“So, how did you two find each other?” Spike asked curious to Thorax and Ember.
Thorax smiled nervously. Ember huffed exhausted.
“After we freed the Crystal Empire, Cadence´s family, some crystal ponies and some changelings went on to help the other kingdoms. From Yakyakistan to the Dragonlands.” the changeling explained.
“You mean that all the leaders teamed up?”
“With the exception of Celestia and Luna, yes.”
“And I imagine that the situation is as bad, isn´t it?” Spike guessed.
“Oh, you can´t imagine…” Ember replied. “I can only speak for the Dragonlands, but my goodness… I had never seen so much aggressiveness in a dragon until today!”
“We were all chilling and preparing for Twilight´s coronation until the ex -changeling queen, Chrysalis was her name? I don´t know. Anyway, she came and rang a bell on some dragons and thus, corrupting them.” Garble added. “Then, they started throwing fire at each other and if it weren´t for these guys,” Garble grabbed a changeling and a crystal pony, surrounding an arm around them. “we all would have died today.”
“But you didn´t have the bell. What did you do with the corrupted dragons?” he asked.
“The pink candy princess put a sleeping spell in all of them.” Ember replied.
“You mean Cadence.” Spike corrected her.
“Whatever. Her husband and baby helped her. I guess she got the idea from being a mother.”
When Scorpan heard the word `mother´, he sighed. Starswirl noticed that.
“Are you ok, Scorpan?” he asked concerned. “Do you want to stop?”
“No, it´s not that, thank you.” he smiled sadly. “It´s just…”
“Punja, am I right?” Mitsmane guessed.
He nodded.
“Who is Punja?” Ember whispered in Spike´s ear.
“Scorpan´s adopted daughter.” the little dragon replied softly.
“Oh.” the dragon leader muttered under her breath.
“I´m very worried about her.” continued Scorpan. “I haven´t seen her since Tirek attacked us. And given the circumstances, she´s either in danger or already dead. All because I couldn’t be there for her.”
“Yeah… I know how you feel.” Garble hugged himself. “I´m very worried about Smolder too.”
“I can´t tell you for certain if she´s ok, but remember that even though Punja is small, she´s tough and witty.” Somnambula said to reassure him. “I´m sure she managed to survive on one way or another.”
“Besides, she might not be alone.” Stygian added. “Didn´t you tell her to go with Zecora? Maybe she´s protecting her.”
“I hope so.” Scorpan muttered.
“Talking about family, what happened to Twilight and her friends?” asked Ember worried. “You´re always with them. What happened?”
Spike bit his lip.
“I don´t think that he´s ready yet…” Rockhoof said.
“He might need a little more time.” Meadowbrook supported Rockhoof´s idea.
“But why? Did something bad happen?” Ember insisted.
“Leave it, Ember.” Thorax put a hoof on her shoulder. “He´ll tell us when he wants.”
“And that moment is now.” Said Spike.
The pillars and Stygian widened their eyes surprised.
“Are you sure about that kid?” Flash Magnus asked unsure about Spike´s intention.
“They´ll have to know sooner or later.” Spike replied. “Talking about gives a really hard time, but I want to go through it as soon as possible.”
They all shared concerned looks. Scorpan told them with his gaze that it was the best for him. Eventually they nodded in agreement with Spike.
“Go ahead.” Flash Magnus said.
Spike took a deep breath before beginning to speak.
“I don´t know it Thorax told you, but we were planning to use the bell on Grogar. But Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow attacked us and retrieved the bell. And then Grogar came into scene.”
The changelings, dragons and crystal ponies clenched their teeth.
“I don´t like how this is going.” Garble muttered.
“And the bell ended up with his original owner. It was very terrifying. He broke Cozy´s wings and took all their magic away in just a matter of seconds!” Spike shivered at the memory. “Then, he came toward us.” his breath started accelerating. “He took Twilight…” his eyes filled with tears. He held his head anxious. He slowed his breath before continuing speaking. “And killed her…”
Every creature gasped.
“Oh, Spike…” Thorax said with tears in his eyes. “I´m so sorry.” he hugged him.
“That´s it! That´s it!” Ember said angrily. She put her fist against her claw. “That ram is going down! The moment we see him, we´ll turn him to ashes! Am I right?” she asked to the dragons.
