What Didn't Happen

Chapters

Into the Everfree
Enemies of My Enemies
Heart of the Hive
Moonlit Memories
Hidden Messages
Facing Harsh Reality
A Light in the Darkness
A Darkness within the Light
Dreams of the Past
The Perfect Plan
A Small Hope to Hold Onto
Knowing
Hidden History
Return of the Queen
Destiny Undone
Set the Stage
Perfect Timing
Plan B
When It All Began
When the Answers Finally Find You
Epilogue
A Friend From the Future
Finding Friends Again
Secrets and Conspiracies
The Final Option

Into the Everfree

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter III – Into the Everfree

“You know, I could have carried that, Rarity.” Twilight eyed the white box that was floating in her friend’s levitation aura as they walked side by side. Along with the other three mares with their group, they had nearly made it to the final stop that she had been leading them too.

Rarity shook her head. “I'm afraid I can not allow it. Frosting would not go well with your new jacket.”

“Aha, so you're only worried about the jacket? I see,” Twilight playfully chided.

Fweeeeeet!

The group froze rigidly at the startling sound of a party horn, just outside the front door of the Golden Oak Library. A few popping sounds accompanied by confetti and streamers flying through the night air followed shortly after. Rarity held the white box only an inch off the ground with her magic, having very nearly dropped it.

“Surprise!” a voice called out from the direction of the library door. All eyes darted to the door way, or rather at the pony who was perched in the hedge that lined the top of the door's arch. Pinkie had managed to hide herself there thanks to the darkness. “Were you all surprised? I hope you were, because when I was setting things up earlier I started thinking to myself, 'Hey Self, they already know I'm setting up a party so it won't be much of a surprise, but what if I surprise them before the party!' So, did it work?”

Rainbow gently pried a terrified Fluttershy off her back leg. “Uh, yeah, I think it worked, Pinkie.”

Applejack's frustrated voice spoke up next. “I think I could have done without my heart skipin’ a beat, if I'm to be honest.”

Rarity looked to Twilight next to her, lowering her voice to a whisper. “I didn't realize we were heading to a party.”

Twilight put on an apologetic smile. “Well, think of it as more of a friendly get together than a party.”

Pinkie effortlessly performed a forward flip from her perch, landing on all fours just in front of the library door. “Everypony come inside! The party is just starting!”

The assembled group stepped inside, finding a library decorated with a rainbow of paper streamers and balloons all around, and a table that had a large punch bowl surrounded by trays of bite sized wheat crackers piled up with all kinds of different veggie snack foods. Pinkie had managed to snatch the white box away from Rarity at some point, and balanced it on her head as she pranced over to the table to place it there next to the rest of the party food. Twilight spotted a bottle of hot sauce there next to the punch glasses and snacks, and raised an eyebrow at it. Not this time, she thought to herself before turning her attention to the rest of the room. It seemed that every inch of the library had been decorated in some way. She even spotted the pin the tail on the pony game that Pinkie had always seemed to be so fond of tacked to one of the walls. It was definitely of the caliber of Pinkie Pie parties that she remembered.

Pinkie landed from a hop right next to Twilight. “So! What do you want to do first, Twilight? We have some games, some snacks, and lots and lots of books, because this is a library party!”

Twilight glanced around at the bookcases, recognizing some books on the shelves that in her own time were long gone. She felt the desire to bury herself in her old vice, wanting to lock herself away in the library's loft and just read. Of course she knew there wasn't any time for that, but the quick day dream had still brought a smile to her muzzle.

Humming a little sigh, she forced herself to put the day dream aside to focus on the important issue ahead. “I didn't just gather all of you here today for a party, there's actually another very important reason.” Twilight walked over to one of the library shelves hoping to see what she knew should be there. She smiled when she noticed the binding of the red book on the shelf, and used her magic to draw it from the bookcase. “The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide,” she said as she turn to display the book's cover to the rest of the mares.

Applejack eyed the book. “This the thing that you were needin’ help with, a book?”

“No, but it will help explain,” Twilight said as she used her magic to open the book, mentally flipping it to the page she remembered the legend being on. Once she found it, she nodded and turned the open book toward the other mares and began to recite the contents of the page from memory. “There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. It is said, the last known location of the five elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is located in what is now the Everfree Forest.”

A lingering silence hung in the room for a moment afterward, until it was broken by Pinkie. “Guys, this is amazing. Twilight... can read books without looking at them!”

Twilight laughed. “Actually no, I read this book a long time ago, many times... and this page has a lot of meaning for me.” She sat back on her haunches, closing the book with her magic and bringing it close to herself, hugging it to her chest with her forelegs. “I have a lot to explain.”

The room was silent, and painfully so. Around the room, each of the six mares had found somewhere to be comfortable while Twilight had told them what she could about herself, about the Elements of Harmony, and about what she hoped they would be willing to help her with. Twilight laid on one of the velvet pillows that were scattered about the library room, her jacket folded and placed to the side along with her crown laying just on top of it. She had tried her best to make her claim that she was a princess that had descended from the night sky in a magical fire ball from the future sound at least somewhat plausible, but her explanation had obviously been so lacking that it left everypony either confused or unwilling to believe since none of them seemed to have anything to say in response. “Somepony, please say something?” she asked as she nervously tapped a hoof against the floor in front of her.

Rainbow Dash noticed the concerned strain in Twilight's voice, and decided to speak up. “Well, I'll vouch for ya. I mean, both Fluttershy and I saw you fall out of the sky and there's a huge dirt hole to prove that, and you already knew our names without us telling you. So, of course we believe you, right?” Fluttershy nodded in agreement when Rainbow looked to her.

“I was right!” Pinkie playfully sung from where she was sitting at near the snack table, her head bobbing back and forth a bit. She was casually laying her chin on her forelegs that rested on the table's edge. “I mean, I didn't really know. I was just playing, but I was still right.”

Applejack leaned back against the wall that she had been sitting by while she had listened to the story, letting a long breath pass through her lips. “Well, it ain't that I don't believe what yer claimin’ about bein’ from the future, Twilight, as far out there as it sounds. Since yer a princess and all, I imagine you can do a lot of things that wouldn't make a lick of sense to me. What I'm havin’ problems with is... well, why us? I mean it all seems so random. Princess from the future comes fallin’ out of the sky and asks me to go help save Celestia from the Evil Queen. It isn’t that I don’t wanna help, I just don't see how I fit into that.”

Twilight was afraid of that; the possibility that some of her friends may not take to the idea that they were somehow destined to take the fight to Nightmare Moon. If even one of them didn't have the will to stand with her, then it wouldn't matter what she or the rest of them tried to do. The power that the Elements had would only work if they had all six, and even though there was the possibility that Twilight could face Nightmare Moon herself if need be, not even an alicorn would have the strength to break the prison that likely held Celestia captive on her own. For that, she needed the Bearers of the Elements. She knew that she had to keep trying. “I know it seems random, but it really isn't. Each one of you really does have a link with one of the Elements.”

Applejack nodded. “Yeah I got that, and mine's supposed to be Honesty. But I guess I'm still havin’ problems seein’ how that connection even happened, seein’ as I'm just a farm pony. Ain't nothin’ super magical about me.”

Twilight hummed at this as she thought. She knew about the bond that they had shared over their lifetime, but at this moment in time her friends had just been drawn together only hours ago. She needed something to tie this all together, to show them that their bond was something stronger and deeper than the short span of time they had spent together in this room. Something that would go further back than just a few hours.

“That's it,” Twilight said as her memories came across her answer. “You want to know how we're all connected? It actually almost slipped my mind it's been so long, but now I remember.”

Twilight shifted her glance over to her side toward Rainbow Dash, who was laying nearby. “Rainbow Dash, when you were a young filly, you were able to perform a Sonic Rainboom during a race in Cloudsdale.” It was more of a statement than a question, but Rainbow slowly nodded all the same to confirm it. “On that same day, Fluttershy discovered a whole different world beneath the clouds, Rarity's magic discovered a giant geode full of gems for the first time, Applejack was in Manehatten with her Aunt and Uncle Orange, and Pinkie had been working with her family at the rock fields. And all of you saw the same rainbow explode in the sky over Ponyville. Dash's rainbow.”

A quiet hush lingered in the air as the mares all glanced around at one another. “How...?” Rarity asked quietly.

Twilight continued her story. “How do I know all that? I know because I saw it too, and it helped me discover a part of who I was meant to be, just as it did for the rest of you. If that one thing hadn't happened, if we hadn't all experienced that same moment in time, none of us would be the mare that we are today.”

Applejack tapped a hoof against her muzzle as she thought on the story. “So because we all share that one thing, that's how it all connects,” she mumbled to herself.

The group fell silent again for some time. Twilight had definitely given them all a lot to think about, but she hoped that she had tipped the scales in her favor. She decided to try and drive the point home. “I'm not looking for a way to force you all into venturing into the creepy forest of doom. If need be, I'll go on my own to retrieve the Elements, but using the Elements is another thing entirely. We can only each use the Element that we are bound too, and they only work when all used together and only if we truly believe in each other. We already have my Element here, but without the rest of you, it really isn't much more than a pretty crown.”

Applejack nodded in understanding. “So what yer sayin’ is there really ain't no gettin’ off the hook for this one. Even if we didn't feel up to it, we're the only ponies who can do this.”

Twilight's ears fell. “I... no that's not—”

“I'll do it, Twi,” Applejack said with a smile. “Somepony has to, and from the sounds of it we're the only ponies for the job. Besides, you say you've seen us all do this once before, that means we can do it again, am I right?”

A chorus of agreement echoed around the room from the rest of the group.

“Right.”

Twilight smiled, feeling the weight of doubt being lifted off her shoulders.

Twilight had considered resting at her old home that evening, until she found that the loft had never been prepared for her arrival. Instead of finding a bed and her old belongings in the library loft that had been transported from Canterlot, she had found nothing but an empty and dusty storage room. This had caused her another fit of puzzled thought. It seemed Celestia had never arranged for Twilight to be in Ponyville. It was another small clue toward finding out what had happened that hadn't offered much of a conclusion, only serving to prompt more questions. Questions such as just how far did the change go back into the past? Had she ever been Celestia's student, or ever lived in Canterlot? Had she ever even existed? The thoughts were more than a little troubling to her.

Rarity had come to Twilight's rescue, bringing the future princess out of her deep thoughts and offering the use of Carousel Boutique's guest room. She wasn't going to leave a princess to 'sleep in the dirt', as she had put it, if she were able to do anything about that. Of course Twilight had accepted the offer, and actually found a pleasant night's sleep knowing that she had the support of her old friends once again. She wouldn't have to face her problems alone.

The 'night' had come and gone, giving way to the 'morning', though no change in the moon and starlit sky marked the passing of either. However, the group of mares still managed to meet at the library again at an arranged time shortly after breakfast, prepared to make their way into the Everfree in search of the Elements. They arrived with various essentials for the trip ahead of them, though what they each considered 'essential' varied from pony to pony. Twilight had donned her 'I'm just a unicorn' disguise, wearing her new velvet jacket and magically shrouding the Element of Magic from view on her head, and had thought to also bring a pair of saddlebags containing a couple reference books she had plucked from the library shelves that might prove useful. She had also brought a current map of the Everfree Forest, as current as one could get anyway. Applejack had brought some lengths of rope with her, Fluttershy had packed blankets in case anypony got cold, Rarity had chosen to bring her sun hat of all things, and Pinkie had decided to bring a box of chocolate chip cookies. Rainbow Dash had brought herself, which she claimed was all she needed to bring.

None of this bothered Twilight in the slightest as they had set off into the forest. She was grateful that they had chosen to come with her at all. The only problem was the forest and how it managed to change so much over time, making any memory she had of it rather useless and even the map only marginally so. After leading her friends through the gloom of the forest for a couple hours, she was now staring at the map hovering just in front of her face, glancing over it at the gorge that was clearly not on the map, but had blocked them from getting to their destination all the same.

Rainbow happened to be staring at the map too, looking just over Twilight's shoulder. “You know what I see?” she asked.

“What do you see?” Twilight asked, continuing to study the map.

Rainbow leaned forward, placing one hoof on Twilight's shoulder as she pointed the other at what she saw at various spots on the map. “Trees... trees... trees, trees, trees aaaaand... trees.”

“Ha ha,” Twilight mock laughed as the corners of her mouth turned up.

Rainbow stepped back a step, planting her hooves back on the ground. “Seriously, how do you see anything on this map, it's all trees. We're lost, aren't we?”

“We're lost?” Fluttershy asked with an edge of panic on her voice nearby as her ears perked up.

Twilight shot a glare at Rainbow. “No, we're not lost. We just have to go around. And it's not all trees, there's a creek nearby.”

“Oh, hey everypony! Twilight found a spec of water in the middle of all the trees!” Rainbow mock cheered. “You know, if you would just let me scout ahead—”

“No, Rainbow,” Twilight said as she rolled her eyes at the same time her magic rolled up the map. Stuffing the map back into her saddlebags, she began to walk along the edge of the gorge. “If there are any Nightguard patrols, they might see you. Besides, if we head this direction to the creek, there is a spot where we can all cross and then it's just an easy trip north east from there.”

“Easy, as in how it has been easy so far?” Rarity asked as she pursed her lips.

Twilight sighed. “Okay, I know. This place isn't very easy to walk through. We can take a break when we get to the creek.”

Other than the minor back-track, the trip had actually gone well without any incidents so far. Twilight knew better than to push her luck by saying such, and so just stuck with trying to encourage the rest of the group to keep going. As promised, they took a moment to rest and gather their strength once they reached the creek where the gorge ended. Pinkie had found this moment to be the best use of her supplies, and had doled out the chocolate chip cookie rations to the group.

“So all we got left is a jaunt over that a way?” Applejack asked as she finished up her snack and pointed off in a direction just over the creek.

“That's right. We should see the ruins pretty soon actually, it's right next—” Twilight suddenly trailed off as she looked around, her ears snapping erect and swiveling quickly.

“Next to what?” Applejack prompted when Twilight didn't finish.

Twilight raised a hoof, indicating that she wanted quiet as she strained her ears to try to pick up on something. Glancing back over her shoulder to the rest of the group, she quietly asked, “Do you hear that?”

The rest of the group listened for the sound that Twilight had noticed, but there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. In fact the forest was dead silent other than the sound of water trickling through the creek.

“I don't hear a thing,” Rarity said as she looked back to Twilight confused.

“Yeah, the crickets quit chirping,” Twilight mentioned as she glanced around slowly. The way she had said that statement made the rest of the mares feel a chill, and suddenly all of them were noticeably more alert.

A low growling noise echoed around the group, causing many of them to feel the hackles on their back raise. Applejack looked around quickly as her ears tried to pick out the source of the noise. “Alright, tell me that sound was one of you girls just wantin’ another cookie.”

“Not it,” Rainbow Dash claimed. The rest of the mares shook their heads to indicate that the sound hadn't come from them either.

“Shoot.”

The growling sound came from around the group again, causing them to huddle together.

“Stay close,” Twilight said as she kept a watchful eye on the trees. Just along the edge of where the tree line blended into the darkness of the forest, green slits of light could be seen darting between the tree trunks. What ever they belonged too seemed to be coming from all directions at once, circling to the left and right just out of view.

“Giiiirls,” Fluttershy's shaky voice whispered. She pressed herself against the rest of the group, pointing a hoof at the trees just in front of her. A wolf shaped head made up of sticks, twigs, and bark hovered there just at the edge of the darkness. It slowly crept forward, revealing its wooden front paws and legs. The low growling noise echoed from its maw as its glowing green eye sockets remained focused on them.

“Stay... close...,” Twilight repeated, her attention circling slowly around the group. All around them she could see the wolf pack emerging from the darkness cautiously, slowly moving in but not yet attacking. She picked out one that appeared to be the most aggressive of the group, the one that was inching forward slightly ahead of the rest directly in front of her. She considered that particular one to likely be their pack leader the way the rest of the wolves seemed to be following its lead. She stared back at it, not giving a single inch of ground up or showing any visible fear at its approach, for to show any signs of weakness would likely cause it to attack. For what felt like a very long moment, the staring contest between her and the alpha wolf lingered as it growled at her defiance. Finally, the stare down broke when the wolf made a lunge for her, signaling the rest of the pack that started to move in at the same time.

“BACK OFF!”

Twilight's voice came out like a clap of thunder, the force of which caused a concussive shock-wave that blew the alpha wolf back against a tree, causing it to splinter into pieces and a puff of glowing green smoke. The smoke hovered in the air for a second before it settled back into the pile of tree parts that had once been the wolf's body, and then began to pull its wooden body back together quickly as it struggled to scamper off. At the same time, the rest of the pack had immediately backed away from the sudden shout, and when they noticed their pack leader retreating they all followed suit, turning tail to disappear back into the woods they had come from.

The mares remained huddled tightly together for a minute after the wolves had left, slowly growing more calmed as they all realized they weren't about to become chew toys any longer. When Twilight was satisfied that the threat had passed, she let her focus on the surrounding forest wane and decided to check on her friends. “Is everyone okay?”

“Mostly,” Rainbow said as she rubbed one of her ears with a hoof. “I still can't hear anything but a ringing sound out of this ear.”

Twilight's eyes took on an apologetic look as she turned to face the rest of the group. “Sorry. I probably should have told you all to cover your ears.”

Applejack let a little whistle go between her teeth. “Ah still can't believe that sound came outta you. I think you got us all pretty good, Twi, but specially them timberwolves. Where'd you learn to do somethin’ like that?”

Twilight smiled humbly. “Oh, that was just a little trick I picked up over the years.”

Twilight cautiously picked her way through the brush around the gnarled roots of the trees. “Everyone be careful up here. There's a cliff just up ahead, but if memory serves me right we should find a bridge where we can cross.”

Rainbow Dash stopped as she blew a raspberry and rolled her eyes. “Who needs a bridge?”

Applejack elbowed the pegasus in the side as she walked past. “You do realize half of us don't have wings, right?”

“Minor detail. We can make it work,” Rainbow said with a dismissive wave of her hoof.

The tree line thinned right before a sheer drop off that the group walked up on. Glancing cautiously over the edge, they found that the bottom of the drop wasn't visible thanks to the fog hanging in the air below. Just across from the group, the other side of the cliff was barely visible through the haze in the air, but settled on the other cliff was something very large casting a looming shadow. Twilight squinted her eyes hard at the strange looking silhouette, and then quickly pulled her map open, glancing back and forth between the two. By what she remembered, and what the map was trying to tell her, this should have been the ruins that she was looking at, but this shadow was much larger than the ruins she remember.

Pinkie sat near the edge of the cliff craning her neck back as she took in the full size of the dark object ahead of them. “Oh wow, that must be the hive thingy. Didn't think it would be that big.”

Twilight glanced over at Pinkie Pie, confusion twisting on her face as she tried to understand what she had just heard. She glanced again at her map and then at the 'hive thingy'. “That thing is right on top of the ruins.”

“Oh dang, serious?” Applejack said as she trotted up to look at the map too, not that it made much sense when she glanced at it. It really did look like nothing but a drawing full of trees, just like Rainbow had said.

Twilight's magic suddenly scrunched the map together in frustration. She knew full well what this 'hive thingy' must be, and it was yet another thing that didn't make sense. She had seen one before, but never before in Equestria’s borders. “Why in Equestria is that thing here!?”

Everypony seemed suddenly shocked at Twilight's outburst. After a moment of silence, Rainbow spoke up to try and offer an explanation. “Er... well I think it's always been here.”

Twilight stared back at her friend. “Always?”

“I wouldn't say always,” Rarity began as she looked out at the hive, “however, it has been here for a time, since when I was still a little foal myself.”

Applejack nodded and hummed an 'uh huh'. “Yeah that sounds about right. Was probably around ten years ago or so that Celestia allowed them to settle down here. I've never come out here to see it for myself though. Not really a reason to.”

Twilight glanced around frantically at her friends that seemed to be unaware of the danger sitting right in front of them. “That is a changeling hive!” she screeched as she pointed a hoof toward the looming shadow.

The group was silenced for a moment once again. “...Uh... yeah?” Rainbow said as she shrugged her shoulders.

Twilight stared back for a moment in disbelief at how none of her friends seemed to care about this. Shaking her head, she tried to explain further. “Changelings are horrible creatures!”

Applejack took a cautious step forward and laid a hoof on her frustrated friend’s shoulder, trying to bring some calm to her. “Now come on, Twi. They ain't ever bugged anypony since they moved in here.”

A light snicker noise escaped from Rainbow Dash. “Heh... you said 'bugged'.” Her comment only got her eye rolls and head shakes from many of the other mares, except from Pinkie who giggled at it.

Twilight brushed Applejack’s touch back, stamping her hoof on the ground. “Guys! This is serious. I'm not joking when I say that thing should not be here. There was never a changeling hive in Equestria's borders.”

Rainbow suddenly dropped her joking demeanor. “Wait, so... is this another one of those crazy 'history got changed' things?”

Twilight turned to look out at the hive. She tried to think about how this connected with the other change she knew of; her past self possibly missing. Though she had no real way of proving a connection between the two, there were some frightening possibilities. However, anything she could think of at this moment would be mere speculation.

Twilight tried to calm herself as she let a huff of air out through her nostrils. “I don't know what you have all been told about changelings, but they are extremely dangerous. They have the ability to completely replace another pony, copying everything. Your looks, your memories, everything about you they can steal.”

“Why would they do that?” Fluttershy quietly asked.

Twilight spun around, looking directly to Fluttershy. “Because, it's how they hunt. They work their way into towns and cities unnoticed, and then when they have enough of a presence they strike all at once. The ponies they capture become their food, so to speak.”

Fluttershy made a face that seemed both terrified and disgusted at the same time as she drew her forelegs up against her chest. “They... eat ponies?” she squeaked.

Twilight shook her head. “Not exactly, no, though what they do isn't much better. It's more like they feed off of a pony's emotional energy. I've heard of some pretty bad things that go on in the hives, venom being used to put a pony into a state of euphoria so they can continue to drain them of as much emotional energy as possible, but that's just what we were able to learn from the changelings we managed to capture in my time. Nopony really knows for sure what happens in the hives because there isn't anypony crazy enough to try to go in one, but it can't be good.”

“That sounds horrible,” Rarity said as a shiver worked its way through her spine. “But why would Princess Celestia allow such creatures to be here? She seemed rather confident in allowing them to settle in the Everfree from what I remember. And I don't recall any mention of them ever being hostile.”

Twilight turned to glance out at the looming hive again, giving it a hard stare. “I don't know. Maybe they fooled her, or maybe she just didn't know yet what they are capable of. In the history I remember, the changelings never even tried to be peaceful. Instead, they just tried to invade Canterlot. They failed of course, and after that we made sure they were not allowed within Equestria ever again.

“But now they have a hive right here, practically on Canterlot's doorstep. This is... this is another really big problem. There is no telling how many ponies have already been replaced without anypony noticing.” Add another one to the list, Twilight thought to herself as she stared out at the hive. Nightmare Moon, and now changelings too; her list of threats to Equestria's history was starting to look a bit daunting.

Twilight closed her eyes, letting a frustrated groan escape from her throat. She then turned and began to walk away from the cliff side. “I need to think about this for a minute.”

However, Twilight wouldn't get her minute of thought. A shadow passed through the tree tops, hitting the ground right in front of her. Many more quickly followed, thudding to the ground and surrounding the group in an instant. Twilight quickly thought to charge up a very specific spell for this situation, lighting her horn.

“This area is off limits to civilians,” a mare's voice loudly proclaimed from the shadow just in front of Twilight. This caused her to pause in her spell casting. The shadow approached a couple more steps, revealing a bat winged pegasus mare with a charcoal gray coat staring back at her with cat-like golden eyes. She wore violet metallic armor that bore the unmistakable slit-eye shaped emblem of the Nightguard on her chest. Not what Twilight had expected to see, but not much better. She disabled the spell that she had been preparing and lowered her guard. She and her friends had been caught, but the Nightguard had no reason to suspect them of any sort of 'wrong doing' yet. Maybe this situation could still be salvaged, she thought. Her mind began to work over possible excuses that she could try to use.

“Twilight,” Fluttershy's weak voice called out, grabbing her attention.

Twilight glanced back at her friends, seeing their frightened faces looking back to her for help. She put a reassuring smile on for them. “Let me handle this,” she said quietly to the rest of the group before turning to face the Nightguard before her. “My companions and I came to investigate the ruins here. Is that a problem?” She hoped that maybe feigning ignorance of the royal decree to stay out of the Everfree would work.

The Nightguard stared hard at Twilight as if searching for something. Her mouth worked back and forth as she stared, and then she finally responded. “Not for me to say. Our orders are to bring anypony suspicious back to camp. I would say a group of civilians taking a waltz through the Everfree Forest fits that description. You and your companions will come with us. That is not a request.”

Without giving Twilight a chance to answer, the Nightguard turned around while calling out to the rest of her fellow guards. “We're bringing them in. Keep a close eye on them.”

The group of guards that had been standing just at the edges of the shadows moved in and made a tight circle around Twilight and her friends and began leading them back into the forest. Twilight could see the worried look on her friend's faces, and tried to offer what support she could. “It will be okay. Once we get there just let me explain everything. You guys just let me take care of it, alright?” Her friends remained quiet, only nodding in response.

The escort ended at a camp setup not too far from the cliff side, hidden just on the edge of the tree line. There appeared to be a large number of Nightguard present, some of them standing watch around the perimeter, others busily moving between tents as they attended to their given tasks. Twilight took notice of a few that were in an area that appeared to be for practicing with weapons and spells. This was a war camp, and it was very close to the changeling hive. It appeared that Nightmare Moon didn't agree with the changelings' presence within Equestria's borders.

The group finally stopped just in front of a large command tent pitched near the center of the camp ground. The lead Nightguard turned her head back toward Twilight, simply giving a command to 'wait here' before she entered the tent. A long moment passed as the group waited, nervousness growing as they noticed other Nightguard around the camp looking toward them curiously. Finally, the flap to the tent flew open, and the Nightguard mare walked back outside, stepping just to the side.

A slender black foreleg with a hoof clad in pale blue metallic armor came into view first, followed closely by the rest of the dark mare that it belonged too. Her ethereal mane spilled out around her as she exited the tent, hanging in an unfelt breeze. The moonlight glinted off of her pale blue helmet, and complimented the eerie glow of the crescent moon symbol on her chest armor. Nightmare Moon stared down at the group of ponies that had been brought before her with her greenish, cat-like eyes, the frown on her muzzle seeming to show only how displeased she was with their presence. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she spoke. “Which one of you is the leader of this group of... explorers.”

Enemies of My Enemies

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter IV – Enemies of My Enemies

Queen Nightmare Moon gazed harshly at the group of mares gathered before her. She arched an eyebrow when an answer to her question did not immediately come forth. “Well?”

Twilight did the only thing she could possibly think of to protect her friends at that moment. Bringing her muzzle low to the ground, she bowed before Equestria’s Queen and answered her question. “I am, your Majesty.” The rest of her friends looked somewhat shocked, but all reluctantly followed her motion shortly after, bending their knees to the monarch.

The Queen's cat-like eyes locked on to the 'unicorn' mare in front of her, studying her closely. “You may rise,” she commanded calmly. “Tell us your name.”

Twilight raised herself from the ground, looking up to meet the Queen's eyes. “Twilight Sparkle.”

“Twilight... Sparkle.” The Queen's eyes slowly traced over the mare standing before her as she spoke the name, as if she were studying every facet of her being. “We have been told that you are leading an expedition to the ruins of the ancient castle.”

“Yes, your Majesty.”

“Suspicious,” the Queen said as her eyes narrowed. “Our guards come across a group of mares not but a stone's throw away from the Everfree Hive. And we are to believe that you are all merely explorers? At best, this group appears like a foalish bunch of mares that bumbled their way into the forest by accident.”

Twilight thought over her options quickly, and decided to try a gamble. She almost considered it to be too crazy, but if she played this situation correctly there was a chance that she could turn two insurmountable problems into a single solution. “Actually, my friends and I did come prepared, your Majesty.”

The Queen stared back silently for a moment. “Oh?”

Twilight had hooked Nightmare Moon's interest as she had hoped, and was now ready to make her play. “Yes. I have studied changelings for a time, and have devised spells that can successfully counter them.”

“Have you....” The Queen suddenly seemed genuinely interested in what Twilight had to say.

“Yes, and in my studies, I found that they can be extremely dangerous. Enough so that they shouldn't have ever been allowed into Equestria.”

“On that point, we can both agree,” The Queen said as she thought on Twilight's claim. She then looked to her side at the Nightguard that had been silently waiting there. “Sergeant, send her inside.” The Nightguard bowed her head as the Queen returned to her tent.

Rainbow stepped up next to Twilight, leaning toward her ear. Through clenched teeth she asked, “Twilight, what are you doing?”

“Fixing this,” Twilight quietly said back. She then turned to face her friends and clearly spoke, “Just wait here, I'll be back soon.” She could tell that her friends were not comfortable with this situation, but hoped they would continue to quietly trust her until a time when she could explain her plan to them. Turning toward the command tent, Twilight approached the Sergeant Nightguard, who swept the tent flap open with her wing. She allowed Twilight to enter and then let the flap fall close.

The inside of the tent was lit with lanterns that hung from the two rows of support beams that held up the tarp, each one containing a small blue flame that seemed to hover inside. Just to the right inside the tent, a unicorn mare dressed in armor very similar to the rest of the guards met Twilight with a silent stare at the entry way. Her armor did appear to have some unique differences that set it apart from the others. Straight across from the tent's entrance was a low wooden table that appeared to have a map laid out on it, and also had many small colored markers laid out across the map. Just on the opposite side of the table, the Queen took a seat on a large velvet pillow, glancing down at the map shortly before looking up to her guest.

Just as Twilight began to take a step further inside, the tent flap abruptly flew open again behind her. All attention turned back to see a pegasus stallion clad in guard armor there. The unicorn guard turned her full attention to the stallion, stepping to the entrance of the tent and lending her ear to hear what he had to say. After the report had been given, the stallion was given a simple 'carry on' command to send him on his way.

“What is it, Moondancer?” the Queen asked from her seat across the room as she casually studied the map before her. Twilight blinked at the name, her eyes wandering over to the guard as 'Moondancer' stepped back to her post inside the tent. She wondered if this Moondancer was the same one she remembered from her younger life in Canterlot. The armor would make it nearly impossible to tell for certain, since it covered her cutie-mark and changed her outward appearance to conform to the standard grays of the Nightguard. Twilight had never heard of the Moondancer she remembered joining the Equestrian Royal Guard, but given what she had seen in this past so far, anything seemed possible now.

Moondancer glanced at Twilight briefly before turning her full attention to the Queen and giving the report. “Another three scouts are overdue. No sign of them has been seen.”

Nightmare Moon let go an exasperated sigh as one of her heavy armored hooves clunked onto the table in front of her. “Why does this not surprise us?” Hardening her gaze on Moondancer, she continued. “We are starting to lose faith in your scouts, Captain. It seems that for the last few days they have only been adept at having the most horrible luck known to ponydom.” Captain Moondancer didn't respond directly to this, likely not wanting to chance angering the Queen any further.

Nightmare Moon turned her attention toward Twilight. “As you can see, we have been experiencing issues. These changelings are obviously proving to be more than these guards can handle so shortly after their inclusion into our Nightguard. A countermeasure would be welcome, if you do indeed have one.”

Twilight had to fight down the urge to smile at the request. This was exactly the chance that she had hoped for. She called on her many years of experience in political bargaining, making her face the very image of practiced professionalism as she prepared to present the aid that she could offer to the Queen. “Yes, well, one of the spells I know is a modified shielding spell that can be used to send out a pulse to detect a changeling's presence. If enough power is applied to it, it can even be used to stun them, force them back, or create a protective dome over an area that can keep them in or out, and it has no effect on any other living beings or creatures that touch it. Everything but changelings can safely pass through.”

The Queen made a face that seemed to indicate that she was mildly impressed, with a slight nod and her brows raising a bit, but Twilight knew that wasn't going to be good enough. She had to make Nightmare Moon desperately want her help, and so she offered up another one of her abilities. “I have also devised a spell that can reveal a changeling's true form.”

“Your Majesty,” Moondancer spoke up suddenly. “Can we really trust these wild claims? These explorers may very well may be changelings themselves.”

“I assure you, we are not changelings,” Twilight said as she tried to maintain the foothold she had gained. She wasn't about to let this guard derail her.

However, Captain Moondancer pressed the issue, stepping up and nearly pressing her chest against Twilight's as she glared back. “That is exactly what a changeling would say.”

“SILENCE! Both of you.” The Queen's voice caused an echo through the nearby woods as she stared down at both of them from across the table. Turning her attention to the Captain, she asked, “Do you consider us to be an idiot?” Moondancer shrunk away a step from the Queen's icy cold stare, but Nightmare Moon refused to relent. “Of course they could be changelings, we suspected as much the very moment they were made known to us. However, if this unicorn's claims are indeed true, we may very well gain the upper hoof that we have been needing. That is not a possibility that should be carelessly tossed aside!” She punctuated the last word by slamming her hoof against the wooden table, causing the Captain to flinch at the sudden cracking sound of the wood.

Nightmare Moon stared hard at her guard captain for a moment longer until she was satisfied that her glare had stared Moondancer into silence. Turning her attention back to her guest, she continued her conversation with Twilight. “Now, about this ability of yours to reveal changelings....”

Twilight nodded and began to pick up where she had left off. “It's actually quite simple. Changelings don't actually make use of illusion magic, it's more of a physical transformation, a type of metamorphic magic. Once that is understood—”

“We know how changelings shape shift, Miss Sparkle,” the Queen interrupted. “This isn't our first dealing with the creatures. They are a very old enemy, old enough that most ponies have forgotten over the ages that they even exist, or what they are capable of... including Celestia, obviously.” The way she had grit her teeth as she said the previous monarch's name appeared as if saying it left her with an awful taste in her mouth.

Twilight's thought process hit a hitch as she realized she had just learned something she didn't already know. She never remembered changelings as being an 'old enemy'. She had always thought that Equestria's first dealings with the creatures was when they had attempted to invade Canterlot, an event that in this time period hadn't even happened yet. No knowledge about the changelings existing before the invasion had ever been mentioned to her by Celestia or Luna. Twilight mentally tucked that confusing puzzle piece aside for now so she could continue to focus on her bargaining.

Moondancer dared to speak up once again, although somewhat more timidly than before. “If I may, your Majesty. If what this unicorn claims is actually true, she should be able to reveal the prisoner that we have. If not, then obviously she has been lying to cover up her true intentions here.”

Nightmare Moon silently regarded the two unicorns before her, glancing back and forth between them. She hummed a sigh in thought, standing from her position behind the table and began to walk to the center of the tent. She stopped just in front of Twilight, towering over the shorter mare. “A test then. We would like to see a demonstration of this ability you claim to have. We do indeed have a captive who has been very uncooperative and insists on keeping the face of one of our Nightguard to hide itself behind. Captain Moondancer dragged the foul thing out of the woods herself days ago.”

Twilight glanced at the Captain shortly before turning her gaze back to the Queen. “I would be happy to demonstrate for you, your Majesty.”

“Good. Doing so will not only prove useful in the interrogation, but would be satisfactory in proving that you are not one of these things yourself, would it not?” The Queen looked to Moondancer, who nodded in response. “Very well then. Captain, escort us to the prisoner.”

Twilight followed the Queen and her guard captain out of the tent. Just outside, she found her friends there waiting. They all seemed to look somewhat hopeful, if not surprised when Twilight had safely returned from inside.

“Your Majesty?” Twilight quickly called to the Queen, causing her to pause.

“What is it?”

“I would like my companions to see this.”

The Queen seemed to hesitate at this request at first, glancing to the rest of the mares. Turning to continue on her way to the prison, she simply said, “Very well, we see no reason not to allow this.” Moondancer made a quick motion with one hoof, silently commanding a few of the guards that had been watching over the mares to follow them as well.

The group made their way through the camp with the escort of Nightguard, eventually coming to a makeshift prison. This prison was actually no more than just two wooden posts driven into the ground, serving to support chains that were cuffed to the forelegs of a light blue earth pony stallion. The chains kept his forehooves lifted off the ground nearly to shoulder height. The fur around where the cuffs shackled near his fetlocks was darkened with dried blood where they had chafed. His head hung limply toward the ground and one of his back legs rested rather uncomfortably looking on one knee as he dangled there between the posts.

The Queen approached the prisoner, and he visibly shook when he noticed the dark mare's hooves stopping just in front of his field of view. Her ethereal mane wrapped around and grasped his muzzle, pulling his gaze up to meet hers, causing him to let go a groan before she tightened her grip around his muzzle to silence him. “No. You were given your chance to speak, and now you will remain silent as we strip away your mask.” The Queen harshly tossed his muzzle back down, causing the stallion's back legs to scramble about as he struggled to remain upright.

Turning toward Twilight, the Queen gave her command. “Reveal the changeling.”

Twilight faced the captive as he weakly pulled his head up barely high enough to side glance at her with one eye. She could see confusion mostly, a little fear, and exhaustion from his glance, however something else seemed very off about this prisoner. If this changeling had actually intended to copy the looks of a Nightguard in an attempt to infiltrate, then he wouldn't look like a regular pony, he would look like a guard. She knew well how the enchantment on the Equestrian guard armor worked, by casting an illusion that gave any pony wearing it the same appearance as other guards issued the same uniform. She also knew changelings could only change their looks to mimic what they could see, and that the armor enchantment didn't work for them. This meant that either this changeling caught a guard out of uniform out in the middle of the woods and mimicked him, or had chosen to strip a guard of his uniform before mimicking him, either of which would make it a dead giveaway when it would try to return to the camp. Neither of those scenarios made any sense, which meant the only remaining possibility that did make sense was....

Twilight snapped her gaze to Captain Moondancer, who returned the glance with a look that told Twilight everything she needed to know. It was a fleeting look that the Captain had quickly tried to hide, but it was there. Twilight acted swiftly, using her telekinetic magic to grasp the Captain and force her to the ground on her back. Before anypony in the camp could react, Twilight charged a spell from her horn that projected a wide beam of light across Moondancer's body. As the beam traced down her body, it stripped away the 'pony' and revealed a changeling in its place. The changeling screamed and thrashed in the telekinetic grip as its disguise was stripped away.

Twilight narrowed her eyes at the creature she had revealed. “There's your changeling.”

Nightmare Moon seemed unable to find her voice for a moment as she stared in wide-eyed disbelief at what she had thought only moments ago was her Captain of the Guard. She finally gathered her wits as she bellowed out a command. “GUARDS! Chain that thing!”

The nearby Nightguard quickly descended on the creature, allowing Twilight to release her hold and step away. The Queen silently stared at the scene before her, a range of emotions from betrayal to anger playing on her face. Glancing to the side, she took notice of the chained stallion still hanging there helplessly. “And what of this one?” she asked.

Twilight took a moment to concentrate as she charged another spell. It began as a single pinprick of light at the tip of her horn, glowing bright white. She put a measured amount of power behind it, and then let it go, causing a sphere of white light to expand from the point around herself and through everything in the camp. As the sphere of light expanded and passed over the changeling, it screamed as small trails of electricity skittered across its body and then seemed to fall limp, its chest heaving as it gasped for breath. The spell had no effect on anything else.

“That is the only one,” Twilight said as she nodded to the changeling that the guards were now attaching shackles too.

Nightmare Moon turned her attention to the chained stallion and furrowed her brow as she closed her eyes. “Somepony get him out of these chains, and see to his wounds,” she solemnly commanded, and then turned to begin swiftly walking away. She stopped only momentarily to look over her shoulder. “Twilight Sparkle, we would have a word with you. See us in our command tent.” The Queen continued on her way through the camp, leaving her guards to attend to the situation.

Twilight noticed her friends huddled closely to each other nearby, still watching the scene unfold before them. She approached them, deciding that she could safely speak to them for a quick moment while the guards were preoccupied. “Are you all alright?”

“What just happened?” Pinkie asked, her usual smile and cheerful nature no where to be found.

Twilight glanced to the creature that the Nightguard were shackling to the posts nearby. “I know you guys probably don't like what you just saw, but you needed to know what we're up against here.”

“What exactly are we doing here?” Rainbow asked.

“I'll explain it all when I can, but right now I have to go speak with Nightmare Moon again.” Twilight could see that Rainbow wanted to protest, but quickly silenced her before she could say anything further. “Later, Rainbow, please.”

“Whatever,” Rainbow huffed, sitting back on her haunches as she crossed her forelegs.

Twilight's voice took on an apologetic tone. “I know you guys are scared, but just stick together and stay calm, okay? I'm going to make this work somehow.”

Applejack nodded back. “You go do whatcha need to, Twi.”

Twilight was reluctant to leave her friends alone at that moment, and lingered there silently nearby for a short while longer before she finally decided to go seek out the Queen. Once Twilight had made her way back to the command tent, she was met there by the Sergeant, who nodded and held the tent flap open with her wing to allow Twilight to pass. Just inside the tent, Twilight found Nightmare Moon sitting at the other side of the table, her jaw firmly set with a frown as she stared at the map laying open before her. Twilight silently waited for some sort of acknowledgment of her presence.

“For days now...,” Nightmare Moon quietly started as she glowered at the map laid out before her. “For days I have been feeding the enemy information.” Suddenly, she slammed her foreleg against the table, raking it across the map and sending the small colored markings scattering about the tent. An uneasy silence hung in the tent for a moment before Nightmare Moon spoke again. “It's no wonder my scouts have been falling into their traps left and right. And we still know next to nothing about what we face.”

Twilight noticed how the Queen had dropped her use of the royal plural, and was now just venting her frustration. She had not only been fooled by a changeling infiltrator, but had been fooled into harming one of her own. Twilight saw this as an opportunity to use herself to fill the gap in the Queen's broken circle of trust, and so she made her next play.

“Changelings are known for trying to imitate those we trust the most. I'm sorry that this was revealed the way it was, but I felt something had to be done.”

Nightmare Moon glanced up, her fuming seeming to bleed off as she did so. Setting herself back upon her velvet seat, she shook her head. “No... you should not apologize, for you did the right thing, though this does mean I am now out one Captain of the Guard. Just my luck. I have to wonder if this entire mess is some sort of sick gift that Celestia left behind to entertain me with.”

Twilight felt the need to protest well up inside her, but knew better and chained her personal feelings on the matter. Instead, she continued to make what she hoped was the final move in her gambit. “I don't want to be too presumptuous, your Majesty, but if you could use my aid, I am willing to lend it to you.”

The Queen regarded the unicorn before her. “How is it...,” she began, stopping to think for a moment before she continued. “How is it that you were able to so easily discern that my guard captain was a changeling?”

“It was in her eyes,” Twilight said simply. “I had a suspicion that the prisoner wasn't actually a changeling. The only other likely scenario would have been if the Captain was the actual changeling, since you did say she had been the one that brought the prisoner back. It would make sense then why she allowed me to try my spell, because if I had tried it on the prisoner, it would have failed and would have proven her claim right, allowing her to keep her hidden identity and making me appear like I was one of them.

“But, when you look into somepony's eyes, you can see things that they don't want you to see. When I looked at hers, I saw that she was afraid. Why would she be afraid unless she had a reason to be? She knew that I had figured her out, and her eyes told me everything.”

Nightmare Moon raised her eyebrows as she listened to Twilight's explanation. “You are much more than you appear to be, Twilight Sparkle. We would dare say that our meeting is no accident.” She rose from her seat behind the table to her full royal stature to make her request. “Would you be capable of teaching these spells that you know to the spell casters among our Nightguard?”

“Teaching them the basics should be simple enough. Also, I may have some thoughts on how we could proceed with the hive.”

The Queen nodded. “We will consider your offer of council. For now, we will make arrangements for you and your companions to remain here so you may begin the training. Sergeant!” The Sergeant entered the tent as she was called, quickly bending her knee to the Queen. “Miss Sparkle and her companions will be staying with us. See to it that they receive a tent and proper provisions.”

“By your will,” the Sergeant said before she quickly left.

The Queen stepped out from behind the table, moving herself to stand just before Twilight. “We look forward to hearing some good news in the near future. Succeed, and you will be rewarded.”

Hours had passed since Twilight's friends found themselves ushered to a tent by one of the guards, being told that they were staying at the camp for the foreseeable future. They had been provided with a single tent large enough for their entire group, the ground having half a dozen bed rolls laid out in two equal rows of three on either side of the center. At the center of the tent, Rainbow was roaming back and forth, her gaze glancing to the tent's entrance each time she passed by it.

Applejack laid on one of the bedrolls near the entrance, and was following Rainbow Dash with her eyes as she traced her back and forth path. “Sugarcube, I think yer about to wear out the ground.”

“I can't help it!” Rainbow only paused for a short second before she continued to pace.

Rarity tried to offer some calming words of her own from the other side of the tent. “I'm sure Twilight was just held up, she seemed to have things well in hoof.”

Rainbow spun around to glare back at Rarity. “Well in hoof!? You call what we saw well in hoof?”

Just then, the tent flap flipped open, and Twilight peered in. A relieved smile seemed to cross her muzzle at the sight of her friends as she stepped into the tent. However, she jerked her neck back when a rainbow blur nearly ran face first into her. Staring back hard at her, Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to let Twilight know exactly what she thought about this situation, but was silenced when Twilight quickly pushed her hoof against Rainbow's muzzle.

“Wait, they'll hear you,” Twilight said quietly, fearful that her friend was about to let go a major frustration venting. Rainbow glared back over the hoof, but remained silent. Twilight lit her horn, casting a spell that seemed to cause the outline of the tent to shimmer, and then a light snapping sound was heard. Lowering her hoof, she nodded as the magical aura on her horn died out. “Okay, we can talk now. Nopony outside can hear a word we say in here.”

“So we don't have to whisper or anything?” Rainbow asked.

“Right, we can talk openly about this.”

“Alright,” Rainbow said, and then took a deep calming breath in through her nostrils as she closed her eyes. However, instead of calming her nerves, her eyes shot back open and glared back at Twilight angrily. “Just what the hay do you think you're doing!?”

“Dash,” Twilight said with a cautioned tone.

“You said they can't hear us!”

“Well they can't! But there's no reason to yell in my face. I'm standing right here.”

Applejack stood from her spot nearby, walking toward the two arguing ponies and putting herself somewhat between them. “Ah think what Dash is tryin’ to say, Twi, is that we're all kinda wonderin’ why we're just hangin’ out here with the Queen and the Nightguard. Seems kinda backwards from what we were plannin’ earlier today.”

Twilight let go an exhausted sigh as she walked over to one of the vacant bed rolls in the back corner of the tent, taking a moment to lay herself down to rest her tired legs. All of her friend's eyes were on her, waiting for some sort of answer. “I know, I really haven't been keeping you guys in the loop. I wasn't trying to leave you guys out in the cold on this, but I couldn't really stop in the middle of it all and explain what I was planning with guards staring at us. I mean, just this morning, I figured that we could just start retracing the same hoofsteps that I remembered us going through before, and that somehow all of this would start to make some sense. There was only supposed to be an empty castle out here and maybe an Everfree Forest monster or two. To be honest, I would have welcomed having to deal with a hydra instead of this mess.

“But things have changed....” Twilight lingered on that thought for a moment, seeming to gaze off at nothing ahead of herself. She then focused back on her friends. “I'm trying to do the best I can here, but I don't want to drag any of you into this mess with me, so maybe I can talk with Nightmare Moon again. I could see if she could get you guys safe passage back to Ponyville.”

Rainbow's wings flared open as she stomped at the ground. “What are you talking about!? So now because things aren't going the way you like you're just going to shoo us off?”

Twilight raised her forehooves slightly in front of herself, waving them defensively. “No, I-I just don't want to put any of you in danger.”

“But what about you, darling?” Rarity asked. “If you were left all to yourself here, how would that make anything less dangerous for you? Wouldn't that just be more dangerous?”

“Yeah!” Pinkie spoke up as she sat up quickly. “We can't just let you do this all alone! That would be boring, and scary, and sad. And besides, even a princess needs somepony to watch her back, right?”

“I don't really like it out here,” Fluttershy began, quietly speaking from where she was laying at the opposite back corner of the tent. “But, I don't think I could live with myself if we just left you out here by yourself.”

“You got that right,” Applejack said with a nod to Fluttershy. “I recon none of us would feel right about just leavin’ Twi here to take care of this all by her lonesome.”

Rainbow Dash sat back and stared at Twilight, her forelegs crossed across her chest. “You dragged us out here. You ain't getting rid of us that easy.” She maintained her frowning stare at Twilight for a moment longer, until Twilight finally cracked a smile with a small laugh. At the same time, Rainbow grinned back.

“Thanks, I needed that,” Twilight said as she pushed herself to sit up. “I don't know what I was thinking. Of course I really don't want to do this alone. I guess I just got so use to taking care of problems on my own over the years, I forgot what it was like to rely on somepony.”

Applejack nodded. “Well, so long as yer here, you should rely on us a bit more.”

“Yeah, so what's the big plan then?” Rainbow said as she approached and sat down right in front of Twilight. “I mean, you do have a plan, right?” The rest of the mares huddled in a bit closer to hear about this big master plan.

“To be honest, I'm kind of making this up as I go along.” Twilight saw the expressions on her friend's faces fall a bit. Not wanting to disappoint them, she tried to give them something reassuring. “I'm sure I can think of something to get us into the hive safely, I just haven't thought of it yet.”

Rarity batted her eyelashes and tilted her head in thought. “Didn't you say earlier that a pony would have to be crazy to want to go in one of those things?”

“I... did say that didn't I?” Twilight admitted.

“Well, alright,” Applejack said as she shrugged her shoulders. “Why are we thinkin about doin something crazy then?”

“Because, that's where the Elements should be,” Twilight said, matter-of-fact like.

“And we need those so we can take on Queen Meany!” Pinkie said in a cheer.

“Well, yes that's one possibility. I mean, we definitely don't want Nightmare Moon to have the Elements, since they are the one thing that could help us free Princess Celestia. You see, Nightmare Moon was defeated by the Elements one thousand years ago, when Celestia chose to wield them all at once against her. She used the power of the Elements to construct a prison spell that could hold a very powerful alicorn. Unfortunately, Nightmare Moon found a way to escape from it, and reverse it so it would trap Celestia within the sun instead.”

Pinkie's eyes went wide as she tried to comprehend what being trapped in the sun would be like. “She's trapped in the sun? That must be really warm.”

Twilight gave a light laugh before she continued to explain. “Yes, well, that's how I remember it happening. Just as Nightmare Moon was trapped within the moon all this time, Celestia would be trapped within the sun now. The only thing that we had that was powerful enough to actually break the prison was the magic that created the prison in the first place.”

Applejack hummed to herself in thought. “So what yer sayin’, is we might be able to just break out Princess Celestia, if we can get our hooves on the Elements?”

“That's really been the ultimate goal all along. I could really use her help right now,” Twilight said simply.

Rainbow cocked one eyebrow as she gave Twilight a questioning glance. “What do you mean? I thought we were going after 'Queen Meany'.”

“Well, Celestia might know something about the changes that are happening or at least be able to help me search for answers, but I won't know for sure until I can talk to her. At the very least, it would make it a lot easier to search for possible answers if I could make use of the history books in the Canterlot Archives, but as long as Nightmare Moon is in control I doubt that is going to be an option. I don't think she would let a stranger just walk into the palace and start going through books to find a glitch in history.”

Rainbow nodded. “Alright, I gotcha. Nightmare Moon is just kinda in the way. Okay, so... lets say we get Princess Celestia back somehow and you princesses put your royal heads together and figure out what's different. Can you fix it?”

There was a long pause as Twilight stared back at the group of mares. “I don't know,” Twilight said as she cast her glance down at the ground. “This is the first time anything like this has ever happened, as far as I know. I'm not sure if there is a way to fix this.” She remained silent for a moment longer, considering the possibility that what she was attempting to do might be completely futile. “I just know I can't leave things as they are. Even if it turns out to be impossible to put things back the way they were, I want to protect Equestria somehow.”

“So no matter what, looks like we're goin in that hive,” Applejack said as she looked around to the other mares.

Twilight nodded once. “That's why I'm teaching my spells to the Nightguard.”

“Ooooh, so we're going to team up with Team Meany?” Pinkie asked.

“Yes, we are. I know it probably doesn't sound like the greatest idea, but the Royal Guard are probably the best group of ponies we could have helping us.”

Rainbow scoffed at that statement. “Sure, except for the fact that they work for Nightmare Moon now.”

“I'm sure you have something in mind that will get us to the Elements first,” Rarity said, raising another point about the plan.

“Actually, I do,” Twilight said with a smile. “You.”

Rarity tilted her head a bit. “Me?”

“Can you use your gem finding spell really quick?”

Rarity blink-blinked at the sudden request. “Oh. Well, of course, but I doubt I'll find anything here.” She took a few seconds to concentrate, and her horn began to glow with a light blue aura. “Wait, there is something here! It's,” Rarity stood, walking toward where she sensed the pull coming from. She walked right up to Twilight, looking right into her eyes, seeming a bit confused at what she was sensing. “It's you! But how can that be?”

Twilight grinned as she pointed a hoof up to the top of her head where she kept the Element of Magic magically hidden from view. Rarity's muzzle formed into an 'Oh' as she understood.

“So Rares can find the Elements with her magic,” Applejack said. “That's nifty.”

“I have a question,” Fluttershy spoke up softly. “If we do go inside, and we find changelings while we are in there... or they find us... what will happen to them?”

Leave it to Fluttershy to ask the hard question. Twilight thought for a moment as she tried to think of the best way she could put this, knowing full well that there really wasn't a good way. “I'm not going to ask anypony to do something that she isn't comfortable with. We're not here to fight changelings, we're here for the Elements. However, I won't hesitate to use my magic to stop the changelings from hurting us. It won't kill them, it will just stun them and leave them vulnerable. But, I can't say for sure what the Nightguard will do with my magic once I teach it to them.”

Fluttershy fidgeted with the corner of her bedroll as she stared down at it. “I don't think I like that.”

“I know, but I really don't have a choice. The hive could have thousands of drones in it. My spell alone wouldn't be enough to protect us against that, so we need as many casters as we can get that know the protection spell. I wish the six of us could just walk up and ask them for the Elements, but I already heard of guards getting ambushed and disappearing in the woods so I doubt we can reason with them, and I don't want to chance it. I think it would be safer to go with as many Nightguard as possible. Once the Nightguard get us inside, we'll just need to try to get to the Elements first, and then get out.”

“Get out? Why not blast the Queen right then?” Rainbow asked as she shrugged her shoulders.

“Because, she'll probably be surrounded by her guards, and we can't very well just blast them too. We might also have changelings all over us if things get hectic. I think our best bet will be to get the Elements and escape as fast as possible, hopefully before anypony realizes what we're up too.”

“I'd say that sound like a plan then,” Applejack said with a confident nod.

“We could be here awhile,” Twilight said as she thought about the setup that this plan would entail. “It will probably be at least a few days before we can do much of anything. I still have to train the guards, and I need to think of something to tell Nightmare Moon. I told her earlier that I would help her figure out a plan to deal with the hive. And we need a way to learn as much as we can about what is inside before we go inside ourselves.”

“Well all of this planning has made me come up with a plan,” Pinkie said as she hopped to her hooves and started walking toward the tent entrance. “I plan to find something to eat. I'm starving!”

Twilight smiled as she too stood and began walking toward the entrance. “Now that is a good plan.”

“What do you think Team Meany has for dinner?” Pinkie asked as she stopped just inside the tent entrance, glancing back at the rest of the group.

Applejack worked her jaw back and forth as she thought about the question. “Probably guard rations of some sort,” she said with a nod.

“Oh! Is that anything like the radishes that you grow on your farm?” Pinkie seemed a bit excited at the possibility.

The farm mare shook her head. “Eh, no. I said rations, not radishes.”

Pinkie seemed a bit disappointed at the answer. “Darn, I like radishes.”

Heart of the Hive

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter V – Heart of the Hive

Ouch...

Twilight was suddenly stirred from her sleep by something sharp jabbing her side. She leaned away from the pain and pushed the bedroll's covers up high enough to get a glance at the offending thing. A glint of something metallic shined back at her, and a second later her sleepy mind realized that she had rolled over on top of the Element of Magic that she had been hiding there. After a few seconds more, she fully remembered why she was hiding it there. The translucency cloak that she maintained to hide the crown was easy enough for a spell caster of her ability to manage while she was awake or asleep with very little effort. However, her sleeping subconscious mind had been fully occupied with maintaining control over her dream states lately, for she couldn't risk a stray dream giving herself away to Nightmare Moon. Still feeling the need for more sleep, she pulled the edges of the bedroll's covers back tight over her back and tucked them around under her chin.

“Not much of a morning pony, are ya?”

Twilight's eyes had no more than just slid shut when she heard Rainbow's voice. She considered ignoring it for a brief moment, but then thought better of herself. Turning her head toward where the voice had come from, she blinked her eyes as she glanced to see Rainbow Dash laying near the tent's entryway, who was grinning back with a waving a hoof. “Morning,” she said.

Twilight pushed herself to sit up, trying to respond back with the same greeting but only managing something that was more of a tired groan when her mouth refused to cooperate. She glanced around the inside of the tent, noticing that the rest of the mares were nowhere to be found.

“Where is everyone?” Twilight asked as she rubbed at the stiffness in the side of her neck.

“They got up a couple hours ago.”

Twilight found it hard to believe it was already morning, as she still wasn't used to the lack of a sunrise. Her mind was still trying to convince herself that she should at least have another hour or two of sleep left to go. “Well, guess I should get up then.”

“Yeah, Sergeant Fussyfeathers was here earlier looking for ya, like five times. I finally told her that you were busy and to quit bothering me about it.” Rainbow made a 'shoo, go away' motion with a hoof as she explained her earlier encounters with the guard.

Twilight tilted her head, pondering the nickname that Rainbow had given to Gale, the Sergeant Nightguard that had found their group in the forest days ago. “Gale was here? You shouldn't be hard on her, Dash. She's just doing her job.”

Rainbow clucked her tongue in response. “Yeah well, she 'does her job' too much, it's annoying.”

“I should probably see what she needs,” Twilight said, the end of her sentence tapering off in a yawn. She shook her head, trying to fully shake the sleepy state from her mind. “Do you see anypony close by?”

Rainbow leaned her head a bit toward the tent's entrance, pulling the flap back just slightly to glance outside. “Nah, looks clear.”

Twilight tossed the bed sheet aside and allowed her wings to fully stretch out before tucking them back to her sides. She methodically prepared herself for the day, donning her velvet jacket and perching her crown on her head before her magic made it fade from view. She wondered for a moment how much longer she would have to keep up the unicorn act, and if she was pushing her luck. So far it seemed nopony was even remotely suspicious, but she had worried that somepony might see a stray feather come loose and drop out of her jacket. Luckily there were plenty of pegasus guards around, and finding a colorful feather laying around the camp wasn't anything for them to raise alarm about. However, the urgency to find a solution to getting the Elements within the hooves of her friends was still there. Every day that passed without success was another day they risked being found out. So far, they had successfully made it through three.

“Oh yeah, Fluttershy left you some breakfast there,” Rainbow said as she pointed to something wrapped in a cloth.

Twilight narrowed her eyes at the wrapped block of foodstuff, seeming to hesitate. She had come to associate that shape with something unpleasant in the last few days. “Goodie, more rations that taste like old boot?”

Rainbow snerked at the remark. “Yeah, probably.”

Twilight sighed as she took up and unwrapped the compressed veggie brick and then took a nip from it. It wasn't that it was the most terrible thing to eat in the world, it was just dry and bland. “You know, I think one of the first things I should do when I get back to my own time is check out the guard rations. If they're anything like this then I'll have to get that changed. How can they keep their morale up with this stuff?”

“Who knows,” Rainbow said with a shrug.

Twilight managed to finish off the tasteless veggie brick and then stood to leave. “Thanks for keeping an eye out again. I'm going to go check in with Gale,” she said as she made her way out of the tent.

“Sergeant Gale? You were looking for me?” Twilight trotted up to a group of Nightguard, one of which was the Sergeant. Gale shifted her glance toward Twilight shortly before giving the rest of the guards a quick 'dismissed' order, causing them to disperse.

“I was beginning to wonder if you were going to be busy sleeping through the entire day,” Gale said as she gave Twilight her full attention.

Twilight stopped just in front of Gale, giving her a polite nod. “I'm sorry if Rainbow Dash came across a bit short with you this morning. I mentioned to her that I was feeling exhausted from the training last night.”

“I have heard that the training is going well, so I suppose you do deserve some leniency there. And, I keep having to remind myself that you and your friends are civilians, so the rules of the guard don't really apply to you.” Gale motioned for Twilight to follow her as she began walking toward the perimeter of the camp. “Since you're up now, and since you've become our resident changeling expert here, I wanted to ask your opinion on some strange hive activity.”

“What activity did you notice that was strange?” Twilight asked as she walked along side the Sergeant.

Gale stopped just at the edge of the camp, looking out through the tree line at the moonlit shadow of the hive. Twilight stopped there with her, glancing out at the hive as well. “That there isn't any,” Gale finally answered, causing Twilight's attention to be drawn back to her. “Ever since you revealed the one that took the Captain's place, we haven't seen a single one of them. Before that, we would see at least a few around the hive from a distance almost constantly.”

Twilight tapped a hoof on the ground for a moment as she thought about the strange behavior. “So, they pulled back into the hive?”

“We don't know for sure, because we haven't risked sending anypony in that thing, and I really don't feel comfortable ordering someone on a suicide mission. The ambushes have stopped all together though, so they don't appear to be coming out of the hive anymore. It's possible they all just left, but I don't know if that kind of behavior is normal.”

Twilight shook her head. “I've never heard of a hive suddenly going silent or being abandoned. Have you asked our prisoner about it?”

“We haven't gotten a single thing out if it,” Gale said through a sigh. “The Queen is starting to get desperate for some information. I was actually given the go ahead to get one of our more talented casters to try a reading on it just this morning—”

“No!” Twilight's eyes were wide and somewhat fearful. “Don't do that, it's far too dangerous.”

Gale stared back silently for a moment. Frowning, she asked, “Care to elaborate?”

“Yes, well, changelings communicate with each other with something that is like telepathic magic, but on an enormous scale. It's like they're all telepathically connected to each other all at once, even though something like that would be impossible to do with a magic spell as far as we know. I call it the 'hive mind' effect.

“Since we know so little about how it works, we don't know how to correctly guard ourselves against its effects. Trying to do a reading on the changeling would connect the caster with the hive mind through it, and the assault they could carry out on the caster's mind would be devastating. And, should the hive queen be present... well, lets just say that her suggestions are very compelling. Her thoughts override any sort of individual will that the drones might have and can have a very similar effect on anypony else.”

“So, if this bug queen were to telepathically tell our prisoner not to give us any information...,” Gale started to ask.

Twilight completed the thought for the Sergeant. “Then she wouldn't, even if it meant her death. She simply wouldn't have the choice.”

Gale let go a groaning sigh as she hung her head. “Well, that doesn't make it very useful, does it? Makes me wonder why we're even bothering to keep the thing.”

Twilight silently pondered some possibilities as she stared back out at the hive along with the Sergeant. After a moment of silence between the two, she suddenly came across a possible idea. “We could let her go.”

“Let it go, you mean?” Gale said as she gave Twilight a confused look. “And why would we do that anyway?”

“Two reasons, actually,” Twilight said. “Anything that gets overheard becomes something else that the hive knows, so technically we still have a changeling spy eavesdropping for the hive sitting right here in the camp. The other reason is while the changelings may not be giving us information willingly, there are other methods of getting information magically without any of them even knowing. All it would take is the right set of scrying enchantments discreetly placed on our captive. I happen to know a few.”

“And so their spy becomes our spy,” Gale said as she nodded at the idea. “I think I should have talked to you about this days ago. Well, it sounds like you have a plan in mind, which is more than what I have. We should probably discuss this with her Majesty, since it does involve letting our captive go.”

Convincing Nightmare Moon of the merits of her plan had proven to be very easy for Twilight. At first the Queen had seemed a little hesitant at the notion of letting the prisoner go free, but when she was told that they would in effect be using the changelings’ own spy against them, she had found herself unable to resist the chance. Twilight had even noticed a mischievous grin showing briefly on the Queen’s muzzle, a feature that had reminded her of Princess Luna. For a brief moment, Twilight found herself wondering just how much of Luna was there just under the surface of the Queen’s psyche, and if it were at all possible to reach her without the use of the Elements. It was a fleeting thought that she had quickly put aside.

Twilight had made one final attempt to question the captive drone, but her questions had only been met with silence as she had expected. Afterwards, a group of five guards had accompanied Twilight and Sergeant Gale as they escorted the prisoner in chains to the nearby cliff side. The drone had made no attempts to resist as it was guided to the edge of the cliff. After reaching the edge, it was turned around by the guards to face Twilight and Gale, its back to the long drop below.

Twilight looked into the deep blue compound eyes that stared back at her, noticing a complete lack of emotion looking back. She felt pity for the drone, knowing that it couldn’t fully control its own actions even to attempt to save its own life. “So, you really have nothing that you want to say?” she asked once more.

“Just do what you brought me here to do,” the drone said in response, its voice carrying an almost buzzing resonance as it spoke. It didn't beg, and didn't seem afraid. Instead, it appeared that the drone had accepted what ever its fate may be.

“Very well,” Twilight said with a nod. While her magic worked to undo the chains that held the drone prisoner, a secondary spell came off the tip of her horn like a tiny, nearly transparent blue ribbon. It circled and looped through the air after it left her horn like it was riding a light breeze, and came to rest unseen nor felt behind the drone's ear. Once the shackles were undone and had fallen to the ground, the drone stood there looking at the bindings lying around it, eventually glancing up at Twilight with a questioning glance.

“Leave, before I change my mind,” Twilight said. The drone glanced warily at the other guards to its sides as it backed away a step, and then finally spun around and leaped from the cliff side into the air. Its wings rapidly buzzed as it took off as fast as it could toward the hive. Twilight turned away and began to walk back toward the camp. “I got the spell off unnoticed. We should get a good look at the inside now.”

Twilight's horn glowed with a faint magenta aura as she kept her focus on the map of the Everfree Forest laid out before her. She sat just across the table from Nightmare Moon, who was also focused on the map as she watched Twilight's scrying spell taking shape. Gale watched from her post just inside the entryway of the Queen's command tent.

At the center of the map, a light blue see-through structure was taking shape as a tiny blue dot of light flickered just above the part of the map that depicted the perimeter of the hive. As the small dot moved, more of the air around it filled in with details of the hive's internal structure, revealing a spiral ramp that traced counterclockwise at a slight incline around the central core of the hive. The inside of the hive was many times the height of the ancient ruins of the castle, and encompassed them completely. The hive became smaller in width the higher the dot climbed as it tapered off to the dome on top, and there appeared to be something large suspended inside at the center just above the ruins.

“That's strange,” Twilight commented. “The scrying spell is obviously working, but one of the traits that I worked into the spell should be showing us other changelings that this one sees. Either that part isn't working or there isn't any other changelings.”

“Are you saying that the hive might really be abandoned?” Gale asked.

Just then, the blue dot that had been climbing in altitude made it to the top of the hive, filling in the view of the platform that made up the room just under the hive’s upper dome. There near it, a second blue dot flickered into view.

“Ah, there's one,” Twilight said as she pointed the tip of her hoof at the new dot. The drone’s dot continued to move toward the large object suspended at the center of the hive until it stopped just short of it, and after a moment both of the small blue dots of light vanished leaving only the glowing blue structure of the interior behind.

Gale blinked and squinted from where she was standing. “What happened?”

“I-I'm not sure,” Twilight said as she strained to check the spell's integrity.

The Queen narrowed her eyes at the scrying spell. “Did they disable the spell?”

Twilight quickly shook her head. “No, the spell is still active.” If there had been any form of tampering with the spell, Twilight would have felt it the very moment anything attempted to remove it. The only other option that remained was that her scrying target was somehow no longer in range of the map that the spell had been attuned to. “I think the drone just isn't there any more.”

Gale stepped from her post, coming up beside Twilight as she looked hard at the image floating above the table. “So, are you saying it just vanished?”

Twilight shook her head again as she continued to study the transparent model of the hive's interior. “No, I think it left the area somehow. We just saw the drone deliberately climb all the way to the top of the hive without stopping and go straight to the tip of this,” Twilight said as she pointed to the top of the large structure suspended in the hive. “There has to be some significance to that.”

“It appears to be a crystal,” Nightmare Moon commented as she eyed the structure in the center of the hive. “A rather large crystal at that. There is a rather dangerous form of magic that involves channeling spells through a focusing crystal to amplify them, though I have never heard of such a thing being attempted with one so large. However, in olden times, teleportation magic was known to be used with such methods to increase the range of the spell, but the method was not very often used. It is tedious to prepare, as another focusing crystal charged with equal power is required at the destination to receive the spell. It was never commonly used since one small mistake in the spell's casting could very easily mean the death of the one being teleported. And, it is also impossible for the caster to teleport themselves through the link, since they have to remain focused on channeling the spell into the crystal for it to work.”

Twilight considered Nightmare Moon's theory as she traced her eyes over the crystal structure suspended at the core of the image. She had spent a great deal of time conversing with Princess Luna about ancient magic over the last two and a half centuries of her life, and knew that she was very knowledgeable about the subject. It seemed reasonable to believe that Nightmare Moon would be equally versed on the subject. “That sounds like a plausible explanation for what we just saw. The large crystal must be there for some reason, and the changelings must be going somewhere. The only form of travel that could move them so quickly that the scrying spell wouldn't see it would have to be a teleportation spell. If the rest already left over the last few days, that would explain why the hive appears to be empty, though I can’t say where they might have gone.”

“Most likely fleeing like cowards. They likely know of our new capabilities,” Nightmare Moon said as she stood from her seat. “Now would be the right time to strike, before they have a chance to return. Sergeant, I want you to ready a detachment of Nightguard to enter the hive.”

Gale quickly bowed to her leader and left to attend to her task. Twilight turned her head to watch as Gale left the command tent, and then brought her attention back to the Queen. “Your Majesty, are you planning on ambushing the changelings when they return?”

“Nay, that is not our intention. The changelings may have something very important to Equestria's history in their possession that must be recovered. Since the hive appears empty, this is the most opportune time to attempt the recovery.”

“I see.” Twilight knew exactly what the ‘something very important’ must be. She had suspected from the beginning that Nightmare Moon's interest in the hive centered around it being located at the last known location of the Elements. It was a desperate move considering that the Queen had only consolidated power under her rule weeks ago, and showed just how much she feared the Elements being in somepony else’s hooves. With the Nightguard being mobilized to recover the Elements, this was going to be the only chance that Twilight would have to get her friends to the Elements first. “My companions and I could accompany Sergeant Gale to help with the search.”

A pleased smile graced the Queen’s muzzle before she spoke. “Of course, we had actually planned on asking for your aid. You and your friends have proven yourselves very capable and trustworthy, and it would be a waste to keep a spell caster of your ability here at the camp. Please, gather your companions and prepare to accompany us into the hive.”

Twilight gave the Queen a short bow before she turned to leave the tent. As she exited, she found herself wrestling with conflicting emotions. She was beginning to feel guilt over deceiving Nightmare Moon, even though she knew this was all ultimately for the better of everypony involved, including the Queen herself. Still, the occasional moments where Luna’s personality seemed to show through to the surface were not making her choices any easier.

The detachment of Nightguard that Gale had chosen to lead into the hive numbered over two dozen, with nearly half being unicorns that had been trained to make use of Twilight’s anti-changeling spells. The rest were evenly split between earth ponies and pegasi. Nightmare Moon had chosen to attend this venture into the hive herself as well.

Twilight had gathered her friends, and together with Nightmare Moon’s Nightguard they had all made their way just inside the hive’s entrance. They found a small, contained world that was unlike their own just inside. The ruins of the ancient castle laid just before them, but suspended over it was a large crystal easily three times as tall as the tallest remaining tower of the ruins, all of which was still fully enclosed by the tall dome-like structure. Instead of darkness, they found the inside of the hive to be lit with yellowish and greenish glows that came from hundreds of luminescent orbs attached to the hive walls and dangling from the above. To their right was the beginnings of the spiral ramp that lead up to flat platforms that seemed to be suspended from the ramp above, many of which connected to and encircled the large crystal in the center. The view was just as much awe inspiring as viewing the ivory spiers of the Canterlot Palace.

The group had chosen to venture into the ruins of the castle first, finding the pedestal that the Elements should have been resting on, but finding the pedestal empty. Twilight had asked Rarity to discreetly check for the location of the Elements shortly after they had arrived within the hive, and after a short burst of her gem finding magic Rarity was able to confirm that they were somewhere within the hive above them. Twilight brought out the map that she had attuned to her scrying spell earlier, drawing some gawking stares from the other ponies around her as she studied the three dimensional structure that hovered just above it.

“It’s possible that the relics were moved, so they could be more easily protected,” Twilight reasoned as she looked the map over. In her mind, she considered the most likely location to be the very top, but she didn’t volunteer that information. She wanted to give Rarity the chance to try and pinpoint the location of the Elements as they neared them, and then find a reason to split off from the main group to collect them without the Nightguard knowing. A simple plan, but simple was usually best when the option was available.

“A sound observation,” Nightmare Moon said in response. “We should check the upper levels then. Let us move quickly.”

The group moved as one, sticking together on the wide ramp since most of them were ground bound and nopony wanted to risk anypony being out of range of the protective spells. Twilight and her group of friends had clustered fairly close to each other next to the group of Nightguard as they all ascended the first length of ramp that lead up to the nearest platform. For many long minutes, the only sound was the echo of nearly three dozen sets of hooves walking through the otherwise empty hive.

“So,” Rainbow Dash said as she glanced down at the ramp. “How did they make all this?”

Twilight glanced to her side, raising an eyebrow at the question. “You really wanna know?” When her friend silently nodded back, Twilight hummed to herself for a second as she considered the best way to describe it. “Well, they use these secretions that harden—”

“Dah!” Rainbow yelped as she suddenly lifted off a few inches, hovering just above the ramp.

“Ew! Ew ew ew,” Rarity said as she danced on her hoof tips trying to touch as little of the ramp as possible.

“It’s hardened, you can’t get any of it on you,” Twilight said as she rolled her eyes and tapped a forehoof against the ramp.

“Still! Nopony mentioned anything about walking on secretions, hardened or otherwise.” Rarity let go a harumph, still trying to touch the ramp as little as possible as she balanced on one foreleg and one back leg.

“That is a lotta secretions,” Pinkie said as she looked up at the where the spiraling ramp lead.

Twilight glanced up at the winding walkway as well. “Actually, most of it is just dirt from around the area. They mix the dirt in to make a building material that can be formed into just about any shape, but it’s hard as a rock when it dries. It’s pretty amazing if you think about it.”

“It’s just like how some of the little wasps and bees make their homes,” Fluttershy said as she glanced around curiously. The usually skittish pegasus had actually seemed very interested in seeing the inside of the hive, much like she how she took interest in many things in nature.

Rarity finally relented and allowed her hooves to rest on the floor again. “Well, I suppose if you think of it that way, it doesn’t seem so bad.”

The group pressed on and made it to the first platform. This one stretched from the ramp to just under the crystal in an oval shape. As the group walked onto the platform, they could see something partially hidden in the dim shadows of the giant crystal. It seemed to move and shift slightly, and glisten from the glowing lights illuminating the area. As they approached it, its full appearance became easier to discern. It seemed to be some sort of large mass that was connected to the very bottom of the crystal. Large veins snaked across its surface and latched onto the crystal and the platform, connecting the two. It pulsed in a slow, steady rhythm. The group stopped many paces away from it, staring on with a mix of curious and disgusted expressions.

“Oooh... ew,” Rarity said as an involuntary shiver shook her entire body.

“Yep,” Applejack said with a quick nod. “I have’ta agree with Rares on this one. That is one big ball of ew.”

Gale took a few cautious steps closer to the pulsing mass. “So, what is it?” she asked with a curious glance back to Twilight.

Twilight blinked back and forth between Gale and the unidentified thing. “I have no idea,” she finally said. When she saw the frown that Gale returned on that answer she added, “Hey, this is my first time in a hive too. My best guess is it’s something we shouldn’t disturb.”

“Agreed,” Nightmare Moon said as she turned away from the sight. “Let us not dawdle here. We have doubts this has anything to do with our goal.” With that soundly decided, the group turned and made their way back to the spiral ramp to follow it up to the next platform.

As the group made their way around the ramp to the next stop, they could see that it was actually more of a suspended dome than a flat platform. It was shaped in such a way that it looked like the changelings had taken a large, wide platform and folded the edges of it up and around the crystal to create the dome, leaving an enclosure with an opening facing the ramp. They cautiously stepped just within the opening, and found a room that was like a miniature version of the hive with the same lighting hanging from the walls and rounded ceiling. It was hard to tell where the floor ended and the walls began since they gently sloped into each other, and the same could be said about where the walls and ceiling met. At the opposite end of the room, a glow from the light being refracted by the side of the crystal caused faint reflections of green and yellow light to dance through the room.

Also within the room were many cylindrical objects that laid up against the sloped walls. They each laid in a groove in the wall that seemed to be shaped perfectly for holding them. Closer inspection revealed that they appeared to move ever so slightly.

“Are these... eggs?” Rainbow asked as she hovered a hoof near one of the objects.

“Don’t touch that,” Twilight said as she reached over and pulled on Rainbow’s shoulder a bit. “I doubt they’re eggs. They’re far too big to be.”

“Cocoons,” Nightmare Moon simply said, drawing everypony’s attention to her. “What you see here is how these beings spread their curse.” Most of the ponies in the room felt a sense of dread wash over them at the realization of what the Queen had just revealed. The suffocating tension was only broken by a small giggle from the side of the room.

Pinkie poked the middle of one of the cocoons with the tip of her forehoof, and giggled when she saw it ‘poke’ back at her. She kept repeating this, her laughter getting a bit more uncontrolled each time the cocoon responded to her touch. She only stopped when she finally noticed somepony was calling out her name in a strained whisper.

“Pinkie!” Twilight said like an embarrassed mother trying to quietly scold her child in public. Pinkie hummed a questioning note as she turned her head around, and then saw the entire group of ponies staring at her. The range of looks she received were varied between the confused, the disapproving, and the just plain grossed out. Twilight slowly shook her head, her lips soundlessly forming the word ‘No’. Pinkie let go a quiet little whimper of disappointment as she hung her head and walked back over to the group.

Nightmare Moon’s eyes followed Pinkie as she plodded back over. “We should probably refrain from disturbing these as well,” she said simply as she maintained her gaze on Pinkie for a few seconds longer. She then turned away to lead the group out of the room. “Let us continue our search further into the hive.”

Most of the platforms that were suspended higher in the hive lacked anything of interest, which was to say they lacked the relics they were searching for. They pressed on until they came to a large platform that encircled the upper mid section of the crystal, the last one before the very top level. The group crossed a bridge that spanned the gap between the ramp and the circular platform, gathering at the other side.

“Um... girls.” Fluttershy pointed a hoof up as her wide eyes darted about, glancing at something above.

Rainbow quickly glanced up as well, and gasped when she saw the ceiling. “Whoa....”

Everypony’s attention was drawn upward. There above the group was a ceiling full of dangling casings. The eerie illumination inside the hive caused them to appear to have a dim greenish glow. There were dozens, perhaps even a hundred or more just hanging there.

“What are they?” one of the stallions among the group asked.

“Victims,” Twilight said simply, drawing most of the groups attention to her. “Anypony that they’ve captured is likely in one of those things.”

“Our missing scouts, and the Captain,” Gale said as she looked out at the dozens of hanging casings. “But there’s way too many.”

“I’m sure the changelings have quite a few more victims than the guards they ambushed,” Twilight said as she walked into the room.

Nightmare Moon walked up next to Gale, looking down to her. “Sergeant, check them,” she said as she nodded up toward the ceiling.

Gale quickly commanded another half dozen pegasi to join her as she took to the air. The guards began to search each of the casings, looking for anypony recognizable.

“This is one of the scouts!” one of the pegasi called out, drawing the rest of the group on the ground nearby.

“Try to loosen it at the top, but don’t crack the casing,” Twilight said as she positioned herself just below. Three of the pegasi guards flew up to the top of the casing, finding where it was attached to the ceiling. They began to work at prying the casing loose where the top thinned down to a single hardened shaft that stuck to the ceiling above. After working it back and forth, it began to peel loose from the ceiling, and after a few more swings it fully came loose with a snap. The casing dropped quickly quite a few inches before Twilight grabbed it with her levitation spell and then gently lowered it to the ground. Gale landed just next to the casing, squinting through the semi-transparent walls at a Nightguard trapped inside. “We need to be very careful when we open this,” Twilight said.

“There’s another here! I think it’s the Captain!” another pegasus called out.

Twilight quickly moved to position herself to help catch the next casing. She kept her focus on the dangling casing above her as the guards worked it loose. Like the previous one, it came loose with a snap and Twilight quickly grabbed it with her levitation spell to begin safely lowering it to the ground. However, she caught something else just barely out of her peripherals. Glancing to her side, she could see Gale placing a forehoof on the side of the other casing, and her touch was making it roll. “Hey, I said be careful!” Twilight called out, unable to otherwise act as she strained to maintain her levitation magic.

The casing suddenly shifted out from under Gale’s touch and rolled over a few times, coming to a sudden stop next to Fluttershy when it hit an uneven spot on the floor. The hardened green casing let out a cracking sound when it stopped, and a hiss of gas escaping from the inside followed a green puff of air that shot out directly into Fluttershy's face. She coughed and gagged as her lungs involuntarily constricted to try and purge the vapor that she had accidentally inhaled. She stumbled away only a few steps before she lost her balance and fell, sprawled out on her back.

Rainbow Dash was there near instantly, landing right next her and trying to prop her head up so she could get air. Fluttershy wheezed as she tried to fill her lungs with fresh air and flailed her forelegs about like somepony that was drowning. Some of the Nightguard and Fluttershy's friends had quickly gathered nearby, but none of them knew what they could do in this situation as they looked on helplessly. “She needs help!” Rainbow frantically called out.

Twilight had managed to finish handling the casing she had been levitating to the ground as quickly as she could without breaking it, and then galloped over. “Hold her up,” Twilight said as she sat down in front of Fluttershy, to which Rainbow quickly pulled her up so she had her back against Rainbow's chest. Casting a light spell from her horn, Twilight began to try to check her friend, gently placing a hoof on either side of Fluttershy's face to hold her steady. “Fluttershy? Look at me, okay? You're going to be alright, just try to breath,” she said as she tried to examine her for any symptoms.

Fluttershy drew in many wide mouth gaping breaths, her voice wheezing as she did so. “Twiliiiight,” Fluttershy weakly drawled out in a shaky voice as her wide eyes wandered around aimlessly, not focusing on anything. Despite the bright light coming from Twilight's horn, her pupils were fully dilated.

“It's okay, I'm right here. We're all right here,” Twilight said as she tried to keep her friend calm. Fluttershy’s forelegs had managed to find Twilight’s and were now holding on as if her life depended on it.

Twilight felt a light touch on her shoulder, and glanced back to see Rarity staring back looking both concerned and a bit terrified. “Is she going to be alright?” she asked.

“She'll be alright,” Twilight said as she and Rainbow continued to hold Fluttershy steady. “The vapor doesn't do any permanent harm, but it will make her hallucinate. Since she was only exposed for a second it shouldn't last too long, but she needs to rest until this wears off.”

“It's bright,” Fluttershy complained as she blinked her eyes against the bright light coming from Twilight’s horn. Twilight let her light spell fade, and helped Rainbow as they laid Fluttershy down to get her more comfortable. Her eyes wandered about as she laid there on her belly, seeming to be following something in her field of view. “Do you see that?” She slowly asked nopony in particular.

“What do you see?” Twilight asked as she gently rest one of her hooves just on top of Fluttershy’s.

Fluttershy slowly swung her head around to look up at Twilight, which in itself was a good sign. “It's pretty,” she finally said after a short moment of staring.

Rainbow Dash glanced down at her friend with a worried look for a moment before she turned her head to look over her shoulder, catching the gaze of Sergeant Gale. Her expression suddenly contorted into anger, and she began to stand but was very quickly stopped when Twilight reached out and put a hoof on her shoulder.

“Dash, what are you doing?” Twilight asked quietly, knowing full well what her friend’s intentions likely were.

“I’m going to go rip her a new one,” Rainbow growled in a whisper as she glared at the Sergeant.

Twilight kept her grip on her angry friend, shaking her shoulder to draw her attention back. Quietly, she whispered, “We don't need a fight right now. Just let me handle it.” Rainbow stared back at Twilight for a few seconds, finally jerking her shoulder away from Twilight's touch but otherwise remained there saying nothing. “Just watch over Fluttershy. She needs you right now, okay?”

“Fine,” Rainbow grumbled as she laid down next Fluttershy.

Twilight let go a sigh as she stood and walked over to Gale. The Sergeant met her halfway, still looking on where Fluttershy was laying. “Is she going to be alright?” Gale asked.

Twilight nodded. “Yes, she just needs to ride it out. The vapor just causes hallucinations. Nothing too serious.”

Gale let out a calming breath. “Well, that's a relief. The way your friend looked at me I was worried I had done something absolutely horrible to her.”

“She's... protective of her friends,” Twilight said as she glanced back over her shoulder at Rainbow Dash. She could see Rainbow saying something to Fluttershy, the former resting a foreleg over her friend’s withers. “You might want to stay clear of her until she has time to cool off,” Twilight warned, turning her glance back to Gale.

“Understood,” Gale said with a solemn nod. “I do completely understand. I was careless, and I apologize.”

“We’re all just lucky it wasn’t serious,” Twilight said, and then took a moment to reflect on the situation. She knew they had to be closing in on the location of the Elements. There wasn’t much of the hive left to search, and every time Rarity had used her magic she had always detected the Elements being further up.

Fluttershy was in no condition to be moved, and likely wouldn’t be for at least a while longer. This had happened at the worst possible moment. The only thing keeping the Nightguard from finding the Elements before them now was the impromptu rescue effort.

The group continued to search for and save the Nightguard that they could find among the hanging casings. They had began to open the casings from a safe distance, using unicorn telekinesis to break the casings open without exposing anypony else to the fumes that escaped. The rescued guards seemed to be in a comatose state, completely unresponsive to any sound, touch, or sight for quite awhile even after they had been removed from the casings. Only a few of the guards that had been freed first were even beginning to show signs of consciousness.

Nightmare Moon had made a point of having her own Nightguard prioritised in the search, claiming that the rest of the changelings’ victims could be rescued at a later time when they were more prepared to handle it. This cut down the amount of time Twilight had left to come up with a plan considerably. After all of the missing Nightguard had been successfully accounted for, Twilight gathered with her friends near where Fluttershy had been resting, and after checking to see that they were safely out of earshot she spoke to them about their next move.

“How is Fluttershy doing?” Twilight asked first.

“I’m good, I’m doing reaaaally good,” Fluttershy said as she pushed herself up with her forehooves. Rainbow quickly tried to steady her when she wobbled suddenly, nearly losing herself.

Pinkie drew in a hiss of air when she saw Fluttershy nearly go into a face plant. “You don’t look really good.”

“No no, I’m okay now,” Fluttershy declared somewhat more loudly than her normal speaking voice. “We can go find the El-”

Twilight quickly cupped a hoof over Fluttershy’s mouth, causing a muffled squeak to escape from her. “That’s our little secret, remember?” Twilight said quietly through clenched teeth.

“Oooooh yeah,” Fluttershy said as her eyes traced through the air following something. “Sorry,” she whispered quietly.

“Uh, she ain’t all there yet, is she?” Applejack asked.

“I’m all here,” Fluttershy said with a scowl as her head wobbally swung around to face Applejack, who just gave a deadpan stare back for a few seconds before her eyes shifted over to Twilight.

“Okay, new plan then,” Twilight said as she rubbed her temples with her hooves. “I think Fluttershy should rest a bit more—”

“I’m fiiiiine,” Fluttershy whined in protest.

“—and I think Rainbow should stay with her so she stays out of trouble.” Twilight lowered her voice to a whisper, leaning into the group a bit as she did. “We can’t just wait around through. Nightmare Moon will want to continue the search as soon as possible, but I think I can convince her to send the rest of us on the search instead of her guards. If we can find out exactly where the Elements are, we might be able to keep the guards from searching there long enough for Fluttershy to clear her head.”

“We’re kinda runnin’ out of hive to search though, ain’t we?” Applejack brought up a good point. There wasn’t much left to the hive that could be searched. The ramp circled up to its end at the ceiling just above them, which was the last platform.

“I know, but we still have to find them first. Things will get really complicated if the Nightguard locate them before we do.”

“Well, stop talking about it and get going,” Rainbow said as she nudged Twilight’s shoulder. “I’ll make sure Fluttershy stays put.” With that, the rest of the mares left Rainbow to care for Fluttershy in their absence.

Twilight approached Nightmare Moon along with Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie to ask for permission to continue searching the hive. She claimed that her group could scout ahead, unseen if necessary, and report back with any findings while the Nightguard focused on giving the recovering guards the attention they needed. After the short discussion with the Queen, the group of four were on their way, tasked with scouting ahead to find the lost relics.

“How close are we now, Rarity?” Twilight asked.

Rarity lit her horn, pursing her lips as she concentrated on reading the location through her spell. “Very close,” she said as she let the spell fade away. “They’re still a bit above us, but it won’t be long now and we should be there.”

“So when we get there, how we gonna get all the Elements outta here without anypony else knowin?” Applejack asked as she cocked her head in a side glance to the other mares with her. “We can’t just run out with em and leave Dash and Fluttershy here, and I’m pretty sure we ain’t got a way to hide em on us to sneak em out, unless you think we can stuff em in our manes or somethin.”

“No, I doubt that would work,” Twilight said with a shake of her head. “I’m still working on that part of the plan. I had actually thought I could shroud them like I do mine, but without Rainbow and Fluttershy here to claim theirs, that kind of makes that not possible.”

Pinkie stopped for a short second, sitting back on her haunches as she scratched at her chin in thought. She then jumped back to her hooves when an idea hit her. “Oh! We could play ‘Hide the Elements!’ Just move them somewhere where nopony would think to find them, and come back and get them later!”

“That’s... actually not a bad idea,” Twilight said as she considered the possibility. “But, there’s a good chance that Nightmare Moon won’t leave until she has the Elements. Right now most of the guards are still distracted with helping the victims, but eventually they’ll all be back to searching this place. I get the feeling that Nightmare Moon will have this entire hive torn apart to find them if necessary.”

The group quietly continued their ascent for a moment longer, each of them seeming to be buried in their own thoughts. Rarity let go a long hum before she spoke up again. “Could Fluttershy be well enough to join us before then?”

“I hope so,” Twilight said, “otherwise this is going to be nearly impossible to pull off without getting caught.”

The group rounded a final corner where the spiral ramp turned toward the center of the hive. They ascended into the circular room created by the final huge platform that stretched from wall to wall just under the hive’s top most dome. They could see the top of the enormous crystal that jutted out of the floor at the center of the platform coming into view as they walked the final steps of the ramp.

Circling in the air just above the tip of the crystal were five geodes, each one carved with a uniquely shaped likeness of a gem on its surface. “We found them,” Twilight said as a smile spread across her muzzle.

However, just as the mares made it to the top of the ramp, they all suddenly stopped when they saw something else there near the center of the room. A tall changeling stood there, her back to the group of mares as she focused on a spell that she was channeling into the crystal. Her transparent wings spread out to her sides and shifted in a light breeze along with the fine hairs of her dull blue mane and tail. As if sensing something’s presence, she allowed her spell to fade and turned to look behind herself at the group of mares that had just arrived.

“Chrysalis,” Twilight said in a quiet breath. She knew the hive would have a queen; every changeling hive did, though she had hoped with the hive being abandoned that they wouldn’t have to face one. She had learned over the years that Chrysalis wasn’t the only changeling queen, but that all others seemed to answer to her. Before Twilight and her friends stood not just the queen of this hive, but the high queen of all changelings. However, an unexpected question came forth from her.

“Why are there only four of you?”

Moonlit Memories

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter VI – Moonlit Memories

“There should be two others with you,” Chrysalis said as her eyes locked squarely on Twilight, who returned the glance by narrowing her own at the Changeling Queen. A tiny voice in the back of Twilight’s mind was already telling her that something about this encounter wasn’t right.

Chrysalis turned herself to look up to the five Elements that slowly circled the top of the crystal above. “This isn’t ideal, but I suppose those of you who are here can claim the Element that you each represent.” Her horn lit with a green aura, and the giant crystal gave out a single pulse of green light within the room. The Elements then descended from above the crystal, circling down to the ground to land in a neat line just before her.

“You three should find yours here,” Chrysalis said as she gestured to Twilight’s friends. “We should get the remaining two to their bearers as soon as possible.”

Twilight was fully focused on trying to read Chrysalis’s intentions. She had only ever known Chrysalis to be an enemy of Equestria, but here she was now readily giving up the Elements to a group of mares that she had never met, and should have no prior knowledge of. She had witnessed Chrysalis channeling some sort of unidentified spell on the Elements through the crystal when they had walked into the room, and then there was also the unexplained presence of the hive within Equestria’s borders, the victims within it, and the sudden complete lack of changelings the last few days. There were far too many strange things that didn’t add up to a clear answer. But the one thing that had really caused Twilight to feel alarmed was that Chrysalis seemed to know more about the Elements’ bearers than she should. Somehow, Chrysalis had known that only Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie could claim an Element from the five available. Her instincts were screaming the same three words over and over in her mind.

Don’t. Trust. Her.

“Don’t touch the Elements,” Twilight finally said, holding a foreleg out to her side to keep her friends from advancing forward. “She’s done something to them.” She had no proof of her claim, but she could feel in her gut that something was wrong. It was the same feeling as the first time she had encountered Chrysalis over two centuries ago, and she had been right then. She felt no reason not to trust her instincts now.

“Done something...?” Chrysalis seemed to stare back in shock at the accusation for a moment, before she tried to defend her actions. “What is it that I have done? Can you not see that I am trying to help?”

Twilight decided to make an attempt to drag an answer for Chrysalis’s unexplainable knowledge out in the open. “How did you know there were six of us? There are only five Elements, so there is no possible way you could have known there are six bearers.”

Chrysalis grit her teeth, her sharp fangs showing for a second before she made an attempt to answer. “I-I was told, the sixth is hidden. It will reveal itself when the other five are present.”

Twilight wasn’t done yet. She raised an eyebrow as she tossed another carefully baited question out. “Then how did you know the hidden one belonged to me?”

“Well, I merely overheard, through my informant that you revealed within the camp. I’m sure you already know I am connected with all of my drones. What they know, I also know.”

Twilight knew that Chrysalis’s claim about knowing what her drones knew was true enough, but the rest couldn’t be. Twilight set her jaw, her mouth forming a thin line on her muzzle. She had found the shred of proof she had been looking for. “Funny...,” she began as she stared Chrysalis down from across the room, “I don’t think we spoke a word about the Elements outside our tent. Nopony should have heard a thing through the sound dampening enchantment I placed on it.”

Chrysalis seemed shocked into silence by the revelation that she had been caught in a lie. Her voice cracked as she strained for a few seconds to find something she could say. “I-I can explain,” she finally said in a pleading voice.

“I’m not interested in more lies,” Twilight said plainly, causing Chrysalis to stammer. Making a quick decision, Twilight raised her voice, calling back over her shoulder toward the ramp. “I need some help up here!” It was a gamble, but she felt there was no other choice. If the Elements had somehow been tampered with, she could not risk her friends touching them, and she simply couldn’t let Chrysalis go free if she was going to find out the truth. There was a chance Chrysalis would try to reveal them to Nightmare Moon, to make a claim that she knew their true intentions for being there. However, if she did she would be revealing whatever secrets she was hiding at the same time, as she would have to come up with proof of her claim. Twilight figured that at worst, it would end up being her word against the word of a changeling, which was in her favor.

“Twi, you sure about this?” Applejack asked, glancing between Twilight and the Elements that rest across the room. “We’ll lose the Elements.”

“I know... but I can’t let you chance it,” Twilight said as she kept her gaze focused ahead. “I’m sorry, but we just can’t trust her. She’s hiding something from us.”

Chrysalis began to step forward, a flash of anger twisting her face into a scowl. “You are making a mistake!” she said hotly, her fangs glinting in the dim lighting.

“Don’t!” Twilight snapped with a stamp of her hoof, causing an echo through the room as her horn suddenly lit with a bright white pinpoint of light, causing Chrysalis to freeze mid step. “Not a single hoof closer. If you even come an inch closer to my friends you’ll be regretting it for weeks.” The stone cold stare that Twilight gave Chrysalis conveyed her intentions to make good on her threat. For her part, Chrysalis wisely decided not to advance any further.

The sound of a group of hooves galloping up the ramp began to echo from behind the four mares. Gale was the first of the Nightguard on the scene, soaring into the room just slightly off the ground. She came to a halt in the air just above the four mares, hovering there for a second as she took in the scene. She dropped to the ground quickly, landing next to Twilight with a loud clack of her hooves. As she did, she glanced back over her shoulder at the group of unicorn and earth pony guards arriving in the room, motioning with her wings to wordlessly direct them to fan out to the right and left in the room. The unicorns among the guard quickly readied their spells as they surrounded the Changeling Queen, the glow from their horns casting a starburst like shadow on the floor around Chrysalis.

“Be careful, she’s the hive queen,” Twilight announced to the Nightguard in the room.

“Have you seen any others?” Gale asked.

Twilight shook her head. “Not yet, but don’t count them out.”

“You won’t find any of my drones here,” Chrysalis said with a sneer. “I sent them away to avoid them being mercilessly slaughtered by these guards.”

“That choice will prove to be your downfall.” The voice had come from the ramp, drawing the attention of nearly everypony in the room. Nightmare Moon ascended the last few steps of the ramp, calmly walking between Twilight and Gale into the protective ring of guards that surrounded the Changeling Queen.

“It has been quite a while, hasn’t it?” Chrysalis said as she locked her eyes on Nightmare Moon. “I see the rumors of just how much you had changed were not exaggerated.”

“Silence!” Nightmare Moon barked out as her eyes flashed at the quick moment of anger. Her word echoed multiple times through the hollow interior of the hive as she continued her advance toward to Chrysalis. Her hoof steps were the only sound until she stopped when she was just a leg length away, where the five Elements rested there on the ground between the two of them. She stared intently at the five Elements resting on the floor for a moment, the prize that she had come to claim, before she looked back up to Chrysalis. “To think that Celestia would have entrusted you with the Elements,” she said, her words dripping with disgust.

Chrysalis stared back silently for a moment, her jaw working back and forth as she ground her teeth. “It bothers you, that she choose me over you... doesn’t it?” she said, a very slight hint of a smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth.

Nightmare Moon’s eyes suddenly widened at the remark. She stood still as a statue for a few seconds, until suddenly she drew in a forceful breath through her nostrils, her entire body shaking as she did so. Her wings flared out to her side suddenly, causing a sudden rush of air, and the resounding crack of her hoof connecting with the side of Chrysalis’s face caused most of the onlookers in the room to flinch. Chrysalis amazingly stayed standing after the strike, only stumbling a single step as her head and neck snapped to the side. After a few gasping breaths, she tilted her head to glare up at Nightmare Moon. “Touched a nerve, did I?”

Nightmare Moon returned the hatefilled gaze with an equal glower of her own. “After what we have seen here... the very thought of either one of you makes us sick.”

Chrysalis swallowed against the pain in her jaw. “What is it you want? You have already won.” She slowly raised her head back up to stare levelly at Nightmare Moon. “Or, were you hoping for a fight to the death? I’m sorry to disappoint you if that is the only reason why you came here. I’m not suicidal. I know you have more power than I do.”

“Then you are a fool for not fleeing when you had the chance. Surrender,” Nightmare Moon demanded.

Chrysalis closed her eyes for a few seconds, a silent sigh escaping from her. She peered down at the Elements at her hooves shortly before looking back to Nightmare Moon. “I surrender to you,” she declared with a slight bow of her head.

“Sergeant.” The word was the only one that needed to be said. Gale took the unspoken command from her queen, quickly directing most of the unicorn guards to surround Chrysalis. Nightmare Moon watched as the Nightguard began to lead the defeated Changeling Queen toward the ramp. “If she tries anything, or if a single one of her misbegotten kind shows their face...,” she lowered her voice nearly to a growl, “make her regret it.”

Twilight and her friends stood aside, allowing the Nightguard to escort Chrysalis past. As they did, the Chrysalis glanced down to Twilight. “You have no idea what you have set into motion, do you?” she asked quietly as she was escorted by. Twilight looked on following the group with her eyes until the Nightguard and Chrysalis were out of sight, the unsettling words continuing to echo through her mind.

“You five, with me,” Gale’s voice echoed through the room. Twilight turned her gaze back to the center of the large room, where Sergeant Gale was gathering together five of the earth pony guards. “Let’s get these relics secured and out of here,” she said as she directed her fellow guards to the Elements. Twilight looked on intently as the guards approached the five geodes resting on the floor. When one of them reached out to touch one of the relics, Twilight found herself letting go a breath she hadn’t realised she was holding. She had been expecting something to possibly happen, but it appeared there was no noticeable reaction to the Elements being touched. The Nightguard worked diligently to collect the relics, helping each other to secure one Element each to their back with lengths of rope.

Twilight glanced up to her side when she noticed that Nightmare Moon had walked up next to her. The Queen watched as her guards gathered the Elements, her current tranquil demeanor sharply contrasting her actions only a moment ago. “I have you to thank for this success,” she quietly said only loud enough for Twilight to hear.

Twilight didn’t particularly feel proud of her actions. A part of her was wondering if her choice had been the right one. Chrysalis hadn’t revealed anything further as she had hoped, and now she could only stand there and watch as her one possible chance to free Celestia was being taken away right before her eyes. “I only called for help, your Majesty,” Twilight said humbly, lowering her head slightly to the monarch.

“You did what was necessary to ensure Equestria’s future.” Nightmare Moon responded by bowing her head slightly in respect to the mare that had helped ensure her victory. “I have not forgotten my word. You shall be rewarded for your service to me, in time.”

Twilight had returned to Ponyville along with her friends the following day. Sergeant Gale had insisted that the Nightguard be allowed to provide an escort through the Everfree, as her way of thanking the group of mares for their help. With the protection of the guards, the trip had been an uneventful one, and also a mostly silent one. Even if their original plan had failed, they each knew that talking about it openly among Nightmare Moon’s Nightguard wouldn’t be wise.

Once they had arrived home in Ponyville, the group had given their thanks for the escort and then decided to find somewhere to talk in private. Applejack’s farm had been chosen, as it was the closest, and the group would likely find the privacy they were looking for within the large red barn on the acreage. Once they had made it there, they made themselves comfortable inside. The few days away from civilization had made them come to appreciate something as simple as a bed of soft hay to relax on.

At first, there didn’t seem to be a lot for the group to talk about. Twilight had remained mostly quiet while the rest of the mares tried to make conversation about their adventure, but the idle chatter gave way to long moments of silence again and again. Eventually, the subject of what they were to do next was brought up, which also lead into talking about the disappointing results of their attempt to recover the Elements. Rainbow Dash had proven to be the most vocal on this particular topic.

“I’m just saying, it was probably the biggest waste of time ever,” Rainbow said as she swiped her hoof through the loose hay in front of her. “I mean, we could have sat on our hooves and accomplished more.”

“Now Dash, that ain’t really true,” Applejack said. She reached over from where she was laying next to Rainbow, and prodded her shoulder. “What about all them ponies that the guards are rescuin’?”

“That isn’t why we went there!” Rainbow grumbled as she flicked Applejack’s touch aside. “I mean yeah, sure, that’s good and all, but did we really have to just hand over the Elements? I mean, I know Fluttershy couldn’t really help out and I had to stay with her, and I’m not saying it’s her fault or anything. But, why just say ‘no’ when the bug queen was trying to give them to us?”

Rarity hummed at her own thoughts, drawing the attention in the room to herself. “Well, it definitely was a sticky situation. I can see why Twilight was weary of this Chrysalis character. She seemed a bit off.”

Pinkie nodded with a quick ‘uh huh’ from where she was resting near Rarity’s side. “There was something kinda funny about her, and not in a ‘funny ha ha’ kind of way either. More like the really creepy ‘I’ve been watching you in your sleep’ kinda funny.” Pinkie lowered her muzzle to the point that she was only peaking out over the top of her forelegs, her eyes shifting back and forth suspiciously. “I mean, it was like she knew we were coming.”

“That doesn’t matter!” Rainbow said as she once again swiped her hoof in front of her, her agitation seeming to grow. “That was probably the best chance we were going to get, and now it’s gone!” Rainbow snorted, the frustrated breath of air causing loose straw to blow across the floor. Her tail flicked quickly from side to side at her agitated state, and her eyes happened to glance over to Twilight, who had spent most of the evening staring at a spot on the floor near herself. “You haven’t said two words all night. What’s the deal? Doesn’t this bug you?”

Twilight glanced up from staring at the floor, looking Rainbow Dash in the eyes for a few seconds while the room went deathly silent. Drawing in a deep breath, she let it go with a long hum as she stood from the bed of hay she had been resting on. She began walking toward the doorway, levitating her jacket over to herself and putting it on as she said, “I think I need to take a walk for a bit. I’ll be back when I can clear my head.” With that, Twilight quietly exited through the door, letting it swing shut to latch on its own.

The rest of the mares looked about at each other wordlessly, each seeming a bit shocked. Rainbow’s voice cracked as she failed to find any words to describe what she was feeling, her hoof gesturing to the doorway. When she finally found her words again, her voice climbed an octave as she asked, “What was that!?”

“Well,” Applejack started as she glanced from the doorway back to Rainbow, “you were kinda raggin’ on her pretty hard tonight, Dash.”

“I was not ‘ragging’ on her. I was just blowing off steam.”

“Sounded like raggin’ to me.”

“Oh so, now we’re going to say this is my fault, huh?”

“Girls,” Rarity interjected. “There’s no reason to fight.”

“We ain’t fightin’, we’re just discussin’ this, ain’t that right?” Applejack said as she looked to Rainbow and shrugged her shoulders.

“Yeah whatever.” Rainbow suddenly took an interest in the floor right in front of her, staring at it as she ground her hoof against the loose hay she found there. “I still think you guys should have gone for it back in the hive,” she grumbled.

“Shoulda coulda, but doesn’t matter much now.”

Rarity leaned herself toward Pinkie Pie, lowering her voice to speak quietly in her ear. “Looks like they’re going to be at this a while, doesn’t it?”

Pinkie nodded her head, letting out a ‘mhmm’ in reply. Rarity shifted on her hay bed, trying to make herself comfortable for what was likely going to be a lengthy session of ‘discussing’ between the two mares. She happened to catch something out of the corner of her eye, and glanced over to the doorway to see Fluttershy quietly making her way towards it. The pegasus rested a hoof on the door’s latch, glancing back into the room and noticing that she was being watched. She seemed to hesitate, glancing back and forth between the doorway and Rarity. Rarity didn’t need an explanation; she smiled to Fluttershy, wordlessly telling her to go on with a quick wave of her hoof. Fluttershy nodded back a silent thank you as she slipped out of the barn otherwise unnoticed.

After making her way to the dirt path just outside the front gates of Sweet Apple Acres, Fluttershy stopped to glanced around at the moonlit scene. The night-time like air was crisp, but the breeze was very light making it easily bearable. The cool air and lack of sunlight had caused a dew to build up, and Fluttershy took notice of a trail of hoof marks that left the path and cut through the grass.

Following the tracks through the dew laden blades, Fluttershy soon found herself topping a hill just on the edge of Ponyville’s park. Only a few more trots away was a park bench and table that the tracks stopped at where Twilight had found a place to be alone with her thoughts. She was sitting at the bench with her chin resting on the table, her forelegs crossed in front of her muzzle as she stared across them at the empty park. Fluttershy cautiously approached, standing off to the side to avoid disturbing Twilight incase she was in the middle of some important deep thinking.

Twilight noticeably flinched when she realized somepony else was there. Her head raised from the table as her ears and eyes snapped toward Fluttershy, but her gaze quickly softened when she noticed who it was. “You sure can be sneaky when you want to be,” she said with a small smile.

Fluttershy retreated a step, drawing a forehoof up against her chest. “Did I startle you? I didn’t mean too,” she said as her ears drooped.

“I know you didn’t mean too,” Twilight said as she tapped a hoof on the bench next to herself. “Have a seat.” Fluttershy took the offer and sat down next to Twilight, who went back to looking out at the moonlit scene. A silence lingered between the two for a short while before Twilight decided to break it. “So, how are you feeling now?”

“Oh! Well, thanks for asking, but I’m perfectly fine now. I’m not seeing butterflies everywhere any more,” Fluttershy said as she gestured at the air around her. “But um... actually I came out here to ask if you are okay. You didn’t look happy when you left. I was a bit worried.”

Twilight shook her head. “You don’t need to worry about me. After everything that I’ve dragged you through, I’m actually surprised you came looking for me.”

Fluttershy furrowed her brow at the comment. “Why would you say that? You haven’t done anything wrong.”

Twilight snorted and scoffed at the remark. “I’ve done nothing wrong, have I? You do realize that all of this is my fault, right?”

“Twilight, you can’t just blame yourself for things out of your control. It isn’t fair to you.”

“Oh, things were well within my control.” Twilight leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table, crossing her forehooves just under her chin and resting on them. She stared straight ahead across the moonlit park silently for a moment as she recalled events from long ago. “The entire reason why the time spell even exists is because of things that were within my control. I’m the Princess of Magic. My destiny has always been to create new magic that would benefit everypony all across Equestria. And at first, that is exactly what I did.

“But, that changed,” Twilight said with a heavy sigh. “I ended up twisting my destiny into a selfish desire, seeking to create magic that I never planned to share with anypony else.”

Twilight paused, taking a moment to consider whether or not she should continue. After the short hesitation, she decided she wanted to share some of her past memories with her friend, if only to lighten the load on her mind. “I already told you guys that I wasn’t always an alicorn. That came later, after we had known each other for a little while. It turns out, one of the things about becoming an alicorn is that you no longer age. Something about embodying all three forms of pony magic that just makes it stop. I’ll be coming up on my two hundred and seventy second birthday soon. I’ve never really figured out for sure how it works and the other princesses don’t have a clear answer for it either, but it sounds great, right?

“Well, it turns out it’s not necessarily the best thing ever. I knew pretty early on that it meant that someday, all of you would pass on and I would be the only one of our little group left. That’s kinda sad if you think about it, but that was just the way things were going to be, so I made the best of what time we had together. But, I don’t think it really hit me until I lost one of you. I thought I was prepared for it; fact is, I wasn’t. And it just got worse every time another one of you passed on. It was like... like a part of me was just getting hollowed out little by little.

“And then after you were all gone, I just couldn’t figure out how to move on. For some reason I couldn’t get my mind off that fact that I was going to live on thanks to all of you, but none of you got to benefit from that. It didn’t feel fair and it bothered me. I felt guilty, like I had stolen something from my own friends, and it really started to cause havoc on my daily duties. The other princesses were nice enough to give me all the time off that I wanted to try and work out my issues, but they should have just knocked some sense into me instead. It probably would have stopped this all from happening and saved a lot of wasted time.

“You see, since I had all this extra time to sit around and do nothing but obsess over something I couldn’t change, I eventually ended up getting this crazy idea,” Twilight said as she sat up, pushing away from the table. “I was the Princess of Magic, which meant if anypony could figure out a way to create new magic that could bring somepony back from the dead, I could. So that’s what I focused on for years, spending my extra free time trying to chase down the answer to resurrection so I could bring you all back.

“All I found was that it was impossible. Dead is dead. After working on my research for over a decade I had finally found conclusive evidence that resurrection through magic was completely impossible to do, so that’s it right? At that point you would think I would have finally given it up.

“But no, I didn’t.” Twilight shook her head disappointedly as she continued to reflect on her past. “I kept obsessing over it, and kept telling myself that I was overlooking a possibility somewhere. I kept digging into every scrap of magical research I could get my hooves on just to try and find some hidden, unorthodox method of magic I didn’t already know about that might help me bend the rules of the universe.

“And you know what? I found it,” Twilight said as she shifted to look directly at Fluttershy, a faint smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “The answer was actually quite simple. I couldn’t bring you all back from the dead, but I could go back to when you were all alive and see you again. All I had to do was figure out time travel, which was something that I already knew was possible because the spell already existed. I just had to make the spell work better.

“So, I poured more of my time into my research. I came up with theories on how to bypass the limitations that were placed on Starswirl’s version of the time travel spell, and by the end of it I had basically replaced everything about his spell with changes of my own, coming up with something completely new and different. Instead of teleporting to another location in time for a very short moment, I would be able to quite literally just walk through time after opening a tunnel to the other side and stay there as long as I wanted. I could go wherever I wanted too, see anypony I wanted too, and do it whenever I felt like it.

“And I was going to do it too. Oh, I knew about all the possible consequences. I made very detailed notes about my theories. About how the very act of stepping one single hoof out of the spell at the other end could be enough to cause a chain reaction of events that could end in the destruction of just about everything everypony ever held dear, but you know what?”

Twilight paused for a second, staring directly into Fluttershy’s eyes, who was still completely focused on listening to the story. “I didn’t care,” she said plainly.

“I’d completely lost sight of the reason why I had started searching for this power in the first place, which was supposed to be to find a way to bring all of you back, and to let all of you share in the gift I was given. It had instead turned into a selfish desire to cheat the universe and get more time with you all at any cost. I was so consumed with the thought of just seeing you all again that I completely threw caution into the wind and decided to go through with it. Consequences be damned, I wasn’t going to let anything keep me from it, not when I was so close to making it really happen.

“But, I did get stopped,” Twilight said as she shrugged her shoulders, letting her hooves fall to her sides. She glanced away to the table’s surface as she continued her story. “The others found out what I had been up too. They had come across my notes, including all the details on why this was really one of the most horrible ideas ever conceived, and how it would likely destroy Equestria’s history as we all knew it. Needless to say, their reaction to what I had been doing in secret for all those years wasn’t the best.

“They destroyed it all. Every last scrap of notes; all of my research that I had devoted over a decade of my life too. Only after they had eliminated the threat of me ruining Equestria’s past did they confront me about it directly. And oh, was I livid. I came so close to losing what was left of my sanity right then and there. I was seriously going to hurt them all, make them all pay for destroying the one dream I had left, but luckily they talked me down. Instead, I just choose to leave it all behind. I didn’t want anything to do with the whole princess mess or any of them any more. So, I left Canterlot and my title behind.”

Twilight paused for a few seconds, side glancing at her friend before looking back to the table’s surface. “They left me alone for awhile,” she said a bit quietly. “Well, not completely. They still checked in with me now and then... probably to make sure I wasn’t doing anything crazy. I didn’t really mind that they did at that point. It didn’t take me long to realize what I had almost done, and to be honest I felt quite ashamed of how I had abused my power. I couldn’t blame them for what they had chosen to do to stop me. They had no choice; they had to protect Equestria. I was the one who had been wrong. So my reason for staying away changed. I no longer felt I deserved to have the title of Princess of Magic.”

Twilight glanced up to the night sky above, the corners of her mouth twitching a bit as she came across a memory that seemed slightly amusing to her now. “You know, I actually earned myself a nasty little nickname back then. I don’t know who it was that started the rumors, but somehow word got out that Twilight Sparkle had gone a bit bonkers and had nearly taken Equestria with her. I started hearing the title of The Twilight Nightmare being tossed around during my exile, though nopony was ever brave enough to call me that to my face.” Twilight let go a light hearted chuckle at the mention of her old nickname.

“That’s mean,” Fluttershy said as she frowned a bit.

“It was deserved,” Twilight said glancing to her friend, her face quickly becoming serious, “which is why I just let it slide. If I hadn’t been stopped, it would have become a reality. I had come so close to becoming something so twisted and wrong, and it had all started from a single reason that I thought was good. But, even something starting with a good reason can end up becoming a disaster.”

Twilight went back to staring out across the table at the open field. She rested her forehooves on the tabletop, shifting them over one another as she let the memories of her past echo in her mind. Drawing in a deep breath through her nostrils, she let it go with a hum before she continued to share more of her past. “Well, after a few generations went by, the whole thing kinda blew over. Nopony really remembers that name anymore, and things actually got a lot better when I finally decided to return to being the Princess of Magic after my self imposed exile. Surprisingly, the other princesses asked to have me back. I guess the saying that ‘time heals all wounds’ has a bit of truth behind it. It only took me a few decades of time to stop being a nutcase, not bad right?” Twilight let a small smirk turn the corners of her mouth for a few seconds, before it faded away.

“Well, honestly I just learned to live with it. That hollow feeling had turned into more of... just a disappointing feeling. I tried to find new friends, but it just wasn’t ever quite the same for some reason. My best guess is that most of the ‘friends’ that I had over the years were ponies that primarily wanted to be friends with Princess Twilight Sparkle, not just Twilight Sparkle. Not that I could blame them really, if that’s what made them happy then who was I to deny them that happiness? So, I didn’t let it bother me. I had already wasted everypony’s time enough, and I needed to focus on being the best princess I could be to make up for lost time. Friendship became a pretty low priority once I was fully into my daily duties again. Kind of ironic, considering that’s what got me there.

“But then something really amazing happened a few years ago. After so much time, I finally met somepony who I could really call my true friend again. Her name was Crystal Charm, a young unicorn that had grown up in Canterlot. It was almost like looking in a mirror and seeing my past self. She was extremely talented in magic, and wanted to know everything she could learn about it. When she got the chance to talk to me, she didn’t ask me anything about what it was like being a princess or if I could show her around the palace, which is what I had come to expect from most of my new friends. No, she was content to just talk about magic spells and theories. She told me that I was the only pony who would take her serious and actually talk to her about these things on an advanced level.

“I decided to take her on as my first personal student, and it was amazing. She excelled in her studies far faster than I ever did. I was so proud of her, and wanted her to succeed with her dreams of perfecting advanced magical spell casting. So, I decided that I would try to get her access to one of the most restricted wings of the Canterlot Archives, the one that only a very privileged few have ever even stepped hoof into. There’s notes on magical studies in there that haven’t been read for generations from many of the greatest magical minds of the past. I still remember when I told her that I had gotten approval from the other princesses to let her into the archives. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anypony that happy.”

Twilight’s voice fell silent just as her happy expression changed over to something much more somber. Her eyes slowly closed as she relived a memory in her mind. “I had forgotten that when I was doing my research all those years ago that I had hidden a copy of my notes there. I don’t know if it was really forgetfulness, or if that part of my subconscious that had gone nuts just decided to hide it from myself so the last remaining copy of my work wouldn’t get destroyed. Either way, the notes had hidden there for nearly two hundred years, and I had completely forgotten they existed. If I had remembered, I never would have allowed her to get her hooves on them. There were things in those notes that I never intended anypony other than myself to see. Things that rightfully shouldn’t have been permitted to exist.

“I still don’t know why,” Twilight said as she looked down at the table surface again, shaking her head. “I’m sure the notes didn’t have a completed time spell in them, but there was plenty enough there for a unicorn as talented as Crystal to connect the dots and finish it. We found out too late. By the time we realised something was happening she was already gone, and all that was left... was a hole in reality that lead to some other time and place. None of us know why she did it.

“I did the only thing I could think to do at that moment; I jumped in to follow her. I knew it was dangerous, but I knew that we couldn’t just hope that she would turn around and come back without causing any irreversible harm. She was my student, and it was my spell. That made it my responsibility.

“But, something wasn’t exactly right with the spell. Instead of me just walking out at the other end it kinda... shot me out in the middle of the sky. I still don’t know for sure why it failed like that. I’m actually pretty lucky that I’m good at shielding spells, and that I happened to know a rather useless temporary self petrification spell that I had come up with one day when I was bored. If I hadn’t, I probably would have broken every bone in my body when I hit the ground in the Everfree, and we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about this.”

“So, you’re not sure where Crystal is?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight slowly shook her head. “No, I don’t know where she went for sure, or why. I don’t even know if she survived the trip. All I know for sure is that she must have gone back further than I did. But, whatever happened when she arrived, it obviously changed a lot of things. I get the feeling that we’ve only scratched the surface, and that the whole Nightmare Moon thing isn’t even the worst of the problems.

Twilight quietly tapped her hoof on the table a few times as she stressed her mind over her student’s actions, finally letting one final loud tap go along with a huff of air. “Crystal really isn’t to blame. Ultimately, all of this really is my fault, because I could have stopped it before it ever happened if I had learned to just let go. And I am trying to make this right, but so far I’m not doing a very good job. Honestly, after hearing how much of a huge mess I’ve made, I wouldn’t be surprised if you just got up and left.”

The two sat there for a time after Twilight had finished her story as the silence returned. Finally, Fluttershy quietly raised herself from her sitting spot, taking a step back from the bench. Twilight couldn’t help but feel her heart fall a bit at that very second as her friend got up to leave the table. However, she was taken by surprise when Fluttershy hugged her from behind, resting her chin gently on Twilight’s shoulder. “You were lonely for a long time,” she quietly said.

Twilight was silent for a moment, the shock slowly melting away as she relaxed in Fluttershy’s embrace. “Yeah,” she said softly.

“It’s okay now.”

Twilight slowly shook her head. “What I did back then was wrong.”

“It’s okay.”

“I was selfish, and now it’s coming back to haunt us; to haunt you.”

“Shh, it’s okay.”

Of course Fluttershy would be forgiving, Twilight thought as a smile spread across her muzzle. Raising a single hoof and gently placing it atop Fluttershy’s, she enjoyed the moment with her friend that she had once thought would never be possible again. Sharing the buried memories dredged up by recent events had helped her relieve some of the doubt that had been weighing on her mind, and filled her with a renewed sense of purpose. Her friends deserved a bright future, even if that future wasn’t the same one she remembered.

“I’m not going to give up,” Twilight said with a confident smile as she side glanced at her friend. “I don’t really know what I’m going to do yet, but I can’t just give up because things didn’t work out like I’d planned. I just hope it doesn’t end up taking years to figure something out....” Fluttershy tilted her head slightly, raising her eyebrows a bit, to which Twilight let go a light chuckle. “Even an alicorn forgets things. I haven’t seen my old research notes in almost two centuries, and in all of the frantic panicking about the possible end of the world I didn’t think to bring a copy with me. The time spell is super complicated, so theres no way I could safely recreate something like it from memory without at least a little extra research from the sources I originally used. As long as Nightmare Moon is ruling over Equestria, I doubt I’ll be able to get access to the archives. And even if I somehow did, I still haven’t a clue how I would even use the spell to make things right, or if that’s even possible any more. I guess I thought answers would just magically start falling into place if we managed to dethrone Nightmare Moon.

“But, so much for that now, huh?” Twilight said as she swiped a hoof dismissively through the air before letting it fall to the table with a clunk. “Now she has the Elements, and there really isn’t any other obvious options left to us. Dash was probably right, that was our best chance to deal with her, but I just... couldn’t risk it. I was afraid that Chrysalis had done something to the Elements. If she had, and it ended up harming any one of you, I never would have been able to forgive myself for forcing something like that on you.”

Fluttershy let go her embrace, leaning on the bench with her forehooves next to Twilight to look around at her. “Have you thought about trying to talk to her?” she asked, tilting her head. “Um... Nightmare Moon, I mean. She didn’t seem like a horrible pony, at least not from what I saw. Maybe she gets an ency bit angry at things sometimes and comes across as being scary, but she did say she was going to rescue all of those ponies from the changelings. I guess... I guess I don’t see how she is all bad. I think there is good in her, so maybe if you talk with her and explain things, she might understand?”

