The Infestation of Canterlot High School

by Bonster

Rating: teen
Tags: Queen Chrysalis, Adventure, Human, Sunset Shimmer, Main 7 (EqG), Gore, Other, Changelings, Equestria Girls
Length: 99273

Chrysalis’s second invasion was an incredible success—Equestria has fallen, and it seems like there isn’t anypony left to save it. But when Chrysalis stumbles across a mirror in Friendship Castle, it might not be ponies she has to worry about.

After years spent plotting in the dark, Chrysalis and her changeling army rise again, and the second invasion is an overwhelming success. Equestria has fallen, and it seems as though there isn’t anypony left to save it.

And when Chrysalis finds a special mirror in Friendship Castle, she can’t resist trying to take over this other world, too.

Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer and her friends start to notice strange things happening around the school. Will they be able to get to the bottom of it fast enough to save both dimensions?

Takes place early Season 6, midway between Friendship Games and Camp Everfree.

Rated T for sexual reference, high school level swearing, violence, and mild gore (blood).

Coverart by the talented and generous mr_minati.

Published 2016-08-19 19:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-01-28 02:00:45 UTC

One - Read

One - Read

Dear Twilight,

I hope everything’s going well in Equestria! I’m just writing to check in.

No, that’s a lie. I’m writing because I’m bored. Sue me.

It seems like forever since your last visit. Speaking of which, the Twilight over here is fitting in nicely. I think she’s a little… weirded out by your visit. I’m sure you can understand—only, when you two met, you came in with the experience of having already met yourself before and a life of studying magic. So, she’s predictably a bit shell-shocked from the whole ordeal. Occasionally during a lull in a conversation she’ll say something like “Oh my god, there’s another me,” or “Holy shit I’m a horse.” Pardon my language. Or, well, her language. Your language? Gah, this is confusing.

Oh, she joined the Rainbooms! Turns out she has just as good a singing voice as you do. The band’s actually doing really well. Well, not really well. Pretty well. We’re selling some records, and we got a few gigs with okay turnouts. We’ve had to tone it down recently, though. Turns out people are getting a tad bit suspicious of, you know, the magical pony powers.

On that note, my study of how magic works over here is going great now that Twilight is working with me. I honestly have no idea how someone her age is building stuff that can locate, store, measure, and (crudely) utilize magic. I mean, she didn’t even know what it was when she was studying it before the friendship games! I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. She is you, after all.

The girls are wondering when you’re going to be able to make it back out here, too. They’re looking forward to a more casual get-together without imminent threats or existential crises, and honestly, so am I. We talk a lot over the journals, but we’ve never really been able to just talk, you know? Please respond as soon as you can!

Your friend,

Sunset Shimmer

Sunset closed the journal and slid it back into her backpack with a faint smile. She checked her phone—it was about time she headed home. She’d stayed late to help Rarity with her math analysis homework, and even later to pen Twilight a letter, so the campus was mostly empty. She hoped the princess would respond soon. Everybody was eager to see her again, especially Sunset; she had made some breakthrough progress in her magical research, and had a few theories she wanted to bounce off of her.

*Vworp*

“Huh?”

Sunset turned to the noise. Nothing immediately unusual stood out to her until she looked at the wondercolt statue; was the surface of the portal rippling, or was it the light?

“Hello? Twilight, is that you?”

Sunset ran up to the portal, but didn’t see anyone. Was she just imagining it? A few scattered squirrels watched the girl with piercing green eyes as she walked off, suspiciously examining the portal over her shoulder before crossing the street.

“Ahm sorry, Sunset, but from what yer sayin’, it doesn’t seem like anythin’ we should be worryin’ about. Are ya sure ya weren’t just hearin’ things?”

“I know it isn’t much to go off of, Applejack, but I’m confident in my own sanity.”

The farmer shrugged. “Well, if ya say so. But what are we even supposed ta do about it?”

“Are you sure it wasn’t just a leaf or something blowing through the portal?” Questioned Rainbow, her mouth full of pizza.

“Rainbow Dash! Don’t talk with your mouth full!” Rarity chastised, holding up a hand to shield her eyes from the girl’s greasy face. “Didn’t your mother teach you anything?” Dash shrugged.

“To answer your question,” said Twilight, “objects can’t move through the portal on their own. They have to be worn or carried by something alive. So, if something really did come through the portal, then it must have been something sentient.”

“And in that case, we should be worried, because whatever came through the portal was obviously trying to hide from me.” Sunset paused to take a drink of water. “I’m not saying we need to take up arms or anything. Just keep your eyes open for anything strange.”

“Alrighty, captain!” Pinkie saluted Sunset, one of her trademark grins on her face. “I love playing I Spy!”

Sunset felt something prod her in the shoulder. She turned to see Fluttershy quietly eating her sandwich while pointing to Sunset’s backpack. It was emitting a faint buzzing sound.

“Ooh!” Squealed Pinkie, “Sunset’s got a text! What did she say? What did she say?”

“Ah think we’re about to find out, Pinkie. Hold your horses.”

“Oh, silly AJ, I can’t reach Sunset from here!”

Six groans filled the lunchroom.

“Whaat? I thought it was good!”

“Pinkie, dear, we agreed that horse puns were off the table. Frankly, they’re even worse than the kind of jokes Rainbow makes.”

“Hey, I saw you holding back your laughter in government yesterday when I pulled that prank on Ms. Harshwhinny!”

“Um, Rainbow, didn’t you get detention for that?”

“Exactly, Fluttershy!” Rarity exclaimed. “I was simply laughing at how stupid you were being.”

Sunset dropped the journal on the lunch table with a loud thump, causing her friends to turn their attention to her.

Applejack tapped her finger against the table. “Sunset, didn’t ya send her th’ message yesterday afternoon?”

Rainbow snorted. “Don’t tell me you’re surprised. She hasn’t exactly been quick with replying.”

Pinkie bounced in her seat. “Ooh! Maybe she had to fix a horrible cake shortage in Equestria! Or maybe Fluttershy locked herself in a magical janitor’s closet and they couldn’t get her out! Or maybe a baby broke a timeless and irreplaceable artifact, unleashing ancient spirits of hate and frost on a lost empire! Or maybe—”

“Dear Sunset Shimmer,” Sunset proclaimed from across the table, cutting Pinkie off. “Sorry! I won’t be able to come over for quite some time. I’m a bit… ‘hung up’ at the moment. Tell our friends that I’ll be there as soon as I can. Your friend, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Sunset read the rather short message again before sighing. “Well, darn. I was really looking forward to her.”

Rainbow laughed. “Yeah, that’s what she said.”

“Rainbow!” Rarity’s voice nearly shattered the windows. “This is exactly what I’m talking about!”

“ ‘Sides, Rainbow,” sneered Applejack, elbowing her friend in the side, “I wouldn’t be pushin’ it after what you and Cloud Kicker got up to.”

Rainbow’s face caught fire as Applejack laughed at her expense. Fluttershy nearly disappeared under the table.

“Hey, Sunset…” Twilights voice was so soft that Sunset almost didn’t hear her over Pinkie Pie shouting something about Rainbow Dash sitting in a tree, and Rainbow’s ensuing red-faced denial.

“What is it?”

“That’s not my handwriting.”

Sunset looked down at the journal. Twilight’s voice wasn’t soft; it was scared.

Sunset leaned back in her chair and pulled the journal to her face, accidentally bumping into a passing Bon Bon. After a quick apology, she returned her focus to the book.

“I suppose it does look a bit more crude. But I don’t think it’s really a cause for worry; she’s probably really stressed or in a hurry or something. She’s like that.”

Twilight hummed. “Yeah, it’s probably nothing.”

Neither of them were convinced.

The bell’s ringing pushed them from their seats and out of the lunchroom, along with all the other students.

“And then she said, ‘Annihilation? I thought her name was Susan!’ ”

Rainbow, doubled over, wiped a tear from her eye. “Oh, Pinkie, that’s the best joke you’ve made all week!”

“I don’t get it,” Fluttershy murmured.

“Well, it’s quite simple, really.” Twilight adjusted her glasses. “See, the juxtapositioning and comical contrast of the name ‘Susan’ and…”

Sunset let the bickering of her friends fade into the background as she laid a hand on the journal. Twilight… Is everything okay over there?

“Hello, HQ, do you read me? Over.”

“Well enough, Agent—” The line buzzed with static, drowning out the speaker’s next few words.

“I’m getting a bit of interference. We should invest in new communicators soon. Over.”

“I’ll see if I can get approval. Your report? Over.”

“The anomalous students seemed to be deliberating the possibility of another extradimensional threat. They seemed unsure. Over.”

“You know more than I—do you suggest we take action? Over.”

“I feel we should wait for further developments. We don’t want to risk blowing our cover. Over.”

“I’ll trust your judgement; just make sure to report if you see anything… uh…”

“Magical?”

“…Yes. That word sounds so unprofessional is all. If it were anybody other than you, Agent—” more static—“then I wouldn’t believe all of these claims of winged students and other dimensions. Is that all? Over.”

“Yes. Over and out.”

Two - Commence

Two - Commence

“Thank you again for letting us use your house for a sleepover, Pinkie.”

“Aw, don’t worry about it, Twilight! You guys are always welcome in the Pie House! Unless we’re on vacation, because that would be illegal.” Pinkie laughed and then went back to her personal project of attempting to caffeinate cupcakes. Currently, she was dumping an entire bottle of soda into the center of one. Sunset wasn’t entirely sure how, but she knew better than to ask.

Twilight was sitting on Pinkie’s bed, drawing schematics for some device or another. She had already tried to explain it to the group once, but it smoothly cleared everybody else’s heads by a good ten feet. Fluttershy and Rarity were painting each other’s nails off to one side, and were quietly chatting amongst themselves. Finally, Pinkie’s television brightly displayed Sunset and Rainbow’s butts being thoroughly kicked by Applejack.

As a flashy ‘PLAYER 2 WINS!’ once again adorned the screen, Rainbow dropped her controller, leaned back, and groaned.

“No fair! I had that!”

“Don’t blame the player, blame the game.”

“Oh, stop acting so cocky, AJ! Thirty more seconds and you’d have gone down!”

“Sure, Dash. But, hey, at least your doing better than Sunset!”

Rainbow turned to the resident alien. “Yeah, Sunset, you’re really off your game today. I mean, you died in, like, a minute! What gives?”

The girl sighed. “I’m… a bit distracted.”

“The portal?” her friends asked in unison. Sunset only nodded.

“Don’t you worry, sugar. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“And even if it isn’t, you bet your ass we’ll kick it into next week!” Rainbow punched the air in front of her. “Bam, friendship!”

Sunset gave a small smile. She wasn’t very reassured, but she appreciated the sentiment none the less. “Thanks, girls.”

Applejack set down her controller and got up with a grunt, stretching out her legs. “Well, I dunno bout y’all, but I think I’ll go an’ get ready for bed,” she announced, addressing the whole room. The others took one look at the digital clock on Pinkie’s nightstand before mumbling their assent and moving to their bags.

“Oh, horseapples,” Sunset swore under her breath. Just her luck to forget to pack pajamas to a Celestia damned slumber party.

“Whatever is it, darling?” questioned Rarity, the only one close enough to hear her.

“I just forgot my pajamas; it’s nothing.”

Rarity gasped. “Nothing?! Why, Sunset, you can’t simply wear the same clothes into bed, they’d be filthy!”

Sunset elected not to mention that she usually did that anyway, and ended up having to pretend she simply owned multiple copies of the exact same outfit. That was not a conversation she wanted to have with Rarity.

“Well, I don’t really have a choice.”

“Nonsense! I always bring spares in case I want to change things up in the middle of the night.” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Just borrow one of mine!” Rarity finished, holding them out at arm’s length.

“Are you sure? I know you make them all yourself, I wouldn’t want to get them dirty or anything.”

“I insist! And you know better than to refuse when I insist,” Rarity threatened.

“Alright, alright.” Sunset took the proffered garments. “Thanks, Rarity.”

“Oh, just helping out a friend; think nothing of it.” As soon as the words left her mouth, her body was swathed in light, her hair growing out and her ears becoming decidedly more equine. After she landed back on the ground, Rarity let out a content sigh.

“Oh, I must say, the feeling that comes from all that magic is a great motivator to be a better person.”

“I know, right?” Pinkie popped up between the two girls. “It’s almost as good as those brownies the eco kids brought in that one time!”

“Um,” Fluttershy interjected, “I just want to make it clear that I had nothing to do with what she’s talking about.”

Applejack walked up and admired Rarity’s transformation. “Is it just me, or are these pony-ups becomin’ more an’ more frequent?”

“No, I’ve been noticing that too,” said Twilight, who was already furiously typing on her laptop, no doubt documenting the circumstances of the pony up. Sunset was both awed and somewhat frightened by her dedication. “There’s a direct relationship between the advance of time and the amount of magic surges you all experience, both as a group and as individuals.”

“So It’ll get easier and easier to pony up? Aw, sweet! That’s so awesome!” Rainbow squealed.

Sunset just sighed. “Well, from one perspective, yes. Just… try not to do it in front of, like, a reporter or anything.” The last thing they needed was for the news of magic to spread; that would cause chaos.

Suddenly, a scream shot through the night, and Sunset dashed out of the room, down the stairs, and out of the house like it was on fire. As she stepped out onto the street and her eyes adjusted to the night, she spotted a pale faced woman running down the street, arms flailing wildly through her long fuschia hair.

“Ma’am, what’s wrong?”

“There was a m-m-monster!”

Footsteps from behind her (as well as Fluttershy’s muffled ‘Eep!’) told Sunset that her friends had caught up. “A monster? Can you be more specific?”

“I-I didn’t get a good look—it was black, and it’s dark, and I only just saw it before it ran in there,” the lady said, gesturing to an alleyway a block down the road. Sunset wasted no time running where she had pointed, turning swiftly into the alleyway with her fists raised. It was a dead end, the other side separated by an old wooden fence. Besides a few trashcans, the only thing in the alleyway was a large crow on top of a dumpster. It cawed at her once, it’s sickly green eyes biting into Sunset’s, before flapping off through the darkness.

Rainbow ran up to her side, scratching her prismatic head. “Sooo… I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that Applejack was wrong about the portal business being ‘nothing’.”

Ever since transferring to Canterlot High, Twilight Sparkle had made it her personal mission to transform an unused office space into her own personal magical research lab, and she was doing a damn good job of it if you asked her. Counters and filing cabinets lined the perimeter of the room, electronics and equipment littered said counters so close together that it was probably a safety hazard, boards hung from the walls (everything from white to bulletin), loose papers depicting formulas and postulates carpeted every surface that wasn’t otherwise occupied, and to top it all off, it was all organized in a way that would make her interdimensional counterpart proud and make everyone else finally understand the practicality of the dewey decimal system.

Twilight sat in the middle of it all, rocking side to side in her favorite swivel chair and poring over a textbook on magic as she explained her newest stumbling block to her dog.

How did she get a textbook on magic, you ask?

She wrote it herself. Twilight had a lot of free time.

“…but that won’t be a problem, because I know I can capture magic using the same tech I used for the locket, and I should be able to control the output with this new arcane focus lens, but Sunset said that in order to change the raw release from a dimensional spell to an evocational one, I need to alter the pattern of the magic, and I’m unsure of the best way to do that.”

Spike opened one eye. “Sorry, what was that? I kinda fell asleep five minutes ago.”

Twilight jolted a bit. “Oh, um, I wasn’t really talking, like, to you to you. I just act like I’m talking to you because it seems slightly less strange to me than talking to myself, and it helps me justify my problem solving strategies. See, it worked really well before you could talk, but now it’s kind of awkward, since I’m not aiming at getting a response from you; rather, I’m simply talking through the current problem to help devise creative solutions, and—and your asleep again. Alright. That’s fine.”

Twilight turned back to her project. Life was much less confusing before the Friendship Games. But also a lot more dull. She supposed it was a trade worth making.

Twilight started fiddling with her pencil. Could magic be woven with material objects, or was it a wave-based force? Could magnetism be useful? She should probably consult Sunset a bit more on the specifics of—

“Yo, Twilight!”

“AAAAH!”

Twilight instinctively whipped around towards the sudden noise, her pencil flying from her grasp and striking Rainbow across the face.

“Ow!”

“S-sorry!”

Rainbow chuckled. “You’re fine. Has anyone ever told you that you scare, like, super easily?”

“Four people, including you.”

“Oh.” Rainbow cleared her throat. “So, uh, whatcha doing?”

Twilight smiled excitedly. “I’m so glad you asked! I’m building what I’m calling a ‘thaumic compressor’, a device that extracts the magic from the air around it, compresses it into a singular mass, and focuses it outward!” Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “It’s a laser gun that runs on magic,” Twilight summarized.

Rainbow grinned broadly and squeed. “Twilight. This is probably the most awesome thing that little egghead of yours ever managed to cough up!”

“Um. Thanks?”

Before she knew it, Rainbow was gripping her by the shoulders and staring intently into her eyes. “Can I use it? Please?” she pleaded, not unlike a child in the candy isle.

Twilight removed Rainbows hands. “Sorry, Rainbow, but it doesn’t work quite yet. Besides, you would have to be ponied up in order for there to be enough magic around to actually produce a powerful beam.” Rainbow deflated. “But I’ll be sure to let you be the first to use it for real when we need it!”

“When we need it? So there is going to be an attack? Because I could use some notice; I like to stretch before extensive time spent ass-kicking.”

“Well, we’re not sure what’s going on exactly, but we don’t think it’s good. Better safe than sorry, you know? We don’t want to be caught off guard.”

Just then, the bell rang, and Rainbow swore her grandmother out of her grave before running off to class. Twilight was about to get back to work when she saw Spike leaving the lab.

“Where are you going, Spike?”

He froze. “Oh, uh, just catching a breath of fresh air. This lab is so stuffy.”

Well, Twilight supposed she couldn’t stop him. It was much harder to exercise control over animals when they were intelligent beings. “Alright. Just don’t take too long, my research period ends in forty-five minutes.”

Twilight worked for a good half hour before Spike returned, looking much less bored than before.

“Sorry I was gone so long, but there was this squirrel, and I could just tell it was looking at me funny.”

Twilight cast her pet a sideways glance. “You didn’t hurt it, did you?”

“No, it escaped up a tree. I barked at it for, like, two hours, but it didn’t come down.” Two hours? He had been gone for thirty minutes! Apparently, not all dogs have as a good an internal clock as research would have you believe. “Did I miss anything while I was gone?”

“No, nothing’s happened since Rainbow left.”

“Rainbow was here?”

Twilight bothered to turn all the way around just to give Spike a disapproving glare. “Okay, I know you sleep a lot, but really? You walked right past her on your way out!”

Spike only shrugged, and Twilight returned to her work with a roll of her eyes.

Lyra and Bon Bon were two fish in the sea of students shuffling out of Canterlot High after another day of learning (or, as most would tell you, ‘suffering’).

“What did you get on the physics test, Bonnie?”

“100.”

Lyra groaned. “Oh, you’re too smart for your own good. That thing was hard! And it sure doesn’t help that Mr. Doodle is so cranky all the time.”

“Maybe you just need to study more, Ly,” Bon Bon replied, playfully bopping Lyra on the nose.

“Only if you help me study…” Lyra draped a green arm around her companion’s shoulders.

Bon Bon giggled. “I don’t think we’d get much studying done.”

“Darn! You uncovered my master plan!”

As they laughed and turned their separate ways, they both looked over their shoulder simultaneously.

“Text you later?”

“Text you later!”

Lyra worked part-time at a chocolate shop downtown; it was one of the ones with overly fancy, horribly overpriced, yet unreasonably delicious desserts that made mouths water and wallets cry.

Let’s just say that she interviewed there for a reason.

As Lyra walked towards another day of monotonous cashiering, a stray dog ran up to her, grabbed her purse in its fangs, and ran into a nearby alleyway.

“Wha—Hey! Give that back!” It was times like these when Lyra wished Bon Bon were with her.

Well, and most other times she wasn’t with Bon Bon.

The girl turned into the small street. “Alright, doggy, if you could just give me my stuff back that’d be real ni—”

Zap!

A flash of sickly green light, and Lyra emerged from the alleyway, carrying a large sack over her shoulders.

“These are some weird memories…”

Author's Note

Updates for this story should be every three-four days, so biweekly. As in, twice a week, not every two weeks; gunna be honest, I'm not sure which one 'biweekly' refers to. Anyhow, I may not be able to keep to that if my life gets particularly crazy (it happens), but I do have a backlog, so hopefully it won't come to that.

Additionally, I'm looking for an editor or two for this story. PM me if you're interested; just know you're in it for the long haul.

Thanks so much for reading, and have a good one.

Intermission A

Intermission A

Princess Luna was in a foul mood. Not only was her dentist appointment predictably horrible (she preferred the olden days when, oral hygiene consisted of pulling teeth and nothing else), but she had been forced to stay up all day filling out the guard reassignments she had put off until the last minute in all her regal maturity. And Luna hated paperwork.

So it was quite understandable, considering the circumstances, that she would forget to close the door to her balcony after raising the moon and heading off to watch over the dreamscape.

As Luna fell into unconsciousness, a crow flapped its way past her balcony and into her quarters. After ensuring that the princess was, in fact, asleep, Queen Chrysalis reverted to her original form and began to set about dismantling the predictably lax array of security spells around the castle. You’d think that after her first invasion they would have stepped it up, but apparently Celestia couldn’t be bothered. Some ponies never change.

After her magic slipped around the final alarm spell, Chrysalis condensed some of her love stores into silk, weaving the Princess of the Night a comfortable new chrysalis to sleep in. She assumed Luna’s form without a second thought, and quickly conjured a vial of vibrant pink liquid. She popped the cork and downed it, the liquid love warm on her tongue, and her second stomach felt like it was overflowing. It probably contained more love at that moment than some drones would see in a lifetime, but she’d need it for what was to come.

Well, probably. Celestia had kind of been a pushover the last time they had met.

The thestral guards outside Luna’s quarters were unsurprisingly stupid, not so much as questioning Chrysalis as she told them that nopony was to enter her room until she allowed as much. Chrysalis closed her eyes and concentrated, zeroing in on the blazing inferno of a magical aura that was Celestia. That was the problem when you harbored the powers of the Sun; celestial bodies didn’t put a lot of points into subtlety, and Chrysalis found her way to Celestia’s chambers as if she lived there.

After telling the guards outside Celestia’s room that she demanded an audience, they obediently allowed her passage.

Idiots.

“Good evening, Luna. What brings you?” Celestia was sitting on her princess-sized bed, reading a—was that a romance novel? Chrysalis had to bite back a gag.

Chrysalis closed the door with her magic, making sure the coloration was correct. She could not afford any mistakes this time. “I… wished to speak with you, sister. In private.”

Celestia smiled that fake smile of hers. Oh, how Chrysalis detested that smile. Call her condescending all you want, but she had nothing on Celestia. “My door is always open to you, Luna.”

“Thank you. But, before we start, I wish to cast a soundproofing spell. I don’t want anypony listening in.”

“Do not hesitate,” Celestia said calmly as Chrysalis cast the spell. “So nopony hears me scream, correct?”

“Wait, wha—” Chrysalis was cut off by a laser beam in her side, causing her disguise to drop. “You bitch,” Chrysalis snarled, “I’ve been waiting years to use that line.”

Celestia held her head high, ignoring Chrysalis’s outburst. “I was wondering if you would return, Chrysalis. Did you really expect me to fall for the same trick twice?”

“Oh, shut it with the high and mighty crap! I bested you with half the power I have now!”

“Further, do you really expect me to make the same mistake twice?”

Chrysalis only growled and fired a laser beam thick as an oak at Celestia. The alicorn cast a barrier in front of her, turning the beam back at Chrysalis, who quickly canceled the spell before it collided with her and sprang forward, wings buzzing. She shapeshifted her left forehoof into a battle axe and swung at Celestia, who parried with a radiant gold glaive that appeared in her hoof. No sooner had their blades clashed than Chrysalis touched her crooked horn to Celestia’s, discharging a bucketload of love energy straight into her mana flows. Celestia coughed and recoiled from their deadlock, but quickly recovered.

“We alicorns are very resilient beings. A dirty trick like that will do you no good, villain.”

“Villain? Because you and your ponies haven’t done anything wrong, huh?!”

“I do not know what our race has done to deserve your ire, but if you are to attack my nation and threaten the peace I’ve worked so hard towards, I must respond accordingly.”

Celestia’s horn shone blindingly bright, and a torrent of golden flames shot towards Chrysalis, who countered with a hastily constructed wall of hardened silk. The Queen grit her teeth; she had hoped that Celestia would be unable to call on the Sun’s powers during the night, but apparently that barely mattered. Or maybe it did, and Chrysalis would have been toast if it had been daytime.

While she was hidden from sight, Chrysalis conjured up two duplicates of herself, pouring glamour into a physical form. A bit of extra love here to make them more resilient, and a bit there to make them more lifelike. Changelings were known for their deception for a good reason, and Chrysalis had had thousands of years to practice. As the flames stopped, the three Chrysalises flew over the wall and transformed their forehooves into rapier-like appendages. Celestia studied the three of them, and shot a bolt at the middle one, which flew backwards into the wall and screamed.

And then Chrysalis stabbed her.

Celestia’s eyes widened only slightly as she looked at the blade-leg in her chest and the blood staining her trademark white coat.

The other two versions of Chrysalis poofed out of existence, and the remaining one cackled. “My glamour is not to be underestimated, Celestia!”

Chrysalis’s chortles stopped abruptly as she felt the flesh around her blade tighten, and Celestia pumped her wings, sending herself into a midair barrel roll. Her body was hard as rock, and Chrysalis’s leg snapped, eliciting a scream.

“Neither is earth pony magic. Many would do well to remember that.”

The half still inside Celestia’s barrel dissipated as Chrysalis’s leg reverted to normal—well, not entirely; it was missing a hoof. Only fast thinking and shapechanging was holding in the blood.

Chrysalis, having to dig deep into her love reserves, let out an ear-piercing shriek as she shapeshifted another hoof, connecting all the necessary nerves and arteries. She looked up to see Celestia finish healing her own wound—not even a speck of blood dirtied her pristine fur.

Chrysalis took a shuddering breath. “You’re going to pay for that,” she said, her voice gravely and dangerous.

Her horn was suddenly surrounded by black wisps of energy and crackling grey magic, and Chrysalis grunted with exertion as her eyes became clouded with inky mana.

Celestia let out a small gasp and took a step back. “Dark magic?” She quickly composed herself and lit her own horn ablaze. “Of course you would stoop to such lows. You shall be your own downfall, like all those before you.”

But Chrysalis couldn’t hear her, and she let out a bestial bellow. Lines of dark energy shot crookedly from her horn, as if the very air between the two were cracking.

Across from her, Celestia’s horn glowed with a brilliant radiance, and golden light washed over the room.

The light threatened to drown out Chrysalis’s cracks, but she poured even more love energy into the spell, as much as her horn could channel, and the lines solidified, continuing their snaking path towards Celestia.

And as one sharp line pierced Celestia’s leg, her light started to fade, vacuumed up by the forbidden spell. Another two entered her barrel, and her legs strained with effort; a fourth struck her forehead, and her horn flickered and died, the light fading soon afterwards. A dozen different lines of magic skewered her like a pincushion, and Celestia could feel her mana levels falling as she collapsed to the ground, suddenly exhausted.

“Not so confident now, are we?” Chrysalis’s horn extinguished, too, and her eyes cleared. “He may not have been totally right in the head, but Sombra knew how to craft a good spell.”

Celestia was breathing heavily, spitting hairs of her no-longer-flowing mane out of her mouth. The Sun couldn’t help her any further, it seemed. “You’re digging yourself a grave, Chrysalis. Fate won’t stay on your side forever, and trust me when I say that it knows how to twist the blade.”

“Oh, just shut up,” Chrysalis said offhandedly before imprisoning Celestia.

Chrysalis took a minute to down three more vials of liquid love—dark magic took a lot of energy, and combined with all her other exploits in the battle, her love-stomach was only half full. And while, as a Queen, that would be enough to take on nearly any threat at this stage in her plan, one can never be too careful.

She had learned that the hard way.

As she took up a disguise again, this time Celestia, she tapped into the hivemind.

Traxx, your position?

Her top infiltrator’s thoughts rang inside her head in an instant reply: Canterlot Gardens. Is it time for me to join you?

Yes. You can latch onto my aura from there?

Easily. See you soon, my Queen.

Not a moment later, a small pillar of flame appeared next to her and out stepped Traxx. Ask any changeling—flames are way cooler than sparkles when it comes to teleporting. Changelings one, ponies zero.

“Disguise yourself as Luna,” Chrysalis ordered. “Oh, and don’t look at Celestia’s memories. Your mind won’t be able to handle it.”

“Roger.”

Praxx, have you assembled regiments one and two yet?

Yes, my Queen.

Good. Bring them to the palace; Traxx and I will let you in. Chrysalis and Traxx, after telling the solar guards in front of Celestia’s door to deny all entry, started to make their way to the front gates. Regiments one and two, you are to capture and replace all ponies in the castle. Feel free to stock up on love from those you capture, but standard tax rates apply. Target guards first, and do not be seen.

A chorus of ‘Yes, my Queen’ and ‘roger’ came through the hivemind.

Kraxx, have you assembled regiments three and four at the outskirts of Ponyville?

I have Regiment Three here. #0833 is in charge of Regiment Four.

And how is that going, #0833?

We are assembled, my Queen.

Perfect. If this goes smoothly, you may get a name yet.

I’ll do my best, my Queen.

When I give the word, commence Phase Two. That will be all.

Chrysalis grinned. Everything was proceeding exactly according to plan.

My Queen, my Queen!

My Queen, my Queen!

Chrysalis was shaken from her beauty sleep by an incessant voice in the hivemind. And she was having such a good dream, too.

My Queen!

She groaned and shoved her face into the cool webbing of her bed. Ugh, what?

I have a report from the human dimension!

Fire away.

The drone streamed a cascade of secondhand memories through the hivemind.

Chrysalis frowned into her pillow. Things could be worse, but she supposed she might have been a bit hasty in assigning this mission to a drone who had only just been named. She had been on a hi from victory, and Graxx had done quite well throughout his time commanding the fourth regiment.

Whatever. She could always pop over there if things got ugly.

Thanks for the report. And remind them all that the love tax still applies in other dimensions.

Yes, my Queen!

“Yes, my Queen!” Chrysalis mimicked quietly in an exaggerated deep voice before resuming her much-needed nap.

Author's Note

These intermissions will be posted in the update break between every three chapters. Assuming everything goes according to plan, they should not affect the frequency of proper updates whatsoever. The first three are not story critical, but recommended, while the others are rather important.

Anyways, see you guys again Friday. Thanks for reading!

Four - Flee

Four - Flee

“Do you read me? Over.”

“Loud and clear. We were most definitely overdue for new communicators. A follow up on the last report, correct? Over.”

“Yes; it seems it wasn’t a false alarm after all. The anomalous students appear to be on guard, and from the bug I hid in their research lab, I know they’re building weaponry. Additionally, more students are absent than ever before in school records, even immediately following events such as the Fall Formal, the Battle of the Bands, and the Friendship Games, and certain students appear to be experiencing unexplainable shifts in temperament. I can point out a few specific cases of drastic personality change.

“I would like to request permission to enter and search the school after hours for additional investigation. Over.”

“Are you sure you aren’t over involving yourself for personal reasons? Over.”

“Whether I am or not, this is bordering on a Class Three, and I’m already in the location. Over.”

“I suppose you’re right. It’s just that you seem to be getting awfully close to that one girl—in more ways than one if I read between the lines. Over.”

“C-Chrysalis! Professionalism!” A long pause. “Hello? Chief?” A sigh. “Over.”

“And you chastise me for professionalism? Over.”

“We both know you only still have that rule because you think it makes us seem cooler. Over.”

“And we both know that you agree with me.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway. Permission to search the school granted. Will that be all? Over.”

“Yes. Over and out.”

Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna had different yet complementary methods of relieving stress after a long day at work—Celestia enjoyed hearing about other people’s lives and misfortunes as a way to escape her own, and Luna found solace in venting about her problems to someone. Thus, they had an easy system where Luna would talk about all the stupid things she had to deal with as head of discipline, and Celestia would interject at all the right times with all the right words. It worked wonders for both of them.

“…And Trixie got sent in for the fourth time this month!”

Celestia’s heels clicked loudly on the stairs as they ascended to their shared apartment. “Oh, dear. What was it this time?”

“One of her ‘magic tricks’ involved making snips and snails’ lunch money disappear. Honestly, I’m surprised those two even noticed.”

“Luna!” laughed Celestia. “You can’t say things like that!”

“Not on grounds I can’t.”

Celestia shook her head as she fished her keys out of her purse. She opened the door to their modest apartment—

—only to come face to face with a snarling, bug-eyed creature. That also strangely resembled a horse.

The monster shot towards Celestia like a bullet, fangs bared and tongue lashing. Any other principal would have likely fallen there, but not Celestia.

“Nope!” Celestia slammed the door into the beast’s snout and bolted after an already sprinting Luna. “Nope nope nope nope nope!”

“Celestia, what was that?!”

“Hell if I know! Get to the car!”

“I swear, if we get killed before our next paycheck…”

They could hear a buzzing sound behind them, but didn’t stop to look back as they lept the final few stairs and burst through the doors of Palace Apartments (an awfully extravagant name for an awfully mediocre complex). As they reached their car, Celestia fumbled with the keys, and Luna looked back to see a group of large, bald men wearing sunglasses and dark suits bounding across the asphalt. It was just as stereotypical as it was frightening.

“Hurry up!” Luna hissed as she clutched the strap of her purse in a white-knuckled grip.

“I’m going as fast as I can!”

“Well, go as fast as you can faster!”

“What is that even supposed to mean?!”

A click resounded from the car door just as the first of the men approached Luna. He extended a muscular hand towards her, but reeled backwards as she delivered an swift backhand across his face with her purse. Before he had time to react, she leapt into the car after her sister, who locked the door and slammed on the gas, seatbelts be damned.

Both women were quiet for a minute, panting heavily and regaining their bearings as Celestia wove through traffic, taking side streets and unpredictable turns in the off chance they were being followed.

As they slowed to a stop at an intersection, Celestia looked over to her sister. “And you were worried being a principal wouldn’t be very exciting.”

“Well, at the time, it sounded even more boring than being a flight attendant. And that was boring.”

“Clearly you’re forgetting the flight before we got fired.”

Luna hummed. “Ah, yes. That was quite the day for the mile high club.”

Another minute passed, and Celestia sighed. “You know, I didn’t expect us to be able to hold this job for so long. After a while, you just get used to the failure, you know?”

Luna said nothing and threw her gaze to the window.

“But we went for three whole years with bullying as our only major issue. Our scores were high and our students were engaged and I thought it would last forever. I thought we had stabilized. Thought we could move past the job-hopping and the worrying about whether we’d have enough money to get through the month.

“This was our chance to start again. To move past it all. And now everything’s falling apart and I don’t know what we can do with monsters on our tail, of all things.” Celestia sighed again; a deep, pained, jaded sigh. “I’m sorry, Luna.”

Luna laid a soft hand on her sister’s shoulder. “You’ve done so much for me already, Tia. You can’t always know what to do, even if you think you should.” Celestia only looked to road as her sister spoke. “I think we need to talk to miss Shimmer. If anyone can fix this, it’s her.”

Celestia seemed to shrink in her seat slightly. “She’s not going to like that we know her address.”

Sunset was reading a magazine on her bed when she heard the knock. Now, that was a problem; she had never told anybody where she lived. Not even her friends, or Flash when they went out. Even though they all knew she lived alone on some level, she didn’t want to bring attention to the fact and have them ask all the related questions: how did she provide for herself, how did she get a house, what about all the stuff adults have to do like pay taxes and schedule doctors appointments and buy groceries—you get the idea. Too much worrying for no good reason.

So naturally Sunset was a bit concerned that someone was knocking; it was probably just a door to door salesman, but still.

“J-Just a minute! Be right there!” she called down the hall before looking down at herself.

I should probably put on some clothes.

She never had liked wearing clothes in Equestria. They were far too itchy and generally a nuisance. So whenever she was alone on Earth, she did without pointless inconveniences like shirts and skirts (and bras. Especially bras). But last time anyone else had seen her like that they had called the police and she had to leg it, less they catch her and find out she was one hell of an illegal immigrant. So she made sure to dress around company.

She also grabbed her baseball bat. Better safe than sorry.

Sunset walked through the drab hallways of her home (well, legally, it still belonged to that guy she had given all those gemstones to. Turns out those things are much less common here), leaning the baseball bat against one wall as she reached the front door. She grasped the handle and took a deep breath before meeting her visitors.

Before her stood Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna, smiling widely, as if that would somehow make up for them showing up at their student’s house in the middle of the afternoon with no warning and no foreseeable reason. Loose strands of hair stuck out from their heads, and their clothes were wrinkled and dusty, as if they’d just crawled through ventilation.

“Alright,” started Sunset, “I have some questions.”

Their smiles wavered.

“Firstly. Why do you know where I live?”

Celestia’s grin dropped. “Told you so,” she muttered to Luna.

Luna ignored her, and spoke with an administrative earnesty it seemed these two retained across dimensions. “After the Fall Formal, Twilight Sparkle informed us of your… unique heritage, so we followed you home to make sure you had hospitable living conditions. We wouldn’t have been able to rest easy if one of our students lived on the streets, no matter how misguided she seemed at the time.”

“That makes sense, I guess,” Sunset admitted. “Next question. Why are you here now?”

This time, Celestia answered. “We may have a, er, problem. Of the magic variety.”

Sunset groaned. “Of course you do. What is it this time? Did the Sun and Moon start calling out to you or something?”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “No. Should we… be expecting that? It’s honestly hard to tell when you’re joking.”

“Maybe. You two do raise and lower them, after all.”

Luna’s eyebrow climbed higher.

“Don’t worry about it. Tell me about this magical problem.”

They told her.

“Yes. That is a problem,” confirmed Sunset.

“We certainly thought so,” Luna agreed.

“So what did these monsters look like?”

“Well, they were black,” said Luna.

“Most evil things in Equestria are, in my experience.”

“They were kinda horse-shaped,” Celestia added.

Sunset gave her a deadpan stare. “Yeah, that doesn’t really narrow it down.”

“They had wings,” Luna offered.

“So do you two.”

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t worry about it. Anything else?”

Celestia rubbed her chin in thought. “Well… They had really big blue eyes. Like, the entire eye was blue.”

“I… suppose that helps a bit. There are still a lot of possibilities. We should probably investigate the school, evil things from Equestria tend to gravitate towards it. Give me one second.”

Sunset retreated to the kitchen, pulled out her phone, and dialed Pinkie Pie’s number. She was always near her phone, and could gather everyone together faster than should be possible by any reasonable standards, so she was Sunset’s best bet.

The phone barely started to ring before Pinkie picked up. “Hey Sunny! I was just about to talk to you!”

“That’s great, but I really need—”

“Cupcakes, I know! And I’ve got just the ones for you!”

“Pinkie—”

“So it turns out you can caffeinate cupcakes with soda, but it ruins the flavor, but Twilight has special and possibly illegal caffeine shots for late night study sessions and I got some of them!”

“Pinkie you are going to kill yourself.”

“Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it, Sunny! Here, I brought you one!”

“What—”

Sunset turned around to see Pinkie standing by the refrigerator, holding a cupcake out to her with one hand and holding her phone with the other. Okay, so who else knows where I live?

Sunset hung up the call. “Pinkie, while I’m sure that cupcake would do a fine job of keeping me up for three days straight, there’s something really important you need to do.”

Pinkie gasped. “Does it have to do with the conspiracy?” she said, whispering in Sunset’s ear.

“Uh, if the conspiracy is what I think it is, then yes. Can you gather everyone at the school? I’ll explain why when we’re all together.”

“One group meeting coming right up!” Pinkie immediately dashed from the room, blowing past two very confused principals. Sunset walked after her, grabbing the baseball bat from where it lay against the wall.

“Why was she in your house?” Celestia asked, pointing a thumb over her shoulder at where Pinkie Pie had been moments before.

“Don’t worry about it. Now come on, we’re going monster hunting.”

Celestia and Luna looked at each other and shrugged once before following Sunset to their car.

Five - Hide and Seek (1)

Five - Hide and Seek (1)

Sunset stood on the front steps of Canterlot High, a faint breeze blowing through her hair as she twirled her baseball bat in her hands.

“So here’s the plan: we split into teams and search the school for anything out of the ordinary, and I mean anything. We have to take whatever evidence we can get our hands on, because until we know more, we’re at a severe disadvantage. Twilight, did you bring Spike, by chance?”

“No,” she replied. “Even if he has a more intelligent mind now, he’s still a dog. Was I supposed to bring him?”

“It’s fine, I just thought his sense of smell might be useful. Any questions?”

Pinkie Pie raised her hand. Sunset braced herself.

“Yes, Pinkie?”

“Anybody want a cupcake?” she asked, holding a box of them out in front of her.

“Oh, those look lovely, Pinkie,” Celestia said, reaching out a hand.

“NO!” Sunset, Rarity, Twilight and Applejack chorused, the latter grabbing Celestia by the wrist.

Celestia gulped and retracted her hand. “Or, perhaps not.”

“I have a question!” Rainbow Dash blared, waving her hand wildly in the air. “What are they doing here?” She thrust a thumb out at the principals.

“Our apartment was infested with monsters,” Celestia answered, “so whether we like or not, we’re involved now.”

“Really? That’s positively awful!” Rarity exclaimed. “Why, if it were my house, I’d be tempted to burn the whole place down.”

“It’s a little weird to treat our principals like our peers, though,” Fluttershy said from where she was seated against the wondercolt statue.

“It’s even weirder for me,” Sunset said. “They’re royalty in Equestria.”

“Royalty?” Celestia and Luna repeated in disbelief.

Sunset brushed them off with a wave of her hand. “Don’t worry about it. Anyway, I suppose we should form teams now. Let’s see…”

As Sunset decided on the groups through the tried and true method of random selection, Twilight walked over to Rainbow. “Well, I did promise, so here you go.” She held out the thaumic compressor in her hands, and Rainbow’s eyes lit up.

“Awesome!” She took the machine and clutched it to her chest.

“Just pull the trigger when you’re ponied up, and it’ll fire. Your surge will fade faster, though, so keep that in mind when using it.”

“Awesome!”

“And make sure you don’t mess with any of the settings, or you could seriously screw something up.”

“Awesome!”

“You… did hear all that, right?”

Rainbow looked up with a blank expression. “Huh? Oh, yeah, of course.”

“Good.”

“Twilight!” She turned to Sunset at the call of her name. “You drew the short straw, so you’re with Celestia and Luna.”

“Um, okay.”

As Twilight turned and walked off, Rainbow once again turned her attention to the laser gun. She noticed that a switch labeled ‘safety inhibitor’ was in the ‘ON’ position.

Surely that was a mistake; who would want to inhibit safety? That was just plain dangerous. She flicked it off.

“Rainbow.” She looked up. “You drew the other short straw; you’re with Pinkie Pie.”

Pinkie buzzed up to Rainbow’s side. “Cupcake?” She held one out. “They’re really goooood!” Rainbow pushed the confection away from her face and groaned.

Sunset continued through the courtyard. “Rarity and Applejack, you’re a team.”

They looked at each other and shrugged.

“Which leaves me and Fluttershy together.”

“Well, let’s get to it then!” shouted Rainbow with a pump of her fist, her contagious excitement even making Fluttershy look a little less terrified, and the group entered the school.

“So this is th’ bathroom ya collapsed in?” asked Applejack, pushing open the heavy wooden door with ease.

“I prefer the term ‘fainted’, but yes.”

The pair walked in and looked around. The floor glistened with custodial care, commanding they be a bit more sturdy on their feet. One of the stall doors sported a broken lock and swung lazily outwards, the top hinge rusty and old, as though it would snap off if you talked too loudly. Rarity absentmindedly turned off a dripping sink as she fixed her hair in the smudged mirror, and Applejack searched inside one of the stalls.

“I dunno, Rarity, I’m not seein’ any monsters in here.”

“Oh, we’ve barely started looking, Applejack. Besides, there’s more to be found than the monsters themselves.” Rarity opened another stall door and stuck out her tongue. “Ew, what is that?”

“What’s what?” asked Applejack, poking her head around the stall.

“That.” Rarity pointed to a sickly goop-like substance stuck to the stall door.

“Well, now ain’t that somethin.” Applejack poked it.

“Ick, don’t touch it!”

“Oh, grow up.” Applejack tried to pull her finger out, but the goop held fast. “What the—hey! Let go!”

“Applejack, dear, are you talking to it?”

Applejack had a foot on the door now, and was pulling with all her strength. Finally, her finger came out, and she slammed into the stall wall behind her with a grunt of pain.

“Oh my, that looked like it hurt,” Rarity commented helpfully, a hand on her mouth.

“Very much, thank you,” Applejack said with a bitter glare.

“Well, I do believe we’ve stumbled upon some ‘evidence’ as Sunset put it. Do collect it.”

Applejack continued her glare as she took out her water bottle and used it to scrape up the goop. “Ya know, you’re awfully bossy sometimes.”

“Please, Applejack. You’re a farmer. You’re used to getting dirty; I’m not.”

“Sometimes I wonder if a good ol’ mud bath with th’ pigs wouldn’t be good for ya.”

“Oh, hush. I’ll get you another water bottle if you’re so bothered,” Rarity offered, heading out of the bathroom.

Applejack went to the sink to wash the alien super glue off her hands and shook her head. “I swear, if she ponies up for that, I’ll eat all twenty of my hats.”

“Ugh, where are all the monsters? I was promised monsters!” Rainbow complained loudly to the empty hallway. The hallway was speechless.

“You weren’t promised there would be monsters, silly! Didn’t you listen to Sunset’s speech?”

“Well…” Rainbow scratched the back of her neck.

Pinkie giggled. “Me neither!”

Rainbow shook her head, resuming her rant with a tad less gusto than before. “But seriously, where’s the action? If I wanted to wander around the school, I’d just skip class.”

Then, as if to answer her plea, out of the corner of Rainbow’s eye, she thought she saw a shadow dart into a nearby classroom. “Pinkie this way!” The words had barely started to form in her vocal cords before Dash was off, Pinkie running after her.

“Wait Rainbow slow down where are we going what are—oh hey Rarity!”

Sure enough, Rarity was standing in the middle of the room, hands on her hips and a frown on her face. “Hello, darlings. I could have sworn something came into this room, but it seems nothing’s here. It’s quite frustrating.”

Rainbow chuckled. “Yeah, same. But I guess I saw you. Wait a minute…” Rainbow turned a circle in the room. “Where’s Applejack? Aren’t you two supposed to be together?”

“We were tragically separated,” she answered casually. “I—hold on just a minute, I think I see something!”

Pinkie looked around. “Really? What?”

But Rarity was already out the door.

“Come on Pinkie, we have to follow her! I’m not leaving my friend alone with the enemy!” As she finished speaking, Rainbow rose slightly into the air, and wings sprouted from her back.

“Woohoo!” she cried, flying down the hallways, Pinkie struggling to match her pace.

“Dash, wait up!” Pinkie called, but she was already out of sight. “Man, I should have eaten those cupcakes myself.”

Celestia, Luna, and Twilight exited the school cafeteria with empty hands and ruined appetites.

“So, Twilight,” said Celestia, “do you know what Sunset Shimmer meant when she said we were royalty?”

“Uh, sort of,” she responded.

“Do tell,” encouraged Luna. “Sunset has been very tight-lipped about… Equestria, is it? And I must say, I’m quite curious.”

“Well, everybody over here has a duplicate over there, which is why we know they’re two different dimensions as opposed to, say, different planets. That’s why there are two of me. And all of our duplicates happen to be princesses.”

“Princesses?” Celestia repeated.

“But we aren’t related to you,” Luna said. “At least, not that I know of.”

Twilight shrugged. “You’d have to ask Sunset for the details, but I’m pretty sure I heard her mention that my counterpart ‘ascended’ into princessdom, so I don’t think it’s by blood.”

“Then does that mean the school board represents the kings and queens?” pondered Celestia.

Luna shuddered. “Ugh, I hope not.”

Their conversation was cut short by the pounding of feet from around the next corner. The three looked at each other before running to the end of the hall, where it formed a T with another corridor.

“Rarity?” Twilight asked to the girl running at breakneck speeds towards them. Rarity’s eyes widened at the human roadblock, but she didn’t slow down. Twilight braced herself for collision, yelling at her friends to stop, but as Rarity approached them, she bent her legs and leapt, flying over the group with athleticism that Twilight seriously had not thought Rarity possessed. She landed in a dexterous roll and was immediately back on her feet, arms pumping furiously as she careened down the hall.

“What,” Luna said astutely.

“Was something chasing her? Should we be running too?” Celestia worried.

“Oh, hey guys!”

Twilight turned to the new voice. “Rainbow?”

She was flying towards them surrounded by a bright blue aura. “Did Rarity come through here?”

Twilight pointed.

“Great! Come on, I think the monsters are close!” Rainbow grabbed Twilight’s wrist and continued her chase, dragging Twilight along with her.

“Rainbow slow dooooooooooown!” Her desperate shout dropped in volume as she was pulled farther away from the principals, until it finally petered out into an echo.

“What,” repeated Luna.

“I dunno either!”

Celestia jumped back in surprise as Pinkie Pie appeared beside her, arms folded and a small frown on her face. Celestia clapped a hand over her rapid heart and exhaled, no doubt repeated calming mantras to herself in her mind.

Pinkie continued on as if nothing had happened. “Rarity says she thinks she’s seen a monster and then Rainbow chases to help her and ponies up because loyalty but that means she’s faster than me so she’s leaving me behind which is totally not loyal, but I guess magic doesn’t have takesies backsies.”

“What,” repeated Luna, again.

“Exactly!”

Celestia cupped her face in her hands and let out a long, tired groan. “I’m getting too old for this.”

Luna laid a comforting hand on her shoulder and said nothing.

Applejack was rooting through Celestia’s office, humming a country tune to herself. Normally, she would never breach someone’s privacy so blatantly, but circumstances were dire. And, well, moral objections aside, who doesn’t want to rummage through their principal’s stuff?

A full wastebasket sat next to her desk, which was messier than Applejack had ever seen it in the past. The microphone that she used to make announcements and its accompanying controls were pushed to the edge somewhat precariously, presumably to make room for a litter of paperwork that bored Applejack to death just looking at it. Several documents had sticky notes on them with reminders such as ‘can procrastinate for a week before school board notices’ or ‘dump on Luna’.

The whiteboard on the wall was blank (barring the small blotches of marker left from a hasty cleaning), a magnetic eraser stuck to the surface. The bookcase next to it housed mostly binders and reference guides, as well as the school’s trophy from the Friendship Games. Applejack only briefly wondered why the school didn’t have a trophy case to put it in. A globe rested on top of the bookcase, next to a mug that boldly proclaimed ‘#1 PRINCIPAL’ and held a handful of colorful pens and pencils. Finally, Applejack smiled at a framed picture of Luna and Celestia laughing at a joke lost to time.

The relative serenity of her search was turned on its head as Rarity burst through the door that joined Celestia’s office to Luna’s. “Applejack, would you happen to know why Vice Principal Luna has a katana on the wall of her office?”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “What, didn’t ya know? Everybody has their theories ‘bout it.”

“I can’t say I’ve been in her office before.” Rarity flipped her hair. “Just goes to show how much of a star student I am, hmm?”

“Come on, you’ve had t’ gotten in trouble for somethin’.”

“Afraid not. So what’s yours?”

“My what?”

“Your theory, of course. About the katana.”

Applejack stroked her chin. “Never really thought about it too much. Suppose it must be important to ‘er; maybe a gift from a relative or somethin’.”

“Psh, of course you would say that. I bet it’s part of her look—it fits the aesthetic she sets by never turning on the lights.”

“An’ of course you would say that.” Applejack opened a desk drawer only to find more paper. “I don’t suppose ya had better luck in there than me in here?”

Rarity shook her head.

“Didn’t think so.” Applejack closed the drawer. “C’mon, let’s check somewhere else.”

The two left the room and nearly crashed into Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, who had turned the corner into the administrative hallway just as they had left it.

“Woah!” Applejack exclaimed, freezing in place just before they collided. “Hey, y’all. Found anythin’ yet?”

Pinkie’s eyes flashed to the exit directly behind Applejack and Rarity, and she briefly grimaced.

Rainbows hands flew up in exasperation. “Nothing! It’s totally not awesome!”

“What about you?” Pinkie asked.

“Well, we may have found a little something,” Rarity teased, a smug look on her face. Applejack rolled her eyes and procured her water bottle, the golden alien substance still inside.

“Wow! Awesome!” said Rainbow.

“Weird!” Pinkie said with fascination, leaning forward. “Can I see it?”

“Uh, I guess,” Applejack said, giving her the bottle.

As Pinkie inspected the water bottle, Rarity cleared her throat. “We should probably split up again to cover more ground. You two can take that direction”—she pointed to the right—“and we’ll go the other way.”

“Awesome!” said Rainbow, flashing a thumbs up.

“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie affirmed

Applejack managed to pry her water bottle back from Pinkie, and after she and Rainbow had left, Applejack turned to Rarity. “Is it just me, or were those two actin’ a tad strange?”

“Meh,” Rarity said, shrugging. “Seemed pretty normal to me.”

Sunset seethed as she opened another boring, regular broom closet.

“I hope the others are having more luck than we are. I didn’t come here to find out where every single stupid supply closet is.”

“Maybe we should look in the gym next?” Fluttershy suggested. “I hide there sometimes.”

“Got nothing better to do,” Sunset ground out as she slammed the door closed.

Twilight was not having fun.

Her arms were wrapped around one of Rainbow’s in a death grip as a set of unsettlingly small wings propelled them down the hall, Twilight flailing out behind Rainbow like a human cape. Every so often they would reach a turn, and Twilight would almost slam into the far wall before being violently yanked to the side, screaming. It was kind of like riding a rollercoaster, except instead of being strapped in you had to hang on to Rainbow Dash for dear life, and there was always that chance that your car would run out of magic and you would both drop to the ground, but probably not actually die from it because you would be about two and a third feet in the air. And the rollercoaster was also holding a laser gun in one hand, that, if fired, would not only potentially give someone serious burns, but also definitely make both parties fall to the ground.

So basically not like a rollercoaster at all. Whatever, Twilight wasn’t a poet. The point was that it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

And after ninja-kicking open the doors to the gym and flying inside (it was important to make an entrance), Rainbow came to sudden halt, causing Twilight to be thrown three feet forward face-first to the waxy gym floor with a grunt of pain and a small “Why…”

The reason for Rainbow’s sudden deceleration was the pink-haired, pink-skinned girl standing in the middle of the gym.

“Pinkie? What are you doing here?” Rainbow asked, whipping her head around the gym. “Where’s Rarity?”

Pinkie threw her arms to the side. “I don’t know! You took off after her and I couldn’t keep up!”

Rainbow smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, Pinkie. Sometimes I forget how much of an awesome flier I am.”

“Yeah, so awesome,” Twilight added, her voice muffled by the floor. She picked herself up, readjusting her hopelessly crooked glasses. “Why’d you even grab me anyway?”

“Reinforcements,” Rainbow answered automatically.

Twilight just rolled her eyes and brushed herself off, taking a look around the gym.

The bleachers were pulled in, like they always were when they weren’t needed, and the stage held nothing more than a broken pencil and a granola bar wrapper. Overall, it was just as bland and inconspicuous as all the other places Twilight had investigated before her ride on the Rainbow Express.

“I wish I had remembered to bring my locket. It would make this search much more straightforward.”

Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. “You mean the same locket that creates portals to Equestria every ten minutes?”

“It’s stable now,” Twilight protested. “It doesn’t do that kind of thing anymore. I mean, it does, but not on its own.”

“Are you sure? Cause I don’t think anybody here wants a surprise visit to Ponyland. Or to be attacked by giant carnivorous plants. Or—”

Rainbow was cut off by the gym doors to the side of the stage opening to reveal Rarity and Applejack.

“Pinkie? Rainbow?” Applejack gave them a confused look. “Why’re y’all here?”

“Why shouldn’t they be here?” Twilight asked, her head cocked to the side.

“Because those two were supposed to search the eastern wing, not the west,” Rarity replied, as if it were obvious.

“What are you talking about?” Rainbow retorted. “I just chased you across the entire school!”

“And you said you and Applejack had been separated!” Pinkie accused.

“What? We ain’t left each other’s side this whole time!” Applejack said.

Twilight groaned and banged her head against the bleachers.

Luna shielded her eyes as a flash of bright green light poured down from the stairwell in front of them.

“Woah, pretty!” said Pinkie.

Celestia folded her arms. “I… suppose we have to investigate that, don’t we?”

The party started to climb the stairs, Celestia and Luna looking as though they had to force themselves to put one foot in front of the other, while Pinkie bounced obediently behind them.

“Hey there! Y’all investigating the flash ‘o light too?”

The principals turned to see Applejack leaning over the railing above them, Rarity standing behind her.

“Um, yes,” confirmed Celestia.

“Though it appears it was a false alarm,” said Luna. “Miss Rarity, I have to ask, why were you running away from Rainbow Dash earlier?”

“Oh, I wasn’t running from her, darling, I was running after something.” She frowned. “Didn’t manage to catch it, though.”

If there was anything suspicious about that, Luna was too distracted by Rarity calling her ‘darling’ to notice. She was, like, over a decade older than her.

“Why don’t we head to the gym, then? I don’t think anybody’s searched there yet,” Celestia proposed.

Rarity and Applejack descended the staircase. “The real question,” Applejack said, her voice menacing, “is whether anyone is going to search here.”

“Kay, they’re evil,” Luna observed. She had seen horror movies before.

She and Celestia backed up—right into Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie, we’ve got to run,” Celestia said, trying her best to move to the side.

Pinkie bared her fangs.

Luna punched her in the fangs. “Go!”

“Go where?” Celestia shouted back as they burst into a sprint.

“The gym’s close, there’s an exit there!”

The two rushed through the halls, the buzzing of wings not far behind them. Yet as they neared the gym, something scalding hot struck Celestia in the shoulder blade, and she fell to the ground with a curse.

Luna skidded to a halt. “Celestia!” Her eyes widened as one of their pursuer’s horns began to glow, and a stream of… something… flew at her, sticking her feet to the ground and her arms to her sides. Before long, it was all around her, and she fell into a dreamless sleep.

“If you were always together then why was Rarity alone?” Rainbow yelled, her voice carrying even further in the gym.

“Maybe you’re just seein’ things, RD!” Applejack retorted.

“No, I clearly saw Rarity running from Rainbow,” Twilight supplied. “I think that there may actually be—”

Rarity cut her off: “None of this explains why we saw you two at the front office.”

“Well, if my hypothesis is correct, then—”

“I think we all know that I wouldn’t be lyin’ ‘bout all this, so Rainbow, I think it’s time you told the truth.”

“If you idiots would actually let me speak—”

“I’m not LYING!” Rainbow shouted, throwing her arms out to the side in exasperation.

And accidentally pulling the trigger on the thaumic compressor.

Rainbow fell on her backside as she ponied down, the spare magic being channeled into what she would later proudly describe as a ‘large-ass laser beam’ that struck the gym wall with a BOOM and an accompanying green shine, a cloud of dust the only thing obscuring a view of the hallway.

Twilight facepalmed. Of course she turned off the safety inhibitor.

As the dust cleared, a double of each Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie removed their hands from over their heads, the last fragments of plaster pattering against the floor.

“And if you had listened to me,” Twilight splayed her hands wide at the additional friends, “you would know that the only logical explanation is that there are multiple yous running around!”

Rainbow’s mouth hung open as she looked between the duplicates.

“Well, stick me in a hay bale and call me a pitchfork,” one of the Applejacks said.

“Oh, dear, this isn’t good,” the Rarity in the hall stated.

The pinkies smiled and waved at each other.

And Sunset and Fluttershy chose that moment to make their own entrance into the warzone; Fluttershy’s eyes grew wide and she made small unintelligible noises, while Sunset gasped.

“Changelings.”

Author's Note

Introducing multipart chapters, because I have a semi-regular update schedule that requires it!

In addition to spanning multiple chapters, they will also have two (2) verbs as a title, instead of one. Spooky!

Alright, thanks for reading and all that. Next update's Friday, and I promise it isn't a cliffhanger.

Six - Hide and Seek (2)

Author's Note

Gore starts in this chapter: blood, violence, and injury. I'm not going out of my way to be disgusting or anything, though, so don't be too worried.

Without further ado, the longest chapter thusfar!

Six - Hide and Seek (2)

Six - Hide and Seek (2)

“Changelings.”

Everybody looked at Sunset. A few eyebrows rose.

“Basically, they’re monsters who copy other pony’s—peoples—forms. Twilight had to face them a while back. But nevermind that.” Sunset looked from person to person, her gaze stopping as it reached the hole in the gym wall. “What the hell happened here?”

Wrong question. The gym erupted into eight voices trying to talk over one another:

“Rarity thought she saw a monster and I had to chase her—”

“Dashy just left me in that classroom—”

“Hey, me too!”

“She unwillingly dragged me halfway across the school—”

“Applejack and I were together the whole time, and Rainbow and Pinkie didn’t seem to be separated; oh, those were the monsters, weren’t they?”

“But instead of Rarity we found Pinkie in the gym—”

“I think I saw th’ fake Pinkie Pie at th’ front office—”

“After they came into the gym that’s when everybody started shouting reeeeally loudly—”

“Rainbow switched off the safety even I specifically told her—”

“I must say, Rainbow and Applejack were being quite stubborn—”

“Applejack was being a blockhead—”

“Rainbow was bein’ a blockhead—”

“I tried to resolve the situation with simple logical deductions but nobody would listen—”

“And then Rainbow made the wall go KABOOOOM and then you two came in!” one of the Pinkie Pies finished.

Sunset gave her friends a flat stare. “Yeah, I didn’t quite catch that.”

“Don’t worry.” Twilight approached Sunset. “Finding the originals should be fairly simple.” She turned to the group. “Which Pinkie was in the gym to start with?”

The two Pinkies pointed to each other.

“…Oookay, nevermind. Which Applejack and Rarity were in the hall?”

None of them raised their hands.

Twilight looked to Rainbow pleadingly, but she only shrugged apathetically. “Paying attention to stuff isn’t really my thing.”

Twilight took a deep breath. “It’s fine. There are still more plausible solutions. Hold on, all of you duplicates line up against the bleachers where we can see you,” she ordered, pointed to the stands. “Anyone who doesn’t cooperate will be automatically assumed a changeling.”

Sunset glared them all down and hefted her baseball bat. A couple of them gulped. Could changelings gulp? Maybe it was a clue. She would have to make note of it later.

Once they were all lined up, one of the Applejacks raised a hand. “May I say somethin?”

“Sure,” Sunset said. The more they talked, the easier this should be.

Applejack took off her hat and laid it over her heart. “I can say, with absolute honesty, that I am, in truth, not a changeling. I’m also not lying.”

Before Sunset had the chance to critique her redundancy, Applejack was swathed in an orange glow; she rose into the air, her hair lengthening and her ears rising on her head.

Well that certainly made things easier.

The impersonator instantly grew a glowing horn on her forehead, and a beam of energy shot towards Applejack, who barely managed to dodge out of the way in time.

Sunset crossed her arms and huffed. Of course the changelings get to keep their magic over here. Stupid shapeshifters.

“Applejack, catch!” The girl in question turned only just in time to receive the thaumic compressor Rainbow Dash had lobbed at her, and aimed it at the changeling.

Twilight reached out a desperate hand: “WAIT TURN ON THE—”

Applejack fired.

“…safety.”

