The Last Alicorn

Chapters

Chapter 1: The Last Alicorn Princess
Chapter 2: Abacus Cinch’s Dazzling Sirens
Chapter 3: Users Of Magic
Chapter 4: A Diamond Disaster
Chapter 5: King Sombra
Chapter 6: Lord Tirek
Chapter 7: Love In A Flash
Chapter 8: The Secret Passage
Chapter 9: Final Confrontation
Chapter 10: A Human Heart

Chapter 1: The Last Alicorn Princess

Author's Note

(Ok, well, I most certainly did not see this coming. If you didn't know or didn't read it, at the request of my cousin, I wrote an Equestria Girls story titled Equestria Girls: Two Sunsets. At the end of it, I threw in a joke where Sci-Twi gave Twilight a copy of The Last Unicorn since she would find it relatable. It was meant to be a throwaway gag for some meta-humor, but then the plot bunnies started hopping and breeding. I gotta be honest, I've never had plot bunnies so bad before. I originally didn't post it when I first wrote it because this site's rules say no MLP stories of other stories, but since this is a retelling of The Last Unicorn in the MLP world, it's not just an MLP version of the same story, so it should fit in with the site's guidelines since there's different scenes, different events, and different dialogue and such. If you saw The Last Unicorn movie or read the book, then you should have an idea of what you're in for, but since this is a taking place in an MLP alternate universe, there will be a bunch of… well, MLP stuff and characters in it. I'll include the roles the characters are supposed to be playing below for those who have seen the movie or read the book. I'd also like to thank my friend, Silverbuller, on DeviantArt for letting me use the image for this story.)

Story originally posted on 4/10/19 at https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13427062/1/The-Last-Alicorn

Amalthea/The Last Unicorn ……… Twilight Sparkle
Schmendrick ……… Micro Chips
Molly Grue ……… Sunset Shimmer
Prince Lír ……… Flash Sentry
King Haggard ……… Lord Tirek
The Red Bull ……… King Sombra
The 2 Hunters ……… Gloriosa Daisy and Timber Spruce
The Butterfly ……… Spike
The Unicorns ……… The Alicorn Princesses (Celestia, Luna, Cadance)
Mommy Fortuna ……… Abacus Cinch
Ruhk the Hunchback ……… The Dazzlings (Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, Sonata Dusk)
Celaeno the Harpy ……… Queen Chrysalis
Captain Cully ……… Iron Will
Captain Cully’s men ……… The Diamond Dogs
The Enchanted Tree ……… The Smooze
Mabruk the Wizard ……… Discord
The Talking Cat ……… Capper Dapperpaws
The Skeleton ……… Cozy Glow

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 1: The Last Alicorn Princess

“THE LAST ALICORN”

Chapter 1: The Last Alicorn Princess

There were lots of rumors surrounding the Everfree Forest. Some said it was enchanted, others said it was haunted, and yet others said that the forest itself was alive, and that any who ventured into it would be attacked for trespassing.

But while there were many stories surrounding it, one thing was certain, it was a magical place, protected by the magic of those who lived beyond it. Few, if any, humans dared to enter the forest; fearful of what kind of mysterious creatures lived within it. For rumors aside, the forest was home to many dangerous creatures, and that wasn’t even counting the mysterious beings that lived in the land the supposedly magical forest encompassed.

That wasn’t to say that there was no way to the land beyond it. Creatures capable of flight could simply fly over the forest. And currently, an entire swarm of dragons were flying over the trees, disappearing from view from the two humans following them.

Gloriosa Daisy and her brother Timber Spruce had been following the trails of dragons for the past day or so, wondering if the flying reptiles sudden and unexpected migration was due to the strange events that had started not too long ago. However, as they approached the Everfree Forest, the horses they rode refused to go any further.

“Hey, whoa there,” said Timber as his horse shuffled about nervously, but refusing to get any closer to the forest entrance. “What’s up with the horses?”

Gloriosa pointed ahead of them. “It’s the forest,” she told him simply, looking uneasily at it herself. “They’re wary of it. This is the Everfree Forest. Surely you’ve heard the stories.”

Timber wobbled his head in disinterest. “Ah… maybe. I don’t really pay attention to those superstitions.”

Gloriosa fixed her brother with a glare. “Trust me, this is no superstition. Beyond the Everfree Forest is Equestria, a magical land inhabited by Equestrian ponies.”

Now that Timber had heard of. “Equestria? You mean that mythical land where those magic horses are supposedly from? Come on. That place is just an old wives tales.”

Gloriosa shook her head. “Not horses, little brother, Equestrian ponies. You know, unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies. They’re a similar species to horses, yes, just like humans are to apes, but they’re very different. And Equestria is no myth. Many old stories that are passed down have a basis on reality. There are numerous fantastical and magical things in the world, is it really so hard to believe that Equestrian ponies originated from a magic land untouched by humans? I’m telling, it’s a place as real as you and me. And ruling over it are the alicorn princesses.”

Her eyes became downcast, and a look of sadness appeared in them. “Recently, I’ve been hearing rumors that the reason why the sun hasn’t risen for the past few days is because the alicorns have gone missing.”

Timber smirked in amusement. “You mean you really believe that nonsense about Princess Celestia raising and lowering the sun and Princess Luna doing the same for the moon?”

In response, she nodded to the moon in the sky. “The sun hasn’t been rising and the moon hasn’t been descending for a reason. If something’s happened to the alicorns, then it would explain why.”

“Hmm,” Timber muttered skeptically. He looked back up at the dragons flying through the night sky. “Well, whatever the reason, we’re not going to find it out from the dragons if they’re heading into the Everfree Forest. Lets go back.”

He received no argument from Gloriosa, and the two of them turned their horses around and headed back the way they came.

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Miles into the Everfree Forest, the trees finally cleared as the land of Equestria began. As the stories told, it was home primarily to unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies. While similar in appearance to horses, there were notable differences that separated them from the far less intelligent creatures that humans used for transportation and manual labor.

Unicorns possessed power and magic, and they used it to help the residents of Equestria in many ways. The pegasi patrolled the skies, controlling the weather and changing the seasons. And the earth ponies held a special connection to nature, particularly plants, animals, and the land, and were often found taking care growing and harvesting food and tending to nature.

And as the stories told, they were governed over by the four alicorn princesses. Eternal and powerful Equestrian ponies that held the traits of all three. It was said that there were originally only two, until a third appeared millennia later. And only a few short years ago, a fourth appeared.

However, no one had seen any traces of the alicorn princesses for the past few days, and within that time, the sun had never rose. This had sent the residents into a paranoid frenzy, most having flocked to the royal city to get answers to their questions, or simply locked themselves in their homes.

One home, however, was made out of a giant tree. And the door opened for the first time in days as the youngest of the alicorn princesses emerged. Though resembling a horse, she had many notable differences in body shape and color. Lavender horse hair covered her from head to hoof, and a dark sapphire blue mane and tail with a strip of magenta and violet hung down from her head and rear, upon which rested a mark on each side of her flank that resembled stars. Large purple eyes looked around the empty town as a frown crossed her face and questions filled her mind.

“Wait,” she said in confusion as she looked up at the dark sky. “It’s night? But that can’t be. I may have gotten caught up in my reorganize of the library, but it should be day right now.”

She closed her eyes as she began doing the math in her head. She may still have been relatively new at being a princess, but she was highly intelligent, which was why she couldn’t believe her calculations were off. Three days prior, she had decided to spend the weekend reorganizing her library. And while she may not have seen the sun during that time, she was sure that it should be shining in the sky right now.

“No, it’s definitely supposed to be day time,” she told herself. Confused, she looked up at the sky again. “It should be mid-day right now. What are Princess Celestia and Princess Luna doing?”

As she looked up at the moon in the sky, she noticed a flock of dragons flying by. At first she thought they were headed for Canterlot, the royal city where the alicorn sisters, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna lived, but as she followed the flock, she realized that they were not. It seemed like they were simply trying to get away. But where could they possibly be heading?

Amongst the dragons, she saw a group of them seemingly bullying on a much smaller one. A frown crossed her face at the mistreatment. She knew that dragons were much more aggressive and ruthless creatures, some even downright mean, but she still didn’t like to see bullying. As the Princess of Friendship, it was her job to spread friendship everywhere she went, and so it really upset her to see one creature picking on another, even if they were of a different species.

One of the dragons, a big red one, used his tail to smack the smaller one out of the sky, and the little dragon sped to the ground in a free fall. Gasping, she used her magic to materialize a large cushion, and the little purple dragon plopped down on it.

Making her way over to the small creature, she saw that it was a baby purple dragon with green spikes. Large green eyes blinked up at her, and she gave him a look of concern. “Are you alright?”

The little dragon rolled off the cushion and dusted himself off. “Yeah, I guess so. Thanks.”

Seeing that he was indeed alright, she let out a sigh of relief and offered him a friendly smile. “No problem. I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

“Oh, um, I’m Spike. Nice to meet you.”

He held out a clawed hand to her. Twilight smiled and placed her hoof in it, and the two of them shook. “Very nice to meet you, Spike.” She glanced up at the other dragons. “What was all that about?”

The little dragon sighed. “Oh, that was just Garble. He and his friends like to pick on me since I’m the youngest. I only got my wings a little while ago.”

Twilight gasped in reference to his treatment. “That’s horrible.”

Spike, however, didn’t seem that bothered by it. “Nah, it’s kind of the dragon way. It’s supposed to toughen us up, or so I’ve heard.”

There was a mocking laugh from up above, and both Twilight and Spike looked up to see the red dragon that had knocked him from the sky flying a short distance above them. “Making friends with ponies now, rookie dragon?”

A low growl escaped Spike as he glared at the older dragon. Twilight, however, was not going to take this bullying lying down, and spread her wings while making her horn glow with magic. “That’s enough! You leave him alone!”

The red dragon, who Twilight assumed was Garble, looked surprised to see her. He got over it quickly though, and gave Spike a glare of his own. “We’ll finish this later, you pony loving pipsqueak.”

With that, he flew back up to rejoin the flock. An arrogant smirk crept up Twilight’s face as she folded her wings back up and turned back to Spike. She raised an eyebrow as she noticed that he too was now looking at her in surprise.

“You’re an alicorn!” he practically bellowed, not having noticed her wings while they were folded up.

Twilight blinked. “Um, yeah. I’m the Princess of Friendship. I’m guessing you weren’t expecting to run into one of the four alicorns.”

Spike shook his head, getting over his surprise. “Actually, I was more surprised that you’re still here. We thought all the alicorns had disappeared a few days ago.”

Twilight frowned at that. “Disappeared? What do you mean disappeared? Where’d they go?”

Spike shook his head. “No one knows. But they say that they vanished three days ago, and no one’s seen them since. I’m surprised you don’t know.”

An embarrassed blush filled Twilight’s cheeks. She had been holed up in her library the past three days and nights and hadn’t received any news on anything, even magically locking and soundproofing her front door so no one would bother her. When she dedicated her time to her books, she really dedicated her time to them.

A suddenly realization came to her. “Wait, is that why it’s night right now?”

Spike nodded. “Yeah, the sun hasn’t risen for the past two days. Night fell, and it just never stopped.”

Now Twilight was beginning to worry. Had something bad happened to Princess Celestia? And what about Princess Luna? And Princess Cadance? “Spike, listen to me, this is very important. What happened to the princesses?”

Spike crossed his arms. “Hmm. Well, to be honest, I don’t know much. Just the gossip that’s been going on amongst the dragons. When the sun never rose, the dragon emperor got a little concerned. He sent out some dragons to find out what was happening. On the second day, he learned from some Breezies that the alicorns had disappeared, and that’s why the sun hasn’t been rising. On the third day, he decreed that we were no longer safe where we were, and so we began migrating. And, well, that eventually led us to right here.”

Twilight’s mind began racing. The princesses, gone? How was that possible? And how could she have not known? Wouldn’t somepony have contacted her? Surely one of her friends would have at least.

A guilty grimace crossed her face. Maybe one of her friends had, but she hadn’t heard them due to her soundproof spell. As for anypony else, they probably went to get answers from Celestia herself. After all, who better to ask why the sun hadn’t risen other than the very pony who raised the sun? It only made sense that they would go to Celestia instead of her. After all, she had only been an alicorn for a few years; she didn’t even have her own castle yet. And when her friends hadn’t gotten an answer when they came to see her, they too probably went to see Celestia.

Deciding to rethink how she went about things the next time she decided to reorganize her library, she returned her attention to the baby dragon. “But what happened to them. Where did they disappear to? Did you hear anything about that?”

Sadly, Spike shook his head. “Sorry, couldn’t tell you. But the rumor is that King Sombra has returned, and he’s the one responsible for their disappearance.”

At Spike’s explanation, Twilight’s anxiety briefly gave way to a disbelieving chuckle. “Oh, Spike, King Sombra’s not real. He’s just an old story made up to scare young foals.”

Spike shrugged. “That’s what I heard. And the dragon emperor seems to think it’s true. Speaking of which,” he looked back up at the other dragons, “I better rejoin the others before he realizes that I fell out of line.”

Twilight’s worry for the little dragon returned as she thought about the bullies. “But what about Garble and those others that were picking on you.”

Smirking, Spike just waved off her concern. “Ah, don’t worry about those guys, I can handle them. Besides,” he lowered his voice, as if he were telling her a secret, “I’m friends with both the dragon emperor’s daughter and Garble’s sister. They’re not going to be too happy with him when they learn about this. See ya.”

With that, he took to the air again, flying up to rejoin his brethren. A relived smile spread across Twilight’s face now that she knew that the little dragon would be alright, but it soon became a worried frown as she thought about what she had learned. Could it really be true? Were the princesses really gone? And what more, was Sombra really real, and was he responsible for their disappearances?

She thought back to the stories she had heard about Sombra. He was a mighty and powerful unicorn with a heart as black as the night who ruled with an iron hoof over a thousand years ago. As a wicked king, he lorded over his subjects as a ruthless tyrant, eventually using his magic to enslave them all, turning everypony into a mindless puppets who would obey his every command.

Eventually, a group of powerful ponies, including Celestia and Luna, rose up against him, and used their magic to turn him to shadow and vapor, and banishing him to the frozen north. However, Sombra returned, more powerful than every, having become one with the darkness. In order to defeat him, Celestia used her magic to create the Crystal Heart, a powerful artifact that acted as a protection from evil. With it, Sombra was banished to the ether, never to return.

Twilight shook her head. Surely such a story couldn’t be true. While Celestia had indeed accomplished many amazing feats, there were many stories that were either made up or exaggerations about her over time as well. Celestia was practically a goddess, to think that there was a pony out there who was stronger than her was laughable, let alone somepony who was powerful enough to make her, Luna, and the third alicorn, Princess Cadance, disappear.

Her thoughts turned to the other two alicorns. Luna, the younger sister of Celestia, who raised the moon and ruled the night and the dreams of everypony. And Candance, the Princess of love, who could turn even the greatest of enemies into lovers with her power. Twilight’s own power was similar, only involving friendship instead of love, though she still hadn’t fully grown into her role or gained complete control over her friendship powers; she didn’t even have her own castle yet.

Could the three of them actually be gone? No, she couldn’t believe it. She wouldn’t believe it. She had to make sure. But as she knocked on door after door, she found most homes abandoned, the residents having fled to Canterlot to seek protection from the royal guards. The few that did answer only confirmed that the princesses had indeed disappeared, and that they had thought that Twilight had vanished as well since nopony had seen her for days.

There had never been a time where there weren’t alicorns in the world. They were the most magical of all creatures, and were as eternal as time itself. They weren’t immortal though, and could be killed by other creatures, but Twilight had never heard of them simply vanishing into thin air. Something must have happened to them.

And so with great reluctance Twilight admitted the truth to herself. “I am the only alicorn there is. The last.”

She felt a panic attack begin to come on, and she started to hyperventilate. But she knew that she couldn’t let herself give in to fear, and so she quickly rushed home and dove into the library she had just finished reorganizing.

Despite her skepticism that Sombra was indeed real and had somehow returned, she looked up whatever information she could on him. She was devastated to see that there was very little, nothing that gave her any real help, or that would suggest that Sombra was anything more than a myth. What she did discover though was that the final confrontation with him had taken place in a land far beyond Equestria, outside of the Everfree Forest.

Biting her bottom lip nervously, she looked out her window It seemed that if she wanted any real answers, she would have to look for them beyond Equestria, past the Everfree Forest that had kept them safe from outside forces. She didn’t very much like the idea of leaving her home, but if the alicorns were indeed out there, and they needed her help, then she had to go to them.

Her thoughts turned to her friends. From what she had learned from asking around, when she hadn’t answered her door, they had thought that she had gone to Canterlot for her own answers as to why the sun hadn’t risen. Knowing her friends, when they got there and discovered that the princesses had disappeared, they were probably doing all they could for the citizens.

It would be best to let them stay there instead of dragging them along on what could end up being a dangerous journey, or a fool’s errand. She may not find any answers where she was going, but still, she had to at least take a look.

“I must go quickly,” she told herself, “and return as soon as I can.”

Working up her up her courage, she made her way over to the Everfree Forest, coming to a stop at the entrance to it. The trees and branches seemed to part for her, inviting her in so she could make her way to the land beyond.

Taking a deep breath, she worked up her courage, and stepped into the forest.

Chapter 2: Abacus Cinch’s Dazzling Sirens

Chapter 2: Abacus Cinch’s Dazzling Sirens

Days passed. Or at least they did according to her calculations. However, the sun never rose, and the moon never set. It seemed that the whole world was trapped in a never-ending night. If this kept up, the land would begin to suffer. The sun brought life and warmth. To be denied it for too long would start to have negative affects on everything.

According to legend, Celestia and Luna had been around since the beginning of life, raising the sun every morning, and then switching it out for the moon at the end of each day. Then one day, a powerful unicorn known as Cadance, specializing in love magic, earned her wings and became the third alicorn, and she used her power to spread love across the land.

Finally, there had been Twilight. Starting out as Celestia’s prize student with a great affinity for magic, especially friendship magic, she too had earned the right to become an alicorn, thus becoming the Princess of Friendship. And now, here she was, the last to become an alicorn, and now the last of the alicorns.

She hadn’t exactly known what she would be looking for or where when she left Equestria, but she had hoped to find something. However, it seemed that the land beyond Equestria had changed significantly from the maps of them she had memorized from her studies over the years. She was all but flying around blindly, looking for something, anything, that might provide her with answers.

She had run into a few creatures during her travels, but none had been able to offer her any help. The humans were even less helpful. One of them, a senile old man, had even tried to capture her, thinking she was nothing more than a mere horse. And so, feeling quite insulted, Twilight made a point to try and avoid any further humans unless they looked like they might actually be able to help her. She did find a few Equestrian ponies as well, but none who were able to tell her anything useful.

However, while being an alicorn came with tremendous magical power, it did not come with unlimited stamina. And with it being nighttime indefinitely, Twilight simply slept whenever she got tired. So, once again, she settled down for another restless sleep. The small patch of grass was a very poor substitute for a bed, but she made do with what she had. Soon enough, she was asleep, oblivious to the world around her.

It was during this particular sleep, however, that a traveling caravan heading down the road Twilight was sleeping beside came to a stop. The words Abacus Cinch’s Dazzling Sirens was painted on the side of the largest cart, and its rider climbed down. A woman with light grayish blue skin and a noticeable mole on her chin beside her mouth that seemed to be drawn into a permanent frown carefully made her way over to the sleeping alicorn, looking down at Twilight with interest.

“Well, well,” the woman muttered as she studied Twilight. “What do we have here? Can it really be?”

Behind her glasses, her eyes ran over the alicorn’s body, taking special notice of the wings and horn Twilight had. Her lips curved into an arrogant smirk as she realized that Twilight was indeed what she thought she was.

“So it’s true, there was a fourth. I had thought they were just rumors. Oh, when he finds out, he will be very delighted.” Turning back to the caravan, she waved over more of its occupants. “You three, come here now. And bring the magic nerd.”

Crossing her arms, she waited impatiently and was soon joined by four others. Three were girls of the same age, and another was a bespectacled boy with a rather nerdish look about him.

Of the three girls, the yellow skinned one in the middle with the large mass of curly orange hair placed her hands on her hips as she looked at the woman impatiently. “What is it, Miss Cinch? Let me guess, you want us to waste our magic on something trivial.”