“You know, it’s funny that you say that,” Twilight said as she regarded her friend. “I’ve actually been thinking about that too, but I don’t think I can risk it. She knows all of you, and she knows that you know me. If I revealed myself to her and things didn’t go well, she would come after all of you next. I’m not going to risk your safety on something like that.” She scratched at the back of her neck as she stressed her thoughts over the situation, grumbling a bit to herself. “If only there was somepony else that could help us out; somepony that would have access to the Canterlot Palace at least, but the only ones that I can think of would likely be in hiding. I doubt Princess Cadance stuck around the palace when Nightmare Moon showed up, and my brother isn’t Captain of the Royal Guard at the moment... I hope those two are okay.”

“Your brother is a Royal Guard Captain?” Fluttershy asked, her voice taking on an impressed tone.

“Well, it doesn’t look like he is now. It looks like he was replaced by Moondancer. I just hope that was because he left by his own choice.” Twilight fell silent for a moment, before she suddenly let go an annoyed growl. “Ugh, this is annoying. So far we’ve just been randomly running into everypony who’s ever been a problem for Equestria. Honestly, the way things are going I wouldn’t be surprised if Discord came walking up the street to say hello.”

“Discord, who’s that?” Fluttershy asked, her head tilting again inquisitively.

“Eh, I’m just grumbling...,” Twilight answered as she shook her head dismissively. However, she furrowed her brow as she considered her own comment. “Though, I probably shouldn’t jinx it.”

Fluttershy pushed away from the bench, taking a few steps to the side. “Well, maybe you just need to take a little break,” she said as she smiled back to Twilight. “I mean, you have been spending all of your time trying to think of ways to fix things since you got here. Sometimes, when things are starting to get frustrating, instead of trying harder and harder it’s best to step away for a while. Once you feel better, you can come back to it and things usually work out better.”

Twilight pursed her lips, tapping a hoof to them as she thought about the wisdom that her friend had offered. “That is probably some of the best advice I have heard in awhile,” she said with a smile. Standing from the bench, she walked over next to her friend to join her as the two of them began to leave the park. “Come on, lets go see if the girls are still at AJ’s.”

Twilight did her best in the following days to heed her friend’s advice. However, she had always found that the only way she could get her mind off of something was to get it on to something else. She decided to occupy her mind with studying the effects of Nightmare Moon’s eternal night, and actually found it strange that Equestria seemed to be accepting the change with no noticeable resistance. Ponies simply carried on like they had every day before the change, with the only noticeable difference being the lack of daylight. The perpetual full moon seemed to provided a tolerable level of light that even the land was beginning to adjust too. Life had found its own way to carry on it seemed, and Twilight even found herself wondering if she should just let things be on more than one occasion. There was no widespread hardship under Nightmare Moon’s rule, no specific reason for anypony to be truly unhappy. However, she could always sense the undertone of sadness when she happened to speak with other ponies. While they may have accepted the change, there was still a longing for the way things use to be.

Fluttershy had extended her advice to give things time to all of her friends, and so for now they had all returned to their day to day tasks, agreeing to stay in touch incase anything new developed. Life for the Ponyville mares returned to a semblance of normalcy rather quickly, for most of them.

For the time being, Twilight had found a place to call home thanks to Fluttershy. Her cottage proved to be the ideal place for an alicorn in hiding, since she was one of two among Twilight’s Ponyville friends that rarely received any random visitors at her house. And, since she was still passing herself off as a unicorn, she couldn’t very well make use of Rainbow Dash’s cloud home without giving away the fact that she had wings, making the cottage the only real choice.

Twilight had awoken in the cottage’s guest room, and like the previous few days she had found Fluttershy down stairs and joined her for breakfast. The two friends spent the morning sharing conversations with each other, mostly with Fluttershy doing the listening while Twilight did the speaking.

This morning, a knock came at the door, and the two friends fell silent as they glanced to the doorway. Fluttershy hurriedly made her way to the window near the door when the knocking came a second time. She brushed the curtain to the side, peaking out from the corner cautiously. A second later she quickly dropped the curtain, gritting her teeth as her forehooves rapidly danced in place. Turning toward Twilight, Fluttershy frantically motioned for her friend to hide herself, and Twilight hastily made a quick dash from the table to Fluttershy’s bedroom.

Once Twilight was fully out of view, Fluttershy turned herself back toward the doorway, hearing a third knock from the other side. She steeled herself, taking a calming breath in and letting it out slowly, before she gave one confident nod and forced a smile to her face. However, as she reached out to place her hoof on the door’s latch, the smile faded into uncertainty as she began to chew at her bottom lip.

The door pulled partially open toward Fluttershy with a click. She peered out through the gap at the visitors outside with a weak ‘good morning’ as a greeting.

The three Nightguard that had been waiting on the other side of the door looked to the meek pegasus hiding behind her cottage door. The one standing closest, a unicorn mare, seemed somewhat familiar. She was flanked by a pegasus stallion to her left and a pegasus mare to her right.

“Good morning,” the unicorn replied. “I’m Captain Moondancer. I was told I might find Twilight Sparkle here. May I come in?”

Hidden Messages

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter VIII – Hidden Messages

The front door to Fluttershy’s cottage opened with a small creak shortly before its owner stepped out into the moonlit evening. She glanced back and forth quickly, continuing out to a mailbox adorned with her name and taking one last glance around herself before swiftly opening the lid to peek inside. She did a double take when she noticed something was actually there, and then quickly scooped the envelope out with her hoof. She glanced at the simple envelope bearing her name curiously for a moment, and then tucked it under her wing as she hastily made her way back inside.

Once securely back indoors, she made her way to her couch, dropping the letter there on the nearby reading table next to the lamp as she made herself comfortable. She looked over to the envelope, noticing that it was stamped to be delivered to Ponyville from Canterlot, and suddenly her face lit up with a smile. It had been nearly a week since she had heard anything at all from Twilight. She snatched up the envelope, breaking a small wax seal that held the flap closed before flipping it open. Catching the folded pages inside with the tips of her lips, she pulling them out and tossed the envelope back to the table before unfolding the pages in her hooves to look them over.

When she saw nothing on the two pages, she flipped them over, only to see nothing again. She separated them, casting a puzzled and slightly disappointed look between the pages that she had draped across her hooves, wondering why Twilight would send her blank paper. Resting one of the sheets on the table, she flipped the other end over end and gave it a closer look to make sure she wasn’t missing something. As she was doing so, her eyes caught something lighting up on the page, and in a dim flicker the words ‘Dear Fluttershy’ appeared at the top, causing her to let go a startled yelp as she dropped the page from her hooves. The words then vanished even quicker than they had appeared.

Fluttershy’s surprised expression slowly melted into a confused and a bit curious one. She leaned her head away from the page and grit her teeth as she reached out a hoof to the page and tapped it. When nothing happened, she touched her hoof to it longer, her eyebrows raising a bit. Slowly, the dim flicker began to happen again, causing words to appear on the page as if being written in by some unseen pen. The shock of the moment now past, Fluttershy picked up the page, and began to read from it.

Dear Fluttershy,

I do hope this letter makes it to you safely. I would have sent something sooner, but I feared I would draw attention to the letter if I sent it right away after coming to Canterlot. Just to be completely safe, I enchanted the pages within this envelope. The one you are holding only reacts to your touch, and can only be read as long as you are holding it. I included a blank page that you can use to write back with that works the same for me, so you can write about anything you want without fear of anypony else other than myself seeing it.

Fluttershy tilted her head with a quiet ‘hmm’ as she glanced to the other blank page laying on the table, and then read on.

Things are going really well since I’ve settled in here at the palace. I’ve actually gotten the chance to meet my family again, which was interesting to say the least, but I felt I simply couldn’t ignore them once my name became known in Canterlot. My parents visited for a few days before returning back home. Their home is now Manehatten, which they moved to years ago. It turns out that my brother is working in Canterlot as an arcane armor smith making armor for the guard and just happens to be engaged to Captain Moondancer. What is concerning, is that these are all things which never actually happened in the past I remember. Day by day, I discover more changes in this Equestria, and I’m still no closer to discovering the true cause.

However, seeing my family again has been wonderful. And yet, at the same time it has been rather difficult. I wish I could tell them the truth of everything, but I feel that would only confuse things needlessly, and I will not risk involving them. As far as they know, I simply don’t remember anything from the last thirteen years. I have told them that I woke up one day, not knowing where I had been or how I had learned what I know. Basically, my story is that I have a strange sort of amnesia. I know it sounds a bit like a wild story, but not nearly as much as having become a time traveling alicorn princess, right?

Fluttershy gave out a light giggle as she flipped the page over with her hooves, looking to the words forming on the back side.

Actually, it turns out I was able to befriend Moondancer, after we had a talk. Since she is close to my brother, she knew about the disappearance of this time’s Twilight Sparkle, who I am told mysteriously vanished thirteen years ago. Moondancer ended up confronting me about it, thinking at first that I was somepony posing as Twilight Sparkle, but I think I set her straight on that. I revealed my identity to her, so she now knows what I really am, though she still doesn’t know the full story of how I got here. While I doubt she would buy the story of me having amnesia, I think it would also be unlikely that she would believe I’m a time traveler, since I really have no physical proof of either. However, being a princess has certain perks, such as not having to explain yourself to anypony if you don’t wish to. I’ve simply told her that she would have to take it up with Princess Celestia if she wanted to know more about my past. Of course she didn’t really like that answer. However, Moondancer seems to be the type that takes it upon herself to investigate unknowns until she finds the truth she is looking for. I’m hoping that with time, I can guide that curiosity of hers toward something useful, and maybe even get a solid answer as to what really happened here.

I do believe Moondancer can be trusted. She holds Equestria’s continued safety above all else, and in that we found some common ground. She is loyal to Nightmare Moon, but only in so much that she is loyal to Equestria’s current ruler because she understands the importance of keeping the nation strong in Celestia’s absence. She fears a possible invasion or even a civil war if things were to become unstable, which isn’t an unfounded fear. I’m going to try to work with her to make sure Equestria stays safe, and hopefully we’ll soon find an answer to ending the eternal night.

I may end up taking your advice on having that conversation with Nightmare Moon after all. She seems much more approachable lately, and I’m holding on to hope that as her court enchantress, I can discover a compelling reason for her to raise the sun once again.

Please tell the girls how things are going for me. I send well wishes to you all, and look forward to hearing back from you soon.

Your true friend,

Twilight Sparkle

Fluttershy stared at the signature at the bottom of the page for a moment with a gentle smile on her muzzle. Her eyes eventually glanced up to the blank sheet of paper resting near the opened envelope on the reading table, and at that moment an idea found its way to her.

After gently folding Twilight’s letter and the blank page back into the envelope, Fluttershy tucked it under her wing and stood from her couch. “Angel?” she called out as she glanced around the room looking for the little white bunny. “Angel, where are you?” she called again, but then stopped when she felt a quick tug at her tail. She glanced back to see the bunny in question looking up to her expectantly.

Fluttershy smiled down to Angel, turning and kneeling on her forelegs so her own gaze was nearly the same height as his. “I’m going out for a little while to see the girls. Take care of the house while I’m out, okay?” Fluttershy smiled and patted the bunny on the head when he quickly nodded in response. She then made her way to the door and out into the evening to visit her friends.

The interior of Twilight’s tower was dark and silent. The sand had run out of the hourglass hours ago, and nopony had been around to reset it. Time seemed to stand perfectly still in this place, until a noise disrupted the silence from outside. The sound of hooves making their way up the stairs to the tower’s front door slowly grew louder as the tower’s current resident made her way home for the evening.

Twilight used a small burst of magic to signal the doorway to open, and it swung open on its own. She had taken a few liberties in refitting the tower with some useful things, mostly simple recreations of magical technology that she had grown accustomed to in her own time. She had limited access to proper materials to create some of the magical items, but she had done well with what she had managed to find in such a short time. The doorway had been fitted with an enchanted item that allowed her to control it with very simple signals instead of having to manage telekinetic magic or use her hooves to open it. The lights within the tower noticed her presence and came to life on their own as she crossed the threshold of the doorway. As the door closed itself behind her, Twilight made her way to the back of the room and then up the spiral stairway to the platform above. She approached the desk there, which was cluttered with a number of scrolls, books, and notes. A quill hovered just above an inkwell on the desk, and had done so for the many silent hours before its owner had returned home.

Twilight loosened the straps to her saddlebags and let them slide to the floor with a clunk, and then proceeded to shed her unicorn disguise. Her velvet jacket found its way to a nearby golden coat stand, and her crown flickered into view atop her head as she let the translucency spell dissipate. She groaned slightly as she let her wings stretch out from her sides, flapping them once and then folding them back as she turned her attention back to the saddlebags laying on the floor. Undoing the leather buckles holding the flaps of her saddlebags closed, she flipped them open and began to use her magic to lift the contents that she had picked up at the palace’s post office. She had used her new position to request many books and scrolls to be sent to her from various libraries all across Equestria. Sealed scrolls and wrapped books slowly floated up and out of the bags, along with something else that stood out among the rest of the items; a rectangular envelope. Twilight brought the envelope closer with a scrutinizing look and then noticed that it was from the Ponyville post office, which caused a smile to brighten her muzzle. With no doubt in her mind that it was a response to the letter she had sent two days earlier, the rest of the hovering items quickly lost their importance as Twilight absentmindedly stacked them on the floor to the side of the desk and found her way to the seat cushion. She made some extra room on the desktop for the envelope, pushing a stack of scrolls to the side and causing a few of them to roll off to the floor. Other than a quick glance at the few scrolls rolling away, she seemed to otherwise pay them no mind.

Breaking the seal on the envelope, Twilight lit her horn and lifted the blank page out, and with a content sigh she reached out to it to hold it in her hooves, causing the page to come alive with words.

Dear Twilight,

It’s good to hear from you, and I’m glad everything is working out okay. The girls and I are all here right now, and I’m going to let them each write a little something to you. I hope that’s okay.

The smile on Twilight’s muzzle only grew wider at Fluttershy’s gentle words. When the writing on the page changed suddenly, Twilight blinked in confusion for a short second before she recalled that in this time, ponies still did their own writing by unicorn magic, hoof, or even teeth. Twilight cast a quick glance to the hovering quill she had enchanted to do her writing for her by dictation, something that in her time was as commonly used by everypony as drinking water, and realized how easy it had been to forget about something so simple as unique writing styles.

Howdy Twilight, this is AJ. I have to say, when I heard that you had gone off to Canterlot, I was a bit taken by surprise, but I suppose it makes sense. I’m sure you know your way around the castle, and if anypony among us girls can figure things out it’s going to be you. You just remember to not be taking on the world on your own, you hear now? If you need help, just send word and I’ll be on the next train to Canterlot. I’m sure the same goes for the rest of the girls.

The writing style changed once again as it transitioned over to another message from one of her friends.

Hey Twilight, Rainbow here. So, I’ve got something to say to you, sister.

The smile on Twilight’s muzzle didn’t wane, even though she rolled her eyes, quietly mumbling ‘here we go’ to herself before reading on.

I know you’re a princess, and you can do whatever you want, but really, if we’re going to be a team you need to work on your team work. Running off without telling us is not cool. You hear that? Not. Cool.

Anyway, I’m sure you have your reasons, so just don’t forget about us while you’re there in Canterlot being all important.

Twilight smirked as she flipped the page over, watching as the first words began to form at the top. Just as she noticed the word ‘Surprise’ coming into view, a startling pop shot out from the letter, along with a puff of confetti and streamers. Twilight let go a yelp as she flinched, and blinked a few times as the steamers caught and hung off her horn and muzzle. The confetti that didn’t stick to her face fluttered down to the table and floor around her.

Twilight’s brow twitched slightly. “Pinkie... how... oh whatever,” she said with a laugh as she brushed the colorful pieces of paper off before continuing to read.

Surprise! Hopefully that worked! Fluttershy told me about this nifty paper that you sent her, that makes writing disappear and reappear. That’s neat! So I thought, hey, I wonder if it can make confetti disappear and reappear! I mean, if it’s magic that you made, it has to do neat stuff like that, right?

Twilight raised one eyebrow at the letter, wondering how Pinkie always arrived at conclusions that shouldn’t make sense, but then somehow ended up doing so. It was a trait the mare had that she had never been able to figure out; one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of Equestria.

Anyway! This isn’t really supposed to be a letter about confetti. Next time we meet, I want to throw you a ‘Congratulations-on-becoming-the-Queen’s-enchantress’ party! Maybe you can make the invitations, that would be nifty. Oh, I better leave some space for Rarity, so anyway, see you later!

Twilight noticed the writing transition from Pinkie’s bubbly letters to a style that looked like a carefully crafted work of art.

Dearest Twilight,

I have to say, I’m so very proud to have a friend such as yourself. Even when hiding your true identity, you have found a way to elevate yourself to such an important position so easily. It must simply come naturally to you. Should you find the need for company, please let me know. I would gladly make the time to visit you. Truth be told, I’ve always dreamed of living in Canterlot myself, and have always enjoyed spending time there.

Do take care of yourself, and stay in touch.

Once again the letters transitioned from one style to another, this one returning to Fluttershy’s gentle flowing writing.

Well, that’s everypony. It was good to hear from you, and I think everypony is feeling a lot better now knowing that things are going well for you in Canterlot. We actually talked about it a bit, and I think we would all like to visit sometime soon, if that’s okay. I know you’re busy and all, so it’s just something to think about.

Anyways, we’re all hoping for the best for you.

Take care,

From all of your friends,

Fluttershy Rarity
Rainbow Dash Applejack Pinkie Pie

Twilight found herself lingering on the signatures at the end of the page, taking in the unique characteristics of each one. She wasn’t exactly sure how long she had stared at them in the silence when her attention was brought back to reality by the sound of a knock below her.

Twilight’s ears had shot straight up at the sound, and she sat there still as a statue as she strained her hearing. Again, the knock came from down stairs; the sound of somepony rapping their hoof against her front door. Twilight quickly sent a signal to the doorway to activate another part of the magical device that controlled it, and then a blurred image began to materialize in the air just in front of her. The image shimmered and shook as it struggled to take form, and eventually reached a clarity that was enough for Twilight to recognize the pony it pictured. The face of a white stallion could be seen in the floating circular image, his multi-shade blue mane flipping from one side to another as he glance upward. He seemed to reach up toward the image with his hoof, tapping against it, the knocking sound from below matching his motions exactly.

Twilight dismissed the image, and quickly whisked her jacket from its resting place, pulling it tight over her shoulders and back as she worked to fasten the silver snaps. Her crown faded from view as she also sent a quick signal to the doorway below to get it to open up. “It’s open!” she called out as she flipped her mane out of the jacket’s collar.

She could hear hoofsteps on the lower level that hesitated after having walked into the room. “Twily?” the familiar voice of her older brother called out, echoing through the tower.

“I’m up here,” Twilight said through a smile as she sat at her desk, taking a moment to carefully place her treasured letter safely to the side. She turned her gaze to watch the stairs as she heard her bother climbing them.

Shining Armor stopped just a couple steps past the top stair, smiling back to her. “Hey,” he said through his simple, infectious smile.

“Hey, Shiny,” Twilight said as she stood from her desk, walking over to greet him with a quick hug.

Shining took notice of the pile of wrapped books and scrolls near the desk as he peered over his sister’s shoulder. Leaning back to look straight on at her, he curiously asked, “Catch you at a bad time? I don’t want to bother you if you’re busy.”

Twilight glanced over her shoulder quickly toward the mess of books, then back to her brother with a sheepish grin. “Don’t mind the mess. I just need to organize things a bit.” She turned and took a few steps back toward her desk, using her magic to nudge the pile of books and scrolls into a slightly more uniform stack instead of a random pile. “And you know I’m never too busy for my brother,” she added as she smiled back to him.

“Well, I don’t exactly have anything important to talk about. I just felt like stopping by... like every other day since I found out you were back.” There was a nervous edge to the laugh that followed as he rubbed the back of his neck with a hoof. “I’m not bothering you, am I?”

Twilight reached out with her magic, grasping a nearby pillow cushion to bring it closer to the desk. “For the last time, Shiny, no. You’re not bothering me,” she said as she took a seat at her desk, and then gestured to the other pillow cushion she had just placed on the other side. “Honestly, you worry too much,” she said as she leaned her folded forelegs on the desk’s edge.

Shining Armor accepted the seat across the desk from his sister with a quiet ‘thanks’, making himself comfortable as he rested his left foreleg against the desktop. After a short pause he let go a very audible sigh. “I can’t help it,” he said as he shrugged his shoulders. “I mean... all of this has really been like a dream come true. When Moondancer told me she had found you....”

Twilight watched as her brother went silent and seemed to blankly stare off at nothing. She reached out across the desk, cupping her hooves around his, causing him to look back to her. “I know. I’m just sorry you had to go through all that. The years of not knowing. I’m sure it would have driven me crazy. I can’t stand not knowing things.”

“Speaking of... not knowing things,” Shining said as he shifted to look straight on at Twilight, “I know you said before you don’t remember anything. Is that still the case?”

Twilight hesitated for a few seconds before she leaned back, drawing her hooves back to herself. “Yes, it is. I still don’t remember a thing.” Even though it was technically the truth that she had no memory of this history’s past thirteen years, it still felt like she was lying to her brother, and she didn’t like having to repeat it.

“Even the day it happened?”

“Sorry,” Twilight said as she barely shook her head. She watched the frustration playing out on her brother’s face as he shifted back to leaning against the desk to stare off at the back of the room again. “It bothers you that much, huh?”

Shining Armor worked his jaw back and forth as he considered how to explain what he was feeling. “I just don’t feel like I have closure, and I don’t see how you would either,” he said as he cast a glance back to his sister. “I mean, thirteen years of your life are just gone. Thirteen years that we didn’t know if you were alive or dead, and nopony has an excuse. Even your sitter was just clueless.”

Twilight's ears suddenly swiveled back, laying flat against her head. “My sitter? You mean Cadance?”

In contrast, Shining’s expression seemed to lighten a bit at the mention of the name. “I’m surprised you remember her. Well, actually, I guess that might make sense if she was one of the last things you remember,” he said as he rubbed his right hoof against his chin.

“What does Cadance have to do with it though?” It was a question that Twilight wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know the answer to, but if the other princess was somehow involved with the disappearance thirteen years ago, she had to follow up on it regardless of her personal feelings on the matter.

“Oh, well, she doesn’t really, other than that you were with her when you disappeared. She claimed she didn’t see anything though. Said you were there one second, then gone the next.”

Twilight grew very quiet, and found herself staring down at her hooves as her mind mulled over the new information. “I was out with her when it happened,” she quietly said to nopony in particular.

“Yeah. Kind of sad, really,” Shining Armor said before he shifted so he was once again looking straight on across the desk. “I mean, none of us thought she would ever intentionally do anything to you, so of course we knew she had nothing to do with it. You two were pretty inseparable, and she was devastated by the whole thing.”

“I didn’t realize I was with her the day it happened,” Twilight said as she slowly looked up to her brother. “You two used to be pretty close.”

Shining quietly stared back for a few seconds before he smiled weakly. “Yeah, you could say that, but it’s kinda hard to forgive somepony for losing your little sister.”

There it was, the reason why. The reason why another change had come to be, and once again it tied back to her past self’s disappearance. It was looking more and more like everything tied back to this one event. In time, her parents had accepted that their daughter was lost, and had moved away from Canterlot to start over elsewhere. While her brother had remained in Canterlot, he had never joined the guard, likely an indirect result of him not having a little sister to protect. And then there was the eternal night, the most noticeable change due to her absence in this past. Twilight had even theorised that her absence could have been the catalyst that had pushed Celestia toward dealing with the changelings, though she still had no definite proof of such. Still, she was learning firsthoof just how connected a single pony was to the world, and the impact that her past self’s absence was having on Equestria’s history was very troubling. And to learn that the love between her brother and Cadance had been shattered because of something outside of their control was more than just troubling for her, it was painful.

The air in the room had taken on a tense feeling as the two siblings fell into silence over the uncomfortable topic. However, the silence was broken by the sound of somepony else in the room clearing their throat. Both siblings looked over to the top of the stairs to see Moondancer standing there, fully clad in her armor.

Twilight was a bit more than surprised, since there was no way anypony should have gotten into her tower without her knowing. “Uh, Moondancer,” she said with an unsure smile. “How did you get in?”

“You left the door open,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders.

Twilight let go a disappointed groan before she closed her eyes and shook her head, clucking her tongue as she sent a quick magical signal to the door below. The sound of the tower’s door creaking and then coming to a close echoed through the room. Obviously, the door needed some adjustments if it wasn’t automatically closing all the time like it should. Moondancer let go a quiet snicker at Twilight’s frustration as she approached Shining Armor.

Shining gave a loving smile to his fiancé, standing and sharing a quick nuzzle with Moondancer that she happily returned. “Hey you,” he said softly to her.

“‘Hey you’ yourself. Pestering the Queen’s enchantress again?” she jokingly said as she playfully jabbed a hoof at the center of his chest. He responded with a deeper nuzzle aimed under her chin, just brushing against her neck. Moondancer couldn’t help but let go a ticklish laugh as she shied away. “Hey now, I’m still on duty,” she said as she struggled to keep at least a hint of her professionalism intact.

“This late?” Shining said as he tilted his head curiously.

Moondancer let go a light sigh. “A captain’s work is never done. Actually, I’m here to talk with your sister about something important.”

Shining’s expression suddenly changed as he put on a mock surprised look, glancing to his sister. “Ooo, important official royal stuff,” he said as he faked a serious nod, to which Twilight just rolled her eyes as she shook her head at his silliness. Though Moondancer couldn’t hide the grin turning up the corners of her mouth, she still managed to give the stallion a stern stare as she jabbed him in the side with her elbow. “Alright, alright, I can take a hint,” he said through a laugh as he rubbed at his side. He circled around her, making his way toward the stairway. Pausing just at the top of the stairs, he turned back to catch one more glance at her. “Catch you later tonight?”

She nodded with a loving smile back to him. “Sure, later.”

Shining’s gaze lingered on Moondancer for a moment longer, before he looked to Twilight. “Take care, sis.”

“Goodnight, big brother,” she said from her desk, her hoof giving him a small wave as he turned to depart.

Twilight silently listened as she heard her brother’s hoofsteps echo through the tower as he descended the stairs and crossed the room below. She remained quiet even after he had left, her ears barely able to pick up on the faint sounds as they faded off into the distance. Only when everything had once again gone completely silent did she fully acknowledge that Moondancer was still standing there. “So,” she started as she leaned her elbows against the desktop, resting her chin on her folded hooves. “You can be pretty stealthy when you want to be. How long were you standing there listening in on us?”

Moondancer seemed to seriously consider the question as she glanced around in though. “I think I got here somewhere around the part where you started talking about Cadenza.”

Twilight let go an annoyed grunt as she slumped slightly. “Cadance was my foalsitter for many years. Our families were very close friends before either of us were even born. Seriously, if you’re worried about her past with my brother, I think he made it rather clear that he never forgave her.”

Moondancer shook her head, quickly dismissing the thought. “I’m not that shallow, Twilight. I’m not worried about him being stolen away by a childhood sweetheart,” she said as she took a seat at the desk across from Twilight. “Anyways, I didn’t come here to talk about that.”

“Right,” Twilight said as she propped herself back up. “Important official royal stuff,” she said jokingly, mimicking her brother and managing to get a small laugh from Moondancer in response.

“Your request has been granted,” Moondancer said, bowing her head slightly. “The Queen is going to let you talk to Chrysalis. She seemed convinced that it could help your changeling research, and that it definitely wouldn’t hurt it.”

Twilight shot straight up, looking a bit shocked shortly before a smile spread across her face. “That’s great news! It’s possible that what she has to say could very well be more important than anything I could find in all of these books.”

“I have to wonder through,” Moondancer said as she tilted her head. “Why do you think she’ll answer your questions when she hasn’t been telling anypony else anything useful?”

Twilight thought about the question shortly before giving Moondancer a confident smile and simply saying, “I don’t.”

“Er....” Moondancer didn’t seem to share in Twilight’s strange sense of confidence as she furrowed her brow.

“You’ve likely been asking her direct questions about what you want to know, haven’t you?”

Shaking her head, Moondancer blinked at the odd question. “How else would you question somepony? Play a guessing game?” she said with a strong tinge of sarcasm.

Twilight’s confident smile didn’t waver. “If you are dealing with somepony who is likely to keep information from you, you shouldn’t ask them the questions that you want answers to. You’re only telling them what to hide,” she explained. “Instead, you should just get them to talk to you, in any way you can. And very often, you’ll find that if you can loosen their tongue up a bit, they’ll start telling you all kinds of things you wanted to know, and maybe even a few things you hadn’t even thought to ask about.”

Moondancer looked on at Twilight with a bit of a stunned look, letting go a ‘huh’ as she thought on the words. “You know, sometimes I wonder if you’re really a princess. You don’t always act... princessy,” she said as she gestured a hoof in a small circle.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Twilight said cheerfully. “I guess you can say I have my own way of doing things.”

Chrysalis sat upright in her cell, peering out through the bars at the two mares that had arrived to visit her. “Well... this is rather surprising,” she said as she scratched a hoof against one of the dimly glowing light-blue fetlock bands that ringed each of her legs. She had worn the magic suppressing devices since she had been captured, along with a matching band secured around the base of her horn. “To what do I owe this honor?”

Moondancer let go a harumph, pointing a hoof to her side at Twilight. “She said she wanted to talk to you.”

Chrysalis’s eyes widened a bit in surprise as she looked over toward Twilight. “Really? After how she behaved toward me in the hive, I can’t imagine what for.”

“Moondancer,” Twilight said, drawing the captain’s attention to her. “Would you mind if I talked to her alone?”

This move was actually part of a plan that Twilight had discussed with Moondancer before they had arrived. There was no doubt that Chrysalis would have reservations about answering any questions in front of the Captain of Nightmare Moon’s Nightguard. “Have it your way,” Moondancer said, acting as if she were somewhat put off by the request. She began walking away down the hall, stopping only for a short second to glance over her shoulder and add, “Just be sure to call for help if she tries anything stupid.”

Chrysalis’s eyes followed after Moondancer, watching until she had passed around a corner. Her somber expression never broke as she looked back to Twilight. “You two really don’t make a good pairing,” she said with a slight shake of her head.

Twilight sat back on her haunches in the middle of the hall, trying to make herself as comfortable as one could on the cobblestone floor. “How have they been treating you?” she said as she tried to put on a smile.

Chrysalis didn’t react to the question right away, but after staring back for a few seconds she suddenly let go a loud chuckle. She shook her head, letting out an amused sigh as she recovered from the sudden fit of laughter. “I find it hard to believe that you would be concerned for my well being,” she said as the smile on her face quickly melted off.

Twilight’s eyes closed as she let go a frustrated huff of air. She could tell Chrysalis wasn’t going to make this simple. “Okay, lets try this a different way then,” she said in all seriousness as she looked back up. “I’ve had this feeling that there was something you wanted to tell me since we last saw each other.”

Chrysalis curiously tilted her head at the statement. “Oh, so you haven’t figured much out on your own then.”

Twilight’s gaze hardened. “I’d like to think I’ve figured out a few things. For example, I know that you were getting something from Celestia.”

The corner of Chrysalis’s mouth turned up with a toothy grin as she let a curious ‘hmm’ go. “Did Moondancer come up with that one?”

Twilight didn’t waver before the dodging statements. “She has proof. Honestly, it’s a bit surprising to find out that Celestia had been just hoofing over Equestrians to you.”

“Ah, so that’s what you’re talking about,” Chrysalis said with a knowing nod. “Yes, well... what purpose would they had been serving otherwise? Occupying a cell?” she said as she gestured at the walls around herself shortly before letting her hoof fall back to the ground with a loud clack. “Being a worthless drain on Equestrian society? Heh... you may not see it the way I do, but they were given a purpose beyond what they were otherwise destined for.”

“And Celestia was just giving them to you out of the kindness of her heart,” Twilight said as she casually threw a gesture to the side with her hoof.

Chrysalis let another short laugh go, shaking her head at the claim. “Hardly. No, she needed me, and she knew it, though she only begrudgingly admitted so.”

Twilight raised her brow slightly. “So you’re the one who offered her the deal.”

Chrysalis paused momentarily. Slowly blinking her eyes, she glanced off to the side as she quietly said, “I suppose you could say that.”

“Seems like a strange deal. Your hive was practically being used as a prison, and Equestria didn’t have to give you anything else in return.”

“They served their purpose, as a way to sustain our power,” Chrysalis said as she seemed to casually admire one of her glowing anti-magic bands.

“That’s not nearly enough though, is it?” Twilight said, drawing attention back to her. “You were tasked with guarding something extremely important as well. The only reason why Celestia would have allowed you to build the hive there would be to guard the Elements. Seems like that would be worth a lot more than just a place to sleep and food to survive on.”

Chrysalis stared back silently for some time, before she finally smiled. “Why don’t you ask the question you really want to know the answer to,” she said as she stood and approached the cell bars. She reached up and hooked a single hoof on the center crossbar and leaned her forehead against one of the bars as she maintained her piercing stare at Twilight. “Why would Celestia even need the Elements to be guarded... hm?” she asked, voicing the question herself. “You see, she had managed to locate five of the six by then, but the sixth had gone missing. Time was starting to run out, and she was desperate for any alternative just to keep the youngest sister from getting her hooves on one of the most powerful set of artifacts the world has ever known.”

Twilight frowned and shook her head. “Why would she need to locate the Elements? The five were always at the castle and the sixth was hidden, likely on purpose. She already knew that.”

“Oh,” Chrysalis said, a surprised undertone to her voice. “You thought I was talking about the Elements?” She shook her head. “No no, the bearers. She could only find five bearers. The bearer of Magic had mysteriously vanished just a few years before she had identified that one. And by then, it was too late.”

Twilight’s gaze broken away, her eyes darting about as she quickly tried to process what she had just heard. “She knew who they were back then?” she asked to herself, before looking to Chrysalis. “But that was years before... how could she know?”

“You don’t understand, do you?” Chrysalis said with a slightly annoyed sigh. She rolled her eyes as she sat back on her haunches, leaning further against the bars as she hooked both of her hooves over the crossbar. “She chose the bearers herself.” Chrysalis broke into a grin when she noticed the shocked look on Twilight’s face. “Weren’t expecting to learn that, were you? Trust me when I say the Sun Princess has many secrets.”

Twilight scowled back. “You talk like you don’t have any.”

“Oh of course I do. Every girl has her secrets,” Chrysalis said as she casually waved one of her hooves. Twilight seemed to wait expectantly for more to follow the statement, but only got another toothy grin from Chrysalis instead. “Forgive me if I’m not very forthcoming with them. This environment doesn’t really bring out my sharing side.”

Twilight let an annoyed grunt slip from herself. “I still think you’re hiding something important from me, something that you don’t want me to know. I just don’t understand why yet.”

“Now what would bring you to that conclusion?” Chrysalis said, maintaining a mock innocent look for a few seconds before allowing it to shift back over to her grin. “A gut feeling, perhaps?”

She’s playing with me, Twilight thought. It was beginning to seem likely that she wouldn’t get anything else useful. “If you just want to waste my time, I do have other things I could be doing,” she said as she stood to prepare to leave.

Chrysalis let go a long ‘hmm’ as she seemed to ponder something, causing Twilight to wait for just a moment longer. “Well, I suppose I can share one of my little secrets with you, since you are so interested,” she finally said, gesturing with one of her hooves for Twilight to come a bit closer to hear this ‘secret’.

Of course Twilight hesitated, staring back with a look that told all too well just how little she trusted the Changeling Queen. Chrysalis put on as pleasant of a smile as she could as she said, “Oh come on now, I don’t bite that hard.” The glint from her sharp fangs peeking out from under her smile seemed to say otherwise.

Twilight was curious about what Chrysalis might be thinking about sharing with her. And even if it were some attempt at attacking her, there wasn’t much that the defeated queen could do through the cell bars. Twilight stepped forward until she was just out of reach, to which Chrysalis gestured once more for her to approach closer just before she raised a hoof to her muzzle, as if she wanted to quietly whisper the ‘secret’. Twilight rolled her eyes, turning her ear toward Chrysalis as she took another step closer to the bars.

Chrysalis rushed forward, pressing herself against the bars and extending a forelimb out. In less than a second, her foreleg wrapped around Twilight’s shoulders and pulled her side against the bars tightly, causing the bars to let go an echoing metallic rattle. Twilight tensed, mentally preparing herself to quickly escape at the last second if need be. She couldn’t help but shake slightly at the changeling’s touch.

Chrysalis didn’t attack; she merely held Twilight there against the bars firmly. Bringing her muzzle uncomfortably close to the side of Twilight’s face, she began to whisper quietly. “I know who you really are... Princess.” She hissed the last word through her teeth, grinning at the shuddering breath that Twilight sucked in. “I think my secrets are the least of your worries. It would be rather unfortunate if word got around to a certain Queen of the Night that her new Enchantress wasn’t exactly who she seemed to be... wouldn’t it? But so long as we respect each other’s secrets, that shouldn’t be a problem, I think.”

As Chrysalis loosened her grip, Twilight took the opportunity to pull herself away quickly. Her heartbeat drummed loudly in her ears as she stared back. Chrysalis simply maintained her innocent smile as she perched her forelegs on the cell crossbar, leaning forward to speak again. “One last little... tidbit... before you go. Your suspicions are right, the prisoners were not all that we received in return for our help.” She rested her chin on the crossbar, seeming quite content with the unnerved state she had left her guest in, simply adding, “That’s all.”

Despite her efforts to maintain her composure, Twilight’s nervousness was plainly visible. She tried to swallow down the tight knot that had formed in her throat as she turned to walk away, managing just barely to keep herself from breaking into a gallop to escape. “See you soon,” she heard as Chrysalis’s voice eerily echoed through the hall from behind her, the simple, chilling words causing the hackles on her neck and back to stand on end.

Twilight’s steps hastened as she rounded a corner in the hallway, helping to put distance between herself and the uncomfortable situation. She finally came to a stop in the hallway when she felt she was far enough away, turning to look behind herself as if to make sure she hadn’t somehow been followed.

Annoyed at how she had mishandled her emotions, she tried to force calmness to herself even as her mind was racing with questions. How does she know? She can’t know! I’ve been too careful. But she knows. Only six other’s know and they would never....

Her thoughts came to a halt as she came across an answer. There wasn’t just six others who knew about her true identity, there were seven. “Crystal,” she said in a whisper. Feeling suddenly weak, she leaned against the nearby wall for support. If it were true that Chrysalis had somehow learned this from her student, there was no telling what else the Changeling Queen might know. Twilight’s breath caught in her throat and a shiver worked its way through her body as she considered what possible, horrible fate could have befallen her student. Shaking her head, she tried to put the troubling thoughts aside for now. Right now she needed a place where she could feel safe so she could organize her thoughts instead of letting them run wild.

She hadn’t paid much attention to which direction she had left in, since she had simply wanted to be anywhere else. Glancing about to try and find something familiar to get her bearings, she happened to notice something out of place in the dingy cobblestone hallway. Laying up against the bars inside a cell only a short distance down the hall was something mostly light pink, with a hint of a few other pastels. Her curiosity caused her to take a few steps toward the pink mass to get a better look. She stopped suddenly when her hoof tapped a loose pieces of stone lying in the floor, and she cringed at the clattering noise that it made as it skipped across the floor and shattered the silence.

The figure within the cell stirred, and after shifting she glanced over her shoulder from where she was laying on the floor toward Twilight. The light blue glow from the band encircling the base of her horn was enough to light her face, revealing Cadance’s tired eyes. Twilight’s mind froze at the moment the recognition hit her, causing her to draw in a gasp.

It took Cadance a moment longer, but then her eyes suddenly went wide. Scrambling to her hooves, she stood shakily in her cell, staring back at Twilight. Her coat was matted from sleeping on the floor, and her mane and tail were a knotted mess of hair. She seemed to struggle to speak for a moment until her voice finally forced out a name. “...Twilight?”

“Shh,” Twilight hissed as she cautioned with her hoof as she glanced back down the hallway.

“I-I... Is it you?” Cadance said a bit more quietly as she blinked her eyes and shook her head a bit to make sure the pony she was seeing before her wasn’t just the remnants of some dream.

“Yes, it’s me,” Twilight gently spoke as she approached the cell.

Cadance stepped back a step, her eyes suddenly going wide. “But, no. No! You were gone. You disappeared!” she said as her voice climbed in volume.

Twilight halted her advance, sitting back to avoid frightening Cadance any further. “Cadance, please calm down,” she said as gently as she could.

“But you vanished! You can’t be here,” Cadance said as she backed down to the far wall of the cell. The fear in her voice caused her words to shake as she cowered to the floor. Her eyes darted quickly over Twilight’s form as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing, causing her to quietly ask, “...Can you?”

Twilight chanced a step forward, and when she only saw Cadance warily staring back to her she cautiously stepped up to the cell bars, hooking her forehooves on the crossbar before setting herself there. “See for yourself,” she said as she slowly reached a hoof through the bars toward Cadance.

Cadance eyed the hoof suspiciously, but eventually her curiosity won over as she timidly approached and reached her own hoof out. Twilight smiled back as Cadance gingerly touched her hoof. The fear in her eyes gradually faded, and feeling a bit more confident, she approached and reached her hoof up to touch it against Twilight’s face, taking in the kind smile that she saw. “I-It really is you.”

Twilight’s smile deepened, and she reached forward through the bars at the same moment that Cadance did to hold her. They shared the embrace quietly for awhile, the only sound around them coming from a quiet sniffle that escaped Cadance every so often. “I wouldn’t forget about the greatest foalsitter in the world,” Twilight said quietly, causing a choked laugh to escape from Cadance.

Cadance eventually backed away a step, letting her hooves slide back into the cell. She sat there behind the cell bars as she tried to dry her eyes and get her sniffles under control. “But how? How did you even get here?”

“I’m the court enchantress now.” Twilight noticed the sudden flinch when Cadance heard the statement, but tried not to let on that she had seen it. “I had heard that you were being held here.”

“You’re... working with Nightmare Moon?” Cadance asked, her voice quivering a bit.

“It’s a complicated situation,” Twilight said, sounding a bit tired. “Cadance, I know you don’t belong here. You’ve done nothing wrong, and if there is anyway to change this, I’ll find it.” Cadance’s ears swiveled back against her head, and her gaze fell downward as she realized Twilight wasn’t there to free her from her imprisonment. However, Twilight gently guided Cadance’s gaze back up by hooking her hoof just under her chin. “Hey, don’t lose hope,” she said as she tried to put on a reassuring smile.

Cadance reached up to cup Twilight’s hoof in her own. “Where have you been all these years?” she asked with a shake of her head. “What even happened to you?”

Twilight’s gaze wandered off to the side. Once again she wouldn’t be able to tell somepony she cared about the full truth. “I don’t know yet,” she simply said, hoping it would be enough.

Cadance seemed to struggle with the answer, looking back confused. “You don’t know?”

Twilight huffed a sigh as she looked back. “It doesn’t matter. I’m here now, and I’ll do everything I can to help you. You don’t deserve to be kept here.” She glanced down the hallway, realizing that she had probably overstayed her visit in this place. “I can’t stay,” she said, looking back once more. “It wouldn’t be good if anypony found out that I’ve been talking to you, so if anypony asks, you never saw me, alright?” Cadance barely nodded to acknowledge the request. Twilight could see the disappointment in her eyes, and felt horrible about having stirred the hope for freedom in her heart only to bring it crashing back down. Twilight gently reached up to touch her cheek, trying to offer her a confident smile. “Don’t lose hope,” she said again.

Cadance hooked her fetlock over Twilight’s hoof, trying her best to put forward a smile. “Alright,” she said through her shaky voice.

Twilight gently pulled herself away from the cell, allowing her touch to drift away. “We’ll see each other again, I promise.” Twilight lingered there for a moment longer before she finally turned to walk away. She cast her glance back toward the cell, watching as Cadance hung her forelegs on the cell crossbar, quietly looking after her. Twilight tried to maintain her smile as she left, but it was hard to do so.

As Twilight rounded the corner, she came to a sudden stop, tensing when she saw somepony was standing there waiting for her. She relaxed when she realized it was Moondancer leaning against the wall, who then took a couple steps toward her. “Are you trying to get us both in trouble?” she asked.

Twilight frowned as she glanced back behind herself. “She doesn’t belong down here,” she said, before looking back to Moondancer. “It’s not right.”

“You don’t think I know that?” Moondancer grumbled as she turned to start walking down the hallway. “I’m the one who put her down here,” she said lowly.

Twilight took a few swift steps to catch up, walking along side her in the hall. She cast her glance toward Moondancer a few times, and then finally decided to ask her something. “Isn’t there a way she could be moved?” The question caused Moondancer to halt as she closed her eyes, seeming to grind her teeth. “I’m not asking for her to be freed, just for something better than... this.”

A frustrated groan echoed from Moondancer’s throat. Her eyes finally snapped open, looking directly to Twilight. “No promises!” she said quickly before she started walking down the hall again. “...I’ll see what I can do.”

Twilight smiled as she turned to follow along side Moondancer. “That’s all I ask.”

Moondancer quickly pointed an accusing hoof at Twilight. “You’re going to owe me a huge stack of favors when this is all through.”

“Yes, I’m sure I will,” Twilight said with a smile back to her companion.

Facing Harsh Reality

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter IX – Facing Harsh Reality

Moondancer walked the dim cobblestone halls, filling them with the metallic clank of her hoof armor echoing a steady, repeating pattern. Two stallions wearing the standard issue Nightguard armor had accompanied her on this journey into the prison area of Canterlot’s Grand Palace this evening. Earlier, she had received word that Chrysalis had something important she wanted to share with Nightmare Moon, and was now on her way to see to this matter herself.

As requested, the message had been delivered to Moondancer first, which meant that Nightmare Moon would still be unaware of the request. Twilight had mentioned days earlier that Chrysalis somehow knew her secret, and had asked that Moondancer help keep this information from spreading if possible. It seemed now the captive was attempting to use her leverage in some way, but why so suddenly out of the blue was a mystery.

There was no possible way that Chrysalis would know that Twilight had already shared the secret with her, Moondancer thought to herself. This opened up an opportunity, one where she may be able to get the changeling to divulge something useful, and all she would have to do is hear what the prisoner had to say. Moondancer let a smirk turn up the corners of her mouth as the thought passed through her mind, taking a moment to wonder if Twilight’s methods were somehow rubbing off on her. Get them to start talking and they may tell you things you hadn’t even thought to ask, she thought as she recalled Twilight’s wisdom.

The group of guards came to a stop just in front of Chrysalis’s cell. The captive queen lifted her head from where she had been resting on the floor, and with a light yawn and stretch she pushed herself to sit up. She blinked her tired eyes as she peered through the bars at Moondancer. “Hmm, I knew you would be the one to show,” she mused as the corners of her mouth slowly turned up into a smile.

I guess it won’t be that easy, Moondancer thought. She cleared her throat. “Anything you say to me will be reported to her Majesty directly. That’s how it works.”

“Of course,” Chrysalis said as she stood tall in her cell. “That would actually matter If I were really going to tell you anything.”

Moondancer frowned at the odd statement. She momentarily wondered if she had been duped, but thought it odd that Chrysalis would stoop to pulling silly pranks just to waste her time. However, just as she began to consider the possible reasons for Chrysalis’s sudden change of mind, she stumbled forward from a jarring blow to the back of her head that sent her helmet flying and clattering to the floor.

The stinging pain from being bluntly struck shot down the back of her neck. She nearly fell face first into the cell bars as she stumbled toward them, only catching herself just barely quick enough to spin around and see one of the two guards swinging an armor clad hoof at her face. Her head still ringing from the dizzying blow and her eyesight blurred, she failed to properly block the thrust and took another hit, this one solidly landing against the side of her head and causing her to crash into the cell bars full force. The sound of her armor clattering against the metal bars echoed through the halls as her legs scrambled to keep herself upright. She managed to focus her vision just enough in time to see an armored back hoof right before it came up under her chin. Her head snapped back from the kick and slammed against the metal bars again, causing her to let go a short gasp in pain before she slumped down to the ground against the bars into an unmoving heap.

The guard that had assailed Moondancer stood watch over her unconscious body as the other moved toward the cell door. Raising a hoof to the doorway, he pressed the flat of the hoof armor against a circular plate on the door. The plate glowed a light blue before letting go a clack, and then he slid the door to the side opening the cell wide.

Chrysalis still stood where she had quietly watched the entire spectacle, and calmly walked out of her cell after the doorway had been opened. As she stepped out into the hallway, she raised a hoof, presenting it to the guard that had freed her, and he quickly worked to remove the anti-magic band that encircled her fetlock using the same enchanted armored hoof that he had used to open the cell door.

Chrysalis looked to the guard standing over Moondancer’s body while her bindings were being removed. “I take it everything is proceeding as planned?” she asked.

“Yes, your Grace,” the guard said with a quick bow. “They should be arriving on the next train, within the hour.”

“Excellent,” Chrysalis said as she lowered her head enough for the anti-magic band encircling her horn to be removed. It opened and fell to the ground with a metallic clatter after the guard touched it. Chrysalis took in a deep breath and let it out slowly with a happy sigh. “Oh, how I’ve missed my magic,” she said as she took a few steps around toward where Moondancer was laying unconscious on the floor. “As much as I would like to enjoy this moment, we haven’t a lot of time,” she said as her horn lit with a fiery green aura. Moondancer’s helmet lifted from the ground as Chrysalis levitated it over. She propped up Moondancer’s head just enough to fit the helm back on, and the enchantment did its work to change Moondancer’s outward appearance to conform to the standard Nightguard gray. She smiled down as she held Moondancer’s unconscious form in her hooves.

The hallways flashed bright green for an instant before returning back to the dim light levels.

Nightmare Moon sat upon Canterlot’s golden throne, adorned with her onyx regalia. A dozen of her Nightguard stood at attention along the crimson carpet that lead up to the throne, which was positioned at one end of the long hall lined with stained glass windows that depicted the history of her nation. Four additional guards stood at their post beside the throne, two to each side of her. She had chosen to hold court in the same location that her sister once had since shortly after her return, hoping that the familiar surroundings would encourage ponies to attend and ease in the transition. The first couple weeks had seen very little activity at all, but lately things were beginning to show change as the nobility and politicians of Canterlot came to an acceptance of their new ruler, or at the very least had overcome their fear of her enough to bear their questions and grievances to her directly. One such group had her attention when she took notice of a disturbance out in the hall that seemed to be growing louder. She glanced up toward the doorway just as Moondancer galloped through, entering the room with two of her fellow guards close behind her. They all paused to very quickly bend their knee to the monarch before Moondancer trotted up to the throne.

“What has happened?” Nightmare Moon said as she stood from her throne, walking through and past the group of guests as they made way for her. The sudden interruption of their meeting caused a light buzzing of confused whispering to circulate about them.

Moondancer glanced at the confused ponies, carefully choosing her words. “She has escaped,” she simply said as she looked back Nightmare Moon.

As shocking as the information was, Nightmare Moon kept her calm demeanor. She turned her attention to her guests when she heard the hushed whispering coming from them increase in intensity. “We shall continue our discussion at a later time,” she said before turning her attention to one of the Nightguard posted near her throne. “See them safely out,” she commanded, to which the guard quickly nodded in response and began to quickly usher the group out of the room. She then raised her voice so all others in the room could hear her clearly. “The rest of you, lend your help in the search. Go.” Her command set loose a flurry of activity as every guard in the hall set into action, leaving their post and making their way down the hallway at a gallop.

Moondancer followed along with the gathered group of guards until she had nearly reached the grand double doors. She paused there, turning to her side and looking back down the hall toward Nightmare Moon. As she did, seven of the other Nightguard separated from the group and also stopped there next to her, lingering in the room as the rest of the ponies funneled out through the door. Once all others had left, Moondancer’s horn lit with a glowing green light, and the double doors slammed closed with a pulse that then traveled back down the length of the hallway, seeming to skitter along the walls with an electric crackling sound. The pulse ended with a loud snap when it made its way to the end of the hall behind the golden throne.

Nightmare Moon was unsure what she was sensing. The magical pulse that had just rippled its way through her throne room was not familiar to her, and she had not asked for any sort of protective spell to be cast. “What is this? We gave you a command,” she said as she glared at the group of guards that were walking back down the length of the hallway toward her.

The only sound that filled the room for a time was the steady pattern of hoof steps coming from the group of Nightguard. They closed the distance to the Queen, covering most of the length of the room at a casual pace. As they grew closer, Nightmare Moon’s visage only grew more stern and dangerous as she stared down the defiant group of guardsponies. Finally, the group stopped at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the throne, only a few trots away from her. Moondancer responded to the glare aimed squarely at her with a sudden smile. Her mouth opened to form two simple words, “Do it.”

The other seven Nightguard sprung into action immediately, rushing toward Nightmare Moon at an alarming speed. Two pegasi among the guards took to the air, closing the distance first and both trying to simultaneously tackle her from either side. However, Nightmare Moon reacted to the assault quickly with her magic as her horn crackled to life with energy. One of the guards seemed to bounce off an unseen shield as the other was forcefully swatted away by a wave of kinetic power. “You would dare to attack your Queen!?” she yelled as her voice reached levels that threatened to shake the foundation of the palace. However, her challenging shout seemed to have absolutely no effect. The remaining five ground-bound guards had reached her, and were now attempting to force her to the ground with their superior numbers as they worked to tackle her as a team.

Moondancer had begun to calmly close the distance between herself and the remaining steps leading up to the throne as Nightmare Moon worked to stave off the attacks. She ducked her head slightly as one of the guards flew past her after Nightmare Moon had magically wretched him from her back and tossed him aside. The guard impacted one of the nearby pillars and fell to the ground with a clatter. As he did, his appearance shifted with a green shock of light, revealing an unconscious changeling clad in Nightguard armor.

Surprise was the first emotion that registered on Nightmare Moon’s face, followed very quickly by an unquestionable, building rage at the realization that changelings had managed to trick their way into her throne room. Her draconic eyes flashed brightly, and her ethereal mane and tail billowed wildly about her as she chose to use unrestrained force against the invaders. The guards were all forced back simultaneously by a wave of raw power, scattering them in all directions. A dark storm cloud formed from her mane and rose into the air within the chamber. Lightning skittered across the clouds surface as it threatened to unleash its power upon any who would dare approach.

And one did. The mare that appeared to be Moondancer had nearly covered the remaining distance to the top of the stairs, and was now only steps away from standing face to face with Nightmare Moon. Her horn was glowing a bright fire green, and even her eyes seemed to match the intensity with a green glow of their own. Nightmare Moon brought up a protective shield to guard herself against whatever magical force the imposter might be thinking of using against her, prepared to counter attack the very second the attack failed. However, the fake Captain let go a blast of green light that seemed to simply erode the shield as if it were made of nothing more than water vapor, casually blowing the shield aside like smoke being pushed aside by a light breeze. Surprised at how easily her magic had been disabled, Nightmare Moon didn’t see Moondancer’s metal clad hoof until it was too late, and took a back-hoofed hit squarely to the side of her face.

Nightmare Moon stumbled from the surprisingly strong strike, letting go a gasping cry of pain. She found it impossible to focus clearly enough to conjure anything in response, and the storm cloud she had prepared to smite her enemies with dissipated quickly. She felt her head being guided upward by a hoof under her chin, and through her blinking, watery eyes she saw something that actually caused her to feel fear. This imposter was facing down an alicorn, arguably the most powerful single alicorn in Equestria at this very moment, and seemed to be fully enjoying herself.

“Remember when I said I wasn’t powerful enough to fight you?” the mare masquerading as the Captain asked, to which Nightmare Moon’s eyes widened slightly at the realization of who this imposter truly was. ‘Moondancer’ only grinned back at the reaction as she leaned in slightly, letting go a short, amused laugh through her teeth before whispering into her ear. “I lied.”

With a flick of her hoof, the imposter lifted and tossed her guard’s helm aside, and a quick flash of green flame that rippled from the floor around her up to and over her head stripped her disguise away. Before Nightmare Moon now stood Queen Chrysalis, still clad in the remaining pieces of Moondancer’s Nightguard armor.

Nightmare Moon made a quick attempt to conjure her spells once again, but was denied when she felt a sudden searing pain that seemed to originate deep within her skull. “Ah ah...,” Chrysalis said as she raised one hoof, waggling it as she shook her head. “We’ll have none of that.” Nightmare Moon struggled under the strange power that seemed to be reaching directly into her mind and squeezing her senses mercilessly. She couldn’t properly think, and was even beginning to find it difficult to stand as her legs shook underneath her. She squeezed her eyes closed against the pain as her head hung lowly.

Chrysalis once again used a hoof to guide Nightmare Moon’s glance upward, the touch causing her to tremble. She could only manage to stare back with one eye opened as she clenched her teeth in a last ditch effort to deny the screams that her body wanted to let out. Chrysalis seemed to regard Nightmare Moon curiously as she tilted her head at the sight of her struggling under her mind magic. “This little personality disorder you have is troublesome, but I can solve it all right here,” she said in a soothing voice. As she slowly pulled her hoof away, Nightmare Moon collapsed to the floor as if it had been the only thing supporting her weight. “Now,” Chrysalis said as a wide grin spread across her muzzle, “let's dig that nasty little splinter of a personality out of your mind.”

The unimaginable pain seemed to double in an instant. The only reason why Nightmare Moon didn’t scream at the top of her lungs at that very moment was the fact that the sudden surge in power had completely stolen the wind from her. Her body reacted involuntarily as she writhed on the floor, eventually finding her way onto her side. Her mouth hung open, and after many long, painful seconds had passed, her voice finally returned to her as she let out an agonizing cry. “Don’t worry,” Chrysalis said calmly. “It will all be over soon enough, and then you can go back to being the weak, little sister.”

Twilight had left her tower, having prepared herself to meet with the Queen to discuss the ongoing study of the Everfree Hive. After her discussion with Chrysalis days ago, she had come to the conclusion that the gigantic crystal suspended within the hive must have some sort of additional importance. Chrysalis had admitted that she had received more than just prisoners from Equestria, though she had left out specifically what. The magical crystal was something that seemed very out of place given the location, and had never existed in Equestria’s true past to Twilight’s knowledge. This made it the focus of what was now over two days worth of study by a group of unicorns she had hoof picked for an expedition back to the abandoned hive. The hope was that analyzing the magical properties of the crystal would provide some answers to the tangled web of questions that had been forming ever since Twilight had arrived in this past.

However, the study had provided few results so far, and even fewer that she could actually share. The crystal itself had proven impossible to get any sort of readings on, as it was protected by a large matrix of enchantments that prevented outside interference. Twilight had probed the layers of enchantments herself the previous day, and had found that a large number of the components that made up the enchantments were very familiar to her, containing magical structures that she had developed herself. If anything, she now had enough circumstantial evidence to all but confirm that her student had somehow been involved with the changelings at some point. There was no other possible way that the magic could exist in this time.

None of this was information that Twilight could reveal to Nightmare Moon, not without raising a lot of additional questions that she couldn’t safely answer. Even so, she had returned to Canterlot to request an extension. Her group was due to return from the Nightguard camp stationed near the Everfree Hive along with the Nightguard that had been sent as protection in less than a day, and she still hadn’t uncovered the crystal’s true purpose. She needed more time to unravel the protections, as forcing her way through them would likely trigger a self-destructive enchantment that she had found buried deep under the outer layers. Whatever the secret was that was being hidden, Chrysalis was willing to destroy it before allowing anypony else to discover it. That simply made it all the more important that the truth be uncovered.

Twilight was quickly approaching the stairs to the main entryway of Canterlot’s Grand Palace, but her senses had picked up on something out of place as she had approached. She paused at the entryway, holding one hoof raised as she glanced to the sides of the stairs before her. There was no one there, and there should have been. At all times of every day, there were always two guards posted at this entryway.

Twilight quickly glanced up when she noticed a shadow flick across the ground, immediately trying to trace the angle that it would have been cast from. She blinked as her eyes scanned the skies, her pegasus sight working to pick up movement in the moonlit night. Once her eyes adjusted slightly, she noticed not just something, but many somethings moving against the stars. The shadows soared through the air quickly in circles, some of them diving back down to the palace to land at the spires, others taking to the night sky. A large number of pegasi were currently roaming the skies over the palace.

“Enchantress!” Twilight spun around to face the familiar voice that had called out to her, and then saw an armor clad pegasus descend from the sky, her hooves making a quick clanking pattern on the ground when she touched down.

“Sergeant Gale?” Twilight asked as she approached the guardsmare. “What’s going on? Has something happened in the palace?”

The Sergeant seemed slightly winded, but didn’t let it stop her from speaking. “Chrysalis has escaped,” she said. When she saw the expected shock on Twilight’s face, she moved right into to answering the obvious question. “We’re not sure how. Captain Moondancer reported it to the Queen directly and the entire guard force is searching the palace now, but the Captain locked herself inside the throne room with her Majesty for some reason. We haven’t been able to get the door open since then and we don’t know what’s going on in there.”

The shocked look on Twilight’s face changed to something more unsettling. “Are you sure it was Moondancer?” When she saw that Gale had to stop and consider the question, Twilight immediately took off at a gallop up the stairway into the palace proper, prompting the Sergeant to follow close behind her. “How long ago?” she asked as she rounded a bend in the hallway, taking the most direct route she knew to the throne room.

Gale had lept from the ground after turning the corner, and was now flying just barely higher than Twilight’s height off the floor to keep up. “Not long. Five minutes, perhaps a few more now?” she answered.

“That’s too long.”

“She wasn’t the only one. Maybe half a dozen other Nightguard were in there too.” The Sergeant knew why Twilight was suddenly so concerned about this, and mentally chastised herself for not having realized sooner. If Chrysalis had escaped, she could look like anyone.

Twilight came to a skidding stop just in front of the large double doors that barred entry into the throne room. She wasted no time charging her magic, causing a quick pulse of white light to expand from her horn in all directions around her. The few Nightguard that had been present at the doorway all backed away slightly at the unexpected spell, but there was otherwise no reaction as its white light washed over everyone there. “We have to assume anypony could be a changeling right now,” Twilight said, looking to the small group of guards. “All of you check out, but you need to stick together and confirm that everyone you come across is not a changeling in disguise. We have no idea how many there could be.”

“That might be easier said than done, Enchantress. A lot of our unicorns are away at the Everfree camp,” Gale said. Twilight visibly cringed at the realization that her expedition had left the guard force in Canterlot weakened, and the convenient timing of Chrysalis’s escape was not lost on her.

Sergeant Gale approached a Nightguard unicorn who was busy with scanning the double doors with her magic. “Have you figured anything out about this door?” she asked.

The mare ended her scanning spell, turning her full attention to her superior. “Sorry Sarge, but I haven’t been able to even figure out how this thing is working yet,” she said with a shake of her head. “I’ve never seen magic like it.”

Twilight had wasted no time beginning her own probe of the spell. She very quickly found what she thought she would, that the spell had components that matched designs of her own. This meant it would be too complicated to break it down from the outside in time, even for herself. But she did have another option.

“I’m going inside,” Twilight said as she turned from the doorway toward Gale. “We can’t safely break this down from here, but I can get past it and open it from the other side.”

Sergeant Gale glanced up at the imposing double doors, and then back to Twilight with an unsure look. “Are you sure? We have no idea what is happening in there.”

“That’s more the reason for me to get in there now. The Queen needs our help.” Twilight turned her focus back to the doorway, starting to conjure up her power as she continued to speak. “Do not try to attack this door, that would have very bad results. Just wait for me to open it.”

Even though she wasn’t a member of the Nightguard, it was clear to the Sergeant that Twilight was the one in control of this situation, and was likely the only pony among them who could solve it. “Understood,” Gale said with a quick nod of respect to the Enchantress. She caught Twilight’s gaze briefly as she looked back, and offered a quick smile adding, “Good luck.”

Twilight nodded back to the Sergeant, and then focused her attention fully on the doors as she prepared to push past the barrier using a method she had invented herself. Her studies of magic had led her to find that magical shields operated in the three dimensional world differently than most things. They nullified the natural laws that most things were bound to, such as forces of gravity. It was a byproduct of their purpose, which was to stop other things from getting through.

Twilight had also found that with proper understanding of the underlying workings of the world, one could manipulate space in such a way as to warp it. The warped space was completely undetectable by conventional means, as any light, sound, energy, or matter that passed through it would conform to it harmlessly. All things, except for shielding spells. Knowing this, Twilight could ‘push’ the warped space around and through the spell, and create a sort of ‘gap’ that was untouched by the shield that she could cast a teleport through. It took a greater amount of effort to do, as the gap had to be maintained at the same time the teleport spell was cast for it to complete. And this ward in particular had some complexities to it that were forcing her to exert extra effort just to find the gap she was looking for.

The instant she found it, she didn’t even waste one second before casting the teleport. Her senses shifted as the familiar sensation of being thrown through space rushed over her, ending in a near instant when she reappeared, this time on the other side of the door. Immediately, her ears were assaulted by the screams of Nightmare Moon, who she could see writhing around in agony on the floor just in front of the throne. Over her stood Chrysalis, who was mid cast in some sort of spell. Twilight’s next actions were almost purely reactionary. Her mind reached out for the gap she had just created in the ward and quickly located it. She focused her attention on Nightmare Moon, and then on the first safe place that came to her mind, paying no attention to the distance involved as she hadn’t any time to consider it. Her horn flared with a bright white flash and a shower of sparks as she poured her power into pressing another teleportation spell through the gap, and in that instant Nightmare Moon vanished in a flash. Her horn complained with a sharp, burning pain after the sudden exertion of power, but the spell had had the desired effect. Nightmare Moon was now safe, far away from the one who had been harming her.

Chrysalis flinched at the sudden interruption of her spell when her target vanished. She slowly turned toward the doorway, and upon seeing Twilight there, gave her a deep glower. “That... was rather annoying,” she growled as she began to walk the distance down the hallway toward Twilight. At the same time, a half dozen others in the room that appeared to be Nightguard gathered around her to follow.

Twilight realized she had little time to make a choice. She could attempt to bring down the ward, but it would likely take the majority of her focus to do so and would leave her vulnerable. She considered a retreat, but a third teleportation through the barrier could prove to be too much for her already exhausted magic, and even if it did succeed she didn’t want to give Chrysalis the chance to escape. Her only other option was to attempt to stand and fight against superior numbers with her magic reserves already greatly taxed.

None of the choices were good ones.

However, Twilight considered that she had an ace she had yet to play; her anti-changeling magic. If she could force enough of her remaining power into the spell, she could disable the entire group of changelings long enough to deal with the warding spell. She had already expended far more of her power than she had planned to when she had teleported Nightmare Moon to safety, so it was going to be an all or nothing attempt. She steeled herself, calling upon her remaining power and conjuring a white point of light at the tip of her horn. When she felt she had charged as much of her remaining magical energy as she safely could, she released the spell, filling the room with a white wave of light that rippled wall to wall against the warding and quickly expanded toward the group of changelings.

Chrysalis charged a spell of her own, matching the power that she saw and releasing something that appeared identical; a white wave of magical force that expanded from her horn to fill the room. When the two waves of white light impacted each other, they cancelled out causing a sound that was similar to that of breaking glass, leaving nothing behind.

The spell’s failure left Twilight breathless, both at the expenditure of the last of her magical reserves and the fact that it had been her last option. She blankly stared at the empty space between herself and the changelings that were still advancing toward her. Escape was no longer an option, fighting was no longer an option, even a rescue was likely not to happen since she had told the Nightguard to wait for her. She had completely underestimated her opponent, and now there was nothing left she could do.

“Hmm... weren’t expecting that to happen, were you?” Chrysalis said as she stopped only a few steps away. The guards fanned out to her sides, cutting off any sort of escape route that Twilight could possibly take into the throne room itself. Twilight backed herself away until her tail brushed against the double doors, her eyes quickly darting back and forth as she tried to keep track of the group surrounding her. Chrysalis let an amused chuckle escape from her throat. “You look utterly exhausted,” she said through a fang filled smile. She took a moment to glance to each side of herself at the guards that were eagerly waiting on their next command. She looked back to Twilight, finding the defiant glare from her cornered prey to be all the more amusing. Her voice had a tint of excitement as she gave her command. “Take her.”

The half dozen guards all rushed their target simultaneously. Twilight made one last effort to call forward what magic she could to defend herself, even pushing herself unsafely past her normal limits to find anything she could use, but she had expended her power far too quickly for it to recover in time. One of the guards received a mild shock of power that caused him to flinch and let out a yelp, but the rest easily tackled Twilight to the floor before she could do anything else.

Despite the increased strength gifted to alicorns through earth pony magic, Twilight’s physical strength alone was not enough to counter the strength of the six guards holding her against her will. She felt something come in contact with her horn and fasten around it with a hard click, and in that instant it was as if one of her senses had simply ceased to exist. The always constant connection that she had with the magical aura of the world around her had been severed. She felt something else being removed from atop her head, and was able to glance up to see one of the guards holding the Element of Magic out to Chrysalis. She struggled in vain to push herself up, but was harshly pressed back against the floor in response. She let out a wail of pain when one of the guards suddenly twisted her right foreleg back at an awkward angle.

“Stop!” Chrysalis barked out, the sudden shout causing the pain to immediately cease when the offending guard released his hold. “There’s no point in harming her needlessly,” Chrysalis growled with a harsh glare focused on the guard, causing him to cringe. After a reluctant pause, he continued to work at removing Twilight’s velvet jacket, this time much more carefully, pulling the sleeve loose from one foreleg and then the other. Another guard had been working to attach anti-magic bracelets around Twilight’s fetlocks, and she could feel her strength diminishing as each one was attached. One of the guards pulled the final restraint from a pouch on his armor; a body harness made of strong woven straps designed to restrain a pegasus’s wings. The guard worked to strap the harness around Twilight’s body after her jacket had been removed, securing it tightly and buckling it just above her shoulders to prevent her from being able to fly. The guards pulled her up to her hooves once all of the restrictive gear had been secured and checked.

Twilight knew she had been beaten. She had nothing left she could use to fight back with on her own now, so her only remaining option was to attempt to stall for time for the longshot chance that she would somehow be rescued. “You found Crystal Charm, didn’t you?” Twilight accused as she glared angrily at Chrysalis. It was something that she wanted to confirm at the very least, and if this Chrysalis was anything like the one she knew, she could probably prod her into wasting time on boasting about her victory.

“Whatever are you talking about?” Chrysalis said casually as she turned the Element of Magic over in her levitation magic, studying it closely. She seemed completely uninterested in holding the conversation.

Twilight knew she was being lied to, and was beyond the point of controlling her rage now. “Don’t play stupid with me!” She yelled back, drawing Chrysalis’s full attention to her. “I’ve seen it all over your magic. Things that I taught her.” Twilight’s voice weakened slightly as she asked the question that she needed to know the answer to, but feared the most. “What did you do to her?”

“Well then,” Chrysalis started with a slightly surprised tone. She passed the crown over to one of her guards as she said, “If you wanted to meet your precious student again so badly, why didn’t you ask me sooner?” Chrysalis closed her eyes, her horn glowing briefly as a ring of green fire lit around her hooves. The ring quickly flashed over her form, and left in her place was a young, dust gray unicorn mare. Her long, straight, sea green mane fell down to just slightly more than shoulder length, and she opened her deep emerald eyes to look directly at Twilight. “Hello, teacher,” she said in the voice that Twilight knew all too well; the voice of her student, Crystal Charm.

Twilight’s body shook with anger as she pushed herself forward, only to be restrained by two of the guards holding her back with a hoof on each shoulder. “What did you do to her!?” she screamed as tears pooled up in her eyes, threatening to overflow.

“Do to...,” Chrysalis paused for a second before she suddenly burst into a fit of laughter. It took her a moment to recover from whatever it was about Twilight’s outburst that she had found amusing. Twilight, on the otherhoof, was glaring daggers back at her.

“I-I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting that,” Chrysalis said as she tried to get her fit of giggles under control. She wiped away tears that had formed in the corners of her eyes from the laughing fit, and then looked straight into Twilight’s eyes after she had managed to catch her breath. “You don’t get it, do you? You still haven’t figured it out,” she said as she shook her head. A light chuckle sounded deep in her throat as she prepared to reveal another one of her well kept secrets.

“It’s me, teacher. It was always me, from the very first day we met.”

A lie. That is what she wanted it to be. Twilight’s mind immediately rejected the statement, and tried to find a hole in the claim. She needed something, anything she could use to prove that Crystal Charm was real, that her student had been more than a falsified personality, but she couldn’t find it. There was nothing that Chrysalis would gain from such a lie. The more she considered it, the more it made sense that Crystal Charm had never existed in the first place. The student of Princess Twilight Sparkle would have never had a reason to change the past, but the Queen of the Changelings definitely did.

Twilight’s logical side eventually won out, and the weight of the betrayal came down on her like a ton of bricks, causing her to stumbled as if she had been physically struck. Tears overflowed and soaked the fur under her eyes. A single sob wracked her body as she fought to control her emotions, and she ended up staring down at the floor in front of herself as she clutched at her chest with a foreleg.

“Oh...,” Chrysalis quietly said, raising a hoof to her muzzle as a concerned look washed over her face. “Oh, I think I can feel your little heart breaking all the way over here.”

Twilight’s eyes squeezed closed, causing more tears to pour over. Another sob made it past her, and she opened her eyes, glaring back with a mixture of sadness and anger. Through her gritted teeth, she managed to force out a simple question. “Why?”

“Why?” Chrysalis echoed the simple question, her tone indicating that the answer should be plainly obvious. She furrowed her brow as she approached Twilight, who flinched back a step. “I spend well over a thousand year brooding over my curse and living within the shadows of society before I finally decide to do something about it, and at every turn I have been denied, thanks in no small part to your efforts....” Chrysalis maintained a silent glare, allowing some time for the words to sink in, narrowing her eyes before continuing. “You have the nerve to ask why? Is it not obvious!?”

Twilight looked away, unable to bring herself to look into the angry face that she had known to be her student for so many years. Chrysalis tisked loudly, spinning on her hooves and walking a few steps away. She hung her head low for a moment, before turning sidelong toward Twilight, still harboring the angry glare. “You show absolutely no remorse for exploiting my curse, twisting magical spells against me and my kind. I had to do something or else I was doomed to suffer these injustices from now until eternity!”

Chrysalis closed her eyes and breathed in a calming breath, slowly releasing it as she opened her eyes again. Her scowl slowly melted away, and was replaced by a much more pleasant smile as she began to slowly walk back toward Twilight. “What better way to find a solution than from the mare herself. All I had to do was convince you that I wanted to be your little pet student. And you were so desperate for affection that you fell for it!” Twilight flinched as Chrysalis’s face flashed a moment of anger.

However, Chrysalis recovered quickly, and the gentle smile returned as she delicately raised a hoof, touching it against the side of Twilight’s muzzle, to which she almost immediately pulled herself away from. “I’ll admit, we had some good times,” Chrysalis said calmly, seeming unfazed by Twilight’s reactions. “But my goal was always to learn what I could from you so I could counter your magic. But then... you showed me something so much more valuable than that. To think that you had discovered such powerful magic, and had hidden it away. I seriously doubt that you realize the full potential of what you had.”

“The time spell is dangerous!” Twilight snapped back. “You’re destroying everything!”

Chrysalis raised one eyebrow, making a quarter turn and pausing with one hoof raised. “Not the way I see things,” she said before fully turning away to walk down the crimson carpet a ways. She spun around on her hooves, raising one foreleg high as she declared, “I’m fixing them!” Her hoof dropped limply back to the floor as she stared back at Twilight. She seemed to be confused at how Twilight failed to understand something so simple. “That Equestria,” she began as she gestured one hoof to the side, “the one that we both came from... should have never happened. Something else should have happened, but you never gave it the chance.” Chrysalis walked the distance back down the carpet, stopping just in front of Twilight again. “Have you not ever wanted to go back and change something?” she asked, seeming very seriously curious of the answer.

Twilight shook her head, casting her glance down to the floor. “We’re not supposed to get second chances.”

“You honestly believe that?” Chrysalis questioned as she craned her neck low to try and look Twilight in the eyes. When their eyes meet, she shook her head slightly. “I think you’re lying. Why else would you have put effort into developing a spell to accomplish just that; to give you a second chance.”

“I was wrong,” Twilight declared firmly, raising her gaze up level. “All of this is wrong, and you know it!” she said as she jabbed an accusing hoof toward Chrysalis, causing the guards to firmly hold her back out of reach. “Just think for a moment. You’re changing your own history! What if you came across your past self, what would happen then?”

“Oh, oooh yes that,” Chrysalis said as she sat back on her haunches, suddenly seeming very lost in thought as she pressed a hoof to her muzzle. “Well, that already came to pass, and the issue was... dealt with.” She ended the last two simple words with a small smile.

Twilight felt an unease creep up within herself at the cryptic meaning of the words. She reluctantly asked, “What do you mean?”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes and let go an annoyed sigh. “If you really must know, I decided that there would only need to be one me,” she said with a simple shrug of her shoulders.

Twilight stared back wide eyed. “You’re insane,” she said as her voice quivered slightly.

Chrysalis threw her head back, letting go a loud, unrestrained laugh. Her head rolled back forward, and quickly the laugh ended in a single breath. “What’s insane is that you still don’t comprehend the true power of the magic you created.” Chrysalis raised both of her forehooves to her sides as she glanced upward. “This world is my future now. The future that I was always meant to have!”

“So that’s your answer,” Twilight said, drawing Chrysalis’s attention back to her. “Just eliminate anyone and anything in the way of what you want?” She grew quieter, and then asked, “Is that what you did to me?” Her body visibly shook as as she asked.

Chrysalis stood and took a step closer toward Twilight, once again reaching a hoof delicately up toward her muzzle, to which Twilight quickly recoiled from once again. “How could I ever senselessly bring harm to the one who taught me so much?” Chrysalis asked. She used the same, quiet little closed-mouth giggle that Twilight had always found to be one of the most endearing quirks about her student, and then turned to walk toward one of her guards. “You’ll never know the truth of it, and at this point it no longer even matters,” she said as she used her magic to take up the Element of Magic that the guard presented to her. “You see, you’ve actually saved me a lot of trouble by coming here. You’ve had something in your possession that has been quite elusive in this Equestria. I’ve spent years trying to find a way to bring the focus back into existence, but you have brought it right to me.” She stopped admiring the crown briefly as it hung in her greenish levitation aura, casting a sidelong glance at Twilight. “I really should thank you, since you are making this much simpler. To think I was planning on taking little Luna’s place for a while just to get closer to you.”

The thought of the Queen of Changelings making use of the Element of Magic left Twilight with a sickening feeling, however, she knew they were not simply a tool to be used by anyone in the world. “The Element of Magic will never accept you,” she said with a firm degree of confidence.

Chrysalis let go another amused chuckle. “Shows how little you know,” she said as she dismissed the statement with a wave of her hoof. “But,” she started with a sigh, “I can’t really blame you for that. After all, Celestia failed to tell you how they really work. I’m sure she also never even told you where they came from, did she?” She raised her eyebrows as she looked toward Twilight waiting for an answer to come forth, but when all she got back was a silent stare she smirked, simply saying, “I thought not.”

Chrysalis took another moment to admire the crown she held in her levitation spell, and then looked past it to notice the velvet jacket that one of her guards was holding draped over his foreleg. She let go a thoughtful hum as she smiled. “I just had a marvelous idea,” she said as she began to work her magic to shed the remaining pieces of Moondancer’s Nightguard armor from her body. The metallic pieces each fell to the floor with a loud clunk when she dropped them, and once she had fully removed each piece, she passed the crown back to one of her guards for safe keeping as she approached Twilight. “You’ve succeeded in disrupting my plan to take Luna’s place, which does put me in a bind.” Casting her eyes upward at the giant doorway, she continued. “Once those doors open, a swarm of Nightguard are going to storm through, looking to save their precious Queen of the Night from the evil changelings.” She looked back to Twilight, her smile shifting over to a toothy grin. “I believe this will be so much easier if I just take your place instead.”

Twilight felt a wave of panic wash over her when Chrysalis lit her horn. She felt the two guards stiffen their grip on her shoulders, and could feel the primal fear deep inside her trying to urge her to flee. The only reason why she didn’t struggle was that she knew it was pointless, but it didn’t stop her heart from racing. “I don’t normally use this,” Chrysalis said, stopping very close to Twilight’s face as her horn and eyes cast an eerie green glow over her features. “It does take a great deal of effort, but I think in this case, it will be more than worth it.”

Twilight’s entire body tensed when she felt something foreign inside her being. It was like something was reaching into her, searching her. It was probing her mind, laying it open like a book for all to see. She momentarily tried to fight back against it, to find a way to close her mind to the intruder, but the invasive feeling only intensified causing the panicked feeling deep within her to force itself closer to the surface.

“Resisting just makes it worse, and it does nothing to stop me,” Chrysalis warned, which surprisingly caused her target to relax slightly. She continued the spell, rifling through Twilight’s memories like one might skim through the pages of a book to find the interesting highlights. Once she had gone back far enough to cover the short time span that Twilight had been in this past, she stopped. “So, that’s what you have been up to. Didn’t I tell you that you and the Captain didn’t make a good pairing?” she asked as she allowed the spell to fade.

Twilight was unable to keep her body from shaking from the lingering sensation. The spell had caused no physical harm nor any sensation of pain, but it had left her feeling insecure and violated, and the adrenaline rush caused by her panicking mind had left her with a wave of nausea to deal with.

“And now for the finishing touch,” Chrysalis said as she took a couple full steps back. She conjured her power again, and the floor around her lit with a ring of green fire that rippled up and over her body. When the ring dissipated, standing where the likeness of Crystal Charm had been, was now a complete look alike for Twilight Sparkle.

Chrysalis took a moment to spread her new, violet alicorn wings out and admire them before she turned her attention to a forehoof that she raised in front of herself, turning it over as she gazed at her hoofwork. She seemed pleased with the results, and wordlessly motioned for the two guards that had been keeping Twilight’s belongings to approach her. She donned the velvet jacket, wrapping it around her form and snapping it closed as she ran a hoof over the surface to smooth it. She then took up the Element of Magic, and placed it neatly atop her head, where it slowly faded from view by way of a translucency spell.

Chrysalis glanced to Twilight, letting a sideways smirk turn up the corner of her mouth. When she only saw Twilight just quietly staring back, she asked, “Nothing? No defiant, little remark?” taunting with Twilight’s own voice.

Twilight closed her eyes, keeping her breathing steady. Anger wasn’t going to help her any longer, so instead she relied on her determination. “I promised my friends that I would make things right,” she said as she locked her gaze on the fake Twilight standing before her. “And that is exactly what I will do.”

Chrysalis’s muzzle twisted further into a full smirk, finding the claim to be amusing given the situation. “I’m afraid you’ll be breaking that promise,” she said matter-of-fact like as she approached Twilight. She stopped just slightly out of reach as she let go a playful giggle that mocked Twilight’s own. “But don’t worry, I’ll be sure to let them know for you when I meet them.”

Chrysalis’s expression shifted toward seriousness as she looked between the two guards restraining Twilight. “See to it that she is brought to the hive, and don’t be seen,” she commanded as her horn lit with a green glow. Green flames encircled Twilight and the two guards, and then encapsulated them in a semi-circle dome that began to slowly sink through the floor. Chrysalis took a couple steps forward and looked down through the dome as it melded into the floor, smiling back at Twilight. “I always thought that you would make an interesting little pet,” she said just before the dome and green flames fully vanished beneath the floor of the throne room.

Chrysalis looked around herself, taking full inventory of her surroundings. She now had four of her drones disguised as guards left at her side, and one other drone that lay unconscious near one of the pillars in the room where he had been tossed to earlier. She glanced about the hall, her gaze ending up on the large stained glass windows, focusing on one in particular that appeared to depict various phases of the moon and stars.

Taking a moment to regard the ancient glass mural, she suddenly sent out a mental pulse of energy, slamming the window with a kinetic burst that caused it to shatter into a shower of sparkling pieces. The deafening sound of thousands of glass shards falling into a pile on the floor quickly lessened, leaving only a cloud of dust billowing out from the pile and the sound of a few errant glass pieces falling to the floor as they came loose from the shattered stained glass framing.

“And now, the stage is set,” Chrysalis said as she turned her attention to the grand double doors of the Canterlot throne room, prepared to play her new role.

A Light in the Darkness

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter X – A Light in the Darkness

Twilight had experienced this magic once before, long ago when Chrysalis had first managed to trap her within the Crystal Caverns below Canterlot. However, it appeared that this time would be different, as she had two drones disguised as Nightguard keeping watch over her as they descended through the rock and crystal that made up the core of the mountain. It seemed Chrysalis wasn’t going to take any chances now that she had successfully swept aside any obstacles she might encounter with the Equestrian royalty.

But was this really her final goal, Twilight found herself wondering. If simply conquering Equestria was her real purpose, then what use would the Elements be to her at this point? Nightmare Moon would be the only one left who could possibly oppose her now, and it was obvious that Chrysalis had the upperhoof against her even without the power of the Elements. Chrysalis had claimed that she had been searching for the Element of Magic for some time, well before Nightmare Moon’s return. This meant that there must have been some other purpose to her seeking the Elements’ power.

Twilight’s eyes glanced down when the spell passed through the ceiling of the caverns beneath her. The crystals that lined the cavern walls reflected the green light from the spell, filling the room with a cascading effect of light beams that danced off the walls. The dome shaped spell slowly glided down until it touched the floor of the cavern, and once their hooves touched firm ground, the spell dissipated from around them, leaving Twilight and the two guards standing there with the natural low level glow of the crystals giving them just enough light to see their surroundings.

“This way,” one of the two guards simply said, as he began to walk toward an opening that lead deeper into the caverns. The other standing to her side eyed Twilight expectantly, and began to follow her closely as she followed behind the lead guard.

The echoes within the caverns were very strange. The crystallined walls echoed more than just strange sounds; echoes of light refracted multiple times through the crystal walls to cast odd images as well. Twilight caught a few glimpses of the strange images as she walked along with her keepers to whatever their destination may be. Most of them were obviously just odd angled reflections of herself and the two guards, but she could have sworn she saw other changelings just in her peripheral vision more than once, and unless her ears were playing tricks on her in this place she was also hearing more than just their own hoofsteps.

The cavern opened up to a high ceiling that stretched many stories tall into the core of the mountain. The two guards stopped, and Twilight’s eyes slowly drew upward as she took in the shear size of the crystal formation that dangled from the ceiling in the center of the chasm. Her mouth slowly hung agape as she noticed something else; a staggering number of changelings.

“This is where it leads,” Twilight quietly said to herself, only momentarily drawing the attention of her keepers. She mentally berated herself for not having considered this possibility sooner. She knew the gigantic crystal within the Everfree Hive had likely been used as a focus to perform long distance teleportations, but she had assumed the destination would connect to somewhere outside of Equestria, not the core of Canterlot Mountain. Along many of the outcroppings that surrounded the crystal, Twilight could see a mixture of changeling drones and others that appeared to look like ponies, most of which had the appearance of Nightguard, and many of which were clothed in the uniforms. Twilight hazarded a guess by what she was seeing that a large portion of the Nightguard could already be compromised, causing her to wonder momentarily how they could have possibly managed to infiltrate so quickly. But that was just an assumption, she quickly considered. She remembered that the Everfree Hive had existed for at least ten years now, so it was highly likely that the changelings had already been present here for quite some time, slowly working their way into the ranks of the Equestrian Royal Guard.

One of the changelings approached from above, descending from one of the many outcroppings. Twilight immediately noticed the unique differences in appearance as this one descended to the floor just in front of her. It had an appearance that would be a closer match for Chrysalis than any of the drones, seeming to have features that were more equine than the rest. The black chitin that formed the skin of its body had a greenish metallic shine to it, and it had a long mane and tail of straight hair that was many shades of orange. And its eyes, they were not the same single shade compound eyes that were common among the drones; they were deep emerald green irises surrounding pitch black pupils.

Twilight had seen this very rare phenomenon among changelings only a few times in the quarter millennia that she had known of their existence. It was a feature among those that seemed to hold some sort of leadership within the hive structure, but the reason for the physical differences from the drones had never been discovered. She had often called these particular changelings hybrids, based on the mixture of equine and changeling appearances. As this hybrid changeling neared the floor, it kicked up a small cloud of dust, and the rapid buzzing from its wings ceasing when it touched down. It folded its wings with a quick flitter as it approached, looking to the guard that had lead Twilight to this place.

“The link can not be used,” the Hybrid said in a voice that seemed masculine, yet still had a strange resonance. “There has been recent interference from the other side. It is not stable.”

The lead guard took a single step forward. “We have orders from our Queen—”

The Hybrid silenced the protest by quickly raising one hoof. “I know of the orders. Our Queen has cleared the skies. She is to be flown to the hive,” he said as he pointed his hoof toward Twilight. “You two will return to your posts.” The two guards didn’t argue, giving only a quick nod before they both turned to leave from the same direction they had come from. Twilight watched as they left, turning her attention back when she noticed another buzzing sound approaching. Two undisguised changeling drones swooped in to alight on either side of the Hybrid. “You will go with these two,” the Hybrid stated, his somber gaze fixed squarely on Twilight.

Twilight knew it wasn’t a request she could refute as she watched the two drones approach and stand to either side of her. The Hybrid gave an approving nod before turning aside, walking a few steps and then unfurling his wings to lift himself into the air. Twilight followed him with her eyes, watching him circle around the crystal and eventually seeing him alight on one of the outcroppings before he moved out of view.

Twilight felt a hoof prod her side, and she glanced back down to see one of the drones staring back at her. It jerked its head quickly to the side toward the other drone that had already set off toward another cave, and Twilight found herself once again being led through the Crystal Caverns as they disembarked from the chasm.

Eventually, she was lead to a small opening in the side of the mountain. Not too far to her left she could see part of the waterfall that ran along side the city, and she judged by the remaining distance below that they were somewhere just below Canterlot on the cliff side.

Twilight tensed when she felt her foreleg being grabbed, and looked to her side to see one of the two drones hooking its foreleg under hers. Met with the slight resistance, the drone narrowed its solid blue eyes at her. “If you don’t want to be dropped, you’ll cease your resistance,” it said, hissing as it spoke the s’s within its words.

Twilight didn’t answer directly, but wordlessly allowed the two drones to hoist her up so she had one foreleg draped across each of their shoulders. Crossing a foreleg each under her’s and over her back, the drones readied themselves for flight as they approached the edge of the cliff. They held tight to Twilight’s hooves as their wings began to buzz loudly, and the air around them stirred.

As they lifted off from the side of the cliff into the moonlit night, Twilight glanced back over her shoulder. She could see the lights of Canterlot as they slowly grew distant. She had hoped that they might be seen by a pegasus flying by, or someone from one of the many lit widows that dotted the cliffside, but all she could see was an empty sky above the city.

The flight across the Canterlot countryside had been at a slow pace. At first, Twilight had occupied the time with her thoughts, considering possibilities for escape, no matter how remote the chance might be. However, as the flight had dragged on, she had been unable to ignore the aching coming from her forelegs, which were becoming numb from dangling in the sky for so long.

She considered for a moment how this could be used to her advantage. Obviously, the drones were under orders to keep her unharmed. If she could convince the drones that she might lose her grip, perhaps she could get them to land so she could rest. Once on the ground, she might have a chance with only the two drones to deal with, even if only to run and pray that they would lose her.

“I-I need to rest,” Twilight began, trying to sound extra tired. Neither of the drones gave her a response, and simply continued on their course. “I can’t feel my legs,” she complained again.

“As long as you don’t struggle, you will not fall,” one of the drones simply said.

“But if I do fall....”

“You will not.”

It appeared that the drones’ minds had already been made up. Twilight couldn’t help but let out a disappointed sigh, allowing her head to hang limply as she stared at the ground passing far below them. Perhaps at the hive then, she thought to herself. If luck were on her side, the Nightguard from the nearby camp might spot them, but then there was also the chance that the guards would just be more disguised changelings. She furrowed her brow in annoyance at just how little control she had in this situation. All she could do now it seemed, was just wait for something to happen and pray it was in her favor.

Twilight blinked when she noticed a shadow move along the ground far below her. Her mind tried to calculated the size of the shadow against the tree tops below, realising very quickly that this shadow belonged to something large, many times her own size. She pulled her head back, looking behind herself to the full moon hanging in the sky to search for the shadow’s owner.

She didn’t immediately see it, but she could hear it; a steady woosh reverberating through the air from somewhere nearby about once a second. The drones must have noticed the sound as well, as they also began to look around to try and locate where the strange noise was coming from.

The owner of the shadow made itself known not to long afterward, diving through the air from above. As it sped past the group, one of the two drones screeched as it was struck by the passing creature, knocking its grip loose. Twilight found herself hanging on to the remaining drone by a single foreleg as the other spiralled away in the sky. The remaining drone’s wings buzzed loudly as it tried to stay aloft, and then it suddenly let out a screech of its own, its wide eyes seeming to be full of fear. Twilight followed its gaze, looking over her shoulder just in time to see the large creature having circled back around, coming right at them. She could see the moonlight glinting off its back, showing off its impressive wingspan, but was unable to catch any other discernible features before it closed the distance. As it made its second pass, Twilight felt a jolt when the second drone was swatted away. Her lungs drew in an involuntary gasp, and then let out a cry at the sudden weightless feeling that filled the pit of her stomach as she began to plummet to the ground.

Quickly, Twilight willed herself to resist the natural reaction to panic. She steadied herself upright in the air as best as she could without the aid of her wings, and then began to reach her forehooves up behind her withers in an attempt to loosen the buckle that held the harness tight to her body. Her hooves flicked at the metal buckle, desperately attempting to get some sort of grip on the strap, despite the fact that she knew it would be near impossible. The harness was designed to be physically impossible for a pony to remove on their own without the aid of magic. All she could manage was to barely touch the tip of a hoof to the buckle, which wouldn’t be sufficient to loosen it.

The tension in Twilight’s body went slack as she watched the tree tops quickly coming up below her, realizing that she was truly at the end of her options. She allowed her body to turn over in the air, her back facing the ground as she plummeted toward it. All she could do is stare up at the full moon, realising that her last thoughts were going to be of how horribly she had failed Equestria.

Twilight blinked against the tears welling up in her eyes when she saw the light of the moon blink out for a split second. It repeated, again and again in a steady pattern. She realized that a large wing was blocking the moon’s light as it rapidly flapped at the creature’s side. The thing that had attacked the two drones was now diving straight toward her. She felt panic try to grip her once again as it drew closer to her, seeing a clawed hand larger than her head reaching out from it. The moonlight managed to just barely highlight the violet scales that covered the hand as it struggled to reach her.

Twilight’s eyes widened, and she stretched her forelegs out toward the outstretched claws desperately trying to reach them. The clawed hand made a couple attempts at grasping her, brushing just barely against her hooves before pulling back. The large creature grunted as it trusted its wings through the air, forcing itself to jolt forward into the dive. The clawed hand extended once again, and successfully wrapped around Twilight’s form, pulling her close to the creature’s chest. Its large wings flew open to their full span, and the tree tops came up just underneath them as they managed to pull out of the dive, the leaves rustling at the strong blast of wind that rushed through them.

Twilight huddled herself against the scaled chest of the one that had rescued her. Her unsteady breathing gave way to sobs, causing her entire body to shake. She kept her face buried even as she felt her savior coming down to the ground. Once they had landed, she could feel another clawed hand gently cradle her, hugging her close.

“Twilight, I’m sorry! Are you alright?” a deep voice asked her.

She made an attempt to respond, but only managed a choked sob at first. She knew who her savior was, and knew how unlikely it was that he was there, but all that mattered to her at this moment was that he was. “Spike,” she quietly whispered as she continued to huddle against him.

“I thought you would fly away,” Spike said as he held Twilight close. “I didn’t hurt you did I? Please be okay.”

“No... no you... you didn’t hurt me. I’ll be okay... I-I’m just... I need a minute.” Twilight was finding it difficult to control the shaking in her voice and body. She knew she was safe now, but the terror from having come only seconds from losing her life didn’t want to release her so easily. Twilight pushed herself back slightly, looking up into Spike’s eyes. A part of her wondered if this was some sort of amazing hallucination, but when she saw the warm smile he gave her and felt his touch as he gently ran his clawed fingers over her back, she knew it was really him. “Thank goodness you’re here,” she said, the stress weighing heavy on her voice as she wrapped her forehooves as far as she could around his broad chest.

Spike held Twilight for a long time in the silence of the moonlit field, until he could feel that she had finally calmed down. Eventually, he shifted his hands so he was holding her under her forelegs, and gently eased her down to place her sitting on the ground just in front of himself. It was much easier to see the dragon by the moonlight that reflected off the ground around them than it had been in the blackness of the night sky. He was over three times her height; not the largest dragon by any means, but still a fair size larger than Twilight. His wings had grown in to be somewhat large given his proportions, and even when folded to his back the tips nearly touched the ground while the joint peaked slightly above his head. He leaned forward, resting one of his forearms on the ground to bring his gaze down level with her and gently cupped his other hand over her withers. “How did this happen to you?” he asked, eyeing the many restraints that were bound to Twilight’s body.

“I made a mistake,” Twilight said as she cast her gaze down at the ground in shame. “I got myself caught.”

“But, this is crazy. I was right behind you. How can this happen in just a couple hours?”

Twilight blinked and looked back up into his eyes. “You followed right behind me?”

“Of course I did!” Spike said as he quickly sat back up on his haunches. “I wasn’t about to let you do this by yourself. Luna and Celestia thought you might need the extra help anyways. I guess they were right.”

Twilight sighed. “Spike, I’ve been here for a few weeks.”

Spike cocked his head to the side. His jawline wrinkled as he grimaced at the confusing statement. “That doesn’t make any sense. You just left,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

Twilight shook her head. “The spell is extremely unstable. I came out years after the point in time that I was intended to. And it was a pretty rough landing.”

“Well you can say that again,” Spike said with a huff. “I’m still picking splinters out of my scales from doing a crash down in some trees near here. That wasn’t too long ago through, just a couple hours. I started looking for you right away when I didn’t find you nearby.” Spike reached over to Twilight and began to fiddle with the buckle on the wing harness. “How the heck did changelings get all this stuff?” he said as he worked the buckle loose. Once the tension in the straps were released enough, Twilight pushed them the rest of the way off, stepping out of the harness and chucking it to the ground in a heap at her side.

Twilight let go a long, heavy sigh, sitting back on her haunches again. “So, it ends up that it’s just dumb luck that you happened to be here,” she said, leaning her forehead into one of her hooves. “I’m lucky you came out of the spell when you did. If you had been just a few minutes earlier or later....” Twilight trailed off, a haunted look overtaking her as she stared blankly forward.

“Hey,” Spike said in a near whisper. He leaned forward, gently placing a hand across Twilight’s back. “Lets not think about what didn’t happen, alright? I’m here now, and I’m not letting anything else hurt you.”

Twilight broke away from her stare, her eyes looking up to him. “Spike...,” she began quietly.

“Mhm?” he responded, patiently waiting for her to continue.

Twilight opened her mouth to speak a couple times without success before she finally managed to force the words out. “She was never real.” Spike slowly tilted his head, his brow furrowing slightly as he looked down at her. “Crystal,” Twilight said, her voice shaking as she repeated her statement once again. “She was never real.”

Spike slowly shook his head, unable to comprehend what Twilight was trying to tell him. “What do you mean?”

“She was Chrysalis,” Twilight said. The simple statement caused Spike to flinch in surprise. “She played me for a fool. I bought her act, and I lead her right to the spell. And now...,” she paused for a second, her voice seeming to leave her for a moment. She looked up to Spike, the tears welling up in her eyes glinting from the moonlight. “Now, everything is broken,” she said quietly, clenching her eyes closed.

Spike leaned down, quickly hugging her close to his shoulder. She buried her face against his neck, quiet sobs escaping from her. “Gosh, Twilight,” Spike said as he held her, gently stroking his hand over her mane. He had spent a fair amount of time around Crystal Charm. Finding out that she had been a fake all along was shocking, but he hadn’t been nearly as close to her as Twilight had been. He couldn’t possibly imagine how much pain this must be causing her, on top of everything else that seemed to be going wrong. He struggled for a moment, feeling frustrated that he couldn’t think of any comforting words. “I wish I knew what to say.”

Twilight shook her head. “You don’t have to say anything. Just being here is enough,” she said, nuzzling into the crook of his neck. Spike did just that, silently holding her for as long as she would need it. He hoped that there weren’t any other horrible surprises that she had been put through.

“Spike...,” Twilight’s voice quietly whispered some time later. It sounded like she had finally managed to calm herself once again.

“Yeah?” Spike asked, slowly leaning back to look at her.

Twilight leaned back as well, rubbing the back of her foreleg against her eyes to dry them. “I need my magic back,” she said tiredly.

Spike eyed the glowing metallic ring encircling Twilight’s horn. “Isn’t that a null ring?”

Twilight nodded. “It is. I need you to take it off.”

Spike’s eyebrows quickly rose at the request. “Uh, I really don’t know how to remove those things. Don’t you need key stone or something to take them off?”

“Normally, yes, but I’m sure you can get it off me,” Twilight said. When she looked up to see the unsure look coming back from him, she said, “Just break it, Spike.”

“Whoa, wait,” Spike said as he suddenly sat up straight, defensively waving his hands. “These things aren’t meant to be just broken off. Won’t the enchantment backfire or something?”

“Breaking the ring will cause the anti-magic enchantment to dissipate all at once, causing a short feedback pulse.” When Twilight saw Spike tilt his head and scratch at the side of his head with one of his claws, she let out a silent sigh. “Yes, it will backfire, but I need my magic back. I’m not going to get caught without it again,” she said. She could tell Spike wasn’t liking this idea by the way he gnashed his teeth at the thought. She hooked one of her hooves over his knee, looking up into his eyes as she said, “Please, Spike.”

Spike scrunched up his jaw and let go a grunt. He hated when Twilight did that, making it impossible for him to say ‘no’ when she gave him that look. It wasn’t a helpless look, or a sad one. In fact he really wasn’t sure what it was, other than serious. But he had seen it before when she asked him for help, and she only asked for help when she knew she couldn’t manage on her own. “Well, if you really think you want to do this,” Spike said, relenting to her silent plea. When Twilight nodded, Spike leaned down next to her, saying, “Alright, come here.”

Twilight sat herself before him, and then he squinted his eyes at the small metallic loop glowing at the base of her horn. He began to reach up one of his clawed hands toward the ring, edging very close to it, but pulled his claws back when he couldn’t steady his shaking hand. The thought of doing something harmful to Twilight didn’t settle well with him at all, despite having been asked to do so.

Spike looked down at her when he noticed a touch on his other hand. She gently held a hoof to his hand, and she smiled up to him when she caught his glance. “I trust you,” she said, which seemed to be all that he needed to hear. He nodded once, and returned his attention to the ring. He held on to Twilight’s hoof with one hand as he inched the other close to the metallic ring. Using the sharp tips of his claws, he pinned the ring between two of them. He knew he would have to make this quick. Putting gradual pressure on the ring would probably only crack it, and might cause the enchantment to go unstable without actually removing the ring, which wouldn’t be good at all. It had to break clean through on the first attempt to avoid causing Twilight any more harm than necessary. He drew a breath in and held it as he prepared to snap the ring. Twilight tensed in anticipation, closing her eyes and curling her fetlock against Spike’s hand a bit tighter.

Spike pressed his sharp claws together against the ring, causing it to snap and come flying off Twilight’s horn in two clean pieces that each rung as they sailed away through the air. A surge of magical blue electricity shot between the two halves for only a split second, hitting his hand and causing him to jerk it back quickly while shaking it. Only a minor grunt from the shock escaped him, but it was drowned out by the wail that left Twilight. She buried her face against Spike’s hand, pulling it close to her with her hooves as she moaned at the pain that had shot through her horn and into her skull.

Spike gently placed his free hand across her withers as if she were a frail glass doll that might break at any moment. “I’m sorry... I’m sorry I’m so sorry,” he said, leaning in close to her. He was sure that the shock that had left his scaled fingers feeling numb had done much worse to her.

Twilight seemed to regain her composure rather quickly, the moans quieting and then ceasing altogether. She sniffed once, wiping the fresh trails of tears away from her face with the back of her foreleg. Looking up to Spike, she tried her best to put forward a smile for him, and managed a weary one. “No, i-it’s okay. I’m okay,” she said, though the quivering of her voice didn’t make the statement very convincing.

“Are you sure? You don’t sound okay,” Spike said as he stared back with concern. He couldn’t remember a time when Twilight had looked this ragged, but he did know that she had a tendency to understate her own condition.

“Yeah... I-I’ll be fine,” Twilight said, trying once more to alleviate Spike’s concerns for her.

Spike let go a low ‘hmm’ as he shook his head, a frown pulling at the edges of his mouth. “No, you need to rest. I’m gonna take you somewhere safe.” Spike began to gently reach forward to pick her up, but met a bit of resistance when she stepped back suddenly.

“Wait, Spike... wait,” she said, holding up one hoof. When she saw that he had stopped to listen, she continued. “We need to head to Ponyville.”

“Ponyville? Why there?” he asked, shrugging his shoulders.

“Do you remember the library?” Twilight smiled slightly when she saw him slowly nod. “I sent Luna there. She’s probably going to need our help.”

Spike stared back in surprise for a moment. “You sent Princess Luna to Ponyville?” he asked, just making sure he had heard right. He was a little surprised to hear that Twilight had even revealed herself to the other Princess in this time, thinking for sure that was probably on the short list of things not to do when traveling through history.

“Yes, teleported her all the way from Canterlot with just my magic,” she said, and then added, “through a shield.” When she saw Spike gawking back at her, she let go a light sigh as she cast her gaze down to the ground. “I know, I overdid it.”

“Yeah, I’d say,” Spike said. “Have you ever done a teleport that far before?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, I can honestly say it was the first, and probably last time I ever attempt something like that. I didn’t really think it through, I was in a hurry.” Twilight let go another long sigh, turning her gaze to the side to look off in the general direction of Ponyville. “I just hope she’s okay. Chrysalis had her under some sort of spell right before I sent her away.” Twilight glanced over toward Spike, looking up to him. “She was screaming, Spike. She was in pain. I’d never heard her scream like that before.”

Spike could hear the unease on the edge of Twilight’s voice once again. “Alright, we should go check on her then,” he said, glancing off in the direction that the town lie in. “Sounds like you and Princess Luna have both had a hard time of it. What about Princess Celestia? Is she alright?”

“She isn’t here right now, which is actually probably a good thing, for her sake.” Spike looked back to Twilight with a questioning look. Twilight knew she had a lot to explain to him, she just hoped that what she was about to tell him didn’t change his mind. “Nightmare Moon was never defeated. This is the thousandth year of the Summer Sun Celebration, and the sun hasn’t risen in a month.”

Spike blinked his eyes, slowly opening his mouth to speak. “Wait... so... when you say you sent Luna to Ponyville... you really meant that you sent her.”

Twilight quickly approached him, taking one of his hands in her hooves. “I know what you’re thinking, but she is Luna, and she needs our help now. Things aren’t as simple as her being ‘bad’ and us being ‘good’. If anything, I think I’ve learned that we never really understood much about her at all, and we really need all the help we can get right now.”

“Alright,” Spike said, closing his eyes as he lifted one of his hands to pinch the bridge of his nose. It seemed the more he learned about what was happening, the more it didn’t make any sense. Now two of the ‘bad guys’ were fighting each other, and somehow Twilight was caught in the middle of it. And they were going to side with Nightmare Moon of all ponies? That definitely wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. “Hey,” Spike said when another thought suddenly occurred to him. “Does this mean that the others are here too?”

“They are,” Twilight said with a small nod, smiling back to him.

Finally some good news, he thought to himself. It had been nearly two hundred years since he had seen the other five mares that he had grown up with in Ponyville. “Wow...,” he said in a quiet breath.

“I know,” Twilight said in an equally quiet whisper. “I already feel like I’ve been dragging them into this more than I should, but I think we’ll need their help too.”

Spike let out a low hum in thought. The original Element bearers together again, along with Nightmare Moon, setting off on a quest to defeat the changelings. It sounded crazy, but he knew whatever his Princess had planned would eventually work out. “Well, lets get going,” Spike said as he leaned down, opening his hands toward Twilight.

Twilight eyed the opened hands and then looked up to him, giving him a sideways smirk. “Spike, you don’t have to carry me,” she said, fluttering her wings.

Spike would have none of it. He shook his head before insisting that he be allowed to carry her to Ponyville. “You need to rest as much as you can. After what you just went through, I’m honestly surprised that you aren’t passed out.”

Twilight’s wings drooped at her sides, and she let go a light sigh in defeat. He was right, she was really feeling exhausted right now, and as much as she didn’t like being a burden, it was probably for the best if she allowed herself to rest as much as she possibly could. Folding her wings back to her sides, she stepped up to him, setting back and lifting her forelegs up toward him. He knelt down and gently picked her up, wrapping one of his strong arms around her barrel. He nestled her back securely against his chest, and unfolded his wings, causing a woosh to fill the air around them.

“Spike?” Twilight quietly called to him, turning her gaze to look up over her shoulder to his eyes. When she saw him look back down to her, she smiled and said, “Thanks.”

Spike grinned back down to her. “You bet,” he said as he turned his gaze back up to the star filled sky. His powerful wings forcefully came down as he pushed off from the ground, causing a rushing gust of air to billow through the grass around them. The two of them slowly climbed into the night sky to make their way to Ponyville together.

A Darkness within the Light

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter XI – A Darkness within the Light

Moondancer walked at a steady, brisk pace to her destination, lacking anything resembling a uniform. She only wore a determined look and a large square patch of white bandaging taped to the left side of her head, concealing the welt that she had received earlier.

She had been trying to ignore two headaches as she made her way toward the Canterlot Palace throne room, one from being bucked in the head and the other that was currently chasing her on four legs. This auburn toned unicorn stallion had been following her for quite a distance now, ever since she took it upon her own initiative to excuse herself from the medical infirmary shortly after she regained consciousness there and could see straight enough to walk. She had gotten confusing reports about other ponies seeing her near the throne room that clashed with the fact that she had been brought to the infirmary upon being found passed out near Chrysalis’s empty prison cell. Obviously, she wasn’t in the throne room, so she intended to find out exactly who was, and already had a good idea of who it would be.

Despite Moondancer’s quick stride, the stallion had managed to keep up with her and had continued to insist that she return to the infirmary. Moondancer found herself wondering how he had managed not to tangle his hooves in his white doctor lab coat as he cantered along side her.

“Captain Moondancer!” he shouted when he finally grew impatient enough from being completely ignored. She stopped and shot an angry glare in his direction, which caused him to flinch back a step. An uneasy silence lingered for a few seconds before he cleared his throat. “I did not give you permission to leave the infirmary.”

“I heard you the first dozen times. I have a job to do, Doctor Heart,” Moondancer said flatly before sidestepping him. Moondancer knew that the palace’s head physician, Noble Heart, was only doing his job as well, but at this moment she considered hers to take priority over his.

“As do I!” he said in protest as he once again trotted along side her. “Head injuries are nothing to simply shrug off. I don’t think you realize just how serious—”

“Doctor!” Moondancer snapped as she came to a sudden halt, drilling him with her gaze. “‘Serious’ doesn’t begin to explain the situation we are in at this moment.” She momentarily squinted her eyes closed, raising a hoof to the side of her head when it throbbed in protest at her raising temper. Letting go a hiss of air through her teeth, she slowly opened her blinking eyes when the pain receded a bit, noticing the disapproving scowl on the Doctor’s face. “Look,” Moondancer started in a much shallower tone, “just let me appraise the situation at least. I promise I won't go starting a hooffight with some changeling or anything like that. I just want to make sure things are being handled and clear up the confusion.”

Doctor Heart slowly closed his eyes as he shook his head, letting go a long sigh. “Fine,” he said as he looked back to her. “But, once you’re satisfied, I want to see you back in the infirmary. Doctor’s orders,” he said as he pointed an accusing hoof at her.

“Yes sir,” Moondancer begrudgingly said as she gave him a slightly exaggerated mocking salute before carrying on her way.

Moondancer didn’t have much further to go, and soon found herself coming up on her destination, noticing a group of Nightguard standing just outside the doors of the throne room. Gale noticed her approach first, and when she recognized the captain’s natural appearance out of her uniform, she quickly trotted up. “Captain!?” she asked, sounding both surprised and a bit confused. She had expected that the Moondancer that had locked herself in the throne room wasn’t the real one, but she had obviously not expected to see the sorry state that Moondancer was in. “What happened?” she asked, eyeing the bandage taped to the side of her head.

“Got bucked in the face and robbed,” Moondancer said flatly as she continued on her path to the door. “Tell me what’s going on here.”

Gale quickly fell in beside her superior officer, walking with her back to the double doors. “Well, somepony who looks like you came to the throne room and reported Chrysalis’s escape, but obviously it wasn’t you.”

Moondancer stopped when she reached the doors, glancing up at them with a hard look for a few seconds before looking back to her Sergeant. “Why is this door closed?”

“Right after her Majesty gave the order to search the palace, somepony sealed it from the other side. The other you and some guards were still in the room when it closed.”

Moondancer looked up to the door once again, looking it over as if searching for something. “Is there a reason why aren’t we tearing this thing off its hinges?”

“It’s shielded. The entire room is. Twilight Sparkle is inside right now, trying to undo the shield from the other side. She was able to get around it somehow, and told us to wait for her.”

Moondancer remembered all too well about Twilight’s ability to teleport past shielding and warding spells, so that little piece of information alone told her that the Twilight they had seen was likely the real one, which brought some relief to her mind. “How long ago?” she asked.

“Ten... maybe close to fifteen minutes now.”

Fifteen minutes. The words echoed in Moondancer’s mind as she considered the number. She had felt the power that radiated from Twilight once before, literally felt it, and that was when she had merely let her temper slip. If she were serious, there was no way anything should have been able to survive against her for fifteen full minutes, unless something was very wrong. “No, that’s far too long,” Moondancer said. “I want as many unicorns as we can get at this door now. I don’t care if we’re supposed to wait, we’re bringing this thing down.”

“Quite a few of our casters are away,” Gale noted.

“I know that, Sergeant. That doesn’t change my orders.”

Gale nodded with a quick salute, and spread her wings as she crouched to the floor. However, just before she took off, she stopped in place when the sound of the double doors clicking and then slowly creaking open filled the halls. The sound’s pitch lowered as the doors slowly swung open until they finally came to a stop. The few Nightguard that had been waiting stared into the throne room with a varying degree of shocked and surprised looks.

Twilight Sparkle stood just on the other side of the door. Far behind her in the hall, a group of Nightguard were placing some restraints on an unconscious changeling, and even further toward the back of the hall a beam of moonlight spilled in through a shattered window, glinting off of the pile of glass shards that littered the floor below. And nowhere was their Queen nor Chrysalis to be seen.

Moondancer quickly approached Twilight, frantically looking about the room. “Where are they?” she asked as her eyes ended up looking to Twilight.

“Outside now, through that window,” Twilight said as she turned to point back toward the shattered window frame. “I didn’t see which way they went.”

Moondancer’s gaze followed Twilight’s hoof toward the shattered window. She cantered down the red carpet, stopping once she had made it to the center of the throne room. From her vantage point, the only thing she could see outside the window was a small patch of the star filled sky. “Gale, I need the skies searched,” Moondancer started as she turned and began to canter back to the room’s entrance.

“Wait!” Twilight’s voice rung out through the room, drawing the attention of every guard toward her. “There were some changelings mixed in among the guards,” she explained as she pointed at the unconscious drone that was being secured nearby. “We have no idea who we can trust and who we can’t right now. Sending the Nightguard out without making sure who is who could cause mass confusion, which is exactly what they would want.”

The four Nightguard that had been within the room with Twilight hoisted the bound drone up, and tossed its limp form over the back of one. Everypony else watched as the four left the throne room, taking the prisoner with them. Moondancer let go a heavy sigh, touching a hoof to her injury. The annoying situation was causing it to throb again. “So, what do you recommend?” she asked, looking back to Twilight.

“The entire Nightguard force needs to be checked. There’s no other way to be sure.”

As much as she hated to admit it, Moondancer knew that Twilight was right. Sending Nightguard to aid the Queen was a gamble that could cost her life if they turned out to be changelings. “Gale,” Moondancer said tiredly, causing the Sergeant to cantered up next to her. “Get the word out. All available Nightguard are to drop what they are doing and report to the barracks immediately. No exceptions.”

“Yes ma’am,” Gale said with a salute, and then spun around on her hooves. She quickly made her way out of the throne room, raising her voice to the rest of the Nightguard standing nearby. “You heard the Captain, spread the word!” she commanded, setting the other Nightguard into action.

Moondancer remained behind in the throne room, alone with Twilight. She felt that she should be out there with the rest of the Nightguard, but the pounding headache was reminding her that she had promised to return to the infirmary once she had gotten the situation under control. “I’m trusting your judgment call on this,” Moondancer said, looking to her side. “We can’t charge in blindly with enemies right under our hooves, but every second we delay the search for our Queen is another second she’s in very real danger.” Moondancer grunted, touching her hoof to her bandages by reflex.

Twilight looked back, her eyes tracing over the bandages. “Are you alright?” she asked.

“For somepony that got bucked in the head, yeah I’m just fine,” Moondancer said with a heavy layer of sarcasm. “I really don’t have time to be injured. Somepony needs to be taking care of this so our guards can get out there and start the search asap.” Moondancer glanced about the throne room, noticing her armor setting on the floor nearby. She considered putting it on for a moment, but the throbbing in her head was giving her second thoughts.

Twilight stepped up to Moondancer’s side, gently hooking one of her hooves just on her shoulder. “Why don’t you head to the infirmary and let me handle organizing things at the barracks,” she offered.

“That’s... a good idea. I’ll take you up on it,” Moondancer said through a sigh. Standing had proven to take a bit more out of her than she thought it would, and the injury was making itself well known with the headache that steadily pulsed in her skull. She knew she wouldn’t be any use if she forced herself to pass out. “I want to know right away if the situation changes any at all,” she said as she began to make her way to the throne room doors.

“Of course,” Twilight replied back. She walked out of the throne room herself slightly behind Moondancer, watching her as she walked down the hall. A small smile graced the enchantress’s muzzle as she watched Moondancer leave before she turned to walk in the opposite direction.

Chrysalis had kept the word that she had given to the Nightguard Captain, and had taken to organizing the scanning of the Nightguard at the barracks. Not only did she need to keep up the facade that she had going for a while longer, but drawing the entire Nightguard force back was necessary. She needed only a few well timed minutes of clear skies to make sure her drones that were now carrying the true Twilight Sparkle away would not be seen.

There were dozens of Nightguard to be checked, and the unicorns that knew the detection spell well enough to use it were directed to check each Nightguard individually, using low levels of the spell as to not exhaust themselves too quickly. Unicorns were assigned to rotations so they would be able to rest after having cleared as many guards as they were able.

Chrysalis wasn’t about to allow any of her drones to be found among the guards. Those who had been part of her swarm had already received orders to pull back when the order to gather at the barracks had been sent out, and were now waiting within the caves beneath the city. She knew that the lack of turnout at the barracks wouldn’t go unnoticed, but by the time the rest of the Nightguard figured out what was really happening, they would already be too late to put a stop to it. All she needed to do now was misdirect them just long enough to buy the time that she needed.

Only six of the Nightguard present in the barracks were actually hers. They were necessary for the next step of her plan, and now she needed to get them cleared without anypony noticing what they really were, which would be easy enough for her to accomplish. All she needed to do was choose the right unicorn for the job. She considered her possibilities as she looked to each unicorn, watching them closely as they used the spell. She took notice of one young stallion whose armor markings indicated his ranking as a cadet. When she noticed him having difficulty, her mouth twitched in a slight smile for a short second before she approached.

After straining to charge the spell, the cadet managed to release a small white pulse from his horn. The pulse washed over the guard in front of him in a small wave of white light, to no effect. “You’re clear,” he said in a tired voice, motioning for the guard to stand off to the side. He took a moment to close his eyes and catch his breath, opening them slightly as he looked down at the floor. Noticing the pair of violet hooves standing in front of him, he furrowed his brow before looking up to the next pony in line. He froze when he came eye to eye with the Queen’s enchantress staring back at him.

“Having problems?” Chrysalis asked.

The cadet stared back dumbly for a few seconds longer before finally shaking his head. “Oh, um. No ma’am, I-I mean, Enchantress. I’m fine,” he said. “Wow, I didn’t expect you to actually come talk to me personally. I’ve heard a lot about you. You’re the one who rescued the Nightguard from the Everfree Hive, right?”

Admiration, Chrysalis found herself thinking. A powerful emotion closely related to love that she could potentially draw power from, and it practically radiated from this stallion. She felt the urge to just bask within the energy he gave off, but quickly put her cravings aside. She had an important task to perform, and the timing would be equally important. She reached out a hoof, placing it upon the cadet’s shoulder to pull him aside. “Come here, I think you should rest for a minute,” she said as she led him over to the side of the room, away from any prying eyes.

“Oh! But, I’ve only cleared two so far,” the cadet said, seeming a bit ashamed. “I-I’m sure I can do more. I just need to get used to the spell. I’ve actually been trying to practice it, but I learned it secondhoof from one of the other unicorns that you taught it to. Here, maybe you can tell me what I’m doing wrong.”

Before Chrysalis could protest, the cadet managed to cast another quick burst of light from his horn. She raised her hoof, guarding her face from the power that crackled over her foreleg. She sucked in a sudden hiss of air at the stinging electricity that skittered over her foreleg as the spell reacted to her hidden form. The irritating sting of the spell was something she was familiar with, and even though she had been caught unaware by the sudden casting, it wouldn’t leave her with anything more than a numb feeling where it touched her. The real concern was that the cadet had just seen the spell’s reaction.

The cadet’s eyes went wide when he saw the telltale signs that the spell had just detected a changeling. His mouth opened to call out to the rest of the guards to warn them, but no sound ever came out. Instead, he only stared back quietly at the enchantress with his mouth agape as the white’s of his eyes began to glow a dim green color.

Chrysalis’s horn was also glowing a very dim green as she focused her stare deep into the cadet’s eyes. “Is there a problem?” she asked quietly, raising her brow slightly.

The cadet seemed to struggle for a moment, his body shaking and his mouth moving, but only a few quiet strangled sounds ever made it past his lips. Eventually, he seemed to give in to the strange power causing the tension in his body to slowly fade away. “I-I... no, there’s... no problem at all,” he said as he seemed to stare off into a blank space in front of himself.

“And what about these guards?” Chrysalis asked. Her six guards approached just behind her, and the cadet’s eyes wandered over to look at them. “Are they clear for duty?”

The cadet slowly nodded. “O-Of course.”

Chrysalis smiled slowly, and allowed her spell to fade out. As it did, the cadet’s eyelids fluttered, and he shook his head as he came out from under the spell’s effects. He looked up to the enchantress when she placed a hoof on his shoulder again, seeing her gentle smile. “You’re doing a good job, and you’ll get better with the spell in time. Just don’t over do it,” she said as a friendly warning.

The cadet puffed his chest up a bit at the praise, and couldn’t help but smile himself. “Thank you, Enchantress. That means a lot to me.”

Moondancer had found her way back to the infirmary, and had eventually found herself resting on a rather uncomfortable examination table in a quiet little room. Doctor Heart had decided he would rather be cautious, insisting that she rest for now where she could be watched. Between the thoughts of just how uncomfortable the thin padding of the table was, she had also been thinking about how the situation had unfolded, and the more she went over it in her mind the more she began to notice that something didn’t seem to add up. As usual for her, it had started as an uneasy feeling that she couldn’t quite pin a detail to, but she knew something was wrong and her mind wanted to solve it.

