Chapters The young six were hanging out the Treehouse of Harmony, talking about what they learned. "So, am I the only one confused on why they didn't listen to their sisters?" Smolder asked.
"I'm more curious about why they don't use those carts as normal transportation," Ocellus said.
"Well, the cities don't have many paths for carts," Sandbar said. "Or a power source."
"But I saw Professor Rainbow Dash's pet tortoise has a propeller, allowing him to fly."
"Most ponies can fly," Gallus said, "And some unicorn can teleport. Plus, think about the train. I'm pretty sure they're not going to get rid of that."
"Yona don't want to get into cart," Yona said. "Too fast."
"I wonder if we could enter that contest one day," Silverstream cooed.
"Probably not," Ocellus said. "We're too old." This made her friend's excitement dissipated.
"Why would you want to ride a cart when you can fly?" Gallus asked.
"Yeah," Smolder said. "Plus, you can turn into a fish creature."
"I don't know," Sandbar said. "Having some wheels would be helpful." He looked up to see the sun setting. "Like when we have to get back to the school before dark." The students started heading back, with Smolder and Gallus carrying Yona, and Ocellus carrying Sandbar.
"Why didn't we just hang out in the lounge?" Silverstream asked.
"The treehouse is our place," Gallus said. "It's nice to have some piece. Right?"
"That's true," Ocellus said.
"Lounge have snacks," Yona said just as her stomach started to growl.
"Okay, you have a point there," Gallus agreed.
It didn't take the students long to get back to school. By then, the moon was high in the sky. Yona raced inside to get something to eat. Gallus walked into his dorm, catching Sandbar's attention. "Hey, Gallus," he said, "Don't you want a snack?"
"I'll be there in a minute," Gallus replied. "I've just got to finish my schoolwork."
"I finished mine before we headed to the treehouse," Ocellus said. "Why didn't you do it earlier?"
"I needed some time to cool down."
"You can't procrastinate like that. This is the third time you've done this."
"Look, I'll handle this." The Changeling groaned as the earth pony pulled her away.
"Just ignore him," Sandbar said. "Let's get some food."
"Fine." Ocellus walked away from the dorms until they were out of Gallus's earshot. "I don't know what he's thinking. He'll screw up and flunk his lesson."
"Just let him learn. I think he can figure out the consequences himself." Many other students were hanging out in the cafeteria, Sandbar was interested in the sweets that Pinkie Pie had left out for him and the others.
"At least there's one professor that gives us gifts for paying attention," Smolder said picking up one of the deserts.
"Pink pony great chef and professor," Yona cheered.
"She is," Ocellus said.
"Why friend sound mad?"
"Gallus left his homework to the last minute again," Sandbar explained.
"So, that's why he was lying on his bed after class," Silverstream said.
"He's asking to fail the class," Ocellus complained.
"Just let it go," Smolder said as she ate her cupcake. "It's his problem."
"Not the way I would've said it," Sandbar said, "But I guess that's true." The students enjoyed their snacks as Spike flew in, he seemed to be looking for something.
"What you looking for?" Yona asked.
"A book," Spike said looking under the table. "Ah, here it is. I wonder it got here."
"EUP sicknesses," Silverstream said reading the cover of the book. "Why do you need this?"
"Well, Starlight's gotten sick, so I'm trying to help Twilight find a cure." All of sudden, Starlight teleported into the room with her nose stuffed up and red.
"Hey... Students," she said a little lightheaded.
"Starlight, I told you to stay in bed."
"Look, Twilight wants me to help out with the school. Even if that means I just stay in an office."
"Hey, I know a way you can help. Just follow me to the castle."
"Okay." The sick unicorn walked behind Spike as the headed home.
"Hey, don't you guys have any strange illnesses?" Sandbar asked.
"Well, we have a problem around dragon sneeze trees," Smolder said.
"Why are we talking about sneezing tree?" Gallus asked not entirely know what was going on.
"We're just talking about sniffle shuffle," Ocellus said, confusing her friends a bit. "It's a changeling's sneeze makes it lose control of what the form they take."
"Sounds annoying." The griffon took out his paper and pencil and kept writing on his homework.
"Okay, why do you always..."
"Ocellus," Sandbar said trying to calm his friend down.
"No, I have to get this off my chest. Gallus, stop procrastinating."
"Come on, I need some time to cool off," Gallus said.
"I can agree to that," Smolder said.
"Well, I can see that, but the test is tomorrow," Ocellus said.
"Yeah, I know that," Gallus said. "Could you just let me do it my way?"
"I'm saying that you can't leave things to the last second." The griffon and changeling kept arguing even with their friends trying to stop them.
"You know what, I'll just head back to my dorm."
"No," Yona cried. "Yona don't like when friends argue. Maybe Ocellus help Gallus."
Gallus groaned. "Okay, fine. It's frustrating me." He tossed his pencil on the table in anger. "I thought I try to take a break and work on it later, but now I know I'm screwed."
"...You could've just asked me," Ocellus said. "I'd be happy to help." Gallus showed his friend what problems he was stuck on. "Oh, here's the problem. You forgot the zero. Just add it to the end and you'll get your answer."
He did as she said, and the answer was right. "Ah, thanks, Ocellus."
"That didn't seem too hard," Silverstream said.
"When you live in a place that isn't the most... Let's say 'happy' as Griffonstone, you're lucky to even know basic math. I think I'm pretty lucky to be at this school with you guys."
"So, what do you think would happen if this school didn't exist?" Smolder questioned.
"I wouldn't want to think that," Silverstream said. "I wouldn't be able to get to know you guys."
"Yeah, I wouldn't like that either," Sandbar said.
"Yona like friends," Yona said. "Yona also like getting out of snow."
"Don't you have your fur?" Ocellus asked.
"Only helps so much."
Silverstream looked over to Gallus, who didn't seem that happy about that idea. "Something wrong," she asked.
"It's nothing," Gallus replied. "I was just thinking instead of being I'd just be stuck in Griffonstone. Trust me, it's not a place you want to live in."
"I lived in the Dragon Lands," Smolder said. "I think I could take Griffonstone."
"You're hard as steel, and you can swim in lava. Dragons are built tough. Griffons, not so much. The only thing we've got in our con artist skills and deception."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, for example, I just took your second cupcake without you even knowing." The dragon was surprised as her friend wasn't wrong.
"Wow, you are good."
"You've gotta if you want to survive there." Gallus bit off the cupcake with a smug look on his face.
Meanwhile, Spike was struggling to get Starlight into her room. "Starlight, it's for your own good," Spike groaned pulling the unicorn's tail.
"No, Spike," the sick pony groaned. "Twilight said I needed to help."
"I understand, but you're not thinking straight, so just..." Spike couldn't finish as Starlight sneezed and teleported away. He flew around the castle until he found the lightheaded unicorn next to the map. "Starlight!"
"I'm sorry, I can't help it. My horn is itching." Spike tried to take his friend back to her room, when sneezed again and a beam shot from her horn and hit the map, much their worry. "Oops."
They waited for a minute as they didn't know if the map was effected or not. "I think it's fine." Spike had spoken too soon as the map started shaking. It showed a map of Equestria, but it looked a little different. The pony and dragon made a run for it as portals started opening up in the castle.
Twilight Sparkle was in her office when she heard a roar of thunder. She looked out the window to see some portals opening up. She then heard some screaming from outside, so she quickly teleported into the halls to find students running away from opening portals.
"What's going on?" The alicorn questioned.
"Twilight!" Spike cried flying up to her. "Starlight accidentally hit the map with a time spell. I think."
The princess/principle was going to ask something else, but she could the portals were starting to suck up some furniture. "Spike, get all the students out of here." Twilight levitated some students towards her and they teleported out of the school.
The alicorn and dragon did their best to rescue the students. The young six were in panic racing towards any exit, but a portal appeared and blocked their way.
"What's happening?" Silverstream questioned as she and her friends raced down the hall.
"I don't know," Sandbar said, "But we need to get out of here."
"Open the windows," Ocellus cried. Smolder and Yona did so, both bashing at the windows until one broke. They started climbing out of the school, but before they could get out, another portal opened up with a powerful vacuum.
The six tried to get away, but Gallus was getting sucked in. Smolder grabbed his claw and she and the others tried to pull him back, but the portal was getting stronger.
"I can't hold on," Gallus cried as he started losing his grip.
"Don't let go," Ocellus said as she turned into yak to help boost her strength.
The group did their best, but their friend couldn't hold on any longer. Gallus lost his grip and fell into the portal. "GALLUS!" was the last thing the griffon heard before the portal closed, leaving the remaining five in shock.
The rest of the portals began to close as Twilight and Spike found the young five. "There you are," Twilight said with a sigh of relief.
Spike noticed someone was missing. "Where's Gallus?" he asked. None of the creatures replied as they didn't know what to say. Spike had seen the portals closing and with a student missing he quickly put two and two together. "Did he... Get sucked up?"
The five nodded being very worried about their friend. "Don't worry," Twilight said, "We're going to find him. We just need to know the spell that Starlight used. Now, I just wonder where Gallus is now."
Gallus was screaming at the top of his lungs as he tumbled through the mysterious tunnel. He could see his principle as well as his teachers, but they looked different. Some of them were working for Sombra, others were drained thanks to Cozy Glow, and one where there darker versions of the mane six with Queen Chrysalis.
The griffon couldn't control himself as he tumbled through the air. He finally stopped floating and crash landed face first into the ground. After spitting out his beak full of dirt, he looked around to see Ponyville was abandoned. Some buildings were broken, bordered up, or just a pile of rubble.
"Where is every creature?" Gallus questioned, a little scared since he seemed to be the only one around. Taking a deep breath, the griffon decided to take a look around. There wasn't a soul in sight, making his situation even worse. Things were going to get even worse when a station walked up behind him.
"General, what are you doing here?" the stallion asked making Gallus confused.
"General? What are you talking about?"
The pony was just as confused as the griffon. "I swear if this is one of the changelings playing a prank..."
"I'm not a changeling."
"Then where's your uniform?"
"I've never met you before." The station's expression changed to anger and changed its form to familiar blue and red changeling. "Wait, Ocel..." Gallus couldn't say anything before the changeling tackled him to the ground.
"I don't know who you are, but the king will find out," she said.
Before anything could come out of the griffon's mouth, the familiar stranger made her horn glow and with that, all Gallus could see was black.
"Where did you find him?"
"He was just wandering around Ponyville."
"That doesn't explain why he looks like the general."
"I tried the spell to change a changeling back, but he's still a griffon."
Gallus still couldn't see anything, but he could hear voices that were very familiar. He could feel a slight breeze as if he was moving. He heard some doors opening as his vision finally returned. He was in grey, white, and blue throne room.
Though he couldn't see it, his head had a really bad bruise. What he could see was he was tied up and Ocellus was carrying him with an orange and purple dragon and a pink hippogriff walking beside her. What made the griffon speechless was he saw what seemed to be his friends wearing black informs with an icy blue symbol on it.
"So, we have an imposter," said a voice that made Gallus shiver. Standing in front of him was the Storm King. He wore a dark blue robe and his crown looked grander.
"We checked him," Ocellus said, "He's actually a griffon."
The king walked closer to Gallus to get a better look. "What do you want to do with him?" Smolder asked.
"Give a minute," the king said picking up the griffon.
"Put me down," Gallus demanded.
"Ooh, he speaks."
"Yes, I can also do this." Without warning, Gallus head budded the Storm King, making the king drop him to the ground. Before the griffon could get his bearings, Smolder running up behind him and started strangling him with a rope. Gallus gagged for air as the Storm King stood over him.
"Let him breathe." Smolder let go so Gallus could breathe. The king looked him the eye. "Who are you?"
"Why should I tell you anything?"
"He has different ways of making you speak," Smolder said making a violent jester.
"Smolder, why are you following this idiot?"
"He's not... Wait, how do you know my name?"
"Kid," the king said, "We need him alive for answers." Smolder just growled as Gallus looked at Ocellus and Silverstream.
"Why are you taking orders from him?"
"Hey, look at me when you're talking." The king grabbed Gallus by his head and forced the griffon to look at him. "Tell me, where did you come from?"
"Griffonstone. Why do you even want to know?"
"Because I have something to say to you," said a voice. They look and saw a blue griffon that looked just like Gallus walk through the doors. "Care to explain what's going on here?"
"We're still trying to figure that out," Ocellus said. "I don't think very straight when I'm hungry. Could I..."
"Not until you figure out who that is." The second Gallus walked over to his doubleganger. "You got sixty seconds to explain."
"Okay, look," the first Gallus said, "Portals started opening up at my school. Principle Twilight was helping..."
"You mean Twilight Sparkle?"
"Well, yes."
"That's impossible," the Storm King scoffed. "I finished her a long time ago."
The original Gallus tried to stay calm. "What did you do with her?" he asked.
"What do you think?" Smolder asked. "She's dead." The griffon's blood went cold.
"She's right," the king said. "No one will be more powerful than me." He held his staff which had a shiny blue crystal at the end of it.
"How did you see her? She's nothing but ashes?" the second Gallus asked.
"I... I don't know," the first Gallus replied only to thrown across the room by the Storm King.
"Lies!" the king cried. He turned his attention to Smolder. "Have fun, kid."
Smolder cracked her knuckles and walked over the injured griffon. "Please, Smolder, don't," Gallus begged, but his 'friend' wasn't listening.
Suddenly, out of the blue, a yak was launched into the room, flying into Smolder. Several ponies ran into the room, catching the Storm King by surprise, he even dropped his wand. Gallus recognized a couple of these ponies, especially a blue pegasus with a rainbow mane.
The pegasus knocked the changeling and hippogriff off their feet, but the griffon general grabbed the Kings staff and returned it to its owner. The Storm King used the magic in the staff to smack the pegasus into the wall.
Gallus was going to question what was going on until an orange earth pony picked him up and made a break for it. As they ran down the hall, Gallus could see ponies battling with various different species, dragons, yaks, griffons, changelings, and even hippogriffs.
The pony leaped onto an airship that quickly took off by the pony's order. "But what about Rainbow Dash?" asked a mare. They got their answer when there was a sonic rainboom, breaking apart the castle which they just left. The airship's speed double as Rainbow Dash landed on the deck along with a white unicorn stallion.
"That was insane," the stallion cried. "We could've died."
"But it worked," Rainbow scoffed.
"Shining's not wrong," the earth pony said. "In the attack, we did to rescue five ponies, you nearly got us captured and/or killed."
"It was self-defense."
The earth pony just rolled her eyes as she set Gallus down and untied him. "You okay?" She got her answer as the griffon hugged her.
"Thank you," he cried.
"Hang on," the unicorn said. "You look a lot like the general."
"I know," the earth pony said, "But I saw the king's general giving him his staff."
Rainbow let out an angry groan. "If I could only get my hooves on that thing we could've..."
"Rainbow Dash, just check on the crew," the stallion ordered. Dash just walked away as the earth pony and unicorn looked at the rescue griffon.
"Sorry about that," the earth pony said. "I'm Applejack, and this is our group leader, Shining Armor." Gallus shook the leader's hoof, but he was still quite nervous.
"Follow me to below the deck," Shining said. The griffon did so, wanting to forget what just happened.
A few moments later, they landed in the Everfree Forest and every creature got off. Shining Armor cast a spell that made the ship invisible, and they walked off. They kept on going until the came across a small hill. Shining cast another spell that opened a door and they ran in before it closed.
Gallus was shocked to find that the hill was a cover-up for a hidden base. He was taken to a soup kitchen area were he as well as the other rescue ponies had bowls of soup waiting for them.
"Glad you made it back," Fluttershy said walking up to Applejack.
Gallus finally noticed that the two ponies had their manes much shorter. He saw a pony who he thought was Pinkie Pie walk past with who looked to be Starlight. The reason why Gallus couldn't believe that was who they were was because of Pinkie's shaved mane and Starlight's broken horn.
"The expansion is going slower than usual," Starlight said to Shining Armor.
"Look, I don't care how long it takes," Shining replied, "Just make sure that there are no openings so we don't get caught."