Next to her, the periwinkle blue-skinned girl with her cerulean hair tied in a ponytail nudged her. “Adagio, she’s our boss, we’re supposed to listen to her.”

Looking irritated, Adagio turned to her. “Can it, Sonata.”

On her other side, the lavender skinned girl with her purple hair tied into two ponytails rolled her eyes in boredom. “Uch, must you two always do this? What do you want, Miss Cinch?”

Ignoring the tension between the girls, Cinch gestured towards Twilight. “Tell me, what do you see lying there?” she asked, keeping her voice at a whisper.

Sonata cocked her head to the side as she looked down at the alicorn and said simply, “A dead horse.”

The lavender-skinned girl rolled her eyes again. “No, it’s an Equestrian pony. A pegasus from the looks of it.”

Adagio nudged her. “Open your eyes, Aria. It has a horn. That thing is an alicorn. And it’s sleeping, not dead. Idiots.”

Cinch’s smirk became more arrogant. “Indeed. And you, Micro Chips, do you agree with them? Come now, you study magic, you should know.”

The boy, Micro Chips, adjusted his glasses as he looked down at Twilight. Truth be told, he had been unable to tear his eyes away from her as soon as they fell upon the alicorn. “Yes, there’s no mistaking it. That’s definitely an alicorn. But what is she doing here?”

“Who cares?” Aria grumbled. “Did you call us out here just to show it to us? Thanks, I guess, but I’m really not interested.”

Cinch’s scowl returned. “I want her captured. I have a particular buyer in mind who will pay a very nice price for her.”

“Ok!” Sonata exclaimed in a bubbly tone. “I’ll go get some rope.”

The urge to groan at the girl’s idiocy was great, but Cinch managed to resist. “The rope that could hold that creature hasn’t been woven. You’ll need to use your magic to trap her.”

A groan escaped Adagio. “I knew you wanted us to use our magic. Fine, lets just get this over with.”

Reaching up, she and the other two girls touched the red crystal pendants around their necks. They began to sing a pleasing melody that caused the pendants to start glowing. Wisps of magic flowed out of them and over Twilight.

Micro Chips watched with a disapproving frown on his face, yet he did nothing to stop them. He deduced that the girls must have been using a sleep spell as well, for the alicorn did not wake, not even as she rose into the air and was hovered over to one of the carts meant to cage a wild animal. The alicorn was placed inside, and numerous spells and enchantments were placed on the wagon to make sure that she would not be able to break out, not with force or with magic.

A dark cackle escaped Cinch at her prize, and she rubbed her hands together gleefully. “I never would have thought we would find such a rare treasure. This alicorn is going to make us very rich. The poor thing is going to have quite the surprise when she wakes.”

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Surprised was quite the understatement for what Twilight felt when she awoke. She was not in the bed of grass she had fallen asleep in, but was trapped in a wagon in a cage. At first she had thought she was still dreaming, but quickly realized the truth; she had been captured.

Immediately, she had attempted to break out. But much to her bewilderment, she found that her magic would not work on the bars. She couldn’t break out either, as the bars seemed to have a type of magical barrier around them that prevented her from even touching them. Not even her teleportation spell worked.

How this was possible, she didn’t have a clue. From the looks of it, her captors were humans, and humans did not possess magic. So how could they trap her in a magical cage? Was the cage already enchanted before they got it? That was the only explanation she could come up with.

She tried talking to the humans, but it seemed that they had been ordered by their boss not to interact with her, and so all her questions fell on deaf ears. Twilight’s frustration began to grow at her predicament, and her inability to get out of it. And so she spent her time trying to come up with a way to get herself out.

Eventually, the caravan came to a stop, and the people began to set things up. Twilight watched with mild interest as they seemed to be preparing a stage. Were they performers of some kind?

She got her answer later when the crowds began to gather. The three girls she had seen working on setting things up had gotten on the stage they had prepared and began to sing to the audience. Their boss, a woman whom she heard referred to as Miss Cinch, watch with an unpleasant smirk on her face as the girls sang before walking off.

Twilight’s attention, however, was soon diverted from the singing girls, who, she admitted, were actually quite good at singing, to the boy she had seen helping to set things up for the show. He had light violet skin and dark grayish blue hair. Unlike the others, there was a kindness about him as he crept over to Twilight’s cage, glancing over his shoulder at the singing girls cautiously.

“I don’t have much time,” he said to her in a low voice. “I wanted to speak to you earlier, but didn’t get a chance. My name is Micro Chips. Are you truly an alicorn princess? You’re not just an illusion or some creature in disguise?”

Twilight studied him for a few moments, not sure if she could trust him; he was a member of the party that captured her after all. But seeing as her options were limited, she decided to take a chance. “I am. I am Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. Tell me, how am I being confined to this cage? It seems to be magic, but how is that possible.”

Micro Chips sighed. “You can thank the Dazzlings for that.” He nodded at the singing girls. “Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, and Sonata Dusk. They’re the ones that trapped you in there at Miss Cinch’s request.”

Twilight looked back at the girls. “But how? Humans do not possess magic. Do they have magical artifacts?”

“Of sorts,” Micro Chips replied. “Take a look at the pendants around their necks. Do you see them?”

Twilight strained her eyes, spotting the red gems they wore. “Yes, but I can’t make anything out from here.”

“Those are where they get their magic from. They got them off the corpses of sirens, and they use the magic in them to enchant their voices in order to draw in an audience so they can sell tickets to people to see them perform.”

Twilight frowned. She knew what sirens were. They were beautiful but wicked creatures that used their enchanted voices to put others under enslavement spells. They would then command those they enslaved to fight with one another in order to stir up negative emotions for them to feed of off, absorbing the negative energy into the gems embedded into their flesh to convert it into magic in order to make themselves more powerful. But she had never heard of humans using them before.

“It’s part of Miss Cinch’s scheme,” Micro Chips explained. “She’s running a scam of sorts. The Dazzlings are doing it for the publicity, but Cinch is just in it for the money. She’s a very vain and greedy woman.” He looked back at her. “That’s why she caught you. She’s planning to sell you off and make a bunch of money off you.”

Looking away from the Dazzlings, Twilight gave Micro Chips a suspicious look. “And what exactly are you doing with them?”

A prideful smile spread across Micro Chips’ face. “Me? Why, I’m a scholar of magic. It’s my sworn duty to learn all there is to know about magic. I’m studying how the Dazzlings are using siren magic. I’ve learned quite a bit about magic over the years. In fact, look at this.”

He removed something from around his neck, revealing that he had been hiding it inside his shirt. At first Twilight thought it was a pendant of some kind, but upon closer inspection, she saw that it was a device of some sort. She realized it as some type of invention known as technology that was apparently beginning to appear amongst human society, but technology wasn’t something that was really present in Equestria. And while she did have some interest in this technology stuff, she had never seen anything like the device Micro Chips was holding, and didn’t have a clue as to what it was.

“I invented this to detect magic so I could find and study it,” he told her, looking quite pleased with himself. “Seems it does more than simply detect magic though, it can also absorb magic and store it inside it. I’ve actually accumulated quite a lot of magic over time, and it’s all stored up in here.”

Twilight frowned in worry. “That’s very risky. It can be quite dangerous for non-magic creatures to meddle with magic. It could have very disastrous results.”

Much to her surprise, Micro Chips nodded in agreement. “Oh, trust me, princess, I know that good and well. I’m very careful with this. I don’t do anything with the magic in here unless I know exactly what I’m doing. Unlike Miss Cinch and the Dazzlings.”

He suddenly gasped and moved to the other side of Twilight’s wagon. She saw why a moment later as Cinch returned. But, much to her surprise, she saw that the woman wasn’t alone. She was pushing another wagon similar to her own. Another creature was inside it, but it was not another alicorn, though it did slightly resemble one.

The creature was hideous to look at. It was dark gray in color, almost black, with a long mane of dark cerulean. Insect wings of the same color grew from its back, and from its head was a long crooked horn. Legs full of holes clopped on the floor of the creature’s cage in aggravation as green within green eyes full of hate shifted to Twilight.

An unpleasant shiver ran up Twilight’s spine as she recognized the creature for what it was. “I know that creature. That’s a changeling queen. Why is it here?”

Micro Chips nodded in agreement, looking just as uncomfortable with the changeling as Twilight felt. “Yes, that’s Queen Chrysalis. Miss Cinch caught her by chance, the same way she did you. There’s a spell on the cage so she can’t transform, and her magic doesn’t work on it either. Apparently, her hive turned on her after embracing love, which metamorphosed them into purified changelings. She refused to change with them, and so was abandoned.”

Twilight had actually heard of this phenomenon. Changelings were creatures that relied on love for nourishment. Typically, they would use their ability to transform to take on the forms of others loved ones. They would then feed off that person’s love, leaving them feeling bitter and resentful. However, there were instances were changelings learned to share love rather than take it, allowing them to go through metamorphosis that turned them into peaceful creatures that no longer had to take love in order to survive.

Apparently, this Chrysalis had not gone along with the rest of her hive. It was sad, but no one could force a changeling to go through the change. Twilight was still surprised that Cinch had been able to capture one though, and a queen at that. But then again, she had captured her.

“Why would she want a changeling?” Twilight asked. “Does she plan to sell her as well?”

Micro Chips shook his head. “No, it’s part of her scam. The Dazzlings use the magic from their pendants to enchant the audience, and make everycreature love and adore them. Miss Cinch then has Chrysalis feed off the audiences’ love for the Dazzlings, leaving them angry and bitter. She does this to stir up negative emotions that the Dazzlings then absorb in order to power their pendants so they can spread their spell to draw in even more of an audience and gain even more fans to buy tickets, and then it starts all over again. It’s a vicious cycle of sorts, and all to fill Miss Cinch’s pockets. Look, it’s happening now.”

Twilight looked on as she saw that Chrysalis was indeed feeding off the love of the audience, sucking it up and consuming it. It flowed to her in numerous streams, and the changeling swallowed it up. She could see the audience becoming agitated, and the Dazzlings were absorbing that negative energy. It drifted towards them in the form of a green mist, flowing into their pendants, empowering them further while leaving the audience drained.

Twilight had to admit, it was a brilliant, though cruel, system that Cinch had, but it was also very dangerous. Changelings, the ones that hadn’t metamorphosed, were quite ruthless and unforgiving. If Chrysalis ever got out, she wouldn’t show Cinch any mercy.

Almost as if she sensed the alicorn’s thought about her, Cinch glanced at Twilight’s cage and spotted Micro Chips. Glaring at the boy, she turned to him and waved her hand. “You, boy, get away from that cage! I told you to keep away from her!”

Micro Chips heeded her, moving away from Twilight, but not before whispering to her, “Don’t worry, I’ll be back. I’ll get you out of here, I promise.”

Twilight watched him go, feeling some semblance of hope. She wasn’t so sure about relying on a powerless human to get her out of here, but seeing as her options were limited, she didn’t have much of a choice.

Chapter 3: Users Of Magic

Chapter 3: Users of Magic

Twilight had to admit, the Dazzlings could really sing. However, she also knew that this was due to their magic siren pendants. It could take even the most untalented, most tone-deaf individuals and turn them into musical divas with the voices of the angels, and she found herself wondering what they might sound like without their enchanted, siren-enhanced voices.

Sadly, at the end of the concert, there wasn’t a single happy face in the audience. Chrysalis had sucked up all the love they had for the Dazzlings, and the Dazzlings in turn had absorbed all the negative energy that was left as a result of that, leaving only an indifferent audience under the influence of their spell, which would only make them want to come back for more the next time they sang.

The show had to end at some point though, and eventually the crowd had dispersed. After that, Twilight would say that everyone began to settle in for the night, but seeing as it was always night, that wasn’t saying much.

It seemed that Cinch had finally decided to have words with Twilight though. After putting Chrysalis away, now full of the love she had devoured, Cinch made her way over to Twilight, giving the alicorn an arrogant smirk.

“I assume you’ve figured out what I’m doing with all this,” she told her confidently. “Tell me, alicorn, are you impressed?”

Twilight narrowed her eyes at the woman. “Don’t be so proud of this little scheme you’ve got going on here. Taking a changeling prisoner, and a queen at that, is a big mistake. She’s going to seek revenge on you when she gets out.”

Looking unconcerned, Cinch crossed her arms. “She won’t be going anywhere any time soon. I’ve made sure of that. The spell on her cage is a powerful one.” She pointed at Twilight. “One that not even an alicorn can break free of.”

Twilight looked back at Chrysalis. “You’re a fool. You may have her contained for now, but she will get free eventually. The more your audience grows, the more love she feeds on. One day you’re going to have an audience that’s too big, and she’ll devour enough love to allow her to break free.”

She gave Cinch a pleading look. “And I must be freed too. I have a mission I must complete. Let me go. And let her go. No one should be caged like this. Let us go.”

“Never!” Cinch snapped. “I have plans for both of you. Neither of you will go free, not you, or her. Don’t think I didn’t take the amount of love she feeds into account. As she feeds off the audience’s love, the Dazzlings feed off their negative energy, allowing them to make the sealing spell on her cage even stronger. So you see, there will be no breaking out. You’re both mine.”

“We’re not for you,” Twilight countered. “You can’t own a magical creature.”

“Who are you for then?” Cinch demanded. “Lord Tirek? Don’t worry, you’ll get to him soon enough. I know how badly he wants you. And he’s the one you want to go to as well. So you see, I’m actually doing you a favor. I’m sure you’d much rather be taken there by me instead of by Sombra. And my way will get me a nice payment as well.”

She walked off laughing after that, but Twilight was barely listening. Cinch spoke of King Sombra. A human actually knew of Sombra. But that was an Equestrian legend, one that was all but forgotten even in Equestria. How could a human possibly know about him? True, it was possible that some stories had been passed down over the generations and Cinch heard one, but it seemed unlikely since most ponies feared the legend so much that they rarely, if ever, spoke of him. But what was most concerning was that she spoke of the evil unicorn as if he were around today.

And who was this Lord Tirek that Cinch mentioned? Whoever he was, did he have the answers as to where the other alicorns were? If he did, then Twilight would have to go see him. However, she most definitely did not want to go there as a prisoner. She wouldn’t be able to help out her fellow princesses if she was stuck in this cage.

Her thoughts then turned to Micro Chips, the so-called magical scholar. He had told her that he would come to help her out, but so far there was no sign of him. She hoped he kept is word. If he didn’t, then she didn’t know what she was going to do.

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It seemed as if she didn’t need to worry. True to his word, Micro Chips returned a few hours later, looking rather proud of himself. He hurried over to Twilight’s cage, repeatedly glancing over his shoulder to make sure he wasn’t followed.

“Never fear, my lady,” he told her, seemingly attempting to make a spectacle of himself, “for I have returned. I hope you’re ready to make your escape.”

Twilight glanced at the caravan she knew the Dazzlings to be in. She could handle Cinch if it came to it, but the Dazzlings with their magic were a different story. “Are you sure now is the best time? Shouldn’t we wait for them to sleep?”

Micro Chips chuckled. “Don’t worry; it’s taco Tuesday. The Dazzlings won’t let anything distract them right now. At least Sonata won’t.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow, but decided to trust him; he did know his traveling companions better than her. “Alright then. So how are you going to get me out?”

A large grin spread across Micro Chips’ face. “By fighting magic with magic, of course.” He held up the device around his neck. “I’ll use the magic I’ve stored up to break the spell on the cage.”

Twilight was skeptical about that. He may have magic, but knowing how to use it was something else entirely. A lot could go wrong if you didn’t know how to use it properly. “Are you sure you can do it?”

Looking a little too confident, Micro Chips nodded. “I’ve been practicing small spells. I’m pretty sure I can handle it. Now, stand back, my lady, and I shall rescue you.”

Contrary to his boast, almost as if he were uncertain as to what would happen, he slowly began to open the device. Twilight could indeed sense magic inside it of various kinds. She still didn’t know how he had managed to store magic like this, but right now she was grateful for it. At least she would be if he managed to get her out.

Magic spilled from the device and began to swirl around the cage. Much to her surprise, it began to get results. The cage began to flicker, almost as if it were disappearing. She became hopeful that she would indeed be getting free, but then the magic faded, and the cage became solid once more.

A disappointed pout crossed Micro Chips’ face at his failure. “Hmm, well, I would have liked for that to have been the spell to free you. Guess I didn’t use enough magic to counter the Dazzlings’ spell. I didn’t want to use too much since I didn’t know what would happen.” He tapped his chin in thought, then snapped his fingers as an idea came to him. “I know, maybe I can use a spell to simply break you out. Watch now as I bend these bars apart.”

He unleashed more magic from his device. This time, it flowed around his hands, and he reached for the bars to pull them apart. However, there must have been another spell on them to prevent anyone from breaking them on the outside as well, for as soon as Micro Chips grabbed the bars, he let out a pained yelp and pulled his hands back. Looking down at them, Twilight saw that his hands had some pretty nasty burns on his palms, and he shook them to relieve the pain.

“Well, so much for that,” he muttered sheepishly, now looking embarrassed. He gave her a bashful grin before shaking his head and putting on a determine look. “Ok, this time I’ll use a little more magic to destroy the cage itself. Prepare yourself princess… and lets hope this works.”

He let out some more magic, more than he had the other two times. It flowed around the cage, and Twilight sensed something beginning to take affect. But then, much to her horror, the cage began to shrink rapidly. She let out a frightened cry as she realized that she was going to be crushed.

“Stop!” she shouted. “The cage is shrinking! Stop!”

A horrified look crossed Micro Chips’ face, and he immediately ceased his spell, leaving the cage at only half its original size. He dropped to his knees, looking exhausted, and a defeated look passed over his face. “I’m sorry, princess. I didn’t mean for that to happen. It seems I still can’t control large amounts of magic. It looks like I won’t be getting you out that way.”

Twilight feared that he was giving up, but she wasn’t willing to quit just yet. “No, don’t stop. You do have control, you simply used the wrong spell. Please, try again.”

An embarrassed smile crept up Micro Chips’ face. “I’m sorry, princess. The truth is, as a scholar of magic, I wanted to impress one of the four alicorns with a fancy spell to set her free, but it looks like I’ll have to settle with impressing you with my skills as a pickpocket.”

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a set of keys. Getting to his feet, he walked over to the door of the cage, and began searching for the right key. A twinge of irritation went through Twilight at how he had put her in danger by trying to show off with his use of magic when he had the keys all along.

“I managed to swipe these from the Dazzlings without them noticing; that’s the real reason why I acted now. Once they discovered what I’ve done, they’re not going to be happy about it.” Fortunately, the keyhole hadn’t shrunk with the cage, and he managed to unlock the door, beaming proudly as he opened it. “You’re free, my lady!”

Twilight flew out of the cage and settled down beside Micro Chips. Her earlier irritation at his attempts to show off was now replaced by gratitude, and she turned to thank the nerdy human.

However, just as she opened her mouth to thank him, the sound of voices reached her ears. She recognized the voice of Adagio as she and the other two went walking by. “I’m telling you, Sonata, your obsession with tacos is not healthy.”

“What? I just love tacos. What’s wrong with that?”

“You have pictures of them on your clothes. No one loves a food that much without it being considered unnatural.”

“Um, girls,” Aria interrupted. “What’s Micro Chips doing?”

They turned to see the human in question standing by Twilight’s open cage. And standing behind him was Twilight herself. The two groups stared at each other in surprise before the silence was broken by Sonata. “Ooh, someone’s in trouble.”

Adagio, however, wasn’t as easygoing about it as she pointed an accusing finger at Micro Chips. “You little thief! You took the keys, didn’t you? Oh, you’re really in for it now. Miss Cinch is going to feed you to the changeling.”

“Run!” Micro Chips shouted, and suddenly charged at the Dazzlings. “I’ll deal the with them!”

Adagio’s angry look became an arrogant sneer as she brought her hand up to her pendant. “Deal with us? Oh, that’s rich.”

Then she and the others began to sing. Their pendants flashed brightly, and magic burst forth from them. Micro Chips, however, opened his device, and his own magic flowed out to meet theirs.

“You shouldn’t underestimate me!” he declared. “I have years worth of magic stored up in here.”

“You loser scholar!” Adagio snapped. “You can’t even do a simple magic card trick, let alone any real spells.”

Then she, Aria, and Sonata let out a loud, continuous, musical cry. Rings of enchanted sound waves flowed from their mouths and over Micro Chips, pushing him back. He continued to lose ground as he was overwhelmed by their power.