When Sergeant Gale decided to report to the infirmary looking for her, Moondancer had used it as her chance to get herself excused from the infirmary again. Reluctantly, Doctor Heart had agreed to it, but only so long as Gale remained with Moondancer and returned her immediately if she showed any sudden signs that her injury was causing her pain.

“Thanks for coming to my rescue,” Moondancer said as the two of them left the infirmary, walking into the empty halls of the Canterlot Palace. It was odd to see them deserted, but was necessary given the situation. The palace personnel had been ordered to their own quarters until further notice, and all guests were now being kept in safe areas until the crisis was properly handled.

“That isn’t exactly why I came, Captain,” Gale said. “The Nightguard that have been cleared have returned to searching the palace grounds, but we have another problem.”

Moondancer let go a disgusted groan, stopping in her tracks. She brought a hoof up to rub at the bridge of her nose, already feeling the headache returning, but tried to ignore it as she slid her hoof down her muzzle and let it fall to the floor with a loud clack. “What now?” she asked.

“We’re short on guards, by a considerable amount.”

Moondancer shook her head. “I already knew that. The guards we sent to the Everfree will be returning in less than a day. Nothing we can do about it.” Moondancer began walking down the hall again as she added, “That isn’t a problem as much as it’s just bad timing.”

“That’s not what I mean, Captain,” Gale said as she quickly cantered up beside Moondancer, causing her to stop suddenly. “A third of our remaining force just vanished when the call was made to report to the barracks.”

Moondancer stared blankly at her sergeant. “A third...,” she nearly whispered in response. She hoped she had just misheard.

“Yes. And there’s been no sign of a single changeling or our Queen anywhere within the palace so far. The only one we’ve been able to confirm was the one that we captured in the throne room, but it’s missing now and I can’t track down the guards that took it away.”

Moondancer felt a chill overtake her entire body. The implications of what she was being told were devastating. The Nightguard had been compromised, and no one had even noticed. She thought back once again to the throne room, and what she had noticed there. Suddenly, the details that she had been pondering over earlier didn’t seem so strange. “Gale... tell me something,” Moondancer started calmly as she stared down at the floor. “Did anything seem out of place about the throne room?”

“Frankly speaking, Captain, nothing is making a damn bit of sense right now. We had pegasi in the sky, at least one of them should have noticed if her Majesty suddenly came crashing through the throne room window, but nopony reported seeing anything at all.”

Moondancer slowly nodded, looking up toward Gale. “They were in there for a while, and I can’t imagine they were having a chat over tea. But, one broken window is all there is to show for it.” Moondancer looked off down the distance of the empty hallway before them, her mind pondering over another detail she hadn’t really noticed until just now. “And somehow, Chrysalis found enough time to take off my gear and stack it in a nice neat pile on the floor in the middle of a fight before she went flying out the window? I’m not sure I believe that.”

“So, what are you thinking?”

Moondancer looked back to her sergeant. “I’m thinking that we need to find the one pony who knows exactly what happened in that throne room.”

“They left together?” Moondancer asked a young cadet. She and Gale had found their way to the barracks, hoping to quickly track down Twilight to get some answers. However, all they had found were a few of the unicorn guards that were still recovering from having performed the scans.

“Yes ma’am!” the cadet answered back, holding a stiff salute far longer than necessary. He hadn’t recognized his superior officer right away without her uniform, and the young stallion seemed a bit on edge after having been caught off guard.

Moondancer arched an eyebrow at the cadet. “I did say at ease, so... relax.” The cadet reluctantly lowered his hoof, but still stood rigidly at attention in front of Moondancer. She rolled her eyes and let go a sigh. “Do I have to make it an order?”

“No ma’am!” the cadet said, his hoof flinching a bit as he almost did another salute, but caught himself.

Moondancer ground her teeth a bit as her eyes rolled around again. “Just... start over from the beginning, okay? You saw the enchantress here and she approached you. Then what?”

“Yes, well, I was having some problems with the spell. I think she noticed, so she pulled me to the side to help me with it.”

“Pulled you to the side?”

“It was only for a minute. I showed her the spell so she could see how I was casting it, and... then she....” The cadet just trailed off to silence. He frowned as he stared forward at nothing, as if he was mentally searching for something but simply couldn’t find it.

“She... what?” Moondancer asked, verbally prodding the cadet.

“Oh, um.” The cadet seemed a bit embarrassed at his slip, and quickly tried to come up with some sort of answer. “I’m sure she showed me the proper way to cast it.”

“You’re sure she showed you?” That’s an odd way to put it, Moondancer thought.

“Yes. Um, it’s a little hazy. I think I’m just a little tired.” The cadet’s mannerisms seemed to be even more nervous than they had been just a minute earlier. Moondancer picked up on one of his back hooves tapping quickly against the floor, and she caught his gaze quickly darting about.

“Uh huh,” Moondancer said. “And the guards that were with her?”

“I cleared them,” the cadet said rather confidently.

Moondancer tilted her head slightly. “All of them?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“...All at once?”

“Uh... well no,” the cadet said, slightly taken aback. “I don’t think so.” He furrowed his brow as the frown returned to his muzzle. Once again he seemed to be struggling with something. “I-I did clear them, Captain. I swear.”

“I never said you didn’t, I’m just making sure I know all the details. Is there anything else?”

The cadet seemed to relax slightly, and then began to nod. “Uh yes, actually. She mentioned that if anypony came looking for her that she would be headed to the train station. After that, she left with the guards.”

“I see.” Moondancer silently considered the details for a short moment, before looking back up to the cadet. She approached him, and reached out a hoof to his shoulder to give him a pat. “Get some more rest. And thank you.”

“Yes ma’am!” the cadet responded, giving her a quick salute.

Gale and Moondancer left the barracks soon afterwards, walking back out onto the palace grounds. Moondancer stopped when she noticed that Gale had stopped following her a few steps back. “What was that?” Gale asked.

Moondancer let go a heavy sigh, and then glanced up toward the star filled sky. “Yeah... what was that. I don’t think he was trying to lie, but you could tell he didn’t even trust his own words.”

“I’m guessing you didn’t assign any guards to Enchantress Twilight.”

Moondancer nodded, looking back to Gale. “You’re guessing right, and I never asked her to go to the train station either. I asked her to organize things here at the barracks, that’s it. As far as I know, she had no reason to leave the palace.”

Gale started back toward Moondancer for a moment in silence, and then just shook her head. “What’s going on here?”

“I can’t say for sure yet, but I’m not liking the idea that I’m getting,” Moondancer said. She had a lot of loose pieces before her now that didn’t quite fit together, with Twilight’s behavior standing out as the strangest thing among them. “There’s something I need to go take look at in the throne room. Gale, I need you to do something else for me in the meantime.”

“Anything, Captain.”

“You have a signal flare on you?” Moondancer nodded approvingly when she saw her sergeant lift her wing and touch a hoof to the pouch attached to the side of her armor. “Good. I want you to find Twilight and those guards and tail them. Don’t approach, just watch.”

There was only a slight second of hesitation before Gale nodded in response. “Understood.”

“If you see anything that indicates they might not be who they appear to be, you use that flare. Got it? And keep this to yourself for now. I don’t want to broadcast to the rest of the guard that we’re watching her. That would probably just tip her off somehow.”

Gale knew that there was only one reason why she would be asked to follow Twilight. “Captain, do you really think she’s one of those things?”

That was exactly the idea that Moondancer was getting. She simply didn’t know how to prove it yet, nor could she explain where their Queen or the real Twilight could have possibly gone, but if a third of the Nightguard could just vanish into thin air, making two more ponies disappear wouldn’t be too much more of a stretch. “We don’t know for sure who or what came out of that throne room yet,” she said as she took off toward the palace.

Gale had taken up a position on a rooftop a safe distance away from the train station. She peered out over the edge of the roof, her forehooves hooked over the peak as she laid there. She had kept her sight focused on Twilight Sparkle, who was standing among a multitude of other ponies as they waited for the next scheduled train. Her other targets, the six guards that she had been told were with Twilight, had been nowhere to be seen. She wondered if there was any significance to that, or if the cadet could have simply been mistaken. Either way, she had decided to keep her sights on Twilight for now and not rush to any hasty conclusions.

Taken by itself, seeing somepony waiting on the train to arrive wouldn’t be odd. However, if Twilight were traveling somewhere, there were chariots that she had access to, so there was no need for her to be waiting to board a train. If she were waiting on someone to arrive, that also wouldn’t seem odd except for the timing. They were in the middle of a crisis, and being who she was, the Queen’s enchantress should have been focusing on the search for the Queen as her number one priority.

Gale’s attention snapped to her side quickly when she heard something land on the shingles near her. She had been so completely focused on watching Twilight that she hadn’t noticed another pegasus approaching. He was a fellow guard, a private based on his armor markings. “Get down,” she quietly hissed, causing him to duck down low to the rooftop. He pushed himself along the roof top in a belly crawl, working his way over until he was beside Gale looking over the roof’s peak as well.

Gale had already returned her attention back to the station down below, keen to keep her focus on her mission. Twilight still hadn’t moved from her spot. The private glanced down to the station as well before leaning in close to Gale.

“Sarge,” the private said. “I was sent with an urgent message from the Captain.”

Gale grimaced. There was no possible way anything urgent could be good. “What is it?” she said, keeping her eyes focused down below.

“Captain wants you back at the palace asap. Said it’s important.”

Gale broke her gaze from watching her target for only a second to shoot a confused look at the private. “She wants me back there now? What’s it about?”

“Didn’t say, other than it as for your ears only.”

Gale glanced back down below. She wasn’t sure what her captain would have to say that would be for her ears only, unless she had been worried about information getting into the wrong hooves. “I’m kind of in the middle of something else right now that I probably shouldn’t just abandon,” she said, still undecided on which of the conflicting orders she should ignore.

The private’s eyes darted down to the station below, then back toward Gale. “I’m supposed to relieve you so you can head back. I’ll keep an eye on things here.”

That would decide it. “Alright, you know what to do here then?” Gale asked as she looked to her side.

“Yes ma’am, I’ll take it from here,” the private said, responding with a quick salute before looking down to the station below.

Gale hesitated for only a second before pushing herself back away from the roof peak. She slid down the shingles until her hooves left the roof, and then opened her wings to catch herself. She stayed low, flying just above the street between the buildings for a ways before pulling up into the night sky to mask her exit.

The private had watched her leave, and once he saw that she was far enough away, he glanced back over the peak down to the station below. His eyes came in contact with the enchantress, who was staring right back up to him.

She smiled, and slowly gave him a single nod to silently thank him. The private nodded back to her, and then slipped out of view.

Dreams of the Past

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter XII – Dreams of the Past

Spike was literally scratching his head, raking one of his claws over the side of his scaly face as he glided through the air toward Ponyville. He was trying to make sense of the complicated situation that his Princess had just told him about. Nightmare Moon ruling Equestria, a changeling hive in the Everfree Forest, and to top it all off, Twilight’s own student turned out to be Chrysalis. And now, both he and Twilight were in flight toward Ponyville to team up with the infamous Queen of the Night in an attempt to fight back against the changeling swarm. From his own relative perspective, it was quite a shocking change from the rather normal old boring day that he had woken up to earlier that morning.

While Spike was pondering over the seemingly crazy string of events that had occurred, he still held Twilight tucked securely against his chest with his other arm. She had grown quiet after telling Spike of the last few weeks worth of her experiences, and had turned her attention toward studying the underlying enchantments of the band fastened around one of her forelegs. Being able to freely use her unicorn magic once again, she was able to scan the enchantments to study their individual components. She had learned long ago that enchantments were like magical mechanisms, made up of smaller base spells that acted like parts that could be assembled into a more complex spell. The fetlock bands had a strong anti-magical component that would nullify most of her innate earth pony magic, which in turn would diminish her overall power. They also had a component that was much like a lock that secured the bands around her fetlocks and prevented them from being removed. It was this particular part of the enchantment that she had taken interest in, and by using a small amount of her unicorn powers she had been poking and prodding at the enchantment to discover exactly how it worked. It was akin to what a locksmith might do with a set of specialized tools to jostle the tumblers in a lock until they lined up just right.

Finally, the fetlock band released its hold with a click, and Twilight let go a relieved sigh as she flicked her foreleg, sending the loose band flying off and to the ground below. She didn’t waste any time turning her attention to the band on her other foreleg.

“Hey,” Spike said when he noticed Twilight’s actions. “Aren’t you supposed to be resting?”

“I can do this much,” Twilight said as she squinted at the band. “It doesn’t take a lot of effort, and I really need to get these things off before we come across any more changelings.” The second band came loose much quicker than the first, and Twilight flicked the band away. She reached one of her back legs up, holding it steady with her forelegs as she went to work on one of the two remaining bands.

Spike’s chest heaved at a slight sigh. “So, I was thinking.”

“That can be dangerous,” Twilight said with a slight grin, still keeping her focus on releasing the restraint.

Spike snorted at her comment. “Hah... anyway. I’m sure nopony in Ponyville is going to expect a dragon carrying a princess from the future to land in town.”

The third band clicked, and came loose. Twilight kicked it away, sending it sailing toward the ground before she stretched her other leg upward to turn her attention to the final one. “You’re probably right,” she said as she focused her gaze on the last band.

Spike silently glided for a moment, glancing down to Twilight when he didn’t get anything further from her. “So... what should I do about it?”

“Don’t be seen?” Twilight offered. Spike could feel her give a slight shrug, and then noticed the small vibration when she didn’t quite manage to mask her silent snickering. He let out an annoyed grunt as he rolled his eyes. “I’m just joking with you, Spike. Hm, let me think about it for a second.” The final band clicked, and with a swift motion Twilight kicked it free from her leg, sending it on its way to the ground below. She let out a light, relieved sigh and tapped one of her forehooves to her chin as she gave Spike’s plight a moment of thought. “Well, the library does have a balcony, right off the loft. Think you can land up there?”

Spike’s chest rumbled with a low hum. “That’s worth a shot, I guess. I just hope I don’t break a chunk off the library, that wouldn’t be very stealthy.”

“No, that wouldn’t be, so try not to do that.” Twilight knew that asking Spike to sneak his way into town was easier said than done, but there really wasn’t any other way they could approach this situation if they wanted to get to the library as soon as possible. Under the cover of darkness, it was likely that anyone who might happen to notice them in the sky wouldn’t be able to make out much more than a shadow. Hopefully, no one would be around to see the shadow land on top of the library.

They needed to get to the library as soon as she possibly could. There was no telling what state Nightmare Moon would be in when they got there, or if she would still be there, but the sooner they reached the library, the better their chances would be of locating her before anything unfortunate happened. Twilight only hoped that once they did find Nightmare Moon that she could be reasoned with, since the only option left was to reveal the whole truth to her.

Twilight glanced to the ground when she noticed a few small lights below. Her mind had been wandering, and only now did she realize that they had arrived at their destination. Ponyville was mostly dark, only speckled with a few lit street lamps and windows, which Twilight gave a silent thanks for. Eternal night made it difficult to tell at a glance exactly what the hour might be, but it had already been nearing the nighttime hours a few hours ago when Twilight had last checked while she had been in her tower within Canterlot. Most ponies would likely be asleep by now if they were still sticking to traditional sleeping hours. This seemed to be the case, since most of the homes had their lights out.

Spike began to descend toward a large treetop that rose above most of the thatched roof houses around it. The full moon’s light reflected from the leaves causing them to appear deep green, and the various balconies jutting out from the branches could barely be made out as Twilight squinted her eyes at the Golden Oak Library. “That one, right there,” Twilight said as she pointed her hoof to the balcony that connected with the lower level of the library’s loft. Spike gave a quick nod, angling his descent toward the balcony. As he came in closer to the landing, he stretched his legs out and flapped his wings vigorously as he tried to ease his descent as much as possible. The branches near the loft wiped around and the leaves rustled at the rushing wind that swept over them, and Spike finally touched down when he could no longer hold at a hover just above the balcony.

The supporting branches complained at the sudden addition of a dragon’s weight, letting go creaking noises and even one cracking sound that caused Spike to grit his teeth together nervously. “Yeesh,” he said as he held out his free hand, ready to grasp at anything nearby should the balcony decide to give way. The two stood still there in the silent darkness for a short time, until it seemed likely that branch was going to hold.

“Well, that was exciting,” Twilight said as she looked up over her shoulder to Spike. He slowly lowered himself, attempting to avoid any sudden movements. He lowered Twilight to the balcony as well, and once her hooves touched the wooden flooring she turned her attention to the glass pane door that led into the loft. Her horn lit for only a second as she reached out with a telekinetic spell to lift the latch that was on the other side, allowing the door to freely swing open toward her.

Twilight walked into the loft just to the other side of the doorway and immediately stopped. Laying there sprawled out on the floor was the dark figure of Nightmare Moon. Her onyx crown had fallen from her head and rolled a short distance away, and her gilded onyx slippers had come loose from her hooves and lay scattered on the floor about her. Her billowing, deep purple mane and tail seemed to spill out like a shimmering puddle onto the floor around her as she lifelessly laid there. Once she got over the initial shock, Twilight quickly trotted over to Nightmare Moon’s side where she gently laid her hoof. She felt slightly relieved when she felt a gentle rise and fall under her hoof, finding that Nightmare Moon was only unconscious.

“Wow, it really is her,” Spike said quietly from the doorway. He had leaned down to peek his head inside, but the frame of the door was much too small for any more than his upper body to fit through.

“Yeah. Something’s not right,” Twilight said as she gently shook Nightmare Moon with her hoof. She didn’t stir, even when Twilight shook her a second time more vigorously. “She isn’t waking up.”

“Is she hurt?”

“No, at least it doesn’t look like she is,” Twilight said as she looked Nightmare Moon over for any injuries she might have missed. She was gently tilting the Queen’s head to search for any head trauma when she noticed something. Her jawline was twitching ever so slightly, and underneath her closed eyelids, her eyes were darting back and forth rapidly. “Wait, she’s dreaming.”

“I didn’t know long distance teleports caused sudden naps,” Spike said, a grin turning up the corner of his mouth. He reached back to scratch at the scales behind his ears when Twilight shot him a look. “Heh, sorry.”

“This could be serious, Spike,” Twilight said as she looked back down. “If Chrysalis did something to her that is keeping her from waking up, then I need to figure out how to help her.” Twilight closed her eyes, sitting back on her haunches as she rubbed the back of a forehoof under her chin. She let out a quiet hum in thought, and then after a short moment slowly opened her eyes again. “There is something I could try, but it’s been a while.”

“Anything you need me to do?” Spike asked, even though he knew his ability to directly help would be limited by the tiny doorway.

Twilight glanced back over to Spike. “Well, if you wouldn’t mind, make sure I’m not interrupted. I’ll need to keep my focus if I’m going to go on a dream walk.”

Spike had heard of the magic that Twilight spoke of; an ability that she had learned from Luna herself. Luna’s ability to visit another pony’s dreams was a rather unique one, and as far as anyone knew, Twilight was the only other soul to have ever learned the spell out of the four known alicorns who could even attempt it. “Uh, well. I can hang out here until you get back and make sure nopony bothers you,” Spike offered as he made himself comfortable on the balcony.

“Thanks, Spike.” With that decided, Twilight turned her attention back to Nightmare Moon. It had been decades since the last time she had used the dream walking spell that Luna had taught her. Luckily, the spell wasn’t a complicated one, and simply required her to maintain focus over a semi-lucid dream state while tapping into her alicorn power.

Twilight slowed her breathing first, drawing in deep breaths and letting them out slowly as she closed her eyes. She laid herself down next to Nightmare Moon, folding her forelegs under her chin as she rested on them. Her features relaxed as she drifted off, and just as she seemed to fully pass into a controlled sleep, her eyes reopened, half lidded and glowing a bright white with her power.

“There she goes,” Spike said quietly, resting his own chin upon his folded forearms and focusing his watchful gaze on his Princess.

Twilight’s eyes opened, and she quickly stood from where she was laying. Doing a quick turn, she looked around herself, seeing an endless expanse of misty clouds that stretched from her hooves off to a distant horizon. All around her the horizon was painted with hues one would expect to see at sunset, a mixture of reds, oranges, and purples. The sky above the horizon was covered with a light cloud cover that mirrored the misty surface she walked on. Her hooves made no noise as they moved, and only caused the misty surface beneath them to stir slightly, a wispy trail following her hooves when she lifted them. Her thoughts echoed clearly through her mind in this place, almost as if the words were spoken out loud. Okay, so I made it to the dreamscape. Good. Now I need to find her dream.

Twilight knew that her close proximity to Nightmare Moon in the physical realm should put her relatively close to the dream on the dreamscape. Her ears swiveled around, attempting to hear any sounds that might lead her in the right direction. The dreamscape was a place where nothing existed unless the dreamer willed it to be so, which included sound. Twilight found the perfect silence of this place a bit unnerving, even though she had experienced it before. While she could will sounds to manifest in this place if she chose to, leaving the silence as it was would make it easier to pinpoint the dream, so she opted to simply listen.

Both of her ears swiveled back when they picked up a very slight noise of a breeze whisking by. She turned her head quickly, and could see something attempting to take shape nearby. As she turned to approach the vision, it solidified into an open balcony that looked out onto a star filled night that had a crescent moon hanging low in the sky. The wispy clouds slowly pulled away from the tall balcony, revealing walls, a high ceiling, and a polished floor that connected to it. The moonlit room continued to slowly build itself from nothing as the clouds retreated, and something sitting at the balcony began to take form when a misty mass of midnight blue clouds coalesced there. It wasn’t too much longer before Twilight could make out what appeared to be a young, blue alicorn nearly the same size as herself taking shape from the clouds, sitting at the edge of the balcony as she stared out at the moon.

The dream continued to solidify around Twilight, forming the rest of the room until the wispy clouds finally dissipated all together. The details of the dream became indistinguishable from reality, and Twilight found herself standing in the center of what appeared to be Luna’s bedroom within the Canterlot Palace, though it appeared somewhat different than what she remembered. Mostly, it was how the room was decorated, and the locations of the furniture that seemed out of place. And Luna, she seemed much smaller than she should have been, and her mane and tail were both simple locks of normal blue colored hair, not the shimmering ethereal starscape that was unique to her. There had only been one time that Twilight had seen Luna with such an appearance, and that was shortly after she and her friends had defeated Nightmare Moon by stripping her dark power away from her with the Elements, an event that this Luna had never experienced.

The tall, dark mahogany double doors that guarded the entryway to Luna’s room suddenly flew open, causing Twilight to leap back a step in surprise. A mass of white and pink clouds billowed in through the doorway, and as they did they began to collect together into a more solid form. Twilight’s ears picked up on the sound of a voice coming from the clouds, at first sounding like a hollow echo that she couldn’t quite make out, but as the clouds took shape the voice became easier to discern.

“Luna?” the shape asked as it paused only a few steps away from Twilight near the center of the room. Twilight knew that in her current state, she was merely an observer and her presence here would have no effect on the dream, but she still felt the need to back away to give the cloudy shape some room. As Luna turned her gaze away from the moon and toward the shape, it quickly solidified into another alicorn whose coat was a pearl white, and whose mane and tail were both solid pink. Her cutie mark was the unmistakable sun emblem of the Sun Princess, Celestia, but like her younger sister her mane seemed to lack its unique ethereal quality. “Luna, are you alright?” she asked, cautiously approaching her younger sister by a few steps.

Luna turned her gaze away back out to the moon. “There is no reason for concern, sister.”

The look of concern did not leave Celestia’s face. She seemed unsure how to approach the situation, shuffling nervously on her hooves for a moment in silence. “I thought you might be ill. The moon has not set,” she said, her voice having an edge of hesitation.

“I am not ill, only tired,” Luna said, her sides heaving heavily. “Tired of being shunned by our subjects.”

The worried look on Celestia’s face became pained, and she began to walk the rest of remaining distance to her younger sister’s side. “Oh, Luna. We talked about this—”

“And solved nothing!” Luna snapped as she quickly turned her head to look to Celestia, causing the elder sister to freeze in her tracks. The anger and frustration on the younger sister’s face was undeniable, and seemed to come as a shock to Celestia. “Nothing has changed. Our subjects still view you as their ruler and me as some sort of demon that you keep caged!”

Celestia retreated a single step, unsure how to handle the sudden outburst. “That is not—” she quietly started, but was quickly cut off.

“Enough!” Luna bellowed, her voice carrying out into the halls and causing echoes. “Enough with you trying to make excuses for their behavior. For just one day, I want them to live under my moon; to appreciate it and realize that it is just as important as the sun instead of hiding from it.” Luna stared harshly at her elder sister for a time before she let go a frustrated huff and turned her attention back to her moon hanging low in the sky. “They can live without the dawn for one single day,” she said in a quiet but firm voice.

“Luna, we cannot allow this. You have to know the panic that this would cause.”

Luna let an indignant snort escape from her nostrils. “If they panic, it will be their own fault, not mine,” she said, dismissively waving a hoof out toward the balcony. “There is nothing to fear from my night. Our subjects invented lies of evil things that prey upon ponies from the darkness, and used them to scare their foals into obedience. And as the generations have gone by they have all come to truly believe just that!” Luna punctuated the last word with a stamp of her hoof. Her gaze turned around back toward her stunned sister. “They truly believe that my night is something evil that they must hide themselves from.”

Celestia shook her head as she cautiously drew herself a couple steps closer. “Forcing the night upon them will not solve this,” she said, her voice pleading for reason.

“Neither will doing nothing!”

“...Luna, please reconsider this. It is too sudden. Perhaps we can find another way—”

“No, Celestia,” Luna said with all her conviction. “I have made up my mind. My moon will not make way for the dawn. Not this day.” She turned her gaze toward the horizon once again, her voice calming to the point of almost a whisper. “And once this day passes and nothing evil befalls the world, they will all see just how foolish they have been.”

“This cannot be happening,” Celestia said, mostly to herself. Her head hung low and her brow furrowed as her eyes closed tightly. “I never wanted this day to come.”

Luna twisted her gaze back toward her elder sister, a disappointed frown tugging at the corners of her mouth. “Are you babbling about your prophecies again?” she asked in an accusing tone.

Celestia looked up, raising her head slightly. She silently regarded her sister for a moment, then steeled herself with a deep breath as she stood to her full height. “Every single one of them has come true, you know this,” she said, her pleading tone having been completely replaced by a regal demeanor. She had obviously given up on acting the part of the elder sister, and was now filling her role as co-ruler of Equestria.

“No I do not know this. I can only go by what you have claimed,” Luna said as she stood and turned toward her sister, trying to match her stance even though her stature was easily half that of the Sun Princess. “And now you are suddenly telling me that this event is among one of your prophecies? Why tell me this now and not beforehoof? To be honest, I am not sure I believe you. You could be simply crafting stories to persuade me to reconsider.”

Celestia stared forward into the younger sister’s eyes, masking her inner emotions with the stoic glare that she put forward. “Luna, please. Lower your moon,” she asked levelly.

Neither sister so much as flinched as they stared each other down. Only Luna finally made a motion, her eyes narrowing slightly as she said, “You have my answer.”

The muscles along Celestia’s jawline flexed as she ground her teeth in frustration. She let go a defeated sigh, once again allowing her head to hang low. She simply stared at the ground for a while there in the awkward silence, her eyes seeming to trace some invisible lines on the floor as she pondered over the situation.

Finally, she pulled her gaze back up level, and with slow, deliberate steps, she made her way toward the balcony. Luna watched her with a harsh glare that only intensified as the elder sister approached, and then walked by her. Luna stepped slightly to the side, eyeing her sister as Celestia stopped at the edge of the balcony and glanced down to whatever was below. The elder sister looked down in silence for some time while the younger watched her closely, saying nothing.

Suddenly, Celestia glanced up, locking her gaze onto the moon on the horizon, causing Luna to flinch slightly at the sudden motion. “What are you—” Luna began to ask, but stopped when the golden aura of Celestia’s magic lit the area around them. Luna’s eyes went wide with fright as she looked from her elder sister out to the moon, and saw that it was now slowly beginning to lower toward the horizon.

“Stop!” Luna commanded, taking a braced stance as she lowered herself slightly. Her horn crackled to life with a dark indigo glow, arcing raw power around her to the floor and surrounding walls. “Celestia!” she screamed as she lunged forward, simultaneously letting go a blast of power directly at the elder sister.

Celestia matched the power evenly with a shield at her side, absorbing most of the blast and deflecting what remained around herself in a cascade of magical sparks. She stood unmoving at the balcony’s edge, only turning her glance toward Luna long enough to direct a spell at the younger sister to push her away. Luna stopped in midair for a split second before the spell took full effect and sent her backwards. Her slippered hooves came in contact with the ground, scraping as she skidded back across the balcony to a nearby wall. She let go a grunt of air when her side impacted it, but recovered quickly. She immediately adopted her braced stance again, and pushed off the floor with a powerful thrust from her legs and wings in an attempt to physically tackle Celestia, but was stopped immediately when she found a barrier between herself and her elder sister. A golden glow shimmered over the barrier as it warped against the impact. Luna let go a furious growl as her magic ripped at the barrier in an attempt to destroy it, but the barrier held strong against her attacks as Celestia continued to bring the moon low to the horizon. Luna screamed her elder sister’s name again and again, each time the screams slowly growing less furious and more pleading. Her attacks weakened with each blow until Luna simply slumped to the floor, pleading for her sister to stop.

The moon disappeared beyond the horizon, and a few short seconds later the stars began to dim in the sky as the night began to give way to the day. Celestia’s aura dimmed until it blinked out completely, and she closed her eyes tightly, the fur just beneath her eyes damp from her tears. Taking a shaky deep breath, she attempted to compose herself. She turned toward her younger sister, who was a sobbing wreck sitting on her haunches near her. Luna’s blue locks of hair hung down limply around her face, hiding it from view. Celestia nearly lost her composure right then and there, the thin line of her mouth quivering on her muzzle. She opened her mouth, attempting to speak when she finally found her weak voice. “Please try to understand, I—”

“Get. Out.” Luna’s voice was clear and solid, despite the sobs that wracked her body. Celestia flinched at the words, drawing herself back a step. Luna shifted ever so slightly until one of her eyes could be seen glaring a hate-filled stare directed at her elder sister from between the locks of her mane.

Celestia only lingered for a short time, her mouth moving as if she wanted to say something, anything that could make up for what she had done. However, the glare that pierced into her soul seemed to sap any resolve that she had remaining, and her royal demeanor crumbled as sorrow overtook her. She only managed a slight whimper as she turned herself away, her head hung lowly as she moved to leave the room. Her form dissipated into a cloud of mist as it crossed the threshold of the doorway that lead out of Luna’s bedroom.

Twilight found herself sitting off to the side, a hoof clutched over her chest. She blinked when she noticed something blurring her vision, and lifted a forehoof to her eye to wipe a tear away. She knew what she was seeing was only a dream, but the dreamscape had a way of magnifying emotions. She wasn’t entirely sure what she had just been witness to, but it hadn’t been anything like she had been expecting and had definitely not been pleasant. The vision had been so vivid, so lifelike, she had temporarily mistaken it as reality, only being brought back by the fact that Celestia had vanished into the cloudy mist billowing just outside the doorway.

Twilight’s attention snapped back to the scene before her when a frustrated scream radiated through the room. Luna’s horn crackled with dark blue energy, and a matching electrified aura appeared on the two mahogany doors. The two doors swung violently on their hinges, slamming closed against the frame and causing a cracking noise to fill the air. Splintered lines crawled out from where the hinges attached to the door panels as a shower of small wooden splinters flew through the air to land around the doorway.

Luna stood fully braced against the floor, her head lowered as if she were ready to attack anything that would dare face her at this moment. Her body shook with anger, and her eyes drilled the door with a hate filled glare. Her sides heaved from the ragged breaths that she drew in and out.

She began to pace, her eyes glaring at the doorway as she passed by it each time. Her fury didn’t seem to bleed off any at all as she moved back and forth across the center of her room. Finally, she let go a frustrated growl as she turned fully away from the doorway, walking to the other side of the room. There she stopped just in front of a dresser, and after a moment of staring down at the floor she looked up into the vanity mirror mounted to the wall just above it. She stared back at the pitiful image of an Alicorn in the mirror that stared back at her.

“Why?” she said to the reflection in a whisper before gritting her teeth. “Why?” she asked again, growling the word between her teeth as she slumped against the top of the dresser. Her forelegs folded just on top of the dresser, and she buried her face there as quiet sobs escaped from her. Twilight felt an urge to rush to Luna’s side to comfort her, but knew that interfering with the dream at this point would likely only cause confusion. Instead, she continued to silently watch, hoping for the reason behind this dream to reveal itself soon.

“Because you are weak.”

The voice sounded exactly like Luna’s, but the way she suddenly snapped her attention upward and swiveled her ears around indicated that she was not the one who had said the words. She glanced from side to side, looking around the room to try and find the source of the voice, until she froze and eyed the mirror with a side-glance. Her wide eye stared at her reflection, and what she saw staring back at her was another alicorn that appeared to look just like her, but was staring back in contempt.

Luna’s lips quivered as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. “Who?” she managed to ask in a weary voice.

“You know who I am,” the image answered back, narrowing its eyes at her. “You created me, a long time ago, split me off from yourself and gave me the power that you didn’t want to deal with. Then you buried me so deep within the recesses of our subconscious mind that it is only moments such as these that I am able to even speak.”

Luna’s rage and sorrow had completely vanished, the startling situation having filled her with fear instead. She drew herself away from the dresser slightly, holding a foreleg up defensively against her chest. “Oh, do not be like that,” the image said, scrunching her muzzle in disgust. “You are making us into a hypocrite. You speak of how you want our subjects to respect us, to revere us instead of fear us. But yet, here you are, afraid of your own inner reflection! You fear your own power so greatly you have buried it and forgotten it. You reduced us to something so far beneath our sister, it is a wonder that she has not done this to us sooner.”

Luna shook her head, wanting to deny the claims the image was laying before her. “There was nothing I could do.”

“There was nothing that you were willing to do!” The image slammed her hoof against the dresser on her side of the mirror, causing the mirror itself to shake on the wall. Luna flinched, landing on her haunches and drawing her own forehooves back to herself. “You allowed her to steal our moon from us! You are pathetic. The only thing you have proven to our sister this day is that she can walk all over us whenever she chooses and we will not fight back. Nothing we want matters to her any longer.”

Luna cast her glance aside. “What else could I have done? I tried to stop her, but she would not listen to me.”

“We have just as much right to rule this land as she does. We were gifted power in equal measure to hers, but you simply refuse to acknowledge it, hiding from it like some scared little foal.” The image leaned forward, close to her side of the mirror. “Stop running from who you are, and embrace the power you were gifted so long ago. You said so yourself, there is nothing to fear from our darkness.”

Luna glanced back to the image in the mirror. She apprehensively approached the dresser again, stopping just short of actually touching it. “I... I do not believe I can,” she said, allowing her head to hang slightly in shame.

“Then I will.” The confident declaration from the image drew Luna’s attention back to the mirror. “Allow me to shoulder our burdens for us. Allow me to right this wrong, to bring justice forth.” The image raised a hoof, placing it against her side of the mirror, causing a small ripple as if the mirror itself was the surface of a still pond. She closed her eyes momentarily, and then slowly opened them, her pupils appearing as long draconic slits instead of the circular irises they should have been. “Bring me to the surface,” she said, her voice seeming to resonate with a second one just underneath.

From across the room, Twilight could only watch the display play out before her with a horror-stricken look. Luna reached out slowly, her shaking hoof hesitating as her eyes darted from the hoof against the mirror to the draconic eyes staring at her and back. For a few fleeting seconds, it looked as if she were going to reconsider, but then she steeled herself, her fear being replaced with determination as she reached forward and placed the flat of her hoof against the mirror. The very instant she did so, the scene exploded with a light so intense that Twilight had to shield herself from it with her wings.

When the light died down, Twilight found herself once again standing on the endless plane of the dreamscape surrounded by nothing but gently billowing clouds. She was certain that the vivid visions she had just beared witness to were more than just a mere made up dream or nightmare. Sometimes a pony would dream of past events that occurred over their lifetime, and the stark details of the dream were too precise to be anything less than memories. She had just witnessed the pivotal moment in Luna’s life where she had given herself over to her darkness over a thousand years ago.

What bothered Twilight even more so than witnessing the advent of Nightmare Moon were the events that had led to it. The legend never spoke of Celestia wresting control of the moon away from Luna when she refused to lower it, but then legends were not to be taken as detailed factual accounts of events. They were merely stories passed down through history that often had a loose basis in true events, and even written history itself usually favored the victor when dealing in past conflicts.

Before Twilight could properly gather her thoughts, a loud sound echoed from her right. She reflexively looked to her side in time to see a set of towering ivory double doors appearing as they were being thrown wide open. The clouds quickly retreated from the doors, causing a long, tall hallway to form as they flowed to and then past Twilight. Her eyes followed the clouds as they rippled away to the other end of the hall, and saw them end at a stairway that lead up to two thrones, one midnight blue, and the other gold, leaving herself standing in the center of what appeared to be the long hallway of a throne room. What remained of the misty clouds collected into shapes that began to look more like ponies standing in a semicircle just before the thrones, and another larger form on the golden throne itself. In only a few seconds, they solidified into a group of stalwart royal guards standing in front of Princess Celestia. The Princess sat upon the throne in all her regal glory, staring back down the length of the hallway toward the doors that had been pushed open. Instead of her normal regalia, she now wore a set of golden armor not too far unlike that of her royal guards, complete with a helm upon her head formed in such a way that allowed her now ethereal pastel colored mane to hover freely about her head.

“Well well,” a familiar voice echoed from the other end of the hall. Twilight’s attention snapped back to the opened doorway when she recognized Nightmare Moon’s voice just in time to see the dark mare herself walking in, clad in her armor and flanked on either side by three Nightguard each. She appeared exactly as she had the first time Twilight had ever laid eyes upon her. “Perhaps your prophecies are not all falsities,” she said, a dangerously playful tone on her voice. “It seems you were able to properly prepare for our arrival.”

“Luna—”

“No!” the dark mare’s voice boomed through the hall, cutting Celestia off before she could speak. “Not Luna. Not any longer. The one who you knew as ‘Luna’ was a sister that you consider to be weaker than yourself. A princess whom you believed you could control with your superior power.” Twilight stepped backwards to the side of the hall as Nightmare Moon and her entourage found their way to the center of the throne room. The dark mare stopped there, her pose tall and regal as her draconic eyes glared down the length of the hall toward her elder sister. “We will no longer be associated with that weakness.”

A heavy silence fell over the room, tempered by a tense feeling in the air as the two groups stared each other down. Celestia held the gaze that she exchanged with her younger sister for some time before she glanced down to the guards that stood vigilant between herself and the perceived threat before them. “Your quarrel is with me. There is no reason to bring others into our disagreement.”

Celestia’s guards glanced to each other, seeming unsure as to what their next action should be, still holding their ground against the dark Alicorn and Nightguard forces standing opposite of them. Finally, Nightmare Moon responded, closing her eyes as she gave a single nod. “Agreed,” she said calmly.

“Leave the room, all of you,” Celestia said, her command both gentle yet firm in tone. Her guards hesitated at the order but for a short second, and then carried out their Princess’s wish, each of them cautiously making their way from the throne’s steps down the hall toward the doorway. Nightmare Moon had silently commanded her guards to follow suite, nodding to them when they looked to her for further direction. Once both groups were just outside the doors, Celestia rose from her throne, stepping to the edge of the stairs. She raised her voice to be loud and clear to everypony present. “Hear me! The doors to this throne room do not open for any reason. Is that understood?” An acknowledgement of the order came from Celestia’s and Nightmare Moon’s guards alike. “Then seal them.” With that final command, the large, ivory white doors to the throne room groaned as they were pulled closed by the guards. A dull thud echoed through the room at the moment they fully sealed.

Nightmare Moon turned her attention from the closed doorway back toward her elder sister. “What exactly is your game here, dear sister?” she openly pondered now that the two were alone within the throne room. She had likely expected Celestia to attempt something, but to see the Sun Princess clear the room of all others only seemed to make her curious.

“No game. No others need to be involved,” Celestia quietly said as she shook her head. “This matter must be settled between us.”

“Yes, it must,” Nightmare Moon said with a dangerous undertone as her horn lit with power. Just before her, the air crackled with electric fury as her magic seemed to rip a small hole in the space. Something took form from the fissure, starting as a mass of sparkling darkness and solidifying into something much more intimidating. Nightmare Moon’s magic took hold of a long ebony shaft that ended with a cubic hunk of midnight blue glowing metal at the end. Twilight recognized it as a weapon. More precisely it was a war mace, a blunt weapon with unparalleled devastative potential if wielded by one with the proper skills. Even more precisely, it was a particular war mace conjured directly from the dark mare’s own alicorn power; a celestial weapon bearing the name of Fallen Star. Twilight had never seen the weapon herself, but she had heard of its terrifying power. If Nightmare Moon were bringing the weapon to bear against her own sister, then it meant only one thing; she was not holding anything back. “We demand your surrender,” she said as she levelled the weapon directly toward Celestia.

Celestia did not flinch before the demand. Though she managed to maintain her regal pose, her eyes spoke volumes of the internal conflict raging inside her. The dark mare before her was a threat, but was also her younger sister. She took a tentative step forward, her demeanor softening slightly. “Luna, let’s not—”

“I told you to stop calling us that!” As her booming voice screamed toward Celestia, Nightmare Moon unleashed her weapon, sending it hurtling across the room. Celestia crouched to the floor and then pushed herself upward, launching into the air just as Fallen Star whirled through the space she vacated. The mace crashed and imbedded itself into the golden throne, exploding it into golden shrapnel that peppered the back wall of the throne room.

From above, Celestia focused her power, conjuring a length of golden chain that glowed with the light of the sun just above herself. She had brought out her own celestial weapon, Sunray. She wasted no time trying to take the offensive, wiping the length of chain with her telekinetic magic toward Nightmare Moon. The chain seemed to magically create additional links from nowhere as it extended toward its target, stretching over the distance at surprising speed.

Nightmare Moon glanced up when she heard the metallic ringing of the chain links coming toward her. She pushed off the floor, flying directly at the golden links, and once she closed the remaining distance she extended her armored forehoof out just before herself, allowing the end of the chain to snap around it. With a quick circular motion, she wrapped the chain and secured it within the crook of her fetlock, and then yanked back pulling the chain taut just before she gave the chain a solid whip. The force traveled back up the length of the chain to the opposite end, and caused the end of the weapon to snap suddenly and wrap around Celestia’s neck, ensnaring her in mid air. She only had a split second to cry out as Nightmare Moon thrust her wings, diving back to the floor and pulling the chain and the ensnared Sun Princess with her. Nightmare Moon’s armored hooves hit the floor with a loud clank that cracked the stone around her and caused the red carpet to billow from the impact, and a second later Celestia crashed into the floor equally hard, crumping to the ground as the sound of her armor clattering filled the room.

Nightmare Moon flicked her foreleg, tossing the loose chain aside as it flickered and blinked out of existence. She calmly walked toward Celestia, who was struggling just to lift her head from the floor, a trail of blood dripping from each of her nostrils.

Nightmare Moon’s horn lit with a dark indigo glow, and from behind Celestia there was a sound of metal scraping against metal as a telekinetic spell wretched Fallen Star from the mangled remains of the golden throne. The weapon sailed over and back to Nightmare Moon’s side just as she stopped before Celestia. She levelled the weapon only an inch from her sister’s face. “We are not nearly as powerless as we once were, as you now see. You are beaten. Surrender.”

Celestia coughed, the motion causing a few flecks of blood to speckle the floor at her hooves. She peered over the mace up to her younger sister’s eyes. “Sister, please. Think of what this will do to Equestria.”

“I have!” Nightmare Moon declared, the burning fury in her eyes seeming only to grow more intense. “The end of the sun’s rein over this world will usher in a new era. One where those who embrace the moon’s light will find prosperity beyond their wildest dreams, and those who shun and fear the night will find their truest nightmares beneath my moon.” Nightmare Moon seemed to get lost in her own words momentarily, the weapon she had levelled at her sister dropping slightly. “Yes... that is what it shall be. The name that will be known the world over. The name that will strengthen our allies and strike fear into the hearts of our enemies.” Nightmare Moon looked back to Celestia from her thoughts, a sinister grin working its way across her muzzle as she steadied her weapon in her magical grip. “Our name, Nightmare Moon.”

Celestia’s eyes searched the fury-filled eyes that glared back at her over Fallen Star, but the gentle eyes of her younger sister were no longer there. All that met her now was the hard glare of an angered alicorn, bent on defeating the day once and for all. “It all came to pass...,” she said just barely above a whisper, her eyes blinking a tear away.

“If your prophecies have told you of these events, then you must already know what is to happen next,” Nightmare Moon suggested, her tone bubbling over with confidence.

“Yes... I do.”

“You were defeated the moment this began.”

“No,” Celestia said calmly, which caused Nightmare Moon to flinch back a step at the unexpected statement. “I only hoped in vain that there would be some other way. It seems I was wrong.” Suddenly, Celestia lost the pitiful look of defeat, sitting tall before her enemy. “There is no other way.”

Nightmare Moon narrowed her eyes at Celestia when she noticed her golden aura glowing. Something shimmered across Celestia’s helmet and chest armor, revealing five diamond shaped cut gems of multiple colors encrusted into her armor, and a single, slightly larger six-pointed star shaped magenta gem inset on the forehead of her helmet that had been hidden there. Nightmare Moon drew herself back in shock, recognition flicking across her eyes. “The Elements,” she said, her voice quivering with fear. She had obviously not expected her elder sister to bring the powerful artifacts to bear against her.

Nightmare Moon quickly steeled herself, bringing her weapon to the ready as she braced her stance. “Whatever scheme you have concocted, it will not work!” She began to lunge at her sister, not wanting to allow Celestia the time to conjure the power of the Elements against her. However, something had reached out and snared her back legs. Her eyes snapped back and there she could see the golden links of Sunray extending from the floor in two locations, each length of chain shackling around her fetlocks. Two more lengths of the golden chain shot out of the floor before her, snapping shackles to her forelegs as she reared back in surprise. The four chains retracted into the floor, pulling tight and drawing Nightmare Moon’s legs out from under her and to her sides. She grunted as she was pinned to the floor, and looked up to see a brilliant white glow coming from Celestia’s eyes as she poured her power into calling forth magic from the Elements.

Nightmare Moon let out an animalistic scream as her power arched from her horn. She put everything she had into her telekinetic grip on her weapon, and sent Fallen Star hurtling at her sister. The weapon appeared to find its mark, causing a blinding shower of sparks when it impacted its target. However, Celestia was left unharmed, sitting just behind a chromatic shield that had protected her from the weapon’s impact. Fallen Star fell to the floor with a loud clank and then vanished as Nightmare Moon’s power blinked out.

The power saturating the air began to trace out arcane lines on the floor, encircling Nightmare Moon. The lines formed concentric circles of every color of the rainbow, each circle filled with dozens of runes that spun either clockwise or counter clockwise with its circle. The entire floor began to glow and pulse as each ring intensified, and a low rumbling filled the air as the entire hall vibrated.

The last thing Twilight was able to clearly see was Nightmare Moon thrashing against the floor in vain as the Elements’ power washed over her. The last thing she heard as the entire world went white was a scream near identical to what she had heard when she had found Chrysalis attacking Nightmare Moon in the throne room. The bright light lingered for some time after the scream had faded into a distant echo.

Twilight tried to calm her ragged breathing, finding it difficult to keep her emotions in check. These visions were far more intense than she had expected them to be, and just witnessing them was taking a toll on her. She could only imagine what reliving these events was doing to Nightmare Moon. Okay, focus. Focus! You have to find a solution to this. Is this what Chrysalis was trying to do; force her to relive these horrible memories? It was a possibility that made sense. Trapping Nightmare Moon within a nightmare of her own past was a simple way to remove her from the picture.

Twilight blinked when she noticed that the white beneath her hooves was not clouds, but instead was a fine sand. She looked around herself, noticing that the endless dreamscape had once again shifted, this time to what appeared to be a barren wasteland of white beneath a black sky. Her shadow stretched out a far distance ahead of herself, which registered as an oddity to her given the sky’s darkness. She turned herself around to find the source of the light, and momentarily had to shield her eyes with her wing as they adjusted to the brightness. As she squinted out from beneath the feathers, she saw something off in the distance beyond the wasteland.

A colorful globe of blues, whites, and greens hovered in the sky just over the horizon of the wasteland. The source of the bright light came from the sun that shined brightly from behind the upper edge of the globe.

The moon... this is the moon. Twilight found herself standing upon the surface of the moon, glancing around herself and taking in the complete solitude that surrounded her. She had only just realized where this dream had now lead her and could already feel the loneliness creeping in around her. She endured this for a thousand years? Twilight pondered what one thousand years of true solitary confinement would do to herself and shook at a chill that ran down her spine. Shaking her head, she tried once again to focus on her task ahead of herself. I have to figure this out. There has to be a reason why I’m seeing this.

Just at that moment, Twilight’s eyes went wide as her subconscious screamed out to her with a single, instinctual desire; to run.

Twilight blinked out of existence with a quick teleport, appearing only a short distance away near instantly. Simultaneously, the area that she had just been standing within exploded in a white dust cloud. Twilight braced herself as she turned fully toward the cloud, readying her magical power should she need it again. She watched the cloud closely as it dissipated, noticing a shadow emerging.

Nightmare Moon stepped from the cloud wielding Fallen Star in her telekinetic magic, her grim visage focused intently on Twilight. Dark blue magical electricity arced from her horn, some of it connecting with the intimidating weapon that floated at her side. She stopped, narrowing her eyes at Twilight as she grit her teeth together in seething anger.

A quick flash, and the dark mare and war mace were gone. Twilight felt her mind scream out once again, and she vacated the location she had just been standing at with a teleport just as Fallen Star swung horizontally through it from behind her. She came out of her teleport only a few trots away and had to rapidly teleport yet again when an arc of lightning careened toward her.

Twilight hadn’t prepared herself for this. Using magic in the dreamscape was different than in the physical realm. It operated to the same effect as one would expect in reality, but its strength was dictated by the strength of mind of the wielder. She had only prepared her mind for a journey into the dreamscape as an observer, not for a battle with Nightmare Moon. All she could manage was to stay barely ahead of the destruction as the dark mare tore apart the dream around them.

Again and again, Nightmare Moon lashed out with her relentless attacks against Twilight as she desperately tried to stay ahead. She knew this was a losing battle if she didn’t choose to fight back in some way, but she didn’t dare chance being touched by Fallen Star, even if it was only a mental reconstruction of the weapon. Between the moments of blinking in and out of the teleports, Twilight formulated a tactic to attempt to stall the attacks. If only she could manage to get through to the Moon Princess beneath the surface, it may stay the attacks for at least a short moment.

Twilight came out of a teleport slightly behind Nightmare Moon. “Luna!” she cried out, but Nightmare Moon had already loosed Fallen Star, sending the weapon whirling directly at Twilight. The slight delay that she had taken to call out the Moon Princess’s name left her with too little time to cast another teleport to get herself clear. She instead quickly cast a flat shield, shifting her stance to the side as she slid her right legs across the sand toward Nightmare Moon and angled her right wing down over her legs toward the ground. The motion forced the shield to tilt and cut into the ground at an extremely shallow angle just above Twilight’s side.

Fallen Star impacted the shield, causing a mixed shower of indigo and lavender sparks to explode from the impact. Twilight stumbled sideways from the impact as the weapon careened off into the sky. She cried out at the searing pain that shot through her horn, down her neck, and through her spine, feeling as if someone had just poured boiling water down her back. Just the feedback from Fallen Star glancing against her shield was enough to cause serious pain. Twilight’s shield broke and fell apart like shattered glass, leaving nothing between herself and Nightmare Moon.

Fallen Star whirled around through the sky back to Nightmare Moon’s side, and she immediately began to charge. Her hooves thundered across the short distance to Twilight, who was struggling to just stay standing where she was. With one final leap, Nightmare Moon lunged toward her target, bringing Fallen Star directly overhead as she prepared to bring down the final blow.

Twilight instinctively cringed as the weapon was brought down upon her, her eyes pressing closed as she prepared herself for the strike. The air filled with a ringing sound of something metallic striking something else very strongly. However, Twilight found herself unharmed, despite the fact that she had lacked the time to get a proper spell prepared to defend herself. She forced herself to look up, and just above her head she could see a midnight blue wing sheltering her from Fallen Star’s wrath.

Twilight followed the wing to its owner standing at her side. There, the Princess of the Night, Luna, was standing guard over Twilight as she stared down Nightmare Moon. The raw power of the strike that Nightmare Moon had tried to bring down on Twilight had been stopped by nothing more than Luna’s wing.

Luna narrowed her eyes slightly only a split second before her wing flexed. She sharply drew her wing around in front of herself, causing a shockwave that flicked Nightmare Moon backwards, sending her dark alter ego’s body tumbling over the dusty white surface of the moon like a ragdoll. Fallen Star was sent spinning into the sky, arcing some distance away until it came back down and imbedded itself into the sand.

Twilight stared slack jawed at the trail of dust clouds that had been left in Nightmare Moon’s wake as she had tumbled across the moon’s surface. She slowly glanced to her side, looking up to the Moon Princess who was folding her extended wing back to her side. “Princess Luna?” Twilight asked. She appeared like she had just earlier in the dream, like the young alicorn that was barely any taller than Twilight. Luna shifted her gaze to look at Twilight for only a second before turning her attention back to Nightmare Moon. She began to calmly trot across the distance between herself and where the dark mare was recovering from her rough landing.

“Whu... why?” Nightmare Moon said as she struggled to catch her breath. She pushed herself back up to all fours, but nearly lost herself completely when she attempted a shaky step forward. Instead, she fell back to her haunches, her forehooves only barely managing to keep herself from toppling face first into the sand. “Why would you side with her... with an enemy!?” she screamed as her sides heaved in and out heavily.

Twilight shook her head, coming out of her shocked stupor, and quickly stood and galloped forward to catch up to Luna, calling out to her. “Luna, be careful—”

“You stay out of this!” Luna’s words seemed to cause the entire moon to quake, causing Twilight to skid to a halt and cringe away from the stern glare that the Moon Princess had shot back at her. When she seemed satisfied that Twilight would not interfere, Luna turned her attention back to Nightmare Moon, closing the remaining distance to stand just in front of her other self.

For a short time the two only silently stared at one another, Luna standing taller than Nightmare Moon only because the later was crouched so lowly to the ground. “Have you forsaken me as well?” Nightmare Moon asked as she searched the depths of Luna’s eyes.

Luna reached out and firmly struck Nightmare Moon across the face with the side of her hoof. The strike was more of a shock than painful, causing Nightmare Moon to gasp and raise a hoof to the spot as she blinked back at her smaller alter ego in wide eyed surprise. “Have you gone completely mad?” Luna asked, furrowing her brow in disappointment. “Do you even know where you are?”

Nightmare Moon seemed to consider her surroundings seriously for the first time as she slowly looked around herself. Her eyes darted back and forth as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. “Why are we here?” she quietly asked. Her eyes wandered a bit more, finally falling on Twilight who was sitting where she had stopped earlier.

Luna glanced over her shoulder, looking to Twilight for only a short second before she turned her eyes back toward her alter ego. “She is of no consequence... at this moment. However, you did very nearly kill the one who saved us.”

Nightmare Moon blinked and looked back directly to Luna, confusion still playing on her face as her mind worked to unravel what was happening. “The throne room,” she said as she began to recall the earlier events of the evening. “We were in the throne room. And... and then.” Nightmare Moon furrowed her brows as she strained to remember something important. She glanced around herself, as if grasping for something that might spark a memory. Her eyes once again fell upon Twilight, and in that moment she recalled everything. Twilight had been there. She had been the one who had come to her rescue. The one who had stepped in and stopped the pain. The one that had stopped her. Nightmare Moon grit her teeth together. “Chrysalis,” she hissed as she recalled the source of her suffering.

“Yes. I see you remember now,” Luna said with an approving nod. “So, do you know where you are?”

“A dream,” Nightmare Moon said with a heavy sigh. “How did she defeat us so easily?”

“I have a feeling she may know,” Luna said as she once again cast her glance behind her toward Twilight. She looked back to Nightmare Moon, gently putting a hoof forward to rest just atop one of hers. “You are not to blame. If anypony is, it would be myself.”

“But, we are one and the same,” Nightmare Moon said in confusion.

“No. No, we never have been,” Luna said as she shook her head and lowered it in shame. “And that is my fault. I never once accepted you as a part of myself, and instead only forced my responsibilities off upon you when I could no longer bear them on my own.” Luna looked back up to Nightmare Moon, her eyes taking on an apologetic glance. “I have been dormant for too long. While I slept within our subconscious, you suffered for a thousand years for my shortcomings. I may never be able to correct the injustice you suffered, but now I am prepared to face my burdens... our burdens, together.” Luna lifted her hoof, reaching it forward until she pressed it against Nightmare Moon’s chest. “I will no longer fear what should have always been a part of me.”

Nightmare Moon’s breath seemed to catch in her throat. The dark mare blinked her eyes, and Twilight saw something that she had never thought possible. The Queen of Night, Nightmare Moon, smiled as tears of joy fell from her eyes to the white sands at her hooves. She leaned forward, nuzzling against Luna’s dusk blue mane, softly speaking only two words that carried on the silence around them.

“Thank you.”

Twilight awoke from her trance with a gasp, the glowing light from her eyes quickly fading out as she blinked them. Nearby, Spike snorted, and quickly raised his head from where he had been resting it on his folded arms. He misjudged the height of the door frame that his head had been laying in, and ended up knocking the top of his head against it. A low growl rumbled in his throat as he rubbed at the spot where the back of his head had contacted the cursed wood.

Twilight slowly raised a single eyebrow as she eyed him with a sidelong glance. “Spike...,” she asked in a drawn out tone, drawing his attention toward her. “Were you... sleeping?” Twilight was unable to hide the grin that was curling the corners of her mouth.

Spike froze in his motions, one hand still on the back of his head. Being caught off guard, he sputtered a bit before clearing his throat. “I was just resting my eyes,” he said with a forced, toothy smile.

“Uh huh,” Twilight said, the grin morphing into a full on smile as she pushed herself to sit up.

Spike nervously tapped his claws on the wooden floor for a few seconds, then let go a sigh. “Alright, maybe I kinda drifted off for a minute, but I was still listening!” Drawing his arms together and folding them under his chest, he huffed and then added, “I’ve flown like three hours straight tonight. Doesn’t help that it’s all dark and quiet here.”

Twilight let a light giggle escape from her, which in itself seemed to make him a little less defensive when he heard it. Her laugh had always been one of the things he liked most about his Princess, and just hearing it after everything that had happened to her lifted a decent amount of worry from his heart. “It’s okay, Spike. I know you’re tired, and honestly I’d be a little surprised if I hadn’t found you asleep. I’m not sure how long I was in there. Time kinda gets away from you in that place.”

Spike craned his neck back to glance over his shoulder to the full moon in the sky, then frowned and lowered his head to glance back in through the doorway. “Doesn’t look like any time has gone by at all, the moon is still right where it’s been ever since I got here. How the heck do you even tell time when the sky always looks the same?”

“Yeah, that’s been a bit of a pain to deal with,” Twilight said with a tired sigh.

“So... is she going to be alright?” Spike asked as he pointed a single claw at the sleeping Nightmare Moon laying next to Twilight.

“I hope so. To be honest, I’m not completely sure of what actually happened, but with any luck she’ll wake up at least.” Twilight reached a hoof over and gently placed it upon Nightmare Moon’s side, once again feeling her gentle breathing as her sides slowly rose and fell.

Twilight jerked her hoof back when she noticed something else unexpected. At the roots of the dark mare’s mane, the purplish ethereal glow was darkening to something closer to black, with only a very slight hint of midnight blue. The color change slowly spread, and the shimmering and sparkling effects within the her mane became even more intense than before. Upon a closer look, one would find that it was more accurate to say that her mane and tail were changing to appear as if they had been formed directly from a piece of the star filled night sky, giving them a depth that seemed impossible. The fur across her body also seemed to change very slightly, giving off a dark blue shine wherever the moonlight happened to touch it.

After the transformation had finished, both Twilight and Spike only silently stared at the still sleeping alicorn for a while before they finally looked to each other with unsure glances. Their attention was drawn back when a small noise came from her. She let out a quiet groan as her eyes squeezed closed even tighter. Eventually, her hooves began to shuffle and she managed to roll off her side, drawing her legs fully under herself and managing to weakly pull her head up off the floor. She reached one hoof up and touched the side of her head as she drew in a hiss of air, her ears pinned back as she rubbed at the spot. Her eyes fluttered open for the first time, revealing the deep teal, circular irises of her eyes. She blinked once and focused her still squinting eyes on Twilight, and then once again glancing across the room at the dragon staring in through the doorway at her.

“Princess Luna?” Twilight asked, her voice sounding quiet and hopeful. The dark mare definitely looked different than Nightmare Moon, but also different from the Moon Princess that Twilight remembered as well. This alicorn was still every bit as tall as Nightmare Moon had been, but her fur and mane were not the same violet and pitch black shades.

The Alicorn glanced back to Twilight, allowing her hooves to rest just in front of herself on the floor. She seemed to consider the question that had been asked of her for a length of time before she acknowledged with a single nod, simply saying, “Yes.”

Twilight let out a breath in a single, relieved huff. “Oh, thank goodness,” she said as she momentarily clutched a hoof over her chest. “I was a little worried. Are you... feeling alright?” she asked, unsure how else to ask if this was the same ‘Luna’ she knew.

The Moon Princess once again lifted a hoof and touched it gingerly to the side of her head. “I feel as if I have been struck,” she said quietly, her facial expression giving off the slightest hint of a pout.

“Oh,” Twilight said as she shrunk back a bit. “Sorry, that may have been my fault. When I teleported you, I sent you quite a long distance away and my aim may not have been exactly perfect. You may or may not have been... dropped on the floor,” she finished, a sheepish look overtaking her as she wilted a bit under Luna’s glance.

“I see,” Luna said, closing her eyes as she rubbed at the spot a bit more. Glancing up again, she once more looked toward the dragon peering in through the doorway at her.

“Uh, hey,” Spike said as he waved back to her. He went back to nervously scratching a claw at the wooden floor boards when all he got in response was Luna silently raising a questioning eyebrow in his direction.

“That’s Spike,” Twilight said, drawing Luna’s attention back to her. “He’s a friend.” Twilight fidgeted with her hooves a bit when Luna only silently stared back at her. “You’re probably wanting an explanation for... well, everything. There is a lot that I need to tell you.”

“Obviously,” Luna said as she folded her forehooves in front of herself. “Foremost among those being how one such as yourself could possibly know how to dream walk.”

“Oh, right. Uh...,” Twilight started as she tried to find the best way to explain something that was likely going to sound unbelievable, no matter how she tried to word it. “This probably won’t make a lot of sense yet, but I learned it from you.”

Luna closed her eyes, drawing in a breath and letting it out slowly with a hum. She silently considered the impossible claim for a time, Twilight growing more nervous by the second as she waited to hear the reaction would be. “Time travel,” Luna said simply as she opened her eyes.

Twilight balked at the answer. “How did....” She shook her head, wondering how Luna could have possibly known the truth.

“Am I correct?” Luna asked, glancing down to Twilight. When she nodded an affirmative in response, Luna smiled back. “A lucky guess,” she said, seeming to take some pride in her correct answer. “I did not actually know, but as far fetched as the thought might have been, it was the only one to occur to me.”

“Well, it’s true. I know you from Equestria’s future.” Twilight found herself thinking that this might actually end up being easier than she thought. Well, slightly easier. She wrinkled her muzzle when she remembered that the situation was already beyond ridiculously complicated. “Actually, it’s more accurate to say that I know you from a different future. Things have already changed because of what’s happened here, and it’s possible the future I come from won’t even exist now.”

Luna seemed to seriously consider Twilight’s explanation for a moment, and then another question came to her. “Did Celestia send you?”

“What? Oh, no. Both you and her stayed behind to watch the other side of the spell, while Spike and I came through to follow the one who created the time tunnel.”

Luna thoughtfully touched a hoof to her chin. “I thought she may have been trying to alter something. I wouldn’t put it past her to do so,” she said as she looked off somewhere within the loft, her brow furrowing slightly.

“There’s no way your sister would do such a thing,” Twilight blurted out, her voice laced with an offended tone. However, her attitude quickly changed when Luna turned an unpleased glare back down to her, causing Twilight to wilt under the hard look. “Um, well, that is to say that I feel I know her fairly well, and it just doesn’t seem like something she would do. Perhaps I should mention that I mentored under her for most of my young life?” Twilight offered with a weak smile.

Luna’s glare quickly softened, and was replaced genuinely curious look. “Go on,” she said as she crossed her forelegs before herself.

Twilight had unleashed a whirlwind of information, holding nothing back. Even Spike had seemed to be enthralled by the details that Twilight had packed into her story of Equestria’s true history. She talked of how her friends had become the Bearers of the Elements, of how they had faced and defeated Nightmare Moon with their power, and how Luna and Celestia had ruled Equestria together ever since. She even explained how the power of the Elements had elevated her from a unicorn to an alicorn, a claim that seemed to cause the Moon Princess a great deal of surprise. Once Twilight had reached the end of her story, Luna had spent a silent moment considering the tale that she had been told. Twilight Sparkle and her friends appearing in the Everfree Forest had obviously been no coincidence. “You are very good at being deceptive, Twilight Sparkle. I never did suspect that you and your friends were moving against me. Nor did I suspect your... true nature,” she said as she gently reached a hoof over and nudged one of Twilight’s wings.

Twilight looked away from Luna down to her forehooves. “I never wanted to lie to you. I just felt that you might not be in the best frame of mind, no offence. I felt that I had to find some way to help, however I could, even if it meant I had to deceive you.”

“Equestria,” Luna said, drawing Twilight’s attention back up to her. “You were trying to help Equestria.” Twilight nodded in response, to which the Moon Princess smiled slightly. “Well, I can say your assessment was correct, I was not in the... best frame of mind... as you say. Had you revealed yourself to me as an alicorn upon our first meeting, I would not have trusted you.”

“Do you trust me now?” Twilight asked, her eyes looking hopeful.

Luna’s face betrayed no emotion at the question. She blinked and looked away toward the window in the upper level of the loft, staring out at the sky in silence. Twilight felt her nervousness growing, worried that the Moon Princess might actually feel betrayed by her secret intentions.

The silent tension reached an uncomfortable point just as Luna glanced back down to Twilight. “I have no reason not to,” she said simply. “As outlandish as your story may seem at first, you know far too much for it to be anything but truth. And, you did risk yourself to save me, to which I am eternally grateful. Chrysalis managed to completely take me by surprise. I still cannot grasp how she was able to bypass my ward with such ease.”

Twilight’s ears splayed back. “That... is probably my fault,” she said through a groan. “You used a counter ward, didn’t you?” she asked as she looked up to Luna. Twilight’s suspicion was confirmed when the Moon Princess nodded slightly in response. “Those ward types have a flaw. They work really well when they intercept magic that’s intended for the ward’s caster, but if you target the ward directly with the right kind of counter spell, you can disable it very easily if you know how they work.”

Luna tilted her head curiously. “I fail to see how that would be your fault. It only means that she predicted my actions and out maneuvered me.”

“I taught her how to tell when to expect a counter ward, and then how to counter them.” Twilight noticed the intense confusion that was playing on Luna’s face. “She posed as a unicorn, calling herself Crystal Charm, and I took her as my student for a few years before... all of this happened,” she explained, waving her hoof in a circle before letting it clunk to the floor.

“Crystal Charm,” Luna said, speaking the name as if it were a reminder of something unpleasant. “That is a name I have not heard in a millenia, but one I could scarcely ever forget.”

Twilight stared back, wide eyed in shock. “You know that name?”

Luna slowly nodded. “It’s a guise she used long ago, before she changed.”

“Changed?” Twilight asked sounding completely perplexed, tilting her head.

Luna silently regarded Twilight at her side for a moment, her brow slowly rising a bit. “It appears there may be things that I should explain as well. I take this to mean that Celestia never told you of the origin of changelings?” Twilight silently shook her head in answer to Luna’s question, prompting a displeased groan from the Moon Princess as her ethereal tail flicked quickly back and forth at her agitation. “Typical. It would not be the only time she has buried history. I would tell you to ask her about the entire mess directly, but I suppose that is no longer possible, being that I turned her own imprisonment spell against her.” Luna let out a huff of air as the hairs on her neck bristled in annoyance.

“Well, actually, that could be possible,” Twilight mumbled, chewing at her bottom lip as she considered an idea. With the Element of Magic now missing, using the Elements to free Celestia would no longer be an option until it was recovered. But, while it was true that no single alicorn would be able to break the imprisonment spell, more than one working together possibly could. “Yes, I think if we were to work together we could possibly weaken the imprisonment spell enough for Celestia to escape it. It’s not guaranteed to work but....” Twilight trailed off when she noticed Luna staring off to the side. It was easy to see the deep frown upon her muzzle, and the turbulent motions of her mane and tail told of her frustration. “I saw in your dream,” Twilight said, which was enough to draw Luna’s attention back to her. “Is it true that she took control of your moon to force it down?” Luna only silently stared back for a time before finally nodding with a short hum. Obviously, the past conflict between the two sisters was still a sore spot for this Luna. It was possible that she wasn’t going to want to forgive and forget so easily. “I understand how you must feel—”

Luna cut off Twilight’s statement with an indignant snort, scoffing at the statement. “Do not attempt to patronize me, Twilight Sparkle. Simply peering into my memories does not give you the right to claim that you ‘understand’ my pain. The moon is as much a part of my being as your right hoof is a part of your leg, and having somepony else wretch it away from me was beyond the worst possible feeling I could have ever imagined, one inflicted upon me by my own sister.”

Twilight cringed, her ears splayed back. “I-I’m sorry. Really, I apologize, that was very inappropriate of me.” The topic was definitely hitting a nerve with the Moon Princess, but Twilight knew she had to try to convince Luna to help free Celestia. They needed every ally they could get at this point. “Still, I do understand if you would be reluctant at all to free your sister, after witnessing what really happened. But—”

Luna raised one of her forehooves slightly, causing Twilight to halt her plea. “I am not the same mare that was so blinded by vengeance that I would doom our nation over a power struggle between myself and my sister. What I want is not as relevant as is what needs to be done.” Luna drew in a deep breath, letting it go slowly through her nostrils as she calmed herself. “I will help you free Celestia,” she declared stoically. Those simple words brought a smile to Twilight’s muzzle, but before she could form any words of gratitude the Moon Princess quickly spoke. “Do not thank me. I’m simply doing what is necessary. Celestia will side with our cause once she hears what Chrysalis has done, and that is all that matters.”

Twilight’s smile withered away quickly. While she had hoped for peace between the two sisters, it appeared that might be asking too much too quickly. At least Luna had agreed to bringing Celestia back, though with everything that had happened so far Twilight found herself left with the nagging feeling that things were not going to turn out nice and simple. “I hope you’re right. To be honest, I’m not a hundred percent sure of that,” Twilight said as she considered the possible outcomes of the Sun Princess’s return. “I’m sure you remember the report, that there was evidence that Celestia had given over convicts to Chrysalis. She was working deals with the changelings.”

Luna actually grinned at that, slowly shaking her head. “That is not evidence of Celestia working with changelings. If anything, she probably believed she was using them to fulfil some sort of purpose. My elder sister may not always be forthcoming with her long term plans and her actions often seem to make little sense at the time, but she does always have a plan.”

Twilight remembered the mention of ‘prophecies’ while within Luna’s dreams, though she couldn't fathom what sort of prophecy could drive Celestia toward such a plan. It still seemed too unreal, knowing that Celestia had agreed to such a thing, but perhaps she didn’t know her former teacher as well as she had believed, or the whole of the situation. Silence fell upon the room as Twilight quietly pondered over the possible excuses that Celestia could have had to justify her actions, prophecy or not.

Twilight was a being that had always been very well attuned to the flow of magical power within the environment around herself, a trait that had only developed further as time had marched forward. Fluctuations in the ambient magic near her manifested as a sensation. Like being able to feel warmth when under the sun or cold when a chilled breeze blows by, Twilight could feel magic just as easily as she could feel somepony touching her. And like most sensations, the feeling could be gentle or intense.

What Twilight felt at that very moment within the loft was a shift in the magical aura all around her that was so intense, the hackles on her neck stood up straight as she drew in a sudden loud gasp. The change had been very sudden, and very powerful, rippling its way across the land like a shockwave after an explosion. To all but a very select few, it would go completely unnoticed, but for Twilight it might as well had been the aftershock of a bomb going off.

Spike hadn’t noticed the change itself, but did realize quickly that something wasn’t right. He knew his Princess better than most, and he knew that this reaction could only mean one possible thing; something bad just happened. “...What’s wrong, Twilight?” he asked, concern weighing heavy on his voice.

“You felt that as well?” Luna asked from Twilight’s side. She seemed to share the same shocked look.

“Yeah,” Twilight said in a heavy breath. She clutched one of her forehooves close to her chest. “How could she even do that? Why?”

Luna visibly shuddered. She turned her glance upward toward the loft window, her worried glance looking out to the night sky. “I am not certain. But, I am certain of one thing; the situation just got much worse.”

The Perfect Plan

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter XIII – The Perfect Plan

Moondancer knelt on her forelegs down low to the ground, laying the right side of her head against the polished stone floor of the Canterlot throne room. While the cool stone felt nice against her face, she had a much more important reason to be laying her head there than trying to sooth her headaches.

She squinted her left eye closed, trying hard to focus her blurred vision while she eyed the edge of the red carpet with her right eye. She took note of the ripples where it had been moved. A thoughtful hum echoed from her throat as she pushed herself back up. She circled around the spot near the double doors, nearly the same spot that Twilight had been standing when the doors had opened. From the looks of the disheveled carpet, there had been a small struggle near there that had involved more than just a couple ponies.

She glanced up to look toward the throne at the other end of the room, and then quickly trotted down the hall. As she climbed the half dozen stairs that lead up to the throne, she paused momentarily, seeing that another struggle had taken place there as well, and this one had been far more physical. The carpet was pulled and bunched, even flipped over at one corner where it ended near the foot of the throne. Two struggles, each at two opposite ends of the room, but nothing immediately noticeable in between.

Moondancer climbed the remainder of the stairs, standing off to the side of the throne as she turned to look out over the throne room hall. She noticed her armor stacked together close to where the first struggle had occurred near the doorway. She also happened to notice the cracks in the pillar that the changeling had been found nearby, but besides a broken window, that was the full extent of the damage to the room. For what should have been a battle involving two alicorns, a changeling queen, and who knows how many changeling drones or Nightguard, the room seemed to be in surprisingly pristine condition.

Moondancer glanced to her side, looking up to the stained glass mural that had been shattered. From her perspective, she could see out to the night sky, the full moon only partially in view. She took a few steps toward the window, and as she did there was something that caught her attention. Most of the colored glass panes had been broken out from between the lead cames that held the pieces together, but the cames themselves were otherwise still intact, if somewhat bent. At that moment, Moondancer recalled what Twilight had told her earlier.

She had said Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis had left the throne room through the window.

Obviously if they had, then the metal cames would have been torn from the framing. Also, the glass would have been blown outward, instead of having fallen down at the base of the window into a pile.

Twilight had lied.

Moondancer let a curse go beneath her breath. Her hoovesteps echoed through the hall as she quickly descended the stairs, and then cantered toward her armor. As she approached her gear, her magic began to take hold of the pieces, bringing them to herself and fastening the pieces to her body quickly as she prepped herself. Once she had finished with the body armor, she brought her helm up, grasping it between her hooves. She spent a silent moment just staring at the open face of the helm, the troubling thoughts of the day’s events playing through her mind as she did so.

A clatter of metal clad hooves touching down at the doorway drew her attention away quickly, and she saw her sergeant trot in through the open doors, folding her wings. “I came as soon as possible, Captain,” Gale said through labored breathing.

The helm slipped from Moondancer’s hooves and clattered to the floor.

When Gale had arrived at the palace, she had made her way to the throne room, remembering that Moondancer had mentioned wanting to check it. As luck would have it, she found Moondancer still there, but before she could say much more a clatter of something being dropped on the stone floor caused Gale to flinch and then freeze in place. Moondancer had dropped her helm to the floor, turning herself to face Gale with her magic fully ignited with a bright white glow. Gale’s mind frantically raced as she tried to figure a reason for this reaction, settling on the conclusion that she may have just walked in on a changeling in the act of trying to take her captain’s place. Her wings flared out to her sides and she crouched low, preparing to battle the enemy before her, but her eyes caught something that caused her to give pause. The left side of Moondancer’s face was bandaged.

Gale’s blood ran cold the moment she realized that she was the one who had been identified as the possible changeling. “Captain! Wait!” she called out, but it was just a second too late. Moondancer released her spell upon Gale, which caused her to leap back with a powerful flap from her wings in an attempt to dodge. However, the power that Moondancer had unleashed didn’t come in the form of an arcane bolt, and instead expanded to fill the entire area like a bright white dome. There was nothing Gale to could do to avoid the spell as it reached her and passed over her.

Gale let out a gasp when the spell passed, but was otherwise unharmed. She hovered there in the air, panting from the sudden panic added to her already exhausted state. It had only been the detection spell. She silently thanked the stars above that Moondancer hadn’t chosen something more offensive.

“...Gale?” Moondancer asked as she looked up to her sergeant, her face twisted with confusion and agitation. Gale relaxed, allowing herself to glide back down to the floor. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack!?” Moondancer screeched.

Gale flinched. “Y-you sent for me, Captain. Something for my ears only?” She pondered over Moondancer’s bizarre behavior, wondering for a moment if the head injury might actually be affecting her in some way. That thought disappeared quickly when she saw the hard look that her superior officer was giving her, and she quickly straightened her stance. “Captain, I swear, it’s me. You sent me to tail Twilight and the guards that went with her to the train station.”

“Then why are you disobeying orders?”

Gale’s voice caught in her throat for a second. “The private said you had something urgent for my ears only!”

“...Private?” Moondancer asked, her eyes growing a bit wider. “Gale, who approached you?”

“I....” Gale realized that she didn’t actually know who the Nightguard had been. When he had approached, he seemed to already grasp the situation, and even offered to take over her post. The situation had felt so natural that she hadn’t even thought to ask who he was, but then the same had happened when Moondancer had been replaced in the Everfree Camp nearly a month ago. Nopony had even noticed when a changeling had been standing right in front of them, nor had they felt anything was suspicious. Gale slowly closed her eyes as a strained sigh escaped from her. “I’m sorry, Captain,” she said, lowering her head as she realized her mistake.

“Never mind that,” Moondancer said firmly as she approached. “Whatever they were about to do, they didn’t want you to see it.” Moondancer stopped just in front of her sergeant, following Gale with her eyes when she raised her head and stood at attention. “Get to the yard. Draw as many Nightguard together as you can, get to that train and stop it, now.”

“Yes, Captain!”

Gale left the room quickly, leaving Moondancer there to brood over the annoying situation for a moment. She drew in a deep breath, letting it out with a frustrated growl.

The good news was that Gale had taken an advance squad of pegasi ahead of the rest of the Nightguard and successfully stopped the train from leaving Canterlot. Unfortunately, that was the only good news.

The Nightguard had searched the train from end to end, and when nothing had turned up, it was searched from end to end again. The station and the street just outside was now filled with confused and frustrated passengers. Everypony was scanned with the detection spell, some repeatedly, including any Nightguard bringing back reports from the search of the surrounding area. The invasive nature of the search definitely wasn’t winning any points for the Nightguard, and had caused more than one heated confrontation between a few citizens and guards already. Luckily, it hadn’t gone any further than words, yet.

“I’m getting really tired of ponies disappearing,” Moondancer grumbled. Twilight Sparkle had been nowhere to be seen when the guards arrived at the train station. Once she had arrived herself, Moondancer immediately ordered the search of the train, the station, and the nearby city blocks. That was over half an hour ago, and not a single trace of Twilight nor the half dozen guards that had supposedly been with her had turned up, let alone any trace of changelings.

“Sorry, Captain,” Gale said quietly. She had been silently standing next to her superior officer as they both oversaw the search just outside the train station. Her muzzle was etched with a deep frown not too much unlike the one on Moondancer, but for a different reason. She drew in an uneasy breath, and then said, “This is all my fault—”

“Enough, Gale,” Moondancer said, not so much as breaking her watchful gaze of the search operation. The comment actually made Gale flinch, but she remained silent as she had been ordered. The uneasy silence lingered between the two for many moments afterward as they watched. “Mistakes happen,” Moondancer finally said, causing Gale to look to her side. “Against an enemy like this one, it could have happened to anypony. Heck, I managed to get myself caught by them once already.” Moondancer let go a long sigh, finally breaking her gaze away from the train station for a moment to look Gale in the eyes. “I shouldn’t have sent you alone. That was my mistake. You’re lucky that the only thing that happened was that they pulled a fast one on you. It could have been a lot worse for you.”

Gale held the silent gaze for a moment before turning her glance back to the station. “Well... sure, you’re right. It could have been worse for me. But now we have no idea where they even are. Isn’t that worse for everypony?”

Moondancer turned her attention back toward the station as well, watching as one of the unicorn guards used the detection spell to search one of the train passengers despite the loud complaints that he was getting for doing so. The scene caused her to grimace. “I’m really starting to wonder about this anti-changeling magic,” Moondancer said through a tired sigh. “I haven’t seen it work once. I haven’t even heard of it working at all, except the one time that Twilight used it herself. As far as we know, that is the only time it has ever worked, isn’t it?”

Gale glanced curiously toward Moondancer. “Do you think that means anything?”

Moondancer shook her head, letting it hang down as she cast her gaze toward the cobble street at her hooves. “I don’t know what to think.”

“Captain!”

Moondancer snapped her attention toward the voice when she heard the call, seeing one of the pegasus scouts flying in nearby. Despite her doubt in the spell’s ability, she choose to cast the detection spell anyway, and quickly let go a burst of white magic that harmlessly passed over the scout as he landed. “What is it, Scout?” she asked as she gave a quick salute in answer to the one he gave her.

“You’re... I don’t think anypony is going to believe this,” the scout said, his voice having an edge of agitation to it.

Moondancer slowly blinked her eyes, making a strong effort not to roll them. “Hard to know if you don’t tell us.”

The scout took a quick breath to calm himself, nodding as he prepared to deliver his report. “We found them, we think. My group is tailing them right now, and they were headed through the suburbs between Sunny Lane and Bridge Way, just east of here.”

“They?” Moondancer asked as she tilted her head.

“The enchantress and five others. But, the enchantress... she’s different.”

Moondancer quirked an eyebrow at the scouts evasive wording. “Stop beating around the bush, Scout.”

“An alicorn, Captain. The enchantress is an alicorn.”

There was a moment of stunned silence, and then Gale spoke up from the side. “Are you sure you weren’t just seeing things?”

“I made doubly sure of what we saw, even confirmed it with the others. We all saw the same thing, Sarge.”

Moondancer exchanged a quick glance with Gale before she took a single step forward, resting a hoof on the scout’s shoulder. “Thank you. Report back to your group and keep an eye on the target. Tell them to get in position with nets and to try not to be seen. When we get ground forces near enough, we’ll need their eyes to guide us so we can set up an ambush.”

“Yes, Captain!” With a quick salute, the scout took a single step backwards and then spun around to spring back into the night sky. Moondancer followed him with her eyes for a moment, turning her attention back when she heard Gale speak up next to her.

“Captain, can a changeling do that?” Gale had asked. “Can they just make themselves look like an alicorn?”

Moondancer already knew that a changeling wouldn’t have to if it had mimicked Twilight, but nopony else in the guard would have known that. If her guess were right, and that changeling was Chrysalis, then that left one obvious unanswered question. Why would Chrysalis deliberately draw extra attention to herself by openly showing herself as an alicorn?

Since no answer immediately came to mind, there was only one other way that Moondancer would be able to get her answer. “We can ask them ourselves once we capture them.”

A pegasus Nightguard laid on her back upon one of the many rooftops of the eastern suburbs in Canterlot. She had just finished adjusting the straps that held a cylindrical device to the side of her right foreleg. She hooked her left fetlock against the pin that stuck out of the side of hollow metallic tube and pulled back, causing it to slide back nearly to the end of the cylinder and lock in place with a quiet click.

Quickly rolling back upright, she hooked her forehooves over the peak of the roof, and pulled herself up just barely high enough to peer over the edge. The enchantments within her helm aided her pegasus sight in spotting the other guards perched on the other rooftops nearby, and also in spotting the targets on the street below. The group of mares had been wandering the streets as if lost ever since they had been discovered, and had now found their way to a secluded section of the suburbs. This was the best possible location to attempt the capture, and the pegasi had stealthily moved themselves into position across the rooftops surrounding the area.

Allowing herself to slide back down below the roof peak, she glanced back over her shoulder toward the street behind her. She made a quick signal by motioning with a hoof to her eyes.

Captain Moondancer caught the signal from where she was standing down below. She gave a quick motion with her hoof to let the guard know that her signal had been received, and then trotted up to the wall of the building where her team was waiting for her.

“They’re just ahead, around the corner. The pegasi will make their move any second now,” Moondancer said in a quiet whisper. The unicorn and earth pony guards all readied themselves near the corner of the building. Their task was simple; make sure nopony escaped through the southern street. The other groups spread out around the city block were to cut off any other possible escape routes while the pegasi went in for the capture.

Moondancer edged herself close to the corner, leaning the right side of her face against the wall as she stole a glance around the wall’s edge. She could see the six mares walking casually down the street, and spotted Twilight leading them. The scouting reports she had been receiving had told her that these mares were the same group that had helped the Nightguard at the camp in the Everfree. And just as it had been reported, Twilight was openly displaying her wings for all to see. Moondancer still found it odd to see her so calmly and casually moving about in the open without her disguise, even if it most likely wasn’t her. The sight left Moondancer with a nagging feeling that something about this was off, but she pushed the notion aside to focus on her task.

Moondancer’s eyes quickly darted up when she noticed a quick movement overhead. Only a second later she heard the sound of the net launchers being released, the spring loaded devices letting go a distinct metallic clank as each one was fired by the pegasi. The nets sailed through the air with a twirling, whistling noise as they flew toward their targets.

Twilight and her companions quickly sprung to action, scattering almost immediately when the ambush was launched. Two of the mares took to the air, but were quickly denied escape as they were snared mid air by the nets, each of them thudding back to the ground with a grunt. The remaining three ground bound mares that were with Twilight had each ran in a different direction, attempting to find escape down the side streets. Each mare found a team of Nightguard blocking their path, and were soon snared by by nets as well.

Twilight had chosen to run south down the main street, staying to the ground and agilely dodging the nets. Moondancer had her team ready, and motioned for them to follow her as she charged around the corner directly at the enchantress. Twilight’s eyes went wide with surprise the moment the group of Nightguard appeared before her. Her wings flared out at her sides as she skidded to a stop and she quick spun around to attempt to escape, but her hooves suddenly slipped out from under herself causing her to hit the ground chin first.

Moondancer galloped up the street behind Twilight, cancelling the anti-friction spell she had used to trip up her target. Twilight was struggling to get back to her hooves just as she was tackled back to the street by Moondancer. “Ring her!” Moondancer screamed as she struggled to hold Twilight down underneath her. If this somehow was the real Twilight, she didn’t want to take the chance that she would end up on the wrong end of the angered alicorn’s magic.

An earth pony from Moondancer’s team quickly clamped a blue glowing ring down on Twilight’s horn. Moondancer’s horn lit with a pale white glow as she stood over Twilight, and her telekinetic aura took hold of the alicorn to flip her over, forcing her onto her back. Moondancer wasted no time casting the revealing spell, and the wide beam of white light passed over the suspected changeling. As it did, her violet coat and mane were stripped away to reveal the black chitin that it had been hiding.

Moondancer stood over the changeling, her chest still heaving from her heavy breathing. The changeling stared back up at her with its compound eyes, seeming to be equally breathless. A drone. The changeling had only been a drone.

Moondancer’s eyes darted around, looking to the other mares that had been captured. “Check the others,” she said. Unicorns began casting spells, stripping away disguises and revealing a changeling drone where each of the other five mares had been. Moondancer looked upon each of the drones as her mind worked. “Six drones,” she said quietly, a number that stuck out as significant. She tried to think of a reason why, and then realization briefly flashed on her face before she let go an exasperated sigh.

“Captain?” Gale asked as she trotted up. “What’s wrong?”

“Six,” Moondancer said plainly. “There were six guards with Twilight.” She glanced up, looking her sergeant directly in the eyes. “These are decoys.”

Gale glanced over the drones, her ears splaying back. “We brought most of the Nightguard here,” she said as she looked back to Moondancer. “The palace is nearly empty.”

Moondancer approached Gale quickly, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Get the pegasi team together and get back there now,” she said. Her voice wasn’t angry or loud, but Gale could still hear the stress and urgency weighing heavy on it.

“Yes, Captain,” Gale quickly said as she turned to her task. Within a matter of a minute, she had successfully gathered together every pegasi Nightguard in the area and taken them to the skies to return to the palace. Moondancer had silently watched them leave, only hoping that it wouldn’t already be too late by the time they arrived.

Moondancer turned her attention to the group of changeling prisoners that the rest of the guards had gathered together and secured. She noticed that every single one of them was watching her. Her muzzle twisted into a grimace, and she approached the changeling that had been using Twilight’s form. The way it sat hunched over only exaggerated the apparent size difference between them, making it appear like Moondancer was towering over the smaller creature as she stared down into the compound eyes that were watching her. “I’m sure you’re watching through this thing, thinking that you’re little trick was so clever.” Moondancer leaned down to where she was nearly snout to snout with the changeling, narrowing her eyes. “I still owe you one, and I plan on paying you back in full when I finally find you.”

Applejack let a short whistle go between her front teeth as she glanced up at the high ceilings of Canterlot’s inner palace halls. “Sure is fancy. And you’re certain it’s alright us bein’ here, right Twi?”

So far, Chrysalis’s plan had been going better than she could have ever expected. Using Twilight’s form had proven to make the task of getting the five bearers from the train to the palace while remaining unseen all the more easy, and the Nightguard were busy chasing the bait that she had sent off toward the other end of Canterlot, which would give them more than enough time. Everything was going perfectly.

“Absolutely,” Chrysalis said in response to Applejack’s question. “With Nightmare Moon and most of her guards distracted, we won’t have to avoid anypony while we’re here. The guards that are still here are on our side, so there’s no need to worry.”

Rainbow Dash broke away from gawking at the surroundings long enough to ask a question of her own. “How did you manage to pull off something like that?”

Chrysalis gave Rainbow Dash a sly grin. “Oh, I have my ways.”

“She’s is a princess, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity added, her tone indicating that she was stating something that should have been completely obvious.

A quick shushing sound drew everypony’s attention toward Pinkie. “That’s a secret,” she hissed in a stage whisper, her hoof prodding at the velvet jacket that Chrysalis was wearing.

“Oh,” Rarity whispered back. “My apologies, Twilight.”

Chrysalis dismissed the concern with a wave of her hoof. “Don’t worry, we should be safe long enough to retrieve the Elements.” She continued to lead the five mares through the halls of the palace, passing by a few of her Nightguard disguised drones along the way. They gave her a quick salute that she nodded toward in response.

“Well,” Applejack started as she stole a glance back down the long hallway they had been walking through. “I hope you already know where they’re keepin’ them, cuz this place sure is big. A pony could get lost in here for quite a while, I reckon.”

Chrysalis glanced to Applejack. “I’ve got this all planned out,” she said with a confident grin. She already knew that her drones were waiting for her near the vault that the Elements were sealed within, and had brought the ‘key’ that they would need. The group came upon the final turn, and once they rounded the corner they could see another group of three standing there in the hall. Two of them were easily identifiable as Nightguard, but the third was somepony that most of the mares were not familiar with. It wasn’t until they got a bit closer that they notice the third pony was actually an alicorn.

“Twilight!” Cadance called out when she noticed the group of mares approaching her. Her face brightened with a smile as she cantered over to Chrysalis, and once she was in reach she extended a hoof to embrace the disguise changeling. Chrysalis kept to her act, putting a fitting smile on and returning the embrace. She felt a wave of energy at the touch, and had to resist the urge to lose herself among the powerful feelings of affection that washed over her, settling on drawing only a small, unnoticeable amount of power from it to quench her thirst for now. “I thought it was too good to be true when these guards told me they were going to bring me to see you,” Cadance said as she pulled back from the hug to look Chrysalis in the eyes.

“Well, I did say I would try to find a way to help, didn’t I, Cadance?” There were a few muffled gasps and more than one surprised look on the other mares when they heard Chrysalis mention the name. “I see they got the restraints off too. That’s good, because there is a favor I was hoping you could do for me and my friends.”

“Anything I can do, Twilight. Anything at all.”

Chrysalis smiled, and began walking down the hall, leading the group to a set of large double doors. “The lock on this vault should respond to your magic,” she said as she stopped just in front of the metal plated doorway. She glanced over the door shortly before turning her glance back toward Cadance. “I was hoping you would get it open for us.” Making use of Cadance to gain access to the magically sealed vault had been part of the plan from the early stages of its forming. The locking mechanism for this particular vault was special, protected with an enchantment that would only react to an alicorn’s magic, one of the most secure ways to protect an artifact such as the Elements. While she had originally planned to force Cadance to open the vault with a little persuasive mind magic, being able to ask her to do it as a favor instead was a much less strenuous option.

“Oh... well,” Cadance said hesitantly as she gritted her teeth together and looked up at the massive doors. “I wasn’t ever told a combination.”

Chrysalis tried not to let her disappointment show, maintaining her calm outward appearance. Apparently, not everything was destined to go perfectly as she had thought. This was another slight setback, another event that was not meant to happen, another that she hadn’t foreseen, just like the moment that Twilight had managed to whisk away Nightmare Moon. However, she had managed to adjust her plan to account for that oddity, and she knew of no other possible way to access the vault other than through Cadance’s ability. Whether she knew the combination or not, she was meant to open this vault. “At least try it. You’re the only one who can do this,” she said, still holding out hope for her plan to somehow succeed.

“Wait a minute,” Rainbow said as she frowned at the doors. She turned her glance toward Chrysalis and asked, “Are you saying your fancy shmancy magic won’t work on this?”

“Well,” Chrysalis started, momentarily caught off guard by the question. She quickly thought to bring up an excuse for needing Cadance’s power that wouldn’t give herself away. “Mine isn’t... attuned to it. But Cadance should be. She is a princess of Equestria, after all.” Chrysalis ended the short explanation with a hopeful grin.

Rainbow Dash nearly made a comment about how Twilight was also technically a princess of Equestria, but relented when she felt the narrow-eyed stare coming from a certain pink pony standing next to her, barely hearing the word ‘secret’ being hissed at her. She settled on just mumbling a ‘whatever’ instead.

Cadance drew in a breath, letting it go with a thoughtful hum. “Right, well. I’ll do what I can.” She went to gathering her concentration, igniting her horn with a light blue glow. She focused on the large metallic plates that covered the doorway, each plate easily being nearly the size of a pony on its own, and numbering eleven in total on each of the two doors in a three by four grid pattern, with one missing in each of the top rows. Each plate had a depiction etched on it, but what the image was meant to be wasn’t exactly clear. It looked as if each one was only part of an unfinished picture. Her magic reached out and grasped at the plates of the right side door, trying to find something that would give but finding that most of the plates were solidly mounted to the door’s face. Her magic worked its way across each plate, eventually making its way up toward the top two that had the empty gap between them. As her magic ran over one of the plates, it shifted slightly, and she pushed it further only for it to slide from its original spot completely into the empty slot, making an audible clunk as it did so. She tilted her head curiously at the doorway, a motion that was mirrored by most of the others standing there near her.

“Oh! Oh oh oh!” Pinkie suddenly spoke up, drawing all the attention back to her. She was rapidly bouncing in place as she pointed a hoof up at one of the plates on the doorway. “Move that one!” she excitedly commanded, to which the princess reluctantly complied as she used her magic to shift the plate that Pinkie had indicated. “Now move those two,” she said as she continued to direct Cadance, to which she complied again. “Move those up, and then move those over.” Pinkie continued to guide Cadance in sliding the plates over the door’s surface, all the while looking like an excited little foal the way she alternated between chewing at her bottom lip and tongue.

“Pinkie, do you know what you’re doin’?” Applejack finally asked.

“Shush!” Pinkie said, not so much as missing a step between her commands. Applejack grumbled something along the lines of ‘don’t shush me’ in response, but Pinkie ignored it. “Move those over and then move that one down.”

Rainbow had been squinting at the doorway as the tiles slid around in a seemingly random fashion, her lips pursed as she tried to decide if Pinkie was actually making a serious attempt at opening the vault or if her friend was just getting some sort of bizarre entertainment out of making a princess slide squares around. Then she happened to notice something when a line of the tiles slid into place next to another. “Hey, that kinda looks like a picture.”

“Uh huh,” Pinkie said quickly as she nodded her head before picking out the next tile to be moved.

A few more tiles slid into place, and eyes began to grow wider as the others in the room began to see more of the complete image. “I think... yes, I see it!” Cadance said as she quickly worked her magic to move the last few tiles into their proper position. Just as she finished positioning the last tile, there was a loud clank, followed by what sounded like gears spinning up. As the sound echoed through the hall, a final tile slid in from the door frame above the door, locking into place were the remaining gap had been and completing an image of a half moon on the right side door. The sound abruptly ended with a loud clunk, being the only noise that echoed through the otherwise silent hall for a moment afterwards.

“Well, that’s one,” Rarity said as she glanced from the right side door to the left. “I suppose you can solve this one as well?” she asked as she glanced back over her shoulder at Pinkie.

Pinkie had already set herself to studying the eleven plates on the second doorway. She let go a long hum as she sat there on her haunches, her eyes slowly narrowing as she brought a hoof up to bump it against her chin in thought.

After about the third or fourth thoughtful hum, Rainbow let go a huff of air as she rolled her eyes. “Well?” she asked toward Pinkie.

“I’m thinking,” she quickly responded, going back into her pattern of staring and humming at the doorway.

Most of the attention was on the vault doors and the pink pony puzzling over them. However, Chrysalis’s mind was currently focused on something elsewhere. The whites of her eyes had a very slight greenish glow as she seemed to stare blankly at a space just off to the side from the group. The moment passed, and she blinked her eyes rapidly as the greenish glow faded away.

“Somethin’ wrong, Twi?” Applejack asked when she noticed that Chrysalis had seemed distracted.

“Hm? Oh, no it’s... well it’s not nothing.” Indeed it wasn’t nothing, as she had just learned from one of her decoys that they had been captured, and her group would soon have to worry about a large number of pegasi guards arriving at the palace. They still had time, but it was now limited. “We’ll need to move quickly once we have the Elements. The distraction that I set up isn’t going to keep them busy much longer.”

“Ah hah!” Pinkie declared as she quickly jumped up on all fours. “No wonder it didn’t make sense! I was looking for the wrong kind of picture. Silly me!” she said as she tapped a hoof to the side of her head, sticking her tongue out to the side slightly.

“So, you can solve this?” Rarity asked.

“Yepperoony! Princess, if you wouldn’t mind?” Once Cadance had prepared herself, Pinkie proceed to guide her in solving the second doorway’s combination. The duo of pink ponies worked the tiles over efficiently, one calling out the movements while the other used her magic to slide the tiles into place. The excitement in the room slowly built as the tiles slid into alignment, showing more of a complete picture. Words of encouragement began to buzz from the group to urge Pinkie and Cadance onward.

Even Chrysalis couldn’t help but lose herself in the thrill of the moment. “Come on, come on!” she cheered as the image on the left door neared completion. The last of the tiles slid into its proper place at the top of the door, and once again the sound of gears spinning up echoed through the hallway as a final tile slid into the empty slot from the door frame above. The left side door now held a completed image of a half sun that mirrored the half moon of the right side door. With both doors solved, the enchantments protecting the vault released themselves, and the heavy doors slowly swung open toward the group on their own accord.

“Yes!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she did a quick flying back flip. “That was awesome!”

“Yes, very well done,” Chrysalis said. “Now the Elements are ours.”

“The Elements?” Cadance asked as she looked toward Chrysalis. “As in... Elements of Harmony?”

Chrysalis smiled as she allowed the translucency spell she had cast upon the Element of Magic to fade, bringing the crown into view atop her head. Cadance drew in a shocked gasp, her eyes widening at the sight. “Yes, and now they are back where they belong,” Chrysalis said as she stepped forward, reaching a hoof up to rest on her shoulder. “Thanks to you, the Elements are now in the hooves of the chosen bearers. You’ve been most helpful.” Chrysalis turned toward the two disguised drones that had been silently waiting nearby, drawing Cadance along with her. “There isn’t a lot of time left. These guards will take you somewhere safe.”

A brief moment of confusion flashed across Cadance’s face, followed by disappointment. “Oh... can I not go with you?”

Chrysalis stopped near the two guards, turning herself toward Cadance. “Where we’re going, it may not be safe. And... well, soon you may very well be Equestria’s only remaining princess. Putting you in harms way wouldn’t exactly be the wise thing to do, would it?”

“I see. Yes, I suppose you’re right,” Cadance said. She frowned down toward the floor, her sides heaving with a visible sigh.

Chrysalis reached forward, and gently drew Cadance’s gaze back up to her own. “We’ll see each other again. I promise,” she said, smiling gently and crafting words that she was sure Cadance would want to hear.

Cadance nodded and tried to force a smile in response. “Very well. I hope it’s sooner rather than later,” she said as she moved a step forward, embracing Chrysalis. Chrysalis held the embrace for a moment, stealing a glance to the side to her two drones. Her eyes flashed a dim green very briefly as she communicated a silent message to them, which they both acknowledged with a nod. Now that there was no longer a need for Cadance’s power, they were to take her back to the cell where they had originally found her.

Once Cadance had departed with the two disguised guards, Chrysalis turned her attention back to the vault, stepping just inside as she glanced at the five dormant orbs. Each one was perched on top of a solid onyx pedestal, and the other five mares had already begun to look them over out of curiosity.

Fluttershy was the first one to notice when Chrysalis had entered through the doorway without Cadance following her. “Where is Princess Cadance?” she asked meekly as she craned her neck to look around behind Chrysalis.

“The guards are escorting her to somewhere safe. From here on out, it’s just us.”

“So,” Rainbow Dash said as she tapped a hoof to one of the orbs to the far right. “How do we work these things?”

“Well first off, that one isn’t yours. Loyalty is over there,” Chrysalis said as she pointed a hoof to the orb that was to the far left.

Rainbow blinked and glanced over to the other orb. She cleared her throat and quickly flapped her wings to hover over to where Loyalty sat on it’s pedestal. “I knew that. I was just making sure you knew that.”

“Right,” Chrysalis said with a quick roll of her eyes. “This one is Honesty,” she declared as she pointed to the far right orb. “And the remaining three are Kindness, Generosity, and Laughter,” she said as she pointed out the remaining three in order. Each of the mares approached the orb that they knew was meant to be theirs.

“So, is there anything we should do?” Rarity asked as she glanced back toward Chrysalis.

“Yeah,” Applejack said as she pondered over the dormant Element in front of her. “I remember you sayin’ something back at the hive that we had to claim em or somethin’.”

“Yes, and we can do that like this,” Chrysalis said as she ignited her magic. Her horn flashed with a green tint, causing a spark of energy to travel across the magenta gem that adorned the crown on her head. The facets of Magic began to light up and sparkle, and soon the other five geodes in the room all began to sparkle in response to the call. The five orbs glittered more brightly until they seemed to glow with a light all of their own, becoming so bright that it was impossible to look directly at them. Once the orbs all became completely consumed in the light, they each flashed over the short distance from their pedestal to the neck of each of the five mares that were meant to be their bearers. The bright light dimmed very quickly afterward.

“Oh! Oh my,” Fluttershy said as she took a quick step back. She was glancing down at the golden necklace that now adorned her neck. She timidly propped the necklace up with her hoof, gazing at the pink butterfly shaped jewel set in the center.

“Hehehe! Look at mine!” Pinkie said as she proudly displayed Laughter for her friends to see.

“It looks just like your cutie mark,” Rarity said as she glanced over the balloon shaped jewel. She then glanced down to her own. “They all look like our cutie marks.”

“I’m not usually one to wear fancy jewelry,” Rainbow Dash commented as she sat back on her haunches, touching her forehoof to Loyalty. “But look at this thing! It’s a red lightning bolt. That’s just awesome!”

“I’m glad you all approve, but we need to get moving,” Chrysalis said as she turned to walk out of the vault. “We still have one more stop to make before we leave the palace.”

“Another stop?” Applejack questioned as she followed Chrysalis out, tilting her head with a curious glance. “I thought we were gonna grab the Elements and git.”

Chrysalis didn’t miss a step as she turned and began to trot down the palace hall, the five bearers all cantering out of the vault to catch up to her. “And we will, once we make a quick stop by the gardens.”

Fluttershy spoke up, her interest piqued at the mention of the Canterlot Gardens. “What’s at the gardens?” she asked.

Chrysalis let go a thoughtful hum a second before she glanced over her shoulder to Fluttershy. “It’ll be easier for me to just show you.”

Gale touched down in the yard near the entrance of the Canterlot Palace, wasting no time as she galloped toward the entryway. The squadron of pegasi that she had brought with her followed her inside. She had tried to think of what the changelings could possibly want at the palace, but had come up empty hoofed. There were too many possible places to search, and not enough of them to search every one of those places quickly enough. They would have to search as many as they could and just hope to get lucky.

Gale slowed her pace until she came to a stop, turning herself about to face her fellow guards. “Alright, I think it’s about time to let you all in on what’s going on here,” she said as she looked over the two dozen pegasi. “As you all already know, the Queen Changeling escaped, but we haven’t been able to locate her. We have reason to believe that any pony appearing to look like Enchantress Twilight Sparkle may actually be a changeling, possibly even Chrysalis herself, so if any of you do find her, you are to signal the rest of us.”

“How do we go about doing the signal, Sarge?” a stallion asked from the group.

Gale lifted her wing, reaching her hoof across to tap the side saddle bag attached to her armor. “Use your flares. Shoot them off inside if you have to, but do not attempt to approach the enchantress until we have the entire squad there.”

“Is she really that powerful?” another voice called from the group.

“Captain Moondancer suspects that Chrysalis did something to both the enchantress and our queen. If you think you’re tough enough to go up against something like that, then be my guest, but I’ll be there to say ‘I told you so’ when you get stomped. I’d recommend following orders and calling for help first.”

There was a low murmur that rumbled from the group of pegasi for a brief moment. The voice called back in answer from the group again, saying, “Understood, Sarge.”

“Good. I’m going to break us up into teams of five. That should give us five teams to search with. Whatever you do, do not lose sight of each other. We don’t have any unicorns with us here yet, so we can’t use the detection spell to check each other. Don’t trust any other guards you see until the rest get here with Captain Moondancer.”

A mare spoke up from the group, asking, “What do we do if we encounter other guards?”

“Avoid them, we’re after Chrysalis.”

Gale divided the groups in short order, and set them all to their tasks of searching different areas of the palace grounds. Her group was going to head down to the eastern halls, past the throne room. This was the same hall that lead to the vault that the Elements had been kept within.

As Gale and her four comrades rounded a corner in the hallway, they all came to a sudden stop when they came face to face with another group of two guards escorting Princess Cadance. Both groups stared at each other in surprised silence for a moment. Gale knew that the group was likely changelings, but she was surprised to see one walking around looking like the young princess. She momentarily considered using her flare to call the rest to herself, but hesitated when she realized that this might have been yet another decoy of some sort.

“I am not going back in that cage!” Cadance yelled as her horn lit with a bright blue glow. A half dome of the same color popped into existence, encompassing herself and her escorts. The sudden activation of magic caused a couple of Gale’s comrades to react, and they quickly brought up net launchers that they fired at the threat before them. The nets whistled through the air, but landed harmlessly against the dome to slid down to the floor.

“Cease fire!” Gale quickly called out as she flared her wing out to her side. While it was highly likely that the two guards were changelings, the one that appeared as Cadance was either putting on an extremely convincing light show, or was the real thing. If she was actually the princess, then that brought an interesting question to mind; did she realize she was standing next to two changelings? “Princess Cadenza?” Gale asked as she took a tentative step forward.

“Oh no,” Cadance said, vigorously shaking her head as she backpedaled a step, her protective dome sliding along with her. “I am not going to be tricked a second time. Keep your distance!”

“Wait! You don’t realize the danger you’re in,” Gale said as she held a single, cautioned hoof forward.

“I think I realize, thank you,” Cadance said as she narrowed her eyes at Gale.

“Those guards are not ours! They’re not even equine!”

Cadance blinked once, her harsh glare softening a bit at the confusing statement. “What are you getting at?”

“What did they have you do? The only reason they would let you out is to have you do something for them.”

“I....” Cadance’s mouth went slightly agape. She seemed suddenly surprised at the question. She slowly glanced down to her side, eyeing the guard next to her out of the corner of her eye.

Before Cadance could say anything further, there was a bright flash of green to her other side, and then a high pitched hiss from the drone that had dropped its disguise. It lurched forward with its mouth agape, wrapping its lips around the side of her neck and biting down. Sharp fangs pierced through Cadance’s flesh as she let out a shrill scream. Her shield flickered and vanished as she fell over to the floor, the changeling drone following her down as it remained latched onto her neck. She thrashed against the drone that held her pinned to the floor as she cried out in pain.

“Get that thing off her!” Gale yelled as she charged forward. The second drone dropped its disguise the second it was tackled by one of the pegasus guards, snapping its jaws as it attempted to get in a bite. Two others quickly helped restrain the drone as Gale and the other remaining guard pulled the other drone away from the princess. Cadance curled up on her side, holding a hoof over the wound on her neck as her body drew in gasps of air between the agonizing cries.

The two drones were dealt with swiftly, each one being restrained and then pinned to the floor under a guard’s weight. Once both drones were secured, Gale quickly moved over to Cadance, gently placing a hoof atop the one that she had pressed against her neck. “Princess, let me see,” she said as she gently tried to pull her hoof back.

“No, no no, not again, please,” Cadance whined as she tried very ineffectively to push herself away from Gale.

“I’m not going to hurt you! I’m here to help. Now let me see.” Cadance struggled for a short while longer before she finally gave in. She relaxed the hold that she had on her neck as Gale gently pulled her hoof back to take a look. The fur on her foreleg and neck were darkened with smeared blood, and there were two puncture marks where she had been bitten that were seeping a small amount. Gale only broke her stare away from the wound when she noticed Cadance’s body shaking as she laid there on the floor. She quickly looked around, noticing two of the pegasi gawking over her shoulder. “What are you doing!? Get a medic!” she said as she shot them a stern glare, which quickly got them into action. As the two pegasi galloped off in the direction of the palace medical ward, Gale turned her attention back down to Cadance. “It’s going to be alright,” she said as she edged in closer, clasping one of the princess’s shaking forehooves in her own.

“Twilight...,” Cadance weakly said as she drew in shaky breaths. “Twilight... why.”

Gale’s eye’s widened, and she knelt herself down closer to Cadance’s face. “Did you see Twilight here in the palace?” she asked. However, no other answer would come forth as Cadance simply stared off blankly across the floor, periodically repeating the name between her struggling breaths.

The Canterlot Palace Gardens were known to be a sight to behold the world over. Rows upon rows of perfectly cut hedges, immaculate fountains, and perfect stone depictions of important figures from the past were common place for one to see if they were to receive the privilege of visiting rights. However, the absence of lighting other than the natural moonlight cast a very different picture than what the mares had expected. Long shadows from the shrubbery, trees, and statues filled the gardens with unsettling shapes of darkness. Rainbow Dash was eyeing a small, perfectly pruned tree that she was passing by, and then turned her gaze back forward to see half of a white face staring back at her with its soulless eye. “Dah!” she yelped as she flinched back a step, her wings flashing out to her sides. Realizing that it was one of the many shadowed statues staring back at her, she shook her head as she let go a low grumble. “Why are there so many creepy statues here?”

“I think that one is rather charming,” Rarity said as she stopped next to Rainbow, looking up at the statue of a stallion. Its stone form was adorned with armor, its right hoof hooked around a bo staff that stood perfectly vertical as it stood at attention.

“They’re just statues of ponies, Dash,” Applejack called back as she followed Chrysalis along with Fluttershy and Pinkie toward their destination. “They ain’t gonna jump up and bite ya or nothin’.”

Rainbow mumbled something unintelligible under her breath as she trotted over to catch up with the group, Rarity following close beside her. She found herself pondering on just how much more milling around they were going to do before they arrived at whatever it was that was so important about the gardens. In the next few seconds, she got her answer when the entire group rounded the corner on a row of hedges. “Okay, that one is creepy,” she said as she pointed to an imposing statue centered in the middle of a circle of hedges just before them.

Applejack slowly nodded, her eyes not leaving the statue. “Yeah, I’d have to agree.”

“Definitely,” Rarity added as she grimaced at the sight before her.

“Why is that here?” Fluttershy asked as she half way hid herself at Rainbow’s side.

“That,” Chrysalis said as she turned toward the group of mares, “is a draconequus.”

There was a short moment of silence, and then Applejack asked, “A dragon-what?” as she looked to Chrysalis, confused.

“Looks like a little bit of everything,” Pinkie said as she pondered over the mixed up looking statue. It appeared to be posed as if mid song, one hand held over its chest and the other outstretched to its side as its mouth hung wide open to hold an eternal, silent note. Only its head seemed to somewhat resemble a pony in an odd way, the rest of it being a mixture of at least a half dozen other animals, likely more.

“He’s a whole lot of trouble,” Chrysalis said as she walked up to the statue. “But, with the proper guidance, his power can help us.”

Applejack’s head jerked back sharply before she looked between the statue and Chrysalis. “Waitaminute, what you getting at here, Twi?”

Chrysalis stopped at the base of the statue, glancing up at it. “We’re going to let him out, and then he’s going to help us.”

“Let him... out?” Fluttershy said, her ears splaying back as she shrunk down a bit further beside Rainbow Dash.

“That’s him,” Chrysalis said as she turned herself toward the group, gesturing a hoof to her side at the statue. “He’s been trapped in that statue for quite a while now, ever since the royal siblings first used the Elements and trapped him.”

“So,” Rarity started as she gave the statue a hard look. “The princesses put him there.”

“Yes,” Chrysalis confirmed with a nod.

“And we’re letting him out....” Rarity looked at to Chrysalis, her expression seeming to ask the silent question of whether that was actually a sane act.

“Not without the proper precautions,” Chrysalis said as she raised a single hoof as if to illustrate her point. “He’ll listen to us, whether he wants to or not.” The rest of the mares glanced between each other, sharing looks that seemed say what they were too afraid to say out loud; that none of them thought this was a good idea. “Trust me. We need his help, and with the Elements he won’t be able to say no.”

“That sounds kind of mean,” Fluttershy mumbled quietly.

Chrysalis’s jaw flexed as she grited her teeth, but she fought down the urge to snap at Fluttershy’s comment. “Look, there isn’t a lot of time for me to explain this all in detail. We’re going to have guards on us any minute, and we need to take Discord with us. I’ll explain it all later.”

“His name is Discord?” Rainbow said as she glanced up at the statue. “Well that isn’t ominous or anything.”

“Can we get on with this?” Chrysalis said, her frustration showing very briefly. After a moment of slight hesitation, the group stepped forward toward the statue, each of them drawing closer and stopping once they were only a few steps away. Chrysalis gave them a short smile and nodded before she cleared her throat. “Now, I need all of you to clear your minds and focus for me. Try not to think of anything in particular. All you have to do is focus on the feeling that is left inside you, I can do the rest.”

The five mares glanced curiously to each other, a couple of them even shrugging their shoulders before they began to close their eyes. They each stood there, nearly shoulder to shoulder as they did their best to do what had been asked of them. Chrysalis gave them a short moment before she too closed her eyes and then lit her magic. The green aura from her horn sent a ripple of energy up to Magic’s jewel, causing the facets of the jewel to sparkle with their own light at the power’s touch. The rest of the Elements responded by lighting in a similar fashion, and all six of the gems began to glow brighter. Chrysalis focused on a particular spell, and as she began to draw together the energy required to form it, a stream of light seemed to float from each of the gems in a glowing ribbon. The ribbons circled in front of the group, entangling with one another as they began to form two bright rings.

The ribbons of light eventually stopped flowing from the Elements, and as soon as they had most of the mares let out relieved gasps when the power draw ended. The glowing rings then floated up to the statue guided by Chrysalis’s magic, each one finding a home on one of Discord’s wrists.

“Woo, that felt a bit off,” Applejack said in a slightly woozy tone.

“I’d say. Felt like something was getting sucked out of me,” Rainbow said as she added her complaint, rubbing at the back of her neck as she sat back on her haunches.

“Using these is safe, isn’t it?” Rarity asked to Chrysalis, raising Generosity up slightly from her chest with her hoof.

“Yes, it’s perfectly safe. You’re just feeling the effects of the magic draw for the spell, which is perfectly normal,” Chrysalis said as she dismissed the concerns. “Now, we need to cast just one more spell.”

“Another one?” Rarity asked, her voice coming out as a higher pitched whine. “What was the first one for?”

“That was the binding spell. Now we have to actually free him. Concentrate.”

If any of the mares had any objections, they didn’t voice them. Each of the bearers closed their eyes once more, clearing their minds of distracting thoughts as well as they could. Chrysalis began the second spell, this one being far less complicated but quite a bit more demanding. Undoing a prison spell that had lasted for well over a thousand years was going to take a fair amount of force.

The jewels of the Elements all began to grow brightly, and soon waves of energy were pouring out of the the Elements in a rainbow of colors. The visible power of the Elements gathered in a multi-colored vortex that spun around Discord’s statue, growing and increasing in intensity as more power was drawn from the bearers. Many of the mares began to show signs of stress on their faces, but they kept to their task as they had been asked. The power of the spell finally peaked, and the vortex constricted inward onto the statue suddenly, causing a bright flash of light as the vortex was absorbed into the statue.

The bearers watched as best they could, squinting against the bright light coming from the statue. An audible cracking noise drew their attention to the base of the statue where spiderwebbed cracks were quickly crawling up Discord’s legs and lower torso. The entire statue began to vibrate as the cracks crawled their way upward all the way to the very tip of the horns, the cracks themselves beginning to emanate beams of light. With one more blinding flash, Discord’s true form broke free from the prison, causing flecks of stone and powerful shock waves of loose magical energy to scatter in all directions. The concussive force of the prison enchantment being broken would send a fluctuation through the natural magical aura all throughout the land.

Discord stretched, arching his back as his feet left the ground to float just above the pedestal. His arms reached skyward, his clawed hands opened and outstretched as he arched his neck. He let out a long, drawn out shout at the top of his lungs as his imposing form cast a dark shadow over the group of mares. His dramatics caused all of the mares to shrink back from him, all except Chrysalis, who just stared up at him with the most bored and unimpressed look she could muster.

Discord seemed to hover at a peak as his voice strained, and then his neck suddenly snapped to the side with an audible crack. “Yeow!” he said as he clasped his lion paw against the back of his neck, rubbing it. “Oh... you have no idea how long I have waited to do that,” he said, sounding quite satisfied with the good stretch.

Discord slowly floated back down, his feet coming to rest on the remains of the pedestal. He glanced over the group of mares before him, a grin twisting his muzzle. He reached up with his eagle claw, running the taloned fingers through his goatee. “Well, hello everypony,” he said, seeming to relish the array of uncomfortably confused looks he was getting.

Chrysalis calmly walked past the draconequus, glancing up to him as she passed by. “Discord, may I have a private word?” she asked as she continued to walk off toward the hedge row nearby.

“Oh, she wants a private word, this should be interesting,” Discord said, his upper torso seeming to snake around as he leaned his head close to the other five mares. He didn’t seem to mind the cringing reactions that he got from them as he stood back to his full height and cheerfully hopped off of the pedestal to walk over toward Chrysalis. Once he was close enough, he leaned his upper torso down far enough so he could rest his elbow on Chrysalis’s back, grinning from ear to ear at the annoyed look she shot back over her shoulder at him. “So, not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I’m curious. Why exactly would you set me loose upon the world?”

Chrysalis reached a hoof up and used it to push Discord’s elbow off her back, causing the draconequus to face plant the ground next to her, even though his feet were still standing firmly on the ground. “I need your help,” she said, in a slightly begrudging tone.

Discord raised his head slightly, his odd shaped yellow eyes blinking repeatedly at Chrysalis as his mouth hung agape in confusion for a moment. Then suddenly, he burst out laughing, his body twisting and rolling over onto the ground. His legs kicked at the air as he clasped his hands over his mid torso, roaring through the laughing fit while Chrysalis stared at him with squinted eyes. “Oooh, oh goodness,” Discord said as he managed to catch his breath. He rolled over to his side, pushing himself up slightly to look Chrysalis in the eyes. “That was good. Say that again.”

“I’m serious,” Chrysalis said, causing another sudden fit of laughter to attack the draconequus. “Discord! Stop acting like a child.” The second laugh attack didn’t last nearly as long as the first, as Discord managed to get himself under control and push himself up from the grass. He wiped the tears that had formed in the corner of his eyes, chuckles still rattling from his throat as he shook his head. He let go a light sigh when he saw that Chrysalis hadn’t so much as cracked a smile through the entire thing.

“Oh pfffttt,” he said, spraying spittle from his tongue as he dismissively waved his lion paw at Chrysalis. “Don’t be such a drag,” he said as he casually snapped his fingers. He held a smug grin for a moment until he realized that nothing had happened. As the grin slipped from his face, he tried snapping his fingers a second time, and then a third before he looked at his fingers with a frown as if they might be defective. He blew on them and shook them before snapping his fingers a fourth time, becoming further agitated when his powers refused to answer his call. Then he finally noticed the golden band for the first time. He slowly raised his arm up to look at his wrist, eyeing the band that encircled it. He reached his other hand up toward the band, and then noticed the second band on his other wrist. He looked absolutely puzzled as his eyes quickly looked back and forth between the two bands.

“Having problems?” Chrysalis said, now being the one wearing the smug grin. Discord glanced to her from between his raised wrists, his eyes slowly narrowing. He snapped his fingers once more in her direction, letting go a growl before rapidly snapping the fingers of both hands at her in an alternating, machine gun fashion. “That isn’t going to work,” she said as she rolled her eyes.

“What did you do!?” Discord bellowed as he extended his lengthy body toward Chrysalis, pressing his face up against hers. She didn’t flinch away, and only stared back into his crazed yellow eyes. Her glance flicked quickly to her sides when she noticed Discord’s shaking claws edging closer to her neck.

“If you harm me,” Chrysalis began sternly as she pressed her face firmly back against his, causing him to pause, “then you’ll find yourself unable to use your powers on anything ever again.” For a short moment, it seemed like Discord had once again become a statue. He made no sound, no movement, only staring back wide eyed, and even held the same pose when Chrysalis backed away and stepped off to the side. “What I did, is I put a binding spell on you. You can only do what I give you permission to do.”

Discord blinked his eyes and then stood upright, glancing down to his side at Chrysalis with a harsh glare. “Why?” he demanded as he crossed his arms.

“As I said, I need your help.”

Discord let out a single loud mocking laugh. “Why would I help you of all things in this world.”

