Life of a Wanted Changeling Season 4: At Luck's End (Comment Driven Story)

by BrownDog77

Episode 99: The Catfight of the Century

WARGAMES’s Comment

Jayo Jack’s Comment

Her leap is feral and animalistic, and she bears down upon you like a homing missile. The fury and madness in her eyes shines along with the magic building up along her horn. Surely if any other being were in your place, they would falter before being set upon by the maddened changeling monarch.

“SHORYUKEN!!!”

But you are not just any being, you have the power of the moon and true love on your side, not to mention the power of being a very, VERY pissed off alicorn.

“AAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!”

A fact that Chrysalis fails to take into account as your hoof upper cuts her right under the jaw and sends her skyward.

The crack of that impact is loud and sickening and Chrysalis’s loyal drones all wince at the strike, but you smile. The gesture would be cruel if not for the awfulness of your opponent.

Some of the drones hesitantly try to shuffle towards you despite their Queen’s orders, but you just flash them a quick glare and they reconsider very quickly.

They may fear and love their precious queen, but the eyes of an Angry Mother are not to mess with.

“Good bugs,” you say threateningly before you flap your wings and fly up to the dazed Chrysalis. Before gravity can take her, you grab a hold of her neck before spinning around and tossing her back to the earth.

“MUDA!” you cry out as you did in your spectral form before, just because it feels right.

Unfortunately this time she is able to slow her fall somewhat, but she still crashes into the ground with a meaty thud. You attempt to stomp on her, but she rolls out of the way at the last second, causing you to break the crystalline cobblestone beneath you. In that time, she launches a piece of rubble at you which does strike you in the side. Even though the rubble shatters, it still does bring you pain, but you grit your teeth and blast the next chunk of rubble to smithereens before it even gets to you.

Haoryu Changer’s Comment

Off to the side, the varied drones can only stare, frozen in shock as you two fly towards one another again, causing another loud thunderclap as you hit. It’s understandable, because they aren’t just staring at any normal beings having a hoof fight, but absolute titans going to war.

Up close and personal, it’s hard to strike her with your magic, but the same holds true for her. But you’re no stranger to slugging it out in person thanks to Bugze.

You strike right at her nose and feel satisfied when you hear a small crack.

“Gyak!” Chrysalis cries in pain as green blood drips from her nostrils. Your satisfaction is short lived however as she opens her jaws and bites down on your hoof, drawing blood.

“Agh! You bitch” you grunt as her fangs sink deeper into your flesh. You quickly bring your hind leg up and hit her right in the gut, which causes her to gasp and release your hoof. Not wasting any time, you flap your wings and spin mid air, giving your hind leg enough momentum.

“No Shadow Kick!”

Your attack strikes true and the gnat is sent flying down the road, skidding into a snow bank. You land not far away from the impact site and flick your own blood off into the snow lest the hoof become slippery and a hindrance.

Chrysalis growls and shakes the snow from her head as she glares you down and your return it in full force. In her insane delusions, her hatred for you is immense, but yours is just as great and more justified.

She. Hurt. Bugze!

She fires a beam of magic towards your face, but you duck your head to the side and dash towards her with your hoof raised. She fires another beam, and you’re not able to completely dodge this one as it takes you in the shoulder. You wince as the smell of your own cooked hair and flesh fill the air, but your momentum isn’t stopped. You reach her and deck her right in the nose again, knocking her head back.

"Wrah! Quit going for the bucking nose!” she yells before trying to get you in a stranglehold.

“No! I Don’t Think I Will!” you snarl as you parry her grapple and headbutt her nose causing her to shriek more. You then follow that up with a blast of magic to her chest, which sends her crashing into a dumpster.

“Hmmph, right where you belong,” you mock before she blasts out of the receptacle, scattering garbage everywhere.

“And you belong in the ground!” she shouts as she sends a beam towards you, but instead of dodging, this time you respond with your own.

The two beams crash into one another, and the both of you attempt to overtake the other, but the magic does not yield to either side. Rather, it continues to build and build where the two beams meet, until the inevitable happens.

A detonation occurs where the two beams met and both of you are thrown back violently. Chrysalis once more finds her home in the trash (or rather through it) while your back crashes through the wall of what you assume is a bakery thanks to all the ovens and bread that goes flying.

Owwwww…that one hurt, you mentally grumble as you shakily stand back up and look out the hole you made. You see as some of Chrysalis’s drones near the destroyed dumpster to check on her, but they quickly back up as she comes flopping out of it.

"I said stand back!” she snarls at them, as her eyes dart around looking for you. “I must defeat this whorse myself! I'm not worthy to be #$%@'s queen if this shadow bitch isn't dead beneath my hooves!”

The drones wisely listen to their rabid queen and back away once more and you sigh.

I can’t afford to be cocky, you reprimand yourself. She is maddened and unpredictable so I have to fight smarter. She’ll suffer either way for what she’s done to my Bugze.

And with that, you steel yourself and march out of the hole in the wall.

“You’ll never be worthy then insect,” you goad and her eyes lock on you. “Because neither of those two things will be happening.”

“Don’t be too sure, I already removed you from his body, all I have to do is finish the job so that we can finally be together!” she rants, spittle flying from her mouth.

“It seems you’ve truly lost it if you think Bugze will ever love you again,” you respond, still furious but more cautious. “But that’s alright, because if you’re so far gone you don’t realize it then I can put you down with no remorse!”

“I’m not the one going down today!” she roars as magic starts to swirl around her and she flies towards you. “This day is my day! MY DAY!”

“I don’t think so!” you shout as you launch a broken cobblestone underneath her, causing her flight to falter and her body to go tumbling. You then simply fly out of her way as she tumbles into the hole in the bakery, and not a moment too soon. Her magic discharges and all of the gas lines you damaged on your collision go up in flames.

BOOM

The bakery explodes, blowing out the windows to many surrounding buildings, and the back draft even catches under your wings and lifts you even higher into the air. You are eventually able to steady yourself amidst the swirling snow as you look down upon the burning building. Of course, you didn’t believe it would end that easily, and your pessimism is right on the money as Chrysalis’s blackened form comes shooting out of the pyre and straight towards you. Her mane is singed, and there are burn marks on her chitin, but she is still raring to go.

“I’LL KILL YOU!!!” she shrieks.

“In your dreams!” you bellow back as you erect a barrier just before she strikes.

Jayo Jack’s Comment

Ponygamer12’s Comment

Puzzling Frost’s Comment

Nightslayer’s Comment

Another explosion, just as loud as the bakery conflagration, sounds out as the snow and wind are momentarily disrupted by a shockwave.

“But I’ll tell you this you worm! Those dreams will become your worst Nightmares!” you roar as you rain down a flurry of blows upon her. “MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA!”

For her part though, Chrysalis is blocking as best she can and even strikes back at you.

“WWWWWRRRRRRYYYYYYY!!!” she shrieks as the two of you battle across the sky, each of your blows sending out shockwaves through the snow that the changelings below watch on in awe.

After a successful block you give a 360 spin kick to her gut along with another upper cut to the jaw.

“GGGRAAAHHHH!!!” Snarling, she blocks your next jab and strikes you right below your left eye and kicks you in the side.

“ACK!” you cough as she grabs your hoof and spin throws you against the side of a building.

“Just give up you home wrecker! I will not have months of planning ruined because of you! You’ll not stand in the way of my love! You can’t fathom how much he means to me!!!” she shrieks and attempts to dive bomb you but your eyes alight with fury.

You quickly teleport behind her as she slams into the building side and you pin her against it.

“It’s you who can’t fathom it you psycho! You don’t love Bugze! You’re obsessed with the image you’ve created of him!” you roar and slam her face into the crystal over and over again. She then let’s out a shockwave blast, which throws you off of her, and also causes the wall to cave in.

“I’m No Psycho! I’M NOT MY MOTHER!!!” she roars and sends a shot at you, to which you put up a shield for.

“Sure you aren’t,” you condescend as send forth your own blast, causing plenty more property damage.

You hear the booms echoing throughout the snow covered city and you gulp. On one hoof, you’re very, VERY thankful that Selena returned when she did to save your body and soul, but on the other hoof, her vengeance is destructive and a bit scary.

“You know, for once I’m glad I’m not in the middle of some epic fight,” you say aloud as you drag Princess Celestia out of her cocoon.

“I would have to agree with you there Bugze, my head is killing me,” the Princess says as she starts rubbing at her eyes.

“Yeah, that’s gonna last for a bit from what I recall,” you nod as you start pulling out Luna. “But I’ve never really experienced it myself thankfully.”

“Good for you then,” Luna groans as she shakily gets to her hooves. She then tries to activate her magic, and fails. “What is this?”

“The magic dampeners are still up, so we kind of can’t use it for now,” you explain.

“Oh my gosh, no wonder my Midnight form came with a forehead horn! The magic is intrinsically linked to the mind after all!” Sci-Twi says as she levitates Princess Twilight down.

“Exactly! Any unicorn willing to study and learn can cast high level spells, but there is more to it than just studying I’ve found,” Princess Twilight nods.

“Oh yeah, I know. Friendship is needed and all that, I’m very familiar,” Sci-Twi nods as she blasts away at the cocoon.

“Wow, even though you’re from another dimension your grasp on the subject is amazing! As expected from another me,” Twilight says giddily.

“Yeah, well, I’m kind of jealous of your wings and better eye sight,” Sci Twi jokes as she starts bringing Cadence down.

“Am…am I seeing things?” Shining Armor asks, still from his pod. “Two Twilights?”

“Oh my gosh, is that pony Shining Armor?” Sci Twi squees.

“Yup, that’s my BBBFF alright,” Twilight nods.

“Oh, you call him that too?”

“Uh…” Shining sputters, while Cadence just stares on with a smile at the whole affair.

“My my darling, your mane is absolutely divine! What do you have in your world that gives it that extra shine?” Rarity asks to human Rarity.

“Mine? What about yours? Those all natural curls look much more fabulous than my own,” Human Rarity says as she uses her magic to free her counterpart.

Celestia and Luna look over at you curiously and you just shrug.

“What? I don’t really see a difference, I’m a guy,” you admit.

“Not about that, how are they able to use their magic?” Luna demands.

“I don’t know, maybe they’re using their inherent human magic or something?” you say as you look at all the others.

“Did you say humans?” asks Celestia.

“Yeah that’s right, though they don’t look it right now,” you say as you point to the dopplegangers helping their counterparts out of the pods.

“You know, for being such a small horse, I feel somehow stronger than back home,” Humie Applejack says.

“Heh, that’s good farm work for ya,” Applejack nods.

“Oh don’t I know it,” Hu-Jack nods. “Though I don’t know how ya’ll pick apples without hands.”

“Pick apples?” Po-Jack asks with a cocked eyebrow.

“Yeah, you know, you reach up and grab them out of the tree?” the human copy says.

“What, ya’ll don’t just kick em?”

“…Huh?”

Pony Applejack then begins describing how Earth Pony farming works. To their right, one rainbow is helping another mid air.

“Ugh, careful now, I feel drunk and am in no shape to fly,” Pony Dash grumbles.

“Easy, easy, whoa!” Hu-Dash cries out as she and Pony Dash fall to the ground.

“Ow…” Po-Dash groans.

“Sorry, sorry, I’m just not used to wings. I mean, it’s awesome and all, but having actually new limbs in my back is weird to get used to. The other ones I had were magic and stuff,” Hu-Dash explains apologetically.

“Wait, you haven’t been flying your whole life?!” Po-Dash exclaims in shock.

“No, I was a runner mostly,” Hu-Dash says.

And while Hu-Dash explains about being a Soccer and Track Star, two yellow pegasi feel awkward as one helps the other out.

“Oh uh…thank you,” Fluttershy says sheepishly to her human counterpart.

“N-No problem!” Hu-Shy squeaks just as nervously. The two of them keep shooting glances at one another, before feeling intimidated and looking away.

“I, uh…I like animals,” Hu-Shy says stiltedly.

“Oh, um…so do I,” Po-Shy nods.

“…”

“…”

“…Oh what the heck, sorry if this is weird, but You-I-We look so adorable as horsies!” Hu-Shy says excitedly after a spell.

“Huh? What are you-EEP!” Po-Shy yelps as Hu-Shy starts petting her head and brushing at her mane.

“Soooo Soft…” Hu-Shy coos as Po-Shy blushes in embarrassment, slightly enjoying the head pats.

“OMG, So Adorable!” Hu-Pinkie squeaks.

“And it looks like fun!” Po-Pinkie nods ecstatically, despite being dizzy. “We should get in on that!”

“Good idea horsie me! I’ll pet your head if you pet mine!” Hu-Pinkie chirps.

“Deal!”

And with that they both start rubbing each other’s heads.

“Oh, I bet this would feel a thousand times better if I had hands,” Hu-Pinkie giggles.

“You think so? I’ve never had fingers but I’ve heard it’s awesome!” Po-Pinkie giggles.

Both then suddenly gasp.

“We should totally swap roles when we’re not in life threatening situations!” they say simultaneously before laughing like loons.

“Hee hee hee, this is so much less horrifying than the last time I had a clone,” Po-Pinkie laughs.

“You had clones?!” Hu-Pinkie asks excitedly and Po-Pinkie suddenly deflates a little.

“Yeah, uh…let’s forget I said that kay?” she says nervously.

“Um, Nightshade?” Spike asks as he looks at all the counterparts interacting with a dazed expression.

“Yes Spikey?” Nightshade practically singsongs as she continues to bear hug him.

“Answer me truthfully, is this some sort of fever dream? Because it feels like a fever dream with all the girls talking to themselves and you hugging me and all,” he says skeptically.

“Well, if it was a dream, then it’s a good dream right?” Nightshade demands with a scowl, and the bleary eyed dragon shudders for a second.

“Uh…yeah?” he guesses before putting his arm around her and hugging back. “I mean, I guess this part is nice.”

“Right answer,” Nightshade smirks and nuzzles his cheek.

The dragon’s spirit seems to lift at this, though it is somewhat tempered as he looks in your direction. Even as he squints, he can see your watchful gaze and he gulps.

…It’s okay, they’re just happy to see each other. He’s a good boy and is strong to boot. It’s fine…it’s all fine… you chant in your mind as your eye twitches as both him and you remember your words on the field days ago. But there should still be a time limit for hugs!

And just as you’re about to trot over in that direction, Princess Luna speaks up.

“This is all very surreal.”

“Yeah I know, but I still gotta be a Dad right?!” you shout back and Luna looks bewildered.

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Um, preventing a Poneo and Juliet ending in the modern day? And yes, I know that sounds extreme, but kids move way too fast these days right?” you ask and she looks at you questioningly. “Which I’m just now realizing you weren’t talking about were you?”

“The doubles all talking to each other as if they’re old friends is what I was referring to,” Luna says, rolling her eyes at your antics. “It’s like a scene out of the dreamscape.”

“Oh yeah, I guess that’s weird too,” you nod reluctantly as Nightshade and Spike thankfully stop embracing. “I mean, I used to see this kind of scene back in the Hive all the time, but I can see where you’re coming from.”

“Really, aside from this Human Twilight Sparkle and her eyewear, they are all indistinguishable…That certainly is not going to be confusing in the slightest,” Celestia sighs sarcastically.

She’s right, because right now the only difference between the hummies and ponies is that the pony versions are a little paler and dizzy from the cocoons.

“Perhaps we should draw numbers on them or something?” you suggest. “Though believe me, if they were their natural ugly ape selves, this wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Indeed,” Luna nods before looking to you sympathetically. “Are you well by the way? Dizzy as we were, we still heard what Chrysalis was trying to do to you towards the end.”

You freeze at that for a moment before shaking your head from those thoughts.

“You know, a few minutes ago I’d have probably broke down in tears answering that,” you admit as another explosion sounds off in the distance and you smile. “But now that Selena’s back, everything’s going to work out fine.”

Luna stares at you for a moment, as if she’s processing that info more carefully.

“It seems at least we don’t have to worry about her getting a body now,” Celestia nods before looking around. “But that aside, if all of these are humans then is…”

She trails off as she finds exactly who she’s looking for. Sheepishly, the orange alicorn waves at the taller alabaster one.

“H-Hi Princess Celestia…it’s been awhile,” Sunset says nervously as Celestia goes still.

“Sunset…” she gasps, knowing that voice and face even after all these years.

All the other chattering in the room goes silent as everyone watches the two of them looking at one another. After a few moments sunset coughs into her hoof and chuckles awkwardly.

“Um…I guess I’m an alicorn now, heh heh…” she says showing her wings and her former teacher nods, face still full of disbelief.

“I can see that…” Celestia says breathlessly.

Again, they both go quiet, and both Twilights look extremely antsy about this.

Finally Sunset sighs and bows her head.

“Princess Celestia, the last time we met, I was snide, disrespectful and a failure as your student,” she says and you wince.

Ah geeze, I wouldn’t have said it like that, you think apprehensively.

“And I know for you it’s been a bit longer thanks to time dilution between the dimensions, but for me it wasn’t so long ago,” she continues humbly. “I’m…I’m still trying to be a better pony, like you wanted me to be all those years ago. I know right now I’m probably the last pony you want to see, but I-“

She is stopped midsentence as Celestia lifts her chin up with her hoof. Celestia's stoic expression melts to one of warmth and she gives a small smile.

“I’ve missed you Sunset Shimmer…” she says simply, a tear forming in the corner of her eye. And just like that, Sunset’s own dam breaks and the tears start flowing from hers, even as she smiles.

Sniffling, she hugs her old teacher.

“I’m sorry…I’m so so sorry,” she cries and the older alicorn puts a wing over her.

“I’m sorry too Sunset. I should have followed after you…but I didn’t,” the taller alicorn apologizes. “Forgive me…”

The two of them continue to bawl in the embrace, and you and the others can’t help but feel moved by the scene. Both Twilights let out a squee, and quite a few of the gals, both human and pony alike are getting teary eyed.

“You know, I know they’re not actually related, but this is just like when I saw Mommy in my dreams again after her coma last year,” Nightshade says from beside you, smirking like a dope.

“Yeah…” you nod as you put your hoof on her shoulder. “Speaking of your mother, hopefully this scene will dissuade her further from adoption. She can’t be Sunset’s mom if she’s kind of already got one.”

“My thoughts exactly daddy,” Nightshade agrees. “I mean, I’ve only just met her and I like her, but if I’m going to get a sibling, I’m going to be the big sister. I think I’ve earned it.”

“Um…I’ll, uh…I’ll look into that,” you say feeling embarrassed as you try to avoid the topic.

“Thanks dad,” she says as she hugs you back. It feels good just to sit here and have a little bonding moment with her. It’s been far too long with all the shenanigans that have occurred in the last three days. “Also, thanks for not freaking out when I was hugging Spike.”

“N-no problem honey…though in the future try to limit those to a maximum of 5 seconds okay?” you order and she laughs and rolls her eyes.

“Yeah, I’m not going to be keeping count,” she says defiantly and you purse your lips.

“Alright fine, I’ll keep count for you then,” you snark and she rolls her eyes again.

“Sure Daddy, whatever you say,” she giggles. “But now’s not the time for that. We should get moving, especially while all the Elements, Princesses, Cadence and Shining are weak.”

“Right, right,” you nod as you strap back on your Inventory that Nightshade handed over to you. “Maybe the healing potions could help, but I don’t have nearly enough for everyone.”

“Maybe you could put a drop on these cookies I found and hand them out to everyone? Give them a sugar rush?” Nightshade suggests.

“Hmm, I don’t know if the levels would be sufficient or…wait, what did you say?” you say as something dangerous registers in your brain.

“I said we should hand out these cookies with some healing potion drops on them,” she says levitating up a very familiar plate of baked goods. The color drains from your face as she goes to reach for one with her own hoof. “Heck, they smell fresh so the sugar itself could probably-“

"Put that cookie down!" you suddenly shout, striking the plate of cookies out of her magical grip.

“Agh! Daddy what the buck?!” Nightshade exclaims as everypony in the room is pulled out of the sweet tender moment between Celestia and Sunset and staring at you in alarm.

“Those cookies are evil I tells ya! Evil! EEEEVVVVIIIILLL!!!” you rant as you take the Hoverboard out of your Inventory and slam it onto the scattered abominations against sweets kind. The wheeled human invention blazes up once more and the offending baked bads are burnt to a crisp, as they should be.

“Um, Bugze? Is everything okay?” Sunset asks with concern, breaking her hug with Celestia.

“They are now Sunny! Fire purges all of the sins from the world!” you say with a cackle as you consider sticking your tongue into the flames just for good measure.

Human and Pony alike look at one another in concern before Cadence puts a hoof up.

“It’s okay everypony, believe me, those cookies had it coming,” she explains without going into detail.

“Oh yeah, definitely,” Twilight nods, shuddering in remembrance of a few minutes ago.

Kichi’s Comment

With no further explanation given, everyone is understandably confused, but they are broken out of this as Chrysalis’s body goes flying through the upper portion of the room, out one wall, and through another.

You all take a moment to stare at the two new holes in the wall before Shining Armor sighs.

“This is going to cost a lot to repair. Patching crystal isn’t easy,” he says in a defeated tone. And even as he finishes saying that, Selena comes flying through the same holes, making them wider and sending more debris raining.

“Oh come on!” Shining shouts as everyone starts to dodge the falling rubble. Everyone that is, except you as you are still staring into the lovely, delicious flame of justice.

“Oh dear, dear fire, what problems can’t you solve?” you praise the conflagration.

“Daddy! Dodge!” Nightshade shouts.

“Huh? Dodge wha-“

BONK

You immediately start to sway and stumble as a heavy weight hits you on your head, and your vision goes loopy.

“Ohhhh…” you groan as birds and stars circle your noggin and your words come out wrong. “Tightening the Worchester Sundae.”

“Daddy?” Nightshade’s voice echoes far away.

“Doubling Turnips Ahead!” you respond back as you look out the balcony window…and suddenly, Chrysalis’s face is there, only gigantic!

“Duck Flambé!” you shriek.

“She shall not defeat me! I have grown with my love!” she proclaims.

“Wrong!” Selena shouts as she fires two grappling hooks into the side of the building from some weird canisters at her hips. She holds aloft one of her swords towards the giant, her brown coat with wings emblazoned on the back and shouts, “We will defeat you with a power far more powerful than friendship!”

“That’s right!” Nightshade proclaims, wearing ancient pegasus armor. “We will defeat you with the power of Family!”

“Bah! You honestly think that will conquer me?!” Giantlis proclaims.

“You may be strong, but not as strong as family,” Grandbuggy says, sitting behind the wheel of an expensive human car, his bald head somehow more shinier and his voice even deeper.

“They’re right!” you say with confidence, now wearing futuristic green combat armor. “It’s time to finish the fight! With family!”

And with that you, Selena, Nightshade and Grandbuggy all jump into your own giant robots that are color coded and are a different prehistoric creature.

“Family!” you all shout as the mechs start to combine together.

“Impossible!” giant Chrysalis roars as you unsheathe your magical sword and raise it to the sky.

What happens next is surely the most epic fight in the history of ever…

“By the Power of Greyskull, all your base are belong to us!” Daddy says loopily on the floor.

“Ugh!” you groan as you facehoof. After your mom punted Chrysalis through the ceiling, your dad didn’t dodge out of the way and a heavy piece of crystal hit him on the head. Since then, he’s been dazedly saying weird and insane things. “Wake up already Dad!”

“We must believe in the heart of the cards! For Frodo!” he says, rolling over onto his side facing away from you.

"Is he okay?" asks Sunset Shimmer as everyone gathers around him.

“Yeah he should be. I mean, this isn’t the first time it’s happened,” you say with a sigh. “Come on Daddy! We’ve gotta get moving!”

“Dreamwork makes the team work!” he shouts and you groan again.

“He must have taken a pretty bad hit if he’s this loopy,” Po-Jack observes.

“You can say that again, this hunk of crystal is heavy,” Hu-Dash says as she lifts up the chunk of crystal that fell onto your dad’s head.

All of the original ponies, yourself and Spike gasp as you see exactly what she’s holding.

“What? What’d I do?” Hu-Dash asks in concern.

“That’s the Crystal Heart!” Spike exclaims.

“Oh...is that important?” Hu-Dash asks obliviously.

“I mean, it was the name of the scholarly award given at Crystal Prep,” Hu-Twilight points out.

“It’s more of a big deal here,” you say as you magically lift it out of the Dash’s hooves and hover it to Cadence. “It holds all of the love from the Crystal Ponies and keeps the snow from getting in.”

“I thought Chrysalis had this on her and was using it’s power?” Shining asks in surprise.

“She did, and she has…” Cadence says with a frown before looking at all of you. “Selena must have knocked it off of her with that last hit…but it’s been completely drained.”

All of you pale at that info, well except for your dad who giggles at something in his stupor.

“So Chrysalis has all of the power of the empire infused within her?” Luna asks with worry.

“It seems so sister,” Celestia shudders. “It’s no wonder she’s able to fight equally against…Selena. It’s the same as when she defeated me back at the wedding.”

You all hear another explosion in the distance and you break out of your little funk.

“Well, either Mommy’s more powerful than you, or the Crystal Ponies don’t have as much love as Shining, because Chrysalis is the one getting spanked, not her,” you proclaim, and that seems to lighten the mood some.

“Also, if what I grasped from Bugze earlier, feasting on her own love pool has probably negated much of whatever boon the Heart gave,” Twilight points out methodically.

“Well whatever the case, Mommy’s handling herself just fine. WE on the other hoof have got to skedaddle before more changelings show up,” you say urgently.

Puzzling Frost’s Comment

Ponygamer12’s Comment

“She’s right,” Princess Celestia agrees. “And since we’re still weakened, our progress will be slow going.”

“Well we did see a bunch of those Bug Horse things when we were chasing after Nightshade’s mom, but they were swaying harder than that time Dashie got into the cider at Applejack’s 14^th Birthday,” Hu-Pinkie chimes up. And while the Hummie Dash frowns at the Pinkie, you nod.

“Yeah that’s right, Daddy got a lot of them drunk earlier. They shouldn’t be an issue, and neither should the younglings if we come across them,” you explain.

“But there are still no doubt plenty of guys like that red finned elite guard that brought Bugze in,” Cadence adds. “We’ve eventually got to get the Crystal Heart back to it’s pedestal so that the barrier returns, but since only half of us are battle ready, we really should regroup with Grandbuggy and the others.”

“Even if we get those dampeners offline, many of us will still be weakened,” Luna points out before looking to the Hummie Squad. “So in this time of need, please look after us Human visitors.”

They all look a bit put on the spot at this, but Sunset steps forward and says,

“Don’t worry everypony, my friends and I will keep you safe,” she says gesturing to the gems they’re all wearing around their necks.

