The next day, after a good night's sleep, Arcadia woke up with a start, realizing something that she didn't realize yesterday. Something very important.
Gold doesn't serve well with armor. It was too soft. She needed to stop these ponies from wasting their time.
"Oh my oh my oh my," she muttered, flying out the bed and grabbing her crown from the bedside table. Hopefully Madun wasn't busy. It would be a lot harder to stop them. Throwing open her bedroom door, Twilight trotted out and made her way to the throne room, her long wings flapping every now and then in anxiety. She was getting to know this place a lot more than when she first arrived. Before, she had to ask somepony for instructions. Now she could navigate without a problem.
After a few more minutes of running, she stopped in front of the guarded throne room doors, the Pserateps there nodding at her out of respect. "Good morning, gentlecolts."
"Good morning, Lady Arcadia," one of them greeted. "Looking for his majesty?"
"Yes, is he busy, it's really important." Luckily these guards had steel armor on. Didn't have to worry about them.
"No, he's actually been expecting you. You can walk right in." Twilight thanked him and pushed in the large and ornate doors. The king was just sitting on his throne, looking over a scroll in a boring positing.
"Good morning, Madun! It's cold in here, you need some heat." The king looked over his scroll and grinned pleasantly.
"Good morning, Arcadia," he greeted, trotting off his throne and up to give his girlfriend a nuzzle. After that, he looked her over. "You have bedhead, what happened?"
She was just staring at him dreamily before she shook her head, getting back on track. "I just realized gold doesn't work as armor! It's way too soft. If someone thrusts a sword, it'll go right through it. I suggest you use the gold as plating to cover steel. Luckily, I know a transformation spell that can change the molecules and chemistry of the rock and turn it into steel!"
Madun was just looking at her for a moment before he looked towards the doors. "Okay, I'll have one of my guards go and fetch a slab to see. GUARD!" The door opened, allowing one of the guards standing by to walk in the room and bow to him.
"Yes, your highness?"
"I need a slab of gold at once. Bring it to the throne room." The guard bowed again then turned around to go fulfill the request. "There. We have a lot of it. We don't usually use armor unless the position calls for it. Active duty guards wear it but those just patrolling the streets usually just wear a helmet and a few more things."
"So I've noticed." Arcadia took a seat next to him, offering him a soft smile. He fawned over at the sight making her giggle. "You are head over hooves for me."
"You know it, baby." She shook her head before he leaned over and nuzzled her. Twilight returned it just as he wanted. "Try not to forget."
"I don't think I could if I tried. Hearth's Warming's coming up in a few weeks. Got a gift in mind?" He chuckled and pulled back, crawling closer and putting a wing over her.
"Yes, I do. I really hope you like and accept it. Our relationship has gone beyond friendship Twilight, and I want to propose a position to you. But you have to wait until Hearth's Warming. Hope you don't get hot hooves and start jumping up and down in anxiety."
"I more than likely will be doing that next week. It will become the most important thing on my mind and I'll barely be able to focus on anything else. Nice going for telling me, now I can't get it out of my head." Madun laughed while she just grinned. She really loved this stallion. And it looks like he loves her just as much.
"Then I won't bring it up until that day to ease your pain."
"You better not." The two shared a kiss before the doors opened again. Three guards walked in carrying in a slab of gold on their backs. It was a large slab, and thick too. Twilight's eyes widened before she got up and walked towards them to help out. Using her magic, she levitated it off their backs, letting them catch a break and moan in relief while she set it on the floor vertically.
"I will now demonstrate how soft gold is compared to steel. Which is as soft as.....chewing gum. Is it illegal if I smash this on your carpet?"
"If you can clean it up, I have no problem with it," Madun answered, waving his hoof at her. She nodded and turned back around before tilting her incredibly sharp horn at the gold and thrusting forward. It went straight through, creating a few cracks around the penetration. The ponies watching stared wide-eyed, the realization that the gold could be destroyed so simply wracking their minds.