“Oh, Discord. I’m not naive,” Chrysalis said, rolling her eyes as she sat herself before him. “I know you would have no intention of helping anyone but yourself. But faced with the choice of living the rest of your eternal existence as a very boring draconequus, or doing as I say, I’m very confident that you’ll consider helping me just this once.”

Discord leaned down, pointing one of his talons at the golden band encircling his other wrist. “Are you saying you’ll take these off if I help?”

“I’ll do better than that,” Chrysalis said with a broad smile. “Help me, and afterwards, you can do whatever you want with Equestria.”

“...Why would you offer that?” Discord asked, tilting his head as he eyed her with suspicion.

“I have another goal in mind.”

Discord silently considered the offer, standing back upright as he let go a long hum in thought. He twirled the tip of his goatee in his talons as he considered his options, and finding the prospect of roaming the world without his chaotic powers undesirable, he settled on doing whatever it was that Chrysalis wanted of him. “Fine, what do you want, Chrissy.”

Chrysalis quickly narrowed her eyes. “Don’t call me Chrissy.”

“Oh right, I forgot. Only one stallion in your life that can call you that, am I right?” Discord said with a wide grin. When he saw Chrysalis gritting her teeth as she glowered at him he couldn’t help but let go a chuckle. “Oh ho ho, if looks could kill, I’d be so dead right now.”

Chrysalis let go a loud huff, her eyes glancing over to the group of mares waiting on them to return. “Discord, I’m being very serious when I say that you are not to use that name.”

“Oh, I see. So they don’t know who you are,” Discord said as he twisted his neck around to look back at the group, which caused most of them to visibly cringe. He flashed them a playful, toothy grin before looking back down to Chrysalis. “That’s an interesting little train wreck waiting to happen, and quite the interesting body you chose to steal as well, an alicorn of all things. Feeling a bit nostalgic?”

“Enough!” Chrysalis barked through her clenched teeth. “I’m a few seconds from binding your mouth shut for good.”

“Oh, it was only a little harmless teasing. Really, Chrissy, you do need to lighten up,” Discord said, ending on sigh as he shook his head in disappointment.

Chrysalis was almost visibly shaking with anger by this point. “Don’t call me that again,” she growled lowly, glaring up angrily.

“Well what should I call you!?” Discord asked exasperated as he tossed his hands in the air above his head. “Changeling-that-looks-like-a-purple-pony?”

“Twilight. Call me Twilight Sparkle,” she said, stamping her hoof against the ground.

“Oh...,” Discord said calmly, and then went to tugging at his goatee again as he pondered over the name. “Oh, now that is an interesting name. Where have I heard it before?” Chrysalis had had close to her maximum dose of Discord already, letting a low growl emanate from her throat as she tried to restrain herself from outright attacking him. Luckily, something else would provide a distraction. Unluckily, that distraction was a signal flare whistling into the air nearby, popping with a bright flash and a shower of sparks. “Oo! Fireworks! You didn’t have to set up a celebration in my honor,” Discord said as he reached over and rested his lion paw on Chrysalis’s withers.

“Great, we’ve been spotted. Come here!” Chrysalis said as she quickly trotted over to the rest of the mares near the center of the garden with Discord in tow.

“Hey! I think a fireworks display is starting!” Pinkie called cheerfully as Chrysalis and Discord approached them.

“No, that was a signal flare,” Chrysalis said as she and Discord stopped just in front of the group. “We’re going to have guards all over us soon.”

“Kinky,” Discord commented, leaning over and giving Chrysalis a sly grin and wink. It took every fiber of her being to not deliver a skull splitting kick to the side of his head.

Instead, Chrysalis cleared her throat loudly. “Discord, I want you to get us out of here.”

“Oh, but I’m bound!” Discord said as he held his hands out, showing off the golden bracers ringing his wrists.

There was an audible clunk when Chrysalis facehoofed. She grited her teeth together for a few seconds as her hoof slid down her face to the end of her muzzle, and then she glared up to Discord as she stamped the hoof loudly on the ground. “I just told you! If it’s something I tell you to do, then you can do it! That’s how it works!”

“Oh so, kinda like a genie,” Discord said as he with a pointed finger. Quickly hopping off his feet, he hovered there slightly off the ground as he crossed his legs to sit indian style. “Your wish is my command, Master!” he declared with bravado, crossing his arms out before himself and then giving his head an exaggerated nod. The entire area exploded with a cloud of gray smoke to the sound of a loud poof, and then filled with the sounds of choking coughs from the group of mares. Discord waved the smoky air away from his face, letting go a light cough himself. “Well, that didn’t work.”

“Would you just get us out of here!?” Chrysalis screeched.

“Alright! Alright, hold your little horses,” Discord said as he defensively held up his hands. Clearing his throat, he reached out in front of himself with his lion paw, his fingers poised to let go a snap. He looked up to the sky above the palace, noticing the group of pegasi that had gathered and were now closing in on them. A grin crept across his face as he snapped his fingers.

There was a bright flash, and then Discord and the six mares were gone.

A Small Hope to Hold Onto

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter XIV – A Small Hope to Hold On To

Twilight stumbled, nearly tumbling face first to the ground as she hastily landed on the path that led up to the doorway of Fluttershy’s cottage. Her wings flapped haphazardly at her sides to keep her balanced as she scrambled up the path to the cottage door. “Fluttershy!” her strained voice called out as she reached the door and her magic reached out to grab the handle. When the door didn’t give, she reached her forehoof up to rap against the doorway, urgently calling her friend’s name out once again.

A whoosh reverberated through the air as Spike swooped down to the ground quickly, a single flap from his powerful wings slowing his descent just before he touched down. He hurriedly made his way up the path to catch up to Twilight. Just behind him, Luna’s dark figure swooped in, her form nearly indistinguishable from the shadows surrounding her. She gracefully landed on the ground, her slippered hooves giving off a barely audible click when they touched the pathway. She calmly folded her wings to her sides and walked up the path as well.

Unable to rouse a response from inside the cottage, Twilight quickly took a single step back from the door as she prepped a spell aimed at its handle. However, just as she was about to undo the lock barring her entry, she felt something brush up against her fetlock that caused her to look to the ground. There near her hoof she found Angel pawing at her.

“Wow,” Spike said in a surprised breath as he knelt down, resting one of his forearms on the ground as he took a closer look. “Is that Angel Bunny?” he asked as he pointed one of his clawed fingers to the tiny white rabbit. The finger hovered slightly too close, and Angel took a swat at it, causing Spike to jerk his hand back quickly. “Yep, that’s gotta be him,” he said with a slight grimace, knowing of only one rabbit in all of history that would have the gall to take a swat at a dragon easily a hundred times his own size.

Twilight knelt down so she was nearly eye level with Angel. “Where’s Fluttershy at?” she asked. Angel glanced up into her eyes, his ears laying back against his head for a second before he quickly dashed to a small pet door to the side of the cottage’s main door. The flap squeaked as it rocked back and forth a few times after he passed through it.

Twilight stood at the door, trying to maintain her patience as she waited there for Angel to return, or better yet for her friend to answer. It was technically the middle of the night, and was highly likely that Fluttershy was just sleeping. That was what she wanted to believe, but the magical shockwave she had felt had filled her with a sense of dread that she had been unable to shake.

Discord was free. That was all she knew for certain from the power she had felt. His prison had been shattered, not failed but had been completely shattered by a powerful force. The only possible cause she could think of would be the Elements, which under normal circumstance would require the bearers to bring forth their power. And with Chrysalis having displayed deeper knowledge of the Elements than even herself, it wasn’t too far of a stretch for Twilight to believe that the Changeling Queen had found a method of using them. This led her to a simple conclusion; if her friends weren’t here, then they were in danger. She hoped against hope that she would be wrong just this once and that Fluttershy would tiredly answer the door any second now.

The tiny squeaking sound from the pet door returned, and Twilight glanced down to see Angel struggling against something he was tugging at, his tail and hind legs being the only thing sticking out. She reached out and carefully lifted the flap for him, and he gave one more good tug before tumbling out of the door onto his back with a scroll wrapped in his paws. Twilight quirked an eyebrow when Angel sat up, holding the scroll as high as his tiny arms would allow to offer it to her. She accepted it in her magic carefully, bringing it up to glance at it as she turned it over. The outside of the scroll was stamped with a broken seal of black wax. She uncurled the scroll, her eyes traveling back and forth over the words before she drew in a short gasp. She pressed her eyes closed, gritting her teeth as her head hung a bit lower to the ground.

“May I see that?” Luna asked, causing Twilight to jump slightly. Twilight had left the library in such a rush that she had nearly forgotten about the Moon Princess. She glanced back toward Luna, trying to quell her uneasy expression as she passed the scroll from her own magic to be accepted into Luna’s. Luna inspected the scroll in a similar fashion to what Twilight had, though the sight of the black wax seal bearing a crescent moon brought a frown to her muzzle. She flipped the scroll open, scanning the words contained therein quickly before rolling the scroll closed in her magic. “A summons,” she said simply as she passed the scroll back to Twilight. “It bears my seal, but I did not have this sent.”

“I know,” Twilight said quietly as she accepted the scroll back. She opened the scroll once again, reading it as if hoping that maybe the words would be different this time. ‘Your presence is requested at the Canterlot Palace by her Majesty, the Queen of Equestria,’ was carefully written in perfect calligraphy, along with the day’s date. Twilight remembered part of the plan that Chrysalis had mentioned, that she had intended on taking the form of Nightmare Moon before Twilight had managed to interrupt her. It appeared that part of that plan had also been to draw her friends to Canterlot, likely to make use of the Elements. Twilight shivered at the thought, and didn’t find much comfort in the fact that her own face was being used instead. Infact, that made her feel worse.

“I need a minute,” Twilight said in a quiet mumble as she stepped away from the door. She walked up to the nearby fence, sitting herself there and hooking a single forehoof over it as she held the scroll out before herself with her magic, just staring at it.

She glanced to her side when she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder. Spike stood there beside her, offering his silent support. His chest heaved a visible sigh as he looked down to her.

Twilight held his gaze for a quiet moment before she slowly looked back down at the scroll hovering in her magic. “I dragged them into this,” Twilight said, slowly shaking her head as her magic squeezed the scroll, causing the paper to krinkle.

“Twilight—”

“Spike,” Twilight said, quickly interrupting him. “No matter how you try to sugar coat this, I’m the cause. I started all of this.” Twilight magical grip continued to constrict on the scroll until it had been crushed into a tiny wad. She furrowed her brow at it as she mentally squeezed the cursed note, and then let go a tired sigh as she released it to let it fall to the ground. “I might not be able to fix this,” she said quietly. She glanced up to Spike, her face showing pained sadness. “What if it is already too late?”

“That is doubtful,” Luna’s voice said from behind, causing Twilight to glance over her shoulder. “Do not let your emotions think for you. Ask yourself what you know to be true.”

Twilight drew in a long breath, letting it out slowly to calm herself. Starting from the beginning, she stated what she knew had to be truth. “Chrysalis gathered my friends together to make use of the Elements... to release Discord.”

“And?” Luna asked, a single eyebrow quirked.

Twilight knew what Luna was attempting to do. Now wasn’t a time to let emotions run wild. They needed to think rationally about the situation if they were to get it under control. “She had to have a reason to do so. Something that she wanted... something from Discord,” Twilight reasoned.

Luna nodded slowly, and once again asked, “And?”

Twilight spent a short silent moment pondering the simple question. Then a thought finally occurred to her, her eyes brightening a bit. “She would have to control him somehow.”

“Exactly,” Luna said, nodding her head approvingly with a gentle smile.

“My friends are still okay,” Twilight said as she stood to turn herself toward Luna to return the smile.

“For the time being, yes,” Luna said as she cast her glance toward the silhouette of Canterlot Mountain off on the horizon. “She needs the power of the Elements, and obviously she had need of the other bearers to call on that power. Only with that power could she control Discord, though we should not rely on that indefinitely.”

“This shouldn’t have even been possible in the first place,” Twilight said as she scrunched her muzzle. “If the Elements allowed just anypony to use them, there’s no telling what they could end up being used for.” She turned a curious glance upward toward Luna as she asked, “She can’t just use the Element of Magic because she looks like me, can she?”

Luna looked back to Twilight, giving a small shake of her head. “I can promise you, that has nothing to do with her capability to call on the Elements’ power.” She noticed Twilight’s apparent confusion at her statement, and quickly spoke to add, “There is much that needs to be explained, but we should first make our way to Canterlot, posthaste. Every moment we remain here is another wasted that we can not afford.”

“Hey, sorry to butt in on all the princess talk, but aren’t we missing a step?” Spike asked, drawing their attention toward him. “I thought we were just talking about getting Princess Celestia out before we made a mad dash out of the library.”

Twilight turned to look up to him. “Spike, that isn’t as simple as just whipping up some magic power to get it done. Cracking a prison enchantment designed specifically to entrap an alicorn is going to take some very careful planning.”

“Twilight is correct,” Luna said with a nod as she looked to Spike. “We are ill prepared to perform such a ritual, and this is hardly the proper place,” she added as she glanced about her surroundings. Her gaze ended up finding its way back to Twilight. “Returning to Canterlot is our best course of action. However, we need to proceed with caution. I know you are eager to aid your friends, but by your own account, the extent of the changeling infestation was far beyond anything I had even considered, and Discord is now loose.”

Twilight nodded. “Right. The Nightguard probably has their hooves full, but hopefully the spells I taught them will have kept the changelings at bay.”

“I would be more concerned with Discord turning the city into his own personal playground,” Luna said through a sigh as she turned to begin walking down the path away from the cottage. “Let us hope that Chrysalis has enough sense left to not allow such a thing.”

It had been over an hour, perhaps two, since Chrysalis had managed to evade capture. Moondancer had spent most of that time fuming and fretting in her office. While she would have prefered to be lifting every last cobblestone in Equestria to find the one that the Changeling Queen had hidden herself under, somepony would have to be responsible for keeping the disappearance of Equestria’s Queen, an enchantress, an extremely dangerous prisoner, and an ancient forgotten evil from causing widespread panic.

Which was to say, Moondancer had to figure out how to cover up the mess.

Her helmet had been placed on an armor stand near the south wall when she had arrived. She had sat at her desk ever since, attempting to place words to paper. Her muzzle had remained etched with a frown, and her magic steadily held a quill to a blank sheet. She absent mindedly pushed her reading glasses back up on her muzzle with her magic every now and then but otherwise remained unmoving. The quill had remained held to the paper so long that a bit sized blotch of ink had soaked the paper underneath the tip. Moondancer stared at the blot, her teeth slowly grinding back and forth. This was probably the tenth or eleventh page to be ruined in such a way; she had lost track. Finally, she sat back with an exasperated sigh as she let the quill fall down to the table.

The Queen’s absence wouldn’t simply go unnoticed. Since the Nightguard were the only ones who really knew what was happening, she would have to make an announcement in the morning hours. What that announcement was going to be was still up for debate in her mind. One side of her thoughts had considered the lies that would be the most believable, but the other had told herself that the truth would find its way out like it always does, and it would be better for it to be told from herself instead of through rumors. It was a choice between which headache she wanted to deal with, and so she remained caught between the two, not wanting to deal with either.

Moondancer allowed herself a few more moments of brooding before she swept aside the ruined sheet of paper in favor for a fresh one. Her magic grasped the quill once again, dipping it into an inkwell, but before she could even draw it fully out she was interrupted by a knock at her door. She gave the door a tense look, her right eyelid giving off a quick twitch. Dropping the quill back into the well, she leaned forward and folded her forelegs on her desk. “Enter,” she said as she maintained her hard look on the doorway.

The door clicked and opened to reveal one of her Nightguard. She recognized this one at first glance, a pegasus stallion that was a specialist in the ranks named Swift Wing. He lived up to his name, earning himself the nickname of Swifty as he had often served as a runner when important information needed to be relayed. Unfortunately, ‘important’ could just as easily mean ‘not good’, and with the way the night’s events had been proceeding the odds were high that he wasn’t there for a friendly chat. “What is it?” she asked, trying hard to resist the urge to let go a heavy sigh.

“Captain, we’ve spotted a dragon near the city.”

Moondancer stared silently at Swift Wing for a long while, her stoic glance eventually causing the stallion to fidget ever so slightly on his hooves. Just when he was about comment further, he found himself interrupted by a loud bout of laughter coming from Moondancer. She nearly doubled over as she let out the loud laugh until her lungs were nearly empty, her head coming close to touching the desk. Drawing in a quick gasp of air, she leaned back against the back of her chair and continued her laugh toward the ceiling as she raised one of her forehooves and slapped it back down on the desktop. Swift seemed unsure how to respond at first, considering that the information hadn’t been meant to be anything humorous. His ears splayed back against his head as he eventually let go a weak chuckle through a forced grin.

Moondancer wiped a tear from her eye as she worked to calm herself, coughing a few times and bringing her laughter down to more of an amused giggle. “Oooh, I’m sorry,” she said as she used her hoof to stifle one last snicker, shaking her head. “With everything else that’s gone horribly wrong today, that just came across as funny for some reason,” she said as she stood from her desk and walked over to her armor stand. Her magic removed her reading glasses and set them aside on a shelf as she grasped the helm off of the stand. She spoke to the helm as if it were staring back at her as she told it, “A dragon... sure, why not! Perfect way to round out the evening,” before giving it a quick half spin and plunking it down over her head. She briskly trotted out of her office door before the armor’s enchantments had even fully finished changing her appearance.

Swift Wind fell in beside his captain as she trotted out of her office, only a half step behind hers. “It’s a small one, ma’am,” he said. “And it hasn’t approached the city any further since we’ve spotted it.”

The two Nightguard continued a short distance down the hall, coming to an open walkway that bridged the gap between the palace hallway and a nearby spire. After crossing the walkway, they made their way up the spiral stairs within the spire at a brisk pace. “Well, we should probably figure out what it wants anyways,” Moondancer said. “Just a small one, you say?”

Swift Wing came to the top of the flight of stairs just behind Moondancer and turned toward an open archway that led to one of many of Canterlot’s observation platforms. “Hard to get a good estimate on its size with only the moonlight, but it appears smaller than most of the trees that it has landed near,” he said.

“But still quite a bit larger than a pony?” Moondancer asked, receiving a nod from Swift Wing in response. That was a small concession that she would gratefully accept. At least Canterlot wasn’t in immediate danger of being turned into rubble by an elder dragon. “Even a dragon that size could start something though. We should keep an eye on it,” she said as they walked up on two other Nightguard. One had been peering through a telescope when they had arrived, but both turned to salute their officer when they heard her voice. “So, where’s this dragon?” Moondancer asked as she looked to the two guards.

The unicorn stallion that had been watching through the telescope motioned a hoof toward it. “We’ve got eyes on it right here, Captain. It’s still quite a ways out.”

Moondancer stepped up to the telescope, resting her right hoof against it to steady it as she peered through it. Her magic lit to adjust the focus slightly, and after a few seconds she could make out movement among the trees off in the distance. With only moonlight available, it was hard to see much in detail, but her eyes did pick up on something else that she hadn’t expected to see. There was more than just a dragon there; she counted two other smaller shadows moving near it. “What are those with it?” Moondancer asked as she glanced back.

“We’re not sure yet,” the guard replied. “There’s definitely something that’s been flying around with it. We first noticed them when we saw some colored lights near the dragon, and then saw that it was actually coming from those other two. Whatever they are, they’re sticking together as a group.”

Moondancer held a thoughtful look for a few seconds before she returned to peering through the telescope. The group of shadows were still on the ground. She waited, quietly watching them as she hoped to catch a hint as to what they were, and then she saw it. There was a glow that appeared as a soft magenta for a quick few seconds. Moondancer’s mind easily recognized what had to be a chromatic aura, the visible light that a unicorn’s magic gives off, but it didn’t make sense. It appeared just as Twilight’s magic aura would, which would be the first bit of good news all night if it really was her, but why would she be outside the city? And why the dragon?

“Wouldn’t be the strangest thing that’s happened tonight,” Moondancer commented mostly to herself as she leaned back from the telescope, pausing in thought for a moment. “Load a green flare,” she commanded just before she leaned back toward the telescope to watch the group of shadows. Her ears swiveled back as she listened to the sounds of one of her guards loading their launcher with a flare canister. Once the sounds ceased, she splayed her ears back against her head as she gave one simple command. “Fire it.”

The flare launched into the sky with a pop, sailing higher as it crackled into the sky until it reached its peak. The flare burst into into a shower of slow burning green sparks, lighting the sky above the observation platform. The green light slowly faded as the flare burned out above. Moondancer kept her gaze on the horizon through it all, watching the group in the distance for some sort of reaction. “Come on, I know you saw that,” she mumbled to herself.

There was movement. The three shadows took to the sky, moving toward the city. The corner of Moondancer’s mouth turned up slightly as she stepped back from the telescope. “We’re about to have visitors,” she said as she turned toward the other guards. “Lets get a welcoming party put together. Specialist Swift, I need you to deliver a quick message.”

Spike, Twilight, and Luna had been discussing their strategy for entering Canterlot when they spotted the green signal flare coming from the palace, which was the signal for an ‘all clear’. The signal was a welcome sight, assuming that it were not a trap. If the changelings were attempting some sort of trickery, then they were being foolish, luring two alicorns and a dragon toward them that were much better prepared than they had each been earlier. Still, the trio decided they should be ready for anything as they cautiously approached the city.

When they made their final approach to the spire that the flare had been fired from, they saw a group of Nightguard waiting there for them. Luna descended to the platform first, landing near the center and glancing to her left and right at the Nightguard that lined each side. Twilight touched down to her right and Spike to her left just a step behind her.

The gathered guards didn’t snap to attention the way Luna had expected, and instead kept a tense posture as if they were ready to act if given the command to do so. Only Moondancer made a move as she stepped forward onto the observation platform, making her presence known as she walked out meet the trio of visitors. She stopped just a short distance away, her eyes glancing between the two alicorns and dragon in front of her before finally coming to rest on Luna. She tilted her head just slightly as she asked, “Your Majesty?”

A very slight smile graced Luna’s lips as she spoke. “For a moment, we were afraid our guards may have mistook us for some other alicorn, Captain.”

Moondancer knelt before Luna, casting her eyes to the ground. “Sorry, but you do appear... a little different,” she said as she looked back up. She rose, taking another cautious step closer. “I hope you don’t mind, but I would like to confirm that none of you are changelings.”

Luna nodded knowingly. “After what has transpired this night, we do not blame you. You may, Captain.”

With that approval, Moondancer quickly cast the detection spell, sending a white wave of power that passed harmlessly over Luna, Twilight, and Spike. “Well, you’re not changelings,” she said happily. She stepped back to the side, gesturing toward the archway with a slight bow. “Allow me to officially welcome you home, your Majesty. I’m happy to see that you’re safe, and that Twilight is with you. I assume our dragon guest is a new ally of yours?”

Luna glanced to her right toward Twilight, silently deferring the question to her, who took a step forward to speak. “He is an ally, but he’s my friend. Well, more like family, really,” she said as she smiled up to toward Spike, which he returned.

“Oh,” Moondancer said as she cast a curious glance toward Spike. “Well, I suppose that’s just as good. We can use all the help we can get right now.”

“The name’s Spike. It’s nice to meet you,” Spike said as he took a step forward, kneeling down on one knee as he extended a hand out to the captain.

Moondancer hooked her forehoof in Spike’s hand, giving him a hoof to hand shake along with a nod. “Moondancer, Captain of the Queen’s Nightguard. Thanks for your help.”

“Now that the introduction is out of the way,” Luna said as she began walking toward the archway, “tell us what has transpired here in our absence.”

Moondancer followed alongside Luna as Spike and Twilight followed just behind them. She didn’t respond immediately to the question, her hesitation driven by the fact that she had nothing but bad news to give. Once they passed the archway walking into the spire, she finally broke the uneasy silence as she began to give her report of the night’s events. “Chrysalis managed to escape. We’re fairly certain that she was posing as Twilight.”

“You’re right on that,” Twilight said with a heavy sigh. “She took me by surprise in the throne room. It’s only thanks to Spike that I managed to escape after they dragged me away from the city. Were you able to use the detection spell on her to reveal her?”

As the group began to descend the spiral spire stairs, Moondancer looked back over her shoulder to Twilight. “No, it was just an educated guess. She was acting strange, and by the time I’d figured it out, it was already too late for us to do anything about it. And, she didn’t just escape on her own.”

Luna stepped out onto the bridgeway just ahead of the group. She glanced out over the edge off into the distance as she spoke. “We already know of Discord’s escape, as it was impossible for us to not notice the magic flux when his prison was shattered.” She looked to her side at Moondancer as they passed the doorway into the halls of the main palace. “Would we be correct in assuming that the Elements were involved?”

“Yes, your Majesty, you would be.”

Twilight quickened her steps, trotting up to Moondancer’s other side, eager to ask a question. “Did you see my friends here?”

Moondancer looked to Twilight, her muzzle having a disappointed frown etched upon it. “They were last seen with Chrysalis and Discord right before they all vanished.”

Twilight stopped mid stride, flinching as her ears splayed back. “Vanished...,” she nearly whispered as her gaze dropped toward the floor. The rest of the group stopped there in the hallway with her, turning toward her.

The silence lingered for a short moment before Moondancer took a step toward Twilight, resting a hoof on her shoulder. “I’m sorry. We haven’t seen a trace of any of them since. We’re not giving up though. We’ve stayed on high alert since then, but our assumption is that Chrysalis got what she wanted and hoofed it out of here.” Moondancer stepped back a step, looking to Luna as she added, “We’re not sure why she freed Discord or why she would want him, but he seemed willing to leave with her.”

Luna quickly shook her head. “No, we highly doubt it was as willing as it appeared. Discord is not one to lift one single claws willingly for another, and forcing him to do so would take considerable coercion. The Elements have gone missing as well, have they not?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, your Majesty,” Moondancer said as she bowed her head. She grited her teeth together for a second as she let go a shaky sigh, and then snapped herself to full attention before her monarch. “I take full responsibility for this failure. Changelings infiltrated our ranks and caused confusion, and they set up a decoy that led us away from the palace after your disappearance. That was when Chrysalis managed to get the Elements.”

“There’s no reason for that, Moondancer. Please, be at ease,” Luna said as she lightly tapped her captain on the shoulder with one of her slippered hooves, getting Moondancer to relax slightly. “We were all very ill prepared for this enemy, yes, but there is also a very good reason for that,” she said as her eyes darted toward Twilight for a very brief moment. However, before Moondancer could comment further, Luna asked, “How did they breach the vault?”

“It was opened for them. They had Princess Cadenza open it.”

Twilight’s ears perked up at the mention of the other princess’s name. She leaned a half step closer, lifting a forehoof as she gave Moondancer a confused look. “Why would Cadance help them?”

“I’m sure she didn’t realize what she was doing. Gale happened upon her being led through the halls by a couple changelings shifted to look like us, and then they turned on her to keep her from talking. She’s alright,” Moondancer said quickly when she noticed the frightened look that flashed across Twilight’s face. “At least that’s what Doc Heart has told us. She’s suffering from some sort of hallucinations from the bite though, so we haven’t gotten her to respond to anything we’ve asked her. But, we’re still pretty sure that she came in contact with Chrysalis and opened the vault for her.”

“What makes you certain, Captain?” Luna asked.

“Well, the vault was opened properly, and it only responds to an alicorn’s magic. She was the only alicorn here in the palace at the time as far as we know.” Moondancer shifted her eyes to look directly at Twilight. “She’s also mentioned your name, over and over, ever since the attack.”

Luna narrowed her eyes slightly as she pondered over Moondancer’s words, and then said, “We are not sure we understand that connection.”

“Cadance and I have a... history... with each other,” Twilight said, drawing the attention to her. “We were very close. Since Chrysalis looked like me, she probably only had to ask Cadance to help her, and she would have done it.” Twilight quickly shook her head, trying to dispel the images of her face being used to trick one of the closest ponies in her life. “I have to see her,” she said, looking to Moondancer.

“I’ve got no problem with that, as long as the Doc is fine with it. Maybe she’ll respond to you.” Moondancer turned her glance toward Luna, adding, “It’s possible that she’s the only one here that knows what Chrysalis was planning.”

“Finding out for sure should be a priority,” Luna said, her voice taking on an air of authority. “We need to know what the changelings’ next move is to be. Captain, if you would, please escort Twilight and Spike to see Princess Cadenza.”

Moondancer snapped to attention. “Yes, your Majesty.”

Luna nodded to Moondancer and then turned toward Twilight. “In the meantime, I shall begin the preliminary research for the ritual that we are going to need to free my sister. If I do find anything promising, then I will send for you.”

“Thank you, Princess,” Twilight said, bowing her head slightly. Luna smiled and bowed her head slightly in response before she turned to make her way down the halls.

As Luna left the rest of the group to attend to her task, Twilight and Spike looked back when they heard Moondancer make a confused sound. “Uhh,” she drawled out as she watched Luna leaving down the hallway. She finally managed to pull her gaze away and look to Twilight. “I get the feeling I’ve just been left out of something... really important.”

Twilight gave Moondancer a soft smile before she began walking in the direction of the palace infirmary. “I’ll tell you everything I can on the way.”

As Twilight, Spike, and Moondancer had traveled to the infirmary, Twilight had done her best to fill in the gaps for Moondancer. Learning that Nightmare Moon’s true name was actually Luna, and that she and Celestia were sisters, came across as shocking to her, as well as learning that Princess Luna had had a change of heart and was now willing to bring her sister back to Equestria. However, that revelation wasn’t near as shocking as when Twilight decided to tell Moondancer more about herself, particularly about where she had come from. “I don’t think I would have ever considered... princess from the future,” Moondancer said, staring blankly at the top of the small, square table just in front of where she was sitting in the infirmary waiting room.

Twilight was sitting at the opposite end of the table, and Spike had chosen to curl up on the floor beside the table between the two. “Sorry I didn’t tell you,” Twilight said with a wan smile. “At the time, I thought telling you everything would have probably made me appear crazy.”

Moondancer snorted a quick laugh. “Oh, you still appeared plenty crazy. Scared me worse than anything ever has.”

Spike smirked when he noticed the uncomfortable scowl on Twilight’s face. “Did she give you the glowy eyes?” Spike asked to Moondancer, motioning toward his own eyes with a single claw in a small, circular motion. His suspicion was confirmed with Moondancer gave him a silent nod, causing him to let go a rumbling chuckle.

“I got a little upset,” Twilight said in a huff, dismissively waving a hoof at her side. “I said I was sorry, didn’t I?” she asked defensively to Moondancer. Moondancer’s only answer was a sideways grin.

The sound of hoofsteps on linoleum drew the group’s attention to the hallway, and there they saw Doctor Heart walking toward them from the hall as he levitated a clipboard in front of his face, flipping through pages as he mumbled quietly to himself. He lowered the clipboard when he fully stepped into the waiting room, and upon noticing Spike he stopped dead silent for a second as he stared. “I thought the receptionist was joking. You really are a dragon,” he said as he eyed Spike up and down.

“Last time I checked,” Spike said casually.

The Doctor blink-blinked at Spike, and then with a quick shake of his head he glanced to Twilight, his brow perking up a bit. “And you’re an alicorn,” he said as he eyed Twilight’s wings, to which Twilight nodded with a sheepish grin. “Well, why not,” Doctor Heart said with a shrug as he stuffed his clipboard in a side pocket on his labcoat.

Twilight stood, taking a few steps around the table to stand before the Doctor. “How is Cadance doing?” she asked quietly.

“Physically, she’s doing just fine. I’ll take you to her room,” Doctor Heart said, taking a couple steps back and motioning for the group to follow him. They silently followed the Doctor as he led them through the halls past many open doorways that each led to the private patient recovery rooms. They came to a room numbered one-zero-nine, and there the Doctor quickly snatched a clipboard from the wall file next to it. He flipped the pages up and scanned them quickly, and then let them fall back down, glancing up to Twilight. “No signs of anything foreign in her blood work other than the toxin, and there’s only the bite mark on her neck, which looked much worse than it actually was, so no serious long term injury.”

“But?” Twilight asked cautiously, splaying her ears back.

Doctor Heart let go a visible sigh as he dropped the clipboard back into the wall file. “It’s been hours and she still hasn’t responded to any stimuli. Sound, touch, even light gets no response. The best way to describe it is... it’s like she simply isn’t there. I’m assuming that being directly injected with the toxin causes a more profound, longer lasting effect, but that is just a guess on my part. I really don’t have any prior experience with changeling bite victims.”

“She’s going to recover soon. The venom will wear off,” Twilight stated. While she knew from her own past experience with changelings, saying as much openly didn’t lessen her worry nearly as much as she had hoped.

“Yes, I’m sure. But, it could take a few days for the toxin to fully work its way out of her system at this rate. Until then, she isn’t likely to be her normal self.” Doctor Heart glanced into the dimly lit patient room shortly before looking back to Twilight. “Just don’t expect much.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Twilight said, receiving a nod from him before he walked off down the hall to tend to his duties elsewhere in the infirmary. Twilight stepped up to the door, peering into the room for a few seconds before she turned back to Spike and Moondancer. “I’d like to go in first, just for a minute, if you guys don’t mind.”

Spike and Moondancer glanced to each other. Moondancer gave a quick, single nod to him, and Spike nodded back, and then looked to Twilight with a reassuring smile. “Go ahead, Twilight. We’ll wait here.”

Twilight gave them a thankful smile before she turned to enter Cadance’s room. The room was only lit by a single wall lamp on the far wall, the rest of the lighting in the room turned out. Twilight’s hooves very quietly clicked on the linoleum floor as she approached the side of the bed. She could see Cadance’s form partially underneath the covers, laying prone on her back.

Twilight stopped at the bedside, resting on her haunches as she stared blankly at the sheet covering Cadance’s body. Her eyes traveled up Cadance’s still form until she could see the white bandages wrapped around Cadance’s neck. Slowly blinking her eyes closed for a moment, she reopened them and leaned in closer to the bed, clasping her forehooves around the lifeless pink hoof that laid at Cadance’s side. “I said I’d help you, didn’t I?” Twilight said as she glanced up to Cadance’s eyes. Cadance didn’t respond to the touch, nor did she stir at Twilight’s voice. She only continued to stare up blankly at the ceiling, the only motion coming from the gentle rise and fall of her chest and the slow blinking of her eyelids. Twilight watched her for some time for any acknowledgement that she had been heard, but didn’t receive one.

“This isn’t what I wanted to happen. Things have gotten so out of control. But now, things are going to start getting better,” Twilight said as she did her best to put forward a smile. “Luna is going to help us. We’re going to bring Celestia back. We’re going to find my friends. And” — Twilight tightened her hooves around Cadance’s — “you’re going to get better.”

“...Twilight.” The quiet whisper caused Twilight’s ears to snap upwards.

“Cadance?” Twilight cautiously asked as she leaned in toward Cadance’s face.

Cadance only blankly stared up at the ceiling in the dim room, her eyes slowly blinking at nothing. A moment of deafening silence filled the room, until the quiet whisper came again. “Twilight... why,” Cadance quietly mumbled. Twilight watched intently for a moment afterwards, but when nothing more came forth she sat back on her haunches. She closed her eyes, furrowing her brow as her imagination did a fair job of presenting her with disturbing images. She grited her teeth at the image in her mind of Chrysalis using her stolen identity to cause Cadance harm.

Twilight flinched against a pressure that she felt on her hooves, her eyes snapping open quickly to see Cadance’s forehoof twitching against hers. She glanced toward the head of the bed, and her eyes went wide when they were met with the other princess’s half lidded eyes staring straight back at her. Twilight felt an unexplainable twinge of fear prick at the back of her neck, causing her hackles to stand up. “...Cadance?” she asked in a quiet breath.

Cadance’s chest rose as she drew in a breath. “You... promised...,” she said. Twilight’s ears splayed back, her mouth opening to try to respond but not finding anything to be said.

“Twilight?” A low voice rumbled from the doorway. Twilight yelped as she scrambled back from the bed, having been taken off guard by the sound. Her wide eyes snapped back to the room’s door, seeing Spike peering in through the door. “Whoa! Sorry. Was just making sure everything was alright,” Spike said from where he was leaning against the doorframe, his free hand waving defensively. Twilight lowered her head, catching her face in her forehooves as she panted from the sudden scare. “Are you alright?” Spike asked as he knelt under the door’s archway to enter the room.

“No,” Twilight moaned into her hooves as she shook her head. “No, Spike, I’m not.”

Spike knelt down next to Twilight, resting one forearm on the floor as he placed the other across her withers. He gave her shoulders a gentle rub as he asked her, “Is there anything I can do? Anything?”

Twilight dropped her forehooves to the floor, looking over to Spike and then reaching toward him to nestle her muzzle into his shoulder. She shook her head, answering with a muffled ‘no’.

Spike furrowed his brow, glancing at Cadance’s still form laying on the bed. “Did something happen?” he asked.

Twilight sniffed once, pulling herself back a bit and rubbing beneath her eyes. “She looked right at me, and then she...,” Twilight went silent when she felt the knot forming in her throat. Spike didn’t pressure her; he simply waited, giving her the time that she needed. Twilight took a shaky breath to try and calm herself. “She knew who I was... knew that I failed her.”

“Hey,” Spike said as he sat up, looking down into Twilight’s eyes and resting both of his large hands gently on her shoulders. “You don’t know that. The Doc said she wouldn’t be herself for a while.”

“What if she thinks it was me,” Twilight said as she cast her glance off to the side.

“Then we’ll just tell her what really happened when she wakes up,” Spike said, his voice raising suddenly. Twilight glanced up to him when she felt his powerful hands gently squeeze her shoulders a bit tighter. “I’m sure everything will be fine,” he said much more quietly, though Twilight could still hear the concern in his voice; his concern for her.

“Yeah. Y-yeah, you’re right,” Twilight said as she glanced back toward the bed. “Just need to give it time.”

Spike let his hands gently slide off of Twilight’s shoulders. Twilight stood to take a few steps, turning and setting herself at Spike’s side as she leaned against his right leg. Spike rested his right hand on her side, holding her close to himself as the two of them quietly watched Cadance for some time afterwards. Eventually, Spike broke the silence that had settled upon the room. “Moondancer said she had things to get back to, so it’s just us now.”

Spike could feel as Twilight drew in an exhausted breath and let it go with a quick huff. “Oh, Spike,” she began as she shifted to glance up toward his face. “I really don’t know what to do next. I feel like all we can do now is just... wait.”

Spike glanced down at her, his jawline scrunching to the side a bit before he looked back toward the bed. “Yeah, it’s kinda rough having to wait on things to happen. But don’t worry, Cadance will get better.” He quickly looked back down to Twilight when a thought occurred to him. “Say, maybe we can go find Princess Luna, help her out with the research—” Spike suddenly stopped and blinked, his eyes darting about quickly. “Shoot! Research!” he said as he drew his right hand up quickly and snapped his fingers. “I completely forgot,” he grumbled, drawing his hand up into a facepalm that he slowly drew down the length of his muzzle as he let out a rumbling groan.

“Forgot what?” Twilight asked. She drew back from his side slightly, watching him with a confused look.

“Hold on a sec,” Spike said as he held up a single finger. He balled up his right fist, thudding it against his chest a few times as he cleared his throat. His brow furrowed slightly as he screwed his eyes tightly shut. A rumbling sound echoed deep in his chest, and then quickly found its way through his throat to exit as a belch of green flame that lit the room in a very brief flash. Spike reached out and snatched a book that materialized from the flame, smiling as he handed the book to Twilight. “Delayed delivery spell. It’s from Celestia.”

Twilight eagerly accepted the book into her magic. The binding of the book creaked as she parted the pages, and the sounds of her magic quickly rifling through the pages filled the room as Twilight scanned a few of them. “Spike! These are my notes!” she said, glancing up to him in shock. Spike gave her a smile and a single nod as he rested his right hand on her side once again, watching as Twilight returned to flipping through the pages of the book. She seemed to intently study the pages for a time, but then her interest began to wane the more she viewed them. Finally, she splayed her ears back as she let her magic close the book with a dull thump. “This book is the cause of all of this,” she said quietly, glancing off at nothing as she drew the book close to herself and hugged it against her chest.

“We found it in Crystal’s—er... her room,” Spike said, drawing Twilight’s attention up to him. He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze as he tried to give her a smile. “Celestia thought you might need it.”

“Well,” Twilight began, looking back down as she rested her chin along the top edge of the book, “I did research a lot more than just temporal magic back then. Maybe there’s something in here that could help. Though, honestly, things would have been much better off if this book had just burned,” she said as she clutched the book tightly against her chest.

Despite her misgivings over using the book’s contents, she knew that the spells contained within could give them exactly what they needed. A way to free Celestia, perhaps even a way to find her friends, and, though she hoped it not necessary, she could possibly devise a way to counter the power of the Elements, if need be. It was a small hope that she clung to, the hope that she could finally begin to set things right. Twilight and Spike silently remained in the patient recovery room for a time afterward, and then they eventually left together, making their way to the Canterlot Archives to search for Princess Luna.

Knowing

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter XV – Knowing

There was nothing but a quiet, sparsely wooded area for as far as the eye could see, and no eyes nearby to see it. At least, not until seconds later, when a sudden bright flash of light deposited a group of ponies and one draconequus in the clearing located in the middle of no where.

“Wowie,” Pinkie said as she blinked and glanced around herself. “So that’s what a teleport feels like.”

Having escaped the Nightguard by only seconds thanks to Discord’s teleport spell, Chrysalis let go a sigh of relief as she sat back on her haunches. She checked her disguise just to be sure Discord’s chaotic power hadn’t had any negative effects, and then began to look around herself at the location they had ended up at. When she realized that there was absolutely nothing in sight that was familiar to her, she furrowed her brow as she glanced up to him. “Discord, where have you taken us?” she asked.

“Well according to your orders” — Discord wetted one of his eagle talons with his tongue, holding it straight up to test the breeze, and then pointed it toward Chrysalis — ”‘out of here’, wherever that is.”

Chrysalis stared blankly at him for a moment before finally asking, “You don’t know where?”

“You didn’t specify!” he said, tossing his hands up. “We could be anywhere!”

Chrysalis brought a forehoof up, rubbing it against the bridge of her nose as she screwed her eyes closed. She groaned quietly for a moment before she hung the hoof to the side, tracing a small circle in the air as she asked, “Are we at least safe from the Nightguard for now?”

“Of course! I’ve taken us a long ways away in some random direction,” Discord said proudly with his lion paw over his chest as he twirled a talon around in the air above his head. He grinned as he leaned down toward Chrysalis. “I may be insane, but I’d have to be stupid to want to face a pack of pissed off pegasi with these things slowing me down,” he said as he pointed a talon at the binding around his other wrist.

“Packa peh wha?” Rainbow asked, shaking her head at the tongue twisting phrase.

Discord’s long muzzle twisted to the side in a grin as he shifted around so his torso arched over Rainbow Dash’s back. He patted her on the head with his lion paw, comfortingly telling her, “Don’t hurt yourself now,” receiving a glare back from her for his efforts.

Chrysalis spotted what appeared to be a hill through the sparse trees, not too far in the distance. “I’m going to try to get my bearings. You all wait here a moment,” she said as she stood and began making her way toward the hill.

An awkward silence fell upon the group after Chrysalis disappeared beyond the tree line. Discord waited as impatiently as he could, his arms crossed as he tapped a foot rather loudly. His efforts only lasted a mere ten seconds before he completely lost interest in simply waiting. “Well, this is thoroughly boring,” he said in a huff as he began to stalk off in a seemingly random direction.

“Hey, she said to wait here,” Applejack called to him.

Discord dismissively waved his lion paw. “I’m just going to take a quick little stroll to stretch my legs. Not like I can do much else,” he said with a grumble as he stepped off into the nearby wooded area. His footsteps rustling through the ground foliage could be heard for a short time after he vanished into the darkness, and then the silence returned to the area once again.

Rainbow Dash watched the direction that Discord had left in for a moment, and then drew in a heavy breath before letting it go with a long groan. “Okay, who else thinks this all just took a fast turn to crazy town?” she asked, looking back to the rest of the group.

There was a moment of silent hesitation from the rest of the group, but then Rarity decided to speak up. “I’m sure Twilight has her reasons.”

Rainbow tilted her glance to look directly at Rarity. “Yeah, sure, fine. But why isn’t she telling us those reasons?”

“Maybe she can’t,” Applejack offered with a shrug.

Rainbow turned her glance toward Applejack as she narrowed her eyes slightly. “Or won’t?” she asked with a hint of suspicion playing on her voice.

Applejack’s straight faced expression deepened into a frown. “Dash, what you gettin’ at? You think she’s hidin’ somethin’ from us that we ought to know?”

“Well, Iduno.” Rainbow Dash sat back on her haunches, letting go a frustrated sigh and shaking her head. “I just thought that by now we would be past the whole ‘oh it’s about the future, it’s a secret’ stuff,” she said as she swatted a hoof at the air in front of herself. She let her forehooves fall back to the ground with a soft thud, growing silent for a moment before reaching back up to tap Loyalty with one forehoof. “And I’m not so sure about this thing. I mean, I don’t mind helping out, but....” She silently frowned at the red lightning bolt jewel as she recalled the lingering effect it had left her feeling after Discord had been freed.

“It did feel a bit draining, didn’t it,” Rarity commented as she also touched a hoof to Generosity.

Off to the side of the three mares, Fluttershy had been quietly making her way to the tree line that Chrysalis had disappeared into. She glanced back over her shoulder, checking once more to be sure that her absence hadn’t been noticed, and then turned forward to take a step into the dense foliage between the trees. However, her nose bumped right into Pinkie’s, and she found herself staring head on into a scrutinizing Pinkie Pie stare. She backpedaled a few steps with a small mewling noise.

“And just where are you going, Missy?” Pinkie asked as she leaned far forward, glaring with one eye open. Fluttershy crouched down against the ground as she leaned away from the stare, hiding slightly under her forelocks.

“Um... well, I thought maybe Twilight would want somepony to talk to,” Fluttershy said as she traced a small circle on ground with a hoof. “She seemed an ency bit stressed.”

Pinkie held the stare for a few seconds longer before she suddenly stood up straight, glancing over her shoulder in the direction that Chrysalis had left in. “Yeah, she did, didn’t she,” she said as she rubbed a forehoof against her chin. She let out a thoughtful hum, pursing her lips and squinting her eyes before glancing back to Fluttershy, and then a wide smile graced her muzzle. “Whatcha waiting for! Go make sure she’s okay!” she said as she quickly patted Fluttershy on the head. Pinkie stepped around Fluttershy to made her way back to the other three mares with a light spring in her step, leaving Fluttershy to quietly slink off into the wooded area.

Chrysalis’s horn and eyes were both glowing a dim green color as she sat at the peak of a small hill, just off the edge of the wooded area. She slowly blinked her eyes as they shifted around and her teeth grit together as she strained to reach out further with her hive mind ability, trying to find any nearby changelings. She was having to try much harder than usual, since it seemed Discord’s random teleportation had not only successfully taken them a far distance from Canterlot, but from any changelings as well.

She finally found a tenuous link. Through that single, small link she tried to expand her presence further through the network of minds that made up the hive mind. Bits and pieces of information began to make their way back to her as fragments of memories of locations and events. The fragments lacked the usual cohesiveness that she was used to, appearing as a jumbled mess of memories in no particular order, but with enough pieces she could possibly come across something that would make the surroundings appear familiar. She began to mentally sift through the fragmented images, quickly discarding what didn’t appear important to her current situation.

She stopped, suddenly shocked when she came across a small fragment of but a few seconds of time. In the short memory she saw one of her drones that had been carrying Twilight Sparkle away from Canterlot at the very moment that Spike had swooped in to knock it away. Her concentration broke at that moment, and the link was lost. Her face contorted in anger as she let out a loud growl, and she brought a forehoof up and then back down forcefully, stamping the ground just in front of herself hard.

A squeek followed Chrysalis’s outburst, causing her to quickly turn her head to peer behind herself. Her ears swiveled as she looked to the trees, trying to find the source of the noise. “Who’s there?” she asked, keeping her scrutinizing gaze on the forest. She finally noticed a small bit of movement, a small patch of pink and yellow that slowly peaked out from behind one of the larger trees. “Oh, it’s just you,” Chrysalis said when she realized Fluttershy had followed her. “Why are you hiding?” she asked, finding herself curious as to just how long the shy pegasus had been standing there.

“Um, I don’t know,” Fluttershy said as she took a few timid steps out from behind the tree. “You seemed really upset about something.”

Chrysalis watched Fluttershy closely for a few more seconds, but didn’t see any hints that she had noticed anything that she shouldn’t have. She dismissively waved a hoof as she looked back out over the hill, saying, “It’s nothing for you to worry about.”

Chrysalis could hear as Fluttershy braved more steps toward her, the sound of the light hoofsteps only barely audible. The noise stopped short a few steps behind, and Chrysalis turned her gaze to see Fluttershy standing there with a single forehoof lifted as she tilted her head. “Well, maybe not,” Fluttershy started quietly. “I mean, I don’t know much about all the things that you have to deal with, but if you wanted to talk to somepony that would listen... I’m here.”

Chrysalis regarded the timid mare before her, finding herself seriously considering the offer. She glanced down to her forehooves, staring at the violet fur covering them, knowing in her mind that the kindness and concern she could feel radiating from Fluttershy was not meant for her. Still, she wanted it all the same.

“It’s just that....” Chrysalis hesitated. She attempted to will herself not to give in to the silly desire. A light touch on her hoof drew her attention back to Fluttershy, who had taken a seat next to her. She stared into the tranquil depth of Fluttershy’s eyes for a few seconds before she gave in. “It’s just that I’m so close,” she said, slowly raising her head to look up into the star filled sky. “I’ve been fighting my way down this path that’s laid out before me. All of my efforts to get this far are finally starting to come together... and here at the very end... it feels like it’s all going to unravel.”

Chrysalis stared up into the sky as the silence of the forest settled in around them, lingering on the unsettling though for a time until she spoke again. “At first, I didn’t think much of it. It isn’t the first time things have gone differently than I had planned... but, little things keep happening. Little inconsistencies. Things that shouldn’t be happening, things that failed to happen the way they should have. I keep trying to stay ahead of them, making adjustments to get things back on course, but the closer I get, the more the plan has to change just to keep a small chance that it will somehow work out.” Chrysalis furrowed her brow, her voice taking on a determined edge. “I’m not going to let this future slip past me, not when I’m so close to making everything right.”

Chrysalis kept her determined gaze to the sky until Fluttershy’s calm voice drew her attention back down. “I can’t possibly understand what you’re going through,” Fluttershy said as she looked out over the tree covered hillside. “It must be weird, knowing what the future is supposed to be, and then seeing it happen differently.”

“You have no idea,” Chrysalis said, shifting her forehoof just slightly and hooking her fetlock against Fluttershy’s. She blinked at the touch, quickly looking to the violet irises that were intently searching her. Chrysalis could feel the myriad of emotions as Fluttershy experienced them, from the kindness and compassion while she had listened, to the sudden twinge of surprise at the touch. “You really are a good friend, aren’t you, Fluttershy,” she said as she leaned in closer toward her. There was a small wave of panic, which was expected, and then the panic quickly subsided as the whites of Fluttershy’s eyes began to glow a dim green. A greenish glow lit both of their facial features as Chrysalis’s horn glowed dimly between them. Chrysalis leaned in closer, opening her mouth gently as she breathed her words. “A really, really,” — she leaned in close enough that she could feel Fluttershy’s gentle breath against her lips — “good friend.”

A ridiculously loud crunch echoed through the woods. Chrysalis cringed at the unexpected noise, her spell sputtering out as her concentration completely shattered, leaving Fluttershy wobbling slightly where she sat as she lingered in a state that was somewhere on the fringe of consciousness. Chrysalis leaned back, her head darting back and forth as she tried to find the source of the sound, her ears quickly pivoting around as they picked up on a residual noise that sounded a lot like chewing.

She finally realized that the noise was coming from above, and glanced up into a tree that was just a stone’s throw away on the hill side near them. When her eyes fell upon the tree’s canopy, she almost immediately squinted in a hateful scowl at who she saw there.

Discord casually chewed on something while laying his lengthy body out across a branch. He kept his head propped up with his eagle claw, elbow resting on the branch while he held on to something hidden within his lion paw. With a quick flick from his thumb, he popped one of the small items he was holding into his mouth, grinding it in his teeth with another unnecessarily loud crunch. He chewed for a few seconds longer before stopping, seeming to suddenly notice that his presence had been noticed. “Oh... don’t mind me!” he quickly said, lifting his head up and waving his eagle talons down to Chrysalis. When he saw that her angry glare was only intensifying, he extended his opened lion paw to offer the contents to her. “Want one?” he asked with a sheepish grin.

“What are you doing?” Chrysalis growled.

“Eating acorns,” Discord said with a shrug before he popped another one into his mouth. He chewed on it for a few seconds, but stopped when he saw that Chrysalis was still staring at him. “What!? I can’t make popcorn, or else I would have!” he said in a huff. Chrysalis’s eyes fluttered closed and her teeth ground together so tightly that she could hear them squeak as she struggled to keep her anger contained. She finally let go a short growl of frustration as she turned to leave the hill, cantering off back toward the clearing that they had arrived in. “Hey, it was just getting good!” Discord called to her as she was leaving.

Chrysalis spun around, shooting him a look that could wilt flowers. “When you’re done being a pain in my flank, I have something for you to do,” she said hotly before turning to stomp off into the woods.

“Hrm, must be grumpy because I interrupted her snack,” Discord said through an amused chuckle that he could barely control. He absentmindedly popped another one of the acorns into his mouth, crunching on it a few times before spitting it out with a disgusted look on his face. He dumped the rest of the acorns on the ground and dusted his palms against one another, smacking his lips and wincing at the unwanted taste that was left on his tongue as he did so. His glance quickly shifted back to the hill, one of his eyebrows perking up high when he noticed a quiet nose from Fluttershy that sounded like a cross between a dainty cough and a hickup. She teetered on her hooves slightly, quickly shaking her head and then blinking as she looked around herself. Discord folded his hands together, resting them on the branch so his elbows hung over the edge and leaned over so his neck was dangling down slightly. “Welcome back,” he said with a toothy grin.

“Huh?” Fluttershy said with a quick start. She looked up into the tree, her ears splaying back when she saw the draconequus grinning toward her like a playful predator. “Oh. Um, where did Twilight go?” she asked as she quickly glanced around.

“Oh, Grumpy Sparkles stomped off in that direction,” Discord said as the hair at the tip of his tail took on the form of a hand and pointed off into the woods. “I guess seeing me ruined her appetite,” he said with a shrug as he sat up on the branch. He absentmindedly itched his eagle talons against the binding on his other wrist for a few seconds, and then focused all of his attention on it as he brought it up and vigorously scratched at it as he let go a long growl. “These things are unbearably itchy! I bet she made them like that on purpose,” he growled between his clenched teeth. Discord continued to pick at the binding, trying to find a way to get his talons underneath it but to no avail. His ears twitched slightly when he thought he heard something from below, and he glanced back down to see Fluttershy still sitting there on the hill. “Did you say something?” he asked.

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy mumbled just loud enough for Discord to hear clearly.

Discord blinked back at her with a confused look. “Sorry?” he asked as he once again began to fidget with the binding.

“Well, I mean, we helped Twilight put those on you,” Fluttershy said as she timidly pointed up toward him.

“Did you help her make them insanely uncomfortable?” he asked as he scratched his claws over the binding, causing a nails-on-chalkboard screech, which made Fluttershy cringe and cup her hooves over her ears. He then proceeded to gnaw at the binding, clamping his large, jagged front teeth down on it multiple times before he finally pulled back and stared at it. “Was worth a try,” he said with a disappointed sigh as he laid out across the branch dejectedly, allowing his arms and legs to dangle over the side toward the ground.

“She didn’t really tell us she was going to do that,” Fluttershy said. When he quirked a questioning eyebrow toward her, she added, “She kinda told us what the spell did after she cast it on you.”

Discord folded his hands together where they were hanging under the branch, twiddling his thumbs idly. “I’m sure there are quite a few other things she’s not telling you,” he mused as he stared forward at nothing with his eyebrows deeply furrowed.

“She has her reasons,” Fluttershy quickly said.

Discord allowed himself to slide off the branch, swinging around and dangling there by his hands for a second before he released his grip. He quickly dropped the last few inches to land on the ground and spun around toward Fluttershy, his arms crossed as he cast a look of disappointment down at her. “And you just blindly trust those reasons without even knowing what they are,” he said with an exaggerated eye roll. He tisked as he began to take a step toward the woods, grumbling, “And ponies call me crazy,” under his breath.

“Well, somepony has to be the first one to give their trust.”

Discord froze mid step, his eyes going wide for a second before he narrowed them and spun around to face Fluttershy. “Well that’s fine if you want to,” he said as he stalked over to her and poked one of his talons at her chest just above Kindness, causing her to flinch slightly. He then withdrew his hand into a fist and jabbed his thumb against his chest firmly as he said, “Count me out.”

“...Nopony has ever trusted you, have they?” Fluttershy asked as she tilted her head to the side, her eyes giving of the slightest hint of sadness and pity.

Discord seemed stunned for a few seconds before a smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Don’t be trying to get in my head,” he said as he leaned in close, putting his face only inches from hers. The small grin completely dropped from his face as his voice dropped to a low grumble. “You won’t like it in there.”

Fluttershy’s tranquil eyes blinked as she looked deep into the chaotic glare staring her down. “How do you know if you always keep everypony out?” she asked calmly.

Discord was struck speechless, his lower jaw quivering at his inability to produce a fitting retort. An involuntary shiver worked its way through his body as his eyes momentarily rolled back into his skull. “Duuhuh! You just ooze kindness, don’t you?” he said as he recoiled back and repeatedly balled his fists at his sides. He scrunched his long jawline to the side as he stared down at the confusingly kind pony for a few seconds longer, and then turned to start making his way to the woods. “This isn’t fun,” he growled lowly as he wandered off.

“Well, if you ever want somepony to talk to...,” she called after him. Discord swatted a hand back in her direction, not so much as turning his head as he stalked off into the woods.

The enormous crystal construct towered into the sky like a living mountain. An uncountable number of large crystal shards the size of buildings hovered in the air around it, held aloft by the powers coursing through the air. The raw power arced from shard to shard and to the construct itself.

Twilight could feel the magical power saturating the air all around her as her wings held her at a hover in the sky just before the gigantic crystal abomination. The power was building to a critical point, and she knew she had to stop it.

She brought her staff before her, holding it horizontally with her magic while she worked to channel a spell. Her eyes took on a bright white glow as she dug deep into her power, bring forth everything she had. The two crystal tips at the ends of her staff glowed brightly as her power flowed through it.

However, she was already too late.

It felt as if the air itself exploded just then. The concussive force of the gigantic crystal exploding tore through everything; the land, the sky, everything. Twilight instinctively attempted to shield herself from the force, but her power was literally nothing compared to the destructive power of the blast. Her body felt oddly numb as the blinding bright wave of raw power washed over her. Despite the brightness of the light, she could still make out the disintegrating outline of her forehooves that she had held up to shield her eyes with.

Twilight awoke with a scream that echoed through the archives. She tumbled backwards out of her chair to the floor, flailing her legs and wings about wildly as if something were attacking her. A stack of books slid off the table that she had been resting at to scatter along the floor next to her, and her chair clattered across the floor when one of her wild kicks knocked it away.

Two unicorn Nightguard responded within seconds from the archive doorway, galloping into view. Only seconds later did Luna and Spike show themselves as well, each stepping out from between the many tall bookcases that encircled the tables at the center of the room.

Luna lept from the floor once she was clear of the shelves, crossing the distance to Twilight’s side with a single, graceful flap of her wings. Her horn lit and she brought it close as she searched for whatever it was that was tormenting the younger alicorn. Twilight had curled up on her side, her hind and forelegs folded tightly against her body and her wings clamped against her sides as her entire body trembled from her rapid pants. “Twilight?” Luna called gently as she cautiously reached a forehoof out. Twilight’s abnormally dilated eyes wildly darted about, and she pushed Luna’s hoof away when it came in contact with her, letting go a quick scream as if the touch itself had burned her. “Twilight, calm yourself! There is nothing here that can harm you!” Luna called out once again.

Slowly, it seemed Luna’s voice made it through. Twilight eventually relaxed, rolling over to lay splayed out on her back, still panting heavily but much more steadily as she rolled her eyes about and blinked them against the tears that had built up. She began to focus on the faces that she could see hovering above her as her sight returned to her. Both Luna and Spike were there, looking both frightened and concerned, as well as a couple guards in uniform. At that moment she remembered where she was, and realized that she had somehow ended up laying on the Canterlot Archive floor.

Spike extended a hand out to her, which she reached up and hooked her fetlock over. He gently helped her sit upright, supporting her back with his other hand as he pulled her up. “Are you okay?” he asked quietly as he ran his claws carefully through her mane to brush it back out of her face. “Are you hurt?”

Twilight sniffed once, rubbing her hoof just beneath her eyes. “No, I-I’m okay. It was... a dream.”

“A dream? Must have been pretty bad,” Spike said, which Twilight confirmed with a silent nod and a frown. “Wanna talk about it?”

Twilight shook her head quickly. “Not really. I don’t even want to remember it.”

“That bad, huh?” Spike asked as he crossed his legs and sat down next to her. Twilight closed her eyes and nodded again, hanging her head slightly lower to the floor. He gently brushed the back of his claws down her back between her wings, to which she responded by leaning toward him slightly to rest against his leg.

Luna stared thoughtfully at the two for a moment before presenting them a question. “How much rest have you been getting lately?”

Twilight knew the question must have been directed at her. She glanced up to Luna, seeing the Princess expecting an answer. “Well, I’ve been busy the last few days,” Twilight began. When she caught the frown deepening on Luna’s muzzle, her ears splayed back as she averted her eyes before she mumbled, “Not much.”

“I suspected.” Luna quickly looked up to one of the two guards, causing both of them to snap to attention. “Guard, please see Twilight Sparkle to my quarters,” she commanded, and then looked to the other as she added, “You may return to your post.” The one guard remained while the other quickly returned to the entryway of the archives as Luna looked back down to Twilight to explain. “You need to be properly rested if we are to perform a ritual to free my sister. My bed chamber is warded against nightmares, so you should find restful sleep there, more so than on a pile of books at the least.”

“Oh, well I appreciate the offer, Princess,” Twilight said as she sat up straight.

“And you will accept it,” Luna said simply, her brow raising slightly.

“...Not going to let me argue, are you?” Twilight asked, giving a weary grin.

“I have what I need here to continue the research,” Luna said as she turned and took a few quick steps to a wooden podium. She glanced at the tome that had been set upon it, her eyes lingering on the open pages for a few short seconds before she looked back toward Twilight. “Your notes are actually proving to be quite useful, and I am confident that we will have our answer soon. You needn’t linger here when you are barely able to keep yourself awake.”

“I’ll stay with Princess Luna and help her out if she needs it,” Spike said. Twilight glanced up to him, smiling slightly as he smiled back down to her. “You need some sleep.”

Twilight looked to Luna, and then back to Spike once again. “Alright, you’re both right. I won’t be much use to anyone if I’m dozing off during the middle of the ritual.” She stood, taking a few steps toward the guard that was waiting to escort her, and then glanced back. “Don’t hesitate to send for me if you do end up needing my help.”

Luna dipped her head slightly to Twilight in acknowledgement, and then watched as the younger alicorn and her escort departed from the archives. “Pleasant dreams, Twilight Sparkle,” she called after them as they passed through the archway leading into the adjoining hall.

Once Twilight had left the room, Luna had returned her attention to the tome that Twilight had brought her. The contents were an astonishing collection of notes on controversial magical theory. While she had the proper mindset to appreciate the dedication that it must have taken to compile such a collection, the subject matter was not one that she would ever consent to for public publishing. Some of the spells described within the notes challenged and even crossed many of the ethical boundaries established in society, which was an understandable result since she had been told that the work was the result of Twilight’s attempts to find the power to break the laws of mortality. Still, some of the theories could be applied in other ways, such as the study of ritual spells and how they could be modified to magnify magical power by many fold beyond their normal limits, even if requiring some very unusual circumstances to produce the results. The notes had already given her the leads that she needed to find other works within the archives that she could use to devise the specifics of the ritual they would need to gather enough magical power to force their way into a prison constructed by the Elements.

Luna cast her glance to the side when she noticed the absence of a noise she had only then realized had ceased. Spike had been collecting the scattered books from the floor, gently placing them one by one on a shelf. He now stood still with his glance looking out to the hall just outside the archives, one hand held against the spine of a book he had just placed on the shelf while his other still held a few tucked against his chest. “Something troubles you,” Luna said as she shifted her hooves to turn toward him slightly.

Spike flinched, his head turning quickly to look toward her. His surprised look quickly melted back to something much more somber. “Yeah... that obvious, huh?” he said with a small shrug as he returned his attention to the bookshelf, placing another one of the books upon it. He held the book there with his index finger pressed against its spine for a moment, then glanced aside at the entryway again as he admitted, “I’m worried about her.”

“She is wise and strong beyond her years,” Luna said, which drew Spike’s attention back to her. “If not for her appearance, I would have guessed her age closer to mine.”

“Oh, I know she’s capable,” Spike said with a quick nod. “She just has this really bad habit of trying to solve every problem herself. She didn’t used to do that until she became a princess.” Spike pushed another book onto the shelf, frowning a bit. “If I don’t keep an eye on her, she’ll just work herself to death until she thinks everything is fixed.” He placed the final book on the shelf and heaved a sigh as he shook his head. “And now she’s having nightmares. It must be really getting to her.”

“Spike,” Luna said, grabbing his attention once again. “I need you to make a promise to me.”

Spike tilted his head slightly at the sudden request. “A promise?”

“What I am about to tell you does not get repeated, not even to Twilight.” Luna’s eyes darted past Spike to look out the entryway. “Especially not to Twilight,” she said as her brow furrowed slightly and her voice took on a concerned edge.

Spike frowned deeply as he turned himself to face the Princess straight on. “You want me to keep something from her?” he said with a cut of agitation on his voice, tossing his open hands out to his sides slightly.

Luna quickly raised a forehoof, the motion itself eliciting a sudden calm from him, though it didn’t seem to make him any less unhappy about the request. When she was satisfied that he was ready to listen, she explained further. “The knowledge may only do her harm. Right now, she does not need to be troubled any more than she is, but I believe you should know the truth so you can better aid her.” She searched his eyes, watching as he considered her words. “Promise me.”

Spike slowly took in a breath, and then let it go quickly through his nostrils. He glanced over his shoulder toward the entryway for only a second before he looked back and then nodded once. “I promise.”

“Very well,” Luna said as she closed her eyes and dipped her head slightly in response. When she looked back up to him, she seemed to hesitate for but a short moment as she gathered her thoughts. “Twilight did not just suffer from some nightmare. Had she, I would have felt it the very moment it began, and I would have put a stop to it immediately.” Luna could see the intensely confused look creep over Spike’s face as she spoke, but she pressed onward. “What she experienced was no dream.”

“Then what was it? It couldn’t have just been nothing. She was terrified,” Spike said as he cast one of his hands in the directly of the door.

“Yes,” Luna said as she gently raised a hoof, once again silently calling for him to calm himself before she continued. “On rare occasion, my sister would see visions while she was resting, and I was never able to see those visions myself. My ability allows me to walk among dreams, but her visions were something different that I could not see. She would tell me of them afterward, and then the events would actually come to pass.”

Spike reached one of his hands back, trailing it down his neck over his spines, shaking his head. “...Y-you think Twilight saw something that’s really going to happen?”

Luna calmly approached him, having to glance a fair ways upward to his taller upright stance. She reached one forehoof up, cradling her fetlock against his other arm at his side. “You mustn't tell her this. If you do, it would only trouble her mind further.”

Spike took a quick step backwards, his opened palms quickly raising up to shoulder height. “How can I just ignore this?” he said hotly, irritation flashing across his eyes as his hands flopped back against his sides.

“I did not suggest such a thing,” Luna said soothingly. “You mustn’t tell her that you know it was not a dream. You should still try to help her through it, if you can. I believe you are the only one that she would be willing to confide in.”

Spike eyes remained locked on Luna, his jaw tightly clamped and his clawed fingers fidgeting about his thumbs. Eventually, the tension in his shoulders went slack as he cast his gaze slightly to the side. “Alright, I get it,” he said somberly.

“This really does trouble you deeply,” Luna said as she thoughtfully considered his behavior. She had never known one of his kind to be anything other than indifferent or hostile to her own kind. Seeing a dragon exhibit not just cooperative, but protective behavior toward a pony stirred her curiosity. “The two of you must be quite close.”

“Yeah. She’s family,” Spike said with a small shrug, and then scrunched his long muzzle on one side. “Well, not really, obviously,” he added, gesturing to himself with one hand. “But as strange as it might sound, I’d consider myself more of a pony than a dragon any day, and I think of her as my sister, you know? We’ve been together ever since I can remember, even growing up together when we were little. It was her magic that hatched me from my egg, so I guess that makes me the little brother.” He let go a throaty chuckle at that, his words also drawing out a small smile from Luna before his laughter died out. “Honestly though, she is pretty far beyond me. She can do things I can’t even dream of, but I still want to be a good brother and help her out when I can.”

“That is a very close bond... I dare say closer than what most siblings share,” Luna said as she smiled benevolently at the thought. She cast her eyes toward the floor to the side of the room as she silently stood there for a moment, and then turned to return to the tome resting upon the pedestal. Her magic reached out to turn a page, causing the dry sound of the century old paper dragging across to echo through the room. She stared down at the page, but her thoughts were still focused on the dragon’s words. Her ears twitched slightly at the sound of him collecting a few other books together from the tables around them. “Cherish the bond that you have,” Luna said thoughtfully, glancing toward Spike when she noticed that the sounds had stopped.

She saw him paused with one hand out stretched across a table to collect a book that laid there, his other arm holding a small stack of books against his chest. He was looking directly back to her, his brow ridge raised a bit high on his forehead, and his jaw hanging slightly open. After staring back for a few seconds, he smiled back to her as he said, “I always have.”

Little else was said in the archives after that as Luna and Spike worked together through the early morning hours. Once Luna had been satisfied that she had found their best option for bringing her sister back to Equestria, the two of them left the archives to find some rest of their own to prepare themselves for the day to come.

Hidden History

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter XVI – Hidden History

“And so you believe you would be the better choice to enter?”

Twilight glanced up from the stack of notes that she had been reading to look across the table toward Luna, who was waiting for an answer to the question. “I do have knowledge of a few advanced magical theories that haven’t been discovered yet,” she said as she waved a forehoof in a lazy circle next to her head. Her eyes wandered about as she thought further on her reasoning, eventually coming back to meet Luna’s. “That isn’t the only reason though,” she said as she tapped a hoof against the stack of notes on the table she was sitting at.

“Oh?” Luna asked, her brow perking just slightly as her eyes followed Twilight's motion to the stack of notes.

“Yes,” Twilight said as her magic lit to bring one of the pages up before herself. Her eyes quickly scanned across the page, and then glanced over it to Luna when she lowered it slightly. “While I understand the ritual spell just fine, I don’t think I would be the best choice to channel it. It requires maintaining some very careful alignments, and of the two of us you’re the one who has had experience controlling celestial objects. I’m not even sure I could do that, let alone do it properly. Definitely not without a practice run, which we really don’t have time for.”

“True,” Luna said though a light sigh. “Though I do think you underestimate your abilities, I suppose I would be better suited to channel the doorway.”

“Wait, let me get this straight here,” Spike said, grabbing both of the alicorns’ attention. He had made himself comfortable at the end of the table off to the side, resting on the floor on all fours with his arms folded on the floor just in front of his chest while he had listened to the details of Luna’s plan. “You’re going into the spell?” he asked as he lifted one of his arms up high enough to point to Twilight just over the table top. She nodded back to him. “Isn’t that, Iduno,” — his shoulders gave an exaggerated shrug — “dangerous?”

Luna was the first to answer his question. “It isn’t without risk, which is why I offered to be the one to enter. However, Twilight does have valid points,” she said as she looked to Twilight.

Twilight shared the glance with a nod before looking back to Spike. “We should play to our strengths to give us the best chance.”

“Yeah, but....” Spike reached back and scratched his claws over the spines on the back of his neck. His throat rumbled as he clamped his jaw, some of his jagged teeth showing when his upper lip curled upward a bit. “I thought you’d just blow it up or something.”

“Well first off,” Twilight started as she settled into her lecturing mode, “the two of us are not strong enough to just ‘blow it up’ as that would require us to put out more raw power than the Elements can. Secondly, even if we could, blasting the prison directly with that much power to destroy it likely wouldn’t end well for Celestia. We want to disable the spell so she can escape it, not destroy her with it.”

Spike grumbled to himself before asking, “Well what if something doesn’t go right?”

“This is going to work, Spike,” Twilight said. She maintained a confident smile for him, hoping that it would ease his worrying.

“I’m not saying you can’t do it,” Spike said quickly, and then paused as he drummed his claws on the floor for a moment. “Just... what if,” he said, raising his opened palms and shrugging again.

Twilight hesitated for only a few seconds, before she let out a small sigh in defeat. She couldn’t bring herself to hide the truth from him. “There’s a chance I could end up trapped too,” she admitted. When she saw Spike clench his jaw tightly in a disapproving frown she tried her best to reassure him. “Spike, the chances of that happening are almost none. If the spell gets unstable, Luna can warn me and hold it open long enough for me to get out.”

“If you are worried that I might have reason to purposely trap Twilight within the spell, consider this,” Luna said, drawing Spike’s attention toward her. “I would be sorely outmatch without her aid against both Chrysalis and Discord. The entire reason why we are attempting this to gain allies, not lose them.”

Twilight mentally questioned whether or not Luna’s comment would help allay any fears that Spike might have about the ritual. She looked over toward him when she noticed the rumbling sound coming from his throat, an old habit of his when he was wrestling with something upsetting. “Hey,” she said as she stood from her seat at the table and walked over to him. She rest one of her hooves atop his hands to get his attention, and when he looked back directly into her eyes, she gave him her confident smile again as she told him, “This is going to work.”

Twilight looked around herself at the astral plane that made up the inside of the prison enchantment. The best way to describe it was a place between places, a realm that didn’t exist in any physical sense. Her ‘body’ took on a form much like her physical one, but it was simply how her mind projected herself into the spell. The inside of the spell appeared to her as a swarm of multi-colored lights that trailed through the plane, taking on an appearance very similar to the northern lights that graced the sky during winter. Also, all around her she could see the enchantments that made up the magical structure, strung about in a complex web that at first glance seemed to have little order or reason.

She freely moved about, her form floating toward any direction she wished without aid of her wings. She approached some of the enchantments, getting close enough to see the raw components that made up one of them. Her mind interpreted what she saw as collections of runes with a bright, light blue glow that flowed along the surface of a string-like structure, and a bright ripple of white light that would travel along the string periodically as magical energy pulsed through it. It was honestly the most impressive magical construction she had ever seen. Each individual part was so simple, yet the entire system was more complex than any other she had ever known.

Twilight broke away from her fascination, recalling her reason for traveling there. She gave her head a quick shake, attempting to focus her thoughts on her task. She reached her mind out to communicate with Luna, who was currently holding this astral reality open with the ritual spell. “How are you doing Luna?” she asked.

The response didn’t come immediately. Twilight thought for a moment that the required focus needed to keep both the sun and the moon aligned on opposite horizons while channeling the doorway may be a bit more than just demanding of the Moon Princess’s attention. However, after a short time, the response did come in a wave of thought that touched Twilight’s mind. “Well, so far,” she heard Luna’s thoughts ring into her mind.

Twilight had wasted no time getting started with studying the enchantments and the various connections they had to each other. Luna was a very strong spell caster, perhaps even stronger than the Luna she knew from her own time given the recent events, but even an alicorn of her power would have to rest eventually. The doorway ritual required a constant expenditure of power, which meant Twilight was on a time limit. She had to figure out how the prison spell was able to keep an alicorn entrapped and how to circumvent that system before Luna was unable to keep the doorway open any longer, or else they would have to back out and wait until Luna was rested enough to perform the ritual again.

She worked quickly, mentally tagging parts of the enchantments around her as she discovered possible weaknesses that she could exploit. No magical system was unbreakable. Maybe one could be very close to being so, and maybe require so much force that it was unlikely to break, but none were unbreakable. In a few short minutes, she had already discovered that the prison spell, being very simple at its base components, relied on rebuilding itself when it took damage. Quite a bit of the enchantments could be completely destroyed and the rest would quickly replace the destroyed parts with replicas, which in turn could rebuild others around them. It was a really ingenious use of self replicating enchantments. When building a prison to trap something that had more than enough power to tear a hole in the ‘walls’, just make it so the walls rebuild faster than they can be torn down.

So the answer then would be simple; something had to be done about the replication. If it could be slowed enough, then the walls could be torn down before they could rebuild. The problem was that the enchantments were about as numerous as the stars in the sky. Trying to alter that many enchantments to slow them enough was going to take far longer than what they had.

As Twilight continued to ponder over how to defeat such an enormous magical system, her mind happened to take notice of a strand that stood out to her for some reason. She shifted, her form floating over toward the enchantment to look closer, and as she approached it she began to read it to decipher its meaning. It pulsed slightly differently from the rest around it, which told her that it wasn’t exactly a part of the overall system like the rest were, but it was still connected in some way. It looked like it was a trigger of some sort that had been activated.

“Oh no,” Twilight thought when she finally realized the true purpose of the odd enchantment.

“What is wrong?” Luna’s thoughts rung into her mind.

Twilight hadn’t exactly planned on Luna hearing her. She decided to ask a general question as she continued to study the enchantment before her. “Luna, how long can you keep this spell open? This may take longer than I thought.”

There was a pause, and then a cautious question. “Should we stop?”

“No. No, we can’t,” Twilight thought quickly. She mentally debated telling Luna the details of her discovery, finally deciding to tell her what it was she had found. “Try not to be alarmed, but it looks like we’ve triggered a trap. We’re both already caught, and if we try to back out without taking down the entire thing, the enchantment will just pull us into the prison when the doorway closes. It’s something I didn’t consider, a sort of anti-tampering enchantment. Don’t worry, I’ll work quickly. I can still fix this.”

Twilight didn’t wait for a response, and didn’t receive one. If Luna was at all worried about the possibility of being entrapped in the spell again, she didn’t make it known. If anything, Twilight hoped that the possibility of such a fate would push Luna to keep the spell open as long as she possibly could.

After a few more moments of mental deliberation, Twilight settled on what she believed was her best option for tackling the enormous magical structure. She wondered why she hadn’t considered the possibility from the very beginning when she learned that it was a self replicating system. When faced with a magical construct that relied heavily on a single method of defense, the easiest way to defeat it would be to turn that defense into a weakness. In the case of a self replicating enchantment that could rebuild itself faster than it could be destroyed, you just use the replication to do the destroying.

The entire area around Twilight pulsed as a shockwave of lighting skittered through the plane. Though she couldn’t really ‘feel’ or ‘hear’ things in this place, she had mentally sensed that some sort of magical quake had just struck the entire magical construct. “Luna?” Twilight mentally asked as she glanced around herself.

“...Yes?” Luna’s answer was delayed and strained.

Twilight knew that they were very quickly running out of time. “Just a little longer. I almost have it,” she thought, hoping that she was actually right.

Twilight worked at a frantic pace, her mind racing through the logic of constructing the replica enchantment that had just a few minor changes that should go unnoticed by the rest of the system. The strand of magic took form in front of her in the plane, assembling from runes that appeared from nothing around her. Her mind only had a scant few seconds to appreciate the sight of one of her own enchantment spells being constructed right before her.

She wished that she had the time to give the viral enchantment a test run, but settled for only quickly glancing over the spell’s components once again to verify that she had constructed it as intended. It was a near identical replica of the surrounding enchantments that made up the prison spell, with a few of her own additions. The enchantment would seek and destroy any others around it that didn’t have a special tag that she had placed upon this one, and then using the enchantment’s own replication ability, it would create duplicates that could do the same. The compounding effect of the replication would replace the entire magical system with her own recreation of the enchantment in seconds, and then she could command it to dispel all at once.

Taking in the mental equivalent of a deep, calming breath, Twilight moved her enchantment into place, connecting it with the magical system. It almost immediately took effect when it touched, causing many strands of magical runes to shatter and then new ones to grow in place. The web of spells began to fly apart and rebuild at an accelerated speed as the viral enchantment tore through the prison spell. Twilight smiled as she watched her spell do its work, feeling a swell of pride that she had managed in minutes to solve something that even Nightmare Moon hadn’t been able to conquer in a thousand years. A more humble side of her mind quickly reminded her that she had a unique perspective on the spell, being able to study its components directly from inside the spell itself, instead of being trapped inside the prison it formed.

A large pulse rocked the plane once again. Twilight quickly glanced about, trying to read the surroundings to figure out what had caused the quake. Her spell had nearly replaced the entire system, but there was one area that it had stopped at, and from that location there were shockwaves of power coursing out into the entire magical system. Twilight approached the area to get a better look at what had stopped her enchantment’s advance. As large as the system was, it was very possible that there was something she hadn’t noticed there. Sure enough, she saw a collection of spell threads that were different from the rest of the system. She very quickly started to read them, trying to make sense of their rune structure as bits of enchantments flew about her from the clash between her viral enchantment and the remainder of the magical system. This small part was fighting back, but that wasn’t all it was doing.

Another huge pulse shook the plane, causing Twilight to be forced back. She mentally strained against the sudden push back, trying to bring her form back to a steady hover in the plane. Once she had regained control, she looked back toward the area where the enchantments had collided, and was shocked to see the prison enchantment not just fighting back against her viral replacement, but completely destroying her spell and replacing it in the same fashion that her own spell had just done. The sight before her coupled with the parts of the spell she had managed to read finally clicked, and she knew exactly what she was seeing. Just as she had thought to turn the prison spell’s own strength against itself, it had learned her tactic and managed to rewrite itself so it could fight back using the same method. Of course it would have to have some sort of adaptive capability, Twilight thought to herself. If any spell was to keep an alicorn trapped for centuries, it would have to adapt to any attempts of escape.

The magical quakes were now rocking the plane around her with such ferocity that she knew Luna wouldn’t be able to hold the doorway spell open much longer. There simply wasn’t enough time left. If she had the proper amount of time, she could have figured out a way to disconnect the adaptive portion of the spell, or found a way to take control of it to force it to rewrite the prison as she saw fit, but since she hadn’t noticed it up front that wouldn’t be an option now. Soon, both she and Luna would find themselves drawn in and trapped along with Celestia.

Twilight finally lost the ability to maintain her mental form as the shockwaves proved to be too much, and the entire astral plane broke apart.

The bright lights that had caused Twilight to squeeze her eyes shut faded out. She blinked her eyes, glancing around herself as she stood hunched over on all fours in the center of what remained of the ritual circle. Charred marks in the shape of lines, circles, and runes surrounded her and trailed wisps of smoke into the air. Just in front of her, she saw Spike attempting to hold an exhausted Luna steady, the tip of the Moon Princess’s horn still glowing hot white like a piece of iron just pulled from a smith’s forge. Twilight then quickly looked to her side when she noticed something out of the corner of her vision, and saw a white leg just next to her. She quickly spun around and looked up. There just behind where she had been standing stood the Sun Princess, Celestia, hunched over, her chest heaving heavily as her horn also glowed a bright, hot white. “Oh, thank goodness,” Twilight said with a huge sigh of relief as she fell back on her haunches. She had actually forgotten through the panic that Celestia, trapped as she was, could still help in her own way from inside the prison. It appeared that she had taken notice of the spell being weakened and had made her move to free herself from it, and under the combined strain from the power of the royal sisters and Twilight’s tampering with the spell, the prison had failed.

“It’s you.” Celestia’s voice came out just above a whisper between her heavy breaths. Twilight looked up into the Sun Princess’s eyes, seeing the wide eye shock staring back at her. Celestia held the gaze for a time, her exhausted state seeming to improve slowly as the bright glow at the tip of her horn dimmed from white to reddish orange, and then finally darkened to a slightly charred tone of her natural white. She blinked and glanced up past Twilight, looking to her sister and Spike. She furrowed her brow as her eyes met those of her sister, her mouth hanging slightly agape. “Luna?” she asked in a quiet question.

Luna sat at the edge of the charred ritual circle where Spike was holding one of her forehooves in his hand to help support her. She appeared to have mostly recovered from the strain of the spell. She glanced to her side and gave Spike a quick nod, her mouth forming the words ‘thank you’ as she pulled her hoof from his hand and made a motion to stand. Her hoofsteps were steady, but careful as she took a few steps into the circle. “Do you not recognize your own sister?” she asked, stopping a single body length away from Celestia.

Celestia’s eyes seemed to widen slightly in surprise. She looked over her younger sister, her eyes tracing the dark form of the Moon Princess down to her hooves and then back up to her face. After a quick glance around herself at the charred marks on the floor, she looked back up to Luna. “You did all this?” she asked.

“With their help,” Luna said as she turned to the side, looking first at Twilight next to her, then back over her shoulder to Spike. She turned her head back to her sister, her loose ethereal mane wiping about. “We have much to discuss.”

Chrysalis trudged forward through ankle deep snow drifts, her dark chitin a stark contrast to the pure white around her. Her mane and tail whipped around in the wind as wisping trails of blowing snow streamed across the drifts. The surrounding area looked a lot like a blinding white desert with little else other than snow drifts all around.

To her sides only a half step behind her were the five bearers that had accompanied her to this place. Together, they pushed onward against the bitter cold to a cliff face encased in solid, dark blue ice. Chrysalis stopped, craning her neck back to look up at the cliff. Her companions each stopped there beside her, waiting and looking to her.

Chrysalis glanced to her sides at the five mares for a short moment, and then focused her attention on the cliff side. As she did, the Element of Magic began to glow brightly from its crown upon her head, and the remaining five Elements at each of the five bearer’s necks lit in response to the call. A stream of chromatic light flowed from the Elements, gathering at a point before Chrysalis before projecting into the cliff side to be absorbed.

The spell ended, and for a time there was nothing but the sound of the bitter cold wind rushing past them. Then, there was a small cracking sound high above, which drew their attention upward. At the top of the cliff, the ice was beginning to split. The crack slowly snaked down the face of the cliff at first, and then began to pick up speed as the sound of the land splitting in two loudly echoed around them. The split finally met the ground just before the group, and the two halves of the cliff let out a groaning sound of stone on stone as they fell to the sides of the divide, revealing a pitch black crevice.

The rest of the world seemed to fade away, leaving Chrysalis standing there alone on a small patch of snow hovering in the void. She couldn’t will herself to look away from the pitch black darkness just in front of her as she intently stared into it. The sounds around her seemed to vanish just like the world had, leaving nothing but deafening silence that was only broken by the sound of her own heartbeat drumming loudly in her ears.

A low rumble shook the patch of ground that she stood upon, one that sounded like the growl of a predator. Chrysalis’s legs trembled in spite of herself, causing her to stamp one of her back hooves as she let out a quick breath of air. She grit her teeth, narrowing her eyes with a glare of determination at the darkness.

A long wisp of black smoke shot out from the darkness, wrapping itself around Chrysalis’s body thrice over. A quick gasp was all she managed before it constricted around her form tightly and pulled her up off the ground. The tendril of smoke trailed back into the pitch black dark before her like a tentacle, slowly rising as it lifted Chrysalis into the air. She struggled against its grip, pulling at the tip that had snaked up and wrapped itself around her neck and was squeezing at her throat. As she struggled against the attack, she could just make out two glowing green eyes locked onto her from within the darkness as it slowly pulled her in.

Chrysalis awoke with a sudden start, sitting upright and quickly grasping at her neck as she drew in a deep gasping breath. She rubbed at her bare throat for a moment, and began to relax when she realized that she wasn’t in any real danger. The surroundings were unfamiliar at first, but then she recalled tasking Discord with creating the makeshift tent. The draconequus had created it, and a few others similar to it, for their group to rest in to recover from the previous day’s ordeal. She hadn’t asked where the patchwork of interwoven fabrics that made up the tents had come from, but just a glance told her that he had likely stolen much of it from some unsuspecting victims. Where he had managed to find so much clothing shaped fabric was a mystery.

She groaned as her eyes slowly slid closed again and her head hung forward a bit. She remained sitting there upright as the hazy visions played out through her mind again. A small shiver worked its way down her body at the memory. She shook her head quickly, dispelling the bad thoughts as she mumbled the words, “Not like that,” in a quiet whisper.

Chrysalis rubbed the sleep from her eyes with the backside of her forehooves, blinking a few times as she let out an unrestrained yawn before stretching her wings and forelegs out to her sides. Her still disguised and feathered wings flapped once after the good stretch, causing the patchwork tent to billow slightly at the gust of wind. Her gaze lazily traveled over to the folds at the entrance of the tent, drawn there by something. There was a small trail of light cast inside the tent through the barely open flap.

She yawned a second time, and rubbed at her right eye to wipe away the moisture that had gathered there. As she did, her left eye continued to stare at the light, and her brow slowly furrowed as her mind finally realized what was wrong with it. It shouldn’t have even been there at all.

Chrysalis sat perfectly still a moment longer as she stared at the light, and then all at once threw the bedroll covers back as she scrambled to her hooves and out of the tent. She had only taken a few steps outside by the time her hooves left the ground, her wings beating the air feverishly as she attempted to get above the tree canopy.

Her eyes were met with the light of the sun peaking just above the distant horizon. She hovered there just above the tree tops, squinting her eyes against the bright light as it grew more intense, and finally looking away as more of the fiery globe rose into the sky. Her mind began to race through possibilities. Had it been Nightmare Moon? No, she had no reason to raise the sun again, and wouldn’t likely be capable in the state she had been left in. Perhaps Twilight had something to do with it? She had found out the night before that the younger alicorn was still at large, and wouldn’t put it past the Princess of Magic to discover some way to move the sun on her own. But it couldn’t possibly be the Sun Princess herself... could it?

“Looks like Lil’ Sunnybutt is back.” Chrysalis’s head quickly turned toward Discord’s voice, finding the draconequus poised upon one of the upper branches of a nearby tree top. He held his lion paw across his brow just above his eyes as he looked toward the sunrise. Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at him, something that he noticed when his eyes finally shifted over to her. “I didn’t do it!” he said defensively, resting his eagle claw against his chest. “I’d put my bet on it being Moonbutt who let her out somehow. Anyway, I can smell her magic in the air,” he said, his nose wrinkling to the side as he sniffed once.

Chrysalis only responded with an indignant snort. She folded her wings closer to her sides, swooping back down toward the ground and only stopping herself by quickly opening her wings again when she was barely a leg’s length from the ground. Her hooves thudded against the grass, and immediately she began to pace back and forth. Discord showed himself shortly there after, sliding down the tree’s trunk that he had used as his vantage point. He stepped out into Chrysalis’s path, placing his lion paw over his midsection with a flourish and bending himself over in an exaggerated bow just before her. “So what now, O’ fearless leader of mine,” he asked, his eyes betraying his amusement at the situation.

“Can it, Discord,” Chrysalis snipped, practically biting the air between her and him.

Discord grinned widely, poising his index finger against his thumb, but the grin soon slipped off his face, his shoulders sagging a bit. “You know, these things really make retort making very difficult,” he said as he eyed the glowing bracelet around his wrist. “I had a good one, too,” he said, pouting as he flopped down on the ground, propping his elbow against the ground as he rest his chin upon the palm of his hand.

“This doesn’t change a thing,” Chrysalis said as she began to pace again. If it were true that Celestia had found a way to return, she could pose a threat, but there was no point in changing her plan when she already had everything she needed to move forward. It only meant that she needed the plan to succeed as soon as possible.

“Oh, it doesn’t? How so?” Discord asked. “I’m sure it will put at least a small hitch in your Super Thorough Ultimate Plan of Impending Domination... plan...,” he said, waving a hand in a lazy circle. His body began to shake as he failed to contain the laughter building inside him, a small strained snerk escaping him.

“Discord,” Chrysalis said as she stopped her pacing facing away from him. She took a deep breath, slowly letting it out to maintain her calm. Casting a glance over her shoulder, she narrowed her eyes at the draconquessus that looked ready to burst from a giggling fit. “Don’t,” she nearly growled at him.

A manic grin overtook Discord’s face, his voice nearly overcome with laughter as he said, “You could just call it the STUPID plan for short—”

Discord coiled his body away from a bright green bolt of energy that shot only a hair’s width past him, cringing at the sound of wood splintering just behind him. He laid completely still and silent, his wide eyes looking back to Chrysalis with equal parts shock and horror as small flecks of wooden debris showered him. His head slowly turned to look to where the bolt of energy had gone, finding a tree with a good sized hole blasted through its trunk. “Well,” he said as he looked back, “somepony obviously woke up on the wrong side of the bedroll this morning.”

Chrysalis’s horn was still trailing a small wisp of smoke from the tip. She knew that expending the energy to take a shot at him hadn’t been a wise move, but she was not in the mood for his brand of humor. “I will seriously hurt you if you don’t stop,” she growled, lowering her head slightly toward him as if to make her threat seem all the more real.

Uncharacteristic to his very nature, Discord seemed to seriously consider the threat for a moment. “Are you still holding a grudge after all these years?” he finally asked. The question actually took Chrysalis off guard, causing her to shift to a more neutral stance. “You know, you always were the serious one. Why do you think I took so much interest in you first?”

Chrysalis sneared at the recollection of the distant memory of their first meeting. “I really don’t care what you think, or what you thought back then. What matters is that you do as I say, unless you’ve grown fond of being painfully normal,” she said as she pointed her hoof toward the bindings around his wrists. “Don’t forget that.”

“Oh how could I?” Discord said with an exaggerated eye roll, twirling one of his hands about next to his shoulder as he spoke. “You already drilled it into me every chance you got last night.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes as well, letting go an exasperated sigh. “You never take anything seriously—”

“I try not to,” Discord quipped, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“—but you know what will happen if you treat this like one of your stupid little gags... don’t you?”

After a moment of silence between them two of them, Discord let out a long sigh as he pushed himself up from the ground. “Yes, yes, I get it,” he said, dusting little wooden splinters off himself as he walked over to Chrysalis’s side. He started to reach toward her as if to pet her on the head, but the burning scowl that she shot at him when his hand got close made him think twice, and so he settled for just crossing his arms instead. “You’ll get your little trinket. Quit worrying so much or you’ll give your stolen identity gray hairs.”

“What in tarnation was that noise?”

Discord glanced over toward the other tents where Applejack’s voice had called out from. “Woops! Looks like our arguing woke the children,” he said as he bent over, lowering his head next to Chrysalis’s face, leaning uncomfortably close as he showed off that creepy ear to ear grin of his. Chrysalis let out a disgusted groan, turning away from him as she left him behind to make her way back to the center of their makeshift camp. She had no time left to waste on him this morning if she were to get her plans underway.

Twilight had waited outside of Celestia’s personal quarters as she had been asked while the two regal sisters had gone inside to talk privately. Alicorn voices had the capacity to reach volumes much higher than that of other ponies, and Luna had always been prone to raising hers when she was upset or anxious about something. It was no surprise then that Twilight had managed to catch quite a few pieces of the conversation through the closed door, mostly from Luna’s side of the discussion. Twilight very distinctly heard the word ‘changeling’ shouted loudly multiple times. The two Nightguard that flanked either side of the large doorway had done their best to stand at attention and act as if the arguing hadn’t phased them, but their ears fidgeting about at the sounds of the heated discussion going on behind the doors betrayed their nervousness.

The two guards flinched, managing to stand even more at attention somehow when the double doors to Celestia’s room quickly opened inward from the indigo aura that took hold of them. They swung on their hinges, stopping to a sudden loud thud against the walls inside. At the same time, Luna stormed out, not so much as glancing at either of the guards or Twilight. Twilight quickly sidestepped out of the Moon Princess’s way, following with her eyes as Luna practically stomped her way down the hall. Her ethereal mane reflected her emotional state, appearing more like a billowing storm cloud than a clear, star filled sky, and unless her eyes were playing tricks on her, Twilight was certain she saw a few skittering tendrils of lightning that arched across the surface of Luna’s mane as well. Once Luna had disappeared around the corner of the nearest corridor, Twilight looked back to the open doorway where she saw Celestia standing just at the threshold. Anypony else who didn’t know the Sun Princess as well would have likely only seen the mask of calm that she put forward, but Twilight noticed the small things like the slight decline in her ears and eyelids.

“Are you two... okay?” Twilight asked cautiously. She took a tentative step forward, her own ears splaying back when Celestia looked away from the hall down to her.

The Sun Princess held the glance for a short moment, then blinked once as she looked back down the hall. “She’s very upset with me,” she said, and then turned to walk back into her room. “Please, come in. We should talk,” she called back, prompting Twilight to follow her inside.

Twilight glanced over her shoulder, noticing the doors silently swinging closed at the command of the Nightguards’ magic behind her. She glanced about the room, one that she was actually very familiar with already. She had spent many days with her mentor in this place, and finding at least one thing that appeared to be untouched by the events of the time travel spell brought a sense of calm to her mind.

The lit fire crackled upon the hearth as it chased the chill out of the room. Celestia found her way to the large violet and gold laced velvet pillow laying near the hearth, and folded her legs to lay down upon it with her side to the fire’s warmth. Her golden aura lit about her horn as a smaller red pillow adorned with golden tassels was levitated over from the side of the room. “Luna seems to believe that I intentionally led us all down a dangerous path,” she said as she placed the pillow just before herself near the hearth. She glanced over to Twilight, giving a warm smile and making a welcoming gesture to the pillow with her wing. Twilight returned the smile as she happily took the offer, resting herself on the pillow next to her old mentor. “I was attempting to reassure her by explaining my intent, but it seems the more I spoke, the less she wanted to hear. She left before we could say all that needed to be said between us, but it’s probably for the best. She has always been quick tempered, and I think she realized just as I did that nothing is going to be solved between us in a shouting match.

“Now, I’m sure you have many questions for me, but first, there is something I want to ask you. Luna did speak briefly about you, and mentioned that you come from a possible future. Another Equestria, is how she put it. She said that you mentioned being a student of mine. Is this true?”

“I was, yes,” Twilight said as her smile brightened at the old memories. “Those were honestly some of the happiest years of my life.”

“Then the visions really were supposed to be.” Celestia glanced to the hearth, quietly watching the flames dance for a moment before turning her attention back. “Even after I failed to find you, I still continued to see visions of you. You, becoming my student. You, becoming the bearer of Magic. You,” — she lingered on her thought as she looked Twilight over — “becoming what you are now.”

“But you had more visions than just those, didn’t you?” Twilight asked, prompting a mildly surprised look from the Sun Princess’s eyes. “You saw what was going to happen to Luna before it ever did.”

“You know about that.” Celestia cast her eyes downward, going silent. Twilight hoped that there would be some sort of explanation to the ability. Magic that could cause precognitive thought was not something she was familiar with, or had even heard of before discovering that Celestia had the ability. The silence lingered in the room for a time, only broken by the sound of the crackling fire. Just when it seemed that no answer was going to come forth from the Sun Princess, she spoke. “Yes, I’ve had visions for most of my life,” she said simply, raising her head to look directly to Twilight. “Short little glimpses that have guided my actions, though I have no direct control over them. They began when my sister and I gained our considerable power.”

Twilight’s ears flicked as she picked up on something else she hadn’t known. “Gained?” she asked, wondering if she had heard correctly. “So you weren’t always as powerful as you are now?”

Celestia smiled warmly, her gaze seeming to drift off to something unseen. She seemed to quietly ponder her own thoughts for a time before finally sharing them. “My sister and I were not always what we are today. There was a time when we were much more... normal,” she said, ending her words on a light chuckle. “We were born here in Canterlot, daughters to a business owner and his wife, nothing special. I took after my father’s side of the family, being a unicorn, and Luna took after mother’s, being born a pegasus. It was a time when seeing a pegasus living in Canterlot was still a rare thing. The great migration and the unification of the three great tribes had only just happened a single generation earlier.” She closed her eyes, letting out a content sigh. “Things were not so perfect and pleasant as what the Hearthwarming story would lead everypony to believe, but I do still miss those days all the same.”

“Wow,” Twilight said in a quick breath. She had learned many things in the years that she had mentored under her old teacher, most of them in the very spot she was laying right now, but never had the conversation turned to learning about her mentor’s past. Just the revelation that her mentor had kept such secrets for so long was a bit shocking, as was her sudden willingness to divulge what had to have been one of her most tightly guarded secrets. Perhaps this Celestia felt she had reason to do so, given the different course of events. Driven by her ever insatiable desire for knowledge, Twilight decided to see just how much this Celestia was willing to tell. “So, you were really born in Canterlot?”

Celestia opened her eyes, smiling and nodding down to Twilight. “Yes. Not something that is common knowledge, and for good reason. There have been many scholars over the years that have come up with their own theories of where my sister and I appeared from. Imagine their shock if they were told that we were simply normal ponies that stumbled upon power.” A slightly mischievous smirk graced her muzzle for but a second, but quickly faded. “No, better to leave that truth lost to history, else others would attempt some sort of madness thinking it were possible for them to ascend as well.”

“So, you let everypony make up and believe their own stories to hide the truth?” Twilight hummed to herself, biting at her bottom lip as she tapped a forehoof to her chin. She recalled many of the very stories that Celestia had mentioned, most of them centered around the Alicorn of the Sun and how she had been a creator of all things, an angel sent to guide Equestria, or a warrior of light sent to save them from the evils of the world. However, any time Twilight had ever asked about the truth behind such stories, she had only gotten a smile and a question turned on itself, being asked what she thought was true. “There’s a lot of conflicting information about the early days of Equestria and even before then, and that just drove me crazy. There’s even a legend that you built Canterlot yourself, but I guess that can’t be true.”

“That would have been quite a feat,” Celestia said through a light laugh. “Actually, before we ascended, the three tribes had already founded the three great cities in Equestria, each one acting as a capital in its own right within our fledgling nation’s borders. The unicorn tribe founded the city of Canterlot here upon this mountain. The pegasi founded the cloud city of Cloudsdale, and the earth ponies founded the valley city of Everfree.”

Twilight’s ears twitched once again. “Wait. Everfree was an earth pony city?”

“Yes, another piece of knowledge lost to time.” Celestia once again peered off at something unseen as she continued to reminisce about Equestria’s early days. “It was a beautiful one. A place where earth pony magic brought forth the beauty of the land itself.”

“A lost city,” Twilight said quietly. Already her mind was dreaming up possibilities of treasure troves of centuries old knowledge hidden within the Everfree. Just the possibility alone filled her with a giddy feeling, momentarily letting her forget her recent troubles. “So, I’m guessing they built you a castle. There are ruins of a castle there in the forest,” she said, hoping Celestia was willing to tell her more.

A proud smile graced Celestia’s muzzle, one similar to what could be expected from a teacher that was proud of one of her students. “Yes, that castle was built after we received our power.”

“Makes sense, but how did having three capital cities work out?” Twilight asked. She hadn’t ever heard of any nation having more than one capital city, and obviously Equestria no longer did, so that must have changed at some point. “The Everfree ruins are called the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. Does that mean Everfree became the capital back then?”

Any reluctance that had shown itself at the beginning had left, and now Celestia seemed more than happy to share her story with someone that wanted to hear it. “That is what they named the castle, and we were welcome there any time we would visit, but it wasn’t a permanent home for me or my sister.” Celestia shifted slightly on her pillow, resting a bit more casually as she allowed her forehooves to cross. “You see, Luna primarily ruled from Cloudsdale in the early days, and I from Canterlot. It made sense due to our natural affinities, mine being more toward unicorn magic and hers toward pegasus magic, and back then the three tribes would not stand for all of our power being centered around one of the three capitals, for fear that one tribe would be favored over the other two. Of course, their worries were unfounded, but we chose to humor them,” she said, ending with a small shrug.

As fascinated as she was with Celestia’s story, Twilight couldn’t help but notice the discrepancy. “Well, that doesn’t make much sense. I mean, the earth ponies didn’t even have a princess to represent them.”

“That isn’t true. There was another.” Celestia paused for a moment as Twilight stared back silently in shock. A third alicorn princess? Maybe a sister she hadn’t mentioned? Twilight’s thoughts ran wild with imagined possibilities until her attention was drawn back by Celestia’s voice. “As I said, my sister and I stumbled upon our power. We were still young then, I barely on the cusp of adulthood and my sister being a few years younger than myself. Don’t let this information get out, but we were known to be a little adventurous back then.” Celestia gave a quick wink to Twilight, eliciting a giggle before she continued. “We found ourselves within the Crystal Caverns beneath the city one day, and had managed to get ourselves very lost. We were down there for hours trying to find our way out of the mines before we came across a room that had an enormous crystal suspended from the ceiling.”

Twilight’s brow and ears perked up slightly. “I think I’ve seen that room,” she said, thinking back to the large cavern that her changeling captors had taken her to.

“It was a very impressive thing, but what was even more so was what we saw inside it.” Celestia’s gaze drifted off toward the fire, the reflection of the dancing flames glinting off her eyes. “Frozen in the crystal was a being that had only ever been spoken of in myths before then. An alicorn.”

“...You found an alicorn?” Twilight asked. This was far beyond anything her imagination had been able to come up with.

“The first one, as far as we know,” Celestia said as she looked back to Twilight. “Perhaps she found us, and then guided us to her. Honestly, I’m still not sure even to this day how it was that we were the ones to find her when those caverns had been mined for years before we ventured into them.

“When we found her within that room, something reacted to our presence there. She was freed from her deep sleep from inside the crystal, and at the same time my sister and I were changed forever, granted powers that could control the cosmos. Our unique gifts would soon elevate us to be the leaders of these lands whether we wanted to be or not.” Celestia shifted her right wing, gently sweeping it around to rest it on her forehooves. She lifted her left forehoof, running it along the primary feathers as she stared at it thoughtfully. “I still remember that moment that she first spoke to us as if it were just yesterday. She seemed so confused, asking who we were and where she was. I remember feeling the ancient power that radiated from her, and yet she was so naive at the same time. We never did discover why she was there, or why we were changed when we found her.”

Twilight spent a moment in speechless thought. An alicorn, older than the Royal Sisters. She found herself wondering why such a thing would be kept secret from the world. “So, this other alicorn, she was the princess that ruled from Everfree?”

“She was,” Celestia said as she gently folded her wing back to her side. “Her name was Chrystallyn, and though her name was the only thing she seemed to know about herself, she was a very quick learner. She proved to be the most powerful earth pony magic wielder who ever graced this world. Just her ambient power alone transformed Everfree, sprouting a forest from almost nothing in only a few short days after she had arrived there.

“Even though she wasn’t truly our sister by blood, we were all often referred to as the Royal Pony Sisters. Rumor and myth took care of our more humble origins fairly quickly, and it was soon believed that we had all been born from the world itself, or descended to it from some other plane of existence,” Celestia said, sweeping a forehoof idly through the air. “Either of those could have been possibly true for Chrystallyn, though we’ll likely never know for certain where she truly came from.”

“So,” Twilight started as her ears splayed back. She knew what she wanted to know next, but was unsure how willing Celestia would be continue her story once it took an unhappy turn. Twilight couldn’t imagine that Chrystallyn’s absence from history was for any good reasons. “What happened?” she cautiously asked.

“Well...,” Celestia said, her eyes drifting down to her forehooves. She rubbed one over the other for a time before she began to speak again. “Many unfortunate things, one after another. We did rule from our three separate thrones in peace for a time, and then Discord took interest in us. We have him to thank for the feral state that the Everfree was left in. Even after he was defeated, his chaotic power was just too much to cleanse and it eventually left a scar upon our land where one of the most beautiful cities ever created had once stood. The Everfree has never been as it once was since, and likely never will be again.”

Twilight could see the ghostly stare in Celestia’s eyes. “That’s horrible. Did Chrystallyn...?” Twilight allowed her question to hang unfinished, wondering if she were treading into territory that she shouldn’t.

Celestia glanced up from her hooves to Twilight, giving her head a quick shake. “She survived the ordeal. In fact, she was the only reason why Discord’s plan was stopped. Had her tree not been there... well, lets just say that the feral forest was only held back because of her foresight. Discord had her within his grasp already and was wreaking havoc on Everfree, but he hadn’t been able to corrupt her tree. From it, Luna and I were able to gather the first celestial weapon ever created and use its power to defeat Discord.”

The feeling of shock flooded back to Twilight with a vengeance. She only knew of one tree within the Everfree that could possibly fit that description. “By tree... you mean the Tree of Harmony.”

Celestia seemed slightly surprised that Twilight knew the tree’s name. “Yes. Chrystallyn’s true power given a physical form in our world. The Tree of Harmony was a special tree that she nurtured and grew from the land of the Everfree Forest herself. From it, it bore the Elements of Harmony, a master focus and five sister crystals, each one representing one of six virtues of harmony. Using those artifacts, we could bind them to our natural affinity with the virtues, allowing us to work together to bring our power to bear against Discord as one and overpower him. The Elements allowed us to tap into powers that we didn’t even know we had, powers that are present in all of us to some extent, some more than others.”

“I never knew how the Tree of Harmony came to be,” Twilight said quietly. Her brow furrowed as she recalled endless hours of research into the Elements, and a fruitless search for information on their origins, finding that very little had ever been written about them and even less about the tree they came from. “I remember reading that the Elements were just something discovered in the Everfree by you a long time ago.”

“That is the going story, and one that I prefer to be believed. After all, if it were known that such artifacts could be created by any sort of magical means, who’s to say someone wouldn’t attempt to create their own replica?” Celestia fell silent for a moment as her gaze wandered off to the side. She seemed to quietly ponder something for a moment before shaking her head. “It was bad enough with only one set of powerful artifacts in existence in those days. After the attack on Everfree and the defeat of Discord, the Elements were moved to a new location, but only after a great deal of political infighting finally forced the issue.” A very slight grimace tugged at the corners of her mouth as she recalled that particular part of her past life.

“I thought they stayed in the Everfree,” Twilight pointed out as she tilted her head in curiosity. “Were they not kept at the castle there?”

Celestia once again shook her head. “I did have them returned to the castle eventually, but that was over a century later after we had restored the city as best we could. Discord’s assault on the city had left it in shambles, and had left so many homeless in a forest that was no longer as inviting as it once had been. The tribal leaders were more concerned with who would be allowed to house the Elements than with those that had lost their homes, so Chrystallyn decided to take the Elements with her and leave Equestria, along with many of the survivors from the assault on Everfree. She founded a new nation in the far north.”

“The Crystal Empire,” Twilight commented, her voice coming out as a half whisper.

“You’ve done your homework,” Celestia said with an approving smile.

“I’ve... been there, actually,” Twilight said. She explained further when she noticed the surprised look from her old mentor. “In my time, the Empire returned from the curse that was put upon it.”

“I see,” Celestia said simply, looking toward the fire. Her eyelids hung half closed as she seemed to peer off at nothing for a time, eventually looking back to Twilight. “Then you already know what horror befell it,” she said through a heavy sigh. “While my sister and I both believed that Everfree could be saved, Chrystallyn disagreed and decided to take the Elements and use their power to found a new nation in the far north. She declared herself the Crystal Queen of the Empire, and welcomed those that had been displaced by Discord’s antics, offering them a safe haven from the dangers of the world. In time, the powerful magic that Chrystallyn had created there to defend the Empire from outside threats began to change them.”

“And they became the crystal ponies,” Twilight said, finishing out the thought. “That means the crystal ponies were descendant of the earth pony tribe.”

“Mostly, yes,” Celestia said with a quick nod. “Enough so that after a few generations, there was hardly any crystal unicorns or crystal pegasi. They also started off being very much an isolationist society, which only further antagonized those within Equestria that believed them to be a threat. There were those that believed Chrystallyn and her crystal ponies to be traitors that had stolen one of our land’s greatest treasures and planned to use it against us some day.” Celestia slowly shook her head, her eyelids dropping half closed. “Sometimes I still can’t believe the severe amount of distrust that there used to be. Ironically, the ‘threat’ from a new tribe of ponies in the north actually helped the three tribes of Equestria look past their own differences for once.”

“Someone did attack the Crystal Empire eventually though, and conquered it,” Twilight mentioned. “A unicorn, named Sombra.”

“Yes, though I doubt you know his full story.” Celestia paused for a short moment to collect her thoughts before continuing. “As I said, unicorns were not at all common within the Empire, and Sombra was no crystal pony. Sombra was actually a fairly accomplished caster, born in Canterlot to a noble family.”

Twilight tilted her head slightly at the rather tame description of the evil infused dictator. “Did you know who he was before the fall of the Empire?”

“Yes, I did. I’m the one who sent him there,” Celestia said plainly. “He was my ambassador to the Empire.”

“Oh,” Twilight said quietly as she glanced down to her forehooves. While she was interested in everything her old mentor was willing to share with her, she didn’t intend on dredging up harsh memories. “You couldn’t have known what he was going to do.”

“And there... you are wrong,” Celestia said. Her face was once again the stoic mask that she normally wore every day of her life. “I knew exactly what he was going to do,” she said as she slowly turned her head to watch the flames dancing in the hearth.

“...You did?” Twilight asked cautiously. A chill had shot down her spine at the implications of what she had just heard.

“I glimpsed his future. I knew he had interest in the power of the Elements, and would want to try his hoof at copying them. I knew he would try to gather enough power to make a bid for ascension. And, I knew my sister and I would have to face him, and it would cause the fall of the Empire.” Through her entire confession, Celestia only stared off into the fire, emotionless.

There was only one thing that Twilight could even think to ask at that time. “Why then?”

“Why would I send him there if I knew he would do such evil?” Celestia asked as she looked back from the fire to Twilight. There was something there, something just below the surface of stoic mask that she put forward. Twilight could feel something sad as Celestia continued to confess her past actions. “Because it was all I had ever known. All my life up to that point, I had been guided by visions that began after I was gifted with this great power,” she said, her voice giving off a slight edge of resentment. “I never once questioned them. I thought them to be something divine that was guiding my hoof for some greater purpose. It wasn’t until recently that I began to question that.”

The conversation went silent, and Twilight found herself quietly pondering over the confession for a time. Another question came to her, and though she wondered if asking it was pressing too far, she needed to know just how much involvement Celestia had with the changelings in this time, and what she might have agreed to. “These visions,” Twilight quietly began to ask, “did they also tell you to work with the changelings?”

“You mean the Everfree Hive,” Celestia stated, waiting until she saw the confirming nod from Twilight to continue. “No, that was not ever a part of what I saw.”

Twilight’s ears splayed back at the confusing answer. “Then why? I know they‘re convicts, and really horrible ones at that, but they’d be nothing more than a power source for the rest of their lives. I just... that doesn’t seem like you.”

Celestia maintained her stoic gaze, her eyes locked on Twilight as she quietly stared for a time. Eventually, she let out a tired sigh, her expression breaking. Her ears splayed back as she looked off to the side slightly, avoiding Twilight’s gaze as if she were ashamed, a look that Twilight had never seen on the Sun Princess in her life. “When Sombra overtook the Empire, he did not simply toss Chrystallyn and her followers outside the borders,” she began, which drew a questioning look from Twilight, though the she remained silent as Celestia continued. “He demanded her fealty, but she defied him even after he had conquered her kingdom and proclaimed himself the King of the Empire. She and her remaining followers made an attempt to take her throne back, and for that, she and her devoted followers were cursed.” Celestia lifted her head just slightly to glance directly at Twilight. “Today, she is known as Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings.”

Twilight’s jaw dangled open, quivering as she tried to find words. “Chrysalis... was the Crystal Queen?” she asked, leaning in slightly toward Celestia as she searched her eyes. Her mind, which was going through the process of trying to reject this strange truth, decided at that moment to inform her of something else even more troubling. “She created the Elements!?” she asked in a near shriek as she pushed herself up, holding one foreleg steady against the pillow while the other tucked itself tight against her chest.

Celestia calmly nodded in response. “I am also not the only one who has ever experienced a vision of the future. Though Luna claims to have never experienced one herself, Chrystallyn was known to receive one from time to time. She was inspired by her visions to create the Tree of Harmony to protect Everfree, and her choice to leave Equestria and form the Empire had been driven by one as well.” Celestia waited for a short moment, watching as Twilight struggled with accepting her story. Once Twilight had settled herself back on the velvet pillow, Celestia continued. “She approached me close to thirteen years ago. It had been a few centuries since the last time her and I had crossed paths, let alone since I had seen any of her cursed kind,” Celestia said, pausing very briefly to glance at the crackling fire. “What she approached me with was a startling revelation. She knew that I was searching for you, and that I couldn’t find you. She had the same vision, the same one that told of a young unicorn that would one day take up the Element of Magic, and with the aid of her five friends as the chosen bearers of the Elements, they would defeat Nightmare Moon.” Celestia looked back to Twilight, her voice giving off a hint of wonderment as she spoke. “That is something that had never happened before between us, sharing a vision like that. She claimed to have a way to find you, so I agreed to provide her what she needed despite my misgivings over the methods.” Celestia’s brow furrowed slightly before she glanced over her shoulder toward the room’s doorway. “When I tried to explain all of this to Luna, she became very upset. I tried to tell her that I wasn’t so much of a fool as to give Chrysalis unrestricted access to the Elements’ power,” she said just before turning her gaze back. “The master focus is still hidden away, and only the chosen one would be able to claim it. Still, my sister seemed to believe I had willingly doomed us all.”

For a time afterwards, the only sound that filled the room was the snaps and pops from the burning fire. Celestia had definitely given Twilight a head full of interesting, if not troubling things to think about. There was also one thing that was immediately obvious. “So, Luna didn’t tell you,” Twilight stated, finally breaking the long silence between them. Celestia raised her brow slightly, the curious look being the only confirmation that Twilight needed. “Well, I really hate to destroy something that you came to believe in so strongly, but the Chrysalis who approached you is from the same time I’m from.” Twilight cringed slightly when she saw the horror stricken look slowly overtaking Celestia’s face, but pressed onward. “She knows two hundred and fifty years of Equestria’s future not because of a vision, but because she already lived it, and she came here to change it.” By now, Celestia looked like she was close to a panic. She suddenly stood from her resting place, pacing to the center of her room and then continuing in a small circle. Twilight pushed herself to sit up, turning herself toward Celestia. “I’m sorry. She deceived me too, and she took the Element of Magic that I brought with me, along with the other five Elements and my friends.”

Celestia stopped mid stride, one forehoof hovering just above the floor and shaking slightly. She held her head low, just below shoulder height, as she stared at the floor with her wide and frightened eyes. Though her voice only came out as a sacred whisper, it still carried very clearly across the room to Twilight’s ears as she said, “I’ve been such a fool.”

Twilight quickly stood and approached her old mentor. She gently reached out, placing her forehoof just against Celestia’s shaking hoof in some hope of bringing her calm. It seemed to work, as only seconds later she broke free from the haunted trance, looking instead to Twilight’s worried eyes.

Celestia quickly reined in her emotions, drawing a single calming breath in slowly, and letting it out equally slow as she raised her head high. She turned toward the full height bay windows that opened out onto the balcony attached to her room, magically pushing the windows open as she stepped outside into the morning sunlight. Twilight followed just beside her, quietly watching.

The two of them stood silently out on the balcony for a time, Celestia spending the moment staring out over Canterlot, though her eyes didn’t appear to be focusing on anything in particular. Finally, she quietly spoke. “I know what she’s trying to do,” she said just before she turned her head to look down to Twilight. “She’s going to face him. She means to take back what she lost.”

Return of the Queen

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter XVII – Return of the Queen

The following night, reports of a daylight bright flash of light in the north made their way to Canterlot. Princess Luna had dispatched a squadron of her pegasi Nightguard immediately upon hearing the news, and they had returned in less than a day’s time with reports of an enormous, magical dome. The dome was an impenetrable shield letting nothing pass through. It was massive in size, easily large enough that it could encompass an entire city, and even though it wasn’t possible to see what was hidden underneath, the location was exactly where the fabled lost empire of the north used to be.

The working assumption from that point forward was that the Crystal Empire had returned from the curse that had locked it away. It was also assumed that Chrysalis had likely had a hoof in it, and possibly the other five bearers as well. Unfortunately, assumptions were all they had, and days had passed without any new revelations since then.

Not a single changeling had been spotted in the city proper since Chrysalis’s escape. To ensure that none were parading around in disguise at the palace, every single being that stepped hoof or foot inside was required to wear a small crystal pendant at all times. Twilight and Luna had come up with the countermeasure, enchanting small shards of crystal with some of the properties of Twilight’s changeling revealing magic. When tested on the few captives that they did have, each shard emitted its own dim, reddish glow when only a few body lengths from a changeling. Each of the shards had been crafted from a single source, and so would resonate with other shards when they were nearby, giving off a soft, bluish-white glow instead. Even if the changelings were clever enough to attempt to create their own facsimile or even a counter measure to the detection magic, it would still be possible to tell a true pendant from a fake. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on one’s perspective, they had not yet gotten the chance to put the pendants to a real test.

Every evening since Celestia’s return, during the hours when both princesses were awake, the two sisters had been meeting at the Canterlot Archives along with Twilight. It was a location that Twilight had recommended herself. It provided easy access to any reference material she might need during their talks, and doubled as a neutral location that didn’t favor either sister. These meetings had gone markedly better than the first one between the two sisters, though there were still moments where Twilight had to put herself between them to give them a moment to let their tempers cool. Even Celestia had begun showing a temperamental edge that Twilight had found to be very uncharacteristic, something that she attributed to the differences in Luna. The Moon Princess was no longer the perpetual younger sister that would defer to her elder sister more often than not, and instead seemed to challenge Celestia at every chance now that she was a true equal in both size and power.

They had just been in the middle of one such confrontational discussion that centered around the possibility of a changeling hive existing beneath Canterlot and what to do with it, with Luna vying for some sort of action to ‘drive them out’ and Celestia believing that such actions would only ‘stir up the hornet’s nest’. “Well at least I am suggesting that we do something,” Luna said, punctuating her statement with an annoyed huff as she leaned over the table that the trio were seated at, her eyes squinting ever so slightly in a thinly masked glare at her sister. “I for one am tiring of us sitting on our plots while the world falls to pieces around us!”

“It has only been three days,” Celestia began.

“Very nearly four,” Luna pointed out as she pointed a silver slippered hoof in her sister’s direction.

“...Four days then,” Celestia said with a light sigh. “We still know very little about what is happening yet. We shouldn’t make any rash choices.”

Luna leaned back. “We won’t be making any at all if you have your way,” she grumbled just loud enough for everyone at the table to hear.

Twilight’s eyes darted back and forth between the two sisters from where she was seated at the side of the table between them, following the conversation. She noticed the very slight change in Celestia’s facial features, picking up on the tension at the corners of her eyes and edges of her mouth as the elder sister stared across the table at the younger. It was time to step in again.

“Well,” Twilight said as she leaned in on the table, drawing the royal sisters’ attention to her. She tapped her hooves together just in front of her muzzle, her forelegs resting just barely on the edge of the table as she looked to each princess in turn as she spoke. “Luna, I can understand how you feel, believe me. My friends are still missing and it has been days, so I’m getting pretty anxious to do something.” She got a quick nod from the Moon Princess before she turned her attention to the other side of the table. “Celestia, I also understand your feelings as well. We shouldn’t go stirring up trouble under our hooves if it means others get caught in the crossfire. That would just be irresponsible.” The Sun Princess nodded once in response. Twilight let out a tired sigh as she slumped back in her seat, allowing her hooves to drag off the table to fall to her sides as she did so. “What I wouldn’t give for some useful information,” she said through a wry smile.

