Darkest Hour

by Twilight is Magic

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Original Character, Other, Adventure
Length: 57005

Changelings try to take over the Unicorn tribe, but a young Star Swirl won't let that stand.

Trouble is brewing in the Unicorn kingdom as the royal castle is suddenly cut off from the outside world. Mysterious disappearances continue until an entire town is found deserted, and an attempted investigation is cut short by nightmarish monsters. Not about to let themselves be cornered, the unicorns prepare for battle. An apprentice wizard, Star Swirl, and his friends are among those called upon to defend the crown, but nopony is truly prepared for what they are about to face.

Published 2012-08-16 19:54:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-10-14 21:24:48 UTC

1. Overcast

The great, winding spiral staircase seemed endless as Star Swirl slowly made his way up, careful to keep to the middle so as not to let the satchel of scrolls on his side brush against the wall. The portions of the stairs away from the windows were shrouded in gloom, forcing him to strain his eyes to avoid misstepping.

"Why not light the torches?" he muttered to himself as his hoof slipped on a chipped stair halfway up.

Sighing, he lit a small light on the tip of his horn and continued on his way. ‘It must be the weather,’ he mused. It wouldn’t have surprised him if nopony would bother with lighting the torches at a time like this. In fact, it would have made sense for everypony to try and keep unnecessary activity to a minimum. For about two weeks already, dark clouds had been blanketing the sky, endlessly dousing the landscape with rain punctuated with occasional bursts of wind and periods of heavier downpours. The air felt chilly and unpleasantly humid, even through Star Swirl’s warm and durable cape, the likes of which were in high regard among the apprentices in the rather draughty castle.

'Just what are those pegasi doing?' He thought as he passed a window and glanced at the uniformly grey sky. 'It’s the middle of the crop growing season. So much rain could ruin the harvest, and we’re all going to starve if the Earth ponies don’t get a better one than last year!'

Reaching the next landing, he stopped in front of a door emblazoned with the symbols of the sun and the moon on the opposite sides of a circle. He let the light on the tip of his horn wink off and cleared his head of these non-essential matters, but he couldn’t help feeling a bit nervous. He had been working on the spell for a long time, long enough to iron out most irregularities and counteract random magical fluctuations, but even with the best magics there is room for error. He had very limited opportunities to actively test it. The sole test subject he had was a castle mouse he had caught stealing from the food stores and pressed into participating, and while it did work on that mouse, he was not sure it would work on anything else. He was afraid the spell would not live up to his mentor’s expectations. Impressing him could mean recognition and respect from his peers and the elder conjurors alike, but failing to do so...

He shook his head, forcefully pushing the doubt out of his mind. The Amniomorphic spell was something that he made by himself, something no other pony had attempted before, a true step forward in the unicorns’ understanding and mastery of magic. He was going to prove to Sparkling Sky that he was the most talented and dedicated and overall the very best of all apprentices. With this thought, Star Swirl knocked on the heavy door, waited a bit and pushed it open.

The first time he visited this room, a long time ago, he had to suppress the urge to say ‘I want one of these!’ Multi-tiered bookshelves lined the half of the room’s walls closest to the door, housing books and scrolls on every magical subject he could think of and then some. The other half was taken up by tables and desks, some lined with instruments and various items such as crystals and phoenix feathers, others filled with writing implements and yet more scrolls and books. Several tall and narrow windows let in just the right amount of light. A fire was burning brightly inside a fireplace built into the far wall. The room’s middle was occupied by an immense, elaborate carpet decorated with images of constellations, and currently, a bemused-looking Sparkling Sky in a deep blue cape and hat ensemble, pacing from one wall to another. As Star Swirl stepped inside, the elderly magician stopped and looked at him from under the shadow of his hat’s wide brim.

"Oh, hello, Star Swirl. I wasn’t expecting you. How is the spell coming along?" His voice was as metaphorically old and bearded as he looked.

"Very well, Sparkling Sky. In fact, it’s already complete," Star Swirl began, steeling himself further for the important task ahead. "I wanted to demonstrate—"

"I’m afraid this will have to wait." What?

"Star Swirl, I think I’m beginning to forget things. Could you please remind me what was the project you were working on about four months ago?"

More than a bit puzzled, Star Swirl nevertheless recalled what his mentor asked him to.

"The properties of magically molded gemstones."

"Hmm... yes, I remember now. And please, what did I tell you when you presented the results to me?"

That didn’t help the puzzlement at all, but maybe it was some sort of test.

"To leave gemstones for jewellers and work on spells instead," Star Swirl repeated his words from back then, and added quietly, "I still don’t agree. That field has potential, my results are clear on that."

He could swear he heard a quiet chuckle from under the shadowy hat. Sparkling Sky raised his head, light finally falling on his face, and it struck Star Swirl how tired he looked: there were dark circles under his eyes, as if he hadn’t slept for days.

"Yes, yes, that is correct. Come in, then."

Star Swirl looked at his mentor in mild confusion. "But Sparkling Sky, you never forget anything."

"I wish," the old stallion chuckled again. "Now close the door, if you would be so kind."

As Star Swirl did so, the elderly mage trotted over to the fireplace, motioning for him to follow. The warmth radiating from the fire was a welcome change from the chilly stairwell, but Star Swirl knew that he was called to approach just because it was more comfortable to stand there. After a moment’s silence, Sparkling Sky began to speak.

"It’s good that you came when you did. I was about to send for you. There is a matter I have to discuss."

"Of course, Sparkling Sky. Is something wrong?"

The answer, he felt, had already been made quite obvious, but he wanted a more detailed explanation.

"First of all, I have to ask... Have you noticed anything unusual lately? Something out of the ordinary?"

Sparkling Sky was speaking in questions again. His mentor seemed to believe it helped ponies to form their own conclusions, and while Star Swirl could see the necessity of that, it still irritated him to no end. Despite his puzzlement and curiosity, he couldn’t resist the urge to hint at his opinion.

"Well, there are fewer birds about and the castle isn’t lit thoroughly enough... Oh, and there’s also this endless rain and giant clouds when there should be warm sunny weather."

Sparkling Sky smirked. "Observant as always. Yes, all of it is rather strange indeed. But have you, perhaps, seen or heard anything else, perhaps yesterday?"

"No. I’ve been too busy with my spell research. No time to talk to anypony, and my room does not have nearly as much access to the outside as yours."

It was perfectly true. For several weeks on end the only time not spent testing the Amniomorphic spell was used on extended research on how to improve it. Basic needs such as food and sleep were relatively low priority. The day before, he did not leave his study for the better part of the day, busy with finalizing the spell.

"You did not talk to anypony? Did you hear anything said at dinner, at least?" The old stallion half-raised an eyebrow.

"I simply wasn’t there. You advised me to avoid any interruptions during research yourself. My dinner was some hay that I keep in the room for that very purpose, which was another piece of your advice."

His mentor nodded, seeming mildly impressed, which translated to shock in most other ponies.

"Good, Star Swirl. I see that your dedication and focus have improved dramatically. What happened to that adventurous colt I picked as my apprentice?"

He chuckled softly, fell silent for a brief moment, and then continued in a less lighthearted tone: "Sadly, while normally I would’ve been singularly proud of you because of that, today it is actually a disadvantage."

He turned to look at the fire, and the firelight reflected in his eyes, making his long-bearded muzzle seem chiselled out of stone. Star Swirl barely managed to give him a questioning look before he spoke again.

"It may not be too apparent - or, at least, was not this apparent until yesterday evening - but there is something very bad happening very fast. I’m going to try my best to properly bring you up to speed."

He listened intently as his mentor started to explain.

"You no doubt remember the sudden change in weather some two weeks ago. The rainclouds gathered as if for a normal rainy evening, but stayed in the sky afterwards, and no Pegasi came to remove them. Five days after that, His Majesty consulted with us and decided to send an envoy to the Empire to invoke our weather treaties with them and resolve the situation, but he did not return when expected, and there were no signs of the Pegasi reacting in any way either. King Silver believed that he had been captured or worse, but myself, the rest of the Circle and the Captain of the Guard advised him to refrain from offensive action and wait. That was nine days ago."

The closest Imperial holdings were not that far away. Nine days were enough to return in nearly any weather, and the Pegasi would have covered that distance in no time. Maybe the king was right. Star Swirl frowned and looked at the fire, following Sparkling Sky’s example.

"Ever since the rain started, there was no word from anywhere except Hornton in the valley. The day after sending the envoy, two full patrols were dispatched to check the situation and try to uncover the source of this anomaly. And they, too, did not come back."

Now that meant trouble. Star Swirl turned to look at his mentor again.

"We sent out another patrol, this time to look for the first two. They returned safely two days later, but according to their report, there were no signs of the missing ponies. The settlements they visited did not report seeing the patrols either. And as for the weather, the patrol did not notice any changes anywhere they could see. Whatever is happening must be affecting everypony."

Two full patrols meant twelve ponies from the ranks of the Unicorn Kingdom’s standing guard force, Star Swirl calculated. Trained unicorns to a pony, capable of warding off most threats to the land, formed for that specific reason—independence from the Pegasi’s military might in matters of immediate self-defense. Twelve guardsponies had disappeared without a trace. And the pegasi would’ve left plenty of clues had they been responsible.

Meanwhile, Sparkling Sky continued. "After that, everything was eerily quiet. We had no contact with anywhere but Hornton, and the ponies there had the same situation as ourselves: nopony came to them, but whoever tried to venture out came back claiming everything is fine and nothing else, and did not seem to remember the trip in much detail.

"We have been keeping contact with them through couriers reporting to the castle twice a day as a precaution. Yesterday morning the courier did not arrive. Captain Steel Hammer immediately organized a patrol from hoof-picked guardsponies and led it down to Hornton to investigate. They returned in the afternoon, in bad shape and with very disturbing news: the town was completely empty, as if everypony had simply left it in the middle of the night. The guards searched the houses - all of which had been left unlocked - but found no signs of anything suspicious. Then, when they were about to go back, they were ambushed by strange creatures.

"Captain Steel Hammer described them as something like a pony and an insect at the same time. They had large blue eyes, a dark carapace, wings capable of flight and very sharp teeth. There were at least twenty of them. The guards managed to fight them off, but all six were injured, with two having to be transported back to the castle by the others."

Ponyfeathers. That was bad indeed. Patrols were one thing, bad enough as it was, but an entire town going missing? Monsters that Star Swirl knew nothing about? In immediate proximity to the castle? He shivered.

"Do we know anything about those creatures?"

"We have nothing but vague suspicions. No book seems to have a description matching the captain’s report. I have spent most of the night trying to find something more solid than proofless speculation, but there is still no result."

The old unicorn glanced towards the window, then froze for a moment, as if remembering something.

"Star Swirl, I’m sorry to interrupt your plans like this, but we have to go to the great hall right now. It is nearly noon," Sparkling Sky indicated the slightly brighter patch of clouds where the sun would normally be. "And King Silver has called for every single pony present in the castle to be in the hall at that time precisely. With you coming here yourself and in need of an explanation I have completely forgotten about it! I’m afraid I’ve taken up too much time, so we have to make haste."

Star Swirl followed his mentor to the door. As it swung open, he remembered about the satchel of scrolls detailing his development of the Amniomorphic spell, still hanging off his side.

"Sparkling Sky, what about the research notes and spell scrolls and--"

The satchel shone with the red glow of the old unicorn’s magic. He levitated it off his apprentice’s back and lowered it onto the nearest table.

"No time to waste," he said, disappearing through the doorway.

Star Swirl sighed and stepped out of the room. His mentor was already a landing away, fast as always. As he closed the door, he wished for a spell that could simply fix everything. However, the quickening sound of Sparkling Sky's was leaving him no time to reflect, and so he started down the stairs, trying to catch up.

~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~

Opal Beam cantered across the courtyard. He tried to dodge particularly dirty patches and puddles of muddy water, but there was no dodging the rain. By the time he reached the doors of the great hall, his uniform cloak felt like he put it on right after washing. Muttering highly descriptive words addressed to the clouds above, he concentrated on the doors. A pale bluish glow surrounded them, and the tall doors decorated with beautiful carvings swung open with a low creak.

Stepping into the hall, he found it no more comfortable than the outside, and the wet cloak clinging to his back didn’t make it better. Most of the torches present in the hall were lit, as well as several braziers brought out of summer storage, but even that it was not enough to properly illuminate the vast space. The windows flanking the entrance, however huge, did not help much, as the clouds shrouded the outside in perpetual dusk. It certainly was no warmer than in the courtyard. To make matters worse, a draught swept through the hall, taking advantage of the open doors. A magician in a dark green cape frowned at Opal Beam and turned towards the doors, which were enveloped in subdued yellow magic and shut themselves with a loud ‘thud’, cutting the draught short.

Opal Beam took a few steps further inside, scanning the hall. A group of nobles were making their way down one of the two stairways on the far side, leading from carpeted galleries running along the walls to the floor close to the ornate double doors of the throne room. Two lines of pillars carved from monolithic rock by magic supported the hall’s high ceiling, with stone arches stretching from them towards the walls, holding up the galleries. Up on the galleries or between the arches underneath were the doors leading to adjacent rooms. A great carpet covered most of the floor in between the pillars.

Most of the ponies filling the hall surrounded the braziers set in between pillars or stood on the galleries in small groups. Hushed conversation and the quiet crackle of embers filled the air. Opal Beam couldn’t spot any of his friends or squadmates among the ponies present, but there was still some time left until noon. He moved away from the entrance and towards one of the braziers. Looking at the sky through one of the large windows, he let his mind wander.

This was bad. No, worse than bad. Shining Lance—a long-time friend of his—was part of one of the vanished patrols. He closed his eyes, remembering her patrol leaving the castle in great detail. That day, nothing seemed out of the ordinary apart from the unseasonal weather, which everypony readily blamed on those pegasi trying to make some sort of political move.

Opal Beam frowned bemusedly. It was bad enough for one friend to go missing, but eleven more guardsponies disappeared along with her; two full patrols, and the guard force not being particularly large, he knew all of them. Vanished in their own land, without a trace, on a road they could run with their eyes closed. Something was threatening the unicorns, something sinister and unknown. It was the guard’s—and by extension, Opal Beam’s—sworn duty to protect the kingdom from any threat, but nopony knew what was going on, much less how to fight it.

He tapped his hoof on and scowled at a particularly unfortunate flagstone. It simply didn’t feel right, being unable to fight back.

It seemed funny to him how, for the past week, everypony readily blamed their disappearance on the pegasi, drawing connections with the strange weather. While brash and very shortsighted, a raid against the Unicorn Kingdom’s patrols was the most oft-repeated explanation. Some ponies even thought of striking back, of making a move in response. Hornton changed everything.

Memories of worried conversation in the barracks flashed across his mind: with the captain immediately rushing to inform the king in person, the ponies that accompanied Steel Hammer to Hornton had to fill in the rest of the guards. They were wall-eyed with shock, telling everypony about the eerily deserted town and the encounter with those strange creatures, monstrous mockeries of ponies that seemingly came from nowhere. None of the guard had ever heard of such things before. Opal Beam wouldn’t have believed them, but they had the marks to prove it: much of their armour was dented and scratched. Furthermore, two guardsponies, including his squadmate Eagle Eye who was hoof-picked by Steel Hammer for that mission, were seriously injured and had to seek immediate medical attention from the castle’s healers.

It was hard to tell who was more scared, those who went to the town or those who heard their tale, but the worst impact was on those who had friends and family in Hornton; the mix of terror and sadness on their faces was hard to bear.

‘If those monsters are trying to demoralize us, they’re doing well,’ Opal Beam thought.

He turned about, head hanging low in thought—and hit somepony with his horn. Quickly apologizing, he raised his gaze.

"Opal Beam!"

It was Star Swirl, looking good if a bit unkempt, wearing the usual apprentice’s cape and a smile. Opal Beam couldn’t help smiling in return. He realized his friend was probably calling him before and he didn’t hear him, which added some sheepishness to his expression.

"Look who's here! Good to see you, Star. Been busy with some spell or other, eh? Haven’t seen you for days."

"Not just any spell, my good colt. A true breakthrough in magic!" Said the apprentice, a hint of laughter in his voice.

"Yeah, like that time when you found out how to grant wings to frogs? Remember, we thought we’d have to call the Pegasi to get them all out of the castle," chuckled Opal Beam, the joy of meeting a good friend suppressing his gloomy thoughts.

Star Swirl chuckled too. "That was practice, and practice makes perfect."

"Only if you want to make perfectly winged frogs." They both laughed again. "You haven’t ventured outside of your room much, I see. A couple more weeks like that and you will end up with a real beard."

Still chuckling, Star Swirl raised a hoof to his chin, feeling the scruffy fur that had colonized it during the weeks of research. "Hm, I guess you’re right. Maybe I should do something about it."

"It won’t be a real beard, mind. More like an apprentice beard, for an apprentice magician."

Laughing once more, Star Swirl looked around the room. "Where’s Shining Lance? She’s always coming early to everything, but I can’t seem to find her."

The smile faded from Opal Beam’s face. "She... was on one of those patrols that didn’t come back."

Star Swirl looked down at the flagstones. "Oh. I’m sorry."

Opal Beam’s gaze followed suit, sliding downwards to the floor, but then snapped up towards a pillar, focusing on it with intensity.

"You know what, the only ones to be sorry should be whoever or whatever made them disappear. We will find them, we will get everypony back, and we will make those monsters pay," he said sternly.

"Now this is the attitude that gets ponies promoted," said a gruff voice. Both unicorns turned to look at its owner, a tall and bulky pony in sparingly polished yet masterfully forged silvery armour adorned with amethysts, who was walking up the hall with several other guards following him. Opal Beam stood to attention.

"At ease." Captain Steel Hammer nodded. "We’re definitely going t’need this kind of thinking, sergeant. We have a plan."

Opal Beam couldn’t help noticing the expression of extreme tiredness on the large pony’s face. His eyes, normally glinting with steely inner purpose, were dull and dim. It did not surprise him at all, however: it was a bad time to be Captain of the Guard.

"Glad to hear it, sir."

"I’ll explain it in a minute. King Silver insisted on his personal participation."

Saying nothing more, the captain continued walking along the hall. Star Swirl and Opal Beam exchanged glances, then slowly followed him; the red cloak covering his armoured back stood out among the rest and made that rather easy. Everypony was reacting to his appearance, moving up to a couple dozen paces away from the double doors to the throne room, nobles naturally trying to get to the front row with much indignant bickering.

As they approached the forming crowd’s rear, an elderly mage called out Star Swirl’s name. Opal Beam recognized him easily - Sparkling Sky the Spellslinger, royal advisor, renowned magical duelist, Keeper of the Circle of Day and Night and his friend’s mentor. He motioned towards another part of the crowd, comprised mostly of unicorns in wizards’ capes, and Star Swirl followed, nodding to his friend before disappearing in the crowd.

Opal Beam looked around, trying to spot any of his squad’s members in the throng as he continued on alone, but they were nowhere to be found. As he got closer to the front with the help of some pushing and hurried apologies, Steel Hammer stepped up to the doors to the throne room; his horn glowed a pale white, matching the aura that appeared around the doors, and they swung open. He then moved aside quite smartly and stood to attention. Two stallions in the distinctive gilded armour of the royal bodyguards that were flanking the door copied his motions.

King Silver stepped through the doorway and nodded to the captain. Looking barely Opal Beam’s age, the lean grayish white unicorn nevertheless stood at least an inch taller than Steel Hammer. A golden crown with bright jewels of various sizes and colours adorned his head, and an exquisite royal purple cape trailed behind him. He was closely followed by Queen Amethyst, his young spouse. Her attire resembled that of her husband, except for the colours: her cape was white lined with gold, emphasizing the beautiful pale purple colour of her fur. Her crown also differed, being smaller than the king’s and looking very elegant against her darker mane.

The king and the queen stopped side by side in front of the assembled ponies, Amethyst greeting her subjects with a small pleasant smile, seeming almost out of place among all the gloomy expressions. Silver, on the other hand, looked exhausted, as if he had been working on something all night. He briefly eyed the first row of the crowd with an impenetrable look on his face, then raised his head a bit higher and began to speak.

"My good subjects, I have to speak plainly. We are in peril." There was a gasp from some particularly emotional pony. "Unknown monsters have appeared at this castle’s very doorstep. No doubt you all already know what happened yesterday. It is my deepest hope that the citizens of Hornton are alive and unharmed.

"But those creatures, those monsters that dare to assault us have made a mistake," his voice soared. "They have revealed themselves to us, and now we can take the fight to them. Thanks to our brave guardsponies’s valiant efforts yesterday, we know that they can be beaten. And now, we know the location from which they strike at us."

A murmur swept through the crowd, but quickly faded as the guard captain stepped up to the king’s right.

"We have put together a plan that shall rid us of this menace once and for all. Guard Captain Steel Hammer will explain it in detail. It is of utmost importance that we fulfill it. Every order he gives is to be obeyed as my own." The king nodded to the heavily armoured unicorn, who responded with a sharp salute.

"The enemy’s based in in the old star iron mines down the slope," he began in his usual to-the-point manner, slowing down as the sentences progressed, as if climbing an imaginary hill every time he spoke. "They’ve enough forces to take on two full guard patrols, ‘s well as kidnap an entire town. To counter that, we’ll need ‘t least ten squads deployed at once with support from our mages."

Opal Beam blinked. At the moment, thirteen active squads were officially assigned to the castle garrison, but with two of them vanished on patrol, ten squads were just short of the entire guard detachment protecting the castle save for recruits, the injured and the command staff. Sixty guardsponies, enough to rout a pegasus war party or repel a dragon’s assault, and with the mages’ support... just what were those things to require this big an army to fight?

King Silver stepped back, smiling at Amethyst as she nudged him gently with her hoof. Steel Hammer started pacing from side to side in front of the crowd as he spoke, much like he did whenever he briefed the guard, except this time he briefed the entire castle. The higher-ranking officers stepped forward, while squad leaders like Opal Beam stayed put. Nopony, not even the snobbiest of nobles, was interfering, realizing the gravity of the matter.

"Every mage n’ every apprentice capable of defending themselves is to assist the guard. There’ll be very few of us remaining in the castle, so we’ll need your power here as well as out there. The Circle of Day and Night’ve already decided who goes and who stays."

Another wave of whispers spread through the part of the hall occupied chiefly by magicians, mostly apprentices asking their mentors why they weren’t told this before.

"The field force’ll be led by Lieutenant Moonlight." One of the officers, an indigo mare in painstakingly polished armour, nodded in acknowledgement, clearly having been aware of this beforehoof.

"Each squad’ll be reinforced with two or more mages, at her discretion. The plan’s simple: eight squads’ll enter the mines and clear them out, two will hold the entrance to prevent the enemy from escaping. From yesterday’s experience, I recommend using anti-Pegasus tactics." Steel Hammer nodded to the sergeants, Opal Beam included, as they saluted.

"Now, wizards, listen up!"

Most caped unicorns raised their heads and looked at him as he spoke again after a brief pause. The majority of them seemed uncertain - it wasn’t every day that they had to take orders from the Guard Captain or go into battle, after all.

"Those’f you who join the field force, your task’s pretty straightforward: stay back ‘n disable the enemy from afar and on approach, let the guardsponies take care of those that slip past and don’t get into melee. Use protective spells if necessary. Putting on armour ‘thout training in its use would do you and everypony more harm than good.

"Now, what we need mages staying here to do: if the monsters somehow sneak past our force and attack the castle, the Keepers’re going to cast a barrier sphere spell. It’s practically impenetrable from the outside, but if, by some sort’o miracle, they manage to break through, we’ll have every wizard not busy maintaining the shield posted at the most defensible positions with a guardspony coordinating them ‘n acting as their commanding officer. The designated fallback position is the throne room, seeing as it’s both defensible and connects to much of the castle.

"Everypony not participating in th’operation will have to head to the castle cellars." This was met by a series of groans somewhere in the crowd. "’Ts’not the most comfortable place, but it’s the most defensible one we have that could hold all of you. It has only one entrance, which’ll be protected by th’ royal bodyguards and all the remaining guardsponies and wizards, under my personal command. If some sort’o catastrophe happens ‘n everything fails, we’ll be the very last line of defense.

"And finally, four of our healers have volunteered to join the field force." At these words, four ponies wearing hooded capes of clear white, standing together at one side of the throng, nodded affirmatively. "Protect them, as they can get the lightly wounded up’n fighting again, and that may mean th’difference between defeat and victory and help us recover faster after we are done."

The guard captain stopped his pacing and eyed the front row of the crowd. "That’s the general plan. Your commanding officers will give you the more specific details regarding your personal duties. The squads have to move out in an hour, as there’s evidence that the enemy will make a move after nightfall and we have to intercept them as quickly as possible. And mages, while we can’t give you armour, put somethin’ durable on—it won’t be as easy as takin’ the harvest from the earth ponies."

Steel Hammer turned around and saluted to the royal couple. King Silver stepped forward once again.

"Thank you, Captain. My subjects, now that you know what we have to do in order to protect ourselves and our kingdom, it’s time for everypony to do their part. Stay strong and resolute, and we shall be victorious! Remember those who you fight for: your families, your children, your loved ones. We cannot fail. And once those monsters are dealt with, everypony shall meet in this hall once again to celebrate the victory of the glorious Unicorn tribe!"

There was a well-practiced uniform ‘huzzah’ from the guards and assorted expressions of agreement from the rest, after which the king looked towards his wife, who once again smiled at him. They both turned about and left the hall through the throne room doors, followed by their bodyguards. Their soft hoofsteps on the long carpet on the other side of the doorway was the only sound disturbing the silence until the doors closed behind them, wreathed in the pale white glow of Steel Hammer’s magic.

The silence then exploded into the frantic chaos of dozens and dozens of unicorns hurrying to their commanders, arguments breaking out between wizards and apprentices, haughty demands and complaints from the nobles and nervous exclamations of gardeners, caretakers and servants faced with a situation they didn’t know how nor had the ability to deal with.

Opal Beam stayed put, looking at the commotion around him, preferring to let it subside a bit before searching for his squadmates. ‘This isn’t looking easy at all,’ he concluded, sighing under his breath.

2. Set in Motion

Star Swirl scowled, stopping to adjust his cape and pull its hood lower over his face. The rain’s ability to get everywhere was simply uncanny. Even though being water-resistant was one of the qualities capes like his were lauded for, it was already beginning to get heavier as it absorbed the fallen raindrops, and the march was just beginning. Adjusting the cape took an unusually large amount of time due to that, and as he looked around for Opal Beam, Star Swirl spotted him and the rest of the squad far ahead, already off the bridge across the ravine that separated the royal castle from the rest of the kingdom. Wishing that whatever he was going to attack liked their lairs warm and dry, he broke into a canter to catch up.

He moved past the rows of guardsponies, glancing at them as he passed by. Excepting a few select individuals, they all wore standard unicorn guard armour. It consisted of steel boots and bracers that protected the wearer’s lower legs, a helmet with an extension covering the forehead between the eyes and holes for the horn and the ears, with linked bands attached to the helmet protecting the back of the neck. Light interlocking plates covered the chest, the back, the sides and the stomach of the wearer. In addition to the plate, magic-woven chainmail hung from the bottom of the helmet and over the legs, protecting the wearer’s neck and upper legs. Weapon holsters, quivers, shields and small saddlebags were all attached to the backs and sides of the suits.

Underneath the armour’s plating was a cloak that served as padding, not entirely unlike those of the magicians with the exception of being thicker and shorter, barely reaching the knees; the cloaks were coloured sky blue for the rank and file guards, white for sergeants and a regal purple for lieutenants. As Star Swirl recalled, they were supposed to symbolize the difference between the kingdom’s guards and the militaristic Pegasi: something about being a strictly defensive force dedicated to protecting the less martially adept unicorns and not being an army of aggression, as well as a point about all unicorns being magical. At that moment, they mostly symbolized the pervasiveness and indiscriminateness of the rain, as the cloaks were clinging wetly to the ponies’ fur and making their wearers even more uncomfortable.

The few standouts in the rows of similar-looking ponies were several guards in heavier armour, magicians and the four healers accompanying them. The first kind was present in most squads—strong unicorns in armour visibly thicker than the norm, with additional parts protecting the entirety of their neck and legs. They were armed with long spears or swords as well as shields, all standard guard equipment, but it was their armour and expertise with using it that made them different.

The magicians, interspersed in between the guards, were dressed a lot like Star Swirl himself. The apprentices’ capes were largely of subdued or earthy colours—brown, dark green or dark blue like Star Swirl’s, most of them hooded. The more senior magicians had more diversity in attire and colour; some opted for sturdier and simpler robes, others chose more elaborate and decorated garments, but all of those who habitually wore hats had refused to part with them. Most were already regretting their choices: the longer capes were trailing behind their owners, muddy and soggy, and many of the hats were not designed for prolonged exposure to rain and were drooping sadly around their wearers’ heads, making them look quite ridiculous. Star Swirl’s own cape was just long enough to scrape the road, and its tail end was already heavy with a layer of sticky dirt, much to his dismay.

The two castle healers he passed on his way had the best equipment for the given weather conditions: their knee-length, hooded white cloaks did not get nearly as muddy as the longer ones and were even better at resisting the rain than Star Swirl’s, making them the cleanest and driest unicorns around, although certainly not the most protected.

To Star Swirl, the unicorn force didn’t look formidable at all: the guardsponies shivered as the rain, worsened by infrequent gusts of wind, soaked them, their armour only chilling them further; the magicians trembled even more, both from the effects of the elements and the fear of upcoming battle. With a couple exceptions, they had little to no experience when it came to fighting anything. Star Swirl himself didn’t feel particularly enthusiastic either—while a foalhood spent with Opal Beam as a friend did entail many adventures on his record, as well as a shared interest in practical magic, joining a military force assembled on extremely short notice and without prior warning and then going off to fight unknown town-foalnapping monstrosities was very different from his original plans for the day.

By the time he reached Opal Beam, the small army was trudging through the hamlet that surrounded the end of the road to the castle. The hamlet was deserted, everypony having taken refuge within the castle’s walls. Every window was shuttered and every door was locked, there was not a single light in any of the buildings: nopony had chosen to remain in their homes after hearing about the fate of Hornton. Everything was eerily silent, save for the interminable pattering of the rain. It felt like the castle was the only place left in the world that was inhabited by ponies, and they were leaving it behind. It was not a pleasant feeling.

Opal Beam nodded to Star Swirl as he finally reached the squad. He was wearing the standard-issue guard armour, except for the helmet, which was replaced by one of the several recently forged by Steel Hammer himself for his officers—a lot like the usual helmets, except for a slit at the back which allowed the wearer to put their mane through it; considering the weather, it was a drawback rather than an advantage, which Opal Beam’s thoroughly wet mane hanging off the side of his head and neck displayed very well.

The second magician assigned to the squad, a young pale lavender mare by the name of Sunflower, was trotting beside him in total silence. Her head was completely hidden under her brown cape’s hood, which she had pulled very low. She was clearly scared, even more so than the other apprentices. Star Swirl could see her shaking as she walked. Compared to her, he felt like a citadel of calm and self-control.

The squad had four more members, who formed a line to his left, following the others’ example. The closest to Star Swirl’s side was a lean brown-coated stallion called Thistlethorn, a swordspony, the single lengthy blade he was armed with sheathed in a scabbard strapped to his back. Its handle was the only thing visible; Star Swirl did not possess his friend’s knowledge of weapons, but its shape suggested the possibility of holding it in one’s mouth as well as hooves. It looked far too unwieldy to do that effectively, but as far as he knew, the stallion was proficient at telekinesis and so did not have to. As they walked on, Thistlethorn was looking at the rolling slope surrounding the road absent-mindedly, with a melancholic look on his face.

Further to the left were two ponies that looked somewhat alike but at the same time did not, a brother and a sister named Meteor Shower and Comet Trail, respectively. Meteor Shower was a tall light blue unicorn armed with a spear and a shield, currently strapped to his back, while Comet Trail, the shorter and stockier of the two, was bearing a sword and a shield and wearing heavy armour, the visible parts of her teal coat clashing with its worn dark grey. The siblings’ heads were leaning towards each other in hushed conversation.

Finally, on the other side of the row was Iron Vein, a milky pink stallion of tremendous bulk and stature. He too was wearing heavy armour, but on him it looked almost inadequate; while Comet Trail beside him looked like a pony-shaped mobile fortress of metal, the larger plates Iron Vein wore were barely covering him, and he did not seem to be nearly as encumbered by them. He was humming a lighthearted tune and casually levitating a massive flanged mace in a haze of bright pink magic by his side. The mace’s head was nearly as big as Star Swirl’s. In addition to that, the giant unicorn was carrying a shield on his back, as immense and heavy in comparison to other shields as he himself was to their bearers. Overall, Star Swirl felt grateful that Iron Vein was on his side.