Applejack’s fresh pony up vanished as the gun discharged all of her energy into an enormous laser that consumed the changeling completely. When the light faded, there wasn’t even ash left behind.

Fluttershy fainted.

“Let me see that,” Twilight ordered, snatching the thaumic compressor out of Applejack’s hands and flicking the safety inhibitor to ‘ON’.

“Wait,” Sunset said, “don’t tell me you just pony up every time you tell the truth.”

Applejack frowned. “I’m not too sure myself, but it seems like it has to be an important truth. Or somethin’ like that. Kinda how Pinkie doesn’t pony up every time someone laughs at one of ‘er jokes.”

Twilight, after she finished jotting down a few more notes on what Applejack had said, walked over to Sunset and whispered something in her ear.

“Yeah, that’s what I think, too,” Sunset responded aloud.

The two approached the Raritys. “See, Rarity has a very distinctive personality,” Twilight explained. “We’ve been watching the two of you and your mannerisms, and we know who the real Rarity is.” Twilight then punched Rarity in the gut.

“OW! SHIT, Twilight, that hurt!” the Rarity exclaimed, her gracious demeanor kicked to curb.

“It’s her,” Twilight announced.

Sunset proceeded to bash the other one in with her baseball bat, and the changeling’s disguise dropped, its blue eyes bulging slightly out of its head. Sunset wheeled back for another swing, but the changeling erupted into flame, causing Sunset to back off. When the flames cleared, the changeling was gone.

“Damn, it got away.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Looked like it lit itself on fire t’ me.”

Sunset shrugged. “Both.”

“Twilight.” Rarity took a deep breath, still holding her stomach. “What was that?”

“Oh, sorry,” Twilight said, looking minimally sorry. “I needed to act confidently enough so that if you were the changeling, you wouldn’t call my bluff. So I had to punch you. No hard feelings.”

Rarity sighed dramatically. “I suppose I might forgive you.”

“But that strategy won’t work again,” Sunset said.

“Who cares?” Rainbow said. “We have it outnumbered seven to one!” Her head turned to Fluttershy. “Six to one.”

“She does have a point,” Rarity admitted. “You’d think they would’ve attacked straight off the bat instead of waiting for us to unmask them one by one.”

“I don’t really think that’s their style,” Sunset said. “They’re meant for stealth and infiltration, so they’re probably trained not to reveal themselves if they’re outnumbered.”

“Doesn’t mean it ain’t stupid, though,” Applejack commented, to a nod of agreement from Sunset.

“Well, you heard us, changeling,” Rainbow said as the group surrounded the Pinkies in a tight semicircle. “You can’t hide forever, and we have all the time in the—oh, shit!” She jumped back as one Pinkie bit deep into Sunset’s leg with razor fangs.

Today just isn’t my day, Sunset thought as she stifled a scream and fell to her knee, her baseball bat dropping to the hardwood floor and rolling away from her. A green flash through the gym managed to wrest her attention from her throbbing leg, and the changeling appeared in all its glory. It flapped its wings faster than her eyes could follow as it took wing to the top of the gym.

“Great,” complained Rainbow, “now how are we supposed to fight it?”

The changeling’s horn glowed a dark crimson, and was just about to fire when a baseball bat slammed into its side.

Twilight pumped a fist from where she stood beside Sunset. “Yes! Take that!”

“Hey, nice shot, Twi,” Sunset managed to grind out.

But while the bat clattered to the ground, the changeling didn’t; it had managed to right itself, its wings humming with renewed vigor. It hissed, turning its horn now to the newest threat, and Twilight barely had time to yelp and shield her face before the beam struck her upper arm, leaving a nasty-looking burn and a faint plume of smoke.

“Twilight! Are you okay?” Rarity asked, rushing to her side. She only grunted in response, her tongue clamped between her teeth. Sunset probably would’ve felt more sorry for her were she not actively losing blood herself.

“Okay, that’s it!” Applejack twirled a lasso above her head, fast enough that Sunset saw it only as a blur. “Yeehaw!” The rope flew through the air with practice, and probably would’ve done a fantastic job of tying up the changeling had it not been shot down by the same amber material Rarity had found in the bathroom. Applejack’s eyes widened and she swore under her breath as the rope, along with its adhesive new paint job, came crashing back down onto her.

“Alright,” Rainbow said, her voice straining for hope, “maybe if I climb the bleachers and jump really far I can—ack!” Rainbow dove to the ground as a beam whizzed past where her head had just been. “Okay, maybe not!” She rolled to the side to dodge another laser, but the changeling was already preparing a third, and Rainbow could only close her eyes in abject anticipation.

But the strike never came. Out of nowhere, a grappling hook wrapped around the changeling’s barrel, and it was pulled to the floor fast as lightning. Everyone in the gym turned to see—

“Bon Bon?!” they all yelled, Fluttershy startling awake at the noise.

“Hey girls!” she replied, with a smile and a wave. She had ditched her dress in favor of a similarly colored shirt and skirt (the latter bearing the three candies she always wore) in addition to a light pink jacket that matched her hair. Her grappling hook retracted cleanly up her sleeve as she jerked some kind of two-bladed knife from the neck of the changeling, green blood flowing from the twin holes it left. Casually, she procured a rag from her jacket and started cleaning her weapon.

Nobody had the attention to acknowledge the thump of Fluttershy once again hitting the floor.

“Ah… A buh… huh?” Rarity articulated.

“Bon Bon? More like Bon Bond, am I right?” Rainbow laughed, heartily and alone.

Bon Bon’s face darkened. “My name isn’t Bon Bon. It’s Special Agent Sweetie Drops. And you all have a lot of explaining to do.”

Sunset gulped.

“But there’ll be time for all that stuff later!” Sweetie Drops assured, her smile returning.

“It turns out miss Drops had the same idea we did,” Celestia said, stepping forward from behind Bon Bon, her sister on her side.

“She helped us out of a rather sticky situation, and it seems she did the same for you all.” Luna added.

Sweetie Drops nodded. “Apparently, these monsters keep their victims in cocoons made out of that stuff.” She pointed to Applejack, who was trying her best to separate her lasso from her body.

“Chrysalises,” Twilight said.

Bon Bon and Sunset’s eyes widened. “What?”

“Not cocoons, chrysalises. It’s an easy mistake to make; they’re very similar, and serve roughly the same purpose, but they have their differences. Mostly in color—chrysalises are this golden color, while cocoons are more grayish.”

“Huh, that would explain her name,” Sunset said, drawing a suspicious look from Sweetie Drops. “The leader of the changelings, their Queen, is named Chrysalis.”

Bon Bon relaxed.

Twilight walked up and inspected Applejack. “Chrysalises in nature are made from silk, so I would assume that this is the changeling’s equivalent.”

“Hold on a second,” Rarity said, “like spider silk or caterpillar silk?”

“Well, the chrysalises would suggest the caterpillar variety, but it can be sticky as well as hard—”

Everybody ignored Rainbow’s snicker.

“—so I imagine it’s its own thing. Besides, comparing aliens to terrestrial animals doesn’t seem very practical.”

“Whatever it is, it doesn’t like t’ come off,” Applejack lamented, making no progress in her struggle.

Sweetie Drops pulled her blade out. “It cuts off!” she chirped.

“Ya know, I think I can get it myself,” Applejack said quickly.

“If you’re sure.” She twirled the weapon deftly in her fingers before spinning around and pointing it threateningly at Pinkie Pie. “Also, she’s a changeling.”

“What?” Pinkie said. “No I’m not!”

Bon Bon’s voice was calculative and final. “Pinkie doesn’t blend into the crowd, and you haven’t drawn attention to yourself at all since I got here.”

“She’s got a point,” Luna murmured to her sister.

“But you just killed the changeling Pinkie!” Rainbow protested, pointing to the body on the ground.

“But there could be two!” Twilight theorized with misplaced excitement. “It would make a pretty good disguise.”

“Oh, come on girls. Why would I want to be a changeling anyway?” Pinkie said, looking genuinely confused.

Rarity put her hands on her hips and squinted. “I must say, that does seem like something Pinkie would say.”

“Too little too late,” Bon Bon stated, walking forward.

Sunset managed to climb to her feet with only a mild wince of pain. “We could think of some sort of test,” she suggested.

Sweetie Drops stabbed Pinkie in the stomach.

Celestia, Rarity, and Rainbow each let out a shrill screech, Twilight quickly turned away, Applejack and Luna each sucked in a low breath, and Sunset’s eyes widened; what the hell did she think she was doing?

Pinkie looked down in shock, her blood dribbling onto the floor.

Green blood.

Sweetie withdrew the blade and went for a second stab, but Pinkie turned back into a changeling, and Bon Bon ended up slashing the air above it.

“This isn’t over,” the changeling said, its voice grating, as if someone had layered it over itself. A flash of flame later, the changeling was gone.

“There we go!” Sweetie said cheerily, once again taking out her bloodstained rag. “Now we just need to find the original Pinkie and we can leave!”

There was a second of quiet as everybody regained their breath. And then Sunset unloaded.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!”

Sweetie frowned. “You said we needed some sort of test. That was the most efficient one.”

“You stabbed her in the chest!”

“I don’t see the problem.”

“That is not the kind of test I was talking about!”

“Oh, sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t even begin to cut it! What if you’d been wrong? You could’ve killed her!”

“Why do you think I went for the stomach?”

“No. Just… No.”

“It was a pretty shallow stab. She would’ve gotten better.”

Sunset groaned into her hands. “Okay. Everybody take ten minutes, and we’ll meet back by the statue. I think we could all use a break.” She winced as she accidentally put too much pressure on her leg. “And medical attention.”

Bon Bon smiled. “Sounds great!”

Because she had been there, Rainbow had volunteered to show Sweetie Drops to the classroom she had last seen Pinkie. Twilight had tagged along for the opportunity to examine the chrysalis.

“Are you gonna keep that?” Rainbow questioned, gesturing to the changeling corpse that Twilight was cradling in her arms.

“Of course. It’s for science.”

“It looks heavy,” commented Bon Bon.

“It is. But I can manage; it’s for science.”

“Where are you even going to put it?” Rainbow probed.

“The lab, after we’re done with this.”

“You’re just gunna keep a dead alien in the lab?”

“Yup. For science.” Twilight paused to readjust the angle of the changeling’s head. She didn’t want to get its blood on her clothes; that would be hell to explain. “Oh, and Bon Bon—Sweetie Drops, whatever—are you the one who placed all those nano cameras in the lab?”

Sweetie laughed nervously. “Who, me? Why’d you think that?”

“Oh, I dunno, maybe because you’re the only undercover secret agent in the school?” Rainbow deadpanned.

“Keep blowing my cover and you’ll wake up without hands tomorrow,” Bon Bon hissed under her breath. Rainbow backed up.

“I’d actually prefer it be you than, I don’t know, some blue-haired stalker.”

Bon Bon shifted uncomfortably. “I… can’t legally talk about this.”

“Hey, think that’s her?” Rainbow asked, pointing to a large bundle of silk hanging from the ceiling, and giving Sweetie Drops a welcome subject change.

“Statistically,” Twilight answered.

Sweetie Drops’ grappling hook shot from her wrist and wrapped around the strand that stuck the chrysalis to the ceiling, and she pulled the string tight, snapping the connection. The hook was vacuumed back up her sleeve, and she started to cut away at the silk with her blade.

Twilight knelt beside her and tapped her knuckles on the chrysalis, emitting a hollow knocking sound. The surface was thin and transparent, but still sturdy, and Sweetie’s dagger cut through it roughly and slowly. Pinkie Pie was inside, and appeared to be sleeping. Twilight wondered if that was a function of the silk or whether Pinkie was just bored. Maybe Sunset would know.

At long last, most of the silk covering had been cut away, and Pinkie Pie awoke somewhat woozily.

“Ugh, is it morning already?”

“Pinkie, you were captured by the changelings,” Twilight said. “Do you remember?”

“Oh right! Rainbow left after Rarity and then Sunset and Fluttershy found me only they weren’t Sunset and Fluttershy, and then I woke up!”

“Don’t worry, we got rid of ‘em all!” Rainbow boasted.

“Not all of them,” Bon Bon corrected. “Two got away, and there are likely many more impersonating our classmates and teachers that didn’t stick around at the school.”

“Oh, hi Bon Bon!” Pinkie greeted. “So you finally told them all about your secret identity?”

She spluttered. “My s-se—But how did you know! If you figured it out, that means my cover’s blown!”

Rainbow chuckled. “Don’t worry, it’s just Pinkie.”

“Don’t worry? How can I not worry? What if she told someone?” Bon Bon raised her blade.

“NO!” Twilight grabbed her by the wrist. “You can’t just stab all your problems!”

“I can try!”

Pinkie giggled. “Don’t worry, Bonnie, I wouldn’t go around revealing things about people that they didn’t want people to be revealed to! Your secret is safe with me.”

“Fine.” She lowered her arm. “But how did you find me out?”

“Pinkie sense!”

“Pinkie what now?”

“It’s an anomalous ability that only Pinkie seems to posses,” Twilight explained. “She experiences certain muscle spasms in her body that predict particular events.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Of course it does, silly! It’s right there in the name!”

“It’s Pinkie,” Rainbow clarified. “It doesn’t have to make sense. I mean, I know you only transferred here this year, but surely you’ve seen her do stuff that’s impossible before.”

Sweetie looked from one face to another, her own betraying nothing of what was occurring behind it. She got up at length, making sure all her gadgets were in their correct places, and smiled. “Well, I suppose its fine if you don’t tell anyone. Come on, we should be heading back to the statue. Oh, and don’t forget to drop off your little friend, Twilight!” she said with a giggle.

“Is it just me,” Rainbow whispered under her breath, “or is she not entirely there in the head?”

“A good question,” Twilight said. “I’ve been taking notes, and after comparing them to some research I did, I—”

Rainbow’s palm shot over her mouth. “Yeah, I stopped caring at ‘notes’. Imma see if Applejack’s already at the meeting place, I need a break from your egghead. Come on, Pinkie.”

Twilight frowned as they walked off. “ ‘Stopped caring at notes’? I swear, all of my friends are a little bit crazy.” And with that, she slung the bleeding alien corpse over her shoulder and made her way to the lab.

“As you know, the enemies we are facing are known as changelings.” Sunset was standing on the destroyed wondercolt statue as if it were a podium, white bandages wrapped around her leg where the changeling had bitten her. The pain was still uncomfortable, but Sunset had dealt with much worse before. Everybody else was either seated or standing on the lawn in front of her, listening to her exposition with rapt interest. Fluttershy had finally woken up for more than ten seconds, which was good, because Sunset didn’t want to have to repeat all this. (Though, if she did, she’d just have Twilight do it. She had an excellent boring lecture voice.) “I’ve never actually encountered changelings before, as they tend to stick to the shadows, and their Queen, Chrysalis, waited to attack Equestria until I had already left to this dimension. But Princess Twilight has seen them, and she told me all about her research on their species through a letter over the journal.”

“Hold up,” interrupted Applejack, “she sent ya all that in one go?”

“Well, it turns out nopony knows a whole lot about changelings, so it was a pretty quick report.”

“Nopony?” Luna asked.

Sunset waved her off. “Don’t worry about it.” She turned her attention back to the group, clearing her throat. “Changelings are creatures that feed on love; it’s their main energy source, and while they can eat actual food, they can’t live off it. Without any love for too long, a changeling will eventually die. Conversely, if a changeling has an abundant amount of love, they become quite powerful.”

“They eat love?” Rainbow questioned. “As in the emotion?”

“Yeah. I mean, it’s not as uncommon as you would think on Equestria. Remember the Sirens?” They all nodded. “They ate hate, remember?” A chorus of ‘right’ and ‘oh yeah’ met her.

Sunset continued. “Additionally, their magic is fundamentally different from unicorn magic, as one would expect. Most of the spells they can cast are the same, but they seemed to be geared towards spells that most unicorns aren’t even capable of performing, such as accessing the memories of beings they capture for better impersonation, as well as the shape changing itself; unicorns would have to study transformation magic for years before being able to reach the level changelings reach instinctively. And according to Twilight’s own observations, their Queen appears to be capable of glamour-based mind magic.”

“For the less magically learned among us, might you explain what on earth that means?” Rarity inquired.

Sunset hummed. “Basically… Imagine if someone got a bucket of glitter gel and dumped it onto your consciousness, so that your mind would be so far buried below all the ‘glamour’ that it didn’t have a say in what you experienced, or, in extreme cases, what you did.”

“That sounds horrible.”

“It probably is. Moving on, all changelings can telepathically communicate through a hivemind. Don’t ask me how it works, I couldn’t tell you.

“Lastly, and this is based on the past half hour, they can most certainly use magic in this dimension.”

“Right, I was going to ask about that,” Twilight said. “They, apparently, still have access to their mana flows; not to mention how they can utilize enough atmospheric magic to perform spells!”

“Well, it’s all just conjecture, but I imagine their natural inclination towards transformations on their own bodies allowed them to hold on to the necessary organs. And their magic is much weaker here.” She pointed to Twilight’s arm. “If they had Equestria-level magic, those burns would be two degrees worse. I imagine their ability to convert love to energy also helps, but I’m not sure of the science there.”

“I bet you could preheat an oven really fast in Equestria!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Think of all the cake you could make…”

Sunset decided not to mention Celestia’s Domestic Cooking Spellbook. That could only lead to disaster.

“If magic’s really that powerful back in Equestria, then how come y’all don’t go to th’ hospital every other week?” asked Applejack.

“Because we don’t have flimsy little monkey bodies back in Equestria,” Sunset retorted.

Off to the side, Bon Bon turned to Celestia. “I think they’ve lost me.”

The sheer intensity of fatalistic acceptance her principal managed to concentrate into a single facial expression was awe-inspiring. “Welcome to the club,” she droned.

Rainbow spoke up, which was a surprise to no one. “Yeah, we know there’s monsters around and stuff. The question is what we’re gonna do about it!”

“Maybe it’s all just a big misunderstanding,” Fluttershy offered, speaking up for the first time. “Maybe, if we just talked it over, it would all work out?”

“A… nice sentiment,” Rarity said, as if she were treading on a minefield.

Applejack set a hand on her shoulder. “Sorry, Shy, but I don’t think these things are lookin’ for a peaceful solution.”

“Well… how do you know?” Fluttershy asked.

“Because they tried to kill us,” Luna stated bluntly. Rainbow nodded passionately.

“They’ve also been slowly replacing the student body,” Sunset pointed out. “Most of the students that have been absent recently are the ones with the more prominent roles or personalities; the ones harder to impersonate. Others are still attending, but have been replaced without anybody noticing. the hard part is going to be separating that last category from the students that are still themselves.”

“Oooh!” Pinkie jumped up and pulled a length of paper from her hair, barely legible scrawlings filling the page. “Back when we all thought this was a conspiracy against us—”

“—You thought this was a conspiracy against us,” Rarity amended.

Pinkie continued unperturbed. “—I made a list of everybody who was involved!”

“Perfect,” Sunset said. “Thanks, Pinkie. That’s a huge help.”

“Aren’t you going to check it?” Celestia asked. Oh, how naive she was.

“Trust us,” Rainbow said, “we don’t need to check.”

“Pinkie, if you could email everybody a copy, that would be—”

“Done!” Pinkie shoved her phone back into her hair (Sunset wished she had hair that useful) as a synchronized Ding! sounded from all of their pockets.

After recovering from her initial confusion, Celestia looked around at the assembled students. “So that’s it?”

“Hmm?” All heads turned the the Principal.

“You see a threat to the school, or the world, and just… fight it?”

“Well, yeah,” Applejack said. “I’m not just goin’ t’ stand by an’ watch a bunch a’ monsters rip up my town.”

“Besides, it keeps things interesting!” Rainbow said proudly. “Life kinda sucks when all you do is homework. Even a stuffy old principal like you should know what it feels like to get a thrill!”

Celestia’s eyes threatened to wander towards her sister, but Celestia pulled their leash taut. “It’s dangerous. You all could die. And your just kids, I can’t…” She trailed off, biting her lip.

Fluttershy spoke up. “I… I mean, I think those things, too. It’s scary, and sometimes you just want to… run, and hide from it all. But then you’re just a coward, w-who abandons their friends, and… and, that doesn’t solve anything for anyone. So, even if it is scary, we’re the ones who can fix it, so we have to fix it, right?”

It was silent for a few seconds.

“T-that was s-so b-b-beautiful,” Pinkie choked out, wiping a tear from her eye with a pink hankerchief.

“Very well put,” Rarity agreed, her mascara a bit less neat than before.

Applejack patted Fluttershy on the back. “Didn’t think ya had it in you.”

Twilight turned to Celestia, whose lips were pursed tightly. “I think she summarized what we all were thinking.”

“I…”

“Celestia.” She turned to her sister. “I know you don’t want to see them get hurt, but they’ve proven that they are simply the best when it comes to dealing with crises like these.”

“But there are only, what, seven of you?” Celestia asked, addressing Sunset and company. “And god knows how many of them. Are you sure you can manage on your own?”

Luna frowned, but said nothing. Best not to make a scene in front of the children.

“I can provide reinforcements!” Sweetie Drops offered, exuberant.

Sunset scoffed from where she sat on the edge of the statue. “I don’t know if I trust the Spy Kids here.”

“Watch where you put your foot, Shimmer, or you just might lose it,” Bon Bon growled, and Sunset threw up her palms defensively.

“Ahem.” The two turned to Rarity. “I believe what Sunset meant to say”—she directed a glare towards Sunset, who shrugged unsympathetically—“is that we would like to know the manner of such reinforcements.”

Sweetie stared blankly at Rarity for a full two seconds (precisely enough time to make her uncomfortable yet unwilling to say anything about it) before she expressionlessly announced, “That’s classified.”

Rainbow threw her hands in the air. “Jeez! How secret is this agency that you can’t say what agency it is?”

Bon Bon smiled sweetly in response. “They’re very nice people.”

Twilight was writing madly in a handheld notebook and talking to herself under her breath. “The subject seems to switch between casual and business attitudes far more quickly than most people. Hmm… If I allow that to be a product of balancing two lives…”

“Sorry, but we don’t need the help of yer mystery service if ya ain’t gunna tell us who they are,” Applejack said, her tone harsh.

“Additionally,” Luna said, “we need to keep this as under wraps as possible. Imagine the media hurricane it would cause were the existence of not only aliens leaked, but magic and parallel dimensions as well.”

“Don’t worry,” Sweetie responded with an air of cool professionalism. “Neither the public nor its representatives is to be notified in any way—that was already in my assignment description.”

“What is your assignment, anyway?” Fluttershy asked. “All I’ve ever seen you do is attend school like everyone else.”

“I’m not a leisure to reveal that information,” Sweetie responded.

“Oh. Sorry for asking, then.”

Sunset drummed her fingers on her arm. “Didn’t you transfer here, like, right after the Fall Formal?”

Bon Bon’s teeth clenched. “I suggest you stop entertaining that train of thought, horse-woman.”

Pinkie gasped. “You were totally sent here to make sure Sunset is a good friend, weren’t you?”

“Um, yes. She’s been doing exceedingly mediocre.”

Off to the side, Sunset frowned. “Horse-woman?”

“Well, you kind of are literally a horse-woman,” Twilight said to her side, still writing.

“No, I’m a pony-woman. There’s a distinct difference. I don’t call you guys monkey-people.”

“ ‘Because we don’t have flimsy little monkey bodies back in Equestria,’ ” Twilight quoted.

“One time.”

“What about ‘I wasn’t always a hairless ape, Twilight’? Or maybe ‘I want to have sex with your horses as much as you want to have s—’ ”

Sunset blushed. “That wasn’t calling her a monkey!”

“It was implied.”

“What on earth are you two talking about?” asked a very confused Celestia.

“WELL!” Sunset clapped her hands together loudly. “I think that covers every order of business. Meeting adjourned; get some rest, I have a feeling tomorrow’s gunna be a big day.”

The group started to break apart at her word, but Twilight wasn’t shaken. “So, if it really is such a distinct difference, then does that mean you’re sexually attracted to our ponies?”

“NO!”

“Why? Not colorful enough?”

“I’m not having this conversation. Goodnight.” Sunset proceeded to march briskly away from the group.

Twilight giggled, and started walking to her own home, along with everybody else.

On their way to the parking lot, Celestia turned to Luna. “Perhaps we should find a hotel for tonight,” she suggested.

“That would probably be for the best.”

And across the courtyard, Special Agent Sweetie Drops talked into a microphone secured to the cuff of her jacket. “Report, SASD, Assignment M-CH-01: extraterrestrial beings capable of wielding Energy M are invading the school. Subtlety of action is essential. The situation calls for your personal attention by my judgement. Over.”

A faint click, and she didn’t make another sound that night.

Intermission B

Intermission B

“I’m sure you know how it tastes, Celestia, the sugar of victory, after how many you’ve bested. In fact, I’d say your addicted to it, if you’re influence on little miss Friendship is anything to go by.

“It must be nice, Celestia. It must be nice to have everything work out for you all the time. It must be nice not to have your subjects starving for months on end. It must be nice to be the ‘good guys’ all the time. You know, us real rulers have to face ups and downs, wins and losses. And that makes victory a luxury, something you have to work for instead of having it served to you on a silver platter. Thanks to you and your ponies”—the word was spat—“it’s been far too long since my last helping, and oh, how sweet this first bite tastes!

“Do you know how long I planned for this? How much time and effort went into my every move? It has been all I think about these days, and all I dream of at night. And now that it’s within hooves’ reach, now that I’ve sampled my inevitable victory, I know it was all worth it! I… I, uh…”

Chrysalis sighed and stopped her pacing in front of Celestia, who was wrapped in silk and hanging from the ceiling, incapable of hearing, much less responding to, Chrysalis’s monologue. It simply didn’t have the same effect this way; it was so much more fun to watch them squirm and plead and make empty threats as they cling desperately to fading hopes. Maybe, when a great speech next came to mind, she’d just stick her victim to the wall instead of using a full chrysalis. Yeah, that sounded good.

A trail of sparkling smoke caught her eye, flowing purposefully into the castle window. Before she had time to react to the mysterious cloud of glitter, a scroll of paper materialized in the air next to the restrained Celestia, falling to the overly polished floors of the royal castle and rolling a few inches before coming to a rest at Chrysalis’s feet.

And then she noticed the insignia on the seal—a six pointed star—and half of her mouth rose in a none too benign smirk.

Unraveling the roll of paper with her magic, Chrysalis read the short, quickly scrawled message.

Celestia! Changelings are attacking our castle! Send help!

—Twilight

Not a single ‘Princess’; she really was in a hurry. Assuming Celestia’s visage, Chrysalis pushed her thoughts through the permeable barrier of the hivemind.

Traxx, get dressed.

The Castle of Friendship?

Precisely. Come; let up ‘help’ little miss Sparkle.

One of Chrysalis’s teleports later, and the two were at the outskirts of ponyville. Powerful flaps of their false wings brought them to the edge of a shimmering purple dome; Changelings beat against it, trying to reach the castle inside. The whole scene was far too familiar for Chrysalis’s tastes. Traxx made a show of battling the changelings, his powerful attacks only narrowly missing, and sometimes barely clipping, his own subordinates.

Chrysalis reached out with her magic, feeling the barrier spell. Disabling it wouldn’t blow their cover, after all; it could’ve been any changeling. It was a simple matter of tuning into the magical frequency and—

Chrysalis’s brow furrowed. What was up with the frequency? It was jumping all over the place, making it nearly impossible to latch on to. But the spell was stable—very stable. Didn’t that go strictly against magical theory? It had to be intentional. She doubted anybody could break this spell with magical hacking; except, of course, the little purple kiss-ass who made it.

But it turned out that disabling the shield wouldn’t be necessary—a small portion of it opened up briefly, prompting Traxx and her to fly through it. The aperture closed cleanly behind them like a film of water, and a stray changeling smashed his face into where the hole had been. Chrysalis rolled her eyes (not all of her children were winners) and flew through a castle window, her “sister” close behind.

They eventually found their way through the castle’s many ornate halls to the throne room, where seven ponies and a dragon were arguing, anxious and panicky. As soon as she noticed their arrival, Twilight ran up to their side.

“Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!”

“A pleasure to see you, Twilight, though I would prefer we could meet under less dire circumstances.” Damn, if Chrysalis wasn’t a known fugitive, she could probably land a spot in the acting business. And not just because of the whole ‘changeling’ thing, either.

Twilight sighed. “Tell me about it. We don’t even know what instigated this; they just started storming the castle, no subtlety about it!”

As Twilight blabbered on, Chrysalis examined their opposition. The princess, of course, was their biggest threat, but aside from her, it was hard to judge. The dragon wouldn’t be a issue, not as miniscule as he was, but she had a hard time reading the others’ auras. No doubt their connections to the elements of harmony, as well as their close proximity to an alicorn, changeling Queen, and each other, were blurring her arcane senses. But still, two earth ponies, two pegasi, and two unicorns shouldn't prove too much of an issue.

Twilight continued. “I mean, I’d guess that Chrysalis is probably behind it, but this seems unnecessarily stupid, even for her.”

Chrysalis grit her teeth at that. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the best plan, but throwing a big-ass shield around yourself to keep your problems out wasn’t what Chrysalis would consider genius.

She had to force her face into composure, though. Celestia wouldn’t express emotion in front of any of her subjects; no, she was all pretense and facades.

Target the unicorn once things get started, Chrysalis thought.

Which one? Traxx replied.

The one that doesn’t look like a prostitute.

So the blue one?

Of course, weren’t you listening?

“Twilight, come here,” Chrysalis decreed. “I have a spell that should allow you to combat the changelings.”

“Of course, Princess.” She trotted over to Chrysalis obediently, face solemn.

“Hold still.” Chrysalis’s horn lit, and she touched it to Twilight’s. There was a small flash of lazy pink light, and the smaller mare’s eyes rolled backwards in her skull as she slumped to the floor.

“Oh my,” commented the prostitute. “Is she alright?”

“Are ya sure puttin’ her t’ sleep is gunna help fight th’ changelings?” asked the hick.

By this time, Traxx was in position, and Chrysalis allowed her fangs to show, smiling malevolently. “Oh, don’t worry. By the time she wakes up, you all won’t have anything to worry about!”

“CHANGELING!” screamed the obnoxious pink one, pointing a hoof at Chrysalis. At the same time, Traxx sealed his target in silk before she had a chance to react.

And then, all of Tartarus broke loose.

First off, the wimp screamed and jumped into the air, her wings pumping her quickly away from Chrysalis and straight into the castle wall, which Chrysalis could easily pin her to with a well-aimed shot. Off to a good start.

“Unhand our friends, you miscreants!” The prostitute fired a bolt of white light at Traxx, who countered with his own, easily pushing the unicorn’s back. He would’ve knocked her out, too, had the obnoxious one not shoved a cake into his face to break his concentration.

Meanwhile, the egomaniac flew at Chrysalis with blinding speed, one hoof extending in a planned punch. She shapeshifted a hard carapace shield to block it, the echo of keratin on chitin resounding through the palace. Chrysalis tried to follow up and encase the pegasus in silk, but she quickly banked to the side, dodging the attack.

Chrysalis turned just in time to see the hick running towards her with a lasso clutched between her teeth. (Could you get any more stereotypical?) Chrysalis easily yanked it away with her telekinesis and discharged her horn, a crackling beam striking her adversary in the withers.

She didn’t have the chance to deliver a second blow, however, grunting as she felt a sharp pain in her leg—that hoof was really taking a beating today. She turned to see the drake sinking his teeth into her fetlock, eyes slanted in misplaced determination. A second later, he couldn’t be seen under the silk that covered him. Chrysalis indulged in a bit of evil cackling (she felt deserved it by now), but it barely lasted a second before she got the air knocked out of her, her hooves leaving the ground.

“Ha! Take that!” boasted the egomaniac as Chrysalis flew through the air, straight into the hick’s hind legs. She didn’t have time to put up much of a shield before powerful hooves dug into her hide, making her cough up a bit of blood.

Chrysalis returned to her feet with a groan. “Damn, what in Tartarus is she feeding you damn ponies?”

The egomaniac responded with a war cry, shooting forward on powerful wings towards Chrysalis. She swung a wild leg with all her might, straight into the changeling’s face.

But her hoof cut through Chrysalis like a broadsword through butter, and as the glamour faded from her vision, her excess momentum sent her spiraling forward with another shout (though this one was more of the ‘holy shit I’m gunna die’ kind).

In the same moment, Chrysalis appeared behind the hick in a pillar of flame, and delivered a hard blow to the skull with a leg-turned-sledgehammer before shooting a line of silk towards the out of control egomaniac. Both her targets fell to the ground with varying amounts of consciousness, and Chrysalis turned to her assistant with a triumphant grin.

Traxx had managed to secure the prostitute in a chrysalis, and was restraining the obnoxious one in his telekinetic grasp. She was struggling against the hold with spasmodic, questionably possible movements, but Traxx was able to maintain his influence for long enough that Chrysalis could step in and wrap her up.

As Traxx procured a mana dampener and secured it to the Princess’s horn, Chrysalis could no longer hold back her cackle, and let all her pent-up villainy come out. Phase two was complete, and she had just the perfect monologue ready.

Chrysalis was once again pulled from her fond reminiscing by a report over the hivemind.

My Queen! Urgent news!

The incessant buzzing of changeling wings faded into the background as she connected with the hivemind. How urgent? We’re about to commence Phase 3.

Very urgent! The hoomans have discovered us!

WHAT?! Oh, I am so demoting you all.

The messenger paused, for what Chrysalis assumed was a gulp. W-what are your orders, my Queen?

Chrysalis massaged her temples. This was exactly the kind of thing she didn’t want to deal with right now. Just… tell Graxx to keep things under control until the Empire has fallen. I should be able to get over there afterwards.

Roger!

Chrysalis groaned. Everything had been going so well, too.

The only thing that managed to lighten her mood was the shimmering peaks of the crystal palace poking above the horizon; she could literally feel the love emanating from the city, and her salivating mouth turned up in a smile.

Author's Note

Fun Fact: This chapter marks the 1/4 way point (in terms of total chapters, not word count). Isn't math great?

Seven - Caught

Seven - Caught

Luna’s thumb flipped through a travel brochure as she lay back in the single armchair in the hotel room she and her sister had taken for the night. Celestia was lying, unmoving, on the twin bed, above the green and yellow striped covers, her hands clasped over chest, unseeing eyes boring into the low-hanging ceiling. Luna, concerned, was trying her best to engage her sibling with small talk.

“Did you know that Crystal Prep is listed as a ‘bustling tour spot’?”

Celestia looked up briefly from where she lay on the bed. “No, but I can’t say I’m surprised. We’re talking about Abacus here.”

“ ‘The astounding intellect of students is a marvel to all those who witness it’. Well, that certainly lives up to her pretentiousness.” Luna stuck out her tongue and threw the pamphlet back onto the coffee table. “Wonder how much she had to pay for that.”

There was a minute of silence as Luna tried to think of another subject to discuss. Celestia was acting closed off and broody, no doubt worrying too much for her own good. But Luna wasn’t confident enough to confront Celestia about her feelings—that seemed too… backwards. Luna thought that maybe if they talked for long enough, it would come out on its own. At least, that was all she could hope for.

“So, uh, Celly, what do you think about Bon Bon?”

“Hmm?”

“You know, the secret agent posing as a student?”

“Again, I can’t say I’m surprised. After all that’s happened at Canterlot, someone was bound to notice. We’re lucky it’s an organization that can keep things quiet.”

“If only we actually had a process for checking students’ backgrounds to make sure they aren’t aliens, lying about their identity, thousands of years old, or all three.”

“That has been a problem lately, hasn’t it?” Celestia expelled a hefty sigh. “Say, Luna, do you think the changelings will have left our apartment by tomorrow?”

“You of all people are willing to risk that?”

“Well, we’d need to pack our things if we want to… you know…” Celestia let her implication hang like a foul odor, and Luna scrunched up her face as if it were.

“You want to leave?!”

Celestia admired the carpet.

“What about the students? Everybody else? You want to leave them for dead?”

“Do you honestly think we could make a difference?”

“It doesn’t matter if we can make a difference or not!”

“Of course it does!” Celestia shot back, finally finding the courage to face her sister. “I don’t want us to end up another two corpses on the pile!”

“Tia, I couldn’t ever forgive myself if I left, and I doubt you could, either. And trust me, I know I thing or two about guilt.”

Unknowingly, Luna had opened the floodgates that had been repressing her sister’s pent-up anxiety, and Celestia exploded. “Oh, and I don’t? Do you seriously think I didn’t blame myself? Seriously think that I’ve forgiven myself? Sure, you were the one who cried, the one who couldn’t stop apologizing, the one who hurt yourself when you didn’t think I’d notice, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t struggling!”

Luna shrank back in her chair. Whatever she’d been expecting to talk about tonight (and she had thought she’d been expecting the worst), Luna hadn’t been prepared for Celestia to start digging up the past. But it seemed the stress of recent events had thrown her a sweatband and a shovel.

Celestia, on the other hand, wasn’t quite finished. “Do you know how hard it is to raise an emotionally traumatized eight year old child with a guilt complex when you’re fifteen? It’s really damn hard! If I’d cried, if I’d broken down, then who would’ve been there for you? But that doesn’t mean I didn’t do all that while you were busy having your nightmares!”

Luna forced herself to take a deep breath, however shuddering it was, and wrapped her arms around herself. She wasn’t scared of her sister; no, she was guilty. Always with the guilt.

But she was bigger than it now. She wouldn’t let it consume her again. She was an adult.

Not to her. To her, you’re still just a child.

(She needs to vent, that’s all. She doesn’t hate me for what I did.)

Even if you deserve her hate.

(This isn’t about me right now.)

But isn’t it you she’s yelling at?

(She just needs to let it out. She’s needed to for years.)

And you forced her to bottle it up. What a good sister.

Luna had no response to that.

Celestia continued after a brief pause to breathe.

“I’ve always looked out for you, Luna, and I’m only doing it again. I’m keeping you safe—keeping us safe. Face it, we either get ourselves to high ground and escape the flood, or we build half of a dam before we’re having a family reunion with Mom!”

Celestia’s final word punched Luna in the face, but she managed not to show it.

“Well,” Luna said, slowly and cleanly. So far so good. “I… wasn’t aware you felt that way, sister.”

“I—” Celestia looked away once again. What had she been thinking? She should be able to keep it together better than that. She was a mess. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have unloaded on you like that. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

Luna let out a hollow chuckle. “I think we both know that’s not true.”

“Luna, we’ve been over this, it was an accident. And I… I should’ve—” her voice broke. “Should’ve done a lot of things, really.”

“I can’t forgive myself, Celestia.” Her voice took on an air of determination. “But I can move on.” Luna, despite how small she was feeling, looked Celestia directly in the eye. “Go.”

Celestia blinked once. “What?”

“If you want to go, go. I-I’m staying.” You aren’t all I have anymore. I’m finally over it.

“Luna, no! We have to stick together!” You’re all I have now. I’m falling apart.

“I’m an adult. I don’t need you anymore, if it comes down to it. And I’m sure you’d do fine on your own, too.”

You’re wrong. “I can’t just leave y—”

“But you can leave them?”

Luna’s eyes issued a challenge; Celestia’s, a plea.

The silence that stuffed up the room could kill.

In the end, Celestia was the first to rip her eyes away, lying back down onto the bed. Luna picked up the travel brochure again, and started to read.

And like that, it was decided.

Twilight paused at her doorstep to make sure that her jacket concealed the burn on her arm. It still stung, and the chafing of the sleeve sure didn’t help, but it was better than her parents finding out.

She had barely opened the front door two inches before her mother stormed up to it, her hands on her hips and her eyes skewering. “Twilight Star Sparkle.”

And in that moment, Twilight knew she’d screwed up, big time.

“You know how I told you that if you didn’t clean up your room I’d do it for you?” Velvet interrogated.

Crap, Twilight knew she’d been forgetting something in all the craziness. “Sorry, I—”

But Velvet couldn’t care less about what Twilight was sorry for, and continued unhindered. “Bet you thought I was kidding, huh?” She held up a white-knuckled fist that clutched a pile of blueprints, and used her other hand to point accusingly at the schematics on them. “Explain.”

Twilight was suddenly very, very glad that she had dropped off the thaumic compressor in her lab at school.

“I-It was purely hypothetical design! I wasn’t going to follow through!”

She was also very, very glad that Cadance was as kind as she was.

“Good!” Velvet spat, not looking at all satisfied with Twilight’s answer. “Maybe I’ll only ground you for a week, then!”

“What?!”

“Young lady, this has nothing to do with ‘human and canine co-habitation’, so I know it’s not for school, and even if you didn’t plan on building it, I don’t want my daughter designing ways to kill people! Understood?”

A sigh. “Yes, Mom.”

“Glad we’re on the same page.” Velvet directed one more disapproving stare Twilight’s way before marching back to the kitchen. “Dinner’s in ten minutes, sweetie, so don’t get started on anything too big.”

Twilight barely heard her as she walked up the stairs to her room. How was she supposed to help out with extradimensional threats if she was under house arrest? Idealy, the changelings would bring the fight to them during school hours, and it would be inconsequential, but there was still a chance that they would act after school, or during the night, or some other time.

There was also the chance that they would try to attack all of their houses individually, like what they did with the principals. Though, considering how that led to the humans’ biggest win yet, they may be cautious of repeating their mistakes.

If only her mother knew what was going on; then she wouldn’t have to keep all of her work secret. But that probably wasn’t worth the tradeoffs—once Velvet knew what kind of danger Twilight was in, there was no doubt she would try to intervene in a fit of motherly panic, and that would only cause everybody more problems. It was best to keep unpredictable variables to a minimum.

Speaking of which…

Closing her door for privacy, Twilight shrugged off her jacket, instantly feeling relieved. She rolled her arm a few times before logging on to her desktop and typing in a simple search term: Sweetie Drops.

Unsurprisingly, not a whole lot came up. Twilight had to scroll through a plethora of false positives before she found anything interesting, and even then, it wasn’t much. A single forum thread on some social networking site by user ‘Dear_Sweetie_Drops’, the only post they had ever made. It was a short message: “If I ever get out of jail, you have my word that you’ll be my next crime. You’ll pay for this. You’ll pay.”

The author was terribly over dramatic, but it did suggest that Bon Bon wasn’t lying, and that she had been involved in cases before theirs. The comments on the thread weren’t useful at all, sadly, and Twilight didn’t know where else to look for information, so she skipped to hypothesizing.

She brought out her notepad and reviewed what she had written. Sweetie Drops seemed to default to her cheerful disposition, but appeared to reflexively separate her personal life with her professional life by switching to a more serious, spy-like temperament when she was talking business. Twilight hypothesized that she was unaware of this personality quirk. She also had a tendency to threaten people, either to help assert authority, or for her own personal amusement. Finally, she showed multiple sociopathic tendencies.

Twilight concluded that her childhood must have been pretty shitty, scientifically speaking.

The question was whether she was dangerous or not. To them, that is. She was certainly dangerous to whoever was on the receiving end of her attacks, which had almost been them. She clearly valued ‘the greater good’ over the wellbeing of those close to her; that could either be useful or detrimental, depending.

But the fact of the matter was that they could take all the help they could get. Sweetie Drops was very capable, and though secretive, shared their interests. Did they have any choice but to trust her?

Twilight jumped out of her seat at the sound of her door opening, and turned to see her brother in the doorframe. “Hey, Twi, Mom says dinner’s ready.”

Twilight nervously adjusted her glasses. “O-okay! Be right there!”

She smiled far too widely as Shining’s gaze drifted to her burn. “Woah, Twily, what happened to your arm?”

“Uh… Chemical accident,” Twilight lied.

“That’s one hell of a chemical accident.”

“It was one hell of an experiment, too.” That was actually pretty close to the truth.

“You need to be more careful, Twilight.”

She rolled her eyes. “That seems to be all anybody says these days.”

“So maybe you should listen, huh?”

“I suppose.”

Shining shook his head. “What am I going to do with you?” A pause. “Well, come on, or your food will get cold.”

Shining left, and Twilight re-donned her jacket. Being careful wasn’t worth it if it stopped you from doing what needed to be done. Besides, it wasn’t like they were taking stupid risks or anything. They’d be fine.

Right?

A woman was talking on the phone—a landline—gesticulating furiously with her hand, despite the form of communication. Her feet were kicked unceremoniously up on a hardwood desk in front of her, in stark contrast to her professional attire. The heels of her flats rested on top of documents the looked as important as she looked—wearing a dark, well-ironed suit and reclining in the office chair as if she owned the place, which she most certainly did. Several filing cabinets lined the walls of her domain, each drawer labeled with no more than five characters, a perfect organizational system for those who understood it. Several certificates of honor sat in a messy pile on top, clearly stating that she didn’t know where to put all of them. (Though, with so much unused wall space, she certainly could have framed them all. But that doesn’t send the same message, does it?) Next to an inset safe, a large corkboard hung from a single nail in the wall, with a diverse display. Several printed memos was tacked there, no doubt as reminders; a single sheet of paper held a list of names, several of which were crossed off or had notes written next to them; a few scattered sticky notes, pictures, and documents; and in the corner, a photograph of a high school aged girl. She was smiling disconcertingly widely.

The woman blew a stray lock of long grayish hair from her face as the voice on the other end of the line took their turn. She decided to cut them off mid sentence.

“Wait, wait, wait, let’s get one thing straight before we continue: I’m not asking for permission, I’m telling you what I’m going to do. Are we clear?”

An exasperated response buzzed through the phone.

“Says who?”

An answer.

“Well, kindly tell ‘The Higher Ups’ that I’ll start listening to them as soon as they manage to wrench their bitchy heads out of the frightening hellscapes of their own asses.”

A beat.

“Though you may want to paraphrase.”

Her conversation partner, understandably perturbed, sputtered out a couple sentences.

She laughed. “You must be new. See, they can’t afford to fire me; I built this agency from the ground up, and I could bring it back down if I wanted to. Though I’m sure the other branches could handle it next time a centaur desecrates the Alamo, or the gates of hell open up in Time Square, or a high school student turns into a raging she-demon.”

The voice issued some strong-toned sentences.

The woman sighed. “What is it that I’m saying that you’re having trouble wrapping your sad little mind around? I don’t care if you have the goddamn president come down here and personally lecture me until my ears start to bleed and my brain falls out of my mouth—I’m going, and that’s final. Thank you for your time.”

Before the other person had a chance to respond, she slammed the phone back onto the receiver. Stretching and complaining to herself, she reeled her legs in and stood up. The phone started to ring again, and she lifted it a couple centimeters before dropping it, possibly setting a new personal best for how quickly she hung up on someone. The phone did not ring after that.

She first went to her filing cabinets, pulling out a binder marked ‘M-CH-01’ that was packed to the brim, the covers not even coming within two inches of each other unless you really, really pushed. Then, approaching her safe, she input the combination and swung the door open with a shrill creak. Out came a metal briefcase and a small handgun, the latter of which she loaded and hid in her jacket. Finally, after squeezing the binder into the briefcase with no small amount of trial and error, Chrysalis was out the door.

She hadn’t the courtesy to so much as close it behind her.

Eight - Plan

Eight - Plan

Celestia leaned backwards in her office chair, a hand clasped to her forehead, and let out a shuddery breath. She double-checked the screen of her laptop—nope, hadn’t changed. Darn.

She still wanted to leave. She knew she shouldn’t and she knew she couldn’t but she still wanted to. Only now she felt worse and more selfish about it. Was it too much to want a normal life? Where things went her way?

Probably.

The creak of the side door announced Luna’s entrance. “Celestia, I think we—” She stopped when she saw her sister. “What’s wrong?”

A groan. Celestia shifted from leaning backwards to leaning forwards, her head resting dejectedly on her desk. “They’re all here, Luna,” she said, gesturing halfheartedly to her laptop and the master attendance sheet that it displayed. “Every single student on Pinkie’s list is here today. Even the one who claimed to be in the hospital because of a collapsed lung.”

“Maybe they, uh, got better?” Luna cringed at her own words, murdering any amount of reassurance her statement had.

Celestia only groaned once more, moving back into the forlorn slouch Luna had found her in. “They’re going to kill us.”

“Wait, what?”

“They know we know about them so they’re going to kill us to eliminate the risk! What else could possibly be going on?”

“I don’t know…” Luna hummed. “They don’t seem like the ‘murder’ type. More the ‘imprison you forever’ type.”

“Thanks, I feel a lot better now.”

“Oh, come on, you’re jumping to conclusions. You don’t have to automatically assume the worst in every situation.”

“It’s been pretty accurate for me in my life so far.”

“Why do you have to be a downer all the time? I’m sure whatever happens, we can handle it.”

“Let’s hope so.” A shaky exhale. “I just pray things don’t get any more complicated.”

As soon as her lips closed, someone rapped at the door, and Celestia felt like curling up and dying right then and there. “Sometimes, I really hate fate,” she mumbled to Luna. “Most times, really.”

“It’s probably just a student,” Luna rebuked with a roll of her eyes, opening the door.

Or not, she mentally corrected, taking in the tall woman that stood in the doorway. She had long, straight, gray hair, and Luna swore it was made of spider webs. A rogue lock of it split the middle of her dark face, cutting just to the right her nose. Affrontingly vibrant green eyes stood out in a drastic contrast to her charcoal skin, not unlike her pearly whites that poked out from behind a rather unwelcoming smile. She was dressed in a dark gray pantsuit and tie, flat business shoes covering her feet, and she clutched a suitcase in one hand.

The three women coexisted in silence, the principals waiting expectantly, and the newcomer not volunteering.

At length, Luna cleared her throat. “And, you are…?”

She flashed a badge. “Chief Agent Chrysalis, FBI, branch M.”

Celestia collapsed to the desk, clutched her head, and started to whisper to herself. Luna’s jaw refused to close for about ten seconds.

“Oh,” she finally managed. “Well, shit.”

Celestia looked up briefly to chastise Luna for her language before resuming her panicking.

“Mind if I take a seat?” Chrysalis asked, sitting down. “Anyway. I’m here because you two seem to have no idea how to handle emergency situations and it’s going to get someone killed eventually.”

Celestia, whose eyes had finally stopped their mad jittering, spoke up. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the fact that when man-eating plants started growing in the middle of the playing field and attacking students, you thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and continue playing trivial games instead of, I don’t know, evacuating.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know about that?”

“Really?” Chrysalis’s eyebrow rose. “I thought you met Special Agent Sweetie Drops.”

“Her?” Celestia’s eyebrow joined the party. “She works for the government?”

“Well, yeah. She’s investigating the school, Federal Bureau of Investigation, thought it would be pretty obvious.”

“I guess,” Celestia admitted. “It’s just, she was so secretive about it all, and you’re so… forward.”

Chrysalis laughed. “Yeah, that’s SD for you! She’s been a little out of it ever since her parents kicked it.”

The principals jolted. Luna crossed her arms. “That’s not something you should just drop casually.”

Chrysalis shrugged. “What’s it to you? Did your parents die too or something?”

Dead silence.

“Doesn’t matter,” Chrysalis said quickly with a wave of her hand. Really, was she the only one without a tragic backstory? “First things first, you need to issue an evacuation.” She pointed at Celestia.

“Isn’t that a little on the nose?”

“And what’s wrong with being on the nose? It gets the job done.”

Luna huffed. “She means we don’t want to cause an unnecessary panic.”

“I understand that,” Chrysalis condescended, “but what about necessary panic?”

Their eyes locked for a few seconds, Celestia’s burning, and Chrysalis’s calm, collected, and confident.

“Fine. But you’re cleaning up the damage.” Celestia reached for the microphone to the PA system.

Sandalwood eyed the Rainbooms as they met up in the halls.

Targets in sight. Talking.

Miss Cheerilee picked up a worn piece of chalk and started scrawling on the blackboard.

Where’s purple?

Flash Sentry emerged from the boys’ bathroom.

Lab.

Micro Chips frowned as the pencil tip he had just sharpened snapped off, leaving a long and ugly mark along his paper.

They seem wary.

Scootaloo started typing on her laptop, her loud key clacks earning her a glare from the librarian.

Of course they seem wary.

Mrs. Harshwhinny sat grumpily at her desk while her students finished their math problems.

We should attack.

Octavia Melody walked briskly down the school hallways, lunchbox in hand.

I don’t think that’s what she meant when she told you to keep things under control.

Vinyl Scratch took a bite from a shiny red apple as she sat in the music room, turning knobs and adjusting sliders on her synthesizer.

But if we apprehend them, it’ll be under control, right?

Mrs. Harshwhinny noticed a student looking her way, and sent him a stare from hell until he got back to work.

Exactly. This is our only chance to redeem ourselves.

Octavia entered the cafeteria, taking note of the Rainbooms whispering among themselves around their table.

No offence, sir, but if we do this, we won’t be eating for weeks.

Cloud Kicker cheered as she scored a basket, high fiving her teammates. Her eyes darted quickly to the parking lot.

Our Queen! Our Queen is here!

Lyra Heartstrings jolted in her seat. Behind her, Bon Bon’s eyes narrowed.

What?! Why?!

Sweetie Belle grabbed a handful of napkins and hastily cleaned up the milk she had spit on the cafeteria table.

Really? Why can’t I reach her?

Amethyst Star held a dead stare towards the Rainbooms’ table.

It must be her duplicate. The monkey version of her.

Twinkleshine, who sat beside her, followed suit none too subtly.

Freaky. Is she on our side?

Trenderfoot lounged in the independent study room, lazily making his way through a sandwich.

Doubt it. We could always just attack someone near her and see what she does.

Flash, on his meandering journey through the school, waved at Derpy with a kind smile.

Hey, I found someone wandering the halls alone. Think I’m gonna get ‘er.

Octavia, now lunching at the table adjacent to the Rainbooms, made repressed noises of frustration. She didn’t realize that the girls had stopped talking.

Idiot! Someone could see you!

Green light slowly consumed Flash.

Who? There’s nobody here!

The side exits of the school that lay at the end of that particularly hallway opened wide.

The Rainbooms (with the exception of Twilight, who was busy in her lab) had agreed to meet up outside the library before going to lunch; it didn’t seem like a great idea to go anywhere alone. Sunset was leaning against a locker, the first one there, as she had a free period before their conveniently shared lunch period. Sandalwood was idling a few doors down, tapping at his phone, and Sunset was thankful for the students flooding the halls. He wouldn’t take action if it would blow his cover. Instead, he settled for what he thought was a surreptitious glance every now and again.

Applejack and Pinkie Pie arrived soon after Sunset, followed by Fluttershy thirty seconds later. Rarity was, as typical, fashionably late, and Rainbow was decidedly unfashionably late a minute after her.

“Heh, sorry,” she apologized. “I just spent the last three minutes wandering around trying to remember where you said to meet up.”

“An’ why am I not surprised?” Applejack said facetiously.

“At least she’s here now. That counts for something.” Rarity turned to Sunset. “Well, should we get down to business?”

Sunset’s eyes darted to Sandalwood. “Not here. We need the cover of the lunchroom. It’s so loud in there, nobody will be able to eavesdrop.”

As the group marched down the halls, Pinkie Pie’s eyes narrowed, her lips pinched tightly together, and her head drew back from the hoards of students passing them. When her suspicious gaze turned to Flash Sentry, who had just waltzed out of the boys’ bathroom, Sunset had to ask what the big deal was.

“They’re here,” Pinkie whispered back in response.

“Who?” Fluttershy questioned, looking frightened.

“The changelings! They’re all here! Every single one!”

Applejack gave her a look. “Ya saw all of ‘em, today? Already?”

Pinkie threw her arms out. “Yes! It’s totes suspish!”

Rarity cringed. “Pinkie, please never say that again.”

Having reached the lunch room, Sunset pushed the doors open, and the six of them sat down at their regular table. Collectively, they leaned forward and spoke under the din of the cafeteria, their words swallowed by the sea of voices before they could reach unwanted ears.

Rainbow was the first to speak. “If they are all here, then I’d say they’re going to attack today!”

Sunset hummed. “It’s likely. Rainbow, Applejack, do you two still have the thaumic compressors with you?” Sunset had worked late last night with a copy of Twilight’s blueprints to create a second compressor; it wasn’t much, but it was the best they could manage on such short notice.

The two of them nodded.

“I’d rather not have to fight aliens two days in a row,” Rarity whined. “I just got a manicure before the whole scuffle yesterday, and it’s already ruined enough as it is.”

The conversation paused briefly as Octavia Melody walked by their table, taking her seat at the one next to it.

Surprisingly, Fluttershy picked it back up. “I’m not sure if I’d be very useful in a fight. I’d probably just get in the way…”

Rainbow nodded in agreement. Applejack elbowed her in the ribs.

“Well, what would you do if a mean dog tried to bite you?” Pinkie asked cheerily.

“Oh. Um, well, I’d probably try talking to it first, and if that didn’t work, I’d have to use… The Stare.”

“Then try using… The Stare. On the changelings!” Pinkie suggested.

“I…” Fluttershy paused thoughtfully. “I guess that might work.”

“They’re not exactly animals. I doubt some harsh look’s gunna do anything,” Rainbow argued.

“Hey, ya never know ‘til ya try,” said Applejack.

Their attention was briefly drawn to some commotion across the lunchroom—Sweetie Belle had spat milk all over her table.

“Tsk!” Rarity frowned. “Will she never learn her manners?”

It was then that Sunset made eye contact with Amethyst Star and Twinkle Shine, who were blatantly staring straight at them. Sunset nervously smiled and waved, all the while noticing even more eyes that occasionally turned their way. Frankly, it was incredibly creepy.

“Don’t look now,” she warned, “but I think we’re being watched.”

The Rainbooms froze in their seats, growing deathly quiet.

Twilight stuck out her tongue as she fiddled with her locket, making sure its thaumometer was displaying correctly. When it was sufficiently fine-tuned, she turned to her newest project.

She had thrown the demanafier together incredibly quickly, though it hadn’t been hard, seeing as it was just a larger-scale version of the absorption and containment functions of the locket. She flipped it on, and large vents around the sides started to hiss mechanically. Twilight smiled to herself as the arcane readings on the locket dropped to zero in a matter of seconds, but it quickly became a frown as a purple light shone from the demanafier. The glow forced Twilight to avert her eyes, but it only grew brighter by the second.

Eyes pinched tight, she managed to fumble her locket into absorption mode (it was no small feat), and the searing yellow past her eyelids grew dimmer as the excess magic was vacuumed up. Opening her eyes, she quickly flipped off the demanafier. Looked like it was experiencing the same containment issues her locket had been during the Friendship Games, and, just like the locket, it seemed incapable of absorbing the magic it produced. Was that a law or something? She was digressing. At least she had had the foresight to shift the default emittance to illusionary magic; she didn’t want a repeat of the motocross incident.

With a sigh and no further ado, Twilight dove back into the process of debugging. She didn’t have much time.

Nine - Yell

Nine - Yell

Twilight Velvet padded down the halls of the science building at Starswirl and Clover University. Her next class, Astronomy, wasn’t until five, and she was grateful for the respite. Normally she’d use the time for research, but she was a bit scatterbrained today—she couldn’t seem to shake the blueprints she had uncovered in Twilight’s room from her mind.

It was so unlike Twilight to build weaponry. And even if she swore she wasn’t building it, her designs were detailed enough that she certainly could build it. Or someone else could. It rubbed Velvet the wrong way.

Though, from looking at the blueprints, she doubted the guns would even work. Sure, physics and energetics weren’t her field, but she was pretty sure you couldn’t extract energy from the air. That didn’t make any sense.

Not a lot about Twilight was making sense lately: her sudden interest in friendship (not that Velvet was complaining), her sudden lack of interest in Everton, even though she was still staying in her room studying independently just as much as before, joining a band of all things; not to mention the nightmares that Velvet knew plagued her, even if she never mentioned them.

Velvet felt like she had lost control. Not that she should be controlling her daughter—just that she used to know what was going on in her life. Twilight used to tell her what was going on in her life. What had happened? Was she just going through a phase, or was she purposefully leaving Velvet out of the loop?

She needed to talk to someone, and she knew just the lady. The phone rang twice before someone picked it up.

“Hello, this is Dean Cadance.”

“Hi, it’s Velvet.”

“Oh, hey! How’s the college life treating you?”

“Decently. How’s the high school life treating you?”

“Oh, you know. Teenagers.” They both laughed a little. “Why are you calling? Wanna know if Shining’s proposed yet?”

“Please, you know he’s going to wait until you’re about to buy the ring for him.”

Cadance chuckled. “He’s not that bad!” A pause. “Pretty close, though.”

“He’ll get there eventually,” Velvet assured, her voice settling into a more serious tone. “But no, this is actually about Twilight.”

Cadance hesitated. “…Oh. What about her?”

“I found some blueprints in her room yesterday. For a gun. A gun, Cadance! Can you believe it?”

Cadance gasped maybe a bit more dramatically than she should have. Velvet didn’t seem to notice. “Really? That sure doesn’t sound like Twilight!”

“At least she says she doesn’t plan on building it.”

Another pause. “That’s… good. I, uh… really doubt she’d do something like that?”

“So did I. But the more I think about it, the more I don’t know what she’s doing when she leaves the house. I just don’t want her in danger, you know?”

Cadance gulped nervously. “Yeah, no, me neither. But I’m sure she’s alright, I, um, I…” Cadance let out a hefty sigh. “Velvet. How much do you know about what Twilight is studying?”

Did Cadance know something she didn’t? “Human and canine cohabitation,” Velvet pronounced, delicately.

“Well, they’re certainly communicating a lot more fluently now.”

Velvet frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I think it’s probably better if Twilight told you herself.”

“Cadance, tell me what’s going on. Cadance!”

But the line was dead.

She just hoped she would be back in time for Astronomy.

Velvet glanced at her watch as she pulled into Canterlot High’s parking lot. Half past twelve—that was lunch period, right?

She turned off the car and flung open the door, hurrying across the asphalt to the first set of doors she could find. Normally, someone neglecting to go through the front entrance was basis for a lockdown, but Velvet had long discovered that the principals at this school didn’t really know about the safety procedures. In fact, she had done some research, and they had no prior experience working in a school. At all. They had managed to get the job because the previous principal (Discord, was it?) had quit unexpectedly, and the school board had been desperate. It worried Velvet a bit that her daughter went to a school run by them, but Twilight had been so adamant about the transfer; how could she have said no?

What Velvet had not been expecting when she entered the school was the boy who was slowly turning into a frightening black horse bug thing in front of her eyes.

Celestia’s finger depressed the broadcast button, and the speakers around the school crackled to life.

“Attention all students and faculty, this is—”

Suddenly, a scream reverberated through the halls outside Celestia’s office, and soon every room in the school as the microphone picked it up.

“Please evacuate in a calm and orderly fashion everyone okay bye!” Celestia said quickly, turning off the PA system. “Well so much for avoiding unnecessary panic.”

She jumped slightly as she saw that Chrysalis was now holding a compact handgun, but quickly dismissed it. The scream seemed to come from the side entrance around the corner of the administrative hallway; Celestia maneuvered to the office door and opened it a crack, peering into the hallway.

She was immediately pounced upon by a changeling, and she let out a yelp of her own as she fell roughly on her back.

Sweetie Drops slowly brought her pencil down onto her desk, tilted it up again, and repeated the motion in a sharp staccato.

Tap, tap, tap.

To say she was not paying attention to the class would be inaccurate. To say she was not paying attention to what the class was being taught would be very accurate. Her eyes bounced from student to student, peer to peer, changeling to changeling, as her hand continued its rhythmic drumming.

Tap, tap, tap.

There were more of them than they had counted on. There were the obvious ones—such as the changeling impersonating Lyra, who was recently ‘not sick,’ and had neatly avoiding engaging with her all day (that alone was a dead giveaway of her fakeness)—but the more she had analyzed her classmates’ behaviors, the more she was certain that Pinkie Pie’s list wasn’t nearly comprehensive. Even Mr. Doodle was acting a bit off.

