“Faster! If we lose her, we might never be able to find her again before it’s too late!” shouted Rainbow as she glanced back at the others. She pumped her wings harder as her body cut through the brisk evening air. It was a struggle to keep her rainbow shine from trailing behind her as she increased her speed. It was a delicate balance of focused energy she rarely practiced, but the chase as a stealth mission demanded it.

Ocellus struggled to keep up at the tail end of the pack, “Celestia, she’s fast! How could she be such a strong flyer? She never even touched the heart!”

Twilight looked back at Ocellus from the middle as she flew behind Rainbow, “She didn’t have to! She had been absorbing the light and love of the empire the whole time just by being there!”

The sun continued to lower as the chase went on, transitioning the sky into night. The air began to warm the further south they traveled. From their vantage point, Chrysalis was an ever shrinking shape in the sky, only spotable by her long trailing streak of lime green.

Rainbow shouted back to the others in frustration, “I can be so much faster than this!”

“I know, Rainbow, but we can’t let her know that we’re on to her, and we can’t lose sight of you in case she tries to copy you and confuse us!” argued Twilight.

Ocellus strained to keep up, “I– I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up, Twilight.”

“I know Ocellus, just keep trying. You can do this!”

They were now flying over Ponyville. The land below was dotted with specks of lantern lights. They could see the Friendship Express pulling into the station as they cruised by overhead. In a few moments, they were already beginning to cross the town’s border, into the Everfree.

Rainbow shouted back, “She’s changing directions!”

The three of them looked on ahead to see the streak of light they were following was indeed curving slightly to the left.

“Where is she going?” asked Rainbow.

Ocellus squinted as she looked, “...I have an idea.”

“Looks like this path is heading straight to the badlands,” said Twilight.

“She’s– I think she’s heading home.”

Twilight contemplated the situation as they flew on. “Yeah, it looks that way. Can you be sure, Ocellus?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Exhaustion was quickly setting in and it had become apparent on Ocellus’ voice.

Twilight looked back, “Very good, Ocellus. Appleloosa is just that way. Why don’t you go there and rest for a bit. Rainbow and I will continue.”

“Just the two of you? Are you sure?”
“It’s okay. Go, and in the morning, go and report this information to my brother.”

“I’m sorry, Twilight. Good luck!” said Ocellus as she broke off from the group, lowering both her speed and altitude.

“Uh, Twilight?” shouted back Rainbow.

Twilight looked forward again, “Yes Rainbow?”

“We lost her. She’s gone!” shouted Rainbow as she pointed forward.

Chrysalis’ ribbon of light had ceased to stretch through the sky in the distance, no longer highlighting her position. It quickly faded away leaving no trace of the bug queen in sight.

“That’s not good,” said Twilight as she scanned the horizon looking for a tiny black target against a now inky black sky.

“What now?” asked Rainbow.

“Maintain our head. Keep a lookout,” ordered Twilight, “and keep our trails hidden.”

“Do you think she knows we’re following her still?”

“She might. I don’t know, but if she stopped or slowed down, that will let us catch up to her, at least.”

“If we can find her, that is.”

“If we can’t catch her, plan B is to warn Thorax and the others.”

“But she’ll get there before us, won’t she?”

Twilight shook her head, “I’m in teleportation range, have been for a while now.”

Rainbow looked back in frustration, “What? Then why didn’t–”

“She’ll be able to see it and would know for sure that we’re on to her! If that happens, she might–”

Chrysalis shot up from below at blinding speed, fully driving her mass into Twilight’s belly, “Change my mind?”

The wind knocked out of her, Twilight spun and tumbled through the air from the force of the impact, before plummeting unconsciously towards the ground.

Rainbow froze mid flight and angled to charge Chrysalis.

Chrysalis just waved a hoof at Rainbow while charging her horn, “Not-ah-ahh.” Her horn glowed brightly before emitting a bright flash to briefly blind the pony, “Not tonight! Let’s see how well you know your friend, shall we?”

Rainbow pulled back, covering and rubbing her eyes. When she could see again, she looked down to see two Twilight Sparkles quickly approaching the ground. “Oh shit! Which one?!”

She could only watch as she debated her next move. What if she saved the wrong one? What if she attacked the wrong one? She shouted down to them, “Twilight! Wake up!!”

Twilight was unresponsive as she fell like a rag-doll, the same as Twilight, who was falling along right beside her.

