Ill Winds

by ClanCrusher


Chapter 12: To Try For the Sun

Why had the gryphons ever tried to pick a fight with Celestia? The question nagged at my thoughts even as I flew towards the white alicorn to continue the fight. I had no idea how much power Aurum was tapping into, but I doubted it was Celestia’s full potential. Even now, she was still having trouble with flight.

My approach in her blind spot gave me an opportunity. Recalling the design of Luna's armor, I aimed a bolt of magic at one of the shoulder joints. The enchanted metal deflected some of it, but enough got through to open a fresh wound and draw her attention back to me.

“Don't let her throw another Sunburst! Chrysalis is right below you!”

“And how exactly am I going to stop her?”

“Get in close!”

Guiding my wings, Rainbow maneuvered me around Celestia's counter, speeding toward her this time. As her plan became apparent, I had to stop my body from instinctively rebelling.

“Rainbow, I don't have the durability for that!”

“Then use a shield or something!”

With no time to debate, I wrapped my hooves in a layer of magic right before moving into striking distance. Celestia's beam was deflected skyward as my hoof struck her chin, and before the next spell could form, my second strike came down on her muzzle, disrupting the magic instantly.

The queen was clearly stunned by the physical assault, and with the limited control she had over Celestia’s body, her diminished reflexes were no match for mine. However, keeping the barrier around my hooves was taxing my already strained reserves.

“Just one more minute and I'll be there!” promised Rainbow, guiding me into another three hit combo followed by a strong blast directly to Celestia's head. For a moment, I saw the gold in her eyes go dim, but it quickly came back, along with a powerful shield that stopped my next strike cold.

“She's building up power!” I warned.

“Aim for the horn the second she drops the shield!”

I held my breath as Rainbow steered me into a tight orbit around the shield. I recalled there had been a two second delay from the time she dropped it before the Sunburst had been released and prepared myself...

And then her magic turned black. My eyes widened as my memory jumped back to the brief demonstration I'd seen of this magic before. Specifically, dark magic. Rainbow sensed my panic and guided me away just in time to avoid an ink black streak of energy that burst through Celestia's shield. I didn't recognize the spell and neither did Rainbow, but even from a distance it felt wrong.

Then, to my horror, the dark beam suddenly curved in the air, heading straight back towards me. Hastily I put up a shield, but instead of impacting and dispersing the dark magic bolt began to dig into it, dark lines appearing along the violet surface as it continued to push.

“Move!”

My shield dropped and my wings launched me away, the dark bolt close behind. Rainbow pushed my body into a series of turns and twists, forcing the magic to loop around in wide arcs to continue tracking me, but nothing seemed to slow its momentum.

“Try something solid!”

I searched for something to use. Much of the stone in the courtyard had been reduced to rubble or melted from the Sunburst. However, there were several loose chunks of stone from the collapsed walls of the castle. It was a stretch, and I was forced to drop the shield around my hooves, but I was just barely able to magically grasp several pieces of debris and throw them into the energy's path. The first piece of stone shattered. The second and third pieces held for a second longer, but the black energy burrowed through both and continued after me, forcing me to flee once again.

The only silver lining was that Celestia had to concentrate in order to maintain the spell, preventing her from using any further attacks. Unfortunately, she seemed to be able to sustain the spell without lowering her powerful golden shield.

A burst of inspiration came racing through the link along with Rainbow's grinning face as she provided a solution. A crazy, completely reckless solution, but I didn't have any better ideas.

My wings angled upwards slightly, braking in midair, letting the bolt of dark energy get alarmingly close. At the last possible moment, I twisted and let it skim past. As it arced around to correct its course, Rainbow guided me into a tight loop. With quick wingbeats and even quicker calculations, I began to chase the tail of the dark energy, watching it slowly build up speed.

“Aaaand...now!”

