Sky woke up to the happy face of Rainbow, but she saw a definite fatigue in her eyes.
“We did it! We recreated the element!”
Sky shot up, and saw Twilight examining a golden amulet, in the shape of Sky’s cutie mark. She looked closer, and saw other marks inscribed on the chain, which she guessed were the marks of previous Elements of Knowledge. She walked past Twilight and picked it up, wrapping the golden chain around her hoof. She examined it closely, and then placed it around her neck. She felt some warmth from it, and then she walked over to the others, who were standing in a line. They all looked tired and weak. Sky had used a lot of their energy. But they all still had big smiles on her face. Twilight stepped forward;
“Okay, now that we have recreated the seventh element, where are the other six?”
Sky took a deep breath. She had only just remembered where they were before she had collapsed.
“Chrysalis’ castle.”
She heard sharp intakes from breath from the others, but Twilight just nodded sadly.
“I thought so. Chrysalis wouldn’t have wanted Discord to give us another riddle. Last time he did we defeated him. She wouldn’t want to risk that happening again. Do you know where Chrysalis’ castle is?”
“It’s on the outskirts of Equestria, or, more outside of it. The Changeling homeland is a dark, barren, sad place. I can remember it clearly. And I know how to get into Chrysalis’ castle. We can get in the same way I escaped through.”
“Brilliant! Let’s go!” Twilight looked ready to move there and then.
“No.”
“No?”
“No. You guys need to rest before we even think about heading out into Changeling territory.”
“B-b-but we have to go now!” Sky could see the tiredness in Twilight’s eyes, and it was showing on the faces of the others, although they were trying to look determined. Sky sighed.
“Sorry about this guys.”
“About what?”
“This. Sloom.” Sky said the spell, and the others collapsed into a magical slumber, looks of relief plainly showing on their faces. Twilight fought it for a second.
“B-but... Discord?”
“Don’t worry. My spells will protect you.” Twilight smiled, a look showing just how tired she was showing for a second before she collapsed and started snoring quietly.
Sky quickly cast multitudes of protective spells, to stop Discord, Chrysalis, or Nightmare hypnotising them as they slept.
As Sky prepared for a long night of watching the others as they slept, she heard some rustling outside the window. She recalled at least twenty spells that would reduce the intruder to dust, and five more that would send the dust to another dimension. She would not let her friends be hurt. Then she saw Spike’s head pop up through the green leaves.
“Let me in!” He whispered.
Sky did so, and noticed he still had his colour, and asked him about it.
“Ummm... I... Ummm... Avoided Discord? Yeah! I avoided Discord, and his magic didn’t affect me.” Sky was apprehensive, and tried to remember something Twilight had told her about Spike.
“Hey Spike, what is Twilight’s owl’s name?”
“What? Why? You trust me... R-right?” Sky could see some sweat on Spike’s brow.
“Tell me. With the changelings running about, we can’t be too careful, right?”
“Ummm... She... She named him... Um... Owly?”
Sky muttered the first spell that came to mind, and another one close behind it.
“Revelare! Obliterare!” The Changeling took on it’s normal insect-like form, and then flew across the room and snapped it’s neck on the window frame as it flew through the thin glass. Sky quickly repaired the window and went about placing protective spells around the Library. But she was much more careful, as she knew that the Changelings would find some way in. When an owl flew down from the rafters, she yelled;
“Banir! And that didn’t even look like Owlowiscious.” Sky said this as the owl-slash-changeling disappeared into another dimension.
Sky kept a watchful eye on everything that entered and exited the room from then on, and if a mouse or a bug stayed in the room for too long, Sky teleported it to the desert outside Appeloosa --which she had seen was a pretty barren place on one of Twilight’s maps-- on the off chance that it wasn’t a Changeling, not wanting to murder an innocent animal. Sky watched her friends sleeping peacefully and sighed. Her friends looked so happy and they looked as though their strength was returning. Sky toyed with the amulet around her neck, wishing she could have talked to her ancestor for a little longer. I didn’t even get her name. Oh well, I guess I’ll find out one day, when I ‘descend into the void’.
As the others slowly woke from their induced slumbers, they had looks of mild shock on their face. Rainbow was still asleep as the others came to their senses. AJ, however was perfectly awake, and tackled Sky to the ground, a look of rage on her face.
“What the hell did ya do to us Sky?”
“I guess you don’t realise how tired you all looked last night. I just helped you get some sleep. Believe me, your strength is fully back. A few minutes ago it was at a point were the power was practically tangible. You see, now we are ready to take on Chrysalis. Are you going to get off, or are you just going to stay there?” AJ realised that she still had Sky trapped on the floor.
“Sorry, Sky.” She got up, and Sky saw Rainbow slowly waking up. She stretched then got up, looking around blearily.