The dragons spit fire in response.
“Poor Princess Cadence…” a crystal pony said while drying tears. “She´ll be heartbroken after hearing this.”
“Not to mention Shining Armor!” another crystal pony added. “He´ll be the one to suffer the most for her death.”
“What about her friends?” a changeling asked. “Are they alive?”
“I don´t know.” Spike lamented. “Grogar didn´t tell me what he was going to do with them. But it´s pretty clear that he had no intention of leaving them alive.”
“But without Twilight and her friends, how will Equestria and our homes be saved?” another changeling asked.
“As impossible as it sounds, it´s left to us. Right now, we are the only ones who can save Equestria and our homes. It doesn´t sound as crazy, if you think about it. In this team, there´s the leader of every nation! Well, except Celestia and Luna as Thorax said, and the gryphons too, now that I think about it. But still. Imagine what we could do if we joined all of our forces! We might not be victorious at the end, but at least we should try. For Twilight. For her friends. In their honor. It´s the least we can do.”
Every listened to Spike´s speech. Garble approached the little dragon.
“Well. If you gave me the choice between dying or being enslaved for the rest of my life, I´m pretty sure I´d prefer death. So, I guess it´s worth the try.”
“Same here.” The dragons raised their claws.
“We were controlled once, and we won´t let it happen again!” the changelings claimed confidently.
“For Twilight!” the crystal ponies exclaimed.
Ember and Thorax raised an eyebrow while smiling. Spike felt relief for seeing every creature willing to fight, even though there was a high chance that they died. But their love for Twilight and her friends was so big that they didn´t fear what was going to happen to them. The dragon started crying, but these weren´t tears of pain, they were tears of joy. He turned to the pillars, Stygian and Scorpan. The gargoyle was giving him a smile full of pride whereas the pillars´ and Stygian´s smiles were supportive.
“And who knows… Maybe some creature else will join us if we´re lucky.”
Trixie, Gallus, the CMC, and some students were running away from corrupted changelings underground. Unfortunately, their escape was complicated by the presence of the roots´ crystals, which blocked their way.
“We´re trapped!” exclaimed Apple Bloom.
Trixie blinked perplexed.
“Ok. Let´s not enter in panic. There must be some little space in which we can escape.” she approached the crystals and touched them, hiding her panic in the process.
Everypony and Gallus looked at each other.
“Well, you must have a plan b, right?” said Scootaloo.
“Actually, I don´t.”
“What?!” Gallus and the CMC asked in chorus.
“Don´t blame me! I didn´t expect this to happen. Besides, we didn´t have time.”
“Well you´d better think of something right now…” Sweetie Belle said terrified while walking backwards like the other students.
Trixie looked backwards and saw how the changelings cornered all of them. They roared furious.
“What do we do now?” Gallus asked Trixie.
The blue unicorn took some time to answer. She shivered while remembering when she was attacked by changelings while saving Equestria´s most important figures.
“Nope. I´m not dealing with this.”
She took a smoke bomb and tossed it to the ground. Once the smoke cleared out, the changelings stayed confused, due to their preys´ disappearance.
Starlight´s group stopped running in front of an enormous root. They looked behind, noticing the changelings approached them. She quickly summoned a force camp to earn time so they could think of a plan.
“We cannot advance anymore.”
“Oh no…” Ocellus said disheartened. “What do we do?”
Starlight looked around. After realizing that the root was connected to the top, she got an idea.
“I think I know what to do next.”
Starlight was about to perform a spell, but something unexpected prevented her from doing so. Out of nowhere, Trixie and her group appeared right next to her.
“STARLIGHT!” Trixie exclaimed.
Starlight yelped while falling on her back. In the process, she stopped doing the protective bubble. Starlight glared at Trixie, making her laugh nervously and apologetically.
“Surprise…” she muttered.
The students hugged each other scared while Pharynx jumped on Starlight. The unicorn quickly ignited her horn and blasted the top as hard as she could. She smiled when she saw that her idea was a success. She managed to do a whole big enough for every creature to escape. Then, she turned to them.
“Go! Go!” she waved her hoof. “We´ll deal with them while you climb.”
