Sunny stared off into the distance, feeling like she was… missing something. Something important. But she just couldn’t quite place her hoof on it.
Hitch’s grip on her shoulder tightened. “Sunny? Are you okay?”
“Hm?” She shook herself. “I… yeah, I’m fine.” She took a deep breath. “What… what happened?”
The sheriff shrugged. “I’m not sure,” he admitted. “Everything’s a little foggy at the moment, but I remember… We got kidnapped by the Legion of Doom. Somepony told them we were coming, and I want to know who, but then Permafrost came in and… I think he teleported us out of there.”
Sunny frowned. “That doesn’t sound quite right. Why would he do that? He hates us - he hates me.”
“You think I’m an expert on bad guys?” Hitch shrugged. “I don’t know why he did it, all I know is, we’re out here, free, and our friends must be around here somewhere, too.” He gave her a playful nudge and grinned at her. “What do you say we go find them and show those villains that they messed with the wrong group of ponies?”
“Sunny? Hitch? Is that you?” Izzy stumbled into the clearing, looking distressed, mud caked around her hooves. When she saw the two earth ponies, she let out a relieved sigh. “Thank hoofness I found you!” she stressed as she wrapped Sunny in a hug. Then a more distressing thought occurred to her, and she stepped back, saying, “My horn won’t work, Sunny! I think - I think my magic’s gone!”
“It was that bell,” Sunny told her. “It can steal the magic from anypony - or creature.” She looked down at the ground in defeat. “Without magic… I don’t know how we’re going to defeat them.”
“The same way we always do,” Izzy said encouragingly, putting her arm around Sunny’s shoulders and giving her an encouraging squeeze. “We don’t need magic when we have friends by our side!”
“We beat Sprout without magic,” Hitch added confidently.
The mention of Sprout brought back that strange feeling that Sunny was having, like she was missing something important. But as the other ponies looked like they were perfectly fine, she decided that it must be something to do with the stress of the whole hopeless situation. Perhaps the feeling came from the lack of magic… Yes, that had to be it!
“Sunny!” Three creatures burst into the clearing: Pipp, Imara and Ash, at the same time Brooks and Lukas ran in from the opposite side. Pipp skidded to a stop in front of Sunny and waved her phone in her friend’s face.
“Things are much worse outside!” she stressed, scrolling through clips and comments. “Everypony thinks you’re a crazy pony who just wants more and more power for herself, and they really don’t like us, either,” she added, her face anxious. “Even if we defeat Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow, how in Equestria are we going to deal with this?”
She thrust the phone in front of Sunny’s muzzle, and she had to push it back to see it more clearly. It was a clip of Helios, standing in front of all of Zephyr Heights (and Sunny knew that the message would be passed by word of mouth to the rest of Equestria), declaring that Sunny and her friends were all enemies of the state, and that anypony who saw them should report them to the proper authorities (a.k.a. Helios) and not engage them directly - they were rumored to be very dangerous.
It was the looks on the ponies’ faces that sold it for Sunny. Her heart skipped a beat with fear as she saw the scowls and glares and heard the shouts of the angry crowd.
Zipp, Kailani, Hugo, Little Braveheart, Flurry, and Midnight all raced into the clearing while Sunny thought, and Pipp briefed them on what the situation was, her expression panicked. All the creatures looked to Sunny, the same question written on each of their faces: “What are we going to do?”
Sunny sighed and put a gentle hoof on Pipp’s phone, lowering it. “We’ll have to worry about that later,” she told them all. “We can’t expect any help from the rest of Equestria, and I have no idea what will happen after this, what with all the tribes wanting to go to war with each other, but I do know this: if we don’t defeat the Legion of Doom right now, there won’t be an Equestria to come back to, angry population or not. I don’t know how we’re going to defeat them, but we are going to, and when we do, we’ll go home and tell everyone that this is all a huge misunderstanding.” She put her hoof in front of her. “Who’s with me?”
Izzy was the first one to join her, a huge grin splitting her face. “Let’s go save Equestria,” she said as she put her hoof on top of Sunny’s.
“And get our magic back,” agreed Imara, placing her hoof on top of Izzy’s. The unicorn and the changeling exchanged a smile as the other creatures and ponies pledged themselves to the fight.
“I’m in,” said a voice across the clearing, and the creatures all turned to see Thunder, Zoom, Toots, and Sweets standing there, all looking ready to fight.
“Me, too,” came Midge’s voice opposite the arrivals from Zephyr Heights and Maretime Bay. The changeling stepped into the clearing with Queen Monarch at his side, and Sunny and Imara, the only two there who had seen her before, quickly bent their knees in a polite bow.
“Your Majesty, I know what it looks like,” Imara begain, but Monarch held up a hoof, silencing her.
“I believe some of this is my fault, at least,” she said. “I was blind and naive and wouldn’t listen to common sense. And I understand that one of these villains is a former queen of the changelings?” Sunny nodded to confirm this, and the queen closed her eyes, making a decision. Opening her purple eyes, she said, “Then I feel like this might be some of my responsibility as well.”
Sunny took a deep breath and looked towards the direction that the villains’ headquarters was. “It’s not going to be easy,” she warned them all, “but this is our only chance. We need to fight with everything we have if we’re going to defeat them and bring back the Equestria we all want.”
