Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was night time in Canterlot. The crescent moon shone among the stars and through the clouds, as if it were grinning at the Earth. Princess Twilight Sparkle and Sir Flash Sentry were going on a carriage to the castle, and once they arrived, they were greeted by an ecstatic Gloriosa Daisy; that night was Gloriosa’s book release party, where everyone in her circle—and a few fans, too—were invited to celebrate. 

As the two walked with her, Gloriosa took them outside by the garden—where the party really was. Although she was a princess and an esteemed botanist, Gloriosa thought it would be best to keep the celebration small. She didn’t need to add too much decor, but she did add a table with food and refreshments, and a few pots of her namesakes, gloriosa daisies, and some cornflowers, too. The celebration had a nice view of the garden. Two trees stood apart from each other, revealing the starry sky ahead. One could even see a few fireflies roaming from afar. A little blow of wind would come and go, slightly cooling down the warmth of that night—and sweeping away a few dead leaves, too.

The princess was wearing a floral print gown decorated with faux pink roses, and a flower crown made of yarrows, peach blossoms and white baby’s breath flowers adorning her braided, crimson hair, all of which made her look made her more ethereal than ever, while Twilight was wearing a plum satin dress, jewelling her head with one of her many crowns—this one was a gold crown, decorated with pink tourmalines & diamonds all around, instead of the usual pink star that resembled her cutie mark. Flash meanwhile was wearing an all white suit with golden accents. He was also wearing a matching white coat and white gloves.

Gloriosa brought the two over to a table, and as they sat down, she sat next to them—but on the table instead. She gave each of them three cups of fruit punch from a tray.

            “So what is your book about?” Twilight asked as she sipped from her cup.

            “It’s about flowers; it’s about. . . me, I suppose,” she answered, “I was named after a flower, and I’ve lived near everything from nature, which includes flowers, so I thought I could write about it, and guess what, people actually liked it!”

Gloriosa took a sip of her drink, too, then she added: “I’ll be doing book signings in about eighteen minutes, but for now I’ll just stay here.” 

              “You know, I always thought you were more. . scientific about it,” Flash said to her.

               “Excuse me?”

                “No, it’s just—you’re a botanist and all, so I thought you’d keep your personal life out of it.”

               “Little things like those have grand meanings, Sir Flash.”

For a little while, Twilight’s eyes roamed around the room, searching for her friends, and the other royals, too. She asked Gloriosa about them, to which she replied: “Don’t worry, they’ll get here, just wait a little.”

Subsequently, Twilight tried her best to wait, but she kept looking around, tapping her feet; Gloriosa noticed that, so she ran inside the palace and got a copy of her book, then gave it to the princess, who was flattered by the gesture. She held up the book, grinning to herself.

                “Can I. . keep it?” she asked, hesitantly.

               “Absolutely.” she replied, assuring her, “By the way, this copy of the book is special.”

               “How is that–Oh!” Twilight was beaming with joy. She was holding a first edition copy of her friend’s book, something she didn’t think would happen. She got up and spun around, smiling and giggling as she held her copy in her arms.

              “Do you have another copy?” she stopped spinning when she asked that question, “I wanna give it to Flash and the rest of my friends, too.”

              “Of course! I’ll go see if we have any.”

As Gloriosa was searching for nine more first edition copies, the rest of the royals, along with Prince Timber Spruce, Gloriosa’s brother, had arrived at the party holding giant bouquets of the princess’s favorite flower–Peruvian lilies!

A while later, Gloriosa got back, carrying the copies in a bag, but once her eyes met Timber’s, she quickly ran to her brother and conjured up a vine from the ground with her powers; as that vine gave Twilight the bag, Gloriosa embraced her brother, both of them smiling widely as they did. Gloriosa conjured up another vine, and sent it to the castle to get another copy for Timber; the vine threw the copy back to the princess, who caught it with her hand and passed it to her brother.

The others were left slack-jawed over her stunt. Flash even said to Gloriosa: “You are officially my new favorite princess.”

                “Thank you, Sir Flash.” she said to him, taking the bag away from Twilight and giving a copy to him, “Here’s a first edition copy, just for you.”

                “Thanks!”

                “No need to thank me. Thank Twilight; she’s the one who asked to get you one.”

                 “Thank you, Twi, you’re so sweet.”

                “You’re welcome!” she said, laughing.

Suddenly, more people arrived—and by people, specifically Twilight’s friends; Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Applejack all arrived to accompany their pink-streaked friend, to which Twilight gave each one of them a big embrace, saying to them: “I’m so glad to see you here! How are you all doing tonight?”

               “Pretty great! What about you?” Sunset said to her.

               “Oh, I feel fantastic; I got the first edition of Gloriosa’s book! It’s about her journey with nature and flower language. It’s kinda-sort of a biography but, not necessarily... defined as one, and—” She stopped for a moment, and gave away all the remaining copies in the bag to each of her friends— “I got you guys some first edition copies, too!”

The rest smiled with delight and thanked their friend, with Rarity saying: “Thank you, dear; you’re so thoughtful! And I thought I was the element of generosity. .”

                “Don’t say that!” Twilight objected.

                 “I insist!”

As they rejoiced, Twilight then stopped and looked behind her friends. She saw Celestia standing alone by the dinner table. She was wearing a beige dress decorated with blue and gold stars all around with her hair down. Her eyes surveyed the room with an anxious gleam, as if she was waiting for someone, and once she noticed that, Twilight’s mind went to only one person, but before she could ask Celestia about it, the monarch stormed off and went deeper into the garden, leaving the princess with many questions in her mind.

                “Where’s King Sombra?” Twilight asked her friends with a bit of concern. “And where’s Grand Princess Luna, while we’re at it?”

                “They’re a little late, but they told me they’ll be there,” Gloriosa replied, “I hope they do though; Luna’s taking so long.”

Gloriosa pulled out her phone and sent a voicemail to Luna, saying: “Where are you? It’s been thirty minutes; literally everyone is here. Are you sure you’re coming?”

              “Goodness, she’s getting on my nerves!” she groaned afterwards.                    

              “It’s alright, Gloriosa, she’ll get here.” Princess Cadance walked by her as she said that. She was wearing a baby pink dress with a blue belt and multicolored stars, which was similar to Celestia’s. “Sombra might come here too, I guess.”

              “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

              “Do I have to remind you that he terrorized my people and nearly drained the life out of me?”

              “You don’t need to.”

Later, King Sombra had actually arrived, much to the surprise of the princess of her friends. He was wearing an all black suit and his glasses, which he didn’t wear much most of the time. Gloriosa greeted him with a smile, saying: “I am so surprised you’re here, majesty, I. . I thought this wasn’t your taste of events.”

              “I’m—I’m sorry?” Sombra widened his eyes in shock. He didn’t think she’d say that. Gloriosa and the others started laughing. He continued: “What do you think I am? Some emotional book-hating fool?”

             “I mean, you are emotional.” she shrugged, taunting him. “You’re also a little bit of a fool.”

             “Yes, but I am not book-hating, Princess Gloriosa.”

Then, Sombra drew his hand at Cadance, wanting to shake her hand; she did that, and said: “You know, usually I’d blast you off to the nearest wall, but. . I shall leave that in the past.”

             “I surely hope so, Princess Cadenza.”

             “It’s Cadence,” Twilight said, chiming in.

             “Twilight, sweetie—don’t worry about it.”

Cadance walked away, sighing to herself, and as she did, Sunset heard a thought of hers that went: And to think Celestia wants to marry this man. . . terrible.

Sunset froze with her hand on her mouth; she couldn’t believe it. She ran to Twilight and told her what she heard: “I just heard Cadance’s thoughts; she does not want Sombra around her.”

              “ Oh? ” Twilight exclaimed.

               “I don’t think this night’s gonna end well.”

              “Now that I think about it—me neither.”

Later, Sombra had noticed Celestia’s absence, so he asked the rest about her whereabouts, to which they told him that she was deep in the garden. Sombra then ran to see her, and he found her sitting by an old tree.

              “Tia?” He said, softly. 

Celestia turned around. “Oh, hello, you!” she cried out, surprised. “I thought you wouldn’t be here at all.”

               “Alas, my queen,” he answered, “I can’t find it in myself to not join you, besides, I think we would enjoy this book more if we did it. . together.”

The two laughed to themselves, then they started walking together to see the rest. Sombra asked: “Why were you there all by yourself?”

             “I thought I could make you find me if I went there.” Celestia replied.

             “You look amazing in that dress, by the way.”

             “Hm, you don’t look so bad yourself.”

             “You’re bluffing; this is the most basic thing I could find.”

              “It still looks great on you!”

             “Yeah, but, I—I wanted to wear something to match, but you already left, and I didn’t want to waste too much time, so I had to come here in. . this .”

           “What’s the problem? Am I outshining you, my king?”

           “Yes, but I’m not complaining.”

A little while later, they made it with the rest, and they sat back on their designated seats, and as she sat down, Celestia said: “It’s good to have you back here, honey.”

            “Thank you, my sun,” the king replied, barely able to contain a smile.

            “I’m sorry, are we interrupting something here?” Starlight asked, teasing.

            “Maybe?”

They all laughed, then she asked: “Where’s Gloriosa?”

         “She’s doing book signings back in the castle, see?” Twilight pointed to the castle; it was flooded with people coming to see her that Gloriosa was lost in the crowd, and once she could finally see the others, she waved a hand to them to let them know she was still there. 

         “That poor lady.” she added, “Was everyone in Equestria waiting for this book?”

          “Well, the sudden rise of Gaea Everfree’s descendant back to the throne is an unexpected event.” Celestia passed a plate of fruit arrangements to Twilight as she said that.

         “Besides, the idea of Camp Everfree helped her gain more recognition, and—yeah, people always wanted to know more about Gloriosa.” Timber added, “I’m glad she’s doing it.”

           “Good for her,” Twilight said, taking a stick of strawberries off the plate and eating it afterwards. She continued, asking: “How’s everyone doing, by the way?” To which each response was either a yes, or a maybe, or a guess. Regardless, they were all doing pretty well, and eating well, too. Meanwhile Gloriosa was still signing each copy she gave to the attendees with a smile on her face. Everyone seemed happy, and everything seemed perfect. There was one thing though; Twilight and Sunset could not stop ogling Cadance; and she too couldn’t stop ogling Sombra and Celestia, and neither of them were looking in a favorable way. 

It wasn’t surprising; Cadance didn’t think Celestia would be getting back with her ex—who’s also the Crystal Empire’s biggest threat, but she did, and he’s not threatening anyone anymore, but at the same time, no one thought that the queen of light and love herself would still have a grudge against him when he’s changed his behavior, especially Twilight and Sunset.

Rarity though, was ogling Cadance’s dress; to her, something about it wasn’t right, and particularly the fact that it wasn’t even what she was going to wear that night. She didn’t see Cadance choosing her outfit—so she didn’t really have a say and just thought she changed it last minute, but still, it was strange seeing her in that, at least to her.

Rarity asked Cadance: “Say, your highness. . where’s your family?”

              “Oh, they’re at home.” Cadance took a sip of her drink before she said that. “Shining Armor told me he would’ve loved to go. . but he was busy, and he had to take care of Flurry Heart, so I went on my own.”

              “That’s unfortunate,” Sombra exclaimed, “I would’ve loved to see him, and the child, especially the child.”

Celestia laughed as he continued: “I love her! She’s so adorable; I should’ve surrendered the moment I was holding her!”

Cadance let out a dry laugh. “Not like you could raise one.”

The guests were left with dropped jaws; they couldn’t help but ooh and aah to each other at Cadance’s words. Celestia on the other hand just turned sideways, stammering to herself.  If there was one thing she didn’t think her great niece—Sombra’s old foe would say, it was that .

              “Cadance, let’s not start this conversation again,” she suggested, nervously.

              “Actually, we should; you don’t just let this asshole sit down with us like it’s nothing.”

              “Dear, could you please stop with this childish behavior? You’re thirty-six!”

              “What? I’m not the one who thought it would be a good idea to get back with my ex—whom I know is a threat to my relative’s empire!”

              “Oh, dear mother—is this your only excuse?”

              “Well, apparently yes, because some people still can’t get it into their heads! I have had to deal with this man haunting my ancestors, my kingdom, my family, myself—I couldn’t even sleep without remembering what he did! And now you’re sitting next to him being all lovey-dovey with him, and you didn’t even consider how I’d feel?!”’

Cadance got up amidst the bewilderment of the guests, and stabbed Sombra with her finger many times as she yelled: “You stole my sleep, and my powers and now you’re stealing my aunt from me? And you want to play the victim here? Like you’re the one that’s hurt? Makes sense how you never had a family, and then you’re leeching off mine, like you always did.”

               “Cadenza—”

              “Don’t ‘Cadenza’ me, and don’t even look at me with that face of yours and try to tell me that I’m wrong, because you & I both know that I am not.”

Once he heard that, Sombra stormed off the room, clutching his fists; Celestia followed him, carrying the train of her skirt. She glanced back at the rest, who looked just as confused as she was, while Cadance said to them: “Yeah, run away all you want! You’re still seeing me!”

             “We get it!” Twilight groaned, “Sweet Celestia, what’s gotten into you? Goodness, I wish Luna was here, she would’ve shut you up so quick.”

Cadance just clicked her tongue and ran away, huffing and puffing to herself. Twilight, meanwhile,  remembered something, what’s taking Luna so long, anyway? 

Twilight took her friends—who up until this point couldn’t help but remain speechless, away from the scene. She ran off with them to the palace, away from the crowd surrounding Gloriosa—she told her friends to sit in the castle’s library while she’d go to check on Luna, and once she reached her room, she saw Cadance standing by the room, her ear sticking to the door.

               “What are you doing here?” Twilight asked.

               “Don’t speak to me.” Cadance grumbled, “You’d rather side with the devil than side with me.”

               “Hey, I don’t know about you, but you should just let it go; Sombra’s changed, and even if—”

             “Twilight Sparkle, you are a child meddling in the business of adults. None of this should concern you.”

              “It does though; that’s my teacher you were talking to.”

               “ I was raised with Celestia, not you, and pray tell, who was the one taking care of you when no one was around to do that?”

Twilight was speechless; she looked down the ground sheepishly. She never wanted to run away more than she did at that moment. She said, stammering: “Well—I—I— ugh !”

She stomped her way back to the study, locking the door behind her as she entered the room. She slammed her head on a table and groaned to herself, crying out: “Why do I always get embarrassed like this?! Why is she like this today? I need to know!”

               “Twilight, I don’t think you should be letting her bother you,” Applejack suggested,

              “Applejack’s right, you shouldn’t have said that,” Starlight added, backing her up, “besides, what would Luna think if she heard that?”

               “They have a point,” Sunset said, backing them up.

              “Yeah, but—still, she’s weird for doing all of that stuff, and it’s not like she wasn’t going to hang out with him tomorrow! What is she on today?”

            “It must be that dress,” Rarity mumbled.

             “What?”

             “Cadance’s dress—it’s just not right!”

            “Rarity, I don’t mean to insult you, but why do you care?” Starlight questioned, “It’s just a dress, anyway.”

           “Hold on—I think she might have a point.” Sunset said, advising her friend. She gestured at Rarity to continue.

Rarity took a breath, then she continued saying: “I know this sounds strange, but the dress that Cadance is wearing isn’t a dress that she would wear, and I can elaborate.”

         “Please do.”

         “My elaboration is this: if there’s one thing that Cadance wouldn’t do, it’s that she wouldn’t wear blue accents on pink fabric; it doesn’t match what she’s going for, anyway!”

          “What do you think she was going to wear, then?” Rainbow asked.

          “Anything but that! She was going to wear a pink midi dress with golden cherry blossom prints, but she didn’t!”

          “How do you know that?” Twilight asked.

         “Because I gave it to her and she told me she was going to wear it, but she didn’t! And I have evidence! Look!” 

Rarity put her phone up and showed her friends some texts she exchanged with Cadance a day before, which went as follows: 

Cadance: “rarity I NEED something to wear for Gloriosa’s party tonight… what do you recommend” (Sent 3:30pm.)

Rarity: “hi darling!” (Sent 3:33pm.)

Rarity: “what are you going to wear anyway?” 

Cadance: “well I was thinking I could wear a suit but, idk” (Sent 3:34pm.)

Rarity: “wait hold on”

Rarity: “i found one!!” (Sent 3:40pm)

Rarity had sent Cadance a picture of the dress she described, complete with the golden cherry blossom prints, which confirmed her suspicion to her friends.

The texts continued: 

Cadance: “OMG” 

Cadance: “love it” (Sent 3:41pm.)

Cadance: “I’m wearing this”

Cadance: “Thanks for the recommendation!”

Rarity: “you’re welcome dear!” (Sent 3:42pm.)

Everyone was frozen in place, Twilight turned to Rarity, saying: “Rarity, are you trying to imply that we’ve been played again?”

                  “What are you talking about, darling?” Rarity asked her back.

                  “I’m saying—is the Cadance we just talked to—not actually Cadance?”

Before anyone else would say anything, they could hear screams from below.

Meanwhile, outside the castle, Celestia was trying to reason with Sombra, pleading: “Sombra, just come back; you don’t need to worry about her, you know what she’s been through!”

             “Tia, darling—” Sombra held Celestia by the shoulders— “I understand that, but I feel like you’ve said that way too many times—and it’s getting annoying.”

             “How am I supposed to convince you to stay, then?”

              “You don’t need to; I’m leaving.”

              “Where are you even going?”

               “I’m going back to the palace until this is over. You can have some fun with the others while you’re at it.”

               “Look, you said we should spend more time together, and I am doing everything I can to do that! And you’re not helping me here!”

              “Tia, I—I’d love to spend time with you. I’d love to make up for what was lost, but I just don’t want to if this is the energy I’ll receive from your niece for the rest of my lifetime!”

              “Honey, I—I’ll come with you; we can spend some time on our own.”

              “No, no, Tia, you have fun with your family, and you can leave me for last; I’ll be patient, I promise.”

               “Celestia, come quick!”

Celestia froze and turned around; Twilight was running to her as she said that. The princess followed up, panting: “Celestia, you need to come to the palace right now ; it’s urgent.”

The queen glanced at the king—then glanced back at Twilight. She said to him: “I’m dealing with you later.” then set off with the princess back to the castle.

               “Okay, what’s happening?” she inquired.

              “ This is happening.” Twilight motioned to the castle as she said that.

Celestia’s jaw dropped at the sight she was seeing. The guests who came to see Gloriosa were scattered around the room, groaning from the pain of their injuries. Gloriosa wasn’t exempt from that either—the two royals found her struggling to walk, pressing her hand on the side of her abdomen. Their faces fell. Her hand was covered in blood.

             “Guards! Get an ambulance here! Now!” she cried out, despite her wounds, “And go to Luna’s room! Make sure she’s okay. .”

Gloriosa went up to Twilight and Celestia, still bleeding, and grabbed Celestia’s arms. Before either of them could say anything to her, Twilight and Celestia noticed an ambulance coming through, and once it was open, two crew members rushed to the princess and laid her on a stretcher, and as time went, more and more ambulances came through to pick up the rest of the injured. 

Twilight and Celestia ran upstairs to Luna’s room, where they found Twilight’s friends slamming the door, trying to open it.

              “What in Equestria is going on here?” Twilight cried out.

              “Someone’s trying to get Luna killed!” Timber yelped.

              “Well why haven’t any of you opened the door?”

             “It’s a magic lock!”

             “ Three of you use magic! You can open it yourselves!”

             “It’s a third degree lock!” Sunset explained.

Without skipping a beat, Twilight ran back into her old study, took out a large mallet and slammed it into the door, which opened to a jaw-dropping scene; it was Cadance, standing over an unconscious Luna.

            “Cadance, what is the meaning of this?” Twilight cried.

Cadance smirked at them. “You don’t need to call me that anymore.”

As they watched in horror. A green light seeped through the room. It wrapped itself around Cadance like a cocoon and unveiled Queen Chrysalis, wearing a long shimmering black gown with cuts around the sleeves and torso, paired with silver hand armor and finger claws like little knives.

            “Surprise, majesties!” she hissed, “Couldn’t you tell? It was me all along! Isn’t that so funny? You fell for the same trick twice. . oh. . . you never learned, did you?”

She walked up to Celestia, lifting her chin with her finger. “Oh, and look who we have here—little Celestia, all grown up; you used to be a princess begging for love, and now you’re a queen, still begging for it. . not very independent of you, is it, your majesty?”

Celestia didn’t answer her, which didn’t really faze Chrysalis; she just moved on to Twilight, who was frozen, speechless, and just stood in her place, her eyes wider than the sky.

            “Why hello to you too, Princess Twilight.” she continued, “Look at how you’ve grown. . you were a little weasel the last time I saw you! How’s your friendship school going, by the way?”

