The return of the Yellow Eye

Chapters

1: The ending of the end... or not
2: The song and the singer
2.5: Make a wish
3: Returning the favor

1: The ending of the end... or not

A group of four soldiers were gathered in a hall, they were divided into pairs and each pair positioned themselves at opposite ends of the room, with one pair guarding the only way in and out of there, which was two huge doors made of dark wood and metal, everypony was completely static, just waiting for the arrival of the only other pony present in the old fortress.

Although they couldn't show it, they were proud, because among all their imprisoned companions, asleep in eternal slumber, they were the ones chosen to awaken from their prison and take part in what was about to begin.

The sound of hoofsteps was irregular and was accompanied by a clink of metal and a slight crack following the rhythm of the walk. The structure was quiet enough for these normally inaudible sounds to echo off the old corridor walls.

The group’s anxiety grew as the sound approached, counting each step in their heads as a countdown, until the large door to the room finally opened, revealing the pony they knew as "The Speaker".

The pony entered the room slowly, stopping a few steps after the entrance to observe the hall and the soldiers, the hall was relatively large, but compared to the other rooms of the fortress it wasn’t noteworthy, the place wouldn't be so impressive if it weren't for what was in the center of it, a passage-like stone structure with several runes engraved on it, on each block of stone, even those damaged by time, showing that they had been made with extreme precision and care, and The Speaker knew this very well, after all she built it herself a long time ago

After mentally checking that everything was in place, she resumed her slow, limping walk to the center of the room, leaning on an ancient staff with one of her front hooves to walk, internally the soldiers wished they could help her, but they had been ordered by her not to leave their positions, and they knew that the Speaker's words were absolute and not to be disobeyed.

The silence was deafening, with none of them having said a word since they arrived in the room earlier, the Spokeswoman reached the structure and climbed a small set of steps with some difficulty, now positioned in the center of the room, all the guards were attentive, just waiting for her to begin.

///

(A few days before)

A huge magical rainbow hits the trio of villains, throwing Grogar's bell away from them, thus causing the power the bell was providing to be taken away.

Cozy Glow fell to the ground, letting out a slight moan of pain as she recovered from the dizziness caused by the rainbow, Chrysalis showed nothing but disbelief at the situation, and Tirek, being the one most affected by the removal of power, looked down at his hands, realizing that his physique had returned to being thin and frail, with his body’s colors adopting a faded tone, leaving him trembling from a slight breeze in the room.

On the other side of the plain, Twilight together with the mane six, young six, the pillars of Equestria and Spike descend to the ground after casting the magical rainbow that had put an end to the confrontation with the villains.

"Do you really think that friendship will save you? We always return, nothing will ever stop...!"

Chrysalis's speech was abruptly interrupted by a huge cupcake the size of a building falling from the sky directly on top of the trio, everyone looking on in confusion as a strange brown rain began to fall from the sky.

"Chocolate rain?" says Spike with some confusion after licking his paw and tasting the strange rain

Celestia and Luna landed on the spot, followed by Discord and Starlight, who arrived in a teleport shortly afterwards, with everyone looking at Discord as if they were waiting for some kind of explanation.

"Don't look at me!"

Still confused, Twilight turns to see Pinkie Pie holding Grogar's bell.

///

While the rescuers of Equestria were dealing with a Pinkie Pie wielding the chaotic powers of the bell, a group of curious eyes watched them from the top of a distant hill.

The place they were in was discreet, with only a few rocks scattered around, which allowed them to observe from afar without being noticed, and an apple tree surrounded by some bushes, in general it was just an ordinary hill, if it wasn't for the noise of an argument taking place there.

"Get off me, you asshole!"

"Then give me those binoculars, I want to see too!"

"That's not your job!"

While the two of them were arguing, a third member, who was just lying on one of the tree branches while munching on an apple, suddenly came down from the tree.

The trio consisted of two pegasi and a unicorn, all three wearing black uniforms with some yellow trimmings, similar to military uniforms, with one of the pegasi wearing a variant accompanied by a black and yellow military cap which revealed a higher rank than the other two.

"Would you two be quiet, if it wasn't enough that we weren't allowed to interfere, I still have to listen to you fighting over something so silly?"

"Sorry Rainy," said the two in unison.

These arguments were frequent, and little by little Rainy felt closer and closer to cursing out the pair, they acted like this constantly, and it was getting tiresome, he could swear that they both had some degree of ADHD.

'Breathe Rainy, we're finishing up here, there's no need to stress,' thought Rainy, trying as hard as she could to calm down.

They had a simple objective, just to observe from a safe distance without interfering in any way and to record how Equestria's "saviors" would deal with the trio of villains. The unicorn would be responsible for observing and reporting anything relevant to the pegasus, who would record everything that was transmitted to him.

A considerably simple mission, they don't need to get into trouble and only need to write down the outcome of a fight that isn't theirs, or at least it would be easy if it weren't for the duo not being able to focus on their assigned duties.

Fortunately, he had been sent to supervise the pair and make them focus on the mission. His name was Rainy Cloud, a pegasus with dark blue fur, his mane was white and curly, making it look like a cloud, his cutie mark was shaped like a black storm cloud and although he was in a higher position than the other two, he appeared to be as young as they were.

"Now get back to work!" Rainy ordered the pair with an obvious degree of weariness in his voice. 'Man, if having children is anything like this I'll never intend to have my own.

With the order given, Rainy just layed back down on the ground, taking advantage of the shade of the leaves.

The pair stared at each other and then went back to their main objective in silence. The unicorn, called Powder Dust, picked up his binoculars again and lay down on the hillside, his fur was a faded shade of gray, his brown mane was short with a small fringe that almost reached his eyes and his cutie mark was a simple pile of dust.

"Ta, that pink pony is back to normal size and... okay, that... bug, Discord I think, has regained its powers."

"I remember the day he appeared and started messing up Equestria, I was lying on one of the clouds he used to make it rain chocolate, I don't think I've ever taken so long to clean myself up in my life."His name was Blaze Sign, he was the tallest of the three, but nothing that was really alarming, his fur was red and his yellow mane was totally unkempt, which made him look like a madman on some days, his cutie mark was a big fire.

"Alright, go on"

"Now he's giving back the princesses' power... what a waste, imagine having that much power and just handing it over to someone"

Blaze nodded as he continued to write everything down, until Dust stopped talking altogether, Blaze looked at him in confusion but before he could ask anything the unicorn turned around.

"Hey, Rainy!"

"What?"

"Take a look at this"

Rainy, who had almost fallen asleep, got up with a yawn and walked slowly over to see what his colleague wanted him to see so badly.

"What is it Powder Dust?"

The unicorn didn't say anything, just passed the binoculars over so that Rainy could see for himself.

Rainy looked through the binoculars with mild curiosity, observing the giant cupcake, which was impressive in itself, but what really caught his attention was seeing Discord saying something in the two princesses' ears.

"What are they going to do?" thought Rainy, only to be answered a second later when he saw the three of them destroy the giant cupcake and petrify the villains into a statue, all with just one combined spell.

"Wow, they're making it easy for us, aren't they? hahaha" said Powder Dust as he gave a slightly annoyed laugh.

"Calm down, Dust, we're not done here yet," replied Blaze.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever"

Rainy listened to the pair's discussion and went back to observing the statue, and although he didn't like agreeing with Powder Dust, this time he had no way out, because the fact remained that the trio of villains being turned into stone was something that could really facilitate their mission.

"You two, listen here, we're going back to camp, I need to contact the Speaker, I want to know her opinion on this"

"Roger that!" replied the pair.

Without saying another word, Rainy took off and was soon followed by Blaze Sign, leaving Dust behind.

'Man, it must be really nice to have wings,' thought the unicorn as he let out a sigh of frustration, then he looked around and saw that Blaze had left almost all of his equipment on the ground, so he would have to carry both of them alone, at least Rainy had taken the binoculars with him, so that was one less thing for him to carry.

"Every time this guy leaves things behind, it's unbelievable" Dust was annoyed by the situation, but he couldn't just leave things lying around.

After picking up everything that was scattered on the ground, he concentrated and made the first of several teleports he would have to make to get back to the camp they had set up a few days ago.

///

Rainy and Blaze arrived at the campsite together, with Blaze panting.

The site was exactly as they had left it, three white huts surrounding a fireplace in the center. The place was well hidden among the trees, they had made a point of choosing a part of the forest that had really big trees so they wouldn't have to worry about being spotted by anyone flying past.

Normally it would have been quite difficult to find the location considering where it was set up, but Rainy had a method to ensure this didn't happen.

