gemnites right on their tail. Of course it was obvious that despite having Alicorn magic, and even if she wasn’t still recovering from a five-pony teleport, Twilight still wouldn’t be strong enough to hold onto the Princesses in her magic for long, after all even a Princess has certain limits and Twilight had nowhere near the strength to raise the moon and sun like her mentor, much less three unconscious ponies at the same time. Thankfully a small miracle appeared just ahead of them once Rainbow Dash spotted something just up the road.

“Hurry, get them on the carriage!” she cried, quickly ushering Twilight towards the abandoned wagon that had caught her attention.

It must has been sheer luck that none of the high-class carriage drivers in Canterlot were allowed to take their rides with them when the city was evacuated, otherwise Twilight would have been struggling even more than she needed to during this terrible chase. Seeing that they literally had mere seconds, if not a single minute before the Gemnites could catch up to them, Twilight wasted no time in loading up the Princesses’ sleeping bodies inside the carriage while Rainbow Dash quickly harnessed herself up to it.

“Okay, not to make fun of royalty or anything, but I think Princess Celestia REALLY needs to lay off the cake!” she complained, feeling the combined weight of the three ponies inside the carriage.

However there was no time for funny comments now, for it didn’t take more than a few seconds later for the more faster Gemnites came running around the corner and narrowly miss their target, their downfall being the courtesy of Twilight using a blast of magic to knock them back at the last second.

“GO, GO, GO!!!” she screamed, desperate to get moving again.

And with that, Rainbow Dash nodded and once again commenced running, this time with three ponies literally in tow, all the while Twilight used her own wings to hover just above the rear of carriage and proceeded to blast any Gemnite that came too close. Of course Rainbow Dash would have preferred to fly to safety, and despite being tied down to a carriage she still used her wings to pick up some extra speed, but due to the extra weight AND the fact that the only other flyer that could help her pull was too busy fighting of the oncoming army of canines, this was the best she could do given the circumstances, besides she believed she was strong enough for the task anyway.

“Hang onto your hooves, ladies!” she yelled and she continued to run. “It’s going to be a bumpy ride!”

And sure enough it WAS a bumpy ride, especially for the three sleeping bodies inside the carriage, who due to their condition were unable to brace themselves as their mode of transport tilted and turned during the chase, leaving them to flop about inside like ragdolls. As Rainbow Dash crisscrossed through the streets of Canterlot, weaving through every twist and turn in the road as she tried desperately to shake off the hoard of Gemnites right behind them, she couldn’t help but dread what would happen if they had managed to catch up, would they simply catch them? Or worse, bring them to this Tak creature? If they did then would HE do!?! It made her shiver internally just to ponder just what he might have in store for Twilight and her if they do end up getting caught, if he was able to remove the wings AND horns of the three princesses, just what else was he capable of!?! Suddenly those thoughts weren’t the only worries Rainbow had to worry about once Twilight’s voice rang in her ears once more.

“They’ve got aerial support!” she screamed, her jaw dropping in disbelief upon seeing what was now fast-approaching.

Despite needing to keep an eye on the road ahead, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but risk a small glance behind her shoulder upon hearing those words, sure enough, she too gasped in horror upon seeing what now began to fill the sky above the carriage. Like a flock of crows gliding over the currents of the wind, there they were, several black-sailed hang gliders, all of which were operated by the Brittles, along with many Gemnites who were both piloting AND standing on top of the sails, weapons in paw.

“There they are, youngins!” Moonshine Brittle cried out, leading the aerial troops from his own glider. “Lasso them varmints!!!”

“Okay Pa!” Cornpoke cheered in response, readying his rope as his sister piloted the glider he was standing on.

Needless to say it was amazing how hang gliders of all things were able to support the weight of a few Gemnites much less a full-grown stallion standing on top of it, Twilight could only imagine that such a device was made using some very weird materials for such a thing to be possible, but what was even more strange was the fact that some of the Gemnites standing on the gliders felt the need to take not just weapons but musical instruments too, all of which were now being used to play some theme music for such an event. But as annoying as the added music was, it was nothing compared to the large hoop of rope that sudden tightened around Twilight’s left wing, before she had any chance to react, the Alicorn quickly found herself being pulled away from the carriage with one quick jerk and suddenly found herself face-to-face with a certain Earth Pony standing on his sister’s glider.

“Howdy Ma’am!” he said, giving Twilight a goofy yet evil-looking grin.

Of course Twilight’s first reaction was nothing short of understandable if anyone else would be put into such circumstances, to be more specific she felt no guilt whatsoever in giving Cornpoke a quick jab to his muzzle, he may have been strong enough to pull her up into the air but even he wasn’t tough enough to ignore the instant pain.

“OWEY!” he yelped, still keeping his grip on the rope as to make sure Twilight didn’t break free from her bonds. “My poor nose!”

“Don’t let her struggle Pokey!!!” May Bell hollowed from below the two, her focus shifting of the sky for a brief moment upon hearing the struggle happening above her head.

“Let go of me!!!” Twilight demanded, desperately struggling to break free from the rope.

At first it didn’t seem like she was ever going to get the rope off her wing, but then, with one final jerk, she was finally able to pull off the same stunt that Cornpoke was able to do when snaring her and used the Earth Pony’s own rope to yank him off the glider, within seconds he lost his grip on the tether and proceeded to fall, all the while Twilight was able to keep her altitude by once again having the ability to flap her wings.

“CORNPOKE!!!” May Bell screamed, watching in horror as her brother plummeted from his perch on the glider to the ground below.

However as luck would have it, Cornpoke’s unfortunate landing didn’t come from a concrete road, but rather a small fruit display outside a grocery store that had been abandoned during the evacuation, with a crash and a splat, the Earth pony tore through the tarp of the awning roof, smashed into the wooden crates, and landed directly into a display of tomatoes and lettuce. After the whole thing, Cornpoke was battered, bruised, possibly had a broken leg or two, and looked like he was wearing a salad, but none the less was still alive, all thanks to sheer luck. Instantly reacting to the whole ordeal, May Bell then quickly dove her glider down, made a quick landing and went to check on her brother.

“Woah! You okay?” she asked desperately, receiving a small groan in response.

Witnessing all of this from his own glider, Moonshine growled furiously as he watched Twilight quickly catch up to Rainbow Dash and the carriage, he may have been a bandit and a drunkard, but NO PONY harms his youngins and gets away with it.

“Gemnites!!!” he screamed, looking towards a few of the canines using the gliders to his right. “Block their escape!”

Instantly realising what Moonshine was referring to, a fair number of the Gemnites split off from the others and proceeded to gain some altitude by pointing their gliders upward, after which they advanced onto a diving formation, aiming their gliders at the road a few yards ahead of Rainbow Dash’s path. Before long several Gemnites jumped off their gliders before they impacted with the ground, and thus began forming a small roadblock with their own bodies, they may have only been eye-level with an average pony but suffice it to say they are nothing short of stubborn. However despite the fact that there was a small hoard of gem-encrusted dogs, all of whom were snarling and brandishing numerous weapons no less, Rainbow Dash’s determination never faltered.

“Out of my way, mutts!!!” she screamed, her eyes narrowing with resolve.

Needless to say, this action took a fair few of the Gemnites by surprise, so much so that that soon began to become a little nervous given the fact that rather than slowing down, the Pegasus started speeding up.

“Uh… ain’t she supposed to be slowing down?” one of them asked another to his right, clearly expecting a different reaction from the oncoming pony.

Of course the Gemnite he was talking to seemed to be a little more buoyant, if not cocky, that Rainbow Dash will indeed stop.

“She will,” she said confidently, though not entirely convinced of her own statement is she had to be honest.

But no matter what the Gemnites said or did, Rainbow Dash continued to run straight towards them, gaining even more speed as she flapped her wings violently, thus literally lifting her hooves of the ground and causing a notion of panic amongst the Gemnites.

“She’s not stopping!” one of them yelled in fear.

“Everypony hang on!!!” Rainbow Dash screamed, now flying at full speed.

After that there was only mere seconds left before another Gemnite was able to say:

“Uh oh,”

With the driving force of a speeding bullet combined with her own personal strength added with the size of the carriage, Rainbow Dash ploughed through the hoard of Gemnites, knocking those who weren’t able to dive out of the way like pins in a bowling alley and once again clearing their path. Watching all of this from above, Moonshine’s blood boiled over.

“DAGNABBIT!!!” he screamed furiously.

Of course what was a sign of failure for Moonshine and the Gemnites, was in fact a small breath of relief for Twilight and Rainbow, for with that push through the roadblock, many of their pursuers now seemed to be scrambling out over each other, allowing the two ponies to gain some distance between them. Better yet, upon seeing a few familiar road signs as they ran by, Twilight instantly recognised that they were nearing the very edge of the city, if they were able to shut the front gates behind them and catch a train or something, then maybe they could finally escape this terrible pursuit.

“We’re gonna make it!” she proclaimed, a small smile forming upon her face was they ran ever closer to the main gates.

How wrong she was, speaking too soon, Twilight failed to realise that while she had her focus on behind and Rainbow Dash, ahead of them, both of them were unaware of the presence of something directly below the carriage, of course who could notice a large shadow spreading out from the base of a speeding carriage before it was too late?

“What the…!?!” Rainbow Dash yelped as she suddenly felt herself being pulled back by the harness.

Soon enough, both mare’s attention were taken of their escape as they quickly looked back to the carriage, only to find that for some reason, the large wheels had phased about half a meter into the road without leaving so much as a crack, leaving both it and the princesses still inside nothing more than a sitting duck. Needless to say everyone was baffled, however an explanation soon came in the form of a new voice coming from a nearby rooftop.

“Now who said you can all start a chase without me, eh?” it said.

That voice! One that both Twilight and Rainbow Dash had heard no less than an hour ago, looking up toward the rooftop they saw none other than the zebra wearing blue shades himself, one that was practically famous for the stunt that he just pulled.