             “I’m not—I’m not teaching there anymore,” she replied, muttering.

             “Oh, really?”

             “Yes.”

Chrysalis paused for a moment. She glanced at Twilight’s hand and saw her wiggling her fingers. “You’re lying. .”

             “No, I—I’m not. .”

              “Yes, you are!”

Chrysalis slammed Twilight’s head into a wall so hard—the pain felt like a sword piercing through her skull. Her glasses fell off her head. She started tearing up; Flash took her in his arms, with heavy breaths, he cried out: “Twilight, are you okay? Can you hear me?”

Twilight didn’t answer him; she was still in shock over the hit, despite this, she got up, put her glasses back on and tried to get to Chrysalis, but was stumbling as she did.

             “What do you even want from us? Why are you here?” she cried out.

            “Go outside; you’ll see,” she hissed.

Twilight’s lip trembled. She started walking, tripping a little with every step until she gained a bit of her balance back. Everyone walked downstairs, to the gate, and eventually were outside, where Lord Tirek was waiting for them.

The centaur stood high and mighty above the rest of them. His red, muscled arms, his bull-like horns—it was a moment of deja vu to Twilight and her friends—except Flash and Sunset; they never really dealt with Tirek, so they just stared with confusion and fear at him.

             “Would you look at that. . the most powerful princess in Equestria can’t even stand still, how times change, how people change. .” he said, grabbing Twilight’s face.

             “Shut up. . .” she muttered.

            “Don’t talk back to me! You took everything from me. . . you and your kind. . you left me rotting in those Tartarian prisons, like I was a degenerate meant to be kept behind bars. You will suffer greatly for what you have done to me.”

            “Are you sure? You didn’t even steal my magic yet.”

             “You’re right. . I’ll steal the queen’s magic!”

Amongst everyone’s horror, he picked up Celestia and opened his mouth as that orange orb of his formed. He tried absorbing her magic with it—but nothing came out of it. The two stared at each other dumbfounded. “What in. . . what sorcery. .” 

Meanwhile, everyone beneath him was just as shocked as he was. Could Celestia have transferred her powers to someone else? Did she cast a spell on herself to hide her magic? They didn’t know, but what they did know was that he was seeing red at what happened, gritting his teeth. He sent Celestia flying onto the ground—and eventually into everyone’s arms.

              “How did he not drain your powers?” Starlight asked.

              “I don’t know—I didn’t even try to cast a spell on myself!” the queen replied.

              “Don’t lie to me!” Tirek roared, powering his orange orb.

Celestia got back up as Tirek was about to zap her and the others; she conjured a force field above their heads and fended off the beast’s power.

               “ Where are your powers? Tell me! ” he roared once more, his blows getting stronger and stronger.

For a moment, Celestia broke the force field and zapped him back with a beam so strong—it sent him flying away from the castle—before Chrysalis held him up with her own magic and slowly put him back on the ground. 

All of a sudden, battle cries were heard coming closer to the castle; an army of changelings arrived and they were shimmering with an amber gleam—Tirek had offered them some Tartarian magic, so they became more powerful than they were before. Chrysalis cried out to them: “My little changelings, it has been long since you were weak, puny vermin, tearing the foundations of a loving relationship, but now you are omnipotent creatures of nightmares, ready to wreak havoc not just in love, but in a nation!

Yes, yesterday we might’ve been losers in the battlefield, succumbing to our wounds, but tonight, we avenge ourselves, and become winners, so deserving of acclaim and respect!”

As her minions cheered for her, Chrysalis looked at Celestia and continued, dictating: “Queen Celestia! I declare war on you and your nation! If you wish to keep your people alive, you will fight me—or else your death will be my victory!”

The changelings cheered louder over that announcement, while Twilight and her friends just shuddered in their places. Celestia looked back at them in horror, then she pulled each of them to her and cried out for her guards once more, to which they arrived and supplied Twilight’s friends with a few weapons. The queen walked to Flash and held his wrist. 

                      “Flash Sentry, I need you to take Twilight back to her home—she’s far too weak to fight,” she commanded.

                     “But what about you, majesty?” he questioned.

                    “I will stay here and I will fight, but I’ll come back, they all will.”

Celestia glanced at Chrysalis once more. The tyrannical queen roared out: “Charge!” which sent her troops marching towards the group. Celestia pushed Flash away, motioning him to leave at once. He put his arm underneath her legs—carrying her away from the scene. He saw the nearest carriage and asked for a ride, to which the coachman accepted his request and drove them away from the action.

As they set off, blasts of light could be seen by the castle, and some participants—both human and changeling, were catapulted into the sky. Once they left the castle’s area, they entered the city which was stormed by changelings. They saw stagecoaches belonging to nobility, and some common folk grappling the back of the coaches, but some were being pushed off and eventually got trampled underneath the wheels, left with nothing but injuries and plain misery.

Everyone on the streets was running for their lives trying to flee Canterlot, but some were captured by changeling guards—and others were just taking too long to do it. The train station was full of refugees booking tickets to whatever places that were far away from changelings, and some of them were even climbing onto trains, not caring about the destination—just wanting to leave this mess.

The carriage went next to the train tracks. Through the windows, they could see distressed passengers with their families, their friends or just themselves—all trying to take in what had happened in their city; Flash, however, was just thinking of what would happen next. He turned to Twilight, who was just staring into space—the hit she received left her disoriented, so she just watched everything unfold with absolutely no bit of energy in her body. Suddenly, the carriage stopped; the two had arrived at Ponyville, where they were greeted with concerned citizens waiting for the princess. Flash took Twilight out in his arms, and Bridal carried her through the concerned crowd—all the way to the hospital.

                   “So, how did this injury happen?” Dr. Greymare asked her.

                 “I was just. . standing there and. . I got slammed in the head, and now. . I feel like a sloth and. . I don’t even know what’s happening out there. . when I got it. . everything turned foggy. . and I just dragged my body down and. . my head was turning. . ” she explained, a little drowsy.

               “Hm, interesting.” he muttered. “Any other symptoms?”

               “My head hurts a little, like, when I got hit. . it felt like a hand was just ripping through my brain. . but now it just feels like little needles poking my head.”

               “Do you feel any sensitivity to light or noise?”

Twilight looked up at the ceiling, and directly into the light above her, which instantly sent her squeezing her eyes from irritation. She looked back at Dr. Greymare and told him: “This hospital light wants me dead.”

The doctor chuckled to himself. “Alright, now—you aren’t suffering from anything serious; this is just an ordinary concussion, but—I do advise that the princess should get rested, hydrated and not do anything that requires extreme physical activity.”

                “Can I go to sleep?”

                “Can you walk?”

Twilight got up from her seat and walked around like it was nothing, so that meant she could sleep.

               “Alright, Princess Twilight Sparkle, you’re good to go. Give it a few weeks and you’ll be perfectly back to normal.”

               “Thank you, doctor.”

Twilight and Flash walked out of the hospital—and back home to Twilight’s castle. Once they made it to Twilight’s room. After she had changed her clothes, she noticed Flash by the door, about to leave.

              “Wait—where are you going?” she asked.

               “I’m going outside to see what’s happening,” he replied, “you can rest here while I do that.”

               “But—but what about you ? Aren’t you also gonna get hurt?”

               “I’ll be fine.”

              “You—you won’t! The changelings over there were powered by Tirek—who knows what they’ll do to us! Who knows what they’ll do to you. .”

Twilight climbed down her bed and went to him, grabbing his wrists. “I’m going with you—I don’t care what you say, I don’t want you to do this alone.”

             “Twilight, please—just rest, you just got your head slammed into a wall, and I can’t just let you act like it wasn’t a big deal, just stay here, I’ll be fine.”

Twilight stopped and sighed. She ran to his embrace, rubbing on his back and running her fingers through his hair. Once she stopped, she held his face between her hands and kissed his forehead.

            “Goodnight, Sir Flash,” she murmured.

            “Goodnight, Princess Twilight,” he whispered, kissing her cheek afterwards.

Flash left the room—and left Twilight sighing to herself, and eventually going to bed. He went outside the castle and saw hordes of people by the gates. They had seen Twilight in Flash’s arms—and they were left confused and worried for the princess’ health, so they gathered outside her home waiting for an answer to their questions.

           “Sir Flash, where’s Princess Twilight?” one of them asked.

            “Yeah, where is she? And why were you carrying her?” another asked him.

            “Um, I. .” he stammered, “People of Ponyville, I regret to inform you that Princess Twilight is not present for tonight, for she is concussed and her doctor has advised her to rest, so as her significant other, I will be taking her place for just this while, any more questions?”

            “Um, Sir Flash? Why are her friends not here yet?” someone asked, “It’s 11:30, don’t you think it’s a little too late for some of them?”

           “Well—uh, you see. . the party that they went to. . um. . got crashed.”

            “By who?”

           “Um, by—”

            “Everyone run! Queen Chrysalis’ troops are headed towards us!”

The caller who said that wasn’t lying. Further away, one could see a brigade of changelings headed for Ponyville. Flash tried calming down the panicked crowd, but half of them already ran for their homes. The other half just stood there, not knowing what to do.

           “Wha—don’t just stand there! Get a spear! A knife! We’re being attacked over here!” Flash yelled.

Once he said that, the other half just ran for the castle—and hoarded its weapons room like it was nothing. Some took spears, some took bows and arrows, some took swords, knives, others even took maces and battleaxes. Flash suddenly remembered to get his own sword, and sprinted for the weapon room where he found his sword laying on a table. He took it and ran outside—and saw something that left his jaw hanging. The changelings couldn’t even enter the town—there was a grand force field around it!

He turned around to his fellow fighters—he wanted to tell them about the force field, but they noticed something; the changelings took a large log of wood, enchanted it with their magic and slammed it into the force field, trying to break it, and after several tries, they left a gaping hole in it.

Subsequently, changelings were going through the hole and into Ponyville, and the other fighters with Flash had run away from him and further into the town. Flash sprinted through the buildings to stop the changelings from reaching the town hall—where he found the citizens and the weapons they took, but it was too late, the creatures were already there. They were going to bring down the town hall’s building with that same enchanted log, but he didn’t stop and stare though, he ran to them and fought each and every one of them, getting the best of them every time, but one of them retaliated by snatching his sword from him, and swinging it around in his face as they did, so he ran for that changeling to try and get his sword back.

While he was distracted by the changelings playing around with his sword, the changelings by the town hall took their log and went back into demolishing the building, and once Flash knocked one down and took his sword back, he went back determined to stop them—but it was too late. They were already bringing down the town hall.

The screams of the citizens inside, the loud slam through the wall—everything was too much to see. Suddenly, Flash felt something go through his back.

Chapter Text

Chrysalis was standing by the window in Celestia’s room, where she was sleeping now. She could see her prisoners being shoved by guards back into the palace, which left her with a wicked grin drawn to her face. After that night, Canterlot was abandoned, and that meant that the city was all theirs, including the castle, and none of the royals would be able to stop them. She cackled to herself, holding a glass of Tartarian wine.

              “Ay. . look at us, look at us!” she rejoiced. “Who would’ve thought we’d get to this level?”

Tirek walked in, holding his glass. “No one, and yet here we are. .”

              “Ah. . . you know, usually, we’d get thrown out of this castle, and— bombarded with the importance of love and. . friendship , but that is no more! We rule this kingdom now, and no one can stop us!”

The two tyrants laughed together, raising a toast to their victory and drinking their glasses. Chrysalis sighed to herself with a smile, saying: “You know, Tirek, I’m starting to enjoy your company; you are truly a devilish mastermind—fit for someone like me.”

              “Indeed.”

The centaur got up to grab the bottle they were drinking from, and poured another shot for himself and Chrysalis. The queen took a sip and clicked her tongue when she finished. “This wine is delightful, where do you get it?”

           “Tartarian grapes are the finest fruit in existence,” he replied. “which makes for a good drink.”

           “By my grace. . you are a fascinating centaur, my Lord.”

            “Excellencies!”

A changeling hurried into the room as he called for them. He followed up by saying: “Your excellencies, I have terrible, terrible news.”

           “Well—what are they?”

           “Twilight Sparkle is in Ponyville, and the people are not giving up.”

           “And?”

           “Three prisoners escaped through the night, and we still haven’t found them.”

Tirek looked at Chrysalis. She clenched her fists, and simply whispered: “I cannot believe this; a day into our rule and they’re already rebelling?”

She sighed and ordered: “Find them—and make sure you find the princess, too.”

           “Yes, majesty.”           

Meanwhile in Ponyville. The sun’s rays hit Twilight’s face, which woke her up—but also hurt her eyes. Despite this she got up, put on her glasses and did her usual morning rituals, but still, she was worried; Flash didn’t come home that night, and she wasn’t even awake to see where he went, and what made it even worse was that her friends, her fellow royals and her mentor were nowhere to be seen—at least that’s what she knew.

Twilight took some acetaminophen that her doctor prescribed her with a cup of water. She changed from her violet silk nightwear into a light, plum-colored turtleneck that had her cutie mark pinned to it, paired with black slacks and a golden necklace with a pink sapphire charm that Timber gave her and walked downstairs—all the way out of the castle. Once she opened the gate, she saw that Ponyville was still a living city—but it was on the verge of breaking.

Half the buildings there were demolished, most were homes to citizens, so they resorted to sleeping in tents near her castle. She went to them and asked: “What happened?”

             “Princess Twilight! You’re okay!” Mrs. Cupcake went up to the princess as she said that. She took the princess in for a hug, and once they were done, she continued: “Your highness, we need you here—we’re running out of rations! That changeling army took most of our food supply, and if we don’t restock, we’ll starve!”

            “I—A changeling army?” Twilight exclaimed.

            “Oh—right, you weren’t there. Some changelings snuck in last night and—they took everything from us! Our homes, our food, our town hall!”

           “Th—they brought down the town hall?!”

           “They did! And we thought that could be our only resort!”

           “Hold on, did they bring down Sugarcube Corner?”

           “What do you think? They destroyed my home and ate it, too!”

           “Did any of you try to stop them?”

          “Well, there was one man, but—they got him before he could even strike back!”

Twilight gasped. She knew who that man was. “Where. . does anyone here know where Flash Sentry is?”

           “That was him?!”

            “Who did you think it was then?”

Mrs. Cupcake shrugged, then resumed: “He was taken to the hospital after that. You can talk to Nurse Redheart about it.”

           “Where is she?”

            “She’s over there.”

The woman gestured at Nurse Redheart, who was carrying some injured citizens on stretchers all the way to the hospital. Twilight glanced back at Mrs. Cupcake and told her: “Don’t worry, I won’t let you starve.” 

The princess ran to the medic, who was wearing white scrubs with red accents. “Excuse me! Nurse!” she cried out. “Do you know where Flash Sentry is?”

           “Princess Twilight Sparkle?” Nurse Redheart turned to see the princess. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

           “Wait, what?”

           “I know about your concussion. Dr. Greymare told me.”

           “I—look, do you know where Flash Sentry is? I’m really worried about him!”

           “Come with me, I’ll take you to him.”

           “Okay, thank you!”

The two ran inside the hospital, which was chock-full of injuries—from the burned, to the wounded, to the unconscious, everyone was there either to heal, or to be healed. The nurse cleared the way for the princess and took her to an elevator going up to the third floor. The two sighed to themselves at the same time and turned to each other.

         “You can call me Connie, by the way,” Nurse Redheart said.

         “That’s your name?”

         “It’s short for Cornelia, not Constance.”

         “Huh, pretty cool.”

The elevator made it to the third floor. Twilight and Connie left it and went towards the recovery ward—specifically the second room on the right, where Twilight found Flash, awake, laying on his bed, with bandages on his waist. His face lit up when he saw Twilight. She ran to his embrace and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

        “Are you okay? I was so worried!” she asked.

        “I’m fine, actually,” he answered. “even better now that you’re here.”

        “What happened to you last night, anyway?”

        “I was stabbed, and now I’m here.”

         “Oh, oh, I’m so sorry.”

Connie then joined in, saying: “Sir Flash’s wound wasn’t very deep, but we still had to stitch it up. The wound didn’t go through any major organs, however, I will say that healing from it will be extremely painful, and I recommend he receive some painkillers.”

           “And?”

           “Dr. Greymare says he should come here after a week or so to get his stitches removed, but regardless—he’s allowed to go back in action as long as he’s medicated.”

          “What about you?”

          “I have patients to tend to. I’ll be okay, though.”

Connie left the two alone in the room. Twilight took a chair, sat next to Flash and asked: “So, what happened that night?”

           “It was. . . something,” he answered, “I was out there, trying to keep the peace—there were some other people wanting to fight, but they chickened out. It was just me out there. I tried to keep the changelings from bringing down the town hall but—they got me. They even broke the force field—”

            “There’s a force field?”

           “Yeah, I don’t know how we got it, but—there was one, and I wanted to tell everyone about it, but. . . well . . you already know.”

Twilight got up and started walking back and forth, trying to get track of her thoughts. Flash asked her: “So what’s your plan?”

            “Today, we need to find Queen Celestia and my friends, also we need rations.”

            “And how are we going to do all of that?”

            “We’ll go back to Canterlot, steal some food and sneak into the castle.”

            “Twi, I don’t mean to kill the mood, but that’s nearly impossible.”

            “Then I will make it possible.”

Twilight started squeezing her legs together. “Uh, I—I gotta go to the bathroom now. I’ll come back later though.”

           “Alright, once you’re done—can we get out of here?”

           “We definitely are, bye now!”

The princess left the room and headed straight to the bathroom. Once she was done using it, she went up to the sink and started washing her hands. She saw Connie come in and use the sink next to her.

            “So what are you gonna do now?” she asked the princess.

            “What do you mean?” Twilight asked back.

            “I mean. . you’re the only royal here, so. . do you have a plan to put this place back together?”

            “Of course I do.”

            “What is it then?”

            “I’d rather keep it a secret; I wouldn’t want a changeling to know about my plan.”

            “I get that.”

Once she was done, Twilight left and was about to head back to Flash’s room, but she stopped, observing what she was seeing.

The hospital was still up and running. Doctors and nurses were still doing their work. Everything was alright, but even while knowing that, Twilight was still worried for them. She turned around and saw Dr. Greymare talking to one of the nurses.

       “Three other nurses from Manehattan are coming over for assistance,” she said, “what we need to worry about is our lack of attendings!”

      “Well, why didn’t you ask about the attendings?” he asked.

      “Half the staff there were captured!”

      “And? Half the staff here were captured too, you don’t see me complaining!”

As they walked away, Twilight took in what they had said. She crossed her arms. We have to make it.

      “Your highness?”

Connie was standing behind Twilight. She resumed: “Something on your mind?”

Twilight turned around to see her. “Uh, nothing much, just. . kinda worried.”

      “And you’re worried about. . .”

      “The state of this hospital.”

       “I understand.”

       “How can you guys even manage?”

       “We just. . . we just do.”

The two went silent.

       “Anyway, I’m. . . going back to Flash, then I’m going home,” Twilight announced.

       “I’m sorry, but visiting hours are over,” Connie told her.

       “Wait, but, I just saw him for what, three minutes?”

Connie didn’t say anything, she just looked at Twilight with a green gleam shining through her eyes. Twilight’s heart started pounding. She stammered: “You know what. . . I’m. . I’m just gonna leave, okay?”

Right after she said that, Twilight pranced away from Connie and sprinted straight to the emergency fire exit, but suddenly remembered something. . Flash!    

She went back to his room going “Oh, no, oh, dear Celestia, please no!” and the second she was close there she slammed the door, only to find an empty bed—where Flash was supposed to be.

Out of curiosity, she looked out the window and gasped when she saw an unconscious Flash being carried out of his room, and while she was about to get back down and save him, Connie got up to the princess, grabbing her by the neck and restraining the rest of her body. Twilight couldn’t scream, so she tried to break free—before Connie reached for a damp cloth and gagged her with it until the princess passed out.           

A while later, Twilight woke up. She saw herself bound to a chair. The princess had been trapped in her old mentor’s study—which now belonged to the enemy. The door opened, creaking. Twilight turned to the door to see Chrysalis walking through with a long grin on her face.

         “Just when I thought this day could get any worse. . .” Twilight groaned.

         “Good morning, princess!” she said, greeting her.

         “Morning.”

         “Oh, isn’t this great? Me capturing you. . again? I didn’t think I’d ever do that ever since forever , but. . . here I am! Doing that!”

Twilight rolled her eyes and said: “I—I don’t care, can you get me something to eat instead?”

          “I’m sorry?”

          “Chrysalis, if you’re gonna capture me, at least feed me; I’ve been running on empty all day, which if you don’t know, isn’t a good thing for someone who got a concussion.”

         “Do you really want to eat that bad?”

          “Yes.”

         “Well, here’s the thing—you won’t.”