"You didn't have to fly so fast, really" Blaze was struggling to catch his breath, he already knew that keeping up with Rainy on a flight was a difficult task, but it seemed that today he was particularly motivated.

"Stop being so soft, I wasn't even that fast"

Blaze, who was now lying on his back, looked at Rainy in disbelief but chose not to reply as he was too tired to sustain this discussion.

"Listen Blaze, I'm going to my tent and I'm going to contact the Speaker, and until we have new orders you and Dust can rest, just let him know when he arrives"

Blaze agreed, lifting his hoof.

Rainy walks towards the entrance to his tent and takes out a small yellow crystal from the pocket of his uniform. When he presents the crystal near the passage, it opens, allowing him to enter, he enters without making any ceremony, and as soon as he does, the passage of fabric closes behind him.

The tent was much bigger on the inside, because it was a magic tent, made to look like an ordinary travel tent, although on the outside it was already relatively large. Inside it was really cozy, the floor was lined with an extremely soft black carpet, the walls inside were brown, with small magical lanterns scattered symmetrically, there was also a large sofa in the center, a shelf with books of all kinds that was leaning against a double bed that hadn't been made up in the morning, a wardrobe; a large supply closet filled with travel supplies, medical items and tools for the most diverse situations; and last but not least, a stone pulpit at one end of the room.

The pulpit resembled a bookend in shape, and could even be used as one, but its real utility was different.

Approaching with the yellow crystal in hooves, he perfectly places it right in the center of the pulpit.

After a few responseless moments, all the lights in the tent suddenly went out and a bright yellow light began to be projected from the pedestal. Rainy reacted to the situation in a calm manner, just remembering how terrified it had made him the first time, but having done it a few times before, he became used to it.

While he was recalling his old experiences with the artifact, a black sphere surrounded by yellow lines formed above the pulpit.

"Rainy, I think it's too early for you to get in touch, so tell me, what happened? I hope you have good reasons." A female voice began to speak directly through the sphere, which distorted slightly with each word.

Rainy, who was a little distracted, began to pay more attention to what was being said, but fortunately the strange energy in the room no longer affected him.

"Yes, I'm sorry" Rainy clears his throat; "I hope you're well today, great Speaker"

"Please get to the point Rainy" the voice replied with a slight tone of irritation

"All right then, if you insist," Rainy pauses, thinking of the best way to pass on the information.

"Master, I believe the time has come"

///

Outside the hut, a few minutes passed and Blaze was still lying on the ground, he had already recovered from the fatigue of the journey, but the soft grass and the sound of his surroundings were preventing him from getting up.

*Blink*

Blaze heard an unmistakable sound, it was the sound of a teleportation spell, which meant that Dust had finally arrived. He turned his head in the direction of the sound and saw Dust with an obviously annoyed look on his face.

He was about to ask his colleague the reason for his frustration, but Dust was quicker, throwing a bag full of equipment in his direction, a bag that Blaze immediately recognized as his own.

"Oops, sorry Dust, I swear next time I won't forget, by the way, Rainy said we can rest until we get new orders," said Blaze in a relaxed manner.

Dust didn't answer and just went to his hut to rest, because although he didn't show it, the teleportation spell was really exhausting, especially when used many times in a row.

"Okay then" Blaze took advantage of the fact that his bag was now within reach and pulled it close to him, using it as a pillow, deciding that he would sleep right there on the floor, since he personally always preferred sleeping outdoors; and with the current calmness of the environment, it didn't take him long to fall asleep.

Inside his tent, Dust removed his uniform and used a cleansing spell to clean it, he still remembered the day his mother had taught him this spell, he was still a young colt at the time and it was just when he had started studying magic.

Dust wasn't exactly one of the most dedicated students in his magic studies, but he did make a point of maximizing a few spells, and among them was the cleaning spell, as Dust had always been a pony who prized the cleanliness and organization of his belongings.

He finishes taking care of his uniform and puts it away in the closet of his tent, now looking at his supply closet, he realizes that there was quite a bit of food left, after all, they believed that the mission would last much longer than it actually did, and it probably would had the villains not been defeated so quickly, the initial forecast was that it would take weeks for Equestria to get back on its feet and face the villains, but everything was resolved in a matter of days.

Because he has a certain aptitude for cooking, he became responsible for feeding the trio, being in charge of storing most of the food-related supplies and cooking the meals.

'Well, we've got plenty of food stored up, I think it's okay if we eat a bit more today.

...

A few hours pass and Blaze wakes up to a faint metallic knocking sound. Realizing that it's already night and that he's probably slept more than he should, he sits down on the floor, stretching in the process.

'Man, I slept like a rock' while thinking about how good his sleep had been, he begins to smell an extremely pleasant aroma of food.

He looks at the campfire and realizes that his two companions are sitting on the small tree stumps that they have been using as benches since they set up camp.

Suspended under the fire was a metal pot, the probable source of the metallic noise that woke him up and the origin of the delicious smell, Blaze felt his stomach rumble and immediately got up to join his colleagues.

It was at these moments that Blaze appreciated the fact that the camp had magical markings around it, made specifically to keep the local fauna away from the camp, so they didn't have to worry about dealing with any animals that wanted to steal their supplies while they were away or any animals that sensed that their territory had been invaded; and thanks to this they could enjoy their meals without being interrupted by any hungry forest creatures that might be attracted by the smell of food.

"I'm starving, what’s on the menu today Dust?" Blaze sits down on his stump.

"Ah, it's about time you woke up, luckily for you the food is almost ready, I'm just waiting for it to finish boiling," Dust replied in a relatively cheerful manner, as he was always in a good mood when he cooked.

"Seizing the moment," Dust continued, now looking towards Rainy, who had been quiet until then. "What are our new orders?"

"I'd prefer to talk about it after dinner, but whatever, I got in touch with the Speaker, and she gave us one last goal, two in fact"

"What are they?" Blaze asked

"It's quite simple, we just have to find out the date of Princess Twilight's coronation and the whereabouts of the statue of the trio we saw earlier"

"And then, what do we do after that?" Dust was confused, because compared to the objectives given to them earlier, this was strangely simple, not that watching from a safe distance was difficult, but at least it required a certain degree of care

"She said not to worry, she'd take care of the rest... whatever that means." The trio fell silent, all three were thinking about the Speaker's words, in fact only Rainy and Dust, because Blaze was more concerned about the food at the moment.

Realizing how much his colleague was looking forward to the meal, Dust gets up and tastes the soup. He had used several different ingredients that they were storing, such as: nettle leaves, fern shoots, wild mushrooms and sweet potato. Herbs such as wild basil and mountain thyme brought a fresh touch, while crushed chestnuts added a velvety texture. A touch of wild red fruit and saffron flowers gave the soup a slight sweetness and an amber color at the edges.

At first he was feeling insecure about his soup, but observing the success of his latest creation made him very proud, naming the soup: "Mother Earth’s Dew".

But it's not as if he's going to share that with the others

"The soup is ready, you can help yourselves." Upon hearing this, Blaze immediately cracked a smile, which made Dust laugh internally, and using his magic he conjured up three bowls and some cutlery, and divided them among the group.

Blaze was obviously the first to serve himself, followed by Rainy and then Dust.

After dinner, they put out the fire and cleaned up the dirty dishes, Blaze and Dust retired to their respective cabins, leaving Rainy alone.

With only the light of the moon to illuminate the camp, Rainy sits back down on his stump and begins to watch the stars.

"I guess that's it then..."

Author's Note

English is not my main language, so sorry for anything. -_-

2: The song and the singer

(Rainy Cloud’s POV)

We received the orders from the Speaker two days ago and I'm personally very curious to know what she’s planning on doing, she's not exactly the kind of pony who goes into the details of her plans, in general she usually just gave us a basic instruction on what needed to be done and left the details of the execution to us, but anyway, yesterday morning my two colleagues left for Canterlot with the aim of getting the information we need, they left with only a little bits and some utensils that I thought they would need, such as a complete map of the city.

I would have liked to go along to make sure there were no problems with the planning, but I still don't want to show up in towns as big as Canterlot or Cloudsdale, that would be... problematic to say the least. But I entrusted the task to them anyway, it's not like they're that incompetent or anything, I've already roughly discussed the plan with them, now I just need them to take care of the details.

As I ended up with nothing to do, I initially decided to spend my time reading the books off the bookshelf in my tent and doing maintenance on our equipment, but this got boring very quickly, the equipment was already in good condition and I'm not a big fan of reading.

