The castle was empty; any trace that anyone was here was simply not there. With a flash, Princess Celestia and Luna appeared inside, finding the same scene of nothingness there.
“Twilight!” Celestia frantically galloped to another corner of the room. “Twilight, if you can hear me, say something!”
Luna threw the main corridor doors open with her magic, slamming them into the walls. “Twilight! Starlight! Anypony! Please respond!”
As Luna bolted down the hall to continue looking, Celestia found herself drawn to the Cutie Map which now revealed only a flat, otherwise featureless surface, feeling an uneasy tingle all the way up and down her horn. The feeling was sinister, yet familiar, but only with the smallest hint of familiarity that kept her still as stone as she tried to figure it out. It only felt like seconds until–
“Sister, I’ve looked everywhere. There’s no sign of Twilight or her friends anywhere.” Celestia shook herself from her trance, Luna unsure what entranced her so. “Sister? What is the matter?”
“Do you feel anything?”
“Feel what? I don’t…” Suddenly, Luna also began to feel the tingle, stepping toward the table. There was certainly a presence there, but otherwise, they were completely alone. “I’ve… I’ve never felt anything like this in quite a long time.”
“Do you remember where?”
“I… I can’t say. It was before my banishment… probably before the rise of Sombra, even.”
“Never mind then. Our little ponies have gone missing, and Equestria has never been more vulnerable.”
“What shall we do now?”
“We must search for them. Across every corner of Equestria, or even the entire world if we have to, but we must find them soon.”
“Surely we can’t do this by ourselves!”
“And we won’t have to.” Celestia’s horn began to glow. “Twilight and her friends have made bonds with countless creatures across the land, and so long as we keep this news between them, we can spread our search while ensuring the rest of Equestria doesn’t fall into a panic.”
“How long do you think we can let this last?”
“Hopefully not long. There’s no time to lose. We must go now.”
Celestia’s horn charged even brighter, prompting Luna to charge hers. Upon touching the tips, they and the interior of the room were shrouded in white light.
Shining Armor and Cadance gently pulled a blanket over Flurry Heart as she slept soundly on her cloud-mattress bed. Once Cadance tucked the blanket underneath the filly’s body with her hooves, she let out a snoozy raspberry and lay still, the faintest of breaths pulsing up from her chest.
“Hah…” Shining Armor let out a quiet, near inaudible sigh. “Finally. I thought she’d never get her nap in today.”
“Okay, let’s get back up.” Cadance gently spun toward the door and rocked her hoofs down with each step so as not to loudly stomp them down. “We have a lot to do today.”
The door slammed open, a yellowish-orange unicorn stallion with an orange bedridden mane, tail, and beard wearing a blue, starry robe burst through with with worry on his face. “Your highness!”
Along with the hard clop of their hooves stepping back on the crystal floors, Shining Armor and Cadance also heard their child coo and unravel herself from under the covers.
“Sunburst,” Shining Armor hissed, “what in Equestria is wrong? We just finished putting Flurry Heart to sleep!”
“I know, and I do apologize,” Sunburst stammered, “but Princess Celestia has made an unannounced visit. She says it’s urgent.”
Shining Armor and Cadance glanced to each other, feeling a slight pang of guilt for yelling at him.
“You wouldn’t mind putting her back down for bed while we’re gone, would you?” Cadence asked.
“Just go. I’ll take care of her.”
“Thanks.” Shining Armor led as he and Cadance galloped from the room. “We hopefully won’t be long.”
It didn’t take long for the two of them to disappear, and Sunburst turned around to see Flurry Heart, her slight bemusement building to fear over the absence of her parents. Sunburst huffed through his nose and walked over to the bed.
“Alright, maybe I can find a story to read…”
“What? Disappeared? Are you certain?” Shining Armor, as well as Cadance and the purple crystalline stallion guards lining both side of the hall to the throne were aghast by the news.