Chrysalis grabbed a wine bottle and drank from it, when she was done, she clicked her tongue and sighed aloud, then she smirked at the princess, trying to spite her. 

       “How much of this did you drink?” Twilight asked.

       “Just once,” Chrysalis answered.

         “You sure about that? I mean, you seem like you. . could. . be a drunk.”

    They both went silent.

         “Why am I here?” Twilight asked, resuming.

         “Very good question, Princess Twilight—” Chrysalis got up to Twilight’s face— “It’s because you’re in the way of my revenge. With you around, the people of Ponyville will not submit.”

          “They’re still not gonna submit even if you take me. I mean—they’ll probably notice that I’m gone and try to find me?”

          “What about their homes?”

          “Once I come back, I might rebuild them.”     

         “Why do you feel the need to back-sass me?”

          “Someone has to.”

          “Ugh, demons, you are indeed worse than that failed clone I made of you.”

          “You what?”

Chrysalis froze once she remembered that Twilight never knew about. . that . She chose to brush it off and said: “ Anyway . . guards?”

Two changeling guards showed up to the room. She asked them: “Take the princess to her friends, will you?”

          “Yes, majesty.”

The guards unchained Twilight and each of them grabbed her by an arm, taking her outside. As they were about to leave, she turned to Chrysalis. “If I find out you did something to my friends, I will break your skull like you did mine.”

        “We’ll see about that.”

Twilight was taken to a room in one of the palace’s towers, and found most of her friends, who were delighted to see her. She was happy to see them, too, as she gave them a little hug once the guards left them alone. 

        “Twilight! You’re here!” Pinkie cheered. “I was starting to miss you!”

        “I missed you too!” Twilight exclaimed. “Is everyone okay?”

        “I mean. . . if you could count being trapped in a tower with no resources to leave okay,” Rainbow Dash replied.

         “I haven’t eaten a damn thing since I got here!” Applejack complained. “Farm animals get food before us!”

          “Applejack, we’re all starving here.” Starlight added. “Twilight, did you. . maybe, manage to get a bite to eat?”

          “I’m sorry to say this, but no.”

          “Oh, come on!” Rainbow whined.

          “Look, guys, let’s not get brought down by the fact that we’re all empty-stomached; if we think about that enough we might as well eat each other.”

Twilight sighed, then resumed, asking: “Where’s Queen Celestia?”

          “She’s in another tower.”

The princess looked through the window, where she saw Celestia alone in the room. “How do I talk to her?”

         “Here.”

Sunset handed Twilight her phone. She continued: “This is the only phone we all have. It’s at 15%, so. . yeah, make it quick.”

Twilight clicked on Celestia’s contact and started calling her. Celestia picked up and said: “ Sunset? Are you okay? ”

       “Queen Celestia, it’s Twilight Sparkle,” the princess said, “they got me.”

       “ Oh, Twilight, I’m. . is everything okay at Ponyville? ”

       “Yeah, it’s. . okay; the people have no houses, but. . they’re trying to make the most of it.”

       “ Ah, oh, um, I. . are you. . alright? ”

       “I’m fine, I just. . have a head injury.”

       “ And you’re just walking around like that? Are you sure you can take it? ”

       “Infinitely sure.”

Twilight paused, then continued: “So, how did you get here?”

      “ Well, you see, I was fighting the changelings with your friends last night. I was trying to keep them outside the palace, but one of them slipped inside. ”

The last time Chrysalis disguised as my great niece, it was a disaster. That night was just a repeat of it.

I was there, outside the palace, fighting hordes of changelings. I’d blast each group of them with my hands, but they’d come back, quicker, stronger, worse. What didn’t help was that every time they bounced back, they’d take my guards and take one of Twilight’s friends.

I felt helpless. I just stood there, watching as they pulled them away. I kept on hitting them, but they just kept standing. Shortly, it got worse; one of them was running after Sunset Shimmer.

I rushed inside the palace, chasing after the changeling. My pulse was beating like an angry drum as I dashed through the corridors, trying to catch them. 

I stopped to find them in the artifact room, strangling my pupil and holding a knife to her head. We both stood there, panting, terrified.

           “Leave her be, please,” I said with heavy breaths, “she’s just a kid.”

Suddenly, Sunset grinned at me, took the knife from the changeling’s hand and stabbed it, then that green light wrapped itself around her; it wasn’t Sunset, it was Chrysalis.

Chrysalis took her left arm out. Her fist was clutched—and once she opened it, she revealed the Alicorn Amulet.

             “Surrender now, Celestia,” She threatened as she was about to wear it. “or forever stand your ground. . .”

             “What did you do to Sunset?” I asked, panicking.

           “Oh, baby girl. . . she’s alright; you should be worried about yourself here. I mean, I have the Alicorn Amulet in my hands, and you can guess what’s gonna happen once it’s around my neck. . . so, which one is it?”

I was going to answer, but I heard Sunset, crying out for help, so I knew I didn’t have a choice.

            “Fine, I surrender,” I said, “but if you try to hurt Sunset, or any of her friends, I’ll make you suffer.”

            “Well. . . that was a lot easier than I thought.”

Two guards came in to take me away. She told them: “Take this woman, and make sure she’s away from her little helpers.”

              “ So. . . there ,” Celestia concluded.

              “That’s. . . something.” Twilight remarked. “Did Chrysalis end up tricking you and actually hurt anyone here?”

             “She hasn't done anything to us. . . yet ,” Sunset explained.

             “Do you think we’re gonna be stuck here forever?” Twilight asked.

             “ Mother knows ,” Celestia replied, “ we haven’t really found a way to escape, so— ”

Celestia heard something hit the windows of her room. She turned to see what it was, but it had already fallen on the ground.

           “ Uh, Celestia, are you still there? ” Twilight asked her.

           “Something just hit my window,” Celestia responded.

           “Huh? Aren’t these towers magically protected? How could something like that just. . . slip through the barrier?”

          “I know, that confuses me too.”

What the two royals didn’t realize was that whatever was thrown to Celestia’s window was a rock, which belonged to three masked individuals wearing matching black latex suits. One was wearing a gray mask, another was wearing a lavender mask, and a third was wearing a sage green mask.

           “Look, Jet Stone, this isn’t going to work,” the lavender masked girl said to the gray-masked man, “the windows aren’t even glass, they’re acrylic ! You can’t break through that shit!”

           “I can!” Jet Stone insisted, “I just. . I just need to go further.”

          “This is about the furthest we can get! How far do you want us to go? Mount Everhoof?!”

          “Why do you choose to have absolutely no faith in me?”

          “I have faith in you! It’s just. . your methods will not save the queen!”

          “How do you think I should do it?”

With her magic, the girl created a hand saw, then teleported all the way to Celestia’s tower’s window. The queen jumped, yelping once she saw the girl stuck to her window, cutting a circle in it.

On the other end, Twilight and her friends heard Celestia’s scream, and felt concerned. Twilight asked: “Uh, Celestia, what just happened?”

Celestia didn’t answer. She was too stunned to speak; the girl slipped inside. She said to the queen: “Don’t be afraid, your highness, we’ve come to rescue you.”

               “W-we?” Celestia questioned, “What do you mean, ‘we’?”

              “I brought company.”

The girl drew her hand out to Celestia. She resumed: “I’m Chalcedony, by the way. My other two friends are waiting for you."

             “Well, what about the others? What about Twilight Sparkle? Sunset Shimmer? Starlight Glimmer? The other five?”

             “Don’t worry, my friends will come and get them, now, just hold my hand."

Right as she said that, Chalcedony opened up a portal, and took Celestia with her to the other side, where Jet Stone and his green-masked companion had made it to the other tower, and they were ready to get everyone out of there.

            “Alright everyone, I know we’re complete and total strangers to you, but I can promise you this,” Jet Stone said, “I’m making sure you get home this minute.”

             “Really?” Starlight said, doubting him.

             “Do you. . . pinkie promise? Do you. . . cross your heart—” Sunset added.

             “I hope to fly, and stick two cupcakes in my eye so that I will get you home.”

             “Hm, good.”

Without skipping a beat, Jet Stone created a ladder out of magic, and threw it from the window. He told the others: “Alright, everyone, we need to get out of this tower, and fast ; someone might hear you.”

              “Someone might hear us? What are you talking about?” Rainbow wondered.

              “Uh, Jet Stone enchanted us, and—basically we’re like white noise to them,” the boy in the green mask answered, “you guys aren’t tuned out, though.”

               “Why don’t you cast that same spell on us instead of worrying then?” Twilight suggested.

The two men went silent. Jet Stone then announced: “Okay, you know what? Everyone line up; you’re all going to be white noise for. . . however long we take!”

Each of Twilight’s friends lined up to get the enchantment, and once all of them carried it in their bones, Jet Stone added: “I would like to add that this version of this spell lasts for an hour unless it’s broken, so yeah.”

               “Twilight, why have we only heard about this spell just now?” Starlight asked.

                “Um, I don’t. . really know.”

                “I do, though.” Jet Stone joined in, “The white noise enchantment is an old spell of unknown origin; with it, its user could go through dangerous territory, and not be spotted, after all, they’d only be a silent, invisible aura wandering around. The spell has three levels that extend its length, the third making it last for a week. Some have argued that it could be infinite, but studies and discussions around that have been halted due to suicides and disappearances surrounding that enchantment.”

                “Well, that was an info dump,” Twilight exclaimed, “where’d you hear about this?”

                “I read it in a book.”

                “Where did you find that book?”

                “I just. . . found it online.”

                “Huh, I mean, okay.”

Once they were done, Twilight and Jet Stone noticed that everyone had gone back to the ground, but before they could join them, Twilight recalled something.

                “Flash. . .” she blurted out, “where’s Flash?”

                “Flash who?”

                “ Flash Sentry! Where is he?”

                “Uh. . . I don’t. . .”

                “Look, we need to find him; he got stabbed by a changeling last night, and he needs to—”

                “Wait, he got stabbed?”

                “Y-yes? I just told you.”

                “Oh, no. . .”

Jet Stone buried his face in his hands and shook his head. Twilight wondered: “Wha—why are you saying that?”

               “They didn’t take him to the suites,” he reasoned, “that’s the thing; they know he’s with you, so they probably kept him away.”

               “ Where did they keep him?”

               “Do you really want to know?”

              “ Yes! ”

Jet Stone sighed. He resumed: “You’re coming with me, princess. I must warn you though; this may take a while.”

             “Thank you!”

             “Hold on a second, though.”

Jet Stone hurried to the hole in the window, and yelled to the other two, who were below with the rest of Twilight’s companions: “Uh, guys! There’s gonna be a bit of a delay here; the princess is off to find one more person.”

             “You mean Flash?” Sunset cried out to him.

             “Yeah!” Twilight cried back, “By the way, go get some food for us! And make sure you don’t get caught!”

            “Alright! See you on the other side!”

Each went their separate ways; Twilight and Jet Stone snuck around to find Flash, while Sunset and the others were all going to the kitchen in the castle to get rations for everyone back home.

Once they all ate, Celestia and Chalcedony were watching over everyone else, making sure they took as much as everyone needed. Sunset and Starlight were going through crates of fruit, picking some out and moving them with their powers. The boy in the green mask—who had a name, it was Diopside—was grabbing bottles of water, loaves of bread and some cookies, giving them to Fluttershy, who was packing everything up in nice little boxes for the citizens, while Rainbow and Applejack were looking out for anyone walking through the castle, to make sure no one would see or hear them.

Celestia started counting the boxes in whispers. She said: “Okay, so that’s fifteen boxes and counting, think we could do more than that?”

            “I think we should stop,” Starlight suggested.

            “And go home,” Sunset added.

            “I’ll make fifteen more, just in case.”

            “Wait, hold on!” Chalcedony cried, “I found something here.”

Chalcedony held up a bottle of Tartarian wine, which intrigued Celestia.

            “I haven’t seen these bottles for ninety moons,” She commented.

            “Me neither,” Chalcedony said in agreement. “Do you think we could make good use of this?”

            “I think I could.”

Celestia couldn’t contain her grin when she said that, which made the others laugh. She told them: “Enough, all of you; let’s get back to our main objective.” and cloned the fifteen boxes into another fifteen, making them thirty, and cloned them a second time, making them forty-five.

          “And out of here!” Rainbow Dash stressed.

Meanwhile, Twilight and Jet Stone were wandering around the castle, trying to get to Flash. She asked the man: “So, if they didn’t leave Flash at a suite, where did they leave him?”

           “Simple, they left him at Chrysalis’ care,” Jet Stone answered.

            “Oh. . . now that’s just horrible; she doesn’t care about injured war prisoners, trust me, I would know.”

As they were walking, Twilight felt a spiking pain at the back of her head. She started squinting her face, letting out a soft “Ow!” as she did. Jet Stone noticed that and asked: “Are you okay?”

           “I—I’m. . fine,” Twilight replied, obviously lying.

           “You’re not fine, princess, here.”

Once he said that, he held his hand up, which started glowing, and started rubbing the back of her head, and for a moment, she felt like there was no pain at all.

          “Whoa, I’m. . . okay!” she exclaimed.

         “This spell only lasts for ten minutes,” he told her, “so take your meds once you get home, okay?”

         “Okay.”

         “And make sure to eat, too.”

         “Okay, I will! Dear Celestia, stop acting like my dad.”

Though Jet Stone laughed, Twilight went silent; she never realized how much she missed her father until now. She didn’t know if he or her mother were safe, but she wished they were. She muttered: “Do you think my parents are okay?”

        “I don’t know, but I’m sure they might be,” Jet Stone said to her.

        “Between you and me, I don’t think they are; my parents live with my brother, Shining Armor, and he lives in the Crystal Empire so. . .”

         “Oh, that’s. . . unfortunate.”

         “‘Unfortunate’? More like ‘terrifying’! Celestia knows what might’ve happened to them!”

          “Uh. . .”

          “What?”

          “I get that’s an expression, but I’m not sure Celestia would know anything about your parents’ situation.”

           “I mean. . . fair.”

They both went quiet again. Twilight resumed: “You know, I don’t believe what you said.”

           “What? You mean what I said about your parents?” Jet Stone asked. “I mean, I get it; we’re total strangers and—“

           “—No, what I mean is; I don’t believe that you actually found that enchantment online.”

           “What?”

           “I’m just saying, a guy like you, knowing our exact location? And knowing about a spell that’s definitely older than Celestia herself? Very weird.”

Jet Stone sighed while Twilight continued to ramble, saying: “Also I’ve read every synopsis of every book in the Library of Magic, and I’ve been to the Canterlot Archives once; I’ve never seen them mention anything related to that spell, did you—did you get it from the restricted section?”

          “No, I just. . I found a PDF online, and, yeah,” Jet Stone explained.

   Twilight shrugged it off. “Sure, I guess.”

         “You still don’t believe me?”

         “I do! Don’t. . . worry about it.”

She still didn’t believe him, though, which didn’t really matter at that moment—Twilight stopped by a room that had its door slightly opened, which piqued her interest. She opened the door a little more and froze at what was hanging above her; a collection of green cocoons with hostages inside—Flash’s cocoon being front and center.

         “Oh, dearest Celestia,” she muttered.

         “What? What happe—” Jet Stone had just entered the room— “Oh, my goodness, lots of unconscious bodies here.”

Twilight got closer to Flash’s cocoon. “How do we get him out of here? How do we get all of them out of here?”

        “Maybe we could cut ‘em open?”

Right after he said that, Jet Stone walked up next to Twilight, took out a pocket knife, enchanted it with his hands, duplicated it into several knives and used each of them to cut the cocoons off the ceiling. The cocoons were about to fall—but he kept them floating in place with his hands.

        “Twilight, do you mind finding us an exit?” he asked her.

        “Uh, sure!” she answered with a little hesitation.

The princess went to a nearby window and opened it, and as she was holding it down, Jet Stone was passing the cocoons through it.

       “Isn’t someone going to see this?” Twilight asked.

       “I know that, but, here’s the trick—” Jet Stone was enchanting each of the cocoons with the white noise spell— “ we can see the cocoons, but no one else can. The white noise spell has witness selections, that’s how you and your friends saw me.”

     “Well, that’s interesting!”

While the two were busy transporting hostages, Celestia, Chalcedony and their fellow ration providers were about to transport something of their own—they were filling up some coaches with their ration boxes and raw materials, which confused Sunset. “Why can’t we just use a truck instead?” she asked, “I mean, we all have licenses.”

      “I’m scared of driving trucks,” Celestia replied, “I drove one out of pure curiosity once, it was awful.”

      “How are you scared of it?” Rainbow Dash wondered. “You’re Queen Celestia.”

      “What? So I’m not allowed to have fears because I’m a queen?”

      “It’s like Twilight dealing with a centaur but being scared of quesadillas,” Starlight reasoned.

      “A royal can have silly fears.”

      “That’s true, but,” Chalcedony argued, “royals should face those silly fears, too.”

Things were going pretty well for Twilight and friends, but Chrysalis’ day had just gotten worse ; a changeling guard pulled her aside and took her to the suite Twilight and her friends were in, and even showed her the hole in the window.

       “How— how did you let this happen?!” she cried out.

        “We couldn’t see them!” the guard reasoned.

        “Don’t tell me they did the same to Celestia. . .”

        “They. . . did , your majesty.”

        “ What?! ”

        “Look, I apologize , but—”

        “ How could you not see them? They were as clear as day! You don’t notice that there’s someone on the windows, opening holes in them for all to see?!”

       “Majesty, the kitchen’s been swept!” Another guard entered the scene.

Chrysalis pinched her hand together and put them sideways to her chest, taking a deep breath.

      “Majesty?”

      “I’ll get to it!”

Chrysalis looked back to the guard before her. “Sleep with one eye open.”

Shortly after, Chrysalis and the guard beside her walked along to the kitchen. Chrysalis said, complaining: “I tell you that these people are just as powerful as we are, and you just. . forget about it and let them slip through the cracks and leave us starving?!”

      “Your majesty, you don’t understand,” she explained, “we couldn’t even sense them!”

      “I don’t give a shit! You had one job, one job ! This is humiliating! What will Tirek think?”

      “Why don’t we tell him?”

      “ Don’t .”

Chrysalis paused; she made it to the kitchen. Once she entered, she was distraught—she ran to the fridge, rapidly going through its contents. She went into the storage room, counting up the bags of grains, poultry, fruit and vegetables. She even went into the cellar to count her wine bottles—to find out that things were missing from every corner.

     “I can’t believe this,” she muttered, “not even my wine was safe!”

    “Your majesty, don’t you worry,” the guard said, putting her hand on Chrysalis’ shoulder, “I’m sure we’re going to find—”

    “Which town in Equestria has a food shortage?”

   “Um, from what I hear, Ponyville has been hoarded the most, your majesty.”

    “Alright, I see what they’re doing.”

Chrysalis turned around to face the guard and commanded: “Find Queen Celestia, and find the little princess, too.”

      “But, your majesty,” the guard doubted, “what if they’re still invisible?”

       “Don’t worry, they won’t be.”

As they stood by their three carriages, Celestia and company were waiting for Twilight and Jet Stone—who were taking way too long to arrive.

       “This is just. . . criminal,” Applejack whined.

       “You’re right,” Sunset groaned.

       “Should we just. . . leave without them?” Starlight asked, “I mean, they seem to be doing just fine without us anyway.”

       “We’re not leaving until they’re back,” Celestia objected.

Everyone else let out exasperated sighs. “But why?!” Starlight cried.

       “We cannot leave them here,” Chalcedony told them, “these changelings will do anything but have mercy on them!”

      “But I wanna go home!”

      “I don’t care! We must wait.”

Starlight started sulking and pouting, pleading for Chalcedony to reconsider. She begged, saying: “Please, please, just take us home, I will do anything .”

     “No, you will not,” Chalcedony replied.

     “I beg of you, please !”

     “No.”

     “ Please !”

Right as that happened, Twilight and Jet Stone arrived, carrying their cocoons with them. 

     “Uh, we’re here now!” Twilight announced. “Can we. . can we go home?”

     “Sure, but,” Diopside replied, “you’re gonna have to find a way to bring them home.”

      “Fair point,” she thought.

Everyone got quiet once she said that, which prompted Jet Stone to blurt out: “So how will you do that—”

An arrow struck one of the carriages, after which another one struck Jet Stone on his arm, which left him almost falling to the ground until Twilight caught him.

      “Oh dear, they found us!” Celestia cried out. “Twilight, take the man and your hostages. I’m leaving with the rest, see you there.”

      “Uh, yes ma’am!” she responded.

