Discord sagged against a threadbare old cot as the others sat on frayed pillows. Watery tea sat before each of them. Outside, the wind howled and the storm raged.
"What happened to you, Fluttershy?" Discord asked. "I searched everywhere. We all did. You, the Crusaders, you just...vanished..." He shook his head. "Ponyville was never the same after..." He gave Fluttershy a pleading look. "Where did you go that I couldn't find you?"
Fluttershy ducked her head. "We, umm...accidentally ate some time truffles," she said. "We, err...sort of wound up in the past..."
"The...past..." Discord smacked his face with his lion paw. "I didn't even think to look everywhen," he muttered. "That's not like me."
"More importantly, what happened to Equestria?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Who's this Shattered Empress?"
Discord went still. "Oh...oh, you poor girls..." he whispered. "I'm so sorry. Just so you know, I...I tried. We all tried..."
"What happened?" Scootaloo insisted.
Discord sighed. "It happened so suddenly. She showed up out of nowhere one day. Her magic was so powerful...so explosive. She brought with her dangerous artifacts from far beyond Equestria. She...she used them to steal the four alicorn princess' magic. The Royal Guards were no match for her, and the princesses, well..." He closed his eyes and winced. "She came prepared for their power. None of them could break down her shields. And...and when I tried to stop her, she stole my powers too. I at least escaped the worst of their fate." He drooped. "The princesses stand in the Storm Palace in Canterlot, petrified in obsidian for all time, monuments to her triumph."
The ponies gasped in horror.
"There are camps such as this one for refugees with no pony magic," Discord said. "We've managed to survive despite, well..." He waved a claw vaguely. "You saw what she did to the forest. Of course, the resistance has never stopped fighting. The Dragons are constantly at war with the Shattered Empress on the western front. The Griffons fight from the east. Princess Flurry Heart is keeping the Crystal Empire out of her hooves, but being the only alicorn left in all of Equestria is a constant strain on her."
"Princess Flurry Heart?" Fluttershy asked.
"Cadance's daughter," Discord said. "She...she wasn't born yet when you disappeared. When the Empress attacked Canterlot, Flurry was safe in the Crystal Empire, in the care of her Crystaller. He raised and trained her in secret. She's...she's the last hope we have, other than the Dragon Lord and his mate."
"And...and Ponyville? Our...our families?" Apple Bloom asked quietly.
Discord looked away, bowing his head.
The fillies began to sniffle. Their sniffles soon broke into wretching sobs. Fluttershy's eyes brimmed with tears. "This is...this is horrible," she whimpered. "We...we have to do something...we have to..."
"There's nothing you can do," Discord said miserably. "Nothing anypony can do." He paused, frowning. "Unless..."
"Unless?" Fluttershy asked.
Discord looked over the three fillies shrewdly. "You three have that...that Trinity Magic thing," he said.
"W-well, yeah," Apple Bloom said, sniffling and wiping her nose. "But we don't got th' gems."
"We...we left them in Twilight's castle," Sweetie Belle said.
Discord went pale. "I see," he said. "That's..." He grimaced. "Then again, perhaps..."
"Perhaps?" Fluttershy asked.
Discord frowned, stroking his beard. "Twilight's castle still stands...mostly," he said. "The problem is, it's been taken over by the Mad Witch. She's...she's dangerous. Unpredictable. And so powerful even the Shattered Empress has given up trying to subdue her. They...they largely ignore one another. The Mad Witch doesn't care about Equestria, so long as nopony bothers her. She has what she wants."
"Which is...?" Fluttershy asked.
Discord blinked. "Why...Twilight Sparkle dead, of course."
A particularly loud crash of thunder shook the forest. Lightning flashed so brightly it threw strobing illumination into the shanty.
"If you can get into the castle, find your Trinity Gems..." Discord frowned, nodding. "Yes. It could work..."
"What could work?" Scootaloo asked.
"Well, there's nothing the four of you can do to dethrone the Shattered Empress, and even if you could, it wouldn't bring back Equestria or the princesses," Discord said. "But...but if you could use your Trinity Magic to reactivate that map table in Twilight's castle..." He nodded absently. "It's been done before. The Mad Witch did it before..."
"Did what?" Fluttershy asked hesitantly.
"You could return to your own time," Discord said. "Back before any of us knew you were missing. And...and you could warn Celestia and Luna about...all this." He waved his hands vaguely. "You could stop all this from ever happening."