“Yeah, me and Dad will help out as well, IF HE EVER GETS UP!” you shout passive aggressively as you roll him back and forth on the ground.

“Hot Tamales!” he responds, still lost in la la land.

“Oh for goodness’s sake Bugze, wake up already!” Cadence orders, but he just mumbles other random stupid things.

“Hang on, I had to do this a few times back in the Time Loop,” Hu-light says as she walks up to your dad’s side, puts her mouth next to his ear and shouts, “Bugze Look Out For That Bus!”

Almost immediately your dad shoots up to his hooves and starts flailing wildly.

“AAAAGGGGHHHH!!! Get Away From Me You Steel Death Trap From Tartarus!” he shouts throwing a burst of Air Bending wildly, which knocks Spike off his feet and onto Hu-Shy’s side.

“Daddy!” you shout angrily and give him a good slap in the face.

“Wha-Whoa…Nightshade?” he asks as his eyes start to focus.

“Yes Dad, stop being a spaz!” you order.

“But the bus-“

“There is no bus Bugze, they’re all back in the Human World,” Sunset placates and his shoulders relax.

“Oh thank Luna,” he says with a sigh before seeing said Princess looking at him quizzically. “Thank you.”

“Um, you’re welcome?” she guesses.

“Right, right, are you done?” you ask with a scowl and he winces.

“I guess? What’s with the face honey?”

“You hurt Spike!” you growl and his eyes widen.

“I’m actually alright, just lost my footing and-“ your friend starts, but gets ignored.

“Ah geeze, which one? Puppy or Dragon? The distinction is important,” he asks.

“Um, Dragon one of course. He’s the only one here,” you inform.

“Wait for real?” he says looking over to the embarrassed dragon, before looking to Hu-light.

“What? You thought I’d bring my precious puppy into a hostile alien world?” she scoffs.

“Oh I don’t want to hear that from you hummie, he’d probably be safer on this side away from those horrific buses and cars and metal death birds,” he retorts.

“Bugze, again those are just airplanes and they don’t eat people,” Sunset interjects while all the ponies look at each other, lost without context.

“Sure they don’t,” he says in disbelief before shaking his head. “Well still sorry Spike, now what are we all standing around for? Changelings are sure to come now!”

“That’s what we’ve been-Grr, Never mind! Yes let’s do that!” you huff in frustration.

“Good to hear honey,” he says patting your mane, which does lessen your anger, somewhat.

“Yeah yeah,” you roll your eyes. “Now, every human, grab your pony double and help them along. Princesses and Shining, me Daddy and Sunset will help you along and-“

“Halt! Stay right where you are prisoners!”

“Oh for buck’s sake!” you growl as your eyes flash white. Turning around, you see a group of armed changelings standing in the destroyed doorway. Many of them are looking out the window to where the distant battle is raging, but most have their eyes on your group.

“Get down on the ground! We do not wish to harm the Queen’s trophies, but if you resist then-“

“Buck that noise!” your Dad says as he sends forth a burst of air bending, which shoves the lead guard back. The others then get serious and focus their attention as your Dad pulls out Second Law.

“Wait Dad! I can-“ you start but get cut off.

“Get behind us everypony!” Sunset orders the og pony copies as she and the hummies stand defensively and start to charge up their magic gems.

“Wait, everypony I just-“ you try again, but once more get interrupted.

“Very well, if that’s the way you want it!” the lead changeling growls.

“Just try us punk, I’ve got lots more Air Bending where that came from!” your Dad proclaims.

“I-“

“Can’t you shoot out electricity?” asks Cadence.

“I’m still very miffed about my plasmids hurting earlier. Plus I keep getting this weird pain in my chest so I’m just gonna-“

“Charge!!!” the changelings shout. And just before both sides unleash anything.

“EVERYLING JUST SHUT UP!!!” you roar as your eyes and chest pieces glow bright.

From the ground, shadowy claws reach up, grabbing the changelings by the hooves, and tripping them.

“Wha-AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”

“Get it off me! Get it off me!”

“Not Like This!”

They all begin to yell as your minions swarm over them, beating and choking them all till the point of unconsciousness. In seconds, the small group is defeated, and Bob pops up right beside you.

“Subjugation complete mistress! Awaiting further orders!” he says with a salute to his army helmet.

“Good job Jackie,” you nod before turning around with a frown to the others, who all look surprised and quite a bit disturbed.

“As I was saying, before I was RUDELY interrupted!” you spit giving everyone the stink eye. “Since the Crystal Heart is out of juice, we can have my guys clear a path for us. Sound good?”

“Yup, sounds good,” Dad nods immediately.

“I, uh, yeah okay,” Sunset says still looking at your minions nervously.

“Is Bugze’s daughter a freaking Necromancer?” asks Hu-Dash.

“No, no, Bob and the others aren’t dead, they’re just shadow creatures,” you roll your eyes.

“Indeed, they served me once upon a time,” Luna nods and frowns. “To call them living or dead would not entirely be correct.”

“Well whatever the case, I’m using them for now,” you huff as your eyes unglow, but your shards don’t. Looking over to your underlings, you say, “Alright boys, we’re regrouping with Grandbuggy. If any changelings try to stop us, kick their ass, unless of course they’re kids.”

“Roger roger mistress!” Bob salutes as the rest move out in front of you, taking point. Out in the hallway, you hear the sounds of changelings screaming, and battles breaking out, followed by silence.

The others, still in awe, stare slack jawed at this before your Dad comes out of it first.

“Well, you heard the little lady, let’s get going hummies. If anyling gets through their line, we can handle them.”

They all eventually agree to this, some silently, others out loud, with both Fluttershy’s mumbling about having nightmares about this in the days to come.

“Alrighty then, let’s go find Grandbuggy and the others. There’s still a lot of prisoners that need our help,” you declare as you lead the charge, supporting Spike the whole way, as your minions take out any oppression in their wake.

Grey Rebl’s Comment

Loganic’s Comment

Puzzling Frost’s Comment

A deafening tremor rocks the Crystal Palace causing Thorax and three other rogue changelings to freeze up. Sure they are out of the eyes of the loyalists, but even the dead could feel that impact. Fortunately there are no dead at the moment, but there are many, many disoriented, dazed, and dizzy captives.

After having witnessed Queen Chrysalis getting thrown into the streets by the previously unconscious dark alicorn mare, Thorax figured that timetables had been moved up. He and three others had left the loyalists, drunken and sober alike, to start freeing the captives and moving them to the trains like how the Offender and Hope had suggested. The ones locked up here are mostly the guards and palace workers, with the Offender’s friends and allies tacked on. Of course there are the captured and cocooned Black Suns, but Thorax sure as buck isn’t releasing those nutjobs.

They’ve gotten quite a few released, but since it’s dark and gloomy and they are all out of it, being freed by creatures that had originally captured them isn’t exactly the best wake up call. And with that tremor, no doubt caused by the battle outside, things aren’t going so smoothly.

“Holy Buck! What was that? What the buck was that?!” a panicked voice yelps.

“Is the Hooded Offender fighting again?!” a female voice asks.

“My bet’s on Nightshade.” Greta’s voice says.

“W-what’s going on…? Why’s it so dark?” asks another rando.

“Hey, has anypony seen my Dad?!” Diamond Tiara’s voice asks.

“Yo Garble, where you at?” Ember’s voice calls out.

“ARIA! ARIA!” Sonata calls out worriedly.

“I’m right here dummy!” Sonata grunts.

“Ah Changeling! G-get away from me!” Sweetie Belle shrieks.

“Whoa, kid! We’re tryin’ to help you all out here!” one of the rogues tries to placate.

This, and much, much more slurred and drunken shrieks sound out, causing a bit of pandemonium…

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Until everyone in the room cringes to the sound of metal grinding against metal. They all look, and they see Thorax, who holds a changeling soldier helmet next to a set of prison bars. Dropping it from his teeth, he nurses his jaw.

Once the chatter in the prison has gone down, especially the chatter in his teeth, he takes a deep, deep breath.

“Everyling! And, er, everypony…and griffon, dragon and…other I guess?” He says noticing Ember, Greta, Ahuizotl and the Siren sisters. He then shakes his head and clears his throat. “I know you are all scared, and I know that changelings aren’t exactly who you want to see at the moment, but none of us here want to fight.”

“What do you mean by that? What’s going on?” a dizzy guard inquires.

“Look, we changelings right now don’t want to fight or anything, we just want to get you all out of here,” Thorax explains just as another rumble from the fight rocks the ground and everyone else looks around. “And right now with the Queen fighting, it’s kind of the only chance we got to free you.”

“So who’s fighting your Queen changeling? The Offender or his hija Nightshade?” Ahuizotl asks and many of the guards seem caught off by this, not having witnessed the Games.

“Neither actually, it’s Nightm-er-Princess Selena,” Thorax informs and the Outcasts all seem surprised by this.

“Wait, so Nightmare Moon is out there? And the Hooded Offender?!” asks a guard.

“Yes, yes, but you don’t have to worry about them, they’re the good guys,” Thorax says.

“Wha-? But…” the guards sputter in disbelief.

“He’s right you know, they’re the goodest guys of all,” Sonata says with a smirk.

“Yeah, do you not watch TV?” Adagio asks in disbelief.

“You know, with how they fought those monsters and terrorists at those pony games?” Aria points out.

“The games have already passed?!” A guard gasps before putting a hoof to his head. “How long were we captured?”

“Long enough,” Thorax interrupts impatiently. “Look, you can get filled in on the details later, but now is not the time! The magic dampeners are still up, so the only guarantee that I can give you is that we have a way out of here, so if you’ll just stay calm and trust us, we can get you to safety!”

Silence follows that statement, causing the skinny changeling to gulp.

The sisters of the Elements and their two friends, along with the dragon, griffon, giant cat thing, Sirens and Daring Do appear to be on board, but the rest still seem skeptical.

If they had witnessed the Equestria Games, they’d probably be more understanding, but then again it’s hard to trust a changeling telling them that public enemy number one and the boogeymare are the good guys.

“Listen, I know it sounds crazy, but just trust us for a little bit so that we can get you out of here? Please?” Thorax pleads, and again silence is all that he receives. Until…

“I say we trust him,” a serene, dignified and somewhat familiar voice cuts through. The guards and other palace captives turn their heads to see a tall pink unicorn mare who sighs as she flicks green goop out of her mane. “Because I don’t know about any of you, but I’d rather not wait and find out if the castle will collapse on top of us from whatever’s going on up there.”

The guards and palace workers that look upon her can’t help but feel comforted by the sight of her, though they don’t know why. Something deep in their subconscious feels safer with the stunning mare around.

To Thorax, he also feels a nagging familiarity at the mare. She’s built like the supermodel Fleur De Lis, her coat is dark pink, and her mane is platinum blonde. She is almost picturesque in her beauty, and not even the faded burn scars along half her body can take that away.

“Hey, my vision is still blurry, is that that Can’t Dance princess?” Ember asks crassly and the Griffon elbows her. The pink mare flinches at that, but there definitely is a resemblance. Sure she’s no alicorn, but the two of them could be sisters Thorax reckons.

“It must be, I trust the princess,” a crystal guard says suddenly.

“Um, I’m not-” Mia tries to explain.

“If Princess Cadence orders it, we will listen to you changeling,” another guard says as they start tearing into other changeling pods, freeing their colleagues.

“Wait, hold up, I’m not-“

“If Princess Cadence is down here, then we must get her to safety!” another guard says with gusto, even as he sways on his hooves.

“Oh My Gosh, are you guys fricken blind?! She’s not Princess Cadence!” a blue unicorn mare grumbles out, leaning against the taller mare, but she too is ignored as the zealous guards start freeing others.

“To be fair, most of them are a bit blind. Though that should go away within a few hours,” Thorax explains and the blue mare rolls her own eyes. The rescue operation is now going much smoother thanks to the Not-Cadenza mare speaking up, even if she and the other mare look a bit baffled.

“I’ve been blinded by much worse, so I’m okay, how about you Mia?” she asks the Pink Mare who still looks very confused.

“I-I’m fine, it’s just…that felt kind of nice with them listening to me,” she answers almost nostalgically.

“Heh, don’t get too used to that, I’m still higher ranked than you,” the blue mare chuckles.

“Right…still though, we’ve gotta find Jack and get caught up because from what that changeling said, The Offender and Nightshade are already outside…and Selena too I guess?”

“Best just to roll with it, we’ll figure out the bigger picture later,” the blue mare pats her back.

“Wait a minute, Aqua is that you?!” Greta suddenly squawks and the blue unicorn turns towards her.

“Uh, yeah? Who’s asking?” she asks with a raised brow.

“Huh? It’s me, Greta!” the griffon says like it’s obvious, but the waterbender still looks confused. “We fought a giant robot and burned down a pizzeria together with the Offender?”

“Oh…OH! Right, you were that chick dressed up like Samus that he let go,” Aqua says finally figuring it out. “How you been?”

“Well, I’ve been better, not gonna lie,” Greta responds truthfully.

“You can say that again,” Applebloom mumbles rubbing at her eyes.

“Word,” Silver Spoon agrees.

“Alright, alright, we’ve got a changeling problem and nice changelings are helping us, what comes next Ms. Mia?” asks Scootaloo as she shakes her head.

“I don’t know, what is the plan?” the pink mare asks Thorax.

“Oh, well, we know a hidden path that can lead out of the palace and get you all to the train station,” he explains, captivated by the casual conversations.

“There’s always a hidden passageway,” Daring Do sighs. “How many traps we talking?”

“Um…none that I know of?” Thorax answers truthfully.

“Whoa, holy crap, is that Daring Do?!” Aqua suddenly squeaks in excitement and the pegasus sighs.

“Yes, yes, I’ll give an autograph later,” she hoofwaves.

“R-Right! She’s right, we don’t have much time!” Thorax nods and announces and everyone looks back to him.

“Heh, nice job taking charge there changeling,” Ember congratulates and Thorax is taken aback a bit.

“Oh, uh, thank you,” he says before shaking his head. “But yes, now that you’ve gotten more of your group free we have to be careful. It will take time for many of you to fully recover, so we’ll have to help one another as we lead you out.”

They all nod or grunt to this assessment, as the three changelings and the guards work together to free the rest of the prisoners. Thorax looks on in awe at this cooperation and can’t help but let a smile bloom across his fangs.

Maybe a peaceful future could come about, he thinks before shaking his head from such daydreams.

“Okay, good job everyling. Now, we need to have those with better vision at the moment leading the others, and those that have better stamina to act as support,” he starts to explain to those gathered. “We don’t have a lot of time, so let’s make the best of our time and then skedaddle before Pharynx-”

“Before I what?”

A cold splash of reality douses Thorax’s hopes as he hears those words, laced with disappointment. The wind whistles, and Thorax ducks just in time before something bodies against the prison bars and the poor, groaning changeling who had been assigned to keep watch slumps down, leaving a horrible dent behind.

With the blood draining from his face, Thorax turns around and sees a wall of changeling soldiers in their armor blocking the exit, and leading front and center is a figure whose dark oppressive appearance causes the rogues to gasp and cower. His crimson red fins bristle with anger, and his purple eyes seemingly stab at Thorax’s baby blues.

“Uh…” Thorax’s pupils flicker left and right as his companions back away in fear leaving him to face down the most decorated soldier in the Hive by himself.

“Brother.” Pharynx’s eyes narrow as his brother gulps. “So this is your choice.”

“Ooohhhhh…” Sonata says under her breath, holding a hoof to her mouth over the juicy gossip.

“Pharynx, I...”

“Stop,” a guttural growl threatens to bleed out of his throat, as if he’s about to transform into a beast right then and there. “I don’t want to hear it.”

Thorax looks down, cowed.

“Who the buck is this guy?” asks a frowning Aria.

“He’s the one who captured us…” Mia says staring daggers at the elite. Said elite though doesn’t even acknowledge them, his gaze is filled only with his little brother.

“I’ll admit, I’m a little impressed,” he admits. “Staging a desertion operation when our security is most compromised is clever…but you should have done it more quietly.”

The pony guards who had been the noisiest earlier all wilt their ears and look down in shame.

“And also, I was rather curious how our most high-priority prisoner was found waltzing about without any notice from the guards I assigned him…guess I know the answer now,” he scolds, glaring intently at Thorax.

“Ph-Pharynx, I didn’t free the Offender, h-he…” he starts to stammer, but stops as the red finned changeling stalks forward, his squad a few hoof steps behind.

“It doesn’t help to lie at this point brother,” Pharynx says icily, and it’s through sheer mental fortitude that the younger changeling doesn’t back up in the face of the overwhelming odds. His legs are shaking for sure, but he stands firm as his brother gets within spitting distance.

“I-I’m not lying,” he says shakily.

“Sure, but even if you weren’t, your actions right now are pretty damning brother,” Pharynx says in that disappointed tone. “Right now our Queen is battling Nightmare Moon, and we’ve been given orders not to interfere, but that doesn’t mean we slack off in our other duties in regards to prisoners…and traitors.”

It’s getting hard to breathe for the younger sibling as he breaks into a sweat with the swarm looming over him.

“Pharynx, it’s not me who’s betrayed the hive! She’s hurting everyling with-“

“Give up,” Pharynx says, shutting him down. “This is the end of line for y-Huh?!”

Suddenly, the elite’s insectoid fin twitches and he leaps backward just as something slashes a groove into the spot her was just standing. His and many others’ gazes are locked onto the unidentified spinning object, which rebounds and zigzags off the walls, leaving metallic sparks and markings in it’s wake. Gravity seems to have no hold on it as it goes upward and upward...until it is easily caught in a chitin-covered hoof.

“Hooves off the civvies, soldier!” Grandbuggy orders, his fierce blue eyes gazing from the shadows as he places his bowler back on his head whilst he stands on the ceiling upside down.

“...Specialist 117,” Pharynx says, tensing his jaw. He quickly glances at his weaker brother, wondering if this was all set up, but quickly dismisses that notion when he sees Thorax balking at the old changeling.

Noling, and nopony had any idea that he was there.

“Please, you may as well call me Quick Fix, boyo, I ain’t a part of the Hive no more. I’m a certified traitor, ain’t I?”

“Even so, it’s the one name that’s tied to every exploit you’ve done for the hive, Specialist 117. I used to look up to you,” Pharynx says before a frown deepens along his muzzle. “We all did.”

“Didn’t stop you guys from almost turning me into a piñata did it?” Grandbuggy snarks shaking his head. “Look at yourselves, changeling against changeling, brother against brother. Although it’s a sight familiar to you youngins back in our homeland in the name of so-called training, you should know more than anyling that it’s no longer just a matter of loyalty anymore.”

“I know my place. The Queen says, and I shall do,” Pharynx answers defiantly.

“But do you? With the way things are going, Chrysalis will run the changeling race into the ground. The Hive's long history will be lost without a single one to miss it,” Grandbuggy relays, his face so unnervingly blank, it even makes Pharynx pause. “But what about you, soldier? I think it’s high time for you to quit running away and face yourself. Who are you, Pharynx? And what do YOU want?”

And there they stare off, the old looking down on the foolish creatures in their path to self-destruction, and the young looking up to the living legend. The irony isn’t lost on either of them, especially in the literal sense.

Until finally...

“...I am Pharynx of the Queen’s finest. And what I’ll do is what’s best for the hive.” The red-eyed changeling declares, spreading his insectoid wings, ready for a fight. A grim determination emanates from his stalwart figure, and the soldiers behind him ready themselves in turn, willing to follow his orders.

At this Grandbuggy sighs and shakes his head.

“Whelp, it was worth a shot. Guess some things can’t be moved up in the timeline after all,” he says with a shrug. “But you lot will be going fruity colored in like two years anyway.”

With no context for his strange words, Pharynx and the others look back at him quizzically, still not letting their guard down. Even so, they aren’t prepared for his next trick.

Tipping his bowler hat, three small balls fall out, almost imperceptible in the darkness. But once they strike the ground, and let out a metallic plink, Pharynx is on alert.

“Everyling! Shield your ey-“ he tries to warn, but is cut off as the flash bang and smoke bombs go off.

FLASH
FWOOM
FWOOM

“Ahhh!!!” many of the loyalist guards cry out as their vision goes spotty…unfortunately, many of the captives and rogue changelings got blinded too.

“You idiota Fix!” Ahuizotl yells out, rubbing at his eyes.

“Give a warning next time!” Ember growls, punching at a wall in frustration.

“My EYES!!!” Thorax cries out, as he stumbles back into Mia and Aqua.

“…My bad,” Grandbuggy apologizes with a sheepish grin, but even if there was some collateral damage from the flash bomb, it and the smokers have achieved their goal in causing the loyalists to break ranks.

“Reform! Reform!” Pharynx orders trying not to breathe in the smoke.

But with all the confusion and chaos, Grandbuggy lets of go the wall, diving in the fray as green flames envelop his figure.

“GERONIMOOOO!” he calls out, landing right in the midst of them.

“He’s down here with us! Get hi-gaaah!”

“Right here, right here! Ack! What are you doing?! I’m on your side!”

“Everyling, crouch! Wait!”

“No, that’s-Ack!”

“Ahaha! I’ve got ‘em! Got ‘em!”

“It’s me, you dimwit!”

Pharynx suddenly realizes what’s happening. Blinded by the smoke, he’s made himself look as indistinguishable as the others and is causing havoc.

“Steel yourself! Don’t attack unless-Gyah!” Pharynx cries out as a random limb strikes him in the nose.

“Don’t listen, that’s him trying to confuse us!” Pharynx own voice comes from the smoke.

“Oh you miserable-Bah!” Pharynx yelps as his hooves are taken out from under him and he falls to the floor.

All the while, Grandbuggy continues to laugh his flanks off, Thorax finally blinks his vision back and slowly drags the unconscious drone towards himself and the others.

“Um, you got things covered Quick Fix?” Mia asks to the chaotic dust ball.

“Need any help?” asks Aqua.

“Nah I got this, ya’ll should start moving!” he calls back.

“You sure? You are pretty old dude!” Greta calls.

“You lot still are weak and ain’t got no magic, so get going!” he calls out, and the sound of hoof against chitin is heard.

“R-Right, we’ve freed everyone from the cells aside from the Black Suns, so we should get going,” Thorax nods as he starts gathering up the others.

“ENOUGH OF THIS!” Pharynx’s voice calls out, as suddenly there is a flash of green, a big whoosh, and suddenly the smoke is blown away. There is a tangled mess of loyalists on the ground, and Grandbuggy (distinguishable by his bowler) is choking out one of the guards, and at the center is a large bird.

Everything goes silent and still as they all look up to the changed Pharynx in awe.

“…Dang you kids got some potential,” he says impressed as suddenly all the other changelings focus on him.

“You stay right where you are 117!” the bird calls out before turning an avian eye to Thorax and the captives. “And you brother! You lie down on the floor and-*BZZT*-OW!”

The large bird is suddenly struck in the eye by a green burst of magic.

“Holy crap, I actually just used magic! Did you see that?!” and ecstatic voice cheers.

“But how? I’ve been trying for like 10 minutes?” an exasperated female voice says.

“You just gotta think sideways babe, and the magic will flow,” a very familiar voice says.

“…The hell does that mean?”

Turning their attention, Captives and Changelings alike see three individuals behind the horde. There is a bald headed Sombra wearing glasses and gemstone armor, which causes the crystal ponies in the captive group to be fearful, Princess Luna who is missing her wings and wearing a lot of punk leathers, and who appears to be Bugze wearing the Nobody Cloak, only it’s more stylized, and he has a beard.”

“No no, he’s right for once,” Humbra nods. “If you focus too much on the magic it won’t come.”

“I still don’t get what thinking sideways means though!”

“It’s not something you can really explain Nimmy, like watch,” Bugze says as all of a sudden he turns into a wolf. “See?! Ain’t that sick?”

“Impossible, the magic dampeners are still up, and how did you change 9001?!” the Pharynx bird inquires. “You’ve never been able to before!”

“9001? What is that? A reference?” the wolf says looking confused at the red finned changeling.

“Bugze?” both Mia and Aqua ask at the same time.

“Huh? Yes?” the wolf says looking around. “I mean, kind of, not the one you’re probably looking for. Who’s asking?”

“Huh?” Mia asks.

“It’s us, Mia and Aqua!” Aqua explains.

“Aqua? Wasn’t that the pyrotechnics lady we had on payroll back in the day?” the wolf asks Luna.

“I thought that was that Autumn woman,” Luna muses.

“It was, that Autumn Blaze chick set up the fires, and the Aqua chick kept them from getting out of hand after you caught fire that one time,” Humbra nods.

“Oh right, right,” wolf Bugze nods in remembrance.

Everyone is speechless and confused at this random conversation, aside from Grandbuggy that is.

“Gorrammit Humies! I said only jump in if things were dire!” he growls.

“A giant ass bird isn’t dire?” Humbra snarks.

“Well…not dire, but you lot are still untrained and-“

ZAP

“SKRREEE!” Pharynx bird shrieks as a blue blast of magic strikes him in the other eye.

“Oh hey, I figured it out!” Luna says excitedly. “This is much easier than walking on four legs!”

“See? I told ya so,” Wolfze nods and suddenly Pharynx growls and turns into a giant bear.

“GET THEM!” he orders as the distraction is now over and the loyalists come to their senses.

“Ah shit! Blast Em!” Humbra yelps as he backs up and panic shoots magic.

“Already on it!” Luna shrieks as she starts to do the same.

“He-hey now, you wouldn’t hurt a doggy would ya-Yip!” B2 yelps as a changeling attempts to slash at him. “Well screw you then!”

And with that the wolf bites the loyalist on the hoof, while Grandbuggy knocks back a few more using Batmane like moves.

“I don’t know what trick you’re trying to pull 9001!” the bear growls. “But it won’t wo-“

WHAM

The bear’s head is knocked sideways by a big blue fist.

“When your opponent’s back is turned, you make them feel the burn!” Iron Will roars as he punches the Bearynx in the stomach and sends is stumbling backward.

“That barely even rhymes! Hiya!” Lightning Dust shouts as she dropkicks a changeling from above.

“It’s close enough-Whoa!” Iron Will yelps as the bear nearly claws his chest.

“It’s the other traitors! Subdue them!” Bearynx roars.

“You keep using that word,” Flim says as he douses a few changelings with a fire extinguisher.

“We don’t think it means what you think it means,” Flam finishes as he uses a tazer from the human world on one. “Oh neato, this thing will definitely sell well.”

And as the brawl becomes more intense, Grandbuggy catches the elite changeling’s eye and winks.

