Spike opened the door to let the sister rulers in.
“Luna!”
Apple Bloom smiled when the Princess of the Night walked in. “Ahm so glad to see you’re okay! So, where’s this pony you said would help?”
The next group that came in was half a dozen guards surrounding a black pegasus filly with a saddlebag and a not as beat up pegasus giant with a limp.
“Whoa, what’s with all the guards,” Spike asked in Apple Bloom’s place. “And happened to you, did you get in a fight with a group of yaks?”
The guards were still skeptical towards trusting the now unarmored filly and offered to accompany them.
“I’d… rather not talk about it.” Snowcap had insisted on coming because he was the only one who had lasted the longest against the filly and was willing to provide as much time as he could if necessary, even if it was a few seconds.
“Take me to Applejack, and let’s get this over with,” Rogue Nebula practically demanded.
“Wow straight to the point hu, mah sister is this way,” said Apple Bloom, leading them down a corridor. “Ya know, when ah was told somepony would help us, ah didn’t expect… uh.”
“A blind pegasus who seems to be younger than you? I thought you learned that appearances can be deceiving and not to judge others from the way they look.”
“Yeah, that…”
Luna tried to keep the conversation going, “Don’t take it personally, I too learned rather quickly she’s not much of a talker. Not to mention, I’ve had it up to here with her attitude.”
“How’d you two meet anyway?” Applebloom asked, realizing she’d get more out of the princess then the pint-sized pegasus.
Luna paused to find the right words without scaring the farm pony. “Perhaps I’ll tell you another time, but I assure you if anypony can aid your sister in her time of need, Rogue Nebula is the only one I’m aware of who can get it done… properly anyway.”
“Ah’ll take your word for it, AJ’s in here.”
The yellow earth pony opened the door showing a bed with a restless orange mare sweating buckets and grunting heavily, thrashing against the restraints put on her to avoid self-injury. Being in whatever never-ending nightmare, she was thrown into was beginning to take its toll on her.
“I need to get closer.” Nebula informed the guards, prompting them to open up to make a pathway while still putting themselves between her and anyone else in the room.
When she was at the foot of the bed Rogue Nebula climbed up and said what needed to be done, “Hold her still while I remove what’s causing the distress, Apple Bloom.” A stone knife was pulled out from the bag. “Wait outside with Celestia until the screaming stops.”
“Wait, what do ya mean by—” The yellow filly was cut off by Celestia putting her hoof in front of her.
“Promise us that Applejack will live.” The alicorn said sternly.
“I don’t make promises that I can’t keep,” Nebula responded as she began leisurely tracing the tip of the blade on Applejack’s stomach and chest as a few guards held her steady. “However, I give you my word that I will do everything in my power to make sure she survives.”
The knife hovered over the midsection of her left side ribcage as the pegasus placed both hooves firmly on the handle.
“Now, get out before you see something you regret.”
Before Apple Bloom could retaliate, Celestia lifted the filly off the ground and stepped out of the room, closing the door. As the door clicked shut, they heard Applejack scream.
“What is she doing to her?! Celestia, is mah sister going to be okay?” Apple Bloom asked. Celestia was about to respond when a louder scream erupted from within the room, causing the poor filly to cover her ears in a vain attempt to block out the shrieks.
“Ah don’t know how much more of this ah can take.”
Celestial agreed despite only leaving the room less than a minute ago, “Nor do I.”
After several minutes with the screaming refusing to cease, the princess decided to enter the room to make sure Nebula was staying true to her word.,
She turned to Apple Bloom, still trying to protect herself from the sounds, tears leaking from her eyes.
“Give me a moment while I—” her words were cut off by the sight of a dagger flying through the cracked open door, lodging itself into the wall. To their horror, a black sludge was stuck on the blade viciously wriggling as it started to pop and sizzle burning away in the sunlight, it was making a sound like it was dying in agony until nothing was left.
Celestia and Apple Bloom whipped their heads around and looked into the room while hearing two sets of rapid hoof steps running down the hall. Applejack was now relaxed to the point of barely taking shallow breaths, her eyes looked glassy as they gazed at the general direction of the opened door.
“A… pple… Bloom,” was all she managed to say before her whole body went limp.