Abruptly, not-Lyra jolted, her chair clanging loudly against Bon Bon’s desk. Before anybody could say anything, she promptly buried herself in her work. The teacher seemed to completely ignore the incident, along with a sizable portion of the class. Sweetie narrowed her eyes. Surely, Mr. Doodle would have at least acted grumpy about the whole ordeal if he was who he claimed to be. And she could have sworn a few other students jumped too; none of them as noticeably as the imposter sitting before her, but the surprise was there. Bon Bon hummed.

Tap, tap, tap.

Surprise at what? Nothing had happened. Sunset Shimmer had claimed that the creatures could telepathically communicate; that was the only explanation that made sense. But what could be shocking enough that one of them had nearly blown their cover? Something they weren’t expecting—hopefully, something that gave the humans an edge.

Tap, tap—crk!

Sweetie’s grip on her pencil shifted as the loudspeakers spoke.

“Attention all students and faculty, this is—” Principal Celestia’s voice was suddenly drowned out by an ear piercing scream. It was a resonant and shrill screech, and as the audio equipment peaked, it was distorted into something vaguely demonic.

With a sharp snap, Sweetie broke her pencil in two, and waves of thick baby blue smoke gushed out of the halves as she lept into action.

Celestia said something else, but Bon Bon didn’t listen, and threw a pair of sunglasses over her eyes. The effect was immediate, and the dense smoke thinned into more of a light mist. She zeroed in on the closest known changeling, bursting forwards and kicking it hard with the spiked heel of her boot. It shot through the air like a cannonball, overturning desks and chairs and knocking a few bodies to the ground before it slammed into the far wall with a thunk and the unmistakable crunch of bone.

She heard a whizzing sound over her shoulder, and swiveled just in time to block a holey hoof with the flat of her arm. The changeling snarled at her, and its horn began to glow, but Sweetie quickly retrieved her Devil’s Tongue from her jacket, stabbing it in the withers.

As it fell to the ground in a green-black heap, she jumped from desk to desk to where Cranky Doodle stood at the head of the classroom, attempting to squint his way through the smokescreen. He was still in human form, except for a curved horn arcing out of his forehead, and Bon Bon had no trouble cutting him down quickly with her blade. The smoke screen was starting to thin; she had to even the odds quickly.

The mechanical reel that controlled her grappling hook buzzed happily as it shot from her sleeve, striking a changeling in the head and knocking it unconscious. Grabbing the rope with her free hand, Bon Bon skillfully maneuvered it around the waist of one of her classmates, lurching her away from the snapping maw of yet another monster.

“Thanks, you saved my li—Bon Bon? Is that you? What the hell?!”

Sweetie dropped the girl unceremoniously to the floor, ignoring her, and pulled a pen from the pocket on her blouse. She aimed the end towards the changeling and clicked it, sending a small needle flying. It cut through the air like a jet and pierced the aliens carapace, and before too long, he lay on the ground, fast asleep.

Before the girl could question her any further, Bon Bon catapulted herself off of a nearby desk into the middle of two more human-shaped changelings. Her arm lashed out as soon as she landed, and Devil’s Tongue was in and out of the closer changeling’s chest before he could react, the two holes it left spouting emerald blood. Before his body even hit the floor, Sweetie Drops turned on her heel, and none too soon; the other changeling had shifted its arms into curved blades of chitin, and only instinct raised her dagger to block. The changeling jumped out of the deadlock and into another swing, but Bon Bon was ready to meet him this time, and neatly parried his blade out of the way. She lunged and made a swipe of her own, but the changeling dodged out of the way on a new set of leathery wings. He swung both makeshift scythes down in a powerful overhead strike, but Bon Bon’s arms moved like lightning, brutally knocking one scythe to the side and catching the other between the blades of her weapon. The grind of chitin on metal assaulted Bon Bon’s ears as they pushed against each other, but with a grunt, Sweetie stepped forward and, his blade still caught in hers, plunged the end of the Tongue into the changeling’s stomach.

By now, the smoke had almost fully cleared, and she folded up the sunglasses, wiping the sweat from her brow. There had been eight changelings, and she counted… only seven bodies on the floor. That meant—

She looked around, giving no attention to the stunned gazes of her classmates. Her eyes came to rest on the final changeling.

She shot forward, the prongs of her dagger ready, bloodstained, and deadly, and stopped.

The monster in front of her curled in on itself. “P-please don’t hurt me, Bonnie,” pleaded the tear stained face of Lyra Heartstrings. “It’s really me, I-I swear!”

Bon Bon grit her teeth and adjusted her grip. It was a trick, obviously. She knew that.

The onlookers were confused and horrified. They had no idea what had just happened: there was smoke, and now a bunch of dead or unconscious aliens on the floor, and it looked like Bon Bon, whose clothes were spattered with repulsive green blood, was about to kill her girlfriend.

“P-please…”

“You’re a fake,” Sweetie hissed. “Nothing but a liar. You deserve to die.”

But her blade had yet to fall.

“I’m real! I s-swear I’m real.” The words were choppy and broken. Much quieter: “I don’t want to die…”

Bon Bon hated seeing Lyra like this, and for so many reasons. But she had a duty.

Sweetie Drops took a breath.

Closed her eyes.

And winced as she felt wetness splash against her ankles.

The crowd gasped, and Sweetie opened her eyes to a changeling, it’s head no longer attached to its body. She took another deep breath, and turned to address her classmates.

“Get out of the school.”

The young agent ran out the door, and the room fell into a disgusting silence.

Twilight jumped as the scream echoed through her laboratory.

“C’mon, I’m so close! Just… a little… more…” she grunted, twisting a screw tighter with every word.

The rainbooms silently scanned the lunchroom. The air was tense, and nobody volunteered to say anything; they only looked, instantly breaking eye contact when they saw any of the countless students that were staring at them.

The seconds ticked by, heavy and slow, and even the humans who weren’t involved had stopped talking, wondering why the lunchroom was so quiet.

Nobody moved at the pop of the PA system.

Nobody moved at Principal Celestia’s voice.

Everybody moved at the yell.

The Rainbooms jumped to their feet and crowded together in a tight circle as nearly half of the other students leapt from their seats, chairs hitting the floor with loud clangs of metal. A confused panic overtook the bystanders, who sat frozen still or looked to the doors or tried to grab their friends and ask what was going on.

“Hope you girls didn’t wear your best clothes,” Sunset said, “ ‘cause things are about to get messy.”

Rarity groaned.

Intermission C

Intermission C

Hoofbeats echoed sharply through the winding passages of the Crystal Empire’s castle, ringing off the glistening walls and opulent columns. Candelabra lined the edges of the hall, and the chandeliers that hung from the ceiling caught their light, tore it into a million pieces, and shot it back out again, bright, colorful, and eye catching. Large stained glass windows only made the corridor that much more ethereal, the masterful pictures of pink alicorns and baby dragons just as stunning with the backdrop of night as with day.

“…and the whole negotiation with the yaks went about as well as everything else goes with the yaks.”

The Love Princess’s voice chimed as though the castle architecture was designed for it. “Oh, I’m sure you’ll figure all of that out in time, dear.”

Shining Armor snorted. “Yeah, maybe after a few wars with the way things are going.”

“You’ll figure it out,” Cadance repeated.

“And don’t even get me started on these new recruits from Los Pegasus!”

Cadance sighed.

“Their level of discipline is appalling! Why, if I were their captain, I’d whip them into shape before you could say ‘taking care of children is exhausting’, which leads me into my next point—”

“Sweetheart, I think you need a day or two off,” Cadance suggested.

“Don’t I know it! But there’s so much to do, I don’t have time for a day off…”

“Oh, I’m sure we could work something out this weekend. Maybe go out for lunch.”

“I’m not sure we’d be able to just walk into some restaurant for lunch. I mean, you’re a princess.”

“From what Twilight tells me, most ponies don’t actually notice it until you’re already halfway into a friendly conversation.”

“Twily’s different. For one, she’s the Princess of Friendship, which probably goes a long way. Secondly, she doesn’t wear regalia unless she’s at a formal event. You barely take it off to go to sleep.”

Cadance frowned at her husband, and then looked down at her necklace… thingie. She wasn’t entirely sure what it was called. But it was quite pretty. “Trust me, Shiny, if you were a princess, you wouldn’t want to take it off either. It makes you feel so… important.”

Shining Armor only raised an eyebrow.

Cadance cleared her throat and levitated the door to the royal chambers open for him. “Come on. Let’s get you to bed.”

Yet, before he could even open his mouth to thank her, his face was blasted in by roughly seventeen different energy beams, and he smashed into the crystalline wall behind him, incredibly unconscious.

“Shiny!” Cadance screamed. She sent mana rocketing up her horn as she turned into the doorway.

Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings lay on their bed with a smirk, propping her head up with a bent hoof and crossing one back leg over the other in a pose that reminded Cadance of the magazines Shining didn’t think she knew about. A cloud of chortling changeling drones crowded the bedroom, horns smoking.

“Great job, boys,” the Queen purred, “the big threat’s out of the way.” She spread her fangs. “Now for dessert!”

Cadance took one look at her opposition and one look at her magical offensive capabilities before slamming the doors shut and hoofing it. She galloped madly through the halls, her frantic steps drowned out by the buzz of changeling wing.

Oh, how she hated that buzz.

Cadance wove a basic shield spell behind her as she ran, and winced as the changelings’ attacks battered against her concentration. She leapt down the grand staircase in one long, wing assisted jump, diving and rolling around laser beams, silk, and several inanimate objects that were trying to bludgeon her as she glided to the front gates. She flung them open with a burst of telekinesis—

And stared in disbelief at the dozen changelings that met her, grinning wickedly. She didn’t even have to look over her shoulder to know that she was surrounded. Again. Damn her and her susceptibility to kidnapping! What kind of princess was she?

Tears brimming in her eyes, Cadance turned to face Chrysalis, and, teeth grinding together, she cast the most powerful spell she could think of.

A bubble of mana welled in the tip of her horn before it squeezed out, slowly but surely, into a bulbous, buoyant pink heart.

Celestia damn it, why do I only know love spells?

The last thing Cadance saw was the heart float purposefully towards Chrysalis’s disgusting, laughing face.

Chrysalis’s muzzle was buried deep in her webbed bedding. She hugged a pillow tightly to her chest and mumbled to herself, drooling slightly.

“Mmm… Cady, you have so much love…”She rolled over, letting a hind leg fall into a lazy dangle off the edge of the bed. “Ohh… You taste so gooooooood…”

A changeling drone stuck his head into the chamber. “My Queen!” he shouted.

“Wha…” Slowly, Chrysalis opened her eyes and looked around. Bed? Bed was nice. But hadn’t she been in the Crystal Empire? That’s right, they had cornered Cadance. She groaned, and put a fetlock to her throbbing forehead. Sleep. Sleep is good, she thought as her head fell back to the mattress, her horn skewering a pillow.

“My apologies, my Queen, but you must wake up!”

No sooner had the drone spoken than Chrysalis was drenched in ice cold water. She sat up sputtering but awake, her headache a construction crew in her skull. “Ugh…” Her face screwed up, and she barely managed to levitate the waste basket over before she vomited like she had never vomited before.

(It was pink.)

“What happened last night?” she asked the drone, blowing locks of mane out of her face.

He dropped the water bucket. “Technically, your highness, it’s still night. You know, with the princesses out of commision and everyth—”

Chrysalis flung the trash can at him. “Answer me!”

“W-well… Remember the love spell Princess Cadance cast?”

Her head punched itself again. She wondered if ol’ Sombra had any forbidden spells of dark headache relief. “Vaguely,” she answered.

“Right, so, as I understand it, that spell made you, um, drunk.”

“Drunk,” Chrysalis stated.

“Yes.”

“On love.”

“It would seem that way, my Queen.”

“Alright. If anypony could do it, I suppose the love princess could.” She paused to throw up. “Why did you have to go and wake me up again?”

“Urgent report over the hivemind, your highness. But they couldn’t reach you.”

Mentally sighing, Chrysalis opened her thoughts to the hivemind, forgetting to withhold everything her body was feeling. She winced as nearly every changeling groaned, doubled over, or started to cry, and quickly repressed her troubles. She issued a guilty apology to the hive.

As soon as the report came through, though, she couldn’t be more livid.

“They did WHAT?!”

Ten - Hit and Run (1)

Ten - Hit and Run (1)

The Canterlot High School cafeteria was in utter chaos. Spilled food, broken tables, and snapped chairs littered the ground, and students scrambled around the wreckage in their haste to reach the doors. Changelings flitted about, galloping and hovering towards the Rainbooms, who had broken from their original circle formation as soon as the lasers had started flying.

Sunset and Rainbow fought with each other, covering each other’s backs and laying waste to any changelings that got too close. Pinkie was harassing a dozen changelings at once, assaulting them with various kinds of desserts and party supplies. She moved as a blur around the cafeteria, and not even her friends could pinpoint her. Applejack busied herself ushering students into the relative safety of the halls, and she gripped a large table by the legs, using it as an oversized shield (and occasionally as a battering ram). Fluttershy was sitting in a corner of the cafeteria, sternly lecturing a gaggle of changelings on politeness and personal space, and Rarity was standing near Applejack, taunting the changelings. She had a hand mirror in her grasp, and was bouncing any lasers shot at her back into the changelings that fired them.

“What on Earth are those things?” questioned a confused student.

“Don’t worry about that! Jus’ git out!” Applejack yelled back, grunting as she slammed her table on top of a changeling that had tried to slip past her. “Blasted varmints!”

“Watch your back!” Rarity warned as she deflected an energy beam that had been headed straight for Applejack. It soared through the air towards the changeling that had created it; he jumped out of the way, or would have, had Pinkie not slammed a double decker cake into his face at that exact moment. She flashed Rarity a giddy smile and a thumbs up before vanishing, most likely to restock on confections.

“Nice shot,” Applejack commented.

“Well, I must give Pinkie some of the credit. I—Oof!”

“Sorry, Rares,” said Rainbow Dash, who had just fallen on top of Rarity. She wiped some multicolored blood on her shirt. “These changelings are tougher than they look.”

“Batter up!” called Sunset. She swung her baseball bat into the side of a monster, who tumbled through the air towards Rainbow and Rarity.

“Hiyaa!” Rainbow shouted, kicking the changeling back the way it came, and Sunset drilled it into the floor with her bat. Grinning, Rainbow bounced back onto her feet and ran into the fray once again.

“Glad they’re having fun,” Rarity said, brushing herself off.

“Eat this!” Sunset yelled, concussing a changeling.

“Ha!” Rainbow exclaimed, harshly elbowing another in the ribs.

The pair brawled their way around the cafeteria, sidestepping punches, delivering nasty kicks, jumping from lasers, pumping adrenaline, and ignoring their slowly accumulating injuries. Eventually, their fight took them to where Fluttershy was instructing a small group of changelings on proper table manners.

“Make sure to keep your napkin in your lap—yes, just like that—and then use your utensils to—” She was interrupted by a beaten and broken changeling sliding across the floor to a rest directly in front of her. Her eyes instantly went wide. “Oh, my, are you alright? D-do you want a band aid? I think I have some in my backpack…”

Fluttershy let out a small “Meep!” as warmth crashed through her body, the friendly yellow light of her magic glowing around her.

The changelings she had been teaching had forgotten all about her, and were now hissing at Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer, poised to fight.

“Hey! Is that any way to behave?” chastised Fluttershy, but the changelings weren’t paying her the slightest bit of attention, and no matter how much she Stared, it didn’t matter.

“Hey, Flutters!” called Rainbow. “Mind if I use a bit of that magic?” She unslung the thaumic compressor from her back and ran next to Fluttershy.

“Oh, um, sure, I don’t really mind.”

“Sweet!” Rainbow tapped the trigger, and a purple beam similar to the changelings’ green ones shot from the barrel. It struck a changeling in the flank and left a sizzling starburst on his chitin.

“Awesome!” Rainbow squealed as she mashed the trigger, sending a machine gun volley of lasers towards the crowd of changelings. A few tried to put up shields, but the compressor blew through them like a wrecking ball through balsa wood. Rainbow guessed their magic was just plain better than the changelings. It made sense, considering the contrasting levels of awesomeness.

“Hey, watch it!” Sunset shouted, throwing herself to the ground to escape the crossfire. She winced in pain as a changeling corpse fell on top of her, horn-first. “That’s gonna bruise…”

On the other side of the cafeteria, all the excess students had filtered out, and Applejack twirled around in a circle before releasing her table-shield into an unsuspecting group of changelings. They scattered like crows, but they all managed to get out of the way.

“Did you just throw away your weapon?” hissed Rarity.

“Don’ need it anymore,” Applejack countered, picking up a mangled plastic chair.

Rarity frantically raised her mirror to block an incoming laser. “Gah! Why does there have to be so many of them?”

Applejack bludgeoned one into unconsciousness with her chair, but let out a yelp as a rock-hard hoof dug into her spine. She instinctively spiked her elbow behind her, knocking the changeling straight into… was that a cannon?

“Wheeee!” cheered Pinkie Pie as the changeling shot from the barrel, along with a party supply store’s worth of confetti, bowling over two more on its path to the far wall.

Rarity brought her mirror up just in time to block a laser from colliding with Pinkie, sending it straight into a changeling’s carapace. Her eyes widened as she saw another zipping towards her from the right, but it was too late; it hit her smack dab in the stomach. She doubled over, dropped her mirror, and screeched with pain.

At the same time, Rainbow’s laser barrage came to a stark halt as Fluttershy, her magic exhausted, dropped back onto her feet. Rainbow cursed at the amount of changelings they had yet to defeat; her attack had done a number on them, but it hadn’t been nearly enough.

“I’m not sure if we can beat them all,” Fluttershy muttered under her breath. She leaned on Rainbow for support; she had used more magic than she probably should have.

“We don’t really have a choice,” Sunset said, pulling herself onto her feet and hitting a home run on a poor changeling’s skull.

Her face was dour, her mouth a grim line. “Either we win, or the entire world loses.”

Rhythmic beeps, flashing lights, and whirring machinery faded into the recesses of Twilight’s mind as she placed the final touches on the demanafier. It sat heavily on the workbench, looking like a science project made a day before the competition, which it basically was. It was cylindrical with a domed top, and had several crudely-cut vents about half an inch below where the cap was screwed in. She had put a particularly hungry arcane core in the very top of the machine, which fed into several makeshift mana batteries in the body of the device. The on/off switch and its accompanying electrical work was jury-rigged with what could pass as an entire roll of electrical tape and a slew of bare wires, and Twilight made a mental note not to operate the prototype with bare, conductive hands. The casing was about as polished as the bleachers out by the baseball field, and nearly half of it was held together by patchwork sheet metal.

She doubted it would last the day.

Without warning, the lab door flung open and slammed into a table, vibrating from the impact. “TWILIGHT!” shouted Rarity, who stood in the doorframe, eyes bloodshot and posture battle-ready. “Changelings are attacking the school! We need your help!”

Well, Twilight supposed now was as good a time as any for a test run. She flipped the demanafier on, and the effect was immediate.

“Wha-what are you doing?!” screeched ‘Rarity’ as her body dissolved into green light, leaving a changeling in its wake.

Twilight squeed. “It works! It works!” Giddy, she grabbed a socket wrench from her desk and introduced it to the changeling’s face. He slumped to the ground, and she threw his body next to the large canvas sheet that hid the dead changeling from the day before.

Next, Twilight turned to the demanafier. She switched it off—best to conserve power—and hefted it into her arms. So much for a compact design; she was barely able to see over the thing.

“Urk… Next time, I need to add handles.”

Twilight shuffled out of the laboratory and towards the cafeteria, where she knew her friends would be, leaning back and forth to counterbalance the weight on her front with every carefully-placed step.

Principal Celestia’s breaths came heavy and slow. She shuddered as she felt the changeling’s blood seep into the fabric of her clothing, wet and sticky, and heaved the corpse off of her. They could replace the carpet later.

Above her stood Agent Chrysalis. Her pistol was smoking and she smiled cruelly at the changeling.

“You know, even since Agent SD made her report, I’ve been horribly curious about what these things looked like.” She squatted to the ground and rolled the changeling over. “Sure as hell didn’t disappoint.”

Celestia stuck out her tongue in disgust. “I’d be happier if I’d never seen them.”

“See why we don’t want this to go public?” Luna asked. “The school would be swarmed with reporters, a few students’ lives would probably be ruined, the populace would live in fear of alien invasion, scientists would go crazy, religious groups would go even crazier; it’d be a mess.”

Chrysalis sighed and rolled her eyes. “Preaching to the choir, lady. This mission is more classified than the nuclear launch codes. My entire department doesn’t exist, according to ninety-nine percent of government databases.” She got to her feet and poked Luna in the chest with a pointer finger. “The whole reason I’m here is to cover up your mess.”

“Our mess?” Celestia glowered at the agent. “We had nothing to do with all this! Our school just happened to be caught in the middle!”

Chrysalis turned to her. “Girl turns into a demon, and instead of turning her over to the authorities, you let her stay at the school. This leads to three ancient beings from hell or whatever mind-controlling the whole damn student body to get at this girl and her friends, and after it’s over, you let the targets stay at your school. Then, the whole thing happens again—another girl comes to your school because of the magical students you refuse to get rid of, and she turns into a demon. And not only do you let the magic girls stay, like the whole thing won’t happen a fourth time, but you let the second demon girl transfer to your school. After all of that, when the school is being attacked by monsters once again, you have the gall to claim that none of this is your fault.”

Luna clenched her fist. “Do you think we wanted all of this to happen?”

“No, I just think you two are idiots. I can’t sit by and idly watch you two fuck everything up any longer, so either help me fix your mistakes or go work at a fast food joint or something.”

“UrrrrUNGG!” Luna kicked over Celestia’s chair and ran into her office.

Celestia watched her go. Slowly, very slowly, she turned to Chrysalis. She took a deep breath. And she slapped her clean across the face.

“Listen here, you bitch, before you say something else you’ll regret,” Celestia hissed. “I didn’t see you and your little agent here during the Fall Formal. I didn’t see you fighting back during the Battle of the Bands. I didn’t see you helping during the Friendship Games. Do you know who was there? Do you know who’s sent every single monster we’ve seen packing? Our students, the ones you want us to get rid of like they’re property. It was them, not you, and not the government, so I don’t want you butting into our business and saying you’re the professional here!”

Chrysalis clutched her stinging cheek. Jesus, these principals had issues. “They aren’t professionals. They’re children. Dangerous children.”

“They’ve done a hell of a lot more for us than you have!”

“They’re what caused all of your problems! If we had handled everything, none of this would’ve happened.”

“They’re what solved all of our problems! They’re the only ones who know what the hell’s going on and how to stop it! And maybe they are just children, but if you would shut your arrogant trap and let them work their magic, then we might actually have a shot at living until next week!”

Before Chrysalis could retort, Luna’s door burst open, and the vice-principal walked up to the other women, brandishing an honest-to-god katana in her right hand. She shot Chrysalis a nasty glare. “We can discuss all of this,” she huffed, “after we deal with the aliens.”

Twelve - Hit and Run (3)

Twelve - Hit and Run (3)

Agent Chrysalis stared. “The fuck are you supposed to be?”“Queen Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings. You must be my”—she shuddered—“counterpart in this world.”

The agent took a step forward. Sweetie had briefly mentioned something about interdimensional duplicates; Chrysalis had found it difficult to believe her at first, but now… Now she found it difficult to dispute. “Look, I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here, but whether you’ve got my face or not, if you’re behind all this, then I suggest you pack your things and take a hike in some other world. You’re not welcome here.”

The Queen sneered. “Oh, don’t be like that, me. I know you’re a reasonable… person. I’m sure we could work something out.”

The agent snarled. “I don’t make deals with monsters.”

Queen Chrysalis’s face screwed up. “Excuse me! I’m the monster? Look around you!” She made a sweeping gesture of the corpse-littered cafeteria. “You slaughtered my children! I haven’t killed a single damn one of your kind!”

Celestia piped up, “And why should we believe you?”

The Queen shot her a nasty look. “They’re kept comatose until they die naturally. Not killed. Now stay out of this, sun-ass, and let the big girls talk.” Chrysalis turned back to Chrysalis. “As I was saying. You’ve committed much more grievous crimes than I have.”

Agent Chrysalis looked unperturbed, and took another step forward. “Maybe things are nicer over in sunshine unicorn land, but here, we don’t exactly hold much sympathy for creatures who invade our lands and kidnap our children. You threaten our world, you die.”

“You’d be surprised how nasty ponies can be towards creatures that aren’t ponies,” Queen Chrysalis grumbled. “But that’s neither here nor there. I’m not the monster you think I am, Chrysalis. I don’t want power, I don’t want blood; I’m just doing what’s best for my species, and I don’t particularly care who gets hurt along the way.”

Chrysalis stared down Chrysalis. “Yeah.” She raised her pistol. “Same.”

And then everything happened impossibly fast.

The gun triggered with a thunderous pop, but Chrysalis had her horn ready; the speeding bullet expanded into a beach ball mid flight, losing its momentum and dropping harmlessly to the ground at the Queen’s feet. The agent re-cocked and aimed to take another shot—

“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” goaded the changeling, nodding her head to behind her counterpart’s back.

Chrysalis stole a glance over her shoulder; the vice-principal’s katana was surrounded in a green glow, and held against her throat. So the copycat was playing hostages. She clearly didn’t know herself very well. Agent Chrysalis made to pull the trigger.

And her finger froze as she saw the second hostage: Sweetie Drops, her briefcase forgotten by her feet, and her hands struggling to pull her Devil’s Tongue away from her throat.

This was exactly why developing attachment was a weakness in the field.

She decided to go for intimidation. “Release them or I’ll shoot.”

“Shoot, and you won’t need them released.” The Queen cocked her head and smiled devilishly. “Actually…”

The Chief Agent of the Supernatural Intelligence Department let out a rather comprehensive stream of the foulest vulgarities she could think of as her gun burst into flame, singeing her hand. Smoking, it clattered to the floor.

The changeling that had her face and her name but was not her started to cackle. “Oh, this is just too easy! I’d finish you all off, but I’m having so much fun, and to be honest, my morning was incredibly shitty. Besides, I’ve got the love to spare.”

The fire-haired girl stepped forward. Demon girl one, if Chrysalis was correct. Sunset, was it?

She looked the changeling queen right in the eye, and any normal creature’s will would have crumbled from her glare alone. “You may have thought you’ve won, Chrysalis—”

The Queen nodded emphatically. “Mmhmm!”

“—but you haven’t. Not when we have the magic of friendship on our side!”

And the magic of distractions, Agent Chrysalis thought as she watched demon girl two inch around the edge of the cafeteria, behind the changeling-her. Some sort of flashing disc lay in her hands; she’d have to investigate it when this was all over.

“Yeah! Friendship always wins!” cheered the gay blue girl enthusiastically.

“Please,” Queen Chrysalis droned, “as if I haven’t heard that one a thousand times. Spare me your stupid rhetoric; let’s do something much more fun.” Despite the amount of spells she was holding, the queen found it in her to let some inky smoke creep out of her jagged horn and into the bodies of several fallen changelings. They started to convulse in a way that Chrysalis could barely stomach even with her field experience, and, slowly, they shuffled onto their hooves, lumbering towards the group of humans.

“Zombies?!” shrieked the pink girl. “Of all the days to leave my chainsaw at home! I’ve been waiting for this for so long!”

“Necromancy?” observed Sunset incredulously. “You’ve been practicing dark magic? Even I didn’t stoop that low! It’ll destroy you!”

“Not if I’m careful,” Chrysalis teased.

“You know, for what it’s worth,” Luna said, “you haven’t been too terribly careful so far.”

Twilight took that as her cue. She set the locket to ‘absorption’ and opened it, the thirsty mana core at its center glowing with its usual vibrancy. Chrysalis turned a second too late, and her icky green-and-black-speckled magic seeped into the device. The zombie changelings froze where they stood like half-finished taxidermy projects, except with intestines instead of stuffing. Chrysalis was moving erratically, fighting against the sedative effects of mana drainage, and was futily swinging her hooves at Twilight, who kept as large a distance between them as she could without breaking off the magical connection.

Across the room, Sweetie Drops unlatched her briefcase skillfully with her foot and kicked it hard, sending it spiraling to a rest in front of Sunset. Agent Chrysalis smiled; Sweetie always kept her final blow in that suitcase. The fight was practically over already.

Sunset inspected the super secret agent luggage Bon Bon had delivered her; when she saw what it contained, her face brightened considerably. She didn’t have time to consider how Sweetie Drops had managed to fit all of it inside such a small briefcase, but wasted no time passing the contents to her friends—two electric guitars, a bass guitar, a keytar, and a tambourine. Wait, isn’t something missing?

Sunset turned to see Pinkie with what looked to be an entire drumset strapped to her front. She was tapping her drumsticks together with a wide smile.

“One, two, three, four!”

Twilight was still busy absorbing Chrysalis’s magic. It had taken maybe five seconds to fully contain her friends’ magic during the Friendship Games; just how much magic did Chrysalis possess? She hadn’t been kidding when she’d said she was toying with them. Twilight was just glad she suffered from Stupid Supervillain Syndrome. (It seemed like a disproportionate amount of their foes did.)

Twilight was wrenched from her thoughts as Chrysalis lunged forward in a burst of will and self-preservation instinct, slapping the locket out of her hands. It rolled across the floor, out of reach; Twilight scrambled after it, but she wasn’t fast enough.

Chrysalis roared, crackling green magic sparking up and down her horn. She needed to get away from that girl and her strange sorcery right now. In a blinding flash of green light, she vanished.

And reappeared a few feet to the left a second later. “That really should’ve gone further,” she lamented, frowning at her dwindling love stores.

The sound of wannabe pop music filled her ears, and she turned to see the six girls that had caused her countless problems (across multiple dimensions) hovering towards her, pony ears protruding from their heads and wings from their backs. They were aggressively playing musical instruments and singing about the wonders of friendship as they closed in on her with murderous looks on their faces.

Chrysalis shot a bolt of energy at them, but it was thin as a pencil, and fizzled out of existence as it collided with their glowing magical auras. What had that girl done?

A zealous guitar riff by Sunset sent a shower of tiny, cartoony flames rocketing towards Chrysalis. They didn’t so much as notice the shield spell Chrysalis put up, and she only barely managed to roll out of their way. The uncomfortable pain at the base of her horn from the busted shield spell reignited her headache from that morning. Chrysalis groaned and dragged a hoof slowly down her face. Today was just not her day. To top it all off, the magical high schoolers hadn’t stopped their gravity-defying approach, and were almost upon her.

Time to run.

“After her, don’t-you-don’t-you let her get away-hay-hay!” Rainbow Dash sang, instead of the lyrics that were supposed to go in that verse. The six of them charged out of the cafeteria and after the changeling queen. Twilight, having secured the locket back around her neck, dashed after them, and Velvet followed right behind her daughter, begging her to escape to somewhere safe. Agents Chrysalis and Sweetie Drops had taken off, too, as soon as the changeling had staged her retreat; the principals shared a quick glance, and, with no better options, took up the rear.

The lot of them burst out of the front gates not a minute later. Queen Chrysalis was still in the lead, running like a hydra out of Tartarus, and the Rainbooms were close behind, fueled by magical energy. The rest of the gang lagged—Celestia, Luna, and Velvet’s muscles were screaming at them to stop, and even the more athletic Chrysalis and Sweetie Drops couldn’t keep up with the magically-assisted girls. And pony and changeling.

Queen Chrysalis sped across the courtyard and galloped straight into the surface of the portal without a single backwards glance, vanishing into ripples. The ponied-up students were not dissuaded, and followed without hesitation. Chrysalis, Bon Bon, Velvet, Celestia, and Luna looked on in shock and wonder as they disappeared; Twilight pounded across the courtyard. She had planned on running through the portal with her friends, and so was understandably shocked when she crashed into the base of the statue, face first.

Twilight looked up in surprise, fear, confusion, and anger, rubbing her head. “Wh-what? I…” She banged her fist on where the portal should have been; nothing happened. She banged and banged until she felt like her knuckles were broken, and then a couple extra times for good measure, but try as she might, the stone didn’t waver.

“Let me through! Let me through! Dammit, let me through! My friends are in there!”

She kicked it once, as hard as she could, and screamed, as loud as she could, and collapsed in the grass.

Sunset and the rest of the Rainbooms tumbled out of the portal in heap of flesh, limbs, fur, and hooves.

“Holy shit! I’m a horse!”

Pinkie giggled. “Hey, me too, Rainow! What a coincidence!”

“Rarity, you’re pullin’ mah… uh, mah tail? Dangit, this is freakier than Granny’s dentures…”

“I am pulling on nothing, Applejack! I am a horse! I do not have hands at the moment!”

“Pony,” Sunset corrected.

“You’re all so cute!” Fluttershy squeaked, hugging whichever of her friends’ body parts she could get a hold of for all she was worth.

“Fluttershy! Watch it! I know we’ve been friends for, like, forever, but that’s a little too personal!”

Fluttershy’s face erupted hotter than the volcanos of the Dragon Lands.

“Well, Rarity, if yer not doin’ it, then kindly tell me who is!”

“How should I know?!”

“Wow, Rainbow! Your hair does taste like skittles!”

“Pinkie, no!”

Sunset levitated Fluttershy’s cuddly hooves from around her barrel, wriggled out of the dogpile (ponypile?), and stood. It felt good to be a pony again, even under the circumstances. Especially the whole magic bit—it was nice to be able to cast spells and not worry about them blowing up in your face or destroying the school or chopping someone’s finger off.

“Wait a minute.” She looked around. They were in… a cave? Did Chrysalis move the mirror here? And for that matter, “Why isn’t Chrysalis here?!”

The blob of multicolor fur stopped moving, and stopped blabbering. Five pairs of eyes followed Sunset’s around the cave; nobody made a sound, except for Pinkie spitting Rainbow’s tail out of her mouth. (A tuft a hair was missing.) It was a large, spacious room, with several tunnels branching off in many different directions. There was a line of carvings on the walls; a pony, griffon, zebra, thestral, windigo, buffalo, siren, yak, changeling, and pretty much every other intelligent race Sunset could think of, including a few she didn’t recognize. Her eyebrow rose as she spotted a striped couch against one wall, and climbed even higher at the refrigerator next to it, the faint hum of the thaumic cooling unit audible in the newfound silence. This place was certainly lived in, it would seem. But why on earth would Chrysalis be living in a cave instead of one of the many castles she presumably had to choose from? Something strange was going on.

“Maybe its for th’ best,” Applejack finally said, squeezing out from between Rarity and Fluttershy and wobbling to her feet. “I don’t think we could fight her like this anyway.”

“What are you talking about?” Rainbow shouted. “This is terrible! We let her get away!”

“I don’t know… I’m okay with it,” Fluttershy whispered.

As all of her friends slowly detached themselves from each other, Sunset got a clearer view of the mirror portal, and her eyes widened. “That—That’s not the portal,” she said, looking at a wavy funhouse mirror resting against the damp wall of the cave. A distorted version of her pony self looked back, fear in its eyes.

“Whatever are you talking about, dear? We came through it—of course it’s a portal.”

“Yeah! See, watch!” Pinkie trotted over to the mirror and thrust a hoof towards it.

It shattered.

They all stared in stark denial as the shimmering pieces rained to the ground.

“Huh.” Pinkie scratched her head. “Whoops.”

“Oh, come now, my little human-ponies,” drawled a smooth voice from… somewhere. “Here I am, saving your flanks and offering my exquisite hospitality, and you break all my wonderful possessions!”

“Who’s there?” Sunset barked, her head swinging around wildly.

The voice ignored her. “Honestly. Didn’t your mothers teach you fillies anything? Or maybe it’s all the Internet’s fault. That seems to be common philosophy over on Earth. Personally, I think the whole idea is wonderfully chaotic.”

Suddenly, Fluttershy screamed, and the rest turned to see whatever was mildly alarming enough to warrant such a reaction. “T-t-the carving!” She pointed to the wall, and sure enough, one of the creatures etched into the stone was walking about, its mouth moving in concurrence with the voice. It was one of the species that Sunset hadn’t recognized—something from the chimera family, it seemed, with many animals’ limbs sewn onto a snake-like body.

“Though, I imagine you must have thought I was old Queen Chrysalis, Drama Queen of the Changelings and the Attention Whores. I suppose, then, your actions may be redeemable. You’ll still have to pay for the mirror, of course—it’s not like I can just make them out of thin air.” The etching put a paw on its stomach and doubled over in sharp, giddy, not-entirely-sane laughter.

“How’s it doin’ that?” Applejack asked softly, mystified.

“Magic,” Sunset answered offhandedly. But from the arcane signals her horn was picking up, it wasn’t any ordinary magic. There was a huge presence in the room, and it reeked something awful.

“But don’t worry about Chryssie, she won’t show up here anytime soon. I use bug spray! Well, that and divination distortion enchantments.”

“Who even are you, anyway? You wanna fight?!” Rainbow dash raised her front hooves, and fell on her face.

“Why, I can’t believe I forgot to introduce myself!” the voice said apologetically, with just the right amount of subtle sarcasm to piss Sunset off. “How very rude of me.”

The carving grew in size to about three times Sunset’s height, which would have been a lot more impressive if she were still human. It—he—turned to face them all directly, and took a step forward; he sauntered clean out of the wall and into three-dimensional space, his unnatural eyes leering at the group from his goat-like head. An eagle’s claw waved at them. “Hello there! I’m Discord, lord of chaos. Pleasure to make your acquaintances.

“Oh, and before I forget.” Discord smiled impishly. It cut the air like a dagger. “Welcome to Equestria.”

Intermission D - End of Part One

Intermission D - End of Part One

Chrysalis burst through the mirror portal, and not a second later delivered a harsh blast to the machinery surrounding it. The glow and warble of the glass died, and her reflection stared back at her, huffing and puffing with tired, angry eyes.

“Screw phase four,” she panted. “Those damn monkeys can keep their worthless dimension.”

Twilight Velvet didn’t know what to feel anymore as she saw her daughter fight a useless battle against the statue that had swallowed her friends. The women beside her didn’t say a word, and neither did she, as Twilight slumped to the dirt and quietly began to cry. Velvet clutched her head. She didn’t know the first thing about her daughter, and that scared her more than the changelings.

“Welcome to Equestria.”

The words of the draconequus bounced playfully around the cavern, sticking in the Rainbooms’ ears like freshly chewed bubble gum. Five of them locked eyes with him and raised their eyebrows; Sunset looked at the funhouse mirror, the way they had come from, as it lay on the cold, stony floor, shattered.

Several ponies looked up at the starry night sky from wherever they had managed to hide themselves—away from civilization, away from their friends and families, away from the prisons of their heroes—afraid to make even a fire, lest it give their position away. They would have to settle for the moonlight.

It had been night now for what felt like forever.

What they wouldn’t give to see the sun again.

Celestia and Luna shared a glance from where they stood on the steps of their school that didn’t really feel like their school anymore. The further they dug, the uglier things got, but they were in too deep to climb out. And even if they could, they couldn’t, not with an intact conscience.

The surface of one magical statue solidified, and in the same instant, a few miles away, three screams reverberated through a small apartment in downtown Canterlot. A trio of girls crumpled to the unkempt floor, the dull, incessant pain in their chests suddenly spiking, tearing through their bodies and slicing into their minds. It was almost comparable to the pain they felt the night their souls were first shattered—almost.

“Something big is going down, ladies,” rasped a broken yet still commanding voice. “Get dressed, because we are not missing this.”

Author's Note

The plot thickens!

This chapter marks the transition from Part 1 into Part 2. Part 2 is a bit less than twice as long as Part 1, and split into Part 2 Part 1 and Part 2 Part 2, because I hate simplicity. There will be a break before my next update, but not enough to warrant the title of hiatus or anything. I’ll probably be back in about a month. That should be enough time to build up a backlog of chapters so my updates come with more frequency and more quality, which is better for everyone.

Thanks so much for all the support; obviously, it isn't too much compared to some fanfics, but for my debut on this site, I couldn't have realistically asked for better. You're all great. :D

Thirteen - Walk

Thirteen - Walk

“As in, the Discord?” Sunset asked, narrowing her eyes.

“So you have heard of me!”

“As in, the Discord that reigned during the Chaos Era? Who made life a living hell for everypony?”

Discord scoffed. “Oh, please, that’s blowing it way out of proportion. History books these days are hardly accurate. Everypony loved me as a ruler!”

Sunset just stared.

“Okay, so maybe it was closer to distant admiration, but I had to do something! The tribes had stopped fighting, the windigoes had ran away to bother the zebras (the cowards), the changelings were keeping the Sirens busy, Starswirl and his apprentice had started banishing rogue creatures to Tartarus or alternate dimensions; it was all far too harmonious! I saved Equestria from a mundane existence.”

“You terrorized the country for years!”

“Semantics.”

“Huh,” Applejack said, “That’s a lotta history t’ pack into one lifetime.”

“Not when you’re immortal,” Sunset muttered.

“What?” Rarity screeched. “Is—is he a god?”

“Well, not to brag, but…” Discord produced a book that read ‘The Holy Bible of Discord’. His face was on the front, and it moved in concert with his real one. “I’ve been pretty popular throughout the years.”

“He is not a god,” Sunset corrected, throwing the Bible out of Discord’s claws with a jolt of telekinesis. “If immortality were all it took, then Twilight would be a god too.”

“What?” Rarity screeched, again.

“Why must you be so hostile, Sunny?” Discord said. “Haven’t you heard the news? I’m reformed now! The lovely if not particularly bright counterparts of your friends here have been teaching me the wonders of friendship.” His voice dropped to a whisper that was still just as loud, and he cupped a hand around his mouth. “Just between you and me, though, I think Fluttershy’s the only one who truly appreciates me.”

“You, the spirit of chaos, are friends with the elements of harmony?” Sunset asked, incredulous.

Discord smirked. “Such wonderful incongruity, am I right?”

“Why should we trust you?” Rainbow barked, still fumbling to stand up straight.

She yelped as Discord suddenly appeared next to her. He twisted his body around hers, and she shivered. “Now, Rainbow Dash, whatever suggests that I don’t have your very best interests in mind?”

“Cause you’re a creepy snake monster!”

Discord clicked his tongue. “I’m a draconequus, Rainbow. Don’t be racist.”

“I—what?”

“Now, let’s examine your position, shall we?” He spoke to Rainbow Dash, but his eyes drifted towards Sunset. Surprisingly metaphorically. “Five of you have never been a pony before, yet you rushed after Chrysalis through the portal. And I don’t care how weak she was at the moment, you wouldn’t have been able to fight her on her home turf. Fortunately for you, I’m the epitome of kindness, and sent you here instead.

“Now, I could be lying about all this, but let’s face it, the only way you have any chance of beating the changelings is if I’m not, so, therefore, no matter what, you have no choice but to assume I’m telling the truth.”

Rainbow’s face screwed up in concentration, but all she produced was a confused “What?”

“Makes perfect sense to me!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“I mean,” Fluttershy started, “he seems nice enough. A bit strange, but nice.”

Discord beamed at her.

“Now hold on just a minute!” Applejack stalked forward shakily, tripped once, got up like nothing had happened, readjusted her hat, and poked Discord with a hoof. “A lie’s a lie, and there ain’t nothin’ you can say t’ change that. I don't appreciate ya tryin’ t’ trick us with yer fancy logic.”

Sunset sighed. “Discord. I’ll talk to you in private.”

“Oh, I knew you’d come around,” he said. A gentlemanly suit poofed into existence around his body. He offered a hooked elbow to Sunset, tipping his new fedora. “Let’s take a walk, shall we?”

Sunset, tragically lacking her favorite finger, resolved to simply ignore him as she trotted deeper into the cave.

“If you’re so nice now, why didn’t you, I don’t know, stop Chrysalis?”

Sunset and Discord were a significant ways away from her friends by now; the cave system seemed to stretch on forever, and it appeared that Discord used it frequently. They had passed a swimming pool, a gym, a grocery store, two rooms that were just jacuzzi bathtubs, and a small closet-sized hole in the wall that housed about eight Discord body pillows. (Sunset had no intention of asking.)

“Well, funny story, that. You see, silly old me didn’t realize she was invading until all three in-country princesses were goners.”

“Yakshit. Chrysalis has been practicing dark magic; I saw it myself. There’s no way she beat Celestia without using it, no matter how much love she had, and you”—she stuck a hoof out at Discord—“should’ve sensed her casting.”

“Ah, yes. That.” Discord cleared his throat. “I promised not to tell anybody about this, but you’re forcing my hand.” His eagle claw morphed into a very realistic human hand. Sunset wretched a bit. “You must understand that Princess Luna’s temper tantrums can involve an awful lot of powerful and illegal magic, and last time I showed up at Canterlot Castle to deal with whatever fiend was attacking only to find Luna complaining about how it wasn’t ‘just a phase, Celestia,’ they almost turned me back into stone then and there. I didn’t wish to repeat such an emotionally taxing encounter for our dear royal sisters.”

“That’s it?”

“Well, I was also in the middle of a very good book, and I wanted to finish it,” Discord said. “Even if you’re alone, it’s rude to get up in the middle of a meal.”

“A mea—you know what? Nevermind.” Sunset sat down and rested her head in her hooves. “I suppose that’s all… plausible. One more question: if you’re the lord of chaos, shouldn’t you be able to kick Chrysalis to Tartarus no sweat?”

Discord, for once, became a bit more serious. “Chrysalis isn’t to be taken lightly. She may be a bumbling idiot, but she packs a punch.” He paused for a second to gather his thoughts. “Are you familiar with Sirens?”

“All too much. They tried to take over my school.”

“No, not those three. I’m talking about the Minstrels of Oratorio. Awfully pretentious, sat on a hill, made people go mad.”

Sunset’s eyebrow arched skeptically. “I think my Equestrian History course might have skipped over that.”

“Remember what I said earlier about history textbooks?” He didn’t wait for a response. “The sirens you battled were exiled from their home because they disagreed with the Siren policy of seclusion. Those three really were a great bunch—always stirring up trouble and spreading chaos wherever they went. It’s a shame Starswirl went and ruined it…”

Sunset’s eyes were wide. “Are you saying there are more sirens?”

“Oh, no, not anymore. Did you know that Canterlot was actually the second city to be built on Mount Canterlot? The sirens lived there first, at the very top, up above the alpha cloud layer. They would sing from there constantly, whispers in the back of everypony’s mind, spreading their influence unnoticably thin across the surrounding lands and feeding on the resulting negativity. A bit too subtle for my tastes, but it got the job done. It’s what caused the three tribes to be so bull-headed, and what attracted the windigoes in the first place. It was a great strategy, really, and nopony ever realized what had been going on. It allowed me to take a vacation, in fact.”

“But?” Sunset prompted.

“But Chrysalis,” Discord said with a scowl. “She was so fed up with the sudden drop in love that she managed to get up off her insufferable plot and do something about it; and thus began the Changeling-Siren War of the Starswirl Era. Chrysalis won—she personally fought at the front lines, against sirens and charmed changelings alike. She won, and that’s when I had to step in to make sure things stayed chaotic.” Discord paused for a moment to elongate his neck until his face pressed against Sunset’s muzzle. “So when I say that I can’t beat Chrysalis, I mean it.”

Sunset took a step back. He was worse than Pinkie when it came to personal space. “But you kept Celestia and Luna busy for years! Surely you could take Chrysalis!”

“Well, I might not like to admit it, but my magic is pretty terrible against shapechangers. I could try brainwashing or something, but Chrysalis is the best glamourist there is. Number one rule of enchantments: you can’t charm a charmer. The best I could do is drop a piano on her or something. It’d be a stalemate. That’s where you come in.”

“Huh?”

Sunset returned with Discord to find her friends practicing basic locomotion. Rarity and Fluttershy were wobbling around in circles, Applejack and Rainbow were racing each other and falling over constantly, and Pinkie had found that bouncing worked more consistently than walking or trotting.

“Hey Sunset!” Rainbow greeted as she faceplanted into the ground.

“Hey, Rainbow. So, how’s being equine for your first time?”

“HARD!” Pinkie yelled, bouncing up to Sunset. She tried to take a step and missed. “I mean, bouncing is fun and stuff, but it isn’t very fast, and my center of gravity feels all wrong and there might be changelings and how can I run if I can’t run?”

“Um… Keep practicing?”

“That’s what we’ve been trying, dear.” Rarity eyed Rainbow and Applejack, who had just crashed into each other, and lay groaning on the floor. “Well, some of us.”

“Ah don’t suppose you could teach us a thing or two ‘bout bein’ a pony?” Applejack asked, nudging her hat off her eyes.

“…Not right now. We have something to do.” Sunset gesturing somewhat grudgingly towards Discord.

“Can we help?” Fluttershy offered.

“I doubt it. I don’t even know what it is yet,” Sunset grumbled, shooting Discord a look.

“It shouldn’t wait is what it is,” he said, his body morphing into a grandfather clock. “Time is ticking, you know.”

Sunset took a deep breath, and tried to suppress her desire to zap Discord in his stupid face. “Right. We better get going, if it’s so very important.”

“Now you’re getting it,” Discord said, snapping his fingers. His body turned back to normal (well, as normal as it gets) and a red carpet unrolled itself across the room and through a different tunnel, knocking Pinkie off her hooves as it unraveled. Discord motioned to Sunset. “After you.”

She shot him a nasty look, but started trotting nonetheless.

“And one last thing for you ponies,” Discord added. He snapped, and vanished, a book falling to the ground where he had been. The carpet started to roll up again, wrapping Sunset between its furs and taking her yelping with it until the book was the only evidence that Discord had been there in the first place. The Rainbooms stared at where Sunset had gone in dumb silence for a few seconds before forcing it out of their minds.

The book sat invitingly on the ground.

Rainbow stumbled over to it. “The Tale of the Three Tribes? Is this a children’s book?”

Soon, all five of them were standing in a circle around it. “Well, we are new to this world, so that would make some sense,” Rarity surmised.

“Ooh! Ooh! Can I read it?” Pinkie asked.

She didn’t wait for an answer before she sat on her haunches and nudged the picture book towards her. It couldn’t have been easy to flip the pages with hooves, but with a few tries, Pinkie managed.

“The Tale of the Three Tribes!” She paused to turn the title page over. The second page had a picture of a pony with wings, a pony with a horn, and a pony with neither. “There were three tribes of ponies before Equestria was founded. Earth ponies, pegasus ponies, and unicorn ponies!”

The next page showed an earth pony tending to a farm. “Earth ponies were gifted with the magic of the earth. They could borrow its strength, and were great farmers! Hey, that’s just like you, Applejack!”

“I guess. Don’t know nothing ‘bout borrowin’ the earth’s strength, though.”

Pinkie flipped to a page with pegasi flying through the sky and pushing clouds around. “Pegasus ponies were gifted with the magic of the sky. They could fly and control the weather!”

Rainbow grinned. “Control the weather? Sweet! None of my games would be rained out ever again!”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Rainbow, it’s a story book. You can’t control the weather.”

“We’ve seen some really strange things lately,” Fluttershy said. “I wouldn’t be surprised. Well, I probably would be, but maybe not as much as I should be?”

Pinkie didn’t stop, and continued on to the next page, which depicted a ring of unicorns, horns glowing, at sunrise. “Unicorns were blessed with the magic of the cosmos! They could cast spells with their horns, and before Princess Celestia took over, it was their job to raise and lower the Sun and Moon!”

“Now, I ain’t no Twilight, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how that works,” Applejack said.

“It’s embellishment! Of course that’s not how it works!” Rarity insisted.

“I dunno,” Pinkie said, cocking her head to the side. “It’s talking about Celestia doing it and I don’t think they would do that if Celestia didn’t really raise and lower the Sun and stuff because we know Celestia’s a real person in this world.”

“Yeah, but the Celestia in our world’s a sad woman who’s scrambling to look like she knows what she’s doing even though everybody knows she’s a mess!” Rainbow argued, lifted a hoof demonstratively. “Why would anybody put her in charge of raising the freaking Sun and Moon?”

Fluttershy’s gaze wandered. “It did say she was a princess, not a principal. Also, we know Twilight’s a princess in this world, and, not to be rude, because she’s really very smart, but our Twilight isn’t nearly that important back on Earth.”

“I still find it a rather hard sell,” Rarity huffed. “I suppose we’ll have to ask Sunset. After all, she’s the only… unicorn around here.”

“You mean besides you!” Pinkie said, gesturing to Rarity’s horn.

“What?” Rarity lifted a hoof to her forehead, and her eyes widened considerably when it bumped into something. “What?”

Applejack, ignoring her, leaned over the book again. “What’s next, Pinkie?”

She only pointed; every other page in the book had been ripped out (it looked like somebody had bitten off the pages, but that was ridiculous) and on the inside of the back cover, a message read ‘Experiment!’ with a little picture of Discord giving a thumbs up and winking. Actually winking—his eye was opening and closing on the page.

Applejack blinked once. “Huh. Does he mean practice magic?”

“Probably!” Rainbow said. “Flying always was my dream superpower!” With that, she pumped her wings, and started to climb through the air in erratic spurts, the very picture of an electric helicopter on dying batteries.

“I’m not sure I want to try that just yet…” Fluttershy mumbled into her mane.

“I can cast spells, no?” Rarity sat, poking her horn with her hoof. “How is this thing supposed to work?”

“You have it easy,” Applejack said. “I don’t even know what in the hay they mean by ‘borrowing the earth’s strength’. At least you know you gotta mess with your horn.”

“Hrmmm…” Rarity imagined shooting a laser beam, and nothing happened. She imagined creating a beautiful dress out of thin air, and nothing happend. She really concentrated, and imagined forcing Rainbow’s wings to lock; nothing happened. She pouted. “Oh, this is never going to work.”

Pinkie was punching the cave wall repeatedly, yelling at her hoof to be strong. It was working no better than one would expect.

“Woohoo!” Rainbow was flying around the cave in fast, tight circles, throwing the occasional twist and roll in. It felt like hang gliding, or what Rainbow assumed hang gliding felt like. (It was still on her bucket list.) She pumped her wings and jolted upwards, then transitioned into a downward corkscrew. “Aaaaaaawesooooome!”

Rarity was getting frustrated. What am I even supposed to do? Think, ‘oh, hey, let’s shoot some magic out my horn!’ and will magic through it like it’s some sort of hose? This is impossible! Even as she was thinking it, a strange tingle began in her forehead and traveled upwards, and a laser suddenly shot out of her horn. She yelped, trying to reel the magic back in; Rainbow, who was on course to become roasted pegasus, made a sharp turn, and lost control.

“TURN OFF THE HOSE TURN OFF THE HOSE!” Rarity squealed, and her beam thinned and flickered.

“Look out!” Applejack called.

Rarity jumped as she saw the pegasus barrel towards her. “What—Rainbow! Slow down!” Her concentration wavered, and the final spark of white light idled at the tip of her horn.

“I caaaaaaan’t!” Rainbow screamed, flapping her wings every which way and only managing to make herself dizzy. She squeezed her eyes shut as she smashed into Rarity, and everything went white.

A minute later, when Sunset returned, the first thing she noticed was the stench. She had botched plenty of spells in her time, and knew the smell as well as she knew that of coffee; smoke, excess mana discharge, and the faintest hint of spoiled milk. The second thing she noticed was the thaumic scorch marks in the center of the cave, still smoldering, and the litter of blue feathers scattered around it. Finally, she saw her friends. They were all lying groaning against the walls of the cave; the stone was cracked where they had, supposedly, smashed against it.

Sunset sighed. This might be tougher than she thought.

Author's Note

Hey everyone! It's good to be back. :twilightsmile:

Updates will be back regularly, with a new chapter every 4-5 days. Intermissions, as they are now much more important than in part 1, will count as full chapters with respect to updates; they will still come between every three numbered chapters.

Thanks for reading!

--Bonster

Fourteen - Talk

Fourteen - Talk

Earlier

Discord’s Carpet Express dumped Sunset groaning on her face after a hundred yards of rolling. She was going to give him a stern word once her head stopped feeling like it had been in a washing machine.

“Do get up, Sunny,” Discord drawled, his face sneering down at her as she lay sprawled on the ground.

“Don’t call me that.”

He huffed. “There’s just no pleasing you, is there?”

“You’re insufferable.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere.”

Sunset picked herself up and looked around the corridor. Unsurprisingly, there was more cave. One stalactite-lined entryway led into a ball pit that seemed to stretch on forever, and one led into an apartment-sized kitchenette; all the other paths had closed doors of various material, style, color, and purpose.

“Where even are we?” Sunset asked.

“Oh, I’d love to give you the tour,” Discord said, “but we don’t have time.”

“This mysterious ‘thing’ you have to show me must be real important.”

“I meant you wouldn’t live long enough to get through it,” Discord clarified, leading her farther down the hall.

“Oh,” Sunset said dumbly. She coughed. “But, like, where are we in Equestria? Where’s the exit?”

“The thick of the Whitetail Woods, and you’ll find it if you need to. Don’t worry, Chrysalis can’t get to us as long as I’m around.”

So they were close to Ponyville. That was good; they wouldn’t have to go far to get to the Castle of Friendship.

Discord stopped in front of a plain green door set into the cave wall. A snap later, it was open. “Ready to meet my army?”

Sunset raised an eyebrow and walked into the room. It looked to be a lounge of some kind, with nearly a dozen couches thrown about, and various ponies lounging in them. She recognized many of them from Canterlot High, both students and teachers (though they all seemed to be adults in this world).

“This is your army? Do they even know how to fight?” Her eyes wandered skeptically over the twenty-five or so ponies.

“I’d like to see you do better without Chrysalis noticing,” Discord snapped. “And they’re all residents of Ponyville, the most chaotic town in Equestria. I would know. They’re certainly better prepared than those friends of yours.”

On one far couch, nestled into the corner of the cavern, Sunset noticed a brown earth stallion fiddling with some rainbow-colored… well, they looked like flowers, but he was using a screwdriver on them, so that probably wasn’t the case. Three mares on another couch were crying over a wilting potted plant (like it could survive in a cave), and Sunset’s eyes rolled over them as one thrust her wailing head into a throw pillow. A frighteningly muscular white pegasus stallion—it could only be Bulk Biceps—was lifting a huge discord-themed dumbbell, grunting like Sunset had never heard anypony grunt before; a smartly dressed couple sat on one couch, quietly gossipping to one another, no doubt about the peasantry in their midst; and, on a couch pressed against the far wall, pony versions of Lyra and Bon Bon leaned against one another, whispering.

“Did you tell them about the plan?”

“Don’t call it a plan. I don’t do plans. It’s a strategy.”

“Answer the question.”

Discord sighed. “I was getting there. No, I didn’t tell them, but they know I’m not just here to sit back and watch the show, and I think they think I have a plan. Which I don’t, by the way. Some of them are pretty bitter about the whole takeover thing, though. I’m sure if they saw your friends, they wouldn’t hesitate to bust out the pitchforks and torches.” He smiled coyly.

Sunset gave him a warning glance. “Don’t get any ideas.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Sunset, deciding that talking to Discord was only a downward spiral, stepped forward and cleared her throat. A few ponies turned, a few didn’t. “Hello everypony. I’m Sunset Shimmer, former student of Princess Celestia and current student of Princess Twilight Sparkle. I’ve come to help deal with Chrysalis. Discord and I are planning to break out the Elements of Harmony that are being held captive inside Friendship Castle. I know you all want to see Chrysalis fall as much as I do, so if you can fight, we could really use your help.”

“YEEEAAAAH!” Bellowed Bulk Biceps, his voice dripping with masculinity, his arms flexed and nearly ready to burst. “BRING IT ON, CHANGELINGS! WE’RE TAKING YOU DOOOOOWN!”

Everypony in the room was now watching with rapt attention, and a few started cheering and whooping. Sunset smiled smugly at Discord, who rolled his eyes.

“I’ll help!” called out a pink unicorn with three perfect-cut diamonds on her flank. “I studied at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns!”

“Let’s do this!” A pegasus mare—she looked a bit like Cloud Kicker—exclaimed.

“Ugh, why bother?” Lyra Heartstrings droned from her couch.

“I’d love to help!” Bon Bon chirped, next to her.

Lyra blinked once, and then smiled sweetly at the other mare. “Well, I go wherever you go, Bonny. I guess I’ll come too.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet, Ly!”

They then started passionately making out. Sunset hastily averted her eyes and tried her best to ignore the moans and ragged breathing.

“Um, excuse me, miss, but I do believe I have something that may help you.” Sunset turned her head to the brown earth stallion. Now that he was standing, she could see his cutie mark; an hourglass. He had a basket of the rainbow flower things on his back. “See, I engineered these flameless fireworks as a sort of side-project of mine—it was a great puzzle to find a way to ignite an explosion with an alternative energy source! I managed to get them to work, but, quite unfortunately, I didn’t know what the trigger was!” He paused to give a nervous chuckle. “But then, at a wedding a while back, Derpy—a sweet mare, truly, but a bit, well, empty at times—decided to use them as flowers. Volatile explosives as flowers! What in Equestria was she thinking? Though, in her defense, she was in a tad of a rush; see, the invitations to the wedding had been—”

Sunset, whose patience had run out a few clauses back, cut in: “Get to the point.”

“Right, right, sorry, I can get a bit sidetracked sometimes. Nopony’s perfect! Ah, I’m doing it again, aren’t I? Today is simply not my day for conversation, it would seem. My sincerest apologies.”

Sunset’s teeth dulled as she squeezed her mouth shut in restraint.

“But no matter! The moral of the story, as they say, is that the fireworks took love to ignite! And, as our… eccentric host mentioned to us a while back, in his own roundabout way, these ‘changelings’ are simply brimming with stolen love! So I thought, in a fit of pure inspiration, what if, instead of simply fireworks, I engineered them into full-on bombs? Sadly, due to some of our company”—he shot a grimace towards where Lyra and Bon Bon had stolen second base—“my first few attempts proved to be a bit sensitive. My mane used to be at least two inches longer.”

“Cool, cool,” Sunset wedged in as soon as she got the chance. “Do they work now?”

“By all my calculations, yes! It was truly one of—”

“Great! See you around, Science Stallion.” Sunset grabbed the basket of love grenades from the stallion with her magic and spoke out to the crowd before he could say anything else. “If you want to help, get whatever you need and be ready to head out in ten minutes; I’ll explain the plan then. Or maybe Discord will if he feels helpful.” Fat chance. “I need to quick tell my friends what’s going on, and then we attack. The changelings won’t know what hit ‘em!”

She got a few shouts and hollers from the crowd, and some awkward shuffling from those who would rather just stay in the cave, thanks.

On her way out, Discord’s face appeared on the door. “Since when are you in charge?” he asked bitterly.

“You do your part, I do mine,” Sunset said as she trotted out into the hallway, radiating smugness.

A second later, her head popped back into view. “Which way is it again?”

Discord rolled his eyes, and in three directions at once, too, because he could.

No Longer Earlier

“What did you girls do?” Sunset asked, surveying the carnage of the cavern.

Rarity smiled apprehensively, and clambered onto her hooves. Her coat was looking more gray than white, and tiny bits of stone rolled off her back. “We were just practicing, that’s all.”

“I don’t think blowing yourself up qualifies as practice! Magic is powerful; you shouldn’t be using it without knowing what you’re doing! Remember the Friendship Games?”

“We’re sorry, Sunset,” Pinkie said. “It’s just so exciting to have these new powers!”

“More like creepy,” Applejack grumbled.

Rainbow Dash flapped over to Sunset. She was actually rather impressed with her control. “Sunset!” she yelled, “Why didn’t you tell me I could fly!?”