Starlight zapped Pharynx´s neck, pushing him away. The changeling frowned and turned into an enormous mole.
“Do you need our help?” Trixie asked, perplexed by the sudden transformation.
Just after she asked that, Starlight hit with her magic a changeling that was about to attack Trixie.
“Actually, you´d help me more by fighting the other changelings.”
“Alright then.”
Meanwhile, every creature climbed as fast as they could. All except for Punja, who was trying to make her way to get to Zecora. Smolder, Ocellus, Gallus, all of whom were holding the CMC, noticed that.
“Punja! What are you doing?” Apple Bloom asked worried.
“We need to leave!” Scootaloo told her.
“One moment please!” the little zebra replied.
Punja held Zecora´s hoof.
“Are you coming with us?”
At that moment, a changeling tried to jump on them, but Zecora kicked their belly.
“I´m afraid I´m needed here.” she put her hoof under her chin. “You must advance without me and without any fear.”
Punja nodded and hugged Zecora tightly before leaving. She ran to the root and started to climb it. Gallus, who was holding Sweetie Belle, decided to ask the little unicorn a question.
“Can you teleport yourself?”
“I can try!” the unicorn filly replied excited.
Although she struggled to ignite her horn, she managed to disappear from Gallus´ forelegs and reappear at the top.
“I did it!” she exclaimed with pride while waving her hoof.
They all smiled at her. Gallus flew down and picked up Punja to help her get out faster. He caught up with the rest of his friends and finally left the underground.
Pharynx, who despite battling Starlight, noticed that the students were flying away.
“NO!” he turned to the other changelings. “Get them you idiots!”
The changelings obeyed and flew out of the whole.
The students ran away from the changelings and hid behind the first big thing they could find. Luckily, they weren´t noticed by the changelings who kept on flying ahead.
“Did we fool them?” Ocellus asked.
Smolder slightly poked her head out.
“Yup. No more corrupted changelings near us.” she said proudly.
“Maybe not the changelings but something else is…” Gallus said scared while pointing at something.
The students held their breath when they noticed a cragadile sleeping right in front of them.
Spike and the rest kept on walking. Suddenly, Scorpan´s ear twitched.
“We need to hide.” he said to every creature.
“What? But why?” Ember asked curious.
“Some creature´s coming.”
“Really? Who?” Spike asked.
Thorax shushed him. Every creature hid behind the trees. Scorpan was right, they were not alone. There were corrupted changelings flying around! Spike huffed. If it weren´t for his gargoyle friend, they would have been found.
“Where did those ponies go?” They were just in front of us!” a changeling said frustrated.
“Not only ponies. There was a yak, a dragon, a griffon, a hippogriph, a weird bug thing that looked like us but I don´t think she was a changeling, and a little zebra.” another changeling pointed out.
Every creature gasped quietly.
“Hey, aren´t those the students of the School of Friendship?” Rockhoof asked Spike in his ear.
“Yeah, yeah.” Spike confirmed.
“That means that Ocellus is there!” Thorax thought aloud.
“And Smolder too!” Garble added. He sighed in relief. “Thank goodness she´s still alive!”
Starswirl shushed them, reminding them that they were not alone.
“Maybe we missed them? I suggest we go back.” other changeling said.
The other changelings agreed by nodding their heads. They turned around and continued flying in the opposite direction, but Ember and the other dragons stood in front of them.
“NOT ON OUR WATCH!” the leader of the dragons yelled at the changelings.
They spit fire at the changelings, making them fly away terrified.
“And never come back!” Garble added before expiring smoke from his nose.
Once the changelings were gone, Spike, Scorpan, the pillars, Stygian, Thorax and the uncorrupted changelings came out from their hideout.
“We need to find them!” Thorax exclaimed. “They could be in danger!”
“Say no more.” Spike replied. “Come on!” he waved his hoof.
The group started running.
“Oh dear. I´m reuniting with Punja! I´m reuniting with my daughter!” Scorpan said almost in tears.
The pillars and Stygian gave him a comforting smile.
Sunburst stopped running abruptly when he saw a small pond. His group did the same. The unicorn was worried that he was going to fall into the pound due to his students´ sudden stop. He sighed in relief when he saw that nothing happened. That was until Yona stopped running. The yak´s stop pushed everypony, causing Sunburst to fall into the pond. Seeing that he didn´t get his head out of the water, the students started to worry.
