In the depths of interstellar space, Kronos' command ship, the Entropy, floated through the void like some alien monolith. It looked like a big pendulum clock and the inside of the ship was made of see-through plastic with its gears and other components showing. Kronos, some of his guards, and his lackey-in-chief Cowardly Donkey made their way to a holding cell on the ship. The doors to the cell opened automatically, and inside chained to the walls was a yellow human with blue eyes, wavy bacon-like hair, a leather jacket, an orange top with a flaming ball at the centre, a purple skirt and a pair of studded leather boots. The human appeared disoriented and barely conscious. And right next to the human were steps. Kronos moved the steps in between himself and the human and stood upon the steps to face the human.
"Wakey wakey, Sunset!" Kronos said while getting ready to strike the human across the face with his hoof. Surprisingly, that made Sunset more conscious, if still a little groggy.
"The sectoids warmed her up for you, master!" Cowardly Donkey said in that same grating voice he always spoke in.
"They better have," Kronos replied in a courteous but annoyed tone. "We've been interrogating her for months and still managed to get nothing out of her. I'd say we'd be insane to continue, but it appears we have made some progress."
"I'm....n...never...gonna....tell..you...a...anything..." Sunset said weakly.
Kronos wasn't kidding when he said they were making progress with Sunset, as spending months being psychically tortured by Kronos, his sectoid forces, and even the Sith have made Sunset's cognitive abilities a little difficult for her and her mental defences weak. In addition, the Sith have more on one occasion entered her cell and physically tortured her with force lightning and choking in lieu of more sophisticated Force techniques such as Drain Knowledge, also known as the mind-probe.
"Here's what I'm going to do, Sunset," Kronos said while holding Sunset's head up and leaning in closer to her face, "Rather than rip the knowledge out of your mind, I'm going to try a different approach. The sectoids and the Sith may have tried everything from mind tricks to mind probes, but I think I would have far better luck than them with this new approach. Us unicorns have spells for almost everything. Ever heard of the Fiducia Compelus spell?"
Sunset's eyes widened with horror at that statement, something Kronos noticed and took a sadistic joy in.
"Ah, so you are familiar with it! Good. And since my forces and I have weakened your mind to the point where you can barely talk, I doubt I'd need to throw any other spells in there. While I'm not as skilled at controlling people in comparison to my time travel abilities and my mastery of disguises, I won't deny that I have a flair for getting in people's heads if I need to."
Kronos' horn glowed and then there was a flash. As the flash dissipated, Sunset's irises have shrunk into pinpricks as she blankly stared at Kronos with her eyes wide open. Kronos smiled at the result of the spell he cast.
"Now, let's try this again, shall we? You were in contact with one of the seven Seals of the Planets. You will tell me what the seal looked like, whether it said anything to you, and if it is in a specific location."
Meanwhile, in Equestria, Whooves was running to Princess Twilight's castle as quickly as his legs could carry him. Hot on his heels was Laeyoon, gasping for breath and loudly complaining about his legs. While Laeyoon could have easily silenced Whooves, he figured that Whooves was his only chance of getting off this rock. Whooves finally reached his destination and began immediately banging frantically on the castle door. Spike opened the door and noticed both Whooves and Laeyoon lying on the floor panting. Spike, being the little smart-aleck that he is, responded appropriately to the sight of a pony and an alien at the door:
"Let me guess, evil alien crash-landed on this planet and tricked us into helping him?"
"Oh, for the love of the emperor!" Laeyoon said in between breaths, "It's bad enough that the humans in the empire use that word but do I have to hear it from an inhabitant of this society as well?! I am not an alien! There! Are! No! Kriffing! ALIENS!!!!!!"
"He...prefers...the term...extraterrestrial," Whooves said, sounding even more exhausted than Laeyoon was.
"Thank you!" Laeyoon said, "Though...I'd...also accept prefer....sentient."
Laeyoon then immediately collapsed onto the floor. When he came to, he was tied up to a chair with Twilight and her friends all staring at him seriously.
"Oh, fantastic!" Laeyoon muttered under his breath, "I'm being held captive by these little equines. Between falling down an elevator shaft and this, I think this is probably the most humiliating event in my life! If Darth Malgus hears of this, I will never hear the bloody end of it."
"Alright, Mister Evil Alien Bad Guy!" a blue pegasus with a mane all the colours of the rainbow said in a brash tone, "What do you know of this Kronos guy we're hearing about?"
"Really?" Laeyoon said while slightly chuckling, "I happen to be a part of an organization that is far greater than either of you and you're asking me about the affairs of a rogue member of your race?"
"I don't think he knows anythin', sugarcube," said an orange pony said She had a blonde mane in a ponytail and was wearing a hat that wouldn't have been out of place on a smuggler's head. Given the pony's drawl, Laeyoon wouldn't be surprised if the pony actually was raised on somewhere one would suspect a smuggler to be from, like Corellia.
"Your friend is correct!" Laeyoon arrogantly announced, "I know kriff all about Kronos' plan. All he did was tell me and my forces to land here, negotiate with the princesses to join us, kill them if they refuse and then enslave the planet's inhabitants. Clearly, he never told us that the princesses and their forces can put up a decent fight and they had a pet that can inflate our weapons, as well as our forces' heads."
"My ears are burning," Discord said while making an entrance, "Although I wouldn't really call myself their pet. Honestly, I thought you of all people would know how much it hurts calling people names."
Discord then slithered around Laeyoon while holding onto his cheeks and slightly shaking his head. Laeyoon could only give Discord a glare filled with burning hatred in response to the teasing.
"And here I thought you were making an improvement in Redemption Class," Discord said while making a fainting motion and sounding as faux-heartbroken as possible, before moving his way towards Twilight and making a whispering motion.
"Although just between the two of us, he needs to take an anger management class too."
Laeyoon could only stare at his captors in a way that indicated that, if he managed to loosen his restraints, he will brutally murder everyone in the room with his bare hands. Then he had an idea.
"While I know nothing of Kronos' plan, I could easily lead you to him."
"Nice try!" the blue pegasus said back, "We all know that if you lead us to your boss, it would be a trap."
"My boss is the Sith Emperor. And if you were to face him, he would destroy you with just a thought. Or so I've heard anyways. Kronos is but a mere tool to the Sith Empire, and since I know how to dispose of tools once I am done with them, I can assure you I have no loyalty to Kronos."
Interestingly enough, despite having no loyalty to Kronos, Laeyoon had no intention of betraying him either. And even if he did, he knew the Sith Emperor would be very displeased with him once he got wind of it. Well, he assumed the Sith Emperor would be displeased with him. The Dark Council, on the other hand, would capture him and break every bone in his body for costing them a valuable asset. Since it would be a while before Whooves can build a fully-functional ship, assuming he even would, he had more than enough time to inform Kronos of his intentions.