“We don’t need any help from y’all!” Moonshine growled, landing his glider on the same rooftop as Zeb, clearly not happy that someone else was interfering with his pursuit.

“Clearly you do,” Zeb retorted, a smug grin plastered upon his face. “Don’t you recall what Tak said about Gemnites? If they’re not causing mayhem then they’re simply useless.”

Moonshine couldn’t help but scoff at that, he always hated it whenever someone else brought up a valid point, granted he KNEW that Gemnites were better suited for destruction but he thought that they would at least be able to catch a couple of ponies without any problems.

“Now, watch how someone who knows what they’re doing takes a crack at this,” Zeb continued, stepping out towards the edge of the roof and looking down and Twilight and rainbow Dash, who only looked back up at him with an expression of dread. “Hope you’re ready for THIS, ladies.”

At first neither Twilight nor Rainbow Dash had any idea what was going on, but if whatever this zebra had in mid was enough to halt ALL of their pursuers then it certainly can’t be good. All of a sudden, Zeb’s eyes shone a vivid yellow through the blue glass of his shade, making them looking like they were giving off an eerie green aura, during the same time he stood up on his hind legs and proceeded to wave his front ones around like a conductor directing an entire orchestra. At first it only seemed like there was nothing special about what Zeb was doing, however it wasn’t long before Rainbow Dash spotted something coming from underneath the trapped carriage.

“Sweet Celestia!” she screamed, desperately trying to unharness herself before a large dark claw shot its way out from beneath carriage directly at her.

Thankfully she managed to fly out of the way just in the nick of time as the claw slashed up part of the street, leaving behind three deep gashes in the concrete.

“What the heck was that!?!” she gasped, taking in deep heavy breaths.

Of course the answer came in the form of another dark claw shooting out from under the carriage, only this time is was aiming at Twilight, who just like Rainbow, screamed and dove out of the way just in the nick of time, however her wing wasn’t so lucky.

“ARGH!!!” she screamed, a shiny red slit stretching across her wing membrane and several of her feathers were forcibly plucked out.

Being unable to stay airborne because of this attack, Twilight was easily forced into the ground with a painful thud, however even though she was clearly in pain, she wasn’t hurt too badly, which was a good thing since it allowed her to get a brief glance at what had just attacked her. It may have been fast but even Twilight was able to see the shadow retreat back underneath the carriage like a snake slithering back into its burrow, this must have been Zeb’s shadow magic in full swing, there was no question about it.

“Rainbow!” Twilight called out. “Stay away from the carriage!”

“Are you kidding!?!” Rainbow Dash retorted. “The Princesses are still in there!”

At those words, Rainbow made an attempt to head towards the carriage in order to get Celestia and the others out before this shadow does any more damage, however this was something Zeb was hoping for.

“You should have listened to your friend!” he cackled, making another motion with his hooves.

Upon his command, the shadow then spread out from all side of the carriage like a puddle growing on the pavement, which was soon followed by several dark spikes shooting out of its depths, reaching towards the sky with the speed of a bullet, almost impaling Rainbow in the process, thankfully she managed to stop herself before any damage was done.

“Woah, that was WAY too close,” she gulped, her eyes widening in terror as the spikes stretched around the carriage, forming an evil-looking cage.

Watching all of this from the rooftops, Moonshine couldn’t help but smirk.

“Ah must admit Zeb, them shadows of yours are pretty useful,” he chuckled, causing Zeb’s smile to widen a bit. “But how’s about we let me and my kin do the rest, after all it was our chase to start with.”

Zeb scowled at that.

“You really think I’d just give you the chance to allow them to escape again?” he snarled with a sneer. “Tak may think you have your uses, you miserable old drunk… but I don’t.”

With that final word, Zeb waved a hoof in front of Moonshine’s face, causing the Old Earth Pony’s face to twist in shock as he suddenly found his own shadow stretching from beneath his hooves and start pulling his into the tiles of the roof, much like what happened to the carriage.

“Now be a good old dumb-dumb, and stay there while I clean up your mess,” Zeb mocked, his focus now returning to Twilight and Rainbow, all the while ignoring Moonshine’s rants as he struggled to pull his hooves out of the roof.

As Zeb’s gaze fixated on the two ponies below, his smirk quickly returned.

“Oh this is gonna be fun,” he muttered, once again motioning his hooves.

Once again acting upon his command, the shadow from under the carriage stretched out again and formed another claw, only this time it was joined by at least two more, it was a display that was so frightening that even the onlooking Gemnites dare not get any closer despite the fact that they had now blocked Rainbow and Twilight’s escape from both ends of the street.

“Oh great!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, narrowly dodging another claw. “What do we do now!?!”

“Well whatever you do, don’t touch those shadows!” Twilight exclaimed, desperately trying to fly despite her injured wing. “I read that Zeb can absorb anything physical with those things and send them somewhere else!”

“Yeah, well why he hasn’t taken the Princesses already then!?!” Rainbow Dash snapped, clearly no in the mood for a history lesson right now.

However Rainbow did bring up an excellent point, if Zeb was able to control these shadows so flawlessly then why…? Unless he didn’t control them flawlessly! Now that Twilight thought about it, there was a strange pattern to how Zeb used his shadows, one claw attacks, then retreats, then another attacks, then retreats, then another attacks, and so on, it was then Twilight figured it out, the reason Zeb wasn’t moving the princesses was because he could only control one shadow at a time! That had to be it! Granted there were multiple shadows on the scene but one of them was actually moving at a time and it must have been putting so much strain on the zebra just to keep them stable.

“Man, this is the most fun I’ve had in years!” the said Zebra cried out, the glow in his eyes shining even more intensely with his excitement.

Twilight knew there and then that there must have been some kind of flaw that she could take advantage of, something that might give Rainbow and Twilight a chance to escape with the Princesses, but what could it be? Granted Zeb’s control of the shadows was limited, but even if her wing wasn’t injured, he would have been able to see her…

“Wait,” she uttered, her eyes suddenly widening with realisation. “That’s it!”

Of course! Why didn’t she think of it before!!?! After all she read up on this zebra to the very finest details, meaning that she also knew what kind of prison he was put into after he was finally captured… she really needed to find herself a new hobby.

“Hey Zeb!” she cried out, narrowly dodging another shadow claw.

Thankfully Twilight didn’t have to shout more than once to get the zebra’s attention.

“Huh?” he uttered, taking his focus off his shadows for just a brief moment to see who called his name.

“While I’m impressed that you’re able to use such rare magic,” Twilight continued, her gaze hardened as a magical aura enveloped her horn. “You must realise that even you can’t focus on what you can’t see!”

With that declaration, Twilight fired a beam of magic directly towards Zeb, who only scoffed at the action.

“Pft, chump,” he uttered, did she really think that her magic can actually match his shadows?

And just to show just how weak an effort this display was, Zeb casually raised his own shadow in front of him, forming a barrier in front of him… if only he didn’t underestimate the magic of an Alicorn, especially when the spell she had created was that of pure light.

“What the… ARGH!!!”

Those were the last words he managed to let out before Twilight magic literally blasted through his shadow and impacted with his face, knocking off his sunglasses in the process.

“Ahhh!!! My Specs!!!” he yelled, fearfully scrambling about the roof to find his most precious item. “Where’d they go!?!”

But what Zeb didn’t realise then, was the fact that he precious sunglasses had fallen a little further than he realised, to be more specific, as soon as Twilight’s magic hit his face, all it took was a few bounces before it ended up on the street below. Of course Twilight hoped that the sunglasses would have smashed, or at least cracked from falling from such a height, but then again given the fact that they were the only thing allowing Zeb to see anything after 20 years in a darkened prison, she was still happy they were separated albeit briefly. After all, without those sunglasses he was practically blind, and this in turn, gave both Twilight and Rainbow Dash the chance they needed to escape. Moonshine however, saw this as a chance to continue his pursuit.

“NOW, can we send in the Gemnites!?!” he snapped angrily, receiving an angry grunt from Zeb in response.

Knowing that he didn’t have a valid argument against this demand, especialluy given his current state, Zeb had no choice but to sigh in defeat. Upon receiving a nod of the head, Moonshine’s sinister grin returned.

“Get them!” he cried, grabbing the attention of all the Gemnites. “Get them all!!!”

Instantly reacting to the command, every gem-encrusted canine in sight instantly regained their sadistic smiles and started nearing their way towards the two ponies, the circle they were forming growing smaller and smaller with every step. Needless to say, bot Twilight and Rainbow Dash’s fear were once again beginning to grow, with Twilight unable to fly and the carriage now unable to move, there was no possible way to get the princesses to safety now, at least not with the amount of time they had.

“You got something else for these guys, right?” Rainbow Dash muttered, leaning into Twilight’s ear as to make sure she wasn’t heard by the Gemnites.

Did she have something, though? Given the fact that she not only teleported five ponies at ounce, fired numerous blasts of energy, one of which was powerful enough to pierce through a strong shadow-shield, it was a miracle that Twilight’s lack of magical energy hasn’t caused her to collapse out of exhaustion yet, thank Celestia for adrenaline. Still, given the circumstances, which were becoming even worse by the second, she knew she had no choice but to use just a little more.

“It’s gonna cost me a lot of energy but I just might,” she finally said, wrapping her uninjured wing around Rainbow like a protective blanket. “Hang on to me!”

Trusting her friend completely, Rainbow Dash instantaneously shut her eyes and wrapped her hooves around Twilights neck as another magical aura formed around her horn, one that was glowing more brightly with each passing moment. Before the Gemnites had any chance to react, they were all quickly knocked back by a HUGE shockwave that sent them flying back by a good few yards, all the while Twilight and Rainbow Dash stood their ground as Twilight’s spell did its work. By the time it was over at least half of the Gemnites were knocked out by the force of the spell, while the other half were struggling to get up, even Moonshine and Zeb felt the effect of the spell as they now hung desperately off the other side of the roof, trying ever so hard as to try to pry themselves back up again. Daring to open her eye for just a brief moment, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but feel relieved to see that she and Twilight had finally managed to get the upper hoof.