Twilight raised her tired forelegs up above her head, crossing her fetlocks against one another and arching her back as she gave her body a good stretch. The joints in her ankles released a satisfying crack just before two quick taps at the closed archive doors behind her interrupted the stretch, causing her forelegs to quickly dropping back down as she glanced over her shoulder. The latch clicked and one of the double doors opened into the room just enough for a pegasus to make his way inside. Twilight rose from her chair when she recognized him as one of the Nightguard’s message runners, Swift Wing. “Pardon the intrusion,” he said as he stopped to kneel to the alicorns present in the room.

Both sisters began to speak, each stopping on the first word and quickly glancing to one another. Luna arched a single brow at Celestia in a silent challenge, and when her sister glanced away to the tabletop she turned her attention back to the guard. “Rise. What news have you?” she asked.

Swift Wing pulled himself up from the floor, standing tall as he looked to Luna. “A changeling has turned himself in.”

Shocked looks filled the room all around, followed by a silence as the three alicorns each looked to one another as if to make sure they had all heard the same thing. Luna returned her attention to her Nightguard. “Explain,” she said as her brow furrowed.

“He walked right up to the forward guards at the castle gate and asked to talk. When they got close, the pendants turned red,” Swift Wing said, placing a hoof just over his own pendant. “Then, right there in the middle of the street he just dropped his disguise and asked to be taken to Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight cringed slightly at the sudden confused glance that came from Luna. “He... really asked for me specifically?” she asked as her eyes darted back and forth from Luna to Swift Wing.

Swift Wing turned his attention to Twilight, giving her a quick nod. “He claimed you would know him, but he didn’t give a name. He came with us quietly, and he also had this with him,” he said as he took a couple steps forward and unslung a woven bag from his right wing. The bag klinked with some contents that sounded a lot like glass on glass as he gently rest the bag on the floor, and Twilight cautiously tugged at the opening to peer inside. There was a collection of green bottles that were near perfectly round except for the small opening on each one that was stopped with a cork. “We’re not sure what’s in them, but he said to be careful with them and that he would tell you what they’re for himself.” Turning his attention back to Luna, Swift Wing asked, “What would you have us do, my Queen?”

“Princess, my Nightguard,” Luna corrected. “We have left that title behind.”

“Of course,” Swift Wing said as he quickly bowed his head. “I’m sorry, Princess.”

“Worry not. Where is this changeling now?”

Swift Wing looked back up to Luna’s eyes. “Down below, in a cell.”

“Princess, if I may?” Twilight asked. She waited until Luna gave her a silent nod before turning to Swift Wing to ask her question. “Did he say at all why he was looking for me, or mention anything about my friends?”

Swift Wing slowly blinked his eyes as he shook his head. “Sorry, I’ve pretty much told you everything he told us. We think he came to us expecting that we were going to take him in. He didn’t seem at all bothered by it.”

Twilight hummed to herself, lifting a forehoof to tap it to her chin as she worked her jaw back and forth. She glanced off to the side, her eyes narrowing slightly as she pondered the information. “Maybe he’ll have some answers if we ask the right questions.”

Twilight glanced up to Luna, who seemed to already know what the next question was going to be as she preemptively answered. “You may speak with him. However, I urge you to be cautious. He wants something bad enough to allow himself to be captive. Find out all you can from him, but do not be taken in by his stories.”

Three laid stone walls beside and behind and a wall of iron bars ahead were all that the changeling had seen for quite some time now. His body was bound with an enchanted restraint about the base of his gnarled horn that jutted out from his fiery orange mane, along with four more that were each bound around one of his ankles. A body harness restraint usually meant for a pegasus had been strapped around his body to hold his wings to his sides. Given that his didn’t fold the same way pegasi wings did, the harness was far less than comfortable, what with some of the body straps having been tightened down over the wing tips. It was still better than he had hoped for, given the situation. So far, he had been treated as a prisoner instead of a pest to be exterminated.

He had sat in his cell with only silence as his companion ever since he had been placed there. Given the urgent nature of his reason for being there, and the lack of a visible sky, the few hours he had spent there already felt like an eternity as the moments dragged on. Only a single, lonely arcane light flickered from the hallway, providing the only noticeable change in the surroundings as the light levels dimmed in time with the light’s silent dance. Each passing moment only served to add to his worry of being forgotten for far too long in this dimly lit place.

His ears twitched and pivoted about. He held perfectly still, even stopping his breathing for a short moment to be as silent as possible. For a few seconds, the only thing he could make out was the sound of his own heartbeat drumming in his ears from the moment of excitement that had gripped him. And then, he heard something echoing through the dim halls. Tapping sounds that were gradually growing louder, maybe even closer. The sounds of hooves on the cobblestone floor.

He remained seated where he was, waiting as patiently as he could despite the feeling of anxiety welling up in his chest. If it were really her, he would likely only get one chance to plead his case. He didn’t want to come across as a desperate idiot that was half out of his mind. No, that wouldn’t do at all, even if there were some truth to it.

A group of ponies walked into view in the hallway just on the other side of the bars, all but one of them clad in guard uniform. The one that wasn’t was the one he had hoped to see. Though it had been brief, he still very clearly remembered the alicorn from their first meeting.

Twilight Sparkle cast a quick spell that sent two small glowing orbs from her horn that each found their way to the corners of the cell walls. The orbs slowly grew brighter, chasing away the darkness. “I remember you,” she said as she traced her eyes over the changeling’s form.

“I had hoped you would,” the changeling said, his mouth forming a weak smile for a fleeting moment. “Seems we met under similar circumstances the first time, only reversed,” he said as he glanced about at the walls of his cell. Tucking one of his forelegs against his chest, he made a slight bowing motion to Twilight as he introduced himself. “I am Graphite.”

“And you already know who I am,” Twilight said in response, which drew Graphite’s attention back up.

“Of course.”

Twilight turned and held a hoof out to one of the guards, who hefted a bag off his back that clinked when it shifted as he hooked the strap over Twilight’s hoof. She rested the bag on the floor. “What are these?” she asked as she stared expectantly into the cell.

“Ah, good. They did bring them to you. Those are for the princess that was injured,” Graphite said. He noticed Twilight’s stare shifting more toward a glare and thought it better to explain exactly what the contents were. “Bottled changeling venum. I doubt your doctors have any.”

Twilight glanced down, pulling the opening of the bag toward herself as she looked at the green bottles inside for a moment before looking back up. “Why would you give this to us?” she asked as she lifted and hoofed the bag back to the guard, not breaking her gaze from Graphite while doing so.

“With the proper preparation, it can be used as a component to create an antivenom—”

“I know that,” Twilight said, a perturbed edge on her voice as she cut off the explanation. “Why would you bother helping us? What do you want?”

Graphite took in a deep breath and slowly let it out to calm his nerves. This was his one and only chance. He only hoped that she wouldn’t turn away the very moment he spoke.

“Your help.”

There was no readable reaction to his request. The group of ponies only silently stared at him from just outside his cell. “That is a gesture to show that we... I am serious in my request,” he added, pointing toward the bag of vials.

Graphite could see the gears turning as Twilight silently studied him. He wondered what she could be thinking. After all that had happened, his request had to sound very strange to her. She finally turned her attention away for a moment to speak with the guard that was handling the package of vials. Her horn glowed just slightly as she spoke, and though he could see their mouths moving just barely, he couldn’t make out even muffled speech. Likely some sort of sound dampening spell, he thought. A clear indication that she didn’t at all trust him, which was going to be a very large hurdle to overcome. The conversation between Twilight and the guard ended, and the guard departed from the group with the package as Twilight turned her attention back to the cell.

“You know I have a really good reason to not believe you,” she said as she raised an eyebrow.

“If this is about the first time we met, you must know that I didn’t have a choice then.”

“And now you do,” Twilight said, as if predicting the answer. It was clear that it was a statement she didn’t believe.

“Yes,” Graphite said through a heavy sigh. “Something has changed. The False Queen has gone silent for days.”

“...False Queen?” Twilight said in a half whisper. Confusion played on her face as she pondered the meaning of the title.

“The one who captured you,” Graphite offered.

“Why do you call her that?” Twilight asked cautiously. “You know she’s—”

“From the future?” A wry smile appeared on Graphite’s muzzle once again. “Yes, we all know. At first, we believed she had come to warn us.”

“...Of what?” Twilight asked, her head tilting slightly.

“You,” Graphite said as he pointed a forehoof directly at Twilight, which caused her to jerk her head back. “Turns out she had ulterior motives. We were simply a means to an end, and by the time we discovered this, there was nothing we could do about it. To try to deny her will is simply impossible.”

“...Yet, here you are,” Twilight noted.

“Yes, here I am,” Graphite said as he once again looked around at the cell walls. “Like I said, something has changed, and if nothing is done to bring back our true queen, I’m afraid there will be a larger problem for us all soon.”

Twilight seemed to struggle with deciding on her next question for a moment, tapping her hoof on the floor as she pondered on what to ask. She finally settled on one as she simply asked, “What problem?”

“Our Queen has always relied on others to keep a measure of control over all changelings. Others such as myself,” Graphite said as he gestured to himself with a single hoof.

Twilight recoiled slightly as she looked Graphite up and down. “You’re... a hive queen?”

“No,” Graphite said, a light chuckle on his voice. He quickly cleared his throat when he noticed that he was the only one there that seemed to find anything humorous about Twilight’s statement. “Definitely not. I doubt your understanding of changelings is completely accurate. Though I am different from the ones you’ve mostly seen, obviously,” he said as he gestured to his own face, which was very pony like despite being covered in a black carapace. His eyes, though they housed black slits for pupils set within emerald green irises, were still far more pony like than the compound eyes most changelings had. “I am part of what is known as the coven. We that are closest to the Queen, and chose willingly to give ourselves to her service.”

Twilight blinked a few times, her mouth hanging slightly open. “Huh,” she commented as she sat on the floor just in front of the cell bars. She spent another few seconds pondering over what she had been told before quickly shaking her head. “You know, you really aren’t doing a good job of making me want to help you.”

“I’m being truthful, is that not what you want?” Graphite asked, shrugging his shoulders. “Normally, I wouldn’t even be capable of speaking to you about the coven. It’s simply forbidden by her will, part of the agreement.”

Twilight tilted her head once again, her eyes narrowing curiously. “What agreement?”

Graphite hesitated for but a second and then remembered that he needed to humor his hostess’s questions if he wanted to maintain the chance of gaining her help. “That in trade for the power we gain, we will serve our Queen’s will unconditionally,” he explained shortly, hoping it would suffice.

He watched as Twilight thought about his explanation, her eyes tracing over him as if to puzzle out something that he was hiding from her. “So, you didn’t come here because she willed you to?” she asked in turn.

“No. That was my choice alone.” Graphite’s eyes looked toward the floor as he took a moment to reflect on that fact. “For the first time since I underwent the change, I’ve been able to make a choice completely of my own free will. I didn’t have to ask for approval.” He glanced back up to Twilight. “And I want to use that choice to save my Queen,” he said, putting as much conviction as he could behind his choice as he spoke it. “I need your help to save the true Chrysalis.”

Twilight’s eyes widened slightly as she sat silently staring back at Graphite as if she couldn’t believe what she had heard. After a moment, the shock seemed to fade and she slowly shook her head. “I doubt that’s possible now,” she said in a half whisper that carried in the silence of the halls. Graphite couldn’t help but feel his heart sink at what sounded like a rejection of his request for aid, his ears splaying back against his head as he let out a defeated sigh. His eyes closed as he slumped toward the floor, his head hanging below shoulder height. However, after a few seconds he glanced up again when he heard Twilight try to explain further. “When I was captured, I was told that your ‘true Chrysalis’ was dead.”

Graphite’s expression slowly went from dejected to confused, and then something resembling anger. “You were told that? By whom?” he asked forcefully. He held a hard gaze on Twilight for a moment until he remembered that he was the one being interrogated. Realizing his place, he softened his glare and looked away toward the floor.

Surprisingly, he got an answer from his captor. “The one you keep calling False Queen,” Twilight said simply.

Graphite pondered the answer silently for a moment. It didn’t make sense, since it definitely were not true. Perhaps the False Queen had fed Twilight a lie, or she had simply misunderstood. “Well, what ever she may have said to make you believe that, you shouldn’t,” Graphite said before looking back up toward Twilight. “Though it’s possible by now that our Queen wishes she were dead, she’s simply been trapped by the False Queen for quite some time now.”

“She’s alive somewhere?” Twilight asked, her brows raising high.

“Alive, yes, but only just so. Her body remains as part of a magical construct. Her mind is somewhere else, beyond my reach. None in the hive have been able to reach her since the day that the False Queen created that spell,” Graphite said as he recalled memories from years ago. Gesturing to Twilight, he then said, “You’ve seen it, even studied it. My hope is that you can find a way to the other side where she is. You are from the same time, so you must know something about the magic that she weaved into that construct within the Everfree Hive.”

“I see,” Twilight said. She sat there silently afterward, seeming deep in thought.

“She is the only one that can control the coven. With the False Queen now gone from the hive mind, if she doesn’t return, then even I can’t predict what the others might do with their new found freedom.”

Twilight furrowed her brow, a look of concern playing on her features. “Do you think they would openly attack us?” she asked cautiously.

Graphite nodded. “Anything is possible. Not all believe in keeping our existence a secret and quietly coexisting.”

Twilight considered the information for a time before she stood. “Is there anything else you want to tell me?” she asked. Though earlier Graphite could tell that much of the information he had given her had come across as surprising, Twilight was now putting forward an unreadable mask.

“Do you believe me?” he asked.

Twilight quirked an eyebrow. “That’s a question, and I’m not answering it.”

He could feel his heart starting to race again. “I’ll do anything within my power if it means gaining your help,” he offered.

Twilight’s chest heaved with a heavy sigh just before she lifted a forehoof and turned a quarter turn away from the cell. She paused there for just a second looking back to Graphite. “Not my call,” she said before turning away and starting down the hall.

Graphite felt a wave of dread wash over him as Twilight and the group of guards turned away to leave. “Wait,” he called out in a weak voice before he stood and made a quick dash to the cell bars. He pressed his face up against the bars, hanging his forelegs over the cross bar as he reached them out to the group as they left. “Wait! You must help!” he called out, but his plea seemed to fall on deaf ears. Gritting his teeth together tightly, he screwed his eyes tightly closed as he drew in a hissing breath between his teeth. “I can take you to your friends!” he yelled.

The sounds of hooves on the cobble hallway stopped immediately. Graphite cringed as he waited for the reaction to what he had just done. The trump card he had just played could either gain him the help he wanted or gain him a lot of suffering. His ears lifted from where they were laid back against his head just slightly as he heard the sounds of a single set of hoofsteps making their way back to his cell at a brisk pace. The hoofsteps stopped just before him, and he opened his eyes to see Twilight glaring at him. Where only a moment ago, the alicorn had kept her emotions hidden so well that Graphite had barely been able to read any shifts at all, now he felt an overwhelming flood of anger saturating the area. The sudden change caused him to pull back from the bars slightly.

“Where,” Twilight demanded through a low growl.

Graphite fought back against a sudden urge to pull away and hide himself, holding his ground as he tightened his grip on the bars instead. “They’re perfectly safe,” he began, but was suddenly jerked forward. His face hit the bars, not hard enough to cause pain, but it had done well enough to unnerve him as he squirmed against the telekinetic grip that Twilight now held him with.

“Tell. Me. Where,” Twilight demanded, ending on the last word by applying more pressure with her grip against the bars.

“I will!” Graphite said frantically as his back hooves scrambled against the floor. He struggled for a short moment longer before willing himself to fight off the panic long enough to speak. He gripped the bars with his forelegs again and forced himself to look the fury that was staring him down directly in the eyes. He had to stand his ground, even if it meant facing down an alicorn. “I must have your help,” he stated in a shaky voice. “I’m sorry, but I did say I would do anything within my power, which means even this. Help me and I will take you to them. I swear to you, no harm will ever come to them.”

Twilight jerked Graphite against the bars, causing them to rattle. Now it was starting to get painful. “Unless I don’t do what you want,” she growled as she leaned in closer and narrowed her eyes at him.

“No!” Graphite yelled as he struggled against the grip once again. To his surprise, Twilight lessened the hold slightly, at least enough that it didn’t feel like he was being crushed. He took a few seconds to catch his breath before speaking again. “No, I would never have the bearers harmed. By the end of all of this, we very well may need them to face the False Queen.”

There was a long, uneasy silence that followed after that. In the span of only a few seconds, Twilight’s expression once again became an unreadable, emotionless mask. The two of them ended up standing there silently for minutes, Graphite being held in Twilight’s spell grip the entire time, long enough to the point that it began to feel rather awkward, but he didn’t dare protest. Finally, the spell dissipated, taking Graphite a bit off guard as he flinched and gripped the bars to keep from knocking his chin against the crossbar. He watched Twilight closely, waiting quietly to hear what her answer might be. She stood there in the silence for a while longer before she spoke again.

“Tell me something,” Twilight asked quietly as she looked Graphite directly in the eyes. “Do you believe your Chrysalis would be willing to face her future self?”

Graphite relaxed his grip on the bars, allowing himself to settle back down to sit just on the other side. “After the betrayal she’s faced, I’m sure it would be her pleasure, and mine as well.”

Convincing the royal sisters that she should be allowed to help Graphite in his quest had proven to be quite a task for Twilight. They had spent nearly an entire day discussing, and at some points flat out arguing, over it. It wasn’t that Twilight believed releasing another Chrysalis was a good idea, it was that not doing so could actually be even worse. They knew next to nothing about this coven that Graphite had spoken of, other than the fact that they were now free to operate how ever they pleased independently of one another. It was an unknown that Twilight wasn’t willing to risk a chance on right now. She could deal with a past Chrysalis, if it became necessary. And on the off chance that Graphite was actually speaking the truth, they very well could gain a very powerful ally.

But what if the two were to join forces, Luna had asked her. Twilight didn’t believe this Equestria’s Chrysalis would be that forgiving after having been imprisoned as part of a spell for over a decade, and obviously her Chrysalis hadn’t been willing to share leadership with her past self, so she considered that event to be highly unlikely.

After being very persistent, Twilight received the very reluctant approval to take Graphite along with a squadron of Nightguard pegasi led by Gale with her to the Everfree Hive. When they arrived, they found the hive still deserted. Graphite led them all to one of the lower platforms that hung just below the base of the large crystal within the hive, where a very large, pulsing mass was attached to the bottom of the crystal through dark veins that snaked their way along its surface. Twilight remembered it from her earlier visits to the hive, and it wasn’t any less disgusting than it had been then.

“Let me guess,” Twilight said as she turned away from the large mass and looked back to Graphite, all the while trying to suppress her gag reflex. “That’s her, isn’t it?”

“Partially,” Graphite said as he walked ahead of the group to the large mass. He stopped just within reach of it, watching it for a few seconds before turning back to the group. “Her body is contained within, being used as a source of power.”

Twilight glanced up at the crystal hanging overhead shortly before looking back toward Graphite. “Her body has that much power?”

“No,” Graphite said as he took a few steps back toward the group. “Her body would have died long ago if it weren’t for the prisoners here. To keep itself alive, her body absorbs energy from them, which then gets siphoned into the spell, which in turn causes her body to draw more energy, and so it goes,” he said, waving a forehoof in a lazy circle. “It’s not normal. Usually a changeling’s body couldn’t stand up to that sort of abuse, but our Queen is far more resilient than the rest of us.”

“How do you know all this?” Twilight asked.

Graphite tapped a single hoof against the side of his head as a small smile played on his muzzle. “A changeling learns many things from the hive mind. It’s difficult for any one changeling to hide anything from the rest. Even the thoughts of the False Queen became known to us all eventually.”

Twilight hummed to herself as she glanced up at the crystal overhead again. “Yet you don’t know how to get her out,” Twilight said as she glanced over the crystal’s surface.

“Knowing what to do, and being able to do it are two separate things,” Graphite noted as he approached and sat directly before Twilight. “I don’t have the power to get past the wards, but if I could, I would be able to reach out to her through the hive mind, and lead her back.”

Twilight looked back down to Graphite, setting herself directly in front of him. “So, you just need a way in?” she asked. When he nodded back to her, she smiled and looked back up to the crystal. “I can do that,” she said as she began to concentrate on drawing her magic together.

She had already studied this spell construct with a team of unicorns in detail. There appeared to be a myriad of protective spells interlocked with one another, all flowing back to a self destruct hidden deep beneath them all. Any attempt at dispelling or even modifying the enchantments that prevented tampering with the crystal would likely detonate a very large amount of stored energy all at once, leaving a huge crater in the middle of the forest. This had left Twilight and her team with very little they could do as far as disabling the spell was concerned.

Now, the goal was different. Instead of attempting to defuse the magic that protected crystal, they simply needed a way past it, so Twilight would simply go around it. She was surprised that Chrysalis hadn’t thought to protect against that effect, but then it was a rather unique ability that only Twilight had ever exhibited. Using her magic to shift the space around the spell, she managed to create a bypass through the wards without disturbing them, feeding enough power into it to keep it stable for a while. Now they had clear access to whatever might be on the other side.

“Your turn,” Twilight said as she looked to Graphite expectantly.

Graphite blinked once, glancing up to the crystal and back to Twilight seeming a bit confused. “Just like that?” he asked. Twilight nodded back to him. “Huh,” he said as he glanced up, seeming lost in amazement at how simple the task had been. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, calming himself as he lowered his head and concentrated. His eyes slowly opened half way, casting a dim greenish glow on the floor along with his horn. He remained in this trance for a while, long enough that the guards posted around them had settled into idle chatter with one another while they waited for the changeling to do his changeling thing.

Finally, the trance was interrupted, and Graphite blinked as he looked up, not seeming all too happy. “I can’t get inside,” he said, a bit of frustration edging in on his voice.

Twilight immediately reached her mind out to her bypass spell, finding it still intact. “You should be able too, there’s nothing in your way now,” she said.

“No, not that,” Graphite said as he shook his head. “Inside the hive mind. There is something there, and I can’t get inside it.” He began to pace back and forth, staring down angrily at the floor. “Why is something like that even there? It doesn’t make sense.”

“What did you find?” Twilight asked as she watched him.

“A library,” he said, stopping to face Twilight. “An enormous one. There was no way in that I could tell, but there’s no where else to look.” Graphite grumbled to himself as he began pacing once again. “She has to be in there.”

Twilight quietly watched for a moment, only stopping to look up at the giant crystal overhead. If Graphite wasn’t able to find Chrysalis, there wasn’t much left that they could do. “So, now what?” she idly asked.

Graphite paused mid step, his eyes blinking as he seemed to struggle with his thoughts. Finally he turned himself toward Twilight, setting just before her once again. “I’ve already asked quite a lot of you,” he said, casting his glance to the side as he did so.

Twilight waited, and when he remained silent, prompted him to speak again. “Just ask.”

Graphite looked up to her, and then to the crystal overhead. “You found a way past this,” he said as he gestured to the crystal just before looking back down to her. “Perhaps you could find a way inside this library?”

“That might be slightly more difficult,” Twilight said as she thought about the request. The problem wasn’t that she was being asked for more help. “If it’s something that only exists in the hive mind, I can’t really reach it.”

“I could lead you there.”

“...You mean inside the hive mind,” Twilight said, to which she received a nod. She knew that such a thing were technically possible, but hadn’t planned on taking her help quite that far. “You’re absolutely sure you can’t get inside yourself?” she asked, hoping there might be some other option.

“Twilight.” Gale’s voice called out from just behind her, causing her to glance back to see the Sergeant waving her over. She quickly trotted over to see what Gale wanted, though she had a fairly good idea already what it was about. “There is only so much I’m willing to put up with,” Gale grumbled once Twilight made it close enough to her.

“You think I shouldn’t help him with this.”

“Of course I think you shouldn’t!” Gale said, her voice momentarily rising in volume. She glanced around to where Graphite was patiently waiting, narrowing her eyes a bit. “How can you trust him?” she asked in a half whisper.

“Who said I did?” Twilight asked, drawing Gale’s attention back to her. “There simply isn’t any other option. If we don’t come back with Chrysalis, we risk a sudden breakout of random changeling attacks. And besides” — she glanced back over her shoulder to Graphite — “call it a gut feel, but I don’t think this is an act. Usually I can tell if somepony is trying to pull a fast one on me.”

Gale leaned to look around Twilight to the changeling once again, letting out a frustrated huff. “Fine, it is your call,” she said, shaking her head as she dismissively waved a hoof.

Twilight reached forward, clasping a hoof over Gale’s shoulder. “I trust you to keep us safe,” she said, giving Gale a quick smile. Gale managed to give a wry smile in return along with a nod before Twilight returned to help Graphite finish what they had started.

Linking to the hive mind only required a single extra step on Twilight’s part. Once Graphite had once again focused his energy on bridging his own mind with the rest within the hive mind, Twilight performed her part by using a deep mind reading spell. The effect would bring her own consciousness in direct contact with his, and in turn, with the hive mind. She only hoped that he would keep his promise to keep any other curious changeling minds at a distance.

Her own consciousness interpreted the hive mind as an endless expanse of greys. Her presence within the hive mind took a form that was a perfect replica of her real body. As she became aware of the area around her, she realized that she was staring directly at a unicorn stallion that was looking back to her. She was shocked at first, seeing another pony in this place, but then she made the connection when she noticed his fiery orange mane. She wondered why Graphite would choose to disguise himself within the hive mind, appearing as a dust gray pony that looked nearly like his changeling form.

“I always appear like this here. It’s how I used to look,” he said, answering the curious look that Twilight had given him as she looked him over.

“So, you really were a pony once.”

“I thought it was obvious,” Graphite said, a light chuckle playing on his voice.

“Why?”

The question seemed to carry on an echo though the vast space around them. Graphite took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly with a thoughtful hum before he began to idly walk in some direction he seemed to have chosen at random. Twilight quickly cantered up beside him, still looking to him as she waited for an answer. “Why become a changeling?” he finally asked as he gave Twilight a side long glance. “Power. Being able to be anypony you wish, and to know what others know. One’s identity and what they know can be used to gain a lot in life. That,” Graphite paused for a moment as his gaze turned upward before he continued, “and it meant a chance for something... different.” On that, he stopped, turning himself to face Twilight. His eyes glanced at something behind her and he nodded his head toward whatever it was he saw as he said, “We’re here.”

Twilight turned herself around, and was surprised to find a large, white cinderblock building that had somehow been just behind her that she hadn’t noticed while they had been walking. It was tall for a single floor building, and looking to the left and right she could see that there was no visible end to how wide the building was. It stretched far beyond what she could ‘see’ in either direction. The wall had a repeating pattern of bay windows along the center that were each beveled above and below. “Wow,” was all Twilight could manage to say as she worked to wrap her mind around the endless size of what she was looking at.

“I’ve never actually seen anything like this before,” Graphite said as he took a few steps forward, stopping just at Twilight’s side. “Usually nothing like buildings ever manifests in this place, even when we connect this deeply to it.”

“I wonder if it is too much to ask for a door,” Twilight mused as she traced her eyes over the perfectly repeating surface of bricks and windows. As if answering her question, the bay window just in front of them began to distort and stretch. The area beneath the windows extended forward, forming a set of stairs, while the windows settled back in toward the wall and morphed into a pair of glass doors. A quiet click echoed through the otherwise empty expanse around them as the two doors slowly swung open toward them.

Graphite slowly looked to Twilight, his brow raising slightly. She only shrugged her shoulders and shook her head quickly. “Well then,” he started as he looked back to the open doorway, “it appears we’ve been invited in.” Graphite took a few steps forward toward the opened doorway, only to have it quickly slam shut when he placed a hoof on the first stone step. He narrowed his eyes at the door, tilting his head slightly as he said, “Or not.” As he took a few steps back from the door, it clicked and then slowly swung open once again, leaving him with a puzzled look. “Is it playing with me?” he asked as he curiously looked to Twilight.

“I’m not sure,” Twilight said as she chanced a step forward, lightly putting a single hoof on the steps. The door stayed wide open, and so she tried another cautious step, and then another. She stopped just before the threshold, turning to the side to look back. “Maybe it doesn’t like you?” she asked in a half joking tone.

Graphite rolled his eyes and took a step forward, but he immediately stopped his advance when the double doors began to close again. Twilight winced, dodging a quick step backwards to avoid being sandwiched between the two swinging doors. As Graphite withdrew his hoof back a step, the doors once again swung fully open. “You may be right,” he said as he stuck a single hoof forward, swinging it forward and back as he watched the door mirror his actions by swinging on their hinges. It seemed every time he so much as neared the doorway any at all, it would begin to close. “I guess the invitation is only for you.”

Twilight turned her head to look into the endless depths of the library, and then back to Graphite. “You would be okay with me going in alone?”

“Do we have a choice?” he asked with a heavy sigh. He sat at the base of the stairs, looking up to Twilight. Something about his gaze was different, perhaps easier to read now that he appeared more equine. Before he even said anything, she could see the plea for help looking her straight in the eyes. “I’ll stay here. Just bring her back, please.”

Twilight had been traveling on hoof for a few minutes now. At least, she believed it had been a few minutes, as it was actually somewhat difficult to track time. The entrance to the library appeared as a distant spec behind her that seemed much further away than it should. It acted as her only bearing on her location in what appeared to be an infinitely vast library, and so she hadn’t dared to stray off of the main path yet. To her right and left were rows upon rows of book shelves, each being a few body lengths in width and towering above her to touch the ceiling. As she had glanced down the gaps between the rows of shelves, she hadn’t yet been able to see where the rows actually ended as they stretched off into the distance. Each shelf appeared to be packed with books as far as she was able to see. Every few rows there were crystal chandeliers that glowed with pure white light, illuminating everything within the endless expanse of the library.

Her mind was struggling to come up with a good reason for such a vast virtual space to exist. If this place were meant to represent a library, why did it need to be so huge? She considered that the size might just be an illusion of some sort, a trick of the mind made to hide something important. When hiding something, if you make the search area impossibly big, that makes the chances of it being found impossibly small, she reasoned. But why a library?

Twilight stopped, turning toward one of the shelves. She had a theory, and any time she had a theory she would want to put it to the test. If the library were just an illusion, then everything contained within it would be as well. Reaching her magic out, she drew one of the books from its shelf at random. The book’s cover was a simple brown shade without any discernible markings on the outside. Twilight’s muzzle slowly displayed a confident half smirk as she hummed thoughtfully at the book. Turning it over in her magic, she opened it toward herself, expecting to find nothing but blank pages.

Instead, she saw a sudden flash, and then a scene as it played out before her. Her mind didn’t recognize the place, nor did it recognize the group of ponies that appeared to be speaking to her. It was as if she had been dropped right into the middle of a random conversation at a random place and time, but her body seemed to know exactly what to do as it continued to speak with the strangers. It was at that moment when she attempted to look elsewhere that she was surprised to find that her body hadn’t responded. Her body seemed to carry on, oblivious to what she was commanding it to do. She began to feel a wave of panic, frightened by the sensation of being completely trapped within a body that would not listen to her.

There was a flash again, and then she blinked rapidly. She was suddenly aware of her surroundings again, finding the bookshelf before her that she had drawn the book from, and she was immediately relieved to find that she was once again in control of herself.

“You probably shouldn’t do that,” a young voice said from her side. Twilight nearly jumped out of her own fur at the sound of another voice there in the library with her, her wings snapping open as she turned toward the voice and peddled back a few steps. She found a small form huddling on the floor with its forehooves wrapped around the brown book as if to hide behind it. A small violet horn was all that peaked out over the top of the book until a few seconds later, when the small filly raised her head just high enough to glance over.

Twilight found herself staring back into a smaller pair of matching violet eyes. The mane, the face, even the curious expression on the young filly’s face; it was like looking at a living picture of herself in her youth. The filly’s horn lit with a magenta aura, the aura enveloping the book as she pulled it to the side and stood. “I’m sorry. I guess I startled you,” the filly said, her ears splaying back as she glanced up with a sheepish grin.

“...Um,” was the only word that Twilight could get her mouth to speak as she continued to stare at the younger likeness of herself. Her mind was far too busy with trying to figure out the what, who, and why of this filly that had just appeared before her to be bothered with helping her form any coherent words.

“I’m sure you’re confused,” the filly said as she walked over to the bookshelf. Her magic lifted the book up and placed it back neatly within the slot that it had been drawn from. “I mean, I would be. Or I was, when I first got here. That was a while ago. This place was a mess. There was everything everywhere.”

“...You’re... um,” Twilight managed to say, despite her brain’s refusal to help her speak.

“Twilight,” the young filly said, turning herself toward Twilight and nodding once as she did. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, and so are you.” The filly giggled and then added, “Though I guess that’s just as confusing. You can call me Little Twilight, if you want.”

“Little Twilight...,” Twilight said quietly. Her eyes slowly widened as her brain finally connected the last set of dots. “You’re the Twilight from this time.”

“That’s me,” Little Twilight said with a proud smile. “Welcome to my library.”

“Your library? You made this?” Twilight asked as she glanced around.

“Well, I did have a little help,” Little Twilight admitted. “Like I said, everything was everywhere. There was all kinds of memories all over the place. I couldn’t even think straight, but then I found that if I just organized things a little, everything started to make a lot more sense. Anyway, there’s something I’m supposed to show you. Follow me.” Twilight hopped back a step as the little filly scampered by her forelegs and off between a set of book shelves.

“Uh, wait,” Twilight said as she cast an unsure glance back to the library entrance shortly before taking off to follow. She could just make out a violet streaked tail disappearing around a corner up ahead. She galloped forward to catch up, skidding to a halt at the row of book shelves that her younger self had disappeared into, and once again just barely got a glimpse of Little Twilight’s tail zipping around another corner. “Wait a minute,” she called out as she tried to catch up once again. She wondered for a fleeting moment if galloping around in what amounted to being an imaginary library really made any sense, but pushed the stray thought aside as she tried to focus on catching up. She made it to the next turn just in time to once again spot the little filly scampering around a corner. “Wait!” she called out frantically as she pushed herself to gallop down the row as fast as she could.

She skidded to a halt just as Little Twilight poked her head back out around the bend, stopping only a few hoof widths away from the filly. Little Twilight just looked back up with curious eyes, her head tilting slightly to the side as she did so. “What’s wrong? You don’t have to worry about getting lost in here. Just stay with me.”

“It’s not that,” Twilight said through a heavy breath. She was surprised that she actually felt short of breath, which her mind tried to tell her shouldn’t be possible, but she shook her head as she once again tried to chase the random thoughts away so she could focus. “Why are you here?” she asked as she reached out and gently place a hoof on the filly’s shoulder.

Little Twilight hummed and lifted a forehoof to her chin, rubbing it underneath in a perfect mimicry of Twilight’s nervous thinking habit. “That’s a vague question. There’s lots of possible answers to that one. Why are any of us here?” she asked as she shrugged her shoulders.

“No, no,” Twilight said as she shook her head. Now wasn’t the time to get into a philosophical discussion with her younger self, even if the opportunity to do so was tempting. “What I meant to ask is why are you here in this place, and not out there, in the real world. Have you actually been here all this time?”

“Well,” Little Twilight started, squinting her eyes as she thought, “I can’t leave here, and I have been here ever since I was brought here.”

“Brought here? By who?”

“Cadance, I thought, but it ended up being Chrysalis. But not that Chrysalis, the other one.” Little Twilight scrunched her face up, shaking her head. “Hrm, no, that’s even more confusing. Maybe if I named each of them something? Like, Bad Chrysalis and Good Chrysalis?” she asked as she carried on a little debate with herself. She let go a small sigh and shook her head again. “No, they aren’t really bad and good. Oh! I got it,” she said excitedly as she clapped her forehooves together. “I’m Little Twilight because I’m younger, I guess you could call the younger one Little Chrysalis! Though... actually she isn’t smaller than the other one that came from the future. Darn, that doesn’t really work either,” she said through a little growl.

“No, I think I get what you’re saying. Future Chrysalis brought you here, didn’t she?” Twilight asked, trying to cut straight to the truth.

“No, that was Little Chrysalis,” Little Twilight said with a shrug. “Future Chrysalis tricked her though. We’re calling her Future Chrysalis, right? Anyway, I guess Future Chrysalis told Little Chrysalis that I was a threat. That’s the reason that I was told.”

“Okay, hold on,” Twilight said as she sat back, waving a hoof as she screwed her eyes closed. “So, both of the... Chrysalises... were working together?” Twilight blinked her eyes rapidly as she rubbed at her temples. Her mind was now telling her that feeling a headache didn’t make sense in this place, to which another part of her mind told it to just shut up already.

Little Twilight rocked back and forth on her forehooves as she sat before Twilight. “They worked together for a little while, but that ended a long time ago. Little Chrysalis has been fighting against Future Chrysalis since then.”

“...Fighting?”

“Well, not like hooffighting or anything,” Little Twilight said with a smirk. She hopped up to her hooves and took a few quick steps down the nearby row of books. “Anyway, I’ll take you to see her after we go get Dusk.”

“Dusk?” Twilight asked. She didn’t know anypony named Dusk.

“You’ll see,” Little Twilight chirped as she took off prancing down the row of books.

As confusing as the library seemed to be, Little Twilight had easily navigated a path to bring them both to a clearing within the endless forest of shelving. The very moment that Twilight saw what was hovering just in the center of this clearing, she felt a shiver travel through herself. A staff, with a shaft of solid white and two deep violet crystals, one each seated in an intricate silver filigree at each end, silently floated vertically in the center of the open space. It slowly spun in place, causing a cascade of violet reflections to trace the floor around it. It was a perfect replica of the one that had been in her nightmare nearly a week ago.

“This is Dusk?” Twilight asked in a whisper.

Little Twilight nodded. “Yep. You’re supposed to take it with you.”

“Take it... but this place isn’t really real. I mean, taking that with me would be like taking one of these books with me, not really possible.” And logically, Twilight knew she was right, but she had already noticed things about this place that left her with a nagging doubt.

Little Twilight made a quick hop to put herself just in front of Twilight, sitting herself as tall as she could manage as she puffed her chest out and cleared her throat. “Celestial Weapons are as much a part of the mind and soul as they are a part of reality. It’s here just like we’re here, even though we’re really not,” she said in a lecturing tone. A satisfied grin appeared on her little muzzle at the surprised reaction she got. “Anyway, just touch it, and then you’ll understand,” she said as she hopped to the side to allow Twilight to pass.

Twilight was curious. A bit frightened as well, but mostly curious. Little Twilight had called it a Celestial Weapon, of which there were only a few known to even exist, and each one was unique. This one was not familiar to her, but it had existed in her dream. She wanted answers, wanted to know why she had seen it before, and why it was in such a strange place. She cautiously approached the staff, looking over its details as she took a moment to walk around it and study it. Her curious behavior must have seemed amusing, as she caught a giggle coming from her younger self. It was likely safe to touch, she reasoned. After all, what reason would Little Twilight have to mislead her? Finally settling on following through, she reached out and laid her fetlock against the shaft.

There was a blinding white flash, so bright that screwing her eyes tightly closed did nothing to lessen the glare. A high pitched whine filled her mind, causing her to flinch away and cringe. However, the glare and noise very quickly fell away to nothing. Twilight rapidly blinked, looking up to where the staff had just been and finding the space now empty.

It was at that moment that she realized, that she knew, exactly what Dusk was. It was hers. It was her own Celestial Weapon, created by her own power. She didn’t know how she knew this, or even when or where she had created the staff, but she knew that it was a part of her power, a part of herself. “How can that be possible?” she said in a quiet whisper. “I mean, I understand that Dusk is mine but... when did I...?”

“Huh. I guess she didn’t want you to know,” Little Twilight said. Twilight glanced back to the little filly, immediately wondering who ‘she’ was, but before she was able to form a question, Little Twilight jumped to her hooves and began to scamper off toward the maze of book shelves again. “You still want to see Little Chrysalis, right? I can take you to her now. Come on!” she called back as she galloped down a row of shelves before Twilight could protest.

Twilight let out a tired sigh, only sparing a moment to wonder if she had really had that much boundless energy when she was so young before once again taking off after the filly.

Twilight looked up, taking in the full height of the mahogany double doors. They spanned clear up to the ceiling, set in the center of a wall of packed bookshelves that made up a small enclosure within the vast library. A far more impressive bookfort than she had ever created herself.

“She’s in here?” Twilight asked to the filly at her side.

Little Twilight cantered up to the doors that were easily a hundred times more than her size, cheerfully chirping back with a ‘yep’ as she raised her forehooves, placing them upon the double doors. She leaned into them, and with not too much extra effort, pushed both of the doors so that they swung open into the room. Obviously, one’s size didn’t necessarily equate to how strong somepony was in this place, Twilight reasoned. That, or the door was just much lighter than it appeared.

Twilight followed just behind her little guide, finding a room that was lined from wall to wall with full bookshelves just like the outside. In the center of the room stood a pedestal, and Twilight was surprised to find something there she recognized. Hovering just a fraction above the pedestal was a magenta stone in the shape of a six pointed star. A dim aura glowed about it, shimmering periodically to reveal some sort of protective barrier that surrounded it. Twilight was so shocked to see the Element of Magic right before her that she didn’t immediately notice who was sitting just behind it. Chrysalis sat on the opposite side, her glowing gaze locked on the Element.

Little Twilight scampered around the pedestal, rearing up and placing her forehooves gently upon Chrysalis’s side. “Chrys. Chrys, she’s here,” she said as she gently nudged Chrysalis to catch her attention.

The glow from Chrysalis’s eyes faded, and she blinked once as she looked forward to Twilight across the pedestal before turning her attention to the little filly at her side. She lowered her head close to Little Twilight, smiling as she rest a foreleg across her. “Why don’t you run along for a moment, I need to talk with her,” she said.

Little Twilight nodded and quickly took off, bounding toward the open doorway. Twilight’s eyes followed the little filly, watching until she stopped near a pile of books just outside the door and took one up with her magic, where she settled down near the pile to start reading.

“So you did come,” Chrysalis said, drawing Twilight’s attention back into the room. She watched as Chrysalis slowly walked around the pedestal toward her, only stopping once they were barely a body width from each other.

“You were expecting me?”

“Perhaps. Though I can’t say I truly believed you would come until now.”

There was a short silence as they stared at one another. “She told me that you brought her here,” Twilight said as she stole a quick glance toward the doorway.

“What else has she told you?”

“That you’re not working with the other Chrysalis. At least, not any more.”

Chrysalis hummed in thought as she turned and started walking back around the pedestal. “Yes. That partnership ended some time ago, when she decided I would be better use to her as part of her spell.” She continued around until she came nearly full circle, standing on the other side near Twilight as she turned to face the pedestal. “Too bad for her that it only put me exactly where I needed to be to guard the Element of Magic. We managed to find it first,” she said with a quick grin to Twilight. “I’ve hidden it here ever since, right under that harpy’s nose. She even seems to have given up recently. It’s been weeks since she’s last tried to scry for it.”

“She didn’t give up,” Twilight said, which drew a confused look from Chrysalis. “She has the Element of Magic.” Chrysalis silently stared at Twilight for a moment, and then she looked to the Element of Magic and back, her brow furrowed. “Not that one,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “I brought it with me from the future, and she managed to take it from me.”

Chrysalis’s eyes widened. She quickly leaned in, a bit too close for comfort. “Do you even understand what terrible things she could do with that power?” she growled through her teeth.

“Maybe you could inform me,” Twilight said as she narrowed her eyes in response. “Since you are her.”

Chrysalis stared back at the glare that Twilight was giving her for a short moment before she glanced to the side. Twilight followed the glance toward the open doorway, and just briefly caught Little Twilight looking toward them before the little filly hastily buried her muzzle back in the book she had been reading.

Chrysalis’s sides heaved with a sigh as she looked away toward her hooves. She stood there silently for a moment, and then quietly said, “Her and I are nothing alike.” She turned and began pacing back around the pedestal again, watching the spinning Element as she spoke. “I don’t plan to blindly follow in her hoofsteps simply because she comes from some possible future. My kind has lived among the other races of this world unseen for centuries and there is no reason for that to change, but I do see one possible reason why that would have changed,” she said just before she stopped on the opposite side, focusing directly on Twilight. “You.”

Twilight jerked her head back slightly at the sudden accusation. “Me?” she asked defensively.

“Yes,” Chrysalis said as she continued pacing around the pedestal to the other side. “She showed me what the future held for us, although she was very selective with the memories she choose to share at first. Hundreds of our kind were driven out from society thanks in no small part to your spells, in the name of making Equestria ‘safe’ for your little ponies.”

Twilight frowned at the bias accusations that were being leveled against her. “We had to do something. The attacks weren’t stopping.”

“Yes, I know,” Chrysalis said as she stopped just before Twilight. “I saw that afterwards, when she choose to stick me in here. Being much more closely tied to her mind magic, I finally got a glimpse of the other half of the story. Yes, I know she started the entire mess, and antagonized you for decades afterwards.” Chrysalis turned herself toward the pedestal, sitting just beside Twilight. “She still blames you, you know,” she said, letting a moment of silence linger in the room before glancing toward Twilight. “For her failure to take Canterlot, and for every failure after that. She’s a very sore looser. I should know. And I know she pushed you into a corner, but in response you just pushed back twice as hard. If only you knew just how close you both were to starting a war that neither side would win.”

Twilight let go an exhausted huff as she sat down next to Chrysalis. “Look, I didn’t come here to discuss which one of us was more wrong. Graphite sent me.”

“Graphite,” Chrysalis said as her eyes suddenly seemed to light up with surprise. However, her expression quickly changed to something more unsure. “But how would he break away from her will?”

Twilight shrugged idly. “She may not be cursed anymore.”

Chrysalis jaw dropped open slightly, a quiet gasp escaping from her. “Did she really do it?” Chrysalis asked in a ghostly whisper. “Did she actually defeat him?”

“We don’t know for sure what has happened yet, but I do have a theory. The Empire has returned, that much we’re fairly sure of. If she did defeat Sombra, then it might be possible that she found a way to cure her own curse as well.”

Chrysalis glanced back to the Element of Magic, her eyes watching it closely. “And so she would no longer be a changeling... no longer connected.” She sat quietly next to Twilight for a time, her face holding no expression as she remained deep in thought. “But I’m curious,” she started as she looked back to Twilight, “why would you be here on Graphite’s behalf. I could sense your disdain the moment you entered this place.”

Twilight let out a quiet grumble. A changeling’s ability to read others had always rubbed her the wrong way. It felt like they were cheating. “To be completely honest, I’m not sure any of you can be trusted, but I have my reasons for being here.” Chrysalis arched an eyebrow, silently waiting for more. “Graphite claims to have my friends. I want them back,” Twilight admitted.

“I see,” Chrysalis said, nodding. “He offered you a trade then.”

“That isn’t the only reason,” Twilight said, which drew another arched eyebrow look from Chrysalis. “If what he told me is true, then the situation could really get out of control without you to keep the coven in check.”

“Oh, so he told you about them,” Chrysalis said as she rolled her eyes. She shook her head, clucking her tongue just before she let out a drawn out, disappointed sounding sigh. “Like a bunch of unruly children while their mother is away. Yes, he’s probably right about that.” Chrysalis furrowed her brow into a hard glare. “Not that I’m very inclined to clean up the mess my over achieving alter ego has no doubt left behind for me. Despite what things may seem, I’ve been rather content here.”

Now it was Twilight’s turn to give Chrysalis the arched eyebrow. “You really don’t mind being trapped?” she asked.

“Oh, I knew the day would come when I would be ‘freed’ from this place. I was simply waiting for you. If anypony here is trapped,” Chrysalis paused and glanced over her shoulder toward the doorway before quietly saying, “It’s her.”

Twilight glanced toward the door, seeing Little Twilight as she scanned over the pages of an open book. The little filly seemed like she was completely off in her own world as she laid there on her belly with her forehooves resting just on the corners of the pages. She nudged a page with her muzzle, flipping to the next one as her tail happily swished back and forth behind her. “We can’t just take her with us?” Twilight asked as she looked back to Chrysalis.

“No,” Chrysalis said flatly, and then seemed to take notice of the disapproving look that Twilight was giving her. “Don’t misunderstand. I would rather not leave her here. In the time we’ve spent together, she’s grown on me,” she said as she watched the filly. “But one can not exist in the outside world without a body.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight glanced back to the filly and then back to Chrysalis. “What happened to her?”

Chrysalis hesitated, worry playing across her face. “Part of the ritual that I aided in was to separate her mind and soul from her physical body. I was told that if we used her essence, the Element of Magic could be coaxed out of hiding before its time, and that we could prevent the ‘disaster’ that was to come.” Chrysalis paused for a moment, grinding her teeth together and letting out a frustrated huff of air. “Of course, it turns out my future half simply wanted the Elements for her own use. I really don’t regret many of my choices, but I do regret what I did to her.”

“So she’s... dead?” Twilight asked quietly.

Chrysalis looked directly to Twilight. “What is death?” she asked. The depth of the simple question caught Twilight off guard. “I certainly don’t know,” Chrysalis admitted with a small shake of her head. She then looked back to filly as she asked, “And what is a life? And, is a body required to have one? Despite how she may look, she has grown so much in this place. And she is always eager to learn more.”

Twilight quietly pondered the depth of the question, of whether existing in this place could be called living. “You think she’s happy here?” she asked.

“You tell me,” Chrysalis said as she arched an eyebrow at Twilight. “Since you are her.”

Twilight held the gaze quietly for a moment before begrudgingly admitting, “I guess I deserved that one.” Chrysalis chuckled to herself as she stood and began to walk toward the doorway. Twilight called after her, asking, “Where are you going?”

Chrysalis stopped, turning a quarter turn to look back. “To say goodbye,” she said very simply before walking away toward the little filly.

The reunion of Chrysalis and Graphite had left Twilight with mixed feelings. There was a connection there that was deeper than a subservient minion would normally show to his master. And when Graphite had thanked Twilight, even going as far as to embrace her, it had left her questioning her preconceived notions of what changelings were. She had only ever know them to be tricksters at best, and at their worst, uncaring beings that preyed upon others.

And then shortly after that, there was the hatching. When Twilight and Graphite left the hive mind to return to the conscious realm, Chrysalis followed closely behind them to awaken within her body for the first time in over a decade. The large fleshy mass beneath the crystal cracked open like a massive egg, sending a glowing orange pus to ooze out onto the floor as the black shell broke and fell open. Chrysalis, covered and dripping with the same slimy substance, had feebly stumbled out, gasping for breaths of air as she stumbled about shakily on her hooves. Many of the ponies present had to turn away from the sight. There were some aspects of changelings that Twilight knew she would never be able to get used too.

Once Chrysalis had managed to recover enough of her strength to travel, the group made their return to Canterlot. Chrysalis would be allowed to enter the Crystal Caverns, and in turn, Twilight would have her friends returned to her. Graphite admitted that he had been keeping them within the caverns for the last few days. When Twilight asked exactly how he had managed to find them and bring them to Canterlot without her knowing, he revealed that they were found by chance, and that he had simply taken advantage of the situation to gain her help. He admitted that it was a desperate move and claimed that he had hoped for another way, but he hadn’t elaborated much beyond that.

Twilight now found herself waiting near the cliff side in eastern Canterlot, standing in a back alley behind a worn building. Graphite and Chrysalis had disappeared beyond an illusionary false wall on the cliff that hid an entrance into the caverns, leaving Twilight and her escort of Nightguard with the promise that they would return with her friends. That had been over half an hour earlier.

Doubt was starting to creep its way into the edges of her mind. Her subconscious was doing a good job of chastising her for trusting a being who’s kind was known for manipulating others as a way of life. She considered going after them herself, but knew that wasn’t a wise choice. There was no guarantee that the entire thing hadn’t been a lie to begin with just to get her help, no guarantee that her friends had actually ever been anywhere near the caverns, and no way of knowing if she would be stepping into a trap if she choose to enter them.

The cliff near her shimmered as something walked out of it. Graphite’s sudden appearance there in the alley way caused the Nightguard to jump to attention. And then, one by one, the five missing bearers appeared from the other side of the cliff.

“And here we are,” Graphite said casually as he turned back toward the group that had followed him out.

“Sky!” Rainbow Dash called out excitedly as she leapt from the ground. She did a few quick figure eights just above them before settling down back to a hover just above the group.

Twilight felt her heart nearly leap out of her chest at the sight of her five friends alive and well standing in front of her. She began trotting over to them, slowing a bit when a stray thought caught her off guard. What if they weren’t real? What if they were changelings pretending to be her friends? She hesitated for a moment, standing there as she grasped a hoof over the pendant that was dangling about her neck. She was almost afraid to look at it when her friends noticed her and started coming her way.

Closer, closer, and then they were finally close enough. Twilight took in a breath and held it, gathering up the courage to look down.

The pendant remained as it had been, with no glow.

Twilight let out the breath she had been holding. She looked up to her friends, a smile on her muzzle as she blinked her eyes to clear the haze. She sniffed once, clearing her throat before she spoke. “Are all of you alright? None of you are hurt, are you?”

Rarity was the first one to reach her. She reached out, giving Twilight a quick hug before stepping back. “We’re quite alright, Twilight. Though I did hear that you had a time of it.”

“I’m just glad you’re all safe,” Twilight said as she turned toward each of her friends, giving each one a quick embrace. Twilight noticed Graphite standing back near the cliff side, and took a few steps toward him, sitting before him on the street when he looked up to her. “Graphite, I’ll admit, I don’t think I really believed you were going to keep your word.”

“Understandable,” he said, nodding once.

“No, I didn’t fairly judge you.” Twilight slowly bowed her head to him. “Thank you for keeping your word.”

Graphite smiled, bowing his head in response as he said, “I should be the one thanking you.”

Fluttershy walked up next to Twilight, waiting quietly until Graphite noticed her. “Will he be okay?” she asked to him.

Graphite frowned, looking off to the side. “I really can’t say for sure.”

“He did help us out, you know,” Applejack said. The rest of the group gathered around next to Twilight, all looking to Graphite.

“And I’m sure our Queen will consider that,” he said in response.

Applejack scrunched her muzzle to the side as an annoyed grunt escaped her. “Well, she didn’t seem to be considerin’ it much when we left.”

“Wait, what are you guys talking about?” Twilight asked, looking to her right and left at her friends.

Fluttershy let out a light sigh, sitting down next to her. “Oh, Twilight. She wasn’t being very nice to him.”

“...Who?” Twilight asked, shaking her head slightly.

“Somepony that calls himself Sombra,” Applejack answered. “We kinda let him out, not really knowin’ what was goin’ on.”

Twilight’s jaw dropped open. Her gaze shot toward Graphite, “You brought Sombra to Canterlot!?”

Graphite sat back, raising his forehooves up and waving them defensively. “He brought himself here, along with your friends.” He slowly lowered his hooves back to the ground, waiting a moment for Twilight to calm herself before continuing. “They would still be stranded in the north if what he claims is true.”

“It’s true,” Fluttershy said. She shifted toward Twilight, reaching her forehooves out and cupping them around one of Twilight’s. “Oh, Twilight, he isn’t a bad pony. He was just really confused.”

“If it helps,” Graphite began as he took a step out from the wall, “I’ll give you my word that Canterlot is not in any danger.”

Twilight sat there thinking to herself for a moment. She glanced back and forth between her friend’s pleading eyes and Graphites serious look. “You can guarantee that?” she finally asked, giving him a sceptical look.

“It’s just plainly obvious,” Graphite said with a tired sigh. He shook his head disappointedly, and when he noticed the confused look he was getting, he explained further. “If you meet him yourself, you would see why I say that.”

A thought occurred to Twilight at that moment. “Can I meet him?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.

Graphite seemed taken aback by the request, but quickly regained his serious outward composure. “I can’t make that choice,” he said, but then seemed to lose himself in thought for a moment. After silently considering the question, he added, “But, I will ask.”

Left on that note, Twilight and her friends bid farewell to Graphite, and he returned to the Crystal Caverns. “I hope he’ll be okay,” Fluttershy said after he had left.

Twilight was left once again with more questions than answers. Now somehow Sombra was in Canterlot, or at least beneath it. She honestly couldn’t predict how such news would go over with the royal sisters. And for some reason, her own friends seemed to be defending him. She only hoped they could give her a good reason why. “I hope we all will be,” Twilight said.

Destiny Undone

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter XVIII – Destiny Undone

In this place, there was neither light nor actual darkness. Warmth and cold did not exist, and neither did sound and silence. The void was the true definition of nothing. The five senses sensed nothing. His memories were the only thing that kept him company in this otherwise lonely nonexistence.

Sombra’s memories. Memories of a life time long ago, or perhaps it was only moments ago. It was impossible to tell in the void. The weight of eternity seemed to press down all around and yet, the memories were still very vivid, as if the events had happened only moments ago. The battle with the two sisters over the city, and the sting of defeat as they had managed to overpower him. His defiant wail as they sealed him, and inadvertently sealed the entire empire along with him, the only consolation for his loss. He remembered that stinging feeling very well. He held that feeling close and kept it alive, like a candle flame carefully being sheltered from the wind. The day would come when he would use that feeling to rekindle his power. He hated them, hated them for taking what was rightfully his, and that hate would give him power. But not yet. It wasn’t time yet.

His thoughts of vengeance circled like this endlessly, seething, and patiently waiting to be put to action. Waiting for that day to finally come when the seal would break. It would, in the fullness of time. That, he was sure of. It could be in the next moment or the next millennium, but either way, the time would come. And when it did, he would be ready.

Finally, there was something among all of the nothing. A single point there before him that appeared as a speck of light. It was the first of anything that he had sensed since he had been sealed away. He watched it closely as it slowly grew and ate away at the nothingness around it. The first sounds began to make their way to him, something that sounded like stone grinding on stone. A gust of air carrying a few errant snowflakes and a cold chill rushed through the breech and brushed against him. Finally, his patience had been rewarded.

The seal is broken.

He reached toward the breech with his cursed body, long tendril-like appendages of shadow and smoke billowing out toward the gap in the nothingness. His tendrils grasped the frigid stone on the other side, allowing him to pull himself forward. His head, the only part of him even remotely resembling his original form, pushed through the gap and into the world on the other side.

Billowing smoke poured out around him over the snow covered rocks as he exited his prison. His head rose high in the air at the top of his shadowy form, and from his high vantage point he surveyed the frozen world around him. He took notice of the six mares, each of them clad in winter grab standing in the snow drifts just before him, as well as the fact that they each had one of the artifacts that had been used to seal him away.

Those cursed Elements.

He narrowed his glowing green eyes at the group, his anger igniting them with a flash of dark purple flame that began to slowly flicker from the edges. Whether they had purposely freed him or where there to see to his imprisonment once again, he would not allow anyone wearing those things to go unpunished.

Sombra reached out, sending a tendril of shadow snaking along the ground toward the mare at the lead of the group. A unicorn, wearing a violet coat nearly the same shade as her fur. The one wielding Magic. She would be dealt with swiftly, then the others would fall rapidly once their leader had been dispatched.

A shockwave of power coursed back through the shadows as he touched some sort of barrier just in front of the unicorn. Arcs of power shot through Sombra as his shadows momentarily constricted back toward his center. He let out a painful growl, clenching his teeth.

So they wish to fight.

Sombra didn’t want to waste time on a group of meaningless mortals, but they apparently meant to delay his revenge. He could see them frantically calling out to one another, their voices barely carrying on the blizzard winds. Whatever they were plotting, he was sure they wouldn’t be ready for his next little surprise. His shadowy form seeped into the fine cracks in the ground beneath him, slowly finding an unseen path through the earth. While the group before him seemed to be making some sort of attempt at preparing a spell, his reach was inching closer without them knowing. Each one of the Elements began to glow as the mares gathered together, shoulder to shoulder. Sombra only grinned as his throaty chuckle echoed all around them.

...Now...

Sombra reached up through the ground with his shadowy appendages, surrounding the group of mares. They screamed in shock and surprise as each of them were grasped and lifted from the ground, their spell interrupted and the tables turned in only a second. He could feel them struggle against his grip and hear their fear filled screams on the wind. It was laughable that such insignificant beings had thought they stood a chance against him.

A green blast of light shot out from the lead unicorn, hitting Sombra directly in the face. The power of the hit took him by surprise, stunning him for a brief moment. Then he realized... that feeling. That power. It wasn’t just that it was far more powerful than he had expected. No, it was something he knew.

Sombra drew the unicorn up higher into the sky and closer to himself. She began to make an attempt to cast at him again, but before she could gather her concentration he tightened his grip on her, forcing the wind from her lungs. He looked closely at her, and looked into her. She resisted, putting up a formidable wall to keep him out of her mind, but in this struggle she would eventually fail from lack of breath. Eventually, he forced his way past and took a peek at what her darkest fears were. He saw an ancient city besieged by the untamed forest of Everfree. He saw the citizens of the Empire in shackles as they were forced to work the crystal mines. He saw a dust gray alicorn that he knew well, and watched a horror stricken look overtake her as her and everypony around her was twisted into black, insect-like beings.

Chrystallyn!

However it was that she had managed to disguise herself, he had seen through it. The cursed alicorn, Chrystallyn, had come for him seeking revenge, no doubt, but the attempt would be very short lived. As powerful of a being as she may have once been, her twisted form was nothing compared to what her true power once was, evidenced by the fact that she wasn’t able to face him alone. She had defied him once before, and for that he had punished her harshly. Obviously, she was incapable of learning from her mistakes, so he would simply have to crush the life from her withered body. He leaned in close, his own nose and glowing red horn nearly touching hers as he listened to her struggle and gasp against his grasp. She grit her teeth, and as a final act of defiance, she forced one word out weakly.

“Discord.”

The strange word gave Sombra pause. He had expected some sort of retort, not a random, meaningless word.

“Oh! Almost missed my cue!” Sombra’s head quickly snapped right toward the new voice, and he immediately understood. Chrystallyn hadn’t spoken a word, she had called out a name. He knew who and what Discord was, and if the horrifying tales of the Chaos Lord’s power were true, he was in very real danger. However, the garb that the draconequus was wearing had left Sombra in a state of shock. Discord hovered just beside him, dressed in a black maid’s dress laced with white, complete with the white apron, frilly black and white garters around his legs and a giant white bow atop his head. The look was so absurd that Sombra could only stare back at him slackjawed.

Discord tisked and shook one of his talon fingers at Sombra. “Sir, this is a non-smoking zone, so I’m going to have to ask you to stop smoking,” he said as he reached behind himself and produced a cylindrical device from nowhere. Holding the canister under one of his arms, he pointed a long hose that came out of one end at Sombra’s nose, and then flicked a switch on the side of the can with his thumb. The device began to make a loud whirring sound, and Sombra began to feel himself being pulled toward it. He growled at the annoying thing as he tried to lean away but the pull kept increasing, becoming more and more powerful. Soon, parts of his smoky body began to stream into the end of the hose as the noisy device started to suck him in. He tried to pull himself back, releasing his grip on the mares as he focused instead on grasping the earth as hard as he could to brace himself, but the magic that Discord was using on him was far too powerful. Eventually, he lost his grip as he was pulled from the ground, and he watched the world go black as he was pulled inside, his head being the last thing to be sucked in as it made a hollow FOOMP! sound. A single click followed, and then the loud whirring noise died out.

It was like being trapped in the void again, but yet nothing like it at the same time. Sombra felt like his body was numb, unresponsive and crammed into a small restrictive area. His shadowy form had condensed into something more liquefied that sloshed around the inside of the cylinder that held him prisoner. He would have tried to struggle, if it had been at all possible for him to do so. Instead, he could only listen to the metallic echo of voices coming from the outside.

“Were you trying to let him kill us?”

“What ever do you mean? I was simply waiting on my cue!”

“Your cue was when he started strangling us all to death!”

“...That’s funny... I don’t remember you saying that—”

“Just get the amulet!”

“Fine! Fine... can’t have even a little fun with you around.”

The cylinder tipped sideways, sending Sombra sloshing to one end. A metallic scraping sound echoed loudly just before the upright end popped off. Sombra could see Discord peering down at him, a wicked looking grin spreading from ear to ear as he nearly stuck his snout into the canister. And still, despite all his attempts, Sombra was unable to move.

Discord jostled the canister a bit, sloshing Sombra about. As he did so, something began to rattle in the canister as certain things began to solidify from Sombra’s liquefied form. After a few seconds more, Discord began to tip the container over, and he reached his free paw out just underneath as he poured Sombra out. The dark liquid part dribbled between the fingers of Discord’s paw, and began to fill an invisible pony shaped container standing on the ground just underneath. As the canister grew close to being empty, the parts that had solidified began to slide out and fall into Discords paw. Clothing and armor, the regal garb that Sombra had worn before he had taken his shadowy form, were caught in Discord’s grip as the rest of the dark liquid dribbled out of the canister to finish filling in Sombra’s body.

The strange sensation of being poured out of a can and back into a normal equine form had left Sombra feeling incredibly disoriented. He stumbled forward, nearly falling face first in the snow before he plopped down on his haunches. His mind felt like mud, and like something was missing. He clasped a hoof over his forehead at the sudden headache, noticing the lack of a horn that should have been there but not immediately caring. No, something else was missing, something more important.

...The amulet...

Sombra’s eyes opened wide, his head snapping up toward Discord, an action that he quickly regretted when he winced against the throbbing pain in his head at the sudden move. Somehow, Discord had managed to bypass the protections on the amulet that prevented its removal by any other than the one who wore it. Such a thing shouldn’t have been possible. It was a safety measure to keep anypony else who couldn’t handle the dark power from taking it and abusing it.

...abuse...

Sombra lingered on the thought, his mind becoming sharper as the strange muddled feeling slowly lifted. The amulet had always had the potential to be a seriously dangerous tool if in the wrong hooves. He had always known this, but had vowed long ago that he would guard his creation himself, and there had been no better way of doing so than to wear it.

...no...

The veil fully lifted from his mind, and he remembered it all perfectly clear. His thoughts and desires. What he had done. Those acts certainly were not anything he would normally consider, but yet he had done them. Only moments ago he had desired dominance over every other living thing. There was only one possible explanation, now that the source of his extended power had just been removed.

“...It used me,” he whispered to himself. He sat there shivering in the snow, half from the cold and half from the vivid memories of all the wrongs he had inflicted upon his own people. He was only distracted from the haunting memories when one of the metal hoof covers of his regal armor fell into the snow right next to him.

“Hm... junk, junk, more junk,” Discord said as he discarded bits and pieces of Sombra’s regalia from his paw, sending bits of armor flying in different directions and a red cape fluttering into the wind. He stopped when he picked up a black, curved horn that tapered off to a dull grey tip. “Oh, you probably want this back,” Discord said as he placed the base of the horn against Sombra’s forehead. With a quick pop, and another painful wince from Sombra, the horn reconnected with its owner. Discord then continued to sift through the remainder of the items in his paw. “Oh!” he said with a big grin as he placed Sombra’s spiked crown upon his own head. He glanced over toward the mares, waggling his eyebrows at them, but only got confused looks and in one case, a very disapproving glare in response. With a light sigh, he finished sifting through the rest of the bits and pieces in his paw. “Junk, trash, garbage... ah, here we are,” Discord said as he lifted the last item from his paw; a triangular metallic amulet set with red gems. A greenish aura took hold of the amulet, but before it could take it from his grasp, Discord clasped his talons around the amulet’s chain. “Ah ah! Don’t forget our deal,” he said as he waggled a finger toward Chrystallyn. In response, the green aura swiftly yanked the amulet from his grasp, prompting Discord to blow a raspberry in her direction.

Chrystallyn brought the amulet to a hover just before her eyes, gazing at it longingly. She seemed lost in the captivating reddish glow of the amulet’s gems for a moment, and then glanced to the side where her confused companions were watching her. “I suppose there’s no point in keeping the secret any longer,” she said shortly before closing her eyes. A wreath of green flame ignited around her, rising quickly over her body to strip her disguise away. It really was her, in that same twisted form that Sombra remembered inflicting upon her.

There was a chorus of gasps from the group of mares, one of them calling out above the howling wind. “You’re that changelin’ queen!”

“I do have a name,” Chrystallyn said as she slipped out of the violet coat and casually flicked it aside. The coat was quickly caught in a light blue aura before it was lost to the winds. Rarity pulled the coat close, hugging it in one of her forelegs. She timidly looked up toward Chrystallyn, her ears splaying back as she did so.

“Wait,” Rainbow said as she glanced back and forth between Chrystallyn and the rest of her friends. “If she wasn’t Twilight, then where is Twilight?”

“Oh, she’s likely off galavanting around Canterlot with the sisters, if I had to guess,” Chrystallyn said with a casual wave of a hoof. “I lost track of her. But none of that matters now.”

Chrystallyn unclasped the amulet’s chain as she brought it up to her chest. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as she fastened the chain and secured the amulet around her neck. She reached a single hoof up, resting it upon the amulet where it laid against her chest as she patiently waited. For a moment, it seemed like nothing was happening, but then she suddenly grit her teeth together tightly as she drew in a hissing breath through them. Her eyes reopened partially, a red glow shining from them. She let out a painful cry as she nearly doubled over on the ground, and a mixture of red and green flames encircled her body. The wild flames flared over and over, the green and the red seeming to battle each other for dominance, until finally a blinding red flare engulfed her and caused everypony else to shield their eyes or look away.

When they looked back, they saw a dust gray alicorn sitting there among a blackened circle on the bare ground. The snow had been melted in the blast radius around her, some of it quickly freezing back into ice when the winds touched it and the rest rising as a steamy mist that quickly vanished on the wind. She breathed heavily from the strain that the power had put on her.

“Chrystallyn,” Sombra said as he weakly made his way toward her. She raised her head at hearing the name, glancing to her side out of one eye at him. He stopped just beside her, looking up to her and to the glowing red amulet hanging around her neck. “You mustn't use the Alicorn Amulet,” he said as he reached out toward her.

The amulet and Chrystallyn’s eyes both flashed with a red glow, and her face quickly contorted with anger. “Who are you to tell me what I can and can not do,” she snarled in his face as she leaned toward him. She brought her forehoof around, striking him across the chest and sending him flying a short distance into a snowbank. “You are nothing,” she said, nearly spitting the words.

Sombra struggled to upright himself where he had landed, holding a hoof over his chest as he drew in a few wheezing breaths. “It will control you!” he yelled back.

“You think my mind is a feeble as yours? Don’t insult me,” Chrystallyn said with a disgusted sneer. She then turned her attention toward the other mares, most of which seemed unsure and fearful at the sudden outburst. But instead of acting out her anger upon them, her expression softened as she bowed her head toward them. “I am grateful for your help, though I’m sure I wouldn’t have gotten it if you had known who I was. Still, thank you for lending me your power, but now I believe I can handle the Elements on my own. I’ll be taking them back.” She slowly lifted her head, her horn igniting with a red glow. The Element of Magic reacted first, the facets of the gem shimmering, and then the other five Elements all began to respond to the call as they did the same. The golden necklaces that held the Elements in place dissolved away, leaving only the loose gems that Chrystallyn collected with her magic. She drew the five Elements up close to her chest, each one of them shrinking down into a small diamond shape before they attached to the amulet, embedding themselves alongside the larger red gem in the center.

“Hey! Give that back!” Rainbow Dash yelled before she rushed toward Chrystallyn. She very nearly reached her target, but was stopped dead in the air by a red aura that grasped her. Chrystallyn stared back with a frown etched on her muzzle, and then with a slight flick of her horn sent Rainbow flying sideways skidding into the snow.

“Rainbow!” A chorus of worried voices called out to her from the remaining mares, who all quickly rushed to her side. Rainbow uprighted herself rather quickly, shaking off the snow that had caught itself in her mane and feathers and spitting what had managed to make its way into her mouth. She almost immediately made an attempt to rush Chrystallyn again, but was swiftly stopped when Applejack reached out and held her back.

“Dash! She’s too much for you,” Applejack said as she struggled to keep her friend under control.

“They were mine to begin with,” Chrystallyn said, drawing their attention toward her. She casually strode toward them, causing the group to instinctively huddle in close to each other. She stopped just before them, her imposing stature towering over them. “I was simply letting you borrow them.”

Pinkie narrowed her eyes, pursing her lips as she dared to take a step away from the group toward Chrystallyn. “Yeah, well, except for the part where you pulled a nasty trick on us and made us think you were our friend so we would help you.” Despite being so much smaller than the alicorn that was looking down upon her, Pinkie held her defiant stance as she glared up disapprovingly.

Chrystallyn meet Pinkie’s glare silently for a time, unmoving other than the aqua strands of her mane and tail freely wiping about in the wind. She finally turned away with a humph. “Fine, be ungrateful. You can all find your own way home. But I am warning you,” she said, pausing as she glanced over her shoulder to the mares. “Do not ever cross me.” She continued on toward where Sombra was shivering alone nearby in the snow, lowering her head down level to his as she neared him. “And as for you...,” she began as her eyes ignited with a red glow.

“Do what you want,” Sombra said as she struggled against his shivering body. “But you know I’m right. You won’t be able to control the amulet, not forever.”

Chrystallyn rose one eyebrow curiously. “I think you underestimate me,” she said as she leaned in even closer to him, narrowing her eyes as she lowered her voice. “As for what I’m going to with you? Well, I thought long and hard about that, and I came up with something perfect. I’m going to do” — she leaned in next to his ear to whisper — “nothing.”

Sombra watched Chrystallyn closely as she leaned back. He had thought for sure that he wouldn’t get off easy with her after what he had done. “Why?” he asked timidly, wondering if maybe she were only toying with him.

“Any sort of punishment I could dream up would only distract you from remembering what you’ve done. And killing you would simply put you out of your misery,” she said as she looked down at him with genuine disgust. She turned and began walking away, raising her voice enough for him to hear as she left. “So enjoy what’s left of your pathetic little life, and all the memories of the lives you crushed under your hooves when you enslaved my nation and cursed my people. I’m sure the nightmares your own mind will create will do a much better job of crushing your soul than I ever could.”

“Oh! Before you leave,” Discord said as he dashed around in front of Chrystallyn. She stopped, giving him a very disinterested look. “I know that resurrecting your long forgotten empire is high on your priority list, but I did do as you asked, and we did have a deal, did we not?” He leaned in, laying his serpent-like body against her side as he hooked one of his arms over her shoulders and gave her a wide grin.

Chrystallyn unfolded her wing, using it to push Discord away as she grasped at one of his ears with her magic at the same time to tug his face away from hers. He complained with a few quick ow’s, proceeding to pout with his bottom lip quivering a bit once she let him go. “And what deal would that be?” she asked.

Discord gave a forced laugh. “Oh, Chrissy, such a kidder. To remove these things, of course!” he said as he pointed a talon at one of the glowing bracers around his wrist.

Chrystallyn slowly blinked as she looked to the binding, and then once again as she looked back to his eyes. “Discord, I am quite literally only steps away from accomplishing everything I ever dreamed of. Why would I want to unleash an unstable element into the wild? You honestly believed I would just free you?”

Discord’s jaw went slack, his bottom lip still quivering as he held his paw and claw each open before him. “But, you... said you would! I thought you ponies were all honorable or something!”

“Did I?” Chrystallyn said as she sat back on her haunches. She tapped a forehoof to her closed lips, giving a thoughtful hum as her eyes glanced back and forth toward the sky. Finally, she shook her head. “Hmm, no, I think you misinterpreted things. I believe I said I would allow you to do whatever you wanted with Equestria. I never did say anything about actually removing the binding spell, did I?”

Discord released a single breath in a quiet puh sound. He stared back, silent as a statue for some time, before he balled his fists up and stomped the ground as he growled angrily. “I knew it! Somehow I knew this was going to happen. I just knew!” he ranted as he smashed the snow beneath his feet.

“Lets be honest with each other here,” Chrystallyn said, grabbing the raving Chaos Lord’s attention. “I knew that given the choice, you wouldn’t help me, and given the chance, you would try to stop me simply for your own amusement, so I’m not leaving the choice up to you. That bothers you, doesn’t it?” she asked. The seething glare she got back in response was the only answer she needed. “Well then, allow me to give you a choice. You can choose to remain powerless for the rest of your eternal existence and see just how far you get with Equestria that way, or you can come with me, and I’ll find a use for you.” She ended her proposition with a curt smile, and then proceed to continue on her way into the distance.

Discord furrowed his brow as he considered the set of options he had been given. He glanced back over toward the group of mares, watching them as they huddled together in the cold, and made only a passing glance toward Sombra before sighing heavily. Taking a few quick jogging steps, he caught up to Chrystallyn to walk along side her. She smiled, looking up toward him as she said, “Good choice.”

Sombra was surprised that the remaining five mares wanted anything to do with him. They were wary of him, and understandably so, but the one called Fluttershy had vouched for him for some reason. He hadn’t exactly been at his best when first meeting them, but Fluttershy seemed to be very understanding and forgiving, and the rest were willing to follow her lead for now. In return, he promised to lead them out of the blizzard. It was the least he could do in return for their kindness to somepony like him.

He had been offered the violet velvet coat that Chrystallyn had discarded earlier. He was grateful, but even with the added layer of protection the blizzard’s cold was starting to cut all the way through to his skin, and the rest of the mares didn’t seem to be faring much better than him as they trudged through the snow toward their destination.

Eventually they stopped when they came to a wide open field. “We’ll have to wait here,” Sombra said as he turned toward the rest of the mares.

“Wait here?” Rainbow asked through her chattering teeth. “Are you kidding? There’s nothing around for miles!”

“There will be,” Sombra said as he looked back toward the field. “She’s out there somewhere, trying to break the seal. When she does, we’ll have to be quick, or we could end up stranded outside.”

Rainbow just rolled her eyes in response as she clasped her hoof over the neck of her coat, pulling it up around her chin. The mares huddled closer together, sharing what little warmth they had between them as they waited for something to magically happen while standing there in the middle of no where. The minutes dragged by as they weathered the cold, and their patience began to wear thin.

“Are you sure this is gonna happen?” Applejack finally asked. Sombra no sooner turned to look back to the group than a bright flash of light flooded the field. The glare caused them all to shield their eyes, and quite a few surprised shrieks at the sudden flash escaped them. The glare slowly died down, becoming more of a gentle glow, and the group slowly opened their eyes blinking blearily at the empty field, except now it wasn’t empty at all. Before them stood towering buildings of blue and violet crystals.

“Come now, we haven’t any time to waste,” Sombra said as he galloped down the side of the hill toward the crystal city, with the rest of the mares quickly falling in behind him. As they approached the edge of the city, shimmering lines of light began to skitter along the ground around the city’s edge. Sombra galloped just over the line, skidding to a stop on the other side as he turned toward the mares. “Hurry!” he called out as he waved them over. Applejack crossed the boundary on hoof only slightly behind him. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie both crossed the boundary only a second later, but Rarity and Fluttershy had fallen behind somewhat in the dash down the hill toward the city, and were still a good distance away. A sparkling wall began to take shape between him and the remaining two mares, so Sombra quickly ignited his magic. His dark magic tore a hole in the forming barrier, but it was very quickly growing stronger and was forcing the tear back closed against his power. Wasting no time, Rainbow soared out of the tear into the blizzard winds. She fought hard against the freezing air currents as she looped around toward Rarity and Fluttershy, where she caught them each under one foreleg as she zipped between them. Lifting them both from the ground with her, she frantically flapped her wings as she pushed herself to carry them both to the shrinking tear. They all three fell in through the tear only a couple seconds before Sombra lost control of it, and it snapped shut behind them. Applejack and Pinkie had made an attempt at catching their friends as they fell to the ground, but only ended up at the bottom of a pony pile when their friends crashed into them.

“Is everypony alright?” Sombra asked as he walked up to the groaning pile of mares. Rainbow struggled to untangle herself from the others first, finally falling out of the group and rolling over on the ground. She pushed herself up, panting for breath.

“I... yeah... I’m good,” she said as she shook out her wings. The rest of the mares also managed to untangle themselves from one another afterwards, none being any more injured than a bump or bruise here and there.

Rarity walked up to the crystal-like barrier that now stretched into the sky above the city, placing her hoof against it. It made a quiet tink sound when she did so, appearing much like a solid piece of glass. “Well, I suppose we are out of the cold now,” she said as she looked back toward the group.

“We shouldn’t linger here,” Sombra said as he glanced about. They were near the edge of a wide street made of shining blue crystal. The buildings along the street cast a reflection across it, all the way to the giant crystal spire that towered above the center of the city. Sombra looked instead toward the smaller buildings nearby, and began to make his way toward an alleyway between two of them. “This way,” he said as he called back to the mares.

The group followed him, keeping a brisk pace as they weaved their way between the buildings. “Where is everypony?” Rainbow thought to ask from where she was hovering just above the group. For such a large city, it seemed to be completely deserted.

“Hiding,” Sombra said simply. He continued to lead them through the bends, finally coming to what appeared to be a dead end. He closed his eyes to concentrate, the tip of his horn glowing red briefly as a spark of dark energy skittered across it and leapt from the tip down to the ground. A small, black crystal sprouted from where the spark landed and began to cast a shadow. As the shadow spread, it revealed a set of stairs that descend underground.

Sombra took the first few steps down, stopping to look back to the rest of the group. “Follow me. We have to make our way to the teleportation chamber.” The mares reluctantly began to follow behind him, and as they descended into the dark stairway the entryway closed up behind them, plunging them into pitch black darkness.

“Hey!” Rainbow called out, a frantic edge on her voice. A brief, reddish glow preceded a dark blue spark that arched out to a nearby wall, and then a row of torches ignited in a cascade down the stairway. The torches gave off a dim illumination from a black flame that flickered slower than flames normally should.

“Sorry, I’m having a little trouble,” Sombra said as he rubbed a hoof at one of his temples. He continued on down the walkway, which eventually opened up into a large, dome shaped chamber illuminated by two rows of dark flame torches that encircled the entire area. The stairs continued to descend to the center of the chamber toward a circular platform. Seven other rows of stairs each ended around the platform, all evenly spaced around the center like the spokes of a wheel, each one ascending to a tunnel of its own. Hanging from the ceiling in the giant dome directly over the platform was a large crystal, its countless facets seeming to change hue from blue to violet and back depending on the prospective one was looking at them. And standing in rows and rows between the stairways were dozens of full armor stands and weapon racks.

“What is all this?” Rarity asked as she and the rest of the mares glanced around at the surroundings.

“A staging area,” Sombra said as he prodded one of four pony sized crystals that hovered just along the edge of the platform. The crystal hummed and glowed a faint blue in response. “I was going to use it to invade Canterlot, but the sisters stopped me before I got that far. I hope we can use it to save Canterlot now instead.”

“Sisters?” Applejack asked as she cocked her head to the side.

Sombra stopped where he was about to touch the second crystal, looking back. “Don’t tell me the Royal Sisters have fallen,” he said as his ears splayed back.

“Well, Iduno what you mean by Royal Sisters, but we have had some problems in Equestria just lately. Celestia’s been missin’ ever since Nightmare Moon showed up. That was kinda what we were tryin’ to fix... or so we thought.”

Sombra furrowed his brow. “I haven’t ever heard of this ‘Nightmare Moon’.”

“She’s kinda the Queen of Equestria now,” Applejack said, shrugging.

“I see.” Sombra let out a tired sigh, turning his attention back to the floating crystal. After tapping it, he moved on to the third one, giving it a light tap as well. “I suppose we have no other choice than to appeal to her then. I hope she’ll see to reason.”

“Twilight will help, I’m sure of it,” Rarity said. She got a questioning look from Sombra as he walked toward the final crystal. Rarity quickly glanced to the rest of her friends, and when the rest of them gave her a nod, she continued. “She’s an alicorn princess as well, though that’s not exactly common knowledge.”

Sombra paused, remembering the name from when it had been spoken earlier. “I take it she is the one that Chrystallyn took the form of?” he asked. When the mares nodded back, he gave a thoughtful hum to himself before tapping the final crystal with his hoof. “We should seek her out then. Canterlot must be warned of what has happened here,” he said as he walked to the center of the platform. “Now, I need all of you to stand here,” he said as he pointed to the center.

Once all five of the mares had made their way to the platform, Sombra set the four crystals in motion around the platform by placing his hoof in a small depression at the very center of the floor. The crystals hummed with a higher pitch as they began to spin around the edge, slowly increasing in speed. “Uh, what’s this thing do?” Rainbow asked, her ears splaying back as her wings fidgeted at her sides.

“It’s for long range teleportation,” Sombra said as he glanced up at the large crystal overhead. “It only works if there is a crystal at the destination that can receive the spell, but luckily for us, Canterlot is one of the few locations I know of that has one. Or at least, the caverns below it do.”

“Great, more teleporting,” Rainbow said through a groan as she slumped toward the floor.

Sombra cocked an eyebrow in her direction. “It’s currently our only way of leaving the city, not to mention how quick it will be if it works.”

Applejack gave a quick chuckle in response. “I think it’s more that the last couple of times left her feelin’ kinda queasy.”

“Waitaminute,” Rainbow said. She stalked over to Sombra, nearly shoving her own face into his as he cringed back. “Did you just say ‘if it works’?”

“Well, it will,” Sombra said as he raised a forehoof defensively. He wilted slightly under the intensifying glare that Rainbow was giving him. “To be completely honest I haven’t tested this platform yet, but I’m confident that it will work.”

“Okay, forget this,” Rainbow said as she turned on her heals and lept into the air. She made it as far as the edge of the platform where she was going to sail over the spinning crystals, but was stopped when her face bounced off an invisible barrier. “Ow!” she growled as she clasped her forehooves over her nose, her wings flapping haphazardly as she hovered there in the air. She turned and pointed an accusing hoof back at Sombra as she continued to rub her nose with the other, blinking back the tears building in her eyes. “You let me off this thing!” she demanded.

“Calm down. The barrier is just for safety,” he called back up to her.

His suggestion only seemed to irritate Rainbow further. She sailed back to the center of the platform, landing with a loud clack as she reared back and grasped the collar of Sombra’s coat in her forehooves. She twisted the collar around one hoof as she threatenly shook her other one next to his face. “You let me off this thing right now or I’m—”

The four spinning crystals caused the air to crackle as they discharged the power that they had been building. A bright flash of blue light filled the room for an instant before returning to the dim glow from the dark flame torches, and the spinning crystals began to slow. The platform now stood empty, and all that was left in the chamber were some arcs of arcane energy skittering across the surface of the large crystal overhead.

The facets of the large crystal hanging in the crystalline chamber beneath Canterlot began to shimmer as arcs of energy skittered over the surface. A static filled the air beneath it, and then the power was discharged with a blue flash, causing the group to instantly appear. “—gonna... slug you?” Rainbow said, her attention suddenly diverted from her target. She blinked her eyes as she rapidly glanced around the chamber. “What the hay happened to the lights?” she asked.

“I believe it worked. We’re here,” Sombra said. He stood there on his hind legs, his collar still caught in Rainbow’s grip while he shielded his face from her fury with his hoof.

The chamber they had landed in was darker than the one they had just left. The sudden change in light level made it difficult to see at first, but the natural glow from the surrounding crystals was already helping their eyes adjust. Rainbow eventually looked back to Sombra, glancing to his eyes, the coat collar gripped in her hoof, and back before gently letting him down. She uncurled her hoof from the coat collar, even making an effort to smooth the wrinkles from it. However, just when it seemed Sombra was about to relax, she jabbed the tip of her hoof against his chest to grab his attention. “Don’t ever do that again,” she said as she stared him down.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Sombra responded, raising his right hoof to the pledge.

Pinkie wandered a few steps from the group, letting out a whistle that echoed in the chamber. She stopped, clicking the sides of her hooves together as she spun around to look back to Sombra to ask, “So, this is the Under Canterlot?”

“Only one way to find out for sure. We should make our way to the surface, and then find this princess friend of yours.”

“W-wait a minute,” Applejack said. She tapped her forehoof against the brim of her hat, tilting it back slightly as she squinted up at the domed ceiling overhead. “I think the walls are movin’,” she said in a half whisper.

The rest of the group suddenly became very aware of their surroundings. At first, it appeared that Applejack may have only seen an odd angled reflection in the crystals, but then something flew overhead, causing a couple startled shrieks to escape from mares. Buzzing sounds began to fill the air as black figures started circling in the air around them. One by one, the black figures landed all about them. Eerie blue glows blinked from the eyes of the creatures as they surrounded the group.

Sombra recognized the twisted black creatures almost immediately. “What are they doing here?” he said as he huddled together with the rest of the group. In a matter of seconds, the changelings had surrounded them, closing off any possible escape. They appeared far more degenerate than he remembered, seeming to have lost even more of their equinity as time had passed. All except one that the rest made way for.

This one stood out with his fiery orange mane and tail, standing just slightly taller than the rest. The sight of the unique changeling sparked a memory that rushed to the surface of Sombra’s mind. He recalled the moment when he managed to trap Chrystallyn and her personal guard within his curse, the moment the first changelings were created. Sombra grit his teeth, his breath quickening as he relived the brief memory in vivid detail, recalling every sickening sight and blood curdling scream as the curse had twisted their bodies. What bothered him even more was that he recalled how he felt back then. He had enjoyed every second of it.

The image faded from his mind as fast as it had surfaced, leaving him trembling and his body dampened by a cold sweat. He looked up and realized that the changeling had stopped a mere half step from him. “King Sombra,” the changeling said, his voice clearly echoing through the chamber.

“You know me?” Sombra asked, his ears splaying back. He didn’t recognize this changeling, but he wasn’t unlike those that he had personally cursed.

“Every changeling knows who you are,” the changeling responded. He then looked to the other changelings around him, giving a quick nod. Without a word, the rest of the changelings began to move in around them.

“Wait, wait!” Sombra said. Surprisingly, his plea actually caused the changelings to halt for a moment. Maybe if he could stall long enough, he thought, there might be a way out. “Are you not even curious as to why we’re here?”

The changeling glanced up at the large crystal overhead for a few seconds before looking back down. “Very well,” he said as he sat back on his haunches. “I’m listening.”

Many days had passed since they had arrived within the cavern. How many, Sombra wasn’t exactly sure since there was no way to tell time, but they had slept a few times since they had arrived, so his best guess was that this was the fourth day since their arrival. The rest of the time he had passed mostly with reading the few books that had been provided, sitting at a flat rock that the group had been using as a makeshift table. When he hadn’t been reading, he had spent the rest of the time just talking with the five mares, swapping stories as he told them of the distant past and they told him of how the world had changed since then.

They had been kept in the main chamber of the cavern, constantly watched over to make sure they didn’t leave. While they had free roam of the area, any of the caves that left the chamber were guarded to prevent them from leaving, and while they had entertained the idea of trying to escape, they were easily outnumbered in the chamber by ten to one, if not worse. So far, they hadn’t come up with any ideas that could possibly prevail against such lopsided odds.

Rainbow Dash swooped down from one of the ledges overhead, landing nearby. She approached the rock table, sitting across from Sombra and Applejack. She folded her forelegs across one another on the table, burying her face in them as she let out a moan. “This is getting really old,” her muffled voice said.

“He did tell us that we wouldn’t find a way out up there,” Applejack said.

“Whatever,” Rainbow grumbled before lifting her head to peer at Applejack and shooting her a look. “At least I’m looking for one.” Applejack stared back, her brows furrowing slightly. For a few tense seconds, the two mares just stared at one another, until Rainbow finally let out a heavy sigh as she plopped her chin back down on her forelegs. “Sorry. It’s just... being cramped in this cave isn’t doing it for me.”

“I hear ya,” Applejack said with nod.

Rainbow tilted her head to the side, glancing toward Sombra. “So where’s what’s-his-name been?” she asked.

“Graphite, I believe,” Sombra said, still focused on reading his book.

“Yeah, him,” Rainbow said as she dismissively waved a hoof in a lazy circle.

A few seconds of silence lingered until Sombra closed the book and looked up toward Rainbow. “Not sure, haven’t seen him since yesterday, and the rest of the changelings aren’t very talkative. But, it looks like their orders haven’t changed. They’ve still been bringing us food at least.” Sombra reached out and put his hoof against a wicker basket sitting in the center of the table, giving it a push toward Rainbow. She pushed herself up with her forelegs, peering over the edge of the basket to look at the collection of apples inside. After considering her options for a moment, she reached inside the basket and fished one out. She breathed on the golden skin, and then polished it with the side of her forehoof before biting into it.

“Do you think they’ll ever let us go?” Sombra’s ears swiveled back to where he had heard Fluttershy’s quiet voice behind him. He turned to the side, leaning against the rock table as he looked to her. She laid on the floor a short distance away, her chin resting on her coat that had been folded into a makeshift pillow.

“Probably,” he said as he put on a smile for her. “So long as the negotiations go well.”

Fluttershy quirked an eyebrow. “Negotiations?” she asked.

“We’re being held for ransom.”

Fluttershy blink-blinked and lifted her head. “They told you that?”

Sombra shook his head. “No, but why else would they keep us here and tend to our needs? They haven’t asked us any questions for days, but we’re obviously still useful to them somehow.”

“So you think ol’ Graphite went to ransom us off?” Applejack asked him, getting a nod in response. “But what would he want for us?”

Given how important this group of mares likely were to Canterlot, there wasn’t much that the changelings couldn’t ask for in exchange. But, what would they ask for? Sombra leaned an elbow against the table, closing his eyes as he ran his hoof tip through his long sideburn. “...I haven’t figured that out yet,” he said through a sigh, turning his head to look out across the cavern.

His eyes slowly wandered along with his thoughts, until his eyes came across a group of changelings nearby. He hadn’t seen so many standing in one area since they had arrived, and they all seemed to be looking toward one of the caves. Applejack took notice as well, and leaned over the table as she looked to the group. “I wonder what all the hubbub’s about,” she said.

“Maybe he’s back,” Sombra said as he pushed himself up from the table. He trotted toward the gathering of changelings, the mares all following just slightly behind him. They all stopped a short distance away, not wanting to press their luck too much by getting too close.

A buzz of conversation hovered around the changelings as they waited at the cave entrance. Their behavior was bizarre, compared to how they had been over the last few days. Most of the changelings had come across as rather emotionless, but now they appeared more like an excited and impatient bunch of foals the way they were chattering back and forth as they crowded around the cave exit.

Something finally appeared from the cave, causing those that were nearest to the exit to move back to make room. Graphite walked out of the shadows of the cave into the cavern, taking a quick glance over the gathered group before he stepped to the side. As he did so, he looked back to the cave, and then she appeared there, stepping into the dim crystal light glow. Chrysalis’s presence caused a sudden hush to fall over the cavern.

“What is she doing here?” Sombra said in a ghostly whisper. It shouldn’t have been possible. She had broken the curse and taken the Crystal Empire back. Why would she be here now, and in that form?

Chrysalis finally noticed him, her eye’s locking with his for a time. She began to walk toward him, slowly. The rest of the changelings made way for her, silently shifting around her as she made her way to him. She stopped a single body length away from him, her face emotionless as she silently stared down at him. The unnerving silence in the chamber caused the hackles on his back to stand on end. Sombra thought that he should try to speak for himself and his five companions, and so he took a shaky breath. However, before he could speak a single word, he was yanked from the ground by a green aura that clasped around his neck. He squirmed and gasped in surprise, uselessly hoofing at the aura that held him dangling there in the air before Chrysalis as she glared at him with her teeth bared.

“Wait!” A single voice called out, echoing in the hollow chamber. Chrysalis glared down to the side toward Fluttershy, who cringed away from the look. “D-don’t hurt him,” she meekly said as she looked back with pleading eyes.

“And why shouldn’t I,” Chrysalis growled as she lowered her head toward Fluttershy, causing the timid mare to cringe even closer to the ground.

“...Chrystallyn...,” Sombra said, drawing Chrysalis’s attention back to him. “I’m the one you want, not her,” he rasped as he struggled to breath in the telekinetic grip.

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at him as she ground her teeth together. She abruptly cancelled her spell, dropping Sombra unceremoniously in a heap on the floor. He coughed and rubbed a hoof against his throat as he pushed himself up from the rough landing on the rock floor. Before he could fully recover, Chrysalis nearly shovered her face against his, causing him to fall over on his back as she stood over him.

“Don’t... ever call me that,” she hissed in his face. She glared down at him for a short time before lifting her head. “I’m not her. I’ll never be her again.”

“I-I... wait,” Sombra said. It was at that moment that he realized that she did not have the amulet with her. Graphite had told him days earlier about who Chrystallyn really was, a traveler from the future that had replaced her past self. If the one who stood before him now wasn’t the one that had taken the amulet, then that meant.... “You’re not the one who came here from the future, are you?”

“No,” Chrysalis said as she backed away a few steps and sat before him. “But I’m fairly sure that her and I both feel the same about you,” she added, her tone full of venomous hate.

Sombra glanced to his side when he felt somepony there. Applejack was reaching out to him, trying to help him up from the ground. He quickly brushed her touch aside. “Don’t, just leave me,” he said as he pushed himself up. “This doesn’t concern you.”

“The heck it don’t,” Applejack said in protest as she reached a hoof out and rest it on his shoulder. “Our hides would likely be frozen solid right now if you hadn’t helped us out. You didn’t have to help us, but you did, so let us help you out now,” she said as she gave his shoulder a firm squeeze. She then looked up toward Chrysalis, who only looked back with a completely impassive glance. “I get it. I think we all do. He did a lot of bad things, told us all himself. Got himself caught up in stuff he shouldn’t of. I ain’t sayin’ that you should forgive him for all that, but hurtin’ him sure ain’t gonna change what happened.”

“He does regret what happened,” Fluttershy said as she walked up and sat next to Sombra. “Regret is a horrible thing to live with.”

Chrysalis glanced between the mares, and then closed her eyes as she remained quiet for a moment. “It’s time the rest of you leave. Your friend is waiting for you outside,” she finally said as she looked back to them again. Just as it seemed the mares were going to say something else, Chrysalis quickly interjected. “I’ve listened to all I’m going to. Don’t test my patience. Gather your belongings and go,” she said sternly as she pointed toward the cave behind her.

Sombra turned to face the group of mares. “Just go, please. I’ll be fine,” he said.

The looks on their faces said that they didn’t really believe him, but they were left with no choice but to accept it. “Come on, girls,” Applejack finally said as she made her way back to the table. The rest of them followed with her where they gathered their saddlebags and coats. Once they had everything that they had brought with them, they were led out of the chamber by Graphite.

Sombra had watched them go, wondering if he would ever see them again. At the very least, he felt a small sense of comfort that they had been spared from whatever his own fate was to be. “Just so we’re absolutely clear,” Chrysalis started, drawing Sombra’s attention up to where she stood beside him. She held a piercing side glare for a moment longer before lowering her head down level with his. “Use that name with me again, and I’ll gut you. I am Chrysalis, the High Queen of the changeling swarm.” She slowly turned aside to leave. “You lost the right to call me by any other name when you chose to turn your own wife into a monster.”

Sombra hung his head, casting his glance toward his hooves. “If I could undo—”

Chrysalis rounded on her back hooves, slamming her forehooves down on either side of him. “Shutup!” she spat in his face, causing him to cower before her. Her entire body trembled with anger as she bared her teeth at him. She drew in a few heavy hissing breaths of air between her teeth before she finally let out a loud, angry huff. Standing upright and turning herself aside again, she said, “What you’ll do... is you’ll help find a way to stop her.”

Find a way to stop her. Of course she must have been talking about Chrystallyn, but why would she restrain her anger and ask for his help? Sombra pondered Chrysalis’s confusing behavior for a moment, and then he remembered her ability. She knew something. “What have you seen?” he asked cautiously.

Chrysalis sat back on her haunches, furrowing her brow as she closed her eyes and let out a huff. “I haven’t seen anything. I was only told that you would be necessary.”

“...By who?”

Chrysalis slowly opened her eyes, peering down at Sombra with a frown etched on her muzzle. “What does that matter?” she muttered as she turned aside. She took a few steps away, stopping to side glance back toward him. “Get some rest. We set out to the palace in the morning,” she said before continuing on.

In the early afternoon hours the day after her friends had been returned to her, Twilight received a summons at her tower. Swift Wing had come to tell her the news. Queen Chrysalis herself had come seeking an audience with the Royal Sisters only hours ago, and had brought Sombra with her. Then, the Royal Sisters had called on Twilight to join them.

She hadn’t been led to the palace throneroom where an audience would normally be held. Instead, Swift Wing had led her to a lesser known area within the palace in the western wings, a place normally reserved for much more private meetings. Usually, the hallway that led to the room was sparsely guarded, but today it had been lined with a couple dozen guards. Behind the double doors at the end of the hallway was a private chamber where Celestia, Luna, and Chrysalis had already spent hours discussing the new threat that they all now faced. When she finally arrived, Twilight had been surprised to find the Royal Sisters sharing a table with Queen Chrysalis, but Celestia had been rather quick to make a clear point that the changelings were not to be seen as enemies to Equestria.

The true enemy now lie in the north, in control of the Crystal Empire. While the Royal Sisters were to handle the broader negotiations with Chrysalis, they had tasked Twilight with devising the details of a covert invasion plan to swiftly dethrone Chrystallyn. Sombra would provide her with as much information as he possibly could to aid her in the task. And, of course, only those who were involved were to be told about the plans.

She accepted, of course, though she had reservations that she kept to herself. Working with the changelings and with Sombra did not set well with her, even though she tried to remind herself that this Equestria wouldn’t necessarily follow the same history that she knew.

After she left the room, she had made her own way to an out of the way office within the palace that was currently guarded by four guards. One of them moved to pull the door open for her as she approached, politely bowing his head to her as she walked by. She gave him a quick smile before steeling herself for her meeting with the oppressive dictator that had managed to conquer an alicorn’s kingdom.

The door quietly closed behind her, and Twilight glanced to her left when she noticed a unicorn lounging there on a pillow near a low table. Graphite turned his head and looked up to her, giving her a quick smile. He was wearing his equine disguise, and also wearing a small pendant around his neck that was giving off a faint red glow.

She couldn’t help but return the smile. “Keeping an eye on him?” she asked, to which he quietly nodded and then looked across the room. Twilight followed his glance, and there at a desk was sitting a soot gray unicorn stallion with a messy mane of black. His slightly curved horn glowed red near the tip as a dark blue aura manipulated a white quill over a parchment. Definitely not the image that Twilight’s mind had conjured up before she had walked into the office, but there he was, the former dictator king of the Crystal Empire, Sombra. “I was a little surprised when I heard he was allowed inside the palace,” Twilight said as she looked back to Graphite.

“Seems my Queen had a very convincing story to tell,” Graphite said as a small smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. “He’s harmless, but I’m still responsible for anything he may do... so yes, I’m keeping an eye on him. I did promise you that Canterlot would be safe from him.”

“You know, I can hear you two talking about me,” Sombra said from across the room. He continued to work despite having joined in on the conversation, not lifting his gaze from the parchment that the quill was buzzily scribbling away at. Twilight approached the desk, stopping just on the other side as she peered over the edge at the array of documents that laid scattered about on the surface. Sombra glanced up briefly, stopping his work when he realized who it was that was standing before him. “Ah, you must be the future princess I’ve heard about. Twilight Sparkle, correct?” he asked, to which she nodded in response. “Then you’re the one I should give these to,” he said as his magic took hold of a stack of papers, tapping them against the desk in an attempt to straighten the stack before they floated over toward Twilight.

Twilight took hold of the stack, her magic quickly fanning the pages out before her in a semicircle. She began to skim over the information and diagrams contained within, finding some things that she already knew about the Empire but quite a few details that caught her eye on things she hadn’t known, and that was just at a quick glance. “Wow,” she said as her magic folded the stack of pages back together. “You’ve done all this just today?”

Sombra had already returned to working on the parchment laid out before him. “Quite a few details missing,” he said as he dismissively waved a hoof without lifting his eyes. “I’m doing this all from memory. But, there should be enough there to begin making proper plans.”

“Right,” Twilight said with a heavy sigh as she stared blankly at the stack she held. “Plans.”

Sombra took notice, lifting his quill and his eyes to look across the desk at Twilight. “Things can’t be left as they are,” he said before he reached a hoof over to sift through another scattered stack of documents to his right. His magic took hold of the page that he had been looking for and pulled it from the stack, sending it over to Twilight. She took the page in her magic, resting it on top of the rest that she held. On the page was a detailed schematic of a triangular amulet, with precise dimensions measuring out every component and nearly every last inch of the page filled with details about the magical enchantments that had gone into its design. “My greatest creation, and quite possibly our doom,” Sombra said as he solemnly nodded to the page that Twilight held.

“The Alicorn Amulet,” Twilight said as she ran the tip of her hoof over the page. “So it’s true then. You did create it,” she said as she looked up across the desk.

“Wish I hadn’t,” Sombra muttered. He seemed suddenly interested in the quill clasped in his magic as he twirled it, gazing at it with a blank stare for a moment. He then looked back toward Twilight and quirked an eyebrow as he asked, “You’ve heard of it?”

“Well, if memory serves me right, in the history that I come from it turned up in an old relics shop some time after the Empire returned. There was a unicorn that got her hooves on it for a short time but my friends and I managed to get it away from her.”

“Then you got extremely lucky,” Sombra said as he dipped the quill’s tip in an ink vial. He then turned his attention back to the parchment. “I hope it was dealt with afterwards,” he said without looking up.

“Locked away,” Twilight said in response.

Sombra grunted, his quill slowing for a couple seconds before continuing on. “Hrm, should have destroyed it.” He continued to work for a moment, with the scratching of his quill being the only sound in the office, and then he suddenly stopped. His brow furrowed deeply and then he glanced up to Twilight as his magic pointed the feathered end of the quill to her. “How in the world did it end up in some shop?” he asked.

“We never actually figured that out,” Twilight said with a light shrug. “But, I imagine it was found by somepony after you were defeated, and probably got sold for bits without them knowing what it really was.” Sombra pursed his lips, giving Twilight an incredulous look. “There wasn’t exactly much left after you exploded,” Twilight added.

Sombra’s brow climbed high as his mouth hung slightly agape for a moment. “...Exploded...,” he said slowly, to which Twilight nodded slowly in response. He glanced down to the table top, seeming lost in thought once again as he absently spun the quill in his magic. He finally shrugged his shoulders, letting out a quiet ‘huh’ as he dipped the quill in the ink vial and returned it to the parchment. “I suppose I deserved it,” he muttered under his breath.

Twilight arched her neck, glancing down at the parchment laid out over the desk. It was large enough that it nearly covered half the desk space on its own. “What else are you working on?” she asked as she watched Sombra direct the quill across the surface.

“The maps that you’ll need,” he said as he traced a long line down one side, holding his mouth slightly open as he concentrated on holding the quill steady.

Indeed, the parchment appeared to contain a layout of the crystal city, but with added details depicting underground passageways. “This is all really sudden,” Twilight said as she leaned back. “Just a day ago we still weren’t sure what to do next, and now we’re making invasion plans along side changelings.” Twilight’s ears splayed back as she quickly glanced over her shoulder toward Graphite. “No offense,” she said quickly with a sheepish grin.

“None taken,” he said back though a light chuckle.

“The amulet really is that dangerous, it’s a threat to all,” Sombra said. He paused at the end of a set of parallel lines on the map to quickly fill in a few notes before tracing out another long line from the center. “It may not control her yet, but it’s only a matter of time before it will. It’s very subtle. The darkness pushes your thoughts slightly toward what it wants. You don’t even realize that your own will is being replaced. I never did, not until it was finally taken away from me.” He lifted the quill at the end of the long line, glancing up to Twilight. “And now it is sitting around the neck of one of the most powerful beings that has ever existed. And she has possession of the Elements and the Crystal Heart, as well as the only other being that has ever defeated her on a leash.”

“Not counting yourself?” Twilight asked. When Sombra only averted his gaze, looking instead to the map laid out before him in silence, Twilight said, “Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by that.”

Sombra sighed heavily as his magic dipped the quill in the vial and returned it to the parchment to draw out another line. “I wasn’t exactly myself when I had the amulet... so no, I didn’t count myself. Besides, I only have a fraction of the power I did now without it. There isn’t much I could do against her now.”

Twilight sat there silently for a moment, watching him as he carefully traced out the line. “You make it sound like there’s no hope,” she said quietly.

“Only if we allow her to make the first move,” Sombra said as he completed the line, making a quick note next to it before lifting the quill and looking up to Twilight. “And she will, if we don’t. Sure, it could take years. She could even find a way to hold out against its influence long enough that most wouldn’t see it happen within their lifetime... but eventually, it would use her to take this world, and none would be able to stop her. I can’t imagine that being a future that you want to see.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Twilight said with a sad shake of her head.

“Sorry?” Sombra said as he arched an eyebrow. He spun the quill in his magic, pointing the feathered end toward himself as he said, “I’m the one who created the damned thing.”

“She used my spell to come to this time,” Twilight said, tapping a forehoof against her chest. “This Equestria’s future is in danger now because I allowed her to get here.”

Sombra quietly stared at Twilight, his magic twirling the quill absently just above the desk. He glanced over to the ink vial just long enough for his magic to drop the quill there, and he then folded his forelegs over one another on the edge of the desk as he leaned forward. “If we want to play that game, we could go back much further than that. I stole my wife’s kingdom from her, and then turned her into a creature that was addicted to love, but was so hideous that none would ever love her.”

Twilight felt a chill run down her spine. Sombra’s intense stare made her feel uneasy, but not from any sense of malice. It would have been more accurate to call his gaze remorseful, or even haunted, for lack of anything better to describe it. Her ears fell back as she cautiously said, “I didn’t know that she was your wife.”

Sombra nodded somberly, his gaze slowly drifting away. “Was,” he said as he absently tapped the tip of his forehoof on the desktop, seeming lost in thought. “After a few years of being Canterlot’s ambassador to the Empire we were wed, and I became her consort prince,” he said, giving a feeble smile for a fleeting moment. “That was before my research had gotten far enough to... change things between us.”

With the conversation having unintentionally taken a turn down a dark path, Twilight found herself lost for words for a moment. “Maybe there’s still a chance to make things right,” she said, hoping to find the a silver lining among the cloud of despair that seemed to hang over the room now.

Sombra grimaced, but still remained silent as he remained within his own thoughts for a short while longer. He finally reached out with his magic, plucking the quill from the ink vial and tapping the tip a few times against the edge before bringing it forward to the parchment again. “I think at this point, I’ll be lucky if we can just clean up my mess,” he muttered as he set himself back to working on the map. Without glancing up again, he waved a hoof to Twilight as he said, “I don’t want to keep you. I’ll send the rest when it’s complete.”

Twilight decided to respect Sombra’s wish to be left to his work. She rolled the stack of pages in her magic as she lifted her right wing, brushing the wing tip across the flap of her saddlebag to pull it open. After tucking the pages into the bag, she laid the flap back over as she turned to leave the office. She nodded to Graphite in a silent goodbye as she passed by him, and reached her forehoof out to the door. She paused just as she was about to touch it, glancing back over her shoulder to the desk. Her eyes lingered on Sombra for a time, watching him as he worked. She had heard the regret in his voice as he spoke, and seen it plain as day on his face, but there was something else still there. Determination. He continued to work diligently to find a way to right his wrongs, instead of losing himself among depression and despair.

“Thank you,” Twilight said, causing Sombra to pause and glance over to her. “I’m sure this can’t be easy for you.”

Sombra bowed his head respectfully to her before returning to his work. With that, Twilight tapped her forehoof twice against the door, signaling the guard on the other side to pull it open for her to leave.

After leaving the office, Twilight made her way to her next visit. She actually had two reasons to be visiting the palace infirmary, both of which required her to talk with Cadance. She had visited every day, but today was the first day since the anti-venom treatments had begun that Cadance had shown improvement. ‘Leaps and bounds,’ was the phrase that Doctor Heart had used to describe just how well she had improved over the course of the last day, which was definitely welcome news to hear.

She approached room one-zero-nine, quietly peeking her head around the corner into the room. She saw Cadance laying there in the hospital bed, the back propped up so she could more easily focus on the book in her hooves that she was reading. Twilight couldn’t help but smile, and she quietly tapped her hoof against the door frame to get Cadance’s attention.

Cadance glanced to the doorway, her eyes lighting up with happy surprise. “Oh,” she said with a smile. She closed the book in her hooves, pulling the book against her chest with one foreleg as she beaconed to Twilight with the other, saying, “come in.” As Twilight entered the room, Cadance lit her magic as she began to levitate the book over to the table next to her bed. The book wobbled, drifting unsteadily through the air as it slowly made its way over. Twilight began to light her magic to give her a bit of help, but stopped when Cadance held her forehoof out to stop her. “I’ve got it,” she said as she concentrated on moving the book. It bobbled the rest of the way over to the table, finally coming to rest there as Cadance cancelled her spell. “The doctor told me to practice with my magic as much as possible. Said the mental exercise would help me recover faster.”

“I see,” Twilight said as she sat on her haunches next to the bed. “So, how are you feeling now? You definitely look a lot better than you did yesterday.”

“You mean not drooling all over the place?” Cadance said with a joking grin. The two shared a quick giggle. Cadance let out a content sigh before she reached up and scratched her hoof lightly against the bandages wrapped around her neck. “It’s strange. I don’t really remember much of what happened after I got bit. Just bits and pieces. But, I’ll take a soft hospital bed over a rock floor any day,” she said as she padded her hoof against the bed’s mattress at her side.

Twilight’s smile wavered. “I’m sorry I didn’t help you soon enough,” she said.

“Hey, it’s alright,” Cadance said as she reached her foreleg over, laying her fetlock open against the mattress at her side. Twilight reached her’s up, curling her fetlock against Cadance’s. Cadance smiled back with her gentle, loving smile, which proved to be infectious enough to get Twilight to smile again in return. “If what I heard is true, you’ve had your hooves full. A time traveling princess has to think about the big picture first, right?” she said as she gave Twilight a quick wink.

“Eh,” Twilight said through a nervous chuckle. She ran her free forehoof over her mane, stopping to hold it against the back of her neck. “So... you’ve already been told about that, huh?”

“Well, the wings may have given it away too,” Cadance said as her playful smile deepened, showing just the tips of her front teeth. Twilight’s wings fidgeted slightly as she realized that she had forgotten that this was the first time this Cadance had ever seen her with them. “Actually, Moondancer spent a over an hour talking to me after I woke up this morning,” Cadance admitted. “I never knew she was so talkative, and that she could apologize so much. I swear, every few words was an ‘I’m sorry’,” she said as she recalled the conversation. Then, her expression quickly shifted to something much more serious. “But, it does sounds like things are getting pretty serious now,” she said, ending on a light sigh.

Twilight nodded. Cadance was obviously feeling much better, so with her first reason for visiting now taken care of, it was time to move on to business. “Yeah, and we really don’t have a choice. We either try to stop something horrible from happening, or wait for something horrible to happen. But, with any luck I’ll be able to come up with a plan that won’t involve lots of ponies getting hurt. I’ve already got some good ideas, just need to make sure that I can get certain ponies to lend a hoof.”

Cadance smiled again, this time using her trademark ‘knowing’ smile. “And what do you need me to do?” she asked. Twilight wasn’t exactly surprised that Cadance had read her intentions that easily, but still hesitated to ask. “You’re still just like I remember,” Cadance said, giving Twilight’s fetlock a gentle squeeze. “Even after a couple hundred years, you still have a hard time asking for help, don’t you?” Read just like a book, Twilight thought to herself. She had never been able to hide anything from Cadance. She closed her eyes, giving a silent nod in response. Cadance shifted on the bed to lay on her side, reaching her other foreleg over to hold Twilight’s forehoof. Twilight glanced up, and smiled when she saw those gentle eyes looking back at her.

Still, her smile wavered once again. “I just... hate to ask anything of you after what you’ve been through,” Twilight said with a heavy sigh. She struggled with her thoughts, her brow furrowing as she glanced down to where Cadance held her hoof. Cadance patiently waited for Twilight to continue, gently stroking one of her fetlocks over the back of Twilight’s forehoof. Finally, Twilight drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly to calm her nerves. She drew herself up closer to the bedside, laying both of her forehooves together there with Cadance’s. “I promise that you’ll be out of harms way. You’ve already gone through enough. Your part should actually be the safest.”

“Twilight,” Cadance said soothingly as she reached a hoof up and gently laid it against the side of Twilight’s face. Her touch had the gentlest pull toward her as she guided Twilight to lean her forehead against her own, their horns just ever so lightly touching side by side. They stayed there in this silent gesture of affection that Twilight had shared with her life long friend many times over their lives, quietly enjoying the gentle touch as Cadance’s hooftip traced up and down the side of her face. Finally, after a few moments had passed, Cadance broke the silence by saying, “The only thing I’m afraid of is not being able to help.”

Twilight nodded ever so slightly, and leaned back to see Cadance smiling back to her with that infectious smile once again. It was impossible to not feel uplifted by that smile. Twilight drew in another calming breath, letting it out slowly, and the weight of the world seemed to vanish from her shoulders even if only for a brief moment. “Right then,” she said as she settled herself against the side of the bed. “The Empire is sealed off right now from above ground. There is a way into the city from underneath it, one that Chrystallyn doesn’t know about. Once we’re inside, I’ll need somepony to disable the barrier. So long as it’s up, we won’t be able to evacuate the city.”

Cadance blinked her eyes, letting out a quick, curious hum. “How are we going to evacuate a city that isn’t ours?”

“Well, I still haven’t worked out the exact details,” Twilight said, tilting her head as she glanced off to the side. She lifted a hoof, rubbing the back of it under her chin as she continued, “but, basically, we’re going to put on a little show.”

“So, all you really want me to do is disable the barrier?”

Twilight nodded. “It should be easy for you. I know the Crystal Heart will respond to you, and if the barrier is up, then that means it’s right in the center of the city, so finding it won’t be a problem.”

Another curious hum, and that knowing smile again. Cadance gently padded her hoof against Twilight’s as she said, “Well, sounds to me like you’ve already gotten everything figured out.”

“Well, no, not everything,” Twilight said through a light laugh. So far, she only had a very general outline formulated in her mind on how to handle the ‘invasion’. The devil was in the details, as always, and would take a lot more careful planning. Planning that was going to take time. Planning that she needed to get to very soon. “Anyway, I wish I could stay longer,” she said, her ears dropping slightly.

Cadance gave a knowing nod. “You’ve got a lot to do. I’m sure we’ll be talking again soon anyway.”

“Yeah,” Twilight said as she reached forward, slipping her forelegs gently around Cadance to hold her. Cadance leaned forward into the embrace, resting her chin against the crook of Twilight’s neck while she gently ran a hoof over Twilight’s mane. After a moment of silence, the two slowly parted, and Cadance leaned back onto the bed as Twilight stood and turned a quarter turn toward the doorway. “See you soon,” she said quietly before turning away to make her way to the door.

“Twilight,” Cadance said, causing Twilight to pause just as she was stepping through the doorway. She leaned back, reaching a hoof back and placing it just on the inside of the door frame as she glanced back into the room. “Good luck,” Cadance said, sending Twilight off with another one of her perfectly beautiful smiles.

“Thanks,” Twilight said, remaining at the door for just a moment longer before turning to the hallway. She had always known that she didn’t have to face these challenges alone, but even something as simple as being reminded that her friends were there for her was enough to make the weight of the world’s fate not feel quite so heavy.

Set the Stage

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter XIX – Set the Stage

It was evening. The exact time, Twilight wasn’t sure of, but the sun was no longer shining into the archive’s domed windows directly overhead. Instead, the room was filled with a gentle, golden glow that signaled the approaching hours of dusk. She still had a couple hours of natural light to work by before needing to light the candles.

Over the last few days, Twilight had used the archives as her own private office. The exclusive access that kept interruptions to a minimum coupled with quick access to rare research materials proved to be the ideal combination for her to focus and work as she spent many multi hour sessions crafting the perfect plan to deal with the world’s newest threat. Her work area appeared a mess, with various books, scrolls, and notes stacked on the floor around her chair and upon the tabletop before her, but was actually organized into piles by their usefulness, keeping them close at hoof.

A quick knock interrupted her train of thought, causing her ears to swivel back and her quill to pause mid stroke and lift from the parchment she had been working on. She glanced over her shoulder toward the doorway as it opened. Spike stepped just inside, ducking his head slightly to clear the door frame and then turning about to face the door and quietly push it back closed. He then approached where Twilight was seated at a table, seeming rather happy with himself about something judging by the broad smile he was wearing.

“What’s that?” Twilight asked, eyeing the white paper bag that she spotted cradled in one of Spike’s claws. She watched him closely as he walked up next to her at the table and then delicately lifted the bag pinched between two of his claws to set it down next to the stack of papers she had been working on. As the bag passed within only inches of her nose, she caught the unmistakable scent of warmed powdered sugar. Her eyes widened a bit as a distant memory surfaced from the simple but distinct smell, causing her to murmur, “No way.”

“Way,” Spike said as he reached just over her shoulder, setting a paper cup next to the bag. The simple white cup was sleeved with a brown paper strip around the middle, and capped off with a white plastic lid. Twilight breathed in deep the scent of hot cocoa that mingled with the scent of the powdered sugar, her eyes going half lidded as she savored the aroma. Spike rested one of his hands gently across her withers and leaned down next to her. “I figured you could use a break,” he said as he gave her a gentle pat-pat on the back before walking around to the side of the table.

Soon, the quill laid discarded beside the parchment, both momentarily forgotten as Twilight quickly unfolded the top of the bag. She hooked a forehoof just inside the edge, sitting up to glance inside at the powdered sugar coated goodies. “I can’t believe this!” she said as her magic plucked one of the donuts from the bag. She bit off a third, her eyes slowly closing as she slid back into her seat. “Mmm, Joe’s donuts always were the best,” she said just before poking the rest of the donut into her mouth. As she finished the first one, her magic lifted the cup to her mouth and the bag up from the table. She took a few swigs of the hot cocoa as her magic fished around in the bag for a second donut, and after picking one out, she levitated the bag toward where Spike had laid down next to the table.

Spike let out a chuckle as he glanced into the floating bag. He lifted one hand up to the bag, poking a single claw inside and fishing about. He then drew the claw back out with a single donut speared through its center on the tip.

“How’d you get these?” Twilight asked, levitating the bag to rest on the table between Spike and herself.

Spike quickly finished off the donut, plucking it off the tip of his claw in a single bite. He licked the powdered sugar from his claw and then pointed off to the side as he said, “His shop is just down the street.”

Twilight looked up from fishing around in the bag again, her magic drawing another donut out as she was just finishing off her second one. “You actually went there?” she asked between sipping at the cocoa and starting on her third donut.

Spike shrugged his shoulders. “It was a little awkward, but he warmed up to me pretty quick. It’s not like I’m a big secret here or anything.” Twilight gave Spike a curious look, letting out a quiet hum muffled by the donut in her mouth. “I didn’t tell him any future stuff or nothing like that, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Spike said, pointing the tip of his claw to the corner of his mouth and tapping it there a few times.

Twilight blinked, and then rubbed her forehoof against the edge of her mouth that Spike had gestured to, managing to rub off a smudge of powdered sugar. “Actually, I was kinda wondering how he’s doing,” she said as she eyed the white smudge along the edge of her hoof. She quickly licked the spot clean before looking back to him. “I wouldn’t say I necessarily forgot about him, but it has been a long time since I’ve thought about that old shop. I remember stopping by after lessons on Fridays all the time.”

“Yeah, those were the days, eh? Only had to worry about studying back then,” Spike said with a broad grin. “So, how are the plans coming?” he asked as he glanced out over the table.

“Good,” Twilight said as she sat back and surveyed the stacks of pages she had managed to produce over the last few evenings. She selected a page from a stack in the center of the table and levitated it over to Spike. He caught the page that was barely wider than his palm between his index finger and thumb, and brought it up close to his face. “Read that part. Tell me what you think,” Twilight said as she turned her attention back to the bag of donuts.

While Twilight made short work of the rest of the snack, Spike read over the details on the page. He stopped when he reached the end of the page, his jaw shifting slightly and then saying, “Evil dragon.” He lowered the page just slightly to peer over it at Twilight, arching one eyebrow as he asked, “Seriously?”