Suddenly, the loop was broken, blitzing toward Celestia with the dark bolt singeing my tail. At the very last moment, I dove and rolled, watching with satisfaction as Celestia's shield shattered. She managed to cancel the spell before it hit her, but this was the opening I needed. Before she could raise her defenses again, I blasted her underbelly hard, staggering her, and Rainbow quickly brought me in close for the followup with my forehooves.

My victory was short lived, however. Even as she recoiled from the blows, I could see the magical wounds I'd inflicted were healing.

“I can't keep this up much longer,” I warned Rainbow as I panted for breath. The transformation, the flight, and the 'Hammer-Hooves' spell were really starting to take their toll.

“Almost there!” reassured Rainbow, as Celestia conjured her shield once again. Part of me was wondering if Rainbow would even be enough to tip the scales at this point, but I pushed that thought out of my mind and focused on the magic building behind the golden barrier.

The pattern felt familiar this time. In fact, it felt exactly like the last spell. Tensing my wings, I prepared for another volley, only for my jaw to drop along with the shield. Five...ten...twenty! Like black tendrils, streaks of magic erupted from Celestia's horn, each as powerful as the one I'd just barely avoided. Some of them arced wide, moving around behind me, while others curved above and below, cutting off my potential routes of escape. Then, as one, all of them turned and streaked towards me.

I dimly heard Rainbow's shout in my mind as she jerked my body into action, immediately moving me towards the biggest gap she could find. Despite her skill, though, there were too many to dodge, and two of the spells glanced across my underbelly and back.

The pain was intense, causing me to cry out. I could make out black streaks in my fur from the glancing blows, and each flap of my wings now sent a twinge of pain through my body...and now the energy had looped around, threatening to surround me once more.

I needed a plan. I couldn't outfly them, I couldn't match their strength, and I couldn't sit behind a shield. Part of me yearned for teleportation, but I had a feeling this magic would track me even through that.

Wait...that was it! These Heartseekers were tracking me by my magical signature! My mind flew back to one of the earliest lessons I'd ever had with Chrysalis on changeling magic. My horn glowed violet before rapidly shifting colors, my magical essence changing internally before being projected outwards.

The effect was almost immediate. While they didn't disappear, the magic seemed to lose any sense of where I was, ceasing to swerve and adjust course and simply flying straight. Many of the beams went up into the sky while others burrowed into the ground where I could only hope they'd disperse harmlessly, and with no ability to track, Rainbow easily guided me through the rest. As the last of the dark energy streaked away, it was tempting to relax, but...

“Move your head, Twi! Where's Celestia?”

My magical senses were faster than my eyes, finding the possessed princess poised right in front of the sun. Her horn was glowing intensely, the normally golden color now a bright white instead. Recognizing the spell, I squeezed my eyes shut and put up the most opaque shield I could manage.

It didn't help. The solar flare lit up the sky, burning my eyes with a bright enough light to be seen through my lids. The flash deafened me as well, even going as far as to distort my magical senses. A second later I felt something strike my shield and shatter it. Weakly, I tried to fly, my entire body disoriented and shaking. The second blast hit me dead center.

My mouth opened but my voice refused to work. The pain was so excruciating I could feel Rainbow suffering through our mental link. My entire body felt like it was on fire, and painful burns were covering much of my barrel where the attack had struck. Every spell I'd been holding onto slipped, my body reverting to its normal unicorn shape while the flight spell faded along with my wings.

I was in freefall now, but I could barely feel the wind rushing past me. Numbness was setting in as my pain threshold was reached, and it was all I could do to stay conscious, the barely visible spot of white turning and flying away.

BOOM!

Despite my ringing ears, I could still hear the sonic boom. Rainbow colors washed over the sky, and in the next moment...

“Gotcha!”

My momentum stopped abruptly, going from vertical to horizontal, strong forelegs holding me up and rapidly carrying me away from the ground. “Stay awake, egghead! I'm getting you out of here!”

I gasped in pain, unable to get the words out that I wanted to say. Fortunately, the close proximity with Rainbow made it easy to reform my mental link.

“No...can't let her get away...”

“Idiot! You can barely move!”

