"Where's Soarin'?" Shining Armor asked Spitfire. The wonderbolts were gathered in chairs around a large conference table in the meeting room of Ponyville town hall. Princess Celestia, along with Luna and Twilight Sparkle, were also in attendance.
"He came early to get things set up for us...” the Wonderbolt replied. “Why? Did something happen?"
"Yeah, you could say something happened. He's being charged with two counts of aggravated assault, ponynapping, attempted murder, attempted murder of a member of the Royal Guard, conspiracy against the crown, and terrorism."
The jaws of every present Wonderbolt hit the ground in unison. "What!? Why!?"
"Well, he attempted to kill Rainbow Dash. He ponynapped Applejack. Assaulted one of my guards. Is doing this with the help of another pony that we've detained under the same charges, and has conspired to overthrow the royal family. On top of it all, he's been working with the Changelings."
"That... that can't be,” Spitfire muttered in disbelief. “Soarin' would never do something like that. There has to be some kind of mistake. You said he was allegedly working with the Changelings. So, is it possible that some Changeling was posing as him the entire time?"
"We've never gathered any evidence to suggest it. As far as we can tell, up until the arrest, Soarin' has been, well, Soarin'. Do you have an idea where he would be?"
"None,” Spitfire shook her head, “he never really talked about his past or wherever he grew up. You... you really think he did this... don't you?"
Shining nodded. "'’Friad so."
Spitfire sighed, leaning back in her chair to get more comfortable. "How can we help?"
"Sky..." Phantom managed to mumble. "H-how are you—"
"Alive?" the blue unicorn interrupted. "Quite simply, actually. I never died."
"B-but... the explosion! I saw half of that mansion vaporize in a giant fireball!"
Sky seemed to smile, looking back on the memories of that explosion. "A brilliant fireball, at that. I was actually very impressed by how it turned out. I was only expecting it to destroy that room, not knock down half of that building." The stallion began to laugh. "Guess I've always been powerful with my magic, considering I managed to do that while teleporting you out and me to a separate location all at the same time. Though, I'll miss that mansion, I had fun growing up there."
"You lived in that mansion?"
"My mother and I did, yes. Oh, did we have the best games of hide and seek, especially when she'd pose as a guest or I'd pose as one of the staff members."
"What do you mean... 'pose'?"
"Oh, right, sorry. I forgot you don't know." There was a blinding flash of green. Phantom and Rainbow looked back from covering their eyes, and saw Phantom standing in his place. "I too am a Changeling."
A cold shiver ran down the real Phantom's back. It was like staring into a reflection that he couldn't control. Phantom turned to Rainbow Dash. "Run!" he commanded. Rainbow didn't hesitate to bolt for the tunnel, but was caught in a blue magical field. The two ponies turned to see Sky was in his normal state again, his horn lit up in the same magical aura.
"Not so fast, dear."
"Let me go, ya jerk!" demanded Rainbow Dash.
"Tisk tisk, where are your manners? That's no way to talk to a prince."
"Prince?" Phantom questioned.
"I should really keep track of what you know... Anyway, there's a reason I can shape-shift much like a Changeling. Because I am part Changeling. Our precious Queen is my mother. This is my true form, unlike other Changelings. "
"Our Queen? She will never be our Queen."
Sky sighed with disappointment. "Always so stubborn... Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be going back home to lead my army to victory. Too bad you won't be around to see Equestria at its finest. For tonight, you die." Sky's horn intensified. Phantom reacted quickly, his wings popping open. He charged forward at his old friend. Phantom knocked Sky against the rock well, breaking his concentration, and in turn, releasing Rainbow Dash. He then wrapped himself as tightly as he could around Sky, restricting the unicorn of movement.
"Rainbow!" Phantom grunted, struggling to keep Sky on the ground while breaking his concentration so he couldn't use his magic against them, "Run! Get Stryker and Archer and go find the Princesses! Go! Now!"
"But I can help!" The pegasus mare took several steps towards the two stallions, but was stopped by Phantom's words.