"Understood," Pinkie replied. "We'll make sure the new bedrooms are fully secured." Pinkie and Starlight walked away, with unicorn's broken horn shooting out some sparks. This appeared to cause her some pain. Pinkie comforted her as they carried on with the expansion.
"Your new rooms will take a while," Shining said, "So you're going to have to share with the others." The newcomers agreed, but Gallus was still left in the dark.
After having the soup, which tasted kind of bland to the griffon, Gallus was shown to his temporary room with green earth pony that was very familiar to him. "Sandbar," he cheered.
"Get away from me," the colt cried mistaking him for the other Gallus. "H... How do you know my name?"
"Calm down," Applejack said. "This isn't the general. This is just a kid that looks like him." The colt walked closer to the griffon, who waved.
"Okay, he's not a changeling either, is he?"
"We double-checked. Now, you two along well, ya hear?" Both of them nodded as the mare went to help the others.
"How do you know my name?"
"You look like someone I know," Gallus explained. He gasped after he saw the colt's other eye had an eyepatch. "Sandbar, what happened to your eye?"
"...It was the Storm King. It was something I lost when I join the Clears." Gallus was confused by this. "It's the name of the rebellion."
"Rebel... Can you please tell me what the heck is going on?"
"What rock have you been living under?"
"Tell me!"
"Alright, sit down. This will take a while."
About a year ago, the Storm King attacked Canterlot. Princess Twilight's friends and the other creatures fought their hardest, but they weren't able to get her in time before the king disintegrated her. Tempest Shadow had disappeared, so many assumed she was dead as well.
With the power of four alicorns, the storm king overpowered the changeling hive, Dragon Lands, Yakyakistan, and even Griffonstone, which was the first to fall. Some of the hippogriffs managed to escape, but a whole third of Seaquestria was captured.
Now that he has a wide variety of soldiers on his side, he's unstoppable. Even the Starswirl couldn't take him down. Before he could team up with the pillars, he was taken by surprise. Soon he and the rest of the pillars were wiped out. Still, the Clears try their best and get a little bit of Equestria at a time.
"Kind of wish we didn't have to hide in fear."
"Well, why don't we fight?" Gallus asked.
"Didn't you hear? The Storm King has the magic of four alicorns. No pony can stand up to him. Without Princess Twilight, all we can do it hide." Sandbar's ears drooped as Gallus was a bit nervous about asking more questions.
"Your parents are okay, are they?"
"Yeah, they help fight. Can we just go to sleep? I don't want to think about this anymore." Sandbar just climbed into his bed as Gallus lied down on his.
His friends were on the team of a king who wanted him dead, he didn't know how to get home, and the only known resistance he knew could only hide in fear. He had a hard time getting to sleep, not knowing what would be waiting for him tomorrow. All he hoped was that the friends he actually knew would find out where he was.
Gallus woke to find he was in Ponyville, but something was weird. Half of the town looked normal and lively, while the other half look abandoned and partly destroyed. The griffon figured out that the first was his home and the other one was the world he was in now. He looked down and saw a line that divided the two halves.
"What are you doing here?" asked a voice. He looked and saw Sandbar, but it was the one with an eyepatch. Gallus sighed but then noticed the other Sandbar from his world in the peaceful Ponyville. He also noticed Yona. He looked back to see another Yona, who was wearing what seemed to be armor with the Storm King emblem on her shoulder plates.
"There you are." The three (or rather five) creatures look and saw the king's dragon, changeling, and hippogriff charging towards them. Sandbar braced himself but when Smolder charged him with a punch, she just stopped in mid-air. Her wings weren't even flapping. Gallus look and Smolder, Silverstream, and Ocellus on the peaceful side.
To add to their confusion the ground shook as a giant crystal tree grew out in between the two worlds. When it started taking form with six different colored gems on what looked like branches, Gallus knew what this was. "The Tree of Harmony," he gasped.
Just then, right in front of the tree, a transparent Twilight Sparkle appeared, much to every creatures' shock. "Hello, Gallus."
"Hey... Tree," Gallus said awkwardly, "Do you mind if I call you that?"
"That doesn't matter right now. I know you don't belong here, but you can help these creatures."
"Those two lines kind of contradict each other."
"I don't have much time to explain. You won't last long in this world. But there are a few creatures that could help you."
Gallus looked to the five doublegangers of his friends. "You mean them? They don't even know me. Well, they do, it's just someone who's following a heartless king. And that's..." He couldn't finish as his heart felt like it was being crushed. "What's going on?"
"This is what I feared. Find your friends, before it's too late for you." The tree's pony form stomped on the ground as the divider opened the ground up making Gallus fall in and woke up.
The griffon felt his heart beating, it hurt for a second but after a few beats, it felt fine. "I wish it did it differently. What did it mean?" Gallus could think of it too long as Applejack burst into the room, startling him and Sandbar.
"Time to get up you two," she said. "Time to eat."
"Right," Sandbar said following the farm pony. Gallus followed suit still thinking about his dream.
Rarity and Pinkie were helping give out breakfast for the rebel team. It wasn't anything too fancy, but it was good enough to get anyone threw til lunch. Sandbar decided to introduce Gallus to his family, the mother looked a little on edge, while the father had a couple of battle scars.
"So... How do you play your parts?" Gallus asked.
"Well, I'm a nurse," Sandbar's mom said. "Which is good since somepony here keeps getting injured."
"I can't help it," the father said.
"Can we not talk about fighting against the king?" Sandbar begged.
"Then what do you want to talk about?" the mother asked.
"Well, I had this weird dream last night. Ponyville was split in half, one of the parts looked pretty good. Plus, there some members of the storm fleet, and a second me."
"That's weird," Gallus said. "That's the same thing I dreamed. Did you also see Twilight Sparkle?"
"You both saw the princess of friendship?" the father questioned.
"Sort of. She was just standing in front of the Tree of Harmon-EEK!" He was caught off guard from an angry Rainbow Dash.
"How do you know about the tree?" she questioned looking Gallus dead in the eyes.
"Rainbow," Fluttershy said pulling her friend back. "He's just a kid."
"A terrified one at that," Gallus added. Dash just put the griffon down as she floated away with her friend.
"I just... We could've done something," the rainbow mane pony groaned clenching her teeth.
"I know, but getting angry isn't going to help," Fluttershy said.
"You okay?" Sandbar asked.
"Yeah, just fine," Gallus said taking a bite out of his breakfast.
"So, you had the same dream as me?"
"It's what it seems. The Tree said I won't last long here."
"You know we're sitting right here," Sandbar's mom said.
"Sorry, mom," Sandbar apologized. "We'll talk about what happened later, Gallus." The griffon nodded and they just continued with their breakfast.
Meanwhile, the griffon general was checking on his troops. Some dragons were practicing their combats skills with some changelings. He smiled at them doing as they were ordered. "General Gallus," Smolder said running up to him along with Ocellus and Silverstream.
"This better be important," he said.
"Well, kind of," Ocellus said. "The three of us had the same dream..."
"Don't care."
"But it was the same one," Smolder said.
"Well, you go tell your mommies about what you dreamed of." Silverstream whimpered after hearing this. "Oh, your's is still alive." Gallus turned around to leave but Smolder had something else to say.
"If it's important, we saw your doubleganger."
The general stopped and turned back. "...Alright, now you have my attention. Do you know where he is?"
"My only guess is that he's somewhere in Ponyville," Ocellus said. "The Clears rescued him, so he must be a part of them."
"If you're so sure about this, go and check it out."
"What...? I haven't even eaten yet."
"Well, get you a feast if you and the yaks search Ponyville again."
The changeling just sighed. "Yes, sir."
The general then looked towards the dragon and hippogriff. "You two, go with her."
"Yes, sir," Smolder said as she flew off to join the attack, while Silverstream was feeling a little less keen.
In less than half an hour, Ocellus, Smolder, Silverstream, and several yaks got an airship and set off towards Ponyville. The yaks were all armored up, boots, shoulder plates with the Storm King's emblem, and helmets with eyeholes that looked like the emblem.
"The general has given us orders to find the rebels in Ponyville," Ocellus said. "I would suggest that you capture them, alive. " The yaks nodded as the changeling held her stomach. Hungry was quickly getting to her, but she just pushed it off. "Be ready to attack."
Back to the rebel hideout, Gallus decided to look around. He felt a little nervous considering how low the ceilings were. Claustrophobia would be the least of his worries. He still had no idea how to get home. Gallus then heard the sound of a baby crying, along with a voice.
"Flurry, stop crying." Gallus followed the sound and found Spike trying to calm Flurry Heart down. The baby alicorn flew out of the dragon's claws and she flew right into Gallus's face. "Sorry about that."
"It's fine," Gallus replied picking up the alicorn. "You're looking after Flurry Heart?"
"Yeah." Flurry appeared to be interested in Gallus. She giggled as played with his wings. "I think she likes you."
"Good to know. Hey, Spike, have you seen any spells that let you travel between different worlds?"
"Sort of, why do you ask?"
"Because I'm not from this world. In mine, Princess Twilight is still alive and even opened a school where I got to meet Sandbar and other creatures."
"Really? She's still alive in yours?"
"Yeah. Do you know any unicorns that can open a portal to new worlds?"
"I think you're out of luck. Starlight's the only pony I know who could do that, but her horn was broken turning the king's attack."
"Seriously? What about Discord?" Spike didn't say anything to this. "Wh... What happened to him."
"...The Storm King lured him into a trap involving Fluttershy. Before anyone knew it, he was turned to stone... And shatter. It really took a toll on Fluttershy."
"Sorry I asked. I'm just trying to find a solution."
"I understand." Spike took Flurry from Gallus, who left leaving behind some awkward silence.
"Well, I feel like an idiot. I've got nothing."
"Gallus," Sandbar cried running up to him. "You wanna talk about that dream?"
"Go ahead."
"Who was that other pony that looked like me?"
"That was you from another world."
"Keep talking," Starlight said walking up to them.
"I told her about what happened," Sandbar explained.
"Explain me your world."
"Okay," Gallus said. After a quick explanation of what happened yesterday. "And after that, I got chest pains."
"The tree is very powerful," Starlight said, "It should have a good reason for calling Sandbar. As well as your friends. Even if they don't know you."
"So, let's just go out there and..."
"I'm stopping you there." Starlight reached her hoof out and blocked the griffon's path. "If you get caught by the Storm Army..."
"They'll beat me up and blah, blah, blah. Look, I need to get home." Using his wings, Gallus flew over the unicorn with a broken horn.
"Gallus, stop," Sandbar cried chasing him down.
The griffon nearly got to the exit, but Zecora was there stopping him in his tracks. "I'm glad I stopped you before you got ahead," she said, "If I didn't, you might end up dead."
"Thanks, Zecora," Starlight said. "Gallus, what were you thinking?"
"I'm trying to get home," the griffon replied. "I'm trying to find a way."
Just then, a pegasus flew through the exit and towards Shining Armor. "Sir. Sir!" he cried. "The storm army is heading to Ponyville."
"Stay calm," Shining Armor replied. "Did you see what the army consisted of?"
"It was all yaks, except for a changeling, a dragon, and a hippogriff."
"Applejack, we'll need you as well as the flight and ranged units." Applejack raced off to find her team. "What reason do they have for searching Ponyville? Nopony lives in the main area since this place was built."
"I think it might have something to do with me," Gallus said. "Since I was wondering around, they think I must be here. I'm sorry."
"No, it's alright. We'll hold them off. The spell should keep everpony here hidden." Applejack's unit was ready for action. They, as well as Shining Armor, set off. Gallus didn't hesitate and followed the unit. Sandbar wanted to go after him, but his mother stopped him. The earth pony couldn't do anything to stop the griffon.
Right above Ponyville, the warship was hovering over the abandoned village. "Alright," Ocellus said, "The second we land we'll search the entire area, even if we have to destroy everything. Silverstream, scout the area."
The hippogriff took flight and searched around the area. Just then, a lightning bolt struck the airship, causing them to crash to the ground, destroying some buildings, and sending parts of the army overboard.
There were several injuries, but Smolder and the yaks stood strong. Ocellus had turned into a flying squirrel to avoid the crash, but she quickly changed back when he stomach growled. She looked and saw that a third of her army was no longer able to fight, the other third was just trying to fix the ship. She then saw several ponies heading towards them, along with a captured Silverstream. "What in tarnation happened?" Applejack asked.
Ocellus quickly hid so the ponies didn't see her. "Someone shot us down," Smolder explained.
"Ponies must be smashed!" a yak cried. Before Ocellus could come out of hiding and stop them, the armies charged at each other. The yaks had the strength advantage, but the ponies' magic and flight help even the playing field.
Ocellus was going to fight on, but she then saw something blue hiding around the corner. She flew around the buildings so no one could see her, then she transformed into Rainbow Dash.
"What are you doing here?" she questioned the griffon.
"Rainbow Dash?" Gallus gasped falling on his back. "What are you doing here?"
"Trying to get you back. Come on, you'll get..." She could finish as a yak got thrown into the building they were hiding behind, causing a part of the building to collapse. Dash moved the griffon out of the way. "Let's go."
"Hold on, how can I trust you?"
"Look, do you want to smashed by these hairballs?"
"Well, what about the Tree of Harmony?"
"The Tree... Of Harmony? Was that what was in the dream?" Gallus tackled the 'pony' to the ground. She knew her cover was blown. She would've turned into something, a cheetah to run off, a bear to smack Gallus away, anything, but her hunger prevented her from fighting back. Ocellus held her stomach in pain.
"Look, I don't want to fight you. I just want answers." The changeling didn't know what to think. Both of them were taken by surprise as Smolder grabbed Gallus by his tail and tossed him away.
"What did he do?" the dragon asked.
"Nothing," the changeling replied.
"Seemed strange, he waisted his chance." Smolder grabbed Ocellus and flew away from the broken building. The dragon quickly flew back into the battle, with the ponies and yaks. Gallus got up a look towards a tied up Silverstream. She was just lying on the sidelines trying to escape.
"Silver, are you okay?" Gallus asked. The hippogriff didn't reply, she just looked confused at the griffon who she thought was the general. "Can you talk?" Silverstream nodded but stayed silent. "Look, you don't have to follow the Storm King's orders. Just let me help you and we can take care of him."
"No," she said quietly. "I can't disobey him."
Gallus was then smashed to the ground by one of the yaks. The yak looked to be a bit smaller than the other ones, and though its face was covered by the helmet, its voice sounded a bit familiar. "Why griffon look like general," the yak said.
"Hold on," Gallus groaned as the yak sat on him. "Yona?"
"How does griffon know name?"
"Look, just get off me."
"Not a chance," Smolder said landing next to the pinned griffon. She appeared to be charging up her fire breath that she was going to use on him. Gallus's heart was started to beat against his chest as he tried to move away. Yona saw she might get burned too, so she jumped out of the way and Gallus got out of the way before he got cooked by Smolder's fire. The dragon was furious at the yak. "You made me miss!"
"Yak doesn't want to get burned," Yona protested.
"Plus, they want him alive," Silverstream added.
"The general gave me the permission to beat him up," Smolder protested as she cut the hippogriff free. Suddenly, she got hit in the arm by a beam from Shining Armor before being be bucked by Applejack. The dragon was sent flying, but she recovered with her wings and flew away. The farm pony had managed to break her arm as if being shot by a beam wasn't bad enough.
Even with her injury, Smolder wasn't giving up. She let out a large blast of fire, which Shining blocked with a shield spell. This distracted the dragon from a pegasus smashing her to ground, injuring her even more, but not much. Yona was kicked across the ground but the yaks smashed the pony that kicked her in the first place.
"Yaks retreat," she cried making a run for it. The rest of the army followed suit, grabbing some other yaks that couldn't move on their own. They lowered some of the cages of the now flying airship so the other yaks could get up and escape.
"Get back here you cowards!" Smolder ordered. After nearly getting hit by some beams, the dragon decided to fall back. With the army gone, the only one that was left was Ocellus. The changeling's legs couldn't support her anymore and she collapsed.
