Starting Over 2: Returning Home

When Luna stopped kissing Spectra, his brain took a while to process what just happened.

"Uuuuhhh....Luna?"

Luna looked crestfallen.  "....I'm sorry. That was out of line. It's not often I get complimented on my night sky. I wanted to give you a gift."

Spectra gave her a confused look. "If I wanted a kiss, I could walk up to Rainbow and kiss her."

Luna laughs. "No, no, no. A kiss from an Alicorn grants ponies special....powers. I guess you could call them that."

Spectra looked excited now. "What's my 'power' then?"

"I do not know. I don't choose the power. It will show up one day. Anyway, I best be off. I need to be in charge of the city of Canterlot at night."

Spectra nods. "Alright. I think I'll hang out here a bit longer. Bye, Luna."

Luna waves to Spectra. "Bye, Spectra."

Luna flies off into the night sky, leaving Spectra wondering what kind of special "power" he has been bestowed. He shrugs and stares up into the glorious night sky. Spectra enjoyed the night much more then he liked the day. The night is cool, calm and beautiful. The day is noisy, bright and blue. Spectra flew back inside and cuddled up with Rainbow. Little did he know, he was being watched.

Down below, on the hill under the couples home, was a insect-like pony with holes in its hooves, and big light blue eyes, with wings was watching the pegasus with great interest.

The Changeling scout flew back to the Everfree Forest, where the hive resides. More specifically, he flew back to the Everfree Castle, where a majority of the hive lives. He walks up to a larger Changeling, which looked more lady-like then the rest.

The scout bows before his queen.

"My, queen. I have something to report."

Queen Chrysalis turned to her subject. "Yes, what is it?"

The scout got back up on his hooves.

"There is a pegasus with enough love to feed this hive for decades! He lives with the Element Of Loyalty."

Chrysalis perks up at this.

"Very well. Gather round. I have a plan."

-----The Next Morning-----

Spectra woke up strapped to a table made of stone. He looked around frantically, trying to figure out what was happening.

"Heh. Ok! Rainbow Dash! It's not funny!"

"Oh, but this is no joke. Welcome, to the Changeling Hive!"

Queen Chrysalis walked out from the shadows and headed over towards Spectra.

"What do you want from me? I'm rich, just take all my bits and leave me alone!"

Chrysalis chuckles. "What I want is your love. My name, is Queen Chrysalis, the Changeling Queen. You see, Changeling's feed off the love of others, until they're bone dry of it. You sir, have a lot of love. And you intended to give it all to Rainbow Dash. But now, it's all mine."

Spectra tried getting out of his chains but couldn't.

"Don't bother. The chains are made of a special metal. An infusion of titanium, steel and platinum. You can't break it."

Spectra stops struggling, defeated.

"That's a good stallion. Now, you lie here until I get bored, if you know what I mean."

Chrysalis winks at Spectra.

Spectra shudders.

"Aww. Don't be like that. Watch this!"

In a flash of green light, where there stood Chrysalis, now stood Rainbow Dash.

"Isn't this better?"

Spectra shakes his head. "No, you're not Rainbow Dash."

Chrysalis changes back into her own body.

"It doesn't matter. I will return soon. Farewell."

Chrysalis steps out of the room, leaving Spectra to his thoughts.

'How am I going to get out of here?'

'What about the power Luna gave you? Just use that.'

'But I don't even know what it is!'

'You're on your own then.'

That's when the realization hit him. He can contact somepony to help him.

'Luna.'

Spectra closes his eyes, and tries to fall asleep.

-----Spectra And Rainbow's Cloud House, Morning-----

Rainbow and her friends were all on the hill below her house. Rainbow was holding AJ, crying her heart out. Twilight was reading a letter left by Spectra;

'Dear Rainbow Dash,

I never loved you. I only used you until I could get back on my hooves.

I'm leaving for Manehatten. Don't come looking for me.

From, Spectra'

"I-I-I thought h-he loved m-me!"

AJ shook her head. "Don't ya worry, Rainbow. Ah'll find 'im and buck 'im till next cider season!"