Celestia kept her eyes closed, unable to see her protégé’s family’s initial anguish before facing them again. “Unfortunately, I am. I don’t need to tell you what danger Equestria is in because of this, but I bring you this news so that a search party can scan the north to look for them.”
“What of the other regions?” Cadance responded. “Are they being told of this news as well?”
“Luna and I are spreading the word around. She should be speaking with the Changelings now, and then I’m off to Cloudsdale to let the Wonderbolts know.”
“Then I shouldn’t waste any more of your time. Go and warn the others, and I’ll send out a team immediately to find my sister and her friends.”
“I shall let you go then.” Celestia bowed her head to him. “Just be sure to let as few ponies as possible know about this. I don’t need rumors spreading and panic rising.”
“Of course,” said Cadance. “Thank you, and I wish you luck.”
“And to you as well.” Celestia charged her horn and with a flash of light, she disappeared.
As if she was never there, the guards looked to each other, wondering what they would do next, only for Shining Armor’s booming voice to remind them.
“You heard the princess! Let’s move out!”
As Shining Armor galloped to the end of the hall, each pair of guards that he passed on either side joined together to go with him. Cadance watched forlornly as each new pair of guards lined up and Shining Armor grew farther from her. With the two end unicorn guards opening the door, the group poured outside, ready to begin the long, stressful hunt.
The next morning, an extremely bulky white pegasus with small stubby wings poured the very last of a scoop of steaming pecans and peanuts into a large wax paper bag, allowing Trixie to take it and place it in her second saddlebag, a similar bag of similar nuts put in the other.
“Uh, are ya’ sure about that?” the pegasus very loudly asked. “I mean, that is a lot of nuts, even for you!”
“Ohoho, you silly pegasus,” the unicorn chortled. “Only one of them is for me. The other one is for a friend for when she gets back from… wherever she’s gone, I just realized I don’t know.”
“Trixie!” the familiar voice of Starlight cried from behind her.
Trixie turned around and saw Starlight running toward her, forcing her to awkwardly stuff the nuts further into her bags and pull the flaps tight over them, making her blush with sudden embarrassment.
“Starlight?” Trixie scuttled back as Starlight ground to a halt. “What are you… where have you even been? I’ve been so worried!”
“Follow me, please!” Starlight didn’t even wait for a response before she darted off back in the direction she came. “Hurry!”
Trixie and the cart’s owner could only stare for a second to absorb the awkward exchange that had happened. Finally, Trixie managed to slip several gold coins from her bags and place them on the counter.
“Thanks for the nuts!” Trixie then ran off to chase after Starlight, leaving the pegasus bemused and alone.
“Uh… you’re two bits short!”
Trixie could not hear his calls as she just managed to catch Starlight’s tail zipping into an alleyway. Upon sliding inside, she caught Starlight panting deep inside, prompting Trixie to approach.
“Starlight?” Trixie spoke up. “What on earth is up with y–”
“Shh!” Starlight’s hoof pressed over Trixie’s mouth as her horn glowed green.
Suddenly, a wave of green magic quickly ran down from the tip of Starlight’s horn and down the length of her body, revealing her now colorful insectoid body which Trixie, while startled, still recognized.
“Thorax?” Trixie snorted in sheer confusion. “What is happening, where is Starlight?”
“That’s what I wanted to tell you,” he whined. “Princess Luna just told me that Twilight and her friends went missing.”
Trixie gasped. “Even Starlight?”
“Spike too, it seems. Listen, I know I’m not supposed to be sharing this stuff with everypony, but I’d like to think we’re friends, and I know you’re friends with Starlight, and I just thought you should know!”
Thorax bowed his head down and squirmed, nervous for the nervous breakdown he was certain would come. And while Trixie’s breathing pace quickened, she tried to keep her anxiety as quiet as possible.
“Okay… It’s okay.” As Trixie began to relax herself, so did Thorax. “Who else has been told? Are they at least looking for them?”