“Maybe I didn’t want you crashing muzzle first into a cave wall.” Sunset gestured to the cracks where the explosion had launched Rainbow. “You may have a natural talent for flying, but that doesn’t mean you’re perfect at it just yet.” She levitated a few of Rainbow’s feathers in between their faces. “Looks to me like you already had an accident.”

“I—it—that was all Rarity’s fault!”

“Pft! Excuse me, Rainbow Dash, but I had my minor slip up completely under control until someone flew into me!”

Fluttershy marveled at Sunset’s magic as they argued. “Sunset, are you doing that?”

“This?” Sunset twirled the feathers in a loop.

Fluttershy nodded.

“Yeah. Levitation is one of the first spells unicorns learn, and pretty much the only one that almost all adult unicorns know. It’s the base spell of the school of Manipulation, which comes naturally because of the way our horns use magic. I could go into the specifics, but I think that may be a bit over your head. With a bit of practice, it’s as easy as walking.”

“Seems mighty useful,” Applejack commented.

“Ooh! Ooh! What else can you do?” Pinkie was bouncing up and down beside her, eyes wide with interest. Sunset conjured a cupcake into her mouth.

“Mm! Mratss Gwwd!”

“I’m not here to talk about magic, though. Discord and I and a few others that Discord rounded up are going to go storm Twilight’s castle—that’s where the mirror should be, and where Chrysalis probably is.”

“Aw, sweet!” Rainbow pumped a hoof in the air. “I was worried you were gunna keep us in this boring old cave forever!”

“You’re not coming,” Sunset stated, to a chorus of ‘WHAT?!’s.

“Are you SERIOUS!? Grrurrgg! So not awesome, dude!”

“Mmm! Mm-mm mm!”

“That’s, um, fine with me, actually.”

“Sunset, dear with all due respect…”

“Sunset, we’re yer friends. We ain’t gunna just sit by while you fight for yer life!”

Sunset stood her ground. “Sorry, but you girls just aren’t ready to fight in your new bodies. You’d only be a liability.”

“Bullshit!” Rainbow yelled.

“I’m not kidding around here, Rainbow!” Sunset shot back. “If you come, you could easily be killed, and it’s not like you can fight! Magic’s much more powerful over here, but you don’t know how to use it, and they do. You’ll have a hole through your barrel before Chrysalis has time for a belittling chuckle!”

“But—but—but—”

Sunset softened a little. “Look, I know you want to help, and you will, but not right now. Right now, you need to learn how to be a pony. Practice galloping, bucking, flying, magic, whatever you need to. Just… be a bit more careful this time. When you’re ready, then you can help.”

“Sunset’s right,” Fluttershy said, with uncharacteristic forcefulness. “We’d just get in the way. Let her go.”

“Ah suppose you’re right, ‘Shy. Don’t worry ‘bout us, Sunset.”

“Teach those brutes a lesson or two!” Rarity shouted.

Pinkie finally swallowed her cupcake. “Yeah! Go Sunset! WOOO!”

“Thanks, girls. See you all soon.” Sunset turned, and left.

Rainbow’s glare trailed after her like a shadow, and the pegasus huffed, ruffling her wings. “She better not die.”

When Sunset returned to the lounge (after not a small amount of wrong doors; why did Discord keep a cactus garden?), she was greeted by a platoon of colorful ponies, most of them armed. The Ponyvilleans made for a rather odd motley of fighters; the sciency pony, who Sunset had learned was named Time Turner, was looking as if he were already face to face with Chrysalis herself. He stood next to Bulk Biceps like a mouse stands next to an elephant—Bulk was flexing and yelling crass encouragement as usual, occasionally squishing the ponies around him in spine-cracking hugs. Lyra and Bon Bon were nuzzling each other and whispering under their breath, and though Sunset was unable to hear what they were saying, the pegasus next to them was blushing more than Fluttershy had when she had walked in on Rainbow during one of Pinkie’s sleepovers. The others were less notable, but could easily be separated into three categories: the ones that looked like they were on death row, the ones that looked like they were about to personally rip off the head of every changeling they saw and then eat it, and the ones who looked like it was Hearth’s Warming and the biggest present under the tree was made out to them.

And at the head of the crowd, dressed in a general’s uniform and holding a civil war era musket, Discord stood.

“Did you explain the plan?”

“I explained the strategy, Sunny. How many times must we go over this?”

“I think you’re just embarrassed that you, the Lord of Chaos himself, care about your friends so much that you made an organized, well thought out, and practical plan.”

Discord eyes widened and he leaned close to Sunset. “Keep your voice down! I have a reputation to uphold, you know. Besides, that’s blasphemy! My strategy relies on chaos!”

Sunset smiled. It was a sure, whatever you say sort of smile. “So are we going or not?”

Discord scowled, turned Sunset’s coat hot pink, and led the way out of his hideout.

Fifteen - Rescue

Fifteen - Rescue

A large group of ponies—the majority of those that had agreed to accompany Sunset and Discord on their mission—arrived at the opulent front doors of Friendship Castle without seeing so much as the skitter of a mouse. Cloud Kicker, her face already fuming, trotted up to them, several of the other more motivated ponies behind her, and rapped loudly. A few seconds passed before the doors were levitated open from the inside. A changeling stepped out.

“Sorry, but Queen Chrysalis isn’t free right now,” it droned robotically. “Could I schedule an appointment?”

Before anypony could respond, Bulk Biceps fell on top of changeling from above. He grabbed him in his hooves, and ripped him in two. “RIIIIIIOOOOOT!”

The ponies braced themselves as a flood of changelings poured out of the doors, and the battle began.

A green towel, decorated with a gray web motif, clung to Chrysalis’s wet carapace as she emerged from Twilight’s Royal Bathroom, which contained, much to her pleasure, a full stock of Extra-Strength Stress Relief Bubble Bath. ‘Wash away the stress of hard day!’ As much as she detested her, Chrysalis could appreciate Twilight’s choice in products; she hadn’t felt more relaxed since… well, she couldn’t remember. Which was exactly her point.

In no small part, it was due to the sense of finality that came with destroying that damned mirror portal; it was the last of the loose ends to tie up. Equestria, the most powerful country on the map, belonged to her now, and this time, there really was nopony left to wrest it from her. And a good thing, too—so many of her children had died for this, she couldn’t exactly afford much more contention. Between the takeover of the three active Equestrian castles, as well as the mishap with the monkeys, her soldiers had been cut down to nearly half of what she had started with.

Not like it mattered anymore, now that everything was settled. The ponies easily had enough love to keep her empire flourishing for a millennium; even longer, if she economized. The hive would be bigger than ever before, her children would be plenty, the love caches would be bursting at the seams; the era of ponies would fall, and the era of changelings would take its place.

“Ooh, I feel a cackle coming on…”

But the incessant mental prodding of the hivemind robbed her of her indulgence.

What, she thought coarsely.

My Queen! Rioters are attacking the castle!

Oh, just deal with them. They’ll run back to whatever rabbit holes they’re hiding in soon enough.

Roger that, My Queen.

Hoofbeats, not mental ones, echoed behind her, and Chrysalis swiveled. Her loyal second-in-command stood there, chitin shining in the magical torchlight.

“Ah, Traxx. Is there a problem?”

“Oh, no. I’m just stopping by to say hi,” Traxx said dryly.

Chrysalis squinted, inspecting Traxx. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you tell a joke before,” she said, genuinely concerned. “Is something wrong?”

“Never told a joke? Really? What a boring existence.” Traxx’s body ballooned suddenly, stretching and contracting into a long, vertical, tube-like shape just a tad taller than Chrysalis. His chitin sloughed off of a furry body beneath, like river water flowing around a stone, and a hideous creature stepped out.

“Discord.” Chrysalis folded her face into a snarl. “I thought you were stone.”

“And I thought you were still licking your wounds and concocting petty revenge plans off in the badlands, but it seems we were both mistaken.”

Her snarl deepened. “What do you want? I think I’ve been causing plenty of chaos to satisfy your fetish.”

Discord folded his arms and casually leaned backwards against nothing. “Has anyone told you that you’re horribly disagreeable?”

“Look,” Chrysalis hissed, “I’ve been having a really great day, and I don’t want you and your nonsensical games ruining it.”

Discord snapped his fingers, and the copy of ‘Marenopoly’ he had been holding vanished.

Chrysalis grit her fangs. “What. Do you want.”

Discord tapped his chin for an aggravatingly long time before saying, “Fun.”

Her eyelids drooped halfway. “Leave.”

“Where’s your sense of gracious hospitality?”

“You can take your sense of gracious hospitality and shove it up your—”

“Chrysalis, Chrysalis, Chrysalis. You really need to take a chill pill. I haven’t seen you this ruffled up since your wedding day.”

“Do you want me to kill you?”

Discord chortled. “Oh, that’s a hoot! You, kill me? Ha! Sorry, but even if you called up your good friends Tirek and Sombra, it’d take a lot more to down this draconequus.”

“Then maybe I’ll just turn you to stone instead.”

“Good idea. I’m sure Twilight and her friends would love to help you with that.”

My Queen! Intruders in the throne room! We can’t—

The voice went out like a candle thrown into a swimming pool. Chrysalis repressed a scream.

She failed. “ARE YOU WORKING WITH THE PONIES!?”

Discord frowned. “Well, you weren’t supposed to figure it out.” He snapped, and a piano appeared over Chrysalis’s head. She angrily levitated it aside before it could fall even a foot.

“Gah! Why can’t anything just go right?” Chrysalis shouted, buzzing her wings and taking off into the air, straight for Discord.

Sunset, Lyra, and Bon Bon clambered through the throne room window on the line of Bon Bon’s grappling hook. Sunset didn’t know if Chrysalis had put teleportation wards in the castle, but they couldn’t afford to take that chance, so they had relied on old-fashioned breaking and entering.

“So, are you Special Agent Sweetie Drops in this world, too?” Sunset asked after Bon Bon pulled her through the window frame. Sunset had already explained about the alternate dimension thing so that ponies wouldn’t try to burn her friends at the stake, but the question still seemed to blindside Bon Bon.

“…Retired,” she finally said. “Celestia had to shut us down a few years ago because of an… incident.”

She didn’t continue, and Sunset didn’t press her.

The throne room was spacious and very, very shiny. The walls were crystal, the floors were crystal, even the thrones and table in the center seemed to be made of some sort of crystal. The roots of a tree hung from the ceiling (Sunset hadn’t the slightest why), along with eight green pods, thick enough that Sunset couldn’t tell who was inside them.

“Looks like the distractions worked,” Sunset said, surveying the barren room.

“I hope they can hold out and escape.” Sweetie reeled her grappling hook back. “They were awfully nice ponies.”

“Who really cares, though?” asked Lyra. “Whether they get out or not, if we beat Chrysalis, we save them, and if we don’t, we’re all bucked.”

“Great to see you have confidence in them,” Sunset said.

“Hey. Just saying it like it is.”

“Right. Well, it’d be great if you could say it like it is over by the door with your marefriend.” Sunset ignored the half-whispered insults from behind her as she reached up with her magic and yanked down the first chrysalis. She began the delicate process of melting the silk with her magic; she had to be careful not to hurt whoever was inside, so the work was aggravatingly slow.

Nonetheless, a few minutes later, there was a big enough hole to squeeze Spike through. He mumbled something softly before lazily opening his eyes. “Sunset Shimmer?” he slurred, groggy. “What’s going on?”

“Hi, Spike. We’re breaking you out.”

“Oh… That’s nice…” He curled up on the floor and went back to sleep.

Sunset spared him another second of her attention before starting to slit the second pod.

“Trouble!” Bon Bon called from the doorway, followed by a loud thump and a changeling’s whimper.

“You’re on your own!” Sunset yelled back. “I’ve got to free the Elements!”

“Couldn’t Discord have done that, with, like, a snap of his fingers?” Lyra griped.

“I… don’t see why not, but if he could, he would’ve just done it on his own, right?”

“What if he’s just bucking with us?”

“Then I’ll beat his ass when I next see him.”

“He owns an ass? Donkey slavery was outlawed a long time ago.”

“…It’s an Earth thing.”

“Really? Donkey’s have rights too, you know!”

“No, I mean—”

“Focus!” Sweetie commanded, punching a hole through a changeling’s neck.

Screams and cries and explosions rang in the entrance hall of the castle as pony and changeling clashed. Multicolored lasers flew in all directions, red and green blood stained the crystal in a morbid work of abstract art, and flameless grenades spun through the air.

Until the changelings ran, that is.

It was sudden and inexplicable: the changelings, in the middle of the battle, froze for a quick quarter second before turning and running up the stairs, into the heart of the castle.

“Hey! Get back here!” shouted a yellow unicorn.

“Fight like mares!” taunted another.

A zealous handful of ponies zipped after them, but a voice called out to wait.

“According to the plan, we shouldn’t follow,” Time Turner expounded. “We were a distraction, and they obviously saw through that—they aren’t going to slow down, not even if we chase them all throughout the castle banging pots and pans. We did our part; maybe not as well as we could, but we did our best, and, most definitely, that means we should let our companions do theirs, right? I would bet our best option at this particular point in time would be to return to cave before the changelings think to follow us; after all, I doubt we could all teleport out. In order not to lead the enemy straight to us, I propose a tactical retreat.”

“YOU SHOULD TALK LESS,” Bulk Biceps throated, “BUT YOU MAKE GOOD POINT.” He inhaled a chest-full of air and shouted, “RETREAT!”

And they did.

Chrysalis shot an energy beam at Discord, who caught it, and ate it. She transformed her front legs into swords, but with a snap of his fingers, Discord turned them into toilet plungers. Chrysalis shapeshifted them back into swords, and Discord transmuted them into children’s squeaky hammers.

“I don’t get it,” Chrysalis growled as she turned her hooves back into hooves. “You, working with ponies? That’s hardly your style.”

Discord summoned six grand pianos above Chrysalis, and not a second later, they were reduced to ashes.

“What kind of lord of chaos would I be if I were consistent?”

“Have you forgotten about the whole ‘stone’ thing? Don’t you want revenge?”

“The ponies and I have buried the hatchet, Chrysalis. Really, you should do the same before all of this comes crashing down on you. Maybe get on their good side. They’re so very welcoming, even to ugly bug queens, and powerful, too.”

Chrysalis smiled. “But I have beaten them! Discord, I know we may have gotten off on the wrong hoof, but if it’s power you want, I can give it. We would be great together!”

“Hmm… You’re not my type.” Discord snapped his fingers on both claw and paw, turning Chrysalis into a paper clip and trapping her beneath a mountain of even more pianos. A second later, they began to glow a sickening green, and exploded every which way. Discord held out a Chrysalis-themed umbrella against the maelstrom of musical instruments, and they miraculously bounced off of it like rubber balls.

“Then but out!” Chrysalis screeched, stomping a hoof and sounding an out-of-tune E flat from a busted keyboard beneath her. “Equestria has fallen! There’s nothing left for you now! Leave me alone!”

Chrysalis’s aura flared something nasty, and her eyes filled with dark mana. Her horn sparked, grayscale lightning bolts flashing up and down its length, like static electricity from Tartarus.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Chrysalis.”

“Why not?” Chrysalis’s voice had changed—it sounded like a combination between screaming, autotune, and nails on a chalkboard. “You can’t care about ponies that much!”

Inky lines of magic shot from her horn, zig zagging towards Discord like snakes made of shadows. They cracked through the air, splitting and multiplying and threatening to penetrate the deepest parts of his being. Face set, Discord reached out, grabbed the nearest one in his paw, and pulled. Chrysalis let out an animal scream as he jerked the entire web of charcoal lines off of her horn with a pop, and dropped it to the ground in a heap.

“You shouldn’t talk about things you don’t understand.”

Chrysalis raged. “If you love them so much, then maybe I should just kill them!”

Chrysalis turned into Rainbow Dash and shot down the hallway.

Snap!

Chrysalis turned into a lamp.

Flash!

Chrysalis turned into Rainbow Dash and shot down the hallway some more.

Snap!

But she was out of sight. Discord frowned. This was not in the pl—in the strategy.

Starlight Glimmer woke from her dreamless sleep slowly and reluctantly. When she heard the lasers and the screams, though, she bolted upright.

“The changelings! They got into the castle!”

A unicorn she didn’t recognize rose an eyebrow at her. “Yeah, you could say that. Um… Who are you exactly?”

Starlight stepped from the shell of her melted chrysalis and gave the unicorn a hard look. “Who’s asking?”

Sunset sighed. “Name’s Sunset Shimmer. I’m here to rescue you.”

“Pleasure. I’m Starlight Glimmer, personal student of Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Sunset had the next chrysalis in front of her, and was already beginning to melt it. “Then you must have some magical ability.” Her voice had a tinge of bitterness to it; subtle, but there. “Mind helping me? We’re on a tight schedule here.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Starlight quipped.

Sunset said nothing, but clenched her jaw a bit harder than before.

They hadn’t been working for thirty seconds when Spike suddenly stood up, and addressed them loudly. “Go! You have to go!”

Starlight stumbled. “Spike? What’s going on?”

“It’s not Spike, you fools, it’s Discord!” Spike shouted. “Chrysalis realized what we’re doing and she’s coming straight for you! Take Fluttershy and run!”

“We don’t have Fluttershy! Or any of the elements!”

“Just run, then! They’re not going anywhere, but if you don’t get out soon, you’ll be headed straight for Tarta—”

Spike froze for a second, stumbled, caught himself, and asked, “Uh, guys? What’s going on?”

Discord’s conscience snapped back to his main body to find himself wreathed in flame, Chrysalis’s laughter echoing around him like something out of a low budget horror film.

“Oh, Discord. The ponies really have made you soft. How ironic! The Lord of Chaos, taken down because he was worried about his friends. That’s one for the history books!”

“I hate history books,” he mumbled as the flames shrunk around him, pushing him through the floor.

“It’s Twilight! This one’s Twilight!” Starlight exclaimed, back in the throne room.

“Great!” Sunset said animatedly. “We’ll free her, and then hightail it out of here.”

“I could probably stall Chrysalis for long enough to—”

“You can’t.”

Starlight pursed her lips.

Twilight awoke just as Lyra announced Chrysalis’s arrival. “Sunset? What are you doing here?”

“No time to explain.” She addressed Starlight. “Do you know Misty Door’s Three-Horned Group Teleport?”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course I do! It’s an elementary group tele—”

She was interrupted by Sweetie Drops sliding painfully along the ground between them. Without missing a beat, Twilight levitated Spike and teleported Lyra on top of Sweetie, in the center of Sunset, Starlight, and herself, and put a bubble shield around all of them.

“Quick!” she shouted, and the three horns lit, beams of white light forming a triangle between them. Chrysalis, working furiously with her horn, disabled the shield spell, and shot a barrage of lasers at the ponies, but by then they were gone.

Discord opened his eyes and looked around him. Endless black abyss, horrible smell, uncomfortable and disembodied heat, general air of despair—Tartarus, all right.

“Well, drat.”

Intermission E

Intermission E

Twilight Velvet enjoyed life. She enjoyed stargazing, and Cadance’s patented chocolate chip cookies, baked with love. She enjoyed being a professor, enjoyed her students, enjoyed her studies. She enjoyed watching bad TV shows for hours when she was having a crappy day, the feeling of responsibility that came with going to the gym, hot showers, and ice cream.

But, more than anything else in the world, she enjoyed her husband and her beautiful children.

She very much did not enjoy watching her daughter cry.

So Velvet pushed her worries aside and jogged to where Twilight lay by the wondercolt statue, taking her into her arms.

“Gone,” Twilight muttered between labored breaths.

“Shh, Twilight. It’ll be alright.”

Twilight clutched at her mother’s shirt, and sobbed into her. “No, mom.” She sniffled and her voice broke. “It won’t.”

Velvet didn’t know how to respond. She didn’t even know what had just happened. Instead, she just held Twilight tighter. Twilight didn’t say anything more for a few minutes, and simply let the tears fall.

At length, she spoke, nasally and rough. “Th-they’re gone, and the portal’s closed, and…” She choked. “What do we do?”

“Not sit around and cry, for one.”

Velvet sicced an icy glare on Chrysalis.

“What? It’s not like they’re dead. Probably. I’m sure if they got a portal opened once, they can do it again.” Chrysalis pulled a blackberry from her pocket and started tapping at it. “Meanwhile, we still have work to do. I doubt all the ‘changelings’ are gone; many of them were probably trapped over on this side.”

Bon Bon coughed.

“…And we still have to find the missing students,” Chrysalis amended.

Twilight took a deep breath. In, out. No need to panic. Sunset’s with them. They’ll be fine. Focus on now. Don’t panic. Nothing to panic about. Don’t panic.

She brushed away her tears and started to stand. “Right. Of course.”

“We know you’ve been through a lot these past few days, Twilight,” Celestia said. “If you want to go home with your mother—”

“I’m fine. I’ll help.”

“Are you sure? It’s not healthy to ignore your feelings,” Luna stated.

“I’m fine,” Twilight insisted. Or I will be.

“Took long enough,” Chrysalis said, earning more glares, which she ignored. “First, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page. Ms. Sparkle, out of all of us, you’ve been the most directly involved with the anomalies at this school. Would you mind telling us the story behind all of this?”

“I… don’t know all of it. I’ve only attended this school for a couple months now.”

“Whatever you know is fine,” Sweetie Drops encouraged, cheery as ever.

Twilight adjusted her glasses. “Well, Sunset Shimmer—she’s the one with the leather jacket—is from another dimension called Equestria. There’s a portal in the statue. Or, was.

“Anyway, she came over here, and brought magic with her, I think? Maybe that was later, I’m not too sure. I know that at the Fall Formal, she turned into a demon, and other-Twilight had to stop her.”

Velvet raised an eyebrow. “Other-Twilight?”

“Oh, right! Every person here has a sort of alternate dimension version of themselves in Equestria!” She gestured to Chrysalis. “Like, you’re counterpart is a freaky bug queen bent on world domination, and mine is a magical princess.”

Chrysalis was a split second away from making a nasty comment before Twilight continued animatedly, completely oblivious to her poor phrasing. “It’s a phenomenal discovery! The multiverse theory confirmed! I never thought that’d I’d live to see the day! Though, I’m also studying actual magic, so I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised.”

“One more question, Ms. Sparkle,” Chrysalis interjected. “What is that device you have?”

“This?” She lifted her locket. “It’s a multipurpose tool for the study of thaumic energy. It works as a thaumometer, a magical absorption and containment unit, and a crude spellcasting device. I had some problems with the prototypes in the past, but it’s reasonably safe now.”

“Reasonably?” Celestia murmured.

Chrysalis reached out. “Can I…”

“No!” Twilight grabbed the older woman’s wrist, stopping her hand short. “When I say safe, I mean safe for me.”

Chrysalis’s look grew sour. “Excuse me, Ms. Sparkle, but I have leagues more experience than you with magic.”

Twilight swore that every new time Chrysalis said ‘Ms. Sparkle’, it became increasingly condescending. Maybe she would graph the relationship if she found the time.

In the end, it was Luna who stepped in between Chrysalis and Twilight, her short stature doing nothing to diminish her practiced sternness. If she could deal with rowdy teens, she could deal with bitchy government officials.

“Excuse me, Ms. Chrysalis, but you have no idea what you’re doing. Want to know what happened when someone like you last tried to fool around with Twilight’s magic?”

“You think I’m anywhere near as dull as Abacus?” Chrysalis snarled.

“I think you’re damn close to being as selfish as her!”

“Vice-principal, with all due respect, you need to learn when you’re in over your head. You stumbled into this mess like a blind woman; stumble out.”

“It’s our school—”

“It’s not about the school—”

“Oh my god,” Velvet said, shoving a hand over each of their mouths. “Stop. If we have any chance of fixing this mess, we’re going to need to work together.”

Before either of them could respond, Bon Bon cleared her throat and held out a sheet of paper to Chrysalis.

“I wrote down a list of all possible areas that the changelings might be using as headquarters in Canterlot; large, unused properties. I also split us into two groups in order to speed up the process.”

“Very good, Sweetie Drops. You’re always so professional. Some could learn a lot from you.”

Luna huffed.

Chrysalis looked at the paper. “Wait, I’m with them?” She stuck a thumb towards the principals.

“In the event of an encounter with the enemy, this is the best way to split our forces. I’m sure you can handle it.”

“I—”

“Of course she can,” Celestia assured. “We’ll be fine.”

Bon Bon beamed. “Great! Let’s go.”

Sweetie Drops ripped off a board on the window with a fierce yank of her crowbar, smashed the glass pane, and shined her flashlight inside the abandoned warehouse.

“Find anything?” Velvet asked from behind.

“Nope. But there are still many more locations to search!” She clicked the microphone on her sleeve. “Special Agent SD reporting. Location eight is a bust. Over.”

“Roger. Same with three. Over,” replied a distorted voice. The communicator turned off with a crackle.

Off to the side, as Sweetie re-gathered her things, Twilight was fiddling around with her locket. It was popped open, and its core glowed brightly, glaring off of Twilight’s miniature screwdriver.

Velvet leaned in. “What are you working on?”

“The original version of the locket was capable of generating dimensional portals, but the process was unreliable and dangerous. I’m working on replicating the effect in a controlled and safe way.”

“You’re not… planning on running off to that other dimension, are you?”

Twilight froze. “Uuuuhhh.”

“Twilight, you can’t! It’s too dangerous!”

“But they’re my friends! I have to help them!”

“Can’t you think of a way to help them that doesn’t involve fighting magical aliens? You’re too young to be throwing your life away like this!”

“Mom, you don’t understand! I have to bethere for them!”

“Sweetie, listen to me!”

“Hmm?” Sweetie Drops turned around. “What is it?”

Velvet paused. “I… Um, wasn’t talking to you?”

She cocked her head to the side. “I could’ve sworn I heard you call my name.”

Twilight snickered. Velvet said nothing.

“Nevermind that, though!” Sweetie said. “We’ve got an old subway to explore next!”

“We’ll talk about this later,” Velvet said under her breath, just loud enough for Twilight to hear.

And, from the overgrowth in a nearby alley, six eyes watched them go.

“Aha!” exclaimed Adagio. “That locket is our ticket back to Equestria! Now we just need to get it into our fins…”

“Adagio, we don’t have fins anymore! What are you, crazy?”

“Ugh… with you around, Sonata, I will be soon enough.”

“Couldn’t we just follow them?” Aria droned. “It sounded like she was heading back to Equestria anyway. We can just jump through the portal after her. We don’t always have to play villain.”

Adagio stroked her chin. “You know, for once, that isn’t a terrible idea.”

Celestia’s flashlight flitted about the empty office space, but all she found was useless flotsam. She nudged a ruined cardboard box over with her foot, as if she would find anything under it. She didn’t.

A part of her didn’t want to find anything, because that would mean finding the monsters. Another part of her wouldn’t sleep until she did, because finding the monsters meant finding her students. She wasn’t sure which part was the rational one anymore.

She envied Luna, in a sense, and how she could follow her heart so easily. She didn’t think, she just did. And maybe that was a problem—it certainly had been in the past—but at the same time, Celestia thought it had to be easier than over-thinking every little worry constantly.

Deciding not to waste any more time in the dusty hellhole, she turned and left the room, meeting back up with Luna and Celestia at the building’s entrance.

“Nothing?” Chrysalis asked.

“Nothing,” she returned.

“Hopefully the others are having better luck,” Luna said.

Not a second afterwards, Chrysalis buzzed. She brought her wrist up to her face, and clicked a hidden button. A voice played from her sleeve.

“Special Agent SD reporting. Location eight is a bust. Over.”

“Roger. Same with three. Over,” Chrysalis replied, and then, to the principals, “Let’s move on.”

“It has to be at least somewhat close to the school, right?” Celestia asked. “That is where they came from.”

“Right, the portal.” Chrysalis took some time to consider her next words. It was not a common practice for her. “You must understand. I… respect your ideals when it comes to all you’ve done in the face of magical interference, but I—the government—can’t simply ignore a transdimensional portal in the middle of your courtyard. We can’t risk more threats crossing over. My counterpart has a use for keeping the people she captures alive—what if the next one doesn’t? Your students could die.”

Celestia pursed her lips, torn. She made a good point.

Luna, on the other hand, grit her teeth until they hurt, not willing to cede Chrysalis any ground. “We’ll talk about this after the world is saved, alright?”

“Whatever you want. Don’t think I’ll forget, though.”

They walked towards the next location in strained silence. Before they could reach it, however, Chrysalis buzzed once again.

“Special Agent SD reporting. Location nine is red. I repeat, location nine is red. Over.”

“Red?” Celestia asked.

“On our way. Over.”

Chrysalis abruptly changed directions, and nearly collided with Luna. “C’mon. We found the little buggers.”

Sweetie Drops crouched at the lip of an old underground subway station, ‘DO NOT ENTER: UNDER CONSTRUCTION’ tape broken at her feet. She quietly relayed her message to Chrysalis, her eyes never leaving the blobs of changeling silk that clung to the walls of the tunnel.

Twilight settled next to her. “What now?”

“Now, we wait.”

And wait they did; Bon Bon keeping an eye on the entrance to the station, Twilight absorbed with her locket, and Velvet attempting to make small talk.

“So, you’re a government spy, right?”

“Yep!”

“But you’re also a high schooler?”

“It’s part of the disguise. If I wasn’t stationed at Canterlot, I wouldn’t be attending high school at all.”

“Oh.” Velvet frowned slightly.

“Though I expect that’s a large part of why Chrysalis assigned this mission to me. As soon as she heard that Sunset Shimmer was both attending high school and in a juvenile detention center, she put me on the case, even against the advice of a lot of other agents. She claimed that my age would help instead of hurt here, because I can blend in naturally. She was right, of course, but I think she also wanted to give me a chance to have an actual life for at least a while.” Bon Bon giggled. “She’d never admit it, but she does care. Sometimes.”

“I think I can relate,” Twilight said. “I never really had friends until I transferred over to Canterlot High, and I’m really enjoying my time here. I don’t think Sunset could have chosen a better school to indirectly send you to.”

Sweetie Drops got a dreamy look in her eye. “Yeah. There’re some real perks.”

Velvet still looked concerned. “But, what were you doing all that time if you weren’t attending school?”

“Training!” Sweetie answered happily. “I learned way more than I would’ve in any academic institution!”

Velvet raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yeah!” She started to count on her fingers. “Martial arts, anatomy, stealth 101, forensics, weapon training, document forgery, psychology… it goes on. My major was hidden weaponry.” As if to demonstrate, she pulled a pair of handcuffs and a taser out of her left sock.

Velvet looked as if she were about to call child services then and there. “But what about your childhood? What about your parents? What did they have to say about all this?”

Bon Bon’s smile flipped. “They died in the field when I was young. I can’t say anything else about it, and neither could the agency, so they took me in. Less questions that way.”

They waited in unpleasant silence after that.

It was only a few more minutes before the other group arrived.

“This is the place?” Chrysalis asked, pulling a revolver out of her suit.

Sweetie nodded. “Changeling silk on the walls. Has to be.

Chrysalis turned to the others. “Give us five minutes to scope out the situation; we’ll call you down after.”

And with that, the two of them delved into the mouth of the tunnel. Their companions looked after them, but the agents were quickly out of sight. A few seconds later, hisses, screams, explosions, gunshots, and bright flashes of light shot back up to the surface.

“They call that scoping out the situation?” Luna mumbled.

Sweetie Drops’ head popped back into view a minute later. “It’s all clear, guys!” she called, wiping a streak of green blood off her cheek.

Twilight led the way down the steps, fingering her locket nervously, with Luna and her sister behind her, and Velvet bringing up the back. The stairs emerged into a fairly large open area that was in a clear state of disrepair. It may have legitimately been under construction at one point in time, but not anywhere close to recently. If it weren’t for the rusty train tracks cutting over the far edge of the platform, Twilight would’ve had trouble distinguishing it as a station. Hefty iron girders supported heftier slabs of crumbling concrete, the remains of what may have once been benches lay in rotting piles against the walls, and the tunnel that the train would hypothetically go through had been bricked close. Even some grasses were starting to pop up between cracks in the ground, living off slivers of sunshine and god knows what else.

There had only been a bit over a half-dozen changelings waiting there, all of them now bloodied and broken on the ground. They had been guarding a huge cluster of chrysalises that hung from the ceiling above the tracks; Sweetie Drops had already started to yank them down one by one with her grappling hook, and Chrysalis was working with one of her knives to cut open the silk. At some point, Celestia and Luna went over to help; Twilight wasn’t really paying attention.

She had almost configured the locket to support a controlled release of basic dimensional magic, which, by both what Sunset had told her and through past experiences, would create a transdimensional portal to the nearest parallel plane: Equestria. Then she could cross over, find her friends, and help them beat the changelings. Simple.

So, maybe she wasn’t entirely sure how she’d go about those last two steps, but damn if she wouldn’t try.

“Bonny!” A voice screamed, and Twilight’s head jerked up.

“Ly-ly! I missed you so much!”

The newly free Lyra and Bon Bon embraced each other with a hug. All of the students were used to their antics, going as far as they could without breaking the rules against public displays of affection that the school enforced.

“I missed you so much!” Lyra countered, shoving her face into Bon Bon’s with blatant disregard for the very large amount of people watching them.

Agent Chrysalis just raised an eyebrow as their embrace deepened. Velvet looked quite taken aback, Luna rolled her eyes, Celestia looked surprised, and the other students either didn’t care, watched with an uncomfortable amount of interest, or yelled at them to get a room.

Twilight stopped watching once Lyra hitched her leg up onto Sweetie’s thigh, and they both fell to the ground, still making out fiercely.

She was so close; she had already checked to make sure the locket would only use a percentage of the stored magic at one time, only cast the spell once, and cast it exactly where Twilight pointed it. All she had to do now was calibrate the mana converter and…

“Aha!” she shouted, holding the locket up and inspecting it. “I should be able to create a portal to Equestria now!”

“Equestria?” asked one student. “What’s that?”

“A portal?” questioned another.

“Is that where you guys get all your creepy horse powers?”

“I heard Sunset Shimmer ruled Equestria with an iron fist before she came here!”

“I heard that Equestria is a jail for evil villains, but they keep escaping to Earth!”

“Isn’t that where Princess Twilight is?” a certain blue-haired boy asked, absentmindedly licking his lips.

Twilight stepped backwards. “Uh…”

“Let’s go somewhere a bit more private,” Luna suggested.

Twilight, her mother, Luna, Celestia, Chrysalis, Sweetie Drops, and Lyra (who had given a murderous glare to anyone who suggested she leave Bon Bon’s side) moved to a secluded part of the subway.

“You got the portals working?” Celestia asked, unsure of how to feel about that.

“Well, I still need to test it,” Twilight said, pointing her locket towards the ground a couple meters in front of her. “You might want to stand back.”

They did, faster than lightning.

“Don’t test it here!” Bon Bon urged. “What if something goes wrong?!”

“Nothing will go wrong!” Twilight said, opening the locket. It shone brilliantly.

Too brilliantly.

“I still think this was a bad idea,” Velvet said.

How did Queen Chrysalis have this much magic?

“Uh oh,” Twilight muttered.

Lyra scowled. “I swear to god, Sparkle, if we die…”

They were blinded by a magnificent flash, and the spell was cast.

Author's Note

See you in three chapters :raritywink:

Sixteen - Regroup

Sixteen - Regroup

Rainbow and Applejack locked eyes.

“Ah raise ya’ll three pebbles.” Applejack pushed three more of the stones they were using as poker chips into the center pile.

“Ha! You think I’m falling for that? Make it four!”

“Rainbow, dear, you should really know by now that Applejack simply doesn’t bluff. I fold, by the way.” Rarity dropped her measly hand to the ground, and pouted at the dwindling number of pebbles she had in her possession. Luck simply refused to be on her side today, it would seem.

Pinkie Pie and Applejack matched what Rainbow offered, and Applejack smirked.

She slammed her hand to the ground. “Four of a kind! Suck it, Rainbow!”

Rainbow pouted, and reluctantly showed her three of a kind.

“Royal flush!” Pinkie shouted, flashing exactly that to Applejack.

“I—but—”

“Oh, my,” Fluttershy whispered from the sidelines as Pinkie collected her winnings. She had been the first to lose all her chips, but only because she’d given them all to Rainbow Dash, who had actually been the first to run out of chips. She had said that Rainbow would enjoy playing more than she would anyway. “Not to be rude, but Pinkie is… How do you put it, Rainbow? ‘Kicking your butts to uranus and back’?”

Rarity tutted. “I wonder if simply being Pinkie Pie counts as cheating at poker.”

“I bet we could enter her in some official competition and get loaded!” Rainbow said.

“Are you kidding?” Pinkie exclaimed. “Those boring boring-heads practice how to not smile! I don’t want anything to do with crazy people like that!”

Applejack only rolled her eyes as she dealt out the next hand.

But as the four of them went to pick up their cards, a bluish-grey light thundered into existence, and a sudden wind upended their game forever as a mess of ponies tumbled onto the ground between them.

“Sunset?” Applejack asked. “That you in there?”

Sunset groaned.

“Oh, good.”

A minute later, the ponies had finished the awkward process of untangling themselves from one another, and the five humans sat in a circle along with Sunset, Princess Twilight, Spike, and the blue unicorn (Lyra and Bon Bon having volunteered to make sure the other ponies returned safely). Twilight, friend that she was, conjured a few couches into the room for them to sit on.

“And you’re sure these aren’t changelings?” Starlight asked.

Sunset looked like she was about to combust. “For the last ti—”

Twilight shoved a hoof in her mouth. “No, they aren’t changelings, Starlight. They’re from a parallel universe to ours, and they’ve come to help. There’s no need for hostility.”

“But what if they’re lying?” Starlight argued. “What if this was all just some elaborate ruse?”

“You were already captured, blockhead!” Rainbow yelled. “Why the hell would we break you out?”

Starlight looked away. “Well, it’s possible…”

Fluttershy was inspecting Twilight a bit too close for comfort. “Wow. So this is what you really look like?”

“Um. Yes?”

“You’re really cute,” Fluttershy said. Then blinked. “Um! Not like that! I mean, you-you’re, like, you know, adorable-cute! Oh, that’s not helping.” Fluttershy disappeared behind her mane.

Twilight laughed. “It’s okay, Fluttershy. I think I know what you mean.” She paused. “Sort of.”

“Oh, I wish I had my phone with me,” Rarity lamented. “I’m sure our Twilight would be fascinated by what her counterpart looks like.”

Starlight raised an eyebrow. “What’s a ‘phone’?”

Dead silence.

Slowly, Pinkie turned to Sunset. “Sunset. Do ponies not have phones?”

“Nope. No internet, either.”

“What?” Rainbow screeched. “Please tell me you have video games here.”

Sunset shook her head, and Rainbow groaned.

“Actually,” Twilight cut in, “we do have video games! It’s a very recent invention, so I’m not surprised you don’t know about it, Sunset.” She turned to Spike. “What’s the name of that one you like so much?”

Spike lit up. “Pac-mare! I have the second highest score in Ponyville!” He puffed out his chest and smiled proudly.

“Pac-mare?” Applejack put a hoof to her forehead. “Please tell me that isn’t…”

Sunset nodded, and Applejack groaned.

“Is Equestria younger than our civilization, then?” Rarity asked.

“I think so,” Sunset said. “But it could just be necessity; with magic, there wasn’t much historic need for advanced technology.”

“We’re still making progress, though!” Twilight said. “In fact, many of the inventions I saw in your world inspired me to try some experiments of my own!”

“Is that what you’re doing in the closed off area of the castle that you won’t let anypony into because it violates health and safety codes?” Spike asked.

“It’s not all I’m doing in there, but yeah.” Her face grew more serious. “I hope Chrysalis doesn’t screw it all up…”

The room grew darker after that comment.

“How did you get past her, by the way?” Twilight asked. “She seemed to be pretty well prepared, at least when we fought her.”

“The creepy goat-lizard,” Rainbow said.

“Hey!” snapped Fluttershy. “Don’t say mean things behind other people’s backs!”

“What about to his face?”

Fluttershy sighed. “I guess so.”

“Creepy goat-lizard?” Starlight repeated.

“Discord helped us,” Sunset clarified.

Twilight smiled. “He did? That’s great! Last time something like this happened, he betrayed us and almost caused the fall of Equestria.” Eyebrows rose. “I was worried something similar was going to happen this time. It’s nice to hear that he learned from his mistakes.”

“Where is he now, then?” Spike asked.

“I…” Sunset frowned. “I don’t know. He should’ve gotten back before us, and he usually isn’t this quiet for this long.”

Starlight rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it. That stallion’s insufferable.”

“Ya don’t think Chrysalis got ‘im, do ya?”

“I hope not! How would he attend my ‘Congratulations on rescuing Twilight’ party?”

Sunset furrowed her brow. “I doubt it. If the myths about Discord are anything to go by, he’s incredibly powerful.”

Twilight was deep in thought, her face somber. “It’s actually quite possible. Keep in mind, Chrysalis was able to beat Celestia and Luna; she’s not so weak herself. Additionally, Discord’s power comes from chaos. The less chaotic he acts, the less potent his magic.

“Ever since the pony version of Fluttershy reformed him, he’s been weaker than before, but not too noticeably. But hiding in a cave, rounding up an army, and executing a plan to save the Elements of Harmony themselves? I wouldn't be surprised if Chrysalis did manage to beat him.”

The cave fell to silence once again as they all let that sink in.

“Hey, uh, Starlight, Sunset?” The two turned to Twilight. “Would you mind going and searching for… a lab? Yeah, a lab. One I can use for, you know, science. Discord’s bound to have one, right?”

The two mares turned to look at each other, and quickly looked away.

“Sure, Twilight.”

“No problem.”

“Thanks so much! That’s a big help.”

They could feel Twilight’s princessly gaze on them all the way until they left her sight.

Sunset and Starlight trotted through the caves, checking the frankly preposterous amounts of rooms within the system. Discord sure liked to use this place; so far, they’d found a volleyball court, a laundry room, a seemingly bottomless pit that emitted a weird hissing noise whenever either of them got too close, several extravagant bathrooms, a room filled entirely with framed pictures of Discord’s body parts, and a broom closet. As they opened another door that comically led into a brick wall, Sunset groaned.

“He could have at least installed signs. I mean, how are we even supposed to know if there’s anything we could use as a science lab at all?”

Starlight sighed. “I’m pretty sure Twilight isn’t actually too worried about that.”

Sunset shot her an inquisitive and encouraging glance.

Starlight continued. “This is probably another one of her secret ‘Friendship Lessons’ she’s always planning. Honestly? I’d prefer to skip this one.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That’s not what I was saying, stupid. It’s just… Ugh. I’m not very good at this.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Sunset grumbled under her breath; but her years away had made her forget the sensitivity of equine hearing.

Starlight glared at Sunset, whose face shifted from guilty to indifferent in seconds. Starlight raised Sunset up a few points on her mental bitch-o-meter. At this rate, she was going to surpass Rarity’s high score.

“How did you become Twilight’s student, anyway?” Sunset asked, and Starlight swore she could taste the implied insult.

“Well, what about you? Aren’t you her student too? Even if you are, like, an alien or whatever.”

“I was born in Equestria, thank you. And you haven’t answered my question.”

“You haven’t answered mine.”

Sunset grit her teeth. She didn’t exactly know what was bothering her so much about the other mare; perhaps it was that she got to live with Twilight as her student instead of having to settle for magical journal-letters when the princess found the time. Maybe it was Starlight’s infuriating blend of patronization and haughtiness. Maybe it was just the stress getting to her. Whatever the case, she had neither the time nor the presence of mind to deal with a stuck-up unicorn.

Starlight watched in mild amusement as Sunset turned and made her way back to Twilight. “Well, I don’t think we’re going to find any lab, so let’s just go.”

“For future reference, Sunset Shimmer, you shouldn’t ask someone a question you won’t answer yourself. It isn’t very polite.”

Cause you know so much about being polite, Sunset thought as she stoically marched onward, not so much as glancing back.

Back in the main cavern, Twilight was marehandling her friends with scientific gusto.

“It’s intriguing—I’ve never had a chance to study the portal transformation in reverse!” she rambled, holding out one of Pinkie’s forelegs and inspecting it.

“What could be so interestin’ ‘bout it?” Applejack asked. “Ain’t it just the same thing but backwards?”

“Well, yes, but it does confirm a few theories I had! Specifically, how the ingrained transformation spell in the portal calibrates itself dynamically to each new passenger.”

“Yeah, in English, please?” Rainbow deadpanned.

Twilight blinked. “English?”

“The language we’re speaking, dear.”

“…We’re speaking Equestrian,” Twilight said.

“Wow! I didn’t know I was bilingual!” Pinkie exclaimed.

Fluttershy collapsed to her haunches. “My head hurts.”

Twilight had started to furiously take notes with a pen and notepad she had conjured. “Does the portal have an ingrained universal language spell, too? No, that would have to place an enchantment on everypony the travelers interacted with… Unless it just made the travelers think they were speaking their native language when they really weren’t! But that still seems impossible. I suppose if anypony could pull it off, it would be Starswirl…”

“Hey, Twilight?”

“Yes, Spike?”

“What if we are speaking the same language, but it’s just called different things in different dimensions?”

Twilight’s pen froze.

“I mean, not everything has to be some huge magical miracle.”

“This requires further research,” she concluded after a few moments. “That aside”—she magicked the notebook away—“the fact that all of you came out of the portal looking exactly like all of my friends suggests that the portal is transforming you according to your dimensional counterpart, and not just fitting your various characteristics into a predetermined mold for the relevant species.”

“But wouldn’t we look exactly like them anyway?” Fluttershy asked. “They’re us, right?”

Twilight got a scholarly gleam in her eyes. “Not exactly like you! We’re all four to eight years older than you!”

They stared at her. Except for Rarity, that is, who rolled her eyes. Here we go.

“Wait,” said Rainbow Dash. “Run that by me one more time.”

Twilight frowned. “How is this surprising? Did you girls really think seventeen year olds can become princesses?”

“Well, there was that one king of England who took the throne at nine or something,” Pinkie mused. “So yes!”

“Wow. I’m glad our governmental system isn’t that bad.”

“Yeah, not like we have a newborn princess or anything.”

Twilight glared at him. “Flurry Heart is only a princess in title. It’s not like she has any responsibilities.”

Rainbow’s eyes suddenly grew wide. “Wait, hold on. So our counterparts are, like, future versions of ourselves?”

“No, more like—”

“Am I still single?”

Twilight flinched back slightly. “Well, yes, but that’s not in any way indicative of—”

“Oh, is the grown me a veterinarian?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Ooh! Ooh! Can I ask a question?”

“NO!” Twilight all but screamed. “Look, none of this means anything about what will happen in your lives! For all their similarities, the universes are wildly different!”

“Aww. That’s no fun,” whined Pinkie. “Wait, if you’re older, are we all still virgins?”

“PINKIE!” Rarity shrieked.

“Hey, you don’t know that we’re all virgins now!” Rainbow argued.

“Yes I do! I keep tabs!”

Applejack grimaced. “That ain’t right, Pinkie.”

“Oh, hey, Sunset, Starlight! Welcome back!” Twilight said, much louder than she needed to.

“Uh, hi?”

“If we’re interrupting, then—”

“No, no, not at all!” Fluttershy said, smiling innocently.

“So, did you find anything I could use as a lab?”

“No, sorry,” Starlight said.

“Oh, that’s okay. Did you, perhaps, I don’t know, have a good time? Maybe connect on some deeper level by realizing that you have a lot more in common than you originally thought?” Twilight questioned, beaming broadly and hopefully.

Starlight threw Sunset a Told you so look, and Sunset replied with a Never disagreed with you, idiot look.

“Yeah, no, not really,” Sunset said. “Hey, if it’s alright with you, I’m going to take a nap, then we can start training these guys. I swear I passed a bedroom somewhere around here…”

Twilight sighed as she left. “Well, that didn’t work. They seem so compatible, too. Comparing their pasts, they’re practically the same pony!”

“Ya can’t force a friendship, Twi. Some ponies just don’t get along.”

“Maybe you’re right. It’s just frustrating, you know? They’ve both come so far.”

Rarity tapped her chin. “How did you meet Starlight, anyway?”

Spike sat forward. “Oh, man, you won’t believe what happened! So, Starlight was the mayor of this village, right? But the thing was, she was more of a cult leader than a mayor, because she—”

Twilight cast a sound barrier around Spike. “Let’s just say she was misguided, we showed her the magic of friendship, and now she’s my student.”

“Okay, yeah, you were right,” Rainbow said. “That’s pretty much exactly the same as Sunset.”

Twilight nodded.

“Something’s still bugging me, though.”

She turned to Pinkie. “Hmm?”

“You never did tell us if you’re a virgin or not.”

“Motherbucking ponies and their motherbucking infinite friends!” Chrysalis raged, incinerating one of the dead changelings on the ground in an angry green flame.

“We may still be able to track them, your majesty,” vibrated a voice beside her. Her angry eyes fixed themselves on Traxx, who was examining the still-rising smoke where the ponies had teleported.

“Traxx,” Chrysalis acknowledged. “You’re the real one, right?”

“Yes, my Queen.”

“Not another ancient being here to ruin everything?”

“No, my Queen.”

“Well, you certainly pass the boring test.”

“I am grateful, my Queen.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She paused, and followed his gaze. “You’re saying you can track the teleport?”

“I cannot. But somebody might.”

“Right.” Chrysalis pushed her mind into the hive.

Mraxx. Report to the throne room.

R-right away, my Queen! I just have to finish this chapter—the princess’s collection of magical references is vastly superior to any I’ve seen! She has the first edition of ‘Advanced Evocation’ by—”

Now!

Of course! Of course.

Another minute, and her magic expert galloped into the throne room, round glasses comically small against his large eyes.

“What’s the matter?”

Chrysalis jutted a hoof towards the jagged triangle of scorch marks. “Trace this teleport.”

“Right, right, of course. Do you happen to know what spell it was?”

“Missy Floor’s three-spleened group teleport or something, I don’t know. Just tell me where they escaped to!”

“Easy now, my Queen. You can’t rush a magician.”

“You seem to want to rush right on to a demotion,” Chrysalis threatened. “Names are a privilege, you know.”

Mraxx jumped into shape at that, bustling about the thaumic burn with a bee in his chitin. He probed with both his magic and his hooves, pawing at the ground, sniffing at the smoke, and analyzing the traces of arcana in the air. Chrysalis was just about to tell him to hurry it up when he turned to face her, levitating his glasses up his nose.

“The spell was cast excellently, my Queen—not that I would expect any less from a princess. If they weren’t so rushed, I imagine I wouldn’t be able to track it at all! B-but! But!” he stammered out as Chrysalis’s gaze hardened, “I do have a general idea!”

In a poof of green smoke, a map fell onto the ground. “The teleport was going roughly in this direction”—he drew a line on the map with magic—“ and I’d guess the distance was about… here?”

He circled the Whitetail Woods.

“It’s certainly close enough,” Traxx observed. “Only a few minutes’ march from Ponyville. The cover of the forest would also be tactically advantageous. Unfamiliar ground to us, as well. An ideal place for a camp.”

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes, and blasted a hole through the map where Mraxx had circled it, causing the changeling to leap back in surprise.

“Thank you, Mraxx. You are dismissed.” She slid her eyes past him. “Traxx. Dispatch a scouting team at once, and give me hourly reports; sooner if you find anything.”

“Yes, my Queen.”

They both left the room in a hurry, and Chrysalis clenched her eyes shut, releasing a weary breath. I think I need another bath.

Author's Note

Happy Thanksgiving, to those Americans among you! I'm thankful for you guys :twilightsmile:

On a different note, we've passed fifty thousand words, which is pretty cool. It also coincidentally coincides with the two-thirds-mark. I'd celebrate, but I don't have any ideas for how to do that, so I'm just going to eat too much food tomorrow and call my bases covered.

Seventeen - Train

Seventeen - Train

After Sunset had risen from her nap, she and Twilight had decided to begin training the humans-turned-pony. They needed to be combat-ready by, well… the sooner the better, really; Chrysalis could attack at any time. Twilight, as the only one with wings and extensive knowledge of magical aviation laws, took it upon herself to teach the pegasi. She also decided, against Starlight’s vehement argument, for Sunset to tutor Rarity. “She’s much closer to her than you are, which is very important,” Twilight had reasoned. “And she certainly isn’t lacking in magical ability, so don’t even try that one.” Once Starlight had acquiesced (i.e. insisted that she didn’t care anyway), Twilight and Sunset had called upon Sweetie Drops to train the earth ponies, which she was more than happy to do.

Thus, an hour or so later, Rarity found herself sitting in one of the many rooms of the cavern (this one housing a grid of pool tables) with Sunset, who was telling her to lift an apple.

Rarity awkwardly grabbed it in her fetlock.

“No, sorry, with magic,” Sunset clarified.

“Oh. That makes much more sense. I was about to ask where you were going with all of this.” She gingerly set the apple back on the pool table.

Rarity bored holes through the fruit with her eyes for a couple seconds. “Now, I don’t mean to be rude, Sunset, but would you mind giving me some direction here? I would rather not accidentally blast it to smithereens.”

“Well, how did you cast magic before?”

“I’m not sure. I just kind of… thought the magic out of my horn. It sounds stupid, I know.”

“Not at all. That’s exactly how spellcasting works.”

“Really?”

Sunset nodded. “Magic is all will-based. Unicorns, and other horned casters such as alicorns or changelings, push the magic in their body—in our case, mana, a kind of second blood that circulates deep within all ponies—out into the world through the horn, and from there weave it into a spell. For levitation, try to reach out gently with your magic, and wrap it around the apple. Then you can move it.”

“That’s it? No, I don’t know, magic words? Pixie dust?”

“I’m only going to be teaching you basic spells, so no. Also, pixie dust is toxic to ponies.”

“Right. Well, here goes nothing…”

Rarity narrowed her eyes and focused. She allowed the magic to trickle out of her horn, and willed it towards the apple; soon enough, it was floating above the pool table, surrounded in a light blue aura.

“Good, good…” Sunset said, watching intently.

Suddenly, the apple exploded, covering both of their faces in juicy scraps of fruit.

Rarity cleared her throat. “Oh my. So sorry.”

Sunset sighed and levitated the apple’s remains off her face. Hopefully Chrysalis would be nice and give them a good few days before attacking.

Twilight, Spike forever at her side, had, through thirty minutes of scouring, located a room with a padded floor, ceiling, and walls. It resembled a holding cell in an insane asylum.

In other words, it was perfect for Rainbow Dash.

The three ponies stood in its center, and Spike sat in the corner, holding a tub of popcorn in one claw and a camera in the other.

“I promised some of the my friends in the lounge pictures,” he said, when Twilight asked. “Just pretend I’m not here.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and refocused on her friends. “Alright. So what do we know about flying?”

Rainbow thrust her hoof into the air. “Ooh!”

“Yes, Rainbow?”

“It makes you move in the air!”

Twilight paused for a second. “…Technically. Anything else?”

“You need wings!”

“Yes! That’s one of the main components of flight. Keep going!”

“It’s totally awesome!”

“Rainbow, that’s an opinion, not a fact,” Twilight chastised, frowning. “Fluttershy, do you have any ideas?”

She shook her head meekly.

“Well, uh, how about we just start with the basics, then?” Twilight began to flap her wings, hovering in the air. “Scientifically speaking, pegasus wings are actually too small in proportion to their bodies to allow for flight. That’s where pegasus magic comes in: your mana flows are more clustered in the wings and hooves, and you can use your magic not only to interact with weather phenomena, but push off the ambient magic in the air for extra lift. This also means you can perform aerial maneuvers that would be otherwise impossible.” Twilight demonstrated by slowly barrel rolling in the air and hanging upside down for a few seconds.

“If you want to experiment—”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash yelled, spiralling upwards. Spike prepared his camera.

“…go ahead,” Twilight finished halfheartedly.

“Uhh… Are you sure this is safe, Twilight?”

“Of course, Fluttershy. The room is cushioned, and I’m here to spot you. I swear you won’t get hurt.”

Fluttershy gulped, squeezed her eyes closed, and began lightly flapping her wings, crawling ever so slowly upwards.

“There you go! You’re doing it!”

“I am?” Fluttershy looked at the ground, all of a foot below her, and yelped; her wings froze to her sides, sending her back onto her shaking hooves. “I-I’m not sure I can do this.”

“Sure you can!” Twilight insisted. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep practicing.”

“Twilight! Get out of the way!”

“Rainbow, what—”

Rainbow had exited her side loop a bit too close the ground, and hadn’t been able to turn in time. Twilight didn’t have time to even plan a speedy teleport before Rainbow slammed into her, sending them both crashing into the wall.

Spike grinned as the flash of his camera came and went.

Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Bon Bon were training in the central cavern. Twilight’s magic sofas had been pushed against the wall; “I don’t want to ruin them,” Bon Bon had said.

“Earth ponies don’t have horns or wings, but we still have a magic of our own,” she explained. “Just because we can’t cast spells or fly doesn’t mean we’re defenseless.”

“Ah know we can grow crops even better than back home,” Applejack said, “but ah don’t see how tha’d help in a fight.”

“That is one form of Earth pony magic, yes. But the one we’re going to focus on is our magically enhanced strength.”

Pinkie began to bounce. “Oh! Like superman!”

“You mean supermare?” Sweetie asked. “Lyra keeps those comics around the house. I guess it’s a similar concept.

“By focusing the mana in our bodies into specific places, we can strengthen that area. This has a variety of uses, both offensive and defensive. I can teach you the basics, but the best way for an earth pony to get in touch with their magic is by exercising it. Here, let me give you an example.”

Sweetie walked over to the cave wall, turned away from it, and crouched down.

“Here’s a kick without magic.” She bucked the wall hard, causing some dust and shards of rock to tumble off.

“And now with magic.” She kicked the wall again, but this time, Applejack and Pinkie Pie could feel the vibrations from a dozen feet away. Her buck was as loud as a cannon, and just as powerful: a hole the size of half a pony was carved at the touch of her hooves, and cracks snaked across the stone, web-like and deep; Applejack half expected the wall to plumb give out.

Bon Bon giggled at the others’ open-mouthed expressions. “Cool, right? That level of control takes years of intense training; you won’t be able to replicate that… well, ever. But we’ll get as close as we can.”

“What would that do to a person?” Pinkie asked, slightly horrified and morbidly curious.

Bon Bon giggled some more. “It’s hard to clean up.”

Applejack retched.

“But that’s not all earth pony magic can do! I need a volunteer. Don’t worry, I won’t injure you.”

Pinkie pushed Applejack forward.

“Thanks, Applejack!”

She scowled at Pinkie. Pinkie smiled encouragingly.

“Now, I want you to punch me.”

“ ‘Scuse me?”

“Punch me!” Sweetie repeated happily. “Preferably as hard as you can.”

“Ah can’t do that!”

Sweetie Drops rolled her eyes. “Come on, it’s not like you’ll hurt me.”

“Well, if ya say so…”

Applejack raised a hoof and swung it forcefully into Bon Bon’s cheek. When it collided, instead of the typical giving of flesh that Applejack had expected, it was as if she had punched solid metal—her hoof stopped short, and a burst of pain rebounded back up her leg.

“Ow! Hey, you said you wouldn’t hurt me!”

She laughed. “I said I wouldn’t injure you. You’ll be fine.”

Applejack huffed. “Well, this is good and all, but it ain’t like knowin’ what we can do is gunna help us actually do it.”

“Which is exactly why we’re going to practice now. Additionally, we can build up hoof-to-hoof combat skills at the same time.” Sweetie leaned back on her hind legs and stretched out her front, eliciting a series of loud pops.

“Ineedtogotothebathroom!” Pinkie shouted, making a break for the exit, only to have a rope wrap around her legs and haul her back.

“Oh no ya don’t, Pinkie. You want ‘a beat Chrysalis, right?” Applejack grinned evilly as she reeled Pinkie in. “Ain’t it important t’ stay for the whole trainin’?”

This time, Pinkie glared at Applejack.

“Great attitude, Applejack!” Bon Bon complimented. “Oh, and that promise about injuring? That’s on standby.”

“I see your training went well, ladies.”

Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy had met up after their respective practices, and Rainbow Dash didn’t waste any time before showing off, buffeting Rarity with her wings as she flew backwards, sideways, and upside down along the hallway. Fluttershy flapped nervously behind them, only a few feet off the ground and desperately reasserting her balance as they returned to the main cavern, where Pinkie and Applejack should’ve been wrapping up their own session.

“You know it!” Rainbow said, flipping in the air. “This is the most fun I’ve had since this whole thing started!”

“Mmm.” Rarity smirked. “Well, Rainbow dear, I don’t think even your most dazzling trick can compare to what I’ve learned.”

“Ha! We’ll see about that!”

Fluttershy sped up until she was hovering in line with Rarity. “What kind of magic did you learn?”

“I’m afraid it shall have to wait until Pinkie Pie and Applejack are around to see it. I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise.”

As they approached their destination, Bon Bon trotted past them, presumably on her way to the lounge. She grinned at them jubilantly as she passed.

Rarity returned her smile politely, and after she had gone, said, “She was certainly in high spirits.”

“I guess that means it went well?” Fluttershy guessed.

“Meh. For all we know, AJ and Pinkie died or something, and she can’t wait to go make the headstones.”

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy admonished. “Don’t say things like that!”

“Hey, it’s not my fault that girl’s crazy!”

“Oh, hush. We’re almost there.”

The three of them entered the expansive room, but didn’t see anyone. Anypony. Whatever.

“Yo! Applejack! Pinkie Pie!”

“Over here, Rainbow,” Pinkie’s voice called out. It was uncharacteristically mellow, and somewhat pained.

Pinkie Pie and Applejack were lying spread out on two of the couches—Applejack had pulled her hat over her face, and Pinkie’s muzzle was white from guzzling vanilla ice cream. Judging by the empty cartons on the floor, she was on her fourth one. She shoved her face in it and groaned as her friends approached them.

“My god!” Rarity exclaimed. “What did Bon Bon do to you?”

Pinkie groaned some more.

“Are you alright?” Fluttershy asked. “Do you need anything?”

“Ah feel like granny jus’ baked me into an apple pie.”

“Come on, AJ! You’re tougher than that!”

Rainbow Dash flew down to her and moved to prod her in the side. But, as soon as she brushed Applejack’s fur, the earth pony reached out, took Rainbow’s hoof in a vice grip, and flipped her upside down, driving her into the ground.

“Step off, Rainbow.”

Rainbow gaped and rubbed the bruise forming on her head. “That was awesome! Wow, you guys actually did learn something!”

“Yeah, she beat it into us!” Pinkie complained, throwing her hooves to the side and accidentally punching her left one straight through the couch without realizing. “That lady’s insane! And I’m me!”

Rarity examined the couch’s new hole. “I hate to say it, dear, but her methods certainly seem to be effective.”

“Easy fer you t’ say. Ah bet Sunset wasn’t firin’ lasers at ya to get you t’ learn magic.”

“I suppose not, but it was just as frustratingly complicated as calculus. Magic’s an awfully abstract concept when you use it, but abominably technical on paper.”

Fluttershy perked up. “Oh! Rarity! You were going to show us magic once Applejack and Pinkie were here! Well, if you still want to, that is.”

“Of course! Thank you for reminding me, Fluttershy. Prepare to be amazed!” Her friends watching raptly, Rarity began to concentrate. A few seconds later, her horn began to emit an eerie blue glow.

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “That’s it?”

“Patience, dear.”

The light brightened and flashed, and Rarity whipped her head to the side, firing a series of lasers. They collided against the wall, scorching her cutie mark into being.

“There!” Rarity said, breathless. “How’s that?”

Rainbow shrugged. “Ehhh, I’ve seen better.”

“Uh! Do you have no appreciation for the arts?” Rarity grabbed one of Rainbow’s wings in her magic and jerked it about.

