The Crystal Eclipse

Bini faced a Changeling guard that was patrolling around the hive with a group of five others. They had circled them the moment they saw them. Arone had shifted back to being his pony self to avoid detection and the Changelings were pointing spear weapons at them with tough Armour that would rival the Royal Guards.

Bini put up one of her hoofs in a sign that she was surrendering. Much to the surprise of everypony present.

"We are surrendering."

The Changelings looked at each other. The group (Except Bini) Looked at each other than Bini.

"Was that your plan?" Arone hissed with restrained anger at Bini. Bini gave him a cocky smile.

"Yup. Trust me. This will work."

"How, exactly?" Rocky asked.

The Changelings looked at each other, then to their patrol leader for instructions. The leaders just stared at Bini before gesturing Bini to give him her bag.

"We are placing you under arrest. Give us your belongings and we-"

"We demand to see the Queen for negotiations on peace with Equestria." Bini snapped. The leader stammered and looked to his fellow Changelings for help. When he woke up this morning he wasn't expecting to deal with a Solar Eclipse and now ponies willingly surrendering to negotiate peace. Not to mention they were still starving from lack of Love. "OK...Guard them while I inform the Guards and Queen of the...situation."

The Queen of the Changelings was angry. She sat on her throne which had the ability to soak up unicorn magic and she had to constantly shift her position. Was the throne big? Yes. Was it comfy? Sorta. Did it make her feel small? Yeah. Feeling small is not what a leader should feel on their own throne. She thought about Celestia's throne as she ran her room across the smooth surface of the black rock that made up her majestic throne.

"Maybe I should redecorate?" She muttered out loud to no pony because thankfully all her guards were in the room in front of the throne room. Guarding their Queen with their life. She quickly decided against it. If she changed the way the throne looked, the next thing you would know is that it would look like a distorted version of Canterlot's throne room. Geez. She always hated how bright that stupid room was.

She pushed her insignificant thoughts aside and her horn flickered as a signal from somewhere in Equestria called to her. She sighed in relief. Her mind was hoping it was her Canterlot spies she had sent a few minutes after the solar eclipse happened earlier that day. They were supposed to report to her two hours ago.

She flared up her horn and formed a portal for communications between her and her loyal spies. Her face slightly fell when she realized it was the spies from Ponyville calling her as they looked back at her with great concern on the other side of the portal. In the background, she was able to see they were in a dark boarded-up house. Their green magic was the only thing liting up the room other than their bright blue eyes.

"Report." She snapped. She didn't have time for pleasantries at the moment. Even if redecorating was still in the back of her mind. Which it wasn't...It totally wasn't. The Changeling followers looked at each other before finally collectively nudging forward the spy who they considered the leader of their little group at that moment. The Changeling, who she identified as Clark, gulped and moved closer to the portal.

"My Queen. We have some bad news to report." Clark said with a pause. Chrysalis rolled her eyes. She already saw this coming. Nightmare Moon is back and that is why there is a Solar Eclipse. She didn't need her spies to tell her that...Well, she did. But she only set them out because the hive went into a panic and she thought it would be their best option of calming down to know that their queen cared enough to send her subjects into Equestria to find out what was going on. "Princess Celestia...According to eyewitnesses has destroyed Canterlot and cut her sister's throat. Sending her and Twilight Sparkle to the hospital."

And just like that, Chrysalis's day, night, week, month, year, and probably decade was ruined.

"Send all spies back to the hive at once. We need to protect our species." Chrysalis barked with rage. Mostly fuelled by an overwhelming fear of the sun goddess. Yes, it is true she beat her at the wedding. But that is when she had so much love to consume that she hardly knew what to do with it. Now...She was barely surviving on the scarps of wild animals. The spies nodded and bowed in respect before Chrysalis ended the communication and sat in silence in her way too big throne room. She looked around at the dull green lights above her and sighed.

For the first time, in a very long time, Chrysalis didn't have any plan on how to save her hive if the worst came to their beloved home. She started tapping her hoof against the throne in an attempt to come up with ideas. She heard that it worked for a few of the lesser Changelings so why wouldn't it work for her.

She tapped and tapped away. She abruptly stopped when the head of her guard poked his head in. She gestured him to come forward with as much grace as she could muster as he moved closer to her throne. He paused to bow and started to speak.

"My Queen. There are a group of four ponies outside. They are surrendering themselves to the hive in hope that w...You negotiate with them peace in Equestria."

Chrysalis considered the proposal. If this were any other situation, she would have the guard bring them to her so that they could be sucked of love and then promptly thrown into the deepest reaches of the hive so that they could continue to be fed on until their deaths. But she didn't have a plan. Didn't even know where to start and as much as she hated to admit it, those stupid ponies were her best option at the moment.

"Send them in." She barked.