At that point, everyone was in their carriages except Twilight, who had to act fast since changelings were

coming for her and her friends. As the sounds of their marching were getting closer with every second, Twilight’s pulse grew quicker, and she had to find a way to leave. The princess took the remaining carriages, stuffed each of the cocoons in them, and laid Jet Stone down in an empty one that she drove. Right after that, she hooked that carriage to the other ones that had cocoons in them, and right as those changelings came in, Twilight got up to the front and powered up the carriage with her magic, storming off before them.

That didn’t stop the changelings though; some of them latched onto the carriages in the back, which troubled Twilight, so she started blasting them off with magic as she drove through the streets of Canterlot, making her way downtown.

As that was happening, the others were already downtown—Sunset, Starlight and Celestia were leading the front, while Chalcedony, Diopside and Applejack drove in the middle, and behind them were Pinkie, Rainbow and Fluttershy, and all of them were running out of town with changelings flying behind them.

     “Is this the part where we regret all of this?” Rainbow yelled. “Because this is the worst thing we’ve done yet!”

      “We’ve been through this many times!” Celestia responded. “We will make it out of here!”

      “Where in the world is Twilight?!” Sunset cried.     

      “That doesn’t matter! They’re getting closer—”

The changelings surrounding Celestia pulled out their bows and arrows and started shooting at them and the other carriages.

     “Oh, shit,” the queen exclaimed.

    “We’ve got to lose them!” Starlight pleaded.

    “I know how!”

As she said that, Celestia got up from the front and all the way to the top of the carriage and blasted each and every changeling that came her way as Sunset followed suit, while Starlight drove through the streets and alleyways with shaky hands, trying to get through. 

As for the others, Applejack was driving while Chalcedony and Diopside were fighting the changelings, while Rainbow and Fluttershy flew back to the changelings and fought them as Pinkie drove through Canterlot in frantic speed—but still doing her best to keep the tires in place.

As for Twilight, though, things were terrible; the two people she needed were comatose, changelings were firing her with arrows by the second, and her two other carriages were about to split, and she knew that. She got up and stood between the first carriage and the second one, gripping the hook in the middle. The changelings above her kept shooting. Twilight gave them a massive, magical blow—but that only led to one of them holding up a giant mirror that made the beam bounce back and blast Twilight off the middle, leaving the two other carriages separated from the main one which drove off

Once she got back up, Twilight knew that the changelings shouldn’t get those carriages back, so before either side could make another move, the princess powered up her hands, carried each of those three carriages and threw them off, sending them falling to the ground, and once all was said and done, Twilight put her glasses in her pocket, rushed to the cliff and jumped off of it amidst the surprised changelings.

      “Oh, for the love of—get her!” one of them commanded.

Twilight heard the changeling’s call, that and the wind blowing through her wings. She put her glasses back on and swiftly flew away to get the carriages. As that was happening, three changelings came from above to find the princess—and bring her new companion back, too.

While that was all going on, Celestia and friends arrived at the train station. Each of them was holding bags of rations and raw material—or in the case of the magic-havers, their bags were floating behind them. Celestia went up to the ticket booth and asked for eight tickets; she knew that Twilight might not come home with them, so she only booked for herself and the others with her. Once the process was done, she gathered everyone’s bags and went with the others to the first train to Ponyville. Once they entered, everyone was seated with their luggage sitting behind them, and as the train was set to go, Celestia found herself staring into the window, wondering if Twilight is okay.

Fortunately for the both of them, Twilight was okay, although she was suffering from hypertension; she had made it onto a space between Ponyville and Canterlot, and was walking around, looking for the carriages, and she ended up finding them in the river leading to Ponyville. She went into the river and pulled the first one out, but it was too heavy to get out of water, so she conjured a long, metal chain out of magic and used it to pull each of them out of water, but as the last one got closer and closer, she could hear someone groaning inside of it.

Twilight froze in place. She slowly opened up the carriage to find Jet Stone, now awake, drenched and confused.

        “Where. . . where am I. . .” he muttered. 

        “You’re. . . about sixteen minutes away from home,” Twilight replied, sticking her hand out to pick the nurse up.

        “Wha—Twilight—” he quickly got up— “are you alright? Did you figure it out?”

       “I did. I did. Now. . . can you help me finish what we started?”

       “Of course.”

      “ Perfect , do you mind picking these cocoons up with me? And this broken carriage?” 

Right after she said that, Jet Stone lifted one half of the cocoons and let Twilight lift the rest.

She said to him: “Okay, now, grab my leg.”

     “I—come again?” Jet Stone questioned.

     “Just grab my leg!”

Twilight’s wings burst out and left her floating in the air, waiting for the man to respond. Jet Stone stepped back, hesitant, but gave in and held onto Twilight’s left leg. Twilight started piling up all the cocoons and began flying back to Ponyville.

Meanwhile, Celestia was still looking through the window, with that same, gleaming glare, thinking of Twilight—and simultaneously thinking of King Sombra. She hadn’t seen him ever since that previous night’s events, and she worried that he might’ve been captured, never to be seen again. Was he killed? Was he taken to another land? No one knew.

Celestia took a trip through her memories. All she could think of was how desperate she felt to make things right between Sombra and Cadance and how good that night could’ve been if not for what happened when she entered Luna’s room—which took her back to her sister and grand-niece. Only the universe would know of what was happening to Luna and Cadance right now, and all Celestia wished was for everyone living in her head to be okay, at least for a moment.

      “Is everything alright, Queen Celestia?” Chalcedony asked, having noticed Celestia being deep in her thoughts.

Celestia’s head shifted to Chalcedony. The queen answered: “I’m well. I just. . . I miss a few people.”

      “Still worried about your family?”

      “Terribly worried.”

Chalcedony sat near Celestia, who asked: “Do you know anything about Sombra?”

      “Well, he. . he’s imprisoned in Tartarus,” Chalcedony replied, grimacing afterward.

      “What? How?”

     “Tirek knows of your relationship, so he advised his guards to keep Sombra a hostage in their land.”

      “That monster. . . is Sombra okay?”

      “Yes, and he misses you too; he asked me and my two friends to be his messengers to you.”

      “Must be an honor.”

      “It is; even saying that makes me tremble!”

The two women laughed—until a great crashing sound echoed through the train, which sent Sunset and her friends flying across the room before Celestia kept them levitating with her magic. Right after that, the floor started shaking, and Celestia was losing her balance, which made her drop them straight away.

      “What in the world is happening?” she cried.

To answer her question, a changeling burst in; the changelings who tracked her before were still onto her, and they’d lifted Celestia’s whole cabin, leaving it mid air, to bring her and her company back where they belonged. They even opened its door and swung it back to drop Sunset and her friends as if they were nothing—until Celestia jumped out of the cabin, unleashing her wings to help her land safely to get them.

Right as that happened, Twilight had arrived at Ponyville with the nurse still holding on to her back and the cocoons still floating through the air, following Twilight wherever she went. Jet Stone got off Twilight’s leg, and laid each cocoon on the ground. Once she landed, Twilight was greeted by relieved citizens who’d been looking for her all day, and Mrs. Cupcake was leading them.

         “Princess Twilight, you look horrible!” she said to her, squeezing her face. “What happened over there that’s making you look so ill? Are you hurt? Is Queen Celestia okay?”

Mrs. Cupcake noticed Jet Stone, standing there silently. She asked Twilight: “Who is this boy?”

Although Twilight got quiet, her stomach rumbled. She only asked: “Can you please just feed me?”

        “Oh, my sweet.” Mrs. Cupcake sighed. “Honey?”

Mr. Carrot Cake walked in. “Yes, honey?”

        “Do you mind giving Princess Twilight a bite to eat? She’s starving!”

        “Of course, I’ll get her some leftover stew.”        

As Mr. Carrot Cake took Twilight to the camp kitchen, Queen Celestia flew in the scene along with Rainbow and Fluttershy, and each of them were carrying the rest of their friends, and right after they all landed, Celestia set up a force field again, and this time, she shielded it with dark magic and sealed it with black crystals.

Once she’d finished, she looked over and noticed Jet Stone, who was mesmerized by the force field. She saw him standing there staring at her creation. She walked up to him, asking: “Have you never seen a force field before?”

          “I—I have.” he turned to Celestia as he told her that. “You’re just exceptionally good at it.”

          “Thank you.”

She paused for a moment, then announced: “So, I guess it’s time to say goodbye, even though we never really spoke.”

          “Your majesty, I don’t mean to be rude, but—” Mrs. Cupcake walked to the man— “he is staying, and his friends are, too!”

          “Alright, then.”

A while later, Celestia headed to the camp and met with the citizens, who told her about what happened the night before. Sunset and her friends set on giving them the rations they made and a few bags of raw materials, while Applejack drove to her home at Sweet Apple Acres to deliver the rest of the bags. She even reunited with her family on the way. 

Chalcedony and Diopside were cutting up cocoons and freeing their inhabitants, and once he was freed, Flash rushed to find Twilight, who was eating leftover beef stew that Mr. Carrot Cake had made for lunch while she was gone.

         “Twilight! Hey—” he ran into her embrace— “are you alright?”

         “Are you?” she asked him. “You got stabbed last night! You need rest.”

        “You too! What the fuck were you doing?”

        “It’s a long story! I’ll tell you later!”

Later that evening, the Cake family, along with Granny Smith and Grand Pear were hosting a banquet in Sweet Apple Acres. Celestia, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Chalcedony were working in the kitchen, making meals, while Rainbow Dash was the waitress, delivering everyone’s food in sonic speed. Diopside stayed with Fluttershy, helping her feed her many pets, while Twilight, Flash, Sunset and Starlight were all sat down, eating together. Each table was decorated by lanterns and vases filled with a white rose. Octavia Melody and her string ensemble were playing a few baroque pieces as background music. The farm was bustling with conversation from every table, and what one could smell was a mix of so much good food, one wouldn’t know what exactly one could be smelling. Was it stew? Was it fritters? Pie? Meat? All anyone could think was “ Wow, that smells good.”

While they were eating, Twilight told Flash of what happened while he was knocked out, from her capture to her daring escape. She even told him about that new spell she learnt. 

         “So you jumped off a cliff to get me?” he asked.

          “Yeah, I did,” she replied, taking a bite out of a fritter, “it was something, but I had to.”

          “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Starlight said to Twilight, “it’s rude.”

          “What? It’s a habit!”

          “Well, it’s a bad one!”

          “Can you guys just eat?” Sunset pleaded, motioning at Flash to pass her his plate of steak.

          “Okay, damn!”

Twilight got quiet for a second. She crossed her arms on the table, looking at it silently. She let out a loud, sing-song-y yawn, which caught her friends’ attention.

          “Someone’s sleepy,” Sunset remarked.

         “Shut up,” Twilight blurted.

         “Did you take your meds?” Flash asked.

         “Only once."

         “You shouldn’t have.”

        “I know. I’ll have them tomorrow.”

         “I’ll remind you.”

        “Thanks.”

An hour later, the banquet was over, and everyone went back home, talking about how great that dinner was. Applejack and Pinkie Pie stayed behind to clean the dishes—until Rainbow Dash left them spotless in lightning speed. Celestia and the rest of Twilight’s friends all went to Twilight’s castle—their new residence. They even grabbed some leftovers from the banquet with them. Twilight was about to follow them, but she stopped once she saw Jet Stone approach her.

         “Wait!” he cried out, getting closer to her. “Would you mind it if my friends and I stayed here? If we go anywhere else, we could be in great danger.”

        “No, not at all!” she responded. “By the way, are you gonna eat anything? We have some food left.”

        “I will, don’t worry about it.”

Once everyone was inside the castle, each one of Twilight’s friends assigned themselves a room. Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Fluttershy took one room. Pinkie, Sunset and Starlight took another. Jet Stone, Chalcedony and Diopside took one for themselves. Celestia chose to sleep in Twilight’s separate room, which had a queen bed, fit for her and Sombra, while Twilight and Flash left for their own room and got ready for bed. Everyone in the castle took a shower once they got in, since half the people there were wearing clothes from yesterday.

As the two lay together, Twilight got closer to Flash and lay on top of him. She ran her fingers through his deep, blue hair. She told him: “This is why you shouldn’t have left that night.”

He laughed at her statement, which left her smiling with adoration at him. “No, but seriously though, it’s great to have you back here.”

         “It’s great to have you back here, too,” he told her, “thank you for saving me.”

         “You’re welcome.”

After she said that, she kissed him, brushing his face afterwards. She got off of him and lay facing him. “Goodnight, Flash.”

         “Goodnight, Twi.” 

Once they said that, Twilight and Flash closed their eyes, about to soundly fall asleep. Everyone else did, too. Today was a busy day, and they all earned that.

Chapter Text

Celestia found herself awake in her room, feeling thirsty. She walked to the kitchen to get water, but noticed Jet Stone, sitting outside everyone’s rooms, going through Twilight’s mini-fridge. The queen stood there, frozen as she saw him ransacking through. Once their eyes met, the two were just as confused as the other.

       “What?” Jet Stone questioned.

       “What are you doing here?” she asked. “It’s 12:30!”

       “What are you doing here?”

       “I just came here to get some water!”

       “Well. . . I also wanted to get something; I haven’t had anything to eat since six!”

       “I. . . That's. . . pretty awful, actually, and I feel bad for you. You can have my dinner instead.”

      “Which one?”

      “This one.”

Celestia took a brown paper bag from behind Jet Stone and gave it to him. The bag had Celestia’s cutie mark drawn on its back, which he didn’t notice. He opened it to find a small apple pie.

      “I made this, by the way,” she told him.

      “ You made it?” he thought.

     “I like making food for people I like.”

     “Like yourself?”

     “Yes, like myself.”

     “You’re a lot more confident than I thought.”

     “True, now can you finish your meal? You need your eight hours of sleep.”

     “I will, I will.”

Celestia took a water bottle, drank from it, and was heading back to her room—until she heard a loud clap echoing through the halls.

     “What was that?” she asked, startled.

     “I don’t know; could’ve been thunder,” Jet Stone answered, indulging in his meal, “It’s spring. There’s a lot of rain in spring.”

     “Does that mean Cloudsdale is still active, and they’re above us, as we speak?”

      “I think, yeah.”

Celestia wasn’t certain about that, so she ran downstairs and opened the door. It was raining, in fact, and before she knew it, she could see lightning burst through the sky. She stood there and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, letting the raindrops hit her. Later, Jet Stone joined her, holding an umbrella over her head. He asked: “But, how is the rain making it here? Doesn’t your force field—”

     “It doesn’t block rainclouds, or any other cloud; it’s selective, like the enchantment you used.”

     “I see.”

     “By the way, that spell hasn’t been used since I first raised the sun, how in my mother’s name do you know about it?”

   “I get that question a lot.”

    “Huh.”

The two stood there, in silence, until Jet Stone said: “We should go back to sleep, your majesty, you said we need our eight hours.”

    “Oh—yes, that ,” she remarked, “I’m sorry, I just—”

    “I understand.”

    “Really?”

     “Yeah, I mean. . your sister and fiancé are imprisoned, your grandniece and her family are facing. . whatever they could be facing, and your people are in danger, and it’s making you feel lost.”

      “Lost is an understatement.”

      “Fair.”

Celestia clicked her tongue. She announced, going back inside: “Anyway, I’m going back to bed. You should, too.”

     “Okay, I will,” Jet Stone groaned, “now stop acting like my mom.”

A mischievous little grin appeared on Celestia’s face as she walked back upstairs with Jet Stone following her. The moment she entered her room, she said: “I guess it’s goodnight from here. Can I get your name, by the way?”

      “It’s Jet Stone,” he told her.

       “That’s a nice name, who picked that for you?”

      “My orphanage headmistress.”

They got quiet.

      “I’m kidding,” he retorted.

They got quiet once more.

       “I’ll just. . go,” Jet Stone said, “goodnight, your majesty.”

       “Goodnight.”

Celestia closed the door after she said that. As she got in bed, she lay there, thinking about that interaction. She fell asleep a while later, and as she slept through the night, her door creaked open, slightly, and fully closed after a bit.

In Canterlot, meanwhile, Tirek and Chrysalis sat on their new thrones, listening to a changeling who told them about everything that had happened with them and Princess Twilight. 

        “I. . cannot even,” she grumbled, facepalming, “and those three helped them?”

        “Yes, majesty,” he replied, “one of them seems to have great power in their hands. Hence why I believe that they cast a spell to make themselves and the others seem invisible.”

        “Obviously.”

        “That’s it? We’re just going to let them be free?! What madness is this?!” Tirek roared.

        “Tirek—”

        “Don’t say another word. You promised me glory. You told me that all will bow to our rule, and this, this is what happens a day into this glory?!”

        “Tirek!”

Tirek stood up and grabbed the changeling by the neck, lifting him up. “You are utterly useless! You come to me, promising to aid me, and this is how you do it?! I will kill—”

        “Hey!”

Chrysalis climbed up Tirek’s back and held up a knife to his throat. She whispered, threatening: “Listen, my lord, you can unleash your wrath all you want, but don’t you dare involve my innocent hive in this. They are only following orders, after all. Now, let go of this poor boy; he’s seen too much.”

      “Fine,” he seethed.

Begrudgingly, Tirek put the changeling down. Chrysalis got off his back, and the two returned to their seats, while the changeling couldn’t help but stand there, open-mouthed and terrified of his new lord. 

      “Don’t mind him, dear,” Chrysalis said to the changeling, “the wine is making him worse.”

      “Quiet,” Tirek ordered.

     “You be quiet.”

As the changeling walked away, disgruntled, the two went silent. Chrysalis rested her head on her hand and started to think. This is proving to be the worst thing I’ve ever come up with. . . 

     “You know what, let them play,” she quipped.

     “And let them take us down?” Tirek quipped back.

     “We aren’t going to surrender, but . . we should calm ourselves down; maybe through that, we could see what Celestia’s up to, and then we get back to conquest.” 

Tirek let out an exasperated sigh, to which Chrysalis said: “Oh, come on! Rest is vital, even for us, the wicked overlords! Just. . think about that for a minute! You, me, relaxing in this castle and not having to worry about Celestia and Luna kicking us out or Twilight Sparkle schooling us! Doesn’t that sound good to you?”

    “Fine!” he cried out, annoyed, “we may rest. . .”

    “Finally!”

Chrysalis jumped out of her seat and skipped back to her room with glee, while Tirek watched, sighing to himself. “Is this a queen or a child?”

Hours later, a blue hour was occurring in Equestria. The sky was tinted with blue, red, orange and yellow, and it had gotten clearer after it rained. Celestia had just woken up—even though she didn’t get much sleep. She was walking through the streets of Ponyville, on her way to raise the sun. She began admiring the atmosphere. A few birds roamed the town, flying their way in, chirping through. Their chirping intertwined with wind, blowing through. The path Celestia was walking on had a few water puddles from the last hours’ rain, fortunately, she was wearing boots, along with a bathing robe, since she didn’t have anything else to wear.

When she walked into the city center, she saw the citizen camps stained with mud. Some of them were dripping water, and since they were set where the town hall used to be, the grass it was set on was wet and slightly muddy.

     “Poor them,” she whispered to herself, “they were too tired to set up an umbrella.”

Celestia’s mind had a spark. She conjured a grand umbrella over the camp and got back to her original task; raising the sun. As she drew her arm forward, she turned around to see the moon still over the horizon. She sighed. I hope you’re well, Luna.  

The queen stood still, with her left arm forward, and her right arm back. Her right arm lowered, and with it the moon slowly moved under the horizon, while her left arm rose, and the sun did too, shining its glorious light on all of Ponyville.

As the sun was rising on its own. Celestia remained still, beholding what she was seeing. This is so much better than prison. Then, she went back home and into the castle kitchen. She started making some breakfast for herself and her friends. After she was done with that, she walked to the dining hall with plates of brioche bread, pancakes, hash browns and muffins and two cups of coffee floating behind her. Later, she walked upstairs and headed to Twilight and Flash’s room to wake them up, as the two were soundly asleep under their blanket.

         “Good morning, you two—” she opened the door— “breakfast is ready.”

None of them answered, until Twilight raised her head. The princess was still drowsy, and her hair was all over the place.

      “Okay. . . just. . five more minutes. .” she said, right before she went back to resting.

Celestia rolled her eyes. “Twilight, I’m serious, you’ve gotta get up to start your day.”

      “I’m not! You’re not my mom!”

     “I am your teacher, though, now, please get up.”

     “Fine. . .”

A few minutes later, everyone arrived at the dining hall, tired as hell—except Chalcedony, Diopside and Jet Stone, or the Hidden Gems, as they called themselves.

     “I have to say,” Twilight told Celestia, while eating, “you might be the most annoying morning person we know, but this is good.”

Twilight’s friends looked at her with an expression that could only be described as “??”. 

     “What?” she questioned them.

     “I don’t think you should say that,” Fluttershy commented.

     “I’ve known Celestia since I was five; I get a pass.”

Twilight pointed to Sunset. “She does too!”