Shining Armor was about to charge up a spell, but Gallus stopped him. "What are you doing here?" the unicorn questioned.
"Look, don't hurt her," Gallus said. "I don't think she's injured. We need to help her."
Ocellus felt very weak, she could barely open her eyes. When she did, she saw she was trapped in a bubble that Shining Armor was keeping her in. "Where am I?" she asked weakly.
"You're in the base," Shining explained. "Explain yourself."
"I'm Ocellus. I'm one of the spies... For the Storm King."
"Tell us something we don't know." Ocellus was struggling just to keep her head up, but that wasn't what the unicorn saw. "Tell us!" The changeling flinched at the stallion's outburst.
"Yeah, you're doing great," Gallus said sarcastically.
"Please... Don't hurt me," Ocellus begged.
"We won't. He might, but I won't. Just tell us what we don't know about the Storm King."
"So... Hungry." Ocellus passed out again from her hunger.
"We'll keep her in there until she's ready for questioning," Shining said. He walked away, leaving the changeling in a bubble floating there.
"Wait, we're just leaving her there?" Gallus questioned.
"She won't get out. No spell can be used in there, and any living material can't phase through." Shining walked off to the dining hall, with the rest of the ponies following him. Gallus looked towards Ocellus, who held her stomach in pain. He could've sworn he saw her crying, but he was called to follow the ponies to the dining hall.
Pinkie had limited ingredients, even with Applejacks help. They had to ashen out the food and everyone only got one serving. "I wish Sweet Apple Acres wasn't so far away," Sandbar said as he sat next to Gallus. The griffon didn't reply and just stared at his food. "Gallus?"
"Huh?" the griffon questioned. "Sorry, I've just been thinking about Ocellus."
"The changeling?"
"Yeah, that's her name. Shining didn't say any of his bubbles cause pain, do they?"
"Of course, not," Sandbar's mom said. "I've been a couple when I needed to patch up some ponies."
"So, maybe..." Gallus paused as he looked down at his plate. He picked it and flew away, leaving Sandbar and his parents confused. Ocellus was still in pain, thanks to her stomach. The blue griffon walked up to the changeling in a bubble and got her attention. "Hey."
"What?" she asked with her eyes lighting up when she saw the plate of food. It wasn't much, just some bread, apples, and a little bit of some herb that was from Zecora.
"Listen, you look really hungry, so I'm giving you this."
"Really? Even when I helped with the attack?"
"You fainted from hunger." The changeling's growling stomach agreed to this. "I might be in your position later, but you need this more than I do." Gallus managed to push the plate through the bubble and the prisoner quickly started scarfing it down. He could see tears of joy sliding down her face, which made him feel happy.
As he started to walk away, Ocellus stopped him. "Wait." Gallus turned back to her. "Thank you." The griffon gave a thumbs up before walking off.
Later, Gallus found the base's library. He looked at some spell books trying to find anything that would help him. He couldn't make much progress, but he quickly threw that to side as he heard some scream down the hall.
Out of curiosity, he decided to check it out. He could Ocellus be hounded by Shining Armor, as well as Rainbow Dash with Fluttershy trying to calm them down.
"How did you get the plate of food?" Dash cried. "Did you use your mind shift magic?"
"Rainbow," Fluttershy cried. "She's only a child."
"Changelings are known for their deception," Shining said. "She could be lying to us right now." Gallus thought for a moment before flying off to get the creatures he knew who could help.
"Look at her," Fluttershy cried as the changeling was on the break of crying.
"Fluttershy, you've seen changelings in action," Rainbow Dash said. "Ever since the Storm King took over their hive, they've been back to their old ways of tricking ponies about who they are. We might as well just keep Chrysalis as their queen."
"Please," Ocellus begged. "I never wanted to hurt anyone."
"Lies!" Without warning, Dash kicked the bubble across the room. It crashed against the wall, causing the changeling pain. The yellow mare tried to calm her friend and the guard down, but she wasn't succeeding.
Suddenly, a shot of green fire nearly hit them. The flame had come from Spike, who was with Starlight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Gallus.
"Rainbow Dash, that was completely unnecessary," Rarity cried.
"She can't do anything while she's in there," Starlight explained.
"But she could be lying to us," Rainbow protested.
"And what exactly did she say?" Applejack asked.
"Not wanting to hurt anyone."
"And she didn't," Pinkie said. "I mean, she didn't say where she was. She didn't even try to escape."
"That's because of Shining's bubble."
"But I didn't know that," Ocellus said. "I thought I was just being levitated."
"Plus," Gallus added, "She was out cold when we brought her here."
"He's not wrong," Shining said.
"Plus, don't you remember what I said about changelings?" Spike questioned.
"You think I'm going to take advice from you!?" Dash shouted. "You and the king both destroyed places that ponies live in."
"Ah... Thanks for opening that wound again."
"Rainbow, that was uncalled for," Rarity said.
"Like so is getting dirty, or messing up your mane," Dash scoffed.
"What is your problem?" Applejack questioned.
"It's that changeling. She as well as Thorax could've done something to stop him."
"You know they tried," Spike said. "The storm king overpowered them."
"How hard is it to turn into some not suspicious and stab him in the back? They and even maybe the dragons teaming could've stopped him, but no, they had to be cowards and get taken over, lose their king and dragon lord, AND OUR FRIEND CAN JUST DIE IN VAIN!" The pegasus's anger swiftly turned into sadness. "I just thought... I do what Twilight... Would want."
The room went silent for a while. Pinkie walked over to her crying friend. "Dashie, you know that they tried their hardest," the pink pony said. "You know how powerful he is."
Dash was starting to choke on her words. "We know you try your hardest," Applejack said. "Just use common sense."
Rainbow's friends comforted her as Shining walked up to her. "I know how it feels," he said. "Twilight was a great mare. We still have each other." They turned to Ocellus, who they released from the bubble. "We're sorry about your treatment. I don't have the best history with changelings."
"I understand," Ocellus said. "Honestly, this just makes me feel like the king is still ordering me around." Nothing was said for a while.
"Gallus, darling," Rarity said, "Can you take this changeling to your room?"
"Of course," Gallus said. He and Ocellus walked away leaving the friends behind.
"That was... Something," Ocellus said not know to describe what just happened.
"I know. It must be hard being in their position." The griffon and Changeling walked into the room, where Sandbar was sitting. He was a bit surprised to see his new roommate.
"No, it's okay, I'm friendly. I haven't stolen anyone's love since Thorax became... King." The changeling went quiet. Gallus simply gave her a hug to help cheer her up.
"It's okay."
"I appreciate this, but... It's going to take more than a hug to fix everything he's done."
"You mean the king, right?" Sandbar asked. Ocellus nodded.
"I think I'll be the first to ask you this," Gallus said, "Why were you so hungry when you and your army attacked?"
"It's how he gets the other changelings to follow his orders," she explained. "We're kept separated so we can't share love. After we do a mission, we get food if succeed, if not, we just go hungry."
"That's... Terrible," Sandbar said.
"You have no idea. Thanks for the food, Gallus."
"I'm glad I could help," the griffon replied. Ocellus smiled then looked at the symbols on her shoulder plates.
"You want to do something that'll make you feel better?" Sandbar asked. He had the changeling's attention. "Rip them off, and smash them." Using her magic, Ocellus ripped them off and stomped on them, when she finished, she breathed heavily. "Feel better?"
"Yeah, I do," Ocellus said. Sandbar surprised her with a hug, which she embraced. "You guys sure do love hugs."
"You get filled with love, so I think this might help." Both chuckled as Gallus sat on his bed. "Something wrong?"
"Nothing," Gallus answered. "It's just... We spent practically the entire day in hiding. I still don't have any way of getting back to my world. It's nothing against you guys, it's just... If we can't find anything in here, why don't we try and look outside."
"It's too dangerous."
"He's not wrong," Ocellus said. "They'll come looking for me, and when they find me..." She looked at the remains of the emblems.
"Maybe that wasn't such a good idea."
"No, it wasn't," Gallus said, "It's nice to get things like that off your chest. They'll find us, but instead of hiding like cowards, no offense, we head out there and try and find something that can stop the Storm King."
"But how?"
"Well, Chrysalis's throne was made of stone that cancels out magic," Ocellus said. "I think if we find something like that, we could stand a chance."
"Yes, something like that," Gallus agreed.
"Guys, we could get killed," Sandbar said. "And I just met her."
"My name's Ocellus," the changeling explained.
"Right, but we can't survive on our own out there."
"Ocellus," Gallus said, "Can you show us what you can turn into?" The changeling showed off the multiple forms she could transform into, ponies, dragons, a bugbear, seapony, etc.
"Okay, but there's no way they're going to let us out."
Gallus thought for a moment. "How many ponies are awake at night?" Knowing he wasn't going to talk him out of it, Sandbar told Gallus what the Clears did around the base.
Meanwhile, at the Storm King's castle, General Gallus was giving orders for the night watch. Outside of the door, he heard some arguing outside. The griffon opened to the door to find Smolder arguing with the yaks. They all went quiet as they saw the general.
"What's going on in here?" he asked.
"Ponies overpowered army," Yona explained.
"I could've taken them on," Smolder complained as she held her arm. "I only retreated because they forced me."
Gallus looked at the dragon's broken arm. "You get to the medic hall," he ordered. Smolder walked off as the general glared at the yaks. "You were given orders to find their base."
"Ponies too powerful," one of the yaks protested which only made the griffon angrier.
"The king will hear this."
"Already have," the Storm King said walking over to them. The yaks were scared as he looked down at them. "I know just the thing for one of you to do. General, you know the room, take your pick of which yak get to do you know what."
General Gallus nodded and picked the five yaks he wanted to follow him. He took them to a room where a dragon was beating up a changeling. "Oh, general," the dragon said.
"Hello, everyone," the griffon said. "How's the traitor."
"Having a better time than following you," the changeling said before being smacked by the dragon again.
"What changeling do?" Yona asked a bit scared.
"He tried to backstab the king, literally," Gallus said. "Finish him off." The dragon nodded as he gave the changeling a punch to the eye, skull, all before stomping on his head so hard, it cracked, and then, it broke. Yona raced behind corner after seeing the smashed head. She removed to her helmet so she could vomit. "Great, you're a lightweight. Look, I'll give you a second chance. Find the griffon that looks like me."
"Yak, won't let general down. Get started right away."
"Good, and find that hippogriff that was with you." Yona raced off to find her. "And put your helmet back on." The general threw the helmet back to yak, who promptly caught it. "I'm not taking any chances. He didn't come here on his own. He and whatever did that, must be stopped."
Back to the base, the other Gallus, along with Sandbar and Ocellus waited until everyone was asleep. When that happened, they snuck out with some gear that they needed. "I'm really don't think this is a good idea," Sandbar said.
"Ocellus said that the king is looking for me," Gallus said. "If I stay here, they'll find everyone else."
"Not to mention the things they'll do to me," Ocellus said. "We'll need to head to Sweet Apple Acres to get food."
"I think I know the way," Sandbar said. The earth pony walked away and his friends followed him to the farm.
"Okay," Gallus said as he picked some of the apples, "They already got some food, right?"
"A while after we ate," Sandbar explained as he bucked one of the trees. They now had all their food and placed it into their bags. "So, where now?"
"The Storm King is in the Crystal Empire," Ocellus said, "He likes the weather there."
"Makes sense," Gallus said. "It's going to take days to get there."
"And the train's been out of service for a year," Sandbar said. "Good thing we brought gear for camping out."
"You've got to be smart if you're going undercover," Ocellus said. "Come on, we better get going." The three started what was going to be a long journey.
The rebel trio carried on for a while, but soon they started getting tired. "Shouldn't it be night by now?" Gallus groaned.
"The king moves the sun and moon when it suits him," Ocellus said. On cue the sun and moon swapped place in the blink of an eye, the sudden darkness caught them off guard.
"Great," Sandbar groaned. "I can't see." He came to stop to avoid bumping into anything. "As if having one eye wasn't bad enough."
"It's okay," Gallus said, "We'll just camp here for the night. We've come pretty far."
"I'll help with the tents," Ocellus said placing her bags down. The changeling got to work as Gallus looked at the map he brought and he flew into the air to look around to see where they were. The moonlight wasn't bright enough for him to make out the area, so he just decided to help Ocellus.
"What's with all the leaves and branches?"
Ocellus placed them on the tent. "We need to stay hidden if we want to get to the Crystal Empire. If we get caught, I don't want to know what the king will do."
The griffon nodded and looked over to the earth pony. "You okay Sandbar?"
"I'm fine," he replied. "I just can't do much because I can't see to good. I hate this stupid eye patch."
"I think it makes you look cool."
"Thanks, but I just want to get to sleep. What if somepony comes looking for us?"
"They wouldn't know where we're going anyway. I'm pretty to ponies going missing... Poor choice of words."
"Just get in the tent," Ocellus ordered. The boys did so, and the changeling hid their supplies in the other tent. "Okay, I think we're in the clear."
"Do you really think night patrols are going to look this far?"
"I'm not risking it."
"I understand," Sandbar said. "I just hope my parents don't worry too much."
"Relax," Gallus said, "We're going to get through this. It's better than just hiding in a hill." He started getting a little nervous while inside the admittedly small tent.
"Something wrong?"
"I... Don't do well in tight spaces."
"I know how you feel," Ocellus said. "You don't want to know what the rooms me and the other army creatures stay in."
"Can we just get some sleep?" Sandbar asked. "I'm nervous about what we'll see tomorrow." Not another word was said as they drifted off to sleep.
Gallus opened his eyes to find he was in a space where everything was white. The only other things that were there were Sandbar, Ocellus, and the Tree of Harmony.
"Where are we?" Ocellus asked.
"A dream realm," Gallus said. "That's my best guess."
"How we can we see this thing in two dreams?" Sandbar questioned.
"There's something magical about this tree."
"Indeed," said a voice. In front of the Tree of Harmony was the light that looked like Twilight Sparkle. Sandbar bowed to him and Ocellus stared in shock, Gallus just started at the faux alicorn. "I can tell something's on your mind."
"You think? I'm stuck in a world that has unspeakable horrors, and none of my friends know each other, except for these two." The fake Twilight looked at the earth pony, then to the changeling, who she walked over to.
"Who... Who are you?" Ocellus asked.
"I'm a creation of the tree you see. The princess and her friends used the element on my branches to bring peace and harmony. But without Twilight, everything is in ruin."
"Then how do we fix it?" Sandbar asked.
"You'll need three more to come together."
"There they are!" cried a voice. Smolder, Yona, and Silverstream charged towards them. Ocellus turned into a tortoise and tucked into her shell to cower, so did Sandbar. Gallus didn't move, he was betting on the tree protecting him. The tree's branches glowed as some sort of mist flew up and grabbed the storm trio, stopping them in their tracks.
"Let yak go," Yona demanded.
"Not until we get answers," Gallus said. "Why do you work for the Storm King?"
"We don't have a choice," Silverstream said. "I never wanted this. He did things that... Broke us."
"Broke you. How...?" Gallus cried out in pain as he held his chest.
"Gallus," Sandbar gasped running up to him. "What's wrong?"
"My lungs hurt." The griffon groaned as the tree shook violently.
"What's happening?" Ocellus questioned. Her answer came from a loud crack, which came from the tree. Cracks appeared all over it as the fake Twilight started to fade.
"Find them before it's too late," she cried before disappearing. Shortly after that, the tree exploding with a flash of light engulfing everyone.
Yona woke up in her team's tent and looked around. While the yak was in shock, the dragon had a look of anger on her face, while the hippogriff looked emotionless, the best she could. "Weird dream," Yona said.
"You think?" Smolder asked as she got up. "Get your armor. I'm not letting the king down again. You know what he'll do to you." The yak nearly vomited again as stood up. "Hippogriff, scout ahead."
"Right," Silverstream asked as she flew off out of the tent.
"But hippogriff help carry supplies," Yona said.
"She was chosen for scouting," Smolder said. "King's orders. Now, what did I say about your armor? Do I have to burn off your fur to make it fit?" Yona didn't say anything else and just walked towards their supplies tent.
