Substitute Harmony

Chapters

Chapter 2: Meeting the Ponies
Chapter 3: The Real Party Begins
Chapter 4: Backtracking
Chapter 5: A Different Point of View
Chapter 6: Awaking Ancient Evils for Fun and Profit
Chapter 7: Together in the Dark
Chapter 8: Undervale
Chapter 9: Conditioning
Chapter 10: Fractured Condition
Chapter 11: When Deities Clash
Chapter 12: The Return
Chapter 13: Substitute Harmony
Chapter 15: Doing the Time Warp
Epilogue
Chapter 1: A Party to Forget
Chapter 14: Clash of the... Rainbows?

Chapter 2: Meeting the Ponies

Day Two

“S-Sister?” Luna’s voice snapped Celestia out of her daze.

Celestia looked over to Luna, shock in her eyes. She had been staring at the letter from Spike for some time now. This was not even the first time she had read it. She had actually received it hours earlier, along with reports from several authorities in Ponyville including the Mayor and the local guard, who had never had to deal with a crime like this before and was in a complete panic.

Celestia gathered herself up, trying not to seem teary eyed. She didn't want to cause Luna undue stress; no one wanted that. She rose from where she was seated atop her throne, moving forward to stand in front of Luna as she approached.

“Yes Luna?” she asked with a bittersweet smile.

“This cannot be real can it? This doesn’t seem like a deed that any of the Element holders would perform,” Luna spoke with great knowledge. She knew the elements like no others could, having been on the receiving end of their combined friendship once when she was simultaneously saved by and kicked around by them.

“I can’t feel Twilight,” Celestia trailed off, sighing, “I can’t detect her life force anywhere, and I usually can when I’m so close to someone. And well, the only link we have between them is that they were all on their way to Pinkie’s party. Given that it appears that Pinkie attacked her own mentor, things don’t look good. While I don’t think Pinkie is directly responsible for the disappearances, I have a feeling that she knows something about it.”

Luna looked quietly at Celestia for a moment longer, her eyes then moving towards the royal pegasus guard who had been standing at attention before the two, patiently awaiting his orders after having flown to Ponyville and back himself to confirm the situation. He didn’t dare to speak or hurry up their decision; Celestia was never sure if such silent obedience made her proud or sad.

“Take a division to Ponyville,” Celestia finally spoke to him, “Find Pinkie Pie and bring her in. Locate the other Elements if possible; I want everything about this case to come to me.”

“Yes Princess! You can be sure that we will…” the guard started.

“Not harm her unless you absolutely have to in order to bring her in…alive. She is an Element holder, and if she did commit such a crime it was not of her own free will. We have to help her,” Celestia finished for him, making sure he understood. She knew that her guards could be overzealous at times, and stressed the word ‘alive’ severely. It seemed she had to punish overzealous guards more often than citizenry sometimes.

The guard bowed low before turning to take off out the door from the throne room. No doubt he would go towards the barracks to gather a small force. Celestia felt sick ordering a regiment to turn a town inside out looking for something. She felt sick every time she had to give an order that might result in somepony being hurt.

“Shall I go as well?” piped up Luna, standing tall as if getting ready.

“No sister. I would rather you not for now,” Celestia smiled to her sweetly.

“I can take care of myself, sister, I’ll be fine,” Luna sighed, a hint of frustration on her voice, then added quickly, “And I won’t crack and hurt any of our subjects. They need to get used to me… being around them.”

“I’m sure you can, and I’m sure you won’t, but if there is someone out there that can take down all of the elements in a single day, we have to proceed very carefully indeed,” Celestia explained as she reached over a hoof, pulling her sister close to hug her.

Day Three

Pinkie Pie peeked her head over the top of the bushes, slowly sneaking past another set of nervous looking ponies. She heard them chatting quietly to each other and though she couldn’t make out what they said, she heard her own name several times. What were they saying? Did the ponies not like her anymore now? With thoughts like these, she had been straight-maned for another entire day, spending almost that whole time searching for Surprise without any success.

She had managed to sneak back to Sugar Cube Corner long enough to get her saddle bags again, so at the very least she had a few of her things, not that she expected a cupcake cannon, a coloring book, and party supplies to come in terribly handy at the moment.

Pinkie wasn’t sure what to do. Word had gotten around fast and she wasn’t used to everypony being afraid of her. The only thing she knew was that her friends would be able to help her, so today she had gone to each of their houses in turn to find them.

Actually finding them however, had proven more difficult than she had believed. First she had tried her best friend Rainbow Dash’s house, only to find the front yard wrecked and Dash’s most prized award lying on the floor where Dash would have never put it. What’s more, on her way to Fluttershy’s she found small trees that had been snapped as if something ran into them, hints of blood and several blue feathers.

At Fluttershy’s, she had also found nothing. The animals had been out feeding and had not seen anything, nor was there any sign of a struggle. There was even a neat little tea set out, though half-finished so somepony must have left in a hurry. There were tracks out front as if somepony had been dragged to a cart, and Pinkie had tried following the tracks, but she lost them as soon as they turned off the main road into tall grass.

Rarity’s had been a mess, from what she could see at least, but she couldn’t get too close because it looked like several guard ponies were investigating it at the same time. She had seen Sweetie Belle outside talking to one of them and crying. What had happened?

That was another thing. Why were there so many guards? Surely they couldn’t all be looking for her, could they? She felt like something worse must have happened, or was it just that her friends were hiding from her? She was too afraid to ask any of the normal pony citizens what was going on before she was certain.

She only had Twilight and Applejack left to try. Surely one of them would be there and able to help her, she believed. Slowly creeping around, she carefully opened the door to the library and slipped inside.

The library looked empty as well, but there was neither sign of a struggle nor any sign of any pony being dragged off. That was certainly a relief. And what was that? Pinkie heard a sound from upstairs, so she followed it to see what it was. Soon she realized it was the sound of Spike crying softly.

Starting to speak, Pinkie suddenly realized that if she just walked up to him, he might freak out, assuming he had heard the same thing others had. She hadn’t brought any gems, so wasn’t sure how to get his mind off of things. Finally she crept into the room, finding him there on Twilight’s bed, curled up and hugging her pillow. Pinkie felt her heart sink even more; was Twilight missing too?

“Uh… Spike? Don’t scream okay?” Pinkie tried to sound nice, even giving him a bright friendly smile, but it was hard to hide the fact that she was stressed out since her mane and tail gave it away. Spike had seen her like this before, and knew just a little of how she could get at times.

“Ah!” Spike nearly fell off the bed, “Have you come back to finish the job?”

“W- what are you talking about Spikey?” Pinkie blinked, but kept her smile.

“You… You got Dash too!” Spike pointed at her mane suddenly, where it just so happened one of Rainbow Dash’s feathers had landed while Pinkie was examining the tree earlier, “Did you take Twilight? Why are you doing this?”

“What are you talking about? Now come on Spikey Wikey, you know I wouldn’t hurt anypony,” she reasoned. However, half-way to the bed, she reached up to pull the feather out of her mane. A bloody feather. Oh. That would be hard to play off.

“You finally cracked, didn’t you?” accused Spike, pointing at her. “Just like when you tied me down and screamed at me, but worse, you didn’t even bring any gems this time!” It was as if that sealed the deal for him.

Spike looked back and forth, before suddenly seeming to realize something. He darted forward to the edge of the bed, leaping at Pinkie and belching out a burst of flame. Was he trying to mail her to Celestia or something? Either way, Pinkie wasn’t willing to test the theory, nor was she willing to find out if a pony could survive being mailed via dragon flame. She quickly dodged out of the way, which gave Spike the opening to run as Pinkie was slamming into the bookcase.

“Wait, Spike! It wasn’t me I swear!” Pinkie yelled as she wriggled all four legs trying to get up, only to have several books fall atop her head to keep her from it. By the time she finally stumbled to the door, the little one had already gotten away.

If she didn’t have her feelings hurt enough already, they were certainly drained all the more now. Spike had seemed so ready to believe that she had cracked that she started to wonder if she really had. Maybe her own memory was faulty?

She could try to catch him still, and probably would if she made an attempt, but would it really do any good? She sat there in the doorway to the library, head drooped low once again, before slowly rising to her hooves and trotting out. There was one more place to check.

Applejack sat at the edge of the orchard, hiding off at the edge of the bushes there and waiting for Pinkie. She knew that Pinkie would be coming here, having heard about her being accused of Surprise’s rather violent deed, with some ponies even thinking she was responsible for her missing friends. It was really a bit convenient and she had a hard time feeling sorry for Pinkie at this point, given how annoying it had been to locate her.

“Won’t catch her, He says,” she grumbled to herself, “We’ll show Him that He can put His confidence in us.” She stuffed another apple into her mouth, a whole crate of them sitting next to her.

Sure enough, Pinkie came sneaking up the road, darting form tree to tree and hiding between each in turn. She seemed able to fit behind objects smaller than herself, which Applejack found every bit as strange as when she'd seen Surprise do it.

“That is so creepy. Well, all right, here goes,” Applejack said to herself, standing up on her shaky hind legs. “Uh.. Hay Pinkie Pie! Goodness, I’m sure glad you’re okay!” And she was, too, knowing that He would want to take care of her personally.

Pinkie couldn’t have been happier, spotting Applejack and darting over to her, skidding to a stop mere feet from her and panting. Looking over the earth pony, however, it was clear Applejack had been hurt from the way she stood; there was no faking that. Applejack's body had been carefully bandaged from flank down to her hind ankles, hiding her cutie mark in the process. The bandages looked like something Fluttershy would have wrapped her in, designed with cute little flowers, which brought Pinkie’s hopes up even more.

“Applejack!” Pinkie darted forward and hugged her, sounding relieved as she spoke, “I’m so glad you’re okay! Listen Applejack, I didn’t take the others or hurt Missus Cake. It was a weird Surprise pegasus; I think she might have time travelled from the eighties to re-replace us!”

Applejack stared, “I.. .is that so? Well uh… that would be the white pegasus? We found a white pegasus and we’re holding her in that old barn, right over there.”

Pinkie blinked, “You believe me?” Applejack had never believed her crazy nonsense prior to this; having her suddenly buy it actually destroyed some of the charm for Pinkie.

Applejack sensed as much, “Of course not.” She did think Pinkie was crazy, but had tried to play along with what she thought Pinkie expected. She didn't expect Pinkie not to expect... nevermind.

Pinkie wasn’t certain, but followed along nonetheless, peering at Applejack’s covered flank the entire way for some reason.

“What happened to you?” Pinkie asked.

“Me? I got into a fight with that white pegasus too, before we captured her. It was pretty weird, I barely beat her,” Applejack rambled on for a moment.

Pinkie, however, kept staring at Applejack, seeming to analyze her. She seemed nervous, but not nervous in the typical Applejack sense; it was almost like she was playing off her nervousness too well. There was also something else that was definitely wrong.

“Where’d your accent go?” Pinkie asked.

Applejack’s eyes shifted about, suddenly seeming to notice her mistake. She stuttered, “Accent? Oh my accent. Well, I just got back from vacation.”

“What does being on vacation have to do with it?” asked Pinkie, then turned to notice that they were headed towards one of the older apple barns that hadn’t been in use for some time; one that she was certain Applejack had mentioned was slated for tearing down. “And why did you put her in there?”

“Well it has everything to do with it,” Applejack focused on the first question, ignoring the second, “The… train, they lost my luggage.”

“The train lost your accent?” Pinkie blinked.

“Well they must have, else I’d still have it,” Applejack reasoned. She only had to keep Pinkie distracted for a few more moments, she thought, starting to walk faster, though she started getting less sure of her footing, tripping slightly from time to time.

“I guess that makes sense,” Pinkie answered; ironically a more feasible explanation would have seemed like a lie to her. Still, she wasn’t sure that the other pony was acting right. “I still don’t understand the old barn, though and the part about the fight. Are you really Applejack?” she finally asked outright.

Applejack turned her head about, trying to feign surprise, though looking a bit confused at the same time with what parts of this Pinkie was buying and which she wasn’t, “Of course I am!”

Arriving at the door, Applejack opened it up, clumsily reaching for the door with one hoof to try to hook the handle and pull it open. She offered to let Pinkie Pie in first, but the pink pony wouldn’t budge.

“Are you MY Applejack?” Pinkie Pie leaned over, turning one eye towards the earth pony and giving her the patented Pinkie Pie one-eyed stare, one eyeball seeming to bulge from her skull for a moment.

Applejack’s eyes got large, gulping solidly and clearly intimidated by the stare, not having expected it, “W.. Ah..” she stammered, unable to think of what to say in response to that.

“Gotcha!” another voice suddenly came out of nowhere, a pink and blue blur slamming into Pinkie from a nearby tree, knocking the dazed pony into the barn. Even Applejack found herself cringing at the subsequent crashing from within the barn.

“Surprise!” a second voice sounded. Surely enough, Surprise was in the barn, but certainly was not restrained. She was the second one to pounce Pinkie when she arrived, attempting to pin her down alongside Firefly.

“Firefly!” called out the pink unicorn that so recently had befriended Twilight, “We already told you, be careful with them! We can’t kill her yet!”

“What? I thought you said you already got-," Firefly started.

“Look He told us not to kill her right now, regardless,” Twilight screamed at her, cutting her off.

Notably, Firefly was still rather fried from her fight with Rainbow Dash earlier. Though she lacked any permanent injury, her wings and fur had obviously been blackened by the scorching she had gotten herself, her mane and tail having taken the brunt of the punishment and were now slightly patchy.

Twilight’s horn glowed, a purple mist moving to yank away a golf club that Surprise had just pulled out of her saddlebag with obvious intentions towards Pinkie’s head. The unicorn reiterated, “The no killing rule goes DOUBLE for you, Surprise.”

“My goodness, Firefly. You got dust everywhere. And be careful not to whip any more of it up Surprise,” Sparkler, apparently having joined them in the barn, complained, but didn't whine at least. She backed away from the dust cloud made by the impact.

“Aw come on!” Firefly huffed. She half stood, though still atop the struggling Pinkie, which couldn’t have been comfortable for the pink pony. “You guys take all the fun out of things!” she smirked and turned to the fashionable unicorn, “And don’t you start Sparkler. At least I didn’t take extra time to raid her house for useless trinkets.”

Sparkler hmph’ed, the unicorn taking a few more steps back as the dust cloud increased. “You’re all just so clumsy! It’s like you rush into every situation without a clue of what you’re doing!” she spoke, avoiding any admission that her own time capturing Rarity might have been a little fun for her.

Surprise chuckled, despite being deprived of her bludgeoning device, and moved to sit her plot down on Pinkie’s belly to hold her. This made Firefly stumble off of the pink pony, falling into Applejack as she came in and sending the earth pony tumbling against one of the barn’s support columns.

“Careful,” murmured Posey, who appeared to be huddled in the corner, “I don’t think this barn looks very stable.”

Surprise looked down, leaning forward so that her own face was inches from Pinkie’s as she giggled, “Were you surprised? Huh? Huh?”

"Stop stealing my lines!" Pinkie answered, suddenly ramming her head forward to head butt Surprise, sending the white pegasus falling back off of her as well, holding her head.

Pinkie’s resistance was short lived, however, as the horns of both present unicorns glowed. The magical energy caused Pinkie to float up into the air, held fast from both sides as she struggled to get a footing, only managing to run in mid air.

“So what now, Twilight?” Firefly smirked at the leading unicorn, dusting herself off after shoving Surprise away. Surprise just chuckled and slammed into the dirt, as if being treated as such was completely okay with her.

“Well we just need to get her back with the others. I can only teleport one pony at a time, so I’ll take her on ahead myself,” Twilight said as she walked towards the struggling Pinkie. She paused, however, turning her head to Posey, who was still huddled in one corner of the barn, “For goodness sake Posey! Please at least act like you’re a part of this team!”

Posey shook her head, silently trying to hold back her tears, “Why are we all acting so different than before? It’s like I don’t even… don’t even…” she shook her head, swaying, then stood straight up, suddenly putting on a braver face, “I’m sorry, I’ll try.”

Twilight hm’ed, staring at Posey for a moment, concentrating on her long and hard. She said nothing, but sudden fear filled Posey’s eyes.

“N-No!” Posey pleaded, “I’ll be good, I promise, you don’t need to tell him, please don’t tell him!”

“No! You won’t replace us!” Pinkie screeched as her feet flailed. She was still unable to touch ground. “You’re all just a bunch of meanie mean-pants!” she screeched again.

Despite appearances, Pinkie was taking note of the fear at which they spoke of ‘Him’, putting two and two together enough to know that what they were talking about was some sort of evil force. Was this why they wanted the elements out of the way?

Twilight rolled her eyes, walking towards the held pink pony, “Pinkie if you lived in my world for a few days, then you’d know what cruelty really is. Sometimes, you have to be cruel to survive.”

Spike watched Pinkie as she snuck away from the library, heading directly towards Sweet Apple Acres. What was she doing? He held a piece of parchment and quill in his claws, but wasn’t sure what to write aside from that Pinkie had been there. Princess Celestia had told him to write back about any new information he received, but perhaps he should wait until he had something useful.

He watched as Pinkie headed onward, softly padding about behind her, trying to match his steps with her own so as to not be noticed. He followed her all the way to Sweet Apple Acres, amazed that she didn’t notice him the entire time. She must have really been distracted, he thought.

Once there, he saw the most unusual meeting unfold. At first he expected Applejack to try to apprehend Pinkie and was a little concerned when she didn’t. Was Applejack only pretending to be missing? Was she in on this? But why would she hurt the others? He was afraid to get close enough to listen to them, but followed them nonetheless.

An answer to his questions that he didn’t expect came as he watched Pinkie get tackled into the barn. Rushing to the door, he peeked around the edge just after Applejack entered within. What he heard next made his eyes grow wide.

He had to save Pinkie! But how? He couldn’t beat one pony, much less six of them that were potentially as strong as the Elements themselves. He decided to do what he knew best, pulling out the parchment and quill again and beginning to write.

“Hey what’s that?” Firefly turned, cutting off Twilight’s train of thought. Firefly moved to peer through a crack in the barn, “Is somepony out there?”

“What?” Twilight glanced in that direction, but didn’t want to break her concentration on Pinkie, lest she be allowed to struggle away. “You three!” she motioned instead to Applejack, Firefly, and Surprise with a hoof, “No witnesses.” As if to punctuate her sentence, she kicked the golf club back over to Surprise.

This didn’t make for a very orderly exit from the building, however. As Surprise bolted through it, the door slammed open into Spike in the middle of his message. The dragon had been holding his breath, ready to breathe on the letter as soon as it was finished, and this made him expel the load early to send the unfinished parchment.

“No!” Spike yelled out as he skidded across the ground, “It wasn’t done!”

He now had more important things to worry about, however. He knew that if these ponies beat up his friends, he wouldn’t be able to escape from three of them. Maybe if he was fast, however, he could at least save Pinkie.

“Surprise!” Surprise swung the club, coming inches from Spike’s head as the little dragon ran towards the barn, rapidly climbing up the side.

Firefly and Applejack hadn’t expected their prey to run towards the barn instead of away from it. By the time they realized it, they were ten feet out from the door. Applejack tripped as she tried to turn about, tumbling against Firefly before the pegasus had a chance to properly take off.

“Stop being a silly pony!” Firefly screamed angrily, shoving Applejack off of her and taking off as fast as she could with her still-singed wings.

This was actually where Spike lucked out. These ponies seemed extraordinarily bad at anything resembling teamwork, and Surprise darted up into the air just as Firefly charged towards the barn with the intention of smashing Spike into it. When Surprise swung the golf club at Spike again, she instead impacted the charging Firefly’s head, sending the pink pegasus off course and through the wall of the barn itself with a splintering crash.

“You clumsy idiots! I would say you couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, Firefly, but I suppose that’s the only thing you can do,” Sparkler called out, trying hard to retain her concentration on the Pinkie grasp, “Um… Twilight dear. Shouldn’t you be doing something?”

“Oh, right,” Twilight stammered, having an equal amount of trouble concentrating. She shook her head slightly as if to clear her head of something, then walked over towards Pinkie once again. “I hate to think what will happen to you morons when I leave. I swear one tiny little thing and you all need your hooves held. Anyway… I wish… I wish…”

Firefly snorted at Twilight, “I’ll have that little guy’s head on a platter!” She then darted back outside, all the more determined.

However, Surprise was just flying up past the hole as Firefly was flying out of it. They slammed together and were both sent spiraling out of control, barely able to stop themselves before impacting the ground. By then, Spike wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

“Get off!” Firefly shoved Surprise aside again, moving up to start circling about the barn.

“Did you see where he went?” Surprise asked Applejack, turning to see that the earth pony had apparently stopped to stuff her face with more apples.

“I was busy,” Applejack said with her mouth full, bits of apple trickling down her cheek.

Spike had ducked into the roof through another hole and was now running about the rafters. Running towards the middle, he searched for the main support beam.

“I’m really going to regret this,” Spike sighed. With those words, Spike took a deep breath, and breathed his magical flame all over the main beam.

The next thing any pony knew, the whole barn creaked and began to crumble. The first plank to fall nailed Twilight directly in the head, disrupting her teleportation spell. Needless to say, the impact of wood against her head, followed by her head against the ground, broke her concentration well enough. The cloud of dust resulting from it broke Sparkler's concentration too as she immediately fled the building with no regard for her 'friends' still inside.

Freed from her magical binding and unaware of Spike still being nearby, Pinkie immediately darted off. The other confused ponies didn't notice the pink streak as it left out the front and across the orchard.

“Shouldn’t some pony be saving Twilight?” Applejack asked from outside, watching the barn cave in on itself as she casually stuffed another apple into her mouth.

“What?” Surprise responded, as if the concept of risking her life for some other pony was foreign to her.

Luckily for Twilight, Posey was still inside, and the yellow pony managed to pull the plank off of the unicorn’s head before shoving her outside. Twilight and Posey exited the barn shortly before it fully collapsed, the splintering of wood causing a huge bang. There was no doubt that any pony in earshot would be running to see what happened.

Spike wasn’t as lucky as the ponies, but at least he was atop the barn so not a great deal collapsed atop him. The next thing he knew, Firefly was pulling him out of the rubble.

“Surprise again!” a voice screamed.

If the collapse didn’t hurt enough, the slam of Surprise’s club to Spike’s head certainly did, sending the poor dragon flying to crash head first into the ground amongst the other escaped ponies. Firefly and Surprise dove again, death in their eyes.

“Waaaaait!” Posey yelled, pulling the baby dragon out from their targeted path, causing both pegasi to land hard on the ground.

“What the hay Posey?” Firefly screeched.

“Well that was surprising!” Surprise gave her that much credit.

“Oh what now?” Twilight glared at Posey, despite having just been saved by the pony, “This isn’t going to be another of your idiot love and peace speeches is it? I swear when we get back it’s condi-”

“He’s just a baby!” protested Posey, cutting Twilight off, “And we didn’t come here to kill babies! Besides, don’t you see? This is Twilight’s pet dragon, you said his name was Spike, right? He might be useful right?”

“Spike?” Applejack arched and eyebrow.

“Oh goodness, Spike? If he’s anything like our Spike, kill him before he speaks,” Sparkler whined as she covered her ears.

“Seriously!” agreed Firefly, “Most. Annoying. Voice. Ever. One baby dragon is enough!”

“No, she has a point,” Twilight shook her head, “As much as I hate to admit it, this could actually work well. Posey, we’ll talk on the way back, and perhaps we’ll reconsider your conditioning if you do better. Anyway, everypony scramble, there might be help on the way.”

Far away, Celestia sat quietly on a pile of soft pillows in her study, worries filling her head. She had a book in front of her, trying hard to get her mind off of things.

“I still can’t believe that one of my own would do this,” she spoke to herself.

“No, I'm sure it's fine,” assured Luna, having entered the room, moving to sit across from her, “I agree. No need to worry big sister; we’ll get to the bottom of-"

She cut herself off as there was a spark in the air above Celestia, a letter appearing in front of the older Princess. It wasn’t folded and looked half-written, complete with a half-broken quill tumbling in with it.

Celestia caught the letter with her magic, moving it upright and reading it aloud, “Dear Princess Celestia. This is Spike. You told me to tell you if I saw Pinkie and I have. Now this is very important, so send help right away to Sweet Apple Acres as I don’t know if they’ll catch me before I finish this. Pinkie is in the barn with six other ponies that are all working together to…” the letter ended.

“Pinkie Pie is working with others to do what?” Luna peered, her voice taking a slightly more dangerous tone than before. Unfortunately, Spike had chosen a bad place to be cut off.

“I…” Celestia was speechless for a moment, then slowly closed her eyes, “Could this get any worse…”

And with those words, a large plank of support beam appeared over Celestia’s head, slamming down on her in a cloud of dust.

“Sister?” Luna startled, rushing over to pull it off with her own magic, “Are you injured?”

“Remind me… never… to say… that again…”

Chapter 3: The Real Party Begins

Day Six

Sending guards to Sweet Apple Acres had not turned up anything of use. They had arrived to find only a collapsed barn and evidence that others had been there prior to its demolition. Celestia was quick enough to realize why it had collapsed, given the support beam that slammed into her head shortly after Spike’s letter, but where had the little one been taken after that?

Celestia could think of nothing else to do, so she had to come to Ponyville to lead the search herself. She had left Luna in Canterlot to deal with the day to day governance issues, as much as Luna wanted to come along with her. They really couldn’t leave things unattended, after all, but Celestia was also still quite protective of her little sister.

Surely, Celestia thought, Pinkie would see her and come out of hiding to talk, wouldn’t she? It wasn’t like Celestia had a reputation for doing horrible things or inflicting fates worse than death on those that displeased her… oh wait. Well, it was worth a try anyway.

Her first stop was the Ponyville hospital. Led by one of the nurses, she left her flanking guards outside to keep watch as she made her way towards a room specially set up for intensive care. Entering the room as quietly as possible, she found Missus Cake laying in the bed, still unconscious, her head and shoulders bandaged.

Beside her, Mister Cake sat on his haunches half-asleep, leaning against the bed.

“Mister Cake?” Celestia spoke, causing the baker to snap awake at her voice.

“Oh uh… your Highness,” he spoke as he rose to his hooves, awkwardly due to his exhaustion, and bowed low.

“Please Mister Cake; there’s no need. I just came to check on things. I’ll be overseeing the investigation personally, given… well a few things that have happened.” Celestia smiled gently to him, always trying to keep normal ponies from being intimidated, “I do not suppose she has been able to tell us anything?”

“No your Majesty,” Mister Cake insisted on calling her formally even if she’d rather he not at this moment, “They aren’t even sure she will wake up at all… but.. but your… well…”

“Please Mister Cake,” Celestia nodded to him, “Do not be intimidated. I am here as a friend, so speak as you wish.”

“It’s just,” Mister Cake looked back at his wife, then once again to Celestia. “There’s no way Pinkie Pie did this. The guards don’t understand. If only I could be left alone for a while,” He nose-pointed to the guard at the hospital room door as he spoke, “I’m sure Pinkie would contact me and we could get this resolved.”

Celestia kindly shook her head, “I’m sorry Mister Cake. But the guard is for your own protection too. While I do not believe that Pinkie Pie could have done this, someone certainly did. If that someone thinks you are a threat or may know something, they will come for you too.”

Mister Cake didn’t respond, instead slumping back to his previous position and looking to the hospital bed. He silently laid his head aside Missus Cake’s on her pillow.

“Please trust we are doing everything we can. I wish that I could help myself, but head injuries should really only be treated by a proper medical pony. I am having a specialist come in to look at your wife, and it should not be too much longer until they arrive,” Celestia said with a slight nod, then turned to exit the room once again.

Celestia however, wasn’t the only one that had arrived in Ponyville that day to search for Pinkie Pie or the others. Nearby Ponyville, guards had been searching the area of broken trees where it was believed Rainbow had crashed, not allowing anyone else inside the perimeter. One certain griffon, however, disagreed.

“I said MOVE IT!” Gilda arched her back, wings slightly unfurled, and feathers poofed up to make her look at least as large as the guard in front of her.

“MISS!” the pegasus guard shot back, moving to block her when she tried to turn about him, “Now we have been very patient with you. But this is a crime scene and you are not allowed inside while we are conducting this investigation!”

“She was my friend! Even more, and I never told her!” Gilda was so angry that tears were rolling down her face, “I deserve to know what happened to her!”

Gilda had been in Cloudsdale when she first heard the rumor. Message had been sent to Rainbow Dash’s family there from none other than Princess Celestia herself, and it had quickly gotten around to many of her old friends. As soon as Gilda had heard that Rainbow might be in trouble, she had set aside her reluctance to come back to Ponyville and rushed to find out what happened. The information that Pinkie Pie was wanted for questioning in the case had only made it worse, and of course made Gilda assume the worst.

It hadn’t taken her long from that point to find out that the town was swarming with royal guards, which was certainly not something one expected to see in a small village, and that even the Princess herself was somewhere in town. When she found out that there was a crime scene near Rainbow Dash’s home, she had immediately come to see. The conversation had actually started out rather civil, but Gilda had freaked out as soon as she spied one of the guards inside the perimeter picking up a few blood splattered blue feathers and placing them in what looked like a saddlebag full of collected evidence.

“MISS!” the guard repeated, “This is your last warning! I’m sure you wouldn’t like it if we had to take your pretty feathers in for questioning.” He smirked.

Gilda gritted her beak hard at both the guard’s statement and his inappropriate implications. It was almost as if he was trying to get her to attack him now so that he could just take her in and be done with this conversation. She barely held herself from doing so, instead turning about and taking off, screeching in anger. The hawk-like sound echoed through the nearby fields as she appeared to leave. She did not, however, stay gone for long.

Instead, the griffon flew some ways away, turning about in the air, and then charged back downward towards the ground. Approaching the site at break-neck speed, she angled and flew mere feet from touching down, claws angled for grabbing.

The guard honestly didn’t expect her to return, but it seemed that Gilda’s stubbornness had been underestimated. Just as they were getting back to their searching, a feathered streak blew through their formation, dodging within inches of several trees and surprised guards before grabbing hold of the saddlebag that lay on the ground. Packed with their documents and evidence, she was probably setting them back quite a bit in their investigation by taking it, but she was in rage mode and didn’t care.

“Later, dweebs!” Gilda’s voice rang through the encampment before she was gone.

The guards took several long seconds to even realize what had occurred, by which time Gilda had skyrocketed and poked through a low lying cloud. Hidden from their eyes, she arched her path and went the opposite direction to head back over the camp and towards Ponyville itself.

“I will find you Pinkie!” Gilda screamed to herself after she was well out of earshot, “You won’t take her away from me again!”

Meanwhile on the streets of Ponyville itself, a blue unicorn with a beautiful white mane walked from pony to pony, looking for information herself. Most of her body was covered up by her crookedly steepled hat, purple with star designs covering it, and a long cloak of the same design flowing down her back and over her tail. She wore the outfit with unmistakable pride.

Trixie had been spending much of her time in Canterlot since her little run-in with the ponies of Ponyville, training her own magic feverishly, determined to return to show up Twilight Sparkle once and for all. She had obsessed over un-doing her humiliation here to the point of unhealthiness, and had worked her offensive magic down to an art.

When news arrived in Canterlot of the events here, Trixie was horrified that Twilight was missing. It wasn’t that she was worried about Twilight, but that she couldn’t stand the idea of someone other than herself having defeated Twilight. She had enough contacts in the castle due to her befriending of a certain Prince Blueblood, so she was also aware that Pinkie Pie was wanted, though just as Gilda was not sure why. She, of course, made the assumption that Pinkie was to blame and that now her vengeance must be redirected there.

“What do you mean you don’t know anything?” she pointed a hoof at Rose’s face, the latest pony for her to approach. The terrified flower pony shivered in her hooves as Trixie continued, “Are you really refusing to provide the Great and Powerful Trixie with the information she requires to save your miserable city?”

“But why would I know anything?” Rose looked cross eyed at Trixie’s hoof, then started to back away, “You can’t just interrogate random ponies and expect them to know something!” With that, the easily startled pony had turned around and begun to flee, “Oh the horror!”

“Hmm. Perhaps the flower filly is right,” Trixie tapped her own chin with a hoof, “Perhaps the Great and Powerful Trixie has underestimated her own intimidating nature! No doubt her reputation has preceded her.” That was assuming, at least, that Trixie’s reputation had changed since her last visit to Ponyville, but she was pretty sure she had impressed enough ponies in Canterlot to make herself look rather good.

She had already tried the guards, but these were Celestia’s best and had refused to give her any information as well. No doubt this was only because Celestia was slightly more intimidating than Trixie. Random ponies weren’t giving her much luck either, obviously.

“Um… hey. You sure look familiar,” a tan colt with brown mane and horseshoes on his flank said as he walked up behind her.

“You dare to feign ignorance of the Great and Powerful Trixie?” she glared back at him, immediately so angry that she nearly forgot why she was in Ponyville to begin with.

“Oh right, ah remember. Anyway, uh, I’m Caramel. Mind if ah ask why yer lookin’ for Pinkie and Twilight?” Caramel was curious, obviously, given that he was friends with the missing ponies himself, not to mention Pinkie.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Trixie rolled her eyes, “The Pink One has dared to defeat the Twilight Sparkle. Only the Great and Powerful Trixie can defeat her! It is Trixie’s DESTINY! The Great and Powerful Trixie will defeat the Pink One and fulfill her destiny once and for all! Defeating the one that defeated somepony counts, does it not?”

Trixie raised her fore-hooves into the air and cackled madly as lightning danced around her. Luckily, it seemed to be no more than a special effect, and even though it zipped past Caramel, it didn’t do him any harm. Still, this caused Caramel to take a page from Rose’s book and turn to flee. In fact, this seemed to be the option taken by most ponies on this particular street.

“Oh well. Trixie will try the town square,” Trixie said to herself, then turned around and began to walk in that direction with head held high.

Pinkie was huddled behind a row of bushes and brambles which had grown up between two of the buildings lining the town square. Exhausted from her ordeal and unsure of where to look for her friends next, she had finally fallen asleep.

Unfortunately for Pinkie, her depression seemed to cloud her mind quite a bit. She had assumed that every pony was after her, when in reality most of them were now just worried that something happened to her as well. She had seen Princess Celestia arriving, which only made the situation all the more frightening for her.

Out in the square, the same calm peace that usually permeated Ponyville was present, though there was a hint of fright in the way ponies moved through the area. Unaware of Pinkie being nearby, countless ponies passed by the statue in the center before heading about their business. Hushed whispers spoke of the Element-bearers missing, rumors that it might be a precursor to an attack on Equestria, and the few who actually believed Pinkie to have finally cracked. Celestia had kept the investigation pretty tight to her chest, which meant that no pony knew for certain what was going on and only made the rumors worse.

When a balloon appeared in the distance, there was a bit of a nervous reaction from the residents, at least until it was apparent that it was not Pinkie’s balloon. As the black balloon neared the square, however, the nervousness returned as the words “Pie Family Rock Farming” could be read clearly on the surface of the hot air balloon.

This in itself wasn’t very surprising. Obviously, the Pie family would have been informed that she was missing, and some of them might want to come to try and check on the situation themselves. The part that was really alarming was more that the balloon was heading towards the square rather quickly, losing altitude at a near dive rather than coming in for the graceful landing that balloons probably should.

At this point, many ponies started running for cover. Surely enough, the balloon slammed into the ground, skidding all the way across the square until the head of the balloon fell against the square’s pony statue, deflating with a loud rush of air.

A number of the braver ponies ran back towards it to check for survivors. Luckily for said survivors, though less luckily for said residents, two earth ponies popped their heads out of the basket of the balloon, mostly unscathed.

The first one out exited with such violence that she immediately became tangled in the various straps of the balloon itself. The mare had a dark coat that could be described as purplish or bluish, and a gray mane and tail so straight that it looked like they might be able to cut somepony. As she stumbled out of the lines by tearing them with her teeth, she took several angry steps away from the balloon.

“I’m pretty sure that wasn’t supposed to happen, Inkie!” she screamed angrily at the other pony still stuck in the wreckage.

The second filly, whose coat seemed to match the first pony’s mane but contrasted with a darker gray mane of her own, laid a solid kick against the side of the craft, which literally disintegrated under the impact. She rolled out, quite calmly in contrast to the other and slowly rose to all four hooves before dusting herself off. She seemed completely unfazed by the crash, not a hint of emotion on her face.

“Not to worry Blinkie. It is probably my fault for suggesting that stealing Dad’s balloon would be faster," she stated dryly, “Though to be fair, I did not think you would really do it.”

There were murmurs from the crowd. Some talked about the crash, some asked if everypony was okay, and the closest murmured about the two fillies’ cutie marks.

Blinkie, the first pony out, seemed to have a highly unusual mark: a lit bomb. It was one of those cartoonish black round things, but most every pony in the peaceful town would have thought that such marks were impossible. How on Equestria would a pony even get that mark?

Inkie’s mark was perhaps something more vague. It consisted of a dark blue dot surrounded by two concentric crystal-blue rings, evenly spaced from one another. What appeared to be white cracks emanated from the center, almost as if indicating that her special talent was breaking things. But how could anypony have that talent?

“Stupid balloon!” Blinkie shrieked, turning her head about to pull something from her saddlebag.

“Now Blinkie we really don’t have to do that,” Inkie trotted over to her, staring calmly at her, showing nary a hint of emotion.

“What’s she lighting that red candle for?” asked one of the ponies nearest the two.

“You’ve failed me for the last time!” shouted Blinkie back at the balloon, before taking the lit stick of dynamite and tossing it back towards their arrival vehicle.

“Oh Blinkie. You should really watch that. Well I guess everypony should step back,” Inkie casually put her hooves to Blinkie’s chest and shoved. The force of the shove sent Blinkie tumbling back to skid some ten feet further away, Inkie following behind at a calm trot.

What happened next had the attention of the entirety of Ponyville. A blast of flame spread out from where the dynamite had landed, exploding shards of the craft in every direction and melting a large portion of the balloon to make it drool from the charred, cracking statue. A cloud of debris and smoke rose into the air, followed quickly by igniting fuel when sent out a spray of flame and more smoldering ash.

Needless to say, the royal guard was on the scene in seconds. It wasn’t long before they were pointed towards the two culprits.

“Stop right there, criminal scum! Nopony breaks the law on my watch,” an earth pony guard stated as he pointed his hoof at the two fillies. On either side, two other guards came forward, a unicorn and a pegasus.

“Oh hello, officers. I think there has just been a misunderstanding,” Inkie attempted to calm things, though her deadpan voice didn’t have very much of a calming effect.

“You’ll never take us alive!” Blinkie screamed, not helping their position as she opened back up her saddle bag to pull out a comically large black bottle rocket.

“Then pay with your blood!” the earth pony guard raced forward towards the fillies, not wanting to give the one time to throw her neat little toy.

The charging guard was joined by his two comrades, the trio all charging at the outmatched mares to try to get the bomb away from them.

“Oh dear. Now see what you’ve done sister? Again,” Inkie remained completely calm, but reached for her own backpack.

Out from Inkie’s saddlebag came a long handled sledge hammer, looking as if it had barely fit inside of her bag, which Inkie casually slammed into the earth pony guard as he charged at Blinkie. Shivers ran through him as he was visibly jolted, all the links in his armor coming loose as his entire royal guard uniform cracked and fell off of him.

Blinkie, meanwhile, pointed the rocket towards the pegasus and fired, sending it screeching forth to hit the charging guard and send her flying backwards, barrel rolling into the sky in tow with the rocket. The guard realized her predicament easily enough, letting go of the rocket in time to survive, but the ensuing explosion then flung her towards the ground at incredible speed.

The unicorn guard thought that he was home free, his horn glowing as he prepared to take hold of Blinkie. Without warning, however, his concentration was broken as none other than a pink cupcake slammed into the side of his head, striking with such velocity that he was knocked sideways into the earth pony guard, both now losing their balance even more. Out from between the buildings leapt Pinkie, the Cupcake Cannon over one shoulder.

“You leave my sisters alone you meanie meanaroo meanieheads!” Pinkie shouted as she took up a stance between her sisters.

“Oh hello sister,” Inkie stated with dead calm, before her eyes traveled back to their opponents, “Oh look at that.”

Her hoof pointed to the cutie mark of the guard whose armor she had shattered. The guard looked back in utter humiliation. It wasn’t because he was naked now, of course, given that such was completely normal, but because his lack of armor revealed the smiley face flower on his flank. Humiliated that his un-studly cutie mark was visible, the earth guard immediately ran for cover. That was one down.

“Oh, hey sister! I heard you killed all your friends!” Blinkie sounded alarmingly okay with this, “Don’t worry though, we still love you. We came to rescue you!”

Behind Blinkie, the pegasus guard which she had so tactfully dismissed with her rocket slammed into the ground with a sickening crack. The guard tried to rise to her hooves, only to fall back down, panting as she curled up into a ball of pain. That was two down.

“I didn’t kill them sillies!” Pinkie smiled, surprisingly okay with the accusation when it came from a family member, “They were pony napped so now we have to save them!”

“See. I told you,” Inkie looked at Blinkie, but showed no emotion at the news, good or otherwise.

“Oh well, I guess that’s fine too. Sure, we can save them,” Blinkie nodded, agreeing with a sadistic grin.

The third guard however, hadn’t been brought down by the cupcake, however surprising it may have been for him. He was once again casting a spell, eyes glaring at the three ponies as his horn glowed.

Suddenly the guard felt power coursing through him, a jolt of energy striking him from behind and sending him blasting forward. The smoking guard made an arc over the three Pie sisters, slamming into the damaged statue and shattering what remained of it like a bowling ball scattering pins. Okay, all three down.

“Noooooo!” Trixie cackled, standing behind where the guard had been, “No pony can defeat the Pink One but the Great and Powerful Trixie! It is Trixie’s destiny to defeat the defeater of the Twilight Sparkle!”

On the other side of the trio, there was a gust of wind as another large object angrily stuck the ground. That object was none other than Gilda, still carrying the saddle bags that she had snatched from the guards earlier, now on her back. She had been about to look at the contents when she had spotted the explosive battle from the town square.

“Got’cha dweeb!” Gilda spat out, furiously, “Now tell me where Dash is before I bite your stupid pink head off!”

“What is going on?!” a third voice boomed over them, reverberating with authority. The next impact of hooves against ground trembled the entire square as the majestic Celestia landed between the group and the still burning balloon, “What is the meaning of this, Pinkie Pie? What have you done?” it was rare to hear such angry words coming from Celestia, but the evidence certainly hadn’t pointed in Pinkie’s favor until now and this debacle didn’t help.

"I brought you a letterrrr!" a rather cutsie voice rang out, completely out of feel with the rest of the arrivals. Ditzy Doo landed on the fourth side to complete the set, but obviously wasn't there to fight. She seemed to just be waving a letter around in her mouth.

“Wow Pinkie,” Inkie turned calmly, staring first at Trixie, then over to Gilda, then upwards to Celestia. Then, yes, towards the wall-eyed Ditzy. “You really got some heavy hitters after you. I suppose we should be proud of you, even if we’re probably all about to die. Oh well. It was nice seeing you again.”

“Wait! I can fix this!” Blinkie turned back to her saddle, digging through it for something in particular, tossing out several round bombs into the immediate area to get them out of the way. The bombs bounced to the ground, moving around Celestia’s hooves and then rolling to settle near the wrecked balloon behind her.

“Noooo!” Trixie bravely stepped between Celestia and the trio of earth ponies, “The Great and Powerful Trixie has things well in hoof! Her Majesty has no need to dirty her royal hooves with such low lives!”

“Back off! I don’t care if you’re Queen of the Lamos!” Gilda was less brave and more completely irrational. She wasn’t about to let Celestia carry Pinkie off to jail, far out of Gilda’s reach. She wanted revenge on the pony and wasn’t about to let any pony, royalty or no, stand in her way.

"Isn't anypony going to take this letter?" Ditzy asked, waving the letter at the pie sisters, "I need to get back home in time to give Dinky her afternoon muffin!" She still didn’t seem worried about the situation at hand.

The one thing Celestia couldn’t have expected was to actually be attacked by normal citizens. This caught her completely off guard, having never happened before during her rule. She had actually expected all present to gracefully bow or act intimidated before handing themselves over. That’s what they had done every other time this had happened, after all. That said, Celestia wasn’t exactly at full power, fully intending to pull her punches even if she had to fight. She was intentionally repressing her power to prevent harm to others.

The irrational Gilda took off with a screech, looping through the sky before slamming back down onto Celestia from above, impacting her with her full weight in an attempt to knock her off balance. Gilda’s intention was to then snatch Pinkie Pie and fly off, but that’s not quite where things went from there.

The Pie sisters had to make a quick decision at that point; namely who to protect Pinkie from first. On one hand, they had every indication from Pinkie's letters home that Trixie and Gilda were both surprisingly incompetent. On the other hand, they had Celestia, who might banish Pinkie into a celestial body or garden statue if she were angry enough, and she certainly seemed furious. In their minds, flawed as they might be, it was fairly obvious who here was the biggest threat.

“You’ll have to go through me to hurt Pinkie,” the heroic nature of Inkie’s statement was lost due to her bland voice, but all the same she charged forward, slamming her hammer down upon Celestia’s head, vibrations shaking through her as her crown and neckpiece shattered to the ground, her horn visibly vibrating from the impact.

“Hey Pinkie look! A letter!” Ditzy didn’t give up, waving the letter directly in Pinkie’s face, speaking as if she expected Pinkie to be immediately excited at getting one.

“Not now Derpy!” Pinkie pushed Ditzy away, who immediately looked far more devastated than the refusal really warranted.

Pinkie was more concerned with the real problem, calling out to the others, “Wait! Don’t fight her! Wait no I surrender!” She was terrified that her friends, and all of these were her friends since it was very hard to become Pinkie’s enemy, would bite off a great deal more than they could chew.

Blinkie, for her part, wasn’t listening. “Oh well this will have to do!” she grinned as she pulled another large charge of dynamite from her saddle bag, lighting it while Gilda and Inkie were distracting Celestia, then leaping forward to stuff it into Celestia’s mouth as it hung open from the impact against her head.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is not certain that this is a good idea!” even Trixie’s eyes widened at the mad attempts to protect or acquire Pinkie, but she had to admit to herself that she too did not wish for Pinkie to be taken away by the likely merciful Celestia. More importantly, that lit stick of dynamite was a lot closer than Trixie was comfortable with, “Very well! Prepare for Trixie’s finest feat yet!”

With that, Trixie’s horn glowed, flames leaping from the ground around her as she charged up her full strength, fore-hoofs faced forward as a blast slammed into Celestia’s chest and sent the Princess skidding backwards away from the others, still gagging on the lit stick of dynamite, landing with the other explosives Blinkie had thrown onto the ground around her.

The Princess landed upon her bottom some ten feet away, visibly dizzy, not even looking certain of what the object was that was sticking in her mouth. A few seconds of silence passed as all the members of the group were stunned at how effective their collective strategies had been against the unsuspecting royalty. It took them a while to realize how close they were to a potential explosion.

The group dived for cover, Ditzy dragged along with them in the fleeing mass. An explosion range out that far outmatched the previous ones. Dust and wind blew through the square, a crater forming where Celestia stood, energy waves tearing into the buildings around them as her body reacted to the incredible force trying to tear her apart.

Celestia could have put up a much better defense, all in all, but her mind was elsewhere. Rather than worry about damage to herself, it raced to the fate of the other ponies in the square. Both fore-hooves slammed into the ground again, driving shivers through the ground and causing walls of earth to rise up and shield the two guard ponies, who were still unconscious from the fighting, from the blast.

At the same time, her mind reached forward, giving a shove of energy to push the group that had just been fighting her into the alleyway where Pinkie had so recently been hiding, another shard of earth flying up to block off the entrance to it and protect them. Other ponies in the vicinity were lifted, shoved away, or shielded from the explosion before Celestia even thought to protect herself.

The group felt the ripple of energy shove them into the alleyway, seconds ahead of the explosion, the shard of dirt shielding them just enough to deflect the worst of the blast upwards above them in a brilliant flash of light, causing the buildings on either side to crack from the strain.

“Huh. I expected that fight to not last that long,” Inkie calmly stated as she moved herself in front of the others to protect them from what little debris made it through Celestia’s barrier, “Also: I expected us to be the ones exploding at the end.”

"You ponies aren’t being very nice," Ditzy commented, still holding the letter in her mouth, "Actually you're being pretty rude."

“Are you all crazy!?” that was quite a statement coming from Pinkie, though she had to strain to not admit how fun flying through the air like that was.

“That did go a lot better than I expe- hey wait!” Gilda spoke, but then remembered what her purpose was and immediately tackled Pinkie over onto the ground. She pinned the pony and raised one fore-claw up as if to strike.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie suspects that we are seconds from being located on a lunar surface,” Trixie peered through the dust, trying to see, but then perked her ears up at the sound of Gilda, turning to her and hoof-pointing, “Noooo! The Cat-Butted One cannot defeat the Pink One! You are as doooomed as you are foalish!”

Ditzy sighed sadly, sitting on her haunches and seeming depressed that no one would take her letter, or pay any real attention to her for that matter. It wasn't easy being a background pony.

“No way. No one could survive that!” Blinkie grinned, but then paused, “All the same shouldn’t we all get out of here? I’m pretty sure every guard in town is headed this direction, and I’d really rather not be seen at the site of a royal assassination.”

Though guards seemed to be the least of their worries as the jolts of energy that streamed from the blast crater and were not lessening. They showered outwards and caused nearby buildings to creak and crack under pressure, and the alleyway they were in was a dead end.

“All gather around the Great and Powerful Trixie and lay your hooves upon her!” Trixie held up her own fore-hooves.

“This is no time for kinky pony rituals!” barked out Gilda, fist paused as she had apparently thought better of assaulting Pinkie at this exact moment.

“I think she is probably going to try to teleport us, if I had to guess,” Inkie calmly stated as the heated air fluttered her coat and mane about. Somehow said mane was still remaining relatively straight.

“All at once? Is that possible?” Blinkie reached out to take hold of the blue unicorn, all the same.

Every other pony followed Blinkie’s lead, moving to hug against Trixie. Even Gilda eventually decided to cooperate, hugging arms and wings about the group. It looked like it was particularly embarrassing for her to do so.

"Yay! Group hug time!" Ditzy smiled, appearing to have relatively little clue as to what was going on as she joined in.

“Nothing is impossible for the Great and Powerful Trixie, who bested Her Majesty on completely even terms with no help whatsoever!” Trixie cheered herself on; the events of minutes earlier were already morphing inside her head. “Watch in AWE as the Great and Powerful Trixie uses the very power of an exploding goddess to open a rift in the very fabric of time and space!”

"Yay time and space!" cheered Ditzy, as if entirely used to this sort of thing.

“Is that safe?” Inkie calmly asked, “And won’t it make Celestia even angrier when she does come to?

“Trixie is fairly certain,” Trixie responded in an equally calm voice, but didn’t specify if her words referred to one or both of Inkie’s questions.

The force of the spell slammed outwards, tearing into the buildings on either side. Bricks and wood crumbled under the force of the magic, and each of them suddenly felt as if they were about to be torn limb from limb by the impact. Just when it felt like this was going to be a lot more lethal than Trixie promised, another wave of energy hit them, similar to the one that had shoved them into the alleyway to begin with. In a sharp flash of light, the group disappeared into a swirling blue vortex, the debris and walls around them imploding suddenly inward to fill the space the group had occupied moments before.

Chapter 4: Backtracking

Back to Day One

Twilight Sparkle’s head spun as Twilight Wish teleported her. The place where they arrived was dark, but was immediately lit as the later pony’s horn was aglow. Being teleported by somepony else wasn’t exactly a premium way to travel, so her legs felt ready to give way as soon as they arrived.

Still, Twilight was not a typical pony, so the experience didn’t cause her to collapse. She was looking about almost immediately. It seemed she was in what looked like the interior of an ancient ruin; it was very much like the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters that she had once entered along with her friends.

The design was similar, but somehow it seemed older. There was lettering and symbols on the walls that she didn’t recognize as any form of language spoken by ponies, though it all seemed familiar, as if it were just an older version of what they now had. The air was stale, incredibly so, as if it had stagnated here for a long time without any circulation. Indeed, there was no sign of windows, so perhaps they were underground entirely; it would explain why she had never heard of a place like this.

Twilight took a deep breath of the musty air and gagged, taking a few moments to adjust to the stench. She covered her mouth with a hoof momentarily, and then turned to look at the other unicorn. She still had no definite reason to assume that she was mistaken in their identity; after all they had only teleported her, but one question was prominent on her mind.

“Wish, where are we? How did you even know about a place like this?” Sparkle carefully asked, taking a single step away. Wish had seemed clueless about most things in the world up to this point, asking questions about even the most basic things, such as why ponies were moving clouds around, so to suddenly find out she had knowledge of an incredibly ancient ruin was a stretch.

“I stumbled across the outer entrance one day while exploring in the forest, it’s a long way to this point, so I teleported us. There’s no time to explain,“ Wish shook her head, “All I can say is that you are in great danger. Please… trust me.” Wish gave Sparkle as serious an expression as she could, then turned and rushed down the hallway of the ruin.

Sparkle didn’t question her strange friend’s assertion, though she had other questions, “You found an expansive ruin and explored the whole thing without ever telling anypony?”

“Look, I was scared okay?” Wish called back, “Please just follow me? You’ll understand in just a few minutes.”

They walked from the room they were in, which was largely empty aside from a row of broken stone shelves on one side of the room. The hallway they emerged into was lined on its opposite wall with small rooms that looked as if they were temporary guest quarters. They looked as if they might have at one time been comfortable, but now fabric was rotted away leaving only the barebones of a cushion-less stone bed.

To the left were more rooms lining each side of the hallway At the end of said left branch there was a large room where Sparkle could not get a good look due to the darkness there. Down the hallway to the right, however, there was a large blue glow from the chamber at the end. It is this chamber that Wish led her to.

They arrived at a round chamber about twenty feet in diameter, pausing momentarily. There was a large blue pad in the center of the room, glowing with energy, a swirling blue vortex located directly above it. Sparkle immediately stared into it as if unable to pull her eyes away, but Wish used a hoof to turn her head away immediately.

“No! Don’t look directly into it for too long or you'll go insane,” Wish said, “Twilight… now this is important. Do you trust me?”

