Starlight, Spike, and I returned from shopping back to Twilight's castle, but Twilight herself was gone. She wasn't supposed to be gone, and the Cutie Map wasn't signaling her, so she wasn't off on a friendship mission.
As the three of us were becoming worried, Rarity, Pinkie, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Applejack ran into the castle and were in a panic. They bought a letter that Rarity found and brought it to us. Starlight had just read it, and as soon as she did, her horn leaked red smoke. Yep, whatever that letter said can't be good news, to say the least.
Before she said anything, Starlight raised a hoof in the air and kept it there. This was a signal for all of us -- including Starlight herself -- to lightly slap our cheeks three times. Afterward, Starlight put her hoof back down. After I was captured by Chrysalis, Twilight thought that we all should know, and do, some kind of a special motion that's only known to us. In case we'd need to prove we're us, and to give a non-verbal signal to do it. Raising a hoof, hand, claw, or whatever, and keep holding it up, was the signal to do it. We also told all the others, including Trixie, the CMC, Maud, Ember, Thorax, and even Discord about this too.
After we all did it, we all knew it had something to do with Chrysalis, and asked Starlight to read the letter out loud, and she did.
Dear Starlight Glimmer,
I have your little Princess of Friendship here in my lair. Since she ruined my plan with that little human, I took her instead. I've stolen her Alicorn magic, so she's defenseless. If you want to see her again, come to my lair. Alone. And no tricks, if you value the Princess's life. You have until noon to come, or she dies.
Queen Chrysalis.
Safe to say, we were all floored by this, and all our mouths dropped, except Starlight's.
"No! Twilight!" Spike yelled out.
"We gotta save her, guys!" I shouted.
"But what can we do? Chrysalis said for Starlight to come alone!" Fluttershy reminded.
"We should go tell Princess Celestia!" Rainbow ran to the door of the castle.
"But there's no time, Rainbow! We only have ten minutes till noon. Even if Starlight could teleport us near the royal palace, at this point, tellin' Princess Celestia what's goin' on, and then form a plan with her, could take too long. Then Starlight wouldn't have enough time to find Twilight in the caves!" As Applejack was talking, Rainbow stopped in her tracks.
Turning her head to Applejack, Rainbow asked her, "Wait, really, Applejack?"
"That's true, guys. Without knowing Twilight's exact location in the caves, I can't just teleport to her. I would have to walk through the caves, just like any of you would."
"Does that mean it's up to only us?" Pinkie asked.
"I think it is, Pinkie." Rarity put a hoof on her cheek.
"Well, we gotta come up with a plan y'all, and fast!"
After Applejack told us that, we tried to cook up a plan to save Twilight. True, Starlight's one of the most powerful Unicorns in Equestria and can even rival Twilight, despite that Twilight's an Alicorn. But if Chrysalis would be, or nearly be, as powerful as she was in the season two finale of MLP: FIM, even Starlight Glimmer would have no chance if she went alone, no matter how angry she'd get. It's highly likely that we'd never see her or Twilight alive again, and I even told them, since they knew how I would know this. And even if Chrysalis would be weaker, she could still be too much for Starlight on her own. So we couldn't just let her go by herself, but what could we do?
As they struggled to think of a plan, I thought of one.
"Guys. I think I have an idea,"
"You have one, Eric? What is it?!" Rainbow ran to me, and I was still on Starlight's back.
"What is it?!" Spike yelled at me, with a smile.
"Okay, this is a crazy plan, but it's the only thing I can think of that can work."
"Well, how crazy is this plan?" Pinkie hopped over to Starlight and me.
"Let me put it this way, Pinkie: this is a Starlight type of plan."
In other words, it's a crazy plan, and with spells. Starlight turned her head around and glared at me. Yeah, she didn't like that too much.
"Uh, no offense."
Starlight realized I had a point, so she sighed and responded, "None taken, Eric." She looked back to the rest of the group, and they were surrounding Starlight and me at this point.
"Well, what's the plan?!" Spike asked me again.
"I will, but I need to ask something first. Starlight, remember those spells you were telling Spike and me about before we got back to the castle?"
"Yeah, what about them?"
I pointed a finger at myself and asked, "Could you do all of them on me, and have them all be active at the same time?"
"What?! Why?" Starlight looked back at me, with her eyes wide open in shock about that idea of mine.
"Because my plan can only work if you can do it."
Starlight's eyes returned to normal, and she put a hoof on her cheek, and looked up a bit. "Well...I should be able to do that. But even if I can, together, most would only last about three minutes on you. And they still won't be able to give you a real chance against Chrysalis, if you're thinking of actually trying to fight her!"
"Wait, what are you two talking about? What spells?" Applejack asked.
"There's no time to go into the details, Applejack. But here's the very short version. With me hiding in her mane, Starlight will go to Chrysalis's lair. But before Starlight shows herself to Chrysalis, she would cast those spells we're talking about on me, and I'd wait for a chance to do my part of the plan. Working together, we're gonna save Twilight."
Now it was Applejack's turn to have the wide-open, shocked eyes, and yelled, "WHAT?! Are you crazy, Eric?!"
"Yeah! I mean, I know you want to save Twilight, darling, and I'm not trying to be mean. But...what can you do?"
"Don't worry. For one thing, I've watched your 'cartoon' enough to have an idea on where and how Chrysalis will keep Twilight's magic. If what I'm thinking is right, my plan will allow Starlight and me to free it. Then, with Twilight back at full power, she and Starlight together should be able to take down Chrysalis!"
"But if you know that much, Eric, why not just tell me, so I could just do it by myself?"
