Bini thought they got in too easily. They had approached a couple of guards at the entrance of the Crystal castle with Arone looking like Cadence. Exactly like Cadence. His voice was even her own. All Ar-Cadence had to do was smile and wave and then they were let in with a smile and a greeting worth a thousand suns.

They thought about the plan, up until the part where they actually enter the castle and need to find Cadence. When the only reason they were allowed in the castle is that Arone was Cadence. Really. Bini thought they were screwed but was just going to pray it wasn't going to blow up in their face.

Rocky had a neutral expression that years of training had built-in. He walked along the corridor like a real royal guard. Chocolate, with no formal training in holding back emotions, was frantically sweating and could muster a smile if she tried. Which she wasn't because this was not a smiling situation.

The fake Cadence kept flickering her wings up and down as a nervous way to release tension. Bini couldn't look up from the floor so she just watched everyone's hoofs as she tried to find a way that the plan wouldn't blow up in their face. Bini came to a screeching halt when the ponies in front of her did. For a very bad reason.

Cadence and two guards were staring at them with wide eyes.

Cadence's eyes reflected weeks of terror from before her wedding come bubbling to the surface within seconds. Her jaw twitched as she tried to come up with something to say. Finally, words spilled from her mouth.

"ARREST THEM!"

The guards at her side immediately rushed towards the intruders. The group screamed and started running in the direction they came. Cadence called for backup as Shinning Armor blocked them on the other side of the corridor. His horn was flared up and he blasted at the imposter looking like Cadence. It hit Arone in the chest. Causing him to go flying and drop his disguise. He hit the floor hard and knocked him out within seconds.

Bini yelped as Shinning Armor nearly hit her with another beam. Cadence blasted Rocky and Chocolate behind Bini, they were flung into her and all fell to the floor on top of each other. They were then levitated into the air by Shining Armour and Cadence looked the three conscious ponies in the eyes with fear and hatred.

"Show yourself changeling bugs."

"We aren't Changelings!" Bini barked back and struggled to move. "We had to break in to tell you something really important!"

Cadence looked at her husband in surprise at Bini's answer, then back to the three ponies.

"Why should I trust suspected Changelings and ponies who committed treason?" She snapped back.

"I-If we were Changelings, I am sure y-you would have figured it out by now." Chocolate stammered with the adrenaline rush she got which gave her fake courage. "Bini and A-Arone didn't even commit treason!"

"Test their blood to make sure they aren't Changelings. Then put them in the cells in the lower levels. I will ask them more questions then. Hopefully, they will be more...Truthful then." Cadence said with her eyes narrowed at the group. "Make sure you make them unconscious before you do it. I don't want them to suffer. No matter who they are."

"Of course, Cadence."

His horn made a burst of magic move towards the bubble and made the rest of the group drift to oblivion. The guards took the ponies by laying them on their back and two guard unicorns made sure they couldn't suddenly escape. Cadence bowed her head and took deep breathes and Shinning Armour nuzzled her.

"I am sorry."

Cadence looked up at her husband with a weak smile.

"You have no reason to be sorry. I am the one who should be sorry. I...Have a feeling they are telling the truth or at least they completely believe that they telling the truth. I was just so angry at them. They hadn't even hurt me...I just...Goddess sake. I have sent them to a cold cell without even-"

"You have no way of knowing their intentions. Luna placed the ponies Bini and Arone...Bini and the Changeling as committing treason for a reason." Shinning Armour said.

"Then why didn't she tell us the reason?" Cadence asked with watery eyes. "She just blames all her questionable decisions on Celestia's disappeance at least...I think she does..."

"What do you mean?"

"I have been having a lapse of memory. I can't remember anything from the past week but I know Luna has told me more than once that she has justified a certain decision by blaming it on the absence of Celestia during the past week. I remember having a meeting with her a week ago when I went to Canterlot...Do you remember that?" Cadence asked. Shinning Armour nodded so Cadence continued. "That is when she told me about the ponies who committed treason and Bini's assistants. That is when she justified making them wanted ponies by saying it was for the good of Celestia. Celestia's disappearance was linked to them somehow. After that...Nothing. I just woke up this morning. Having no memory but just having feelings like...What I mentioned."