Big Mac and a white earth pony in a hospital uniform skidded around the corner.
“I heard screaming is everything okay?” asked Nurse Redheart only to see the alicorn ruler and the farm filly frozen in place with appalled looks on their faces.
Assuming the worst, both the stallion and mare bolted to the doorway and looked inside their pupils shrinking from what they saw. A small army of guards surrounded the bed Applejack was in as an out of place pegasus filly slipped an object back into her bag, obviously trying to hide what it was from all the onlookers.
She hopped down from the bed and began to walk towards the exit.
“Cut her loose and make sure she bleeds out for a little while before stitching her back up. I don’t want to risk an infection to happen, nor do I want to take any chances that a part of that parasitic curse was left inside. That being said,” the filly turned her head and seemed to stare directly at Redheart, “clean the cut I made with alcohol and expose it to sunlight for the next two minutes at the least.”
Snapping out of her stunned trance, Redheart rushed over to Applejack.
“Is… is she?” Apple Bloom couldn’t bring herself to ask what she wanted because she was afraid of what the answer would be.
Redheart quickly began looking over the still unconscious mare. “Heart rate, normal. Breathing average. Body temperature stabilizing. If this keeps up, I think she’ll be fine.”
A huge sigh of relief was given by everypony in the room.
Luna put herself between the Rogue Nebula and the doorway and asked in a harsh tone, “Was it really that necessary to be so… so ruthless with handling this situation?”
“If I were any slower or more careful, I would have had to chase that thing around repeatedly stabbing until I got lucky. Is that what you wanted?”
The moment she said that, the image of her practically mutilating the orange mare popped into their minds. Luna was about to retort when a thought occurred to her.
How can one so young be this calm about a situation I find revolting to discuss at all?
At that moment, she saw a glimpse of herself in the pegasus, Luna then asked a question that was more rhetorical than genuine. “You’re hurting inside, aren’t you? What terrible iniquity did you experience to make you this heartless?”
Rogue Nebula seemed to give a hostile look at the Princess of the Night as she responded, “You will never be old enough to understand what I had to go through.” Her pure black coat hiding the majority of her expression if she was giving one at all.
Upon hearing that, every pony present in the room felt a twinge of remorse and pity towards the filly.
“Perhaps it would be wise if I were to check the others for any signs of foul play.” She said, resuming to exit the room, then added, “I heard them snoring on my way here and don’t worry, I’m not planning on cutting anyone else unless it is necessary to do so, with your permission of course.”
Nebula jumped high enough to flip-kick the stone knife free from the wall and landed opening her saddlebag, catching it as it fell.
The walk to the rest of the sleeping ponies was done in silence, when they arrived, a sharp smell stung their nose.
“Uh, sorry about the smell,” Spike said, wearing an apron, rubber gloves, and a face mask using the strongest cleaning solutions available to the public. “Zecora was trying to wake everypony up using a formula she made, and I got to say that is some potent stuff. I just barely got the smell off the floor where a handkerchief with a few drops on it landed.”
A few eyes looked towards the zebra, while Celestia wordlessly opened up the windows to their fullest and cast a spell to create a cross breeze to aerate the room.
“They’re fine,” Nebula stated after only a few seconds of observation. “Luna, I strongly suggest that you visit them in the dream realm.”
“What!? Why would you consider such a reckless act, need I remind you of that creature that we… that I barely escaped from with my life along with Applejack and Apple Bloom?”
Nebula reached into her bag and pulled out an item, quickly tossing it to Luna, who caught it with her magic and immediately recognized what it was.
“A dream catcher?” She asked in the most unamused tone she has ever used at what seemed akin to a pun inspired prank.
“Now that my work here is done, I’ll be on my way.”
“Before ya leave,” Apple Bloom spoke up, “Uh, could you maybe take care of… Uh, well, my brother and I would like ta go home, but there’s somth’n there that we don’t wanna risk runn’n into if it’s still hang’n around. We left so fast we didn’t have time ta pack or anyth’n, Big Mac just grabbed me an Granny then jumped through the window… and some of the wall.”
“Eyup,” said the red stallion rubbing his shoulder.
“But we can’t stay here much longer, we’ve gotta git back to our farm, them apples ain’t gonna buck themselves off our trees.”
“Eyup.”