Arcadia pulled back and let the gold fall down with a thud, cracking some more before she jumped on it, making it shatter. She continued jumping, turning it into dust before she stepped back and used her magic to gather up the particles, putting it back together into a slab like it was before. Afterwards, she turned around to face King Madun who had a shocked look over his face.
"As you can see, the gold is as weak to me as a bug is to a hoof," she explained. "This is what I will do to turn that around."
She faced the slab again and lit her horn, surrounding the slab in a purple aura. It started changing color from the top left corner, turning into a silver color and working its way down until the whole thing was silver. Steel.
"I will now demonstrate how this thick slab is compared to that of the gold earlier." She let go of the slab, allowing it to tilt and fall forward with a loud clang that reverberated around the room, muffled as much as it could be by the carpeting.
She stepped on top of it before flapping her wings, going as high as she could before applying a weight spell, making her body heavy. The mare stopped flapping and fell, dropping down onto the slab with a clang before stepping off. The slab didn't even have a dent in it. "We can use one third of the gold as plating, but the rest I recommend you let me change to steel for armor and defenses, weapons, and more. It's much more stronger and protective against enemies. I don't know any spells to change it to Chromium but I have worked on that in the past."
"Guard go and fetch me the General please," Madun ordered. The guards walked away before he walked off his throne and over to his girlfriend. "Do you just...do this for a living or something? Solve problems? I don't actually know what you did before in Equestria."
"Well before I became a mockery of a princess," she spat out. "I was a librarian at the Golden Oak Library in Ponyville. Then a villain showed up named Tirek, who destroyed it. He took all the magic out of the ponies and got so powerful that only I was left to fight him."
"I have a librarian for a girlfriend. Ohh my Psera." Twilight rolled her eyes and flicked him with her wing You must be really strong."
"Now I am." The two began to make their way out the room and towards the entrance of the castle. Using her magic, Twilight had the steel hovering alonc right behind them. "I was given all the power of the Alicorns as a last stand effort and we fought. Unfortunately, he used my friends against me. He held them hostage and said that he would release them if I gave him the power. At the time, they were still my friends so I went ahead and accepted. We stopped him using the elements of harmony from the tree of harmony. Where these were created." She pointed at the crown on her head making him glance up.
"So....they are really strong huh?"
"Incredibly strong. And only I can activate them now. Even from nearly half a thousand miles away, they are at my beck and call. I didn't want to take the controller, but I had no choice, as you know. If they are to learn their lesson, they have to learn it the hard way."
"I agree. They should have—"
"Your highness!" The two stopped and turned around. A few guards were running towards them. "There is a nationwide emergency! It's back!"
The Pserateps on the ground started to run off towards their homes at the sound of the alarm from the system Lady Arcadia had built ringing out, along with a roar of the giant Ursa Major walking across the plains towards the city of Capita, nearly there before a purple glow enveloped and stopped it, freezing it in its tracks. The glowing bear was in confusion, trying to understand why it couldn't move until, in its mind, a purple bird thing zipped into view, her horn glowing with magical energy that was pouring into the aura surrounding the bear.
"Bold Shoulder! Have your men scout where it came from, follow its footsteps!" Arcadia instructed. The general of the large battalion behind her took half of the group and followed the large footsteps while Arcadia poured in her magic, scanning it for a trace of any magic. She gasped at what she found. It was......love? She knows it when she feels it.
"Love? But only Changelings feed off of......." She gasped, finally realizing what that black piece was from one of the destroyed structures. It was chitin. "You're no Ursa Major......You're a bunch of Changelings!" Using some of her magic, she fired a spell, diminishing the camouflage of the swarm in a purple wave and revealing.....hundreds of the creatures. The guards surrounding them gasped before unsheathing their swords and standing at the ready to face off against the unfamiliars.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Twinkle Flank. And what are you doing here anyway?" Twilight slowly directed her attention at the front of the group, finding the last face she wanted to see.