Silverstream had already got her suit put on and she was booking it towards Ponyville. Her wings were flapping as fast as a humming bird's. With only the moonlight light her way her flight wasn't going to be easy, but she pushed on. "I'm not going back empty-handed," she said to herself with a bit of fear in her voice.
Back to the rebels, they just finished packing up their supplies. "That tree is kind of creepy," Ocellus said.
"You don't know the half of it," Gallus said while breathing heavily.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Sandbar asked.
"I'll be fine. I just need something to eat."
"But we have a long way to go."
"I can help with that," Ocellus said. She changed into an elephant that was big enough to carry the bags and boys. "Climb on." Gallus had to help Sandbar get on the elephant's back as well as help Ocellus with the bags. She helped the griffon with the map and compass by changing her eyes to be like the ones of an owl. She turned until they faced North."
"Alright," Gallus said landing on the elephant's back, "Let's go." Ocellus slowly walked off as Sandbar dug through his bag to find some apples for him and his friends to eat.
"These should last us until tomorrow night," Sandbar said.
"You might last a little bit longer," Ocellus said. "I haven't felt hungry since you two have been nice to me." The boys smiled, even with their limited light, they were already making good progress.
"So, Ocellus," Gallus said, "Can you tell us what we'll have fight through?"
"Well, the king isn't letting any creature in unless they're granted. They had yaks, dragons, even extremely powerful unicorns. Hippogriffs and griffons are always scouting the outskirts for intruders. If you get caught, you don't want to know what'll happen to you."
"Right." Gallus began to think of what to do as he and Sandbar ate.
He wasn't the only one thinking. General Gallus was trying to get to the Storm King's room, where he was sleeping. "Your Highness!" the general cried bursting into the room.
"Gah! What is it?" the king asked waking in shock.
"We've made mistake by sending the three off to get my imposter. I don't know how, but some rock tree is connecting to them. The changeling known as Ocellus has joined the Clears, no doubt the other three will soon follow."
"Where did you see this?"
"I was looking at the doubleganger's point of view in his dream. I thought it was pointless, but seeing the same things happen twice is something I'm not risking it."
"Why are you worrying? The changelings were starving, they just joined them for food. What makes you think that a dragon's going to join them? They're the most powerful creatures in my army."
"What about the changelings? What's stopping them from turning into something, like a roc?"
"Look, you're the general, you do something about it." The griffon just groaned and walked out of the room. The Storm King stood up and stretched. "Oh well, I'm up anyways." Using his staff, he moved the moon out of the sky and put the sun where it was.
Many creatures were caught off guard, including Silverstream. Her eyes didn't have time to adjust to the sudden light, causing her to fall. She barely managed to recover only just scraping her wings against the ground. Silverstream landed and looked at her wings, which were now injured, so she wouldn't be flying anytime soon.
Lucky for her, there was a river so she used her pearl piece to turn into a seapony and went for a swim. The river led South so she swam down it to find the rebels.
Ocellus's elephant form wasn't all that fast, but still, she made good progress, even when she and the boys were blinded by the sudden sunlight. "How are you guys holding up back there?" she asked.
"Just fine," Sandbar said. "I never knew the change of time was just so sudden."
"Well, you and the others have lived underground for about a year," Gallus chuckled before holding his chest in pain. "What is wrong with me?"
"We can stop and take a look," Ocellus said.
"No, we can't. We have to stay on guard. Anyone could be looking for us."
"You may be right. Maybe if I had some chains and muzzles I could make you two look like prisoners."
"That's not a bad idea. But where do we get them?"
"I don't know. I'm just trying every option."
"We know, but we don't have many things that can fool the king."
"Shouldn't be too hard."
"So, how far is the Crystal Empire?" Sandbar asked.
Gallus looked at the map. "Got several miles to go. We should be getting close to a river though." The griffon was right. They came to a stop so they could get some water. Ocellus put the boys and the bags down so she could change back to her original form.
"I've gotta say, walking for hours can really make you thirsty," Ocellus said. The changeling took a sip as the earth pony thought he saw something swim past them.
"Was that a fish?" he asked.
"Must've been a big one," Gallus said before remembering something. "Or maybe..."
"It's a seapony," Ocellus cried. Before they could react, Silverstream leaped out of the water and grabbed Gallus. She quickly dragged him down with her. Ocellus quickly turned a cheetah and chased them down with Sandbar riding on her back.
"Shouldn't you change into a sea creature?" Sandbar questioned as he held on tight.
"If she was a hippogriff, Gallus could just fly away." The said griffon was struggling to get out of the seapony's grip.
"Stop struggling," Silverstream said. "You're just going to make it worse for the both of us." The cheetah tried pouncing on her, but the seapony just dodged and splashed her with water. She did get high enough so Gallus could breathe but was still at high speed.
Ocellus turned into a dragon that was big enough for Sandbar to ride on and she took off. "She's too comfortable in the water," she said.
"Then how do we get Gallus?" Sandbar asked.
"...Maybe we can splash them out." Sandbar didn't know what she meant until she went for a nose dive. The dragon's splash was so big, the seapony and griffon were launched back onto land. Gallus took his change and ripped the pearl piece of Silverstream's neck.
"Hey, give that back," Silverstream ordered.
"I'm showing mercy," Gallus said. "I don't want to hurt you." Ocellus and Sandbar walked over to him, with the changeling in her old form. "Nice work guys."
"No problem," Ocellus said.
The three took a look at Silverstream, who couldn't do much in her seapony form. Instead of getting angry, she looked terrified. "Please, don't hurt me," she begged.
"We just want to talk," Gallus said. "You can join us if you want."
Tears were escaping the seapony's eyes. "I can't. He's already hurt me."
"The king?" Sandbar asked. She simply nodded as she pulled back her sleeves to reveal several scars and bad burns, which made the trio cringe. "He... Tortured us. All the hippogriffs he captured."
"What about Queen Novo?" Gallus asked.
"S-s-she was the first." Silverstream explained what happened.
Monthes ago, Silverstream and several other hippogriffs were chained to a wall as Queen Novo was held down in the middle of the field. The Storm King, as well as two dragons. "So, will you tell us where the rest of your followers are?" the king asked.
"Never," Novo replied. "I'm not going to make them listen to a dictator like you."
"Very well." He turned to the dragons. "Do it."
"Yes sir," they both said. Both got to work beating up the queen. The hippogriffs did their best not to look, but Silverstream couldn't help but watch what was happening to her aunt.
The dragons stopped as the queen breathed heavily. "Last chance, where are the others?" the king asked.
"I'll... Never... Talk," Novo panted. The king snapped his fingers and the dragon breathed fire on the queen.
Silverstream was speechless as she couldn't do anything about it. After the fire was out, she pulled at her chains at the slimmer of hope she could escape.
"Where are you going?" The hippogriff was frozen as the king stood above her. "Oh, you want to be the first?" Despite Silverstream shaking her head, the king used his staff to levitated her down the hall. He walked right behind her, allowing Silverstream to kick him in the eye, making him drop the staff.
The hippogriff flew away as fast as she could, but some griffons and yaks blocked her path. Before she could think the king kicked her into the wall. "What should we do?" a griffon asked.
"I'll handle her." The creatures walked off as the Storm King look angrily at the hippogriff. "You think you could just hit me like that?" He grabbed Silverstream's arm, hard. She cried out in pain from the king's grip, his claws were sharp and he used this his advantage. He left a large scar on Silverstream's arm and tossed her into a cell. "I have to admit, you have some guts, but I don't like when overs get the better of me."
"Wh-what are you going to do?" Silverstream asked frightened. Her answer came from several kicks before he stomped on her paw.
"I gave the others a warning. You obviously need a bit more breaking. This isn't the first time this will happen. I'll make sure you'll break."
"No, I'll get suited up right away."
The king walked out of the cell and locked Silverstream in it. "Too late." He walked away leaving the caged hippogriff.
"No, wait. Let me out! What's going to happen?"
The seapony sniffed as she paused. "What... Happened?" Gallus asked.
"He sent creatures in, so they could... Beat me," she replied shaking. "No matter what I did, they would punch, kick, and worse... They mocked my aunt. They said horrible things about her, and how I was just as a failure as her. I saw her... I saw her..." Silverstream couldn't hold it back anymore and broke into tears.
Sandbar walked closer to her. "I'm so sorry for your loss," he said. "I couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose somepony in my family."
"You're lucky. Your's are still alive."
"I'm sure Queen Nova was great. You can't let them talk down to her. She would want you to stay strong. You're cousin's been doing good." Silverstream sniffed as she looked at Sandbar, who she promptly hugged. "It's okay."
"Try something he did to make me feel better," Ocellus said. "Rip off that emblem and throw it away." The seapony released her hug and did as the changeling said. She tossed the emblems into the river and they floated away.
"Nice throw."
"Thanks," Silverstream said. She looked surprised when Gallus handed her back her necklace.
"You feeling better?" Gallus asked.
"...A little." Using her pearl piece, she changed back into a hippogriff. "Thanks."
"So, you want to join us and take down the king?"
"You can't do that. He's too strong."
"On the outside. My plan is going to be an inside job. Ocellus said Sandbar and I would go as prisoners."
"But, what if we get caught?"
"It's still in the works. I wasn't planning on you trying to capture me."
"I'm sorry, I was..."
"Just given orders," Ocellus finished. "I know how you feel." Suddenly, something just hit her. "We forgot our bags." The boy knew what she meant and they raced back to find them, with Silverstream following behind.
They were a panic, and they nearly lost it when they saw a mare checking on their gear. The mare had a dark orchid mane and a moderate rose coat, but the thing that caught their eyes wasn't the scar on her right eye, it was the broken unicorn horn.
"It's not a good idea to leave your gear out in the open," the mare said. "Especially ones with food."
"Who the heck are you?" Gallus questioned.
"Tempest Shadow?" Sandbar guessed.
"That's me," the mare replied. She looked towards the changeling and hippogriff and was about to fire at them, but Gallus and Sandbar stood in front.
"Wait, they're good," Gallus cried.
"It's true," Ocellus added cowering a bit.
Tempest stopped before she attacked. "Alright," she said. "What are you doing all the way out here?"
"We're going to take down the Storm King," Gallus explained. "I think we can take him down on the inside."
"You really expect that to work?"
"We've got two former members of his team."
"Uh, I can't be the only one who curious of why he looks like the general," Silverstream said. "Someone back me up here."
"I'm not from this world."
"I could tell," Tempest said. "I've seen the general in action before. He might not be the strongest, but he is certainly crafty, even for a griffon."
"Yeah, a yak and a dragon are heading this way," Silverstream said.
"Then a direct path to the Crystal Empire isn't going to work anymore," Ocellus said. She took a look at the map and tried to think of a different path. "Hmm, maybe if we follow this river, we can try and get them off our tails."
"Or we can swim," Gallus said looking towards Silverstream's necklace.
"What do you mean?" Sandbar asked. The hippogriff caught on, leaped into the river, and resurfaced as a seapony.
"Perfect," Gallus and Ocellus said in unison. After getting their gear, they all stepped into the water and Silverstream used her pearl piece to turn Sandbar, Tempest, and Gallus into seaponies. Ocellus didn't need Silver's pearl piece, she just used her changeling magic to turn herself into a seapony.
"Wow," Gallus gasped, "So this is what happens when a griffon uses the pearl."
"Yeah, this is kind of weird," Sandbar commented.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Tempest asked.
"I didn't plan for Silver to show up," Gallus said. "If things go right, we should get to the empire by tomorrow night."
"Maybe we can make up for lost time if we pick up the pace," Ocellus said. The group swam off quickly, hopefully getting to the empire as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Yona and Smolder were making slow progress. "Uh," Smolder groaned, "Why couldn't I be paired with some creature that could fly?"
"Yona going as fast as she can," Yona protested. The dragon and yak then notice a large shadow hanging over them. A large cage came down and swooped them up.
"What the heck?"
"Sorry, kid," a stallion said. "General's orders."
"What is he thinking?"
"Something about a changeling joining the rebels." Smolder's anger built up as tried to break the cage's bars apart.
"Stop struggling," General Gallus ordered walking to the cage.
"Why general put troopers in cage?" Yona asked.
"That doubleganger has the changeling on his side now. And judging how the hippogriff is no longer with you, I say she's on his side too."
"Look, I can make him a crispy dinner if you let me go," Smolder said.
"I'm risking it." The general walked over to some other griffons and hippogriffs. "You, spread out, and find that kid." The group nodded and flew off.
"What will happen to Yona?" Yona asked. "Not going to crush creatures. Will she?"
"I see what I'll have you do." Smolder wasn't so excepting and tried to break out. "Oh, would you stop that?"
"No, you gave me a mission," Smolder protested while kicking and punching the bars.
The general sighed. "Do it."
"Yes, sir," said the stallion. He gave his horn aglow and used it to keep Smolder in place. This didn't stop her from breathing fire, catching both Gallus and the stallion off guard. With the cage bars weakened, Smolder broke through them and flew down towards the ground. She had thrown one of the bars at the stallion, knocking him out.
General Gallus looked towards Yona. "What are you waiting for?"
"Yona catch her," Yona said giving chase. The dragon was nearly off the deck but the yak grabbed her by the tail.
"Let go of me," Smolder ordered.
"Yona following orders."
"Why do you dragons have so much trouble with orders?" Gallus asked. Smolder didn't reply to this, she just picked up Yona and flew off.
"Put Yona down."
"I need you for something first," Smolder said. The general would've followed her, but he knew her strength and literal firepower would be too much for him.
Elsewhere, a griffon and hippogriff flew over a river. "Why are here?" the griffon asked.
"The general wants us to search everywhere," the hippogriff said. "That's why he sent me with you." Using his pearl piece, the hippogriff turned into a seapony and swam up the river.
The griffon stayed on land and followed to see if the rebels were traveling on foot. This wouldn't be necessary as the seapony as the rebel group.
"Shoot," Sandbar cried. Tempest thought fast and punched enemy seapony so hard, he flew out of the river.
"Change me back," she ordered Silverstream. The seapony did so and the unicorn leaped out of the river. The griffon quickly let out a shriek before Tempest even hit her. The shriek wasn't for the shock or pain, it was alert the other storm soldiers, who nearby and closing in. "Get out of here, I'll hold them off."
The four swam away as fast as they could as the former storm member fought off the army the best she could. The bolts from her horn could be seen from the airship's above. General Gallus took note of this and sent the dragons he had on board for the toughest of foes. Even with her combat experience, Tempest was overwhelmed by the army.
The rebel group was booking it. "How the heck did they find us?" Gallus asked.
"Well, the general is you," Ocellus said. "He must've thought that we joined your side and used the pearl piece to swim in the river."
"That's impossible," Sandbar said.
"But maybe somehow he saw our dream," Gallus said.
"Think about that later," Ocellus cried, "We need to lose them." The sea creatures picked up the pace but Gallus's vision started getting blurry. He could only hear his heartbeat as he started slowing down and losing conciseness.
"Uh oh," Silverstream cried seeing Gallus slow down. "This is no time for a nap."
"I don't think he's sleep," Ocellus said as she stopped swimming. They swam back to the heavily breathing seapony. He gave several painful groans as his friends looked over him.
"Gallus, what hurts?" Sandbar asked.
"My chest," he replied. "And my head."
"Get him onto land," Ocellus said. After changing back to their normal form, they took out the first aid kit. Looking up, Ocellus saw Smolder and Yona flying above. Without warning, they landed on the ground, superhero style.
"Yona would like warning next time," Yona said a little shaken.
"Shut it," Smolder said.
Gallus let out some grunts as he slowly stood up. "Smolder, I don't want to fight," he said.
"Well, I do." Ocellus and Silverstream stood in the dragon's way. "Get lost traitors. I'll handle him."
"No, we're not letting you hurt our friend," Ocellus said.
"Couldn't we just talk this over?" Silverstream asked.
"Yona can't," Yona said. "Yona has to fight."
