//------------------------------// // Chapter's End // Story: The Boy Who Disappeared // by computerneek //------------------------------// "Hello and good evening, Ponies of Equestria," Silversong began, immediately upon stepping through the portal Hailey had helped her make- before promptly tripping and landing on her face. "Oof. Sorry about that." Hailey trotted casually up next to her, completely unbothered by their change of shape. "You know, there aren't any ponies in this part of the Castle," she told them. "They're all downstairs, in the basement laboratory." She looked thoughtfully at the ceiling. "Feels like... Yeah, feels like they're interrogating someone." Hermione, Ginny, and Ariel stepped carefully up next to them. "You're right, Silver, this is weird." She lifted one foreleg, then one wing, and looked at them both. "We all seem to be alicorns?" "Except Ron," Hailey observed, glancing back. Ron winced. "Well yeah, not everyone can be an immortal goddess, can they?" "You could also say that not everyone can be bonded with a changeling," Hailey told him, before trotting casually to the door and pushing it open. "Oh hey," she muttered. "Hey, Silver? Looks like Luna's been trapped in the Storm King Icicle Prison- and if I remember right, Twilight has experience with those?" Silver wobbled over, and looked. "Oh. Huh. Yeah... Which means that if I..." She lowered her horn, and shot a spell at it. Within moments, the odd crystal Luna had been encased in began to melt away from her. Seconds after that, Luna was entirely free. She leaped to her hooves and looked around wildly. "What- What happened?" "I think you got attacked mid-negotiation with Chrysalis," Hailey told her. "Chrysalis was the first to get hit, so I don't know any more than that." Luna turned to her. "Who are you?" she demanded. "I'm Hailey," she told her. "We came from another world to bring Chrysalis, Celestia, Twilight, and Cadence back home." She gestured at her friends. Luna looked between them. "Where are they?" she asked. "Um... Inside us. According to Silver, all we need to do is touch Flurry Heart and they'll just pop back out." "... What?" "Come on!" Starlight snarled, casting even more spells at the panel they'd hung on the wall. The idea was, using the information they'd gotten from the enemy leader, to create a window into the world where the Princesses were. They kept getting advertisements for something called 'The Gift of Divinity' instead. The strange advertisement started looping. Flurry sighed, listening to a fast-paced, rhythmic clicking behind her. It hadn't been there before, but she found it calming. Suddenly, the clicking ended. "In this universe, Sunset-!" A blast of Starlight's magic completely disabled the window. Flurry sighed. "You have now won two thousand nine hundred and eighteen games out of the last two thousand nine hundred and eighteen," Twilight's voice said suddenly. Flurry looked. Everyone in the room did. Princesses Celestia, Cadence, and Twilight were playing four-player checkers with Chrysalis on a massive board. "And with the exact same sequence of moves these last twelve times," Chrysalis observed. "Oh, and we seem to be back, too." The princesses looked up. "Flurry!" Cadence jumped clear over Celestia's head, without unfurling her wings, to hug her daughter. "I was so worried!" "That 'Gift of Divinity' thing sounded like a good show," someone said. "Can we watch it?" Everypony looked. There was a row of strange alicorns, sitting casually about three feet behind where Flurry had been and looking very amused. "Hi," said the one that was so dark of a blue that she was almost black. "I'm pretty sure we're the ones you were looking for." Princess Luna, sitting next to her, put a hoof to her muzzle to stifle her laughter.