"NO! He's too powerful for any of us to do anything! Just run! GO!"
"But—"
"Dammit, Dash! RUN!
Rainbow Dash hesitated before retreating through the tunnel, barely hearing the grunts of Sky and Phantom's fight over the wind rushing over her ears. Archer and Stryker were waiting on the other side when she exited the escape tunnel.
"Where's Phantom?" Archer demanded.
"There was this unicorn in there that ambushed us and turned out to be a Changeling!"
"What?" Stryker started to head into the escape tunnel.
"He said to go find the Princesses, that Sky was too strong. C'mon, we gotta go!"
"Sky!?" the two unicorns yelled in unison. Stryker continued to speak. "Everypony brace yourselves!" Stryker's horn began to glow in a bright tan color. There was a flash and a loud bang, then silence. The cavern was empty, except for wisps of smoke rising from the spots once occupied by the three ponies.
"Hear that bang?" Phantom mocked, still struggling to keep Sky on the ground as long as possible. "That was my team teleporting back to Ponyville to tell everypony of your plot. You're finished. Give up now."
Sky huffed out a laugh, then focused, using his magic to lift Phantom off of him and throw the pegasus onto the table, breaking it in half. "I don't think so." Sky stood, and watched with eagerness as Phantom rose from the splinters of the table, his horn lighting up once more. "Shall we pay them a visit?"
Phantom rushed forward, wings blazing. Sky recoiled at the second impact, knocking his concentration off just slightly. Both stallions vanished under the cover of a bright flash, leaving the cave system empty and silent once again.
Archer, Stryker, and Rainbow Dash appeared several feet above the steps of Ponyville town hall, unexpectedly falling to the ground.
"Sorry everypony..." Stryker apologized, sitting back up, rubbing his head to make sure there were no severe wounds. "I haven't done that in awhile..."
"It's okay..." Archer grumbled, slowly getting back on his hooves. "You okay, Dash?"
"Hm mh hmmh hmmmhmh hmmh hmmhh mh!" The sound was a barely audible collection of mumbles. "Hmm mhph!"
"Dash?" Both stallions looked around, trying to find the mare. Stryker felt something pushing up from under him. Looking down, he saw that he was sitting on Rainbow Dash.
"Oh!" Stryker quickly stood up. "I apologize."
"Enough talking," Rainbow gasped for air. "More running." The mare bolted through the door of the town hall, heading straight for the conference room. However, the front door was as far as she needed to go, and came to a halt upon running muzzle-first into the stallion she was looking for. She bounced off of him like a pebble thrown against a brick wall, falling back onto the ground. Twilight Sparkle, who was out of view behind Shining Armor with the other princesses, rushed to her friend’s side.
"Rainbow?" Shining spoke as she stood back up, shaking the dizziness out of her head. "Back already?" Shining looked around at the other present stallions. "Where's Phantom at?"
"He's still at the cave fighting this unicorn named Sky!" Rainbow explained hurriedly.
"Sky?" Princess Celestia asked, approaching her. "Describe him."
"Stallion, blue coat, this red and silver mane, and a magnifying glass for a cuite mark."
"Princess..." Twilight said in a tone of disbelief. "Isn't that the pony you told me about when we talked about Phantom?"
Princess Celestia sighed. "Yes. How he’s alive, I don't know. Sky was killed just over a year ago. Phantom was so bothered by it that I had to have Shining here put him at a desk for awhile. Rainbow, did Phantom say anything else to you?"
"He told me to come find you, that Sky was too powerful for any of us. I guess he thinks you know what to do."
"I don't, actually... this is... this is troubling."
"It get's worse. Sky is a Changeling. His mother is Chrysalis."
"Sky was a Changeling?" Shining gasped. "H-how could he have tricked me all of that time?"
"Not just you, Captain," Celestia replied. "Me, my sister, the Guard, everypony. This certainly explains why he never entered the castle grounds. I have a spell that reveals Changelings should they attempt to enter."