“Oh come on, you’ll probably enjoy it,” Twilight said. She let out a quiet giggle when Spike responded with an annoyed grunt.

“Can I really pull that off though?” he asked as he passed the page back, which Twilight took and placed neatly back on its stack. “I mean, look at me,” he said, making a sweeping motion with his hand over himself from head toward his tail. He then leaned in toward the table, folding his arms together and resting them just on the edge as he laid his chin to rest just on the table top. “I’m not exactly evil dragon material,” he grumbled.

“We can fix that,” Twilight said. When Spike glanced up toward her, she smirked playfully back at him.

However, Spike didn’t seem to be in a playful mood, simply saying, “If you say so,” through a drawn out sigh.

The smirk dropped from Twilight’s face, quickly replaced with a concerned look. “What’s wrong?” she asked as she placed the near empty cup down and shifted toward him.

Spike looked to her, meeting her eyes for a moment before glancing back at the stacks of papers covering the table. His brow furrowed as a low sound rumbled deep in his throat. “I guess this entire thing has been bothering me for some reason,” he said. He lifted his chin from the table, running one of his hands over the spines on the back of his neck as he leaned back. “Does... anything about it bother you?” he asked, his shoulders shrugging slightly.

Twilight looked out over her work, quietly contemplating Spike’s question for a moment. “Well, yes, I guess you could say I’ve been a bit worried,” she said. She placed one hoof lightly upon the stack of papers she had been working on, letting her thoughts wander for a moment. Though she had done her best to cover every detail she could think of, it was the details that she hadn’t thought of that really worried her. “If things go wrong, a lot of ponies could end up hurt” — her ears splayed back and her voice lowered to a mumble — “or worse. But, doing nothing could end up being just as bad.” Her mind had been at a constant battle with itself over the last few days, stretched between inventing a swift solution and carefully considering as many possibilities as she could. Even though she couldn’t possibly predict just how long they had before Chrystallyn would become a real threat, she knew that each day that passed was one day closer.

“That’s it?”

Twilight glanced back up at Spike’s question. He had a serious look about him, sitting up straight with his arms crossed over his chest as if he were expecting some sort of revelation from her, though she hadn’t a clue what more he could be expecting her to say. “What do you mean?” she asked, tilting her head and narrowing her eyes slightly.

“Uh, well,” Spike started as he reached a hand up and scratched a claw just behind his ear. He grumbled quietly to himself for a few seconds as he glanced about, finally letting out a short huff as he shrugged his shoulders. “I thought there might be something else, but maybe I’m just being paranoid,” he said as he leaned back down to the table to rest his forearms on it. “So, need any help checking your checking, or making backup plans for your backup plans?” he said as he gestured toward the stacks of paper.

“Ha ha,” Twilight mocked back as she sat back upright in her own seat. “For your information, I only needed to make one backup plan,” she said proudly.

“Oh yeah?” Spike said, arching an eyebrow.

“Yep,” she said with a single, confident nod.

“And... it is?”

Twilight waggled a forehoof just in front of his face. “I’ve got it covered, don’t you worry about it.” When she noticed Spike scowling slightly in response, she added, “Really, it’s just an extra trick I’m keeping in reserve, but with how well things have been setting up, I really doubt I’ll need to use it.”

For a moment, it seemed like Spike was going to press her for something more as he continued to stare at her, but he finally relented with a simple shrug. “Well, alright. But you know, if there’s anything you ever wanna just talk about, like anything that’s bugging you....”

Twilight leaned over to his side of the table, reaching out and resting a forehoof just over the top of his hand. “I know who to go to, Spike,” she said, looking into his eyes as she gave him a gentle smile that got one from him in return.

It was then that another two knocks came from the archive’s doors. They both turned to see who it was, watching as one door opened up and a unicorn Nightguard stepped inside and off to the side, and just behind him, another visitor that neither of them had expected to see walked in.

“What is she doing here?” Spike growled through his clamped teeth. Across the room, nodding and giving a quick thank you to the guard as she entered the room, was Chrysalis. However, instead of her true changeling form, she currently appeared as the dust grey unicorn that both Twilight and Spike had thought they knew well.

Twilight knew it was only a disguise, probably worn for the sake of the palace staff. This Chrysalis didn’t have a reason to provoke them by using that form, however, she still couldn’t help but feel upset at the sight of her former student entering the room. And it was obviously having a strong effect on Spike, judging by the iron grip he had on the edge of the table that was causing the wood to creak. “Spike... Spike,” Twilight said, reaching out and prodding him to get his attention. He finally broke his gaze away, glancing down to Twilight as a deep rumbling reverberated in his throat. “It’s not her,” she quietly said.

“Yeah, I know, but she doesn’t have to look like her, does she?” he asked as he quickly jerked his head in Chrysalis’s direction.

“Did I come at a bad time?” They both looked to Chrysalis, silently staring at her for a short time. Twilight glanced out of the corner of her eye up to Spike. She wasn’t necessarily worried about him losing his temper and doing anything physical, he was better than that, but he had always been the type that wore his feelings on the outside. And right now, he was obviously less than pleased.

Spike let out a snort as he stood at the side of the table. “Nah, I’ll head home for now, it’s starting to get late anyway. See you at home soon?” he asked as he looked to Twilight.

She gave him a thankful smile as she said, “I’ll probably work for a while longer tonight, but I won’t be pulling an all nighter. I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, later,” he said as he began to make his way to the door. As he passed by Chrysalis, he didn’t at all disguise the disgusted look on his face or the annoyed rumbling in his throat as he gave her a harsh stare.

Chrysalis turned and watched him as he made his way to the archive doors and showed himself out. The door closed with a gentle click, leaving the room deathly quiet for a short moment as Chrysalis kept her eyes on the doorway. “Not entirely sure what I did to deserve that,” she said as she glanced back toward Twilight.

“It’s not really anything you’ve done,” Twilight said as she gestured to a seat at the side of the table. Chrysalis gave her a polite nod, and then made her way to the seat. “Spike wasn’t really upset at you directly, just the fact that you look exactly like her,” Twilight said as she looked over Chrysalis’s form. Every detail was exactly as she remembered, down to the shades of sea green in her mane and tail and even the tone of her voice. It was like Crystal was sitting right in front of her again.

“Her...,” Chrysalis said as she tilted her head curiously in thought. After a moment, she drew in a quick gasp as she said, “Oh, it’s been so long that I’d forgotten. Shared memories tend to fade when you don’t use them. But, I think I remember now. She used this guise to trick you, didn’t she?” Twilight closed her eyes briefly as she nodded in reply. “If it bothers you, I can change.”

“It’s fine,” Twilight said with a quick dismissive wave of her hoof.

“Doesn’t seem fine.”

Twilight let out a heavy sigh. “I need to get used to the fact that she wasn’t ever real.”

Chrysalis quietly contemplated Twilight’s words for a moment before saying, “I wouldn’t necessarily say that she wasn’t real.” The statement drew a curious glance from Twilight. “From what I do recall, there were times where she lost herself in the moment and allowed herself to simply be your student for a while, forgetting her real reasons for pretending.” She narrowed her eyes slightly as she peered at Twilight, pursing her lips as she paused to think. “But I can tell, that doesn’t really make you feel any better about it.”

Twilight frowned as her ears splayed back. “You know, I’d rather you not read me like that.”

Chrysalis leaned back, holding a hoof up as she said, “I’m sorry, it’s practically second nature to me.” She turned her attention to the stacks of papers laid out across the table. “So, I do have a purpose for being here tonight, other than bothering you.”

“If it is about the plans, they’re nearly done,” Twilight said as she gestured to the stacks of pages laid out across the table. “You can look them over if you want. I’d really like to hear what you think.”

“I think I will,” Chrysalis said with a nod as her green aura took hold of the stack nearest to her. She tapped the bottom of the stack against the tabletop a few times to straighten the pages and then lifted them up to her eyes. For the next hour or so, Chrysalis occupied her time with looking over the notes for Twilight’s plan, while Twilight continued her work. The day’s light faded and gave way to the evening, but other than stopping just long enough to light the archive’s candles, nether mare strayed from their task or even spoke to one another during that time. Chrysalis had remained completely silent while she studied the notes, up to a point. She seemed to have come across something in Twilight’s notes that she was having trouble with, judging by the drawn out ‘hmm’ and scrutinizing look.

Twilight took notice, and set her quill aside as she leaned back from the table. She took a moment to stretch her forelegs before folding them behind her head as she leaned back in her chair. “What’s wrong?” she asked as she watched Chrysalis puzzling over the page.

Chrysalis quietly pondered something as she stared at the page for a moment longer before finally letting Twilight in on her thoughts. “The plan itself is very well thought out,” she said as she laid the page down with the rest of its stack. “Nearly every conceivable detail has been covered.”

“But?” Twilight asked. There was more, she was sure.

Chrysalis looked up from the page directly into Twilight’s eyes. “It will fail,” she said. Twilight furrowed her brow at the blunt assertion, but remained silent to give Chrysalis a chance to explain her opinion. “But, only because she’ll likely be prepared for something like this. Remember, she has a considerable number of relics at her disposal now, and if I were her... which in a way I am... I would have a trap set to stop you.”

Twilight unfolded her wings at her sides, stretching them out to relax the stiffness from keeping them folded for hours on end. As she folded them back, she considered Chrysalis’s words for a moment before asking, “What sort of trap?”

Chrysalis lifted her forehoof, touching the very tip against her lips for a moment as she thought. She then pointed toward Twilight as she said, “Well, since she has a considerable amount of power now, she could easily allow us the first move and then counter after we’ve been thrown off guard. Also, the Elements do have a rather useful banishment spell that works well on alicorns.”

“I see,” Twilight said through an exhausted sigh. She leaned forward, folding her forelegs together on the table and resting her chin upon them. As she glanced out over the papers, she asked, “So, it’s no good, huh?”

“Actually, I suspected that your plan would be missing something, which is why I’m here. You see, there is something that you likely didn’t realize we could use that could take her advantage away, even for just a moment, and with just a slight modification to just this one part of your plan, the rest should work just fine as is,” Chrysalis offered as she tapped a hoof to the stack of pages, which caused Twilight to perk up slightly in curiocity. “If we are to win this, it will be by surprising her with something she couldn’t possibly expect. And who better than I to point out her blind spots?”

For those in the Empire who had been under the millennia long banishment spell, it was as if no time had passed at all. In the days since the Empire returned, its citizens were still suffering from the lingering effects of Sombra’s previous rule and the resulting banishment spell, with many still not completely remembering exactly what had transpired, and most truly not wanting to. This left the Empire in an uncertain and confused state.

Part of Twilight’s plan was to take advantage of that uncertainty. After working with Chrysalis to finalize her plan, it had been set into motion the very next day. The first stage called for quiet infiltration of the population in the crystal city. Hundreds of changelings were sent to the Empire by way of the teleportation platform beneath the city as an advanced scouting group. Their task was to blend in with the crystal ponies, most behaving like normal citizens and a few making use of the armor left in the staging area to infiltrate Chrystallyn’s guard. They had no problem doing so, taking advantage of the collective amnesia that the crystal ponies were still suffering from as an easy cover.

For the next few days afterwards, Chrysalis’s changelings gathered what information they could, and once they had found a pattern to Chrystallyn’s behavior, Twilight set the second stage of the plan into motion. The pegasi squadron of Luna’s Nightguard had been dispatched to the staging area earlier that morning. Twilight followed closely behind them, accompanied by Sombra, Graphite, and Gale, and the four of them had spent the last couple of hours finalizing last minute details based on the most recent intel that they had been receiving. Twilight was once again going over the steps of the plan, playing through each part in her mind. Her face was locked into a scrutinizing glare directed at the map laid out before her, the only movement coming from her eyes slowly blinking now and then.

“Something bothering you?” Gale asked.

Twilight blinked again, her thought train interrupted by the question. She glanced up from the map, seeing Gale, Sombra, and Graphite all three looking to her expectantly. “I was just thinking,” she said as her eyes wandered back down to the map.

“You’ve been doing that quite a lot,” Sombra said. “Care to share those thoughts?”

Twilight glanced up again. She hesitated, and for a brief moment she allowed her worries to show on her face. “It’s probably nothing, but I’ve just felt a bit uneasy. There’s no reason for me to, since everything is going perfectly. Chrystallyn still seems to be completely unaware of us. We know exactly what is going on across the entire city in real time... honestly I don’t know why I’m bothered.”

Gale closed her eyes for a quick moment, tapping her hoof a few times. When she looked back to Twilight, she asked her, “How often do you send ponies into battle?”

Twilight was taken off guard by the question, but quickly figured out where Gale was going with it. “To be completely honest, this is the first time for something to this scale,” she admitted.

“Thought so,” Gale said with a quick nod. She walked up next to Twilight, reaching out and resting a forehoof just on her shoulder. “You’re worried that some of them might not come back, even if it is just a fake battle.”

Twilight’s chest heaved with a visible sigh, and she nodded. “I suppose you’re right.”

“Trust me, it’s not a feeling that goes away, but in time you can get used to it,” Gale said. She lifted the hoof from Twilight’s shoulder and gestured toward the map laid out before them. “You’ve come up with a good plan. I doubt we’ll be seeing anyone getting seriously hurt from play fighting as long as we’re all cautious. I think you have the most dangerous part.”

“Maybe, but I can also protect myself,” Twilight said as she glanced over at the map. “I just don’t know if I’ll be able to protect everyone else if it comes down to it.”

Gale once again reached forward and placed her forehoof on Twilight’s shoulder, gently shaking it in her firm grip. She gave a smile as she said, “Have more confidence in yourself. We all do.”

At that moment, Twilight felt a twinge that pricked at the back of her mind. She turned her head toward the platform just in time to see the arcane power skittering over the crystal’s surface, and then there was a bright discharge of light as a static sound filled the room. “And there they are,” Twilight said with a smile as she stood to go greet the new arrivals at the platform. “Thank you all again for agreeing to help with this,” she said as she approached the platform’s edge. Equestria’s other three alicorns were the first among the group that Twilight greeted with a smile as they stepped off the platform, followed closely by Captain Moondancer, Spike, and the rest of her close Ponyville friends. That made up the rest of the group that they had been waiting for.

“Not a problem, Twi,” Applejack said with a quick dip of her hat as she stepped off the platform next to her.

“Ooogh, that was rough,” Rainbow said as she too stepped from the platform, but hung her head low to the floor.

Twilight made her way around to Rainbow’s side, lowering her head to be level with her friend’s. “Rainbow, you alright?”

“Teleportin’ seems to mess with her a bit,” Applejack said as she stood just to Rainbow’s other side. “She’ll be alright though. Give her a sec and she’ll perk back up,” she said as she gave Rainbow a reassuring smile and pat on the back.

“Well, I hope so. We’ve got less than an hour to get ready,” Twilight said as she glanced into Rainbow’s eyes with a worried look.

Rainbow took in a deep breath and let it out slowly as she sat down on the floor. “I’ll be fine,” she said with a quick dismissive wave of her hoof. She then folded her forelegs together before her as she laid down, resting her chin on them as she mumbled, “Just need the world to stop spinning.”

Twilight spent another moment with her friends, trying to give Rainbow some comfort as she reached out and ran her forehoof over her friend’s mane a few times. She’d half way expected her old friend to protest, but either she didn’t mind or was too exhausted from the trip to do so.

Leaving Rainbow in the care of her other friends, Twilight made her way to where Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Moondancer had gathered with Graphite, Sombra, and Gale around the low setting table where her plans were laid out. As Twilight approached the side of the table, the conversations that were going back and forth between them quietened down. Twilight glanced around the table at the gathering. To her right, Celestia, Luna, and Cadance all sat side by side. They had chosen to leave their regal trappings back in Equestria. While neither Celestia nor Luna were wearing any sort of protective armor, Cadance had been fitted with a suit that mirrored something close to the standard issue Equestrian Royal Guard uniform, with a modified helmet that appeared more like a crown than the crested helmets that the guards wore. Next to Cadance at the opposite end of the table sat Moondancer, fully clad in her Nightguard armor. To Twilight’s left, Sombra, Graphite, and Gale rounded out the rest of the table. Twilight first turned her attention to Celestia to ask a question. “Did you explain everything to them?”

“I did,” Celestia said with a nod as she glanced over toward the five Element bearers across the room. “They know what they need to do, and I’m sure they’ll be able to handle it just fine.”

“Good,” Twilight said with a nod back. “Please keep them safe.”

“Of course,” Celestia said, bowing her head slightly.

Twilight then turned her attention to Graphite. “How are things looking up top?” she asked.

Graphite concentrated momentarily on using his ability to reach out to the hive mind. “Everything is still perfectly normal,” he said as his facial features relaxed and the dim glow from his horn faded. “Every infiltrator is exactly where they should be, hidden as a citizen or a crystal guard, and Chrystallyn is currently spending her time in the upper spire throne room, as we expected.”

“Sergeant,” Luna said from across the table, which caused Gale to sit up straight at attention. “Are the pegasi prepared?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Yes, Princess. The squadron awaits our arrival near the southern passage.”

Luna nodded in approval. “Go on ahead and join them, we will be there shortly,” she said as she rose from the table. Gale gave Luna a quick bow and then swiftly departed to the southern stairway that led away from the staging area, and the rest of those gathered at the table also rose to their hooves as Luna did. “Spike, if you would come closer,” she called out as she stepped from the table toward him.

Spike glanced up at hearing his name. He pushed himself up from where he had been laying near the Ponyville mares, taking a quick moment to say something to them before quickly making his way over to where Princess Luna was standing in wait for him. “Yes, Princess?” he said as he politely bowed his head to her as he approached.

“Are you prepared to be my... ‘Evil Dragon’,” she said with a sly smirk.

Spike cleared his throat, nodding his head. “What do I need to do?”

“Just hold still,” Luna said as her horn began to glow with a deep blue light. Her ethereal, star filled mane and tail began to billow slightly faster as if caught by a sudden breeze. She let her eyes slowly close as her magic aura grew to encompass her entire body. Her mane was the first thing to change, shifting from the clear, nearly black midnight blue starscape to a cloudy blue with a hint of violet. Her mane and tail expanded after that, becoming like a rumbling storm cloud that enveloped her body from head to hoof. For a moment, the swirling cloud of violet and dark blue simply circled around her form, hiding her from view, but then it began to descend down to the floor around her hooves, revealing a pitch black alicorn clad in pale blue metallic armor emblazoned with a glowing crescent moon upon her chest. She opened her eyes, revealing the draconic iris set within.

With a nod of her head toward Spike, the clouds billowed out across the floor to surround him. Spike flinched at their touch, his claws flexing open and closed as he eyed the clouds circling his feet. They began to rise, first covering his tail and legs, then up to his midsection. He grit his teeth and balled his fists as the clouds climbed higher up to his chest, and finally squeezed his eyes tightly closed as the clouds passed up past his neck to envelop his face. Again, the clouds circled for a moment, causing faint rumbling noises to echo through the chamber as Luna continued to channel the spell. She finally allowed the spell to dissipate, and the clouds swirled out of existence all at once, revealing a deep midnight blue dragon.

Spike slowly opened his now darkened teal eyes when he noticed the sounds had ceased. He blinked his eyes, looking around at everyone that was looking at him before giving them all a sheepish grin.

A short whistle came from across the room, followed by a ‘Wowie’ from Pinkie, breaking the silence.

Spike cautiously glanced down at his hands, opening the long, menacing claws slowly towards himself. They appeared a bit longer than before, and also looked to have a sharpened edge to them now instead of just tapering off to a point. His scales were all a reflective midnight blue in color, except for the ones running down his chest, which were a dark shade of violet. Glancing about, Spike spotted one of the hovering crystals near the edge of the platform, and walked up to it. He leaned in close, turning his head slightly from side to side as he looked over his reflection. His normally rounded off green head spines had been transformed into much sharper looking spikes of dark violet. “Whoa,” he said in a breath of amazement.

“Told you,” Twilight said as she walked up next to him.

Spike glanced down to her at his side. “Yeah, alright. This is kinda cool,” he admitted as he flexed his new claws.

“Do not grow over confident in your new appearance,” Luna warned. “Our looks are merely an illusion required for the part we must play” — she lifted her forehoof, admiring the illusionary armor for a moment — “though I do suppose we shall need to stay in character,” she said with a barely noticeable smirk. “Now, my Nightguard await our arrival. Care to escort your Queen of the Night to our destination?” she asked as she gave a regal, but yet at the same time, somewhat playful smile.

Spike took in a deep breath, puffing his chest out. “Well, guess this is it,” he said as he looked down to Twilight. He kneeled down, extending an open arm to her as she reached her forelegs up to him. She nuzzled against his neck, hugging him close while he ran his hand gently over her mane down to her back, and then she leaned back to look him in the eyes.

“You be careful out there,” she said quietly to him.

“You too,” he said back, gently combing his claws through her mane. He then stood tall and turned toward Luna. Sweeping his right arm from his side across his chest, he lifted his right wing, wrapping it around himself like a cloak as he gave a deep bow to her. “Ready when you are, your Majesty,” he said as he glanced up to her with a broad grin.

Luna let out an amused hmm as she turned aside and extended her left wing toward him. Spike took his place at her side, placing his hand just inside the fold of her wing as she tucked it back to her side. Together, they scaled the steps to the southern passage. Twilight watched them go until she could no longer see them in the dimly lit tunnel.

She gave a light sigh, and then focused her attention on the map laid out on the table nearby. Reaching out with her magic, she lifted the map and carried it with her closer to those that were left. Everyone gathered around as she rested the map on the floor near them. “Alright, so that leaves just our group now,” she said as she sat down before the map, waiting on the others to get comfortable as they gathered in a circle. “Lets go over our part briefly once more just to make sure we all know it. We’ll be using the northwestern passage,” she said as she pointed and traced the tip of her hoof along the markings that depicted the underground passage. “We’ll then approach the tower under an invisibility veil supported by Cadance and myself, so make sure to stick close to us and stay quiet.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to help with the veil as well?” Celestia asked.

Twilight quickly shook her head. “We can handle it, and you need to save as much of your strength as you can.” She waited until Celestia nodded in response, then continued. “Once we reach the tower, Cadance and Moondancer will stay behind with the Crystal Heart,” she said while drawing her hoof to the center of the map and tapping it there once. “The rest of us take two separate paths inside the tower to the top,” she said, lifting her hoof from the map and glancing around at the group. “Cadance will hold off on dropping the shield for ten minutes to give the rest of us time to get into position inside the tower.”

“Remember,” Graphite began, drawing the groups attention toward himself, “only some of the crystal guards are changelings. Use caution if we come across one, and if in doubt, avoid them.”

“Right,” Twilight said with a nod, glancing back down at the map. “This plan has gone off without a hitch so far, but we’re coming up to the most important part now.” She looked up, glancing around at her gathered friends. The worry that she had felt earlier was still there, but seeing her friends ready and willing to help her had helped put her mind at ease. She smiled, finding her confidence among the show of support around her.

“Once the shield goes down, it’s show time.”

Perfect Timing

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter XX – Perfect Timing

Celestia leaned forward to steal a glance around the corner, quickly leaning back after doing so. She had led the five Element bearers up the spire from the inside while Twilight’s group had taken a separate hidden path to the top. They had managed to swiftly scale most of the spire up to this point, but now she hesitated.

“Something wrong?” Rainbow asked in a quiet voice as she moved up beside Celestia.

Celestia held out a forehoof, lightly touching it against Rainbow’s chest to keep her back. “It’s just odd. This hall shouldn’t have been empty,” she said just before peering around the corner again. From end to end, the hallway was completely deserted. She finally stepped out into the hall, waving to the rest to follow her. “Come on, let's hurry. We’re almost to the throne room,” she said as she took off at a brisk trot toward the spiral staircase at the end of the hall. They were less than a couple minute from their destination now. All that was left was to climb this one last staircase and they would be at the spire’s upper throne room.

Celestia stopped dead in her tracks the very moment she heard a drawn out chuckle echoing from the end of the hallway. Her wings flared open as she lowered her head, taking a defensive stance in front of her group. “Well, look at this,” Discord said as he slowly descended from the spiral staircase, his talons grating on the crystal banister to create an uncomfortable, high pitched nails-on-chalkboard sound. The hackles stood up on Celestia’s neck and back as she watched him slowly reach the floor and then deliberately make his way toward her.

“Stay behind me,” Celestia said in a hushed voice as she watched him approach, causing the rest of the group to huddle in closer just behind her wings. She knew it was no use running if he were intent on attacking them. She also knew it was a lost cause to reason with him. However, she had promised to protect Twilight’s friends, and so she stood her ground as Discord approached since it was the only thing she could do.

He stopped there just before her, leaning in close to her as he absently twisted the end of his goatee in his talons. He then reached out and traced the tip of one of his talons just under her chin, causing her to clamp her teeth tightly together as he drew her head up level with his. The devilish smirk on his face only grew as he looked her face over.

His lips quivered as a suppressed chuckle began to force its way out. He finally let out a loud cackle as he rolled backwards onto his back. Celestia retreated a step back, holding one forehoof tucked up against her chest. Her ears splayed back as she watched Discord laugh maniacally and roll around on the floor. Whispers from the mares behind her began to reach her ears as they talked amongst each other. What’s wrong with him? Is he going to be okay? What’s so funny? Those and more confused questions passed quietly between the mares as they watched Discord succomb to the sudden fit of laughter.

Finally, after the awkward moment passed, he managed to get his laughter under control and reduce it to more of a giddy giggle as he pushed himself to sit up. He lifted his taloned hand up to wipe a single tear from the corner of his eye. “Oh, that’s so good,” he said through his chuckling as he pointed to Celestia. He pushed himself up to his feet, looking at the group before him for a few seconds before letting out another light chuckle and shaking his head as he continued on his way down the hall. “The look on her face is going to be priceless,” he said through his giggling.

As Discord left, Celestia maneuvered to keep herself between him and her charges, but it seemed he wasn’t particularly interested in them beyond whatever it was he had found to be so amusing. Fluttershy chanced a single step forward, putting herself just under Celestia’s wing as she called out to him. “You’re letting us go?” she asked, her question quietly echoing through the empty hall.

Discord stopped and turned toward them. For a moment, the mares tensed, but the smug grin on Discord’s muzzle didn’t exactly come across as threatening. “Why would I want to stop you?” he asked as he shrugged his shoulders. “This is the most interesting thing I’ve seen happen in centuries!” he said with a hearty chuckle as he turned to continue walking down the hall. As he continued on his way, he waved an arm in the air over his head and said, “Have fun storming the castle!” His echoing laugh faded shortly after he rounded the corner at the end of the hall.

Celestia let out a calming breath, allowing herself to relax as her wings and head drooped toward the floor. She looked back toward the bearers, seeing them all looking expectantly to her. Tucking her wings back against her sides, she lifted her head as she walked between them toward the spiral staircase at the other end of the hall, saying, “Come on, let’s go before he changes his mind.”

At the same time that Celestia’s group was climbing the spire, Twilight, Sombra, and Graphite were taking an alternate path to the throne room. In his time as king of the Empire, Sombra had made quite a few modifications to the kingdom using his dark magic to carve out spaces hidden within the facets of the crystals. These hidden spaces only showed themselves when the dark power that created them was present. So far, the changelings that had infiltrated the Empire in the recent days had found no evidence that Chrystallyn had discovered these hidden passages, or even had any knowledge they existed at all.

Once they had made it just inside the tower, Sombra used his power to reveal what he referred to as the Hall of Doors. It was a space refracted within the crystal walls of the spire that provided many alternate routes to and from the many chambers within, including a hidden path to the upper throne room. Their group walked the hallway lined with dozen of doors on either side until they came upon one that looked no different than the rest. It was this one that Sombra picked out and opened using his power to provide them safe passage through.

Twilight walked through the doorway just behind Sombra, and glanced upward. A narrow stairway jutted out from the dark crystal cylindrical walls, spiraling many stories high above them. Twilight took the lead, starting up the stairway with Sombra and Graphite following behind her. Their hoofsteps were the only sound that echoed up and down the hollow chamber for a few minutes as they carefully made their way up, until Twilight broke the otherwise silent moment with a question. “You had a thing for stairs, didn’t you?” She asked as she glanced just behind her to Sombra.

“I didn’t build this spire,” he grumbled as he cast a glance over the edge of the stairs to look down the shaft they had been scaling. Twilight also glanced down the shaft, then up to their destination. They were getting close.

“How are we doing on time?” Twilight asked, looking behind herself again, this time glancing around Sombra to Graphite. His horn and eyes had been giving off a dim greenish glow ever since they entered the spire. He had continued to channel his hive mind ability to act as a set of eyes and ears that could see and hear what was going on outside. His eyes seemed to wander slightly as he paused on the stairs.

“The shield is still up,” he said as he focused back on Twilight, and then added, “and the other group is nearly at the top. We should still have a few minutes.”

“Good,” Twilight said as she again glanced up the shaft, keeping a steady pace toward their destination. The end of the stairs was in sight now, with only a couple more rounds about the spiral stairway left to go.

“To be honest, I think my subconscious was punishing me,” Sombra said, which drew a curious glance from Twilight.

“Pardon?” she asked.

“You asked about the stairs,” he said, nodding his head upward. “I really had no reason to put them in. Very inefficient, since I could have just made the doorway go straight to—”

Sombra was cut off suddenly when a misplaced step caused his right hoof to slipped just off the narrow edge of the stairway. He only managed a quick gasp as he started to tumble over the edge, but then his fall was halted, leaving him hanging precariously over the multistory drop. Twilight used the levitation spell she had quickly cast to catch him to gently pull him back to the stairway, and once it appeared he was stable on his hooves again, she let the spell go. “You alright?” she asked.

“Yes. Thank you,” he said as he relaxed, letting out a relieved sigh. He glanced to both Twilight and Graphite, and then sadly shook his head as he said, “I’m just slowing you both down.”

“Nonsense,” Twilight said as she reached out and rest a hoof on his shoulder. “You’re the best one to lead us through this passage. If I had tried to do it myself, I would probably still be fiddling with the doors.”

“That may be so,” Sombra admitted. Twilight gave him a reassuring pat on his shoulder before turning to start up the stairway again. They made the last couple rounds of the stairs at a steady pace, coming up to the closed passageway that led to the back of the spire’s upper throne room. “I’ve been thinking,” Sombra said, pausing for a moment until Twilight looked back to him. “I know what you said, but I still think I should—”

“Stick with the plan,” Twilight said firmly. “I don’t want you putting yourself in harms way. Chrystallyn is dangerous, and she’s not going to listen to you. Just stay out of sight until I deal with her.”

“Right,” Sombra said through a defeated sigh, giving her a nod.

The group silently waited for a moment longer. Graphite continued channeling his spell, keeping a watchful eye on the events outside. He finally glanced up to Twilight, simply saying, “It’s starting.”

“Alright,” Moondancer said quietly. “It’s about time. I’ll take over the veil,” she said as her horn glowed. Cadance allowed the spell to pass from herself to Moondancer, and then the two of them cautiously approached the Crystal Heart. It spun slowly, suspended between the pointed spire of crystal above and below it, giving off a faint glow.

“It’s amazing,” Cadance said as she reached out with her magic. Her eyes widened when her aura touched the Heart, and she drew in a short gasp. “Wow, I’ve never felt anything like this,” she said as she continued to stare into the Heart’s facets with a wonderstruck gaze.

“You still good with this?” Moondancer asked, her eyes darting from Cadance to the Heart and back.

Cadance glanced to her side at Moondancer, and put on a confident smile. “Twilight said I would be able to control it,” she said just before looking back to the Heart. “I trust her.” Closing her eyes, Cadance focused on conveying her command to the Heart. It began to glow more brightly at first, and then it dimmed until its light faded out completely and its spinning came to a stop, leaving it simply hovering in place.

“I think that did it,” Cadance said as her eyes fluttered open. “The barrier should start to drop any minute now.”

The pegasi Nightguard were now gathered just outside the southern passage exit, each suited up and armed with practice spears. A low murmur of conversation passed between them as they discussed the upcoming mission. Gale glanced to her side to the underground passage, bowing her head slightly as Luna and Spike arrived at the top of the stairs.

“Alright ponies, lend an ear,” Gale said, raising her voice. The low buzz of conversation died out immediately, and all ears and eyes were now on her. “I want every single one of you to come back from this without a scratch,” she said as she walked down the alleyway between them. “Remember your signals. Confirm that any target you come across is a changeling before you engage, and if you have any doubts, keep your distance.” As she reached the opposite end of the group, she turned about and started walking back along the same path, glancing from side to side to each guard as she passed them. “This is just a mock battle, but if you’re not careful you can get hurt, or hurt someone else. Even a blunt spear can run someone through if you try hard enough, so err on the side of caution.” She came to a stop where she had started, stepping off to the side and looking up to Luna. “They’re all yours, Princess,” she said with a smile.

“Thank you,” Luna said as she took a single step forward. Holding her head up high, she spread her wings at her sides, the impressive span nearly touching the walls of the alleyway. All eyes were now on her, and for a moment she simply looked over the members of her Nightguard in silence. “I am sure some of you have misgivings over our role in all of this,” she began as she drew her wings back to her sides. “But I assure you, our part is no less important than the rest. We must make sure the innocents of this city are ushered to safety, even if that means we must play the part of the villains to accomplish this.”

She glanced up to the crystal dome over the city above. “To protect those who cannot protect themselves. To do what others are unable to do for themselves,” she said shortly before glancing back down. “That is what it means to be one of the Nightguard.

“So take to the skies this day, my Nightguard,” she said, her voice rising in volume slightly as her wings once again spread outward. “Take this task to heart, knowing that your actions today may very well save the lives of hundreds, perhaps even thousands.”

As Luna folded her wings back to her sides and took a single step back, and a rumble of hooves stamping the ground filled the air as her Nightguard applaud her speech. “Couldn’t have said it better myself, Princess,” Gale said with a smile as she stepped up to her side.

There was then a sound that resounded all around them. All eyes were drawn skyward at what could only be described as a shimmering sound that floated on the air, and there in the sky they could see that the power that had sustained the dome over the city had faded, leaving the dome to slowly dissolve starting at a hole that formed above the crystal spire. As the dome continued to fade away, the true sky was revealed overhead, with the sun hanging high in the afternoon sky. And only seconds later, a sliver of shadow began to overtake it, growing second by second as the sky started to darken.

“It has begun,” Luna said as she watched the solar eclipse moving into place. A moment later, she spread her wings wide. “On my wing! We strike first at the center of the city!” she said in a rallying cry as she vaulted into the sky. Spike and Gale were first to follow her, each launching into the sky and swiftly joining her on either side, and then the rest of the pegasi followed up quickly behind them.

Luna’s airborne squadron approached the center of the city as the daytime sky was plunged into darkness. She looked to her side, catching Spike’s glance and giving him a nod. Spike nodded back to her before veering off on his own, climbing into the sky above them. Once he had climbed to an altitude that was near the middle of the spire, he glanced down to the ground below him. He could make out many crystal ponies that had been drawn out of their homes at the sudden darkness and were now wandering the streets.

Drawing in a deep breath, Spike veered again, allowing himself to swoop toward the ground. As he dove downward, he let out a terrifying roar that lit the sky with a gout of green dragon fire. He then veered sharply upward, climbing back into the sky to circle off around the spire.

On the ground, crystal ponies began to scatter at the sight and sounds of a dragon attacking the city. At first, only confused and panicked scream for help filled the streets, but then the changelings disguised among the crystal ponies began to go to work.

“The Nightmare is attacking the city!” one called out, pointing a hoof skyward at the pegasi circling overhead.

“They have a dragon!” another called from nearby.

“Everypony get to the shelters!” yet another yelled as she took off at a gallop down the streets. As planned, many of the panicked crystal ponies began to follow her.

Some of the Nightguard began to descend from the sky, landing on roof tops along the houses that encircled the center of the city. As Nightguard and disguised changeling guards spotted one another, they gave a simple signal by drawing their weapons in a line just in front of themselves and giving each other a single nod, then they would engage in a convincing skirmish, clacking Nightguard spears against Crystal Empire swords in a mock battle. Luna and the rest of her Nightguard stayed airborne, using pegasi magic to create stormclouds that cast lightning bolts across the sky while Spike continued to fill the skies above the city with roars and dragon flame.

The impressive display was enough to send crystal ponies fleeing from their homes in hopes of finding shelter from the invading forces, away from the crystal spire.

Celestia stepped hoof upon the upper most floor of the spire. She took a few steps from the spiral staircase, looking first to the tall solid crystal double doors just before her, then right and left down the halls that curved along with the spire’s circumference. These halls seemed deserted as well. Turning about to look behind herself, she first looked to the bearers as they gathered just at the top of the stairway, and then her eyes wandered upward to the crystalline windows that looked out over the crystal city. She could see the shield dissolving over the city, revealing an unobstructed view of the midday sun just as the moon was beginning to overtake it. The light levels in the hall slowly darkened as more and more of the sun was eclipsed by the moon.

“It’s started,” she said. The rest of the bearers turned to glance out the window as they shared the silent moment.

Rainbow was the first one to look back to Celestia. “We’re ready. Let’s do this,” she said. The rest of the bearers each looked back as well, nodding their agreement with Rainbow.

Celestia turned to the crystal doors, looking up at them as she drew in a long breath before letting it out slowly. She took a few steps toward the doorway, preparing herself to meet face to face with someone she thought was gone from this world forever. She was just a second from using her magic to push the doors open when a glowing red aura took hold of them, and pulled them open for her.

As the doors swung wide, they revealed the inside of a circular crystal throne room. A glowing fractal pattern much like a twelve pointed snowflake was etched into the floor, spreading from the center of the floor out to the edges of the room, each tip stopping at a solid column of crystal at the edge of the room that towered up to support a dome overhead. Set on the far side just beyond the center of the room was a large crystal throne, and standing just before it at the very center of the room was Chrystallyn. “Do come in,” she said in a gentle, inviting tone. Her voice echoed in the otherwise quiet room, and for a time Celestia hesitated at the doorway. She finally led her group just inside the room, and just as they all cleared the doorway, it quickly swung closed behind them with a thud that rumbled throughout. The bearers took a skittish glance back at the doorway after it had closed behind them, but Celestia kept her stoic gaze locked forward on Chrystallyn. “I did expect a visit from you sooner rather than later, but it appears you’ve come up with something a bit more elaborate than what I had considered,” Chrystallyn said as she took a few steps toward the group. As she came closer, the matching red glow that emanated from the amulet around her neck and her eyes was more apparent. “Is a solar eclipse really necessary, or are you just showing off?” she asked as she stopped only steps away from Celestia and narrowed her eyes.

Celestia steeled herself, the muscles in her jaw flexing. She lifted one forehoof just slightly before sharply striking it back down on the floor with a loud clack. “You have much to answer for, and you’re a danger to all those near you, Chrystallyn,” she said.

Chrystallyn seemed unmoved by the statement for a moment, the only reaction that her brow lifted slightly. “Is that really the reason why you’ve come here?” she asked. She extended her forehoof, gesturing toward Celestia and her group as she asked, “Is that why you’ve brought the bearers with you and put on this... this show of power? I think you just want to intimidate me. You’ve always wanted the Empire to be part of Equestria, haven’t you?” Her eyes narrowed further as she made the accusation, glowing just slightly brighter.

“This has nothing to do with that,” Celestia said, quickly shaking her head.

“Oh, but it does,” Chrystallyn said lowly as she took a single step forward. Her head lowered slightly as she leaned into the step, and her wings lifted slightly from her sides. “At every turn, when I am near achieving my goals, one of you has always shown up to steal it away from me,” she growled as she took another slow step forward. Celestia responded by retreating a step and fanning her own wings out at her sides, but Chrystallyn seemed undeterred as she continued to slowly slink closer. “Not this time,” she hissed in a whisper. “I’ve already won, and your desperate attempts will change nothing.”

Celestia once again stamped a forehoof on the floor, halting Chrystallyn’s advance. “Just give up the amulet, and we’ll leave peacefully,” she said.

Chrystallyn held her hard gaze for a moment longer, until she finally lifted her head as she let out a quiet chuckle. “You’re still sticking to your act? You think I’ll just give you whatever you ask for?” she asked as she sadly shook her head. The small smile that had appeared on her muzzle them melted off, replaced by an angry scowl as her eyes momentarily glowed brighter. “You’ll never have the Alicorn Amulet, or the Elements for that matter. Did you honestly think that bringing the bearers here was going to accomplish anything at all? That you could just take from me whatever you wanted?” Her horn began to glow to the same shade as the amulet’s deep red light as she growled, “You will leave, or I will force you to.”

Celestia kept her stoic gaze locked on Chrystallyn, even when she noticed Twilight stepping out from behind the throne in her peripheral vision. This was the moment. She had to keep all attention forward on her so Twilight could take the shot. The bright flash of violet light was quick, sailing across the room with the intention of striking Chrystallyn from behind. However, just as it was nearly within reach, the shot of magical power scattered into a spray of sparks as it bounded off an invisible surface. The spherical shield flashed bright red for a split second around Chrystallyn’s body as Twilight’s power dissipated over it.

Chrystallyn didn’t even avert her eyes at first. She maintained her forward gaze at Celestia, a sly smirk slowly showing on her muzzle. “There you are,” she said quietly as the light on her horn flared.

Twilight had quickly gathered her power after she stepped out from the hidden passage behind the throne. The shot she took at Chrystallyn sailed true to its target, but was deflected by a barrier. At first, she thought that her shot may have been considered so insignificant that Chrystallyn hadn’t even bothered to acknowledge her, but then the floor around her hooves came aglow with many red circles of light. Her horn glowed as she tried to prepare herself for the counterattack, but the red ethereal chains that shot out of the floor came at her too quickly. She reared back as the chains took hold of each of her legs, clasping to her with shackles. One larger shackle found its way around her neck, and then the slack in the chains pulled taut as they retracted toward the floor, pulling Twilight back down to all fours. She looked at the shackle clasped around one of her forelegs, giving it a tug and putting mental pressure against the chains, testing her magic against them and finding them to be extremely strong. Breaking them with her power alone wouldn’t be easy.

“I knew you had to have been a part of all of this,” Chrystallyn said from across the room. She had now turned her attention to Twilight, and was making her way across the room. Beyond her, Twilight could see the others. Celestia had a single wing held out at her side to keep her friends out of the confrontation. It was now just a one on one between Twilight and Chrystallyn.

Chrystallyn stopped only a step away from Twilight, her taller stature making her seem to look down upon Twilight as if she were some sort of insignificant bug. “Something as ridiculously over thought as feigning an invasion of the Empire could have only come from your mind,” she said as a disgusted sneer twisted the corner of her mouth. “Yes, I know what you’re up to, trying to confuse and distract me. Sorry, but your little plan isn’t going to work this time. This time, you will be the one to fail.”

Even if the power of the presence before her felt intimidating, Twilight wasn’t about to dare show it. She kept her determined eyes focused forward on Chrystallyn and stood as tall as the chains allowed as she asked, “Is that something you’ve foreseen?”

Chrystallyn perked an eyebrow at the question, and then turned to glance over her shoulder back toward the group across the room. “So you told her,” she asked, directing the question toward Celestia. There was no response, but Chrystallyn let out a single amused huff as she turned her attention back to Twilight. “Do you remember the first time we met? That ill-fated attempt to take Canterlot as my own?” she asked as she lowered her head to be level with Twilight’s stance. “That day was meant to be my victory, but you stole that future from me,” she said as she narrowed her eyes. She grit her teeth together as she took in a seething breath. “I was completely blind to the possibility of any other outcome, and that was my downfall.

“But that did teach me something,” she said as her anger seemed to subside momentarily. “On that day, I learned that one’s fate is not hard set in stone. These visions are but a possibility.”

“And what do you see now?” Twilight asked quietly. “The only outcome I can see is a disaster once you lose control to the amulet’s power.”

Chrystallyn raised her head, letting out a tisk as she shook her head. “And so your true reason for coming here is revealed,” she said as her horn started to glow again with reddish light. “Just like everything else I’ve ever wanted, you want to take it from me, don’t you?” she accused as her face once again contorted with anger. “Well you can’t have it,” she growled, pressing her face close to Twilight’s as her eyes glowed brightly.

Twilight flinched back, the muscles in her legs flexing against the chains that held her in place. “Chrystallyn, it’s putting thoughts in your head,” Twilight said, trying to act the part of the voice of reason.

“What do you know!?” Chrystallyn screamed in Twilight’s face. For her part, Twilight managed only to cringe slightly at the outburst, refusing to cower before the anger directed at her. Chrystallyn growled to herself as she pulled back, pacing back and forth before Twilight with her head hung low, tightly squeezing her eyes closed over and over. “Lies. Nothing but lies,” she muttered to herself as she continued to pace for a moment longer, and then she paused mid step and side glanced to Twilight. Her wide eye twitched wildly as she looked Twilight over, and her breathing came in more forceful breaths. “Yes... yes you’re right. She just wants to steal my hard won future from me,” she whispered just barely loud enough for Twilight to hear. “Well, that isn’t happening. You’ll be spending the rest of eternity somewhere where you can never bother me again.”

Chrystallyn’s power flared again, and this time the Element of Magic perched in the crown upon her head shimmered brightly. The other five Elements set within the Alicorn Amulet also began to shine with light of their own, but then a series of multicolored sparks shot out from them. Chrystallyn yelped, her concentration broken from the sudden push back of power. “W-what. Why...,” she said as she stared down in disbelief at the Elements that had refused her.

“It seems the Elements don’t agree with you.”

Chrystallyn’s fearful eyes widened as she heard the words from Celestia’s voice echoing through the chamber. She spun around, facing the group across the room. “No. No, this is some sort of trick!” she said as she clasped a hoof over the amulet. “The Elements don’t have a choice. They listen to me!”

“If that’s really true” — Celestia’s eyes glanced over Chrystallyn — “then why are you shaking?”

Chrystallyn tensed up, retreating back toward the throne a step. She continued to hold the amulet against her chest tightly as if her very life depended on keeping it guarded. “You think you know the Elements better than I do? I created them!” she screamed back across the room.

“We...,” Celestia said. The word echoed through the room, casting everything else into a moment of silence. Celestia’s horn began to glow with a dim greenish aura as a tiara set with a violet, six pointed jewel appeared upon her head. “We created them,” the alicorn said just as a ring of green fire surrounded her and flickered over her body, revealing Chrysalis.

Chrystallyn drew in a shaky gasp. “You...,” she said in a ghostly, weak voice.

“Yes, me,” Chrysalis said as her horn and eyes both lit bright green. “Now! Take them back!” she called out.

Chrysalis poured her power into her Element of Magic. At the same time, the five bearers each closed their eyes, focusing their thoughts in the way they had been taught while Chrysalis cast a very specific spell, one that was meant to gift the Elements to a chosen bearer. The amulet around Chrystallyn’s neck began to emit red sparks of energy. Before she could lift her hoof from it, the raw power arced and skitter up her leg, causing her to scream out in pain. The protective shield she had been maintaining broke at that moment with an audible snap, and five different colored beams of light shot out from the amulet as the five Elements that had been imbedded within broke free. Each of the five Elements zipped across the room, finding its place with its chosen bearer as they reformed as the five unique jewels inlaid in golden necklaces.

Twilight took this chance to use her magic to put pressure against the ethereal chains that held her, and without the support from Chrystallyn’s magic they easily shattered. Casting a quick teleport, she blinked to right in front of Chrystallyn.

Chrystallyn, still cringing from the force of the raw power that had shot through her leg, forced her eyes open just in time to see Twilight summon Dusk into existence and charge the staff with her power. Twilight took the charged staff in her aura, reeling back as she prepared to bring it around in a sweeping blow. As the glowing staff came forward, Chrystallyn raised a foreleg as if to defend herself. However, Twilight noticed the spell being cast only a fraction of a second before her staff was going to connect, which was too late for her to react.

The foreleg that Chrystallyn had raised in front of her face became encased with solid red crystal. Just when Dusk was a breath from landing a hit, Chrystallyn forcefully swept her foreleg out under Twilight’s guard, hitting her squarely across the face with a blow so hard that the red crystal shattered and sent Twilight flying across the room into one of the pillars. Her scream came to a sudden stop when she hit as the air was forced from her lungs. The pillar cracked from the impact, and Twilight crumpled to the floor at the same moment that Dusk clattered to the ground nearby shortly before it phased out of existence.

Twilight struggled to push herself up from the floor, but the muddled feeling in her head coupled with the burning pain on the side of her face made it hard for her to focus enough to even steady her front hooves. She reached a shaking hoof up to the side of her face that felt like it was on fire, touching it gingerly and then pulling back to look, finding streaks of red staining her fur.

She tried to push the pain aside, focusing instead on recovering from the blow. Even though her head was still filled with a high pitched ringing sound, she had been able to make out her friends calling out her name after she had been hit. They were still there, still counting on her to finish this before it got out of control. She pushed herself up with her forehooves, squeezing her eyes shut against the throbbing pain and grunting through her clamped teeth, and once she had finally managed to push herself to sit upright, she opened her eyes to look across the room.

Her friends were still okay, for the moment. That fact alone brought relief to her mind, but the room had changed. Everything appeared to have a reddish tint to it. At first, Twilight wondered if this might be a side effect from her injury, but then she saw Chrystallyn slowly coming toward her. The amulet around her neck was glowing so brightly that Twilight couldn’t look directly at it. Arcs of red lighting periodically shot out from the necklace, some going as far as to connect with the floor, walls, and ceiling. The hum of the raw magical power in the air became more noticeable as the high pitched whine in Twilight’s head receded, and she became fully aware of the magical energy saturating the area around her. She had never felt something quite this powerful before.

“I have come too far,” Chrystallyn said, her voice beginning in a whisper and slowly rising as she continued to speak. “Again and again... the visions showed me nothing but failure, but I fought. I fought, and I won. I took back the future that had been stolen from me. And now that I have it, I’m not about to let you steal it again!”

Hundreds of small arcs of power jumped from the amulet and Chrystallyn’s horn, skittering across the floor’s surface toward Twilight. Red crystals sprouted from the path that the energy traveled, building up to one large crystal that grew from the floor only a few steps in front of her. The crystal hummed to a rising high pitch as the power built up inside it.

Twilight was tackled to the floor just as the crystal burst into thousands of tiny shards. The room was filled with the noise of what sounded like hundreds of windows shattering all at once, and a spray of tiny, razor sharp crystals speckled the area that Twilight had just been. Twilight slid across the floor on her side, her body covered by another as they slid to a stop together a short distance away. She blinked, opening her eyes to see Rainbow Dash clinging to her.

“Rainbow,” Twilight said as she reached her foreleg up to embrace her friend that had come to her rescue. However, she quickly retracted it when Rainbow drew in a hissing breath and let out a painful yelp in response. Glancing to her foreleg, she could see the fresh blotches of blood on her fur from where she had touched her friend’s back. Her ears splayed back as she drew in a horrified gasp, and she pushed herself to sit up as she tried to hold Rainbow steady beside her. “Oh nonono no, Rainbow,” she said as she hugged her friend close to herself, looking over Rainbow’s shoulder and down her back where she could see the blood that darkened her fur in multiple patches.

“Y-you... alright?” Rainbow asked in a shaky voice as she pushed a forehoof against Twilight’s chest. She strained to sit herself upright, shakely holding on to Twilight’s shoulder with her other hoof. Her breaths were coming in ragged gasps, and her body was trembling all over.

“I’m fine, but you’re not,” Twilight said as she hugged Rainbow close to her shoulder. The tension in Rainbows body went slack as she allowed herself to lean against Twilight, her muzzle halfway buried against Twilight’s neck.

“No k-kidding. T-this kinda hurts,” Rainbow’s muffled voice admitted as she limply hung there in Twilight’s embrace. Twilight grit her teeth and squeezed her eyes closed as tears started streaming down the sides of her face. She hadn’t wanted this... she hadn’t ever wanted any of this. What use was seeing her friends again if it just led to them being hurt? She opened her eyes again, looking across the room at Chrystallyn. It seemed that the only thing that was stopping her from doing more harm was that she was still physically recovering from the exertion of the first attack. Twilight’s mind raced as she tried to find a way out for everyone. At the very least, she had to get them as far away from here as she could, now, but she could barely focus through the throbbing in her head.

“Chrystallyn! Stop!”

Sombra’s voice echoed through the room, bringing everything to a complete stand still. The raw power emanating from Chrystallyn subsided, and she slowly glanced over to the throne. Sombra had stepped out from the passage behind it, showing himself.

A heavy silence hung in the room for a moment as the two of them simply stared at one another. Finally, Sombra chanced a single step forward. “You don’t want to do this,” he said as he cautiously approached her. One step after another, he carefully made his way to her as he spoke. “I know. I know better than anyone else in the world could.”

Chrystallyn’s chest was heaving quick breaths as she kept a side glance locked squarely on Sombra. “You can’t possibly know how I feel...,” her weary voice said. Her eyes squeezed nearly closed as a line of tears ran down the sides of her face. “To have everything taken away... you can’t possibly know,” she said as her voice lowered to near a whisper.

Sombra paused his advance for a few seconds, and then carefully nodded. “You’re right,” he said calmly as he again took a cautious step towards her. “That, I couldn’t possibly know how that feels. But I do know what that amulet is doing to you,” he said, his eyes momentarily glancing to the Alicorn Amulet before looking back to Chrystallyn’s tearful eyes. “It whispers to you. It tells you that the only way is through force, and that you must trample all those who stand before you.” Sombra stopped just beside Chrystallyn, nearly within touching distance of her now. “But that isn’t true. There’s another way,” he said as he slowly offered his forehoof out to her. She glanced down at the extended hoof, drawing in a shuddering breath as her body shook. She looked back up to the eyes of the one who she had once called her husband, but who had also turned on her and taken so much from her. “We don’t have to go down this path,” he said as he slowly shook his head.

Chrystallyn squeezed her eyes closed, causing more tears to flow freely down the sides of her face. A single, choked sob escaped her, and she opened her eyes slowly to look back down at him again. “I was forced down this path a long time ago,” she said in a sad voice.

Chrystallyn’s magic flared, and a bright red aura took hold of Sombra, plucking him from the ground. Giving her neck a quick flick, she sent him sailing backwards into the throne. The upper corner of the throne shattered from the impact, sending Sombra reeling through the air head over hoof like a rag doll until he landed a short distance away on the crystal floor. Gasps and frightened screams echoed through the room from the others as they watched, his body not moving after it slid to a stop.

The glowing red light had returned, saturating the entire room with its presence. Chrystallyn now sat slumped over near the center of the room, her head hanging low with her mane obscuring most of her face. Her chest heaved with each deep breath she took. “There is no other way,” she said as she stood, turning herself about toward the group standing near the entrance.

Twilight’s eyes went wide with fear. She looked to the side of the room where her remaining friends were, finding them backing away toward the door. Her eyes finally locked with Chrysalis’s, and she saw the helpless look in her eyes as if she were begging Twilight to tell her what to do. “Run,” Twilight said in a whisper, praying that Chrysalis would take her friends with her and escape.

Chrysalis turned toward the doorway, her magic lighting briefly as she made an attempt at opening it, but it refused to budge. Their backs against the door, Chrysalis and the remaining four bearers watched fearfully as Chrystallyn, seething with anger, approached them.

“You think you can just take what is mine and leave?” she growled at them. “You think I’ll just go back to that pathetic waste of space I was?” she said hotly. “I will not go back to being you,” she said as she glared across the room at Chrysalis. She then arched her neck back, pointing her horn skyward as she put forth an incredible amount of power. Her mane flared out around her, wiping about as it turned a tinge of dark red near the tips. Her eyes glowed brightly with red light as a deep growl emanated from her throat. She then tilted her head forward, pointing her horn toward the group as she screamed, “You can all. Just. Die!”

Twilight reached a foreleg out toward her friends, helplessly screaming out, “No, don’t!” However, there was nothing she could do to stop the spell from being cast. Red lighting cascaded from Chrystallyn’s horn in a blinding flash, skittering across the floor toward Chrysalis and her friends. Twilight could only avert her eyes and hug Rainbow close to herself, sweeping her own wing over Rainbow and herself to try and shield them as the room filled with the deafening sound of crystal shards bursting. The sounds of destruction raged on, drowning out all other noise for what felt like an eternity, but actually only spanned a matter of a few seconds. Twilight flinched at the sting of a few errant crystal shards that had flown across the room and struck her wing and her exposed flank. When the sounds died down, she remained huddled under her wing, shocked and terrified from what had just happened. She didn’t dare look, but at the same time she couldn’t stand not knowing. Her tears were already running hot trails down the sides of her emotionally pained face just from the thought of what she would likely see once she finally gathered up the courage to look.

Twilight finally lifted her wing, just barely enough to peer out from under it. The first sight she saw was Chrystallyn sitting where she had cast the spell, gasping for breath. She lifted her wing further, pulling it back as she looked toward the doorway. She then drew in a horrified gasp, cringing and looking away from the sight by reflex. Her voice trembled along with her entire body as she uttered one simple word.

“No....”

The others had been caught in the spray of razor sharp crystals, unable to escape. Her ears splayed back against her head as she heard their lingering cries of suffering from across the room, the image of them laying heaped together against the wall with countless wounds still burned vividly into her mind.

She had done this to them. She had brought them here, and allowed harm to come to her friends. She had grossly underestimated just how much power Chrystallyn would still have without the Elements and just how willing the angered alicorn would be to use that power against them. Her lack of foresight had doomed everyone else to suffer. And, she couldn’t think of any possible way to fix it. There was no way she could fix what had just happened.

Still, she wanted to save them all. She would beg whatever power out there that would listen and was willing to give her just one second chance to fix it all. She squeezed her eyes tightly closed, sending fresh tears rolling down the sides of her face, and she whispered her plea.

“Someone, please help us.” Twilight clung to her wounded friend. Rainbow’s raspy breathing slowly repeated the same pattern in her ear over and over. The wounds on the side of her own face still burned, but she didn’t care. She only cared for the safety of her friends now, and wanted nothing more in the world than to save them.

She flinched, the side of her face feeling as it had just been pinched. She leaned back, still holding Rainbow to her with one foreleg while she reached the other hoof up to touch the side of her face. Just as she was about to, she heard the sound of a tiny fleck of crystal landing on the floor at her side. She glanced down at it, seeing the tiny shard of red crystal still spinning on the floor where it had landed among the spattering of blood that marred the floor’s otherwise crystal clear reflection. And then another, and another. The tiny crystals fell to the floor as they fell out of the wound on the side of her face, and she could see by the reflection that the long scrapes where she had been injured were vanishing into thin lines until they disappeared altogether.

Rainbow’s grip on Twilight’s shoulder tightened, and she let out a grunt as she lifted her head. She slowly blinked her eyes as her wings flexed at her sides and she sat upright in front of Twilight. Twilight could only stare back, her mouth hanging slightly agape in disbelief at what she was seeing.

“Rainbow? Are you okay?” she asked in a shaky voice as she reached both of her hooves up to hold her friend’s shoulders.

“Yeah, somehow,” Rainbow said as she passed one hoof over and through her mane. She turned her neck and flexed her wing out at her side as she glanced down at her own back. Her brow furrowed in confusion, finding that not only was she not even injured any longer, but there wasn’t even a single drop of blood staining her fur now. She turned her head back forward, quirking an eyebrow at Twilight as she asked, “Did you...?” Twilight could only slowly shake her head in response.

Twilight then glanced across the room when she noticed movement near the doorway. Just like Rainbow, the rest of her friends had some how miraculously recovered from their grievous wounds, and were gathering themselves up from the floor. Chrysalis also seemed to had recovered, glancing about herself in confusion, and across the room Twilight caught sight of Sombra lifting himself from where he had landed earlier. As she watched the impossible happening all around her, she could only find herself thinking one thing.

Somehow, it had actually worked.

“How... how are you doing this!?” Chrystallyn yelled from the center of the room. She slowly backed away toward the throne, cowering toward the floor. Her ears were splayed back against her head, nearly covered by the long, straight strands of her disheveled mane.

Then there was a long, echoing chuckle. A deep one that carried a sinister edge. Chrystallyn’s eyes grew wide, and her rapid breaths suddenly came to a stand still. For a moment, she simply froze in place, until she finally whispered one word that sent a shiver through her entire body.

“Discord.”

The echoing laugh continued as Chrystallyn rapidly glanced about herself, trying to find its owner. Finally, she screamed out, “Where are you!?”

“Right here,” his voice said. One moment, he was no where, and then suddenly, there he was, standing right beside her. Chrystallyn let out a terrified yelp as she cringed away from him. “Oh-ho! A bit jumpy, aren’t we?” Discord said with an extremely amused grin on his face.

Chrystallyn shook her head, her mouth opening as she tried to force words out. She finally managed to ask, “How did you do it?”

Discord had somehow produced a fingernail file from somewhere, and was filing the sharp tips of his talons. “Do what?” he asked with disinterest just before he blew a quick breath across them.

Chrystallyn’s face contorted with anger even though her body was still shaking with fear. “Don’t toy with me. How could you break the spell? It shouldn’t be possible!” she accused as she glared at him.

“Oh, but I didn’t!” he said as he tossed the file over his shoulder. He then held both of his forearms up in front of Chrystallyn, showing her clearly that the bracers that made up the binding spell were still very much intact. “See?” he asked as his brow seemed to climb inches into the air above his forehead.

“B-but,” Chrystallyn stammered as she glanced about at the others in the room.

Discord glanced about, seeming to finally take notice of the audience that was watching. “Oh!” he said just as he reached up and began to twirl the end of his goatee in his talons. He then leaned closely in, putting his face only inches away from Chrystallyn’s. His manic grin seemed to spread from ear to ear as his red pupils dilated to the size of pin pricks. “I did do that,” he whispered just loud enough that only she could hear him.

“How?” she said back in a weak breath.

“Oh, silly Chrissy,” he said with a wave of his paw as he stood. Turning about, he took a few steps away with his hands folded behind his back, and then quickly spun about to look at her again. “Did you already forget our conversation just a couple days ago? I was bored out of my mind!” he said as he threw his hands up above his head. He let them flop back down at his sides, and then began to slowly pace about in a small circle there near the center of the room. “I asked you for something to do. Anything so long as I didn’t have to just sit there and stare at the walls,” he said as he made a sweeping gesture toward the walls surrounding them. He then pointed a talon to Chrystallyn as he said, “You said if I really wanted something to do, I could go patrol the tower for intruders or something.” He ended his walk standing next to Chrystallyn, and she leaned away from him as he leaned toward her and asked, “Aaand?”

Chrystallyn only eyed him warily. Discord let out a disappointed sigh as he shoulders sagged. He then leaned back and placed his hands just above his hips as he said, “Oh, come on. Did you really forget? That isn’t like you at all!” He quickly leaned his long body toward her, wrapping his lion arm around her shoulder and pulling the side of her face against his. She cringed at the contact, but otherwise didn’t make any attempt to escape. “I asked what to do should I actually find an intruder, and then you said...,” he started, tapping a talon against her chest. He silently watched her, his grin growing by the second as a look of realization washed over Chrystallyn’s face.

She pulled back from him, shaking her head as she quietly said, “No.”

“Oh, yes,” he said through a hearty chuckle. “I remember it word for word,” he said as he leaned in close to her as she back peddled. He reached his lion paw up just before her face, and touched a talon to each digit on his paw as he said the words.

“Take. Care. Of. Them.”

A giddy giggle echoed through the entire room as Discord relished in the aghast reaction that he got in response. “Of course that isn’t quite what you meant, but the spell seemed to believe that you meant it literally anyways!”

Discord couldn’t restrain his laughter any longer. He leaned back, letting go with a loud, unrestrained howling laugh that echoed through the chamber. Taking a loud gasping breath in, he leaned forward, pointing at Chrystallyn as he jibbered something unintelligible through his uncontrolled laughter. Chrystallyn slowly ground her teeth together as a seething anger built within her. “Discord,” she growled loudly, managing to grab his attention, at least briefly. “I revoke all privileges to your powers.”

Discord sniffed and wiped tears from his eyes with his palms as he worked to get he crazed chuckling under control. “Do you now!” he asked through his giggling. “Oh, well, I have wonder if that is actually going to work,” he mused as he turned and gestured toward the others standing in the room. “After all, you don’t have all the Elements any more, do you?” He grinned wickedly when he saw Chrystallyn’s angered expression melt off her face. “How about a little test, to see just how this spell of yours really works.”

Chrystallyn reached forward, screaming for him to stop, but it was already too late. Discord already had his talons raised, and with a quick snap of his digits and a flash of white light, only Chrystallyn and Discord remained within the room.

The streets surrounding the spire were now empty. The crystal ponies had fled from their homes, led away by the disguised changelings. The corona shining around the eclipse overhead provided only a minimal amount of light that the nearby flashes of lighting overtook briefly now and then. The storm clouds that Luna and her Nightguard had created no longer floated directly overhead at the center of the city, and were now instead swirling about in a ring that was slowly moving outward away from the spire. The plan was to keep the frightened ponies from rushing back toward the city center, and so far the mock invasion had done a fair job of convincing them to run the other way.

It was here, near the base of the tower, that everyone appeared after a bright flash deposited them all safely outside the tower. Twilight blinked and then rapidly glanced about at her surroundings. She turned, looking to each pony and changeling, finding that every single one of them had landed outside the spire along with her.

Nearby, next to where the Crystal Heart was hovering, Moondancer lowered the veil that had been concealing herself and Cadance, and they both quickly approached the group. “Twilight?” Cadance asked, the inflection on her voice making it seem as she was questioning what her own eyes were seeing. She trotted right up to the group, looking back and forth among them with a deeply furrowed brow before asking, “What’s going on?”

Twilight didn’t answer directly. Instead, she sat back on her haunches, closing her eyes as she drew in a deep breath, and then slowly let it it out. As she tried to calm her nerves, she reflected on what had just happened in the spire. While they had managed to get the Elements away from Chrystallyn, it had nearly come at far too great a cost, but then he had stepped in at the last possible moment. “Discord just saved us all,” she said thoughtfully as she slowly opened her eyes.

“W-where is he?” Fluttershy asked. Her question caused all those gathered to take a quick glance around the area, but the Lord of Chaos was no where to be seen. That meant that he had either stayed behind, or had chosen to send himself elsewhere. Likely the former, Twilight thought. If this binding spell placed upon him really did work based on what Chrystallyn had told him to do, then he had likely only been able to help them out, and not himself.

Twilight’s eyes suddenly went wide as she drew in a sharp gasp. At nearly the same moment, a bright flash of red light illuminated the area under the base of the spire. Twilight just caught a glimpse of the Crystal Heart, pulsing with red light, right before it shot upward through the base of the spire, shattering the spikes of crystal that it had been hovering between and leaving a gaping hole where it had crashed through the ceiling above it.

“Run! Go!” she yelled, urging her friends to turn away and escape. The gathered group had only begun to flee from the center of the city when the skies lit up with red above them. Twilight turned her head as she was galloping way, stealing a glance upward to the spire just in time to see the entire upper throne room explode. A red ring of energy rippled outward from the explosion, catching the top tips of the two towers on either side of the spire. The tower nearest to their group cracked near its base, and then began to come crashing down. At the angle it was falling, the debris was going to be very close to catching them.

Cadance must have seen the falling tower as well. She turned aside, skidding to a stop as she fanned her wings. Her horn was already alight with a bright blue aura, her face already a mask of concentration as she faced the falling debris head on. A light blue magical barrier shaped as a kite shield appeared just before her, not much bigger than herself. She angled the shield so it was nearly directly over herself, then her horn flared as the shield almost instantly grew to cover an area over many city blocks in all directions.

The rubble slammed into her shield, causing a visible ripple to flow over it wherever large chunks of crystal building struck it. The sound of crystal shattering against the shield caused most of the group to cringe toward the ground, covering their ears. Cadance, however, stood her ground as the shower of debris slammed into the shield, and it wasn’t until many quiet seconds after the last large chunk had shattered against her shield did she finally relax and drop it.

“Cadance!” Twilight called out as she cantered up to her side. “Are you alright?” she asked, looking over her. At the very second that Cadance had let the shield drop, she also fell back on her haunches as her head and wings sagged toward the ground. She appeared exhausted, taking in heavy breaths, but seemed otherwise unharmed.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she said with a quick nod. She glanced back toward the rest of the group that had gathered nearby asking, “No one else is hurt?”

“Thanks to you,” Twilight said, leaning in and pulling Cadance into a quick embrace.

The rest of the group gathered up nearby, most of them staring in awe at the now shattered spire and the rubble that had rained down on the center of the city. The area that Cadance had protected had actually been left nearly unscathed, but beyond that, there were homes that had been completely demolished by chunks of crystal many times their size.

“What just happened up there?” Applejack asked quietly, her eyes turned upward toward the shattered spire.

Twilight looked from her friend up to the spire, and then around them as she surveyed the damage. It was a bit shocking to see the crystal city in such a ruined state, even if she had planned for the possibility. She could only hope that the evacuation of the city center had gone smoothly. She let out a light sigh, glancing sadly back up at the spire as she said, “Nothing good.”

“Did Chrystallyn do this?” Cadance asked, looking from Twilight up to the spire. “Is she...?” she began to ask, her ears splaying back as she did.

Twilight shook her head. “I don’t sense anything right now, but I have my doubts that she was done in by her own power.” Twilight’s brow furrowed, and she only spent a few seconds longer looking upon the devastation before she turned about to look to the rest of the group. “We need to regroup. It isn’t safe here. Let’s put some distance between us and the spire first,” she said, cantering between them. The rest of the group quickly fell in beside and behind her as she led the way down the street.

Many thoughts were heavy on Twilight’s mind. She had to assume that Chrystallyn was still alive until they found evidence proving otherwise, but perhaps whatever it was that she had done to destroy the spire had left her exhausted, perhaps even unconscious if they were incredibly lucky. This would be the moment to press for an advantage, but getting her friends to safety now that they had secured the Elements took priority. She wasn’t going to risk their lives a second time.

And then there was the Heart. Something had happened to it right before the explosion, which didn’t bode well. And, there was also the question of what had happened to Discord. Had he been caught in that explosion? Could he even survive such a thing? Normally, Twilight could safely assume so, but she didn’t know the full extent of the binding spell’s limits on his powers. Could Discord, an ancient embodiment of chaos... die?

She shook her head at the thought. Right now, she needed to focus on what she knew instead of what she didn’t, and she knew that this wasn’t over, not until the Alicorn Amulet was safely out of Chrystallyn’s hooves. Now, she had to prepare for their next move.

Plan B

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter XXI – Plan B

Finally, finally! After patiently biding his time to wait for the absolute perfect moment, Discord had managed to get even, and judging by the dejected look that Chrystallyn was casting to the floor, it had left quite a mark on her over inflated ego. The payoff was every bit as sweet as he had hoped. He stood there grinning like a mad man, his steepled fingers tapping against each other in a steady rhythm as he waited excitedly for a response.

Discord’s ears perked up, catching a sound coming from his defeated adversary. He raised his brow slightly and asked her, “What was that? Congratulating me on my brilliantly executed upset?” He took an exaggerated bow before her as he said, “Yes, yes, I admit, I have outdone myself this time.”

“I said” — she lifted her head, glaring at him — “I’ve had enough of you.”

“Oh, come now. Moi? The world will never get enough of Discord!” he said, laying one hand to his chest as he cast the other high in the air.

Chrystallyn only stared back at him, bearing her clenched teeth. Her puffy lower eyelids, still dampened from tears, twitched now and then. “Yes... you’re right,” she said quietly to herself, her raspy voice carrying through the room. “I should have disposed of him when he was no longer useful. Letting him live was a horrible mistake.”

The Alicorn Amulet suddenly beamed with light, sending red lighting skittering all across Chrystallyn’s body, though she seemed unfazed by its touch. She stood, and as she glared across the room at Discord her mane and tail darkened until they were both nearly blood red. Her horn lit with a crackle of power arcing all around her, and then she let out a forceful cry as she exerted her mental strength, wiping her head back. As she did so, the Crystal Heart was yanked upward through the floor, leaving a shattered hole near the center of the room. Tendrils of red lightning arced from her horn and danced around wildly as they seemed to grasp at the Heart like an extra set of limbs.

Chrystallyn began to channel power, letting out a growl from deep within her throat as the power passed between herself and the Heart. As she drew on its power, the light glow from within it seemed to dim. Discord looked on as the room glowed brighter and brighter with red light, his grin now long gone. “Oh, well then,” he quietly commented as he pursed his lips. He lifted his hands up, glancing at the bracers secured around his wrists. Rolling his eyes and giving a shrug with his shoulders, he then reached behind himself and produced a tiny umbrella. He popped open the umbrella that was barely bigger around than his palm, and then held the long, twisted shaft in both of his hands as he raised it above his head.

The built up power exploded from around Chrystallyn in a ring of pure red force. Discord was forced backwards, caught in the blast as it rolled out from the center of the room. He sailed out of the crystal double doors just as they were blown off their hinges, and then through the crystal windows beyond just as they shattered. The walls and ceiling of the crystal spire throneroom were reduced to a spray of tiny crystal shards scattered in all directions, and large chunks of the sides of the crystal spire began to fall away as they cracked and split off.

As Discord hung precariously on the edge of consciousness, looking back on the red ring of explosive power that was expanding across the sky as he fell backwards toward the city below, only one thought happened to cross his mind.

...Worth it.

“What happened?”

Twilight turned from the gathered group toward Luna’s distressed voice, just in time to see her touching down to a canter upon the crystal street. The Moon Princess had since dropped her disguise, and judging by the absence of the thunder clouds above the city, her Nightguard were no longer putting on the now unnecessary performance. The explosion that had splintered the crystal spire only moments ago would easily discourage any from approaching the center of the city on its own.

“I’m afraid I misjudged the situation,” Twilight admitted as she glanced toward the spire for a brief moment before looking back. “We did manage to get the Elements away from her, but even with just the Alicorn Amulet she was so much more powerful than I thought possible. We almost didn’t make it out alive.”

“Thank the heavens you all did,” Luna said as she took a moment to look out over the group. “What then of Chrystallyn?”

“We’re still not sure what happened to her. I was about to go back myself and check, but I wanted to be sure that everyone else was going to be safe before taking a chance at confronting her again. We were actually just deciding what to do next.”

“Twilight,” Graphite called to her, catching her attention. As he walked up to her, his glowing horn dimmed out. “We already have the Crystal Guard convinced to check homes along the city border now, but this is a lot more area to cover than the city center. It will take some time, even with our scouts all taking on guard uniforms to help.”

“Ask them to lead anyone they find to the nearest underground passage.”

Graphite began channeling his spell again, preparing to convey the message. “We’ll try, but it’s going to be a challenge to convince ponies along the borders of the city that they should head back in.”

“I know, but I’m not willing to take any chances with this,” Twilight said as she took another anxious glance toward the spire. “Just do what you can to get as many of them underground as fast as you can.”

Luna furrowed her brow slightly, asking, “Were we not aiming to evacuate the city if things took a bad turn?”

Graphite continued to concentrate on channeling his spell even as he answered. “We’re sending as many as we can to Canterlot as fast as is possible.”

“You’re using the platform now,” Luna said as she glanced down at her side to Twilight.

“I’m sure you felt it too,” Twilight said as she glanced up to Luna shortly before looking back out to the spire. “If Chrystallyn loses control of that much power, being anywhere near the Empire won’t be safe. Trains would be too slow and can’t possibly carry all of the Empire’s citizens.”

“Yes, I see your reasoning,” Luna said with a knowing nod as she too glanced out to the spire. The tension left in the wake of such destructive power being unleashed was near palpable. At any moment, Chrystallyn could attempt to use the power again. They had to assume that they had only a few precious moments to prepare for the worst and get as many to safety as soon as possible.

“Twilight!” Twilight quickly glanced to the side, her eyes scanning the skies to search for the voice. Spike’s form was easy to spot, and she quickly galloped to where he was landing. He came in quick, his clawed toes skidding across the crystal pavement for a short distance before he slid to one knee. He opened his arms toward Twilight just as she leapt from the ground into them, quickly folding his arms around her as he hugged her close and wrapped his large wings around her.

“I was worried,” he said as he nuzzled his jaw along the back of her neck. He opened his eyes, looking out at the group that was gathering nearby. “Everyone make it out of there okay?” he asked as he pulled his head back and looked down to her.

Twilight leaned back, resting her forehooves against his chest to look up to him. “Yes, we’re all fine, Spike,” she said with a happy smile before she leaned back in to rest the side of her face against him. “And I’m so glad to see you.”

“Well, good job on getting everyone out of there,” he said. She glanced up to him with a curious look as he lowered her down gently to the street. “Couldn’t have been easy to take Discord out,” he said as he cast a thoughtful glance up to the spire.

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked, her brow furrowing deeply. Her ears splayed back as Spike glanced back to her with a confused look on his face. “Discord helped us.”

The uneasy silence that followed was broken a short moment later when Luna spoke up and asked, “Did I hear you correctly?”

Twilight only made a passing glance to Luna before turning her attention back to Spike. “What made you think I took him out?” she asked.

“Well, I kinda assumed it was you when I saw him laid out back there,” he said as he hiked a thumb over his shoulder.

The sound of a set of hooves scampering a few steps caught their attention. Fluttershy stood there slightly ahead of the rest of the group, a surprised if not somewhat hopeful look on her face. “You found him?” she asked of Spike as she took a couple more timid steps forward.

Twilight glanced back to Spike, who was nervously scratching at the scales behind his right ear. He glanced from Fluttershy to Twilight, seeming unsure what to say. Twilight reached out, laying her fetlock against his side as she asked, “Where did you see him?”

The journey had taken only a few short minutes as Spike led the gathered group to where he had last seen Discord. What they found had left the entire group staring on in stunned silence. A large chunk of the crystal spire had landed nearby, taking half of a house out with it when it had fallen from the sky and embedded itself in the ground. Among the scattered crystal rubble laid the twisted body of the draconequus, his body and limbs bent and turned in unnatural directions and covered with multiple gashes. He appeared completely motionless other than the slight movement of his bat wing that stuck straight up, waving back and forth as it caught the breeze.

Fluttershy let out a faint whimper, averting her gaze from the sight. Rainbow sat next to her, wrapping one of her wings around her friend and pulling her close to where she was resting against Rainbow’s shoulder.

“This isn’t right,” Rarity whispered nearby. She slowly shook her head as she looked away down to her hooves.

Twilight looked from side to side to her friends, finding them all to seem saddened or upset at the sight before them. She recalled a time long ago when most of her friends, and herself included, viewed Discord as nothing much more than an annoying problem they wished they could encase in stone, but as time had marched on, that had changed. Eventually, they had all at least come to an understanding of him. It seemed that events in this history had managed to led to a similar result, even if a bit sooner, but had then been brought to a very abrupt end. Taking a few steps forward, Twilight approached him, setting herself just within reach of him as she looked down upon his silent form.

It was at that very moment that his eyelids slid open, and his eyes rolled forward to look right at her. It took every fiber of her being not to scream, though she did jerk her forehooves back in shock, tucking them against her chest as she sucked in a gasp.

“Fancy meeting you hear—” Discord began to say, but his gravely sounding and gurgling voice was cut off by a torrent of hacking coughs. His limbs twitched wildly as he gasped deeply for air, and a spray of red droplets spattered the ground near his mouth when a second wave of coughs wracked his body.

“Don’t! Don’t talk,” Twilight pleaded with him. A few raspy gasps later and Discord managed to get his coughing fit under control, choosing instead to merely laid there as he laboriously drew breath. “You’re really badly injured,” Twilight said as she timidly reached her hoof toward him, keeping it just a short distance from actually touching him.

At her comment, Discord squinted his eyes slightly and then rolled them in an exaggerated manner that seemed to say ‘no kidding’.

“Can you help him?” Twilight glanced back to her side to find that Fluttershy had quietly moved up right next to her. She sat there next to Twilight, holding one hoof to her muzzle as she looked out over Discord’s injuries in close detail. She glanced out of the corner of her eye to Twilight, a slight whimper coming from her as her worried glance darted back and forth between them a few times. “We have to do something for him. It wouldn’t be right to just leave him like this,” she pleaded.

Twilight looked Discord over, taking note of the numerous open wounds and obviously broken bones. It was honestly a shock that he could still be alive, let alone somehow conscious, in that state, but then he was nothing like a pony. “I’m not sure my magic would do any good. I have no idea how his body would react to it,” Twilight said as she glanced back to Fluttershy. “Honestly, it could cause him a lot more harm than good for all I know.”

“Can’t exactly hurt him much more,” Applejack said as she stepped up to Twilight’s other side.

Twilight turned aside toward her group of friends, finding them all looking to her to do something to ease Discord’s suffering. “You’re right, but...,” she said as she cast a helpless glance back at him.

While the others debated what, if anything, they could do for Discord, Chrysalis silently approached his crippled form from beside them. She watched him as he struggled to draw breath, his eyes following her closely all the while. He didn’t speak, and only offered her a small grin that tugged at the corners of his mouth despite the ruined state he was in.

Chrysalis sighed, closing her eyes. “Discord,” she said. The others around her fell silent, turning toward her to watch as she looked upon him with a stoic gaze. Discord’s left ear perked just slightly, and the climbing of his eyebrows was only barely noticeable as he waited to hear what she had to say. She let go a another longer sigh, and then said, “Despite the part of me that thinks you really don’t deserve this... you have my permission to heal yourself.”

Discord’s heavy breathing paused for a few seconds, his eyes widening in surprise. Twisting his left arm around, he grimaced as he placed his open palm upon the ground and shakily pushed himself up. He drew in a deep gasp, and then let out many retching coughs, spilling mouth fulls of crystal shards upon the ground. His body popped and cracked as he twisted it and coiled it around under himself into a sitting position. Every snap and crunch that his body gave out caused most of the group to flinch or cringe away slightly, and more than a few of them were looking a bit squeamish after a moment.

“The binding spell,” Twilight said as she looked to Chrysalis. “I didn’t even consider trying that.” Chrysalis and Chrystallyn were technically the same being that had casted the spell, and now Chrysalis and her friends had possession of the Elements.

“To be honest, I actually had doubts it would work,” Chrysalis said with an indifferent shrug.

“Well, that was quite unpleasant,” Discord said between coughs. He hammered a fist against his chest, clearing his throat with a deep growl before spitting another saliva coated glob of crystal shards on the ground. He then tilted his head, shaking it as a glasslike rattling sound filled the air and more shards fell from his ear. “I’ll be tasting and smelling crystal for weeks,” he commented dryly as he worked a talon up one nostril, digging about profusely and then pulling it back with a snot covered shard pinched between two talons. He seemed not to pay any mind the disapproving and revolted glances he got as he flicked it away. “Though I must say,” he said, his voice slightly strained as he arched his back, filling the air with more sounds of bones grinding and popping, “I am a tad surprised.”

“The thought of being eternally indebted to you didn’t set well with me,” Chrysalis quipped.

“Oh-ho! So you did it for yourself then,” he said with a wide grin upon his face, all the while he was twisting his neck from side to side to work out the kinks.

“You’re one to talk,” she snipped back in a huff.

Discord let out a contented sigh, crossing his legs before himself as he sat a bit hunched over with his hands each resting upon a knee. His skin seemed to be nearly done knitting all of the open wounds back closed. “True, true. I’ll admit, what happened up there was mostly for my own benefit,” he said as he cast a satisfied glance over his shoulder toward the spire. “But it did work out well for all those involved, did it not? Well, other than for the other you, of course. Speaking of, I hardly consider our little showdown to be finished, but with these gifts she imparted upon me, I’ve found it rather difficult to stand on equal terms with her.” Discord raised his hands, giving both forearms a quick shake as he looked upon Chrysalis with a hopeful grin.

Chrysalis dryly said, “Forget it,” looking as if the very thought of freeing him of the bindings was the most repugnant thing that had ever been suggested to her.

Discord tisked, waggling a finger. “Now now, before you dismiss my generous offer to take care of this little mess so casually, you should at least ask everyone else what they think,” he said, gesturing toward the rest of the Element bearers.

Fluttershy took a cautious step toward him, holding a single forehoof lifted slightly as she glanced up to him. “You’d really help us?” she asked.

“Oh would I!” Discord declared as he jumped up and quickly swept his arms down to scoop Fluttershy from the ground. He held her out at arm’s length slightly above his head as she drew her legs up against her barrel and let out a surprised squeak. He then tucked her against his chest in one arm like one might hold a teddy bear, petting her on the head as he turned toward the rest of the group. “I would put on a show that none of you would ever forget!” he proclaimed as he cast his free hand up toward the sky, though he didn’t exactly receive an excited reception for his offer.

“Discord,” Twilight said, waiting just long enough for him to focus on her. “This isn’t a game. There are lives at stake here.”

“Ever the serious one, aren’t you,” he said with a slight grin. He leaned forward toward Twilight, relaxing his grip and allowing Fluttershy to scamper away to hide near Rainbow he drew his arms back to rest them on his hips. “Tell me then, Twilight Sparkle. Have you decided what to do about... that?” he asked, perking one eyebrow and pointing one talon at something behind her.

Twilight turned about, looking up at the shattered crystal spire. Near the top of the spire, many jagged spikes of red crystal were growing from the sides, and a red glow seemed to permeate the entire spire near where the upper throne room used to be. Arcs of red energy danced across the surface of the crystal here and there, and then a bolt of red lightning arced from the tip of one of the jutting crystals all the way to the residents down below.

Though they were a fair distance away from the impact, they could still see the large debris cloud it had kicked into the air. As the cloud began to settle, Twilight could make out movement inside. A large shadow lurched forward, and at the same time she felt the vibration and heard the rumbling as something enormous took a step and sent a shockwave through the ground. Then a large claw swung out of the cloud, striking a building and toppling it with ease much like a child kicking over a sand castle. After a few more slow, rumbling steps, Twilight could clearly see what appeared to be a gigantic scorpion made entirely of glowing red crystal.

“I could take care of that little nuisance with but a thought,” Discord offered, catching Twilight a bit by surprise. She had been so focused on the unbelievable sight before her that she hadn’t notice him leaning in to hover right next to her ear. She leaned away from him slightly as he grinned at her and asked, “Can you?”

Twilight knew the extent of Discord’s power. He could basically remake anything into whatever he wanted, bend the world to his will and completely upset the rules of the universe if he so desired. Right now, the only thing that kept him from doing so was the binding spell placed upon him. However, if his powers were to be released, the odds were very likely that he would focus his attention on one simple desire.

Twilight closed her eyes, sparing a moment of thought to consider his offer. Yes, this Discord was from a different history. Yes, given his nature, he could end up betraying them. But he had chosen of his own free will to risk his own life and save theirs, even if only to take a cheap shot at Chrystallyn. However, this wasn’t a choice that Twilight could make on her own. She glanced to the side up to Chrysalis. “He is the best match for her.”

Chrysalis silently regarded Twilight, her inner turmoil visible as the chitin covering her face flexed as she ground her teeth together. And then, another bolt of lighting cascaded from the top of the tower off in the distance, striking the city below. The situation was very quickly getting worse, and a decision on what to do next needed to be made soon. Chrysalis muttered something under her breath as she took a few steps around Twilight to stand before Discord. “I can’t believe I’m about to do this,” she said as she shook her head.

Discord held his arms up in front of her as his muzzle twisted to a smug grin. However, his grin quickly faded when she forcefully jabbed a hoof against his chest. “Know this,” she growled as she ground her hoof against his chest. “If I end up regretting this decision... So. Will. You.” She made a point to punctuate each of the last few words with a firm jab as she glared harshly at him.

The smirk slowly crept back onto Discords face as he said, “Point taken.”

Chrysalis let out a frustrated huff, stamping her hoof on the ground. She then raised her head, looking him straight in the eyes as she said, “You may use your powers... unrestricted.”

Discord blinked at her, still holding his hands up before her. “Oh...,” he said slowly as he glanced at the bracers still firmly locked around his wrists.

“What do you mean, ‘Oh’?” Chrysalis said angrily, stepping forward and nearly pushing her muzzle against his, causing him to lean back slightly.

“Well, I’m not normally one to complain, but... I suppose I just had something else in mind,” he said as he shrugged, but when he noticed that Chrysalis was beginning to bear her fangs at him she quickly added, “but, this will do!”

Clearing his throat, Discord stood tall and took a few steps in the direction of the spire. There were now two large crystal creatures lumbering about near the base of the tower, one resembling a scorpion and the other a dragon, both being large enough to topple any buildings that they came in contact with without any resistance. Discord rubbed his hands together as he flexed his neck back and forth, and once he had prepared himself, he lifted his talons upward, poised and ready to release a snap.

He struck a dramatic pose as he snapped his fingers, pointing them in the direction of one of the crystal behemoths. He remained in the pose for a few seconds until he shifted back, standing up and looking down at his talons with a bit of confusion. He then tried again, and again and again, then let out an annoyed growl as he grumbled, “Why isn’t this working...,” under his breath.

“Discord,” Luna snapped nearby, drawing his attention toward her. “This is not the time for your jokes.”

“Oh, zip it,” he said as he flipped his talons in her direction. Just as the words left his mouth, a zipper appeared across Luna’s lips, zipping them shut. Luna jumped back in surprise, lifting a hoof up to her mouth. She then turned a harsh glare back on Discord as she released a closed mouth yell in his direction. “Oh, well that worked,” Discord said thoughtfully as he tugged as his goatee.

“Discord!” Twilight quickly shouted, causing him to cringe. His eyes darted to her, and when he saw her giving him a weapon’s grade disapproving glare, he quickly back away a few steps.

With a flick of his wrist in Luna’s direction, the zipper on her mouth opened with a fast zipping sound and vanished. “Mistake! Just a slip of the tongue,” he said as he defensively waved his hands. His eyes quickly glanced about, noticing that Twilight wasn’t the only one that had turned disapproving look in his direction. “Honestly! I don’t know why it isn’t working!”

“You’re so useless,” Chrysalis said, rolling her eyes.

“Wait! Wait, just let me think,” Discord said, pacing back and forth as he vigorously tugged at his goatee. After a couple circles, he suddenly stopped, seeming suddenly very interested in the ground just before him. He slowly squinted his eyes at a spot there were the edge of the crystal road met the grass that ran alongside it, and then slowly raised his talons before snapping them. As he did, the grass shifted and morphed into chocolate pudding right up to the edge of the crystal street. He stared at the pudding puddle for a few seconds, then turned a deadpan glance back toward Chrysalis.

Chrysalis backed away a step. “What!?” she demanded with a half angry, half confused look on her face.

“Oh you know what!” Discord said as he turned toward her and folded his arms across his chest. All eyes were now looking back and forth between the two as they both stared each other down. “The entire city? Really?” Discord finally asked as he swept one hand out at his side in a gesture.

The confused look on Chrysalis’s face slowly changed as understanding seemed to settle in. “Oh...,” she quietly said, glancing slightly off to the side.

“Yes, ’Ooooh’,” Discord said with a wide eyed, exaggerated look on his face. “Well go on! Tell them.”

Chrysalis sat back on her haunches, tucking a foreleg against her chest and splaying her ears back as all eyes looked her way. “Why are you acting like it’s my fault?” she shot back at him. “Can you blame me after what happened to Everfree?”

“Hold on,” Twilight said, stepping in between them. She turned toward Chrysalis, asking her, “What’s he going on about?”

Chrysalis cast one last angry glare in Discord’s direction before answering. “When I created the Empire, I made sure Discord’s power wouldn’t be able to touch it. I’d honestly forgotten it’s been so long.”

Twilight let out an exhausted sigh. So much for having Discord fix things the easy way. “So, there’s nothing you can do to help?” she asked as she turned her glance toward him.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” Discord said casually as he snapped his fingers. As he did, a mallet with a handle nearly as tall as he was appeared next to him. The head on the mallet was shaped like a large drum barrel and covered with a black and white checkered pattern, except for the multi-colored lettering etched across it in twisted lettering that spelled out the word ‘Chaos!’. He took the mallet in hand, swinging it about effortlessly to bring it to rest across his shoulder. “Liberal application of blunt force trauma should make those things stop moving. It’s just not as interesting as what I’d had in mind.”

“Okay, well we better start doing something about this before it gets completely out of hoof.” Twilight turned her attention back to the rest of the group, looking first to Luna. “Luna, we need to try and stop these things before they tear up what’s left of the city.” Luna gave a curt nod in agreement. “The rest of you, head south to the underground entrance.”

“Hey wait just a minute!” Rainbow said, springing up from the ground. She quickly dropped back down right before Twilight, giving her a very stern look as she said, “We’re coming too.”

“Rainbow, no arguing,” Twilight said with a quick shake of her head. She caught Rainbow right before she could protest further, saying, “I need you all there. We have an entire city of scared crystal ponies trying to get to safety, and if anything gets past us then it will be on all of you to protect them.”

“She does have a point,” Chrysalis said. “We could use the Elements if necessary to safeguard the area around us, but only if we are all together.”

“Exactly,” Twilight said with a quick nod. She waited until Rainbow reluctantly agreed and stepped back to stand with the rest of the group. “Cadance, I need you to put up a shield over the entrance when you get there,” she said, to which Cadance confirmed with a quick nod. “Graphite, have the other entrances sealed and have the guards send anyone they find south. We can’t spread out and guard all eight.”

With the new impromptu plan in place, most of the group departed southward while Twilight, Luna, and Discord remained behind. Twilight looked to each of them on either side of her, then turned about as she said, “Let’s go.”

As Twilight and Luna had approached the city center from the air, they split up to each intercept one of the two crystal constructs that had sprung up. Discord had also ‘split up’, producing a duplicate of himself so he could follow them both.

Luna had chosen to take on the crystal creature that resembled a giant scorpion. As she and Discord landed on the street a few blocks nearby, they saw hundreds of smaller crystal scorpions skittering about, ranging in size from that of a small dog to those pony sized and everything between. Every time the titan scorpion took a step and plunged one of its sharp legs into the street, the resulting shards of crystal that were kicked up would slowly twist and reform, coming alive as tiny duplicates of the giant creature.

“I have to give her points for creativity,” Discord said as he hefted his mallet from his shoulder with one hand. He took a few steps forward, eyeing one of the dog sized scorpions that had noticed their arrival and was skittering quickly toward them. Just as it launched itself from the ground in a leap toward his face, he swung the mallet in a wide horizontal arc. The scorpion was caught against the flat of the mallet head mid jump, and made a satisfying pop as it was shattered into a spray of shards that showered the street. The red glow in the shattered shards quickly faded out, leaving behind only inert crystals fragments.

Luna quickly drew upon her magic, causing a silver mist to condense from the air around her and conform to her body. The mist solidified into her nightmare barding, though this was much more real than the illusion she had been using earlier. Her magic then crackled as it ripped at the space just before her, and from the dark tear that formed there she pulled her war mace, Fallen Star, from where it had slumbered for the past thousand years.

Discord looked back to her, grinning widely and quickly snapping his fingers. He instantly vanished then reappeared in a flash, sitting upon a saddle and holding onto the reins of the bridle that had somehow been added to her armor. Luna blinked in surprise, and then reared back at the sudden tug at her mouth when Discord pulled back on the reins as he shouted, “Charge!”

Luna firmly planted her forehooves back on the street, then turned an angry glare on him so intense, it was a wonder that it didn’t instantly singe the eyebrows from his forehead. “No!” she said in as demanding a tone as she could manage around the bit, pointing a forehoof at her mouth in a motion demanding its immediate removal.

“Oh,” Discord whined as he gave her a pathetic look. He let his bottom lip quiver a bit as he feebly shook the loose reins in his hands a few more times, but she wouldn’t relent. When he realized that she was going to have absolutely nothing to do with his recommended battle approach, he let out a defeated sigh before snapping his fingers again. He instantly reappeared standing next to her, the saddle and bridle both gone. “Fine, we’ll do it your way,” he said as he idly twirled his mallet.

Luna squinted a glare in warning at him, her lips a thin straight line across her muzzle, before she turned her attention forward. She leaned into her stride as she took off down the street, her metal shod hooves creating a rumble like an oncoming thunderstorm as she closed the distance between herself and her adversary. As she neared her target, the smaller and much quicker scorpions turned toward her first. They were so numerous it almost appeared like a wave of glowing red crystal was cascading down the street toward her.

The first few that made it to her ahead of the rest met a quick demise as they leapt through the air toward her, shattered into a fine spray of shards as Fallen Star twirled and dipped in perfect timing to catch each one squarely against the flat of the cubic war mace just as they were within inches of touching her. She didn’t slow her pace, even when the tide of crystal scorpions became so thick around her that she was shattering them by the dozens with each pass that Fallen Star made about her. Her weapon moved like a blur, parting the sea of crystal creatures as she galloped full speed toward the titan lumbering about less than a block away from her.

There was no doubt that her approach had been spotted as the titan shifted on its legs to face her. It extended its right claw, sweeping the enormous appendage forcefully through a building in an arc toward Luna and crushing dozens upon dozens of its own tiny crystal brethren in the attempt to strike her down. However, Luna had lept and left the ground less than a second before the claw passed just under her. She quickly angled her wings to descend toward the back of the titan, and had to fall into a spin as she tucked her wings tightly against her body and rolled to avoid the end of its tail as it swung so closely past her that she felt the gust of wind following it.

Luna landed on the titan’s back, sliding on her side a bit along the crystallized interlocking armored plates. Her hooves finally caught along the grooves between the plates and she used her wings to push herself up and leap just in time to avoid the left claw that was intent on catching her. Her hooves lit upon the claw just after it snapped shut, and she used the powerful muscles in her legs to push off from the side of it to propel herself forward toward the titan’s head. However, just as she was sailing forward with Fallen Star at her side, the right claw found its way back into the fight again as it blindsided her, snapping closed around her body.

She cried out in frustration as she attempted to wrest herself from the claw’s grasp, but the way that it had caught her had left one wing pinned against her body at a rather painful angle and had managed to pin her weapon against her side as well. Just when her magic was beginning to budge the claw, a sudden rush of speed took her off guard when the titan forcefully took its claw and slammed it down against the ground tip first. The resulting impact against the crystal street knocked the breath from Luna’s lungs, leaving her gasping, and also wedged the pincers together to keep her magic from finding enough leverage to escape. The second claw came around, slamming into the ground just behind the first one and constricting around her body to restrict her movement even further. Her enchanted armor groaned under the strain of being crushed by the claws as it managed just barely to keep the titan’s strength at bay. Laying pinned on her side, Luna’s eye could see the large tail as it swung back over the titan’s back out of view for just a second, then watched as the titan’s body lurched forward as it put all the force it could muster into bringing the stinger down upon her.

The tail stopped only a mere body length away at the same moment something loudly lashed at the air. Luna’s ears twitched as she picked up on the sound of chain links jingling. Wrapped around the giant tail near the base of the stinger was a golden glowing length of chain that trailed up into the sky. Luna squinted her eye just as the sun began to peak out around the edge of the solar eclipse, blinking a few times. Her sight adjusted as the glare softened, and there at the other end of the golden chain against a backdrop of the fading eclipse she saw Celestia. She had the remaining slack of Sunray wrapped around her foreleg and looped around her barrel as she feverishly beat her wings against the air to hold the titan’s attack back.

Luna saw her opening, and grit her teeth tightly together as she twisted aside as much as she could, just barely enough to loosen Fallen Star and pull it free. Her magic gripped the war mace, and with a resounding warcry she put a burst of magic behind it, sending it spinning upward. Fallen Star shattered the titan’s tail where it hit, leaving it a jagged stump. The giant stinger, now dangling loosely in Sunray’s coils, lifted skyward as Celestia hefted it toward herself. The links of Sunray retracted as she drew it closer until she had brought it up to her side. Her magic began to spin the ensnared stinger in a circle like the head of a gigantic morningstar, and once it had gained a considerable amount of speed, she cast the stinger back down toward its former owner. The sound of the wrecking ball sized stinger parting the air and the jingling of Sunray’s links mixed together, and then all ended in a spectacular crash as the stinger impacted the titan’s thorax just behind its head, demolishing the titan’s body in a single blow. The shattered crystal shards that remained hardly resembled the titan creature they had just been, with only a few noticeable body parts laying about here and there other than the two disembodied pincers still imbedded in the ground that held Luna captive.

“Luna!” Celestia’s voice rung out, though Luna couldn’t find her at the angle she was pinned to the ground. She could hear the sound of Celestia’s armor shod hooves touching down and quickly cantering up to her, then saw her sister’s worried face come into view around the side of the pincer. Celestia’s horn lit and her magic began to pry at the pincer holding Luna captive, and Luna wasted no time adding her own magic to the attempt to free herself. The pincer finally gave way, one half of it falling away as it fractured all the way through. Finally able to pull herself free, Luna quickly got to her hooves, wincing a bit when she rotated her wing back around to her side. Celestia wasted no time applying her radiant magic to Luna’s wing to check for injuries, asking, “Are you alright? You’re not badly injured, are you?”

“I’m fine. I’m fine, sister,” Luna said as she held a hoof to Celestia’s shoulder to push her back a step. Celestia reluctantly let her magic fade though the worried look on her face did not. Luna only let out a long sigh as she glanced back to the pile of rubble behind her left behind by the titan’s destruction. “Given more time, I would have likely finished the creature myself,” she grumbled.

“Hardly!” Celestia said, her worried look now replaced with an upset frown. “It was about to take your head off.”

Luna matched the frown with one of her own. For a time, the two sisters just silently stared at one another, until Luna let go a quick huff as she said, “Well, I thought I would have some help.”

“Hah!” Discord quickly quipped from nearby. Both sisters turned their head to find him pushing a large pile of crystal shards off to the side with a wide bristle broom. “I think I did more than my share,” he said as he gestured to the pile. “While you two spent all your time working on that one, I took care of the other five hundred thirty-two—whoops!” Discord quickly twirled the broom about in his hand, shifting it back into his mallet when he spotted a crippled crystal scorpion attempting to scamper out of the pile of crystals. He landed a quick crushing blow on the crystal creature, reducing it to nothing but a scattered pile of shards before shifting his mallet back into a broom as he corrected his earlier statement by adding, “five hundred thirty-three.”

“Yes, well, we did take out the biggest one,” Luna shot back at him, to which he only waved her off and blew a raspberry as he pushed the pile of crystal shards further down the street. Luna shook her head and rolled her eyes, then noticed the hopelessly confused look on her sister’s face. “He’s helping,” Luna said, quickly adding, “Do not ask why, please,” when Celestia turned her very confused glance toward her. “In all seriousness, what kept you? Did you not notice that things had gone rather awry until just now?”

Celestia gave her head a slight shake as she filed away Discord’s involvement in all of this as ‘something to worry about later’. “Keeping a solar eclipse in place does take quite a bit of focus, Luna,” she said, but then her expression softened considerably. “I apologize for not arriving sooner.” She then got very quiet, talking in just above a whisper as she said, “When I saw that thing holding you down...,” but she trailed off into silence as the worried look overtook her again.

To say that their relationship had been under strain lately would be an understatement, but at this moment Luna couldn’t help but feel a pang in her heart. It wasn’t often that she had ever seen Celestia with such a distraught look. Despite all that had transpired between them and how much things may have changed, she was obviously still the same older sister that often worried over her younger sister’s well being.

A flash of red followed closely by a rumble of thunder caught their attention. Both sisters turned toward the sound, finding another cloud of debris settling nearby. As the cloud dissipated, another large crystal creature rose, this one appearing as a minotaur towering above the buildings around it.

Luna’s horn glowed, and nearby her magic wrested Fallen Star from where it had landed in the crystal street nearby. “This is an endless foe,” she said as she brought her weapon to rest just across her shoulders, hooking her foreleg just over the weapon’s handle as she glanced upward at the crystal behemoth.

Celestia stepped up next to Luna’s side, the chains of Sunray clattering against her armor as the ends dangled from where it was draped across her shoulders. “Like old times, isn’t it?” she said thoughtfully as she too looked out upon the crystal monster.

“Very old times,” Luna said, and then momentarily closed her eyes as she recalled times past when she and her sister had stood shoulder to shoulder to face down Equestria’s foes. She then glanced to her side, the faintest hint of a smile on her muzzle as she asked, “Shall we?”

Celestia smiled back, giving a single nod before they both turned their attention forward and launched themselves into the sky.

When It All Began

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter XXIII – When It All Began

Twilight walked at a steady pace across the endless wasteland, her hooves sinking slightly into the sandy surface with each step. All around her in every direction appeared to be nothing but sand. There was no breeze. There was not a cloud in the sky. There was no sun, no moon, and no stars, and the only light came from the sourceless dim glow from the horizon that cast the endless desert in a dark blue light.

This was the second time she had visited this place. The first was so long ago, from her relative perspective. Chronologically, this was her first visit, and quite possibly the first visit. Time travel had a tendency to make things confusing like that. She had almost forgotten, what with the quite lengthy break she had taken from using time travel magic. So much had happened since then. So many things had changed, even herself. She had grown since her younger days, both mentally and physically. She easily stood just as tall as either Cadence or Luna, though Luna claimed she would likely always be the tallest of the three, even if by an unnoticeable amount, due to the age difference. It was a point that Twilight was willing to concede since it seemed to bring Luna a certain level of happiness. However, when it came to sheer strength of mind and magical talent, not even Celestia had been able to match Twilight for quite some time.

She was, after all, the Princess of the Magic of Friendship, Keeper of the Elements, and Equestria’s Eternal Defender. Those were the titles that she at least acknowledged, as there were quite a few others that she had been given over the centuries that she saw as frivolous nonsense and didn’t care to commit to memory. Even after so much time, she still found titles in general to be mostly silly, and prefered to simply be addressed as Twilight, or Princess Twilight Sparkle if the formality was absolutely required.

It was her tasks, not her titles, that she held in high importance, and it was one such task that had drawn her here to this place and time. She had brought with her the six Elements of Harmony, Magic set within the silver crown upon her head and the other five sister Elements set within the silver peytral that rested against her chest. The only other visible barding she wore was upon her hooves in the form of polished silver slippers that covered the front of her forelegs up to just below the ankles.

Every time she lifted a hoof to take another step forward, a wispy trail of sand followed. She glanced back over her shoulder momentarily at the trail she had left through the otherwise unblemished surface, and could no longer see where she had begun her journey. She looked back forward as she continued onward, the motion causing her sparkling mane rise from where it rested against the side of her neck for but a short moment, seeming to hang aloft on a gentle breeze before slowly settling back against her neck once again. She was getting very close now; she could feel it. It was almost the right when and where.

She finally stopped, closing her eyes for a moment as she focused on her sense for magic. The rest of her senses momentarily fell away, and she reached out with her being to the world around her.

There was nothing, almost. No other magic source existed in this vast desert, except for one tenuous spark that seemed to guide her, the only anomaly in an otherwise void world. It was nearby now, very nearby. Her eyes slowly opened as she glanced off into the sky near her. Her horn lit with a very dim glow, and her spell took form as a small, nearly transparent holographic layer of magenta light that curved and hovered just before her eyes. Her Holographic Universal Display spell began to scan the sky where ever her eyes looked, reporting back to her with a visual graph of the magic level just to the left of her vision that shifted gradually up and down as she slowly turned her head. She squinted slightly when three tiny triangles of bright magenta appeared upon the HUD pointing at a spot that her spell was tracking in the sky. A small line trailed off from the lower right triangle to the side with a numeric reading of the distance, indicating that the location was quite high and some distance away. About the right distance to be relatively safe, given what it was she was tracking.

“There you are,” she said quietly. She had found the where, now it was time to wait on the when. With any luck, her wait wouldn’t be too long. She had erred on the side of being early, since being late was not an option. Measuring to the exact moment and location of the anomaly had not been possible due to the unique factors involved with this particular event. Only now, after so much relative time had passed since then, did she feel confident enough in her own abilities to make the attempt at intercepting it. There would only be the one chance, and failure was not an option.

Twilight’s ears twitched at the sound of her HUD spell emitting three chimes, signaling a warning. She focused on the location in the sky, and the graph to the left showed a sudden and steadily rising increase of magic. It was happening.

Her horn glowed as magenta lines traced out the shape of her royal armor across her body, and as the lines faded, the silver plates of her barding appeared in their place held to her body by white woven straps. Her hooves shifted in the sand as she took a braced stance against the surface, and her wings unfolded to their full span, causing a brief gust that disturbed the sand around her. She focused on the spot of growing power in the sky, her eyes quickly flicking to and from the graph showing the steady rise in power. She could already feel the magic increasing herself.

A visible spark flickered in the sky. It started as a small speck of red light, and then quickly grew brighter as charged bolts of red lightning crackled from the point. The graph suddenly spiked, and the sky grew painfully bright. Twilight squinted her eyes as her HUD adjusted to cut the glare, and she watched as the space around the point began to distort as if it were being pulled inward toward it. And then, there was a loud, thundering crash just as the gigantic red crystal construct appeared there hovering in the sky.

Twilight’s HUD chimed a loud warning in her ears as a small, blinking triangle appeared near the top, directing her sight upward. She found a house sized shard of red crystal flipping end over end as it fell from the sky above her. She lept a short distance back and crouched to the ground before launching herself just as the tip of the shard hit right in front of her. A large cloud of dust billowed into the air from the impact, instantly engulfing the area, and a second later, Twilight burst forth from the cloud, a trail of dust following her exit as she sailed upward into the sky.

She climbed upward as quickly as her wings would take her, leveling off once she was close to even with the crystal construct’s center. She banked into a wide turn, circling the floating crystal from a safe distance while her HUD quickly scanned the area around it. An uncountable number of loose shards of crystal that ranged in size from tiny as pebbles to larger than buildings rose and fell in the sky around it as arcs of power lept between the shards and the main crystal construct. The air crackled with each charge of power that lept through it, and the loose fragments shifted about seemingly at random, some colliding with others or the side of the large crystal and shattering into deadly clouds of razor sharp shrapnel. The entire construct was getting more unstable by the second as large chunks of crystal periodically exploded and ejected debris that fell to the ground below.

“Where are you,” Twilight said as her eyes darted about. The HUD was still searching, finding shifts in the magical aura about the crystal, predicting surges of power and collisions, but hadn’t found the most important thing that Twilight was searching for. Finally, a bright set of blinking triangles appeared, tracking a falling point near the side of the crystal. Twilight reacted immediately, sharply banking to the side to head straight at it. The HUD spell flooded her senses with warnings as she closed in, targeting the potential hazards she should avoid as she made her approach.

Just as she reached and passed through the outer threshold of shards hovering around the crystal, her HUD spell began to react wildly. It flickered and flashed before her eyes as it struggled to keep its form, and what readings she could make out seemed to sporadically change. All magic within the influence of the crystal was behaving erratically, so Twilight chose to dispel her HUD as she continued to dive toward the location it had shown her, choosing to rely on her own sense to guide her to her target.

The storm of magical power seemed to lash out at her as she passed between the hovering shards, coming dangerously close as the surges arced through the sky. She dodged and weaved as she felt the incoming surges, managing to feel her way through as she closed in on the last known location of her target. One particularly large shard held aloft by tendrils of lightning was blocking her path just ahead. She banked sharply around the left side, skimming within touching distance of the large shard, and as she pulled up and out of the sharp turn, her eyes quickly darted about as they scanned the area for her target.

“There!” she said as she quickly dove forward. Her wings pulled in close to her sides, barely open as she picked up speed in an almost vertical dive. Her target was falling head over hooves, limply spinning about in the air. Twilight opened her forelegs and fanned her wings out to slow herself just before she arrived. She wrapped her forelegs tightly around her past self just as they collided in midair, sending them both into a spin. “I’ve got you!” she said as she flapped her wings to try and right herself. Just as she leveled out, she felt a nearby surge building. Unable to dodge the incoming bolt in time, she tried to form a shield to deflect it away instead. The arc of lightning struck her shield with a loud crack, and the combined magics caused a small explosion. The concussive force caused Twilight’s grip to slip just enough that her younger self fell from her gasp.

She recovered from the blast quickly, turning over and then angling herself straight downward into a dive once again. She flew as straight and as fast as she could, trying to catch up to her younger self that was falling helplessly in a flat spin on her back. As she closed the distance, her senses picked up on a large surge along the side of the crystal. Her eyes darted to her right just in time to see the explosion that ejected the cloud of crystal fragments. She quickly rolled, spending a powerful gust of air out around herself as she dove through the cloud. Most of the fragments gave way to the gust with only a few of the thinner fragments cutting through and glancing against her armor. She felt some tiny stings from the few that had glanced her fur and scraped at the skin beneath, but she ignored the pain as she pushed herself forward into the dive.

Twilight’s descent was quick enough to pass by her younger self, and she angled her wings to level off as she came around in a tight arc. She opened her forelegs and leaned back, flapping her wings to try and slow herself right before they collided again. The two of them let out an ‘oof’ when they hit, and Twilight tightly hugged her younger self to her barrel. “I’ve got you this time, I promise. Just hold on!” she yelled as she banked away to put distance between them and the crystal. She adjusted her course as she felt the surges around her, picking a path through the magical storm and hail of crystal. She ducked her head when a crystal shard as big as herself screeched by her at high speed, letting out a startled shout as it whizzed by. She followed it with her eyes as it continued on its high speed trajectory forward, and then watched as it slammed into an enormous chunk of crystal that was falling right into her path.

She glanced about, looking for the shortest and safest path around the shard, but before she could decide she felt another surge building behind her. She quickly glanced over her shoulder back to the side of the crystal construct, and could see the power building to a single point as the arcs of red lightning skittered about on its surface. They were right in the path of the surge that was about to connect with the large chunk of crystal blocking her way.

Twilight looked back forward and steeled herself as she kept heading straight at the broad side of the enormous shard. Right when it seemed they were going to crash into it, Twilight tightened her grip and then rapidly spun about horizontally in one full spin with her right wing fully extended. The quick motion projected a high speed blade of air at the shard that seemed to pass right through it. A second later, the large shard fell into two pieces as a small gap appeared where the air had sliced it.

Twilight tucked her back legs and wings tightly against her body, holding her younger self tightly against her barrel as they slipped into the gap. She landed on her side, her armor sending sparks scattering about as they slid across the rough surface of the lower half of the divided shard. They slipped through to the other side of the gap, coming out in a backwards free fall as Twilight kept her focus toward the giant shard. At the exact moment she felt the surge peak, she created a shield between herself and the shard, blocking a small area of the crystal debris cloud as the shard exploded into thousands upon thousands of pieces. The rest of the fragments sped by them harmlessly to pelt the ground below.

Twilight rolled over to right herself in the sky and opened her wings enough to glide. “That... was a little more exciting than I remember,” she said, sounding short of breath. She picked a location below that appeared to be at a safe enough distance and glided in to a landing. As she touched down, she gently eased her younger self down just before herself. The younger Twilight groaned as her head lolled to the side. She was conscious, but only just barely so. Her chest suddenly heaved as she let out a quick gagging cough. “Oh, don’t puke on me, please,” the elder Twilight said, cringing slightly. She gently reached a hoof down, placing it against the side of the younger Twilight’s face to guide her head up slightly. Leaning her own head forward, the elder Twilight touched the tip of her horn against the younger’s horn as she let a small amount of her magic flow between them. A tiny magenta spark jumped across, and the younger Twilight sucked in a quick gasp of air.

“Wha—oh...,” the younger Twilight said with a groan, cringing as she rubbed a hoof against her forehead. She drew a hiss of air in through her clamped teeth as her squinted eyes blinked rapidly, and then she slowly glanced up to her side. Her pained expression slowly shifted toward disbelief as she stared up at her future self. After gawking silently for a few seconds, she managed only to say, “Huh?”

A quick smirk turned up the corner of the elder Twilight’s mouth, but she quickly glanced back over her shoulder when a loud explosion came from the crystal construct. “Just hold that thought for a moment,” she said as she turned and cantered away toward the crystal. Her magic lit, calling her HUD spell back into being over her eyes as she stopped and looked upward toward the crystal’s peak. “Alright, where is it?” she asked as a image of the Alicorn Amulet appeared on the display. It shrunk to the side, appearing as a small triangle spinning in the lower left peripheral of her vision while bright lines of magenta scanned horizontally and vertically across the HUD. After a few passes, the lines vanished, and many sets of triangles appeared pointing to potential targets. Many, many triangles. A total in the lower right of her vision read one hundred, thirty seven possibilities.

“Oh, no no, that can’t be right,” Twilight said as she tried to adjust the spell to account for the refracted ghost readings that the crystal was giving off. The lines scanned again, and the number dropped considerably to only seventeen, but that was still much more than the one she was hoping for. She furrowed her brow deeply as she began making more fine tuned adjustments, but stopped when a loud chiming alarm rung in her ears. The unstable power within the crystal was growing very close to the final tipping point. “I know,” Twilight said in answer to the alarm. She let the scanning spell do its work for a third time, and it came up with three possible results.

Twilight knew that any further adjustments to the spell would take far too long. She drew in a deep breath, letting it out as she said, “Okay....” She quickly considered her options, and then decided on her method for choosing her target.

“Eeny, meeny, miny... that one,” she said as she pointed her hoof randomly at the targets, finally settling on one. With one powerful thrust from her wings, she launched herself upward, stopping at a hover a short distance up. Her horn and eyes shone brightly with her power, and her Element came to life with its own light as it detached from where it was set within her crown. The other five sister Elements all detached from her peytral, spinning in a circle about Magic rapidly as a blir of rainbow light formed from their path. Once she felt that the Elements’ power was ready to cast her spell, she thrusted her forehooves and wings forward to release a focused blast of their power. A bright white, thin beam of light shot out from Magic and screeched across the sky toward the construct in an instant, and then blinked out almost as soon as it had appeared.

Twilight glided back down to the sandy surface, landing softly. She took hold of the six Elements with her magic as their power once again went dormant, and she slowly placed them back within her crown and armor as she kept a scrutinizing glare locked onto the crystal construct in the sky. A few tense seconds rolled by as nothing seemed to change, but then the glowing reddish color of the crystals began to fade. As the light within the crystals dimmed and went out, the shards hanging in the sky began to crash toward the ground. Finally, even the large construct at the center faded back to the natural dull blue and violet tones of the crystal it was made of, and the entire thing began to fall straight down.

Twilight let out a relieved sigh. She glanced over her shoulder behind herself, finding her younger self still sitting where she had been left, watching in amazement. Twilight quickly cantered over, setting herself beside her younger self as she looked back out to the falling mountain of crystal. The lower tip of the crystal hit the sandy surface, and it sent a tidal wave of sand in all directions as it plunged into the earth.

The elder Twilight looked on at the wall of sand rushing toward them, spreading her wings out at her sides. She glanced out of the corner of her eye, seeing the tension and uncertainty in her younger self as the sandstorm closed in on them. Seconds before it reached them, the elder Twilight put a foreleg around the younger to pull her close, and then folded her large wings over the both of them. They both huddled under the elder’s wings as the blast rushed by, and once the howling wind died down moments later, the elder quickly fanned her wings back out to blow back the lingering dust in the air.

The sandy surface around them had shifted into windswept dunes that radiated out from the mountain sized crystal spike that jutted out of the land. Relatively smaller shards of the crystal laid littered about like scattered boulders around a mountainside, and a dusty haze was still settling from the air all around them. The elder Twilight gave her wings a quick shake before fully folding them back to her sides. Most of her sliver armor faded into magenta outlines that then faded into nothing, and her HUD spell also blinked out of existence as she cancelled the spells, leaving her only with what she had been wearing when she first arrived. She leaned back from the younger Twilight that had been huddling to her side, looking down at eyes that still didn’t seem to believe what they were seeing. “Now we can talk,” she said as she smiled down to her younger self.

A moment of silence lingered between them before the younger Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but the elder spoke first, saying, “Yes, I’m you. Future you, from your relative perspective.” The younger blinked, seeming a bit surprised that her unasked question had been answered before she asked it, and then she drew in a quick breath to ask another one. However, the elder quickly spoke again, saying, “I tracked you here, and came here so I could help you out.”

“Okay,” the younger quickly said, raising a hoof. “Stop doing that,” she said, pointing the hoof at the elder.

The elder let out a short chuckle. “Sorry, couldn’t help it. This is the second time I’ve had this conversation with myself after all. First time for you, though.”

The younger stared up at the elder for a short moment afterwards, her eyes steadily blinking as her mind was no doubt trying to come to grips with the situation. She finally settled on letting out an exhausted groan before asking, “It’s never going to end, is it?”

“Oh, well, you’ve done the major part already,” the elder said as she gestured out toward the mountain of crystal. “You’ll get to take a bit of a break once I send you back.”

The younger’s ears perked up a bit. “Back?” she asked in almost a whisper.

“That’s one of the reasons why I’m here. Can’t have my past self ending up stranded. There’s still a lot for you to do... after you take a break from saving the world, of course. Now, I know you have a lot of questions. I can’t answer all of them, but I will answer some of them. So, go ahead.”

The younger sat silent for a moment as she considered where she wanted to start, and then asked, “How did you even find this place? I have no idea where we even are.”

“When... is really the more important variable,” the elder said as she glanced out to the mountain of crystal. “You see, when we decided to cast the spell to take this as far away as we possibly could, in a way it worked and in a way it didn’t work. At least, not exactly how we had planned on it working. We poured everything we had into that spell to take it somewhere as far as we possibly could from our world, but it ends up that the modified time travel spell that we anchored to the space around it didn’t move it very far geographically.”

The younger furrowed her brow, and then glanced around herself at the endless desert overcast with dark blues. “This looks nothing like anywhere I’ve ever been, and I’ve traveled quite a bit.”

“Well, yes, that’s because there’s nothing here yet.”

The younger quickly glanced back up to the elder, one eyebrow raising as she asked, “Yet?”

The elder nodded before looking back out to the large crystal again. “Like I said, in a way our spell worked and in a way it didn’t. It didn’t take the crystal very far geographically, but chronologically, you have ended up very, very far in the past.”

“...How far?”

The elder slowly closed her eyes. “Can you imagine a time when our world had no magic in it?” She opened her eyes as she looked down to her younger self at her side, and waited until she quietly shook her head. “I really can’t either, but you’re looking at it. No magic. Nothing here, and there never was anything here and never would be.” The elder looked back out to the crystal mountain, pointing a forehoof toward it. “Until this happened. We brought magic here, and a lot of it.”

The younger took a long, hard look at the mountain of crystal, and then shook her head. “That... that doesn’t make any sense.”

“Because it comes from an altered history? Or because you’ve never seen anything like this in our world?” The elder leaned down so their heads were nearly level with each other. She leaned in, gently putting a foreleg around the younger’s shoulder as she glanced upward at the mountain. “Take a look at it, and tell me what you see.” She glanced out of the corner of her eye, seeing her younger self staring back with a look that seemed to question how serious the request had been. “Just humor me,” the elder said with a gentle smile.

The younger drew in a deep breath before letting out a tired sounding sigh. She gestured forward, glancing upward as she said, “A giant mountain of crystal.”

“Right. A mountain of crystal,” the elder said as she too glanced upward. “And, if it were to have” — she gestured upward toward the peak — “maybe some trees there on it. Perhaps a waterfall coming off the side of it right” — she pointed at the side — “there... and maybe just above that, a city?”

The younger silently stared upward, her eyes widening slowly as she listened to her future self describe the possible scene. The profile of the giant crystal jutting out of the ground did resemble a place she knew, and she only knew of one city perched on a solitary mountain over a waterfall. “Canterlot Mountain?” she asked almost quiet as a whisper.

“Some day, a very long time from now,” the elder said. She spent a silent moment looking out at the mountain of crystal before turning her gaze back down to her younger self. “This giant crystal will actually become the caverns beneath it. And without the dark influence of the Alicorn Amulet, the magic contained within will slowly spread across the world, and things will begin to change.”