“Wha—Hey! Let go!”

Rainbow fought to stay airborne, and in a fit of desperation, spat on Rarity’s face. Her concentration broke, and Rainbow shot upwards.

“RAINBOW DASH! That was disgusting!”

Rainbow only laughed as she dove towards Rarity, a multicolored contrail streaking behind her as she spiraled towards the ground. She turned her wings up at the last second and broke to a sudden stop, sending a gale of wind slamming into Rarity; and, unintentionally, Applejack, flipping her couch over.

“Dagnabbit, Rainbow, that hurt!” Applejack picked herself up and glowered at the pegasus.

“It’s not my fault you’re such a wimp!”

“Oh, I’m a wimp?!”

Applejack galloped forward, jumped, and kicked off Rarity’s head with supernatural force, using her as a springboard and sending her straight into the cave floor.

“Gah! Why am I friends with such ruffians?”

As Rainbow Dash and Applejack locked with each other midair and tumbled to the ground in a wrestle of hooves and fur, and Rarity ran after them with several couch cushions in her telekinesis, Fluttershy joined Pinkie on her couch.

“They certainly know how to keep things lively, don’t they?”

“Mmhmm! That’s why they’re such great friends!” Pinkie held her meal towards Fluttershy. “Want some ice cream?”

As anyone who knew Pinkie would expect, it was excellent ice cream.

Eighteen - Trigger

Eighteen - Trigger

Sunset’s horn worked furiously as she circled the entrance to Discord’s hidden caves. Twilight had proposed that they install defenses, and everypony had seemed to think it a good idea, so she had enlisted Sunset and Starlight to help. As Sunset finished her final touches on a misdirection enchantment (not that it would do much good if the changelings were actively looking for them, but still), she noticed something awry in the passive alarm spell. It was a minor mistake, but a big problem, because the majority of the defenses were wired up to the alarm.

“Hey, Glimmer!”

Starlight trotted over with a huff. “What?”

“I think you forgot to specify a trigger release radius on your alarm spell here.”

“Unlikely.” Starlight’s horn igniting as she sifted through the defenses they had installed, and her eyes started to tick with ire. “I didn’t even cast this spell, dolt. What, you find a mistake and just assume that it has to be my fault?”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Well, excuse me for not thinking it was the alicorn princess’s mistake!”

Starlight’s horn dimmed, and she turned to face Sunset with slanted eyebrows. “Oh, believe me, I’m just as surprised as you are that you managed to find something she missed.”

“Celestia, what is your problem?”

“MY problem?!” Starlight threw out a hoof belligerently. “You’re the one who’s treating me like I’m incompetent!”

“I don’t think you’re incompetent. Just a bit of a bitch, to be honest.”

“Because you’ve been so nice to me since the moment you woke me up, huh?”

Sunset clenched her jaw. “Alright, so I was a bit curt then, but given the circumstances, I think I had the right.”

“I’m not talking about just then! You’re always acting like I’m worse than everypony else!”

“No, you’re always acting like you’re better than everyone else!”

“GIRLS!”

Sunset and Starlight stopped shouting and turned an impressive shade of white as Twilight Sparkle approached them, wings flared, jaw set, eyes narrow, and ears pointed.

“I know you’re both still learning about friendship, but I expected better. From both of you.”

The pair looked down, silent.

Twilight sighed and turned away. “While you two were busy yelling at each other, I finished all the other spells and hooked them up to the alarm. We can head back now.” As they each lifted a hoof to follow, Twilight’s head whipped around. “After you two talk this out. You’re both good ponies, and I don’t see any reason why you two can’t reconcile your differences.”

And with that, Twilight left them to themselves.

After a good bit of sitting there twiddling their metaphorical thumbs, Starlight spoke up. “Well, you heard what she said. I’ve never been good at making friends with ponies. I tend to be a bit… controlling, at times.”

“And even if I didn’t like you, I shouldn’t have been so rude.” Sunset said flatly. “Sorry, by the way.”

“Same. I… Is this the part where we say we’re going to start over?”

Sunset let out a long breath. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned about friendship, it’s that starting over’s never so easy.”

“Really? I’ve found that ponies can be awfully forgiving.”

“And you haven’t done what I’ve done.”

“I—” Starlight wanted to say something about how it was the other way around, that nothing Sunset could have possibly done could come close to her own past sins. But the look in the mare’s eye… “Let’s not talk about the past.”

Sunset smiled. “Well, there’s one thing we can agree on. I guess it’s something.” She looked away. “But, my point is that we can’t start over. Nobody can. That’s not how the world works. The only thing we can do is try to climb back up, one step at a time.

“I’m going to be honest, I don’t think we’ll ever be friends. I know that’s what Twilight wants for us—saying she’s a bit of an idealist is like saying I’m just a little cynical—but, realistically? Let’s just focus on not actively hating each other for now.”

Starlight looked almost impressed. “You’re a lot more mature than I thought. Sure, let’s do it. Acquaintances?”

“Acquaintances.”

Chrysalis smirked as Traxx’s report came through. She watched through his eyes as the three ponies walk back into the cave, and cackled for at least a minute.

“Found you!”

The lives of Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie were not exactly what most would consider normal, but the last few days had been particularly peculiar. Getting trapped in another dimension as an unfamiliar species under the looming threat of a maniacal horse-bug queen wasn’t something that any of them had been expecting, even with their bizarre amount of experience with magic, monsters, and anthropomorphization. So, whenever their hectic lives allowed it, they enjoyed to indulge in a bit of casual cards between the five of them, talking about current events, griping about life and the universe, and pondering the dreary looking future. It was a way to vent, of sorts. As Twilight, Sunset, and Starlight were busy, and Spike had decided to lounge in the lounge with some of his Ponyville friends, they found themselves with a perfect opportunity.

Their last card game had been tragically cut short by the sudden arrival of Sunset and the rest of the ponies that had teleported with her out of Friendship Castle, so they were eager to start another one before their next magic training session. There had been a group effort of ten minutes to recover all the cards (they never did find the four of clubs, unfortunately), and Rarity had suggested the much tamer sport of Go Fish, as she would rather not have Applejack and Rainbow Dash get into another fight.

“Yo, Rares, got any eights?”

“Afraid not, dear.”

Rainbow huffed, took a card from the pile, and huffed even louder. “Man, I have the worst luck in this game.”

As Pinkie asked Applejack for jacks, winning a pair, she spoke up. “Do you all ever think about how we’re going to explain this to our parents? Because that’s what I’m worried about. They’ll ground me for forever if they find out I’m skipping school to save the world! Fluttershy, any threes?”

Fluttershy shook her head.

“For the skippin’ school part, or the savin’ the world part? An’ gimme your tens, RD.”

“Ha! Go fish!”

“Both!” Pinkie exclaimed. “They’re the worst! All they care about is rocks! And not even parties about rocks! Only ROCKS!”

“Pinkie, would you be a dear and pass me your kings?”

Pinkie forked over a couple cards, and Rarity smirked as she lay down her quartet of cards. “I must admit, I do worry about my family, too. Sweetie Belle can manage on her own, but she must be worried sick. Applejack, might you have any sixes? Well, assuming the changelings didn’t get to her, that is.”

“Go fish. I’m awfully worried ‘bout Applebloom myself, not to mention how Granny’s gunna be madder than a horse after a whippin’ when I get back… and Big Mac’s gunna be ticked, too, havin’ to do all my chores…” Applejack let out a breath she’d been keeping back for far too long.

“Applejack, do you have any tens?” Fluttershy asked, almost silently.

“Aw, shucks, you know I do…”

“Thank you… Pinkie, can I have your jacks, please?”

“Aww, I was so close!”

Fluttershy talked idly as she inspected her hand and the board, setting her books of tens and jacks down. “I don’t really think my family will mind too much. Well, they probably would, because of the danger and all… but I don’t think they’d be able to find the courage to say anything about it or try to stop me. Rainbow, do you have any eights?”

Rainbow grumbled as she handed her card over, and gawked as Fluttershy produced three more from her hand, pushing her into the lead. “Damn, Fluttershy, you’ve had one hell of a turn.”

She blushed. “Oh, it’s nothing really. I just have lots of luck and a good memory.” Her luck ended when she asked Rarity for nines, though. “I’m more worried about that human Chrysalis,” she said, drawing a card from the deck.

Rarity cocked her head. “Why? She’s on our side, is she not?”

Rainbow let out another frustrated grunt at Pinkie’s upsetting lack of fours.

“But she works for the government. I don’t want to be taken away for testing…”

“Don’t be silly, Fluttershy! She’s not going to take us away from our friends and families just because we have some magical powers!” Pinkie smiled at Rarity. “Sixes!”

Rarity grudgingly handed over her pair of sixes, and Pinkie set the four cards down next to her collection of twos, tying herself with Rarity.

“Pinkie, you clearly haven’t seen the same alien movies I have,” Rainbow said, after she smugly told Applejack that she didn’t have any queens. “The government doesn’t care what it takes to secure the safety of the country.”

Rarity hummed. “Well, Bon Bon is our friend, right? Surely, Chrysalis will listen to us if we have her backing us up. And, Applejack, I’ll relieve you of those queens.”

Rarity grimaced as Applejack handed her a single queen. That put her up to three; a very dangerous position to be in.

“Are we really her friend?” Applejack asked, getting a little hot under her hat. “She’s been lyin’ to us ever since we met ‘er!”

“She did have a good reason,” Fluttershy pointed out. “And, if you don’t mind, Rarity, um…”

“The queens?” she said flatly.

Fluttershy nodded.

“I thought as much. Well, I do mind, but it is the rules.”

Fluttershy apologized sweetly as she set down her fourth book in two turns. Her master plans were foiled, however, when Pinkie lacked nines. “I wonder if Lyra knows about her job,” Fluttershy said.

“Probably,” Rainbow reasoned. “They’re best friends. Hey, AJ, got any fours?”

Applejack was too busy staring to worry about the game. “Rainbow, you’re pullin’ my leg, right?”

“What? About them being best friends? They say that all the time! Now do you have any fours or not?”

“I—go fish, but Rainbow…”

“Urg, what?”

“They’re datin’.”

Rainbow’s mouth dropped open. “They’re gay?!”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “Not to be rude, but… out of anybody to not know that, I’m, um, surprised it’s you.”

“It’s not like we’re a hivemind or something! How was I supposed to know?” Rainbow protested.

“They’re not very subtle about it, darling. Honestly, Rainbow; I know you don’t always play with a full deck, but this is a tad of a stretch.”

“She’s not playing with a full deck right now!” Pinkie exclaimed happily. “Literally! You keep asking for fours, but we lost one of the fours before we started the game!” Pinkie giggled.

Rainbow’s brow furrowed as she stared at her hand—three fours, and a nine.

She mumbled something about needing to use the bathroom and left, leaving her friends to stifle their laughter.

A few minutes later, their game on pause, they heard a high pitched scream from the direction Rainbow had gone. The five of them were up and galloping to the bathroom (or, well, one of the bathrooms) in seconds. When they reached it, Twilight, Sunset, and Starlight were already there.

“Twilight!” Applejack called. “Is Dash alright?”

“We don’t know,” Sunset answered, somewhat more hurried than usual. “The door’s locked.”

“Sunset, dear. While your respect for Rainbow’s privacy is admirable, I think a scream takes precedent.”

“Exactly.” Starlight smirked and blasted the door off its hinges.

Rainbow was just starting to stand up as they entered, hissing in pain and clutching her head.

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked, examining the pegasus for injuries.

“Yeah, I’m good. I just fell.”

“I know exactly how you feel,” Pinkie said. “Was it soap? It’s always soap for me. Marble always leaves soap lying around on the bathroom floor, which is very irresponsible of her, but sometimes I think she does on purpose because a lot of the time there are multiple bars of soap lying there and sometimes they’re hidden under a towel, which could still be an accident I guess but is a lot more suspicious, you know?”

“Yeah, no, it was just water.”

Pinkie shrugged.

“With all that screamin’ ya did, I expected something a bit more scary, Rainbow,” Applejack said.

“I don’t know,” Fluttershy mumbled, “falling can be scary. Water too.”

“Not scary enough t’ scream like a banshee caught naked in the shower.”

“I met a banshee once,” Twilight interjected. “They don’t take showers, though.”

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Of course you have.”

Starlight turned her body down the hall, and her neck around to face the others. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay. We got the alarm working and everything, so you all can sleep easy tonight. Bye.”

And with that, the ponies dispersed.

Yet as Starlight was trotting away, she felt a sharp yank on her tail.

“Ow! Who—Sunset, I thought we were—” she stopped when she saw Sunset’s eyes; wide and fearful.

“Starlight. We forgot to fix the alarm spell.”

The two unicorns quickly teleported back to the cave’s entrance, and tapped into the alarm’s spell matrix even quicker.

“Urg—I can fix the error, but we won’t know if it triggered!” Starlight all but whined.

“But the initial trigger was set!”

“Yes, I know. The problem was with the release.”

“Yeah, but that’s good!”

“How?!” Starlight was already starting to hyperventilate.

“Listen,” Sunset explained, delicately balancing speed and calmness, “the initial trigger was in place, so anything that passed through the radius would have tripped it. It just wouldn’t have gone through with the signal. You just need some way to retroactively set the release; the spell should remember if it was tripped or not.”

Starlight paused, a smile sprouting from her lips. “It’s even simpler than that! If I can alter the trigger timer to our horns from instant to constant, it should—”

She was cut off by flashing lights and a siren’s wail from both her and Sunset’s horn.

For once in their time together, the two acted in perfect concordance:

“Buck. Us.”

Intermission F

Intermission F

In an abandoned railway station below Canterlot, a massive portal ripped into existence at Twilight’s feet, and she and her companions fell yelping into it. The students in the other parts of the subway erupted into panic, screaming and running away from the portal, shouting things like “Not again!” and “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with horses!” Under the cover of confusion, three more girls dropping into the dimensional rift went unnoticed.

The sirens, enjoying the luxury of planning where they wanted to fall, managed to secure a position in the canopy of one of the large trees the portal had opened over. The branches were thick and leafy and high enough off the ground that the trio couldn’t see any more than faint glimpses of the humans below them—perfect.

“Do you feel that, girls?” Adagio whispered. She braced one hand against the trunk of the tree, and swept her other through the air in front of her. “I had almost forgotten what a real magical atmosphere felt like.”

Aria was examining her hands, looking thoroughly pissed. “Just our luck. We’re finally back in Equestria, but we’re still stuck in these useless bodies.”

“I wouldn’t call them useless!” Sonata said. “Fingers are really good for stuff! Like holding a microphone! I wonder if they’ve invented microphones over here yet?”

“Sonata, we didn’t even use the microphones. We only had them so we wouldn’t look suspicious.”

“Quiet!” Adagio hissed. “If they find out we’re here before we get our magic back, we’re through!”

Aria dutifully lowered her voice, but not its bitter edge. “And how exactly are we getting our magic back? I’m sure you haven’t forgotten about, you know, our broken resonators!” She prodded Adagio in her chest, right where the throbbing pain of the missing organ resided.

“Obviously, we’ll have to get some new ones.”

Sonata retched. “You… you mean from other sirens?”

Adagio rolled her eyes. “Duh, where else?”

“We’re already exiles. May as well,” Aria droned.

“But that’s disgusting!”

“Look, Sonata,” Adagio sneered, “sometimes you need to be disgusting to survive. How much longer do you think we can last before we starve?”

Sonata gulped. Adagio was right. They hadn’t eaten in months—how much longer did they have? Weeks? Days?

Her stomach said hours.

Adagio didn’t bother waiting for her to respond. “Look,” she ordered, pointing to Mount Canterlot off in the distance. “There’s Oratorio. Let’s get going.”

And moments later, when a grappling hook wrapped itself around a branch below them, any protests the others might have had died on their lips as they hopped quickly along the blanket of trees and out of the Everfree.

The seven humans groaned, picked themselves up, brushed themselves off, and spit the dirt from their mouths. Twilight managed to retain the presence of mind to remember to close her locket, and the swirling portal of energy that was nearly obscured by the many branches and leaves above closed with a flash.

Sweetie Drops was the first to speak. “Twilight, what the hell were you thinking?” Her voice had a murderous lilt to it.

“Woah there babe,” Lyra muttered.

“I told you not to test it when we were all there!”

“Everything should’ve been controlled! I just didn’t understand how much magic Queen Chrysalis had!”

“Hasn’t anybody ever told you that you shouldn’t mess around with things you don’t understand?!”

Immediately, Twilight tensed, her hands clenching into fists.

“Now, Bon Bon,” Celestia said with her teacher voice, “You can’t blame all of this on Twilight.”

“Especially not when it’s all your fault!” Velvet accused.

Celestia blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Do you even know the first thing about running a school? If you had been better principals, we’d still be on Earth!”

Luna stepped forward with a vengeance. “We’re doing the best we can, lady! If aliens started randomly attacking your school, what would you do?”

“This isn’t about me!”

“I have to agree with my sister,” Celestia said, keeping her composure. If there was anything in life she had experience dealing with, it was angry parents. “We did the best we could considering the circumstances.”

“I disagree,” Chrysalis said. “If you had been more cooperative earlier on, we could have avoided the attack altogether.”

“And our students would’ve been shipped off somewhere, too,” Luna spat.

“Who do you think I am, a kidnapper?”

“Well, maybe!”

A few feet away, Twilight threw her hands in the air. “I made a mistake, okay! I don’t like it any better than you do!”

Bon Bon glared. “I’m not sure I want to let you hold that thing if you can’t control it.”

“It’s our only way back home, and I’m the most qualified to use it.”

“Are sure?” Sweetie’s voice was nasty. “Or is that another thing you don’t understand?”

“When we get back, I’m taking this to the school board!” Velvet yelled.

Celestia sighed. “Misses Velvet, you’re overreacting.”

“Overreacting? Really? We’re stuck in another fuc—fudging dimension!”

Celestia smiled unbelievably passive-aggressively. “Really? I didn’t notice.”

Meanwhile, Luna and Chrysalis were locked in a staring contest.

“I know what’s best for my students.”

“I know what’s best for my country.”

“Cutting off another world full of abundant natural resources that Earth is in desperate need of?”

“Look…

“If you weren’t so stubborn—”

“If you weren’t so incompetent—”

“If you weren’t so reckless—”

“—None of this would have happened!”

“You don’t know what you’re saying!”

“You’re blowing this way out of proportion.”

“I already said I’m sorry!”

“Oh my god.” Lyra took a deep breath. “SHUT UP!”

Six faces turned to look at her.

“This is stupid,” she said, as if that solved everything. When it didn’t, she sighed, and continued.

“Look, I shouldn’t have to say all this, but…” Another sigh. She turned to Sweetie Drops and Twilight. “Babe, I understand where your coming from here; I’m hella pissed at Sparkle too.”

“Hey!”

“But it was an honest mistake, and yelling at her isn’t going to help her get us back, so I think it’d be cool if you could turn off the prepare-to-die stare and stuff?”

Bon Bon met Lyra’s eyes for a few seconds, and then started to take deep breaths.

“K.” Lyra turned to Velvet. “Look, Twilight’s mom, you just seem frustrated at circumstances and are taking it out on Celestia. Who, well, is a pretty shit principal, but at least she tries. You’re just bitching.”

Both woman could only look at her with open mouths.

“And, you two…” she looked towards Chrysalis and Luna. “Look, man, I’m not going to pretend to know a lot about politics or whatever you’re talking about, but could it wait until we’re not in a spooky forest with no idea where we are?”

“I… suppose,” Luna said.

“Cool. Now, are we going to get out of here or what?”

“We need to find shelter ASAP,” Twilight stated, eager to move on. “Who knows what kind of horrible Equestrian monsters live here?”

“On it.” Sweetie Drops lifted her arm above her head and shot out her grappling hook; it snaked around one of the thicker branches in sight. She pulled a bit on the rope to make sure it was secured and then folded herself around it, slowly reeling it up towards the canopy. When she reached the length of the rope, she detached the hook and ascended branch by branch, quickly vanishing behind the mess of leaves. She left the group in suspense for almost three minutes before dropping the twenty feet back to the ground, sticking the landing in a perfect crouch and almost giving Velvet a heart attack.

“Careful!” she chastised. “You could hurt yourself!”

“See anything?” Chrysalis asked, ignoring Velvet entirely.

“There’s a castle close to here. Two, actually; one’s by a small village, but we’ll reach the isolated one first. There’s a third castle on a mountain a few miles from us, but it’s too far to walk. Nothing else of note, but I may have missed something in the dark.”

“Three castles?” Celestia shook her head. “This really is straight from a fairy tale.”

Lyra laughed. “Yeah, next there’s going to be talking animals and shit.”

Twilight debated whether the not-so-obvious was worth bringing up as the group started walking. She was confidant that she was the only one with any substantial knowledge of Equestria, assuming Chrysalis or Bon Bon hadn’t encountered it before in their line of work. It would probably be helpful for her to give some background, but it wasn’t like she was an expert. She didn’t want to give them faulty information.

Also, she wasn’t too sure they’d even believe her. If Sunset hadn’t been so straight-faced and somber whenever she had talked about Equestria, Twilight probably would’ve questioned her, too.

“This place is already giving me the creeps,” Velvet whined, scanning the dreary forest around them. “I can’t wait to get back home. Twilight, how long until you can do that portal thing again?”

“I—” Twilight’s words stuck in her throat. She didn’t want to upset her mother, but… she wasn’t exactly planning on going back. “I don’t know. There’s a lot more magic here than on Earth, but it might still take a few days, unless we encounter a magical creature I can syphon some from.”

Velvet sighed.

“Wait.” Luna stopped dead in her tracks, looking around surreptitiously. Her voice was low. “Do you hear that?”

Everybody stopped talking at once, eyes flicking from shrub to shadow.

“I’m not hearing anything,” Bon Bon muttered, with a practiced muffle.

“I am,” Celestia said. She looked towards Luna; “Whispering?”

Luna nodded.

A few moments passed.

“Yeah, no, I got nothing,” Lyra said. “You sure you’re not going crazy?”

“I swear!” Luna hissed. “It’s faint, but I can hear it. I can’t make out the words.”

“I think it’s the same phrase over and over again,” Celestia added.

Luna turned to the group. “Are none of you hearing this?”

They all shook their heads. Chrysalis crossed her arms. “Have you two been getting enough sleep?”

“It’s unlikely for them to both be hallucinating the same thing,” Twilight said. “Given our lack of knowledge about this new world, we shouldn’t disregard it. Although, until we gather more information, it would be wise to—”

“Shh!” Bon Bon said, covering her mouth.

Velvet huffed. “Oh, what now? More ghost sounds?”

A low growl rolled through them, and four slitted yellow eyes appeared in the shadows to their left.

“Okay. Forget I asked.”

Velvet, along with Lyra and the principals, took a few steps back; Chrysalis and Sweetie Drops positioned themselves for battle, Sweetie taking her weapon out from under her jacket; and Twilight leaned forward, curious.

She joined the others in the back once she saw the teeth.

It was understandable; the thing had far too many teeth for one animal. Mainly because it was three animals squished together. The beast had a tiger’s head and forelegs and a goat’s head and hind legs all stuffed onto a burly torso, and its snake-for-a-tail was the icing on the cake. The extremely dangerous and likely poisonous cake.

Celestia stumbled backwards. “What on Earth is that thing?”

“Wrong question,” Chrysalis said, pulling her gun. “We’re not dealing with Earth anymore.”

“I think that’s a chimera!” Twilight yelled over its roar. “But chimeras are supposed to have a lion’s head, not a tiger’s!”

“I don’t think it cares!” Lyra shouted back.

The monster leapt.

Chrysalis shot, and muttered a quick “Shit” as the monster didn’t even flinch when the bullet struck. She managed to roll away from a swipe of its claws, but it twirled around to face her.

Sweetie Drops lunged in from behind, thrusting Devil’s Tongue into the tiger-part of its hide. The blade was soaked with blood as she withdrew it, but the chimera recovered quickly, and its tail snapped at her arm. Fortunately, Sweetie had been concealing her medical kit in the part of the sleeve it bit into, and no amount of poison could break through solid metal. Bon Bon jumped back and rolled a small orb from her jacket cuff into her hand; she threw it at the snake and it exploded with a flash, causing the tail to hiss and reel back.

Chrysalis was managing to dodge the chimera’s attacks, but couldn’t sneak in even a small jab. She was far too close to use her gun—if she tried, she’d no doubt be gored. In order to deal any damage she’d need a sharp hit to one of its eyes, but somehow without losing her hand in the process.

But just as Chrysalis resigned herself to retreat, a small, blue-feathered dart sprouted from the side of the chimera; its six eyes clouded, and it dropped to the ground with a thump. Chrysalis wasted no time in placing her revolver against the thing’s head (the tiger one) and shooting open its skull. No sense in risking it waking up.

A rustling came from the bushes next to them, and Chrysalis and Sweetie Drops again raised their weapons, but when the saw what came out, they lowered them again.

It was a zebra, but no ordinary zebra. Her anatomy was all wrong, for one, and she also wore jewelry—large golden hoop earrings and golden ornaments around her neck and one of her legs. She was plastered with foul-looking paste.

“Was it you who helped us?” Sweetie asked.

The zebra nodded. “Nopony deserves to be acquainted with a chimera’s fang. You are lucky your weapon makes such a bang.” She looked them over. “Although, it seems I forgot; pony you most certainly are not.”

“Holy shit a talking zebra,” Lyra said, wide-eyed.

“Why is it rhyming?” Celestia whispered to Luna. She could only shrug.

“Hello there!” Twilight said diplomatically. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, a human, and you are?”

The zebra took a step back, a frightful look in her eyes, before calming down. “…Zecora is the most common of my names. Were it not for your form, I would suspect one of the changelings’ games.”

Twilight blinked. “Oh, right. This probably looks super suspicious. See, we’re from a parallel universe, and I’m the Twilight Sparkle from over there. We accidentally crossed over because of Queen Chrysalis’s interference.”

Zecora looked the group up and down, her eyes lingering on the human Chrysalis for a time. “However far fetched, your claim appears true”—she produced a bottle of the weird paste she was wearing from… somewhere—“but just to be sure, I wish to see this elixir on you. It reveals even the best disguises, and makes sure there are no nasty surprises.”

Twilight took the jar from Zecora, sniffed it, and gagged. Reluctantly, she applied some of it to her arms and passed it on to Bon Bon behind her. Soon, she was enveloped in a cool blue light, and Zecora smiled in satisfaction.

“It is unlucky you arrived when you did, for now the downfall of Equestria you are amid. It may be that you already know, but the entire country is under the Queen’s control.”

“Is it really that bad?” Chrysalis asked. “Our dimension was only first invaded a few days ago.”

“Time isn’t necessarily consistent across dimensions,” Twilight offered. “We have no way of knowing.”

Zecora sighed. “Despite the best efforts of the crown, it took but a day for our lives to turn upside down. It is thanks to my life of seclusion that I have not met a morbid resolution; yet, despite my best efforts to think of a solution, there are not enough ponies left for a proper revolution.” She paused, seeming to eye Sweetie’s blade. “Though, perhaps with a bit of persistence, we may be able to form something of a resistance.”

“Maybe later,” Luna said. “Right now we just need a place to stay. Do you live in that castle close to here?”

Zecora shook her head. “I live in a hut too humble for a group of eight. The castle you shall much more appreciate.”

“Alright, I gotta ask,” Lyra said, narrowing her eyes at the zebra, “why are you always rhyming?”

Zecora’s face darkened quicker than a light switch. “To speak eternally in verse: all who enter this forest end up with such a curse.”

Velvet shrieked. “I knew this place was horrible!”

“Please tell me you’re kidding,” Celestia pleaded.

Abruptly, Zecora burst out laughing. “Oh, the looks on your faces! Come, friends, we must be going places.”

Hours Later

The Lost City of Oratorio lay on the peak of Mount Canterlot in dusty ruins. Time had reduced the titanic meeting halls and monolithic ritual-sites of its former glory to rubble and debris; the High Muses’ Residence, previously more opulent and regal than Canterlot Palace itself, was now a husk of dull grey stones, and the spiraling adornments of Tritone’s Precipice, the site of the constant blanketing of influence across Equestria, were unrecognizable.

Adagio, Aria, and Sonata looked at it all with a melting pot of emotions. It wasn’t their home—not anymore. They may have once known the sirens that once lived in the dilapidated square houses—but they had never been on good terms. They may have cared about the fate of their species—if they hadn’t been given countless centuries to nurture their hatred towards them. Yet the sight of the city in ruins wasn’t what they’d call heartwarming, either.

“Wow, this place is a mess,” Sonata observed.

Aria laughed, almost. “Someone finally busted their little operation, huh?”

“It probably wasn’t long after we were exiled,” Adagio said, examining the ruins.

“The first time or the second time?” Aria wasn’t actually interested in the answer; she was just being snarky. Which was good, because Adagio didn’t care enough to respond.

“So, any bets on who did ‘em in?” Sonata chirped.

“I’d say the ponies,” Adagio said. “Their xenophobia was world-renowned.”

“Coulda been the windigoes,” Aria mused. “Competition for food and all that jazz.”

“I bet it was the changelings! They eat love or whatever, but we were making hate, so that’d make them hate us!”

“Please,” scoffed Aria. “Queen Silky’s a complete pushover.”

“Yeah, but what if she died? Her daughter Cocoon or whatever seemed like a real bitch.”

“It doesn’t matter what happened to them,” Adagio stressed. “We came here for one thing, and its only easier with them all dead. Time for some good, old fashioned grave robbing.”

Her villainous cackle would’ve made Chrysalis blush.

Author's Note

When the sirens are in their natural forms, their 'gems' are literally set into their chests. That's why I decided to turn them into pseudo-organs (even though that doesn't really make too much sense with the whole necklace thing). Just in case anyone was wondering.

Also, Zecora is both my favorite and least favorite character to write for.

Twenty - Crash and Burn (2)

Twenty - Crash and Burn (2)

“Well, if Bon Bon’s not coming back, then who’s going to complete the pyramid?”

“I don’t know!” Spike threw his hands in the air. “We don’t have any more ponies!”

“Sure we do!” Minuette snarled. “They just hate fun!”

Spoiled Rich scoffed. “If you think for one second that any member of my family would participate in your disgusting shows of idiocy—”

“Oh, stuff it!” Sassaflash yelled from the top of the inverted pyramid. “It’s not like you’re doing anything better! Ever since I got here you’ve just been insulting other ponies and trying to look pretty! Add in mooching off of your husband’s success and it’s like we’re back in bucking Ponyville!”

“You have no right to be talking to my wife like that! You’re just some ragtag weatherpony!”

“I think we all need to stay calm,” Amethyst Star said. “Spike can do it.”

“That’s preposterous!” Time Turner protested. “His difference in size would create a horrific asymmetry to our masterpiece. It must be a pony—preferably fully grown—or else the whole thing will be for nothing!”

Just then, Sunset walked into the room, the elements closely following.

Spike instantly perked up. “Hey, Twilight! What are you guys doing here?”

“Oh, nothing,” Twilight said. She spied the pyramid. “Just a bit of bowling, apparently.”

“Uh, the bowling alley’s a few doors down—” Spike stopped as Twilight brushed past him, seized one of the forgotten couches in her magic, and hurled it at the center of the tower. The ponies yelped and shrieked as they rained to the ground, and Spike was thankful they had thought to lay out the pillows beforehand.

“Twilight, what are you do—Ah!”

Spike jumped back from a laser beam fired from… Applejack?

“Ch-ch-changelings!” he screamed, pointing a shaky claw at his ‘friends’, and the room erupted into chaos.

“The weapons! Get the weapons!”

“Where did we put them?”

“Look under the couches!”

“Who put them under the couches?!”

“Time’s flameless fireworks! Grab them!”

“Oh, dear, I hadn’t the time to engineer more of them—”

“Found the pitchforks!”

“Pass me one!”

In a matter of seconds, the lounge had become a war zone. Most ponies had taken up arms—knives, spears, sledgehammers and the like—and were rushing the changelings. With a few well-timed flameless firework-bombs, a zealous pony’s luck, a couple well-aimed laser beams, and the bestial presence that was Bulk Biceps, the seven changelings were quickly downed. But before the group of ponies could celebrate, twice as many flooded into the room, hissing and buzzing and shining their horns menacingly.

The fighting was disorganized and messy. Ponies and changelings would lock in one-on-one skirmishes until one of them landed a lucky shot or another combatant stepped in. The changelings kept trickling into the room, but despite their lack of numbers, the ponies were managing to hold their own against the invading forces.

Spike was implementing the age-old strategy of ‘Running’, ducking and weaving between the changeling ranks as fast as his legs would carry him and generally causing distractions that his allies were quick to capitalize on.

Due to the work ethic of Rainbow Dash (more specifically, the lack of it), many of the Ponyville weather ponies were accustomed to chasing her around all the time; seeing as how she was the fastest pony in Equestria, this meant that the Ponyville pegasi were somewhat notorious for having inequine endurance rates. They were easily able to both evade incoming laser beams and drop payloads of flameless fireworks into the crowd.

And Bulk Biceps was another story altogether. The changelings had given up firing lasers at him once they quickly realized they were having no effect, and were instead trying their best to stay out of his way. He bellowed as he cleaved through the swarm of changelings, and a small posse of earth ponies toting pointy farming equipment followed in his unstoppable wake, picking off the dazed changelings that dared to get in his way.

But the changelings weren’t the only side with casualties. The number of unconscious or imprisoned ponies climbed steadily higher throughout the fight; the pegasi might be fast, the earth ponies might be strong, and the unicorns might know how to point their horns and shoot, but the changelings had strength in numbers; numbers about three times as high as the ponies’, it turned out.

Sweetie Drops was in a fight of her own, and was also quite outnumbered. She’d faced worse, though.

She had followed Lyra’s scream as best she could, and it had led her to a horde of thirty or so changelings. She stuck to the shadows as she observed them; they were crowding around a freshly-woven chrysalis, and through its shiny new film, Bon Bon could see the mint of Lyra’s coat. Her breathing grew angry and her muscles tensed, and she retrieved Devil’s Tongue, her trusty two-pronged dagger, from its hiding place. She clenched its hilt tightly in her teeth, the familiar metallic taste more comforting than disgusting, and began her approach.

In battle, unpredictability kills. Every respectable agent knew this by heart, and it was why Sweetie found herself scaling the cavern wall, carefully locating hoof holds and, when there weren’t any, creating some of her own. Before too long, she was above the conglomerate of changelings, and without making another sound, she shot off of the wall and into the crowd with blinding speed.

The changelings had no idea what hit them.

Bon Bon landed on the first one with the full force of her dive, and he crumple below her like an aluminum can. But before the changelings next to him could so much as register what had happened, Bon Bon was upon them, swinging her mana-powered hooves straight through their carapace and severing their throats with swift cuts of her blade. She had dealt with a total of seven changelings by the time the group finally reorganized.

One of the nastiest things about fighting creatures that operate through a hivemind is their lack of verbal communication. In any other scenario, Sweetie would focus down the leader first in order to throw the platoon into disorganization. Unfortunately, with all changelings looking exactly the same and not one audible order, she had no idea where to start punching once the changelings formed their battle formation.

It what a battle formation it was. They whole lot of them took to the skies (an obvious choice against an earth pony); half of them stayed high and back, their horns glistening with love energy, and the other half started rapidly closing in, their limbs transformed into swords, sickles, hammers, axes, maces, and nearly every other weapon you could think of. One of them had even copied her two-pronged blade style, the little toad.

Sweetie braced for battle. The spellcasters were going to cause her the most trouble; a one-on-twelve melee was hard enough without having to dodge lasers, and since she didn’t know how powerful the spells would be, it was too risky to try to tough them out with earth pony magic. Unfortunately, their positioning was smart, and Bon Bon would have some trouble reaching them.

When the first few energy beams came, she shot out of the way, the stone previously under her hooves exploding in a shower of pebbles. Her dagger cleanly decapitated the changeling with sickled hooves, and she landed on the back of the one with swords. He buzzed violently back and forth, but was unable to shake her; seconds later, a poorly thought out laser beam slammed into his barrel, Sweetie Drops long gone.

She reappeared clinging to the cavern wall, behind the ranks of spellcasters. She lunged forward, punching through one changeling’s stomach, and swiftly bucked behind her at another. He managed to put a shield up just in time, however—Sweetie’s hooves hit the energy field with a deafening warble, and she felt the force of her kick spike back into her legs. She grit her teeth and fell to the ground, almost forgetting to brace her body with magic before the impact.

The changeling who had cast the shield spell didn’t fare much better, however; Bon Bon’s buck had been meant to paint him against the far wall, and he had underestimated how much energy blocking it would take. His head pounding, he drunkenly fell to the earth beside the pony.

A pillar of fire blazed into life beside Bon Bon’s head, and she only barely managed to roll out of the way before a stream of changeling silk splattered against the stone. The changeling attempted to teleport away again before Sweetie’s riposte, but she was too quick; Devil’s Tongue was in and out before the first flames started licking at his hooves. The stunned changeling next to her was finished off in the same second, and as the changelings prepared to attack again, Bon Bon retreated to a more empty part of the cavern.

She bit her lip. She needed a plan to down a lot of them at once; maybe if she jumped from the wall to the ceiling and dropped onto—

The changelings had all fired up their horns. Sweetie immediately stopped thinking and acted. She leapt straight upwards just as all the remaining changelings fired shot after shot of silk towards her, and when she reached the peak of her jump, pounded her hind legs against the wall, shooting herself blade-first towards the pack of changelings.

But luck wasn’t on her side. One of the changelings had fired with astounding accuracy, and even against her speed, the wad of silk hit her left hind leg, knocking her off course. Her momentum carried her into a harsh landing, and the silk thoroughly attached her leg to the cave’s floor.

The changelings didn’t waste a second. The ones with augmented limbs buzzed towards her, and the spellcasters waited patiently in the back, hurling laser after laser towards the struggling pony.

Bon Bon could feel the silk give every time she pulled. It was strong, definitely, but she was stronger. She had to be. But the going was slow; too slow to escape unscathed.

That stunt with the silk had apparently taken a lot out of their firepower, though, because she didn’t die outright. The lasers stung like a bitch and she would certainly feel the burns in the morning (assuming morning ever came to Equestria again), but she was able to shrug off the brunt of it. The meleeing changelings didn’t prove too much of a problem either; even with her limited mobility, she was able to kill three that had gotten too close, at the cost of what felt like a million cuts and bruises that snuck past her earth pony magic.

Eventually, though, one of the changelings realized that since she was already stuck, it was the ideal time to get her even more stuck. When Sweetie saw the icky green substance shooting towards her, she knew she had two options: find a way to move again, or say goodbye.

Praying that the changelings would lay off the offense for a tiny bit, she poured every ounce of mana she could scrounge up into her imprisoned hoof. The changelings, however, didn’t listen to her prayers, and she had to suppress a scream as one lodged its fangs into her unprotected withers. It was worth it, though. She pulled her hoof up with all her might—the silk didn’t break, no, but the floor did. A sizable chunk of rock was wrenched up along with her hoof, and she front-handspringed out of the silk’s warpath, punching in the skull of the changeling who’d bitten her. In a few more deft moves, the rest of the weapons-for-legs changelings fell to the floor in disgraceful heaps.

Snarling, she turned to the spellcasters, who were looking rather concerned at the whole ordeal.

A cloud of dust billowed out as Bon Bon rocketed towards them, spinning herself upside-down in the air so her hind legs were facing them. In a series of lighting-quick movements, she wiggled the boulder on her back left leg back and forth and up and down, blocking all the lasers the changelings fired faster than their eyes could follow. Soon, she was on them—a few punches there, a kick there, two swipes of her neck, and a final throw of her knife into the last changeling’s throat, and she fell to the ground, victorious.

There was no time to celebrate, though. She hurried to her dagger, grabbed it in her teeth, and galloped to Lyra. The wound on her shoulder throbbed, but she didn’t even, notice, putting all her focus into freeing Lyra. At long last, when she clambered out of the silken shell, Bon Bon threw herself onto her

“Lyra!” she exclaimed, breathless. “I’m so glad you’re okay! Come on, we have to help the others to—”

Pain erupted in Bon Bon’s stomach. Shakily, she opened her eyes, and looked down. Black blade through her barrel. Alright. Not good. Next item: is Lyra okay? Just before she slipped into unconsciousness, she looked at the changeling she was hugging and guessed no.

Sunset approached the group of ponies in the main room. Applejack was saying something about finding Rainbow.

“Don’t worry, Applejack,” Sunset said. “Already took care of it.”

“Sunset?”

“Yo.”

Starlight raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, ‘took care of it’?”

“I found her captured in the bathroom.”

Rarity frowned at her. “Well, that’s nice, dear, but, uh, where is she?”

“I teleported her somewhere safe. It’d be great if I could teleport the rest of you there, too. You’re too inexperienced to fight these things.”

“Where did you send her?” Twilight asked.

Sunset bit her lip. “I’d say, but… any of you could be changelings.”

“Well, so could you!” Starlight accused. “Out of all of us, you’re the one acting the most suspicious. How do we know you won’t send them straight to Chrysalis?”

“I…” Sunset wanted to argue, but Starlight was right. She smiled nervously. “Trust me?”

Applejack narrowed her eyes.

“Twilight, there wouldn’t happen to be a spell for revealing changelings, would there?” Fluttershy asked.

“There is one I know would decloak a changeling, but it requires overloading their local spell matrices. If this really is Sunset, she wouldn’t be able to use magic again for a few hours, and that would be a huge problem.”

Sunset cringed. “Yeah, let’s not use that.”

Pinkie Pie leaned forward. “Getting defensive now, are we?”

“No, I just—”

Sunset was cut off by a swarm of changelings flooding into the room. Sunset, Twilight and Starlight all ignited their horns. Fluttershy started screaming and running in circles.

“There’s too many!” Sunset shouted. “We have to get them to safety first!”

Twilight grunted, and her horn started dripping shining starbursts. Suddenly, it flashed, sending out a ripple of purple energy. Each changeling it hit froze in place, time-locked within a wavy magical aura.

“Go!”

They did. The tunnel that led directly to the exit was unfortunately the same one the changelings had come from, and Twilight headed the charge through the masses of frozen monsters. Just as Sunset was about to pass through, however, a sound akin to glass shattering filled the air, and the changelings wrestled free of their arcane prisons. They immediately moved to cover the exit, facing down Sunset, as well as Fluttershy and Applejack behind her.

“WE’RE TAKING A DETOUR!” Fluttershy screeched, wrapping her hooves around Sunset and Applejack and flying straight over the walls of changelings faster than any of them thought she could. She flapped through the caves until the changelings were out of sight, and then for what felt like a mile more.

When Bulk Biceps went down, the ponies in the lounge knew they’d lost.

Defeat came in waves: when they started, they had thought they were doing rather well. Yet, as time wore on, it quickly became apparent that they weren’t nearly strong enough to fend off the changelings.

They were, in general, trading one-for-one, with the notable exception of Bulk Biceps, who was racking up a streak in the upper twenties. And in the beginning, that seemed like a good place to be; the changelings were sustaining more casualties than the ponies.

But for every changeling shot down, another took its place. Chrysalis’s army was only a fraction of what it had been—but considering the sheer size of ‘what it had been’, that still meant hundreds of changelings, a good third of which were deployed at the caves or on their way. Even a tenth of them would be enough to surmount the numbers of the ponies in the lounge, and each pony that got hit with a laser or blast of silk made their resistance all the more hopeless.

Spike was captured early on; he might have been fast, but he wasn’t strong enough to seriously injure any changelings. He had managed to singe a few—but that only made them pissed, and ultimately led to his re-imprisonment.

It had taken the collective efforts of ten changelings to down Bulk Biceps, and six of them didn’t live to see it. A shot of silk to his wing grounded him—that changeling was promptly decked—a barrage of laser beams to his face left him dazed—but left the aggressors open to counterattacks from the unicorns—and, finally, a practical waterfall of silk managed to cocoon him for good.

After that, the ponies were down to about five of them against four times as many changelings, and, well, they didn’t last very long, to say the least.

Meanwhile, on Mount Canterlot

“Can’t we take a break?”

“No.”

“But why nooot?”

“Because we have no time to waste! I don’t know about you idiots, but I don’t want to be in this body any longer than I have to.”

“We’d probably already be there by now if you hadn’t shoved me down the fucking mountain.”

“Don’t think I won’t do it again if you don’t shut up!”

“Oh look! A mountain goat! Aww, look, it’s so cute!”

“You’re kidding. That thing’s uglier than Adagio in the mornings.”

“Do you want me to push you down again?”

“And who are you to judge cuteness? You don’t even like puppies!”

“They just slobber all over the place. I don’t know why you think over-salivating is cute.”

“Hear that, Adagio? She doesn’t like puppies!”

“As much as I loath participating in your worthless arguments, I don’t particularly like them either. Except when kicking them.”

“Uh! That’s just cruel!”

“Kinda fits the theme.”

“You can be a monster without being a monster!”

“Ugh, aren’t we there yet? I’m not sure I can take much more of this.”

Adagio peeked her head over the next ledge, smirked, and turned to Aria. “Yes, actually.”

Twenty One - Crash and Burn (3)

Twenty One - Crash and Burn (3)

“Hey, Fluttershy? I think we lost them!” Applejack shouted.

Fluttershy continued her mad flight through the caverns for a few more frantic wingbeats before she registered what Applejack had said. Hesitantly, she set her friends on the ground. “You think so?”

Sunset gazed back the way they’d come. “I think we lost ourselves.”

“Sorry,” Fluttershy murmured. “I guess I overreacted.”

“Naw, ‘Shy. It was good thinkin’ to get us outta there quick.”

Sunset looked around them. More doors. “I walked through here with Discord when we first got here. I… think it’s this way.” Sunset trotted forward a bit and turned right.

A group of five ponies that Sunset recognized from the lounge nearly bumped into her. Sunset wheeled back in surprise, then settled a good ten feet from the mares, looking at them scrutinously.

“Oh, hi! Sunset, right? We’re a bit lost.” Golden Harvest giggled bashfully.

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Oh, give it up. You’re not fooling anyone.”

The ponies erupted in a flash of light, and Sunset suddenly found five changelings hissing at her simultaneously.

“How’d you know?” Fluttershy asked.

“Didn’t.” Sunset shrugged. “ ‘Always assume the worst’ is a saying for a reason.”

Meanwhile, Applejack pushed onto her back legs and spun her front ones in enthusiastic circles. “Yeehaw! Time to put mah new skills to the test!”

Sunset sighed. “Applejack, you’ve been a pony for, like, a day. And there’s five of them.”

Applejack either didn’t hear or didn’t care, for she charged forward like charging forward was going out of style. She leapt towards the changelings—

And slammed straight into an energy shield. Sunset neatly parried the follow-up laser with a shield of her own and levitated Applejack back towards Fluttershy, who was trying to use her mane as a blindfold, where Applejack began to cuss out the changelings with an impressive string of southern euphemisms.

Sunset surrounded her friends in a thick bubble shield (it wasn’t her specialty, but it would do) and reached out with her magic, wrapping it tightly around the five changelings. They struggled, fighting against her grip both physically and mentally, but her magic was much stronger than theirs, and their movements slowly ceased. Applejack watched in awe as Sunset’s cutie mark began to… well, she didn’t want to be cheesy, but shimmer was a pretty good word for it. It shone dully in rhythmic pulses, and Sunset herself seemed to become more vibrant, her mane flowing in a nonexistent wind. A few seconds later, the changelings collapsed to the ground, still as stones.

When Sunset dispelled the shield, her mane and tail dropped back into gravity’s domain, and her cutie mark returned to normal.

“Wha…” Applejack just stared for a second. “Was that your ‘special talent’ whatsit?”

Sunset nodded. “Fire magic. I absorbed the heat from their bodies.”

Fluttershy shuddered. “That sounds horrible, Sunset.”

“I don’t like it any more than you do, but if we leave them alive, we’re just going to have to fight them again somewhere down the line. Besides, it’s not the worst way to die. Their bodies go numb before the pain really sets in. I’d take it over being an unconscious changeling juicebox until all the love is sucked from your memories.”

Fluttershy shuddered again.

“But let’s not worry about that. Applejack, you saw what happened just now—you’re not ready to fight them. We can’t risk running into any more changelings, so I’m going to teleport you girls to where Rainbow is.”

“I mean… I’m not accusing you or anything,” Fluttershy began, “because I really doubt you’re a changeling after… that.” She gulped. “But where exactly are you sending us?”

“Princess Celestia and Princess Luna lived in a castle in the Everfree Forest before Canterlot was built. Celestia and I used to go there when we wanted to practice more… conspicuous magic. Me burning down Canterlot would’ve been bad for everypony involved. I know Twilight uses its library for research, so it should be stocked with food if Princess Twilight is anything like our Twilight and has over-twenty-four-hour study sessions. And as long as you don’t enter the forest, you should be able to avoid monster attacks.”

“Ahm not sure Ah like all those ‘if’s and ‘should’s.”

“Not like we have a better plan. Besides, Twilight and I and all the rest will catch up with you once we send over Rarity and Pinkie Pie.”

“This won’t… hurt, will it?”

“Not unless something goes horribly wrong.”

Fluttershy started to squirm. “Thanks for that.”

“Brace yourself,” Sunset said, and they were gone.

Twilight, Starlight, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie burst out of the caverns and into the frosty moonlight. Panting, they checked behind them—no changelings. Good.

But then they checked in front of them, and observed quite the opposite.

By a stroke of malignant luck, a massive cloud of changelings—Twilight assumed they were the rest of Chrysalis’s forces in Ponyville—had arrived at the same time they had. The living black blob spread out into a gridded dome of monsters, their yellow eyes assaulting the ponies from all sides.

Twilight didn’t waste a second. Her horn crackled with mana, and an opaque purple shield wove itself around them.

“We’re leaving.” Energy crawled through her body as she prepared a teleport spell powerful enough to take them out of Chrysalis's reach.

She never got a chance to cast it.

An invisible force the weight of a truck crashed onto her back, and she grunted as her legs gave out. Her body dug painfully into the stone below her, but she managed to pivot her head enough to catch a glimpse of Starlight; horn blazing, eyes menacing, mouth pulled back in grim concentration.

“Find Sunset!” Twilight shouted as the magical energy she’d built up spilled out of her horn. It wasn’t a controlled release of mana like a proper spell—her concentration had been broken at possibly the worst moment. It was only thanks to her years of experience that Twilight managed to direct the energy anywhere at all, and even then all she could do was send Pinkie and Rarity twenty yards backwards into the tunnel.

They looked back, obviously weighing helping Twilight and saving themselves.

“GO!” Twilight shouted.

They did. She thanked Celestia that neither Rainbow Dash or Applejack was there to be bullheaded.

As they disappeared into the cave, the pressure on Twilight’s back doubled, and she let out a pained gasp. With her concentration fractured, the barrier around them dissolved, revealing the rest of the changelings waiting and ready just behind it.

Starlight looked her over with a mix of contempt and boredom. “Each time I meet you, you’re incapacitated before the fight even begins. It’s a shame. Fighting a princess would serve as good practice.”

Twilight swam back through her memories. “You were Luna, then, right? Back—” She paused to cough up a bit of blood. “Back at the castle.” Slowly, she started gathering up her mana into her horn. If she were careful, it wouldn’t even start to glow until she used it.

Traxx dropped his disguise (no point to it now) and nodded. “But I don’t have time to chat.”

He charged up his horn with a nasty green color, and a drop of silk plunked to the ground from its tip, an inch from Twilight’s face. She set her teeth—this guy didn’t play around. And he was strong for a changeling. No wonder he was Chrysalis’s second in command.

But, well, Twilight had a genetic advantage.

A while back, upon her incessant nagging, Cadance had agreed to teach Twilight some alicorn-level love magic. And with Twilight’s affinity for arcane law, she was able to twist those concepts around into an original spell specifically designed for changelings.

Twilight thrust the mana she had been collecting towards Traxx fast as a whip, and in the same instant, he fired. Even as a thick coating of silk surrounded Twilight, her spell secured itself around Traxx’s horn, and a faint pink light seeped between the two conduits. The waves of light grew denser and flowed faster as time wore on, and the chrysalis crumbled, the love that tied it together steadily sucked away. As the spell finished, the ball of swirling love that had accumulated around Twilight’s horn threaded together into a pink heart, and Traxx thumped to the floor, starved to death.

The waiting changelings hovered in stunned silence long enough for Twilight to fling the heart of condensed love at one—it struck him in the chest, and he started wobbling back and forth on his wings. He drunkenly spiraled into the ground and started to mumble to himself as he drifted into a blissful unconsciousness.

That jolted the rest of them into action. They bared their fangs and dove for Twilight, who bent down to the ground. Traxx had done a number on her, and she’d used a lot of magic on that love-sucking spell, but she was far from over. With a powerful kick of her hooves and pump of her wings, she shot upwards, far above the crowd. A crackling orb of energy alighted on her horn, and with a swing of her neck, she flung it at the changelings below. They scattered, but not well enough; the ball of energy struck the ground and exploded into a flurry of lightning bolts, each one arcing from changeling to changeling and leaving a trail of electrocuted bodies in its wake.

Realizing their mistake, the changelings that remained—which was most of them, and well over a hundred—fanned out across the sky. They sent of maelstrom of lasers and silk hurtling Twilight’s way, but she quickly encircled herself with a bubble-like shield; every time a blast hit it, it pulsed, and Twilight could feel her horn absorbing the magic. When the barrage ended, she sucked her shield back in, and expelled all of the energy from the changelings’ attacks back at them with a laser large enough to engulf a small house, vaporizing the sorry changelings that weren’t quick enough to move out of its way.

Twilight followed up with a few dozen rapid-fire energy beams, and nearly every one of them hit their mark, excepting those changelings with honed enough reflexes to cast a shield spell in time (which was quite few, all things considered).

She noticed that a group of changelings were beginning to cluster up behind her. She twisted on her wings and prepared to shoot them out of the sky, but she was just a bit too slow; a fireworks of flashing green orbs shot out of the group in every direction, all of them turning towards Twilight. She tucked in her wings and nosedived, but the orbs followed her—one slammed into her side, and she was sent tumbling through the air.

She flared out her wings and caught herself, but the orbs hadn’t stopped. She cast a simple teleport without so much as thinking about it, appearing in the middle of the group of changelings. Her eyes clouded with milky-white arcana as she sent out a powerful magic pulse. The wave of purple energy hit the surrounding changelings like a train, sending them flying towards the ground, random trees, or, for the lucky ones, the horizon.

But to her dismay, the green orbs had yet to give up their pursuit. It wasn’t a spell she had ever seen before, but maybe…

She reached out with her magic, tapping into the spell matrices of the orbs. She smiled—the spell wasn’t very well cast. Just as the flashing missiles were about to collide, she drenched them in a flood of her own mana, imposing her will on the spell, and they shifted from green to purple, u-turning away.

As they found and downed their new targets, Twilight fired off another set of lasers, whittling down the changeling’s numbers to no more than fifty or so. She was going to crash like she had never crashed before after this was over, but if she pushed herself, she would have enough magic to finish the fight.

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” echoed a voice from behind her. It was distorted and warped, and grated against Twilight’s eardrums. She turned, and swore.

Queen Chrysalis was there, and she was pissed. Tar-like energy boiled on the surface of her horn, and her eyes were glowing black.

“DO YOU PONIES DO ANYTHING BESIDES SLAUGHTER MY CHILDREN?!”

“Hey, you brought this on yourself!” Twilight retorted.

“MY HIVE HAS NEVER FACED SUCH A MASSACRE AS YOU CAUSE, YET YOU PAINT ME THE VILLAIN?”

“Yes! If you had just wanted to be friendly, then maybe things would be—”

“DIFFERENT?!” Chrysalis screamed with animal fury. “THINGS ARE NEVER DIFFERENT WITH YOUR KIND! WHENEVER YOU SEE A CHANGELING, YOU SHOW US DEATH, NOT YOUR FALSE FRIENDSHIP! IT’S BEEN THE SAME THING FOR GENERATIONS! AND I’VE HAD IT!”

Dark wisps of energy flowed out of her horn and towards the corpses of changelings strewn about the forest. Twilight watched in revulsion as the magic entered into the broken mouths of their bodies: first, they twitched, spasmed, and convulsed; then, they shambled onto their hooves, and from there took off on their wings, zipping towards Twilight. She charged her horn as she flew backwards, trying her best not to think about what she was fighting, and fired a barrage of lasers at the oncoming swarm. Her shots collided spot-on with each of the reanimated changelings, but instead of knocking them to the ground, they disappeared altogether.

A dull pain thrummed against the back of her eyelids. Glamour. She’d been tricked. But where were the real ones?

Her question was swiftly answered by a changeling above her, who bucked her square in the back. She was sent plummeting, but managed to quickly teleport herself upright, cancelling out her downward momentum. She looked up at the sky to see the undead changelings diving towards her—they were already too close. Cursing, she tried to fire up her horn in time, but she was exhausted. The changeling in the front reached her before she could cast any spells, and whacked her sharply across the horn.

Twilight screamed and clutched at her forehead. It was like stubbing a horn, but a hundred times worse; she felt like the damned thing had been nearly ripped from her head. She didn’t get a chance to recover, however, as another changeling swooped in and bit her wing-bone. Twilight screamed again, but it was cut off when she slammed into the earth, the wind knocked from her lungs.

Twilight bit her tongue to distract from the pain in her wing. She tried to fold it, but quickly regretted doing so with an agonized grunt. She had a headache from magical exhaustion, and a second headache from the hit to her horn. Even thinking of spellcasting made her flinch; hell, thinking at all was a struggle at this point. She wanted to get up—had to get up. But she had no more tricks; what good would it do if she’d just end up back on the ground? So she simply lay there in the dirt, a tree root scratching against her stomach with each labored breath.

“Aw, look at the poor, little princess.” Chrysalis walked up to her and bent down, lifting Twilight’s chin with a hoof. They stared into each other’s eyes with mutual hatred. “No flight, no magic… so helpless.” The way she said the word made Twilight want to shudder, but she wouldn’t give Chrysalis the satisfaction.

Instead, Twilight snarled, summoned her alicorn strength, and punched Chrysalis square in the jaw. Chrysalis’s head snapped to the left, and Twilight smirked. Slowly, it turned back around, and it was redder than Big Mac’s.

“You insolent—rotten—mother-bucking—runt!”

Twilight clenched her eyes shut as Chrysalis punctuated each word with a kick. There was nothing Twilight’s body could do to stop her any longer.

“GRAH!”

A hoof dug into her side one last time, and she was sent flying. She hit something—a tree, judging by snapping of bark—and went straight through it, landing on the ground and sliding another few feet over sharp sticks and rocks that tore at her skin. A second later, she was in the all-to-familiar confines of a chrysalis, and it was over.

Back within the walls of the hideaway, the hoofbeats of Pinkie Pie and Rarity were the only noises to be heard. The sounds of Twilight’s grand battle had faded out after a minute of running, and by now the buzzes of lasers and screeches of changelings were only memories best forgotten.

“I hope she’ll be okay,” Pinkie said, far more mellow than usual.

“She is the princess of magic. I’m sure she can handle herself.” Despite her words, Rarity didn’t sound too sure. “We have to find Sunset as quickly as possible.”

“But she could be anywhere! How are we supposed to—” Pinkie’s body cut her off. First, her eye twitched; then, her front left leg started shaking, followed by a jitter of her tail and an arch of her back.

“Whoa! Freaky!”

“Oh, my. Are you okay?”

“I think so,” Pinkie said, looking quizzically at her body. “But I have this strange hunch that something really confusing is about to happen.”

Rarity shook her head. “I’m not going to try to understand what a magical body does to you, Pinkie. Though, I’m sure Twilight would have a ball examining—oh, is that Sunset?”

Sure enough, Sunset was about six doorways down, walking slowly down an intersecting tunnel.

Pinkie waved her hoof in the air. “SUNSET SHIMMER! OVER HERE!” she called.

“Watch out! She’s not the real Sunset!”

Pinkie and Rarity turned around to face another Sunset. Rarity sighed. “I’ve a feeling your prophecy’s about to come true.”

“Don’t listen to her!” shouted the first Sunset. “Pinkie, Rarity, you have to believe me! Please!”

“She’s trying to trick you!” called the second.

“Pinkie… Rarity…”

They turned yet again, and saw a third Sunset. Rarity covered her mouth in disgust; this one’s coat was spattered with both green and red blood, and a nasty gash streaked down one of her hind legs. She walked with an awkward limp.

“Let me handle this,” she muttered, her horn flaring.

Pinkie Pie and Rarity glanced at each other.

“Wait!” A fourth Sunset raced onto the scene. “You can’t trust anypony! The changelings will do anything to win!”

“Exactly!” shouted the first Sunset. “Don’t trust them!”

“She meant you, dumbass!” the injured Sunset countered.

“They’ve got us outnumbered,” Rarity whispered to Pinkie.

“But what about the real Sunset?” Pinkie whispered back. “She can take them!”

Rarity furrowed her brow. “Wouldn’t the real Sunset have attacked the fake ones by now?”

Pinkie’s eyes widened, and—

“Pinkie! Rarity! Move!”

A quartet of laser beams struck the rock where the two mares had just been. Twenty meters down the tunnel, Pinkie and Rarity tumbled out of one of the side doors.

Rarity looked around, dazed. “Where are…? Pinkie, what did you—”

Pinkie shoved a hoof in her mouth and looked in both directions. To their left, where they had been seconds before, Sunset 5 was fighting Sunsets 1–4, and thoroughly beating them. On their right, a sixth Sunset was approaching.

“Oh no you don’t,” Rarity growled, firing a laser beam at the incoming Sunset. She threw up a shield instantly, and the laser harmlessly dissolved on its surface. Rarity kept her horn ready, though.

“Wait, I’m not a changeling, I swear!”

“Yeah, right!” Pinkie accused. “That’s what they all say!”

“C’mon, Pinkie, hear me out!”

“There’s nothing to hear out,” Sunset 5 said, approaching them. “You threaten my friends, and I’ll give it to you like all the rest of them.” She gestured to the four incapacitated changelings behind her.

Sunset 6 responding by shooting a laser. Rarity leapt back as it whizzed by her head, and let out a scream of “SUNSET!” as it struck the mare in the chest. Sunset 5 groaned on the ground, and, after a twinkle of light, turned into a changeling.

Pinkie rose an eyebrow and cocked her head. “Wait. What?”

Rarity turned to her. “So… you’re the real Sunset?” Sunset 6 nodded. “Why were the changelings fighting each other?”

“I think they were trying to get you to put your guard down. You might be new to being ponies, but I doubt they wanted to risk another upset after all that’s happened. Now, let’s teleport you two somewhere safe before any more craziness happens.”

Rarity sighed in relief. “Oh, thank god. I don’t think I can take much more of this.”

Sunset’s horn ignited, and she smiled toothily. “See you soon!”

Pinkie and Rarity yelped and flailed backwards as a wall of fire burst up between them and Sunset.

“What?!” Sunset screamed, throwing a hoof up against the flames. They flared towards her, and she quickly buzzed backwards on a fresh set of membranous wings.

Pinkie and Rarity watched as the tongues of fire morphed into a fist. It reached out, grabbed the changeling around its middle, and threw it harshly against the far wall. Before it could recover, the fire-hand’s fingers twisted into sharp, lance-like cones of flame; they shot forward, reaching the changeling in a tenth of a second, and speared him through.

Sunset’s audience gaped at her as she trotted forward; the flames died down in tandem with her mane and cutie mark. She was smiling softly.

“After all those years away from Equestria, I had forgotten what a real magic surge felt like.”

“Sunset, that was…” Pinkie gulped and smiled nervously. “Scary.”

