"Freeze!" A guard yelled.
Trixie, trying to remember on how to teleport again, she imagined her, Starlight, and Discord far away from the guards... and she knew the destination for it, but she heard the guards get closer and closer. She had no choice.
In a heartbeat, they disappeared in a flash.
Popping out of the aura, Trixie, Starlight, and Discord both landed outside, but they were on top of the roof of a Canterlot tower.
The three of them immediately gasped and they all got hold of one of the flagpoles that lay on top of the tower.
"What made you think this was a good idea?!" Discord raised his voice at Trixie. "You couldn't find a way to teleport us on the ground?"
"I panicked, ok?!" Trixie defended herself. "This is the second time I did a teleportation spell, and it was hard teleporting not only myself!"
"Stop fighting!" Starlight commanded the two. "Or else the guards will hear your stupid bickering."
"Well, EXCUSE ME for freaking out at potentially falling to my doom!" Discord yelled at her. "Normally, if I have my magic, this would be easily averted."
"Me too." Starlight sighed.
"You can break it off, you know." Trixie suggested to Starlight.
She looked unamused. "I'm not having a concussion when I'm holding on a tower pole."
"How'd you know?" Trixie tilted her head.
"Because smashing my head on a rock is something that you would do." Starlight answered with a bit of tiny amusement.
"If you two are done, I would like to know on how to get down from here!" Discord snarked.
Starlight got to thinking. "Trixie, could you teleport us again?"
Trixie's eyes widened. "I'm not doing another teleportation spell. Its draining!" she said. The thought of doing another teleportation spell was exhausting.
Starlight lifted her ears to hear the sound of screaming guards in the distance. "Well, we can't dangle here all day, or else they would find us."
"Hmm..." Discord pondered. He looked around and he eventually found that underneath them was a few bushes. Trixie followed his gaze, and immediately knew what he was thinking.
"We are not falling into those bushes." Trixie glared at him. "I think the magic blocker has somehow blocked your logical reasoning."
"What else are we supposed to do?" Discord interrogated her. "We can't be here all day, and I don't see you coming up with bright ideas yourself."
"I could come up with a better idea than that!" Trixie spat back.
"What?!"
Trixie felt a deep chill when they heard the shocked and angry voice of Princess Luna. The guards must have told her about their escape.
Starlight and Discord felt the same way that Trixie felt.
"Well, you better tell us now." Starlight said, now starting to get scared.
"Uh, uh, uh..." Trixie stammered. Time now became their enemy. If Luna ever found Starlight, Trixie, and Discord, out here looking like idiots, Trixie would forever be drowned in shame. Not to mention that her entire rescue mission would be for nothing.
She had no choice. It was either capture, or Discord's stupid idea.
"Ok, fine!" Trixie snapped at him. When Discord smiled, Trixie turned to Starlight, who looked rather surprised at the idea. "Its the only choice that we have."
Starlight sighed. "Alright, on the count of three, we let go." she said. "One... two..."
They suddenly hear doors slamming open in the castle, and they started hearing muffled voices of Twilight. Soon they started hearing thundering hoofsteps in the distance outside.
"No time! Now!" Discord insisted.
As they let go, they began to fall. The three of them tried their best not to scream as they did. They all braced themselves as the bushes got closer.
"Ouch!" Trixie welped. The thorns pierced her skin, as it was to be expected, but thankfully, and despite the thorns, at least they landed safely.
Trixie made her way out of the bushes. Everytime she picked out a thorn from her body, she couldn't help but scream in pain. Discord got lucky that this was the only escape attempt.
"Quickly." Trixie heard Starlight usher. Trixie saw that Starlight had plucked the thorns out from her coat. She was impressed that Starlight could take all that pain.
"Wait!" Discord called out to Starlight. Once she turned to him, Discord was holding a rock with his lion paw. "You need this to break off your magic blocker."
Trixie smiled. For once, Discord was acting like he had a brain.
"Yeah." Starlight whipped her head. The hoofsteps were starting to get closer. "Make it quick! Maybe I can teleport us out of here!"
With that, Discord grabbed her horn and immediately smacked the blocker with the rock. Trixie could tell from Starlight's expressions that the process was not painless.
Finally, the blocker finally broke.
Starlight's horn lit up. "I can use magic again!" she said happily.
But it did not last long.
"Starlight Glimmer!" Twilight's voice rang above them.
"Not again." Trixie groaned. "Starlight, teleport us, now."
But she remained still. And instead, she waited for her to arrive. She does know that Twilight will still deny her, right? She should at least know this by now. But... Starlight wasn't known for being dumb.
Starlight started walking towards the princess as Twilight landed near them.