Sparkle looked at Wish, stunned as she spoke, “I do. You’ve helped me a lot over the past few weeks, but…”

“Then please do not question this,” Wish gave a deep sigh, pulling a blindfold from a bag that appeared to have already been placed nearby the portal, using her magic to move it and place it on Twilight’s head, “I am going to lead you…”

“Shouldn’t you be blindfolded too?” Sparkle asked curiously, not wanting her friend to sacrifice her own sanity.

“I am blindfolded now as well,” lied Wish, “But I know the way so I can still lead you; Now prop yourself carefully on me.”

Sparkle moved one hoof out to feel, finding Wish’s behind and propping herself up onto it so that she could be led. She heard the other unicorn let out a sigh of relief, but she couldn’t determine why. This was more than a little awkward for her.

Wish couldn’t be happier. She had half-expected Sparkle not to fall for her ruse, expecting a full on fight when she didn't. She had been worried that Sparkle would outmatch her even if she got in the first blow, as she suspected that this unicorn was dangerously powerful in a way she couldn’t match. She had heard enough stories of what Sparkle had done to be more than wary of her.

Wish having been able to spend so much time ahead of this with Sparkle had made it a breeze, as there had been plenty of time to gain her trusts with a few pretend sacrifices on her part, even going so far as summoning several slime monsters to attack Spike so that she could arrive and ‘save’ him. What’s more, it seemed to her that she was the first to arrive back at the portal, which would make her look better to Him when she arrived back with her captive in a neat bundle with barely a scratch on her.

She led Twilight into the vortex while keeping her own eyes closed. The space around them became chill as they were both sucked in, feeling as if their whole forms had been compressed for a moment and then released. For a moment they both felt paralyzed and neither of them dared to open their eyes.

Once on the other end, they arrived at a ruin much like the one they had left. Twilight, of course, did not see this.

“Should I take it off?” Sparkle asked, uncertain.

“Not yet. Please be patient,” Wish spoke in as kind a voice as she could muster, but her excitement couldn’t be easily hidden.

Twilight was led away from the blue vortex from which they had emerged, which looked very much like the one they had entered. Sparkle noted as she stepped down from the platform that it seemed to be similar height and shape as the other one, and assumed that this was a ruin of much the same architecture as well. However, if the smell was anything to go by, it had been recently cleaned up and inhabited. The clean smelling, warm air made it feel quite homey.

Sparkle was led forward, guided into what she assumed was another hallway. They paused after perhaps ten feet, at which time she heard the grinding of a metal door sliding open, clanging loudly as it hit its stop, echoing through the hallway.

Sparkle was then turned and led inside. Finally she noted her cousin coming to a stop and turning so that her own hooves slid off Wish’s behind and settled back to the stone floor.

“Now?” Sparkle asked again, “Look, Wish. I do not like this one bit, and if these are more ruins I really want to see them.”

There was no answer. Instead, there was the telltale sound of a horn glowing and the rattle of chains as all four of Sparkle’s hooves were suddenly champed tightly and pulled apart. She stumbled, yelping out loudly, the sound echoing through the dark stone walls. Another tight brace locked around her hips and shoulders to hold her tightly, still another choking around her neck to pull it upwards. The chains were flush to her skin, and felt so rusty that Twilight was afraid she would be cut. She was lifted up off the floor, still unable to see, her legs now kicking wildly.

“Wish!” Sparkle called, at first seeming to think that someone had captured them both. Her first instinct was to use her magic to pull the blindfold off, except that it didn’t work. When she tried to use her magic, pain trickled up through the chains that held her, as if they were stopping the magic from working or immediately draining any charge that she built up.

Wish used her own magic to tighten the blindfold harshly, knowing that Twilight couldn’t target her spells now without line of sight even if she did figure out a work around for the chains. A powerful unicorn might be able to make exception to this, but only if she knew the layout of the area she was in, not to mention the magical chains seemed impervious. Twilight heard the voice of her cousin in one ear, her breath causing her ear to flick about.

“You always were a bit naïve, ‘friend’,” a smirk was apparent in Wish’s voice, and it finally became apparent to Sparkle that the culprit was actually Wish herself

“You’re not my friend!” Twilight cried out. Her horn glowed, trying to tug at the chains that held her. She had no luck, as the anti-magical enchantment seemed to resist her efforts, each attempt only wrecking more pain through her, making her cry out yet again at the sudden intensity.

“Oh, and you’ve just figured this out!” Wish laughed, then could be heard trotting slowly back towards the exit, “Don’t bother with the chains, they’re magically bound and have held far more powerful ponies than you. So is the door. And I know how dangerous you are as a group, so I can assure you that your friends will not be kept in the same cell.” There was a grinding sound as the cage door slid shut again. “There are no books in there. Sorry; I guess you’ll just have a lot of time to dread your impending death.”

“Why would you do this?” Sparkle gasped, tears rolling down her face now. Being in danger herself was one thing, but now she had the sickening feeling that she had also endangered her friends.

“Because you are a monster,” Wish’s voice now sounded venomous, “As are all of the Favored Child’s followers. Don’t act like you wouldn’t do the same to me if your precious Princess commanded it.”

“No Wish, let’s talk,” Sparkle attempted, “Wish, you’ve gotten something wrong, just tell me what you’ve been told and I can straighten things out.”

The only answer was the sound of hooves leaving down the hallway towards the other end, the one opposite the passage that they had entered through.

“WISH!” Sparkle screamed in frustration, thrashing once again as the energy from her frustration only caused her to be jolted with pain again.

Later that day

Fluttershy woke up groggily from the sleeping potion. She wasn’t in as bad a place as Twilight had been placed, at least, either due to the difference in who placed them there or simply because Fluttershy was not considered as much of a threat. The stone bed she was on wasn’t particularly comfortable, having only minimal padding that was nearly rotted away, but it also wasn’t painful. She blinked awake to see the same yellow earth pony that she had met before at her home, who was leaned over the bed, trying to shake Fluttershy awake with a single hoof.

“Are you awake? Please wake up I need your help,” Posey spoke quietly, shaking Fluttershy.

Fluttershy immediately cringed at the sight of the pony that had brought her here, barely managing to speak, “Oh my… where have you taken me?”

“No chit chat!” called Firefly from outside the cell door, “Get her out here NOW! I think the rainbow one is dying. And not a WORD about my coat, either!”

Firefly glared angrily from outside the cell, her coat and wings singed noticeably, but fortunately for her not lethally so, perhaps not even enough to impact short distance flying. Still, ponies tended to take a lot of pride in their pastel coloring and Firefly was no different.

“I… Look I am sorry about before, but we need your help,” Posey spoke again, “You’re a doctor right? Well your friends are hurt badly and we need your help.”

Fluttershy gasped, immediately wide awake, “H-hurt? Dying?"

Fluttershy didn’t ask any more questions, standing up as quickly as she could and ignoring her dizziness. Posey moved to help her walk out of the cage door and into the long stone hallway, past an impatient looking Firefly.

“Move it you two before I decide to add you to the injured list!” Firefly barked out behind her, swiping a fore-hoof at Fluttershy’s behind.

She had intentionally missed, not wanting to hurt the doctor if frightening her was enough. It was, but Fluttershy was already hurrying as fast as she could after hearing that one or more of her friends were injured.

The cells looked as if they had been converted from more conventional guest rooms, the front wall of each torn to be replaced with bars long ago, bars which somehow seemed both old and unblemished, as if they had been enchanted to remain strong. One of the cells appeared to be occupied. Fluttershy spied the shadow of a unicorn that had been restrained by a number of chains and suspended in midair. They were shivering, trying to turn their head without success.

"Oh Celestia, no. Who's hurt?" called Twilight's voice from inside the cell, "Who did you say was dying?"

Fluttershy wasn't allowed to stop and check on Twilight, and she didn't have the heart to answer her friend. Instead she was pushed into another room near the end of the hall. Just before she entered, she glimpsed a swirling blue portal above a platform in the room at the very end of the hallway, but was too distracted to consider it.

As she entered the next room, a gasp of horror escaped Fluttershy. On the table closest to the door lay Rainbow Dash, lying on her left side. The pegasus was clearly in bad condition, having apparently turned her right side into an impact of some kind. Fluttershy had seen Rainbow Dash crash through roofs before and emerge without so much as a scratch, so she couldn't imagine how fast the pegasus must have been going when this happened. Her left wing was bent cruelly out of joint, probably having been saved from a worse break by having done so, but now was hanging limply by flesh. Serious bruising showed through her fur down the entire side of her body from shoulder to flank. Her hind right leg was broken so badly that bone could be seen protruding with a visible lump in the flesh.

On the next table away lay Applejack, who was visibly restrained to keep her from moving from her table. Her injuries consisted of a few impact wounds about her back and flank, but the right side of her head was swollen and bruised much worse. As an earth pony, she had more solid bones than her pegasus friend, so it didn’t appear any of her injuries were in danger of becoming lethal as of yet.

On the third table lay Rarity, restrained there on her side. She was breathing shallowly and had bruises around her neck, as well as scratches about her legs that she obtained during her struggle. All in all, she seemed in the best condition of the lot. There was another unicorn standing beside her who appeared to have the same cutie mark as her, but was obviously a very different pony. This unicorn glanced at the newcomers, but didn’t speak, appearing to be angry at the situation, perhaps at how clumsy some of her teammates had been in causing serious injuries to their targets.

On the final table… wait what? At first Fluttershy thought it was Applejack again. She then realized, however, that it was somepony that looked very similar with a slightly different cutie mark. She had impact wounds about her flanks and legs, plus a few other scratches, but no head trauma as the first Applejack that Fluttershy had seen. She wasn’t restrained despite being the only one on the tables that was fully aware and looking around.

Aside from the row of five rolling metal tables, one of which was empty, the room appeared to be some kind of a medical facility. There was an ancient shelf to one side of the room, stocked with fresh supplies that were carefully labeled and mostly unused. Along the back were a number of strange machines. One looked like it had a helmet and probes to be attached to a pony, which would have made Fluttershy stop and shiver had she not been more interested in helping her friend.

“Oh-oh no!” Fluttershy actually yelled out at the sight of her injured friends, “What happened?”

“Why do you even care what happened?” Firefly angrily shot back, “If any of these die, it’ll be both your heads on a platter!” Firefly wasn’t really angry at the two yellow ponies so much as she was angry at herself. She knew that when Twilight, their Twilight, or their 'master' found out how badly she had hurt Rainbow Dash, things could get ugly for Firefly. If any of the Element carriers died early, after all, their chance might be lost.

“Please… Fluttershy. We have to work together to save them, okay? My medical supplies are here along the wall, but… I’m afraid I don’t know how to use them very well,” Posey looked towards the shelves.

“Pah! You said you were a doctor!” Firefly snorted at Posey, “I sure hope she’s a better one!”

“I said I was a gardener and foal-sitter that sometimes took care of animals, and even those things I haven’t done in a long time due to… well you know the way things are,” Posey quietly pointed out, but then looked to Fluttershy, “But she will help, you’ll see.”

“A-actually I’m more of a veterinarian, but I will do everything I can,” Fluttershy squeaked as she moved to get a closer look at the tables.

Rainbow Dash looked to be the most seriously injured, so Fluttershy looked over to the supplies and ran over to get what she needed, flapping her wings to speed up her movements. She moved to get bandages, braces, salves, and anything else she could before heading back to Rainbow’s table. The amount of magically enchanted medicines was limited, so she took what she could find.

“This is a mess,” Sparkler complained, “I knew you were both clumsy but you idiots really outdid yourselves this time. I’m getting out of here; the stench of failure bothers me.”

“Wait!” Fluttershy called back, though she didn’t turn her head as she was carefully setting Rainbow Dash’s wing back into place, “You’re a unicorn; do you know any healing magic? Can a medical unicorn be fetched?”

“As if,” Sparkler called back before stepping into the hallway, as if healing magic was not shiny enough for her to have ever contemplated.

“I doubt it,” Firefly rolled her eyes at the question about the doctor, “Look. We’re not chancing any more trips into Ponyville than what we had to in order to get you guys. Now work faster!”

Fluttershy continued working even as tears streamed down her face, calling out to Posey when she needed more supplies. The two worked quite well together, in fact, certainly better than Posey could work with any of her own team. Once Rainbow was bundled up and medicated enough to be stable, they moved on to Applejack and Rarity. The former was bandaged about her flank and head and given a head brace. The latter given a neck brace to allow her to rest it, and given a look-over just in case. Surprisingly, at least to Firefly and Posey, Fluttershy also insisted on helping the other Applejack, bundling her legs and flank in Posey’s cute little bandages after medicating the wounds.

“Now stay off these legs for a while, okay?” Fluttershy smiled gently to the second Applejack.

This earned a confused stare from the patient, who stated, “Yeah I can’t promise that. You do realize who I am right?”

“Yes,” Fluttershy affirmed quietly. Fluttershy was naive, but she wasn't stupid; she had put two and two together based on what and who she had seen. “You’re the one that attacked Applejack, but that doesn’t change that you are hurt. Just... please don't hurt them again. I won't forgive you again...”

“Well whatev’,” Applejack glanced at the bandages, obviously not taking Fluttershy's threat seriously, “Wish we had something a bit less foalish.”

Firefly hmph-ed, "You're done, Flutter. It’s time to go back to your cage."

“But I should really see to the patients and make sure that they are okay,” Fluttershy started, "Especially Rainbow Dash, she's going to need constant looking after."

“I said back to the cage!” Firefly brought down a fore-hoof against Fluttershy’s face, slamming her so hard that she stumbled and her head hit the stone floor. The startled squeal she let out could have made the most macho stallion tear up, but Firefly seemed unfazed.

Posey gasped, heading towards Fluttershy, but was blocked by Firefly's outstretched wing. Fluttershy rose slowly to her feet, her face becoming slightly angry, but still looking down at the floor, "Just as long as you don't hurt my friends anymore..."

“Look we only need them healthy long enough to kill them properly,” Firefly rolled her eyes, "Posey, show her to her room and get any information you need to take care of Rainbow."

Fluttershy moved ahead of Posey, though the yellow earth pony was far gentler with Fluttershy. Fluttershy walked quietly back to her cell, moving to the bed and rubbing her new black eye softly. She quietly went over a few suggestions on how to treat Rainbow and the others, but at the end she paused.

"Um, where is Pinkie?" Fluttershy asked, realizing that she was the only one of the six that she hadn't seen.

"Already dead," said a voice from behind Posey; it was Twilight Wish. She gave a glare to Posey, silently warning her not to contradict the statement, then turned to Firefly, "Firefly. He wants to see you."

Absolute terror crossed Firefly's eyes and she looked like she was going to try to fly for it, but in the end she settled back to the floor and followed Twilight down the hall, past Fluttershy's cell and in the direction opposite to the medical chamber. Posey eyed Firefly with worry, glanced back to Fluttershy with guilty eyes, and then turned back to head towards the medical chambers.

And then the hallway was silent save for the quiet crying coming from Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle's cells.

Back with our heroes...

The group of ponies and griffon blacked out momentarily, and when they finally snapped out of it they felt as if they were literally slammed into the floor at their new location. It wasn’t a soft floor, either; it was rather obviously some type of metallic surface. When the six individuals looked about, they were in a completely dark area. There was a stagnant chill about the air, as if it hadn’t been touched by living creatures in a long time, and breathing the stale, cool air was difficult.

“Watch in AWE as the Great and Powerful Trixie defeats the darkness!” Trixie was, predictably, the first to speak, her horn glowing to light the room around them, “Behold, we have journeyed through time and space, complete in tact! Could any other pony perform such a feat?” Even so, not even Trixie could hide the surprise that they were all still alive that was in her voice.

“Can’t you just do something without announcing it?” Gilda rose to her feet, glaring at Trixie, but then looking around, "Or at least just say 'Hey I'm going to turn on the lights'?"

"The Great and Powerful Trixie cannot be referred to with lowly one-letter pronouns!"

It seemed they were in some kind of ancient ruin with stone floor and walls around them. There were strange etchings on the wall that looked like they belonged in another time, or perhaps another world entirely. The large chamber had a metallic blue platform in the middle, which appeared to be some kind of magical device. Whatever it was, it wasn’t turned on at present. Furthermore, they weren't able to see it very well, as Trixie’s horn began to flicker and dim.

“Hey wait,” Ditzy said, “We need the light for the letter!” She waved said letter towards the Pie sisters again, still more worried about her duty as mail mare than their present predicament.

“We do need a lot more light,” Pinkie stood up suddenly, an audible ‘sproing’ noise accompanying the motion, “Maybe we could have an escape party?” She was feeling slightly better, but not by much. The happiness that came with friends defending her was muffled by who they defended her from, or if they had even needed to.

“I think that will have to wait until later,” Inkie calmly stated, reaching out to take Ditzy’s letter, which appeared to be addressed simply to ‘The Pie sisters’, before tearing it open to have a look, “Right. It’s a letter from Dad. He says he’ll ground us if we don’t bring the balloon back in one piece.”

Gilda rolled her eyes, “Aren’t you a bit old to be grounded, dweebs?”

“That means something worse than what you’re thinking,” Pinkie informed Gilda with a nervous chuckle.

“So we’ll wad it up into a ball or something so it'll be in one piece,” Blinkie sneered, then looked over at Trixie, “Worn out I guess? We better get out of this cave as quickly as possible. Inkie do you see any weak spots in the walls?”

“Too many,” Inkie responded, neutrally, “If we break one, we might have the whole place come down on us.”

“Why’d we travel in time and space anyway?” Ditzy asked Trixie, hovering upside down next to her, eyes twirling in opposite circles as she hovered. “Wouldn’t just traveling in space be enough to escape?”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie never settles for half-measures!” Trixie shouted to Ditzy, echoing into the empty hall beyond the room and holding up her fore-hooves in her favorite pose. Unfortunately, the lightning that normally danced around her fizzled out; her magic was going to take a while to recover from her time-space trick. She added with as little humility as she could muster, “However, Trixie has decided that we should exit the premises. Trixie does not want her followers damaged in any way.”

“Whibbley wobbley timey whimey thingie!” Ditzy blurted out her typical non-sense in response, sounding very happy about it.

“Yeah let’s go outside,“ Gilda agreed, angrily, and started towards the only exit to the room, though it didn't seem that promising, “I need more light to smash Pinkie’s face in.”

“I already told you guys, I didn’t do it!” Pinkie spoke, immediately on Gilda’s heels, “Come on Gilda, you know how much I like Rainbow Dash!”

“Don’t remind me,” Gilda venomously shot an evil glare at Pinkie, seeming even more enraged by the reminder.

“Well upon reasoning, the Great and Powerful Trixie does not really see how the Pink One could have defeated the Twilight Sparkle,” Trixie agreed, galloping ahead of Gilda, insisting on being in the front, “Thus Trixie will give you the benefit of a doubt if you lead Trixie to the Twilight Sparkle so that Trixie may grace her with a proper beating.”

The others quickly filed behind, moving down the hallway. It was a long corridor with rooms on either side. Each time they passed a door, they would stop to look within it, but none seemed to be anything but dead ends.

The first room on the left looked like it might have once been some sort of medical room. There were five metal rolling tables set up with straps to keep patients down, as well as rows of shelves that looked like they could have once held supplies. Further down, there were a number of rooms that had been fitted with bars along their fronts, some of which also had chains hanging from the walls, glowing slightly against the dark. It all looked as if it hadn’t been used for a very long time, however, what little furnishing was in the rooms long having decayed away.

“So what’s the story with your cutie marks?” Ditzy asked, moving above Blinkie and Inkie. She still seemed perfectly fine with their present situation and had chosen to walk on the ceiling, flapping her wings to keep herself up there instead of taking up more room on the floor.

“I’m a miner,” Blinkie responded, rolling her eyes, “So you know, I blow things up. Everypony always assumes I’m some kind of dangerous criminal just because I have a bomb on my butt. I mean really, just because I specialize in explosives doesn't mean I’m going to blow up everypony I see… even when I am.”

“I break things,” Inkie answered more calmly, “I can see weaknesses in walls. It also helps in mining as well as breaking precious things out of rocks. Anyway, I figure I can use my breaking ability to break other things when the need arises. Does that bother you Derpy?” Inkie had heard Pinkie use Ditzy’s nickname already.

“Nah!” Ditzy smiled, “I think they’re great, I’m sure you are nice ponies!”

“Don’t set yourself up for too much disappointment,” smirked Blinkie.

They continued down the hall, passing a few slightly more comfortable looking cells with somewhat more dirty padding for prisoners to sleep on atop stone beds. They then arrived at the biggest room they had seen. The room was absolutely massive, a ceiling twice as high as the other rooms and walls that stretched out for at least a hundred feet per side. In the center was what looked like a lightly glowing dome of energy, bright enough that Trixie allowed her horn to rest it for a moment. It was difficult to see what was behind the force field, but several panels near their end of the room were the likely control points for it.

The oddest thing that stood out about this complex however, was that there was no exit at all. None of the rooms attached to the hall had any other exits aside from into the hall from where they had just entered. How were they supposed to get out?

“I have a feeling we shouldn’t touch anything,” Ditzy lost her ‘footing’ as the ceiling rose and started to hover, barrel rolling slowly in place as she did so.

“Ohhhhh,” Pinkie ignored the warning, moving right over to the brightly colored panel and looking at the glowing buttons.

“I think the mail-mare has a point; I don’t think we should touch those sister,” Inkie agreed with Ditzy.

“What harm could it possibly do? I mean we’re trapped in here otherwise, so it can’t exactly get us in much deeper,” Blinkie grumbled, “I mean it’s either this or I start throwing dynamite again, right?”

“Hey!” Gilda reached out her claw to smack Pinkie’s hoof away from the panel, “Are you trying to get us killed or some- oh never mind I don’t even know why I asked that. Of course you are.”

“Aw, I wanted to push the buttons. One of them might turn on the lights, or throw a party, or make me happy.” Pinkie spoke as she eyed them eagerly, but didn’t reach back as of yet.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie,” Trixie raised her voice, enjoying the way it echoed in this chamber, “has decided that we will use the consoles.”

“And since when do you get to decide for all of us?” Gilda glared at the blue unicorn.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is not ‘deciding’ for all of us,” Trixie rolled her eyes, “Trixie heard the vote, and it is clearly in Trixie’s favor. Even the Pink One agrees.”

“I thought it was a split vote,” Inkie pointed out.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie gets two votes, obviously,” Trixie retorted, “As she is the only unicorn who is present.”

“How’s that work?” Ditzy blinked.

“Trixie’s horn gets a vote too, obviously,” Trixie retorted, raising her nose up.

“Well I should be getting two votes too,” claimed Gilda, “One for me and one for my sanity, which apparently pastel ponies lack!”

“Now, now,” Inkie stepped between Gilda and Trixie, calmly trying to cut off their conversation, “Let’s not bring our horns out in public, or what’s left of our sanity for that matter. I’m sure we can solve this in a neutral manner.”

“We could just wait for Trixie to rest,” suggested Ditzy, “And then she could make another timey whimey ball!” Ditzy hadn't stopped spinning in the air during the entire conversation. She rolled faster and faster as time went on.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie regrets to inform you that she may or may not be able to perform such a task without a large source of exploding magic nearby to feed upon, such as Her Majesty,” Trixie spoke more quietly than usual, looking as if it hurt to admit that. She quickly added, “It is notable, however, that only the Great and Powerful Trixie could have performed such an amazing feat to begin with!"

Suddenly there was a buzzing sound. Magical lights glowed from the four corners of the room and the force field shimmered as if receiving a new jolt of energy. All eyes turned to Pinkie, whose hoof was on a large pink button.

“It was pink! PINK!” she pre-emptively defended herself, as if that was an irresistible reason for pressing it.

The force field shimmered again, blinking rapidly several times before shutting off completely. As one field lowered, there appeared to be another behind it. Each dropped in turn, layering inward towards the center like an onion. Finally at the center, a single restrained alicorn hovered, wrapped in at least two dozen magically bound chains. He was bound so tightly that only his eyes were visible. Even his horn had been locked tightly away, wings wrapped up and locked against his back; they couldn’t even tell what color his coat was.

The alicorn opened his eyes slowly, looking like solid red orbs glowing in the pits of his eye sockets. He stared at the group as if looking through their very souls.

“Aw man,” Ditzy sighed, ceasing her rolling and finally landing on the floor with the others, “I hope I didn’t just help wake up an unspeakable evil from another world, or from beyond time, or something like that.” She then added more quietly, "Again..."

Chapter 5: A Different Point of View

Early Day Three

Twilight Wish walked slowly into a large chamber, Firefly following behind with her head draped low. The pegasus was shivering as she came to a standstill aside Twilight, her eyes slowly moving to the center of the dark room.

The massive room was not visible for the most part, the light from the hallway not being enough to shine fully into the expanse within. The only light in the room itself were several consoles which displayed a number of glowing buttons and switches, none of whose purpose either of the ponies knew.

Their eyes were not looking at the consoles, anyway. Their eyes were locked on the pair of red, glowing orbs in the center of the room, which presently were looking downward. There was a strange scratching sound coming from the same direction.

“Master?” Twilight spoke quietly, bowing her head low in the process, “I’ve brought Firefly.”

“What about it,” a deep voice echoed across the room, sounding disembodied due to the acoustics. It wasn’t a question but more of a bored statement.

“Well you said to bring her here my Lord,” Twilight glanced away as she spoke, having trouble keeping eye contact with him.

“I also said to not bother me while I’m coloring,” the voice boomed, curtly. The scratching of wax on paper ceased.

“We can’t see in the dark and you have the lights off,” Twilight quietly suggested, then blinked, “Wait where did you even get a…”

“From the bright pink one’s saddle, there are all sorts of fun things in here. More than should fit, actually.” He cut her off, then after a moment of silence added, “Sure though, I forgot about that. Anyway this is Firefly. Hello again Firefly! I haven’t seen you since your arrival, wasn’t that just a blast?”

Strangely, the voice seemed absolutely polite, yet somehow he seemed to invoke terrified obedience from Firefly. Twilight seemed to cope with him better, perhaps because she had been working more closely with him than the others.

Twilight nudged against Firefly, coaxing her to answer instead of just standing there shivering.

“H-hey. What’s up?” Firefly stammered, looking ready to turn around and flee.

“So let me get this straight,” the voice stated, the sound of a paper book closing as he concentrated on her. His red eyes narrowed in the darkness, “You blasted Rainbow Dash with a sonic fireball while she was going at super-sonic speed, causing her to crash into a grove of trees. You expected this to do what?”

“Um,” Firefly looked about the room, shifty eyed, “Catch her?”

“In one piece? Because it sounds like you were trying to catch her in little pieces,” the voice chuckled, almost gleefully, and then grew more serious again, “We’re extracting Elements here, not hurting ponies for the sheer joy of it. Not just for that, anyway. Now I have to decide how to punish you; this is so annoying. Maybe the wings, I love your wings. Can I have one?”

Firefly’s eyes widened, stammering again, “N-no! No don’t! Look I promise I’ll do better. No more mistakes! It was an honest accident, I swear. Oh Helios! If you take my wings my life will be ruined!”

The voice stayed quiet for another few moments, his eyes focused on Firefly and narrowing angrily to the point of slits. Then, as randomly as anything, they returned back to large, round eyes, “Oh okay.” They then shifted to Twilight, staring at her as if awaiting some further report.

“I’m afraid we missed one of the Elements; the one named Pinkie,” began Twilight, even as Firefly slowly backed out of the room, grateful to be walking out at all.

“Yeah, I know,” the voice responded simply.

“Well yes, I knew that you would know,” Twilight paused, trying to determine if the voice was angry or not, “Which brings about the question, why are we going after that one since we already…”

“It’s just the idea of things, you know,” the voice replied, red eyes shifting boredly around the room, “The one that got away. Anyway, five out of six isn’t bad, right? Go and try again tonight. Now even though you’re going to fail again, I want you to try really hard, okay? Tell the others… I don’t know. Tell them I’ll cut off whatever part they seem to like the most if they fail. That seems to scare them pretty good.”

“Uh,” Twilight stared, unsure of how to respond, “Well I had a plan, if you wanted to hear it.”

“No, not really. I’d really rather finish my coloring,” the voice audibly shrugged, and moments later the scratching of wax against paper could be heard once again.

“Very well then, Master,” Twilight awkwardly turned around, about to step out of the room.

“Hold one bit,” the voice stopped her again, though the scratching noise against the paper didn’t stop.

“Y-yes Sir?” Twilight answered.

“Three things,” the voice started, “First, don’t actually tell them that. If you do then they might try to not come back when they fail, and then I’ll have to kill or re-educate them all again which would be sad, if amusing. Secondly, please stop calling me everything but my name during these meetings. I promise my name isn’t taboo; I’m starting to think I conditioned you TOO well,” The eyes rolled slightly, “Why can’t you be more like Firefly? She actually used my name as an exclamation just now. I love that; ‘makes me feel in charge, you know?”

“Of course mast- Helios,” Twilight nodded, and then asked after a long moment of silence, “There were three things?”

“Oh right,” the voice responded, “Third, get out. I'm getting tired of your pink.”

Later that same day

Twilight Sparkle tried to stretch her muscles out. She tried anyway that she could to move her joints so that she wouldn’t feel so numb. Blinded, she still had little idea of her surroundings. What she did know was whenever her captors left or arrived at the facility there was a sharp buzzing sound from one end of the hall, the end of the hall from whence she had arrived. It was this sound that she heard now, making her grow still to see what she could overhear.

“I can’t believe we missed her!” Firefly’s voice sounded out, clearly frustrated.

“Yes, Twilight,” Sparkler spoke next, “So much for your ‘perfect plan’. More like perfect mess!”

“Please,” Twilight Wish grumbled, her voice dismissing of them, “Look, I couldn’t tell you before, but he knew we would miss her anyway. We still had to try as hard as we could, though, or… well it’s hard to explain, but we had to try.”

“How’d he know anyway?” Applejack, their Applejack, spoke next, “How does he always know the results of things? What’s the purpose of doing them?”

“Yeah, where’s the surprise in all this?” Surprise’s voice made her typical argument.

“Well I think this is it, anyway,” Wish responded, “There’s only one other thing we can predict will happen, and we’ll be ready for it when it does.”

There weren’t a lot of others speaking after that, perhaps having given up on getting an explanation from the master’s right-hand mare, but Sparkle heard hoofsteps up the hall. A few of them seemed to step into another room before they got to her cell; from what she had heard the voices say before, that was the medical room where they had kept Rainbow temporarily.

One however, moved further and stopped at her cage. Another softer set of hoofsteps seemed to be following that one, almost as if they were trying not to be heard. The sound of Sparkle’s cell door opening could be heard, dragging along the rails. Sparkle hung limp in her restraints, not wanting to encourage them to question her and hoping that they would just assume her to be unconscious. Whoever opened the cage tossed something inside which hit the floor in front of her with a dull thud. Sparkle heard the object shift around slightly, as if it were alive. Twilight felt her body tense up, not exactly certain of what alive thing might have just been tossed into her cell.

“T.. Twilight!” Spike’s voice rang out, sounding panicked, “Twilight what have they done to you?”

“Spike?” Twilight called out, chains suddenly rattling as she jerked to full awareness, “Spike are you hurt?”

Wish chuckled from behind her, “I knew you were awake, you crafty monster. Now listen carefully.”

Both Sparkle and Spike grew quiet, though when she felt Spike’s tiny claws reach weakly up to hug against her chest, Twilight felt tears streaming down her face. She instinctively tried to lower her head to nuzzle at him, only for it to be held far above the floor still by the restraining chains.

“Here’s what we’re going to do, 'Magic',” began Wish, “I’m going to leave you to enjoy the company of your faithful servant while I go talk to Him. When I get back, one of two things is going to happen. Either you are going to talk and tell me everything I want to know, or you are going to listen to Spike's screams as he is tortured. I just read a whole book on dragon anatomy and I’m pretty sure I can make him feel more pain that either of you ever thought possible.”

“Twilight,” Posey’s voice piped up, apparently the owner of the softer hoofsteps, sounding as if she were tearing up, “Don’t tell him please, don’t tell him to condition me again please.”

“Shut up Posey,” Wish shot back at Posey in reply, without any hint of feeling for her sadness.

Posey’s only response to this was to whimper slightly, her hoofsteps indicating that she walked back away from the cell.

With that, the cell door closed again, hoofsteps going into the opposite direction towards ‘His’ chambers. Were they both gone? Twilight couldn’t tell who was around and who wasn’t now.

“Twilight?” Spike’s voice was heard again, sounding as if he was tearing up, his little claws digging against her coat, “Don’t tell her. Whatever she wants to know, I don’t care. I won’t blame you.”

“Spike you know I can’t do that,” Twilight tried to speak quietly, assuming that Spike wouldn’t be speaking if he saw the other ponies around, “We don’t have much time. Is Pinkie Pie alive?”

“Yeah,” Spike nodded, finally releasing her from the hug that she was unable to reciprocate, “They didn’t get her, but I don’t know where she went after that. I think she was looking for you guys.”

“Okay,” Twilight breathed out a sigh of relief as she spoke, “Then we can still work this. Look, there is something terrible in the room at the end of the hall and I think we’ll need all the Elements together again. I hear it laughing sometimes and... well it just has that laugh, you know?” Her voice grew even quieter still as she continued, “Do you think you can climb up and get a hold of my blindfold to yank it off?”

“Oh no you don’t!” the sound of Surprise’s voice yelled happily from the back corner of her cell, “SURPRISE! I was listening!” Apparently the pegasus had slipped in during the conversation with Wish.

There was a ‘sproing’ noise and Twilight felt a breeze as the pegasus flapped up beside her. She tried hard to hold her head down so that Spike could reach the blindfold before Surprise got a hold of either of them, and she could feel him attempting to climb up her left foreleg frantically to get at it. She wasn’t sure if seeing would help her, but figured they must have her blindfolded for a reason.

“W-where did you even come from?” Spike’s voice spoke in clear shock that such a bright pony had managed to hide in a shadow, “Stay away from her!”

The next thing Twilight knew, there was a splitting pain in her back as Surprise brought down some kind of a bludgeon. Twilight cried out, chains rattling as she thrashed from the pain shooting through her spine. Surprise didn’t stop, however, repeatedly slamming the wooden device down onto her back as she screamed.

“No stop it!” Spike shouted as Twilight felt him release her leg.

The striking of her back ceased. Instead she heard the sickening crack of wood against Spike’s body, followed shortly by his impact against the cell wall.

“Don’t you dare hurt him!” Twilight snarled out, spit flying from her mouth as she screamed out in a rage that was usually uncharacteristic of her. Her body began to smolder, anti-magic chains glowing as they strained to restrain her.

The only response she got was for Surprise to slam the weapon into her side, making her jerk once again in her chains. The laughter of the crazed pegasus rang in her ears as she was beaten. Her energy kept trying to surge upwards, each time dampened by the magic holding her, even more pain coursing through her system from her efforts.

From the hallway, the voices of her friends screamed out for Surprise to stop as well. Twilight suddenly felt herself relax, relief pouring over her that they were still alive and okay. She even heard Rainbow's voice threatening Surprise if she didn't stop. For a moment, she almost forgot that she was being beaten.

“Surprise!” Posey’s voice could only be heard because she spoke between the other sounds.

“Oh hey Posey!” Surprise answered. She paused in her beating, much to Twilight’s relief. "Hey lookit! The bat actually caught on fire; guess I'll need to use the golf club on this one!"

“What are you doing?” Posey demanded, her voice growing louder than before, “And Firefly! Were you actually going to sit there and eat popcorn while she killed the prisoner?”

“What?” Firefly’s voice audibly shrugged, followed shortly by a crunching noise that did in fact sound like popcorn being consumed.

“We can’t kill them,” Posey asserted, once again growing quieter.

“The dragon doesn’t matter; I could kill it,” Surprise responded, casually.

Twilight bursts out in rage again, “I said stay away from him!” Her horn glowed, an aura of magic filling the area, but she couldn’t hold it. The magical chains made any use of her magic feel like it was burning into her head.

“You will not!” Posey’s voice grew louder again in Twilight's defense.

“Oh manure!” Firefly could be heard saying, a thump sounding as if she had dropped her bag of popcorn, followed swiftly by the sound of her hooves as she left.

Suddenly even Surprise’s giggling went silent as Posey spoke again, “You will not hurt them, DO YOU HEAR ME? I already spoke to Him and we are going to do EVERYTHING we can to get the elements WITHOUT killing them. GOT IT?”

“Uh,” Surprise could be heard scrambling at the cell door, unlocking it and pulling it open before her own hoofs could be heard hurriedly moving away from the cell and down the hallway.

A few moments of silence later, Posey’s lighter steps could be heard entering the cell.

“Spike?” Twilight spoke again, almost afraid to ask, “Is he?”

“He’s fine,” Posey assured her, “She didn’t get him good and even baby dragons have tough scales. He’ll be fine in a few minutes. I'm afraid I will need to tie him up, though, so he won't try for your blindfold again. I'm really sorry.”

“T-thank you,” Twilight breathed out, carefully and quietly wording her next sentences, hoping the others had left after what she assumed was a stare down, “I couldn’t help but notice that you don’t really seem like the others.”

Posey sounded reluctant to answer, “No, but if I want to save our world, I have to work with them. There are a lot of good, decent ponies that will suffer if we fail, and that are suffering right now.”

“I don’t understand,” Twilight tried to sound as sincere as she could, “If you needed help, you could have just asked for us to use the Elements on your behalf. We would have gladly helped.”

“Oh,” Posey softly sat in front of the sightless Twilight, “You don’t understand. The Elements aren’t for us; we probably couldn't use them anyway. Besides, Twilight Wish has the Rainbow of Light and it only takes one of us to use that.”

Twilight knew that Posey was correct. As far as she knew, the Elements required a team that felt strongly for one another and her enemies here were anything but that. She carefully probed for more information, “Can I ask why you are getting them then? Who are they for? And what’s the Rainbow of Light?”

“I’m sorry,” Posey replied, sounding truly afraid, “I can’t tell you those things, just that we desperately need them to keep our world from dying. Our world isn’t like yours. Yours is full of life, but ours is just a single remaining settlement in a desolate world. Before him, we didn’t have a single alicorn to look after us at all and most ponies thought the first ones were just a legend. And… he’s not that bad. I feel kind of sorry for him. I honestly believe that he’s just trying to make things right and his methods are… well not as good as they could be.”

“Please,” Twilight begged, “Please Posey. Is there anything else you can tell me about him?” She didn’t want to emotionally push the earth pony away and risk losing what little of her confidence she had, but desperately needed more information.

“I’m sorry,” Posey replied, “I just can’t. All I can promise is that if you cooperate, I will make sure you all get home safely. Even if it means… even if it means helping you defeat the others. He won’t care if you escape once he has your Element.” Somehow, she didn't seem to speak of their master with the same reverence as the others did.

“Keeping the prisoner company?” Twilight Wish’s voice rang out, echoing as if she were still farther down the hall. Thankfully, she was still too far away to have heard their whispers.

“Oh,” Posey could be heard standing up and then trotting to the door, “Surprise was trying to kill a prisoner again. I had to um... I had to use the… that thing I do sometimes.”

Wish sighed, “Fine, I’ll have a nice three-way discussion with her and a pair of pliers later. For now, go drain the puss out of the rainbow one. I think she’s due.”

Twilight cringed at such words, looking both depressed and sick simultaneously.

Once Posey had trotted out, the door slid closed again. Twilight could hear the other unicorn inside the cell though. Her breathing seemed to be inches from Twilight’s ear.

“Twilight,” the voice Wish used was almost motherly, “I see your little friend is stirring again, so what will it be?”

“Wait,” Twilight took a deep breath, her mind storming with possibilities. Did she trust Posey? If she did, her and her friends might die anyway. If she didn’t, then she was more certain that they would all die. She couldn’t allow them to torture Spike to death. He wasn’t just her servant. She had raised him from birth; he was like her child.

“I’m on a tight schedule,” Wish’s voice grew softer and closer to her ear, “So don’t keep me waiting.”

“What do you need to know about the Elements?” Twilight responded.

Day 6

“This is booooring,” Surprise sighed, sitting atop a cloud overlooking the town square, “What are we doing?” The pegasus’ white coat nearly glowed in the sunlight, holding a cricket bat in both her fore-hooves as she relaxed there.

“The hay if I know,” Firefly responded, “All I know is that I’m not about ta risk getting my wings chopped off by not doing what I’m told again.”

“Yeah, I didn’t really enjoy talking to the pliers either; she didn't even need to either!. I’m just trying to remember what we’re doing at this point,” Surprise scratched the top of her head with the bat.

Both their eyes went to their right, towards Twilight, who was also seated atop the cloud thanks to a cloud-walking spell she had picked up during her time with the other Twilight. She was silently watching the square below them, waiting.

Aside her was a strange contraption that they had taken from the ruins. The main device had a number of dials and controls, very similar in shape to the control panels at their base, obviously made by the same designers. Attached to it were a number of straps with crystals worked into the leather. It didn’t look like they were for decoration, but served some magical purpose. The last bit was a large helmet with a number of lights atop it, straps meant to lock it across somepony’s head, a special slot meant to clamp down on a unicorn’s horn. The contraption had obviously had some recent repairs and addition, as much of it looked new, while the base itself seemed ancient.

Twilight glanced over, as if just noticing them, finally responding to their words, “He said we couldn’t do it until after the fight, and that it will happen soon, but we aren’t sure of the exact day. Once the vortex opens, we can go about our business. Look, Helios would be here himself, but if He showed up it would be instant knock-down drag-out battle between him and Celestia and thousands of innocents could die. He’s trying to avoid that. Nice bloodless coup.”

“So we’re going to catch Pinkie?” Firefly tilted her head, “After the whatsit happens? I’m tired of sitting on this cloud like a bunch of paperweights. We’ve been waiting for two days almost, and your staying awake spell is only getting me so far!”

“Look,” Twilight sighed, “Forget about Pinkie, she’s not even important right now, Helios just wants her because he’s mad she got away at this point. The important target is Celestia.”

“That was a little surprising when I heard it, I admit!” Surprise smiled, “But I’m still not sure how we could catch an alicorn.”

“Why do you get to be the favored one anyway?” Firefly grumbled towards Twilight.

“Because I’ve been with Helios from the time He arrived in Undervale, and I believed in Him before he even showed up!” Twilight glared at them, “I deserve my position as the right hoof more than anypony else!”

Firefly grew silent, not wanting to chance making Twilight truly angry.

“Well I guess that makes sense,” Surprise smiled, then started to look impatient again, “Hey what’s that? Is it a giant balloon?”

Sure enough, this was the day of the big battle in Ponyville’s town square. The two watched from their cloud as events unfolded, eyes growing large when a huge white alicorn arrived on the scene. The trio on the cloud all tensed up when they saw Celestia’s form slam to the ground in an abrupt but perfect landing, their eyes locking on her and hatred in their eyes.

“There she is, the one responsible for all this! Time for action!” Firefly grinned smugly.

“Hey, she is the same as Helios! Well, a bit prettier I guess. That’s pretty surprising, since she’s totally evil!” Surprise started to move as if to slip over the cloud edge, but was yanked back by Twilight, who held onto her tail for a moment.

“Stop it! You know we can’t interfere yet!” Twilight snapped, “Now we have to wait for the giant explosion to weaken her."

“There were already a few explosions,” Surprise pointed out, “They were pretty!”

“Yeah but I think he meant something bigger than those. Anyway none of those hit Celestia,” Twilight reasoned.

The two were suddenly snapped out of their conversation as a huge burst of energy exploded from the town square. Their cloud disintegrated as the impact wave hit, leaving the three trying to hold themselves against the current. Blinded by the intense light, they all scrambled to get a grip on where they were.

Surprise and Firefly thought fast, though their priorities might have been questionable when they grabbed the machine instead of their friend. The two hefted the contraption over towards a nearby rooftop, sitting it down there and looking back just in time to see Twilight Wish plummeting towards the huge fireball that had formed around Celestia.

“Oh Helios, I forgot only she knows how to use this thing,” Firefly grumped, “Man we are so dead.”

“Don’t look at me!” Surprise chuckled, “I’m blaming it all on you!”

It seemed certain that Twilight was going to be incinerated by the huge ball of flame as she fell towards it, and even more certain that her two friends weren’t about to risk their lives for her. However, she felt a strange magical force grab her, slamming her roughly to the side so that she landed out of harm’s way, skidding to the ground next to the building that the two fliers had chosen.

From the looks of it, she wasn’t the only one being helped. The alicorn had sent a wave of magic to drive shards of rock out of the ground, shielding two unconscious royal guards that had been laying in the square near to the ball of flame.

“She’s blowing up and she’s taking time to save ponies?” Firefly arched an eyebrow, “Is she nuts?”

“Wow, I guess she really isn’t like him after all!” Surprise nodded, yet this didn’t seem to lessen her bad opinion of Celestia, “She’s stupid! Hey! Does this mean we can run out and see now?”

“Let’s wait until she finishes exploding,” Firefly tactfully suggested.

Next to them there was a shrill noise as Twilight appeared next to the machine again, purple smoke spreading around it. She braced herself as the chaos continued.

“How are we supposed to get near her?” Twilight screamed in frustration.

Across the square, the two spied a second explosion between two buildings, literally shattering the structures apart before they collapsed back inward, imploding back to the point they had just exploded from. They weren’t sure what else had exploded, but whatever it was appeared to have drained energy from the first explosion in the process.

“Bet you wish you’d saved that popcorn for now, huh Firefly?” Surprise giggled happily.

When it was all over, the area around the town square was in shambles. A huge gaping crater filled the main section now, while the fountain, statue and balloon were nowhere to be seen. The royal guards that had been in the square were, amazingly, still lying where they had been before. They lay atop small mesas of debris as if Celestia had used all her concentration to shield them. Buildings around the square, which were pretty much deserted by the time the fighting got that far, didn’t look like any of them would be standing for very much longer. The buildings around the secondary explosion had actually crumbled and gathered into a huge ball of compressed debris.

“Man she’s wasted,” Firefly piped up, heading out towards the crater, “No way she could have survived that.”

“Guess we won’t have to worry about her after all!” Surprise chimed in, heading after Firefly, flapping her wings to excitedly peer over the edge of the crater.

Twilight wasn’t convinced. She moved to stand next to the machine, concentrating as her winged friends went to investigate, “I wish… I wish…”

In the very center, Celestia had dropped to the ground, her body glowing slightly, but not moving. The two pegasi rose to the air once again, flapping through the dust cloud on their way towards the center. Both landed nearby to the fallen goddess, slowly trotting their way closer.

They both jumped as Twilight appeared directly behind Celestia, machine in tow for her teleport, both appearing a few feet too high and tumbling to the ground with a crash.

“So what were we supposed to do now?” Surprise asked, poking one of her hoofs at Celestia’s smoldering back, then giggling wildly as she watched Twilight tumble to the ground.

“Shut up!” barked Twilight as she rose back to her feet, “All the interference makes it hard to target, now come on and help me!” She tossed the helmet across to Firefly, then kicked the needle like probes towards Surprise as she turned to begin adjusting the controls on the machine.

Surprise chuckled, putting her cricket bat down on the ground for a moment, instead grabbing one of the probe handles in her mouth. She gleefully jammed it into Celestia’s side with what was possibly the wettest noise the three had ever heard. The straps were looped around their appropriate limbs, one around each leg and battered wing, completing it as quickly as she could. She wasn’t keen on this one waking up before they were done.

“Uh, Twilight? Problem” Firefly held the helmet in both hooves, looking slowly back at Twilight.

“Oh what is it n… Oh.” Twilight turned around, staring down at Celestia’s upper body, then back up at the helmet that she had handed to Firefly.

“Right… where do I put the helmet if her head is gone?” Firefly was trying not to look directly at the body, “Like just put it on the stump or something?”

Then, despite all appearances of her being deceased, Celestia’s body began to shiver violently. The three ponies found themselves staring at the body in alarm, watching flesh of the goddess knit itself slowly back together. Celestia’s legs trembled as she slowly pulled her headless self up off the ground the onlookers frozen in sheer terror as they watched her head reconstitute itself, straight from bone to muscle to flesh. Eyes filled the sockets in her skull, globes of blue light within cavities. Fur grew from previously charred flesh, her mane flickering as if trying to spring back from her head.

Celestia’s eyes glowed at the trio of ponies, speaking in an echoing voice, “Do you have any idea how much that stings?”Her eyes narrowed again, shifting to the machine that Twilight was seated by and working on. Celesetia’s eyes then widened in sudden recognition, “Brother! No!”

An instant later, and the three would have probably been doomed, but the pegasi managed to come through for their comrade, for once. Surprise jammed the final probe into Celestia’s other side, a slightly less disgusting sound than the first one. Meanwhile, Firefly flew up behind her, slamming the helmet onto her head and clamping it down. The helmet immediately seemed to react, gripping down on the alicorn’s horn and strapping around her.

“You won’t finish us off, fiend!” Twilight called out, slamming her hoof down on the activation switch.

The scream that Celestia made echoed through the entirety of Ponyville, even further than the sounds of the previous explosions, terrible enough to cause some ponies to cover their ears and huddle up to hide. Celestia’s mane and tail flickered again as if trying to fade back into existence, then fizzled out. The princess collapsed with a horrible groan, tumbling to the ground and laying still as the machine drained her.

“That was surprising!” Surprise was trembling on the ground, eyes wide, looking unable to move after the sound.

“Holy Helios!” Firefly stared, herself having sunk down to hold her hooves over her ears as well, “W-what the hay is that thing?”

Twilight’s ears were ringing, unable to hear Firefly’s question, but a gleeful look on her face all the same, “Yes! It worked! The same machine that took Helios from us was repaired to take down our planet’s destroyer, ha!”

They were only snapped out of their trance when they heard heavy footsteps behind them. Slowly turning about, they found themselves staring into the eyes of no less than a dozen royal guards, all of whom were as furious as they were horrified by what they were seeing.

“So long, suckers!” Twilight grinned, powering up once again, her face contorted in pain at the effort of taking herself and the princess, “I wish… I wish…” and with a blast of magic, she and Celestia disappeared, along with the machine that had been attached to the later of the two.

It was unclear if Twilight’s first statement had been aimed at the guards or her two ‘friends’, but somehow the two suspected it was spoken to them.

“Uh, we can explain,” Firefly turned, eyeing the guards nervously.

“Yeah,” Surprise smiled, hoof pointing to Firefly, “It’s all HER fault!”

Chapter 6: Awaking Ancient Evils for Fun and Profit

Laughter echoed through the large stone chamber as the six heroes stared at the chained creature. The echoes of the laughter rattling so loudly that the whole structure seemed alive with it. This had been going on for several minutes now, ever since the force field was released, and had continued ever since, going slowly from terrifying to wholly intolerable.

“Well he is certainly happy about something,” Inkie calmly asserted, sitting on her haunches with both hooves over her ears, “Blinkie dear. Please stop laughing too; you are just encouraging it.”

“I say we let him go!” Blinkie laughed, before being silenced as Inkie casually shoved one hoof into her mouth, causing Blinkie’s cheeks to momentarily poof out.

“Maybe he’s not so bad?” Pinkie suggested, “I mean usually somepony that laughs that much isn’t dangerous right?” All the same, Pinkie was twitching at the sound of the rather hoarse laughter, as if maybe it disturbed even her just a little bit.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie believes that is the other way around, Pink One,” Trixie sat on her haunches, her horn glowing as she summoned a pair of blue, poofy ear-muffs to temporarily protect her ears from the horrible noise. She then lay down on her belly with her forelegs folded in front of her, seeming upset that her ‘best evil laugh’ position was in jeopardy.

“What are you talking about?” Gilda sneered, “I have yet to meet a pony that wasn’t dangerous. It’s all ‘love and friendship’ until they get slightly upset over some trivial thing, then it’s all out the window and they start trying to kill each other with party gags.” Maybe Gilda still had some minor issues left over from her previous visit to Ponyville, “I may be a prick, but at least I’m stable.”

“And honest!” Pinkie pointed out to Gilda, smiling slightly. All this laughter actually had Pinkie’s mane slowly inflating again, and though no one heard the noise of her mane inflating again over the echoing of the chamber, soon she was looking like her normal self again.

“Aw man,” Ditzy sat in the door to the chambers, still lamenting the group’s collective mistakes, “This sort of thing is why I got kicked out to begin with; he’ll never take me back in again at this rate.”

The voice suddenly went from laughing to gagging and after a few seconds of what sounded like smoker’s cough, it finally quieted down. The occupant of the chains then cleared his throat, his wide open eyes shrinking slightly to a more normal expression. He even tried to smile, though his razor sharp teeth showing between the chains didn’t make it easy for him to look nice.

“Sorry,” the alicorn’s voice boomed through the room, “No really, I’m sorry. This is kind of embarrassing. It’s just these magic chains tickle something fierce, so I’ve been holding that in for… well I assume a really long time given the condition of this place. I’m not normally like this, honest.”

There was a moment of silence, all eyes on the creature in chains.

“So I can’t help but notice none of you recognize who I am,” the alicorn casually guessed. He seemed encouraged by this as he continued, “You girls are here to let me go from these chains, right? Served my time? Getting out on good behavior? I mean it’s not like I could even do anything considered bad behavior here. Well, is it?”

“He seems pretty nice!” Pinkie decided, “Maybe he can help us rescue our friends?”

Blinkie pushed Inkie’s hoof away, then helpfully suggested, “Hey. If we blow him up, do you think you could pull off another one of those swirly blue things, Trixie?”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie asserts that somepony chained him up for a reason,” Trixie shook her head to Pinkie, then turned towards Blinkie, “Trixie approves of her faithful minion’s suggestion.”

Inkie calmly chimed in, “Well you know. If he could be killed like that, they would probably have just blown him up instead of locking him up for all eternity.”

“Maybe if we cover him up with some blankets or something, nopony will notice he’s been unleashed upon the world,” suggested Ditzy, helpfully.

Gilda sighed, “You know, I hate to point this out, but this guy is probably the only one that knows the way out of here.”

“Do what to me?” the alicorn said, “Yeah well that wouldn’t kill me; alicorns generally can’t die via conventional means or most other means really. All the same, I’d rather you not do it because it would really hurt. Not to mention it would probably kill all of you given the condition of this place. Then I’d be buried under rocks for another thousand years. Believe me, being nigh indestructible is not all it’s cracked up to be.” He blinked once, as if he was suddenly unsure if he should have added that last part, and then continued quickly, “But saaaaay, you know you mentioned rescuing friends and that just happens to be one of my favorite pastimes! Not to mention, I most certainly do know how to get out of here.” His eyes then moved about the room again, seeming to visibly wonder something, “Question! Sorry, I probably should have asked this earlier. How exactly did you lower the force field? I could have sworn they said only a special sort of power could do that.”