The hair of the back of Rainbow's neck slowly began to stand up, like whenever she was flying and a lightning bolt would charge up next to her. Being a pegasus, she was more sensitive to changes in the atmosphere than the others, but there were no storms scheduled for that day. She looked around, trying to identify the source.
"What's wrong, Rainbow?" Twilight asked, picking up on her friend's curiosity. She could see the cyan hair sticking up on the back of Rainbow's neck. The mare stopped looking around, focusing on one specific point, high above the group in the sky. Twilight followed her friends gaze, just in time to see a bright flash above the clouds.The mares could barely make out what looked like two ponies struggling with each other, falling uncontrollably. One was a brighter blue than the other.
"Thats... That's Sky! And Phantom!" Rainbow pointed out. "Twilight, you've gotta do something!"
"I-I-I-I I can't... They're moving around too much, I might miss and hit Phantom by accident!"
Rainbow thought desperately for a moment, losing precious seconds as the two stallions fell closer to the ground. A short, stinging pain resonated from the base of her injured left wing, and an idea came to mind. "Twilight." Rainbow looked at her friend, with the most serious expression she could make. "You need to heal my wing. Now."
The young alicorn sighed. "Rainbow, we went over this. It's dangerous! Wh-what if I do something wrong? Heal something the wrong way? Paralyze you from flight forever!?"
"Twi, do it."
"Rainbow..." But the pegasus didn't budge, she remained as serious as possible in order to convince her lavender friend. Twilight sighed once again. "Fine... I'll warn you, it won't feel good."
"I don't care." Rainbow lined herself up with the stallions, and got in a stance as if she were about to pounce, grunting with pain as she expanded her wings. "Do it."
"Okay... Here goes..." Twilight Sparkle, shut her eyes, gritted her teeth, and put forth all of her magical energy to her horn, which began to slowly light up in a light lavender haze. A purplish smoke drifted around her horn, making its way towards Rainbow Dash, wrapping itself around the pegasus' injured wing, enveloping it completely. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of Twilight’s face. Rainbow Dash began to grunt with more pain, clenching her teeth together in a vain attempt to suck it up. Luckily for her, it was over in only a few seconds. Letting out a sigh of relief, Twilight ceased her spell, the purple smoke fading into the air.
Rainbow Dash took in a deep breath, staring hungrily to the skies. She stretched her once injured wing, relieved to longer feel any pain from the extremity. Even the scars had healed up. The pegasus bent down into her pouncing stance even more, grinning to herself. She lifted her wings up as high as they could go, then pushed down on them as hard as she could, at the same time pushing with her legs. It a split-second, the pegasus disappeared from her spot on the ground, leaving nothing but a crater and a collection of small feathers that floated effortlessly to the ground.
"Good luck..." Twilight whispered to herself. "Be careful..."
A point in the sky, high above Ponyville, began to fizzle. There, a ball of white energy appeared, at first being the size of a marble, but then slowly grew, expelling electrical sparks as it did so. Lightning bolted from the ball of electricity, releasing thunderous cracks. Two stallions fell from the ball of energy, a royal blue unicorn, and a midnight blue pegasus tipped with black. Once they had completely emerged from it, the ball violently dissipated, firing off lightning bolts in all directions as it did, one of which hit Phantom's left wing. The pair continued to fall, with a trail of smoke trailing from Phantom's injured wing.
"Aack!" he groaned with pain. Sky was falling just a few feet away from him. Painfully adjusting his wings, Phantom was able to rapidly glide over to, and tackle, the unicorn. The pair tumbled head over hooves uncontrollably through the air. "Give up!" Phantom yelled at Sky over the rushing wind.
"Why would I do that?" Sky replied loudly. "I'm winning." The unicorn's horn started to light up again, but with a hoof to the muzzle from Phantom, his concentration was broken, as was the spell. "You can leave now, and save yourself, or fall to your death!"
"I'm a pegasus. If anypony is falling to their death, it's you!"
"Falling at terminal velocity, a healthy pegasus needs about fifteen feet to pull up, but you, you're injured! You need almost thirty feet, now!"
"So what about you?"