Nebula closed her eyes and sighed, showing the first sign of any kind of emotion, even though it was annoyance.
“I’ll agree to take a look, but if I continue to fix every little issue that you can’t solve, you may as well step down from your thrones and hand your crowns over to me.”
“Okay, you just crossed the line.” General Summit said, not wanting to tolerate Nebula’s arrogant behavior any longer. “I’ve had enough of you! You think you can just go wherever you want, do whatever you feel like and just walk away without facing the consequences of your actions.”
“You do realize that without my help, Luna would still be imprisoned by that curse, and the condition Applejack was in, she wouldn’t have survived by sunrise tomorrow. If you want my opinion, you wouldn’t last a day in my line of work.”
“Silence both of you!” Luna said, trying to end the argument before it escalated.
Summit, however, refused to back down. “Sorry princess, but this time I’m not going to back down because this toddler thinks they can take your place after solving a few issues.” He turned his attention towards the filly. “As for you, you little brat, I doubt there’s anything you can handle that I can’t.”
“Is that a challenge?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Very well, challenge accepted,” Nebula delivered a swift kick to a table, causing a bottle that Zecora, Spike, and Apple Bloom recognized to fall off and shatter on the ground.
Shining Armor got out of his chariot carrying Flurry Heart and began walking up the steps to his sister’s castle. Without warning, a wall of the vilest stench he had ever smelt, hit him like a brick wall causing his face to turn green and the baby alicorn to puke on his uniform.
Not even a second after the disgusting odor washed over them, the doors to the crystal palace flew open with half an army sprinting out at light speed, slowing down the moment they got outside choking and coughing up a storm.
Shining cast a spell to put a bubble of fresh air around him as his eyes began to water, but the smell was already stuck in his nose.
“You had to provoke her, didn’t you!?” he heard Luna say between sputtering gasps. Without warning, a liquid-like bubble encompassed the entire castle. “That should stop the smell temporarily until proper measures can be taken.”
“Zecora… Never… Again.” Spike said with a hint of anger.
“I agree, this is too much even for me.”
“I don’t think we have enough cleaning supplies to wash this out, how did you even manage to make something this strong in your hut?”
“The smell is a reaction weeks after it was sealed from the air, it isn’t easy to make, and takes a lot of care.”
“What is *cough* going on?” Shining Armor asked, grateful that he could use his daughter’s vomit to mask the earlier stench.
“Why don’t you ask her,” General Summit said, pointing a hoof towards the castle entrance. Nebula slowly trotted out and approached the edge of the protective barrier before stopping. “How?”
“I thought you said you could handle anything I could,” she said, her neutral expression never leaving her face.
“I wasn’t talking about this.”
“What difference does it make? I handled it, and you didn’t.” Nebula took in a slow deep breath through her nose and exhaled as if she actually enjoyed the odor before continuing. “If anything, all this managed to do is remind me of something I had to eat one time. Might I also mention that the taste was even worse than the smell.”
Hearing her say that proved too much for over half of the ponies causing them to lose their stomach contents, Snowcap turned green.
“Why?”
Nebula walked through the thick watery barrier before responding, “I’m still alive, aren’t I? Would you be willing to go that far? I already have.”
“Fine, you win. You win!”
Nebula gave a sigh. “I’m going to Sweet Apple Acres to investigate the farmhouse. Once my analysis is complete, I will leave any remaining issue that arises for you to handle.”
She began to leave as the Apple Family followed, along with some of the royal guards to keep an eye on her until the very end.
“Ookayy? So, will somepony tell me what just happened?” Shining said, waving a hoof in front of his nose.
Luna started explaining first, “perhaps it would be best if—” coughing could be heard as an alicorn rushed out of the castle. When they got on the other side of the odor shield, they started to breathe in clean air like it was going out of style.
“How d*cough*id that horrible sm*cough*ell not wake*cough* up anypony *coug*else,” Cadence said, relieved to be in a more habitable environment.
“Glad to see you’re okay... honeybun,” Shining Armor said with a stern look on his face. After Chrysalis’s first appearance, the couple came up with code words to avoid another incident like the wedding, and he just used one of them
Cadence gave a concerned look before hugging him, making Shining tense up. “You silly stallion, I’m sorry for scaring you like that.” A tear running down her cheek as Flurry joined in on the fun. “I wasn’t planning to be away for so long, but why would you think I’m not me?”