Sunset sobered and looked at the changeling’s body. “Yeah. It is. But it’s the magic I’m best at.” She glanced uneasily at her cutie mark. “I was a bad pony when I got my special talent. Fire magic, well… I always did excel at destroying things. Especially other ponies. Still do.”

Rarity looked Sunset over. “ ‘Power is neither good nor bad, it’s how you use it.’ I’m pretty sure I read that somewhere once. And you, Sunset?” Rarity smiled. “Regardless of your rocky past, I’m sure you won’t use your talents to hurt others unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

Sunset’s mouth turned back up in a sad smile. “Thanks.” She lit her horn. “Ask Applejack or Fluttershy where you are once I cast the teleport; I have to catch up with Twilight as soon as possible.”

“She should still be by the entrance,” Pinkie supplied happily. “With a bunch of changelings.”

“Gotcha. Now, brace yourselves.”

Pinkie and Rarity disappeared, carried away by Sunset’s magic. She looked down the tunnel in silence for a minute before taking off at a gallop.

A flash of light dumped Rarity and Pinkie Pie into the middle of The Castle of the Two Sisters.

Voices in another room were arguing. “Rainbow, I’ll tie ya up if I have to! I don’t care what you think, you ain’t goin’ back!”

Rarity stumbled to her hooves and clutched her head. “Well, at least that wasn’t as bad as the portal was.”

“I’m diiiizy,” Pinkie said, wobbling back and forth.

“C’mon, Applejack! I know you want to help too!”

“We just got here and they’re already fighting.” Rarity tutted. “What are we going to do with those two?”

“I want to, but I know that ah can’t, and neither can you! You ain’t goin’!”

Rarity and Pinkie entered the great hall of the castle. It was lit by a series of chandeliers that hung from the absurdly high ceiling, their light illuminating fine yet torn tapestries and fading gold-framed paintings. A decrepit stone balcony flanked a wide red carpet, on which Applejack and Rainbow Dash stood, arguing passionately.

“You don’t know that! What if we can save them?”

“We’d just get in th’ way! You haven’t seen Sunset fight; she took down six of ‘em in not three seconds, while all I did was charge in like some idiot bull and get knocked inta next week!”

“Yeah, well, who says I can’t do better than you?”

“We’re damn near useless in these bodies, Dash. Do you even know how to run properly? We’ll be lucky if we can take on a single changeling in a month!”

Rarity cleared her throat. Applejack and Rainbow turned.

“Pinkie! Rarity!” Rainbow Dash shouted, pulling them into a hug. “I’m so glad you made it!”

“Me too!” Pinkie chirped.

Rainbow released them and flapped over to Applejack. “Can you believe Applecrap over here doesn’t think we have what it takes to fight the changelings?”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “We don’t. You’re confidence’s gunna do you in someday, Dash, but not today.”

“Sorry, Rainbow, but I must concur with Applejack.”

“Aw, c’mon!”

Rarity held out her hoof. “Hear me out, dear. True, we are not able to fight the changelings in our present state. But the fact of the matter is, we can’t resign ourselves to that.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow.

“It is most certainly important to know our own strength; which, sadly, is sorely lacking. However, it is equally important to realize that in order for a happy ending of any sort, we must work towards reaching a point where we are capable of fighting back. So, Rainbow, I’m not saying that you don’t ‘have what it takes’. If we wish to have any chance, we must assume that we do—we simply must concede that we will have to train a good bit more before we reach our full potential.”

“Man,” Pinkie exclaimed, “when you talk all fancy like that, it’s really hard to not believe you.”

Rarity smiled smugly. “Why do you think I do it?”

Presently, Fluttershy entered the room, a plate of sandwiches delicately balanced on her back. She seemed relieved that the shouting battle had died down, and Rarity wondered how long she’d been hiding behind the doorframe, afraid to get involved. “Anyone want some snacks?”

Rainbow’s tongue lolled out her mouth. “Yes! Fluttershy, you’re the best!”

“Oh, I don’t know about that. They’re just cold sandwiches. The kitchen appliances here are just as destroyed as the rest of the castle.” Fluttershy laid the plate on the ground, and Rainbow leapt, only for it to be snatched up by Rarity’s magic.

“We are not eating off the floor. I may be a horse, but I refuse to act like a farm animal.”

Rainbow huffed, but followed Rarity’s aimless march through the castle. (There had to be a intact table or something somewhere, right?) Suddenly, as Rarity turned a corner, Sunset materialized before her in a blast of light. Rarity jumped, and the sandwiches were sent flying.

“Nooo!” Rainbow shouted. She propelled herself forward with her wings, reaching out and just barely catching the plate before it hit the ground. She sighed in relief.

Rarity placed a hoof over her chest. “Oh! Sunset, you scared me! Thank goodness you’re alright.”

Rainbow quietly inhaled the sandwiches while Rarity was distracted. Daisies were a lot tastier as a horse.

Sunset didn’t look very glad to see them. Her eyes were empty, her mouth pulled into a somber line.

“Uh, Sunset?” Applejack gulped. “Where’s Twilight? An’ the rest of ‘em?”

“Gone. We’re the only ones who made it out of cave.”

They waited a bit to let that sink in.

Pinkie’s smile was strained. “But… we made it, right? There’s still us! Chrysalis hasn’t won yet… Right?”

“I don’t know, Pinkie,” Sunset sighed, walking past them. “We don’t have any more tricks up our sleeve. Discord’s gone, Twilight’s gone—hell, even Starlight would be a blessing right now. But all we have is a unicorn who’s probably just going to screw everything up and a bunch of humans in bodies they can’t use.”

“Look,” Rainbow said around a sandwich, “we just had a big talk about not giving up hope and working hard in order to beat Chrysalis, so don’t get all emo on us. You’re Sunset-fucking-Shimmer! If anyone can pull this off, it’s you!”

“Plus, we don’t got the luxury of givin’ up. Even if things look hopeless, we gotta try. That’s what we’ve always done, and it’s worked out mighty well in the past.”

“ ‘At the end of the day, it is we who survive’, right?” Fluttershy said. “Whether it’s a stupid competition or saving the world, we can do it together. That’s… that’s what Twilight taught us. All of us.”

Sunset turned heavy eyes to them. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I’m… not in the mood. I’ll check in with you when… when I’m feeling better.”

The five humans could only watch as Sunset retreated down the hall, her hoofbeats echoing with a hollow, mellow cadence. Halfway to the far doors, she twisted her head back and opened her mouth to say something—anything—but her tongue froze. She let her lips fall back together, and left without another word.

Intermission G (End of Part 2 Part 1)

Intermission G (End of Part 2 Part 1)

Praxx, headcount in Canterlot.

150, my Queen.

That little?

The reinforcements you called for made up—

It’s… whatever. Draxx, headcount in Crystal Empire.

U-uh, yeah, about that. Turns out that artifact we’ve been drawing love from? So, disrupting it too much causes eternal winter to set in. I’ve gotten my idiot subordinates to stop, but… it doesn't look like it’s getting any better.

“Of course,” Chrysalis muttered. Just give me the damn headcount.

180, your majesty, but we won’t be able to move locations, the blizzard’s too thick—

Didn’t you have three hundred?

That whole eternal winter thing didn’t go so well.

…Fine. Thank you for your report.

Chrysalis massaged her temples. Add in the near two hundred that were lost in the invasion of the caves… even if she used the Canterlot squadron, she didn’t break three hundred soldiers. She’d have to lay again before anything else came up.

She didn’t think anything else would come up, but she had thought that five hundred soldiers ago, too. She knew she needed to be prepared for the worst, and, if she was honest with herself, she wasn’t. Not at all.

“Ah, here we are. I told you it was not far.”

Zecora led Twilight Sparkle, Twilight Velvet, Celestia, Luna, Chrysalis, Bon Bon, and Lyra Heartstrings into a clearing; a rickety bridge spanned a massive gorge, and across it, an aged castle towered.

Dean Cadance, Shining Armor, Night Light, and Spike were squeezed onto a couch. The room felt much colder than it was.

The news anchor on the television spoke with a detached professionalism. “Three days into the search, authorities are no closer to discovering the whereabouts of the twelve missing persons,” she crackled. “None of the students at Canterlot High School have offered any information about the disappearance of their classmates or principals. Cadance, the dean of the prestigious school Crystal Prep who had close ties to many of the missing people, has taken over executive duties at Canterlot in Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna’s mysterious absence.”

“Hey, I made it on TV,” Cadance joked, humorless.

“Why aren’t the students saying anything?” Night Light barely spoke above a whisper. “Don’t they know about…”

“What are they supposed to say?” Spike asked. “ ‘Oh, yeah, we were all kidnapped by a bunch of aliens, and then some people rescued us, and then they fell down a hole in space time’?”

Shining sighed. “I just hope Twilight’s okay.”

Cadance put a hand on his shoulder. “Velvet’s with her. You know she won’t let anything happen.”

They tried to believe that.

Far above Equestria, the moon was growing tired.

Far below Equestria, the sun’s flames were beginning to dim.

Something had to change.

Light flashed brilliantly in the city of Oratorio, and the last of the sirens looked down at their cloven hooves and webbed tails with a mirth they had not felt for ages (and they meant that quite literally). Adagio laid a hand over her new resonator. It glowed a subdued red in Equestria’s recently acquired eternal moonlight, pulsing with the rhythm of her magic.

I’m sure old Fermata wouldn’t mind. After all, he barely used the thing, the wimp. “Well, girls; shall we?”

The trio grinned maniacally as they flew down the mountain, past the many layers of clouds that hid their old city, and towards the turbulent country below.

Author's Note

Thus marks the end of Part 2 Part 1, and the end of intermissions. We've reached the end of the musical scale with their names anyway, so, hey, it works out.

Part 2 Part 2 will begin in probably two weeks or so. More information on my updating schedule will be released when that time is over.

And, obviously, a huge thank you to all of you, for slogging through... god, how many words is it now? I know I'm not the best writer, and it's a big time commitment to read a fic this long, so I appreciate every single one of you who's stuck with me the whole way. It means a lot.

See you soon!

Twenty Two - Rise

Twenty Two - Rise

Chrysalis pushed open the doors to the Castle of the Two Sisters with a swift pump of her arms. They opened with a deafening creak, but held strong. A dusty, faded red carpet made a pathway towards a pair of thrones, gold and dark purple, and several other hallways branched outwards from the great hall.

“The lights are on,” Sweetie Drops observed, still on edge from their trek through the monster-ridden forest. “Is that typical of an abandoned castle here?”

Twilight crouched down and eyed the carpet. “The dust is disturbed. Someone’s been here recently.”

“There is no reason to fear,” Zecora said sagely. “It simply means we are not the only ones here.”

“I dunno, that sounds like a pretty good reason to fear,” Luna said.

“M-maybe we should go somewhere else?” Velvet suggested.

Suddenly, a small, very pink horse popped into existence at their side. “Hi there!”

“JESUS FUCK!” Chrysalis shouted, wheeling around to point her gun at the pony.

“Wait, hold your fire!” Zecora thrust a hoof in front of Chrysalis. “I doubt that Pinkie Pie here holds much ire.”

Pinkie Pie turned and cupped her hooves around her mouth. “HEEEEEY! YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHO JUST SHOWED UP!”

Twilight leaned forward. “…Pinkie Pie?”

Zecora reached out with a paste-covered hoof and smeared some on Pinkie. It glowed blue. She nodded. “This is no lie; she is certainly Ms. Pie.”

Celestia squinted. “Why are you a horse?”

She laughed. “I’m a pony, silly! Like Sunset!”

Lyra raised an eyebrow. “Both of you turned into weird little mutant horse-things?”

“Ponies,” Pinkie corrected. “And Sunset’s always been one! She just came through the portal and that made her not one!”

Lyra looked even more confused. It was understandable.

Pinkie turned and shouted again. “HEEEEEEYYYYY—”

“We’re coming!” a raspy voice shouted from down one hallway. “You can stop yelling!”

“Sorry,” a white, horned pony apologized as she and four others turned the corner. “We had to go fetch Sunset, and you know how she can—Twilight!”

She waved. “You all look so… so…”

“So much more like horses?” Luna offered.

“Well, I was going to say ‘different’, but you’re not wrong.”

The pony that could only be Sunset Shimmer walked up to Zecora. “Hi. My name’s Sunset.”

“Mine is Zecora; it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Zecora said, taking Sunset’s hoof. “The counterparts of the elements, too.” She smiled politely at the five mares.

Sunset moved on without so much as acknowledging Zecora’s rhyming. “Cool. So now that introductions are out of the way, let’s get down to business. First: why aren’t you on Earth?”

Twilight grinned sheepishly and gestured to her locket. “We managed to save all the students, but… we had an accident.”

“She had an accident,” Lyra corrected, brushing off Velvet and Celestia’s glares.

“What are things like over here?” Luna asked. “In… Equestria, was it?”

Sunset swept the crowd with her hoof. “Hello and welcome to the entire resistance.”

Velvet winced.

Chrysalis counted on her fingers. “So that’s two combat-trained agents, three middle-aged women with no idea what they’re doing, one teenager with a bad attitude, one teenager with next-generation technology that may or may not blow up in our faces, and a herd of zoo animals.”

“We’re no more animals than you are,” Sunset argued. “And we’re not useless in a fight.”

Lyra leered at Chrysalis. “Watch your mouth if you don’t want to see how bad my attitude can really get.”

Chrysalis looked down at Bon Bon. “Can you tell your girlfriend to settle down?”

“Can you stop being so inherently disagreeable?” Bon Bon shot back. Her tone softened. “We talked about this, Chrysalis.”

Chrysalis grumbled under her breath and turned away.

Sweetie Drops turned back to the crowd with a sympathetic smile. “Excuse her. I’m sure we’ll be able to put up a great fight!”

“I mean, I hate to say it,” Velvet said, “but Chrysalis has a point. The changelings are much more powerful than us! What’s a couple of magical unicorns going to do against an army?”

Rainbow zipped forward. “Oh! Oh! Sunset! Do something awesome!”

“You mean show off? That’s your stage.”

Applejack prodded her lightly in the side with a leg. “Aw, c’mon, sugar. I bet you could really scare the pants offa ‘em. Live a little!"

Sunset smirked. “Oh, all right.” It wasn’t like she really needed much persuading.

Fluttershy backed up to a safe distance of very far away.

Golden streams of mana curled up and around Sunset’s horn, coming together in a shining ball of orange light at the tip. Her cutie mark began to shine, and her mane and tail became unnaturally saturated, floating upwards. All of a sudden, sparks of energy rocketed from Sunset into the air above her, igniting into fireballs and sticking together. Before too long, a massive phoenix flapped above their heads, its body a shifting mass of living flame. Sunset quickly re-absorbed the spell before anything could catch fire, and the phoenix funneled back into her horn, its only trace the stunned faces of Sunset’s friends.

Twilight started vibrating. “EeeeeeEEEEEEE! Sunset! That was a spell! Real magic!”

Sunset looked at her quizzically. “I, uh. Yeah, I know.”

“Well,” Celestia said, struggling to think of anything else to say.

Velvet was still staring at Sunset by the time her tongue remembered itself. “I take back what I said.”

“Oh, and one more thing,” Luna said, entirely unfazed by Sunset’s magic, “what’s with the whispering?”

“Whispering?”

Bon Bon spoke up. “The principals have been hearing whispers that none of us can hear. Would you happen to know what that’s about?”

Celestia blushed slightly. “I know it sounds crazy, but I swear it’s happening.”

“Don’t worry, we believe ya,” Applejack said. “Trust me, that’s about the least weird thing we’ve seen all day.”

“What are these whispers saying?” Sunset asked.

“W-well, it’s kinda hard to make out.”

“Can you try?”

Celestia and Luna closed their eyes for a few seconds, and everyone went quiet. A second later, they spoke, nearly in unison.

“Raise me.”

“Lower me.”

Sunset broke into a grin. “Oh, yes! This is perfect!”

“What does it mean?” Fluttershy asked.

Sunset’s smile grew ever wider. “Celestia, Luna, congratulations! You just became the new goddesses of the Sun and Moon!”

“Excuse me,” Chrysalis said flatly.

Celestia and Luna stared in disbelief.

“Like, Apollo and Artemis?” Bon Bon asked.

“Not really. See, their counterparts, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, are responsible for raising and lowering the Sun and Moon each day, but they’re incapacitated. They must be looking for new hosts.”

Velvet’s brow furrowed. “That can’t be true. That breaks so many astronomical laws.”

“The force required to move the sun even an inch is… is…” Twilight struggled for words. “That’s impossible! Nothing, human or pony, can do that!”

“Equestria’s Sun and Moon don’t work the same Earth’s do. They’re sentient, for one, and are more akin to forces of nature than actual physical things.”

“But… but…”

“Just roll with it,” Lyra suggested. “It’s easier that way.”

“But we’re just principals! Why would the Sun think I’m in any way capable of moving it?” Celestia protested.

Chrysalis shrugged. “Must be pretty desperate, I guess.”

Luna glared at her.

“The balance between night and day is more important than I can say,” Zecora said, stepping into the conversation. “The Sun and Moon are like yang and yin; if they are not equal, the world grows grim.”

“So what are we supposed to do?” Luna asked, still in denial. “Yell at them until they start moving?”

Sunset smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, I have no idea what you’re supposed to do.”

Celestia was beginning to hyperventilate.

Luna ran over to one of the large castle windows and looked up at the moon. “Hey, Moon!” she shouted.

I am here. There is no need to speak aloud.

Luna screamed. “It’s in my head!”

Relax. I am simply here to guide you.

Yeah. Yeah, I’m calm. She was not, but the Moon had the decency not to correct her. So I just think at you like this?

Correct.

So, why are you talking to me?

My usual host, Princess Luna, is unavailable. You are close enough to her in nature that you are able to host me until her condition is remedied.

Right. So do I get any sweet superpowers out of this? I always wanted to be able to teleport. Or instantly complete paperwork.

You may use my power only while I am awake, or when I deem it necessary for your own protection.

What about, like, fighting evil bug queens?

I have no patience for your mortal qualms. All I desire is for the cycle to continue as it has for millennia. Outside of that goal, I shall not intervene during the day for any reason.

Well, that’s stupid.

I… beg your pardon?

You’re having me do all your work for you, and you won’t help me save a country?

The Moon is as impartial as the Ocean. I do not see your species, your borders, your laws. It is not my place to interfere. If I give you too much power, you risk corruption. The Princess learned this the hard way, and now, she understands why my limits exist.

Look, in, like, probably two days, I’m either going to be dead or in a different dimension. I doubt I’m going to get drunk on power that quickly.

You shall not, because I shall not allow it to happen.

That’s—

You can argue all you want, my terms shall not change. Now, it is time to lower me. Our sisters are ready.

Luna returned to the real world. Celestia was standing next to her, and she looked at Luna with trembling eyes.

Suddenly, Luna felt herself reach out her hand. She hadn’t told her hand to reach out, it just kind of did.

Do not be alarmed. I am guiding you through the process. After this, you should be able to do the same on your own.

Luna felt herself rise into the air, a deep blue light spilling from her body. Her hand positioned itself so it looked like she was planting her palm against the surface of the Moon, and she felt a magnetic-like tension hold it in place. Slowly but surely, her arm arced towards the floor, the moon moving with it, even after it had moved out of the window’s view. She was vaguely aware of the castle getting brighter as she did so, but she was too focused on moving the goddamn Moon to properly notice.

I am in place. Thank you.

The unnatural blue light faded, and Luna dropped to the ground, landing on the floor in a heap. You coulda warned me I was going to fall, you know. The Moon did not respond.

Luna made to get up, but stopped dead when she saw Celestia. She had a disbelieving look on her face, and was staring unseeing at her hands, but what really stood out was her hair. It was flowing in a nonexistent wind, its rainbow locks shifting and waving in the sunlight. Luna reached back and felt at her own hair—it hadn’t changed. Luna made a note to complain to the Moon about that as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

“Huh,” Lyra said from behind them.

Luna turned. Their audience was staring, expressions ranging from disbelief to awe to giddiness, and in Chrysalis’s case, jealousy.

Luna looked from the crowd to Celestia to herself. “I wonder if being a princess pays better than being a principal,” she mused.

Queen Chrysalis had just finished hanging the last of the ponies they had captured in the caves from the weird tree in the throne room of Friendship Castle. Presently, she was using them to replenish her love stores back to maximum. Her stock of liquified love had been running dangerously low, and she wanted to save the last of it for emergencies, so she was being old-fashioned and absorbing the love she needed from her prisoner’s memories. Pony love was always so delicious. She could live like this; drink love, sit back and relax in a conquered empire, sunbathe—wait what.

Chrysalis rushed over to the window and threw up a hoof to block out the Sun’s glare. This couldn’t be happening. Celestia and Luna were imprisoned! All the other alicorns, too! Who else could move the Sun and Moon?

PRAXX!

Hey, my Queen… how’s it going?

The Sun is up! Don’t tell me Celestia escaped!

We, like, just reapplied the silk, I think… no way she’s out…

Straighten up, captain, and go check!

Aw, but I can’t right now… y’know, you should really get over here…

What? Why? What’s going on? Why are you thinking so slowly?

There’s these… beautiful ladies… They have the best singing voices…

Chrysalis inhaled sharply. What do they look like.

Oh, just, beautiful… ya know?

Praxx. What. Do they look like.

They’re, like, fish? But with cow hooves, and flying? Dunno, you’re highness, it’s hard to focus when their music’s so… consuming…

Chrysalis cursed and switched channels in the hive. Braxx, are you in the library?

Of course my Queen. I haven’t catalogued all of the books yet, though—the Princess kept a frankly incomprehensible organization system.

Can you send me some pony book on mythical beasts or something?

I… have a few books that might fit that bill. Sending them now.

Not ten seconds later, a stack of books plunked themselves down in front of Chrysalis.

Thank you. You are dismissed.

Chrysalis sped through the books’ tables of contents.

“No, no, no, no… Aha! Let’s see, page 46…

“…It is said that the great Starswirl the Bearded banished these sirens from Equestria. However, as Tartarus would not be discovered or used for some time yet, it is likely that Starswirl may have banished them to another plane of existence entirely; this would not be beyond his alleged abilities, and it would explain why the sirens have not made a second appearance, unlike nearly all other previous threats to Equestria.”

Chrysalis stopped reading. Those three… she knew her mother should have killed them while she had the chance. Another one of her problems Chrysalis would have to clean up.

Dammit. Things never stopped going wrong for her, did they?

“Aaah, aah;

“Aaah, ah.

“Aaah, ah-ah;

“Aah, Aah!”

The sirens kept it up until the crowd of changelings below them was sufficiently massive. When Adagio deemed it so, she thrust a leg to one side, and her sisters stopped singing.

“Changelings?” Sonata whispered. “I thought this was a pony city.”

“Maybe Silky finally did give up the throne. Muses know she wouldn’t be able to conquer anything,” Aria drawled.

Adagio grinned. “Changeling, pony, yak, griffon, dragon, minotaur, zebra, it’s all the same. Nothing can resist our influence.” She paused and looked expectantly to her sisters. “Number four; follow my lead.”

They quieted, and the changelings did much the same, waiting in fragile suspense.

Then, the sirens began to sing.

[To the tune of “Let’s Have a Battle (Of the Bands)”]

“We heard you want to get together

“We heard you want to rule Equus

“We have a way to do it better

“Why don’t you conquer it with us?

“Don’t think all tyrants are the same

“When some of us shine brighter

“We’re you chance to win some fame

“Why help your Queen when you can fight her?

“Me and you, you and me

“Together we could be better!

“You don’t have to be

“Slaves to a dumb queen!

“Oh what’s so wrong

“With some insubordination?

“We’re teaming up and

“Taking over the nation!

“We have power and you know it

“Yeah we rise above the rest!

“You can really have it all

“If you’re just following the best!

“Ah

“Aah

“Aaah, AAAH

“Betrayal!

“Work for the Dazzlings!

“Let’s stage Betrayal!

“Betrayal of your Queen

“Let’s stage Betrayal!

“We’ll make a great team!

“Let’s stage Betrayal!

“Betrayal!

“BETRAYAL!

“CHRYSALIS CAN STICK IT!”

The inexplicable instrumentals faded into the background, and the changelings below went wild with applause, even drowning out the sirens’ maniacal laughter.

Author's Note

Happy New Year! Well, three days ago. Close enough.

Welcome to Part 2 Part 2! It's not long now...

A blog post about my updating schedule can be found here for people who care.

PS: I know 'betrayal' is one more syllable than 'battle', but, come on, work with me, people.

Thanks!

Twenty Three - See

Twenty Three - See

All principal Celestia ever wanted was a normal life. After the accident that killed her parents and psychologically scarred her sister, such a thing seemed impossibly out of reach. Fast forward twenty years later to when they were just starting to stabilize as co-principals of some crappy high school, and then suddenly literal, honest-to-god magic comes to throw her life back into turmoil. She concluded that the universe hated her—she didn’t ask to save the world. She didn’t ask for the ability to guide the Sun through the heavens. And he especially didn’t ask for magical flowy hair.

“Wow, it’s so soft!”

“This is positively dazzling! Oh, how I wish my hair could do such a thing!”

“I’m uncomfortable,” Celestia said.

“Oh, come on, Celly,” Luna teased, running her fingers through Celestia’s hair. “Have you even felt it yet?”

Celestia grumbled under her breath and looked away.

“This is just what we needed!” Sunset said excitedly, absentmindedly petting Celestia’s locks with one hoof. “It’s possible that you inherited some of Celestia’s powers with this!”

“Why would she inherit her own powers?” Pinkie Pie asked.

Applejack rolled her eyes. “She means th’ other Celestia, Pinkie.”

Celestia looked even more uncomfortable than before. “W-what kind of powers are we talking about?”

Sunset shrugged. “Powers of the Sun, whatever that is. Celestia didn’t really do too much fighting in front of me. Or at all. But if I had to guess… fireballs, divine light, energy emissions, that sort of thing.”

“Right.” Celestia took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

Is she right? Am I going to get… magic?

All shall be revealed in due time, my host.

You know, that really doesn’t help much. What if I accidentally, I don’t know, light someone on fire? Isn’t it important to know your own strength and stuff?

Fear is but an internal enemy. Conquer it, and you shall improve in both mind and body.

That’s not helpful either! There’s already like a zero percent chance I’ll be able to do this! Would you at least tell me something?

Confidence weighs as heavily as power. You must learn to believe in yourself, Celestia, and you shall never do so if I tell you which steps to take at every turn.

Oh, forget it.

When Celestia returned her focus to the real world, Chrysalis had her arms crossed, and was tapping her foot lightly with impatience.

“So what’s the plan?” she asked curtly.

Sunset sighed wearily. “I’m working on it.”

Lyra rolled her eyes. “That’s reassuring.”

Sweetie Drops elbowed her in the side, doing her best to smile wide enough for the both of them. “I’m sure we’ll be able to come up with something. We’re not in a rush, are we?”

“Maybe…” Fluttershy blushed and looked away. “I was kinda planning on following Sunset’s lead…”

All of Sunset’s friends nodded along with Fluttershy and mumbled their agreements.

Velvet swore her hair was getting grayer by the minute. “I don’t see how we’re going to be able to form a plan if we don’t even know what’s going on…”

Chrysalis nodded. “The lady’s right. We need information.”

Heads gravitated to Sunset, who began to sweat.

“I mean, I can try something, but divination was never my strong suit. I’m more of a battlemage, you know?”

Zecora cleared her throat. “If across the country you wish to see, then I suggest you come with me.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “You? No offense, but what would a zebra know about divination magic?”

“I do not possess magic, it’s true; but there is little one can’t accomplish with an shaman’s brew.”

Sunset’s eyes widened. “You’re one of the shaman?”

Zecora smiled knowingly, turned, and began to walk out of the castle.

“I’ll tell you what I learn when I get back!” Sunset shouted as she raced after the zebra.

Shortly after that, the group broke up, some to explore the castle, some to grab a bite to eat, some to try to find the bathrooms. Amidst the chaos, Chrysalis slithered her way over to Twilight.

“Miss Sparkle.”

Twilight jumped. “Oh! Uh, hi, Chrysalis. Did you… need something?”

“Just information.”

“Well, I can try. I don’t know all too much about this world, but—”

“No, not about Equestria. About something you’re an expert on.” She reached out a charcoal finger towards the locket, but Twilight jerked it back defensively. Chrysalis frowned.

“Sorry,” Twilight said sharply, “but I’d really appreciate it if you’d not touch it.”

Chrysalis threw her hands up in surrender. “Of course.” She lowered her arms back down and laced her fingers behind her back, leaning ever so slightly forward. “But this technology is revolutionary. You must understand that sharing it with me would save countless lives.”

“Really?”

“Obviously,” she snorted. “I work for the government. Your school isn’t the first place magic has showed up in our world, and it sure as hell won’t be the last. This technology—stealing, containing, using magic—my boss would give his goddamn left arm for that.”

Celestia stepped up next to Chrysalis. “You have a boss? Bet you’re his favorite employee, huh?”

“It’s nothing more than a title. He knows he has very little power over me. I’m his best agent; can't afford to lose me.”

“What’s going on here?” Velvet asked, entering the circle. She looked at Twilight, and narrowed her eyes at Chrysalis.

“She wants me to tell her about how the locket works,” Twilight answered.

Velvet’s eyes narrowed. “Does she now?”

“Look, it’s a matter of national security. Your daughter’s inventions are what our branch has been looking for for decades!”

Velvet pointed a finger at Chrysalis. “I see what’s going on here. You’re trying to steal her designs!”

Twilight gasped. “That’s—these aren’t patented yet!”

Chrysalis expression went from shock to anger in a split second. “That’s not what I was doing. I was going to go about it perfectly legally.”

Celestia’s smile was, fittingly, a lot like the Sun—warm from a distance, but if you looked closely, searing. “I’m sure that’s all you were doing, Chrysalis, but don’t you think it’d be best to at least wait until we’re back on Earth to pressure Twilight?”

Chrysalis threw her hands up in the air. “Fine! Paint me as the bad guy all you like! It’s not like I have your fucking safety in mind or anything!” She turned on her heel and took a few steps away, mumbling under her breath. “God, just ‘cause we share the same name…”

Celestia let out a huff as Chrysalis walked away. “Hah, good riddance. She’s the worst.”

“Are you sure you weren’t being too harsh on her?” Twilight asked.

“Trust me, she wasn’t,” Velvet said. She turned to Celestia. “So, you’re going to be fighting now, right?”

“I guess, yeah.” Celestia looked briefly over her shoulder at her flowing hair. “I mean, if I have the ability to make a difference, it’s my responsibility to. I think. Even if I don’t really want to. I don’t know, I’m still a bit confused. This is all happening so fast, you know?”

Velvet laughed. It was empty. “I know what you mean. But I think you’re right about the whole responsibility part.”

“You know,” Twilight said, “I can’t help but feel like that philosophy might apply to someone else in this conversation.”

Velvet looked at Twilight for a good while before responding. “I suppose… I suppose you’re right. I don’t like it, but… what right do I have to stop you if you can help?” Her eyes floated around the room. “I’m just so worried.”

“We’re all worried, Velvet,” Celestia said. “All of us.”

The remaining ponies, along with Twilight, had settled down in one of the less-austere rooms; this one actually had a carpet and a few pillows, and a handy chandelier that Rarity had managed to light. Not two minutes later, Lyra had marched in, Bon Bon in tow, and had said in a vaguely threatening tone that whatever they were talking about had better be more interesting than working out finances and tax deductions (she had shot Bon Bon an annoyed glare at that point, but had only gotten a brusque ‘you’ll thank me when you’re a struggling artist’).

“We weren’t really talkin’ ‘bout nothin’,” Applejack admitted.

“But we’d be pleasured for you to join us,” Rarity added quickly, as graceful as ever.

“So, Bon Bon,” Rainbow began, staving off the impending awkward silence, “tell us how you became a secret agent.”

“It’s not that complicated, really. My parents worked in this same branch, and were close to Chrysalis. They died in the field—the agency wasn’t allowed to divulge the details to anyone on the outside, so to avoid complications, Chrysalis basically erased ‘Sweetie Drops’ from the public.”

“That sounds horrible,” Fluttershy said.

“Not at all! It was much better than the alternative. Chrysalis was doing me a favor in her own way. She hired me for more than what she reasonably should have, accelerated my training… distracted me from my grieving.” She smirked at Lyra. “Plus, there were some nice career benefits down the line.”

Pinkie raised an eyebrow. “You’re saying Chrysalis… cared for you?”

Bon Bon laughed. “As I said, in her own way. She’s crass and horribly apathetic, but, well, it’s easier to kill people if you tell yourself you don’t care about anybody.” She laughed again, and Lyra mouthed ‘She’s joking. Sort of.’ in response to the concerned glances. “Behind that prickly skin, though, is a heart in the right place.”

“Now I feel kinda bad that she was yelled at,” Twilight said.

Sweetie waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but chances are she should’ve known better.”

“Moving on,” Lyra said, “what’s it like being a horse?”

“Um… It’s not that bad, I suppose…”

“It’s FUN!”

“Somewhere between really cool and just kinda strange.”

“Yes, well, I think I’ll pass next time.”

“Downright unsettlin’.”

“Did the walking come naturally to you?” Twilight asked.

The groans were enough of an answer for her.

“You would not believe the pain I had to go through,” Rarity lamented. “And it didn’t help that these ruffians were always crashing into me.”

“Learning running should’ve been a shortcut to learning walking!” Rainbow protested.

“The, uh, hoof patterns for walking, trotting, cantering, and galloping are all completely different,” Fluttershy explained. “Learning one doesn’t help with the rest.”

“Plus you two weren’t even doing it right,” Pinkie said happily. “You were just kinda throwing yourselves all over the place.”

“I guess I can’t blame ‘em,” Lyra admitted. “I don’t think I’d do very well as a horse.”

Rarity tapped her chin with a hoof. “We did actually meet you as a pony, come to think of it.”

“Really?”

“Yup,” Applejack said. “Both a you. Y’all are nearly the same, ‘cept they were adults.”

“And I’m, like, ninety percent sure those two were fucking,” Pinkie said.

Bon Bon turned an impressive shade of red.

“Pinkie! No!” Fluttershy chastised.

Lyra smirked. “And who says we aren’t?”

Bon Bon blushed harder. “We’re not. She’s joking. We do not have sex.”

“What’s this about sex?”

Everything went dead quiet as the eight of them turned to Luna, who was leaning in the door frame.

“Um,” Twilight said.

Rarity coughed. “Why, vice principal Luna! Whatever brings you here?”

“Celestia wanted an adult watching. Dunno why, it’s not like you’ve saved the world a dozen times.” Luna moved from the door and joined the loose circle on the floor. She examined their guilty faces. “We’re not in school. There’s no reason to be so uptight. Talk about sex all you want.”

Rainbow Dash blinked.

“Professionalism?” Sweetie offered weakly.

“Screw professionalism. I’m not gonna put on my principal mask when half of you are ponies and I just moved the goddamn Moon.” She froze for a second. “But don’t tell Celestia. I’d never hear the end of it.”

“The Sun and Moon thing was pretty impressive,” Fluttershy said.

Rainbow Dash perked up. “Oh! Do you have any sweet powers?”

Luna scowled. “No. Who though the Moon would be such an ass?”

“Excuse me?” Lyra said.

Luna’s face contorted in exasperation as she let loose. “Well, for starters, it wouldn’t even tell me what I could do, and then it was like, ‘oh, yeah, and you don’t get to use any of the powers in the day, or for selfish reasons, or if I just kinda feel like not letting you’, which is just stupid and frustrating, and… ugh.”

“Surely those rules are in place for a reason,” Rarity said, almost like she was asking.

“I guess? But when there’s a good chance we’re all gonna die within the week, it’d be really nice to have some more concrete hope. All we’ve got is wishy-washy-maybe-sometimes hope.”

“You really think we’ll lose?” Fluttershy asked. “That’s not a very healthy outlook to take.”

“One, I’m not very healthy in general. Two, the odds aren’t looking too pretty. And trust me, I would know—I have a lot of experience losing.”

There was silence for a while.

“Is Celestia okay?” Twilight asked. “She looked pretty freaked out by the Sun thing. I know what it’s like to suddenly have a lot of power—I-I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. But is she alright?”

Luna gave Twilight a long look. “You girls should know something about people like my sister me. And Chrysalis, too, though she denies it.” Luna blew out a breath. “People like us… we never have been, never will be, and never are alright.”

Sunset entered Zecora’s hut with no small amount of trepidation. She couldn’t help it—all those wooden faces looked like they were watching her.

Zecora snatched a few potions off the shelves, and a few minutes later, she approached Sunset with a corked vial.

“This potion shall assist you in your divination, yet I’m afraid it has a limitation. Without alicorn magic to make it, it shall only give you visions most basic.”

“That should be fine,” Sunset said, taking the concoction in her telekinesis. “I’m not planning on looking into the past or anything crazy.”

Sunset downed the liquid, and her vision flashed white.

Chrysalis was flying with a small force of changelings, and though she was standing still, Sunset moved along with them, imperceptible. They were heading to Canterlot, by the looks of it.

“But, your majesty, I thought you had slain them all!”

“Not these three,” Chrysalis snarled. “These three escaped. Well, they were banished to another dimension, but it’s the same thing when you get down to it.”

Sunset sucked in a breath. They’d better not be talking about what she thought they were talking about.

“Will they be a threat to the mission?”

“That’s what I plan to figure out.”

Eventually, they arrived at Canterlot. Chrysalis flew closer to the castle while the rest of the changelings waited a ways back; they didn’t drop their guard, though. Three figures promptly rose from the palace to meet them—two of them stayed back, mimicking the changelings, while the middle one swam through the air to meet Chrysalis.

Sunset sucked in a breath. Shit. When had they escaped Earth? When had they gotten their magic back? Sunset’s brain whirred as she attempted to weave the Sirens into her work-in-progress battle plan. They weren’t fitting very nicely.

“Oh, hello, Chrysalis! Congratulations on the promotion. Have you gained some new holes, or is it just me?”

“Cut the pleasantries, Adagio,” Chrysalis said flatly. “What do you want?”

“What I want? I want revenge on these worthless ponies for what Starswirl and their new little Princess did. And you’re going to help me, whether you like it or not!”

“Now, now, Adagio,” Chrysalis said with faux sweetness, “there’s no need for hostility. Our races had far too much of that a thousand years ago.”

“So you did kill them, then? All the muses of Oratorio?”

“What do you care of it? They exiled you, left you for dead. And, they were spreading negativity, which doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for love. Their feeding left us famished! It was a matter of survival, Adagio—my mother was too stupid to see it, but that’s what got her killed in the end.

“But you and your sisters… I’ve always admired your ambition. Banished from your home for being, what, too reckless? Bah! Marcato was a coward, afraid of any being with more power than him. You and your sisters were a threat, so out you go! Yet, what did you three do? You gave Equestria the biggest scare it would ever see until the Era of Friendship! If it weren’t for Starswirl and that fancy little horn of his, Equestria would be a very different place today. So, kudos!”

Adagio was unfazed by the speech. “What’s your point? We don’t have all day.”

“You can’t control me, Adagio—I meddle in mind control, too, and you can’t enchant an enchantress. But my children are not as powerful; you have already stolen many of them. I’ll be the first to admit that a war between us would end in your favor—you aren’t a pushover like the rest of your race was, and I just finished an invasion; I’m not at my full power. But I’ve killed many sirens in the past, and you wouldn’t win without sacrifice. So here’s my proposition: we stay out of each other’s way.”

“And we should believe you, why? You are renowned for your subterfuge, Chrysalis.”

“And that is why I brought an offering I think you shall find most enticing.” Chrysalis’s horn flared, and six fireballs erupted into being. When the fires dissipated, six bound and unconscious ponies floated between the two leaders, supported by Chrysalis’s magic. “I give you the instruments of your latest downfall, the Elements of Harmony, as a sign of my trustworthiness.”

“NO!” screamed Sunset, but she was powerless in the vision.

Adagio grinned wickedly. “You’re right, that is enticing. But one more gift: you let us keep the changelings we’ve already gathered. After all, one can always do with some reinforcements.”

Chrysalis grit her teeth, but complied. “If I must.” She then smiled. “Well, have fun with these six. I hope they don’t cause you too much trouble,” she said with a wink.

Adagio had some of her changeling army levitate the hostages as she and her sisters flew away. Once they were gone, Chrysalis began to flap away.

“Oh, and whichever one of you pesky humans is watching me right now, you should know better than to think I don’t have any protection against divination. Now, I’m not a monster—I make a point not to kill anypony. But sirens, on the other hand… Well, let’s just say you might want to act fast.”

With that, Chrysalis’s horn flashed, and everything went fuzzy.

Sunset woke back up with a start. “Oh, we are so screwed.”

Twenty Four - Conduct

Twenty Four - Conduct

“—And that’s where the vision ended,” Sunset concluded. The faces that stared back at her were peppered with fear. “Chrysalis blocked Zecora’s scrying after that. I could still look at some places, but there wasn’t anything else too major.”

Pinkie, for once, wasn’t smiling. “So… what do we do?”

“We act,” Chrysalis said. “Right?”

Sunset nodded. “We can’t risk anything happening to the elements. We just need to make sure we account for an extra enemy.”

Luna swore under her breath as a thorn bit into her hand. She was immediately shushed by Chrysalis.

Crouched low to the ground, Celestia reached forward and brushed away a group of ferns. The expanse of the Everfree stretched out behind them, and Ponyville stood humbly a good distance in front of them, across the field that separated it from the forest. Changeling silk clung to the buildings like honey, glittering in the sunlight, and patrols of changelings made their way slowly along the town’s perimeter.

“We’re going to need a team to take on the sirens. Any volunteers?”

“Hold on.” Luna closed her eyes. After a minute, she said, “The Moon says Celestia and I are immune to mind control. ‘Cause if the wrong person had control of our powers it could throw off the entire structure of the universe, or something like that. I stopped listening halfway through.”

Sunset nodded in understanding. “Alright. Who else?”

Sweetie Drops raised her hand. “Chrysalis and I should go.”

Celestia’s brow furrowed. “Wait.”

“What?” Luna asked.

Chrysalis sighed. “Why?”

Bon Bon rolled her eyes. “Since splitting the Rainbooms up is an objectively bad choice, it’s our only real option.”

“Are you sure?” Rarity asked, her eyes flicking between the agents and the principals.

“I’m sure they’ll be able to act maturely and be adults,” Sweetie said pointedly. “Right?”

“Of course,” three voices chorused uneasily.

As Celestia moved the ferns back into place, Chrysalis held out her palm and looked at Luna expectantly. Luna raised an eyebrow, and Chrysalis’s gaze intensified.

“What?” Luna whispered.

“The potion, you idiot!”

“There’s no need to be rude about it,” Celestia said.

Sweetie glanced at her watch, huffed, and nabbed the potion from Luna’s pocket. She took a quick sip, wretched slightly, and passed the vial on.

“You’re going to need to sneak through Ponyville unnoticed,” Sunset said. “Which, now that I think about it, might not be very easy.”

“With stealth, I believe I can assist,” Zecora said, offering a beaker with a hazy pink liquid inside. “One sip of this elixir, and you shall be as invisible as mist.”

“Well this is unsettling.” Celestia opened and closed her eyelids, and nothing changed—her vision was still crystal-clear.

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Luna complained.

“Will you two shut up?!”

“We’re wasting time,” Sweetie’s voice whispered from in front of them. “Let’s go. Stay together.”

“How?” Celestia asked.

“Just try not to get us killed, alright?” Chrysalis said.

“Oh, stuff it.”

“Shh, they’ll hear you.”

“Sorry,” the three women uttered in unison.

After a minute of walking, they reached Ponyville’s perimeter.

“Everybody hold hands,” Bon Bon whispered.

Chrysalis made a noise somewhere between a scoff and a choke. “What? Why?”

“So we don’t lose each other,” Celestia said. “It’s a good plan.”

Even though she was invisible, Chrysalis just knew Luna was smirking. “What? Never held someone’s hand before, Chrysalis?”

“I—no, it’s—” Someone’s fingers found hers, and they interlaced. Chrysalis shuddered.

Luna started laughing. “Aw, come on, it’s just hand holding!”

“Hey!” a voice called out.

Luna snapped her mouth shut so hard it was a miracle she didn’t break her teeth.

“Who’s there?”

Suddenly, Bon Bon was pulling them down the streets of the village. Changelings were loitering about; some were inspecting the silken chrysalises, some were chatting, some were just wandering around somewhat aimlessly; but they didn’t prove to be much of an issue.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. About two-thirds of the way to the opposite edge of the town, they had encountered one changeling carrying a crate of oranges, for some unknown reason. Sweetie Drops had carefully skirted around said changeling, but had failed to take into account the height of the adults behind her—Chrysalis’s head had smacked loudly into a shop sign advertising quills and sofas. The changeling must’ve been really quite startled, for he jumped and twisted sideways in the air, sending his oranges tumbling across the ground. Celestia had managed to trip on them, pulling the rest of the group down with her, and eliciting a shrill shriek from Luna.

Fortunately, Sweetie Drops, in all her quick thinking, had loosed a flashbang on the changeling as he’d approached. While he was stunned, she had yelled at the others to get up, and from there they had legged it all the way to the outskirts of Ponyville.

“You’ll need to make your way to the train station,” Sunset explained. “It’s still running, but the changelings are using it to transport resources. I’m pretty sure it’s actually more bargaining between Queen Chrysalis and the sirens; they’ve really got her in a bind. Anyway, get on a train to Canterlot. It’s about a three hour trip, so sit tight.”

When they reached the station, a train was already there. A few changelings were interspersed along its length, levitating loads of gemstones into the cars.

Sweetie Drops, as usual, spoke first. “Quick, let’s board before they set off.”

“Wait.” Chrysalis held her arm firm as Bon Bon tried to move away, reining the girl in. “We don’t know if it’s going to Canterlot.”

A moment of pause.

“Why don’t we ask?” Luna suggested.

“Are you crazy?” Celestia hissed.

“No, no, trust me. Stay right here.”

Chrysalis growled. “Luna…”

Luna made her way to just behind one of the gem-hefting changelings and channeled her best changeling impression. “Excuse me, but is this train headed for Canterlot?”

The changeling made an irritated buzz and talked without turning from his work. “Of course. Didn’t you get the ping?” He torqued his neck to look at Luna. Or, try to look at Luna.

“Queen Chrysalis said to—” He stopped dead in his tracks, whipping his head from side to side. “Hello?” He sighed. “I think I’ve been shovelin’ rubies for too long…”

Celestia felt something bump into her. “Luna?”

“This is our train.”

“That was stupid,” Chrysalis pointed out.

“It worked,” Luna returned.

“You’re both right,” Bon Bon said. “Can we go now?”

They muttered their assent, and ten seconds later, the four of them were clambering over the side of the car. Celestia had to bite her tongue to keep from swearing when she landed in the gems—to say that she had traveled in better conditions would be like saying that Abacus Cinch could be a bit disagreeable at times.

Luna was not so gracious in covering up her discomfort, and let out the most aggressive and profane string of whispering Celestia had ever heard. (Only because Luna usually wasn’t whispering, but still.)

Chrysalis and Sweetie Drops followed shortly after, landing deftly in the pile of rocks, and making Celestia and Luna envious of their foresight.

“Settle in,” Bon Bon said, leaning back against the side of the car. “Well, as much as you can.”

Luna grumbled something about picking gem shards out of her butt, but nobody could hear over the train’s whistle; a second later, the ground lurched, and they were off.

Sunset continued her briefing. “Now, all of our efforts up to this point have made a substantial impact. Based on my divinations, Chrysalis didn’t have much of an army left even before the sirens stole the ones in Canterlot; you should be up against roughly a hundred changelings max.”

“You know, just saying, that still sounds like a bit more than four,” Luna said.

“The siren’s spell isn’t a complete mind control when they use it en masse like this; the changelings should be in a dumb stupor. And since the sirens aren’t expecting to be attacked, I doubt they risked allowing the changelings to use their magic, so it should actually be a pretty easy fight.” She pointed at Bon Bon and Chrysalis. “Especially for you two. You should focus on dealing with the changelings while Celestia and Luna use their freaky god powers to fight the sirens.”

The agents nodded, although Chrysalis gave Luna a nasty sideways glance.

Sunset went on. “When you arrive in Canterlot, start by thinning their ranks. That should draw out the Dazzlings, and that’s when the real fight will begin.”

The four of them stepped out onto the streets of Canterlot. Changelings milled about, but they were definitely out of it; they were standing still or batting at butterflies or walking into walls, and all of them had a glassy look in their eyes.

Sweetie’s watch beeped.

“Potion’s about to run out,” she whispered. “Get ready.”

She drew her blade, and Chrysalis her gun, as their bodies slowly materialized. The changelings stopped what they were doing, stared at the humans, hissed, and charged.

“Wait, so what are we doing?” Rainbow asked.

Sunset hardened her gaze. “Well, first, training like crazy. You’re going to need to be combat ready for this.”

Rainbow flexed her wings and looked to the sky as she and her friends waited in some bushes on the edge of the clearing that the Castle of the Two Sisters sat on. “I’m starting to think she’s not coming.”

“We’re going to wait within view of the castle, and when Chrysalis arrives, we’ll ambush her.”

Lyra raised her hand. “So, is there anything for me and Mom Sparkle to do? ‘Cause, I mean, I wouldn’t help in a fight, but I don’t want to just sit back and do nothing.”

Sunset bit her lip. “There is… something for you to do. But it’s dangerous. It’s okay if you’re not up for it.”

“No.” Velvet straightened and looked Sunset in the eye. “If my daughter’s going to be out there fighting, then I will be, too.”

Twilight reached over and squeezed her mother’s hand, smiling reassuringly.

“Oh, Lyra, be safe!” Bon Bon exclaimed, throwing herself onto Lyra. Everybody collectively averted their eyes and tried to ignore the moans.

The door to the quill shop broke easily under Lyra’s kick. She and Velvet burst into the establishment; Velvet started gathering quills into her arms, muttering about why ponies didn’t just invent pens, while Lyra walked over to a window, threw a chair through it, and screamed.

Velvet nearly fell over. “What are you doing?”

“It’s faster this way.”

“It’s not a very convincing act, though.”

Lyra shrugged. “Meh. I doubt they’ll see through it.”

“But you could just—Aah!”

Velvet leapt back as a laser hurtled past her head. “Run!”

They broke into a mad dash towards the edge of Ponyville and the cover of the Everfree.

“Let’s split up!” Lyra shouted, only a mild amount of satirical bad acting in her voice. She thought it an incredible show of restraint.

Velvet spared her a glance as she ran. “Good idea! Meet me back at the Castle of the Two Sisters!”

They forked out in different directions, diving for the brush. The changelings’ laser barrage pounded against the shield spells Sunset had given them as they ran, but they didn’t follow them into the forest.

Lyra paused against a tree to catch her breath. “Whoo! Mission accomplished.”

The rumbling growl behind her made her victory short lived, however.

“We need you to lead Chrysalis to us,” Sunset said, and Lyra opened one eye from where she lay disheveled on the floor. At least she was paying attention. “Pretend to be doing something in Ponyville, and get the changelings to follow you. Then say something about returning here loudly enough for them to hear you, and lose them.

“Come straight back, though. We’ll already be in our places, and you’ll want to be out of the way when the fighting begins.”

“I’m starting to think they’re not coming.”

As soon as the words left Rainbow’s mouth, Chrysalis and the last remaining dregs of her army appeared on the horizon, angling for the castle.

“HEEEEEELP!”

The Rainbooms swiveled towards the shout. Lyra burst from the forest’s edge, scrambling away from a pack of manticores that were hot on her tail.

“Oh my.” Rarity put a hoof to her muzzle. “That’s not good.”

Author's Note

Here we go.

Twenty Seven - Love and War (3)

Twenty Seven - Love and War (3)

Adagio gave them mere seconds before she was upon them, weaving through the air as fast as Rainbow Dash on a good day. Animal fear washed over Sunset in waves as she felt the siren’s magic dance around her—Adagio’s body clearly wasn’t meant to contain so much mana. It was spilling out of her and diffusing into the air, and whenever a particle of it brushed Sunset’s coat, it sent an awful shiver down her spine.

“CHRYSALIS!” bellowed the siren. The sound was deafening, like a thousand different voices screaming at once. “YOU DARE USE ME AND MY SISTERS AS BAIT?!”

Sunset had never seen Chrysalis so frightened. She deserved some credit, though; she didn’t back down, and she kept up her snarl. “You brainwashed my children,” she called back, bitter as ever. “Where’re your sisters? Or did they fall to the humans?”

A portal appeared between them, and Twilight, in her Midnight form, flew out of it. She held her arms out to each side, a swirling purple vortex in each of her hands. “So you’ve come out to play, too, siren? My, those gems look very interesting… so much magic! Too bad I’ll have to get them bloody before my examination!”

Adagio opened her mouth, but Sunset couldn’t hear her song. Couldn’t hear it, no, but she could see it—the air between Adagio and Midnight warbled with vibrations, and Twilight froze, her eyes glazing over and her body shaking so much she was practically a blur.

“TWILIGHT!”

Light surged up Sunset’s horn, her cutiemark tingling furiously. A miniature phoenix poured out from her horn and sped towards Adagio, cawing and flapping, leaving a trail of thick black smoke behind it. But just as it was about to connect, a portal opened up and swallowed it.

Seconds later, she was staring straight into Midnight’s eyes. They didn’t seem to be focusing properly on her, no doubt a sign of Adagio’s enchantment.

“Twilight, snap out of it!” Sunset begged, her whole body trembling.

“And why should I?” she whispered, her voice level and cutting. “So I’ve been charmed. Big deal! I never liked you anyways.”

“Twilight, I know you’re in there. Please! We need you!”

“You always need me! All you ever do is drag me into your problems! I’m long due to get rid of you!”

“Twilight—”

And then Sunset was tumbling downwards, a portal shutting closed behind her. She knew she needed to teleport, to get her out of the fall, but where to? She could be anywhere, and if she tried to warp someplace in a different dimension, who knows what would happen to her body?

She let out a grunt as she slammed into something—was that the top of Canterlot High?

She didn’t have time to find out, as she bounced straight into another portal and found herself being flung off of a balcony. Her eyes watered against the air she was shooting past, but she made out the familiar shapes of buildings and statues. She’d just been thrown off of Celestia’s personal balcony, and was plummeting fast towards the royal gardens.

Just before her face made a lasting impression on the top of a stone Applejack’s head, yet another portal opened, and she was flung at high speeds through a large fire. She closed her eyes as she passed through the scorching flames, hissing in pain as her skin charred, and opened them just in time to see Discord playing a game of checkers with some old centaur wearing manacles. Discord waved as she entered the next portal and whammed painfully into none other than the Eiffel Tower, shocking a group of tourists on the viewing platform below. She hacked up a mouthful of blood as she peeled off the side of the tower and began to fall yet again.

This time, she was dumped onto a rough stone staircase. She didn’t have the strength to stop her tumbling descent as she rolled from step to step, finally coming to a groaning stop on a hard stone floor. She felt like every bone in her body was broken multiple times over, and her breathing was starting to sound like sharpening a sword on a grindstone.

They’d been so close. If the sirens hadn’t decided to rear their ugly, Celestia-forsaken heads, everything would’ve turned out dandy. Chrysalis would have been defeated no sweat, and they could all go back to school like nothing had happened. Pinkie would throw a party, they’d have a great time, and they’d have some thrilling stories to share with their loved ones.

But instead, she was laying there dying in some bucking nowhere cave where nopony, no human, no anything would find her.

She choked back a sob and slammed the hoof that felt least broken against the ground. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. She shouldn’t have to die. She couldn’t afford to.

She set her jaw. She wouldn’t.

She mustered up some of the last of her mana into her horn and let it flow throughout the cave, searching for something, anything, that could help.

Because, dammit, if she was still breathing, then it wasn’t over.

It wasn’t long before her magic encountered something: a huge reserve of magical energy stored in a crystal. But it was sealed, an ancient seal; if she couldn’t breach it, then—

Wait. That magic. It was familiar.

“No,” she breathed. “Anything but that.”

But there wasn’t anything but that, and she could feel the pool of blood under her growing thicker by the second. If she didn’t do something soon, well. Then that was that.

But she couldn’t. Not again. Never again.

But I could, she thought. They’ll all die if I don’t.

But you promised, she argued back. Vowed.

But I changed. I’d have control this time.

But you have no proof.

But I have no choice.

Sunset grunted as she shifted her body, her muscles yelling at her to stop. Raising her head one agonizing inch, she looked upon the crystalline tree before her.

She gulped, apologized in advance, and absorbed the Element of Magic.

The sky above the Everfree lit up with explosions and lasers and portals and soundwaves as Chrysalis, Adagio, and Twilight’s battle raged.

Twilight, still enthralled by Adagio, gestured towards Chrysalis, and a portal appeared beneath her, threatening to swallow her. Chrysalis jerked to the side on her wings, ducked under a burst of sound from Adagio, and shot an ugly green laser at Twilight. It hit her straight in the forehead, and Chrysalis kept the beam shooting for a good three seconds before Adagio finally hit her.

The powerful vibrations locked Chrysalis in place, but she only smirked. The sirens weren’t the only ones with mind control.

Adagio zipped towards the frozen Chrysalis, but before she could reach her, the air ripped open in front of her. A purple boot with a glowing sole kicked out from it and struck her in the neck, knocking her backwards. She turned just in time to see Twilight pull her leg back out of the portal, her eyes green with glamour, and fire a beam of energy towards Adagio.

“How do you like a taste of your own medicine, fishsticks?!” Chrysalis yelled, a victorious lilt in her voice.

Adagio dove out of the way of Twilight’s laser and belted out a note at Chrysalis. It slammed into her like a tidal wave, and she was thrown down into the forest. Adagio snorted in gruff satisfaction.

Twilight’s face contorted with anger. “Don’t you dare hurt the Queen!” she shouted, firing off another laser with one hand, and gesturing with the other.

Adagio twisted away from the laser, but let out a roar as the laser from before slammed into her back. Before she knew what was happening, Adagio found herself inches away from Twilight, who slammed an open palm into her chest. Immediately a portal materialized next to her, and the laser she had just dodged flew out from it; Adagio dove away, but another portal popped open and spat it back out.

She loosed an A flat at the beam and disintegrated it on the spot. She turned back to Twilight and sang before she could fire another laser.

Twilight’s eyes lost their green tint and her pupils shrunk to pinpricks. A second later, she vanished.

An explosion of purple left a gap in the canopy of the Everfree, and Chrysalis shot up from it, firing a slew of lasers at Twilight, who sent each one straight back. From behind, Adagio let her soundwaves connect with Chrysalis and pull her forcefully backwards towards the siren like a tractor beam. Right as she would’ve smashed into Adagio’s mouth, she flipped, her powerful tail sending Chrysalis straight up.

And, conveniently, straight through a portal that led to about twenty feet about the forest floor.

Chrysalis hit the ground with enough force to leave a crater. She struggled to her hooves, spat a glob of blood from between her fangs, and conjured the last of her emergency love vials. She downed each in a single gulp, sighing with pleasure as the warm liquid trickled down her throat and filled her second stomach to capacity.

That good for nothing fish was going to wish she’d never been born.

Sunset’s hatred blazed as she shot out of the cave, her aura singeing leaves and branches off of trees in passing. Her demon form looked just as it had on the day of the Fall Formal; but she didn’t pause to admire herself, however much she loved this form.

Hated this form?

Black electricity raced down her arms as she wrenched nearly a dozen trees out of the ground with her telekinetic grip; she hefted them above her head as she rose into the air, eyes locking with Adagio. Her anger surged at the sight of her, and the trees caught fire as she flung them towards her.

No, she loved this form. Definitely loved.

Not a second after she had launched her attack, she put her claws to her temples, her eyes morphing into black and white swirls. Twilight froze as the hypnosis set in, her eyes turning creamy and solid.

Somewhere in her mind, she felt a twinge of disgust for herself, but it soon passed. Twilight was her friend! She was only doing what Twilight would’ve done herself—making them pay.

Adagio saw the mass of burning trees coming with plenty of time to react. She opened her mouth and expelled waves of vibrations that would turn them into mere splinters.

Expect they never connected. Swirling wormholes appeared left and right, each one catching one projectile tree and spewing it back out directly behind Adagio. She was helpless to fight against the sheer weight of the attack, and disappeared beneath the small uprooted forest as it crashed into the ground.

Suddenly, shadowy figures rose from the forest to surround Sunset. They resembled changelings, but were magical constructs. Dark magic, by the looks of it—no doubt Chrysalis’s work.

The shadow-changelings swarmed Sunset. They poofed into smoke after getting hit by any of her attacks, but there were so many of them that no matter how quickly Sunset shot out lasers and crackling balls of energy, they still managed to gain ground on her. By the time she had destroyed them all, she was peppered with with cuts from their fangs and hooves. For creatures that looked like they were made out of smoke, they sure did hurt.

She looked around for Chrysalis, and found her off to the side, boring a laser into Twilight’s head.

Sunset groaned. “Oh, give it up! She should serve me!”

Before she could worry about that, though, flaming shrapnels of wood exploded into her, tearing her clothes and skin. She looked down and saw that Adagio had dug herself out of her wooden prison and was fast approaching. Sunset snarled and prepared a ball of energy between her hands, but before she could fire, a portal opened in front of her and a sharp hit to her back sent her tumbling through, into someplace completely different. Were they were trying to trap her in another dimension?

She turned around to see Twilight retracting her fist from a portal, Chrysalis smirking next to her. Before Twilight could seal Sunset off, however, Adagio flew up behind the two of them and slammed their heads together with a painful-sounding clang.

Sunset took advantage of the distraction. Magic slithered up to her fingertips, and dark coils of energy shot from them, wrapping around her three opponents and binding them tight. Sunset yanked, and the cord whipped them through the open portal, pulling them all onto Sunset’s side.

She took a brief glimpse of her surroundings; they were in a human city. Tall grey buildings flanked busy, car-packed streets, and the throngs of people that bustled along the sidewalks had stopped to stare at the spectacle in the sky.

Sunset, still holding the other three in her lasso, moved her hand sharply downwards. Her prisoners sailed towards the street, about to crumple the cars that idled there, when somebody below screamed in terror.

Sunset’s hand jolted to a stop, as did her whip.

What are you doing? she thought, involuntarily. You’ll hurt Twilight and kill innocent people!

It’s worth it, she tried to think, but the words lacked conviction.

What’s going on? What’s wrong with my head?

Sunset screamed and clutched at her skull.

Twilight was floating, yet it felt like there was a thousand feet of water pressing down against her. The layers of enchantment and glamour and hypnosis each felt like a giant needle piercing through her head and into her brain, right along with the constricting mental blanket of Midnight Sparkle.

It was all Adagio and Sunset’s fault. At least Chrysalis cared for her. She would give her unending love, and all she had to do was kill the others. Such a simple task, and it would make her so much happier.

Another needle stabbed into her head, and she screamed, the body her conscience had dreamt up thrashing and spasming in the white void. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it was over, replaced by waves of pleasure.

Sunset was there for her. She was such a good friend; Twilight wished she could be her slave for all of eternity.

“NO!” she screamed, blood curtling and heard by nobody in the limbo of her subconscious. “Sunset, why? It’s bad enough with just them!” She choked on her tears. “Sunset, help me…”

Sunset was her everything. She lived to do her bidding, and she was better for it. She’d have unending happiness. Be liberated from the toxicity of free will.

Twilight smiled as she trembled and shuddered, waiting for the next needle to come.