      “True.” Sunset shoved a piece of brioche bread before she said that.

      “It’s fine, everyone,” Celestia assured, “personally, I’ve heard worse.”

      “I would know,” Starlight quipped.

After she said that, she asked: “So, what are we doing today?”

      “Well, after careful consideration,” Celestia announced, “I have come to a decision that we will be doing. . absolutely nothing .”

       “ What?! ” everyone exclaimed.

       “But. . why?” Starlight wondered.

      “Well, since I woke up before the rest of you did, I believe that this day is far too beautiful to spend terrorizing changelings.”

      “If that’s the case, then why do we do it every other day?” Sunset thought.

     “Three words: they do too .”

Celestia then said to Flash: “Pass the coffee creamer.” to which he obliged.

      “So, what are we going to do through this. . nothing-ness?” Twilight asked.

      “Whatever we want.”

      “And if Chrysalis attacks?”

      “We fight back.”

       “Cool, anyways, Sunset, could you pass the syrup?”

Sunset passed the syrup to Twilight, who poured it all over her plate of pancakes.

Minutes passed, and breakfast was over. Celestia walked outside to see how the citizens were doing—to which she found that they had just gotten back from Sweet Apple Acres, chortling to themselves. She sighed with a smile. Thank you, mother. Everyone else, meanwhile, was just doing whatever they wanted. Flash and Twilight were practicing sword-fighting. Sunset and Starlight were just sitting around, reading their copies of Princess Gloriosa’s book. Pinkie Pie was practicing guitar with Rainbow Dash as her tutor, while Applejack and Fluttershy were helping Celestia clean the dishes. 

        “Uh, where’s. . the other guys?” Starlight wondered.

        “Other guys?” Rainbow thought.

        “You know, Chalcedony, Diopside, Jet Stone. . . where are they?”

       “They’re probably still asleep,” Sunset answered.

       “Well, why?”

Rainbow shrugged.

        “You know, I’d never say this out loud. .” Starlight remarked, “but I have a bad feeling about these people.”

        “I know, right? They weren’t even gonna eat those pies!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Only a heartless person could say no to pies!”

        “Yeah, and also. . do they ever. . take those suits off?”

         “Pardon?” Rainbow quizzed.

        “You heard me; do they ever take the suits off? I’m serious; you don’t just stay in a sweaty, latex suit for a whole day and still think you smell good.”

        “Understandable.”

        “We do take those suits off.”

Chalcedony had arrived downstairs as she said that. 

        “Well. . .” Starlight remarked, “that shut me up.”

Just then, Twilight burst into the room, crying out: “Thorax is here!”

       “ Quoi ?” Chalcedony questioned.

       “Thorax is on his way here with Trixie and Sunburst right now!”

Everyone followed Twilight outside to greet their friends. They marched all the way to the gate, where they saw Thorax driving a large motor coach to the gate. He stopped driving once he saw them and opened the coach’s gates for everyone, including himself and his two companions to leave. Once he left, he, Trixie Lulamoon and Sunburst all went for a giant group hug with Twilight and her friends, while Starlight gave Trixie and Sunburst their own hug, since both were her best friends.

      “It is so refreshing to see you!” Thorax exclaimed.

      “It’s good to see you too!” Twilight raved. “Come with me, I’ll show you around!”

As that was happening, Celestia was standing in the kitchen, doing nothing. She’d already finished up with the dishes, so it was time for her to unwind, but before she could do that, she went to her room to change into some new clothes, and as she opened up the closet to find something that could possibly work, she found all her clothes and underwear organized. Her jaw dropped. She uttered: “How did all of this—what in the. . I can’t believe this!”

The monarch picked out a stone blue dress with tulle sleeves. The dress had silver and gold embroidery and had a net connecting between the sleeves and the dress’ corset. She went behind a divider and changed into that dress, checking herself out in the mirror.

       “Still looking good, huh?” she remarked to herself, chuckling.

She walked out of the room, still shocked at all her clothes appearing in that closet. She muttered: “Who even had the time to do all of that—”

A retching sound came from downstairs. Celestia rushed to see what it was; it was Jet Stone, who was on his knees in front of a pool of his own vomit. The cloth under his mask was lifted to his nose, but the mask still hid the rest of his face.

        “What happened here?” Celestia asked, frightened.

       “I’m so sorry. . .” Jet Stone said in a breathy voice, “I didn’t mean to. . I didn’t mean to do this. .”

Celestia’s mind went back to yesterday, when an arrow struck Jet Stone’s thorax. She mumbled: “The wound. . .”

She rushed to Jet Stone, pulling him away from his disgorgement and taking him to the living room, where she laid him on a sofa. She walked to the kitchen and came back holding a knife, then she used that knife to rip up his suit where the wound was, revealing some of his chest. The skin around the wound was swollen and red, while the wound itself had yellow fluid seeping from it, and a few streaks of red were spreading everywhere. Celestia stared upon it in horror.

      “We need to go to the hospital,” she said.

      “I’m not going anywhere; I’m fine,” he objected.

     “Wha—your wound is infected! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!”

Jet Stone didn’t answer her.

      “Ugh—come with me—” she pulled him by his hand— “I am not going to let you die.”

Minutes later, Celestia burst into the hospital door, pulling Jet Stone behind her. She hurried to the receptionist. She asked: “Could you please assist me here, my friend’s wound is infected!”

A nurse ran to Jet Stone and pulled him aside. “At your service, your majesty!”

While that was going on, Twilight was talking to Thorax about everything that happened. The two were walking outside the castle, with Twilight now wearing a crimson coat over a black tank top with deep, purple pleated pants.

        “I had to jump off a cliff just to get them!” she exclaimed.

        “That’s terrifying,” he remarked, “at least you made it out alive.”

        “Thank the universe for that! How’d you do it?”

        “I heard about Chrysalis attacking and I just. . I had to get everyone out of there. We were on the run for two nights, but they felt like moons.”

        “Why? Last time I checked, your kingdom isn’t far from here.”

        “I took a shortcut—which was a lot longer than I thought. I was stuck in the Celestial sea for hours until I made it to Hayseed Swamps.”

        “How did you even manage to get there—oh yeah, you guys can fly, at least a group of you can.”

        “Anyway, we stayed at the Everfree forest, and we were welcomed by Princess Gloriosa. She asked me to ask you about her brother.”

        “Is she alright?”

       “Sort of—she’s trying to protect her forest from getting attacked at the moment.”

       “As do I. As for her brother, though. . . I haven’t seen him around lately. I hope he wasn’t captured.”

       “Shouldn’t you try to launch an investigation?”

       “In these conditions? That would be suicidal. All we can do is hope for the best.”

While that was happening, Celestia was sitting in the waiting room while Jet Stone’s wound was being treated. She had leaned her head back, glaring at the ceiling.

       “Your majesty?”

A nurse walked up to the monarch. “Your friend wants to see you.”

        “Oh—” Celestia looked up— “very well!”

Slightly lifting the skirt of her dress, Celestia and the nurse walked to find Jet Stone sitting on his bed. He wasn’t wearing cloth under his mask, which meant that the only thing visible was his skin and eyes.

       “Hello there,” Celestia said, greeting him, “why are you still wearing your mask?”

      “I wouldn’t like for you to know who I am,” he replied, “not even like this.”

      “That’s. . strange, but. . whatever is best for you.”

     “Dr. Greymare prescribed you some cefuroxime to help treat your wound,” the nurse told Jet Stone, “while you’re doing that, you have to keep your wound dry, and change bandages.”

      “Yes, ma’am.”

      “Oh, and do use this time as a break from having to deal with changelings. You wouldn’t want to get another infection.”

    “Of course I will.”

    “Can he go home now?” Celestia asked.

    “He’s allowed to,” the nurse responded, “just make sure to take your bag of meds with you before you leave.”

     “I will.”

     “ And , by the way, you should get this man some clothes; there was a giant hole in them, and they smelled horrible. I highly do not advise him to wear them again.”

     “I will do that as well.”

     “Alright then, I’ll leave you two alone.”

As the nurse walked away from the room, closing the door shut, Celestia sat next to Jet Stone, who lowered his head, looking away from her.

    “You know, I didn’t want you to see me like this,” he admitted.

     “No need to feel ashamed,” she reassured.

     “I know, but. . . it feels weird that I threw up all over Princess Twilight’s floor, and that you of all people brought me here because of it. It makes me feel like a baby.”

     “Why do you bring that up?”

     “Just look at me, I’m a wanted fugitive and you’re an all-powerful queen that has held this nation together since you were twenty.”

     “And? That doesn’t change the fact that you deserve to be cared for. Also, I’m fine with taking care of children; I’ve done that my whole life. Aren’t you aware of that?”

     “I do, but. . that’s not what I’m worried about.”

     “Well, what are you worried about?”

     “Can you fix my suit?”

Celestia paused. “I—you bled in that thing.”

     “I know I did, but. . could you, somehow, clone my old suit and make a new, clean copy without holes? Or dry blood?”

      “Yeah, that’s a better idea. Where is it anyway?”

Without skipping a beat, Jet Stone went to a trash can and took out his suit, much to Celestia’s disgust—she used her magic to move it around without having to touch it, leaving it floating in thin air.

      “Dear mother,” she exclaimed, “you’re the most disgusting man I’ve ever met. You’re gonna have to shower after this.”

     “Do you really think I won’t?” he quipped.

     “I’m just reminding you.”

     “So, should I. . . do it here? Or at home?”

    “Oh, you can do it at home—if you’re comfortable walking on the way there with what I assume to be two-day-old briefs.”

    “Then that means I’ll do it here.”

    “Wait! I have a better idea—”

Just as she said that, Celestia drew her hand out to the wall, opened a portal that led to her room and went through that same portal, with Jet Stone’s old suit following her. Then she used her magic to turn the suit into two—except one was a clean, uncut suit for Jet Stone to wear. As for him, he stood there, wide-eyed and stunned at her work.

     “What are you waiting for?” Celestia asked. “Get in! I’ll get your meds while you’re here.”

Hesitant, he ended up going through the portal while Celestia went back to the hospital room, and as he took his new suit and ran straight to the bathroom, she left the room to get his prescription meds.

In the meantime, Twilight was about to give Thorax a tour of the castle, but as she opened the door, a foul, horrendous smell was spreading around the room.

The two retched. “What is that?” Thorax asked, covering his mouth.

       “I. . I don’t know,” Twilight replied, “it wasn’t like this yesterday—”

Twilight entered the castle to find a pool of puke on her carpet—the definite cause of that terrible odor. “Oh, dear Celestia. .”

The princess ran upstairs to her room, put on a hazmat suit and ran back downstairs—and rushed to the kitchen, leaving with a bag of paper plates, baking soda, a cloth, cleaning solution and air freshener. 

      “What are you doing?” Thorax asked.

     “Cleaning this up,” she said to him, “you can leave for now.”

     “Okay then.”

     “Twilight?”

Flash had just arrived at the castle as he said that. He noticed that awful smell, continuing: “What in Equestria is that?”

      “Someone just threw up on my carpet,” Twilight replied to him, “don’t worry though, I’ll clean it up.”

     “Okay, well, I just came here to remind you to take your meds.”

     “Oh yeah, that.”

After she acknowledged that, Twilight ran upstairs to her room again to find her meds, then went back downstairs to get a glass of water. She swallowed one pill then took a sip of her water, saying afterward: “Because I’m not doing this unmedicated.”

      “Can I help you?” Flash asked.

      “Sure, just get your hazmat suit and we’ll start right away.”

At this point, one could be wondering whatever Chrysalis and Tirek have going on for them at the moment. Well, you see, Chrysalis and Tirek were hosting a grand ball in their new castle, with their changeling army as attendees. The changelings talked together while an orchestra of other changelings were playing a piece of music. Even more changelings were rounding up at the buffet hosted by—you guessed it, another changeling.

Chrysalis and Tirek were standing outside, holding bottles of champagne. While the vermin queen was wearing a patterned, deep turquoise dress adorned with sequins, Tirek wore a custom-fitted black suit with red accents.

    “Ah, this is so much better than the badlands.” Chrysalis sighed with a smile. 

    “And the Tartarian prisons,” Tirek retorted.

    “Oh yes, better than those as well, lest we forget.”

The two raised another toast, giggling to themselves.

     “And look at our little army,” Chrysalis mused, “enjoying themselves, as they should.”

     “Truly what they need to increase their productivity.” Tirek nodded.

     “Tirek!”

     “I was just joshing you.”

     “In that case, you’d be a terrible court jester, my lord.”

Right after that, the two were pulled by changelings for the group waltz. Each and every changeling were dancing in the ballroom with one another, while Chrysalis and Tirek stood there, glancing at the crowd for a moment. Chrysalis fidgeted with her hands. “Wow. . uh. . everyone seems to be engaging in the act of. . waltzing. . .”

      “Yes, yes, I can see that. . .” Tirek faltered.

      “So, um, shall we dance, my lord?”

     “Why, yes, we shall. .”

After the two bowed at each other. Tirek held Chrysalis’ right hand and lifted it, spinning her around, then he walked around with her in circles. A slight smile appeared on the centaur’s face, while Chrysalis was giving glances to the crowd, surprised she was actually doing this. She expected the changelings there to gaze as their leader was doing something she’d normally deem disgusting, but this time, no one cared; everyone was having fun together, dancing without Celestia and Luna having to rain on their parade, dancing without Twilight having to fight them with her beams, dancing with no fear.

Without warning, Tirek lifted Chrysalis up, now holding her with both his hands. She let out a surprised cry as Tirek swayed her from side to side, spinning her around at some moments. The queen thought that the other changelings would notice right then and there, but they didn’t. They just kept waltzing. 

      “I don’t know if I should worry that no one is looking right now,” she said, panting slightly, “but honestly, I’m having too much fun to care! You’re a great dancing partner, my lord.”

     “Thank you, and please—” he stopped spinning her around— “just call me Tirek.”

     “I will, if you put me down.”

Tirek did as she said and put Chrysalis back on the ground.

     “Thanks for not embarrassing me,” Chrysalis said to him.

     “Why would I ever do that?” Tirek questioned.

Chrysalis let out a hearty laugh, followed up with a gleeful sigh. “No, but, thank you, truly.”

      “You’re most welcome,” Tirek said to her.

      “You’re a pleasant companion—for a malicious centaur.”

     “And you’re quite a sweetheart—for an evil war lady.”

Both of them chuckled. “Anyway,” Tirek announced, “I must go now.”

      “Go where?” the queen asked. “Why do you wish to leave so soon?”

Tirek stood in silence.

      “If you wish to leave, let me leave with you,” Chrysalis insisted.

      “Very well, you can leave with me,” he replied.

       “Where are we going, anyway?”

       “I’ll show you.”

Tirek pulled Chrysalis’ hand and ran outside the ballroom. “But seriously, where are we going?” she asked again.

       “Be patient!” he yelled.

The centaur stopped at the hedge maze, much to Chrysalis’ confusion. She questioned: “The maze? Why’d you take me here?”

       “Shhhhh.” He placed his finger on her lip. “Let’s just get lost together.”

Right after he said that, Tirek started running with glee. Chrysalis started running in the maze as she was going through every possible path to find him. Sometimes she’d find an open path, other times, she’d find a dead end and repeat her first steps—until she found him at one dead end. She threw herself in his human arms.

      “Hello there,” she said, panting, “you wanna keep going?”

      “No. . . give me a few seconds,” he replied.

As she was in his arms, Chrysalis could hear Tirek’s heartbeat, and started to breathe with every thump it made. Her arms slowly wrapped around his back. She lingered there for a few minutes. A strange feeling was coming onto her. A feeling she’d never experienced before. Her mind was fighting itself at that moment. Let go, Chrysalis! One side cried. Don’t give in to your weakness!

Without hesitation, Chrysalis landed off of Tirek’s arms and back into the ground, trying to regain her composure, while Tirek tilted his head, wondering what had gotten into her.

      “Don’t look at me,” Chrysalis ordered, “that was. . . just. . . just. . let’s keep going.”

     “Alright. . I suppose. . .”

Okay, back to Twilight and friends.

Twilight and Flash were done cleaning that mess. They were at Sweet Apple Acres, getting lunch ready for the citizens—and their new guests, the changelings. Their friends were there to help, too. Applejack and Pinkie Pie were in the kitchen helping their family. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were bringing people’s orders, while Twilight and Sunset were feeding Fluttershy’s pets—but as they did, they remembered their own, and their friends’ pets, too.

     “Hey, Fluttershy—” Twilight  stood above her friend— “where are our pets?”

     “Um, I. .” Fluttershy faltered, “I don’t know.”

     “You don’t know?”

Twilight took a breath, as not to terrify her timid friend. She grabbed Fluttershy by the hand—taking her away from the crowd and outside the farm. 

     “Where do you think they went?” Sunset interrogated.

     “I think they probably landed at my house,” Fluttershy answered.

     “Then to your house we go!”

With the help of Twilight’s powers, the three teleported to Fluttershy’s cottage—a place that remained untouched by changelings, but abandoned by its owner. 

      “I hope no one died here,” Sunset uttered.

      “Sunset!” Fluttershy and Twilight screamed.

      “I—I’m sorry.”

The princess opened the door to find a great mess; the birdcage was laying on the floor. The carpet was stained—terribly stained. Pots and pans were on the floor. Everything was just. . wrong.

     “Wow. . .” Sunset exclaimed.

     “What are we going to do now?” Fluttershy asked her friend.

     “Hm. . . maybe if I just—” 

Right after that, Twilight charged up her hand and snapped her fingers, which magically brought everything back to its place—and cleaned the carpets, too.

     “Now, let’s get back to work,” she continued.

But before either of them could do that, they heard a mix of animal noises from upstairs—one that stood out was a loud meowing, combating a loud barking. The two looked back at each other.

     “I think we both know what that was,” Sunset remarked.

Fluttershy and Twilight nodded. “Let’s go.”

They went upstairs to Fluttershy’s room—where they found their pets and their other friends’ pets fighting; Winona, Applejack’s pet dog, had been wrestling with Rarity’s cat, Opalescence, while Owlowiscious, Twilight’s pet owl, was watching by. Angel, Fluttershy’s pet bunny, was hiding underneath her bed, while Gummy, Tank and Ray—Pinkie Pie’s pet alligator, Rainbow Dash’s pet tortoise and Sunset’s pet lizard—were just laying on the shelves.

    “Hey, hey, hey!” Twilight cried out. “What happened here?”

    “Come here you two—” Fluttershy took Opal in her hands while bringing Winona to Twilight— “Applejack and Rarity are gonna be so happy to see you.”

    “And hello to you!” Sunset turned to her pet, resting him on her shoulder, while Owlowiscious flew to Twilight, resting his talons on her hand. The princess turned to Fluttershy and asked: “Hold on, Fluttershy, Rarity’s not here. How are we going to tell her about Opal?”

    “We can write her a letter,” she suggested.

    “Good idea.”

    “Where is she, anyway?” 

    “She ran away when we were fighting Chrysalis that night.” Sunset replied.

    “Oh. What do you think happened to her?”

    “I don’t know. I hope she’s okay.”

As that was going on, Celestia was waiting outside her room, waiting for Jet Stone to finish changing his clothes; she had brought back his meds, and she was about to give them to him—if it weren’t for the fact that he was taking so long in there.

Celestia knocked on his door. “Hello?”

     “Yeah?” he opened the door—but didn’t show his face.

     “I brought you your medication.”

     “Oh, thank you.”

He took the bag from Celestia’s hand and swiftly closed the door, making Celestia wait even longer—but after that, he opened the door again—this time in his new outfit.

     “Did you change your bandage?” she questioned him.

     “Yeah, I did,” he answered.

    “Good.”

Celestia entered the room, throwing herself on her bed. “Finally, some rest.” she sighed. “I can’t believe that I’ve done so much on a break.”

    “Me neither,” Jet Stone said in agreement.

    “By the way, I checked the closet, and all my clothes were there; did you have something to do with it?”

    “Why do you want to know?”

    “ Because . . . I want to know whatever stranger broke into Canterlot Castle and brought all my clothes—including my underwear—all the way here!”

    “Maybe it was Sombra?”

She clicked her tongue. “Oh, don’t be silly; he’s imprisoned in Tartarus. Don’t you know this? Why are you evading the question?”

    “Oh, I know that.”

    “Know what? That you’re dodging me?”

    “I meant that I know about the king.”

    “Well. . . do you know who brought my clothes here?”

    “Yes. . . one of my agents did.”

    “Since when did you have an agency?”

   “There are many things you don’t know about me, your majesty.”

The man was about to leave. “Now, if you’ll excuse me; I have a few errands to run.”

   “In the midst of a nationwide crisis?” Celestia questioned.

   “Yep.”

   “Wait—” she ran to him, grabbing his wrist— “the nurse says you need to rest.”

