Not Incompetent

Chapters

Chapter 2 - Fort Hale
Chapter 3 - Black Walk
Chapter 4 - Hives and Psychos
Chapter 1 - Jailbreak

Chapter 2 - Fort Hale

Towering above the cloud layer is a massive, blocky fortress. They massive complex seems to have been hewn from a single, monumental slab of rock, with precision and detail known only to the most skilled of craftsmen and artisans. The four corner spires extend downward rather than upward, and hold four massive crystals firmly in place, allowing the complex to be fully stablized in the air, where it is suspended by a much more massive crystal that seems to be growing from the base of the massive building.

This is Fort Hale. The last bastion of light in a world of darkness. Unfortunately, it doesn't shine all that bright. The Solar Cult, the Freedom Fighters, the Minutemen, the Crusaders, the Paladins. They go by so many names, and they call this place their home, headquarters, and sole refuge. They are not powerful, but they are smart, enough so that Nightmare Moon has been unable to find them. At least, not so far.

The fortress itself is cut up in five sections. The largest, known as the Half, though it is merely one third of the fortress' area, is outfitted with agricultural technology, sleeping quarters, and a cafeteria. The second largest, Levitation, is one area in five, and it is simply where the gems reside. Nothing happens here unless a gem is damaged in some way.

The strangest is the labs. Uncertain size, they defy all physics in their construction. They were a small broom closet until they were expanded into a series of massive factory-style rooms, each the size of the entire fortress, for a total of thirty seven extra fortresses of space in what used to be a closet.

Second smallest is the infirmary, comprised of seven rooms. The smallest is the Shadowgrove. Not much happens in the Shadowgrove, unless someone dies. It serves as the cemetary, and Archra, an undead dragon, serves as the gatekeeper, or rather, the gravedigger.

The Shadowgrove, however, is unimportant right now, because Twilight isn't IN the Shadowgrove, she's in the infirmary, unconscious, having her malnutrition and atrophied muscles fixed. She lies motionless and undreaming as she lies in the cot, though after being stuck in a dream for so very long, when she awakes she might see it as the blessing it is.

After all, Nightmare Moon might be able to track the dream.

Looking over Twilight is none other than the former princess, Cadance. She gives a heaving sigh as she looks at the unconscious form of what was practically her little sister all those years ago. She brushes a few errant strands of her mane from her face, and sets herself down in a seat next to the bed.

She turns to the door as it clicks in, and Chrysalis steps in, her chitinous hooves clicking on the tile flooring. The holes in her hooves are filled with a sticky cyan substance, doing its best to stay in the holes, but slowly leaking regardless. She looks a bit uncomfortable, but whether it's due to the substance or the unconscious mare in the room is unsure.

"Chryssie," Cadance smiles at the Queen of all remaining changelings. She pats the cushion next to her, and Chrysalis sits down on it. "How was... How did the mission go?" Chryalis' eyebrows rise.

"I hadn't told you?" Cadance shakes her head, and Chrysalis sighs. "We somehow managed to eliminate fifty guards while only losing three changelings... Problem is, as vital as Twilight here is," she nods at the unconscious mare, "She's the only agent we managed to rescue. And..." She sighs, bracing herself. "We don't know if she'll even be willing to help us."

Cadance rounds on Chrysalis, who withers under the glare of the former princess of love. "Listen, here, Chrysalis," Cadance starts, poking Chrysalis in the chest, who winces at hearing her whole name, "Twily is compassionate, loyal, and kind. Yeah, she's a nerd, but she'll always fight for who she cares about, and even without the mares she declared to the Nightmare were her genuine friends being here, there's still me, and I was like a big sister to her, if you haven't forgotten!"

Chrysalis winces, and takes the time to think over her words. A minute goes by before she responds. "I haven't forgotten, Cady. Even if I had, your love for her is so strong I can't just smell it, I can see it. Far more than-" She cuts herself off with a shake of her head, unwilling to bring such a thing up. "Even with love, even with such a strength of character to fight for those she loves... she's gone up against the Nightmare before, and that was twenty years ago."

She looks out of the window, up at the everpresent moon, shining its pale light into the room heartlessly. Chrysalis opens her mouth and goes on, "She has gotten stronger. Stronger than she was even before the Elements sealed her. You know this, I know this, there is no doubt Twilight knows..." She looks over the mare in the bed, and gives a light huff. "She failed against her when she was, at most, only at 10% capacity. She's at practically 270% now, so you know what she'll think?"

Chrysalis' horn lights up, and before Cadance can protest, show displeasure, or anything, a magical hologram of Twilight, Cadance and Chrysalis interacting pops up in the middle of the room. "You want me to what?" The Holo-Twilight yells, pointing angrily at Cadance with her hoof, "I can't do that, did you forget what happened? HUH?! I nearly DIED! I just barely survived, and only because Nightmare Moon found her morals for a second!" Holo-Cadance, real Cadance, and Holo-Chrysalis all sink at those words.

"I'm not going to give my life in a meaningless sacrifice!" She goes on, "I had an idea the first time, and you all know how THAT brilliant plan worked out!" She steps up close to Holo-Cadance, "One of my best friends, my family, or no, I'm not going to fight a demon that can overpower me with a thought for you!" She rounds on Holo-Chrysalis, getting up in her face, and stomping hard enough to create cracks in the ground, "And YOU! I don't even KNOW you!" The hologram, and cracks in the floor dissipate as Chrysalis looks sadly upon a crying Cadance, and puts her hoof on her shoulder.

"I don't want to hurt you. Even if it didn't physically feel pain from you being upset, it would still hurt. I'm just saying... It isn't likely that she'll be willing to help, given how badly she takes failure." Cadance sobs, sniffles, and shakes her head, muttering.

"No, no, she'll help, I know it, she'll help, no, no, no, she'll help..."

Chrysalis pats her companion on the back, and looks to the door as it creaks open again. A ten-year-old Alicorn filly is standing on the other side. A pitch black coat and a pink mane and tail are her most pominant features, though the slit pupils and small fangs are definitely visible as well. She flaps her wings anxiously as she looks at Twilight. Her bent horn gives a few weak sparks of magic. Her eyes show great concern, and she nearly trips over the doorframe's base as she enters.

"This is Twilight?" The filly asks, in a wierdly mature voice, looking up at the figure on the bed. She turns to Chrysalis as she nods, and sees Cadance crying, and denying. "What's wrong with Momma Cadance?" She asks, rushing up to her, the concern in her eyes tripling.

Chrysalis rubs Cadance's back as she mumbles, and responds in lieu of the pink pony. "Momma Cadance is upset because I'm not sure Twilight is going to stay. I'm scared that she'll be scared and leave." The filly's jaw drops, and she nuzzles Cadance.

"Don't worry Momma Cadance! Auntie Twilight will help us! I know she will! She loves you!" Cadance is shaken from her horrified denials at this just to smile and pat the filly on the head reassuringly.

"Mommy Chryssie just isn't thinking straight," Cadance assures her daughter.

"Mommy Chryssie is so thinking straight, Lightning" Chrysalis denies to her daughter. "I'm just thinking negatively." Cadance and Lightning both roll their eyes, having seen this before whle thing before, and the tension filling the air evaporates in an instant, making both Chrysalis and Lightning feel a lot less on edge.