After almost slamming her into the asphalt, Sunset had re-hypnotized Twilight, but it hadn’t lasted for long. Twilight’s allegiance changed four times more before they found themselves back above the Castle of the Two Sisters in Equestria. They were all battered, bruised, burnt and bleeding (with the notable exception of Twilight, who was just getting mind-controlled, not attacked), but they each had a fiery determination, too. The fight couldn’t last forever, though; eventually, someone would fall.

As the massive portal to Earth close behind them, Chrysalis kicked things off, sending another beam of glamour into Twilight. However, this left her open, and Sunset pegged her with one of her signature exploding energy spheres. Twilight then proceeded to fire laser after laser into a small vortexin front of her, giving Adagio one hell of a time trying to dodge and dispel all of them as they bounced from portal to portal around her.

Chrysalis recovered quickly, and sent a web of dark cracks through the air towards Sunset. She opened her mouth and belched a barrage of flames as a counterattack, but wasn’t counting on Twilight’s interference. The flames flew straight through a portal and into Adagio’s backside, which Sunset wouldn’t have been too mad about if it hadn’t left her open to Chrysalis’s magic. The sharp, thin lines of dark arcana snaked towards her; she tried to dodge, but they chased after her, ripping the membrane of her left wing to shreds.

A scream tore itself from Sunset’s lips as she spiraled to the ground, landing right along side her trapped friends.

Luna awoke to the sounds of explosions and lasers and screaming. She blinked the sleep from her eyes and tried to sit up, immediately regretting it as pain burst up her leg.

“Don’t try to move,” a voice said softly. Luna turned her head to see Velvet kneeling next to her, bandaging some of the cuts on her body. “Your leg’s broken.”

As if on cue, another wave of pain jolted up her leg. Luna’s jaw clamped painfully.

She looked around her, if for no other reason than to distract from the pain. They were in the entry hall of the Castle of the Two Sisters; she was lying on the carpet, Velvet next to her and Lyra Heartstrings a few feet away. The girl looked bored, and was fidgeting with the medical supplies in the first aid kit by her feet.

She craned her neck upwards and saw a gaping hole in the side of the castle. Judging from the many small cuts and scrapes she had now that she hadn’t had before, she assumed she’d used that as the front door after Adagio had sung Celestia and her into the seventh ring of hell.

Crap, Celestia. Was she okay?

Luna saw her sister lying a few feet away from herself, still unconscious. She’d been stripped down to her underwear, and was doing a fantastic mummy impression with all the bandages around her. Luna’s brow creased with worry.

“She’ll be fine,” Velvet said. “Well, I think so. She’s pretty bad, but she’s not getting worse. Not that she’ll be up on her feet soon or anything, I don’t want to give you false hope! But it could be worse. You know?”

Lyra rolled her eyes. “She’s worse off than you are, but she’s not gonna die.”

Velvet glared. “I was trying to be polite.”

Luna ignored them. “She took the hit for me, didn’t she? When we smashed through the wall?”

Velvet pursed her lips.

“She wasn’t nearly that bad when we’d just killed Aria and Sonata,” Luna continued. She always had loose lips right after waking up, and that was without taking the blood loss into account. “But now she’s like that and I’m awake and talking. Figures. Always gotta protect little sister… ‘cause little sister already got the only other people who’d protect her killed.”

“So, do you still have your powers?” Lyra asked, trying her hand at a casual subject change. “Maybe the Moon could fix your injuries and then you could go help Sunset and Twilight beat the snot out of a bug and a fish as hot demons.”

“Nope. Pissed off the Moon. It’s gone.” Luna’s eyebrows knit together. “Sunset’s a demon again? She promised Celestia she wouldn’t do that. Though, I suppose it’s extenuating circumstances.”

Luna closed her eyes and laid her head back. “Still, though. She’s too much like me. Good heart, bad choices… Next thing you know, she’ll hurt someone she loves, and she doesn’t have a sister to look out for her when she does…”

With that, Luna fell back asleep.

The room was silent for a few minutes before Lyra spoke up: “She accidentally killed her parents?”

Velvet shot her a withering look. “I don’t know, and you shouldn’t try to find out. I suggest you forget that conversation ever happened.”

“That actually explains a lot. Like, a lot.”

“Young lady, if you don’t start acting respectful, I’ll force feed you some of Zecora’s medicine once she gets back.”

Lyra shut up.

Sunset was growing real tired of lying on the ground in pain. At least the dirt felt better than the hard stone from before, though that was a negligible comfort. She couldn’t fly anymore, and she wasn’t a hundred percent confident she could stand, either. All her injuries that had been tempered by adrenaline were finally catching up with her, and not even her demon strength could weather them all.

But it wasn’t over. It wouldn’t be over until she’d gotten her revenge.

Until she’d saved her friends?

Until Chrysalis and Adagio were dead?

Until they got back home?

Her headache was coming back. Ugh, this form didn’t deal with morals very well.

Shakily, she clambered onto her feet. She could still feel her magic within her—that dark, icky mana that smelt of burnt rubber—which meant she could still channel it. She could still fight.

But she needed some advantage; she couldn’t beat them as she was, with one wing nothing more than a stick of bloody flesh.

She looked around, and noticed wispy trails of multicolored magic floating through the air all around her. She traced them to their sources: her imprisoned friends.

The magic was all being channeled towards the same point in the field. What could be taking her friends’ magic? When Sunset hobbled over to it, she found Twilight’s locket lying discarded on the ground.

Of course… She must’ve dropped it when she transformed, just like during the Friendship Games! Sunset could feel an idea coming on. Looks like its passive absorption effect triggered when Twilight released the inhibitors. It recognizes the signature of their friendship magic, so it latched onto it…

She smirked. And that means I can use it.

Sunset picked up the locket and examined it. Sure enough, it was stocked with friendship magic.

She wondered what would happen when a single body channeled both pure and corrupted friendship magic. Hopefully it wouldn’t rip her apart.

“Welp, here goes nothing,” Sunset said, throwing the locket onto the ground.

As the magic washed over her, the left half of her body faded from blood-red to light orange. A necklace bearing her cutie mark materialized around her neck, and a wing made of pure light spiked out where her leathery one had been torn to pieces. Half of her skirt turned to a neat-hemmed multilayered white, somehow seamlessly blending into the roughly cut orange-yellow fabric at the middle. The dress above changed to match, heavenly on one side and hellish on the other. She felt her left claw somewhat painfully crunch into a regular human hand, a white fingerless glove adorning it, and one of her boots shrunk down into a much slimmer and more regal gold one. A glowing horn shooting out of her forehead completed the look as she shot up through the air, a ball of half-light and half-dark energy crackling between her discrepant hands.

The monotony of Twilight’s personal hell inside her mind was suddenly broken by a golden light, and Sunset appeared. Her right half was her demon form—the one Twilight had sworn to serve several times in the past hour—but her left half was her angel form, the one that had pulled Twilight from this place the last time she’d become Midnight.

For the first time in what felt like forever, Twilight felt a spark of hope.

“Sunset!” she called. “Obey the sirens. I live to serve you, Sunset. Save me, please! Die!”

Sunset cringed. “I’m so sorry, Twilight. I should never have used my powers on you.”

“I was honored to be your slave. My Queen comes before all else. I need to learn! Save me…”

Sunset frowned and approached. “This might hurt some, but it should remove the spells.” She wrapped her claw around the crown of Twilight’s head, and placed her gloved hand directly in front of her face.

Twilight screamed, and everything turned a golden black.

When Twilight came to, she was floating in the sky, far above where she had transformed. She felt lightheaded, and she had a few minor injuries, but other than that, she felt perfectly fine. Perhaps the weirdest sensation was having Midnight’s body without her overwhelming presence haunting her mind. She opened her palm, and a portal appeared; she had Midnight’s powers, too. So where had she gone?

An explosion rocked the air around her, and she whirled around to find Sunset going head to head with Chrysalis and Adagio. Lasers, sound waves, and lightning flashed between them, all far too fast for her to follow. After a minute, Sunset was launched out of the fray, and Twilight quickly cast a portal to catch her before she hit the ground. Sunset righted herself and flew to Twilight’s side, giving her a grateful look.

“What did you do?” Twilight asked. “I’ve still got this form, but my mind’s perfectly fine.”

“I purified your mind and strengthened the curse on your body. It won’t last much longer, though; the magic I used was self-contradictory, so it’ll burn itself out. Same with my own transformation, actually. My angel half is trying to purify my demon half as we speak.”

“So we have to end this now, basically.”

Sunset smirked. “Exactly.”

“Having a nice CHAT?!” Chrysalis roared from afar, firing a massive laser at them.

With a flick of her wrist, Twilight sent it straight into the side of the queen’s head.

“Got a plan for how to end this?” Twilight asked.

Sunset reached out her angelic hand and dissolved some approaching sound waves with a cleansing laser. “No, do you?”

“Yeah. Can you push them backwards?”

Sunset didn’t need to ask why. Not because she knew what Twilight was planning, but because there was this look in the girl’s eye, the same look that she got whenever she was developing a new device, or unraveling the newest ‘unsolvable math problem’ she’d found online, or playing chess against Sunset.

It was the look she got whenever she knew she wouldn’t stop at anything until she succeeded.

So Sunset didn’t ask any questions. She just shot forward, one hand glowing gold and the other black. Chrysalis and Adagio shot attack after attack towards her, but she wove back and forth, dodging the vast majority of assault. Those that did manage to hit her she shrugged off. They’d leave a mark, but she wasn’t about to stop now.

When she got as close to them as she needed to be, she took her hands, one bristling with black magic and the other with light—the opposite extremes of the thaumic energy scale, the two magics that every unicorn filly is told to never dabble in, the two magics that were never meant to be mixed—and slammed them together.

At the same time, the largest dimensional rift Sunset had ever seen opened up just behind Chrysalis and Adagio, and through it, Sunset glimpsed the tumultuous, rippling flames of the human sun.

The explosion that erupted from between Sunset’s hands blew out her eardrums and exhausted the energies of both her transformations. She shrunk back down into her true form and flew backwards faster than what she thought was a reasonable terminal velocity, unable to move a muscle as the air ripped at her fur and skin.

She was unconscious before she hit the ground.

Twilight was barely able to hold the portal open for the time it took for Chrysalis and Adagio to sail head-over-tail through it (which, with the force of Sunset’s explosion, wasn’t much time at all). Their screams went dead silent as soon as they passed through the filter of the portal and entered the vacuum, but wouldn’t have been audible anyway with how quickly the wormhole collapsed in on itself as Twilight’s dress and accessories were replaced with her school clothes.

She tumbled downwards and into the waiting arms of her mother, who stroked her hair and smiled.

“You did it, honey,” Velvet whispered. “It’s all over now.”

She sighed. “I think it’s finally time we got home.”

Author's Note

Just the epilogues left now...

Epilogue I - Only One More Night Together

Epilogue I - Only One More Night Together

All of Canterlot was dead quiet. No ponies walked the streets, no changelings patrolled about, no sirens lurked unseen. Had anypony been there, they would have said that it felt as though the entire city were in a dream; the houses stood stock still, frozen in time; the palace loomed, as picturesque as it was imposing; there wasn’t even a hint of wind to rustle the leaves in the gardens. In fact, the only thing of note was small gathering of ponies and humans inside the palace, all huddled in the grand hall where Adagio and her sisters had been keeping the imprisoned Elements of Harmony.

Princess Twilight Sparkle awoke once again to Sunset’s face.

She smiled. “I knew you had it in you.”

Sunset chuckled and gestured behind her. “Well, it wasn’t all me. I had some help.”

Princess Twilight pulled herself out of the changeling-silk shell and observed the group. She cringed as she saw how heavily injured some of them were: Luna was on crutches, Celestia was wrapped head to toe in bandages and one of her arms was in a crude sling, the tall black woman was missing a hand, and Sunset looked like she’d crawled out of her grave, jumped off a cliff, and gone through a car wash that used fire instead of water. Twilight was honestly surprised she was able to stand; she wondered how many spells she’d had to cast on herself to dull the pain.

Nevertheless, Twilight cheerfully greeting each member of Sunset’s ragtag revolution—she was, after all, the Princess of Friendship.

“Hey, Zecora! Glad you were able to escape her… Nice to see you too, Principal… Ha ha, hey, other Twilight! I always knew I had it in me to beat Chrysalis!”

She stopped dead as she got to the agent of the same name. Her eyes narrowed. “You’re the human version of Chrysalis, aren’t you?”

Chrysalis gave her a level look. “Got a problem?”

Twilight blinked once, then let out a giggle. “Not at all! Queen Chrysalis might have been evil and delusional, but she had some good qualities, too; determination, loyalty to her species, ambition, creativity. I’m glad you didn’t fall down the same path she did.”

Chrysalis looked a bit shaken at the praise, and Twilight moved on before she thought to respond.

“Wow. They weren’t kidding about her friendship abilities,” Lyra whispered to Bon Bon. “You need a pretty open mind to get along with Chrysalis.”

Bon Bon stifled a laugh behind a hand.

Ever since Twilight and her friends had been freed, Velvet had been staring none too subtly at the princess. When Twilight finally noticed her, she started staring, too.

“You look weird like that,” they said in unison. They exchanged a single look before bursting out laughing.

“So am I to expect Twilight to grow up to become a princess?” Velvet asked in between laughs.

“I doubt it,” Princess Twilight responded, smiling like an idiot. “After all, your human monarchies don’t function the way Equestria’s does, and since you live in a democracy anyway, it might be fairly difficult. Changing a country’s governmental structure is a dangerous game; I’d know, I’ve done it a couple times myself.”

The laughter died out as Twilight didn’t stop talking.

“Though, I suppose the Dragonlands are still under a crude dictatorship, technically. It’s just that Dragon Lady Ember’s rule will likely be so radically different from Dragon Lord Torch’s that it may as well have been a complete governmental shift.”

Twilight walked away from her kind-of-not-really-mother and began pacing as she spoke, waving around her hooves every so often in a poor attempt at miming. “She even talked about possibly changing to a republic at our last correspondence, but that poses a lot of issues in itself; namely, whether or not the average dragon citizen is politically aware enough to make an informed decision. No offense to you, Spike, but some of those dragons’ hides are just too darn thick.”

“Hey Twilight?” Rainbow Dash called.

She stopped her speech. “Yes?”

“Shut up,” the other Rainbow Dash said.

“Y’all better not start finishin’ each other’s sentences now,” one of the Applejacks said. “Ah’m already beyond confused as it is.”

“Maybe we could find some way to distinguish ourselves?” the human Fluttershy suggested.

Rarity smiled. “Excellent idea, Fluttershy! We can be ‘ones’—for example, I’d be Rarity One—and you all shall be twos. No more confusion!”

“Hey, how come you guys get to be the ones?” a Pinkie Pie protested.

As the argument escalated, Princess Twilight maneuvered her way to Sunset’s side. “This is exactly why I didn’t want them to follow me through the portal when I came over during the Battle of the Bands.”

“I think you made the right call,” Sunset said. “So what’s the plan now?”

“I’m not exactly sure. There’s so much work we need to do, I don’t even know where to start.” She frowned and started to fidget anxiously. “I could really use a checklist right about now.”

“Oh! I’ve got a spare!” Human Twilight fished through her pockets and procured both a long sheet of paper filled with blank lines and boxes and a pencil. She passed them to her counterpart, who shot her a grateful smile.

“Thanks. You’re a lifesaver.”

Twilight beamed.

Sunset shook her head. “You two are so similar it’s scary. I mean, who else would ask for a checklist, and who else would just have one lying around?”

The Twilights started to talk in unison. “Checklists are an efficient organizational tool, Sunset.”

The girl buried her face in her hands. “Please don’t. I’ve already heard this from each of you at least twice.”

“Hey wait!” a voice shouted, and the hubbub of the room died down as everybody turned to look at Pinkie and Pinkie, who appeared mildly panicked.

“We forgot something!” said the one who hadn’t spoken before.

Pony Applejack sighed. “What did we forget, Pinkie?”

“A PARTY!” they shouted in unison, spraying confetti into every possible crevice of the grand hall.

“You know,” Principal Celestia said, “I could actually really use a party right about now.”

“And a hard drink,” Luna added.

“There are children here!” Velvet chastised.

“Like we give a damn,” Lyra retorted.

“That sounds like a great idea, Pinkie,” Princess Twilight said before it could escalate further. “And Pinkie,” she quickly amended. “But we should at least free, like, the other princesses first.”

A Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Well, go and do it then, already!”

Pony Pinkie hopped forward and thrust a stack of papers into Twilight’s hooves. “Make sure to give them an invitation!”

“When did you—”

“C’mon, Pinkie,” Pinkie urged. “We have a party to plan!”

“I’m right behind you, Pinkie!”

Sunset watched them go. “There’s, like, a thirty percent chance they’ll destroy Equestria.”

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna rose from their melted chrysalises with their ever present grace, and were promptly squeezed into a hug by Princess Twilight.

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re okay!” she chirped, letting go and taking a step back.

“The same to you,” Celestia said.

“So, you two seem awfully calm.”

Luna chuckled. “When you grow as old as we have, there is little that manages to phase you.”

“Besides,” Celestia added, “we knew you would be able to defeat Chrysalis in the end.”

“Truly! You are indeed reliable, young Sparkle.”

Twilight bit her lip and rubbed at the back of her neck with one hoof. “Heheh, yeah, about that…”

“Oh, hey, Aunty!” greeted Cadance as she picked bits of stray amber out of her mane. “Long time no see!”

“It’s nice to see you as well, Cadance. How’s the baby?” Celestia bent over and melted away the amber surrounding Shining Armor as she spoke.

“Oh, Flurry’s been much better ever since the whole Crystal Heart incident. Not to say she’s been easy, though. Heh, this one time, Shiny was working on tax stuff when—”

“CHANGELINGS!” Shining Armor shouted at the top of his lungs, jumping onto his feet and slamming a shield spell into Celestia’s cheek. Apparently, he hadn’t yet shaken off the grogginess of the magically induced coma.

“Shining, no! Bad!”

At his wife’s words, Shining finally realized who he had been assaulting. “C-Celestia! Uh, Captain Armor, at your service! Wait, no, I’m not captain anymore. Well! This is awkward.”

“Yes, quite,” agreed Celestia, not breaking from the polite and slightly condescending smile that she seemed so fond of. “In any case, I have an invitation for you both.” Celestia levitated them a pink envelope. “For after we free the guards, of course.”

Cadance tore open the seal and brought up a letter. “ ‘You are invited to Friendship Castle for Pinkie and Pinkie’s Super Fun Trans-Dimensional Post Complete Changeling Takeover Cheering-Up/Meet and Greet/Farewell Party.’ Well, that’s certainly a mouthful.”

“You both should attend. I’m sure it will be much more exciting than the stuffy old Galas we always have.”

Shining Armor and Cadance looked at each other. “Well, it can’t hurt.”

“Ha! I win again!” Discord took his knight and used it to knock down the enemy king, who screamed and burst into flames. “You know, maybe if you weren’t constantly plotting petty revenge, you’d improve your game.”

“It isn’t petty, Discord.” Tirek clenched a fist, fire lighting behind his eyes. “If I so much as see the face of one of those despicable ponies again, I swear to the demons below that I’ll—”

Tirek was cut off by the ripping sound of a portal opening, and dark blue light spilled onto the brimstone ground of Tartarus. Discord broke into a mischievous grin as he spotted Princess Luna leaning casually against the edge of the rift, looking at him with an air of general distaste.

“I thought I might find you here, Discord. After all, it is one of the only places from which you cannot bother me.”

Discord slithered over to her side. “Now, Luna, what makes you think I’d ever try to bother you?”

“Is it not the only thing you’re good for?”

Discord crossed his arms. “Now that was just mean.”

“Tough.” Luna jerked her head towards the portal, the inside of her royal quarters visible on the other side. “Now come on, unless you want to rot in here for another century or two.”

“I always did like Celestia more than you,” he grumbled, slinking the way she was gesturing.

“Freedom will be MINE!” Tirek roared. He charged Luna, shackled arms outstretched.

Luna and Discord simultaneously kicked him in the face, sending him flying. They crossed through the blue vortex and Luna closed it cleanly after them.

“Careful what you say,” Luna replied, ignoring the interruption. “I might unleash the horror of Nightmare Moon on you.”

“Oh no! I’m so terrified of the villain that returned for all of six hours before being beaten by brand new elements of harmony!”

“Stuff it.” Luna fished out a pink envelope and threw it at Discord’s face. “Here. Try not to scare the guests away.”

Discord peeled the letter off his face with a disgusting squelching sound. The envelope melted away and fell to the floor in a puddle of bubbling goop as he read the enclosed invitation.

“Ooh, a Pinkie Pie party! I do believe I shall be in attendance.” He popped the letter into his mouth, chewed a few times, and swallowed. “See you there!”

A quick wave of a claw later, and Discord was gone.

The party was in full swing by the time Sunset arrived at Friendship Castle. The Pinkies had gone all out—lights flashed, music pounded, seemingly endless confetti rained from the sky, ponies and humans danced together, and those with comparable social skills to Sunset enjoyed the practical feast of snacks that were laid out across several tables.

Sunset snuck her way over beside Princess Twilight. “Enjoying the punch?”

Twilight laughed. “Want some? It’s amazing.” She levitated Sunset a glass.

Sunset took a sip and hummed approvingly. “You’re right, that is amazing. Though it’d probably be even better if it was spiked.”

“That would also be illegal at a party hosting minors.”

“Oh, come on. Who’s gonna arrest the saviors and monarchs of Equestria?”

“Sunset.”

She sighed. “You’re no fun.”

They watched in silence for a second as the Rainbow Dashes failed miserably to dance with one another. Sunset’s confusion grew as she noticed the Applejacks, who were also dancing together, laughing at them. She squinted and noticed that the Rarities and Pinkies had also paired up.

She shot Twilight a questioning glance. “What are our friends doing?”

“Well, first it was just the Pinkie and Pinkie dancing together, because, well, they’re Pinkie and Pinkie. But then your Rainbow Dash said that she bet she and the other Rainbow would be better at dancing with each other than the two Applejacks, and obviously they couldn’t turn down a challenge like that. But they were so awful at it that the two Rarities insisted that they needed to ‘show those ruffians how it’s done’. The Fluttershies, my counterpart and I decided to stay out of it.”

“I think you made the right choice. Where are the others?”

“It’s hard to see with all the lights and ponies everywhere, but… Well, I know Starlight’s hiding in her room, for one. Spike’s probably browsing the snacks, and so is Twilight, so they’ll probably run into each other and start talking. Lyra’s following Bon Bon who’s following Chrysalis—I think Bon Bon hopes she can dissolve any nasty situations Chrysalis inevitably causes—oh, and the principals and the princesses are over there.”

Sunset automatically looked in the direction Twilight pointed, and by pure coincidence, Princess Celestia looked over the crowd at the same instant. Their eyes met, and Sunset froze.

Celestia smiled warmly, and Sunset began to panic. “Hey, uh, Twilight, we should probably get the portal working.”

Twilight blinked. “We don’t have to do that for another hour.”

“But, uh, what if something goes wrong? What if Chrysalis did more damage to it than we thought? What if we decide to leave ahead of schedule? What if the castle catches on fire and the doors are blocked and we need to evacuate? There are too many variables!”

Sunset felt sort of bad playing on Twilight’s panicky nature like that, but she had a good reason. Princess Celestia was one pony she was not ready to talk to.

Twilight’s eyes widened as Sunset listed each possibility. By the end of her speech, she looked positively terrified. “I didn’t even think of all that! You’re right, we have no time to lose—come on!”

Princess Celestia chuckled softly as Sunset ran away. She hadn’t thought Sunset wanted to talk, but fleeing at the mere sight of her… As things change, they stay the same, she supposed.

“Celestia has always wanted to be a principal,” her sister was saying. “I have yet to discern her reasoning behind such a desire.”

Principal Celestia crossed her arms defiantly. “And what’s wrong with being a principal?”

Vice-Principal Luna gave her sister a hard look. “Want me to give you a list?”

Princess Celestia chuckled. “I think it would be a wonderfully interesting experience. I did found a school, you know; but my duties as princess have unfortunately kept me from being more involved in its operation. I’m not certain of the last time I even set foot on its premise, to be honest.”

Her counterpart sighed and picked at the cast on her arm. “To be honest, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. I mean, it’s a fine job, and the children are sweet, and it’s probably the best position I’ve ever had… but the paperwork is just awful.”

“The children aren’t that sweet,” the Vice-Principal grumbled.

“Truly?” said Princess Luna. “I’ve found assisting children in their dreams to be one of the most satisfying parts of my job.”

“But teenagers?”

“Well… I suppose you have a point there.”

Princess Celestia gave a short laugh, and allowed a comfortable silence to set in before she speak again. “I must thank you both for your help in the battle against Chrysalis. Equestria is greatly in your debt; as are us personally, for your harboring of the Sun and Moon.”

Luna—the human one—lifted one arm from her crutches to scratch nervously behind her head. “Yeah, sorry about the whole… ‘abusing the Moon’ thing.”

Princess Luna smiled conspiratorially. “Do not feel bad about your actions. I believe you taught the Moon a most valuable lesson in humility.”

Principal Celestia stared blankly. “But… wasn’t there something about not upsetting the balance of day and night and all that?”

“Precisely,” Princess Celestia stated, side-eying her sister. “The overall disturbance from the past week will likely take nearly a month to stabilize.”

Princess Luna snorted. “I care not. Somepony needed to knock that hunk of cheese off its pedestal.”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed. “I do hope you blocked the mental link before saying that, dear sister.”

“Not a chance.”

The principals looked at each other and tried not to laugh.

Celestia sighed. “Well, it was a delight to meet you two, but I’m afraid we must be off. We have some celestial bodies to placate.”

“One last item before we depart,” said Princess Luna.

She turned to face her counterpart and stared deep into the Vice-Principal’s eyes. “I see guilt within you, Luna, guilt that used to plague my own mind. You must forgive yourself if you wish to lead a happy life.”

Luna shifted uncomfortably at the sudden change in mood. “Um…”

“I know you do not believe you are deserving of forgiveness; that is what I thought, too, once. Understand that I nearly destroyed Equestria for it. I pray thee, Luna, do not repeat my mistakes.”

As the princesses left, Celestia took Luna’s hand in hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

Velvet and Prince Shining Armor stared at one another.

“Huh,” said Velvet. “So if you’re a prince and Twilight’s a princess, am I a queen?”

Princess Cadance raised an eyebrow. “We don’t have queens.”

“What? Why not?”

“Everypony knows queens are evil, mom.”

“Well, fine,” Velvet said, crossing her arms. “Am I at least some sort of royalty?”

They shook their heads.

“Can you make me royalty?”

Cadance’s lips parted slightly. “Uh.”

Velvet threw her hands in the air. “Well, at least tell me who to complain to!”

“Why don’t we go check out the punch,” Shining said, steering his wife away from Velvet.

Cadance looked over her shoulder and caught Velvet’s eye. The woman was trying very hard not to giggle, and gave the princess a playful wink.

“I hate parties,” Lyra grumbled. She and Bon Bon were leaning against the wall at the edge of the ballroom, as far away from the loudspeakers as possible.

“Come on,” Sweetie Drops said. “Enjoy yourself!”

Lyra crossed her arms. “I’d rather be enjoying you. In private.”

Bon Bon blushed. “Okay, me too, but it’s not polite to run off during a party in your honor.”

“What do you know about what’s polite?”

“More than you.”

Lyra huffed. She hated it when Bon Bon was right.

It was then that Chrysalis returned from the snack table. She was frustratedly wringing out her blouse, which someone had spilled punch on. She was having difficulty doing so with only one hand, however, and the act was seriously contributing to her general air of contempt for the world.

“I hate parties,” she grumbled.

“See?” Lyra said.

“Chrysalis doesn’t like anything,” Sweetie returned.

“She likes you.”

Chrysalis glared at Lyra. “Don’t put words in my mouth, kid.”

“Play nice,” Bon Bon commanded.

“I thought you wanted me to play rough, Bon B—huh?”

Lyra’s seductive grin turned to empty air. “Bon Bon?”

The sound of metal on metal rang through the air. Lyra whirled around to see Sweetie Drops standing over Chrysalis, who was crouched on the ground with her good hand poised to attack. The half of Bon Bon’s blade that she still had was grating against the blade of a pony garbed in black. The pony was upside down, balancing on their clashing weapons.

Sweetie Drops pushed, and the pony leapt backwards, flipping once and coming to a clean landing.

“What’s going on?!” somepony shouted. It seemed they’d attracted a ring of onlookers.

“She tried to attack Chrysalis,” Sweetie said.

“Of course I did!” the pony replied. “She’s evil!”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “How many times do I have to go over this?”

A mint green unicorn walked out of the crowd and poked the masked pony in the shoulder. “Babe. That’s the other Chrysalis.”

“I know that! She’s probably evil!”

Sweetie Drops squinted. “Lyra?”

The unicorn gave an affirmative-sounding grunt.

“Wait, that means…” the human Lyra pointed at the masked pony.

The pony’s hood was enveloped in green magic and promptly ripped off, revealing Bon Bon underneath.

“Huh,” Chrysalis said.

Human Sweetie Drops pointed at her mentor with a thumb. “She’s on our side, you know.”

Pony Sweetie Drops looked between the two for a couple seconds before laughing and sheathing her dagger. “Looks like this was all a misunderstanding, huh?”

Human Sweetie Drops laughed along with her. “Seems like it!”

Both of their laughter promptly stopped, and they leaned forward, glaring into each other’s eyes.

“But if you try to attack her again, I’ll kill you.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

“Ooookaaay,” the Lyras said in unison, dragging their respective Bon Bons away from each other.

As they watched their pony counterparts disappear into the crowd of spectators, who promptly turned away as well now that the show was over, Lyra turned to Sweetie Drops.

“I don’t think you should go near her.”

“She better hope I don’t go near her, that backstabbing poser.”

Lyra opened her mouth, let it hang there for a few seconds, and then slowly closed it.

Bon Bon quickly perked back up, though. “Well, that was exciting! What should we do next? I think Pinkie’s got bobbing for apples. I’ve always wanted to try that.”

Lyra sighed and shared a sympathetic glance with Chrysalis as she let herself be dragged across the castle.

Twilight nearly dropped her drink. “Spike?”

The little dragon looked up at her and grinned haughtily, kissing his muscles. “The one and only.”

He then bit into a ruby. Naturally, he was surprised when his jaws clamped down on his bare claws instead.

“Ow! Hey, where did my—”

“This”—Twilight waved the ruby in front of his face—“is a rock. It is not meant for eating!”

“Uh, Twilight? Dragons eat rocks.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Yeah, and I’m sure dragons also eat my shoes, and the couch pillows, and my lunch for school, and my homework.”

Spike put one claw up. “Actually—”

“I’ve heard all the excuses, Spike. Out of your mouth, too, in a way! They’re not going to work on me!”

Somepony cleared their throat. Twilight turned to see Rarity, who walked up to her, whispered something in her ear, and went on her way.

Twilight turned bright red and gave Spike his ruby back. “Sorry. I thought you were a pet.”

Spike looked at her like she’d just said she didn’t like the color purple.

“I’ll be going now,” she said, then gave a nervous laugh and ran away.

Spike stared after her long past when she’d vanished from his sight. “…What?”

The party had long since wound down, and Princess Twilight waved as Sunset stepped backwards through the portal, the last one to go through. Her promise to visit again soon hung in the air, and Twilight smiled. She looked forward to it.

Shaking her head to clear it, she turned to her friends, and pulled them all into a group hug. She held them there for a while.

“Come on, girls,” she said, finally letting them go. “We have a lot of work to do.”

Epilogue II - But I'll Stay With You Forever

Epilogue II - But I’ll Stay With You Forever

As the dizzying and disorienting effects of form-changing and transdimensional travel wore off, Sunset stepped forward from the base of the Wondercolt statue, and straight into Twilight’s back.

“Why’d you stop moving?” she asked, looking around Twilight’s shoulder.

She quickly had her answer. Apparently, school had just let out—the courtyard was packed full with students, as it always was right after the final bell, and every single one of them was frozen in place and staring at them.

Pinkie Pie smiled brightly and waved, and the rest of the Rainbooms nervously followed suit.

“Oh my god, they’re alive!” someone called out, and the courtyard erupted into the chaotic sound of a hundred voices at once.

“This might be a bad time to mention that time doesn’t flow consistently across dimensions,” Sunset said.

Applejack half-lidded her eyes. “Ya think?”

“Wait, so… how much time has passed?” Rarity asked.

“No idea.”

“Well that’s reassuring,” Lyra sneered.

Twilight hummed and fiddled with her locket. “From what I can tell, it’s anything from a couple days less than the time we experienced to… Er…” she clamped her lips together.

“To what?” Velvet prompted. “C’mon, you can tell us.”

“…To a bit less than a month. B-but that’s a worse case scenario!” she added on quickly as their faces dropped. “If we got lucky, then—”

“After you vanished for two weeks, we thought for sure you weren’t coming back!” a student screamed, somehow managing to be louder than the babble of the crowd.

Twilight stopped talking. The corner of her mouth began to twitch.

“Well, I suppose it could be worse,” Luna said.

Celestia shook her head violently back in forth. “Nope. No, no, nu-uh, nope. I am not doing two weeks’ worth of backed up paper work.”

Suddenly, Velvet pointed towards the doors to the school. “Look! It’s Cadance!”

Sure enough, Dean Cadance was standing in front of the main entrance, her hand over her mouth and her eyes tearing up. She lingered there for a brief moment, then bounded down the steps. She tore through the mass of students, pushing and shoving with a ferocity none present had ever anticipated from the woman, and tackled Velvet, Twilight, and Luna into a fierce hug.

“Oh my god I can’t believe it’s you!” she cried, her voice on the precipice of unintelligibility. “I was just coming outside because one of the teachers told me that all the students had stopped moving and so I wanted to see what that was about but then I saw you and I—I just couldn’t believe it!”

As she paused to take a breath, Luna tried telling her to slow down, but she had barely gotten a syllable out before Cadance’s relieved ranting steamrolled right on over her.

“When you disappeared two weeks ago we were just so crushed—oh, especially Shiny—you should really talk to him, Twilight—but it just got worse and you never came back and the police were stumped! And the students—they talked about these aliens and some portal, but they didn’t really know what happened either, and—oh, Celestia, you’ll be glad to know I took over duties at CHS until you returned—but, oh, I’m just so happy you’re all okay!”

Velvet smiled at her. “Yeah, well, so are we.”

Celestia’s eyes widened. “Wait, the police were involved? Did they find anything out?”

Chrysalis stepped forward. “I can cover it up.”

Celestia sighed. “Oh, thank you, I—”

“I am also going to have to exert more control over your operation of this school.”

Luna’s face wrinkled in disgust. “Excuse you?”

“We almost died!” Chrysalis exclaimed. “Two universes were nearly conquered. And this is the fourth time something like this has happened. This”—she gestured to the portal—“is one of the most dangerous objects on the planet. Most of my colleagues would have me just destroy it!”

Sunset balled up her fist. “You better not.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “I just said I’m not going to. Truthfully, I hope we can work out a mutually beneficial partnership with the Equestrian government down to line, and, as much as you want to paint me like the heartless villain, I don’t want to sever you from your home dimension. Okay?!”

Sunset nodded, but her eyes were still narrowed.

“So what do you want to do?” Cadance asked.

“Set up defensive measures against this sort of thing happening in the future. Put in some more sleeper agents, like Agent Drops. Maybe arm your school with some magical artifacts.”

Sunset’s eyes widened. “You have magic?!”

“No,” Chrysalis said, pinching the bridge of her nose, “we have magical artifacts. You’re not the first one from your dimension to come here, you know, and they leave things behind.

“Look, I… I l—” She made a face. “L—li—” She sighed. “I have… an above average regard for you people. I don’t want to hurt you, I don’t want to seize your school, I don’t want to kidnap you and experiment on you. All I want,” she said, speaking slowly, “is to keep this school, and its students, and everyone else, safe. And I’m damn tired of you people antagonizing me for it. Got it?”

Luna took a minute to stare, and then mumbled, “I think we’ll be able to work something out.”

“See, Chrysalis?” Bon Bon said. “If you tone down the yelling and the swearing and the insults, then people are a lot more receptive to your ideas.”

Chrysalis trained a death glare on her. “Don’t patronize me, Sweetie Drops. And, yes, that’s an order.”

She turned to Celestia and Luna. “We’ll be in touch. I gotta go explain this”—she waved her missing hand around—“to my boss.”

With one final huff, she turned and walked away, the sea of students parting before her as if she were Moses, scared to get in her way.

As she was leaving, Bon Bon grabbed Lyra’s arm and dragged her away, too, saying something about how she wanted a little relaxation after all this excitement. Lyra turned back to the group and stage whispered, “Score!”

Chrysalis’s snort could be heard from a mile away.

Rarity gave Rainbow Dash a sideways glance as their allies departed. “And you’re saying you had no idea they were together before this?”

Rainbow shook her head dumbly. Rarity sighed.

Not too much later, Cadance took Celestia and Luna back into the school, all of them exchanging hollow laughs about the daunting amount of paperwork that would no doubt surround the issue.

“Hey! I know just the thing to celebrate returning to Earth!” Pinkie said.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Lemme guess: a party?”

“A PARTY!”

“Yeah, maybe tomorrow, Pinkie,” Sunset said. “I just want to go to sleep.”

Her friends all mumbled their agreement, Twilight already beginning to drag her mother towards the parking lot.

Sunset barely managaed to put one foot in front of the other as she began the walk to her house, her feet dragging against the pavement.

She opened her front door in a daze, practically fell up the stairs, stumbled into her room, and was asleep before she hit the pillow.

Thankfully, they had returned on a Friday, so Sunset had the weekend to recover before school was back in session. Not that anybody would think less of her if she stayed home—she was, after all, severely injured—but she didn’t want to get any farther behind than she was already.

Presently, she found herself lazing on her couch, listening to the television drone on about… well, about her.

“The twelve missing people that disappeared from Canterlot High School two weeks ago have thankfully been found,” the TV buzzed. “The rescue has been credit to an FBI special operative, but as she refused to share her face, name, or involvement in the case, that is all the information we have on the subject. The group of rescued civilians have also declined to disclose anything about what happened. In other news, the video coverage of ‘a horse slamming into the Eiffel Tower’ and ‘Goddesses fighting in the sky’ have been analyzed, and professionals say that video editing is an obvious and entirely realistic explanation, despite what supporters are saying. Eyewitnesses remain unwavering in their claims.”

Sunset sighed and turned off the TV. She didn’t want to have to deal with the fallout now. Not ever, really, but especially not now.

She got up off the sofa, got her motorcycle from the garage, and headed off.

Sunset soon arrived at Canterlot High, parking her bike and walking up to the statue. Well, if it could still be called a statue. It was more of a stone block now, after Twilight had zapped it.

She laid her hand on the portal’s surface, watching as it rippled and waved at her touch. If she looked hard enough, she could almost make out the reflection of her true form. She wondered if that was an effect of the magic, or if she was finally going insane. It’d be about time.

She’d been so caught up in all the action that it hadn’t really sunk in that she had returned to Equestria. It was something she’d been losing sleep over for so long, and when it finally happened, she had barely noticed.

It hadn’t felt like she’d expected it to feel. She’d thought going back would rouse a melting pot of emotions within her, that she’d be all tears and angst and giddiness, but it had been… underwhelming. And she supposed that made sense; she had been living with aliens in a different dimension that had technological advancements nopony in Equestria had ever dreamed of. Really, the only reason Sunset had for going back home was that she liked being able to use magic.

But they had magic here, too, now. Hell, there’d been magic on Earth long before Sunset arrived. So, really, why would she want to go back?

Because it’s your home, some part of her whispered.

Was it really, though?

Sure, she had friends in Equestria, but she had better friends here; sure, her parents were in Equestria, but they’d all given up on each other long ago; sure, she’d been born in Equestria, but she’d become a whole new person after the Formal. She’d been reborn, if you were feeling poetic.

But was she ready to spend the rest of her life here? There were practical reasons to leave: she was a legal invalid, she couldn’t hide forever, she seemed to cause more problems for Earth than she fixed… And she had this feeling, one she couldn’t place, that seemed to draw her towards Equestria.

Graduation was coming up soon, and she would have to make an irrevocable decision: would she start a life here, or back home?

Or was it start a life at home or in Equestria?

Sunset nearly jumped out of her skin as the ringing of her cell phone split her thoughts apart. She brought it out from her back pocket and looked at the caller ID: Twilight.

“Hey, Twi, what’s up?”

“So, uh, I may need your help to… fix something that happened with one of my experiments? So, I was thinking, wouldn’t it be cool and save money if I could make our house run purely on thaumic energy!”

Sunset facepalmed. Oh, Twilight, for someone so smart… “I can be over there in ten minutes.”

“Thank y—”

Twilight was cut off by another voice, farther away, but still louder. “TWILIGHT, WHAT DID YOU DO?!”

“Okay, I can be there in five if I don’t run into a police car.”

“Thank you so much,” Twilight uttered quickly.

As Twilight hung up, likely to run and hide from her family, Sunset turned from the portal and jogged over to her bike, smiling softly.

She didn’t look back.

Author's Note

Well, it's over. Thanks so, so much to everyone who's read up to this point, and especially to those who've commented or liked or favorited or followed. It means a lot.

I'm not going to ramble on down here in the notes, though. If you want to see my thoughts on the story's ending and a little sneak peak into how it all came to be, go check out the reflection/behind the scenes/Q&A over on my blog.

Thanks again, and have a good one!

Prologue - A Shimmer of Hope

Prologue - A Shimmer of Hope

Three princesses down, one to go. And if the wedding meant anything, the pink one would be a walk in the park, assuming her pet and his pesky shields were dealt with first.

“Chrysalis, please! It doesn’t have to be this way! I’m sure if we really tried, we could find a way for our species to live in peace!”

“Silence!” Chrysalis snapped at Twilight, who struggled futilely against the golden changeling-silk bonds sticking her to the wall of Friendship Castle. “Funny how you didn’t attempt to befriend me until you were already captured, Princess.” The changeling queen stuck her muzzle in Twilight’s face, snarling at her with equal parts hate and disgust. “Maybe if you had tried that the first time we met, things would be different. But instead, what’s the first thing any of you miserable ponies do? You try to kill us! Two hundred years ago, when we were first banished to the badlands, did your species even try for peace? No. At the wedding, did your beloved princess try anything civil before shooting laser beams at my face? No! Just now, did you even stop to think before you and your friends attacked my kin? NO!”

Twilight’s mane blew backwards at the force of Chrysalis’s shout before the queen turned on her hooves and walked out of the throne room. “I know deceit when I see it, pony. There isn’t enough sincerity in what you say to fill a single hole in my leg.” She paused to look back. “And besides, I’ve come too far to just stop.”

“You won’t get away with this!”

Chrysalis snorted. “What are you, an action movie hero? Who do you think can stop me? I bested your mentor, the leader Equestria, and you and your friends, the country’s greatest military power. There’s nopony left.” Chrysalis didn’t even try to hide the arrogance in her voice

Twilight strained against her bonds some more. “Cadance will stop you!”

“Oh, please, Ms. Sparkle. She’s the Princess of love. I eat love.”

“But she beat you before!”

Chrysalis sighed. “Love is powerful. It is what thwarted me in our last encounter. How many threats to Equestria have been defeated by your love for your friends? My mistake those years ago was underestimating love’s strength. Now, I can see that it is the most formidable force in all of Equestria. And changelings are born to wield it.” Chrysalis’s horn ignited, enveloping the doors to the throne room in her telekinetic grip. “I’ve stockpiled so much love, my little pony, that no creature in this world can best me.”

The crystalline doors slammed shut, leaving Twilight alone. Well, not entirely alone. She was still with her friends!

Twilight looked over at the ensemble of golden chrysalises that hung from the ceiling.

Well, at least they’re not dead. Focus on the bright side, Twilight.

But the bright side was looking dimmer every second. Equestria was, Celestia forgive her, utterly bucked. The changelings had taken the royal sisters. The changelings had taken her friends. The changelings had taken her. And, as sudden as the invasion was, and as far out in the North as they were, Shining Armor and Cadance were in the dark. It wouldn’t be long before the changelings took them, too.

In short, Twilight was running out of hope. As far as she knew, Discord was still out there, and not working for Chrysalis. But he wasn’t exactly her most reliable friend.

She supposed there was also—

“This mirror,” proclaimed Chrysalis, flinging open the doors to the throne room. She carried the transdimensional portal behind her in her magic, all of Twilight’s mechanical additions that kept it open still attached and blazing with thaumic energy. “What is it? Tell me, Sparkle.”

“No.” Twilight was well aware she didn’t have the upper hoof in the situation, but she’d be damned if she didn’t at least try to bargain for her freedom. “Release me and my friends first, and then I’ll tell you.”

Chrysalis’s face screwed up. She looked like she was about to burst. Burst with… with anger, probably. Anger against Twilight and her impeccable haggling skills.

“Pffffffff HAAAHAHAHAHA! Oh—Ha! Oh, my, you really—heheh—really think that you have even a cent of influence here? That’s RICH!”

Twilight hung her head as the queen broke into yet another fit of laughter. Well, it was worth a shot.

“Thanks, I needed that. It’s been quite the stressful full-scale take over of the most powerful country on the planet. But that’s beside the point.” Chrysalis charged her horn at aimed at one of the amber cocoons. “If you don’t want your little pet dragon to die, then cooperate.”

SPIKE!

Twilight panicked. Spike’s life was being threatened—she had to do something. She felt a pressure, a power, welling up in her forehead, her eyes clouding with raw, emotionally charged arcane energy. The magic slowly traveled up her horn, its wispy white tendrils following the grooves in the bone.

And then her magic collided with the mana dampener around her horn, sending pain streaking through her body and a scream flying from her lips.

Chrysalis sighed and let the magic around her own horn dissipate. “That’s, what, the third time you’ve done that? Honestly, how stupid can you get?”

Twilight ground her jaw. “Fine. What do you want to know?”

Chrysalis smiled, her razor-like fangs glinting in the crystals’ light. “Tell me everything. And don’t lie.”

Please, Sunset, thought Twilight, It’s all up to you now.

Three - Faint

Three - Faint

Sunset raised an eyebrow as she entered Twilight’s makeshift laboratory. It was the more disorganized than ever—apparently, Twilight considered everything to be a shelf, including the ceiling fan. The part of Sunset left over from before the Fall Formal told her to turn the fan on, but she held back. That would be mean. Funny, though. But mean.

“How do you even find anything in here?”

Twilight cocked her head in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“This place is a mess. I mean, you used old pizza boxes to extend your filing cabinet.” Sunset gestured to the stack of old ‘Mama Joanne’s’ boxes stacked on top of each other, the corners of various documents poking out.

Twilight blushed slightly. “It’s an efficient use of available resources! And I needed more space for my documentation of anomalies. There seem to be quite a lot around here.”

“She says to the pony alien.”

“Anyway, we’re not here to talk about my innovative organizational techniques.” Twilight bent down and picked up six pieces of paper scattered on the floor and showed them to Sunset, who thought that Twilight knowing exactly which of the dozens of papers on the floor were the correct ones should be documented as an anomaly. “I’ve been trying to find a way to ‘weave’ magic like you mentioned when we talked about how unicorns form spells, but I’ve been having trouble.”

Sunset looked at the proffered papers. “I think I see your problem. You’re trying to alter the pattern of the spell after you release the magic, but you need to alter the pattern at conception if you want it to stop being dimensional. Right now, all you’re doing is making it a different kind of dimensional spell, not a different kind of spell.”

“Oh, that makes sense. Thanks so much, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to pull this off…”

“Really?” Sunset looked down at Twilight’s notes again. “Because this stuff is genius. You know, in Equestria, they haven’t managed to build a device that can harness magic like this without using magic to make it. You’re kind of inventing a whole new branch of arcane research here, and you’ve only been experimenting with magic for a few months.”

“Oh, I’m sure the only reason Equestrians haven’t come up with this stuff is because they haven’t needed to. They have natural ways of harnessing magic.”

“Maybe, but you’re still breaking new ground. You really should show this to Twilight—the other one—next time we see her.”

Twilight nodded and opened her mouth, but was cut off by a knock at the door. “That’s probably one of our friends,” said Sunset, already getting up. “Better see what they want.”

But when Sunset opened the door, it wasn’t one of her friends after all. A cream skinned girl with blue-pink hair smiled sweetly at Sunset.

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Oh, um, hey, Bon Bon. Uh… Why are you here?”

“If you two aren’t in the middle of something, I was wondering if I could talk to you in private?” she asked, her grin widening.

“Sure, I guess.” Sunset turned to Twilight and mouthed ‘Be right back’; she flashed a thumbs-up in response.

As soon as Sunset closed the door, Bon Bon’s smile dropped and she lowered her voice, in both volume and pitch. “Alright, I’m going to be straight with you—are you and your friends expecting a threat to the school?”

Sunset gulped. “Uh, why do you ask?”

“Absentee rates are through the roof, students’ personalities are changing for seemingly no reason, you and magic girl are locked up in her lab; do I need to continue?”

Sunset sighed and cast her gaze away. “We’re not entirely sure, but you’re right. All of that and… more… suggests that something’s happening. But whatever it is, it isn’t big and flashy like the Sirens were. It’s subtle. And until we have more information, we don’t want to cause a panic. So don’t go shouting all this through the halls, alright?”

“You treat me like a child,” scoffed Bon Bon. “I’m not that stupid.”

Sunset was about to retort as Bon Bon’s smile returned, as genuine as any, and her voice sprang back into its usual soprano. “Thanks a bunch, Sunset! See you around!”

“…Yeah, you too,” Sunset mumbled as she watched the girl walk down the hall, pull her phone out of her pocket and put it to her ear. What a weird person.

Rarity grimaced at the cafeteria food on her tray; she didn’t even know what that glob of brown stuff was. “Alright, that settles it. I’m packing my lunch from now on. This slop looks positively inedible!” Rarity whined with her ever-present dramatic flair.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, shoveling large forkfuls of food down her face. “This stuff’s great!”

“Well, help yourself, then.” Rarity scooped the mystery glop onto her fork and moved to dump it onto Pinkie’s plate. Instead, Pinkie ate it straight from Rarity’s fork, causing the girl to gag and use Rainbow’s napkin to wipe it down. Rainbow, who was quite taken with her hamburger, didn’t so much as notice.

“I do worry about the nutritional value,” Fluttershy commented. “I learn a lot about animal diets at the shelter, and I think some of that still applies to humans. And, um… I don’t want to be rude, but the cafeteria meals aren’t exactly… well rounded.”

“I’m sure if Twilight were here, she’d be rattlin’ off all sortsa facts ‘bout the ‘nutritional value’.”

“Where is she, anyway?” Rarity asked. “She was present in history, I’m sure of it.”

Pinkie finished guzzling down her food and licked her lips clean before replying. “She’s in the lab with Sunset working on top secret magic projects!”

“They sure seem to be spending an awful lotta time there lately,” Applejack said. “Does anybody actually know what they’re working on?”

“Laser guns!” Rainbow practically screamed, leaning forward and smiling jubilantly. “They’re building magical laser guns! Awesome, right?”

Fluttershy shrank down in her seat. “I don’t know. Couldn’t it have been a magical, um, pencil or something?”

Rainbow gave Fluttershy a half-lidded glare. “A pencil.”

“I just don’t think we should be building guns. It makes me uncomfortable.”

Applejack laid a hand on her shoulder. “I see where your comin’ from, Shy, but it is practical, especially considerin’ all the weird stuff that’s been happenin’ recently.”

“Oh, that reminds me!” Rarity shot up in her seat a bit. “Since we’re supposed to be on the lookout for unusual occurrences and whatnot, I should mention that just a few minutes ago, Twinkleshine was asking me an awful lot of questions about how our magic works. She was very persistent, too, especially for someone I don’t know well.”

Pinkie gasped comically and grabbed Rarity’s shoulders. “Oh my god Rarity that’s totally freaky!”

“Pinkie, what—”

“After science today, Micro Chips came up to me and started asking me the same stuff! It’s a conspiracy!”

“Pinkie, dear, I hardly think two cases of spontaneous questioning qualifies as a conspiracy.”

“But what about three?” Rainbow interjected, slamming a palm on the table. “Trenderfoot wouldn’t leave me alone all morning!”

“Amethyst Star was buggin’ me ‘bout magic, too,” supplied Applejack.

They all turned to Fluttershy, who looked back with large, unassuming eyes. “Hmm? Oh, um, Sandalwood talked with me about that. He was very polite, though.”

Rainbow Dash sat back in her chair and folded her arms. “Yeah, I’d say that this crosses way past coincidences.”

“What did I say? Conspiracy!” Pinkie threw hands up and to the sides in emphasis, nearly smacking an unamused Rarity in the face. “But don’t worry, I’ve got a solution.” She pulled five tin foil hats out of her hair, placing one lopsided on her head.

Rarity nearly choked on her milk. “If you think I’m wearing that horrid piece of trash for even a second, Pinkie—”

Applejack coughed pointedly. “Don’t y’all think we should maybe talk about why people are suddenly all over us like pigs at feedin’ time?”

“Maybe they’re just curious. We have been keeping them in the dark,” suggested Fluttershy.

“They weren’t curious before!” Rainbow countered. “If you ask me, there’s gunna be a monster attack!”

“An’ if ya ask me, you just want an excuse t’ be violent.”

“Maybe the government is brainwashing people into gathering information about us!” Pinkie hissed, gesturing at her hat.

“While this is quite a thrilling discussion,” Rarity said, pushing out against the table, “I need to freshen up, so please excuse me.”

“Oh, just say you have to piss, Rarity,” Rainbow called over her shoulder, and Rarity chose not to dignify her with a response.

As she made her way through the halls, Rarity could swear that every eye was on her—it seemed that nearly every student she looked at stared straight back. Rarity shook her head vigorously as she pushed open the door to the girls’ bathroom; she was starting to sound like Pinkie Pie, and that was never a good thing.

But when she looked back up, she jumped in shock. Three girls were standing in the middle of the bathroom, stock still, eerie eyes trained on Rarity.

“Oh, um, hi there. Sorry, I didn’t…” Twinkleshine, Amethyst Star… “Didn’t see…” Lyra Heartstrings? Wasn’t she out sick today? Rarity’s eyes widened—and she hit the grimy tiled floor with a soft thud.

Graxx unwove his disguise, bending down over the girl and touching his horn to her head. He saw visions flash through his mind like a movie on fast forward—he saw the girl enter the twelfth grade, saw her meet the strange new girl, saw the bully that turned into a demon, saw the aura that enveloped the girl as she blasted her into a better place. He saw the enchantresses that turned heads and melted minds with their music, saw them shed their human facades using this girl’s—Rarity’s—magic, saw Rarity and her friends turn into half-pony abominations and shatter the enchantresses’ gemstones. He saw her compete in the Friendship games, saw the portals to Equestria and the fight between her two empowered friends. And he saw as Rarity and her friends came close to discovering #0926 spying on them from an alleyway (#0926 was always so careless. The kind of changeling who never got Named), saw the humans start to unravel their secrets. And he streamed all of this straight through the hivemind—it would reach the Queen soon enough.

His voice was sharp and alien as he spoke to his cohorts. “Impersonation is impossible. Wipe her short-term memory and scatter. Our job here is done.”

Sunset checked her watch as she raced through the halls. There were still ten minutes left in lunch; enough time to scarf down a hotdog or something. She skidded around a corner hastily, slamming straight into Rarity and sending them both to the ground.

“Ow! Oh, hey, Rarity.” Sunset got to her feet and offered Rarity a hand. “Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

Rarity woozily hoisted herself up with Sunset’s assistance. “Oh, don’t worry about it, darling.” She put a hand on her forehead and groaned.

“Uh, Rarity? Are you alright?”

“No, I’m afraid not. The strangest thing just happened to me.”

Sunset looked on encouragingly, and Rarity continued. “Last I remember, I was walking through the halls to the bathroom, when suddenly I wake up on the bathroom floor with no memory of how I got there. And to top it all off, I’ve got a massive migraine.”

Sunset knew those symptoms alright. “Rarity, why were you drinking?”

“WHAT?! I would never! Whatever gave you that idea?”

“Well, you just gave me a pretty good description of what a hangover feels like. Speaking from experience here.”

“From experience? Sunset, you’re not of legal drinking age.”

“Back when I was Sunbitch, I didn’t really care about that kind of thing. And besides, drinking age in Equestria is sixteen, so I was of legal age back there.”

Rarity paused to do some mental math. Eighteen minus four… “No you weren’t. You would’ve been fourteen at most.”

Oh no, thought Sunset as she realized her mistake.

“Unless you’re lying about your age,” Rarity said with a laugh.

Sunset smiled sheepishly. Aw, shit.

Rarity’s eyes widened. Hadn’t Sunset mentioned something about time being inconsistent across dimensions? “Sunset, how old are you?”

Sunset’s smile dropped to a defeated frown. “Uh, well, I ran away when I was seventeen as a pony, and it’s been five years, so I’m twenty-two.”

Rarity’s mouth hung open. “A-and how old is Twilight? The pony one, I mean.”

Sunset exhaled heavily. “So, that’s where it gets complicated. Time between the two dimensions is weird and inconsistent and makes no sense in any way at all, so it’s kind of hard to tell, and I’ve never directly asked her, because that’s rude, you know? But, let’s see, she was accepted as Celestia’s student after I ran away, when she was, like, six, and even though it’s been only five years for me, she’s been living on her own for at least three years now, if not more. So unless she was incredibly self-sufficient and could move out as an eight year old, she’s probably around my age.”

“Sunset?”

“Yeah?”

“Can we just pretend we never had this conversation and try to hopelessly salvage the status quo?”

“Yeah.”

Twilight studied her (now stabilized) locket as she walked around her back yard. Her parents were off at some business party that night, so it was the perfect chance to test the prototype of her thaumic compressor.

“Alright, Spike, looks like this area of the yard has the densest concentration of atmospheric magic.”

The dog bounded to her side. “Well, what are you waiting for? Let’s see if it works!”

Twilight lifted the compressor to her shoulder, double-checked that the safety inhibitor was switched to ‘ON’, and aimed the barrel towards an old sycamore a few feet away from her. She pulled the trigger, and two hatches on either side of the body of the gun slid open to reveal a glowing sphere of energy. Just like the absorption function of her locket, the magic in the air was pulled in, and a small laser shot from the barrel.

“It works!” Spike jumped in little circles around Twilight, who had stuck out her tongue in concentration as she burned a six-pointed star shape into the tree. Just before she could finish the design, the laser sputtered and died, and she released the trigger.

Twilight once again looked down at her locket, the built-in thaumometer coming up blank. “It certainly eats up magic quickly, though, and that was with the inhibitor on. But if one of our friends is ponied up, it should be able to sustain a decently powerful beam for a good time.”

“What would happen if you turned the inhibitor off?”

“At the rate it was absorbing magic, it would probably fire off all available energy near instantly. Combine that with all the magic a pony up produces, and you could probably kill someone with a single shot.”

Spike cringed. “Let’s not test that.”

Twilight giggled. “I wasn’t planning to.”

“Hey, Twilight?” called out a kind voice.

Twilight froze. How could she forget about Cadance? She tried her best to hide the thaumic compressor behind her back as she turned to greet her former babysitter and dean.

“Y-yeah?”

“Shiny and I are about to eat, so—” Cadance leaned to the side to look around Twilight, but she swiveled, keeping her invention out of sight. “—we were wondering if maybe—” Cadance leaned the other way, only for Twilight to twist again. “—you’d like to join us, and—okay, Twilight, what’s behind your back?”

“My back? What are you talking about?”

Spike put a paw to his nose. “Just show her. She’s going to find out eventually.”

Begrudgingly, Twilight showed Cadance the compressor. The older woman’s eyes bulged and her jaw fell.

“TWILIGHT! Is that a GUN?!”

“No! Well, yes, but a totally harmless magic one!”

It was then that Cadance noticed Twilight’s attempt at artistry. “A totally harmless gun that can sear trees?!” Cadance whisper-shouted, pointing to the star.

Twilight cringed.

“If Velvet hears about this—”

“Please don’t tell her!” exploded Twilight, panic in her eyes. “Please, Cadance!”

Cadance sighed. What was it with this family and being too cute to refuse? “I won’t tell her.”

Twilight’s whole body loosened.

“But you seriously need to be careful. Look, I don’t know what’s going on at Canterlot, but it’s dangerous. And nobody here could bear seeing you hurt.”

Twilight looked to the ground, and Cadance put hand on her cheek. “I’m not telling you to stop, Twilight. No one can. Well, Velvet will probably try, but it’s because she loves you. You know that, right? We all love you.”

Twilight looked up and smiled faintly. “You’re way too sappy.”

A laugh. “Come on, we’d better go in soon or Shiny will worry that we’ve been eaten by a bear.”

The two laughed some more as they started walking back up to the house, Spike padding diligently behind them.

Author's Note

Special thanks to everybody whose already liked/commented/favorited. Your support really keeps me going :twilightsmile:

Eleven - Hit and Run (2)

Eleven - Hit and Run (2)

Sunset yelped as a laser beam flung her through the air. She landed hard on her side. She yelped again as a weight crashed onto her back, and looked up to see Rainbow Dash lying across her.

“Sup,” she said with a nod of her head.

Sunset rolled her eyes and shoved Rainbow off.

Standing up, Sunset surveyed the cafeteria. They were doing… not so great. There were only six of them, and every time they felled a changeling, another took its place. She and Rainbow were beaten, burnt, and exhausted, fighting their own bodies along with the changelings. Rarity was glowing and floating, doing what she could as Applejack went crazy with her thaumic compressor, but the changeling’s weren’t complete idiots; they had learned from Rainbow’s massacre how to counter the weapon, and scattered through the air, surrounding the girls. Each wasted shot meant less energy for Rarity, and the changelings knew it. Fluttershy, exhausted, was hiding in the kitchen, staring down any changeling that got too close, but not providing much help. And Pinkie…

Pinkie seemed to be doing just fine, actually.

Sunset lunged at the nearest changeling and took a wild swing with her bat, but it swished through air as a mouse appeared on the ground instead.

“Oh, now that’s cheating!” Sunset tried stomping on it, but her boot landed in an alligator’s gaping maw instead. She started, and would’ve probably lost her leg had Pinkie not intervened and filled the alligator’s mouth with a truckload of desserts just in time, propping open its jaw. Sunset thanked her and yanked her foot free as Pinkie sped off, and Sunset promptly brought her bat down again. It smacked against a green shield inches from the alligator’s head, and though it shattered the magic, the resulting hit could barely be called a tap.

She jumped back just as an energy beam whizzed past, and a second changeling walked into the fight as the first reverted to its natural form. She cursed—Rainbow was too busy with a group of her own, Rarity had just ran out of magic, and Pinkie was busy bailing Applejack out of a sticky situation; no reinforcements.

Sunset bit back her doubts and charged. One changeling lifted up into a hover, its forearms changing into broadswords, and the other fired up its horn. Sunset rolled under a laser and bounced out into an overhead swing onto swords-for-hooves. She started having regrets when he brought one leg up in a parry, cleanly slicing her bat in half. The second leg shot towards her faster than her eyes could widen—

And was knocked to the side by Pinkie Pie’s hurling body. Pinkie collapsed to the ground, a long cut across her stomach where she had blocked the sword’s edge from slicing open Sunset’s neck.

“Pink—guh!” Sunset felt something hard slam into her ribcage, and she fell to the ground next to Pinkie Pie. The second changeling loomed over her, charged its horn, and fired.

The cold and messy cafeteria floor bit into her injuries as Sunset felt something wash over her; kind of like a puff of wind, kind of like a static shock, and kind of like intense sunlight. The laser beam that was halfway to her face vanished in midair, as if someone had simply deleted it. The sword-bearing changeling’s legs returned to normal, and she heard the rhythmic thunks of changelings falling out of the air.