“What? Thought I was stupid enough to take ya’ll on myself? I ain’t still alive because of luck boyo,” he mocks before sending out some ball bearings from under his hat, which trips up a few loyalists.

“RRRRRRAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!” Bearynx roars in utter frustration as he doubles his efforts.

All of the captives, Thorax and his three rogues just watch the spectacle dumbfounded.

“…So I’m guessing those are the human counterparts Jack talked about?” Aqua asks wearily.

“Probably, I mean Fix did call them Humies,” Mia nods, her mind still blown.

“Well that makes sense, even as a unicorn there’s no way we wouldn’t recognize dear old Dad,” Adagio calls out with a smirk.

“I Did Not Sire You, You Fishy Hoe Bag!” Humbra shouts out, getting a hoof in the jaw for his efforts, which makes the siren chuckle.

“Yup definitely humans,” Sonata nods before looking to the minotaur, pegasus, and unicorn twins. “But then again, who’re the others?”

“I recognize Flim and Flam, though I’m very confused on why they’re here,” Applebloom admits.

“And isn’t that that minotaur guy that made Fluttershy mean for awhile?” asks Scootaloo.

“I think the bigger question is why Princess Luna is just a unicorn?!” asks Sweetie Belle.

“She’s a human vice principal from another dimension,” Sonata says simply, which only confuses the children more.

“Yeah, this is hurting my brain, can we get going little guy?” Aria sighs to Thorax, rubbing her temples.

“Huh? Oh yes,” Thorax says snapping out of his stupor before becoming nervous. “It’s just…we kind of need to go past that ruckus to get to the flugelhorn room upstairs.”

“I’ve had bugs crawling on my skin before, but never sober!” Humbra shouts.

“Now’s not the time for acid flashback!” Luna shouts as she back kicks a changeling.

“How come we don’t get halberds?!” Lightning Dust complains.

“How come I can turn into a monkey but not a human again?!” B2 shouts, looking like a chimp as he dodges a swipe from Bearynx.

Thorax then looks to the Torchwood Agents and Outcasts nervously.

“Well shoot, ain’t there like any other secret tunnels or something?” Applebloom suggests.

“Hey yeah, there’s always something like that in Daring Do, right?” Scootaloo asks said pegasus who shrugs.

“I don’t have a map of this palace, so I have no clue,” Daring says in frustration.

“Maybe Ember could eat a hole in the wall for us?” Sweetie Belle suggests.

“Hey yeah! Get to chewing Princess!” Greta orders and the blue dragoness puts her claws on her hips.

“First of all, don’t order me around, and secondly, it took Garble and I like 15 minutes just to chew a hole big enough for the kids back at the stadium,” she grunts in frustration. “So yeah, I don’t think I’m getting a hole in this wall anytime soon.

Suddenly, the sound of rock scraping against rock interrupts her and the captives and rogues whip their heads around to the other end of the prison. The dead end wall at the end of the tunnel pushes backward before opening inward like a door leaving a pretty sizeable hole in the wall.

“…Okay, I stand corrected,” Ember says rubbing at her still blurred eyes. While the battle rages behind them, the captives hear hoofsteps and a deep voice coming from the opening.

“Now, if I remember correctly this opens up into the dungeons, so all we have to do is make our way up and then towards the library.”

“That’s a lot of ground to cover,” says a female voice. “Even if many changelings are still drunk it’s…”

“It should be fine,” the dark voice says again as a curved horn pierces the darkness. “Besides, from what you said Bugze told you, this place should be aband-“

“Give him the Ol’ Dick Twist Bull Man!” Humbra shouts aloud.

“…What the buck?”

“Was that…your voice?”

“Yeah! Twist that Dick!” B2 (Now a Baboon) shouts.

“Say what now?!” Iron Will sputters in shock, causing Giant Ape Pharynx to sucker punch him.

“See, if you had listened to me, that wouldn’t have happened!” Humbra shouts as he blasts another changeling.

Standing in the newly revealed doorway, Sombra and Hope take in the madness unfolding before their eyes.

“King Sombra!” one of the crystal maids shrieks, causing his eyes to dart to the group of captives.

“What, another one?” a guard groans.

“And hey, it’s that mare that was helping Chrysalis,” Greta points out.

“Whoa, this one’s actually got hair?” asks Sonata.

Sombra can only stare wide eyed in disbelief, as the strange scenario unfolds before him.

“Um…” Hope trails off as she sees Iron Will, Lightning Dust and Flim and Flam fighting amidst the changeling loyalists.

“Yeah…Uh…” the crystal king stutters with many eyes on him. Thorax and the Captives don’t really know how to react at this moment.

“Skreonk!”

But Mangle does as the robot transforms into it’s Mangleoid form and immediately runs towards the melee, tackling into the giant ape.

“The machine is back! I repeat the machine has returned!” Ape Pharynx shouts as Mangle tackles him to the floor.

“About dang time ya got back here Mangle!” Grandbuggy cackles before looking over to Sombra and Hope. “Good timing Sombra, now get your keister in this mosh pit!”

“I already am you old alien dude!” Humbra shouts as throws a changeling off his back.

“Not you, the pony version of ya!” Grandbuggy explains as he bonks a loyalist out with the bowler.

Confused, both Sombras suddenly look at one another, and once their eyes meet, they freeze up.

“What the f/buck?” they say simultaneously.

“You know, it’s starting to feel like I’m still dreaming here,” Silver Spoon says while pinching herself, echoing many of the same sentiments amongst the others.

“Yeah…” Thorax agrees, wondering, not for the last time, if he’s completely out of his depth.

Kichi’s Comment

A large number of changelings, and their pony captives watch as the Changeling Queen and the Dark Alicorn fly THROUGH the Crystal Palace, leaving debris in their wake.

“Okay, that for sure isn’t Princess Luna,” says an awed crystal pony.

“Yeah, that looks like that shadow mare that used to be Nightmare Moon,” observes another.

“But wasn’t she stuck in the Hooded Offender’s head?” asks another.

“Well whatever the case, she’s kicking the crap out of that ugly bug monster,” a griffon athlete points out.

“Oi! Our Queen is not ugly! Hold your tongue prisoners!” an upset drone growls.

“She does seem to be struggling a bit though,” another drone says somewhat hesitantly, causing more drones to scowl at them. “What, she is!”

As if to emphasize that point, Chrysalis barely dodges a blast of midnight blue magic and nearly loses her balance on a rooftop.

"Cupcakes! Get Yer Cupcakes Here!" a bubbly voice calls out amidst the varying tensions while the fight goes on.

“Huh?” Changelings and Ponies alike stammer as they turn and see a pink pony running what looks like a snack stand.

“We also got cider and carrot dogs,” the pink mare calls out to the confused audience.

“Isn’t that he Element of Laughter?” asks a drone and another one sighs.

“No no, that’s that one drone that’s been having mental issues since the Canterlot Invasion.”

“Oh…right,” the other drone says in sympathy. “But weren’t they doing the music for the little party?”

“I was, but everyone got really rowdy and drunk, so I decided to go where my services would be appreciated,” the fake Pinkie calls out, having heard their conversation.

“There was booze at that party? Oh what a jip,” a younger drone guard grunts while the others look confused.

“Anyway, who wants some snacks? Scared and cold captives, I’m looking at you,” the fake Pinkie says to the even more flabbergasted prisoners. Thankfully a tree getting blasted to smithereens pulls them out of this funk as they turn back to the fight.

“I don’t just got snacks, I’m also a part time bookie!” “Pinkie” yelps out. “It’s 9:1 odds that the Queen will trounce Black Moony, any takers?”

“Um, I’ll take those odds. Give me ten bits your Queen losing,” Soarin calls out.

“I’ll put down 15!” calls out Spitfire.

“YEAH!!!” Bulk Biceps calls out holding up a hoofful of bits.

“Oh great, the captured athletes are trying to play the odds,” a drone grunts. “Well they won’t get away with that! 30 on our glorious Queen winning!”

“40 for me!” another drone shouts.

“I’ll take a bag of popcorn!”

“You have any licorice?!”

“Take my money!”

And just like that, captor and prisoner alike are betting money on the epic duel taking place while the identity confused changeling jots down the bets as their business booms.

Far and away the overlapping chatter of ponies and changelings alike isn’t really registered as two mares settle some beef.

Grey Rebl’s Comment

Out in the coldness above, where the snow drifts like the dust scraped off of infinity, two lights streak the grayish skies: one a sickly green and the other a midnight blue. Twisting, swerving, and clashing as the onlookers gaze upon them, the shooting stars above dance the dance of death.

Snowflakes sting your face. What normally should’ve been gentle decor becomes a hazard as the air rushes under your wings, flapping, flapping, flapping—eyes squinted and honed for high-speed combat even while the world itself pelts your coat. You don’t care.

Neither does she.

Green light flashes from your left. Steering your wings ninety degrees, you dodge the crooked laser before you tuck them in and retaliate with a dropkick to the gut.

Chrysalis growls, fangs bared as she flies backwards to absorb the blow. Chitin hooves snake around your leg, her crooked horn aglow and tinting her gaze full of hate and vitriol. You swing your head back, leveraging her hold on you to tear her aim away, barely missing you by an inch as a laser as thick as your hoof splits the clouds asunder. Moonlight peers through the newly opened slit in the sky.

You attempt to drag her down with you, but then the bug queen lets go and uses your prone descent to open fire again.

FLASH

You teleport behind her, hooves outreached to pull her into a chokehold, but she’s learning quickly. Chrysalis zips more than flies out of reach at a near impossible acceleration. Quickly, you right yourself, spanning your wings to regain enough lift to level yourself. You glare through the falling snow.

Chrysalis is fast, but that’s not all, for you can hardly keep your eyes on her as she zig-zags like a dragonfly. Where you’d think she’s continuing forward, she’d almost randomly turn up, left, and even backwards. Had the bug queen been an ordinary pegasus, such maneuvers would’ve torn her wings off, but as a changeling, she’s rapidly switching directions on the fly, buzzing between the clouds to shake you off by breaking line of sight.

In that case…

You catch the snow around you in a sphere of telekinesis and they all freeze as if stuck in time. And with but a thought, they converge. Dozens of blades take shape, and nostalgia flickers in your heart at the sight of the archaic, familiar designs. You’re still rusty for they’re not good enough to hurt, let alone cut, but that can be amended.

Wisps of power coat your new armaments and grooves carve into the ice as runes; and with a quick finalization of your enchantments, you send them flying and bury them into the sea of clouds.

“AGH!” It doesn’t take long before you hear a startled cry as Chrysalis crashes into one of your ice swords. You home into the sound in an instant and shoot a charge of magic!

The beam pierces the dark, curving slightly as it locks onto the ice sword’s enchanted signature, and strikes the bug queen dead in the chest!

“WRRYY!!!” Chrysalis snarls as she’s driven out of hiding, but instead of trying to keep flight, she tilts her frame backwards...and plummets.

Scowling, you give chase. A spell circle forms in front of you, and when you pass through it, your body pierces the snow like a knife! Your coat slips off the frozen flakes, glowing from the temporary enhancement and every speed circle you summon, the distance between you and your prey goes from mil to nil in under a second.

Her eyes widen as the distance between you becomes trivial, and you reshape the ice as you both descend in a dance of whirl winding blades.

The fall feels like an eternity. Chrysalis cuts and weaves desperately to avoid the numerous blades you fling her way and after every volley, she retaliates with crackling lasers of changeling fire, only for them to glance off the sides of your shields. This rhythm repeats over and over again as your swords grow sharper, faster, and slimmer—and as you draw nearer, closer, it’s only a matter of time until one of them hits!

Your eyes lock onto one another as you are now both neck to neck!

You evade two lasers as she hisses, but you refuse to slow down as you grasp a frozen enchanted blade in your hooves. You create one last speed boost and once you pass through it, your blade is inches away from her wings. Chrysalis whips her horn your way and barely summons a barrier-

SCHWING

The mad queen gasps as your sword bites inches into the green boundary.

Damn it! You mentally growl in frustration as you flap your wings like a madmare, bracing both hooves against the sword while pouring enough mana into the enchantment that its glow vibrates like a chainsaw. Your muzzles are so close, your cold breaths intertwine, but just when you’re about to slice all the way through, you suddenly notice what’s ahead.

As does she.

And with wide eyes, you both split apart just before the very tip of the Crystal Palace could turn you into skewers! The sudden loss of an under draft almost forces you to collide with Crystal Palace itself, and you are only saved by your ancestral instincts screaming to pull up!

Too close! Too Close! You mentally shriek as you soar dangerously close and fast alongside the shiny building that your chest fur singes at the tips. The wind roars into your ears as you gnash your teeth and tear your wings into a better angle, dangerously riding down the slanted wall.

Then, you and Chrysalis lock gazes as your trajectories lead you once more to one another.

Both horns glow, and barrier rams against barrier. Again and again and again, blue and green spray a rainbow of sparks as the ground fast approaches. Even when every clash causes one of you to slow down, or one of you to speed up, you both refuse to let the other get away.

Chrysalis wobbles toward the edge of the Crystal Palace; snarling, her barrier grows thicker, hardier, and she swings herself onto you once more. Just before either of you could collide

FLASH

You teleport to the other side and use her momentum to dropkick her right off!

“HREeee!” Chrysalis wheezes as her stomach caves under your leg. The sound relieves your frustration slightly, but you are nowhere near finished.

“No Shadow Kick!” you shout once more as you continue your assault, pummeling her like there’s no tomorrow. Every kick feels so light, so natural, yet you know for absolute certain she feels every single one; all 49 mighty blows.

“—Hiyaaah!”

With a three-sixty degree axe kick, you speedily deliver Chrysalis back down into the residential district, back down into the dirt where she belongs.

CRACK

The roof spiderwebs and gives way as she embeds herself into the ground below of some poor pony’s house. That it’s ONLY just on the brink of collapse is a miracle in itself.

“Oooooohhhhh~” she moans, struggling to pry herself from the roof tiles surrounding her, but unfortunately for her she is only able to remove a single shingle from her face before her vision is filled with the vengeful bottom of your hoof.

BOOM

Everything inside the house explodes from the foundation up. Rubble, splinters, and rags billow into the sky like popcorn, glancing off of your protective barrier harmlessly. Unceremoniously, the sturdy, crystalline walls tilt and then collapse, leaving your panting form standing amidst the rubble.

You look left and right for signs of the hussy that traumatized your Bugze, for as powerful as you are, not even you could vaporize someone with a single blow.

“Where Are You?!” you shout as you use your magic to sweep away the rubble at your hooves.

“Here!” Chrysalis’s uncovered face hisses after you remove the debris from her last minute barrier.

So taken by surprise are you that you don’t entirely get your own barrier up as the ground under you blasts upward, carrying you painfully into the air, debris and all.

“ACK!” you shriek as crystalline glass cuts at your belly. You are able to catch yourself in the air as you hover and look down upon your foe. She didn’t get out of it unscathed either as you see the cuts along her back and face, but you can tell she hasn’t had nearly enough…

And neither have you.

“Why Won’t You Die?!” she snarls at you.

“Because Buck You That’s Why!” you shout as you launch the still skyward debris down towards her like meteorites. She dodges them predictably, able to take the angles in the air that you never would be able to accomplish.

But as she’s gotten some distance from you, you chase after your prey with fervor. It became a firefight through the streets, a narrower battlefield ripe with obstacles and debris.

You cast, shoot, and throw every spell you can remember and the overgrown insect does the same. Innocent houses and porches are caught in the crossfire; streetlight poles thrust into windows, crystal bricks smash through from under the roofs, and laser beams bounce off the mirror-like walls.

And then there’s the odd changeling drone or two who get bodied just for being in the way.

You duck and weave, she zigs and zags, yet no matter how much either of you try to overwhelm the other with projectiles, as long as it’s not a direct hit, the attacks simply glance off of both of your barriers.

Well if raw speed and numbers won’t work, you think resolutely.

Charging your laser, you track the Changeling Queen as you pelt and distract her with random bullspit.

She zips left, she zips right, then backwards and suddenly she is behind you.

Thinking fast, you spread your wings wide and catch the air resistance so suddenly your blistering speed turns into a stomach-lurching stop.

WHAM

“Blagh!” she coughs out as the back of your skull knocks her chin! And though your eyes spin a bit and you fear a goose egg may form even through your mane, you reach behind your wing, lock her head around your hooves and throw hard toward the ground!

“AIEEE-*CRACK*”

A spider web-like crater folds under Chrysalis’s body and with the magic still in your horn, you fire a laser as wide as a dinner plate, pulverizing the road! You swerve your head aside, and the laser swings with, crushing the bug queen’s shields and then herself into the pavement, carrying her along like a fly stuck to a fly swatter until squishing her flat into a hard, crystal wall.

“Oohhhh…” Chrysalis groans, woozily pushes herself off from the wall, but what she sees in the crystalline reflection injects enough motivation in her veins to twist away—right before you stomp where her spine just was!

“Gorrammit!” you curse as your hoof gets stuck. With this inconvenience, Chrysalis flows with magic and uses the momentum from her twist to rip the house wall off it’s foundation and slams it down on you with you still on it.

“Grrr,” you surround yourself in a thick aura just in the nick of time, but the pressure around you is still intense. You’re not what anyone would ever call a weak mare, but still trying to bench press several tons of crystal from a prone position while also maintaining a shield to not immediately get crushed would give anypony trouble.

“More! More! MORE!!!” Chrysalis rants as she piles pile after pile of debris onto your little mountainous tomb.

“Uuurrrggghhh!!!” you strain as your aura inches closer and closer to your body, threatening to give out.

“HEYAHHH!!!” you hear her muffled shout as she flings something heavier than the rest on top and your protective shield gives in till it’s barely an inch. Blood leaks out of your nose as veins pop in your head as you hold the crushing mass at bay. It wouldn’t have been as hard if that damnable wretch wasn’t also putting pressure on the rubble with her magic.

“Yes, Yes, YES!!! Be buried and forgotten you monster!!!” Chrysalis cackles madly. Gritting your teeth you close your eyes and concentrate on her laughter. There’s only a few offensive maneuvers you can make while in this position, and if this doesn’t work, then you may very well be crushed to death.

You push those pessimistic thoughts back into the garbage where they belong.

I’m not going to die here! You think resolutely as you expend some mana, which weakens the shield even more. I’ve got many years with Bugze and Nightshade ahead of me!

“Ha Ha Ha Ha-ACK!” Chrysalis’s laughter is halted as your gamble pays off, your blindly thrown ice blade finding purchase. With her distracted, the pressure on the rubble ceases.

“Bingo!” you hiss triumphantly as you reach deep within your mana pool.

Outside of the rubble, Chrysalis yanks your ice blade out of her back left hoof, her green blood staining the snow.

“Oh you miserable-“ she starts to curse, but her eyes go wide as she sees the pile rumbling as if there’s an earthquake. Eyes wide, the Changeling Queen’s dragonfly-like maneuverability saves her more harm as the tons of debris explodes outward.

On looking drones scatter as your attempted prison peppers the landscape, and then they gulp in fear as at the center of the blast, you stand proud and tall in a menacing aura.

Your mane and tail swim in a storm of moon runes, your eyes shine as bright as the snow, and a flurry of ice swords form around you, making it look like you have a second pair of wings.

You seem bigger, imposing, larger than life itself. The Pale Mare incarnate. Or even, dare you admit it, the prime of Nightmare Moon.

Even Chrysalis through her insanity is fazed by your intimidating form.

“Tartarus’s Gates…” she gasps out, but you don’t let her gawk for long. The pointy ends of your blades aim towards her, and you thrust your wings.

An invisible ripple tears through the air and rapid pops sound all throughout as the veritable homing missiles breach sonic speeds and whizz around the Changeling Queen like hornets. They’re so fast that she’s forced to allocate her attention into intercepting them in order to have the mere possibility of surviving the onslaught, but for whatever few she shoots down, you recapture and then regenerate in your telekinesis before sending them right back!

Seconds in, Chrysalis starts slipping. At first, her carapace starts to get nicked, then when she tries to fly to the open skies, incoming blades stop her in her tracks and then more force her back down, low toward the streets, denying her the breathing room she needs. Pinned between the sky and earth, she can only hover with a snarl along the ever-so narrowing boundary until the only viable option left is to fly in a straight line.

Predictable, you think methodically, which is why it feels so unnervingly easy as you brew power into your horn. A dangerous hum resonates and floating orbs of mana crackle with electricity. Arcs of energy flow through your hooves, from the ground all the way to your forehead. And suddenly, the world itself goes dim.

Bugze would call this a Spartan Laser, you reminisce with a smile just before the point of release. I on the other hoof would call it-

“BUG ZAPPER!!!” you cry out mightily as you bow your head and release. The atmosphere cracks like thunder as you lockdown your hooves in magic and ice and glare past the blinding light.

It’s when Chrysalis notices the air go dark and heavy that she flies faster, harder. Spinning around, she desperately pulls up a magic barrier at the last second…but it is futile as it shatters instantly.

“AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!” The pure energy of the impact is so immense, it almost makes her blackout, and so loud, it almost turns her ears deaf.

And then just like that...it’s over.

“Hah…hah…” you gasp and pant as your body tenses as if you’ve run straight up a mountain. Even through this sudden fatigue, you look towards your target.

Chrysalis is no longer bathed in the radiance of your magic, in it’s place is the soothing embrace of the passing snow along the scorch mark that is her body. The Changeling Queen blinks dumbly, feeling listless, weightless. The world seemingly flashes before her eyes in an endless reel, flipping right side up and left side down like a seizure.

CRACK

She slams back-first onto the immovable belly of the Crystal Spike Statue causing spittle to fly out of her maw, and now the statue has a new scar to add to its flattering features.

I’m sure that can be buffed out, you think, hoping that Nightshade won’t hold it against you for damaging the likeness of the dragon she fancies.

“My queen!” some of the spectator changelings call out and move to her, even while the rest hesitate as they recall her prior orders. As they do, you catch your breath and melt the ice that had encased your hooves.

The drones reach out, trying to help her to her hooves, but she suddenly whips her head up and hisses at them in a deranged bestial manner. Those brave/stupid drones flinch and recoil at this, for they are buffeted by the plethora of ugly emotions that waft off of her like a muddy, thick miasma.

“I TOLD YOU ALL TO STAY BACK!!!” she shouts, spittle flying in all directions, and the effort of just doing that causes her to begin coughing. “She’s-*cough* *cough*-She’s mine and mine alone to defeat!”

A single drone dares approach her as she squirms, trying to stand.

“Indeed she is my Queen, but let us at least help you stand,” he says, face stoic against the waft of her madness.

Chrysalis growls at this and lets out a few ragged coughs as she struggles to stand, but with the drone’s insistent help, she’s able to steady herself.

How can they still be so loyal after everything? You wonder in bafflement as she braces a hoof on her subject’s shoulder. A question that becomes even more pertinent as she suddenly slams the drone against the statue by the throat.

The others gasp at this display, though he himself makes no sound as she puts more pressure on his jugular. Chrysalis’s eyes do not seem to look at the drone at all; rather it’s more as if she’s staring into thin air.

Down With Chrysalis’s Comment

Kichi’s Comment

“Do you truly wish to help your Queen drone?” she asks with those empty, unfocused eyes as she loosens the pressure slightly.

“Of…course…” the drone chokes out.

“Would you give your life to defend me?” she asks again in that same empty tone.

“Yes…my Queen…” he agrees and suddenly her eyes focus and for all appearances, gives a kindly smile.

“Thank you for your loyalty…”

And before you can even comprehend what’s happening, she unhinges her jaw not unlike a snake, and suddenly green flaming energy is pulled out of the drone out of his horn. The process only takes a few seconds, but in those few moments you see as the changeling’s exoskeleton loses it’s color till it’s light gray, and his eyes roll over white. She on the other hand starts to heal some of the wounds you had given her.

The other drones gasp and look horrified as she finishes and drops the drone to the ground, where he groans faintly. You never saw it for yourself, but you did hear about how Erised the Ink Moth did this exact maneuver back in Appleloosa.

It’s even more disgusting watching it in person.

“Ahhhh,” Chrysalis sighs in satisfaction before looking back to your disgusted expression. “That, is what true loyalty is Nightmare Moon.”

“That’s cannibalism you sick buck!” you shout back as you look at the drained Changeling in sympathy.

“And so it may be, but my drones would do anything for my success,” she cackles before looking to the rest.

Sickeningly true to her words, even though the surrounding changelings look terrified and reluctant, they don’t try to run away as she opens her maw, and suddenly several of them begin to be drained as well.

“NO!!!” you shout as you shoot a beam at her. They may be idiotic zealots, but noling deserves that! Your blast however is deflected by her new barrier as her mana pools are replenished by 5 drones who all drop to the snow, pale and weakened.

“You Monster!” you growl, rage flooding your heart even more.

Grey Rebl’s Comment

WARGAMES’s Comment

Ponygamer12’s Comment

“I’m not a monster!” she snaps back as her horn lights up. “A monster would have no goal or purpose. They gave me their love so that I may kill you!”

Gritting your teeth you ready your ice blades, and zoom towards her, ready for a blast of magic. It’s not until you are nearly half way there though that you realize she’s not prepping a blast. The Spike statue behind her is glowing now the same energy.

A dull, hum resonates as she tears the crystal frame off of the ground by its crystal feet and it floats threateningly above her. She snarls, stomps her hooves, and a concussive blast of wind rockets the crystalline dragon towards you while also blowing the drained drones away from her.

As you watch several tons of crystal careen your way, an eerie calm takes over you.

Avoid it? No. You’re already going too fast for it to matter. Instead, you fly faster, and whisper an apology to Nightshade and Spike.

In a move that would be difficult to perceive with the naked eye, you command your frozen blades to coast along your wings, and with a slight tilt, you slice off a portion of a lamp post unfortunate enough to be in your way, catching it in your magical grip.

You then snap your wings shut, but the instant your hooves touch the ground, spell circles sever the concept of friction as you skate across like an unstoppable bullet! The world turns into an incomprehensible blur, yet to you it feels so sure, so clear. You take the sectioned lamp post, jam in one of your blades, weld the insertion, and with a single swing—

SHING!

—split the Spike statue perfectly into two.

Wind flutters your mane and visible breath eases out of your exhale. You stare out with eyes cooler and sharper than icicles as you hold your new shining scythe aloft and bring it towards the surprised psycho before the two halves of the statue hit the ground.

Thanks to her draining her own subjects, she’s gained a second wind and dodges backward, the blade missing her by inches.

You follow this up by launching one of the ice blades at her, which sticks into her flank, causing her to yelp. Knowing that being in close proximity to you is certain death with your makeshift scythe, she does the smart thing and flies away from you.

You take a moment, just a tiny moment before you chase off after her to look to the gathered drones.