“Of course Celestia and Luna are going all over Equestria and trying to organize search parties. My fellow changelings and I were asked to look through Ponyville, so I thought I'd stop and let you know.”
“And I’m glad you did, because now you’re going to get help from the great and observant Trixie!”
“SHH!” Thorax’s hoof pressed over her mouth again. “Seriously, no one else can know about this! Just imagine if someone like Chrysalis found out that Twilight and her friends were gone. She’d sweep through Equestria like the plague!”
“Well, we’ve defeated her before without them, right?”
“Well… I guess.”
“Then come on! We have fr–” Trixie giggled to defuse her blurting. “I mean, let’s just go.”
Thorax smiled before charging his horn, transforming into a desaturated blue colt with a short, wavy black mane and tail. As he galloped toward her, she left the alley at the same speed, allowing him to tag closely along.
The afternoon sun was beginning to quickly dip as several pegasi in matching blue and yellow latex uniforms scoured the lands from high up in the clouds. As Celestia was positioned in the center of all of them, she too kept a keen eye for any familiar colors.
A mare and stallion pegasus with a yellow coat and fiery orange mane and tail and a pale-blue coat and dark blue mane and tail, respectively, flew up on either side of her. As Celestia glanced to both, they both mustered the strength to forlornly shake their heads. With a defeated sigh, she banked back toward her cliffside kingdom as the rest of the pegasi continued down.
Several earth ponies in Western garb spread themselves across the desert as they hoped to see something hopeful anywhere past the horizon under the blistering-midday sun. A yellow stallion with a light-orange mane scooped his hat off his head with his wrist and wiped his brow. As if heeding his prayers for relief, a massive shadow was cast over him and several party members in front of him. Looking up at the bottom of the airship with rainbow feather sails soar above him, the sun appeared back out from it’s stern, forcing him to look back down and continue the search.
Four bipedal parrots, all but the pink one covered in green feathers, peered over the sides of the ship, looking down for anything. The ship’s captain, a taller, lankier cream-colored bird with slim gold armor a large brown hat and a green gem peg leg took an exhausted sigh as she wiped her brow, the lack of response of her crew letting her know all she needed to about the state of the search.
Shining Armor and his guards, all wearing thick black scarves and black leather goggles weathered the blizzard as they tried to look for any unfamiliar shapes through the walls of snow.
“Twilight!” Shining Armor’s voice was hoarse and weak, having clearly called for hours. “Anypony answer me!”
“Sir– your… highness.” Shining Armor glanced to his left. He hadn’t quite gotten used to the new voice of his latest recruit. “It’s getting dark. We should head back before it gets any darker or colder!”
Shining Armor so desperately wanted to demand that he keep looking, but as he looked through his goggles again, the snowy winds were becoming harder to see as their sunlight waned.
With a grunt, he stomped a hoof on the ground. “Guards! Fall back! We’re done for the day.” He then began to gallop back toward the direction of the Crystal Empire, the bright shining beacon of the palace their only faintest guiding light to home.
Cadance gently wandered the halls with her horn gently aglow, hearing a soft weeping getting closer as she reached the source. Turning the corner, she found the doors to the palace chamber wide open, the unmistakable voice of her husband’s sobs wafting out through them.
Picking up her pace, she slowly turned the corner to see Shining Armor lying on the ground, his arms over his eyes as he continued crying.
“Shining?” Cadance spoke in a voice just above a whisper. “Baby?”
Caught in his vulnerable moment, he peeked past his arms and shot himself up, doing his best to wipe the tears and snot off his face and muzzle. “Cadance. What are you doing up? It’s late.”
“I could ask you the same thing, but I’d be a fool to not know why you are.”
“I’m… I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t be.” Cadance began to approach as Shining Armor slunk his head down. “Everyone is doing their best out there, and we will find Twilight and the others sooner than later.”
“Well sooner isn’t coming soon enough!” Shining Armor’s bark froze Cadance dead in her tracks. “We’ve been searching for four days now and haven’t found anything! Who knows if they’re even in Equestria?”