“Can still use magic...aim for me.”

Rainbow clearly wanted to argue, but I stressed our lack of time while communicating my plan. Rainbow made some adjustments and then we were off, the pegasus flipping in the air and placing me on her back where I quickly applied a adhesion spell.

Thankfully, unlike my body, my magic was recovering, and even with my added weight, Rainbow streaked through the sky at teeth clenching speeds. With no spells to sustain, I did my best to mentally hold back the pain as Rainbow brought us into range before unleashing the strongest shieldbreaker I could manage; the power of the spell causing the fur on Rainbow's neck to stand on end. The pegasus followed behind, having to slow down slightly so as not to outpace the blast, but her own attack landed a second later as Celestia's shield cracked, shattering it easily.

The presence of my weight was only throwing off Rainbow a little, and against the larger and rather uncoordinated Celestia, her assault was positively brutal. Each spell was interrupted by a flurry of blows, and each time she tried to put up a shield, I met her with another shieldbreaker, letting Rainbow continue her relentless assault...but it wasn't enough. Each blow barely left a mark, and her body's natural healing quickly repaired the damage we did. We needed something stronger. Something she couldn't easily recover from.

“Oh no...I know what you're thinking egghead, but I'm not doing that while you're on my back!”

Before I could respond, Chrysalis suddenly broke into our link. A flurry of thought passed between the three of us. Worry, concern, fear, relief...and then a few interesting details from Luna's fight with Azure. My mind strained to keep up with the flow of information, but before long, I had a plan and gave Chrysalis a few instructions.

“Let her push you back with the next shield.”

I could feel Rainbow desperately wanting to argue, but the plan was already in motion. High overhead, the sun began to shift towards the horizon, while below, Rainbow slammed into a golden shield that quickly expanded and pushed the pegasus some distance away. Just as we were starting to 'recover', Luna's power surged, the sun lurching out of the sky and over the horizon, bringing forth the night and taking away Celestia’s source of healing.

The moment Celestia looked towards the sky, I finished weaving my own spell. As Rainbow and I sped away from the fight, a duplicate pair of ponies remained behind, the illusory doubles taking flight to intercept Aurum. They weren't going to fool her for long, but Rainbow only needed a few seconds to prepare.

By the time she was several kilometers away, I was panting from the effort of maintaining the illusion as well as keeping Rainbow's trail hidden, and each one of those breaths made my body lurch with pain. In the distance, I could see our illusory doubles dodging and firing back with magical attacks that Aurum could easily dodge.

Landing on the scorched ground, Rainbow stopped and took a breath. “Hop off, Twi.”

“What? No, Rainbow, you can't-”

“I'm not risking it, egghead. You can barely stay awake, much less stay stuck to me.”

“I'm not risking you either! You need a shield! I have that much left in me!”

A myriad of frustration and anger passed through her, but finally she growled and crouched low to the ground. “I swear to Celestia, if you get yourself killed from this, I'm going to break into Tartarus so I can smack you over the head!”

Power gathered around the pegasus, the air currents restless as if they knew what was about to take place. Mentally, I could feel Rainbow's mind enter a serene state of calm as her wings spread and magic raced to the tips of her feathers. And then, she took off.

A booming sound followed our leap into the sky, the first push sending us thirty or forty meters. I pressed my body close to her back, minimizing the wind resistance as her forelegs began to form the mach cone in front of her. Air swirled around us, reforming and pushing at our back, the cone getting narrower with each second. When she pumped her wings a fourth time, the cone broke.

A sonic boom shook Canterlot as the rainbow began to spread, but we were already moving ahead of the sound. Rainbow seemingly ignored the air resistance entirely as she broke the light spectrum barrier and the laws of gravity, climbing higher and higher until Canterlot Castle was little more than a speck on the mountain. I could no longer see Celestia, but Rainbow's eyes could, and she was ready to turn.

