Twilight Sparkle anxiously paced in front of her throne. Flurry Heart captured… it couldn’t be! And yet she’d sent a letter to Cadance and Shining Armor, asking them to confirm this, and they reluctantly agreed that yes, the youngest princess in Equestrian history had been stolen.
Stealing a princess was not like stealing an ordinary pony, not in any way. This could mean war. If word got out about this… well, things would look extremely grim at best, and Equestria and all the neighboring kingdoms would join together and go to war with the kidnappers at worst. But the main thing about going to war is that you have to know who you’re going to war with. And Twilight had no idea who was taking the missing ponies.
“Come on, Twilight,” Spike muttered from up on his throne, “take a break from this whole thing. You won’t be any good to anypony if you’re about to fall asleep on your feet.” And it was true. Twilight had spent every waking hour sending every single creature who was eligible to the Crystal Empire to try and find clues about where Flurry Heart might have gone. She also spent every sleeping hour dreaming about Flurry in some horrible place, getting tortured for information about Equestria. Which was why the ratio of Twilight’s Waking Hours to Twilight’s Sleeping Hours was 24 to 0.
“Take a break? Take a break?!?” Twilight launched into the air and flew up to Spike in the blink of an eye, getting up in his face, her normally calm violet eyes wild. “I CAN’T TAKE A BREAK!!! FLURRY HEART’S BEEN CAPTURED!!! I NEED TO FIND HER OR ELSE WE’LL GO TO WAR!!!” Twilight hovered there, panting. Spike cautiously pushed her away.
“Relax, Twilight,” Spike glanced around nervously, looking for emergency exits from Twilight’s twilighting. “You’ll figure it out. You always do. But first…” Spike pushed Twilight to the door of the throne room, “you need to rest.”
“Rest? How can I-” Twilight started, but Spike pressed a claw to her mouth, shushing her.
“Twilight. Look at me.” Twilight’s eyes swam with tears, but she gazed into Spike’s intense green eyes. For a moment, Spike could see everything she was feeling. Her heartbreak over losing her niece, her desperation to get her back, her panic that Equestria might be going to war. He felt her pain, her fear, her rage, her exhaustion. He knew that Twilight blamed herself for Flurry Heart’s disappearance. She felt like she could have tried harder. “Twilight. Listen. You have to rest. If you don’t you’ll never get anything done. You have to at least try. Take a short nap. Get your strength back. Then you can go figure out where Flurry Heart is and charge the place with all your friends and blast magic friendship rainbows and free everypony and go home happy. But first, rest.”
Twilight blinked. She was so exhausted she could plop down on the floor right here and sleep for a year. But she’d pushed that tiredness down. She couldn’t focus on Flurry Heart and the other missing ponies if she was tired! Twilight instead had focused on her anger, her pain, her regret. But now all that exhaustion came rushing out in a big flood.
“I… you’re right, Spike,” Twilight mumbled. Then she passed out, breathing in and out peacefully. Spike smiled sadly at her.
“I know I’m right. I usually am.” He managed to carry/push/pull Twilight to her room and get her into her bed, pulling the covers up to her chin and closing the curtains on the window. “Sleep tight,” Spike murmured as he closed the door on the sleeping alicorn.
Even though Twilight was finally resting, and was glad to do so, her dreams were far from peaceful. She saw Flurry Heart running from monsters, trying to get home. She saw Flurry trapped in a cage being fed poison while creatures shrouded in darkness recorded how she reacted in notebooks. She saw Flurry being stripped forcefully of her magic, leaving her weak and defenseless. Worst of all, she saw Flurry lying still in a pool of blood, her wings half spread and mangled, hundreds of bleeding cuts covering her body.
“No!” Twilight’s eyes snapped open, and she lay there, panting. “It was just a dream,” she told herself over and over again. “Just a dream.” But something about her dreams felt real. Spike opened the door a crack and saw Twilight, sitting in bed, looking well-rested and not like she would fall asleep on her feet at any moment, but shaken and sweating.
“Twilight?” he asked tentatively. “Are you okay?”