“Attend to your wounded!” you point to the 6 drained individuals. “And take a moment to really ask yourselves, ‘Is that coward worth dying over?!’”
And with those harsh words, you leave the changelings to their own devices as you seek to reap their “beloved” leader.

Puzzling Frost’s Comment

Ponygamer12’s Comment

Today has been a roller coaster of surprises for you. You woke up with a body, Hope was still alive, you reunited with your mother, found out you had a sister, and learned that your city had been taken over by changelings.

If you hadn’t of been stuck inside that idiotic cockroach's head for the last two years, you probably wouldn’t have been able to comprehend so many curveballs in such a short time frame.

But because you have been through thick and thin with that moron and his sadistic wife, you’ve been able to take things in relative strive. Though even you couldn’t have foreseen the melee in the dungeons that you stumbled upon, or Mangle’s willingness to dive head first into it.

But the biggest surprise that catches you off guard is seeing another you in the midst of that kerfuffle, missing his mane, wearing glasses, and having a normal unicorn horn.

“By the gods, I’ve grown old…” you mutter in shock as you two maintain eye contact.

“Well I’ll be damned, horse me looks metal as Hell!” Humbra says impressed before his eyes suddenly widen as he looks to your side. “…Hope?”

With him calling her name, she looks over to your bald doppelganger and freezes.

“What in the-?” she stammers.

“Whoa, that’s…we’re horses and together, that’s hurting my-Agh!” and he gets decked in the nose for his distraction. “Oh you asshole! Suck My Laser!”

And with that, the changeling is blown back into the wall where Flim and Flam subdue him even further with tazers.

“…Sombra?” Hope breathes out.

“Yeah?” you say back, your mind still jumbled.

“Is that by chance a changeling using a poor excuse of a disguise of you?” she asks, even though you can hear that she doesn’t believe that herself.

“No…no it isn’t,” you say as you light up your own horn.

“Then what is-“ she starts, but is interrupted as you blast three changelings that had dogpilled on top of the other you.

“Thanks…me? Wow this is trippy,” Humbra says adjusting his glasses.

“Focus up Sombra! These monsters are tough!” Luna demands.

“Though they would make a sick album cover!” B2 (now an ostrich) proclaims.

Still just as lost, Hope looks to you for some semblance of an answer as Mangle uppercuts Pharynx.

“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that that’s my human counterpart, as well as Bugze’s and Luna’s,” you explain. “Though how they got here, I have no clue.”

“Oh gee, could it possibly be the mirror portal that connects our two worlds together?” Adagio snarks and you shoot the seahorse a glare.

“Excuse me for being overwhelmed by all this!” you bark at the petulant siren.

“…I think I like the human version better, this one looks and acts meaner,” Sonata surmises.

“Well, plus we know that one better,” Aria nods in agreement.

“I spent as much time with you three as he did! I was just stuck in that moron’s head so you couldn’t see me!” you shoot back.

“Wow, now he sounds all stalkerish,” Adagio jokes.

“Oh will ya quit yammering with the fishies Sombra! Get over here already! You too girly!” Grandbuggy orders and you turn your attention back to him.

“Oh hey, it’s Hope,” Lightning Dust says suddenly.

“Do you mean we have hope in this battle or that you see Radiant Hope?” Iron Will demands, bonking a changeling unconscious.

“The second one! Where have you been lady?! Things have gotten crazy sin-Agh!” The pegasus is cut off as two changelings grab a hold of her wings and start to pull.

“Get off of her!” Hope shouts and blasts one of them with her magic, allowing the pegasus to sucker punch the other one.

“Thanks!” she calls back.

“No…problem,” Hope says, surprised by the thankfulness.

“Wait, she’s helping them?” asks Sweetie Belle.

“Isn’t she the one who kidnapped us with Chrysalis?” asks Applebloom, causing Hope’s ears to wilt.

“She’s helping us now, all of us, and so is King Sombra so there’s no need to worry,” a skinny changeling says amongst the prisoners. And despite his size and demeanor, his words reach the others and they lessen their gazes.

“…Thank you Thorax,” she says before her face becomes resolute and she looks to you in determination. “Well, you heard them, we’re helping everyone!”

And with that, you are surprised once again as the only mare that’s held your heart, a gentle soul with a knack for healing, rushes forth into the melee.

You pause for a moment as your mind does a soft reboot, but you are broken out of it once the old bug says,

“Heh, at least one of ya’ll’s got balls!”

Gritting your teeth, you light up your horn.

“I’ll show you balls!” you shout angrily at the insufferable old fool.

“Please don’t, there are children present!” Aria smirks, making a show of putting her tail across the CMC.

“Oh for the-Buck Off!” you shout as your specialty green fear magic seeps forth and into a group of 5 loyalists. Your targets freeze suddenly amidst the brawl before they start screaming. Two of them start beating on each other, screaming about skinwalkers, while the other three collapse to the ground, crying and thrashing, screaming about skeletons, spiders, and copious amounts of cheese.

“Get up you fools!” Apeynx shouts. “Do not let them-Agh!”

He is suddenly put into a headlock by Mangleoid as Iron Will starts punching at his gut like a punching bag.

“If you do not tighten your core, you will be shown what’s for!” the minotaur proclaims as the elite gets a number of gut punches, before transforming into his true form and out of the robot’s grip. With this sudden loss of mass, Will accidentally knocks Mangle back, and the robot screeches.

“Sorry, sorry!” Iron Will apologizes, as four drones latch onto his back. “ACK!”

Before the red finned changeling can do anything else though, you zap a drone next to him with fear magic, and he immediately turns on his commander.

“Stop! Stop it!” he demands, but the fearful drone keeps striking at him.

“Buck You Santa you dirty slut! How dare you kiss my mother!” the drone wails.

“What?!” Pharynx shouts in confusion and you actually chuckle as you walk casually into the brawl yourself.

“Hey Dazzlings! Could really use a song to put these jerks to sleep right about now!” B2 shouts amidst the ruckus.

“We don’t have our stones anymore B2!” Sonata calls out.

“Yeah, some bug bitch stole them!” Adagio huffs.

“Oh yes, those were used in that weapon thing that got Sombra and Nightmare Moon out of the Offender’s head,” Thorax comments.

“If that’s the case, they’ve been used up,” Ahuizotl theorizes and Aria sighs.

“Yeah of course they would be, why should we have expected otherwise?” she grumbles.

“Well that sucks,” the giant bird says before getting uppercutted by a drone.

“I mean, I suppose you could sing just for the Tartarus of it, to give the fight some rhythm,” Ember suggests.

“Oh, good idea dragon lady,” Sonata says with a smile.

“I mean it’s not going to do much, but what the buck I guess,” Aria shrugs.

“Not like we can do anything else,” Adagio gives in as the three sisters all cough into their hooves. They then begin singing.

“Oh buck yeah! That’s some good stuff right there!” Grandbuggy cackles as he uses his bowler like a shield before tripping his enemy with a leg sweep.

“Yeah! Rock On!” Humbra cries out, and he is almost hit by a drone hoof, but you stop it mid air with your magic. “Whoa!”

“Keep your eyes open other me!” you order as you fling the changeling by the arm into two of his compatriots.

“Heh, with my glasses we got six sets of eyes to keep open,” Humbra laughs as the two of you go back to back defending…yourselves really.

You then see as Hope goes to the aid of Flim and Flam who were being overwhelmed by sheer numbers. She blasts two out of the way, then trips another with her hoof, allowing the twins to reactivate their tazers.

And as several changelings start twitching from the miniature lightning devices, the brothers smile and look to Hope triumphantly.

“Thank you for the assistance there Hope,” Flim starts.

“Yes thank you, now we know the drawbacks of these alien weapons,” Flam adds.

“Improvements will be made in the future!” they both declare as they start shocking more drones.

“You’re welcome guys, and I’m sorry I let things get out of hoof here,” Hope apologizes as she back kicks a drone.

“Don’t worry about it!” the brothers reassure.

A little ways away, Hu-Luna gets taken to the ground.

“Ah!” she cries out as the drones start to spit goo onto her hooves.

“Get off of my woman bugs!” Ostrich B2 shouts and kicks them all brutally off of her. He then pecks the goo off of her, and begins retching. “Oh God, it smells and tastes like Gack.”

“Thanks babe,” Luna says as she gets up and frowns. “I just called you babe while you’re hacking and spitting as on ostrich and I’m a unicorn…what even is our life right now?”

“A very kick ass one!” B2 says as he transforms into an anteater and blocks an attack with his claws.

And so, with inane banter between you all, you slowly but surely turn the tide on the group of changelings, knocking them out one by one till only Pharynx is left.

“This can’t be happening!” he says with gritted teeth as he stands amongst his defeated soldiers with you, Hope, Mangle, Grandbuggy, Hope’s allies and The Wanted, cornering him.

“But it is happening brother, just give up,” Thorax implores his very bruised and battered older brother. The red finned changeling snarls at this.

“I am of the Queen’s finest! We do not surrender! We go down in battle or we-*BONK*”

He suddenly collapses to the floor as Grandbuggy’s hat flies back to his hoof.

“Have it your way then ya little punk,” he spits. And while the skinny Thorax looks a bit sad at the state of his big brother, the rest of the captives all sigh in relief while all the combatants, including Hope start to cheer.

“Well, I suppose we won that one!” she says with a giggle.

“No kidding, that was awesome!” Lightning Dust cheers.

“I’ll say, and to think we were worried about a long bus trip today,” B2, now back in his changeling form, chuckles.

“It was a bit daunting until King Sombra showed up…the real one I mean,” Iron Will says gesturing to you.

“Yeah, not gonna lie, that psychological shit you pulled on them was scary as hell,” Humbra says sounding disturbed and impressed at the same time.

“There’s a reason I was called the King of Fear,” you boast before looking back to the old bug. “But this small victory aside, I’m still to assume the Empire is still overrun?”

“Oh yeah, definitely,” Grandbuggy nods. “Ain’t no way we’re fighting the whole Hive and winning.”

“That would be suicide,” Thorax says matter of factly.

“Agreed,” you nod. “So what are you going to do now old bug?”

“Well Smokey, what I’m gonna do is help Mr. Future Ruler here get all the dungeon captives to the trains and regroup with my boy and Nightshade,” he says gesturing to Thorax.

“Right, and to do that we…wait? What did you call me?” Thorax asks with a raised brow.

“Don’t worry about it,” Grandbuggy hoofwaves and turns back to you. “So yeah, escort mission for us. How about you?”

“Hope and I must get to my hidden library, it is imperative if we are to rid this city of Changelings,” you say truthfully and the old bug nods.

“Heh, sort of figured ya had some macguffin hidden somewhere,” he says with a smirk. “Well go ahead boy, you and your gal get to it. We’ll handle the captives and regroup with the rest.”

“Very well then,” you say as he leads Thorax and Mangle back to the captives.

“Alright, let’s get them organized and ready to move. Also you know where the magic dampeners are kid?” he asks Thorax.

“I do, and I’d planned to hit them after I got everyone out, but my brother…”

“Skreonk,” Mangle barks comfortingly as she pats his head, nearly squashing him.

“Eh, it’ll be fine kid. Family has a way of working bullspit like this out in the end,” Grandbuggy says.

“I mean, not always. We know that for a fact right?” Humbra mumbles from right next to you.

“We do?” you ask.

“Well yeah, if you’re me then you had just as shitty a relationship with your mom as I did right?” he says and you are taken aback.

“Ummm…I was raised in an orphanage,” you admit and he looks surprised.

“For real?” he gasps and you nod. “…Well, lucky you then.”

“Were…were you raised by Rabia?” you ask curiously.

“Heh, raised ain’t the right word. I learned how to live in spite of that manipulative bitch!” he grumbles, and you are taken off guard again by the venom in his words.

“Manipulative?” you venture as you suddenly get an uneasy feeling in your chest.

“Well, that’s one word for it. Two faced is another, since she always put up a façade of being kind and loving, but she was really just a sadistic, cruel and controlling bitch!” he growls as his eyes look off in the middle distance. “Even turned my little sister into a mini version of her, and they never liked Hope because she made me happy. People always said family can overcome anything, but they obviously never met mom.”

You take all of that in, and you begin to feel uneasy.

Surely there are many differences between the worlds, you ponder. Truly, I don’t know my mother well, or my sister…but…

“Oh hey, sorry, didn’t mean to unload on ya,” Humbra says patting you on the back and knocking you out of your thoughts. “Let’s just say, you dodged a bullet…well, relatively speaking. Didn’t Bugze say that you once ruled this whole place?”

You look over at the dazed crystal pony palace staff and guards, who still give weary looks in your direction before nodding.

“Yes…once upon a time.”

“Well, I was never in charge of any nation, so you got that up on me,” he laughs before looking you over with awe again. “And I’ll say it again, you look metal as hell man. What’s the secret to getting your hair to stay? Is it magic? I bet it’s magic. Can you help me out with that bro?”

“I’m…not sure I’m the one to consult on that,” you admit as you start to feel odd having such a casual conversation with an aloof you.

“Well if it’s possible, I’ll pay anything!” he shouts before his eyes latch onto something which gives him pause. You follow his line of sight and see that he’s looking at Hope who has regrouped with Lightning Dust, Iron Will and the twins.

“I’m so very sorry I dragged you all into this. I never once thought it would turn out this bad,” she apologizes.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself Hope, we all continued forth on this venture, even when we knew Queen Chrysalis was involved,” Iron Will comforts.

“Yeah, we did sort of sign up for the legion of doom, so this wasn’t all that surprising,” Flim nods.

“Though perhaps the scope of the crime wasn’t exactly what we’d agreed to, we were still willing to help overthrow a government,” Flam shrugs.

“Really, all I wanted to do was beat up Rainbow Dash, and I didn’t even get to do that!” Lightning Dust complains and the others give her a glare. “…But I accept your apology. I’ll have other opportunities to show her up.”

Wow, nice priorities, you think sarcastically as Hope smiles at them all.

“…That’s gotta be the biggest thing you have over me in this world,” Humbra says in melancholy.

“It’s not even been a half day since I’ve had her back. I didn’t think it was even possible…but we really have come back together, despite the hurt we each gave,” you say in thankfulness as you watch her give a hug to her conspirators.

“…Is it really that easy?” Humbra asks in disbelief. “Can I really just call and meet her after all these years and just have it work out?”

“I won’t say it’s been easy for us, or that it will be easy for you…but you’ve at least got to try,” you instruct your human self. He continues to stare at Hope for a few moments in silence before he nods.

“Though…I kind of do want my hair back before I try that,” he admits and you roll your eyes.

“Hah! See Nimmy! I told you it wasn’t working on Time Cop rules, Sombra’s touching himself and nothing bad is happening,” B2 says, sounding triumphant.

“Sombra’s doing what now?” asks Adagio with a hint of mischief in her voice.

“We’re leaving!” you say as you quickly run up and snatch Hope’s hoof.

“Wait, already?!” she asks in surprise.

“Yes, the longer we wait, the more likely the Changelings will subdue us, let’s go!” you say urgently as you usher her from her friends and down the prison cooridors.

“Oh, alright, take care everyone. We’ll regroup with you at the train!” Hope calls out as you drag her away, and you hear the Sirens laughing.

“Good luck Sombra,” Grandbuggy says as you disappear around the corner.

“Yeah, good luck other me!” Humbra calls out, but you don’t answer them.

“Don’t we need to go up the stairs?” Hope asks as you lead her to another section of wall.

“Not if we take another secret tunnel down here,” you say as you press a certain brick in, and the wall shifts.

“…How many of these did you have built in?” she asks in surprise.

“More than you think, but less than you’d hope,” you admit. “Now, let’s get to that door. We need to free my moth…the umbrum.”

You can see that she catches your little moment of hesitation, but she does not comment on it as you two once more venture forth into the bowels of the castle.

Back with the prisoners, B2 looks to Luna and says,

“Huh, wonder what got him all hurried?”

“Possibly the fact that there is still an army of these bug things throughout this horse city,” Luna snarks, rolling her eyes.

“Nah, he probably didn’t want to deal with the sea horses,” Humbra grumbles.

“Well if he’d stopped touching himself, maybe he wouldn’t be so embarrassed?” Adagio trolls as she slaps Humbra lightly with her tail.

“You are on thin ice young lady!” Humbra snarls while B2 and Luna laugh.

“Alright, alright, let’s not yell anymore please?” Mia says trying to shush everyone and Thorax nods and steps up.

“She’s right,” he proclaims. “After that ruckus and with the fight upstairs, we still have to be careful to-“

“AH! Demons!” a rogue changeling shouts.

“What the buck?!” Lightning Dust shrieks.

“Ah! Holy Shit!” B2 shrieks as he, Luna, Humbra and the rest of Hope’s group back away from the stairway exit as a horde of shadowy entities swarm into the prison.

“Uh-Uh-Uh…” Thorax stammers as many in the room panic.

The CMC and Outcasts however have a different reaction.

“Nightshade!” they all say in unison.

“That’s right!” the filly’s voice declares as she suddenly leaps into view amidst the monsters. “Don’t worry everyling I’ve come to…save…you?”

She trails off as she sees all of the changelings beat up, and everyone else just standing around in surprise and fear of her minions.

“Nightshade! Don’t just go announcing yourself like that!” Bugze’s voice says from up the stairs.

“It’s alright Dad, I guess the situation’s already taken care of,” she calls back up.

“What?!” Bugze declares as he next enters the room.

You thought she was boasting, but as you walk in and take in the scene, you see that her words were pretty accurate.

“…Well I’ll be gorramned,” you whistle, feeling impressed. The trip from the throne room to here was anything but uneventful. Sure there were a bunch of drunken changelings that were easily dispatched by Nightshade’s minions, but there were still plenty of sober and alert ones that you ran into thanks to Selena’s battle outside. Thankfully, the humans with their magic crystals working in conjunction with you, Sunset and Shade and her shadows were able to cleave a path through them in the confusion.

You thought there was going to be a long period where you all had to painstakingly awake everyone from their cocoons and defend your position from Pharynx who you had not run into. Walking in on this scene however is a pleasant surprise.

A whole squad of upper tier drones, including Pharynx himself are knocked out and on the floor, and you know it’s not from Shade’s minions. The ones who look like they’ve been through a scuffle are Hope’s friends, The Wanted, Grandbuggy, and of course Mangle. On top of that, all of the prisoners aside from The Black Suns have been freed.

Then, in one fell swoop, everyone speaks at once.

“Hooded Offender?!” Thorax and Hope’s friends all say in surprise.

“Hooded Offender?!” the guards and maids shriek.

“Nightshade!” the CMC and Outcasts shout.

“Bugze!” Mia, Aqua, The Wanted and The Dazzlings shout.

“Nightmare Moon?!” other guards and maids say looking at Shade.

“Boyo, Kiddo,” Grandbuggy says with a smirk.

“Donkey!” both Pinkies shout with a giggle from back up the stairs for some reason.

The ringing of so many voices makes you flinch for a moment, but you shake your head.

“Ah gods, yes, yes it’s us!” you shout covering your ears.

“It sure is, though I’m not Nightmare Moon ya idiots,” Nightshade giggles before looking to her minions. “Alright, you lot go bring in the others and quit scaring the prisoners.”

The minions all salute before melting with the many shadows and many of the hostages shudder.

“That’s still incredibly freaky,” Diamond Tiara mutters.

“Wait, those things are under her control?” asks a guard.

“Yes, there’s no need to worry,” Thorax nods.

“Oh there’s plenty of reasons to worry, but that can wait for a moment. Mangle!” Nightshade shrieks as she rushes up and hugs the giant two headed abomination against nature.

“Skreonk,” the robot fox barks as she hugs her master.

“Good girl Mangle, good girl. Way to stomp these losers out,” she congratulates as she snuggles it.

“Hey, we did most of the work kiddo,” Grandbuggy grunts.

“Yeah, that thing didn’t show up till towards the end of the fight,” Lightning Dust agrees.

“She’s still a good girl Dust!” Nightshade counters, causing the mare to flinch.

“Of course she runs right to the robot,” Ember rolls her eyes. “It’s like we’re not even-“

“Oh calm your nips Princess, I haven’t forgotten about you,” Nightshade laughs as she suddenly flies over and starts hugging Ember who freezes.

“…Who said I wanted this?” she says in true tsundere fashion.

“Anyone with a brain stem,” Greta laughs as she joins in on hugging your daughter. “Good to see ya again Shade.”

“Si, it sure is,” Ahuizotl joins in, patting her on the head with his tail hand and looking over to Grandbuggy. “Good to see your wrinkly butt too Fix.”

“Same to you ugly,” Grandbuggy chuckles as the CMC all join in on hugging Nightshade.

And while many daaawww at that moment, you are swarmed by your own little group.

“Oh Bugze, it was super scary!” Sonata says as she wraps her tail around you.

“Ack!” you sputter for air as the other two Sirens surround you.

“Yeah, some giant bug knocked us all out and then we woke up in these sacks,” Aria says.

“Which is such a pain on my hair!” Adagio complains.

“Yeah, well we’re trying to fix that,” you say as you struggle to breathe.

“Ease up dummy, you’re choking him out again,” Aria scolds Sonata.

“Whoops! Sorry Bugze,” the blue siren apologizes with a sheepish giggle as she loosens her grip.

“Thanks,” you say taking a breath. “I’m glad to see you all are alright.”

“Eh, we’re okay if anything,” Adagio corrects. “Our vision’s are all blurry and I feel like that time we unknowingly drank human booze.”

“Oh gods, don’t remind me of that,” Aria says, squinting her eyes tight and holding her gut.

“I still say that was a fun night,” Sonata says cheerfully.

“Yeah because you have insane alcohol tolerance for whatever reason,” Adagio grunts before sighing and looking back to you. “But yeah, we’re fine. We’d be a lot better with our Stones though, but that cat snake thing with the Mexicoltan accent says they might have been drained?”

“Uh, I don’t know really I-“ you start to explain, before you are swarmed once more, this time by two mares.

“You dang blockhead! Aren’t you a site for sore eyes!” Aqua giggles as she starts bear hugging you. “Literally, my eyes feel heavy!”

“Yes, it’s been far too long Bugze. I hope your trip to the other dimension wasn’t too much of a hassle,” Mia says squeezing you as well.

“Oh, it was,” you say truthfully as you wriggle out of the two mare’s grip. “But yeah, it’s good to see you guys too. Been busy with Torchwood stuff?”

“Oh you could say that,” Aqua chuckles.

“Did she just say Torchwood? Like from Doctor Who?” Humbra pipes up as he, Hu-Luna and B2 walk up.

“I have no idea, is that some sort of nerd stuff?” Luna insults and the bald unicorn frowns.

“It’s about a time traveling alien, which is apparently a real thing in this world,” B2 chuckles before looking to you. “Hey Bugze, long time no see.”

“Uh…yeah, I guess,” you say in shock as you look your double up and down. He is you almost to a T, except for the missing scars…oh and he’s currently hovering using his wings.

“…How are you doing that?!” you demand angrily.

“What? Flying? I don’t know, I’m kind of still trying to get the hang of it,” he says as he transforms into an owl. “See, this feels more natural for some reason.”

Your jaw gapes like a fish as the human you effortless transforms back into his form and lands.

“That…that…that is SO not fair!” you yell.

“What’s not fair?” asks Princess Celestia as she is led in by Sunset Shimmer, and followed by the rest.

“That! That isn’t fair! I’ve never been able to fly or transform, but a bucking human me can?! What sense does that make?!” you ramble on…until you realize your audience isn’t really listening to you. Looking back at the Princesses and the rest, you see that just like you were earlier, they are awed by the site before them, though each of them has it for different reasons.

Celestia and Luna are staring slack jawed at Hu-Luna, Cadence and Shining are looking at Mia as if they’ve forgotten something as she does the same back, and the rest are looking between you and B2. Well, aside from Pinkie and Dash (Ponies), who interrupt the moment of shock by laughing their flanks off and pointing at Humbra.

“Oh my gosh! He’s so bald! Bwahahahaha!!!” Po-Dash guffaws.

“His dome is shinier than Cranky’s! Ahahahahahahahaa!” Pinkie laughs, which gets the Human Pinkie to follow suit. Humbra for is his part, takes it pretty well.

“Oh screw you ya sprinkle colored horse bitches!”

Yup, relatively well.

But as the cranky old man grumbles, Hu-Luna looks right at Celestia and Po-Luna.

“Hmmph, even in this world Celestia’s taller than me,” she notes before shrugging. “But ah well, I like the other me’s color scheme better. How are you making your hair do that by the way?”

The alicorn sisters are at a loss for words for a moment, and you can understand why. Hu-Luna’s mane isn’t moving, and she has no wings, but otherwise, she is an exact match.

“Why don’t you have wings?” asks Po-Luna abrasively.

“Luna!” Celestia chides.

“What?! You were thinking it too!”

“Yes, but that’s very rude!” the older sister scolds.

“Oh whatever! Where’s your wings, and where is other Celestia? Is she just a unicorn too?”

“…Wow, it’s weird hearing us argue from a different perspective,” Hu-Luna says before coughing. “And I don’t know, I came through like this. As for my sister she chose to stay behind because getting involved with anything relating to &$#%@ is a headache for her.”

“Wait, isn’t that-“

“I told you babe, call me Bugze from now on…or at least when original Bugze isn’t around,” B2 says as he wraps a hoof around Hu-Luna’s neck. “Hi, you can call me B2 for now. And wow, this Luna looks a lot more like you than the version that was in Bugze’s head.”

“I know right? That one had my costume colors, but this one matches my skin tone a lot better.”

And while the Princesses look on disturbed as they see just how close B2 and Hu-Luna are, Mia and Shining and Cadence converse.

“I’m sorry, but have we met before?” asks Cadence curiously.

“I was just about to ask the same thing,” Shining says as he looks the dark pink mare up and down.

“I don’t believe we’ve met in person Princess Cadence…but I get the feeling, you do seem rather familiar to me,” Mia says quizzically before Aqua steps in.

“Hi you two, this here is Mia, she works with me and Jack at Torchwood.”

“Oh, OH! That must be why you seem familiar. Jack has spoken about you before,” Cadence laughs.

“Huh, Yeah, that must be it,” Shining nods and chuckles.

“Oh, I hope he didn’t tell you too much,” Mia says looking away in embarrassment. As she does, none of the three notice as Aqua sighs in relief.

I guess the memory rewrite and the Doctor’s geass are still going strong, you realize as the two different versions of Cadence don’t dig any deeper. Good thing Nightshade didn’t bring Humie Cadence, or this could have gotten out of hoof.

And while all sides mingle, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo dizzily make their way towards the group.