He didn’t say anything to her. Despite that, she continued: “Look, I know you want to experience the adrenaline rushing through you as you fight changelings while going through the day, but you wouldn’t want to worsen this wound, I promise you.”

   “Alright then.” he sighed. “I’ll stay.”

   “Very well.”

The room was quiet for a bit, until Celestia asked: “Now, where do we go from here?”

Simultaneously, Twilight and her friends were back, all of them holding their pets. Celestia heard them talking and ran downstairs to see them.

     “What’s going on here?” she questioned.

     “Ah—we just came back here with. . some friends,” Twilight replied to her, “they’re a handful, aren’t they?”

     “Looks like it. May I. . help you with them?”

     “There’s no need; Fluttershy will help us. Isn’t that right?”

    “Yes.” Fluttershy nodded.

   “Anyway, we’ll just. . leave you alone.”

Right after she said that, Twilight walked upstairs with her friends following her. Celestia and Jet Stone looked back at them. 

   “I think that’s a handful,” Jet Stone commented.

   “They are,” Celestia agreed.

   “It’s as if they’re all your children and you’re just their mother, keeping up with every single one of them, and based on what I’m seeing—you have your favorites.”

   “Don’t say that; I love all of them, but I do admit, I have an attachment to some of them, especially Twilight and Sunset; they were both my students, and. . I just. . I care about them a lot.”

   “I see that.”

   “So, since they’re like my children, I’d say you’re like their babysitter, and Luna is. . their aunt, or also their mother, it depends, and Sombra’s like their father, a father that. . is now standing in Tartarus, behind bars, all because he is not what he used to be.”

   “Maybe he’ll find a way to escape.”

   “But I fear that he won’t.”

   “Then rid yourself of that fear. You are the sun princess. Shine with hope.”

   “I suppose I might.”

Suddenly, Trixie Lulamoon burst into the room, wearing a light blue coat with gold buttons over a light blue cropped top, paired with another light blue skirt with the same gold buttons, while Sunburst followed wearing his turquoise, starry coat over a white shirt and brown pants.

    “Your majesty, I’m so sorry!” she said to her former teacher. “I completely forgot to greet you!”

    “So did I!” Celestia exclaimed. “Are you okay?”

    “Yes, and uh, my friend here wants to see you too.”

   “Queen Celestia, I’m so sorry,” Sunburst said to her, “thank you for allowing us to enter.”

   “It’s fine, my dear,” Celestia assured him, “you’re all welcome here.”

Meanwhile, back at Canterlot Castle, Chrysalis was standing alone in the ballroom as Tirek was playing the piano; strangely enough, the centaur was great at it, and Chrysalis seemed to be enjoying it, too as she stared blankly through the tall windows. 

    “Is this a dream, Tirek?” she asked, out of the blue.

   “It’s not,” he replied, stopping for a moment. “Why do you think that?”

   “It’s just. . . I had never thought that if we had just. . combined our powers together, then it would make taking over the land a lot easier. Considering that this was our second time having to come back together. . . I had no hope.”

   “But your speech that night was filled with a proud passion.”

   “I know that, but. . . I merely said it as encouragement. I never thought that my army was all for it. The only remnants of hope I felt were when they cheered. That’s how I was able to declare war at Celestia with such certainty.”

She turned her face to Tirek and continued: “I hope that what we have built continues. It has to. This is. . . the only thing keeping my career of villainy alive.”

    “I hope so as well,” Tirek said softly, resuming his playing.

    “I don’t know if anyone has informed you of this, but. . . you are quite a talent; the way you seamlessly play those keys. . . it’s impressive.”

    “It is simple if you master it. That is all.”

    “That’s true.” 

    “Your majesty!”

A changeling hurried into the room, panting for his life—it was Kevin!

    “Your majesty, I just found the pillars of old Equestria!” he announced.

    “Wha—wha— what ?!” Chrysalis screamed. “How—wha—do they not know this is my land now?”

   “They were on a group vacation in Yakyakistan; apparently they didn’t get the memo.”

Chrysalis stood there, slack-jawed. “I. . . I love payback.” she muttered, walking to her minion.

   “Did you capture them?” she inquired.

   “Yes, your majesty,” Kevin responded, walking away with her, “and they’re being escorted to the ballroom as we speak.”

    “This is perfect—” Chrysalis turned to Tirek— “would you like to see the pillars? I hear their powers are perfect for centaurs like you.”

    “I’ve been waiting.” Tirek stood up from his seat as he said that. He walked along with the two changelings until all three of them arrived at the throne room, where they found two changeling guards pushing the pillars forward to see the three.

    “This is what victory looks like,” Chrysalis exclaimed, “look at that!”

    “The pillars of Equestria, right at your disposal!” Kevin announced, “We’ve got Mistmane, Mage Meadowbrook, Rockhoof, Somnambula, Flash Magnus and Star Swirl the Bearded!”

    “This is like a dream come true. . .”

The queen stepped forward to Star Swirl, lifting his chin with her hand. “Look at you,” she hissed, “look at all of you. You’re all so powerful, so mighty. . . yet you fell into a vermin-infested trap, so easily, not even Princess Twilight and her friends are that stupid.”

    “Don’t speak of them,” Flash Magnus barked, “as far as we know, they will not let you get away with this.”

    “The last time they came to this city, they ran off, stealing half of my resources and knocking out my little parasites; if it weren’t for the fact that they healed faster than light, I would’ve nuked that bitch. If she were really that unstoppable, she would step up and fight until her dying breath!”

    “That doesn’t mean that you will prevail,” Star Swirl uttered.

    “Oh, I will, and you won’t stop me, that little princess won’t stop me, and her joke of a mentor won’t do it either. I am omnipotent. My army is indestructible, and the odds are all in my favor. This is my castle, this is my land, this is my era, you’re merely witnesses. . . hold on.”

    “What?”

    “Silence—” Chrysalis turned to Kevin— “Kevin, are you sure these are the pillars?”

    “Yes, I’m sure,” Kevin answered, “I told you their names a few minutes ago.”

    “Well, I believe that, but someone’s not here. It seems my new prisoners are. . . incomplete. Where’s that little man-friend of yours?”

    “Little man friend?” Mistmane questioned.

   “You know, the little man with the sea-green hair and. . that hideous, torn brown cloak he wears over his fancy little suits. Where is he?”

    “You mean Stygian? He’s not with us.”

   “Where the fuck is he, then?”

The pillars didn’t answer her. She asked again, screaming: “Where is he?!” as her voice echoed through the castle.

She hurried around in circles, hyperventilating. She covered her mouth with her hand and took a breather.

    “Oh, dear me,” she groaned, “Kevin, launch a search party for this ‘Stygian’. I need him here as soon as possible.”

Then, she turned to Tirek and told him: “And you, my lord. . . you can handle them.”

Right after that, Tirek opened his mouth and started to drain the essence out of the pillars, which transformed into a great, orange orb that Tirek ate, and once he did that—his horns grew longer, his form grew bigger and his voice became even deeper as he laughed at the newly-weakened pillars.

As Chrysalis was walking away from the scene, her changeling army was set to fly away, trying to find her newest target, Stygian—whatever the cost.

Chapter Text

The sun was about to set in Equestria, and Chrysalis’ changelings had been searching for Stygian all over the land. They tried to find him in every city, every village—they even tried to find him in the mountains and in Seaquestria—but nothing came out of it. Kevin and the others returned to Canterlot to inform the queen about their progress.

     “Manehattan, Fillydelphia, Appleloosa, Los Pegasus. . . and you still found nothing?!” Chrysalis groaned. “Is this man invisible? Are you sure you looked everywhere?”

     “Yes, your majesty, we did,” Kevin told her, “we even tried to find him in Yakyakistan, but we didn’t see a trace of him.”

    “Have you checked Ponyville?”

    “I’m sorry?”

   “Stop acting stupid—I said: have you checked Ponyville?”

   “Uh, your majesty, you told us to specifically avoid going there.”

    “I know what I said. It doesn’t matter anymore. Go there and find him.”

   “Uh. . . yes, your majesty.”

   “As for everyone else, consider searching through this city. He could be hidden in plain sight without us realizing. None of you rest until he is found, do you hear me?”

And so Chrysalis’ newest order ran, as changelings marched to the city and started combing through the streets and alleyways for one Stygian, while Kevin and his little group flew away to Ponyville, hoping that their mystery man was hiding there, while the others combed through Canterlot, keeping their leader’s suggestion in mind.

Meanwhile, while she was outside, tending to a few of the changeling refugees, Twilight noticed something strange in the sky, coming towards Ponyville; a pile of black with a shining, green gleam.

    “What the hell is that?” Twilight muttered.

   “What?” Thorax asked.

   “Up in the sky, do you see that?”

   “What do you—”

Thorax looked up to see that black pile.

   “Do you think that’s—”

   “I’m going back home.”

Once she said that, Twilight raced to the castle, running all the way to her observatory, where, through a telescope, she could see what was going on, and once she laid her eye inside the scope after positioning it, she could see a swarm of changelings headed her way—until the lens broke.

   “Oh, fuck you! ” she cried out. 

   “What happened?” Flash entered the room.

   “Changelings, they’re coming here. Prepare the troops, now .”

Flash hurried downstairs and ran out to the abandoned School of Friendship, where Twilight’s army, a few guards from Canterlot, were training at. Inside, one of them noticed Flash coming their way, and informed his fellow soldiers, which made all of them put on their armor, leave the building and head straight to the blue-haired boy, waiting for what he had to say.

   “Sir Flash!” he cried out. “What do you need, sire?”

   “Follow me,” he ordered them.

Flash and his army walked outside the town, confusing the citizens, while some soldiers ran off to the castle—and specifically the armed towers, where they’d find a supply of emergency cannons Twilight built.

While in the sky, however, Kevin noticed the troops below him. He took out his walkie-talkie and called up Chrysalis, who was on the other line. 

    “Uh, your majesty, they brought out reinforcements, what do we do?” he informed her.

   “Fuck the reinforcements!” she growled. “Tell them what you’re here for. If they don’t give you an answer, kill them for it.”

   “Yes, ma’am.”

Right after he ended his call, Kevin could see the troops, so he descended to meet their faces, with his army doing the same. He took out a megaphone and cried out: “Good evening, dearly detested! It’s good to see you today!”

   “Stop with the endearments,” Flash yelled, “why are you here?”

  “We’re trying to find someone, and I believe you might know something about them.”

  “You’re not getting anything out of us, Kevin, and especially not today!”

Kevin put the megaphone down, and looked back at his kin with a smirk. “Too easy.” he muttered.

Flash slowly took out his sword as Kevin took out his. Flash unleashed his wings and called for his armies to charge at the changelings, then flew outside in an effort to keep his home unharmed, and while they brawled, Chrysalis was standing in the throne room, with her face in her hands, waiting for something to happen—until another changeling guard rushed to see her, bearing a great smile on his face. 

   “We found him!” he cried, “we found Stygian!”

   “I—you’re kidding,” Chrysalis remarked, in disbelief.

   “I’m not kidding! He’s on his way right now!”

Without warning, three changelings burst into the room, pushing a blindfolded and bound Stygian along with them—and throwing him to his knees on the carpet. Once she lifted his blindfold, Chrysalis gave Stygian a malicious smile. 

    “Welcome to your new home,” she told him, “your friends are waiting for you.”

   “What do you want from me?” he asked.

Chrysalis backed away from him, surprised. “Wait. . . didn’t you have an accent?”

   “I did, why do you ask?”

   “Well, it seems as if you lost it.”

   “To be fair. . I have been speaking to someone, and it looks like they’ve rubbed off on me.”

    “And who is that someone?”

    “Someone I hold dear to my heart.”

She scoffed. “Means nothing to me. . . guards!”

Chrysalis snapped her fingers. Two guards picked Stygian up, ready to take him wherever she wanted.

    “Send this man to his new home,” she ordered.

 She went back to calling Kevin: “Kev, I have good news!”

   “ What? ”

  “We found Stygian, you can return home now.”

  “ Oh? ”

Kevin stopped battling and cried out: “Everyone, stop!” The changelings stared at him, confused. 

   “He’s been found, we’re leaving.”

As they left, Flash and his troops looked back at them, confused. “What was that about?”

    “I don’t know, but it can’t be good.”

Night had finally fallen. Celestia had rebuilt everyone’s homes with only a snap of her finger, and everyone was now resting under mystical protection—except Celestia herself; she was pacing in circles around her room. Luna was still in captivity, and she didn’t know how to deal with it; the thought of her sister, her only family getting hurt by Chrysalis and Tirek was eating her alive, so much so she couldn’t sleep at all.

      “Dear mother, what do I do?” she muttered. “My sister is in the hands of the enemy. Who knows what they’re doing to her?”

     “Queen Celestia?” Jet Stone opened the door. 

     “Jet Stone? Why are you awake?”

     “Why are you awake?”

     “I. . . I can’t sleep at all. I’m worried about Luna. I want to save her but I just can’t. . . I can’t figure out what to do!”

     “Maybe if you fall asleep, you’ll think better.”

     “But I can’t! How do you fall asleep when your loved ones are in great danger and you can’t figure out how to save them? Tell me!”

      “Celestia—I. . . I admit that I don’t know how, but the least that I ask you to do is to rest. You need it; you always told me to take care of myself. Why don’t you follow your own advice?”

Celestia went silent.

       “Now, go to bed,” he resumed, leaving the room.

Once she was all alone, Celestia sighed. She climbed onto her bed, tucking herself in and laying on the left side. She closed her eyes, envisioning Sombra laying next to her, whispering sweet nothings in her ear. She pictured his dimpled smile, his pretty dragon eyes, the warmth of his skin against hers, his fingers brushing through her hair. . . Dear mother, I want him back.

Hours passed, and Celestia ended up sleeping like a baby. Meanwhile Jet Stone had opened up a portal to Canterlot Castle, hoping that he might find Luna somewhere in there. He entered the castle, enchanting himself with his white noise spell, and walked through the hallways like no one was watching—most of the time, sometimes there would be changelings coming his way, but they didn’t notice him, but before he knew it, Chrysalis and Tirek were walking through, and as they passed by, he walked behind them, trying to get something out of them.

    “Tirek, I don’t understand,” Chrysalis said, “what are you planning to do?”

    “It’s incredibly complicated, my dear,” he explained, “just follow me.”

A little while later, Jet Stone found himself standing behind the two—who in turn, were standing over an iron door with a little button panel next to it.

     “What’s this?” Chrysalis asked.

     “An elevator,” Tirek answered.

Jet Stone was astounded. An elevator? In the castle? Celestia didn’t make plans for that.

     “May I lead the way?” Tirek proposed.

     “You may,” Chrysalis accepted.

Tirek pressed the single button on the panel. Ding! The doors opened; the elevator arrived, so Chrysalis, Tirek and a befuddled Jet Stone all entered, standing in the cabin with calming, elevator music in the background, and while Tirek and Chrysalis were going down with gleeful smiles, Jet Stone was looking around, hoping with everything he has that his spell doesn’t break.

Ding!

The two tyrants had arrived at their destination, and as they left, Jet Stone followed. They all had landed at the caverns—old mines that belonged to the unicorns long ago. They were welcomed by a staircase taking them deep inside, and once he saw that, Jet Stone knew that he’d be here all night.

The next morning, Celestia awakened from her sleep, with her heart pounding like a drum, and Jet Stone having just arrived from wherever he was.

      “Where were you?” the monarch asked him.

He stood in silence, until he finally uttered: “I know how to find Luna.”

Celestia tilted her head. “You’re serious?”

    “Yeah, I am.”

    “In that case. . go wake the others, make them something to eat, then tell them later.”

    “And you?”

   “I’ll join you all later, give me some time.”

   “Of course.”

Later, Twilight and her friends gathered at the dining table, waiting for their meals, when a flying tray of breakfast food was levitating to them—followed by Jet Stone entering the room.

     “How’s that for an entrance?” he asked, teasing.

    “Spectacular,” Twilight replied to him, taking a muffin off the plate.

    “So, did you all sleep well last night?”

    “I mean, we slept fine, honestly,” Sunset answered.

    “Good, because Queen Celestia did not.”

Once he said that, everyone’s eyes turned to Jet Stone. Flash asked: “What do you mean by that?”

     “I was awake last night,” Jet Stone responded, “the queen was too stressed to rest—she definitely might’ve slept while I was resting, but that still doesn’t make up for a great loss in her life.”

    “What are you trying to say?” Twilight questioned.

    “We need to go back to Canterlot to find Grand Princess Luna.”

    “Look, Jet Stone, I’m aware of that. . . but we’re not going back there.”

   “But why? We need to save the grand princess!”

    “Last time we got to Canterlot, I had to fight a thousand changelings on my back while you and my boyfriend were comatose. I am in no way doing that ever again.”

   “That day was a whole mess,” Starlight added, “my hands have never shook harder than when they were on that steering wheel.”

   “Those changelings were gonna tear my wings off!” Rainbow Dash cried. “I swear by Celestia, the day I even step foot back there—”

   “Is the day you lose your daredevil license?” 

Everyone looked back at Jet Stone with wide eyes and dropped jaws.

  “How did you know I was gonna say that?” Rainbow asked in shock.

  “I mean. . you are the kind of person to say that, Wonderbolt.” Jet Stone took a few steps to the door as he said that.

  “I. . . . um. . . thanks, I guess?”

  “You’re welcome. . . anyways, meet me outside, I’ll tell you how we’ll find Luna, on one condition, though.”

  “What is it?” Twilight wondered.

  “Keep your gasps to yourselves.”

As the man turned away and shut the door, with Chalcedony and Diopside following him afterwards, Twilight looked back at her friends.

   “What?” they all uttered.

   “What in the world is up with this guy?” Sunset thought. “How did he even know you were gonna say this?”

    “I don’t know!” Rainbow reasoned.

    “Was he spying on you at some point?” Twilight pondered. “Because that has to be the case.”

    “Probably!”

    “But what if he’s actually someone we know?” Sunset suggested.

    “That could be possible, but who?”

    “Maybe. . . Soarin?”

   “That’s not how Soarin sounds like.”

   “Well, who do you think he sounds like?”

At this point, you might be wondering how Jet Stone sounded like, to which the answer is; he had somewhat of a forceful voice half the time, other times, his voice would be slightly husky—and it would seldom soften to people that he had an attachment to, particularly two people that followed him around the most.

Twilight sat there, thinking about every interaction she had with Jet Stone. Which man in my life has that kind of voice? She thought. Discord? No, he sounds like a really old wizard. Shining Armor? Hmmm, kind of? His voice is a little brighter. Star Swirl the Bearded? Jet Stone’s more youthful, so. . that’s a no. Then does that mean—

     “Hello?”

Chalcedony was peeking through the wall as she said that. “Are you coming to help us or not?”

     “Yeah, sure, we’ll be there,” Twilight replied, a bit shaken by that call.

As the girl walked away, Twilight went back to her friends, saying: “What was that about?”

     “I don’t know—” Starlight rose from her seat— “It’s not like we said anything.”

    “Whatever, we should get going.”

Later, Twilight was in the throne room with Sunset, Trixie, Starlight, Chalcedony and Diopside. They were all there to receive their latest quest from Jet Stone.

    “Alright, so, for today’s work, we’re about to rescue another individual,” Jet Stone stated, “someone who’s integral in Queen Celestia’s life, someone whom without them, Equestria cannot live to see the moon, someone who lifts the land when no one will; it’s Grand Princess Luna.”

   “As if you didn’t tell us this morning,” Chalcedony quipped.

   “Silence. . . anyways, uh. . Princess Twilight, how do you. . .”

   “Oh, that , let me just—”

Twilight pressed a button on the side of the Cutie Map—revealing an intricate map of Canterlot, compared to the map of the entire land itself.

   “That’s nice, but. . do you have a map for the entire castle?” he asked.

   “I think. . . let me check.”

Twilight pressed the button once more—which revealed a map of the castle, much to the amazement of her friends.

   “Thank you, anyway—” Jet Stone pointed to a holographic elevator in one of the hallways— “this is the way to Chrysalis & Tirek’s new headquarters.”

   “An elevator? That’s brand new,” Twilight thought.

   “I know; their army has been hard at work, and this is proof. This elevator leads to the underground caverns, which is where they hold Luna hostage. Once we enter, I’ll show you the way.”

   “And what of our entrance?”

To answer her question, Jet Stone drew his hand out and opened a portal to Canterlot City. 

   “Get in, all of you,” he demanded.

   “Yes, sir.”

Soon enough, everyone got in, and then, they were just waiting for instructions—and for Jet Stone to stop enchanting them.

   “Okay, so now that we’re inside,” Twilight said, “what do we do now?”

   “Follow me,” Jet Stone responded.

