“Rainbow, wait!” Twilight called out, but her words fell on deaf ears. Rainbow Dash lunged at Chrysalis with a powerful flap of her wings, a guttural scream ripping out of her throat.
Chrysalis only grinned.
With a sadistic laugh, she quickly shifted herself to the side, evading Rainbow’s attempted tackle almost casually. Her horn igniting with furiously burning green magic just as Rainbow shot by her before the pegasus was encased in the same green glow, freezing in mid-air. Rainbow’s eyes went wide when she felt the constricting force holding her suspended in the air. Her scream of anger melted away into one of terror and anguish as she thrashed desperately against the energy that had her trapped. “PUT ME DOWN!” she screamed out in desperation, even as the world around her bled away to that all-too-familiar scene…
“Oh? What’s this?” Chrysalis hummed with thought and raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Pulling the thrashing pegasus closer, Chrysalis eyed her like a scientist would her latest creation; with intrigue and delight. Her smile only grew. “Afraid of magic, are we?”
“STOP IT!” Twilight shouted, trying to charge the queen. She was forced to stop her advance short as several drones quickly moved to block her path, hissing and snarling angrily at her and forcing her to retreat. Backing up several steps, Twilight dared to let her eyes flick to look past the drones at Rainbow, her ears going flat as she saw the mare squirming and screaming. “Please, stop! You’re hurting her!”
Chrysalis glanced over at Twilight with a bored expression. She scoffed dismissively and waved a hoof at Twilight and the drones around her. “Would one of you shut her up, please?” she asked flatly before returning her attention to Rainbow Dash, her expression shifting from one of mild boredom to one of predatory hunger. “I’d like to enjoy my meal in peace...” Green fire swirled around her as she said this, and Queen Chrysalis was replaced by Twilight Sparkle.
The real Twilight took another step back, her horn lighting with magic. “LEAVE HER ALONE!” she bellowed before closing her eyes tight with concentration. A changeling drone hissed aggressively and lunged at her, fangs bared and hooves outstretched. There was a bright flash of light where the unicorn stood. When it faded, Twilight Sparkle was nowhere to be found.
Chrysalis deigned to turn her eyes in that direction before snorting and rolling her eyes with a disgruntled frown appearing on her face. “She couldn’t have gotten far. Find her and bring her in!” she demanded in Twilight’s voice.
“Yes, my queen!” One of the drones gave a salute before they all bowed deeply, then turning and moving to buzz off deeper into the castle, leaving Chrysalis alone with Rainbow Dash. The pegasus’ cries and wails had died down to pitiful, quiet whimpers and sobs. She was curled up in a fetal position, her entire body was shaking violently and she was barely able to breathe through the spastic convulsions in her chest and lungs.
Chrysalis’ horn abruptly lost its light, and the light entrapping Rainbow faded with it, letting her drop to the floor in a crumpled, useless heap. She shifted slightly after a moment, trying to get her hooves under her so she could stand up. Chrysalis smiled softly, then changed her expression to one of worry and concern. “Rainbow, are you okay?” she asked urgently, reaching down and touching a hoof to Rainbow’s shoulder.
Rainbow jerked back, opening her eyes to look at Chrysalis with eyes that burned with furious hatred. She paused for a moment when she saw Twilight looking back at her, her eyes widening and the intensity fading somewhat. No… It’s a trick, she told herself, gritting her teeth and bracing to lash out.
Chrysalis’ horn lit up again, and a green beam of energy shot out of the tip and struck Rainbow between the eyes. She cried out as she felt something worm its way into her thoughts and feelings, purging any feelings of fear or anger, and any recollection of the changeling queen she had been facing just a moment ago. She tried to resist, but it was no use; the power was too much, and soon, Rainbow’s eyes lost focus, a slight green tint coming over her pupils. “Wha… Twi...light?” she mumbled, lifting a hoof to her forehead to try and quell a rising migraine. “What happened…?”
“Sshh, it’s okay,” ‘Twilight’ cooed softly, reaching a hoof out to gently stroke Rainbow’s jawline. “You’re okay. I’m here.”
“But… but what… uh…” Rainbow tried to voice the questions in her mind but found that she was unable to do so. Twilight’s hoof snaked over to the back of her head, then pulled her forward.
And then Twilight kissed her.
Rainbow’s eyes went wide and her mind blanked when her lips touched those of the mare in front of her. Her entire body went rigid and her wings snapped open. For several moments, she sat there, tense and not sure what to do. Then her muscles relaxed completely as she melted into the kiss, returning it eagerly and wrapping her forelegs around Twilight’s shoulders, humming quietly in content.
Something’s wrong… she thought to herself somewhere deep in the back of her head, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. It only took a few seconds for that thought to be purged from her mind and discarded in favor of just enjoying the contact with Twilight, savoring their first kiss. After several, wonderful, ecstasy-inducing seconds, Twilight pulled away from Rainbow with a warm, loving smile on her muzzle. “You don’t have to say anything, Rainbow…”
“I… uh… okay,” Rainbow nodded dumbly, still quite confused but, at this point, no longer really caring about her questions. She gladly accepted it when Twilight pulled her in for another kiss, holding her close, even as her mind grew clouded with fog.