“I pressed the button!” Pinkie proclaimed, proudly, “Hey! Maybe we could have a party with him anyway. I mean even if he was all chained up, we could put a little party hat on him and-”

“That might have been too much information sister dear,” Inkie calmly moved her hoof to ram it into Pinkie’s muzzle this time, “I do not think he would have very much fun at that party anyway. Besides, maybe he is not immortal but the ponies that arrested him did not have a death penalty and he got ‘life in prison’ instead. I suppose it is a bad thing not to age in that case. Who put you here?”

“Huh,” the alicorn’s eyes suddenly shifted to Pinkie, “And pressing the button isn’t enough. Which means YOU are holding an Element of Harmony? Laughter I’m guessing, which is my FAVORITE by the way. Unless these others are the other Elements, in which case they’re all my favorites.” His eyes shifted to the others, “And no, actually. Alicorns do age if deprived of their power for long enough; you’ll find that out when you release me. You are releasing me, right? Anyway my own ponies put me here because of a misunderstanding. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.”

“The Chained One said ‘nigh’ indestructible, which means he can be destroyed!” Trixie suggested, “His previous captors did not have the Great and Powerful Trixie to come to their aid in their dire time of need, so they have placed him in a neat little package, hoping that the prophesied Trixie would arrive!”

“Oh for crying out loud,” Gilda shot at Trixie, “Not everything in the world revolves around you!” She turned to the alicorn, “Not on your life! I’m not some Element of Lameness. We just sorta ended up here with her while she was looking for the other ones. I dunno, they got dragged off or somethin’.”

Ditzy, who despite lamenting the awakening did not seem awfully intimidated by evil overlords, flew right up to the chained alicorn. She hovered a mere foot away, “So why’d the timey whimey bubble bring us here anyway? Was the power from your restraints sending a signal through space-time itself? Is the blue thing in the other room a deactivated spatial-temporal hyperlink between worlds and times?”

“Oh okay,” the alicorn responded to Gilda, “Well those must be the friends you’re looking for. In that case… wait.” His eyes shifted suddenly towards Ditzy, wide with surprise. They then narrowed slightly as he spoke, “You just reminded me of somepony else. That’s creepy.” His eyes shifted to Ditzy’s flank as if to check something, but then continued, “Right. Well aren’t you just a clever pony, if redundant; it’s really more of a spacial hyperlink only since it’s not really temporal, truth be told. It’s not meant to be at least.”

“Nopony’s ever called me clever before! Seriously?” Ditzy turned upside down mid-air, her eyes seeming to roll with her, but in opposite directions, “Especially when I'm just making words up.”

The alicorn responded, “Look. I can turn the link back on, since I can power it with my own energy, but you have to let me go so I can do that. After that you can go anywhere and I won’t care.” His eyes shifted to Trixie, perhaps attempting to butter her up a bit so she didn’t go caving things in on him, “Did I mention how great you look in that hat? I can tell you’re alicorn material just by looking at you. Turning unicorns into alicorns is one of the things I can do by the way. ”

“I still say we let him go,” Blinkie repeated as she grinned sadistically, now circling the chained up alicorn, looking him over as if sizing him up for a split roast. She suggested, “We should do another vote. My vote’s in.”

“Either way could someone please keep that one within my line of sight,” the alicorn referred to Blinkie, “She’s making me very nervous.”

“I say we need to find a party hat,” Pinkie responded with a non-answer.

“Abstain,” Inkie shrugged.

“I still like my idea with the blankets better,” Ditzy chimed in as she landed on the wall aside from the entrance.

“Are you all out of your minds?” Gilda yelled, then face-clawed, “No wait. Never mind, again.”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie has decided that the Chained One should be released!” Trixie had a change of heart at the offer, “Now peons; watch in AWE as the Great and Powerful-”

“Ahem! Yeah I’m gonna cut you off right there,” the alicorn interrupted, politely, “You don’t really need to do some big ritual thing. Now that the field is gone, all you really have to do is press the blue button next to the pink one. Could you hurry? They’re sort of starting to tickle again.” He stifled a chuckle.

Trixie glared at the alicorn, and then trotted over towards the console. An air of uneasiness permeated the room, but none moved forward to stop her.

“Watch in AWE as the Great and Powerful Trixie releases the Chained One from his bondage!” Trixie slammed her hoof down on the button in as theatrical a manner as possible.

There was a soft creaking noise, then a whirring of magic all around them as the chains glowed brightly. The sound of grinding stone and rattling chains filled the room as the team of heroes backed towards the exit. Trixie, despite having started this process, backed out of the room entirely, ducking behind the others. Pinkie looked as if she was going to walk right up to see it closer, but Inkie and Blinkie collectively pulled her back out of the room as well. Soon the team was tucked away in the hallway, watching around the door frame.

There was a sharp clank, then with incredible speed the chains released and were sucked into the floor and ceiling. The alicorn screamed like a little filly as the chains ended up grinding into him as they were pulled away; probably not the most intimidating way for a supposed ancient evil to be released. When they were finally clear, he landed on the pedestal, wobbled for a few moments, then collapsed to the floor; definitely not the most dignified re-entry that he could have made into the world.

With that, the room went dark, the only light left being the glowing buttons at the consoles. They were joined shortly by the glowing red eyes of the alicorn as he opened them once again. They were squinted, as if in severe pain.

“Ow. Ow. OW. That. Really. Chaffed,” the alicorn gritted his sharp teeth, speaking between them, trembling atop the pedestal, “I mean seriously, you have. No. Idea.”

“Wow,” Pinkie piped up, “Almost that same thing happened to me at a party once!”

“Is this the part where you cackle and call us foals for releasing you?” Ditzy asked inquisitively, flapping her wings and rising into the air outside of the hallway despite the darkness

“No, not really,” the voice boomed back, the eyes relaxing, “I’m not really here for the reason you’re probably thinking, actually.” The creature could be heard shifting around, making a noise as if he were slowly stretching. He suddenly added, as if just remembering, “Oh and light. Phew, I’m getting out of practice.”

With that, a glow from his horn filled the stone chambers with light as bright as a sun, radiating outwards to cover the walls, showing off every design and crevice. It hadn’t really been apparent how large the structure was until now, or how bare it was. There were points along the wall that looked as if they had once contained other furniture, or perhaps more consoles, but they were all gone now.

Front and center was the alicorn that they had just released; he was the focus of everyone’s attention. He was tall, roughly the same size as Princess Celestia, and looked somehow if he might have been quite beautiful at one time. Now, however, he might have been mistaken for a corpse had he not been moving around. His coat was splotchy, alternating between mold-yellow fur and sickly green skin, several parts of his flesh missing entirely. He was terribly emaciated, his belly caved in down to his ribs, the muscles that showed through his missing skin looking dry and rotten. His mane and tail were virtually non-existent, just a few strands remaining of whatever had been there before, certainly not flowing or magical as they were used to seeing about their princess.

Perhaps the most disturbing part however, was his missing cutie mark. It wasn’t missing as if he were a blank-flank, but rather there was a portion of flesh that had obviously been cut away on each flank in a neat square. It was as if his captors had wanted to humiliate him prior to his binding. Whoever this was, he was either so evil as to deserve a colossal punishment, or was a victim of something unimaginably wrong himself.

Needless to say, a collective gasp echoed through the room as it was filled with light, even the so far unflappable Ditzy suddenly backing against the wall mid-flight, nearly losing all of her altitude. For a long moment, they stared at him, the alicorn staring right back at them with a slightly confused expression.

“It’s the zombie pony!” Pinkie finally exclaimed, then promptly pointed at him and started laughing hysterically in self-defense.

“You look like you’ve had a rough stay,” Gilda just stared, forgetting to be rude for once, actually sounding as if she felt really bad for him.

His eyes then focused into realization as he spoke, “Oh! Sorry about that, I probably should have warned you earlier. I’m not repairing my injuries yet because I’m afraid if I use what power I have to heal that, I’ll not have enough left to power the teleport. I need to get outside and get some sun, and doubt I can teleport myself without the... well the thing in there.” His eyes went to Pinkie, who was still laughing up a storm, and he added more quietly, “Small request: Could some pony put a cork in Laughter? That’s making me a bit self-conscious; I can’t tell if she’s laughing at or with me.”

“Pinkie,” Inkie reached out and calmly plugged Pinkie’s mouth with a hoof, once again, “Do not be rude to the awoken evil from beyond time itself. I am pretty sure he is not a ghostie anyway.”

Pinkie’s laughter died down, no one else speaking for a moment. The alicorn looked very nervous now, eyes shifting back and forth as he finally just started to walk forward. Bones cracked, the sound of muscle sinew tearing heard with each of his movements, and he would stagger from time to time as if his knees were near to giving out. His teeth were gritted tightly, as if every movement caused him intense pain and he was trying to play it off for the sake of appearances.

The heroes moved out of the hall and out of his way, quickly splitting apart and making a path for the wretched creature. He looked extremely self-conscious as he passed them, heading down the hallway, his bright horn seeming to dim to adjust to the smaller space there.

Even Trixie’s eyes were huge. In fact, she actually looked like she might be about to tear up as she spoke with a whisper, “Trixie has never felt more pity than she feels now for the Chained One…”

“What are you ponies talking about?” Blinkie grinned, “That guy is awesome! Do you realize how quickly the kidnappers are going to run when they realize that thing is on our side? All he has to do is stagger towards them and chant ‘graaaaaains’.”

“You guys are just adorable,” the alicorn spoke back at them in a slightly sarcastic tone, “And you make so many productive comments. Can’t we all just get along?”

The group slowly followed him back through the hallway, all the way back to the room in which they had first appeared. The alicorn stood at the blue base in this room, silently staring at it. His horn dimmed slightly more, mist gathering around him slowly and then floating into the device, almost as if he were examining it.

Ditzy landed in the room with him first, having flown ahead of the others and landing right next to him. The wall-eyed pony looked up at him, a frown on her face, and spoke quietly, “I’m sorry if I made you feel bad before.” She actually leaned forward and gave him a hug, his flesh giving slightly with a rotten sound to even the slightest pressure.

His eyes got wide at that, waiting for her to pull away before he spoke again, “Don’t apologize yet, you might not be sorry later.” He took a deep breath, then continued speaking even as he analyzed the device, “So first things first: tell me your story and how you got here, because none of you know who I am, which means it’s been a lot longer than I thought or I’m missing something here.”

The group told him their stories so far, at least as far as they related to the situation. Pinkie did most of the telling, as she was the only one that had seen their enemies. Others piped up from time to time, telling less relevant stories: Ditzy tried to cut in with a story about some muffins she baked earlier that morning and Trixie tried to find reasons to include stories about her own potentially made-up deeds.

Gilda, for her part, started ignoring the story about half way through, instead pulling the saddle bags off her back that she had been carrying for so long and starting to sift through their contents.

Once they got to the part of the story about the final battle, all of them were speaking at once. Trixie took great pleasure in explaining how she managed to link into the Princess, and what’s more, the alicorn seemed to take great interest in this.

The alicorn asked, quite slowly, “And this ‘her Majesty’. What is her name?”

“Princess Celestia!” Pinkie answered before anyone else could, “She rules over all of Equestria, and makes the sun rise every day. Hey! What’s your name anyway?”

The creature seemed to freeze up, his eyes narrowing to thin slits, his teeth once again gritting together as he spoke between them, “Celestia. Well that explains a few things; I suppose given that we speak the same language, it'd make sense if you are from a sister world. And my name is Helios. 'Ring any bells?”

For a moment he just sat there, gnashing his teeth, his muscles visibly tightened in anger. Inkie moved in front of the others in an act of pre-emptive protection, and Blinkie slowly reached her maw into her saddlebag, seeming to poke around and look for something once again.

“Nope! Sure doesn’t, but now that we know each other’s names, we can be the best of friends!” Pinkie appeared to be unaware of the tension now that she was in a better mood.

“Dude,” Gilda was the only one both honest and brave enough to ask, looking up half way through reading something, “You look pissed; did you know her?”

“Know her?” his eyes suddenly went back to their normal shape, “It’s possible! I was straining really hard to try to remember everything, you know; rotten brain and all. Anyway, some of that explains a lot, like I might have mentioned.“

Helios kicked a brittle hoof against the device, causing it to open up to reveal an array of crystals within, glowing alterations of blue and yellow, each engraved with a different symbol, many of which matched the unknown runes on the walls. The crystal slots were in a matrix at least six deep, in a circle at least forty crystals in circumference. Still, he looked into it as if he knew what everything was, his horn glowing softly as he began to move things about.

“Based on that and some other things, I’m going to make a few deductions,” he spoke as he continued working, switching the more cracked crystals for better ones, though none of them were in pristine condition, apparently arranging them so that the ones he needed were the least worn, “None of you know who I am, therefore none of you are from this world. You’ve traveled here accidentally through a portal. Unicorn, the strain of such a spell should have torn you all apart, and I have no idea how it didn’t, unless of course the alicorn you were draining was actively protecting you from your own nonsense. Either way, you probably just arrived here because it was the point of least resistance. These worlds used to all be connected together through a system of portals, so some of the rift probably remained open. The good news is that means I can get you back IF I can figure out the location of the rift entrance on your world.”

“I am betting there is bad news too,” Inkie put that statement out there for him to chew on.

“There usually is!” Ditzy agreed, “I just want to go home. Dinky’s probably gotten into the muffin jar by now.”

“Well there’s a few things, actually,” Helios spoke as he closed up the device, latching it back into place, “First of all, I’ll need to know the exact location on your world to target this to, since I don’t really know where the portal is there. Secondly, I can only give it enough energy right now to transport one pony to the surface, and that is going to have to be me. Once outside, I can get as much energy as I want from the sun and then teleport supplies down. If you haven’t figured out a location for me by then, perhaps I can find one myself, but it will really help if you can come up with something.” He took a deep breath then, “I know I promised to help you find your friends, but I really don’t think I should leave this world. Alicorns tend to get tied to their own planet after taking care of them for a while. We’re just going to have to say me getting you back home is enough of a trade-off for saving me.”

Helios pushed the platform down hard as he closed it, and there was a loud buzzing as if something had been connected. Suddenly the previously dark lamps on the stone walls were aglow with magical flame, filling the air with the smell of burning dust and grime, temporarily making the air even harder to breath than before.

The heroes stared at Helios as he then rose up onto the platform, looking down at them with intense eyes. None of them tried to stop him from leaving. Somehow, his eyes said that he really did intend to return.

There was a flash of blue light from the platform, swirling around him and spiraling into a brief vortex of energy. As quickly as it formed, he was gone, and it was once again fading away.

Helios’ mind filled with possibilities. Could he still save his world, or was it too late? He felt bad, somehow, for not telling his rescuers everything, even if he hadn't lied either. They had held up their side of the bargain, after all. Then again, he fully intended to fill his side of the bargain as well, to the letter if not to the spirit of the agreement.

The vortex pulled him outside, landing him on the surface just as he had intended. What met him there was not what he expected, though perhaps he should have. The planet’s sun beat down on him, engulfed in a swirl of intense heat. The land around him was barren in every sense, rolling hills replaced by dry sands, the bare remains of ancient buildings scorched and torn apart in the endless heat, no sign of visible life anywhere.

The sun stood in the sky, unmoving since who knew how long. Its stooping low above the horizon was the sole reason that he hadn't been immediately fried. So this was what was left of his world? Half was a desert and the other half would no doubt be frozen over; was he really this late?

“You told me you could keep it moving forever! Why didn’t you let me help?” Helios yelled upwards towards the sun and to no pony in particular, his voice full of rage as the heat from the glowing ball above him began to sear at what was left of his flesh. Tears formed in his eyes only to immediately vaporize in the heat of the deserted surface.

He gathered energy from the sunlight, but the heat was damaging his flesh just as fast as he could regenerate it, the intense heat both his source of life and his bane for the moment. His mind raced once again, trying to move his senses outward to detect any hint of a surviving settlement.

“Is that possible?” he murmured quietly within his own mind.

Not questioning what he had found, he gathered what energy he could without overstaying his welcome on the surface before his body blinked away in a sudden flash of white light, targeting himself on the hint of life that he had found.

Chapter 7: Together in the Dark

The team stared at the platform where their beneficiary had so recently disappeared, dust settling back over the blue surface, the lights of the platform dimming and leaving only the wall-mounted torches in this room to reveal their surroundings. The rest of the strange ruin had not been lit by Helios when he was lighting this room, so to go anywhere else they would have to make their own light once again.

They had no reason to trust him to begin with, and the feeling that he might not intend to come back for them at all only grew as time passed.

“The Chained One left us alone. Trixie is beginning to think she should have remained in the town square; being banished to the Moon would be more pleasant than this,” Trixie stated, less theatrically than usual, actually moving back to sit on her haunches in a corner, wrapping herself more tightly in her cloak.

“It is not a big deal,” Inkie stated calmly, “If there is nothing we can do, there is nothing we can do.”

Pinkie was quiet, her mane having slowly started to deflate again, the squeaking of air prominent in the silence of the room. She certainly had been through a mood-whiplash lately. Taking a deep breath, she murmured, “All I’ve done is make things worse, haven’t I?”

“Don’t worry sis,” Blinkie patted Pinkie on the back with a hoof, “Everyone messes up. I even got my cutie mark by messing up, remember that?”

“I don’t’ think I was there.”

“And that’s a good thing; that’s why you’re still alive,” Blinkie grinned sadistically, then shrugged, “Eh, mining school needed renovating anyway.”

“Yes everypony messes up. That is sort of true,” Inkie shrugged, suddenly growing very quiet and looking around idly. She was hard to read, to be sure, but it was almost as if she were using Blinkie’s vague answer as an excuse not to talk about her own cutie mark story.

“I’m going to be honest here,” Gilda stated, looking up from where she was reading the contents of her stolen saddlebags, “Your cutie marks are crazy weird compared to what I’ve seen, though I guess scaring the lamer ponies could be a good thing.”

Blinkie sneered at Gilda, “Yeah? Well may as well give them something to be afraid of, right? Better ponies are afraid of me with a reason, I say.”

“And how did the Calm One get her cutie mark?” Trixie asked, less curious about a pony other than herself, and more making a smart comment because she was upset at not getting the attention herself.

Inkie sighed, showing just a tiny hint of emotion, “It involved a fit of jealous rage and a collapsing barn and… I do not want to talk about that.” It was hard, knowing her as they now did, to imagine her in a fit of rage, let alone to tell what might have affected her so badly. Or indeed, if it was the memory of that rage now made her so placid.

“I wanna go home,” Ditzy complained, “I sure wish you guys had just taken the letter to begin with; you’d all be a lot happier now.”

“Gah! Listen to you ponies!” Gilda suddenly snapped, slamming her fist down on the brick floor, the dull thumping noise and slight crack of brick drawing all eyes to her. Once she had their attention, her voice echoed through the otherwise silent chamber, “Seriously? Whatever happened to all that friendship baloney of yours? It’s just like I said before, it all goes out the window the first time you get sad. Why don’t you all suck it up and do something constructive!”

“I don’t think there are any windows,” Ditzy looked around, scratching her chin with one hoof.

Gilda huffed, standing up on her haunches, “Frill this! I’m not going to listen to you guys sit around being down on yourselves! It’s even more annoying than the usual pony nonsense!”

Gilda looked about, and then reached up to grab hold of one of the torches, gripping the base where it was attached to the wall. Using all her strength, she yanked at it, twisting slightly to try to pry it free. At first it seemed like it wouldn’t budge, but after a great deal of grunting and muscles straining, Gilda managed to pull it off its mount with a sharp crack of metal and stone. Much to Pinkie’s surprise, it was handed to her.

“Take your sisters and check out the far room,” Gilda told her, “You didn’t get to look at it before he turned the lights off there, and Inkie said she could see… whatever it is she can see.”

“Trixie does not see how this will help,” Trixie began, only to be cut off before she could make her full argument.

“Trixie should be ashamed for moping so much!” Gilda exclaimed, slipping into Trixie’s own way of talking after hearing her do it so much, “This place is full of magic; if you’re so great and powerful why aren’t you figuring out what all this stuff does? Since you were… pretty amazing getting us here, even if it did end up stupid, I trust you could at least do that much?”

“You trust Trixie?” Trixie looked at Gilda as if trying to decide if she was jesting. Even if Gilda had been trying hard not to let on that she was putting her trust in someone, Trixie had picked it up.

As often as she bragged, Trixie had never actually had someone put faith in her for something she had actually done and not just because of some made up story. After a moment of stunned silence, she nodded slowly, rising to her hooves. Her horn shimmered, glowing brighter than previously now that she was properly rested. This made her steelped hat act as a night light as she began to stroll back down the hall on her own.

“Yeah I guess I’m not that useful,” Ditzy landed on the ceiling nearby, “I’m not really a clever pony, whatever Evil Guy said.”

To Ditzy’s surprise, Gilda reached up and took hold of her head. The griffon yanked her rather roughly, plucking her from her spot on the ceiling and turning her to plop her rather forcefully on the floor next to the bags that Gilda had been searching through.

“And you, Derpy, or whatever your name is,” Gilda said, “Quit pretending to be useless so no one expects anything of you; it’s ruffling me worse than the rest of these losers. You’re a mailmare aren’t you? Help me sift through this junk. Pony writing is mostly nonsense to me."

Pinkie found herself smiling, moving to pass the torch over to Blinkie’s mouth before she moved over and hugged Gilda. Now Gilda was the one finding herself stunned, feeling Pinkie’s mane inflate against the side of her head, poofing against her beak slightly and tasting disturbingly like bubblegum.

“I’m glad you’re here Gilda!” Pinkie smiled, then let go of the hug and nodded to Blinkie.

Gilda stared in silence for a moment, then looked as if she might sulk, suddenly realizing that she was caught being nice despite her bluster.

Blinkie hmph’ed in return upon receiving the torch, but all the same propped it upright on her saddle so she could keep her mouth free. Afterwards she turned to lead her two sisters out of the chamber. They moved down the hallway quicker than before, now far more familiar with their surroundings, passing by each room in turn. The halls seemed more alive than before, buzzing slightly as if magical forces were awakened by Helios’ return, the sound hiding the echo of their hoof-steps in the hallway.

Trixie could be seen in one of the rooms, examining some of the magical chains in the cells with interest, prodding one with one hoof, eyes widening at something as she analyzed the magic contained within.

Upon glancing back, the three fillies saw their friend Ditzy smiling as she started to show Gilda how the file-saddle was organized. It didn’t seem to have occurred to Gilda that the bags had been organized and not just placed at random, so perhaps the two were making far better progress seeing if the bag contained anything useful thanks to the mailmare’s input.

“I knew we were a great team,” Pinkie smiled as they entered the far room once again, Blinkie’s torchlight flickering off the consoles and illuminating a segment of the room at a time, “Even when I didn’t, I knew it’d work out!”

“Well I couldn’t be more surprised,” Blinkie commented bitterly, turning to adjust the torch in her saddle once again, making sure it wasn’t going to fall against her saddle full of explosives.

Inkie sighed in response, “I am just glad we are not killing each other anymore. I would have hated to have to pry anypony off of you again.”

Inkie began to search, following the wall and looking up and down the surface slowly. Her eyes picked out each detail that they passed, eyes seeming to pause at times or zigzag around to follow patterns only she could see in the surface of the wall. Her talent wasn’t breaking things as much as spotting exact points of weakness, even in seemingly impervious materials, and she was finding plenty to work with here, or perhaps, as she had warned earlier, rather more than she’d like.

“Too many here,” Inkie stated, “The walls are sturdier here, but I cannot find an area that seems like it would go anywhere. If there is a hidden exit, the weak points around it should be really straight.”

“I don’t see the point of this,” Blinkie grumbled, “Why don’t we just rig the platform with explosives and take him out when he returns, or at least bury him in rock forever.”

“Do we know for certain that he is a bad guy?” Inkie pointed out, “Being sealed away in constant torment like that instead of just locked away? That does not sound like something a good guy would have done to him.”

“I forgave you, Inkie,” Pinkie spoke seemingly at random, smiling to her sister, “You know that right?”

There was an awkward silence, “I do not forgive myself. I blew up at you for no good reason, just because I was angry that you were always happy and I was not, and I hurt you because of it, bad enough for you to leave home.” She shivered, adding, “I was grounded for so long because of that.”

“’Least no pony died when you collapsed that storehouse on us,” Blinkie stated bitterly, more at herself than her sisters.

“That’s it,” Pinkie looked back and forth, “Is that why you came to protect me, because you felt bad about things?”

“No,” Inkie tried to respond, but the question distracted her enough that she had to go over that particular section of the wall twice. It was pretty obvious to the other sisters that she wasn’t being entirely honest.

“And you make great ‘splodies Blinkie,” Pinkie smiled to her sister, “But you never do anything but carry them around.” Remembering how they got there, she quickly added, “Well almost nothing.”

“Yeah,” Blinkie stated bitterly, rolling her eyes, “That’s because I’m forbidden from working in any mines by the Equestrian Excavations Board. I’m literally bound by law not to practice my special talent.” That might explain why Blinkie was a borderline psycho.

“I bet you could find something great to do with your talent besides that,” Pinkie smiled to her again. “I saw the rocket you made! So you make fireworks now right? Those are useful!”

Blinkie responded to this by simply pulling the torch off of her back and passing it to Pinkie. Pinkie took it when offered, but looked confused.

“There, nice and quiet now,” Blinkie snapped, turning to walk down the hall, “I don’t have time to stand here and talk about my uselessness.”

Pinkie called out after Blinkie, though the torch in her mouth made it sound like garbles. She started to follow after her, but Inkie calmly reached out a hoof to block her path.

“Let her be, Pinkie,” Inkie stated, calmly, “Help me here while she figures things out.”

Pinkie sighed, but left her other sister alone, instead moving to turn and shed the light on what Inkie was doing. They were working on the second side of the room by now, and moved more quickly for a moment due to their lack of speaking.

“Pinkie?” Inkie glanced back at Pinkie to finally speak again, reaching a hoof to rub at one of her ears and smiling ever so slightly, “Thanks for forgiving me.”

Pinkie answered with a happy noise as if to say ‘no problem’, already back to her gleeful self. She was sure that Blinkie would come around too, hope that things would clear up with her sisters keeping her from despairing even in the dark chamber.

Blinkie didn’t hear much of this exchange before she left the room, wanting to leave quickly so she wouldn’t be tempted to scream things back at them. Once in the dark hallway, she followed the dim light of Trixie’s horn to one of the cells that lined the hallway. She paused, looking at the light further down the hall where Gilda and Ditzy were, and opted instead to head into the room with Trixie.

Trixie looked up from her analysis of a broken chain, blinking slowly at Blinkie, "And what, pray tell, drives you to disturb the delicate work of the Great and Powerful Trixie?"

“Eh,” Blinkie walked into the cell with Trixie, appearing to ignore her monologue, “I think I’m going to stay here for a bit; I don’t think I can resist the temptation to blow things up if I go back to that teleport thing.”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie does not have time to explain the intricacies of her astounding analysis!” Trixie habitually crowed. However, when she looked over to Blinkie and recognized the pony's dejected look, she quickly added, “It was not Trixie’s fault, it was the Mad Bomber who tried to hot dog a festive charge down Her Majesty’s throat!”

“I know,” Blinkie surprised Trixie by not arguing, instead moving to simply sit down next to the unicorn.

In a way, this made Blinkie instantly win the argument, as Trixie had no idea what to retort to a pony that wasn’t retorting. Trixie grew silent, pretending to concentrate greatly as she pulled a loose piece of the chain from the wall, draping it over her back to carry it with her. Trixie then moved across the hall, moving towards the entrance area and to the room with the metal tables in it. She glanced back to check if Blinkie was still following behind her, finding that the dejected looking Pie sister was in fact doing so.

“Trixie is not angry at you,” Trixie finally spoke again, as if becoming somewhat self-conscious at Blinkie's mood, walking past the rolling metal tables towards the back of the room, “Trixie is not afraid of the Mad Bomber either.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Blinkie rolled her eyes, moving to sit back down again near the entrance of the room, “You’re too great and powerful.”

“Yes. Yes Trixie is, but that is not what Trixie means,” Trixie shook her head, then looked over at the empty shelves, horn lighting up through her hat to glow into the room subtly patterning the walls with stars, “Trixie used to have a lot of fireworks and explosives, but most of them were crushed by a mighty Ursa Major during a battle in which she…” Trixie suddenly realized that Blinkie had probably heard this story, so there was no point in making anything up, “Well an Ursa Minor, either way Trixie lost her fireworks, as well as her wagon and most of her possessions.”

“You like fireworks?” Blinkie peered, but remained at the doorway, “But can’t you do magic?”

“Well of course Trixie can ‘do magic’,” the unicorn continued along the shelf, then moved to look at a strange device at the very back of the room, “Trixie combines her magic with fireworks to do even more amazing things. Perhaps if we survive this without being crushed under rocks here, or banished somewhere unpleasant upon our return home, Trixie may want to talk more about fireworks with the Mad Bomber."

“You like my cutie mark…” Blinkie was so stunned that she spent the next few minutes just staring at Trixie as she worked.

Trixie didn't seem to notice how amazed Blinkie was at the concept, too interested in the machine she had found here. It was mostly nothing more than a stylized box with lights and crystals on it, but attached to it were a number of straps, which looked as if they were made to wrap around somepony's limbs. There were six of these, such that a pegasus could have all six limbs held, each strap encrusted with even more magical-looking crystals. There were also two probe-like attachments, though they were broken at the ends so it was difficult to tell what they were for, and what looked like a helmet that could be adjusted to fit any pony's head, complete with a brace for a horn.

"This device makes Trixie feel uncomfortable," was all that the unicorn could think to say about it, placing it back down as it appeared to be non-functional, or at least lacking a source of power for the moment.

Blinkie didn't seem to be paying much attention to that, however, instead moving back to their previous conversation, "If we do get out of this, I'll replace all of your fireworks for free."

Trixie arched an eyebrow, "The Mad Bomber would do this for Trixie?" She slowly put down the last part of the machine, turning back and looking at Blinkie.

"Eh," responded Blinkie matter-of-factly, "It's fine, I'm not technically allowed to sell explosives anyway, but I'm not breaking any laws if I give them away, right?"

Trixie pondered this for a moment, then began to walk back out of the room towards the hallway, proceeding around Blinkie, "Trixie appreciates this, and will find a way to repay the Mad Bomber for her generosity."

Back in the entrance room, Gilda and Ditzy were dutifully going through the papers in the bag. There was a great deal of official paperwork dealing with things they cared little about, and Gilda was having trouble concentrating on it. In the end, she quietly moved the last stack over for Ditzy to deal with and pulled out some of the other objects.

Ditzy wasn’t being her normal, talkative self. When given work like this, it appeared she was as sharp as anything, her concentration near unbreakable. This made her useful in this case, but even less interesting for Gilda to be around. She did notice that Ditzy had separated out several papers from the others, but hadn’t yet asked her what they were.

Gilda pulled a box from the bottom of the bag, labeled simply ‘evidence’, opening it up. She found several more of Rainbow Dash’s blue feathers there, splattered with dry blood, and let out a big sigh of regret for having looked further. She leaned back against the wall, slowly closing the box, then hugging it slowly to her chest, growing still. She smiled slightly, nostalgic of her time growing up with her friend, but this was quickly followed by regret for the way she had tossed away their friendship last they had met.

It took a while for Ditzy to notice that Gilda wasn’t moving, but when she did, she flapped her wings once and flew a loop to get over to her, landing and giving her a gentle hug. She moved a hoof to wipe some wetness from Gilda’s face.

“Aw don’t cry,” Ditzy smiled kindly, “We’ll get out. I think I found what we needed anyway! And when we get back, I’ll make you a griffon sized muffin that we can share!”

Gilda rolled her eyes, more out of habit than anything else. “Yeah thanks,” she murmured, drying her face in embarrassment now, “More thinking about Dash. I had some things I wanted to tell her that I never did so… hope she’s okay.”

Ditzy ear-perked, scratching her own chin with a hoof, then looking slightly concerned, “You got a crush on Miss Dash? Huh.”

“What about it, Derpy?” Gilda sounded somewhat put out at Ditzy’s query.

Ditzy smiled gently, “Oh nothing wrong with it, it’s just well… I’m pretty sure she’s not into fillies, errr, even griffon fillies.”

“And how would you know that?” Gilda arched her eyebrow.

“I asked her out!” Ditzy smiled, almost proudly, “So did several other fillies, so it wasn’t just that she didn’t like me. Everypony assumes she likes fillies though, so don’t feel bad!”

“Huh,” Gilda blinked, this information not really helping her mood. Then again, she realized that she probably should have worked up the guts to ask her out earlier, then she would have already known that, “Yeah, well I still want to find her, even if being mushy is out. Whatever! Anyway I don’t want to talk about it!”

“You’ll find her,” Ditzy assured, “But sure, we’ll talk about something else.”

“So what’s with your name, anyway?” Gilda hugged the box tighter, but changed the subject to the most random thing she could think of.

“My name?” Ditzy stared wall-eyed for a few moments, then added after realizing what Gilda meant, “Oh! Derpy’s not my name, it’s just sorta a semi-mean nickname. My name’s Ditzy Doo!”

“Man, and ponies call me mean,” Gilda commented, “Then why do you let ponies call you that?”

“Uh,” Ditzy sat back where she was, prodding at the papers there then picking up the few she had put aside in her mouth, her voice a little muted for speaking around them, “I don’t know! I guess I just got used to it, I don’t want to hurt their feelings either.”

Gilda shook her head, “Ditzy, you got to learn how to stand up for yourself.” Gilda’s eyes then shifted to the papers there, mind latching on to something she had missed before, “Wait, you found something?”

“Yep,” Ditzy smiled again, leaning over to pass the papers towards Gilda, “It’s coordinates for the timey whimey device to be aimed at!”

“How did you-?” Gilda grasped the papers in her claw, staring at them. She had seen this page, but it had just looked to her like an investigation report on Twilight’s library after she had been taken, “I don’t get it.”

“The teleportation stuff, see?” Ditzy smiled, “It says they used the residual magic to find where she teleported to, and were gonna go check out the place later. That’s probably where they took our friends!”

“Well that’s great, but how’s that help us now? The teleport thing’s still busted,” Gilda seemed dubious.

“Nope,” Ditzy nodded, “’Cause this sheet…” she pulled out another, “… says that Princess Celestia wasn’t able to detect Twilight anywhere, and that they have a special bond so she should have been able to. Soooo, they must have taken her to a rift thingy to take her to another world, outside of Celestia’s detecto-sense-stuff.”

“Or she could just be dead,” the incredibly cheery voice was Blinkie’s, who emerged from the hallway aside Trixie.

“Trixie refuses to believe that the Twilight Sparkle is deceased,” Trixie furled her eyebrows, still dragging the spare chain she had acquired behind her, “Only the Great and Powerful Trixie can defeat her!”

Ditzy chuckled, “Nope she’s not dead, trust me! It has to do with wibbley wobbley timey whimey bubbles. I know all about this! These are the coordinates that evil pony needs for the spacio-temporal hole.”

“We found them?” Pinkie’s voice rang out from the hallway shortly after several springing noises from her hopping down the hall, “This is great! And we found something too!”

“Indeed,” Inkie followed a few steps behind so as to not be bounced against, “On the opposite side of the big room there are weak points in the wall that are perfectly square. It is obviously some kind of secret passage. The rock is heavy but shifts slightly. If we all pushed together we could probably move it.”

“But then we couldn’t give the coordinates to He Who Was Recently Chained and go home,” Trixie pointed out, “Aside from that, Trixie wants to run some tests on this chain. Trixie loves ropes and chains and-“

“Yeah I’m going to cut you off right there,” Gilda held out a hand to Trixie, shaking her head.

“I’m curious,” Pinkie smiled, “We could always see what’s in it, then we could just hurry right back!”

Whether they intended to wait or go, it was obvious that Pinkie wasn’t the only one that was at least a little bit curious. Soon the group was moving back towards the wall to see what Inkie had found. To most eyes, it was a wall just like any other in the cavernous room. It was part of the back, dead center so that it was directly opposite the other entrance. If there was a secret entrance here, it would have to be near perfectly fitted to the stone around it.

“The great and powerful Trixie detects nothing,” Trixie complained, her horn’s glow intensifying as she examined the wall, “And if there were any magic at all, the Great and Powerful Trixie would instantly know.”

“Maybe that’s the point!” Ditzy slowly let herself drift in loops, head over hoof, mid-air behind the group, “He’d never think to look for a completely non-magic door!”

"Or maybe he knew about it, and it just doesn't go anywhere useful," Blinkie suggested, as if attempting to drain the excess cheer out of the room.

“It’s heavy,” Inkie stated, “We will have to all push on it at once. I think this is only meant to be opened from the other side.” She pointed to one part of the wall, placing her hoof against it, “This is the end that pushes open, because the other end,” she walked down a few steps and placed her hoof again, “seems to be shaped different. Well anyway, we should push on that end.”

Gilda moved to the end that Inkie claimed would open, and pushed hard against it, digging her foot-claws into the ground beneath her. Her muscled clenched, the wall shifted, but nothing budged for long, shifting right back as soon as she released.

“Yeah, I know this isn’t exactly like me,” Gilda looked back at the others, sighing, “But we’re all gonna need to do this together.”

Apparently all in agreement for once, the group moved to position themselves together against the wall. The earth ponies helped Gilda on the ground and Ditzy braced herself against the wall to the side of the secret door to push from above. Trixie’s horn glowed as she forced against the wall with her magic at the same time, an aura spreading out from her as she strained.

Each heave brought the wall outward slightly, but pushed back against them upon release. Finally there was a single loud click, sounding as if they had forced a large, rusty gear to turn back a single notch. This brought a moment of hope, but after a great deal of effort, it was only open mere inches, painstakingly moving a single click at a time. At this rate, it could take all day to get it open, and that was only if they had enough energy to manage it.

“This isn’t working,” complained Blinkie, stating the obvious, and predictably being the first to give up.

“It’s open just a little,” Pinkie grabbed their torch once again, waving it at the bare crack, trying to shed some light on the other side, “Hey Trixie!”

“Trixie is, as usual, far, FAR ahead of the Pink One,” Trixie smirked, never losing her charm despite being part of a team.

Trixie moved up behind Gilda, without really asking, and started to climb up onto her back in order to get a better view of the other side of the crack. This elicited a squawk from the griffon, but all the same she grudgingly allowed Trixie to be there for the time being.

Gilda lowered her head slightly as Trixie propped her fore-hooves there, “Hey watch it missy, you’re hooves aren’t exactly comfortable.”

Trixie appeared to ignore the complaint, instead concentrating on what she could see of the other side through the crack. Her horn glowed, and there was a sharp breaking noise from the other side. With a loud grinding and a cloud of dust, the door suddenly slid open, loud clicks signaling that the gear that they had heard earlier had been released. The disguised door sank into the wall to reveal what was beyond.

“Aha!” Trixie gloated, “The Great and Powerful Trixie… mph!”

“Yeah yeah,” Gilda snorted, moving a wing to casually take one of Trixie’s hind legs out from under her, causing the unicorn to slide down the griffon’s back and onto the floor with a thump.

Trixie glowered, though found herself smirking again. Gilda smiled back to her, apparently having meant the movement more in fun than spite for once.

“We did it!” Pinkie squealed, springing ahead of the others into the hallway beyond. “Yay! See how well we’re working together now? Everyone here has gotten to do something neat now!”

The hallway beyond was every bit as deserted as the caverns from before. If there was any respite, it was that it didn’t smell quite as badly due to the lack of rotting supplies or burning dust from newly lit torches. There was, in fact, a switch on the other side that had controlled the wall, which was now broken-looking as its last pulling was too much for the rotting contraption to take.

Trixie’s horn lit the way in front of the group as they walked, Blinkie taking up the rear with the torch, once again balancing it into her saddlebag. With these combined, they were able to see quite well; not that there was much to see.

After perhaps fifty feet, there was a spiral staircase that went upwards, still contained within the stone walls. It was every bit as wide as the hall, braced with a solid column in the middle, which was no less than ten feet in diameter. The whole thing looked as if it had been carved directly into the bedrock. The walls, both in the staircase and in the hall beneath it, were completely bare, with no sign of the symbols and writing from the rooms below.

It made the walk a rather quiet one, giving them plenty of time to think.

Helios’ mind swam as he hit the ground at his new location. He barely remembered how he had gotten from where he was before to where he was now. The energy from the sun on the surface had been a surge of power for him, but he had barely been able to use the energy, the strain of absorbing so much so quickly far more than he had expected. If he wanted to keep exerting himself in his newly awakened state, he would need to get used to this feeling, he decided.

For a moment, he had thought that he really didn’t want to continue. Perhaps it would be best, he had considered, if he just lay down and died with the world he had lost. His mind however, had reached out, trying to find some sign of life elsewhere on the planet. The spark had hit him close by, and he had latched onto it, taking in the surge of energy and using it to teleport himself downward toward the source.

He found himself in cooler air, his body catching up to the damage and immediately beginning to heal more rapidly. Flesh knitted itself back together again, muscles becoming stronger again as they hardened together. His skin grew back into place, his tattered mane and flowing tail extending out in a shimmering wave of golden energy. He took a deep breath, healthy lungs filling with fresh air as his rotten insides began to reshape. His eyes slowly opened as he let the breath out, finally examining his new location.

He was underground again, perhaps deep below where the sun had beaten the surface of the planet to death. There was light here, surprisingly natural light in fact, that shone down from a series of glowing orbs located across a high ceiling perhaps ten stories above him. A moment later, he realized that he was actually standing in grass as well, lifting one hoof as he looked down at the ground in surprise.

His eyes moved upwards again, looking down through the cavern to find that there was, in fact, a small settlement here. Houses had been built up on both sides, mostly either from scrap and wood that had been dragged from the surface before it got too bad to gather there. Houses were constructed out of everything from old signs to mismatched bricks and even piles of what would be considered trash anywhere else. Other abodes had been carved directly into the rock, decorated with what little the residents could find.

The streets were not busy here in what he assumed was the residential segment of the town, but there was activity further down in what looked like it might be a makeshift market. There were stalls set up out of the same type of trash that houses were built of here, ponies, unicorns, and pegasi moving from place to place as they bartered for meager supplies. Further still, well-lit, artificial farmland had been painstakingly formed into the dirt here in the caverns.

Helios watched from afar as the ponies interacted. A merchant argued with a shopper over something in a small bowl, another tried futilely to bring order to a crowd of ponies trying to get what looked like water rations, and in another corner two unicorns had to be broken up, fighting over what appeared to be a misshapen loaf of bread.

His eyes adjusted to the new light, finally focusing directly in front of him. There was something he hadn’t noticed before; it was a single thin and frightened-looking unicorn staring at him with large eyes. The pinkish unicorn, a cutie mark of half a dozen bright stars on her flank, looked up from the book she had evidently been reading here in the grass, her whole body shivering at what she had just witnessed, no doubt shocked at seeing a corpse suddenly appear in the grass and rapidly regenerate.

“P-Prince! You’ve come to save us!” the unicorn rose to her hooves, shaking in a mix of joy and fear at his presence, “I didn’t give up wishing! I never did!”

Chapter 8: Undervale

The pink unicorn stared up at the visionary stallion before her. At least twice as tall as herself, the stallion had a coat of purple so dark it was almost black. His muscles rippled with the strength of youth, despite the age that she knew he must be, not to mention the corpse-like state he had been in just moments prior. His mane flowed down his neck in waves of burnished gold, lapping at the air like ethereal flame and causing heat shimmers around it as it moved. His tail swayed behind him with much the same effect, draping over the grass behind like a shimmering blanket.

There was no doubt that this was no normal pony. From his head rose a tall horn, longer and sharper than that of a normal unicorn and twirled with bright purple and ebony, and from his back emerged a pair of wings greater than those of any pegasus, traits she knew were held only by the legendary of ponykind. The back of his wings matched his coat, while the underside faded into the same ebony that was mixed into his horn. His cutie mark stood in stark contrast to his coat, a gleaming yellow sun which, with his present energy, seemed to visibly glow.

She didn’t need to ask who he was. She was one of the few who read the stories, and one of the fewer who still believed he had ever existed at all. She bowed reverently, shivering where she stood, tears of joy and relief escaping her eyes. Was he really here to save them? Would he start the sun moving again? Would they be able to go back to the surface and revive Dream Valley?

“Well,” Helios smiled graciously, taking a single step towards her, “Somepony who remembers me; finally. And those down there,” he motioned with his eyes towards the distant marketplace, where it looked like several others had already begun to look in their direction, “How will they take to me marching down the street?”

"They will perhaps not recognize you... my... my lord?" she answered. Avid scholar though she was, the proper address evaded her recollection now that she unexpectedly had his audience, and she kept her head low as if afraid to look upon him for too long, "Though I am sure they would realize how special you are."

Helios arched an eyebrow as he answered in a flat, “What.” It wasn’t a question as much as a stunned noise, his brain, or at least his ego, seeming to break a bit at being warned most had forgotten him.

“I’m sorry,” she cringed as if she believed he might become enraged, not able to imagine how he would react to his own ponies not knowing who he was. “It’s just that after you were bound, it was forbidden to talk about you and only a few ponies passed down books about you in secret. Then, after the Sun Stone was damaged during a conflict, the magic you had stored there started to wear out. Probably five years later, it became obvious that the sun was starting to slow, nights growing colder and days growing hotter, slowing more and more each year that passed. I found the books that had been passed down in my family, but no pony believed that you had ever existed, much less that releasing you could save us.”

“And you did? Didn't you go to the authorities?” Helios carefully asked, looking about, then suddenly rolled his eyes, “Would you stop bowing and hanging your head in fear? I’m depressed enough, waking up to all this.”

“Ah,” she finally raised her head, trying to look into his deep red eyes, but unable to stop shivering. She finally glanced away from him again, “I apologize, my lord. Anyway, there weren't any authorities. There was a movement against formal leadership after you left and most government was taken away, we pretty much all lived as individuals.”

“Don’t apologize,” Helios waved a hoof dismissively, though it was hard to hide his disappointment that his proud civilization had degraded to frolicking anarchy in his absence, “I’m not going to smite you, despite what everypony once thought of me. Anyway, let’s just talk. What’s your name?”

“Twilight Wish,” Twilight gave another bow, stopping herself half-way through as she remembered his command.

“Right,” Helios gave a toothy grin, his sharp teeth making him seem, as usual, more frightening than friendly, “So let’s be friends and get along right? We’re buds! That’s still the pony way or something, I hope? So tell me the story as you know it, since you seem to have a brain about you. I want to know what details I can afford to leave out.”

“Oh,” Twilight nodded, unsure of the way he put that, but at least he was honest, “Well, the way I understand it, you and Princess Selene created this world. You controlled the sun, Selene the moon.”

“Created?” Helios chuckled, “That’s rich. Mind if I go on letting you believe we created the whole thing and didn’t just arrive with some ponies to settle here?”

“Um,” Twilight took a moment to get her head around that request, “Certainly, if you wish. At any rate, the way I understand it, Selene and you had a disagreement one day and… well Selene disappeared shortly thereafter. After that, you had to take on both day and night, but it seemed to take its toll on you. And well, things went downhill a bit, and there was an uprising because you had gotten rid of-”

“I. Did. Not,” Helios’s eyes glowed suddenly, his voice echoing down through the cavern with such volume that their entire environment seemed to shake. His face went immediately from his normal friendly expression to one of absolute rage, teeth clenched and a drop of saliva flying from the edge of his mouth, “I did NOT ‘get rid’ of Selene!”

Twilight’s eyes widened again, cringing back as Helios’s eyes glowed with rage, watching as the alicorn stood straight up and his tail and mane lashed out into the air around him like a great whirlwind. The spectacle was such that most of the ponies within line of sight had noticed. Some of them shied away to hide, but most of them began to approach, having little more to fear in their present condition.

Helios ignored the other gathering ponies, his eyes focused on Twilight as he continued, “Our sister Celestia requested our aid for the home world, claiming that our sister Luna had gone mad, a call which Selene answered despite my misgivings, while I stayed to keep tending to our colony here. Our kindness was repaid with treachery! Celestia returned, feigning sadness and claiming that she had ‘accidentally’ killed Selene when banishing our sister Luna. She said that Selene had been weak from fighting Luna and was near death anyway, which is an absurdity I refuse to believe. In my rage at my sister’s loss, I prepared to retaliate, but Celestia fled with most of our valuable magic research and sealed off the portals between our worlds before I could have my vengeance."

Helios still didn’t seem to notice other ponies gathering around to listen to him, his attention still focused on Twilight as he continued, “Thanks to foals who overheard Selene and me arguing about whether she should go, rumors spread that we had been on bad terms. Those rumors became rumors that I had killed her myself to take over this world completely, and my planned invasion of our sister world was just another mad grab for power. Tell me, Twilight, how would that make you feel?”

“T-terrible,” Twilight stammered out an answer, shaking in fear, shrinking away from her world's angry former master.

Seeing her so frightened seemed to cause him to calm down a little, his muscles losing their tension and his mane and tail returning to their previous state as he went on, “Twilight. The rumors drove me mad, and I admit that I started making bad decisions, even tyrannical ones, to put such things down. I made a lot of mistakes, and in the end the uprising was inevitable and my own fault. I did not wish to destroy my own people in a war after having planted them here for their own safety, so I chose to allow my own imprisonment instead. I worked, willingly, with the greatest unicorns I could find to cast a permanent spell to keep the sun and seasons moving, embedded in the Sun Stone, and I begged them to wake me regularly so that I could make sure that it stayed intact. They agreed to... yet no one did; So tell me, Twilight, why did they not wake me?”

“Well it was okay at first, for a long time even,” Twilight began, “And well... I assume they were afraid if they woke you up, you'd not go back and would try to take over again. No one was allowed to speak of you and most of the books about you were destroyed, since they were hoping you'd just be forgotten. A few booked managed to pass down though families like mine, but they were just seen as stories eventually. By the time the spells started to degrade, even the few of us that believed were unaware of where you had been imprisoned. We managed to escape below the surface before the sun stopped completely, but even here in Undervale, I don't think we will last for much longer.” Her eyes went towards the center of the village again, briefly, taking a deep sigh at how things had changed.

“How long has it been since the surface became unlivable?” Helios asked gently, a whiff of his mane moving to brush away the tears that had crept onto Twilight's face as she told the story.

“Over twenty years now,” Twilight sighed. “Our population is shrinking; We’re less than half of what we were only a few years ago. What’s more, the heat has penetrated the upper levels to the point that we can't go there. It may be only a matter of time before it works its way past our protective spells to here."

Helios’s eyes were drawn away from her, and suddenly he realized how many others had joined them, all staring up at him in awe. Earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi all gathered around him, staring in utter silence and amazement. His heart bled at the sight of them, hungry and thin as they were, none of their faces having graced a proper smile in many long years. For a moment he too seemed stunned into silence.

Many had heard Twilight’s talk about him, but nopony had thought of her of as any more than a pony obsessed with her books and fantasies, not that they didn't understand her wish to escape. Now, here he was, the ancient sun god of legend had returned to them. Several of the ponies in front began to bow low, and soon all the ponies around him were following their example.

“I will save you,” Helios started, a grin suddenly spreading across his face, “I will not allow you all to die out, I swear it.” He turned to Twilight, pointing a hoof at her, “Twilight, you’re my second hoof now, and we need to talk alone. I have a plan, and I can already tell you things will go well from now on... or at least, start out well.”

“So girls,” Pinkie Pie was the first to speak up as they continued up the long, tiring staircase, “If Helios turns out to be bad, we’ll probably have to use the Elements of Harmony on him!” It sounded more as if she thought it would be fun, rather than dreading such a thing. After all, in her experience such things were normally followed by gigantic celebrations.

“I thought that was why we were looking for the other lamos- I mean ponies,” Gilda commented from overhead, having started to hover for a while to take some weight off her legs, “So they could do that thing they do with the Elements, with you, or whatever.”

“I think we will end up meeting him before we see them again,” Inkie was starting to pant a bit from the long walk.

“Exactly!” Pinkie agreed, “That means we need to decide what elements all of you are, so that we can all group up and shoot a rainbow at him!”

“I’m pretty sure there’s more to it than that,” Blinkie snorted, “And can’t we take a bit of a rest?”

"There might be more to it than that," Pinkie admitted, "I wasn't really listening when Twilight or Celestia was explaining about them all those other times." Yet somehow she had still managed to participate.

“Sounds like a great idea to me,” Ditzy flew casually behind Gilda, slowly rolling through random angles as she flew, though managing to stay in the same direction, “What could possibly go wrong? Oh wait, never mind, he said to never ask that.”

“Well, the Great and Powerful Trixie is obviously the Element of Magic,” Trixie paused in front, causing the others to stop as well lest they bump into her, as she turned around to face them.

Everyone else seemed to take this as a good enough reason to stop and rest. It was unclear how much further the top of the staircase was after all, and no telling who or what they would meet there.

“I don’t even know what the choices are,” Gilda landed above the stairs from Trixie, seating herself down as well, “Is there anything cool? You know like the Element of Awesomeness, or Rage, or Speed?"

“Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty, and Kindness are the ones that are left!” Pinkie smiled, looking about, clearly excited to be discussing the blossoming friendship that she, at least, perceived.

“You know I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work like this,” Blinkie repeated the complaint, “I mean you can’t just group any six ponies and have them each line up perfectly with one of those.”

“Trixie thinks you could be Generosity,” Trixie claimed.

“In what way am I Generosity?” Blinkie tilted her head.

“Well you’re very generous with explosives, aren’t you?” Trixie nodded matter-of-factly, satisfied with her logic, "And not just giving them away either; the Mad Bomber is also generous in their use."

“Well, if I had to be one, I suppose it’d be Honesty,” Gilda shrugged, “I always tell it like it is and all.”

"Is that like the Element of Being a Jerk?" Blinkie mused, "I half-regret not getting that one, come to think of it."

“Gilda, you'll do great at that,” Pinkie smiled, earning an eye from Gilda, who wasn’t sure which of those things Pinkie thought she’d do great at.

“I like being nice to ponies... and other things too,” Ditzy said, “I’ll be Kindness.”

“Right,” Pinkie smiled, “We’re doing great! We’re just missing Loyalty!”

“Trixie thinks it may be a bad sign that none of us wanted Loyalty,” Trixie murmured, almost to herself.

“I will be Loyalty,” Inkie stated, though she didn't sound very enthusiastic about it, “I guess I tend to stand in front of everyone a lot. That will have to be close enough.”

