FiM 10: Friendship is Galactic

Down in the darkest depths of the sanctum's hidden chambers, the red dragon who had been set free by the shapeshifting pony, ultimately just couldn't make it. The dragon succumbed to a small mass of these strange one eyed tentacle creatures, inevitably succumbing to the same fate as all other ponies did, to be a mindless and aggressive drone, meant to be enslaved. A bit further ahead was a frantic and panicking Everchange, trotting along the metal floor as his black hooves left some noticeable dents in the metal plating, trying to stay ahead of those smaller creatures and the poor ponies, plus the dragon they just added to their ranks, that these creatures stripped control of.

Everchange soon found himself at what seemed like a dead end, a bright pink-ish red wall made out of a thick plasma like substance. Everchange turned to the small horde of these creatures and knew he didn't wish to suffer the same fate, until the wall suddenly opened up, and he fell through. It soon closed up again as the stallion got back up, and he found himself in a small library room, filled with books and stuff pertaining to the Sun and Moon, which immediately raised some red flags in the stallion's mind.

"Oh what fresh embers from the depths of Tartarus have I trampled onto now?" Everchange stated, irritated that he wasn't finding a way out anywhere. Everchange looked at the books on the shelves, and they all seemed to have an order about them in their titles.

" 'Fires of Tartarus, Appendix V?' 'The Study of Equestrian Pros and Cons for acquiring Drones?' 'Equestrian Royal History?' What the buckin' hell is all of this?" Everchange asked aloud, not familiar with any of these textbooks.

Most of them seem to be just tanned leather hide covers with ancient scriptures. 'Some of these books seem to be written in a strange language; It's not Old Ponish, at least I can read that. It's not Aztec or Mayan either, this is just so confusing, and I barely know anything about the creatures chasing after me, so what could I do right now, to make sense of all this?' Everchange thought to himself.

"Bah, none of this makes sense!! Twilight is more of a book learner than me, maybe she'll have an answer... then again... No, No! I am not doing that, I'm not running back to Celestia for help. Not after what she put me through... Not after everything I said to her. I have to find something that can carry these books, I need answers, and if I can't find them at the source, wherever that source is, I'll find them in other ways; Like Twilight, maybe even that Zebra in town.. Zecora, I believe? She could help me as well..." Everchange thought aloud.

Everchange stopped trotting all around the room, and heard something. Somepony was coming, and Everchange had nowhere to hide. Everchange saw something and dove for it, as a massive hole opened up. Everchange was hiding under some sort of desk, and saw two figures come in. One that was a pony, and another that was nothing like he had seen before.

This new creature towered above the pony by three times his size, was a pale white bipedal monster-like species, had blackened claws and talons, It had four red things on its chest, supposedly they looked like eyes. The creature's face had a multitude of red eyes, and a deep purple-ish... face, maybe? as 6 black pointed horns jutted out from the side of its cranium.

The pony was a stallion, standing at near knee length to the towering creature. His coat was white, like the creature, but his eyes were a bright blue, his mane was dark, straightened out and flat, his face was long, bemused and bothered by something. He wore a red robe over a black suit, wearing some type of pendant that has a blue ribbon attached to it.

"I assume everything's going to plan, Equestrian? The shapeshifting pony and this 'Princess of Friendship' have been safely secured, and won't be a problem? We'll begin to move forward with the plan, tonight?" The creature spoke, its voice was low, stifled, but commanding and loud.

The unicorn cleared his throat and looked up at the creature, unwavered by the creature's stature. "I can assure you, Mr. Seedellum I, I, Chancellor Neighsay, have got those two under lock and key. This place cancels out magic, leaving anypony in the vicinity helpless an hopeless to fight back. the Operation will go as planned. The Elements are out of town thanks to my suggestion of ambushing them, whilst the prince and princess are in our custody; The Council of Artemis shall rise again, from the ashes of the forgotten past." Neighsay stated, grinning sinisterly.

The Unicorn and the beast laughed maniacally as Everchange heard every word, and felt like he was truly in trouble... Deep, deep trouble...

Back with the ponies, the timberwolf continued to run down the tracks, the ponies try to catch up on the way, constantly telling each other what's been happening since she suddenly vanished.