“Is professor Sunburst ok?” Silverstream asked nervous.
Thankfully, nothing happened to Sunburst, since he poked his head out of the water. The students sighed in relief, but their relief wouldn´t last, as they noticed the changelings approaching them.
“Ok. Does everypony know how to swim?” Sunburst asked quickly as he got out of the water.
Everypony nodded their heads. Yona tilted her head from side to side.
“Yona knows how to swim, but not very good at it…” she said skeptical.
“Don´t worry, Yona. We´ll hold you!” Silverstream grabbed her foreleg.
“With us by your side, you have nothing to worry about.” Sandbar added.
The changelings were about to attack the students, but Sunburst intervened and zapped them.
“Go! I´ll deal with them in the meantime.” he told them.
The students obeyed and jumped into the water. Yona and Sandbar took a deep breath before jumping along Silverstream, who transformed into a seapony. Yona created a huge wave that swept both Sunburst and the changelings away.
The students swam underwater for some time, getting air whenever they found a space which wasn´t totally covered with water. At one off those pauses, Silverstream realized that there was no top after their stop, just water, which meant that soon, their swimming would be over.
“Get all the air you can everypony! We´re almost there!” she told them to cheer them up.
“Yaks were preparing for princess pony coronation, and suddenly changelings came!” Prince Rutherford said. “Then, yaks attacked but changelings stronger! But then pink princess pony came and saved yaks!”
Princess Skystar and Queen Novo were listening to him.
“The same thing happened to us!” Skystar exclaimed excited. “But luckily, we weren´t attacked, since we quickly hid underwater.”
“If we can extract something good from the Storm King, is that we improved our evacuation system.” Queen Novo commented. “We have some watchhippogriffs at the top of Mountain Aris and if they see strangers or creatures who don´t seem friendly, they give signal and we go into the water. You should have an evacuation system, it really works.” Novo said to Rutherford.
“Yaks have no evacuation system. Few visitors in Yakyakistan. But yaks can take your advice.” he agreed with Novo.
Skystar laid down on a rock.
“The important thing is that Princess Cadence, her family, her subjects and the good changelings saved us and created this safe refuge!” she said while watching the crystal ponies and changelings aiding the injured yaks and hippogriffs. There were also some dragons sleeping.
“But we cannot let our guards down yet. We still need to get Grogar out of the throne.” Novo pointed out.
“I know, but at least we get some time to rest.”
“And Yak Prince can drink! Yak Prince is thirsty.”
The yak was about to lick some fresh water from the lake, but suddenly, a pony appeared right in front of his muzzle. The two of them jumped back.
“Gah!” Rutherford yelled scared, but then he took a better look. “Pony? What is pony doing in water?” he wondered confused.
Then, more ponies poked their heads out of the water.
“What the?” muttered Queen Novo confused.
But then, everything made sense when Yona, Silverstream and Sandbar got to surface. Yona took a deep breath and panted.
“It´s ok, Yona. You´ve done a great job.” Sandbar said to comfort her.
Silverstream gasped when she noticed Princess Skystar and Queen Novo.
“Your majesties!” she exclaimed as she jumped out of the water and transformed into her hippogriff self.
Then, Yona noticed Prince Rutherford.
“PRINCE RUTHERFORD!” she exclaimed while quickly swimming out of the lake.
Sandbar rolled his eyes with a smile and followed Yona.
Silverstream gave the Queen and the princess of hippogriffs a huge hug, which Novo didn´t enjoy as much as her daughter.
“Silverstream! It´s so good to see you!” Skystar told her. Then, she gasped. “Your family is worried sick about you.”
“My family! Are they ok?” Silverstream asked worried.
“Yes, they´re in the camp.” Novo explained while undoing Silverstream´s hug. Nonetheless, she still had a smile on her face. “I´m glad to see you´re ok.
Silvertstream hugged the two of them again. Novo sighed a bit frustrated, but she returned the hug.
Meanwhile, Yona arrived to Prince Rutherford.
“Yona!” the yak prince exclaimed.
The two yaks bumped their heads together.
“Yaks safe?” Yona asked.