Twilight shakes her head. "This letter's a fake."

Rainbow looked up to Twilight with tears in her eyes.

"How do you know that?"

Twilight puts the letter on the ground, then grabs another from her saddlebag and places it on the ground.

"What's the other letter?"

Twilight pushes it towards Rainbow;

"Dear Rainbow,

I have always loved you as well. I wish we weren't so far away. I just want to hold you and kiss you all day! I've been wanting to visit, but, like our plan, I've been saving up the bits. Hopefully nothing stupid happens like the city catching fire and I lose all the bits.

With all my love,

Spectra."

Rainbow gave it back to Twilight.

"What's this got to do with anything? It's the letter he wrote to me when he was in Cloudsdale."

Twilight gave her the other letter. "Simple. Look at the hoof writing."

Rainbow examines the letter she got this morning, then the one Spectra sent her from Cloudsdale.

"You're right! It is a fake! Something bad has happened to him! We have to find him!"

"Maybe I can help?"

The group look up to see Princess Luna flying above them with a serious look on her face.

"Queen Chrysalis has taken him to the castle in the Everfree Forest."

Rainbow flies up to her.

"How do you know this, princess?"

"He fell asleep and called out my name. I can see into the dreams of others. He was clever, thinking of contacting me. Your lucky to have him."

Rainbow smiled. "I know."

Twilight was freaking out. "How do we save him?! What do we do?! What does Chrysalis want with him?!"

Luna raised a hoof to silence Twilight.

"She wants his love. He has a lot of it."

Rainbow looked furious.

"There is no way in hay that she will take my stallion from me!"

Rainbow zoomed off towards the Everfree Forest.

Luna tried to stop her, but she was too slow. Luna turns to the rest of the group.

"Go. Follow her into the forest and save Spectra."

Everypony nodded, and raced off towards the forest.

Luna flew up to a cloud and rested on it. She wanted to be sure that Spectra was okay. That meant staying until he returned with the 6 friends.

"He's the only true friend I've had since....Star Burst.....I miss you so much...."

A single tear escaped Luna's eye and landed on the ground below her.

-----The Everfree Forest, 3rd Pony Perspective-----

Rainbow's 5 friends were wondering through the Everfree Forest, searching for their cyan friend. They have been calling her name for hours now, hoping she hadn't got lost or something.

"Rainbow! Rainbow Dash! Rainbow!"

"Did you say you were looking for Rainbow?"

The new voice startled everypony. They look ahead to see a unicorn.

AJ steps in front of her friends.

"We don't want any trouble, mister. We're jus' lookin' fer our friend."

The unicorn rolls his eyes. "Well, duh. I knew that. She's at my place, resting. She ran into a manticore and I saved her. I healed her up and now she's staying with me until she's fully healed. If you're her friends, follow me."

The unicorn turns around and starts walking. The group of ponies follow him.

"The names Shadow Nova by the way."

Each of the ponies introduce themselves.

Twilight steps forward ahead of the group and walks along side Shadow.

"So, how did you save Rainbow from the manticore?"

"I have an immortal demon war general trapped inside me. He comes out whenever there is danger and slaughters the threat."

Twilight and the group looked shocked. Shadow scoffs.

"I don't care about what you think of me. Only I care about me anyway. My family abandoned me because of the demon. I found this forest and thought it was amazing, so I took refuge here. I've been alone since I was 11. I'm now 29 turning 30 soon."

Twilight keeps up with him.

"Your story sounds a lot like Spectra's. Except without the demon."

Shadow chuckles. "That is exactly what Rainbow said when she woke up. Anyway, we're here."

In front of the group was a cave, shaped to look like a house. Shadow walked up to the door and went inside.

"Hey, Rainbow. I found your friends."

The group walk inside and find Rainbow lying on a bed. Inside the cave house was a single bed, a couch and an ice box.

"Hey, guys. Shadow saved me from-"

"I told them, Rainbow."

" Ah,ok. So, have you guys found Spectra yet?"

The group suddenly remember what they went to the forest for.