"Queen Chrysallis!" She snarled. The Queen gave her an evil grin along with a wave. " The real question is what are you doing here, hunting these ponies? Return to Equestria at once!"
"No can do, Twilight. And what the buck are you doing way out here?" She fired a bolt of magic at the shield, not even denting it. Baffled, she fired a far stronger one, having the exact same effect. "What? H-How are you able to withstand my magic?"
"Don't worry about it, just get off the Pseratep land. Why are you even here?"
"Because of the love, dear Twilight," she responded, motioning behind her at her swarm to attack the shield. They began firing their own magic at it, still having no success. "Now let us loose!"
"Oh, I will.....back in Equestria!" Twilight's shield suddenly turned blue when she used another advanced spell that was hypnotizing the swarm and the queen herself. She's never felt power like this. "You will never come back here again. You will forget about this place and you will tell nopony about it! You will find love somewhere else. Do I make myself clear?" Chrysalis absentmindedly nodded her head. Twilight took off that spell and used another, forcing them all to sleep until she dropped them off.
One of the sergeants flew over to her and saluted. "What do we do with them, Lady Arcadia?" He asked. She looked from him then back to the sleeping Changelings and sighed.
"We take them back to Equestria. To their hive. Were any places damaged?"
"Not that we can tell."
She sighed in relief. "Good. Get the general, please. I need two hundred soldiers to accompany me during this trip. I would send them through a portal, But I don't know what is past the Badlands enough to open one. I could leave them straight inside of the castle, and I'd rather not do that. Go." The Pseratep saluted again before he flew towards the location the general had gone to. Apparently Merōl.
Arcadia watched him go before she settled her eyes on the sleeping Changeling queen still held in her magic. "You didn't just come here for love, Chrysalis," she said to herself. "Why are you really here?"
"Who is she?" King Madun asked, flying next to his girlfriend. "And....what are they?"
"Queen Chrysalis, Queen of a Changeling hive. They are able to change their bodies into whatever they want and they feed off of love. However, it looks like they were able to change into one whole thing by joining their bodies together. They must've evolved or something. Either way, it won't matter. She will not bother us again. The Pserateps are safe. We could put them on trial for nearly causing the demolition of this land....but I have a feeling she wasn't here for love."
"What do you mean?" He flew towards the bubble and poked it. It vibrated in response and a small wave formed around his hoof, spreading out across the shield.
"I know how Chrysalis works. If she wanted to get love, she would've just taken it by coming onto the land, grabbing everypony by the hoof, and sucking them dry." Madun slowly turned around, looking at her wide-eyed. "Don't worry, from what I was told, she didn't touch anypony. But instead, she came onto the land and tried to destroy it. Why?"
The king turned around and looked at the bug queen, still in deep sleep. What was with this thing?
"Lady Arcadia!" She turned to her right. The general and what she would call a swarm of Pserateps were behind him, all saluting. Two hundred of them. "I heard you needed some soldiers?"
"Yes. We are taking the Queen and the rest back to Equestria. I would teleport them there, but I don't rightly know how far into the Badlands she lives. So unfortunately.......I have to go back again. This is the second time this year and the second to last this year. The next is on Hearth's Warming. I have to give my niece her gift."
"Consider it done." He turned around and addressed the soldiers behind him. "SOLDIERS! YOU ARE ACCOMPANYING LADY ARCADIA TO EQUESTRIA! THIS IS NOT A SIGHTSEEING MISSION! THIS IS A DELIVERY!" He looked over his shoulder. "What happens if there are hostilities?"
"If there are, it will more than likely be the princesses and I will interfere. I will not let our people be subjected to them."
He turned back around. "IF YOU ARE APPROACHED BY A PRINCESS, DO NOT ENGAGE! LET LADY ARCADIA HANDLE IT, AM I CLEAR?!"
"YES, SIR!!!!"