Twilight knew that she should be taking the opportunity to escape, but she just couldn’t not yet. There was something she had to do first. And so she made her way over to Chrysalis’ cage. She knew how dangerous changelings could be, but she just couldn’t bear to see her caged like this, especially after having lost her hive and having ended up all alone.

Still, she hesitated as she stood beside the cage, weighing the risks of letting her out with the wrongness of leaving her imprisoned. Chrysalis seemed to see that she was second-guessing her decision, and egged her on.

“Set me free,” she hissed. “We’re sister you, and I.”

Twilight wouldn’t go that far, but she did understand what Chrysalis was saying. And so she used her magic to release the changeling queen from her confinement, overpowering whatever spells the Dazzlings had placed on it now that she herself was free. Chrysalis burst from the cage and immediately took to the air, hissing like an angry cat as she flew around.

Worried for her rescuer, Twilight returned her attention to Micro Chips and his magical battle with the Dazzlings. She saw as he lost further ground, and was then finally blasted off his feet by their magic.

Adagio’s lips spread into a smirk as she looked down at him victoriously. “Serves you right for betraying us. Now, lets get that alicorn.”

They turned to Twilight, but before they could make a move towards her, Chrysalis landed in front of them. The Dazzlings gasped in surprised at the changeling’s sudden appearance, but recovered quickly and reached for their pendants.

They weren’t fast enough, and Chrysalis hit them with a blast of magic from her crooked horn. The magic beam flowed over them, and all three of their pendants shattered, the pieces falling to the crowd in front of them.

The Dazzlings collapsed, looking dazed, but seemed otherwise unharmed. It didn’t take them long to realize what had happened though, and Adagio grabbed a handful of the broken pendants. Then she, Aria, and Sonata looked up at Chrysalis in horror. Twilight couldn’t blame them for their fear. Without their pendants, they were just ordinary human girls.

But it seemed that Chrysalis wasn’t through with them yet, and she hissed at them. The Dazzlings immediately jumped up and took off running. Chrysalis made to go after them, but another voice distracted her.

“What is going on out here!?”

Cinch came storming over. She surveyed the scene, but before she could fully figure out what was going on, Chrysalis charged over to her. Cinch let out a startled cry and fell backwards as the changeling loomed over her.

“You thought you could hold me indefinitely?” Chrysalis seethed. “You thought you could use me for your little scheme? Well, now it’s my turn to use you how I see fit. Lets see how you like being my prisoner.”

Cinch opened her mouth to protest, but before she could, Chrysalis began to devour what little love was in the woman’s heart. Twilight’s own heart broke for the woman, but she knew that Cinch had invited this fate upon herself. Besides, she had her human friend she needed to save before Chrysalis turned her wrath on him as well.

“Now’s our chance,” she told him. “Lets go while she’s distracted.”

As Chrysalis began to wrap Cinch in a cocoon, Twilight used a teleportation spell, and both she and Micro Chips were transported away. They reappeared what Twilight deemed was a safe enough distance away, and Micro Chips collapsed, looking horrified at what he had seen.

“Oh no, what have I done,” he muttered to himself. “This wasn’t what I wanted to happen. I was just trying to… I just wanted to…”

“It’s not your fault,” Twilight told him sadly. “Cinch brought this fate upon herself long ago. The only crime you’re responsible for is breaking me out.”

Micro Chips looked up at her. “Don’t you feel any remorse for her?”

Twilight closed her eyes. “Of course I do. I feel for all living things. As the Princes of Friendship, I want nothing more than for everycreature to come together in friendship. But that’s also why I couldn’t just leave Chrysalis in her cage like that and let Cinch continue to use her to victimize all those people for her own greed. Now they won’t fall victim to Cinch’s scheme, nor will they fall prey to the Dazzlings’ magic. And who knows, maybe since I saved Chrysalis, she’ll turn over a new leaf and eventually come to accept love rather than take it. And the Dazzlings, without their magic pendants, maybe they can find a new place in the world where they don’t have to constantly take from everycreature. So while I do feel sorry for Cinch, I don’t regret what I did, knowing all the good that can come of it.”

Her words surprised Micro Chips. He hadn’t considered all that. It was no wonder why she was the Princess of Friendship; she certainly knew a lot more about it that he did. Was that why she was here? Was she on some sort of friendship quest? He had never actually stopped to consider why she was so far from her home before.

“Where will you go now?” he asked her.

Twilight decided that she could trust him after all he had risked to help her. “I’m searching for the other alicorns. They’ve disappeared from Equestria, so I’ve come looking for them.”

Micro Chips jumped to his feet. “Take me with you! I know I may not be of much help, and what little magic I can use pales in comparison to yours, but I promise that I’ll help out however I can.”

A smile grazed Twilight’s face. She had to admit, it would be nice having some company on her journey, even if he was a magic nerd like Micro Chips. Besides, she was a magic nerd herself. “You may come with me if you want. Although I wish you would ask for another reward for freeing me.”

Micro Chips rubbed the back of his head bashfully. “Yeah, well, I doubt even you could grant me what I truly wish for.”

Twilight sighed, knowing right away what his secret desire was. “No, I can’t grant you actual magic. Whatever magic you do end up using will be whatever you manage to store up in that device of yours.”

Sighing, Micro Chips gave a shrug of his shoulders. “That’s alright. I’ll make do. But maybe you could help teach me how to control magic a little better so I don’t screw up again like I did back there.”

That reminded Twilight about what she had learned while she was imprisoned. “While we were speaking, Cinch spoke of selling me to somepony called Lord Tirek. She said that he wanted me badly, and that he was the one I was looking for as well. What do you know about Lord Tirek?”

Micro Chips blinked, clearly not expecting the question. “Oh, well, um, just rumors really. I heard that he rules over a worn down kingdom that he himself drove to ruin after he took it from his brother, Scorpan. It’s said that he sucked all the life and magic out of it until it became a barren wasteland where both food and water are scarce and the people are poor, but have nowhere to go. There are some variations of the story, but it’s all basically the same.”

Twilight considered this. It wasn’t much to go on, but it sounded as if this Lord Tirek was a magic user himself, or maybe a consumer of magic. There weren’t many creatures like that, but there were some, and they could be dangerous if they consumed too much magic. The most likely case was that he was a centaur. They were know for devouring magic, and were fully capable of draining life from the land.

“And what about King Sombra?” she asked. “I heard from a dragon that he was the one responsible for the other alicorns’ disappearance. Have you heard any stories about him?”

Micro Chips let out a sigh. “Oh, geez, even more than of Tirek, but also even more vague. He’s been mentioned in some of the stories I’ve read about magic. Some say he’s a ghost, some say he’s an incarnation of evil, some say he was once an ordinary unicorn that was taken over by dark magic. There’s really no telling what’s real and what’s made up.”

He hesitated, as if he were thinking about something. “But there have been whispers that Sombra has returned. What more, I have heard Lord Tirek’s name brought up in these rumors. So if Sombra is the one responsible for the alicorn’s disappearance, and Tirek wants the alicorns for something, then it’s possible that they’re both responsible.”

“Hmm,” Twilight muttered thoughtfully. This was much more information than she had expected him to know. “And what about the Crystal Heart? Wasn’t it supposed to keep Sombra from returning? Have you heard anything about it?”

“Just more stories. Some say that Tirek destroyed it, enabling Sombra to return. Some say he merely deactivated it and hide it away in his castle. Others say that he summoned Sombra from the ether, and uses the Crystal Heart to control him and force him to do his bidding. I can’t tell you what’s the truth, but the stories do indicate that the two of them are in league with each other in some way.”

A shiver went down Twilight’s spine. It was beginning to sound like the stories of Sombra might be true after all. It really surprised her that the old Equestrian legends had reached this far, but if they had, then maybe Sombra really was real and actually had returned. What was worse, it seemed as if he was working with this Lord Tirek person. If this was true, then it would mean that she had not one, but two enemies she had to face.

But face them she must. She had to do whatever it took to save Celestia, Luna, and Cadance and return harmony to the world. And, if she were perfectly honest with herself, she was actually beginning to feel a little afraid. But at least now she would have a friend by her side on her journey.

Chapter 4: A Diamond Disaster

Chapter 4: A Diamond Disaster

Twilight had to admit, it was much nicer traveling with a friend by her side. It made her miss her friends back home in Equestria, and she, not for the first time, began to wish that she had asked them to come along with her after all. She shook off the thought though, knowing that her friends were doing what they could for the ponies of Equestria.

As far as company went, Micro Chips wasn’t too bad. He was funny at times, and very inquisitive. Twilight attempted to teach him how to control the magic he had, but was very cautious, not knowing how a human wielding magic could result in if they weren’t careful.

“Do you think you could supply me with more if I run out?” he asked one day, or night as it still was. “You produce your own magic, but I have to fill this device up in order to use it.”

Twilight gave him an apologetic smile. “I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. Alicorn magic is very powerful. Having too much magic can actually corrupt you if you don’t know how to fully control it. Maybe when you learn how to use it properly, I’ll fill your device up a little more.”

Micro Chips sighed. “I suppose that makes sense. Well, thanks anyway, princess.”

She chuckled. “Come on, Micro Chips, were friends. I told you to call me Twilight.”

“Oh, right. Sorry, prin… I mean, Twilight.”

For the most part, their time together was uneventful as they continued their journey to Tirek’s kingdom. Whenever they settled down to sleep, Twilight always closed her eyes and hoped that when she opened them again that the sun’s morning light would be shining down on her. Unfortunately, that never happened. Nor did she ever hear Luna answer her when she called out to her in her dreams. There really was no doubt that the princesses were gone, but Twilight still held out hope that they were still alive.

Finally, Micro Chips announced that they had entered Tirek’s domain. Twilight should have realized that for herself, for she noticed a big difference in the land upon entering it. It seemed that the stories were true; Tirek’s kingdom was devoid of life and magic. It was a dead desolate place, and it made her wonder how anycreature could live under such conditions. But at least they were close to getting some answers. That was some good news.

But the good news soon gave way to bad as the sound of approaching obnoxious laughter was heard. Twilight was not overly worried about this, but Micro Chips seemed to think otherwise.

“You better hide before you’re seen,” he told her.

Twilight cocked her head to the side. “Why? Who are they?”

“Who knows, but they could be working for Lord Tirek. If they see you, there’s no telling what they will do to you. I’ll see what I can find out from them, I doubt they’ll hurt a nobody like me.”

The sound of the laughter was getting closer, and voices could now be heard as well. Twilight glanced at Micro Chips in concern before deciding that he knew what was best and teleported away.

Micro Chips was left alone on the road, and he turned to face whoever was coming. But, much to his surprise, it wasn’t humans that came wandering down the road, but a trio of diamond dogs. Gray and brown in color, they resembled a cross between humans and dogs, and were rather unpleasant to look at. And while not all that intelligent, they were known to be brutes.

“Well, well, well,” said the head diamond dog, “look at what we have here. And what would a lone human be doing here? Looking to steal from our diamonds.”

Micro Chips wasn’t surprised that the diamond dog’s immediate thought was that he was after their diamonds. As their name suggested, diamond dogs had a very one-track mind. So much for getting any answers about Tirek from them.

Holding up his hands, he gave them a reassuring grin. “Not at all. I’m merely a magic scholar here doing some magic, uh… scholaring.”

“Is that so?” the head diamond dog said, moving close enough so Micro Chips could smell his foul breath. “Well, lets just take him to Iron Will and see what he thinks.”

“Yeah,” the smallest of the trio agreed. “If anyone can get to the truth, it’s the boss.”

Before Micro Chips could protest, he was seized by the largest of the three and thrown over his shoulder. The three diamond dogs then took off with Micro Chips as Twilight came out from her hiding place and followed after them at a distance.

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The diamond dogs’ camp wasn’t much to look at. It seemed to consist of a band of travelers, mostly consisting of diamond dogs, but there were a few humans as well, and even a couple Equestrian ponies.

The apparent leader of them all was a large, dark blue colored minotaur, who was currently speaking to a group of diamond dog pups. Talking in the third person, he came across as an overbearing spokes person as he flexed his large muscles for them.

“When somecreature tries to block, show them that you rock!” he bellowed loudly. “Iron Will doesn’t let anycreature push him around, and neither should you. How else are you to protect your herd from thieves. Especially dragons. They would just love to get their hands on your diamond stash and gobble them all up.”

The little diamond dogs yipped in protest, and Iron Will grinned, looking rather pleased with himself. His attention was soon diverted from them as the trio of diamond dogs arrived with Micro Chips, pounding futilely at the back of the one who held him.

“Put me down, you beasts!” he yelled, trying to sound braver than he felt. “Or else I shall unleash my magic upon you!”

The head diamond dog turned to him. “Don’t make us laugh. We all know that humans don’t possess any magic abilities.”

Getting up from his spot, Iron Will approached them. “Ah, Rover, Fido, Spot, what have the three of you found this time.”

The larger diamond dog, Fido, placed Micro Chips on the ground. “A thief come to steal our gems.”

“But we caught him before he could,” said Spot, the smallest of the three.

Dusting himself off, Micro Chips put some distance between himself and the three of them as he approached Iron Will. “I am no thief. I tried to tell them that I’m a scholar of magic, but they wouldn’t listen.”

The minotaur let out a sigh. “Iron Will apologizes on behalf of his men. Unfortunately, they are more brawn than brains. As an apology, please join Iron Will as his guest for dinner.”

At the mention of food, Micro Chips’ stomach began to growl. “Oh, well, that sounds great actually. I am quite hungry.”

“But of course you are,” Iron Will replied. Turning around, he cupped his hands over his mouth. “Hey, Sunset Shimmer, hurry up and get dinner started!”

One of the humans, a girl around Micro Chips’ age with amber colored skin and streak of yellow in her bright red air came marching over. Her turquoise eyes narrowed in irritation as she placed her hands on her hips and threw the minotaur a dirty look.

“I told you,” she snapped impatiently, “I’m not your servant girl. I’m not even a member of you band of misfits. We just happen to be traveling in the same direction and are camping together for mutual benefit.”

Iron Will just snorted, looking bored. “You should consider staying with Iron Will and his men. You would be much better off than continuing your traveling artist career as Flanker, or whatever your street artist name is.”

“It’s Flanksy!” Sunset snapped. “And for your information, I’m actually getting quite popular. My art is gaining more and more recognition and appreciation.”

Micro Chips’ eyes widened in surprise. “Wait, you mean you’re Flanksy? I’ve heard of you, and I have a great appreciation for you work.”

Sunset smirked at Iron Will. “See, he knows. Be happy to give you an autograph if you want.”

Micro Chips nodded enthusiastically. “Oh, that would be great. I can’t wait to tell everyone that I met thee Flanksy. Sunset Shimmer’s your real name?”

She gave him a nod. “Having an alias really helps keep the fans off my back.”

Iron Will just grumbled. “Artists and magic scholars wannabes. This is the company Iron Will is forced to put up with.”

Feeling that he was no longer in any danger, Micro Chips pointed at the minotaur. “Ah, but I am no magic scholar wannabe. I have studied magic for most of my life. In fact, I have even begun learning how to use it.”

Rover, the head diamond dog, scoffed at this. “The human is delusional. He was blabbing about using magic when we found him earlier too.”

“Yes,” Iron Will agreed. “Quite delusional. Everycreature knows that humans cannot use magic.”

Holding out his hands, as if putting on a performance, Micro Chips announced to the entire camp, “Ah, but I can. You are looking at the only human who has learned how to use magic.”

Rover walked right up to him. “Prove it.”

Waving away the diamond dog’s foul breath, Micro Chips pulled out his magic storing device with a confidence he hadn’t felt before. “Alright then, I will. You dogs like diamonds, right. Then I shall perform a gem summoning spell. Behold!”

He opened the device, and magic flowed out. The camp occupants’ full attention was on him as the magic swirled around him, wondering if he could actually pull off what he claimed he could.

Micro Chips allowed the magic to swirl around before fully unleashing it. The magic flowed outward in a burst of colors, and then… was gone. Micro Chips was left standing in the middle of a crowd with his hands in the air as if he had just performed an amazing feat, with absolutely nothing to show for it.

The snickering began from the diamond dogs, and began to spread to the rest of the camp, leaving Micro Chips feeling rather embarrassed. The only one not laughing was Sunset, who had a cringy look on her face as she very obviously pitied him.

“Iron Will is unimpressed,” the minotaur told him. “Now, if you are done fooling around, perhaps we could-”

He was cut off as something bounced off his head. Looking down, he saw that it was a gem, and a rather big one two. Reaching down, he picked it and studied it. Rover walked over as well, giving the gem a curious look. “Where did that come from?”

Sunset pointed. “Look. Over there, look.”

The others turned to where she was pointing, and saw a large gathering of gems floating through the air over to them. They all glowed with the magic Micro Chips had unleashed as they floated past the camp and deeper into the forest. Everyone stared, completely flabbergasted as Micro Chips rejoiced in his success.

“He did it,” said Spot in disbelief. “He actually did it.”

“Impossible,” Iron Will insisted. “Humans can’t use magic. How is this possible?”

“Who cares,” Fido told him. “Lets get those gems before get away.”

He along with nearly everyone in the camp hurried after the gems as they floated away. The only ones to remain were Sunset, Iron Will, Rover, and Micro Chips. Sunset glanced at him with a smirk on her face.

“Ok, I’m impressed,” she told him. “A human who can use magic. Now I’ve seen everything.”

With that, she walked off to elsewhere in the camp. The compliment went to Micro Chips’ head, increasing his good mood all the more. It was short lived however as he was picked up by Rover.

“That was a clever trick, human,” the diamond dog told him.

“Indeed,” Iron Will agreed. “A human who can use magic to summon gems. Lets put that talent to some real use.”

Micro Chips didn’t know what that meant, but had a feeling that he would soon find out as he was carried along, and soon they came to a cave. Micro Chips could see several gems embedded in the cave walls and floor, and suddenly had a feeling as to why they brought him here.

Rover clamped a metal cuff attached to a chain around Micro Chips ankle, then wrapped the chain around an enormous boulder and locked it with a lock. “That ought to hold you, magic man. We’ll be back for you in the morning.”

“Yes,” said Iron Will. “Until then, use your magic to bring forth more gems from the cave. It will save us a lot of digging and searching. When we come back tomorrow, Iron Will expects to see a large pile of gems here for us. That is the cost of our hospitality.”

“Bye, bye, magic man,” Rover mocked as he and Iron Will walked off, leaving Micro Chips chained beside the cave.

He glared after them, but despite the situation, he couldn’t help but feel deeply satisfied. He had proven himself with his use of magic. His lessons with Twilight had been worth it. He now had much better control of the magic he had. And while he didn’t like that he was going to have to waste what he had stored up on forced manual labor, he set to work on summoning forth more gems from inside the cave.

It wasn’t long before he had a large pile of precious stones in front of him. It towered over his head, even when he was standing up straight. This would surely satisfy Iron Will and Rover enough for them to let him go come morning.

But then something happened that he didn’t expect. He heard movement in the forest as something approached. At first he thought it was Twilight coming to find him, but, much to his disappointment, a big green blob of slime came sliding out of the forest.

“Wait,” he muttered as he stared at the slime, “is that… a smooze?”

The blob of living slime barely glanced at him, and instead turned its attention to the large pile of gems. A tongue crept out of the hole that seemed to be a mouth of the slime and licked what served as lips. Then a slimy tentacle reached out and scooped up a bunch of gems. It shoved them into its mouth, and swallowed them whole.

“It eats gems,” Micro Chips muttered. “I thought only dragons ate gems.”

The smooze continued to ignore him as it continued eating the pile of gems. Then, suddenly, it began to grow at an alarming rate. The more gems it consumed, the bigger it grew. It was already several dozen times its original size, and Micro Chips suddenly found himself a rather perilous predicament. Chained up as he was, he couldn’t get away from the smooze, and as it continued to grow, its slimy body began to flow over him. If it continued to grow like this, then he would drown in its slime!

“Hey, smooze, stop!” he shouted as the slime reached his chest, and it hadn’t even finished half of the pile yet. “Hey, come on, I’m going to drown!”

The smooze ignored him as it continued to eat. Micro Chips realized that it wasn’t going to stop. Grabbing at his device, he sent a blast of magic at it. But, much to his horror, his magic had no affect on it. The smooze didn’t even spare him a glance as it continued to eat.