“Then we’re set,” Pinkie smiled, “Onwards and upwards! Now all we have to do is plan the party for after we save Equestria!”

“I don’t mean to question you, my lord,” Twilight began, walking next to Helios and into the more ancient area of the city, “But this is not something I’ve done before, to say the least.”

It had taken them a long time to get clear of the crowd, and the news of Helios’s arrival had no doubt already spread through what little was left of this world's pony residents. In the end, it had taken hours of speaking and answering excitable questions in as vague a way as possible before he got away from them.

What's more, Helios couldn't bring himself to leave the desperate, hungry-looking ponies to their own devices, so took time to turn a large amount of non-vital objects into food with his magic. It wasn't very good food, granted, as transmogrification wasn't exactly his specialty, but he was storing a lot more energy than anypony else there so he felt it was the least he could do. None of them complained about all the dry hay and stale-tasting water that he conjured.

On one hoof, this had made him wait a lot longer than he wished before he could get back to his little playthings in the prison chambers. On the other hoof, such acts had completely solidified his position as the leader of the desperate creatures. He was certain at this point that they would do whatever he wished without question, and all he had to do was ask nicely. In theory at least.

“I wouldn’t ask you to do this if it wasn’t absolutely necessary, Twilight,” Helios nodded, “Do you think I like to do this? Look. I already agreed to let the innocent ones go, but we need that Element. All you have to do is make sure she is separated from the others before I send them back. You’re a unicorn, she’s an earth pony. Just push her around with your magic or something while I distract the others. The way I have this planned, they won't even know that we did anything.”

“I’ll try,” Twilight sighed, clearly not comfortable with what she was doing. “Where are we going? These are the ruins; I actually searched this place extensively when we first found it while making the cave for Undervale. I was wishing hard to find you, but never did.”

Helios chuckled, "Oh my dear Twilight, but you were so close to where I was. You'll see."

Helios had led her further into the cave where few of the residents of Undervale had ever ventured, save to salvage bricks for their homes, and even then they had never gone any further than they absolutely needed. Most every pony in the settlement had been focused on survival, so there wasn’t very much interest in studying ancient ruins aside from among visionaries like Twilight. She was likely the only one that had even seriously contemplated the importance of the ruins here.

Very few of the buildings here had survived intact; none of the buildings that hadn't specifically been protected by ancient magic were still standing, in fact. The only large building in the entire cavern was the one at the very furthest end, where no pony but Twilight had been for a very long time, in all likelihood.

“This is where I was put, in the ancient Temple of the Sun, which I suppose was forgotten when ponies forgot about law and order in general,” Helios said with a slight bit of venom in his words, pointing his nose towards the great structure ahead of them and smiling grimly, "How ironic to be imprisoned in my own temple," he paused, "Though I guess it's just a bit more ironic that it ended up underground."

It was in ruins, as was everything in this world, though amazingly well kept, perhaps from the magic inherent in such places, or perhaps simply because this section of the cave didn't seem to have experienced as much earthly movement. Though most of the carvings and statues had crumbled beyond recognition, the design was still very much like a temple, and Twilight had always felt a certain amount of reverence when coming here.

Above the front of the temple was a huge carving that looked as if it had once been a pony's head, perhaps Helios' given the faded colors of the part that was left. On both sides of the head were huge cathedral-sized windows, which were all empty save for shards of colored glass littering the ground around them and still jaggedly protruding about the edges of their frames. Inside, what had once been comfortable seating and a stage up front was now rotted to oblivion, only appearing as piles of debris. Towards the very back was a jewel encrusted throne that still looked spectacular despite its cushions being rotted out from the seat itself.

She looked back up at Helios as he strode aside her. He had insisted on her walking beside him, rather than behind him. In fact, despite her misgivings about parts of his master plan, he had been nothing but kind to her, even going so far as to move ahead to open up passages and carefully carrying her over rocky or muddy areas. She began to find herself believing his side of the myth more than what the books had said, however much she loved them. Even after being locked up by his own ponies for centuries, he was still willing to help the civilization that had been so thankless rather than taking the easy way out and leaving for another realm.

Twilight found herself imagining how things would be once he had repaired things. She supposed it would be back to the law and order of ages past and less frolicking mindlessly as they did when food and magic were still so plentiful. Then again, that life had more often than not only resulted in outsiders trying to take what they had. Perhaps having a real society would allow their numbers to grow and turn the valley back into a proper kingdom one day. Even more, perhaps she would end up with a place in that kingdom herself as the trusted scholar or adviser in Helios' new court...

“Here,” Helios’s voice made Twilight jerk slightly, snapping her out of a daydream as Helios looked down at her and spoke, “There is a secret passage in here. Had I know you were all underground, I would have just taken this path to begin with, though I’m not sure you would have liked meeting me as much had I not recharged and healed myself first."

"We would follow you regardless," Twilight spoke, confidently, "You are the last hope we have... and you’ve been very kind to me, more than you had to."

"Well see," Helios smiled back at her before continuing further into the temple.

Twilight followed quietly for a moment before inquiring, “I wasn’t able to find any passages, either by magic or searching.”

“Yeah, about that,” Helios grunted, staring at one of the back walls of the temple, “It’s well-hidden, and also purely mechanical so standard 'secret door finding' spells would miss it. Given that, it will probably also be broken by now."

“So we can break into it?” Twilight asked.

“I could. We'll see when we get there if we even have to," Helios’s face slowly turned into a grin, “Actually, I think we'll stop here and take a bit of time to go over our plans. Then if no one arrives, I'll go force it open for you.”

“Somepony else is on their way?” Twilight tilted her head.

“Maybe, but never mind that,” Helios turned to her, smiling, and sat back on his haunches, “Let’s talk about some future plans. First, I’m going to need you to find five of your best friends, preferably ones that have had it a bit hard; you know, so they’re less likely to question some of my more questionable orders.”

“You are certainly honest,” Twilight felt nervous, once again, but still did not question his commands, partially because he was so disarmingly honest about things like that.

"Yes I am," Helios replied, smirking.

The heroes had once again arrived at a hallway, all of them having been quite relieved when the stairs ended. They had probably walked up around fifty flights of stairs, and now were greeted by the same bare hall as they had seen below. Luckily for them, there was another wall not a hundred feet from the top of the stairs, and a large lever aside it, looking very much the same as the one on the other below.

“We’re here!” Pinkie bounced forward with another ‘sproing’ noise, immediately grabbing hold of the lever and tugging as hard as she could.

“Should we really just be yanking it without any thought at all?” Gilda suggested, tactfully.

Blinkie Pie sighed, “We got this far by jerking the first switch we saw, so I guess that method's worked out great for us so far.”

“Here we go,” Inkie moved up to the other side of the switch to Pinkie, pressing against it until it finally budged with a cranking noise, the sound of ancient gears turning as the door began to open inwards towards them.

The group took a few steps back, peering through the cloud of dust that arose as the door swung open, waiting to see what was there. What they saw was the last thing they expected to encounter.

It was Helios. He certainly didn’t look as they had seen him before, having now regenerated from his pitiful state, but somehow his eyes made him instantly recognizable. Beside him, a pink unicorn was standing which they had never seen, her own eyes wide as she watched the door open. It looked as though the two had just then been approaching the wall.

“Girls!” Helios grinned, “Oh girls, I was beginning to lose faith in you, but it looks like you found the way out. I was just about to come down and see you. You know, with help. This filly came with me to help you, and for No. Other. Reason… that I’m willing to tell you now, but no worries! I swore you would all be sent home and that's exactly where you're going.”

Chapter 9: Conditioning

“Dude,” Gilda just stared at Helios, ‘You’re lookin’ good man, and I don’t say that often about guys.”

“It’s you!” Pinkie suddenly leapt in front of the group, hoof pointing forward.

“I am! And it is!” Helios smiled, clearly trying to look friendly again, “How nice of you to remember me, looks like your brain is working fine, that’s always good news, not to mention getting flirted with by a griffon... not entirely sure how I feel about that.”

“I think,” Twilight Wish took a step back, “The pink one is pointing at me. Anyway, hello, I’m Twilight Wish.”

“That’s a weird coincidence,” Ditzy scratched her head with one hoof, “Hey is this an alternate universe?”

“No, that would be silly,” Helios grunted, “I think it’s just a common name or something. Anyway let’s…” but no one was listening to him now it seemed, and he trailed off when he realized as much.

“Now Pinkie,” Inkie stepped in front of Pinkie, holding her with both fore-hooves before she leapt at Twilight, “We should not be too hasty. He has yet to do anything to deserve a pose down; as far as I can tell she has not either. That, and to be honest I am not entirely sure we can pull off the whole friendship cannon thing yet.”

“Friendship wave cannon, it can’t hurt to try!” Ditzy called from the back, flapping her wings to rise in the air and begin rolling again, "It wouldn't hurt nice things, right?"

“No you don’t understand!” Pinkie exclaimed, “This is exactly the time for the pose down; we’re in ancient ruins and everything!”

“Is that important?” Blinkie looked around at the ruins around them, arching an eyebrow, “Being in ruins?”

“Do not listen to the Cat-Butted One, Your Majesty,” Trixie made the assumption that alicorns in general could be referred to as royalty, moving ahead of Pinkie Pie and casually pushing her out of the way in the process, “Clearly a stallion of your caliber needs a real unicorn as a companion, one such as the Great and Powerful Trixie. Do not forget your promise to train her and promote her to alicorn!”

“Hey it was just a comment,” Gilda defended, “No need to take it all seriously!”

“Who are they?” Twilight raised an eyebrow, moving slowly behind Helios, unsure of these new individuals.

“I think he was just saying that so we’d let him go,” Ditzy suggested, only to get a glare from Trixie.

“That is a possibility,” Helios confirmed, “I mean if you were in my position, you’d have said a lot of things too, but it’s not completely out of the question that I could train somepony, so it wasn't exactly a lie. Anyway, now that that’s out of the way let’s-”

“Hey I have an idea,” Blinkie cut him off with her own suggestion, pulling a stick of dynamite from her saddlebag and casually offering it up to Helios, “Would you mind stuffing this into your mouth? I’d like to try something.”

Helios shrugged, and moved to try and take the explosive into his muzzle like a large cigar, mumbling around it, “Sure if it means we can get moving.”

“Is ANYONE listening to me?!” Pinkie exclaimed, but apparently no one was.

“It will not be necessary to blow His Majesty’s head off,” Trixie grabbed for the dynamite herself, snatching it out of the alicorn's mouth with her magic, “The Great and Powerful Trixie has found the coordinates His Majesty needs, so once the others are sent back, we can be ‘together’.” Trixie ended her sentence waggling her eyebrows at Helios.

The suggestive tone with which Trixie spoke left Helios open-mouthed, obviously unsure how to respond to such an implication.

“Hey I found those!” Ditzy hovered next to Trixie, looking at her upside down and poking at her horn with a hoof, “Me and the nice birdie!”

“The name’s Gilda,” Gilda huffed, “And that goes for both of you. Anyway I only did that so we could get out of here." Yet she added in a quieter voice, as if not wanting it to be heard, "Thanks Der… Ditz'.”

“Ok this is it,” Inkie spoke with her normal, even voice, but reached up to snatch the floating dynamite, “I’m confiscating this.”

“It’s not like I don’t have twenty more on me,” Blinkie grunted, giving her sister a glare before rolling her eyes and seating herself on her haunches as if bored.

Helios took a step back, almost trampling Twilight in the process; she was still hiding behind him for protection from all the psychos that had suddenly emerged from the long-sealed depths. “Hey everypony!” he spoke finally, obviously faking a gleeful tone of voice as he started to stride forward again, trusting that they'd move out of his way as he trotted towards the door, “I have a great idea! Let’s pretend this conversation never happened and go inside, then I’ll send you all home and we'll be happy again, or at least at peace.”

“Everyone home, except for Trixie,” Trixie corrected, but did move out of his way.

The rest of the group also parted for the massive alicorn as he moved forward, allowing him through, along with Twilight who moved from hiding behind him to hiding in front of him. She clearly wanted to maintain the comfort of having her prince between herself and the others.

“These ponies are crazy!” Twilight murmured up to him, hoping the others didn’t hear her, “You’re actually going to let them go? There’s no telling what they’ll do!”

“Now, now, Twilight,” Helios smiled gently down at her, “We have to be civil. Most of them are just bystanders, no matter how crazy they might be. We only need the pink one; the others don’t even need to know.”

“And how do we do that?” Twilight whispered back up to him.

“We’ll I’d just snatch her off the pad,” Helios shrugged back, “but I’ll be busy at the controls. So just tackle her off of it right before it activates so her friends go without her. As long as we send her to the same time and place that they are sent to, they’ll just assume something went wrong during the transfer.”

“And what are you plotting about?” Blinkie caught up with the two as they arrived at the top of the stairs, ready to go back down them.

“Oh you know, how we’re going to betray you at the last moment,” answered Helios, making Twilight’s eyes go wide at his simple admission.

“Come on now,” Inkie moved up to put a hoof in front of her sister, “Like I said; we should not be hasty. No need to get snippy with each other.”

It was clear that none of the group trusted him, but Helios’s words were ironically the least suspicious thing he could have said, since none of the others expected him to joke about something he’d actually be doing. Helios simply smiled kindly back at them, lighting up his horn to shine a wave of bright sunlight through the entire cavern system, the magic seeming to even light around corners so that the entire structure was now ablaze. His powers had certainly grown compared to when he was first released, given how effortlessly he did so.

They continued down the stairs once again, not taking any sort of break as it was much easier going down. Ditzy went ahead of the others, actually choosing to roll down the stairs, waiting every floor for the others to catch up with her as they walked. Aside from her, Helios walked in front, Twilight close by his side, huddled against him as if she expected to be slaughtered by maniacs the moment she dared to move more than a few steps away. Trixie walked by his other side, head raised proudly, her own horn still shining, even if it had been more than outshone by the alicorn. The Pie sisters were behind them, Blinkie glaring suspiciously at Helios, Pinkie glaring suspiciously at Twilight, and Inkie having her hooves full, having to periodically hold one or both of them back from trying to shove the targets of their hatred down the stairs. Gilda walked furthest behind the others, staying at least ten feet behind the sisters. She stayed silent as she walked down after them, looking depressed as her thoughts turned inward once again.

Once they reached the bottom of the stairs, Ditzy hung back closer to Helios, flew up, and landed directly upon his back. At first this made him arch an eyebrow, but eventually he extended his wings slightly so that she had a place to lie as she curled up there, looking much like a kitten.

“Are you okay?” Helios asked the nestling pegasus carefully, “I guess I should have asked you that while you were falling down the stairs, but I figured it was some new tradition from your world. Right, anyway! Still alive, this is good. So how about those coordinates you mentioned?”

“I’m fine!” Ditzy assured him, “We found coordinates that Twilight Sparkle was teleported to when she was pony-napped, so all we have to do is teleport there! Cause they would have taken her to the spot that teleports off-world probably.”

“Yeah here it is, dude,” Gilda spoke as she moved forward, pulling the appropriate paper from her saddlebag, which was grasped magically by the alicorn.

“Interesting,” Helios grinned, looking over the paper in front of him, “And they still use the same date system as us. Take a look at this, Twilight.”

Twilight blinked as the paper was hovered in front of her, then creased her forehead as she started to speak, “But that’s a month from n-“

Helios cut off Twilight’s words, clamping her mouth shut with his magic, then moved the paper back to himself, “Don’t be silly, now is now. So how many days after the date of this paper should I be sending you? Don’t want to be creating any paradoxes.”

“I don’t know, those can be pretty fun!” Ditzy smiled from atop Helios’s back.

“You don’t know?” Gilda arched an eyebrow in response to Helios’s words, “Well it was about a week I guess.”

The group entered the long hall at the bottom of the staircase again, moving more quickly now as Helios seemed to have increased his stride, not stopping to think that the others probably didn’t have his energy. He seemed as if he was getting quite eager, though if it was just to be rid of them or for some other reason was unclear.

He didn’t stop until he arrived at the room at the far end of the compound where the group had initially arrived. Once he was at the blue platform, Helios leaned down, his horn glowing as dials and buttons along the very corner came alight with activity, responding with beeping noises.

“Come on then,” Helios stated, “Everyone on the pad! Except you, Twilight.”

“Of course,” Twilight looked nervous, moving behind the portal, taking a deep breath as she looked tense.

“I thought you said she was here to help,” Pinkie pointed out to Helios about Twilight.

“She’s mostly emotional support for me, really,” Helios claimed, honestly enough, “And one other thing. You’ll see.”

“Except Trixie as well,” Trixie glared to Helios, even as her friends moved up to the platform.

“Now, now, Sele- I mean Trixie.” Helios smiled to her, “Trust me, Trixie. I’ll be back for you after all this is over, so long as you don’t hate me for what happens in between. I give you my word.”

Trixie peered at him for a moment longer, taken out of her seemingly trance-like stare only when Gilda reached out a talon, yanking at the unicorn’s horn to pull her up onto the platform.

“Trixie did not say you could touch her horn!” Trixie complained, mortified, but all the same was up on the platform with the others.

“It’s for your own good. I think,” Gilda huffed.

The group looked down at Helios, who stared back up at them, his trademark smile on his face. They all looked more than a bit nervous, but none as nervous as Twilight, who slowly moved behind them to get a good line of sight with Pinkie.

“Now,” reiterated Helios, “I’m going to count to three, and then activate. I have to power it myself, since there’s no working power sources left that are strong enough for the job, at least not until I take a few days off to fix one. Anyway, that means I’ll be distracted, which means you be ready. One. Two. Three!”

Helios’s eyes shifted to Twilight as he counted, who nodded slowly, unseen by the others. His horn glowed, power surging through the device, causing it to glow more strongly than the last time they had seen it used. The air above it seemed to heat up, snapping into a vortex of colors as an explosion of light shone out and upward.

Twilight lunged forward, leaping towards Pinkie, her own horn glowing with power as she used both magic and what little physical strength she had to shove the earth pony off the platform and to the other side. The two landed on the floor, Pinkie slamming into it with a crack, cushioning Twilight’s fall in turn.

Pinkie’s friends saw nothing but sharp movement before they left, but it was too late for them to worry about what it was; they were pulled into the vortex and were gone.

Pinkie took a few moments to realize what had happened, her head spinning after being slammed into the stone floor. When she looked up and saw Twilight’s face, she immediately shouted, "I knew you were a meanie wicked evil-pants!"

As random as it was, Twilight was still so stunned by such an accusation being leveled at her that she drew a complete blank for a few moments. Somepony called her evil? No one had ever done that; it just wasn't something she would ever expect a villain to say. Taking advantage of Twilight's shock, Pinkie kicked her hind legs as hard as she could, pushing Twilight off of her and earning a squeal. Clearly the unicorn was completely unused to violence.

Pinkie wasn’t the strongest, but she was still stronger than most unicorns, at least, due to her general tendency to run around and the stronger nature of earth ponies. Twilight flew off of her, slamming into the platform and cracking her back against the edge as she let out a yelp of surprise and pain. Before she knew what was happening, she was watching Pinkie turn tail and run down the hall.

Twilight’s horned glowed, lifting Pinkie up off the ground, holding her by her belly with her magic so that the pink pony’s hooves now scrambled in midair. Much to her surprise, however, this didn’t cause Pinkie to give in. Instead, Pinkie reached into the saddlebag still on her side and yanked out her cupcake cannon once again, already loaded with somewhat stale cupcakes, and fired it directly at the unicorn’s face.

Twilight was too stunned at the method of attack to respond, the once-delicious goods smacking her in the face and actually sending her back against the platform again in the same fashion as before. She squealed in the same fashion as before as well, kicking her legs in frustration at the difficulty the pony was giving her.

Pinkie felt herself drop to the floor again, giggling happily as she turned to go, running as fast as she could. For a moment, she thought she was going to make it.

However, upon arriving in the large chamber in which Helios had been imprisoned once again, she found a rather large object suddenly form in front of her, which she slammed into at full speed. The object didn’t budge as she bounced back from it, landing on her bottom, knocked back as if the energy around it alone had forced her backward. Upon looking up, said object appeared to be the teleported Helios. She had trouble recovering, feeling as if she had just slammed into a brick wall.

“Y-you won’t get me!” Pinkie claimed, trying to aim her cupcake cannon at his face now, even as she felt herself rising back off of the floor.

“Well at least I didn’t teleport into you,” Helios chuckled, “I mean imagine how messy that would have been!”

Pinkie fired the weapon again, but predictably the same force that had felt like a brick wall to her expelled the projectile back away to splatter against the floor and roll several feet away. She felt his energy yank her cannon away, another stream of energy pulling her saddlebags off, separating her from all of her items. She tried to speak or scream out, but her muzzle felt as if it were clamped shut.

“A pastry cannon in a hammerspace bag,” Helios laughed again, having trouble containing himself, “Okay, that has to be the most entertaining weapon I’ve ever had pointed at me, I will give you credit for that.”

“Master!” Twilight came running up the hallway, “Oh goodness, I’m so sorry!” She looked quite goofy, limping with her hurt back and face covered in cupcake icing.

This only made Helios laugh more, “Oh don’t worry about it, Twilight. You were HILARIOUS!” He threw his head back, laughing hysterically, no longer containing himself for a moment before speaking to Twilight once again, “Go on to that big room right at the other end of the hall; let’s prepare one of those tables for this one. There should be an extraction machine just inside there, which I’ll probably have to do some fixing on.”

“Extraction machine?” Twilight panted, cleaning her face off with her magic and placing the excess icing atop where the other cupcake had landed.

“Well,” Helios started, beginning to float the bound and magically gagged pink pony down the hall, “Not a technical term, and not technically what the machine is for. It’s actually what they used to drain me of enough power to keep me bound. Isn’t that interesting though? Learned something new, didn’t you.”

“And,” Twilight asked, “What are we using it for?”

“To extract her Element!” he grinned, “Don’t worry about what those are, it’s not important yet, and we’ll have around a month to talk about it before you find the others. Trust me on this one, Twilight, having the Elements of Harmony will save our world.”

Twilight sighed, following along behind the alicorn, her mind unable to keep from thinking about how he told the others to trust him even as she watched him manipulate them. On the other hand, he hadn’t really lied to them that she had heard. She asked quietly, “Do we really have to kill her?”

“Yes,” Helios spoke back, calmly, “I’m going to be honest with you, Twilight; we’re going to have to do some pretty bad things to save what’s left of this world.” He thought to himself, then paused, turning back to look at her again, “Twilight. I let go the ones that we didn’t need; I could have just killed them, too. Please trust me, I’m causing as little damage as possible, I swear.”

“I trust you,” Twilight spoke in return, even as she looked at the helpless pink pony, struggling silently against her bonds and likely able to hear their conversation even as they discussed killing her. Twilight felt a tear trickling down her face.

Pinkie found herself waking up again, unaware for a moment where she was. She had passed out from the simple pressure that the alicorn’s magic had put against her head as he had held her muzzle shut. She moved her jaws to verify that they were no longer clamped shut, slowly opening her eyes.

She was cold, laying against one of the metal tables in the medical room now, her back hurting against the steel as she tried to wriggle up. She found herself unable to, all fours strapped uncomfortably to the table, more straps holding her around her belly. As she struggled, the straps glowed with energy, magic holding them in place even had she been strong enough to break them. What’s more, she felt like she had been laying there for days, every joint in her body feeling stiff.

“Oh goodness, you’re awake,” Twilight Wish’s voice spoke, “I had hoped you would stay asleep for this, at least.”

Above her, surely enough, was Helios’s right-hoof filly, Twilight Wish. She had a grimace on her face, her horn aglow with power, and had just been using her magic to move the sinister looking helmet of the extraction machine to Pinkie’s head; Pinkie recognized it as the same machine that had been in here before. It was the one Trixie had examined, though Pinkie hadn't seen her do so, and it now appeared to have had significant repairs. It wasn’t exactly shaped for Pinkie’s head, but it seemed as if they were making it work well enough.

“Where is he?” Pinkie stammered out, her eyes darting around and not finding Helios.

“He’s gone to the surface to gather energy,” Twilight responded, “Powering the vortex all by himself took a lot out of him, then he powered it up again for the next time it’s needed, then he spent several days tending to the needs of the ponies in Undervale between attempts to get this machine working. He was very tired.”

“Y-you could let me go,” Pinkie continued on, her voice lacking its normal happiness.

“No, I can’t,” Twilight responded, “I’m sorry, but all I can promise is that I will make this hurt as little as possible, and that it will save the lives of a great many ponies.”

The helmet was fitted snugly, Twilight’s horn glowing again to open up a nearby bag. It had apparently been brought here in the meantime, and Pinkie started to wonder exactly how long she had been there. Out from the bag came what looked like a syringe filled with a clear blue fluid, which floated towards Pinkie’s right foreleg.

“You’ve been here about a week,” Twilight answered, apparently having seen the question in her eyes, “I tried to keep you under while we repaired the machine, but I ran out of the herbs I needed. They are a little scarce nowadays. Still, I brought this in case you woke up early; it will dull the pain. Please don’t struggle, okay?”

Pinkie shook her head, clenching her teeth at the feel of the needle diving under her skin, panting as the drug filled her, dulling her senses. She looked up into Twilight’s eyes, staring deeply into them. The two ponies looked at each other, and at the tears rolling down each other’s faces. Twilight shook her head back at Pinkie, pulling her eyes away before slowly moving a hoof to switch the machine on.

Pinkie screeched out as the pain coursed through her, making Twilight cringe visibly; it was as if the pain killer had made barely any difference at all. Twilight watched as the pink pony arched her back and screamed herself hoarse within seconds, her words dissolving into a series of drooling noises from which nothing could be gained. For a few moments, Twilight just stared in terror at what she was doing, before her eyes shifted towards the machine.

She waited for as long as she could stand, the unicorn finally backing away from the table, covering her ears with both hooves, tears streaming down her face at the horrifying noise that the draining pink pony was making. Her eyes shifted back to the gauge on the machine after several minutes of this, watching the energy gauge, which registered it as full.

It was full? Could she pull the plug now? But Helios had told her that it had to run until the subject was gone or else it wouldn’t take. Her eyes shifted back and forth. Could Helios be wrong? Perhaps he didn’t know how the machine worked? It had been made to torment him, after all. Surely his tormentors wouldn't have explained to him how it worked.

“No, that’s absurd,” Twilight spoke to herself, slowly approaching the screaming pony, watching her thrash about, Pinkie’s eyes wide as saliva spattered from the edge of her muzzle. Twilight couldn’t take this, “Oh Helios, what am I doing? I can’t do this… Wait. Wait! I have an idea.”

Twilight moved fully over to the table, gritting her teeth as she watched Pinkie struggle. She propped herself up onto the table, then climbed up completely onto it, settling herself to lay chest to chest with the other pony, trying hard to hold the thrashing pony still. It was far easier than it should have been; a clear sign that Pinkie had terribly little left.

“No,” Twilight trailed off, “I wish… I wish… I wish…”

Twilight closed her eyes, a purple mist surrounding her and the earth pony beneath her. The mist started to swirl, each particle moving back and forth between the unicorn and the earth pony. Twilight focused her power, allowing her own life to seep from herself into Pinkie. If she could just feed enough into her to keep her alive until the process was done, Twilight thought, then perhaps she could follow her master’s order without having to kill somepony she didn’t even know.

What seemed like forever passed, Twilight locking her concentration into the process. With a burst of release, she suddenly felt the drain shut off, her own energy ebbing to a halt just short of driving her unconscious. She trembled, looking down into Pinkie’s eyes and searching for life there. Pinkie was staring blankly upwards, her mouth agape, but was still breathing.

The machine itself was fizzling, smoke pouring out of it as if it had only stopped because it had overloaded. With a shiver, Twilight realized that it would have continued to drain them both until they were both dead had it not malfunctioned.

“Oh Helios, forgive me,” Twilight murmured.

Twilight pushed her nose forward to tip the headpiece back off of Pinkie’s head, then went through the painful process of unstrapping the pony; painful because her head was ringing and every bit of her body had to strain to work her magic at this point. Finally the straps were free, and she pulled herself off from atop of Pinkie.

She realized that she would never be able to carry the earth pony to the portal, so instead moved to push the rolling table across the stone floor. Even this was no easy task, but she eventually made her way to the portal itself.

“Right,” Twilight panted, quietly talking to herself, attempting to justify her actions in her own mind, “I don’t think he’s reconfigured this, so it should send you right to your friends. It’s not that big of a disobedience; after all, he did say he was going to send you back when we were done, right?”

Twilight tilted the table, dumping Pinkie onto the platform in roughly the same location where she had been standing before, cringing at the noise that the limp earth pony made as she fell onto the hard surface. She moved over to her, weakly, to check if Pinkie was still breathing.

She wasn’t.

Twilight gasped. She didn’t have enough energy to start up her life giving spell again, and had no idea how to help a pony that was this hurt through conventional means only. Only having a few seconds to consider, she hit the activation button on the portal. The portal opened up, sucking the pink pony within it and sending her on her way, leaving Twilight behind.

“I hope they can help you when you arrive,” Twilight trailed off, collapsing suddenly onto the floor as her own energy gave out.

“Oh my,” the voice behind her made her shiver, heavy hoofsteps bearing down on her from behind, “Twilight, Twilight, Twilight, you have been very naughty. The machine smells broken, and I can only assume that since I hadn’t told you to send her back, you’ve let the Element bearer go.”

“No,” Twilight gasped, trying hard to stay awake, terrified that if she were to fall into unconsciousness before explaining herself that he would never allow her to wake up again, “The machine got it, I just fed life into her so that she didn’t die in the process, then sent her back.”

“Twilight, Twilight, you got the Element imprint but broke the machine,” Helios gently moved to loom over her, laying himself down against her, much as she had done to Pinkie before, “It’s only made to hold one life force at a time, then I have to change the crystals. Containing yours as well would have fried it, possibly beyond repair. I see now that it's too dangerous to use it for the Elements; we'll have to find a new way to extract those while I repair the machine for its proper purpose.”

“I’m sorry,” Twilight stared up into his eyes, beginning to hyperventilate now, certain that he was about to punish her horribly, and not blaming him even in the slightest. She tried to think of other words to say, but her brain seemed washed of all sensible thought. Here she was, having waited for Him to return for years, and now that he was here she had almost immediately failed him. Was he going to beat her? Violate her? Kill her? She stared up into his bottomless eyes, great cavities in his head with glowing balls at the end, completely unable to read him.

“And besides that, Twilight, we wanted her dead, didn’t we?” Helios tsk'ed at her again, shaking his head as his voice literally echoed in her mind, “She is a symbol of our defeat and a direct minion of Celestia, not some innocent bystander; we can’t let her live.”

“But I’ve- I’ve never killed somepony before,” Twilight trailed off, her eyes still fixed on the gleaming, angry eyes of her master, having to force each word out, “I don’t think I can. I’m sorry; I just can’t bring myself to. I understand if- if you- if you-”

“I see now that it’s going to take something more than polite requests to make you serve me,” Helios’s face slowly moved into a grin once more, even though his eyes still glared at her angrily, “I was going to just let you do what you should, but no, it looks like those that work directly for me are going to need… an extra measure of conditioning. Aren’t they, Twilight? Trust me though, this will hurt me more than it does you...”

Even had she the will to struggle, Twilight already felt exhaustion beginning to steal consciousness away and, perhaps blessedly, the view of the grinning, chuckling face of her master dominating her vision. She only had to feel guilty about the sudden appeal of unconsciousness for a moment, however. There was a touch, the sensation of magic penetrating her mind like tendrils of pain to drag her agonizingly back to wakefulness, and then a new darkness blotted out the room leaving nothing but the awareness of her looming prince and the stone against her back.

Despite the agony, she did not even attempt to resist. If she could save her friends back in Undervale by sacrificing her own mind, she would without question.

Chapter 10: Fractured Condition

There Firefly and Surprise stood at the bottom of the crater in the middle of the Ponyville town square, aside the spot from whence their not-so-fearless leader Twilight Wish had so recently disappeared. After Twilight had teleported away along with the restrained form of Princess Celestia, the duo had found themselves staring up at the faces of a dozen royal guardponies. Earth ponies and unicorns scrambled down the sides of the crater, pegasi coming in from above.

These guards were not happy campers after seeing their princess taken away, restrained and in a brutally injured state. They hadn't seen who created the explosion, so the general assumption was that it was the fault of the ones they now saw, and who they had seen surrounding the Princess as she disappeared. Regardless of the restraint Celestia may have tried to instil in them, Surprise and Firefly were in for a beating if they stuck around.

"Quick! Before they can reach us!" Firefly shouted, flexing her legs and taking off with a few powerful flaps of her wings. They still ached from her previous burning during the fight with Rainbow Dash, but adrenaline was smothering the pain for the moment.

"Wait!" Surprise grabbed her cricket bat and was off the ground an instant later, trying to use Firefly's wake to speed herself upwards and gain as much distance as she could before the guards arrived.

Four pegasi arrived speeding through the air ahead of the other guards, their expressions bent in fury. They quickly paired off, two heading for Firefly as the other pair dived towards Surprise, who was still struggling to gain altitude and catch up with her cohort.

Firefly completely ignored her less agile friend, concentrating on her own escape and hoping that Surprise would be appealing enough of an extra target for her to slip away. She knew she could out-fly a few pegasi in heavy armor, so all she had to do was get away before the unicorns were able to grab at her with their magic.

Still, the two pegasi guards approached Firefly at amazing speed despite their armor, training and anger driving them. Firefly only grinned back, waggling her flanks mockingly before suddenly diving directly at one of them; no doubt the last thing he had expected her to do.

Firefly ducked her head down, twirling rapidly around the targeted guards as she spun. She performed the same double inside-out loop, as she called it, as she had when she was racing Rainbow Dash. It certainly didn't have the same effect as before, given that she didn't have the extreme speed boost that Rainbow had given her at the time, but it was still enough to send the surprised guard barrel-rolling through the sky, slamming directly into his own comrade and sending them both tumbling towards the ground for several long moments before they could right themselves.

By the time they had regained their composure, Firefly had already gained an alarming amount of distance, and was streaking upwards and away towards the cloud cover as if to try to hide there.

Surprise was not so fortunate in her knowledge of fancy tricks, and began to wonder if she shouldn't have paid more attention to Firefly's deranged and dangerous stunts back when she had the chance. Still, she did have one thing, and she brought that one thing down against the face of the first winged guard to get near her. The cricket bat let out a loud crack as she smacked it directly against the end of his snout, successfully avoiding the protection of his helmet and sending him spiraling off course while she spun around to aim at the second guard.

The second guard was ready, banking to the right suddenly and causing Surprise to miss by mere inches. As he came about to try to swipe his armored head at her however, she successfully spun down and around to slam the bat against his chin, sending him head over hooves.

Unfortunately, he was still going directly at her, and his out of control body slammed into Surprise's, one hind hoof striking her in the face and sending her head over hoof as well. It was only through this random movement that she managed to dodge the first pegasus guard once again as he lashed back over to try to get a hold of her.

Panicked now, Surprise began swinging the bat at random as she flew, looking almost comical, as if she were trying to rowboat-paddle through the air. Her wings flexed and sent her forward, trying desperately to gain speed if she couldn't gain altitude.

As she flew over the other guards, she could practically feel the telekinetic grip of the unicorn guards trying to grab hold of her and pull her down, but with elation she realized that she had in fact managed to move out of their range. She started to laugh hysterically, throwing her bat down at them to give her extra speed as she began to fly faster. The bat slammed down onto the back of one guard, sending him crashing to the ground with a near girlish yelp.

She soon realized however, that her being outside of their grabbing range didn't matter as she was still well within their throwing range. When the unicorns came to the same conclusion that they couldn't grab her directly, they began to use their powers to instead fling bits of debris and rock at her. Surprise was completely unprepared as first a slab of brick slammed into the side of her head, sending her off course and nearly causing her to lose herself entirely. She might still have pulled up, were it not for a piece of splintered wood against her right wing, a nail from the torn lumber dragging against its base as it temporarily lodged there.

Surprise felt herself fall a few more feet, then the crushing grip of several angry unicorn minds bore down on her as she was rapidly dragged towards them and the ground. She looked up, for an instant seeing the pink Firefly ducking upwards into the clouds, apparently leaving her to her fate. Her mind swam with the adrenaline, tears suddenly streaming down her face as something at the back of her mind screamed to the surface.

"Firefly! We're friends! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE!" Surprise's words managed to rise far enough above the chaos for Firefly to hear her.

Firefly had looped into the clouds, hopping from one to another mid-flight, a chuckle escaping her as she glanced back to see the two pegasus guards straining to try to catch up. She was too far above the crowd to be affected by telekinesis or thrown objects; she was practically home free, leaving her friend to pay the price.

Her friend... Surprise's scream was barely audible to her from here. She looked down towards the ground now, her keen flyer eyes focusing on the events in the distance. She watched as Surprise slammed into the ground, struggling frantically but now held tightly and unable to move. Despite her being completely disabled, she watched the guards slam down their fore-hooves against her, angrily taking retribution for the loss of their beloved Princess.

Firefly felt herself hesitate, and a voice nagged at her from the back of her head. Wasn't this rather unlike her? To leave her friend in the grasp of an enemy that she was certain would kill her?

You’ve risked your life for friends countless times before, the voice in the back of her head called to her, as if from a long way off. What happened to you to make you leave her like this?

Firefly shook her head, "No!" and turned to try to fly off again, knowing that her hesitation was allowing her own pursuers to catch up.

Leaving was now harder than it should have been however, and Firefly felt as if her wings were suddenly weighed down, almost as if the guilt itself were heavy on them. Her mind swam with voices, arguing over what she should do next, her flight pattern now alternating between bursts of speed and sudden hesitation. This didn't go unnoticed by her own pursuers, who re-doubled their efforts to catch up to her.

"No!" Firefly suddenly screeched, turning to face her pursuers, diving at them out of nowhere, "YOU MONSTERS!"

The pursuers suddenly found themselves facing the pegasus that had previously been trying so desperately to escape. Facing the sheer insanity that had appeared in her eyes, the two guards were actually compelled to bank to either side to avoid the speeding blur of pink and blue as she shot back toward the surface.

Rage and confusion now shot through Firefly as never before, her own anger overcoming every voice in her head, snapping her mind free from its former constraints for a few brief moments. All she knew was that she had to save her friend before her mind was lost to her again.

"MONSTERS!" Firefly screamed again down at the crowd of guards, causing them to cease their beating of the helpless pegasus and look up in utter surprise.

Firefly swooped low, a cone of energy swirling around her, the air suddenly splitting into shards of pink and blue as flames leapt out from all sides. The resulting shockwave shot through Ponyville, and there wasn't a single resident that didn't feel their house shudder as the sonic fireboom rippled through the surrounding area.

The pink and blue streak turned into a curve before striking the ground, blasting through the guards. Firefly grabbed hold of Surprise as she passed over, picking up the battered pegasus in all fours as she tried to bank sharply upwards and back into the sky once more.

Unfortunately for Firefly and Surprise, diving through a crowd of guards wasn't exactly a fool-proof plan, and they had picked up several more passengers in the process. Firefly felt the grip of several guard ponies that had managed to grab hold of her, tugging at her neck, flattening down her wings, and finally felt herself begin to spiral out of control thanks to all the extra weight and drag.

Still entirely inexperienced at such speeds, Firefly was not able to hold herself for long. She skidded into the ground, bouncing upwards several times before slamming back into it, the group of ponies now having bunched into a completely uncontrollable ball of struggling bodies.

Firefly's mind still swam with confusion at what she had just done, and the only thing she could think to do was to cling to her friend Surprise in the middle of the ball. Her eyes watched as they flew out of control towards the large ball of imploded debris that was left over from Trixie’s earlier evacuation spell; a seemingly unavoidable collision. She closed her eyes, and an instant later a shattering pain ruffled through her, a sudden jolt of energy and rapid stop causing both Firefly and Surprise to black out entirely.

Luna was jolted out of her sound sleep, tumbling suddenly out of her bed with a heavy thump. She was immediately wakened, struggling to get up off the floor. Her sister was in pain somehow, and Luna felt it almost as if the pain were her own. She wasn't rightly sure how long she remained on the floor there, time racing by for her in her half-sleeping state, momentarily unsure if she was dreaming or not.

"Sister!" Luna screamed out at the top of her lungs, the sound echoing through the tower where she slept during most of the daylight hours. An outright scream by Luna was certain to rattle the eardrums of anypony in the structure.

The guards outside, stunned by the sudden racket from within Luna's room, had the door open in a heartbeat, "Princess! What happened?"

Luna must have looked rather insane to them at that moment, tangled in her moon-patterned sheets and rising from the floor where she had fallen out of the bed, her eyes aglow as she reached out to try to sense what was happening. Pinpointing the event however, was somewhat more difficult, as the whole image seemed to be fading from her mind much as dreams do when one is just waking up.

Luna certainly knew that this wasn't a dream though, and stumbled forward almost as if not even seeing the guards that were inquiring after her well-being. The guards moved quickly from her way as she approached the door, reacting almost as if they expected to be attacked by the Princess themselves, even gritting their teeth visibly.

The princess was obviously agitated, her coat having darkened significantly with her emotional state, eyes and cutie mark together seeming to glow with an odd sort of lunar aura noticeable even above the sun shining through the windows of the hallway in which she now stood. Her mane and tail whipped about in streams of energy, the reflection of a starry night sky reflected upon them and casting an array of twinkling lights onto the walls of the hallway.

She hadn’t changed form to look like Nightmare Moon exactly, but these guards had never seen her former evil side in the flesh and so did not find this change of appearance any less disturbing. Several guards who had been running up the hall after hearing the commotion actually skidded to a halt and stared slack-jawed at her from a distance as if deciding whether to approach or slowly back-up, finally choosing simply to bow in deference and await orders.

The moon princess' frustration at her sister's disappearance was only compounded by the way the guards were acting towards her, literally tripping over themselves to keep their distance as if they expected her to snap at any moment and commit some horrible act of violence. She didn't have this problem with her night shift guards, but these ponies were not nearly so used to being around her, much less facing her when she was upset.

Had she not been pre-occupied, she probably would have been very angry at them, but in her present state it somehow hurt her deep inside to have such a trust gap between herself and her sister's guards. If Celestia had awoken like this, they would have all been at her side trying to find out what had so disturbed her, not backing away slowly.

"My sister! We demand to know where she is!" Luna spoke again, her voice booming so loudly that it echoed down the hallway and rang in the ears of the nearest guards. She certainly lacked the composed demeanor that she took when speaking to Celestia.

Even as she spoke, the crown and armor from the stand alongside her bed was levitated out to her, purple moon crown fitted on her head just behind her horn, which somehow seemed longer than usual, and the steel clasp of her chest plate clamped around her torso, the lunar emblem adorning it brightly. Each hoof was raised in turn, slipping into the purple clasps that looked like decorative horseshoes, but in reality served no such small purpose as they were enchanted to ground out any magical attacks that might strike her.

Luna turned to face one of the chamber guards as he emerged from her room once again behind her, peering at him, not daring to let it show that her feelings were hurt by their reaction. There were more important things to deal with now, and besides, royalty had to put on a strong face for their beloved minions.

"P-Princess Celestia is still in Ponyville, your Majesty," the guard spoke with no small amount of nervousness in his voice, seeing that Luna was not only upset, but also clearly donning her battle armor rather than her usual dress attire, "We were waiting on the report for today, which is slightly late, but not by long..."

"We shalt not wait for this ‘report’," Luna spoke simply, her voice booming once again and causing the guard to take a step back, "Thou wilt place the guard on high alert and brace for a possible assault."

The guard stood there for a few long seconds as Luna affixed the last few joints of armor about her form, seeming hesitant to move for the moment.

“Assault?” one guard finally piped up, understandably incredulous, though he tried not to sound like he wasn’t taking her seriously.

“Yes! Assault! Awaken our personal guards as well!” Luna almost shrieked. Unfortunately, she had not lost some of the habits that she gained as Nightmare Moon, and lightning flashed around her as she commanded, “Thou shalt crush any who dare to attack the palace!”

“Crush?” a second guard nervously asked, almost to himself, taking another step back.

“Couldn’t we just put them on notice?” the first guard asked, “Or perhaps take them into custody?” These were palace guards, not warriors; they had probably never seen a day of combat in their lives, and Princess Celestia had certainly never ordered them to ‘crush’ an enemy.

"Thou hast heard our order!" Luna shouted so loudly that the building quivered now, unable to hold her temper when her sister might be in danger, “We are certain that Princess Celestia has been attacked!”

"Attacked? Y-yes your Majesty!" the guard nearly jumped out of his own armor in alarm at this statement, bowing low once again and making his way out of the tower along with his comrades nearby.

Luna had no time to be aggravated by her reputation, nor by the fact that the guards had suddenly wanted to help when they heard their other princess might be hurt. She immediately set off herself, not bothering to properly exit the tower, but instead moving to one of the huge vaulted windows, which glowed with her magic as it opened. The air around her was alive with energy, the starry mist of her mane and tail encircling her body in a swirl of darkness before her body seemed to dissolve into the energy itself and shoot off across the sky towards Ponyville.

The Princess could have teleported, but for all she knew she could be teleporting directly into a battle and she would rather be able to see at a distance what was going on while she approached. Instead her form shot across the sky so rapidly that few noticed the streak of purple overhead, yet she stayed fully aware during each instant that she was mist-form. Her mind stretched out, and her form nearly convulsed in alarm when she realized that she could no longer feel Celestia at all. It was the same way that Celestia had described Twilight Sparkle simply being gone without a trace. It wasn't as if she had died, but as if her physical form had been suddenly transported so far away that every bond to her sister was severed. This was insane. Even when Luna was on her moon, she had been able to feel Celestia’s energy.

Where was she? Who was responsible for this?

Ponyville was now visible in the distance, smoke rising from the town square, or rather where the town square had recently been located. Even at this distance she could see the huge crater in the center, nearby buildings having been reduced to rubble and slag. Above the square, several forms darted back and forth, most of them gleaming in the sunlight as if armored, and seemingly in pursuit of the two that weren’t. It looked as if every guard in the vicinity had rushed to the scene at once.

She aimed herself towards the ground where a group of guards was holding down one of the assumed perpetrators, intending to slam down nearby them so that she could question the apprehended pony personally. She never got that far however, as suddenly from above her there was a fiery pink and blue shock-wave that threw her off course and nearly into one of the few nearby buildings that were still standing.

The fireboom was not something that she expected, but at the same time she had been fully prepared to be hit with magic, so her loss of control was brief, her misty form swirling about, banking to the side, then solidifying back into her full alicorn self as she swooped low over the ground.

She had only an instant to react as she saw the blur of Firefly, Surprise, and three of the guards tumbling through the air. Her magic shot out, blanketing the cluster of ponies just as it headed towards a large ball of gathered debris, and pulled back hard. She couldn't stop them at that speed without giving them quite a jolt with her magic, by itself enough to knock most any normal pony out, but it certainly beat slamming into the heap of broken stone and wood.

When Luna landed, half the present guards looked as if they might be forming up a defensive rank against her until it was obvious that she wasn't attacking. Glancing at them, she sighed in exasperation, shaking her head before turning to the pile of potentially injured ponies.

Luna looked over the pile of ponies, most of whom were uninjured. The exception was Surprise, though she obviously hadn't been injured from the tumble and subsequent sudden halt, but rather obviously had bludgeon wounds covering much of her torso, as well as at the ends of her forelegs as if she had briefly attempted to block the hooves of her attackers.

Luna turned back towards the guards, jabbing out her hoof to point directly at the closest one, “Thou shalt report to us what has transpired here! Immediately!”

Twilight Sparkle sat in her cell, now released from her former restraints and actually quite free to move around, if you didn’t count that she was still in the same small, barren room as before. Once she had cooperated, she had pretty quickly been able to negotiate better quarters for herself and her friends. Despite still being in custody, they all at least had comfortable straw to sleep on instead of thousand year old mattresses, and decent hay to eat served on clean plates.

In fact, Sparkle would have been okay with the conditions if they weren’t forced upon her and if her friends were not also being held. Their captors weren’t eating food any better than they were feeding the prisoners from what she could tell, nor sleeping in better conditions when they stayed down here, so Twilight had quickly reached the assumption that life on their world was simply harder than it was on Equestria. In fact, she had begun to wonder why they had been kidnapped at all, seeing as how she would have already been done with this had they simply asked her for help.

Needless to say, these were hardly ideal working conditions. She was left alone in a cell with painfully few books, no access to texts from her own library that might have helped, and somehow even studying was unpleasant when it was being forced upon her. It was a pity that she wasn’t being allowed to enjoy it, too, because the books they did give her were utterly fascinating. Some of the more ancient documents appeared to be actual research from when the Elements of Harmony were being theorized, and much of her work was just filling in the blanks between what they had and what she now knew.

Did this world have some sort of connection with Equestria? If so, why had Celestia never mentioned it to her before now? All this was a rather big hole to leave in Twilight’s lessons, yet she still had complete faith that Celestia had a good reason to leave it out. The big question was: If Celestia was leaving something out to protect Twilight, would Twilight regret finding it out?

Twilight glanced behind her at the cell door, tightly locked and glowing magically with the same power that had kept her in chains before. She had thought about escaping, and even though the magic of the cell appeared to prevent her teleportation, she knew that if she put her mind to it she could probably break the locks on this one door. She was less sure, however, of whether or not she could also get all of her friends out as well. If she were pressed for time, could she really make a decision on which friends to save and which to leave? On top of that, she wasn’t even sure where they were keeping Spike, and they weren’t likely to tell her as he was their insurance that she would keep working.

Snapping her out of all her serious thoughts, there was suddenly a commotion from down the hall. There was a scream of horror that made Twilight’s blood run cold. At first she thought it was Rarity, but on the second yell she realized it was actually Sparkler. It was followed rapidly by the clatter of fleeing hoofsteps running past her cell, Twilight catching a glimpse of the panicking unicorn as she galloped past.

“What’s going on?” Twilight leaped up from her seat on the floor, hurrying over to the bars. Had help arrived? Was she about to be freed?

The answer to these questions made Twilight Sparkle facehoof even harder than usual. Shortly behind Sparkler ran Helios, a huge sharp-toothed grin on his face and no less than a dozen water balloons of various colors floating around him. One of them flew forward, rounding a corner into the medical room into which Sparkler had fled. There followed a splash and another scream from the tormented pony.

“What in Celestia’s name are you doing?” Twilight demanded, rattling a hoof on the bars, “How am I supposed to finish this with you loudly pranking and chasing your minions around every half hour?”

True, Twilight would have never said something like that to him before, but the longer she stayed here the harder it became to take the arch-villain seriously, alicorn or no. Despite the frightening visage of his carnivorous looking teeth and his red eyes that were like something out of a horror story, the alicorn’s actual personality seemed to range from polite to, more recently, fits of outright silliness.

“Hey now!” Helios briefly became serious, at least in tone of voice, though the water balloons slowly orbiting him made it hard to pull off, “We don’t use the ‘C-word’ in this house young lady. Anyway…” his face took on a slightly bored expression now, even rolling his eyes, “aren’t you done yet?”

“Like I said,” Twilight responded, “Anyway, I sort of had some questions, and I wonder if you’d be willing to answer a few since… I’ve been working so hard.”

“What?” Helios responded, “Goodness I’ve already agreed to let your pet dragon live and to send you all back to Equestria when you’re done here; what else do you want from me? You know, back in the day captives weren’t nearly so picky.”

Any return to seriousness was further averted when Posey stuck her head around the corner to peek out of the medical room and was immediately nailed in the head with a water balloon as Helios spotted her out of the corner of his eye. She let out an adorable squeal and ducked back inside.

“Well,” Twilight tried to ignore his antics, carefully wording her sentences, “The thing is, these documents look an awful lot like they were written back when the Elements of Harmony were first being studied, complete with pages theorizing which emotions would be weaknesses for Discord and why. Yet… this is another world entirely. Why are these things here, and not in Equestria where Celestia and Luna actually discovered the Elements?”

Helios’s expression became suddenly grave, concentration broken as all his colorful balloons suddenly dropped to the floor and burst about, leaving puddles in the hallway and causing Twilight to shy from the resulting splash outside the bars. His eyes glowed with more intensity and suddenly Twilight felt as if perhaps she should have been more careful about which of his buttons to press.

“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised,” Helios practically gritted his teeth between words, “That Celestia would completely leave Selene and I out of your history lessons and take credit for it all herself. The fact is, the Elements were made here, on this world. You don’t really think that they could have been developed on Equestria while Discord was in charge do you? He would have found out and stopped us before we finished, so we found a way to portal into another world, forming a research colony, the descendants of which lived in Dream Valley and now live here in Undervale.”

“This place,” Twilight glanced about, “Are you telling me that your ponies are originally from Equestria… and that this colony was just a research base so that you could develop a weapon without Discord realizing in time?”

“JUST a research base?” Helios’s mood wasn’t helped by Twilight’s words, one of his eyebrows arching, “Just a research base that saved your world and paved the way for a kingdom in Equestria based on Order rather than Chaos. What we couldn’t have predicted was Celestia’s intention to rule Equestria on her own and to back-stab all her siblings, killing or banishing them all one way or another, even erasing several of them from history to hide her crimes.”

“That doesn’t sound like…” Twilight instinctively started to defend her mentor, but cut herself short as she saw his glare intensify.

“Such blind obedience,” Helios sneered, “and without even being conditioned.”

“Lord Helios!” their conversation was broken again by a call from the teleport room, the voice of Twilight Wish, “I have the package!” The two had been in such deep eye contact that neither had heard the loud noise of the teleport platform activating.

“The package!” Helios’s expression suddenly went back from angry to his previous merry expression, “Back to your studies, little Twilight. The sooner you are out of here, the better for me.”

Twilight Wish appeared in the teleportation chamber back on her world, looking completely exhausted. Carrying Celestia and the machine along with her all the way from what was left of Ponyville’s town square to the teleport chamber on Equestria was no easy task; even more so when she realized that she had missed the mark slightly and still had to use her telekinesis to drag Celestia’s limp body up onto the platform to be sent to her own world.

Yet somehow, this wasn’t the most difficult part. Her mind was filled with a vision of Firefly and Surprise’s faces as she had left them behind to fend for themselves. Why was that bothering her so much? This was all for the good of the many, after all, and she wasn’t able to carry any other ponies along with her.

No amount of excuses she was making at herself was lessening the mental weight, however. She had left two comrades alone, possibly to die, something she would have never dreamed of doing a month ago.