Shining Armor relaxed with a sigh “I’m just glad Celestia sent me that letter explaining what happened, I thought I was losing my mind. Apparently, after you left for the friendship quest, you and everypony you were with were replaced.”
Cadence gasped in shock, though Shining was far from done with his explanation.
“That’s not the scary part. The scary part was you actually were you. I confirmed it on multiple occasions. Whenever I tested you, you just laughed it off. But you were also… distant. I could tell you were keeping things from me, and you spent a lot of time alone, and I mean a lot.”
“I wouldn’t keep things from you, you know I’m not like that.”
Shining handed the baby alicorn, who was eager to be with her mom, over to his wife.
“I know, but I’m just getting started. What terrifies me most of all is that the only reason I believe you right now is because of Flurry Heart. The moment you came back a couple of weeks ago, she wanted nothing to do with you. At first, I thought she was being fussy, you know how she gets.”
As if to emphasize his point, the baby alicorn gleefully clung to her mother, acting as though they really had been separated for weeks.
“After a while, though, I became suspicious. Other than keeping to yourself more than usual, nothing was out of the ordinary. Personality-wise you were the same old you, and you had the same memories and secrets only we know.” He paused and gave a chuckle. “Talking about it now makes me realize just how scary it was being around you. Anyway, enough about that, mind telling me what was going on earlier and who was that pegasus?”
Luna began explaining to him what happened, starting from when they awoke in the Everfree Forest and ending with how Rough Nebula helped Applejack, while Celestia and the guard ponies began strategizing how to eradicate the odor within the castle like it was the most dastardly villain in all of Equestria.
In the middle of her explanation, Luna stopped and looked around. “Come to think of it, where’s Nurse Redheart? I don’t see her out here.”
As if on cue, another figure emerged from the castle entrance wearing a full-body hazmat suit with a rebreather mask. Upon exiting the containment spell, they removed the mask, revealing it to be nurse Redheart who looked more than a bit perturbed
“Either you get my patients out of that level 5 biohazard environment or mark my words, I will personally see to it that you will never live this down, alicorn or not!”
“Uh, I just remembered.” Shining Armor reached into a pocket on his uniform and pulled out an envelope quickly, handing it to Cadence, “I came over here to personally give this to you. Now that I’ve done that, I think it’s time to—”
“Oh no you don’t,” Redheart said, stopping him in his tracks. “If you’re here, you’re helping. End of story!”
“Why Shining dear,” Cadence chimed in with a smile. “What was it we were just talking about… my little sunshine?”
He turned around with a sheepish grin on his face. “Hehe, I guess you caught me… ladybug.”
“Silver Hilt,” Celestia said, the guard quickly standing at the ready. “How soon can we get the equipment needed to begin the operation.”
The unicorn guard’s horn lit up, and an array of the strongest cleaning supplies in existence and full-body outfits equipped with oxygen tanks appeared in front of them.
“Ready and waiting your highness.”
“Just out of curiosity, where did you find that suit you’re wearing Nurse Redheart?” asked Spike.
“This was in a vase I knocked over when… Oh, no!”
Redheart’s eyes widened as her attention was now focused behind everyone making them turn their heads. A figure that just came into view was slowly making their way to the group, and it didn’t take a doctor to know that they needed immediate medical attention.
The next three days were spent washing, scrubbing, rinsing, cleaning, and emptying the castle to eradicate the odor from every last item it came into contact with, including all the books. During that time, the sleeping ponies slowly woke up one by one while Luna, somewhat reluctantly, held a meeting with all the ponies involved with the friendship quest in their dreams. Doing so allowed her to bring each individual up to speed to what was happening with their daily lives.
Rainbow was put on vacation as a reward for her stunning performance in the air show she never attended, nearly pulling off a double sonic rain-boom and was pardoned for her unknown absence with Luna’s help.
Rarity was glad her sister hadn’t burned her boutique to the ground or worse sold it. Instead, the unicorn’s business was at present overshadowing even her biggest name brand rivals. And had a new department specifically designed to create a clothing line for all different kinds of species, including breezies, griffins, dragons, changelings, minotaurs, and even diamond dogs, to name a few.