“The magic isn’t working,” Micro Chips said as he began to panic. The slime had now reached up to neck. “HELP, TWILIGHT!!! WHERE ARE YOU?!?”

A few seconds later, there was a flash of light as the alicorn appeared. She quickly assessed the situation, taking note of Micro Chips’ predicament. Her horn glowed with magic, and all the gems floated up into the air. A few seconds later, all the gems the smooze had consumed came popping out of its body, and the smooze began to shrink.

When the last gem left the smooze’s body, it reverted back to its original size. Twilight then sent a beam of magic at the cuff around Micro Chips’ ankle, and it opened, setting him free. He quickly scurried away from the smooze, and Twilight let the gems fall from the sky. The smooze gave the two of them a curious glance before it went right back to gobbling up the gems once again.

Micro Chips didn’t care about the gems, and apparently neither did Twilight as she turned away from them and began walking away. “Are you ok?”

Micro Chips nodded. “Yeah, thanks for that. I thought I was a goner.”

“Smoozes are relatively harmless, but they can be a little bothersome when they get too big like that.”

An embarrassed chuckle escaped Micro Chips. “Yeah, I noticed. Seems like my use of magic keeps getting me into trouble. Speaking of which, did you see what I did earlier? I cast a spell to summon gems, and a whole bunch came to me. That’s why they chained me up over there, they wanted me to gather more for them.”

Twilight smiled proudly at him as she fluttered in the air overhead. “Congratulations. It seems you’re getting the hang of using magic. But why didn’t you just cast a spell to free yourself after they chained you up?”

Micro Chips blinked, and an embarrassed blush stained his cheeks when he realized that he should have done that instead of wasting his magic in gathering more gems for his captors. “Oh, yeah, I guess that would have been the smart thing to do. Guess I had a little lapse in judgment.”

“Leaving so soon, magic man?” a familiar voice asked.

Micro Chips turned in surprise to see Sunset Shimmer leaning against a tree. She was by herself, much to Micro Chips relief, with no sign of Iron Will, Rover, or anyone else from the camp. Had she maybe been coming to free him?

The smirk on Sunset’s face quickly vanished to become a look of wonder as Twilight came down and landed beside Micro Chips. Her eyes grew as wide as saucers as she stared at alicorn in amazement.

“I don’t believe it,” she said in awe. “Is that really…? Are you really…?”

Twilight seemed to decide that the girl was no threat, and gave her a smile. “I’m Twilight Sparkle. It’s nice to meet you, miss.”

Sunset was still staring at Twilight in disbelief, but upon being addressed, she shook her head. “I’m Sunset Shimmer. It’s such an honor to meet you, princess. I’ve got to tell you. It’s always been a dream of mine to meet an alicorn one day.”

In response, Twilight spread her wings, very obviously showing them off. “Then today’s your lucky day. Is it everything you’ve hoped for?”

Sunset nodded. “Everything and more. Are the other alicorns like you? Do you know Princess Celestia? What am I saying, of course you do. I’ve admired her ever since I’ve heard the stories of her greatness.”

A chuckle escaped Twilight. “I know exactly what you mean.”

Micro Chips looked back and forth between Twilight and Sunset. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say that the two of them had just become best friends. But then what Sunset had said about Celestia registered to him and he turned to her. “Wait, do you know about Celestia?”

Sunset scoffed at that. “Probably more than any other human in the world. I loved the stories of her deeds as a little girl, and tried to learn as much as I could about her and the other alicorns. I know all about Princess Celestia, Luna, and Mi Amore Cadenza.” She looked back at Twilight with shining eyes. “There were rumors that there was a fourth, but I heard next to nothing about her.”

Twilight chuckled. “I’m still relatively new. I’ve only been an alicorn for a few years, so it’s no surprise that I haven’t been heard of yet outside of Equestria.”

This didn’t seem to deter Sunset in the least. “New, old, it doesn’t matter to me. It’s still an honor.”

Micro Chips began to feel a little put out at how Twilight and Sunset seemed to become instant friends while he’d had to earn Twilight’s friendship, and a twinge of jealousy ran through him. He tried to push the feeling aside though as he reminded himself that Twilight was the Princess of Friendship and that it was only natural for her to make friends wherever she went.

Clearing his throat, he puffed out his chest and held his head up high. “Well, now that you’ve realized your dream of meeting an alicorn, you can go back to being a traveling artist again. As for us, we have a mission to accomplish.”

Much to his surprise, Sunset simply smiled. “Great, let’s go.”

Micro Chips did a double-take, not sure if he heard right. “Wait, what?”

“I said let’s go. I’m going to help you out with whatever you’re doing.”

That had not been the response Micro Chips had been expected. “But you don’t even know where we’re going.”

Sunset just shrugged. “Do you think I care? As you said, I’m a traveling artist, I can go wherever I want.”

“No way!” Micro Chips snapped, not liking the idea of having to share Twilight’s attention with someone else. “I forbid it! Do not force me to use my magic on you!”

Sunset laughed at that. “As if your magic could compare to an alicorn’s.” She gave Twilight a smile. “Why are you traveling around with this guy anyway?”

Before Twilight could answer, Micro Chips spoke up. “For your information, we’re on a quest to Lord Tirek’s castle to find out what happened to the other alicorns. Now, if you’ll excuse us.”

With his chin raised, he waltzed by Sunset, not even sparing her a glance. The red and yellow haired girl just rolled her eyes as she began heading in the opposite direction, motioning for Twilight to follow her. “Well, I wish you luck getting there, because you’re going the wrong way.”

Micro Chips froze. He looked all around him and suddenly realized that he actually had no idea which way to go and that he had simply been heading in some random direction.

Trying to maintain whatever dignity he still had, he turned around and hurried after Sunset and Twilight, quickly passing them so that he was in the lead.

Sunset chuckled. “I’m sorry, but you were going the wrong way.”

“Well…” Micro Chips muttered, not even looking back, “it was a shortcut.”

Sunset and Twilight just laughed as Micro Chips tried to will away his blush of embarrassment.

Chapter 5: King Sombra

Chapter 5: King Sombra

Traveling with Micro Chips was fun, but Twilight secretly admitted that Sunset was much better company. She felt an immediate kinship to the girl, and they became friends very quickly.

Micro Chips was a little cold to Sunset at first, but began to warm up to her as they traveled together, and soon they formed a friendship as well. Twilight was glad of it. As the Princess of Friendship, she was always happy to see others become friends.

As the days, for lack of a better word, passed by, Tirek’s castle soon came into view. It was nothing like the castles her fellow alicorns had, but looked more like an old worn out structure that had been carved out of a mountain rather than actually built. In fact, it looked like it might fall apart at any moment. Were her fellow alicorns really in a place like that?

She would find out soon enough. Judging from the distance, they would reach their destination in another day or two. Twilight knew that she could get there much faster if she flew, but she didn’t want to leave her new friends behind.

Seeing as they had been walking for hours, they decided to settle in and get some sleep before continuing for what they hoped would be the final leg of their journey. Both Sunset and Micro Chips sat down beneath a tree while Twilight found a patch of grass to lie down on. It was dry and scratchy, dead like all the rest of the plant life. This kingdom really was a barren wasteland.

They’d had passed by a few villages as they made their way through Tirek’s kingdom, and the creatures and people didn’t look too well off. Twilight wondered how they managed to survive, but, sadly, didn’t have time to help them. Maybe after she found the other alicorns they could use their magic to help.

“I’ve heard some stories about Tirek and Sombra,” Sunset had told her when Tirek’s castle had first come into sight. “Supposedly, Sombra stays in a cavern beneath Tirek’s castle. There’s supposed to be only one way in, and only Tirek knows about it.”

“Guess we’ll find out when we get there,” Micro Chips commented.

That time couldn’t come soon enough. Twilight’s nerves were getting the best of her, and she found herself unable to sleep. She tossed and turned for what felt like hours before letting out a frustrated sigh and opening her eyes.

She glanced at the castle, and a frown crossed her face. Something odd was going on with it. It looked as if the castle were consumed in darkness, a darkness deeper than the night itself. She lifted her head as she stared at it in confusion, wondering what it was she was seeing.

But as she watched, the darkness rose up from the castle and filled the sky, blocking out the moon and the stars. The darkness moved about as if it were alive, and seemed to be heading straight for her. There was something uncomfortably eerie about it. These were no ordinary shadows, and Twilight sensed something dark and sinister about them.

It seemed that even her human friends could feel that something was off as they stirred from their sleep. And as the darkness approached, what seemed to be a horn sounded off in the distance. It drew Sunset’s attention, and she sat up and rubbed her eyes, turning in the direction of the shadows. Upon seeing them, however, she was instantly wide-awake.

“Micro Chips, the shadows!” she shouted.

As Micro Chips sat up and began looking around, the shadows dropped down from the sky and hit the ground near Twilight. She was instantly on her feet as the shadows covered the area like black flames, consuming everything. It certainly wasn’t fire though, as the temperature had suddenly dropped to degrees cold enough to freeze water. Fear unlike anything she had ever felt before filled her as a wave of darkness rose up in front of her.

Inside the darkness, a pair of blood red irises within glowing green eyes with slit pupils opened and stared at her with malicious intent. Strands of purple magic flowed from these eyes like fire to get lost in the shadows, and beneath them, an evil grin became visible within the darkness. The mouth opened, revealing sharp incisors as a terrifyingly evil laugh that sent shivers up Twilight’s spine escaped it.

“King Sombra!” Micro Chips exclaimed in fear upon seeing the face in the darkness.

Sombra emerged from the darkness and became solid. Standing before Twilight was a large unicorn over twice her size, dark gray in color and clad in armor with a blood red cape. He had a mane and tail blacker than the night itself that moved about as if caught in a non-existent breeze, and a curved horn on the top of his head that glowed red.

Sombra let out an intimidating breath as he leaned in close Twilight, and he chuckled at her, his eyes shining hungrily as if she were prey cornered by a fearsome predator. His tongue snaked out and licked his lips as if he were looking at a tasty treat.

Terror unlike anything Twilight had thought she could possibly feel filled her, and she turned and fled from the evil unicorn. Sombra became shadow once more, with only his face retaining its shape, as he sped after her. Twilight continued to run, too afraid to look back, but the places she could go were limited with all the shadows covering the land. She could hear Sombra laughing behind her, getting closer, and she charged ahead even faster, all thoughts of her friends and the alicorns forgotten in light of her terror.

A dark mass flew over her and came down in front of her, reshaping itself into Sombra. Twilight skidded to a halt, and turn to run in the opposite direction, but the shadows moved again, and Sombra was in front of her once more, moving about almost like a flying snake.

And then Sombra spoke for the first time in the most evil and menacing voice Twilight had ever heard. “Where are you going, my little pony? Not leaving so soon, are you?”

Twilight was shaking from head to hoof. She was in complete flight mode, wanting nothing more than to get away from the living shadow that was Sombra. She used a teleportation spell and vanished. She reappeared a distance away, but was still surrounded by shadows. A tidal wave of blackness rose up, and Sombra’s face appeared within it in front of her and began moving closer to her.

She teleported again, but couldn’t get away from the shadows. They were all around, stretching for as far as the eye could see, and her teleportation had a limited distance. What more, she couldn’t even see where she was or where she was going with all this living darkness around, and it seemed that Sombra could appear anywhere within it at will, as it seemed to be a part of him.

Realizing that teleporting was getting her nowhere, she fled again. This time, Sombra did not chase her, but instead fired a beam of dark magic from his horn. It struck the ground in from of Twilight, and a large black crystal burst from the ground, cutting her off. She ran in a different direction, only to be cut off by another beam of magic and a new black crystal. And so it process was repeated with Sombra repeatedly cutting her off with blasts of magic and the black crystals that it grew.

Soon Twilight was completely surrounded by black crystals, with the only clear path leading towards Sombra. The evil unicorn manifested from the shadows again and began to stalk towards her. Twilight panicked and spread her wings, taking to the air. If she couldn’t get away on foot or by teleporting, then she would simply fly away.

The shadows rose up after her, and she was soon cut off from above. Sombra’s sneering face appeared in the darkness above her, and she quickly sped away. The shadows followed, not letting her get out from under them, and she realized that she wouldn’t be able to get away by flying. She came to a stop and simply hovered in the air, looking around for a way out.

Sombra’s face suddenly popped out of the darkness in front of her, and Twilight pulled back and went tumbling down from the sky. She hit the ground and the shadows lowered once more. Sombra emerged from them, laughing at the helpless alicorn before him. Twilight got to her feet and backed away from him as he approached. The shadows parted behind her, giving her only one direction she could go in, directly towards Tirek’s castle.

Micro Chips and Sunset looked on helplessly as Sombra overwhelmed Twilight, directing her towards the castle. He hadn’t so much as spared them a glance, his whole attention focused on the alicorn.

“He’s driving her,” Micro Chips realized. “If he wanted to kill her, he would have done it already. He’s trying to lead her to Tirek like he did with the others.”

While it may have been their mission to go to Tirek’s castle and find out what happened with the other alicorns, Sunset knew that getting there Sombra’s way would not end well. Whatever happened to the other alicorns would happen to her as well.

“Well, we have to help her,” she insisted, and glanced at Micro Chips. “Can’t you do something?”

He threw his hands up in the air helplessly. “Like what? Do you think Sombra likes lectures on the history of magic? I don’t even think he realizes we’re here. We’re so insignificant to him that he hasn’t even noticed us.”

Sombra moved closer to Twilight, and she back away further. She looked around for a way out, any way other than the direction Sombra wanted her to go, but saw none. The evil unicorn chuckled at her desperation as he closed the distance between them.

Heart pounding, Twilight did the only thing she could think of. She sent a blast of magic at the evil unicorn. Sombra dodged the blast, moving in a serpentine-like way that only a shapeless shadow could to avoid the beam. Then he sent his own blast of magic at her. Twilight tried to counter, and the burst of magic threw her back.

Sombra chuckled at her futile attempt to attack him and manifested in the flesh once more as he moved in closer. Feeling dazed, Twilight got to her feet and turned back to Sombra as he approached. She tried to shoot more magic at him, but nothing happened. Her eyes moved up to her horn, and she saw that fragments of black crystal were attached to it. These crystals seemed to be blocking her magic, as only a few static sparks escaped her horn when she tried to cast a spell.

Sombra’s sinister laughter echoed around her, and he suddenly rose high into the air as a tower of black crystal burst up from the ground beneath him. Twilight leapt back in surprise as Sombra towered over her. Was this what the other alicorns had faced when Sombra had come for them? No wonder they had been taken.

Baring his fangs, Sombra hissed at her, and Twilight cringed. Slowly, she rose to her hooves and hung her head in defeat. Sombra sneered, and the shadows directed her to follow his path towards Tirek’s castle. Feeling helpless, Twilight began slowly making her way in the direction he wanted her to go in. Sombra hopped down from the crystal tower he was standing on and began to follow behind her.

“He’s taking her!” Sunset exclaimed. She turned to Micro Chips and grabbed his arm, shaking him hard. “Can’t you use your magic to help her?”

He gave her a bewildered look. “How? You think my magic will work on Sombra when hers won’t? The only thing that can stop Sombra is the Crystal Heart.”

Sunset glared at him. “Well, we have to do something! Anything! Just open your fancy device thing and use whatever magic you have!”

“To do what?”

“I don’t know, but we can’t just let him take her! Please!”

Micro Chips bit his bottom lip nervously and looked over at Twilight as Sombra moved her along. Taking a deep breath, he rushed over to them, getting as close as he dared. Twilight saw him in her peripheral vision, and turned to him with sad eyes and a defeated look on her face.

“Run!” Micro Chips shouted to her as he pulled out his magic device. “Get out of there!”

“Move!” Sombra commanded her, and stomped his foot, causing the ground to shake.

His bellow seemed to startle a reaction out of Twilight, and she teleported away. It was a pointless attempt, as she reappeared a short distance later, and Sombra immediately emerged from the shadows surrounding her, once again displaying his ability to seemingly move anywhere within the shadows instantly.

Twilight took off running again, and Sombra sped after her. Micro Chips watched her flee and opened his magic device, letting out far more magic than he had ever dared to before. “Please, magic, help us!”

There was a great flash of light as the magic exploded outward, blinding them all. Even Sombra shut his eyes as the land was lit up. He hissed angrily and cracked his eyes open when the light died down. They widened in surprise when he saw no sign of the alicorn anywhere.

Micro Chips shut the device as he blinked the spots out of his eyes. Sunset quickly rushed over to his side to see what had happened, and her mouth dropped open in shock and disbelief. Slowly, she turned to Micro Chips and spoke in barely a whisper. “What have you done?”

Both she and Micro Chips rushed to Twilight’s side as Sombra looked around for his prey, but all traces of the alicorn had vanished. All he saw were three insignificant humans, and a frustrated snarl escaped him.

“You can’t hide from me, princess!” he shouted to the night as he dissolved into shadows once more. “I’ll find you!”

The darkness lifted, rising up into the sky and disappearing into the night as Sombra went in search of his quarry. The others watched him go, but Sunset didn’t feel the least bit reassured as she lifted the unconscious Twilight so her head rested in her lap.

Reaching out, she brushed the shards of back crystals from Twilight’s forehead, which now clearly lacked a horn, before turning to Micro Chips and once again demanded, “What have you done?”

She looked back down at Twilight, but the alicorn princess was gone. In her place was a human girl. Same lavender skin, hair the same dark sapphire blue with strips of violet and magenta as her mane, but she was most definitely a human. At least the magic had been courteous enough to manifest clothes for her as well.

But while Sunset seemed quite alarmed about Twilight’s new form, Micro Chips looked quite pleased with himself. “What do you mean, what have I done? I saved her from Sombra with magic. With magic! I’ve never used that much magic before. I didn’t know what would happen. But it worked. It worked!”

“I didn’t mean for you to turn her into a human!” Sunset snapped.

Micro Chips held up his hands. “Whoa, hey, I didn’t do that. The magic did. All I did was ask the magic to help us. The magic chose to make her human, not me. And look, it worked. It saved her from Sombra.”

He looked positively giddy. “This is amazing. There have been studies to show that magic is semi-sentient. This is proof that it can be. I’ll be famous for this discover.”

“You’re an idiot!” Sunset shouted at him furiously. “Don’t you realize what you’ve done? You’ve trapped her in a human body! She’ll go mad!”

Sunset’s screaming seemed to stir Twilight from unconsciousness. Her eyes slowly cracked open, showing off the same purple orbs she had as an alicorn. She began to sit up, getting onto her hands and knees. She very quickly realized that something was wrong, and her eyes drifted down to her hands.

She froze in place for several long seconds, then slowly raised her hands. She studied them for a few seconds longer before a scream erupted from her mouth and echoed through the night, forcing both Sunset and Micro Chips to cover their ears.

A full-on panic attack seemed to overtake Twilight as she began waving her hands around frantically, as if she could make them go away by swinging them around. Then she seemed to realize that those hands were attached to arms, and she traced them until they reached her body.

Her eyes widened in terror as she ran her hands down her body. They reached her legs, and she lifted one to examine it. Then her hands went to her face, feeling its contours, before moving up to her forehead to feel the lack of the horn there.

What happened to her seemed to finally sink in, and she began to hyperventilate. Sunset carefully placed a hand on her shoulder, and Twilight turned to her. Her eyes shifted to Micro Chips as she realized that this must have been his doing. “What have you done to me?”

“Twilight,” Sunset said sadly, “I’m so sorry.”

Twilight didn’t seem her hear her, as her whole attention was on Micro Chips. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!? This isn’t me! I’m an alicorn! I’m an alicorn!”

She began to hyperventilate again, and Sunset grasped her shoulders. “Twilight, calm down. It’s ok, we’ll figure this out.”

“Yes,” Micro Chips insisted. “It’ll be fine. This was meant to happen. I’m sure the magic knows what it’s doing. And look, this way we’ll be able to go right up to Tirek’s castle, and neither he nor Sombra will know who you really are.”

Twilight didn’t seem to be paying attention. Holding onto Sunset for support, she slowly got to her feet. Her legs wobbled unsteadily as she tried to get her balance, and she took first one step forward, then another. When she went to take a third step however, she lost her balance and collapsed.

Sunset gave Micro Chips a concerned look, and he shifted uncomfortably before assuring her, “I can change her back. Don’t worry, I can change her back.”