The ponies walked on for several minutes, following the road down into the valley. The overcast sky was blocking out most of the sunlight, the sun itself only visible as a slightly brighter patch of clouds above. The soft yet constant hiss of falling rain and the ponies’ hoofsteps on the muddy road were the only sounds accompanying the long marching column. The guardsponies in front and behind his squad walked in total silence, which wasn’t improving the depressing atmosphere at all.

Seeking some way out of the dreariness, Star Swirl decided to break the silence and asked: "So, have any of you ever been in those star iron mines before?"

"No. Those mines were exhausted in my grandfather’s time," Iron Vein said as he shifted closer to Star Swirl. While his voice was as deep as one would expect from a stallion this large, it was also clear and soft, at odds with his imposing appearance.

"As far as I know, it’s mostly a lot of winding tunnels. Some go rather far underground—grandpa once said there were caverns down below, they used to mine them for gems when the star iron ran out. Quite defensible. If those things can use tactics at all, they won’t let us clear them out easily."

Thistlethorn raised his head and turned towards Iron Vein. "They can. Eagle Eye wouldn’t have let herself get hurt by some mindless beasts. Steel Hammer warned that they can use cover and fly well, too."

"Yeah, shame that they got Eagle Eye like that. You all know it, nopony in the whole world is better with a bow. Without her we ain’t got reach, which might be some trouble, seein’ as the things we’re after can fly," Meteor Shower spoke coarsely, their conversation with Comet Trail having died down after Star Swirl’s question.

"Brother, as usual, you’re forgetting something. The mages," Comet Trail answered his concerns aloofly. As Meteor Shower glowered at her, he continued: "Yes, it’s true, they’re no archers, but as you possibly know, unicorns specializing in magic come with their own set of advantages. Take, for instance, this lovely mare here." Sunflower’s hood flashed with an aura of the softest green as she drew it even lower to hide her head entirely, her horn causing it to bulge at the forehead.

Comet Trail, meanwhile, continued as everypony turned their heads to listen. "I know from her mentor that she has been practicing many useful spells, and as you yourself know, she can cast a shield we all wouldn’t break through if we tried," Sunflower further lowered her head, no doubt blushing under the hood, "and no doubt you can recognize the tactical possibilities this presents. And as for Star Swirl here—do you remember the time when Opal dared him to rattle the shutters on every single window in Hornton from the hill outside? I still remember the racket it caused. Think, brother, think!"

Her brother glowered some more, but finally nodded, conceding grumpily: "Good point. We do have reach and protection. Right as always, sis. Hrmph." Star Swirl smirked, partly because of seeing the insufferably intelligent walking armory lecture the tall spearpony, and partly courtesy of a spark of pride igniting inside him as he recalled that night on the hill, and how his friends’ mouths hung agape as he performed what they thought to be impossible.

"Remember how mad the townsponies were? They thought something was attacking them," chuckled Opal Beam.

The others laughed too, but in a moment the laughter stopped as everypony thought of the much more real and successful attack the day before.

"I hope we’ll get to see them again," Thistlethorn said glumly.

"And all our friends that didn’t come back from patrols," Iron Vein added just as sadly.

"I hope everypony is fine," Sunflower whispered from under her hood, barely audible against the rain and the sound of hundreds of hooves trudging through mud.

The brief lively spell was broken, and the squad slid back into grim silence. Another gust of cold wind swept over the unicorns, sucking all heat out of armour and pulling at cloaks. Star Swirl sighed, following Sunflower’s example and lowering his hood further, worried about what lay ahead.

~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~

She lay in front of a window of the royal bedroom atop a pile of pillows, grinning, watching as rank after rank of ponies departed through the castle’s gates and crossed the bridge. Everything was going in perfect accordance with her plan.

She was almost shaking with excitement as the gates closed behind the last unicorn. It was about time. She was barely able to contain herself. Her subjects’ urge to feed resonated within her, a yawning abyss screaming to be filled, and so did the sweet, sweet joy of those who were lucky enough to assume a shape somepony cared for. She was experiencing both herself; while the king clearly loved his spouse, his emotions, however strong, were by far not enough to satisfy her immense hunger. And yet his love tasted so tantalizingly true. Sought for far too long, this taste spawned a craving stronger than she had ever felt before. And now, the release from this unbearable torment was so close, in her reach. Just a bit longer, just a little bit...

She turned away from the window, casting disinterested glances around the room. She didn’t care for all the riches adorning it. No, the only treasure this land, any land held for her was love.

Too long had she and her kind spent without truly feeding. They had to wander far from home, making do with shreds and scraps of affection, preying on isolated communities and travelers. For too long they had been weak, on the verge of death by starvation, unable to attempt anything greater. It was time to act.

This terrible torture did not come without an advantage, one that she did not hesitate to exploit; anonymity and the element of surprise were on her side. There was little love in this land, and its meager supply was very hard to tap—the pegasus society was highly organized and difficult to infiltrate, the earth ponies in their villages knew each other too well and discovered her subjects too quickly, and the unicorns’ powerful magic served as an intimidating deterrent. However, the mutual mistrust reigning among the pony tribes meant that they did not share what little they learned, and her kind managed to remain relatively unknown. To preserve this situation, she made sure that every single subject of hers covered their tracks to the best of their ability. As far as she knew, virtually all of ponykind’s knowledge about her kind were rare sightings of their true forms and garbled accounts of several ponies who managed to escape after learning the truth, accounts which had been dismissed as delirious hallucinations and entailed no response.

Walking across the room, she smirked at her reflection in a mirror hanging on one of the walls. She did not care much for the shapes she wore, but this one was certainly preferable to that guard whose form she assumed in Hornton. She never enjoyed turning into wounded ponies, although this particular time granted her a brief surge of affection that both invigorated her and stoked her hunger even further—one of the guardsponies she met in passing while disguised seemed to be quite taken with that shape—as well as an effortless entry into the castle. She chuckled briefly at the beauty of her infiltration—carried into the enemy stronghold by her own retinue and received by her infiltrators in the guard, without anypony suspecting anything.

The guise of the unicorn queen was proving to be a much more satisfying experience. The king’s feelings were unexpectedly pure and powerful, and she could not resist spending as much time with him as at all possible to gain some strength, but at the moment he could not join her: the task of herding the foalish castle ponies had to be performed by him in order for the plan to be credible.

Her smirk quickly turned into a scowl as she felt the pangs of hunger gnaw at her with renewed sharpness. There was not enough time to feed. She had to act fast, but it did not mean she had to be happy about it. As she passed a small table at the foot of the bed, she bucked it angrily, causing it to crack and collapse.

And to think that these stupid ponies had chosen hatred and division over friendship and love. It could not take away the love present in daily life, their friends and loved ones, but the animosity between the pony tribes was like poison in this sweet nectar. Worse still, it did not simply diminish and sour the food supply; it drew out other things—things that fed on the ponykind’s hatred like her people did on love, growing stronger and more fearsome by the minute.

Windigoes.

She couldn’t bear even thinking the word. The ponies’ senseless squabbles were like a beacon to those repulsive abominations. Even now her mortal enemies were on the move, closing in, bringing with them an endless cold. The knowledge of their impending arrival was what spurred her into action with so little preparation. She had to be faster than them! She couldn’t let them take this prize! It was her land and her food, only hers to take and use as she saw fit!

She stomped her hoof on the stone floor, but even as she did so, another change came over her. She chuckled mischievously. Windigoes, pah! Those hateful brutes wouldn’t stand a chance once her grand scheme was complete. She was putting everything at risk with this plan, but it was the only way. Not only would its success mean that her kind would no longer have to hide in the shadows, no longer having to struggle to simply avoid death by starvation; they would grow powerful, and she would make sure that when those frozen monstrosities would finally arrive, they’d find not a land of hostility and conflict, but one brimming with love, as abhorrent to them as hatred was to her.

The door of the royal bedroom swung open almost noiselessly and the guard captain stepped through. He looked at her uncertainly, his eyes unfocused.

"Queen Amethyst, what’s going on? Where is everypony? I—"

The spell’s effects were wearing off! She had been suspecting that the initial magics were not enough to properly subjugate ponies as strong-willed as him, but it was weakening too quickly. Thankfully, the captain had the good grace to come straight to her.

She stared at him as her horn pulsed with vibrant green, and a shimmering beam hit the unicorn in the forehead. His eyes rolling in their sockets, he shook his head and blinked several times. When he looked at her again, his irises were tinged with slowly dissipating green.

"Pard’n me, Your Majesty. Got hit on the head one time too many," he mumbled in what seemed to be embarrassment.

"No matter, captain. Give me a report. Are the mages ready?"

"All ready, Your Majesty. And the Circle has been spread all around the castle, as you ordered. The enemy won’t get to more than one of them at a time if they break through their shield at all."

"Perfect. And the others?"

"Everypony’s safe in the cellars, as planned. Nobles are angry, but that’s to be expected. Although I still don’t understand why d’my ponies who went down to Hornton yesterday have to be the ones guarding them. It’s not according to plan, and I know what they’ve been through."

She barely resisted the urge to chuckle. "Trust me, they will manage. I have utmost faith in my subjects. They know how the enemy acts and so are the ones best suited to defend against them."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. And, ‘f I may, it’s very brave of you to stay here with us and His Majesty."

"I won’t abandon my kind in the hour of need." She smirked slightly.

"You’re the best queen our kingdom’s ever had. How can those fools not see it..."

"You may go, captain. I have to check on some ponies." The armoured unicorn bowed his head, turned around and marched back out of the room.

If this one’s spell had worn off so quickly, then others could be breaking free any moment now. And there were still several mages she did not have the opportunity to charm. However, her spell lasted long enough for the captain to put them right where she wanted them, far away from each other in secluded locations, and now that the vast majority of the castle’s defenders were safely out of the way, she could take care of them at her leisure. But first, she had to pay the king a visit.

~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~

Further down the slope, a forest began, appearing from behind rocky outcroppings and quickly closing in around the road, further reducing the amount of light available. The royal castle had almost disappeared behind the wet green canopy, the only part of it still in sight being a tower jutting out of the main keep, looking like an accusatory hoof pointed at the troublesome clouds above.

Opal Beam glanced at it over the treeline. Even from that distance and through the curtain of the rain, it was visibly different from the rest of the castle’s durable, pragmatic architecture of old with its rather airy and intricate look. While the majority of the castle had been built with the unmistakable purpose of withstanding the assaults of time, the elements and enemy armies, this tower appeared to be thinner and more fragile, but Opal Beam nevertheless looked upon it with a degree of reverence.

The reason of this lay within the tower’s top, circled by large windows and crowned with a tapering dome, an elegant spire on its apex bearing the royal flag. This was the Tower of the Cycle, the monument to the unicorns’ magical mastery and power, so named for an unprecedented ability bestowed by an incredibly complex system housed within the chamber on top—the ability for a single unicorn to raise the sun and the moon by themselves. This was a point of pride not only for the Keepers of the Circle of Day and Night, whose task of maintaining the Cycle had become vastly easier since its completion, but for the entire kingdom, and as the tower loomed above the trees, Opal Beam could not help but feel a fraction of that pride remind him of the glory of his kind.

The trees grew closer as the road wound lower through the wood. This last vision of the castle eventually disappeared behind them, and with it went the fleeting distraction from the gloomy present. Opal Beam frowned and instead gazed over the unicorn army, resolutely marching on. Rows of ponies filled the entirety of the available space between the trees.

Opal Beam’s squad walked to his left in a line. Despite the weather’s adverse effects, his colts looked pretty good and battle-ready. Even Star Swirl, who had never been in a true battle before, was doing quite well, seeming mostly concerned with trying to ignore the rain like the others did. The same, however, could not be said about the younger apprentice filly assigned to his squad, who had spent nearly the entire march in silence.

He left his place on the right and trotted closer to her. "Hey," he began a bit awkwardly, "Are you alright?"

Sunflower looked up at him, raising her head a bit, just enough for her face to be visible under her large hood. “I am. I’m... just worried.”

"Don’t be. We’re going to win this battle, I’m certain."

"But I don’t want to fight!" she said in meek protest. "I’m just an apprentice, I don’t even know how!"

"You won’t have to fight, not unless you’re attacked."

"But I don’t want to be attacked!" There was fear in the timid mare’s eyes.

"Do you know how to shield yourself?"

Although this was something she had a true talent for, impressive enough to make her famous among the castle’s inhabitants, she paused, as if unsure. "Yes... yes, I do."

"Good! Then do so if in danger and try to deny them approach and flanking opportunities."

"Deny approach? Flanking opportunities?" she asked cluelessly.

Opal Beam called upon his patience. He was used to dealing with guardsponies, who were by and large either brash or professional but uniformly aware of tactics, not mares barely out of their fillyhood and lacking any military knowledge. Whose idea was it to have a pony like her go into battle? She was probably afraid of deep shadows, for goodness’ sake!

Nevertheless, she was under his command now, and thus, his responsibility. "If the enemy tries to attack us from the side or from behind, you should try to make a shielded area to stop them from coming through. In case things go bad, put up a barrier around us."

The young apprentice seemed to understand and nodded, the fearful expression transforming into a more determined one. "I think I understand. I’ll do that."

Opal Beam smiled as he moved back to his original position. Just as he reached it, however, Lieutenant Moonlight’s voice rang out over the unicorns’ heads:

"Everypony halt! Sergeants, to me!"

As the unicorn ranks ground to a standstill, Opal Beam cantered towards the head of the column, passing the five squads ahead of his. The officers of the squads marching before his were already lining up in front of the indigo mare not far from the first squad in the column. A little bit to the side stood two ponies in wizardly garb, who he instantly recognized as Keepers Nightshade and Dawn Gleam, the only members of the Circle to join the field force. Nightshade, a lean midnight blue stallion clad in a practical purple robe, kept rather close to the Lieutenant, which Opal Beam couldn’t blame him for—Moonlight was his twin sister, after all. The other Circle member’s presence answered his earlier question of the reasons for Sunflower not staying behind: the sight of Dawn Gleam, as ever wearing his extravagant orange-and-yellow—and by then, sopping wet and mud-stained—ensemble, reminded him who she was apprenticed to.

Once all of them had assembled, Lieutenant Moonlight began to speak. "We’re five minutes’ worth of walking from the mines. Scouts report everything being perfectly clear, so I suspect the enemy is hiding inside. If we’re fortunate and they don’t know we’re coming, we can take them by surprise, but I wouldn’t count on that. Now, Sergeant Morningstar..."

The battle plan did not deviate from the original presented by the captain: two squads, supported by one of the castle healers, were to defend the entrance into the mines to prevent the enemy from escaping and cut off any possible reinforcements. The other eight squads were to go in and clear the enemy out, not straying far from each other if at all possible to better respond to possible ambushes and avoid getting lost. Opal Beam’s squad was among the latter, which he had been expecting from the very beginning—the Lieutenant knew her unicorns’ strong points.

"It goes without saying that we have to protect the wizards and the healers," the mare added in conclusion to the briefing. "Neither are any good in close quarters or even properly equipped. If anything gets up close to them, take it out fast. And don’t get in over your head. Think before you act and we will get out of there safe and sound. Now get back to your ponies and get ready." Moonlight nodded curtly in a salute, echoed by her sergeants.

Without delay, Opal Beam turned and cantered back, reaching his squad just in time to hear the lieutenant’s order:

"Everypony, move out!"

One line after another, the unicorn army resumed the final stretch of its march.

3. Rushing Shadows

After a sharp bend in the road, the treeline suddenly receded, revealing a large grassy clearing, unusually flat for its mountainous surroundings. The road skirted one of its narrower sides, while its other end was made up by a small yet craggy cliff, split in the middle by a large dark hole. Old wooden posts were flanking it, and in front of them lay the shattered remains of decrepit, age-eroded gates. Numerous muddy tracks were leading from the road and across the clearing towards the gaping mouth of the cave.

“This is it, everypony. Keep sharp,” Opal Beam said as the first unicorns left the road and turned to follow the tracks. The squads broke the close marching formation, distancing themselves from each other as they went. All the guards were silent, wearing determined or even downright ferocious expressions and readying their weapons. His squad’s two wizards, instead, looked apprehensive yet focused, but while Star Swirl was clearly feeling better in comparison, even Sunflower’s fearful gaze was tinged with resolve as she stared at the dark opening ahead.

The silence, made even more oppressive by the monotonous sound of falling rain, bore down on the ponies as the first squad, led by the Lieutenant herself, approached the ruined gates. Keeper Nightshade strode up to her side, and a ball of bright bluish-white light formed at the tip of his horn, lighting the way. The squad, collapsing into a formation more suited for combat and the confined space, cautiously trotted into the mines, and the Keeper’s guiding light quickly vanished in its darkness, as if consumed.

The following squad copied the first’s motions, with the exception of Dawn Gleam prudently hanging back instead of going in front. His glimmering orange light, too, vanished into the darkness. Not a single sound came out of the cave mouth, not even the distinctive clip-clop of armoured boots on rock.

Opal Beam’s eyes darted along the trees on either side of the clearing. He could almost feel that something was not right. It was all too easy, all too according to plan. Nevertheless, he could spot nothing wrong as the ponies continued on ahead and another squad was swallowed by the cave’s gloom.

Nothing wrong, except for the unsettling way the ponies just disappeared into the darkness. There should have been something. Darkness couldn’t be so... solid. He motioned for his squad to slow down, and seeing that, the officers behind him followed suit. Oblivious to that, the fourth squad entered the mines, obscured by shadow just as rapidly as the others before them.

As they did so, Opal Beam became aware of some sort of buzzing at the edge of his hearing and once again looked to the trees, but they stood around the clearing like a gloomy wall, betraying nothing and hiding everything but the sky above. Beside him, his colts also started to scan the surroundings in alert.

And then a flash of green illuminated the treetops, immediately followed by a glowing cone of the same colour hurtling from above them and into the clearing at great speed, straight towards the squad behind. Opal Beam managed to let out a cry of “DISPERSE!” just before it impacted against the ground in a burst of light and a shower of muddy grass, barely missing the squad’s sergeant.

Even as that cone sped across the clearing, more flashes followed, and the sky above was suddenly filled by a dozen more, flying at the ponies in the middle of open ground. Opal Beam whirled around, horn coming aglow with magic as he tried to think of a suitable spell while shouting “I said disperse! Whatever it is, don’t let them hit you!”

Moments after that, another mysterious cone of green emerged from above the cliff in front of them and shot right at where Iron Vein was standing. With unexpected agility, the stallion leapt aside, and the cone crashed into wet ground, throwing up a splash of dirt and leaving behind a rough crater in the soil. Opal Beam quickly shifted closer to check it, a stunning spell at the ready.

Inside the shallow pit was a shape, ponylike in size and form, crouching forwards with its head pointed into the mud. It was dark grey in colour, turning deep glossy blue along the back, from which sprouted tattered insect-like wings. It had a ridge of webbing where a normal pony’s mane would have been, as well as a semblance of a tail made of the same tissue. What could be seen of its legs was riddled with strange holes of uneven size and shape, some of them creating sharp and pointy edges.

Before Opal Beam could do anything, the creature sprang up and twisted around to face him, opening eyes of solid cyan. Its head was also ponylike, but adorned with a slightly curved and very sharply-pointed horn. Unevenly-ended tubes, looking somewhat like broken vials, jutted out of it where the ears should have been. It snarled, baring sharp, dangerous-looking teeth and producing a warped hissing growl, and leapt, not at Opal Beam but towards Sunflower, who stood transfixed with fear.

He tried to intercept it with the spell he had prepared, but the beam of magic it produced went off the mark. The creature bounded past him and right towards the young mare, opening its terrifying mouth and raising its jagged hooves—and was met by a mace wreathed in a pink haze, swung from the side directly at its muzzle. There was a sickening crunch, and the strange beast collapsed to the ground. Not taking any chances, Iron Vein followed through with a mighty buck, producing another wet cracking sound. Sunflower looked nauseous at the sight.

Opal Beam tore his gaze away from the defeated attacker just in time to see the squad that was ahead of them, without its wizards, gallop by away from the cave. Looking at their apparent destination, he saw chaos. Green flashes and speeding cones of light coloured the sky above the clearing, joined by black shapes similar to the creature Iron Vein had struck down. they spilled out from among the trees in considerable numbers, filling the air with noise akin to that of dragonflies, but magnified hundredfold, drowning out most other sounds except for their own shrill, hissing growls and roars. The beasts were converging on the two rearmost squads, already outnumbering them at least three to one, and while it was hard to see what was happening there due to the sheer number of black bodies clogging the intervening space, it was clear that the ponies were in trouble. The unicorns closest to the beleaguered guardsponies rushed to their aid and into the thickening swarm.

And behind them was the entrance to the mines, with the other four squads inside. His unicorns were the only ones remaining nearby. Thoughts clicked into place in an instant: they had to stop these things from going in and ambushing the lead ponies.

“Everypony, keep them away from the cave! Don’t let them get in!” he ordered.

A bright orange bolt flashed into existence to Opal Beam’s right and struck one of the creatures flying by, causing it to tumble and fall to the ground unmoving. It was Star Swirl, standing firm with a concentrated, determined expression and without a hint of apprehension, already aiming another spell. Five creatures turned in midair towards him, only for his next burst of magic to blast one away. The rest quickly closed the gap between them and Star Swirl, only for Thistlethorn, Iron Vein, Meteor Shower and Comet Trail to intervene and engage each one, leaving the apprentice wizard free to fire. Another dark beast tried to flank him as the squad fought, but Opal Beam sent it hurtling into the rocks with a forceful knockback spell.

In a few moments, the four creatures were on the ground or trying to flee, and Opal Beam looked to the swarm that had surrounded the rear squads. The black beasts had tied everypony down. Opal Beam could see a guard set upon by three assailants, trying in vain to knock one off his back as another bit down on one of his forelegs and the third kicked at his face, bringing him down and out of sight before Opal Beam could cast anything. Beside the hapless pony, a wizard was being bogged down by numerous monsters attacking from all sides. Opal Beam hastily fired off a stunning burst, hitting one of the creatures, and the wizard’s own magical strikes took two more out, but an airborne beast fell upon the wizard’s head and dragged him down.

He loosed several bolts of magical energy at the swarming monsters; next to him, Star Swirl was doing the same, their magic colouring the immediate surroundings in shades of blue and orange. Each hit blasted one of the beasts out of the air, but it did not seem to make any difference—there were simply too many. All four squads that were behind theirs had already been drawn into the fight, and were clearly losing.

Just as Opal Beam thought that those creatures were somehow leaving his squad alone, a lot—at least more than a dozen—broke from the swarm and sped towards them. Himself and Star Swirl turned their fire on them, but the attackers seemed to have learned from the others’ example and weaved out of the way, only two spells finding their marks. Once again, the other members of the squad stood to meet the charge—Iron Vein, Meteor Shower and Comet Trail raised their shields as one, while Thistlethorn stood by the still terror-stricken Sunflower’s side, ready to catch the first monster on his blade.

Three of the monsters crashed into Iron Vein, two of them caught on the shield while the third fruitlessly scrabbled at his thick armour. Comet Trail’s shield was knocked out of her magical grip by the force of the things’ assault, but her own suit of heavy plate did not offer so much as an unguarded chink to their jagged hooftips. Meteor Shower’s spear went right through one of the beasts’ hole-ridden legs, forcing him to fight for the weapon’s possession while trying to fend off three more with his small round shield and wildly kicking legs. Thistlethorn was being attacked by two, successfully drawing them away from Sunflower, but they proved to be exceptionally agile: the wiry unicorn and the two dark creatures kept dodging each other’s attacks, as if engaged in an insane dance. Finally, four creatures attempted to outmaneuver Star Swirl’s bolts of magic with two drawing his attention with swoops at his head and two trying to strike from behind, but Opal Beam disrupted their tactics with quick, well-placed stunning spells after disposing of the only beast that had decided to go up against him.

They fought on. Several of the winged monsters fell to the guardsponies, but the rest were proving to be much harder to take down than the others before. The creatures kept dodging and taking careful yet precise swipes when the ponies’ guard was lowered, but did not seem intent on ending it quickly.

There was obviously some tactical reason for this, Opal Beam thought as one of the things switched its attention to him, keeping him occupied but not trying to overwhelm him. After some time it grew more reckless and came into reach of his hindlegs, and after he sent it arcing away, he risked a quick look around.

And there it was, the cause of the change in tactics: yet more dark shapes started to appear above the cliff’s edge, trying to stealthily fly down into the mine entrance behind their backs. Immediately, he turned about and unleashed a series of magical bursts upon them, and Star Swirl, noticing that, did the same. Taken unawares, many were struck and fell to the ground unmoving or were slammed into the rock, but the luckier ones dashed away from the cliff and across the intervening distance. Opal Beam barely had a chance to brace himself before one smashed into him, followed by another two.

The monsters abandoned their previous tactic as the failed stealth assault instead turned upon its foilers. All of them swooped in and tried to swamp Opal Beam’s squad, and while they were lighter than ponies, their strength did not seem to match, and their numbers were making resistance very difficult. Opal Beam felt one of the beasts make a dent in the back of his armour with a sharp hook-like hooftip as two of them pushed him down to the ground. It was all he could do to kick back at them and keep them from latching on with their vicious maws until he managed to form an appropriate spell in his head. A forceful blast sent his assailants tumbling through the air and into other creatures, allowing him to get up.

Around him, his ponies were fighting for their lives. He could see Iron Vein bash an oncoming enemy in the muzzle with his shield while trying to shake off three others hammering on his armour. Star Swirl was with his back to the giant stallion, while Meteor Shower stood beside him with his recovered spear but missing the shield, just barely keeping their attackers at bay. In between them was Sunflower, trying to press herself as deep into the ground as possible. Comet Trail and Thistlethorn were off to the side, the swordspony still dodging and weaving among the creatures despite their best efforts and the heavily armoured mare struggling to move under the weight of four monsters hanging onto her and trying to get at unprotected spots. Before Opal Beam could help any of his ponies, however, the beasts thrown off by his magic leapt back at him, and all he could do was keep them from overwhelming him again.

Just as he began to flag under the relentless assault, a flash of bright purple illuminated the scene, immediately followed by a bolt of magic exploding in the middle of the swarm. One of them, in the middle of a leap that would’ve landed it onto Opal Beam’s back, momentarily disappeared in another flash and emerged hurtling backwards at great speed. The unexpected barrage continued, and the wall of monsters around him quickly broke and receded.

The source of magical strikes revealed itself to be Lieutenant Moonlight, standing in the entrance to the mines, horn low and glowing bright. Purple bolts rapidly leapt off its tip and impacted against the creatures, driving or violently throwing them back. As the last of the beasts clinging to Iron Vein’s armour was flung away, she started towards Opal Beam’s ponies, continuing to pelt the enemy with magic as she went. The tide of battle turned with her help, the rescued members of the squad joined in, speeding up the beasts’ retreat, and more guards cantered out of the cave as she approached him, taking position around the entrance and launching arrows and magical attacks at any approaching monster.

“Sergeant, give me a report!” Moonlight shouted over the noise of continuing combat.

“Surprise attack, those things came from all sides! Rear squads got bogged down!” he responded. “They tried to distract us and get inside, but we drew them off!”

“Good! We wouldn’t have fought them off if they got reinforcements!”

“Reinforcements?” Opal Beam took a closer look at the Lieutenant. She was bleeding from a cut across her flank, and the plates covering her sides and back were bent and dented in places. “What happened?”

“I don’t know what happened! Half of my ponies suddenly attacked the others! We fought back, and they- they turned into these things!” Her voice was uncharacteristically fearful. “We brought some down and others fled deeper inside.”

Before Opal Beam’s already reeling mind could take that in, another unicorn galloped out of the mines. His horn was wreathed in magic the colour of morning sun, and his cape streamed behind him like a flametongue. The magical glow then erupted with a ball of fire that streaked through the air and right into the middle of the swarm above the rear squads, exploding with a loud boom and the roar of rushing flame, turning a part of the sky into a fiery storm. As the shrieking monsters recoiled from the heat and tried to beat down the magical fire enveloping them, Dawn Gleam continued on at a canter, and after a few moments sent another mighty fireball at the enemy. The beasts quickly withdrew from the now dangerous air, but did not flee - instead, most of them made for where the squads were, landing in a veritable pile of bodies.

The Keeper moved past the group of ponies, monsters scattering before him in fear of his power. Another fiery blast leapt off his horn and into the air, bathing yet more dark creatures in flame and illuminating the clearing. Sunflower finally raised her head from the ground just in time to see this, and immediately screamed at the top of her voice: “Dawn Gleam! Dawn Gleam!”

The unicorn turned his head to the sound of her voice, the magical glow draining away, and then took a sharp turn back. Opal Beam and Moonlight both watched him run up to the young mare cowering on the muddy grass and stop in front of her, exchanging words impossible to hear over the sound of the beasts seizing the moment and taking to the air again. Star Swirl and the other guardsponies were doing their best keeping them away from the squad and the mine, but the ones thus driven off headed to the rear squads instead.

All that Opal Beam managed to get himself to say on the wizard’s sudden disengagement at such a critical time was a flat “What the hay.”

Dawn Gleam raised his head and glared at him, stating “I’m not leaving her again!” Meanwhile, most signs of struggle from the heap of monsters where ponies used to be in the field were fading very rapidly.

“Sergeant, get out there and save them, right now! We’ll take care of defense!” the Lieutenant commanded, echoing Opal Beam’s own thoughts. She then gave the Keeper a glare of her own, intoning rather coldly: “I hope we don’t lose anypony because you let those creatures rally. And I hope you can still cast spells without leaving her.”

Opal Beam did not need to repeat Lieutenant Moonlight’s order. The squad, Star Swirl included broke into a gallop as one and rushed towards the dark mass of monsters. Despite what he’d seen them do to the others, and despite the very unfavorable odds, he was not afraid—his brothers and sisters-in-arms were there, amidst the enemy, and he was not about to let them die, not without doing everything in his power to help them. Besides, he’d been given an order, and orders were to be fulfilled. This steeled his resolve as he gathered his strength and magic, shooting stray beasts out of the squad’s way together with Star Swirl as they built up speed.

Halfway across the clearing, he noticed a group of monsters split from the rest and fly towards the trees with the motionless body of a wizard dangling from their hooves. He turned to follow it and was about to slow down to take better aim when Star Swirl called out “I got this!” Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the apprentice wizard come to a halt and start casting some spell, and so continued the charge, certain that his friend could handle it.

As they got closer to the dark swarm, many of the things turned to them, baring long, sharp fangs. Some attempted to take flight, but a powerful fireball roared across from the cave and set the air above on fire once again, and at the same time, a thin beam of orange magic connected with the group attempting to carry away a pony, causing them to plunge down. Everypony readied their weapons and shields, tightening their well-practiced telekinetic hold and positioning them firmly in front of themselves. Opal Beam himself prepared the perfect spell for such an occasion and readied himself to pour as much power into it as possible.

The force of the ponies’ impact alone was enough to send the front row of the monsters crashing into the others or even fling them over. Opal Beam’s overcharged knockback spell, however, outdid everypony, ripping into the creatures’ ranks as he set it off just as he reached them, sending at least a dozen closest beasts hurtling off to the trees and even more slamming into others. The ponies pressed their advantage before the enemy could recover. Weapons and armoured hooves fell upon the dark things like a deadly hailstorm, accompanied by cracking noises and terrible bloodcurdling screeches, and any attempts at retaliation were met with shields or deft dodges. Covering each other’s sides, the guardsponies steadily smashed through the monsters, causing the throng to part. Few dared to take to the air, however, for fireballs continued to light up the sky and strike without fail. Under the brunt of the unicorns’ onslaught, the beasts began to disperse, running into the shadows between the trees.

As the sea of black bodies receded, many of their number were left lying on the ground, battered and charred. The ponies Opal Beam came to rescue were among—and in some cases underneath—them, only a few still able to sit up after their assailants abandoned them. Several guards were partially covered in some sort of green substance, but he didn’t have time to take a closer look, far too focused on peppering the remaining dark beasts with bolts and beams of his light blue magic. The tide seemed to have turned completely—the clearing was becoming considerably more free of the attackers by the moment, through the concerted efforts and apparent tactical superiority of his unicorns and the others covering them from afar.

Opal Beam looked over the formerly cozy clearing, now strewn with bodies of the strange beasts interspersed with those of ponies. There were more than three times as many fallen beasts than unicorns, and the latter, for the most part, did not appear to be dead—most of them were groaning in pain and trying to move. He did not dare lower his guard to check on them, as the creatures responsible for their injuries were still nearby, but he gave the signal for Meteor Shower and Comet Trail to do so.