The guard bowed and left the throne room. Only to return with five guards surrounding a group of pathetic-looking ponies walking towards her throne. None of the ponies looked confident in what they were doing. Her eyes rested on a male stallion who she recognized without hesitation.

She waved the guards away and the group of ponies bowed before her in respect.

"Arone." Chrysalis announced. The stallion's ears flew up in alarm and he was the first to slowly get up. His friends looked at him with wide eyes and were speaking silent words to him as he began to sweat. "Drop that ridiculous disguise. I already have a very low option of you. It doesn't need to be any lower for your sake."

"Of course...Queen Chrysalis." He said with a snarl at the end. He dropped his disguise and was back to the regular form of a Changeling.

"What are your names?" She barked. Trying to look intimidating as possible when she flew down from her throne and landed in front of them. A unicorn mare who had the biggest fake smile she had ever seen, used her scarf to wipe away some sweat and quickly fixed her glasses before stepped forwards and holding out her hoof.

"M-My name is Bini Filters." The unicorn mare stammered with nervousness and fear. Then she pointed to the pair behind her. She first pointed to a pegasus stallion who was trying to make a mare Earth pony uncurl herself from his leg in fear of the Queen. She then pointed to the earth pony as she mentioned their names. "This is Rocky Snow, and Chocolate Shadow."

Chrysalis snarled in disgust at Bini's outreached hoof. Bini took the signal and slowly retracted with awkward silence falling between the group.

"So...Um...We are here to negotiate peace for Equestria." Arone said. He moved to stand beside Bini. At least his training did go to complete waste, Changelings are always taught to take charge of the group and beat down the others. Chrysalis couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous that sounded. "We are being serious, Queen Chrysalis."

"Why would Celestia send pathetic ponies to negotiate peace?" Chrysalis snapped as she started to circle them. Choosing her words carefully to pretend she didn't know Celestia turned evil in fear that it would give her spies away. Arone looked over to Bini for an answer and she simply stared up at the ceiling to show that she didn't want to answer. He glared at her and looked back at Chrysalis.

"Celestia is...A tyrant at the moment." Arone claimed.

Rocky and Chocolate paused and slowly turned their head to Arone with wide eyes. Bini choked on her own spit and simply stared at the floor. Chrysalis couldn't be more delighted that Celestia's pathetic ponies were finally learning the truth about Alicorns.

Even if their leader really did turn into a tyrant.

She gestured for them to follow her. Which they did without question. She lead them to a room next to the throne room that had a long table with many chairs. Chrysalis sat at the head of the table and encouraged the others to sit. The room had not been used in one hundred years. It was usually made to do negotiations. You can see why it was neglected.

"Now this is interesting. Ponies going against their own leader for the sake of self-preservation." Chrysalis commented as they all sat down.

"Now hold on!" Bini barked. "It's not like we asked Princess Celestia to go crazy and destroy the capital city! We would have gone to her if she wasn't the one who just single hoofed destroyed my job and-"

Arone used his changeling magic to shut Bini's mouth and smiled at his former leader.

"Ignore her, Queen Chrysalis. We have an offer. You and your hive help us defeat Celestia and we allow Changelings and ponies to live together." Arone said. The room was silent for a few minutes. Chrysalis, couldn't be more delighted. But her heart sank when she thought about how her mother was treated all those centuries ago in Canterlot.

Her mother, the former queen of the Changelings had help Princess Celestia extinguish cults of ponies against her ruler in the early days after Nightmare Moon was defeated in exchange for peace between the species and to live among ponies. Celestia agreed that they could until the time came that they were to finally be accepted and Celestia banished them because she felt it was for the benefit of Equestria.

"What makes you think that you can enforce that rule?" She snarled. The ponies looked at each other than to the Queen. Looking very unsure of themselves.

"W-Well...Um...I am sure Princess Luna would agree to these terms. Then she can talk to Princess Ce-" Arone stopped when Chocolate elbowed him and whispered in his ear. He nodded and then made a funny face before looking back at the Queen. "Some of my...friends feel that Princess Celestia will be banished from Equestria based on her recent actions so really all we need to consider is if Luna will agree. That should be easy so yeah."

The Queen considered her options. She didn't want to fall prey to the fake kindness of ponies as her mother did. She brightened up as an option came to her head. She teleported a scroll and quill to her position and wrote out a contract for Princess Luna to sign. She enchanted it with a spell that, if Luna broke the agreement, there would be severe problems. For example. Her magic would be drained until she had none left. But if Luna was so desperate for help, she would sign. Chrysalis knew it.

She handed it over to Arone, who stuffed it into his saddlebag as she explained the rules of her new game. They nodded and Chrysalis teleported them out as the meeting came to a close. She let out a sigh of relief as a guard entered the room to check up on her safety.

"Are you alright, My Queen?" He asked. Chrysalis nodded silently and slowly moved from the head of the table towards the throne room once again.