Why was she so tired all of a sudden? Her muscles were growing weak and it was getting hard to keep her eyes open. Oh well, it didn’t matter. Twilight was here, holding her tight. Everything was okay. Everything was perfect. Nothing was wrong.
The sense of tranquility was broken when Twilight suddenly got yanked away from her. A loud shout came from the startled mare’s mouth as she was hurled away by a blast of purple magic that had come from the left and struck her in the head, knocking her into the far wall. Rainbow blinked as the world around her became blurred and unfocused. She fell forward, barely catching herself with her forehooves before looking around in a state of dazed confusion. She couldn't tell what she was looking at, and she was suddenly feeling incredibly dizzy. “Twi… Twilight?” she asked nervously, shifting forward slightly. “What happened…? Where are you? Twilight?!”
A voice echoed in her ears, muffled and distant like it was spoken into a pillow from deep within an enormous cavern. There was a colorful blob of purple by Rainbow’s side, and the world shook sharply, making her head throb in protest. Her eyes slowly and lazily looked up at the colorful mass, unable to properly decide on a consistent size, shape or shade for whatever it was she was seeing. “What’s going on…?”
Slap!
“OW!” Rainbow’s mind suddenly snapped back into place when a sharp pain exploded across her right cheek. Everything came rushing back into sharp focus and the fog smothering her thoughts was lifted. Still reeling from the rather hard slap she had just received, Rainbow stretched out a foreleg to catch herself from falling to the floor.
“Rainbow, we have to go! NOW!” Twilight shouted, yanking Rainbow back to her hooves with a hard tug on her other foreleg. Rainbow grunted in surprise from the force of the tug, shaking her head while coming back to a standing position.
“What happened?” she asked, her words slightly slurred while her brain tried to reboot.
“Ask me later,” Twilight barked before giving Rainbow another hard tug for the throne room. “For now, we have to GO!”
Somewhere behind her, Rainbow heard an agitated hiss and growl. It reminded her of the kind of sound an angry snake might make, and her blood began to run cold. That was all the incentive she needed to do as Twilight said, and she broke into a gallop alongside her for the open doors of the Canterlot Castle throne room. She wasn’t steady on her hooves yet, however, and stumbled on the way through before tripping forward and slamming into the red carpet face-first. Spots and colors exploded across her vision and her skull protested heavily with intense pain. Rainbow groaned in pain, her ears ringing. Once said ringing died down, she heard the sound of massive reinforced doors slamming shut and some kind of spell being put into motion by Twilight.
“Rainbow, grab somepony and get close to me!” The mare in question shouted, a great deal of strain in her voice. Rainbow looked up and spotted Twilight channeling a steady stream of magic into the now closed doors of the throne room, keeping them shut and projecting a lavender barrier around them. “Hurry! I can’t hold her off for long!”
Rainbow nodded, then looked on at the throne room. Her ears drooped against her head. The left side of the room saw a giant hole blasted into the wall, looking like the stone had been melted from the inside by some kind of powerful spell. Rubble was strewn all about, and hanging from the walls and ceiling were more of those disgusting green pods. Still dazed, Rainbow stumbled over to the nearest one of the green pods and grabbed it with her hooves. She gave a flap of her wings to help her drag it towards Twilight, then let out a short yell of pain when her left side and wing flared up with white-hot agony.
There was a loud bang from the door and cracks appeared all along Twilight’s barrier. “Gah! Come on!” She cried out between grit teeth, pain in her voice. The light from her horn flared up considerably and colorful sparks came off of it in droves, casting enough light into the room that it made Rainbow squint if she looked. Shaking her head and gritting her teeth to brace herself, Rainbow gave another hard flap of her wings despite the pain. This time, she was able to haul the pod until they were right next to Twilight, within hoofs-reach.
“Okay, whatever you’re doing, do it now!” Rainbow hissed while putting a hoof on Twilight’s back and bracing herself, while her other hoof stayed firmly on the pod. Twilight nodded and dropped her barrier spell. Less then a second later, the doors buckled and exploded inwards among a billowing cloud of putrid green fire. As the debris fell away and slid along the floor, Queen Chrysalis could be seen on the other side with a crack visible on the chitin covering her cheek from where Twilight had blasted her a minute ago.
“You worthless, mewling grub!” she shouted, her horn igniting with yet more fire. “You’ll pay for this!”
“Twilight?!” Rainbow pressed, looking on in terror as the changeling queen readied her spell. They weren’t going to make it!
Chrysalis howled with rage and fired the spell, a massive beam of acid green energy that barreled towards Rainbow Dash and Twilight at incredible speeds. Everything around the beam was reduced to little more than a very fine, burnt dust.
Rainbow closed her eyes, believing this to be the end. There was a rush of magic over her body, her mind buckled in pain as she saw her parents’ motionless bodies one more time.