The patch of sky above turned a venomous green. Glancing upwards, Opal Beam spotted the already familiar cones—more than twenty—tear out of the clouds and speed directly downwards. Of course, he thought, it couldn’t have been so simple. They were in a perfect position for such an attack. There was no time to run.

“Protect the wounded!” he yelled, darting to the side of a nearby motionless guardspony. “Barriers up!” He planted his hooves firmly onto the ground by the pony’s side and started powering up a barrier spell.

Burning pain pierced his flank, causing him to yelp and twist around. The unicorn, unmoving just moments before, had leapt up with a sword in his teeth and jabbed it into Opal Beam’s right rear leg. Swiftly pulling the weapon back out, the guardspony tried to slash at him, but was countered with a swift kick to the jaw with the other leg. Wincing as he had to lean on the injured limb, Opal Beam watched a rapid change come over his attacker: just after his kick connected, the pony’s head flickered with green fire and turned into that of one of the beasts; the flame zapped down the rest of its body as it arced backwards from the force of the kick, and it fell to the ground as an undisguised monster, as motionless as it was moments before.

Straining to block out the pain in his leg, Opal Beam finished the spell, and a half-translucent sphere shimmered into existence around him. He cast a glance to the others only to see that Meteor Shower and Iron Vein had also been ambushed by impostors, and then the aerial charge hit.

Tremendous force smashed into his shielding spell and its feedback hit his head like a hammer, causing a blinding, disorienting flash of pain; the magic flickered and waned, but did not give way. Two dark shapes slid down along its outer side, and multiple splashes of green light filled the surrounding ground as other beasts missed their mark. Once the green fire dissipated and the pain in his head lessened, Opal Beam let the spell vanish as well. The two monsters that hit it seemed to be stunned, and he delivered a couple of precise kicks to each to be safe; some of the others sprang up from their impact craters, and while he was ready for that, his injury hampered him, and so he tried to intercept them with simple spells before they had a chance to attack. This was made a lot easier by the apparently unscathed Iron Vein, who stepped in from behind him and mauled the remaining creatures back into the mud as they approached.

After the last enemy attacking them had been dispatched, Opal Beam turned around to see how the others weathered the attack. Comet Trail was in the process of finishing off an attacker of her own, but looked no worse for the wear. Thistlethorn was surrounded by several newly defeated monsters and on guard for more, warily scanning every direction. Meteor Shower was nowhere to be seen.

Opal Beam called out his name, but no response came.

“Where is he? Where was he standing?” he asked, and Iron Vein pointed out a spot farther out on the battlefield, starting towards it right afterwards. Opal Beam began to walk there as well, slowly due to keeping the weight off his injured limb and the many fallen beasts littering the intervening ground. Comet Trail passed him halfway, hurrying to her brother’s side, and immediately upon reaching it, she launched herself into a full gallop towards the entrance to the mines.

“Healers! We need healers here, right NOW!” she shouted as she went, and Opal Beam’s heart sank.

Making his way past Iron Vein’s massive form obscuring the place, he was greeted by a grim scene. Meteor Shower lay in the dirty mush the ground had become, drawing in shuddering breaths. His shield was on top of him, a gaping hole nearly splitting it in two, and from that hole protruded the body of one of the dark creatures with its head stuck under the shield and the rest splayed to the side. Iron Vein tugged at it with his magic, and it fell away together with the shield, revealing an even more gruesome sight—the fallen stallion’s side had been crushed together with his armour and pierced by the monster’s horn, and blood was seeping from under the bent metal and into the quickly reddening dirt underneath.

Opal Beam twisted around in an attempt to look at the battlefield behind, unthinkingly shifting onto his injured leg and wincing as the dulling pain spiked again. At least the devious bastard didn’t hit the bone.

“Urgh. There must be a healer somewhere around here. Iron Vein, could you?” he asked through clenched teeth, and the giant unicorn rushed off to search just as Thistlethorn came closer.

The swordspony looked at his fallen squadmate, finally passing his judgement with a terse “bad” and returning his wary gaze to the trees, which were surprisingly devoid of any enemy activity. In fact, the nightmarish creatures seemed to have disappeared as quickly as they had rushed in, with the exception of the ones felled in combat.

Rhythmic hoofbeats came from the direction of the mine, heralding the arrival of two unicorns in white hooded cloaks escorted by Comet Trail, two other guards and, rather unexpectedly, Dawn Gleam. One of the healer ponies immediately knelt before Meteor Shower, horn flaring with magic as he urgently cast something, while the other cantered towards one of the wizards.

The Keeper approached Opal Beam. “Sergeant, I believe I need to apologize for committing that tactical mistake. I feared for my apprentice. I should have known she is not yet fit for such tasks,” he said, looking at the overwhelmed members of the rear squads.

“It doesn’t matter. You helped us with covering fire,” responded Opal Beam flatly, the intense focus of combat draining away from his mind to be replaced by shock and pain from every injury he’d sustained, leaving him lightheaded and in no state to argue or judge. “Please, aid the wounded if you can.”

Dawn Gleam nodded and began to trot away, but turned his head back to Opal Beam and added something which he had already figured out for himself, which presented itself to him in the clearest possible way.

“Those things can assume the shapes of others. They are changelings.”

4. Cornered

The body of an ancient unicorn hit the floor with a ‘thump’. She smirked triumphantly, raising her head higher and looking at the pony from the full height of her shape. And to think that those frail old fools called themselves the most powerful in all the land!

Each of them was so sure, so confident as to take her on one on one. Brave, perhaps, but how very typical of the unicorns: believing in the vastness of their powers, thinking themselves capable of defeating her by themselves. But the King’s nourishing love had given her powers beyond their wildest dreams; she couldn’t even remember the last time she felt so strong. Even the mightiest of those ‘Keepers’ had proven to be not much more than a nuisance, unprepared and surprised as they were.

But there was not enough time to properly bask in her victory. She lowered her head, pointing the tip of her horn at the defeated pony. It came aglow with a vibrant, pulsing green that sharply outlined its edges, and projected a twisted lightning-like beam of the same colour. There was a groan; the pony shivered and, slowly and unsteadily, got up.

“What... urgh, what is your bidding, Your Majesty?” said the mage, looking at her with bleary, unfocused eyes, green slowly draining from their irises.

‘Perfect!’ she thought, giggling deviously. ‘The magic is already in full effect.’ Out loud, however, she said: “You’re tired, but I still need you. Stay alert, watch for the enemy and be ready to cast your spell, just as planned.”

“Y-yes, Your Majesty. I’m sorry, I didn’t sleep last night, it must’ve got to me...”

“I understand. Stay vigilant,” she said with a solemn face, letting it melt into a content smirk only after she turned around and walked out of the door. It was time to visit the last few unsubjugated ponies on their secluded postings.

She turned a corner and almost bumped into the guard captain, who smartly stepped aside to avoid collision. Even in thralldom, he seemed to have retained his reflexes. Two royal bodyguards in their showy, impractical suits of armour were following behind him.

“It’s good that we’ve found you, Your Majesty. I’ve been tasked by His Majesty King Silver t’ bring to you your escort,” the bulky unicorn said, standing to attention. “He’s staying within th’ throne room with our recruits, and believes you’d be in safer in the bodyguards’ company.”

She relaxed, realizing none of the three were out of her control. They would not have been a challenge, but the last thing she wanted was even more annoying hitches in her plan.

“Thank you, captain. You may go back and give my thanks to my husband. You two, follow me.”

As she resumed her trot down a series of galleries and corridors towards her next servant-to-be, she thought that the bodyguards might actually come in useful in case the others wouldn’t go down peacefully.

She doubted any of the unicorns would be able to remove her enchantments—after all, the spells she had used were the pinnacle of her ability, resilient and elegant at the same time. They took up only a miniscule amount of her magic in exchange for lasting and effective control. There were drawbacks, regrettably—the enchantments exerted their effect through confusion and suggestion, deceiving the victim into following her orders rather than forcing a complete mental override the older and more primitive magics induced; her newer spells lulled the weakened mind into accepting its lies as the truth, which meant that should the actual truth have made itself known, the victim could become aware of the deception and combat the spell. In the event of that, however much she loathed to resort to such crude methods, the only cure was to bend the subject to her will through brute magical force. However, to her, the risk was well worth the tradeoff—complete mental domination required a great deal more effort than these spells, which meant she could effortlessly charm scores of ponies.

But even with all the finesse and effectiveness of her refined enchantments, she could not subjugate everypony on such short notice, which had been proven once again by the speed her first thralls had shaken the spells off with. Even with all the might her feeding had given her, she was not yet strong enough. She hated to admit it to herself, but to take the castle, she had to get rid of the surplus ponies. She was certain that, with a carefully planned ambush, her subjects could subdue them, then store them and feed upon them; she’d even set it up conveniently close to the temporary storage. But apparently, she was not going to win so easily.

When she was contacted by her field commander, informing her of the staggering losses and requesting her guidance, she could do nothing but call off the attack. She could not allow her army to be destroyed on the eve of the windigoes’ arrival, and should she have ordered them to continue, it would have been a very costly victory at best. She would need more than a few dozen of her kind to stand against the encroaching hateful beasts. She would have to find another way.

Until then, she still had three wizards to welcome into her servitude. Her plans were not so fragile as to fall apart after a single complication. Even if those stubborn foals were to defy her again, she would still have the castle with all its defenses, of which she had been so graciously informed by the guard captain, as well as all the delicious love the ponies hiding in the cellars could offer. She could easily keep the bothersome guards out while feasting alongside her subjects.

‘But it would not go so far,’ she mused as she finally approached her quarry’s location at the other side of the keep. If the commander’s report was any evidence, her minions had come close to defeating the ponies. They would not be able to do anything, even breach the prisoner storage in the deepest reaches of the caverns. She had made sure they departed poorly prepared for staying outside. Their complete defeat was a matter of time; her subjects would only have to wait for their meager supplies to run out, a day at most.

She trotted up to the door, the smirk that had split her face dissolving into a neutral expression. Planning any further actions concerning that wayward group of ponies would have to wait. It was time to welcome a new subject into the realm of Queen Chrysalis.

~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~

Rain accumulated in the myriad cracks and grooves in the rocky overhang above the entrance, coalescing into large drops that splashed onto the stones below at regular intervals. The monotonous sound didn’t do much to improve Star Swirl’s spirits as he sat on the chilly rock floor, looking out onto the clearing past the three unicorns standing guard just far enough inside to avoid the drops.

A healer by the name of Lily Petal was standing beside him, casting one last spell. He could feel the pain in his left hoof gradually subside and disappear, replaced by mellowness and warmth.

“Thanks.” He smiled at her, and she smiled in turn, wearily but brightly.

“Welcome. Got to dash!” She turned and cantered deeper into the tunnel.

He kept on smiling as he watched her, appreciating the good looks of his temporary doctor, but she quickly disappeared in the gloom, and the gravity of the situation set back in. While the pain was gone thanks to the lovely mare’s magic, he could remember it all too clearly, and even the thought of it made him wince. However, he couldn’t resist feeling a certain measure of pride, which, along with a couple pain-relieving spells, put him into the state of short-lived obliviousness that had just ended.

Back during the battle, when he stopped mid-field to prevent the changelings from abducting a guard and decided to stay and cover Opal Beam’s charge from afar, he didn’t realize how foolish it was to remain in the open away from everypony. His second spell never reached its intended target: displaying a degree of tactical acumen, the monsters still remaining airborne practically fell onto his back when the guards were far enough away. Their mistake consisted in the fact that Star Swirl’s spell had already been sufficiently charged, and when they pounced, his concentration was broken, the spell unraveled and the destabilized magic swept them away. It didn’t disable them, however, and Star Swirl was immediately up against half a dozen changelings on top of being disoriented by the malfunctioning spell.

While he was able and lucky enough to take out two of them, the others overwhelmed him and tried to immobilize him with some sort of sticky greenish goo. Acting quickly, Star Swirl managed to hastily conjure a burst of fire despite being held down by his attackers. As the would-be captors scattered, shrieking and trying to put out the magical flames, he seized the opportunity and made for the mine. With some help from Dawn Gleam’s fireballs, he reached its safety despite the injuries he had sustained at the monsters’ hooves.

He made it just in time to witness the changelings’ counterattack against Opal Beam’s ponies. Horrified, Star Swirl watched the monsters impact against his friends’ hastily erected magic barriers and break through one, and then Comet Trail dashed back to the mine entrance as fast as she could, shouting for healers. Star Swirl insisted on accompanying them back, but was ushered inside by Lieutenant Moonlight.

It was not easy for him to watch the squad enter the mines, despondently carrying the survivors not able to stand, but seeing Meteor Shower brought in on a pair of cloaks tied together, stained with mud and blood and with his destroyed side hastily dressed, was downright chilling. Part of Star Swirl’s mind blamed himself for the spearpony’s terrible injury—perhaps his magic could’ve prevented it, had he not committed his foalish mistake.

Snapping out of the grim thoughts, Star Swirl looked away from the outside and into the darkness of the tunnel. Farther down its length, somepony had lit a few of the old lanterns along the supports, but it wasn’t enough to get rid of the gloom. He could hear unsettling, faint moans coming from a wounded pony further in. Although he tried to go away from the sight of suffering and despair and closer to the fresher air outside, he couldn't entirely escape their sounds.

The wounded there were a lot of. Practically everypony had sustained some sort of damage, but the ones who got into the mines first and the rear squads had the worst of it. The vanguard was at roughly half strength after the changelings revealed their infiltration of the unicorns’ ranks and ambushed the unsuspecting ponies, injuring many before they were driven off. The rear guard... of twenty-four guardsponies and mages making up the original four squads, only three could be restored to a reasonably good condition. They had borne the brunt of the monsters’ attack, and by the time Opal Beam’s unicorns broke through their swarm, every single pony had been overwhelmed, most were unconscious or unable to fight back, and some had been abducted. The group Star Swirl stopped wasn’t the only one: there were four unicorns missing, three guards and a healer. That was not counting the fifth squad, which simply disappeared without a trace.

Star Swirl raised his hoof to his head. Of course! They had to be changelings in disguise as well! However, this raised the question of where the real guards had gone, both these and the ones that the changelings impersonated in the mine. And how did nopony notice their friends and comrades being replaced by lookalike monsters? Nopony joined or left them while on the march, which meant those changelings had been with them in the castle even before they set out. What if there were more of them still inside?

He shook his head. This was a waking nightmare. In the morning, he had been planning to celebrate the successful end of his research with his friends. As he sat there at the mouth of the cave, he was only hoping to see the next dawn. Changelings... he’d heard the infrequent rumors of strange creatures like that, but to think that they had suddenly come in force to wreak such horror upon them was nigh-impossible.

He could feel creeping panic appear at the far outskirts of his mind. Contrary to what his sense of self-preservation was suggesting, fighting the monsters was preferable to this: while more immediately threatening, the battle filled him with instinctive determination and a feeling of adventure born of his and Opal Beam’s foolhardy foalhood escapades, and now he was slipping into an abyss of dark thoughts, fear and uncertainty pulling him ever deeper in, sapping his will and making his mind work against itself.

Salvation came in form of Iron Vein, the pony who weathered the sudden battle the best of all, appearing in the pool of light from a lantern.

“Holding up all right? Did you get your hoof mended?” the giant stallion asked as he approached, and Star Swirl gave an affirmative nod to both questions.

“Good, because Lieutenant wants you in the old storage cave. She needs every officer there, and every mage as well, seeing how few of you are left.”

Regrettably, it made sense. Wizards, unarmoured and often frail, were easy targets for the barbed hooves and fangs of the monsters. Most of them had been disabled before they could cast a single spell; it was as if the changelings knew who to go after. Having been there with everypony during the preparations, they probably did. Of all wizards who had left with the guards, only four were well enough to fight—Star Swirl, Dawn Gleam the Younger, his apprentice Sunflower and Nightshade the Alacritous, brother of Lieutenant Moonlight.

“They’re trying to make a plan of action,” Iron Vein continued, striding past towards the entrance. “Seeing as the original one for what to do after the battle was along the lines of ‘cheer and go home’. Seriously, what was the King thinking? That’s what advisors are for.”

He walked up to one of the ponies on the watch and tapped her on the shoulder: “Go and rest up. I’ll replace you.” The mare nodded her thanks and turned about to head inside. Star Swirl got up to do the same as she passed by, adjusting what was left of his cape, which was missing its hood and a considerable portion of the tail end. Walking side by side, they moved into the circle of lamplight at the fork of the tunnel.

“Hey, you’re Star Swirl, aren’t you? The apprentice wizard? The healer filly told me you shot down the bugs that tried to carry me off,” the mare said gruffly after looking at him in the light. “Guess I should thank you. Who knows what they were doing that for.” She smiled. “Good job, colt.”

“Er, thanks.” The unexpected praise felt good after all the depressing thoughts. The corners of his lips rose.

“At least some of you made it. Shows that not all mages are squishy, eh?” She chuckled and poked his side with a hoof, but winced as she did so. “Ow. Shouldn'ta done that. Healers can only do so much.”

They rounded a bend in the tunnel and emerged into a spacious cave. It was dry and well-lit by magical lanterns hanging from beams that supported the ceiling. A pile of decayed remains of old crates and barrels took up the farthest corner, while the rest of the available space was full of ponies. Many of them—disconcertingly many, Star Swirl thought—were lying on the floor in rows atop their cloaks and capes, and several, looking particularly unwell, had been laid on top of the better-preserved scavenged planks. The three remaining healers, Lily Petal among them, bustled busily among the wounded, applying bandages, some of which looked like they were made from cloaks. All three were looking tired, but nevertheless continued their work. All other ponies tried to stand aside to let them pass.

There seemed to be about as many of those who could still stand and wear armour as those on the floor. They were keeping to the right side, away from the makeshift hospital. The unicorns clustered together around lanterns, talking or sharing some of the few rations that had been brought along. A mix of worried talk and whimpers and moans of the wounded filled the air.

“Hey, Feldspar! How's that leg o'yours?” the guard mare called out to a stallion lying close to the tunnel's opening with his hindleg tied to a plank, clearly broken. As he stirred, she glanced back at Star Swirl and waved a hoof, then trotted off towards the injured pony. He continued on into the cave, looking for the officers.

This proved to be an easy task. Further inside, at the far right of the cave, there was an old table with a lantern on top surrounded by a group of unicorns, the faces of the ones in the back illuminated by the magical glow. Among them were Lieutenant Moonlight and Opal Beam, both helmetless. Most of the ones with their backs to him were armoured, but three silhouettes outlined in the lantern's light wore capes a lot like Star Swirl's. That meant all the wizards were already there, except for himself. As he hurried towards them, he could hear the council’s words over the hubbub of the other ponies.

“You know perfectly well that we cannot stay here, Morningstar!” exclaimed a well-articulated stallion's voice, which Star Swirl instantly recognized as belonging to Keeper Nightshade. “The conditions in this place are completely inadequate for the treatment of the wounded!”

“Yeah. Thanks for reminding, but we know that. We also have no other choice,” grumbled the one addressed by the Keeper, a heavily-built old pony sitting slumped against the rocky wall. His neck was wrapped in deeply bloodstained cloth, and both of his front legs had planks affixed to them, holding them straight. “Half the force can’t even walk without assistance. All the healers can do is keep them stable.”

As Star Swirl approached them, Nightshade stepped closer to the table and put his front hooves onto it with a wooden ‘thump’.

“This is precisely my point, sergeant! There are no supplies here to support us for anywhere longer than a day, and there is no need to mention the absolute absence of medicine. Our medical ponies simply cannot cure so many serious injuries. You have been in the guard long enough to know this no worse than I. They are capable of suppressing pain and stopping bleedings, and the strongest and most taxing healing magics can knit flesh and mend bones, but as the splints on your legs show, they cannot simply go and restore everypony. With that in mind, their work does become a lot easier if they can utilize various medicinal herbs and other supplies.”

“Which,” Morningstar picked up immediately, “we have completely run out of just trying to save everypony. Believe me, I’ve noticed. This is no time for lectures, Keeper. Where, do you think, are we going to get them?”

“In the castle, of course! The medical storeroom was completely stocked during my most recent inspection. There’s enough to ensure rapid convalescence for everypony. It is imperative that we head back as soon as possible!”

The wizard emphasized this by thumping the table once again, then stepped back, staring at the disagreeing guardspony. The others were quiet, watching them argue. Star Swirl stepped into the circle of light beside Nightshade, but all the attention was on the two speakers.

“And how exactly do you plan on accomplishing that? Do you want to trot back up the mountain carrying all the wounded ponies who can’t move on their own, through the woods and open ground, both of which are perfect for getting ambushed by those creatures? We’d be unable to fight back. Those things’ll flatten us in no time if they are any good, and bad fighters wouldn’t have taken out my entire squad.”

He nodded towards the rows of injured guardsponies, then glared back at the stallion. “This is war, Keeper. This is my world. Let me handle it.”

“Do not forget your station, Sergeant,” growled Lieutenant Moonlight, coming to her brother’s defense. “You are not the commanding officer here. I respect your service record and your experience, but I won’t tolerate insubordination, especially at this time.”

“Fine, fine,” Morningstar grumbled. “But you can’t ignore this. We can’t make it there with so many wounded.”

“And we cannot stay here, either. We have no rations and no medical supplies. We have to do something!” Nightshade added.

The lieutenant raised her hoof, demanding silence. “Don’t start it again. Both of you are right.”

She paused, looking at each of the assembled unicorns in turn. “We need to decide what to do next. We can’t stay here—while this place is defensible, we don’t have enough food to last even a day, and worse still, as Sergeant Morningstar noted, our healers are already tired and completely out of supplies. But we can’t leave easily either. If those... changelings’ performance says anything about their knowledge of tactics, they’re bound to be ready for us to come out again.

“First of all, I want each of you to report the state of your squads.”

Each officer proceeded to present a tally of their gurardsponies, their state and ability to fight. The end result was not very optimistic—out of every six ponies, at least one had been crippled, and numerous guards had sustained serious injuries and blood loss that rendered them unable to participate in combat even after the healers’ best efforts. Only the toughest and luckiest ones had made it through the battle with minor cuts and bruises.

“I’ve already accounted for Oak Leaf’s ponies,” she paused, glancing aside towards a motionless mare with a heavily bandaged head, a sergeant’s helm lying by her side. “This puts us at thirty able-bodied fighters, excluding the wizards. I understand that you four are the only ones that can still fight?”

“Correct, Lieutenant,” responded Dawn Gleam grimly. Sunflower seemed to shuffle away at the word ‘fight’, and Moonlight silently mouthed ‘not four, three’ while Morningstar grumbled something unintelligible.

“Now, as we can all see, our situation is difficult. We need to act, and quickly, because the longer we wait, the worse it will get. Do you have any suggestions?”

After a short pause, Opal Beam laid a hoof on the table. “Yes. We definitely can’t stay here, but we can leave. Just not all of us.”

“Hmm. Do you mean to propose sending out a smaller party?” the lieutenant interrupted in a thoughtful voice, and he responded with a nod. “I’ve been thinking the same. We will never get the wounded past those monsters, but if a strong team pushes through to the castle, they might make it. We can’t simply leave the wounded behind, either, so the rest would stay here to protect them. We wouldn’t even need many ponies to hold this cave, we’d only have to block the entrance.”

“You’ve seen what those monstrosities did to us, and we were at full strength. How do you expect a smaller group to break through that horde?” Morningstar said in response to this.

“We weren’t at full strength at any point, Sergeant,” replied Moonlight. “In the mine, nearly half of our ponies turned out to be enemies in disguise. You and the other three squads in the back got attacked by the bulk of their force, far more numerous than yours. Then, Sergeant Opal Beam’s ponies held at least twice their number off until I could aid them, and afterwards broke the monsters’ swarm with teamwork and a lot of covering fire from Keeper Dawn Gleam. If anything, they’ve shown that they’re afraid to engage us head-on, that one on one we’re stronger than them, and that if we don’t let them overwhelm us, we can win even if outnumbered.”

“We’re also better in terms of equipment and skills,” Opal Beam added. “They can fly, but they can’t attack us at range. And if you haven’t noticed, quite a lot of the monsters lying out there had been brought down by Dawn Gleam’s magic.” Hearing Opal Beam's remark, the Keeper smirked.

“Yes, ranged attacks proved to be effective,” the lieutenant nodded in assent. “If used correctly, these advantages could mean the whole difference.”

“Well, maybe this plan does have a chance to work,” conceded the old sergeant. “But what are we going to do if that group does reach the castle? There’s only about a dozen guards left there with Steel Hammer, then the mages... others aren’t worth much in a fight. And we’d need some way to get the rest of us to safety, quickly.”

“In a hoof-to-hoof scuffle, perhaps, but we unicorns are first and foremost a race of magic,” stated Nightshade with pride. “Our mages have been beating back pegasus armies for generations. This enemy will fare no better. If even the Circle alone combines its powers, we can obliterate these fiends before they can so much as think of a response. I cannot fathom why King Silver did not let us create a solution to this problem instead of ordering this operation.”

Everypony seemed to think this over, falling silent. The background noise of other guardsponies’ conversation filled the pause as the officers and Keepers looked at each other, while Star Swirl simply observed, not even sure why his presence was necessary: he couldn’t think of anything better than what actual guard officers could suggest.

After a while, Opal Beam spoke up once again, with a hint of uncertainty:

“We’ll need to leave a strong defense if we’re going to attempt this, Lieutenant. Those things are very good at using numbers to their advantage, and we don’t have many ponies to spare. What are we going to do?”

“Oh, I believe we can answer that,” Dawn Gleam spoke ahead of her, taking a step closer to the table and urging his apprentice to do the same. She did so without raising her gaze off the floor.

“Sunflower is amazingly good at magical barriers, as you probably know. She could seal the entrance with one. No monster would be able to get in.” The filly nodded in agreement.

Moonlight looked at the two of them sternly. “She didn’t do any such thing when it could have helped us on the battlefield. What if she panics again?”

“I won’t, ma’am,” said Sunflower, quietly but without any wavering.

“I’m not about to trust my ponies’ lives to something I’m not sure will work. I want a demonstration,” she said, staring at both of them.

“As you say, ma’am,” squeaked the young apprentice.

“Very well, then. Cast your barrier across the entrance.”

Sunflower turned towards the mouth of the tunnel leading into the cave and concentrated, closing her eyes. Her horn briefly shone with magic, emitting a few sparks from its tip, and a wavering wall of sky-blue cut across the tunnel’s breadth with a soft crackle. She opened her eyes again, smiling with an expression of subdued triumph.

“Good. But if it’s attacked, will it hold?”, the Lieutenant said curtly.

“It will. Her barriers are unusually resilient.” Dawn Gleam looked at the young mare with pride.

“I’d rather test this myself.”

Moonlight stepped away from the table and walked around the sergeants to stand beside the apprentice. She then lowered her head so that her horn was parallel to the floor and pointed at the barrier and suddenly broke into a run. A haze of sparks surrounded her horn as she charged down the length of the cave, ponies stepping aside to make way. She leapt just before colliding with the barrier, throwing her front hooves forwards, and cast the spell she had been powering up at the moment of impact; there was a low pulsing sound, and Star Swirl felt like a blast of wind hit him in the face. The lieutenant rebounded from the barrier and flew a short way backwards before kicking her legs out and skidding to a halt on the floor. There was no apparent effect on the shield or on Sunflower.

Moonlight shook her purple mane out of her eyes as she trotted back to the table, accompanied by the rank and file guardsponies’ puzzled glances.

“Not bad,” she commented to Sunflower, who beamed at what, in the circumstances, was undoubtedly praise. To the others, she said: “I’m not a monster swarm, but that spell was strong. If she can hold it, she’s good enough.”

“If I may,” said Dawn Gleam before she turned away. “If Sunflower’d be staying here, so would I. She feels a lot more... secure with me around, and truth be told, the inverse is true as well.”

“We would need a strong team to reach the castle, Keeper,” the lieutenant responded in a level voice.

“But you also want a strong defense, and what could be better than a Keeper to hold the enemy back? You’ve seen what I can do with combat spells in the open. Imagine this on tightly packed enemies in that tunnel,” he added, a barely noticeable glint in his eyes hinting that he wouldn’t have minded to find out.

Moonlight met his gaze, held it for a few moments, then nodded, as if receiving the message.

“Very well, then, you may stay.”

She proceeded to take her place among the officers and, raising her hoof, said: “Who is in favour of this plan?”

A thoughtful silence descended on the assembled ponies once again, broken after a while by Sergeant Morningstar’s voice, slow and laden with consideration.

“Moonlight, are you sure you’re ready to bet so much on this? If something goes wrong, it’d mean the end of us. Maybe the end of the Kingdom.”

“I cannot think of anything else. And all things considered, this is the most solid plan I see right now.”

“But... what if those changeling things are already in the castle? We had infiltrators with us the entire time, after all.”

The silence came back, colder and heavier than before. Just like when he thought of this earlier, Star Swirl’s mind did not quite want to realize the possible implications, and he was sure some of the others present felt the same way.

“Then we’ll have to kick them out or die trying,” Moonlight responded severely. “Doing nothing would certainly doom us, while this course of action could possibly succeed. In any case, the Unicorn tribe is not about to go down quietly.”

“Then so be it. Aye.”

The venerable sergeant raised one of his broken legs slightly. Opal Beam’s hoof also rose up into the air, followed by both of the Keepers’ and Star Swirl’s, who couldn’t see any other options either. Looking at them, the other sergeants lifted their hooves one by one.

“Then it’s settled. Now, we have to decide who will stay and who will go. I will lead the outgoing team, and Sergeant Morningstar will be in charge of the defense. I will need you, Nightrunner, as well as Star Swirl, in my party for magical support, seeing as Dawn Gleam stays with his apprentice. Sergeants, return to your squads and get them ready; I need to re-evaluate their state personally.” Lieutenant Moonlight’s voice was calm and authoritative, one of a pony who knew exactly what she was doing, even in a situation as dire as this.

The officers—those who were mobile, at least—left the table and trotted off, fulfilling their commander’s order. Moonlight turned her gaze to the wizards.

“Star Swirl, Sunflower, Keepers, help them out. The faster we begin, the better.”

Star Swirl began to walk away when Opal Beam turned around and called out: “Star, go fetch Iron Vein! I’ll get the others.”

As he entered the tunnel outside, considerably gloomier than the cave he was leaving behind, his mind was plagued by the visions of what could befall them had the changelings already taken the castle. He found himself hoping dearly that this was not the case.

5. Predators and Prey

Sparkling Sky sneaked a cautious look from one of the windows of his bedroom, scanning the castle walls and the sky above. Nopony... nothing was in sight. The courtyard was empty as well. Not risking another glance, he withdrew to the middle of the room, where the height of the tower could hide him from all seekers, with the exception of airborne ones. He was not sure whether they could sense his presence through any other means, but, as he thought grimly, he’d find out quickly if that was the case.

How incredibly, fatefully foolish he had been. Decades ago, when he was still a young and brash apprentice, his aging mentor told him that with greatness of mind, one should be wary of overestimating oneself, underestimating others and overlooking details; back then, he privately scoffed at his words, but now their meaning was more bitterly clear than ever. If only it was just him paying the price.

No, it was the entire kingdom, and maybe even the other pony races. Why did he not tell King Silver of his suspicions, of what he thought the mysterious invaders could be? Why didn’t he recommend checking whether the denizens of the castle were actually themselves? But he thought the possibility to be negligible. Changelings were considered to be an old mares’ tale.

Occasionally, a farmer or a townspony would discover a neighbour acting strangely and try to investigate, only for the suspicious pony to flee. Those that pursued the impostors and came back told tales of being lured far away and witnessing their transformation, but never could provide any sort of accurate description of what they looked like afterwards. The only constant between those fearful ramblings were words about green fire, torn wings, terrible fangs and pitiless eyes. The pony impersonated by those things was normally never seen again, but very rarely they stumbled out of the wilds days or weeks later, raving mad and babbling about very similar things. Those tales were the only proof of the changelings’ existence.

Posted in his own rooms high up in the castle’s great tower, Sparkling Sky had one of the best possible vantage points to witness this particular old mares’ tale come horrifyingly true. Not long after the hastily assembled guard force sent to combat them disappeared from the castle’s vicinity, dark shapes swarmed out of the ravine serving as the moat. They fell upon the small groups of young wizards and trainee guardsponies defending the walls and overwhelmed them before they could do anything. Some of the attackers then proceeded to flicker with eldritch green flames and turn into exact lookalikes of the defeated unicorns, then carry their bodies off the battlements, while the others burst open the great hall’s doors and disappeared inside.