Ocellus turned to the boys. "Get him out of here," she said to Sandbar. The earth pony nodded and carried Gallus away as the changeling turned into a dragon to fight against Smolder. The two dragons countered each other's fire, while Yona bashed past Silverstream to chase the boys.
"Keep away from him," Silverstream cried.
"Yak has job to do," Yona said with a bit of guilt in her voice. Sandbar ran as fast as he could, but he saw that he was nearing a mountain. "Yaks make for mountains." Despite his disadvantage, Sandbar raced up the mountain, which thankfully wasn't all that steep, at first.
Soon the incline was getting steep. Silverstream helped out by constantly getting in Yona's way. Steering her with her horns, blocking her eyes, or even just tripping her up. Ocellus was having a harder time with Smolder. They both kept trading punches and kicks, all while Smolder kept trying to chase down Gallus.
"Get off," Smolder yelled roundhouse kicking Ocellus. This sent her flying down towards the mountain, with the dragon following her.
"I can't lose her," Sandbar said to Gallus. Yona nearly rammed into them, but the pony dodged.
"It doesn't have to be this way," Gallus said to Yona.
"Yak don't have choice," Yona replied. Silverstream had tried her hardest, but she couldn't keep the yak away from her friends. She then heard something falling, that something was Ocellus. Silverstream managed to catch her and saw Smolder heading straight towards them.
"Guys, she going to burn us," Silverstream cried. The group was nearly the edge of the mountain as Smolder crashing into it. The crash caused a loud boom which caused some of the snow on the higher cliffs to fall down on them.
"Avalanche," Yona cried in fear.
While Gallus couldn't stand properly he did see an old hollow tree that was nearly going to break in half. "Yona, can you break that tree down?" he asked.
"Why should Yona trust fake general?"
"It's the only way we can get away from the avalanche. You need to trust me." The snow was getting closer to them. The yak rammed the tree as hard as she could, breaking it down. "Everybody, get on." Smolder pulled her head out of the snow she crashed into to find the other five sliding away on the hollow tree like a sled.
"Get back here," she demanded. Unfortunately, the dragon was swept up by the avalanche before she could react. Gallus and his friends were barely able to stay ahead of the avalanche chasing them.
"We're not going to make it," Silverstream cried.
"We need more speed," Gallus said. Yona lunged for as the tree sled accelerated.
"Lunge," she cried. The group did so and they slid down the mountain at tremendous speed. However, with the speed, they started to lose control of the sled.
"We can't hold it," Sandbar cried as he tried to keep the sled balanced.
"We're nearly at the bottom," Gallus said looking to the mountain's base. They slid all the way down but crashed when they slid off the snow and onto the grass. "Man... I thought I felt bad before. Is every creature alright?"
"I think I'll be fine," Silverstream groaned standing up.
"What happened to Ocellus?" Sandbar questioned running over the unconscious changeling.
"She was knocked out before we slid down."
"Dragon knock changeling out," Yona said.
"How did you know?"
"Happen several times before. Don't ask."
"Don't worry," Sandbar said, "I've got the first aid... Oh no. I forgot the rest of our gear."
"It's not your fault," Gallus said, "We were being attacked. Speaking of."
They all looked towards Yona, who had just removed her helmet. "Yona didn't want to hurt anyone," she sighed. "Orders by general."
"Well, look where that got you." Gallus tried to stand up, but his legs wouldn't let him.
"If Yona disobeys, Yona will have to crush heads."
"Crush heads?" Sandbar questioned. "You mean... Kill?" Just the sound of the word nearly made the yak vomit.
"Please, don't tell what happened," Silverstream said.
"You could help us take down the king," Gallus said as he failed to stand up again.
"Yaks outclassed by king's magic," Yona protested.
"But doesn't he only have the magic in his staff?" Silverstream questioned with Yona nodding.
"If that's the case," Gallus said as Sandbar helped him up, "We just need to get rid of his staff and we get rid of his power."
"Does fake general know what he's doing?" Yona asked.
"Sort of, and call me Gallus."
"Yes, fake gen... Gallus. Hollow tree sled good idea, and kind of fun. Yona miss sledding in Yakyakistan, now it's just training camp for soldiers."
"Really?" Sandbar asked.
"It's true. Yona misses her home. Her real home."
"Listen, Yona," Gallus said, "If my plan works, we'll get all your homes back."
"Uh... Where are we?" Silverstream asked.
"I don't know. We lost our map and compass, not to mention our food."
"Yona sorry," Yona sighed.
"It's not your fault," Sandbar said placing his hoof on her shoulder.
"What creatures do now?"
"I don't know," Gallus sighed. "But I think thanks to this avalanche they'll think we're dead."
"What about that dragon or Tempest?" Silverstream asked.
The dragon in question was on the other side covered in snow, and she survived. Smolder was more furious than hurt. Before she could even get her legs unstuck, General Gallus and some griffons flew up to her. "What are you doing?"
"I was trying to get that griffon," Smolder replied. "I crashed into the mountain and avalanche happened."
The general looked at the amount of snow on the ground, then looked how tall the mountain was. "No one but a dragon could survive that." He turned to the two dragons that were accompanying him. "Get back to the base and remember to double check if they left any gear." He then looked back to Smolder, "As for you, stay on stand by until further notice."
"What?"
"You don't disobey the general," one of the griffons said. The general groaned a bit as he held his sides. "There a problem sir?"
"It's nothing," the general groaned, "It felt like I had a bruise for some reason. Just get their gears." The two dragons nodded and flew off. He turned to Smolder. "Follow me." Smolder just groaned and followed the general back to the airship.
"I can't just sit around with wings up my nose," Smolder said.
"Look, you have some weird connection to the other me. I don't want to risk upsetting the king." When they landed on the airship, they heard some fighting from below deck.
"The heck was that?"
"Our prisoner. She was helping the rebels. Stay here." The general walked below deck to find Tempest locked in a cage. "It's interesting to see how the tables have turned."
"If I wasn't in here, I would've ripped your beak off by now," Tempest growled.
"Just my beak? Come on, I thought you could do better than that. For example, you're a pretty clever pony, so I think you can tell me what you've been doing since you abandoned the king."
"I left for good reason. What Twilight Sparkle said was right about that heartless monster."
"So what made you join?" The mare gritted her teeth as her broken horn sparked. "No answer? Alright, then answer this: Where are the Clears?"
"Even if I wanted to answer you, I couldn't. I just wander around Equestria and stop the king's army where and whenever I can."
"So you're the one who shot me down in Appleloosa," Smolder cried.
"I told you to stay on the deck," the General growled. Smolder just walked away back to her place.
"What did you do with the group?" Tempest questioned.
"I didn't do anything. They were caught in an avalanche. There's no way they could've survived that."
"Maybe a blanket of snow would've been good for you." The griffon didn't say anything, he put on some glowing glove. Tempest was confused by this until the general grabbed her by the horn and electrocuted her. The mare collapsed from the pain she just went through.
"I prefer a glove like this. The king made this just for me. Absorbing magic and sending it back twice as hard. You've just given me enough for a full day. Now, you rest well, the king has a lot to say to you." Knowing that she couldn't escape, Tempest just stayed down and waited for the worst.
Gallus's team was wandering around as they had no idea where they were going. Sandbar was carrying Ocellus and Silverstream carried Gallus. "We have to be close to the empire," Silverstream said.
"We should," Gallus said rubbing his claw. "How's Ocellus?"
"She's still breathing," Sandbar said. "She's still out cold."
"Yona used to cold," Yona said.
"It's not that cold," Gallus said. "Silver, can you fly and looked around?"
"Someone has to carry you," Silverstream said.
"Yona can carry Gallus," Yona said. The hippogriff placed her friend on the yak's and then flew upwards. Ignoring the mountains, she couldn't see much. She flew around a bit until she could see some pegasi heading towards her. Silver panicked and flew back towards her friends, but the pegasi weren't giving up their chase so easily.
"Guys, we have a problem."
"What's going on?" Sandbar asked. The look and saw three pegasi landing with a cart behind a stallion. The stallion was nearly white with a dark blue mane, next to him was a mare with light green with a white mane and the other mare was yellow with a fiery mane.
"What are you doing here?" asked the fire-maned mare.
"Yak and friends lost," Yona explained.
"We don't get a lot of visitors around here," the stallion said.
"What's in the cart?" Gallus asked seeing there was a tarp covering it.
"Don't worry about it," said the green and white mare.
"Listen," said the fire mare, "You look pretty tired. We've got some food if you want."
"We would," Silverstream said. The group was given some food that was in the shape of carrots that were on the pale side, which they mistook for parsnips.
"Hmm," Sandbar said chewing his food. "This kind of taste funning. Did you do something do to this?"
"What do you think?" the fire-maned pony asked. Sandbar suddenly felt light-headed as his vision got blurry.
"Sandbar?" Gallus questioned. The earth pony collapsed onto the ground with Silverstream following suit.
"What ponies do?" Yona questioned as she struggled to stay upright.
"You didn't think we wouldn't notice the clothes you wear?" the stallion asked. "Not to mention that emblem." Yona still had the storm emblem on her shoulder plates.
"Yak... Yak..." Yona passed out, leaving just Gallus with the three pegasi.
"We're not part of the Storm King's army," Gallus protested.
"You're three creatures that we've seen in action before," the fire-maned pony said. "I haven't seen this pony before, but I have seen you."
"Wait a minute. Are you the wonder bolts?"
"Were." The mare walked up to the griffon and tried to forcefield him the carrot. Gallus tried to fight back, but his muscles wouldn't respond properly. He didn't have a choice as he was forced to swallow the food given to him.
"What the heck are... You going to do... To us?"
"You'll find out soon." The mare just smirked and stared at the griffon that was slowly losing consciousness.
Back the ship, General Gallus slowly walked towards Smolder. The griffon was stumbling a bit which confused the dragon. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"Something's wrong," he groaned nearly fainting. "It's that second me. He..." The general held chest in pain he started feeling lightheaded. "I'm not doing this alone."
Without warning, he grabbed onto Smolder's arm. "Hey, what the heck?" Smolder cried. Before she could react, she was electrocuted until she passed out. Seconds later, the general did the same. Both lied on the deck, with some of the crew on board not knowing what just happened.
"Sandbar? Yona? Gallus?" Gallus slowly opened his eyes to find Ocellus looking over him and their friends. "Oh, you're awake. Sort of." The group was in a different plain with the Tree of Harmony sitting beside them.
"Welcome back," said the tree's spirit.
"Please tell me you have something good," Gallus groaned as he managed to stand up.
"I'll give you something good," Smolder cried flying towards them. She hovered in the air and tried breathing fire but an invisible barrier protected them.
"If it didn't work the first time why would it work the third time?" Gallus held his head as Smolder kept trying to break through.
"This tree looks beautiful," Silverstream commented.
"Thank you," said the spirit. "It's nice to see you are almost altogether."
"What I wanna know is why you aren't dead!" Gallus cried startling everyone, including him. "That wasn't me... I swear..." The griffon held his head as a large amount of pain. "He's in my head."
"Who?" Sandbar asked.
"The general." Gallus groaned as they saw his right claw was turning black.
"Why claw turn black?" Yona asked. She got her answer when Gallus grabbed Ocellus by the neck.
"Gallus... Let go," the changeling begged.
"I can't," Gallus groaned as his tone quickly changed. "I don't like with traitors. There's a nice room at the castle waiting for you."
"Changeling head not getting smashed," Yona cried bashing into the griffon. "Sorry."
"It's okay. I can't... Control him." Gallus turned to Smolder who was still trying to break in. "What are you waiting for?"
"You don't think I'm trying?" Smolder moaned kicking and punching the shield. She then tried ramming into it yak style which started to make it crack. She kept trying as Gallus grabbed onto Silverstream's wings.
"Hey, Smolder, you like our forcefield?" The dragon was confused about what the griffon was saying while struggling to stay in control. "You can't get us in here. Try and find us near the mountains."
"Gallus are you crazy?" Ocellus questioned.
"Hey, it's a gamble. There's no telling what those ponies are going to do to us." Suddenly, Gallus's pain reached maximum potential. He fell onto his back in shrieked.
"Gallus," Sandbar gasped, "Where does it hurt?" The griffon didn't reply, he let out one loud cry that would destroy anyone's eardrums they got too close and the realm was engulfed in light.
Gallus woke up to find he and his friends were each chained to a wall. They were in some sort of cave and the only light they had was coming from the nearby exit. "Gallus," Sandbar cried from as he tried to walk up to him. He stopped due to the length of his chain being too short. "Where are we?"
"I don't know," Ocellus replied. The changeling's chains appeared to have some sort of glow to them. She tried to use her magic to change her shape, but she stayed in her original form.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Silverstream shouted she tried to pull away from the chain. "Let me go!"
"Shut it," ordered a mare. The fire-maned pegasus walked towards the creatures with some plates of food.
"What do you want from us?" Gallus questioned. The mare didn't reply, she just left the trays of food in front of each creature and walked away. She stopped when she saw Silverstream trying to escape. When she turned into seapony to slip out, the mare stomped on her tail, causing her to cry out in pain.
"Hey, leave her alone," Sandbar demanded.
"I would be quiet if I were you," the mare said. "Not many creatures stand against me." After placing another chain around Silver's neck, the Pegasus walked away.
"Are you okay Silver?"
The seapony sniffed, "I been better." She turned back into a hippogriff and took some bites of her food. It wasn't the best quality and the creatures found it terrible. Except for Yona, she was kind of like it, but that was only because she was getting so little due to her legs being chained together.
"Can Yona have some help?" she asked.
"Here Yona," Ocellus said. The changeling managed to get close enough to Yona so she could help her sit up. The Yak then scooted over to her tray and snacked away.
"How can you like this stuff?" Gallus questioned.
"It reminds Yona of home."
"Oh... Okay..."
"Hmm, it's been a while since I've eaten," Silverstream sighed as she finished her dish, but she was still hungry.
"Here Silver," Ocellus said passing her dish to the hippogriff. "I don't really need this. I share love, remember?"
"Right." Silverstream smiled as she got a second dish. Gallus was willing to give his dish to Sandbar when he got a sudden bit of excruciating pain. The griffon fell onto the ground as he couldn't stand up.
"Are you okay. Where does it hurt?"
"EVERYWHERE!" Gallus shouted.
He wasn't the only one going through the pain. Elsewhere, General Gallus was lying on a medical bed as he was given the same amount of pain. Smolder, who was lying on a bed next to him, had no idea what was happening as she was just waking up.
Several ponies rushed to help the griffon, but they couldn't figure out the problem. The panic finally stopped when the general stood up and cough out a bit of blood. "Are you okay sir?" one of the medical ponies asked.
"What... Do you think?" the general asked as he coughed up more blood.
"How much you want to bet it was that copy of you?" Smolder asked.
"Don't talk." The general slowly got off his bed with some of the ponies helping him. "He's still alive, as well as the traitors."
"He taunted me, and..."
"I said shut up. I want a full search team looking for them." Smolder got up, but the general had other plans for her. "Don't let her out of the castle."
"What?" Many of the unicorns used their magic to hold her down while some other ponies went off to find yak and/or dragons. The general walked down the hall to find a prison cell where Tempest shadow was been kept.
Back to the rebel group, Gallus was lying on the ground breathing heavily. "G-gallus," Sandbar said nervously. "Are you okay?"
"Been... Better," the griffon groaned. "I think I'm just going to stay down for a while."
"Who was screaming?" cried the stallion from before.
"Stay away from us," Ocellus cried backing up.
"No, it's okay. I don't want to hurt any of you."
"Tell Yona where she and friends are," Yona ordered.
"Well, Spitfire won't let me."
"So, you are the Wonderbolts," Gallus said trying to sound angry, but the pain had weakened him.
"Yeah, we were. My name's Soarin."
"I used to watch your shows," Sandbar said. "What happened to you. I haven't seen you at our base."
"We were busy at the academy when we got word of the Storm King's attack. We tried to fight him, but he was too powerful. Not just from his magic, but he also had some griffons by his side. A whole two-thirds of our team wiped out just by some creatures from a failed utopia. No offense kid."