“HA! Is that all you got!?!” she gloated, feeling the need to rub it in the enemies’ face.

Of course Twilight was relieved too, albeit also feeling physically and mentally exhausted after that final blast of magic, all she wanted to do now was just get the princesses out of here so she could take a nice, long rest… if only fate were that kind. All of a sudden, like a fly trapped in the tongue of a toad, Twilight suddenly found herself being snatched up by something slimy and yanked off the street.

“TWILIGHT!!!” Rainbow Dash yelled, instantly taking notice of her friend’s screams.

By the time the force of motion stopped, and Twilight had the chance to take notice of the blue tentacle coiling itself around her, her eyes instantly shrank back in terror as another pair of hissing green ones pierced its way into her very soul.

“Well, well, well,” Tak chuckled, bringing Twilight ever closer towards his face. “And here I thought I was going to have to WAIT for the Princess of Friendship to appear in my grasp.”

Author's Note

During the chase scene, imagine the first half of this music being played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ3YbwrXmkc
+
During Zeb’s shadow attack, imagine THIS music being played:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-A7DhOQ1p0

Chapter 7: Turn of the Tables

As Twilight stared in terror into the glowing, green eyes of Tak the Fuser, it took every ounce of mental energy she had left not to whimper, she didn’t want to give her enemy the satisfaction of seeing her in a state of weakness, even if she WAS currently struggling in the grasp of his disgusting hand, her magic, for some reason now refusing to activate.

“Oh, what’s the matter Miss Twilight?” Tak asked mockingly. “Cat got your tongue?”

Twilight couldn’t help but gasp at that question, how did this creature know her name!?!

“You… you know me?” she stuttered fearfully. “Who are you?”

At those words, Tak’s eyes widened with surprise.

“What? You don’t know ME?” he asked in disbelief, his face quickly turning into another evil grin as he slowly began to chuckle. “Hehehehehehe, well what interesting circumstances these are, looks like dear Celestia has left out a crucial piece of info in your teachings, little one.”

“Wha… what do you mean?” twilight asked in response, having absolutely no idea to what this creatures was talking about.

However before Tak had any chance to answer, another voice interrupted him with a loud yell, one which Twilight easily recognised.

“Hey let her go!!!” Rainbow Dash screamed, quickly flying up to the roof to save her friend, uncaring about anything else.

But this display only made Tak laugh even harder.

“Oh, and what’s this?” he sneered. “She’s brought along a friend!”

All of a sudden, Tak’s slimy, purple tongue shot out of his mouth like a bullet out of a pistol, quickly stretching like taffy and wrapping itself around Rainbow Dash’s neck just as she was about to get with two feet of where he was standing. Around the same time this was happening, both Moonshine and Zeb were finally able to pull themselves back up onto the roof they were hanging off, instantly ready to take out all of their rage onto the two ponies on the street below, particular a certain Alicorn who blasted them with her magic. However once the two managed to scramble themselves back over to the other side of the building, Moonshine gasped in horror and dove behind the nearby chimney, quickly dragging along a confused Zeb in the process.

“Aw fiddlesticks, it’s Tak!” he whimpered, brining light to Zeb’s confusion.

“What!” Zeb yelped fearfully. “Oh man, now I’m glad I don’t have my shades.”

If anything, that was an understatement on Zeb’s part, granted he hated the fact that he couldn’t see without his sunglasses, but given the fact that the beast who sprang him from jail was right there, just on the other roof across the street, he was GLAD to be partially blind, mainly because he didn’t want to see Tak’s horrifying glare as he laid out whatever punishment he had in store for him and the Brittles for failing to keep the princesses locked up. Taking a nervous gulp, Moonshine then took a nervous peak around the corner of the chimney in order to see what the blue demon was doing.

“Well, on the plus side, at least he don’t look ticked with US,” he commented optimistically.

“Yeah, for NOW,” Zeb retorted, knowing full well what Tak was capable of and was no less scared for it.

All the while Moonshine Brittle watched Tak snare the two ponies, he made absolutely sure he was very quiet when relaying the details to Zeb, though in hindsight Zeb wished he skipped out on a few particulars as he listened to what happened next. After snaring Rainbow Dash in mid-flight, Tak then did the most unthinkable thing and used his free hand to literally rip out his own gelatinous tongue and plug the base of it into his back, only for a new one to grow back into his mouth, needless to say the whole display made everyone watching sick to their stomachs. Seeing the looks of horror and disgust upon their faces, Tak felt the need to continue his mocking as the tongue-turned-tentacle brought Rainbow Dash closer to his face, her whole body twitching as she desperately gasped for air.

“What’s the matter darling?” he asked with a light snarl in his voice. “Finding it a little hard to BREATHE!?!”

At those words, Tak then tightened the tentacles grip around Rainbow Dash’s neck, turning her face an even deeper shade of blue than it already was as every ounce of air was being choked out of her. Had this gone on any longer than it did, then the Pegasus would have passed out or worse, thankfully there was someone there to lend their voice in her time of need.

“NO, STOP!!!” Twilight screamed, her eyes filled with tears of despair as she was forced to watch her friend suffer.

Now normally, any other kind of cruel creature wouldn’t have complied to such a plea, however Tak the Fuser was someone who was a new breed of sadistic in his ways of thinking, and as such decided to prolong his fun a little more by obliging.

“Oh do forgive me, your highness,” he said in a disdainful tone, loosening his grip on Rainbow Dash’s neck and allowing her to have a large gasp of air. “I had no idea that this little filly meant so much to you… how unfortunate.”

Needless to say, neither Twilight nor Rainbow Dash had any idea as to what this creature was planning to do next, but given the fact that he now felt the need to darkly lick Rainbow Dash’s cheek, almost as if he were TASTING her, they knew that it wasn’t going to be good.

“You know, it’s been a while since I’ve eaten a Pegasus,” he continued, both confirming the ponies’ fear and thus giving them some new ones in the process. “But perhaps I could do something to… spice up the meal?”

Neither Twilight, nor Rainbow Dash may not have known what Tak was referring to when he said that, but if they had, then they would have screamed and struggled even harder than they already were. After taking a brief glance around the area, Tak’s grin widened again as he suddenly spotted a nearby flower display upon someone’s second floor balcony, with one more shot of his stretchy tongue, he then snared the helpless wasp, amazing both mares in his grasp with the sheer fact that he was able to spot something so small from such a distance.

“Wha… what are you doing?” Twilight asked nervously, practically dreading the answer.

“Oh just you watch, Princess,” Tak sneered in response, spitting out the wasp into his free hand. “You’re gonna LOVE this.”

At those words he then dropped Twilight onto the roof, pinning her down with his disgusting foot as he fused his second free hand with the tentacle holding Rainbow Dash. After that he then stretched both his hands into the air, both still holding Rainbow Dash and the wasp in a vice-like grip. Watching all of this from their hiding place behind the chimney, both Moonshine and Zeb couldn’t help but wonder what it was that Tak was about to do, granted they have seen an example of his power when he turned three Alicorns into regular Earth Ponies, but when doing so he never made such a pose that he was doing now.

“What the heck’s going on?” Moonshine uttered in confusion.

Of course all Zeb could do was sigh in response.

“I don’t know man,” he snapped in an irritated tone. “I can’t see a…”

All of a sudden he found himself being interrupted mid-sentence by a small tap on his shoulder, instantly turning his head in response, he suddenly found his sunglasses being placed back onto his face, once his vision had returned, he surprised to see a small Gemnite smiling back up at him.

“Uh… thanks,” he said awkwardly, causing the little Gemnite give him a small thumbs-up.

As it turned out, after awaking from that blast of Magic Twilight had caused, one of the Gemnites took it upon themselves to retrieve Zeb’s sunglasses from the street, climb up to the roof and return them to their owner. It was a simple gesture but the little canine thought nothing of it, especially since many of her fellow Gemnites were also on the roof, some of which had buckets of popcorn at the ready, all of them eager to witness the show.

“Behold the power of my Mistress’s Disciple!” Tak declared, lowering his arms so that he was forming a T-pose, each of his hands glowing with an ugly black aura as Rainbow Dash and the Wasp continued to struggle in his grasp. “CONTACT FUSION!!!”

And just like that, Tak hands once again shot upwards impacting against each other like the blades of a pair of scissors, forcing a screaming Rainbow Dash and the wasp to collide with each other with a splat of Tak’s slime and a flash of blinding light. She may not have known what was happening, but judging from the fact that she could hear Rainbow Dash screaming at the top of her lungs with unbearable agony, Twilight knew in an instant that whatever Tak was doing to her, it was beyond sadistic.

“NOOOOOOOO!!!!!” she screamed, desperately trying in vain to get out from underneath Tak’s foot.

But it was too late, by the time the light faded and Rainbow Dash’s screams stopped, all that was left was a large bulbous swelling in the tentacle that used to be Tak’s two arms, a swelling that now seemed to be traveling downward, eventually going into Tak’s back, allowing him to separate his arms again. After that, Tak disgusted everyone watching by allowing the swelling to go up his throat like a puffed up toad and into his mouth, eventually spitting out whatever was inside. To Twilight’s horror, what, or rather WHO he spat out was none other than…

“R… Rainbow dash?”

As Twilight uttered that name, she couldn’t believe that what she was staring at was actually her, yet it was indeed Rainbow Dash, or rather what was left of her. And just to put even more salt into the already fresh wound, Tak made things worse by pulling up Rainbow’s unconscious body by the leg, displaying her new form for all to see.