There was a fellow Keeper stationed on the main keep’s roof below, in plain sight from Sparkling Sky’s windows, with orders to initiate the conjuration of the castle-spanning shield spell that was the defense plan’s biggest strength. Startled by the monsters’ arrival just like Sparkling Sky, he seemed to try to alert the others to the danger with a warning spell, but nopony other than Queen Amethyst herself appeared on the roof from one of the doors. The Queen fired some sort of green magical beam at the Keeper, which caused him to collapse, and then another, after which the unicorn stood back up and resumed watching the surroundings as if nothing had happened and Amethyst left through the doorway.

All of this happened in under a minute. Sparkling Sky didn’t even snap out of the initial shock before it was all over, and the scene on the roof caused him to bolt downstairs and lock his study’s door. He could’ve tried to fight back against a surprise attack, but this was something else entirely.

The Queen was a changeling. The castle had been infiltrated. The defense plan was known to the invaders, or perhaps—the old unicorn’s mind chilled even more at the thought—devised by them. There was no fighting such an enemy. It was as if that acid-green beam had stricken him instead of the hapless pony on the roof.

They had fooled everypony, but worst of all, they managed to fool him. He could have foiled their plan with one simple suggestion, and him being one of the King’s advisors, it would not have fallen on deaf ears. This shouldn’t have happened, and it was his fault that it did. And now he, Sparkling Sky the Spellslinger, dauntless Keeper of the Circle of Day and Night, proud and undisputed bearer of the mantle of the champion duelist of the realm, lauded as the paragon of everything a wizard should strive to be, was huddled in the middle of his own quarters, stricken with guilt, fear and shame not felt in many years.

He didn’t know why the changelings hadn’t come for him yet, but the part of him concerned with self-preservation was forcing him to try and stave that moment off by being as unnoticeable as possible. The more reasonable area of his mind, however, had gradually shaken off the panic and began working on dealing with the problem at hoof.

First of all, he needed to assess the situation. He did not know what had been going on in the castle since the changelings’ lightning-fast attack thanks to the remoteness of his location, but he was fairly certain it had not been in the unicorns’ favour. It was safe, although horrifying, to assume that the castle had fallen. Assuming that, Sparkling Sky felt that he needed every edge he could get to be ready. Given that the changelings were as close to unknown as a creature could be, he did not think he could figure out any weaknesses of theirs without first facing them, but perhaps he could improve his own strengths. Him being a wizard, they mostly had to do with his unicorn magic.

With this purpose in mind, he looked around the bedroom. It was certainly cozy, but the vast majority of things that could help him were in the working area below. He slowly moved from the place he’d been occupying for the past few minutes and crept towards the side of the room, where a thin wooden staircase ran downwards along the wall, leading to the study, then stalked down the steps.

Once there, he cast his gaze along the shelves holding his private library, trying to figure out what would be the most helpful thing in this situation by looking at sections dedicated to different subjects. ‘Phoenixes... no, still experimental... Shields and barriers... hmm, perhaps. Midnight Star’s works on combat telekinesis... yes, yes...’ A more coherent plan was beginning to form in his head. He proceeded to trot over to the semicircle of tables and desks he used for most of his work and research, checking each of them for what he was looking for.

A heap of paper on one of the desks revealed a scroll containing complex blocking and deflection spells. He put it aside, seeing as it had been written by himself, and he still knew its contents by heart. Without even turning around to look, he levitated one of the volumes by the biggest authority on telekinesis in the Kingdom’s history off its shelf and towards himself, then scanned it for the magics he had in mind. It didn’t take long for him to find them. If anypony had ever been good at inventing new and interesting ways of flinging things about, it was Midnight Star.

Sparkling Sky passed by the potion-mixing set, not being in a situation allowing for the delicate, precise and lengthy operations normally involved in using it. Digging into another stack of papers and books, he uncovered a small tome of attack magic and gave it a look-through—he would have been a poor duelist if he didn’t know it, but fighting a more numerous enemy could require spells not normally used in single combat, not to mention that a true battle called for much more lethal magics than a contest of magical prowess.

The last desk was cluttered with scrolls of all sorts, from notes on the phoenix life cycle to a spell that could turn rocks into regal gowns—temporarily, at least. Sparkling Sky was about to step away when a thick roll of paper covered by the others drew his eye. He reached out with his magic and it sprang into the air, unrolling as it floated towards him.

“The Properties of Magically Molded Gemstones, by Star Swirl,” he mumbled, reading the title. It occurred to him that he had not truly read his apprentice’s treatise, only taking a glance at the first few paragraphs and leaving the rest for an indefinite ‘later’ when it was presented to him. The reasons for that were simple—Sparkling Sky was busy with research of his own at the time, and the subject was well-known to him.

Indeed, a magician like himself simply had to know of such things. While very difficult to create, a gemstone that had been forced out of its original form and completely reshaped through magic had an effect on other spells and enchantments, varying in accordance with the type of gem used. The process of crafting them was an arcane art known to only the best jewelers of the realm and required outstanding mastery of innate unicorn powers to successfully practice.

As with all items able to improve a pony’s magical power, molded gemstones were highly sought after by wizards. Throughout his long and successful career, Sparkling Sky had accumulated a small collection of his own, and while the gemstones’ use was banned in competitions and duels so as not to let an unfair advantage affect their outcome, they had aided him on many an adventure. It was good that he’d found this scroll; in his shaken state, it could have taken him far longer than that to come across them.

Curiosity, as ever striking at the least appropriate time, made him unfurl the scroll further despite the protests from his more cautious and logical aspects. There were diagrams of gems of different forms and sizes with notes scribbled all around them. His eye picked out certain words and phrases of the opening paragraphs: ‘common fallacy’, ‘recurring patterns’, ‘conclusive results’. A bit further down the scroll, underlined and enlarged for emphasis, there was a statement: ‘The properties of magically molded gemstones are determined not only by type of gem, but also by the resulting shape.’

A metaphorical light flared up in his head. Surely, he knew everything there was to know about these things... but he had enough reasons to doubt himself, and besides, he’d never actually researched the matter in such depth. Curiosity surged forth and took full hold of Sparkling Sky’s mind, as it often did in times of great stress. He rolled the impressive scroll open and read on.

~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~

Star Swirl had been expecting an ambush, a changeling army pouncing out on them from among the trees or dropping out of the sky in a deadly charge. What he hadn’t been expecting was nothing. The band of twenty unicorns left the mines, crossed the torn-up clearing strewn with the bodies of fallen beasts and emerged out of the wood surrounding it, and not even once did they see any sign of the enemy.

At first they moved slowly and cautiously, as Moonlight expected heavy resistance every step of the way and wanted to be ready for an attack. However, as time went on and nothing seemed to be trying to stop them, the party switched to a brisk trot to cover the ground more quickly; it was practically impossible to go faster due to the unicorn’s weariness and the sorry state of the road, which did not take two weeks of constant rain and an army of ponies marching down it very well.

Star Swirl and quite a few others had taken to keeping off the road itself, because it had essentially become a lengthy puddle of mud running with rivulets of dirty water and not having his hooves get sucked into it with each step he took made the uphill trek a lot easier. It would have saved his cape from getting even dirtier, too, but there was too little of it left to reach the ground—the changelings’ hooves and teeth had torn away most of its tail end as well as the very comfortable hood, exposing his head to the cold rain. By that point, however, it did not matter much whether his head was covered—the rain had soaked everything and everypony to the bone, and the drenched garments only added to the weather’s chill.

He looked across the grassy slope towards the castle ahead. Through the curtain of rain it appeared dark and devoid of life. Even the Tower of the Cycle, normally standing out gracefully above the grey mass of stone, was forlorn against the gloomy skies. It was impossible to see any details, but a foreboding feeling hung in the air. Star Swirl shivered from more than just the cold as the thoughts of changelings infiltrating the castle returned to assail his mind with unsettling visions.

The ponies gradually slowed down as the slope became steeper. The castle was still quite far off. The uneven expanse of grass separating them from it looked perfectly, treacherously calm; everypony seemed to be on edge as they scanned every inch of their surroundings for hints of anything suspicious.

Seeking to calm his mind, Star Swirl turned to Opal Beam, who was walking close by, also avoiding the road. “What do you think we’ll find in the castle?” he said.

His friend glanced in his direction before returning his gaze to the surrounding slopes, nervously scanning them for any kind of activity. “Don’t know. I hope it’s safety and not more of those things waiting for us. We’ll find out soon.”

Not finding much reassurance in that, Star Swirl nevertheless said nothing more, looking instead towards Lieutenant Moonlight and Keeper Nightshade walking together at the head of the group. Hoping it could help him take his mind off the frightful possibilities, he tried to recall the story of these two rising stars of the kingdom.

Moonlight and Nightshade were the foals of a wizard and a poor village mare, saddled with their father’s great expectations from their very birth. To the father’s delight, Nightshade surpassed his own magical ability, and so was taught everything the wizard knew. He was apprenticed to a Keeper when barely out of foalhood, yet still managed to perform better than most; his talent was great enough for him to be accepted into the Circle at an unusually early age, and since then he had been building his reputation as a brilliant mind and a remarkable pony with a bright future.

Moonlight’s fate had not been as easy. While powerful compared to most other unicorns, she was not as magically talented as Nightshade and thus frequently overlooked by their father, but had a mind rivaling her brother’s in acuity and depth. While her twin found near-universal acceptance, she was often ignored or underappreciated; determined to prove herself, she chose a different path and joined the guard. Her subsequent meteoric rise through its ranks by virtue of her tactical thinking and almost unponylike levelness of mind in even the worst situations earned her a name of her own, finally proving her worth to herself, her father and everypony else. Captain Steel Hammer’s trust in her judgement was approaching absolute, and considering his reputation as the most martially adept pony of the realm, it was no small thing.

And yet throughout all this, the twins remained remarkably close and helped each other when able. Their bond was heartwarming to behold, and the mutual support and compensating for each other’s weaknesses helped them perform much better when working together. Star Swirl couldn’t wish for better ponies to lead the outrunner party. If only Sparkling Sky was with them too.

At the thought of his mentor, the fearful ideas of what could’ve happened at the castle came back. Star Swirl scowled and tried to simply block them out, instead focusing on the surroundings. He couldn’t do anything but hope that his fears would turn out to be unfounded and that everypony in the castle was safe.

~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~

She reclined on the throne—her new throne, as she reminded herself with a contented giggle—and idly observed the vast hall before her. Now that the king with his sweet, nourishing love was by her side again and the castle ponies posed no threat, she could allow herself to take in more sights of her new domain than was strictly necessary.

The throne room was long and high-ceilinged, with parallel rows of widely spaced columns running along its length. Banners adorned with various motifs, many of them frayed with age, hung from the arches connecting their tops, reaching halfway to the floor. On the wall behind, above the throne’s dais, was what she thought was the unicorn king’s own symbolic image, and above it were yet more decorations: a depiction of a unicorn performing a spell flanked by likenesses of the sun and the moon. There were windows high above the floor, positioned so that the throne and the images on the wall were in the focus of the light streaming through. The ceiling was occupied by a massive painting of, as Chrysalis saw it, many dots with lines forming patterns in between them and outlines of various creatures around them. She reckoned that it had to be dedicated to astronomy—of all pony tribes, unicorns were the ones most fond of wasting their time staring at the sky.

The sheer size of the hall was to her liking—according to her taste, a hive’s throne room had to be grand. There were definitely going to be changes, of course. She would remove the unicorn symbols first and foremost, for it was her kingdom, not theirs. The banners, however, she would keep as a reminder of her triumph, but move them elsewhere, because the arches would be ideal to hang cocoons from. The ceiling fresco would have to go, because the pointless astronomical imagery annoyed her. The windows could, after some work, be turned into convenient entrances and exits for her minions and herself.

She giggled again. This was her castle now, the seat of Queen Chrysalis, ruler of the Changelings and future mistress of all ponykind, and she was going to reshape it as she saw fit. It was to become a perfect dwelling for her changelings and an impregnable fortress from which she would rule over the entire world.

But she could not yet sit back and feed and bask in her victory. There remained a few menial tasks to perform—one last elderly wizard to pay a visit to, and the pesky, stubborn guards heading back to the castle. The former would be of no difficulty, just like all the others, and as for the latter...

She chuckled, and the chuckle grew into a laughter so uproarious she had to catch her breath afterwards. She couldn’t have done better herself. The ponies’ incredible foolishness once again made her task a lot easier, and, this time, considerably more enjoyable. Her minions were ready. She only had to wait until they were in the right place.

Chrysalis rose from her throne and began to trot purposefully across the room, leaving the unicorn king and the guard captain to flank the empty seat, wall-eyed. With a flicker of magic at the tip of her horn, she commanded the bodyguards to follow. If she wanted to be in time for the entertainment, she had to deal with the last wizard now.

6. Check

Sparkling Sky stood before the desk with Star Swirl’s treatise rolled open atop the other papers. His mind buzzed with activity as he neared the end of the scroll, subjecting his apprentice’s theory to all kinds of mental tests. His caution screamed for him to stop and look for something more useful, but was left unheeded, pushed back by his burning curiosity and the instinctive urge to clear the nervousness from his mind.

The more he read, the more plausible the theory seemed to get. There were records of different experiments, analyses and examples, all pointing towards the veracity of the main statement of the paper—that while molded gemstones’ properties were largely determined by what kind of gem was used to make them, their shape and size could alter them considerably. As the results of the experiments demonstrated, they could lead to unintended behaviour, such as the normally spell-reflecting molded diamonds not affecting select types of magic when shaped into squares, or circular sapphires failing to dissipate a stunning spell where square sapphires worked as expected.

Sparkling Sky was glad he’d given his apprentice all the resources he needed for his work, including his own small collection. The gemstones were rare and precious, and a failure of one of them to perform as intended could be attributed to many different factors, from the jeweler’s error to random magical fluctuations, so nopony had attempted to study those occasional malfunctions in earnest. Star Swirl had gone down to Hornton to stay with one of the few craftsponies capable of molding gemstones, observing his work, testing the newly created gems and even attempting to make one himself. Sparkling Sky had to give it to his apprentice—the colt could focus on his work.

There was, however, one resource he could not give him access to, despite his requests; the Chamber of the Cycle, a marvel of the unicorns’ mastery of their innate powers as well as the single largest collection of magically molded gemstones. The amount of gems required for its construction was so staggeringly great that it spanned two generations, with the Circle of Day and Night working side by side with master jewelers to create the bewilderingly complex array that was the reason of its existence.

As one of the builders, Sparkling Sky also knew the gemstone array’s intended purpose—to amplify the innate magic of a unicorn, enabling them to wield incredible amounts of power and giving the kingdom a tool for virtually any purpose. It could’ve been a fearsome weapon, a workshop for unique, perfect items, and a centre of magical research that had the potential to advance the Unicorn tribe’s understanding of magic by orders of magnitude.

Instead, it did not work. Any attempts of using the system to cast a spell resulted in a beam of raw, distorted energy that could serve practically no purpose. The wizards tried many different spells, but the result was always the same, and the web of enchantments and various gemstones that the array had become was far too complicated for anypony but the unicorn who’d devised the Chamber in the first place, long dead by then. The ponies did not dare unravel the spells of the array, afraid of complicating the problem further, and without that, there was little they could do.

The grand project was about to be abandoned as a failure when one of the Keepers—Sparkling Sky’s own mentor—attempted to raise the moon using the Chamber array and succeeded. This unprecedented feat impressed King Silver’s father enough to ignore the loss of time and resources to such a one-trick project. He subsequently gave the Circle the exclusive right of using the Chamber for the maintenance of the Cycle, with the added task of continued investigation into the reasons of its limited function, but while it certainly simplified the Keepers’ job by eliminating the need for the old ceremonies, nothing new had been gleaned over the decades since its completion.

Looking at the treatise before his eyes, Sparkling Sky was beginning to think that they weren’t looking in the right place. If the gemstones behaved like Star Swirl’s research suggested, then the Chamber’s system, with its vast number of gems of all types, sizes and shapes, could be rife with their properties clashing with each other and cancelling out. He raised a hoof to his chin and rubbed his beard.

A pair of diagrams near the end of the long, long scroll drew his eye. The working sketches of the new royal crowns, made for the coronation of King Silver and Queen Amethyst by the same jeweler as Star Swirl stayed with, were depicted amid a cloud of notes in script so small that Sparkling Sky had to lean closer to read them. Both crowns had been encrusted with multiple gemstones, and some of them were of the magically molded variety, meant to make the crowns useful as more than just regalia; all of them were represented in the pictures, and a line connected each of those gems to a part of the word cloud surrounding them.

He quickly scanned the notes for anything potentially valuable. According to the ones for the King’s crown, which had been decorated with molded amethysts, diamonds and sapphires of various cuts as well as several large rubies, the gems’ newly discovered properties clashed and interfered with each other. Next to it was the result of much deliberation and numerous calculations—the crown, designed to provide a degree of protection from any and all hostile magics, could be vulnerable to spells that affect the mind and a few of the more common cantrips, such as knockback spells.

A much denser circle of notes around the Queen’s crown with its intricate patterns of diamonds and amethysts and four immense multi-faceted sapphires, laden with measurements and yet more calculations, presented an even more alarming conclusion: if Star Swirl was correct, then should the crown or whoever is wearing it have been affected by one of several types of magic, such as paralyzing and freezing spells, their energies would be distorted and amplified through the gemstones’ overlooked properties, resulting in a considerably greater amount of barely focused power with nowhere to earth itself but the crown and its owner.

Now this was useful indeed. Sparkling Sky glanced at the remaining part of the scroll, but nothing stood out nearly as much as the analysis of the crowns. What could it mean if he was right? Maybe those weaknesses facilitated the changelings’ attack? The elderly magician shook his head, reminding himself of the importance of knowing everything there was to know about any potential weaknesses—

There was a loud knock on the door, followed by several more.

Snapping out of the thoughtful refuge his mind had holed up in, he glanced at the door, realizing with absolute acuity that he’d wasted all his time reading this and the enemy had come for him. His brain felt like it had been doused with icy water.

The gemstones! No matter the new uncertainties, he needed that edge! He bolted away from the desk and up the stairs, nearly skidding as he turned sharply to a chest at the end of his bed. Heaving it open with a hoof, he reached inside with his magic, and a small, beautifully crafted wooden box floated out. There were locks, but they clicked open after a few nearly automatic movements of his hooves and magic pressing the right spots.

Inside was his collection of magically molded gemstones, lined up neatly in their nests of velvet. He was about to grab them all, but paused as Star Swirl’s treatise’s warning flashed in his mind. What if taking all of them at once would produce a freak side effect, one dangerous to himself, at the worst possible moment? His caution pushed at him hard, and, leaving the rest of the box behind, he picked one gem, a flawless, perfectly spherical sapphire. He levitated it into one of the very useful small pockets lining the inside of his large wizardly cape.

The knocking on the door downstairs, which had turned into hammering, suddenly stopped. There was a moment of silence, followed by a soft wavering whine distantly resembling that of magic being performed, and a dry, crackling ‘boom’ rang out. Then there were the wooden creak and crash of his study’s door falling onto the floor and the sounds of several sets of hooves walking on stone.

Sparkling Sky backed away, trying to get a clear line of sight on the stairs’ top. The invaders had started ascending already, and in a few moments the crowned head of Queen Amethyst appeared above the floor. The old wizard hadn’t yet prepared any spells to cast, and the regal mare’s eyes had locked onto him the moment she came into view with an expression clearly saying ‘don’t try anything stupid’.

He stood with his back against one of the windows as the Queen fully entered his bedroom. She was followed by two royal bodyguards with absent, unseeing looks about them, even more so than the usual. They stopped right after stepping off the stairs, in perfect synchronicity, while the tall unicorn mare walked slowly and purposefully towards him.

“Good day, my loyal subject,” she intoned in a sing-song voice as she came closer. “I trust you are well? Why have you locked your doors, pray tell? Were you, perhaps, afraid of something?”

Sparkling Sky stared up into her normally kind face, now twisted into a mocking grimace, as she stopped in front of him: “Your Queen has decided to pay you a visit. Do you know to what do you owe this honour?”

There was a malicious glint in her eyes. ‘She isn’t even bothering to pretend,’ he thought. He focused on those eyes and replied dryly: “You really need to work on your disguise, changeling. Amethyst is nothing like this, even if you look identical. Oh, and my Queen wouldn’t blow up my door.”

Her cruel smirk became sharper, more crooked. “You’re the last one. Think yourself clever if you wish, but you have lost all the same.” She lowered her head very close to his and hissed: “I’ve taken care of both those foals outside and the rest of you prideful mages. Don’t make this hard for yourself.”

His eyes rose to the top of her head, towards the crown perched near her horn. He felt momentarily glad that he stumbled upon Star Swirl’s treatise when he did. Sparkling Sky summoned his power and strung together a freezing spell meant for quick casting. “How about... no.”

The flare at the tip of his horn came only slightly faster than the changeling’s reaction. A bolt of red energy leapt off it and at the crown, striking it just as one of the mare’s hooves rose into the air and slammed into his chest with unexpected strength. There was a bright flash composed of many distorted colours, and the Queen’s crown flew off the disguised changeling’s head and across the room in a high arc, while the changeling itself yelped and shrunk down away from the small explosion. Sparkling Sky stumbled back from its forceful kick and prepared to fling a more powerful spell at his unbalanced opponent, but there came a sharp, unpleasant sound akin to that of a unicorn’s horn discharging magic yet much more discordant and wavering, and his vision was filled with a burst of green light erupting right under his horn.

He felt his consciousness slipping and tried to hold on to it with all the willpower he had, but his body immediately gave way. Through the sudden numbness of his senses, Sparkling Sky could just make out a faint voice saying “Fool. Say goodbye to your free will,” and then there was only blackness.

And almost immediately he felt himself waking up. He forced his eyes open and blinked blearily, trying to take in the surroundings. His head felt as if something had cracked it open and scrambled the contents. Sparkling Sky groaned, trying to think or remember anything but finding himself floundering like an unskilled swimmer in a fast-flowing river.

A lavender hoof appeared before his face. He lifted his eyes up the leg of its owner and found himself looking at a tall, beautiful lavender unicorn mare. He called out to his memory once again, but it drew a blank—and then he felt a metaphorical light guide his way to the answer. It was his Queen, Amethyst, who’d come to visit him on his post. So kind of her.

Slowly and clumsily, he managed to get back onto his hooves. He felt compelled to say: “What is your bidding, Your Majesty?”.

His Queen smiled, and the smile was answered by a spark of warmth inside him. “You’ve passed out for a moment. You need some sleep. Do not worry, we can take it from here. Your help is no longer needed.”

He nodded, looking at her awkwardly. Yes, he remembered... he didn’t sleep at all last night. How embarrassing of him to faint like that in the presence of Her Majesty. He definitely needed to take at least a short nap. His Queen was right. He had to listen to his Queen.

“Now I will excuse myself. There are duties I must perform,” she finished in her ever-pleasant voice and turned to leave. On her way, she lifted her crown off the floor with her magic and placed it back onto her head—it had fallen off by accident, as he suddenly remembered. He watched her until she and the two other ponies who he did not remember walking in disappeared down the stairs, then looked at his bed. It seemed irresistibly inviting, as if he hadn’t slept in a week, and so he started towards it at a very slow and unsteady trot.

A tiny part of him, however, was still trying to think, despite the very clear orders his Queen had given him. It struggled against their straight, definite borders and attempted to call up some other thoughts, but it was like wandering away from a warm, welcoming light into all-consuming darkness. Why would he want to do such a thing? She commanded and he complied. It was perfectly sensible.

He placed one hoof atop his bed, stifling a yawn. Yes, he had to— fight, resist, he was needed— sleep, he was so very tired, he couldn’t even make another step— stop listening to it, it was not his own will— he needed a rest more than ever— stop it, it was an enemy, a— a changeling...

A piercing pain split his head. He had to stop, stop— struggling— listening— stop whatever was causing the pain. It was clearly his attempt at disobeying his Queen— the changeling—

The pain flared up like a bonfire, so intense that Sparkling Sky clutched at his head with both forehooves. He collapsed by the bed, hitting the bedstead face-first, but did not notice it at all.

A small bubble of lucidity had floated up to the surface of his disorganized mind. In a flash, he saw it —or rather felt it—in its entirety, as well as a presence within his head, clouding it and wrapping it in strands of an alien will like a spider creating a cocoon around its prey. In turn, the presence seemed to become aware of that, and the pain grew once again. This time, however, Sparkling Sky knew that it was there, that it was not just himself, and fought back against its influence.

Memories began to reappear one by one as he struggled to stand against the intrusive power pushing his mind back into disorder. The day before, there was an attack. A haggard patrol coming back. Monsters. Then, searching for information. After sunrise, a call from the King, and then the speech, the plan, the ponies’ departure. The changelings. As each of the thoughts resurfaced, Sparkling Sky’s mind became clearer, the pain lessened and others returned more quickly. The tide of the mental battle had turned.

Realizing this, he tried to dredge up as much as he could. The Keepers. Star Swirl. The ponies going away, and then the changelings attacking the castle, and the wizard on the roof falling to a spell. A changeling spell.

That was it! It all came back to him. The Queen was lying, she was a changeling and the castle had been overrun. He had to do something! The kingdom needed him! Everypony needed him!

He pushed back at the alien presence with all the mental strength he could muster, and it faltered, gradually shrunk to an infinitely small size and broke apart, dissipating along with the haze it had put his mind into. Sparkling Sky felt like he’d broken the surface of a deep lake in which he’d been drowning, shuddering and gasping for breath. He became aware of the fact that he was staring at a leg of his own bed, lying on the floor by its side, drenched in cold sweat and tangled in his robes.

Slowly recovering from shock, he sat up. There was a faint tinkling sound from his garment as he did so. He lifted its side and peered at the pocket it was coming from, recognizing it as the one where he’d put the sapphire sphere, and reached inside with his magic. What came out, however, was not the sphere, but several shards of the molded gemstone, split from the core.

‘It did what it was meant to,’ he thought matter-of-factly as he placed the remains of the gem on top of the nearby chest. The sapphire had definitely cracked because of the spell, most likely weakening it by absorbing as much of its power as it could. Perhaps he had it to thank for his escape from the changeling spell. Sparkling Sky was grateful that none of Star Swirl’s undocumented properties manifested themselves, or, at least, none of the weaknesses did, and that his trusty protective charm had saved him one last time. Perhaps the jeweler in Hornton could get it mended.

He tried to stand up, but his head swam. He managed to take a few groggy steps, but had to lean onto the corner of his bed for support. Sparkling Sky felt that he needed to act, to stop the changelings, but his mind did not seem to have recovered entirely, and neither did his body. He did need some rest, although not the way the changeling would’ve had him get it. Instead, he slumped against the bed’s side and tried to steady and clear his mind.

Sparkling Sky felt drained, shaken and shocked. He needed a new plan of action, and the situation was more dire than anything he could think of. But at the very least he was able to actually think for himself. With luck, that was something the changeling did not know.

~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~

The wine cellar was one of the last places where Golden Bracelet would’ve chosen to spend the day, but it was not without its advantages. He pushed an empty bottle aside towards others of its kind, causing several to fall over with a glassy clatter.

"Another!" he barked, and his serving filly obediently began to push her way through the thick crowd of ponies towards a half-depleted wine rack.

It was far too uncomfortable, being stuck with all the uncouth servants and his long-time rival, that despicable curmudgeon by the name of Crown Jewel, but the wine and staying far away from that snooty old imbecile helped make it almost tolerable. King Silver might’ve objected to such liberal consumption of the castle’s stock, but what he didn’t see wasn’t going to hurt him, and besides, Golden Bracelet believed he had just as much right to call the wine cellar his own. After all, his ancestors were the most powerful of the mages of old, frying Pegasi with lightning for sport, when Silver’s were attendants of their warriors, at best! No, they were attendants of those attendants! And his family dared to call themselves nobility, hah! Such insolent upstarts!

The old aristocrat cast a gaze around the cellars while he waited for that insufferably slow serving filly to bring him the next bottle. They were packed full: every single pony in the castle who did not have a role to play in that grand plan the King and his advisors had cooked up had been herded inside, much to the dismay of Golden Bracelet and the other nobles. While he understood perfectly well that the cellars were one of the safest and most defensible places in the castle and that it was in the interests of their own security, neither he nor the others were happy about the lack of basic comforts such as furniture and sitting pillows, the permanent chill of the cellars and, of course, the fact that everypony else, including all the lowly servants and the rest of their ilk was there with them.

Nevertheless, the nobles, including Golden Bracelet, had complied, but sitting on the cold stone floor next to a bunch of unwashed ponies from that hamlet outside, he was wishing he could take his words back. The hum of worried conversation all around him was wearing on his nerves, stretched thin enough as they were, and he was beginning to lose his patience.

Him, a member of the most ancient of the unicorn bloodlines, deprived of the privileges that were his by ancestral right, having to put up with crude commoners and even eat their horrible food to stave off hunger! He had to eat hay! Hay! Just thinking of it made Golden Bracelet livid. How dare Silver force this upon him! There was definitely going to be a lot to discuss afterwards.

The noble shifted his wine-fogged eyes towards the only entrance into the cellars. Even the pair of guardsponies flanking the door were of common blood. Muttering half-coherent things under his breath, he thought of the days of old, of the reign of Silver’s grandfather, the only one of his line truly worthy of respect. Although he was born long after the honorable stallion died, Golden Bracelet had been brought up on the tales of that glorious age, and back then, such things simply wouldn’t have been allowed.

No, the times had definitely changed for the worse. In the exalted past, only those of noble blood and valorous deeds were considered worthy of becoming the protectors of the realm, and now Silver, just as big a disgrace to his family’s honour as his father was, was employing a bunch of misfits only chosen because of how well they could hit things. There was absolutely no regard to their pedigree. Worse still was the fact that some young scions of the noble bloodlines still opted to serve the kingdom in such a way, but were often forced to do so under the command of dirty commoners. Taking orders from filthy peasants with the gall to call themselves officers! Unthinkable!

Of course, Golden Bracelet was not going to simply let it stand. Shortly after young Silver’s succession, he’d approached him about changing that senseless order of things his father had instituted. The silly foal proceeded to callously turn him down, replying to his concerns with senseless claims of it possessing “greater effectiveness” and being “easier to maintain”. After a heated debate with other aristocrats of the same opinion, Silver even said that this unnatural state of things was “better than when everypony was out for their own gain”. Preposterous! Such disrespect towards the nobility was simply unacceptable. Just remembering that conversation made Golden Bracelet’s temper flare up. After this travesty was over, he thought, he would try and persuade the others to raise the complaint once again.

At least those two lowly brutes by the door were keeping out of the proper unicorns’ way. There didn’t even seem to be any need for them: not a single sound had come from behind the door ever since it was locked. Golden Bracelet tried to raise a hoof to his chin, but missed thanks to the wine’s influence. What if Silver was playing a big practical joke on them all and there was nothing to actually fear? No monsters attacking anything, no danger to the kingdom. If that was so, then... then...

His serving filly appeared in front of him, levitating another bottle of wine by her side. The sight of the blessed nectar pulled him out of his already quite inebriated reverie. "Ah, splendid," he said, yanking the bottle towards himself with his own magic and gesturing for the filly to go somewhere else. Golden Bracelet wasn’t going to go and voice his discontent just yet. Not until after finishing that bottle. And maybe another after that.

7. Checkmate

Closer to the castle, the road evened out and became nearly flat. Having run up the smoothest part of the slope, it turned to follow the side of the mountain in a wavering line. The ponies’ destination was already in clear sight; there were no signs of the magical shield the castle was supposed to be protected by in case of danger, but Star Swirl did not know whether it was a good sign or not.

Neither he nor anypony else dared to take their eyes off the surrounding terrain. Everything continued to be strangely calm and peaceful, which, given the numbers the enemy had shown itself to possess, only meant they were waiting to strike. Everypony remained on edge, staring at boulders littering the slope either side of the road, watchful for any kind of movement. Some were also watching the skies above, wary that the clouds were just as likely to be used by the winged monsters to launch a surprise attack. An extremely tense silence hung in the air, interrupted only by the ponies’ hoofsteps on the muddy road and the incessant pattering of the rain.

As the road rounded a large mossy boulder, Lieutenant Moonlight raised a hoof, commanding everypony to stop. Star Swirl quickly turned to look where she was looking, thinking she’d spotted something, but the mare merely gestured for them to gather up.

“Here’s what we’re doing from here on,” she began in a quiet, clear voice when it was done. “We cover the remaining ground at as quick a canter as we can manage. Keep to the sidelines, the mud will only slow you down. When we reach the gates, we call the watchponies and they let us in. Then, Opal Beam and his squad go and check on the Keepers, and I take the rest of you to make sure the King and the civilians are safe. Then, we gather the wizards in the throne room and help them work out a new plan.”