Each one of them calls out to their respective sisters, but then pause as two pairs of each respond to them.

“Uhhh…” they all stammer.

“Oh my gosh! Sweetie Belle, you look so adorable as a little pony,” Hu-Rarity squees.

“Heh, rocking that bow even in this world, you go girl,” Hu-Jack chuckles.

“Heh, you still look tough even as a horse squirt,” Hu-Dash compliments.

And while Shade’s three friends stare like deer caught in headlights, their actual pony sisters scoop them up and hug and fawn over them.

“What’s going on?” Applebloom asks the million dollar question.

“They’re humans,” you explain bluntly.

“Huh?” asks Scootaloo.

“My dad made friends with a bunch of human versions of us in the other dimension. I went through to help us save everyone,” Nightshade interjects.

“Well it’s not like you really needed us, what with all your shadow dudes,” Hu-Dash says and Nightshade rolls her eyes.

“You guys still punched a lot of changelings. Besides, I didn’t know I was able to let the boys out because the last time I did, the Crystal Heart tried to fry me.”

“Yeah, well I bet if I wasn’t all sick, me and human me would have kicked way more butt against the changelings,” Po-Dash brags.

“Oh for sure. Double the Rainbow power baby!” Hu-Dash brags.

“Great, now there’s two of them,” Lightning Dust grumbles, which gets the attention of Po-Dash. She looks shocked at first before quickly glaring at her former team mate.

“Lightning Dust?! What are YOU doing here?” she accuses.

“I came here to kick your flank for getting me kicked out of the Wonderbolts, but that’s been put on hold because everything’s gone crazy!” Lightning spits.

“Huh?” Po-Dash sputters before you start to explain.

“Yeah, apparently she, that minotaur and those EVIL Machine™ worshipers were teamed up with Sombra’s girlfriend to help subdue you guys, but then Chrysalis jumped the gun and took us out easily.”

The Deadly 6 and Princesses all seem scandalized by that as they give glares to Hope’s group.

“But-BUT they are helping us now! Don’t leave that part out Daddy!” Nightshade scolds.

“I was getting to that,” you defend, but even with that info out, there’s still some resentment.

Applejack is trying to glare a hole through Flim and Flam who sweat nervously and tug at their collars, and of course Rainbow Dash still has some mutual animosity with Lightning Dust, but Iron Will on the other hand steps forward.

“Ms. Fluttershy?” he says speaking in a gentler tone.

“Yes?” she says back like a teacher to a student who’s been disobedient.

“I apologize for holding ill will towards you,” he says which dumbfounds the pegasus. “My motivational seminars hadn’t been bringing in any money after my trip to Ponyville, which has led to some familial problems on my end, and I erroneously blamed you. I’m sorry for taking part in all this.”

“Oh, okay then,” Fluttershy nods. “I forgive you, just so long as you don’t do it again and help all these ponies and other creatures.”

“Already on it Ms. Shy,” Iron Will salutes.

“…Really? That easily Fluttershy?” you ask her and she giggles.

“Of course Hoody. I’ve learned a lot these last few months that holding onto anger can make you a very bitter person,” she says giving you a sincere smile.

“You? Bitter?” you ask in disbelief and she nods.

“Yes. I resented Selena for so long because I was…jealous,” she says while looking away in embarrassment. “And I came to realize that I had a nasty temperament because of that. I was no better than those that chose not to see your goodness for so long.”

“Fluttershy…” you try to comfort and she shakes her head.

“It’s okay, now that I’ve recognized that, it’ll be easier for me to change for the better. I mean, look how controlled and confident Human me is,” she says pointing to Hu-Shy who hasn’t said a word this entire time. “That’s something I should work towards.”

You quirk a brow at that as you follow her line of sight and see that she is looking directly at Ember. You recall from four years ago how Fluttershy was deathly afraid of dragons, and you realize Hu-Shy is frozen in fear.

“Yeah…well good luck with that Fluttershy, and know that I’m very proud of you,” you say, which causes her to squeak and tuck herself under her hair in embarrassment.

“Th-thank you…” she stutters, which causes you to smirk.

“Having a big ol reunion huh?” Grandbuggy says clapping you on the back. “I don’t blame ya, we kind of had one right before ya’ll got here.”

“Yeah, well it’s better with me right?” you chuckle as you hug Grandbuggy. “It’s good to see ya awake and alright ya old fart.”

“All thanks to you boyo. Thanks for not letting me get beaten till the candy fell out,” he says gently, rubbing at your mane.

“Any time Grandbuggy, anytime,” you say truthfully. “But yeah, reunion aside we’re all grouped up again right?”

“Well, not everyone’s here. Have you seen our parents?” asks a disheartened Diamond Tiara with an equally upset looking Silver Spoon.

“I’m pretty sure they’re in the group outside the palace,” Nightshade informs as she pats her friends on the back.

“There are others out there?” asks a random guard.

“Well duh, you think they crammed a whole city in one dungeon?” Greta says rolling her eyes.

“Well, then what are we to do?” asks the same guard.

“We should still stick to Senor Thorax’s plan,” Ahuizotl chimes in. “Many of us are still weak and we need to evacuate.”

“Which we’ve been trying to do for like a million times!” Aria huffs impatiently.

“Yeah, which should be easier now that back up’s arrived,” Daring Do says with a nod.

“Well, we aren’t so much back up as we were transporting our own weakened,” you admit. “Even with the dampeners down, the Princesses need to rest and gather their strength.”

“Wait, even with the dampeners down? You mean they’ve been turned off?!” asks Thorax in surprise.

“Well yeah, what did you think I had my boys doing as we came down here?” Nightshade says matter of factly.

To test this, many of the unicorn guards alight their horns, though they groan at the effort.

“Easy my little ponies, don’t strain yourselves,” Celestia orders. “You must conserve your strength if we are to evacuate.”

“Yes, we without strength need to focus on movement. Those that can fight will escort us,” Luna says.

“But what about the other captives not down here?” asks a maid.

“We aren’t going to abandon them,” Cadence says with authority. “Right now we need to get who we can to the train, including the other captives.”

“The Crystal Ponies that haven’t been drained though will help us to power the Crystal Heart once we place it back on it’s pedestal,” Shining adds.

“Which hopefully I’ll be far away from because that thing hurts,” Shade says patting at her shards. “Good thing Sombra’s outside the city, cause that thing would destroy him.”

“Wait, what?” asks B2 in surprise.

“Yeah, the Crystal Heart is like his Kryptonite when it’s fully powered,” you explain.

“Well hell, is that gonna hurt me?” asks Humbra suddenly feeling nervous.

“I don’t believe so Human Sombra. Your horn is that of a normal unicorn’s after all,” says Po-Luna.

“Well either way, some Sombra is gonna get hurt. He ain’t in the wastes right now,” Grandbuggy interrupts.

“He’s not?” Nightshade asks in surprise.

“Nah, he was just here with his gal not 5 minutes ago. They came in with Mangle out of some secret tunnel and left after the fight was over through another secret entrance somewhere around the corner,” he explains. “Sounded like he had a plan to help get the Hive out of the city.”

“Well crap, we can’t activate the Crystal Heart if he’s still here, he’ll die!” you shout in frustration. “Someling needs to warn him.”

“But we can’t exactly spare anypony,” Twilight says, sounding a bit guilty. “We’ve got too many weakened ponies to look over.”

“Ahem! I’ve got plenty of helpers, remember?” Nightshade reminds as she whistles and suddenly that imp in the army helmet reappears.

“Yes Mistress?”

“Bob, I need you to go and find Sombra!” she orders.

“There he is,” the imp says pointing to Humbra with a smirk.

“Oh don’t be a smart flank, I’m talking about the real Sombra, the one with the red horn,” she scolds and the imp laughs.

“Very well Mistress. And what shall I do once I find him?” he inquires.

“Let him know that we’re gonna eventually activate the Crystal Heart, so tell him to hurry up with whatever plan he’s got and get out fast!” she orders.

“Roger roger!” the imp salutes as he melts into the shadows.

“There, at least he won’t be in the dark now,” you sigh in relief before looking back to Cadence. “We’ll wait till we hear back from Nightshade’s tartarus-spawn before we go activating that love laser okay?”

“Very well then,” Cadence nods.

“I call dibs on putting it in place again,” Spike volunteers raising his claw and all of the crystal ponies in the group all start murmuring their support for that idea.

“Yeah, alright Spike, but only when we say it’s alright,” Shining stipulates.

“Sweet!” Spike says excitedly.

“Now all we have to do is…slog our way through an army of changelings while on an escort mission,” you sigh, not looking forward to that battle now that you’ve been weakened.

“Hmm, I don’t think it would help much if we carried everyone in our Inventories would it?” asks Nightshade.

“I’m pretty sure dozens and dozens of ponies would be pushing what these things can hold honey,” you point out. “As big as the inside is, there’s still limited space.”

“Yeah…unless they were all in one convenient location!” Nightshade says suddenly as a lightbulb goes off above her head.

“What, like with everyone sitting on each other’s laps or something?” Ember asks, confused by her train of thought.

“Nope! Even better!” your daughter says as she takes her inventory off, turns it upside down…and suddenly a crystalline horseshoe mirror comes falling out of it and onto the ground.

It’s become repetition at this point, but everyone in this room goes silent as they view something unexpected once more.

“…You shoved the mirror inside your saddlebags?” Sunset says after gaping like a fish.

“Yup, right after Mom ran off to beat up Chrysalis after we came through,” Nightshade nods.

“THAT IS A STATISTICAL IMPOSSIBILITY!!!” Human Twilight shriek as she holds her head.

“Why though? I clearly did it,” she says gesturing to the mystical portal.

“The opening of your saddlebags…how…?” Hu-Twi sputters before Hu-Jack puts a hoof on her shoulder.

“It’s magic Twi,” she placates.

“But even magic can be quantified and-“ she starts to rant before Po-Twilight interrupts.

“If it helps, even I don’t quite understand it. It’s special magic the likes that isn’t seen that often.”

“But-“

“Hold your butts for later, because I’ve got this here portal, and thanks to Flim and Flam we can use it to transport all these weakened ponies,” she announces. Once again, there is a moment of silence as everyone considers that.

“Oh…OH! That’s clever Nightshade!” Aqua says rubbing at the filly’s mane.

“I know, right?” she brags before looking back to everyone else. “We send everyone who can’t fight into the human world, and then all we have to do is transport the mirror and release everyone once it’s safe again.”

“That’s an awesome plan Nightshade!” you exclaim.

“Heh, just like when we evacuated everyone into the TARDIS, pretty clever little lady,” Grandbuggy agrees.

“That would negate much of the risk of the evacuation,” Luna nods.

“And it would allow them to recover faster with the time dilation…” Celestia nods.

“I’m sure Principal Celestia is gonna have some words with a lot of refugees suddenly appearing in front of the school, but it could work,” Sunset concludes and everyone seems to be on board with the plan.

“Of course it will work,” Nightshade smirks before looking to the Flim Flam brothers. “Alright swindlers, do your thing, and for the love of the gods, make sure it’s dialed in right this time.”

“It is, it is, we have the coordinates down this time,” the brothers say in unison, rolling their eyes as they take out a remote looking do-hickey and press a button, making the mirror ripple like water.

“Honey, I love your ingenuity,” you praise before looking to the prisoners. “Alright everypony, single file line, get into the magical interdimensional wormhole in a calm collected manner!”

The captives are understandably a bit hesitant, but once the Princesses all acknowledge that order, they begin to line up.

“I could make sure that things run a bit smoothly on the other side since I’ve gone through it before,” Po-Twilight suggests.

“Shouldn’t we be the ones to show them around since it’s our world?” asks Hu-Rarity.

“No, we still need you guys on this side. We’re gonna still need help freeing others and getting them into the mirror and on the train after all,” you point out.

“So I’m guessing that means we’re still in on this?” asks Humbra.

“Of course man! How often do you get the chance to do magic?!” B2 says excitedly, turning into a mountain lion. And while your eye twitches at that, Hu-Luna agrees.

“We’re still at the top of our games, so we need to help out,” she orders.

“Alright, alright, no need to bite my head off, I was just asking,” Humbra defends.

“My sister and I are not at full, but we are recovering steadily now that the dampeners are down,” Celestia says, and you can see that she’s already looking better.

“I’m feeling better too, and the crystal ponies will need me to tell them when to give the Heart love,” Cadence says.

“So who’s all going and who’s all staying?” asks Ember and everyone looks to you, Nightshade and Grandbuggy for orders.

…Okay, that’s a weird feeling, you shudder over being depended on. But after that thought, you look between your daughter and Grandbug before announcing your decision.

“All the humans and Sunset are staying. Princesses Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Twilight are with us since it will make the other captive’s evacuation go more smoothly,” you declare.

“Wait, you want me here?” Princess Twilight asks in surprise.

“Yes, you’re an alicorn and are recovering just as fast as the others. Plus, we’ll no doubt need your brains soon enough,” you answer. “Besides, if you’re worried about others acclimating, the Dazzlings got that covered.”

“I…okay, that is logical,” she says after thinking it over. You nod your head in affirmative before looking to the the rest of the Deadly 6, Shining Armor, The Dazzlings, The Outcasts, Hope’s Friends, and Torchwood.

“You lot take some time to gather your strength as hummies. Flim and Flam, you’ll have to be on that side to make sure the portal stays stable, and as for Iron Will and Lightning Dust, I’ll give you the choice whether to stay or go. It might very well be a day or two for you guys over there by the time we get things going, but stay on standbye when you’re all rested,” you order as if you’ve done this a thousand times.

“Iron Will will be at your beck and call Offender, I’ve still gotta help clean up this mess I helped make.”

“And I’ll stick around, to show how much more useful I am than Rainbow Dash,” Lightning Dust boasts, and several creatures roll their eyes. Po-Dash actually leans into Twilight’s ear and whispers,

“Beat up ten times more changelings than her would ya?”

“I’ll try,” she says with a sad smile. “I just wish you girls could be with me as I did so.”

“Darling, we need to gather our strength, so we’d be useless as we are now,” Rarity reassures her.

“Mhmm,” Fluttershy agrees. “But at least you’ll have the human versions of us helping.”

“Yes I know that, but that’s a problem in and of it’s own,” Twilight sighs before looking guiltily over at her human friends. “I’m so sorry that you girls had to get caught up in my world’s problems again.”

“Don’t sweat it none sugarcube, we knew what we were signing up for,” Hu-Jack reassures.

“Yeah, we aren’t going to just leave friends hanging like that,” Hu-Dash agrees.

“Yes, of course we’d help,” Hu-Shy nods.

“It’s only the right thing to do,” Hu-Rarity shrugs.

“You ponies will have a great time over there, just don’t assimilate too much to the point where you’ll never want to return and completely take over our lives and fight us over who gets to be the true versions of ourselves…” Hu-Pinkie says, sounding rather ominous.

“Right, and you don’t do the same,” Po-Pinkie agrees patting her on the back. This actually gets Princess Twilight to smile, before she looks to her human counterpart.

“Hey, if it’s a problem that needs to be solved, two Twilights are better than one right?” Sci-Twi shrugs and they both laugh.

“Don’t fret Twilight, these girls are my friends too and now that I’m somehow ascended, I’m not going to let them get hurt if I can help it,” Sunset says resolutely.

“Do you even know how to use those wings?” asks Nightshade.

“…Nope,” Sunset answers simply. And while Nightshade says how she’ll show her the ropes, others are saying their goodbyes.

“Are you sure you won’t need me Cady?” asks Shining reluctantly.

“I’ll always need you, but I need you to get your strength back Shiney,” she says tenderly to her husband as they share a quick kiss, which everyone averts their gaze from.

“I don’t know if I want to go back or not, we literally just got home,” Adagio complains.

“Yeah, but I’d rather wait it out as a human and enter when things aren’t crazy,” Aria argues.

“Also when I’m not feeling super tired,” Sonata nods.

“That too,” Aria agrees.

“It’ll just be for a bit girls,” you tell them calmly. “I still have my promise to keep to you after all. But right now, you three are the only ones with experience being humans, and are going to have to look over the others.”

“Oh great, a babysitting job,” Adagio scoffs playfully.

“And some of them are kind of baby age,” Sonata points out towards the CMC. Giving one more sigh, Aria shrugs and says,

“Alright, we’ll keep an eye on everyone. But you better come back for us soon ya hear?”

You smile and pat her on the head.

“I plan to,” you say truthfully.

“You come back in one piece too dad,” Adagio says over towards The Wanted.

“I’m Not Your Father!!!” Humbra roars in anguish as the siren smiles trollishly.

Over with The Outcasts, Grandbuggy and Nightshade are being given well wishes too.

“We’ll be at the ready if you need us Fix,” Ahuizotl says stoically.

“Heh, ya better be,” Grandbuggy chuckles as they shake their forelimbs. “I still gotta officiate yours and Daring’s ceremony when ya finally decide to get hitched.”

“Bwah?! I-we-I haven’t” the giant cat creature stammers, looking left and right with a blush as the old bug cackles, but they are ignored by the others thankfully.

“So Garble is with that little ice pony out in the tundra?” asks Ember.

“Yeah, last I saw him that’s where they were headed. I don’t think he would have been dumb enough to follow Sombra,” Nightshade admits.

“He is that dumb, but I’m sure if he felt like we do he’d be staying put,” Greta theorizes.

“Good point,” Ember nods. “But still, make sure he gets out safely too would ya?”

“Already planned on it princess,” Nightshade says with a toothy grin.

“Just be careful Nightshade,” Greta says with worry. “I know you’re tough enough, but that is a lot of enemies out there.”

“Yeah, don’t go overboard with those shadow guys and go nuts again,” Ember smirks.

“I won’t girls, I’ll have Spike with me after all to calm me down,” Nightshade says confidently.

“Uh, I didn’t hear his name in the list of creatures staying,” Daring Do points out.

“Right, so don’t be a snitch,” Nightshade shushes. “I’m going to have him be in my inventory and look over the mirror, and if things go too crazy with the amulet, he’ll pull me out of it.”

After a few more conversations between the various ponies/creatures, The Elements sans Twilight finally head the front of the line in front of the mirror, before looking back to you all.

“Good luck to you everyone,” Fluttershy says before looking you right in the eye. “Keep them safe Bugze.”

“I was just about to say the same to you Fluttershy,” you smirk and wave. “Watch out for buses.”

She smiles at that, before she and the others are forcefully pushed through the portal by the three sirens.

“Hurry it up already, we don’t have all day!” Adagio says impatiently as she and her sisters follow suit into the portal. They are soon followed by Shining Armor, Mia, Aqua, The Outcasts, CMC, and the rest of the captives, though for some reason you don’t see Spike enter, but you chalk that up to him probably being caught up in the crowd.

Once the last ponies have gone through, Flim and Flam give their own good lucks to you all before stepping in. Nightshade then immediately flies up, puts the opening of her inventory over the top of the mirror, and drags the bag down, enveloping the whole thing.

Human Twilight just sighs at this, rubbing her temple once more as B2 and Humbra chuckle about how awesome that was.

“Yeah, my sister’s gonna flip for sure,” Hu-Luna chuckles before looking to her alicorn counterpart. “I mean, wouldn’t yours if an entire group of drugged folks landed on her doorstep?”

“Heh heh, I believe she would,” Luna snickers and Celestia rolls her eyes.

“Not to mention they’re gonna be stumbling all over the place trying to figure out feet,” you say, remembering your terrible first moments in the human realm.

“The Dazzlings will be able to get them all situated,” Nightshade says confidently.

“Yeah, they’ve got good heads on their shoulders when they’re not arguing,” you say with a chuckle.

“That they do,” Sunset nods before looking back to you. “So, shall we get moving?”

As soon as she says that, there is a rumble in the ground and a bit of dust falls on your head.

“Yeah, I think that would be a good idea just in case Selly collapses the whole palace onto Chrysalis,” you say nervously.

“She would too,” Nightshade nods and looks to Thorax. “Thanks again for waking everyling up, that made things go a lot quicker.”

“Well, I did what I could,” he shrugs before gesturing to himself and the other three rogues. “But since there isn’t anyone to transport anymore, we’ll part ways with you now.”

“What? You don’t want to tag along?” Princess Twilight inquires and he shrinks.

“I mean, you all know where the flugelhorn room is, and the magic dampeners are down now,” he reminds. “I’m no fighter, and me and the others have got work to do.”

He then walks over and picks his brother up, before putting him over his back.

“Really twig? Even after everything?” asks Grandbuggy.

“Yes…he’s still my brother after all,” Thorax nods. “And like Nightshade said, her mom could bring this whole place down on them.”

You look to the other rogue changelings who are helping move the beaten loyalists and your heart goes out to them. You’re no stranger in trying to help those that had hurt you after all.

“Alright, if that’s your decision,” you relent, before smiling at him. “But again, thanks for everything.”

“Yes, we won’t forget this kindness,” Cadence says to the skinny changeling, who blushes in embarrassment.

“Oh, it wasn’t anything…not at all,” he says humbly.

“A little bit of kindness makes the biggest difference in the world,” Hu-Shy says sagely.

“I…you’re welcome. Thank you for everything as well Hooded Offender,” he gives in and smiles. “Now hurry up, go before any others show up.”

Nodding in agreement, you look to the Human Deadly 6, the Princesses, Iron Will, Lightning Dust, Grandbuggy, Nightshade, and finally Sunset Shimmer.

“Let’s go save some more prisoners,” you order.

And while your group heads forward into your next objective…

Principal Celestia stands gobsmacked in the entrance of Canterlot High as countless people who look and sound drunk stumble around in her courtyard. Many are looking at their hands in fascination, others are trying and failing to get to their feet, while others are trying to walk on all fours.

She looks back down to the only people standing up with no problem, the three singer girls who she allowed to hypnotize the entire student body a few weeks back.

“…Magic stuff?” she asks.

“Magic stuff,” Adagio answers simply.

“And my sister and the others are…?”

“Fighting giant bugs to save hostages,” Aria responds. “And there’s probably going to be more on the way.”

The older woman sighs, pulls out her flask and takes three big swigs from it.

“Ahhh,” she exhales before pocketing the flask. “Right, let’s get them all to the cafeteria I suppose, there should still be enough tots left over to warm up.”

“Woohoo! Tater Tots!” Sonata cheers.

Not too far away, Ahuizotl starts standing on two feet like a champ.

“You know, this wasn’t as hard as they made it out to be,” he says causally, standing well over a head taller than everyone else, including principal Celestia.

“You had an advantage Ahuizotl!” Daring Do grunts as she leans against him for support.

“True, though I do miss my tail. I feel naked without it,” he whines.

“You’re always usually naked though, we all are,” Greta says wobbling in place. “I wanna know where these clothes came from.”

“And I wanna know why the Buck I’m a Bucking Dog!” a blue Dalmatian barks angrily.

“Hmm, fascinating,” Flim says as he and his brother jot down notes while the rest laugh at the miffed Ember.

“So far, dragons are the outlier for interdimensional travel,” Flam notes.

“Ha ha, I always wanted a dog,” Greta mocks.

“QUIT PETTING ME!!!” Ember howls.

“I kind of want to get in on that,” Fluttershy says, crawling on her hands and knees.

“I think we should worry about being another species first Shy!” Dash says rolling around. “Not having wings is freaking weird!”

“I do miss my horn, but this skin of mine is very soft and supple,” Rarity praises poking at her new body.

“I think I prefer good ol hard hooves over these things,” Applejack exposits, opening and closing her fists.

“Eh, I think I could used to these,” Pinkie Pie giggles as she starts making shadow figures using her new hands.

“I NEED AN ADULT!” Ember bellows as now Fluttershy starts petting her.

The trip through the palace to the secret passage wasn’t all that eventful. There were a few more changelings guards which were quickly overwhelmed by your superior fire power, but once you went through the Flugelhorn room all went smoothly as you made it out into the snowy streets of the city. And you do mean snowy.

It’s so cold outside that you needed to put on the Nobody Cloak. Full blooded changelings don’t feel the cold so much, but you do, as do most of the members in your party outside the alicorns. To the humans turned ponies and Nightshade, you’ve divvied up some of your digs to keep them warm.

Rainbow Dash is wearing your Vash coat.
Pinkie Pie is wearing the deadpool T-shirt.
Rarity is wearing the El Hunko suit.
Sci-Twi is wearing the brown overcoat from your BST outfit.
Applejack is managing well with your human Jojo jacket despite it not being made for ponies.
Fluttershy is wearing the Smokey Joe rain slicker and bandana,
And Nightshade has got the 4^th Doctor scarf wrapped around herself.

REMOVED FROM THE INVENTORIES

4^th Doctor Scarf (BST)
Brown Overcoat (BST)
Deadpool Shirt (CV)
El Hunko Outfit
JoJo Jacket (Human)
Smokey Joe Outfit (Human)
Vash the Stampede coat (CV)

With everyone sufficiently protected from the cold, you moved on. Here and there, you’ve seen impact craters, damaged structures and completely obliterated buildings that could only have come from Selena and Chrysalis’s fight, which you all can still hear amidst the billowing winds and snowfall.

“Damn son, your old lady sure has a score to settle if this is the fallout from her cat fight,” B2 whistles impressed.

“Yeah, well, she’s held a grudge against Chrysalis for like two years, so…” you shrug sheepishly.

“Oh I can understand that perfectly,” Hu-Luna growls softly.

“You have hatred for your world’s Chrysalis?” asks Po-Luna and the unicorn version’s eye twitches.

“You could say that, now that I know the truth of what she did to my man and drove a wedge through our lives for well over a decade,” she seethes. “If I get the chance, I will march right on that singing reality show she helps “judge” and put her face through a wall on national television!”

“…I don’t know what reality show or national television is, but I can see your tenacity,” Po-Luna shudders, taking a few steps back.

“And the best part is she’s not kidding,” B2 chimes in nuzzling Hu-Luna’s neck. “I would pay good money to see it too babe.”

“Heh heh, that tickles,” Hu-Luna giggles and Po-Luna takes another step back.

“…I truly am not going to be able to fathom this pairing,” she says wearily.

“Join the club sister,” Celestia shivers, wishing for a drink.

The reason everyone is so candid in speaking is that you have not seen a patrol at all since exiting the palace. It’s not hard to imagine where all the drone’s attention are at with the sound of destruction going on and everything.

Even if we hadn’t shoved everyling into the Human World, we could have marched like a parade down these streets and not been caught, you think hypothetically.

Eventually though, you do come across some dark figures amidst the snow and you all halt and begin creeping up on them.

There are about 8 changelings, and they are standing around something on the ground.

“Hmmm, can’t quite see what they’re fussing with,” you whisper to the others. “Anyling got any binoculars?”