“Behold Boys!” he cried out, finally acknowledging Zeb and Moonshine’s presence behind the cheering Gemnites. “The Pega-wasp!!!”

It was a crude title but it certainly was self-explanatory when it came to a basic description of Rainbow Dash’s new appearance, with her Wonderbolts uniform now torn to shreds, it was easy to see the many changes that had occurred. She still had her blue coat and Rainbow-coloured mane, however there was also a noticeable new streak of black added in amongst the other colours, a streak that matched the assortment of stripes that now decorated her body like that of a zebra, not only that but a pair of yellow antennae now sprouted from the top of her head, plus she now had a second pair of eyes resting just above her normal ones, a fair size smaller but still visible to anyone. But the most noticeable change of all was that of Rainbow Dash’s wings, what was one made out of muscle and blue feathers was now a large pair of translucent insect wings, not unlike a changelings but certainly had a more powerful look to them. Needless to say, this transformation earned a few different reactions, for Twilight it was horror, for Tak, amusement, and as for moonshine and Zeb, all they would do was react with shock and disgust.

“Wee Doggy!” Moonshine exclaimed. “That’s some mighty freaky-deaky stuff!”

“Sweet Celestia,” Zeb added, his face turning green with nausea after seeing the disgusting transformation. “I think I’m gonna throw up.”

To say that Rainbow’s sudden transformation earned such a reaction was certainly an understatement, the fact that she was fused in general was bad enough, but from the agonising screams she let out during the process only made what Tak did to her all the more horrendous, but the worst was yet to come for at that moment, Rainbow Dash began to regain consciousness.

“Ugh… wha…?” she muttered dizzily, all four of her eyes opening up to reveal deep red irises “What’s going…?”

It was only then that Rainbow Dash began to realise that something was severely wrong, not only were the new eyes she had yet to acknowledge giving her some weird double vision, but for some reason she felt a little… lighter, almost as though most of her body weight had been seriously reduced, and then she tilted her head to face her wings, only to see that they weren’t there.

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” she screamed in terror, her new insect wings flapping madly as she been to become more frantic with every second. “YOU ZZZORRY SACK OF RAT DUNG!!! WHAT THE HAY HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!?!”

In response to this horrifying outburst, Tak merely laughed out loud, revealing that he was in fact enjoying every second of Rainbow Dash’s despair like the sick sadist that he was.

“Oh I’m sorry, do you not like the new look?” he mocked, waving her about like a ragdoll and using his free hand to poke her viciously. “I guess the stripes do make you look a little fat, don’t they?”

As Tak continued to laugh at Rainbow Dash’s expense, all Twilight could do now was allow fresh tears to flow down her cheeks as she eased her struggle under Tak’s foot.

“Rainbow…” she uttered, having no other words to say given the circumstances.

Unfortunately for her, Tak heard her muttering quite clearly and took this opportunity to gloat even more.

“Not a bad little display is it, Princess?” he said, leaning in close so that Twilight could see the gaps between his teeth. “And this is but a taste of my power!”

“You… you WERE the one who changed the Princesses weren’t you?” Twilight whimpered in response, finally having some confirmation to what she had suspected earlier.

Once again, Tak chuckled at Twilight’s words.

“Guilty as charged,” he answered smugly, ignoring Rainbow Dash’s angry rants as his ego began to surface. “And for everything I can fuse, there is also something I can DE-fuse. Of course every process is different, when I fuse something, the subject is FULL of energy, but if I take something away…”

At those words, Tak then opened up his free hand and lowered it to Twilight’s face, so that she could get a good view at the crystal orb sprouting out of his palm like a flower, upon closer inspection the Alicorn could see three shimmering lights floating around inside like fireflies, each one taking a certain shape of its own every few seconds, shapes that Twilight quickly recognised as her brain began to process what Tak was telling her.

“…Then they become as weak as a leaf in the middle of Fall,” he continued smugly, once again absorbing the orb back into his hand. “Oh don’t worry about these little babies, it’s nothing more than the pure magic that gives Princesses their wings and horns… nothing they can’t live without.”

Now the pieces were beginning to fit together, it WAS Tak who turned the Princesses into Earth Ponies, and all by defusing them from their Alicorn Magic, Cutie marks and all, and judging from the fact that Twilight couldn’t even access her own magic at this point, he must have had a way of cancelling it out too. This guy must have been why Canterlot was evacuated! The creatures, the… Gemnites? They must have only been the scouts, someone to cause chaos to distract everypony while Tak made his move, but now that Tak had gotten what he wanted, the question is, what was he planning on doing now?

“B… but the sun…?” she uttered impulsively, her mind wondering just what was going to happen to Equestria now that the Princesses didn’t have their magic.

But once again, Tak laughed in response.

“HA! You see this is why you ponies are so stupid nowadays!” he sneered. “You’re always relying on some namby-pamby princess to raise the sun and moon when both can easily be put on auto-pilot.”

Of course Twilight, having been used to the fact that both Princesses, Celestia more than Luna over the course of the last millennium, were the ones who controlled the stages of night and day, couldn’t comprehend that such a feat could even be possible. However before she could question him further, rainbow Dash’s voice once again became the loudest one in the conversation.

“Hey, change me back right now, you freak!!!” she screamed, still struggling’s in Tak’s grip. “Just wait till I…”

However that was when Tak snapped his head towards her, his face now gaining an angrily scowl as his irritation grew.

“YOU are trying my patience!” he snapped, clearly angry that his gloating was being interrupted. “But if you’re so desperate to get eaten I…”

“TAK!!!” another voice screamed, cutting Tak off mid-sentence.

It was then that the eyes of not only Twilight widened in shock, but also everyone who was within earshot, for each and every individual knew in an instant who that particular voice belonged to, and sure enough, as everyone turned their heads towards the downed carriage, they saw her. She may not have stood her real size and no longer bore her flowing mane, but none the less there she was, still standing as elegantly as ever even with her new regular blue mane drooping down her shoulders. Upon seeing her, Tak’s smile instantly returned.

“Ah, Celestia,” he said, opening his arms in a boastful manner. “So good to see you awake at last.”

However as evident from Celestia’s hateful glare, the former Alicorn wasn’t in the mood for Tak’s arrogance.

“LET. THEM. GO!!!” she demanded, her voice no longer baring the royal volume but still loud enough to seem threatening despite her new size.

However even while both Zeb, Moonshine, and many of the Gemnites cringed with fear at Celestia’s demand, Tak never even lost his composure and merely scoffed.

“Not on your life, sweet-cheeks,” he retorted. “If you think that I’m just gonna let yet another Alicorn walk away from me while I am so close to achieving what I came here to do, then you’ve got another thing coming!”

Celestia grit her teeth with fury upon hearing that.

“Damn you!” she growled, her fury only matched by her grief upon seeing her student and her friend in such danger.

Needless to say, Celestia’s obvious fury fed Tak’s delight even more, of course even he had his limits when it came to patience.

“But I am willing to make an exchange,” he continued, surprising Celestia for a brief moment. “You and your other former-Alicorns return to your cell, then maybe, just MAYBE, I won’t eat this one.”

Once again, Celestia growled in anger, obviously she didn’t want to give into Tak’s demands, but with her magic completely gone and the demon himself holding all the cards, she may not have a choice. But then again, what’s to stop him going back on his word and hurting Twilight anyway? It would seem that Celestia was at a loss no matter what she did… until she heard a faint groan from the carriage behind her.

“S… sister?” Luna muttered exhaustedly, ungraciously stumbling out of the carriage. “Wha… what’s going on?”

Upon seeing the former Princess of the Night, everyone couldn’t help but gasp, even Celestia was surprised to see her sister on her hooves, mainly because it shouldn’t have been possible, at least not yet, in fact it was a miracle that Celestia was up and about. She could only assume that it was that sudden force that shook her awake earlier, only taking a little longer to help her sister with the same thing, either way, this sudden development may turn the tables if Celestia remembered things correctly.

“Hey, C!” Tak called out, losing his patience once again as he saw Celestia walk over to help her sister stand. “I’m not going to wait for your answer forever, you know!”

Obviously Celestia had no intention of testing Tak’s tolerance any further, less risk him hurting Twilight or Rainbow Dash, but she also had no intention of giving into his demands either, so unbeknownst to those watching, she began uttering something into Luna’s ear as she helped her balance herself.

“Luna?” she whispered, making sure her voice was quiet enough so that only could sister could hear We’re just on the old border of the city, yes?”

Of course Luna had absolutely no idea as to why her sister would ask such a question, but regardless, despite her current condition she tried her best to answer.

“We are,” she confirmed, taking a quick glance at her surroundings.

With that confirmation, Celestia quickly nodded with understanding.

“Then take a few steps back, quickly,” she responded with another whisper.

Again, Luna had no idea as to what Celestia was talking about, but given the situation she easily complied with her request and started walking backward, much to everyone’s confusion, then as soon as she walked back about five feet away, something happened. The moment Luna’s hoof touch the concrete beneath her on the final step a large, straight crack began to form and split the road inches in front of her, an eerie green light emanating from its depths. Needless to say, everyone, including those of both rooftops noticed the sudden occurrence, especially since the ground, and thus the buildings, began to shake violently.

“Huh!?!” Zeb exclaimed, trying desperately to keep his balance.

“What in tarnation!?!” Moonshine added, clinging onto the chimney for support.

That was but one of the many minds that were wildly wondering, just what in Equestria was happening right now!?!

Meanwhile, back in Ponyville, things were finally beginning to calm down a bit, granted the population of the town had grown significantly but at least the hustle and bustle of new ponies arriving had finally began to calm down. So much so that Pinkie Pie, another one of Twilight’s friends and the town’s local, Super-Party Pony, felt it was about time to start planning a little “Evacuate-to-Ponyville” Party, granted anyone else would have thought that given the circumstances, the idea is completely inappropriate, however in the poofy-haired mare’s mind, it seemed like the best way for the new arrivals to get settled in. Of course with THIS many arrivals, she obviously needed time to prepare and a LOT of supplies, more than even she kept in her house. At this current point in time she, along with Applejack and Starlight Glimmer, were in the middle of the street talking over what needed to be done for such a party, when all of a sudden Pinkie Pie felt a small rumble beneath her hooves.