“What if the changelings are already inside?” Star Swirl asked tentatively once she finished.

“Then we’ll have to improvise. We can only hope they aren’t. Try to make sure it’s really a pony you’re talking to. Ask them something. And always be on your guard. Anything else?” Answered with silence, Moonlight gave a curt nod and made a motion with her hoof again, ordering the party to move out.

Star Swirl followed the others around the bend, starting at a trot and gradually picking up the pace. Although he was beginning to feel quite tired from all the day’s adventures, he was not about to fall behind; after all, his survival could very well depend on whether he ran or not, which suppressed any urges to slow down. Kicking up the dirt, the group of ponies began to rush across the final stretch of the road that gently turned towards the hamlet in front of the castle bridge.

His eyes kept darting to the sides, towards the many boulders scattered here and there all over the slope. Star Swirl didn’t fancy himself a tactical genius, but if the changelings were going to ambush them at all, it was going to happen right there and—

One of the darker boulders he glanced at sprang up from the grass and leapt up into the air, spreading a pair of tattered wings and launching itself towards the ponies. Immediately, more “boulders” on either side of the road did the same.

“AMBUSH!” he cried out, nearly in unison with a few others.

“Keep running!” came Moonlight’s instant response from somewhere at the front. Star Swirl turned his head and pointed his horn at the first ambusher, which was rapidly closing in, and then launched a quick bolt-form knockback spell. By sheer luck, it found its mark and caused it to forcefully crash into the slope behind it. At the same time, a flash of Nightshade’s purple magic from ahead announced the fall of another attacker.

This left ten changelings barreling towards the ponies from both sides, as well as from behind. ‘And that’s against twenty ponies. We can take them,’ Star Swirl thought. Another part of his mind, however, reminded him that there were at least more than a hundred of the beasts, and it was simply impossible for just ten to lie in wait for them.

As if on cue, another call from the lieutenant rang out: “Faster, everypony! Full gallop, NOW!” Star Swirl pushed himself to run faster, keeping up with the others as they accelerated, and risked a glance over his shoulder. What he saw made his body pick up more speed entirely by itself: a great swarm of monsters, several times their own number, was emerging out of the woods they’d left behind and heading after them like a sentient, malevolent cloud of smoke.

He fixed his stare on the road ahead, beating his hooves against it madly as he put every last bit of effort into running as fast as he could, and it seemed that everypony else did just the same. His ears picked up the enemy swarm’s distant buzz, growing closer and louder by the moment, but he tried to shut it out. It was becoming harder to breathe, and his injured and hastily mended forehoof was beginning to ache, but if it was possible to choose the pace before, it was not now. Star Swirl literally ran for his life, mind clear of everything but fear and a wish to survive.

As the ponies were about halfway through their dash towards the castle, a burst of purple magic flew towards the sky from Lieutenant Moonlight’s horn and flared brightly. If anypony was still on guard in the castle, it would’ve been extremely hard for them to fail to notice the swarming monsters, but the flare, burning brightly for a few moments and illuminating all the surrounding landscape in mystic purples, was certain to attract somepony’s attention.

The original ten ambushers continued to pursue them as they ran on, but did not seem to try to close the remaining gap between themselves and their quarry. Instead, they were flying on either side of the group, staying near the ponies. There were several flashes of magic from the running guardsponies, but none of them managed to score a hit, the beasts easily dodging the poorly-aimed attacks. At the same time, the noise of the great swarm behind them was growing alarmingly quickly, which could only mean that they could go faster than that. Why weren’t they?

As they reached the outlying homes of the hamlet in front of the castle, the vanguard of the changeling swarm was just a few pony lengths behind their tails. The slowest runners began to falter and struggle to maintain speed, but strangely, the beasts did not seem to want to take advantage of that. Instead, most continued to chase the party while others split up and flanked it, not seeming about to strike either but blocking all passages through the gaps between houses.

The group of ponies sped across the hamlet and reached the bridge. The changelings rolled around and above the houses like a great wave, but suddenly and rapidly began to slow down once the unicorns charged past the last building. Surprised, Star Swirl looked back at them as he galloped down the bridge among the first of the ponies.

Then there was a muted, low-pitched ‘wooom’, which he barely noticed through the rushing wind in his ears. It was followed by his hooves and chest impacting against something, which bounced him backwards and into a guardspony, nearly knocking her over. Staggering, Star Swirl turned to look at the unexpected obstacle and froze.

Right in front of him, gently curving around the entirety of the castle and shimmering with sparks of magenta, was the great magical barrier.

~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~

Sunflower sat by the side of a prone guardspony, levitating a bucket of water to the healer tending to his injuries. There were numerous cuts, lacerations and other wounds, but, according to the healer mare, none of them life-threatening. She leaned towards him and whispered softly: “Don’t worry. It will be alright,” but the stallion probably couldn’t hear her, put to merciful sleep by the healer’s spells.

She was wishing for it all to be a bad dream, but at the same time knew it was real. They were stuck in a cave, so many were wounded, all medical aids ran out hours ago, and now food was almost gone too. As for water, the few intact vessels found in the cave had to be brought outside and filled with rainwater, and only after magical cleansing was it possible to use it for anything. There were two barrels by one of the ceiling supports, containing the last remaining water supply—since the outrunners departed, everypony hunkered down inside the cave and didn’t dare to go and refill them.

Sunflower turned to look at the dark mouth of the tunnel, the only exit from the cave. She shivered with anxiety, hoping fervently that the plan would be successful, and didn’t dare to let herself think of the consequences of otherwise. Instead, her mind conjured the memory of the battlefield, which was probably worse: the horrible hissing growls and roars, the dark monsters buzzing overhead, falling upon everypony and mauling and rending and biting—all of this rushed to fill her head, and she almost yelped out loud, trying to stop the surge of fearful recollection.

As she always did in such situations, she turned this way and that, trying to find Dawn Gleam among the ponies in the cave. Finally, she spotted his dirt-matted, but nonetheless distinctive orange cape in between a pair of guardsponies not far from the tunnel, and, seeing that the healer mare no longer needed her help, darted towards him.

He looked in her direction as she approached, and his expression shifted from stern neutrality to a soft smile. “Is anything wrong, Sunflower?” he said warmly.

“No, not really. I just...” she began awkwardly, but stopped as her mentor looked at her with a knowing, reassuring gaze. The two guards he was with, a stallion and a mare who she recognized as Comet Trail, nodded in understanding.

“Don’t worry. I’m here. We’re going to win, Sunflower. Stop worrying yourself silly,” he said, reaching a hoof out to touch her chin and raise it slightly, looking her in the face.

She smiled, feeling the fearful apparitions in her mind drain away under Dawn Gleam’s warm eyes. Sunflower felt safer by just being near the stallion. He’d always been so supportive, caring, kind—what an ideal father should be. Like an ideal parent she never had. She would never have been able to achieve as much as she already did if he hadn’t taken her in. And in the Keeper’s soft gaze, she could see that he cared for her as he would after his own daughter, which he’d proven many times over through word and deed alike.

There was a piercing screech from the tunnel. The sudden noise made Sunflower twist around just in time to see a monster leaping at her, its terrible sharp-toothed maw wide open and its eyes burning with malice even through their solid cyan colour. Fear jolted through her body and mind alike, rooting her in place, helpless before the beast.

Comet Trail snapped around with quickness surprising for somepony in such heavy armour. A sword flew out of a scabbard on her back in a haze of magic, whirling in the air as it interposed itself between Sunflower and the airborne monster. Before it could react, the weapon swung in a vertical arc and shot upwards, slicing through the beast’s chest and piercing its head. The sword’s tip emerged between the changeling’s baleful eyes, which immediately lost their fire as its body jerked once and swung downwards, hanging limply off the sword.

Sunflower stood transfixed by the sight. The guard mare proceeded to magically pull the sword back out of the monster. It was stained with some sort of ichor, and as she swung it aside, readying for another attack, some of it flew off and splattered across Sunflower’s head and mane. An overwhelming bout of nausea hit her, which she contained, but only just.

There were more howls and screeches in the tunnel, not very far away. They were followed by Dawn Gleam’s voice calling “Sunflower! Cast the barrier spell! We can’t let them in!”

Shaken, she felt herself beginning to lock up and freeze in terror. Looking at her mentor, however, she saw his expression—an unusual mix of reassurance and determination, as if he was silently saying ‘You can do it, and you have to.’ Her mind latched onto that, staving off the panic attack. She could do it, she was the only one who could, and everypony depended on her doing it. And she was not going to fail them.

Sunflower concentrated and rapidly wove together the barrier spell she’d chosen. Her horn flared with blue, and a curtain of magical energy shimmered into being across the mouth of the tunnel before her with a hum. The glow dissipated, but the shield remained, and so did the draw of the spell, manifesting itself as a curious sensation: it was as if she were the top half of an hourglass, with the spell sapping her power with nearly imperceptible slowness.

Just as she finished casting the barrier, the lit lantern in the tunnel beyond went out. Moments later, the magical wall crackled as a changeling slammed into it head-first, followed by another, and another, and many more. The tunnel, dammed by the shield, rapidly filled up with a throng of monsters pushing against it. Sunflower could hear their hissing calls and see their fearful shapes, but what she couldn’t feel was their impact against her magic, and despite the shock and fear that had nearly jumbled her mind, part of her felt an urge to smirk. She’d definitely chosen the right spell.

Dawn Gleam looked at her with pride, causing some of her fear to melt away. “Good job, Sunflower. Now you just need to keep the spell up.”

She nodded, looking at the beasts crowding outside the shield as they began to hammer on it. Her mentor’s continuing presence was calming her, stilling the storm of emotions and letting her mind slip into determined focus. She could do it. Barrier magic was what she knew best. No swarm of monsters was going to enter the cave, not while she was protecting it. She would not fail.

~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~

Queen Chrysalis was smiling. It was a rare smile, one of unrestrained joy and happiness. She had won. The unicorns were hers. Finally, after all the hunger and suffering, she and her changelings had a supply of love large enough to feed them all, without anything threatening to interrupt their feast. She thought of the power they all would gain from consuming the feelings of an entire kingdom and, unable and unwilling to restrain herself, burst into mirthful laughter.

The day had been just perfect. Despite the setbacks and troubles along the way, her plan had come to fruition. She almost felt thankful to the threat of the windigoes’ impending arrival: they’d spurred her to act sooner than she wanted, but seeing as victory was hers, it only meant she and her minions gained a comfortable feeding ground much sooner than expected. Given some time to consume the ponies’ love, they’d grow so powerful as to be unstoppable. Each of her subjects would count for a dozen of those frozen abominations! And so, yet another victory was all but secured for her kind.

She began to trot forwards in an excessively slow, indolent way, savouring the moment. Outside, the entertainment was ready and waiting for her. The last speck of unicorn resistance, pinned helplessly against their very own shield, just as she wanted. She smirked contentedly, admiring the precision with which she’d given the synchronous command for the spell to be cast to those ponies who were to maintain it. She certainly wouldn’t have managed something so graceful with the old magics. Her spells were the future. There were still weaknesses and irregularities, but they weren’t anything she couldn’t solve without giving them more practice.

Luckily, there were still two more pony tribes to test all of the spells on. Momentarily, she entertained the idea of simply imposing her dominion on them using the power gained from feeding on the unicorns, but discarded it as the reasons against this course of action presented themselves.

Firstly, it could diminish the amount of love she would gain. She didn’t want her little ponies dead, she wanted them subservient and ready for having whatever love they had harvested. They were more prone to hatred than love as they were, and diminishing their numbers would only be for the worse.

Secondly, it would’ve been far more convenient to subvert them. If she took care not to reveal the changelings’ presence, the ponies would remain ignorant of her takeover. That would put her in the perfect position for controlling them, with many more options than brute force. She could employ the tribes’ existing government to fool the populace, which could work well with the regimented society of the Pegasi, and control the smaller, tighter-knit communities of the Earth ponies using a more direct and magical approach.

And of course, beating and magicking everypony into submission was far more troublesome and less satisfying than undermining them with a beautiful and elegant scheme, expending little effort for great gains. It could’ve been enough for some other, lesser mind, but Chrysalis would not have been satisfied with such an inefficient way.

The pegasi had already proven themselves to be easy to fool: it only took a couple of fake messengers for them to forget about everything and unwittingly give her changelings complete freedom of action. They didn’t suspect anything, even when both the unicorns and the Earth ponies suddenly cut all ties and annulled every agreement via letters delivered at nearly the same time. Their stupidity was nothing short of astounding.

She paused midway through the great hall as another idea struck her. She could use her enemies to further her own goals. The windigoes’ arrival would’ve been the perfect explanation for the sudden discord among ponykind, and while she intended to crush the icy fiends into oblivion the moment they showed themselves anywhere near her lands, the ponies didn’t have to know that. She could use her empowered changelings to infiltrate the tribes, which would be much easier in an atmosphere of crisis. Using this as an inroad, she could subjugate the Earth ponies and the Pegasi quickly and neatly.

Chrysalis giggled to herself gleefully, resuming her slow walk of triumph. This seemed like the start of another good plan. Given some deliberation, it could just be the thing that would secure the changelings’ place as the rulers of ponykind and the world.

But it was time to let her mind relax a little bit. As she neared the great double doors leading outside, she thought about the more distant future. What was she going to do after all the work was done and the ponies were hers?

First of all, she’d have to preserve all three pony tribes, as each of them possessed some sort of skill that helped the other two to survive. The unicorns’ power over the sun and the moon meant she would have to keep them if she wanted the usual day cycle to continue; she wasn’t about to try to find out whether it would if the unicorns went extinct. The proficiency with weather control that the pegasi possessed made them valuable and easily maintained servants, and besides, she liked the weather’s ability to change, as it reminded her of the changelings’ shapeshifting. The Earth ponies were quite useful if she wanted to have easily grown food for the other two tribes, but their agriculture was often dependent on the other pony tribes’ unique abilities.

Agriculture. The notion lingered in her head as a smirk spread across her face. Yes, it was going to be just like the Earth ponies’ farming. She would cultivate and nurture her little ponies, exterminate the negative ideas such as hatred and discord like weeds and pests, help them find their love and then harvest their sweet, sweet emotions. She would split the ponies in love up and have a minion of hers impersonate both, so as to not let any of it be wasted. And being Queen, she would have the finest pick of only the sweetest and most intense feelings.

Chrysalis giggled uncontrollably as she thought of this happy future. Even the ponies would be unable to complain, had someone been asking their opinion. A love filled with peace and love and free of hatred and disharmony—was it not what they always wanted, what they always struggled for? Of course, their love would go to herself and her changelings, but they could only eat so much at a time. Clearly, her order was preferable to the life of misery and conflict they were leading.

She stopped before the exit, eyeing the intricately decorated doors in front of her. The future was bright and in her reach. However, there were still many things to be done to achieve it. After those silly guards were subdued, she only needed to have her subjects remove the traces of combat and inform the scared unicorns in the cellars that everything had been put right. And, of course, determine which of the ponies would be able to quickly provide food for her changelings, and visit the prisoner storage to do the same.

She pushed at the doors with her magic, and they flew open before her, crashing against the walls outside. What she was going to do later, was going to be done later. Now, however, was the time to enjoy herself and witness the end of the Unicorn kingdom.

8. Defiance

Sparkling Sky was standing by the potion-mixing set, counting under his breath as he measured the dosage of the last component of a quickly made revitalizing tonic. From past experience he knew that while its effects were spectacular, he was going to feel a lot worse a day after consuming it. However, should he have chosen not to make it, that day could never come. He had to be in perfect shape, or at least a temporary surrogate of such.

The purple flare that had gone up a few minutes before had spurred him into frantic action. Through the windows, Sparkling Sky saw the guards rush to the castle, trying to outrun a pursuing horde of airborne changelings. He saw the magical shield go up and leave them stuck outside. Strangely, however, what happened next was completely unexpected: the changelings surrounded the ponies on the bridge from all sides, but, instead of attacking, remained at a distance and kept the ponies pinned.

Seeing this sent Sparkling Sky into frenzied activity. He had to help the surrounded guards, and while he realized he wouldn’t be able to defeat an entire army of changelings, he could do something about the shield, or more precisely, about the Keepers maintaining it. Its appearance proved that the monster disguised as Queen Amethyst wasn’t bluffing and that at least several Keepers were under its control, enough to cast the shield-conjuring spell. If he could reach them and break the changeling’s enchantments, he could gain their help and weaken the shield, and while he couldn’t deal with the invaders alone, having the rest of the Circle free and on his side could just be enough to stop them. After all, they were the best and most talented wizards the Unicorn tribe had to offer.

The potion went through a swirl of colours as he stirred it, finally settling on a lively cerise. Sparkling Sky cast the feather aside, grasped the small mixing bowl it was in with telekinesis and downed it in one go. Immediately he felt new energy spreading through his body, washing away the tiredness and making him feel younger by a few decades at least. Yes, his old idea of adding a finely powdered phoenix feather certainly improved the effects.

Now he was ready. Before rushing out towards the closest posting of a Circle wizard, however, Sparkling Sky walked over to the closest window to check on the situation. Through the shield’s glimmering magenta, he could see the enemy swarm exactly how it was, which meant they hadn’t attacked yet. However, in the previously empty courtyard there was one pony, or rather one changeling—the one looking like the Queen. It was walking towards the closest stairway leading onto the castle walls, slowly yet purposefully.

The old Keeper’s mind fired up once again. In his room, that thing behaved like it was leading the invasion and had enthralled all the unicorns. Now, in the courtyard, it was far away from other changelings or separated from them by the shield, and probably not expecting an attack. He knew of a fatal weakness it seemed to have ignored, the faulty crown that he could still see glinting faintly atop its head. If he was to take it out, it would probably also leave the spells it was maintaining with no power, as it usually was with wielders of magic.

All of this meant that Sparkling Sky was in the perfect position to strike at the changeling spellcaster, which would most likely result in the freeing of everypony under its magics. Now that he thought of it, breaking its control over one of the Keepers channeling the shield would probably draw its attention, at least through the weakening of the shield itself, and likely warn it of his plans, which would spell his doom. Taking the monster out, however, could solve it all in one quick move. There were still the numerous other changelings to deal with, especially with the shield disabled, but the old unicorn felt certain that the Circle would drive them off.

And looking at the great swarm of changelings beyond the shield, he realized that he was ready to stand his ground against them to give the Keepers time to regroup. Maybe it was due to the revitalizing potion affecting him, but he did not feel nearly as afraid as he was before. He was the last free unicorn that could make a difference. His kingdom and all his friends truly needed him. And he, Sparkling Sky the Spellslinger, champion duelist of the realm and Keeper of the Circle of Day and Night, would not be found wanting in the hour of need.

There was only one problem—getting to the changeling quickly. It was already ascending the stairs to the wall, and whatever it was planning to do, it was not good. Running through the keep was out of question, as there were definitely more of those beasts roaming the castle that could slow him down and warn his quarry. With how high up the tower his chambers were, he was only left with magical means, and he didn’t have a spell for dropping from such heights safely.

But he did have something that could work, even better than a slow-fall spell: his latest project, the most difficult he’d attempted on his own. Quickly, he dashed back among the desks and up to the central one. It was in a state of organized chaos, but atop the pile of notes, books and parchment was a single neat page containing a complex spell. It was Sparkling Sky’s most recent achievement, and one he considered indispensable to the future of the Unicorn tribe—a reliable teleportation spell.

He snatched the page off the desk and held it in front of himself in a magical grip. He was proud of what he’d managed to do with it. Teleportation used to be considered a last resort, too imprecise and unreliable for practical use; it was just as likely to get a pony to where they intended to go as into the ground or the sky. Attempts to improve it never ceased, although the research had long since stopped producing any results. Sparkling Sky changed that—taking a completely new approach, he’d gone to work and, after several months, produced a functioning, reliable spell that a unicorn could use to teleport themselves. There were still great limitations: it could only be used with a direct line of sight on the target area and only at short distances, and also required the user to be highly talented and have exceptional control over their magic, but their resolution was only a matter of time now that the breakthrough had been made. However, even this limited spell was perfect for what Sparkling Sky needed to do.

He quickly went through his options, of which there were only two. He could dash to the top of the tower and teleport from there, but he knew that it was the posting of another Keeper; seeing as the changeling claimed to have them all under its control, he didn’t want to risk it. Alternatively, he could do it right from his chambers, but he’d need to clear the line of sight first. The latter was much easier and faster: he’d only need to break through one of the windows.

He rushed towards the closest one with a view of the courtyard, but in his hurry hit a table with a shoulder, causing its contents to scatter all over the floor. Staggering aside while trying to keep the teleportation spell formula aloft, he nearly slipped on a fallen book and knocked it away, causing a piece of parchment to fall out of it and spin in midair, falling right in front of him. On its old and wrinkled surface there were several symbols, forming a spell. Sparkling Sky paused to look at it and immediately remembered what it was: the temporal displacement spell, one of the few spells of time magic he’d ever tried to cast and the first one that worked. It probably wasn’t going to help him against the changeling controller or be of much use against their swarm, but, he reasoned, it was better to have the option than not. While he knew it by heart, he nevertheless felt a foalish urge to take the scrap of parchment with him, as if it was going to help him should he have to cast it.

Tucking the spell away in his robes, he stepped up to the window and looked outside. The changeling was approaching the gate’s arch, the battlements of which were overlooking the bridge and the ponies trapped there. It was clearly going to do something, and Sparkling Sky intended to stop it. He took a step aside and concentrated on the window’s frame, then pulled it inward as sharply as he could. There was a muted wooden crack and it came loose, hanging askew in the Keeper’s levitation field, then was lowered onto the floor. A gust of raindrop-filled wind immediately swept into the room, throwing many pages and scrolls off the desks and casting them about.

Sparkling Sky stepped up to the now-bare window and focused on the spot on the walls he’d chosen as the teleportation spell’s target, a short way away from the arch but close enough for him to attack the changeling as soon as he was there. He put the formula on the windowsill, pressed it down against the wind with his hoof and started to construct the spell in his mind. Given its complexity and the amount of power it required, it was going to take a bit of time.

~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~

Opal Beam looked upon the army of changelings surrounding the bridge. There was little more to look at—their bodies, unsettlingly reminiscent of overgrown black wasps, obscured most of the landscape. The sole exception to that was the castle’s shield, against which the small group of unicorns was pinned. This strange inaction was stretching his nerves taut, only worsened by the oppressive buzzing of the monsters’ wings.

He had no idea what had happened, but felt certain that their plans had been dashed. The shield should not have gone up when it did, but at the first sight of the enemy, and the giant dark swarm couldn’t have been hard to spot. It being cast just as they reached the bridge was bound to be deliberate. It was a trap.

“Everypony, look! It’s the Queen!” one of the guards shouted behind him.

Opal Beam and most other guards turned around to see the unmistakable purplish mare in an exquisite gown step up to the edge of the gatehouse’s crenellations. He looked at her expectantly, hoping that she’d come with a solution, something that could save them all, but Queen Amethyst simply stood there in silence, observing the scene.

She placed one hoof atop the parapet, looked up with a smirk at the changelings above and pointed the other at the pinned unicorns below. In a shrill voice, she cried out: “SEIZE THEM!”

As one, the beasts all around them answered the command, roaring and screeching calls of their own, and surged forwards, rapidly closing the gap between themselves and the ponies, who stepped back against the shield and closer together and braced themselves.

Lieutenant Moonlight took a glance at the ponies on either side of her. “Only one order, everypony,” she said over the rising din. “Fight to the last.”

‘This is it,’ Opal Beam thought. The Queen was an impostor, and the castle must have fallen. The shield meant the Keepers, the unicorns’ last hope, were somehow on its side. The ponies in the mine were not going to get help. The kingdom was doomed.

And behind them, on the walls, the Queen burst into malicious, cruel laughter.

He was shocked, horrified and saddened, but if there was one thing Opal Beam was certain in that moment, looking upon the charging monsters about to crash into the guards like a great wave, it was this: he was not going to disregard Moonlight’s final order, and neither were the others. The last unicorns would go down fighting. Grim determination surging into his mind and drowning out everything else, he stood firm and charged up the most powerful knockback spell he knew.

Moments later, the changelings came into range, and Opal Beam released his magic, as did several other guards and both of the wizards. Blasts of force and energy and a gout of mystic fire met the enemy charge, sending beasts hurtling right back into the others, zapping them and setting them aflame, and while this stopped dozens, dozens more continued to barrel forth, screeching a deafening battle cry. Raising their weapons and shields to meet the attackers, the ponies stood fast and prepared for their last battle.

The impact of the changeling charge was strong enough to knock some ponies’ armaments away. With so many converging on so few, the changelings interfered with or even crashed into one another, but the resulting press of dark bodies bearing down on the unicorns was effective enough. Opal Beam was forced onto the cobbled surface of the bridge by the scores of snapping maws and flailing hooves, trying his best to parry the attacks coming his way as he channeled his magic into another spell that would blast the enemy away and give him some breathing room.

He unleashed the spell as soon as it was ready. It flung the closest beasts back, the wave of force piling them into the others and dragging more along. The mass of monsters wavered, allowing him to stand up and fight rather than struggle to avoid being overwhelmed.

Around him, the other ponies fought their own frantic private battles. Iron Vein was being bogged down by at least a dozen attackers, and despite his strength and martial skill, the changelings were forcing him down little by little. Thistlethorn, miraculously, remained on his hooves, dodging and weaving aside from the enemy’s lunges and slashing wildly, hitting a beast whenever he swung due to how many there were. Further away, Star Swirl was standing side to side with Keeper Nightshade and Lieutenant Moonlight, magical sparks of orange, purple and deep blue raining from their horns as they slung spell after spell at the changelings, but the small storm of arcane lightning and fire they were producing was barely enough to keep the beasts away from them.

More beasts dove at Opal Beam, and he kicked at them with his forehooves, the heavy armoured boots protecting them as effective as any weapon. The monsters recoiled, and he pressed his perceived advantage, stepping away from the shield; as if waiting for that, three more dropped out of the swarm above, landing onto his back and latching onto his armour with their jagged legs. He stumbled under their weight, and his original attackers leapt back at him, one of them delivering a heavy kick on the side of his helmet.

Opal Beam’s head flared with pain, feeling like a stricken bell, throbbing and ringing. His assailants wasted no time, grasping and snapping their jaws at him, and quickly locked all four of his hooves in an unshakable grip. He tried to struggle, but they snapped open their insect-like wings and immediately took off, carrying him with ease. He tried to remember a spell that could help, but the kick to the head had dazed him, throwing his mind into disarray. The changelings pulled up and headed towards the side of the bridge. ‘They’re going to drop me off!’ he thought with fear and tried to wriggle free, but the beasts’ grasp was strong like steel.

Just as they were about to cross the edge of the bridge, Opal Beam felt the monsters’ hold on his rear legs slacken and disappear. The others dipped lower under the increased load, colliding with another changeling, which sent them off course and back towards the shield. It was followed by a sharp pull on his armour, and two monsters that were holding his midsection hurtled away. The remaining two beasts tried to hold him up by the front legs, but he began to sway and kick at them with his rear hooves, making them drop even lower and closer to the cobbles below.

A narrow beam of orange hit the leftmost changeling, causing it to release him and fall down like a rock. The only would-be captor to remain responded by lowering its head and biting down on his right leg. Before it could sink its fangs deeper in, Opal Beam smashed his freed left forehoof into the side of its head; it jerked once and its wings stopped, causing them both to plummet towards the bridge below. Luckily, there was only a short distance to fall, and hitting the stones didn’t result in anything but a burst of pain.

Opal Beam freed his leg from the knocked-out changeling’s maw and looked back at his rescuers: Star Swirl and Lieutenant Moonlight were already taking on another oncoming group of monsters. He turned around just in time to raise his hooves and meet yet another changeling’s charge, and both of them tumbled to the cobbles. Opal Beam landed onto his back while his new attacker managed to stay upright, of which it immediately took advantage and pounced onto him, trying to strike at the weak spots of his armour. Its jaws snapped dangerously close to his face as he tried to knock it off, but the beast seemed to ignore his flurry of kicks and punches. His mind, scrambled by the chaos of the melee, failed to turn up any spells.

Then, a bright flare came from the direction of the gate. A moment later came the scream: a terrible, blood-curdling wail of agony loud enough to drown out every other sound. Opal Beam felt himself going rigid, and it looked like his changeling opponent was experiencing the same. The scream went on, and the sensation strengthened; he shuddered as he began to lose feeling in his legs and tried to shake life back into them. Meanwhile, the monster that was attacking him turned its head to the gate and stopped moving completely.

Opal Beam shoved the beast aside, and it fell down without resisting or even changing its pose, as if petrified. This looked like the work of a spell. Shaking off the last of the unpleasant heaviness in his limbs, he stood up. The horrifying scream had ceased. Around him, everypony and everything seemed to be suffering from the same effects, but while the unicorns were shaking them off, the changelings had become perfectly still. Not about to waste the opportunity, the guardsponies freed themselves from their immobile opponents’ clutches and kicked them away, regrouping in the middle of the bridge. Just above the walls, the obviously magical white flare was losing its brilliance.

Something was missing, though, and it took Opal Beam a moment to realize what it was: the flare’s light was untinted by the great magenta shield. The wall of magic had vanished.

There was a flash of red light, it source obscured by the battlements. It was followed by another, this one a vivid green, replacing the fading glow in the air above it. In the sudden silence, Opal Beam could hear the crackle of magical power accompanying them. Knocking the statue-like monsters out of the way, he rushed to Lieutenant Moonlight.

“Lieutenant, we need to get to the gate! Right now!” he called out. “The shield is down, this is our chance!”

“We can’t break through the gate on our own, sergeant,” she said, but it seemed that she got his idea—what if the shield went back up again?

“Doesn’t matter, get everypony up to the doors! And make sure there’re no changelings inside the shield range!” Not even waiting for an order, Opal Beam dashed for the end of the bridge.

“He’s right. To the gate, everypony, now!” the Lieutenant called out behind him. He ran on past where the shield had stopped them and onwards to the gate, ignoring the inrush of pain in his battered legs.

And then a creature rose into the air from the gatehouse’s crenellations. It was just like a changeling, except twice or thrice as big as one; large, insect-like tattered wings and hole-ridden hooves and a dark body all pointed to its relation to them. From its head protruded a great twisted horn-like spike, brimming with an acidic green glow. A beam erupted from its tip towards some target on the walls.

It turned towards the bridge, its oversized eyes glaring at the ponies, and the light around its horn intensified to a single powerful pulse. After a few moments, a low-pitched hum began to fill the air, steadily growing in volume. Another red flash drew its attention; it whirled aside as an immense bolt of red magic zipped through where it was a moment ago. Screeching something unintelligible, it dove behind the gate and out of sight.

“Move! Move!” Opal Beam called to the other ponies. Most of them stayed put, staring at the new strange monster above their castle; only Lieutenant Moonlight, Keeper Nightshade and his own remaining squad—Iron Vein, Thistlethorn and Star Swirl—followed his example. Just as they were about to cross the line the shield had been occupying, the air around it seemed to shimmer.

“Shield’s coming back up!” He shouted as the members of his squad leapt ahead and through the intensifying haze of magic. Then, with a ‘whooumm’-like sound, the magical barrier came into existence once again; Lieutenant Moonlight crashed into it a moment later, unable to stop in time.

Behind the unicorns left on the outside, the paralyzed changelings began to stir. Moonlight staggered away from the shield, regaining her composure, and turned back to her ponies.

“Get them! Quick, before they wake up!”

Despite how rapidly the situation changed once again, the guardsponies didn’t have to be told twice this time, attacking the monsters and kicking and shoving them aside and away and clearing out some space in front of the shield. The beasts were coming around alarmingly quickly; already some of them were issuing growls and hisses, and a few were getting back up. Even with the ponies’ best efforts, they couldn’t come anywhere near evening the odds in time.

“Forget it, get back to me! Nightshade, we need a shield!” she yelled.

Just as the last pony got in range, Nightshade’s horn flared with purple and a hemisphere of magic surrounded the remaining unicorns. As it did so, the first reawakened changeling slammed against it and began to hammer furiously on its surface, denied its prey. Lieutenant Moonlight turned back to Opal Beam.

“Sergeant Opal Beam, listen,” she said in a stern, level voice, dissonant with the chaotic situation. “That beast is definitely fighting someone of ours. I order you to break down that gate and bring it down.”

“What?” He replied in an incredulous voice. “But we can’t break it, you said so yourself—”

“Try to, ask the apprentice, just bring the thing down and get in. You saw what happened. If you get that monster, we may just win.”

“But—”

“We’ll manage. Go! Orders are to be fulfilled, sergeant!”