"So let me get this straight. Trixie is actually trying to help? And on top of all that, Everchange is a Prince?! How the heck can someone like that be a royal?! He's got no respect for others, that doesn't make any sense! And his abilities, what does that factor in, or that strange creature that tried to take over me, the way Everchange can change form in such a way? There's so much I want to ask, but I don't know where to start and when to stop going on about other possibilities!" Twilight stated, obviously overwhelmed by everything going on.

Trixie snickered at Twilight's freak out, obviously getting a couple glares from Rainbow Dash and Rarity, but Trixie did try to make an effort to help. "So, what do you remember from that vile creature that was um... on you, in such a way? Anything useful that might be worth knowing before we suddenly stroll up to the castle?" Trixie asked, just now realizing this wasn't much of a plan.

Twilight knew this, but she had her reasons, but there was always some inclination in her mind after the parasite was removed from her being, she kept on seeing flashes of an alien language, more of those crazy parasites. Equestrian DNAlien drones, even a few dragons had become drones by what she saw in her head, and at the epicenter of these sudden images, was Everchange, fighting back and trying to stop these creatures from getting out.

"I feel like, this Council of Artemis, it's a front for something else. Something involving the princesses, something about the Elements of Harmony needing to be out of the way for the plan to go underway. I'm wondering if Celestia will know anything about this... something to make this all make sense in some way." Twilight stated, unsure of anything she was saying to her friends, unsure if what she was saying was the complete and honest truth, that strange parasite did a number on her. Spike, who was worried about Twilight, embraced the Alicorn, and in turn, was returned an embrace.

Soon enough, the Timberwolf, stopped in its tracks, howling as it leapt and climbed over the train station, running through the streets of Canterlot at a quick pace as the ponies held on tight. A bunch of ponies jumped out of the way as the timberwolf steadily kept its pace towards the castle.

The two guards, who were still a bit shook up about the aggressive shouting match between Celestia and Everchange, saw the timberwolf, and immediately abandoned their post as the large wooden canine burst through the doors, running straight towards the Throne Room. Twilight had to stop this thing before things got hairy, and she instinctively pulled on a couple loose twigs, causing the wolf to yip and whine, coming to a stop as the ponies and spike got flung through the doors, rolling and landing in front of a surprised, confused, and still woeful Celestia.

"Twilight?! My dearest student! What a wonderful surprise visit... a rather unorthodox way to show up, but I like it nevertheless, it's a nice change of pace... for now." Celestia stated, hiding her hurting emotions as she smiled upon her student. Upon further inspection, Twilight was a bit worse for wear. She looked a bit skinnier, she was a bit pale, exhausted, ragged, dazed, and all around just looks like she nearly lost a fight.

"Your highness, you have to help us! Equestria's in danger!" Applejack exclaimed. Celestia stood up and quickly trotted over to her student, still keeping the farm pony's words in her head.

"What kind of danger? I'm sure if you got this 'Everchange' you met to help you, with his abilities, I'm sure he could be of use, instead of me, who has royal duties to fulfill-"

"Princess Celestia, with all due respect..." Twilight fished the scrolls out, and several of the Council's tomes and books on history and magic. "We know about Everchange and his connection to you. I didn't figure you as someone to split up a family, I really didn't. What happened, Is that why he came here weeks ago, and Who's the Council of Artemis? Why do they want all pony and non-pony life destroyed?" Twilight asked, obviously wanting answers.

Celestia was silent, her calm demeanor had faltered, but her horn glowed a vibrant light blue color, bringing a piece of broken glass or two over to the ponies. The first piece was of Celestia, and some darker alicorn being. the other piece was of Everchange, running with tears and anger in his eyes as a couple guards chased after him.

"It was so long ago, my student, and your knowledge on the mare in the moon has been... a tampered version. I'm sure several of you are familiar with the tale of the mare in the moon?" Celestia asked. Several of the ponies nodded their head, and Celestia sighed. "Well, there's a more personal layer to that story... a layer no one else in Equestria, besides myself and Everchange know of." Celestia sat down, wiping her eyes as she felt tears well up in them.

"To understand how Everchange became who he is now, we have to go back... back before being a princess was all that was expected of us--"

"Wait, us? Who's this 'us' you're referring to?" Trixie asked.