"YOU WILL FORM A LARGE RADIUS AROUND LADY ARCADIA AND THE PACKAGE FOR PROTECTION! IF YOU ARE APPROACHED BY A GUARD, IGNORE AND CONTINUE ON! IF YOU ARE HIT BY A GUARD, TAKE THEM DOWN! Is that okay, Lady Arcadia?"
"Yes."
"TAKE THEM DOWN! TAKE POSITIONS!" The soldiers all formed a large sphere around the package while Arcadia turned to her boyfriend.
"Calm the ponies and let them know that Arcadia is delivering the 'bear' back to where it belongs and it shall never come back again. When I return, we will continue the armor project." He nodded before leaning in and planting a kiss on her lips.
"I will send out the message as well as record this moment in the records for future reference in case we encounter a clue for her reasoning. Be careful."
"I will." She turned around and motioned towards the general who sent out the order.
"MOVE OUT!"
"We have to work on the play again?" Rainbow Dash groaned around the remaining elements and the princesses, all three. "Last time was so boring!" They were all situated inside the destroyed Friendship castle, where the Friendship map was currently still intact. Celestia informed them that she wanted the group to do the Hearth's Warming Eve play, along with Sunset Shimmer when she returned to substitute for Twilight.
"Rainbow, the play brings joy to all the ponies who watch it," Cadance reminded her. She threw her hooves to the ceiling and exasperated, "Of course we must do the play, Equestria was built on the story!"
"Well can some other pony do it?" She groaned, much to the annoyance of Spike. "Spike, your writing is great and all, but I just don't like performing."
"You perform all the time," Applejack stated matter-of-factly. "Remember those tricks you were doin' last week? Trying to 'woo the crowd below'?"
"Yeah, but that was for me, not for anypony else. I do that to feel good!" She jumped in the air and started flying in circles before the farmer groaned and grabbed her tail, stopping her in midair.
"Down, pony! We need to talk, not show off." Rainbow groaned and crossed her hooves. The Princesses laughed at her reluctance.
"Rainbow, you need to learn about the foundations of......" Celestia trailed off when she and Luna felt a presence. A strong presence that they haven't felt for so long as well as the familiar headache. "She's back." The elements looked at her oddly before a guard came running down the hall and into the room.
"Princesses!" The three looked at the tired guard, huffing heavily. "You.....you need to see this."
***
The group all ran out of the Crystal building and looked at where the ponies were pointing at. They looked behind the castle, up into the air and gasped, spotting the giant blue bubble in the distance filled with giant black dots. And around that bubble, the sky was filled with tiny dots. But that wasn't what had the princesses attention.
It was the purple pony with the very large wings that Celestia and Luna recognized immediately.
"Twilight!" They yelled, catching Cadance's attention.
"THAT'S Twilight Sparkle?!" She asked. The ground started trembling lightly as the battalion passed over Ponyville, catching eyes as the two hundred and one passed over quickly, going slow but could go faster than Rainbow Dash if they wanted to.
"Yes, and she has the element of Magic on her!" Luna answered, looking at all the Pserateps above before the large blue orb carrying the black creatures crossed over, behind it was Twilight Sparkle with the crown on her head. Cadance looked closely and verified that it was indeed Twilight. That indigo streak in the hair was definitely her signature. But she looked a little different. What was it? Did she get a little bigger?
"We must find out what she is doing, come!" Celestia flapped her wings, going after the group with Cadance and Luna right behind her. This was going to be quick hopefully and not as eventful like a few months ago. If she cooperated.
"Lady Arcadia!" A soldier to her right said, catching her attention. "We have three ponies on our six!" She informed her.
"The princesses," she muttered to herself. "Do not engage, do not respond! Let her come to me. I will try to buy some time and let them know some unfortunate bugs have messed with the ponies. No names will be given. Watch your back."
"Yes, ma'am!" The guard slowed and went back to her position, shouting the order out to the rest of the ponies there with her, ignoring the approaching ponies coming towards them.