Opal Beam blinked several times. If what had been happening the past half an hour was insanity, then this was something of a deeper sort. He looked at his squadmates, who seemed just as mystified as himself. His mind stalled.

That stupor was broken by a cracking sound behind them. Turning, he saw piercing green light coming through the crack between the castle gate’s immense halves. Then, a glowing spot of the same colour appeared in the middle of the right door, quickly growing and spreading across half of it. With a deep creak, the door, made of solid enchanted wood, slowly swung ajar.

Leaving the sheer, nearly contrived-seeming craziness of it all for later, Opal Beam cantered to the gate. He could see red and green lights flashing in between and under the doors, and so kept to the left, trying to remain hidden from whatever was going on. The other three unicorns followed suit.

The right half of the gate, made of enchanted wood so ancient as to be stone-like, had a great hole burned through most of its width. Its edges were smouldering and dripping chips of wood that turned into dust in midair. More impressive still was that the great metal bar that had been holding the gate shut was lying on the stones underneath, torn asunder.

Just as he stepped up with his side against the other door, a green beam pierced the air in between the gate halves, grazing the edge of the damaged one and coming to a stop at the inside of the castle’s shield, apparently dissipated. At its touch, the gate’s wood shrunk and blackened, as if scorched and rotting away at the same time, and crumbled into flakes, which then became ash as they drifted downwards.

Opal Beam risked a glance in between the halves, towards where the deadly beam had come from. In the middle of the courtyard, there was a silhouette of a unicorn in robes against a blazing green light. Magical lightning arced and stabbed into the ground by his sides. In a few moments, the green glare dimmed, and an explosion of red took its place; a wave of energy radiated outwards from the caped wizard. The giant creature from before zoomed up into the air, out of the way of the blast, which rolled on and impacted against the keep’s entrance.

There was a thunderous crash as the double doors leading into the great hall bent and were flung inwards along with much of the stone archway. Many blocks fell down from the wall above in a cloud of dust. Meanwhile, the giant changeling darted to the right, the glow crowning its head heralding another incoming attack. The unicorn seemed to expect that and leapt aside just as it went off, and a ray of green cut into the courtyard where he was standing a moment before.

An unearthly wind tugged at the unicorn’s robes as a thin red line shone in the air in between his horn and the monster, and a sheath of magic enveloped it. Immediately, it was jerked violently out of its place and through the air on a curved path around the wizard, spinning and twisting in every direction as it went. It let out something in between a scream and a shout, still projecting its destructive beam that wandered all across the surroundings, leaving a dark groove on everything it touched.

“Midnight Star’s Mobile Centerpoint spell!” came Star Swirl’s awed voice from behind Opal Beam.

The magical pull brought the beast above the courtyard in a semi-circle and onto a collision course with one of the great windows. On the final stretch, it sped up and crashed through the tall frame, breaking what little of it was left unharmed by the earlier blast and disappearing beyond.

The unicorn’s shining horn dimmed and went out, and his flowing cape, mane and beard settled back down. Now, without the spells’ glaring light, Opal Beam recognized the stallion as Keeper Sparkling Sky. He turned towards the gate, shouting as he spotted the onlooking ponies:

“Star Swirl, you’re here! Help me take it out! It’s controlling the Circle! If we do it, we can win this!”

Then, the Keeper turned back and started towards the keep’s broken entrance at a run. No orders needed to be given; Opal Beam rushed into the courtyard and after him, the others galloping behind. Sparkling Sky went into the keep as soon as he reached it, when they were only halfway, and as they drew closer, the darkness behind the shattered doorway was coloured with successive flashes of red and green. Star Swirl was the first to the steps leading up to it and cleared them with surprising agility and speed, but had to swerve aside as a red bolt hurtled out of the entrance. No other loose spells followed, and the squad dashed inside.

Through the dust of the collapsed doorway, Opal Beam saw the giant changeling and Sparkling Sky locked in combat once again. It was on the offensive, pushing the unicorn back towards the doors of the throne room. The Keeper was projecting a hemisphere of magic in between himself and the beast, which reflected the beams it was casting into random spots all over the hall. The changeling was advancing without weakening the onslaught for even a moment, forcing him to defend himself. Its large wings that it had been using to great advantage outside looked crumpled and stuck out at odd angles, likely damaged in the crash.

“Take cover behind the pillars!” ordered Opal Beam, quickly charging up a spell to draw the monster’s attention. He let it fly as a bolt as soon as it was ready, and it struck the back of the changeling’s neck. It shuddered and paused its attacks, giving Sparkling Sky an opening; the wizard’s barrier exploded into a burst of energy which collided with the monster and knocked it off its balance.

Opal Beam ran to take cover behind the nearest pillar to his left as its head twisted around and a ray of magic leapt from its horn in his direction. While it was distracted, Sparkling Sky began to charge some sort of powerful spell, but it didn’t escape the beast’s attention; it whirled around again and let loose another spell, forcing the Keeper to abandon it and cast a barrier again.

“Foals! How dare you defy your Queen!?” a grating, distorted mare-like voice rang out. “You’ve already lost!”

On the other side of the great hall, Star Swirl had snuck behind the pillars all the way to the opposite corner, apparently trying to strike from where the beast didn’t expect an attack. He was proven wrong as the changeling’s horn flared to a blinding brightness, forcing everypony to avert their eyes; the sound of a powerful magical discharge followed, and looking back, Opal Beam saw the pillar behind which Star Swirl was trying to hide glow green. The apprentice wizard darted out from behind it, apparently safe and sound, but the same was not true for the monolithic rock of the pillar: with a deep cracking sound, its top broke free of the ceiling and the part of the gallery it was upholding was torn out, and it canted precariously towards the center of the hall.

“HA!” Exclaimed the changeling, and its horn flared once again. The pillar wobbled, then leaned towards the throne room doors and Sparkling Sky, then began to fall. At the same time, the monster broke into a run, horn still burning bright. Sparkling Sky turned his attention to the great mass of rock about to smash him into the floor and tried to stop it with his magic; the monster charged past and into the door full tilt, and they were blown off the hinges and into the room beyond by whatever magic she had prepared. The great mass of stone that was the pillar was already halfway through its descent, only slightly slowed down by the Keeper’s efforts.

Without hesitation, Sparkling Sky leapt through the doorway after his opponent. Opal Beam, together with Star Swirl and Iron Vein, tried to stop the pillar’s hastening fall like the Keeper did, but he found himself unable to even grasp at the enchanted rock with his magic. A moment later, it smashed into the floor with a boom that shook the castle, its top gouging out the top of the empty doorway and blocking it completely. Through the remaining empty spaces, green and red lights could be seen in the throne room, accompanied by crackling booms: the battle had resumed again.

Opal Beam quickly looked at the doors along the sides of the hall. His ponies couldn’t break this pillar or the walls around it, made with the same excessive durability in mind. They had to go around.

Iron Vein pointed out a door under the stairs of the left-side gallery. “The fastest way is through the food storage and the kitchens.”

“Right! Then cut through the dining hall and we’re there. Everypony, move! Quickly!” Opal Beam shouted and darted for the indicated door. Thankfully, it was unlocked. The ponies rushed through and into the dark, curved corridor beyond.

Speeding down its length, Opal Beam felt a focused determination overtake all his senses, blocking out the pain of his injuries and bringing out his remaining strength. This was indeed it, but not like it was on the bridge. Now, his squad could make all the difference. The rhythmic, unfaltering hoofbeats of his colts behind proved that they were of the same mind as himself: they would not be found wanting in their kingdom’s darkest hour.

9. Fading Light

The air in the cave was becoming harder and harder to breathe. The shielding spell had sealed the entrance tight. There were some cracks in the walls around the tunnel, but the small fresher inflow they provided wasn’t enough with so many ponies stuck inside.

Nevertheless, Sunflower stood fast, channeling her magic. Before her, just beyond the shimmering wall, was the writhing mass of black bodies bristling with jagged hooves and full of glowering cyan eyes. The changelings were hammering on her barrier without a moment’s pause. The noise they were producing, an unsettling mix of chitters and growls, seeped into the cave through the cracks like an underscore to this nightmare.

Interposed between herself was a makeshift wall of rocks and debris found in the cave, behind which were all the guardsponies capable of fighting. Some of them were unable to stand but could still hold or levitate a weapon, and had been brought up to the barricade and armed with spears belonging to those who couldn’t move at all. The haggard unicorns were staring fixedly at the shield, ready to raise their weapons to meet the enemy should the magic fail.

Power coursed through Sunflower, focusing within her horn and bringing the barrier into existence. Never before had she tried to maintain a spell for so long. She was becoming acutely aware of how much a moment of keeping the shield up was costing her, of the depth of her inner reserves, and of how they compared to each other. The results her mind returned did not feel reassuring.

She focused on the intricacies of the spell to block out the intense fear that was trying to take over her mind. She had begun to feel the changelings’ attacks impacting against the shield, or rather the fluctuations they were causing, which in turn forced her to expend more power to correct. Almost instinctively, Sunflower redirected her magic to strengthen the areas getting hit the most, which counteracted the attacks and stabilized the shield.

Dawn Gleam remained by her side. She kept her eyes on the arcane wall she was maintaining, but could feel him looking at her with pride. Sunflower felt much better for her mentor’s presence and silent support; as ever, it was calming and reassuring, an unchanging constant she could always rely on. Was it what real parents were like? She hoped it was so, and that every pony had someone like Dawn Gleam.

Behind her, in the other half of the cave, were the injured and the healers attending them. Somepony was whimpering, and the sad, hurt sound added to the changelings’ noise in an unpleasant way. Sunflower couldn’t bear thinking of all the suffering they were going through, and so forced her mind to remain focused on her spell.

She couldn’t fail them—the brave guards ready to fight the monsters despite their wounds, the injured who’d given so much to the struggle, the healers continuing to help despite being unspeakably exhausted after so much work. She couldn’t fail her mentor, Lieutenant Moonlight and everypony who believed in her ability to protect them. She had to maintain that shield, and despite her usual timidity screaming for her to be in gibbering panic, she persevered. This was about more than just her. She had to be strong.

But deep down, in that part of the mind which cannot be fooled by self-assurance, she knew that her strength and her magic would not last forever. At the very best, they had only a few more hours.

~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~

Star Swirl skidded around a corner and bolted through an open doorway, slamming the door shut behind himself and collapsing a nearby pile of crates with his magic, trying to prevent it from being opened. He turned around to take a better look at the room: it was a large storage area full of sacks and crates of fruit. It was dark, the only light coming through the cracks between the door and its frame. His eyes seemed to refuse to adjust to the gloom; he could only make out the outlines of nearby objects, Regardless, he trotted farther in, trying to find cover behind some larger crates.

The changelings were bound to catch up with him any moment now. Just after Opal Beam’s squad entered the kitchens, a large group of the fiends pounced on them from the many side doors and storerooms. Star Swirl was quickly cut off and separated from the other three, his tiredness and inexperience with close quarters combat not helping his fighting chances. He had chosen to run rather than be overwhelmed by a dozen or so of the beasts going after him.

He thought to shake them off using his knowledge of the place’s layout—the castle’s unusually vast kitchens were a veritable maze of passages and rooms, dedicated to serving the unicorn nobility’s flights of culinary fancy. However, his injured hoof did not make running easy and made that knowledge completely useless, and he could only keep ahead of the beasts up until now.

He knew it was only a matter of time until they found him. They’d chased him into a dead end. He had to fight, and fight them he could, but to take on so many at once he needed to take a tactical approach. The door made for a convenient bottleneck that negated the changelings’ advantage of numbers and put him in a favorable position—exactly what Star Swirl needed. Now, before the monsters found him again, he tried to find a place among all the stored food where they would have a hard time getting to him.

There was a great crash, and the top half of the flimsy door simply tore off its hinge and fell inside. One after another, his pursuers leapt and flew into the room. Taking cover behind a stack of smaller crates, Star Swirl aimed for the opening.

Something slammed into his flank, knocking him into the crates and making them spill onto the floor. Twisting his head around, he remembered too late that this room had more than one entrance and that the changelings were more than simple brutes. Two pairs of baleful cyan eyes stared him down, and two pairs of jagged hooves pressed him against the crates he’d fallen onto.

The changelings coming from the door were already advancing on him. Leading them was a peculiar one. Unlike the rest of its kind, it was wearing what looked like a helmet and a breastplate; in the light from the doorway, Star Swirl could see they were of the same dark blue colour as all the changelings’ backs. It walked at a quick, confident trot, giving off an air of authority.

Star Swirl raked his mind for any spells that could get him out of this fix, but it seemed to have run out of energy after a whole day of terrified action and feverish thinking. Kicking at his captors was of little use with so many more just a leap away. A wave of frustrated desperation hit him: he couldn’t just give up, not after everything he’s gone through! He needed an immediate magical solution.

Only one spell surfaced in his mind, but it was very different from what he wanted. Not a repulsing charm, not a cantrip that could strengthen him, but the Amniomorphic spell. Of all the enchantments he knew, his memory gave him his own experimental spell! It would be of no help at all! But the armoured changeling was already upon him, raising a hoof over his head. He had to do something or die.

Star Swirl focused on the fairly complicated, but logical formula in his mind, and his desire for survival forced it into greater clarity than ever. It made perfect sense, more than it did even when he was creating it. Swiftly, he wove and guided his magic into the spell and shifted his head, pointing the tip of his horn at the apparent enemy commander. It lit up with a sparkling orange light and flared brightly; before the monsters could react, the armoured one glowed faintly with the same colour, and then a much brighter flash filled Star Swirl’s sight completely.

He blinked several times, trying to regain the ability to see. He could hear what was possibly the changelings’ version of a gasp and a clatter of hooves on wood. A measure of his eyesight returned to him, and he tried to see what his prototype spell did.

Next to him, where his target had been standing, was a small black sheep. He could see nothing more, his eyes stricken by his own magical flash, but it was certainly whirling around madly. Every changeling in the room was motionless, even those holding Star Swirl down.

After a few moments, the sheep stopped its frantic movement, turned to the changelings behind it with a shuddering intake of breath, and let out a succession of sounds.

“Caaaaaant chaaaang—”

It cut itself off with another gasp, as if it was having a panic attack. Then, it charged straight through the group of monsters before it and out through the broken-down door, bleating: “Baaaaaad, baaaaaaad!”

The changelings staggered aside from the sheep and from Star Swirl. Even the beasts that’d discovered him released their hold and took several steps back. Able to see clearer now, Star Swirl saw they were no longer glowering, but looking at him with fear.

‘They’re afraid of the spell!’ he realized. Taking advantage of that, he made his horn glow again and pointed it at the closest changelings, which backed away so sharply that they hit a pile of sacks and fell over; they scrambled up to their hooves and darted around it. There was a sound of racing hoofbeats and a rectangle of light appeared in the far wall, signalling their escape.

Star Swirl got back up to his hooves and turned to the other monsters, who were already rushing out of the room through the first door. He released a small discharge of magic at the door frame, and the changelings sped up, nearly climbing over each other in their hurry to leave his vicinity.

“How’d you like that!?” he called out after them as the last monster’s mockery of a tail whisked out of the room.

Pressing his advantage, he cantered out of the storeroom through the backdoor, which led into a large room full of stone ovens—the main bakery of the castle. From here, he only needed to pass a few rooms to get to the dining room. Maybe the others were already—

“There you are!” came a familiar voice from one of the many other side doors. Star Swirl turned to look and saw Opal Beam walk into the room, followed by Iron Vein and Thistlethorn. “We fought them off, but you were gone. Did you escape?”

“I scared them off! The Amniomorphic spell worked on them!” Star Swirl responded, eyeing the three. They looked fine—perhaps a little bit too fine. Their weapons were gone. His cautious side reminded him that the enemy could change their shape.

“Come on, let’s go! It’s this way!” Opal Beam prompted him.

“Wait a minute. What did we talk about in the hall, before all this started? Before the king’s plan?”

“Oh come on, do you think we’re not us or something? Like we’d let them get us! Let’s go!”

“Answer. What was it?”

“Oh, the usual stuff, yeah.” Opal Beam’s voice had lost its confidence. “It was, er—”

A heavy flanged mace wreathed in an aura of pink hurtled out of another side door and slammed into the side of Opal Beam’s head. In the same instant, a beam of familiar blue from the same direction struck Thistlethorn’s side with a magical crackle. Both of them were knocked in the opposite direction, a whirl of green flame racing down their forms to reveal winged black bodies with hole-ridden legs. A second Thistlethorn leapt out of the door and onto Iron Vein, sword at the ready, and within moments, the third impostor went down with numerous cuts and slashes, knocked out by an arcing pommel strike.

The other two emerged from the doorway. Iron Vein picked up his fallen mace with telekinesis, while Opal Beam nodded to Star Swirl.

“We’ve been talking about perfectly winged frogs. And beards. And Shining Lance. Am I the real me or not?” Despite the gravity of the situation, his friend was smirking.

“Real you, real you.” Star Swirl couldn’t help but smirk as well.

“And what did Comet Trail recall on our way down to the mines? Maybe you’re a changeling too.” Opal Beam said without losing the expression.

“That time when you dared me to shake all the shutters in Hornton. Real me?”

Opal Beam nodded. Looking at him, Star Swirl found him to be even worse for the wear than before. His helmet was gone, as was one of his heavy boots, and nearly all of his armour was battered and dented; in addition to that, he was bleeding from a long cut on his muzzle. Looking at the others, Star Swirl found them in no better condition. Thistlethorn was also without a helmet, his mane was matted with blood and his horn was coated in some sort of drying-up dark goo. Iron Vein’s heavy plating was slightly bent in several places and smeared with what looked like the same substance. Clearly, the changelings had been trying their best to bring the squad down.

“The shortest way’s through the wheat stores over here. Quickly, come on! ” He called out, and the reunited unicorns started towards the indicated door.

Ignoring his bruises and the ache in his leg, Star Swirl ran as fast as he could. They had tarried long enough and couldn’t afford to waste any more time. The kingdom’s survival could very well depend on them.

~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~

Lieutenant Moonlight half-sat, half-lay on the cobblestone surface of the bridge, made slick by the incessant rain. She had done all she could, but her barriers certainly needed practice. In an attempt to help her brother, she’d tried to cast a shield spell over his to give him a break, but it was a mistake. Not only did it not last nearly enough, it’d also drained more of her strength than she’d planned.

She looked at him, sitting a few steps away. Nightshade was visibly straining to hold his spell against the incessant pounding of the changeling swarm. Moonlight wished she could help him more, but it was out of her power. He was on his own, and she could see that he wasn’t going to last long.

And when Nightshade’s shield would fall, so would they. It was not her nature to ignore the clear, undeniable facts of the situation, and she knew that her ponies had no chance. Despite all the damage they had caused, the enemy still outnumbered them several times over, and the unicorns were exhausted. The shield was the last thing between them and demise in the monsters’ fanged maws and jagged hooves. There were no tactics that could save them, no order she could give that could help. This was truly it. The kingdom had fallen.

She felt her mind slide into a state of perfect, all-encompassing contemplative calm. Suddenly, all her senses became exceedingly sharp and powerful. As if for the first time in her life, she inhaled the air. It was clear, humid and fresh, and smelled sweetly of highland grasses and wildflowers, with a pleasant earthy undertone. In her mouth, she could feel the metallic taste of her own blood. Every single bruise, cut and laceration she’d sustained stung and burned like a hot ember wedged in her body.

She became aware of the weight of her armour, which she had long since got used to, pressing her down to the cobbles. She felt her soaked purple cloak, her symbol of station, pressed against her body by the metal plates and chilling her skin to the point of numbness. Her mane, heavy with water just like her tail, was hanging out of the slit in the back of her helmet in a very uncomfortable way.

Her hearing picked up the patter of raindrops, which fell onto the bridge unimpeded by Nightshade’s shield, and the slow rush of the mountain wind passing across the bridge on its way along the ravine. Nearly drowning everything out, however, was the pervasive heavy buzz of the changelings’ wings, reminiscent of the sound of a great insect swarm. In addition to that, the monsters were emitting other sounds: chittering, hisses, growls and what sounded like warped, malevolent laughter.

The same sharpness extended to her eyesight. Looking at her guardsponies, Moonlight could spot every single scratch and dent in their armour and the individual strands of hair in their tails, as soaked as her own. Turning her head towards the castle, she saw, in great detail, its massive walls and battlements behind the sparkling magenta of the gigantic shield enveloping it, seeming darker through her brother’s own magical barrier. She could make out the expressions of individual changelings hovering all around them, each a beastly mockery of a pony’s face contorted in subtly different shades of rage and spite.

Moonlight’d never thought she’d see such strange beasts, much less meet her end at their hooves. A pegasus attack or a rampaging dragon, perhaps, but monsters she barely heard of suddenly poised to end her kingdom and her life... the world did turn out to still hold surprises for her after all.

As her gaze slid along the dome of the shield towering high above, Moonlight realized that she’d never stopped on this bridge except for when she had to wait for the castle gates to open. She’d never paused to appreciate the magnificent view of the valley it presented. Now that she had her last chance to do so, she wasn’t going to waste it. She pushed herself up from the stones and onto her hooves and looked over the bridge’s weathered parapet.

Though it was tinted blue by Nightshade’s shield and partially obscured by the bodies of the changelings clogging the air, the view was indeed breathtaking. Below, she could see the deep ravine separating the cliff the royal castle was built upon from the rest of the mountain. It gradually widened and opened up, and then there was the valley. Despite the rain further distorting the sight, she could still see it rolling out before her as far as the distant mountain range that made up its opposite end. She could make out its woods, fields and rolling hills, separated in two halves by a winding, slow river weaving its way across the middle. Clearly, this was not the best time for such sightseeing, but it was the only time Moonlight was going to get, and even in this gloomy, diminished state, her homeland was beautiful.

Unexpectedly, she noticed some of the changelings’ number draw away from the shield and higher up into the sky. They gathered just below the grey blanket of clouds above, and Moonlight realized what they were planning. Looking back at her brother, she saw him lying on the cobblestones, grimacing under the strain of maintaining his spell. She knew magical overexertion when she saw it. When the monsters would charge and slam into the barrier again, it would not hold.

She looked away from the beasts and through their ranks, towards the west. There, the clouds hiding the horizon were ablaze with the lights of the setting sun beyond their cover. It would have been truly spectacular if not for the rain, but at least she was going to see sunshine before the end, even if it was so diluted as to be almost lost.

Sunshine. The thought struck at the near-absolute calm of Moonlight’s mind from within, cracking the monolithic surface. It was two weeks until her filly’s birthday. They were going to celebrate it back at home, and the entire family was planning to come. Even Nightshade was going to forget about the Circle for a few days and join them. How overjoyed her elderly mother was to hear this, to say nothing of Sunshine herself! The little filly absolutely adored parties, and this one was shaping up to be the most fun they’d all had in a long while. And she did so love to play with Nightshade whenever he could find the time to visit. He’d show her spells and tell her stories and even let her ride on his back. Moonlight’s brother loved Sunshine as if she was his own daughter.

Unbidden tears appeared at the corners of Moonlight’s eyes and streaked down her cheeks, vanishing among the raindrop-soaked fur. For a moment, she stood perfectly still, looking in the direction of her home. Her heart cried out against all this, flared with pain—and then her mind was back in control, icily keen and focused.

A screech rang out from above, which Moonlight knew meant that the last attack had begun. She turned around to face the ponies under her command.

“Shape up. Fight together. Take as many with you as you can. Nightshade, hold the shield to the last, it will stop their charge.”

Grimly, the unicorns readied their weapons and spells and stepped closer together to guard each other’s backs. Even in their last minutes, they maintained truly commendable discipline.

Lieutenant Moonlight called upon the last of her reserves of endurance, bracing herself. She looked up towards the rapidly approaching group of changelings and all the others, ready to pile in once the ponies’ magical barrier was down, but her eyes briefly strayed towards the castle.

Somewhere in there, another fight was going on. Maybe they were as doomed as herself, or maybe they had a chance. Maybe they could actually make a difference. In the deathly stillness of her mind, a spot of hope appeared. Perhaps it was all over for her, but for the sake of others... for Sunshine’s sake... she hoped that against all odds, they would find a way.

The changelings crashed against the shield, and under the force of their impact it finally shattered.

~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~

The throne room had been ravaged. Many of the pillars holding up its high ceiling had deep gashes in them, left by stray magical blasts. The banners hanging in between them were ripped or missing altogether, with some of them transformed into smatterings of ash upon the floor. The long plushy carpet leading to the throne was similarly torn and singed, with pieces of a heavily damaged pillar lying across it in one place. The throne itself had become a pile of splinters and debris against the far wall, which was pitted with scorched pockmarks.

In place of one of the far doors in the left side wall, there was a hole. In front of it was a silhouette of a pony, obscured by the dust lingering in the sparsely lit air.

“Who’re you?” Opal Beam called out, but there was no answer. He motioned towards the pony, and his squad broke into a run again.

He tried his best to keep up, but movement was becoming increasingly difficult. The surge of vigour and battle fury that had been dulling the pain and keeping him going through the detour was wearing off. His right side, the armour covering it newly bent inward, felt like it was on fire—one of the ambushing changelings had probably broken a rib with its hammering hooves. The bite he sustained on the bridge was bleeding and made the entire right front leg ache with every step, and the wound in his right rear leg felt like it was about to open up again. On top of all that, the cut on his muzzle continued to drip with blood, which dribbled down his nose and into his mouth, forcing him to constantly feel its taste and smell.

Due to all this, he slowed down and fell back. His squadmates were the first to approach the pony, and as he got closer, he heard Iron Vein ask in a surprised, puzzled voice:

“King Silver? Is that you?”

“You won’t pass here,” came the reply in an expressionless, monotonous voice.

Rounding the backs of his colts obscuring the talking pony, Opal Beam saw that it was indeed the king himself. He stood by the side of the former door, still wearing the same royal cape as before they’d left the castle, but looking as if he’d fallen down a long flight of stairs. His crown was askew, mostly hanging by his horn. Silver’s head was lowered, but his eyes were staring at the unicorns; in the dusk of the throne room, they seemed to be faintly glowing with green.

“Your Majesty! Have they gone through here?” Star Swirl asked, looking into the gaping hole to their left. There was a small room with a spiral staircase leading up. The door, split across and lying on the floor, was emblazoned with the symbol of the Circle of Day and Night.

“The Chamber is not for visitors,” Silver droned. He took a few jerky steps forwards, placing himself between them and the destroyed doorway.

“We have to follow them! Why are you stopping us?” Thistlethorn asked, staring down his king.

“You won’t pass here.”

“Listen to us, Your Majesty! The kingdom’s survival is at stake!” Iron Vein exclaimed. As usual, the giant stallion hesitated to use force if he could avoid it.

Star Swirl tried to go around the monarch, only for him to growl in a strange, unponylike way and take a wild swing at him with a hoof. The apprentice stepped back, bewildered.

To Opal Beam, it was clear that there was no other solution.

“Please, don’t consider this an act of treason.”

He stepped forwards and lowered his horn towards Silver, focused his magic in a stunning spell and released it as a bolt. It hit the king square in the face, causing him to stagger backwards, fall onto his haunches and to the side, leaving the way clear.

“The blackout spell, works every time,” he explained to his squadmates. “We have to go on.”

Leaving the unconscious king behind, they walked through the former doorway and up to the stairs. Opal Beam tried to ascend as quickly as he could, but had to lean on the wall to keep his balance with both of his right legs injured, and so was the last to reach the top.

The stairs opened into a long gallery with one of its walls composed chiefly of large and elaborate stained glass windows, all of them intact in contrast with the throne room’s wanton destruction. There was little light coming in through them, as in the western sky the fires of sunset were already dying down, shrouding the gallery in twilight. At the far end there was an elaborate door flanked by two majestic statues, a caped unicorn mare out of dark blue rock with a crescent moon balanced on the tip of her horn and a stallion in bright yellow stone similarly holding up an image of a burning sun. The door had been flung wide open.

Star Swirl was already running down the gallery’s length at full speed. Iron Vein and Thistlethorn followed at a slower pace, looking back at Opal Beam. His legs were now hurting a great deal more, reducing him to a fast hobble at best.

“The Chamber of the Cycle!” Star Swirl shouted from the other side. “They’ve gone up there! I can hear them! Come on, we have to hurry!”

There were more stairs behind that door, as Opal Beam knew, which went a long way up. He wasn’t sure he would be able to make such a climb in the state he was in, but—

Somewhere behind them, echoing up the spiral staircase, came a monstrous, drawn-out angry shriek. The changelings were onto them again.

Opal Beam sped up as much as he could, covering the last of the distance to the doors. Iron Vein and Thistlethorn were waiting just outside, and Star Swirl was already through, his hoof up on the first step of the long stairway leading up. The sound of distant magical discharges was coming from above.

“Quickly! Before they catch up with us!”

Opal Beam looked back where they came from, then at Star Swirl, and stopped. His brain clicked feverishly and chose the only option he found logical.

“You go on, Star. I can barely walk, they’ll get us if I keep slowing you down. Iron Vein, Thistlethorn, with him. I’ll stay and buy you some time.”

“What!? Opal, you can’t be serious, that’s certain death—”

“It will be if that giant beast gets help from its friends. Somepony has to hold them back.”

“They’ll pass you in no time, sarge. You need help. I’m staying with you,” said Thistlethorn tersely.

Iron Vein also turned to Opal Beam, nodding. “You’re right. We can’t let that monster get reinforcements. But you’ve all seen what it can do—armour won’t help against such magic, but your own magic can. It’s a wizard’s battle, not a fighter’s. Opal, I’m with you.”

Opal Beam considered this. Indeed, he wouldn’t last long alone, and that monster’s beams would make short work of those unable to deflect its magic, which only Star Swirl and himself could do effectively.

“You’re right. Star, get going! There’s no time!”

Star Swirl looked from one to another, blinking. “You can’t possibly—”

Another shrill shriek pierced the air, this time sounding closer. Opal Beam thought he could hear something in the stairwell.

“Go! That’s an order! Orders are to be fulfilled!” He shouted, grasped at the door with his magic and slammed it shut.

There was a lock, but the bolts had been broken off. A quick look to either side of the richly decorated door presented a solution.

“Iron Vein, help me block the door.”

Nodding towards the statue of a stallion, Opal Beam turned to the stone mare. He concentrated, gathered some of his remaining magical strength and pulled at it as hard as he could; the statue shuddered and canted towards its counterpart, then crashed onto the floor, part of its horn and the crescent moon breaking off as it fell. He tugged at it again, dragging it up against the door and propping it shut. At the same time, Iron Vein heaved at the other statue with his own telekinesis, causing it to fall on top of the first, weighing it down.

Opal Beam turned around and leaned against the stone mare’s long cape, looking down the length of the gallery. There was the sound of a great lot of hooves ascending the spiral staircase coming from the other end. On his right and left, Iron Vein and Thistlethorn took position, drawing their weapons.

The only thing pushing him to continue moving was his mind. He was on the verge of collapsing from his injuries, exhaustion and growing blood loss. Moving the statues, he realized, was now the limit of his ability. Luckily, the only other magic he’d have to perform were going to be simple combat spells.

Opal Beam knew that this was his last stand, but realized that he could hardly feel anything inside. His basic tactical reasoning having taken over his tired self, he thought mostly of how far he would be able to launch his spells to reliably hit the enemy in the deepening gloom of the gallery. Only on the outskirts of his mind was there a place for any sort of sadness or grief; the main part was now being played by resignation and a sense of duty.

It was all so simple, in the end. There was this makeshift line, and he had to hold it no matter what. His squadmates were here, ready to fight by his side, and this alone already gave him reassurance. They would hold the changelings back long enough for Sparkling Sky and Star Swirl to dispatch that beast, and then... he wasn’t sure what was going to happen then, but nevertheless felt certain that everything depended on his squad fulfilling the task at hoof. It would all be good, his friends would be safe again and this waking nightmare would be over, if only they did their job.

As the first shadow of a changeling emerged from the staircase, Opal Beam gathered the last remnants of his strength, and his horn sparkled with magic once again. He was ready.

10. Darkest Hour

The winding spiral staircase seemed endless to Star Swirl as he made his way up, but the constant echoing boom of clashing magical powers above was nevertheless steadily drawing closer. He ran up the near-pristine white steps as fast as he could, trying to ignore the lances of pain his injured hoof was sending up his leg. The windows set into the outer wall were providing next to no light, forcing him to constantly watch his step; the colours of sunset were rapidly draining out of the cloudy sky, plunging everything into shadow.