I tried to take a nap but I wasn't tired enough for that, so I decided to start a set of exercises I'd learned at the flight academy, but I couldn't draw unwanted attention to the camp for now, so turning the clouds into obstacles was a no go, but i wasn't going to let that stop me.

I started flying over the forest in search of a place where I could use the terrain itself as an obstacle. Of course, I could do this anywhere in the forest, but I have a lot of free time, so why not look for more "fun" areas?

I took a feather, a bottle of ink and a piece of paper and set off, flying for a few minutes and drawing an extremely simple map that marked any places I found interesting. I was much faster than the average pegasus and so the mapping task was over quickly. Out of curiosity I decided to go back to the place where we’d seen the villains get petrified two days ago, and what I saw wasn't exactly surprising.

The statue was nowhere to be seen, and there was no traces of it being dragged away, so it had probably been carried somewhere else using magic, the place was also a bit crowded, some ponies were hanging around, I approached silently and leaned on to a cloud, getting a closer look, I realized that they weren't regular visitors, but a small squad of guards escorting a cleaning group that was taking care of the remains of the giant cupcake.

With no reason to stay there, I went back to the first spot marked on my map and started practicing. After a few stretches, I made my first attempt at flying through the trees. I've always been an above-average flier, so I didn't have too much trouble along the way; sometimes I was surprised by the terrain and the wilderness, but nothing I couldn't handle.

The first place was a ravine partially hidden by the local vegetation, it had some extremely narrow parts, it also had some entrances to caves and ravines scattered throughout it, which made the place quite beautiful.

I entered one of the caves that had holes in the ceiling, which made it well-lit. I would have liked to have looked at one of the caves, but unfortunately I didn't have any light sources with me and without light I'm sure the chance of getting lost there was quite high, which was a shame, unexplored caves tend to be a great source of gems.

The cave was relatively large, so I could use the holes in the ceiling as obstacles, just being careful not to end up hurting myself with the stalactites near them. It also had a flow of running water, the water seemed to be quite clean, but that was to be expected considering how far away from any inhabited place this place was.

The second place marked was strangely convenient, a part of the forest with a large number of damaged trees and some even partially destroyed.

There were fallen trees and others that only didn't fall because they were leaning on others, but the whole thing resulted in a really useful obstacle course. It was probably the result of a confrontation between local creatures, like a big bear or something, and there's also the possibility that it was the fault of some pegasus who wanted to practice his climate control and ended up generating a bigger storm than he expected.

And those were just the first two places.
I did a few laps of each location I'd marked, and I really thought I'd only selected the places that could be as challenging as possible, but in the end they all turned out to be easy. I was looking for a challenge, so I had an idea. I just needed to go through them all in one go, and I got excited and started scribbling a route on the map that went through all the locations.

...

I ended up scratching my left wing on a branch on one of the final parts of the route, but nothing that would hinder me or prevent me from flying to the end. Once I arrived, the first thing I did was clean the wound and make a simple bandage. After I'd finished dressing up, I used the campfire to heat up the leftovers from the last time's soup. Dust had made a lot and there was enough left over for me to eat during my idle time at the camp.

The soup was genuinely very good, but I was starting to get sick of the taste. While I was having dinner, I heard the sound of a teleportation, and I didn't even have to turn around to see who it was.

"Enjoying your soup, Captain Rainy?" Dust said as he approached the fire and sat down on one of the stumps.

"Any news? What is the current status of the mission?"

"Well, first of all, the coronation. As we already know the castle of Canterlot was partially destroyed a few days ago, so they decided to hold the coronation as soon as the castle is rebuilt." That was to be expected, it would be quite strange if the coronation were held in a ruined castle.

"Any forecast for the end of the renovation?" I asked as I finished my bowl of soup.

"I'd say a week, but considering the amount of unicorn workers assigned to the job it might take less." This was also something to be expected, the unicorns' magic allowed them to erect complex structures very quickly, and I'm sure that at least a hundred pegasus and earth ponies were also helping with the reconstruction.

"And the statue? Where is it?"

"Thanks to the attack on the castle, those strange air defenses were deactivated, so Blaze took the opportunity to do an aerial reconnaissance, and luckily he found it, it's in the statue garden of the castle next to the other statues that weren't destroyed by rubble on the day of the attack." I found that strange, why was a statue that imprisoned the three greatest villains of Equestria on display in the garden? Had they forgotten about Discord's escape?

Dust started telling me about how Canterlot was doing, it had been a long time since I had last been there and I wanted him to update me on everything, nothing to do with the mission, just a personal curiosity. I also asked where Blaze was, who turned out to have stayed in town so that he could let us know the date of the coronation when it was confirmed.

I congratulated Dust on his work and left for the hut, it was late at night and I was tired from my training, all I wanted to do now was sleep, but there was something I needed to do first, the yellow crystal was already in my hoof because I used it to open the door to the hut, I approached the pulpit and placed the crystal in the slot.

After a few moments, the yellow sphere formed above the pulpit. "Rainy, I hope you have some news," the spokeswoman said bluntly.

'Wow, not even a "hello" or a "good evening", she's always so direct' I thought a little irritated, but answered without showing it. "Oh I do, and I think you'll like it, Master"

///

It was early in the morning, Celestia had barely raised the sun and everything was perfectly silent, *BAM!* The door to the barracks dormitory burst open with a bang, the hinges creaking under the pressure as the sound echoed off the walls like muffled thunder.

Almost immediately, all the soldiers were startled awake by the sudden noise, with one exception who was the heaviest sleeper. "What are you still doing in bed, have you forgotten what day it is? Come on, we can't fail the royals today so get up and report to the courtyard in 15 minutes! And if any of you are late, the whole battalion will be punished at tomorrow's training session". None of them hesitated to obey the order, after all it was given by none other than Flash Magnus, and in a matter of seconds all the soldiers began to move, all but one.

Ever since he was freed from the void and the shadow pony was defeated, Flash Magnus has been serving in Canterlot as a sergeant instructor for the royal guard, and on his first day as an instructor he realized how inefficient, disorganized and inexperienced the royal guard was. Of course, Equestria was experiencing times of peace and tranquility, but that was no excuse, he had witnessed how useless the guard was fighting the villains who invaded the castle a few days ago, and he was no exception either, as he could do nothing to stop Tirek.

Because of these events, he swore to himself that he would work harder on his personal training and even harder on his soldiers' training, but today was no training, today was an important day, Princess Twilight's coronation.

Flash Magnus turned and walked down the corridor, heading for the next door to wake up more members of the guard. Today was definitely going to be one of the busiest days Canterlot Castle had ever seen, and the excitement had already started amongst the soldiers who were getting ready as quickly as possible.

Auric Sentinel, an earth pony with yellow hair and a gray mane, had almost finished putting on his armor when he turned to his bunk in search of one of his boots; he could have sworn that he had put all four on the bed, but now there were only three of them. He searches desperately for the last boot; he removes his blanket, looks under his bunk and even checks that it isn't in any of the bunks adjacent to his, but no piece of armor, he gives a nervous sigh and sits on his bed, frustrated that he could be the reason his battalion is punished the next day, until he feels something cold graze his neck and turns around at the same moment to see his boot floating in a light blue aura.

And it was at that moment that Auric knew for sure that his squadron would be punished, but it wouldn't be his fault, it would be the fault of the unicorn that slept on top of his bunk. His name was Deep Dreamer, a unicorn with dark blue hair and mane who was known for being an incredibly heavy sleeper, he had a habit of levitating random objects while he slept, and it was because of this that Auric realized that he was still in bed.

"Oh no! Damn! Shit! Damn it!" Auric started to get desperate, how could he not have noticed this before? Deep did this every day and he always woke him up but the excitement today was so great that he simply forgot about his colleague. "Wake up Deep, for Celestia's sake!" Even though he was frantically shaking the unicorn, he didn't answer, they had less than five minutes now and that made Auric more and more anxious.

Some of those present in the room began to notice the situation, which led to all sorts of reactions; "I can't believe this" "Wake him up quickly" "Go Deep, get up!" "If I'm punished because of you two, I swear I’ll..." These were some of the reactions of his colleagues, Auric seeing that this was probably going to take a while, got off his bunk and turned to the rest of the battalion. "Look, you two go into the courtyard, I'll... I'll talk to Flash later, Deep and I will carry out the punishment for the whole squadron if we need to." After saying this, all the other guards started walking towards the door, most of them in silence, but there were those who left mocking him or angrily muttering things that he was glad not to have understood completely.