"Ponies! You are over restricted airspace!" Luna yelled, circling around the huge group. Celestia took the other side while Cadance took the area above, slowly making their way towards the large bubble. "Turn back now!" The ponies did not respond, only continuing their flapping and proceeding to follow Arcadia.
"AS THE PRINCESS OF EQUESTRIA YOU WILL ANSWER IMMEDIATELY!" Celestia yelled, using the Royal Canterlot voice to intimidate. But the Pserateps were strong, keeping their mouths shut and their faces stoic. Celestia looked at the other two who were sharing the same expression before Cadance flew up towards Twilight, who was passing over the Ruins of the Everfree castle, the ball still in her magic.
Arcadia grinned, overjoyed that her magic hadn't even faltered. She was as strong as Celestia, possibly even stronger! And the Pserateps actually recognized her, noticed her. Unlike the ponies of the land she was over right now. They just used her.
"Twilight Sparkle!" But something about that voice irked her. She lost her grin and groaned before activating a shield around herself while also holding the Changelings, double-spelling. Celestia tried to come in and swipe the Element of Magic off her head, only to come in contact with the violet shield. "Stop now!" Twilight huffed and decided to play around with this a little.
She looked over her shoulder at the Pserateps looking at her expectantly. "Hold firm ponies!" She slowed down and came to a hover, the Pserateps following her order. The three Equestrian princesses all hovered in front of her, standing between the bubble and Twilight, staring daggers at her, which made her upset.
"You have no right to be angry!" She yelled, fury over her face.
"Twilight, you have stolen—"
"Shut it, Celestia!" The princesses all stared at her in shock before lighting their horns. "Is that all you really care about? A stupid crown?!"
"Twilight, you holding that 'crown' is the greatest threat to Equestria if it is not returned!" Cadance retorted, catching her attention. "You have to return it!"
"Or?"
"Or we will have to take it by force!" Luna growled. She lit her horn and aimed it at Twilight. "You will return the crown and you will rejoin the Elements of—"
"No, I won't." The princesses all gasped before lighting their horns and firing it at her. "Hold firm, ponies!" The blast hit her shield, sending a shockwave all over Equestria, the power tingling the hairs on the citizens' backs. The three stopped the spell, waiting for the smoke to clear from in front of them. When it did, they gasped. Twilight was tapping her hooves and grinning at them.
"Valiant effort, but sadly...it won't work. So......my turn. I'm very disappointed in you Cadance." She lit her horn and fired a wave of her magic at all three of them, knocking them back insanely hard to the side and towards the ground. The three ponies all crashed below with either a yell or a scream, never feeling this type of power before. Luna had crashed through a bunch of trees in the east, knocking them down and creating a mess while Celestia was sent flying south into the nearby city of Dodge junction with a cry. Cadance had flew all the way back southeast into Hayseed Swamps, going straight into the water itself, pain shot up her back from the impact the water had created on her.
Twilight looked down at the dust that had flown up from Celestia's crash up ahead, shaking her head. "They should really just say the two words that can end this. Equestria as a whole should. CONTINUE!" She started flying forward again with the Pserateps right behind her, eventually coming over the Crash sight that Celestia was flying up towards her from. Arcadia activated her shield again before she could reach her, causing her to bounce off and back down.
"Twilight! You are refusing order by Equestrian law!" She yelled up to her, lighting her horn again. "You will be arrested and put on trial if you do not return the—"
"ENOUGH, CELESTIA!" Arcadia yelled, turning towards the Princess and firing another beam at her. Celestia gasped before she was once again sent flying back. "YOU NO LONGER HAVE THE RIGHT TO ORDER ME AROUND, YOU LIAR!"
Celestia crashed once more into the dirt. The ponies below covered their heads from the reigning debris. Arcadia looked at the scene for a moment before she continued the journey. "I am so sorry you had to see that, everypony," she said over her shoulder at the Pserateps who just witnessed her angry side.