For a tenth of a second, I could feel Rainbow stop, but instead of the expected rush of air, all of the kinetic energy seemed to readjust around us, reforming at Rainbow's back until she pulled the trigger once more, a second rainbow explosion forming behind us as she launched towards Celestia.

The alicorn soon became visible as a spot. The spot quickly turned to a speck, and the speck formed a miniature before finally turning into a pony. We were closing too fast for her to fly away, but our straight, direct approach made us an easy target...or so she thought.

I resisted the urge to throw a shield up as an intense beam of searing heat raced towards us. It was no less powerful than the one I'd been struck with, but Rainbow sped towards it, undaunted and brimming with self-confidence. My eyes closed as we met the painfully bright energy head on, but I could still see through Rainbow and feel her grin as she struck hoof first. Her flight slowed ever so slightly...and then the beam split.

Just like the air, Rainbow easily pushed the magic aside, the powerful energy getting thrown every which way. In less than a second, we were right next to Celestia, getting one brief moment to see her look of surprise before Rainbow's forehooves struck.

The heavily enchanted armor which had so easily shrugged off my magical attacks shattered. The alicorn's side compressed, and her cry was lost to the wind as the sheer kinetic force allowed a pegasus a third her size to slam her out of the air.

My shield snapped into place a moment before we reached Canterlot Castle. Celestia hit first, slamming hard into the burned stone wall and breaking through. It was the first of several, our momentum gradually starting to slow as we plowed a path of destruction through the castle's walls and floors. It wasn't until we'd broken through the first three stone barriers that the energy faded and my shield began to protect us instead. Supersonic speeds turned to breakneck speeds, finally culminating in an impact on the ground floor that left us in a crater almost a meter deep.

All sounds, save for Rainbow's heavy panting, seemed to fade away. It took several seconds for my mind to catch up to my body and inform it I was no longer in motion. Finally, I opened my eyes, coughing a few times as the dust settled around us.

“It worked!” gasped Rainbow. “Sweet Tartarus, did you see that? That was a Double Rainboom! I...um, is she alright?”

With my mind relaxing and the tension draining from my body, all the pains from my burns were coming back. Still, I forced myself to examine the motionless alicorn beneath us.

“She's fine,” I said finally, wincing as the simple act of moving my jaw came with a fresh wave of pain. With Celestia unconscious and my adrenaline fading, my body was adding up all of my injuries and giving me a rather nasty bill. The only part of me that didn't feel severely taxed was my magic, but even that felt far more strained than normal.

“Get...Luna...might wake up soon,” I groaned, undoing the adhesive spell and sliding off Rainbow's back. She looked torn as she gently helped me to the ground, clearly not wanting to leave my side while I could barely move under my own power.

“Stay where you are, Luna is on her way.”

No sooner had I received Chrysalis' message did Luna fly through the series of holes we had made. Her focus was immediately given to her sister, her horn glowing as shadowy bindings entrapped Celestia's unconscious form.

“The...others?” I asked, haltingly.

“Crimson and Azure have been slain,” came Luna's curt reply. “My sister...is she still under Aurum's control?”

Grimly, I nodded. Whatever Aurum had done to Celestia's mind had burrowed deep. A knock on the head, no matter how powerful, simply wasn't going to be enough. “Only...one way...sure.”

“Don't even think about it,” came Chrysalis' voice from above. “You're two hooves in the grave and last I checked, Aurum is a changeling elder with experience in mental magics that far exceeds your own.”

I winced slightly at the sharp tone, but I couldn't refute her. I had been about to jump in out of worry for my mentor. “I don't...” I groaned, unable to finish the sentence aloud without sharp stabbing pains in my throat.

“Aurum will not be able to do anything further with my sister's body,” assured Luna. “If need be, we may petrify her. We have plenty of time to cure her condition-”

“We can't-nnhh...” The pain of trying to speak brought tears to my eyes. Chrysalis was instantly by my side, her horn glowing slightly as she opened a new link with me. When the queen spoke next, it was with my voice.