They all turn to Twilight as she rolls around in her sleep. Cadance's eyes widen, and her smile grows. "She's waking up," she squeals exitedly, as Twilight opens her eyes. She turns the bleary orbs to the other three in the room, seeing blurs, but not hardly comprehending anything.

She shakes her head, and blinks the blurriness away, throwing her head back onto the pillow when she meets Cadance's eyes. Short giggles come out as she stares at the marble ceiling. "Hehehe... Cadance, you won't believe this."

Cadance's eyebrow rises, as Twilight continues giggling at the ceiling. "I had this... this crazy dream." Chrysalis has to keep Lightning from jumping on Twilight to introduce herself, and the merriment, both physical and edible, just makes her fight harder to get out and make friends.

Twilight glances at Cadance, and coughs, before giggling more. "I, well... Okay, I was in this cell, right, and there was this grey dog with red speckles." Chrysalis hears Granbull sneeze from the hallway. "And I just scream, so he tells me to be quiet, he's breaking me out." Twilight smiles, and lets out giddy, "Heeeee..."

"Hehe, so, I'm following him around, he picks up this blue torch, and we walk up some stairs. A lot, actualy. We pass by a bunch of crazy skeletons, and then we see SOMBRA of all ponies waiting at the top." Cadance chuckles as she hears Sombra's echoing sneeze from outside the door. Twilight's brow furrows, and then she shakes her head.

"So, anyway, they talk about someone called the Queen, and the Black Whore, who is, apparently, Nightmare MOON, and, then we rush into the courtyard, and this crazy pony shows up with a wagonload of knives hovering around her!" She throws her forelegs in the air for emphasis.

"Then, she takes one look at me, and teleports away, then we go to the edge of the prison, and who comes to take us away but the Queen, who it turns out, was CHRYSALIS! Isn't... That..." She turns to face Chrysalis, who is holding a squirming Lightning with a sheepish grin.

The merriment and joy on Twilight's face fades quickly, replaced by the frown of all frowns. "Ponyfeathers."

========

"And this is my room! The best room! Because I'm the mechanic! Have I mentioned that?!" Lightning exclaims, hovering around her newly dubbed 'Auntie Twilight'. 'Excitable' is a good word for describing the little filly, and a word that Twilight decides would be good to stick to.

Lightning's room is massive, a space not unlike a warehouse, the floor covered with all sorts of machines and blackboards, and the walls and catwalks not faring much tidier. The filly smiles at Twilight, and then rushes straight at a blackboard, slamming into it headfirst.

Before Twilight can even cry out in shock, the blackboard launches her through the air, she hopscotches along some tesla coils set up in a line on a series of tank-like machines, and she bounces off a strategically placed mattress up onto a catwalk. She leans over the yellow and black striped rails, grinning down at Twilight.

"I'd say, 'Now you try!' but I don't think you have enough pegasus magic to just jump on a tesla coil unharmed. In fact, I doubt you have any at all." She leans back on the railing arrogantly, looking for all the world like a black Rainbow Dash, right down to the hair. "Stairs are over there," She gestures to the staircase beside the wall, "Good luck getting to them, Double D rearranges my lab every now and then to keep me on my toes."

"Honestly, it helps me think to be in an entirely unfamiliar environment," she monologues as Twilight begins to navigate the maze, "We need lots of machines and weapons to fight Nightmare, so I need to come up with new stuff all the time, or she'll start countering them." She shivers, though Twilight doesn't see. "Don't ever mention Las Pegasus around Sombra. Ever see a Shadow cry? It's creepy. He was sobbing on the ground, but in a cultured monotone. It almost sounded sarcastic, which makes it worse, because he's genuinely hurting."

Twilight glances up at Lightning as a pain strikes her chest at the thought of the prideful king brought so very low. Evil he may have been, he was a stoic pillar of strength for the empire, and now, with the good stallion he appears to be, it only makes the image worse. "Yeah, so don't do that. Worst failure in the Minutemen's history. Archra sent a hundred fighters through the Shadowgrove. And that's just what we recovered."

Lightning shivers again as Twilight makes her way up the stairs. "On a lighter note, now we know to constantly update our- oh, hey, when did you get here?" Lightning suddenly notices Twilight's presence, and the she gives a flat stare to the halfbreed, who is still leaning on the rail.

"Twenty years ago," Twilight replies sarcastically, and Lightning withers. Twilight's ears fall flat against her head, realizing that that was most certainly NOT the right thing to say. "I-I, uh, s-sorry? Is that a, uh, a sensitive subject?"

"Yeah, sorta," Lightning gives her morose reply, "I'm uh... It was THE worst day in ponykind's history." She rubs the back of her head. "This isn't the worst thing ever for the 'Taurs an' dragons, and, you know, whatever, but for ponies, the newest race? Yup."

"That, uh, reminds me, actually," Twilight tries to turn the conversation in a different direction as they start walking down the catwalk, "Where's Spike? He a big, strong dragon like he always wanted?"

Lightning's ears fall to the sides of her head. Twilight looks at her in concern as she walks on silently. Her steps seem unsure and shuddering, a definite bad sign. Twilight swallows thickly hoping with all her heart that maybe, just maybe, it isn't as it appears.

Lightning doesn't speak, not for a long time. They move across the entirety of the catwalk, entering the room at the end. Full of all you'd expect to find in a filly's bedroom, if you replace the dolls and stuff with small machines. She moves slowly over to a cabinet.

The thing is massive, and made entirely of brass. There are tubes and pumps all along the edges, like accents, but running as though serving a purpose. Twilight is intrigued by the device, but very concerned by Lightning's lack of response. She opens her mouth, but Lightning holds up a hoof.

She takes a deep breath, and slowly lets it out. "No."

"N-No?" Twilight can feel her breath quickening, her heartbeat picking up the pace, and sweat already pouring from her glands. Tears begin to well up in her eyes, knowing in her heart what the case must be.

"No. He is not a big and strong dragon. He... isn't dead, but he's gone. For good. Nothing comes back from Oblivion." Twilight doesn't register nearly any of this. "Oblivion is like the afterlife, but... not. It's filled with nothing. It's a pessimistic afterlife."

"He can't contact us, because by all rights, he doesn't exist. Never did, either. That's what Oblivion does. Nothing he did ever happened anymore, but he exists still, and he's... suspended. Indefinitely. Not dead, but... long gone..." Lightning's head falls, and Twilight's follows suit.

"What... Happened?" Twilight looks up at her neice, the black filly, blinking slowly, and then turning back to the cabinet. She presses a circular indention in the center, and twists it to the right. The cabinet opens outward, and begins to look like a cask with what is inside.

A near skeletal creature is covered with brass, and fused to tubes of all sorts. The being is bipedial, and short, giving Twilight no room to doubt who it is. "S-Spike...?" Lightning nods.

"His mind is unrecoverable, but his body is alive. Of course, unrecoverable is... not exact. We might someday recover him, but for now... I'm the only one who can service his life support. He dies, and he's gone forever." Twilight sinks to the floor before her comatose, long-term best friend. "I can tell you what happened."