“Oh. Um, yes. Yes, I’m fine.” Twilight avoided Spike’s gaze as she pulled herself out of bed.
“O-kay. Anyways, some guards just came in. They say they finally have a clue.”
“WHAT?!?!” Twilight leaped into the air. “Where are they?”
“In the throne room, but-” Spike was cut off as Twilight flew so fast she became a purple blur. “Hey, wait!” Spike flapped his wings desperately, trying to keep up with the princess. He pushed open the throne room doors and found Twilight standing in front of her throne, two guards in front of her.
“...Found something,” the guard on the right was saying. He had an iron-colored mane with a light gray coat. His eyes were deep blue, and a scar ran across one of his ankles. His friend was the same color as storm clouds, with a lightning-colored mane and sunken gray eyes.
“What did you find?” Twilight practically shouted.
“We were patrolling the streets of downtown Canterlot, just like you asked,” the stormy guard answered. “We heard a scream come from one of the houses. We rushed inside and found three ponies in black attempting to stuff the civilians into large sacks and take them away.”
“May I see them?” Twilight asked anxiously. The guards nodded. The gray guard trotted over to the door and opened it, poking his head out and gesturing to somepony in the hallway. Three ponies were thrown into the room with no particular care, and five more guards, all with blue manes and white coats, followed them. The ponies wore full bodysuits made of black material, but the hoods were down so you could see their faces. Two were unicorns, and one was a pegasus. One of the unicorns had a cherry red coat with chocolate brown mane falling onto her shoulders in looping curls. Her eyes were forest green, and she looked very unhappy. She looked as if she was about Flurry’s age. Twilight felt a pang inside her when she thought about Flurry. The other unicorn wore a scowl that seemed to be permanently stuck onto his face. His coat was dark blue with a grayish-white mane cut close to his scalp like Twilight’s guards. The pegasus was lime green with a lemon yellow mane and brown eyes that seemed empty of all emotion.
“Well?” Twilight demanded.
“Ah. Yes. Before we get into that, there’s something you should see, Your Majesty.” The gray guard flicked his tail, and one of the five guards came up and prodded the cherry-colored unicorn with the tip of his spear. She winced and stood up, reluctantly unfolding her wings.
Twilight’s jaw dropped. So did Spike’s. The cherry unicorn blushed, although you couldn’t tell with her coat.
“What… how… who… what?” Twilight stammered. The guard with the spear poked the unicorn again.
“Speak,” he growled.
“... Your Majesty.” The unicorn had a sweet and shy voice that sounded sort of like Fluttershy’s, which shocked Twilight. Call her stereotypical, but she’d been expecting thugs and monsters and horrible things, not most likely innocent unicorns with pegasus wings. That was the main thing Twilight noticed that set this pony apart from alicorns.
“I mean no harm,” she stammered.
“No harm? What do you mean, no harm?” Twilight slammed her hoof down. The unicorn winced. “You think kidnapping my innocent subjects and taking them away without a trace means no harm?”
“My father made me do it,” she whispered. Her voice was so quiet Twilight could barely hear it. Her glance flicked to the dark blue unicorn. His scowl deepened and he glared at his daughter. “I didn’t want to.”
“So you were forced to do this. But what about them?” Twilight pointed an accusing hoof at the other two ponies, but her gaze never wavered from the fake alicorn’s face.
“I-I don’t know about them.” The unicorn’s gaze flicked to the other ponies again.
She can’t talk in front of them, Twilight realized. They’ll punish her.
“Iron Spear,” she commanded, “take these two to the caves and leave us.”
“A-are you sure, Your Majesty?” the gray guard, Iron Spear asked nervously, shooting a suspicious glance at the fake alicorn. “These ponies are… unpredictable. Are you sure you want to be left alone with one?” The fake alicorn flinched again, her eyes closed, but Twilight could see the expression of pain written across her face.
“Iron Spear. I am the same pony who defeated Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, Sombra, Tirek, Cozy Glow, and many others, some more than once. I started as a unicorn who became a princess who became ruler of all of Equestria. Are you doubting me and my capability to handle things like this?”
