//------------------------------//
// Chapter 58: Recovery Contact 
// Story: Child of Mine 
// by Starscribe 
//------------------------------//

Twilight was nearing the bottom of a long, winding ramp when she felt the first flickers of magic from far below. The soldiers escorting them had no idea what was happening, didn't even react.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash were a bit more sensitive. Both looked down, and Applejack pawed nervously at the floor. "Bit far down to be living, don't you think?" she asked, turning to look back at their escort. "Couldn't we stay up top, where we can see the sky?"

Twilight had a spell prepared by then, a stun that would strike against all their captors at once. If even one was left standing, they might find out first hoof just how deadly their weapons could be. Best not to chance it.

"Keep moving," grunted one, gesturing ahead with the weapon. Most of the group was behind them, with only two soldiers up ahead. They walked backward. It was impressive coordination for a species without enough legs.

There was one flaw in using her magic to escape, but she was expecting it. Twilight released the spell, and it tore through her shape change on its way out. Her horn reappeared on her head, poking bizarrely through the diffuse human hair. 

The soldiers wobbled, dropping to the ground one after another. Their weapons fell around them, banging and clattering harmlessly to the floor.

Twilight caught herself against the wall, momentarily winded by the disorientation of her spell beginning to unravel. Light leaked from her forehead where the transformation had been undone, spreading thin lines further down her face.

She would have to keep feeding it magic to keep the spell from melting around her. She did, at least for now. From a distance she could probably still pass as one of them.

"Was wonderin' how long you would keep this up," Applejack said. She bent down, picking up one of the alien weapons. She turned it over in her hands, slowly and carefully. "Don't seem right to pretend like we're cooperating."

"It's not right to foalnap either," Rainbow said, annoyed. "They don't get to make us act nice. You should've let us fight them!" She stopped beside one of the fallen guards, nudging him with a shoe. He groaned quietly, but didn't move otherwise.

"No time," Twilight said. "You felt that, didn't you? There's something happening below us. Once their leader knew we were coming, she started something. We have to reach Flurry before it can hurt her."

"We'll have to be fast," Rainbow said, grinning at the prospect. "Apples, wanna race? Bet I'm faster on two legs than you are."

Twilight rolled her eyes in annoyance, glaring at them both. "Do it when we get back, if you want. There might be other traps. There are more soldiers too, and I'll have to stun them before they can warn her."

"Did she sound familiar to you, Twi?" Applejack asked. "I ain't sure quite how that could be."

"I don't know either," Twilight admitted. They continued forward, past the unconscious bodies of their captors. Up ahead was obviously the center of something, a habitat like something she might've seen in a zoo. Her tracking spell pointed down still lower, but that wasn't the only thing she felt. There was magical residue here, just like the house they had briefly visited.

"I hope there's a way out through there," she said. "Because there's glass up there, and I don't see anypony."
 
They spent a few moments fighting with the entrance, and Twilight found herself focusing more and more on the magic building below them. It wasn't just that she was getting closer—the power was building now. How much stronger could it get?

She learned the answer in a single, brilliant flash of magic, blasting past her from below. Her transformation spell was shattered to pieces in an instant, along with every other active spell on her person. She whimpered as the return bracelet melted right off her neck, without triggering. 

Twilight took a few moments to recover from the magical barrage, which was far less time than her friends needed.

She finally opened her eyes, rolling until her hooves were under her again. There was only one thing that could've undone so much Alicorn magic like that—another Alicorn.

She sat up slowly. The light above wasn't the same strange, flickering white as before. She knew that soft pink glow, diffused by metal plates mounted to the ceiling.

As if she needed any further instruction, the wall in front of them had changed to a spectacular piece of stained glass, depicting crystal ponies gathered around the Heart. The hallway wasn't cramped, despite returning to normal—it had grown just as much as she had.

"Whatever just happened..." Applejack began, "I ain't a fan." She crawled to her hooves, then stooped to help Rainbow do the same. "Celestia, that burned."

"We're back... in the Empire?" Rainbow said, her voice doubtful. She touched at the crystal wall with a hoof, confused. "I get that a trap could banish us or whatever, but... how did we move so far?"

"Not a trap." Twilight walked slowly around the stained glass, looking for the stairs leading down to the storage rooms. Sure enough, they were right where they should be. "It's like the stable back at the home of those aliens. But way, way bigger."

She hurried through the open doorway, down the ramp to parts unknown. The others followed close behind her, barely keeping up.

After only a short distance, they passed another few soldiers... well, she guessed they were soldiers from their moaning and pained expressions. They were crystal ponies now, with crystal spears and breastplates. Whatever tube-weapons the aliens used hadn't survived the transition.

"Buck me," Applejack whispered.

"Not here," Rainbow shot back.

She only got a glare in response.

"How could this happen, Twi? You think Flurry got scared again, maybe lashed out against those evil folk who wanted to hurt her?"

"Maybe." They passed a few more unconscious ponies, all looking like crystal servants and staff. A few were other creatures, though all wore house colors or looked like they might be visiting. It was the nursery last time. If this goes much further, she might've made half the palace. 

"Looks more deliberate than that," she finally said. "Even a massive magical surge from a foal should be localized. This burst is... a lot of magic. Maybe more than one Alicorn, now that I think about it."