Twilight, numb with grief, nods.

"Okay... where do I start...?"

Author's Note

Sorry for the wait, guys. Hopefully, number three will be up by Friday.

Gods Be With You

-Palladium

Chapter 3 - Black Walk

When you and the Bearers failed, and were imprisoned, Spike... nearly killed himself in grief. No, don't make that face, you'd do the same if it were him. I have no doubt that you never stopped considering it throughout my earlier explanation, Auntie. Still, he didn't do it. He hardened.

He wasn't the same dragon anymore. He may not have looked different, but he sure carried himself different. He didn't waddle anymore. He strode. He didn't look unsure about anything. He studied for two years until he was more versed in magic than you, and more in military than even Celestia. Okay, maybe not that good, but good. He couldn't be weak, him being weak, in his mind, got you killed.

He lead over a hundred successful infiltration missions. On those hundred mission, he lost only twenty-four... you probably don't know this, but after a half-baked plan involving a mirror, we started calling our soldiers 'men.' Oh, you know what those are? Okay.

He lost twelve men, in a hundred infiltrations. No other officer had that good a record. What makes his record better? He lost those twenty-four on his hundredth. He had zero deaths and ninety-nine missions. You should be proud.

On top of that, his men killed over twenty thousand of Nightmare's little puppets. Don't look like that, we couldn't save them, you think we hadn't tried? He himself had a kill count higher than any other officer, at a whopping thousand.

Five percent of kills on a mission. Crazy, right? And all the while being, like, half an average pony's height? Insane! But he did it. Without a single injury, he killed a thousand thralls. Yeah, I changed the name, it's interchangeable. Puppet, thrall, minion, whatever.

It all changed in operation Black Walk. I have the files, if you'd like to look through them? Alright. Here's the files.

======

Casualties:
~~Shadow Streak (I) 17 Male [Recovered] {Decapitation}~~
~~Frost Wind (II) 25 Female [Recovered] {Pierced heart}~~
~~Grain Grind (I) 23 Female [Unrecovered]~~
~~Flurry Hearts (IV) 19 Female [Unconfirmed]~~
~~Freeze Wind (III) 40 Male [Recovered] {Asphyxiation}~~
~~Blur Flash (VII) 34 Male [Recovered] {Bleedout}~~
~~Green Leaves (V) 52 Female [Recovered] {Decapitation}~~
~~Black Sky (II) 18 Male [Unrecovered]~~
~~Cloudy Day (V) 23 Male [Recovered] {Bleedout}~~
~~Wind Wisp (VI) 29 Female [Recovered] {Torn windpipe}~~
~~Flood Waters (III) 17 Female [Unrecovered]~~
~~Lily Flower (II) 23 Female [Recovered] {Decapitation}~~
~~Black Sun (IV) 20 Female [Unconfirmed]~~
~~Viral Thorn (VI) 18 Male [Recovered] {Impalement}~~
~~Lackluster Gems (IV) 35 Female [Unrecovered]~~
~~Grounded Cloud (I) 16 Male [Recovered] {Pulverization}~~
~~Power Pound (I) 17 Female [Recovered] {Suicide}~~
~~Grass Clod (III) 24 Male [Recovered] {Shattered skull}~~
~~Hay Bake (II) 23 Female [Unrecovered]~~
~~Baked Cookie (VII) 34 Female [Recovered] {Killer overdose}~~
~~Mind Meld (VIII) 45 Male [Unconfirmed]~~
~~Crisp Morning (VI) 33 Female [Unrecovered]~~
~~Last Light (IV) 26 Male [Recovered] {Suicide}~~
~~Fury Froth (III) 24 Male [Recovered] {Suicide}~~
~~Drain Brain (V) 21 Female [Unconfirmed]~~
~~Wooden East (IX) 43 Male [Unconfirmed]~~
~~Beaver Maple (I) 16 Male [Recovered] {Collapsed ribcage}~~
~~Ground Pound (II) 31 Male [Recovered] {Head trauma}~~
~~Color Blast (IX) 44 Male [Recovered] {Suicide}~~

======

Yeah, suicide is often commited when there is no way out. Puppets like to take their sweet time, so it's the preferred alternative. Killer overdose? Let me see that... yeah, Killer. Actually, KL-3R. It's a drug that limits pain receptors. Many of our operatives use it in open combat, because you can't alway work through the pain, you know? Oh, the lines? That means that those words are redacted for others.

======

Survivors:
Twilight Twinkle (IV) 19 Female [PROMOTED TO V]
Rainbow Blast (IV) 19 Female [PROMOTED TO V]
Flitter Shine (IV) 19 Female [PROMOTED TO V]
Apple Crack (IV) 19 Female [PROMOTED TO V]
Ponkie Fry (IV) 19 Female [PROMOTED TO V]
Gregarity Maneas (IV) 19 Female [PROMOTED TO V]
Spykoranvellitar (X) 31 Male [UNRESPONSIVE]
Screwball (IX) 19 Female [PROMOTED TO X]

======

...No, Twilight, I'm sorry, but I'm not in any way screwing with you. This isn't a cruel joke, those are actually their names. Quit looking at me like that! It's the truth! Just read the action report. Auntie Screwy wrote it. Actually, you might want to check the mission specs first.

...What? I have a ton of 'Aunties'. I'm actually related to Screwy, though. She's actually my Aunt. Her dad is Momma Chryssie's dad. Who? Uh... You... Probably wouldn't believe me. I'll tell you later. Those six with names like you and your friends are also my biological Aunts. They were named in honor of you and the other bearers, actually. Grandpa Double D isn't great at names.

======

BLACK WALK
COMMANDER: SPYKORANVELLITAR (X)
SUBCOMMANDER: SCREWBALL (IX)

GOAL: Retrieve CE-3 from FROSTFALL COMPOUND. Failure is not an option, CE-3 is vital to operations.

INTEL: CE-3 is stored on SUBLEVEL 32.
CE-3 is guarded at all times by 15 SGB (Slade Golem Brute).
CE-3 LOCKUP is permanantly sealed. The door must be broken down to access CE-3.
FROSTFALL COMPOUND lacks security cameras.
FROSTFALL COMPOUND has up to 13 CMAT (Ceiling Mounted Auto Turret) per level.
FROSTFALL COMPOUND has no direct line to NIGHTCORE.
FROSTFALL COMPOUND has one entrance.
FROSTFALL COMPOUND is located at [REDACTED].

CONCLUSION: The Frostfall Compound is insane. High security, but can't talk to Nightmare. It's as though she'd been setting a trap, but different somehow. Take great care in the assault. Even I have no clue what in the world you might encounter. After all, there are no patrolling guards. 15 SGB total, and two handfuls of CMAT on each floor is ridiculously heavy, but where are the guards? keep an eye out, and if things get too hot to handle, retreat. Failure IS an option, men, so long as most of you survive. Don't die. Good luck.