“Shaky hooves?” she pondered in her own perky way. “Never felt that one before, must be a new one for the Pinkie Sense.”

For those who knew Pinkie Pie well, they would know that the “Pinkie Sense” was a little ability that only Pinkie Pie seemed to have that allows her to predict something about to happen, of course on this occasion, both Applejack and Starlight seriously doubted that was the current case.

“Uh Pinkie?” Applejack said, grapping the pink Earth Pony’s attention as she too felt a small rumble beneath her hooves. “Ah don’t think that’s your Pinkie Sense.”

Even Starlight, though still somewhat new to the concept of Pinkie’s supposed ability, was certain that the shaking beneath everyone’s hooves was no indication of a future event, but rather something happening at this very moment. Of course after taking a quick glance at her surroundings, she certainly wasn’t expecting to see something bursting out of the mountain… just above the city of Canterlot!

“Look there!!!” she yelled frantically, pointing her hoof towards the mountain.

Of course that shout not only drew the attention of her two friends, but also everyone who was within ear range, which in turn caused everyone to gasp in horror upon seeing the numerous shards of green crystal casing itself above Canterlot’s rooftops. Needless to say, the whole display was greatly unsettling.

“Heavens to Betsy!!!” Applejack exclaimed finding it difficult to believe that what she was seeing was in fact real. “Canterlot’s being swallowed by… by a…”

“By a big, shiny chandelier!” Pinkie Pie blurted out, cutting Applejack off before turning to… oh no. “Oh by the way… what’s the big idea about keeping me out of the story for so long, buddy!?!”

Uh… seeing the huge formation of crystal green spreading over Canterlot like a net…

“Hey, don’t ignore me!” Pinkie Pie demanded, once again addressing yours truly.

Not now Pinkie!

“Fine,” she finally huffed in reply, her cheeks puffing up into a pout. “But I expect more appearances in the future.”

Anyways… back in Canterlot, the chaos that was occurring was nothing short of disastrous. Just like what the ponies down in Ponyville were witnessing from below, there was in fact a tremendous amount of green crystals spurting out the side of the mountain, causing horrendous quakes in their wake, while at the same time several more crystals began sprouting out of the crack that had formed once Luna stepped over the old border of Canterlot. Granted any pony who wasn’t familiar with centuries-old history would know such a border existed and just assumed that it was on the edge of the city itself, but of course any pony with common sense would realise that Canterlot couldn’t have been the metropolis it was today when it was first built, thus the border would have been even closer to the centre at first and as time went on, as the populous grew, so did the city, thus passing the confines of the old border. Of course that didn’t mean that the old border didn’t exist anymore, and thus its secrets were merely kept hidden by time, which thanks to recent events was now literally erupting from above and below Canterlot. With shards of crystal now closing in on the surrounding area like a thousand jagged teeth, Celestia’s next course of action was now in full swing.

“Luna, can you run?” she asked, earning a small nod in response. “Then grab Cadence and get out of here, now!!!”

Granted it was a little much to ask of Luna given her current condition, but with Twilight and Rainbow Dash still in Tak’s clutches, Celestia herself had no time to do anything else, and knowing her sister to a great extent, Luna instantly agreed without needing to be told. While Luna quickly rushed back towards the carriage to pick up a still-unconscious Cadence, Celestia returned her focus to the gelatinous blue demon still on the roof, desperately trying to keep his balance through the shaking whilst still trying to keep his hold on Rainbow Dash and Twilight. At first she had no idea to what she needed to do, had she still have magic then she would probably use it to pull the two mares away from him, but since she didn’t then…

“Look out below!!!” someone cried from above her, cutting her off mid-thought.

Instantly reacting, Celestia quickly turned her head towards the direction of the voice, where several Gemnites were hanging onto dear life from the edge of the roof they were sitting on, desperately trying not to fall through the constant shaking. Of course, not all of them could hang on tight enough and fell to the ground, miraculously enough without serious injury, upon seeing this Celestia got an idea, it may have been considered insane but it was all she got. Mustering up whatever strength she had left, Celestia ran up to own of the downed Gemnites, picked them up by the scruff of its neck with her teeth, and tossed it high into the air… directly into Tak’s face. The Gemnite may have been one of the smaller ones, no bigger than a 10-year-old filly in fact, regardless he served his purpose and caused enough of a distraction when he impacted into Tak’s confused mug, so much so that Tak was forced to step off Twilight and let Rainbow Dash drop to his feet as he toppled backward and tried to pry the Gemnite off his face. Upon realising they were free, both Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked at each other with relief as they struggled to get back onto their hooves amongst the shaking.

“Twilight, Rainbow, run!!!” Celestia cried out, grabbing both mares’ attention for a moment.

Having no need to argue such a request, Twilight and Rainbow instantly opened up their wings and took off, albeit Twilight having to carry Rainbow Dash due to have absolutely no clue as to how to use her new wings. Meanwhile, Tak was having a little trouble getting the surprisingly clingy Gemnite off him, which in turn made him even angrier than he already was.

“Get off me, you idiot!!!” he snarled furiously.

Eventually, the Gemnite’s clinginess infuriated him so much, Tak reached the point where he ended up opening his mouth and literally swallowing the poor canine whole. As soon he was able to see again, Tak could only gasp in horror as he witnesses all five ponies make their way towards the swiftly closing gaps in between the crystals. Upon first instinct, Tak quickly stretched out his arm to snare at least one of the ponies again, however given the constant shaking even he found it difficult to take proper aim, which was all the better since all five mares needed all the luck they could get as they quickly squeezed their way through the closing gaps. With the crystal mere inches away from crushing them, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but scream in terror.

“We’re not gonna make iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttt…”

Thankfully, she couldn’t be more wrong, for mere seconds before the crystal closed on them, they did make it out, albeit just by a hair. As soon as the two formations came into contact, the same eerie green light shimmered even more brightly between the cracks, sealing everything into a single unit like solder being welded into other metals, finally everything stopped shaking and all that remained was a gigantic, green orb of crystal encased Canterlot like a large snow globe that clung onto the side of the mountain like a boil. As the clouds of dust began to settle, and everyone on both sides of the crystal were finally able to stand up again, the stress of the whole ordeal soon began to subside, however Tak’s anger was far beyond the point where he could calm down so quickly.

“A fat lot of good you were!” he snapped, aiming his frustration at the gaggle of cowering Gemnites, who were SUPPOSED to block the ponies’ path.

“B… but the shaking…” one of them protested nervously, trying to defend the fact that they instead scrabbled while the whole area shook.

Unfortunately, that was the last thing the poor creature ever said, seconds later he ended up getting snared by Tak’s long tongue and swallowed whole, clearly Tak was in no mood for excuses.

“Morons,” he growled.

Fortunately for the rest of the Gemnites, along with Zeb and Moonshine, who were STILL cowering on the roof and clinging onto the chimney as if it were a comforting blanket?, Tak’s attention was soon turned towards the huge wall of green crystal in front of him, a wall that was thick but not so thick that it was able to block out the images of Celestia standing on the other side.

“Is this the best you can come up with, C?” he said casually, walking towards the wall as if it were nothing. “You think that mere Crystal can keep me in… ARGH!!!”

That was when Tak had the misfortune to actually lay a finger upon the crystal, granted it was only a slight touch, but regardless it was enough to make his blue skin bubble like frothy milk, not to mention cause him insufferable pain.

“WHAT!?!” he exclaimed, instantly confused as to what just happened, this was impossible, nothing could hurt him, unless… “Crystallised Witchweed!?!”

Of course neither the Gemnites nor the two cronies sitting on the rooftop knew what Witchweed was, but whatever it is, it was able to cause Tak pain, something of which they too thought impossible until now. Suddenly Tak’s eyes widened with realisation as a certain memory flooded into his head.

“That little blast of magic when I first came in?” he muttered, recalling the events just before he and his goons took away Celestia’s horn and wings. “That wasn’t a random act of violence was it?”

Of course, how could he have been so reckless as to overlook the fact that it was Celestia he was dealing with? Before he was even sealed away, Tak knew that the Princess of the Sun always had some kind of plan in mind. THIS was why Celestia had the whole city evacuated! She was planning on casting this spell the whole time, the blast of energy she used to hit the floor of the throne room must have been what was supposed to activate it, and her sister must have been the secondary trigger! Knowing her, Celestia must have meant for the trap to activate as soon as Luna was out of Canterlot, but obviously Tak delayed the reaction time by keeping her in. But still, even with the whole plan theorised in his head, Tak still couldn’t believe that Celestia actually used Crystallised Witchweed for the trap, so much so that he even began to chuckle.

“Hehe, well I must admit, I’m impressed with your choice of tactics Celestia,” he said, narrowing his gaze towards Celestia’s face, granted he knew she couldn’t hear him through the thick crystal but even so, he couldn’t help but let out his comments as they came. “I’m even more impressed that you’re even dare to even go near Witchweed of any form, especially knowing what it can do. You were really planning to seal yourself in here with me for the sake of your subjects?”

At those words, Tak could have sworn he saw Celestia glare at him even harder through the crystal, almost as though she COULD hear him, of course he quickly brushed it off as he continued to speak.

“Well, it matters not, you are only delaying the inevitable,” he said confidently. “Now that I know where the door is, it’s only a matter of time before I unlock it. Let’s not forget that I’ve already broken out of the first prison you and those dogs made for me, and even if it takes me yet another 800 years I WILL break out of this one too… along with someone else you know.”