“Yes! Yaks safe!” Rutherford replied. “Yaks in camp, sharing with hippogriffs, crystal ponies, changelings and dragons! And, Yona´s family in camp too.”
Yona jumped in excitement. If it weren´t for Sandbar, every creature would have continued jumping.
“But Prince Yak has question. How did Yona and friends got here?”
“Yeah.” Skystar agreed with Rutherford. “How did you escape the school? I thought it was taken over by Cozy Glow. That was her name right?”
Silverstream nodded her head.
“It was thanks to Ocellus, Punja and Zecora. Then our teachers protected us!” Silverstream gasped. She put her claws on her cheeks. “Oh no! Professor Sunburst is still undergound! He needs our help!” she said while shaking Sandbar.
“Could you lend him a claw?” Sandbar asked Skystar and Novo.
The hippogriffs nodded, but just at that instant, Sunburst poked his head out of the water. He took a deep breath and coughed water.
“No need to…” he said almost voiceless.
Smolder, Ocellus, Gallus, the CMC, Punja and other students stayed very still due to the presence of a cragadile.
“Should we stay still or get out?” Ocellus asked very softly.
“I don´t know which one is better, to be honest.” Gallus replied.
“I could scare it away with fire.” Smolder suggested.
She took a deep breath, ready to blow fire. But Apple Bloom raised her hoof.
“Don´t!” she ordered her. “Cagradiles aren´t afraid of fire.”
“What do we do then?” asked Gallus.
As they talked, Punja analyzed the situation.
“Ok.” she spoke after concluding. “As long as we don´t wake it up we won´t be its prey.”
“So you mean that we walk away quietly?” guessed Scootaloo.
Punja nodded.
“Elementary, my dear filly. Make sure you don´t do any noise that could wake it.”
Punja started advancing very slowly to the left. The rest of students followed behind, trying to walk as softly and slowly as Punja. They all managed to get a little away from the cragadile, which made them feel relief and grow confidence in that they were going to be safe. That was until Sweetie Belle stepped on a branch. Every creature widened their eyes and looked back at the cragadile. The creature stretched his legs but didn´t wake up. They all sighed in relief.
“Be careful!” Scootaloo said angrily to Sweetie Belle in a low voice.
“I am careful!” Sweetie Belle replied.
“Girls, stop it!” Apple Bloom intervened angrily. “You´re gonna end up bumping against-”
And for not looking ahead, she ended up bumping against a tree herself. Her crashing was loud enough to wake the cragadile up. It turned around and spotted every creature. It roared angrily at them.
“RUUUUUUN!” Punja yelled.
Everypony ran while Ocellus, Gallus and Smolder flew away from the cragadile, who started chasing them. Unfortunately, there came a point in which they couldn´t run anymore, or fly in Ocellus´ Smolder´s and Gallus´ case. The cragadile cornered them against a wide tree trunk and showed its huge teeth. Ocellus gulped.
“Any last words?” she asked to every student.
Smolder held her shoulders.
“Yes. Of all my friends, you´re the least dull to me.”
“Hey! I can hear you.” Gallus complained.
“Sorry mate, it´s the truth.”
Every creature held each other, closing their eyes to ease the pain they were about to suffer before dying. However, they opened them when they heard the cragadile moan. They gasped when they saw Ember, Thorax and Scorpan defending them.
“Oh! We´re saved, thank goodness.” Sweetie Belle said quickly in relief.
“GET AWAY FROM THEM!” yelled Ember.
She blew some fire at the cragadile, but it didn´t seem to affect it. In fact, it raised an eyebrow confused.
“What? Why isn´t it scared?”
Thorax and Scorpan sighed frustrated.
“Because cragadiles aren´t scared of fire.” Thorax explained. He put his hoof on his forehead. “I told you it wouldn´t work.”
Apple Bloom nudged Smolder.
“See? What did I tell you?” she whispered in here ear.
"Starswirl as well.” Scorpan added. “But you and the dragons didn´t listen.”
The students gasped.
“Starswirl´s here?” Ocellus thought aloud.
“I swear, this is literally the most surreal day of my entire life.” Scootaloo agreed.
“Yup.” Gallus agreed.
Ember blushed in embarrassment.
“Ok, ok. You were right. Can we focus more on defeating that thing instead of talking about my error?”