“We can't afford to wait. Look at what they did to Celestia in just six hours! There could be lasting effects unless we get rid of Aurum's influence right now. She might be mentally degrading already.”

“Celestia is an alicorn,” Luna replied , addressing me directly. “Whatever affliction Aurum has endured, she will recover given time.”

My response came far more sharply than I intended, and I would have immediately regretted it if I'd said it aloud. Fortunately, the more level-headed Chrysalis provided a filter for my words. “Luna, you of all ponies should know how difficult it can be to drive out a negative mental influence.”

Luna turned from me to Chrysalis, her expression unreadable. Despite being more tactful than the words I'd chosen, that comment still hit uncomfortably close to home. “Twilight, you are grievously injured. If you put any further strain on yourself-”

“My mind is working just fine. That's all I need to drive Aurum out,” interrupted Chrysalis. “Please, Luna, we can't risk waiting. We have to act while Celestia is still recovering.” Changing her voice back to normal, Chrysalis added, “She will not be alone, either. I will be supporting her as well.”

Closing her eyes, Luna let out a long sigh and bowed her head. “Rainbow, fly to the castle perimeter and find the guards. Tell them to gather the medical ponies on hoof and bring them here. I must stay and make sure Aurum does nothing further with my sister.”

Rainbow was gone a moment after Luna finished speaking. “I am sorry I cannot do more for you, Twilight. I know not of any technique that can soothe the burns from my sister's magic. Even I could only wait for them to heal.”

Weakly, I nodded, focusing my eyes on Celestia. My preliminary examination showed Aurum's magic had dug in deeply, influencing and spreading across every part of her mind. The whole thing felt more like a possession than just some sort of powerful influence.

Come to think of it, Queen Aurum's physical body was nowhere to be found. There was a chance she was somewhere else, controlling her actions remotely, but this felt far different than a link. Putting up a shield should have been enough to break a normal mind link.

“I'm not sure that's possible,” murmured Chrysalis, picking up on my thoughts. “But if there is any changeling who could theoretically perform a complete mental transference, it would be the chief elder.”

“Even if she did, she doesn't have full control. Celestia is probably fighting her for every inch,” I replied. “We'll drive her out just like we drove her out of Sugar Belle's mind.”

Taking a deep breath, I began to mentally reach out towards Celestia with Chrysalis' guidance, my severe burns becoming less painful as I suppressed those parts of my mind with the queen's help. Behind me, I could hear the sound of galloping hooves, no doubt the medics Rainbow had been tasked to get. They'd made good time, but I wasn't about to wait for their assessment.

“Oh no you don't! You're not going in there without me!” Rainbow's voice sounded out moments before her mind began to push its way into the link.

“Wait! Rainbow, you're not-” My thoughts barely had time to form before Aurum's magic surged, grabbing each of us and pulling us into Celestia's mind.

---

It was moving. The feeling of warmth filled my entire body as the brilliant star in the sky reached out to me like an old friend. I'd heard tales of this feat needing to be performed by hundreds of unicorns in the past, and yet all I needed was a small, simple push-

“Steelclaw, if you leave this room and that parchment lacks your signature, the only ones who will suffer for it will be your race. I'm sure I've given a more than adequate demonstration of what Equestria is capable of. You've had your chance to negotiate-”

My words caught in my throat as I watched dark magic swirl around the Crystal Kingdom. He was running away with it, making one last desperate attempt to hold onto his power, yet there was nothing I could do without killing the thousands of ponies Sombra had trapped with him. “It won't last,” I said softly. “Someday, your seal will fade, and then-”

“I still say this a poor substitute for sparring,” huffed Luna as she looked over the ivory castle held by her magic.

“We rule a prosperous land, sister,” I replied with amusement. “It wouldn't do to needlessly scar it with our magic.” My golden aura enveloped a pawn and pushed it two spaces forward-

My eyes stared unblinkingly at the moon and the new markings upon it. For the tenth time that hour I considered turning it so my sister's face was no longer visible, but again I resisted the urge. I deserved every bit of guilt that image caused, and I wasn't going to shy away from my-

“Twilight!”