The younger Twilight continued to stare toward the mountain peak for a moment longer. She then rose to her hooves and began to pace back and forth. The elder Twilight patiently waited, watching the younger as she paced and muttered to herself. The younger finally paused mid step, and then looked toward the elder. “No, wait, this can’t be right,” she said, but the elder only raised her eyebrows slightly as she silently sat there. “You know it can’t possibly work like this! History was changed. None of this should have ever happened this way in the first place, but....” Her eyes trailed off toward the crystal mountain as her mind went back to puzzling over the events that had led to this moment.

“If this event hadn’t happened, then nothing would have,” the elder said, completing the unspoken thought.

The younger Twilight quickly looked back to her future self. “B-but, what Chrystallyn did—”

“You shouldn’t worry yourself too much about trying to untangle it all right this minute. I already know that you’re not going to,” the elder said with a slight shake of her head. The younger fell silent, her stare going blank as she slowly sat down. “Don’t let it bother you so much. I can’t tell you the answer, but the answer will find you. Just give it time.”

“Heh, time,” the younger said through a weak laugh. “Just how much have we messed time up?”

“We haven’t. If anything, we’ve made sure that many of the required events actually do happen.” That statement got a questioning glance from the younger Twilight, but the elder quickly waved it off. “Before we get too far into that, I need you to return something to me.”

The younger’s questioning glance intensified for a few seconds before she suddenly seemed to realize what it was she was being asked for. “...Dusk,” she said quietly, to which the elder nodded once silently. “You left it there.”

“I knew you would need it.” The elder Twilight smiled gently as she watched her younger self slip into another moment of thought, no doubt trying to puzzle together exactly how her future self had managed to drop the artifact in the past for her. The younger then focused her magic, some strain showing on her face as she summoned Dusk into being. She caught the staff with her forelegs, and then offered it up to the elder Twilight.

The elder took the staff up with her magic, bringing it close to herself and resting one fetlock against it. She smiled at it like one might do when seeing an old friend, and then it faded away as her magic sent it to its resting place. “There’s something you need to see, if you’re up for a short flight,” the elder said as she rose to her hooves. She waited until the younger stood and gave a quick nod. “Then follow me,” she said as her wings spread out from her sides.

The two Twilight’s launched themselves into the dim blue sky, the younger trailing just behind and beside the elder as they climbed upward and toward the side of the crystal mountain. The elder cast her glance out of the corner of her eye a few times behind herself, making sure that her younger self was still there as they made their way closer and closer. Finally, they came upon an opening on the side of the mountain and landed just inside. The elder slowly tucked her wings back to her side as she began to walk deeper into the cave, stopping after a few steps and turning aside to look back at her younger self who was hesitantly standing where she had landed. “Don’t worry, it’s safe now,” the elder said. The reassuring words were enough to get the younger to canter up to the elder’s side, and once they were side by side, they began their journey into the depths of the Crystal Caverns.

They walked without saying a word for some time. The younger was busy taking in her surroundings, while the elder was letting distant memories guide them to the destination she had in mind. They finally came upon a fork in the tunnel, and they both stopped while the elder looked back and forth between the two choices. She finally lit her horn for a brief moment, and her HUD spell appeared for but a few seconds before she dispelled it. “This way,” she said as she choose the tunnel to the right.

She didn’t have to look to know that her younger self was now paying much more attention to her than their surroundings. She did remember how curious she was back then. She smiled when the question finally came as the younger asked, “What was that?”

The elder glanced to her side, a slight smirk turning up the corner of her mouth as she playfully answered, “Magic?”

Her younger self didn’t seem to appreciate the little joke, as she furrowed her brow and frowned. She let out a huff of air. “You’re having way too much fun with this,” she grumbled.

The elder’s smirk changed to an apologetic smiled. “I’m sorry. It’s something I can’t tell you about,” she said as she looked forward. The tunnel they were traveling down appeared to go on endlessly, but she knew better. The low levels of refracted light only gave it that appearance. She glanced out of the corner of her eye toward her younger self once again, just catching her looking away as she quickly broke her stare. The elder chuckled lightly, which caused the younger to flatten her ears back as she glanced back up at her. Of course Twilight remembered what her younger self had been staring at. She quickly ran a forehoof against her mane, the motion causing it to lift from her neck and hover. It sparkled with magenta and lavender light as it slowly settled back down against her neck. “Like it?”

The younger Twilight stared for a few seconds longer, her transfixed gaze locked on the shimmering mane before she blinked and looked to the elder’s eyes. “I do,” she said with a quick smile. “I was wondering when mine will start to look like that. But I’m sure you can’t tell me, can you?” The elder closed her eyes for a second as she shook her head slightly. “Thought so,” the younger said through a dejected sigh.

The elder stopped, and a few steps later, the younger did so as well and turned around toward her. “I’m not holding things back to spite you,” the elder said. “There are certain things that I need to tell you, and everything else I can’t, because when I was you, my future self didn’t tell me about those things.”

The younger nodded up to the elder, and they both began to walk the path through the tunnel again. After a few steps, the younger paused mid step. “Wait,” she suddenly called out, which caused the elder to stop and turn aside to look back to her. The younger was furrowing her brow deeply and squinting her eyes, her mind no doubt working once again. “Should I be taking notes?”

The elder smiled playfully as a quick chuckle escaped her. “I didn’t,” she simply said with a shrug of her shoulders before turning away to continue down the tunnel.

The younger stood there for a few seconds longer, letting out a long ‘hrm’ before she cantered down the tunnel to catch up. “Just seems like if we’re not careful, we could easily create some sort of paradox.”

The elder glanced to her side, raising one eyebrow as she asked, “And what if I told you that our world was okay with some paradoxes?”

The younger’s steps slowed for a second before catching back up. “How... is that possible,” she said, quickly shaking her head. “By its very definition, a paradox is an event that defies logic. It shouldn’t exist.” The younger tilted her head slightly, glancing up to the elder with an unsure look as she asked, “Right?”

“That is mostly true,” the elder said with a single nod. “For example, say an unfortunate event happens that convinces you to invent a time travel spell, and you then use that spell to travel back in time to stop the unfortunate event from ever happening.”

The elder paused in the middle of the explanation, looking down to the younger with an expectant glance. The younger nodded as she picked up where the elder had left off. “Right, by stopping the event, you then never have a reason to create the spell, and so the spell never exists and you never go back, which means you never stopped the event, which results in you creating the spell, and so on.” The younger let out another long sigh, shaking her head. “I remember that particular problem being one of the many reasons why trying to time travel was a bad idea, though I was still going to ignore it and try anyway.”

“It is a good thing we didn’t get the chance. That is an example of an unstable paradox. It can’t exist because it creates an oscillation between opposed events that can’t possibly both exist at the same time.”

A moment of silence passed, only interrupted by their hoof steps and finally by the younger speaking up. “So... there’s such a thing as a stable paradox?” she asked, sounding unsure once again.

They were coming up on the end of the tunnel now, and could already see where it opened up into a large chamber. The elder looked upward toward the ceiling as they stepped hoof into the chamber, saying, “Yes, and you’re about to see one.”

They walked together side by side as they circled around toward the opposite side of the chamber. The younger looked upward toward the high ceiling, her eyes tracing over the large crystal structure that hung from it. “I remember this place. This really is the caverns beneath Canterlot,” she said in a quiet breath. The chamber was the same as it had been, or actually, would be, with a large crystal dangling from the center of the domed chamber, and many ledges along the chamber walls. There were also many tunnels that left in other directions about the edge of the room. But as they came around to the opposite side of the crystal, the younger noticed that the elder had her gaze focused upon it. They both looked up toward the crystal as they stopped there before it.

A moment of complete silence passed as they both stared upward, the elder appearing stoic while the younger appeared quite shocked at what she was seeing. Frozen behind the facets of crystal overhead was a dust grey alicorn, her wings folded about her body as she hung there motionlessly. “Chrystallyn,” the younger finally said in a quiet whisper. She looked up to her side toward her future self. “Is she...?”

“She’s sleeping,” the elder Twilight said as she kept her stoic gaze forward. “It will be a very long time before she awakens again, and by then she’ll have forgotten nearly everything. This cavern will lay hidden behind a spell until the day comes when two young sisters find their way here.”

“Celestia and Luna,” the younger said as she recalled the story of the sisters’ ascension. “They’re going to find her here in the caverns.”

“Exactly. A stable paradox. It doesn't logically make sense, but it works.” The elder looked down to her side to the younger. “Chrystallyn exists because she exists, and her existence has no real beginning or end.”

The younger looked back and forth between Chrystallyn and her future self, her mind no doubt working through the illogical notion of a being whose existence had no real origin. Her mind then wandered to another question that was less puzzling. “How would the magic here know to hide her until Celestia and Luna find her?”

“It doesn’t,” the elder said through a sigh. She slowly sat down next to her younger self, turning herself to face her. “This is the point where you start to not like what I have to say.”

The younger’s ears immediately fell back. “Why. What happened?”

“It isn’t so much what happened, but what is going to happen,” the elder said as she gestured up toward the crystal. Her hoof fell back to the crystallized floor with a dulled metallic tap that echoed around the room. “You see, there are quite a few events throughout history that have to happen if they are going to lead to this event happening, and those events will need a little help to make sure they happen.”

The younger Twilight slowly shrank back a few steps as the elder spoke. “You... no. No, you can’t be serious,” she said, shaking her head.

“I am,” the elder affirmed. Her voice strongly echoed around them for a short moment afterwards as they both stared into each other’s eyes. The elder finally looked away, her glance drawn upward toward the crystal overhead as she spoke. “Chrystallyn and Celestia will both witness many visions throughout their lives that help guide them to make their choices, and I’m here to make sure that happens.”

“No! That’s wrong!” The younger angrily said, her wings flaring out at her sides. “That’s... it’s controlling their lives. You’re not even giving them a choice! You’re forcing this on them! What gives you the right to choose how—”

“Twilight!” The elder’s forceful use of their name brought the younger’s rant to a sudden pause. For a short moment, they simply stared at one another, locked in a silent battle that neither of them wanted to back down from. The elder finally closed her eyes, and slowly shook her head. “I can’t force them to make choices any more than anyone else in this world can.”

“But, you just said—”

“I said that I would show them possibilities, but it will still be up to them to decide what to do about the visions they see. They can choose to follow them, or not, just like you did.”

The younger’s mouth hung agape as she caught the meaning behind what the elder was telling her. “That dream,” she said quietly. “That really was a vision, wasn’t it?”

The elder gently nodded her head. “Our spell showed you what could have happened, but you decided to change it, and in doing so, you brought all of this here by your own choice.”

The younger sat back on her haunches, seeming once again unsure of the thoughts working their way through her mind. “That’s... really iffy,” she said, squinting toward her future self with a thick layer of suspicion playing on her voice. “You already knew what choice I was going to make when I saw a dream of our world getting torn apart by the explosion.”

“True,” the elder admitted. She tilted her head slightly to the side as she touched the tip of her hoof just under her chin. “I guess you could call it cheating, since I already knew how you should react to it. But, can you really blame me?” she asked as she shrugged her shoulders, but she didn’t get any further reaction from her younger self. “Let me put it this way then. Every choice you make everyday is in some way affected by the world around you. Where you are, what you have done, where you will go, and all the things you will ever do are the sum of all the events that have involved you up to this point, and all along the way the actions others have also been involved in those choices. Even without time travel involved, your choices are influenced by an uncountable number of outside factors, but that doesn’t make it any less your choice.”

The younger lifted her hoof, mirroring her future self as she touched it to her chin while she thought. “Well, you’re right, of course,” she finally admitted. “No one forced me to follow Chrystallyn back in the first place or made me crash land in the past.” She glanced out of the corner of her eye at her future self, and her eyebrow slowly raised when she noticed her future self avoiding eye contact with her. She may have been dealing with a Twilight that was much older than she was, but she still knew herself well enough to know what that meant. “What else did you do?” the younger demanded sternly.

The elder drew in a breath before putting on a forced smile. “I knew it would work,” she explained.

The younger narrowed her eyes. “What. Did. You. Do.”

The elder waved a hoof idly at her side. “I may have been involved with manipulating the spell so it would drop Chrystallyn, Spike, and you out at certain times and places,” she quickly said. Her ears pinned back against her head when she saw the sudden, wide eyed terror on her younger self’s face.

The younger sprung up to all four hooves, stamping a couple steps closer as her future self cringed away slightly. “You could have killed us! Or worse!” she yelled, causing her voice to reverberate around the room.

“I knew it would work!” the elder said, holding her forehooves up defensively.

The younger glared up at her future self for a few seconds longer before letting go a loud huff and slumping back onto her haunches. She groaned as she held her face in her forehooves, and glanced over them up to her future self as she let them slide down and then land on the floor with a loud clack. She finally shook her head as she glanced dejectedly off to the side, quietly grumbling “Why do I become so reckless?” to herself.

The elder quietly cleared her throat. “Well, I didn’t just bring you up here to tell you upsetting things,” she said as she glanced upward to the crystal above. She stood and spread her wings out at her sides, and with a gentle flap that seemed like hardly enough to lift her body from the floor, she slowly began to glide upward toward the crystal. Her aura glowed around her body as her magic held her aloft and brought her close, and she came to a hover close enough to touch the facet that lie just between her and where Chrystallyn was frozen on the other side. Her horn glowed brighter for a moment, and the reflection on the facet appeared to shift as she reached a hoof out toward it. When her hoof tip touched it, it sent a ripple across the surface as if it were water, and it gave way to her hoof as it slipped past.

A magenta light glowed from within the crystal just above Chrystallyn’s head and then began to move toward Twilight’s outstretched hoof. Once it was just within reach, Twilight withdrew her hoof, drawing the glowing light out with it. The golden crown containing the Element of Magic that the younger Twilight had brought with her into the past was now hovering just above the elder’s hoof. The elder slowly glided back down to the floor below, three hooves silently touching the floor while she held the fourth out before herself as the Element of Magic slowly spun in the air just above it. “This one belongs to you,” she quietly said as she took it with her magic and passed it to her younger self.

The younger took the crown in her own aura, bringing it up to her face as she stared into the magenta jewel. She seemed to ponder over her reflection in Magic’s facets for a moment before she looked back up to her future self with a curious glance. “But... won’t that mean there are two Element’s of Magic now?”

“The answer will find you,” the elder said. The younger furrowed her brow slightly as she glanced to the Element in her grasp again, and then she placed it upon her head before looking back up to her future self. “And now we’ve reached the moment where I’m supposed to send you back,” her future self said as she smiled gently down to her.

“Back... when exactly?”

“Not long after you left, if I manage to hit the mark right on,” the elder said as her horn lit with her aura. At her magic’s call, Dusk appeared in her aura’s grasp right next to her, and she sat back on her haunches as she reached out and took it in her fetlocks. She looked from Dusk to her younger self, a slight smirk turning up the corner of her mouth as she asked, “You didn’t want to leave Spike stranded in history alone, did you?”

“No, of course not,” the younger quickly said, shaking her head. “I guess I’m just surprised. I really wasn’t planning on going back.” She glanced down toward her hooves for a moment, her voice growing quieter as she said, “I didn’t even think I would survive.” She then looked back up toward her future self, and with a slight bow of her head she said, “Thank you, for giving me another chance.”

The elder smiled gently in return, bowing her head as well as she said, “You’re welcome, and I only ask that you return the favor when it’s your turn.” As she lifted her head, her eyes and horn began to glow with a white light that slowly grew brighter, and her mane seemed to lift from her neck and hover about her head as if by some unfelt breeze. “Good luck,” she said, and as she lifted one of her hooves to touch it against her chin, her eyes took on an apologetic look as she added, “and... sorry about the headache.”

“What headache—”

A stroke of bright white lightning struck from directly above the younger Twilight in an instant, causing a deafening crash to reverberate through the room, and then she was gone. The elder Twilight’s ears splayed back hard against her head, and she drew in a hiss of air through her teeth as a pained grimace twisted her muzzle. “I can still remember that headache,” she said, but after a few seconds she shrugged her shoulders as she let a quiet sigh escape her. “Oh well,” she said as she took Dusk up in her aura and glanced upward, “time to get to work.”

Streets littered with broken crystal, buildings fractured and toppled, and the city’s iconic crystal spire missing from the skyline were the sights that greeted those who emerged from the underground staging area. No home seemed to have been spared from receiving at least some structural damage. Some had fared much better than others, with the odd house here and there that had the misfortune of meeting a large chunk of crystal debris falling out of the sky. One could only hope that those homes had been empty.

Moondancer had already taken to organizing the guard forces, no matter what their chosen uniform. A disaster had just stricken the Empire, and its citizens would need every helping hoof that could be spared. There were likely injured and trapped ponies within the city that hadn’t left their homes. With a search and rescue underway, those who were not guard members themselves mostly took to volunteering to fill whatever roles were needed. A makeshift triage area had been set up near the southern end of the city in a public park that had been left relatively unscathed from the battles. Already in the short time since the searching had begun, a few survivors had been found out in the city and brought back. Their injuries had been, thankfully, minor for the most part.

Spike had taken to his own personal search when he had learned of what had happened above the city. His shadow had crisscrossed the city in an aimless fashion in his frantic attempts to find any trace Twilight from the sky. The chill in the northern air didn’t exactly agree with him, and as a result he had already pushed the muscles in his wings to the point that the joints were stiff and burning from exhaustion. He growled through his gritted teeth as he wavered in the sky when his wings threatened to fold on him.

“Hey, big guy,” Rainbow’s voice called out to him. His glance quickly shot to his side, finding her rising up to glide next to him. “You should rest a minute.”

“Can’t,” Spike said as he fought against his wings’ stubborn protests as they continued to threaten to give out on him.

“Yeah you can,” she said, a bit sternly. Spike shot her a look that could have easily been considered threatening if not for the circumstance. “Think about it. How much good are you going to do if you drop out of the sky? I can’t haul your butt back to the triage camp.”

An annoyed rumble echoed through Spike’s throat, and then he let out a snort that shot puffs of smoke from his nostrils. He didn’t like it, but she was right. The cold was going to force him to take a break, but he would get back to his search as soon as his muscles stopped complaining.

He came down just north of the triage camp, nearly losing himself when his wings faltered just before he touched down. He stumbled forward, his wings going limp at his sides and dragging against the ground. He reached one of his hands up over the opposite shoulder, rubbing at the sore joints. Rainbow lit just next to him, glancing up to him with a worried look on her face. “I’m alright,” Spike said in a huff as he slowly gathered his wings up to fold them back.

A smooth, and somewhat smug sounding voice called out from behind him. “Didn’t I say you wouldn’t find anything?” The sound of Discord’s voice caused the spines on Spike’s neck to bristle. He slowly turned his head, shooting a harsh glare in the direction that the voice had come from. Discord only gazed back with one eyebrow cocked and his arms crossed as he leaned against the solitary tree at the northern end of the park.

“A lot of help you’ve been. Good thing we have you to make sure that tree doesn’t fall over,” Spike nearly spat back at him.

“I was told to behave and stay put, so I am,” Discord said with a slight shrug of his shoulders. “Seems the sisters were against my inclusion in the search party. ‘Had plenty enough chaos for one day’ I think is how Loony put it.” He scoffed as he said, “As if such a thing is possible.”

Spike only acknowledged him with an indignant snort before he began to walk off, uninterested in Discord’s brand of humor at that particular moment. However, he only made it a few steps before Discord spoke up again.

“There’s no reason for me to lie to you.” Spike stopped, glancing back over his shoulder. There was no smug grin or condescending tone this time. Discord suddenly seemed serious.

He was never serious.

“You won’t find her, because she isn’t here,” Discord said flatly. There was no question that he believed every word that he had spoken.

A tense moment passed as Spike and Discord exchanged a silent glare. Rainbow remained quiet to the side, her ears laid back as she carefully watched them both. When it seemed neither of them were going to back down from the staring contest, Rainbow took a few cautious steps forward toward Spike, extending her hoof to get his attention. However, before she could quite reach him, she suddenly had to dodge back when Spike turned and lunged at Discord with a speed that was impressive given his size. In one fail swoop, Spike managed to close the distance and pin Discord against the side of the tree, palming the draconequus’s neck in one hand as his sharp claws dug into the tree trunk and sent a spray of splinters flying as the wood cracked loudly. Discord only held both of his opened palms up defensively near his shoulders while Spike growled in his face.

“How would you know,” Spike said as his voice came out as a low rumble, “unless you’re hiding something.” He made an attempt to squeeze Discord’s neck, but it was like trying to squeeze a solid block of iron. Discord then slowly turned his taloned hand towards Spike’s hand, using just his index finger and his thumb to take hold of Spike’s wrist and then slowly remove Spike’s grip on his neck. Spike let out an angry and somewhat painful sounding growl through his gritt teeth, and then yanked his hand back forcefully. He balled his fist as he held it against his chest, holding and rubbing his wrist with his other hand.

“You should calm yourself,” Discord said calmly, the smug grin once again appearing on his face. Spike shot a fiery hot glare back in response, and was just seconds from shooting something else fiery hot back in Discord’s face when another voice stopped him.

“What is going on here?” Rarity said sternly as she trotted up to the altercation with Rainbow Dash following at her side. Spike stepped back a few steps to the side as Rarity put herself between them. She gave each of them a no-nonsense look, and squinted her eyes slightly when they fell upon Discord.

“Oh sure, blame me. It has to be my fault,” Discord said as he rolled his eyes. He made an exaggerated show of crossing his arms and turning his muzzle up.

“From what I was just told, you weren’t exactly helping the situation,” Rarity said evenly as she kept her judging stare squarely focused on him. “Can you not tell that this is somewhat upsetting for Spike?”

Discord threw his hands up before letting them flop to his sides. “Of course I can, but there is no point in searching for what can not be found. Don’t you consider it bizarre when I’m the only voice of reason?” He turned toward Spike, shrugging his shoulders as he said, “I thought you might like to avoid nearly killing yourself over nothing.”

Spike’s fists clenched tightly at his sides, and his jaw flexed as he clamped his teeth together and wrinkled his muzzle. But before he could attempt to tear into Discord’s hide, he felt a light touch on the back of his hand and looked down to see Rarity looking up at him. “Spike. Don’t, please,” she said, her eyes and voice pleading with him to hold his anger. “He isn’t worth it.”

“I beg your pardon?” Discord scoffed.

“And you,” Rarity said as she turned a glare on Discord that managed to make his outward confidence wilt. He back away up against the tree when she stomped a few steps in his direction, holding his open palms up in front of himself defensively. “Seems you still have a long way to go before understanding what empathy is. Sometimes, throwing the truth in someone’s face is one of the harshest things one could possibly to do.” She squinted hard and wrinkled her nose at him for good measure, causing Discord to cringe back before she turned away. “Come on, Spike,” she said as she, Spike, and Rainbow all turned away to head toward the camp.

As they were leaving Discord behind, Spike heard him yell out to them. “Oh, you ponies and your drama!” Spike muttered something under his breath before he turned around to see Discord following them. Discord held up his taloned hand, shaking a pointed finger as he walked up. “Why, I bet she’ll turn up like nothing ever happened. Isn’t that how these sort of stories go?” he asked with an exaggerated shrug as he stopped there in front of the group. “Heroine saves the world by sacrificing herself for some sort of greater good and then miraculously reappears in the end somehow?”

“This isn’t a fairytale,” Spike said sternly. He turned away, not wanting to spend a second longer listening to Discord’s callous remarks and made up stories for fear of completely losing his temper.

Discord stood there speechless in the middle of the park as the group once again turned their backs to him and left him behind. He grumbled quietly to himself, raking his talons through his goatee as he said, “I know I’m right. This is Twilight Sparkle we’re dealing with.” He ran his talons through to the end of his goatee, twirling the tip around between his thumb and index finger. “She’ll probably turn up again any minute now,” he said, matter-of-factly. His eyes glanced from side to side, taking on a suspicious looking squint as he said, “Aaany minute now.”

The moment passed by quietly, and Discord’s ears drooped slightly as he let out a light sigh. Just as he was beginning to turn away to go back to his tree, a loud crack of thunder accompanied a bright flash of white lightning that struck nearby. He nearly tripped over himself as he scrambled a few steps away while holding his hands up to guard himself. He blinked as he glanced out between his fingers at where the lightning had struck, and standing there among a large scorch mark in the grass he saw Twilight Sparkle. A wide, excited grin that Pinkie Pie would have been rather proud to see overtook his face. “See! What did I say?” he yelled back in the direction of the camp as he pointed toward her.

The bright flash and sound had drawn the attention of everyone nearby. At the edge of the camp, Spike, Rarity, and Rainbow were all staring back with dumbfounded looks. It wasn’t until Twilight collapsed to the ground that Spike snapped out of it and began to run toward her. His shaking legs didn’t seem to want to cooperate, causing his steps to start off slow and uneven. His pace picked up as he got closer, his wings and arms flailing as he leaned further into his steps to force himself forward. He finally made it to her, collapsing to his knees next to her and reaching a shaking hand out to her that he gently laid on her back. Her sprawled out legs and wings twitched at the touch, and she let out a groan as she tried ineffectively to push her face up off the ground with her forehooves.

Spike slipped one hand under her barrel and gently eased her to sitting up. A small group was beginning to gather around them, but he only barely noticed their presence. He remained focused on Twilight, watching her breath heavily as she slowly blinked and rolled around her eyes. She finally glanced up out of the corner of her eye at him, and she gave him a weak smile as her hoarse voice tiredly said, “I’m back.”

The entire world went blurry through Spike’s eyes. A single sob escaped from him and he leaned toward her, wrapping her up in a hug with both arms and his wings that lifted her off the ground and pinned her against his chest. She groaned quietly in protest at the dragon-sized bear hug at first, but then she nuzzled into his chest and relaxed as she drifted off to sleep.

The sleep that Twilight fell into was a deep and dreamless one, brought on by the pure exhaustion of her body and mind. Waking up was like trying to scale the side of a cliff, slow and tedious. Bit by bit, her mind shrugged off the unconsciousness, and her senses began to come around. The first thing she noticed was just how heavy her eyelids felt, and it didn’t help that her eyes felt dried out. She rolled her eyes around, trying to work what little moisture might still be under her eyelids around to loosen them. As she managed to pry her eyes barely open, she noticed the funny feeling across her lips. She drew them back into her mouth, smacking them and finding the consistency to be something like a shriveled paper bag.

She had definitely had better feeling mornings than this. The thought that it may not actually be morning crossed her addled mind when she noticed that despite having her eyes open, it appeared the room she was in was only dimly lit by a light somewhere nearby. The bed she was laying on had to be one of the most comfortable mattresses she had ever found herself sleeping on, and had an abundance of large square pillows spread out around her. It was a familiar feeling. Her eyes began to wander, staring intently at the dark curtains that hung from the canopy of the four-poster bed. It was a very familiar sight. Her eyes traced the starred patterns on the midnightblue fabric for a moment longer, and then it finally occurred to her. This was Luna’s bedroom.

The earlier events began to come back to her in increasing clarity. She remembered her future self telling her that she was going to be sent back, and then pain. Goodness, was there a lot of pain. The amount of magic that her future self must have forced into the spell to send her back however far it was to this time must have been immense. She hadn’t been ready to be hit by that much power compacted into such a small, sudden burst, but then she probably wouldn’t have been even if warned. The next thing she had remembered after that was Spike picking her up off the ground.

Spike. She remembered seeing his face for just a few seconds before passing out in his arms. He must have been worried sick about her. She needed to find him, to tell him that he didn’t need to worry. She made a move to lift her head from the pillow, and she immediately regretted it and quickly dropped her head back down. Her entire skull throbbed from the simple movement, and she wrinkled her nose as she drew in a hiss of air through her teeth. She held the breath for a moment until the throbbing began to pass, and then let it out slowly with whimper.

She made a move to lift her forelegs up to her face, but one of them didn’t move, seeming to be pinned to the side of the bed. She feebly tugged at it to try and pull it loose from the covers, and when she couldn’t manage to get it loose she rolled her head to the side just enough so she could peer down her side to find out why.

She must have quietly stared at Spike for minutes when she found him there knelt down and curled up against the side of the bed. She listened to the quiet sounds of his breathing that kept in time with the gentle rise and fall of his shoulders. He’d fallen asleep there with one arm folded around under the side of his face as a makeshift pillow, and the other stretched out toward her, resting upon her foreleg.

The smile that has spread across her face finally reminded her of just how dry her mouth felt as she smacked her parched lips once again. Her eyes happened to wander upward toward the dresser next to the bed and then widened a bit when she found a clear glass pitcher of water sitting beside a drinking glass with a white straw sitting in it. She had to fight down the urge to reach out and snatch the pitcher with her magic, knowing that if something as simple as attempting to sit up would upset her headache, using magic would likely be ten times worse. She considered if getting her hooves on some water would be worth the pain, and then glanced back down toward Spike when she realized she had a much easier option.

She opened her mouth and tried to speak, but all that came out was a strangled sound as a dry tickle in the back of her throat kept her voice from making its way out. She tried to swallow and clear her throat before making another attempt. “Spike,” she said, being caught off guard by the rough, whispery sound of her own voice in the otherwise silent room. She cleared her throat again and called out to him a bit more loudly, shaking the hoof pinned under his hand to try and rouse him. All she got in response for her efforts was something between a snort and a snore. She realized that her weakened voice wouldn’t be able to overcome Spike’s excellent ability to tone her out while sleeping, so she glanced over to her other side for another option. She eyed one of the square pillows beside her head and then slipped her free hoof underneath, carefully balancing it as she lifted it just slightly. She then looked back down her side at Spike, squinting one eye closed as she lined up her shot. She let the pillow fly, and it sailed true to its target, bouncing against Spike’s head with a soft pomf.

Spike’s head lifted quickly as he drew in a quick snort. “Hm, dah?” he said as his eyes darted around. His brow furrowed deeply when his eyes came upon the pillow laying there against his arm.

“Spike.”

Twilight’s tired voice calling out to him caught his attention immediately. His wide eyes stared at her through the dim light as he froze still as a statue for a few seconds, and then he suddenly pushed himself to sit up straight as he nearly yelled, “Twilight!”

Twilight splayed her ears back against her head and covered them with her forehooves. “Not so loud,” she whined as she squeezed her eyes tightly closed.

Spike cringed. “Oh. Oh, I’m sorry,” he said as he dropped his voice to a near whisper. He shifted on his knees to move himself closer to her side, leaning his forearms against the bed. He waited until Twilight pulled her forearms back down to rest them across her chest and opened her eyes slightly. “How you feeling?”

She let out a quiet groan and then glanced over toward him. “My head feels like a hydra did a dance on it, and my throat is really dry.” Spike cringed again, and when it appeared that he hadn’t picked up on her hint, Twilight looked past him toward the glass pitcher as she asked, “Could you get me some of that water?”

Spike glanced from the longing look in Twilight’s eyes to the water pitcher she was staring at. “Oh, right,” he said as he gave his head a quick shake. He shifted on his knees so he was sitting facing toward the dresser before reaching out to take the pitcher and empty glass in his claws. Watching him carefully manipulate the comparatively tiny glass objects in his claws would have probably seemed at least a bit humorous to Twilight if she hadn’t felt like she was about to shrivel up and blow away like a dried out leaf.

As Spike finished filling the drinking glass and was setting the pitcher back down, Twilight made her attempt at sitting upright so she could get the drink of water she desperately wanted. Spike quickly shifted toward her, reaching his free hand out to place it against her back to steady her as she sat up. She let out a miserable sounding groan as she slumped forward into a sitting position, frowning and furrowing her brow hard as her temples pounded from the movement. Her eyes followed the glass of water as Spike brought it close to her mouth, and she quickly took hold of the straw as soon as it was within reach. She greedily gulped the water down, managing to finish off the entire glass in seconds and causing a slurping sound to echo through the room.

Spike gave out a light chuckle as he asked, “More?” Twilight nodded quickly back to him, and he filled the glass for her a second time. Instead of downing the entire thing as quickly as she could, she sipped on the second glass a bit more slowly, and eventually stopped when there was still about a third left. She dropped the straw from her mouth and sat back from the glass slightly, allowing a content sigh escape from her.

“Thank you, Spike.”

“No problem,” he said as he set the glass back on the dresser. “Anything else I can get for you?”

“I think I just need to lay here, maybe rest some more,” she said as she laid back into one of the pillows. She stretched her forelegs and wings out at her sides as she flexed her neck back and forth, snuggling down into the pillow a bit more. She slowly blinked her eyes open and closed a few times, and then looked over to her side when she felt a touch against her foreleg. “You don’t have to worry about me escaping or anything,” she said with a slight giggle when she saw Spike holding on to her foreleg again. However, he didn’t smile back in return. He only quietly stared at her with an unreadable expression. The smile slowly faded from Twilight’s face, and then her chest heaved as she let out a silent sigh. “You’re mad at me.”

Spike wrinkled his muzzle as he looked off to the side for a short second. “Eh, I thought I would be. Had my spiel about running off and doing stuff on your own again ready to go and everything but....” He slowly looked back to her, and with a smile and a quick shrug from his shoulders he said, “I’m just glad you’re back.”

“Oh, Spike. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” She rolled herself over onto her side to face him, and rested her other forehoof atop his hand. “I know it probably won’t make it any better, but this was something I actually needed to do on my own, though I didn’t even realize that until it happened.”

“What did happen? The princesses said you made a giant ball of crystal and crazy magic just vanish into thin air.”

Twilight stared into his eyes for a moment. There was so much to tell, and she hadn’t yet properly gathered her thoughts to tell it. “Long story, really, and I want to tell you everything,” she said before a yawn overtook her, “but it might have to wait until I’m not about to pass out again.”

“Pinkie promise?” Spike asked, tilting his head slightly.

Twilight blinked. “Oh, you’re going to make me do that?” Spike only raised his brow slightly as he patiently waited. Twilight rolled her eyes while unsuccessfully trying to hide her smirking. “Fine. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” she said as she went through the motions with her free hoof, ending with it covering her right eye.

“You know you can’t break those,” Spike said as he waggled his index finger at her.

“Of course,” she said as she moved her hoof to pat the back of his hand. Another yawn snuck up on her, taking her by surprise. She blinked her watery eyes after it passed, and looked up when she noticed that Spike had let go and stood next to the bed.

“I’ll get out of your mane and let you sleep some more.”

“Tell everyone I’ll be alright. I don’t want them worrying,” Twilight said as she rolled back onto her back and snuggled back into the pillow.

“Sure thing. There’s guards just outside if you need anything.” Spike walked to the room’s doors, stopping next to them and turning to look back. “Alright if I check on you again in a couple hours? I was thinking about bringing you some celery soup.”

“That sounds wonderful. Thanks for always being there for me, Spike.”

“You bet.” Spike smiled back at her for a second longer before turning to the door to leave. He pulled the door to gently, leaving Twilight with just the dim light and silence of Luna’s bedroom as her only company. Twilight shifted her shoulders and neck again a few times before finding just the right spot and she slowly blinked her eyes, her eyelids coming closer and closer to closed with each blink.

“Comfy?”

Twilight's eyes shot back open and darted to her left. Her left ear twitched as it tried to point to exactly where she had heard the voice. She was sure she had just heard Discord as if he had been standing right next to her bed, but there was nothing there. She squinted her eyes as she stared suspiciously at the empty space.

“Psst, over here.”

Twilight’s ear twitched again, finding Discord’s voice to sound like it was much closer than she at first thought. She rolled her head over to the side, and then furrowed her brow hard when she finally saw him, or at least part of his face. On the corner of the large square pillow she had her head laid against, she could see Discord’s bright yellow and red eyes looking at her, his toothy grin plastered to the pillow’s surface just below the eyes, and his goatee in place of the pillow’s corner tassel. The sight caused her to flinch and cringe away as she drew her forelegs in close to her chest.

“Hello,” Discord’s mouth said while the disembodied fuzzy eyebrows floated up a bit higher above his eyes.

“...Discord?”

“But of course!”

Twilight stared at Discord’s imprinted face for a moment. “You’re a... pillow,” she said slowly.

“That I am.”

Twilight’s brow rose slowly as she asked, “Why are you a pillow?”

“Oh, well, I thought I’d do something to show some gratitude.”

“...By being a pillow?”

Discord let out a sigh, which caused the pillow to deflate slightly. “I’ll admit, the idea sounded better in my head.” The pillow suddenly vanished in a white flash, and then Discord reappeared in his more well known form standing next to the bed. This act had the unfortunate side effect of causing Twilight’s head to fall back against the mattress, and she let out a short cry in pain as she reached her hooves up to the sides of her head.

“Oh! So sorry, that was not intentional at all,” Discord said quickly as he held his paw against his mouth.

A stallion's voice called out from the other side of the door. “Miss Sparkle?”

“I’m fine,” Twilight quickly called back, though the strain in her voice seemed to indicate otherwise. She shot a quick glare at Discord as she rubbed at temples and hissed, “That really hurt,” at him in a whisper.

Discord brought his hands up near his chest, steepling his fingers together as he nervously tapped them against each other. “Seems I’m not too good at things of this sort,” he said, frowning as he slumped down to almost half his full height.

Twilight’s expression softened, as it really did appear he was actually sorry. Then she noticed something, or rather noticed what wasn’t there. “They took the bracers off?”

“Hm?” Discord tilted his head to the side, and then glanced down at his wrists. “Oh those, right. Uh, yes, eventually,” he said with a quick nod. “But I didn’t come here to talk about me, as surprising as that might be for you to find out.” Discord stood back at his full height, crossing his arms across his chest as he put on a smile.

“Maybe a little surprising,” Twilight said as she smiled back to him. “Seems the old saying that the more things change, the more they stay the same has some truth to it.”

Discord raised one of his forearms up, pointing an index finger toward the ceiling. “I’d offer my assistance in keeping things from getting stale, but I’m sure you’re not all that interested at the moment,” he said as he twirled the finger about in a circle before pointing it at Twilight and adding, “are you?”

Twilight responded with a small chuckle. “No, I’m afraid not,” she said as she shook her head slightly.

“You’re a... frayed knot... you say?” Discord said, slowly raising one of his eyebrows at her. The grin on his face increased, becoming a bit more mischievous looking.

It only took a second for Twilight to pick up on his wordplay, and her ears quickly snapped back as she tensed and pushed herself back on the mattress with her back legs. “Discord, no! Don’t,” she said, holding a hoof out in front of herself.

Discord could only keep up his mischievous mask for a few seconds longer before it finally broke. He nearly doubled over to the side holding his chest as a wheezy sounding laugh escaped from him. He drew in a snort of air when he glanced back at her for a second, and continued to laugh as he shook his head and pointed at her. The tension in Twilight’s body melted away when she realized she’d been had by one of his bad jokes. She squinted her eyes in a cold glare in his direction and drew her lips into a small, thin line on her muzzle. When he finally noticed the glare aimed at him, Discord let out a cough and cleared his throat as he tried to get his giggles under control. “Oh come now, don’t look at me that way. It was just a harmless joke, and you have to admit that you walked right into that one.”

Twilight kept the glare on him for a few seconds longer before blowing a breath of air out through her lips. “Yeah well, after everything that’s happened, I’d rather not be turned into an old piece of rope, thanks.”

“I wouldn’t do that, I know better.”

“You do?” Twilight asked, tilting her head to the side curiously.

“Of course I do,” Discord said, as if it were simply fact. “Twilight Sparkle, I’ve lived for a very... very long time. And in that time, I’ve seen and learned many things.” Twilight raised one of her eyebrows at him, and he shook his index finger at her in response as he said, “Yes, I can learn things. Don’t give me that look.” He smiled when he noticed the silent chuckle that Twilight was trying to hide. “I suppose one could say I ‘know things’,” he said as he lifted his hands, using his fingers to make air quotes, “and do you know what one of those things is that I know?”

Twilight rolled her eyes when she saw Discord waiting expectantly for her to ask the question. She smiled as she asked him, “What is it you know, Discord?”

Discord paused, looking at Twilight for a moment before a genuine smile appeared on his muzzle. “That I should never anger Twilight Sparkle.” Discord slowly raised his talons up beside himself, holding his index finger against his thumb. “See you some other time,” he said just before he snapped his fingers and vanished in a bright flash.

Twilight held a hoof out quickly toward him, but he was already gone. Her hoof slowly lowered back down to her side, and she sat there on the mattress while the perplexing words played themselves out in her mind again. What did he even mean by that? Or was it just another one of his games that he liked to play, seeing if he could get a rise out of her? Only Discord knew for sure, and if his personality was anything like what she remembered of him, there was only a slim to none chance of ever getting him to fess up to what he was talking about.

With Discord gone and silence once again returning to the room, Twilight felt exhaustion once again creeping in on her. She took another pillow from the many scattered around her and laid her head against it as she settled down on her side. Discord’s little comment had reminded her of other questions that had still been left unanswered, setting her mind abuzz with the possibilities. As the thoughts danced about in her mind, she blinked her eyes slowly a few times before closing them.

The Twilight of tomorrow could worry about the unanswered questions. This Twilight was going to get some well deserved rest.

When the Answers Finally Find You

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter XXIV – When the Answers Finally Find You

There was something about the Canterlot Archives. It wasn’t that it was the only place within the palace where one could find some peace and quiet, as there were plenty of equally quiet rooms. And while it did house some of the rarest literature in Equestria, even that wasn’t the real reason why Chrysalis had found herself there as of late, though the actual reason continued to prove elusive to her.

Perhaps it was simply because she could be there. It had been well over a thousand years since she had felt like she belonged anywhere near this place. She never imagined the day would come when she would be welcomed back, that the princesses of Equestria would take the mistrust and grudges that had formed between them and lay them to rest.

Well, former princess, in her own case. While she still held the title and respect of a queen among the changelings, she found herself spending much of her recent evenings as the simple unicorn Crystal Charm, studying in the quiet atmosphere of the archives. She had actually been surprised by her increased desire to sate her intellectual curiosity, but had then found herself enjoying the time to herself more than she had enjoyed anything in a very long time.

Just like the many evenings before this one, she had once again lost herself among the pages of another book, and so had lost track of the time. The two candles set on either side of the table had provided the only light source from within the room since the sun had set. She hadn’t realized that a full moon hung high overhead outside the glass dome above her in a clear, star filled sky until something pulled her attention away from her reading. She blinked as she looked up from the book, noticing how different the archives appeared cast in the pale glow of the moonlight. She took notice of how late the hour was as her eyes glanced upward, and then her ears swiveled back as she heard the sound of one of the archive’s doors opening behind her.

She looked over her shoulder and found Twilight standing there just inside the doorway. The two exchanged a smile in greeting as Twilight made her way toward the table. “Sorry to bother you so late,” Twilight said as she took a seat to one side. She then lifted one wing, brushing back the flap of her saddle bag as her magic took hold of the contents. Her magic lifted out a single shard of crystal and held it aloft just above the table.

“So, they think they’ve found another? Well, lets have a look then,” Chrysalis said as her horn glowed a dim green. The crystal passed from Twilight to Chrysalis, and she studied it closely as her aura pulsed around it. A few seconds later, a faint white glow could be seen in the center of the crystal for but a few seconds, and then it went out. Chrysalis smiled just briefly before carefully passing the shard back to Twilight. “The mages appear to be getting better at finding these.”

“One of the largest fragments yet,” Twilight said as she carefully laid it down on the table just before herself.

“Yes, not that it matters,” Chrysalis said through a light sigh. “Damaged as they are, the shards probably won’t even be able to power a basic light spell.”

“Individually. Together, they could still have a considerable amount of power left.”

Chrysalis raised one eyebrow, her eyes looking back and forth between Twilight and the shard. “I honestly don’t see why the sisters think this important, unless they’re worried the fragments will fall into the wrong hooves. Do you believe someone would try to use the fragments of the Heart for something malicious?”

“I don’t think that’s the only reason why they’re concerned with finding them,” Twilight said as she gently touched her hoof to the crystal, her eyes lingering on the crystal for a few seconds before she glanced up. “If enough were found, wouldn’t there at least be a chance of restoring it?”

“Hardly,” Chrysalis said in a huff. Her magic closed the book she had been reading and slid it off to the side as she leaned forward to rest her forelegs on the table. “Even if we found every single one, which is likely impossible, I have no where near the power I once did,” she said quietly as she looked down at her hooves as she rested one upon the other. “I haven’t been an alicorn for a very long time, and likely never will be again.”

“What if you had the help of one?”

Chrysalis glanced out of the corner of her eye toward Twilight, and then slowly lifted her head to look straight at her. “I suppose you mean yourself?”

“Actually, I was thinking of Cadance. Things are beginning to calm down a bit, so she would probably have the time to help with it now.”

Chrysalis nodded once before turning her eyes back toward her hooves. “Seems she did have an affinity for the magic within the Heart, but it appears she has no real need of it. She’s done well with the Empire these last few months without it.”

Twilight tilted her head slightly toward the table to try to catch Chrysalis’s gaze. “You went there?” she asked, sounding a bit surprised.

“Of course not,” Chrysalis scoffed as she drew her forelegs up and crossed them against her chest. She frowned as she glanced off toward the side opposite of Twilight. “I’m not going anywhere near him if I can at all help it.”

A moment of silence lingered there in the room afterward, until Twilight made an attempt to restart the conversation by lightly clearing her throat. Chrysalis’s ear shifted back toward Twilight as she decided to at least listen. “I still think it was a rather brave of Sombra to show his face in the Empire again after what happened,” Twilight said.

“They can have him,” Chrysalis quipped back as her let her eyes drifted upward, seeming to find more interest in the starry night than holding this conversation.

“He really is trying to make amends.”

Chrysalis drew in a breath and let it out in a huff as she turned her hard gaze on Twilight. “And you think I should just forgive him.”

Twilight closed her eyes before gently shaking her head and saying, “That’s your choice.”

“Yes, it is,” Chrysalis said as her magic lit and took hold of her book once again. “I have more important things to focus on than trying to mend a long dead relationship. Things that require my focus here.”

“I have heard that things are going well between the ponies of Canterlot and the changelings so far.”

“Well in the sense that none realize when they’re staring right at one of us.” A short chuckle escaped from Chrysalis as her magic leafed through the pages of the book to find where she had left off earlier. “Simply knowing that we’re even here seems to bother some to no end,” she said as her eyes quickly scanned over the pages as they turned.

“There will probably always be a little of that. Even from the time I came from, there were still the few extremists that believed Equestria should just close its borders to all of the other species. Still, you shouldn’t feel like you have to walk around as a unicorn within the palace if you don’t want to. The palace staff should know who you are by now.”

Chrysalis’s magic paused, holding a single page. She glanced up to Twilight as a small smile formed her her muzzle. “My body seems to prefer this form as of late,” she said as she turned her attention back to the book. As she was laying the page over, her green aura holding the page and about her horn flickered, shifting briefly to magenta before returning to its natural color.

“Wait,” Twilight quickly said. Chrysalis glanced up to her out of the corner of her eye curiously. “Do that again,” Twilight said, her eyes now watching very closely. Of course Chrysalis knew what it was Twilight had noticed. She once again took hold of the page with her magic and held it there. For some time, it appeared that nothing was out of the ordinary, but then she felt it right before her aura shifted once again. That small, almost unnoticeable feeling that she hadn’t quite been able to figure out yet that happened every time her magic aura shifted.

“It’s been that way ever since the Empire,” Chrysalis said as she let the page go. “Actually, it’s gotten more frequent since then. Sometimes it will change just briefly, and then sometimes it lingers for quite a while before changing back.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a chromatic aura shift like that,” Twilight said as she leaned back in her chair. She drew her forelegs back, tucking one across her chest and tucking the other hoof just under her chin. “Is this a result of using the Elements?” she quietly pondered out loud.

“No, I believe its remnant from the power that my little Twilight leant to me.”

“A side effect from tapping into her magic then?” Twilight glanced up to Chrysalis as she leaned back in to rest her forelegs on the table. “I wonder if it had any side effects on her, letting you use her power that way. Have you asked her about it?”

“I would, if I could find her.” The room fell silent for a moment until Chrysalis looked up from the book to Twilight to speak again. “Ever since that day, I haven’t been able to speak to her through the hive mind. I can only feel her presence. It’s as if she’s standing right next to me, but when I try to look, she’s never actually there.” Chrysalis frowned as she looked back down to the pages of the book she had been studying, her brow furrowing deeply before she quietly said, “It’s frustrating.” She then glanced out of the corner of her eye, catching the concerned look on Twilight’s face. “I haven’t given up on her, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Seems you two were very close,” Twilight said as she leaned back into her chair once again.

“Still are,” Chrysalis said as she turned her eyes back toward her book. “Perhaps closer than ever now.”

In the months that had followed since the return of the Crystal Empire, Twilight’s life had settled into a much more predictable pattern. Being already well learned in the ways of the Canterlot royal court, she had offered her help if the sisters wished to officially instate her as a princess of Equestria, however, the sisters had declined for now. While Twilight was more than qualified and had definitely earned the title, they insisted that she take this opportunity to think very carefully about her future first, as she had the rare chance to choose a different path in life if she so wished.

Twilight doubted very seriously that her mind would change. She had already been a princess of Equestria for two and a half centuries; it was practically ingrained in her being. Still, she respected the wishes of the sisters, and so she had taken to using her free time to search for her calling in this new Equestria.

Already, she had spent some time traveling to and from the Empire to aid in the search for the broken fragments of the Heart. Searching for the shards of the ancient artifact had given her a sense or purpose for now, but she knew a time would come when they would finally find all that could be found, and then what?

She knew that the hunt for the shards was simply a distraction. Her mind often wandered back to the nagging questions that still could not be answered. There was still something for her to do, that much she was certain of, but when, and exactly how was she supposed to accomplish it? And she only vaguely knew what she was even meant to do. Would it be centuries, or maybe even thousands of years, before she would have to wield all six Elements on her own? Her future self had said that the answers would find her, but she had no clue when or how that would even happen. She had a deep-seated desire to chase after the answers on her own.

But, should she even bother?

It was very possible, based on how the statement had been worded, that she would never find the answers herself. They were supposed to find her.

Still, she had the free time, and her curiosity proved to be an irresistible itch she had to scratch. She had taken to visiting an old but familiar place when she wanted to spend a few hours searching for the answers. Joe’s Donut Diner had been somewhat of a study sanctuary in Canterlot for her back in her younger years, and she had quickly become a regular once again. The way Joe would greet her by name, ask if she wanted the usual, and bring her exactly two glazed donuts with chocolate sprinkles and a hot chocolate as she took her favorite seat in one of the corner booths really brought back memories of her much simpler student years.

This evening, she had spent over an hour contemplating a rope with ribbons tied around it that she had laid out upon the table. She was so completely engaged in thought that she hadn’t realize at first that someone had been standing next to her table, politely trying to get her attention. She wasn’t sure how long the stallion had been standing there, but he simply smiled when she looked up to him and greeted her.

“Hello.”

“...Hello,” Twilight said as her eyes quickly looked over the stallion. He had a tan coat, blue eyes, and a messy, swept back brown mane. Fairly ordinary looking for an earth pony, though the white collar with a green neck tie did stand out as being a bit different.

“May I?” he asked, gesturing a hoof to the booth seat across from her.

“Uh, sure,” Twilight said as she swept her rope off to the side of the table. She caught a quick glimpse of the stallion's mark as he stepped forward to sit in the seat, noticing what appeared to be an hourglass. He simply smiled back at her for a moment after settling himself in the seat, resting his forehooves together on the table.

“Oh, right. Introductions. I sometimes forget,” the stallion said, tapping the side of his forehead. He then offered a hoof across the table as he said, “Turner.”

“Tuner?” Twilight asked as she extended her hoof, bumping it against his.

“Time Turner. A nickname actually, one that I’ve grown a bit fond of.”

“Nice to meet you then, Turner.”

“And nice to meet you as well, Miss Sparkle.”

Twilight smiled, a quite ‘aha’ escaping her. “So, you do know who I am then,” she said. It wasn’t really surprising, as the fact that she was an alicorn wasn’t something she tried to hide any longer, which was bound to draw some attention. She sat back in her chair, getting herself comfortable as she said, “Well then, Mister Turner, how can I help you?”

“Actually, I believe I can help you,” he said, pointing a hoof across the table.

Twilight perked one eyebrow as her smile grew slightly, saying, “Oh, really?” as she wondered what sort of pitch this stallion had come up with.

“Yes. See, I am somewhat of an expert on temporal theory and mechanics, and if I’m not mistaken, you’ve been looking for some answers that I may be able to provide.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide, and her smile fell away as her mouth hung open. “R-really?” she finally said, leaning forward against the table. “Well, okay then. Uh,” she said as she reached over and pulled the rope back across the table, working to smooth it out with her hooves. “Actually, what I’ve been working on is trying to solve a paradoxical event.”

Turner watched as Twilight laid out the rope, resting one elbow on the table and leaning his chin against his forehoof. “The good kind or the bad kind?” he asked in passing.

Twilight stopped for a moment to think. “The... unstable kind?”

“Hm, those are definitely bad,” Turner said as he furrowed his brow.

“So I’ve heard,” Twilight said as she turned her attention back to the rope. “Actually, I’ve been using this rope as a visual aid to try and figure it out, but no matter what combination I try to follow I can’t seem to work out a stable sequence of events.” She glanced up, noticing the intense, scrutinizing glare that Turner had focused on her rope model. “I know it isn’t to proper scale, but it’s just meant to be a representation of the sequence of events in relation to one another. Here, let me explain. The rope represents a timeline, with one end tending toward the past and the other end tending toward the future. The colored ribbons represent the events, and they each have dependencies on one another for their existence.”

Turner wrinkled his muzzle a bit before saying, “That could get tangled up quickly.”

“Yes, you’re right. So, the white ribbon represents an origination event in the distant past that all other events require to exist. The blue ribbon represents an event in the far future that leads to the green event in the middle existing.”

Turner’s brow rose as he slowly nodded and said, “Aha, a time travel event.”

“Right. Unfortunately, this event causes a change in history that will likely change the future, possibly causing the blue event to never even happen.”

Turner wrinkled his muzzle again, nodding as he said, “Hm, classic grandfather paradox.”

“But there’s more,” Twilight said, which caused Turner’s eyes to quickly glance up to hers. “The green event is required for the white event to exist.”

Turner looked back and forth between Twilight and the rope a few times, before settling on staring at the rope again for a moment. He tilted his head, seeming to be lost in thought for a moment as he mumbled quietly to himself, finally letting out a sigh and saying, “And then things get wibbly wobbly.”

“R-right, I guess,” Twilight said, furrowing her brow slightly for a second. “Everything I’ve studied points to this series of events being impossible. There is no combination of these events that doesn’t result in at least one of them being mutually exclusive with the others due to changes occurring in the timeline as a result of one of the events.”

Turner remained silent afterwards, seeming just as lost in contemplation as Twilight had been earlier. Perhaps she had gotten her hopes up a bit too soon thinking that this stallion had found her to give her the answers she needed. It had seemed a little too convenient.

“Aha!” Turner suddenly said, pointing his hoof at the rope.

“Huh? What?” Twilight said, flinching at his sudden outburst.

Turner tapped his hoof against the table, a triumphant grin on his muzzle as he said, “Your model is wrong.” Twilight glanced down at her model, and then back up to him as her ears fell back. Turner’s grin waned, and then he cleared his throat. “Allow me to explain. Uh... well, may I?” he asked as he gestured to the rope. Twilight nodded and reached out to push the rope closer to his side of the table. “Lets see, we need to remove all but the white ribbon—oh, thank you,” he said when Twilight quickly took hold of the blue and green ribbons with her magic and removed them. “And now, we just need to...,” Turner said as he picked up the end opposite of the white ribbon. Holding it between his forehooves, he brought it up to his mouth and carefully bit down on one of the woven ropes threads. He leaned his head back and pushed his forehooves away as he worked at loosening the thread from the rope’s core. After a few tugs, the thread came loose and began to unwind from the rest of the rope. Once he had managed to dethread the single piece just past the middle of the rope, he let it go. He turned his head to the side, hoofing at his tongue and trying to spit out the rope fibers that had been left behind. He then laid the rope back out on the table. “There. Now, lets tie the green ribbon back right here on this bit, and the blue one back here toward the end of this bit,” he said as he gestured to the spots on the rope. Twilight quickly tied the ribbons back in place, putting the green one on the dethreaded piece near the center, and the blue one back on the end of the core where it had originally been. “There!” Turner said as he scooped the rope up in his hooves. He smiled as he held it out to Twilight, but she only looked back at the modified rope, squinting her eyes as she tried to figure out how this was any better than before. Her eyes followed the dethreaded end as it slid off of Turner’s hoof and fell to the table with a dull tap, and then she slowly glanced back up to him. The smile on Turner’s muzzle was beginning to look a bit strained. “Right! Allow me to explain further,” he said as he carefully laid the rope out on the table before Twilight. He drew in a breath to begin his explanation, holding it for a few seconds before letting it back out in a loud sigh. “Actually, this doesn’t even come close to properly representing what is really happening,” he grumbled as he poked at the rope with a hoof, but he quickly shook off the disappointed look with a quick shake of his head. “Doesn’t matter, it will still get the point across. So! All events require the white event to occur in order to exist, yes?”

“Right,” Twilight said with a careful nod.

“And the blue event causes the green event to exist, yes?” Turner said as he traced his hoof across the rope between the ribbons.

“Right,” Twilight said, nodding again.

“And the green event causes changes of its own...,” Turner said as he slowly traced his hoof out along the dethreaded piece of rope.

“...Right,” Twilight said quietly.

“Which then led to the existence of the white event,” Turner said, returning his hoof to the white ribbon. “You see, the only possible explanation is that the changes brought around by these events in the middle do not actually change what happened here,” he said as he tapped his hoof on the blue ribbon.

Twilight squinted her eyes as she looked back and forth across the rope, following the sequence again in her mind. “It’s a... split?” she asked quietly.

Turner folded his hooves across his chest as he sat back in his chair, smiling broadly as he said, “Precisely.”

Twilight looked up to him curiously, tilting her head as she asked, “That’s possible?”

“Eh, more or less,” Turner said as he waffled a hoof to the side. He then tucked the hoof under his chin as he took on a thoughtful glance. “Not a naturally occurring thing by any means and definitely not something easy to accomplish, but it shouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility to artificially create such an event—”

Twilight suddenly slammed her forehooves down on the table as she stood from her seat. Her eyes darted quickly back and forth as her mind rapidly bounced through a chain of thoughts that had just hit her. “I... I need go. There’s things I need to write down and something to look up and-and-and I really need to write this thought down before I forget it.” She scrambled out of the booth seat, gathering up her rope model and tucking it away in her saddlebag. Her horn glowed and quickly removed some bits from a side pouch and placed them near the cash register as she cantered by on her way out of the diner. The bell above the diner’s door jingled as she quickly made her exit, and she opened her wings as she stepped out onto the sidewalk. She only stopped herself at the last second before taking off to spin around, and she found Turner following her out the door only a few steps behind her. “Oh, gosh, I’m sorry. I mean, thank you so much. This might be the answer to... well, everything, and I really need to follow up on this.”

Turner smiled, gently shaking his head. “No need to apologize. I know that inspiration can be quite demanding when it strikes—oh....” Turner was taken off guard when Twilight stepped in to hug him, but soon rested his forehoof across her withers to return the embrace.

Twilight stepped back after a few seconds, a sheepish grin on her face and perhaps just a slight blush noticeable under her fur. “Uh, heh, sorry. I mean, thanks,” she said as she turned aside. She spread her wings, calling out, “Bye, Turner!” as she launched herself into the sky.

Time Turner stepped a few steps forward, watching after Twilight as she sailed off into the skies over Canterlot. He smiled up to her as he quietly said, “Glad I could help, princess.” After a moment longer, his attention was drawn back down to the sidewalk when he heard someone loudly clearing their throat. He found a gray pegasus mare sitting there, glaring back with one eye locked on him while the other seemed to lazily trail off to the side. Her muzzle was pulled into a slight frown and her blond tail swished back and forth rapidly behind her. “Oh, there you are. Already done shopping? Oh! You found the muffins?” Turner asked when he noticed the two brown bags that she had tucked against her chest with one hoof.

The mare glanced down at the bags, then back up at Turner before squinting her eyes slightly. “I found my muffins,” she said before taking the two bags in her mouth and then turning her nose up as she turned and began to trot away down the sidewalk.

“Did I not give you enough bits to for...,” Turner started to say as he began to follow her, but he stopped when she spread her wings and took off, leaving him behind. He stood there in shock for a few seconds, then frowned as he said, “Oh bother, I’ve done something upset her again.” Taking off at a quick gallop down the street, he called up to the sky after her as he yelled out, “Derpy, wait!”

Spike was just returning to Twilight’s tower in Canterlot at the same moment the sun was just beginning to set. He stopped as he landed on the spiral stairway that led up to the top of the tower to spend a moment watching as the sun began to slowly sink behind the horizon, and then he turned toward the doorway. As he did, it automatically swung open for him, and he knelt down and ducked his head as he stepped inside.

The torches lining the walls inside were still dark, having not yet lit since the sun hadn’t completely set. He unslung the cloth pack he had been carrying with him from his shoulder and set it to the side as the doorway closed on its own behind him. “You home, Twilight?” he called out. His ear fins twitched slightly as he waited for an answer, but he didn’t receive one.

As he stepped into the room, his long shadow was cast across the floor and onto the far wall from the remaining sunlight filtering in through the windows behind him. He glanced up the spiral stairs that connected the upper platform with the lower room and then stopped, his eyes blinking a few times and narrowing as he recognized the shadow being cast against the wall from the upper floor. “Twilight?” he called out again, but it appeared she either hadn’t heard him or his eyes were playing tricks on him and only making it appear that she was upstairs sitting at her desk.

Spike walked over to the side of the spiral stairs, glancing straight up at the edge of the platform above him. He crouched down and then leaped, giving his wings one good flap to clear the distance to the upper platform and land just on the edge.

Spike stood there quietly for a moment looking a bit confused. Twilight was sitting at her desk, various papers strewn about on the desktop, books and scrolls littering the floor all about her, but none of that appeared particularly out of the ordinary. No, it was the fact that Twilight was just silently staring at the page in front of her as her quill hovered over it, and she only slowly blinked every so often. That, and Spike could tell just from the sad look in her eyes that something had to be wrong.

Spike carefully approached the desk from the other side, sitting himself there just across from her. He waited patiently until her tired eyes finally glanced up from the page to him before asking her, “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Twilight took a deep, shaking breath, letting it back out slowly before she sniffed once. “I found the answer,” she said quietly as a weak smile appeared on her muzzle for a fleeting moment. “Both possibilities are possible at the same time,” she said as she looked back down at the notes, and then closed her eyes. “It means that the Equestria we came from is still out there.”

Spike’s mouth slowly fell open, and then after a moment of sitting there in stunned silence, he leaned in closer, resting his claws against the edge of the desk. “R-really? I thought things were changed.”

Twilight slowly opened her eyes, still staring down at the page of notes before her. “I did too, at first. But I was worried that there was still something missing that needed to be done to make sure all of this didn’t fall apart.” She leaned back in her chair, looking up to Spike. “Turns out, I was right. There is something that needs to be done. This history has to be split off on it’s own branch so it doesn’t change the one we came from.”

“Whoa,” Spike said as he leaned back, running one of his claws over the back of his head and over his neck spines. “That sounds... kinda complicated.”

“Tell me about it,” Twilight said through a tired sounding sigh. Her eyes glanced down at the various pages strewn across her desk. “It’s something I probably won’t be able to accomplish for quite a while, but it still needs to happen. It will only happen if I make it happen. And if I stay here...,” she said, trailing off almost to a quiet whisper as her eyes drifted off to the side. Another sigh, and then she looked back to Spike with a noticeable sadness behind her eyes. “I tried to find a way. Some way that I could stay here, make it work without leaving, but it just won’t work. The spell must come from the original possibility to create the new one.

“And besides that, now I know,” she said as she leaned forward again, leaning her elbows just on the edge of the table and folding her forehooves over one another just in front of her muzzle. She turned her head slightly, looking to the edge of the table where her Element set. “Our original history is still out there, and it’s missing its Element of Magic.” She looked back across the desk to Spike. “For a time, I gave up on my responsibilities and turned my back on Equestria. I can’t do that again, and I certainly can’t keep that world’s Element of Magic here where they can’t reach it.”

She was serious, that much he could tell just from her eyes. Spike glanced over to the Element of Magic for a few seconds before looking back to her. “Well, I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know much about how this time travel stuff really works, but shouldn’t we be able to go back when ever we want? It isn’t like we have to leave right now, right?”

“I thought it might work that way at first, but it doesn’t,” Twilight said as she glanced over her hooves down at her notes. “Time traveling usually means being able to choose when and where you arrive, and normally the point of origin only makes a difference in how much power is required to get to your destination. But, we’re not just talking about time travel now. This is a transfer to an entirely different history. When actually matters from both ends, because you have to choose a moment when both timelines are relatively close to each other.

“It’s kinda like tossing two pieces of rope into a bucket of water. At some point, they might float close enough to each other that they’re almost touching. This is when the gap is small enough to jump across.” Twilight tapped a hoof tip against one of the pages as she glanced up to Spike. “One of those points is coming up, just a couple weeks away now. If I get the other princesses to help, I think I can make the transfer across. Beyond that, I don’t know if I’ll ever get another chance, and it’s entirely possible that it will be a one time event. There’s just so many variables to check, it’s impossible to predict very far.”

Spike scratched his claws across the scales on the back of his neck, wrinkling his muzzle. “Well... if we know when one of these close gaps happens, then why can’t we just come back to it later?” he asked, shrugging his shoulders.

Twilight smiled weakly at him again briefly before looking back down at her notes. “Time traveling has a tendency to change things. Think of it like throwing rocks in the bucket of water. Every time you do it, it causes ripples.” Twilight put her hooves together in front of herself over the desk, and slowly drew them apart as she said, “Those ripples would cause the timelines to drift, possibly far enough that the gap is too wide to ever cross.”

“So,” Spike said as he leaned in to the desk, resting his forearms on it. “Now or never,” he said quietly as he looked down.

“I have to figure out how to create the event that makes this history exists, and that means I can’t risk getting stranded here,” Twilight said as she rested her hooves just in front of herself on the desk. She glanced up briefly across the desk at Spike, noticing his disappointment with the situation, and then her ears fell back before she looked back down to her forehooves. She quietly fidgeted with her hooves, her muzzle pulled into a deep frown. Finally, she opened her mouth and pressed herself to speak. “If... if you really wanted to stay, you probably could. I’m the one who needs go back and—”

Twilight stopped when she felt Spike’s hand firmly grasp her shoulder. She looked up across the desk, her ears lifting just slightly. Spike stared across at her, his brow furrowed slightly for a moment, but then his expression softened considerably as he said, “Wherever you go, I go.”

Despite the sad look in her eyes, the smile that came across Twilight’s muzzle was genuine. She lifted the back of her hoof to the corner of her eyes, wiping away the small amount of tears that had built up. “Thanks, Spike,” she said as she stood from her chair and came around the desk. She leaned into his side, nuzzling against him and wrapping her forelegs around him as far as she could while he leaned down over her, laying his hands across her back and his chin over the back of her neck as he hugged her closely. They stayed there quietly for quite a while afterwards as the remaining glow of the sun faded away, giving way to the night. When Spike noticed the silent sobbing coming from Twilight, he hugged her just a little tighter, gently running his fingers from one hand through the loose strands of her mane to help calm her.

Twilight informed the royal sisters the following morning. Luna and Celestia quickly decided to take it upon themselves to make the necessary preparations for Twilight and Spike’s departure from their world, insisting that Twilight not concern herself with the spell’s preparations. Doing so would be squandering what little remaining time she had, and there were far more important things that could be done with the remaining two weeks. Twilight agreed, reluctantly at first, but she knew the sisters were both competent spell casters and that with her notes, they would have the spell prepared in time.

Those two remaining weeks seemed to pass far quicker than they rightfully should have. She and Spike had travelled from Canterlot to Manehatten to Ponyville and back, visiting family and friends, and it had been a rollercoaster ride of emotions the entire way. She had told her brother first, and that same day they had decided to travel together to Manehatten to visit their parents. Explaining to her family who she really was and what had really happened when the filly Twilight had vanished all those years ago had been one of the most difficult things she had done in her life. And to top that with the fact that she would soon be leaving their world with no certainty of ever returning just felt unbelievably cruel. But, Twilight knew that simply leaving without a word would have been a regret that she never would have lived down. In the end, she knew that telling them the truth and saying her goodbyes had been the right choice, despite how difficult it had been.

Breaking the news to her friends in Ponyville hadn’t been any easier. She and Spike had spent the remaining few days of their trip spending some time with each of the five mares. And more than once, she found herself on the edge of reconsidering her decision when she realized just how much she had missed them, and how much she would miss them. If only she could prove with a firm degree of certainty that another chance would come along, that she didn’t have to leave this world behind yet.

And then, the final day had come.

The dawn had come hours ago, though Twilight hadn’t found any rest the night before. Once she had decided that she had laid there staring at the ceiling long enough, she had gotten herself up and gone through the motions of assembling what few belongings she was going to take with her. Some of her written notes, letters she had received, and what remained of her regalia were all accounted for and packed away in a saddlebag, and her Element of Magic laid on a nearby table. She was careful to not remove anything from this world that was not hers, and made sure she would be taking what didn’t belong in this world.

Spike had left the tower earlier to speak with the princesses to make sure the preparations for their departure had been finalized. He had offered to come get her later, but she had declined the offer, planning on following after him shortly after he had left. That had been over an hour prior, and it was very quickly approaching midday.

The time had been spent mostly in quiet contemplation as Twilight reflected on all that had happened in the short time she had lived in this world. It had been difficult, but had also been worth every second of struggle she had gone through. She finally resolved to look upon the time she had gained here as the gift it was instead of focusing on her desire for more.

After departing from her tower she made her way to the palace proper. She navigated the halls, paying little attention to her surroundings and more to her inner thoughts, and eventually came to the doors that led to the room that had been set aside for the spell. The two unicorn stallions guarding either side of the door acknowledged her by bowing their heads. The one on the left spoke as he raised his head back up to look to her. “They are waiting for you inside, Miss Sparkle.”

A few seconds of lingering hesitation struck, but Twilight drew in a deep, calming breath and then let it slowly out. “Thank you,” she said as she nodded to him. The two guards then turned toward the doors and lit their horns as their magic pulled the doors open.

Twilight’s eyes slowly grew wider as the doors revealed the room behind them. Spike stood at the center facing the doorway with Celestia and Luna standing on either side of him. And to the left and right of them were many others. To the left she found her parents, Twilight Velvet and Night Light, and her brother, Shining Armor, standing along side Moondancer. Just next to them she saw Cadance and Sombra. On the other side of the room she found both Chrysalis and Graphite shape shifted in the pony forms that they frequently used as of late, and beside them her Ponyville friends, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. And hung between the rafters high overhead, tied at each end with groups of multicolored balloons and streamers, was a white banner with violet lettering.

Thanks for Everything!

She stood there rigid at the doorway, her eyes looking back and forth across the room. Her mouth hung slightly open, and it took her a moment to realize that she had been holding her breath as she drew a shaky one in. Her eyes looked up to Spike as he approached her from the center of the room. He stopped a few steps from her, kneeling down as he reached out with one hand and laid it gently on her shoulder and asked, “You okay?”

Twilight glanced side to side, blinking back the tears that were threatening to fall. She glanced back up to Spike as she quietly asked, “How?”

Spike smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “I just thought spending just a little more time together before heading back would be nice.”

Twilight lifted a forehoof to wipe away the tears from the corner of her eyes, sniffling a couple times before regaining her composure. She cleared her throat, and then drew in a deep breath before saying, “Well, I suppose we don’t have to leave right this minute,” as she gave everyone in the room a smile.

Pinkie bounced in place head high from where she was standing as she shouted a, “Woohoo!” that echoed through the room, and it was followed by a round of laughs from everyone else shortly after. Twilight looked across the room, her eyes finally settling on her parents before she approached them. She hesitated noticeably once she was a few steps from them, but her father extended an inviting foreleg out to her to draw her into a hug.

“You know, we’re very proud of you, Little Spark,” Night Light said as he embraced her.

Twilight leaned back from the hug, taking a single step back. “Still calling me that even though you know, huh?”

“Know what?” Night Light asked, tilting his head slightly.

“That I’m not really your daughter,” Twilight said as she averted her eyes toward the floor.

“Nonsense,” Twilight Velvet said as she reached out and pulled Twilight into a hug. “What other world you’ve come from or how much older than us you may be doesn’t change the fact that you’re our dear Little Sparkle.” Her mother leaned back enough to look Twilight straight in the eyes while she ran her hoof gently over Twilight’s neck and withers. “Wouldn’t matter even if you were from a few thousand years from now.”

“Chin up,” Night Light said as he reached up and tapped Twilight gently under the chin. “You’ve helped us far more than you realize. If you hadn’t told us, we would have spent the rest of our lives wondering.”

Twilight smiled as she leaned into one more hug with her parents, embracing them both in her forelegs. She then turned to where her brother and Moondancer were standing nearby. “Shiny,” she said as she smiled at him, and then she raised an eyebrow slightly as she glanced to the side and said, “Moondancer.”

Moondancer grinned back. “You seem a little surprised that I’m here.”

“Well, more surprised that you’re not in uniform. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without it,” Twilight said as she glanced down from Moondancer’s hooves back up to her eyes. Today she was her natural off white with red and violet highlighted mane and tail, which was a fair bit different than the Nightguard colors that Twilight had grown used to seeing on her. That and the simple, black framed glasses perched upon her muzzle almost seemed out of place.

“She almost never takes it off,” Shining Armor quipped, drawing their attention to him. “A captain’s work is never done, right?” he said, giving Moondancer a mischievous smirk.

Moondancer flashed a smirk back at him and caught him in the ribs with a swift elbow from her foreleg, causing him to flinch. “I do take a break from being serious every once in a while,” she said, playfully sticking her tongue out at him.

Twilight chuckled as she watched them, and then leaned in closer to Moondancer to whisper something in her ear, though she made sure it was loud enough for her brother to overhear. “You’ll have your hooves full keeping him in check you know.”

“Oh, I’m sure,” Moondancer said as she nodded quickly.

“Hey, what is this? Ganging up on me?” Shining Armor said as he stepped forward and quickly caught Twilight around the withers with a foreleg. He drew her in close against his chest as he used his free hoof to give her a noogie.

“Hey! Cut it out,” Twilight said through a laugh as she made a show of trying to escape from him, though they both knew if she had really wanted to escape it would have been rather simple for her to do so. He finally let her go, making sure to muss her mane one last time as he did. She feigned annoyance at his pestering, even going as far as to stick her tongue out at him shortly before they both broke into a short fit of laughter.

“I’m still your big brother, even if you’re older and all powerful,” Shining Armor said as he pointed his hoof at Twilight.

“I’m not all powerful,” she said while rolling her eyes. She then drew a heavy breath in before letting it go with a sigh. “I really wish I could have stayed for the wedding.”

“Maybe we can figure out a way to send you a postcard,” Moondancer offered, though her joking didn’t seem to lift Twilight’s spirits that much. She stepped forward to offer Twilight a hug instead, which was gladly accepted. She then stepped back a step from the embrace, resting one forehoof on Twilight’s shoulder as she said, “Don’t worry, I’ll tell our foals stories about how I helped their awesome aunty from the future save the world.”

“A little early to be talking about that, isn’t it?” Shining Armor said, which drew some laughter from others around the room. Twilight then stepped up to him as they drew each other into a hug. “Gonna miss you a lot, lil sis.”

“I’ll miss you too, big brother,” she said shortly before stepping back. She looked to the side to Moondancer as she said, “Take good care of him.”

Moondancer smiled and nodded once as she quietly said, “I will.”

Twilight smiled as she took a few steps to where Cadance and Sombra were standing. As she approached, Sombra bowed his head, bending one knee as he kneeled before her. “Sombra, you don’t need to do that,” Twilight said as she held a hoof out toward him.

“Yes, I do,” he said as he glanced up to her. “You and your friends have been much kinder to me than I deserve. I owe you so much, and can’t possibly offer enough to return the favor.”

Twilight shook her head. She stepped forward to hook her forehoof under his foreleg and gently pull him to stand up. “You deserve the second chance. My only regret is knowing that you didn’t get one in the Equestria I’m returning to.”

“Seems even with time travel that changing the past is just out of our reach,” he said thoughtfully. His eyes seemed to drift for a short moment before returning to looking at her. “We shouldn’t dwell on it, but we also shouldn’t forget the past. I’ll not be making the same mistakes again.”

Twilight smiled to him. “Well, hopefully others can see that you’ve learned that lesson.”

“It’s been very challenging,” Cadance said. “Telling the crystal ponies the truth behind what the amulet was doing to him has helped, but I believe there is still a long road ahead of us before all is forgiven,” she said as she glanced to her side at him.

He looked back to her, and a very slight smile was noticeable there on his muzzle when he looked at her. “I’m just grateful for the chance to prove myself. You certainly didn’t have to give me the chance.”

“I believe your heart is in the right place,” Cadance said before turning her attention to Twilight. “I suppose you’ll be seeing me again, though it will be a different me if I’m understanding things right.”

“Yes, that’s the way it works,” Twilight said as a light sigh escaped from her. “I’ll still miss you,” Twilight said as she reached out and touched a forehoof to Cadance’s shoulder.

“And I’ll miss you,” Cadance said as she reached out and touched Twilight’s shoulder in response before they drew each other into a quick hug. “Take care of yourself, and don’t let the other me give you any trouble,” Cadance said as she stepped back.

The two shared a quick giggle. “I’ll let her know you said that,” Twilight said before turning her attention to Sombra again. “Like Cadance said, your heart is in the right place. Don’t give up.” Sombra quickly bowed his head once again, giving her a grateful smile before she turned away to cross the room. She approached Chrysalis and Graphite next, stopping a few steps from them and looking between them curiously for a few seconds. “I’m a bit surprised to see you two here,” she admitted.

“No need to be surprised,” Graphite said with a quick shake of his head. “You’ve helped us far beyond anything we could have ever hoped for. Thanks to you, changelings may not have to live in the shadows any longer. At least, not in Equestria,” he said as he glanced momentarily toward the princesses.

“Well, actually,” Twilight said as she looked to Chrysalis, “I suppose I’m mostly just surprised to see you in the same room as... you know who.”

Chrysalis raised her eyebrows slightly and glanced off to the side. “I can tolerate his presence for your sake, but just this once,” she said, before lowering her voice and mumbling, “so long as he stays on that side of the room.”

Twilight gave her an understanding nod. “I... do wish I had the time to continue helping with the search for the Heart fragments. I don’t like leaving things unfinished.”

“You do have a tendency to involve yourself in other’s problems, don’t you?” Chrysalis said as she looked back. A slight smile appeared on her muzzle before she said, “You worry far too much. Let us worry about this world now, you have your own to return to that needs you.”

“I suppose you’re right. You are the bearer of Magic in this world,” Twilight said as she lowered her head slightly.

A short moment of silence passed before Chrysalis spoke up again. “I will admit,” she started, drawing Twilight’s attention back up to her, “even though I know the memories are not my own, I still feel as if I was truly there, that I was your student for a time, and I believe I’ll miss those moments.” Her eyes drifted for a moment, before she looked back, tilting her head to the side slightly. “Doesn’t make sense, does it? I never was the Crystal Charm you knew.”

Twilight slowly smiled. “I think I would have very much liked to have you as my student.” They quietly looked upon one another for a moment, and then Chrysalis held one foreleg open to Twilight, offering her a hug that was gladly accepted.

“Well, I did learn something from all of this,” Chrysalis admitted as she stepped back, making a quick gesture with her hoof. “One should be cautious of their life choices. I’ll not be making the same mistakes my other self did. That path only led to ruin.”

“Good to hear,” Twilight said, shortly before stealing a glance to the side where her friends were waiting. She looked back to Chrysalis, stepping in close and lowering her voice to speak to her. “I know you don’t know them as well as I do, but my friends helped me become what I am today. They were always great friends to me, and I’m sure if you gave them the chance, they could be great friends to you as well.”

“You truly think so?” Chrysalis asked as she too stole a quick glance to the side.

“You are the bearer of Magic,” Twilight said as she laid a hoof on Chrysalis’s shoulder. “And, may I ask one selfish thing of you?”

“What would that be?”

“Take care of them for me.”

Chrysalis smiled, bowing her head slightly as she said, “Of course.”

Twilight let her hoof slowly fall from Chrysalis’s shoulder, and then turned to where her Ponyville friends were gathered together. As she approached the group, she noticed Pinkie grinning and only barely containing herself as her forehooves pranced in place. Twilight laughed as she said, “I assume you had a little something to do with all this, didn’t you, Pinkie?”

“Me?” she said as she tilted her head to the side and batted her eyelashes innocently. She could only keep it up for a second before giggling and saying, “Well, yeah, I did, though it was Spike’s idea, I just got everypony together! It was actually kinda hard to figure out what kind of theme to go with though.”

“Oh?” Twilight asked as she glanced up at the banner hanging overhead.

“Yep. I mean, a going away party is kinda like saying ‘Yay! Go away!’, which sounded really mean,” she said as she shook her head vigorously in disapproval. “So instead, I thought a thank you for everything get together sounded a lot better, and made more sense anyway. That way we can all get together and let you know just how much we appreciate all the things you did.”

Twilight smiled, and then a light sigh escaped from her as she momentarily glanced to the side. “I’ll admit that I felt a little upset for a second there. Kind of hard to celebrate when I’m going to be leaving you all behind, but I am glad that I got to see everyone one more time.”

“Eh, just think of it as the next step,” Pinkie said as she stepped up beside Twilight and hooked a foreleg over her shoulders. “Right now, our next steps are taking us different ways,” she said as she cast her free hoof out before her. “But, who knows? We could still find each other again some day. Time is kinda loopy like that,” she said, ending on that by sticking her tongue out and crossing her eyes for a second.

Twilight smiled and nodded. “You’re right, I don’t know what the future will bring yet,” she said as she looked out across her group of friends. “I already thought it impossible once before that I would ever see any of you again, and look at what happened.”

“Twilight, if I may,” Rarity said as she moved forward a step. “I have something to give to you that is from all of us.”

“Though mostly from Rarity,” Rainbow quickly said, pointing a hoof toward her.

“Shush, it’s from all of us,” Rarity said as she quickly swiped a hoof in Rainbow’s direction. “Well, we decided to wait until Hearth’s Warming to give it to you as a gift, but it seems we’ll have to give it to you a little early.”

“Oh,” Twilight said as her ears fell back slightly. “You girls didn’t have to get me anything, really.”

“I know, but this just seemed right,” Rarity said as she turned aside to pick up a small, violet box wrapped in a magenta ribbon that had been sitting hidden behind her. Her aura floated the box forward to Twilight, and the rest of her friends moved in to a circle around the package as Twilight took it. “Go on, open it,” Rarity said, waving her hoof to the box.

Twilight touched a hoof lightly to the bow of the ribbon tied around the gift box. She glanced up, finding her friends smiling back as they eagerly waited on her to open the package. She focused her magic on pulling the ends of the ribbon, undoing the bow and letting the ribbon slide off to the floor. She then lifted the top of the box, pulling it to the side as she looked at what lie inside. There, she found a violet velvet jacket with silver snap buttons and a collar trimmed with lighter violet down feathers. She lifted the jacket from from the box slowly, simply staring at it for a moment as she unfolded it before her, and then quietly said, “You found it.”

“It only seemed right to return it to you. It is yours, after all,” Rarity said as she stepped closer. She took the corner of the jacket in her magic to turn it slightly, showing where holes lined with the same down feathers had been made just above the sleeves on the back. “I took the liberty of modifying it so you could show off those beautiful wings of yours. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Of course I don’t,” Twilight said. She sat back on her haunches, and with her magic she put the velvet jacket on, fanning her wings out at her sides through the added wing holes before folding them back in around herself. She pulled the collar up around her chin, closing her eyes and nuzzling into it for a second before she smiled and looked back up to her friends. “Thank you, really. I thought this had been lost when Chrystallyn took it from me. I wish I had something to give you all in return.”

“I’d say you’ve already given us plenty,” Applejack said. “Things were lookin’ kinda bad for a while there, until you came along.”

Twilight made a short, thoughtful hum as she touched a hoof under her chin. “How about I give you all a promise.”

Her friends looked to each other with curious glances. Fluttershy leaned toward Twilight slightly as she timidly asked, “What kind of promise?”

Twilight smiled, and then stood as she turned to take a few steps toward the center of the room. She looked out across the room full of family and friends that were gathered there, taking in a calming breath before she spoke. “I promise I’ll never forget my time here. I’m glad I was able to be part of this world, even if only for a little while.”

Applejack nodded and stepped up beside Twilight, resting a foreleg across her shoulders. “Here’s to friends and family, bonds that will never break no matter how far or how long we are apart.” A quick ‘hear, hear’ from Night Light started a chorus of agreement to buzz through the room for a short moment before dying down again. Twilight’s Ponyville friends gathered around her, and together they joined in a group hug centered around her.

Twilight then stepped forward to where Spike had been waiting for her near Celestia and Luna. She looked to Luna first when Luna approached her and offered a book, the same book that Spike had brought with him from the future containing Twilight’s notes. Twilight took her old book with a quiet thank you, stashing it away in her saddle bag along with the rest of the notes she was taking back with her. Luna then bowed her head deeply to Twilight as she said, “I can not possibly repay you for how much you have helped me. You led me out of a terrible darkness.”

“She helped us both,” Celestia quickly said to Luna. The two sisters smiled to one another, and then Celestia turned her attention to Twilight. “I envy my other self. I believe I would have loved to have had a student such as you.”

Twilight smiled up to her. “You never know what the future might bring.”

“Too true,” Celestia said with a quick nod. “And just so you know, I’m sure your deeds here won’t go forgotten for some time to come.” Twilight blinked and tilted her head slightly at that. “Don’t look so surprised. Most legends have basis in facts if you look back far enough. I wouldn’t be surprised if there ends up being a legend or two about a certain time traveling princess,” she said shortly before giving Twilight a quick wink.

Twilight smiled back to her, and she then looked up to Spike as he stepped forward to stand at her side. “Ready?” she asked up to him quietly, to which he replied with a visible sigh before nodding his head. She then silently looked back to the two princesses, giving them a single nod. Celestia and Luna both stepped back from each other to either side of the room, making room between them. They focused on the space between them as they lowered their horns toward each other, and their magical auras came aglow and began to mingle together between them in a ball of golden and midnight blue light. The spell grew in size, becoming brighter and causing most in the room to shield their eyes from the glare, and then there was a rush of air through the room as the orb of light snapped into a vertical circle of white before Twilight and Spike.

Twilight felt the hesitation grip her once again, very strongly this time. Her hooves didn’t want to move as she stared at the entrance to the time tunnel, knowing that this would quite likely be the last time she would see this world for centuries or more. But she felt a light touch against the back of her neck, and looked up to her side to see Spike smiling back down to her as he lightly ran his claws over her mane. She realized then that she wasn’t leaving everything behind. She faced him and smiled up to him as she said, “It’s time to go home.”

He faced her and nodded back to her, and together they both looked back to the faces of everyone gathered in the room one last time. Twilight then extended a wing up to Spike, which he reached out and held with the palm of his hand against the inside of her wing, and together they stepped into the spell that would take them home.

Epilogue

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Epilogue

The doorway to Twilight’s private library opened with a quiet creaking sound. The darkened room was lit at first by only the long beam of light cast across the floor from the adjoining room, and then brightened as torches around the perimeter of the room lit in a counter clockwise cascade just as Twilight stepped hoof across the threshold.

Her hoofsteps echoed throughout the quiet room as she walked past the first few columns of bookshelves, and then she paused for a few seconds, tilting her head as she glanced down one of the narrow spaces between the shelving. She turned to make her way between the shelves, glancing up and down at the rows of books to her left as her lips silently mouthed the titles that her eyes caught as she scanned them.

After passing by nearly half a dozen full bookshelves, she squinted at one of the lower shelves she was standing in front of, trying to make out the titles on the book spines. She lowered her head and began to crouch to get a better look, but as she shifted her stance, her right flank bumped into the shelving on the other side. The unexpected touch caused her to and flinch away, and she stood so quickly that her shoulder caught under one of the wooden shelves on the shelf to her left, unseating it from the wooden pegs that it laid upon and causing it to tip forward. Before she knew what was happening, a small cascade of books toppled from the shelf and landed in a messy pile at her hooves.

“Shoot,” Twilight quietly cursed. Her magic lit and began to lift the books from the floor one by one, closing the ones that had fallen open and stacking them together in floating stacks around her. As she was cleaning up the mess, her mind wondered why the shelves seemed so close together. She could have sworn that there had been more room between them before.

She hadn’t grown that much.

Though, it had been a few decades since the library had last been redone, something she had been putting off. She let a light sigh escape from her, resigned to the fact that another renovation was probably unavoidable.

After adjusting the shelf to reseat it properly, Twilight’s magic began to take the books one by one from the floating stacks and quickly reshelve them after she glanced at the covers. When she was down to the last few, she did a quick double take when her eyes came across one of the titles. She pulled it back quickly to look at the cover again, her magic flipping the book over once as she looked over the seemingly very plane cover before reading the title once again.

What Didn’t Happen

She had recognized the journal right away as the record of events she had created after returning home from the alternate Equestria. However, she was a bit confused as to why it had ended up on the shelves among all the rest of the books in her library. This was one of the few that she normally kept hidden away in a safer place. She furrowed her brow deeply as she tried to remember the last time she had seen the journal. It had to have been at least over a century, perhaps coming up on two. Though she would never admit to forgetting about her time in the other world, she had put it out of mind for a while after she had realized that it would be quite a while before she would be ready for the next step. Perhaps she had removed it from the vault for some reason, and then somehow not noticed it getting mixed in with the rest of the books the last time the library had been reshelved, or perhaps she had simply been tired one evening long ago and placed it upon the shelf without thinking. Either way, she found it rather uncanny that she had happened to nearly trip into it by chance.

She placed the remaining books upon the shelf before turning her attention back to her old journal, and after inspecting the cover once again for any signs of wear, she opened it to the first page. The bindings creaked as the book’s pages opened for the first time in over a lifetime, and Twilight’s eyes began to scan quickly back and forth as she read the first entry. A few minutes soon turned into a few hours as Twilight read entry after entry in the journal. She eventually settled into laying on the floor there between the shelves as she continued to read with the journal propped against her crossed forehooves. She finally came to the last of the written journal entries as she turned a page.

All of the records of events contained within the pages of this journal will never be found within our own history books. These events are from an alternate history that our world will never know, a record of what didn’t happen.

But, for our world to exist, this other history must also exist. I know that this other history will happen, that the other Equestria and all those who live within it will exist.

Someday, I will make sure of it.

Twilight’s eyes lingered on the last sentence of the final entry on the page before glancing to the next page. The next page was filled from edge to edge with notes on temporal equations. Her magic turned the page over to the next, and there she found a construction diagram of a staff, with various notes written in around the components. At the bottom center of the page was carefully written a single name.

Dusk

Twilight’s eyes lingered on the page that depicted the yet to be created artifact for a moment longer, and then her magic lit as it closed the journal, causing a dull thump to echo quietly through the room. Her eyes closed as she spent a moment in thought, and then slowly opened again. She stood and turned to walk back down the row of shelving, her magic holding the journal just to her right as she made her way to the exit. She stopped once she made it to the library doorway, turning to look back in the room, and then down to the journal. The journal hadn’t been what she was looking for. She had just stumbled upon it by chance, but even so, it now felt like this was the real reason why she had ventured into her library this evening. Sometimes, when looking for something, you find something else even more important.

Twilight smiled as she tucked the journal away under her wing, and turned to leave the library.

Perhaps it was finally the right time to make something happen.

The End

A Friend From the Future

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter I – A Friend From the Future

A clear nighttime sky containing the brightness of a full moon and a countless number of stars illuminated the land below well enough for the two pegasi who were strolling through the streets of Ponyville. Their vibrant pastel coat and mane colors seemed dulled under the moonlight, but Fluttershy's bright yellow and pink still stood out easily among the rest of the darkened surroundings, as did Rainbow Dash's unique multicolored mane. The pair made their way through the streets, happening by other ponies along their way but only exchanging quick glances with a simple smile or nod before wordlessly moving on to their destination.

“Thanks again,” Fluttershy said quietly, breaking the pattern of their hoof steps clacking against the cobble path.

“Yeah, don't mention it Flutters. There's no way you could have carried all this stuff back on your own,” Rainbow said as she nodded her head at the loaded saddlebags strapped across their backs. “And I don't blame ya for not wanting to run around out here on your own now a days.”

“I'm just lucky you stopped by today. I don't know what I would have done. All the little animals staying with me have been getting so anxious, and I was starting to run out of things.”

“I'll check on you every few days... how's that sound?” Rainbow offered.

“Oh, thank you. You're such a good friend Rainbow,” Fluttershy said with a warm smile, one returned by her friend.

They continued on toward the cottage just beyond the edge of Ponyville that Fluttershy and her woodland friends called home. Despite being a usually inviting scene, the moonlight hues along with the sight of the Everfree Forest looming just off in the distance behind the home made for a rather eerie sight. Fluttershy seemed to tense a bit as she approached the gloomy looking bridge in front of her home.

“You gonna be okay?” Rainbow asked as she noticed her companion’s unease.

“I... yes... I think so,” Fluttershy weakly responded, kicking her front hoof against the ground.

“If you need me too, I can stay for a bit.”

“Um... well, that might be nice... but,” Fluttershy trailed off as she glanced up the dark path to her home, a visible sigh escaping from her.

“But?” Rainbow prompted.

“I can't stay scared forever. Not now. I mean... things are always going to be like this now, right?” Fluttershy said as she gestured around herself with a hoof.

“Well... maybe. But maybe things will change. Maybe things will get back to normal.”

“Normal,” Fluttershy repeated the word, noting just how strange it actually sounded. “How could that ever happen? We need help, but there's nopony left who can help.” Glancing up to the star filled sky, Fluttershy silently traced the stars one by one with her eyes, almost as if she were searching for an answer. “I just wish there was somepony that could help us. I want things to be like they used to be.”

Rainbow didn't know what to say. She didn't consider herself to be very good at offering advice for one's problems, so she offered the only support she could think of by simply being there for her friend and listening. After all, Fluttershy had always seemed to value the companionship more than any kind of solution to her worries.

Looking up to the sky herself, Rainbow stood there along side her silent companion and took in the sight. If it weren't for what this view had come to represent, she could have easily considered it to be beautiful, but found it impossible to appreciate it. The night sky and full moon simply stood as an imposing symbol, reminding all ponies everywhere of what they had lost and would never have again.

The sky looked like a living painting. The moon and stars stood dead still against the impossibly deep blackness of the sky, with only a slight change in brightness from the stars as they twinkled, noticeable only to those with good enough eyes to catch it. Nothing else moved, not even a cloud in the sky as there were none. But there was one speck that seemed a bit more lively than the rest in the inky darkness. It seemed to change color from a bright white to a more orangish, and it twinkled much more rapidly than the rest of the stars. And if one was watching it close enough, it looked like it was moving slightly in relation to the rest of the heavenly bodies.

“Hey, do you see that?” Rainbow squinted at the unusual star, trying to focus on it. Fluttershy took notice of the direction her friend was looking, and tried to spot what had been noticed for herself. It didn't take long for her sight to pick up on the odd movement of the star against the others.

“A... shooting star?” Fluttershy nearly whispered.

“Iduno. Don't they usually move a lot faster?” Rainbow said as she glanced to her side at her friend shortly before continuing to track the strange object in the sky.

“Well... normally,” Fluttershy said as she continued to gaze at the object.

The longer the pair watched the odd star in the sky, the more it appeared that it was twinkling much brighter than the rest. It also seemed that it was slowly picking up speed, moving against the rest of the sky that seemed frozen in place. And it also appeared that it was growing.

The area around the two pegasi began to brighten as the star suddenly started to get much bigger. It didn't take much longer for them to realize that this thing wasn't just moving across the sky, it was headed right at them, and fast. Fluttershy began to backpedal away as she realized the star was falling toward her, but found herself being suddenly pinned to the ground as Rainbow threw herself protectively over her friend. The sky grew brighter than day momentarily, and the air was filled with a roaring sound of fire as the star quickly passed just overhead. After harmlessly flying by, it continued on its trajectory toward the Everfree Forest. A few bright flashes of light and the sound of something crashing off in the distance was followed closely by ground tremors and a sudden rush of wind.

“What... what was that!?” Fluttershy squeaked as she remained huddled under Rainbow's protective stance.

“Not sure, but it went down close.” Rainbow stood and took a few cautious steps in the direction that the strange object had fallen toward. There was no light left now nor any sounds, just a slight breeze that seemed to linger from the impact. She hummed to herself as she rubbed at her chin with the tip of a forehoof. Fluttershy managed to walk up next to her friend, although she seemed like she was ready to bolt to a hiding spot at a moments notice the way she crouched low to the ground.

“It's not safe out here,” Fluttershy hissed quietly, trying to break Rainbow's attention away from the forest's edge.

“Still, we should check that out, don't you think?” Rainbow asked as she glanced back to Fluttershy.

“C-check... check it out!?” Fluttershy squeaked again. “B-but, it's off limits! We could get in big trouble!”

“And if that thing catches the entire forest on fire, Ponyville could be in big trouble,” Rainbow argued. She noticed the reluctance in her friend and quickly decided take care of the matter on her own. Giving the saddlebags on her back a quick tug, she slid them off to the ground.

“I won't be long,” Rainbow said as she spread her wings to prepare for flight. “I'll just do a quick flyover, you won't even know I was gone.” Rainbow crouched down, getting ready to propel herself into the air.

“Wait!” Fluttershy squeaked. Rainbow Dash nearly stumbled to the ground as she caught herself at the least second before flying off. She glanced over to her friend, and noticed the terrified look in Fluttershy's eyes.

“Don't worry, it'll be fine.”

“Y-you shouldn't go alone! You could get attacked by some sort of moon-monster or something!” Fluttershy rambled on as her imagination started dreaming up possible horrors that the ball of light could have been. “N-no! I can't let you go alone out there! You could get hurt. I'm going too!”

The shaking in Fluttershy's voice and legs didn't seem to match up to the words she was saying, causing Rainbow to give her a confused look. “Are you... sure about that? You don't have to force yourself you know—”

“I'm going!” Fluttershy still shook where she was standing, despite her best efforts to look determined.

Rainbow wasn't quite sure if Fluttershy was attempting to face her fears or was just afraid of being left behind in the darkness. Either way, she didn't mind the company. She shrugged her shoulders and turned back toward the Everfree, readying herself for flight a second time. “Alright, together then. We'll just fly over real quick, make sure everything looks okay, then get back here. Easy breezy.” With a quick thrust from her legs and wings, Rainbow took off into the night sky. Fluttershy followed suit a few seconds later after slipping out from under her saddlebags, a quiet 'meep' sound escaping from her as she took off.

The two pegasi climbed into the night sky, Rainbow pausing to hover for a few seconds here and there to allow Fluttershy to catch up to her as they made their way toward the Everfree. The trees below them began to grow more dense and odd shaped as they continued over the border of the forest. Up ahead, an area that looked to be carved out of the otherwise dense forest canopy could be seen. Rainbow began to soar in a lazy circle above the scar in the forest as she scanned the area below for any signs of a budding forest fire. The light of the full moon provided barely enough illumination for her pegasus sight to make out details down below, barely enough to notice something she hadn't expected to see.

“Hey! You see that?” Rainbow called out as she pointed to a spec of color on the ground below. Fluttershy squinted and focused her sight on the ground, and after a few seconds spotted what was out of place. There was a bright color that stood out among the otherwise dark hues of the forest.

Without waiting for an answer, Rainbow banked and began to descend toward the spec. Fluttershy cringed, fighting down a surge of anxiety before she followed. Once on the ground, Rainbow trotted up next to the edge of the scar on the land. She looked back down the length of the trench, noticing numerous trees that had been snapped and splintered when the object had passed through them as it entered the forest. Glancing down the other direction she could see the bright color she had spotted from the sky, and her suspicion was confirmed. The color was somepony laying in the trench.

“Rainbow!” Fluttershy quietly called out as she landed behind her. “We're not supposed to be here,” she said as her eyes darted back and forth like a child worried that her parents might find out she was sneaking around where she shouldn't be.

“I think that thing hit somepony,” Rainbow said as she pointed toward the end of the trench. “What if they got hurt by that thing? We have to make sure they're alright.”

“I... well, yes, you're right,” Fluttershy agreed. “But we can't stay here long.”

“I know, lets go check and then we can get the hay outta here.” Rainbow trotted over to the edge of the trench, stopping for a second to test the ground with a hoof before fully stepping in. It was slightly warm to the touch, but nothing near what she had been expecting from a giant fireball.

As the two pegasi approached the pony laying at the end of the trench, they were able to get a better look. The mare laying there had a violet color theme to her, her coat being a lighter shade of purple than her mane and tail. A couple lighter streaks trailed through to the tip of her mane and tail, one of which was closer to a magenta color. She seemed to be wearing some sort of jewelry around her neck and on a couple of her hooves, but the jewelry hadn't fared well from the impact and was misshapen. One of her wings was visible, the other likely pinned under her body and buried in the dirt as she laid there on her side. Rainbow mentally tried to place a name with this pegasus but was unable to come up with one. Even the magenta star cutie-mark surrounded by five white stars didn't spark any memory. She realized she hadn't seen this pegasus before.

“Wait...,” Rainbow said as she glanced back down the trench at the landing path the fireball had taken. She looked back and forth, tracing the trench with her eyes back to the mare a few times. “I don't think she was hit. I think... she crashed.”

Fluttershy blinked a couple times as she looked at the mare laying before them. “She was the falling star?”

“Well, I mean it doesn't look like anything landed on her, does it?” Rainbow's reasoning seemed sound, as there was no object other than the mare half buried at the end of the trench. When Fluttershy didn't immediately answer, Rainbow reached out to the mystery mare to try to gently dig her out of the ground. She scooped some of the dirt away from around the mare's face, and began to try to prop her head up.

“Careful, she might be badly hurt,” Fluttershy cautioned as she watched Rainbow gently work at unearthing the mare. Then there was a sharp gasp from Rainbow as she jerked her hooves away, letting the mystery mare's head plop back down into the loose soil. “W-what happened?” Fluttershy asked.

“Look! Her head!” Rainbow said pointing at the mare's face. Fluttershy wasn't immediately sure she wanted to look, since she didn't do well at all with blood. She instinctively clenched her eyes closed for a second before she forced herself to peek with one eye at what her friend was trying to show her. Then she opened both eyes wide as she locked her gaze on what she saw.

The mare laying in the dirt had a unicorn horn. A horn and wings.

“She's... she's an alicorn,” Fluttershy said quietly as she gazed at the mare wide eyed.

Just then, a loud sound escaped from the mare and caused Fluttershy to yelp before she dashed behind her friend. The mystery mare coughed and gagged on dirt that she had inadvertently inhaled when she had sucked in a breath of air. Struggling to push herself up off the ground, she managed to free herself from the trench that she had been partially imbedded in, and continued to try to spit the grit from her mouth. “Pplaaagh, oh that's disgusting,” she grumbled.

“Hey, you okay?” Rainbow asked cautiously. The mystery mare stopped suddenly and snapped her attention toward Rainbow when she realized she wasn't alone, causing Rainbow Dash to flinch. She stared at Rainbow for a good long while, her eyes twitching quickly around as she looked the pegasus over.

“...Rainbow...?” The mare asked almost in a whisper. Rainbow couldn't help but blink back as she pulled a hoof up to her chest and leaned away. “Is... no, that can't be right. It can't be....” The mare seemed to incoherently bumble around with her thoughts as she tried to make sense of her surroundings, then she took notice of the light yellow pegasus huddling behind Rainbow Dash. The pattern of a long stare repeated again, and then the mare quietly mumbled, “Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy ducked her head lower behind Rainbow and whispered, “How does she know our names?”

“Uuuuh, okay,” Rainbow said as she scrunched her face up in thought and scratched at her mane with a hoof. “I guess... you're not hurt then?”

The mystery mare stared back at Rainbow Dash for a moment longer, and then looked down at herself, seeming to take notice for the first time that she had just crashed into the ground. She turned her front hooves over as she looked at them, then shook her wings a bit to get some of the dirt to fall out from her feathers before she folded them to her side as she seemed to take inventory of her body parts. “Well, other than eating a bunch of dirt I think I'll be okay, but I'm still trying to figure out what's going on.”

“Well you kinda fell out of the sky,” Rainbow said as she pointed up into the air. “Like, you must have been really booking it too. There was a huge fireball and... I think you went through all those trees.”

The mystery mare glanced around the two pegasi in front of her and took a good look at the trench that she had dug with her face when she had 'landed', as well as the trees that had been unfortunate enough to be in her path. “Good thing I had that barrier up,” she mumbled to nopony in particular.

“Did you hear my wish?” a quiet voice asked. The mystery mare focused back to Fluttershy, who was cautiously stepping out from behind her friend.

“...Your wish?”

Fluttershy nodded. “Right before we saw you falling from the sky, I had made a wish that somepony would help us.”

“Oh...,” the mystery mare said as she thought for a moment. She looked back and forth between the two pegasi that she knew she recognized, but had realized fairly quickly that they didn't seem to recognize her. That fact alone was causing her mind to race as it tried to come up with a plausible explanation. And, she still wasn’t entirely sure of where she had ended up. “Say,” she started as she stood up, “Where are we?”

Rainbow stood up as well, sensing that they would soon be leaving. “We're in the Everfree Forest, just near Ponyville,” she said.

“Really...,” the mystery mare responded thoughtfully.

“And we're not supposed to be here,” Fluttershy added as she glanced over her shoulder, as if she was keeping an eye out for somepony.

“We're not?”

Rainbow took a few steps back in the direction of the forest's edge and looked back. “Yeah, it's against the rules or something. We just wanted to make sure there wasn't a fire or anything. Then we found you.”

“I-I see,” the mystery mare mumbled as she seemed to once again lose herself in thought for a moment, then she looked up and noticed the two pegasi waiting on her. “Oh, right, I guess you two want to get out of here.”

“That'd be nice uh... say, what do we call you?” Rainbow asked.

The mystery mare seemed to think about how to respond to the question. She absentmindedly reached a hoof up to straighten something on her head, but then noticed it wasn't there. Letting go a quick gasp, she immediately turned around and began to dig around in the dirt that she had just been laying in.

Rainbow trotted up behind the mare, arching her neck to try and look over and see exactly what she was digging for. “What are you doing?” she asked as her eyebrows raised at the odd behavior.

“I lost it! I lost my crown!” the mare said frantically.

“Oh so, you're a princess?” Rainbow asked as she took a few steps back and watched the mare sprint up the trench. Though she had never seen this particular princess, everypony knew that the princesses of Equestria were also alicorns.

“Ohhh, where is it!” The 'Princess' didn't seem to be interested in anything other than finding her crown at the moment as she darted around, hoofing at the ground here and there in hopes of unearthing something. The two pegasi watched the strange scene unfold in front of them, unsure if they should be helping or if they should just keep out of the way. Fluttershy happened to glance around at the broken trees that were scattered along side the trench and then caught a glimpse of something. There dangling from one of the branches was something that was reflecting the full moon's light to her eyes.

“Um... maybe,” Fluttershy mumbled.

The Princess dashed by to the right. “I can't leave without it, it's far too important to leave here.”

“Well... it could be,” Fluttershy mumbled again.

The Princess dashed back to the left. “I can't believe this. I can’t just lose it in the dirt somewhere!”

“I think....” Fluttershy watched the Princess start to dash by again. The expression on her face suddenly grew more determined and she stepped out in the Princess's path, stopping her cold. She stared back for a moment before her stance seemed to wither and she shrunk back a step. “Um... it might be nothing, but I saw something in the trees,” she mumbled as she averted her gaze to the ground.

“Oh! Well, why didn't you say so?” the Princess said as she began to glance around at the tree branches above. Before Fluttershy could comment any further, the Princess took flight, leaving a small cloud of dust off her wings that caused Fluttershy to squint her eyes and back away.

The Princess came to a hover just below the tree branches. “Sorry!” she called back down to the ground, and then turned her attention to searching through the broken limbs. It didn't take very long for her sight to catch a glimpse of the same thing Fluttershy had seen. There was a glint in the trees near where the trench started. A few more wing strokes and the Princess was near the source of the reflection; a golden crown that had a magenta star-burst gem set in the front center. Letting go a sigh of relief, her magenta colored magic grasped the crown, and lifted it from the tangled limbs before returning it to its rightful place atop her head. The crown seemed to be in surprisingly pristine shape compared to the rest of her regalia.

The two pegasi trotted up to where the Princess glided down to the forest floor. “Thanks for waiting, I really couldn't leave this behind,” she said as she nodded her head up at the crown.

“Not to be rude, since you're a princess and all, but...,” Rainbow took a few trots toward the edge of the forest once again.

The Princess nodded quickly. “Right, right, we really shouldn't be standing around in the Everfree anyway, it's not safe here.”

“Yeah, that too,” Rainbow said as she glanced back at the trench behind them. She then happened to notice something in her peripherals, and quickly glanced up at the broken canopy above. Drawing in a quick gasp, she managed to say one word before she dashed toward some thick brush. “Hide!” Fluttershy was only a split second behind her.

“Wha?” The Princess glanced back over her shoulder to see what sort of monster Rainbow had noticed, but didn't see anything at first. Then her sight picked up on a shadow moving through the sky above. What ever it was, she wasn't interested in finding out if it was friendly or not, so she quickly ducked into the brush along with the two pegasi. As an extra precaution, she cast a magical veil over the three of them that caused them to shimmer and vanish from sight.

The sound of hooves landing on the forest floor echoed through the trees. It was hard to make out any details in the darkness, but it was obvious from the silhouettes that these 'monsters' were actually just ponies. Most likely they had come to investigate just like Rainbow and Fluttershy had. The Princess let go a breath of air she hadn't realized she had been holding, and she started to stand up from the brush that she was crouching behind. However, Rainbow quickly grabbed her with a hoof across her withers and pushed her back down. The Princess gave Rainbow a hard look, but then noticed the panicked look in her eyes. She decided that it might be best to remain hidden.

“I don't see anything,” a stallion's voice rang out through the forest.

“Yeah, it's too dark. Even with night sight, there's hardly enough moonlight here,” a mare's voice called back.

“Wait, got something,” the stallion's voice sounded back again. The two silhouettes moved closer together, and one of them appeared to have something on the end of its hoof that the pale moonlight glinted off of.

“...Is that a shoe?” the mare’s voice asked.

“Don't know. Should probably take it back with us,” the stallion’s voice reasoned.

“That's mine,” the Princess hissed quietly in protest as she squinted her eyes at the offending pony, to which she felt the pressure of Rainbow's grasp on her withers increase slightly.

The mare’s voice echoed through the woods again. “Well, if there was anything or... anypony here... it isn't here now. You think something dragged it off?”

“Who knows,” the stallion’s voice answered back. “Lets get out of here, this place is giving me the creeps.” The two silhouettes sprung up into the air and flew out of sight through the open canopy. The Princess and two pegasi that had been hiding near by remained hidden for a moment longer. Rainbow finally let go a calming breath as she let the pressure she had been putting on the Princess relax.

“Sorry about that,” Rainbow said as she stood up. “I thought you were about to give us away.”

The Princess stood and let the invisibility veil fade out. “Well, I was... I guess. They were ponies, right?”

“Nightguard,” Rainbow said matter-of-fact like.

The Princess thought about this for a moment, then asked, “Why are we hiding from the Nightguard?”

The Princess might as well had asked why grass was green. The expression that crept onto Rainbow's face seemed to ask why anypony would ask such a dumb question as she furrowed her brow. “Are you serious?”

Now it was the Princess's turn to return the disapproving look. “Yes, I'm serious. Why are we hiding from the Nightguard? We should have asked them for help.”

“Look, obviously there's some things happening you don't know about,” Rainbow said as she began to walk past the Princess. “But for now, we need to get out of here. Like for real this time.”

The Princess let go a frustrated sigh but seemed to comply. She fell in just beside Rainbow, and the two of them were followed closely by Fluttershy, who had remained silent ever since the close call. The Princess glanced back to her, noticing her unease. “Are you alright, Fluttershy?” she asked with a look of concern playing on her face.

“U-um... well,” Fluttershy seemed a bit taken off guard once again, having nearly forgotten in all of the unwanted excitement that this mystery princess somehow knew her name. “Yes... I mean I will be, when we get back home.”

“Yeah, sorry about all this. I really didn't mean to cause you two any problems. Seems I may have really messed things up somehow.”

The group stayed mostly silent the rest of the trip through the forest and kept to the ground to avoid any unwanted attention. Eventually the trees thinned and gave way to the open meadows and fields that surrounded the town of Ponyville. And just a short distance away, the dark silhouette of Fluttershy's cottage was a very welcome sight for the group. It wasn't much longer before they had made it to the bridge just outside the cottage. After gathering the saddlebags that had been discarded there, the pegasi lead the Princess into the safety of the home.

“Wow...,” the Princess commented as she glanced around at the interior of the cottage, seeming to be in awe of her surroundings.

“Oh, it's really not anything impressive,” Fluttershy said with an embarrassed smile. The Princess smiled back to her warmly before she continued to look around, taking all the sights in. The home was beautifully decorated, and had an almost outdoors like feel. Scattered around the room were small cubby hole homes for the animals that lived with Fluttershy, and here and there some animals were scurrying about, mostly circling around Fluttershy's hooves.

“I bought some things back for you little guys,” Fluttershy said with a motherly tone as she trotted over to the saddlebags that had been placed on the floor near the door. She lifted the flap of one of the saddlebags with a hoof, and then smiled as a squirrel scurried up and stuck its head into the bag. After a moment, the small animal came back up with a few various nuts in its arms and quickly scurried away. Fluttershy smiled warmly as the rest of the animals began to gather around the saddlebags and help themselves to the contents in turn.

Rainbow Dash had been watching as Fluttershy tended to her woodland friends. She then turned her attention to her side when she heard the Princess speak up next to her. “I can't believe I'm really back here.”

Rainbow perked up an eyebrow at the odd statement. “What do you mean? You've been here before?” The Princess stopped gazing at her surroundings at the question and focused her attention fully on Rainbow. “And you still haven't told us your name. I mean, you do have a name other than Princess right? And how the hay did you know our names?”

The sudden barrage of questions seemed to make the Princess tense up. She glanced back and forth between the two pegasi that stared back at her expecting some sort of explanation for the very odd behavior they had seen tonight. She knew that she wouldn't be able to explain away how she knew their names and definitely didn't want to lie to them, but she was still unsure how much she should be revealing. There was at least one piece of information that she was going to need first to gauge the situation with.

“Before I say anything more, I need to know what day it is,” the Princess said simply.

“Er... it's Tuesday,” Rainbow said as she shrugged her shoulders.

“No I mean, the date. The exact date... even the year.”

Both of the pegasi looked to each other, a bit confused by the inquiry. Rainbow shrugged her shoulders again and decided it was an easy enough question to answer. “Well, it's July the seventh, one thousand.”

The Princess balked at the answer. It didn't make sense, if it were true then something was horribly wrong. “Are you sure?” she asked hoping that it may have just been some sort of mistake. When she saw the disapproving look reappear on Rainbow's face again she raised a hoof quickly. “Okay okay, I get it. You want answers. I guess... well I guess I owe you that much. And if this really is the thousandth year of the Summer Sun Celebration....” The Princess's gaze hardened as she began to realize the gravity of the situation she was in.

“So you do know about Nightmare Moon then? Why didn't you know about her Nightguard though?” Rainbow questioned.

“I... do know about Nightmare Moon, but my memory of her is probably different than yours,” the Princess said as she seemed to stare off into the space ahead of her, almost like she was peering into the past. “You see, where I come from, Nightmare Moon was defeated over two hundred and fifty years ago. I had a hoof in it and... well this is going to sound crazy but, so did you two.”

“...Say what?” Rainbow asked as she jerked her head back. Fluttershy blinked her eyes a few times as she tried to take in the confusing information.

“I guess what I'm saying is, I'm not from now. I'm from over two hundred and fifty years from now. It wasn't really intentional, mind you. I was following somepony, but I lost them along the way and kind of fell out of the time spell I was following them through. I'm just amazed that I landed here of all times.”

The Princess sat back on her haunches and let go a heavy sigh before she continued. “But, it appears things have changed. You see, you should have met a young unicorn that looks just like me here in Ponyville on the day right before the Summer Sun Celebration, about two weeks ago.”

The Princess sat up straight, looking to the two pegasi in front of her. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and you two were both very good friends of mine.”

Finding Friends Again

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter II – Finding Friends Again

Twilight knew that her revelation that she was a 'friend from the future' was going to spur an avalanche of questions, but she felt she couldn't leave her friends completely in the dark since something was obviously wrong with this past. She had managed to fend off answering any more questions right away by using her current state of cleanliness, or rather lack there of, as an excuse to escape and buy some time to think.

Fluttershy had kindly offered Twilight the use of her shower, to which Twilight graciously accepted. Her coat, mane, tail, and wings felt like they still had buckets of dirt imbedded in them. She stood there in the tub, the shower pouring warm water over her back as her magic absentmindedly worked a scrub brush through her coat to purge the grit, but her mind was completely focused elsewhere.

The entire situation was a really big problem. She mentally recounted the facts that she had been able to collect so far. First, her past self was not where she should be. Second, because her past self was no where to be found, nopony had discovered the Elements of Harmony; therefore, there was nopony to challenge Nightmare Moon. Third, the Everfree Forest had been marked as 'off limits' and her friends seemed to be terrified of the Nightguard, which meant that Nightmare Moon must have already established her power in Celestia's absence. Twilight then flinched at a stray thought that made it into her mind. In the past she remembered, Nightmare Moon had reversed the imprisonment spell that held her in the moon and used it against Celestia, but this past had a different history. What if Nightmare Moon had done something other than imprisoning Celestia?

Twilight scrunched her nose, shaking her head at the thought and shoved it aside. She had no facts on Celestia's whereabouts in this past and pondering on what sort of horrible things could have happened without any tangible proof would do no good. No, she needed to focus on the facts, and the one fact that was really throwing a wrench into Twilight's thought patterns was that her own past had obviously been altered, but yet her memories of what should have happened were still unaltered.

“This... goes completely against all my theories,” she mumbled to herself as her eyes wandered around in thought. There was no precedent for how time travel could change history, at least not real time travel like what she had just done. She had once used a modified teleportation spell created by Starswirl that allowed a quick jump to another location at a time in the past, but that spell still kept the caster linked to their original location and time and only lasted half a minute, which would limit just how much a pony could change things. And since the spell was only a modified teleportation spell and not real time magic, there was no proof that it could be used as an example of the consequences of changes brought on by mucking with the fabrics of reality.

The magic that Twilight had developed over the years to actually travel through time was many orders of magnitude more complicated than Starswirl's attempt at time travel. Her magic actually allowed a pony to sever their connection to reality in order to move themselves relative to time and space in a direction and speed other than the normal, allowing a pony to permanently travel to a different time and location with no annoying whiplash effect yanking oneself back. However, her spell had never been used. She honestly had no proof that the spell would work at all, until now. And so all of those possible consequences of using the spell were theoretical, and it was looking like at least some of her theories were wrong.

Twilight's thoughts were jarred back to reality, finding herself standing under the running shower. The light knock at the door that had grabbed her attention was followed by a muffled voice that she couldn't quite understand.

“Is somepony there?” Twilight asked as her ears swiveled to the closed doorway.

Fluttershy's small voice came through the doorway clearly the second time. “Oh um... I was just making sure you're okay. You were taking a while. I'll leave you alone.”

Twilight blinked, and then seemed to fully realize that she was still standing in the tub. She wasn't sure but it was quite possible that she had just been standing there scrubbing at a single spot on her side for the last five minutes while her mind had been busy. “Sorry! I'll be done soon,” Twilight said as her ears swiveled back against her head and she grinned sheepishly at the closed door.

“Oh, no rush. Take your time,” Fluttershy called back. The door went quiet after that, leaving Twilight alone with her thoughts once again. She scrunched her nose up in thought as she simultaneously grabbed a bottle of liquid soap with her magic and squeezed the contents onto the scrub brush.

“Why would she do something to the past though,” Twilight said to herself as her thoughts once again returned to trying to solve the plethora of problems that were laid out before her. That particular one stuck out as the most bizarre of all of them, that she couldn't figure out a reason for why her past had been targeted. She shuttered when her mind considered some of the possibilities as to how the change had been accomplished.

Having finished the much needed shower and gotten some time to think things over, Twilight was feeling a bit more at ease. However, as she finished toweling off and prepared to make her way into the living room, she knew that she was in for quite a strange conversation with her old friends. She still wasn't sure just how much she should reveal to them. Did the rule of 'don't say anything about the future' apply in a past where things had already been changed? Since things didn’t seem to be matching up to her previous theories, she wondered if that rule had ever applied at all. And what if fixing things depended on revealing the future? She knew that was going to be the likely case, that she was going to have to tell them something if there was to be any hope of returning things to what they should be.

Twilight had opted to leave behind the remnants of her ruined regalia on a table in Fluttershy's bedroom, planning on dealing with them later. She wore only her crown perched upon her head as she made her way to the table that the two pegasi had been idly chatting at while they waited on her to return. Rainbow Dash was the first one to speak up as Twilight approached and sat down at the table.

“Leave any hot water for the rest of Ponyville, Princess?” Rainbow asked with a grin.

“Just Twilight, please. And sorry, had lots of dirt to take care of,” Twilight said as her ears pressed back against her head.

Rainbow waved her hoof dismissively, her grin shifting to more of a smile. “I'm only joking with ya. I'm sure if I had taken a dirt bath like that I'd been scrubbing myself for hours to get it all out too.”

“Hours? Was I really in there that long?” Twilight asked. While this exchange was going on, Fluttershy had left the table briefly to return with a cup and saucer delicately clasped in her teeth that she sat down on the table just in front of Twilight. A small wisp of steam rolled and curled up from the cup from a gentle breeze as Fluttershy sat back down at the table.

“You were only in there about an hour I think,” Fluttershy said as she glanced toward the clock on the wall, which read some time near three. Twilight took notice of the clock as well, and her subconscious immediately noted that it must have been incredibly late at night.

“Wow, I really didn't mean to be keeping you two up all night. I didn't realize it was this late.”

“Huh?” Rainbow said as she glanced over at the wall clock. “Oh, no it's not late. It's midday now, not that anypony can really tell by looking outside,” she said as she pointed her hoof out a nearby window at the moonlit night.

Twilight gave Rainbow an incredulous look for a second before understanding sunk in. “Oh right, Nightmare Moon.” Of course it was night during the middle of the day.

“Yeah,” Rainbow said as she brought a cup of warm tea up to her lips to take a sip.

“Yes... I think we're going to have to try to do something about that,” Twilight said as she gazed down to the tea cup sitting before her, tapping her hooves against the cup's sides. The thought had crossed her mind while in the shower that Nightmare Moon could prove to be an obstacle toward getting anything solved. She needed some very specific answers, and the best place to find them was probably also one of the last places Nightmare Moon would allow an unknown alicorn into.

Rainbow put her tea cup back down quickly causing the saucer it sat on to rattle a bit. “Okay before we get into any 'lets save the world' stuff, I got more questions.”

Twilight looked to Rainbow, and let go a sigh as she put on a smile. “Right, of course you guys do. I can't just ask you to go do something dangerous and crazy sounding without explaining some things. I'll try to answer what I can.”

Rainbow wasted no time getting right to the questions. “So you're really from the future?” she asked as if to really confirm what she had been told earlier.

“Yes.”

“And you know us from the future?”