Now there was only him and his colleague left in the room, so once again he climbed up to Deep's bunk. "Dude, I'm sorry, but we don't have time today" Auric pushed Deep off the bed and made him fall to the floor, luckily the fall had been partially cushioned by Deep's blanket, but fortunately it was enough to wake him up. "Huh? Who? How? Who hid Celestia's wings?"

Auric quickly got out of bed and ran to pick up the pieces of his friend's armor while he was recovering from his inertia. Deep shook his head and got up from the floor, still half-drowsy, seeing only an empty room as his colleague threw the pieces of his armor onto the bed. "Good morning Auric, how are you?" Deep asked calmly, clearly not realizing the urgency of the situation.

"No time to talk now, we're late and if we don't get to the courtyard before Instructor Magnus we'll be in serious trouble, so don't say anything and get your armor on right away." When Deep had finished getting ready he started to walk towards the bathroom, but Auric pulled him by the hoof before he could get in, leading him towards the exit of the room instead. "Hey, I need to brush my teeth," said Deep with his characteristic calmness. "No, not today, I told you we don't have time," and without saying another word the pair closed the bedroom door and set off towards the courtyard.

"Can you at least explain to me what's going on?" "In short, today is the day of Princess Twilight's coronation, an event I'm sure you have forgotten, and Instructor Flash has asked all the soldiers to report to the courtyard in fifteen minutes," Auric explained as he ran.

"Hmm, but how long ago did he order that?" Deep was a little more out of breath than Auric, he wasn't exactly the picture of an athletic pony.

"Twenty minutes"

"Ah" Auric laughed internally at his friend's reaction, but he was still focused on the race, and they were almost there.

Arriving in the courtyard, he could see that all the battalions had gathered and that Flash Magnus was giving a speech to them. Auric cursed Deep internally, glancing at his colleague and seeing that he was looking the same as always, which made Auric curse him even more. The pair approached slowly, with Auric's head slightly lowered and Deep's in his standard posture.

Flash Magnus noticed the pair approaching and abruptly interrupted his speech. "I thought I made myself clear about the time you had to arrive." The pair remained silent and Flash continued. "Join the ranks, I don't have time to deal with this now, I'll deal with you after I'm done here."

Flash continued his speech, motivating the guards as much as he could and stressing how important the day was. After finishing his speech, he divided the squadron into smaller groups and assigned them to various tasks, some would do the standard patrol around the castle, others would help out at the event, but most of the soldiers would be divided around the city, the coronation would make the city extremely busy, and they needed the soldiers to ensure everyone's safety.

Auric's nervousness was becoming more and more apparent as the squads left the courtyard for their missions, but in contrast, Deep seemed as calm and apathetic as ever. Finally all the guards left, leaving only Flash Magnus, Auric Sentinel and Deep Dreamer. Flash stared at the pair in silence, waiting for an explanation as to why they were late.

"We're sorry Sergeant Instructor, we had a setback" Auric could barely look his superior in the eye as he spoke, but then he took a deep breath and continued. "I take full responsibility for the delay, sir, so please don't punish my squadron."

Deep, who was staring at the ground in shame, lifted his head and began to stare wordlessly at Auric, he was feeling bad for his friend. "w-wait, it's my fault sir, I missed the timetable and overslept, Auric stayed behind to wake me up, he was only late because of that."

The trio remained silent for a few moments, until Flash softened his angry gaze and started laughing, causing the pair to stare at each other in confusion, but neither of them had the courage to ask why. "Do you really think I didn't know? I know the soldiers I train, don't worry." The pair calmed down a little with Flash's statement, but they were still embarrassed and didn't have the courage to say anything.

"Now about your punishment, I'd have no problem letting it slide this time, but you'll have to guard the castle's statue garden during the coronation, it turns out that all the guards had already been allocated and there's no one left to do this job, the garden will be closed to everyone attending the event, you simply have to make sure that no one gets in there"

"Is this because of the new statue? If it's because of her, I really think you should assign more people to this task, sir," Auric asked, now much calmer than before.

Flash nods. "I understand your concern, but don't worry, all the other areas around the garden will be under heavy surveillance, but it's always good to have an extra guarantee" he then looks at Deep "Do you know the signaling spell?" Deep nods. "Good, then use it to alert the other guards if anything happens, you never know what's in store, but now if you'll excuse me I have other duties to attend to, good luck to both of you" The pair saluted and then Flash took off towards the city.

The pair watched their sergeant in silence as he left. "Should we go to the garden now? The coronation isn't until the end of the day," Deep said with his standard apathy, showing that he had gotten over the shame he had been feeling for a few moments.

"I think that’ll be better, it would be bad if the other guards saw us standing around before the coronation," and without saying another word the pair walked towards the garden.

///

Later that day, Celestia walked restlessly through the corridors of the castle, she had been feeling what could only be described as "strange" ever since she woke up, perhaps it was her nerves, after all, her pupil would be succeeding her as princess in a few hours, but she couldn't say if that was truly the reason. To try to cope with this anxiety, she made a point of checking the organization of the event herself, and this distracted her mind for most of the day, but now everything was ready, but that bad feeling still hadn't gone away.

She then decided to check one last place before going to the coronation, the castle garden, simply to check if everything was all right with the statue, after all, three of the most dangerous villains Equestria had ever faced were trapped there, with the exception of Cozy Glow, she wasn't really a threat, not on her own anyway, she was just a problem child and maybe at some point in the future they could even free Cozy Glow and send her to rehab, being petrified for eternity would be a very harsh sentence for a child, a child who was surrounded by strange mysteries: Who were her parents? Why didn't anyone come after her? Where did she come from? How did she know about that ritual to banish magic? And these were just some of the mysteries surrounding the little pegasus.

But everything has its time.

When she arrived at the garden, she found the pair responsible for the security of the place, an earth pony and a unicorn. Celestia knew the pair well, Deep Dreamer was constantly the target of jokes comparing him to Princess Luna because of his coloring and nocturnal habits, although they had different personalities. The other guard was sitting on one of the benches in the garden. She knew him mainly because he was always around Deep, but she knew nothing about him apart from his name.

Auric had been taken by surprise by Celestia's unexpected visit, he immediately stood up and bowed, Deep, who was a little distracted, didn't notice the princess's presence immediately, only doing so when he saw his colleague get up from the bench, and now they were both bowing to the princess.

Celestia signaled with her hoof for them to stand up and then walked over to the statue and looked at it thoughtfully. The pair of guards did nothing but wait for orders while the princess was there, but she didn't order them to do anything and just left after a while.

Everything was ready, the guests were already arriving and sitting at their tables, creatures from all over Equestria would be present today, ponies, yaks, dragons, griffins, changelings and so on; the city of Canterlot had been celebrating all day, a great festival had been organized so that everyone who was in the city on the day of the coronation could enjoy themselves.

“I hope everything works out today,” thought Celestia as she headed back to the castle to meet Luna.

///

The festival was in full swing, it was dusk and the sun was starting to set. Several game stalls and food stands were dotted around the town, so the streets were crowded, mainly with ponies, but it was also possible to see other creatures.

At one of the food stalls, a red pegasus was placing his order. "Hmm, let me see..." he was unsure about what to order, the coronation would start soon and he knew he couldn't be late, but at the same time it wasn't every day that he found a stall with so many varieties of food made with chili peppers. "See me one... no no, I don't think so... not that one either" Blaze couldn't make up his mind at all and as time went by the saleswoman could hide her irritation less and less.

She was about to suggest an order to him, so he would finally order something and leave, but he finally made up his mind. "I'll have a slice of draconic pepper pie," he said enthusiastically and the saleswoman sighed in relief, handing the pegasus his order.

Blaze began walking through the festival while happily savoring his pie, it was very spicy and that was great, he had never tasted draconic pepper before and had been curious to try it since Equestria officially became allies with the dragons. It turned out that some acres of land on the border with the dragons' land that had been unoccupied had been given over to pony farmers to grow the spices that only grew in the region.

After finishing his pie, Blaze finally decided to go to the place where he had agreed to meet Dust. He knew that there was still a bit of time and that he wouldn't be late, but going early guaranteed that Dust wouldn't give him a long, boring lecture about commitment and punctuality.

He then took off and headed towards the opposite side of the city. After a few minutes he arrived in a small square near the east wall, the traffic in the area was noticeably less than in the rest of Canterlot, as it was far from both the castle and the entrance to the city. He then walked down an alley and stops in front of an old house, the paint on the walls was visibly old and extremely faded, some of the windows were broken and some of the plant pots next to the door were broken, in short the house was very old, and this was a recognizable pattern among the houses in the area.