As for Twilight, a new wing in the museum of ancient history was currently under construction due to her recent discovery of an ancient civilization that outdated even the oldest pre-Equestrian cities.
Among the rest of the group, two things remained consistent. Their lives were drastically made more comfortable at the expense of distancing themselves from their closest friends and family.
Furthermore, a promised discussion with Zecora was scheduled in the dream realm in which she said, “After the rumors began escalating, I did a little investigating. And as I feared, the Alicorn Amulet has disappeared.”
An army of power-hungry villains was terrible enough, but if they had the amulet, the outcome couldn’t possibly look much more ominous then it already was.
By the time the entire castle was emptied of all its contents, the only ones left to wake up were Twilight and Rainbow Dash.
“I’m beginning to wonder if Rainbow Dash is just pretending to be asleep only to get out of helping us with cleaning.” Rarity said, distastefully glancing in said pegasus’s direction. “If she is planning to say it was another one of her ridiculous competitions to beat us at whoever was asleep the longest as an excuse, I will personally take all of her first-place ribbons and turn them into a dishcloth!”
“NO! NOT MY RIBBONS!!”
“Just as I suspected.” Said the white unicorn with a smug grin as Pinkie was handed a bag of bits, while the now awoken pegasus did her best to brush off her little act of deception.
“Okay, you caught me, geez But how did you know?”
“For starters, I can see the crumbs in your mane from your midnight snacking, and the blanket you’re under started moving far more than it should have for a sleeping pony, just to name a few. But what stood out the most was your absence in our last meeting in the dream realm.”
The fast flyer sheepishly chuckled at having left so many obvious clues. “Hehe, I guess that would be a big give away, wouldn’t it?”
“Less talking, more scrubbing.” Rarity threw a mop and bucket of water at the pegasus with her magic.
“Ugh fine,” Said the cyan pegasus as she begrudgingly got to work. “I thought you guys had been cleaning this for days, shouldn’t you almost be done by now?”
“We have,” responded everyone within earshot numbering to at least twenty-five individuals.
Applejack continued on with the statement. “We’ll all be done once it no longer smells like yer sock drawer.”
“There’s no way that—” Rainbow sniffed the air, “Huh, what do you know, it does. Wait, how do you know what my sock drawer smells like?”
Applejack was saved from answering that question by a knock on the front door. On the other side was a sky-blue creature with a pink mane they all knew as Ocellus the changeling, and from what they could see, she had been crying for some time.
“Ocellus!?” Spike exclaimed as he answered the door. “What are you doing here? We thought—” the changeling charged forward and embraced the dragon in a hug as she began to cry more.
“I… I… Please, I didn’t know… I didn’t know where else to go,” she said between sobs.
Spike returned the hug before gently pulling Ocellus off of him. “What happened, why aren’t you with the other changelings?”
“Thorax wouldn’t let me in.” Spike and the five mares behind him gasped.
“Uh, would ya mind repeatn’ that sugar cube? Ah don’t think we heard ya right. It sounded like ya said Thorax wouldn’t let ya in.”
“That’s what I said, I was spending some time at Yona’s place, but when I heard that the changelings were acting weird, I went back home. When I got there, the hive looked like it was barricaded and ready for an invading army. I tried to get in, but Thorax told me,” she changed into the changeling leader and continued with his voice, “I will not allow anything to come in or out while there’s a monster on the loose, if you don’t leave now I will be forced to get rid of you myself!”
She quickly reverted to her original form as more tears started to fall. “It’s like he didn’t even recognize me.”
“There, there,” said Fluttershy, patting the changeling’s head in comfort. “Could you… tell us how long ago this was?” she asked.
“Yesterday afternoon, why?”
Everyone except Ocellus stared at each other. “Well, at least some answers are better than none at all, right?” Pinkie stated, with everypony else nodding in agreement.
“What?” Ocellus asked, very confused about what was being said.
“Uh, follow me. I think there’s someone who would like to see you.”
Spike hovered and led the group to a nearby guest room. The dragon opened the door and said, “Hey, uh, you got a visitor.”
“Oh, who is it this time?” said a voice Ocellus would recognize anywhere.
