“How’d you break it?” asked Smolder.

“The wall?” asked Thorax.

“Yeah.”

“I used an old Changeling demolition spell. It was designed for destroying Changeling rock. Chrysalis eventually scrapped it, because it was too inefficient for anything else.”

“Why did it work?” asked Twilight weakly. “None of my spells worked.”

“Your spells were well known,” Thorax said, “and so Theo must have blocked them with a charm or something. My spell was out of fashion, plus it was a Changeling exclusive, so Theo didn’t know about it.”

“Oh,” said Dash.

“We made it to the platform,” said Smolder.

Cadence, Gallus, and Fluttershy were already standing there.

“Gosh, what happened to you?” asked Gallus. “It looks like you got hit by a tsunami or something.”

“Eh,” said Smolder, waggling a claw. “I’d say you get around… an eighty-seven percent. Because the tsunami only happened at the end. Also you missed the whole five hour chase sequence, and Theo locking us in a flooding room.”

“You ran into Theo?” asked Cadence worriedly.

Twilight nodded. “We made it out though.”

Dash nodded. “And took Radcliffe out of commission as well.”

“Really?” asked Gallus excitedly.

“Yes,” said Thorax in a flatline tone. “More ponies getting hurt.”

That dampened the mood.

“Forever,” said Thorax. “Forever.”

Dash sighed. “We just have to stop Theo. Then all this violence ends.”

Thorax nodded. “That’s still gonna be really hard though.”

“Well,” said Fluttershy. “There is good news. We found a place to stay, and we have a complete family tree for everypony in Canterlot.”

“A family tree?” asked Twilight. “No offense, but how is that helpful?”

“You have Theo’s file right?” asked Gallus.

“Oh!” said Dash, pulling out the scroll. She’d completely forgotten about it in light of recent events.

“Let’s walk,” said Cadence, “We should make it to our temporary home in less than an hour.”

“Good,” said Smolder. “It’s getting dark.”

“You have the file,” said Gallus. “It should state anypony who Theo worked with during his time in the guard. And then we can check all the names, and estimate how many ponies Theo has under his control. Then we can decide how aggressively to play.”

“That sounded thought out,” Thorax said.

“Well to be fair, we were waiting at least half an hour for you to show,” Cadence said. “Though as you ran into Theo, it’s not really too surprising.”

“I actually have a question,” said Dash suddenly. “We’re all talking about me, Twily, Thorax, and Smolder’s adventure.” She frowned. “But no one’s mentioned the fact that Gallus and Fluttershy are wounded, and that Cadence seems to have been downright lacerated. So what happened on your side of the adventure?”

“We ran into Raven and Bon Bon,” said Gallus. “They chased us into a supermarket. Then the power went out, and we wound up getting an overly long fight sequence.”

“Yikes,” said Twilight.

“On the bright side,” Gallus paused, looking at Thorax. “Well maybe dark side, I’m pretty sure that both Raven and Bon Bon are dead.”

Thorax scoffed. “No surprise. Even more deaths, but who cares now?”

“We didn’t really have a choice,” Gallus retorted. “It was kill or be killed. And we chose the option where no good guys die!”

“Fine,” said Thorax hollowly. “At least you had reasonable logic. I suppose.”

Gallus seemed surprised. “So you're not really mad?”

“Not really,” Thorax replied, “more sad really. I mean, even if they were totally evil, they still had lives. And Bon Bon was even married.”

“They found Bon Bon,” said Fluttershy in a much quieter tone than usual (which was already very soft). “So she might not be dead.”