“N-no, Your Majesty.” Iron Spear hurriedly bent his legs in a quick bow.
“Good. Then take you ponies out of here and take care of these two.” Twilight gestured to the other two ponies. The guards hurriedly escorted the ponies from the room. The pegasus went quietly, but at the door, the blue unicorn snarled at the guards, broke free for a second, and glared at his daughter, whose head was hanging in shame.
“Tell them anything,” he growled, “and I swear…” He didn’t need to finish his sentence. The guards grabbed him and wrestled him out of the room, but his words had the intended effect on the red unicorn. If a pony could wilt, this one certainly did.
“Spike,” Twilight said firmly, “you’re excused, too. Write to Starlight and Celestia and Luna. Tell them to come here as soon as they can. Then write to my friends and tell them a council meeting is being scheduled right now. Don’t alert Cadance and Shining yet; I want to make sure this is genuine.” Spike hesitated, his gaze flicking between Twilight and the cherry red pony. He nodded and flew out the door. Once the door shut, Twilight’s shoulders slumped and she seemed to relax, now that they were all alone.
“I’m sorry,” the red pony’s voice was choked with tears, “but I can’t tell you anything. If I do… I’ll be punished. Really bad.” Twilight smiled warmly at her and trotted down the ramp to stand face to face with the poor pony.
“I knew a little filly once who had the same problem as you.” Twilight gently placed her hand on the red pony’s shoulder. “She was pressured by her parents to make her decisions the way they wanted them to. But she eventually realized that she could stand up to them and make her own decisions.” The fake alicorn’s dull green eyes brightened, and she looked at Twilight with a flame of hope starting to burn inside her.
“Really?” Her voice was breathless as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Really.” Twilight’s purple eyes were warm and calm, reassuring the young unicorn. “She learned to make her own choices, no matter what might happen. She chose to do what was right, instead of what other ponies wanted. And I know you can, too.”
“I… I want to, but… this goes beyond just my father. It goes to the emperor. I got in trouble with him because I tried to convince him to let the ponies go, and he got mad, and… well, my father’s his commander for all his armies. He and Lemon Lime, the pegasus, usually go on the missions to find and bring back more ponies. And I almost got my father fired, so I had to go on the next mission, and we got captured, so I’m probably in really big trouble, and when they find out I’ve been talking with you, then…” She gulped as if she was just realizing how much she had said. “I should probably stop talking.”
“All right,” Twilight said agreeably. “Just one more question: How do you have both wings and a horn?”
The red pony blinked. “What do you mean, how? You have both of them.”
“Yes, well…” Twilight unfolded one of her wings. The red pony gasped.
“They… they’re so big,” she mumbled. “How did they get that way? You’re not like any pegacorn I’ve ever seen.”
“Pegacorn?” Twilight asked, folding her wing back up.
“Yeah, you know: the child of both a pegasus and a unicorn who got a horn and pegasi wings. But not wings like you have.”
“Is that what you are? A pegacorn?”
“Yep. My mom’s a pegasus. Pegacorns aren’t uncommon where I’m from, although they aren’t that normal. All pegacorns end up working for the emperor. He wants to keep them all under close watch so none of them try to overthrow him. If you’re not a pegacorn, then what are you?”
“I’m an alicorn. A pony with the combined magic of all three tribes. Pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies. There are only five alicorns in Equestria because we’re rare. Well, there were five…” Twilight turned her head to avoid looking at the other pony. Suddenly, the red pony gasped.
“Oh, my goodness. A few days ago, I heard my father talking about how they discovered a ‘new species of pegacorn’ here and managed to bring one back. Is that…?”
“Flurry Heart?!? You know where she is?” Twilight lunged at the young pegacorn, shaking her. “Tell me!”
“She-she’s with the others. Why is she so super important?” Twilight let go of her and started pacing.
“Flurry Heart is my niece and the daughter of another alicorn. Also, she’s the only natural-born alicorn in recorded history. All us other alicorns were made alicorns some time in our life. I was a regular unicorn, but then I became a princess. Also, all alicorns are princesses and have more magical potential than basically any other pony or creature in existence!”