“We’re with you, Sunny,” Hitch told her, the others nodding along with him. “Now and forever.”
Chrysalis took a deep breath as her newfound power ran through her veins, feeling the tingling sensation that told her that no one, not any creature in the entire world, was as powerful as she was.
Or… would be. She cast a disdainful look at Tirek and Cozy Glow, thinking, Not much longer.
Because they still had that strange device that Sour Lavender called a ‘sell fone’ (he had explained that they would have to use the device sparingly in order to conserve battery), the Legion of Doom had been keeping up with recent events outside their cave, and the current plan was to give the ponies back to Equestria, and the other creatures back to their respective kingdoms, so that their rulers may do what they wished with them - Chrysalis didn’t care the slightest. Though she had requested that she could drain them all of love before they left - she was starving. She needed something to eat after a century in stone.
And now that Sunny Starscout’s magic ran through all three villains… well, there was no reason to keep the earth pony mare any longer. Chrysalis glared at her partners in crime, thinking of the best way to steal the bell and suck Tirek and Cozy Glow dry.
The pegasus in particular had been giving off a very strong aura of love that Chrysalis was curious about. There was no way that she had gotten that from her and Tirek.
So she was hiding something as well…
All these secrets and hiding things made Chrysalis uncomfortable. The thought that she wasn’t the only one with a secret plan made her think that, perhaps, they were planning something as well, and might even know her own plans.
Cozy Glow lit up her new alicorn horn and grinned with relish as she vaporized a nearby rock. “Let’s go destroy Sunny Starscout and her friends right now,” she suggested.
“There’s no reason to keep them,” Tirek agreed, but it was Chrysalis who led the way to the hastily converted dungeon. She was secretly impressed with Cozy Glow for coming up with the idea to use the catacombs beneath the main cave, with Chrysalis’ green goo over the mouths to keep them there. But, of course, she would never mention that.
But she skidded to a halt when she entered the prison cell area, squinting in the dim torch light, hoping against hope that she was hallucinating.
No. She wasn’t.
They were gone.
“Where are they?” demadned Cozy Glow, rounding and flying out of the cave as fast as her newly enlarged wings could carry her, Tirek bounding after her. But Chrysalis lingered, squinting at the dark, empty caves. They were empty - completely. There were no hints as to what had happened. And the goop was still prohibiting exiting the cave, so there must have been magic involved.
Of course, with Sunny Starscout and all her friends stripped of their magic, there was only one pony it could be…
“That blithering fool,” she hissed, leaping into the air and flying off to go find Permafrost. “Did he really think he could get away with it?”
“Get away with what?” asked an innocent voice behind her, and Chrysalis turned to see Cozy Glow hovering behind her, looking curious and (trying to be) adorable. Behind her Tirek stood with his arms crossed over his chest, glaring at Chrysalis as if he suspected something. But Chrysalis pushed it aside for now. If they wanted to get out of THIS pickle, they would need to work together. So she put her plan on hold for now.
“That idiot unicorn!” the former changeling queen snapped, whirling around to face them. “He’s the one who got them out!”
Cozy Glow frowned, as though she didn’t quite follow. “Why would he do that?” she asked.
“I don’t know! But we need to take care of him and his stupid friend as well,” she decided, turning back around and flying off to go find him. She stopped and glared at her comrades. “And if you don’t want to help, then fine. I’ll take care of it myself.”
Her eyes flew around the room until they landed on Grogar’s bell, floating just behind Cozy Glow and gently drifting after her when she moved. Chrysalis remembered it doing something like that back when they first tried to take over Equestria, but they had been practically inseperable when they had Grogar’s bell out - it usually meant that they were fighting against Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Tirek had explained that the bell followed its master around wherever he or she went so that it could heed to their services more easily, and none of them had wanted to go wading into the question of who the master was.
But now Chrysalis knew. And it made sense. Cozy Glow had retrieved the bell from the top of Mount Everhoof, she had used it against Celestia and Luna in the Third Battle of Canterlot, and she was a pony - just like Gusty the Great, the pony who had stolen the bell from Grogar in the first place. Perhaps the ancient pony had added another spell to the enchantment that kept the bell safe - that only a pony could properly weild it. That way, no evil creature from another land could use its power.
Chrysalis thought of all that power in the hooves of the manipulative little filly in front of her, and she expected to scoff at the notion and be completely unworried. There was no way that Cozy Glow could pose a significant threat to her.
And yet… she was startled to find that she felt afraid. She had heard and seen what this pony could do, and having immeasurable power in her hooves wasn’t comforting.
I need to put my plan into action, she thought, panicked. NOW. When we drain Permafrost and Sour Lavender of their magic, I’ll grab the bell and turn it on them, then steal all the magic, defeat Sunny Starscout and her friends once and for all, and rule all of Equestria alone.
As if the thought summoned them, Sour Lavender and Permafrost suddenly burst into the cave, looking just as panicked as she felt.
“They’re… back!” the pegasus gasped, skidding to a halt and trying to catch his breath. “They’re… outside… right… now!”
Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow gave each other a look, then ran to the mouth of the cave… and saw Sunny Starscout standing at the head of a large group of creatures and ponies, looking ready to fight.