"None taken," Gallus said. "Try living there."
"Whatever it's like, Spitfire, Fleetfoot, and I are the only three left."
"What do you do now?" Silverstream asked.
"Well, we've taken shelter in... What's left of Rainbow Falls. We sometimes travel around beating up any storm king troopers that we run into."
"Isn't that kind of dangerous?" Ocellus questioned.
"We manage."
"Soarin," cried Fleetfoot as she flew to towards her partner. "What are you doing in here?"
"I heard somepony screaming."
"They're part of the king's army. You can't trust them. Especially a changeling." Ocellus whimpered a bit after hearing this.
"If we weren't chained up, and I wasn't feeling like crud, I would've helped beat you up," Gallus groaned.
Fleetfoot just scoffed and walked away with Soarin. "Sorry, guys," he sighed. With the pegasi gone, the griffon finally managed to stand up.
"So, Yona, how are you?"
"Yak been better," Yona replied. "Might get better with group. Why didn't griffon fly down away from mountain?"
"I couldn't move, Ocellus was out cold, and there's no way Silver could carry all of us. You were the only one who could break that tree down."
"Yeah," Silverstream agreed. "Plus, if you ignored the avalanche that was behind us, it was pretty fun. I'd rather do it again then be here." The hippogriff was starting to get worried. "What are they going to do to us?"
"I don't think they're going to let us starve," Ocellus stated.
"So, should we get comfy?" Sandbar asked.
"We're not going anywhere," Gallus said, "I think we should." The group sat for a few minutes with the only sound being Silverstream's heavy breathing.
"Are you feeling okay?" Ocellus asked.
"Not really," the hippogriff sighed. "I don't have a lot of... Positive memories."
"Silver, stay calm," Sandbar said. "I think Soarin will let us go."
"Soarin one to two," Yona stated. "We're not very lucky."
"Yona's right," Gallus sighed. "We're going to need... Ngh!" He stopped when he felt a pain in his claw.
"What's wrong?" Ocellus asked.
"I just... Felt something." The griffon felt more pain as nearly fell.
General Gallus was busy dealing with his new prisoner. Tempest had several cuts and bruises on her body, but she refused to break. "You can't do this all day," the general groaned as he stood up.
"Even if I wanted to tell you, I don't know where they are," Tempest said. "Same for the Clears."
"Is that so?" asked a voice. The Storm King looked down at his former ally with disgust. "I thought better of you."
"I'm surprised you can. It's the griffon here that does all the planning while you just play around with your magic."
"Oh, zip it." The king and general whispered to each other. "Why isn't she talking?"
"She used to be part of your army," the general said. "Do you want your troops to just spill the beans?"
"Just this one. Try those gloves I got you."
"Right." The general placed on his special gloves.
"Oh, boy," Tempest sighed knowing what was going to happen. The general grabbed her horn and while absorbing some of her magic. Fighting through the pain, she gave the griffon a much-deserved smack in the beak.
The Gallus that was chained up fell back as he felt the pain. "What's happening?" Ocellus questioned.
"Griffon going crazy," Yona suggested.
"I'm not," Gallus groaned. "Something's wrong... GAH!"
The general was trying to use his gloves to block Tempest's lightning. "A little help here," he shouted to the king. The Storm King just raised his staff and created a force field. Tempest stopped as the general placed a metal cap was placed on her horn, preventing any lightning from shooting out.
"Much better," the king commented.
"You're not going to make me say anything," Tempest said glaring at the two creatures.
The king pointed his staff at the former trooper, but the general stopped him. "We need to keep her alive for as long as possible," he said.
"Alright, fine. We can take of her and the copy griffon at the same time. Ooh, I should get some popcorn." His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of punches being thrown. He and the general walked down the hall where they were met with a pony being thrown at the king, making him lose his staff.
The general found Smolder fighting off the many ponies trying to hold her down. Some dragons joined in to help out, but Smolder wouldn't go down without a fight. She saw the general coming and hastily breathed fire on him. With his other glove, General Gallus managed to catch some of the fire and absorbed it into his glove, but he still got burned a bit.
"Seriously?" he asked.
"I don't care what you say," Smolder replied. "I'm getting that griffon." She flew past some other dragons who look at the general.
"What are you looking for? Backup? Get her!" The dragons chased Smolder down, but she already had a head start. She wouldn't be able to fight off that many dragons forever, she had to escape. Smolder found a window and she climbed through it and closed it. The dragons flew past the window without even batting an eye.
"Ha, idiots," she scoffed. No one outside knew the orders given to keep Smolder inside. The dragon flew away thinking about what a certain griffon said.
"Try and find us near the mountains." With that information, she flew off and started her search.
In the cave, Gallus panting from feeling his body burning. "What's happening?" Yona asked.
"I don't know," Gallus replied. "I just felt a burning pain. I don't know what's going on."
"Well, I don't wanna know what they're going to do with us," Silverstream said as she tugged at her chains.
"Yona, you're the strongest one here," Sandbar said, "Can't you just break these chains."
"Yona not as strong as other yaks," Yona explained. "Yaks use weight and momentum to help with strength."
"Have you tried rolling?" Ocellus asked. The yak rolled on her back and she did see she had enough length to build up speed. She rolled to one side as the chains tightened. Yona did this multiple times as they could see that the chain wasn't breaking, rather the part of the wall it was attached to. It broke off and Yona rolled out of the cave.
"Alright," the group cheered.
"Yona, try and find something to break the chains around your legs," Ocellus called.
"Found some rocks," Yona replied.
"Okay, what's going on?" Spitfire questioned as she walked in from the other way. She was horrified when she saw that Yona was gone, which quickly followed by rage. "What. Did. You. Do?"
"Hey, you're the one keeping us prisoners," Gallus retorted. Spitfire growled at the griffon and walked up to Ocellus.
"We were just..." The changeling couldn't finish as she was smacked in the face and given a bloody nose. "No, please..." Again, she was interrupted by being pinned against.
"I've had enough of changelings like you."
"Let her go," Silverstream cried only to be kicked by the mare.
"Talk now," Spitfire ordered Ocellus.
"I can't... Breathe," she gagged. Silverstream tried to stand up but Spitfire stomped on her chest. Gallus and Sandbar tried to get closer, but their chains were too short.
"No, bad memories," Silverstream cried as she breathed heavily.
"Yona, where are you?" Gallus shouted.
"Yona smashed!" the yak yelled. Yona charged towards the pegasus and smashed into her. "Friends okay?"
"Been... Better," Ocellus answered as she gasped for air. Silverstream breathed heavily as she remembered something she didn't want to.
"Aunt Nova," she panted, "No. Don't go."
"Oh, boy," Gallus sighed. "Silver, stay calm. Try and think of something that makes you happy. Think thing like... Swimming around, or stairs or something like that."
"Stairs?" Sandbar questioned.
"She was excited to see them in my world. I'm trying everything." Yona helped her friends break their chains to the best of her abilities. Once they were each free, she held Spitfire down while the griffon walked over to the panicking hippogriff. She was sweating in fear as she started tearing up. Not knowing what to do, Gallus just hugged her.
"G... Gallus?" Silverstream stuttered.
"Just calm down and take the hug." The hippogriff cheered up a little bit as she hugged him back.
"Get off of me," Spitfire demanded.
"No," Yona replied. "You tie us up. Yona give karma."
Ocellus stood up and heard something. She changed into a bat to get a better hearing. "Someone's coming," she said.
"Then we need to get out of here," Gallus said.
"What about pegasus?" Yona asked. Ocellus turned back into her normal form and look at the chains that were still around Silverstream's neck. She took it off and tied it around Spitfire's wings and some more around her legs to keep her from moving.
"Let's get out of here," Sandbar cried. The group ran out of the cave as other ponies ran in to find the tied up pony.
"Where are we going?" Silverstream asked.
"I don't know," Gallus said, "I'm just winging it."
"Look," Sandbar said pointing to an old rundown station.
"We'll hide in there," Ocellus said. The five creatures did so and the peaked out the window to find some ponies looking around.
"Where did they go?" a stallion asked.
"I'll search the station," said a voice which promptly made the five scared.
"They're going to find us," Silverstream cried with Gallus covering her beak. They stayed quiet and hoped that the wouldn't be found, but they were. Soarin found them and could see the fear on their faces.
"Soarin, what's taking so long?" questioned the stallion.
The former Wonderbolt looked towards the creatures then shouted back at the stallion. "They're not in here!"
"Then search somewhere else."
The pegasus looked at the group. "Get out of here while you can." With that, he walked out of the station and the group waited until the cost was clear.
"Why pony pretend not find us?" Yona asked.
"I think he's warning us what will happen if we get caught," Gallus said double checking to see if anyone was around. "Come on, we'll follow the tracks." The group made a break for it running down the rails.
"Really wish we had the train," Sandbar said.
"I think we have bigger problems," Ocellus said, "We don't have our gear. No food, no medical supplies, no camping equipment. We're not going to last much longer."
"Stay calm," Gallus said. "We shouldn't be too far from the Crystal Empire. I remember from the map."
As they were nearing the bridge, Silverstream looked up and saw some hippogriffs flying around. "Hide," she cried while trying not to attract the hippogriffs' attention.
"What, why?" Ocellus asked. Just by pointing at the scouts made the flying creatures pick up Yona and Sandbar and they hid under the bridge.
"Okay, this might not be the best time," Gallus said, "But I think we can follow them back to the empire."
"Shush," Silverstream said.
"Sorry. What are they even doing here? I thought we had a good cover-up on our fake deaths." Then Gallus realized something. "He knows."
"What?" Sandbar questioned.
"The other me was in my head. He figured out we're still alive and is sending scouts to find us."
"So, what do we do?"
"Just stay out of sight," Silverstream said. "That's the best you can do." The team slowly floated down, where some fog would help cover them up. The stayed down there for what seemed like an hour, which made the griffon, changeling, and hippogriff tired from staying aborn while carrying their passengers.
"You think they're gone?" Sandbar asked.
"I'm not sure," Ocellus replied. They slowly came back up to find the scouts were nowhere to be seen. "I think we're in the clear. Stay alert." The now tired group carried on with their journey, now at a much slower pass.
"There you are," cried a familiar voice.
"Now what?" Gallus grumbled. They before they got off the bridge, Smolder landed in front of the group with smoke coming from her nostrils.
"I've been waiting for this," she said cracking her knuckles.
"What are you going to do?" Ocellus asked.
"Well, the general and king aren't going to want traitors like you. So, you're going to get beaten and burned." With that, Smolder opened fire by breathing the said element at the creatures.
They barely managed to dodge with Ocellus flying overhead before turning into a bugbear and smashing Smolder down hard. The dragon's claw slashed against the bugbear, who changed back into a changeling. Sandbar and Yona couldn't get past the dragon.
"What do we do?" Sandbar questioned. He could see Gallus and Silverstream were trying to help Ocellus out, but they couldn't do much either, much less considering they were exhausted. The pony was surprised when he saw Yona breaking up one of the railway tiles. She broke off and gave it to Sandbar.
"Use wood like weapon," Yona said. Both charged at Smolder, who was caught off guard and was smacked in the back of the head by Sandbar before get rammed into by Yona. The two were glad to get off the bridge now not having to fear of falling off. The dragon shot fire into the air out of anger before flying up to the yak grabbing her by the horns. Yona just threw her upwards, where Gallous grabbed her by the tail and threw into the mountainside.
This made Smolder madder than hurt and she picked up a nearby boulder and threw it at the team. Silverstream rammed into Gallus, knocking him out of the way before he got hit. Ocellus turned into a dragon again and tried punching Smolder, but the actual dragon grabbed her and used her as a shield before Yona could smash into her. Smolder breathed fire on them, but Ocellus did what she did and used herself as a shield to protect Yona. Sandbar tried using his railroad tile as a bat. He smacked the dragon so hard, the plank broke. This just made Smolder's anger increase.
"...I'm sorry," Sandbar said immediately regretting what he just did. The pony just uppercut by the furious dragon, lucky for him, Silverstream caught him. The hippogriff couldn't stay aborn with Sandbar for long. "Are you okay?"
"Just... Tired..." Silverstream sighed.
"She's too strong for us," Gallus said. "We need a new plan. Try and buy me some time."
"Roger," Sandbar and Silverstream said. They ran back to fight against Smolder while the griffon thought. He looked at the mountain cliff. They looked like they would collapse and crush any unlucky creature. Seeing his friends getting the tar beaten out of them while Smolder didn't have a scratch on her. Seeing his friends didn't have much time left, the griffon flew up to the cliff.
"She's too strong," Ocellus groaned as she kicked in the gut.
"I've gotten special training for this," Smolder said as she grabbed Silverstream and Sandbar who tried to attack from behind. "Now, just give me the griffon and..." She saw Gallus stomping on the cliff. "What is he doing?" Gallus flew upwards before smashing down on the cliff, making it break off and fall on Smolder.
Before the dragon could crawl out, Ocellus turned into a bugbear again to help Yona hold her down. "You okay?" Gallus asked landing in front of the pinned dragon.
Smolder just sighed as she looked up at the griffon. "Just do it. Finish me."
"What?"
"I lost to the five of you. I don't deserve to fight like a dragon. Crush me even more, the yaks are good at that." Gallus was at a loss for words. Without saying any, he moved the bits of rock off of Smolder. "What are you doing?"
"I'm not finishing you off. " Ocellus and Yona help get the broken bits of the cliff off the dragon. "You can do better than just giving up. Fight for something better than just doing what a dictator says. Join us and help fight for Equestria." Gallus held his claw out for Smolder accept. The dragon just scoffed and swatted the claw away. "Hey, I'm giving you a chance."
"Well, I don't want it." Smolder stood up and was about to walk off, but the griffon stopped her.
"Forget your stupid dragon pride and listen to me. Why do you follow that stormhead?"
"He killed Dragon Lord Ember, what other choices would I have? Getting turned to stone and shattered?"
"He can do that?" Sandbar questioned.
"Yeah," Silverstream replied shivering a bit.
"You don't have to listen to him," Gallus said.
"Are what are you going to do?" Smolder asked. "He can kill dragons with just his staff. What makes you think that a griffon, pony, yak, changeling, and hippogriff/seapony can do?"
"Well, three of them can help take him down from the inside."
"Seriously?"
"It's better than just blindly attacking to get in. They can't defend against something they can't see coming."
"We think Sandbar would make a good prisoner," Ocellus said. "We just need to find a muzzle and chains. I don't think that the ponies are going to let us borrow some."
"Yeah," Sandbar sighed.
"Then I guess you're out of luck," Smolder scoffed.
"You're not helping," Gallus grumbled.
"I know. That's because this plan isn't going to work."
"You haven't even tried it yet," Ocellus said. "We just need the chains."
"Uh, what's that sound?" Sandbar asked hearing a whirring sound.
"Oh no," Silverstream gasped. "Airships." The hippogriff was right. An airship was flying towards them.
"Guys, get over there," Gallus ordered pointing to a part of the mountains.
"Why?" Yona asked. The griffon didn't answer, he just kicked the mountain, which Yona helped with, and snow fell on top of the other five creatures.
"Please, work." A familiar blue griffon flew down from him.
"I've been looking for you," the general said. "Where are the others?"
"Far from here. Look, just leave them alone and I'll come with you."
"Is he crazy?" Silverstream questioned from under the snow before Sandbar covered her mouth. She was thankfully muffled by the snow, so the general didn't hear her.
"Alright, the king will enjoy seeing you," the general said. A cage lowered down from the airship and Gallus was lead inside. and locked in. Ocellus stuck her head out and transformed into a rock to stay hidden.
"You know, you're terrible," Gallus commented. "Even for a griffon." The general didn't reply, he just stared at him as the cage was lifted back into the ship.
The general flew upwards with him and the ship slowly flew away. "That's one down," he said. "I'll be happy if we find the rest of them." Ocellus couldn't believe what she just saw.
After the airship was out of sight, the changeling changed back and helped dig her team out. "Where's Gallus?" Sandbar asked.