As she stumbled off of the platform in the base on her world, the first thing she saw was her world's Applejack cowering in a corner of the teleportation chamber, head ducked down as if hiding from something.

“Applejack?” Wish peered slightly at her, panting, “What’s wrong? Look! I brought her back so Helios…”

“Shhhh!” Applejack waved to her, then spoke in a quiet voice, “That’s great, it really is, but I’m sort of hiding from Him right now.”

“Hiding from Lord Helios?” Wish took the hint and quieted down, but had a questioning expression on her face. She glanced down the hall, seeing Helios standing just outside of Sparkle’s cell with a serious expression on his face and, for some reason, water all around his hooves, “Why would you be…”

“I think he might have licked the Laughter crystal or somethin’,” Applejack replied, “Because he’s been chasing us with water balloons and streamers and some kind of party launcher ever since you three left… wait, where are Firefly and Surprise?”

“They’ll be back in a bit,” Wish found herself lying with amazing ease, surprised at her own instinct to hide what she had done as if ashamed, “Anyway, he doesn’t look very silly right now; maybe it wore off.”

With that, Wish took a few unsteady steps towards the hallway and shouted out, “Lord Helios! I have the package!”

“The package!” Helios called back, looking suddenly much happier. After giving a few final words to Sparkle, he trotted up the hall to Wish’s location, “Good, good. Now I’m going to go ahead and teleport us over to my new chamber so we can… where are Surprise and Firefly?”

Twilight Wish found it far harder to lie to her Lord, “I… I… Well the guards were surrounding us, and I was afraid if I took them too then I wouldn’t be able to carry uh… the package, too. So I left them. They’ll be okay, I’m sure?” She obviously didn’t sound certain.

Helios’s glare bore down on her now, his form towering over her, and Wish found her legs completely buckling and actually collapsing beneath her as her mind filled with a sudden flashback to her conditioning.

“Applejack,” Helios’s glance shifted to the earth pony, who immediately cowered back into her corner, eyes wide, “Get Sparkler and Posey ready for a fight. And not a word of the package to the prisoners.”

This was all the explanation that he gave Applejack. His horn glowed with a deep purple aura, which spread out to encompass himself, Twilight Wish, and Celestia’s unconscious form, and all three vanished in a pop of energy.

At first Twilight Wish expected to be taken to the other end of the hall into Helios’s chamber, simply thinking this was his way of getting Celestia past the prisoners without them realizing that their ruler had been captured. Where she found herself, however, was far into the city, past the Temple of the Sun or even the ruins themselves.

It was a large chamber, newly built, though mostly consisting of old bricks carried in from the ruins, probably one hundred feet in diameter and twenty feet from floor to ceiling with six large columns, each perhaps ten feet in diameter, holding up the domed ceiling in the middle. Though it lacked any of the usual carvings or stained glass of a typical temple, obviously a rush job to say the least, the very energy of the chamber gave it a sacred feel.

The binding area that had once held Helios, ripped from its former location in the original ruins, was now set up in the center of the room, simpler controls for it having been constructed against one of the six support columns. Here, Celestia was placed with a dull thud against the holding altar, still connected to the power-draining machine for now. Surrounding the holding altar were now six protrusions that looked like torch stands, one in the space between each column. Each one had a fitting at the top instead of a torch, and it was into one of these fittings that Helios dropped a glowing pink crystal, fitting it snugly inside.

Twilight knew this place, though she hadn’t been here very often. The ponies in Undervale had been tirelessly building it for Helios over the past month, and it was quite impressive how it had come out. It was a testament to the loyalty of his subjects, even the many citizens that weren’t conditioned to obey his every word.

“Twilight Wish,” Helios’s voice echoed through the chamber, barely lit with torches that lined the far walls, as well as the soft glow of the contraption in the middle, “How long ago did you leave Surprise and Firefly?” His voice was still upset, but also had a strange sadness to it.

Twilight Wish found herself standing next to the altar where Celestia now lay, looking up at her very unhappy looking master. She answered quickly, not daring to keep him waiting, “A-at least an hour ago. I’m sorry, but it took some time to get Celestia up onto the teleport device and I had to be careful with the machine and-”

“You left them,” Helios cut her off, “Instead of say… leaving Celestia temporarily in the chamber on the other side and rushing back to get help, or perhaps teleporting right back to grab them in a second load? Twilight… You’ve disappointed me again. Still, I suppose it is my own fault…”

Wish was shaking violently, but her shivers slowly began to ebb when she realized that her master’s expression had become quite depressed. She wasn’t rightly sure how to respond to this, so she just bowed her head low, “I take full responsibility… I will go get them immediately.”

“No,” Helios cut her off again, “It’s my fault; you’re not of your right mind at the moment.” Helios moved a hoof slowly to her chin, gently moving her head to look back up at him, “Twilight. I am so sorry for having done this to you, and swear that once this is over I will release you all. None of you will be held accountable for your deeds, and I will accept whatever punishment you wish to levy against me. For now, however…”

“I am going to go get Surprise and Firefly before they are tortured, or killed,” Helios continued, “It shouldn’t take long now that there is no alicorn there to protect them; I won’t even have to hurt anypony most likely. As for you, I need you and the other three to be ready when Pinkie Pie and her friends appear out of the time vortex, which is going to be less than an hour from now. Should they arrive before I return, you will need to hold them off until I get back. I think by the time this is done, Twilight Sparkle will be finished with what we need to extract the other Elements.”

Helios didn’t give Twilight Wish time to answer, his horn glowing and the dark aura surrounding her before she disappeared in a flash, sent back to their base of operations.

“Brother…” a quiet voice broke Helios’s long stare at the place where Wish had just stood. Celestia had finally managed to gather enough strength to speak to him, “You are making a terrible mistake… please listen to me… there's an easier way...”

“Sister…” Helios turned to her, his expression full of hatred, “My only mistake was allowing you to take Selene away from me, a mistake I will rectify at the cost of your life.”

“We can’t change the past, Brother…” Celestia’s weak eyes moved slowly to focus on the darker alicorn’s face, “Not a day has passed that I did not regret those events, too ashamed to even acknowledge them. But while we can’t erase the past, we could still make a wonderful future together… we don’t have to fight. Please listen to me and this can be easier for both of us…”

“NO!” Helios’ enraged voice echoed through the chamber, “I WILL change time!”

“Change time?” Celestia’s eyes widened, “No brother, you can’t be thinking of-!”

Helios’ horn glowed, Celestia’s mouth suddenly held tightly shut. The rattle of chains was heard as they were pulled out from the floor below and ceiling above Celestia. The controls on the nearby column came to life, and Helios’ eyes glowed with anger.

“Now let’s get you suited up, Sister.”

Chapter 11: When Deities Clash

The square in Ponyville was finally at peace, although that was in part due to there being very little left to destroy. The area around the crater had been roped off for several blocks, a number of royal guards still patrolling the area, every one of them on high alert.

Near the edge of the disaster area stood a rather proud-looking, white unicorn stallion, his mane and tail primped and proper, using his magic to float several documents in front of his face. Staring at the papers, he seemed to be quite uncertain about the purpose he was supposed to be serving. Still, someone had to come and oversee things, and the Princesses were... busy.

“Your… your Highness?” a tired voice behind the royal unicorn caught his attention, his golden mane swaying gracefully as he turned about.

“Yes, what is it? Oh. It’s you,” he struck a pose almost habitually, blue eyes and even the golden and gray compass rose on his flank seeming to glow in the late day sun.

“Um, yes, it’s me,” Missus Cake awkwardly replied, giving a bow before continuing, “I was just wondering, Prince Blueblood, if there was anything else you needed me to do. I told the guards about what happened before for their report and… well, I was wondering if it was true that they caught the pegasus pony who attacked me.”

“Yes, yes something like that,” Blueblood turned to look at the documents again, practically ignoring her for a few more moments before moving one hoof upward as if to shoo her away, “That is all we need, loyal subject. You may go and rest. I have an important meeting with the Mayor with regard to how best to fund the restoration of the town square. Apparently, she wishes to have a train track laid down while there is an opportunity to do so.”

“Oh,” Missus Cake definitely had more questions, but quickly realized that this royal wasn’t exactly one for answering them, and so gave another, somewhat annoyed bow before heading off back to her shop for some much-needed rest as the prince had suggested. She found herself wondering why Celestia would have actually named someone so prim and proper to be in charge of disastrous situations such as this one.

As soon as she was gone, Prince Blueblood lowered his papers into a neat little stack and sighed, his horn glowing as they ‘poof’ed away. His form seemed to visibly slump with exhaustion as he murmured to himself in a rather less grand voice than before, “By Faust if I have to keep this up for one more minute I’m going to explode.”

As quickly as he had slumped over however, there was a flicker of static in the air that made the hair of his mane and tail stand on end. Blueblood’s eyes shifted from one end of the now empty street to another, then quickly leaped out of the way as if avoiding some invisible enemy.

Sure enough, no sooner than he had removed himself from his previous location, the form of a large, dark alicorn appeared in a flash of purple and black magical energy, Helios now standing where Blueblood had been not a moment ago. The alicorn towered over the prince, who felt the shadow fall on him with an almost palpable weight as his own eyes looked up to meet the glowing red orbs in Helios’s head.

“Right then!” Helios looked around, eyes immediately falling upon Blueblood, and correctly thinking that he looked like he might be in charge. A large and intimidating hoof was pointed at the unicorn’s face, inches from his nose, “Two pegasi were taken into custody here; where did they go? It’s important for uhhh… stuff. Like national security stuff. You know.” The hoof moved to wave in the air dismissively, as if the alicorn hadn’t really thought out this speech very well while on the way here.

“Oh it’s you,” Prince Blueblood didn’t even bother shifting his manner again, actually smirking at Helios upon his appearance, “You know you almost tele-fragged me just now; you should concentrate more on your destination before materializing.”

This response, as well as its complete lack of intimidation, caught Helios by surprise, and the alicorn put down the one hoof and looked at Blueblood with one eyebrow raised in confusion. For a moment there was silence.

“Sorry about that. Have we met?” Helios finally decided that he may as well try to be nice, since it appeared this one was too brave or stupid to be intimidated. “So, I still need to know where they went. As you can see, I’m an alicorn, which you ponies currently lack, so perhaps I can help.”

“We haven’t really met, no, but I’m sure you can help,” Prince Blueblood’s statement sounded surprisingly dismissive, choosing not to mention Luna’s continued presence. Aside from that however, he was quite forthcoming, “There, in Canterlot; you can see it from a mile away, literally.” His own hoof pointed up towards the side of the mountain where Canterlot was visible in the distance, “They’ve been taken in for questioning, and I imagine they will be in the cathedral by the time you arrive.”

Helios stared at the prince for a few more moments, still taken somewhat off guard. For a moment he almost wondered if this unicorn could be telling the truth, he gave it so easily. Of course, in Helios’ present mind, the conclusion he eventually came to was that this world was going to be a lot easier to conquer than he had initially believed. Grinning to himself, the alicorn disappeared in another flash of energy.

“Prince Blueblood!” another voice from behind the Prince startled him one again. It was one of the royal guards still stationed around the area.

The Prince immediately took up his former poise once more, turning about and giving the guard a smirk that couldn’t have been more full of itself, “Yes. Yes. What do you need now?”

“Prince Blueblood,” the guard let out a sigh of relief, “I must ask that you not separate yourself from us again, these are dangerous times for royalty… Was anypony else just here?”

“Nopony aside from my royal self.”

Firefly was the first to wake up in their new environment, her eyes batting awake slowly as she tried to regain her senses. Her eyes looked upwards at a high, vaulted ceiling dotted with red and pink tiles, as well as the huge, white arches supporting it, each arch supported in turn by pristine marble columns. On one side of the two sprawled pegasi, at the inner end of the structure, there was a large door with six blue orbs and a key slot in the middle that looked different from most, in that it was a perfectly round hole rather than the typical keyhole shape.

Light was trickling across the cathedral-like hallway, through stained glass windows depicting scenes that she could only assume were taken from history or myth. Many featured some sort of dragon-like chimera that she was unfamiliar with, as well as a sun and moon alicorn that she could only assume were the two sisters of which she had heard Lord Helios speak. The few images she found familiar were the ones that featured six ponies that closely resembled those that they had taken as enemies. In these windows they were depicted as champions - she supposed even tyrants had their national heroes.

She tried to get up, only to realize that she was tightly bound with glowing, black chains. They weren’t particularly heavy or even uncomfortable, but were obviously enchanted in some way to keep the ponies in them from moving. She felt Surprise next to her, who had also started to stir. The other pegasus’ body was covered with bruises, but they appeared to have been treated well enough to not be an immediate concern.

As Surprise awoke and began to struggle just as Firefly had, both pegasi raised their eyes to look upon their guards. The two pegasi stallions guarding the prisoners looked almost as if they might be twins, both dark gray fur and adorned in purple armor, plates lined down their backs from nose all the way to tail with decorative saddles covering their sides. A chest piece of darker purple was adorned with a single gem that looked like a reptilian eye.

The most disturbing thing for the prisoners was that these pegasi appeared to be not entirely equine. Their wings, which matched their chest pieces in color, were clearly those of a bat rather than the feathered wings of more normal pegasi. Their manes and tails were the same color and looked more like reptilian frill than actual mane-fur. As the two stared down at the prisoners with gleaming, dark yellow eyes, grim smiles sat upon their otherwise hate-filled faces.

“There you are,” one of them spoke, “The Princess of the Night will be here shortly. She wants to ask you some questions personally.”

“Please refuse to answer,” the second one added with a smirk, “It would greatly please us if we were ordered to encourage you.”

“Y-you don’t scare us!” Firefly claimed, even as fear rattled through her voice, “We won’t give in and you’ll be sorry when Prince Helios gets here!”

“I gotta admit,” Surprise added in a more cheery tone, “This IS pretty surprising!”

“And who might this ‘Prince Helios’-” one of the guards started to ask, but suddenly seemed to cut himself off.

For a moment, the prisoners both wondered why their guards had become so silent, the eyes of each night pegasus darting around the room, even while their bodies seemed paralyzed. Soon enough however, they realized that a dark aura had encompassed the bodies of their guards, having clasp their muzzles tightly shut, and now lifted them slowly off the floor. Their forms slowly turned forcefully in mid-air to face the opposite entrance, where another larger figure entered.

“That would be me,” the voice of Helios rang out from the opposite end of the hallway as he calmly strolled through the tall double doors, “You know, the guards inside this castle are complete pansies. The ones outside put up a decent fight though.”

Helios casually tossed the two night pegasi towards the entrance as he arrived to stand over Surprise and Firefly. The two guards slammed into the floor, rolling head over hoof several times before they managed to bring themselves about, landing on all four hooves and looking prepared to charge back.

Somehow however, the fact that Helios was now so blithely ignoring them without a single worry made them think twice. When they watched the alicorn rather effortlessly cause the magical chains holding the prisoners to release with a simple wave of his head, they knew for certain that they were not dealing with any normal enemy.

“Get the Princess!” one of them firmly instructed the other, “I’ll do my best to hold him off!”

The other guard nodded grimly, rushing out the exit and taking flight even while inside to hurry. The first one braced himself and walking forward slowly towards Helios from behind.

“Yay, hey you’re even better at surprises than I am!” Surprise had a huge grin on her face as she picked herself up, even as her injuries made her stagger.

“Prince!” Firefly staggered to her hooves, “I knew you’d save us! Time to bust some heads!” Her eyes went towards the guard that was approaching from behind.

Helios chuckled almost like a parent amused by a silly child, “Right, about that. I’m actually going out of my way not to actually bust any heads. You two on the other hand, can enjoy some head busting while I’m talking to these guys. I’m sure the other one will be back soon too, once he realizes that his Princess is in another castle.”

“On the contrary, sir,” the remaining night pegasus responded, somehow feeling that he should speak officially to even an enemy alicorn, “Princess Luna was already nearby, and will be here in mere moments.”

“Right, right, but what you don’t realize is—wait, what?” Helios suddenly paused, turning himself around to face the remaining guard once again, one eyebrow raised in his trademark ‘what the hay’ expression, “Don’t be stupid. Princess Luna was the first on Celestia’s ‘I’m banishing everypony in sight’ list.”

As if in reply, clouds began to gather outside, the evening light that had been streaming in through the windows suddenly darkening, and crackles of thunder rippling through the structure as if lightning were striking the building itself. Helios grew quiet, his expression grave; not quite so confident as before.

“Firefly and Surprise, I’m sending you back now,” he stated simply.

“But Master we can-“ Firefly began, but her mouth was quickly sealed with Helios’ telekinesis, as was Surprise’s pre-emptively.

“No,” Helios stated plainly, “I can only fight if I don’t have to worry about protecting you. You’ll have enough fun where you’re going, don’t worry.”

With that, Helios’ horn glowed and his two minions vanished from sight in a flash of teleportation magic, sent out of harm’s way, possibly to a somewhat less dangerous situation. The guard, now far more confident in seeing Helios’ reaction to the impending arrival of Princess Luna, took another step forward, only for his own body to suddenly blink away in a flash of purple energy. Apparently Helios was not the only one that didn’t want their minions getting underhoof.

“Brother,” Luna’s voice echoed through the chamber as she entered, stepping into the cathedral amid a flash of lightning, electrical energy seeming to shiver through the floor as she gathered her power, “Why hast thou arrived after so long a time, and to attack us without provocation?”

“Without provocation?” Helios almost laughed, “Oh, but I should have known that she was lying about you turning against her. You’ve been in league with her silly little plan all along, haven’t you?”

“How dare you accuse our sister of wrongdoing!” Luna shot back, her voice booming through the cathedral to the extent that the windows rattled noticeably. Her being accused of evil would have likely rolled off her back, but Celestia being so accused was for her a reason to rage, “Our sister art the most innocent amongst us all!” She took a deep breath, moving her hooves as if bracing herself for an attack at any moment, “Why hast thou invaded? Doth our sister Selene know of this? Hath she accompanied you?”

Helios just stared at Luna’s last question, one eye twitching in rage, the other quirked in confusion as the two emotions fought each other within him, “You DARE speak her name after you and Celestia MURDERED her?”

Luna’s eyes grew wide, clearly having been unaware of that particular detail. Such was the shock that her next words were spoken in an almost frightened voice rather than the booming of a moment ago, “W-what dost thou-?”

“Don’t play stupid!” Helios shot back, “Celestia lured her here under the pretense of defeating you, then brought back a lie that she had been killed during the battle! And now I have all the confirmation of that lie that I need!”

“Killed… while…” Luna’s face was shocked, eyes staring into space as if not even seeing Helios for a moment, “We… we…” It was no wonder that Celestia had not told her the full story; she had probably not had the heart to further burden Luna with such knowledge. For a brief moment, Luna seemed to falter in her stance, unsure of what to do.

The sight of Luna looking so stunned only served to make Helios more angry, flames literally lapping around his hooves, mane and tail letting off waves of heat that shimmered through the air, “Stop with this ruse! I refuse to be a pushover for you and Celestia any longer!”

“Brother,” Luna’s voice regained some of its strength as she spoke again, “None of this is our sister Celestia’s fault. If thou returns her and takes us instead, we shall overlook thy actions. If our offer is refused, then we hath no choice but to retrieve her by force.”

The only answer Luna received was a scream of rage as Helios completely lost any semblance of self-control, his form surging forward as a jet of flame formed around him. The shockwave of his launch cracked the marble floor beneath him and sent slivers of damage up through the windows on either side of him. Luna was quick to respond of course, a wall of black energy surging up in front of her, slowing his movement as he flew through it, then raising her hooves to slam against his head.

The force of the impact was still harder on her than it was on him, sending her sliding back to the hall’s entryway, hind-hooves grinding against the tiles and digging a gash into the floor in the process. Her magic strained forward, trying to send Helios back again, lightning dancing about her as she attempted to deaden his flames. Each alicorn gave another mental shove, bursts of energy slamming into one another, the percussion sending a ripple through the cathedral and causing not only windows to outright shatter, but cracks to appear in the support beams on either side of the structure.

The night mare let out a scream of effort in response, directing a surge of dark energy to flank beneath Helios and nail him in the gut, sending him flying upwards then over her head from his own inertia as he still tried to surge against her. Helios slammed into the frame of the building just above the door, the energy of his misplaced attack shattering it and causing their end of the cathedral to sag dangerously.

Ready for him to double back to strike again, Luna teleported herself back towards the other end of the room, facing the entrance from which she expected him to come back. Instead, however, she felt a burst of energy from behind her as he instead teleported there, quickly followed by a sharp pain in her back as he bore his energy down upon her, causing her legs to give slightly before she managed to teleport beyond his reach.

No sooner did Luna appear ready to bear down on Helios in turn, than he had disappeared once again. The two powerhouses followed this pattern for several more moments, forms flashing about as each attempted to out-teleport the other, more and more attacks shaking through the walls of the building.

Suddenly, Luna found herself standing in the middle of the ruined hall, nearly all the beautiful windows shattered, but no sign of Helios. She stood still, breathing heavily, her emotions reaching out to try to sense where her brother was. It had been a long time since she had felt his energy, but it was quickly coming back given how she had been slammed by it several times.

Of course, Helios had one significant advantage. He was channeling anger at Luna and was fully willing to cause her serious harm. Luna, on the other hand, was also channeling anger at herself, and although unlike Celestia she would not pull punches, she was still aiming to overcome rather than destroy him.

“Thou art insane!” Luna’s eyes grew wide as she sensed his next attack in the nick of time, a well of energy felt forming within her own body.

Luna quickly dissolved herself into starry mist once again, Helios appearing right where she had been in an apparent attempt to teleport inside of her. The mist swirled about him nebulously, then imploded inward, Helios suddenly finding himself coated with searing shards of Luna’s energy as they crushed in upon him.

Helios’ mane and tail flamed upwards, surrounding himself with flames, but finally resorting to allowing his own form to spread outward, gushing out from between the cracks in Luna’s mist to reform across the hall from her, his knees buckling slightly at his sister’s unexpected maneuver. It seemed to have taken a lot out of him, being far less practiced at mist techniques than his sister.

No sooner did he reform than his sister coalesced in front of him, slamming into him again before he could prepare. Helios barely managed a partial defense with his own energy, still getting smashed through one of the very few remaining windows. Together, the two alicorns fell into the embankment below the cathedral as the hallway completely collapsed behind them. They rolled into the gardens below, nearly smashing through several of the many statues in the process.

For a time, the two deities resorted to somewhat lesser forms of attack, no doubt getting tired of all the teleporting and mist-forming. Luna’s forehoof slammed into Helios’ face, quickly followed by his hind hooves bucking her in the belly and sending her flying over his head. No sooner had he risen to his feet than Luna was in his face again, leaping upwards and bearing down on him with another hoof to the top of his head.

The two crashed together again and again, hooves flying, heads butting, each impact letting loose a burst of angry energy, the sound rippling through the gardens. The environment around them seemed to be slowly shredding apart from the mere proximity of their battle. So into their combat were they, neither noticed the clip clop of smaller hooves rushing towards them.

“SSTOOOOOP!” an elderly sounding voice temporarily snapped them from their concentration on one another, “Are you both MAD?”

So startled were they that both of the alicorns obeyed the suddenly yelled command, each stunned that somepony would walk up to them while they were locked in combat, let alone give them orders. Luna looked over towards the voice, Helios atop her, each of their hooves mere inches from slamming into each other’s faces again.

Not more than a few feet away, a brown furred, elderly earth pony with gray mane and tail, as well as a long gray goatee, stared at them with angry blue eyes. Whoever he was, he looked completely livid.

“Hayseed!” Luna recognized him, her voice booming once again, slightly peeved herself that he would put himself in danger by walking up to them, “Why hast thou stopped the Princess of the Night as we defend our palace grounds?”

“Mad? Mad? I’m FURIOUS!” Helios started, but then paused, arching an eyebrow, “Wait, did we just get scolded by a gardener? I love this guy! You didn’t want to switch sides did you?”

Hayseed sounded unusually brave, even in the face of his own angry Princess, “I’m sure the Princess of the Night knows how to read!”

With that, Hayseed’s hoof rose up, pointing to the other side of the pair. Both of the alicorns swayed their eyes over to the target of his pointing, a sign which stated simply ‘No fighting near the statue’. Their eyes rose up slowly, and each alicorn felt their whole body freeze as they looked upon the stoned form of Discord, having been propped up here in the garden exactly where he had been after his re-petrification. A slow, ever-so-slight pulse was visible, resounding through the statue.

Both alicorns were on all four hooves in an instant, almost as if they had shot right through each other to stand up. For a long moment, the two stood there quietly, eyes wide and locked onto the statue as a second, somewhat less noticeable pulse shivered through it.

As calmly as he could possibly manage, Helios finally voiced a few words, “You…you propped him up… in your garden? Really?” He gave Luna a look of utter confusion.

“Be still, for it was our sister’s idea,” Luna responded, her voice much quieter than usual, despite a faintly defensive tone.

“Right. I shouldn’t have had to ask,” Helios replied, trying very hard not to show any irritation, “So what do we do now?”

Both eyes were still locked onto the statue of their ancient foe, watching as another beat ran through the stone chimera’s form.

“We are uncertain,” Luna admitted, her gaze unmoving.

“All right you two,” Hayseed interjected, “Go on now, hug and make up.”

Helios and Luna simultaneously gave a flat “What.” in response to Hayseed’s suggestion, but then each slowly nodded in turn. Slowly the two moved together again, raising up their forehooves and hugging around each other’s necks. Luna actually smiled a bit, and so did Helios, though his smile looked more like he was having an allergic reaction than as if he were happy.

“I’m… sorry for attacking you and your… castle thing, dear sister,” Helios stated in a less-than-convincing tone.

“And we,” Luna was clearly putting very real emotion into her own words, “Art sorry for the pain and suffering we caused as Nightmare Moon, and as our royal self. We shalt never forgive ourselves for the demise of our dear sister, and shall not ask that thou forgive or forget our crime.”

“Come on now, lad,” Hayseed huffed, “Your apology didn’t sound very sincere, so ya gotta do it over.”

“Um,” Helios was very unused to elderly ponies bossing him around, and certainly not used to being referred to as ‘lad’. He took a deep breath, and tried again, “I should have talked to you first, this fighting is not going to get us anywhere. Uh. Dear sister. And I’ll uh. I’ll fix that stuff I broke; we’ll just call it a renovation.” He shifted his eyes about, trying to think of something else nice to say, then added, "Nice bat guards, by the way; ‘wish I had those instead of flutter ponies, honestly."

Both alicorn’s shifted their eyes towards the statue again as they hugged, both forms seeming to shrink slightly in sheer intimidation as they looked up at Discord’s form. Hayseed appeared to feel better at least, and he took a few more steps forward to prop himself up and give both of the alicorns a brief hug as well.

“There ya go; now didn’t that feel better?” Hayseed nodded as he pulled back away, “Now you two head on out and find tha other Princess; ya kin all three have a nice chat tagether.”

The two alicorns ignored that command for a while however, instead staring at Discord’s statue for several more minutes to ensure that it had settled down once more. Both let out a deep breath, very slowly moving away from their hug, both acting as if they were ready to cling together should the statue pulse again.

“Right, so uh,” Helios’ eyes shifted again, his wings flexing outward, “We’ll just be going somewhere else now."

In the midst of the Everfree Forest, deep underground, lay the portal into the other world of ponies that had stayed hidden for so long, yet been so very active as of late. Many levels above the portal, the entrance of the ruins was covered in foliage, barely visible beneath the vines and flowers growing around it.

It was at this entrance that four ponies stood. Twilight Wish stood in front, her body shaking with either nervousness or excitement, eyes wide as she strained to keep her awareness under the emotional strain of what she had been through over the past few days. Behind and to the right of her stood her world’s Applejack, chewing down an apple casually as she waited and sat comfortably in the grass. The second unicorn, Sparkler, stood behind and to Twilight’s left, her eyes fixed on the same area as Wish’s. Directly behind Twilight, Posey stood, shaking hard and knees nearly buckling.

In front of Twilight, a pocket watch hovered in mid-air, the energy of her telekinesis surrounding it. Wish’s eyes shifted from the watch to the clearing again, then finally she spoke as she dropped it, certainty in her voice, “Places everyone. According to Prince Helios, the rift opens less than five minutes from now.”

Applejack huffed, but all the same moved up the side of a hill that bordered the clearing in which the heroes were expected to appear. There was a log trap constructed there, a simple stake in the ground that could be kicked out of the way to cause the stack of logs to come rolling into the clearing.

Sparkler went up to another hill, this one directly behind the entrance to the ruins, sitting her plot down on a place that she had cleared and made sure wasn’t too particularly dirty. Beside her was a pile of shiny looking stones, on her other side Pinkie’s cupcake cannon that Helios had previously confiscated and then given to them. She loaded one of the rocks into it using her own telekinesis, gingerly holding the garish weapon on one side.

Posey looked the most reluctant, but all the same moved around to the opposite side of the clearing from where Twilight was, unfolding a net and looking as if she was preparing to throw it. She took a deep breath, seemingly to try to prepare herself, her eyes looking as if she might run as soon as things began.

As for Twilight, she kicked open a nearby box with her hind hoof. Her horn glowed as half a dozen menacing-looking knives floated up out of the box, forming a circle around her, pointing them all towards the clearing and clearly preparing to take aim.

“Um,” Posey voiced out softly, quickly realizing that she had gotten the short end of the stick in this plan, “I don’t mean to be rude, but should my position really be directly opposite those knives that you’re about to throw, Twilight?”

“Oh quit complaining,” Twilight glared at Posey, shutting the rather more timid pony up, “Okay everypony, when I give the word…”

Then, as all eyes pointed inward, there was a flash of light, a glowing blue vortex suddenly expanding outward from the center of the clearing. It was exactly when Helios had said they’d arrive, and he would certainly know given it was he who had sent them to this time and place to begin with. Six figures fell from the portal, five of them landing neatly on their feet and a sixth flopping limp onto the ground beside them.

“Now!”

Chapter 12: The Return

“In the garden,” Helios repeated, still aghast, as he flew aside his sister through the skies of Equestria towards the Everfree Forest , “You propped up his statue… in the garden. Oh. And he’s in a different pose to when we defeated him, so I’m guessing he’s escaped at least once since being here. You’re telling me even after that you just… left him in the garden?”

Evening had come, Helios having even stopped briefly to let Luna raise her moon, but the conversation was not going nearly so well as Luna had hoped. Helios’ frame of mind seemed random, continually back-tracking or going off on tangents, and generally refusing to believe anything that Luna told him.

“We hath already been over this,” Luna’s voice boomed back at him, having nearly forgotten her former agitation thanks to the amount of talking Helios had been doing.

“Well the FIRST thing I’m doing when I’m in charge is putting that thing somewhere safer,” Helios huffed.

“Thou shalt NOT be ‘in charge’ my brother,” Luna responded, giving him an eye as she grew increasingly testy once again. She habitually glanced at him from time to time, expecting her estranged brother to charge back into her again at any moment.

“Oh please,” Helios rolled his eyes, “You can't stop me; you don’t even know how I got back to this world. By the way, I’d say we were at least a good few miles from Discord now, right? Soooo… think fast!”

And with that, he validated Luna’s paranoia, the night mare dodging by mere inches the blast of energy Helios suddenly hurled her way, which sailed some five hundred feet through the air before exploding in a brilliant display of fire. A second blast followed, aimed at where Luna ended up after her dodge, this one significantly more powerful, as if its precursor had been a mere feint.

“STOP THIS!” Luna cried out, managing to deflect the attack by throwing out her own energy against it, causing the blast to curve around before directing it back towards Helios, “And we know fair well from whence thou comes!”

The ball of energy came to a stop between them as each alicorn shoved more and more energy into trying to force it closer to the other. It swirled with a mix of flames and dark energy, whipping at the surrounding air and lighting the forest around them with an intense glow.

“Don’t be stupid,” Helios grinned back at her, clearly taking Luna’s words as yet another ruse, his teeth beginning to grit as he strained to hold the energy back himself, now.

“Not so! For our scholars hath traced the residue of your unicorn minion’s teleportation spell before it faded, and from thence divined her destination,” Luna responded as she strained in kind, her eyes growing slightly wider at how the ball between them was growing, “We delayed only to question the prisoners, but shalt tarry no further.”

“What.” Helios stated flatly, surprise allowing the reverse tug-of-war to slip a little into Luna’s favor before he rallied himself, “All right, I have to admit that’s a bit clever. You know what, Luna? I think I might believe you marginally more than I did before; perhaps you really are trying to protect your ponies, but you’re still fighting for HER and that makes you an enemy.”

Helios darted his eyes back and forth a few times, then suddenly grinned widely, shifting the ball of energy just slightly to the side and then actually pulling it instead of continuing to try to drive it backwards against Luna. The result was that the ball of death shot off at tremendous speed, angled downward at the forest floor. More importantly, towards a small shack in a clearing that from the lights that were on inside looked to be inhabited.

“Yeah, yeah I know,” Helios conceded as he watched the crackling sphere arc down upon the hut and its unsuspecting resident, “That was a bit stereotypically villainous of me, but I have faith that you’ll take the time to save whoever lives down there instead of chasing after me, dear sister.” And with those words, Helios was gone in another flash of energy.

Luna’s eyes grew all the wider as she realized what her brother had done. She had no time to realign her defense, nor time to push the ball of energy off course. There was only one thing she could do in the limited amount of time that he had given her, a fact of which Helios was certainly aware. Selflessly, the alicorn teleported herself directly into the path of the attack, spreading her wings and sending all the power she had into the ball to slow down its descent, spreading a shield over the hermit’s meager home in the process.

The energy struck with an explosive force that shook the forest around her, Luna’s enchanted armor literally disintegrating as it tried to shield her from the waves of magical energy surging against her. Nearby trees were flattened against the ground, gouts of flame and dark energy shooting outwards as she deflected them. Just as Helios had suspected she would, Luna easily shielded the home from any serious damage, but the strain to herself was something else entirely. As the energy finally dissipated, Luna felt herself growing dizzy, collapsing to the ground.

Of all the things they expected to encounter upon arrival, an immediate attack from the minions of the one who just set them free was probably the last. Apparently, plans had changed during the weeks between when Helios had sent them and the time of their arrival. In Helios’ mind at least, they had gone from being bystanders to a direct threat; a threat that had to be dealt with immediately. That was the bad news.

The good news? When the heroes arrived, Helios had left on his way to find Firefly and Surprise, so would be bit too busy to help his minions slaughter them personally.

The six figures had just appeared out of the swirling blue time vortex, all but Pinkie Pie landing on all fours rather neatly. Pinkie Pie, on the other hand, fell rather heavily to the ground, already limp, and a rather less vibrant pink than usual.

“Huh,” Gilda was the first to notice that Pinkie had collapsed, leaning down and making a brief attempt to stand her up. “Hey I think Pinkie bit it during transit guys, she’s not breathing.”

“What?” the others stated in near-unison, which of course completely distracted them from the fact that they were surrounded by enemies that were about to attack.

“Quick Gilda, give her muzzle to muzzle!” Ditzy hovered slightly higher into the air, trying to look over Gilda’s shoulder.

“I don’t think that will work with my beak Ditz’,” Gilda replied, watching Pinkie flop back down onto the ground when released, slumping, eyes rolled back and tongue lolling out.

Trixie reared up, hooves over her head. “Watch in AWE as the Great and Powerful Tri-“

“Please do not hit my sister with lightning, Trixie,” Inkie instructed as she shoved the other pony aside, sending her skidding a few feet across the ground. Then, still calm as ever though her face was one of grave concern, she added pre-emptively, “And Blinkie, please do not involve explosives, either.”

“I totally wasn’t going to!” Blinkie shot back, but all the same leaned down over her sister.

Blinkie and Inkie both kneeled down to Pinkie Pie, rolling their sister over to her back, and carefully began to try resuscitating her as best they knew how, Inkie breathing for her as Blinkie very carefully performed chest compressions. So distracted were they with concern for their sister, that neither noticed the telekinetically propelled knives that whizzed over their heads just as they had leaned down.

Ditzy was the first one to notice something amiss, catching one of the two knives in both hooves no less, and rolling herself about midair from the force of doing so. She was looking over it curiously as if wondering where it came from when much to her surprise the knife glowed again, trying to lunge at her face as she held it back with both forehooves.

“Hey everypony, I think we’re being attacked by floaty knives!” Ditzy helpfully announced to her team members.

Trixie eyed Ditzy’s knife, her own horn glowing as she took ahold of the other thrown blade before it hit somepony else, “Trixie agrees with the Wall-Eyed One. Something is not right.”

“I said NOW!” a shout came from one side of the clearing as Twilight Wish quickly became impatient with her own comrades' inability to follow a cue. With that, a half dozen more knives soared towards the group, pointy ends brandished threateningly towards them and clearly not joking around.

“I’m getting to it, be patient,” called down Sparkler, still situated above the gate to the ruins, above and behind where Twilight Wish had been stationed. She apparently had spent all this time trying to find which of the stones in her pile was the least shiny, not wanting to ruin one of the good ones that she might be able to keep. Finally locating one with a nasty crack in it, she loaded it into the cannon and launched it towards the heroes.

For Applejack’s part, she had spent most of the time since Wish’s first shout trying to successfully kick the log trap into motion, having missed several times with her hind hoof already. Frustrated, she moved herself about to get an easier angle and kicked at the trigger again, finally striking it squarely with one hind hoof and smiling to herself.

The apple pony’s satisfaction with her accomplishment didn’t last long, quickly realizing that her change of position had put her into the path of the trap herself. The logs did roll towards the heroes, surely enough, but Applejack came with them, screaming in blind panic as she ended up running atop the foremost log and trying desperately not to fall off.

Unfortunately for Posey, her job was equally prone to danger, as it consisted of trying to throw a net over the fliers of the bunch. At first she tried to get to Ditzy, but hesitated too long and didn’t reach her before she got too far off the ground. When Ditzy started fighting with a knife and slinging it around as she spun, it made Posey even less sure about approaching her.

In the end, Posey went for Gilda, who unfortunately was a lot taller than her. The yellow earth pony stood up on her hind legs, reached as far as she could, and let out an adorable squeak as she jumped and tried to drape the net over the griffon’s head the best she could. This ended up with the net being barely over Gilda’s head, draped down one side of her body in a position that might at the very worst present her with a minor inconvenience.

Ditzy saw more knives coming her way, her eyes growing wide, releasing the first knife she had to grab hold of the second. The first one flew outward with the force of its struggle, slamming into a nearby tree with an audible 'sproing' noise. The second knife was lost in a similar manner shortly after, but this one Ditzy had seemingly unintentional better-aim with, sending it flying towards Twilight, who had to jump out of the way and in the process almost lost her concentration on her other blades.

Trixie stood up, actually cackling madly with the realization that they had been attacked, “The Twilight Wish will rue the day that she challenged the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

Rather than waste time trying to catch all the knives that Twilight Wish had thrown, Trixie took a more roundabout approach. Slamming her hooves on the ground, she sent a shiver of magic towards Twilight, a jet of earth suddenly emerging directly in front of the other unicorn to block her line of sight to the knives that she had been controlling. The blades faltered in their path before all fell harmlessly to the ground.

Gilda, feeling the net half flop over her, drew her eyes around to peer at the timid looking earth pony that had thrown it onto her. Her eyes narrowed, glaring down at the smaller pony, reaching a single claw out to take hold of Posey’s head, half lifting her off the ground to bring her eye-to-eye.

“Um,” Posey wriggled all fours as she was picked up, her eyes going wide, “I don’t suppose you’d mind falling down for a bit, so that it looks like I’m doing well?”

Gilda would have been nailed by the rock from Sparkler’s cannon at that point, had the still spinning Ditzy not reached out to take hold of it on its way, spinning twice more before launching it back in Twilight and Sparkler’s direction. Ditzy was having a great time, apparently, possibly not even realizing that they were fighting, if her giggling was anything to go by.

“What are you laughing at?” screamed Pinkie’s angry voice, her first words as she suddenly snapped awake.

Inkie drew back as the pink pony started to gag and cough after her words, indicating that she was in fact breathing again, only to spot the logs coming up behind her. She braced her fore-hooves on the ground, snapping both hind hooves backwards towards the log. She struck the first one in the rush, cracks and shivers splintering through it as the area she kicked practically disintegrated from the force of the blow.

The remainder of the first shattering log turned perpendicular to the others, the rest crashing to a stop behind it as its shattered end gouged into the ground ahead. The three Pie sisters were tossed forward, rolling several feet, but the trap didn’t reach the rest of the heroes and the three it had reached didn’t look like they’d suffer more than light bruising. Applejack was less fortunate, flying off the logs as they came to the sudden stop, slamming face-first into the ground and sliding to a stop directly in front of Trixie.

Trixie coughed at the cloud of dust that sprang up around her from Applejack’s skidding through the dirt. Disappointed that the clumsy attacker had spoiled her grand monologue, she placed a forehoof on the grounded pony’s head, sending a jolt of magical energy through her that made her let out a squeal of agony. Luckily for Applejack, Trixie wasn’t a killer, and the earth pony found herself falling safely into unconsciousness. All in all, Trixie had probably done her a favor and saved her from herself.

Twilight Wish, determined to not let the failing ambush get any worse, stumbled up over the earth wall that Trixie’s magic had raised in front of her. She was just in time to take the rock that Ditzy had thrown back to the head with a sharp crack. The unicorn staggered, horn vibrating from the blow, and stumbled back down the opposite side of the earthen barrier once again.

Blinkie, now less worried about her sister’s condition, was quick to hurl herself into the fight. Pulling a single, round bomb from her saddlebag, she moved to light the thing, grinning gleefully. She probably didn’t have a great throwing arm, but that was quite beside the point. She tossed the bomb upwards, allowing their still whirling Ditzy-cannon to grab hold of it and fling it back towards Sparkler and Twilight. The bomb flew through the air, as luck would have it landing atop the hill and rolling neatly to join the pack of stones that Sparkler was using.

Posey, now near tears just from the glare from the larger griffon from whose claws she was dangling, started to struggle with all four legs, kicking futilely at Gilda to get away. Gilda responded by shrugging the rest of the net off, then moved both claws to Posey’s head and tossed her upwards. Ditzy, who was now on quite a roll, so to speak, instinctively grabbed hold of the earth pony and flung her as well.

“Hey guys wait I really can’t stop spinning now!” Ditzy called out pitifully, suddenly horrified that she had just thrown a living pony at their opponents.

Twilight Wish, just coming over the hill’s top again, found herself pummeled now by Posey, cursing loudly as she rolled back down the hill, thumping her head against the same rock that had smacked her before upon reaching the ground. Her scream pierced the air, although by this point it contained far more rage than it did pain.

It was to this chaos that Firefly and Surprise arrived, flying over the clearing about fifty feet above the tree tops. The two had been teleported out of Canterlot by Helios, but due to the hurriedness of said teleport they had not arrived precisely above the clearing where he had intended they appear. Finally making their way back towards the ruins, and thus the clearing, the two had come just in time to see their friends get kicked around by the arriving heroes in seemingly no time at all.

“We-we have to help them!” Firefly suddenly called out, taking a dive towards the clearing, aiming directly towards Ditzy, who she perceived to be the most martially skilled of the group after seeing her toss Posey like a ragdoll.

Surprise only began to cackle, seeming gleeful at the prospect of having a real knock-down drag out fight, at least one that wasn’t tilted too horribly against her like the last one. Unfortunately for her, she lacked any of her usual bludgeoning instruments, and so had to find one quickly. Spotting Sparkler at her pile of rocks, again taking too much time to try to pick out the one she would least miss, she dove in that direction with the intention of grabbing a few stones for herself.

There was another surprise however, that Surprise hadn’t counted on. Just as she was drawing towards the pile of rocks, Sparkler picked Blinkie's thrown bomb out from the pile, looking it over curiously for a moment before she very suddenly realized what it was. Her eyes grew suddenly quite large, looking about and trying to decide what to do with it.

Panicking, she very quickly attempted to load it into the cupcake cannon, but promptly fumbled it to send it rolling back into the pile. The fuse almost at its end, Sparkler gave up on this idea and instead simply tumbled off the front of the hill to avoid the explosion, throwing aside the cupcake cannon in the process as she fell off the front of the ruin and landed in front of the entrance below.

The cannon, as luck would once again have things, slammed right into Twilight Wish’s back as she was attempting once again to climb over the rock wall, sending her sprawling back down with another scream of frustration. Of course, then Blinkie’s bomb finally detonated.

The force of the explosion caused the front of the ruin to collapse downward while sending shards of rock and debris upwards and outwards. Twilight, Sparkler, and Posey found themselves buried in the collapsed hillside, bricks and dirt raining down on them as all three attempted to shield themselves with each other. Surprise managed to bank just in time to avoid any serious damage, but the force of the blast still made her spiral uncontrollably into ground between the earth wall that Trixie had made earlier and the heroes themselves.

The only one of the enemies that seemed to be having any luck at all was Firefly, who successfully slammed into Ditzy’s back as she attempted to knock the pony out of the air. Still spinning, Ditzy didn’t hit the ground as hard as she might have, but instead glanced across it at an angle and ended up barrel-rolling across the clearing until she slammed into Surprise, who had just barely managed to get back up to her own hooves once again.

“Get your hooves off her!” Gilda screamed with a surprising burst of rage upon seeing Ditzy attacked directly, springing into Firefly as the pegasus attempted to angle back up towards the sky.

The pegasus was quickly grounded by Gilda, who definitely had the advantage with grappling between her opposable claws and greater size. Firefly was slammed down onto the ground, belly against the dirt with Gilda’s hind knee in her back, both wings grabbed and twisted back at an angle that made Firefly squeal, terrified that Gilda might be about to relieve her of her wings.

Gilda would have, in fact, had she not paused briefly to think how little Ditzy would appreciate her tearing the wings off of any pegasus. Instead, Gilda let go of the wings and slammed her fist into the back of Firefly’s head, knocking the pony against the ground, cutting off her scream and her consciousness.

“Wait,” Blinkie paused, slowly looking around, stopping just short of lighting another explosive, “Did we really just kick that much flank?”

“Yes. Yes we did,” came Inkie’s bland response as she moved to pull Pinkie up to her hooves again.

Gilda moved herself over to help Ditzy up, casually shoving Surprise aside, who apparently didn’t feel like standing herself up and getting pummeled again. Ditzy smiled, immediately moving herself to Gilda’s back and hugging against her head, seeming quite happy about being retrieved by the griffon.

“Ha!” Trixie cackled out, madly, “Was there ever any doubt? The Great and Powerful Trixie and her fearless minions are unstoppable! Once we rescue the Twilight Sparkle, she will be forever forced to admit that Trixie is the greatest!”

“I said stop laughing!” as soon as Pinkie was stood up, she lunged at Trixie, but was still quite off balance so instead tripped over the unconscious Applejack and tumbled to the ground.

“NO!” came a voice suddenly from the collapsed hilltop, drawing all eyes back to wall of earth, half-collapsed itself and dotted with stone debris.

It was Twilight Wish, pulling herself weakly from the mess, eyes aglow with rage, hooves smoldering against the ground. Her re-emergence wasn’t quite as awesome as it could have been, as she then slid awkwardly down the earth wall, nearly falling flat on her snout before arriving at the base and stumbling several more steps forward. Her mane and tail were mushed, her eyes wide with insanity.

“I’m not finished with you yet!” Twilight took a deep breath, body shaking in rage, as her horn glowed. The glow of her horn was matched by a soft glow from the heart shaped amulet that still hung around her neck, the same one she had worn since the very first day when they had taken their captives from Ponyville.

“Give up!” cackled Trixie, ignoring Pinkie’s attempted tackle of her in favor of Twilight, “The Twilight Wish can never hope to defeat the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

“Well Pinkie said she was evil,” Inkie observed, “I see that she was right.”

“Wait what?” Blinkie opened her saddlebag again, just having shut it with the impression that she wouldn’t be needing more explosives, “Isn’t she dead yet? I’ll take care of this.”

“She’s probably about to take her final form,” Pinkie claimed, her tone full of venom, “I hate final forms!”

“I hate filling out forms too, but what does that have to do with anything?” Ditzy lifted up her head from where she was, still half-curled atop Gilda’s back.

“Um, guys,” Gilda moved to stand aside Trixie, “I think maybe it might be pose down time. She’s looking a bit… glowy.”

“I hate pose downs!” Pinkie complained from behind Gilda. Somehow in all this mess, no one had rightly noticed Pinkie’s behavior being different since she came to, though that statement did draw a few confused eyes her way.

“Shut up!” Twilight demanded, actually spitting with rage, “This is my monologue and I’m going to finish it!”

“Oh fine!” Trixie rolled her eyes, “Everypony into position while the Twilight Wish finishes her monologue. Then we shall make her pay for her lack of awesome!”

“I’m not finished with you yet!” Twilight Wish repeated herself, the glow from her heart necklace having spread across her entire form by this point as she stumbled forward another step, “You’ll never make it out of here alive! Now cower in fear as I demonstrate my true POWER!”

Gilda face-clawed, “This ham-to-ham combat is killing me.”

“I think it’s hilarious,” Blinkie grinned, pulling a long explosive charge from her saddlebag, this one in a metal casing with a timer to prime it on one end.

Twilight Wish’s body glowed brighter, the amulet around her neck suddenly alight with energy, a dizzyingly bright rainbow snaking out into mid-air. The energy from the release sent a gush of warm air as the beam lashed out, curling about as if initially confused about its target, then darted towards the group of heroes with an almost friendly twinkle of magic. It didn’t look like it was planning to do anything friendly to them, however.

“Taste the Rainbow of Light, evil-doers!” Despite her words, Twilight Wish looked almost surprised that the Rainbow was doing what she wanted it to, even when targeting other ponies. “I won’t let you make me fail my Prince again!”

Trixie held up her hooves, laughing in glee as she saw Twilight powering up. Her own hooves glowed, the glow spreading from her to each of the other heroes in turn. More to their own surprise than not, each suddenly felt a very real energy flood through them, each of their bodies aglow as they lifted up off of the ground. There was a burst of energy, colors dancing around them spectacularly as if to shield them from the attacking rainbow before… it rapidly collapsed inward, draining away and leaving them to tumble back to the ground.

No sooner had their own summoning failed than the energy of the Rainbow of Light showered down upon them, twisting and turning between them with burning power. For a moment it felt like their blood might boil, but the rainbow itself seemed reluctant in its assault, spiraling off for a moment as if to search for some more worthy enemy.

The heroes staggered back to their feet, fearing they only had an instant to react before it returned to finish them off.

Zecora idly poured another pouch of herbs into her brew, going about her own business quite casually. She had not the least inkling that the world outside was in turmoil, and would have probably remained ignorant until her next visit to Ponyville. That was part of being a hermit, after all.

The zebra mare had lived here for some time, usually unbothered by the residents outside of the forest. Though many shook in fear at actually living in the Everfree Forest, she had become quite accustomed to its threats and most of them had learned not to bother the potion master during her time here. At this point, she had learned to anticipate anything that might happen, or so she thought.

Just as she was reaching for her next ingredient, there was a sudden explosion from the sky over her house, making her pause and look towards her window. She caught the tail end of the light from the explosion, and not one to panic easily she simply walked towards her window, pulling the curtain aside and peering out and up into the air.

To her horror, her eyes were met with a huge ball of swirling flame and black energy headed directly towards her home. For a moment, she was so frozen in confusion and shock that she didn’t notice the magical sound of a figure teleporting in behind her.

“’Sup,” asked Helios, apparently having decided to pay her a visit after having just tossed the ball of energy at her house to distract Luna.

Zecora turned herself around, starting to speak, but then blinking at the realization that an alicorn had just appeared in her home. She found herself incapable of speaking, let alone rhyming about this situation.

“Right!” Helios glanced around, “You’re the only one here? Good. Don’t mind me, I’m just rescuing you from… well me, just in case she fails to.” Not even Helios had been able to bring himself to actually smite a random bystander, but Luna thought he had so that was all that mattered.

With that, Helios reached out one hoof, placing it squarely on her forehead. His horn glowed with his energy briefly before both he and Zecora teleported away with a flash of light. In the next instant, Zecora found herself tumbling back to the ground in another area of the forest as Helios landed soundly beside her.

“What do you mean, saving me from you?” Zecora immediately demanded as she pulled herself back up to her hooves, “Was my home just blown into goo?”

“Possibly, but not necessarily,” Helios shook himself off a bit, cracking his neck a few times as if trying to relax, “You know, come to think of it, it would have been a lot more super-villainous of me to tell you that she was attacking your house and that I was saving you. Sorry, I’m still fairly new at this.”

“What are you talking about alicorn? Why do you barge in earning much scorn?” Zecora wasn’t showing much fear of the deity that had visited her after having been informed that he may have accidentally destroyed her house.

This caught him off guard, as things sometimes did, but also made him chuckle, “Are you doing that on purpose? Wow.”

His words were cut off by the piercing sound of an explosion nearby, which made Zecora jump, but Helios just sort of arched his eyebrow as if he wasn’t particularly surprised.

“-hold that thought,” Helios spoke once the explosion had died off, “I think my minions might need my assistance. Anyway I’m sure you can find your way home from here!”

And with that, Zecora was left with her mouth half-open, watching the strange alicorn abandon her in some random part of the Everfree Forest. She could probably find her way home from here, granted, but should she really do so without investigating first? Everything had happened so suddenly, that for a moment she found herself stuck where she was with nought but a stunned look on her face.

For just a moment, Twilight Wish felt what it was like to be truly mad with power. She watched the energy from the Rainbow of Light lash through her enemies, heedless of her allies Surprise, Applejack, and Firefly who were all near enough to feel the energy themselves. So into the rush of the moment was she, that she didn’t even notice when said three allies glowed with Helios’ magical aura. Her three limp allies disappeared in a flash, one at a time as each was teleported away from the chaos. They were followed by the others that were out of the way, but equally incapacitated.

The heroes attempted to rise to their feet only to see Helios stepping up aside Twilight Wish, who was still oblivious to his even being present. There was no time to even process this information as the energy from the Rainbow slammed into them again, jolts of power running through each of their forms. One by one, each fell to the ground, shivering in pain. Trixie was the last to crumple, bravely getting off one last shot with her magic, a bolt of energy that whizzed across the clearing and sailed past Helios’ head as he casually leaned to one side.

Twilight Wish drew a deep breath, her hooves landing back on the ground as her form seemed to suddenly lose its energy. She took a deep breath, and a brief moment of horror flashed over her eyes as she looked upon the near smoldering forms of her enemies collapsing to the ground. Her horn glowed, power rushing across the clearing before her, and the rainbow was drawn back into the locket, which snapped tightly shut behind it.