Then the blast hit.
There was a sizable explosion from the point of impact, green fire, smoke, and dust billowing outwards and filling the entire throne room. Chrysalis was breathing raggedly with residual anger as the dust gradually began to settle. Then a lopsided, victorious grin appeared on her face. ”...It looks like I win…” she chuckled sadistically before standing upright and trotting forward to examine her work.
She froze, however, when she saw only a burning, partially molten crater in the floor where her prey had been. The ponies, however, were noticeably absent; as was the pod Rainbow Dash had been holding.
Rainbow was unsure if she believed that she was actually waking up again. She remembered the blast that Chrysalis had hurled at her and Twilight, she remembered feeling the onrush of heat and magic, and then everything going dark. She was sure she had been seeing her life flash before her eyes right before the end, but here she was waking up again, with the world rocking and swaying a little bit around her. When she opened her eyes, they were met with the sight of mangled Everfree trees slowly moving by with morning sunlight piercing through the branches, along with what looked like the frame of a stretcher. She was laying on the stretcher on her side, so she put a hoof under her barrel and pushed herself up a little to get a better look around.
“Woah Nelly! Twi, she’s awake!” Applejack’s voice said from the back of the stretcher. Rainbow looked around again as the movement came to a stop, trying to make sense of her surroundings. She was on a stretcher indeed, and Applejack was one of the two ponies carrying her with it. The other one was Thorax, still disguised as Squall Dreamer. Wind Whisper was curled up on his back, watching Rainbow curiously from behind her tail.
“Oh, thank goodness!” Twilight’s voice called out, the mare it belonged to galloping up to the side of the stretcher and looking Rainbow Dash over carefully. “How are you feeling?” she asked urgently, reaching a hoof out and touching it to Dash’s shoulder.
“Ugh… I’m alive, I think,” Rainbow replied in a dry voice, slowly sitting up while Applejack and Thorax set the stretcher down. “But… I’m confused. What happened?”
“You passed out when I teleported us out of the castle,” Twilight replied gently, sitting down by Rainbow’s side while everypony else slowly gathered around. Spike shot forward past Twilight and wrapped his claws around Rainbow’s barrel in a relieved hug. Twilight smiled at him, then kept going. “Between… whatever it was Chrysalis did to you and all of the magic you were exposed to, I guess my teleport was the last straw. You crumpled as soon as we came out the other side. It was… difficult to get you and safely back to Ponyville without getting caught, but we did it.”
“Oh…” Rainbow replied quietly, gently patting Spike on the back of the head. “How long was I out?”
“About seven hours,” Pinkie Pie chimed in with a smile before trotting up and giving Rainbow a hug of her own. “We were all really worried about you.”
“Don’t you ever do that again!” Spike suddenly shouted, slamming his fist into Rainbow’s shoulder while his body started shaking. “Either of you!”
Rainbow’s ears drooped and she shook her head. ‘Sorry, Spike… I had to try, at least…” she sighed and closed her eyes. “...We didn’t get Mom, Aunt Luna or Princess Cadance, though…”
Pinkie gave Rainbow a reassuring squeeze before reluctantly letting go and stepping back. Spike, while hesitant, went along with her while wiping the back of his claws over his eyes to wipe away some fresh tears that had formed. He came to a stop by Twilight’s side and settled for letting her pull him closer with a hoof.
Rarity then cleared her throat from not far away, drawing the attention of everyone else. She was hooked up to a wagon that would normally be used for carrying gems, but currently was carrying the green pod they had taken out of Canterlot. “Well, darling, if it makes you feel any better, your mission wasn’t a… total failure,”
Rainbow’s eyes widened and a small, almost disbelieving smile appeared on her face. She gave a sigh of relief. “We saved somepony…” she breathed out before shakily getting to her hooves. She wobbled as she did and almost fell back down. Fluttershy chose that moment to step in, putting herself next to Rainbow for support and helping her stay on her hooves. “Thanks, Flutters.”
“You’re welcome,” Fluttershy smiled gently before helping Rainbow over to the pod so she could have a look at the pony they had managed to rescue.
Rainbow’s brow furrowed in confusion as they drew closer, though. “Why are they still in there? I would have thought you’d have let them go free the second you got the chance.”
“It’s… w-well, you see…” Rarity stuttered out, looking rather nervous all of a sudden. In fact, everypony, sans Thorax and Whisper, looked pretty nervous and unsure.
“What? What’s wrong?” Rainbow asked before drawing close enough to peer into the pod. As she did so, her eyes snapped wide open and her blood ran cold. “No… no way…” she rubbed a forehoof over her eyes, trying to dispel what she was hoping was just an optical illusion. The image persisted, however, and she took a step back, shaking slightly.
For held within the green, slimy pod, slumbering peacefully away, and completely oblivious to the outside world, was Starlight Glimmer.
There were several long moments of silence.
“What are the chances, am I right?” Pinkie pie asked with a hopeful, disarming grin.