"They took him," Ocellus explained. "They're heading back to the Crystal Empire."
"What about us?" Silverstream asked. "He'll get us next."
"Yona now scared," the yak shivered. "What will king or general do?"
"I don't know," Smolder said, "But I'm not going to find out." The dragon was about to fly off, but the changeling stopped her.
"You're just going to fly away?" Ocellus questioned.
"I don't stand a chance against the Storm King, and neither do you."
"One our own," Sandbar commented.
"Excuse me?"
"Think about, we never made it this far if we did things by ourselves. Ocellus's shapeshifting helped cut down on travel time, so did Silverstream pearl necklace. Yona helped us on the mountain, and I think Smolder might be strong enough to help fight off anything in our path."
"You think that a speech of what we can do is going to motivate us?"
"What do we have to lose?" The creatures were quiet for a moment.
"He's right," Ocellus confirmed. "We've got nothing."
"It's because of him," Silverstream sigh with some anger starting to build up. "He took everything from us."
"Talking about king, right?" Yona asked.
"Of course. I don't want to listen to him anymore."
"Yona agree. King take all the fun out of smashing."
"If I keep following him, I'll go hungry again," Ocellus said, "So will the other changelings." The group looked towards Smolder, who was just crossing her arms.
"What are you looking at?" Smolder asked. "I'm just cold."
"You can do better than follow him. What do you like?"
"Gems. And lava pools. There's also my brother."
"Is... He still alive?" Sandbar asked.
"Of course he is. It's just... He's changed." The dragon was trying her hardest to keep back her tears. "He's much more of fighter now, and I like that. It's just... He's colder. He's been put in charge of integrating traitors. He enjoys it. I tried talking to him after that but... He's changed."
"Is that reason why you want to get Gallus so bad?" Ocellus asked.
Smolder nodded with a tear sliding down her cheek. "I tried doing what he does but I can't help but feel... Disgusted. I can't enjoy it."
"Who would enjoy taking someone's life?" Silverstream asked trying to avoid the other word.
The dragon nodded again. "I don't want the brother I have now. I want... My brother back." Denial couldn't hold back her feeling anymore and Smolder soon had tear pouring down her face. She sat down as she tried not to weep while Silverstream walked over to her and hugged her.
"It's okay, you could've just talked to me." Smolder couldn't take it much more until the rest of the group shared in the hug.
"I... I don't understand. I tried to kill you."
"The Storm King has gotten to all of us," Ocellus said.
"Yona not stand for it any longer," Yona stated, releasing from the hug. "Friends take king down."
"I think I know where we can get some chains," Ocellus said. "I'm going to a bit of firepower to help though." Smolder wiped her tears and listened to what she had in mind.
Gallus decided he try and get comfy, he already tried to escape which he couldn't. Even if he did, the dragon and griffon guards would've stopped him The general then walked up to look him face to face. "Where did you go?" asked Gallus.
"I had to have a word with the king," the general replied. "I have a lot of questions for you."
"Then knock some right off the bat. First of all, I came here through a portal. As for where the others are, I'm not a snitch."
"Can I help him talk ?" asked one of the dragon guards.
"No," the general replied. "I've got some gear." He held up his two gloves, the left with fire and the right with lightning magic. Before Gallus could ask anything, the general grabbed him by the neck with both claws. As the elemental gloves started their magic, both griffons screamed in pain. The general fell back and let go of Gallus.
The griffons looked at each other in confusion. "Nice gloves. Mind explaining what just happened?"
"That's what I wanna know."
Suddenly, Gallus started putting things together. "Okay, this may sound crazy, but I've been getting these chest pains every time I woke up in this world. Now, I think we share each other's pain." To confirm this, Gallus bit his wing, making him wince a bit but the general cried out.
"How?"
"You think I wanted this? I've just been trying to get home."
"Great, now I have something else to worry about. Alright, scouts, look for the..." He couldn't finish his sentence as his doubleganger banged his head against the cage bars. "Stop that."
"Oh, what are you going to do, torture me? You'll only hurt yourself. Plus, I think the king wants me dead." The general's eyes widened. "Oh, that's going to hurt you too."
"I've already told the king we've captured you, and there's no telling what will happen if we tell him you "escaped."
"So, what do we do?" the griffon guard asked.
"He must know where the traitors are. Make sure no one gets on this ship." The guards left the room, leaving just the two Galluses.
"Why did you join?" the caged Gallus asked.
"Excuse me?"
"Why did you join the king's army? What kind of reason would you have for joining someone's team to do all his dirty work?"
"What other choices would I have? Think about it, we're essentially the same griffon, so we would think the same way. You know those other creatures somehow, pretend that you don't know them. You're just a sad little griffon that doesn't have any food, a roof over your head or even carrying parents. That's our life. Nothing to live up beside another lonely day just trying to survive. But as a general, everyone has to listen to me, I couldn't refuse his offer."
"You don't have to do this."
"Why would I give up all this power?"
"What would happen if you lost it? You'd have nothing to back you up. If you and I are the same griffon then you could've learned to accept friends. They're there when you need cheering up, need some company, or just to have fun."
"It's nice of you to offer, but that's not going to overpower the king."
"Oh, you'd be surprised."
"How? Twilight Sparkle is long gone, and we have no idea where her friends are. Unless you tell us."
"Nope. Go ahead, give us another shock and a burn."
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
"A bit." Gallus gave a sassy grin as the general growled. "What are you going to do about it?" He didn't reply, he just left the griffon in the cage. With the general out of the room, Gallus let out a sigh found only a small window to look out at the world. "Please tell you guys are planning something."
"You let them escape?" Spitfire questioned Soarin.
"I said I couldn't find them," Soarin fibbed.
"Great, I hope you didn't give too much info. Let's just get the fall set up just in case." The fire-maned pegasus walked off in anger as a small lanky mare walked up to Soarin. The mare was yellow-green fur and a cyan mane.
"Excuse me, sir," she said. "Could you help me find something?"
"What is it?" Soarin asked.
"I need four chains and cuffs." The pegasus looked rather confused. The mare's eyes went buggy for a second, then back to normal, following it with a wink.
"Okay, but you need to get out of here fast." Soarin managed to find some chains and gave them to the mare, who promptly ran off. Once she was out of sight, she changed back into Ocellus the changeling. She rejoined her team and placed the chains down in front of them.
"Okay, so let's get chained up," Ocellus said. She and the others started locking the cuffs around them.
"What are we doing again?"
"For crying out loud, Smolder listen this time. You're the only one who the general doesn't know hasn't joined our side, so you're going to pretend you've overpowered us and are now taking them to the king. Once we're inside, we'll look around for Gallus then try and catch the king off guard and steal his staff."
"Sounds risky," Sandbar said, "But I don't know what else we'll do." Once the four were chained up, Smolder grabbed onto the end of the chains.
"I think to make this really convincing, I need to rough you guys up," the dragon said.
"Make quick," Yona said flinching for what was going to happen.
After a few punches, kicks, scratch, and a little bit of fire, Sandbar, Yona, Silverstream, and Ocellus were bruised, cut, and a tiny bit burned. "You know I'm just increasing our options."
"We know," Silverstream said. "Let's get that king." The team headed off towards the Crystal Empire, which thankfully wasn't much further.
Tired from walking for so long, they could see the large castle as well as a large number of guards standing around every entrance. "State your business," a griffon guard asked.
"I've got these punks," Smolder answered tugging at the chains.
"Hey," Sandbar cried.
"Shut it."
"I knew the general was wrong," a unicorn guard said. "Follow me to the castle." As the group walked closer and closer to the castle, Sandbar looked at some ponies and griffon moving some cargo with the king's emblem on them. There were some ponies that were chained up and pulling some carts.
"Is this what the empire is like now?" Sandbar whispered to the girls.
"Sadly, yes," Silverstream sighed. "Can't wait for this to be over."
"I'm impressed kick," the unicorn said, "I never thought you could take on these creatures. Let alone a changeling."
"You just gotten know their weak points," Smolder replied.
"I would honestly laugh if you lost to that pony with missing dept perception." Sandbar's ears drooped as he heard this, which Yona didn't like.
"Hey, could you answer a question for me? Where's that griffon that looks like the general."
"I don't know. The ship got back, but nopony's letting me on."
"What for?" Ocellus asked.
"No talking." The guard's horn glowed brightly making the changeling flinch.
"Hey, just show me where I need to take them," Smolder pulling the prisoners back by the chains.
"The interrogation room, there's also a broken unicorn in there." Sandbar, Silverstream, and Ocellus looked at each other thinking the unicorn sounded familiar. Smolder took them to the interrogation room, where they heard something being thrown against a wall.
When they opened the doors they found a red dragon throwing Tempest around like a rag doll. "Oh, sis, you're here," the dragon said.
"Hey... Garble," Smolder not feeling very confident at the moment. "Who's that?"
"She calls herself Tempest. Wanna helped get some answers from her? She's not wanting to talk."
"Why would I talk to a monster like you?" Tempest asked, only to have a kick in the gut.
"Look, Garble, I've got some more prisoners," Smolder said.
"Oh, really?" Garble asked getting excited. "Oh, my day just got better."
"W-wh-what are you going to do?" Silverstream asked. Garble just simply grabbed the chain and attached them to the wall so the creatures couldn't escape. Smolder had to think fast and ran over to Tempest to remove her horn cap and found the horn was broken. Before she could what happen to it, Tempest slowly stood up and zapped Garble with lightning.
"How the heck?" The dragon was caught off guard as Ocellus didn't have the special kind of chains that prevent her from changing into a bugbear and punching Garble several times. Smolder began to help the earth pony, yak, and hippogriff, much to her brother's shock. "Smolder what are you doing?"
"Sorry, bro," Smolder sighed. "I don't want the dragon you are now." Once Yona was free, she rammed into the red dragon where Tempest then zapped him with lightning, knocking him out.
"Sorry you had to see that," Sandbar said. She didn't say anything as she and the others looked at Tempest.
"I see you're on our side now," Tempest said.
"We need to find Gallus," Ocellus said. "Who knows what they're doing to him."
"But what about king?" Yona asked. "We need his staff."
"Then maybe we should split up," Sandbar said. "I'll go with Silverstream and Yona to find Gallus, the rest of you can fight against the army to get to the king."
"Isn't that a little risky?" Silverstream asked.
"Don't worry," Smolder said. "I've got a lot of combat experience."
"Ditto," Tempest agreed.
"Well, good luck guys," Ocellus said to Sandbar's team. The two trios split up to do their jobs.
"So, where are the ships?" Sandbar asked.
"The dock is where the Colosseum used to be," Silverstream answered. "This way." The raced towards the dock as Tempest's team got closer to the throne room. They peeked inside and saw the king holding three different sets of horns.
"I'll handle this," Ocellus said as she changed into the general and walked in. "Your Highness," she said in the griffon's voice.
"Oh, you're back," the king said. "I'm wanting to make another crown. Which horns should I got with, dragon, changeling, or yak?" The horns each belonged to the respective leaders who Ocellus knew too well.
"Uh, yak horns. They go with your color."
"Thanks, I knew these would look good." He tossed the other horns away as place the yak horns in a bag. "Just wish these things weren't so big. Give this to one of the chumps making our uniforms. Now, I'm off to take my nap." Walking away with his staff, Ocellus knew her team would get caught. She raced past the king and grabbed Smolder and Tempest and hid them behind the corner. "What was that about?"
"Just get anger at the faker."
"Right, don't interrupt my nap." The disguised changeling nodded trying to look serious, then the king walked off. She looked towards Tempest and Smolder.
"I think we found our opportunity."
"Do you know where he keeps his staff."
The king walked into his bedroom and slid his staff under his bed, which there wasn't a lot of space. He tucked himself in and fell asleep. "Of all the places," Tempest groaned quietly.
"Would it make it worse if I told you he's a light sleeper?" Smolder asked closing the door.
"Great, how are we suppose to get it?"
"We need to trick him into getting out of bed," Ocellus said. "If we try and steal it right there, we'll get caught and I don't want to know what he'll do."
"Hmm," Smolder thought. "I think we should try and catch an escapee." She began whispering her plan to unicorn and changeling what she had in mind.
At the docking station, Sandbar, Yona, and Silverstream were looking around to see which ship Gallus was on. Sandbar had to lay low, while the girls had a much easier time getting around. "Where is he?" Sandbar questioned looking down on an empty ship deck.
"Hang on," Silverstream said, "Most of these ships look the same."
"Who's looking for me?" came a voice.
"That sounds like Gallus." The three walked over where they heard the voice and looked below the deck to see the caged griffon.
"Oh, good, you found me," Gallus sighed. "Get me out of here."
"On it," Yona replied as she got a running start. Before the griffon could say something to stop her, Yona rammed into the cage to break him out. Gallus fell out of the broken cage with a bit of pain. "Sorry."
"I appreciate your apologie, but somehow the general and I can share each other's pain."
"Like, right now?" Sandbar asked. The griffon nodded.
"Then we better run," Silverstream said. After helping Gallus up, they made a run for it.
Elsewhere in the castle, General Gallus felt a pain in his back that came out of nowhere. He realized what this meant. "They found him," he gasped. He took flight and flew down the hall where he suddenly noticed Tempest running away from Smolder, who were both surprised to see him.
"Your Highness," cried a voice followed by the sound of someone stumbling and falling on the floor. "The prisoner's trying to escape. The general flew to the bedroom where the Storm King was just leaving.
"Hey, weren't you just waking me up?" the king asked. They both look and saw another griffon general picking up the kings.
"Not if a third me has come to this world." Before the two could act, Smolder and Tempest kicked them away so they and Ocellus, who changed into a cheetah, could escape.
Gallus let out a loud groan which grabbed the attention of some army troopers. "Uh oh," Sandbar cried.
"Stay calm," Yona ordered as the troopers closed in on them. "Yona will handle this." The yak led the charge, running full speed and plowing through any trooper that got in there way.
"Now, what?" Gallus asked.
"Hopefully the others have the king's staff," Silverstream said. "Let's just get out of here." The group raced down the hall where they met up with Smolder, Ocellus, and Tempest.
"Do you have the staff?" Sandbar asked.
"Right here," Ocellus said showing the king's staff.
"None of us know how to use unicorn magic," Smolder said.
"But Tempest can," Gallus said. He gave to the staff to the unicorn. "Can you use it."
"It's been a while since I've used my magic properly," Tempest said, "But I'll do my best."
"No you won't," the general said. Using his gloves, he grabbed Tempest by her legs and burned her back, but Smolder kicked the general across the room, which Gallus shared the pain. Unfortunately, Tempest's pain caused her to lose the staff through the window.
"Something wrong?" Smolder asked.
"We share pain somehow," Gallus groaned.
"We've lost the staff," Tempest groaned. She looked towards the general and they both raced to get it back.
Gallus and his friends were about to follow, but they were quickly surrounded by the king's army. "Oh, boy," the griffon said nervously.
"You really think I'm going to let some creatures push me around?" Smolder asked. "Bring it on." The group fought back against the king's army. Several blows were thrown at each side, as Tempest and the general fought over the staff. Both Galluses fought on and they both felt each other's pain. Still, they both fought on.
"You missed your chance... When you quit," the general said to Tempest as he felt his doubleganger's pain as well as the pain received from Tempest decking him in the face.
"You are nothing without your king," Tempest proclaimed as she tried to grab the staff but she got pulled back. "You're nothing but a tool to him. He gets to play with his magic while you order his minions around."
"He has the power of four alicorns. He's the most powerful creature in all of Equestria."
"He's nothing but a coward. Don't you think he'd try to get his staff back instead of sending you?"
The general tried to use his gloves to attack the unicorn again, but he found out they were out of magic. When he tried to grab Tempest's horn, but the mare managed to catch his glove in her mouth and rip them off his claw. She tried to go the same to the other gloves, but the general caught her by the horn and stole some her magic. Tempest kicked him away a few feet before charging towards him with another punch.