Something small and metal landed on the snout of the changeling in front of her. Sunset noticed a rapidly blinking light and suspicious wiring just in time to shield her eyes as a small explosion burst in the changeling’s face. Sunset took one look at where its eyes had been before turning away with a grimace.

Twilight Sparkle and Sweetie Drops stood in the doorway to the cafeteria. Twilight was standing behind one of her inventions; a tall, cylindrical hunk of metal that was sucking up the changeling’s magic like a lion that hadn’t eaten since Princess Celestia was learning to walk. Bon Bon wasted no time jumping into the fray, using her blade in her right hand and a briefcase in her left to maul the changelings assaulting Rainbow Dash.

“I coulda taken ‘em,” Rainbow huffed.

“Woo, Twilight!” Applejack cheered. “Come on, team, we’re just getting started!”

Next to Sunset, Pinkie Pie was applying frosting to her cut. While Sunset was ninety percent sure that wasn’t standard medical practice, she didn’t question it, and sure enough, Pinkie was back on her feet in no time.

“You may all want to hurry it up, though.” Twilight poked the demanafier, and it spit out glittery purple smoke. “I’m not sure how long this thing’s going to last.”

“Ha! Don’t worry, we’ll clean these guys up before you know it!” Rainbow boasted.

Rarity picked herself up, a newfound determination on her face, and even Fluttershy came out from her hiding place. Sunset looked glumly at the two halves of her blood-stained bat.

She’d really liked that bat.

With a sigh, she dropped it to the ground, and fished some brass knuckles out her pocket. (You never know when you’re going to need them.)

“Alright,” she snarled, “let’s end this.”

Twilight Velvet’s day had gone from bad to apocalyptic. Whatever that… that monster was, she was pretty sure it didn’t contribute to a safe learning environment. When she next saw that Principal Celestia, she was going to have a word.

She panicked when she heard footsteps rounding the next corner; looking around frantically, she managed to squeeze herself into an open locker, and watched the hallway through the little ventilation holes. It was cramped, certainly, but much less dirty than the bushes she’d had to hide in after the… small fright she had experienced upon entering the school.

Her breathing grew quiet as the footsteps grew closer. It was a girl; a student. She could see purple skin, a pleated skirt, a star symbol—

“Twilight!” Velvet burst from the locker and ran up to her daughter.

“M-mom?” she questioned. “What were you doing in there?”

Velvet grabbed Twilight’s arm and started dragging her down the hall. “Nevermind that, we need to get out of here! Oh, I should’ve never let you transfer to this place…”

Velvet stopped as Twilight’s wrist grew cold. “Twilight?” She turned around. “Not Twilight! Not Twilight!”

The changeling cackled, and lunged forward. Velvet scrambled backwards and fell onto her backside, cowering with her eyes closed and hands bent over her head.

She sputtered as some absolutely disgusting liquid splashed into her mouth. She opened her eyes, and the changeling was still there, but it had a sword through its chest. The katana was wrenched out with a grotesque shlick sound, and the changeling toppled onto its side.

Velvet held out a shaky, pointed finger as the person holding the sword.

“You—Ya—You’re—Principal!”

Luna cocked her head. “Um… yes.”

A woman with pure black skin stepped into Velvet’s view. “Look, lady, you should leave. Go somewhere far away. Maybe take a vacation, I dunno.”

“I am not leaving until I know that my daughter is safe!” Velvet announced. “You!” She marched up to Celestia, barely leaving room for air between their faces. “I demand to know what’s going on in this school!”

Celestia looked desperately to Luna, who flashed a thumbs-up, her face clearly stating Good luck, you’re on your own.

“Um,” Celestia started, “who’s your daughter, again?”

“Twilight Sparkle,” she answered, bitterly.

“Oh,” Celestia said. “Ooooooooh. Oh.” Oh, crap.

“Now are you going to answer my question or not? What the hell’s going on?!”

“Well, you see—”

“What kind of principals are you two, anyway?” Velvet interrupted. “Do you just let aliens romp around your school willy-nilly, attacking people and getting themselves stabbed in the chest whenever they want? You know what, I’m going to take this to the school board! That’s right—we’ll see how much they like it that you two are letting bloodthirsty monsters interfere with my child’s learning experience! You two will be out of the door within the month! No, the week! The day! The hour!”

Chrysalis cleared her throat. “Miss Sparkle, I’d have to ask that y—”

“And you!” Velvet swiveled to the agent. “Who even are you, anyway, telling me to leave? Calling me ‘Miss Sparkle’? That’s ‘Dr. Velvet’ to you, ma’am!” She spat the word. “And—Lord, is that a pistol? It is extremely illegal to bring that onto school grounds! Don’t you know that? What if you hurt someone? And you”—she turned to Luna now—“waving that sword around like you own the place! You even killed something with it! Now, when I ask myself the kind of role models I want for my child, sword-wielding lunatics are not the first thing that comes to mind! In fact, they’re last, or at least damn close! You got blood in my mouth, you hear? Blood! Alien blood! And it didn’t taste good!”

Velvet finished her rant with her shoulders hunched, her arms glued to her sides, her fists clenched, and her breathing heavy, hot, and angry.

“And people wonder why I like dealing with students instead of adults,” Luna whispered to Celestia.

“Listen,” Chrysalis commanded, retaining her normal calm, condescending casualness. “If we told you what was going on, you wouldn’t believe us. Just go.”

“Not until I see my daughter. I can’t leave her with these… these things.” She side-eyed the three of them. “Or you people, for that matter.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever. But don’t blame me if you get magicked into a centaur-mosquito monster or something.”

Velvet scoffed. “Really, magic? If you’re trying to scare me off, be a little more realistic.”

Luna put a hand on her hip. “Are the shapeshifting monsters not ‘realistic’ enough for you?”

“I’ll admit that it was a little…” she gulped. That thing had looked exactly like Twilight. “A little shocking. But not magic! Magic isn’t real. It can’t be real. That’s scientifically impossible.”

“Least we know where she gets it from,” Celestia muttered.

“I mean… magic isn’t real, right? You’re joking?”

The three of them just looked at her.

“Oh, what have I gotten myself into?” Velvet groaned and buried her face in her hands.

Celestia laid a hand on her shoulder. “We’re asking ourselves the same thing.”

Luna started walking down the hall. “Come on. We’ve only encountered a handful of changelings, and none of the Rainbooms, so there’s probably a big fight happening somewhere. We should try to find it.”

Luna and Chrysalis led them onwards, and Celestia and Velvet followed a bit more apprehensively, clapping their hands over their ears when Chrysalis unloaded her pistol into a would-be ambusher.

Sweetie Drops was dancing circles around the changelings now that they couldn’t use magic. She stabbed one, swiveled, and picked off another with her briefcase. She wrapped a third in the wire of her grappling hook, swung him into a fourth, and then retracted her hook, skewering the attached changeling on Devil’s Tongue. She leapt backwards, over a changeling that thought he could blindside her, reached into her jacket, and dropped a bowling ball on his head. The technique of hidden weapons was one of the first advanced skills Sweetie had learned.

As she landed, however, a group of six changelings stormed her. It seemed that as their numbers began to dwindle, they were starting to use their heads (and their telepathy) to help even the odds. Or maybe it was just coincidence. Bon Bon had a hard time telling.

Widening her stance, Sweetie pressed her thumb into the pommel of her dagger, and, with a clicking sound, the hilt of the Devil’s Tongue split down the middle, creating two single-bladed knives. Her briefcase dropped to the ground with a loud thunk, and the changelings attacked.

Near instantly, two dropped to the ground, Sweetie’s arms moving in and out before they could even draw back a hoof. She jerked her head to the side to dodge a set of snapping fangs, and sprang over the changeling, kicking off of his head to clear him. He buckled under her weight, and fell onto a collection of well-placed caltrops. The pain didn’t last long, though; Sweetie Drops’ blades were mercifully efficient.

She charged the three remaining changelings, blades flashing, but was nearly stunned out of her concentration when one changeling managed to catch her right dagger in his mouth. She got him with the left, but it gave his friend a chance to dig his own fangs into her biceps. The pain wasn’t too bad—she’d had much worse—but it wasn’t particularly pleasant, either. Teeth grit, she shrugged her shoulder and managed to roll a concealed grenade through the new tear in her jacket straight into the changeling’s mouth. With a muted bang, he toppled onto his side, smoke wafting lazily from his mouth.

“Ha!”

Sweetie turned just in time to see Sunset Shimmer strike down the sixth changeling with her fire-print brass knuckles and a harsh kick of her boot.

Across the cafeteria, Rarity had somehow managed to beat the changeling she had been fighting into unconsciousness with a rolled up magazine. Rainbow, next to her, scanned the room, fists at the ready, and promptly relaxed. “Ha! Those suckers didn’t stand a chance! Are we awesome, or are we awesome?”

“Eek!” Fluttershy jumped back as the demanafier hissed and popped, sending sparks flying.

“And not a second too soon. The mana batteries in this thing are probably close to bursting,” Twilight deduced. She switched off the machine before its side effects could start.

“Was that really the last of ‘em, though?” Applejack asked with a wave of her hand. “These lot were just th’ ones in th’ Cafeteria. And while I’m sure they’d wanna gang up on the seven o’ us, I’d bet there’re barrels of ‘em roaming th’ halls, too.”

Now that the din of fighting had come to a halt, and the Rainbooms weren’t focused on not losing their limbs, the gunshots from outside were loud and clear. Far too much so for Fluttershy’s tastes, it seemed, as one blasted from outside the Cafeteria doors.

“Omigod!” Pinkie shrieked, “The Changeling’s have guns!”

Rarity scoffed and waved Pinkie off. “Oh, come on.”

“I mean, with their shapeshifting, it might be possible,” Sunset said.

Rarity’s eyes widened. “Oh, come on.”

Twilight peered through the corner of the windows on the Cafeteria doors, praying Pinkie was wrong. She couldn’t see any changelings, just—

She squeaked like one of Spike’s chew toys and rushed behind Sunset. “Hide me!”

“Huh? Twilight, what—”

She stopped as the doors swung open, and four women walked in: Celestia, Luna, a stout woman with gray-purple hair who looked pissed and scared at the same time, and a black-skinned woman with web-like hair, a suit, and a lightly smoking pistol.

Rainbow’s jaw became cement. “Hot…”

“Chrysalis!?” Sunset exclaimed, pulling up her fists and spreading her feet. “What are you doing here?”

“Agent Chrysalis!” Bon Bon called out, and ran up to the woman. “I’m glad you could make it.”

“Twilight!” Velvet yelled, scrambling across the room.

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow at Sunset. “You know me?”

“There are two Chrysalises, right?” Rarity commented. “I imagine this is the human one; Bon Bon’s superior, no?”

“H-hi, Mom!” Twilight forced a smile. “What are you doing here?”

Sunset relaxed, but barely. “How do we know she isn’t a changeling?”

“Well, she did kill about twenty of them on our way over here,” Luna clarified.

“Twilight! What are you doing fighting monsters!?” demanded Velvet.

“Mom, I… I…”

Chrysalis cleared her throat and addressed the Rainbooms. Her voice sounded exceedingly official. “We believe that the majority of the changelings in the hallways have been neutralized, and it seems you all took care of the ones in here.”

Velvet put her hands on Twilight’s shoulders and looked into her eyes. “You are putting your life at risk, and I can’t allow you to do that. I’m sorry, but I don’t know if I can let you stay at this school any longer.”

“WHAT?!” shrieked seven voiced.

Chrysalis hadn’t stopped talking. “There are likely a few stragglers that we’ll need to clean up, so keep your eyes open.”

“You better be joking, Twilight's mother.” Her voice lowered into a suspicious drawl. “If that’s even your real name…”

“She could get hurt! She could die!” Velvet argued.

“We all woulda died if Twi hadn’t been here,” Applejack said, her hands on her hips.

“How dare you try to take her away from her friends!” Fluttershy chastised.

“After the situation’s stabilized, we’ll start looking for the lost students and teachers.”

Sweetie Drops looked up at Chrysalis nervously. “Maybe you should… bump that one up a bit?”

Velvet was red in the face by now. “Then maybe you should all leave! This school is clearly not safe for anybody!”

“And the entire fucking world wouldn’t be safe if it weren’t for us!” shouted Rainbow Dash.

“Young lady, you watch your mouth! I will not have—”

“She’s right, though,” Sunset said, her voice a deadly calm. “You don’t know what we’re dealing with. If we keep fighting, we might die. If you stop us, far more people will die.”

“Is anybody even listening to me?” Chrysalis asked.

“Um, everybody?” urged Celestia.

“You’re butting your nose into business you clearly don’t understand, and you’re going to suffer because of it,” continued Sunset. “Back out while you still can.”

“Hey!” Celestia called, a little louder.

“Excuse me, child, but I think I have a right to remove my daughter from a life threatening situation!”

“Not in these circumstances,” Sunset said, her cold tone everpresent. “You don’t know the slightest thing about what’s going on in this school, and trust me when I say you don’t want to get involved.”

“If Twilight's involved, then I’m involved, whether you like it or not!”

“PEOPLE!” thundered Celestia. When Sunset had first crossed over the mirror, she hadn’t thought she’d ever hear the Royal Canterlot Voice ever again. She’d been wrong.

Celestia had a look on her face that resembled some sort of preemptive ‘I told you so’ and was pointing towards the doors of the Cafeteria.

Agent Chrysalis nearly fell over. “Buh… Wha… Huh?”

“Hello, everyhuman,” Queen Chrysalis sneered. “Am I interrupting something?”

Author's Note

Dun dun DUN!

Nineteen - Crash and Burn (1)

Nineteen - Crash and Burn (1)

Starlight had made many mistakes in her young life. She knew this. She wasn’t the best pony, and she wouldn’t ever fully pull herself back from the pits she had crawled down in the past. She was the reason ‘subliminal brainwashing’ had been added to Equestria’s list of punishable crimes. She was also the indirect reason ‘extensive friendship therapy’ had been added to the list of available punishments, thanks to Twilight’s sympathy and her desperate begging not to go to Tartarus. Of course, she knew that Tartarus was a bit of a stretch, but when you have the maximum emotional stability of a teenager after a breakup, you tend to assume worst case scenarios.

“This is bad. This is bad. This is really really really really bad.”

“Starlight—”

“It’s bad, Sunset! So bad! So very, very bad!”

“Look, I’m not disagreeing with you, but you have to calm down—”

“CALM DOWN?” Starlight looked at Sunset like she was crazy. Sunset did likewise, but in a much calmer manner. “There are changelings in there! With Twilight! And… and Pinkie, and Rainbow, and, and Fluttershy… and the boring ones, too! We have to warn them!” Her eyes widened. “Shit, that Rainbow Dash that was in the bathroom! She must’ve been a changeling!”

“I don’t know. Probably. Why don’t you—”

“I’m going to go save Twilight!” Starlight shouted over her shoulder as she bolted back into the caverns.

Sunset sighed. “You do that.”

Starlight didn’t hear her as her hooves kicked clouds of dust off the rocks below. She barrelled through the tunnels, nearly crashing into the walls on her turns, so fast that she couldn’t properly see where she was going. But changelings were attacking, and she had no idea where they were or who they were or who they’d already captured.

So, when she found herself magically frozen in place, she once again assumed the worst.

“You won’t get away with this, Chrysalis!” she shouted, shattering the telekinetic hold on her with a surge of mana. “You—Twilight?”

The princess smiled and waved.

“Oh, I’m so glad I ran into you!”

“You almost did,” Twilight teased. “You should be glad I have quick reflexes.”

Starlight didn’t seem to hear her. “Twilight! The changelings have gotten in!”

Twilight pursed her lips. “I suspected as much. This is bad.”

“That’s what I said!” Starlight wailed. “But you know how Rainbow Dash screamed from the bathroom? She was probably replaced by a changeling!”

“Then there’s no time to lose! We have to warn them; come on, Sunset!”

Starlight cocked her head to the side. “Sunset?”

“Starlight, sorry. There’s been a lot on my mind recently.”

Starlight narrowed her eyes.

Sunset, who knew how to keep her head in tense situations (unlike some ponies she could mention), had the common sense to teleport straight to the bathroom that Rainbow Dash had “fallen” in instead of running rabid through the potentially-changeling-infested caves and probably getting lost.

At first glance, the bathroom seemed to be exactly as they had left it; ridiculously gaudy and probably worth a fortune from all the gold paint. The toilet paper was rolled all across the ground and various bottles (why did Discord have Extra-Strength Stress Relief Bubble Bath?) had been knocked over from what Sunset now knew had been a scuffle between Rainbow and the changelings. Upon further inspection, Sunset discovered a chrysalis hidden behind the shower curtain.

The fuck, she thought. How’d we miss that?

A minute later, Rainbow Dash exploded into consciousness, bellowing a warcry and punching Sunset in the face.

“Runbrw Desh,” she growled around her hoof.

Rainbow set her hoof on the ground. “Oh. Heh, thought you were one of the changelings. My bad.”

“To be honest, it’s probably a good idea to be suspicious of everyone right now. The base is being overrun; you need to evacuate.”

“Are you kidding?!” Rainbow jumped into the air, waving her hooves around. “Lemme at ‘em!”

“Rainbow, no. You’ve had one lesson. What can you do against an army of changelings?”

“So we’re just going to run away?”

“Yes!” Sunset said, exasperated. “We can’t fight them, so we retreat until we can! We were planning on gathering reinforcements before fighting Chrysalis anyway; if she can beat Discord and all the princesses, what do you think you’re going to do?!”

“I’m going to fight her, that’s what!” Rainbow Dash shouted at Sunset, flecks of saliva spraying out of her muzzle. “I’m going to fight her and I’m going to win! I don’t care what you think, Sunset! Just you watch, I’ll be flying circles around her!”

“Rain—”

“No! You don’t get a say in it! I’m tired of you keeping us cooped up in a cave while you go and have all the adventures!”

“They already beat you once!”

Rainbow flushed. “They caught me when I was going to the bathroom! What was I supposed to do?! Ever since we got to Equestria all you’ve been doing is telling me to sit still! I’m not the kind of girl who sits still!”

“It’s for your safety!” Sunset punctuated her sentence with a stomp of her hoof. “What do you think’s going to happen if you fight the changelings? What do you think’s going to happen if Chrysalis so much as sees you? You’re reckless, Dash! And it might pay off in soccer games but this isn’t some game—if you don’t have the sense to keep yourself from getting hurt, then I’ve got to step in. You wanna know why I haven’t let you leave the cave? It’s because you’d DIE!”

Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes to menacing slits. “Try me,” she growled, flapping as fast as she could out of the room.

Sunset’s horn flashed, and, in a starburst of light, Rainbow Dash vanished.

“Sorry,” she mumbled to the empty hallway. It was a lie.

“So lemme get this straight.” Applejack adjusted her hat. “You live in a world full a ponies, and when you needed somethin’ to pull yer carriage, you went out of yer way to learn a spell to turn mice into horses?”

“What?” Twilight frowned. “I forgot, okay?”

“You forgot what species you are?” Rarity said.

“I—let’s get back to the story.”

“Oh, yes! The Grand Galloping Galla sounds just wonderful,” Fluttershy said dreamily.

“It’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” Twilight deadpanned. “Anyway, when we got to the gala, we all split up; Fluttershy went to the gardens to see the animals, Rainbow Dash went straight for the wonderbolts, Applejack set up her booth, Rarity went to court Prince Blueblood, and Pinkie Pie went straight for the party.”

“I bet I made the party three times as partylicious!” Pinkie boasted.

“Well, you certainly tried, but the Canterlot nobles weren’t having it. Now, right around this time, Rarity was coming in with Blueblood—”

Rarity squeed. “Oh, I knew I would get him in the end!”

Twilight resolved to let the story tell itself. “—and Applejack was entering from the opposite direction with her cart, hoping to get some additional sales.”

Applejack snorted. “Bet other-me didn’t have too much luck there. Those high class chair-rockers don’t have two taste buds feelin’ the right way.”

Twilight grimaced. “They can be rather stiff sometimes. So, Pinkie, in an effort to rile up the crowd, dove onto them, but she landed on Applejack’s cart, sending a cake flying through the air.”

“I think I know where this is going,” Rainbow moaned.

“The cake was headed straight for Blueblood”—Rarity gasped—“so he panicked and used Rarity as a shield.”

Rarity gasped again, but much more violently this time. “That—that monster!” she screeched. “What kind of prince is he?”

“According to you after the gala, and uncharming royal pain in the flank whose greatest selling point is that he’ll lower your standards.”

Rarity nodded in satisfaction.

“So, Rarity was incredibly angry, and Blueblood was so scared he ran into a statue and knocked it over. That’s when Rainbow Dash though she could impress the wonderbolts by catching the statue.”

Rainbow winced. “How? I mean, I’m super awesome and all, blah blah, but… isn’t it heavy?”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Fluttershy said.

Twilight shrugged. “Rainbow’s stronger than she looks. Plus, she didn’t really succeed. She lost her balance, and ended up knocking down all the decorative pillars in the ballroom like dominoes.” Twilight giggled.

“Well, dang,” Applejack said. “This can’t get any worse, can it?”

“That’s what I thought,” Twilight said, her smile growing. “But then, Fluttershy, who was intent on catching some of the animals in the gardens, chased them all into ballroom, creating even more chaos!”

“Sorry,” Fluttershy said weakly.

“Nothing to apologize for, dear. It wasn’t even you.” Rarity sighed. “That sounds almost as disastrous as our school functions.”

Suddenly, a high pitched blaring filled the air, and Twilight’s horn started flashing wildly.

Pinkie poked at her horn. “Ooh! Shiny!”

Twilight swore. “The alarm! The changelings must’ve gotten in!”

“What?!” Rarity’s eyes ballooned. “How’d they find us?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight said, doing her best to remain calm. “Discord warded this whole place against divination spells, but Chrysalis could have found a way around it. Or maybe they did some other form of tracking, I don’t know much about changeling magic.”

“Let’s run!” Fluttershy suggested, vehemently. “We should run, right? Please let me run!”

“Wait! Stay near me!”

“TWILIGHT!”

She turned. “Starlight! What’s going on?”

Starlight answered by firing a laser beam at Rainbow Dash. Twilight immediately jumped into action, taking to the air and firing her own barrage at Starlight, who hastily put up a shield.

“Wait! I’m not the changeling, Rainbow is!”

“Why should I believe you? The alarm just went off, there was no time for her to be replaced!”

Pinkie’s head popped into Twilight’s vision from above; she had somehow managed to get on Twilight's back. “She’s telling the truth!” Pinkie pointed across the cave, where a changeling lay dazed on the ground.

“Oh.” Twilight’s horn fizzled and she awkwardly carried herself and Pinkie to the floor. “Sorry.”

“No worries,” Starlight said. “You had every right to suspect me.”

“I do have a question, though. Why did the alarm go off late?”

Starlight began to sweat. “Uhhh. I don’t know?”

“Didn’t you and Sunset check it?”

“We, uh… It malfunctioned?”

“Who cares about the alarm!” Fluttershy screamed. “There are bigger problems!”

“Yeah! Like findin’ Rainbow!”

“Don’t worry, Applejack,” a voice said from a tunnel. “Already took care of it.”

“Sunset?”

Sweetie Drops walked into the lounge, and was instantly assaulted by an intense feeling of confusion. The mess of couches had been pushed to the perimeter and robbed of their cushions, which had been laid out as a makeshift safety net around Bulk Biceps, who was the main source of Sweetie’s bewilderedness. Bulk, under the bad influence of Spike, was lifting a massive inverse pyramid of ponies above his head. As far as Bon Bon could tell, said pyramid consisted of every pony in the room except for herself and the Rich family, who had reclaimed one of the fancier couches and were busying themselves by trying to look higher-class than everypony else. (Considering their company, it was quite an easy task. Which was fitting, because those were the only tasks the Rich family bothered with.)

“Oh! Bon Bon!” Spike broke into a grin. “Great timing! We were just about to add the final corner, but we ran out of ponies.” He directed a glare at the Riches. Filthy didn’t notice, Diamond Tiara looked to the ground, and Spoiled glared back with tangible contempt.

Sweetie smiled sweetly at the drake. “I would love to, really, and I’m sure it’d be fun, but I really have to find Lyra right now. Besides, I’m not sure if Bulk could take the extra strain.”

“I CAN TAKE ANYTHING!” he shouted. “BRING IT ON!”

“You should really arm-wrestle him sometime,” Spike joked quietly. “Maybe it’d bring down his ego.”

Bon Bon laughed nervously. “Who, me? An ordinary mare like me wouldn’t be able to beat somepony like him!”

Spike’s face flattened. “Are you really still trying to keep that secret identity thing?”

Bon Bon waved her hoof through the air as though she were beating Spike’s question into submission with some blunt implement. “Oh, pssh! What secret identity? Stop pulling my leg.”

“Come on, it’s not that hard to figure out. Sunset instantly said your name when they needed an earth pony experienced in combat, and Twilight mentioned that she didn’t know what was up with that, and so I asked Lyra and she was like, ‘Oh, yeah, Bonnie’s a super hot secret agent, don’t tell anyone.’ ”

“She said what.” Sweetie’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “We need to have a serious talk about secrets. Again. Where is she? Why isn’t she here?”

“She was here. But then we started…” Spike gestured vaguely to the pony-pyramid. “…this, and she was all like ‘This is stupid, I’m gonna find Bon Bon’, and then she said something about cannibalism.”

“Cannibalism?”

“Yeah, said she was going to eat you. She was joking, right?”

Bon Bon flushed. “Let’s go with that.”

“But until she comes back, you can totally help us! It’s for science!”

Spike’s enthusiastic hoof-pump (claw-pump?) was punctuated by a shrill scream bouncing down the cave walls. Their eyes widened, and Bon Bon rushed out of the room.

“That was Lyra! Something happened!”

After a few moments, Spike turned to Bulk.

“Darn. There goes our corner.” A beat. “She’ll be fine on her own, right?”

Meanwhile, on Mount Canterlot

“I don’t remember Oratorio being this high up,” Aria complained.

“Probably because we haven’t ever had to climb up to it! The last time we left it was because we were exiled, remember?”

Adagio grimaced. “I wish I didn’t.”

“My hands hurt.”

“Oh, suck it up. You won’t have them for much longer anyway.”

“She has a point! All this climbing is exhausting! And I’m hungry!”

Adagio fished half a sandwich out of her pocket and dropped it on Sonata’s face.

“There. Now shut up and climb.”

“How are we even supposed to get into Oratorio anyway?” Aria asked. “The guards will spot us before we make it two feet.”

“I’m betting on them not recognizing us.”

“You’re right! Ooh, we could pretend to be real humans! We were cast away from our home dimension by a vengeful magician, and now we wander Equestria alone! All we want is some generous hospitality!”

Aria rolled her eyes at Sonata. “Yeah, ‘cause if there’s one thing the sirens are known for, it’s their sympathy.”

“Hey, it’s not like you have any ideas!”

“No ideas is better than stupid ideas.”

“That’s not true! At least stupid ideas have a chance to work!”

“So you admit your idea was stupid?”

“I never said that!”

Adagio nearly screamed. “Sweet muses, do you two ever shut up?! The next one of you to talk gets thrown down the mountain!”

Aria snorted. “Yeah, right. You don’t have the guts.”

Sonata looked over her shoulder and sighed. “We’re going to have to go back for her now, aren’t we?”

“Worth it.”

Twenty Five - Love and War (1)

Twenty Five - Love and War (1)

Chrysalis and Sweetie Drops whirled around each other, taking out the lumbering changelings one after another with flawless teamwork. Sweetie had separated the two blades of her dual-pronged dagger into two separate knives, holding one in each hand. Each blade was smaller than their combined state, but the changelings on the receiving end didn’t last any longer for it.

Wherever her blades didn’t reach, Chrysalis was there, kicking, punching, and shooting. Her hands and heels proved just as deadly as her gun, which she was mostly using as a bludgeoning weapon anyway, only firing when she absolutely needed to. It wasn’t like she had an infinite supply of bullets, and it wasn’t like she couldn’t get by without them: a swift elbow to a changeling’s neck left him crumpled and useless on the ground; a kick to the stomach would incapacitate him long enough for Bon Bon to clean him up; the hard metal of her gun’s pommel to his skull could outright kill him.

The changelings were clearly not at their peak performance—it was obvious from the dazed look in their eyes, the slow shuffle at which they walked, and the fact that they had yet to see a single glint of magic. Whatever the Dazzlings had done to them, it had really thrown them for a loop. Maybe they’d thank them when they finally showed up.

Celestia and Luna, on the other hand, were hiding inside an old donut shop, attempting to work out how to harness the power of celestial bodies.

So, let me get this straight, Luna thought icily. As long as the Moon isn’t up, I’m not allowed to do anything useful.

You could still be useful. You simply won’t have my help.

I don’t think you understand the situation we’re in.

You are correct. It is not my concern; what need do I have to understand it?

I’m going to die, you ass-backwards hunk of rock!

I shall ensure you do not; yet, as it currently seems as though my powers are not necessary for your survival, I have no need to lend them to you.

Are you saying you won’t let me do anything unless I’m about to die? And, wait, does that mean you can give me powers during the day, but just don’t feel like it?

Our connection does not fade during the day, but it grows much weaker. I can only allow its use for emergencies. During night, you have much greater access to my boons.

So, hypothetically, if it were night, I could start turning into smoke and summoning shadows and that kind of thing.

To a point, yes. But it is not night, and it shall not be for three hours more.

Ugh.

Next to her, Celestia was having her own mental conversation with the Sun, and nearly having a panic attack.

Calm mind? CALM MIND?! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO HAVE A CALM MIND WHEN OVERSIZED INSECTS ARE TRYING TO EAT MY EMOTIONS?

Take deep breaths, Celestia. If it helps, your counterpart calms her mind by counting backwards through the prime numbers by sevens.

Wow! Thanks for the tip! My magical forces will be balanced before you know it!

Was that sarcasm?

What do you think?!

I do not think. I simply am.

Can’t you make this any easier?

Hmm… Let us try again. Find your center, and summon your weapon.

Celestia took a deep breath and reached out her hand. Nothing. What did I do wrong?

Most everything, by the looks of it… The hand motion was superb, though. Do not lose hope.

Ha! I lost hope a looooong time ago, buddy.

Suddenly, a changeling crashed through the window of the shop, spraying Celestia with glass. She shrieked and threw up her hands, bracing herself for the pain, but it never came. She cracked open one eye, and saw a harsh yellow glow in the air before her; the glass shards were melting inside it, evaporating before they could reach her skin.

“I did it,” she breathed. “Holy crap I did it!”

This does not make sense. You access your powers through a calm mind, and you were quite far from calm just now.

No, the other Celestia accesses her powers through a calm mind. I’m never calm, so I’m different. I mean, that’s what I think. Maybe it was just a fluke.

Hmm… No, you appear to be correct. Well done! Now, do it again.

…Right.

Chrysalis kicked a changeling hard in the chest; it flew through the air and into the window of the donut shop Celestia and Luna were hiding in. She heard a shrill screech from inside, and spared a quick “Whoops” before returning to the fight. The amount of changeling were getting increasingly smaller, and they had yet to give either agent any more trouble than a scrape or a bruise, but Chrysalis knew they were far from victory. They were still waiting for the puppeteers to arrive, after all.

“Aaah, aaah! Ah-ah-aaah! Aaah, aaah, a-a-aah, AAAH!”

“Speak of the devil…” Wait. They’d forgotten something. “Sweetie! The earplugs! Put them in!”

The singing had apparently rekindled whatever force was driving the changelings, for they attacked with renewed vigor. Two leapt for Bon Bon, and it was all she could do to keep them off of her.

“I can’t!” she shouted. She kicked one changeling off of her blade only for another to lunge and take its place. “Do something!”

“Ah ah aaah! Aaah hah aaah hah, ah Hah!”

Chrysalis could already feel the chords seeping into her brain.

Shit shit shit. What do I do?

Sweetie. She had to help Sweetie. Hastily, she pressed a button on the communicator in her sleeve.

Bon Bon winced as her earpiece let out a continuous high pitched squeal. It drowned out the singing, which basically meant it would save her life, but, god, at what cost?

Chrysalis immediately grabbed the ear plugs from her jacket pocket, but she was hit hard in the face before she could put them in. She unloaded into the changeling’s skull, threw her gun as far away from herself as she could, and scrambled to block out the music.

“Aaaah… AAAAAAH… AAH, AH HAH!”

Well, at least she’d managed to get rid of her pistol. Hopefully she wouldn’t kill Sweetie Drops.

The sirens’ song washed over Chrysalis, and she paused, her plugs halfway to her ears.

Celestia and Luna rushed out of their refuge and stared at the sirens.

“Crap,” Luna observed.

The blue one—Sonata, was it?—noticed them, grinned, and swooped down. She opened her jaws wide and sped towards Luna.

“NO!” Celestia screamed, and she thrust out her hand; a cloud of golden sparks erupted from it and slowly congealed into a regal gold glaive. The lengthy handle was wrapped in a fine white cloth, a gold sphere served as the pommel, and the blade, which seemed to be made out of some sort of semi-transparent light blue crystal, was set into an elaborate gold head.

But Celestia didn’t waste time admiring its beauty; no, she flung it as hard as she could towards Sonata. By that time, Luna had already leapt to the side, and Sonata’s eyes widened as she saw the glaive spearing through the air towards her. She shot upwards at the last second, but not quite quickly enough; the glaive left a deep gash across the bottom of her stomach, and she let out an ear-piercing scream. Blue blood dribbled onto the pavement as she spiraled back into the air. Celestia opened her hand again, and the weapon rematerialized in it.

Goddammit, Moon! Luna thought, as angrily as one could think. I was about to die! Aren’t you supposed to help?!

I was confident our sisters were able to handle the situation.

But what if they didn’t?! Your rules are going to get us all killed! That’s it, I’ve HAD IT!

Luna let her thoughts travel back to earlier that day, back when they had first gotten their powers. She pointed her palm straight towards the ground, and when she felt the magnetic connection of the Moon, she lifted.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! the Moon roared. You will upset the balance once more!

I’m doing whatever it takes, Luna answered, promptly tuning out of the psychic link.

One hand clutching her wrist and the other guiding the Moon, she led it through the sky and deposited it next to the Sun. Her hair began to flow in the lunar energy that surrounded her, and when she reached out her hand, a saber appearing in it. The sword was a black so complete that it looked like there was a hole in the world, sucking in all the light that got too close.

Luna smirked. “Let’s do this.”

“Chrysalis, snap out of it!” Sweetie Drops shouted as she danced backwards, away from Chrysalis’s flurry of attacks. She could barely hear herself over the buzzing in her ear, but she wasn’t about to get rid of the malfunctioning earpiece. She wasn’t stupid.

Chrysalis didn’t so much as blink at her. Instead, she dropped onto one hand and swung her legs at Bon Bon, who only just managed to jump in time. Chrysalis was on her feet before the girl could land, and went for a left jab, which Sweetie blocked with the dull edge of one of her blades.

Chrysalis seemed to be dealing with the sedative effects of the sirens’ enchantment much better than the changelings. She still wasn’t at her peak performance (which was good, because otherwise Bon Bon would be dead), but she moved faster than any of the changelings could keep up with, and her attacks were far less predictable. Sweetie didn’t know if that was because the Dazzlings had focused more on her, or if was a testament to Chrysalis’s skill, but it was certainly a problem.

At least she didn’t have to worry about the changelings interfering; their fight was far too quick for their audience to properly follow.

As Bon Bon handsprung away from a particularly nasty flurry of kicks, she caught a glimpse of a battle raging in the sky. So, they’d figured out their powers, then. That was good. Maybe they had a chance.

Celestia thanked her time as a flight attendant for helping her get over her fear of heights. It came in handy when one grew a pair of golden-feathered light-wings.

Flying via magic turned out to be surprisingly simple; if she concentrated on her fear of getting eaten or ripped apart by the sirens, she would be able to channel that into flying as fast as she could out of danger. She found that all her magic worked in a similar fashion: she concentrated on her anger at the sirens, and a fireball would launch from her fingertips; she concentrated on her love for Luna, and a shimmering light shield would appear around her sister; she concentrated on her sense of responsibility in saving the world and her friends, and her glaive would cut through the air or return to her hands.

This is not how magic is meant to be wielded, the Sun said in her mind. Emotions are unstable, capricious; using them as your tie to my magic will leave your control unreliable, too.

This is the only way I can use your stupid magic! So, sorry if I don’t feel like dying today, but I don’t exactly have a choice, do I?

The Sun didn’t answer. Celestia thought it just as well.

To her left, she saw Aria charging her. She shot out a fireball, but the siren belted out a note, and the fireball stopped dead in its tracks, fizzling out a second later. Celestia willed her glaive out to slice at Aria, but she slammed it away with one hoof, and her tail swooshed up from below, sending Celestia tumbling.

Fear flooded her mind and her wings automatically righted themselves, and a second later the glaive was back in her hand. She caught her breath and looked wearily at the siren, who sneered and gave chase.

Luna had always wanted superpowers. She’d always daydreamed about what she could do if she could fly, teleport, turn invisible, you name it; so, naturally, she was more than prepared when her dreams finally came true.

She’d immediately gone after Adagio, because she figured that if they could take her out, the others would be disorganized and a whole lot easier. Unfortunately, she was no pushover.

Luna gripped her saber in both hands and pumped her new, shadowy wings, launching towards the siren. Adagio wiggled, swam, and danced around her barrage of slices, and nearly had her jaws around Luna’s waist before she knew what was happening. Adagio clamped down, but snarled as dark smoke billowed out from between her teeth. The smoke sped around behind her and coalesced into Luna once again, who swung at the tail dangling in front of her. Adagio whipped it away as fast as she could and Luna only managed to slightly rip the membranous fin on the end of it. Adagio flipped backwards and came at Luna from above, but she shot away on her wings.

Adagio opened her mouth wide, sending a series of pulsing sound waves towards Luna. The first one that hit her sent her bones rattling, and she gasped in pain, only barely managing to throw up a hand in defense. To her surprise, a swirling black vortex sprouted from her palm, and the circular waves shrunk and disappeared into it as they got too close.

Adagio grinned evilly. “It seems we are evenly matched. Such a shame you two are outnumbered, isn’t it?”

Oh, right. Luna whipped her head to the side, and saw Celestia and Aria staring each other down a few blocks down. Celestia was completely unaware of Sonata rushing towards her from behind.

Adagio charged forward while Luna was distracted, but let out a huff when her prey vanished into smoke, shooting off towards Celestia faster than any wonderbolt.

Bon Bon was not having a fun time. Sweat cascaded down her face and her breathing came in ragged bursts, but Chrysalis showed no sign of slowing down. It was all Sweetie could do to counter each attack, and she was giving ground. At the speed Chrysalis was advancing on her, she was forcing Bon Bon to practically run backwards as she defended.

Sweetie Drops let out a muffled curse as her back rammed into a building. She was cornered. Acting fast, she ducked under one of Chrysalis’s punches, grit her teeth against a hard kick to her gut, and managed to dodge to the side. She tossed the blade in her right hand at Chrysalis as a distraction (Chrysalis easily batted it away) and shot her grappling hook to the roof of the building, yanking herself up after it.

She landed deftly on the roof and paused to catch her breath. She should’ve known better.

Chrysalis hadn’t been delayed a second, and had climbed the roof in nearly as much time as it had taken Sweetie to grapple up. She pounced on Sweetie from behind and knocked her to the tile of the roof, the rough shingles biting into her shoulder blades. Bon Bon looked into her mentor’s eyes—glassy and unseeing—as she lifted her hand, no doubt planning to break Sweetie’s neck. As Chrysalis’s hand came crashing down, Bon Bon threw up the remaining half of her blade in desperation. It caught Chrysalis on the wrist, but Chrysalis’s hand kept going, and Sweetie shrieked as she was showered with blood.

The pain seemed to have jolted Chrysalis out of the enchantment. She took one look at her bloody stump of a wrist and fainted, dropping to the floor with a soft thud. Bon Bon reached into her jacket, took out a roll of bandages, and did her best to stop Chrysalis from dying of blood loss. When the bandaging was done, Sweetie collapsed onto her back, closed her eyes, and went out like a light.

It felt weird to consist entirely of smoke. She couldn’t feel her body, so it felt like her consciousness was floating around by itself. She could still see, and hear, and smell, but everything was distorted, like she was looking through a dark filter and listening from underwater.

But Luna didn’t care about any of that now. All she cared about was getting to her sister in time.

She willed herself through the air as fast as she could and managed to materialize in front of Sonata just before she would have struck Celestia. Sonata’s eyes widened and she let out a perplexed “Whaaa?”, but she didn’t slow down, and Luna didn’t have enough time to do more than throw her saber protectively in front of her face. It felt like what Luna imagined getting hit by a car felt like, and she was sent rocketing through the air, coming to a painful stop against somepony’s house.

Celestia heard a series of noises from behind her, and a wave of confusion washed over her. The emotion prompted a bright light to shine from her chest, and she was suddenly acutely aware of the magical presences nearby: Aria’s was before her, as was obvious, but there was another immediately behind her, and one she recognized as the Moon moving rapidly downwards directly below her. Another was closing in from the right, but that one was relatively far away.

Celestia prepped a fireball in her left hand and swiveled on her wings, turning to Sonata. She had a nasty gash across her face from where she’d hit Luna’s saber, and with the cut Celestia had given her on her belly earlier, she was looking worse for wear. Celestia only added to it with the fireball she let loose in her face. The siren roared in pain and swiveled away, clutching her face in her hooves.

Celestia had no time to celebrate, however. She heard deafening singing from behind, and her body locked up, powerful vibrations surging through her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Aria slithering towards her. Her mouth was opened wide, and the sound waves were visible in the air, each one bringing a new burst of pain and rendering Celestia helpless. By this time, Sonata had looped back around, fire in her eyes. Celestia couldn’t see Adagio, but she bet she was here, too, or possibly after Luna.

When Sonata reached her, she whipped her tail around to smack harshly against Celestia’s cheek. Still trapped by Aria’s song, she barely moved an inch, but it didn’t lessen the blow one bit. Her glaive slipped from her hands, clattering to the city streets below.

A shout from below. “ARIA! SHE’S COMING FOR YOU!”

Glittery midnight smoke swirled above Aria’s back and morphed into Luna. Far be it from her to tell her sister, but Celestia had never been happier to see anyone in her entire life.

Luna dropped onto Aria’s neck, lifted her saber, and drove it through Aria’s skull.

Everything went quiet.

The blade slid back out as Aria’s body plummeted to the ground, the siren’s blood running off of its dark surface like it was waxed. The silence was broken by the distant thump from far below.

“You’ll pay for that!” Sonata shrieked, flying blindly towards Luna in short, jerky bursts.

But Celestia was free again. She gestured towards Luna, and her sister became encompassed in shield of hardened light. Sonata’s teeth scraped off its surface with a painful, shrill noise, and, realizing it was hopeless, she turned on Celestia instead.

Sonata moved faster than Celestia had any hope of keeping up with. Her eyes went wide. She heard Luna shout her name.

Help! she screamed in her mind, just as she threw her hands forward. A light twinkled between her fingers, and a beam of plasma, no thicker than a pencil, shot from her to Sonata, piercing the siren through her stomach and out the other side. Sonata’s eyes widened in shock, and the wound glowed red hot, steam pouring out of her body. Sonata sneered, lunged forward one last time, and stopped suddenly centimeters away from Celestia’s face. Sonata make a strangled choking noise, and dropped next to her sister, dead.

But it wasn’t over, not yet.

“Whe… Where is she?” Celestia managed.

Luna, who was cradling what looked like a broken leg, pointed to the corpses of the sirens. Puzzled, Celestia followed her gaze, and grimaced in horror. Adagio reached out her hooves to the gemstones set into her sisters’ chests, and ripped them clean out. Then, because that wasn’t horrible enough, she shoved the pulsing gems into her own chest, next to the one she already had. Blue blood contrasted starkly against the deep red of the gems as Adagio dug out room for them, and she let out a beastial roar. Celestia glowed again, trying to understand what was going on, and this time, Adagio’s aura was impossibly big, pulsing and throbbing with raw power. It made her and Luna look pitiful by comparison. Adagio’s eyes shone pure red, and she launched into the air, staring down Celestia and Luna. Before they had a chance to act, Adagio opened her mouth. They heard no sound, but the vibrations were proof enough; it felt like there was an earthquake inside them. Their vision clouded with spots, and when they could finally see again, they were already past the borders of Canterlot and still accelerating. Luna grabbed at Celestia, and they held each other tightly, furiously pumping their wings in an attempt to cancel their momentum. In the end, that’s probably why they survived at all.

Author's Note

Finale week begins!

(K so in the phrase 'All's fair in love and war', love and war are both nouns, but they can each individually be used as verbs, so technically I'm not breaking the chapter title pattern.)

Twenty Six - Love and War (2)

Twenty Six - Love and War (2)

“That ain’t in the plan, right?” Applejack said as they watched Lyra run in frantic circles, just barely out of reach of the manticores’ claws.

“Yeah, no, not really,” said Sunset. “Uh… Fluttershy, could you try to—”

“M-me?” she squeaked.

“You do have a way with animals, dear,” Rarity said.

“I…” Fluttershy gulped. “I’ll try.”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Sunset said, sending her off with a pat on her back.

As Fluttershy tried to move both quickly and slowly towards Lyra and the manticores, Twilight turned to Sunset. “You really think she’ll be able to handle it?”

“Don’t underestimate Fluttershy,” Sunset said simply. She looked towards the group. “Alright. It’s about time we—hold up. Where are Rainbow and Pinkie?”

Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack looked around, turned back to Sunset, and nervously shrugged.

Sunset dragged a hoof down her face and groaned. Leave it to those two to go off and—

“CHRYSALIS! HIIIIII!”

Sunset’s head snapped towards the shout: a ways away, on the crest of a hill in the clearing that surrounded the castle, Pinkie Pie was waving towards Chrysalis.

Applejack’s eyes were switching between staring at Pinkie and staring at Queen Chrysalis. It was kind of like watching a derailed train about to slam into a orphanage. “What in the fresh hell is she doin’?”

Chrysalis snarled and shot a laser the size of a tree trunk at Pinkie. Sunset had to avert her eyes for a second from the glare, but when she looked again, Pinkie had vanished.

Twilight gulped. “She didn’t get hit, did she?”

“Of course not,” Rarity answered. “It’s Pinkie.”

Chrysalis seemed to have come to the same conclusion, for she landed on the hill and began scanning the surrounding area for anything pink. Eventually, her gaze wrapped around to them, and she locked eyes with Sunset.

Sunset waved nervously. “She sees us.”

“What do we do?” Rarity asked.

Applejack stretched out her legs. “We fight.”

On cue, the last of Chrysalis’s army started flying towards them. They dropped into battle stances, and the unicorns’ horns lit up.

“Are we going to be able to take them?” Twilight asked.

“We better be able to,” Sunset answered. Honestly, the changeling rank and file weren’t anything to worry about, not when Chrysalis herself was still a threat. Speaking of Chrysalis, Sunset noticed that she hadn’t followed her army into battle. She wondered what had happened.

Rainbow laughed giddily as she felt the air rush through her mane and tail. There was no other word for it: flying was awesome. Pumping her wings as hard as she could, she picked out Chrysalis standing on a hill. She smirked; Pinkie’s distraction had worked perfectly. Her rainbow contrail split the sky as she hurtled towards the Queen. Just before she collided, she flipped her body around, and bucked Chrysalis hard in the chest.

It sounded like a gunshot: she channeled the force of her momentum into her kick, sending Chrysalis flying, and the sheer force of the winds released from her sudden stop buffeted Chrysalis further.

Sadly, she managed to catch herself before she hit the ground, wings buzzing with fervor. She turned a wrathful glare on Rainbow, and another bolt of energy rocketed from her horn.

At that precise moment, Pinkie flew up from below. She had a party cannon in hoof and caught the laser in its barrel, shouting a chipper “Thanks!” before falling back down to the ground. Both Rainbow and Chrysalis watched in confusion as she dropped onto a large trampoline and bounced back up. As her jump peaked once more, her cannon exploded into a shower of confetti, as well as the laser she had caught in it (Rainbow wasn’t going to try to figure out how that worked), which Chrysalis only just managed to roll away from.

Chrysalis carefully schooled her expression into one of utter hatred, and pointed her charged horn at Pinkie.

“Uhhh,” Pinkie said, cocking her head at the changeling, “sorry?”

“Stay together!” Sunset shouted as the changelings closed in. “I can keep you safe if you stay near me!”

Rarity bit her lip, focusing on her horn. A white beam shot out towards the changelings; the ones in front threw up shields, but Rarity’s shot snaked between their legs and hit a soldier in the back.

“Ha! I meant to do that!” Rarity boasted, charging her horn up for another attack. Before she could fire, though, a pair of green lasers flew at her. She shrieked even as an orange shield materialized in front of her, and the lasers bounced harmlessly off of it.

“Oh, thank you—ah!” Rarity jumped back as Applejack launched herself through Sunset’s shield, landing in front of the line of changelings and facing away from them. She bent down and bucked for all she was worth, and the changeling on the receiving end flew backwards, bowling down a few others who were in the flight path.

The other changelings lunged for Applejack, but in a bright flash of orange light, she vanished, reappearing at Sunset’s side. The changelings recovered quickly and renewed their attack, but with Sunset’s shields blocking them and Twilight’s locket absorbing them, their lasers failed to connect.

Frustrated, they grew swords and axes from their bodies and charged forward on their wings; that was when the fireball came. It dropped from the sky without warning, and exploded onto the first of the changelings, reducing them to smithereens. The changelings, along with Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity, looked up—there, hovering majestically in the sky, was Sunset’s conjured phoenix.

“You know, I had almost forgotten about that,” Rarity said.

Twilight looked to Sunset. “Can it clear a path? We need to reach Chrysalis.”

Sunset bit her lip and cast some spell or another that caused an oncoming changeling to scream and fall over steaming. “Not for too long. We’d need a distraction.”

“Leave that t’ us,” Applejack said, grinning as she adjusted her hat. “You an’ Twilight get goin’. We’ll handle the rest of ‘em.”

Sunset gave her a long look. “Alright,” she mumbled. “Thank you.”

“Well, stop dilly dallying, then!” Rarity urged. “You’ve got a changeling Queen to thrash!”

“Y-yeah,” Twilight said, clutching her locket. It hummed with energy. “Yeah.”

And with that, they were off.

The changelings made to follow them, but stopped as a white laser narrowly missed the muzzle of the changeling in front.

“Y’all ain’t runnin’ from a fight, now, are ya?” Applejack taunted, stalking forward.

“Honestly,” Rarity said, blowing smoke from her horn. “I know you’re all cretins, but surely you have enough honor to see a fight through?”

Applejack smirked. “Less yer too afraid y’all’re gonna lose.”

The changelings seemed to debate heatedly for a moment. When a massive stream of fire from the phoenix broke their ranks apart, though, they had no choice but to charge.

“Make sure you wait for the tea to cool off,” Fluttershy instructed, pouring some of the brown liquid into each cup. “You don’t want to burn yourself.”

The manticores nodded enthusiastically and reached for their respective cups, blowing on the liquid.

Fluttershy smiled. “See? Isn’t this much better than scaring some poor, defenseless girl?” She was glad Lyra was long gone by now; no doubt she would’ve reignited the manticores’ tempers after that comment.

The beasts all barked their consent, daintily sipping at the beverage, their scorpion tails waving back and forth happily. Suddenly, one of the manticores—he’d said his name was George—dropped his tea to the ground, and began roaring at something behind Fluttershy. She turned to see a fast approaching group of changelings, about ten in total. Fluttershy sighed, set her tea back on her saucer, and got up to face them.

“Excuse me,” she snipped, “but what do you think you’re doing, coming here and ruining our tea party?”

The changeling in front stopped and cocked his head to the side. “I, uh—”

“Don’t you have any manners? Shame on you!”

“Look, pony, just surrender already,” the changeling ordered.

“Uh! The nerve!” Fluttershy’s eyebrows slanted down in true rage for a second, and then, like flipping a light switch, she looked as if she were about to cry. “AAAAAAAAH! HEEELP!”

Fluttershy smiled sweetly and turned back to her tea as the manticores went to work.

Chrysalis’s patience was taking a harsh dive throughout her aggravating game of cat and mouse with these stupid ponies. Just as she was about to get one, the other would pop in and ruin it. It was infuriating.

The rainbow maned one was charging at her. She had to think—lasers hadn’t worked, shields hadn’t worked… she flung out her telekinesis, grabbing hold of the pegasus. Dash stopped dead in her tracks and struggled against Chrysalis’s hold, but her grip was much too strong. Now all she needed to do was make sure the pink one didn’t interfere—there!

Chrysalis spotted Pinkie trotting up behind her. The pony had a spring in her step, and it was grating on Chrysalis’s nerves. She held strong onto her levitation spell as she fired consecutive streams of silk, but Pinkie jumped to and fro, bouncing and cartwheeling around Chrysalis’s attacks. A roar built up in her throat; it felt like fly swatting. Except the flies were deliberately annoying her.

Chrysalis concentrated, drawing bucketloads of love into her horn. She was ending this now.

And then something wet and sticky fell on her eye, and the roar let loose. “DID YOU SPIT ON ME?!”

Rainbow started cackling from within Chrysalis’s grip. “Yeah! Thank Rarity for the inspiration on that one!”

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. “Is this a game to you?!”

Rainbow shrugged. “If it is, then we’re winning.”

“Boop!” Pinkie said, bopping Chrysalis on the nose. Except it really shouldn’t be considered bopping when there was earth pony strength involved.

Chrysalis hissed and clutched her throbbing muzzle, and Rainbow let out a whoop as she shattered the telekinetic hold. Chrysalis let out a desperate magic pulse, but both Pinkie and Rainbow were long gone by then.

Chrysalis squeezed her eyelids shut, craned her neck backwards, and screamed at the heavens.

“Are you sure they’re going to be alright?” Twilight asked as she and Sunset ran away from the mob of changelings. A good amount had broken off to follow them, but Sunset’s phoenix had landed before them, knocking half of them over with the mere strength it had hitting the ground.

“There’s a very slim chance that they won’t be cocooned,” Sunset said.

“You mean chrysalised,” Twilight corrected. Then what Sunset had said caught up with her, and her face scrunched up. “Wait, what did you say?”

Sunset sighed. “I said they’re going to lose.”

“What?! Then why did you let them stay and fight?”

“Because I know that if we beat Chrysalis we’ll get them back, and I know that the only way we’re going to beat Chrysalis is if you fight her.”

Twilight looked down at her locket and gulped. “But what if I can’t beat her?”

“Then neither of them could’ve made a difference.”

“B-but Pinkie and Rainbow seem to be doing alright… right?”

Sunset shook her head. “They’re a distraction. Dealing with them’s going to take a lot of Chrysalis’s time, but they’re not going to give her anything worse than a rough bruise. Twilight, I’m sorry, but this is on you.”

Twilight bit her lower lip.

“You have all the magic you need, right?” Sunset asked. “I can give you more right now if you—” Sunset stopped talking abruptly, and began looking around frantically.

“Sunset? Sunset, what’s wrong?” Twilight whispered.

“Someone—someone hacked my phoenix spell. I had to cancel it.”

“Someone hacked your spell?”

“Yeah. Basically, if you overflow the spell with your own magic, you can rewrite some of its properties. But the amount magical knowledge that would take, not to mention raw arcane energy…”

Twilight gripped Sunset’s shoulder. “Look.”

Sunset followed her gaze to a lone changeling walked towards them. He was different from all the rest by nothing other than a pair of small round glasses balanced on his muzzle. His eyes dwarfed the spectacles completely and utterly, so Sunset assumed they were just for show. Guess someone wanted to look intelligent.

But perhaps the most alarming quality was his magical presence; Sunset could feel its pulse, even from as far away as she was.

“Twilight,” she said, voice slow and steady, “get behind me.”

Hot pain spiked through Rarity’s side as one of the changelings’ lasers collided. She staggered onto her knee and threw up a shield against the rest of their attacks, but she was struggling to hold it; her forehead was pounding, her breaths were coming heavy, and the pain made it difficult to concentrate. In her peripheral, she caught glimpses of Applejack, who wasn’t faring too much better: the changelings had gooed one of her legs to the ground, and despite all her flailing and wild punching, she wasn’t doing much damage.

Rarity’s focus snapped away from her friend as her shield shattered. The feedback into her horn was nearly as agonizing as the energy beams that slammed into her and sent her sprawling.

She pushed herself up onto one hoof, warily eyeing a pack of four changelings that were advancing on her. A group of five was making the final touches on the silk chrysalis surrounding Applejack. The others were either dead or somewhere else, she supposed. Well, if they never made it back to Earth, at least they’d put one hell of a dent in Chrysalis’s army.

She shot one last desperate beam of light towards the advancing changelings. The one in the front, stepping over the singed body of one of his comrades, willed it out of existence with a flash of his horn. Another flash, and Rarity’s vision went green.

Fluttershy jolted as a bestial scream ripped through the air. She spun around to where the manticores and changelings were fighting just as one of the manticores was thrown from the scuffle, sliding to a stop next to Fluttershy.

“Linda! Oh, dear…” Fluttershy scrambled over to her, grimacing at each new injury she uncovered: burns, gashes, bruises, you name it.

“Don’t worry, everything will be alright,” she promised, patting the manticore on the head. It let out a groan, and began to lift one paw, but Fluttershy pressed it back down. “Oh, please don’t move. Your wounds are bad enough as it is, and I really wouldn’t want them to—”

Linda moved her arm despite the warning, curling all of her claws back but one. She was pointing at something.

Fluttershy turned just in time to see a blast of silk shooting towards her. She yelped and shot upwards, but the changeling—and it was only one changeling, the others still occupied with the manticores—followed her into the air. She flew as fast as her wings would carry her and strafed left and right, silk flying past her ears.

She ate up the length of the small clearing quickly, aiming for her friends. She could see Rarity and Applejack doing their best to fend off a group of fifteen or so changelings, Pinkie and Rainbow continuing to distract Chrysalis about a hundred feet away, and Sunset and Twilight in the middle, facing off against a single changeling. Making up her mind, she began to carefully lower her altitude as she flew towards Sunset.

She opened her mouth to call out her friend’s name just as the silk finally landed. She screamed as she tumbled downwards through the air, one of her wings pinned to her side, but that too was promptly cut off by a second shot of silk on her mouth. A third, and the world vanished from view.

Rainbow Dash laughed as she swooped down, whisking Pinkie Pie out of Chrysalis’s line of fire. The laser struck the ground harmlessly, leaving a small smoking crater in its wake.

“Batter up!” Rainbow called. She used her wings to push herself into a spin and threw Pinkie with all her might towards Chrysalis.

Pinkie laughed brightly as she pierced through the air. Chrysalis’s eyes had never left them, and she simply surrounded herself in a bubble shield that would, ideally, hurt a lot to crash into.

Rainbow Dash had taken off as soon as she had thrown Pinkie, wrapping around to Chrysalis’s other side. Pinkie’s bpdy let out a squeak as she bounced off of Chrysalis’s shield. The Queen smirked; surely, the pony had at least a few broken bones after an impact like that.

When Pinkie sprang back onto her feet with a dopey smile, Chrysalis almost felt like screaming again. Damn earth ponies! She let her shield drop and charged up her horn; she also leapt straight up, allowing Rainbow Dash, who had planned on a sneak attack, to barrel under her with a whiffing sound. Rainbow cursed and flapped her wings, but her momentum carried her straight into Pinkie.

In the time it took for the ponies to untangle and reorient themselves, dark shadows had begun to swirl around Chrysalis’s horn, and her eyes had turned pitch black. A crack of similarly colored lightning struck the ground between Rainbow and Pinkie, and they yelped as a showy claw drew itself up from the ground and snatched them up. It squeezed them painfully (and awkwardly) together, and no matter how much they writhed, its gripped never faltered.

Chrysalis landed in front of them, and the hand lowered them until they were eye to eye.

“I—urk—didn’t know you were into this kinda thing, bug-face,” Rainbow said, though she couldn’t have sounded very threatening with her lungs being crushed to death.

Chrysalis sneered. “Go to Tartarus.” She lifted one foreleg, morphed it into a thin paddle, and slapped Rainbow hard across the face. Then her horn lit up green, and the next second, they were both imprisoned.

“They better have some damn tasty memories,” Chrysalis mumbled under her breath.

Sunset and the changeling had locked eyes, and both their horns were alaze. The duel was like nothing Twilight had seen thus far: flashes of fire and lightning and energy would shoot from Sunset’s horn, but wouldn’t make it three yards before fizzling out. On the other hand, the changeling was spraying out all sorts of lasers, silk, and whatever else you could think of that Sunset was having to dodge or block (though the latter was fairly difficult when her shields were being taken down nearly as quickly as she could put them up).

Twilight helped where she could, but the most she could do was absorb some of the shots into her locket. She couldn’t risk getting close enough to sap the magic from the changeling himself, not unless she wanted to be burnt to a crisp.

A shrill scream rang out from behind them, and Twilight whipped her head around to see a changeling capture Fluttershy. She winced; poor Fluttershy. She wished she could’ve done something.

As Sunset struggled to outpace how easily the changeling was cancelling her spells, Twilight watched in a daze as the changelings subdued first Applejack and Rarity and then Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. She hoped Sunset would win soon; if she was captured too, then they were as good as dead.

She noticed that remnants of the changeling soldiers—about thirty in all—had begun to make their way towards them. She bit her lip; Chrysalis would be on them soon, too, and—

Something shot like a missile above their heads, stealing Twilight’s attention. She followed its path as it careened towards the castle; she could make out the forms of two people, two sets of furiously flapping wings, and an unearthly amount of hair as it crashed through the castle’s wall. What the hell?

It was only then that she noticed the Moon was out, sitting right next to the Sun. Celestia and Luna… She looked nervously at the hole in the castle and gulped.

Before she could properly consider the ramifications, however, Sunset let out a scream. Twilight’s eyes jumped back to the battle: Sunset was clutching at a burn on her shoulder, and a stream of silk cutting through the air was halfway to ending the fight once and for all.

But Twilight wasn’t about to let that happen. She steeled herself, made sure she had a clear goal in mind, and unleashed the magic.

Sunset grimaced as the stream of silk drew nearer. In the split seconds she had, she wondered if maybe Twilight would run away, would save herself. She hoped so.

When the portal opened up in front of her, she had her answer.

The oncoming silk fed into the wormhole and out a second one above the changeling, trapping him. Sunset followed the sounds of maniacal laughter and winced as she saw Midnight Sparkle floating there in all her glory.

“You think you can just take the pony who can teach me magic?!” With a wave of her hand, a portal swallowed the changeling up, silk prison and all, sending him god knows where.

Midnight’s gaze swept past Sunset and stopped on the group of remaining changelings. One portal later, and she was in front of them. Thick cords of purple magic wrapped around her fingers, and she pulled on them, ripping tears in the dimensional film, grinning ever wider.

“Do you know how much I could learn from a changeling autopsy?” she said, voice low and dangerous.

Sunset furrowed her brow. During the Friendship Games, Midnight was indiscriminate in her destructive quest for knowledge, but she had just saved Sunset. She also seemed to be targeting the changelings. She smiled; Twilight must still be in there, doing as much as she could to curve the influence of the magical overload.

As Twilight set to work ripping the changelings a new one, Sunset’s ears twitched, and her face dropped.

Distant yet fast approaching, she could pick out an ethereal song that shook her to her core and made her want to run and hide from the raw power in each note.

She looked towards Canterlot, and sure enough, Adagio was there in the distance, surrounded in a magical aura so strong that Sunset could see it with her naked eye.

She gulped. “Well, crap.”