Rainbow frantically searched memories for any clue as to what to do next. “Buck it!” she announced, and dove down at top speed, her hooves stretched out in front. She forcefully connected with one Twilight, and then the next, driving them both into the ground, as a sonic rainboom spread out from her along the sparse grass, trimming the weeds and stripping the bark from nearby trees.

As the dust settled, Rainbow could see that while they both were Twilight Sparkle, they were at least both unconscious. “Great… Perfect.” She didn’t know if she was being sarcastic or not. “Actually…”

* * *

“Halt, trespasser! This is as far as you go!” Shouted the changeling warrior.

“Give it a rest, Pharynx. I’m here to see your brother.” Behind her were two large pony-sized canvas bags she had been dragging through the badlands by rope.

The sun was steadily peaking over the horizon. It had been a long night for Rainbow and the other two, having trekked the terrain by hoof.

“I order you to stop!” shouted Pharynx, “Before I feast on my breakfast for the day.”

Rainbow just kept on pulling, as she passed Pharynx, “No you won’t. Now are you going to help me with this or just stand there?”

Pharynx gasped at the display of disrespect, “I will do no such thing! What’s in the bags?”

Rainbow stopped and glared at the dark-colored bug.

“Well?” asked Pharynx.

Rainbow dropped the ropes she had been pulling and went to open the first bag, revealing a still unconscious but tied-up Twilight Sparkle.

“What the–” started Pharynx.

Rainbow then went to reveal the contents of the second bag, also an unconscious bound Twilight Sparkle.

The two of them just stared at Rainbow’s catch for a moment, looking back between the two for any differences, the only notable difference being that one was in somewhat worse shape than the other.

“Now you can help me and go get your brother, or buzz the buck right off!” ordered Dash.

* * *

Thorax stood with Rainbow and Twilight at the gates to the changeling kingdom. “Thank you again, for bringing her to us in one piece. We will make sure she answers for all she has done. We are hoping that seeing how we are living now, peaceful and happy, will change her mind about a few things.”

Twilight winced as she bowed lightly to the pack’s leader, her bandages restricting her movement, “Thank you for accepting her into your custody. I feel it will all be for the best that her reformation starts with her being at home. We’ve all made mistakes, and keeping her forever imprisoned as she was, was only adding to those mistakes. Please do report on the progress you have with her.”

“One last question, Twilight, if you can answer for me,” started Thorax.

“Of course!” replied Twilight, her ears ready to listen.

“How did she escape the stone?”

Twilight looked down at the ground, “Unfortunately, I can’t answer that. We’ve only just discovered it and are looking into it very carefully.”

“What about Tirek?”

She looked back up at Thorax, “He is still frozen, but we’ve removed the statue to a more secure location where it can be closely monitored. It seems that times are changing, and we need to be very careful in the days to come.”

“Well, we’ll do our part. Any way we can help out.”

Twilight nodded to Thorax, and gave a final careful bow, “Until next time, then.”

Thorax majestically bowed back, “Until next time.”

Rainbow offered a bow of her own before she and Twilight turned and began a long walk back through the badlands towards pony civilization.

“Phew!” said Rainbow. “I’m glad that’s over with.”

Twilight winced as she limped along, “Yeah, me too. But Rainbow…”

“Yeah?”

“Did you really have to hit that hard? Healing magic has certainly come a long way, but… I’m going to be feeling this for the next moon and a half!”

“Oh. Yeah, sorry about that!”

“I just can’t wait to get back and get started with it. I’m due for one heck of a spa day, right about now.”

“Yeah. Me too. Me too…” replied Rainbow as they continued through the desert.

Twilight looked quizzically over at Rainbow. “Really?”

Rainbow just looked back over at Twilight with a sly grin before laughing. As much as it hurt, Twilight couldn’t help but to join in.

Author's Note

And that's it for now! Thanks for reading, guys. I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I did coming up with it. Again, I ask for your feedback; the good and the bad.

Is there anything you felt was missing or needed more (or less) of? let me know! We're not done yet!! I'll be starting the next one soon. We'll be entering new territory as we are now all caught up on all that I have written so far. I have some ideas and direction that I want to go with, but for now, the future is mostly a blank slate!

Get your suggestions and ideas in and you just might see them taken and ran with in the next installment.

Thanks again!