-DD

======

...Yeah grandpa wrote the briefing. No, I can't tell you where the compound is located. Only Auntie Screwy knows. Anyone at or under Grade IX is disallowed from that information, even those that took part in Black Walk... No, it's enchanted. You have Grade VIII right now, so you can see the casualty list. Otherwise you'd just see a page covered with REDACTED. Yeah, security measures are a bitch, but all of this is really sensitive, you know? We have to sweep the compound for sleepers every month.

...That lesson was a much harder learn than the Las Pegasus thing, actually.

You can only see the thing about Spike getting Oblivioned because you are listed as his next of kin, what with... Anyway, here's the report.

======

I'd like to open by saying that, no, we didn't fail to retrieve CE-3. The mission was a failure regardless. We lost all but eight of our number, and one got ~~Oblivioned. Side note, it says on Commander Spike's file that we are NOT under any circumstances to reveal it if he ever gets Oblivioned, we are to inform others that he is comatose and heavily wounded. Nobody will know the difference.~~

Intel was completely right about all the measures. However, they were wrong about one thing. They didn't lack a line to NIGHTCORE, the ~~bastards~~ were waiting on the other side of the ~~fucking~~ {REDACTED}. When we tripped the alarm, they swarmed us. We had the {REDACTED} in hand, and we got there without a single death! And then they caught us with our ~~fucking~~ pants down!

~~Beaver~~ took a BLACK HOLE to the chest! That's when we turn around, and who do we find but NIGHTMARE ~~FUCKING~~ MOON?! She's got that fucking traitor {REDACTED} with her, watching him tear into Commander Spike, and she's just laughing that creepy ~~fucking~~ laugh of hers, like it's the funniest thing she's ever seen! An NT rushes us and blows, completely vaporizing ~~Hay, Lackluster, and Crisp~~, and all we can do is stand there and watch 'cause she turned the ~~fucking~~ gravity up!

Anyway, she ~~Oblivions~~ the Commander, and we're all officially up a ~~shit~~ creek without a paddle, now! We can't call reinforcements, we can't do this, we can't do that, we can't do jack ~~SHIT~~ with the gravity up like that, 'till she just up and leaves, giving us a fighting chance. "Give 'em hell!" Flitter screamed, I recall, and pulled out a chain gun that I am ninety percent sure she didn't have ten minutes ago, and mows down swathes of thralls. In reality she probably only killed like, fifty, but she downed at least three hundred, and it was glorious. She survived, and I am recommending her for promotion.

Who pops up next but bloody Knife ~~Bitch~~ and starts throwing knives haphazardly?! There goes ~~Grass, Ground, Viral, Lily, and Wind~~, before she pops out too, leaving us with five fewer men to get out of this with. I have no ~~fucking~~ clue where ~~Wooden, Drain, or Mind~~ are at this point.

Twinkle manages to mind control a thrall in the middle of a group, and makes him pull a grenade. He doesn't throw it. She wiped out a good hundred thralls in that one move. She made it out, so I'm recommending her for promotion as well.

~~Color, Last, and Fury~~ get surrounded, and Blast Nukes the surrounding combatants... three seconds after they commit suicide. Still, she managed to kill {REDACTED}, and just for that, I'd say she deserves a promotion. I don't see much else as we retreat.

Crack and Fry manage to {REDACTED} their computer, which wasn't just amazing, it was beautiful. After they got all the info, they set the facility to self destruct. The AI was furious, 'cause she couldn't do JACK. I'd like to recommend them as well.

The only other one that gets out is Gregarity, who manages to decapitate ~~Foreca Allegra~~. I'm sure you remember Nightmare's level 2 commander from my other reports? I have to say she earned a promotion. ~~Yes, it seems like nepotism, and I guess it kind of is, but when you go into a compound like that, and your siblings are the only ones that make it out, nepotism is kind of unavoidable.~~

[END OF REPORT]

======

"I always knew he had it in him to be a hero..." Twilight mutters, staring up at the prone form in the cabinet. Lightning nods sorrowfully. Twilight binks, slowly, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'll find a way to bring you back, Spike..." She mutters, choked, "I'll bring you back..."

Lightning places a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, pressing the button to reseal the cabinet. She gives her a reassuring shake, an awkward smile gracing her features. "God," she jokes, "It is weird to comfort someone over twice my age." Twilight smiles back, softly.

The ache in her chest has lessened greatly at the knowledge that Spike is really alive, and that some day, he might be woken up. But, for now, he has to stay in the cabinet, kept alive by the various machines that her apparent niece built to sustain him.

The ache remains, though. In the core of her being is a gaping hole, bleeding sadness into everything she feels, even the relief that her sort-of son is alive. She might never see him again, still. His mind is gone, maybe to never return. All she has now is a husk, and she can still feel that eating away at her.

Lightning's enthusiasm is still a great help. She's right, too. Who better to find a magical means to an impossible task than the Element of Magic herself? Maybe it was just a dream, but Twilight knows in her soul that what she did, what made her ascend, was real, and within her all along. Now, she has to use that power, that potential, to bring Spike back.

She's shaken out of her determined reverie by Lightning clearing her throat. She shakes her head, blinking a couple times, and then gives her niece a sheepish grin. "Sorry."

Lightning smiles understandingly. "Yeah, I get lost in my head too. I said, you wanna see the changelings? We got a sweet hive in... one of these warehouses..." Lightning rubs her chin, trying to remember which warehouse houses the changeling hive.

She sends out a pulse to her mother over the Mental Intel Networking Distributor, and receives a MIND pulse back with the information she needs. "It's Warehouse Three. Interested?" She smiles hopefully, and even with her negative experiences with changelings, Twilight can't help but smile and nod.

"Alright! Let's go see us a hive!"

Chapter 4 - Hives and Psychos

A changeling hive is much like you'd expect, and yet nothing at all like you'd expect. Changelings are base creatures that mimic others, are incapable of original or independent thought, are directly controlled by their Queen, the only sentient changeling in the hive, are worked from the day they mature to the day they die, feed exclusively on emotions like bloodthirsty vampires, kidnap ponies and place them in fleshy pods, and when they die of hunger or emotional deprivation, the use the carcass to make a new generation of changelings when the Queen lays eggs in it. Right?

Wrong.

Almost none of the above is true. Three words, however, were true. "Changelings," and "mimic others". Changelings are all independent beings.

The Queen is the highest authority of the hive, but does not give birth to any changelings except the next queen, and other princesses that will serve as generals, advisors, consorts, whatever the Queen needs of her sisters. She is much like a Minosian King.

The Queen does not control the changelings like mindless puppets. Each changeling is capable of independent thought, has their own personality, can be bad or good, kind or cruel, A or B, and is, in essence, a person, through and through. They even have a similar thing to Cutie Marks, though it is a mark for identification, not talent, due to the lack of genetic diversity in changelings.

Changelings do not kidnap ponies. This is, of course, not always true, like saying, "Minotaurs do not eat grass", because they are individuals, and there have been changelings that kidnap ponies, encase them in those cocoon things, and drain them dry of any emotions whatsoever. Changelings had not been observed to actually eat food for a very long time. The rumors started somewhere, see.

That covers how the preconceptions are wrong. Preconceptions are often followed by fiction, and fiction by what are usually rather entertaining stories and books. The most famous book to describe a changeling hive in fiction is 'The End Clock'.