The group finished the rest of the walk in silence. Dash wasn’t sure, but she thought Cadence might have let a tear fall.

~~~~

Shining Armor was in a state of shock. First Twily had shown up at a military point. Second, Theo had resurfaced after nearly four years. And third, the Anti-Terrorisim Squad (ATS) apprehended five known criminals, and a serial killer. In one day.

Naturally it was a lot to take in.

The worst part, however, was that Theo’s file had disappeared from the crypts, and it seemed the only thieves possible were Twily and her friends.

Shining had immediately tried to push it off on Theo, but had ultimately failed, when Alias (head of the ATS) picked up Twily’s magic traces all over the case.

Shining was not looking forward to the meeting he was about to enter.

He opened a door, and began walking up a spiral staircase. He thought about Twily.

If she’d stolen Theo’s file, she'd have committed a crime, and Twily certainly wouldn’t do that unless there was a very good reason. Upon further thinking, Shining realized that the most pressing reason for her to do that, would be if Theo was hunting her. It made sense, matching with the fact that Theo had immediately attacked her. It also matched the fact that she and her friends had seemingly vanished from Equestria. But that was very concerning.

Twily was being hunted.

By Theo. He was the wildcard, as he had no real reason to hunt Twily. Sure, Theo could have been angry for being disqualified in the race to become the captain of the Royal Guard. That would have made sense. But simple anger wasn’t a good enough reason for attempting mass murder. That would need something worse. Spite. Fury. Rage. All of which weren't plausible for what had happened. Which led Shining to his next logical assumption: Theo was mentally ill. It matched up well enough, and it would explain why he was so willing to attempt murder multiple times. The only major flaw with that idea, was Shining himself. Theo had every reason to be angry with Shining, but had no good reasons for attacking Twily. Which made Shining think about who’d been with his sister. Thorax, Rainbow Dash, and the orange dragon who attended Twily’s school of friendship. The most plausible target there was Thorax.

If Thorax was the one who was being hunted, the dynamics would be very different. It made sense why Twily was involved, as she was friends with Thorax.

Shining reached the top of the stairs. There was a single door on the landing. Shining pressed his hoof to a scanner and entered.

The room was dimly lit by a single light hanging over a battered table. There wasn’t anything special about the room. There was a lot special about its occupant.

Alias was the head of the ATS and a former member of the CIA. He was a spy at heart, and the pony that Shining had climbed the stairs to meet.

Alias checked his watch. “You’re late.”

Shining sat down in a chair opposite Alias.

“I had to stop by the infirmary,” Shining said.

“Whatever,” said Alias. “Who’s involved in this mess?”

“Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Thorax, Smolder, Theo, Radcliffe, and a few others,” said Shining.

Alias was quiet for a moment. “Theo’s back?” he asked finally.

“Yes,” said Shining quietly.

“Have you checked his file?” asked Alias.

“That was the one thing that was taken.”

Alias frowned. “By who?”

Shining was a little startled by that. “I thought you found Twily’s magic traces on the case.”

“That’s interesting,” said Alias. “Because I found no such thing.”

Shining felt as though a weight had been lifted off his chest.

Alias continued. “The case had some hoofprints on it, but they were all unreadable. And around the whole hallway we found what appeared to be fireworks detritus.”

“Why would somepony set off fireworks down there?” asked Shining.

“Great question,” said Alias. “I can answer you. They were weaponized.”

“Fireworks being used as weapons?” Shining said. “I thought all fireworks were made non-lethal.”

“Apparently somepony found a way to get rid of the enchantment that makes them so,” said Alias.

Shining frowned. “Why wasn’t this in the report I received?”

“Because the report was tampered with,” said Alias. “D’you know about type-81 magic flyers?”

“Yeah,” said Shining. “They’re what everyone sends reports on.”

Alias shook his head. “Still?”

“Yes?”

“Well then,” said Alias, “you obviously don’t know how easy it is to tamper with them.”

Shining shook his head. “How do you even tamper with a piece of paper?”

“The enchantments on the ‘piece of paper’ are supposed to make it so that nopony can change them,” Alias explained. “Nopony realized that you could just get rid of the enchantment?”

Alias phrased the last part as a question.

“It’s not my job to deal with how tamperable the reports are,” Shining said irritably.

Alias waved this off. “I never said it was. I just said that somepony tampered with them.”

“Wait,” said Shining, “somepony tampered with them? What does that mean?”

Alias sighed. “It means we have a mole.”

~~~~

“We’re here,” said Cadence, as they turned a bend. There was a break in the hedge they were walking beside, and there was a path, leading towards a handsome manor.

“That might be better than a five-star hotel,” Smolder said, nodding.

They walked up to the front door, and Cadence pulled out a key, and unlocked it. Inside was a long hallway, with a staircase leading off to one side. Everything was dusty.

“Glad we made it,” said Thorax. “It just got dark.”

Sure enough, the sun had just set, and darkness was approaching rapidly.

“Let’s get some rest,” said Twilight.

“Yeah,” said Dash, yawning. “I’m tired.”

“We can check Theo’s file tomorrow,” said Thorax.

They headed upstairs, and Cadence summoned beds for everyone.

Thorax slipped into bed. It had been a long day. He thought about the incident at the Canterlot Crypts. He still felt bad about what had happened there.

Thorax drifted uneasily into sleep with a far from pleasant feeling in his chest.

~~~~

Thorax was in a forest again.

He stood up. The forest was wet and dewy.

“Hello brother.”

Thorax turned around to face Pharynx.

“Hello, Pharynx.”

“We have much to talk about,” Pharynx said. “Much.”

“Right,” said Thorax. “Lots of things to talk about.”

“For starters,” said Pharynx. “What’s the death count as of right now?”

Thorax sighed. “Honestly, I don’t know. Probably close to twenty, or something.”

Pharynx frowned. “Unbelievable. I’m assuming that none of them we’re changelings? Only asking because as king, I well….”

“No changeling casualties,” said Thorax.

“So it’s basically war then,” said Pharynx.

“Theo could probably bring war,” said Thorax. “If he truly wanted to. I hope war won’t be the end result of this.”

“If it is, I can assure you that changelings will not be a part of it.”

“I’m still hoping that won’t happen. It probably won’t….”

“No one on your side dead?” asked Pharynx.

“No,” said Thorax irritably. “And if you’re just gonna ask me a bunch of irritating questions, I might as well wake up.”

Pharynx frowned. “I wasn’t trying to hurt your feelings, brother.”

“I–yeah. Okay. Just–.” Thorax broke off.

“There’s nothing more to do,” he said finally. “I’ll just stay in hiding. The Royal Guard probably has a full-scale ponyhunt going on right now. Theo’s bound to get caught. Then this will all be over, and we can go back to normal.”

“Right,” said Pharynx. “And if you need any support, just message me, and I’ll contact Psycho.”

Pharynx stared intently at Thorax. “No harm will come to you. I promise.”

Author's Note

Due to the way I plotmapped this story, this chapter is the end of part 1! Congratulations on making it to the first major milestone!