Once again, he knew that Celestia couldn’t hear him, still Tak smile never wavered, even as he watched Celestia back away from the crystal, disappearing from sight.

“It’s only a matter of time, Celestia,” he declared, stomping his foot and causing a few of the nearby Gemnites to cower in fear at the sight of him. “No matter where you go, no matter what you do… My Mistress shall return, and she WILL find you!!!”

As that shout echoed within the confines of the crystal dome, Celestia couldn’t help but sigh in relief upon realising, and relishing in the fact that she couldn’t hear Tak’s vile voice anymore. Turning her head back towards the others, who were in fact in the worst possible condition, both physically and mentally, she then only had one last thing to say.

“Let’s go,”

And with that, Celestia began helping the others to their hooves, she knew that they all needed rest after what had just happened, but given the circumstances, she highly doubted anyone wanted to stay here any longer. Thusly, she and Twilight, both whom were supporting Cadence and Luna respectively, began making the long walk. Of course when Twilight looked up at the sky, she couldn’t help but stare in horror as the sun had begun to set… without Celestia moving it, which in turn meant that what Tak said to her earlier was in fact true, the sun and moon WERE now on auto-pilot. As they continued to walk, Celestia couldn’t help but look at her student with a frown upon her face, she and her friend had suffered a terrible ordeal, as did everyone else, and no doubt their heads were bound to be filling with questions. However such answered will have to wait for the moment, for now the best course of action was to remain on the road leading away from Tak’s new crystal prison.

And speaking of Crystals, as much as Twilight and the other escapees though otherwise, it turns out not ALL of the Gemnites were inside Canterlot when it became encased. To be more specific, six certain canines, all of whom were hiding in the baggage car of an evening train and snoring like they didn’t have a care in the world.

“Nnn… no, get that newspaper away from…” Sheen muttered dozily, obviously being the sleep-talker in the group.

After spending the last couple of hours on this train-ride, it was no wonder that these Gemnites became so bored that they dosed off. In any other circumstances they would have just hijacked the train and taken it for a joyride to their destination, however Tak gave them highly specific instructions for the task ahead, and as much as they would have preferred to do otherwise, Tak’s word was law to them. Finally after what felt like an eternity of waiting, the Gemnites finally felt the train come to a stop, thus stirring them from their slumber.

“Alright guys!” Crystal Dust declared, being the first to awaken. “Move your hides, we’re here!”

They all may have been a little hesitant to do so, preferring to stay asleep for a little while longer, but one by one, the other Gemnites followed Crystal Dust as she opened the door, jumped out of the baggage car and quickly started running towards a nearby ticket booth. Hiding behind it in order to avoid being spotted by local security, Crystal couldn’t help but take a long sniff of the air, a large smile spreading across her face as two of her diamond fangs shimmered in the setting sun.

“Ah yes, I love the smell of potential mayhem in the…” she tried to say, only to be cut off by the sound of someone STILL snoring. “Oh for the love of… will somebody wake up Topaz!”

Of course it was going to be Topaz to be the one who was still snoozing, heck, one of Crystal’s explosives would have gone off right next to him and he’d still be sleeping like a baby, it was only lucky that Roughcut was at least smart enough to slump the snoring mutt over his shoulder and carry him off the train with him. At the very least, there was one way to wake Topaz up, all it took was for Roughcut to pinch his nose, blocking his airway, within seconds he was wide awake and gasping for air.

“What the heck!?!” he snapped, giving Roughcut an irritated growl. “You TRYING to kill me!?!”

However, being quite used to Topaz’s outbursts on a daily basis, Roughcut merely rolled his eyes in response.

“We’re there,” he muttered, instantly causing Topaz so soften his gaze.

“We here?” he repeated, taking notice of his new surroundings for the first time. “Well then, time to have some fun.”

That was a notion that all five of his comrades seemed to agree on, with a sinister smile upon each of their faces, all six Gemnites then began moving away from the ticket booth and further into the town, making sure they weren’t seen by anyone. They may not have had any idea of what kind of mayhem they would cause just yet, but one thing was for sure, this was going to be one night that the town of Ponyville wasn’t going to forget in a hurry.

Chapter 8: Night-time Mischief

Needless to say, ever since Twilight and Rainbow Dash broke into the castle of Canterlot, the events that followed were both traumatising and agonising for almost everyone involved, especially those who have managed to actually escape. Of course it was no picnic for their pursuers either, considering the fact that not only were many of them injured, eat by Tak in his fit of rage, or otherwise humiliated beyond belief, but in the end pretty much all of them were on the wrong side of the crystal wall when it came closing in on them. Obviously none of those trapped inside were happy in the least about their new predicament, especially those who have only just escaped from prison within the past month.

“Is it true, Pa?” May Bell pleaded, trying desperately to absorb what her father just told her and Cornpoke after they finally managed to regroup with him back at the castle’s throne room. “Are we really trapped here?”

Moonshine couldn’t help but sigh at that.

“I’m afraid so youngins,” he said, gritting his teeth in anger as he took a swig of booze from the flask he kept in his hat. “Turns out them namby-pamby princesses managed to slip away too.”

Upon hearing that confirmation, both of Moonshine’s children couldn’t help but groan despairingly, it was bad enough that Cornpoke was still injured from falling of May Bell’s glider, as evident from the series of bruises and bandages all over his body, but now everyone was trapped in a city that they were unfamiliar with. However while every other criminal with in a state of anger and panic, Tak on the other hand seemed to be breathing in tranquillity as he sat in Celestia’s throne, much to Zeb’s clear annoyance. Even the Gemnites were feeling on edge after the whole ordeal given the circumstances, but for some reason Tak didn’t seem to be angry or frantic in the slightest, granted he lost his temper and took out his rage on a few nearby Gemnites by eating them after the first few minutes of being trapped, but now it was as if the whole thing didn’t even happen to him. In any circumstance, no creature should be this composed after such a short period of time.

“Pardon me for speaking out of term, Tak,” Zeb said, grabbing Tak’s attention, making sure he didn’t say anything to rile him up enough to make the blue demon consider eating HIM. “But how can you be so calm about this!?!”

For just a brief moment, Tak DID have the right mind to snatch Zeb up and consume him where he stood, but luckily for the shadow-wielding zebra, he was a little smarter than that, besides he still needed Zeb’s talents I he was to accomplish what he need to do. Finally having enough of the paltry arguing amongst his subordinates, Tak then finally stood up and spoke, the volume of his voice towering over them like a general.

“Calm yourselves!” he demanded, causing every one of them to become silent out of fear. “Regardless of this development, our task hasn’t changed! Our little predicament may be unfortunate but we shall continue regardless.”

At those words, Zeb’s irritation almost reached breaking point and for a brief moment he forgot just who he was talking to.

“What? Trapped like rats!?!” he snapped angrily. “I didn’t escape from prison just to be landed in another!”

That of course, was a mistake of Zeb’s part, for at that moment, Tak’s green eyes glowed violently and with another snap of his stretchy had, he grabbed Zeb by the throat and brought him to his face.

“Watch your tongue, boy!!!” he snarled furiously. “Let’s not forget who broke you out in the first place, shall we?”

With that scary comeback, Zeb’s moment of bravery quickly faded away and he began to whimper like a new-born foal, there was no way in Tartarus that he was going to risk being another one of Tak’s meals. Even the Brittles were all huddling together in a pathetic mass of fear after seeing Tak’s angry face, Cornpoke feeling like he was about to have an accident in his overalls.

“Y… you’re right, I apologise,” Zeb snivelled fearfully. “Please don’t eat me!”

Tak could only scoff at such a pathetic display, had this zebra’s talents not been useful then he probably wouldn’t even have bothered with him in the first place.

“You’re forgiven,” he sighed impassively, carelessly releasing Zeb’s neck and letting him drop to his feet.

“Ow… ugh, thank you,” Zeb replied, rubbing his sore back as he got to his hooves. “But still what more can we do now? We’ve tried all manner of things to break through the crystal but nothing’s seems to be working, we’ve tried bombs, pickaxes, and for some reason not even my shadows can get through it.”

Zeb couldn’t help but roll his eyes at that statement, of course his subordinates would be clueless to the sheer magnitude of how strong a wall made of Crystallised Witchweed was, in fact, he highly doubted they even knew WHAT it truly was, obviously it was something that he would have to bring them up to speed on in the not-too-distant future.

“The zebra’s got a point there, Mister Tak,” May Bell added, collecting her courage enough to speak on Zeb’s behalf. “With the princesses gone, the city emptied, and all of us trapped inside this here gem, we’ve pretty much screwed ourselves.”

As much as Tak hated to admit it, what the Brittles and Zeb felt was completely understandable given their lack of knowledge in what was actually happening, however he still felt that whatever they should know was for him to decide alone. Of course, given the circumstances, perhaps it WAS time he provided his lackey’s some much needed insight, albeit restricted to a certain extent.

“Not necessarily, little one,” he said, instantly confusing his underlings, even some of the Gemnites in the room were a little confused upon overhearing it. “Granted I would have preferred to keep all four Alicorns here where I could keep an eye on them, but as long as most of them are without power, then my plans are still in motion. Plus, keep in mind that we still have allies outside of these crystal walls, and what’s more, there are still some tasks that needed to be done, regardless of our situation.”

But despite Tak’s explanation, many still remain confused, just what kind of tasks was he talking about?

“But what can we do while stuck in this here prison?” Moonshine asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Much,” Tak replied bluntly, feeling the need to actually explain this somewhat beneath him. “Those ponies may believe that that have foiled my endeavours but I was always intending on setting up shop in this castle anyway… especially given what we’ve finally managed to uncover here.”

At first everyone reacted with the same confusion they shared at Tak’s first explanation, however that was soon rectified when a certain memory re-entered their minds, after all, what Tak was referring to was the very reason they were all here in the first place.