And so they did; everyone walked behind Jet Stone as he took them to the elevator, and soon after, Twilight was standing in there with her friends. All of them waited as they went below the castle, heading somewhere new—to the rest of them, at least; Jet Stone already knew the place, as you know, and Twilight was there, once, where she had to save another royal close to her.

The princess leaned next to Jet Stone. “So, how are you?”

   “I’m well,” he replied.

   “I heard your wound got infected yesterday.”

   “That’s true.”

  “It was so bad you threw up.”

   “That’s also true.”

   “You know, Flash & I had to clean that up.”

   “You did?”

   “Yes.”

   “Is that why the floor was spotless?”

   “Yes.”

   “Oh—thank you for that, by the way.”

   “No problem.”

The two stopped speaking and waited along with everyone else, and just then. . . . Ding! The elevator opened its doors, revealing a staircase taking them to the depths of Canterlot. 

   “What in Celestia’s name. .” Twilight exclaimed, “how deep does this go?”

   “About as deep as you think,” Jet Stone said, “now move, we have to find Luna before Tirek and Chrysalis come back. . . which, now that I think about it, won’t be too soon.”

As they walked down the stairs, they could see the prisoners from hanging cells, crying and begging for salvation—some of them with deep, infected cuts. 

    “We should help them,” Twilight suggested.

    “Not now, princess,” Diopside interjected, “just carry on walking.”

    “Whatever you say. . .”

They arrived at the end of the staircase—where they saw even more prisoners in cages, this time the prisoners were watched by changelings. Twilight & Starlight were about to run and fight them, but Chalcedony stopped the two girls.

     “Contain yourselves,” she ordered them.

    “How else are we going to get through?” Starlight stressed.

   “Watch this.”

From his hands, Diopside blew a gardenia flower to the guards that landed nimbly on the floor, and it lasted for about half a second once a changeling spotted it and shot it with its brand new rifle.

   “What was that?” his fellow trooper asked.

   “I saw a flower on the floor,” the guard answered, “I think an intruder is among us.”

   “Shit.”

   “Stay watchful. That spell of theirs will keep them hidden, but their actions will be clear as day.”

Twilight and her friends were watching the whole thing, astounded, while Diopside fell to his knees and placed the ashes of that gardenia in his arms.

    “My poor flower. . .” he whimpered, “thank you for your sacrifice.”

Jet Stone walked to the child and knelt beside him, saying: “Don’t worry, I’ll avenge your little flower.”

Everyone else, meanwhile, was waiting for what the man had to say—until Twilight spoke: “Let’s split up.”

    “Why do you say so?” Jet Stone asked her.

    “If we split, they’ll have no idea which person to focus on. Their heads will turn from having to go back and forth through this place.”

    “Twilight, that’s a great idea,” Starlight praised, “ but . . . I think I have an even better suggestion. I think we should split into even smaller groups so that each of us can free a group of prisoners and Great Princess Luna, so everyone will be freed from having to endure these conditions!”

    “ Impressionnant ! Good thinking.”

    “So, how are we gonna be split?”

   “I’ll go with Sunset and Trixie, and you can go with the Hidden Gems since. . you two seem to be getting along well.”

Starlight walked up to her friend, and whispered: “Okay, you have to know who these people really are. Let me tell you; I was with that Chalcedony girl and she was so weird to me!”

   “Why?”

    “I. . I don’t know, but she was so strange. . . you should keep an eye out for her.”

Twilight nodded obediently as Starlight walked away with Trixie and Sunset by her side, while the princess was left in the Hidden Gems’ company, as she always wound up to be these days. Once she was alone with them, Twilight saw that there were six gates ahead of them, possibly leading to even more prisoners. She asked Jet Stone: “Where do we go from here?”

    “The third gate is the way,” he replied, “behind me.”

    “Yes, sir.”

They walked through the third gate, and found themselves walking through a solitary hallway; no prisoners, no guards. All was clear. As they walked, Chalcedony halted her steps and directed her focus to dull rocks on the floor, then she took out a satchel and placed the rocks inside of it—something Twilight had noticed.

    “Do you really need those rough diamonds?” she remarked.

    “Let’s get one thing straight, dear—” she put the satchel in Twilight’s hand— “ you do.”

   “And. . why would I need them?”

   “All will be in due time, your highness.”

In the distance, Jet Stone cleared his throat, signaling Chalcedony to keep moving, and she heard him.

   “I think this conversation is over. Let’s go back to our friends, shall we?”

   “Yes, we—we shall.”

   “Hm, good girl.”

The two girls continued walking with their friends, until Jet Stone stopped, for some reason.

   “What now?” Twilight asked.

   “We’re here,” Jet Stone announced.

Twilight got close to Jet Stone. The two were standing in front of a metal door with a sign that read:

RESTRICTED AREA

DO NOT ENTER

You already know how these people feel about rules.

Jet Stone put his hand on the door and covered it with black crystals, then tore it off with his bare—albeit latex covered—hands, and it revealed a grand discovery— that was Tirek and Chrysalis’ lab.

Twilight and the Hidden Gems entered the room. The lab was a modern laboratory like any other, but it was also combined with an old potion room. They saw tables with many test tubes, beakers, potions, and chemicals. They also found old spell books and chemistry books scattered with drawings of changeling form concepts.

   “ Chère Céleste . . . this is unlike anything I’ve seen before,” Chalcedony exclaimed.

   “This is impressive, actually,” Twilight thought, “Chrysalis must’ve realized that she might lose, so she decided to try and combine her sorcery with modern-day chemistry.”

   “I always thought of her as more of an ‘alchemist’ of sorts, and alchemists are quite the con artists nowadays.”

   “Chrysalis isn’t that dumb, Chalcedony; her whole thing is using her shapeshifting abilities to trick people and cause rifts in relationships to feed on love. She definitely knows the difference between chemistry and alchemy.”

Twilight paused, then asked: “Anyway, Jet Stone, is this the place where we’ll find Grand Princess Luna?”

    “No, but. . I thought that you should check this out,” he replied.

   “So, where is Luna?”

   “Your friends might know the way.”

On the other side of the cavern, Sunset, Starlight & Trixie had just entered the second gate, where they were greeted by a hallway shrouded in darkness. Sunset turned on a flashlight she was carrying to see better, and once she pointed it to the ground, she found herself standing on a giant footprint—or more accurately, a claw print.

    “Huh. . .” she muttered.

    “A claw?” Starlight thought. “Why would that— oh my goodness . . is there a trail?”

To answer her question, Sunset pointed it further away from the claw print. . and there was a trail.

     “We should follow it,” Trixie suggested.

And following they did. The three kept walking along the trail until they stopped further inside what they’d just entered—when Sunset bumped into something.

     “You okay?” Starlight asked.

     “I’m fine. . . I’m fine,” Sunset calmed her down. “Something’s in the way, though.”

     “Give me that—” Trixie snatched the flashlight from Sunset’s hand and pointed it to the ground— “the trail ends here. . so that means. . . whatever you bumped into might be the source.”

Starlight pointed the flashlight over her & Sunset’s head. It illuminated the head of a sleeping dragon—it was Spike, Twilight’s dragon-dog!

      “Spike!” the three cried out.

     “How did they find him?” Trixie wondered.

     “I don’t even wanna know,” Sunset thought.

     “Hello?”

A voice spoke behind them. The three froze in place. They turned around to see who that voice belonged to, and that’s where she saw Grand Princess Luna, chained & gagged, while wearing a navy blue dress with slits on the side of the thighs.

     “Grand Princess Luna!” The three ran to her. Trixie blasted her chains with her magic and tore off her gag, leaving her free to move and speak.

    “Thank you ever so kindly for saving me, Starlight & Sunset,” she said, hugging them, “but. . where is Princess Twilight?”

    “Oh, she’ll be here, don’t worry about it,” Sunset guaranteed.

   “Alright then. . quick, free the dragon. He’s our only way out. . but wake him gently.”

Sunset got closer to Spike, and she slowly caressed the gap between his eyes, to which he awoke, while Starlight zapped his chains off his neck, arms & legs.

    “Good afternoon, boy!” she cooed at him. “Guess what? We’re going home! You’re gonna see Twilight again!”

Before she knew it, Spike opened his mouth and used it to pick Sunset up and put her on his back—an act that surprised Starlight.

   “I thought he was gonna eat you!” she exclaimed.

   “Oh, don’t worry, he’s not like that,” Sunset said, “besides, he’s more into eating crystals if anything.”

   “That is true.” Luna grinned.

Starlight, Trixie & the grand princess joined Sunset on Spike’s back. Sunset cried: “Alright, Spike, take us back to Ponyville!”

The dragon obeyed, closing his wings and running straight through the wall, leaving a giant, gaping hole in it. The changeling guards gasped and swiftly pointed their rifles at it, to which he responded by breathing fire in their faces. He even picked each of them up with his teeth one by one, threw them in the air and hit them with his tail, sending them flying across the caverns.

    “Good boy, Spike!”

Twilight had finished exploring with the Hidden Gems. Once she saw her pet dragon, she ran to him, letting his head rest in her embrace.

    “Oh, I never realized how much I missed you, boy. .” she said, “I’ll make you a pot of crystal soup the second I get home, okay?”

She kissed his forehead and nuzzled his snout, then she and the Hidden Gems climbed his back.

     “You remember where home is, right?” she asked him.

The dragon nodded. He’d known Twilight for half his life; of course he’d know.

    “Then fly us back there, please.”

    “ Wait! How are we going to free everyone else?”

   “I think Spike has an idea.”

Without hesitation, the dragon breathed fire with such strength it melted all the cages down, setting the prisoners free, and leaving them climbing on his wings for refuge.

    “Oh, how I love you, my scaly little prince.” Twilight smiled, kissing the top of his head. “Now, let’s really get out of here.”

    “But how are we going to get out?” Trixie questioned.

    “Teleportation, baby!”

Twilight opened up a portal for Spike to fly into, and he did. As soon as he flew into that portal, the dragon found himself flying off Canterlot’s cliff with Twilight and friends and prisoners in tow.

    “ Hahahaha! We’re flying!” Twilight cried out as great gusts of wind blew through her hair.

   “ Woooo! ” Trixie cheered.

   “Uh. . Twilight? Are you sure we’re gonna make it home?” Starlight asked, yelling out to her friend.

   “Yeah! Why do you say that?”

   “Because I can see Chrysalis flying behind us right now!”

   “ What?! ”

Twilight handed Spike’s bridle to Jet Stone as she ran to Spike’s tail and saw Chrysalis flying their way. She blasted at her with her magic—but Chrysalis stayed in the air, unaffected.

   “Oh, damn it, it’s a scare tactic,” she groaned, “keep flying, Spike!”

A little while later, Spike landed near Ponyville, and once he fully stopped, everyone got off of him and ran into the city, greeted with citizens cheering for their grand princess’s safe return—and Celestia was first in line to see her, and once she was back on her feet, Luna rushed into her sister’s embrace.

   “I missed you!” she cried.

   “I missed you too, La Lune !” her sister agreed. “Are you hurt? Did they do something to you?”

   “I’m okay. I’m even better now that I’m home.”

   “I’m happy to hear that.”

Jet Stone slowly stepped next to the princess.

   “I suppose you haven’t met Jet Stone yet, have you?” The queen pointed to him.

   “Well, I have now!” Luna exclaimed. “It’s very good to see you, Sir Stone. It seems as if you’ve earned the respect of many people here.”

   “I’d say it’s very good to see you , your highness.” He kissed the back of her hand. “Would you like me to show you where your room is?”

    “Why, that would be so kind of you.”

Moments later, the sun was setting, and Celestia was standing in one of the castle’s towers, as Luna was about to raise the moon after her return. The grand princess emerged from one of the towers, and drew her hand in front of her, and as her hand rose, the moon rose with it. The queen’s face lit up; everything was alright again.

Later in the evening, the two sisters were in Celestia’s room, talking about how they’d been for the past few days. Celestia told Luna about that night, the Hidden Gems, and a nightmare that she’d experienced the night before.

    “I’m just worried sick, Luna,” Celestia said to her sister, “I don’t know if he’s truly okay. I’ve already written him a letter. . but I don’t know if it’ll reach him, so it’s nothing but a draft. I. . I just feel horrible. I need to know if he’s alright.”

     “You’re not alone in that,” Luna remarked, “I’m worried about Stygian. He’s in Chrysalis’s custody and mother knows what she’s doing to him!”

     “This is starting to become a theme with us. Our men always get the worst of torture. . . and I hate that. I really do.”

     “Don’t worry, Celie, knowing him, Sombra might find a way to escape, and Stygian. . . well, we’ll save him ourselves.”

     “I guess so.”

    “Anyways, I must go to bed. I have dream duties at 10. You should rest, too.”

   “Don’t worry, I will. . . goodnight, Luna.”

   “Goodnight, and sweet dreams.”

  “Sweet dreams.”

Once her sister closed the door, Celestia found herself alone with her thoughts again. The monarch threw herself on her bed and lay on her side, as she’d done every other night, and she was thinking about Sombra again. This time, she found herself thinking of him coming back home, coming back to her, returning after going through hell, with that damned dimpled smile of his shining through, as it always does. That thought stuck with Celestia through the night as she was falling asleep with the widest grin on her face.

Chapter Text

It was a clear Monday morning, and Twilight Sparkle was running through the halls to the command room, where she would receive her latest task, and although she wasn’t in the best mood, she was still going to do it; it was her responsibility, after all.

She barged through the doors, “Yes, Commander Celestia?” she called.

         “Welcome, Twilight,” Celestia replied, turning her chair to face the pink streaked princess, “Good to see you.”

         “Wish I could say the same.” Twilight groaned, “Anyway, where are the pillars? You said you wanted to find them when we started. Do you think they might actually stop this. . madness?”

           “Yes and yes.”

           “Oh—oh my goodness, really?”

          “Undoubtedly. But first, here’s an apple,” the queen said, giving Twilight a crisp red apple, hoping it might lighten her mood. “You’re not you when you’re hungry.”

Twilight sneered for a bit, but accepted it anyway. She asked the queen: “So, what’s for today?”

Celestia rolled out a map of Equestria on her desk. “The Hidden Gems have informed me that the pillars—well, five of them, are located in Canterlot Castle. They kept this brief, but they did show me enough to know that it’s true. What you’ll do is that you’ll go with them and see what’s up.”

     “Really?” Twilight asked, eating the apple.

     “Yes, really.” Celestia answered, “Also, don’t talk with your mouth full.”

     “Sorry about that.” Twilight stopped eating for a bit. “What else, commander?”

     “The castle is heavily guarded. If you go alone, then your chances of survival are minuscule. I advise you to go with a few of your friends as help.”

    “Hm, okay then.” Twilight shrugged as she was about to leave.

    “And—” Celestia cried, as Twilight stopped, turning to her—“The gems will meet you at the train station to Canterlot. Do please come back in one piece.”

Twilight took a breath. “I’ll try.”

     “Good luck, Princess Twilight.”

Shortly after she finished the apple, the princess was now at the meeting room where her friends, Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer and Thorax were reading together at the library.

She ran a little faster to her friends, and told them: “I’m going to Canterlot, you guys should come with me.”

Sunset & Thorax looked up, surprised, while Starlight was beaming; It had been a while since she’d done something like that. She said to the princess: “Oh my goodness, we’d love to! When do we leave?”

       “Right now, actually.”

Subsequently, the four were going downstairs to get their equipment. Once they had all made it, Twilight picked up her sword, which was adorned by pink & white star-shaped jewels. Sunset had her two knives, which both had her cutie mark. Starlight took battleaxes bejeweled with amethyst & turquoise. Thorax took a humble orange quiver full of arrows and a green bow, and Flash took his sword, as well.

    “So what are we gonna do today?” Starlight asked.

    “We’re freeing the pillars,” Twilight replied, “and the Hidden Gems are coming with us, actually.”

      “And where will we meet?” Flash asked.

      “At the train station, of course!”

Eventually, everyone had arrived at the train station, and they were walking to their train.

     “Can you believe we had to take a break for these?” Starlight questioned, holding her battleaxes, “I mean, I would violate every rule just so I could have a taste of—”

      “—Okay! Okay! We get it, Starlight!” Thorax hissed, “Sweet Celestia, you have issues.”

     “He’s right,” Sunset added, sheathing her knives, “you’re more excited about this than I am.”

     “Oh, come on!” Starlight groaned, “Did you really think I was gonna say ‘blood’?” 

     “What are you even talking about, my dear?” a haughty voice said from behind them. “Of course we did.”

Starlight turned around, it was Chalcedony and the other hidden gems!

      “Say hi to them too, by the way,” she added, gesturing to the other two. 

Twilight and her friends waved at the two men, who waved back at them. 

       “How are you guys doing?” Sunset asked.

       “Okay, I guess—” Diopside motioned to Jet Stone, standing next to him—“He’s full of angst, though.”

           “Angst?” Twilight questioned. “What for?”

But, before anyone could say something else, they heard someone yelling: “All aboard!”. It was time for them to leave for their train, and once they made it there, they noticed that the train was full with passengers—a rare sight in conditions like theirs. It was kind of a pleasant surprise, but it confused them right after.                 

         “Might be refugees,” Twilight remarked in a low voice. 

Subsequently, Twilight was about to walk up to one of the passengers and shake their hand—until Jet Stone firmly pulled her away from them.

        “What? Am I not allowed to be nice?” she asked.

         “There are times where you’re too nice,” he replied, “also, don’t let your guard down; they could be anything , really.”

After a while, Twilight and her friends sat down. A host passed by, giving them some cups of water, and though that host met Twilight with a smile, he sneered at the Hidden Gems, which led Jet Stone to bury his face after that interaction. Twilight was puzzled, so she got up to him to check on him. He lifted his gaze to her, and grumbled with a low voice: “What do you want from me now ?”

She got up to him and whispered: “Are you still angsty about. . whatever it is you’re angsty about?” 

         “No.”

         “What are you even mad about?”

         “None of your business.”

         “You know, I saw you sitting on Celestia’s bed last night.”

         “What—how did you see that—”

         “No, that was cute, and she seemed. . comfy with it, it’s just. . I didn’t expect that from a four days old friend, I guess.”

Jet Stone looked back at Twilight and lifted an eyebrow. “Is this gonna turn into you suspecting that I’m interested in Celestia?”

          “Look, I’m just saying —” as Twilight spoke, Jet Stone let out a sigh—“You don’t just form a special bond with someone and say that they’re only a friend. Mind you, you guys only knew each other for half a work week, also, she’s literally engaged, and I know for a fact that she isn’t leaving Sombra. I mean—”

          “Twilight, I know she’s engaged, and though I don’t know why she chose to put so much faith in me, I do know that I should be helping you help the people, and that you’ll have to listen to us if you want to survive. Those are the queen’s orders, you know that.”

Twilight started staring at Jet Stone. Was that all he meant? Was he really just a simple man, trying to help the queen? It’s not like Twilight didn’t believe men and women could be friends, but she always had a strange feeling about Jet Stone, and her friends did, too. Maybe he’s a homewrecker in disguise? Maybe Sombra died in prison so he sent him for Celestia? Or maybe. . . .

Right after that, the train screeched, slowing down, and as it finally came to a halt, seven of them got off the train, but before she could follow the rest, Starlight felt something, or someone, pulling her arm.

       “Have a good time, Starlight Glimmer.” Starlight turned around to see the host pulling her arm with a manic smile on his face. She held her breath; She was trying to let go, but his grip grew so tight that she thought blood was squeezing from her veins. Starlight then stepped on his foot and ran as fast as she could from him.

Once she felt her blood running through her. Starlight was away from the train. She stopped and looked around. Canterlot was not the city it used to be. It was now lifeless, abandoned, and there wasn’t anything she could do to save it. Most buildings were empty, some even turned to crumbs and chunks of walls and glass. The street lights around her were bent. Others just had their lamps broken. The girl was now standing alone in the wreckage of the city, accompanied with nothing but the sound of light winds blowing through. Everything loomed around her. How will we ever fix this?

Abruptly, Starlight heard whispers from behind her. She was turning in different directions, trying to see where they were coming from, but they only got louder and louder. She shrunk back, wrapping her arms around herself. Still turning to see who it was. She squeaked: “Please—just tell me what you want from me!”

      “Starlight?” Twilight was behind her fear-ridden friend. She was looking for Starlight all over the place. “Is everything okay?”

        “Yeah! Yeah, I’m okay. . I’m—all good, you know?” Starlight faked a smile as she said that.

 Twilight tightened her lips in suspicion. “Yeah. . . anyway, come with me, the others are waiting for you”

Starlight walked with Twilight, but she still felt wary of what she heard. She turned around. Her eyes gleaming and desperate for answers.