Not that the area was poor, there just weren't that many ponies interested in living there because of the distance from the most fundamental parts of the city, and the fact that the houses were old and in need of renovation sure didn't help.

Blaze opens the door of the house and enters unceremoniously, it was relatively difficult to open because of the rust on the hinges. He goes to the basement door and down the stairs, the place that used to be a large cellar was now being used as a meeting place for the duo, they had reused the empty barrels covered with a huge table cloth to set up a makeshift table that had a complete and detailed map of the city on top of it.

After waiting for a few minutes, Dust finally arrives with his teleportation spell, this time accompanied by Rainy Cloud.

///

At last the coronation was about to begin, Deep and Auric could hear the festivities coming from the castle courtyard where the guests were, but unfortunately for the pair, they wouldn't be able to see the coronation, which was to be expected although it wasn't very exciting. The statue garden itself was in an area relatively far from the courtyard, but the part that housed the trio of petrified villains was in an even more discreet area.

After Auric grumbled a bit, they heard the sound of the royal trumpets accompanied by the sounds of the crowd, which signaled the start of the coronation. "Damn, I really wanted to see it," Auric grumbled again. "Oh I don't know, I enjoyed doing nothing all day, but think on the bright side, maybe we'll get a good view of the fireworks" Deep replied trying to make the best of the situation but Auric didn't respond.

Deep looked up at the castle just waiting for the fireworks, until he heard the sound of the first shot. "And speaking of fireworks, here they come!" Deep, who normally speaks in a calm and apathetic manner, was strangely excited. He counted down internally to see the explosions 'Let's go! 3. 2. 1'.

And so, the fireworks began, and Deep was amazed by the beauty of the show. "Hey Auric, can you see that?" he shouted as loudly as he could so that his voice could be heard by his colleague during the explosions.

But Auric didn't answer.

"Auric?" Deep turns back, paralyzed at the sight of his colleague lying on the ground.

///

In the sky, two pegasi and a unicorn were lying on a cloud watching everything that was happening in the castle from afar, but it wasn't just the cloud that was hiding them, Dust cast a partial invisibility spell on them before they headed towards the castle, causing the others' perception of them to be compromised.

The trio were now wearing their uniforms, which helped their camouflage even better because of the dark tones, and as an extra precaution, the three of them covered their cutie marks with the uniform and put on cloth masks that covered everything from the eyes down, thus preventing them from being identified if something went wrong and they were seen.

"Here it comes, get ready, we've only got one chance," Rainy said seriously and Blaze nodded. The two of them stretched out their wings and took off as high as they could, and with the sound of the first shot, they both closed their wings and adopted a straight vertical posture, descending in free fall extremely quickly towards the garden.

Dust, who watched the maneuver in silence, began to prepare his teleportation spell. When the fliers were close to the ground, they spread their wings to slow down. Rainy, being much faster than Blaze, arrived first, but in sync with the first explosion, landing just behind one of the two guards who were guarding the statue.

Luckily one of them was too distracted by the fireworks to see what was happening right behind him, but the other noticed and immediately turned around as soon as he felt the impact on the ground. He was momentarily unresponsive but then pulled out his royal guard spear and ran at Rainy, only to be incapacitated by Dust with a sleep spell.

Blaze landed while this was happening, and soon afterwards the other guard turned around to call for his partner, then paled at the sight of him knocked unconscious and three invaders who came out of nowhere. He lights his horn to try and do something, but Rainy presses one of his hooves against the unconscious guard's neck. "Put that horn out and your colleague won't get hurt, and don't try to teleport," Rainy said calmly without breaking eye contact with the unicorn guard.

Without any choice he obeys, receiving the same sleep spell as his colleague, now that the area was clear they could begin, Rainy takes the yellow crystal from his pocket; the same one that was used to open his tent in the camp, he places the crystal on the ground and smashes it with his hoof.

The crystal fragments began to lose their color and a wave of visible magic began to appear, the wave took the form of a spiral, the trio lined up next to the spiral and bowed, soon the portal finished forming and from within it a form began to emerge, a unicorn of standard height leaning on a staff; she was wearing a tattered cloak that covered her entire body with feathers around her neck, her legs were covered in bandages and the little bit of her hair that was showing revealed a black hue, her head was completely covered by a worn iron helmet; similar to a prisoner's helmet, which hid her entire face with the exception of one of her eyes, which was only visible because of its vibrant yellow glow.

She had finally arrived, the Speaker had finally arrived, the trio next to the portal were extremely tense at her presence, especially Dust and Blaze who had never seen her in person. "You three did a great job, congratulations," the Speaker stopped to congratulate the trio, her voice weak but authoritative at the same time, none of the three responded.

She walked slowly and rhythmically towards the statue, using her wooden staff for support, and as soon as she reached the statue she pointed her staff and leaned it lightly against the stone base that supported the three villains, moments later a yellow and black aura surrounded the small monument briefly before disappearing.

"Good, very good... You may take it" The three ponies stood still; still bowing, they were confused, she wanted them to take that enormous statue by themselves? That was just crazy! But it didn't take long and right behind her, four more forms appeared through the portal, four soldiers wearing uniforms similar to the trio's, all four were seemingly ordinary unicorns, but one detail stood out, all four possessed completely black eyes with yellow pupils as vibrant as that of the Speaker. Without a word, she pointed her staff at the statue and the four unicorns began to levitate it towards the portal.

Quickly the quartet disappeared into the portal next to the statue, the Speaker looked towards the castle, apparently the coronation was over and Twilight Sparkle was now officially the ruler of Equestria. "You three, to the portal, let's go" the trio obeyed and promptly got up and went through.

She tried to do the same, but was soon interrupted when something grabbed her on one of her hind legs, Auric had partially woken up from the sleeping spell and was trying to stop her from running away. "How lovely," she said before easily freeing herself. "Just go back to sleep and it'll all be just a bad dream," and it wasn't long before he lost consciousness again.

Now looking at the castle again. "Princess of friendship Twilight Sparkle" she paused briefly. "Hmm, I'll soon have the chance to congratulate you personally on your coronation, but until then I humbly ask you to bear with me," she thought aloud so that absolutely no one could hear her.

She then resumed her walk and disappeared through the portal, with it disappearing after a few moments. Everything was now completely silent, two guards laid unconscious on the ground while the statue that should have been there was gone without a trace.

2.5: Make a wish

Author's Note

Extra Halloween Chapter!
This may be important later :)

I'm sorry if the writing quality isn’t quite up to the other chapters—I just wanted to post a Halloween extra since it's been almost 15 days since the last chapter.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

2.5: Make a wish

Canterlot wasn’t the only city celebrating on Princess Twilight’s coronation day. Cloudsdale, Appleloosa, Las Pegasus, and many other towns held their own celebrations. One of these cities was Manehattan, considered the largest and most populous city in the entire kingdom.

The city was bustling as usual, but this time with a festive air. The city council organized a massive parade in honor of the new princess on Manehattan’s main avenue, and all workers were given the day off to enjoy the event with their families.

Among the gathered crowd were two young unicorn colts, running down the sidewalk, clearly in a hurry to get somewhere. In their rush, one of them accidentally bumped into a city police mare officer. "Hey! Be careful! Don’t run without looking where you’re going—you could cause an accident," the officer reprimanded the pair, sounding a little annoyed.

The two colts looked embarrassed and couldn’t find the words to respond—after all, children rarely know how to react to figures of authority. "I promise it won’t happen again, Officer," said a more mature voice. It was the older brother of one of the colts, a young adult unicorn. "I should be keeping an eye on them, but you know how it is. These two are a bit too energetic."

"(Sigh) All right, just keep an eye on them," she said, turning away. “Have a nice day,” the older brother replied. Once the officer had left, his friendly face immediately turned into a bitter scowl. "I told you to stay close to me! What were you thinking? Why’d you take off like that!?" He sounded even angrier than the officer.

“We were just playing. It was an accident,” the younger brother mumbled, a bit sad about getting scolded twice in such a short time. "I’m not going to argue with you here. Let’s just get back to where we were and watch the rest of the parade," he said, and the trio began walking again.

...

“we were so close,” the younger brother’s friend muttered quietly.

“Yeah, I know, but we can’t do anything now,” the younger brother replied.

The older brother could tell the two were planning something. It had been clear from the moment they ran off a few minutes earlier, and the fact that his younger brother had lied about what they were doing only made it more suspicious.

His brother was usually impulsive and often did things on a whim, like running off without thinking. But normally his friend, who was much more collected and calm, would have been around to keep him under control. The fact that he’d joined in this time confirmed it wasn’t just a “game.”

