As Starlight awaited the next round of torture to be delivered to her, her cell door opened. But rather than the same pony that drilled into her brainstem, it was instead a shaggy unicorn that, for some inexplicable reason, smelled like curry.
"Hello there," the unicorn spoke. "My name is Lion Dude. I am a felon who was convicted on charges of piracy, possession of Class-B drugs, using a mind-control spell on the hottest supermodel this side of Sassy Saddles and, oh yeah, I'm here to rescue you. You can trust me."
Starlight stared at the grinning unicorn before her. Since she desperately wanted to escape and saw no other options, she decided to trust Lion Dude, provided he isn't secretly in league with Kronos.
"Well, I once enslaved an entire village and nearly destroyed all of time so okay, I'll believe you," Starlight said dryly.
"Perfect," Lion said ecstatically. "Now then, let's get you out of these restraints."
Lion tried to use his magic to free Starlight. Unfortunately for him, he realized that the cell he was in was magic-proof.
"Damn! He doesn't settle for using magic-restraining rings and handcuffs, does he?"
"Actually, he did the first time he imprisoned us?"
"He did? Either he quickly learns from his mistakes or he was counting on you and your friends to escape."
"Why would he do that?" Starlight asked.
"I dunno. Good guys have a better success rate than bad guys. Chances are he fully expects you and your friends to find the Seals of the Planets. But that's just my guess. I dunno, he seems smarter than the average evildoer."
“Now that you mention it, he did tell me he was counting on Twilight and her friends to find the Seals for him.”
“Telling the hero his evil plan. Classic villain flaw. Well, unless he already succeeded thirty minutes beforehand.” Lion trotted towards the restrained Starlight and cracked the bones in his forelegs. "Right then, looks like we're doing this the hard way."
Kronos sat at his grand command chair in his equally grand control room, petting the Seal of Business.
"And where do you reckon your brother is?" Kronos asked the seal.
"Probably at a casino somewhere,” the seal replied. “Because of his ability to instantly make money, he has a massive gambling addiction."
"You're jealous of him, aren't you?"
"Why? Because he can instantly make money while I work my tail off for mine? No, we're as cool as a pair of cucumbers."
"I'd say sarcasm is unbecoming of you."
"Says the manipulative unicorn that pretends to be nice and yet would have no problem killing me as soon as me and my brethren outlive their usefulness."
"It's true, I would."
One of Kronos' accomplices, a pony wearing a lab coat, a pair of red goggles, and four mechanical appendages, entered the control room.
"Kronos, I have completed phase one of the operation. Would you like me to continue to phase two once the subject has recovered?"
"No, phase one will suffice, Pharma," Kronos said.
"You remembered my name for once. It's a miracle."
Kronos glared daggers at Pharma. "Pharma, I can erase you from history if I wanted to."
"You make sardonic comments all the time, Kronos."
"That's different. I'm usually more powerful than everypony else and, let's be honest, it's part of my charm."
"Okay, I believe you."
As Kronos continued stroking the Seal of Business, a concerning thought occurred to him. "Pharma, who did you leave guarding the test subject?"
Kronos and Pharma stared at the unconscious form of Cowardly Donkey, whose jaw was wide-open and he was covered in bruises from head to hoof. The cell door was open and there was not a trace of Starlight Glimmer in sight.
"Cowardly Donkey?!" Kronos shouted. "You left Cowardly Donkey here?!"
"One, his name is actually Bray. Two, since Starlight was placed in a magic-proof cell and I used magic-proof restraints for good measure, I assumed he could have handled it."
"Cowardly Donkey couldn't handle a barrel of amaretto, much less discount Twilight!" Kronos stormed off, tasking himself with finding the escaped prisoner. "Must I do everything myself?! The ponies and other individuals under my employ are bloody useless!"
Lion and Starlight trotted down an empty corridor, hoping that they didn't encounter any of Kronos' guards. Since Lion was a fervent admirer of Twilight Sparkle, but mostly not to the point that he wishes to subjugate that beautiful mind of hers, he decided to break the silence between himself and Starlight and asked her a few questions.
"You are now one of Twilight's students, correct?" he asked.
"Actually, I’m the guidance counsellor in her School of Friendship but I guess you could say that," Starlight replied.
"Are you close friends with her perchance?."
"I wouldn't say I'm as close to her as she is with Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy but she trusts me enough to have a hypnotherapy session with me. Unfortunately, I accidentally implanted a compulsion in her that causes her to torture a poor ladybug kite whenever she sees a ladybug."
"Yeah, I'm not an insect person myself. I don't even like butterflies," Lion said.
"Then you probably wouldn't like Fluttershy."
Starlight giggled at her witty remark while Lion just glared at her unamused, something she immediately picked up on and quickly went quiet.
"It's not that I don't like the patterns on their wings," Lion explained, "It's more they are creepy up-close. Seriously, why do insects have to look so wrong?"
"If you like, maybe we can have a hypnotherapy session together."
"No thanks! I'd rather be the one fiddling with other people's minds than have it done to me! I know it's a double-standard but I have serious trust issues and the worst I did with Fleur-Dis-Lee was check her body out in a mirror and maybe...uh...ahem."
Lion whistled as he made inappropriate gestures with his hooves, much to Starlight's disgust.
"In my defence," Lion said in a possibly foolish attempt at justifying himself, "I bet she would have liked it were she conscious while I was controlling her."
"Where did you learn a spell to control her anyway?"
"Where did you learn your brainwashing magic?"
An explosion interrupted Starlight and Lion's conversation and stopped them in their tracks. As the smoke cleared, there was what appeared to be a pony in a red jumpsuit wielding a katana and wearing sunglasses over his mask. And in the most ridiculous accent possible, the pony spoke only two words.
"I'm back."