"I can teleport, remember?" Sky managed to slip out of Phantom’s grasp after head-butting him. He used his legs to skillfully zip behind Phantom and wrap himself around him, preventing any wing movement. "Trust me on this, Phantom, I've killed many pegasi this way! It works!"
Phantom twisted himself into a position to where he could successfully elbow Sky in the jaw several times. The blows managed to stun the unicorn long enough for Phantom to slip out of his grasp. He opened his wings, creating significant drag and shooting up above the other stallion before using his wings to dive down after the unicorn, using the momentum to assist in his punch. Sky let the punch spin him around to face Phantom, who was recovering from the dive, and fired a lethal, blue bolt of energy at him. Phantom rolled to the left, dodging the bolt of energy. Phantom was still a fair bit away from Sky, so the unicorn took the opportunity to charge up another spell, one that had a shotgun-like effect that he knew Phantom wouldn't have been able to avoid. That was, until a certain streak of rainbow intervened, swooped up and past the unicorn, drawing his attention, before coming down on him from above at near super-sonic speeds. In less than two seconds, Sky found himself laying in pain in the middle of a crater in the Ponyville town square, innocent ponies running in terror from the crash.
Rainbow Dash came to a hover over the scene. Phantom descended to her side, his jaw hanging open. "That was...-aw-awes—" he tried to mumble.
"Awesome?" Rainbow asked with a grin that displayed her glowing ego.
After a moment, he regained himself, returning to his usual stern and coldness. "I was going to say, stupid, reckless, and overall, dangerous. Don't do it again." Rainbow's smile deflated, then she noticed that he said it loud enough for Shining Armor to hear, who was running up on the scene. Phantom then lowered his voice to a whisper. "But yes, that was awesome." Rainbow thought she saw a slight smile from him, but couldn't be for sure, since he immediately glided down to Shining Armor and a pair of Royal Guards. The trio of princesses also arrived, followed by guards of their own.
In the center of the fifteen-foot crater, Sky somehow managed to rise to his hooves, and stare Princess Celestia in the eyes. "Sky Streak..." the Princess of the Sun growled in a not-so-commonly heard tone.
"Tyrant..." the unicorn replied with an equally cold voice.
"You used to be one of my best guards. I used to trust you. I can see now that that trust was misplaced."
"Yes, and if only I had more time, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Oh, Queen Chrysalis sends her regards." The princess' only reply was her silent glare full of nails. Sky looked to Shining Armor. "Never really cared for you too much, anyway. Frankly, my plan was to take you out before Celestia. I was so close, too..." Phantom's turn. "And you, you stubborn prick. Couldn't leave well enough alone... Why? Why, why, why, why, why, why, why did you have to keep digging in that cursed case? You just had to be the best, be stubborn, follow the evidence and your gut, and for what? Some girl you found attractive? I could have had everything! It all would have been mine, but you insisted we go take a look and see if we could find her. So I had to rush all of my plans, and eventually fail. But, in the end, there is redemption. For you see, I will take Equestria as my own. It may not be today, may not be tomorrow, but Equestria will be mine!"
He then focused his tirade on Rainbow Dash. "As for you, my dear... You've been a pain in the flank from day one. I should have killed you myself. But no, I became lazy, and trusted it to Soarin'. Apparently dropping you didn't work... Then I tried luring you into that alley with that stupid filly's homework for a simple mugging. Oh, what was her name... Bah, not that it matters. Either way, you're already in over your head; now's a good time to stop before I do something you'll regret."
"Ha!" Rainbow laughed. "You'll need an army if you're going to stop me!"
"I already have an army... soon, it will be more powerful than all of the world, and we will become victorious. If I were you, I'd check to see if everypony I knew were accounted for..." Sky's gaze drifted along the rest of the gathering crowd. "To the rest of you, well, you can all rot in Tartarus for all I care. Remember this, though; the next time you see me, I'll be atop a golden throne."
Sky's horn lit up once more. In a brilliant blue flash, he was gone, leaving a slip of smoke where he once stood. A thunderous crack echoed outwards towards oblivion.