The older brother glanced at the pair walking behind him and could see they were whispering something to each other, but he couldn’t make out any words because of the city noise. "All right, enough games. What were you two really up to? And don’t bother saying you were just playing. I know that’s a lie." The pair exchanged glances before the younger brother’s friend decided to tell the truth.

"Sorry, it’s just... we wanted to see the Wishing Alley."

“Wishing Alley?” The older brother raised an eyebrow, confused.

"You haven’t heard the rumors?" The younger brother asked. "People at school say there’s a ghost pony who grants wishes in one of the alleys near the main avenue."

The older brother stayed silent, barely believing the absurdity of what he’d just heard. "You… you can’t be serious. That has to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life."

“It’s true! They told me there was a pegasus who lived in that alley, and he spent days and nights crying. Then, one night, he wished he could disappear… and a ghost pony with glowing eyes appeared out of nowhere and took him away. Since then, no one’s seen him again. Some of my friends went there, but no one figured out how to summon the ghost except that pegasus. But I’m going to figure it out... I know I will,” the younger brother said enthusiastically, while the older brother stared at him, speechless, a chill running down his spine. Now, he could only think of one thing:

'Maybe I should go back and talk to that officer.'

3: Returning the favor

The coronation had been over for about thirty minutes, most of the guests had already left and those who still remained in the castle were finishing their errands before leaving. Flash Magnus gathered the entire royal guard in the barracks courtyard to bring the day to a close.

The process was simple, he would call the pre-assigned representative of each team to give him a simple report on the day, and after he had finished he would release the team if no irregularities had occurred.

While he was receiving the reports, Flash noticed that a certain pair of soldiers was not present at the scene. 'I can't believe it, they're late again?' He thought a little irritated, the morning's delay was justifiable because of Deep's sleep problems, but there was nothing to justify their tardiness now.

Unlike the duo, he took his job seriously and couldn't go after them to reprimand them now, but he would take care of that as soon as he released the entire day guard. Most of the reports didn't show anything unusual, and a few reported small fights that had taken place around the city during the day, but nothing serious that his soldiers couldn't handle themselves.

Most of the guard had already been released, with only two more teams to go, but before he could call the next representative, a bat pony member of the night guard landed at his side. "Sergeant instructor Magnus, I need you to come with me immediately," said the guard with a tone of urgency in his voice.

Flash looked confusedly at the guard, what was so important that a member of the night guard needed him so urgently? "What happened? What's so important that you report to me and not to the captain of the night guard?" Flash was visibly tired, he had spent the day helping with the coronation, but the guard didn't hesitate and continued. "Sir, the statue, it's gone!" the news made Flash go blank for a moment. "What!? How!?" The soldier was startled by the drill sergeant's reaction.

After recovering from his shock he explained what he knew, apparently a pair of soldiers from the night guard had gone to the garden to take on the duty of defending the statue, but when they arrived they only found a pair of unconscious soldiers on the ground. Flash turned pale, was that why Auric and Deep weren't there? But what happened? how had the statue been stolen without anyone seeing a thing? Flash's mind was flooded with questions.

"Some guard officers are already in the garden, sir, they are requesting your presence on site as soon as possible" Flash nodded and prepared to take off, but stopped when he remembered that he still needed to receive the last two reports. "Listen, both teams are dismissed, give me the report tomorrow!" he shouted and the guards nodded.

He and the night watchman took off and set off quickly towards the garden and it wasn't long before they arrived. The first thing he noticed when he arrived was the obvious absence of the huge statue, he already knew it was gone, but he had to see it to believe it; the second thing was the small group of castle nurses tending to the pair of unconscious soldiers lying on stretchers; and the third was the heated discussion the officers were having about the statue's disappearance, apparently they weren't accepting each other's theories about what had happened, and putting this together with the seriousness of the situation resulted in an argument.

Flash decided to ignore the discussion for the time being, heading straight for the group of nurses. "What is the situation ?" The leader of the castle's infirmary team noticed Flash's presence and stood up straight holding a clipboard. "Well, they don't have any visible injuries and there's no sign that they got into a fight" the head nurse said as he read his notes. "So it was magic?" he asked and the nurse confirmed it. "Well, from what we've seen they're just sleeping, so far it seems likely that magic was used to make them sleep, and the fact that the statue wasn't dragged makes this theory quite plausible."

Flash thanked him for the information and turned to look at the unconscious pair. After some time thinking about what might have happened, he headed towards the other officers.

"I knew we shouldn't have left that damn statue in such an unprotected place" said one of the night guard officers.

"What will the princesses think? Should we report this to her highness or to the royal sisters?" An officer of the day guard asked shortly afterwards.

"Do you really want to be fired? We have to sort this out before the royals find out!" replied another officer.

And one by one the guards spoke up, at this point they weren't even arguing anymore, they were just expressing their indignation, and that was understandable, after all the blame would fall on them one day or another. But there was one thing Flash agreed on, they needed to sort this out before any of the princesses found out, it had barely been an hour since Twilight had been crowned, and she definitely didn't deserve to have to deal with this.

"All right, soldiers, let's sort this out before anyone notices that the statue is gone and then we'll pretend that nothing happened," Flash said, mixing a serious tone with a bit of humor to try to calm the soldiers down, which apparently worked. "Tell me what you've found out so far so we can start somewhere"

///

Far from Canterlot, far from any inhabited part of Equestria, a huge underground courtyard was illuminated by the glow of five horns and a staff, the six ponies surrounding the statue as they performed a spell together to undo the petrification.

The room was enormous, but it felt very empty at the same time, to the point that not even the statue seemed to take up any significant space; it had no decoration apart from the magical lanterns that floated around the room and illuminated it, the walls and ceiling were made of stone, there was a visible contrast between the carved and weathered parts and the simply cavernous parts; the room had something like windows in the walls, but they were all covered by the cave itself, which raised two theories: either they weren't windows and the passages had another function, or the structure wasn't originally underground.

The hall was the heart of the entire structure and therefore had several doors that led to other parts of the fortress. Another detail was that the hall had a second floor that could be accessed via a huge staircase that had been carved into one of the walls.

A few meters from where the ritual was taking place were Rainy Cloud and Blaze Sign, sitting on the huge staircase. "I bet you 10 bits they won't agree" Blaze said to Rainy. "Closed, I bet 10 they'll agree" Rainy replied and the two shook hooves.

After a few minutes the statue finally began reacting to the spell, and little by little the stone cracked and fell away, separating from the villains as if it were a shell or an extra layer of skin. Now that the spell was complete, the villains were finally free, and the three of them fell to the ground totally disoriented.

With the spell finished, Dust moved away and joined his colleagues on the stairs, lying down on the steps; he knew he would be exhausted by the time the spell was over, so he fearfully asked the Speaker to allow him to leave as soon as they had finished, which she accepted. "I'm totally exhausted, I've never used up so much magic in so little time in my life," he said as he gasped, his colleagues just looked at him and laughed a little, but soon returned their attention to the main attraction.

The four guards surrounding the perimeter of the statue moved away, giving the trio room to recompose themselves, while the Spokeswoman remained motionless in the same place. Chrysalis was the first to get up, her legs were shaking and she could barely stand. "What happened? Argh! My head is spinning!" she said, her voice a little slurred.

Tirek stood up immediately afterwards with a hand on his head. "the last thing I remember is being crushed by a... giant cookie or something, my memories are fuzzy" he seemed to be the most affected of the three, his thin, weak and skeletal form showed this, as he was not only exhausted but had also lost all "his" magic.

Next up was Cozy Glow. "Me, me..." she falls to the ground again, totally exhausted, perhaps the fact that she's only a child has taken its toll on her physically and mentally.

Cozy Glow was almost falling asleep from exhaustion. Seeing this, the Speaker approached and her staff began to glow yellow and black. Chrysalis and Tirek immediately noticed the resemblance to the magic they had seen "Grogar" use several times, but that pony in front of them was clearly not "Grogar".

The Speaker used a spell to levitate Cozy Glow onto her back. "I intended on talking now, but it looks like you're too tired for that," she taps her staff on the ground and the guards begin to approach Tirek and Chrysalis. "Let my soldiers help you to your quarters, rest as much as you wish, we'll have plenty of time to talk later" the guards began to support the pair as the Speaker led the way.

It was a strange scene to say the least, normally Tirek's anatomy didn't help when it came to being carried by something smaller than him, but as he had shrunk due to magic loss, it turned out not to be difficult. Normally none of them would allow themselves to be carried in such a pathetic way, but they simply couldn't do anything about it now.