Thorax rolled his eyes playfully.
“Yeah, sure. Scorpan?”
The gargoyle nodded. He flew towards the cragadile and kicked it on the stomach, making it fall on his back. Scorpan and Ember put their foots on its belly to prevent it from getting up.
“Thorax now!” Scopran called him.
The changeling looked at the bottle that Meadowbrook gave him.
“I hope this works.” he muttered.
He flew to the cragadile and put the bottle on the cragadile´s mouth.
“Don´t worry, this will put you to sleep again.” he sweetly told the cragadile.
Although at first it resisted, the cragadile gave up and fell asleep with a smile. The three creatures panted tired.
“After all of this, I need a huge bowl of gems.” Ember said tired.
“Papa!” Punja exclaimed in tears.
Scorpan turned around. His eyes filled with tears when he heard her voice saw his little zebra safe and sound.
“My child…” he muttered.
Punja jumped into Scorpan´s arms and hugged very tightly.
“I thought I´d never see you again.” Scorpan told her.
“Really? Every time I thought about you I got teary! I thought you were the one who wouldn´t make it.”
Scorpan smiled sweetly.
“The important thing is that we´re together.”
“Yeah..” Punja mumbled while feeling the warmth of her father´s mane, which she missed so much.
Meanwhile, Ember and Thorax approached to the rest of the students.
“Thorax! I thought you were corrupted.” Ocellus told Thorax.
The changeling scratched the back of his neck.
“It´s kind of a long story…”
“What about the Dragonlands? Are they alright?” Smolder asked Ember.
Ember tilted her head.
“Not really, but don´t worry.” she put a claw on her shoulder. “Every dragon is safe.”
At that moment, Spike, the crystal ponies, the rest of the changelings and dragons, the pillars and Stygian arrived. Smolder gasped when she saw Garble.
“Speaking of which…” Ember continued.
“Gar Gar!”
“Smolder!” Garble exclaimed as he flew towards Smolder.
They hugged tightly.
“Are you ok? Did they hurt you?” Garble asked his sister.
“Not for an instant. We´re very tough, you know.” answered Smolder.
“Is every creature ok?” Spike asked.
The students and the CMC nodded.
“Huh! Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo! Didn´t expect you to see you here.”
“Neither did we.” Sweetie Belle said in response.
“We literally thought you were dead!” Scootaloo told him.
“Yeah? Well I don´t feel very alive either.” Spike mumbled.
“Spike! Good to see you.” Smolder approached Spike. However, her expression of joy changed to one of surprise when she saw that his color was off. “Are you ok?”
“Tirek took all of his magic, young one.” Mistmane explained to Smolder as some crystal ponies helped her to walk. Her comrades arrived with help as well.
“Just as he took ours.” Flash Magnus continued the explanation.
“But now, Grogar has it, since he retrieved his bell.” Stygian added.
“Yeah, we heard what happened.” Gallus lamented. “So sorry Spike.” he told the dragon.
Spike shrugged sadly.
“Fortunately, with the help of the changelings, dragons and crystal ponies, we managed to escape Tartarus.” Somnambula said.
“And have chance to rest.” Starswirl stretched his legs. “Uh, I´m getting too old for this.” he muttered under his breath.
“But then we heard some changelings talk about out and figured out that you needed help!” Rockhoof exclaimed. “However, we quickly knew how to defeat that creature thanks to Meadowbrook.”
“I always carry potions on my skirt in case something happens.” Meadowbrook explained.
“Talking about changelings, Starlight and Trixie need your help!” Apple Bloom remembered.
“They´re underground fighting Pharynx and some more changelings!” Ocellus she told Thorax.
“Pharynx? Oh dear, don´t worry we´re coming just tell us where they are and we´ll go.”
Ocellus guided Thorax and the other changelings to where they came from.
“They´re going on their own, right?” Ember asked to every creature.
“Considering that this is a more personal issue, I think so.” Spike replied.
“Good, because the least thing I need right now is fighting.”
Spike, Smolder and Garble shook their heads while smiling.
Trixie and Zecora kicked the last changelings that weren´t unconscious.
“From what I see, I think that every changeling is asleep.” Zecora told Trixie.