"It all started nearly a thousand and twenty years ago. I ruled as princess, but I did not rule alone. I had my sister, Princess Luna, who shared my royal duties with me, as we were the royal sisters who ruled over the land. For the first 4 years of our rule, everything was perfect, until a certain familiar draconequus started causing chaos. We had used the elements to turn him to stone years later, but you already know that. What you don't know, however, is that we, necessarily me and Luna, weren't the ones to do the deed. To answer that question, we'd have to fast forward a year before our 4 years of ruling." The ponies and spike gathered round, and listened carefully.

"It was a quiet and peaceful day in the summer during our 5th year as rulers. Until we suddenly got word from our guards that there was a situation that required our attention. Naturally, we made it simple to know it is important that we dealt with anything that was important enough to be brought to our attention, but... we weren't prepared to deal with a sudden cloud of pure chaos rolling in. We knew it had to be magic of some sort, but we didn't expect there to be a foal on said cloud." Celestia stated.

The ponies looked at each other and back at Celestia, confused. "Understandably, I was distraught when the cloud was taken care of, but we didn't expect there to be a foal on that cloud. I couldn't get there in time, but Luna managed to save it from crashing to the ground, so no harm had come to it at that moment. When it was figured out that this foal was from some village on the outskirts of Equestria, we didn't know where to start to look for this child's birth family... by this point, it's best if he doesn't know... I don't think he'd be able to take that kind of news right now, or at all." Celestia stated, a pained and guilt-ridden expression on her face.

"Naturally, Luna and I decided to put him in an orphanage here in Canterlot, but of course, there were complications between me and Luna--"

"Oh, I know that complication! Princess Luna was upset that no one appreciated the beautiful night sky that she had prepared and made for everypony, and it's due to her jealousy of your praise, she became this Nightmare Moon person, right?" Twilight asked, smiling. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, knowing Twilight was being an egghead again.

Celestia somberly smiled, but it didn't last. "Unfortunately, that is a lie, my student... The real reason is because Luna was looking into the dreams, or more specifically, the nightmares, of the foal we put into the orphanage; I never saw Luna so distraught in my life in so long. She was distraught immensely before we became royals, but Luna was adamant on doing something. Since nothing ever came back about the foal's village, the foal was officially considered an orphan, and was up for adoption; By the time I was about to ask what Luna had done, she was carrying the foal on her back, saying that she adopted it." Celestia stated, rubbing her eyes.

"Since the foal did not have a name, she named it... Everchange." Celestia stated. The ponies looked on, amazed, and surprised.

"So, Everchange isn't like some sort of taboo secret born from a royal affair? He was adopted by royalty?!" Rarity stated, surprised and exaggerating her surprise naturally, swooning as Pinkie happily caught her.

"That makes a lot of sense to why you referred to him as your nephew, because you technically are his aunt, even if his apple fell from a tree, doesn't mean he came from the royal apple tree, yet somehow he's right there. So what made the royal blood go so bad that things got this heated, What happened next, your highness?" Applejack asked.

Celestia took in a deep breath, and she sighed. "After Everchange was taken in, and dubbed as a 'Prince' by Luna, I had already decided to take on a student so my sister could focus on the foal in peace. The years went by before I even knew, and Everchange was but a Colt, around 5 years old and Luna had decided to send him to a public school in Ponyville. Those years were a bit lost on me, but she acted more like a mother than she usually did as a princess. Our subjects were kind of like our children, we'd look after them, do what we could to keep them safe, but Luna had once told me I didn't understand what made him so special, and I thought it was due to his cutie mark either being something very transparent, or because he had no cutie mark yet. Though I can't say that I didn't enjoy how he would say I was just as important as his 'Mom' was. By the time he reached the age of 8, Everchange just stopped going to public school altogether." Celestia explained, reminiscing on the years back then.

"W-why'd he stop, princess?" Fluttershy asked curiously. Celestia took in another deep breath, and sighed as she shivered.

"Everchange stopped going to public school due to harassment by his peers, and a lack of understanding for the work provided. Luna pulled him out and decided to teach him on her own. I heavily disapproved of this, as I knew he needed to socialize more with ponies his age. Luna and I fought about it for weeks on end, but I finally cracked and let her have her way. Luna did well to teach and educate Everchange, saying she picked it up from me when I taught little ponies how to do magic and cast spells. Naturally, she wanted me to try and help teach Everchange, despite him being an Earth Pony, but what he lacks in natural magical skill and a lack of a horn, he picked up on alchemy, potion brewing, and even decided to document several beasts in Equestria to keep up;" Celestia told. Twilight was very intrigued, it at least explained how Everchange knew how to properly use his transformations... some of them, at least.