All Twilight could say was "Whoops."

Rainbow shot up out of bed and started heading towards the door. She was covered in bandages.

"I'm going to find him!"

Shadow stops her with his magic. His aura surprised everypony. It was pitch black.

"No! You must rest!"

"I don't care about me! I need to help Spectra!"

Shadow lets go of her and looks her in the eye.

"You really care about this stallion?"

Rainbow nods. Shadow sighs.

"Then, here. This is gunna hurt."

His horn glows and Rainbow is surrounded in his aura. Shadow grunts and keeps the spell up. The bandages were coming off one by one, but Shadow was screaming in pain the whole time. When all the bandages were off, Shadow was unconscious on the floor. Twilight tried to wake him up, to no avail.

"I'm going to find him!"

Rainbow zooms past her friends and out the door. She sped away from the house and headed for the castle. When she got there, she opened the doors to find Spectra tied to a table with some cuts, bruises and a lot of blood.

She tries to go to his side, but only to be struck on the side of the head and knocked out.

------Spectra's Perspective-----

Spectra woke up and looked around.

"Not a dream. Well, buck."

"Oh, don't worry. We'll get to that."

He looks to his left. What he sees infuriates him. Chrysalis was holding Rainbow Dash upside down by her magic. She was knocked out.

"Looks like loyalty isn't good enough, huh?"

Spectra was furious with Chrysalis.

"You. Hurt. Her."

Chrysalis rolls her eyes. "Well, how else was I meant to knock her out? I mean really-"

"I'LL DESTROY YOU!"

Spectra's iris' were growing darker and darker until they were dark red. He wore a face made of pure anger.

"I AM DARK RED SPECTRA! AND I WILL MURDER YOU!"

Dark-Red Spectra breaks the restraints with ease, like they were made of toothpicks.

Chrysalis was terrified. "What!? But how did you break-!"

Dark-Red Spectra ran up to her at lightning speed and smashed her right between her eyes. She went flying a good 20 metres and straight into a wall. Rainbow started falling, until Dark-Red Spectra caught her and gently put her down.

'Woah! I guess this is that 'power' Luna gave you!'

"SHUT IT DISCORD!"

Dark-Red Spectra turned around and saw Chrysalis getting up.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!"

Dark-Red Spectra ran up to her in the blink of an eye and started smashing her into the ground, not letting up. He wanted her to bleed, a lot.

-----3rd Pony Perspective-----

Twilight and her friends were almost at the castle, accompanied by Shadow. They were almost at the doors, until they opened. Spectra walked out, covered in blood and with Rainbow Dash on his back. Shadow looked like he didn't care, but the 5 mares looked horrified. Twilight rushed up to Spectra.

"Why are you covered in blood?!"

Spectra shoves her out of the way.

"I'm tired, I've been through a lot, and I'm angry. We are going home, and going to sleep. Don't talk to me until tommorow and whatever you do, do NOT go inside the castle. Bye."

Spectra spreads his wings and flies off. Twilight looked confused.

"Why can't we go inside?"

AJ steps in front of the doors. "Twilight, ah think ya should listen to 'im."

Twilight pushes AJ out of the way with her magic. "How bad can it be?"

Twilight walks inside, nopony else follows. The next second they hear a scream and Twilight bolts out of the castle.

"NOPONY GO IN THERE!"

Shadow shrugs and walks in, while everypony else heads home. They hear Shadow talking inside the castle.

"Awww sweet! Dinner for a month!"

-----Cloud House-----

It was dark when Spectra got back to Ponyville.

Spectra lays Rainbow in her bed. He watches her for a moment, then heads for the shower. He crawls back inside the sheets and attempts to fall asleep.

"Glad to see your alright."

Spectra opens his eyes and looks out the window. Luna was lying on a cloud outside the window.

Spectra flies out through the window and lands on the cloud next to Luna.

"Hey, Luna. Is the 'powers' you gave me meant to be represented by anything?"

Luna nods. "Yes, they can represent something about your personality. Why?"

Spectra turns to the night princess.

"Because I must be a monster."