“Nope,” Hu-jack shakes her head as everyone else does too.

“Dang it, why not?” you ask.

“Bugze, most of us have been cocooned for several days,” Princess Twilight reminds you.

“And the rest of us literally came right out of school,” Hu-Rarity adds before looking to Pinkie Pie. “Unless…?”

“Nah, sorry. All my emergency caches are back home and I have no idea where Pony Pinkie’s are,” the pink girl apologizes.

“Shoot…Oh wait a second,” you say as you suddenly reach into Nightshade’s inventory.

“Hey! What are you-“ she starts but you interrupt her.

“I think your Junk Jet had a scope on it,” you say as you grab something and pull it out. But what you pull out is scaley and purple. Everyone pauses as you and the confused purple dragon stare at each other eye to eye while your daughter squirms nervously.

“…You’re not a Junk Jet,” you say finally.

“Um…I never said I was?” Spike laughs nervously.

“Spike! What are you still doing here?” asks a shocked Po-Twilight.

“Uh, guarding the portal like Nightshade told me to do?” he guesses and you all frown as he laughs sheepishly.

“Yeah, I did tell him to do that,” Nightshade chimes in looking left and right.

“…Whatever,” you roll your eyes and set the dragon on Twilight’s back, before glaring at Nightshade.

“What?” she says defiantly and you keep staring. “Look, I don’t have the Junk Jet or a lot of my weapons any more. I gave them to my friends at the stadium and they got lost after they all got jumped by changelings.”

When you continue to say nothing and just stare at her, she begins to sweat a little.

“Um, can’t you enhance your vision dad?” she says trying to change the subject. “Or did that get taken away too?”

“Huh? What are you…Oh, Right!” you grunt, bopping yourself on the forehead. “Sight Beyond Sight! I haven’t used that in a dog’s age. Thanks honey.”

And with that you turn and activate your telescopic vision towards the changelings, and you faintly hear Nightshade chuckle in triumph.

“Heh heh, too easy.”

As your vision tunnels, the changelings suddenly look like they are right in front of you…and you see what’s on the ground.

“Oh mother bucker!” you growl.

“What? What is it?” Nightshade asks.

“Those drones are tending to 6 changelings that have been drained of their love!” you hiss, disgusted by the act.

“Oh you gotta be kidding me!” Grandbuggy seethes gritting his teeth.

“What? What does that mean?” asks Hu-Twilight.

“Love is the life force of a changeling, and that was drained from them,” Cadence explains with a worried frown.

“Whoa, isn’t that like, cannibalism?” B2 asks, sounding squicked out.

“It is cannibalism!” you gag and shake your head from the image. “And considering all the destruction around, the culprit isn’t too hard to figure out.”

“Nooooo!!!” Spike suddenly screams in anguish.

“This is absolutely unforgiveable!” Nightshade growls.

“I know kids, I know,” you sigh with sympathy. “It was bad enough she was feeding from herself, but this kind of emotional feeding is taboo and restricted because it’s disgu-“

“M-Maybe we can glue it back together?” Spike all but pleads.

“I don’t know if glue can fix this Spikey. It might be cheaper just to build another one,” Nightshade says in a comforting tone.

“Huh?” you say in bafflement as you turn around…and see them looking over at the split remains of his statue.

“I’ll commission a new one Spike, don’t worry,” Cadence also comforts, patting the drake on the head.

“Oh for the-Really?” you sputter incredulously.

“To be fair boyo, it was a pretty sick statue,” Grandbuggy points out.

“Yeah, sure it was awesome, but there is a literal war crime right in front of us…and now they’re looking at us, great,” you sigh as the 8 that were tending to the wounded look over at your group cautiously.

Both groups then get into defensive positions…but then you all pause as Cadence alights her horn, and the drained changelings glow pink. The standing changelings look between the fallen and your group as Cadence cuts the connection and pants slightly.

“There, that should help,” she gasps, leaning against Iron Will for support.

Sure enough, the drained drones have a bit more color returned to their carapaces, and they begin to groan and attempt to sit up. The standing drones once more look between you and their comrades, before settling on their wounded, who are now slightly less drained husks. One of them even looks over at your group, and holds a hoof up in thanks.

“Did you just use the power of love as an iv drip line?” asks Sci-Twi.

“Something like that,” Cadence chuckles.

“You know, when you say it like that, it sounds…” Hu-Dash trails off.

“Lame?” Lightning Dust suggests.

“Yeah, lame,” Dash nods and you roll your eyes.

“Don’t knock it hummie, the power of love has thrown me into the sky and away from a city. Twice!” you inform, thinking about Canterlot and this very Empire.

They take your scolding in strive, while Spike still anguishes over the loss of his awesome statue, and you come up with an idea.

“I think we can get some info out of those drones that are helping the others. They kind of owe us one after all,” you point out, and the others seem to agree with your assessment.

Suddenly from overhead you hear the sound of a blade slicing through something crystalline. Looking up you see as Selena zooms through the air, trying to slice and dice Chrysalis with a scythe she got from who knows where.

“Holy crap,” Hu-Luna whistles in amazement.

“Those…those are my techniques,” Po-Luna says in amazement.

“More like both of yours,” you quip as the mother of your child cuts off a lock of Chrysalis’s mane.

“Hoo boy is she pissed,” Nightshade observes while still patting the despondent dragon on the back.

Kichi’s Comment

“In the name of the Dark Side of the Moon, you will be punished for your sins parasite!” Selena declares and swings at the changeling queen, who dodges and zips away.

“It is not a sin! They gave me their love willingly! As will @#$%&!” Chrysalis shouts back tossing a crystalline debris boulder.

“That will never happen! Love is something freely given, not stolen! Something you can’t possibly comprehend!” Selena shouts, slicing the projectile in two.

“Exactly!” Cadence calls out in jubilation.

“That’s what you think shadow!” Chrysalis yelps back, either ignoring and not having heard the princess of love. “It is my right, nay, my destiny to achieve his love! You’re the one trying to steal it, and I won’t allow it!”

“That’s where you’re wrong cretin!” Selena growls and teleports to Chrysalis’s side, swinging the scythe upward. The queen barely gets a shield up in time, but not before the blade nicks a line in her carapace.

“AGH!” she screeches and flies out of reach again.

“I seek to earn it from him whilst I gladly give him my own!” Selena finishes as she chases after her prey.

You watched stunned as their battle commences and Sunset leans over to you.

“I thought you were exaggerating about how mares fought over you,” she quips and you blush.

“Believe me, this has nothing on the Lovepocalypse,” you snark back before smiling and putting your hooves up to your mouth. “You can do it! Buck Her Up!”

“Ah! His voice on the air cheers for me! You’ve already lost!” you hear Chrysalis’s voice shout.

“What?! No I was-“ you try to correct but are drowned out by the dark alicorn.

“Keep deluding yourself psycho!” Selena roars as their battle commences further in the city. “His praise is only for me!”

“…Well at least the right mare knows I was cheering for her,” you sigh before looking to the group of changelings. “Now, let’s find out where the rest of the prisoners are.”

Grey Rebl’s Comment

Haoryu Changer’s Comment

Skiny_boy’s Comment

You swore you heard Bugze’s voice through the cacophony of chaos, cheering you on, and the fact that this insect tried to claim that praise for herself has doubled your resolve.

If he is out there right now, I can’t let her get to him! You think in determination, even as you smile. Though I am thankful for his words of encouragement.

Chrysalis now awaits under the Crystal Palace, right in front of the altar where the Crystal Heart would be placed. She’s been keeping her distance from you and your reaper’s ice blade, hurtling projectiles again and again, but you’ve sliced through them like butter each and every time. Unfortunately, every time you’re able to get a slice in on her chitin, she always somehow got out of range to avoid a follow up, leaving only shallow cuts upon her body.

Now it seems she’s struggling to stay on her hooves and panting, the energy boost from eating her subject’s love source running low. The glow in her eyes seethes all the same however.

But now she is finally standing still.

With a flicker of your wingspan, the enchanted ice swords scatter like a shotgun blast, but not at Chrysalis, instead they fly in unison into position and encircle the monument. A blade for every hour pointed toward the center, ensuring no escape.

They whizz all at once, whistling in the air as they close in on her, forcing Chrysalis to move your way as you prepare to show her the bitter backend of your scythe!

But then she smirks at you and your composure falters as your momentum carries you forward. Your eyes dart quickly knowing that something is up, but it’s too late.

Chrysalis spins upward and stomps the Crystal Palace’s underbelly, sticking her hooves there with her head still oriented upright like a demented spider. And that’s when you notice: a multi-layered ring of spider web like green goo along the ceiling. It jiggles from her impact…and falls.

You spread your wings wide, but you can’t save your blades as the goo catches them in the intricate net and Chrysalis slams them down flat with a telekinetic blast. Somehow, the gunk pins the blades to the floor as if it's super glue and the changeling looks at you with a taunting grin.

Still, you press forward. A roar bellows out of your throat as you wield your scythe utilizing yours and Luna’s shared skills. The twirls, spins and twists of your blade confuse your opponent and give you the opportunity to safely sail through the second net she was about to drop onto you by slicing clean through it. With a flourish, you then bring the scythe swinging towards her.

Chrysalis drops down to the floor with a snarl, just before a thick groove gouges into the crystal. You kick off the ceiling, and get ready to slam the blunt end of your polearm into her spine, but then she jumps and flips back onto the ceiling once more. Again, you kick off to chase and again, she drops down. You both alternate between the floor and ceiling, seemingly in harmony, going harder and faster and stronger as every swing and switch leaves deep cracks in your wake. And every time you think you get closer, her barriers deflect your scythe.

You’re at a disadvantage. It’s too low to properly fly at full speed, and you’re forced to keep watch on the web trap, because if you touch it, you’ll lose your momentum and Chrysalis will strike in the moment’s weakness.

But before you can come up with a new strategy, you instinctively pull up a bubble shield, as a mound of snow covers your vision courtesy of the insect redirecting the blizzard. Your vision is reduced to only white, but you hold the barrier-

CRACK

And it’s a good thing too as a large chunk of crystal smashes into your shield.

More and more chunks of the crystal palace that you carved out are tossed at you while the witch simultaneously uses the snow to blind you.

You growl in frustration at this.

We are NOT going through that battle of attrition again! You think with surety as you make your decision.

You cancel the barrier.

Instantly, your scythe spins like a hurricane, the enchanted blade slashes the snow away, and you bring up the other end to deflect a sharp crystal shard. For a split second, the fog of war disperses and in that moment, you’re able to spot the tip of Chrysalis’s tail...before taking the gamble and swinging once more.

A wall of rubble suddenly rises in your way, before you quickly slice it in two. You now no longer see her, instead all you see are four boulders of snow.

In a single motion, you duck to the first sailing above and twirl the scythe once, then twice to slash the second into powder and then smash the third into a pancake, before you batter the last away along with the ball of rubble hidden inside.

And then you hear it. Your ears swivel to the warped, fiery crackle of changeling transformation magic. Probably no doubt something large and full of teeth you reckon as you’re already swinging before Chrysalis can finish transforming out of the first snow boulder you ignored.

“Mommy?”

“Ah!” you yelp as the scythe’s edge stops a hair before her neck.

It’s not her, it’s not her! Your logical mind screams as you face down the cold, saddened eyes of your precious daughter. Even so, you just can’t go through with it. Not against Nightshade.

“Fatal mistake,” the filly’s voice chuckles.

“Agh!” you gasp out as Chrysalis digs into your chest horn-first, transforming in the midst of it so that the wound becomes deeper and more jagged. “GRAGHHHH!!!”

Screaming in agony, you twist your torso around to avoid getting completely stabbed in the heart, but she does not relent. She swiftly turns the thrust into a full body tackle, causing air to gush out of your lungs. She then rams you into, no, through the ceiling! Then the second ceiling, then the third! Then with a throwing spin, Chrysalis lets go of you, ripping her horn from your chest in the process.

As your blood flows and your head spins, you briefly register that you’ve both returned to the throne room where the fight originated. You also realize that no one else is around before crashing flat into the cold, hard floor.

Chrysalis is then on you before you can even gasp for breath or clutch at your wound. She opens her maw wide with a shrill hiss and goo splats onto your horn.

“Gughh!” you gasp as your entire nervous system feels shocked and tingly at this, and you feel as though your mana stores are further out of reach. Chrysalis doesn’t relent tough, she then spits changeling goop on your forelegs, hind legs, and waist which solidifies unnaturally fast. You try to move your limbs, but you're pinned utterly. You then try to summon a teleportation spell, but that gunk on your horn makes it fizzle out and die.

“You’re going nowhere…” Chrysalis cackles as she grabs your face and slams the back of your head against the floor.

Stars burst in your vision and it becomes even harder to focus on anything aside from her maddening laughter.

“Hah…Hahaha…Ahahahahah!” she gloats as she slams and bashes your head again and again causing blood to cake your wavy mane. "Ahahahahaha! Finally, at long last I can get rid of you once and for all!"

You try to twist your neck to get out of her grip, but she squeezes your skull even tighter.

"And once I take care of the others, nothing will stand between me and @#$%&! We'll rule this world together! Hoof in hoof! He'll get everything he has ever wanted! He'll finally be truly happy once more!" she rants as she slams your head once more before putting her hoof on your throat.

“Gack!” you choke as she smiles and her eyes unfocus, looking not at you, but through you as she did to that drone earlier.

“My love is nigh infinite! We could fight from dusk to dawn, but while you tire I will always be at my strongest! Your struggle amounts to nothing! Nothing! Ahahahahahahaha!” Chrysalis shouts into your face, spittle striking your cheeks to add insult to injury.

“And when you’re gone, I’ll help him forget that you ever even existed,” she says, nearly salivating at the prospect.

What?! You think because it is hard to speak at the moment.

“All I have to do is re-link the hive mind you broke, and once we’re connected again, he’ll eventually forget all about you and that little brat. He’ll finally be mine and mine alone!” she says, almost giddily.

"You would wipe his memory just to make him love you again?!" you spit out with venom and she presses her hoof even harder against your jugular.

"Of course, I'm only helping him you know?” she gloats over your prone figure, relishing in your impotence as she squeezes your throat, bleeding the life out of you. It’s getting dark. The sounds...are ever so distant. Stars swim in your eyes, dizzying and hypnotizing. All you can hear now is the most damnable laugh in the world.

Chrysalis laughs and laughs and laughs in tune with her buzzing wings, a rapid, repetitive noise that incites the bounds of insanity. Her madness, her twisted disease called ‘love’ coats every vowel like poison.

As the light in your eyes begins to fade, the glint of madness shines brighter in the Changeling Queen’s. She forces you to look into her gaze, to see deep into the abyss of her unsettling nature.

“Once you and that little monster you call a child are dead and forgotten I WIN!”

*SNAP*

“Should have…quit while…you were ahead…” you whisper hoarsely.

“...What?” she asks confused.

Suddenly, your rage over her threatening your Daughter and Bugze’s memories springs forth, blasting the goop off of your horn. In that same instance, before she has a chance to look away from your direct eye contact, you say the three magic words.

“Assuming Direct Control.”

From Chrysalis’s point of view, you burst into a cloud of night and she cries out as the darkness suddenly drowns her figure.

“What is this?! Where are you?!” she shouts as she swings her hooves and blasts her magic, attempting to blow it all away. Yet the more she struggles, the faster the darkness spreads, and before too long, everything has turned pitch black.

“Hah hah hah…” she pants as she whips her head left and right.

“Did you really think I would die that easily Chrysalis?” your voice taunts from the darkness, nowhere, and everywhere at the same time. “There is a reason they called me Nightmare Moon…”

“Your mind tricks won’t work on me! You can’t hide from your fate! You’ll-“ her ranting is cut short though as she hears them.

The whispers.

“No…no…” she squeaks out, her demeanor suddenly changing from rabid rage, to panicked fear.

Hundreds of whispers accost her, a thousand, millions…only one.

“No, no, no, NO!” Chrysalis shakes her head, staring wide-eyed into the darkness.

You could’ve tormented her, you could’ve given her pain without end, engulf the dreamscape with every nightmare imaginable. You could’ve subjected her to the suffering and horrors you and your family have been put through these last 4 years and beyond. You could’ve done so much to make this worthless whorse pay for her crimes against you and your loved ones.

“Stop it! STOP IT!!!” Chrysalis shouts as thrashes about.

But you’ve done none of that. Instead, what you’ve done is quite simple.

“Shut up. S-shut up!” She holds her head, trembling.

For the Queen of Liars, the madmare lost in her own delusions...

“Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!”

All you’ve done…

“What do you know about me?! None of it means anything!”

...is show her the truth.

“Stop it!!!”

She has not just become her mother…

“It’s Not True!!!” Chrysalis shouts to the darkness. “I’M NOT LIKE HER!!!”

She’s become so, so much worse.

“I SAID SHUT UP!!!” Chrysalis roars as she stomps and pulverizes the floor! The dream collapses, and a sound reminiscent of shattering glass accompanies the breaking of the illusion.

She huffs and puffs, tears spilling down her cheeks, her composure and confidence shaken to the core. And under her hooves, there’s a pile of green goo...but you’re not there anymore.

“Not so pleasant on the receiving end, is it?” you ask from behind her, your wound staunched by a bit of her own green goop.

And as she turns to look, you give that shocked bitch no time to react as your hoof is already swinging.

WHACK

“Gah!” Your hoof collides with her jaw and sends her spinning. But it doesn’t end there, you strike her again in the eye-

WHACK

In the nose-

CRUNCH

And right in the teeth.

POW

“Blagh!” she spits as one of her fangs flies out of her mouth.

Green blood stains your hooves, but you’ve not nearly had enough. With all of the powers afforded to you, beating her with your own hooves is just much more satisfying. It’s just one of many little things you’ve learned from your beloved bug.

Her head and vision swimming, the Changeling Queen attempts to strike out at you with a blast of magic, but you take a cue from her and punch right at the base of her horn.

“ARGH!!!” she screams as magic cancels out and causes a feedback loop in her mind. In a dazed panic, she opens up her wings to fly away from you.

“Not this time!” you shout in defiance as you catch hold of her right wing, put pressure on the connective joint…and twist.

POP

“GGAAAHHH!!!” she shrieks in agony as her wing now flops to her side, both dislocated and broken. Screeching and wobbly she attempts to strike out at you with her own hoof, but you sway to the side in an almost mocking manner and she strikes nothing but air. This causes her to stumble forward, but before she falls, however, you catch her by the mane and turn her head towards you so you can glare directly into her eyes.

"It seems your weakness is that you can't help but show off to yourself,” you say with cold rage. “You truly are a self-centered buck."

Breathing heavily, her face covered in her own blood and tears, you can tell that she’s running out of energy.

"I'll ruin you!" she snarls out defiantly as she tries to turn and bite you, but you backhoof her right in the mouth.

“You should not have run your mouth back there,” you threaten, the anger building up for what she planned to do to Bugze…but then you chuckle darkly. "But even if you had killed me, you wouldn’t have achieved the victory you sought.”

“Wha-?” she questions, but you cut her off as you lean in and whisper in her ear.

“Because Bugze would never have forgotten me…and there would have been no way you could have defeated Nightshade. She’s far stronger than either of us,” you say truthfully and her eyes go wide. “Just remember that after what comes next.”

Before she can react, the atmosphere rips as you cross all three rings of spell speed you’ve summoned at once, dragging her with you. You bash her through the hall, through the wall, through the door—one, two, three, four! And when there’s no obstacles left, when the blizzard of the outside chews into your coat…

“Remember it!” you shout as you strike her in the chest. A bit of her exoskeleton cracks, as do a few of her ribs as she is sent flying THROUGH several of the larger buildings of the Crystal Empire one after another.

But you refuse to let it end there. Earlier, she ran you through several walls, and as far as you are concerned, you will be true to your word: payback one hundred fold.

FLASH

So you teleport in front of her, catching her as she tries and fails to fly with her broken wing-

FLASH

Then you teleport again, still using her momentum to charge her through some more vacant buildings.

FLASH

To the streets, where you crush every remaining street pole.

FLASH

To the houses, where furniture, rooms, and walls turns to dust.

FLASH

To the Crystal Palace, yet again, where the crystal chandeliers and pillars are devastated in your wake.

FLASH

And you repeat.

FLASH

Over and over and over and over.

FLASH

Again and again and again and again.

FLASH

Until every pillar, every door, every wall, every room, every street, every window…

FLASH

...every pole, every fence, every beam, and every Sombra-damned stair gets a new queen-sized hole and another for good measure!

FLASH

Until finally, you catapult Chrysalis into a wide open field. She skips and skids like a skipping stone; so hard and so fast, her every bounce causes ripples in the snow. White geysers trail her path, and with a resounding crash, the changeling queen eventually tumbles into a sorry heap.

Adrenaline and shock is all that powers her bruised, battered and bloodied body as she rolls to her back, jerking her sights around to find even a hint of midnight-blue, gasping, shaking, trembling.

“You…you…” she croaks out as swollen cheeks and unkempt bangs get in the way of her vision. Her lone unobstructed eye struggles to adjust as it twitches to figure out which way’s up, which way’s down. But all she sees are the oh-so familiar stands of the Crystal Stadium, all broken and full of holes, all blanketed in frost and destruction. All alone in a warzone.

Plip

...For some reason, a warm water droplet lands on her nose; the dew sparkles before her eyes, like the stars of spring after dusk. Pupils dilate, and she looks up.

High in the sky you are like the angel of judgment. A thick sphere of roaring magic surrounds you as your bubble barrier crackles. When the snow falls too close, it melts into rain, and on contact with the barrier, it evaporates into steam.

The wind, the clouds, the moon; the flow of power in the world resonates to your will as you concentrate. To anyone who could peer past the chaos, you are the eye of the storm. Serenity encompasses your features, with your wings and hooves tucked in as if cradling yourself asleep.

And when you open your eyes, you utter words not uttered by your own mouth in a long, long time.

“Lunar Impact.”

And with that, you fall.

A mach cone forms.

The sound barrier shatters.

Your eyes never leave the changeling queen’s insignificant figure. Not once do you blink as you home onto her with the full might of a meteor. And deep in the zone, you can see it too, the reflection of a shooting star in her wide, astonished eyes.

BOOM

The white landscape ripples and convulses. The stadium rattles at it’s foundations as ice and windows shatter in a mile radius. Everyone hears the impact, from your family and friends to your allies, enemies and everyling in between.

And out in the arctic tundra, some distance away, a hulking red figure spies your handiwork as a plume of ice and rain gushes into the heavens.

Puzzling Frost’s Comment

“Holy crap, did you see that?” Garble gasps looking at the snow white mushroom cloud in the distance.

“I felt that,” Frost nods in awe as the igloo cracks and falls apart around them.

“Well that was either something good or something bad,” Garble nods.

“Either way, somepony got hurt,” Frost points out.

“I mean yeah,” Garble agrees and points up. “Heck the explosion’s even pushing the storm in the other direction.”

Looking up, the two indeed do see that the winds, snow and clouds have shifted directions. But to the windicolt, something feels off.

“…That’s not right.”

“Huh?” the dragon asks.

“I said that’s not right,” he repeats. “The wind displacement from that impact shouldn’t be enough to consistently push the storm away. It’s like something’s pulling it that direction…”

The two of them trace the flow of the storm, even as it funnels in all directions towards a single point in the distance. With the lessening of the clouds, moonlight filters in and they see as the storm leads to something black and red and massive.

“What in the…?” they both start to say in unison.

WHUMP

But are both startled and interrupted as a hulking, gleaming figure lands between them and the Umbrum Crystal, shattering the rest of the igloo.

“Damn, so this is dark energy readings I picked up! This is what he’s coming for!” a hectic male voice says, sounding like it’s coming out of a loudspeaker. The metallic hulk then turns from the Umbrum Crystal and looks towards where the snow and clouds are funneling into. “Well at least it’ll slow him down a bit. With the clouds clear I can navigate to the Empire more easily, find the princesses and-”

“Is that that fricken terrorist dude?” Garble sputters, rubbing at his eyes.

“No, it can’t be, that suit got destroyed,” Frost says feeling a bit scared and nervous.

It’s then that the figure notices the dragon and colt staring at him in shock and awe, and a light suddenly appears from it’s shoulder. With the flashlight illuminating the area, they see now that it’s not Flag Burner’s robotic suit, but at this point it’s nearly as scrapped as that one is with exposed wire, metal and burn marks.

“…What are you kids doing out here?” the male voice as the canopy hisses and pops open.

It’s been a hot minute since you left the aftermath of that strange and surreal brawl, but you now find yourself and Hope exactly where you need to be. Your secret study/library that you built around the prison door Princess Amore had hidden so long ago. The door itself still sits as you remember it, simple, sturdy and unmoving.

“Huh,” Hope says simply and you raise a brow.

“That’s it? Just ‘huh’?”

“I mean when you talked about a secret study I was imagining something more grand, and less messy,” she says truthfully. And she’s right, it is a bit of a mess. There are scattered notes and drawings on the floor, chairs, and desk.

“I became hurried towards the end when the princesses were bearing down on my doorstep,” you tell her as you pick up several of your notes off the floor that would have normally been dust had you not cursed the empire out of time. “I was seeking the solution right up until they arrived, and I was so close too.”

Her ears wilt at that but you put up a reassuring hoof.

“Do not apologize, it is what it is,” you tell her before you both go back into a feedback loop of apologizing again. “Right now I just have to pick up where I left off.”

“Okay,” she nods. “I don’t know how much help I’ll truly be, but let me know if you need a hoof.”

“Hmm, perhaps you could help me organize these notes?” you suggest. “I need to brush through the formulae again. Who knows, maybe you’ll catch something I missed.”

She smiles at that, and you return it with a grin, before the two of you start picking up your notes and books and drawings and set them down neatly in front of the door which keeps your entire species prisoner.

“I sure hope we have enough time, what with that brawl in the dungeon and that fight outside that’s been rocking the palace,” she says a bit worriedly.

“I will say that it has pushed the deadline up a tad,” you admit in annoyance. “But whether they get the captives to the train or get detained again, there still needs to be a force to drive the changelings out of the Empire.”

She frowns at that before sighing.

“Well, let’s just hope that they’ll be on that train then. I’d rather not think about any of them being captured and punished by that mad-mare.”

“Agreed,” you nod. “But so long as Nightshade is around, those cockroaches will not have an easy time capturing them.”

“Right you are mister!” a raspy shrill voice says suddenly behind you.

“Kiya!” Hope shrieks in surprise as you whirl around…and see the ugliest creature you’ve ever seen.