Fluttershy and the Crusaders looked at each other. Fluttershy squared her jaw and fluffed her wings. "Tell us everything we need to know," she said.
* * * * *
Ponyville.
Once upon a time, generations ago, it had been a bright, sunny hamlet where ponies from all trots of life lived, worked, and played together in harmony. Today, it was a perfectly ordered internment camp, rows of squat steel huts erected in a grid of paved roads, with signs pointing to work assignments. Colorless, lifeless ponies shuffled listlessly to their assigned jobs every day, toiling away for the Empress, eating what they were told, sleeping when they were told. There was no joy to be had. There was no deviation from the routine. There was only the work, the endless drudge. Like every city in the Equestrian Empire, it was founded on the principles of rigid structure and rigorous order, all in the service of the Shattered Empress.
She was power without purpose, and her Empire reflected this in its endless, pointless stagnation.
On the outskirts of Ponyville stood a jagged black crystal tree, massive and impossible. In its high branches sat what had once been a glorious crystal palace. Its gold towers and fine banners were tarnished and tattered; anything bearing the mark of its rightful mistress had long since been burned or destroyed. What remained was, like Ponyville itself, a shell of what once was.
Deep within this ancient ruin, there was a room with seven crystal thrones arranged around a large crystal table. The thrones were the only remaining trace of the castle's original occupants; after several years, the current resident gave up trying to destroy them or even erase their marks from the high backs. She had finally resorted to covering them with drab black tapestries.
A deep, whirring thrum sounded from within the crystal table as a flickering illumination struggled to light it up from within. Dim at first, its brightness increased in fits and starts. Bright blue arcs of electricity crawled across the table's surface, accompanied by a grinding sound and a thrill of static in the air.
In an electric blue flash, a cloaked, hooded unicorn appeared in the room. Old, tired eyes framed by heavy wrinkles watched in dismay, confusion, and anxiety as, slowly, flickering magic filled the room, the table shining brilliantly as the whirring and thrumming increased to a frantic pitch. A map of the Equestrian Empire faded into view on the table; in a bright flash, four Cutie Marks appeared above the map, spinning and flashing and strobing urgently, insistently.
Three butterflies.
Three near-identical crests, each with a different purple insignia in the center: a heart and apple, a pegasus wing and lightning bolt, and a star and musical note.
The wild display of old, forgotten magic reflected from the surprised light purple eyes of the old mare, whose mouth worked soundlessly as she lowered her hood, allowing a messy tangle of faded purple mane with pale silver-green streaks to spill out, cascading down her wrinkled grey-purple face and neck.
"No," she whispered in a dry, croaking wheeze. "No, you can't. I won't let you! You can't! I won't let you! You can't! I won't let you! You can't! I won't let you!"
The map ignored her, continuing its insistent summons of four ponies who hadn't been seen in two hundred years.
"But they're gone! They're gone! They're gone! They're gone! Gone! They..."
Her eyes widened, her ears standing straight up.
"Here. They went here. They went here."
She bit her lip.
"They're going to save her. Can't let them save her. They're going to save her. Can't let them save her. They're going to save her. Can't let them save her..."
Dancing lightly on her hooves, she charged into the castle's dusty, dilapidated old library. Her horn lit up; dozens of books and scrolls flew hither and yon. Flasks full of powders and potions went sailing this way and that. A furnace burst into magical flames.
The light of spells danced off the walls. Colorful, odorous smoke billowed out of the library. A great magical explosion shook the old castle.
A laugh, clear and malevolent, tinged with insanity, rang through the old crystal halls.
The mare reappeared in the throne room, only...changed. The faded colors and heavy wrinkles of extreme age were gone, replaced with smooth skin, a glossy coat, and a vibrant purple mane with aquamarine streaks. Bright purple eyes full of madness and fury gleamed wickedly above a smooth, young muzzle. The tattered, worn cloak was gone, replaced with a sleek black silk cape that covered her pinkish-purple flanks.
She sneered at the Cutie Marks hovering above the Map.
"Well, well," she said. "Fluttershy. I still have a score to settle with you. After all, you're the one who cost me everything...aren't you?"
She smiled sadistically.
"I'll be waiting for you, my little ponies..."
Starlight Glimmer, the Mad Witch of Ponyville, threw back her head and laughed.