They started walking and entered one of the many doors in the room, now passing through a very spacious yet empty corridor, there was nothing decorating the walls such as works of art, just the same magic lanterns and blocked windows as in the other room, they continued walking, periodically seeing a closed door, a staircase or other corridors, Chrysalis couldn't stop wondering where she was or what was going on, who were these ponies and why were they helping us?

After a few minutes of walking, they passed something that caught Tirek's eye, in the middle of another wide, empty corridor there was a fairly large luminous crystal emerging from one of the walls, it emanated a soft blue light that seemed to overpower the magic lanterns, but what caught Tirek's eye wasn't the crystal's luminosity, it was something else, the crystal was charged with magic, a lot of magic, he couldn't do anything about it now, but he would remember it for sure.

They finally stopped in front of a door, it was different from the others they had seen before, it looked much more recent, the wood was polished and the iron had no signs of wear, the Spokesperson stepped forward and opened the door using her magic, revealing a wide, short staircase, they climbed the steps and arrived at a circular room, its shape was similar to a dome and the decoration was no different than the rest of the structure, there was nothing there apart from the lanterns; But the room wasn't completely empty, it had a door at each cardinal point, and the staircase they were on was one of those points.

"I've prepared a room for each of you, please rest, tomorrow I'll send someone to pick you up," said the Speaker with a tired tone in her voice. "Help our guests settle in." With that said, the guards took each of them to their respective rooms. The Speaker, who still had Cozy Glow on her back, was approached by one of her guards asking if she would like him to take the girl to her room, but she refused and decided to take her herself.

She went to one of the doors and opened it. The room was well furnished, with a huge double bed, a wardrobe, a huge chest, a dressing table, a desk with a vase without flowers, and the characteristic lanterns that were all over the structure, it also had a soft pink carpet that covered the entire floor and the walls were not cavernous like the others, it was made of large soft stone bricks.

The small room was strangely cozy compared to the rest of the fortress, its architecture far removed from everything else there, some would even venture to say it was cute.

The Speaker had already noticed that Cozy Glow had been quiet throughout the walk, but she couldn't help but be surprised when she used her magic to pull the girl off her back and saw that she was asleep.

Calmly she puts Cozy in her bed and covers her with a blanket. "Have sweet dreams, little one.” With that, she uses her magic to dim the lanterns, leaving the room and slowly closing the door. Now reunited with her guards. "You two, stay here to make sure nothing happens, I'm not foolish enough to leave you alone." She assigns two of the guards to the task and leaves the room followed by the other two.

///

Rainy Cloud watched the Spokeswoman start to lead the villains somewhere, he listened to their conversation and because of that he knew he would have a little free time until something happened. Blaze and Dust realized this too and got up, Dust was tired because of the mission and the depetrification spell, so he went to rest in his room; Blaze decided to go to the cafeteria to get something to eat.

But Rainy continued to sit there, he was happy that his first real mission had been an absolute success, but something was still bothering him, it was as if he had forgotten something important, but nothing came to mind, maybe it was just anxiety.

He was so distracted that he didn't even notice the time passing. "Is something wrong Rainy?" He was a little startled when he saw the Spokeswoman standing in front of him. "N-no, I'm fine," she accepted Rainy's statement and made her way up the stairs. ‘I don't think I'll ever get used to this, man, she's really scary,’ he thought.

He went back to focusing on his thoughts and it wasn't long before a detail popped into his head, and he felt like an idiot for not thinking of it before, he took advantage of the fact that the Speaker wasn't far away and flew over to her. "Ma'am, I realized something a little silly," she stopped her walk and looked directly at Rainy, now he had her full attention. "So, I guess we forgot to collect our field stuff, our camp is still where we left it and that house in Canterlot still has our maps" Rainy thought the Spokeswoman would be shocked by the information, or at least a little alarmed, but no, she was totally apathetic and calm. "Don't worry, there's nothing in that house that could harm us in any way, it's just some scribbled maps of the city, they'll possibly link it to the robbery, but there's nothing they can use to get to us, the tents in the camp are enchanted to only be accessed using the magic crystals, when opened without them they're just empty huts" That was really reassuring, Rainy already knew all this, but hearing it from someone else really calmed him down.

But he still preferred to collect the evidence anyway, and it was then that something else popped into his head. "But what about the crystal we used to open the portal in the garden? Isn't it evidence?" he asked. "Only a temporary one, that's if they find it, unfortunately I couldn't collect its fragments as that would close the portal, but don't worry, it's designed to turn to dust as soon as the magic in it is completely exhausted, so even if they find it, it shouldn't take more than two days for it to disappear completely, but feel free to get the things from the camp if you want" Rainy nodded and decided to go and get the things.

In the end, perhaps he just wanted something to do. It was going to be a long and exhausting journey, or at least it would be if he didn't know how to circumvent the weight of the luggage he was going to pick up. It was simple, he would take another crystal to open his tent and store everything inside it, including the other tents, then just close it and that would be it, the magic of the tents served as a magic bag, so nothing inside it really weighed anything, it was a perfect plan.

Unfortunately this time there wouldn't be a portal to speed up the transportation, so he just hoped he'd make it back in time to see how the Speaker's and the villains' conversation would go, but he was fast and he knew it, so he wasn't worried.

///

Tirek woke up lying in a huge and extremely comfortable bed, his head aching a little but that was to be expected considering what he had been through.

He let out a huge yawn, it was hard to tell how long he had been asleep. He sat on the edge of the bed and looked around his room, it was strange to say the least, the place had everything a normal room needed, but what caught his attention was the presence of several things he loved to use in his spare time, which meant the presence of several pieces of weight training equipment, a record player and a huge mirror.

He didn't know how his hosts knew that he liked these things, but he had to admit that they did an excellent job of making him comfortable.

He got up and walked towards the exit of the room, he would very much like to use the training equipment or look at the variety of records on the shelf next to the record player, but circumstances simply didn't allow him to do any of that right now; he slowly opened the door and peeked around the other side, but fortunately he didn't see anyone.

Relieved, he decides to leave the room, only to see a guard standing next to his door, in a place he wouldn't be able to see from inside, and they look at each other for a few moments without saying anything, then the guard decides to break the silence. "Please, just wait in your room, it's not time to leave yet," the guard says in a way that makes Tirek feel strangely uncomfortable. His voice was extremely slurred, hoarse and scratchy, in a way he never imagined a pony's voice could be.

Tirek considered trying to steal the unicorn's magic, but something inside him screamed at him not to, there was something about that guard that exuded danger, and Tirek didn't want to risk finding out, not while he was in his weakened form, there was also the fact that he was sure there were supposed to be two guards in the room, but he could only see one, and that alarmed him for some reason.

"Please, just wait in your room, it's not time to leave yet" the guard repeated in exactly the same way as the first time, Tirek said nothing and just closed the door, he already knew that someone would come for him in the future, so there was nothing to do, he would wait as instructed.

...

About thirty minutes passed, he had tried to use the weight training equipment, but failed miserably due to his visible lack of strength, so he spent most of the time analyzing the vinyl records.
While he was reading the cover of one of the disks, a female voice that he soon identified as belonging to Chrysalis began to make a fuss outside. "I demand explanations immediately!" Although the voice was muffled by the thick walls of the room, Tirek could hear everything clearly.

"Please, just wait in your room, it's not time to leave yet" was a different voice this time, possibly the other guard's, although the sentence was said in the same strange way.

"How dare you! No one holds the Queen of the Changelings captive!" Chrysalis seemed to be getting angrier and Tirek really wanted to look through the door, but the possibility of the guard's fury falling on him made him give up that idea.

'Who would have thought that I, Lord Tirek, would one day fear a mere unicorn' he thought with a little anger at himself, thinking that it was simply humiliating for someone like him to be in such a situation.

The argument outside continued, Chrysalis didn't stop shouting for a while, but for some reason there were no signs that she had tried to attack the guards, perhaps she shared the same feeling of discomfort as Tirek.

After a while the discussion stopped, as Chrysalis finally agreed to wait in the room after much insistence from the guards, for which Tirek was deeply grateful, but it didn't take more than five minutes for his peace to be disturbed again.

He heard some knocks on the door. "Lord Tirek, I've been sent by the Spokeswoman to fetch you." It wasn't a frightening voice like the guard's, in fact it was quite ordinary, which made Tirek a little more relieved.