"There were two," Rainbow said. "Weren't there? Was that how that worked out?"

"It was..." Twilight slowed as they approached a nearby passage—the one leading to the dungeons. Would it be filled with dangerous criminals? Or did the transfiguration go only skin deep, as with the others Flurry had changed? Did that mean the evil soldiers were now loyal house guards, their previous identities erased?

Can't be. The alien seemed to think her children were intact. A mother could not be wrong.

A pony moved in the gloom beyond the doorway, the first they'd yet encountered who could move. She walked slowly out, tail tucked between her legs. 

She looked exactly like a criminal Twilight had once seen in the Crystal Empire dungeon. Sunset Shimmer.

"You," she said, in a voice that barely resembled Sunset. But there was a thick accent underneath, something she couldn't place. "Did the Mysteries send you?"

Twilight shook her head. Her friends lined up beside her to block the way out, watching the pony skeptically. 

"Sunset?" Applejack asked. "You're in the wrong universe. And the right wrong place to be stickin yer' hooves."

"Firstly, you just said 'right wrong'." The pony stumbled closer to them, taking her steps slowly and deliberately. She wobbled, and there was no spell burning from her horn. Not even a basic light. "Secondly, I don't have a damn clue what that meant. My Shadow Name is Monday, you go ahead and use it. I've never known a Sunset."

Twilight extended a wing, silencing whatever other objection Applejack might make. Her friends didn't really know much about Sunset Shimmer, anyway. This was the wrong universe for her, and so was Equestria.

"We're not from your world," she said. "We're looking for a stolen baby, and the filly and colt who protected her."

Monday looked them up and down, obviously skeptical. "Can you prove it? Other than using horse words. I got a dictionary too, I could do that."

In answer, Rainbow lifted into the air, hovering. "How about we don't care if you believe us or not. We're saving the baby."

Monday's ears flattened. "You're flying. Either you're a faster learner than most songbirds, or you're telling the truth. You're right about the baby—she's here. Kid who found her is my apprentice now, Kyle's his name. Sorceress named Akiko is running this show. Took the alien downstairs. Kyle's sister is in the cell next to mine. Looks intact—nerve gas got wiped like everything else."

Twilight wasn't sure what “nerve gas” could be, but she found herself instantly confident she never wanted to find out. "We're bringing the foal back with us," she said. "And returning the aliens who helped her to their family."

"Fine." Monday shrugged an ambivalent shoulder. "But you should think about what you'll do with everyone else down here. I've studied this magic, helluva lot more than most mages at this point. It won't wear off. Every horse you've seen down here is stuck this way forever. We don't have the magic to reverse it."

Twilight's ears flattened. This was exactly the kind of burden Equestria didn't need right now. Then again, the Empire said it would pay any price to have the heir returned. The Body Invisible would want this problem gone. "We'll have to help them," she said lamely.

"Even the ones who grabbed us?" Rainbow asked, furious. "Even the ones who foalnapped Flurry?"

"Yes and no," Twilight countered. "Bring with us, yes. Find a cell in a dungeon somewhere? Also yes. I wouldn't want to face Princess Cadance after threatening her daughter, would you?"

Rainbow had no counter to that.

"Akiko had her lab at the bottom of the base," Monday continued, pointing down the stairs. "Follow me. I was going to break them out, but the bitch caught me. Feels kinda like... this was my apprentice's way of breaking me out after all. Unless you did it."

"Nope," Twilight said. "All her. Or Flurry. Maybe both."

She found the two of them exactly where Monday said she would, at what would've been the base of the Crystal Palace. A single crystal arch curved down in the center, with a huge empty cavity all around them. A stone imitation of the Crystal Heart sunk into the wall overhead, where the transfiguration ended, and the natural material of this universe reasserted itself.

A handful of ponies were scattered on the floor. More crystal guards lay where they'd fallen, entirely unconscious. Being so close to the epicenter had been even harder on them than the ones upstairs.

She found her doppelganger splayed against the wall, as stunned as they were. The pony was a unicorn, and she shared Twilight's cutie mark. "Tie her up," Twilight instructed, continuing past her. "I don't know how she sounded so much like me before the transformation spell. Or why she wasn't made into an Alicorn too.”

Little blessings there. Taking an Alicorn criminal back with them, one who had foalnapped before and might do it again, would be its own flavor of nightmare.

Huddled together in the very center of the room, Twilight found the missing foal. An Alicorn mare huddled around her, shielding her with her wings. Like Monday, she was also awake, despite being near the center of the blast.

A foal rested up against her, sleeping soundly now. They both showed powerful spellburns, worse on the mare than the baby. So she was right, it had taken both of them.

Twilight slowed as she approached, lowering her head to the mare. "Excuse me, are you Kyle?"

She looked up, eyes darting between Twilight and the others. "Which guards were you? Here to... lock us up again?"

"No." Twilight dropped down beside her, resting one hoof on her shoulder. "My name is Twilight Sparkle—I'm from the same place as Flurry Heart. The... foal you're sheltering there. We're here to take her home. Her family is eager to see her again, and eager to meet the one who kept her safe. Will you come with us?"

Kyle looked around the strange chamber, dark in every direction except the faint glow emanating from the stairs they had taken. "Can my sister come too?"