Had anypony had any knowledge of what resided INSIDE the mountain upon which Canterlot was constructed, then chances are they would have set hoof there at all, for deep, deep below the surface, even further lower than the caves where the Queen of the Changelings once kept Twilight and Cadence prisoner for a time, accessible only by a passageway that only Princesses Celestia herself knew the entrance to, was something that no pony should have had the misfortune of encountering. And yet here they were, a gelatinous monster, three Earth Ponies, a zebra, and a few Gemnites, all them walking down the mould-covered, stone staircase that they found after opening up the secret passage in the royal treasury, their only source of light being from the glowing jewels that encrusted the Gemnites’ skin, a little talent that just came as a second nature to the canines, all the while leading towards something terrible… and huge.

“Behold, my friends!” Tak declared as they finally reached the bottom of the stairs. “Behold the very thing we came here for!”

Needless to say, upon seeing the horrible sight before them, all four of Tak’s underling’s couldn’t help but shiver with fear.

“Ah don’t like that there thing, sis,” Cornpoke muttered into May Bell’s ear nervously. “It’s giving me the Goosey-pimples.

“What manner of obscurity is this?” Zeb asked, not be able to take his eyes of the object in front of him for one second.

At those words, Tak’s grin widened.

“THAT, my friend is a prison unlike any other,” he said, gesturing towards the object with a small glimmer of pride. “Hidden for centuries, right under Celestia’s very hooves, it is a prison that holds she whom I am honoured to call Mistress.”

Prison? By any standards, it looked more like a safe or a vault… an EVIL looking vault! Standing in the centre of a large circular cavern, surrounded by walls encrusted with veins of black crystal, was a gigantic cube. Standing at least 10 feet in height and volume, made of what appeared to be spiky iron, almost as though it were shaped, and later warped straight after coming out of the forge, the cube gave of an eerie feeling of despair upon those who looked upon it. However the scariest feature of all what was protruding out of the front face of the cube, namely a face, a fierce face, a face that looked like it belonged to some kind demonic animal, from first glace it looked feline, however the fangs were larger, the fur looked as spikey as wire-wool and the eyes… made of something that looked like emeralds, but gave of a glow that was so dark, they looked as though they could pierce into one’s very soul. As each of Tak’s subordinates looked upon the scary vessel, each of them all shared the exact same concern, if this was a prison just who or WHAT was inside it?

“B… but how could she possibly even be alive after all that time?” Zeb asked, voicing another one of the many questions filling everyone’s minds.

“And even if she is, how do we get her out?” Moonshine added, voicing yet another. “It’s not like Celestia dropped a key or something?”

WAS there a key to this thing? By the looks of it, there didn’t even seem to be a door or even a latch anywhere on the cube, if anything, it appeared seamless. However Tak didn’t seemed to disheartened by that fact.

“That, Moonshine,” he said, pointing a finger at the aging Earth Pony. “Is where you and your children come in.”

Needless to say, both Moonshine AND his two children were even more confused than ever.

“Excuse me?” May Bell exclaimed in response.

“Tell me,” Tak continued, his eye glowing even more brightly than the Gemnites’ gems as his excitements grew. “What do you know about… Witchweed?”

Meanwhile, only a train ride away, night had finally fallen upon the town of Ponyville, however this time it wasn’t Princess Luna who brought it upon them. Of course since no pony aside from those involved in the incident knew the details of what happened in Canterlot, so most ponies simply assumed that everything must have been okay if the day and night were cycling like they were supposed to be. And yet, there was something different about this particular night sky, unlike most of Luna’s nights, who always put so much effort in her creations, even down to the glimmer of a single star, this night seemed a little… dull, almost as though it had lost that certain lustre that made it special. Had any pony bothered to express any thought into the matter, they would have known that something must have been wrong, however given the circumstance it was only fair that they seemed a little ignorant, especially given the fact that most of the houses here now completely packed with ponies up to the brim. As part of the evacuation, the palace guards and Mayor Mare worked together to establish temporary homes for all the refugees, some were easy, especially if some evacuees had family members in town, then again there were others who were more… unenthusiastic about the arrangements. In the end though, every pony was able to get abed or sofa for the night, especially since Twilight’s castle was part of the arrangement, and speaking of the castle, little did anypony know that as soon as the clock began to strike 11, six certain individuals had their eyes on it, namely a certain group of Gemnites.

“There it is, guys,” Crystal Dust pointed out excitedly, leading the group as always. “Ooh, I can practically taste the mayhem!”

Of course Crystal would be getting excited about this assignment, after all, this was the first time she or her group had the opportunity to receive “special orders” from Tak WITH specific instructions, for a Gemnite that was a big opportunity. Unfortunately, not all member of her group were as enthusiastic about the specifics of this task.

“Well, we better get moving soon,” Misty Blue said impatiently. “Ruby’s starting to get the jitters again.”

It was then then Crystal took a moment to look behind her, letting out a heavy sigh upon seeing their current state. Obviously patience isn’t one of a Gemnite’s best qualities, and Crystal’s group was no different, after Crystal told them all that they would have to stay hidden and wait until hours after nightfall before they got to do anything, none of them were happy to hear it, especially after that long, boring train ride here. However neither of them were any more distressed about the situation any more than Ruby Rock, being considered the “youngest” of the group, she was always treated as such by her fellow Gemnites, what’s more she even acted the part, especially when it came to her own fears. As ironic as it may sound, despite being created in a gloomy cave from a gem that had been there for centuries, Ruby was actually completely terrified of the dark.

“It… it’s so dark out,” she whimpered, her whole body shaking like a leaf as she hid behind Roughcut’s giant back. “P… please, can we turn on our lights now?”

Needless to say, Ruby had been constantly asking the same question every so often ever since the sun set over the horizon and Crystal had gathered the whole group in the alley between two buildings closest to Twilight’s castle, however as much as she really wanted to indulge Ruby’s plea, Crystal knew that making their gems glow now would be too much of a risk.

“Not yet, sweetie,” she replied with a gentle sigh. “We’re too out in the open right now.”

However that answer didn’t sit well with the poor Gemnite.

“Th… that makes it worse!!!” she squealed, once again ducking behind Roughcut’s back like a whimpering puppy.

Once again Crystal sighed, it truly pained her to see Ruby like this, as much as she enjoyed causing mayhem for the ponies, there was only one thing that would put her out of the mood for it and that was seeing one of her own group members in such distress. Luckily, she wasn’t the only one who felt that way whenever it came to Ruby’s fears.

“Now, Rubes, remember what we told you about being scared?” Sheen asked calmly, casually pulling Ruby out from behind Roughcut with a gentle smile on his face.

“If… if something is scary… then, chase the fears away with a growl and a crowbar?” Ruby guessed, trying desperately to remember the clearly drunken words Sheen told her a few days ago. “Grr?”

That may not have been the best advice to give to ANYBODY, but even so it was nice to know that the Emerald encrusted Gemnite was at least trying to help, thus allowing Ruby to smile a little. Seeing that he at least made Ruby feel a little better, Sheen couldn’t help but smile himself.

“Atta girl,” he said, giving her a playing pat on the head as he pulled something out from behind his back. “Okay, you gave us the growl, now here’s your crowbar.”

“Eeep!” Ruby squealed, easily crashing into the ground as the heavy lump of metal was placed into her paws.

Every member of the group couldn’t help but roll their eyes at that, Sheen may have been trying to help but despite his best efforts, he was always clueless when it came to this sort of thing. While Roughcut helped Ruby back up to her feet, Misty’s attention once again went back to their leader.

“We better hurry up, Crystal,” she said bluntly. “Otherwise we’ll be trying to restrain Topaz next.”

“I heard that!” Topaz snapped in response.

Once again Crystal rolled her eyes, but as blunt as Misty tended to be she did have a point, if she or her group waited any longer then they would eventually become too impatient and just run wild without a second thought, even Crystal herself was starting to feel a little anxious at this point. Thus, it was at that moment that Crystal felt it was time to make their move, she and the group have waited long enough as far she was concerned. However before she could order her troops to move out, she had to make sure the coast was still clear.

“Ugh… why did it have to be so crowded here!?!” she groaned as she spotted yet another pony walk by the group’s hiding place without noticing them. “Honestly, it’s like we’re back in Manehattan again.”

Admittedly her cohorts had to agree with that, before they arrived in Ponyville they were under the impression that it was simply just a small town that just so happens to have a Castle in it, and of course Tak didn’t even bother to tell them otherwise when he sent Crystal and her group on this particular mission, which in turn meant that they had absolutely no idea that it was being used for evacuations right up until the last minute, thus making their job harder than it needed to be because of all the extra ponies walking around. Thankfully, and mercifully, the group was patient enough to wait until a good deal of time had passed, allowing them to slip through the streets unnoticed while most of the ponies were sound asleep. Finally, after about anther half hour, the Gemnites were able to circle their way around towards the back of Twilight’s castle, stopping right in front of a single wooden door that served as the back entrance.

“Alright, here we are,” Crystal declared quietly, barely able to contain her excitement as she jumped on the spot. “Okay, do your thing, Roughy!”

Upon hearing his name, Roughcut put on a goofy smile and quickly made his way in front of the group. With a quick burst of his enormous strength, he then gripped the doorknob and ribbed the entire door right off its hinges locks and all, that task may not have been as loud as simply punching a hole through the door itself but regardless some noise was made, a fact that quickly put the Gemnites on edge.

“Hurry, someone might have heard that!” Crystal barked, quickly ushering them into the castle.

Once inside, all six Gemnites instantly began running through the hallways, their padded feet barely making a sound over the crystal floor as they all navigated through the castle with as much speed as they could muster. Soon enough they all came to a stop as they reached a T shape corridor, once there, Crystal then began to relay her next set of instructions.

“Alright, now remember the plan,” she said. “Team A is on Havoc, Team B is on Redecorating, everyone got it?”