Cadance resumed her approach. “It is a large world, and I doubt that they could have gotten that far.”
“I… I just don’t know.” Shining Armor nearly slid down to the floor, only to be caught and sat upright by Cadance’s magic as she climbed the stairs to sit beside him.
“Shining, I miss Twilight terribly too, but if we want any chance of finding her, you need to be strong for her.”
“I know, but… it’s so hard without her…”
Cadance leaned into him, where he caught her against his shoulder and put his arm around her, pulling her close. Her warmth and the ensuing silence were the only things giving him hope now.
Sunburst trotted up to the underside of the palace with several books held in his saddlebags, monitoring his bounces as he passed the Crystal Heart magically spinning and suspended between the two crystal spires from the ceiling and floor.
“One of these better be the one,” he mumbled nervously, coming to the steps to the entryway.
He began to reach for the door to pull it open, only to notice the shadow of his hoof against it to look darker and the confused murmurs of the crystal ponies beginning to gather. Turning around, he noticed as the Crystal Heart began to spin faster and glow brighter than normal. Cautiously approaching the Heart, he peered closer at it, noticing as it slowly began to flip, causing it to gyrate.
Sunburst stood stunned as a crystal mare with a red coat came to him. “What’s happening, Starswirl?”
“I… I don’t know!” He was almost at a loss for words. “I’ve never seen anything like this before!”
Suddenly, harsh beams began to blast out from where the gem, now orb-like in appearance, continued to harshly spin and flip faster and faster. As the beams hit the floor, it began to glow before a translucent image of Alola began to form on the surface, getting bigger at the point where the Aether Paradise was located.
“What is that?” A stallion on the other side cried out.
“Are those islands?” a filly shouted.
“Sunburst, what is this?” Sunburst used every ounce of strength to step backward and away from the mare beside him, finally gaining the sense to gallop inside as fast as he could. He bounded up the winding stairway up the leg, heading up four steps at a time.
“Shining Armor… Cadence!”
Reaching the top, he refused to let his speed up as he reached the chamber entrance and sprinted through it, continuing to cry out for their names. Immediately, Shining Armor and Cadance shot to their feet, awake and alert.
“Sunburst!” Cadance gasped. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“The Crystal Heart!” Sunburst’s panting made him virtually unintelligible. “It’s… just follow me!”
Without any hesitation, both of them galloped to catch up with Sunburst, and the three of them made their way down the stairs, the commotion of the crowd outside getting louder and more fearful. Upon reaching the bottom, they were concerned to see the doors thrown open, and as they stepped before the exit to look, they were instantly assaulted by a harsh wind blowing away from them, almost trying to pull them in.
What frightened them beyond that were the projections on the floor of Sun, Lusamine, and Wicke working to stop Solgaleo and Lunala from continuing with their meltdown.
“What are those things?!” Shining Armor raspingly exclaimed.
Just then, the Machamps pulled the electrodes off the Pokémon, causing everything to go white as Solaleo and Lunala’s roars pierced the air and the air exploded outward, making dozens of bystanders scream for their lives. At once, the roars went instantly silent as the white light shattered and burst in all directions, bouncing otherwise harmlessly off the walls and the ponies gathered around.
Shining Armor, Cadance, and Sunburst kept their eyes on the Crystal Heart, which remained floating in its space and spinning at its gentle pace, though it appeared dimmer than before.
“Sunburst.” Cadance’s voice shuddered along with her legs. “Please tell me you found something about whatever those were in your books.”
“I… No!” Sunburst was equally shaken. “I’ve never seen or heard of such creatures in my life!”
“Whatever it is,” Shining Armor grunted, “they have to be responsible for their disappearance. Those books you have there. Have you read any of them yet?”
“Not yet, but they’re the last ones from the library that could possibly reference any islands in the seas beyond Equestria.”
“What does that mean then?” Cadence asked.