"Now, obviously I was impressed. He could be a bit stubborn, and a bit resistant to work with other ponies, but he's been quite the fantastic little genius. It was when Luna found this out that she would help Everchange get his cutie mark in Alchemy, to make potions and formulas that can properly benefit the growth of special plants, grow and increase efficiency in crops. But unfortunately, these attempts came at one side effect. Any and every single one of his formulas wouldn't work. One did work, allowing an apple tree to provide delicious fruits of all kinds, but they tasted like sulfur; He eventually gave up on finding his purpose in Alchemy, but he never stopped trying to improve on his craft, though I think it hurt him personally to know he wasn't getting any closer to finding his calling in life." Celestia stated, looking down to the floor as she contemplated her next few words.

"When Everchange turned 12, he wanted to immediately try studying magical artifacts, seeing if he could find a calling in identifying long forgotten historical artifacts lost to the ages. When he did, this was the time Discord had made himself known, causing chaos and he was unapologetic about every bit of it. Since Luna didn't want Everchange to get caught up in something he didn't understand, she brought him with us when we faced Discord before. We had the elements ready, but it wasn't us who used them to turn him to stone... It was Everchange. He was scared, crying, distraught, and he was just upset, thinking he might've ended the life of someone. It took several hours to get him to calm down and to then sit him down to discuss mortality was an uncomfortably different story, but this didn't deter him from looking into magical artifacts. In fact, he studied the elements for a good sum of the next 5 years. He was able to discern that each element had tied to something that related to the concept of a true friendship. One represented Laughter, and another represented Honesty. There was also Generosity, Kindness and Loyalty. But the last one, was about how friendship is it's own Magic, being known as the Element of Magic. These 6 elements together created the Elements of Harmony." Celestia stated.

"Okay, so that covers why he knows how to use those transformations of his, but how did that happen?!" Rainbow Dash asked, still confused about Everchange's abilities, as everypony else was.

"Well, when Everchange turned 18, I officially made him the royal artifact analyzer, his job was about studying artifacts of any kind, and reporting their powers, abilities, and history to us, the princesses, who will have a documenter on hand to keep track of the information given. Until one day, word had spread about a meteorite crashing near the outskirts of PonyVille. Our royal excavators had excavated most of the raw materials from the crash site, but there were a few strange components that were very prevalent amidst the wreckage. A white diamond shaped crystal and a strange circular component with a thick glass-like frame in the midst of it. The items were brought to Me and Luna, who have been a bit distant and sour as of late, and we immediately had them sent to Everchange's studies, who was immediately on the case of the gem's origins, and the purpose of the strange component falling with it. Two years later, well..." Celestia lost her words for a moment, falling silent as she took in a deep, and shaky breath.

"It was approximately 999 years, 11 months and 30 days ago, during what you all now call Nightmare Night. Me and Luna, we had a falling out. She wasn't mad about ponies not loving or praising or appreciating her night sky... She was mad at me for my poor choice of words. She had become Nightmare Moon, and because I had no other choice, I banished Luna to the moon, and she's been there ever since... Everchange came running to our location, in tears. He said something about the gem that I didn't understand, but he didn't say it again, he... was at a loss for words." Celestia, had a couple tears streaming down her face, as she tried to keep herself composed.

"He claimed that I had been bitter, jealous, envious that because I didn't have my former student anymore, he claimed it had to be because of my envy for a true heir. I think deep down, Everchange knew he wasn't truly related to us, but we were his family, nonetheless... he... h-he claimed that I tore our family apart, and he ran. He ran through the castle, and I was trying to tell the guards to block his way... until Chrysalis showed up for a surprise attack. I don't recall what happened after that, but I was so desperate to try and make things right since then, but I feared the day may come when Luna returns... and that day is tomorrow night." Celesta got up and she wiped her tears away as more started to be shed. The princess silently wept as she tried to hold herself together.