It is small, just a bit bigger than a child, with thin wiry limbs that end in claws, glowing eyes, and a mouth full of sharp teeth. The strangest thing about it is that it’s wearing a green helmet.
Since you were already surprised and readying a spell, you send forth a blast of magic at the thing…only for it to quickly melt into the shadows of the floor and disappear.

“Wh-What was that?” Hope asks as she clutches at her chest.

“I don’t know,” you admit until something at the back of your mind dings. “Unless…”

“Oi, Monkey! What’s the idea of shooting the messenger?” the creature says from atop one of your bookshelves smiling like a loon. “The mistress wouldn’t approve of this.”

“Mistress? Do you mean Nightshade?” you ask cautiously.

“Our kind is not worthy to say her true name monkey, but she seems to be friendly to you lot,” he answers and you sigh and calm down.

“What are you-?” Hope starts to ask, so you answer.

“He’s a darkling, a creature of shadow. They serve under Nightshade for the moment. She said so during our conversation with the Princesses,” you tell her, remembering how she described using them over the past year.

“That’s right monkey, I am designated Jackie, Bob, or any combination of the two,” he says nonchalantly with an eerie chuckle.

“She has creatures of darkness…serving under her?” Hope asks incredulously and you smirk.

“I knew she had the makings of an overlord,” you say with pride before you focus up. “Alright Bob, why are you here and not by her side?”

“Because the Mistress ordered that I deliver a message to you monkey,” the imp says as it flips through the pages of one of your books without even reading it. “And I follow my orders till the end.”

“Okay then, out with it, what is the message?”

He then smirks, closes the book and looks you in the eye.

“The mistress wants you to know that the pink princess is going to activate the Crystal Heart,” he says with a smile.

“WHAT?!” both you and Hope shout at once.

“The Crystal Heart is going to be activated, do you have gunk in your ears monkeys?” he insults and you look back at Hope in panic, and she does the same.

“If they activate that then you’ll…” she trails off, not wanting to say what you both know will happen.

“Yes I will, and then the Umbrum will be trapped forever!” you say striking your hoof on the ground. “Gorrammit!”

“Fear not monkey, this is precisely why I was sent. They aren’t just going to activate it all willy nilly. The mistress would be caused pain as well and we her servants would perish too,” Bob says now hanging upside down from one of the unlit candelabras.

Hope looks from you, to the prison door and back as sweat starts to form on her brow.

“Sombra, we should go then. We can get to the outskirts before the Heart is activated then-“

“NO! If the Crystal Heart starts producing the barrier again then I won’t be able to enter the city and my kind won’t be able to even exit!” you shout angrily.

“But Sombra-“

“No! We’ve come too far! And there’s no guarantee they won’t be captured anyway so it will only be a waste of time!” you snarl as you spread out your notes and start looking through them again. “I’m getting this door open, I’m freeing the Umbrum! And once they’re all out, then they can activate that damnable Heart!”

She looks conflicted at that, biting her lip and looking towards the exit, but ultimately she gives in and starts looking over your notes as well. You hate making her feel like this, but time is of the essence, and you are once more under the bow.

“Darkling, go and tell Nightshade that we’re too close to releasing the Umbrum to leave. Tell her to delay the Heart’s activation for as long as possible!” you order and the imp smirks.

“I will act the messenger monkey, but know that whatever order the Mistress gives is final,” he says resolutely before melting into the shadows and disappearing.

You then look to Hope who starts to pant a bit, but you put a hoof on her shoulder and give her a confident look.

“We must focus Hope, Nightshade won’t allow them to harm me if she can help it,” you tell her truthfully.

“I worry more that she’ll send more of those things and drag us back whether we want to go or not,” she admits and you frown.

“I hadn’t thought of that...” you say feeling disturbed before shaking your head. “But that only means we have to work that much faster.”

And with that, the two of you look over the notes diligently. Eventually though a massive tremor rattles your study.

“What the buck was that?” you say as you keep your bookshelf from falling over.

“It felt like something massive impacted the ground above us,” Hope theorizes as you both look up at the ceiling.

After getting directions from that group of changelings, you all found the main hub where they’d been keeping the rest of the Empire and all it’s visitors hostage. Turns out it’s an indoor mall built specifically for the tourists in response to the Equestria Games.

Surprisingly, thanks to the fight, there weren’t as many guards watching over the prisoners, and you all were able to take them down with relative ease.

And while Cadence gathered up all of her Crystal Ponies so that they could head towards the Crystal Heart Pedestal, Celestia, Luna and Twilight helped order the rest of the captives into the magic mirror. One by one, ponies from all over the country, and even a few griffons leave this world behind and become filthy disgusting hummies on the other side.

It’s a process that has taken some time since there are well over a thousand individuals, but it’s well worth the wait since it’s easier to move one mirror over an entire stadium worth of ponies. Plus, that means less train cars that need to move once the steam engine gets running.

“Amazing, the glyphs and runes on this artifact are extraordinary,” some bearded messy maned orange unicorn stallion with glasses in a goofy cape says looking the mirror up and down. “Is this a Crystal Empire artifact, or does it predate it?”

“I don’t know, just go through hippie! You’re holding up the line!” Grandbuggy orders.

“Oh, right sorry. It’s just that magic wards like this are kind of my special-tyyy!!!” the nerd shrieks as he is shoved through the portal by the old bug.

“Quit lollygagging!” he shouts to the others as Sunset walks to your side.

“Canterlot High’s gotta be awfully crowded by now,” she quips and you smirk.

“And full of screams no doubt from the recently transformed,” you chuckle and she rolls her eyes.

“Not everypony is gonna have the same reaction you did when you came over Bugze,” she points out.

“I did,” Princess Twilight informs as she walks in on the conversation. “Having your body transformed like that is terrifying after all.”

“At least these guys got a forewarning, I was thrown in to the deep end of the pool by Jack,” you grumble, still feeling aggravated from the whole thing.

“I suppose that’s true,” Sunset nods as she looks over to the knocked out changelings who are being gathered by the Wonderbolts and other athletes and set in front of the drones who had helped the drained ones. “At least they’re seeing reason.”

“One kind of does once you save their lives,” you shrug and look to Cadence speaking to the Crystal Ponies.

“If it didn’t take so long, I’d have suggested putting them in too and taking them out once we got to the pedestal,” Po-Twilight says with a sigh.

“A stadium of ponies is easier to move than a whole city,” Sunset says looking over to the still long line. “Well, relatively speaking.”

“It’s going to be a pain either way,” you sigh again. “I just hope we hear back from Sombra before they activate the heart.”

Just then, the sound of crashing and crumbling structures is heard throughout the city, as everyone looks around in panic. It culminates when you all see a bright descending figure going straight towards the earth like a meteor, followed by an extremely loud impact which rocks the very ground you stand on and pierces everyone’s ears.

Steadying yourself, you look out towards the plume of ice and dust from the impact, as do many of the prisoners.

“Selena…” you breathe out in worry.

“What in the buck was that?!” asks Filthy Rich.

“Something you don’t want to be a part of, now get on through, your daughter is waiting!” Nightshade ushers, shoving him through the mirror portal.

“That came from the stadium,” Celestia muses.

“Friggen asteroids impacting the city, it’s like every disaster movie is happening right now,” B2 exposits as Nightshade comes flying over to you.

“That was mommy right?” she asks, looking between you and the mushroom cloud in the distance.

“Sure as heck looked like her,” you say as you sweat a little. You haven’t seen a move that strong since you and the Nightmare collided in the air.

“To create a cloud like that, she must have hit with the force of several tons of T.N.T.” Hu-Twilight gasps in awe.

“The crater must be massive,” Princess Twilight says, also gasping at the prospect.

“I have used that move in the past against dragons…” Princess Luna says impressed before shaking her head. “It’s powerful yes, but it does harm the user I can tell you that from experience.”

“I have to go check on her!” you shout after hearing that bit of info.

“But Bugze, the changelings-“ Sunset tries to dissuade, but you cut her off.

“They’ll be curious about that and not me!” you say impatiently before looking to your daughter, Sunset and the two Twilights. “Once everyling gets through the mirror, get them on the train and get it going.”

“What about you daddy?” she asks nervously.

“I’ll be fine,” you say, trying to feel as confident as you sound. “I’ve just got to check up on your mother and we’ll catch up.”

And before anyone has a chance to argue or make you change your mind, you sprint off towards the impact crater.

“Oi, where the hell’s he going?!” B2 yelps.

“To go check on his waifu of course,” Grandbuggy chuckles before he barks to the captives. “Alright ya’ll, double time it!”

“Ooohhh,” Nightshade groans before flying above the others. “You heard him! Double Time!”

And with that she activates her magic and starts shoving ponies in groups at a time. And while your family and allies continue forth with the escape plan, you hectically run through the snow and dust, thinking in worry,

Please be alright, please be alright!

Sore. Your whole body is sore with a thousand aches and pains, the biggest of which is the stab wound in your chest. You’ve only had this newly acquired body for three days, most of which you were unconscious for, and now you feel like you’ve made quite an effort to break it.

Still though, pain is good, because it means you are still alive.

“Ooohhh…” you groan faintly as you force your limbs to start moving. Getting your hooves under you is a challenge, especially since you are on something soft and uneven, and the best you can do is get into a sitting position. Blinking open your eyes, you see that they are obscured by snow and dust that blows faintly upward in a conical direction. But ultimately you know exactly where you’re at, at the bottom of a crater you caused.

When Luna did this, that dragon was sunk into the ground up to his chest, you remember with memories that aren’t exactly your own.

You force your wings open and begin to flap them a bit to ward off the obscuring mist, and it helps slightly. Really, the only thing you need to see is the pathetic wretch underneath you, and boy has she seen better days.

Chrysalis is imbedded in the earth and stone, green blood leaking out of several wounds and out of the corner of her mouth. Her chitin is cracked and in some places shattered all over, exposing the squishy flesh underneath, and she even has a few more holes in her legs, one of which is broken at an odd angle.

Despite it all though, despite your merciless onslaught, you can still feel her inhaling and exhaling underneath you.

“One…Hundred…” you whisper, as you regain your breathing. This in turn causes the monster to groan herself.

Good. Death would be a mercy to you after everything you’ve done, you think without sympathy before sighing. Also, despite it all, Bugze wouldn’t like it if you were to perish. He’s far too kind.

“Why…?” Chrysalis’s voice comes out in barely a whisper as she tries to move, but grits her teeth in pain and stops. “Why…?”

“You know why,” you say with no emotion, and her eyes slightly open, showing one to be bloodshot green.

“Why…can’t…I…kill…you?” she groans, the hatred barely masked by her pain.

“Because unlike yourself, I have something greater to live for,” you respond coldly. She fixes you with a look of overwhelming hatred, and you do not break eye contact…which is why you see the exact moment when tears begin to flow down her cheeks.

Broken, beaten, and pitiful, the Queen of the Changelings sobs at your hooves.

“He told me…to be happy,” she sniffles as the tears cake into grime from the dust. “Last year, before he left…he told me to be happy…”

“And are you happy?” you ask, all but accusing in your tone. She closes her eyes at that, but the tears still flow.

“No…I haven’t been happy in years,” she admits, her lowly voice somehow more pleasant than the insane dribble from earlier. “I have been miserable for a long time because I had to be the perfect queen. Because of mother…but with @#$%& when we were younglings…”

“Then you should not have let him go,” you scold with a light growl. This causes her to open her eyes once more, and while the hatred is still there, it has been tempered by misery.

“I made a mistake, and I was trying to correct it!” she hisses. “But you…you…”

“But nothing Chrysalis. This is a Tartarus of your own making. My involvement is but incidental,” you say firmly.

“But…I…” she tries to argue weakly and you sigh.

“You and I weren’t so different once upon a time,” you say tiredly and it catches her off guard. “I too was pushed to the darkness for want of love. It is how I came to being within my… sister.”

The word still feels alien upon your tongue, but you are getting used to it. For in the grand scheme of things, that is what Luna is to you.

“Even when I first met Bugze, I was as bad as you are now, or possibly even worse as I used him as a tool,” you continue and the broken queen hangs on your every word. “But over time, I grew to care for him as you once did…but that is where you and I diverge.”

Your eyes harden at that as you look her dead in the eye again.

“You have allowed yourself to be driven into darkness over him…while I have been dragged into the light. You still hold onto this idealized childhood dream image that doesn’t exist, but I’ve embraced him for who he truly is,” you exposit. “He is brave, selfless, determined, and will keep his promises no matter what…”

“I know that. That is why my love for him is-“ she starts, but you interrupt her.

“But he is also the biggest idiot I’ve ever met in my entire life,” you say truthfully.

“…Eh?” Chrysalis asks, taken aback by that statement.

“Bugze is an idiot,” you repeat casually. “He is childish, makes rash decisions without thinking them through, he’s highly obsessed with pop culture, gets distracted far too easily and he is just a well of totally useless information. Most days, I don’t know how he functioned on his own for so long.”

“That’s a lie! @#$&% is absolutely perfect! He can learn from his missteps and-“ she starts to growl out, but you put pressure on her chest and she winces, shutting up.

“But he is not perfect Chrysalis, nowhere even close,” you speak the truth, before you close your eyes, smile and convey the biggest truth.

“And that is why I love him.”

Her eyes scowl as you say that, but you continue.

“I love how far he’ll go to help someone in need, how he’ll make you laugh when times are dark, and how he refuses to yield to the weight of the entire world,” you say with admiration before chuckling. “And at the same time, I love how obsessive he can be over fictional characters, how goofy and detached from the world he gets when going off on one of his side tangents, or that passionate look he gets when fire is involved in anything. I love all of that about him, even if it sometimes brings me a headache.”

“Wha…?” Chrysalis tries and fails to speak, confusion floating in her teary eyes.

“The difference between you and me is you chose to fall further and further, while I chose to be someone better. You chose power and let him go because he was not perfect, while I learned to love him because of his faults,” you lecture adamantly. “I Love Him, every facet of him, and that’s something that you could never do.”

“I…I could…” she stutters as her eyes dart around.

“No. No you could not,” you say with absolute certainty as you glare at her stoically once more. “Everything you have done since Appleloosa has been a hurtful, flimsy façade of reparation. You have driven yourself to madness so that it’s easier to convince your conscience that what you’re doing is correct. But deep down inside, you know that it’s far too late to truly be with him again. You’ve known that for years.”

“No…it’s not…it can’t…” she starts to blubber again.

“It is and you know it,” you say firmly with a scowl. “Why else would you attempt to wipe his memories? You know it’s because he wouldn’t accept you otherwise. You know the truth even as you attempt to deny it.”

“Stop…” she whines. “Just stop it…”

You just look down upon this sorry excuse of a queen and changeling as she bawls her eyes out, still trying to hide from the unchangeable truth. She continues to blubber, even as the dust clears, revealing the audience that’s gathered around the rim of the crater.

Countless changeling drones stare wide eyed down at the two of you, with looks ranging from shock and disbelief. You know they have heard every word of your conversation with their helpless ruler, but it does not bother you. As zealous as they are, these drones have finally gotten to hear the truth…as has a certain someling with spiky orange hair.

Bugze stands at the rim, ignored by the others due to the circumstances, and he is looking at you with worry, relief…and bashfulness if the blush at his cheeks is anything to judge by. This causes you to smile, because it just highlights exactly what you’ve just said. Running into an area surrounded by enemies just to check up on you is a moronic move that annoys you greatly…but it does make your heart flutter as well.

You dumb bug…you think happily as your spirits feel lifted.

Chrysalis however, does not see any of them, she doesn’t even really see you, as lost in her misery as she is.

WARGAMES’s Comment

“Stop it…just stop it…” she sobs pathetically even as her drones look at her in pity. You continue to look at your beloved bug for a few more moments before you sigh and look back down at your foe.

She’s right, it is time to end this.

“I do have love. I’m not an empty shell mother. Stop saying these things. Stop it,” Chrysalis blathers in madness, but you stop her as you take her head into your hooves. This causes the changeling drones all around you to tense up and be on alert, but you know they won’t be fast enough to stop what you’re about to do.

“I will stop it Chrysalis,” you tell her in all sincerity. “I will put a stop to it all and free you from this Nightmare you’ve created for yourself. Because that’s what my bug would do...”

Having lifted her head, her eyes focus a bit, and for a brief moment she notices the crowd of her subjects all around her. Her mouth opens and closes like a fish as she fails to come up with any words or orders for the literal army at her beck and call. But one word does come out when her eyes focus on Bugze.

“%$#@&,” she breathes out, tiredly and breathlessly, as if she’s trying to reach out to him with a Hive Mind that no longer exists. But that is the last glimpse she will ever get as you turn her face to look directly into yours.

“His name is Bugze!” you say with finality, before you channel your magic through your horn and eyes. “Assuming Direct Control.”

The atmosphere is tense and primed to explode. All of the changelings gathered on the destroyed stadium field are poised to leap onto Selena at a moment’s notice. None of them pay you any mind, but it is not yourself you are worried for.

Selena, you think nervously as sweat beads on your forehead.

Right now she is staring intently into Chrysalis’s glazed over eyes, her own eyes flaring pure white just like Nightshade’s. Neither of them move, and that is why you think none of the other drones have taken action. Still, if they try, you’re ready.

You slip on the Power Glove, ready to unleash any and all plasmids if they even attempt to harm her, because right now, she has plenty of injuries.

There are scrapes, cuts and bruises all over her body. Part of her mane is caked in dried blood at the back of her head, and on her chest is a bit of green goop covering an injury surrounded by more dried blood. You hate that she is in this state, but there is some solace. Chrysalis looks much, much worse after all.

Selena looks like she got in a fight with a tiger, where as the changeling queen looks as though she’s gone through a wood chipper.

You ready a healing potion, because no matter how her mental battle right now ends, the mother of your child needs some TLC.

I’ve gotta heal up that stab wound on her before she gets a scar like me, you think resolutely. I mean she’d still look beautiful, but I’d hate for there to be a mark on that perfect body of hers that I want to hold and nuzzle and-No! Bad Bug!

You shake yourself from those thoughts as now literally isn’t the time for that…but maybe it will be soon. Having heard her speech to Chrysalis really made you feel like a teen again, so it’s no wonder your thoughts are a bit jumbled amidst your worry.

You two have been dancing around this subject for some time now, but you know that if you all get out of this, you will have to bug up and finally lay it all out with her.

When we all get out of this, you mentally correct as you focus on survival over matters of the heart. You keep each and every drone in your peripheral, waiting for a hint of movement, as you focus on Selena and Chrysalis.

You have no idea how much time passes. It could be minutes, or only seconds as neither you nor the drones move a muscle. The snow and wind are muffled by the damaged stadium walls, but other than that the only sound comes from the slight hum of Selena’s magic. It’s because you’re so focused that it takes a moment to recognize that you hear a certain sound off in the distance.

You can’t exactly pinpoint what it is, but it sounds like something being slurped up with a straw combined with a vacuum. In the corners of your vision, you see as a few other changeling’s ears twitch as they hear the strange sound as well, but before they can do anything, Selena and Chrysalis move.

“Hah…” Selena sighs out, dropping Chrysalis’s head back to the ground and leans over her panting.

Once more, the zealous drones prepare to move, awaiting their Queen’s order, but said queen only groans as the alicorn pants over her.

“There…you’ve been freed you wretch,” Selena says with a sneer before she pushes herself up, scoots back from Chrysalis and sits down.

Still, even after that the drones do not attempt anything, though you notice many of them looking between themselves in uncertainty. You on the other hoof get your keister moving as you quickly slide down the sides of the crater. All of the changelings’ eyes focus on you now, with more than a few widening as they see your orange hair and battle worn Nobody Cloak, but for the moment they do not attempt to stop you.

“Selena!” you call out as you reach her side, healing potion in hoof. She looks towards you, sweat still dripping down her forehead from earlier and she smiles tiredly.

“Bugze,” she says sweetly as she reaches towards you. You quickly catch her hoof and steady her as she sways, and you immediately hand over the bottle.

“Drink this, quickly!” you urge and she giggles softly.

“Always the hero, no matter the situation…” she says before she tilts the bottle up and downs the red liquid.

REMOVED FROM THE INVENTORY

1 Healing Potion.

Almost immediately you see the potion taking affect. Selena winces and grits her teeth as the cuts and bruises fade, and you hold her hoof firmly as the stab wound and cut on her scalp close up. You know it’s painful for her, but she does not cry out, leaning on you for support.

Many of the drones above start to hiss and growl at this as they start to crawl down the crater…but they all stop in their tracks as you hold up hold up another Healing potion.

“I will leave this to you to give to your queen, but only if you allow us to go!” you shout to them as Selena leans against you panting. Once more, they all look to one another as they see the effectiveness of the liquid.

“Bugze?” Selena questions, but you just squeeze her hoof, signaling for her to trust you, which she does.

“What’s to stop us from just taking it from you traitor?!” one of the female drones inquires.

“Because this is my last one!” you lie knowing that you have one more in the Inventory. “And if you try to swarm us I will set fire to it!”

They pause at that, weighing their options and you steel your gaze.

“Your queen is in bad shape. This won’t fix everything, but it will help! You want to save her don’t you?!” you bait, and with perfect timing, Chrysalis groans again, adding emphasis to your words. That’s all it takes for the majority to stand down and give into your words.

“…Alright,” one of them says for the rest. “We will let you go.”

“Of course you will,” you say cheekily. “We are going to walk out of the crater and walk some distance from you. I will set the potion down and we will make our leave. If you try to chase us after that, my mare here will hurt you all just as badly as she did Chrysalis.”

They all shudder at that, especially so when Selena chuckles and gives them all a dark grin.

“Very well,” a male drone relents, causing the drones to back up and make a path for you two, which causes you to inwardly let out a sigh of relief.

“Good,” you nod before looking back to Selena. “Are you good to walk?”

She smirks at that.

“I’ve still got plenty of strength left my bug…though I don’t mind leaning on you one bit,” she says as she puts her foreleg across your back, putting her face right next to your neck.

“I-Uh-You…okay,” you stammer with a blush as you take more of her weight onto yourself.

Before the two of you can start moving however…

“Princess…Luna?” Chrysalis’s voice croaks out.

Looking back at your former larvaehood friend, you see as her tired and pained eyes are filled with confusion.

Luna? Where? You think as you look around yourself, but see no sign of the blue mare, hummie or original. It’s then that you realize she is looking at Selena. Maybe she does need the healing potion if she’s mixing up her alicorns.

“Sure, let us go with that,” Selena says towards the fallen ruler.

Chrysalis, pained as she is, seems to become even more confused before she looks over at you. You stiffen, because even if a lot of the crazy has been knocked out of her, the things she did to you are still fresh in your mind.

Here it comes. One last plea, you mentally sigh. She’s gonna call me by my former name and beg me to love and save her and-

“Drone, why are you holding up the enemy?” she asks, trying to sound angry, but wincing in pain in the midst of it.

“…Huh?” you sputter, sure you misheard her.

“What are you doing holding up the enemy? I need assistance! I believe that infernal Twilight Sparkle has done something to me!” she hisses, before coughing. “Curse her!”

“…Huh?” you repeat as you can’t wrap your head around what she’s saying. And judging by the looks on the other changelings’ faces, neither can they.

“First she breaks the Hive Mind, then she imprisons us, and now she attempts to kill me with the other princesses! Where is she Luna?!” she yelps, actually sitting up from her indent, holding her broken leg.

“I-Wha…Chrysalis?” you ask out and her eyes scowl as she looks to you.

“That’s Queen Chrysalis subject!” she growls in offence. “Who are you to be so formal?! What is your designation?!”

You can only look at her in bafflement as she looks at you as if you were less important than any other drone.

“Don’t you know?” you guess and she growls again.

“Why should I? You are not of the elite! Now whatever your number is subdue that pony!” she orders before looking to the rest of the drones. “That goes for all of you! What are you standing around for?!”

The other changelings are beyond flabbergasted, but they do not move lest you go through on your promise of burning the Healing Potion. Though right now, you don’t even know if you have the mental faculties to do so.

“What is-“ you start, and that’s when Selena whispers in your ear, tickling it with her lips.

“She does not remember you Bugze,” she informs you.

“What do you mean she doesn’t remember me?” you question before your eyes go wide. “Wait…you assumed direct control of her…”

“That’s right,” she confirms. “And once I was inside, I did to her what she had threatened to do to you my precious bug.”

“You…” your trail off as understanding finally dawns on you.

“Yes. I erased you from her memory,” she admits and your jaw drops.

“What are you all just standing around for?! Capture her!” she screeches at the others before wincing.

“You erased her memory?” you repeat in awe as you look upon the injured queen.

“Just the moments with you, me and Nightshade. I toured her subconscious and I cut them all out like a surgeon,” Selena says firmly which gives you chills.

“That’s…that’s…” you trail.

“Monstrous, I know,” she sighs before pulling you closer to her. “I know we don’t have a pleasant history with mind wiping thanks to Discord and the Doctor…but it was the only way.”

Was it? You wonder contrarily as you look at the jumbled mess of a queen. Sure she went off the deep end, but you did have a history together. To have it all forgotten is…

“Just like Mia…” you realize.

“Yes,” Selena nods. “A drastic measure in drastic times.”

“Where are you Twilight Sparkle?! Celestia?! Cadenza?! I will destroy you all!” she shouts to the air and your ears droop.

I can’t tell if she’s better or worse like this…you think with pity. You’ve lamented your childhood memories of her quite a bit in recent times, but to have them completely removed feels like someone that you used to know has passed on. At least she’s no longer feasting on her own love supply…

You turn your head to look in Selena’s eyes. It’s true what she said, being accused of brainwashing is a sore subject for the both of you. But you also realize how hard this mare fought, not just today, but many other times over the last four years for the sake of you and Nightshade. Short of killing Chrysalis, this was the only way to ensure she never interferes with your lives again.

“…Thank you,” you whisper and you see as any doubts or fears she may have held are washed away. And you are thankful, because at the end of it all, Chrysalis will still live, and no matter what she’s done to you past and present, you don’t want her dead. You then turn from your savior to the female that no longer knows you, or will ever know you.

“Why do you ignore my orders?! Is this treason?!” she accuses you and you sigh.

The fillyling you used to love died a long time ago, you’ve known that since last year. But now thanks to Selena, she has finally been laid to rest. All that’s left is the spiteful, pitiful, ugly casket that had dared to draw upon her memories. You now hold onto those innocent memories as a memorial, and you suppose you always will.

“Goodbye Chryssie,” you tell her solemnly, using the old nickname you used when you were little. This only causes her to become more enraged.

“Drones! To Me! This one must be bewitched!” Chrysalis snarls to the rest, before coughing violently.

Selena holds onto you tighter at that as the drones look between you and their injured leader. You hold up the healing potion again as a threat, but then…

“I think that’s enough chit chat for now.”