Twilight looked back at him, only now there was anger in her eyes. “I wish you’d left me to Sombra! I wish you’d left me in that cage!” She held up her hands, unable to stop them from trembling. “It’s been years since I’ve been mortal. I can actually feel myself aging. It’s like I can feel my body dying!”

“But it’s only for a little while,” Micro Chips told her reassuringly. “Soon you’ll have your real form back forever.”

Sunset grabbed his arm to get his attention. “Why not now? You can’t just leave her like this!”

He shook her off. “Why not? Just think of what an advantage this will give us. We can go completely undercover and find out what happens to the other alicorns.” He gave Twilight a pointed look. “Unless you think you can defeat Sombra the next time you see him.”

He and Twilight stared at each other for several long moments. Slowly, the anger left her eyes to be replaced with reluctant acceptance, and she shook her head resignation as tears began to fall down her cheeks.

“No, I can’t,” she whispered in dismay. “But I’ve never been without magic before. I’ve never not been myself before. It’s completely different from my own transformation spells. And this feeling of mortality once again. It’s all too much. It scares me. Even more than Sombra does. It scares me.”

Chapter 6: Lord Tirek

Chapter 6: Lord Tirek

No one went to Tirek’s castle willing, not unless they absolutely had to, so visitors were few and far between. This was why it was such a surprise to the head of the royal guard to see three travelers making their way towards the castle.

Clad head to foot in gold armor, the head of the royal guard watched as they approached. His attention zeroed in on the lavender-skinned girl with interest. She and her traveling companions were too far away to make out all that much about them, but he couldn’t help but notice how her body language was strange, as if she was’t used to moving around in such a way.

“What has caught your attention?” a deep voice spoke.

The royal guard glanced over his shoulder as a large cloaked figure joined him up on the tower, and he motioned towards the three travelers. “It appears we have visitors. A man and two women. There’s something strange about the purple one though. There’s a kind of… newness about her. I’m not sure how to explain it.”

The cloaked figure looked down as Micro Chips, Sunset, and Twilight approached. “Yes, I see. It has been so long since we’ve had visitors. Let’s go give them a proper greeting.”

The royal guard nodded and followed the cloaked person through the castle and to the front entrance. They arrived at the same time the three humans reached the doors. Pulling out his sword, the royal guard pointed it at the three travelers as the cloaked figure spoke to them.

“Who goes there,” he asked in an almost uncaring tone. “State your business here.”

Micro Chips and Sunset glanced at each other as Twilight hung back. Putting on a brave face, Micro Chips stepped forward while Sunset stayed beside Twilight and addressed the two blocking their path. “Um, yes, hello. Greetings. We’re, um, travelers, and we’ve come to see the great and mighty Lord Tirek.”

The cloaked figure cocked his head to the side. “State your business with Lord Tirek.”

Clearing his throat, Micro Chips puffed out his chest. “Very well, but we’ll do it to Lord Tirek himself.”

The cloaked figure considered him for a few moments. When the royal guard glanced at him in question, the cloaked figure gave him a nod and motioned for Micro Chips, Sunset, and Twilight to follow. The royal guard sheathed his sword and moved aside to allow them to follow the cloaked figure, and he followed after them.

No one spoke as they made their way through the castle. Micro Chips and Sunset looked around, looking for any sign that the alicorns were here, but finding nothing. Twilight clung to Sunset, clearly uncomfortable with the situation she was in.

As they made their way up the stairs, the whole castle suddenly shook, and a familiar monstrous bellow echoed through the halls. Twilight let out a fearful squeak and held onto Sunset even tighter, nearly losing her balance on her still new human legs.

“It’s alright,” the royal guard told her reassuringly. “You don’t need to be afraid. That was just Sombra. He won’t bother you though.”

Twilight glanced back at him uncertainly before facing forward again as they continued on their way through the castle. Eventually, they came to a room that was as dark and dreary as the rest of the castle, and at the end of it was a large stone throne far too big for any human.

“This is Lord Tirek’s throne room,” the cloaked figure told them as the royal guard went to stand by his side.

Micro Chips scowled in disapproval, clearly having hoped to find Tirek himself sitting there to greet them. “This is a throne room? It looks more like a cell. Where’s Lord Tirek? He’s the one we’ve come to see. Take us to him. Um, please.”

Reaching up, the cloaked figure pulled off the cloak and cast it aside, revealing a large, heavily muscular centaur. His humanoid upper body was black and dark red, while his lower horse half was a dark gray with white hooves. A beard as white as his tail was present on his face, and two large horns grew out of the side of his head, curving upward. Black eyes stared at the group with mild interest while his mouth was pulled down into a grumpy frown.

“I am Lord Tirek,” he announced.

Micro Chips took a step back, feeling more than a little intimidated. He glanced at Sunset, who looked equally as surprised to suddenly be in the presence of one of the ones who were supposedly behind the disappearances of the alicorns. She unconsciously moved in front of Twilight protectively, who also shifted behind the red and yellow haired girl a little more.

Tirek stared at them for a few moments before motioning to his royal guard. “This is the captain of my royal guard, Flash Sentry.”

Reaching up, Flash removed his helmet, revealing a man around the same age as the other three humans. He had light amber skin and spiky blue hair. And unlike Tirek, he was smiling, and had a kindness in his cornflower blue eyes.

“Hello,” he greeted them politely. “Nice to meet you.”

Tirek held out a hand to the others. “And you are?”

Micro Chips pulled himself together and cleared his throat. “Um, yes, my lord. I am Micro Chips. These are my good friends Sunset Shimmer and… uh…” He hesitated, wondering if he should use Twilight’s real name, or if Tirek would recognize it as the fourth alicorn princess and figure out who she was. “This is… uh… Sci-Twi. She’s Sci-Twi.”

If Tirek noticed his hesitation in introducing Twilight, he gave no indication of it. “And what is your business here?”

Trying his best to look professional, Micro Chips replied, “We would like to join your court, my lord. It would be a great honor to work for the mighty Tirek.”

The centaur just harrumphed and went to go sit on his throne. “I have plenty of servants. I have no need for more.”

Micro Chips’ face fell, and he began trying to come up with a reason as to why Tirek should let them stay. “Yes, but surely you could use more. We wouldn’t even require payment, merely a place to stay. Both Sunset and Sci-Twi would make fine maids.”

He glanced at them for support, but Sunset just glared at him for dubbing both her and Twilight as maids. He gave them an apologetic smile before turning back to Tirek. “As for me, I’m a scholar of magic. Surely you could find use for us.”

Tirek looked like he was beginning to get impatient. “What use would I have for a human scholar of magic? I already employ the god of chaos, Discord. There’s nothing you could tell me about magic that he doesn’t already know.”

Micro Chips’ mouth dropped open. “Discord works for you? Thee Discord?”

“Indeed,” Tirek replied, now looking bored. “I see no reason to keep a puny human around when I have him.”

Realizing that Micro Chips was botching this up, Sunset stepped forward while Twilight hung back. “I do. Micro Chips may be a puny human, but he’s one that can use magic. I’ll bet you’ve never seen anything like that, not even from the great Discord. Besides, knowing Discord, it’s obvious that he’s only working for you for his own amusement.”

Tirek raised an eyebrow. “A human that can use magic? There is no such thing.”

“But there is,” Sunset insisted. “During his studies, he devised a way to absorb and use magic. If you don’t believe me, he can show you. If he can figure out how to do that, just think about what else he can discover about magic.”

“Hmm…” Tirek muttered. “Interesting. Yes, I suppose that could be useful. Discord hasn’t really been all that helpful lately.”

“What’s that!?” a voice demanded, seemingly coming from all around them. A moment later, a draconequus with the head of an Equestrian pony and a long serpentine body made up of various other creatures appeared out of thin air. “You actually think that this pathetic human would be more useful than me, the Lord of Chaos?”

Micro Chips and Sunset recoiled from the sight of the god of chaos, but Tirek just looked bored, as if he had seen this countless times before. “Ah, Discord. I assume you were listening in.”

“Indeed,” the draconequus snapped. “And I can’t believe what I was hearing. How could you think that his four-eyed nerd could possibly be more beneficial to you than me?”

“For one thing,” Tirek began nonchalantly, “unlike you, a human won’t waste my time or get on my nerves with pointless gimmicks just for the sake of a laugh that only he finds funny. For another, the girl is right. You’ve worked for me for quite awhile now, and even with your random chaos magic, I’m no longer impressed by what you can do. But I am curious to see what a human with magic is capable of, and what other discoveries about magic he can find.”

Discord’s eyes flashed red. “You dare to insult the Lord of Chaos by actually suggesting that you could get more out of a human than you could with me! Perhaps you need to see what I’m capable of when I really get serious.”

He raised his arms, and the castle began to shake. Suddenly, random objects began popping up out of thin air and began flying around the room. Then the room itself changed, seemingly becoming another dimension itself of what could only be considered pure chaos.

Tirek continued to look bored as his throne rose up into the air and began spinning around. Micro Chips suddenly found himself trapped in a bubble, and began bouncing off the ceiling, floor, and walls. Beneath Sunset, a giant flower sprang up out of the floor, and she rose up into the air as a giant cotton candy cloud appeared over her head and began raining chocolate milk. The three of them were lost amongst the chaos as reality swirled around them in a blur of motion.

Grinning, Discord then turned his attention to Twilight. Before he could do anything, however, Flash moved in front of her to protect her from whatever the draconequus had planned. But then, much to his surprise, Twilight stepped from around him and went to face Discord. The draconequus sneered at her, and Flash held out a hand to warn her of the god of chaos’ power. But before he could, a swarm of objects that had sprouted wings flew in front of him, obstructing both Twilight and Discord from his view.

Discord chuckled at how this human girl was actually stepping forward to challenge him, and he began to think about all the different ways he could mess with her. He rose up into the air in an attempt to intimidate her, laughing at the thought of how she would freak out when he showed her what he was capable of as he surrounded them in a vortex of chaos magic, blurring out everything else.

Twilight did not back down. She may have been human now, but she was not going to let anyone mess with her friends. Besides, she knew who Discord was. While the draconequus was mischievous, he wasn’t dangerous, and never actually hurt anyone over the course of his very, very long life. And so she stared him down, reaching deep down for whatever remnants of magic still remained within her.

Much to Discord’s surprise, something happened to the girl that was not his doing. Her human ears disappeared, and a pair of pony ears appeared at the top of her head. Her hair grew longer and became a ponytail, the end nearly reaching the floor, and an additional streak of color appeared in it. Last, a pair of wings appeared on her back, stretching outward.

Discord stared long and hard at her, trying to figure out what he was seeing. Suddenly, it clicked, and he began to laugh. This was far greater than anything he had planned to repay Tirek with for the insult. It would most certainly serve the magic-devouring centaur right when he faced whatever fate had in store for him.

Suddenly, the large red arm of Tirek reached through the vortex and wrapped around Discord’s neck. The draconequus was caught off guard as he was pulled up to the centaur.

“Your usefulness is at an end, Discord,” Tirek told him. “There’s only one more thing you can do for me.”

He opened his mouth and began to suck the magic out of Discord. The draconequus’ eyes bulged in surprise as his magic flowed out of him in a continuous stream, and Tirek greedily consumed it. And as his magic was drained, the chaos that he had unleashed settled back down as everything returned to normal, including Twilight.

Sucking out the last bits of Discord’s magic, Tirek let the draconequus fall to the ground. The results of the magic he consumed began to take affect, and Tirek began to grow in size, and his muscle mass increased. His horns grew longer and sharper, curling inward more and then outward.

“Without your magic, you’re now completely useless,” Tirek told the god of chaos. “Leave my castle while you still have your life.”

A groan came from Discord as he rolled over and forced himself to sit up. He threw a glare at the centaur and snapped his fingers, but nothing happened. He tried a few more times before realizing his magic was completely gone.

Throwing the centaur a dirty look, he pointed at him threateningly. “You’ve made a big mistake, Tirek. You don’t realize it yet, but you’ve invited your own doom into your castle. I’ll be looking forward to the day when I get my magic back and you get what’s coming to you.”

Tirek looked unimpressed by Discord’s promise and uncaringly walked away from him. With the threat over, Flash bent down beside Discord and helped the draconequus to his feet. “Come on, big guy. Let me give you a hand.”

Discord, however, swatted him away. “I don’t need your help.”

Holding his head up high, Discord spread his wings and flew out the window, actually having to use his wings to fly since he was now without magic. Twilight watched him go before making her way over to the window and looking up at the moon in the sky. It was still there, just as it had been for weeks now, even when the sun should have been in its place.

Tirek looked at her curiously before he walked over to her. Twilight saw the centaur coming out of the corner of her eye, and a jolt of fear ran through her as she thought that he may have realized what she was during all the chaos that had ensued and was about to do something to her.

“Don’t!” she cried out, moving away from him.

Tirek came to a stop. “I’m not going to touch you. I was just wondering what you were looking at.”

Twilight relaxed a bit as she realized that her secret was safe, and looked out the window again. “The moon.”

“Ah, yes,” Tirek replied. “The moon is quite beautiful. With enough magic, one could even move it. Quite an amazing feat, don’t you…” He trailed off as he detected remnants of magic upon her, and he leaned in close to study her, trying to figure out what he was sensing. “What is this? I sense traces of magic on you. Powerful magic.”

Both Micro Chips and Sunset exchanged worried looks. Twilight may be human now, but there were still traces of alicorn magic upon her that had yet to dissipate. If Tirek realized what kind of magic it was, it could expose Twilight for what she really was.

Turning to the two of them, Tirek demanded furiously, “Who is she? What is this magic I sense?”

Micro Chips quickly began searching his brain for an answers. “Lord Tirek, sir, she is… uh… she’s my sister. The traces of magic you sense are from her spending so much time with me.”

Tirek stomped his hoof. “That does not answer my question! I want to know exactly who she is!”

Much to Micro Chips and Sunset’s surprise, it was Flash who came to the rescue. “Lord Tirek, what does it matter who she is? She’s here now.”

Tirek seemed to calm down as he considered this. He looked at his three guests in consideration before relenting. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. She is here. They are all here. However, whether they mean my doom or not is yet to be seen. The three of you may stay, for now. Whatever secrets you’re hiding, I’m sure they’ll come to light in time.”

With nothing more to say on the subject, he walked out of the room, leaving the four humans alone. Micro Chips and Sunset breathed sighs of relief at having successfully infiltrated Tirek’s castle. Now they just had to find out what happened to the alicorns and rescue them.

Flash was completely oblivious to what was going on in the heads of the other two. His attention was on Twilight, and had been ever since he saw her. And so, putting on a friendly smile, he made his way over to her.

“I’m sorry about that,” he told her. “Lord Tirek can be rather overbearing at times. Is there anything I can do to make your stay more pleasant?” He took note of her dirty clothes. “I could get you some new clothes so you can get out of those dirty traveling ones. Please, miss, let me help you.”

Twilight looked at him uncertainly, wondering if she could indeed trust the captain of Tirek’s royal guard. Flash Sentry his name was. He seemed to genuinely want to help her, and she felt drawn to him for some reason she couldn’t put her finger on. And as she looked into his kind eyes, she suddenly felt more at ease than she had felt since she had become a human.

Chapter 7: Love In A Flash

Chapter 7: Love In A Flash

Weeks passed. And those weeks gave way to months, all of which resulted in absolutely zero progress. The trio searched for any evidence that would tell them where the alicorns were, but came up nothing. Tirek gave them the freedom to roam about the castle, but they still had to keep their searching discreet so as not to alert the centaur to their mission.

Micro Chips had quickly begun to regret what he had said about showing Tirek what he, as a human, could do with magic. He was called on regularly to do something that would impress the centaur, but it became obvious that Tirek was beginning to lose interest, and so Micro Chips spent a good deal of time trying magical experiments or learning new things. However, he was beginning to get nervous as the supply of magic he had stored in his device was beginning to run out, and he had no way to replenish it.

Courtesy of said magical scholar, Sunset was stuck as a maid. Her work mostly consisted of cooking and cleaning with the few other servants in the castle. It did give her the opportunity to question the staff, but she worded her questions carefully so as not to make her seem too nosy. Unfortunately, none of them had any helpful information, and Sunset began to worry that if she kept up the inquiries that they would grow suspicious and report her to Tirek. She then began using all her free time to check the castle for clues.

Despite Micro Chips claiming that Twilight was a maid as well, Sunset took it upon herself to do her portion of the work. Twilight therefore spent a good deal of her time in the library trying to look up any information that would be helpful. She used the excuse that she was tending to the library whenever she was asked why she spent so much time in there by other members of the staff. Tirek didn’t seem to care though and let her do as she pleased.

Much to Micro Chips and Sunset’s surprise, whenever Twilight wasn’t helping them find clues, she spent a good deal of time outside of the library with Flash Sentry. It took a few days for her to open up to him, but she soon realized that despite being the captain of Tirek’s royal guard, he was nothing like the tyrant, and possessed a kind heart.

He didn’t just protect the castle though, but also went down to the villages to help the people, and even fight off vicious creatures endangering them. Tirek most certainly didn’t care about his subjects, seemingly quite content to leave them to whatever fate had in store, so Flash had taken it upon himself to protect the people.

It seemed that with the land being so dark and dreary, it drew all sorts of wicked creatures to it. Since Twilight and the others had arrived, there had been a swarm of cockatrices, a hydra, an ursa major and ursa minor, a pack of timberwolves, and a maulwurf. There had even been an infestation of parasprites, yet Flash had still gone to help the people whenever they needed assistance, whether that meant simply drawing the creatures away, or facing them head on.

Sunset was quite impressed with Flash’s bravery, not sure if she would have the courage to face such creatures. However, there was something about the captain of the royal guard that really worried her. She couldn’t help but notice how close he and Twilight were becoming. It had started with simple blushes from both of them whenever they saw or touched each other, then the two began spending more and more time with each other, and often spoke about the other to her and Micro Chips.

Sunset would never get in the way of two people falling in love, for that was indeed what she realized was happening between the royal guard and the former alicorn princess, but there were a few problems, for lack of a better word. Flash still had no idea who Twilight really was. In fact, he still thought her name was Sci-Twi. And Sunset feared that whatever relationship the two were developing would only result in heartbreak. After all, Twilight had a mission to complete, and she couldn’t remain a human forever.

However, she just couldn’t bring herself to discourage their relationship. Twilight’s emotional state had improved significantly since she began spending time with Flash, and there were times where she was happier than Sunset had ever seen her, even from when she was an alicorn. Granted she hadn’t known Twilight as an alicorn for more than a couple days, but it was more than obvious that the royal knight made her very happy, just as she did him.

She tried bringing her concerns to Micro Chips about Twilight and Flash’s quickly developing relationship, but he didn’t seem particularly concerned, insisting that Twilight knew what she needed to do, and wouldn’t let her feelings for the royal guard interfere with her mission. But looking at the way the former alicorn looked at Flash, Sunset wasn’t so sure. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to turn Flash away whenever he came to her for advice on how he might woo Twilight. It seemed that all she could do was hope they found the other alicorns before the two reached a point of no return.

“I’m running out of ideas,” Micro Chips said to her one day as he sat at the kitchen table with a cup of tea. “If I can’t show Tirek that I still have things to offer, he’ll just take my magic and kick me out, just like he did with Discord.”

“Can’t Twilight teach you more magic?” Sunset asked as she peeled a potato.

Micro Chips sighed. “I doubt she’ll be able to teach me much without being able to use magic herself. Besides,” he held up his magic storing device, “I’m running out of the magic I had stored. It doesn’t matter if she teaches me anything new if I don’t have any magic to use.”

“Hmm…” Sunset said thoughtfully. “Well then, maybe you could try-”

“Sunset?” came Flash’s voice from the other room. “Are you in here?”

Sunset immediately dropped whatever she was going to say to Micro Chips as she called to the royal guard. “Yeah, I’m over here.”

Flash entered the kitchen a few moments later carrying a guitar and a few pieces of paper. He walked over to the two of them and held up the papers. “I just finished the song, if you want to hear it.”

Sunset smiled and set down the knife and half-peeled potato. “Sure, lets hear it.”

Micro Chips raised an eyebrow. “You play?”

Flash nodded. “Yeah. When I was kid, I earned some bits as a bard. So I thought…” he blushed, “I thought that I would write a song for Sci-Twi. I call it, Love In A Flash.”