"It's okay, Lady Twilight," Shining Sword said from her left. He was there this whole time? "From what we've seen, the Princesses do not listen to their subjects well."
"No....it's just me they have a problem with," she sighed. "We are entering the Badlands now. The hive down below was her old one which is occupied." The ponies looked down, seeing the gray structure with colorful creatures flying around it who stopped and looked up at them in awe as they passed over, heading towards another area. "Chrysalis does not live there anymore. She lives past it somewhere. So we will have to track it, find it, drop her off, and then cross through the portal back home."
"YES, MA'AM!"
***
After a few more miles, they spotted the structure, looking identical to the one they passed a few miles back. "This is it," Arcadia told the sergeant beside her. "Order them to cover me."
Shining Sword nodded before turning around to face the other Pserateps. "PROTECTION FORMATION!" The Pserateps all got into a form around her, providing a huge radius compiled by rings.
Arcadia lowered the bubble in front of the hive. It touched the dirt ground before she deactivated it. Then the bugs poured out and hit the ground softly. Chrysalis was right in the past about how pathetic Equestria was. The Pserateps had so much while the Equestrians depended solely on magic to help them function. Yes, Twilight used magic to help restore them and create more space for the vast amount of ponies they had, including the creation of Psera Skies. But besides that, Psera was already ahead of them in speed, land, military strength, and buildings. Not to mention transportation. Somehow, these ponies had created vehicles like on Earth, where Sunset Shimmer lived. Mostly used for transporting items to and from companies. Like food, materials, items for sale, mail, etcetera. Equestria really needs to think about innovation rather than power.
Shaking her head from these thoughts and having completed the drop off, she flew back up to the Pseratep soldiers, awaiting her command. "We are leaving now! I will create a portal back home and we will not be seen again unless they come to us."
"YES, MA'AM!" Twilight lifted her horn and fired a single powerful bolt, the same one she fired earlier in Psera before arriving in Equestria. It flew up and expanded, creating a large purple portal, leading into Psera. Once it was finished forming, the soldiers started flying through it quickly, leaving Equestria and those rude Princesses behind. Twilight looked in the distance and groaned. Three dots were getting bigger, coming closer and closer to them.
"YOU WILL NOT BE LEAVING UNTIL YOU RETURN THAT CROWN!" Celestia yelled before Twilight slipped into the portal. It shrunk and disappeared right when they reached it. The Alicorns soared straight through the location it was at a second ago, hitting nothing but air. "NOOOOO!"
They turned and looked around them, hoping to see one of the ponies that were just there to question, only to see dirt and the hive. "Maybe we can question the changelings she dropped off!" Cadance suggested, pointing towards the slightly conscious changelings down below.
"Yes, they would know what happened!" Luna agreed, leading the group down to Chrysalis who was looking around confusedly. "Chrysalis!" The changeling queen looked up and sighed as they landed in front of her. Her swarm immediately hissed at them.
"What do you want?" She asked blandly.
"We want to know what happened," Celestia asked, confusing her. "Twilight brought you here and we want to know where she came from!"
"Wait, what are you talking about? Twilight didn't bring me here, we've been at the hive all day!"
"Chrysalis, this is no joking matter," Cadance said, stepping towards her. "We need to know now."
"I cannot help you ponies, I have no idea what you're talking about." Luna ran forward and touched her horn to hers, making her gasp and freeze up as she scanned her memories. Celestia held the swarm back with a shield so they wouldn't interfere. After a while she stepped back, looking at Chrysalis in disbelief.
"There.....there is no memory of Twilight at all in her mind except during the wedding years ago," Luna informed them, releasing the queen.
"Nothing at all?" Celestia asked in disbelief. "Not even a feather?"
"Not even a feather." The princesses sighed. "Twilight is dangerous. We must take precautions and start another investigation. At once."