“How is it going Starlight?” Trixie asked her friend.
Starlight kept on fighting Pharynx. Unlike the other two, she was having more trouble. The changeling was too strong for her, since he was in the form of a creature much bigger than her. He tried to zap her, but Starlight dodged his attack with ease.
“I´ll take it as a no.” Trixie muttered.
Starlight jumped to her friends and created a force camp.
“I tried fighting him as long as I could, but it doesn´t work!” she told them.
“Then let´s leave!” suggested Trixie. “Every changeling, except Pharynx of course, is unconscious. Surely you can make us reappear up there and run away!
“Even if I did, he´d still chase us, Trixie.” Starlight sighed. “I don´t know what else to do.”
Zecora put her hoof under her chin while thinking.
“Hmm… Maybe fighting is not what you need to do. I have a feeling that about his past, he doesn´t have a clue.”
Trixie was skeptical about the idea. Starlight, however, was considering it.
“Sorry Zecora, but I don´t think that will work. I still think that leaving would be for the best.”
“I told you already, Trixie, it won´t work. But Zecora´s idea doesn´t seem that bad…”
“What? You´re seriously going to try talk to him?”
“Do you have a better option?”
Trixie was about to open her mouth.
“Apart from escaping, like you said twice.”
Trixie closed her mouth.
“If you want to escape so badly, you can go up that root.” Starlight pointed the root. Then, she turned to Zecora. “In fact, you should go with her, Zecora.”
“No!” the two exclaimed in chorus.
“I won´t leave because you could be harmed, and if something happened to you I´d be very alarmed.”
“Yeah!” Trixie agreed. “I want to leave, but not without you!”
Starlight sighed.
“I suppose that being accompanied would come in handy in case something happens…” she thought aloud. She looked at how Pharynx tried to destroy her force camp. “Ok. I´m talking to him.”
She undid the force camp. Pharynx put his paw on her. Trixie ignited her horn, ready to attack but Zecora put her hoof in front of her, telling her to wait.
“Pharynx! Pharynx!” Starlight yelled. “Listen to me.”
Pharynx still roared at her.
“PHARYNX!” she yelled aloud.
Pharynx stopped roaring. He returned to his original form. He put his hooves on Starlight´s forelegs.
“Why are you yelling my name? A better question, how do you know my name?”
“Because I need you to listen to me. And secondly, I know who you are. We´ve met before. And believe me you were as hostile as you´re being now.”
The changeling went from aggressive to confused.
“Why should I believe you? You´re my enemy!”
“Not anymore. Every single changeling reformed and became our friends, you included.” Starlight pointed at Pharynx.
The changeling raised an eyebrow confused.
“It´s like he didn´t remember anything!” Trixie whispered in Zecora´s ear.
“It appears that the bell erasures the victim´s memories. Maybe what we need is him to remember that we´re not enemies!” Zecora suggested.
“But how? Starlight´s trying and he can´t remember! If it´s not me, I don´t know who can make him remember.”
“Starlight! Trixie!” a familiar voice exclaimed in the distance.
Trixie, Zecora and Starlight turned their heads to the voice. It was Thorax and the other changelings!
“Ha ha! Thorax, just the one I needed!” Starlight said.
Thorax gasped when he saw Pharynx.
“Pharynx!” he exclaimed heartbroken.
Pharynx jumped from Starlight and prepared to attack Thorax.
“Get away, you weird bug thing!” he yelled at him.
However, Thorax didn´t listen. The first thing he did was hugging him. Rather than attacking or pushing him out. Pharynx stayed still, probably from the shock.
“I know you´re still there, brother.” he muttered. “Please come back.”
“Bro- Brother?” Pharynx thought aloud.
His eyes widened as he gave out a gasp. A light came out from his chest. It started surrounding him until nopony, nor changeling, could see him. When the light came out, Pharynx wasn´t a corrupted changeling anymore. He returned to his glorious and colourful form. Slowly, he laid down on the floor. The two unicorns, Zecora and the changelings surrounded him, waiting for him to wake up. Slowly, Pharynx opened his eyes.
“Wha- What happened?” he sat on his legs as he massaged his temples. He looked around. “And where am I?”
“Guys.” spoke Starlight. “I think we´ve just made a great discovery.”