Finally, he saw faint traces of the telltale red and green lights on the stairs up ahead. Hurrying up, he soon barreled out into a gloomy circular room which he knew to be the underlevel of the Chamber. The windows set into its circumference provided little illumination, but the considerably brighter flashes coming from the opening in the ceiling on the opposite side with wide steps leading up to it was all he needed. Along the wall, set at regular intervals, were pillars or statues obscured in shadow, only made visible by the flashes reflected off the gemstones that studded their surface. The thunder of magical combat was filling the darkened space.

‘At least there won’t be any more stairs,’ a distant part of his mind remarked as he resumed his gallop. He leapt upon the first step and hurtled up the stairway and out into the space beyond.

The Chamber of the Cycle was magnificent. It was a great round hall with a high domed ceiling supported by a circle of pillars halfway to its center. The pillars, their tops interconnected by arches, had an intricate and airy look that was shared by everything in the room; each of them was draped with a long banner of the Unicorn Kingdom, depicting a white unicorn’s head on a purple background. At the base of each pillar were immense statues of majestic unicorns performing magic. The walls were largely taken up by great windows glazed with stained glass, which currently admitted next to no light; on either side of each, more pillars were supporting the roof. The floor was inlaid with two grand mosaics: on the outer side of the ring of pillars there was a belt of midnight blue tiles with constellations depicted upon it in white, while at the center of the room was a large symbol of the Circle of Day and Night, the sun and the moon linked by a circle.

All of it was, in one way or another, incorporating great numbers of magically molded gemstones. The stars and constellations in the floor were encrusted with diamonds, the pillars were ringed with bands and spirals of various gems and the horns, eyes and other details on every statue were all inlaid with gemstones of all shapes and sizes. Even the window frames had small stones inserted into them.

And each of these gemstones was reflecting the brilliant flashes in the middle of the Chamber. The sunlight having faded almost completely, they illuminated the gloomy space in stark, contrasting shades of red and green, and every gem shone like a small star in these lights. They were not only where they belonged; some of the splendour of the Chamber was already damaged, and many of those little points of light were scattered across the floor.

Though their intensity was hurting his eyes, Star Swirl could make out the combatants underneath the focal points of their magic. Sparkling Sky was in the very center of the Chamber, his head nearly impossible to see through the red glare of power emanating from his horn; the brightness extended from it in a line towards the brightest spot of the green, but stopped about halfway by a similar line of green. Its point of origin, the monstrous changeling’s horn, was blazing with magic some distance away, next to the shattered remains of a statue.

The duel unfolded before Star Swirl as he skidded on the smooth stone floor, trying to regain control after his last reckless leap off the stairs. The clash of magical beams lasted a moment and broke as Sparkling Sky leapt aside and the changeling’s beam proceeded to impact against the floor mosaic, tearing up the edge of the ornamental sun in an explosion of green energy, shattered tiles and glowing gemstones. Meanwhile, the Keeper sent forth another beam of solid red at the monster, which reacted just in time and stopped it only a short distance away with yet another beam of its own.

The two moved across the central circle, shooting crackling rays of power at each other and blocking them with incredible precision. Neither seemed to have the upper hoof in the battle, but the changeling was slowly advancing in its constant flare of green, forcing Sparkling Sky back. Star Swirl regained his balance and started towards the duelists, reaching into his memory for the most potent combat spells he knew and bringing forth one that could project a ball of fire.

Star Swirl galloped up to the circle of pillars, his hoofbeats concealed by the boom of colliding beams of energy, reached into his remaining reserves to fuel the spell and concentrated on pouring power into it. As he did so, however, he noticed that the gems decorating everything around him began to reflect a third colour apart from the duelists’ red and green—orange, that of his own magic. The growing sparkling haze around his horn suddenly burst into a furious storm of colour, several times brighter than it would have normally been.

Surprised but not deterred, he continued until he put the usual required amount of magic into the spell. While he couldn’t feel much difference compared to when he cast the spell before, the small, painfully bright star at the tip of his horn bathing the hall in orange indicated a charge vastly superior to normal, and every nearby gemstone started not to reflect, but to glow with the same light from the inside.

This was the Chamber’s arcane system at work, Star Swirl knew, but there was no time to ponder. He lowered his head, pointing his incandescent horn at the giant changeling, and let the spell fly.

Instead of the mighty ball of fire that he expected to see, however, a thick beam of energy—identical in all but colour to the ones Sparkling Sky and the monster were exchanging—erupted forth and pierced the air between himself and his target, its point traveling at great speed. The flare of magic must have warned the changeling, however; just as it should have struck, the beast whipped around and launched a beam of its own at Star Swirl. They collided with a thunderous crackle and seemed to push against each other for a moment, then thinned and went out.

Sparkling Sky immediately took advantage of the monster’s distraction, firing a beam at its side. However, there was no getting rid of the mighty flare of coloured magic that signaled the attack the moment before it went off. Just like with Star Swirl, the changeling twisted around and parried with one of its own—but this time, they clashed closer to the beast.

Star Swirl broke into a canter, his mind all but blocking out the pain in his leg as he charged up another, quicker spell. Once again, the gems around him glimmered and his horn blazed with power, and once again the spell resulted in a crackling beam instead of the intended gout of flame. At the same time, Sparkling Sky attacked as well, and the changeling was forced to leap to the side, unable to block both. In the lingering glow of the fading beams, its strange face appeared to be strained and bewildered.

Both unicorns began to advance, and now it was the changeling that had to back off, barely managing to fend off their combined assault and unable to truly counterattack. Star Swirl continued to cast the quickly charged flame spell, getting closer to the beast with each ray of orange it had to parry and circling around it slowly to put it between himself and Sparkling Sky. His mentor seemed to follow the same tactic. In a flurry of spellcasting more focused and frantic than Star Swirl ever thought himself capable of, the changeling was backed into a statue before a pillar, forced to twist its head around to block their attacks but, almost unbelievably, still managing to do so.

Suddenly, the nearly cornered monster took a leap towards Sparkling Sky, bringing itself into range for an attack with its hooves. He ducked aside from its arcing strike and prepared to fire another beam only for it to swipe at him again, but the Keeper showed surprising nimbleness and sidestepped the swing. Star Swirl saw his chance and began firing off beam after beam as fast as he could, robbing the enormous changeling of its advantage of size and forcing it into an even worse situation than before. With the monster under this distracting fire, Sparkling Sky began to channel what looked like a much more powerful spell.

And then, after blasting yet another of Star Swirl’s beams away, the changeling whirled and spun around Sparkling Sky with surprising speed, putting the Keeper in between them. Undeterred, Star Swirl fired again, but so did his mentor, and the orange beam collided with the mighty red one rising towards the tall monster. Their energies fizzed and crackled, cancelling each other out; even despite the red one’s immense power, Star Swirl’s magic seemed to break its flow and it was cut off.

The changeling had received an opening and did not hesitate to use it. A ray of brilliant venomous green leapt off the tip of its blazing horn and towards Sparkling Sky, and this time the Keeper did not have a spell of his own ready to be launched as a counter. It struck him in the chest, and there was a thunderous explosion of energy. Sparkling Sky’s body was swept off the floor, soared through the air over Star Swirl’s head, crashed into the middle of a pillar back-first and tumbled down towards the floor, tearing off the banner. Hitting the large statue of a rearing mare underneath, the Keeper slid down its curved tail, rolled off its end and came to a stop a few steps away, at the edge of the central circle.

“No!” exclaimed Star Swirl, shock stopping him mid-action. He was unable to look away from his fallen mentor lying motionless on the floor, half-tangled in the banner of the Kingdom and his own robe.

As the initial crippling shock wore off a few moments later, he realized that he was still unharmed, even though he was completely defenseless. He forced his eyes away from Sparkling Sky and back to the monster.

It was standing tall exactly where it had been, its warped version of a unicorn’s horn still glowing, but much less sharply than before. The softer light illuminated its head, finally allowing him to see it in detail. It had a long, flowing ponylike mane from which protruded two large ears; two gigantic eyes that took up much of its face stared at him, glimmering with the reflected green light, and its short muzzle was twisted in a cruel, long-fanged smile.

“Do you give up now, foal?” it said in a smug sing-song voice, made even more unpleasant by how distorted it was.

Star Swirl returned the changeling’s stare, fixing his eyes on its own as the paralysis drained away and a storm of all-consuming fury filled the emptiness within. He had too little strength left to control his emotions, but he didn’t even want to try. His horn, which had went out without magic being pooled within, first shimmered, then was obscured by incandescent orange light, and finally shone so bright that it hurt his own eyes. The air itself crackled as he focused this built-up raw power as best he could, not even bothering with a spell, and released it at the monster with a shout full of rage.

The battle had begun anew. The beast’s own power flared and lashed out with a beam that met Star Swirl’s outburst. He leapt forth towards the enemy, summoning as much magic as he could and sending it lancing out as quickly as possible. The changeling responded with the same, striding towards him and parrying his barrage just like before. In a few moments he found himself right in front of the towering creature. It tried to swing its heavy hole-ridden hooves at him, but had to make an awkward evasive dash to the side as Star Swirl continued to release beam after beam with speed only achievable through reckless fury. He shouted again, jumping after it and forcing it to back off and defend itself.

The vengeful rage filling his being was bringing all of Star Swirl’s inner reserves to bear, more than he ever realized he possessed. Hammering the changeling with rays of power easily matching those cast by his mentor was an almost effortless task. As soon as one of his attacks was blocked, he launched another, the magic obeying his command almost instantaneously. All he could see in the darkness of the room and his own primal wrath was the center of green light that was his target.

The monster seemed to falter under his frenzied assault, unable to keep up with its sheer speed and having to bodily dodge some of his attacks. Each humming and crackling beam of magic seemed to reach farther before it was parried. He struck relentlessly over and over again until one of his beams finally bypassed its counters and connected with its blazing horn.

The changeling was thrown backwards and towards a statue behind its back, but its rear hooves remained in contact with the floor. It crashed against the stone unicorn’s legs and fell forwards, trying to jump back up with the help of its front hooves. However, Star Swirl was already charging at a full gallop towards it, too close to evade. The monster, its own head level with his in this half-crouch, tried to fire a beam, but the rage-fueled burst of speed brought him to his target faster. His horn, wreathed in a flare of magic, collided with the beast’s own and slid into one of its curves.

He tried to release the accumulated energy, and apparently, so did the changeling. The lights, already bright enough to illuminate the room, grew even more brilliant, and a loudly crackling haze surrounded their interlocked horns. Star Swirl poured as much as he could into his horn and against the monster’s power, but both it and his own built-up energy didn’t seem to dissipate like the beams did. The air around them began to sizzle and sparkle as the power built up, but neither seemed to be strong enough to overpower the other. His furious eyes were locked with the changeling’s own spiteful glare as they thus pushed against one another.

And then there was a loud clatter of hooves, and a dark shape illuminated by the flare of clinched powers appeared at the edge of Star Swirl’s vision. It was followed by another, and another, and another... Those were changelings, emerging into the Chamber from the stairway he had used. Though the magical brilliance just above his head made it hard to see how many there were, Star Swirl knew that it could only mean one thing. Opal Beam’s squad had been overrun.

The realization hit him like a blast of cold, and his concentration wavered. The same happened to the immense amount of energy he was channeling. The changeling’s magic surged, toppled Star Swirl’s own dissipating charge and crashed down onto him.

For a while, there was nothing but blinding pain that nearly shut him down and made him wish that it would have. A thundering blast blinded him, he felt his hooves leave the floor, and after some time made infinitely long by the pain his back collided with a flat surface, followed by his head, which made it even worse. It slowly subsided, making room in his mind for something other than agony, and he became aware of hissing and the sound of many hoofsteps. He did not know how much time passed until it lessened enough for him to open his eyes again.

The first thing Star Swirl saw were dark hooves in front of his face. Looking up, he found himself staring into the grinning face of a changeling, one of the normal ones as far as they go; its cyan eyes were impenetrable, but its expression was full of malicious glee. On either side of the monster were others of its kind, surrounding him.

He groaned, lifting his pounding head off the mosaic floor and casting his gaze around. The beasts stood around him in a circle as solid as a wall. There was another thing inside, apart from him: Sparkling Sky’s body lay just a few steps away, in the same pose as it was before, draped with the fallen banner. Seeing his fallen mentor made Star Swirl feel a pang of a different sort of pain within.

Among the monsters was the towering form of the changeling he had been fighting, its twisted glowing horn providing the only light that tinted everything an off-green colour. Its huge round eyes were watching his movements closely, and an amused smirk was pasted on its muzzle.

“Still alive. Good. I would hate to waste any more love,” it said in a velvety tone.

“What?” Star Swirl groaned again as he rolled over onto his stomach and turned his head towards it. The sheer strangeness of its words jolted the part of his mind liberated from pain. “Love?”

The changeling let out a warped chuckle. “You ponies have no idea, don’t you? It seems my subjects have done well.”

Puzzlement took over Star Swirl’s confused mind. “What are you talking about? Why are you... things doing this?”

The giant changeling tilted its head, still keeping its eyes on him, and spoke in a condescending manner:

“I suppose I could indulge you. It is more enjoyable this way. We are changelings, my little pony. As you have seen, we can take the shape of others at will. Our sustenance and power comes from consuming love, and our abilities help us do so without your kind ever knowing.”

“Then why are you not doing that? Why are you attacking us?”

“We have had enough of your petty squabbles. Because of your tribes’ endless feuding, there is not enough love for us to feed upon. I, Queen Chrysalis, will not let my subjects starve because of your foolishness. If you cannot let go of your hatred, we will make you.”

“So, you want to... force us to love?” Star Swirl asked incredulously.

“It is easier than you think. All of your fellow unicorns are under my control, beaten into submission or unaware of what is going on. You are the last. Once I am through, not a single one of you will know any of this ever took place. I will rule the Unicorn Kingdom, and all of its love will be ours to feed upon. There will be no more lurking in the shadows in search of scraps! The changelings will take their rightful place as the masters of ponykind!”

The beasts surrounding him met its exclamation with a collection of growls, hisses and chittering that must have been their version of a cheer.

“There’re still the pegasi and the earth ponies.”

Star Swirl’s injuries and the outburst of vengeful fury had drained him and made him feel numb. His mind went from unbidden curiosity into resignation. Talking to a queen of a race of monsters that came out of nowhere and destroyed his world in under a day ceased to seem strange at all.

“Their fall is only a matter of time. I have made certain that they would not interfere with us or each other. We will feast upon your tribe’s love and grow more powerful than you can imagine. The rest of you won’t stand a chance, and neither will those icy brutes.”

“Who?”

Queen Chrysalis frowned. “Enough. You have slowed me down too much already. It’s time to end this.”

It turned instead to look at the throng of monsters around them and exclaimed in a tone of unadulterated triumph: “Changelings, the day is ours! We are victorious!”

Another discordant cheer went up, echoing in the darkened Chamber. Star Swirl glanced towards the body of his mentor, not even sure what he was seeking—and saw his head move. Blinking, he pushed himself closer.

“Sparkling Sky? Are you—” Star Swirl tried to ask under the cover of the changelings’ continued cheering, but the Keeper prodded him subtly but sharply with a forehoof. Fortunately, the beasts seemed to be paying all of their attention to Chrysalis, who continued to shout something.

“We only have one chance,” he whispered hoarsely, forcing Star Swirl to lean closer to hear him. “Cast this at the top sphere. Quickly.” He reached into his tangled robes with his other front hoof and pushed out a scrap of parchment.

“What is this? What are you doing?” came a distorted hiss from behind Star Swirl. Their movement had clearly not gone unnoticed. The monsters’ cheer died down. The dim green glow of the changeling’s magic that had been illuminating the scene grew brighter. It was actually helpful to Star Swirl, as he could now see the symbols on the old parchment’s surface, clearly parts of a magical formula. His mind quickly fired up to recall their exact meaning, and once he pieced it together, he couldn’t help but feel surprised again—it was a temporal displacement spell.

Meanwhile, the changeling queen spoke again. “Ah, the old fool is alive as well. And what is this thing, a scroll? Spells do not work here. Is this not why you lured me here, wizard?”

Sparkling Sky cast one more look at Star Swirl. “Cast it, now. Before that thing can stop you.”

The Keeper’s horn then began to glimmer with red as he turned his head towards the giant changeling. It snickered and hissed: “Do you not know when you are beaten?”

“I’m afraid not,” he grumbled aloud. The glow of his magic wavered, but continued to strengthen. Realizing that this was a distraction, Star Swirl focused on the spell, deciphering the old symbols and putting the formula together in his mind. He could see it was going to require a lot of power, beginning to pool what was left of his inner reserves together.

“I have had enough of this. It’s time you joined the rest of your kind. My subjects will ensure that you won’t be a difficulty anymore,” Queen Chrysalis said in an annoyed voice. Its horn’s brightness grew sharply. Trusting in Sparkling Sky’s plan, Star Swirl ignored it and looked up from the scroll towards the ceiling, easily spotting the sphere he was told to target: a magically molded ball flawless diamond nearly half as big as himself, suspended far above the center of the Chamber in an intricate enchanted metal framework, supported in turn by the arches in between the pillars. From what he had been able to learn about the Chamber’s great array, he knew that this massive gem was its central piece, around which it had been built.

A fleeting thought passed through his mind as he focused on it and began to pour magic into his horn: Sparkling Sky knew that with a single exception, the Chamber distorted anything it amplified into raw power, so why did he say to cast such a powerful one at its central point? It left as quickly as it came, however—Star Swirl trusted his mentor, and now any plan at all was better than nothing.

Just as his horn came aglow with orange, the changeling queen’s further intensified in brightness. It grunted, lowering its head toward them; through the corner of his eye he could see its starkly illuminated face, contorted in a strained grimace. The whine of its magical charge wavered, but then suddenly pitched higher and became more even, although no less distorted. The green light suddenly shone from the opposite side of the circle; green flames burst straight out of the floor and began to rapidly spread from their point of origin, creating a burning circle around the unicorns.

Whatever it was, it was not good. Star Swirl realized that he truly only had one chance. He fixed his eyes on the sphere high above, its perfect curve reflecting the arcane lights underneath, and concentrated on the spell. Most of his remaining magical power flowed into the spell, and his horn became so bright as to eclipse the changeling’s green completely. The simple yet beautiful formula of the spell burned just as clearly before his mind’s eye. And in this moment of perfect focus, he sent his magic forth.

Instead of a great beam Star Swirl expected, the light on his horn narrowed to a single point at the tip and sent forth a thin, lightning-like ray of pale orange. It connected with the diamond sphere, which momentarily shone bright as a midday sun, and then a great many strands of white interspersed with streaks of blue filled the entirety of the Chamber. They arced between the sphere and every other gem with audible zapping and crackling sounds, seeming to go around and between the changelings and the unicorns. The sudden burst of white forced Star Swirl to shut his eyes to avoid being blinded, and judging by multiple warped howls, some of the monsters weren’t quick enough to react.

The arcane lightning vanished just as instantaneously as it appeared. Opening his eyes again, Star Swirl saw the circle of green fire complete itself around them. The flames then grew in height, appearing to curve into a dome overhead, just high enough to hold a standing pony. Outside this rising barrier, he saw the molded gemstones all over the Chamber begin to glow white, bright enough to see over the magical fire.

“What is this? What have you done?” shouted Queen Chrysalis over the crackling roar of the mystic fire now hiding her from sight. She sounded full of forced menace, behind which there was an unmistakable undertone of worry. Another new sound followed her words—the unmistakable high-pitched whine of a magical charge building up.

The last thing Star Swirl could see was the spell-stricken sphere of diamond, glowing brightly enough to illuminate the ceiling around it. Then, the changeling’s flames closed the last remaining gap, their bright glow making it impossible to see through. Strangely, they didn’t seem to emanate much heat.

Suddenly, the floor seemed to start rising towards him rather quickly. Looking down, he saw himself submerging into the polished stone; he tried to step aside, but his hoof moved through it as if it was nothing. Beside him, Sparkling Sky had already sunk into the floor up to his head, looking at it with weary, resigned indifference.

Until his head went under, Star Swirl could hear the rising sound of the magical buildup filling the Chamber of the Cycle, underscored by chaotic hoofbeats and screeches. Then the floor swallowed him completely, and there was nothing at all.

~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~

Chrysalis watched as the top of the teleportation dome disappeared under the floor and the circle of fire around it faded away. Whatever the unicorn did, there was no bringing him back now. She had made sure of that when she designed the spell. Regrettably, she did not have one that could work on herself.

Something was happening to the chamber. Wherever she looked, gems glowed an unbearably brilliant white, emitting that annoying whine that was quickly turning into a painful roar. Her changelings were succumbing to panic, some already making for the stairway down and others rushing and flying to the windows. Her instincts were telling her that they were right.

“Leave this place, now!” she shouted, unable to hide her growing unease, and the last semblance of order collapsed. Her minions crashed into each other as they raced for the exit. Chrysalis herself started towards the closest window, on which some of her subjects were already hammering frantically. Passing the pillars, however, she tried to flap her damaged wings and found them still unable to lift her. Cursing the old wizard for robbing her of flight, she stopped and turned back to her only remaining way of escape.

The noise and the blinding lights had already become too much to bear. Chrysalis’s ears began to hurt as she sped across the chamber to the stairs, knocking two of her minions out of the way. She did not think of them, charging ahead with her eyes shut and her mind rapidly filling with fear. They didn’t matter—she had to save herself!

Skidding on the remains of a broken statue, she opened her eyes again to see the patch of floor free from the painful lights just a short way ahead. She leapt forth, seeking to close the gap in between herself and her salvation in one go.

Then her world became unbearably white and excruciatingly loud.

~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~

The Chamber of the Cycle had turned into a beacon in the falling night. Its windows let out streams of light so powerful as to seem solid, coloured by the stained glass it was passing through. Bright blue and white lightning arced across and away from it, stabbing at the shield still surrounding the castle. Its light pierced the rain, creating rainbows all around the tower and brightly illuminating the clouds above. A high-pitched sound was filling the air, making the windows all over the castle tremble in their frames, and a mighty vortex of wind was swirling around the tower.

Spinning concentric circles of pale arcane energy appeared at the top of its spire and sped down its length, widening around the Chamber itself and receding into the tower further below. The light from its windows intensified even further, and there was a magical crackling as great zigzagging tendrils of energy lashed out in all directions, earthing themselves on the roofs of the castle and against the shield.

And then the top of the tower disappeared in a massive flare crowned with lightning. For a fleeting moment it remained there, hanging over the mountainside like a star that had come down from the sky and bathing the valley in light easily as bright as the sun’s, and then it exploded outwards with a blinding flash and a great ringing crack that echoed across the surrounding lands.

The air sparkled in the wake of the great magical blast. The tower that had been its epicenter had ceased to exist. Where it once stood tall, there was now an emptiness that terminated not far from the roof of the keep. There only remained a short stub of masonry protruding from its side, and its top looked as if a giant razor had sliced through it. The spiral staircase within now ended abruptly next to what looked like the lower half of a window.

Out of the top of this remnant, a shape emerged, nearly invisible in the darkness that had shrouded the land once again. A few more followed, while the first leapt off and began to fly away somewhat erratically towards the mountains. The rest went in other random directions, but all of them were headed away from the castle.

The mighty magical explosion had blown the castle’s shield away. The shapes passed its former location unimpeded. One of them deviated from its path and descended towards the bridge connecting the castle to the outside world. Many more shapes rose into the air a short while later and headed down towards the valley below.

Everything became still and silent again as the night deepened. The only sound disturbing the perfect quiet was the constant, ever-present patter of the rain, undisturbed even by the massive burst of magic.

The time for the moon to rise was long past, but the clouds blanketing the sky remained uniformly dark, not showing any signs of the telltale lighter patch where it should have been beyond their cover. The night was moonless.

Epilogue: Dawn

Sunlight was streaming into the great hall, painting it in shades of yellow and orange. Motes of dust danced in the rays of light, stirred by a stray gust of wind blowing in through the shattered windows. It smelled of damp grasses of the mountainside and earth just only beginning to dry. Star Swirl felt glad to simply lie there and breathe it in. The joy of being alive and free warmed him better than the morning sun ever could.

All around the blanket he was lying on were other makeshift beds, filling much of the hall save for the part closest to the damaged windows and the entrance. Most were occupied by injured ponies, though none of them were in a life-threatening condition—cuts, bruises or, at most, easily healed fractures were all most of them were suffering from. Lily Petal, the healer mare who helped him the day before, was trotting among the resting ponies, looking at them with a tired but reassuring smile.

On either side of the remains of the doorway, partially blocked against the wind with the propped-up remains of one of the former doors, were two large pegasus stallions, holding spears and wearing the distinctive armour of the Pegasus Empire. They were obviously trying to look nonchalant, with little success. Another pair of soldiers stood by the door further into the keep, and a few beds at the end of one row were occupied by yet more pegasi. An old winged pony with the distinctive look of a doctor about her was bandaging one of them, saying something impossible to hear at this distance.

Star Swirl turned to look through the empty window frames at the sky outside. Where the impenetrable cloud cover had once been, there was now a soft blue. Only in the corner of the window there still remained a patch of cloud, but a team of three winged ponies were rapidly kicking their way through it, and in a few moments the part of the sky visible to him was perfectly clear.

Looking back into the hall and along the rows of bedding, he sought out a particular pony farther down the hall. Meteor Shower lay there under a blanket, perfectly still save for the slow rising and falling of his chest. By his side there was another pony, draped with a pair of cloaks that stuck out unevenly—Comet Trail had flat out refused to leave her brother’s side or even remove her armour. Now both of them were sleeping, one healing with the help of many powerful spells and the other recovering from the long hours of standing watch over him.

Star Swirl shifted his gaze along the row, toward its end. There was another figure there—Sunflower, looking smaller than ever, curled up on a rug twice her size. Thankfully, she too was merely asleep, resting after the trials she had been put through.

He thought of the others, not present among the ponies in the hall. He still didn’t know where Lieutenant Moonlight or Keeper Nightshade were, and found himself hoping fervently that they were still alive. As for Sparkling Sky, Opal Beam, Thistlethorn and Iron Vein—the royal council was probably still going on.

After Star Swirl’s earlier attempt to rush off and find his friends, the healer ponies left Lily Petal with strict orders to keep him put. While he could possibly avoid her, his re-mended hoof would not have liked that, and so he deferred to the healers’ authority over the wounded. He closed his eyes and lowered his head onto the bedding, a mix of gladness, worry and hope filling him. The tale told to him by the healers when he woke up, of what transpired after he finally passed out, returned to the front of his mind, joining together with the memories of everything he went through to form a complete picture.

He closed his eyes and thought back to when the changeling queen’s fiery spell made him and Sparkling Sky sink into the floor of the Chamber. The next thing he remembered was rolling off the back of a drunk noblepony in the castle cellars; apparently, the magic deposited them just under its ceiling. Thinking that they were the minions the changeling spoke of, he made a feeble attempt at defense, but thankfully didn’t loose any spells at them. After the confusion was sorted out, the two guards present in the cellar suddenly tried to attack him, but the rest of the ponies stopped them only for them to transform into changelings. With their true forms revealed, the unicorns subdued them, startled though they were.

Star Swirl and Sparkling Sky, who was on the brink of consciousness by that point, succeeded in convincing the ponies to leave the cellars and search the castle. Operating in some sort of maddened overdrive, Star Swirl even became their impromptu leader, first taking them to the throne room to find King Silver back to his normal self, waking up from the blackout spell and unable to remember anything. Then they ascended the stairs to the Chamber, finding the bodies of Opal Beam and his ponies beside their broken barricade, badly injured and barely showing signs of life; a healer who followed him immediately got to work trying to save them. After sending some for medical supplies, Star Swirl told the unicorns to split into groups, go to the Keepers’ posts and bring them together, and informed them of the part of the field force that stayed in the mines.

He managed to last until the first freed Keeper made it to the great hall. It was as if somepony shut him down—he quickly brought the wizard up to speed and then fell over, the last of his strength leaving him.

He awoke to sunlight and the sound of voices nearby. They turned out to belong to several healers, who were just in time to stop him from leaping up and rushing off. One of them even had to hold him down bodily. Once he calmed down, one of them agreed to explain to him what happened and where his friends were while the others continued to examine the wounded.

After he passed out, the castle ponies quickly brought the remaining members of the Circle together. Luckily, they seemed to encounter no changelings whatsoever; it seemed that the beasts had fled. The king, having come to his senses and with advice from the liberated Keepers and captain Steel Hammer, assembled a party of the strongest and most capable unicorns to bring the wounded from the mine to the castle and sent it out as soon as it was ready.

Just as they left the gates, they came upon Lieutenant Moonlight’s guardsponies lying defeated on the bridge, apparently alive but missing several of their number, including Moonlight herself; one pony went back to get those remaining in the castle to help bring them in, while the others went on to the mines.

What awaited them there was definitely not what anypony was expecting. The entrance was guarded not by changelings, but by warriors of the Pegasus Empire. Confused, the unicorns thought them to be behind the attack, but before any foolhardy actions were taken, the commanding officer of the pegasi appeared—it was none other than the ruler of the Empire himself, Commander Stormfront.

He explained the situation thusly: the pegasus army had come to investigate a powerful magical explosion and were attacked by monsters not far from the castle, which were subsequently chased into the mines. Inside, they discovered a great number of the beasts attacking a barrier and drove them off to find a cave full of injured unicorns beyond. In a gesture of good faith and charity, the commander left a platoon to guard them and led his troops in pursuit of the beasts.

The pegasi eventually caught up with the changelings deep underground, where the mining tunnels emerged into a network of caverns. There, they discovered a disturbing sight—dozens or even hundreds of green cocoons, each with a pony stored within. The fleeing changelings proved to be of little challenge to the pegasus soldiers, and soon the cocoons were secured and their prisoners released. Among them were the missing unicorn guards, both those who disappeared on patrol and those taken from the battlefields, as well as Queen Amethyst herself. The pegasi also discovered a deep sinkhole leading right to the surface of a distant, unexplored patch of mountainside, likely used by changelings as an entrance.

Commander Stormfront agreed to help the unicorns transport everypony to the castle in exchange for an immediate audience with the king. The pegasus soldiers fulfilled his command with speed, and not long after the unicorns and the sizable pegasus force were safely there. The ruler of the pegasi was brought to King Silver, who immediately called for a meeting of the royal council. The unicorn king personally summoned Sparkling Sky, who the healers had already managed to reawaken, and had him aid a rapid revival of Opal Beam and his two squadmates, then brought all of them into the council rooms.

Soon, the first order was issued from within—to raise the sun. With the Chamber of the Cycle gone without a trace, the Keepers gathered once more and performed this task together, the way it was done decades ago. The long, moonless night finally ended. Next, the pegasus troops, which had taken position all over the castle under Stormfront’s orders, were commanded to begin clearing the sky.

Since then, hours had passed without any significant developments. Little by little, the pegasi delegated to emergency weather duty removed the vast blanket of clouds. The castle’s medical stockpile had been all but depleted, spent on saving the lives of rescued ponies. It cost the healers a great lot of effort, but they managed to, at the very least, ensure everypony’s survival. Now everything had descended into a state of uneasy, expectant calm, waiting for whatever the leaders were trying to agree on at the council. The pegasi continued to stand guard, barely exchanging a word with the unicorns. The smell coming from the door to the kitchens indicated that the cooks had begun their much-needed work.

A clatter of several sets of hooves made Star Swirl withdraw from his thoughts. Opening his eyes, he looked to the door, then to the way around the blocked throne room entrance—and saw three very familiar ponies heading towards him, guided by Lily Petal.

“There you are, Star!” Opal Beam’s unmistakable voice called out, ignoring the mare scowling at him for being loud.

“I was here all the time. Where have you three gone off to? The healer said you about came back from the dead to go to that royal council.” A grin was spreading across Star Swirl’s muzzle as he spoke, sitting up.

“That’d be right. Those beasts sure tried their best.”

Each of the three certainly looked the part, Star Swirl thought as they trotted closer. Three of Opal Beam’s legs and much of his barrel were wrapped in bandages, parts of them coloured a telltale rusty red; he walked with a limp, holding his front right hoof up. Iron Vein’s horn had two lengths of wood bound tightly to it where it had been snapped and subsequently reattached in a feat of experimental medical magic, and the parts of his body not covered with white cloth most closely resembled a single great bruise. Thistlethorn had fared the worst: the entirety of his head and neck and much of his front half were fixed rigid with splints and bandages, with only a small slit for the eyes, and he walked even slower than the other two as both of his forehooves were hidden in thick bundles of cloth.

“With how many injured ponies we have, we just can’t fix you all as quick as we’d like to. We did our best,” Lily Petal said as Star Swirl looked at his friends. “We’ll get you fully back on your hooves once more medicine arrives.”

“But how can you walk around so easily, after what those monsters did to you?” Even the memory of seeing the three the way they were found was chilling.