Now, 'The End Clock' can be described some other day, what needs to be known is the changeling hive in the book.

"It was a cold, lifeless place. Like an unimaginative honeycomb, square holes were dug into the wall, coated with green, translucent, pulsating material, glowing as though it were in shade, not underground. Black shapes flitted about, only visible in how they blocked the light. There was a strange hissing filling the air. 'Who is this pony,' it seemed to ask, 'Why is he here?' I myself did not know." 'The End Clock'. Chapter 3. Blue Quill.

Blue Quill certainly did his research. While not exactly as he described, a hive is, in fact, quite similar. Minus the changelings milling about, the hive in 'The End Clock' matches an empty, abandoned, or 'lights out' hive almost perfectly. The differences are important to note.

A hive is built in many cubical rooms called Raine, which is the ancient changeling word for simply, 'room'. A Raine is exactly six meters in height, length, and width. The coating is put down, reducing size by a decimeter in each direction, resulting in a 5.8x5.8x5.8 meter room. When Raine are meant to have the same purpose, such as a hallway, or extended living room, or whatever, the wall between the two Raine is omitted, adding 5.8x5.8x.4 meters of area to the Raine per wall knocked down. All corners are kept in place as pillars, even if all the walls surrounding it are gone.

Doors are simply rectangles placed smack dab in the middle of a Raine wall, all exactly 1x2 meters, with a hole to insert the hoof and open or close door at the middle of one side or the other. Now, all of this seems extremely oversized, and it is, but for a reason. Changelings are much like insects, though their true origins are simply too convoluted and confusing to put to paper, and like to fly around like insects. Simple.

Now, warehouses are huge, but no way are they huge enough to support a hive, which undoubtedly has at least a thousand changelings, each with their own bathroom, and living room, and kitchen, and bedroom, each of which must be at least 1 Raine in size. Normally, that would be true.

Warehouse 3 is different. It is the size of the other thirty six Warehouses combined, minus warehouses 4, 5, and 6. It was made specifically FOR the hive. Of course, changelings aren't the only race living in the hive, as the occasional pony or griffon found inside will make evident, but they are by far the majority that live there. Warehouses 4, 5, and 6 are for the other races, which have less space each, but are not only far larger than normal, but surpass Warehouse 3 by far when combined.

Changelings are REALLY frickin' weird.

======

That's the vibe Twilight gets from Lightning, who she learns is NOT, in fact, adopted, but the actual, biological, oh, hey, Cadance is pregnant, CHILD of Chrysalis and Cadance.

The Shining that Twilight remembers would have a seizure.

Nobody in the fortress ever wants to talk about him, she gathers, and eventually comes to the conclusion that he went out in some embarrassing way, and didn't want his little sister to remember him like that. She nods to herself, filling with pride for her detective skills.

Lightning sends a glance her way, but shakes her head, leading onward through Warehouse 2. "The strangest warehouse," She had told Twilight, and she has to agree. The lack of gravity is rather disconcerting. Still, she's gone through worse, at least in her mind, with Discord's pranks.

And that one time she visited his house, which she will never speak of.

"DISCORD! How am I supposed to eat when THE FOOD IS ON THE CEILING?!"

"YOU are on the ceiling, Twilight!"

Anyway, the entrance to the hive is only a short distance from them now, and Twilight almost sags in relief, but she has to jump across an inexplicable gorge to reach the door. A triviality, if she still had her wings. Now, though, she has to charge her teleport to get over.

Lightning taps Twilight on the horn, cancelling the spell before she can go, and shakes her head. She points out a bridge over the gorge a bit to the left. "Still," Twilight asks, "The teleport was almost done, why'd you cancel it?"

Lightning glances at the bottomless pit behind Twilight. "Magic doesn't really work in here. You might've fell in, gravity tends to turn back on over pits," Lightning explains, "This room is the barrier between the civilian housing and the main fortress. It helps protect them in case of invasion."

"And the hive?" Twilight asks, moving towered the bridge.

"Is mostly civilians. Momma Chrysalis never had many soldiers. Against the former Equestrian military, a squad of civilians would have a decent chance, but against mindless thralls that cannot be tricked or frightened..." Lightning shrugs.

"You were helpless?" Twilight suggests as they cross. Lightning hesitates, seems to weigh her options, and nods.

"Pretty much."

Twilight sags at that revelation. The armada that had nearly leveled Canterlot, dream or no, stands no chance against Nightmare. She can almost feel her hopes get stabbed. She swallows thickly as the manage their way over to the door.

"Prepare yourself, Twilight, for green, and lots of it!" Lightning gushes, even as Twilight turns back to the purple and chartruse foliage behind her. The oddly not green plant-life makes her smirk.

"Green is good."

======

As it turns out, Twilight is a fucking liar. Green is most certainly not good. The instant she saw the green, hard slime, her nerves started to fray. She finally snapped smack dab in the middle of the hive when a changeling walked up to her and asked, humorously enough, for her autograph.

She curled up into a ball, horrified and weeping, right in the middle of a hive of changelings. If the unstable emotions coming off her weren't awkward enough, the sobbing purple ball in the middle of their home was more than enough to make the changelings feel uncomfortable in a big way.

Eventually, Chrysalis got involved, and Twilight was reduced to scrambling away, nickering and whinnying like a barbarian in an unseeing, unthinking, unreasoning panic, leaving her body almost completely run by instinct. Needless to say, both Lightning and her mother were left feeling somewhat uncomfortable, even more-so than the other changelings since Twilight's reaction was directed at the two.

They tried a hundred things. Nice, not nice, sorta nice, really not nice, bribe-like, blatant bribery, and a couple other strategies all failed to console her, or even calm Twilight down slightly. Now, Twilight is still sobbing fearful in the middle of the hive, everyling is feeling really unsure about themselves, and the one who asked for an autograph is sulking in the corner, feeling rather chastised and useless.

Cadance is rushing through the anti-gravity warehouse as quickly as possible, medical personnel in tow, which is unfortunately not very fast, leaving the panicked are to herself with the changelings, the scary, fangy, chitiny, love eating... y... CHANGELINGS, where she is feeling rather inclined to panic, sob, and then panic some more.

"Shh, Auntie Twilight..." Lightning strokes the troubled mare's mane, "It's gonna be okay." The sobs intensify, and the wave of negative emotions nearly knocks Lightning back physically.

"NO IT ISN'T!" Twilight wails, curling up tighter, "I'm surrounded by shapeshifting bugs that are gonna wrap me up in a cocoon and eat me!" The concern disappears from everyling's faces, replaced by a rather offended look.

"Twilight, you're being racist. I'm half changeling, Momma Chryssie is a changeling queen, and you've been surrounded by changelings for hours. If we were gonna do something, we'd have done it by now."

"Uh uh!" Twilight argues, curling up tighter, "I've seen it, Changeling LOVE to play with their food! Just when I let my guard down, WHAM! That's when they'll get me!" Lightning and Chrysalis blink, and the large changeling turns to her subjects.