Suddenly the shadows beneath you and Selena elongate and thicken. Before either of you two have a chance to yelp or move, you both suddenly sink into the pitch black darkness. It feels cold, slimy and oily, but just as quickly as the sensation comes, it leaves you and Selena and you both are now standing out in the snow by a steam engine.

“What the buck?” you say in confusion as you look all around.

“That was-“ Selena starts to answer, but she is interrupted.

“A cool trick the boys can do,” your daughter says hovering above the both you.

“Nightshade?!” you both exclaim in shock and she smirks.

“Well duh! You think I’m just gonna leave the two of you alone after that asteroid strike?” she scoffs before chuckling and hugging you both. “No way José. Also, I think you guys were done talking to that beyatch.”

“Heh heh, that we were honey, that we were,” Selena laughs as she snuggles her back while still holding onto you.

“But…the potion,” you say looking to your empty hoof.

“I left it behind for her like you planned, the boys were able to let me listen in on that conversation,” she hoof waves. “But yeah, those changelings were getting shifty.”

“Heh, well thanks for the extraction baby,” you laugh and squeeze her back.

REMOVED FROM THE INVENTORY

1 Healing Potion

“No problem,” she says as she hugs you both tighter. “And oh my gods was that awesome Mommy! You kicked so much flank!”

“Thank you my precious,” Selena says nuzzling the top of her head. “But I only did what was necessary for my family.”

“And I can never thank you enough for that Selly,” you tell her truthfully as you hold them both tightly.

“Oh I don’t know, I think there’s some ways you could,” Selena insinuates with a playful smirk and your heart skips a beat.

“Oh…” And it’s at this moment that you realize this is the first time all three of you have been able to hold onto one another in the real world.

A mother and father holding their child.

“Finally, after so long…” Nightshade says blissfully, burying her face between the two of your necks, no doubt realizing that as well. You look between her and Selena as you all embrace, and the alicorn mare gives you a soft, kindly smile.

Ah beans, do I do this now? you think bashfully.

“Uh…Selena?” you start nervously.

“Yes Bugze?” she asks, sounding anxious herself.

“Um…back in the stadium, I heard…” you stammer.

“Yes?” she asks expectantly.

“Well-I-We…” you blush as you trip over your own words. “I…”

“’You’?” she repeats playfully as she starts to lean towards you.

“I…” you trail off as you start to lean towards her as well and you get hot under the collar. Everything you want to say seems trivial as your faces near one another…

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I wish I had my phone right now!” a high pitched bubbly voice interrupts. Both you and Selena stop stock still, before your eyes turn in unison…

“Hey now, don’t stop now,” Human Pinkie says grinning ear to ear…flanked by Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Sunset, the rest of the humans and Grandbuggy. Both you and Selena go red in the face as everyling watches your little reunion with rapt attention.

“Huh? Don’t stop what?” Nightshade asks as she pulls her face from between you two.

“NOTHING!!!” you both yelp and let go of the hug, causing Shade to drop into the snow.

“Oof!” she grunts, and you hear Spike chuckle at that.

“Aww, now that’s just adorable,” Hu-Shy coos.

“Indeed,” Sunset says with a smug smirk.

“Oh shove off ya dang voyeurs!” Selena shouts at them with a blush as she picks up Nightshade and starts brushing snow off of her.

“Yeah, we ain’t a dang movie, look somewhere else!” you admonish, trying to get your heartbeat back under control.

“Hey now, after everything it’s a relief to see something so wholesome,” Grandbuggy chuckles

“Heh, wholesome is Not where that was headed, I’ve seen that look before,” B2 chuckles before Hu-Luna briefly bonks him upside the head. “Ow! What?”

And while some express disappointment and others giggle, you and Selena share a quick glance. You both look and feel like embarrassed teens…and both of you feel a bit irked over the interruption as well.

Stupid hummies and ponies, you mentally huff as you realize that “conversation” has been delayed once more.

“As entertaining as this has been, are we to assume that you accomplished your task?” Princess Luna interrupts, looking right at Selena. The two “twins” for lack of a better word, have a brief staredown, before the darker mare nods.

“Yes, I defeated Chrysalis,” Selena answers, puffing up her chest.

“Then, is she…?” Celestia probes and Selena rolls her eyes.

“No, she’s not dead. Just wishing she was,” she answers.

“Yeah, mommy bucked with her memory, and dad left a healing potion because she had chitin missing and stuff,” Nightshade adds and you all look at her.

“What? That’s what I saw through the eyes of my minions,” she shrugs.

“Speaking of minions, aren’t there still a lot of changelings out there?” asks Sunset nervously.

“Yes, if Chrysalis is still able to give orders, the attack might come at any minute,” Princess Twilight nods. “And we really don’t want them to have their sights set on Cadence and the Crystal Ponies.”

“Exactly, so I’m assuming all of the refugees are through the mirror?” you ask and the orange alicorn nods. “Good, then let’s hop on the train and get out so Cadence can do her thing.”

“Roger that! I love steam engines!” Hu-light says giddily as she boards the conductor’s seat and starts fiddling with controls.

“Wait! We can’t just leave yet Dad, I haven’t heard back from Sombra yet,” Nightshade argues.

“Huh? What’d you need?” Humbra asks obliviously, and Grandbuggy slaps him upside his head.

“Not you ya idjit, the real one!” he scolds.

“I’m real too you wrinkly old bastard!” Humbra growls, before getting bonked by Grandbuggy’s hat. “Stop it!”

“She is right Bugze,” Princess Twilight agrees. “If Cadence activates the Heart and Sombra’s still in here, he will be destroyed. He won’t have the protective shell like last time.”

“Protective shell?” you ask and her ears flop.

“Umm…your stomach?” she answers hesitantly.

“OH! Right, right,” you nod before frowning. “Well he better hurry his butt up then because I am not doing that a second time.”

“I could stick with Cadence and then fly him out to catch up with the train,” Nightshade suggests and you shake your head.

“No honey, once that heart is full, it’s going to start hurting you too, I don’t want to risk it.”

“But I-“ she starts to argue back, but is interrupted.

Puzzling Frost’s Comment

“Halt!” a raspy voice calls out and you tense up before sighing.

“Oh son of a-“

“You will not be escaping Twilight Sparkle!” Chrysalis’s haggard voice says from above. She is supported by five changelings as she is still far too injured to fly. The potion seems to have closed up some of the nastier wounds a bit, but she is far from alright.

“Huh? What did I do?” Twilight sputters as you all see more changelings flying in from the stadium.

“Oh for goodness sake!” Selena seethes as she looks at the changeling queen.

“I thought you said she was defeated!” Princess Luna growls.

“She is! She’s just too dumb to know when to quit!” you growl.

“Human Twilight! Get the train going!” Celestia orders as she gets into a defensive position with her horn glowing. Soon after, Luna, Princess Twilight, The Wanted, Selena and Nightshade do the same as you ready your glove and Spike prepares his flames. “Other humans, you assist her!”

“You will not be escaping that easily Princesses!” Chrysalis declares, before coughing wetly. “We shall-“

“Oi Mistress!” Bob’s voice suddenly interrupts.

“Gah! What is that thing?!” Chrysalis shrieks as all of your eyes turn to the imp on Nightshade’s back.

“Someone cooler than you tramp!” Nightshade barks at the Queen before looking at the monster. “What’s up Jackie?”

“The Crystal King monkey says to hold off on activating the Crystal Heart, he’s nearly freed the Umbrum and needs just a bit more time.”

“Really? He’s doing this now?!” she scoffs in annoyance. “Well go back and tell him I don’t care, we’ve already got a situation on our hooves and-“

“Did...did that thing say that the Umbrum are being released?” Chrysalis interjects, and you all immediately note the sound of fear in her voice.

“Uh, yeah, that’s what his overall goal is,” Nightshade shrugs. “Though doing it right now is a bucking pain but-“

“RETREAT!!! EVERYLING FLEE THE EMPIRE IMMEDIATELY!” Chrysalis roars out, before coughing violently at the effort, causing all of the changelings to look gobsmacked and confused.

“Huh?” your collected party all say.

“Flee immediately! That is an order drones!” she says through her coughing fit. The army of changelings still seem discombobulated, but they follow the orders given, with the main bulk of them flying south along the railroad tracks.

You look around at all your group, and they are just as lost as the exiting changelings. Even Grandbuggy doesn’t know what’s going on as he looks all around mouthing,

“The Buck?”

In the midst of the exodus, you see quite a few drones swaying, still drunk from the party, and more than a few carrying passed out or injured comrades. You even see Thorax amidst them, carrying his brother. The scrawny changeling gives a quick wave in your direction, before he too is out of sight amidst the dark sky and snow.

“Know this Twilight Sparkle, and all the rest of you pathetic ponies! You have not won this day! Should you survive, I will come back for you!” Chrysalis curses as her aids begin to fly her away.

“What? I…what?!” Twilight sputters, echoing all your emotional states. “What’s going on? Why are you leaving?!”

The Queen turns her head back towards your group.

“If you are to free those creatures, the ones my mother passed on stories of, then you will bring about your own doom!” she says ominously before trying to laugh menacingly. She gets out a few guffaws before she is wracked by another coughing fit. And so, Chrysalis and every single other Changeling exit into the night, leaving all of you standing in the snow next to a primed steam engine.

The situation is so bizarre and unexpected that all of you, even the humans with no context just stare at one another in silence in the snow with the moon shining down from the clear night sky.

“What the hell was that?!” B2 exclaims.

“Like, did we just win?” Sunset questions unsurely.

“Even after I’d beaten her she still didn’t give up, so why now?” Selena asks aloud, but noling’s got any answers.

“Is…is she afraid of the Umbrum?” Nightshade guesses.

“She did freak out after what your imp said,” you observe before looking to Grandbuggy. “Why would she be afraid of them?”

“You got me boy,” he shrugs. “Truth be told, I don’t really know much about them, aside from the fact that Sombra was one. Their past was one I never really observed with the Doc.”

“Aunties! Twilight! What’s going on?” Cadence says as she gallops out of the warehouse, with some of the crystal ponies. “Why are the Changelings retreating?”

“We’re not sure Cadence,” Celestia says wearily. “But it has something to do with the Umbrum.

“The Umbrum?” she questions.

“Chrysalis seemed to know something about them and feared their release,” Luna chimes in.

“And apparently Sombra decided to do that now of all times,” you add throwing your hooves up in frustration.

“That’s what he was doing?!” Cadence sputters in surprise.

“Yeah, but he doesn’t need to rush now. Mommy kicked Chrysalis’s flank and everyling else is gone so we don’t need reinforcements,” Nightshade says.

“I think Nightshade, that it’s those ‘reinforcements’ that has everyone on edge,” Selena points out. “If they were enough to scare her away then-“

Your mare is interrupted as suddenly the ground begins to shake, and a red beam of light emerges from the top of the Crystal Palace and into the air.

“What the buck is that?!” you yelp.

“I don’t know, but it looks friggen amazing!” B2 says in awe.

“Ugh, is that more magic stuff we gotta fight?” Hu-Jack grumbles in annoyance, and even as she does, the night sky becomes a hue of red.

“Magic, most definitely,” Hu-Dash says. “Fight? Maybe?”

“I don’t know if Iron Will can punch magic,” the minotaur admits.

“Soo, should I still be getting the train started or…?” Sci-Twi trails off.

“Keep it primed Twilight, something tells me things are going to get a lot more complicated,” Sunset orders.

“Wait, when did the skies get clear? Where’d all the clouds go?” Lightning Dust asks, but gets ignored as you all watch as the continual beam with trepidation.

“Hey, Mom? Dad?” Nightshade says and you both turn to her. “The shards are vibrating right now. It feels…funny.”

Sure enough, the Alicorn Amulet pieces in your daughter are blipping with light, but they do appear to be vibrating as well.

You share a worried glance with Selena.

“I hate to sound cliché, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” you say looking back to the emerging magic.

Not soon afterward, dark shadowy figures start appearing amongst the light. They look like bats made of shadow from a distance, but soon more and more of them appear and start to fly towards your group.

“Are these the Umbrum?” Princess Twilight asks aloud as they start swirling around the warehouse where the Crystal Ponies are.

“I thought Hope said they looked like pixies?” Nightshade observes as the shadowy creatures fly about, making the crystal ponies look nervous.

“If that’s what she thinks a pixie is then I’d hate to imagine what she thinks a demon looks like,” Selena shudders.

“Can, uh, can I go home now?” Hu-Shy asks shaking as one of the creatures laughs as it passes her.

You begin to wonder the same thing if you’re honest as you pull Nightshade, Selena, and Grandbuggy closer to you.

“What do we do sister?” asks Luna defensively.

“They haven’t attacked us yet, so stand down, but be prepared Luna,” Celestia orders, narrowing her eyes.

“Everypony, do not panic, remain calm,” Cadence orders her subjects, even as her eyes dart left and right at the ghostly creatures.

“…Why the hell didn’t we bring a camera?” Humbra asks, sounding regretful. “This right here would make an awesome album cover!”

“Do you think you could operate it with hooves?!” Hu-Luna hisses before shushing him.

“I mean I could if I turned into a monkey,” B2 points out, and she shushes him as well.

You do kind of agree with Humbra that the scene before you would make some fantastic album cover art, if that’s only what it was. Every time one of the shadowy things passes you, you feel…not the absence of love and emotion, but the negation of it.

Grandbuggy is starting to sweat as you know he feels that negation much more than you do being a full blooded changeling.

Is this why Chrysalis was afraid? You wonder as about one hundred of the creatures swirl about and you place a hoof on the old bug’s shoulders to steady him.

Eventually though, from the spire comes four more figures, two of which you can tell are corporeal.

“Whoa, is it just me or is that Sombra flying?” Nightshade asks, squinting her eyes.

“My vision’s still kind of blurry, but it looks like he’s being carried actually,” Spike corrects her as Twilight puts a protective hoof around him.

Sure enough as they fly in closer, you see as your old skullmate and Radiant Hope are being transported by two of these Umbrum, one being much larger than the rest. All the other floating specters come to attention as the former king and Hope are set down in front of you all.

Sombra looks extremely proud of himself as he looks over you all, but Hope…she seems a bit perturbed as she looks about at all the Umbrum.

“I take it you got my message?” Sombra says to Nightshade with a smirk.

“Yeah, about 5 minutes ago,” she huffs. “That was pretty dang reckless dude!”

“But it was worth it was it not?” he says gesturing to all the Umbrum. “My kind are free now.”

“Yes we are my son,” the bigger ghost thing says sounding triumphant.

“Son?!” you and quite a few others exclaim in surprise.

“Yes, this is my mother, Queen Rabia,” Sombra gestures to her, and on the ghostly visage of what could pass as a face, you see the thing grin.

“Pleasure,” the thing says, before it’s eyes look over to Cadence and the Crystal Ponies and narrow.

“Cripes, she’s a fricken Queen here?” Humbra mutters, clearly disturbed. The Queen looks over at him at that, and those glowing eyes of hers widen.

“What in the…?” she says taken aback.

“Another Sombra?! I thought I only had one brother?!” the Umbrum behind Hope asks in an excited childlike voice, and Humbra’s face falls a little bit more.

“Oh God, a version of her too?” he says, this time sounding regretful.

“He is another version of me from another universe,” Sombra explains to the two Umbrum. “A human actually, so pay him no mind.”

“Kind of hard to do that,” the younger sounding Umbrum mutters, but Sombra continues.

“And yes, this is my sister Ira,” he gestures to the other figure who waves at you all, leaving wisps of smoke. “And both she and my mother and all of the Umbrum have agreed to help ward off the Changelings.”

“Kind of late on that front buddy,” Grandbuggy points out. “They’ve already left.”

“What?” Sombra asks in surprise.

“But there’s three right there,” Ira says pointing at you, B2, and Grandbuggy.

“Those three are allies, and one of them is also a human,” he explains before asking again. “What do you mean they’re gone?”

“It’s as it sounds cretin, they have fled the Empire,” Selena says plainly and he stares at her for a moment.

“…Huh, strange to be talking to you in the physical world,” he mutters aloud before shaking his head. “But how did you accomplish that? Did you vanquish their Queen and send them running?”

“It’s, uh, it’s not so simple as that,” Princess Twilight says as she looks at all the spirits wearily. You don’t blame her as that feeling of wrongness still hangs in the air, and Sombra’s mom doesn’t look very friendly.

“Yeah they kind of just ran away after learning that you were releasing these guys,” Nightshade says and his eyes widen.

“They ran away?” he repeats confused looking to his mother, who only smirks again.

“I still don’t get it, why do you all look like this now?” Hope asks in bafflement to Sombra’s sister. “What’s happened to your wings and soft hues?”

“This is, um…this is our battle forms?” Ira guesses more than answers, looking to her mother who shoots her a frown. “Yep! Battleforms! Heh heh.”

Sombra’s sister sounds young and a bit peppy like Pinkie, but you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out she’s lying.

“But how come you never showed me or even told me about these forms during all those years I stayed with you?” Hope inquires, trying to grasp the situation.

“Oh, uh…” the younger Umbrum sputters.

“Because they are quite frightening dear Hope,” Rabia says as she tries to cover up her daughter’s nervous laugh. “I mean, even these changelings ran away, probably knowing these forms. But really, no mere insects could hold up to the might of the entire Umbrum force. But since the pests are gone from the city, perhaps I should take care of the filly you said had the Alicorn Amulet fused to her?”

“Huh? Uh, yeah, that’s right,” Sombra nods, though he squints noticing as well that things seem off. Rabia then turns her eyes to Nightshade, and your filly shudders and involuntarily holds onto you and Selena tighter.

You really, really don’t like the look she is giving Nightshade, or rather the pieces of necklace embedded in her chest. Really, you don’t like this whole situation, and not just for the obvious reasons. There’s something else that’s really off that you can’t quite put your hoof on.

“Um, maybe we should get on the train and then do this?” suggests Nightshade. “That way the crystal ponies can activate their heart without us being in the blast radius?”

“Oh I’m certain those ponies can wait just a bit longer my dear,” she says in a “soothing” tone not befit for her appearance. “It won’t take long to extract the amulet, and besides it would take far much more time to move every single Umbrum just for this when there’s so much more they could do to help.”

“But…they can fly?” you throw out there, and you see as the Queen narrows her eyes at you.

Okay, this ain’t right. She’s really pushing for this, you think cautiously as you ready yourself for something unexpected.

“And you’ve only got like a hundred dudes. You could easily move them,” B2 chimes in and that’s when your eyes widen in realization.

“Only a hundred? We are far more numerous than that insect,” she says mockingly.

“You’re really not,” you say pointing around you all. “Unless you think these guys were enough to push back a whole army.”

“What are you talking about? There is far…more?” she trails off as she looks around. Her head shifts left and right before she looks back up to the Spire where that red beam still emanates, but there are no more shadowy creatures.

“Hey yeah, where is everyone?” asks Ira as she too notices.

“Yes, there should be much much more,” Hope adds looking about.

“I thought there would be more right behind us?” Sombra exposits.

Rabia takes in this new info, before looking to the Umbrum already gathered.

“Where are the rest of our brethren?!” she snaps at them in an authoritative tone. The other Umbrum look to one another, and give what you suppose is a shrug with their wispiness. “Bah! Useless!”

“Oh there’s the tone I remember,” Humbra quips but is ignored.

“Bugze, what’s going on?” Sunset whispers.

“I have no idea, but on the plus side, neither do they,” you answer.

“Something’s not right,” Rabia states the obvious, just as the red light shrinks back into the palace and the sky returns to it’s moonlit darkness. “What’s happening?!”

“Something unexpected I should reckon,” a smooth male voice says from behind her. Everyone’s attention turns to the new voice.

“Jack?!” Celestia, Luna, and Grandbuggy all say at once. It is indeed the handsome immortal stallion, looking a bit ragged but somehow pulling the look off. Behind him is Ditzy Do herself, and the group of injured changelings that had gone with Hope.

“Hey everyone. Digging the doubles we got going here,” he waves looking to B2, Hu-Luna and Humbra. “Humans I’m guessing?”

“What are you doing out here? How did you escape?!” Rabia demands.

“Escape?” Hope inquires but gets ignored.

“We walked out the front door obviously, you slithery snake!” Derpy answers back snippily.

“ But the guards-“ Rabia starts, but gets interrupted by Jack.

“Your guards and a lot of your subjects were dealing with something catastrophic, your majesty,” he says snidely.

“That’s one way to put it,” Double Vision laughs. “It’s more like those jerks you had jump us were getting raptured.”

“What?!” the Umbrum Queen shouts sounding outraged.

“Like the Doctor always used to say, something reversed the polarity of the neutron flow, and your people were being sucked back into the barrier of the crystal out in the wastes,” Derpy says with venom in her voice and many of the Umbrum’s eyes widen in shock.

“They were sucked into the barrier?!” Sombra asks sounding horrified.

“Yup, it sounded like a fricken massacre,” Patches gives his two cents.

“B-but if they were pulled through the barrier, then wouldn’t that mean they…?” Ira trails off, before holding a limb to her mouth with a gasp. Queen Rabia then growls as her eyes glow more and Nightshade winces as the shards blip inside of her.

“Yeah, I saw some of them, looked like they were being torn apart. It was a bloodbath,” Emerald the changeling says with a shudder.

I have a rendezvous with death, the poem echoes in your mind, chilling you to the bone.

“Something has killed my subjects?! Impossible!” she roars and Sombra looks lost.

“Could I have done something wrong with the opening?” he asks himself.

“No! It’s not true! This filthy pony is lying!” she says before zapping Jack, killing him.

“Oh My God!” Hu-Jack, Hu-Dash and Hu-Rarity all exclaim at once.

“No one move!” Rabia demands. “Not until I know the truth!”

“Dude, she just killed that guy!” Sunset says horrified looking at Jack’s blackened corpse next to a frustrated Derpy.

“It’s fine, he’s had worse,” Grandbuggy says calmly.

“What?” she gasps and realizes that aside from the humans, no one else is freaking out about the murder and focusing more on Rabia herself. “But he’s dead? Who was he and-“

“GWAAAHHH!!!” Jack gasps as he resurrects.

“What?!” Rabia exclaims as her eyes bug out again.

“Yeah, neat trick of his, he can’t die you bitch!” Derpy curses, and that actually gets more of a response than the murder as you and several others gasp.

“Whoa, she’s pissed off,” Cadence says nervously.

“Yes, best to keep our distance from her,” Nightshade observes.

“Indeed,” Selena agrees.

“Alright, alright, what the buck is even happening?!” Sombra shouts, trying to get a handle on everything.

“Your mother isn’t who she presents herself to be Sombra. She has no altruistic intentions,” Jack says brushing off some ash.

“Told ya so!” Humbra calls out and the Queen growls.

“Yeah, I’m starting to see that, but what is happening to the rest of the Umbrum?!” he demands.

“Trickery and deceit! Just as ponies have always done!” Rabia roars before looking to her subjects. “Subdue them all!”

“But mother-“ Sombra starts but she whirls and snarls at him.

“But nothing! They must be responsible for whatever is happening! They must pay with their-“

WHUMP

Suddenly Queen Rabia disappears beneath the boot of a very tall mechanical suit. Everyone, including the Umbrum yelp in shock at the hulking newcomer.

“Crap! Flag Burner?!” you guess as you hold up the Power Glove preemptively. Your guess isn’t without warrant, because it is just as tall as the terrorist’s suit, and as equally as damaged by the state it’s in. But then again, it’s not red.

“No, this is not his suit,” Princess Celestia says with understanding.

“Of course it’s not him!” the small blue windicolt on it’s shoulders calls out.

“Yeah, you color blind?” the small red dragon on the other shoulder adds.

“Frost? Garble?!” Nightshade says in surprise. They wave at her, but before anyone else can say anything, or the Umbrum can attack.

“Everyone Stand Down!” a firm, commanding voice emanates from the suit's loudspeakers, as the arms point at the Umbrum, crackling with electricity. “Now’s not the time to be fighting amongst ourselves!”

You recognize the voice immediately, and from the looks of Princess Twilight, Sunset, and Cadence, so do they.

“Flash?!” you exclaim and the cockpit turns slightly towards you.

“Hey Baker, good to see ya bud,” he says, sounding happy. “Or Bugze I guess.”

Queen Rabia groans from underneath the robot as the Umbrum look tense and ready to strike.

“Um, uh…” Ira sputters indecisively.

“Stand down, the lot of you!” Sombra orders, his red horn shining with authority.

“Do not think that your numbers mean anything to us!” Selena adds, her own horn alighting.

“You heard them! Stand down buckers!” Nightshade challenges, as her minions appear between the Umbrum and the rest of you.

The Umbrum back off at that, clearly not having expected any of this.

“Good,” Flash nods before he opens up the cockpit, and you all see the scrapes and bruises on his body and the bags under his eyes. “Princesses, I have grave news. Equestria has fallen.”

Everyone, not just the princesses gasp at that.

“Fallen?” Twilight repeats.

“Yes, everypony has been sapped of their magic,” he says grimly and all of the Princesses look to one another in worry. Even Selena and Grandbuggy’s face drain of color as they take that in.

“…Well, honestly didn’t see this coming,” Jack says to Derpy.

“No spit!” Nightshade says before looking to the dragon and colt on the mech’s shoulders.

“What the buck is happening guys?!”

“I honestly don’t know, and I was there to see it,” Frost says, sounding disturbed.

“Yeah, this big red monkey thing put his mouth around that crystal out there and just started sucking on it like a straw,” Garble explains as best he can, and that gets Grandbuggy’s eyes to widen.

“Big red monkey thing?!” he repeats.

“Yes, it’s the creature that’s steamrolled through Equestria, taking it’s magic,” Flash confirms. And just like that, Celestia, Luna, Selena, Sombra and Grandbuggy all start to look horrified.

“What nonsense do you speak metal pony?!” Rabia says, still smooshed by his foot.

“The rest of the Umbrum aren’t just dead mother…they’ve been eaten,” Sombra says morbidly.

“Eaten?” Hope gasps.

“Yes, by a creature that feasts on magic itself,” Luna adds as she begins to hyperventilate.

“Wait a second…” you say as that sounds really, really familiar. You flash back to a broken desperate world full of death and destruction. Where gods and monsters fell to the Nightmare. There was a big red monkey thing there too.

“By the gods, why now of all times?” Selena muses.

“Wait, Grandbuggy isn’t that that guy you were telling me about on the train?” Nightshade inquires.

“Yeah kiddo, I think it is,” the old bug nods with a sigh. He then looks at you and speaks in a voice so that everyone can hear.

“Tirek is coming.”

WHAT DO YOU DO?