“Yikes. She sounds… important.”
“Yeah, she’s important! If we don’t get her back, we might go to war!” Twilight took several deep breaths.
“Okay. I’m going to need you to tell me everything you know. It’s the only way to avoid going to war. In return, I’ll do everything I can do to protect you and your family from the emperor. Come on. I’m going to go see if I can find anything else about your land and pegacorns in some ancient texts. Our two lands must have made contact at some point. And I’ll need you with me…?”
“Red.” The red pegacorn looked nervous at the prospect of going against her father’s wishes. “Red Berry.”
“Red. Stay close to me, and nopony will bother you.” Twilight trotted towards the door. Without any hesitation, Red followed, folding her wings up. The two of them walked down the corridor, Red gazing in awe at the dozens of stained glass windows depicting Twilight Sparkle and her friends’ successes.
“Who’s that?” she asked, pointing her hoof at one of the windows.
“That’s Nightmare Moon. She was the first villain me and my friends defeated. She was jealous of her older sister, Celestia, so she turned to darkness. But we destroyed the darkness in her and turned her back into Luna. That was when we first discovered the Elements of Harmony.”
“Who’s that?”
“Discord. The second villain we had to defeat. He broke apart our friendship, making the Elements useless. He’s a creature of chaos, and he tried to turn Equestria into the chaos capital of the world. But me and my friends overcame those challenges and cast him back to stone. Later, though, my friend Fluttershy showed him the magic of friendship, so he’s on our side.”
“You and your friends sound amazing.” Red sighed. “I wish I had friends like yours.” She gasped. “Who’s that?”
“Queen Chrysalis. Queen of the changelings, a species that takes the form of somepony you love and feeds off your emotions for them. We had to defeat the whole tribe when they attacked my brother’s wedding. Eventually, the changelings changed, although Chrysalis did not.”
“Huh. I think we - I mean, they - captured some of those, too. Ooo, how many other adventures have you had?”
“A lot,” Twilight sighed exasperatedly. “It can get a little tiring.”
“Tell me everything,” Red demanded. Twilight smiled at her.
“Not a lot of adventures where you’re from?”
“Not like these.” Red waved her hoof around, gesturing to all the windows depicting battles and friendship lasers and villains getting turned to statues.
“Well, before I met my friends, I didn’t really want any. I mean, it would just distract me from my studies. Then I found out Nightmare Moon would be returning, so I wanted to find the mysterious Elements of Harmony, which were the only things that could defeat her.”
“But you and your friends have done so much! How could you not want any?” Twilight laughed a little.
“Well, I didn’t know that then. Anyways, I came to Ponyville and met my friends: Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. I was very annoyed with them, though, because I just wanted to get some alone time to find out more about the return of Nightmare Moon. When she did come back that night, I hurried to go find the Elements in the Everfree Forest, a forbidden forest because it’s home to monsters and grows without the help of ponies. My friends insisted that they come along, and it was a good thing, too. They used their unique abilities to get around all the challenges Nightmare Moon threw at us. I realized that they were the spirits of the Elements of Harmony: Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, and Laughter. I represented the sixth element, Magic, and the six of us used the elements to defeat Nightmare Moon. Then later, with Discord…”
“Yes?” Red cried eagerly.
“Well, Discord had originally been defeated by Celestia and Luna with the Elements of Harmony before they became lost. They turned Discord to stone, but he broke free and rained chaos down on Equestria. He divided me and my friends, and the Elements were pretty useless without our friendship. But then I realized what he was doing, and gathered my friends. We overcame Discord, turning him to stone again.”
“But you said that Discord turned good,” Red pressed.
“Yes, I’m getting there. Unfortunately, before that could happen, Chrysalis attacked Canterlot with her changelings in the middle of my brother’s wedding with my former foal sitter. Then...”
Twilight told Red about every single quest she and her friends had gone on, and all the times they had been saved themselves by somepony else. Red hung onto every word the princess said. After Twilight finished, Red told her about everything she knew. The two of them were sitting in the library when the door burst open and Starlight Glimmer trotted into the room, Spike flapping behind her. Starlight’s eyes darted from side to side until they landed on Red. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped as she noticed that Red had wings.