"It seems," the regal changeling begins, "That our savior has been the victim of some terrible nightmares, no doubt inflicted upon her by Nightmare Moon." She sighs heavily, glancing backward at the mess of fur behind her, "She is not being racist, merely paranoid." Almost every changeling gives a sympathetic wince, and those who don't nod their understanding. "Indeed, it would be best if we were to give her some space, likely with my daughter, who she will likely be the most comfortable around."

Slowly, Chrysalis ushers the changelings all away from the sobbing mare, and the center of the warehouse, all the while Lightning sits beside her, awkwardly stroking her mane and shushing her. "Gods," Lightning mutters, "I hope the nurses get here soon."

======

"Cady I don't know what to doo-hoo-hoo..." Twilight sobs into her former foalsitter's shoulder. Cadance pats the lavender mare's shoulder, trying to sympathize with her as her wife and daughter sit awkwardly a few yards away.

"I know, Twily..." Cadance tells her in a soothing voice, while the doctors stand smugly to the side. Cadance already made it very clear that they aren't allowed to say anything, but they know, deep in their medically trained little hearts, that they were right and she was wrong.

"I... I... I should have just been left there..." Twilight mumbles, "I should've been left to my illusion. Now I have to deal with changelings... and Nightmare Moon... and Sombra... and probably Diamond Dogs and Tirek if things are going the way they look... Heck, I'll bet Discord is on Nightmare's side, just making things worse." Cadance pulls a flat look, staring into Twilight's eyes.

"No, we need you. You're an Element of Harmony, and when we find the others, we'll be able to beat Nightmare. You just have to believe." Twilight is less than inspired by Cadance's reassurances. She looks away, pawing at the dirt.

"I don't think we can. She beat us at her weakest, and now she's so much stronger. What chance do we have?" Twilight sighs, lying down, and letting the tears flow. "What can we dooo...?"

"You can suck it up," A doctor steps forward, light green coat nearly blending with the surrounding architecture, "and make tomorrow a better day. We have an enemy that has numbers, but highly outdated military tactics. We may lack numbers, but our military tactics have been bumped up to much higher levels in the past few years."

His black mane contrasts nicely with his coat, making for a more imposing figure when he says, "We have the ability to infiltrate a highly reinforced base and wreck it from the inside out. We can take the plans straight out of any captured officer's head. We can go to other bloody dimensions seeking help. We can do this, Ms. Sparkle. You just have to believe."

Twilight feels guilt flood her system for two reasons. Her sister-in-law (sorta) had tried for half an hour to comfort her to no avail, yet this doctor she doesn't even know the name of managd to make her feel better. The other reason is that, dream or no, she was an Alicorn princess, and she should be better than this.

Her head sinks to the floor, and she gives her feeble apology, "I'm sorry. You're right. I should just... keep moving forward, right? And we'll beat Nightmare, and we can all have our happily ever after. What's left of it to have, anyway." The doctor's eyebrows shoot above his maneline. He hadn't expected to be able to inspire a mare a good five years older than him, nor had he expected to do so when said mare didn't even know him.

Still, in the high of the moment, he turns to the pink former princess, and smugly informs her, "I told you, logic people respond to logic, and Twilight Sparkle, personal Protegee of Princess Celestia Herself, is a logic person." Cadance frowns at the doctor, who nervously turns away and clears his throat, "Ahem, of course, your emotional method may have weakened her depression's grip on her?" He smiles unsurely, eyes darting left and right.

Cadance huffs in annoyance, draping a wing over Twilight, and pulling her close. She turns to meet Twilight's amethyst eyes, and smiles softly. "We'll be okay, Twilight."

"So... you still wanna learn about changelings?" Lightning cuts in to the emotional moment. Everyone turns to her with a deadpan stare, except for Twilight, who giggles imperceptibly. "What? I brought her all the way here to tell her about changelings, and dang it, I've hardly said a thing!"

======

Emerald Grease is still riding that high from being right when the two hundred plus year old princess is wrong. He's feeling rather proud of himself over this as well, in fact, he might add it as an addendum to his research logs. Maybe a title. Emerald Grease, Bs., Ms., Phd., and Princess Cadance Correcter. Rolls right off the tongue.

The professional Pegasus had been quite clever in his deduction that a tactical approach to the situation would reach Twilight better than an emotional one could ever hope to achieve. Arrogance doesn't suit him well, he has to remind himself, as arrogance leads to death; confidence to greatness, but arrogance to death.

Still, it isn't like he can't preen a bit over being right when someone over five times his age was wrong. After all, not many people are over 150 years old, and he managed to correct one of them. To think that he, a mere pegasus, could outsmart an immortal, is sheer insanity, yet an insanity that took place.

He still can hardly believe that he and his colleagues, all coming to the same conclusion separately, would be right, when the immortal that knew the subject best was wrong. It's almost chaos it's so unlikely, so unexpected, some might even say ironic, that something like this could take place.

Who doesn't like the idea that in the past three years they went from the height of Equestrian military knowledge to the average of human military knowledge? Certainly Twilight doesn't fit into that category, she loved that news. Score one for Emerald.

Emerald suddenly realizes that he's been congratulating himself on his unofficial victory for seven minutes, blushes at the thought, and throws himself back into his work before anything else can grab his attention and delay him. Such as more arrogant thoughts.

======

Screwball has not been having a great day. Yay, Twilight's up, but can she see the supposed future world saver for herself? No, she has to stay here and make sure these recruits do their laps. She sighs to herself, wishing that gaps would stop opening and stop needing to be filled.

If soldiers would stop dying, she wouldn't have to replace them so much. If she didn't have to replace them so much, she'd be able to work on improving the dream wards and cloaks. If those go obsolete or fail, all life on their last base will go out like a light.

To think that not even twenty years ago, she was just a thought, is humbling. Not humbling enough to get to Screwball, though. She glares at the lagging zebra, who opens her eyes wide and starts hoofing it harder than Screwball had seen her go all day.

She zones back out of full focus, and ponders how to introduce herself to Twilight. "Hi, I'm a chaos monster that looks like a pony!" Yeah, no. "Hi, I'm a chaos NOT-monster that IS a pony!" Umm... no. "Hi, I'm Screwball, I served with your son, he was a good man." Much better.

Diamant is lagging really far behind, Screwball notes as she comes back to reality, and blows her whistle. "OI! BITCH! PICK IT UP, LASSIE! RUN RUN, OL' YELLER!" She hollers at the dog, who quickly meets up with the rest of the group.

Yes, things are going nicely for Screwball, good day or not. She just has to wait. And suffer the incompetence of the recruits. "AY! PICK UP THE PACE YA PRISSY, PANSY PRINCESSES! I'VE SEEN FASTER SNAILS!"

======

"So the hivemind is a... server?" Twilight asks, relating the MIND to her limited computer knowledge. Chrysalis nods with a small smile, happy with Twilight's understanding as Lightning tinkers in the far corner of the room.

"Yes, we store data on the MIND, and we can send messages through it or access it freely. If you aren't a changeling, there's a techno-magical chip that you can have implanted in your brain to give you the ability to access it." Twilight frowns.

"Sounds dangerous." Chrysalis gives a solemn nod, and Twilight, feeling she may be approaching an uncomfortable subject, changes the direction of their conversation.