“No no, that's not how it happened,” Twilight said as she shook her head. “My past self should have met you two here in Ponyville over two weeks ago.”

“Oh right, you did say that,” Rainbow said as she scratched her mane with a hoof. “But that obviously didn't happen.”

“Right, it didn't happen, which means the past has been changed.”

“...Wait, really? I don't remember it changing.” Rainbow was already thoroughly lost.

Twilight quietly lifted the tea cup in front of her with her magic, and took a sip before gently placing it back down, which her two friends watched as they waited for some sort of response. Twilight seemed to strain her thoughts as she furrowed her brow for a moment, then she nodded once. “Okay, let me see if I can make this make some sense,” she said as she collected her thoughts. “As I mentioned earlier, I came here by a spell that let me travel through time. I was following somepony through the spell, but on the way here I ended up falling out of the spell early.”

“Who were you following?” Rainbow interjected.

“That's... actually not important, and would probably only make this sound even more crazy.” Twilight noticed the disapproving look playing on Rainbow's face again. “Rainbow, I can't explain every little detail. Doing so could be very dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” Fluttershy quietly asked from the other side of the table.

“Well, the danger being that the more I say, the more I could change history. It's obvious things have already changed some but I could do more harm than good if I'm not careful about what I reveal.”

“Soo...,” Rainbow drawled out as she pondered on her next question. “You mean you wouldn't be able to tell me if I become a Wonderbolt in the future?” she asked with an innocent looking smile.

Twilight raised her eyebrow at the not so innocent question. “Most certainly not.”

“Drat,” Rainbow said as she clunked her hooves together just in front of her face, partially hiding her brooding at the disappointing answer.

“Rainbow, we need to take this seriously,” Twilight said as she leaned an elbow on the table, propping her chin up on a hoof.

“Alright alright, fine.”

Twilight glanced down at her tea cup again. The honest truth was that she wanted to tell them everything. She wanted them to fulfill their dreams like she remembered, and she was a bit worried that with the changes that this past was already seeing that those dreams may not come true. For a moment she considered going back on her 'no telling' stance, but then reined that desire back in. She had to focus on the one major problem sitting right before her now, and then she could worry about the smaller ones later.

Twilight took one more sip from her tea before continuing. “What I can tell you is that we were all supposed to work together to defeat Nightmare Moon and return Celestia back to Equestria.”

“Just us? Against her?” Fluttershy said as she shrunk down at her seat, seeming to hide herself behind her small tea cup.

Twilight turned to face Fluttershy. “Actually no, not just us. There are three more ponies here in Ponyville that are supposed to help.”

Twilight sat up straight as she began to recount the other three mares missing from their group. “There's Applejack, from Sweet Apple Acres.”

“Oh... I know her,” Fluttershy said as she sat up from her hiding spot. “I buy things from the Apple Family's stall in the market square for the little animals all the time.”

Twilight nodded with a smile and continued. “There's Rarity, the owner of Carousel Boutique.”

“...Who?” Rainbow said as she scrunched her nose up.

Fluttershy tapped at her chin with a hoof in through for a second before speaking up again. “I think she's the white pony that makes those pretty dresses. I've seen her before at Lotus and Aloe's spa when I go there.” She beamed a smile when Twilight nodded an affirmative to her.

“Right. And there's Pinkie Pie.”

“Whoa... whoa whoa wait,” Rainbow Dash said as she suddenly pushed herself up standing with her hooves planted on the table. “That crazy pony is going to help us save the world?”

Fluttershy shot a scowl across the table in a fashion normally only a skilled mother could manage. “Rainbow, that's not nice,” she scolded with her quiet voice.

Twilight chuckled lightly. “Believe it or not, yes, Pinkie is part of this group. I know she does some off the wall things now and then—”

“Meaning always,” Rainbow grumbled as she crossed her fore-hooves.

“—But, she is one of the bearers of the Elements.”

Rainbow's ears twitched at that little piece of information. “Bearers of the Elements?” she questioned as her eyebrows slowly climbed.

Twilight mentally cursed her slip up as she grit her teeth. She hadn't quite been ready to reveal that yet, hoping first to gather the entire group. “Yes... that... that is actually something we need everypony here for before I go into it.”

“Oh come on!” Rainbow cried out as she threw her forehooves above her head before letting them flop to her sides. “There you go with more secret stuff! This is really going to get on my nerves.”

“Rainbow, please. This is something the entire group needs to hear, and we're missing the other three.” Twilight could see that her excuse wasn't really cutting it and didn't want to leave her friend fuming. She considered what she could tell her friend, and came up with an answer. “Tell you what, I'll tell you something. Something that's just for you, okay?”

Rainbow's ears perked up at this. “Like what?”

“Your Element, the one that you represent. It's Loyalty. And it fits you perfectly.” Twilight turned herself in her seat so she could look straight on at Rainbow and continued. “I always knew that no matter what happened, and no matter how bad things might get, you of all ponies in the world would never abandon your friends.” Twilight paused for a second to let the words sink in, watching as Rainbow silently sat there thinking. “Right now, your friends really need you and they don't even know it yet. All of Equestria is going to need you. Most of all, I just really need you to trust me for now.”

Rainbow shifted in her chair, seeming to be suddenly uncomfortable in her own skin. “Wow... when you put it like that I guess I really can't complain.”

“I know that the 'not knowing' is driving you up the wall. It would me too if things were reversed, I'm sure. But if you can just put up with me for a while, I promise all this will start to make sense.”

Rainbow grinned and scratched at her mane as she leaned back in her chair. “Alright, you've made your point. Patience, right?”

“Right,” Twilight said with a smile. She then turned and glance at the other end of the table that Fluttershy was quietly sitting at. “Fluttershy, you're being awfully quiet, which I know is normal but still, I'm sure there's something you want to ask.”

“Oh... well... I wouldn't want to bother you with more questions.”

“Nonsense,” Twilight said as she waved a hoof. “I told Rainbow Dash something, I can tell you something. Just ask and if it's something I can tell, I'll tell.”

Fluttershy shyly traced the edge of her tea cup with her hoof, her nervous behavior betraying that she definitely had something she wanted to ask. She glanced up to and away from Twilight a few times before she finally began to meander around her question. “Well... you said you can't really tell us much about our future.”

“Most things I probably shouldn't, but if it's something that's pretty vague I might be able to give you a hint, maybe a yes or no.”

“Oh... hm,” Fluttershy seemed to ponder on this for a moment as she continued to trace the edge of her mostly empty tea cup. “Well... I was wondering... I mean...,” she mumbled as her voice quietly trailed off.

Twilight raised an eyebrow as she leaned closer to her friend. Across the table Rainbow leaned in as well and asked, “What was that?”

“Um,” Fluttershy shuttered a bit and lowered herself so her chin was resting on the table. “I was wondering... if someday... if I have a family... in the future,” she nearly whispered.

Twilight blinked in surprise. She hadn't seen that one coming. Next to her, Rainbow's jaw seemed to be dangling half way to the table.

“Y-you don't have to answer!” Fluttershy whispered in a small panic as she hid her face under her pink mane.

Twilight closed her eyes and smiled as she sat back in her chair. Of course she knew the answer to that, and the way the question had been asked was rather harmless. She thought about the question for a few more seconds and then opened her eyes again to peer over to her friend. Fluttershy was peeking out from her safe haven at Twilight, the look in her eyes seeming to be begging for an answer even though her shyness was punishing her for asking. Drawing in a breath, Twilight simply said one word in response.

“Yes.”

Fluttershy's eyes grew incredibly wide, and then disappeared as she drew back under her pink mane.

“Whoa! Way to go Flutters!” Rainbow cheered across the table. “As shy as you are, I never thought you'd get yourself a coltfriend.”

The only response from the pegasus hiding under her pink mane was a slight reddening of her yellow coat and a pitiful sounding groan.

“Come'on, give me one hint,” Rainbow said as she walked along side Fluttershy under the moonlit day.

“Nooo,” Fluttershy moaned back as she continued walking along the path with Rainbow and Twilight.

The three of them were currently on their way to seek out the first of the three missing mares, traveling toward Sweet Apple Acres. Before they had ventured outdoors, Twilight had requested something she could use to cover her wings as to not broadcast to all of Ponyville that an alicorn had suddenly appeared. Fluttershy had offered something of hers to wear, and so Twilight now wore a single color knitted sweater that came fairly close to matching her natural coat color, her wings safely tucked underneath out of view. Her crown no longer appeared on top of her head, having been taken care of with a simple translucency spell that she had cast on it to hide its presence there.

“Is it somepony in Ponyville?” Rainbow asked, continuing her badgering questions.

Fluttershy didn't answer to this one, instead just making a frustrated groan.

“Not a no, so must be a yes. A pegasus?” Rainbow asked trying to narrow down her guessing options.

“No, stop it.”

“Unicorn?”

“Nooooo.”

“Earth pony then,” Rainbow nodded. “I guess you would be the type to go for an earth pony.”

“Rainbooooow,” Fluttershy whined as her face sunk behind her mane. Fortunately, her annoying friend quit asking questions for the time being when Rainbow began mentally considering the earth pony colts that she knew and how they would match up to her shy friend.

The walk to the Apple family farm wasn't a long one. Like Fluttershy's cottage, it was also along the edge of Ponyville somewhat near the border of the Everfree Forest, and so the three had been able to skirt along the edge of town. It wasn't that they were intending on avoiding all contact with other ponies, but Twilight had made the point that the less attention they drew to themselves for now, the better off they would likely be in the long run. After all, they still had an advantage in that Nightmare Moon likely had no clue that they were planning anything at all, and that was an advantage that Twilight would like to keep for as long as she could.

The darkened silhouette of the sign hanging from the archway that marked the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres appeared on the path ahead of the three mares. Rainbow Dash still seemed to be going over her mental check list, quietly mumbling to herself as she discarded names that she knew obviously wouldn't be a match for her shy friend. She glanced up and happened to look at the sign up ahead, and then it clicked as if she had suddenly realized what she should have known all along. “I've got it!” she said as she whirled around to face Fluttershy head on, to which the latter flinched back a step with a quiet yelp. “He's perfect!”

“W-what?” Fluttershy said shuttering.

“That big red stallion at the market! The one that runs the Apple Acres stand and never says a word other than 'Yep'?”

Fluttershy simply froze in place, not even taking a breath.

“BINGO!” Rainbow Dash called out triumphantly.

“Twiliiiight! Make her stop!” Fluttershy whined as she scampered over to Twilight’s other side, hiding herself.

Twilight couldn't help but let go a laugh, but knew that this little interrogation had probably gone more than long enough. “Alright, Dash, I think you've had your fun.”

Rainbow walked up next to Twilight, tilting her head with a confused look. “What do you mean? I'm trying to help.”

Twilight raised one eyebrow. “Does it look like you're helping to you? Because to me, it kinda looks like torture.”

“Ah come'on. If you really know Fluttershy, then you know she's going to need some help speaking up or this coltfriend thing isn't ever going to happen.”

“Rainbow,” Twilight said as she placed a hoof on her friend’s shoulder, “things happen as they happen. Rushing things to happen before their time would probably be a bad idea.”

Rainbow let out a long groaning sigh as she rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah... patience.” Twilight nodded approvingly and patted Rainbow on the shoulder before turning to head up the path to the farm house, leaving behind a flustered Fluttershy staring down a Rainbow Dash that flashed back a cheshire grin.

After passing just beyond the archway marking the entrance to the farm, Twilight took a moment to glance about at the surroundings. A lot can change in two and a half centuries of time, and Ponyville was no exception to that. Seeing Sweet Apple Acres as she remembered it long ago was a bit shocking. But even more so was what she saw under the moonlight near an empty wagon just outside of the bright red barn.

Applejack was wrestling one of the wheels of the wagon, slamming a forehoof against it here and there as she worked it back onto the axle. The wagon itself was propped up with a barrel under one end to keep the axle raised off the ground, and a discarded broken wheel laid in the dirt just near by. Twilight trotted up, and then just stood near by watching as if amazed. She felt that same feeling of a shiver through her spine that she had noticed when she first saw Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy in the forest. Seeing a pony that she never thought she would see again was proving to be a very strange emotion to deal with, and she wasn't entirely sure she liked the sensation.

The farm mare grumbled something unintelligible as she turned around and slammed her back hoof against the hub of the wheel hard, causing the entire wagon to rattle at the blow. “Dag-NABBIT,” she bit at the air loudly in front of her, but then caught herself when she noticed somepony was there. “Oh, I apologize. This here wheel is just givin’ me all kinds of fits.”

Twilight realized that her mouth had been hanging open slightly, and she clasped it back closed as she put a smile on. “I didn't mean to bother you in the middle of your work.”

“Ah I need to take a break anywho,” Applejack said as she swiped a hoof at the stubborn wheel. Reaching up to her hat hanging on the wagon's back corner, she tipped the hat with her hoof and allowed it to fall down, catching it atop her head. “Name's Applejack, and this here is the Sweet Apple Acres farm. What can I do ya fer?”

“Well, I'm Twilight Sparkle, and I was hoping that I might convince you to help me and my friends out with a little problem.” Twilight realized that she was grossly understating the 'little problem' part, but coming right out and asking somepony to help save the world would likely not cause a favorable answer. She only hoped the mare that represented Honesty would forgive the half-truth later.

“Ah see,” Applejack nodded to the request as she noticed the other two mares that were approaching. “They the ones with ya?”

“Oh, yes. They're actually from Ponyville. I'm... visiting after having been away for a while,” Twilight said, deftly dancing around the truth with her words.

“Oh I recognize them,” Applejack said as she took a few steps past Twilight to the other two mares. “Say, didn't you two just stop by the market stall today?”

Fluttershy shrunk back a bit at the sudden question, and Rainbow Dash stepped forward to take the lead to answer. “Oh yeah, we did. Fluttershy here just about cleaned you guys out didn't she?” Fluttershy scowled a little at her friend's recount of the day's earlier events.

“Oh right, you bought up almost all the rest of what we had. I appreciate all the business though. Things been kinda unsteady these last couple weeks if ya know what I'm sayin’.”

“Oh yeah I hear ya,” Rainbow said with knowing nod. “By the way, I'm Rainbow Dash, the weather pony around here. And like I said, the shy one here is Fluttershy.”

“I knew I'd seen you around these parts somewhere else before. So you take care of the weather eh? How's that been goin lately?”

Rainbow Dash hummed a sigh. “Dark, boring. The Queen wants all the skies clear all the time so everypony can see her stupid moon.”

“Yeah, kinda figured.”

Once the idle conversation died back a bit, Twilight tried to jump back to her earlier request. “So...,” she started.

Applejack's attention snapped back to the 'unicorn'. “Oh right. Sorry didn't mean to ignore ya. You ladies need some help with somethin’, right?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, do you have time to come with us to the library this evening?”

“What's at the library,” both Applejack and Rainbow asked nearly in union, which caused them to glance at each other with equally confused expressions.

Twilight let a nervous laugh out as she tried to remain convincing. “Well, I'll let you all know when... we get there?” The statement hadn’t come out sounding nearly as convincing as she had hoped. How was somepony supposed to ask for help for something without going into any details on what the something was?

The farm mare gave a blinking stare to Twilight for a few seconds, and then shrugged. “I suppose I could tag along. But if it ends up bein’ somethin’ I can't help with I'll have to decline. Don't wanna fib and say I'll help if I ain't able.”

“Oh, I'm sure you'll be able to, AJ,” Twilight said with a relieved smile. “Oh er, you don't mind me calling you AJ, do you?”

The farm mare shook her head. “Don't mind at all. 'Sides, lots of my family and friends call me that anywho, and you seem nice enough. Oh! Right that reminds me, hang on a sec.” Applejack quickly trotted over to the side door on the barn, which had the top half open. She draped her forehooves over the half-door and drew in a breath before yelling, “Hey, Mac!” inside. Stepping back down from the door, she looked back to the group of mares. “Gonna make sure my brother can take care of that dang wagon first. Can't leave it busted like that.”

“Yeeep?” A large red stallion's voice drawled out as his head appeared at the doorway. Rainbow Dash noticed the sudden fidget in Fluttershy's wings at the appearance of the stallion, and couldn't help but grin as she hummed an 'ah ha' to herself.

“These here ladies need me to help out with somethin’, but I haven't gotten the wagon done yet. Would ya mind takin’ care of it?” Applejack asked as she pointed over to the stubborn wheel.

Without any additional prompting, 'Mac' pushed the lower half of the door out of the way and walked out to take a look at the wagon wheel. He eyed the hub for a few seconds as he swiveled the loose wheel on the axle a little, then turned around and slammed his back hoof against it sharply. The wagon creaked at the sudden hit and tilted away, letting the barrel roll out from under it before the wheel settled on the ground, snugly secured to the axle.

Applejack deadpan stared at the wagon for a short moment before she huffed and walked past her older brother to the group of mares. “Ya dang show off,” she muttered under her breath.

“Ya'll need any help with anything else?” Mac asked, seeming to be unfazed by his sister's complaint. At this, Rainbow decided to prod Fluttershy's side to see if she could get her shy friend to speak up, but was only rewarded with a sudden sting of yellow wing feathers swatting her nose. Rainbow muttered a quiet 'ow' as she clasped a hoof against her stinging muzzle. Fluttershy narrowed her eyes at Rainbow in a silent warning.

“I think we're good,” Twilight said keeping a practiced smile on her face, hoping to escape before the pegasi caused a scene.

Mac nodded and began to make his way back to the barn. “Alright. Ya'll take care then.”

As the group of four mares were making their way back toward the farm's entrance, Rainbow decided to strike up a little conversation with their new recruit. “So... that was your brother?”

Applejack nodded in response to the question. “Yeah, that's Big McIntosh. He ain't much for words but that don't mean he don't care, he's one of the hardest workin’ ponies you'll ever find. Don't let his looks fool ya either, he's gentle as a puppy and about as friendly, even if he is strong enough to buck a tree in two.”

“He seems cool,” Rainbow said with a sagely nod. She then turned her attention to Fluttershy as a side grin crept onto her face. “What did you think about him?”

The stare that Fluttershy returned seemed to warn Rainbow that she was going to receive some sort of retribution for her continued meddling later. However, Fluttershy's expression softened and she managed to respond. “He seemed... nice.”

Applejack's brows perked up. “Cool and nice? Don't think I've ever heard of Mac bein’ called that, but alright.”

With one stop completed and the group one step closer to having been reassembled, Twilight decided that Sugarcube Corner was the next logical location to visit. The hanging bell above the shop's door jingled to announce the arrival of the group of mares. From behind the cash register, a stallion perked up with a smile at the sight of customers visiting his shop. “Welcome to Sugarcube Corner!” he greeted merrily.

“Good evening, sir!” Twilight greeted in return as she felt a rush of nostalgia at the sight of the shop's owner, Mr. Carrot Cake. “I was hoping that we might find Pinkie here. Is she working today?”

“Oh, you girls are friends of Pinkie's? Wait here for just a minute, I'll see if I can track her down for you.” Mr. Cake turned to trot up the stairs in the back that lead to the loft that Pinkie called home. His voice sounded from the stairway as he disappeared around the corner. “Pinkie? You have guests!”

Twilight decided to take in her surroundings while she waited, trotting over to the display case of sweets at the cash register and looking over the various confectioner creations that the Cakes had for sale. She realized that she had nearly forgotten this place over the years. The sweet smells, the colorful sights, the bright... pinkness...?

Twilight blinked at something bright pink that she had spotted in the display case, or rather reflected in it. She turned around just in time to come nearly nose to nose with a bright pink pony staring back at her wearing one of the widest grins in Equestria. She couldn't help but suck in a gasp at Pinkie Pie's sudden appearance.

“Pinkie!” Twilight said, slightly startled. “Oh, you scared me.”

Now it was Pinkie’s turn to gasp. “You... you know me?” she seemed utterly shocked by having met another pony who knew her, but she did not yet know herself.

“Ah... hm... well,” Twilight stumbled on her words as she tried to invent an excuse. “I've... heard of you! Everypony in Ponyville knows who Pinkie is because Pinkie knows everypony, right?”

“Right!” Pinkie chirped back. “Buuuuut, I don't know you yet, so hi! I'm Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie offered a hoof to Twilight, her wide grin returning to her face.

Twilight hooked her fetlock with Pinkie’s extended hoof and gave her a hoofshake. “I'm Twilight Sparkle. I just got here.”

“Oh! Goodie, there hasn't been any new ponies in Ponyville for a while. And that reminds me... I have something I need to go setup! See you soon!” Pinkie began to dash off toward the shop doorway in a hurry.

“Wait!” Twilight called out, causing Pinkie to freeze with her forehoof outstretched to the shop's door. Her head swiveled back to look at Twilight with a slight tilt, an inquisitive look playing on her face. “Uh, would the something be a... welcoming party?” Twilight asked.

Pinkie blinked a couple times, her mouth slowly falling agape. She then looked back and forth, as if checking to see if anypony had noticed (paying no mind to the audience of three mares in the shop that had been watching this strangeness play out) before she 'stealthy' crept back over to Twilight's side. Her eyes darting back and forth once more, she leaned in toward Twilight's ear raising a hoof up next to her muzzle, and in a whispering voice loud enough to carry to everypony's ears in the room she asked, “Are you from the future?”

A loud snicker-snort sound escaped Rainbow Dash from across the room before she could cover her muzzle. Applejack glanced at her with furrowed brows, obviously not seeing what was so funny.

Twilight let a nervous laugh escape. If only Pinkie knew just how right her playful guess had been. However, the future-princess-in-hiding decided that playing along may actually work to her advantage as she thought of a way to easily get Pinkie to where she needed to be. She lowered her voice to an equal whisper to let Pinkie in on the 'secret'. “Shhh, don't tell anypony, but I come from a future where there's this awesome welcoming party at the library.”

“Oooh, you like libraries?” Pinkie asked, the secretive sounding voice having been discarded.

“Oh yes, I lived in one for a while.”

“I see! Then I better make sure that future me gets this future party setup at the library for future you!” Pinkie happily bounded off to the shop door again.

“Oh wait, one more thing!” Twilight called, catching Pinkie just as she was walking out the door. Pinkie paused again, the same inquisitive tilted glance looking back. “I'll bring the guests,” Twilight said.

Pinkie tapped a hoof to her chin in thought, then smiled slowly. “Oh. Ooooh you're good,” she said as the sly smile spread across her face. “Future you already knows who's going to be there. I gotcha,” she said with a quick wink. She skipped out the doorway, humming a cheerful tune. The shop fell dead silent for a moment after the doorway closed.

“Wow,” Rainbow said, breaking the silence. “You handled that like a pro.”

“Yeah, it's like she didn't even faze ya,” Applejack added as she gave Twilight a thoughtful stare. “You sure you and Pinkie never met before?”

Twilight's nervous laugh returned again, but before she would have to try and explain her strange behavior, Mr. Cake entered the room again from the stairway. Twilight silently thanked him for the rescue.

Mr. Cake let go a light sigh as he walked back up behind the display case. “Well I'm sorry, but I think she's out somewhere at the moment.”

“Actually she was just here,” Twilight said, and then pointed toward the door and added, “and already left.”

“Oh! Well, that filly. I can hardly keep track of her. Were you able to get what you needed from her?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Good good, well if there's anything else I can do for you girls...,” Mr. Cake trailed off, a hopeful smile on his face as he leaned over the display case slightly.

Twilight looked between Mr. Cake and the display of sweets, her gaze lingering on the sugary goodies for a moment. She glanced over her shoulder to the other three mares with an embarrassed grin. “You guys wouldn't happen to have a few bits I could borrow, would you?”

“Thanks girls. I would have felt bad walking out without buying anything.” Twilight now had a small white box in her possession that she kept balanced on her back as the group of four made their way through the streets of Ponyville to their next stop.

Applejack hummed an 'uh huh'. “I know whatcha mean. Chattin’ with customers is nice an' all, but it's always nice to get a sell too. Kind words and gossip don't spend well.”

“Left your bits at home?” Rainbow asked casting a sly grin in Twilight's direction.

Twilight raised an eyebrow as she side glanced to her friend. “Yeaaah, you could say that,” she said with a hint of a smirk turning up the corners of her mouth.

Their final stop before reaching the library was coming up. Twilight traced her eyes across Carousel Boutique, its circular windows lit from within doing a fine job of illuminating the exterior décor. Walking up to the shop's door, Twilight reach out a hoof, seeming to hesitate for a short second before she tapped on the door.

“It's open,” a golden voice sung from inside the shop. Twilight couldn't help but smile at the sound of the voice that she hadn't heard in nearly two centuries time. Taking hold of the door's latch with her magic, she pushed the doorway and entered.

Another place she hadn't seen in over a lifetime greeted her eyes. She lost herself in the surroundings, the sights causing old memories to come flooding back to her. She took a moment to set the white box she had been carrying on a table near the entrance, not wanting to chance a mishap with baked goods around Rarity's finely crafted garments. Then she spotted the mare coming out of the work room in the back of the shop, pristine white coat and styled violet mane, red frame glasses perched on her muzzle and a tape measure dangling across her withers.

“Goodness, so many guests!” Rarity said as she trotted up to the group of mares. “Welcome to Carousel Boutique ladies. I'm the shop's owner and fashion designer, Rarity. I do hope you all find something here to your liking, and if not, just let me know! I may be able to work in a special order just for you.”

Rainbow Dash had already made her way over to a rack of dresses, and was rifling through them with a hoof. “Uh... have something that's not quite so... sooo...,” she struggled to find the right word.

“Froufrouy?” Applejack offered her description of what she saw around her, her expression showing just how much she didn't agree with the surroundings.

“Yeah... that,” Rainbow agreed with a nod.

Rarity seemed to take the comments in stride as she walked up to Rainbow and looked her over quickly with her discerning eye. “Well you do have a rather athletic build, I suppose something more sleek would be to your liking.”

“Sounds cool.”

Twilight cleared her throat, trying to politely find a way to interrupt. Rainbow noticed and silently mouthed an 'oh' before she tried to shift the conversation. “Actually, Twilight here is the pony you should be talking too. She came here looking for you.”

“Oh? You wanted to see me specifically?” Rarity asked as she turned toward the 'unicorn'.

Twilight put on her best smile, and calling on her years of experience in doling out greetings she prepared to introduce herself properly, making a mental note to leave her title out. “Yes. I am Twilight Sparkle, and I have a favor that I would like to ask of you.” She tipped one of her front hooves on its side, giving a slight courtesy as she spoke. She was sure Rarity would appreciate the gesture.

“Goodness me! What an honor this is,” Rarity spoke as she returned the polite greeting with a courtesy of her own. “What favor would you... like... tooo,” her brow furrowed as her gaze locked on the... thing... that was wrapped around Twilight's barrel. “Oh, darling no, this... this doesn't work for you.”

“Huh?” Twilight blink-blinked at the sudden change in behavior. She then noticed the hard stare that the fashionista was giving the sweater that she was wearing. A sudden wave of panic struck as she realized her disguise had just become a target. She tried to find a way to deflect the sudden interest that Rarity had taken in what she was wearing. “Oh this? I was just feeling a bit... chilly?”

“I would imagine so, since we haven't seen the sun in weeks, but we can do better than this!” Rarity exclaimed as she trotted around eying the offending garment. “Look at this, it even has wing holes. This is designed for a pegasus, dear.”

“Actually, I borrowed it from Fluttershy,” Twilight mentioned as she motioned to her friend across the room. Fluttershy ducked down at the mention of her name, a shy smile gracing her muzzle.

“I see,” Rarity said as she eyed the pegasus over the top of her red framed eyewear. “Well she is definitely a pegasus who would look wonderful in sweaters, but it does not work for you!” Rarity turned her attention back to Twilight, and lit her horn. Before she knew what was happening, Twilight felt the sweater shift up her barrel as a light blue aura took hold and pulled.

Rarity released her hold only a second later, taking in a surprised gasp as she stepped back, raising a hoof against her chest. The sound of shock had drawn the attention of everypony in the room to Twilight, and the sweater that was now hiked up on her barrel far enough for the tips of her wings to be visible. Twilight pressed her eyes closed, letting out a defeated sigh. The room remained otherwise silent, until Rainbow finally muttered an 'oops' that echoed through the room.

Applejack frowned, her stare never leaving the feathers jutting out from under the sweater. “What the hay is this about?”

Rarity seemed to make a face that looked somewhat like a goldfish as she searched for her voice. “Y-you... you're an alicorn?” she questioned as she looked straight to Twilight's still closed eyes.

“We already knew,” Rainbow mentioned to the side as she casually pointed a hoof between herself and Fluttershy.

Twilight slowly opened her eyes, setting back on her haunches. Magic lit from her horn, and it took hold of the sweater and fully removed it, exposing her wings fully. As she removed her disguise, something else glittered in her aura, and eventually took a physical form as she placed it back on her head. The appearance of the crown seemed to make Rarity relapse into her fish-face state.

“You're a princess!?” Rarity nearly screeched.

“I am,” Twilight nodded.

“Knew that too,” Rainbow said coolly. This garnered her a wide-eyed look of confusion from Applejack next to her.

Rarity seemed to stare off into space directly in front of Twilight. She began to quietly mumble something to herself, repeating it slightly louder the second time. “There's a princess... in my shop.” After saying it twice, it suddenly seemed to make sense to her. “There's a princess in my shop!” she exclaimed as she took off at a gallop, working her levitation magic to begin straightening anything that appeared to be even a fraction of an inch out of place. “I will be with you in just one minute!”

Twilight's face became pained with worry as she watched her friend sprint off to perform a whirlwind cleaning session. “Er, Rarity you don't—”

“Just one minute!” Rarity's stressed voice called back. Twilight facehoofed with a light groan, rubbing her forehead at the slight headache she could feel coming on. She then noticed a presence next to her, and glanced to her side to see Applejack giving her a hard look.

“Mind tellin’ me what's goin’ on?”

Twilight sat up straight, turning herself to look Applejack directly in the eyes. “AJ, I promise you, I only hid this because right now isn't the best time in Equestria to be flaunting to the world that one is a princess. I was intending on telling all of you about this at the library.”

Applejack seemed to think on the words for a moment as her eyes shifted around and her mouth worked back and forth. “I suppose I can see that bein’ a good reason. But I'm gettin’ the notion that the 'little problem' you need help with might not be so little.” Twilight's head drooped toward the floor as she looked away, the guilty look saying all that needed to be said. Applejack regarded Twilight silently for a moment before blowing a breath of air through her bangs. “Ah said I'd hear ya out, and I ain't a pony that goes back on her word. But try to be straight with me from here on out, alright?”

Twilight looked back up, locking her eyes with her friend’s. “I promise.”

“There!” Rarity said in a pant as she stopped beside Twilight, her impromptu cleaning session completed. She had discarded her glasses and tape measure at some point during the cleaning, and now put her best smile on for the Princess that was visiting her shop. “Now, this favor you were asking for. Of course I would be most honored to serve as your personal designer. You have no idea what this means to me, you taking time to seek me out personally.”

“Rarity,” Twilight silenced her by placing a hoof on her shoulder. “The favor I need to ask has nothing to do with clothes, but it is something only you can do for me.”

Rarity was getting really good at her fish-face impression. She gawked for a few seconds before she caught herself, realizing how silly she must look. Forcing the smile back to her muzzle, she tried to think of something to say in response. “I... honestly don't know what to say, Princess. I-I'm afraid you have taken me a bit off guard.”

“Please Rarity, just call me Twilight.”

Rarity raised her eyebrows high on her forehead. “Oh, but I couldn't. Your title is so important, and I'm but a normal pony.”

“I insist,” Twilight said as she gave Rarity's shoulder a light shake.

“Well, if you insist then I suppose I have no right to deny you that wish.”

Twilight smiled warmly. “It's not a command, Rarity. I ask because I want you to treat me like a friend.” Looking over her shoulder to the other mares in the room, she added, “All of you.”

“Well, I never imagined a day would come when a princess would walk up to me and ask to be my friend. I-I'm very grateful.” Rarity glanced to her side, noticing the discarded sweater on the floor. “In fact, there is something I would like to do for you, Twilight, to show you just how much.” Rarity quickly trotted over to a rack of garments that appeared to mostly be vests, jackets, and cloaks. She began to work her magical aura through the clothing as she deftly shuffled through them, speaking as she searched. “I do apologize for exposing you like I did, I'm sure that wasn't pleasant. But worry not, your secret is more than safe with me.” Finally stopping at one of the jackets on the rack, Rarity removed it and brought it back over, passing it from her magical aura to Twilight's. “A gift, from one friend to another. I think this one will suit your purposes very well.”

The jacket had a velvety look to its outer surface that seemed to change shades from midnight blue to dark violet depending on how the light reflected from it. The collar was trimmed with down feathers that were a slightly lighter shade of the same colors. Three large silver snap buttons lined the upper front edge, leaving the bottom edges of the jacket open to flare out. Twilight sat back on her haunches to put her forelegs through the jacket sleeves, wrapping it around herself and snapping it closed. She then stood and took a few steps to a nearby vanity mirror to get a better look. Turning to her side, she could see how the jacket flared open to just barely cover part of her cutie-mark, and the sides of the jacket swooped down just past her hocks fully hiding her wings from view.

Twilight smiled and turned back to her friend. “It's beautiful. I love it, Rarity.”

“It looks fabulous on you, darling,” Rarity cheerfully spoke as she tugged at the collar and sleeve cuffs with her aura to straighten them. “Now... this favor that you were asking about....”

“Right,” Twilight nodded. “I have something that I need to show all of you at the library that will help explain everything. That is, if you have the time.”

Rarity let a giddy smile grace her muzzle shortly before she cleared her throat to regain her composure. A princess had just asked her if she had time to spare. “Well, you do have me intrigued. Allow me to close up shop and we can be on our way.”

A short time later, Rarity was closing the door to her darkened shop. With the latch secured, she turned and nodded to the rest of the group just outside, and they began on their way to their final destination. Twilight found herself pleased at how well things were going so far, but realized that gathering her old friends together was just a small hurdle that came before the real challenge; convincing them all that they are the saviors of Equestria.

Secrets and Conspiracies

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter VII – Secrets and Conspiracies

“Um... well,” Fluttershy glanced over her shoulder toward the back bedroom nervously in spite of herself. She shook her head, trying to force her nerves into a calm state. Forcing a smile to her muzzle as she looked back to Moondancer, she pulled the door open. “Sure, please come in.”

Moondancer nodded, and looked to the two Nightguard that had accompanied her. “Why don’t you two wait outside for me. I wouldn’t want her to feel like her home is being invaded.”

“No problem, Captain,” the mare guard happily said with a quick salute. The two guards decided to each take up a post on either side of the doorway, standing at attention.

As Moondancer walked inside, she used her magic to remove her guard helmet. Her coat shimmered as the helm left her head, changing from dark gray to an off white. Her trimmed mane fell from the helm down around her ears, hanging to just a bit further than chin length. She absently used a hoof to tuck her mane back over and behind each ear. Her mane’s color changed to reveal its natural color of red with a two tone highlight of violet that ran the length of one side of her mane. She rapidly blinked her eyes as they shifted from golden irises with cat-like pupils to much more normal looking violet eyes. “I didn’t catch you at a bad time did I?” she asked as she glance around at the cottage’s interior.

“Oh, not at all. It’s just that Twilight is um... busy!” Fluttershy said, maintaining her smile as she nodded quickly.

“Oh, she’s not here?”

“No, she was...,” Fluttershy strained herself to remember some sort of excuse, and then her ears perked up as she heard the sound of running water coming from the back bedroom. Her frazzled mind recalled the plan that they had come up with should anypony come asking for Twilight. “Shower! She’s in the shower,” Fluttershy said quickly.

“Oh, okay. Do you mind if I wait then?”

Just then, Fluttershy noticed a violet colored primary feather lying on the floor just behind where Moondancer was standing. Her eyes widened a bit as her grin morphed into her gritting her teeth. “Um, yes! Over there, at the table!” Fluttershy said quickly as she nudged Moondancer to the dining table. Just as she was walking past the feather, she quickly kicked it to the side with a back hoof and used the tip of her tail to sweep it away, causing it to swiftly float out of view under a nearby chair. “You just take a seat there and... I’ll get something!” Fluttershy glanced at the partially empty cups of coffee that she and Twilight had been sharing a conversation over earlier, nervously chewing at her bottom lip. “Coffee! I’ll get coffee...,” she decided as she began to scamper off toward the kitchen.

“You don’t have to trouble yourself,” Moondancer said as she rested her helmet on the floor next to her chair and took a seat at the table.

“No trouble! Just wait right there,” Fluttershy called back as she vanished through the kitchen doorway.

Moondancer looked over the back of her chair to the kitchen door that the strange, flustered pegasus had rushed off too, following her with a perplexed look. After giving a shrug, she turned her attention back to the table, and there saw a white rabbit staring back at her with its tiny arms crossed as it seemed to scowl back. “Oh... hey there little guy,” Moondancer said as she reached a hoof out to greet the small creature. However, a quick swat from one of its furry little paws caused her to jerk her hoof back quickly. She gawked back for a moment in disbelief, until the rabbit turned its nose up and hopped away, leaping off the other end of the table.

“Ooookay,” Moondancer drawled out as she watched the animal scurry off. She looked around the room noticing that most of the animals in the home seemed to be hiding, peeking out at her from little cubby holes here and there. There must have been a few dozen pairs of beady little eyes staring at her. “Must be the uniform,” she said with a sigh. She then noticed something other than one of Fluttershy’s woodland friends staring at her when she happened to look toward the bedroom doorway. Twilight had decided to show herself now that she had her disguise prepared, but she seemed hesitant to come into the room as she remained there quietly staring.

“You must be Twilight Sparkle,” Moondancer said as she put on a smile.

Twilight eyed the helmet resting on the floor. “And you’re Captain Moondancer?” Twilight asked as she looked back up, seeming a bit unsure and maintaining her distance.

Moondancer seemed a bit surprised, but came to a quick realization as to how Twilight already knew of her. “Ah, right. You met my imposter back in the camp. I promise, I’m the real one. Though you can still check if you want to be sure. I’m told you know a really mean changeling zapping spell.”

Twilight took a couple cautious steps into the room. “You probably are the real one, since you look different with the armor off. But I would like to check, if you really don’t mind.”

“Not at all, in fact I’d prefer you do.” Moondancer watched as Twilight prepared a quick spell, causing a pinpoint of bright white to form at the tip of her horn. When the spell was released, a glowing orb of white expanded from the point. It passed harmlessly over everything within the room. “So, does that mean I pass?”

“It does,” Twilight said with a smile as she walked up to the table, offering a hoof. “It’s nice to meet you, Captain Moondancer.”

Moondancer gladly took the hoofshake. “You don’t need to use my title. After all, you are the pony who saved my life.”

Twilight took a seat at the table next to Moondancer. “It was much more than just my efforts that lead to your rescue,” she commented humbly.

“I think it would be fair to say that without your help, I’d still be dangling from a ceiling,” Moondancer said though a laugh as she pointed a hoof upward. “I heard about all the help that you gave the Nightguard after you revealed the spy. Quite a few in the guard have told me just how impressive you were. You managed to train nearly every unicorn there how to use a spell they’d never seen before in just a few days. That takes some talent.”

Twilight bowed her head slightly to the lavish praise. “Thank you.”

“You deserve the compliment. And actually, that leads me to the other reason why I’m here. I came personally because I wanted to thank you, but I also may have had a hoof in making a recommendation to her Majesty on who she should choose to replace her court wizard.”

Twilight glanced over to the kitchen doorway when she noticed Fluttershy coming out before glancing back to Moondancer with a questioning look. “Are you saying you recommended me? And why does she need a new one? What happened with the previous one?”

Moondancer gave Fluttershy a quick thank you as she accepted a small coffee cup and saucer from her with her magic, taking a quick sip before setting them down on the table. “Well, not really supposed to discuss it openly, but I think letting you be privy to some information wouldn’t hurt. The last one didn’t like his favorite princess being replaced, and made it abundantly clear that he wanted nothing to do with the Queen. He was let go to avoid any potential problems, so her Majesty has actually been without a wizard for weeks.” Moondancer took notice of Twilight’s slightly troubled look at the mention of the previous wizards dismissal. “He’s fine, other than being out of a job. I hope I wasn’t being too presumptuous by recommending you, but if only a few of the things I’ve heard about you are true, I can’t think of anypony else that would fit the position any better, and the Queen seemed eager to agree when I brought up the idea. She really is impressed with you.”

“That’s great, Twilight,” Fluttershy said as she took her seat at the table. “I mean, you really like magic and you’re good at it, so something like this sounds perfect for you.”

“Yeah, I suppose it does.” It seemed the two friends were both thinking the same thing; this was a chance at moving things forward. But Twilight had a nagging feeling that there was something too coincidental about being offered such a perfect position. She also found herself wondering why this Moondancer didn’t seem to recognize her at all.

Moondancer took another sip from her coffee before setting it down again. “If you decided to take the job it would likely mean moving to Canterlot since it’s a permanent position, but I’m sure the details can be worked out later.”

“It’s... rather sudden,” Twilight said as she gave Fluttershy a worried look. “I have to admit I’m wondering what our friends might think about this.”

“Oh, I think they’ll be happy for you. After all, isn’t this just like something you’ve been hoping for?” Fluttershy maintained that encouraging smile that she got when she was trying to tell somepony to ‘go for it’. “It wouldn’t mean we would never see each other again, would it?”

Moondancer quickly waved a hoof to dismiss that thought. “Oh, of course not. That isn’t the intention here at all. I know it’s a big decision to make on a moment's notice though. Maybe I should have asked you about it first before I went to the Queen about it.”

Twilight hummed as she thought over the offer. It did reek of something too good to be true, but that only made her even more curious. And if it did turn out to really be a job offer that would practically make her Nightmare Moon’s righthoof mare, there was a lot of potential good that could come from that. “No, I’ll go with you to Canterlot, Moondancer,” she said, deciding to play along. “You’re right, Fluttershy. This is an opportunity I’ve been waiting for. I shouldn’t pass it up.”

Just then, a ferret hopped up on the table with a violet primary feather in its mouth. It ran directly toward Moondancer, and stopped just short of her to stand on its hind legs, presenting the feather with its little furry paws as if giving a peace offering.

“Oh,” Moondancer said with a bit of surprise. “Well thank you little fella,” she said as she accepted the feather with a hoof and gave the ferret a pat on the head with the other. The ferret gave a little chirp of happiness at the petting.

“Ah hah,” Fluttershy laughed nervously as her rigid smile returned to her face. “Mr. Ferret is feeling rather generous today, isn’t he,” she said as she focused a thinly masked glare at the little creature, causing him to shrink back a bit and then turn to escape off the table to avoid the stare. Fluttershy turned her attention back to Moondancer, doing her best to hide her tension. “He tends to do that, giving random things to visitors. It’s his way of making friends. You don’t have to keep that.”

“I think it’s cute, and the feather is pretty.” Moondancer levitated the feather up, and tucked it just behind her ear. “You don’t mind if I keep it, do you?”

“Um, well,” Fluttershy caught herself about to glance at Twilight as if to ask her friend if it were okay, but quickly thought better of it as she blink-blinked to keep herself from doing so. “Okay. You can keep it,” she said when she couldn’t think of anything to say to possibly recover the feather without drawing attention to its significance.

If Twilight had been at all bothered with one of her feathers being handed over to the Captain of the Nightguard, she didn’t show it. “When would we be leaving for Canterlot, Moondancer?” she asked.

“I came here by chariot, so if you would like a ride back with me we could leave right away.”

Twilight nodded and stood from her chair. “Now is as good a time as any. Shouldn’t keep her Majesty waiting, should we?” Twilight walked around the table to Fluttershy, resting a hoof on her shoulder. “You’ll tell the others for me, right?”

Fluttershy smiled up to her. “Of course. And you’ll let us know how things are going?”

“You can count on it.”

Queen Nightmare Moon had chosen to welcome Twilight at the Canterlot Palace gates personally, along with a full entourage of Nightguard. It turned out that the offer had been very true, and Nightmare Moon was eager to welcome Twilight as her new enchantress, if she would agree to taking up the title.

Twilight accepted, of course. The new position would bring her just a step away from gaining access to the Canterlot Archives, and possibly even the Elements if she could find a convincing enough reason to be allowed to study them.

However, there was a necessity for patience. As eager as Twilight was to obtain her goals as soon as possible, she couldn’t show too much sudden interest in such secretive things without arousing suspicions. For now, she would need to settle in to the new position and gain what favor she could with the Queen.

Her new quarters at the palace would be the same tower that had been vacated by the dismissed wizard, and turned out to be the same tower that she had stayed at when she was Celestia’s personal student, which made her realize something. In this altered past, it seemed she had never been Celestia’s student. This put the change back even further than she had originally thought, to a time that was at least before she had taken her entrance exam to enter Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. This made it highly likely that Celestia would have no idea who Twilight Sparkle even was, and perhaps even explained why Moondancer hasn’t recognized her. Once again, Twilight found herself wondering if she had ever even existed in this alternate history.

Moondancer had offered to show Twilight to the tower. Of course the time traveling princess knew its location, but she accepted the escort to give the impression that this was the first time she had ever been to the palace. She would have to keep up her ruse as being a simple unicorn talented in magic going for the foreseeable future, and so far everything seemed to be going perfectly well.

That was until Twilight and Moondancer entered the tower.

Twilight’s ears twitched when she heard the sound of the door’s lock clicking after Moondancer had been pulled it closed, and her eyes widened a bit as she picked up on an almost unnoticeable surge of energy at the same time. If the Princess of Magic hadn’t been as attuned to the ebb and flow of magic as she was, she could have easily missed it. She continued to calmly walk into the room, mentally reaching out to discreetly test the air around her. She picked up on a magical aura surrounding the area; a strong ward cast over the entire structure that must have become active when the door was locked. Her mind gently tugged at the magical ‘threads’ that held the spell together to test it, noting its construction. The strength of the spell indicated that it had been assembled by a group of unicorns with the specific purpose of keeping all things in or out. She didn’t sense any immediate danger as there were no offensively based enchantments, but her mind came up with only one possible answer for this setup; a trap. What was concerning about the trap wasn’t the trap itself, but that Moondancer had willingly locked herself inside.

Twilight ascended the stairway that lead up to the upper level where the bookcases were kept. She saw that the room was mostly the same as she remembered it, other than the fact that all of the books and scrolls were not at all organized to her liking. She proceeded to walk across the platform to the pony sized hourglass suspended by a golden stand and pushed it with a hoof to flip it over, watching as the sand shifted and began to slowly trickle from the upper chamber into the bottom one.

“So,” Twilight said as she glanced around behind herself as Moondancer made it to the top of the stairway. “You obviously have something you want to talk to me about.”

A few tense seconds quietly slipped by, the only sound in the room coming from the grains of sand hitting the bottom of the hourglass. “You noticed,” Moondancer finally said as she cautiously took a few more steps closer to Twilight.

“Yes, but it’s not really necessary,” Twilight said with a shrug. “If you wanted to ask me something, you can simply ask.”

“I don’t believe you would willingly give me the truth.” Moondancer began to circle around to the right side of the room toward a desk, keeping her eyes focused on Twilight as she did.

Twilight tilted her head as she watched Moondancer. “And why do you say that?”

“A mare named Twilight Sparkle suddenly shows up after having been missing for thirteen years, and instead of coming home to her family, she goes on an expedition into the Everfree Forest.” Moondancer stopped near the desk, silently staring back at Twilight for a moment before she continued. “Either you really have something against your family, or more likely, you’re not who you say you are. So who are you really?”

Moondancer had just unknowingly told Twilight something that she had been wanting to find out. She now finally knew that she did exist in this past, or at least did thirteen years ago. However, Twilight’s brow rose as she pursed her lips at the accusation against her. “Wow, so you think I’m posing as a missing pony? I never knew you to be the conspiracy theory type. When did that happen?”

Moondancer narrowed her golden eyes at Twilight. “I’ll be asking the questions, and neither of us are leaving here until I get the answers I’m looking for.”

Twilight let go an exhausted sounding sigh. “Right, lets take this somewhere more private.” Before Moondancer could respond, Twilight quickly cast a spell that caused two bright flashes where the two mares had just been standing, leaving nothing else moving in the room other than the sand shifting through the hourglass.

Two bright flashes of light lit the area within a small cavern for an instant. Twilight casually trotted to the center of the dark cave and cast a few orbs of white light from her horn. They each traveled up toward the cavern ceiling, slowly brightening until the area was completely lit. Moondancer looked around herself frantically, trying to figure out exactly where she had been taken, and how.

“You can’t do that!” she accused as she pointed a hoof at Twilight.

Twilight glanced back at Moondancer for a few seconds and then up to the ceiling, a thoughtful look on her as she tapped a forehoof to her chin. “I think I just did,” she said with a confident smile.

“But, the ward—”

“Wasn’t nearly complicated enough to hold me. It may have been strong enough, but I just went around it.” Twilight noticed Moondancer’s confused look as she tried to figure out what ‘went around it’ meant. Suggesting that such a thing was even possible probably sounded ridiculous. “Don’t worry, nopony will be able to figure out how to do that for awhile, other than me.”

Moondancer gave a stomp with a hoof. “I demand that you take us back. Now.”

“If you want to go back so badly, just teleport back yourself,” Twilight said as she dismissed the captain’s order with a wave of her hoof. She walked over to one of the many small crevices in the side of the cave where a solitary beam of moonlight cast itself on the floor. Peaking out of the crevice, she could see the tops of the spires of Canterlot Castle down below. “It’s just right below us. This is actually one of my favorite spots in Canterlot Mountain. A quiet little spot high above it all where I like to go to when I need some time to think.” Twilight seemed to enjoy the view for a moment before she turned her gaze to look over her shoulder at Moondancer, a small smirk turning up the corner of her mouth. “Of course, you probably can’t teleport yourself out. Quite a few unicorns can’t teleport at all, and those of us who can usually can’t make a jump this far in a single go. That’s why I like this spot so much, I’m one of the only ones who can reach it.”

Moondancer grited her teeth. “Act smug all you want, you’re still going to answer my questions before this is through.”

“That’s fine, but only if you answer some of mine too. Fair is fair, after all. And if you refuse, you’ll have to find your own way down the mountain,” Twilight said as she nodded toward Canterlot down below. “So, the first thing I would like to know is just how much you think you know about my disappearance. You said it happened thirteen years ago, but you didn’t say how.”

Moondancer furrowed her brows, quietly grumbling something to herself in frustration. “I don’t know how it happened. We were both only ten back then, and I just remember the teacher telling us that you had gone missing. There were rumors that you ran away from home, rumors that somepony foalnapped you and was going to ransom you for bits because your family was rich, and there was even a silly rumor that you had died in a shed near the playground and would come back to haunt the school. Pretty much every stupid story that a bunch of children would come up with. But officially, you just vanished.”

Twilight hummed at the information, and then asked, “Officially? What about unofficially?”

Moondancer responded with an incredulous look. “What do you mean? There is no unofficially. You vanished without a trace. There was never proof of a foalnapping, or a run away, or anything at all. It was like you just ceased to exist.”

Twilight obviously wasn’t satisfied with that answer, as her sides heaved to a sigh. She had only managed to unearth another unanswered question; just what had caused her to ‘vanish’ thirteen years ago. “Another question then,” Twilight said as she fully turned away from the crevice and walked back into the chamber toward Moondancer. She stopped only a few steps short of Moondancer. “Why do you even care?”

“Huh?” Moondancer said as she shook her head at the confusing question.

“Why would you care so much about figuring out what happened to me? If I recall right, we weren’t exactly what would be called the best of friends when we were young.”

Moondancer let go an exasperated sigh. “I really don’t care what happened back then. What I want to know is what you’re intending to do now.”

“And what do you think I’m intending to do?”

Moondancer seemed to grow more frustrated at the probing questions. “If I knew, I wouldn’t be trying to figure it out, would I?” she growled.

Twilight let go a little hum as she thought about the answer. “Okay, lets talk about your intentions then.”

“Lets not,” Moondancer said flatly as she narrowed her eyes at Twilight. “It’s time you start answering my questions.”

Twilight made cautioned gesture with her forehoof. “We’ll get to that. But first I need to know if you can be trusted.”

Moondancer scoffed at the remark. “Me? You’re questioning my integrity? You’re the one who’s hiding something!”

“And you’re the one who is likely guilty of treason.”

Moondancer blink-blinked as her voice caught in her throat. “What?” she said through a laugh, as if the claim was completely ridiculous.

“You heard me,” Twilight said lowly as she took a single, deliberate step toward Moondancer, to which she retreated from a single step. “Tell me how it happened. When Celestia was defeated, did you jump at the chance to replace my brother as Captain of the Guard? Or, where you approached by Nightmare Moon and asked to replace him?”

“W-what are you talking about?” Moondancer felt the hackles on her neck raise at the sudden shift in mood from the other mare. Even the air in the room suddenly felt suffocating under the imposing aura that Twilight seemed to be giving off.

Again, Twilight took another slow step toward the captain, causing Moondancer to retreat another step back. “Shining Armor. My brother. Do you know him?”

Moondancer could feel an inexplicable wave of panic welling up inside her. She tried to fight past the illogical fear she was suddenly feeling to answer the question. “Y-yes, of course I know him.”

“And you took his position from him, didn’t you.” Twilight seemed to be demanding that Moondancer answer with a yes.

“Where did you hear something like that? He never was in the guard!” Moondancer explained, her wide, fearful eyes fixed on Twilight.

Twilight halted her imposing advance, pursing her lips with a confused look. “He wasn’t?”

Moondancer relaxed slightly, letting go a calming breath as the tension in the room seemed to evaporate. “No. I became the guard captain over three years ago, after the previous captain received a promotion. Shiny has never actually been part of the guard, even though I have asked him to join before.”

Twilight blinked at the nickname. “Wait, just where do you know my brother from?”

“He’s an apprentice arcane armor smith who makes armor for the guard, he isn’t in the guard, so whoever told you he had become a guard captain, they told you wrong.” Moondancer glanced down to stare at the floor before her as she quietly spoke. “I sort of got to know him more after you disappeared. He used to always say that I reminded him of you.” She slowly glanced up and smiled faintly. “He also used to talk a lot about how he’d once had dreams to join the guard and it got me interested. I thought if I joined that he might actually follow through with it, but it ended up his heart just wasn’t in it. But, after I joined, he was the one who issued me my first set of arcane armor, and... things sort of went from there.” Moondancer paused for a short moment, glancing to the side as she kicked a forehoof against the floor. “Actually, we’ve been engaged for nearly a year now.”

Twilight stood there staring at Moondancer, her eyes steadily blinking as if she had been completely unable to understand what she had just heard. Her mouth slowly fell agape as she slowly shook her head. “What!?” she finally screeched, causing Moondancer to flinch back on her haunches. “How did something like that happen!?”

“We... went on a date?” Moondancer said as she shrugged her shoulders. When she saw the hard look she got in response, she asked, “Do you seriously want me to go into detail?”

“Ugh, no, please don’t,” Twilight said as she too rested on her haunches, bringing her forehooves up to massage her temples. “This shouldn’t be happening,” she lowly grumbled as she felt a mild headache starting to form.

“Hey!” Moondancer suddenly came to a stand as she stomped over toward Twilight. “Did you just expect life to come to a complete stop when you decided to vanish? You may not like it, but I fell in love with your brother, and he loves me back. And whatever it is that you’re planning, I’m not going to let you drag him into it!”

Twilight stared back at Moondancer with a blank look for a few seconds, her hooves slowly falling back to the floor, and then nodded with an ‘ah hah’. “I see. That’s what this is really all about isn’t it? Convincing the Queen to summon me here, the little trap that you tried to set for me... you were afraid I was posing as your fiance's little sister, and thought I might get him mixed up in something.” Twilight let go a light laugh as she pushed herself to stand up. “Well, if I haven’t proven to you yet that I am who I say I am, I’m sure I can list off a few memories from when we were both little fillies to drive the point home.”

“How about you tell me about this instead,” Moondancer said as she reached to a side satchel on her armor and flipped the flap open. Her hoof disappeared inside the satchel, and then came back out with something that sparkled and glittered in the light of Twilight’s illumination spell. “This was found in the woods by my Nightguard in a trench where something landed in the Everfree, though whatever it belonged too was already gone by the time they got there. It’s beat up pretty bad, but it’s not too hard to see that it’s a rather expensive piece of jewelry.”

Twilight eyed the mangled remains of what was once her royal hoofware. “What makes you believe I would know anything about that?” she asked as she kept her expression devoid of any readable emotion.

Moondancer smiled slightly as she set the jewelry down in front of herself before reaching back into her satchel a second time. “The same thing that makes me think that you know something about this,” she said as she pulled a violet feather from the side satchel. She gave it a flick with her hoof, causing it to float down to the floor where it landed resting against one of Twilight’s forehooves, to which Twilight glanced down at it slowly. “Primary feather’s can usually be found around the home that a pegasus lives in, but they usually match their coat color. I don’t think your friend has any violet in her, but it appears to match you perfectly, which is honestly really strange since you’re a unicorn.” Moondancer allowed a grin to spread across her muzzle as she watched Twilight slowly look back up to her. “Also, I know that you were first seen only a day after something hit the Everfree, by Sergeant Gale in the Everfree. I’m willing to bet you know what that something was, and you’re going to tell me what it is and why you were looking for it.”

Twilight silently stared back into Moondancer’s eyes. While it appeared she hadn’t fully puzzled everything together yet, she was getting close, and if she was anything like the Moondancer that she remembered, she would figure it out eventually. Twilight wasn’t a hundred percent sure she could fully trust this mare with her secrets, but it seemed to already be beyond the point of keeping her from finding out. If Twilight refused to tell her, Moondancer would continue to dig and could possibly draw a lot of unwanted attention her way, which left her with only one way to avoid that. Twilight reached her forehooves up and undid the snap buttons at the top of her jacket. She removed her disguise, allowing her crown to become visible as she spread her wings out to their full length to her sides. The grin melted off of Moondancer’s face, her mouth falling open as if she was going to say something, but nothing ever did come out.

“Well?” Twilight asked. “Not exactly what you were thinking, is it.”

Moondancer’s voice cracked as she tried to find something to say. “How... you’re a... is that even possible?”

“Long story, but I’m not telling it to you until I know you can be trusted as Captain of Equestria’s Royal Guard.” Twilight stood to her full height, pacing off to the side as she began to consider what she had learned so far. Now that Moondancer knew her secret, she was going to have to go on the offensive to ensure that it didn’t go any further. “From what I’ve heard, it seems like you chose to betray Celestia willingly, which would make you a traitor.”

Moondancer’s eyes widened a bit as she felt a wave of panic return to her. “I-I did what I had to!” she said a bit frantically.

“What you had to? Explain that one to me,” Twilight said as she turned and started pacing the other direction in front of Moondancer. “What forced you into betraying your country?”

“I didn’t betray Equestria, I saved it!”

Twilight stopped in her pacing, turning a narrow eyed gaze slowly back to her. “Really...,” she said, her tone indicating that she didn’t at all believe the claim.

“Would you rather that I had thrown the weight of the guard behind Cadenza? That would have plunged Equestria into a civil war.”

Twilight’s stare suddenly became very intense, causing Moondancer to squirm a bit. In a sudden flash, Twilight teleported across the short distance to only a single hoofwidth away from Moondancer’s face, causing her to scramble backwards in shock. “You know what happened to Princess Cadenza?” Twilight asked as she stared at the frightened captain as if she could somehow pull an answer straight out of her with her glare. Moondancer cowered away, avoiding eye contact as she shrunk toward the floor. “You do...,” Twilight said in a low whisper. Suddenly the air in the room filled with a static sensation that made Moondancer feel like every hair on her body was trying to stand on end. She dared to look up at the angered alicorn, and found herself unable to look away at the terrifying scene as Twilight’s eyes glowed a solid bright white. Her mane and tail had begun to whip around as if a strong wind had caught them, through the air in the cavern was completely still. Her voice carried an echo as she spoke. “I swear by the power that I wield, if any harm at all came to her—”

“No! She’s unharmed,” Moondancer quickly said as she cowered down as close to the ground as she could.

Twilight lowered her face to within a few inches of Moondancer’s, the brightness from the glow causing the later to squint her eyes closed as she leaned away. “You know for certain?” Twilight asked.

“Yes,” Moondancer whined as she quivered on the floor. “She’s in Canterlot.”

“Where,” Twilight asked, the single word impacting the air in the room like a sledgehammer.

“At the palace!” Moondancer cried out.

Twilight’s face twisted up in anger as she grited her teeth. “You know what I’m asking, stop being vague!” she yelled, causing Moondancer to finally scramble to her hooves and flee.

Moondancer only made it a few steps, where she found the back wall of the cavern. She had no idea why she had ran, since doing so in the confined space made no sense. It was as if her legs had suddenly decided to try to get her as far away as they could on their own. She pressed her side against the wall, slumping against it as she slid down to the floor. She could feel herself breathing heavily, and noticed the tears streaming down the side of her face. She had never known anything to instill pure fear in her like this. Before her was a mare no more physically imposing than herself, but something about the raw power the alicorn seemed to give off made her feel completely inadequate, as if her existence could be simply snuffed out with a thought and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

“She’s being held... in a cell,” Moondancer weakly croaked as she tried to control her emotions. “What else could I do? She had to be kept out of the way to avoid a possible uprising. Celestia was already gone before any of us knew what had happened, and Cadenza isn’t anywhere near powerful enough to face an ancient alicorn like Nightmare Moon. We would lose, and in the end the only thing we would accomplish would be ripping Equestria in half. Celestia wouldn’t have wanted that.”

Twilight had chosen to sit at the center of the room and quietly listen. The amazing power still radiated from her entire being, but she otherwise just silently sat there as she considered what she had been told. Finally, she decided to speak. “So, you chose to jail an innocent.”

“I had to!” Moondancer cried. “If I hadn’t, then ponies would try to rally behind her even if we didn’t! It’s the responsibility of the guard to keep Equestria safe, and this was the only way to do that.”

Twilight rose to her hooves, slowly walking over to where Moondancer was slumped against the wall. Moondancer didn’t make another attempt to flee, she only braced herself for whatever might happen next, but Twilight only sat down next to the her. “Tell me, Moondancer,” Twilight gently said as she slowly blinked her glowing eyes. “If my brother, the one who you seem to care for so much, was the one who had to be jailed to save our nation... would you do it?”

Moondancer felt a knot in her throat. She closed her eyes as she turned her head down toward the floor. “N-no....” The answer was almost a whisper, but it had been loud enough to be heard through the hollow room. “It’s not fair to ask me that.”

Twilight had gently reached out to place a hoof on top of one of Moondancer’s, which caused her to flinch as her eyes shot back open. “I can tell you’re telling me the truth, which is all I really wanted. It wasn’t an easy choice for you, was it?” she heard Twilight say. She glanced up out of the corner of her eye, and could see the bright light fading from Twilight’s eyes as the powerful aura seemed to dissipate. Moondancer answered by only silently shaking her head.

Twilight stood, and then offered her hoof. Moondancer stared warily at the hoof, but once again it was as if the mare before her had completely changed. The fear had melted away almost as quickly as it had gripped her earlier, and now there seemed to be something almost comforting about the alicorn’s presence. She reluctantly took hold of Twilight’s hoof and allowed herself to be pulled up. Twilight smiled gently back at her before speaking. “There is another way to do this, one where everypony ends up happy, but the only way it’s going to happen is if I can count on you for help. I think I can, because we have something in common.”

Moondancer seemed unsure about that claim, tilting her head away slightly. “What do we have in common?”

“We both want to protect Equestria. We just don’t agree on how to do it. But I think we can come to an understanding.” Twilight turned to walk across the room back to the crevice to glance down to the city below once again. She quietly remained there for some time letting her thoughts wander, before she glanced back to Moondancer. “About my brother... you don’t have to worry. I really don’t want to involve my family in this mess. I’ll be sure to keep Shiny out of this.”

Moondancer let go a calming sigh as she walked up to the other side of the crevice. “I doubt you’ll be able to hide the fact that you’re back. I can imagine once word gets around the palace that the new enchantress’s name is Twilight Sparkle, Shiny will be trying to track you down.” Moondancer tapped one of her forehooves idly against the floor as she looked out at the view. “He never really did give up the search for you, you know?” she said with a quick glance to Twilight.

Twilight leaned toward the crevice, hooking her forehooves over the edge and resting her chin atop them. After staring out over Canterlot in silence for a moment, she rolled her head to the side to look back at Moondancer. “You’re right, I can’t avoid all contact with my family. But, at the very least, what you’ve seen here has to stay secret, especially from them. I’d rather not take any chance of them getting mixed up in this, and simply knowing what I’ve become would be involving them.”

Moondancer nodded. “I’ll keep your secret then, if only to keep him safe. But, as far as helping you goes, that depends on what you mean by ‘help’.” Moondancer steeled herself as she sat up straight on her haunches. “Use your scare tactics on me all you want, I’m not going to lead an army for you.”

Twilight’s look slowly shifted, appearing as if she was suddenly ashamed of something. She lifted her head up slightly, propping it against one of her forehooves as she leaned into it. “I’m sorry,” she said though a sigh. “I consider Cadance to be a very close friend of mine. Hearing that she’s been locked away just for being who she is set me off. I forget sometimes just how much of an effect my magic can have on those around me, and I think I overreacted a bit.”

“A bit, you think?” Moondancer dared to ask, her eyebrows having climbed a bit.

Twilight rolled her eyes, and then pushed herself to sit up straight. “Okay, a lot,” she said with a shrug. “I promise you, I’m not going to force you into anything you don’t want to do. I’m asking for your help.”

Moondancer crossed her forehooves as she leaned her shoulder back against the cavern wall. “But what can I do that doesn’t involve the rest of the Nightguard, if that’s not what you’re looking for.”

“Like I said, I want to protect Equestria just like you do,” Twilight said as she pointed her hoof to Moondancer, “and just like you, I really don’t want violence to be a part of it. However, I get the feeling that the entire world isn’t going to be thrilled about an eternal night, and though they might all be scared of Nightmare Moon right now, in time they’ll make a move against her, maybe all as one. Equestria wouldn’t survive something like that, so we’ll need to end the eternal night before that happens.”

“End it?” Moondancer said, a worried tone crossing her voice.

“Nothing violent,” Twilight reiterated. “I’m hoping that there could be a way to convince Nightmare Moon to end it herself, though I know that’s not going to be very likely.”

“So, what would be the alternative?” Moondancer asked as she shrugged her shoulders slightly.

“Haven’t decided yet. I’m keeping my options open, but mostly I need more time and information to come up with a plan. And that’s what I was hoping to rely on you for.”

Moondancer let her forehooves fall back to the ground with a clack as she narrowed her eyes at Twilight. “You want me to spy on Equestria’s ruler for you?”

“No,” Twilight said as she shook her head. “I just need you to keep putting a good word in for me. The more that Nightmare Moon trusts me, the more things she will likely be willing to trust me with. If we’re really lucky, I’ll be able to convince her to make the right choice.” Twilight stopped suddenly, staring off in front of herself when a thought struck her. She tapped one of her forehooves against the floor as she considered the idea. “Though now that I think of it, there probably is something a bit more direct that you could help me with.”

“What would that be?”

“Well, it’s probably something I shouldn’t do just yet, but eventually I want a chance to speak to Chrysalis. I think she knows something important.”

Moondancer considered the request, touching the side of one of her hooves against her bottom lip as she mulled it over. “If I took you there right away that would probably seem suspicious. What would the Queen’s new enchantress need with a prisoner, right?” she asked, to which Twilight seemed to agree with a nod. “Maybe we could come up with an excuse to let you question her after some time goes by. So far, she hasn’t really told us much of anything that we didn’t already know or found out on our own.”

“What did you find out?” Twilight asked, her curiosity piqued. “If you don’t mind me knowing.”

Moondancer hesitated for a few seconds, but then shrugged her shoulders as she decided to divulge what she knew. “You know about the rescue operation to recover the other victims from the hive, right?” Twilight nodded back silently in response. “Well, it’s been cancelled for now.”

Twilight jerked her head back slightly in surprise. A concerned look washed over her face, and she shook her head as she asked, “Why?”

Moondancer went back to leaning against the wall, raising her forelegs to fold them across her chest again. “When we started identifying the first group, we came across a shocking discovery. None of them were listed as a missing pony. That might be possible for one or two, but a dozen? It didn’t make any sense. So we started digging deeper, going through any kind of identification records we could find. Birth certificates, tax records, criminal records... and that’s where we found something unexpected.

“Every single one of them has a criminal record. A bad one.” Moondancer turned her eyes away to look out at the city below. “They’re the worst of the worst, every single one of them sentenced to life imprisonment for their crimes.”

Twilight sat there in stunned silence for a while, until she finally managed a question slightly above a whisper. “All of them?”

“All of the ones we freed, which was about a dozen,” Moondancer said as she looked back to Twilight. “We stopped after that, thinking that there’s a good chance that the trend would continue. We aren’t prepared to deal with over a hundred of the worst criminals Equestria has ever known suddenly being ‘guests’ at the palace. These ponies belong in maximum security prisons.”

Twilight let go a groan and closed her eyes as she once again leaned toward the crevice. She let her forelegs droop out over the edge, lazily letting her chin rest on them as she heaved a heavy sigh. “I can’t believe there would be that many.”

Moondancer tilted her head until it was resting against the wall right at the edge of the crevice, catching a side glance from Twilight. “It isn’t a far stretch at all. Equestria is home to millions and there’s going to be some bad apples in it. Just glancing over the last ten years worth of criminal records to identify the few that we did rescue showed me that there’s plenty out there to fill that hive with them.”

Moondancer shifted slightly, leaning forward so she could look out at the view of Canterlot. She traced her eyes over the hundreds of small lights that lit the streets and homes below. “I know that Celestia liked to avoid making unpleasant things visible to the public. She wanted everypony to feel like they lived in a perfect kingdom. So, most of the worst criminals were tried, sentenced, and then just quietly went away with no fuss. But, I don’t think any of us ever realized what she was really doing with them. We just assumed they’d all been packed away in a prison out of sight somewhere. But the papers for the ones we rescued from the hive showed that they had been transferred without any destination specified.”

Twilight’s face seemed to take on a pained look as she lifted one of her forelegs, leaning her forehead into it. A part of her wanted to defend the one she had looked up to her entire life, the one who’s hoofsteps she had aspired to follow in. She wanted to find a way to prove that the Sun Princess had nothing to do with something that seemed so... unlike her. But the simple fact was she had to have known. Every single one of the transfer documents would bear the signature of Princess Celestia; it was required by Equestrian law. “Celestia...,” Twilight said in a whisper as she glanced skyward. “What were you doing?”

The Final Option

What Didn't Happen

by Zeg

Chapter XXII – The Final Option

The streets encircling the tower were littered with large chunks of crystal jutting out of the ground that had fallen from above. Rumbling sounds carried on the wind, mostly from high above the city but also from somewhere nearby. A steady, repeating boom shook the area, growing louder by the second.

A crystal mare galloped into the street from the northwest, doing her best to dodge through the crystal debris. Her scared little foal rested between her shoulders, clinging to her mother with tiny little forelegs holding on as tight as they could. A loud crash then caused both mother and child to scream as a building behind them exploded. The mother lost her footing, and quickly twisted herself about to grab her foal, cradling her foal to her chest as she skidded to a stop on the street on her back.

The dust from the building that had been demolished carried off to the west on the wind, and from the cloud stepped a large beast looming above them. Each step it took shook the ground around them causing scattered fragments of crystal to clatter on the street. The enormous crystal dragon finally stopped, looking down at them with soulless glowing red eyes. Its chest began to expand as it drew in a long breath, the rushing air entering its lungs making a sound much like bellows heating a forge. It then leaned forward, opening its maw wide as it released a gout of red fire with a loud roar.

Twilight appeared in an instant amidst a bright flash right before the mare and her foal, her horn and Dusk both glowing brightly with her power. She hefted the staff forward, and the torrent of bright red fire swirled as it was sucked toward the tip of the staff, being drawn inward to a single point. The fire vanished with a rushing sound that ended the instant the last of the flame had been drawn in.

The dragon let out an angered roar and began to take a step forward, but before it could even land a single foot closer, Twilight vanished along with the mare and her child. They all instantly exited her teleport a few blocks away on the southern side of the tower. “Are you alright?” Twilight asked as she turned back to the mare. The mare seemed too frightened to even speak, laying on her side cringing as she cradled her foal tightly against her chest. Twilight put her forelegs around her, doing her best to gently pull the frightened mare to sit up. “Hey, you’re going to be okay. I need you to listen to me, alright?” She looked straight into the terrified eyes of the mare as she held her steady. Though the mare’s chest heaved with her rapid panting and tremors shook her entire body, she managed to barely nod her head. “Okay. If you head south from here you’ll find shelter there. Just look for the guards and go where they tell you to. Can you do that?” At that moment, a loud rumble accompanied a roar from the dragon as it toppled another building nearby. The mare’s entire body tensed as her eyes darted toward the sound, but Twilight’s wings quickly snapped open to block her view. Twilight pulled the mare’s gaze back to look directly into her own eyes with her forehooves. “I’ll worry about the dragon, you worry about getting your foal to safety.” Twilight could feel the mare still trembling in her hooves, but after a few seconds she nodded and managed to stand on her own four legs.

The mare knelt down, allowing her foal to quickly scamper onto her back, and then stood. She cantered a few steps away, stopping just long enough to look back to Twilight to say, “Thank you,” before she took off at a gallop down the street.

Twilight watched after her for a moment longer, and when she was sure that the mare and foal were out of immediate danger she turned her attention back toward the dragon. It was wandering aimlessly about the city center now, just like it had been before. It seemed that the titan crystal creature didn’t have a clear goal, other than to attack anything that moved and knock over buildings at random.

Twilight glanced up to her left spotting a clear roof top and, with a quick thought, blinked to it in an instant. She was only there for a few seconds when she noticed another presence and glanced to her side to find Discord standing there with her. He grinned widely before saying, “Such a kind thing that you did back there, but in the mean time, our crystal friend has been reducing the remainder of the city to tiny fragments.” He tugged at his goatee, a thoughtful hum escaping him as he watched the dragon kick over another building. “I wonder what it is looking for.”

Quite a few guesses came up in Twilight’s mind. Perhaps the crystal creatures worked off of Chrystallyn’s desires, and were attempting to find the Elements they had taken from her. But that seemed unlikely after having watched the creature go out of its way to chase and attack an innocent mare. It was as if they were simply operating on a primal desire to hunt. “We need a way to deal with it quickly,” Twilight said as she glanced up to Discord.

“Yes, but the direct approach doesn’t appear to be working too well, does it?” Discord said as he snapped his fingers and held the palm of his hand open. As he did, three puppet figures, a large one of the crystal dragon and two smaller ones, one of Twilight and one of himself, all appeared hovering above his hand. The puppet Discord and puppet Twilight were taking turns beating the puppet dragon over the head with mallet and staff, making tiny little tink sounds with each strike, but the puppet dragon seemed completely unphased.

Twilight let out a huff, blowing the breath through her bangs. Discord did have a point. None of their attacks had managed to get through yet. “Its armor is too difficult to get past. We can keep it distracted, but that isn’t exactly keeping it from destroying everything it runs into.” Twilight frowned slightly at Discord when she noticed that the puppet dragon was now chewing on the puppet Twilight.

Discord cleared his throat and dismissed the visual aids with a wave of his hand. He glanced around the area as if looking for something. “Hmm, idea,” he sing songed as he spotted something nearby. In a quick flash, he vanished. Twilight quickly glanced off in the direction that she had seen him looking, and once she spotted him, she followed with a teleport of her own, coming out on the roof of another building. This one wasn’t quite as stable as the last rooftop, as a very large crystal shard had managed to fall on it. The crystal laid on its side, and was very close to cone shaped with a large flat spot at one end and a sharp point at the other. “Yes, this should do nicely,” Discord said as he appraised the crystal.

“What are we going to do with this?”

“Well, since that one is particularly tough scaled, we need something that can pierce its hide,” Discord said as he tapped a claw against the crystal.

Twilight glanced out in the direction that the crystal was pointing, and found it nearly pointing right at the dragon. “I think I see what you’re getting at.”

“Yes, but it needs a little more... oomph,” Discord said as he twirled his taloned hand about. His eyes glanced up and down the length of the shard, which was nearly as long as the roof it had landed on. He then glanced across to Twilight, and upon seeing Dusk hovering at her side, his muzzle twisted in a quick grin. “Do you still have some of that dragon fire?” he asked. Twilight looked at her staff. The spell she had used to draw the dragon flame into a pocket dimension could easily be reversed to release it. She nodded, and Discord rubbed his hands together before pointing a claw to the tip of the crystal. “Give me a little heat, right there.”

Twilight did as asked, letting a controlled amount of the dragon flame pour forth from the tip of her staff. The blast of flame lapped at the crystal, and soon the purplish crystal began to take on a glow near the tip. It was then that Twilight’s attention was drawn away when she heard an angry roar in the distance. The thundering boom of the dragon’s footsteps shook the building as the beast charged down the street toward them. “Uh, I think it noticed us,” Twilight said as stopped the spell and prepared herself.

“Good,” Discord said, drawing his claws up and giving his fingers a quick snap. His mallet appeared in the air next to him, and he took it within his grasp as he stepped up next to the flat end of crystal. Holding the mallet toward the very end of the shaft in both hands, he held the head of the mallet out just behind the crystal’s flat side. He glanced out at the raging dragon that was charging toward them out of the corner of his eye for but a second as he lined up his shot, then turned his attention back forward. After winding up his swing up, he drove through the crystal with the mallet, hitting it squarely on the flat side and sending it tearing a path away toward the dragon. It left a bright blur in its wake as it sailed through the air with a high pitch whistling sound, and then crashed right into the face of the dragon with enough force to lift the titan from the ground and send it flying backwards a few city blocks. The dragon came crashing down on its back, and the crystal shard that was now imbedded where the dragon’s face had been slammed into the ground, pinning it to the street. “Yeessss,” Discord said, pumping a fist in the air.

While somewhat strange, Discord’s attack had managed to stop the creature. Or at least, slow it down. As the dust cleared from around the dragon, Twilight could see its tail still thrashing about and its claws digging at the street at its sides, even though most of its head had been shattered and fused with the superheated shard. “Wow, it’s... still moving,” Twilight said as her ears splayed back.

“Hmm, that it is,” Discord said shortly before he vanished. Twilight caught a quick flash of light near the dragon’s head, and so followed with a teleport to appear there with Discord. Standing that close to the crystal behemoth showed her just how enormous the creature really was. Laid out on the street, it easily spanned over a city block in length, and its chest was still higher than most of the roofs. And even though it was helplessly pinned to the ground, it was still managing to cause plenty of destruction as its tail lashed into a row of buildings down the street.

Discord walked up to what used to be the dragon’s head, but was now mostly just shattered remains that had fused with the crystal shard. He tapped a claw a few times here and there on the shard, an ear turned to the side as he listen to the sound. He finally nodded, and brought out his mallet once more as he stepped back a couple steps. Lifting the mallet above his head, he let out a loud yell as he brought the mallet down with what appeared to be all the strength he could muster. However, he stopped just short of actually hitting the crystal, the mallet head barely a body length away from its intended target. Instead of striking the crystal, the end of the mallet fell open like a mailbox lid, and a puppet in Discord’s likeness clambered out. It wobbly lifted a tiny replica of Discord’s mallet in its hands, and then struck the crystal making a quiet tink sound before it scampered back into the mallet head, which then slammed shut behind it.

Seeming satisfied, Discord slung his mallet over his shoulder and began to walk away. As he was walking past Twilight, he said, “You may want to step back,” right before he vanished. Twilight’s ears twitched toward the dragon when she picked up on a cracking sound, and then she saw the spiderweb of fine lines spreading out across the crystal at an alarming rate. With a quick teleport, she moved herself to the roof of a nearby building where she could watch at a safer distance. In a matter of seconds, the entire crystal dragon crumbled into a giant pile of crystal shards.

“Well, that was effective.”

Discord appeared in a flash standing beside Twilight. “Yes, but as much fun as I’m having smashing things down here, these things will keep coming unless we do something about the source,” he said as he pointed a talon skyward. As if on cue, a red flash of lightning struck the ground nearby, kicking up a large debris cloud. Discord let out a sigh as he rolled his eyes, dryly saying, “Just like that.”

Twilight furrowed her brow as she watched the newest titan stand to its full height, towering over the buildings around itself. This latest one appeared to have taken the form of a minotaur. “Well we can’t just let these things run around and destroy the city. We have to do something about them first,” she said as she began to charge her staff with her power. However, she stopped when Discord laid his paw against her shoulder.

“I think Loony and Sunny have claimed this one,” he said as he pointed a talon, directing Twilight’s sight to the nearby sky. She squinted slightly as her pegasus sight sharpened so she could clearly see both Luna and Celestia flying side by side as they charged the titan. Together, they both began to take shots at the enormous beast as it swung its wide open palms at them in an attempt to swat them from the sky. At one point, the two sisters both backed away, and as they did the titan leaned forward and gripped a nearby building in both hands. With a rumbling growl, it uprooted the building, foundation and all, and lifted it above its head before hurtling it toward the two sisters.

The two sisters stayed close to one another, and just as it seemed the building was about to collide with them both, a shining length of chain shot out and wrapped around the entire building. Both sisters grasped the chain with their magic, and using themselves as an anchor point, they swung the building about themselves in a circle and then released it, sending it on a return course. The building slammed into the titan and exploded into a shower of debris, causing the titan to stumble backwards.

Celestia and Luna quickly pressed their advantage as they prepared their next attack. Luna flew a short distance away, and as she did Celestia tossed the end of Sunray to her. The chain wrapped itself around the handle of Fallen Star, and then pulled tight. Just as the titan was beginning to shrug off the first strike, Celestia put her strength behind Sunray, causing a loud snapping sound to lash the air as she cracked it like a whip. The motion sent Fallen Star streaking toward the titan, slicing the air with a blur of midnight blue. The titan’s right shoulder exploded when the weapon struck it, sending the titan staggering backwards yet again as its disembodied arm fell to the ground and shattered.

Discord let out a light chuckle. “I think they’ve got it.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Twilight said. She turned her gaze up to Discord, who was glancing back down to her out of the corner of his eye. “Okay, lets go deal with Chrystallyn then.”

Discord glanced upward at the spire, a sinister looking grin twisted his muzzle. “Music to my ears,” he said as he rubbed the palms of his hands together.

“Discord,” Twilight said sternly, which got his attention back. He raised a questioning eyebrow to her. “I know you want to get even with her after what she’s done to you, and honestly, I don’t blame you. But I will not allow you to do something rash and make the situation worse than it already is.” The two of them silently stared at one another for a few seconds longer before Twilight’s expression softened slightly. “At least give me a moment to assess the situation when we get there before you attack her.”

Discord seemed to consider the request as he ran his talons over the full length of his goatee to the tip, twirling it a few times around a single talon before letting it go. He then turned to Twilight, and took a deep bow, glancing up to her as he said, “As you wish, Princess.”

Meanwhile, near the southern borders of the city, the Nightguard pegasi stood poised along rooftops while changelings donning Crystal Guard disguises galloped to and from a semi transparent light blue dome as they led crystal ponies to safety. The protective shield encompassed just over a city block, with the entrance to the underground staging area near its center. The shield overlapped with a nearby street, which provided those standing within with a clear vantage point of the battle going on near the spire.

Rainbow stood ahead of most of the group near the edge of the shield. She watched silently, her sight following the fight between the two sisters and the titan that they were currently picking to pieces. She glanced to her side when she noticed Sombra walking up to stand next to her to watch the battle as well, and a question came to mind. “Why is she sending these things to tear up the city?”

Sombra didn’t answer right away. Instead, he quietly watched as the crystal titan and the princesses clashed with one another in the distance for a moment longer. “This isn’t Chrystallyn’s will,” he finally said as his eyes trailed up toward the top of the shattered spire. “I saw it in her eyes. She’s made her choice. She’s given in to what it wants.”

Rainbow wasn’t entirely sure what Sombra meant by ‘it’, but knew that she didn’t like the sound of it all the same. Whoever or whatever it was that was causing this wasn’t holding anything back, and unless things changed soon the entire city was going to end up as a demolished heap of crystal shards.

A bright red flash drew her eyes upward just in time see another lightning bolt arcing from the spire. Unlike the strikes before it, this one forked over and over, splitting into hundreds of tiny trails of lighting, and then struck only a few blocks away. The teeth rattling crash caused her to cringe, her ears splaying back against her head from the loud noise that had assaulted them. “...Whoa,” she said, backing away a few steps from the edge of the shield as a few crystal fragments fell from the sky and bounced against it.

Seconds afterwards, a call sounded out from the pegasi perched along the rooftops, their shouts relaying a message that something was incoming. The Nightguard began to take to the sky, putting themselves between the strike zone and the shield. Rainbow squinted when she noticed something glimmering in the sky past them. At first, it appeared like more shards of crystal debris, but she quickly noticed that it was rising into the air, not falling. Her ears twitched as they picked up on a buzzing sound that was getting louder.

Within seconds, the first of the flying crystal creatures began to clash with the Nightguard. The blunt spears proved effective enough with a well placed strike against the crystal creatures as the Nightguard quickly began to swat them out of the sky. However, they were far more numerous than the pegasi.

“Are those... bugs?” Rainbow asked. The flying creatures seemed to resemble something like a wasp, but were nearly half as large as a pony. Despite how menacing they appeared, their delicate crystal wings were proving to be their literal downfall, as any contact from the Nightguard spears shattered them and sent the creatures plummeting to the ground. While each Nightguard was easily fending off any would be attackers, not all of the crystal wasps were focusing on them. Some had begun to bypass the guards. Rainbow’s ears twitched again as she heard screaming come from down the street, and there she saw a crystal mare galloping toward the shield as fast as her hooves could take her. A group of the crystal wasps had honed in on the mare and were quickly diving in toward her. “Hey, she needs help!” Rainbow called out, looking back to the group within the shield, but no one immediately reacted. All of the guards were currently either airborne fighting the swarm or elsewhere searching the city.

Rainbow quickly spun on her hooves and launched herself into the sky, leaving a ripple cascading across the shield as she exited it. She kept to a low altitude, slipping through the air just below the roof tops as she quickly closed the distance between herself and the mare. The crystal wasps had caught up with the mare, and she was now backpedaling as she furiously kicked her forelegs trying to fend them off. Rainbow fanned her wings out just before she arrived, allowing her hind legs to swing out underneath herself in front of her. She came down on two of the crystal wasps with her hind legs as she landed, sending their broken remains scattering down the street as she skidded sideways to a halt. She then quickly sprung back into the air and over the mare again as she hit the remaining two with her out stretched forelegs, knocking them both to the ground. One of them fell to the street just at her hooves where she landed, its broken body twitching for a couple seconds before Rainbow brought her forehoof down on it to shatter it.

“They break easy enough,” Rainbow said before turning around. “You alright?” she asked as she quickly trotted up to the mare. The mare timidly sat upright from where she had crouched down on the street, quickly looking about. She then reached a forehoof across to her shoulder toward her mane. It was then that Rainbow noticed the little foal peaking out from underneath.

“W-we’re fine, thanks to you,” the mare said as she managed to stand on her shaking hooves.

“Well, get to the shield, I’ll make sure they don’t follow you.”

The mare gave Rainbow a grateful smile and a thank you as she took off toward the safety of the shield. Rainbow watched after the mare and her foal for a moment, and then her ears flicked back when they picked up on buzzing that was quickly growing louder. On reflex, she flapped her wings and twisted into the air to face her opponents, but was taken a bit off guard when she came face to face with more than a dozen wasps that were closing in on her. Giving her wings another powerful flap, she began to dart off to one side, but found that direction cut off as well. She quickly glanced around herself, finding far too many wasps to count coming at her from all directions but one, below.

Quickly diving downward, Rainbow skimmed within touching distance of the crystal street as she attempted to get under the swarm that was surrounding her. She could see the shield just ahead, but just when she was less than a city block away from reaching it, one of the crystal wasps flew right into her path. Her forehooves batted it away, but the strike threw her off course just enough to clip a wing tip against the ground. Quickly spinning onto her back, she closed her wings tight and tucked her legs against her barrel to avoid injuring them. She skidded to a stop on the street on her back, gritting her teeth and letting out a growl from the rough backwards landing. Many of the wasps descended upon her only seconds later, leaving her flailing her hooves in the air in an attempt to keep them at bay.

“Rainbow! Hold still!” Rarity’s voice screamed from nearby. Rainbow tucked her forelegs against her chest just as many high speed projectiles whistled through the air, striking down most of the wasps that were closest to her. She twisted her neck up to look toward the shield, and she could see Rarity with her magic lit as she sent a hail of small crystal shards flying into the sky at the wasps.

At the same time, Applejack galloped out and skidded to a stop right next to Rainbow’s side, holding a forehoof out as she yelled, “Come on!” Rainbow hooked her fetlock against Applejack’s, and was quickly pulled up to her hooves. The two of them took off toward the shield, heads ducked low as Rarity’s shards whistled through the air just above them. And then something else launched from within the dome with a loud, exploding pop. It exited the shield and arced wobbly through the sky, and whatever it was, it did a good job of clearing the area as every single wasp that came in contact with the goop dropped to the ground with a wet splat behind them.

Rainbow and Applejack rushed into the safety of the shield, quickly followed by Rarity as she joined them. The swarm was right behind them, and the shield rippled as many of the wasps crashed into it. Even more began to land on the shield’s surface, crawling across it as they searched for a way past.

“Whoa, those things came out of nowhere,” Rainbow said as she sat down to catch her breath. She flinched when another loud pop sent a glob arcing over her head, and she looked back to its source to see Pinkie hastily lifting a mixing bowl to empty its contents into a light blue cannon. “Uh, what are you shooting at them?” Rainbow asked as she glanced back out at the goop coated wasps squirming around on the street.

“Crystal cake mix!” Pinkie declared as she rushed around to the back of the cannon. She held on to the cannon with both forelegs to aim it, and with another loud pop, it launched another glob of gooey cake mix through the sky.

“...Where did you get something like that?” Rainbow asked as she watched Pinkie snatch another mixing bowl from nearby.

“Right over there,” Pinkie said as she quickly pointed a hoof across the street at a building. The sign hanging outside had the words ‘Crystal Confections’ clearly printed across it.

Rainbow blink-blinked at the sign, then turned her head to lean in close to Applejack to quietly ask, “Should I ask about the cannon?”

“I wouldn’t,” Applejack said with a quick shake of her head.

“Is everypony alright?” Cadance asked, trotting up next to the group. Her brow furrowed slightly as her eyes fell upon Rainbow. “That was dangerous. You should stay under the shield. Let the guards handle helping the crystal ponies.”

Rainbow sat back on her haunches, crossing her forelegs across her chest and letting out an agitated snort. “Oh, so we’re supposed to just stand here and look pretty while everyone else is out risking their lives?”

Chrysalis walked up to join the group. She looked out to the battle taking place just on the other side of shield, squinting her eyes as she gazed off into the distance. “Our part may be coming up sooner than you know,” she said, drawing the group’s attention to her. She motioned a forehoof forward as she said, “Look there.”

At first glance, there appeared to be a red cloud rising in the distance, one that was spreading the higher it rose into the sky. It shimmered under the light of the sun as it drew closer to them. As the air filled with the dull roar of a buzzing noise, it quickly became obvious to everyone that this cloud was actually thousands more of the crystal wasps.

Pinkie whimpered, her worried glance looking back to her cannon and then to the rest of the group around her. “I... don’t think I have enough cake mix for this,” she said as her ears splayed back.

“Retreat to the shield!” The call went out from the pegasi as they echoed the command. Seconds later, the shield rippled as the Nightguard dove through it to safety, only moments before the front edge of the enormous swarm reached it. The red crystal insects began to cover the shield’s surface, their sharp appendages, jaws, and stingers working to pry a way through. Cadance redoubled her efforts to stabilize the shield as it began to crackle against the strain being put against it.

“Alright, gather up,” Chrysalis said as she took a step forward, calling the rest of the Element bearers to step up at her side. They faced the side of the shield that the swarm was attacking shoulder to shoulder as they looked upon the solid wall of dark red insects. “Let’s hope our power is enough to cleanse this dark magic.”

Chrysalis began the spell, calling forth her power to activate her Element, and in turn, the rest of the sister Elements. A glowing band of power was drawn forth from each of the six Elements, each band matching each Element’s natural color, and they all flowed into a rainbow orb that began to form just in front of her. The orb grew in size as they channeled the spell, becoming larger than Chrysalis herself. With the spell nearly complete, she grit her teeth just before she put one final push of power behind it, sending it hurtling forward.

When the orb struck the wasps, it exploded into an expanding sphere of bright lights. It washed over everything in all directions for quite a distance. The crystal wasps that were touched by the light almost instantly dropped from the sky, their bodies shifting from deep glowing red to a passive pale blue. The sounds of thousands of crystal shards shattering in a cascading wave down the street filled the air for many seconds before it died down.

“Wow!” Rainbow said, flapping her wings as she reared back. “Did you see that! Why aren’t we going around the city using that?” she said as she excitedly pointed at the street full of shattered crystal shards. However, just as she looked back to the group, her excited grin fell from her face as her forehooves clomped back to the ground. The rest of her friends were busy hovering around Chrysalis, who had collapsed and was gasping heavily for air. “Oh,” she said quietly, her ears slowly folding back.

“Are you alright?” Fluttershy asked. She held her forehooves around Chrysalis, gently easing her to sit up.

“I’ll be fine. I just need a moment, I think,” Chrysalis said. She winced, clenching her eyes tightly closed as she drew in a hiss of air. Her eyes fluttered open again seconds later, and she looked to her side to give Fluttershy a weary smile as she said, “Thank you.”

“Hold on,” Rarity said as she sat close to Chrysalis’s other side. “Don’t changelings have to replenish their magic from others around them?”

Chrysalis glanced to Rarity for a moment, and then let out an exhausted sigh as she turned her gaze downward. “If you’re speaking of our ability to draw power from emotions... yes, we do. Without emotional energy, we eventually run out of magic with no other way to recover.” Casting just two spells with the Elements was all it had taken to bring Chrysalis close to her limit. A third time might still be possible, but beyond that, likely not. Her eyes glanced up, quickly looking to the group around her. They all had various contemplative looks as they quietly looked to one another. “I know what you’re all thinking, but it wouldn’t work in the long run. Siphoning energy from the rest of you doesn’t create any more, it just transfers it and leaves the rest of you drained that much quicker. I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Rainbow scratched a hoof through her mane as an annoyed grumble escaped from her. “There’s gotta be something we can do,” she mumbled.

“Uh,” Applejack said as she sat up taller, looking off in the distance. “I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but I think we might need to do that again, quick like,” she said as she pointed toward the street.

Just like before, the sky was clouded with shimmering red as a large swarm of the crystal wasps closed in, their numbers appearing just as vast as before. While the power of the Elements had purified the dark magic within its reach, the source was somewhere beyond that. Chrysalis glanced to her sides, seeing the rest of the bearers readying themselves to cast the spell again, but she knew that would only buy them a short amount of time before the next wave. Their next move had to reach further somehow.

Chrysalis spared a short moment to consider a thought, and then stood to quickly trot back toward the center of the shield. “Casting the spell again would be wasted effort. I have another idea,” she said as she stopped momentarily beside Cadance. “We need to retreat to the chamber below.”

Cadance’s mouth hung agape for a moment as words seemed to escape her. She finally shook her head furiously as she said, “We can’t give up this location!”

“I don’t plan to, not permanently.” Chrysalis cast a determined looked back over her shoulder at the approaching swarm as she said, “I aim to take the entire city back.”

Twilight skimmed along the side of the spire, flapping her wings forcefully as she made her vertical climb to the top. She passed just by the edge of the spire’s shattered platform on her way up, stopping to come to a hover just above. From there, she surveyed the damaged platform that had once been the spire’s upper throne room. The only resemblance to the room it once was were the broken bases of the columns that encircled what remained of the snowflake like pattern etched into the floor. The rest of the crystal room had been swept away in the explosion, and many deep cracks snaked across the platform from the hole in the center. Speckled here and there were glowing red crystal growths jutting out of the floor and columns that looked much like the larger growths that had appeared on the sides of the spire. They gave off a reddish glow over the area that flickered with occasional arcs of dark energy that jumped between them.

Somehow, two things had miraculously survived the explosion. The Crystal Heart hovered just over the hole in the center of the platform, and not far from it, Twilight spotted Chrystallyn’s form laying prone on the platform. She quickly angled her wings to dive toward a landing nearby, her hooves clacking in a quick pattern as she touched down and came to a stop. Her wings slowly closed to her sides as she stared across the platform at Chrystallyn’s still form. Chrystallyn’s mane had darkened to a blood red color, and the fur around her eyes, mouth, and near the base of her horn had all become blackened as if it had been burned. Twilight wondered for a moment if Chrystallyn were even still alive, curious as to how the amulet’s dark power was still active without the will of its host. At least part of her curiosity was answered shortly afterward when she felt a charge in the air at the same time that the amulet on Chrystallyn’s chest flashed. Chrystallyn’s body tensed as ripples of power flowed from her and then skittered out across the platform to the surrounding crystals. The power gathered together within one of the larger crystal growths jutting out of the side of the platform, and then arced as a bolt of red lightning southward to the city down below. Chrystallyn’s power was still being magnified by the amulet somehow, but it was questionable as to whether it was still within her control.

“Well! This makes it easy,” Discord said after he floated down to land next to Twilight. He casually strolled up to where Chrystallyn laid on the platform, and began to bend over to grab the amulet.

“Discord, wait—” Twilight was cut off when an arc of power shot out and blew Discord back just as the tip of his talon came in contact with the amulet. Twilight cringed as he slammed into one of the broken columns and stuck to it for a second before sliding down to the floor. He laid slumped there with his back against the column, slowly blinking as his blank expression stared forward.

“Ow?” he finally said before sitting up. He seemed confused as to why his power hadn’t been able to pluck the amulet from Chrystallyn’s neck. He shook the hand that had taken the brunt of the shock as he stood up and walked to Twilight’s side. He seemed more annoyed than harmed, but then Twilight noticed the sudden raise in one of his eyebrows and glanced over to where he was looking.

Chrystallyn was awake. She was shakily propping herself up with her forehooves, gritting her teeth together and clenching her eyes tightly closed. She appeared exhausted, but yet at the same time, Twilight could feel the barely contained power radiating from her. Chrystallyn’s power fluctuated wildly as the amulet amplified and twisted it, and it was a wonder that she was able to keep it under control at all as small surges of the power managed to escape her and arc to the nearby crystals. Her eyes finally opened, and she glanced over Discord and Twilight with a seething glare. “You can’t touch me,” she growled.

Discord tapped a talon against his pursed lips a few times as he let out a curious hum in response. “Well, I suppose you’re right. In that case,” he suddenly vanished only to reappear a step from Chrystallyn. Her eyes quickly flicked up to meet his for a few tense seconds, and then suddenly, Discord pointed a single talon at her face, the tip coming as close as a hair’s width from touching her nose. Chrystallyn flinched slightly at the sudden movement, her eyes focusing on the talon for a short second before her confused glance looked back to his eyes.

Discord grinned widely, and then slowly and quietly said, “I’m not touching you.”

The muscles in Chrystallyn’s jaw flexed as she ground her teeth together, and she struck out at his hand with a foreleg to bat it away. However, Discord quickly pulled his hand back just long enough to avoid her, and went right back to pointing it at her nose as he sung, “Still not touching you.” Chrystallyn growled as she swiped at him again, and again and again, but every attempt was met with the same result. Discord continued his annoying assault, even going as far as sprouting extra arms and pointing a dozen fingers uncomfortably close to her face as Chrystallyn vigorously tried to swat them away. She finally lit her horn and took a shot at Discord’s face with a blast of magic, but he merely pulled his head back into his chest much like a turtle to dodge the shot before popping back out and shouting, “Oh! Not touching you not touching you not touching you!”

Twilight wasn't exactly sure what to make of Discord’s approach, but it was keeping Chrystallyn distracted for the moment. She flinched when she noticed something on her shoulder, quickly glancing there to find a tiny Discord sitting there. “Now would be a good time to blast her with something,” he said with a solemn nod as he watched his full size self taking on the angered alicorn.

Twilight glanced quickly back and forth between the fight and the tiny Discord. “I can’t just blast her. Can’t you feel the unstable energy in the air?”

“Oh yes, it tingles,” he said as a shiver made its way through his tiny body.

Twilight frowned at him. “Discord, be serious for just one second.”

The tiny Discord glanced up to her with a rather serious look, at least for a second, before he grinned and said, “Second’s up.” He very quickly threw his hands up when Twilight glared down at him, saying, “Oh fine. Yes yes, you have a point, and it’s not just the one coming out of your forehead. But how else are we going to get that thing off her? She has it protected somehow.”

“I’m thinking,” Twilight said as she momentarily closed her eyes.

“Duck.”

“Huh?” Twilight said as she looked back to the tiny Discord, who for some reason now looked like a little duckling version of himself. For a split second, she felt a spike of rage within her, but before she could act on it and berate Discord for his behavior, he reached up and clamped his bill down hard on her ear. She let out a cry as Discord yanked on her ear hard, somehow pulling her down to the ground just as a bright bolt of red power shot over her and obliterated what was left of the column behind her. Twilight glanced back at the smoking remains of the column in shock for a moment before turning her attention forward to the fight going on near the center of the platform.

The little duckling Discord padded over next to her face, and he shook an accusing primary feather at the tip of her nose as he said, “You may want to pay more attention to the crazy alicorn slinging spells all over the place.”

“Right, okay,” Twilight said as she stood, turning her full attention to the fight before her and summoning Dusk to her side. She mentally prepped her spells just in case she would need to quickly guard against another blast, and then took a moment to consider her options. With as unstable as the power in the area was, even her own magic might react violently if she wasn’t careful with it. She couldn’t just unload everything on Chrystallyn without risking some sort of feedback from the amulet, and she had doubts that her power, even augmented with Dusk, would be enough to overpower Chrystallyn and the amulet in a direct confrontation. Their only option was to separate the two somehow. Discord had the ability to bypass the amulet’s protection and remove it, provided that he could actually touch it. “I think I have an idea. If I can disrupt her defenses just long enough so you can touch her, do you think you can get the amulet off in time?”

The duckling Discord waddled on his feet as he turned to face the fight. He seemed to consider the idea for a moment as he ran his primary feather under his bill, and then he grinned in a way that ducklings probably weren’t supposed to be able to as he said, “Definitely worth a try,” before vanishing in a puff of multi-colored feathers.

Twilight quickly chose a subtle scanning spell, focusing her attention on Chrystallyn. Her magic reached out as she tried to contact the surface of the amulet to read the protections that had been placed upon it. She cautiously weaved the spell through the space around Chrystallyn and Discord as their battle continued, trying to keep the force to a minimum to avoid drawing attention.

It didn’t work. The very moment her spell lightly touched the surface of the amulet, Chrystallyn froze in place, bringing her fight with Discord to a sudden standstill. Her head slowly turned to the side, her wide eyed piercing glare finding Twilight across the platform. So much for not being noticed, Twilight thought.

Before she could get much from the scanning spell, Twilight found herself having to quickly teleport to dodge the first blast directed at her. She came out of the teleport only steps away from the scorch mark where Chrystallyn’s power had scoured the platform. She immediately waved her staff in front of herself, creating a wave of force that met with a torrent of crystal shards that Chrystallyn had sent at her. The shards were blown aside, pelting the area to her left and leaving a trail of razor sharp shards embedded in the floor. She brought Dusk back across as she fed a burst of her power through it, sending another shockwave across the platform to strike Chrystallyn, but the strike barely even staggered her.

Twilight quickly found herself on the defensive again, having to teleport a few times in rapid succession to dodge arcs of red lightning. Between teleports, a tiny Discord appeared in a flash riding upon her shoulder once again. “Any time now,” he quipped. Twilight lept into the air with a power flap of her wings to avoid a bolt of magic, and then quickly teleported to the side to avoid the next. She appeared on the platform, skidding to the side as her magic charged her staff again. She managed to project another force wave just in time to deflect the next bolt of magic aimed at her. Discord sighed and then asked, “Am I going to have to distract her again?”

“That’d be” — Twilight teleported into the sky directly above Chrystallyn — “nice!” She directed a thrust with her staff downward, projecting a force wave that slammed into the platform where Chrystallyn stood and engulfed the area in a cloud of dust. A few tense seconds ticked by, and then the dust cloud parted as a blast of bright red light tore through it. Twilight managed to barely avoid the blast, quickly dodging to the side with a quick thrust from her wings.

“Alright, but be ready,” Discord said right before he vanished from her shoulder. Back on the platform, Chrystallyn was lining up her next attack when her attention was suddenly drawn to her side. Discord appeared next to her in a bright flash, and after drawing in a deep breath, he brought his hands up, stuck his thumbs in his ears, and wiggled his fingers as he blew the loudest rasbury at her he could manage. His tongue even took the shape of a rainbow colored party horn as it rolled out and tweeted loudly in Chrystallyn’s face.

The effect was immediate, as Chrystallyn shifted her focus to him and cast the bolt of power she had been charging in his direction instead. Discord vanished in a flash to avoid the shot, and it sailed forward across the platform into the center. The shot collided directly with the Crystal Heart, and in a sharp burst of sound and light, it shattered.

The fight came to a sudden halt. Twilight drew in a quick gasp, and the only other sound was that of the Heart’s remains clattering as they scattered around the platform. Chrystallyn stood frozen in place, a horrified look on her face as she stared blankly forward at the now empty spot at the center of the platform. Twilight allowed herself to glide back down to the platform where she lightly touched down across from Chrystallyn, and only a second later Discord appeared in a flash by her side. He drew his hands up together in front of his chest, taping his fingers together and cringing nervously as he said, “...Oops?”

One of the the shards of the Heart came to a stop as it spun and rolled up against Chrystallyn’s hoof. She slowly turned her gaze down to it, and stared at it with tearful eyes as she watched the remaining light within fade and blink out. She drew in a heavy breath as she collapsed to the ground and cradled the shard in her hooves, and then let out a painfully sad wail.

Twilight found herself suddenly at a loss as to what to do. Her own ears fell back and tears began to build up in her eyes as she listened to Chrystallyn’s mournful crying, and the battle between them was momentarily forgotten. Chrystallyn remained there for some time, sobbing into her forelegs and cradling the broken shard, until she finally lifted her head and glanced across the platform. Twilight saw nothing but a deep sadness in Chrystallyn’s eyes looking back at her. “I’m so sorry,” Twilight finally said quietly. The silence lingered there between them afterward, only broken by the sobs that escaped from Chrystallyn.

Chrystallyn slowly lowered her head, her eyes slowly clenching closed and her forelegs drawing inward to her chest tightly. A quiet whimper escaped her as her body shook and she grit her teeth, and then suddenly she rose to her hooves as she drew in a long, hissing breath through her clenched teeth.

Twilight felt the surge of magical power only a split second before Chrystallyn released it. The torrent of power covered an area wider than the remaining platform, and Twilight only just managed to use Dusk to bring forth a shield in time to keep from being swept away as it crashed over her. Her sight was overwhelmed by bright red and her ears assaulted by the loud roar of the power crashing against her shield and tearing at the air around her. Even with the shield guarding her, it was like trying to stand against the full force of a hurricane. The platform all around her began to rip up and fly away in large chunks, and her hooves began to slip backwards as the force pushed her away toward the platform’s edge.

Just when it seemed Twilight could no longer hold against Chrystallyn’s power, Discord’s taloned hand reached out over her and grasped Dusk. Twilight wrapped her forelegs around the staff, holding on tight while Discord held his free hand out toward the incoming blast of power to hold it at bay. The red torrent of power split around his hand, creating just a small pocket of safe space for both himself and Twilight to huddle in as they rode out Chrystallyn’s spell blast.

Finally, the spell ceased. The bright light faded out and the roaring sound stopped. Discord shook his lion paw and vigorously blew on it as a trail of smoke rose from it. Twilight sat upright as she looked about at the platform. On either side of her, deep ruts had been burned into the floor and charred pitch black, and some remaining embers scattered about the platform still glowed bright orange. Twilight glanced behind her to where the spell blast had been directed, and she felt a wave of panic grip her when she found where it had hit. The peak of a nearby mountain had been completed obliterated in the blast, leaving a gouged out scorch mark that could easily cover the area of a small city.

Twilight’s gaze quickly turned back when she heard a cough from across the platform. Chrystallyn had collapsed to the floor, her sides heaving heavily as she drew in wheezing breaths. She forced herself to stand, nearly collapsing again when she retched and then spat a mouth full of blood onto the floor before her. Her head hung low to the floor as she glared across the scorched platform at Twilight and Discord while a trail of blood dribbled from her nostrils and mouth. The amulet around her neck pulsed, and a wave of red lightning skittered across her body causing her to momentarily cringe and squeeze her eyes tightly shut. When her eyes opened again, they glowed red.

Twilight could feel another surge of power starting to build from Chrystallyn. “Don’t! You’ll kill yourself!” she screamed across the platform, but her plea went ignored as Chrystallyn slowly rose her head and gathered her power. Twilight glanced over her shoulder to the city down below, and then looked back forward as she quickly stood. She couldn’t allow Chrystallyn to hit the city, so she stood her ground as she brought Dusk out before her, preparing to guard herself against the blast once again.

However, before Chrystallyn could cast her spell, a sudden quake struck the tower, knocking everyone off balance.

“Alright, that should stop them for a minute,” Spike said as he turned away from the collapsed tunnel and made his way down the stairs. They had all retreated underground to the staging area, and after every last pony had made it through, he had used his dragon breath to superheat the rocks at the end of the tunnel, melting them into a slag that quickly hardened and sealed the exit.

“They won’t give up,” Chrysalis said. She made her way toward the central platform, looking up to the giant focus crystal that hung over it. As she approached the platform, she blinked her eyes when a sudden bout of dizziness overtook her. Her hooves suddenly felt like they were carrying lead weights, and then the room spun about wildly before coming to an abrupt stop. A high pitched ringing whined in her ears, and she felt a stinging pain on the side of her head. She realized that she was staring out across the floor that she was now laying on.

A few frightened and concerned faces appeared before her. They were asking her something, but she couldn’t make out what it was. Her body was numb to their touch as they reached out to her.

She felt tired, too tired to even fight the urge to close her eyes. Her eyelids slowly closed, and the distant muffled voices of those around her ceased.

Everything was dark and quiet.

“Chrys... Chrys... Chrys!”

Chrysalis’s eyes shot open. She knew that voice. She rolled off her side, groaning as she righted herself and felt a throbbing in her head. She looked to her side and saw the one she had heard. It was Twilight, her Twilight, but that couldn’t be possible. She was trapped within the hive mind. “How are you here?” she asked, but then she took notice of the rest of her surroundings. It was the familiar endless grey of the mind scape within the hive mind. “Oh no...,” she said in a ghostly whisper as she closed her eyes.

Twilight quickly cantered the last few steps between them and rested her forehooves upon Chrysalis’s foreleg as she pushed herself up to stand closer face to face. “Chrys! You have to go back. They need you!” she said with a pleading look in her eyes.

Chrysalis looked sadly to the young unicorn. She barely shook her head as she said, “I’m... not sure I have the strength to any more.”

“Of course you do!” Twilight said, but her ears splayed back when Chrysalis only averted her gaze. “You protected the Element of Magic for years. You never gave up.” Tears started to build up at the edge of her eyes as she quietly asked, “Why are you giving up now?”

“It was different back then.”

Twilight slowly lowered herself, leaving her forehooves hooked just over Chrysalis’s foreleg as she rest her chin there. “You’re really just going to give up?”

Chrysalis looked down to Twilight. She felt a twinge of guilt at the sight of the disappointed filly staring back up at her with teary eyes. “I don’t want to give up. I don’t want her to win. I don’t want her to be... what I’m remembered as... but how can I fight it when I have nothing left to fight back with?” Chrysalis blinked her eyes, sending a tear trail rolling down her cheek. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have a choice.”

Twilight silently stared up at her for a moment, and then with a sniffle she pushed herself back up to stand. “There’s always a choice, and I’m choosing to believe in you.” She pushed herself up further, standing on her back legs with her forehooves steadied against Chrysalis’s shoulder. She leaned in close to Chrysalis’s face until they were so close their horns nearly touched. “You taught me to never give up, and now I’m going to teach you the same thing,” she said as her horn glowed with a brilliant magenta light.

A light blue shield now covered the platform and a small area around it in the middle of the underground staging area. The shield crackled against the onslaught of attacks from the hundreds of crystal insects that had burrowed their way into the chamber moments earlier. Cadance and Moondancer stood side by side, pouring their power into the shield to keep it in one piece, and even the disguised changelings among their group were lending their power to bolster the shield as much as they could. Those who couldn’t help by adding magic to the shield were doing what they could to beat back the crystal insects as much as possible, attacking through the shield to swat them away. However, there was still a limit to how long the casters would be able to sustain such a demanding power draw.

Already, a few of the changelings had collapsed from exhaustion, their disguises dropping as they flopped to a heap on the ground. The Nightguard continued to furiously attack the insects by thrusting spears through the shield, but for every dozen insects destroyed another dozen quickly replaced them. There was only so much one could do before exhaustion began to set in.

Even Spike’s dragon fire, which could nearly clear a quarter of the shield at once, seemed to do little to stem the tide. “Why... is there... so many,” he said through heavy breaths. He tried to take another deep breath in, but ended up letting out a wheezing cough instead of a blast of fire.

Applejack bucked her back legs out at the shield, shattering a group of the insects, but the patch she had cleared was quickly covered over again. “These damned things sure are persistent!” she said as she hit them again as she had already done a seemingly countless number of times.

The shield over them began to show signs of distress as more and more of the changelings could no longer keep up with demand of magical power. Even Moondancer eventually wavered and collapsed, falling back on her haunches. She pulled her helm from her head and cast it aside, gasping for breath as beads of sweat dripped from her fur and mane.

The shield let out a loud cracking sound, causing everyone underneath it to back away toward the center. Just as it seemed the shield was about to fail, it shrank down, collapsing inward toward the center of the staging area by many body lengths before holding steady once again. Cadance let out a cry of pain as white sparks jumped from her horn and landed all around her. “I-I can’t keep this up!” She looked to her side, easily seeing the exhaustion that was weighing heavy on everyone. They were all but beaten, and all that stood between the crystal insects and them was her own power now. Her eyes darted around as her mind raced to think of some way out, her sight finally coming to rest on the platform just behind them. She looked back to Moondancer as she asked, “How many can we send through the platform?”

Moondancer glanced about the room. Many scared crystal ponies were huddled together around the base of the platform, and a number of changelings and most of the Nightguard pegasi were strung out around the staging area. Most of the bearers were also mingled in among the guards, doing what they could to help push back the endless tide of insects, all except Fluttershy who was only a few steps behind them where she was watching over Chrysalis. Forming a quick guesstimate in her mind, Moondancer shook her head as she said, “Not everyone.”

Cadance cringed, her entire body shaking from the mental exertion she was having to put forth to hold the shield. “J-just send as many as you can. Go!”

Moondancer got to her hooves, quickly making her way toward the platform. Just as she was walking by, Fluttershy reached a hoof out to catch her. “Wait, not yet! I think she’s waking up,” she said as she leaned in closer to Chrysalis. There at their hooves, Chrysalis was beginning to stir as she drew her legs up close to her body.

Moondancer glanced back to Cadance, their eyes meeting just briefly. Cadance gave a quick nod in answer before turning her full attention back to the shield, and Moondancer knelt down next to where Chrysalis was gathering herself back up. “You back with us?” she asked as she reached a hoof out and rest it on Chrysalis’s shoulder. Chrysalis blinked her eyes, holding a hoof against the side of her head for a moment before she seemed to realize she had been asked a question. She nodded quickly in response and then pushed herself to sit upright. “Good. We could really use a miracle right about now.”

Chrysalis glanced about the staging area, quickly taking in the bleak situation they were now in. “One more try then,” she said as she quickly stood to her full height. She called out to the rest of the bearers as she made her way to the center of the platform, stopping to stand just underneath the focus crystal hanging above. The other five bearers made their way to her, gathering around her in a tight circle. “Just like before, but this is going to be quite a bit more demanding,” she said to them before glancing up. The five bearers all closed their eyes, preparing themselves to lend their power through each of their Elements. Chrysalis began to focus on the purifying spell once again, and her horn came alive with a greenish glow. However, within seconds of starting the spell her face already showed strain as she struggled to put forth enough of her own power to begin the spell. The seconds came and went, the light upon her horn dimming periodically, but without being able to give enough of her power to Magic, the rest of the Elements refused to activate.

Tears started to stream down the side of her face. Even though she refused to give up, the result was just as she had feared it would be. How could she possibly succeed when she had nothing more left to give?

...Don’t give up, Chrys...

Chrysalis’s eyes widened as she heard the voice echo in her mind. She felt something at that moment, deep within her own being. It was warm and comforting, something which she hadn’t felt in ages. She focused on that feeling, reaching her mind out to it, and touched it.

Chrysalis’s eye color flickered rapidly between her vibrant teal and a deep magenta. She drew in a heavy gasp as she felt a rush of power well up inside her, and then it all flowed forth at once. A trail of bright magenta power spiraled up her horn, mingling with her green aura and coming together to a bright white point at the tip. The six Elements all lit in union, answering her call as they bathed the room in a vibrant glow of rainbow of light. A swirling rainbow orb of pure magical power began to form just above them, growing as their power streamed from the Elements to it. It grew until it was nearly as wide around as the platform, and then it rose upward, passing through the shield on its way to the focus crystal above, nullifying the dark crystal insects that it touched on its way.

Once the orb of power came in contact with the crystal, it was drawn inward. The focus crystal began to glow brightly, its blue and purple facets shifting to become every color of the rainbow. And then, it released the Elements’ power, jarring the staging area with a powerful shockwave and creating an expanding sphere of colored light that passed through everything in all directions.

The quake that had struck the spire left it vibrating, making it difficult to stand at all, and it was getting worse. Twilight glanced to her side over the edge to the city below when she noticed something shimmering. A multi-colored dome of light was expanding across the city, centered just underneath the spire.

As the light grew and traveled up more and more of the spire, the dark crystals jutting from the sides of the spire began to react violently. Red lightning skittered across the spire’s surface, and the crystal growths began to explode, rocking the platform even further. As the power of the Elements grew closer and closer, the crystals surrounding the shattered platform began to arc dark energy back and forth. Twilight could feel the magic saturating the air around her as it seemed to all condense into the small space around the platform.

Twilight’s attention was drawn back to the center of the platform, her ears splaying back at a sudden, agonizing scream. There she found Chrystallyn caught in the center of multiple arcs of red arcane energy. She was locked in place as the dark power flowed into and over her body. The amulet upon her neck acted as a central conduit for the power, absorbing as much as it could to a single point.

Just as the power of the Elements was within reach of the upper spire, a surge of dark energy exploded from Chrystallyn, instantly encasing her and the area around her in solid red crystal. The blood red crystals grew from wherever the wave of dark energy touched as it rippled outward across the platform, quickly filling it with razor sharp edges. Before Twilight could react, she felt a hand grasp her left shoulder, and then felt the familiar sensation of a teleport as she was instantly pulled away. She flapped her wings to catch herself, finding herself now midair a short distance away from the upper spire.

Twilight glanced to her side when she felt the hand leave her shoulder, finding Discord hovering there next to her. “Thanks,” she said in a quick breath. The platform just below had filled with the crystals only a second after she had been pulled to safety.

“Don’t thank me quite yet,” Discord said. They both looked back down to the mass of crystals growing from the top of the spire. While at first the purifying power of the Elements had managed to cleanse the dark crystal taint from everything it had washed over, the crystals were now quickly growing back down the side of the spire. In a matter of seconds, the crystals had managed to encase the entire spire nearly all the way to the ground.

The four supports that held the spire upright all snapped at once, but instead of crashing to the ground the spire lifted into the sky above the city. The surface of the spire continued to twist and deform, becoming nothing like its original form. Arcs of power shot out to the city below, striking and grasping crystal buildings to uproot and pull them into the sky and into the giant crystal as it continued to grow in size.

Twilight’s eyes widened and she drew in a gasp as a memory flooded to the forefront of her mind. She had seen this exact moment before, and remembered feeling this enormous power. This giant crystal construct dominating the sky, and the surge of power building within it, were exactly like in her dream. She glanced down at her staff clutched tightly against her chest and realized that it had all come to pass just as she remembered, though she didn’t truly believe it would until just this moment.

Or, perhaps she had always believed her dream had been a warning all along on a subconscious level. After all, she had prepared herself to use that spell, just on the off chance that it became necessary.

“Twilight!” Luna’s voice called to her over the static and crackles of power carrying on the air. She looked to her side, seeing Luna and Celestia flying up to meet them. “We must go, now!” Luna said as the two sisters came to a hover right next to her.

Twilight looked from the sisters to her staff, and then out at the crystal. Time was running short, she could feel it. She still had a choice to make. She could choose to run, knowing full well that there was no where far enough to run to. She could choose to do nothing, knowing that she hadn’t the power to stop it. Or, she could choose to try something else, her final option.

“This is it,” she said quietly to herself. She glanced up to her left side to Discord, who was giving her a quizzical glance. She wasn’t sure if he had heard what she had said, but either way, he seemed to understand soon enough. Without another word, he looked to the two sisters, raised his talons, and let go a snap. All three of them vanished in a flash of light, leaving Twilight there on her own.

Twilight closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath before slowly letting it all out. When she opened her eyes again, they glowed with pure white light, and her horn lit with a bright magenta aura. She spread her wings wide at her sides as her magic held her aloft before the crystal, and she extended one forehoof forward, holding Dusk horizontal before herself in her magic as it began to shine with her power as well.

She narrowed her glowing eyes at the overwhelming crystal construct before her as she steeled herself and said, “Not this time.”

At the far end of the southern street, Discord, Celestia, and Luna appeared in a flash of white light. Discord looked up to the giant mass of crystal hovering in the sky, taking a few casual steps toward it as he crossed his arms.

It had taken a moment for the two sisters to regain their bearings after the sudden teleport, but Luna quickly trotted up to Discord’s side soon enough. “Where is Twilight?” she demanded, but Discord only solemnly stared forward, ignoring her. She fanned her wings out at her sides, stepping in front of him. “What have you done!?” she yelled as her horn crackled with her fury.

“I’ve gotten us out of her way,” Discord said, narrowing his eyes as he glanced down to her. “Look there,” he said as he pointed a taloned finger toward the sky.

Luna turned herself about to look to the sky, and they all three watched there from the ground as a bright magenta speck of light hovering near the gigantic crystal grew brighter and brighter. Celestia stepped up next to Discord, glancing to him as she asked, “She can’t possibly mean to stop it on her own, can she?”

Discord only glanced out of the corner of his eye at her before giving an indifferent shrug and turning his attention forward again. They all three watched as the glowing red of the crystal washed with the bright magenta of Twilight’s magic. The entire area above the city began to ripple as the clashing magics distorted the space they touched.

There was a sudden surge, and the sky grew painfully bright. Shielding their eyes from the glare, they struggled to look on as the space above the city seemed to fold in upon itself. The bright light vanished in an instant, and a loud clap of thunder quickly followed as a gust of air was drawn inward to fill the void. The earth trembled and windows shattered in the nearby buildings all down the street as the thundering sound carried off into the distance.

After the moment had passed, they all looked up again to where the giant crystal had been, finding a clear sky. Nothing remained of the crystal nor the overflowing magical power that had threatened to spill forth from it. And just like the crystal, Twilight Sparkle was also no where to be seen.

Everything that had been above the city was simply... gone.