Soon the two were walking with their friends and Jet Stone's crew, looking around the ruin that hauled the city. It was chilling. Each of them had been in Canterlot before, some even lived there. They had known it to be a lively city, full of color, laughter and light, and with every step they took, they realized that none of that was anywhere to be found—which they never really noticed during their first crusade in the city.

     “It’s like an abyss in here,” Flash remarked.

     “And not a good one; the place looks horrible,” Sunset added.

     “What did you expect?” Chalcedony questioned, “This is war , darlings. War is ugly and unkind.”

     “Where are we going, anyway?” Twilight asked.

     “You’ll find out soon, don’t worry too much,” Jet Stone said to the princess. 

     “Do you have a plan for this?”

      “You’ll know when we get there, kid.”

      “Sir, I’m not a kid, I’m nineteen.”

       “Still a kid to me, princess.”

Twilight turned to her friends. “Why does he think I’m a kid?”

      “I don’t know, maybe it’s ‘cause you’re younger?” Sunset replied, teasing.

       “C’mon, it’s not my fault I was born late.”

       “I mean, you are kind of a baby sometimes,” Flash admitted.

       “You’re not helping.”

While the others were walking, Starlight saw a woman with her child smiling at her. She was confused at the gesture but smiled back anyway. The woman could not keep her eyes off Starlight. She stared at her all the way until a building separated the two. “Geez, so weird,” she muttered to herself, but once she was away she paused in fear. Her heartbeat grew faster. 

        “That smile. . . ” Her mind was flashing back to back between the train host and that woman. That unsettling smile he gave her was similar to the one the woman was wearing. Did that mean–

         “Starlight!” Thorax cried out, “We’re almost there! Are you coming or not?”

Starlight snapped back to reality. She ran back to Thorax and as she was panting, she told him about what she saw.

        “So you saw some lady with a baby and you freaked out?” He questioned her.

         “What? I was horrified!” Starlight whined, “She didn’t even blink!”

She turned to Jet Stone. “Jet Stone, could you please tell him that—”

          “Wait,” Jet Stone stopped everyone as he said that. “Do you hear that?”

The group could hear whispers from around them. Their eyes perked up. They heard footsteps coming behind them. Everyone turned around to see who said that. It was that same woman, this time without her child, holding Starlight’s battleaxes.

Starlight’s face fell. “You—you’re not—give me that!”

After she snatched her weapons from her hands, Starlight remembered something: “Wait, where’s your child?” 

The woman didn’t answer, she simply put Starlight’s hand inside hers as she watched. When their eyes met, a shining green flashed from the woman’s eyes, then her face changed into the host’s face. Starlight shuddered as the rest watched in fear. The woman was a changeling!

Once she turned back into her real form, the changeling pointed at the others to look ahead. Trampling sounds were getting closer and closer. All of a sudden, an army of changelings was now standing before them, and they were all armed.

        “Your queen won’t save you now!” she pounced at Twilight & her friends, pointing a sword at them, but before any of them could say a thing, Jet Stone stuck his hand out and blasted the changeling with a purple zap.

A while later, all the changelings ran away, taking Jet Stone's victim with them. Finally, he and the others were alone again. They were surprised by his stunt against them, while Twilight was more bewildered.

        “ Bitch ?!” she squealed.

Jet Stone let out a whistle, while Twilight was so overwhelmed she didn’t even realize her friends were already walking with him. She cried out to them: “Oh, yeah, coming!” and caught up with the rest.

        “ How did he do that?” she wheezed out. “That was dark magic! You saw that too, right?”

        “Yes, we all saw that, Twilight,” Sunset replied, “why are you even asking?”

        “I mean. . . No one in Equestria has that kind of power, you know that! Only the royals have it—and some other individuals.”

Twilight’s friends stopped and looked back at her. “Hold on, Twilight, are you trying to say that Jet Stone could be—”

          “Hello?”

Diopside was standing by the gates, waiting for them to come in. “You know why you’re here, right?”

       “Okay, okay! We’ll be back in a minute!”

Starlight looked back at Twilight. “Sorry about that.”

        “It’s alright, we’ll discuss it later. Now let’s go.”

A few minutes later, everyone was inside the library. Twilight was going through the shelves one by one. It had been a while since she’d been in the library, and the sight of its books reminded her of how much she missed reading there. And as she went through one of the shelves, she saw Diopside in the corner, sitting on a table, reading a book. 

Twilight slowly went up to him, as she climbed the table, she touched the side of his foot lightly with her shoe. “Um, hi?”

Diopside didn’t look at the princess. He was still reading. Twilight looked confused. What’s he reading, anyway?

She looked down to see the title of the book and recognized it straight away. Flora & I. . . by Gloriosa Daisy!

Twilight stood near Diopside. “You’re reading that book too?”

         “Yeah. . wait, you are?” he asked back.

          “I am, and I wish we could go through it together, but I left my copy at home, so. . .”

          “You can have mine.” Diopside passed his copy to her and she started fidgeting with it a little, flipping the pages and going through random sections of it.

         “You’re returning this, right?” the princess murmured, turning to him, then as she opened the title page her jaw dropped. The book was a first edition!

        “You have a first edition copy?!” she exclaimed.

        “You could say, yeah,” he replied, shyly looking down and tracing the ground with his feet. “I don’t think too much of it.”

The two paused for a bit. Twilight’s mind went back to Gloriosa’s book release party. A day she never thought would end the way it did. She grinned at the memory of Gloriosa spawning a vine that threw a copy to her brother. Twilight’s fingers played with Diopside’s mask. She noticed a rip in his latex suit, which showed a bit of his skin. It was a deep, black tone. One she could recognize. She looked up to him and muttered: “Do I know you?”

         “I wouldn’t say you don’t,” he said, teasing her once again.

Shortly, they heard a bell ringing from afar. Diopside quickly got off the table, which surprised Twilight. ran to see Jet Stone standing in the middle of the room whilst everyone else was sitting near desks, so they both took their seats as he was about to speak.

After he greeted everyone, Jet Stone began by saying: “Now, our work for today is to save five of the pillars, and I have a plan for that, which is that we’re going to sneak into the castle and find them. The pillars are in Chrysalis’s room, but obviously going through the front door would be a bad idea, so we’re going in from the back.”

        “Why are we gonna do that?” Sunset asked, raising her hand, “The castle’s already full of guards. That won’t change anything.”

         “Well—” Jet Stone rolled out a map of the castle, pointing to its backside—“The back is where they let prisoners in. If we could just act like a few then they might let us in.”

Jet Stone approached Thorax, who was sitting at his table, minding his business until the two’s faces were so close to each other. 

       “You’re a changeling, right?” Jet Stone asked him.

       “Yeah—I am,” Thorax replied, stammering, “Why are you—oh, no .”

        “You’ll be our fake guard, everyone else, you’re his prisoners! We ride at nine!”

Hours later, it was nine—9:15, actually, and everyone was at the back of the castle, with Thorax, now as a changeling guard, leading the way to where they’d go, and he wasn’t too happy about it—he was pissed.

     “I don’t get this! Why am I the one who has to do the disguising?” he nagged, quietly, “It’s not like the rest of you can’t cast a spell to do that!”

       “Well, it’s because–” Jet Stone bickered back while he was walking–“you can use that so you could tell us what they’re planning or where to go.”

      “Yeah, but they’ll still catch you!”

       “Shhh! Look there.”

As Jet Stone gestured at the gates, the rest noticed two guards by the door. He continued: “Now, if you could just—make up a story for us on the spot, that would be great.”

       “Alright then.”

The changeling stepped forward to the guards. He told them that these people that were standing behind him were trying to steal from the castle. 

      “Here they are,” he said, “a Princess Twilight & company.”

     “ Princess Twilight?! ” The guards were so shocked. They opened the door faster than they ever did their entire lives, and they knew they just had to tell Chrysalis about it. In fact, they were so happy about the whole thing they didn’t even realize that when they left Thorax on his own to take them to their prison that they’d just given Twilight and her friends a free pass to rummage through the castle.

   “I cannot believe how easy that was,” Sunset thought, “they’re so dumb!”

   “Shhhh!” Chalcedony silenced her. “We’re not enchanted anymore. These people can see us & hear us now, so you must be careful. We must split for now.”

Just then, everyone took their separate ways, and Twilight stood there, alone, in the middle of the hallway, with her only company being her thoughts—at least, for a moment before she heard footsteps coming from behind her.

Shit. Where do I go now?

Twilight spotted a vent.

Well. . . . 

Soon enough, Twilight was inside the vent, crawling to find the exit. She crawled and crawled and crawled until she reached an opening, then she got out of the vent and found herself inside the castle library. Weird, isn’t it?

     “No way. . .”

A whisper came from afar. Twilight went to see what it was; it was Jet Stone, who had been sitting down, going through a journal he found.

    “Oh, hey there.” he turned to face her. “I found this while I was combing through the shelves.”

He handed Twilight the journal, and had opened it to a page full of strange symbols and their alphabetic equivalents.

   “What’s this supposed to be?” she asked him.

    “An old code language,” he told her. “It’s called Muro. Queen Chrysalis invented it in the beginning of her days as queen of the changelings.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes; she’d heard of many old languages in her life, but she’d never heard of such a language.

     “You see, Twilight,” Jet Stone resumed, “Chrysalis created that language as a way to send messages to her kin—through a bright light tracing on walls. They’d stare at that wall and try to figure out whatever errands she wanted them to run for her. Soon enough, she realized that that wasn’t the most discreet way to send a message, so she supplied them with hive-mind telepathy instead.”

Twilight pressed her lips together. “You can’t be serious.”

     “What?”

     “I’m sorry, it’s just. . . I’ve heard of many ancient tongues in my life, but this doesn’t sound true. I mean—it sounds like something out of a video game, for crying out loud. Are you sure you’re not bullshitting me right now?”

Jet Stone grumbled. “I am not ,” he snapped, “this existed. I would know that.”

    “Were you even alive back in Old Equestria?”

Jet Stone took a breath. “Maybe.”

As he went back to reading through the journal. Twilight froze in her place, overwhelmed by that comment—she finally found it, the answer to her question of Jet Stone’s identity. He didn’t realize it, but that small comment was the final piece to the puzzle. His attitude, his closeness to Celestia, his father-like demeanor to Twilight, his dark magic, and how could she forget the way he turned that metal door into a pile of black crystals?

All of that meant one thing, Jet Stone wasn’t being a homewrecker. He wasn’t a messenger sent from King Sombra—he was King Sombra!

The traits that this gray-masked, latex wearing man were all reminiscent—no, scratch that, they were spitting images of that black-haired, red-aura having, high-spirited king’s behavior. He even got his power stance right, too, and even with the fact that he obviously changed its tone, she could still hear that dulcet voice of his, the same one that she heard when she got him out of his prison to see Celestia that one day.

     “So I was right,” she muttered to herself, “you are him.”

Jet Stone heard her muttering. “Say that again?” he replied.

Oh no.  

     “Uh—nothing, I just—”

    “You still think I’m King Sombra?” Jet Stone cut her off.

    “Yes.” Twilight couldn’t pretend anymore.

Without warning, Jet Stone grabbed her hand, opened the door and pushed her out of the room.

     “What was that for?” she yelled.

    “Get out,” he uttered. His voice was so soft, yet so rough.

     “Why?”

    “This is over, Twilight. You’re on your own.”

    “What, all because I questioned your identity?”

    “Yes, yes, all because of that. Your strange assumptions and interest in my personal life have been nothing but a huge factor of distraction for us and for your friends, so I’m leaving you here, on your own.”

    “Dear Luna, you sound so broody. It’s insufferable.”

Jet Stone groaned, as Twilight continued: “Besides, you can’t just leave me in this castle, un-enchanted and alone! What if a changeling sees me and kills me?”

    “Princess, if you could fly a man while carrying coaches full of blobs even with a headache, then I’d be damned to say that you can’t handle going around this castle.”

    “If that’s so, then Celestia would be damned to hear that the man she trusted to help her protegee left her for dead in Canterlot!”

Twilight slammed the door in Jet Stone’s face and walked away, grumbling. “Asshole, why’d I even trust him, anyway?”

Jump up! Make a sound, hey! Stomp your hooves, turn around! Start now, make a change—

Twilight’s phone rang. She picked it up to see that Sunset was calling.

     “What?” she opened.

    “Twilight, we found the pillars,” Sunset said to her, “go to the atelier, now!”

    “I will, bye.”

Twilight opened a portal and crossed it to find herself standing at the atelier door, where Sunset was waiting for her.

    “So, where are the—”

Twilight was cut off by the sight of the atelier; it was full of strange impressionist art, and beautiful, detailed portraits of Chrysalis and Tirek, and on the display, she saw the pillars in one giant cocoon, possibly ready to be painted by someone.

    “My goodness.” She walked inside.

    “We need to get them out,” Sunset told her.

   “Well, let’s!”

Twilight took her sword and used it to cut through the cocoon, and once it was unsealed, she pulled out the pillars, one by one.

    “What. . what happened?” Star Swirl the Bearded had just awoke. “Princess Twilight?”

    “Hello, Star Swirl.” she put her sword down. “We’re here to take you home.”

    “Why, thank you, but. . what about Stygian? He’s still in captivity.”

   “We’ll free him eventually,” Sunset said, “for today, it will only be you all.”

    “Alright, then.”

Star Swirl and the other pillars all got up, walking behind Twilight and Sunset.

     “Princess Twilight, you need to get our powers back,” Somnambula ordered.

     “Don’t worry, I’ll—”

Before she could continue, a bullet pierced through the air, reaching for Twilight, until a swift figure got in front of her and blocked it with a large, diamond constructed shield. That figure was a woman in a latex suit with long, purple locs. . “Hello darlings.” the woman turned around. Twilight held her breath; that was Chalcedony, who really was Rarity!

Twilight, Sunset and Rarity embraced, with the latter giving cheek pecks to both of her friends. “Where are the other two?” she asked.

     “Jet Stone’s in the castle library,” Twilight replied, “and Diopside? Well. . . I don’t know.”

     “Alright, now let’s get out of here; this latex is proving to be terrible to wear.”

Everyone started running, dodging bullets and beams as they went along, but soon they were stopped by Queen Chrysalis, who’d already known that they were inside.

     “Well, well, well,” she said, “if it isn’t the group that took advantage of my guards’ naivete and thought it would be a funny idea to sneak in.”

      “In the flesh,” Twilight growled, “you’re not gonna get away with this, not without a fight.”

     “In that case. . . . fight me , then. Just the two of us.”

The two royals both drew their swords and charged at each other with loud battle cries, fighting until one would fall and yield, while the pillars stood, powerless as Sunset and Rarity were dealing with enemies of their own. Twilight was swinging at Chrysalis relentlessly, while Sunset and Rarity were rounding up changelings and throwing them away from the pillars, and soon enough, Starlight, Flash, Thorax and Diopside joined in, too. Starlight and Flash were stunning them with their weapons, while Thorax was disguising as them and tricking them, taking them down as he did, but suddenly, one of the changelings knocked out Diopside, who’d been fighting them with an ax the whole time. They held him to the ground and pointed a knife at him.

The changeling tugged at his mask. “Now let’s see who you really are.”

The changeling took off the mask to reveal Prince Timber Spruce hiding behind it. Twilight & her friends had turned to see it, and they just couldn’t believe it. Both Flash and Twilight ran to save him, ignoring the fact that Chrysalis was pointing two guns at their heads—that is until, those guns flew out of her hands and into Jet Stone’s hands.

     “Not today, Chrysalis,” he said, “not today.”

Everyone in the room watched with astonishment as Jet Stone took his mask off—revealing that he was King Sombra, all along!

     “I knew it!” Twilight cried out with glee—something that made Sombra smile.

Chrysalis & the other changelings faltered; Chrysalis had known that three of her prisoners escaped a day after her takeover, but she never guessed that it would be Sombra, Timber and Rarity of all people.

     “So,” Sombra continued, “do you yield?”

    “Maybe tonight,” she hissed, “but never in my life, will I yield to you.”

    “Very well.”

Before another word could be spoken, Sombra opened a portal to somewhere far from Canterlot—but not too far from Ponyville, and every one of his allies (and the pillars too) walked into it, and when it was Twilight’s turn, he stopped her and said: “I’m sorry for doing that to you.”

     “It’s okay,” she assured him.

Soon enough, both Twilight and Sombra got through and walked along with their friends.

    “You know, I never thought that was you,” Thorax prefaced.

    “Well. . .  it is!” Sombra exclaimed.

    “How are you gonna break it to everyone else?” Starlight asked him. “Are you gonna make it a public announcement?”

     “Uh. . no, no, I’d rather not. It would be humiliating for Celestia to have to realize that on her own, let alone in front of millions, and even then, the people will still know.”

     “I suppose that would work,” Twilight thought. “By the way, your sister was asking for you,” she told Timber, “she’s been worried. You should go see her.”

     “Don’t worry,” Timber assured, “I will.”

Once they arrived at Ponyville, the Hidden Gems put their masks back on and walked straight to Twilight’s castle, while the pillars were warmly welcomed by Celestia and Luna, who had been busy preparing dinner for the citizens. As they feasted, Celestia told them of everything that had happened to Equestria, and Star Swirl told her of everything they’d seen during their brief—and I mean very brief—time at Chrysalis’ prisons.

Many moments later, dinner was over, and Celestia returned to the castle as she saw those three figures in latex surrounded by Twilight and her friends.

     “Dear Gems,” she told them, “I didn’t see you at dinner, why is that?”

    “Well, your majesty—” Chalcedony stood up— “we have something to tell you.”

Chalcedony took off her mask and revealed herself as Rarity. Diopside took off his mask and revealed himself as Timber, while Jet Stone kept his mask on.

     “Oh my goodness. . .” Celestia faltered, “you were among us all this time?”

    “Yes, your majesty.” Rarity nodded.

    “What about Jet Stone, then?”

    “Can we do this alone?” he asked.

   “Of course.”

Celestia escorted him to her room, closing the door behind her. Twilight had put her ear on the door, wanting to find out what was about to happen, but she retreated back to her room so she could leave Celestia alone.

     “Now that it’s just us,” she began, “what do you have to tell me?”

    “Will you take my mask off?” he asked, abruptly.

    “I. . . of course, let me just. . .”

Celestia took off the drama mask, then pulled the latex off of Jet Stone’s head, and once she saw his real face, she couldn’t believe it.

    “Sombra?” she blurted out. “ You were him?”

    “Yes, that was me.” he nodded.

    “I. . I. .”

Celestia couldn’t take it. She threw herself in Sombra’s arms, brushing through his hair. She wanted to cry. “And to think that you were right there. .” she muttered, gazing at him.

    “I’m sorry I was hiding,” he said, “I just. . . I didn’t want you to see me die.”

   “But. . why? You could’ve told me you were him before and I’d keep it a secret.”

   “Tia, I. . . our whole relationship was a secret. I don’t want to repeat that. I just. . I just want to live my life with you.”

   “Just promise me you won’t do this again. Please.”

   “I promise I won’t.”

Celestia kissed every part of his face, his forehead, the bridge of his nose, the space between his eyebrows, his cheeks—and stopped at his lips, flushing so hard. Sombra tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear and kissed her lips, lingering there until he pulled away. Just then, Celestia flushed even harder. She could feel her heart thumping so hard it might burst from her chest, and once Sombra noticed, he started laughing.

   “What? You’ve never been kissed before?” he questioned.

   “I—it’s just. . .” Celestia stammered as she spoke, “I didn’t think you’d. . . shut up, shut up.”

  “You didn’t do this when we kissed after moons of not seeing each other.”

  “I did, but. . I just didn’t want you to see me.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Yeah.”

Sombra and Celestia were silent now. They didn’t know what else to say.

   “So. . what?” Celestia asked.

  “Let’s just go to bed.” Sombra was about to get to bed until Celestia stopped him.

  “Okay, first of all, you’re not wearing that to bed, and second. .  you might’ve already said sorry to me, but. . you and I both know you owe me more than that.”

   “Owe you what, exactly?”

Celestia grinned to herself. “You already know.”

   “No I don’t. . . will you tell me?”

At that point, Celestia leaned back, giggling. Her whole neck showed, so much so that Sombra couldn’t help but kiss it so many times. He even lifted Celestia up, letting her legs wrap around his waist, and kissed her again.

   “I was around you all the time,” he said, “but I still missed you, so, so much.”

   “I missed you too,” she murmured.

Sombra and Celestia kissed a couple more times as they tore each other’s clothes off, and here I’d like to note that Celestia used her telekinesis to unzip Sombra’s latex suit, stopping at his waist.

    “What? Won’t you keep going?” he asked, throwing her on top of the bed as he took the rest of it off.

   “I thought you were naked under that,” she reasoned

  “I mean, I will be, so. . .”

Now. . I can’t really say what happened for the rest of the night, but. . let’s just say that all that waiting was worth it.