"So, if we're both here to get to know each other better... why don't we start with introductions?" Twilight smiles unsurely. "Ahem," She clears her throat, and takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

Time to introduce herself to one of her most hated enemies on a blank slate, a fresh start with the monster that nearly wrecked Cadance and her brother's wedding. She shakes the thoughts away, careful not to take the action too literally. That was just a dream. This is now real life, and whether it's fun or not doesn't matter, nor does anything that happened in the dream. Time to make a friend.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle. I'm... 37? Years old, I love books, and I was Princess Celestia's pupil before she disappeared. I wield the Element of Magic, and I have a son," Her face falls, "but he's in a coma..." She shakes her head, and nods to Chrysalis with a soft smile.

"Ahem," the large insectoid clears her throat in a similar manner to Twilight, psyches herself up, and introduces herself. "My name is Queen Chrysalis of the Emerald Tribe. I'm 103 years old, I take great pride in the state of my subjects, and I was taught strategy by my mother, though it comes little in handy with zombies." She frowns at that, obviously unpleased at the uselessness of her education, "I wielded a powerful artifact known as Antithesis for ten years before it was stolen by Nightmare Moon, and I have two daughters. You've met Lightning, but Nymphadora is in deep cover, at her own insistence, in the Nightmare Allegiants, the only self-aware soldiers in Nightmare's army."

Twilight's eyes rise, out of her control. "Impressive daughters," She comments, thinking about the infiltration of Canterlot, "It must be hard for her to mimic some other pony." Chrysalis shakes her head with a gentle smile, one filled with pride.

"No, no, you see, each Tribe of Changelings has a special ability, and only rarely are new tribes born. Nymphadora is the first of a new tribe, and her presence will cause more Thunder Tribe to be born. Thunder Tribe has the ability to create unique forms, rather than simply copy, then summon from memory." Twilight's eyes are like saucers. "What separates them from the Ruby Tribe of the same ability, is that Thunders can be any race, even dragons."

At that point, Twilight's jaw is practically on the ground. There is so much she wants to ask. How is that possible, why does this happen, how does it work, what are the odds, and so many other things. They are all drowned under one thing, however.

"Nymphadora? That's a nice name." Chrysalis smiles back at Twilight's gleeful, friendly grin. She may not be the Princess of Friendship anymore, but Twilight still knows what she's doing.

======

Everyone's quarters are relatively austere, Twilight is coming to realize, and Lightning's room is more the result of tinkering than the result of any design. The quarters are extremely basic, yet still have a homey feel. Stone or no, a Living Room, Kitchen, Bedroom, and Bathroom are all important parts of a home, and with the comfortable looking design of each bit of furniture, it's quite nice.

The living room is about what you'd expect of a living complex. Small, has a couch and a couple chairs around a coffee table and a fireplace before it, a bookcase to the side. The wood has a pleasant reddish finish and a glossy look, making it feel modern yet traditional.

The Kitchen is entirely white tile except the ceiling. The cabinets run all along the upper wall, the tables all along the lower, and there is a refrigerator, a stove, an oven, a toaster, and a sink, all stainless steel, ready to be used and make some yummy breakfast, or whatever meals are called in a world of eternal night.

The bathroom is what you'd expect, wallpaper, white ceiling, tile floor, toilet, shower/tub, sink, medicine cabinet, and so many other useful, bathroomy things. Twilight felt rather excited to see that there was a book of trivia on the toilet, some light reading for when you are otherwise occupied. She's a bit embarrassed about that now, though, as she sits in the chair next to her bed in the bedroom, opposite the bedside table, and facing the desk, upon which lies a journal, that she is now writing about her day in.

'...seems to be a nice filly, if nothing else, though she is quite eccentric, and a bit full of herself, a lot like Rainbow Dash. I miss my friend, but everypony is convinced that she's still alive, so I'm more than willing to wait to rescue her with a plan, than just randomly break in to Nightmare's fortresses and look for her.'

Twilight taps the inkless tip of her quill to her face, and then licks the end, and dips it in the inkwell.

'I hope for the best, though it is unlikely that I'll be the same when I walk away from this. Spike has killed thousands, apparently, and I don't think that's sunk in yet. It's a bit morbid, but I'd say the phrase, 'One death is a tragedy; a hundred is a statistic', fits well here. Maybe if I were there, I'd feel something about it, but aside from a small amount of disbelief at the numbers, I don't feel anything.'

Twilight feels the breeze through a window, looking over to it, and shutting it with her magic. She makes a mental note to ask exactly why the warehouses had weather systems when they aren't necessary there.

'Maybe it's because he's a dragon, and I've always known deep down that he's capable of great destruction, and massive deaths. Maybe it's because I'd do the same if our situations were reversed. Maybe it's because, despite my breakdown, I'm still not fully believing that this is real.'

Twilight sets the quill down and turns to stare out the window. The apartment complex that fills the warehouse has many strange things scattered throughout, such as gardens, ponds, sometimes even shops. It all comes together, looking like a town carved out of a cliff side, rather than town built in a supernatural subspace pocket dimension.

'I've only been without him for a day now, so it hasn't really hit me that he's gone. I keep thinking that he'll walk around the corner with a comic, or a letter from Celestia, and he doesn't. But it doesn't matter. I'll get him back. That's a promise.'

Chapter 1 - Jailbreak

"Ugh..." Twilight rubs her head, trying to shake away the headache. "Where...?" She looks up to see a furry biped, crouched but three feet away, poking at a spot on the ground. With a start, she realizes that a grey diamond dog is sitting in front of her.

"Uuaah!" She scrambles back away from the dog as he looks up at her. He nods, and turns back to the spot on the floor. "Wh-What do you want with me?!" She yells, only for the dogs to suddenly lash out and smack her.

"Quiet," he shushes her. He glances, left and right, before peeking out the door to the stone room. He closes it with a sigh. "They not find us." He turns back to her. "You friend of Sun Pony. Twilight, yes?"

"I... yes?" Twilight isn't sure what to say. A dog just slapped her and then tried to be nice. That doesn't happen to her. Granted, I deal with stranger things all the time, she admits to herself.

The dog nods, "I Granbull. We in Prison. I get you out. You not wake for many days." Twilight's eyes widen. She shivers, her teeth chatter, and a sudden chill overcomes her.

"P-Prison? Asleep for days...?" Granbull nods. He sits back down heavily, a tired look in his eye.

"Yes... Black Pony come. Break order. No sun for years. Now I find Sun Pony friend. Can find Sun Pony. Fix sky." Twilight stares disbelievingly at the dog. What he's saying is impossible, but the tiredness of his eyes, the sagging shoulders, the dirty, scruffed, matted fur...This is a dog who's been through a lot. This is a dog that isn't lying.

"So... I have to find Celestia, er, Sun Pony, and then the sky can be... fixed?" The dog nods, shadows covering his eyes, and looks up. He slowly gets to his feet, and Twilight notices something interesting. He isn't like the other dogs she's met. He looks less like a pitbull and more like a husky.

His ears perk up, flicking every few seconds. His eyes narrow in concentration as he moves slowly for the door. He slowly opens the door, and nods decisively. "Guards gone. Come, left." He sneaks into the hall, Twilight following slowly. As she looks over her shoulder, she notices with a horrified, but quiet, yelp, that her wings are gone.

She takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Doesn't matter, She assures herself, escape now, wings later. She takes a right turn just behind Granbull, and sees a horrifying thing in a cell. Indescribably horrifying, she can't imagine what the skeleton could have come from, and she feels strangely like she shouldn't want to.

Throughout the twisting, winding path through what seem to be the lower levels of the prison, if the sheer amount of stairs upward have anything to say about it, she sees all sorts of creatures, corpses, and skeletons occupying the cells. "H-how long has it been since the Black Pony came...?"

Granbull stops dead in his tracks, sagging futher than ever, and takes a shuddering breath. "Twenty," He chokes out. Twilight starts to shake again, and as she raises a hoof to ask for clarification, he continues. "Years. Twenty years. You asleep... twenty... years..." His head sinks, but he shakes it, and steps forward with determination. "Come. Demon Pony cannot keep guards long."

While curious as to who 'Demon Pony' is, and curious as to how he thinks it's been twenty years, she decides to wait. She'll find out sooner or later, she reasons, keeping pace behind the dog. They stop just before a massive, ornate staircase. It looks pristine, but well worn, as though royalty frequently takes this path... which royalty likely does.

Granbull slides a torch from the wall sconce, the blue flames up close revealing Granbull to be not entirely grey, but to have small streaks of red, all the same shade as the grey of his coat, making it so much harder to see in low light. Dog and pony lightly step up the stairs, slowly moving and making as little noise as possible as Granbull listens for any approaching guards.

Ten minutes of sneaking only takes them to the top of the stairs, showing Twilight just how far underground they must have been. She stares in shock at the stallion waiting for them at the top. Ebony, metallic coat, with a thick, coarse mane, the color of the night itself, and a bladelike, reddened horn, wearing red armor to cover most of his body, fitted with a green cape with a sun sigil on it. His eyes glow green and purple, but not with the malice Twilight expected, but rather with an exhausted air.

"Metal Pony! Demon Pony is alive?" Sombra nods in response to Granbull's question. He opens his mouth to speak, and his voice has an entirely different quality about it than Twilight remembers. Instead of being almost undead in nature, it sounds particularly cultured, yet echoes eerily.

"Granbull, I assure you that the Queen is fully capable. She will not go down to a mere hive's worth of the Black Whore's drones, no matter how well equipped." Twilight nods dumbly as he turns his gaze to her. "Ah, Twilight Sparkle. One of the only ponies not on the side of the Black Whore... hopefully. Celestia must hold some of your loyalty, yes?"

Twilight snaps out of her stupor, and nods unsurely. "Is something wrong? We must hurry, so please be quick," Sombra requests, and Twilight takes a shuddering breath, fear in her eyes.

"I saw you die," She tells him, causing him to pause. Granbull, however, pats Twilight on the head.

"Metal Pony asleep until year after Black Pony come," He tells her, gesturing forward with his torch, "We go now, no time for hesitatta... wait. No time for wait." He moves forward, alongside Sombra, and Twilight, unwilling to be left behind, canters after them.

"BUCKING WOODLICE!!" Twilight nearly faceplants as she hears a guard scream that. First off, a guard just unexpectedly yelled. Second, the woodlice bit put her even further off balance.

Woodlice? Twilight shakes her head, picking the pace back up, and cursing her lack of wings making her so slow. At the end of the hall, they Granbull breaks the door open with his overlong arms, and they step slowly into an empty courtyard.

"Sharp Pony guard prison... No guard in yard... Sharp Pony here." Granbull takes a defensive stance, sliding a foot beind heim, and bending his arms, paws curled into fists. Sombra's horn lights up as he stands ramrod straight, black crystals growing around his hooves, rooting him in place. Twilight glances between the two, and enters an awkward stance of her own, sinking near the ground as if she plans to pounce.

"UAHAHAHA!!! WELCOME, SOLAR CULT!" A pony surrounded by floating knives appears out of nowhere in the middle of the courtyard. Her eyes meet Twilight's and she falters slightly. "And Twilight..." She turns away and whispers something that sounds strangely like "Mom Dammit..."

She clears her throat, and screams, "ANYWAY! GOODBYE!" and suddenly disappears, leaving her knives to fall to the ground. The two ponies and one Diamond Dog give a slow, drawn-out blink.

"What... happen?" Granbull asks slowly, pointing at the knives. Sombra rubs his chin, brows furrowed. Twilight just stares at the knives.

"Has everypony COMPLETELY lost their common sense?!" She shouts incredulously. Sombra pauses in his musing to give a consice nod. Twilight slumps hopelessly to the ground in response. "How are we going to accomplish anything if we can't even think normally?"

Granbull pats Twilight on the head, and tells her, "Prison in sky. Base in sky. Castle in space. Ponies underground. Dogs in sky. Nothing make sense." Twilight just slumps further at the terrible attempt to make her feel better.

Suddenly, Sombra slams his hoof to the floor. "Now I remember! Sharp Sky is a mysterious pony, and the bearer of Law. She's also..." His eyes widen and he starts to sweat nervously. "You saw that blue monstrosity for yourself. However, she's uh... She's... Nightmare Moon's daughter. The uh, reason she hesitated when she saw you is, uhhh..." He rubs the back of his head sheepishly. "Well... I'm sure if you ask Cadance, she'll rant about it for you. I don't... intend to say... It's awkward." He turns away, and swiftly trots off, a shrugging Granbull following close behind, picking up one of the larger knives as he passes.

"Wait up!" Twilight rushes after them, skidding to a stop when the edge of the courtyard comes uncomfortably close. Sombra and Granbull look over the edge, and she hears them muttering.

"Where Demon Pony?"

"The Queen is likely still held up by Nightmare's forces. She's here personally, you know. Doesn't happen often. She doesn't have much skill, but plenty of power."

"How that matter?"

"It matters because that makes brute force missions take longer. She has the power, but not enough skill to make it fast. She'll be here."

"Demon Queen?" Twilight cuts in, stalking close to them, and peeking over the edge, before scrambling back, "Holy cupcakes! We are in the sky!"

Sombra looks to Granbull, and mouths, 'cupcakes?' before turning back to Twilight. "She didn't reveal herself until about a month before I returned from my imprisonment. She's-"

"Queen Chrysalis, at your service," The tall black pony gives a fanged smile, sitting on a hunk of flying stone. Twilight sputters incoherently, her normally lavender face completely white, and her eyes rolling back in her head as she passes out. "Okay, I know I'm scary, but I'm not THAT scary, right?"

Sombra and Granbull shrug, hefting Twilight onto the floating slab, stepping on themselves, and flying off, far away from the prison.

"So, when she finds out you married her-"

"Shut up."

"Just saying. Juuuuust saying."

"And I'm just saying, shut up."

Granbull just laughs.

Author's Note

Okay, yeah, I know my stories suck, but this is one I've meditated over for a long time. Like, a REALLY long time. I hope you like it! Of course, in comparison to my other stories, this one HAS to be better, right? :twilightsheepish:

Gods be With You,

-Palladium Pony