“I don’t want to jump to conclusions until I’m certain, but there might be a chance that Twilight and her friends are not in Equestria or on this planet at all… but in an entirely different world!”
Shining Armor shut his eyes tight and bared his teeth, trying his hardest to not explode in rage. “Then get reading. We need to figure this out before whatever took them does anything worse. Go!”
“Ah! Yes, sir!” Starburst ran back up the stairs as the ponies, still unsure what they had just witnessed, refused to leave.
“You go up,” Cadance said to Shining Armor. “I’ll monitor the Heart and send the ponies back to their homes.”
Shining Armor rested the front of his muzzle against Cadance. “If that thing happens again with the Heart, come and get me.”
“Of course. Now please, try and get some rest.”
Shining Armor sighed, wishing there was more he could do, but feeling the fatigue in his legs drew him back upstairs where his bed would be. Taking slow, labored steps, he left his wife to deal with the aftermath of what transpired.
A small brown train pulled into the Ponyville station, Shining Armor staring out the window to the door that would soon let him out. As Shining Armor kept his sights on Twilight’s castle, he suddenly noticed Celestia and Luna standing on the platform awaiting him. The train finally crawled to a stop, allowing Shining Armor to push the door open and make his way to the platform. His rookie guard followed him out and stood beside him once he was before the princesses.
“Thank you for coming, Shining Armor,” Luna greeted. “I hope your journey was… mostly pleasant.”
“Thanks,” Shining Armor breathed, instinctively wrapping his brown scarf with a grey end back around his neck. “And believe me, I’m more than happy to be here.”
Celestia couldn’t help but chuckle, slightly offending Shining Armor. “Well, seeing as you’re no longer in the north, perhaps you’d like to take off your scarf?”
“Scarf? I never came with a…” He lifted the grey end of the scarf with his magic, finding the colors oddly familiar, only for the cloth to turn on its own and reveal Discord’s face to him.
“Oh, how I love to snuggle,” he playfully purred.
Shining Armor pulled the scarf off his body and into the air before it transformed into Discord’s original form and size, brushing off stray strands of wool off his fur upon standing down beside Celestia.
“Hmm.” The guard stared at Discord tentatively. “I wonder why you brought him along.”
The guard, despite staring at Discord before him, felt a shoulder lean on the side of his back and talk into his ear, turning to see Discord now lying right beside him. “Well, being a fun, goofy draconequus isn’t my only talent. You see, after you told Celestia and Luna here about what happened two nights ago, they wanted to bring me over to take a looksie!
“Not to mention, his sister isn’t the only one who’s gone AWOL. My dear, darling Fluttershy is probably hiding someplace scared, cold, and alone!” Once the guard looked over, Discord was now curled up wearing a full sized parka while sporting a canned, frightened expression. “Oh, and Starlight’s also gone, so, there’s that.”
With a snap of his fingers, Discord’s coat had disappeared in a flash and he was standing upright once more.
Celestia then stepped up. “Well, seeing as we’re all here, let’s go to the palace, shall we?”
Celestia and Luna turned to walk out from the station, leading the other three to follow them without a word, the guard glancing up to Discord in sheer annoyance.
Celestia opened the door to the main chamber, Luna, Discord, Shining Armor, and his guard to step through it. Standing on the opposite side were Trixie and Thorax, the latter of whom appeared happy to see them.
“Discord! You made it!” At Thorax’s greeting, Discord popped up between him and Trixie, who stepped to the side to give herself space as Discord swung his arm around Thorax’s neck in brotherly embrace.
“Oh, how could I not want to help my favorite changeling king and blue unicorn mare with a crescent and wand-shaped cutie mark?”
Trixie stepped back to him, suspicious. “That was… oddly specific.”
“That’s enough,” Shining Armor broke past Celestia and Luna to approach the Cutie Map with his guard by his side. “Discord, you say that you can detect a magical presence here?”
“Oh, can I?” Discord leaned over the table and put his lion paw and eagle talon upon it, closing his eyes in meditation, humming unnecessarily loudly.