Sunset couldn’t help but chuckle at the cheesy name. “Well, if you wrote it, then I’m sure she’ll love it. I did like what you showed me before. And that’s coming from someone else who earned money as a bard when they were a kid.”

Smirking, Flash pointed at her. “Ah ha! I knew you were musically skilled. I could tell from all the suggestions you made.”

The two of them shared a chuckle as Micro Chips awkwardly sipped his tea, feeling like a third wheel. But as the humor settled down, Flash’s face fell, and he appeared fall deep into thought.

“Actually, Sunset,” he said, sounding a little down, “there is something else I could use your help with.”

Giving him a curious look, she motioned for him to continue. “Yes?”

Flash bit his lower lip, looking a little uncomfortable. “Well… it’s just that… even though Sci-Twi and I have gotten a lot closer, at times it feels like there’s this… wall between us. Like there’s something she’s not telling me. Something important. I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s like something’s bothering her, and she’s not willing to open up to me about it. I don’t want to push her or anything, but if something’s wrong, then I want to help.” He rubbed the back of his head bashfully. “I know we haven’t know each other too long, but I really care about her, a lot. Truthfully, I’d do anything for her. For her, I’d become the greatest of heroes. So if there’s something I can do to help her, I will.”

A nervous look crossed Sunset’s face, and she glanced at Micro Chips to see him with a similar expression on his. This was part of what was worrying her about Twilight and Flash’s relationship. And the secret of Twilight’s real identity was only the tip of the iceberg.

“Um…” she muttered uneasily, trying to come up with something to say without simply sweeping his concern under the rug. “I really don’t know what to tell you. Even if there was something and I knew it, it wouldn’t be my place to tell you. If you really want to know, you’ll have to ask her about it.”

Flash sighed. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. Don’t want to go invading on her privacy. I just want to help however I can.” He looked from her to Micro Chips. “That goes for both of you. I couldn’t help but notice that there’s something bothering you guys too. You know you can tell me if you need help with anything. I like to think of us as friends.”

A smile grazed Sunset’s face. “Yeah, I do too.”

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

It was because Sunset thought of Flash as a friend that she decided to talk to Twilight about possibly letting him in on their secret. At least part of it. She knew it would be risky, but if they could get someone who was on the inside to help them, they might get the answers they were seeking.

“He may be Tirek’s royal guard, but I think we can trust him,” Sunset told her as Twilight sat in the library with several piles of books surrounding her. Sighing, she decided to bring up another issue. “And if you’re serious about having any kind of romantic relationship with him, you’re going to have to be more honest with him about who you are.”

Twilight sighed as well, setting down the book she was reading and hanging her head. “I do trust him, and I’m sure he would be willing to help us out.” She looked back up at her. “You’re also right about… the way I feel about him. It’s not fair that I keep lying to him about who I am. But… a part of me is afraid that when he finds out who I really am that he will… reject me.”

She flopped down onto the table in despair, burying her face in her arms. Sunset gave her a sympathetic look and rubbed Twilight’s back, feeling sorry for her. This was quite the complicated situation, one she had never expected herself to be in. She wasn’t exactly sure what she could say to Twilight to help her, but she could give her support and advise her on what she thought would be the best decision.

“Rejection is something we all risk when it comes to love. But, Twilight, you know you can’t go on living a lie. The truth will come out eventually. You’re Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, and currently the last alicorn. It’s your duty to find the others, no matter what.” She frowned slightly as she thought about what Micro Chips had said. “And we’re running out of time. If we don’t find them soon, we might miss the opportunity.”

Twilight sighed and raised her head. “Yes, I know. But… to be perfectly honest, pulling this off seems like it’s becoming impossible. We’ve been here all this time, and yet we’re no closer to finding the other alicorns than we were when we first got here.”

There was resignation in her voice, almost as if she were on the verge of giving up. Sunset stopped rubbing her back and stood up straight, glaring down at her. “Don’t talk like that Twilight! We’ve come too far to quit now. We’ve got to double our efforts. If Micro Chips runs out of magic, then he won’t be able to change you back.”

Twilight diverted her eyes. “If he can even do it at all.”

“Twilight!” Sunset scolded angrily. “How can you say that? We’re your friends. As the Princess of Friendship, you should put a little more faith in us.”

Tears crept up in Twilight’s eyes and she jumped to her feet. “I know. I’m sorry. I just… I’m sorry!”

She ran out of the room. Sunset called after her, but Twilight didn’t even look back. Sunset sighed and lowered her head, kicking herself for getting angry. She knew Twilight was under a lot of stress. They all were, but not as much as Twilight. And now the complications of her feelings for Flash were being thrown into the mix. The poor girl must be feeling overwhelmed by everything.

A knowing chuckle distracted Sunset from her thoughts, and she turned around to the source. “Who’s there?”

From behind a bookshelf, a brown anthropomorphic cat wearing a red coat stepped into view with a cocky look on his face. Sunset’s eyes widened in surprise at his unexpected appearance. If she recalled correctly, his name was Capper. Yes, Capper Dapperpaws, Tirek’s accountant. Sunset hadn’t spoken to him much, but he came across as a smooth-talking opportunist.

Crossing her arms, she did her best to appear casual. “Yes, can I help you with something?”

Capper just chuckled. “You already did, sweetheart. You already did.” He glanced past her at the door that Twilight had run through. “So, that girl is Twilight Sparkle, the last alicorn.” He smirked at Sunset. “You really should make sure your private conversations are more… private.”

A feeling of panic ran through Sunset at having Twilight’s secret exposed, but she somehow managed to keep her cool. “So you know… Now what?”

Capper’s smile widened as he casually strolled through the room. “Now nothing. I know your secret. You’re here to save the other alicorns. I wouldn’t be opposed to that. To be honest, I’m not a fan of this eternal night and being employed by a power hungry tyrant in a land of death and decay.” He shook his head. “But to be honest, I think the princess is right. Your chances of saving the alicorns are slim at best.”

Relieved that he wasn’t going to expose them, but not liking his negative attitude, Sunset placed her hands on her hips and fixed him with a glare. “Oh, and why not?”

As if to answer her question, the angry bellow of Sombra echoed through the castle, shaking it to its core. That tended to happen from time to time, and each time it did, Sunset would fear that the evil unicorn had figured out who Twilight really was.

Still smirking, Capper nodded in the direction of the roar. “That for one. King Sombra goes out every day, or every night I should say, searching for Twilight. He was quite angry when she got away from him the first time, almost as angry as his failure to find her when he first took the other alicorns from Equestria. If you want to save the alicorns, you’re going to have to defeat King Sombra, and that’s impossible without the Crystal Heart. Good luck getting your hands on that.”

Sunset’s eyes widened. “Wait, are you saying you know where the Crystal Heart is?”

Capper wobbled his head side to side. “All I know is that it’s hidden somewhere in the castle where only Lord Tirek can get to it. You see, he needed to hang onto it in case Sombra ever decided to turn on him.”

In desperation, Sunset grabbed his coat and shook him. “Where did you hear about this? Why didn’t you say anything about it when I was asking everyone?”

“Hey, watch the coat, sweetheart,” he told her, removing her hands from his coat. “I’m an opportunist. I make it my business to learn all I can about everycreature and everything, and then I use my secrets to my benefit. As for why I didn’t say anything before is because I didn’t know about all this, and I wasn’t about to just give out any information without getting something in return. But now that I know what’s really going on, I feel more inclined to help you.”

His green eyes once again looked at the door Twilight had run through. “But you’ll have to hurry. It’s not just your glasses wearing buddy running out of magic that you have to worry about. It’s actually your alicorn friend.”

Sunset gave him a suspicious look. “What about her?”

He raised an eyebrow. “You really need to ask? You’ve noticed it yourself. She’s in love. And while love is indeed a beautiful and wonderful thing, it’s also a very selfish thing. Whether it be human, alicorn, or some other creatures, people make all kinds of sacrifices for love. It can even make one forget their true self. If she falls any deeper, she may decide to remain a human and marry the captain. Good luck rescuing the alicorns if that happens.”

The nagging worry that Sunset had been feeling amplified. She hadn’t dwelled on it too much, but this too had been a concern she had. Love was a very powerful thing. Would Twilight really choice to remain human? They’d never save the other alicorns without her magic.

“She wouldn’t do that,” Sunset insisted, though she couldn’t help but notice that even to her own ears that the words didn’t sound all that convincing. “She’s the only one who can save them.”

Capper shrugged. “The you better hurry up. If you wait too much longer, she may completely become human on the inside, and you might not be able to change her back at all, even with magic.”

Sunset didn’t want to admit it, but she couldn’t deny that he was right. Twilight was becoming more and more human every day, and her growing feelings for Flash would only make changing her back all the more difficult. That would require even more magic on Micro Chips’ part, and what he had left might not be able to be enough to change her back.

“Then help us,” she begged. “Unless you want Tirek to remain in power and for the sun to never rise again.”

Still smirking, Capper closed his eyes and held up his hands, shaking his head. “Sorry, sweetheart, but I don’t know any more than what I’ve already told you.” Cracking open his eyes, he couldn’t help but smile even more broadly at the forlorn look on Sunset’s face. “However, I can point you in the direction of the only other person besides Tirek who knows where the Crystal Heart is.”

Sunset gasped and her eyes widened. “What? Who?”

Capper chuckled. “Somewhere in this castle is the one creature that Tirek can call a friend, for lack of a better word. She’s a pony. A little pegasus filly called Cozy Glow. You know her? She comes and goes as she pleases, but you’ve probably seen her fluttering about the castle every so often.”

Sunset tapped her chin and thought back to all the creatures she had seen in Tirek’s employment. There were a few Equestrian ponies that worked for him, though not many. She only ever saw one filly though. A pink pegasus with a curly light blue mane and the cutie mark of a red rook on her flank. Strangely enough, she had never seen her do so much as a single chore. It was more like she was a guest rather than an employee.

“Yeah, I’ve seen her a few times,” she said, not having given the pegasus much thought before. “She can tell us where the Crystal Heart is?”

Capper shrugged. “Can is the key word there, sweetheart. Whether she will or not is another story. According to her, she’s very good friends with Lord Tirek, so it’s unlikely that she’ll betray him and tell you what you want to know. You’re going to have to convince her to tell you where it is.” With that said, he casually strolled out of the room. “And sorry to burst your bubble, babe, but I just don’t see that happening.”

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

After her argument with Sunset, Twilight found solace on the balcony of one of the towers. Ordinarily, being up on a tower that seemed this worn down and unstable would make her nervous, but there were far too many thoughts going through her head right now for her to worry about that.

She was so confused, by her thoughts, by her feelings, by everything. She hadn’t known what to expect when she left Equestria to begin her quest, but it most certainly had not been any of this. Never in a million years did she think she would end up where she was now, and she had no idea of how to handle things. She hadn’t felt this lost and confused since she had been a filly first starting out as Celestia’s student.

“I feel so confused,” she said as she stared up at the moon. “I know what I’m supposed to do, but why do I feel so torn?” She placed her hand over her heart and frowned. “Why does it hurt so much?”

“Sci-Twi?”

Her heart skipped a beat. Turning around, she saw Flash join her out on the balcony. She felt a blush stain her cheeks and her mood lift. He made her feel so many things, things she had never felt before, and she still didn’t know how to handle these feelings. Simply seeing him lifted her spirits and improved the dark mood she had been in moments ago.

“Oh, hi, Flash,” she greeted as she unconsciously began playing with her hair. Romance was still something completely new to her. Back in Equestria, she had always been too busy with her studies to go looking for love, and now that she had found it, she had no idea what to do or how to act.

Unaware of her inner dilemma, Flash gave her a smile as he went to stand beside her. “What are you doing out here?”

Twilight blinked. Truthfully, she had just been wandering around aimlessly and had ended up out here, but that seemed embarrassing to say. “Oh, um, just enjoying the night air. It’s a beautiful night, don’t you think?”

Flash chuckled, not taking his eyes off her. “Yes, very beautiful. Of course, I can think of more beautiful things.”

The way he was looking at her gave Twilight a warm and fuzzy feeling and made her feel like she was going to melt. She could feel her blush deepen, and she turned away to look at the moon in order to hide it. “You know, according to legend, Princess Luna was once sealed away in the moon for 1,000 years.”

Flash turned to look at the moon as well. “I have heard that. Supposedly, it’s because she became corrupted, and Celestia was forced to seal her away.”

Impressed with his knowledge on Equestrian legends, Twilight nodded. “Yeah, but after she returned, she was purified and returned to the happy and kind pony she was before.” Her smile faltered at the thought of Luna once again being sealed away, this time with her fellow alicorns. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to be imprisoned like that.”

Flash glanced at her, noticing the sad look on her face. He wondered if she was thinking about whatever was bothering her and decided that this might be a good time to ask. “Hey, Sci-Twi, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but is everything alright with you?”

She looked at him hesitantly. “What do you mean?”

He sighed. “I couldn’t help but notice that something seems to be bothering you. I didn’t know you before you came here, but ever since you arrived, it’s been like you’ve had something on your mind. It also seems like you and your friends are hiding something. That’s why I was wondering if everything was alright. If there’s something on your mind, you can tell me. I promise to help you.”

Twilight stared at him, her eyes shining with emotion. She could hear the sincerity in his voice, and it made her resolve to keep lying to him weaken further. Would it really be too bad to bring him in the loop?

Looking out over the ocean, she gripped the top the balcony’s parapet. “I… haven’t exactly been entirely honest with you about… about who I am.”

A smiled crept up Flash’s face. “If you mean that you’re not really Micro Chips’ sister, I figured that much out for myself.”

Twilight chuckled. “No, that’s not it. I mean, well, ok, you’re right, I’m not his sister. My name’s not even Sci-Twi. It’s Twilight.” She looked back at him. “Twilight Sparkle.”

She waited to see if he would recognize the name as that of the fourth alicorn princess, but he didn’t seem to. She supposed she shouldn’t be that surprise. Neither Micro Chips nor Sunset had known her by name, even though they had heard rumors of a fourth alicorn, so it wasn’t so surprising that Flash didn’t recognize her name either.

Flash’s smiling widened further. “Twilight Sparkle. It’s a beautiful name. Far more befitting someone like you.”

Twilight felt butterflies in her stomach, the good kind. “Yeah, sorry for lying, but I had my reasons for keeping my identity a secret. I still do.” She sighed. “And my name isn’t the only thing I haven’t been honest about. I’m really not who I appear to be. The truth is… The truth is that I’m… I’m…”

Seeing that she was struggling, Flash reached out and placed his hand on top of hers. “Twilight, who you are or where you come from doesn’t matter. So you changed your name and haven’t been completely honest about who you really are. That’s fine, you can tell me when you’re ready. But I hope you’ll still allow me to court you.”

Twilight’s face turned bright red, and her stomach did a complete flip. “C-C-Court!?”

Flash turned red as well. “Um, well, yeah. I mean, I know we haven’t officially used the word before, but…”

Twilight shifted side to side as she tugged on her hair, a flurry of emotions running through her. “Y-Yeah, I guess we kind of have been.”

They both stood there blushing, unable to make eye contact with the other as they each tried to come up with something to say. Twilight’s gaze drifted lower, and she noticed for the first time that he was holding a guitar.

“Oh, you play the guitar?” she said, trying to change the subject to something less embarrassing.

Flash looked down at his guitar and held it up. “Oh, um, yeah. I played a lot when I was a kid, before I joined the royal guard. That’s actually why I came looking for you. I… I wrote a song… for you…”

Her blush returned with a vengeance. So much for changing the subject to something less embarrassing. But she found that she did want to hear the song, and felt quite touched that he had actually gone through the trouble to write something for her.

Smiling shyly, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she swayed back and forth. “I’m honored, Flash. And I’d love to hear your song.”

He returned her smile and moved to sit up on the balcony. “This one’s for you, Twilight. I call it, Love In A Flash.”

He winked at her, and she giggled. Then he began to play. Twilight listened to him intently, and all her problems seemed to fade away as she got lost in the music. He was very good, and she thought he did an excellent job writing the song. Spontaneous singing was actually rather commonplace in Equestria, but she could still recognize a good song that had a lot of thought put into it when she heard it.

He finished playing and slid off the balcony. His blush was back in full bloom, and he couldn’t seem to bring himself to look at her. “Well, what do you think? It’s not much, but…”

She placed her hand on his and shook her head. “No, it was wonderful. I really loved it. And I’m flattered that you would write a song…” she diverted her eyes, as she began to feel like melted butter, “for me.”

A determine look crossed Flash’s face and he set his guitar down before placing his hands on her shoulders. Twilight looked back at him in surprise, feeling her heart race as she looked into his eyes.

“Twilight,” he said in a serious tone, “I would do anything for you. I know we haven’t known each other for that long, but I’ve never felt this way about anyone.” His hand came up to cup her cheek, and Twilight inhaled. “Twilight… I love you.”

He watched her eyes widen as she comprehended his words. For several long moments she didn’t say anything, or even move. Then she swallowed once and licked her lips as she seemed to struggle to find her voice.

“Flash, I…” she began quietly, unable to look away from him. Tears formed in her eyes as she slowly brought her hands up and placed them on his shoulders. “I love you too.”

Slowly, they moved in at the same time, their arms wrapping around each other as they kissed for the first time.

Chapter 8: The Secret Passage

Chapter 8: The Secret Passage

“We’re just about out of time,” Micro Chips told Sunset in resignation the next time he saw her. “I only have a day or two’s worth of magic left, then that’s it. Any more and I won’t be able to change Twilight back anymore.”

Sunset smirked. “Then it’s a good thing that I got some information that will help us. Apparently, there’s a pegasus that occasionally visits called Cozy Glow. She knows where the Crystal Heart is. Once we get it, we can destroy Sombra once and for all and save the alicorns.”

If she had hoped that this would improve Micro Chips’ mood, she was wrong. “Sunset, even if that’s true, we don’t have time to wait around for her to visit next. Not just because I’m running low on magic, but because of Tirek. I don’t know how, but I think he’s figured out who Twilight really is. I think he’s known all along, but is just waiting until he’s sure.”

Sunset crossed her arms. “Then we better move fast. Fortunately for us, I found out that Cozy Glow is coming to the castle tomorrow. We can corner her and question her about the Crystal Heart.”

Micro Chips glanced at her. “You think we can actually get an answer out of her?”

Sunset just waved off his concern. “She’s just a filly. How hard could it be?”

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

Twilight was standing on the highest tower of the castle. From up here, she had a good view of the road leading up to the castle. She was hoping to see Flash return from his trip to one of the villages where a bugbear had appeared. Just as he had in the past, he selflessly rushed off to save everyone like the hero he was, and Twilight wanted to be the first to welcome him back when he returned.

The hairs on the back of her neck suddenly stood on end, and she knew exactly why. Turning around, she saw Tirek step out onto the balcony as well. She pushed aside the discomfort she felt at his presence and gave him a polite nod in greeting. “Lord Tirek.”

He chuckled darkly, as if he knew something she didn’t. “Love is slowing you down, my dear. Let it distract you any more and I’ll catch you. And I will soon enough.”

Twilight didn’t like his insinuation, and quickly tried to come up with a change of topic. Fortunately, at that moment, she saw Flash come riding up the road on his way towards the castle, and she smiled at the sight of him. “Look, Flash is returning.”

Tirek glanced down at him. “Ah, yes, from his futile attempt to help the villagers. He’s such a fool. Always doing things for others. That’s the whole reason he joined my royal guards. He thinks that as long as he’s on the inside and in a position of power that he can do some good in this kingdom.”

Crossing his arms, he shook his head. “He may be able to do some good here and there, but it will amount to nothing in the end.” He smirked and let out a cruel chuckle. “Maybe one day he’ll die trying to be a hero. That would certainly serve him right. But I really don’t care what he does or what happens to him. It’s not like he can actually do anything against me, so I let him do what he wants.” He looked back at Twilight and his eyes narrowed. “But you’re different. You actually plan to take something from me that I value.”

Feeling uncomfortable with the way he was looking at her, Twilight took a step back. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

A snarl escaped Tirek as he towered over her. “You dare to mock me? I know why you and your friends are here. You know what I have, and you’ve come to take it. Try it if you dare, but do not mock me!”

Putting on a brave front, Twilight raised her chin. “Lord Tirek, I can assure you, in all your castle, in all your realm, in all the kingdoms you may or may not claim for yourself, there is only one thing that I desire.” She glanced down at Flash before returning her attention to Tirek. “And since you have made it abundantly clear that you do not care about him at all, you don’t need to worry about me taking anything from you that you value. Good day, sir.”