"Make sure that the hive has increased security. We don't want any unexpected issues to arise." She ordered. She shook her head and considered the meeting once again when she took the first few steps into the throne room. She hoped Luna wasn't as cold as Celestia was. She prayed she wasn't.

Twilight Sparkle and her five friends sat on the train to the base of the mountain. They all sat in silence as each considered the events of what had happened. Twilight was going to go alone, but all of her friends convinced her that it was better for them to go along in case Celestia came back and they needed to use the Elements against her. She adjusted the crown of the Element of Harmony on her head before looking back out the window. The mountain was getting closer. It was becoming more and more clear that there was no city on the edge of the mountain despite the Solar Eclipse blocking out the sunlight. Twilight looked down at the small pocket watch that she had received from her father last year. It wouldn't have mattered anyway. It was almost midnight.

She inhaled the stale air from the bus and yelped, like the rest of her friends when the train came to an abrupt halt. A conductor walked into the train car that they were seated at and gestured to the outside world.

"We are at the base of Canterlot Mountain. The rescue teams are just ahead. Follow the lights please."

The girls said their thanks and piled off the train. They followed the trail of lights until they stepped into a clearing the was covered in the remains of the Royal city. There were outdoor lights set up everywhere illuminating the area as if it was daylight. What seemed like thousands of ponies were crawling, moving, and flying over the disaster. Pulling out injured ponies and dead ponies.

The injured ponies were moved to the medical outside area while the dead were moved to a spot deep within the surrounding forest to prevent any pony from seeing them. The volunteers and ponies whose duties it was to be there didn't care who the Elements of Harmony were at that moment. All they cared about was saving the citizens of Canterlot.

Twilight tried to block out the sounds of distress as Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were sent to help with the medical staff and Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Twilight were meant to help out with the recovery aspect. Rainbow Dash flew into the sky to join the other pegasi in finding any survivors in the surrounding area as the debris had fallen and scattered over a large area. Applejack helped lift heavy pieces of buildings off ponies so that they could be rescued and pulled out by other earth ponies and unicorns.

Twilight lit up her horn and tried to find her parents' magical signature. She climbed, crawled and maneuvered over large broken buildings. Some she even recognized as parts of her old home, shops, the school for gifted unicorns and of course, the Canterlot Castle.

She had been searching for a good two hours. Just as 1 am was closing in. She had entered an area that the search teams had not yet reached. She was starting to lose hope of finding her parents when her ears jolted up at the sound of somepony in distress. She cancelled her spell and cast light area the area. No lights had been moved to that part of the city yet so she had to depend on her own magic. She moved slowly as the call for help got louder and louder.

"H-Help me! IS anypony there!?" The female voice begged. Twilight gasped as she thought she recognized the voice as her mother. She held herself back. Not wanting to have too much hope in case it was somepony else.

"Helloooo!" A male voice called out in the same general direction. "I think I hear somepony, honey."

Her father. That sounded like her father.

"Where are you? I am coming to help!" Twilight called out and scrambled through the dangerous area to reach the pair.

"Twi? TWILIGHT! IS THAT YOU!?" The female voice yelled louder. "IT'S YOUR MOTHER! I AM HURT!"

"M-Mom!?" Twilight said. Her eyes started to blur from tears that she wiped away as fast as she could. She reached the remains of one of the towers in the Canterlot Castle. She looked underneath a large piece of marble into a room that was destroyed and barely being held together by the walls that had crumbled at an unnatural angle.

She saw her mother, Twilight Velvet who was holding her father, Night Light close. Her mother's horn was broken. The remains of her horn were in little bits and pieces around the floor. They both had scratched and bruises on their body and her father had a shield around him and his wife in case the room fully collapsed.

She opened a small hole. Careful not to make the entire tower all and poked her head in. She shined her light against her parents who had to shield their eyes momentarily. Her mother was bleeding from her horn. Which was understandable. Twilight couldn't help but worry more now that her mother's horn was gone.

"Mom? Dad? I-I am going to get you out. Hold on!" She said. "I am going to go get somepony to help me-"

"Twi! Please don't leave us! We can wait a few more hours. We are just so happy to see you are alright!" Her father said. Both of her parents were on the verge of collapsing into sobs. "W-We thought...Well, we thought the worst! You said you were going to the castle and then...Then everything fell apart..."

Twilight nodded with grief. The last few moments she spent in Canterlot came flooding back to her.

"I-I know. I am sorry I left. I should have stayed with you guys a little longer. Something really bad happened in the streets so I got sidetracked and had to teleport to Ponyville." Twilight admitted. Her parents nodded in understanding.

"I hope Princess Luna is OK. The collapse happened so suddenly..." Her mother said. Looking over to Night Light.

Twilight bit her lip. Considering if her parents could take the news of how Canterlot came to its end.

---End of Chapter Five---