"I thought I was the only one." Shinning Armour admitted. "I don't remember anything from the past week either."

Cadence gave a small chuckle and hugged her husband.

"I love you so much."

"I love you too."

Bini's eyes fluttered open and she found herself strapped to a medical bed. Most of her body was covered by a blanket and she focused on her hoof that currently had a needle sticking out of it, with a unicorn Doctor pulling some of her blood out of it.

"W-What are you doing?" Bini said with a weak voice. The Doctor rolled his eyes and removed the needle. He moved away. Allowing her to see the other medical bed where Arone was laying. Strapped to the bed like she was with a ring on the tip of his horn to prevent the use of magic. Bini assumed she had the same and watched as his pure blue eyes opened and he looked back at her. Seemingly not too surprised they were there.

"Arone..." Bini mumbled into her pillow as the worst thought ever crossed her mind. "I think I need a stallionfriend."

Arone blinked a few times then looked around the room.

"Are-Are you high?"

"Geez, I wish," Bini said and groaned as a nurse put a bandage on her hoof. "Maybe blood loss contributed to it."

The nurse chuckle and shook her head.

"No. We didn't take enough, you wuss." The nurse muttered. Bini glared at the nurse.

"Wuss? Look here, I am not a wuss. I actually broke into this castle while you-"

"Treated a fully grown dragon last year." The nurse replied.

"You're bluffing." Bini accused. The nurse raised her hoof to three deep scars of claw marks from a dragon. "Oh..."

The nurse backed out of Bini's eyesight and she focused on Arone again.

"I really need a stallionfriend." She mumbled. Arone chuckled in shock.

"Maybe you are delusional. You have always sworn that Love is just a useless emotion."

"I am open to trying new things." She said with a shrug. Arone looked over at her in disbelief.

"Who are you, and what have you done to Bini Filters?"

"Oh, shut up."

The Doctor returned and levitated two needles over Arone and Bini before lunging them into their hoofs. They both yelped in pain as the Doctor had no mercy for ponies who would commit treason. Their eyes closed and they faded into oblivion again.

Chocolate Snow opened her eyes to a dark crystal cell that was cold. She found herself wrapped in a blanket. She looked around to see each of her friends with a blanket. She used her hoofs to tighten the warm blanket around her body and shivered from her exposed fur.

She heard multiple groans of pain and exhaustion. Arone was the first to wake up. She admitted that she was still disturbed by seeing Arone looking like a Changeling. He slowly rose and the blanket fell off him. He attempted to rise it to his body again but couldn't since the ring on his horn blocked magic.

"A-Arone?" Chocolate said. She rubbed her hoof where a needle was placed earlier and looked back at Arone. He smiled and shivered. He stumbled over to her and wrapped his insect wing around her back. "A-Are we going to die in here?"

"No. Of course not. Cadence will let us out...Eventually."

Bini coughed and sucked in the cold air only to make her cough again as she sat up.

"How long have you guys been up?" Bini asked as she spotted the two and then looked up and the flickering dim light. Rocky was the last to get up.

"A minute." Chocolate said. Bini nodded and all their ears went straight up when they heard the sound of a distant door opening. Then they heard a set of hoofsteps coming closer until Cadence and Shining Armour appeared behind the bars they were trapped behind.

"Hello," Cadence said. Arone shifted uncomfortably as Shining Armour refused to stop staring at him for any sign of a threat. "How are you feeling?"

"Cold. Hungry. Anything else, Princess?" Bini snapped.

Cadence opened the cell, against Shining Armour's request obviously and stepped into the cell. Closing and locking it behind her.

"Why did you want to speak with me?" Cadence asked. She lit up her horn to cause more warmth to spread in the room.

"Celestia is missing because she is going to kill Sombra. We were hoping you could tell us if she happened to pass by but that didn't really work."

Celestia had spent the better part of the day going through the maze the was the icy caves in the north of the Crystal Empire. She had finally reached a big cavern that was shaped like a circle. In the middle was a stallion with armour and a red cloak. Held down to the floor by a multi-coloured chain attached to both his hoofs.