Having said her piece, Twilight made to leave, but Tirek stomped his hoof, shaking the tower, and pointed an accusing finger at her. “I know you!” His words caused Twilight to freeze, and Tirek moved in closer. “I sensed the magic in you as soon as I saw you. And ever since, you have exposed your true self in countless ways. The way you move, the way you speak, the turn of your head, the brushing of your hair, the way you breathe, speak, move, even the way you stand absolutely still, they were all indicators of who you truly are.”

Slowly, Twilight turned to face him, her heart pounding in her chest, yet her expression gave away nothing. Tirek studied her for a few moments before his temper dissipated somewhat. “I wasn’t sure at first, but now I have no more doubts. So allow me to level the playing field a bit.” He motioned her over to him. “Come and see. I’ll show you where they are.”

Twilight hesitated before slowly making her way over to the centaur. Tirek led her to the other side of the balcony, and leaned over the side, pointing downward. “Look, down there. That crevice in the cliff just off the beach. Do you see it? This castle was built here for a reason, for just beneath it is the entrance to the mythical prison known as Tartarus. Within that crevice is the entrance, sealed by doors that can only be opened by a powerful magic user. That is where they are. That is where I keep them. They are mine! And their magic belongs to me! Try to take them from me if you think you can!”

Twilight carefully leaned as far over the parapet as she dared. She could see the crevice he spoke of, but not the doors to Tartarus. She had actually read about the ancient prison in her studies. It was a place where time stood at a standstill, filled with powerful magic to keep the strongest of magic users contained. It was meant to be a place to keep the most evil of creatures contained forever, but it soon fell into myth and legend. Twilight wasn’t even sure if it was a real place or just something from an ancient story. If it was real, and the alicorns were sealed in there, then it would take a lot more magic than she or even Micro Chips had right now to release them.

“The way you see me now is not natural,” Tirek continued, not taking his eyes off Twilight. “I am ancient in years, old and decrepit. All my life, I stood in the shadow of my brother, Scorpan, while he got to rule. That is, until I finally devoured enough magic to overthrow him. But, at that point, my life had all but passed me by. I had my brother’s kingdom, but was running out of time to rule. But since I had gotten a taste of power, I wanted more. So I decided to take more. To take the world if I could.”

He looked at his hand and made a fist. “Alicorns are powerful. Possibly the most powerful magical creatures in the world. If anycreature could provide me with the power I needed to accomplish my goal, it was them. And so I summoned forth Sombra from the ether. I would have taken his magic for myself, but his is death magic, and I need life magic to increase my power. Therefore, I sent him to capture the alicorns, and then I consumed their magic. It restored my youth and my strength, making me more powerful than ever. Then I sealed them away in Tartarus so they would never be able to reclaim their magic.”

He returned his attention to Twilight. Feeling him watching her, she looked back at him, doing her best to remain calm as he continued. “Sombra was banished back when Celestia and Luna were the only two alicorns. I knew that two more had appeared since then, but I only had information on the one, Mi Amore Cadenza, or Cadance as she is more commonly known as. Sombra was able to find her along with the other two in their castles when he invaded Equestria in but a single night, but he could not find the castle of the fourth. He found her a few months ago, but she managed to evade him.” His eyes narrowed as he stared at Twilight hungrily. “But now I have found her.”

Twilight wanted to back away, but she was already up against the balcony. “Lord Tirek, what you’re saying is nonsense.”

Tirek’s large hand shot out, grabbing Twilight’s hair and pulling her close to him. “You still deny it!? Do you still think you can hide who you are from me!? I’ll cast you down to Tartarus from this tower if you continue to deny who you are!”

His grip on her hair hurt, but Twilight was now in more fear for her life. And without her magic, she was helpless to stop him, especially if he had the alicorns magic on top of Discord’s. “Lord Tirek, what are you saying?”

He now grasped her arm as well, squeezing tight enough to bruise. “I couldn’t have been mistaken. I know I sensed alicorn magic in you. No creature can replicate that, not even by stealing it like I have. And yet…” his hand went from her arm to cup her chin so he could study her face, “I no longer sense that magic within you. You feel no different than any other human or creature without magic.”

Twilight kept perfectly still as he studied her, afraid that any movement on her part would somehow expose her and confirm Tirek’s theory. His cold black eyes burned into her fearful purple ones, as if he were looking for any traces of the magic he claimed he had sensed in her.

Finally, he released her and stepped back. “It doesn’t matter. The end result will be the same. I can wait a little longer.”

Then, much to Twilight’s relief, he turned and left her, heading back into the castle. Once he was gone, Twilight grabbed onto the balcony for support as her legs threatened to collapse beneath her. “He’s mad. Mad.”

However, he was also arrogant enough to give her many of the answers she was searching for since he clearly didn’t think she would be able to save the other alicorns. And no matter how much she hated to admit it, he was right. Freeing them seemed like an impossible feat now. Tirek had the princess’ magic and had sealed them in Tartarus. Even if they did somehow manage to open its doors, they would still need to defeat Sombra, and that was impossible without the Crystal Heart, and they had no idea where to even find it.

The impossibility of the situation began to overwhelm her, and Twilight couldn’t help it as the tears began to flow. Burying her face in her hands, she wept as she felt like she had failed everycreature.

“Shh, Twilight, don’t cry.”

She looked up to see Micro Chips standing over her. He placed a comforting arm around her, but it did little to make her feel better.

“It’s ok, Twilight, we’ll figure this out,” he reassured her. “I promise, everything will be ok. Don’t give up now. If you give up, then not all the magic in the world can change you back.”

She looked up at him and wiped her eyes as she wondered how much of the conversation between her and Tirek he had heard. He helped her to her feet and gave her a hopeful smile, but it did little to lift Twilight’s spirits as he led her back into the castle.

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

“I’m so happy to finally meet you,” Cozy Glow told the trio in an overly-polite voice. “I’ve seen you working around the castle a few times, but I didn’t want to interrupt your work.”

Twilight, Sunset, and Micro Chips stared at the little pegasus. She had arrived at the castle earlier in the day, and they managed to track her down. However, they could tell right away that something wasn’t quite right about her. She put on a sweet face and came a cross as the friendliest and nicest pony you could ever meet, but there was something very wrong about her. She was too sweet, too polite, as if every word she said or movement she made were deliberate, calculated.

“Um, yes,” Micro Chips replied, choosing his words carefully. “We heard you were friends with Lord Tirek.”

Cozy Glow smiled happily. “Oh, yes, we’re the very, very best of friends. I even helped make him the powerful centaur he is.”

Micro Chips and Sunset shared a concerned glance while Twilight hung back, still shaken up from her encounter with Tirek, and was now worried that anything she might say or do might expose her further.

“How so?” Sunset asked, eyeing the pegasus suspiciously.

Cozy Glow giggled. “By helping him rise to power, you big silly. After all, it was me who suggested that he should take the alicorns’ magic and told him about the fourth one he knew nothing about.”

Sunset’s mouth dropped open. “Why!? Why would you do that?”

The horror in Sunset’s voice either went by completely unnoticed by Cozy Glow, or she simply didn’t care. “Because Tirek has the potential of becoming the most powerful creature in this world. And since I’m such good friends with him, that makes me powerful as well. I don’t have any magic since I’m just a poor, helpless pegasus pony, and just a little kid at that, but friendship is the most powerful thing in the world. And so the more friends you have, the more powerful you are. And being friends with the most powerful creature in this world will make me one of the most powerful ones as well.”

She was still smiling pleasantly as she said this, but there was an unhinged crazed look in her eye that’s suggested that she wasn’t completely mentally stable. Her words almost seemed to make her giddy with a twisted glee as she spoke of how she assisted Tirek in accomplishing such an evil deed. Just from the few minutes the trio had been in her presence, they could see that the pegasus was showing signs of being a sociopath with absolutely zero conscience; not to mention she was intent on making friends for all the wrong reasons.

Despite this observation, Sunset still couldn’t believe what she was hearing as she stared at Cozy Glow. “But don’t you realize what kind of consequences that will have on the world?”

The pegasus just waved this off. “Oh, it’s not so bad. As long as everycreature works together, things will be just fine. And since I’m friends with everycreature, I’d be more than happy to help them. They just have to do whatever I say, and everything would work out.”

“And having Tirek unleash Sombra? He may be obeying Tirek right now, but you have to have heard the stories of what he’s like. He won’t listen to Tirek indefinitely.”

Cozy Glow just giggled again. “Oh, you’re so silly. As long as Tirek has the Crystal Heart, Sombra can’t move against him. So all is right in the world.”

Micro Chips immediately pounced on the opening she gave them. “That’s… actually why we came here. We’re big fans of the legend of Sombra, and as a magical scholar, I was really hoping to see the Crystal Heart. I was hoping I could study it a bit, but it doesn’t seem to be anywhere in the castle. You said that Lord Tirek keeps it so he can control Sombra. Surely if you’re as good of friends with him as you say you are, then you would know where it is.”

Cozy Glow scoffed almost dismissively. “Of course I know where it is. Tirek needed someone else to be able to get it in case he was unable to. And who better than his most trusted friend who helped him accomplish so much.”

Micro Chips and Sunset traded excited looks, and even Twilight began to look hopeful. Sunset gave an encouraging nod to Micro Chips, and he turned back to Cozy Glow, looking a little too eager. “Could you tell us where it is? I would so love to see it.”

Cozy Glow frowned and shook her head. “Oh, no, no, no, no. I couldn’t possibly do that. I would be betraying my good friend Tirek’s trust. I’m not supposed to tell anycreature where the Crystal Heart is. It’s a big secret.”

Micro Chips bit his bottom lip nervously as he tried to come up with a way to convince her. “Oh, come on, please. I just want to make some observations. Purely for academic purposes, of course. I mean, it’s not like a mere human could actually do anything to a powerful magical artifact like the Crystal Heart. What harm could there possibly be in just looking?”

“Besides,” Sunset added, “it could be quite beneficial to Lord Tirek as well. Micro Chips has been trying to find new forms of magic for him after all. This could help.”

“Hmm,” Cozy Glow muttered as she tapped a hoof against her chin. “I don’t know. I doubt a mere human could gain anything from the Crystal Heart. Besides, I don’t see what I would get out of helping you.”

“Well, uh…” Sunset began, not sure what to say that would make the pegasus want to help them. “If you tell us, then we’ll, uh…”

“Be your friends!” Micro Chips exclaimed. “You said that having friends is power, right? Well, we’ll be your friends. Me, the great scholar of magic. Sunset Shimmer here, who is actually the famous traveling artist Flanksy. And Sci-Twi here, who is… um… probably going to end up engaged to the captain of the royal guard. Imagine how beneficial it would be to you to have friends like us on your side.”

Cozy Glow tapped her chin as she considered this. Then a big grin spread across her face as she seemed to come to a conclusion. “You’re right! It would be useful to have friends like that! And you say you’ll be my friends if I tell you where the Crystal Heart is?”

Micro Chips grinned broadly. “Of course. Friends help each other out after all. If you show that you’re willing to help us, then we’d be happy to be your friends. Right, ladies?”

Both Sunset and Twilight nodded. “Oh, yes, most definitely,” the latter replied enthusiastically.

“Well, ok I guess,” Cozy Glow replied. “But just looking, no touching. And you’re not allowed to tell anyone else where it is.”

Micro Chips held up his hand and crossed his heart. “You have my word. And don’t worry, we won’t tell a soul.”

“Ok then, listen closely. On the top of Lord Tirek’s throne, there’s a big crystal. Just use a little shadow magic on it, and it will cast a shadow to reveal some secret stairs that lead to the deepest part of the castle. At the bottom of those stairs, you’ll come to a room with a mirror. That mirror is actually a magic portal to the secret room where King Sombra stays. It’s in there that you’ll find the Crystal Heart.”

“With King Sombra!?” Sunset cried in alarm. “Tirek actually left it with Sombra.”

Cozy Glow giggled. “Of course. It’s not like King Sombra can actually destroy it himself, so it’s safe from him. And no one would dare to try and steal it with him there. There’s only two ways in or out, the passage that King Sombra takes, and Lord Tirek’s mirror entrance.”

Micro Chips tapped his chin. “I see. Getting past Sombra, if you can even find his passage, would be practically impossible, and only someone with magic who knows where Tirek’s secret entrance is would be able to get to it the other way.”

“That’s right,” Cozy Glow confirmed. “So I’m not sure how you would even be able to get there yourself. Not unless you get someone with magic. And, of course,” she smirked, almost mockingly, “you already promised that you wouldn’t tell anyone.”

Micro Chips resisted the urge to let out a sigh of relief. He saw through Cozy Glow’s manipulation. It was a good thing that he hadn’t told her that in addition to being a magic scholar that he could actually use magic as well. As far as Cozy Glow knew, even though she had revealed the location of the Crystal Heart, none of them could get to it.

“You’re right,” he told her. “We promised we wouldn’t tell anyone, and we’ll keep our promise. Because that’s what friends do.”

“Of course,” Cozy Glow agreed. “I certainly look forward to being friends with you.”

“Yes, so do we,” Sunset replied. “It’s too bad we can’t get to the Crystal Heart though. But we could at least take a look at the crystal above Tirek’s throne and study its magical properties.”

Micro Chips snapped his fingers as he caught on to her act. “Yes! Yes, we should go see the crystal. Lets go take a look at it. Thanks again, Cozy Glow.”

“Oh, it was my pleasure,” she said, a little too sweetly. “Happy studies.”

Micro Chips and Sunset headed out of the room. Twilight made to follow, but Cozy Glow flew in front of her, and Twilight came to a stop. The young pegasus stared at her hard for several long moments, almost as if she were suspicious of her. Twilight looked back at her, trying to keep her expression blank.

“Sci-Twi,” Sunset called, using her false name as she made her way back to her and took her hand. “Come on, let’s go.”

Twilight let her lead her away. Cozy Glow watched them go, not taking her eyes off Twilight. But then she smiled pleasantly and fluttered off to another part of the castle.

The trio made their way to Tirek’s throne room. The centaur was not in it, which made exploring it much easier. But there was no need to, for right above the throne, just as Cozy Glow had said, there was a crystal embedded into the top. They had not noticed it before, or had simply overlooked it the last time they had been in here in light of meeting Tirek for the first time.

“Is that it?” Sunset asked, looking up at the crystal.

“I suppose so,” Micro Chips replied. “It’s the only one in here.”

He pulled out his magic storing device and stared at it for a few moments. Sunset glanced at him before looking at the device as well. “Do you have enough left?”

Micro Chips sighed. “I think so, but if I use anymore after that, I don’t think I’ll have enough left to change Twilight back, so this better be what we’re looking for.”

Doing as Cozy Glow said, he cast some shadow magic on the crystal. It turned black, looking eerily like the black crystals that manifested from Sombra’s magic. And just as the pegasus said, it vast a shadow across the floor in front of the throne, and a spiral staircase leading deep down into the castle appeared. It looked like a long way down, but if what Cozy Glow said was true, then this was the way to the Crystal Heart. And to Sombra.

“We better hurry before Tirek or somecreature else comes in here and sees that the way is open,” said Sunset.

Micro Chips nodded in agreement. “You’re right. Lets go. You ready to save the alicorns, Twilight?”

A determined look crossed her face. “Yes, lets go.”

And so they made the long trek down the spiral stairs. It seemed to go on forever, but eventually they made it to the bottom. Sure enough, there was nothing more than a large empty room, with the only thing in it being a mirror hanging on the wall.

“Let me test it out,” said Micro Chips.

He carefully stepped forward, as if afraid that he might set off any hidden traps. But it seemed like he had nothing to worry about, for he reached the mirror without anything happen.

Slowly, he lifted his hand and touched the glass. It began to glow upon contact, and his hand went right through it, as if the glass wasn’t even there. A bark of laughter escaped him and he pulled his hand back before looking back at the others.

“This is it,” he told them. “Cozy Glow was telling the truth. We’re actually going to save the alicorns. Are you ready, Twilight?”

She gave a determine nod. “Yes, lets do it.”

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

Cozy Glow hummed to herself as she flew along, thinking about how she had gained three new friends. She knew that she probably shouldn’t have told them Tirek’s secret about the Crystal Heart, but it wasn’t like they could actually get to it. So there had been no harm.

Still, she couldn’t put her hoof on it, but there was something… strange about that Sci-Twi girl. Well, maybe not strange, but something otherworldly, almost magical. It was as if Cozy Glow had recognized something about her, but just hadn’t realized it yet. She wasn’t too worried about it though; it would probably come to her at some point during the night or something.

As she flew about, she spotted Flash Sentry making his rounds. She smiled and decided to go say hello. After all, that’s what a friend would do. And based on what Micro Chips said about his and Sci-Twi’s relationship, there would soon be an engagement to celebrate. Perhaps they already were engaged and just hadn’t made the announcement yet. But it wouldn’t hurt to let him know that she knew their little secret. Friend were always honest with each other after all.

“Oh, Flash,” she called cheerfully. “Hello there. How are you today?”

Flash stopped walking and looked at her. “Oh, Cozy Glow. Hi, how are you?”

“Oh, I’m just great, thanks. I just wanted to come wish you congratulations.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Congratulations?”

She giggled. “To you and a certain girl. I think it’s great. You two make such a lovely couple. I’m hope we can all become good friends.”

Flash’s eyes narrowed slightly. For some reason, he had never really trusted Cozy Glow. He just couldn’t put his finger on it, but something about her rubbed him the wrong way. “Thanks, I think. I was actually looking for her. Do you know where she is?”

Cozy Glow pointed. “Oh, they went to Tirek’s throne room to look at the crystal above his throne. I don’t know why they’re so interested in it. It’s not like they can activate it without magic.”

Flash gasped. He knew exactly what the crystal could do, having seen Tirek activate it before. He had never been allowed down the secret passage, but he knew that if Tirek caught anyone down there that they would be in very big trouble.

“Twilight!” he exclaimed, and took off towards the throne room to warn them.

Cozy Glow cocked her head to the side as Flash ran out of the room. “Wait, Twilight? I thought her name was Sci-Twi.” She tapped her chin. “Twilight, Twilight. Why does that name sound so familiar?”

Suddenly, it hit her, and she clopped her hooves together. “Oh, that’s right! Twilight Sparkle. That’s the name of the fourth… princess…”

Her eyes widened as she suddenly realized what it was she had noticed about the girl. With it came the realization that she had been tricked. They had fooled her into telling them where the Crystal Heart was. With it they would be able to…

“Oh no,” she said in a low whisper, her cheerful façade melting away to reveal her wicked instability. “No they don’t. Those liars.”

With her face twisting into a mask of fury, she began flying through the castle as she began shouting in a far more menacing voice. “ALICORN!!! TIREK!!! TIREK!!! ALICORN!!! ALICORN!!! TIREK, WHERE ARE YOU!?! THEY FOUND YOUR PASSAGE!!! THEY’RE GOING FOR THE CRYSTAL HEART!!! THEY’RE IN YOUR THRONE ROOM!!! ALICORN!!! ALICORN!!!”

Her voice echoed through the entire castle, eventually reaching Tirek’s ears. An angry snarl twisted the centaur’s features, and he began to summon up all the magic within him. His muscles bulged and he grew larger, nearly doubling in size, and what appeared to be a miniature sun of magic appeared between the curve of his horns above his head.

His footsteps shook the castle as he charged towards his throne room. This little game of cat and mouse they had been playing was over. It was time he took what belonged to him, and made those other fools that had come to take what was his pay for their meddling.

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

Cozy Glow’s screams hadn’t just reached Tirek, but had also echoed down the spiral staircase to reach Twilight, Sunset, and Micro Chips. They realized that the jig was up. Tirek would now know exactly who they were and what they were doing. If they didn’t act now, then it was all over.

“We have to go, fast,” Micro Chips told them. “Twilight, you first.”

She nodded and stepped through the mirror, vanishing through it. Micro Chips and Sunset stared. Despite having tested it out before, it was still amazing to see someone disappear through a mirror.

The angry bellow of Tirek was heard above them, and Micro Chips gave Sunset a shove towards the mirror. “Go on!”

She didn’t need to be told twice, and immediately stepped through the mirror. Micro Chips was about to go through as well, but he was suddenly knocked off his feet as Tirek came crashing down in the middle of the room, having jumped from up above.