For a moment it was as if all sound had been sucked out of the world around them, a deathly quiet falling upon the clearing.

“I don’t know if I should be impressed or give you a spanking,” Helios was the first to break the silence, reaching out a hoof to catch Twilight Wish as she collapsed to once side, “Got them all, then?”

“Y-yes,” Twilight stammered out, “All dead…” The pony’s glossy eyes forced themselves away from the smoldering, still forms laying across the clearing from them, then upwards to her master.

“Well then,” Helios nodded, sounding quite happy about the situation, “Let’s hope your allies aren’t all dead too, because I’m not joking about the spanking thing if any of them are.”

Helios’ horn glowed, his energy reaching out to grab hold of the explosive that was still in Blinkie’s limp hoof, bringing it over towards him. He then looked down to Twilight, still looking up at him, and blinked slowly at the expression of utter shock and dismay in her eyes. There was another long moment of silence between them before Helios turned back away from her and began to avoid her gaze.

“Just a little while longer, I promise,” Helios stated, quieter than usual. With that, his horn glowed as he, Twilight, and the explosive all disappeared, teleporting down into the underground ruins to the location of the portal.

Zecora arrived over the hill just in time to witness the disappearance of the alicorn and his minion, her eyes looking over the damaged area and immediately falling on the limp forms across the way from her. Gasping, she galloped across the clearing, leaning down to them. She didn’t recognize most of them, but she certainly knew Pinkie Pie, immediately moving over to her and leaning down, nosing at her prone body.

Much to her surprise, Pinkie spoke, immediately accusing her, “Stop shaking me you evil enchantress! You’re just here to laugh at me while I can’t move! Aren’t you?”

Zecora blinked, not certain if Pinkie was joking or was missing more of her marbles than usual, “What on Equestria are you talking about, Pinkie Pie? I thought for sure I’d just seen you all die!”

“It seems not,” Inkie’s voice was next in line, “It appears that she drew back the energy just short of finishing us, and paralyzed us instead. I think she may have actually saved us from being killed by Helios just now.”

“Talk about mixed signals!” Ditzy managed to get out, flopped on her back at an odd angle atop Gilda.

Gilda groaned herself, wings bent at an awfully uncomfortable-looking angle, “Oh yeah. And paralyzing us in a forest full of monsters that would as soon eat as look at us is soooo much better.”

“I like her,” Blinkie had to grin with the tone of her voice, since her face was rather limp, “I DON’T like him anymore though, he took my ‘splodie.”

Trixie didn’t have anything to say. She was just staring angrily at the ground, completely humiliated by her present situation; beaten up by a rainbow of all things.

Zecora was still confused, but certainly felt for their situation. She opened up her cloak, lined with small pouches along the inside. One hoof moved to unhitch one of said pouches, allowing a small amount of bluish-colored dust to gather on her hoof. Raising the hoof in the air, she blew the dust across the group, which swirled in a glowing mist about them for a few moments.

“This dust will make your movements return,” the zebra explained, “Then what has happened, I will wish to learn.”

“I still can’t move! This isn’t funny!” Pinkie Pie shouted impatiently, making Zecora peer at her with suspicion, as if the zebra wasn’t certain that it was really Pinkie.

“It probably takes some time.” Inkie observed.

“Trixie does not find this amusing,” Trixie finally spoke up, barely able to twitch her head over to take a look at her rescuer, “If Trixie did not feel so numb, she would outline the full details of her amazing plan for vengeance.”

There wasn’t much more time for words as there was a dull rumbling from beneath the ground, making them all go silent again. The ground suddenly lurched, a huge dust cloud forming as the clearing sank nearly two stories in depth, and it seemed the heroes would be doomed to swallowing by the earth as the ground sank, possibly to be covered by debris in their still somewhat immobile state.

However, they found themselves not falling at all, a soft glow surrounding the group as the ground fell out from beneath them. Even Zecora found herself surrounded by the deep purple glow of somepony’s telekinesis magic. It wasn’t long before the group realized who had them, their forms slowly pulled towards the edge of the newly formed crater to settle back on the ground.

Princess Luna stood on the edge of the newly-formed sinkhole, looking as if she was barely able to keep herself standing. Yet she still managed to weakly pull the forms of the still recovering heroes over to the edge with her, settling them down on the ground, shortly before collapsing herself.

Zecora leaned down into a bow as soon as her hooves were placed back on the ground, but was up on her hooves almost immediately to rush over to catch the Princess as she finally collapsed under the weight of her own exhaustion. There was certainly a lot to be explained now.

“Princess Luna, are you all right?” Zecora helped the princess fall down in a manner that was at least somewhat dignified, allowing her to rest, “What has made you such a sight?”

“Canterlot,” Luna managed to huff out quietly, barely able to speak, “Thou must take us all back to Canterlot.” And with that, the Princess closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and seeming to resolve herself to resting.

The heroes were meanwhile rising on their own, the cure slowly taking its effect on them. There was a long moment wherein they all exchanged glances, then all eyes went to Luna once again.

“So it seems we are going to Canterlot,” Inkie calmly stated.

“Is that a good idea?” Blinkie wasn’t sure if anypony knew about her shoving a stick of dynamite down Princess Celestia’s throat, after all, "Anyway, someone at least see if we can find Pinkie's canon. I think it might be useful later."

“In Canterlot, the Great and Powerful Trixie will finally be received as a hero,” Trixie’s eyes practically glowed with the visions in her head.

“Wouldn’t we have had to do something was actually heroic for that to happen?” Gilda pointed out.

“It feels weird though,” Ditzy commented, floating back into the air and beginning her trademark air rolling once again, “Like something is missing.”

“It’s like someone’s writing a story about us and forgot the cliffhanger,” Pinkie Pie snapped angrily at Ditzy. “I hate cliffhangers!”

Chapter 13: Substitute Harmony

At first, the trip home for the heroes seemed as if it were going to be alarmingly uneventful. It seemed that much of the excitement had happened while they were in transit from Helios’ world and there was more than one offer by Trixie to teleport them back- although these offers were not-so-tactfully refused. Luna was apparently in no shape to teleport them all either, though she was at least walking by the time they were outside of the forest. Once out in the moonlight, she started to look much more healthy.

Fortunately Zecora knew her way around the forest well enough to find the safest way out, and once out of the forest the group headed along its border towards Ponyville, the familiar town being the closest settlement. Not to mention, with what had happened over the last few days there would almost certainly be guards there that could help them. How those guards might react to their arrival was another thing entirely.

“I’m not worried,” Blinkie muttered as Ponyville came into view, smoke still rising from the disaster area that they had created on their last visit, “Who actually saw us there? I mean there were those guards but… really, after that explosion?”

“Awww…” Ditzy fluttered lazily above the group, frowning at the thought of guards having been fried, even if such a thing would be to the group’s advantage.

“No,” Inkie shook her head, “I believe the Princess would have saved them, but it should not be an issue since we have Princess Luna to vouch for us.”

“We are not even sure for what we shall be vouching,” Luna spoke as she peered over at the group, having taken to slowly walking with them. Apparently she was still too worn to fly herself, both physically and emotionally. Even without being out of sorts from her rather violent sibling reunion earlier, she appeared to barely comprehend most of their conversations, petty and argumentative as they had tended to be since the confrontation in the forest.

“I do not know what they mean,” Zecora observed, clearly worried as well, “but it does not sound legal- or clean.” She moved herself slowly over towards Luna, placing herself at the side of the Princess in case she was needed, and keeping herself and the Princess a few paces distance from the rest of the group.

“It’s a long story,” Gilda shook her head towards Zecora and Luna, “We over-reacted a bit- well, a lot… Let’s just leave it at that; I’m sure you’ll hear all about it at the trial.”

“Trixie would not worry if she were you,” Trixie spoke as she put her nose in the air, “Surely they will realize that we are the only ones capable of saving the world. In exchange for doing so, we shall obviously receive a full pardon, not to mention a huge celebration in our honor.”

“I hate saving the world!” Pinkie grumbled, staying near the back of the group and periodically needing the coaxing of her sisters to continue.

“It’s no use booing-” Zecora began, but her statement was quickly cut off.

Two figures swooped down from the sky, exiting a dark cloud as if appearing from nowhere. They moved so quickly that it was hard to even identify them as pegasi at first, one figure slamming hard into Zecora with his side, sending her literally flying into the others as if she were a large, striped bowling ball. The second figure landed with a heavy thump next to the first, the very impact seeming to bristle with energy that pushed outward against the group.

“-What are you doing?” Zecora blurted out, no small amount of surprise and fear in her voice as she slammed directly into Gilda, who in turn collided with all three Pie sisters.

Trixie, for her part, was far enough in front that she was able to hop forward and out of the way of the tumbling zebra, turning about to face the assailants. She looked at first as if she would be ready to attack, but almost immediately her horn glow fizzled out as she realized that they weren’t actually under attack, rolling her eyes instead.

It was, in fact, Luna’s two night guards, who had apparently mistook the group for villains. Though to their credit, this was not a far cry from the truth.

“Trixie sees you have found us,” Trixie crowed sarcastically, “There is no need to fret; the Great and Powerful Trixie, and her obedient minions, have already rescued Her Nocturnal Majesty.”

“That was rude!” Ditzy swooped down from her own spot, trying to help the others up, starting with Gilda since she had landed more or less on top.

“Oh I am so gonna end you!” Gilda roared out as she was rescued from the heap, though she paused when she realized exactly who the strange bat-pegasi were.

“Well that was fun,” Inkie spoke as she slowly rose back to her hooves. “Now would be a very good time for that royal vouch.”

Blinkie only grunted, staying on the ground for a moment, apparently having given up on much going right at this point, and it didn’t help that she was clearly not going to be allowed to blow up their attackers. She did give a slight smirk when Pinkie stuck her tongue out at the guards from underneath her, however.

“Be still!” came the booming voice of Luna from behind the guards, causing them to immediately startle with realization. Luna continued, “These citizens must be taken to the castle with us, for they may possess a power that we need.”

“So we’re not getting arrested?” Blinkie slowly pulled herself back up, shaking the dust off of herself.

“I know, right?” Gilda shrugged, “I keep expecting something to go wrong again.”

Once the pegasi guards had found them, getting to the palace was a simple matter. A chariot was fetched from Ponyville, and the group was ferried quickly back to the castle without further incident. Zecora was asked to head to Ponyville and help, which she was more than happy to do as the group and the sudden ambush had left her more than a bit disheveled.

By the time the chariot arrived over Canterlot, everypony could see that the city was on high alert. The streets and skies surrounding the city were filled with patrols, looking as if every guard had been called to duty at once. The streets were empty of civilians, even considering the late hour, most of them having been herded to their homes or other places of safety. The chariot containing Luna and the heroes was immediately and without question escorted towards the castle upon arrival, and by the time they landed, Luna looked far more comfortable with how things were going. Likewise, the others were feeling stronger, if a bit achy from their recent run-in with the corrupted Rainbow of Light.

“We must waste no time,” Luna spoke to one of her honor guard as they approached the throne room, “Thou shalt take a battalion back to Ponyville, and have the zebra show thee the safest way through the forest to the crater. Excavate the area until the portal mechanism there hidden is uncovered.”

“An entire battalion, my Princess?” the night guard ear-perked up, blinking as if the request was not one he expected to be given. He would obviously have rather been given a duty involving the guarding of the city, or his princess.

“Indeed, thou art correct. Perhaps thou shouldst take two battalions,” Luna responded, not entirely catching the direction of his question. She cut him off before he could speak again, “Thou hast until the morn. Do not disappoint us.”

The two stallions that served as her honor guard gave a deep bow. Not questioning further, they took off towards the barracks. The group behind Luna watched these actions quietly in the meanwhile, none of them entirely certain what to think of the events she appeared to be setting in motion. They then followed her once again as she began towards the throne room, unsure of what else to do. At least the guards would leave them unquestioned if they were accompanied by the princess.

“Did you see the state the cathedral was in when we passed it?” Blinkie finally couldn’t hold herself in, “I wonder what kind of bomb was used; I hope I don’t have any competition.”

“Competition for what?” Gilda quirked an eyebrow, peering over at Blinkie. “Most terrifyingly insane?”

“No,” Inkie calmly asserted, “That damage was not caused by an explosion. It looked more like physical trauma."

“The Great and Powerful Trixie detected magical energy as well,” Trixie started to sound herself again, and had to pipe in to make sure everypony knew that she did, in fact, recognize magic, “If only Trixie had been available during the battle, perhaps she would have saved Her Majesty’s abode.”

“Maybe it was a temporal explosion!” Ditzy stated, almost happily, but then added more sadly, “I hope nopony was hurt.”

“Our brother Helios attacked the castle,” Luna spoke back towards them, her booming voice making them all jump back to watching her, “and some secondary damage occurred.”

“Secondary damage,” Gilda peered back over her shoulder, seeing the roof of the cathedral sag a bit more in the distance, then turning back and changing the subject. She waved her head towards Pinkie, “So what’s with her?”

Indeed, Pinkie was walking silently behind her, a sullen, angry look on her face as her eyes shifted between each individual who spoke. She did not even respond to Gilda’s statement other than to give her a particularly hateful glare.

“I know!” Ditzy looked sad again, “I tried making silly faces at her too, and even offered to make her muffins later, but nothing worked!”

“Pinkie?” Inkie seemed concerned too, waving a hoof near Pinkie and not receiving a response.

“Worry not over her condition,” Luna sounded back to them again. Even now, her voice made them jump, “For it is temporary, and shalt be rectified before the morn. It is then that you shall set out for the portal once more; for the fate of Equestria now lies within your hooves.”

“Equestria’s doomed,” Gilda murmured.

“We’ll make sure it goes out with a bang then!” Blinkie seemed only encouraged by the ominous prediction.

“Behold, our nation may be less doomed than thou dost imagine, for-“ Luna began to speak, but cut herself off as soon as she opened the door to the throne room. “And who, pray tell, gavest thou permission to sit upon the royal throne?” If her normal voice was loud, this was ear-shattering, all following her pressing hooves or claws against their ears.

Prince Blueblood was sitting quite casually in the royal throne, appearing to be reading some official documents, though when he set them aside there was a brief glimpse of a fashion magazine bundled between the important looking papers. These objects, as well as the martini that he had sitting on the side rest of the throne, were floated towards a small table to the side with his magic before he rose. He was obviously a bit startled by the yell but kept his demeanor.

“Auntie!” Prince Blueblood gave a very formal bow, then moved away from the throne, “I was just keeping it warm for you, obviously. I forgot how loud you could be.” His glance moved to the silent group of heroes behind Luna, “Ah, I take it this is the Plan B team?”

“We believed thee to still be in Ponyville, thou shouldst be out watching over our soldiers.” Luna calmed herself fairly quickly, perhaps only because it would not be conducive to their collective goals to be angry at him, but she was still certainly letting him know with her tone who was his better.

“Please, your Majesty,” Prince Blueblood’s tone did gain a certain amount of respect as well, perhaps not wanting to push his luck, “I think it would be better if I stayed here to help you; after all, at this rate I’ll be the one raising the sun tomorrow.”

“We are quite capable of that, as are others within the city, some of whom thou trained thyself. Thou shouldst have faith in them,” Luna responded, “However, your wish to aid us is fair. Wait aside and we shall speak shortly.”

Prince Blueblood nodded again, trotting calmly to one side and having a seat, eyeing the group with silent conceit as he waited. His eyes focused briefly on Trixie, who cleared her throat and shifted the tilt of her head to hide a blush behind the larger Gilda.

“Citizens!” Luna turned to the group, holding up one hoof. “We regret that there is little time to explain. Suffice to say, thou must rest before the morrow, wenst thou shalt become our arm in our brother’s world. We are not be strong enough to challenge him, there in his own world.”

The expressions on most of the teammates gave a very clear and confused ‘And we will be?’ at Luna’s assertion, but no one dared question her. Guards were called in, and each of the individuals was led to a room of their own.

Gilda curled up on the bed, trying to rest. Her whole body ached thanks to days of hiking, fighting, and running around, and as comfortable as the royal suites tended to be, it was impossible to find a restful position in which to lay. Her mind was flooded with so many confusing thoughts, not to mention being particularly un-thrilled about her inclusion in a squad of super-hero ponies.

Her dreadful thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. The griffon groaned, rolling her eyes as she dragged herself off of the bed and moved slowly to the door. Opening it up, she was surprised to see Ditzy standing there, smiling gently.

“Ditz’?” Gilda seemed confused, “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see my favorite birdie-lion!” Ditzy smiled, “I had a cupcake, but I accidentally smoosh’ied it falling down the stairs on the way here. Sorry!”

“… our rooms are right next to each other.” Gilda pointed out, her voice deadpan.

“Really?” Ditzy looked down the hall as if to confirm this, then tilted her head and scratched it with one hoof, “I wonder what went wrong!”

“It doesn’t matter,” Gilda stated, trying her hardest not to roll her eyes. She paused, then took a deep breath before beginning, “Ditz’, you know I-“

“Greetings citizens!” Luna’s voice ruined any chance they had of having a moment, the Princess moving up behind Ditzy, “Thou shouldst be gaining thy rest.” Her voice certainly wasn’t aiding in that.

“I was just saying goodnight to my nice friend Gilda!” Ditzy stated, almost happily, one wing flapping a few times and causing her to suddenly lean over and bump into the frame of Gilda’s door.

“Yeah it’s cool, I don’t mind her being here,” Gilda tried to be casual.

“Maybe I could sleep in your room so we could cuddle!” Ditzy’s statement was clearly one of the most precious innocence, but it still made Gilda’s eyes widen.

“Ah, uh…” Gilda stammered.

Luna looked back and forth between them, gears in her head appearing to be turning as she was momentarily quiet.

“I won’t keep you up!” Ditzy assured, “It’s just you’re really nice to me so…”

“It is a good to see ponies and griffons getting along so well; clearly you are truly kind, fair Gilda, to have the respect of such a nice young mare.” Luna observed, looking at Gilda expectantly.

“I uh…” Gilda stammered again, looking even more self-conscious.

“Yep, she’s the nicest griffon ever! All the other ponies like her too ‘cause she’s so nice to them!” Ditzy seemed almost proud, “She was at a party once in Ponyville, too; I wish I could have gone!”

“Indeed, for she is the very essence of affection!” Luna seemed almost purposefully to be digging it deep.

“Ditzy…” Gilda began, quietly.

“Yep! And she-” Ditzy started to continue.

“Ditzy!” Gilda cut her off this time, breathing heavily as if suddenly even more exhausted, “Please… “

“Is there something thou wishest to share with us, fair Gilda?” Luna looked at her without the least change in demeanor.

“I’m not a nice griffon, Ditzy. Me being nice to you is the exception not the rule,” Gilda huffed, “’Fact is, I crashed that party pretty bad, even though it’d been thrown for me… all because I was jealous that Rainbow Dash might like Pinkie Pie more. About all I did during that visit was make ponies cry, take their stuff, or insult them. Ditzy… I’m sorry, but I don’t deserve you.”

Ditzy quirked her ears, then shook her head and gave Gilda a brief hug, “But you’re nice now!”

“Maybe,” Gilda offered, her voice uncertain. “I think maybe you’re just too nice to notice how much of a jerk I am.”

“We are impressed, fair Gilda.” Luna spoke, and without further explanation turned to head back down the hall way.

As much as Ditzy wanted someone to cuddle with, Gilda had insisted that she return to her own room, so she had eventually relented and been on her way. She had been heading back to her room for some time before she realized that she had somehow ended up in the wrong part of the castle, all alone in one of the ballrooms.

She turned about, sitting on her haunches as she turned back and forth to see if she could determine the way back. It must have been a few more minutes still before somepony else noticed her.

“Oh, it’s you,” a deep voice jumped from the darkness, before the form of Prince Blueblood stepped out of the shadows.

“It sure is!” Ditzy promptly ignored the dismissive tone as if not even noticing it, “I got lost on the way back to my room; I was visiting Gilda!”

Prince Blueblood peered as if not quite believing her, “We placed your rooms next door to each other, if memory serves.”

“I know! It’s crazy!” Ditzy nodded in agreement, “This palace is really easy to get lost in!”

Prince Blueblood blinked down, and she blinked right up at him in return. A few exchanged blinks later, he took a deep breath, shaking his head.

“Maybe if you’re an idiot, it is,” he huffed.

Ditzy blinked, her smile fading just slightly, “Well it was because…”

However, her words were cut short, “No, it was because you are completely incompetent. I mean, if you were laughter, I might dismiss this as you trying to make me laugh, but you’re not, and if you were you would be doing terribly at that anyway since I’m not laughing.”

Ditzy’s eyes glistened slightly as she stared up at him, but he didn’t stop.

Blueblood seemed unaffected, “The fact is, your foolishness is an outright danger to the mission, and I intend to make a case to Princess Luna asking your exclusion. Even if it means being an Element short, not having such an absurd excuse for a hero amongst them would still be an advantage.”

Even as tears rolled down Ditzy’s face, he continued, turning his nose up, “I mean just look at you! Bubbles for a cutie mark? What does that even mean? Is it a symbol for stupidity?”

He started to continue, but his words were completely cut off. Not by Ditzy crying, running away, or getting angry, but by her reaching out and leaning forward to hug him with both forelegs.

“I’m so sorry,” Ditzy sniffled, “You must feel really bad to want to say stuff like that; I really hope you can find something that makes you happy.”

Blueblood blinked slowly, looking stunned, trying to decide if she was trying to insult him creatively or if she was serious. She appeared to be quite serious as she looked up at him.

“There’s nothing I can do?” she asked, reaching a hoof up as if ready to wipe a tear away should one appear, even if none did. “You need somepony to talk to? Even if it’s angry talk, I’m here for anypony.”

“It’s…” Blueblood’s eyes opened widely, stunned, “Not something I can… well…” he hmph’ed, “So she was right about you, then.”

And with that, the Prince gently pushed Ditzy away, turning to take his leave of her. On his way out of the ballroom, he waved a hoof to a nearby passing guard, instructing them to escort the pegasus safely back to her room- and see that she did not wander off again.

Pinkie Pie lay on the bed in the dark chambers to which she had been taken, or rather dragged kicking and screaming as she shouted about hating royal suites. The room was presently in shambles: the sheets were torn from the bed, candles and decorations were torn from the walls and thrown onto the floor, and the door was cracked from having been repeatedly bucked at as she tried to get out. Eventually having given up on her rage, the dejected party pony had collapsed onto her back on the floor, immobile and feeling very little like a party pony.

Perhaps Luna had only been waiting for her to let off some steam, or perhaps she had stopped to speak with Blueblood on the way, because it was not long after the noises ceased that the locks on the door began to unfasten with the dark glow of her magic. The door swung open, and in stepped the royal figure of Princess Luna, followed shortly by Prince Blueblood.

“Pinkamena Diane Pie. It is time.” Princess Luna’s voice boomed, walking towards the pink pony on the floor as her magic shut the door behind them.

Pinkie did not answer, dragging blankets from the nearby bed to cover her head as if purposefully ignoring them.

Prince Blueblood moved to stare down at her as well, looking as if he felt somewhat silly, even rolling his eyes slightly, “All right, I promised I’d try not to enjoy this.”

“Silence nephew; it is the only way!” Luna seemed dead serious, approaching Pinkie slowly from one side.

Just as she was going to reach out for the pink pony, Pinkie Pie darted towards the door with surprising speed. It wasn’t surprising enough to break the telekinetic grasp of two royal ponies, however, and the escaping, dull-pink figure quickly rose from the floor and left running in midair.

“Why does this keep happening?!” shouted Pinkie, clearly enraged once again at her sulking being interrupted.

“Hold! It is for thine own good!” Luna said with the most serious of tones, moving back to Pinkie’s side as Blueblood took up the other side with a slight chuckle breaking through his normal manner.

Turning Pinkie about in mid-air so that she was briefly upside down, Luna pushed her back onto the floor with her telekinesis. Pinkie gasped as Luna’s hoof went up into the air and suddenly came down onto the pink pony to… tickle her.

“Come nephew, aid us!” Luna commanded towards Blueblood.

Blueblood shook his head, but followed the orders given him, “I suppose I asked for this when I offered to help.”

Both Luna and Blueblood were soon using both of their forehooves to tickle over Pinkie, under her and down her belly and around her neck. Pinkie tried very hard to resist the torture, and for a while looked as if she would stay angry, struggling and yelling things far from suited for the ears of royal ponies.

That ended when Luna’s magic grasped a pillow from the bed, bringing it over and shredding it apart so savagely that feathers went everywhere. “Behold nephew! I hath devised a new strategy!”

Blueblood chuckled, “Okay, I guess I am enjoying this after all. Better than the last one at least; by Faust that was depressing.”

And with that, each of the royal ponies took hold of a dozen or more feathers, and Pinkie was surrounded by a tickling mass of them. Within seconds, the pony went from angry to bursting out in laughter, kicking her legs about frantically, nearly hoofing the two other ponies in the head numerous times. This went on for several minutes, unyielding, not stopping until they were certain that they had succeeded.

Soon, Pinkie’s coat shined bright pink, returned suddenly to its normal shade as tears of laughter ran down her cheeks. The resultant glowing flash nearly blinded the two tickling her to the point that they temporarily lost their grip and she was allowed to crawl back towards the bed. However, once there, she only fell onto the mattress and giggled more.

“That was hilarious!” Pinkie laughed, pointing at the royal duo in her room, “I almost went gray again and trashed the room!”

“Huzzah! We are victorious!” Luna raised a hoof as if in victory, then added more calmly after a brief pause and glance about the room, “We shall fetch a maid.”

Blinkie sat on her room’s balcony and angrily stared at the dark sky, the forms of patrolling pegasi passing overhead from time to time. Unlike her sister, her mood was pretty much on par for her, not something that she was going to give up. From the noise next door, which was also what drove her to find refuge on the balcony, she guessed that Pinkie was back to her old self, though she wasn’t certain if it was a relief to her or not.

Her ears twitched as she heard hoofsteps against the stone path below her, looking down into the courtyard. A dark figure was speaking to one of the night-guard, not being overly loud though their voice still carried through the still, night air.

“We don’t exactly have explosives on hand for this sort of thing, and some of the ruin walls are enchanted specifically to ward off magic. It’s becoming quite a task,” the night guard was informing the dark figure.

“What about the visitors?” the figure replied in a deep, unfamiliar voice, “Aren’t some of them rock miners? Maybe they have a store of them.”

“What? No, I’m afraid not,” the guard replied, “One of them is an explosive expert, but they aren’t technically allowed to sell them.”

“But they’ve been seen with them, yes?” the figure asked, waiting for a moment as the guard nodded in response, “Then go to them and offer them any money that we can afford under the table, for the explosives we need.”

“I’m afraid we don’t have any money for that sort of thing, especially with the repairs that need done,” the guard replied thoughtfully.

“So we’ll dig into gala funds or raise a few taxes, just make it happen.”

“Don’t bother,” Blinkie called down, causing them both to freeze.

“Pardon?” the guard asked.

“Ah,” the figure replied, “We did not know you were awake. What was that?”

“Don’t bother digging into funds, come on up and I’ll give you directions to my store, there’s more than enough there and you can take all you need,” replied Blinkie, “I don’t need payment, you can have what you need now and in the future. Not breaking any laws if I’m not selling after all.” She sounded almost bitter.

“Thank you,” the figure stated, giving her a nod, “You heard her.” The figure nodded to the guard, who flapped his wings to head up to the balcony.

Blinkie nodded to the guard as he arrived before her, sighing slightly, then turned back to regard the figure again, only to find it had vanished as if into smoke and was now gone.

Inkie smiled quietly to herself, slowly beginning to doze off to sleep. She also had heard Pinkie’s laughter, and was relaxed in the knowledge that her sister was back to her old self. She too however, was not going to be allowed to sleep quite yet.

A knock on the door brought her back to full wakefulness again, and the mare rolled out of bed and calmly trotted over towards the door. When she opened it, she regarded an unfamiliar stallion on the other side of the doorway. It was hard to get a good look at him in the dimly lit hallway, but he appeared to be of dark blue complexion, dark eyes, and a mining pick for a cutie mark on his visible flank. On his collar she noticed the symbol of the Equestrian Excavations Board.

“Hello.” Inkie’s voice sounded calm as ever, not betraying her confusion.

“Miss Inkamena Pie, I’m glad I caught you,” the stallion nodded, not showing himself in. “I’m Diggy Gem, from the Equestrian Excavations Board. I hope you don’t mind me bothering you here in the midst of all this, but it is rather convenient; you see, it’s about your resume.”

“I sent that in months back,” Inkie replied calmly, “What’s this?”

“Oh yes,” Diggy replied, “Well it got lost in the paperwork, suffice to say you are perfect for a new project up north, so we wanted to make plans with you now.”

“And my sister Blinkie?” Inkie asked.

“Well,” the stallion seemed somewhat more reserved, “I’m afraid she is not allowed to practice, so we can’t accept her; I’m sure you understand.”

“I don’t work unless she works,” Inkie asserted calmly once again.

“This job pays a great deal of money, Miss Pie, enough for you to send some back to her if you wish,” he explained, “In fact, we could leave right now if you wanted.”

“This isn’t about money,” Inkie cut off further words from him with sternness that was unusual for her, “I don’t care if I am never able to get a job because of it, I do not work without Blinkie being able to work. And I will certainly not leave Canterlot when I am needed by the others here, against Helios.”

“Now Miss Pie, be realistic,” Diggy kindly suggested, “The real Element holders are gone, another group isn’t going to be wielding them any time soon, and how is living under another alicorn’s rule going to differ significantly anyway? It would be better for you, safer for your family, and more profitable in general if you…”

“No.” Inkie cut him off again, and he found the door slamming hard in his face. So hard that the door stop came slightly loose from the impact.

Inkie left back to bed, not giving it another thought and suffering no regret for her decision. As for Diggy, he only smiled, fading back into starry mist that disappeared down the hallway.

Of all the team, Trixie was having the hardest time getting to sleep. Not because of worry or outside distractions however, but because her own imagination was running wild. She couldn’t stop the vision of herself being greeted in Canterlot, victorious after a long journey to the other world, showered in gifts and given a place of honor among Canterlot’s elite. She even envisioned Twilight Sparkle bowing before her, thanking her for being rescued and admitting that she was her superior. That bit in particular really made her smile.

Yet as she continued, her visions began to bother her for a reason that she could not pinpoint. It was strange; she had always enjoyed her fantasies before, and now there was reason for them to come all the clearer.

It was at that point that her visions were completely broken by a brief knock on her door. There was no delay or waiting for her to open it before it opened itself, the large form of Prince Blueblood strolling into her room with his typical smug look on his face.

“Ah, the Great and Powerful Trixie. Settling in?” he smirked, moving to stand at the edge of her bed and idly poking a hoof at the piece of enchanted chain that was laying on her dresser; apparently Trixie had carried the piece all the way from the magical ruin.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie has already settled in,” Trixie not too subtly hinted that he was disturbing her, but decided not to push it, “Is she needed by his Majesty?” She tried very hard not to blush, not having anyone to hide behind this time.

“Oh don’t worry,” smiled Blueblood, “I’ll let you rest, but I just wanted to let you know that I’ve taken care of things; spoken to Princess Luna and all.”

“Taken… care of things?” Trixie didn’t want to admit that she didn’t understand, but all the same.

“Of course,” continued Blueblood, “You don’t need those ruffians getting in your way; you’re clearly a superior specimen. So they shall be sent home tomorrow, while you will lead our best warriors and mages into the portal to take care of this… Helios. It’s better this way.”

Trixie was silent for a moment, then spoke up again, less sure, “Trixie does not understand how that is better.”

“Well you will get all the credit you deserve, after all!” Blueblood nodded, “I’m sure you’d rather be on your own stained glass window than have it crowded with other ponies, yes?”

“No,” Trixie replied, after a certain pause and somewhat quietly.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Trixie does not wish to take credit on her own,” Trixie replied, more clearly, “She would not have been able to get so far without the help of her companions, and she refuses to take credit at all if her friends do not also receive their due.”

“Really?” Blueblood hmm’ed, “Well you’ve mentioned your rival, so I figured it would be more impressive if…”

“Trixie thanks his Majesty for his thoughts,” Trixie shook her head, “But Trixie’s friends are more important to her now than ‘being impressive’ to her rival.”

Blueblood smirked again, temporarily slipping into a Trixie accent from exposure, “Very well, Prince Blueblood will let Her Majesty know.”

And with that, he left Trixie to herself, allowing her to get some sleep and to think about what she had done. Once outside, a familiar starry mist approached him in the hall, solidifying into Luna before him. She raised her head to look squarely into his eyes as he closed the door behind him.

“And?” the Princess asked.

“You were right,” Blueblood replied, “It seems that every one of them has passed the tests you devised; you’re pretty good at this, Auntie.”

“Then tomorrow shalt be their true test.”

Far away from Canterlot, Spike sat still in his cage, staring at his hands and sighing to himself. He hadn’t been treated poorly since his arrival, at least once he was extracted from the grips of his captors. The ponies that were now taking care of him weren’t even all that bad; they were in fact quite kind to him, and seemed to be in good spirits despite the obviously poor conditions of their homes in Undervale. They spoke of Helios with reverence and respect, just as the ponies he knew back home spoke of Celestia, and Spike had not bothered to try to contradict them.

He kept hoping that he would catch a glimpse of Twilight or the others, but he hadn’t since he was dragged out of Twilight’s cell. He knew that they were holding him far away from the others so that they wouldn’t try anything funny. He could only assume that they hadn’t escaped, as he imagined he would not be nearly so comfortable if that were the case.

At the very least there was no shortage of food here for him. Gems were not high on the list of priorities for most of the these ponies, so he was freely given of the nearby gem deposits so that he wouldn’t deplete their own food supplies. This didn’t help as much as it should have, because every time he stared into a gem he thought of Rarity and how miserable she must be in her filthy conditions, and that led to thoughts of Twilight being forced to work for fear of their hurting him. He had started to think all of this was partially his fault.

“Oh, hi there,” a somewhat grating voice from the edge of his cage spoke up, prying him from his depressed thoughts, and Spike blinked as he looked up.

Outside of his cage was, of all things, a baby dragon. It might have been slightly older than Spike, or perhaps just very slightly greedier, as it was just a bit larger than he was. The dragon was covered in pinkish scales, lighter scales down his chest, and dark green frill down his back in a similar pattern to Spike’s own. The dragon’s purple eyes blinked at Spike from the other side of the bars.

“Oh uh… hello?” Spike stammered, rising to his feet and heading towards the bars, “Uh… “

“Um, hi…” the other dragon looked slowly back and forth, “Hey do you mind if we talk for a bit?”

Spike flinched slightly, “Dude, your voice is grating.”

“What?”

“Nothin’, it’s not important,” Spike shifty-eyed slightly, backtracking as he did not want to offend a potential friend, “So a dragon living with ponies? Guess we got somethin’ in common right? What’s your name? I’m Spike.”

“Oh uh,” the other dragon looked almost unsure if he should answer, “I’m Spike…”

“Really?” Spike, the purple Spike, blinked at that, “Well I’m gonna call you Pink then, because calling you Spike is gonna’ be way more creepy than I can handle right now.”

“Oh uh, okay,” the pink dragon consented easily enough, “I was just wondering… you were with the evil ponies, right?”

“Evil ponies?” Spike asked, then shook his head, having overheard enough to know that Pink was talking about his friends, “Look dude, we’re not evil. We would have come and helped if you’d just asked; it’s what we do. Instead we were knocked out, beaten up, threatened, and my friends are being forced to work in fear that I’ll be killed if they don’t. Who’s evil?”

Spike was surprised at how easily the pink version of himself agreed, “I know…” Pink even sniffled slightly, “My friends weren’t always like this… it’s… it’s Him. He affects them somehow, and I don’t know why. I want to help him, ‘cause he can save us all, but… I don’t like how he’s saving us. I want my friends back… I want to feel like a good guy again…”

It was at this point that Spike noticed what the pink dragon was holding in both his hands. It was a key, tightly clasped as if afraid of being seen with it. Spike didn’t have to ask; his eyes made the question for him as they locked onto it.

The pink Spike sighed, “Promise me that your friends will come back after you rescue them, and help us? Promise that you’ll bring us to your world so we can live like we used to again?”

“I promise,” Spike nodded, “Absolutely, you can count on me!”

Very reluctantly, the pink dragon moved his claws to place the key into Spike’s. Then, as silently as he had arrived, the pink Spike hopped off into the cave. Spike looked back and forth to be sure his tenders were not watching, and quickly began to unlock his cage door.

“Here we are,” Posey smiled down at Twilight Sparkle, who was now strapped down onto one of the metal tables in the medical room of the underground base, “This won’t take too long, yours is the last one and we’ll start.”

Twilight felt nervous, laying there on one table as her friends were lined up on the tables next to her. Her breath was fast, and she felt the straps from the machine on her head dig slightly into her. The newer version of the extractor that she had reluctantly helped to design only needed to latch onto their heads, and it could even take all of their Elements in at once. In theory, this would leave them drained, but they would recover some hours later. In practice… well, Twilight was unsure.

She heard a grunt next to her, though she couldn’t turn her head far at the moment. It was Applejack, whose helmet had been completely applied and who, like her other friends, could not speak. It was an obvious question, and Twilight felt it had been directed at her.

“Just calm down, everypony,” Twilight tried to assure her friends, “The other ones aren’t even here, and you know Posey isn’t going to let anything go wrong, she’d turn the machines off first.”

“Well, maybe,” Posey replied, gently lowering the facemask part of the helm onto Twilight to cut off her speech as well, “Actually, I’m afraid I haven’t been very honest with you.”

And for a moment, there wasn’t so much as a grunt from any of the ponies, including Twilight.

“Oh this is a little bit embarrassing,” Posey sounded almost motherly when she talked, “It’s weird, you know? It comes and goes sometimes, like I can see myself doing things but I don’t really have control over them, but overall I’ve been more deceptive than nice.”

Posey moved over towards the main portion of the machine, rolling dials as she readied it for activation, “You see, it was more or less just a way to get you to talk. You remember that whole incident in the hallway where I used the stare to stop Surprise from beating on you?” she giggled, slightly amused, “I didn’t really, I mean I can’t do anything like that, Twilight had just told me that Fluttershy could and not to look her in the eyes, you know. So I used the idea, we set up a scenario while you were blinded and while Spike was fairly out of it to convince you that I was on your side. It’s a little amusing, but Twilight, our Twilight, still punished Surprise despite it being a setup.” She giggled in a disturbingly good-natured way, as if she expected them to find that part amusing.

The muffled voices were quite prominent now, though it was hard to make out anything they said. Especially Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who were very much near breaking their tables. At least this meant they had recovered well, if nothing else. As for Twilight, she simply lay there, listening, desperate tears streaming down her face.

“You did design the machine well, Twilight, and I don’t have to kill you with it.” Posey raised her voice just enough to let them hear it above the angry, frantic grunts, “But I’m going to anyway. Then I’ll prove once and for all that I am the best conditioned; maybe I’ll even get to be Helios’ second hoof pony. I bet he’ll be so proud.”

And with a last kindly giggle, she pulled the switch to on.

Chapter 15: Doing the Time Warp

Trixie stood at the entrance of the newly built temple, head raised confidently as she strolled in, crown gleaming in the glow of the crystals around the altar. Behind her, the others fanned out. Gilda hovered in the air to the right, Ditzy to her left, the latter slowly twirling midair as was her habit. Pinkie was practically dancing a jig with excitement on one side of her, the two other pie sisters on the other. Inkie was rather calm, while Blinkie was grinning quite widely, and insisted upon holding a stick of dynamite in her maw even if it served no real purpose in their current plan.

"Trixie!" Helios's voice took on his usual delighted tone, turning fully about to face them as he casually pulled a large switch on the nearby console with his magic. "I don't mean to be rude, so don't take this as such, but... well I couldn't help but notice that you're alive, and I could have sworn my number one assistant said that you were all dead."

"She's not your number one assistant anymore," Trixie smirked.

"We hit her with the friendship cannon!" Pinkie called out happily between bounces.

"So I gathered! Noted then, next time check for life signs." Helios smiled, taking another few casual steps forward, "So, friends! I don't suppose you've come for that training I promised you, Trixie?"

"Trixie has come to train you, Your Majesty," Trixie struck one hoof against the other, somehow making a noise like knuckles cracking.

"Ow’d ‘oo do ‘at?” Blinkie mumbled around her dynamite, peering over at Trixie out of the corner of her eye.

"I hate to interrupt," came the somewhat weak voice of Celestia from behind Helios, "But this is the part where the villain is stalling for time."

"I knew I should have gagged you," Helios rolled his eyes.

Indeed, the machinery behind him crackled, the switch he had flipped having apparently already started the process of opening the time rift. The glow of the chains increased, the crystals in each slot beginning to vibrate with energy as a ring formed around the altar, connecting each one to the others.

The group wasted no time with this realization. Trixie raised her forehooves the same way as she had when they faced their Undervale counterparts, as the others assumed positions behind her. Energy gathered, a bubble of force forming rapidly around them, each of the six rising into the air as they confidently stared down the alicorn before them.

"Oh fine, let's get this over with," Helios had a seat on his haunches, making no effort to stop or interrupt them, "Fire away! This is the part where the villain underestimates the hero and is soundly defeated, right?"

With that a blast of energy rattled the temple, a stream of rainbow colored energy streaking across the room, arching towards Helios and slamming into him. There was a burst of light from his position as the energy swirled around him in an ever tightening tornado. The wave languished, faded, and the mist returned to the six ponies once more as they settled to the floor again.

And there sat Helios, completely unaffected.

"Oops," Helios smirked, "I did mention that you were the villain in my last little statement, right?"

"What." Trixie's expression went completely blank.

"What?!" Inkie, on the other hand, was uncharacteristically emotional.

"You cheated!" accused Pinkie, pointing a hoof at him, "You slimey cheatypants cheateder!"

"I should have known this was too good to be true," Gilda just faceclawed with both claws at once.

Helios chuckled, flexing his wings slowly, "Sorry 'friends', but the friendship wave doesn't work on someone just because you disagree with them. After all, haven't I been honest? Haven't I been generous and loyal to the ponies I'm tasked with protecting? I've been..."

"I don't think you've been very kind to most ponies," Ditzy pointed out.

"Okay, okay," Helios said, "I haven't spared lives every time I could, but overall, you see that's the beauty of it! The rainbow wave was designed with a threshold that has to be surpassed before it will actually work against a target, and will only actually kill a target if they are virtually without any good whatsoever. You know, it's to keep ponies from using it to solve every little problem or coming to depend too much on it. Believe me, I've been very careful to balance my more questionable deeds with good ones, even protecting ponies from myself at times. Besides, it's all about intent in the end, right? My cause is noble."

"Oh that is pastel pony manure!" Gilda shrieked, clearly enraged.

“It’s plot physics!” Pinkie smiled, starting to bounce again, “It’d be boring if we got him the same way, right?”

"Actually that's pretty ingenious," Inkie pointed out. "I mean if you helped create something like that, would you not want to put in a caveat that would protect you from it?"

"It is inappropriate for you to be congratulating him." Trixie reprimanded Inkie.

"Oh stop whining," Helios finally stood up straight, spreading his wings again as he took on an uncharacteristically determined expression, "You're going to have to fight me the old fashion way: deal with it."

Trixie, in particular, grinned in return, "Oh but Your Majesty, you have no idea how much more Trixie will enjoy this." She then turned to the others, lowering her voice, "The Pie sisters will fan out and distract him, the fliers will go for the gems, Trixie will free Her Majesty."

Trixie held her hooves forward then, her horn aglow as a burst of electrical energy shot out towards Helios. The blast of energy appeared to do little more than break his concentration, but that was enough for her to flank to the side before suddenly teleporting out of sight. The unicorn appeared behind the altar at Celestia's tail end, swaying slightly to get her bearings before pulling the magical chain that she had been keeping from beneath her cape. It was the same chain that she had acquired on her first trip into this world from one of the cells, and that she had been studying since.

"Whee let's go!" Pinkie squealed, darting off to the right.

"Pinkie think fast!" Blinkie tossed a now lit stick of dynamite that was in her mouth to Pinkie before rushing herself directly at Helios.

Inkie sighed, then calmly pulled her sledgehammer out of her own saddlebag, holding it firmly in her snout before darting to the left.

At the same time, Gilda surged upwards with powerful movements of her wings, arching back and around to sweep herself towards the nearest crystal. Ditzy almost followed her, but then swerved into a different course as if by accident, barrel-rolling several times before heading towards another of the crystals instead.

It was a good thing that they had followed Trixie's instruction to spread out. The initial blast of energy from Helios, aimed at Trixie, missed all the others as they fanned apart. The blast shook the entire temple, sending shards of the stone floor spraying backwards and leaving an imprint that went right through to the ground.

As he watched cracks spread upwards through the walls around the doorway, Helios gritted his teeth at a sudden realization. This place had been rapidly built out of shabby materials and the structure itself was only barely enchanted to be more sturdy. If he used his full power to attack them, he risked collapsing the temple before the portal was open. His normal strategy of 'hit them with all you’ve got and hope they die' was not going to work; he was going to have to hold back and use strategy. Then again, he only had to keep them under control until the portal activated.

The brief amount of time that Helios spent devising a strategy did not go unused, as Pinkie caught hold of Blinkie's dynamite in her muzzle. Skidding to a stop, she yanked out the cupcake cannon, retrieved from the previous battle, as if from thin air. Into the cannon went the dynamite, and the weapon was fired towards Helios. Out blasted a delicious looking cupcake... with a lit stick of dynamite poking out of the top like a candle.

Blinkie laughed maniacally as she charged the alicorn, yanking what seemed like a ripcord on her own saddle bag before sliding across the tile floor beneath him. Multiple compartments opened on her saddle as it was triggered, streamers, sparklers, and several bottle rockets shooting out in all directions, though most went directly upwards into Helios.

Inkie took advantage of the multiple distractions, circling around behind Helios before leaping upwards and bouncing off of one of the temple's columns. Her hooves left cracks streaming upwards through the support, Inkie not nearly so concerned at bringing it down as Helios might have been, before she lunged back towards Helios' rear, hammer aimed squarely for the weakest point she could find.

Gilda surged forward, trying to grab for the pink crystal, but immediately felt a surge of energy jolting through her form, blurring her vision and sending her backwards several meters as she strained to keep herself airborne. She recovered quickly, pulling herself about.

"Watch it Ditz’, they're live!" Gilda yelled. "Artillery support please?"

Ditzy spun about, bumping into another one of the columns, peering at another of the crystals with each eye, "Maybe we have to get the ones that are like us!" She wobbled over to the yellow one, correctly assuming that it would represent Fluttershy's element, but had no more luck. She was able to keep hold of it, but was buzzed the entire time and wasn't able to pull it free from its socket.

Trixie, meanwhile, seemed to have something particular in mind. She moved her piece of chain to wrap it against one of those binding Celestia before her horn glowed. There was a clear exchange of energy between her and the platform, but in the end there was a feedback that blasted her across the floor away from the altar, her own chain landing next to her, both of them smoking slightly.

Even Helios had to admit that he was stunned by the efficiency of the team's actions, the Pie sisters in particular seeming to act with one mind. His horn glowed, a shield of energy forming in front of the dynamite that Pinkie fired. Unfortunately, blocking it wasn't all he needed to do; he had to keep it from damaging his surroundings. Encapsulated it in a force field, the dynamite exploded with a muffled boom before fizzling out.

This distraction left him open for the unexpected blaze from beneath him, causing him to scream like a filly, almost as if it tickled. Of course then he backed up and took Inkie's hammer right where it hurt, causing his squeal to rise an entire octave to a much less ticklish-sounding note.

The alicorn lashed out in return, a short-range wave of energy bursting out from all sides. At the same time, one hoof darted back to impact Inkie in the gut, sending her arching back to slam against another one of the crystal mounts, shaking violently from the impact and new surge of energy before falling back to the floor with a dull thud.

Meanwhile Blinkie took a forehoof to her own midsection, then the same hoof to her head as Helios stumbled. She was lucky that the impacts were accidental, or would have likely had her head caved in. As it was she screeched out in pain, barely able to roll herself out of the way of further stomps. Her own saddlebag torn open, half a dozen bombs rolled across the floor as she staggered away.

Ditzy squealed seeing the others hurt so, swooping down towards Blinkie first, then looking back at Gilda, remembering her shouting for artillery support. She grabbed hold of the nearest bomb, tossing it upwards towards Gilda, then spun around to continue throwing them up.

Amazingly, Gilda managed to grab hold of all six that were tossed her way, jamming each against one of the crystals in turn. Sure enough, the energy surge against them was enough to light the lot, and the griffon shouted to the others, "Take cover!"

Trixie grunted as she lifted herself up, then peered back and forth at what was happening before diving behind one of the columns herself. She called out another order, "We can't damage His Majesty fast enough, destroy the structure instead! Her Majesty can survive the collapse!"

"Sis!" Pinkie screeched, seeing her sisters take the brunt of Helios’ ire, charging at him on her own, and trying to scoop up another of the bombs to load into her cannon. Hearing what Trixie said however, she instead turned and aimed it towards the wall of the structure, firing in that direction instead.

Helios gritted his teeth, leaping off of the floor and letting out a shout of rage. His yell was quickly overshadowed by six explosions from each of the crystal chambers, with another shattering a hole in one side of the temple and causing part of it to rapidly sag towards the floor.

The machine itself, more protectively enchanted than the temple's structure, was amazingly resilient against the energy from the explosives, even at close range. The columns around the machine less so. All of them shattered outwards as the roof of the structure began to collapse inward.

Helios was not having any of this however, flapping his wings to move himself directly into the fire above the machine. His entire body was suddenly ablaze in dark flames as his energy shot out both upwards and outward, pushing against the roof of the temple as well as the walls on every side. Stone splintered and creaked, rocks that had been falling slowing to a hover and then shooting back upwards. The entire structure rattled as he literally shattered the building outwards, the entire ceiling and upper portion of every wall blasted out into the city, leaving the altar and the machine safely in the center.

Fortunately for the team, they were all either on the floor or able to hit the floor in time to avoid being hurled outward along with the rest of the temple, but now things were a great deal more serious. Helios would not need to hold back nearly so much with no need to worry about rubble blocking off the portal that was now rapidly forming around Celestia.

Trixie held tight to the chain that she still had in her grasp, then ran back to the altar, once again trying to wind it around Celestia's chains in another desperate attempt at her undisclosed plan.

"Blinkie! Inkie!" Pinkie dove to her stunned sisters, trying desperately herself to drag them into a hiding place behind what was left of one of the remaining columns.

Gilda roared, and in a move she would have certainly never attempted prior to recent events, she charged into Helios herself, aiming her claws to grab for his horn. She was not really certain of what to do with it once she had it, trying her best to yank and twist it out of place as if expecting to break it. This only elicited a chuckle from Helios as he waved his head and sent her tumbling back into the ground, yelping as one of her wings crumpled beneath her from the impact.

"Why won't this work!" Trixie yelled out in a fit of rage herself. Gilda's efforts kept Helios from paying her efforts much notice, but so far she had no way to use that advantage.

Ditzy stood up as well, pushing a small piece of rubble off of herself, then tried to get her bearings. Blinking over at Trixie and realizing that she was attempting something, she called out, "Reverse the polarity!"

"What?" Trixie paused, barely catching Ditzy's suggestion and eyeing her with disbelief.

"Trust me!" Ditzy called back, "I have a friend that does that a lot and it always works! Reversing the polarity will disturb the frequencies and cause a reaction that the outward edge of the space-time bubble will propagate!"

"Wait what?" even Helios was given pause as Ditzy suddenly started spouting techno-babble.

"Fine!" Trixie cried out, not questioning Ditzy's knowledge of any type of bubble; that cutie mark had to mean something after all.

Trixie's horn glowed, magical ripples flowing through the chain in the opposite direction, causing a snap of energy that once again blasted her back away from the altar. This time however, the energy swirled through the chains, the outward edge of a previously invisible bubble becoming visible around the altar as it expanded outward, hesitated, then pulsed several more times.

With a shattering noise, the chains all pulsed with energy, then released, slammed back into the mechanisms below them as Celestia screeched out at the chaffing of chains unwinding around her.

The team wasted no time, and though Celestia would not appreciate their methods, they did manage to get her off of the platform. Inkie grunted, picking herself up, then slamming her hammer into the harness still holding Celestia's head, unfortunately clobbering her in the process as well but successfully knocking her free. Gilda flapped her one good wing, managing to get enough of a push to thrust her entire body into Celestia's side, getting the rest of her onto the floor. Pinkie grabbed hold of her other side, trying to drag her away from the platform, and even Blinkie managed to drag her dizzy self off of the floor to help pull.

The time rift pulsed again, then expanded outwards. The reversal had delayed it and released the chains, but had not stopped the portal from opening. The mechanisms of the altar reacted as it did so, thrusting upwards, but now there was no Princess Celestia to push up and into the rift.

Helios' expression became panicked, no longer worrying about his enemies, "No... NO! SELENE! I WON'T LET YOU DIE!" His expression twitched, flames shooting outwards from his body. He watched the portal shimmer below him, knowing it would only be open for a brief moment, then without further reluctance threw himself downwards.

There was a crash, followed by noises that seemed to come from the other side of the portal. Nightmare Moon's voice could be heard screaming in rage as she was banished, Celestia's own mournful wail in turn. There was a flash of light, and the sounds on the other side of the time rift went silent as the crack in time closed back up on itself.

What remained of the machine groaned both from strain and abuse, the enchantments shattering and what remained practically melting from the remaining energy. The heroes were blasted away from the fissure in every direction, landing hard on the shattered tile and rock beneath them.

The moment of brief silence was broken by the groans of the ponies, as one at a time they staggered in an attempt to stand. Most of them were only able to manage a position where they were only barely sitting up, and Celestia did not rise at all, her eyes spinning about from that last impact of Inkie's hammer.

"My apologies Princess," Inkie calmly noted before gagging at the feel of her own bruised body.

"That," Gilda was the next voice to speak up, "Was even more painful than I expected... and I was expecting a lot."

"That," Blinkie coughed up a bit between statements, but corrected Gilda, "was awesome!"

"Trixie will never again doubt the Derp’ed One's wisdom," Trixie adjusted her hat and crown, then rose up slowly herself, unwilling to remain on the ground in her moment of victory, but in too much pain to manage a particularly hammy speech.