Seeing that each and every one of her cohorts were giving a nod with understanding, Crystal’s diamond toothed smile widened.

“Good, and break!” she declared.

With that the Gemnites split into two groups of three and each took a different direction down the corridor, with Sheen, Misty Blue and Roughcut going left, and Crystal Dust, Ruby and Topaz going right.

With Sheen’s group, they spent the first several minutes simply navigating through the series of hallways before, searching for a particular room. Soon enough they managed to find their way into the Castle’s kitchen, of course this wasn’t the room they were looking for but feeling the need to catch their breath, all three Gemnites felt no guilt whatsoever in stopping here for the moment. At this point in time, the Gemnites felt it was safe enough to allow themselves a little light, thus turning on the glow in their gem-encrusted skin, with Sheen giving of a soft green glow from his emeralds, thus adding to a gentle blue from Misty’s sapphires, and of course a calm purple from Roughcut’s amethysts. With a little extra light, Sheen and his team were able to catch a good glimpse of the room they were in, from appearance alone it looked much like any other standard Kitchen but with a definite amount of size to it, had the room been fully staffed then it would have taken at least 50 ponies to fill it. It was a rectangular shaped room with work benches along the walls, ones with multiple sinks on one side and a series of stove ovens on the other, and in the centre was one large island bench that took up most of the floor space, above that were of course the hanging rails where a series of pans were hung up by their handles. Even under the dim light of their gems, the Gemnites couldn’t help but feel impressed, none more so than Sheen.

“Man, these royals really know how to live, don’t they?” he commented, Roughcut nodding in agreement.

Misty on the other hand, merely scoffed at the notion.

“Pft, please,” she retorted. “They’re just a bunch of saps like the rest of those stupid ponies.”

Sheen couldn’t help but roll his eyes at that, out of all of the members of their group Misty was the most pessimistic, always trying to be the “cool” one and making the ponies out to be beneath her. Sheen on the other hand was quite the opposite.

“Oh I don’t know, I’d say they definitely have good taste in wine,” he commented, instantly snatching up one of the wine bottles from its rack and uncorking it with his teeth, taking a deep inhale to let to delectable aroma seep in. “Ooh, a Rainbow Rose’, an excellent vintage.”

Now it was Misty’s turn to roll her eyes.

“Hey, are we here to drink, or are we here to trash the place!?!” she snapped, pointing an accusing finger at the green Gemnite.

“I don’t see why we can’t do both,” Sheen chuckled in response, taking in a huge gulp as he downed the entire bottle in seconds.

It was then that Misty felt the need to let out a heavy sigh as she smacked her forehead in irritation.

“You know, I don’t think I’ll ever understand why Crystal made YOU her second in command,” she commented, causing Sheen to raise an eyebrow.

“Probably because of my charm,” he joked, causing Misty to sigh again.

Knowing that they couldn’t waste any more time than they already have with this little detour to the Kitchen, Sheen and Misty decided to get going with the mission again and continue looking for the room they needed to be in. Of course some were a little more enthusiastic that others.

“Roughcut!” Misty snapped, realising that the larger Gemnite was paying more attention to a vase on the bench than he was on her and Sheen. “Put those flowers back!”

Needless to say, Roughcut jumped with surprise once his attention was drawn away from the vase of flowers he was holding, finally snapping back into reality, he reluctantly put the vase down and instead took only one of the flowers, only to place it inside a small black book from a pouch in his belt.

“Aww,” he sighed, closing the book and returning it to its pouch.

After that, the three Gemnites then left the kitchen and continued to sneak through the hallway, each of them taking a small peak behind every other door one by one, finally arrive at a pair of double doors, Sheen couldn’t help but smirk when he saw just what was inside.

“My friends,” he declared, still keeping his voice down as to not draw any unwanted attention. “I believe we have just hit the jackpot!”

Giving the doors a good kick, Sheen then revealed to Misty and Roughcut just what was in the room. With the light of their gems giving them just enough illumination, the three Gemnites found themselves to be inside a large circular room with crystal walls filled to the ceiling with shelves upon shelves of books, all based on different subjects, though that particular detail didn’t really interest the Gemnites. What’s more, aside from a few small tables here and there, most of the floor space seemed to be taken up a large assortment of trunks and suitcases, making the room appear more like a storage warehouse rather than the library it truly was. With one shared look between the Gemnites, one thing was for certain, things were about to get fun, really fast.

Meanwhile, with Crystal Dust’s group, they had finally managed to make their way to the upper levels of the castle, while Sheen and his comrades were to focus on causing mayhem downstairs, Crystal and her partners needed to do something a little more… personal.

“Okay, so what are we doing again?” Topaz asked, scratching his head in confusion.

Upon hearing that question for a THIRD time, Crystal couldn’t help but groan, in fact that she was so annoyed that the lights emanating form her diamonds began to flicker in response.

“Ugh, for the last time, Topaz,” she growled. “Our job is to go into that Princess’s room, rough her up a little bit, and then cause enough chaos, that she has no choice but to follow our trail all the way back to Canterlot, seriously, how could you forget a plan so simple?”

For anyone else’s perspective the plan did sound simple enough, in fact once Tak told Crystal Dust and her five cohorts about it, it did sound pretty straightforward. Of course actually following through with said instructions proved to be more difficult than it needed be, especially with the fact that more ponies than usual just happened to have moved into the town. Granted the Gemnites knew of the evacuation, after all one would have to be stupid to not notice that the entirety of Canterlot had been emptied out, but still Crystal never would have imagined that most of the populous would end up coming down to this back-water town, especially some of the aristocrats. What’s more, Tak failed to mention just how the Gemnites were meant to escape after they caused enough mayhem, which meant that he either trusted them to make their own decision, or he just couldn’t care less. Either way, neither Crystal Dust nor her cohorts could refuse their creator’s command, it just wasn’t their nature.

“Well to be honest I usually just zone out as soon as you say the word, ‘mayhem’,” Topaz chuckled, answering Crystal’s question and giving off a sheepish shrug of the shoulder.

At that moment, Crystal couldn’t help but pinch the bridge of her nose with irritation, she had hoped to not get saddled with the crazy member of her group, but alas she lost the coin toss. However as much as Topaz annoyed her, Crystal attention was soon drawn away from him and towards a certain young Gemnite bringing up the rear, shivering like a leaf and barely able to keep her rubies lit up any brighter than a dimmed candle. With her caring attitude once again taking over her chaotic one for the moment, Crystal then turned to the young Gemnite and placed a paw on her shoulder.

“Hey, you okay there, Ruby?” she asked, not really needing to hear the answer to know just what was bothering her.

“It’s j… just so dark,” Ruby whimpered, once again causing Crystal to sigh.

“I know, sweetie,” Crystal replied, lifting Ruby’s chin up so that they’re eyes were meeting. “Look, as soon as this job is done, I promise to steal you some ice-cream.”

At those words, Ruby couldn’t help but force a smile, Crystal always seemed to know just what to say whiner she felt a little off, granted Sheen tried his best but Crystal always seemed to be better at it.

“R… really?” Ruby uttered in response.

Crystal smiled at that.

“Of course,” she replied reassuringly. “Think you can be brave for me until then?”

With Crystal’s sound voice still echoing in her ear, Ruby forced out another smile of her own and gave the Diamond-encrusted Gemnite a small nod in response.

“Atta girl,” Crystal said, giving Ruby a small part of the head. “Now all we gotta do is…”

“Hey, ain’t that her!?!” Topaz blurted out, cutting Crystal off Mid-sentence.

Instantly reacting, Crystal instantly turned out the lights from her gems, quickly ushering the other two Gemnites to do the same, albeit Ruby being a little more reluctant. Shrouding themselves in darkness once more, the Gemnites then peered over the corner where they standing in the corridor to indeed see someone else there, it was only by a miracle of luck that Topaz’s little outburst didn’t alert them to the Gemnite’s presence. In any case it was lucky the Topaz DID spot the new individual walking through the hall, otherwise he or she might have noticed the light from their gems.

“Well it’s hard to tell,” Crystal admitted in a light whisper. “But whoever this is, she does seem to match the physical description Tak gave us.”

Of course, Crystal couldn’t really be certain of her on answer to Topaz’s statement, unlike Diamond Dogs, or any other kind of canine in all honesty, Gemnites were unable to see in the dark as they could, that being one of the primary factors in the fact that Ruby was scared of it. Obviously Crystal wondered why such a thing could be true, but eventually she came to the conclusion that it was because she and her kind her created by magic and not born like regular dogs, thus having no physical adaption to such a thing. And because of this little flaw in their biology, it did in fact make it difficult to see the pony walking into her room, however while it may have been dark, Crystal and Topaz could definitely make out SOME features, clearly the pony they were looking at was a mare judging from the body shape, plus the mane and tail looked almost exactly like the straight style Princess Twilight Sparkle had, even down to the bangs, in other words, this HAD to have been their target, granted they couldn’t see the wings in the dark but obviously it must have been because she had them folded up.

“Alright, let’s get this over with, shall we?” Topaz said, with a sly grin. “I wanna rip this place apart!”

For once, Crystal had to agree with the orange Gemnite, the sooner they got this job done, the sooner the real fun can begin. After watching the mare walk into her room and close the door behind her, she then began leading the other two towards it.

“Come on,” she whispered.

Sharing a confident nod, between them, the Gemnites wasted no time in rushing towards the bedroom door, not even bothering to turn their lights back on, they quickly made a complete stop in front of it with evil smirks etched upon their faces.

“After you,” Topaz chuckled, playfully opening the door to let the other two in.

Feeling the need to play along, one thing seemed to be an appropriate answer for such a statement.

“Thank you Jeeves,” Crystal replied teasingly.

And with that, all three Gemnites entered the bedroom, quickly springing into action as the mare inside was all too late to do anything about her new uninvited guests.