Chrysalis' dual toned voice bored into my ear. The image around me faded, and suddenly I was myself again. Even as I tried not to think about anything though, the mists were starting to fade and clear up. Then, to my surprise, my hooves touched something solid.

With a gasp, I watched as the images became clear, as if burned away by the sun that was forming in the sky. Before me stretched a long road, and at the very end was the most majestic castle I had ever seen or imagined. The style was obviously in the same as Canterlot, but it had grown by leaps and bounds with more spires, more buildings, a larger expanse of gardens, and a sweeping city at the base. While the original castle had been built on the side of a mountain, this castle looked like it had been carved out of the mountain itself.

“It's a memory palace,” I murmured, my wonder at the sight briefly overcoming the anxiety I had felt.

“Keep your thoughts in order,” warned Chrysalis. “There are thousands of years worth of memories stored here. One wrong step and you could get caught up in another vortex. The sheer amount of information could overwhelm your mind.”

Taking a breath, I nodded and put up the most robust mental barriers I could manage while still keeping my link with Chrysalis and...wait... “Where's Rainbow?”

The moment I mentioned her, my mind immediately zeroed in on her consciousness. Like me, she was trapped in a memory. Reaching out to Chrysalis, the two of us reached to her in turn and pulled, separating her from Celestia's thoughts. The air in front of us rippled slightly before the pegasus appeared, her wings failing to catch her time before she was dumped onto the ground.

The tumble did nothing to dampen her excitement though. “Wow...so that's what it's like to use magic!” Her words trailed off as she took a look at the palace. “The heck are we? Why am I in my body?”

“It's the way Celestia keeps her mind organized,” explained Chrysalis. “While her thoughts are no less abstract than mine or Twilight's, she visualizes her memory as something tangible, so we in turn take a more tangible form...or at least, that’s my theory. I've never connected with a mind as deep as this one.”

I could see the wheels turning in Rainbow's mind and feel her thoughts reaching a rather interesting conclusion. “Stick to your pegasus body for now,” I cut in. “We need to find Aurum's influence and eradicate it.”

“The first part won't be that difficult,” murmured Chrysalis, tapping a hoof on the ground. For a moment, the castle seemed to waver, and then it began to shift. Golden cracks appeared, spreading outwards from the pristine white palace, zigzagging across the landscape and through the sky.

“Well let's get started then,” concluded Rainbow.

“Don't go flying off,” warned Chrysalis quickly. “Celestia's mind is unstable right now. We need to navigate carefully and deliberately, lest we might get caught in another set of memories.”

Rainbow sighed in frustration and landed beside us. It was hard to blame her, though. Every instinct I had was telling me to run to the throne room. In a place like this, I could have probably willed myself there just as easily as I could teleport, but only if the inside of the castle I was looking at was an exact replica of the real one, which I very much doubted.

Chrysalis took the lead, walking carefully and often turning and taking roundabout paths to avoid pieces of memory, though even on our guard, flashes still got through to us. Images of times and places I could only vaguely recognize from history books that had gathered more dust than interest.

Even though I knew the place we were walking through wasn't 'really' Canterlot, it was still unsettling not seeing anypony else around. At any moment, I kept expecting to see a royal guard or an open shop, but the place remained eerily quiet and crushingly empty.

“I don't get it. Why isn't Celestia pushing her out?” asked Rainbow after a period of silence. “The other queens aren't influencing her anymore, right? Shouldn't she be able to deal with Aurum alone?”

“I don't think it's that simple,” I began, not wanting to give voice to the theories forming in my mind.

Chrysalis stopped suddenly, glancing at one of the stores we had just passed. It looked just like one of the regular shops in Canterlot, save for its blackened windows and the bright golden cracks running along it. “This is not one of Celestia's memories,” concluded the queen.

“Aurum's memory?” I asked, approaching the sealed door.

“Huh? Why would Aurum put her memories in Celestia's mind?” asked Rainbow.