"What in Equestria is she doing?" Discord asked Trixie in a hushed voice.
"I don't know."
"Why aren't you getting the guards?" Trixie and Discord both turned their heads when she heard a cold, icy tone that came from Starlight.
"Because," Twilight stretched out her wings. "I want to talk to you."
Trixie saw Starlight stiffen. Her horn suddenly glowed bright.
"If you are trying to fool me and pull a trick on me and my friends, I'll make you regret that." Starlight said. Trixie was stunned by the hate that she felt from those words. That was not like Starlight...
"Starlight?" Trixie whispered to her friend.
But the two mares ignored her.
"I'm trying to give you a chance to redeem yourself." Twilight stated. Trixie saw that she was trying to keep calm.
"I already did." Starlight said each word slowly. "Want me to prove it?"
Starlight got low to the ground and cast a spell. An orb went over her head and played reels of the times Twilight and Starlight were together as friends: enjoying their company, laughter, and so many positive things.
Trixie and Discord started looking hopeful. Could this actually work? Would Twilight finally get back to her normal self?
But Twilight didn't buy it. "Wow, that must be a good spell that you cast."
Starlight's horn stopped glowing and immediately looked at her with confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I knew that you were a talented unicorn," Twilight said, but for some reason Twilight sounded impressed by what she said next. "But you must be pretty good if you could somehow make slideshows of me and you together. And how did you know what my castle looked like?"
Discord and Trixie's jaws dropped. How? How in a million years would Twilight be that delusional?
It's official, everyone here except the three of us had taken stupid pills. Trixie thought, half angry, half disappointed.
They all looked at Starlight. She lowered her head and started crying.
"Wow." Twilight looked surprised. "Either you must be an impersonator, or you took a serious personality change. Never would I imagined you crying in front of me!"
But what came next was what the three of them could not have imagined.
Starlight opened her eyes, narrowed and filled with pure anger. She immediately got on her two hind legs and immediately punched Twilight hard in the face. She was unprepared for the attack and fell to the ground. She was unconscious.
Starlight loomed over her. "Didn't expect that, did you, princess?" she said to the unconscious alicorn.
Starlight?! Trixie screamed in her mind. While she thought Twilight deserved it after all the pain Starlight and the others went through, she never would have thought that Starlight would hurt the alicorn! Something was seriously wrong with her.
Immediately, Trixie and Discord got in front of Starlight and tried pushing her away.
"Starlight! Snap out of it!" Trixie pleaded. "What has gotten into you?"
"Yeah, and while I thought that was amazing, a tiny bit of me is thinking that was not a good idea." Discord agreed.
"Yeah, well she deserved it!" Starlight said to the two. "She's lucky that I only punched her and did nothing else! Or maybe... I should have..." she finished with an ominous voice.
Trixie looked shocked. What had gotten into her friend?
"Snap out of it!" Trixie immediately lifted a hoof and slapped Starlight on the cheek.
"Wow, this is juicy!" Discord awed. "If only I had my magic right now. I could totally get some popcorn!"
"Not. Helping." Trixie said at him through gritted teeth.
But much to Trixie's surprise, after Trixie smacked Starlight, her pupils were now dilated. The anger that she had was completely gone.
"Wow... thanks." Starlight put a hoof on her head. "I... didn't know what I was doing. It was like as if I..."
"As if you what?" Trixie asked, concerned.
"It was as if I couldn't control myself." she breathed out.
Before either of them could respond, a guard appeared from behind the corner, and quickly alerted the other guards.
"Princess Twilight?" A guard looked shocked when she saw the alicorn, who was still unconscious.
"Them." A guard pointed at the three. "They hurt the princess!"
Starlight quickly looked towards Twilight's body. Her ears immediately went backwards and her face only expressed horror.
"I-I-I-I didn't mean too..." Starlight quivered.
"Teleporting time, guilt later!" Discord said to her. "They are going towards us!"
When Starlight gazed at Twilight once more, tears started going down her face. With her eyes closed, Starlight cast a teleportation spell, and they teleported near Trixie's wagon.
Trixie was happy that she saw her old wagon again. "My sweet baby-"
Trixie was caught off guard when Starlight cast the spell again, and they quickly teleported to the woods, far away from Canterlot.
"Haha, yes!" Discord celebrated. "Finally away from those princesses! They were getting way too edgy for me. And I was actually ok around them at first!"
"We all were." Trixie said to the creature. "But something has changed, and we are going to find out what." Trixie turned. "Right Starlight?"
But she wasn't around. Instead, Trixie saw her walking away from them and headed deep into the woods. Her head and ears were drooped. Discord and Trixie, out of confusion and concern, had followed her until they found her standing by a calming river, looking down at the water.