"Because this plan requires two of us, and even if I could think of a version that you could do by yourself, Chrysalis won't fall for it if you're alone, so it won't work unless we do it together. We gotta do something to throw her off for it to even have a chance. Plus, she also has a weakness that I think I can tap into better than you could, Starlight."
"Well, if you really think it can work--" Rainbow raised a hoof in the air "--then go for it, Eric!"
"And it's not like we have any other ideas," Pinkie said.
Applejack walked up to Starlight and me. "Well, we only have another five minutes till noon. If yer sure Eric, ya and Starlight should head off to where Chrysalis is keeping Twilight."
"Okay. Are you ready, Starlight?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," Starlight replied a little bit nervously. "But what's the full version of your plan?"
"To save some time, I'll tell you as we go, okay?"
"Okay, if you say so."
"Good luck, guys! When you get back, I'll throw the biggest, greatest, most amazing party ever!" Pinkie told us while hopping higher and higher in the air smiling, then stopped once she got done talking.
"And be careful." Fluttershy gave a friendly smile, to show confidence in us.
"And please, don't get hurt, darlings."
"We won't, Rarity. We'll have Twilight back in no time."
"Let's go, Eric."
Starlight, with me still on her back, dashed out of the castle. After we were out of the door, Starlight levitated me on her head, and as I sat there, holding on to her mane, she ran as fast as she could in the direction of the caves Chrysalis had me in."
In the lair of Queen Chrysalis, in a different, bigger area of the cave she held Eric Reed in, about as wide as a sports stadium, Twilight Sparkle, without any magic, was pinned against a wall by Chrysalis's magic, with her back against the wall. Twilight was just off the ground by a few inches. Chrysalis held Twilight's magic in a pink ball on the other side of the room in the cave. Little dips of water on some of the walls could very faintly be heard, and the slightly cold temperature of the room only added to the tense atmosphere of the situation, for Twilight.
For Chrysalis, however, it was as perfect as it could be, as she was pacing back and forth, happily humming for Starlight Glimmer to arrive to try to save the trapped princess.
"Chrysalis! What are you doing this time?!" Twilight yelled.
"What do you think, Princess Twilight? I'm using you as bait to bring Starlight Glimmer to me, so I can finally get my revenge on that despicable pony."
"But what are you gonna do to her?!"
"Well, Princess, the first thing I'm gonna do is weaken her in battle, and when she's in a lot of pain, I'll kill you while she watches."
"What?!"
"Then, I'll take my sweet time finishing her off, and I'll have my revenge! Ha ha ha ha!"
"No! You can't do this! I swear, if you harm a hair on Starlight Glimmer, I'll make you pay!!"
"Ha! You sound just like that little human. I guess he got it from you."
"Who? Eric?"
"Yes, him! When I told him the truth about the Nightmare Prevention Spell, he made a pointless threat to 'make me pay' too!"
Twilight, seething in anger, scowled in the direction of Chrysalis but could form no words in her mouth. Without her magic, and herself pinned to the cave wall, she couldn't do a thing. She understood how Eric felt when he was captured, making her scowl even more, becoming that much madder.
"Well, it's about three minutes until noon, so your former student should be here any second. Enjoy the show, Princess Twilight!"
Chrysalis laughed evilly, while Twilight couldn't do anything, but wait.
With me now hiding completely in her mane, Starlight and I were almost at the caves just outside of Ponyville. According to a mark on the map that Rarity found, that's where Chrysalis held Twilight captive.
As we went, I told Starlight what my plan was, and what purpose the spells I asked her to act on me would be. She did not like it, being the slightly overprotective sister she can be to me sometimes. But since she couldn't think of anything better, Starlight said she'd trust that I knew as much as I thought I did. To be honest, I had some doubts about that myself.
Once we were about to enter the cave, I started getting nervous with chills going through my body, my heart was beating twice as fast, knowing I was about to face Queen Chrysalis again. But being with big sis Starlight, one of the most powerful Unicorns in Equestria, and believing my plan can work, helped ease me a bit.
As we moved through the caves and got near the entrance to the area of the cave with Chrysalis and Twilight, Starlight lay down on her stomach. I moved out of her mane, and she levitated me off her head on the ground, right against a wall of the cave. As for the first part of the plan, with me sitting down, she cast five different spells on me, back to back. She had to lose about a third of her magic to do them all, but it needed to be done, and she still had enough to do her part of the plan. We told each other good luck. I stayed where I was while she slowly walked into the room with Chrysalis and Twilight.
While nervous, if not a bit scared, part of me was happy for this chance. Ever since being in Equestria, Twilight's done all she could to try to learn the counterspell to get me back to my world. But not only that, she took me in, became my new big sister, and even saved my life more than once. She even jumped into fire and let herself get badly burned, just to save me.
However, I couldn't really do much for her in return. Not only that, I depended on Twilight a little too much. I've lost count of how many times I asked that pony "What do I do now, Twilight?" or "What do we do now, Twilight?" and hope that she'd do it, instead of just trying to figure out what to do myself first, then ask her if I really couldn't think of anything.
But now, she was the one in danger, and not only did I think of a plan to save her for once, and not ask somepony else what to do, but I could even do a part of it myself. I just needed to grow a pair and do my part. It was time for another redemption in Equestria: mine, for lying to her, Starlight, and the others for the first three weeks I knew them, by helping to save the life of Twilight Sparkle.
As Starlight went into the room with Chrysalis and Twilight, I said quietly to myself, "Hold on, Twilight. Your little brother is coming."