“Wh-wha? Why’m I ‘sleep?”
“Never mind ‘Dash. Just wake up and we’ll get ready to head out.”
“M’kay.” Rainbow stood up and stumbled into Twilight’s kitchen, presumably to get some breakfast. There was a crash, and before anypony had time to breathe, Sky was in there, a panicked look on her face. She calmed when she saw that Rainbow had just pulled the cutlery drawer out too far, and tipped it’s contents on to the tiled floor. Sky left the kitchen and happened to look out the window, where she saw scene of pure havoc. Every pony in Ponyville was discoloured, and quite a few buildings were on fire.
“GUYS! LOOK!” Their eyes followed her hoof, and they gasped. Discord had managed to do that much in a few days? Sky knew what she had to do. She flew up through the roof and high into the sky, only just hearing Twilight say;
“Oh no, don’t worry about my roof...” Sky just kept flying, until she was about a hundred feet in the air. Going through her extensive vocabulary, she found a word that would be able to heal all of Ponyville’s residents, by acting as sort of a blanket memory spell. She found some other words and formed a spell that would be able to fix the worst damage to Ponyville. She opened her eyes, and anypony who saw them would see that they were a pure, glowing white. She spoke with enough magic layered in her voice to make flowers burst into bloom and trees burst into flame.
“REMEMORARI! EXTINGUERE! REPARARE!” Sky barely felt any of her energy go away as the spell took effect, and was afraid it wasn’t going to work, but as she went into a nosedive, she saw ponies recovering their colour, fires shrinking into nothingness, and broken buildings and windows magically repairing themselves. She landed softly in front of Twilight’s library, as the roof repaired itself. She walked in to the library and saw that the others were tying saddlebags to their backs.
“So I’m guessing that we are getting ready to leave?”
“Wow Sky, that was amazing!” This was from Twilight, who had already tied her saddlebags and was looking at Sky in awe. “How did you do that?”
“I used that weird language.”
“Could you teach it to me?”
“Maybe later, for now we should probably get moving. We have to travel north through Canterlot and through the mountain it is perched on to get to the Changeling homeland. No... My homeland.”
“No it isn’t Sky! You were born in Equestria!”
“Yes, Rarity, but I lived my life in Chrysalis’ land. It may be an awful place, but it will always be the place I associate with the word ‘home’.”
“Well, from what you’ve told us, it sounds booo-ring! Maybe I could liven it up with a party!”
“I doubt that the Changelings would appreciate that, Pinkie. It isn’t really a place suited for parties anyway.” Pinkie looked unhappy with this, but Sky doubted it would be enough to stop the pink pony going.
“Ummm... Sky?”
“Yes Fluttershy?”
“Is there any wildlife there? I just want to know... Because... Um...” Fluttershy trailed off, and Sky knew she must be wondering about the bad wildlife, more than the good.
“Oh, not much, just a few hydra, maybe a dragon or twenty, and the biggest pest we have to deal with are Parasprites.”
Sky immediately regretted this, as the yellow pegasus froze and fell sideways, a look of terror on her face. Talking about the wildlife in the Changeling’s homeland sparked a small recollection in Sky’s head, and she decided to ask about it while Twilight tried to unfreeze Fluttershy.
“AJ, when we were talking the other day, what did you say you had faced, creature wise?”
Applejack and the others looked confused for a moment, but AJ answered anyway;
“Well, we’ve faced a dragon, a hydra, and a couple ‘hundred parasprites. Why?”
“Oh... Um... Well... You know how I said that we have dragons, hydras, and parasprites in... My homeland?”
AJ nodded.
“And you know how I can use magic?”
AJ nodded again.
“So you know that I can tame any animal?”
Another nod.
“Do you seriously not know where I am going with this?”
Shake of the head.
“AUGH! Guys, in one of my memories, Chrysalis was congratulating me on the hydra and the parasprites. I’m the reason you had to fight them!”
AJ looked confused, and Rainbow chipped in with;
“And? We fought them off, and no-one was hurt, so who cares?”
“You really don’t care that I almost covered Equestria with smoke, destroyed Ponyville and killed four of you?”
“Well, you didn’t want to, right?”
“No.”
“There you go!”
“Okay. Look, I just want to hit the road and get to Canterlot. I don’t remember exactly how I got there, but I know that I caused a hell of a lot of trouble. The guards stopped me. Probably because I looked lost, but I flipped out and turned them into piles of dirt.”
“Sky!”
“They turned back once I got out of range! And anyway, I thought they were going to put me in prison! For all I knew, Chrysalis had sent them a picture of me and told them I was allied with the Changelings! Anyway, I just want to get out of here and defeat those three villains-, alright? Can we just do that?”
They all agreed, and set out, towards Canterlot, in the hopes that it wouldn’t be affected by all that was happening in Ponyville.