"You know what this calls for?" Pinkie staggered up, and tried to make her most predictable of statements, "A... par... t..yyyyy..." she stumbled over again, thumping back against the ground.

"Hi lady! What's your name?" Ditzy's statement brought all of their attention to a newcomer.

Surely enough, Ditzy had fallen against the body of another mare that had not been present previously. Nearly as large as Celestia, she had a deep blue coat, speckled with white as if patterned after the night sky itself. On her flank was a pattern of a full moon with a starry mist behind it, not unlike the cutie mark of Princess Luna. Her mane and tail were an almost black shade of purple, waving about her as if made of pure energy, also not unlike those of the other alicorns. In fact, she appeared to be an alicorn herself, deep purple wings folded behind her and a solid ebony horn rising above her head.

"I..." the confused alicorn stammered, "Where am I? I was fighting Luna... and Celestia yelled for me to take cover, but I couldn't in time and... and then Helios was suddenly there and threw me...then I was here..."

"This may take some explanation, Selene," Celestia took a deep breath, her own body starting to recover.

When the portal opened back up so soon after the heroes had left, Luna had initially assumed the worst. She could not have been more surprised when the vortex opened into a steady gate rather than a bright flash of teleportation and the first two refugee carts were drawn through.

The first appeared to be Majesty, flanked by her world's Spike, and appearing cautious and uncertain of if she should be there. It was possible that only they were meant to come through in the first group to test if it was safe, but the second cart pulled by Lickity Split and Wind Whistler came through right behind them, appearing as if Lickity was doing most of the pulling against Whister's better judgment.

Princess Luna was quick to realize what was happening, waving off the guards with a single hoof, causing them to back up a few steps while remaining on alert. Luna then approached the initial cart, waving a hoof and greeting them.

“Welcome to Equestria, travelers!” Luna’s voice boomed loudly, the new arrivals suddenly stopping in the tracks in front of her, “We, Luna, Princess of the Night, greet thee!”

"Oh my stars it's a trap!" Majesty tried to back up, not doing very well at reversing the course of her cart, however.

"I was promised ice cream!" Lickity Split's scream of terror was unique, but it was still obviously a scream of terror as she immediately broke off from her own cart and ran headlong into the nearest royal guard while attempting to escape.

"Lickity, no!" Whistler was the most level headed of them, but still obviously horror-stricken. She tried to turn her cart around, flapping her wings as she tried to speed off, but then her own harness snapped off and she ended up barrel rolling into the ground.

"I'll save you, Majesty!" their baby dragon shouted, appearing to be the bravest. He actually charged and tried to punch Luna in the shin.

Luna appeared to have barely felt this attack, arching one eyebrow and raising her other front hoof to hurriedly motion to the surrounding guards not to retaliate against the poor, frightened off-worlders. Spike, meanwhile, yelped and hopped backwards, holding his fist as if he had just punched a brick wall before promptly falling over.

"Why were we worried these clowns would invade us again?" commented the guard that Lickity Split had run into, moving a single hoof to gently hold her in place on the ground where she fell. She appeared to stay pinned through sheer panic alone.

"Civilians, please do not fear, we shall not harm you!" Luna tried to appease them, but her thundering voice only made them run around more.

"Shhh," Blueblood's voice came from behind Luna, "You're only making it worse Auntie Luna." He then turned to the crowd, dropping his normal manner and speaking to the new arrivals, "Come on now, let's calm ourselves. She isn't trying to be mean, she just has a... speech... disorder... thing. It's very sad."

It took them a few moments, but eventually the four off-worlders calmed themselves, looking slightly embarrassed as they moved to stand in front of their carts. Luna was silent for a moment, but shot Blueblood a black look for his statement.

"Does... this mean we get ice cream after all?" Lickity was the first to speak up, trying to fix her ruffled mane as she spoke.

"Um... we suppose so?" Luna spoke uncertainly.

"So we're... okay to be here?" Majesty very slowly put the words together, then braced all four hooves against the ground in preparation for Luna's reply.

"Thou and thy kin are most welcome in Equestria!" Luna raised a single hoof and shouted again, as if completely unable to adjust the volume even after their initial response. "Behold, for we have prepared a temporary camp in anticipation, and our guards shall safely guide you thence through the forest, in groups."

"We'll try to arrange for ice cream." Blueblood waved a hoof towards one of the guards, who went wide-eyed and nodded.

After Majesty had gone back and informed the others that it was safe to come through, the refugees arrived in a steady stream. What had initially been meant as a front line in case the heroes failed quickly became an orderly evacuation. Small teams of guards escorted groups of a dozen ponies at a time though the safest path in the forest that Zecora had revealed to them, while Zecora herself waited at the refugee camp to help them settle in. The temporary camp had been located conveniently near both Ponyville and a nearby river, allowing a place for the aquatic equines as well.

Most of the refugees had seemed very confused, not having expected a warm and orderly welcome, but there had been no time to explain things to them, and they had all been happy simply to be taken care of. After having mistakenly terrified several other groups, Luna had herself opted to stand on a nearby hill rather than personally greet them. Instead, she put Prince Blueblood in charge of greeting, and though he strained to remain stuffy, one could see a measure of emotion slipping through that for him was anything but typical.

Finally the portal shimmered, and six more tired figures walked out. It was Twilight Wish and her five closest companions. They looked extremely reserved, almost as if they had not wanted to cross over into the new world. Twilight flicked a few switches on this side of the portal, and the gate closed for the time being, making sure it would still have enough energy to bring the heroes through later on.

Twilight Wish’s eyes scanned the area, seeing that the gate was now in the middle of an excavated crater with forest on all sides. Her eyes fell on the unmistakable form of Luna atop the hill, and took a deep breath.

“Is- is this a good idea?” even Surprise seemed reluctant, and oddly composed at the seriousness of their situation.

“It is,” Twilight sighed again as she began walking towards Luna, “We have to face what we’ve done, no matter what influence it was done under.”

"Twilight!" the six froze as a voice unfamiliar to them spoke up, turning to see Blueblood walking towards them. Dropping his usual, official mannerisms caused a few nearby guards to perk their ears in curiosity, "I think the other Twilight will want to see you girls; she should be recovering by now. WELL... I told the guards that tickling them was the cure, but I'm pretty sure they figured out the real cure by now." He stifled a chuckle.

"Do we know you?" Firefly moved in front of the group, defensively.

Applejack grabbed hold of Firefly's tail, giving her a yank back before she could leap to their defense and then looked at Blueblood, "Guess we're under arrest huh."

"No fighting it, Firefly," Twilight reminded the pegasus.

"At least they aren't beating us with sticks yet!" Surprise pointed out, as if she expected that to be the eventual result.

"They're going to beat us with sticks?" Posey huddled in the back, laying against the ground with both hooves covering her head as she teared up.

"Arrest?" Blueblood quirked an eyebrow himself, "No no no, look just wait here for a second and try not to break anything, I'm going to check in with Luna, then we'll be off to the palace."

He did not need to go to Luna however, as she had approached the group when she saw them lingering instead of moving on with the other refugees. The alicorn stood next to Blueblood, observing the fragile state of the six ponies and peering at Blueblood as if wondering what he had said to them.

"Thou requirest Our presence?" Luna's voice boomed, calmly for her, but still causing all six of the off-world pony's eyes to go wide.

Prince Blueblood saw Twilight Wish about to speak, holding out a hoof to shush her, "Auntie Luna! No, no, we're fine. These are friends of Twilight Sparkle's, so we're going to the palace to see if she's been… fixed yet. Unless I miss my guess, Team B has had enough time to get back and... well you should probably escort them to the palace when they arrive, but I guess you already planned to do that." He rattled on just a bit, almost as if nervous.

Luna blinked a few times at Blueblood, leaning slowly over to look him in the eyes. She leaned back, thinking intensely, then noted, "We granteth thee leave to do thus; we shall remain and observe."

Blueblood took another step towards the off-worlders, and without so much as asking their permission, his horn glowed brightly. He and the six off-worlders were teleported away in a flash.

"Should we... follow him, your Majesty?" asked a nearby unicorn guard, seeming equally unsure.

Luna's answer was cut off as the portal activated a final time. Once again, the guards rallied around it, and once again there was no need. Upon the now very crowded platform stood the substitute team, along with a very groggy-looking princesses Celestia and Selene.

Trixie had struck herself into a pose in anticipation of a cheering crowd on the other side, fore-hooves in the air and a huge grin on her face. When no cheer was immediate, she lowered herself to all fours and adjusted her crown, looking a bit downtrodden. The other members were behind her, Pinkie bouncing up and down in excitement, much to the chagrin of Inkie who was relying on her help to walk. Blinkie, who was apparently the worst of the group, had been placed on Gilda's back between her wings, but still seemed aware of her surroundings if nothing else. Deprived of her usual sleeping position on Gilda, Ditzy had curled up on Selene's back instead, who looked quite alarmed at being used for bedding, among the other things that had occurred. Celestia stood on the other side of the group, strong enough again to at least look like her normal, regal self.

Of course, the primary reason for there being no cheer was the confusion at the addition of the new alicorn. Many of the guards were taking up positions just in case it was an enemy, and Luna looked blind and deaf to all other things as she stared at Selene. Tears slowly formed in her eyes before she lunged at Selene so fast that she may as well have teleported, suddenly grasping her in a hug.

"Selene, thou art alive!" Luna's voice boomed out, as she practically wept on the shoulder of the still very confused Selene.

"Sister... you are... feeling better again?" Selene was clearly just as surprised to see Luna in her right mind as Luna was to see Selene alive. The alicorn then looked about, seeming incredibly shy about the amount of eyes focused on her and sinking downward slightly.

"Did Trixie mention the valiant defeat of His Majesty?" Trixie piped up.

Celestia smiled brightly at the two, then paused and looked about before turning to the nearest guard, "Prince Blueblood was not waiting for us?"

"No, Your Majesty," replied the nearest one, "He went to the palace with some of the refugees, we were just about to follow him."

"That won't be necessary," Celestia smiled, then turned to the others, "We'll be going back there ourselves."

Prince Blueblood appeared inside the castle in a flash of light, surrounded by the six off-world ponies, all of whom had to take a moment to get over the dizziness caused by unexpected teleportation. Blueblood himself took stock of his surroundings, noting that they were in the main hall once again, just outside of the throne room.

Alerted by the noise, two guards quickly ran out of the throne room, only to skid to a halt when they recognized the Prince and gave him a respectful bow.

Blueblood spoke before they could do so themselves, “Oh no need for that. Are the five ponies I left here cleansed?” He stifled a slight chuckle.

“Um,” the guard seemed caught off guard by the tone and not being required to bow, “Yes, your Majesty, they are just inside the throne room.”

“Sh-should we be here?” Twilight Wish asked quietly from behind Blueblood, looking nervously at her unfamiliar surroundings.

“Me and Firefly have already been here!” Surprise smiled happily, happier than she was previously since they still had not been beaten with sticks.

“Of course you should,” Blueblood turned his head to shoot back at them, then started to walk through the large double doors to the throne room. He did not bother using his magic, instead allowing the guards to hurriedly dart in front of him to open it.

“Ahem,” one of the guards seemed a little nervous, “You should know, my Prince, that your initial suggestion was not exactly… well and they may be a little upset so do be cautious. They’re better though, ‘turns out we just had to read letters to the one and then-” He grew silent as Blueblood gave him a ‘yes I know’ gesture, leaving the guard confused.

Sure enough, Twilight Sparkle and her friends, save for Pinkie Pie of course, were all waiting in the throne room. Twilight Sparkle was seated in one of the comfortable-looking couches with Spike snoozing on her back, looking as if she had been reading a book until the new arrivals came, placing it instead on the arm of the chair. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were looking impatient near the front of the throne, pacing back and forth. Fluttershy was being quiet, sitting behind the two pacing ponies but staying a great deal more still and reserved. Rarity was sitting on another comfortable chair across from Twilight, but did not stay there for long.

“You!” Rarity was up in a heartbeat, pointing a hoof at Prince Blueblood after overhearing the guard speak to him, “I should have known it was your idea! What was this, revenge for the Gala?”

“The Gala?” Blueblood eye-quirked, then snorted, “Faust no, I was having far more fun than you realize.”

For a brief moment, Rarity looked as if she might explode all over the Prince, regardless of how royal he might be or who was watching.

“Hold it Rarity,” Twilight Sparkle slowly got up from her seat at the couch, her magic moving the still sleeping Spike from her back and placing him where she had just been sitting, “There are more important things to deal with right now.”

“You!” Applejack and Rainbow Dash actually spoke in unison, also noticing the group of ponies behind Blueblood.

“Oh Helios,” Twilight Wish sweared habitually, as she realized who Blueblood had taken them to see.

“Dun dun duuuuun!” Surprise threw her fore-hooves up, deciding the moment would benefit from a drama chord.

“Whoa there,” Blueblood moved his position slightly, “Right, sorry; I probably should have come in here on my own first and warned you who was coming in with me… anyway! They are just here to tell you something!”

“Right,” Twilight Wish took a deep breath, moving slowly around Blueblood as if acting as the spokesman for her team.

She did not get to speak as of yet however, another flash of light from the hallway breaking her concentration. One of the two guards stayed, as if feeling the need to remain and make sure things did not degenerate into violence, the other heading out the double doors once again.

“I suppose that must be them,” Twilight Wish said, sighing, “We’re ready to fully confess, and take the penalty for what we’ve-“

“Twilight Wish,” Blueblood shook his head, “I already told you before that once everything was over, I would gladly take responsibility for everything you did while under my influence. Anyway, it’s probably best that I be in my own office while Celestia is explaining things; less chance of explosions that way.”

“Wait, what?” Twilight Wish’s eyes grew wide, then she waved a hoof frantically as she saw Blueblood’s horn glowing, “No wait don’t-“

But it was too late, Blueblood had flashed away back to his own quarters, leaving both groups now staring at where he had been in silence.

“Okay,” Rainbow Dash was the first to break the silence, “What the hay is going on?”

“Best. Surprise. Ever!” decided Surprise.

“Oh he decided to leave?” Celestia’s voice was heard from the double doors, the Princess strolling into the room, “Poor thing, he’s probably nervous about seeing Selene again after all this time.”

Indeed, the still confused looking alicorn Selene was directly behind Celestia, looking even more nervous as all eyes went to her first. Luna was next to her sister, smiling brightly at her presence. Behind them were the six heroes, Trixie in particular seeming still put out that no one had started cheering yet.

“Princess?” Twilight Sparkle walked up to the Princess, as was her habit, despite everypony else in the room having paused to bow to her, “I… I’m not even sure what to ask.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia sighed, leaning down to nose slightly against Twilight’s ear, then moved to walk towards the throne, where she slowly had a seat, “I’m sorry that any of you did, but you have to understand that to interfere too early would have disrupted the proper sequence of events and might have resulted in a… less beneficial outcome.”

Now she had their attention, nopony in the room was speaking, all circled about the throne as she spoke.

Celestia took a deep breath, “A thousand years ago, when our sister Luna was… taken from us, something very strange happened when she was banished. You see, Selene had joined in the fight, while Helios had stayed in our sister world to keep order. I arrived late to the battle, having had difficulty adjusting to using all the Elements at once… and found Lu—I mean Nightmare Moon had nearly killed Selene. I shouted at her to move aside, and tried to cast the banishing wave before she was killed, but she was not able to get out of the way in time.”

Luna tried to retreat into a corner at this point, clearly ashamed at her involvement in the story, but Selene reached out a hoof and pulled her gently back, smiling at her forgivingly.

Celestia continued, “At first, I thought I had accidentally finished off Selene, but I was surprised when I realized that the still body was that of Helios. However, Helios had not been so weakened by battle, so he survived the blast, and immediately attacked me in a fit of rage that I did not understand. I was able to subdue him, but he would not speak reasonably with me. He accused me of harming our sisters in a grab for power, and claimed to have ‘saved’ Selene from my ‘evil plan’.”

“He was clearly not being himself, but also clearly not possessed, at least not by anything of which the Elements could clense him. I brought him back to the palace, where upon further examination it was discovered his mind had been damaged by some immense torment. Once I knew this, I was able to persuade him to reveal how he remembered me coming back and claiming I had accidentally killed Selene, how he was banished by his own ponies, and how he had awoken and vowed to take his revenge. Helios told me the entire story, and I was… severely tempted to try to prevent it. I realized that it was partially my fault that he was banished, and certainly my fault for not having acted more wisely against Nightmare Moon, but I also realized that changing the timeline was a dangerous thing to do. So instead, I went to Helios… and claimed that I had accidentally killed Selene.”

She took a deep breath, “Not a day has gone by that I did not regret putting such things into motion when I could have attempted to prevent them, but the chaos that could ensue from actually trying to change established timelines was… too horrible to contemplate.”

“I hope that you forgive me, and that you forgive Helios as well for the things that have occurred. It took over a century of magic work, much of it very painful, to recover his mind from the thousand years of torment he had been through. Once he was freed from his delusions, and realizing what he had done, he insisted that his punishment continue. Forsaking his alicorn form, he has been my faithful servant, standing by my side and keeping the realm safe under a number of guises, beginning as a lowly castle servant and progressing until he earned his present rank. I fear his present guise is designed to keep ponies at a distance, as he did not wish any to become too friendly with him only to be hurt by finding out what he was.”

Celestia then turned directly to the off-worlders, making all six of them sink slightly as if expecting reprisal, but her tone was still kind, “Twilight Wish and friends. Helios has informed me that what you did, you did under his influence, and I consider his millennia of punishment more than enough to absolve you of your crimes. I know it will not be easy…” her head turned to the others, “But I ask you to forgive them as well.”

“Oh,” Celestia added as an afterthought, “I also think a celebration is due, in honor of our new heroes.”

“Yes!” Trixie threw her hooves up, causing everyone to stare at her now for a moment. She slowly put them back upon the floor, and added a more reserved, “Team Awesome P.A.R.T.Y Trixie and Friends thanks you, Your Majesty.”

“Oh no need to thank me,” Celestia smiled, “This is your moment, there is probably a crowd gathered outside as we speak, now that news of your achievements has begun to spread.”

“Have fun Trixie,” Twilight Sparkle smiled to her.

“The Twilight Sparkle is not going out with us?” Trixie looked at her, arching one eyebrow.

“No Trixie, you and your friends deserve more credit than we do; all we did was get rescued this time.” Twilight Sparkle smiled, “I’m proud of you Trixie, your magic really has become powerful.”

For a moment, Trixie was speechless, looking dizzy with glee at her rival’s words.

“Yeah go on guys, especially you G! Glad you came around.” Rainbow Dash moved up beside Twilight Sparkle, looking over at Gilda.

Gilda tried not to blush, “Aw don’t get all sappy on me Dash… but thanks. I’ll try and visit more.”

“I think I had probably best not go as well,” Twilight Wish spoke up too, but found herself smiling for the first time in quite a while, “Besides, we should get back to help everypony from Undervale get settled in.”

With that, the teams separated once again. The off-world ponies were taken to the new settlement to take on their new duties there. Trixie and her friends marched out quite happily to meet the cheering crowd, flanked by both Celestia on one side and Luna and Selene on the other. The other ponies rested up, but for the most part quietly made their way back to Ponyville.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Sometimes we all do things that we regret, sometimes things that can cost us the friendships we cherish the most, making us think that maybe being a loner is the best way to avoid being unhappy. For a long time I avoided the problem in the hopes of avoiding more pain, but the more I avoided it, the more pain I felt. I’ve learned that it’s never too late to come back and try again. Making up for what you did might not be pleasant, but it’s well worth it in the long run. Maybe ponies aren’t such bad friends to have after all.

Awesomely Yours,

Gilda

Dear Princess Celestia,

Sometimes life can be really confusing and hard, but I’ve learned that just because you released a horror from its eternal imprisonment and unleashed it upon the universe, doesn’t mean you have to panic and almost crash the TARDIS into a black hole trying to get away; that will only get you kicked off at the nearest planet. And just covering it up with a blanket and hoping nopony notices won’t work either. It’s best to ‘fess up to what you did and ask your friends for help instead; together you can always find a way!

Kindly Yours,

Ditzy

Dear Princess Celestia,

Hi! Trixie says that we all have to write to you, and tell you something we learned! I learned that even the worst of meanies can become the best of friends, and all it takes is a common goal and possibly being trapped together in a dark ruin for hours on end. I also learned that if you find a giant pink button with a blinking light on it, you should press it right away!

Partastically Yours,

Pinkie Pie

Dear Princess Celestia,

Blowing up things is really fun, so it can be tempting to use ‘splodies to solve all our problems, but sometimes resorting to blowing things up with huge explosives at the first sign of trouble is not the right answer. I’ve learned to carry a wider range of bombs with me, like shaped charges, smoke bombs, and other smaller, tactical explosives. Oh, and I guess I also learned that you should try to use the lowest level of violence possible to solve your problems so there’s a smaller mess to clean up after and fewer ponies wanting revenge.

Explosively Yours,

Blinkie Pie

Dear Princess Celestia,

There are a lot of ponies in the world and many of them are loyal to their friends and believe they are doing the right thing. I learned however, that this isn't always enough. A pony can follow almost all the Elements and still end up being brutally wrong, so it's important that we carefully analyze what we are doing and look at both sides of an issue before resorting to extreme measures.

Calmly Yours,

Inkie Pie

Dear Princess Celestia,

I, the Great and Powerful Trixie, have learned a valuable lesson! I have learned that no matter how talented and mind-boggling amazing that a pony is, she still needs to have friends to depend on to help. What's more, you should not dismiss a pony because they seem to be simple or even clumsy. They sometimes bring brilliant solutions that not even the Great and Powerful Trixie could have imagined.

Greatly and Powerfully Yours,

Trixie

Epilogue

Helios stood at the top of his tower, peering out the window at the bright, blue sky, then down towards the crowd still filling the Canterlot’s main square. The Celebration had continued late into the evening, both of the victory of the new heroes and of the arrival of Selene, his sister.

He had refused to attend himself, even though he could have done so either as Prince Blueblood or himself. Helios had never been ‘himself’ outside of this room for countless years, and had come to the conclusion that it was best to just be the villain that was defeated and then mysteriously fell off the map.

The door to his room opened, and he turned slowly to see who it was. A sigh escaped his mouth, then he turned back towards the window as if not willing to look upon the new arrival. It was Selene, who moved slowly into the room, her ethereal mane even more lustrous now that she had a chance to rest after her ordeal. Leaving the door slightly ajar, she paused directly beside him.

“Brother?” she finally spoke, her voice quiet and unsure.

“I know.” Helios responded. “I know now that you wouldn’t have helped me even had I succeeded, and I know you’re probably deeply ashamed of me for trying to trade our sister’s life for yours, but,” he paused a moment, and sighed, “I still saved you, and that’s one part of my insanity that I can’t look back on with regret.”

“I am disappointed that things turned out badly, but if I forgave Luna for what she did in her madness, so you have to know that I forgive you, brother,” Selene walked up to stand beside her brother, looking over at him. When he did not respond, she leaned over to nuzzle his cheek slightly.

“I will never forgive myself,” Helios leaned away as if ashamed to accept the gesture.

“Well then,” Selene pondered, then smiled again, “Then I will never forgive you for not forgiving yourself. Fair?”

Helios found himself chuckling; he had trouble staying serious for very long, and turned his own head to nuzzle back at his sister’s ear, “Fair enough. I’ll try my hoof at forgiving myself, when I get around to it.”

“Well just remember I still love you and… well you know,” Selene sighed, blushed slightly, then looked out the window. “Maybe we can watch from here, I think they are going to have fireworks later, the bomb pony apparently had a large stash of them.”

“That sounds… nice and distracting,” was the best answer Helios could give.

Their moment of reunion was shattered when the door was kicked open, causing them both to look back towards it. Rarity walked in, holding her head high, pausing at the door as she looked at the two.

“Ah yes there you are, ‘Prince Blueblood’.” Rarity spoke. “I need to have a brief word with you.” She spoke to Selene, “I hope you don’t mind, darling.”

“Oh no,” Selene looked awkward, “Go right ahead.”

“A word? With me?” Helios turned about, raising an eyebrow, but faced Rarity and took a few steps forward.

“Oh it’s very personal dear,” Rarity walked up to him, then waved a hoof as if to motion for him to lower his head, “Could you lean down so that I can whisper it to you?”

Helios blinked, then slowly leaned down. Several times Rarity motioned again, until finally his head was barely an inch from her own.

And with that, Rarity’s hoof flew up and smacked Helios hard across the face with an audible crack.

“How DARE you!” Rarity’s demeanor suddenly changed, “If you aren’t ready to be with a mare that’s one thing, but you should tell her that you aren’t able to have a relationship, not drag her along like a brute and embarrass her in front of an entire gala! And don’t even PRETEND you weren’t having fun doing so either! I could see it in your eyes earlier, you selfish… selfish… OH I want to say so many unladylike things right now!”

Helios was stunned for a few moments that somepony actually hit him; it had been a while since that had last happened. He then just raised his head, chuckling good-naturedly. Even Selene looked slightly amused, giggling from behind him, but then blushing at having done so.

“Oh don’t be like that,” Helios smirked at Rarity, “You had every bit as much fun when you slung cake all over me and I fell into that statue. ‘Stupid hall needed renovating anyway.”

Rarity hmph’ed, but a moment later sighed, “Well yes, I do admit that was… rather amusing in hindsight.” She managed to smile, taking a deep breath, “I apologize Princess Selene, I just needed to get that out of my system.” She was not going to apologize to Helios, clearly.

“Oh it’s… I’m not mad,” Selene spoke quietly, “But I really think maybe… you should forgive him, too.”

Helios shrugged, “Look, I’ll make it up to you. Next time you’re in Canterlot I’ll treat you properly and take you to… something. I don’t know, we’ll see what is happening.”

“Hmph.” Rarity repeated, then turned to go. “We’ll see, ‘Prince Blueblood’.”

Helios took a deep breath, and started to turn back to Selene as Rarity was leaving, “Well at least now we got-“

“Hi!” a very loud voice came from the door now, making Helios cringe.

Helios turned back around, managing to grin for the newcomers . Into the door flew Ditzy, nearly falling over as she landed in the middle of the floor. Behind her, somewhat more composed, strolled Gilda, looking very self-conscious for some reason. That reason became apparent shortly afterwards as a little gray unicorn with a blond mane and tail could be seen curled up and sleeping on her back where Ditzy had so often lain.

“Hi Mister Helium! I’ve been looking all over for you; I wanted you to meet my little muffin, Dinky!” she waved excitedly towards the filly on Gilda’s back, “A guard is looking for my other little muffin, so I’m sure she’ll be here soon too!”

“You… brought your daughter to meet me?” Helios looked baffled. “That’s… probably not the first thing I would have done in your place. I suppose that’s… very special though.”

“She’s beautiful, miss.” Selene smiled, walking up as well this time, then leaning over to admire the little one, which caused Gilda to look even more self-conscious.

“Thanks! I’m glad somepony brought her to the palace when I was missing, ‘cause now we can-“ Ditzy fell silent, ears perked and standing deathly still as if picking something up. After a few moments, she gasped as if in sheer joy.

“Uh, Ditz’?” Gilda seemed worried, “’You okay girl?”

“Miss?” Selene seemed worried as well.

Even Helios looked slightly spooked, moving to wave a hoof in front of her.

What none of them heard, but what Ditzy had apparently picked up, was a strange sound, a kind of cyclic, wheezing, groaning that sounded vaguely mechanical. So focused on Ditzy, none of the others in the room spotted the tall, blue box that appeared in one corner of the room, fading in and out before solidifying. It was about twice as tall as a pony, and wide enough for a large alicorn to pass through its doors, but did not seem large enough for one to actually fit inside.

Despite this, the doors burst open, suddenly drawing the attention of all those in the room. Out of the door rushed a brown earth pony with spiky, darker brown hair, looking less styled and more as if his tail and mane just assumed those shapes of their own accord. On his flank was the cutie mark of a golden hourglass, and around his neck was a stylish brown tie with a white collar. His blue eyes focused directly on Helios.

“Ha!” the colt yelled, with a notable Trottingham accent, “I’ve got you now Helios! I’m not sure what you’re planning yet, but I’m here to stop you!”

“Doctor!” Ditzy practically squealed, “You found me!”

“Oh for the love of Faust!” Helios was less amused, “You again? What did I do this time? Step on the wrong butterfly and accidentally destroy the future?”

“Is this… a friend of yours, brother?” Selene’s eyes had grown a few sizes larger.

“Don’t ask,” Gilda spoke to Selene as an aside as she face-clawed, “It’s best that way.”

Ditzy bounced over, hugging against the brown earth pony, “Doctor I thought you’d never come back for me!”

“Stand back, Derpy! This could get messy!” the Doctor pushed Ditzy behind him, apparently with the intention of protecting her. He then pulled a long, silver tool with a blue light at its end out of thin air and aimed it at Helios, who simply looked annoyed when said tool took to buzzing at him.

“No Doctor, you don’t understand!” Ditzy hugged against the Doctor again, “We already beat him up and made him good. We revealed his evil plan and everything, but he’s not evil now he’s nice, so let’s be nice to him too!”

“Yeah, ‘fraid you’re a bit late ‘Doctor’.” Gilda smirked in amusement.

“What?” the Doctor paused, then looked upset, “Oh for all the… I have a bloody TIME MACHINE. How can I be late again?” He threw the buzzing tool onto the floor, which snapped back out of sight and into hammerspace. After a moment more spent looking cross, he suddenly blinked, “Wait, you helped defeat him?”

“Yes, yes,” Helios sounded annoyed, “Her brilliant plan foiled me when she reversed the whatsit, I’m rather tired of telling this story.”

“Reversed the polarity!” Ditzy smiled, hopping in place a few times and flapping her wings, “Trixie did it, but it was my idea!”

“You… reversed the polarity?” the Doctor looked at Ditzy, a tear in his eyes, much like a proud parent realizing that their child has grown up.

“I’m here I’m here!” another pony stumbled out of the blue box, screeching to a halt as she eyed the room. “Mommy!” the word was apparently aimed at Ditzy.

This caused most others in the room to look dumbfounded, as this pony was clearly Ditzy’s own age. She was a unicorn, just like little Dinky, but with far brighter colors. She sported a pink coat and a mane and tail that were layered in various shades of purple, the lighter of the two shades matching her eyes. On her flank were three beautiful-looking white diamonds.

“Sparkler!” Ditzy hopped over to hug the new unicorn, “You got your cutie mark! And you got… big? Since I last saw you a few days ago?”

“Oh good,” Helios rolled his eyes, “More repeat names; because it’s not confusing enough for me already.”

“Exactly how late are you?” Gilda peered at the Doctor with one eye.

“Fairly late?” the Doctor nervously moved a hoof to adjust his tie, then seemed vaguely defensive. “Look, at first I went to Derpy’s house and found Sparkler alone there so I thought I’d take care of her for a few days while I looked for Helios. But then I got distracted! Time is not the boss of me!”

“Come on Gilda!” Ditzy bounced over towards Gilda now, clearly excited, her wings flapping hard enough that she was hovering even as she tried to tug Gilda towards the strange, blue box.

“Wait, what are we doing?” Gilda went wide-eyed, “Come on Ditz’, we won’t all fit in that thing!”

The Doctor rolled his eyes, “Oh fine! You win, you can come back aboard; but don’t think this means I’m going soft!” With that, he turned back to walk into the box himself, followed shortly by a smiling Sparkler.

Gilda was dragged reluctantly in afterwards by Ditzy, Dinky still on the griffon’s back. She glanced back briefly at Helios and Selene, almost seeming to wonder if staying with them would be safer. A moment later however, the door slammed shut, and the blue box disappeared into nothing, making the same sound as it had when it arrived.

“I’m going to take that griffon’s advice, and not ask,” was all that Selene could think to say.

“If I ever see that guy again it will be too soon,” Helios shivered, as if remembering something truly disturbing. “Well it doesn’t matter, at least now we can talk and-”

“Greetings your Highnesses,” Trixie’s voice came from the door.

Helios sighed, sitting his bottom down and seeming to accept his fate, “Yes, though I’m not rightly sure if we’re Highnesses or not at this point.”

“Oh no need to call me that,” smiled Selene, “I’m likely going to be quietly spending time with my own studies, but it is nice to see you again. I… owe you and your friends a great deal.”

“It was the least the Great and Powerful Trixie could do,” Trixie grinned widely. She may have learned many lessons about friendship, but that did not mean she was not going to eat up the praise. “Actually, Trixie came to hold His Majesty to his promise.”

“Promise of what?” Helios quirked one ear, then flattened it, “Oh. The… teach you better magic thing.” He sighed, then gave a shrug, “Sure, we’ll do that, I mean I don’t have much else to do other than take a student. Just one caveat… please shut my door as you leave.”

Trixie seemed satisfied with this, pausing to give a formal bow, then turning and walking out with her head held high, the door shutting firmly behind her.

“There,” Helios grunted as the door glowed with his magic, “That door is not opening again tonight if I have to-“

As if on cue, there was a loud crash as if somepony had slammed into the wall outside of the window. The form backed up, then flew properly into the window, rubbing her nose with both forehooves. It was Surprise. From the looks of it, she was covered in glow sticks and was wielding what looked like a cricket bat. Fortunately, when she slammed it against Helios’ head it was revealed to be a harmless nerf bat.

“Um, SURPRISE!” Surprise grinned maniacally, “Do you like my new bat? Hay! Why aren’t you out partying?”

“Because,” Helios gritted his teeth slightly before bringing his face back into a smile, “I am trying to spend time with my long lost sister, now why don’t you go um… I don’t know, eat some glow sticks or something.”

“I’m not sure you should be telling her that,” Selene spoke quietly, somewhat concerned that Surprise might take his order seriously.

“I already did!” Surprise’s answer foiled Helios’ jest and confirmed Selene’s fears. “Hay Master Helios! Did you know there’s a statue of a villain in the garden that is really a villain turned to stone? It’s freaky looking!”

“I am aware,” Helios rolled his eyes, “It’s being moved before the night is over; I’m finally getting my say in something it seems.”

“Yep!” Surprise nodded, “Ponies seem to stay away from it, like it’s really scary!” Surprise obviously thought the statue of Discord looked quite silly herself. “Well except for one pony! There was a cute little foal with a silly propeller hat and a screw and a ball for a cutie mark hanging around it. She ran away when I surprised her though!”

“You should probably watch that,” Helios poked the nerf bat with a hoof, “It may not hurt, but that doesn’t mean you can’t startle somepony into hurting themselves.” He sighed, “Now, if you don’t mind…”

“Oh sure!” Surprise smiled, “I’m gonna go find Vinyl and see if she has more glow-snacks, bye!”

“That’s very nice.” Helios place a hoof on Surprise’s nose, pushing the still hovering pony back out of the window, his magic closing it behind her.

Most of the other guests had cleared out, and now the three Pie sisters had found a nice spot in the private, gated gardens to sit together. They all sat at the base of a beautiful willow tree, beautiful red and gold lilies cushioning their laying spots and providing ‘snacks’ as they talked together.

“So yeah,” Blinkie grinned widely, “Apparently all my offenses are wiped clean; I’m cleared for work.”

“Indeed,” Inkie added, “And Prince Blueblood pulled some strings to get me and Blinkie the job I applied for months back.”

“That’s great,” smiled Pinkie. “Everything worked out great! Wow I can’t wait to get home either, but you two better visit more often.”

“Certainly,” Inkie smiled in return, “I think this has been an experience we all needed, in the end.”

“Yeah,” Blinkie smirked, “Just promise more explosions on our next visit.”

“Trixie is happy to see her minions enjoying themselves,” Trixie approached the three from the nearby path, apparently having been looking for them, causing them all to look towards her. “Trixie will be studying under his Majesty, but hopes to visit the Mad Bomber and the Poker Face; especially the Mad Bomber, we shall have business to discuss.”

“Oh, sure,” Blinkie grinned, “I used up most of my fireworks at the party, but I can make more.”

“Oh yes, we will do that business as well,” Trixie smirked, “But the Great and Powerful Trixie was referring to… private business with the Mad Bomber.” And with that, she gave a wink before turning slowly to head off.

“Well. That was enlightening,” Inkie commented.

“You go girl!” Pinkie grinned, but then paused, “Hay wait! Why isn’t anypony shipping me?! What gives?”

Days had passed since that celebration.

“Yay…” Fluttershy spoke with the most adorable of voices, though she was clearly trying to sound enthusiastic.

“Way to go…” Posey, standing right next to her, followed up with her own less than impressive cheering.

Both of their eyes were turned upwards to the sky, watching a streak of rainbow and second streak of fire slam into a cloud shortly before the forms of Rainbow Dash and Firefly landed in front of them.

“Ha! ‘Beat you again!” Rainbow Dash grinned widely, flexing her wings up, “You ‘got a long way to go, flamer!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Firefly grunted, clearly exhausted, probably somewhat moreso than her opponent “I still beat you on the obstacle round. I’ll slam you on both next time!”

“Are you two going to have to go so soon? I was going to show Posey my pets and things and… well but if you have to go, that’s okay too.” Fluttershy shifted one of her fore-hooves against the ground shyly.

“Oh I’ll stay for a bit longer,” Posey smiled gently, seeming thankful that they let her stay here at all, “I wanted to see the flower ponies in town about their gardens, too.”

“I should get back pretty soon,” Firefly said, “I’m supposed to be clearin’ the clouds over New Dream Valley.”

“Ah, really? Well don’t be a stranger!” Rainbow waved to Firefly, “Yeah Applejack wanted to see me too, so I’ll head off that way. See ya Fluttershy, Posey!”

With that, Rainbow Dash streaked into the sky. She saw Firefly head off in the corner of her eye, then glanced back again to see Fluttershy and Posey moving slowly in the direction of Fluttershy’s home. This sure was a change from only days earlier. It had not been easy for Rainbow to be so forgiving, but she knew what it was like to not be herself, and after learning that the off-worlders had been effectively Discord-ed by Helios’ techniques, she had managed to forgive them.

She landed on the ground at Sweet Apple Acres, a few dozen feet from the two Applejacks, and strolled over towards them. The duo were standing at a tree, the Equestrian AJ trying to explain to the other how to buck a tree properly.

“Nah that ain’t it Applesauce,” which Applejack had apparently taken to calling her off-worlder look-alike, “Ya can’t just rattle tha tree; ya gotta really put yer hind legs into it. Slam it low, but high enough above the base ta get a good shake.”

“Right, got it!” the other stated, then promptly attempted to kick the tree again, missing and falling flat on her face.

“Oh for… let’s try… oh hay Rainbow.” Applejack noticed Dash approaching, giving her a nod.

“Oh, hello,” ‘Applesauce’ seemed a bit more self-conscious about meeting another of the ponies.

“Yeah, you wanted to see me?” Rainbow Dash chuckled, “I hope you don’t want me to help teach how to kick trees!”

“Nah,” Applejack waved a hoof, “Anyway, Applesauce is leaving soon fer her own home, ah was just hopin’ ta give ‘er some pointers for when she gets back. Givin’ ‘er some apple seeds ta start her own orchard with.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled, “Hay whatever floats your boat. And you needed me for?”

Applejack continued, “Oh right, well tha barn me and her had that tussle in is sorta on its last legs, so ah was thankin’ ‘bout tearin’ it down and rebuilding it. Could ya stop by tomorrow and help with that?”

“Now that’s work I could get into!” Rainbow Dash grinned.

“This is all very good information,” Twilight Wish smiled at Twilight Sparkle, settling the last of the books that she was borrowing into her saddlebag. They were both standing outside the door to Sparkle’s treehouse library, Wish preparing to leave.

“Oh it’s the least I can do,” Sparkle smiled in return, “Don’t worry about it. After all, if we can put our heads together and actually duplicate the Elements, we’ll have a backup set, and you never know when that will come in handy.”

“Indeed I… I just thank you for forgiving us, Miss Sparkle.” Wish leaned forward, then gave her a friendly hug.

“Oh goodness, it’s nothing really,” Sparkle answered, patting Wish on the back before tugging away, “And I mean that. Trust me, we’ve had a… similar thing happen to us. I know it’s not fun.”

“Well… I appreciate it all the same.” Wish smiled again, “Let’s just hope we never need the second set.”

“You never know,” smiled Twilight Sparkle.

Chapter 1: A Party to Forget

Day One

A small group of six ponies gathered atop the hill overlooking Ponyville, the quiet and peaceful town where the holders of the Elements of Harmony were located. There were a few moments of silence between them, nervous glances exchanged one to another.

In front of them all stood a unicorn, apparently their leader, seeming the least nervous of the bunch, her eyes focused on the city with determination. Her coat was a light pink, dotted with her cutie mark, six glittery purple stars on her flank. Her mane and tail were pure white, aside from the purple stripe that ran through the center of both, matching the color of her cutie mark. Around her neck was a singular piece of adornment, a heart shaped locket, gleaming in the sunlight.

“Here we are,” the unicorn faced the others as she spoke, “This is what you’ve been preparing for these past weeks. Now we’ve gone over all the information we need, and He says this is the time to strike.”

“I don’t feel right… this doesn’t feel right,” stated a pink maned, yellow earth pony with four pink roses as her cutie mark.

“It’s not like we have any choice,” stated the next pony, a yellow maned, tan coated pony with five apples as her cutie mark. She didn’t sound completely certain.

A pink coated pegasus with a simple blue mane but two impressive blue lightning bolts as her cutie mark hovered above the two and huffed down at them, “Come on! This’ll be a breeze. They'll never know what hit 'em! Man they will be so surprised!” A wide grin spread across her face, her mind seeming to race, “And when we get back home, we’ll be heroes!”

“Yeah! Everypony likes surprises!” another pegasus, who was yellow-maned with a white coat, rose up next to the pink pegasus. Her own cutie mark was five purple balloons with pink strings, which her hyper personality seemed to match perfectly. Unlike her companions, her mane and tail seemed to actually glow.

“You do realize what kind of surprise we are giving them? Yes, Surprise?” the other nearby unicorn asked, her own coat a very pale blue. She had been idly hoofing at the ground, admiring a few shiny rocks that she had found there. It was a rather appropriate habit given the four blue gems on her cutie mark. After a moment, the gemmed unicorn added towards the balloon filly, "I guess you probably do, just don't foul things up with your typical manner."

The pink unicorn in front stamped her hoof, “Silence! If I hear another peep that sounds like a doubt, I’ll be reporting to Him and suggesting another conditioning for you all!”

Whatever ‘conditioning’ was, it surely struck a chord, since all eyes went back to the pink unicorn. Even the two pegasi opted to land, making themselves slightly less conspicuous, despite their obvious excitement. The yellow earth pony’s mouth hung slightly open, having apparently been going to protest again, but completely unwilling to speak now.

“Look it doesn’t matter,” the pink unicorn took a deep breath, calming herself, “We don’t have a choice. He is the only chance our world has of survival, and if we don’t help Him take this one, all our family and friends will die… at least the ones that are left. It’s not like he’s asking us to kill innocents here, so let me go over the targets once more just to be sure.”

With that, the unicorn began to point her hoof at her friends in turn. First it went to the yellow earth pony. The unicorn sounded stern as she stated, “Posey, your target lives outside of town near the forest and towards the west in a small cottage with a chicken coop on the outside. You have what you need, so you better not disappoint us. ” Clearly, the leader trusted Posey to do her part the least.

Then to the tan earth pony she spoke, “Applejack, your target looks almost just like you, but with fewer apples on her cutie mark. Actually, she shares your name too, so you probably should make up some other name for yourself so it won’t seem weird. She lives out at the apple orchards. Watch out for her family, though you’ll probably fit in pretty well if you do run into them. Just don’t forget; He said no witnesses so, you know…”

The hoof went to the pink pegasus next, speaking firmly to her as well, as if she thought she wouldn't be listened to properly, “Firefly, your target lives in the cloud house with rainbows pouring out of it. You can’t really miss it; it's right over there.” She pointed towards the airborne house floating over the next rise, continuing, “Careful with her… she’s faster than you, you’ll need to use your agility. Don't do anything too dangerous.”

Her statement was met with an eye-roll from Firefly, who clearly wasn’t worried about it, “Bah, I know how to deal with one trick pony, and danger is my middle name!”

"Your middle name may as well be 'suicide' with the way you act," commented the light blue unicorn, who was still toying with several rocks off to the side.

The leader sighed, giving another warning glare to the two that spoke up, then pointed to the white pegasus and continued, “Surprise, yours is in the pastry shop in town. Now I know you like to be loud, but be careful about witnesses since He said we can’t allow any of them on this mission. Anyway, she’s a pink earth pony, so at least you’ll have an advantage with your wings.”

Then finally she spoke to the white gem-flanked unicorn, “Sparkler, yours is also in town, but not in as busy an area: Carousel Boutique. If I have to come after you because you get distracted by the shiny things in her shop, I will make you sorry.”

Twilight, the name this pink unicorn apparently shared with one of the Element holders, stood up straight and finished, “I’m off to the library; we’ll meet back at the designated area. If you can’t grab yours, don’t be afraid to run. Next time we’ll come in force for the ones we didn’t get, but this time we all have the element of surprise.”

“Yay surprise!” Surprise squealed, predictably, doing several loops in the air in another sudden burst of excitement.

Twilight face-hoofed, “Right… anyway I’ve helped those of you who would let me with your plans so snap to it. I expect you all back through the gate in less than three hours.”

Twilight Sparkle closed the last book of the afternoon, rising to her hooves and stretching, frowning slightly as her mind went over what she had learned, or rather hadn't learned. She had been studying ancient history lately, but there was a distinct lack of references for anything that occurred prior to a thousand years ago, and very few and vague references for the conflict between Luna and Celestia that occured at that time. Twilight often wondered if Celestia was hiding something in particular about the events, even if she was certain Celestia would have good reason if she did so. Then again, perhaps there just wasn't a lot of record keeping done in the days when Discord ruled.

She glanced about the room, noticing how many books she had left out, then looking back at the shelves and trying to remember from which shelf she had gotten them. Oh well; it probably wasn’t important, and certainly wasn’t her problem.

“Spiiiike?” she called loudly.

The patter of tiny feet immediately ran towards her up the stairs, and Spike was soon seen panting as he arrived in her room, “Yes Twilight?”

The little dragon’s eager face made her smile, but didn’t keep Twilight from ordering him around. It wasn’t that she was necessarily being bossy,since he’d probably be disappointed if she didn’t give him an order every few minutes that he was here.

“Clean up these books okay? I’m going to be getting ready for Pinkie’s party tonight, so join me downstairs in a few,” Twilight said as she reached a hoof out to pat his head, turning back to walk towards the lower level of the library.

She didn’t have long to get ready before there was a knock on the door. Twilight arched an eyebrow, heading over to see who could be calling on her at this hour. Surely it wasn’t any of her best friends, since they would probably be shortly on the way to Pinkie’s party as well.

“Coming!” Twilight called out, not wanting to stop Spike from finishing his task upstairs. As she moved towards the door, her horn glowed, making the door glow in turn as it opened with a creak.

There before her stood the pink unicorn that so recently had been atop the hill, commanding her own friends to attack Twilight’s. It seemed that the pink unicorn had found her own target.

“Oh, hello there, cousin Wish,” Twilight Sparkle smiled in recognition, “Great to see you; actually it’s a great time to stop by. I was about to leave for my friend’s party, so maybe you could come with me?”

Indeed, while her friends had been preparing back home, the pink unicorn had already been busily finding out all the information that they would need here in Ponyville. For the past three weeks, she had been pulling herself off as a new resident of the town, and had even convinced Twilight that she was a long lost cousin due to family resemblance. No pony questioned the assertion here in Ponyville, as every pony pretty much trusted each other and had no reason to think such things would be lied about. She had even told Twilight Sparkle her real name, though the other unicorn had taken to calling her Wish to avoid confusion around others, a play on the pink unicorn’s special chant she sometimes used when casting magic.

Twilight Wish had even learned a great deal about the Elements themselves, even if the information she was actually going to need was still lacking. It was no worry to her however, as she was certain that her master would come through for her once again.

“Cousin!” Wish smiled, but looked unsure at the offer, “Oh, I’m not sure if I should go, you know, I actually wanted to talk to you about something rather important.”

Twilight smirked, “You're always avoiding meeting my friends. Look, you don’t have to worry, I’m SURE that they will just love you. They’re all really rather nice.”

Wish chuckled nervously, “No Twilight, dear, I mean it this time. You’re in danger. They’re coming for you.”

Twilight blinked, trying to figure out if this was some kind of a joke, but a look into the other unicorn’s eyes indicated that it wasn’t. She mouthed slowly, “What’s wrong? Who’s coming?”

“I can’t say,” Twilight Wish replied seriously, “I can only show. Twilight, do you trust me? I need you to trust me.”

“Well, yes, I think so, Wish,” Twilight nodded slowly, feeling uncertain, but at the same time wanted to know what had this unicorn in such a worried state, “Are my friends in danger?”

“Yes, they are,” her pink companion sighed, “Twilight, please come close, I’m going to teleport us both.”

The nervousness in Wish’s voice was apparent, yet there was something Twilight couldn’t put a hoof on. Her mind seemed closed, as if she were expecting Twilight herself to attack her.

‘Don’t be silly,’ Twilight thought to herself, ‘Why would she be afraid of me? She’s probably just scared that someone else will find us.’

“Fine, I’ll get Spike,” Twilight nodded, turning as if to head up the stairs.

“No,” the pink unicorn walked closer to her, moving around to cut her off, “He’s not the one they want, so he’ll probably only be in more danger if he comes with us. Twilight, trust me.” The unicorn made her very best pleading face, tears glistening in her eyes. It was a good thing that the library here had so many books on acting for her to skim through during her time here.

Twilight took a deep breath, “Fine then, but shouldn’t I tell him where we’re going?”

“No!” Wish tried hard to keep her voice down, “He’ll try to follow us and put himself in danger, please Twilight… this will only take a minute, I SWEAR.”

Twilight nodded again, stepping close to the other unicorn, “Fine then.”

The pink unicorn moved to stand close to her as well, both facing the same direction with cutie marks touching. Twilight glanced towards the other unicorn, watching as she closed her eyes. A faint purple mist formed around the two, glittering in the light of the room, engulfing them both. Twilight wasn’t alarmed by the smoke, having seen the unicorn cast before, but braced herself, knowing that teleportation with another pony could be a rough ride.

“I wish… I wish… I wish,” with Twilight Wish’s chant, there was a flash of light that arched through the mist.

Then they were both gone, the teleport spell pulling both unicorns into the vortex.

Spike, as luck would have it, arrived too late to see what had occurred. He looked about, not seeing any sign of any pony here, despite having sworn he had heard Twilight speaking down here moments earlier.

“Twilight?” he asked himself, but not to anypony in particular, as he was now certainly alone.

Fluttershy put up the last bag of animal feed, having finished feeding her many house pets before sending them outside to play. Placing it in the cupboard with the others, she smiled to herself. It was now time to head over for Pinkie’s latest party, which she, like every pony looked forward to.

Turning about, she headed towards the door, head tucked quietly with the small smile remaining on her face. She was not too involved at parties, but she always enjoyed being with her friends even if just to stand and watch them have fun at times. These parties with just the six closest friends together seemed even more special, especially given what the six had been through in the past.

As she opened the door however, she blinked in confusion. She stared into the face of another yellow pony with pink mane and tail. For a moment she thought she was looking into a mirror, but no… this pony was an earth pony and the cutie mark was different.

“Oh!” the earth pony exclaimed. Clearly she had been standing there for some time, too nervous to knock on the door, “H-hello.”

“Oh my. Um… hello,” Fluttershy spoke as she shifted a hoof shyly at the new pony, “Are you lost?” Fluttershy was confused at why any pony would be too nervous to knock on her door, but this one seemed nice enough.

“Oh... um. Yes. I am lost. And thirsty. I don’t suppose you could… no probably not,” the earth pony looked at her hooves, seeming embarrassed at herself for a moment.

Fluttershy’s pity for a pony in need outweighed her own shyness just enough to let her speak, “Oh dear, please come in. I will get you some tea, and then you can come with me into Ponyville. Don’t worry we’ll find out where you should be.” She gave a sweet smile, turning back inside of her cottage.

The earth pony followed behind, looking deeply ashamed as she followed the pegasus in. There wasn’t a lot of conversation between the two, and the earth pony ended up watching in silence while the pegasus brewed them some tea. They exchanged glances a few times, but each time both of them would turn away, seeming unable to stare each other in the eye.

“Um. Well here you are,” Fluttershy spoke as she carefully poured herself and the other pony a cup of tea. “Oh. I’m Fluttershy by the way.”

The other pony walked slowly to the table, nodding, “Oh. Hello Fluttershy. I’m Posey and I… oh my.”

Posey looked out the window behind Fluttershy, clearly feigning surprise to get the pegasus to turn around. It was such a bad ruse that only the most naïve of ponies would have fallen for it. Luckily for her…

“Oh is something outside?” Fluttershy turned, walking to the window and looking out of it. She then slowly turned back towards the table, smiling again, “It must be gone now. There are a lot of animals around here, so don’t be too alarmed.”

Posey nodded, moving to sip her tea, only looking all the more ashamed. Her mood was even more obvious now; enough for Fluttershy to be more concerned as she sipped her own tea.

“Are you okay, Posey?” Fluttershy asked, taking another big gulp of her own tea.

Posey shook her head, tears streaming down her face, “N.. no.. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry oh goodness I’m so sorry…”

“What do you…” Fluttershy trailed off, suddenly feeling woozy after getting to the half-way point of her tea, the room beginning to spin around her. “W-what?” she murmured as the realization that the other pony had poisoned her tea came all too late for her. She had time to get one more phrase out, “I… forgive you.”

Posey watched as Fluttershy toppled to the floor. She sighed, moving slowly over to the unconscious pegasus to roll her over onto her side with a dull thud on the floor. She placed her ear to Fluttershy’s chest, making certain that the heartbeat and breathing were still regular, and then moved a hoof to straighten out Fluttershy’s mane in a nearly mother-like fashion.

Posey sighed, then began the painstaking process of dragging Fluttershy out to the cart that Posey had parked out in front, hoping no other ponies saw her. It would be awfully hard to get any other ponies to fall for the tea party trick, no doubt.

Rainbow Dash posed in the mirror with a huge grin on her face, her crown from the Best Young Flier’s Competition adorning her head. It wasn’t really the best attire to a party, but it had been a long time since she’d properly showed it off. After all, there was never a bad time to remind everypony how awesome she was.