Gallus meanwhile was struggling to fight off the army with his team. He didn't have much combat experience and the whole sharing pain thing wasn't helping. Lucky for him, his friends were backing him up. Yona and Smolder were the strongest of their team so they had most of the combat handle. Ocellus could change into multiple creatures so she could even the playing field. Sandbar and Silverstream hadn't had too much experience fighting either, but still, they did what they could. Still, the number of soldiers seemed never-ending.
"Why are there so many of them?" Sandbar asked.
"Dragon lands, changeling hive, Yakyakistan," Smolder said punching a yak in the face, "Take your pick."
"There's too many," Gallus said groaning as he felt the generals pain.
"Come on, guys," Ocellus said turning into a bugbear to pick her team, "Fall back." The group fled with the army giving chase.
"I knew this would fail somehow."
"It's not over yet," Silverstream said. "Tempest might've got the staff." Gallus grunt of pain would agree to this.
"Get to where Tempest is," Sandbar said to Ocellus.
"On it," Ocellus replied.
Smolder looked back at the army that was still on their tails. "They're getting closer," she said.
"We're almost outside." The second the left the castle's entrance where they found Tempest and the general were still fighting. Silverstream saw the staff lying on the ground. She flew over to it, but a unicorn levitated it away. Smolder kicked the pony making its horn stop glow and Ocellus swiped the staff and returned to her normal form. She passed it to Silverstream who then passed it to Sandbar and then to Gallus all in an attempt to keep it away from the storm army.
"Not on my watch," the general said before turning to Tempest. He didn't even try to defend against her, after getting kicked in the face his pain was sent to Gallus, causing the griffon to drop the staff. The staff fell towards the entrance of the castle, where the Storm King walked out and caught it.
Before the rebels could react, the king used the staff's magic to levitate them right in front of him. "You did good," he said, "It just wasn't enough."
"What should we do with them?" the general asked.
"Well, they did better than any team tried before, so I think we need to make this special." He took the captured creatures and brought them to the throne room. "Ah, the place where it all began." He looked behind his throne and picked up a green orb.
"What's that?" Sandbar asked a little scared.
"That orb has dust that turns living beings into obsidian statues," Tempest explained. She was removed from the group as the king focus on the six rebels.
"Sir, I think the other me and I are connected somehow," the general said. "Every time one of us gets injured, the other feels our pain, literally."
"That's nice."
"It means if you kill him, I'll go down with him."
"Hmm, I'm already killing seven, an eighth one wouldn't hurt me."
"Hey, I help control your army."
"And so did that broken horned pony over there. I can always get a new one. Now, get out of the way." The king threw the griffon across the wall and Gallus felt his pain.
"Guys, I'm sorry about this," Gallus sighed.
"It's okay," Ocellus said, "It was better than nothing."
"I honestly had some steam to blow off when it came to this army," Smolder said.
"Same," Silverstream sighed. "I never like this king."
"Yona like teaming up with friends," Yona said. "Wish we could've had more fun."
"Yeah," Sandbar sighed, "At least we got to see more of Equestria."
"Aw, isn't this cute," the Storm King scoffed. "I hate cute." While using his staff's magic, he kept Tempest and the General in their place as he threw the orb at the six creatures. The orb shattered and they slowly started turning into statues.
"Thanks for helping anyway guys," Gallus sighed. He closed his eyes as his entire body turned into obsidian. Silence fell over the entire room, several soldiers were watching from the outside halls. The general stood still as he was scared at what was going to happen, nothing did.
"Hmm, I guess you were wrong." Suddenly, there was a loud crack. Everyone looked to the frozen creatures. A crack was on Gallus's forehead with a bit of light seeping through. The crack got bigger and even spread to his friends as the obsidian vanished and they were released. Their eyes glowed white as the floated into the air. The king tried to fire a beam at the floating creatures but it didn't do anything. "How is this possible?" He kept firing but still, nothing happened.
"What going on?" Yona asked.
"I don't know," Ocellus replied.
"I know," Gallus said with a smirk on his face. "You may have a lot of things, an army, a kingdom, and the magic of four alicorns. You could have all the power in Equestria, but you wouldn't even come close to the most powerful magic of all. Honest, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic. These six elements come together to make the Magic of Friendship."
Yona, Sandbar, Silverstream, Ocellus, Smolder, and Gallus had auras appear around them as the elements were mentioned. The team held each others' arms as a rainbow shot out from them towards the Storm King. He tried to fight back with a forcefield trying a counter laser, but he was obliterated from the rainbow beam. Before he was completely destroyed he let out three final words. "I hate you."
Another rainbow shot through the roof of the castle and the storm clouds, making them fade revealing clear skies. The rainbow could be seen all across Equestria. The Clears in Ponyvillie saw it as well as the late princess of friendship's friends couldn't believe what they saw. The glow slowly dissipated and the six creatures slowly lowered to the floor as the Storm King was nowhere to be seen.
"What was that?" Smolder questioned in shock. "That felt... Incredible."
"Magic of Friendship," Gallus explained.
"That... Wow," Ocellus gasped at a loss for words.
"I wanna do that again," Silverstream cried with excitement filling her up. "Imagine if we had that kind of magic if I was swimming."
"Uh, guys," Sandbar said pointing to the speechless soldiers who just watched what happened.
"Want to fight Yona and friends?" Yona asked as she looked like she was going to charge. The soldiers ran off as they didn't want to have the same fate as the king.
Tempest walked over to where he was sitting. All that was left, was his staff. "I knew he wouldn't last much longer," she said picking up the staff.
"I don't understand," the general said. "How can you do that?"
"My friends back home have done it before," Gallus said.
"You feel that every time?" Sandbar questioned.
"It lessens the second time around." Tempest walked over to the griffon.
"I'm honestly impressed," she said. "It's going take a while until Equestria is put back together. A few years even."
"I want to know what we're going to do with him?" Smolder asked pointing to the general.
Gallus walked over to him. "What do you want?" the general asked. "You were right. I'm nothing. Just some puppet the king had control of."
"That's the word," Gallus said, "Had. You and I are the same. I learned about friendship, so can you." He held out his claw to help his counterpart up.
The general sighed. "You think that'll make up for all the things I helped?"
"I've done a lot of bad things while following him too," Tempest admitted. "We might not like our past, but we can learn from it." The griffon looked up at the mare and his twin. With a sigh, he let Gallus help him up as they looked at the other five creatures, who were having mixed feelings about this.
Later, the Clears flew their airship towards the empire. They were surprised to see there weren't any soldiers on guard. "Something ain't right here," Applejack said looking down at the empire.
"I can scout it out," Rainbow Dash said.
"Hold it," Shining Armor said. "Someone's down there." The unicorn was right. He, as well as the two mares, floated down to find Tempest and the two Galluses.
"We would like you to hold fire," Tempest said.
"Where's the Storm King?" Dash asked, ready for a fight.
"Oh, him?" Gallus asked. "Yeah, he's not coming back."
"He's gone?" Applejack asked with Gallus nodding in confirmation.
"Good riddance," Shining sighed.
Sandbar's mom and dad got off the airship and looked around for their son. "Where is he?" the mother questioned very worriedly.
Sandbar, as well as his friends, came walking out of the castle, where the earth pony saw his parents. "There you are," his father shouted walking over to him with his mother.
"Mom, Dad, I'm sorry," Sandbar apologized.
"Sorry for what?" Rainbow asked butting in. "You helped save Equestria."
"How did you know?" Ocellus asked.
"Who else was here and caused that blast?"
"Rainbow has a point," Applejack said. "Gallus's sudden appearance plus Ocellus joining our team, we can put two and two together."
"Are you friends of Twilight Sparkle?" Silverstream asked. Dash and AJ's expressions fell. "I mean to upset you..."
"No, it's okay."
"I know how it feels actually. My aunt was Queen Nova."
"Oh."
"Let's talk about something less depressing," Sandbar's mom said. "Sandbar, we're too happy to see you to be mad." She quickly hugged her son with the dad joining in.
"So, what are we going to do now?" Dash asked.
"We're going to rebuild Equestria," Tempest explained as she showed them the king's staff. "Hopefully the other species are willing to work together."
"Some of them are bit damaged," Smolder said. "Mentally and physically."
"We'll get through it," Sandbar said. They heard some groaning and looked over to the two Galluses, who both looked to be in pain. The five creatures ran over to them to see what was wrong.
"What going on?" Yona asked.
"Don't know," Gallus replied as he coughed up some blood.
"We're not going to last much longer," the general groaned as he also coughed blood.
"Mom, we need some help over here," Sandbar cried. Before the mare could run over to them, a portal suddenly opened up.
"What the heck is that?" Smolder questioned.
"It's a portal," Gallus said as he struggled to stand. "Hopefully it's back to my world."
"Are you sure?" Ocellus asked. "You have no idea what's on the other side."
"It's either that or I wait to see what happens to me and the other me."
"So, this is goodbye," Silverstream sighed.
"Yona just started to know Gallus," Yona said.
"Look, there's another me here. You can try and get to know him. He does need friends."
"Well, we hope you get back home safely," Sandbar said. The group shared one last hug before Gallus slowly walked towards the portal. "Gallus." The griffon looked back at them. "Thank you."
Gallus smiled as he walked into the portal just as it closed. The group looked to the general who was just as surprised as everyone else who just saw what happened. "Please, don't give me the lovey-dovey stuff," he said.
"We can start slow," Ocellus said. "You want to talk about something?"
"Yeah, maybe something to remember the different kingdoms' rulers."
"I have an idea," Silverstream said. She told what her idea was to her friends.
"Yona like idea," Yona said.
"I can help with that," Smolder said.
"You wanna join in?" Sandbar asked the general.
"Sure, and just call me Gallus," he said. Even though they were confused on what just happened, the group walked off to help put Equestria back together.
Gallus tumbled through the portal. He could barely contain the pain of his sloshing insides. Soon, he fell out and landed in the School of Friendship's library. Sandbar, Yona, Silverstream, Ocellus, and Smolder gasped after he appeared. "Gallus!" they cheered.
The griffon slowly stood up feeling weak. "Hey... Guys," he groaned. Gallus nearly fell down, but Silverstream caught him.
"Easy," the hippogriff said. She led her friend over to some pillows so he could lie down. "How are you feeling?"
"Been better."
"You look awful," Ocellus said. "Where did you go?"
"It was... Equestria. Only... It was a mess. The Storm King had taken over." The creatures gasped at the sound of his name, especially Silverstream.
"But Princess Twilight defeated him," Sandbar said.
"In this world. In the one, I just came back from... It was horrible. Dragonlord Ember, King Thorax, Queen Novo, Prince Rutherford, and the alicorn princesses were all dead."
"Dead?" Yona gasped. "But dragons and yaks built tough."
"They can't do much against the magic of four alicorns."
"What about us?" Smolder asked. "Did we even know each other?"
"Yes and no. Sandbar was part of a rebel group called "The Clears."
"I get it," Silverstream laughed.
"Yeah, I thought it was clever too. Anyways, the rest of you were part of the Storm King's army. Ocellus was a spy, Smolder was a combatant, Yona was just for destruction, and Silverstream was a scout."
"What about you?" Ocellus asked. "If there are other uses there has to be another you."
"There was another me. He was the general of the army. I wouldn't blame him. If I never came to this school, who would I have care about?"
"That sounds horrible," Sandbar said.
"I know. I would've hit myself if I knew about you guys and..."
"No, I mean about you being alone."
"Tell me about it. Wait a minute, how did you get me back here?"
"We had to ask for a bit of help," Smolder admitted.
"About time you mentioned me," Discord said. "I was having a nice dream when I got a call from Spike for a false alarm."
"It was the only way we could call you."
"Well, sorry. Do you know how hard it is to find someone in a different dimension?"
"Look, you can go home now," Ocellus said.
"Thank you. Hopefully, I'll feel much better after all eight hours of sleep." As Discord teleported away, Gallus was confused.
"How long was I gone?" he asked.
"We were up all night trying to find a way to get you back," Ocellus said.
"All night? I felt like I was in there for three days."
"I guess time is a little different in other dimensions."
"That's confusing," Silverstream said scratching her head.
"However it works," Gallus said, "I'm just glad to be home." The griffon hugged his friends as they did the same to him. Yona suddenly passed out as she was tired from the all-nighter, and the others followed shortly. Gallus wasn't feeling as tired as them, so he just sat back and thought what the other version of him and his friends were doing.
In the other dimension, several creatures that worked for the Storm King had gotten rid of their uniforms and were celebrating about his defeat. Gallus was sitting by himself as Sandbar walked over to him with some punch. "Need a drink?" the earth pony asked.
"Sure," the griffon replied flatly. The two sipped their punch as they looked at the creatures parting. Yona and a glum Smolder walked over to them.
"Pink Pony makes great party," Yona said.
"It's okay I guess," Smolder sighed.
"Something wrong?" Sandbar asked.
"It's my brother. He's... Still cold."
"Is he getting better?"
"Barely. I just wanted my brother back."
"Things aren't easy to fix," Gallus said. "You can destroy something in seconds yet you can take years to make something."
"Too true."
Sandbar looked for Silverstream and Ocellus who were in a conga line led by Pinkie Pie, who had gotten her poofy mane back. The hippogriff and changeling looked to be having a lot of fun. "Hey, girls," Sandbar called grabbing their attention. The two broke away from the conga line walked over to the group.
"How are you guys doing?" Ocellus asked.
"Good," Gallus said.
"I can't remember since I've had so much fun," Silverstream said.
"Lucky you," Smolder grumbled.
"Hey, smile and party. Things will get better."
"She's right," Ocellus agreed. "I think they'll reveal the statue in a while."
"The statue we helped with?" Smolder asked.
"Actually it's made of crystals. And no, you can't eat it."
"Dang it. What about the one we made?"
"We'll reveal it later."
Just then, Shining Armor stopped the music. "Everybody, we have each suffered a lot during this war," he said, "But I'm glad this terror could be put behind, even if that's easier said than done. I'm glad we can put aside our differences to have this celebration, which was provided mostly by Pinkie Pie. I also like to thank everyone who helped create this lovely statue."
There was a large tarp that was covering up something. It was removed to reveal a crystal statue of Princess Cadence. "Wow," Silverstream cooed.
"That looks amazing," Sandbar commented.
"This statue is to commemorate the Crystal Empire's princess," Shining Armor said. "The other kingdoms will each have a statue for their former leaders before the Storm King took over."
"Yeah, I've been making Dragonlord Ember's statue," Smolder said to her friends. "You wanna see them."
"Sure," Gallus said. "Give us something to do." The dragon led the group into the castle and into a room with several stone blocks. One of the stone blocks was carved into Dragonlord Ember holding her scepter. There was a work in progress statue of King Thorax, which Ocellus was interested in.
"You did this?" the changeling asked.
"I had a bit of help," Smolder admitted.
"I help draw them," Silverstream said. She showed her friends a book with sketches of the different kingdom leaders. The only one that was in color was Queen Nova.
"Who going to lead kingdoms now?" Yona asked.
"My cousin Skystar will take Queen Nova's place. I'm... Sure she'll do a good job."
"Where is she?" Sandbar asked.
"Seaquestria, helping the other seaponies." The hippogriff was doing her best to hold back her tears.
"I think I remember someone trying to cheer me up," Smolder said. "Think it be best to let it out." The dragon placed her claw on the hippogriff's shoulder. Silverstream smiled as she wept a little bit.
"Thanks, Smolder."
"I guess Gallus was right about friendship," Ocellus said before looking at the same named Griffon. "I mean the Gallus from the portal."
"I know," Gallus said. "It's nice that you're actually trying to forgive me."
"Gallus just needed friends," Yona said. "Yona would've done the same if Yona had no one else."
"I probably wouldn't," Smolder said.
"Let's try and forget about you know who," Sandbar said. "Let's just try and be friends."
"Yeah," Silverstream said. "The fireworks are about to start." The group walked over to the nearest window to see the first set of fireworks going off.
"Thanks again for giving me a chance," Gallus said, "I don't think I'll trade it for anything."
"Good to know," Sandbar said as Silverstream trapped them in a group hug. The friend's embraced it, hoping for a better future ahead of them.