He walked to the door and opened it, this time seeing a gray unicorn that Tirek didn't recognize. "Nice to meet you Lord Tirek, I hope you've been resting, my name is Powder Dust, I've been sent to take you and your colleague to where the Speaker is" Dust said as he bowed, Tirek noticed that the unicorn carried with him a certain air of nobility, as he knew how to bow perfectly and his voice carried a lot of politeness.
Tirek would have been able to identify these small details from when he was still a prince. 'Surely this unicorn has some connection to the nobility, perhaps it served a noble or may be one itself, but why would a noble be in a place like this? what's going on here?' Many ideas ran through Tirek's head. 'Maybe they're a group of nobles who want to overthrow Equestria's royalty?'

"Before we leave, I should call the Changeling Queen as well, would you mind waiting a moment?" Tirek was too focused on his thoughts to hear what Dust had just said, so Dust just turned and walked towards Chrysalis' room.

Tirek followed Dust, even though he hadn't heard his last statement. The unicorn knocked on the door to announce his arrival. "Queen Chrysalis, the Speaker has sent me to fetch you," he said, but there was no reply.

The two decided to wait, and Tirek realized that the two guards were standing in front of the staircase leading out of the room.

Another moment passed without an answer, so Tirek took advantage of the situation to ask a question that had been on his mind for some time. "Listen, who is this Speaker anyway? I've been alive for over a thousand years, I've met many fearsome creatures who have wreaked havoc and marked their names in history, but I guarantee I've never heard the name "Speaker" before"

"It's not surprising, I admit I don't know much about her either, but I can assure you she's a very powerful unicorn, I believe she'll answer any questions you have when you meet in a short while." Dust said, keeping his polite tone. "She'd better," Tirek replied, as the whole situation seemed to make the centaur increasingly irritated.

Chrysalis' door finally opened, briefly showing a room that resembled a changeling hive, unfortunately no one had time to look in more detail as Chrysalis left and closed the door very quickly. "Let's go, I'm tired of being stuck in this place," she said without her standard acidity, which was strange for Tirek, but at least it meant she wouldn't start an argument with Dust.

"Well, now that we're all here we can go, please follow me" they started walking, and soon Chrysalis and Tirek realized something. "Aren't you taking the little girl?" Tirek asked Dust. "If you're referring to Cozy Glow, I must inform you that she's already with the Speaker," he replied as he descended the steps from the living room.

After the three of them had descended, the pair of guards joined the group and began to accompany them from the rear, they walked along the same path they had used to come, passing the crystal, which once again caught Tirek's attention; after passing through a huge wooden door, they were once again in the huge room where they had been freed from the statue.

They climbed the huge staircase that led to the second floor, where they found a huge double metal door, which the guards accompanying them promptly opened. Now they were facing yet another corridor, but this one was much smaller, and only had another metal gate at its other end.

Dust resumed walking, Tirek and Chrysalis hesitated for a moment but then followed him when they saw the guards' gaze fixed on them.

When they were halfway through, the gate closed behind them, apparently the guards wouldn't accompany them, but that was no relief to them, as two more guards were already on guard at the next one, which was at the end of the corridor.

When they arrived at the second gate, the guards promptly opened it. Dust thanked them and continued on.

The room they were in now had a rectangular shape, its shape was very reminiscent of a ballroom, it was large, although not as large as the last one, but it was still sizeable, it had huge banners on the walls, showing a round, yellow symbol with smaller circles inside, it looked like something that could remotely resemble an eye or something like that.

The place had a huge decagonal table that took up a good part of the room, it was made of dark wood with some parts made of gold, the chairs were similar in material, they were also very large and their backs were huge, to the point that it was not possible to see if someone was sitting on one of them if the chair was backwards, in fact calling it a chair seemed like an understatement, as there were certainly several thrones.

Dust took a few steps forward and knelt on the floor. "Speaker, I have brought our guests as requested by Your Excellency," he said, keeping his head down at all times. There was something about the room that made Chrysalis and Tirek a little uncomfortable, but in a different way from the way the guards had left them before.

"Excellent, thank you Dust, you may leave now, you will soon receive new orders" Dust obeyed and left the room without saying a word, and Chrysalis noticed a satisfied smile on his face as he left. "You two" Tirek and Chrysalis stopped, the aura in the room went from merely uncomfortable to frightening in a matter of seconds. "You don't have to be so shy, you're my guests after all, come along, sit down, I'd like to discuss something with you" the pair approached slowly after the invitation, the Speaker's voice was slightly muffled due to the metal helmet she was wearing, but it was calm and even a little welcoming, which helped the pair to calm down.

As they got closer to the table, they noticed that they weren't alone with the Speaker, Cozy Glow was sitting right next to her, just staring at the pair with a smug face, holding back from commenting on how pathetic they looked in their current state. Further away from the table was a dark blue pegasus, lying on his seat with both hooves under the table, and unlike Cozy he looked quite bored, when his eyes met those of the visitors, he straightened his posture and sat down properly.

Tirek and Chrysalis sat down at the table. "I know you must have a lot of questions, so feel free to ask as many as you like before we get into the main subject, but avoid trivia if possible." They did indeed have a lot of questions, but none of them had the courage to ask.

"No questions? interesting, so let's go straight to..."

"What's going on here!? Where are we!? Who are you!?" Chrysalis shouted, interrupting the Speaker in the middle of her sentence after she had plucked up the courage to speak, trying to impose some authority. The Speaker took a deep breath and kept her cool. "Ah, so you have questions, I'll answer everything with great pleasure, just don't interrupt me like that again," her single yellow eye seemed to glow more vibrantly for a moment, making Chrysalis and Tirek swallow.

"About your first question, let's just say I'm returning the favor you did for me a while ago." The pair looked at each other, both confused by what she meant. "Favor? What favor? I'm pretty sure I've never seen you before in my life," Chrysalis said confusedly.

"Do you remember that little object that Discord took to the lair while he was still pretending to be Grogar? That little medallion was the last of the relics that kept me imprisoned in this fortress, and you destroyed it without a second thought when you betrayed Grogar." The Spokeswoman said, making the pair finally understand what she was talking about.

"Wait, how do you know all this? You said yourself that you were imprisoned" Tirek asked, suspicious of the Spokeswoman's explanation. "I was able to stay aware of everything using a spell I developed while I was imprisoned, and also through my subordinates," she replied once again, now clarifying Tirek's doubt.

"I sent a team to bring you to me when Discord gathered you together pretending to be Grogar, it was the perfect opportunity since you were all together, but I decided to keep watching once I realized that you would inevitably betray him, I was curious to know what would happen, and it was very convenient that that annoying draconequus chose that exact medallion to be the replacement for the bell" Tirek and Chrysalis were dumbfounded, they were being monitored all this time and didn't know it, and because of them that scary pony was free.

"Well, I just intended to bring you to me eventually, but you ended up being petrified, so it all turned into a... let's say, rescue mission, thank Rainy Cloud if you like, he was responsible for leading the team that orchestrated the theft of the statue"

"Rainy who?" Tirek asked. "Me, and you’re welcome for saving you" the blue pegasus who had been silent until now raised one of his hooves and pointed at himself. "hm, right, but why did you want to meet us?" Chrysalis said, showing total disinterest in Rainy.

"That will be answered when we get to the main subject, now, about your second question, you are currently in the Eyelid fortress, my home." The Spokesperson closed her eyes and raised her hooves, as if she were greeting the place. It was a scene that annoyed the pair, because in doing so she lifted her cloak, revealing her completely bandaged body, and as nothing could be seen under her metal helmet apart from her glowing eye, closing her eyes made it look as if there was nothing under her helmet.

Cozy Glow watched the pair's every reaction with a smile on her face, she was certainly enjoying seeing how they reacted to each thing said, as she had already spoken to the Spokeswoman previously, she already knew everything that was going to be said and everything that had been explained so far.

"But where exactly are we?" Chrysalis asked, a little frustrated by the spokeswoman's answer. "I'm afraid I can't tell you that, I'm sorry, it's my duty to keep the exact location of this place a secret." Chrysalis was disappointed, to say the least, but it was understandable that the location of this place was secret.

"Now, your third question, as you already know, I am the Speaker, the voice of the Yellow King, currently responsible for leading my group in the King's absence and the one who will bring him back! (cough)" Her presentation was abruptly interrupted by a loud cough that felt like it was going to tear her throat out. "I'm sorry about that, I suffer from an ailment that's been afflicting my body for centuries, as you can see I'm not on my best days, but to sum it up, you don't have to refer to me as 'Speaker', as you're my guests, I'd like you to just call me by my name (cough)" once again the cough interrupted her.

"You may call me Iron Singer"

Author's Note

artist tik tok: leemonateblood