Alicorns are not so Rare

     As the element bearer ponies stared at the alicorn they were circled around, Pinkie Pie jumped at her face. "Oh, you're an alicorn! Alicorns are so cool! Will you open your wings? Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleeeeeeeease!" Chroma took a step back from the party mare, and prepared to run away.

     "Maybe another time, Pinkie," she said.

     "Wait, I wanna see your wings too," Dash whined, "I wanna see if they're as awesome as mine." Rainbow opened her wings and flitted up above Chroma. "Why wouldn't you want us to see your wings? And why didn't you want us to know you were an alicorn? What's up with you?"

     "It's been awhile since I last used my wings. They're going to need a few days before I can show you them."

     "Aww, come on. We all know that you don't have to wait to open your wings. You just don't want to." Rainbow stared down at Chroma, an evil glint playing in her magenta eyes. "Hey girls, know any ways to force a pony's wings open?" The element bearers all took on Dash's expression, except Fluttershy, but no one expected her to anyway.

     "Ooh! Ooh! I know! I know!" Pinkie said energetically. She picked one of the flowers in the patch and walked up to Chroma. The alicorn tried to back away, but was stopped by Dash, Applejack, and Twilight. Pinkie waved the flower under Chroma's nose, and she closed her eyes, still struggling feebly to get away. "Looks like I got a good one!" Pinkie rubbed Chroma's nose with the flower, and she froze for a second, then her breath hitched, but she desperately not to sneeze. Her nose turned bright pink and the pollen from the flower dotted it with yellow spots. Pinkie picked up another flower and tickled Chroma's nose with this one as well.

     Chroma froze and, unable to stop herself, her breath hitched even more. Her eyes teared up slightly, and her cheeks began to turn deep pink. Then, with a sound louder than any sonic rainboom, she sneezed.

     The alicorn's wings flew open. Chroma sneezed several more times, each time causing something to turn rainbow. By the time she was done, all of the element bearers were sporting rainbow colors. Chroma stood tall, showing her wings to the element bearers. Her wings were huge, and each of the feathers at the tip of her wing was a different color of the spectrum. Twilight gasped.

     "Chroma," she said, "I'm really sorry for forcing you to open your wings, but they really are beautiful."

     "I know. I don't want to draw too much attention to myself and my wings are just so brightly colored. My eyes too, but those are harder to cover up." She used magic to wrap the bandages back around herself. "Please don't tell anyone about this."

     "Why? What's wrong with you being an alicorn? Sure, I know they're rare, but..." Twilight looked at Chroma, who was looking more and more dark by the second. A face darkened by some horrible memory was what now stared Twilight in the face.

     "Actually, alicorns are not very rare. We exist in numbers about the same as your own, but we live much longer. Not forever for most of us, but some alicorns have learned the ways of the phoenix, and so shall never truly die. I have learned of the phoenixes. Watched them. Studied them. They helped me escape. I need to spread the word. I need to save my kind."

     "What do you mean? Save your kind? We thought Celestia, Luna, and Cadence were the last alicorns. What do the alicorns need saving from?" Twilight asked. Chroma looked at the ponies around her. The element bearers. She'd heard of these ponies. Surely they could help her.

     "The alicorns are slave to the Sun and Moon. The Princesses Celestia and Luna."

     Twilight balked at the alicorn. "The Princesses? Never!" The other element bearers joined into Twilight's protesting. Chroma was expecting this, but she had to tell somepony, didn't she?

     "The Princesses don't know what they are forcing their kind to do. They cannot know that they do not really move the sun and moon, but rather the planet itself, including Equestria, the Everfree Nation, and all the other nations across the seas. It takes the strength of our kind to keep the Princesses from pushing the planet too far. They a very strong, your rulers. Strongest alicorns in existence. They were the first of the alicorns, as you know, but they are unaware of their strength. Before Nightmare Moon, the Elements of Harmony helped keep the planet in place the orbit of the star, but now that they are in your hooves, they cannot be used in that way any longer."

     "I still don't get it though. How can you save your people? Where are your people? You said you escaped. Where from?" Rainbow Dash said.

     "I escaped from the very core of the planet. Alicorns can survive there because of our near immortality. We were enslaved by a people who feared that they would die from the planet moving so spastically, and they forced us underground. To live forever in the center of our planet. It doesn't have to be this way! If we make the Princesses aware of what they are doing I'm sure that we will be able to free the alicorns."

     "We need to get to Canterlot."

     "Do ya think she could get these rainbow colors off of us first?"

-MLP-FiM-

     The Elements of Harmony and the alicorn, who's wings were still covered, boarded the next train to Canterlot. The ride was long and slow, because the train conductor saw no reason to go faster, and the ponies weren't about to give him one.

     "Um, girls? I think that I should tell you that there is a possibility that someone is going to try and stop this from happening."

     "Why in Equestria would anypony try to stop you, darling?" Rarity asked, horrified.

     "That's just it. They're not exactly pony. They call themselves men. They walk on two legs, and they have a lust for power. They wouldn't want to give up their slaves, no matter what good it does for the planet as a whole. They are the reason my people a still imprisoned, but my people do not know that there is really no damage they could do to a alicorn. They're still scary though." Chroma looked at the horrified faces of the ponies around her.

     "We need to stop them," Applejack said, "What'd we need ta do, exactly?" Before the alicorn could answer, the train lurched. All of them were thrown to the floor. Chroma looked out the window of the train. A fire was started up, and two legged silhouettes stood by the ever growing flames.

     "It has begun," Chroma whispered, "The men are attacking." She undid the bandages that covered her wings. "Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy. Each of you must carry one of your friends. Miss Rarity, you are Twilight will be carried by me. We must tell the princesses. Only they can stop the rage of these men as they search for power. We must wait to tell the princesses of the alicorn problem until this is over." The train lurched again. "Hurry, everypony! We must go, now!" Three pairs of wings unfolded, and the pegasi and alicorn took flight, carrying their friends with them. They didn't have too far to go to get to the princesses, but it wasn't going to be easy.