“Starlight!” Twilight called. Starlight trotted over to the two ponies, her gaze still staring at Red in disbelief. Red shifted in her seat, suddenly uncomfortable.
“Oh! This is Red.” Twilight gestured to the red pony, but Starlight’s expression didn’t change. She didn’t even blink. “Um… Oh! Is it the wings?”
Starlight nodded mutely.
“Um, well, let's just say… um, she’s from another land which also has ponies, except they also have this tribe called pegacorns, which are unicorns with pegasus wings. So, different from alicorns. Also, they’re apparently pretty common where she’s from.” Twilight studied Starlight’s face. Starlight shook her head and blinked.
“Sorry, it’s just… I’ve never seen anything like you before. Well except for alicorns, but you're not an alicorn, so… also, alicorns are pretty rare, and if you were one, we would have heard something about you, cause all alicorns are princesses here, heh… wait, another land of ponies?” Starlight looked at Twilight for confirmation. She nodded solemnly.
“It’s a land across the sea, called Anoia. The emperor wants to conquer Equestria so that he can expand his sphere of influence and have power over every single living thing. But he wanted to know more about the inhabitants of these lands, so he’s been capturing all the ponies and creatures they can to study. They really wanted an alicorn, so they got Flurry Heart when she was alone. They want to find our weaknesses so they can attack us. According to Red, the emperor won’t try anything peaceful or diplomatic. He’s a war fanatic. He conquers through battle and bloodshed.”
“What’s the emperor’s name?” Starlight asked tentatively.
“Emperor Lupines. That’s his name. My father says he’s named that because he’s smart and cunning, like a wolf.” Red shuddered. “I met him once. I hated him the moment I laid eyes on him.”
“Who’s your father?”
“The emperor’s commander.”
“What were you doing here?”
Red hesitated. She didn’t like talking about this.
“I got in trouble with the emperor. He sent me with my father and Lemon Lime, one of the emperor’s most trusted generals, to kidnap more ponies. I didn’t want to. But my father made it very clear that I would either go with him or get exiled. And getting exiled is the worst punishment there is, and trust me, my father would have made it much worse.”
Starlight put her hoof on Red’s shoulder. She hadn’t thought that ponies were suffering other than the Equestrians.
“Have you seen Flurry Heart?” Starlight asked anxiously. “Little pony, light pink with purple and pink curls?” Her heart started beating at a hundred times its normal speed when Red nodded.
“I haven’t actually seen her, but I think I know where she is.” Red glanced at Twilight before continuing. “There’s a large prison-house where the missing ponies are being kept. About three dozen cells on each of five floors. On each floor, there’s a special, fortified cell for more dangerous prisoners. I think she would be kept in one of those.”
“Why hasn’t she escaped already?” Twilight asked. “Flurry Heart can shatter magical artifacts simply by screaming. She’s probably the most powerful pony in all of Equestria. I don’t care how fortified or strong your prison is, Flurry Heart could bust out of it.” Starlight nodded; she’d been wondering the same thing. Red winced.
“On all the prisoners, there’s a cuff on one of their legs that prevents them from using any magic. This cuff can only be opened by keys; no amount of magic will do anything. At least, not any of our magic. But a super-powerful pony might be able to. And there’s only one key that will work on the cuffs, and it’s in the possession of the emperor. I’m sorry, but the only way you’ll be able to get her back is to surrender.”
“Surrendering was never an option before today, and that won’t change as long as I have something to do with it,” Twilight growled. “We’ve defeated so many villains and faced impossible odds plenty of times. This won’t be any different.” She turned to Red, her eyes burning with passion. “Red, I’m going to have to ask you to do something insanely dangerous and absolutely crazy.” Red gulped.
“Um… what?” she asked nervously.
“I need you to go back to Anoia. Go straight to the emperor and tell him that your father and Lemon Lime were captured, and you just barely got back. Act loyal to him and find out all you can about how the emperor plans to attack Equestria. Then tell me everything. We’re going to war.”