Celestia removed her cloak and allowed it to drop to the floor. She had removed her royal attire so her hoofsteps were soft along the cavern's icy floor as she got closer to the middle. The stallion, known as King Sombra smiled and turned his head slightly to the Alicorn with a cocky smile.

"Welcome to my prison, Celestia."

"It could be a lot worse. You know why I am here. So let's just get this over with." Celestia said. Sombra chuckled and slowly got up.

"Let me out of these chains. If you kill me while I am defenceless. Well, that would way on your mind."

Celestia blasted the chains with the power of the sun. It took some effort but they finally crumpled into dust. Sombra flexed his hoofs and used an enchantment to enhance his magic. He let in a deep breath and looked over to Celestia.

"That's better. Let's hope Dizzy can save you now."

Celestia did a war cry and blasted Sombra. He jumped out of the way and shot black magic at Celestia. She deflected his magic but didn't expect a scythe to appear from the darkness cut at her body. She cried out and blasted at the scythe that left deep cuts on her back and hoofs. Sombra took that advantage to appear behind her then blast her to the floor. Using his front hoofs to press down on her throat.

She wheezed for breath and clawed at his hoofs as he chuckled and pressed harder.

"Be my Queen...Or die."

"I-...Would...Rather...DIE!" She blasted him with magic. Knocking him into the air. She levitated him and slammed him into the floor, leaving a crater. Sombra tangled black roots around her body and squeezed. It tightened their hold and left more bruises.

"Then...I will just control you all over again."

"Like hell, you will!"

She set her body on fire, igniting the roots and flinging them towards Sombra. He easily blocked them and hit Celestis again. Magic swarmed her body. Slowly tearing open her wounds further. Celestia decided that her pride wasn't worth her death and Made her magic go corrupt. Her eyes turned red and green with purple emitting from her eyes.

She grabbed his body and whipped him against the wall. They both heard a large crack somewhere in Sombra's body and he fell to the floor, crying out in pain. Celestia's magic conjured a sword of pure sunlight with a hint of evilness.

"I will not have you invade my mind anymore." She growled with venom as she cornered him. He laughed, whipping blood from his mouth.

"You should not have come here, Princess." He snapped. "You will rule as my Queen. Long after I have gone."

He shot a purple ray at her, she tried to deflect it with her magic but it cut through and slammed into her chest. She screamed and stumbled back as she felt the pure evil that inhabited Equestria take over her body. She watched as the evil corruption left Sombra and followed the blast of magic into her chest.

Her screaming of pain as she bowed her head and attempted to sit on her hoofs morphed into sick laughter as dark veins started popping up in her body. Her mane went limp and her eyes didn't change from the magic she used earlier. It no longer had the eternal glow that ponies admired.

Sombra had reverted to a regular old unicorn. He didn't look any different than he did before he entered the test that ruined his life yet prolonged it. Celestia was no longer the ruler that once had fillies and colts looking up to her. Her mind had been twisted by pure darkness. The darkness that didn't care whether her morals were still in place. The darkness that worked quickly and effectively.

Sombra was now cowering in the corner. He was just a regular old unicorn who no longer had the darkness to corrupt his mind. No longer had the strength of hundreds of unicorns behind him. Celestia smiled as she raised the sword over her head and was happy to see Sombra look pathetic and weak under her.

"Any last words?"

"P-Please, h-have mercy."

Celestia didn't dignify it with a response and shoved the sword into his chest, then dragged it down his stomach making the contents of his body spill out with blood. She whipped around and listened for a moment as the gurgling of Sombra's throat came to a final stop and he was on the floor motionless.

She teleported to the outside of the icy caves and used her newfound magic to increase the snowstorm around the crystal Empire. Then shifted the moon in the sky to create a Solar Eclipse. Equestria went dark and Celestia smiled as she thought about her new title.

Queen Celestia.

She found that it fit her nicely. Better than "Princess."

Princess...

What a pathetic title.

---The End---

Author's Note

AN: I hope everyone has enjoyed the first book! The sequel is called "The Crystal Eclipse" and is currently being written on FIMfiction.