“What are we even trying to accomplish here?” Shining Armor’s guard raised his voice over Discord’s humming.
Celestia turned to Discord sternly. “Discord, please!”
Pulling up a remote control with his dragon tail, he tapped a red button on it that rendered him silent with a green MUTE floating beside his face.
“Discord can sense magical imbalances,” Luna explained to him. “We’re hoping that he can trace the power leftover on the map back to where it came from and pinpoint Twilight and her friends that way.”
“But for what reason? If Twilight and her friends are on another world as Shining Armor said, how would you get there yourselves?”
“That’s why we’re all here,” Celestia spoke. “Once we find where Twilight and her friends are, we will try and force our own way there.”
The guard leapt back, frightened. “Whoa, whoa, who’s we?”
“Don’t worry, private,” Shining Armor patted his guard hard on the back. “You won’t be going anywhere. Discord, Trixie, and Thorax and I are more than capable of going down there ourselves.”
“Oh, I see… good,” he also muttered under his breath.
“Hmm.” Discord’s noise did not sound purposefully annoying, but instead intuitive, the green MUTE no longer by him. “This is strange.”
“What’s strange?” Thorax nervously spoke.
“This presence I feel… It’s not magic that I feel here, it’s… more like an anti-magic, a magicite, if you will.”
“Magicite?” Trixie scoffed. “What are you on about?”
“I… oh, forget it, you clearly don’t read the comics.”
“Anti-magic?” Luna came over to the table herself with her sister, eyeing the surface. “Now that you say that, there was something about the presence I felt that night that… drained me but a little.”
“What does that mean?” Shining Armor asked. “Does that mean something to you?”
“It might…” Celestia responded. Suddenly, Discord leapt back from the table and began flexing his hands, frightening everyone. “Discord, what happened?”
“Oh my! Whatever that power was I felt just surged at me full force!”
“Wait.” Trixie asked, instantly nervous. “Does that mean it’s coming back now?”
Just then, the table began to glow bright as the surface of the table began to ripple like small waves.
“I think so!” Thorax whimpered.
The liquid on the table finally spilled over the edge, beginning to quickly flood over the floors and under the hooves of the ponies and draconequus. They were helpless to watch as it spread up and covered the walls and windows until it reached the center of the ceiling and covered the tree-root chandelier just below.
The room grew bright and white, forcing everyone to shield their eyes. Quickly enough, the light died down from behind their eyelids, allowing them to open them once again. They were at first confused to find themselves in the exact same location as before, until–
“What happened?” they heard Alice ask to no one. “Where are we?”
“We’re… home?” Rarity’s voice answered uncertainly.
Turning back, not one of them could withhold an audible gasp and jolt in their bodies as they faced the humans standing beside the observation pool at the Aether Paradise, the ponies standing together beside them, also frightful of the situation.
“Wha…” Sam’s breathing was spastic and nearly uncontrollable. “What is this?”
Twilight’s eyes found Shining Armor, taking a shuddering breath before galloping out, tears falling from her eyes. “Shining!”
Hearing her voice, he turned to see her galloping to him, looking instantly relieved. “Twily! You’re safe!”
He stood on his hind legs and held up his forelegs to catch Twilight in a hug, but as Twilight hopped up on her back legs to embrace him, she was caught off guard to fall right through him, the sudden unexpected shift of her balance throwing her onto her stomach where she slid to stop.
“Twi… Twilight?” Shining Armor turned to her, looking as unsure and frightened as she did. “What’s happening?”
“Shining Armor!” Twilight began to sob. “I… I don’t understand!”
“Who– no, what are these things?” Shining Armor turned to face Gladion, suddenly appearing spiteful and filled with rage. “What have you done to her!?”
Charging his horn, he let out a hard grunt before hurling a pink orb of energy at his target. It came so quickly that Gladion could only shield his face and wait for his end to come.