"When he came back to Canterlot for the first time in 999 years, 11 months and 32 days ago, I tried to be warm and understanding of his pain, but the fact that he still feels bitter towards me, he left and declared officially that he didn't want anything to do with me..." Celestia stated, her voice breaking a bit. "It hurt... i-it hurt so much to know I had to banish family once... I-I didn't want to lose someone else... even if I was busy with dignitary issues, and I focused on teaching my student... I loved him all the same, as if he was my nephew." Celestia stated, getting choked up as she wiped away the tears.

The other ponies, like Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie, were very moved by the Princess's side of the story, as they haven't heard much of Everchange's side of the story, just bits and pieces. Trixie was a bit impacted by the story, but she didn't show it much. Applejack felt like she knew how that felt, feeling bitter about how some family members haven't been around due to problems with their family. Rainbow Dash didn't have anything to say, but she did feel a bit uncertain with herself. Twilight wiped a couple tears from her eyes as she comforted spike.

Celestia, after a couple minutes, was able to compose herself, but she was a bit somber, still feeling the wounds of the past be as fresh as they were back in a thousand years. "As... as to answer your question about the Council of Artemis, it was a small religious group back during Canterlot's founding, but due to a sudden change in management, Luna and I sought to quell them, seeing that they were spreading heinous rumors about my sister having an illegitimate foal through an affair. How did you hear of their name, my faithful student? And why mention them now?" Celestia asked, her somber tone becoming more curious.

"Because they had me and Everchange under lock and key for I don't even know how long! Magic doesn't work there, but the gem he has works perfectly fine. I'm not sure as to how, but I don't think his gem has anything to do with any form of magic. If it wasn't for that outlier, I probably wouldn't have been able to escape on my own." Twilight explained. Celestia's curiosity grew into that of worry. She looked back at the shards of stained glass, and the princess, for once, got up, and stood tall as she turned her back to the ponies.

"I'll send a couple guards back with you, and I'll make sure they are properly equipped for the job."

"Uh, beg your pardon, Your Highness, but Twilight's leavin' out one important detail. There's somethin' in that council that no-pony has ever seen before. And I do mean, it's a very nasty varmint. It tried to take over Twilight! Everchange is still back there, but I don't think he'll be able to fight back whatever those things are, not fer long. And we aren't enough, we need some extra help, not a couple guards who might accidentally let those freaky things on their faces so they can come after us!" Applejack stated.

That made Celestia stop in her tracks. She did not turn around, but she was obviously scared, or more or less... furious. "P-Princess Celestia? Is something wrong here?" Twilight asked out, worried that her mentor had grown impatient.

"Guards!! Front and Center!!" Celestia called out sternly. Several Earth ponies, Unicorns and Pegasi came into the Throne Room, standing in front of the Sun Princess as they stood at attention.

"We have a Code DNX. I want you all to gear up, and rally towards the entrance immediately. We do not have much time, Do I make myself Clear?!" Celestia stated, her voice firm and commanding. The guards saluted the Princess and trotted off towards a corridor.

"My student, and her faithful companions, I'm going to be going back to that hovel of a Council. I want you all to come back with me." Celestia firmly, but softly affirmed to the ponies. Twilight, was confused, very confused, she wasn't aware of what was happening, but she looked back to see Celestia being handed some sort of garb. A black body suit with some sort of special white armor and pads. The princess tied her waving hair back as he put a glass helmet on, almost perfectly showing off the determination, and the fight in her eyes.

Rainbow Dash looked on, and started to smile. "Oh Yeah!! Haha! Finally, something's about to be done!! Oh please tell me I can get one of those suits too, that looks so cool!!" Rainbow Dash said, ogling the suit Celestia had put on.

"Princess Celestia, what is going on?!" Twilight exclaimed. Celestia, felt a bit bad for not saying anything sooner, but it was now or never that Celestia revealed another secret to her student.

"My dearest Twilight, an invasion is upon us. An invasion of monsters from beyond the stars... I haven't been entirely honest with you, because I knew you weren't ready to face something like this... no-pony is ever ready to face the Highbreed, not even an alicorn is ever properly prepared to face one, but what matters now, is that you stick close to me, and do not let those things get any closer than they already got, understand?" Celestia stated.

Twilight nodded, but she was still so very lost. Celestia used her magic to teleport her, the ponies, spike, and her specially equipped guards somewhere near the council's hidden sanctum, and were prepared to enact a raid.

The battle for Equestria, and everything before it, was coming.

To Be Continued...