Her concentration was broken quite suddenly however, at the sound of a crash outside of her cloud house. The walls shook so hard that she thought they might be about to collapse. Her eyes went large, dropping her crown onto the floor near the door without thinking as she headed out to see if somepony was hurt.

On her front yard, if that is what one could call the clouds and rainbow falls outside of her cloud home, it looked as if a pink pegasus had rather ingloriously crashed into her rainbow pond, covering herself from head to hoof. At first Rainbow felt rather cross, but realized that she should probably help the poor pegasus before berating her. After all, even she crashed sometimes. Well okay; often.

“Hey you okay?” Rainbow held out a hoof, but the pink pegasus refused to take it.

Instead, the other pegasus was on her feet in a snap, yelling at Rainbow, “Aha! Gotcha!”

“Uh.. excuse me?” Rainbow looked at her dubiously, stretching out her own wings a bit defensively, “Who are you?”

“I’m Firefly!” the pink pegasus grinned, but the her smile faded as she twitched, dropping her confident glare for just a moment. “Wait just a sec,” she spoke again as she suddenly realized that she had forgotten to actually come up with much of a plan, even after having refused to let anyone else help her make one.

“Oh yeah?” Rainbow Dash sounded as if she was starting to get annoyed, “Look Firefly, it’s just great meeting you I’m sure, but I’m busy getting ready for a party, so if you’re okay you should just…”

“Race ya!” Firefly blurted out, cutting Rainbow off and striking a sudden pose of her own as if ready to take off.

“What? Oh uh. Well sure, we could do that, but let’s wait 'til after the…” Rainbow started to explain.

“Coward!” Firefly blurted out again, then turned about to rear on her forelegs and aim a back hoof directly at Rainbow’s face.

Rainbow was quick, dodging around the hoof with a start. When Firefly took off, she couldn’t help but feel her own competitive spirit surging. She took off moments after, quickly catching up to her assailant.

“Why you! I’ll beat you and still have time to get where I’m goin' ya little…” Rainbow shot past the other pegasus with ease, barely having taken a few flaps of her own powerful wings to do so.

However, Rainbow was surprised when her pink competition caught up and shot past her in a blur of pink and blue. She had never had a pegasus outstretch her that quickly, but she was determined not to let it phase her. After all, she was only using a fraction of her own ability.

“Oh gonna play this way huh?” Rainbow tilted downward, wings hammering, body surging forward as the force seemed to bend around her body, "Fine! We'll play this way!"

“Bah! Is that your best?” shouted Firefly in return, still keeping up, then shooting up into the air at a sharp angle, twirling as she taunted and laughed.

Rainbow didn’t know what to think of this other pegasus. She clearly wasn’t as fast as Rainbow, but was certainly agile, making so many sharp turns and spins during her flight that Rainbow found it dizzying to lock on and follow her.

Obviously though, Rainbow couldn’t let this other pegasus have the last laugh, so she shot up in turn to catch back up with the other pegasus. When the upwards spiral turned downward again to send both pegasi towards the ground, Dash couldn’t have been happier.

“Let’s see ya pull this off!” Dash compressed her body into the motion, heading downward at a sharp angle and watching the ground scream up towards her.

The air began to glow around her, a pocket of energy forming as she slid past the pink pegasus. Suddenly, the air seemed to explode around her in a huge wave of energy, rainbow shock-waves rattling the air around her, causing a brilliant pattern in the sky.

What she didn’t expect, however, was for the agile Firefly to actually grab hold of her tail just as she was breaking through, a trail of pink and blue swirling around her own rainbow trail as they continued downward.

Firefly clung on for dear life with her bare teeth, eyes wide in shock, clearly not having been expecting this to happen when she reached out to take hold of her opponent. Having only seconds to think as Rainbow was quickly regaining control and compensating for the extra weight, Firefly did the most rash thing she could possibly think of.

“Double inside out loop!” Firefly cackled, having no idea what would happen at this speed, but not really caring.

Grabbing hold by hooking her forelimbs against Rainbow’s hind legs, she swung herself forward, wings beating the air and using the surge of speed that Dash had unintentionally lent her. Her form shot directly in front of Dash, looping around her repeatedly, continually using her forelimbs to swing about by holding onto Rainbow’s wings.

At this point, however, Firefly began to care a lot more about what would happen doing her trick at this speed. Namely, she felt her fur literally ignite into flames, a jet of fire spreading out behind her as her inertia continued to carry her around Rainbow until the pegasus was literally surrounded by a ball of fire.

Firefly screeched, letting herself go, luckily shooting up into the air in the process. She dove directly at a nearby dark cloud, plummeting into it and shaking about to soak herself in the water contained there. Even after the fire was out, her skin felt as if it were burning, but at least she wasn’t hurtling towards the ground.

Rainbow Dash was not so fortunate. She felt the flames surrounding her, unable to see anything through the ball of fire. She knew that she was heading towards the ground however, and immediately angled upwards, flying right through the flames to burst from the giant fireball with a jet of rainbow light behind her.

An explosive wave struck her from behind as the fireball slammed into the ground and exploded, the shockwave sending her even more out of control than she was. She felt herself grow dizzy, spreading out her wings and trying to screech to a halt as quickly as she could.

Before she could pull out, she suddenly felt herself slam into the ground at an angle, bouncing up after leaving an impact mark there. Pain shot through her right wing, and trying to move it proved no use. Soon she was spiralling out of control directly towards a grove of trees. She felt the sting of dozens of branches snapping around her, followed by a solid crack of impact as her right side contacted a tree. Pain and darkness quickly followed as she blacked out.

Applejack was bringing in the last haul of the day, glad to be done with it and looking forward to the party later on that evening. She would leave some of it for the next day and had told Big Macintosh not to do it himself, though she wondered to herself if he would. She hated having others finish her own load of work when it wasn’t necessary.

Upon arriving near the apple barn, however, her thoughts were pulled away from her family and towards an unusual sight. A tan pony with blond mane, who looked almost exactly like her save for a small difference in cutie mark, was balancing herself atop a barrel that she had propped against the nearest apple tree, reaching up for one of the apples.

“Uh.. howdy?” Applejack wasn’t sure what to think of the other pony’s technique.

“Oh howdy!” the other pony smiled, turning herself about, then suddenly collapsing off the barrel as she lost her balance, slamming her face against a branch before landing on her back on the ground.

“Uh,” Applejack moved forward, unbuckling herself and leaving the cart that she had been pulling behind, “Ya okay? Ya know ya could just kick tha tree ta get tha apples out, not that ah’m saying ya should'a been stealin' apples from our trees ta begin with.”

“Oh, stealing? These are your trees?” the other pony was on her feet quickly, if clumsily, and smiled, “Oh, you’re Applejack, I was just looking for you.”

“Yeah our trees, tha ones right next to our barn,” Applejack seemed cross at first, but then calmed slightly when the other pony continued on.

“Lookin' fer me?” Applejack automatically assumed that this must be some long lost relative that she was unaware of, so she politely nodded, “Well ya found me. Uh. Yer gonna have ta forgive me though. Ah seem ta be at a loss as ta who ya are. Ah’m Applejack like ya said, so ya already seem ta know me. 'We related? What’s yer name?”

“We sorta are. I mean after a fashion I guess,” the other pony smiled, though seemed to be having trouble deciding what words to put together. “Oh! I’m… Apple… Juice. Applejuice.” The fact that she had just made that name up on the spot couldn’t have been much more obvious.

Applejack blinked, recognizing this fairly quickly, walking closer to get a better look at the new pony. She grew slightly suspicious, but continued, “Uh. Kin ah help ya?”

“Well yeah, actually, you can, but we need to go into the barn there. It’s sort of embarrassing to me,” the strange earth pony’s new words seemed honest enough, at least.

“Yer real name is embarassin'? Well sure thang ah guess…” Applejack thought this was strange, but it never occurred to her that the other pony might be dangerous. Who ever heard of a dangerous pony in Ponyville? Well, at least discounting the possessed ones, but this one didn’t seem that far gone. Applejack turned towards the smaller barn near her main house, moving to open the door and step inside.

Once inside, the two stared at one another awkwardly for a few more moments. Applejack tilted her head, looking at the other, who moved her head to look about casually in response.

“Still embarrassed?” Applejack asked, dubiously, “Is this onna Pinkie or Dash’s pranks? Cause if it is ah ain’t got time fer it.”

“No,” her twin replied, “It’s just, I’m still embarrassed, maybe you could close your eyes just for a second, or a minute.”

Applejack sighed, “So it is a prank, fine then let’s get it over with.” She closed her eyes, waiting patiently, “Ah only gotta minute though, so be quick about it.”

The other pony turned herself about, looking over her shoulder. She carefully moved herself back and forth, lining herself up, and then suddenly lodged both hind hooves back to try to impact Applejack’s head. She promptly missed, sending her hooves too far to the right, then collapsed at the loss of balance.

Applejack felt the rush of air and the thud on the ground, “What tha hay you up to? Ya all right?” Still, she didn’t open her eyes yet.

“No I’m fine!” the other earth pony assured her, “Just a few more seconds, I swear!”

The earth pony carefully lined up her flanks again, moving over a bit, deciding it would be more effective to hit from the side. One hoof was driven up, barely brushing against Applejack’s mane. Applejack shook her head, unsure still what was going on.

“Filly, you gotta’bout ten seconds ta get to tha-,” Applejack started, but her sentence was cut off as the two hind hooves finally met their mark, slamming into the side of her head. Her head cracked against the nearest support beam for the barn, pinning it there to harden the impact.

Applejack’s eyes flew open just in time to see another kick lodged at her face, coming inches in front of it. She backed out of the way, tripping herself over a feeding trough that had been stored behind her, her rear slamming into it before she flipped the whole thing over and landed on her back. Her head was swimming, eyes darting around to see where her attacker went.

It seemed that her match had fallen off balance again when her last kick had been dodged, tumbling into the same beam that Applejack had been slammed against. The impact rattled the barn, causing a cloud of dust to settle around them both. Her own eyes darted around to see where Applejack had landed.

Before Applejack could speak, the other pony lunged over the trough at her, her fore-hooves now aimed at the grounded pony’s head. Applejack reacted without thinking, aiming her own hind legs up to kick the other pony in the gut, sending her flying back to skid across the dirt of the barn, ending in a crash as she slammed into an equipment rack, rakes and various farming tools falling upon her.

The athletic pony was on her feet more slowly than she might have normally been, her head still swimming with the initial impact. She found her own balance to be impaired, turning just in time to find that the other pony had risen to her feet and was preparing to lash her feet out again. Applejack dodged one, but then had another hoof slam into her forehead once again.

Had it not been such a serious situation, Applejack might have thought it was comical when she really did get a look at her opponent. It seemed that the other pony presently had a bucket over her head, the last two kicks having been pure dumb luck as she was simply launching her hind legs in the direction that she heard Applejack.

Applejack herself swung around, sending her own hooves back to impact against the other pony’s legs. There were several sickening cracks, the other pony screaming in pain at the impacts. Still, they were poorly aimed, and the other one was able to stagger off to the side out of sight in the dark barn.

“What in tarnation? Whar are ya? Ah sware when ah... when ah,” Applejack could barely speak, her head swimming now, her vision blurred. She finally gave up finding the other pony, heading towards the light that she knew to be the open barn door.

Just when she thought she would arrive there safely, a stumbling mass of earth pony slammed into her from the side, knocking her over and pinning her onto the floor. When she looked up, the other pony was just now succeeding in getting the bucket off her head. She looked down at Applejack, stunned and apparently having tackled her on accident.

Applejack launched her feet up again, but the other pony was now between said legs, making her powerful kick hit nothing but air on either side of her. The pony atop her responded with several more fore-hooves to the face, pain jolting through Applejacks head once again as she finally felt the world around her black out.

Rarity tried on her third hat and scarf of the evening, never quite satisfied with what she saw. “Oh I suppose this will do,” she huffed, then turned towards her door. It was off to another fabulous party for her, and she was certainly looking forward to it, at least as long as Pinkie didn’t flavor the punch with anything unsanitary.

As with other ponies that day, her thoughts were cut off with a knock at the door. Her horn glowed, not bothering to walk over from her primping session. The door opened slowly and she looked out of it from where she was, spying a pony with coat and mane very similar to her own, save for the pink streak in the middle of the mane. What’s more, as the pony entered, they seemed to have a very similar cutie mark to her own, perhaps the same.

“Oh… why hello dear. Welcome to Carousel Boutique. Why aren’t you just a darling!” Rarity spoke, unable to resist complimenting the pony that looked just as fabulous as herself, “I must apologize, however. You see I have already closed today, since I am attending a party tonight and can’t be more than fashionably late. I’m sure you under… stand?” Rarity paused near the end, arching an eyebrow as the other pony ignored her statements and walked fully inside anyway, closing the door behind her with her own horn and actually moving to walk around the counter.

“Oh don’t worry ‘darling’. This won’t take long,” the strange unicorn smiled, “My name is Sparkler, by the way, no need to introduce yourself, I know who you are.”

“Oh, truly?” Rarity found herself smiling, flattering certainly got ponies somewhere with her, “I hope you didn’t come too far to visit, but as I said I am about to leave. Perhaps we could make an appointment for tomorrow?” Rarity was not exactly wanting to give up a potential customer; especially one that seemed to know her work so well.

“That would be perfect 'darling',” Sparkler nodding as she trotted over to Rarity. Her eyes visibly shifted over to a number of shiny gems on the counter, then across the room to take in every little thing. So many shiny objects…

Rarity nodded, turning to walk over to her appointment book. The pages glowed as they quickly flipped over to the next day. She pondered as she spoke, “How would ten in the morning sound? I had somepony cancel, so I could get you in bright and early. We could probably have a nice chat too, I wouldn’t mind getting to know you, especially with our cutie marks matching so wonderfully."

“How about now ‘darling’?” Sparkler’s initially polite voice was near mockery by now, quietly shifting the gems she had been looking at into her own side bag while Rarity was turned away.

Rarity blinked, her pen stopping an inch from the parchment, having been expecting Sparkler to go for the idea. She slowly asked, “But I thought you said-? Look dear, I would love to help you now but-”

Rarity was cut off as the scarf she had on suddenly tightened around her neck, glowing with magic. Sparkler trotted up behind her, climbing right onto her back and grabbing the scarf in her own mouth as well, aiding the motion of her own telekinesis. At first Rarity had no idea what was going on, just that a strange mare was trying to mount her.

“Well I never. Stop that this… instant…” Rarity’s voice was cut off further, suddenly realizing that the other unicorn was in fact assaulting her rather than being amorous.

Rarity’s eyes darted around, unable to fathom why such a creature would be attacking her. Her eyes shifted to stare into the mirror on the dresser, directly front of her, spotting the determined gaze of her attacker, and knew what to do. She used the mirror reflection to target her own magic, making a bag of gems rise from behind the other pony and flinging it towards her head.

Unfortunately, the same mirror that allowed Rarity to target also allowed Sparkler to spot the incoming missile and duck below it, yanking harder still. She twisted her body around, trying to pull Rarity’s head away so that she couldn’t look into the mirror again. This caused both ponies to slam into the dresser, causing the mirror to fall behind it with a shattering crack.

Rarity started to call out, more disturbed that her beautiful dresser had just been trashed than that she was being strangled, but she quickly went back to the task at hand. Unable to see her assailant, she used her powers instead to grab objects in front of her. She threw several more gems that were lying out, flinging them behind her to try to strike Sparkler, but Sparkler could easily see and dodge the projectiles. Next came an empty coat rack, which actually bounced off of Sparklers side, but then Rarity was quite out of things to toss.

The main thing that held her back was her complete unwillingness to throw anything that might be damaged. Had it not been for her reluctance to toss clothing to cover up the unicorns own vision or a well of ink to spray the other unicorn, she probably wouldn’t have had much of an issue getting Sparkler off of her.

The two struggled for what seemed like forever to both of them, even if it was only a few minutes. Rarity felt her power wane at the lack of oxygen, eventually stumbling forward so that her head slammed into the counter.

She felt herself fading into unconsciousness, her mind racing even now to think of a reason why this fabulous unicorn would have attacked her. Did she mess up their outfit? Did she forget an order? What terrible crime against fashion had she committed? Her head swam again, vision going blurry as she gasped for air.

The other pony continued to pull, waiting for her victim to fall unconscious before slowly releasing. The last thing Rarity heard before blacking out was the soft voice of the other unicorn whispering, “You really are a gorgeous thing. I must say, it will truly be a waste when we end you.”

Sparkler nudged roughly at Rarity’s still form to make sure she was breathing again, and then moved quickly to bind her. Out from her bag came a blindfold to cover her eyes, as well as dully glowing magical chains which were locked around her legs. The other unicorn made sure the door was locked, then went about her own business, filling the empty space in her bag with as many of Rarity’s more shiny possessions as possible before preparing to drag the other unicorn to her own cart.

Pinkie Pie had already finished the decorations for her party, her room now blanketed with banners, ribbons, streamers, balloons, and every party joy that she could conceive of. Now she had gone back downstairs and sat at the front door to Sugar Cube Corner, eagerly awaiting her friends.

Strangely however, none of them had showed up as of yet. Usually they were early if anything, so it was a small worry. The little doubt she started with increased with every tick of the clock, and soon she felt like she might start deflating at the wait.

Finally, a knock at the door brought her back to attention. She hopped up with an audible springing noise, racing forward to open it.

“Hey there welcome to the… oh,” Pinkie stared at the white pegasus.

“Hi!” the white pegasus blurted out, “Hey I’m one of your friend’s friends and I was invited too, can I come in?” She looked quite confident in herself, certain that she would be welcomed in it seemed, and possibly looking forward to her best and potentially most painful surprise yet.

What happened next didn’t quite fit into her plan.

“YOU!” Pinkie suddenly pointed a hoof into her face.

“Me?” the pegasus kept her grin, but was unable to move inside due to Pinkie blocking her path, “Hey I’m Surprise! Have we met?”

“You shouldn’t exist! I replaced you!” Pinkie blurted out, suddenly in a blind panic for no reason that Surprise could imagine.

Pinkie suddenly bounced back from the door, diving behind the counter at the front of the bakery. The pegasus followed inside, quickly realizing that the pink one was somehow onto her and she had to act fast if she was going to catch the on-guard pony off-guard.

“I don’t know what you mean. I was invited to the party, honest!” Surprise smiled, moving towards the counter, trying hard to seem friendly. Her mind raced however, her eyes darting around, trying to figure out how the pink pony had been tipped off. Had one of her friends failed already?

Suddenly, Pinkie sprang up once again, wielding what looked like a t-shirt cannon decorated in candy stripes and frosting design. Into this contraption, Pinkie was loading several cupcakes, a comically devious look on her face as she primed the device and aimed it directly at Surprise’s face.

“Go back to the eighties!” Pinkie yelled out, though somehow laughing hysterically at the same time.

There was an incredibly moist sound, and the delicious payload slammed into Surprise’s face, sending her head over hooves back across the room, slamming into the far wall. Skidding on her back, the pegasus quickly flapped her wings to right herself, tearing open the saddlebag she wore to reach inside. Before anyone could ask her how in Celestia’s name she was doing this, she was pulling out objects that were far too large to have fit inside. A toaster, a large brick, and a small anvil all flew towards the air directly at Pinkie.

Pinkie fired the cupcake cannon at the projectiles, which of course had a less than stellar effect on them. She barely ducked out of the way as the objects slammed into the cake rack behind her, causing it to shake as several large cakes fell off, one of them splatting squarely on her head. She jumped back up, now wearing an upside down cake as a hat, and fired another cupcake at the support for the shelf closest to Surprise.

Sure enough, the shelf toppled and hit its mark, knocking Surprise to the floor and pinning her, little stars dancing around her head. She grunted angrily, and then shoved the cake rack off of her, now covered in delicious frosting as well.

“This isn’t a game!” Surprise yelled at the Pink pony, actually grabbing the stars that had been floating around her head moments earlier, using her mouth to throw one after another to Pinkie.

“Of course it is silly!” Pinkie was having a great deal more fun than Surprise, even if she probably wasn’t thinking about how much trouble she would get into for trashing the shop.

Not even Pinkie was expecting the stars to actually be thrown, however, and was finally struck in the head by two of them. The jolts of energy from the strange projectiles coursed through her, causing her to shiver violently. It actually felt quite hilarious, but all the same sent her to the floor, temporarily disabled.

“W.. oh my stars what are you doing Pinkie?” Missus Cake’s voice shouted as she hoofed it down the stairs just in time to see the baking rack overturn onto Surprise, who to her just appeared to be a random shop patron. “Pinkamena Dianne Pie!” Miss Cake was very motherly in the way she screamed Pinkie’s name; Pinkie only ever heard her full name when she was being scolded.

Though Missus Cake had already half-expected Pinkie to be trashing the place when she heard noises from upstairs, she certainly didn’t expect what happened next. The pegasus pony lunged at her, briefly fluttering through the air before slamming into her, knocking her back against a window, which cracked slightly at the impact.

“SURPRISE!” Surprise yelled, a psychotic grin on her face.

Pinkie started to explain, but her mouth was barely open before she saw Surprise reach back into her hammer-space-equipped saddlebag. Out of it she now pulled a baseball bat, which was promptly slammed into the head of the shocked Missus Cake with a frenzy that even surprised Pinkie. Somehow, she held the bat between both hooves when swinging it, getting plenty of wind up to properly beat her victim.

“No witnesses! He said no witnesses! Surprise!” the crazy pegasus cackled madly, continuing to slam the bat down on the head of the older pony, who was quite helpless after the first few hits.

“No!” Pinkie launched herself over the counter top, promptly tripping over the brick that Surprise had thrown before, which was now on the floor. She found herself slamming into the cake rack that she had just knocked over.

“Pinkie!” Missus Cake yelled out, now a cry for help rather than a cry of anger.

Now, however, Pinkie’s leg was caught in the shelf and she was straining to get it loose. By the time Pinkie arrived, Ms. Cake had stopped yelling or even moving for that matter. Pinkie angrily tackled the pegasus off her surrogate mother, slamming her into the window cracked by Missus Cake's head a moment earlier.

“Somepony is gonna pay! Somepony is gonna pay BIG TIME!” Pinkie screamed, suddenly taking the situation deadly serious, a mode that few had seen her in and fewer had liked.

The pegasus was knocked back, but kicked in return. The kick barely glanced at Pinkie’s belly, now too close for Surprise to get in a good strike. She slammed the pegasus back against the window again, which splintered and cracked with each violent slam. Several more shoves later, Surprise found herself breaking through the window and landing on the other side.

Pinkie then raced back, grabbing the baseball bat that Surprise had used on Missus Cake. She gasped at the bloody result, lifting her up to try to see if she was still alive, “M-Missus Cake?” Looking down and realizing how bad the damage was, Pinkie’s mane almost immediately drooped, an actual whoosh of air escaping as her mane and tail both straightened out.

“AHHHHHHHH!” a shout came from the front of the bakery.

Pinkie turned around to see the terrified eyes of three young fillies. Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle all stood there, having heard the commotion from outside and they had come to see what it was. The first thing they had seen was a trashed pastry shop and a straight-haired Pinkie standing over Missus Cake with a bloody baseball bat.

“I… quick get help!” Pinkie yelled at them, then darted towards the window that she had so recently thrown Surprise out, trying to catch up to the pegasus and leaving the cuties to get help. It never even occurred to her that they probably thought she was the assailant.

Outside, she saw no sight of the pegasus. Surprise had promptly given up at the arrival of other potential witnesses, and probably wasn’t too keen on beating the snot out of young fillies. Then again, maybe she had just decided that she couldn't take them all on without at least one witness escaping.

Still, Pinkie ran along, looking up into the sky, trying to find her. Tears streamed down her face as the rage coursed through her body like she had never felt before. She wasn’t sure how long she searched, loosing track of time, but eventually had to give up. How could this pegasus escape her? Not even Rainbow Dash could do that.

She came around to the front of the bakery this time, not wanting to risk cutting herself more on the glass of the window, but as she came around the side of the building, she was met by the screaming faces of the three fillies again.

“Girls!” Pinkie exclaimed, “Did you get help?”

Pinkie waited for an answer, but was just met by three sets of frightened eyes. She tried to smile slowly, at which time her mind connected the previous events as they had likely been seen by the three small fillies.

“Oh wait,” Pinkie waved a hoof, “You don’t think I… no no no, let me explain.”

There was no chance to explain though as the three fillies ran screaming around to the front of the store, starting to run circles around a guard pony that they had apparently summoned there already before settling in behind him.

“Yeah that didn’t go well,” Scootaloo commented to her friends from behind the guard.

“You’re tellin me,” responded Sweetie Belle, coming to a halt next to the other, also hiding behind the guard.

“Guess us bein' Cutie Mark Crusader Crime-Fighters is right out huh…” Applebloom sighed.

The large guard pony turned to look nervously at Pinkie Pie, seeming less like he was afraid of her and more like he wasn’t really comfortable arresting a party pony. He spoke carefully, “Come with me Miss Pie. No need to cause any more trouble.”

Pinkie shook her head, tears streaming down her face again. How could they think she attacked somepony… killed somepony? She didn’t even know if Missus Cake was even alive! She looked at the shop, unable to see well inside, then back to the approaching guard. She clenched her teeth, and did the only thing she could think of doing.

She ran.

Chapter 14: Clash of the... Rainbows?

Spike ran towards the sun temple as fast as his little legs could carry him. The way was easy enough to find as at this point there were ponies regularly making the trip from Undervale’s main settlement. From the looks of things in fact, a great many ponies were actually pulling small carts full of what few possessions they had towards the temple. What were they doing?

Fortunately for Spike, they were all rather distracted, and he was able to climb into the back of one of the carts, hiding beneath the ragged cloth tarp that covered the items inside. Soon he found himself squished up against a number of old books, pillows, and small trinkets, trying very hard to be still enough to not draw attention as he peered out a gap at the front of the tarp at the two ponies pulling his chosen cart.

To the right was a pegasus pony with a blue coat and a faded pink mane, five pink whistles clearly shown as her cutie mark from his present angle. Her eyes were purple, seen when she turned her head to speak to her companion. She had the look of somepony that was incredibly tired, perhaps a bit hungry, but so used to the feeling that she was still coping fairly well with the cart pulling. To her left was an earth pony mare with a pink coat and off-colored pink mane and purple eyes. Her cutie mark was six pink ice cream cones with white ice cream, looking just as hungry.

“I can’t wait ‘til we get to the new land!” the earth pony was telling the other, her voice somehow upbeat despite her look, “I wonder if they’ll have ice cream there; it’s been so long since I’ve had it! Prince Helios says that they have all sorts of food, and that we’ll have a big feast when we get there!”

After a few more moments of silence, the same mare asked, “Is something wrong, Wind Whistler?”

“I don’t know Lickity Split, it just seems as if there is something more to all this,” stated the pegasus, apparently named Wind Whistler, with her more refined voice.

“But this will solve everything! When we get there it will be like a brand new Dream Valley!”

“Yes, I’m sure it will be, but how do we know that these other ponies are really such vile creatures? We have yet to actually see any of these 'evil' ponies, and the dragon He had us caring for does not seem any different to our baby dragon.”

“Because the Prince said…”

“Yes Lickity I realize that,” Whistler had the voice of a slightly frustrated mother, “but I’m still not comfortable. It is obvious that his core helpers have had some sort of psychological alteration. It’s almost as if they are different ponies. Why was it necessary to change those that know the most about what is occurring?”

"Mmmm, ice cream," replied Lickity, as if she had been day-dreaming during the last bit of the explanation.

Whistler sighed, and the two were silent again for a number of minutes. This persisted for most of the trip. When they did speak, they tended to avoid the same subject, so Spike was unable to draw anything more useful from them. He did know one thing however: only Helios’ main helpers had received full mental makeovers. Many of the others could be reluctant or completely unwilling to fight.

The cart stopped, and Spike realized that they had arrived. Carefully, he slipped from under the tarp and out the back. He only hoped he could make it all the way back to the underground chambers without being noticed. As for what he would do once he got there, he honestly had no idea, but he couldn’t leave his friends behind to suffer for his escape.

The main group of pony refugees was gathered in an orderly fashion in the plaza outside the temple, many others with carts lined up in a neat row, ready to begin the journey to Equestria. From the number of them here, the main settlement itself must have been nearly empty. There were all kinds of ponies as well, even several types that Spike had never even seen before, like flying ponies with butterfly wings instead of the feathers of the pegasi, and even carts filled with water barrels carrying ponies of some aquatic sort. Still other ponies had little more than a saddlebag containing a few personal items. None had packed food, having all been promised a paradise on the other side.

A white unicorn with a shiny blue mane and five blue flowers as her cutie mark appeared to be in charge of the evacuation at this point. She would have been quite beautiful had it not been for looking as if she was half-starved, her purple eyes looking dull from stress. From what he overheard, her name was Majesty, and she seemed to have been given this task by Twilight Wish. Spike, the pink one, was following her around doing whatever she wanted in very much the same way that Spike fondly remembered helping Twilight Sparkle, but he didn't dare reveal himself to either of them. It appeared that they had set up a smaller teleportation device, presumably to get the ponies down to the lower chambers and the one that would send them to Equestria. Unfortunately for Spike, it did not appear to be activated yet.

While it was clear they were getting ready to leave their desolate world for good, Spike had to wonder, why now of all times? He knew that something big was about to happen, but it was obvious this wasn’t an invasion force. Many of these ponies looked like they could barely hold themselves up, much less fight. Helios, who Spike had only heard of through his captors, must either have been extremely powerful, or foolish, if he thought that he could take on all of Equestria on his own.

From what Spike gathered from various overheard conversations on his way towards the temple, Helios did not think he could do that. As he crept from point to point, he heard several ponies talking about the return of somepony named ‘Selene’, who apparently could combine her powers with Helios’ to become truly unbeatable. Spike, of course, did not for a moment doubt that Celestia and Luna could stop both of them, not realizing that one of the two royal sisters was in no position to help anyone, but he did not want to imagine the chaos that would ensue during a battle involving four powerful alicorns.

He crept behind the cart nearest to the entrance, pulling a box from said cart with several convenient holes in it, which he then placed over his body and peeked out from. He crept closer to the door, trying to make sure nopony was looking his way whenever he moved.

“What’s this?” came a frightfully familiar voice from the door of the temple. It was Twilight Wish. Spike hadn’t thought to peek inside the temple door when rounding the corner, and now felt like a complete moron. Had she seen him move? He felt the grasp of telekinesis around the box, and quickly clung to the inside of it, pulling the lower flaps up with him.

To his surprise and relief, Twilight did not examine the box any more closely, and he instead felt himself being carried further inside of the temple.

“Hay, does this thing belong to any of you morons?” Twilight’s voice sounded again. “No? ‘Guess it’s just trash.”

And with that, Spike felt the box tossed aside, smacking into the ground and rolling several times before settling back down, mercifully with its open side once again facing the floor. He took a deep breath, eyes wide as he loosened his grip and allowed his feet to touch the ground, peering out from the holes once again.

He had landed on the far side of the temple, and the entranceway to the lower chambers was mere feet away, not to mention wide open. The gears attached to the door looked damaged, and it was unlikely it would ever be able to close again without serious repair.

“So are we gonna get to lead the charge or what?” Firefly’s voice sounded out, speaking with the other four ponies across the room.

Spike’s eyes counted them to be sure. He saw five of them; only Posey was missing.

“I hope so!” Surprise answered, “They’ll never see us coming!”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure we won’t be fighting at all,” Twilight said. “Luna won’t be able to stand up to Helios and Selene together; it’ll be a curb stomp and Equestria will have no choice but to submit.”

Luna? Only Luna? Spike suddenly felt far less confident in his world’s defenses, wondering what had happened to Celestia.

“I can’t wait to get to their palace!” Sparkler stated dreamily. “I can only imagine the beautiful things they must have there!”

“Honestly, I’ll be happy so long as I get the apple farm,” Applejack mused, “I bet I could eat ‘em all.”

“Oh stop it Applejack, you can’t eat all those bucking apples.” Twilight’s voice put a clear picture of her rolling her eyes in Spike’s mind.

“Buck you I can’t eat all those apples!” Applejack actually sounded a bit upset.

As the group seemed to sink further into their argument about apples, Spike saw his chance. He slowly lifted the box, padding into the exit towards the lower chambers as fast as he could manage.

Once past the front entrance, he did not stop no matter how tired he got. He took the stairs downward two and three at a time, bouncing from point to point as he found himself panting more and more. By the time he reached the bottom, he felt like he was going to collapse, but knew that he could not rest.

As he was approaching the hallway where he knew his friends were confined, he heard it. It was a gut wrenching chorus of muffled screams. As twisted as they were, he knew that they were his friends. Rarity’s scream, if nothing else, was distinct to his ears.

The only thing worse than the screams, was the sound he heard as he rounded the corner into the room from which they were coming. Silence; the screaming had stopped.

As his eyes fell upon the contents of the room, he felt rage over-riding all of his former exhaustion. Five of his friends were restrained on the tables, masks and helmets covering their faces, bodies twitching in silent, unconscious agony. Behind them was Posey, a motherly smile on her face as she flipped the switch back off.

“There we go, dears,” Posey had not seen Spike as of yet, speaking instead to her patients, despite their being only barely able to hear her at best, “My only regret is that you won’t be able to scream so very loud when I finish this.”

First, Posey moved to pull the casing off the top of the machine, pulling five variously colored glowing crystals from the top, which she carefully placed in a bag. Humming a happy little tune as she did so, she placed the bag on a nearby table and then moved to pick up a long, slender knife in her muzzle, smiling to herself as she turned to face her patients.

What she actually faced when she turned however, was the flailing of an enraged baby dragon. Spike moved so fast in his rage that Posey initially was not even certain of what was coming at her. He bounced up onto the table where Twilight was restrained, launching himself off the edge directly at Posey's face, claws and teeth bared angrily.

Showing no regard for his own well-being, Spike took hold of the knife in Posey's mouth by the blade in both of his claws. Fortunately for him, it was only sharp on one edge and he had grabbed it by the opposing side. Posey's eyes grew wide as the blade was pulled from her mouth, rattling as Spike sent it bouncing across the floor, and her face felt like she had just been stabbed by a hundred little needles as Spike sank his teeth into one side.

Screaming bloody murder, Posey backed into the shelves behind her, smashing several of them and causing them to tumble downward. Not especially wanting to be rained on with various medical instruments, Posey immediately darted forward, slamming her head into the edge of one of the tables to try to get the angry dragon off of her.

Spike felt himself jarred several times, finally releasing her only to use the table as a leaping point to land against her back. Posey let out another shrill scream as he used his whole body as if it were a jackhammer. He drilled his tail into the small of her back, causing the pony to rapidly collapse beneath him.

Utterly surprised at how competent a foe an angry baby dragon could be, Posey did not waste any more time attempting to fight him. Instead, she grabbed for the bag full of the gems, obviously intent on running with them. Instead, she found Spike leaping in front of her to take hold of them before she could, then running across the room.

At this point, he was not really certain what to do with the objects he had acquired, and his rage was hardly helping him think clearly. However Posey let out an uncharacteristic scream when he took the gems, sounding almost like a banshee as she raced after him. Important as the gems obviously were to her, and wanting nothing more than to hurt the one that had harmed his friends, Spike let out a belch of his sending breath.

Posey skidded to a halt, her screams stopping in a moment of stunned silence as she watched the bag disappear in a puff of smoke. Her face was momentarily tense as she considered this, and then finally turned to run out the door herself. The distant sound of hoofbeats against stone faded slowly away as she headed towards the staircase to the temple above.

"This place looks totally different." Inkie observed, standing at the bottom of the excavated chasm alongside her friends. The royal guard had apparently worked tirelessly through the night, and had achieved their goal of uncovering the hidden portal.

"It's still intact? ‘Thought for sure my ‘splodie Helios stole would have gotten it..." Blinkie sounded almost angry at her creation’s failure.

"Well if he blew it up, he couldn't get back now could he?" Gilda rolled her eyes, "He was probably just delaying us with having to dig it out."

"Indeed, uncovering it was his expectation," Luna's voice boomed behind them. "He was correct, believing that we wouldst not abandon our friends for our own safety. Underestimating us was his error, as thou shalt prove!"

Before anypony else could reply, Luna had used her magic to open her own royal saddle, six very shiny pieces of jewelry floating up and out of it, gleaming with the early morning sun. Amongst them was a crown, atop which was a purple, star-shaped jewel, as well as five necklaces, each adorned with a different gem matching the cutie marks of the original Elements of Harmony. Each piece floated to one of the substitute six, clasping around each neck, the crown settling on Trixie's head.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie would rather have a crown that matched her own marvelous cutie mark," the unicorn immediately complained, raising one hoof to poke at the crown, seeming offended that it was adorned with her rival's mark instead.

"Do not fret; the jewelry shall attune itself next you employ it," Luna boomed, "And shalt magnify the power of your friendship. We are counting on you."

"Wait, what about mine?" Gilda quirked an eyebrow, "I don't have a cutie whatsit..."

"Maybe it would be what you'd have if you had a cutie mark!" Ditzy suggested, tilting her head sideways, turning about trying to see her own necklace.

"Whee!" cheered Pinkie, the only one to have a necklace that already matched her mark, "Time to save our fr--"

Her statement was cut short, as statements so often were. There was a flash of light from the teleport pad signifying its activation. Immediately, the guards surrounding the portal took up stances around it, Luna herself turning towards it and arching her wings threateningly. The six, also, were fast to move up beside her, all expecting some kind of attack.

What they saw however, were five metal tables, which Spike had managed to roll up onto the portal pad on the other side, each containing one of the ponies that the heroes were set to rescue. Spike himself was with them, looking completely exhausted.

"Oh good it was aimed... here and-" Spike stumbled over a few words, then stumbled forward and rolled off the blue, circular pad and onto the ground, finally deciding it was a good time to take a nap.

"Does this mean we don't have to go?" Gilda asked, suddenly hopeful.

"Her Majesty is still on the other side," Trixie pointed out.

"Right..." Gilda took a deep breath and sighed.

"Spikey Wikey, you did it!" Pinkie bounced over to the unconscious Spike, cuddling him anyway.

"Remove them from the structure!" Luna commanded, wasting no time, and the guards were quick to obey, seeming to have lost all reluctance towards her by this point. She then turned to the substitute team, "Thou shalt move to the device. We shall see to thy friends."

"Can they not now wield the elements?" Inkie asked, unsure. "Would they not be better for this?"

"They shall not be recovered nearly soon enough," Luna shook her head. "You must go, now."

"Come on everypony," Ditzy moved quickly to the pad, landing on her back with a thump, "It'll be just like old times!" The looks she received suggested that none had much idea exactly which times she was referring to.

Pinkie, having moved next to Rainbow Dash's side, looked a little pouty that she had to leave her friends after just having found them, but also moved up to the device next to Ditzy. The others were soon to follow, each eyeing the tables as the nearby guards worked to loosen the helmets. Luna moved to block their view, as if silently commanding them to focus, and slammed her hoof down on the switch to return her champions to the other world.

"Applejack, you eat all those apples you're gonna get a wicked bad tummy ache," Firefly argued. Yes, they had really been arguing ever since Spike had infiltrated their headquarters.

The argument was only broken at the sound of a scream of rage from the entrance to the lower catacombs, suddenly drawing all five ponies from their bickering. A moment later, Posey stumbled into the main temple, limping rather badly as if she had hurt her back, and looking completely exhausted from stumbling up too many stairs.

"That scream came from you?" Twilight asked, incredulous.

"That's pretty surprising!" Surprise smiled, hovering nearby.

"Oh uh," Posey suddenly returned to her more typical demeanor, "I didn't mean to bother you all, but I just thought you should know..."

"Oh I knew we shouldn't have left her to do it," Sparkler rolled her eyes.

"I sure can't wait to get those apples," Applejack hadn't heard a word of it, still hooked on the old topic.

"Just tell us what you did wrong, Posey," Twilight sighed.

"Well," Posey explained, "It wasn't so much what I did, but the fact that well..." then suddenly her voice grew to a fevered pitch again, "You let that stupid baby dragon escape, walk right past you, and then he used his breath-whatsit on the gems and they disappeared!" Then back to complete calmness again, "I hope that isn't too much of a problem, I feel just awful."

Twilight smirked, as if she knew something Posey didn't realize, "Don't worry about it; just wait over here with us."

"Oh, really?" Posey seemed surprised at the lack of reprimanding, torture, or the like, "Oh, also I think he was able to activate the portal, which means somepony has probably uncovered it on the other side."

Twilight sighed, "That soon? Oh for Helios’ sake... fine! Everyone take their positions. Anything that comes up those stairs before Lord Helios gets back is gonna’ get a rainbow in the face. We'll show ‘em what a fully powered Rainbow of Light can do."

"Do we really have to move this fast?" Blinkie huffed, jogging up the spiral staircase towards the upper temple with the others, "I mean, we don't want to be exhausted right?"

"Oh don’t be such a pansy," Gilda huffed from above them. If nothing else, the breeze from her wings was cooling off those below and behind her. "I thought you were a tough psycho."

"They're probably going to be in the temple!" Pinkie chirped from the front, seeming unnaturally excited about all this, and practically bouncing up the staircase on her bottom as if it were a bouncy ball, "But don't worry, it doesn't take a lot of energy to do a pose-down, you just have to friend really hard!"

"Yeah that's where I'm worried," Gilda responded, "I'd rather have a back-up plan to beat the snot out of them ready."

"Friendship, friendship!" Ditzy was quite happy as well, flying above Pinkie as she sang a bit, periodically running into the wall of the staircase when she forgot to keep turning or into the stairs themselves, at which point she would roll up them for a few steps before taking off again.

"Not to fear," Trixie assured them, she herself running at a good pace and panting between words. She had initially attempted to be in front, but had since given up on getting around the two sillier ponies at the fore, "Trixie will energize you when we reach the top; The Great and Powerful Trixie and her Minions shall not be stopped!"

Inkie pre-emptively stuck a hoof into Trixie's muzzle to keep her from laughing maniacally and giving away their approach.

There was not much more time to discuss the issue however, as they reached the top of the staircase, at which point Trixie was finally able to move herself in front. Her horn began to glow, and a wave of fresh energy washed over the group, their panting slowly subsiding as they rested for a moment.

"Wait," Blinkie peered at Trixie, as if just having processed the words, "The Great and Powerful Trixie and her Minions?"

"Oh fine," Trixie responded, "Team Trixie and Friends."

"Nah," Gilda argued, "Needs to be something simple, but awesome, like Team Awesome."

"Oh!" Pinkie raised a front hoof, waving it about frantically, "We could be P.A.R.T.Y.!"

"What does P.A.R.T.Y. stand for?" Inkie raised an eyebrow.

"It has to stand for something?"

"Oh! Oh!" Surprise yelled from out in the main temple, "It could stand for Pony ARsonisTs Yay!"

"I don't know, that last one sounds a bit not-nice." Ditzy landed softly, and then fell against the nearest wall.

"Guys, I think they've noticed us," Gilda sighed.

"And what, pray tell, makes Gilda believe that?" Trixie adjusted her hat, which was now smush’ed slightly by the crown she wore over it.

"Oh for crying out loud! Come out here so we can target you!" Twilight Wish screamed from outside.

"Yeah!" Firefly echoed, "You can come up with a name later after we've killed you!"

"That," Gilda replied simply, then pointed out the door into the main temple, drawing their attention to the fact that the other six ponies outside had a clear line of sight to their present location.

"Interesting," Inkie observed, more quietly, "They don't want to hit us here. They must be afraid the tunnel will come down and block their path to the portal, or worse collapse it onto the lower chambers."

"But wait," Blinkie joined the quieter conversation, "We can still hit them, right?"

"Trixie is certain they won't hesitate once we power up," Trixie pondered, "But by then it will be too late!" Her voice rose to her usual hammy self, "Prepare to face your friendship-y doom!"

"Yay!" Pinkie squealed, "Pose-down time!"

Trixie leapt towards the exit into the main temple, raising her fore-hooves up into the air, her cape blowing about behind her from the energy build up as the others quickly took their positions behind her. It was a tight fit at the entrance if they all wanted to keep line of sight with the other ponies, so eventually Trixie was pushed out into the open. At least they were still at the exit, if that counted for something.

"You know Twilight," Sparkler complained, "I could have sworn you said these morons were dead."

"Shut up and concentrate!" Twilight moved in front of her group, heart-shaped necklace glowing as it snapped open with an energetic ‘whoosh’ of its own.

The energies of the two groups crackled when they touched in the middle, spreading out from each of them and causing the entire temple to vibrate. At first, it seemed as if the native ponies were powering up a great deal faster, the energy of the heroes pushed back significantly as the six within the temple lifted off the ground and glowed brightly. It was like a wall of hatred eating into the globe of energy around Trixie and her friends.

"No!" Trixie called back to her friends with sudden realization, "We do not feel anger, remember? Team Awesome P.A.R.T.Y Trixie fights with friendship! Not just for each other, but for them as well!"

There was a wave of beautiful rainbow energy surrounding the native ponies, the Rainbow of Light blasting like a cannon round out from them and up towards the high ceiling of the temple. It then arched downwards towards the heroes.

As the heroes looked up at the rainbow bearing down on them, all doubt cleared from their minds, suddenly acting as one and knowing exactly what to do. Their forms glowed, rising off of the temple floor as the power arced through them, and the wave of friendship seemed to burst from their very souls and into the air.

They did not target the other ponies though, but instead the Rainbow of Light itself. Crashing together, the friendship wave clashed with the beam midair, swirled around it, and with an ear-shattering boom drew the corruption out from it like a black miasma. The temple shook, dangerous-looking cracks splintering along the ceiling, rubble from the floor pushed out towards the walls and a gush of air blasting out through the windows and doors that caused the refugees outside to drop their belongings and fearfully move away from the temple of the sun.

Then, suddenly, the energy seemed to flow into equilibrium, both rainbows twirling around each other in peaceful harmony. Together they streaked back towards Twilight Wish and her allies, their own attack having been purified and sent back towards them, as if in unity with the substitutes' own wave of friendship.

"Can... can that happen?" Twilight stared up into the blinding light of the two rainbows, "Th-thank you... friends."

And then it hit them, feeling as if every hateful thought in their bodies was suddenly aflame. It was excruciating initially, even more so than the conditioning that had left them so twisted, and the chorus of deafening screams rattled the temple almost as much as the initial explosions. The double rainbow swirled around their forms, tightened around them so that they were pulled into a neat little pile, and then released them, all left sitting back-to-back and their eyes lidded in a dreamy state.

The Rainbow of Light retreated to the amulet around the unconscious Twilight's neck, snapping shut with a soft click as its work was now done, while the Friendship Wave dissipated into a mist and flowed back towards the heroes. For a moment, there was a near deafening silence, broken only by the soft creak of the temple as it settled back into place, having somehow managed to remain standing.

"It... worked?" Trixie's voice finally broke the silence. "Ahem...of course it worked! Was there ever any doubt?"

"I still have a few, actually," Gilda blinked, walking slowly over toward the grounded forms of their adversaries, "Are they?..."

"Smokin'" Blinkie strolled over to them as well. She was apparently referring to the smoldering ponies themselves as she poked a hoof at Applejack's head, soliciting a grunt, "Still alive, should I use a bomb to..."

"Now, now sister. Let us try to be the better ponies," Inkie reached out a hoof to stop Blinkie's own, which had been reaching towards her saddlebags.

"Are they all right?" Ditzy was the one that looked most worried about the defeated ponies, landing next to Twilight and leaning down to nuzzle at her, then shake her with both her fore-hooves.

"It's okay!" Pinkie bounced over with an audible ‘sproing’, "It's just like when we hit Nightmare Moon! They'll be up in a few minutes and will be all like ‘I'm so sorry!’ then I'll be like 'Whaaaaa.. hay this calls for a party!'"

"The Great and Powerful Trixie believes that we have yet to defeat Helios, which is also required for the party protocol to be initiated," the blue unicorn spoke as she shifted her crown again, then slowly blinked as she lifted it temporarily off her head and looked at it with a large grin.

Sure enough, the crown’s jewel had reshaped and recolored itself into Trixie's cutie mark, a wand with a wave of blue magic around it. Temporary as it might be, it seemed to have frozen her brain from ego overload. The others' necklaces had similarly reshaped, save for Pinkie's of course, and even Gilda had a flaming feather emblem on her own.

"Mine's best," Blinkie grinned widely.

Before the inevitable argument over whose was, in fact, best, could pick up any more steam, they were distracted as the other ponies began to stir.

"I suggest that, just in case, we leave them here and get them on the way back," Inkie moved around to start trying to push her sisters towards the exit of the temple.

"Do we even know where we're going?" Gilda eyed the twitching bodies of the downed ponies as well, and then headed after the others towards the door.

Without having the question answered, they went in the only direction they had not been, which was out the front exit of the temple. What they found there was less than encouraging. There was a large circle of ponies, unicorns and pegasi blocking off their path away from the temple.

"Y... stay where you are!" warned a half-starved-looking unicorn near the center of the mass. It was Majesty, though the heroes had never seen her. Spike, the pink one, was behind her, looking timid as Majesty continued, "We... we won't let you invade!"

"Every one of us is willing to give our lives for Dream Valley!" a pegasus hovering above the unicorn stated, though terror was apparent on her face. She was turquoise with a green mane, three green musical notes adorning her flank.

"Oh well," Blinkie started to reach into her saddlebag again.

"No killing!" Ditzy was the pony that stopped her this time, even looking a little cross.

"Why does nopony let me have any fun?" Blinkie practically threw her hooves up in despair.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie does not wish to battle starving ponies either," Trixie admitted, "It does not seem sporting. As we come only to retrieve our Princess, it would be best to let us pass."

"Come on guys," Gilda shook her head, "You don't want to fight the team that just smoked your elites."

"Um," even Pinkie seemed at a loss, "Maybe if we offer to bake them cupcakes or ... um... we could get you some balloons or something?"

"Let them pass," a weak voice instructed from behind Trixie and her friends. The group turned around to see Twilight Wish staggering up to the door and weakly leaning against it.

"Twilight?" Majesty blinked, "But..."

"Majesty, I am Lord Helios’ recognized second-hoof pony," Twilight managed to sound more stern, "If you are questioning me then you are questioning the Prince."

Majesty slowly nodded, then waved her head towards the crowd, which seemed to take her lead and slowly parted for the six to pass by them. The six heroes took a collective sigh, each for their own various reasons.

"It would greatly assist us," Inkie peered cautiously towards Twilight, "If we knew where to go from here."

"Directly into the city, there is only one path," Twilight stated, settling onto the stone floor as if too exhausted to stand, "It's the only new-looking structure; a giant temple with a sun emblem atop the door, no possible way to miss it."

"I could lead them..." started Majesty, but was cut off.

"No," Twilight shook her head, "We start evacuating right now, and you are more worthy than I to lead it. The ponies on the other side will not reject refugees." She then cut off the next inevitable question, "I'm absolutely sure... please, trust me."

Celestia lay on the cold, stone slab, her body aching from holding the same position for too long. The magical chains covered almost every part of her body, layered around her. It was a particularly annoying situation since the magic from the chains was actually quite ticklish, making her giggle from time to time no matter how much she willed otherwise. Helios had not even restrained her muzzle, as if the audible confirmation of her torment was something he enjoyed.

Time had faded into uncertainty for Celestia, locked away where she could not know what time it was or how many hours or days had passed. She would often fade in and out of consciousness, and was more on the fading out end of things now.

At least, until a flash of smoke above brought her back to awareness, right before a bag filled with hard objects slammed down onto her head, glanced off, and rattled to the floor. Her eyes snapped open just in time to see five gems of various colors fall from the bag and roll away from it. She wasn't rightly sure if she should say anything, and as she stared at them time seemed to fade out of focus once again.

"A special delivery!" Helios' gleeful voice rang out some undetermined length of time later as he noticed them, practically bouncing over from the nearby console and standing in front of Celestia, "How very interesting!"

The stones glowed with Helios's magic: blue, white, purple, tan, and yellow all floated to their particular slots, finishing out the set with the pink one that was already there. Celestia let out another chuckle without wanting to, and Helios chuckled in return.

"I know right?" Helios rolled his eyes, "It's like they intentionally designed the chains to be ticklish and annoying. Maybe I should go back in time and wrap whoever invented these things up in them, am I right?"

He paused for a moment, as if waiting for her to get some kind of joke, then frowned.

"Oh please," he rolled his eyes, "You always were such a baby about things. Aren't you wondering about my evil plan?"

Celestia grunted, "I'm pretty certain that I know it already, brother."

"Tsk," Helios shook his head, "You underestimate me. You think I'm attempting to change time, but I'm not actually going to do that at all."

Celestia quirked an eyebrow, "Then why, dear brother, are we opening a portal to a thousand years ago?" She kept her voice unbelievably even; by this point she arguably deserved sainthood for her patience.

"Well, changing time is way too dangerous," Helios smirked, "And then that annoying hourglass pony would probably show up and stop me, so I came up with a plan that doesn't technically change what happened! Tell me Celestia, how do you know that you killed Selene?"

"By accident..." Celestia reiterated.

"Right, whatever, so claims you," Helios rolled his eyes.

"Because she was there and then there was nothing left but charred remains," Celestia sighed, her gaze shifting sharply to one side.

"Unidentifiable remains?" Helios leaned forward, looking her in the eyes.

"Yes," Celestia got especially shifty-eyed at this part of her reply, "Because of the influx of magic..."

"So all you know is that you killed an alicorn, not for certain who it was?" Helios confirmed, nodding, "So when I grab Selene out of the vortex, and replace her with a different, but equally weakened, alicorn, you won't notice the difference."

Celestia grew silent, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes.

"In case your mind isn’t at its strongest right now," Helios leaned back, "That's you. I'm going to snatch Selene away, replace her with you, and the you of the past will never know the difference. An alicorn dies then, an alicorn lives now, and the timeline is intact."

Celestia chuckled again, but it didn't seem to be from the chains this time, "Oh Brother..." she couldn't help but smirk slightly.

Helios snorted, "What? Am I missing something?" his eyes narrowed, recognizing her tone, "That's your 'I'm pranking you' voice. I'm missing something, aren’t I?"

"You told them your evil plan; don't you know that once the villain does that, he's doomed?" Celestia smirked.

"Told who the what now?" Helios tilted his head, quirking one ear.

"Greetings 'Your Majesty'," the voice of Trixie called out from behind him. One could almost hear her waggling her eyebrows as she spoke.

"Oh for Faust’s sake."