“No, brother!” Lillie screamed as she reached out to him.
Gladion waited for something to hit, only to feel nothing after hearing the loud blast of the attack behind him. Turning back, he, Sun, and Lillie saw a small, smoldering crater directly behind Gladion where it landed.
“Hmm…” Discord slithered through the air toward Alice and then stuck its left talon hand through the back of her stomach. “It seems we can see and hear each other, but can’t actually feel or do anything to each other.”
Alice turned around to face the creature, screaming and instinctively clutching her stomach. Sam stood in front of her and held her arms up to protect her. “Don’t you hurt her!”
“Must not have heard what I said. Through one ear and out the other for you, I suppose.” He then stuck the talon hand through both sides of his head, the sight of it unnerving Sam immensely.
Starlight found her own friends, running up to them. “Trixie! Thorax! What are you doing here?”
“We’ve been all over Equestria looking for you!” Thorax replied. “I’d say I’m glad we found you, but I don’t even know where you guys are!”
“And who are these apes that captured you?” Trixie haughtily, yet concernedly, spoke up.
“They’re not apes, they’re…” Starlight shook the thought out of her head. “I’ll have to explain later! You all need to get out of here!”
“But why?” Thorax looked even more nervous than before. “What’s going on?”
Celestia and Luna were both transfixed by Solgaleo and Lunala on either side of the table, a stream of tears pouring out the corners of their eyes.
“Sister,” Luna gasped. “Those aren’t–”
“Yes.” Celestia had only enough strength to jitter her head up and down. “I do believe they are.”
Finally, Solgaleo and Lunala turned their heads to spot the two alicorn princesses from the corners of their sights, the contact of their eyes meeting freezing them.
Then they turned their heads up as their eyes and faces began to glow white, the brightness spreading all around.
“Sir!” Shining Armor’s guard shouted, running out to meet the light first before him.
Fluttershy whimpered as the chimeric creature shied away from Sam and Alice to study the light soon approaching him. “Discord!”
Discord turned to Fluttershy, a wave of concern washing over him. “Fluttershy! Don’t worry! I’ll get you out of this! Just hold on a little tighter!”
Starlight looked to her two friends, the lack of time she had left contorting a fearful expression on her face. “Why are you still here?! Run!”
Twilight and Shining Armor both saw the light expand out to them, both of them knowing that they would not escape it.
“Twilight!” he shouted out to her.
“Big brother!” she cried to him.
The entire space became white once again before fading back. Once again, they were in the same spot, but everyone else, the humans, Twilight, all of her friends: gone once again. Shining Armor, staring at the same spot that Twilight had stood now barren, lifted his front hooves up and let out a thunderous yell, slamming them down on the Cutie Map.
“Wait,” Thorax shouted, “why did she say we need to leave? Don’t they know we’re trying to rescue them?”
“Those horrifying creatures must be more powerful than we imagined,” Trixie theorized. “But it’s going to take a lot more than that to stop the great and powerful Trix–”
The Cutie Map exploded with light before getting sucked back inside the table’s surface which had become a wormhole. Suddenly, everyone found themselves sliding towards the table, unable to push against its pull. Everyone managed to press a hoof into the table’s edge, keeping them still. However, they felt their hold weakened as a crackling sensation washed over their entire bodies.
Luna looked up at her horn, which was sparkling violently. “My magic! Something's…”
Shining Armor grabbed hold of his guard as he began to slip. As he looked at him, he couldn’t help but notice his coat flashing all over, revealing patches of smooth black skin and sharp fangs in his mouth. The guard glanced back at him, scowling to see Shining Armor’s face terrorized with realization. Holding back onto him, the guard leaned forward and threw himself and Shining Armor into the wormhole.
Discord, having seen it all, grimaced. “No, not again.”
With a grunt, he lunged himself into the wormhole, leaving Trixie and Thorax by themselves.
“No! Discord!” Trixie screamed.