“You’ll have to thank Sparkling Sky for that. He mixed us up some potion he called ‘phoenix tonic’. Now it feels like I didn’t take a single hit,” Opal Beam said in a lighthearted tone, and then continued less jovially: “It can’t quite help Thistlethorn, though, not with the way his throat is. It’ll take a while for it to heal even with the healers’ help, and until then he can’t talk.”

The heavily bandaged swordspony nodded stiffly, stopping by the other two.

“At least the lovely mare here says we’ll make a full recovery,” Iron Vein added. “Even I look like I won’t be any worse off, although our medical ponies never had to fix truly broken horns before. I hope it won’t happen again, to any of us—it’s not pleasant.”

“I’ll just leave you colts here and keep watching over my charges. They’re the lightest wounds we have, but who knows if they need something?” Lily Petal said quickly, looking away, and trotted off. Seeing this, Opal Beam chuckled and gave Iron Vein a smirk.

“So why did the king need you two so badly? Is the council over? And what happened to Moonlight?” Star Swirl asked.

“I don’t think it was Silver who needed us. The pegasus commander wanted a proper report, and we’re the ones who saw the most. No idea why he didn’t ask for you, maybe he just distrusts mages. Either way, Sparkling Sky’s brew brought us back up in no time, and he told the pegasus what happened in the Chamber. Did you really cast a huge time spell, Star?”

“I probably did, but that’s not important right now. What about Moonlight?”

“The lieutenant and Nightshade are over in the actual hospital, where they put the worst cases. That’s where we’d been brought as well,” Iron Vein explained. “The changelings got them even worse than us, if you can imagine that, and then took them away to that cave. Don’t worry, though—it took the healers three hours and a lot of the rarer kind of supplies, but they’ll make it. Give it a week, and they’ll be back with us.”

Star Swirl felt a small wave of relief wash over him. Despite the odds, everypony did survive after all. Only now, with his friends before him, did he truly realize that, and it brought the smile back onto his face.

Opal Beam nodded, smiling as well. “As for the council, Silver and Stormfront sent us out of the rooms just before we headed here. They had us stay there ever since we got woken up, and got the captain in, too; apparently, the commander would rather ask the opinion of a fellow soldier and wanted all three of us to stay, even though Thistlethorn couldn’t contribute much. It’s definitely Stormfront who’s steering the talk there. I swear, Silver looked about to start shooting magic when we left.”

“Did Stormfront say anything else about why they came in the first place? Why didn’t the pegasi come sooner?”

“Looks like we have our monsters to blame for that, too,” Iron Vein responded. “He said that the Empire received a unicorn courier with a letter from King Silver. It said that the Unicorn Kingdom was breaking all ties with the other pony tribes and declared every agreement void, including the weather schedules. Then, another courier brought them a very similar letter from the earth ponies’ chancellor. And somehow, the featherbrains chose not to doubt whether they were real or not. They just stopped doing their duties and assembled their army, and Stormfront didn’t even stop and consider the possibility of a ruse.”

Thistlethorn showed his reaction with an annoyed ‘hmph’ and sat down, letting his hooves relax.

“So they stayed in their closest holdings all this time to, as Stormfront put it, ‘protect the Empire’s interests’, which mostly means preparing for war. Then, last night, they saw that giant explosion happen and decided it had begun. They flew right into our lands, but thankfully ran into changelings before they could do anything stupid, and the commander has enough brains to tell a monstrous flying insect-pony from a unicorn.”

“Just how big or bright was it, then, if the pegasi saw it from that far away?” Star Swirl asked, feeling all the more incredulous for being the one responsible.

“Stormfront compared it to a sunrise,” Iron Vein said in a subtly impressed voice. “None in the castle or anywhere nearby saw it, or at least none that we can ask. Everypony was either inside the cellars or the mines, under the changeling spell or knocked unconscious. The commander also said they heard it, as far away as they were, and there isn’t a single intact window left in the entire castle... Did a time spell cause all that?”

“I thought they were all locked away by the Keepers? ‘Too dangerous to use freely’ and all that? How did you learn one?” Opal Beam chimed in with questions of his own.

“Sparkling Sky gave me a scroll that had it and said to cast it. Didn’t he say anything about that at the council? We have the Chamber to thank for it, anyway—the gemstone array made the spell this powerful. I’m not sure what it actually did, though...” Star Swirl said thoughtfully. With the mad rush after the battle and the worried expectation that came after his reawakening, he hadn’t had time to ponder this.

Opal Beam looked at him with a puzzled expression. “Wait. The Chamber could do more than help change day to night and back? I didn’t know—”

There was the sound of a door hitting the wall from the left-side balcony, followed by incoherent shouting. In a moment, four ponies came into view by the railing and headed towards the stairs down. Captain Steel Hammer in his distinctive armor and cape walked ahead. Behind him, a steel-grey pegasus wearing the distinctive helm of office of the Commander of the Pegasus Empire followed with firm steps. The two others were Sparkling Sky, hatless and half-hidden in a large robe, and King Silver himself, the owner of the indignant voice, glowering as he followed the pegasus closely.

The monarch’s tirade became clearer as they came into the hall, and the words rang out loudly as the group reached the top of the stairs and began to descend:

“—will not stand for this! This is simply unacceptable! An insult to the honor of the Unicorn Kingdom!”

“You have said this several times already, Silver. Once again: the council is over, and you have accepted the agreement,” Commander Stormfront replied in a calm, unusually well-articulated voice, without even turning his head to the furious unicorn at his back. It was a little hoarse, betraying his age. “I admire your perseverance and skill in negotiation, but my terms take all of your concerns into account.”

“Your terms are a mockery, commander! What do you need our share of the harvest for? You get more than enough as it is! Surrendering our weapons? That ridiculous supervision!? This is an outrage!” Silver fumed, trying to overtake the pegasus commander and look him in the eye.

“Yet you have already agreed to them. I’m afraid that you have no choice. There is no need to discuss them further,” was the pegasus’ calm reply. The group was now making its way down the hall, towards the broken entrance.

“Why do you not occupy our lands, then, if we have no choice!?” the king shouted in anger.

“I’ve considered this, but right now it would be more trouble than it’s worth. An alteration in the agreement between the three tribes remains a better option,” he said as the unicorn king glared at him from the side. “This is politics, Silver. Your father knew this game very well. If not for his guile and persistence, my Empire and your Kingdom would be in very different positions now.”

Suddenly, he stopped dead in his tracks not far away from Star Swirl, who stood up as the leaders of two pony tribes approached, and turned to face the monarch. “Out of my respect for the late king, I won’t press this matter further, but you will have to learn quickly if you want to retain your kingdom,” he said in a level, matter-of-fact tone. “I will never be so lenient again. You would do well to remember this.”

King Silver’s face contorted in a mix of emotions. “I... How dare you bring my father into this, commander! To patronize me! I am the ruler of the Unicorn Kingdom and I will not be treated like this!” He looked about to strike the pegasus, but instead turned sharply and marched back the way they came.

The entire hall remained silent, watching the scene unfold. The pegasus commander stood still, following Silver with his gaze until he was out of sight, then looked at Steel Hammer. The guard captain nodded wordlessly towards Star Swirl and the others, maintaining an impassive expression.

Stormfront turned in their direction and took a few steps closer until he was right next to Opal Beam. Up close, Star Swirl could see the face of the old stallion: it looked chiseled out of grey rock, creased with age and partially shadowed by his gleaming helm of office. His eyes were almost in contrast to his features, clear and bright like flawless gems.

“So you are the apprentice responsible for resolving this... situation,” he said quietly, even thoughtfully, giving Star Swirl an inquisitive stare. “I don’t trust magic, but I have to thank you for doing what you did.” He paused, looking between all four of them. “You would have done well in the Empire, were you born pegasi. Perhaps the unicorns have not yet lost the fire of the past after all.”

Not knowing how to react, Star Swirl just looked back at the pegasus commander. He met his gaze for a moment, nodded ever so slightly, then spoke again, glancing to Opal Beam:

“Sergeant Opal Beam, was it? My troops will begin hunting down the remaining changelings immediately. I understand that your squad faced more of them than any other; do you have any advice to spare?”

There was a silence that lasted a few moments as Opal Beam and the old pegasus stared at each other. Then, slowly, he answered:

“They may try to turn into copies of who they’re fighting, but you can break the disguise. They’re lighter than any pony, and their wings are fragile. One on one, a trained pony will defeat a changeling, and a balanced team can survive against several times as many of them.”

The commander nodded again. “The Empire thanks you. Those things are our common enemy.” He then looked to the entrance, causing the two pegasi sentries on either side of it to snap to attention. “Now, where is—ah, there.”

As if on cue, something small barreled in through the unblocked half of the doorway. It stormed past the pegasi and directly towards Stormfront. As it got closer, Star Swirl made it out to be a very young pegasus mare, unarmored save for a helmet far too big for her, held in place by a string. She was carrying two weapons, an axe and a sword-like blade, dangling from her mouth from sturdy cloth straps and clanging together as she galloped. She began to slow down far too late and skidded along the damaged carpet covering the floor, nevertheless managing to slide to a halt right in front of the commander. The filly’s helmet continued to move on its own accord and fell down onto her face, forcing her to raise it back with a hoof, immediately moved to salute.

“Pfiwate Tempeft, fir, dewiwewinf youw weaponf, fir!” she tried to report through the straps in her mouth. Star Swirl couldn’t hold back a smile, but Stormfront’s face remained serious and impassive.

“Well done, private. Put them down.”

“Fir, yef, fir!” The well-worn yet unmistakably mastercraft blades were lowered onto the carpet. The young private stood to attention, radiating almost tangible pride and happiness as she looked at Stormfront.

“Anything else, commander, sir?” Her voice was squeaky, fitting her overall appearance.

“That would be all, private. You’re dismissed.” There was a nigh-imperceptible sign of warmth in his professional tone.

“Sir, yes, sir!” Private Tempest exclaimed, then whirled around and trotted back out of the hall at a perfect marching pace, looking as diligent as anypony could ever be.

“The eagerness of youth,” Stormfront said in a voice no louder than a whisper, a near-invisible, distant smile on his lips. “I remember when I was like this. It is a crime not to help such ponies become who they’re meant to be.”

He lowered his head and picked up the weapons one after another. On his forehooves there were metal bracers with built-in slots perfectly matching one of them; Stormfront expertly attached the blade to his left hoof and the axe to his right, locked them in and secured them further with the straps. He flared his unusually large wings, lifted himself off the floor in one beat and hovered in place.

“Captain, Keeper,” he addressed Steel Hammer and Sparkling Sky, who remained silent. “The Empire honors its promises. I expect the Kingdom to do the same.”

He then beat his wings again, sending a gust of wind through the hall, and soared up and out into the courtyard through one of the destroyed windows. His voice came back a few moments later with an order Star Swirl didn’t make out, and the pegasus warriors by the door hurried outside.

The unicorns exchanged glances as silence fell once again. Lily Petal walked among the wounded ponies, reassuring them after the scene that awakened those who were asleep. Hushed conversation began to fill the hall, everypony discussing what they’d just seen and heard with their neighbors.

“I have ‘t go and find His Majesty,” Steel Hammer said, sounding crestfallen. “We’ll have t’ see to the arrangements about turning the armory over, and... discuss the matter of rank.”

Saying nothing more, the captain turned about and trotted off to where the king went.

“So the pegasi’s terms...” Opal Beam began to ask, looking at Sparkling Sky.

“Yes. Accepted, all of them,” he answered, sounding none too pleased. “It was clear from the start that we can’t argue much. Stormfront knows exactly what to do with an opportunity like this. This is why he’s still commander, after all these years. He’s no mere brute. He is the best strategist and diplomat the Empire has seen in centuries.”

“They have us where they want us, and we can’t do anything about it.” Iron Vein sighed, tapping his hoof irritably on the floor, then added with a faint chuckle: “I never thought I’d be grateful to pegasi, but at least I can still hate them for it.”

“What terms are these?” asked Star Swirl, looking between the others. “You never explained them. Something about our share of food? Supervision?”

Sparkling Sky nodded, sitting down on the carpet as he started to explain. “They offer what we need: the aid of the pegasus warriors in getting rid of any remaining changelings, the reinstatement of all agreements between us and the necessary changes to the weather schedule to compensate for all the rain. In return, Stormfront wants three things. First, a portion of what we get from the earth pony harvest for three years, which they can then trade for other goods.”

“It was five at the start, so at least something’s been changed for the better,” Opal Beam commented. Sparkling Sky ignored the interruption, continuing:

“Then, he wants us to give our guardsponies’ equipment to the Empire, which we could not dissuade him from. And finally, he forbids us to produce any magically molded gemstones, unless we notify the pegasi beforehoof, and demands that we present him with a list of all jewelers capable of crafting them, so that the Empire can control us.” The Keeper paused, as if to take a breath. “They can prohibit the creation of gemstones if they suspect it to be a threat to the pegasi.”

Star Swirl blinked at the last condition, staring at Sparkling Sky in surprise, and the Keeper nodded.

“It is not so surprising. He already was Commander of the Empire when the Chamber was completed. It’s hard to keep a project so lengthy secret, especially when it is going on in plain sight in the royal castle itself.”

He paused again, glancing aside. No pegasi were anywhere in earshot, and most of the makeshift beds around them were unoccupied. After a few moments, he resumed his explanation:

“It was clear to everypony that the pegasi knew our original intention and how we were going to accomplish it, and perhaps, so did the earth ponies. None of this mattered once it became clear we had failed, but now that it turns out not to be completely true... Stormfront would be insane not to take measures.”

“Original intention?” Opal Beam asked. “The Chamber of the Cycle allows—well, allowed a unicorn to raise the sun or the moon by themselves. What was it supposed to do, then?”

“See? Even we unicorns have all but forgotten,” Sparkling Sky remarked with a slight smirk. “The Chamber’s intention was to empower any unicorn spell using the phenomenon of magically molded gemstones. It would have been a great tool for any task, including war. Unfortunately, while it did magnify the energies that make up the spell, it also distorted them and fractured that spell, which made it all but useless.”

He took another pause, then resumed, slowly: “The only thing it did successfully was what gave it its name. We only discovered that we could use it to raise the sun by accident. It was a small comfort, but at least the principle was proven to be sound. We didn’t dare to take it apart again, afraid to upset the many enchantments that made it work and lose it completely, and the Kingdom did not grant us the resources to build another potential costly failure. And now we cannot recreate it because of the pegasi's terms.”

“So, the spell I cast—it actually worked?” Star Swirl asked, curiosity rising inside him.

“All the evidence points to that, yes. The temporal displacement spell did exactly what it is meant to do, but on a gigantic scale: The Chamber of the Cycle has simply disappeared without leaving anything behind.”

“Why did the spell work while others did not, then?”

“That is the question every builder of the Chamber asked themselves when it was finished and nothing seemed to go through. However, I believe you helped me discover the answer. It is in your treatise, about the magically molded gemstones.”

He paused, as did Star Swirl’s thoughts. “Wait, so I was right?”

“Yes, your theory is most likely correct. The gemstones’ own properties could interfere with the energies directed through them, and with how many there were, a functioning result is nothing short of a miracle. We never tested time magic within the Chamber, because a faulty overcharged time spell can be far more devastating than a mere fireball.

“The changeling’s transportation spell seems to have gone through as well, although imperfectly, seeing as we turned up in the cellars with none of the changelings it promised. I’m glad it did, or we would not be here now.”

“So... you didn’t know it was going to work? And what do you mean by ‘would not be here now?’”

Sparkling Sky was silent for a few moments, looking at Star Swirl with a shade of guilt in his eyes, then answered:

“The amount of energy required to power that spell is quite large, even if we don’t take the Chamber into account. If it were to be directed at the Chamber system’s central sphere, it would have been reflected into the circuit itself, at every single point. The gemstones weren’t designed for being struck with directionless magic, but to channel energy through. The array wouldn’t maintain integrity after a blow this strong.”

“Would that involve explosions, by any chance?” Opal Beam asked, sounding fascinated.

“That’s what I was counting on,” Sparkling Sky said. “At the very least, I expected gemstones to explode into shards. At most, a release of energy large enough to destroy the Chamber.”

A stunned silence followed his words. Four pairs of eyes stared at the Keeper. Star Swirl felt his mouth fall agape.

“Wait a moment. Are you saying that you told me to cast a spell that was most likely going to kill me, you and everything else and maybe destroy the Chamber itself?” he said slowly, turning the thought over and over in his mind.

“It would have also eliminated a lot of changelings, as well as their queen. You were there, Star Swirl, and so you know we were not going to make it. I hoped that destroying the queen would remove the spells it was maintaining and free the Circle as well as leave the changelings leaderless, which could tip the balance in our favor. It was better than surrendering to whatever it wanted to do to us. The Chamber is nothing compared to the survival of the unicorn race.” Sparkling Sky spoke slowly, with deliberation.

“I’m sorry for not telling you the full truth, but we had to act immediately. Everything was at stake. I gave you a suicidal order, and although I hope that you understand my reasons, I will also understand if you don’t forgive me for it,” he finished, looking at Star Swirl with a heavy, meaningful expression.

Star Swirl looked back at his mentor, two conflicting sides emerging in his mind. The more cautious one was aghast at this callous disregard for his own life. Sparkling Sky played him, had him do something that was going to kill him! The other, adventurous and daring, believed that his mentor did the right thing, something which Star Swirl himself would have done in his place. The situation was hopeless, and the choice was between surrendering to mind-controlling monsters and committing one last act of defiance that could cripple them. The end result would not have been very different.

He thought back to when he chose to try and become Sparkling Sky’s apprentice and the reasons for this decision. Star Swirl wanted to make magic useful, bring it to bear and make it count. Among the Keepers, this was exactly what Sparkling Sky was known for: he used his talent for directing magic not only to become the undisputed champion in contests of prowess between wizards, but to further the unicorns’ understanding of it and develop useful new spells. He was not afraid to take risks and occasionally blow things up. In short, he was something of a role model to Star Swirl’s younger self.

And here he was, having done exactly that—used a marvel of unicorn magic in a daring, last-ditch move to cripple a terrible enemy that had the entire kingdom on its knees, to give his tribe a fighting chance even though it was going to cost him his life. It was Sparkling Sky who came up with this, but now that the initial shock had worn off, Star Swirl understood that in the circumstances, this truly was something he would have done willingly.

“I understand you, Sparkling Sky,” he finally said, “I agree that it was the right thing to do, though I don’t completely forgive you.”

His mentor nodded, a look of relief on his face. “I’m glad you do. Now we have to consider what the spell actually did. Say, Star Swirl, did you have a specific time or some other destination in mind when you cast the spell?”

Star Swirl shook his head. “I was mostly focusing on casting it before those green flames swallowed us up.”

“This may complicate the matters. I believe the spell you cast was reflected to affect the entire Chamber array, as would have been the case with unstable energy, but instead of overloading, it successfully applied its effects. As a result, it has been displaced in time. Taken from here and moved elsewhere.”

“But where? Or rather, to when?” Opal Beam chimed in, still looking impressed by Sparkling Sky’s ploy.

“That is the problem. Without a desired destination, and with the way it took effect, it must have been random. We could have sent it into the past or the future, and considering that the spell was greatly amplified, it can be quite far either way.”

“So you could have sent it into a time before time or left our descendants a nasty present,” Iron Vein said, curiously unfazed by the question of time manipulation.

“Precisely. But at least we managed to prevent the changelings from winning in the present. Maybe they will find nopony to feed on in the past, or be outmatched in the future. We can only hope.”

“We can do something,” Iron Vein spoke again, thoughtfully. “If it went to the future, then we should leave some kind of warning. Write what we know of them down and pass it on. That way, the future ponies will not be caught unawares.”

“Are you sure you aren’t secretly a wizard, Iron Vein?” Sparkling Sky smirked. “Even I’m less certain when it comes to time magic.”

“It’s just like planning for tomorrow. Except longer,” the giant guardspony shrugged. “So if you’re correct, we don’t know exactly when they will reappear, right?”

Sparkling Sky nodded.

“Right. Then we’ll just have to keep the possibility in mind. But until then, there’re still changelings left here.”

“That’s for the pegasi to take care of. Look at yourself. My potion is the only thing that keeps you three going now, and the same is true for me. It has been a very long day.”

“We won’t be able to fight well enough, anyway. The feathered idiots are going to take our arms and armor. They don’t even need them. They just want to humiliate us!” Opal Beam grumbled.

“And if Steel Hammer is going to go through with what he wants, we won’t have a captain either,” Iron Vein added.

“What?” Star Swirl asked, surprised for yet another time.

“He’s taking everything that’s happened hard. He thinks that it was his fault that the changelings got into the castle, that he and the others were subjugated.” Opal Beam shook his head. “You know what Steel Hammer can be like. He believes he’s no longer fit to lead the guard. The way the king is now, he won’t think twice before accepting his resignation.”

“But who will be captain if he does?”

“Moonlight. Steel Hammer said so right at the council. When she’ll get well enough to work again, she will choose who’ll fill her old rank and position.”

A momentary silence settled in, broken by Sparkling Sky.

“While we are on the subject... Star Swirl, I have something else to say.”

“Yes?” He looked to his mentor, a part of his mind thinking it knew what it was going to be.

Sparkling Sky paused as everypony looked at him again, then spoke in a solemn tone: “You have shown yourself to be among the most capable ponies the Unicorn tribe has to offer. You fought with the field force, then returned to the castle, fought again and faced an enemy that even I could not stop. You have proven yourself able to summon enough power to fight on par with myself, with my lifetime of training behind me.”

He stood back up and drew himself up to his full height. “Star Swirl, I have nothing more to teach you. Your apprenticeship is complete. From this moment forth, you are a full wizard.”

Star Swirl wasn’t sure that after so many shocks and surprises he would be able to contain himself. A strong urge to leap up and start hopping around his mentor while chanting “Yes, yes, yes!” very nearly overcame him, and it took much of his willpower to restrain himself. Instead, he inclined his head respectfully towards his now former mentor.

“Thank you, Sparkling Sky. You’ve been a good teacher.”

“And you a good student, Star Swirl.”

Opal Beam grinned, reaching out a hoof to bump Star Swirl on the shoulder, wincing as he did so. “Shouldn’t have done that,” he muttered, then smiled again. “Congratulations, Star!”

Iron Vein stomped on the floor in approval, echoing his sergeant’s smile and saying “You earned it, Star. You fought as bravely as a guard should.”

Thistlethorn, for his mute part, reacted with a nod. Star Swirl acknowledged the congratulations with a smile and looked back at Sparkling Sky.

“There is also something I need to ask of you, Star Swirl,” he said slowly, as if cautious to say a wrong word.

“Of course. What is it?” Star Swirl replied, still full of joy at his new title.

“I hate to admit it, but I... am going to need your help. I cannot demand it of you now, but you are the pony I could trust the most.”

“Help? What with?”

There was another momentary silence; Sparkling Sky sighed and pulled at the front of his heavy robes with his hoof. “I am not as young and sprightly as I once was. Yesterday’s events have taken a lot out of me. The amount of erratic magic the changeling queen struck me with is a lot for my age.”

The robe slid open, revealing a large white bandage covering Sparkling Sky’s chest. Above and below it, his coat and skin were blackened as if by fire, and some of his fur was missing. Star Swirl recalled the description of himself the healers gave him when he first woke up—his horn appeared to be similarly charred, but after several medical spells it turned back to normal. The reason for his frequent pauses and slow speech was suddenly clear.

“You know very well that healers are not all-powerful. There are things they cannot reverse or restore. It’s clear to me that I won’t be able to do everything I still need to.”

The mix of emotions within Star Swirl turned even more chaotic: the shock of sudden change, the joy for his and his friends’ survival, the frustration with the pegasi and now the worry for Sparkling Sky all whirled in his heart like a storm. As before, the rational part of his mind took over.

“How bad is the damage, then? Does it prevent you from fulfilling your duties as a Keeper?”

“I cannot say right now. I’m still under the effects of the phoenix tonic, and it makes me feel better than I should. Soon it will wear off, and I will need time to recover. Days, at least.” He paused, giving Star Swirl a gloomy, resigned look. “I have lived a long and eventful life. It won’t last much longer.”

“I’m sure you’ll get better, Sparkling Sky,” said Opal Beam with a reassuring smile. “You’re the best Keeper we have. You survived worse things than this.”

“Too many times,” he replied glumly.

Star Swirl looked at his former mentor again. With his sagging shoulders, disheveled mane and beard and sunken eyes, he seemed more like an ordinary old pony weighed down by the seasons than ever before.

“I will help you, Sparkling Sky,” he said with a small smile. “It’s the least I could do after everything you did for me.”

“Even after I told you to do something that was going to kill you?”

In the inner struggle of emotions within Star Swirl, the adventurous spark finally triumphed over all the others. He replied simply: “It didn’t.”

Sparkling Sky shook his head and raised it a bit higher, a smirk appearing on his muzzle. “The Circle can live without me for a few days. What I need you for are other tasks. I have research I need to finish. Even some debts I need to repay. Are you sure you are up to such a task?”

“Well... What duties do I have, as a full wizard?” Star Swirl replied thoughtfully.

“The tradition of wizardry is as ancient as the unicorn race itself...” the old Keeper responded in a slow, meaningful voice, fitting for retelling a legend. After a moment, he continued normally, the tiny smirk reappearing on his muzzle: “But nowadays, your only real task is to serve the kingdom, fulfill the royal orders and strive for perfection.”

“Then what you need my help with is what I’m supposed to be doing. And as for royal orders... what if King Silver orders me to help you with your tasks?”

Sparkling Sky nodded, the smirk growing. “Perhaps. He does listen to his advisors. I will tell you more when our winged friends no longer have the opportunity to listen in.”

“Oh, Star Swirl,” Iron Vein suddenly spoke up, also seeming strangely cheerful. “There’s one thing I’m curious about but can’t figure out. When we got ambushed in the kitchens, you ran off with half the changeling swarm on your tail, and when we got to you, there were only three. How did you take out so many?”

“Ah. The Amniomorphic spell,” he replied simply, at which Sparkling Sky turned his head to look at him again.

“Your project? You used it against the changelings? How did it affect them?” the Keeper asked, a researcher’s curiosity appearing in his heavy expression.

“It worked perfectly. The only was the resulting black color. Somehow, when I got their leader, they became so scared that they all ran away.”

“The resulting black color... of what?” Opal Beam inquired.

“A sheep.”

“So you turned a changeling into a sheep?” he asked again, flatly.

“It turned out to be a good idea.”

Opal Beam smiled, and then chuckled. Iron Vein picked it up, and hearing his clear, loud laughter, Star Swirl himself couldn’t help but join in as the spontaneous happiness took hold of him. The joy of having made it through such an ordeal, of being there with his friends, washed over him, dulled the worries and made the future seem a little bit brighter. Soon, even Sparkling Sky’s hoarse yet hearty laugh echoed in the hall.

“At least you didn’t give them more wings that they already had,” Opal Beam managed to say in between bouts of laughter, only succeeding in provoking more as the ponies recalled the incident with flying frogs.

As the unicorns continued to draw the attention of everypony in the hall with their mirth, a large mouse emerged from under the kitchen doors and scurried closer to them, unnoticed. It snuck behind Star Swirl and ran up to him, then got onto its hind legs and planted a firm kick on one of his rear hooves, then proceeded to flee as fast as it came.

Still laughing, the five unicorns watched its retreat, and then four of them looked at the victim of this sneak attack for clarification. Star Swirl, who barely felt it, simply said:

“It probably was my assistant getting even.”

“Assistant? You have to tell us about this one,” Iron Vein said, still unable to stifle his guffaws.

“When I can breathe again,” he replied, which, in this spontaneous uncontrollable mirth, only resulted in another bout of laughter.

Sparkling Sky blinked a few times, tearing up from laughing too much; his grim expression finally melted away. “Star Swirl,” he said in a slightly too serious tone. “I see you have decided to grow a beard as magnificent as my own.”

“Yeah, Star, you need to do something about it. Because if you keep it, I’ll only have one title for you,” Opal Beam said, chuckling in between sentences.

“What’d it be, then?” Star Swirl asked, copying Sparkling Sky’s mock seriousness as he lifted a hoof to rub the stubble that almost seemed to be a lot longer than it was the day before.

“Star Swirl the Bearded, of course!” his friend exclaimed.

The five ponies burst into joyful laughter once again, and laughed on and on, heedless of a cross Lily Petal approaching them and her repeated calls for quiet. As costly as the victory was, the changelings had lost, the unicorns had won, and battered and weakened as they were, they all lived to tell the tale. The consequences would be dealt with later. Here and now, for a brilliant, short-lived moment, this joyful realization swept their troubles away.

The morning sun had risen higher in the sky, and its rays were now flooding the hall with bright, cheerful light, as if underscoring the scene. Sunlit and mirthful—this is how Star Swirl forever remembered that day, the day of the Unicorn tribe’s victory over the changelings, his first day as a full rank wizard, and the successful end of his first true adventure.

~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~

The changeling flew farther and farther into the mountains, across deep crags and ravines and among tall cloud-crowned peaks, until its wings could no longer carry it. Then it ran, on and on along precarious ledges and through clutches of trees lost between the alpine slopes. It was on the brink of exhaustion, but could not allow itself to stop. Maddened by primal fear, it forged on until its terrible claws finally withdrew themselves from its mind.

It stopped when the sun was already high in the sky, finding itself on the edge of a deep gorge, at the bottom of which there was a small, rapid mountain river. Far down its length, the changeling could make out a patch of green—a distant lush valley.

It mustered its strength and took to the air again, buzzing along the lip of the gorge. It was alone and far from its kind, and the pangs of hunger began to make themselves felt. It remembered the Queen and the plans she had presented to the swarm: the conquest of the pony tribes, the harvesting of love, the domination of the world. Focusing on the valley ahead, it focused on the latter, trying to remember what the Queen had said.

The three pony races were not the only ones in the world, she taught them. There were griffons, and dragons, and things that lived underground and underwater. Many of them were capable of love. Its mind, not used to much complex thought, nevertheless realized that their scheme had failed and that the ponies had won.

It found itself unable to turn around and go back into the land of the pony tribes, in particular the unicorns and their terrible magic; fear stung it once again as it remembered the horrifying sight of its commander being turned into something against its will, robbed of its ability to change. It doubted if it had the strength left to make such a trip again. No, it had to press on and cross the mountains before hunger claimed it. There had to be someone capable of love living in that valley. In truth, this was its only hope.

A bank of low-hanging dark grey clouds was clinging to one of the mountains near the gorge. As it flew by, several vaporous detached itself from the slope and drifted quickly towards the changeling, which paid them no heed, having nothing to fear from clouds. It rounded a sheer cliff-face jutting into the air high above the gorge—and suddenly found itself in another patch of cloud, hovering in its way. Unthinkingly, it plunged right through, seeking to reach the valley as soon as possible.

A biting chill washed over it, strong enough to burn like fire. It hissed in surprise and tried to force its way through the cloud faster, but its wings began to give out again. It turned to fly upwards to escape, moving along the rising cliffside, but the cloud seemed to continue far higher than it did before. Still the strange, unnatural burning cold grew, sapping the strength from its wings, slowing it down with every moment.

The changeling resisted, forcing itself higher and higher, and with a final beat of its wings emerged onto the snow-swept top of the cliff. It landed awkwardly, stumbling and trying to remain standing. The clouds, however, did not go away, and neither did the cold. It was as if it had flown into another world, one of deathly cold fog swirling in a blizzard.

In the air above, it spotted indistinct shapes moving through the mist, marked by points of piercing blue light that shone straight through it. As it watched, shuddering in the frosty air, one of them drew closer and descended. An outline of a pony head formed itself in the mist, followed by ethereal hooves that touched down on the rock.

The chill suddenly grew even stronger, causing the changeling to hiss in pain. Its eyes felt as if they were on fire; it tried to gasp for air, but the frigid air blasted its insides hard enough to make it drop to the ground. For a few brief moments it continued to twitch in agony and then became perfectly still.

The shape in the air, resembling the front half of a pony with a half-formed trail of fog replacing its rear, lowered its head closer to the changeling and snorted. Frost formed on its limbs and quickly spread across its body, and in a matter of minutes, the changeling was encased in a tomb of ice.

The apparition raised its head towards others like it, running in circles on the snow-choked air all around the clifftop. It placed a hoof onto the frozen changeling, its eyes glowing with cold, merciless sharpness, and let out a terrible, blood-curdling roar. It echoed through the vortex created by its kin, picked up by many others, and soon the mountains ringed with their call, piercing and fearful like the deepest winter.

The creature floated into the air and began to move in the direction the changeling came from. The vortex followed suit, as did the greater bank of clouds on the mountain above.

The way had been found.