I sucked in a breath and slowly let it out, trying to keep my calm. “She's trying to drive out Celestia's consciousness and superimpose her own...and the other elders might have given her enough power to make it work.”

It was something I'd only theorized about up to this point. Suppress everything until there was almost nothing left of the original pony, then force your own mind on top of it. I doubted Aurum even had a body to go back to anymore, given the extent of her influence.

“I'm going to take a look,” I said suddenly. “I want to get a better read on her energy and feel how deep she's dug in.”

To my surprise, neither Rainbow or Chrysalis offered a protest, only giving me a nod as I approached the doorway and pressed my hoof against it, letting my defenses fall a bit. Immediately, I could feel a tugging sensation drawing me in. The scenery around me shifted, and suddenly I was standing in a darkened forest. Like before when I'd entered a mind, I felt myself being pulled towards the memory's owner, but this time I was prepared and kept my sense of self.

Details trickled in. I was in the body of a gryphon, one that had covertly been replaced by Aurum. She wasn't alone, either. Moving silently through the forest was a whole squad, their claws silent on the mossy ground. It was the dead of night, and from the armor they wore, it was very clearly a raiding party, and yet...

I frowned mentally as I began to unravel Aurum's purpose for being here. A faint buzzing made my mind itch until I realized that she was communicating with other changelings...changelings that were currently in the very town the gryphons were about to invade. She was preparing them, commanding them from behind enemy lines. Protecting a food source, perhaps? Or did she have an interest in the ultimate winner of this conflict? Her thoughts seemed to imply a bit of both.

Wait...I knew this place. And the name of that town was familiar too...

I gasped, coming to the realization moments before it began to play out in front of me. With little warning, the forest filled with bright light. The disguised Aurum looked up into the sky along with the other gryphons, finding the moon suddenly gone and the sun in its place. Aurum was forced to shield her eyes, nearly missing the tiny piece that seemed to break off and fall to earth like a golden seed.

The detonation came soon after, bathing the forest in fire.

With a gasp, I pulled myself from the memory, quickly raising my defenses once more while communicating what I'd seen with Rainbow and Chrysalis.

“How did she survive?” wondered the pegasus aloud.

“Magic and luck,” I replied. “The gryphons weren't so fortunate.” The display of sheer power had been frightening, and by Celestia's accounts, she'd only been trying to destroy the forest. How much more was she capable of?

I'd touched upon that memory, hoping to learn more of Aurum, and yet at the same time, I was starting to come to a grim realization about Celestia. How much had this poisoned our potential relationship with the changeling race? What kind of relationship could Equestria hope for if the bordering countries knew just what she was capable of? Paranoia and fear would tinge every negotiation, and Celestia herself would have to constantly be on guard.

“She sure seems a lot less threatening when a young Changeling Queen can knock her off her throne, doesn't she?” murmured Chrysalis.

“And it definitely sounds a lot better saying you thwarted an invasion with the power of love rather than deep frying 'em with the sun,” added Rainbow.

And now Aurum was threatening to shatter that image. Sure, maybe sometime in the future Celestia would retake her mind, but how much damage would she do in the meantime? How would Equestria manage if Luna was forced to imprison her and rule in her place? Would our enemies gain new confidence? No matter which scenario I thought through, it all looked bleak. We needed to evict Aurum at any cost.

With renewed determination, I took the lead, following the neural pathways towards the place where Aurum's energy was strongest. Now that I'd gotten a feel for it, following the trail while avoiding the memories was far easier.

One thought nagged at the corner of my mind, though. Why had Aurum's energy pulled us in? It almost felt like it had been an invitation.

Chrysalis let out a small chuckle as she picked up on my thoughts. “A chance to dominate the minds of the traitor queen and the unicorn who discovered your magical secrets? How could she resist?”

“Let her try,” scoffed Rainbow. “She didn't beat us out there, she's not gonna beat us in here.” And while I couldn't completely let go of my doubts, at least this time I could share in Rainbow's confidence.