She pushed herself into the room to make sure she wasn’t mistaken. “Thorax!?”
“Ocellus!?” Both changelings were equally stunned to see one another. “How did you escape?”
“What happened to you… escape? Wha… What are you talking about?”
Spike started to explain to both sides what was going on. “Thorax got here about three days ago, and he was telling us that he got attacked in his chambers after seeing another changeling get possessed or something. But until you showed up saying that Thorax was at the changeling hive yesterday, we couldn’t make heads or tails as to why they were acting the way they were.”
“Oh, right, you were with the yaks. Wait, I was at the hive!?” said Thorax, surprised by the news he was hearing.
“And now we know, the Thorax you saw was a fake, an imposter. True, changelings can imitate one another, but when you said he didn’t recognize you when everyone should know who you are, that tells me they weren’t a real changeling. Also, at least since we defected from Queen Chrysalis, a real changeling wouldn’t be as aggressive as what you described. They would be scared, sure, but not aggressive.”
“You were attacked! Is that why you look all beat up?” Ocellus said, pointing out the gauze and bandages Thorax was wearing.
“No, actually, this was something else. When Stinger was possessed, I went back to my room and started to write a distress letter to every princess I knew, but I was followed. The last thing I remember was being pulled into complete darkness.” He said, recalling the events.
“The next thing I knew, I was running as fast as I could in the Everfree Forest from… something? I don’t know why, but I knew I had to get away fast. It took me a while to remember I had wings, but when I opened them up, a branch snagged me on the left side, and I fell down a steep hill… all those rocks.” Thorax muttered, grimacing as the memory resurfaced. “It took me two hours to hobble my way to the castle before I collapsed from exhaustion.”
Just then, a new voice entered the conversation, “There you guys are, I was wondering—” Twilight’s eyes widened she saw the two changelings. “Thorax, Ocellus! Does this mean the changelings are no longer in hiding? That’s wonderful!”
“Quite the opposite actually,” Spike corrected. “We just learned the changelings couldn’t possibly be in any more danger.” Then they explained everything again to the purple alicorn.
“Could Chrysalis be responsible?” Ocellus asked with a trembling voice.
“Possible, but unlikely.” Twilight said, still processing the new information, “Even if Chrysalis was the imposter, we all know who’s really behind her actions.”
“Retribution,” Everyone except Thorax and Ocellus said in unison.
“Who?” Both changelings asked at the same time.
“Girls, have the Pillars found any information about a creature by that name?” asked Twilight. The Pillars had traveled to the farthest reaches of Equestria in search of anything that could give them an edge on their new adversary.
“Last I heard, nothing,” Pinkie said in annoyance. “They couldn’t find any record of a baddie ancient or modern with that tile even with my help.”
“So, all we really know about him right now is his name and that Chrysalis, Discord, and a few others are absolutely terrified of him. Also, he’s keeping them against their will, more or less, which is why they asked us to help them escape.”
“Why should we help her, don’t you remember what she did?” Ocellus said, horrified by what she was hearing. “I still have nightmares about it to this day.”
Twilight gave Ocellus a solemn look and said, “If it wasn’t for her, Discord wouldn’t have been able to give us what little information we have now. Besides, Trixie is trapped with them, and we encountered her in the Everfree Forest, uh… how long ago was that?”
“Uh, five or six days ago I… I think,” Fluttershy answered.
“Right, we met her about a week ago in the Everfree Forest, and if she wanted to do anything to us, trust me, she was in the perfect position to do so, but she didn’t.”
Out of nowhere, she felt a twinge of remorse towards the former changeling queen, strong enough to say, “Did anypony else just feel like she deserves to get rescued from the place she’s imprisoned in?”
“Weird,” Rainbow said, looking similarly perplexed at even contemplating such a thing.
“I felt that too,” Fluttershy answered. “It was like I knew how much she was suffering and needed to get away from that awful place.”
“Okay, we need to bring back everypony here who was called on the friendship mission and start studying that book. We’re going to get them out as soon as we can.” Twilight said, then added, “before we do that though, can any of you show me where all my stuff disappeared to, and tell me why my castle smells like Rainbow’s sock drawer?”
“Seriously! I know I’m popular because of my awesomeness, but does all of Equestria know what my sock drawer smells like?”