Micro Chips rolled over onto his back and looked up at the centaur. Tirek was now bigger and more menacing looking than ever, and he did not look happy. He raised his fist and brought them down, fully intending to crush Micro Chips. The magic scholar rolled to the side and got to his feet. Tirek was now blocking his path to the mirror, and he made a rush towards the other side of the room as the centaur stomped after him.

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

Sunset looked around at the new room she was in. It looked just like the rest of the castle, cold and dreary, but there was no doubt that this was where they needed to be. For resting on a pedestal in the middle of the room was none other than the Crystal Heart.

Twilight was already standing beside it, unable to tear her eyes away from the beautiful artifact. It sparkled and shined like any crystal should, but there was something wrong, and Twilight was well aware of it.

She turned to look at Sunset, her eyes wide with worry. “Something’s not right. This is definitely the Crystal Heart, but it should be shining with light and love. It’s not emitting any magic at all.”

Sunset walked over to it and lifted it off its pedestal. “That’s because Tirek deactivated it, remember? The important thing is that we have it. We’ll figure out how to make it work again later.”

Twilight nodded, but Sunset didn’t see as she looked back at the mirror, wondering what was taking Micro Chips so long. “Where’s Micro Chips?”

Twilight looked back as well. “Wasn’t he right behind you?”

“He was, but…” She trailed off as the mirror began to glow, and someone emerged, but it wasn’t who Sunset had been expecting. “Flash Sentry?”

The captain of the royal guard gave them a smile. “Hello, ladies.”

“Flash!” Twilight cried as she rushed to his side, overjoyed to see him.

He turned to her, and his smile faltered. “You were going to leave without me?”

She shook her head furiously. “I would have come back. I swear I would have. Nothing could have stopped me from returning to you.”

“Never mind that now!” Sunset snapped impatiently. “Where’s Micro Chips?”

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

Back on the other side of the mirror, Micro Chips had ducked beneath the low part of the spiral stairs to where the oversized Tirek couldn’t reach him. That didn’t stop him from trying though as his big hand grabbed at him, just shy from seizing a fistful of his clothes.

Tirek let out an angry bellow at being unable to get to his prey and began pounding on the stairs. They began to crumble apart as his fists came down on the stairs again and again. Micro Chips realized that if he didn’t get to the mirror soon, there wouldn’t be any place he would be able to hide from the centaur.

Taking a deep breath, he dove out from beneath the stairs, rolling across the floor between Tirek’s legs. The centaur growled and turned to grab him, but Micro Chips was already making a dash for the mirror. Tirek sent a blast of magic after him from between his horns, and Micro Chips dove through the air and into the mirror as the magic blasted the floor apart. He landed on the ground hard enough to knock the breath out of him, and heard the voices of his friends.

“I don’t leave my friends behind,” Sunset was saying, just as she and the others heard the thud of Micro Chips’ landing and turned to him.

“I’m ok,” he told them. “I made it.” Looking up, he was surprised to see Flash standing next to Twilight. “Wait, how did you get here?”

Flash nodded to the mirror. “Same way you did. When I found out what you guys were doing, I came to warn you. I was nearly at the bottom of the stairs when Tirek fell past me. I saw Sunset go through the mirror, that’s how I knew how to get here. I snuck by Tirek when he was trying to get to you.”

He was at least glad that he had been able to give the order to a passing servant that everyone was to evacuate the castle since he knew that Tirek was going to go on a rampage, but he did feel bad that he hadn’t been able to help Micro Chips when Tirek was trying to get him, instead having used the distraction to get to the mirror without being noticed, and he gave the magical scholar an apologetic look. “Sorry I didn’t help you, but I was worried for the girls. This is where Sombra stays after all.”

Micro Chips opened his mouth to tell him that he understood when the mirror suddenly exploded. All for of them jumped back in surprise as it fell off the wall, the glass shattered into a thousand pieces.

“What happened?” Sunset exclaimed.

Micro Chips gulped nervously. “It’s Tirek, he destroyed the mirror. Now there’s no way back.”

“So we’re trapped in here?”

He shook his head. “No, there’s only one way out.” He looked at the others in fear. “Through King Sombra’s passage.”

Chapter 9: Final Confrontation

Chapter 9: Final Confrontation

It was a long walk through the tunnels beneath the castle, but it was the only way they could go now that Tirek had trapped them inside. Sunset carried the Crystal Heart as Micro Chips told their story to Flash, leaving nothing out, including who Twilight truly was.

“And so now you know the whole story,” he concluded. “The Crystal Heart is our only chance to defeat Sombra and free the alicorns. They’re sealed up in Tartarus, powerless and unable to escape without their magic. We’re their only chance.”

A sigh escaped Flash. “There were whispers among the staff that Tirek had kidnapped the alicorns, but I never really believed it, not even when the sun stopped rising. It just seemed like such an impossibility.”

“And perhaps it would have been,” Micro Chips told him, also agreeing that it sounded impossible, “had it not been for Sombra assisting him. But I’m afraid it’s true. He has them all now. All except one. The Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle.”

Flash glanced at Twilight, but she simply stared at the wall, as if she were ashamed for having kept such a secret from him and couldn’t bring herself to face him.

Flash stared at her for several long moments before turning back to Micro Chips. “Alicorn, dragon, griffon, or changeling. No name you give her would scare or frighten me, or change how I feel.” He looked back at Twilight. “I love whom I love.”

She turned to look at him with wide eyes, as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This only made Micro Chips feel worse as he laid out the sad truth to them. “That’s a very nice sentiment, but when I change her back to her true form-”

“I love whom I love!” Flash said insistently.

“That’s enough,” Twilight interrupted as she went to stand beside Flash. “I won’t go any further. Not if it means I have to go back to being an alicorn.”

“Micro Chips just shook his head. “There’s no choice,” he told her sadly. “We have to go on.”

Almost desperately, Twilight grabbed onto Flash’s arm. “Don’t let him change me back! We might still be able to get by Sombra. He’s only interested in finding the last alicorn. If we leave the Crystal Heart behind, he might just let us walk right out. We can all escape together. I’m sure the unicorns will find another way to make the sun rise again eventually, just as they did before Celestia was around.”

“Even if they do, what about Celestia herself?” Micro Chips demanded harshly. “And Luna, and Cadance? Do we just abandon them? If we don’t defeat Sombra and set them free, then all the alicorns in the world will remain trapped in Tartarus forever. All except one, and she will grow old and die.”

Tears sprang up in Twilight’s eyes, and she pulled at her hair at the unfairness of it all. “It’s not fair! Everything dies eventually!” She grabbed onto Flash in desperation. “I want to die when you die! I’m no alicorn, no princess! I’m a human girl, and I love you! Please, Flash, don’t let him! We won’t be able to be together if I go back to being an alicorn!”

Flash placed his hand on hers, squeezing it tightly, his eyes sad as he stared at her. “Twilight…”

“Then lets call it quits here!” Micro Chips shouted, angry at himself for having to cause them this pain, angry at the fates for putting them through this torment, angry at the world itself and the unfairness of it all. “I don’t even know if the magic I have left can change her back if that’s how she feels. So lets just forget it all. Just marry Flash and live happily ever after!”

“Yes!” Twilight insisted, looking at Flash hopefully, pleadingly. “That’s what I want.”

“Twilight…” he said again, his voice filled with pain. “You know we can’t. No matter how much I wish otherwise, we can’t let things go on like this. The world needs the alicorns to return. I’m afraid we can’t be selfish, not in this.”

Tears flowed freely down Twilight’s cheeks, but she did not argue. She knew she couldn’t, because he was right, no matter how much she wished otherwise. It felt as if her heart was cracking apart in her chest, but she knew there was no choice in the matter, they had to push on ahead.

Flash gave her a sad smile and held his hand out to her. Twilight took it, and they continued on their way through the passage. He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze as he glanced at her. “It will be alright, Twilight. Somehow. The story isn’t over yet. Who knows what may still happen.”

Sunset, who had been quiet for a long time now, finally spoke up. “But what if this story doesn’t have a happy ending.”

“There are no happy endings,” Micro Chips told her, “because nothing ever truly ends.”

His words did little to comfort Sunset as she stared at Twilight and Flash as they walked hand in hand. All her earlier fears of how a relationship between the two of them would affect things was now rearing its ugly head, and she just couldn’t bring herself to accept the heartbreak she knew the future held for them.

“Micro Chips,” she said in a firm voice as she came to a decision, “leave her be. Let her stay the way she is.”

“That’s not in the story,” he told her, letting his frustration at the situation seep into his voice. “Flash knows that and so does she.”

Sunset stopped walking as she angrily turned to him. “You don’t care! You don’t care what happens to her, or the other alicorns! All you care about are your stupid magic studies!”

He turned to her as well, now equally as angry. “I wish I didn’t care. I wish the only thing I cared about really were my studies! It would make all this so much easier! But I do care! And that’s what makes this so hard, because I do care!” He glared at her long and hard before the anger seemed to drain out of him, and his shoulders slumped. “I do…”

They all fell silent after that, but it seemed that their angry cries had already caused too much damaged. Drawn by the sound of their screaming, a wall of shadows made its way down the tunnel towards them.

They all seemed to pick up on it at the same time, feeling the cold, unrelenting evil they had felt when Sombra had appeared to them the day Twilight had become a human. And sure enough, the shadows manifested into the evil unicorn king once more.

“Hello, princess,” Sombra drawled in a menacing voice as he moved towards Twilight. “I found you.”

He laughed mockingly before snarling at Twilight. Flash gripped her hand before pulling her away from the evil unicorn, and they began to flee in the opposite direction.

“He knows!” Micro Chips exclaimed as Flash and Twilight rushed past him, back the way they came. “He knows who she is!”

Sombra sneered. “You can’t hide from me anymore.”

He leapt out of the shadows as a stream of darkness and buried under ground. The ground began cracking apart as he moved beneath it with black crystals bursting up from the cracks. He surfaced in front of Twilight and Flash, cutting them off. They came to a stop in front of him, and he fired a blast of magic at them. They both dove in opposite directions to avoid the beam, and a large black crystal shot up from the ground where it struck.

“Flash!” Twilight called as she reached out to him from on the ground.

He reached towards her as well. “Twilight!”

A black crystal burst from the ground between their outstretched hands, causing them both to recoil in surprise. Sombra chuckled as he stepped out of the shadows, moving closer to Twilight. Flash immediately jumped to his feet and moved in front of her, unsheathing his sword and pointing it at the evil unicorn. Twilight reached out for Flash once more, but he did not see since his back was to her as he protected her from the evil Sombra. The evil unicorn just sneered, as if he found the royal guard’s actions humorous.

A tendril of darkness shot out of the shadows and slammed into Flash. He crashed into the wall, and a large crystal burst from the ground in front of him, trapping him against the wall. Sombra chuckled, and then turned back towards Twilight and began stalking towards her once more.

“He’s going to take her!” Sunset shouted.

“No, he won’t!” Micro Chips declared, and pulled out his magic storage device. Getting as close as he dared, he opened the device to unleash the rest of his magic. “Twilight!”

She looked back at him, seeing the magic spilling out, then looked back at Flash. Sombra had already past him, having lost all interest in the royal guard. She looked back at Micro Chips one last time as he held the power to change her back, then turned away, her choice made as she ran towards Flash, and Sombra.

The evil unicorn chuckled as she rushed towards the man she loved, and then, as if to torment her, fired a blast of magic into her path. The blast threw her backwards as it produced another crystal, cutting her off from Flash further.

Unable to hold onto it any longer, the magic Micro Chips held burst outward, filling the tunnel, and Sombra snarled as a repeat of the events from the night he had lost Twilight repeated. This time, he did not take his eyes off her as magic surrounded her, determine not to lose his prey a second time.

“Flash!” Twilight shouted as she reached out for him one last time.

Then the magic flow over her, and she felt herself beginning to change. She clung to herself, as if desperately trying to hold onto her human form, but there was no stopping it. Her body shifted, her face elongating, her hands and feet becoming hooves, wings sprouting from her back and a horn growing out of her head as her clothes vanished. And for the first time in months, Twilight Sparkle became an alicorn once more.

“Twilight…” Flash whispered in awe as he stared at her true form in amazement.

“Princess!” Sombra bellowed upon seeing Twilight as an alicorn once more, his cry shaking the entire tunnel.

He charged forward, seemingly done with playing games with her. Twilight fled as the same terror from her previous encounter with the evil unicorn overwhelmed her once more. Sombra gave chase as Twilight sped down the tunnel, and Sunset and Micro Chips jumped out of their path as they raced by.

The end of the tunnel soon came in sight, and Twilight saw that it was blocked off by black crystal. She sent a blast of magic at it, and the crystal wall broke apart. She leapt through the opening and out into the night, and Sombra rushed out after her.

Sunset and Micro Chips helped Flash get out from behind the black crystal he was pinned behind, and they made a dash for the exit. When they made it outside, they saw a repeat of what they saw during their first encounter with Sombra. Twilight was on the beach, completely surrounded by shadows that prevented her from getting away as the evil unicorn loomed over her.

Twilight looked around desperately for a way out, but she was completely blocked in, and she knew from experience that she wouldn’t be able to fly or teleport away. The only way she could go was down the only path the shadows left her. That path led to the crevice Tirek had showed her up on the tower. From down here, she could now see the doors to Tartarus hidden within the crevice.

Sombra chuckled, and his eyes flashed with power. Slowly, the doors to Tartarus opened, as if he were revealing to Twilight what her fate was going to be. A gasp escaped her as she saw inside the magic prison. Three statues of black crystal, shaped just like alicorns, could be seen inside, and Twilight realized that these statues were in fact Celestia, Luna, and Cadance encased within Sombra’s black crystal.

She began looking for a way out, any way besides towards the doors of Tartarus. She looked up towards the castle above, and could just barely make out Tirek standing at the top of the tallest tower looking down at her. Flying beside him was Cozy Glow with a particularly nasty smile on her face as she watched the scene below.

“Soon he will take your magic, princess,” Sombra mocked with a sneer. “And then you will join the others.”

Sunset and Micro Chips looked on helplessly. In Sunset’s hands, the Crystal Heart lay dormant and without power. She shook it desperately to try and get a reaction out of it, but the magical artifact just stayed the way it was.

Seeing the trouble Twilight was in, Flash stormed over to Micro Chips. “Do something! You have magic! Help her already!”

Micro Chips shook his head. “I can’t, I used up all the rest of the magic I had to change her back. I’m completely out.” He held up his magic storing device. It was broken and completely fried from the outburst of magic it had unleashed. “Even if I wasn’t, the device his shot.” He looked back at Twilight sadly, feeling as if the situation were hopeless without the Crystal Heart’s power. “I’m afraid not all the magic in the world can help her now.”

“We can’t just do nothing!” Sunset cried. “We have to help her somehow! You’re the magic expert, so think of something!”

Hating his inability to do anything, Micro Chips angrily shouted, “I’m just a scholar! It’s not my job to save princesses!”

Flash looked back at Twilight and Sombra, and a determine look crossed his face. “You’re right. That’s a job for the royal guard.”

Unsheathing his sword once more, he ran over to the Twilight and Sombra, jumping up onto one of the many black crystals that had sprouted up along the beach. Leaping from the black crystal, he raised his sword, and brought it down on Sombra.

The evil unicorn bellowed as his horn was severed from his head. Flash landed in front of him and put himself between Twilight and Sombra, pointing his sword at the latter in challenge. On the ground, Sombra’s severed horn dissolved into shadow, and a black crystal sprouted where it had been, as if the ground itself had been contaminated.

Sombra glared at Flash, looking angry at first, but then he grinned as a new horn grew in place of the old one. A wicked chuckle escaped him as he stared at Flash hungrily. The royal knight held his ground, keeping his sword pointed at the evil unicorn, but Sombra didn’t look bothered by it in the least.

Raising his head, Sombra’s horn glowed with power, and he sent a powerful blast of magic at Flash. The beam was so immense that he was completely consumed by it. Sunset gave a cry of “NO!!!” as Micro Chips speechlessly looked on in horror.

When the blast from Sombra’s magic died down, a large black crystal now stood where Flash once did. Only his hand, still gripping his sword, remained outside it, but his grip soon went slack, and the weapon fell to the sand as Sombra chuckled.

Twilight stared at the black crystal that had encased Flash in absolute horror. Her wide eyes filled with tears of sorrow and anger, and an anguished scream tore its way out of her mouth as she was overcome by grief the likes of which even her genius mind couldn’t comprehend.

Eyes burning, she turned to Sombra furiously, and with an enraged cry, she darted around the black crystal, raised up onto her hind legs as she summoned forth all her power, and fired a blast of magic at the evil unicorn, putting everything she had into the attack.

Sombra just laughed and fired his own blast of magic, and it collided with Twilight’s. The two beams pushed against each other as the two fought. Sombra continued to grin in amusement as Twilight clenched her teeth tightly, straining to unleash more magic as her tears of heartbreak poured down her face. However, slowly, Sombra’s magic began to overtake hers, and he took a step closer as his beam pushed back Twilight’s.

Twilight’s hooves dug into the ground, leaving grooves behind as Sombra’s magic pushed her back. With tears blurring her vision, Twilight glanced back at the black crystal encasing Flash, not even sure if he was alive. She looked up into the sneering face of Sombra and grit her teeth, pouring out even more magic than she knew she was capable of. The magic beam that had steadily been moving closer to her, slowed to a stop, but Sombra just chuckled and unleashed more magic himself, and it steadily began pushing towards Twilight once again.

Sunset and Micro Chips looked on in horror as Sombra began to overpower Twilight. But as they looked on, the Crystal Heart in Sunset’s arms began to flicker with light. They looked down at it in surprise as it began to pulse and shine.

“Look,” Sunset whispered. “The Crystal Heart.”

“Yes, I see it,” Micro Chips replied, not understanding.

It began to shine brighter, and suddenly floated out of Sunset’s hands. It flew through the air and settled over Twilight where it continued to glow. A magic aura emerged from Twilight, and another one just like it came from within the black crystal that encased Flash. The Crystal Heart shined brighter and brighter, and the shadows that surrounded the land began to recede as the magical artifact began spinning around.

“That’s it!” Micro Chips exclaimed. “The Crystal Heart is fueled by love. It’s reacting to the love between the two of them. That’s awaking the Crystal Heart back up!”

Faster and faster the Crystal Heart spun, now glowing brighter than the sun. Twilight felt its power flow into her, almost as if she and the Crystal Heart had become one. Then, suddenly, the power of the Crystal Heart burst forth in a mighty magical blast, the radius flowing outward to consume all of Tirek’s kingdom.

The magic flowed over Sombra, and cracks began appearing all over his body. He let out a bellow of rage before he was completely obliterated by it. All his shadows across the land dispersed, and the black crystals he had created shattered and vanished, as if they were never there. The magic even flowed into Tartarus, and the crystal encasing that surrounded the three alicorns shattered as well.

High above in the tower, Tirek recoiled as the magic flowed over him. He let out an enraged cry of his own as all the magic he had ever consumed came spilling out of his mouth and went flying off in different directions to return to those he stole it from. Tirek shrank in size until he was less than half his height. His horns became small stubs on the top of his head, and his muscles completely vanished, leaving him as little more than skin and bones. His youth vanished as well, leaving him old a decrepit, and even a good deal of his color lost its luster, leaving him less saturated.

Hovering beside him, Cozy Glow looked around nervously, as if she were afraid she were in trouble. And with good cause too. Rising up into the air in front of them, were all four alicorn princess, Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Twilight, all returned to full power.

Feeling weaker than he had ever felt in his life, Tirek looked up at the alicorns. His eyes landed on Twilight, and his face twisted with fury.

“THE LAST!!!” he bellowed, shaking his fist up at her. “I KNEW YOU WERE THE LAST!!!”

Together, all four alicorns fired a blast of magic at him and Cozy Glow. They were both suddenly locked in a steel cage as the tower began to collapse from the force of the magic blast. Together, the alicorns levitated Tirek and Cozy Glow’s cage down below, and set it down inside Tartarus. The doors slammed shut and locked behind them.

Up above, the collapsing tower fell down on top of the already unstable castle, and the whole place began to crumble apart. The alicorns flew out of the path of the falling rubble as it came down upon the entrance to Tartarus, blocking the doors while completely hiding it from sight, truly sealing it up once and for all.

Chapter 10: A Human Heart

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