//------------------------------//
// Surrender 
// Story: Twilight Sparkle the Dragon 
// by PlutoMilo 
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With the wind whistling in her ears, Twilight felt a sense of deja vu. The only thing missing was the fog and her screaming child. She dodged around stalactites and in some cases, smashed straight through smaller openings. Her current thought process was: if her head fit, so would the rest of her.
Despite the name, the Crystal Caves wasn’t so much of a network of caves. It was more like an underground ravine with a few caves branching off from the sides. Of course, it wasn’t a simple ravine. Over the years, the dripping water from the ceiling created monstrous stalactites and stalagmites.
Just when she spotted the pink alicorn, Twilight’s muzzle went through some invisible thing. Her wings flared to slow down, but that only caused whatever she went through to stick to them too. A moment later, it finally registered that she flew through a monstrous spider web the size of the Canterlot Hall Doors.
Logically, the next thing she did was shriek and attempt to paw off the cobwebs. Only this caused the dragon to spiral completely out of control and crashland next to the alicorn. Twilight flailed like an injured rabbit before jumping to her paws and fleeing into the nearest pool of water she found. The trailing cobwebs dragged along the floor like a horribly made cape, snagging on stalagmites and other rocks.
She shrieked again when the water rose up to meet her, taking the form of some huge mountain monkey. Somehow the huge water form managed to almost giggle before smothering her in a giant cold hug.
The temperature of the water had her gasping and sputtering, but she continued until all the cobwebs were washed off. After hauling herself out of the water, she shook like a dog to the utter bemusement of Princess Cadence. The mountain monkey retreated back into the pool, only the head peeking up like a snorkel.
Twilight hopped from paw to paw, trying to get warmth back into her body, “Cold, cold cold cold,”
The pool of water vibrated in amusement and she shot it a glare, “You’re not helping!”
Giving up on the attempt, she twisted her head around and blasted fire at herself until her joints ceased their creaking. The pool splashed playfully and Twilight sent it another mock glare.
 When she finally noticed the alicorn, she ceased her movement and cleared her throat, “Hi, Cadence,” she greeted sheepishly, lighting her horns.
To her credit, the Princess didn’t immediately run away screaming bloody murder, which Twilight counted as a win. Her face was a careful mask of absolute neutrality. Only her wide eyes and slightly trembling back legs gave her away. Truth be told, if Cadence’s shoes didn’t rattle ever so slightly against the rocks, she wouldn’t’ve even noticed.
The Princess looked worse for wear. Dust was thickly coated on all parts of the alicorn, making it hard to discern her coat color. Most of her feathers were out of alignment and were in desperate need of preening. In short, it looked like the Princess had fought like a caged rabbit and lost.
“Aunty sent a dragon down the Crystal Caves?” came the blank question, “What happened to Chrysalis?”
Twilight shrugged and managed to say in one breath, “I tied her up and Celestia’s watching her, they’re waiting for us at the entrance. Shining Armor is kind of a puppet right now and you need to save him,”
The alicorn’s metallic shoes clanked on the floor and her wings rustled as she rose to her hooves, “Alright. Questions later. Saving Shining Armor now,”
Twilight grinned, “Are you comfortable being carried, Princess? It would make this a lot easier,”
Despite Cadence’s declaration, there was still hesitance as she slowly nodded. Twilight waited patiently until Cadence’s face settled into determination before scooping her up and taking flight. She triple-checked that she wasn’t flying into more cobwebs and began the slow ascent back up.
There was a watery slap as the watery mountain monkey reverted back into normal water. Twilight thanked whatever higher deity out there that this water source had been feeling nice and not like the lake near Ponyville. She still shuddered at the thought.



“Twilight Sparkle,” Cadence’s voice nearly startled the dragon out of the air halfway back up, “You remind me of a filly I foal sat many moons ago. Her name was Twilight Sparkle. What is your name, Dragon?”
“Uh, well I’m glad I remind you of myself,” Twilight joked awkwardly, “I’m Twilight Sparkle, former pony, and sister to Shining Armor,”
Cadence grew silent again then she surprisingly giggled, “Well something big must’ve happened,”
Twilight chuckled and deposited the Princess at the entrance. Chrysalis hissed but quieted when Twilight checked her with a glare.
“Thanks for watching the bug,” Twilight told her mentor.
Immediately, Cadence stumbled forward on trembling legs and gently embraced her comatose fiance. Chrysalis cackled and Cadence flinched. Twilight casually spun the cage and pretended to drop the entire thing down the abyss. That very quickly stopped the cackling.
“Be careful. I might just get the fly swatter,” Twilight growled.
“Apologies,” Chrysalis said silkily, as if her entire existence wasn’t in jeopardy, “I was remembering how pathetically easy it was to capture our little bride here and send her all the way down. Her screams were delicious,”
Chrysalis finally realized something was wrong when Twilight’s eye twitched rather dangerously. Twilight turned gracefully and bowed low to the two Princesses in the vicinity.
“Excuse me, Your Majesty, Your Highness. I will be excusing myself to take out the trash,”
Celestia inclined her head, “No starting interspecies war, my student,”
Once the cage was firmly in her grasp, she walked it over to the doors. Chrysalis screamed and thrashed whatever body part she could move.
“Oh what a shame,” Twilight threw over her shoulder, “The one thing I was hoping to do,”
With absolutely no fanfare, she threw the entire cage against the doors.  Chrysalis’ scream was abruptly cut off as the cage cracked and broke apart. A sweep of her tail and all the stone fragments were swept off to the side and the stunned changeling was back in Twilight’s grasp.
“You know,” Twilight said conversationally as she spread her wings, “You’ve made this entire process a lot more fun than it should’ve,”
Twilight carried her all the way until the shield bubble. She found herself basically face to face with a drone. She raised an eye ridge and lifted Chrysalis by one of her hind legs and raised her voice to be heard through the bubble.
“You! Let me talk to the second in command!” 
The drone looked barely big enough to be out in the open. That thought was reinforced by the way the changeling sped away with a wordless chitter of fear. Chrysalis cursed her drone’s spinelessness and thrashed some more.
Some minutes later, a larger changeling fitted with a helmet and armor arrived. The changeling had no visible pupils, but the changeling visibly brightened.
“Oh good,” The changeling didn’t even let Twilight get a word in before they screeched, “Queen Chrysalis has been captured! Hail Queen Tarsus!”
Her utter confusion must’ve shown on her face since the helmeted changeling addressed her, “Thank you, Dragon. We’ve been living under Chrysalis’ tyranny for too long. Do what you wish with her and we will be retreating immediately. Good day!”
Beside Twilight, Chrysalis screamed threats and cursed. In response, the armored changeling stuck a forked tongue and hissed what sounded to be rude remarks. The changeling peeled away, the rest of the hive following like a cloud of... well... bugs.
“Uh...” Twilight was left in the air, holding a former changeling queen, and hadn’t even been able to say her threatening speech.
She was seriously contemplating whether or not to complain like her chaotic mentor, or just to go back like the outstanding student she was. Chrysalis wasn’t making that choice any simpler by continuing to screech threats at the stragglers.
Twilight settled on winging it back and complaining as she moved. She might need to explain to Celestia why she was only gone for fifteen minutes and still had Chrysalis though.