Suddenly, her hoof slipped, giving Thorax just enough time to grab on to her tail and get pulled out and sucked through the wormhole with her. Celestia and Luna both tried to charge their horns, but could not muster the strength to cast a spell.
“I can’t get us out!” Celestia cried.
Luna stared into the frightening abyss of the wormhole, uncertain where it would lead, but with a determined frown, she charged her horn once again, using all of her might to pull it over to Celestia’s horn. “Then I’ll get you out.”
“Lu– Luna?”
Once Luna’s horn touched her sister’s, an aura finally formed between them. With a strain, Luna enveloped Celestia in light, where it burst and made her vanish from the room. With her physical strength completely spent, Luna forced a smile as she stared where her sister stood. “Thank you.”
Luna relaxed herself and let the portal pull her out of her world and into another.
A flash of light threw Celestia onto her side just outside of Twilight’s palace. Pulling herself up, she could hear the bassy whoosh of the wormhole’s forces behind the crystal walls before they calmed down and were silent again.
“Luna, NO!” Celestia shrieked, trying to charge her horn.
Her horn only produced a flicker of an aura, leaving several bystanders to gather around her to see what the commotion was. Looking about her, Celestia could see the ponies that she was now literally powerless to protect, and in her depression, gazed back at the nearest window to the room with the Cutie Map. She was completely distracted by her grief that she didn’t notice as several random ponies from the crowd came forward towards her with mild, expressionless faces.
Nanu’s eyes shot open and his pupils narrowed, his breath caught in his throat.
“Huh?” Guzma, hearing him, fell to a knee to face Nanu as he sat up out of bed and swung his feet to the side to reach his sandals. “What’s up, Nanu?”
“I need to leave.” Nanu kicked both sandals on, using the momentum to swing out of bed and walk to the door of the room, leaving several of the young tank-topped men and women inside flabbergasted.
“Yo, gramps, you still have cramps!” a man huffed from the depths of his stomach. “You can’t get out of here until you finish up your naps!”
“Let him go,” a woman older than him countered, holding her arm up to the side. “He’s got Kahuna stuff he’s gotta’ do.”
The woman had a black tank-top cut off at her upper waist with black straps wrapped around it in an X. Along with a saggy pair of dark-grey pants with magenta flames decaled on the side, she had a matching bandana tied around her head with two long and thin magenta and yellow pigtails draping out the sides.
Nanu forced the door open and looked up at the dark, grey sky, Guzma and Acerola both pouring out to look up where he was.
“Nanu, what are you doing? You really need to get back to bed.”
The familiar roar of the wormhole sounded high up in the sky, and as Nanu had sensed, it began to snake along overhead and continue heading east before shooting down over the center of the south side of the island.
“Oh my god, another one?” Acerola gasped.
“What did those Aether knuckleheads do this time?” Guzma exclaimed.
Nanu refused to answer, simply walking further out, down the steps and to the main street of Po Town, a large door at the end of it. Acerola and Guzma both quickly went out to follow him.
Acerola swung herself around and walked backwards before him, looking into his eyes. “Seriously, Nanu, you just barely survived a Prism encounter by yourself!”
“Seriously, let us take this for you!” Guzma turned so that his face could be seen in Nanu’s peripherals. “Just get back to bed and take it easy.”
“I’m done taking it easy,” Nanu protested. “I’m going back to rescue those ponies, and the only thing you can do at this very moment is to come with or get out of my way!”
“Come with? Uh… we can always do that!”
“Good. Just wait here for a moment.”
Acerola and Guzma stopped on their heels. “Huh?”
Nanu turned left to the Pokémon Center, Acerola and Guzma feeling uneasy as they heard thunder clap above them, forcing them to look back up at the wormhole as it disappeared, having left behind what it needed to.
The glass doors slid open for Nanu, revealing a tank-topped man and woman behind the counter. Upon seeing his determined face and feeling the fiery aura emanating from him, they both froze to attention.
“Are my Pokémon all better?” he asked them.