Gallop watched helplessly as Chrysalis wrapped Luster in a slimy cocoon.
“Luster... got to… save her...”
Gallop tried to speak, but his voice turned into a whisper. He tried to get up, but after Tirek's magic extraction he could barely even crawl. He could only watch as Chrysalis launched into the air, getting further away with Luster, every second.
“N-no...” Gallop jerked his body up, but it painfully hit the ground a second later. “Luster...”
Defeated, all he could do is wait for someone to find them, but in his current state, each second seemed like an hour. But then, he heard a pop, and a white flash occurred in front of him. Looking up, Gallop stared into the face of the Spirit of Chaos. Discord looked down at the Earth Pony with a look of concern.
“Oh dear, it appears I was too late! Tirek got away with your magic, didn't he?" Discord said but then cocked his head. “Wait… aren't you Luster Dawn’s boyfriend?” His face paled. “Please tell me Luster Dawn was not-”
“Chrysalis… took her!” Gallop choked out.
“We have to help!” River managed to yell.
“I have to get all of you to Starlight,” Discord said. “She can help you regain your strength.”
He snapped his fingers, and suddenly Gallop, his friends, as well as Diamond Tiara and the others were inside the Castle of Friendship. They lay there on the cold crystal floor; Gallop shivered at the touch.
“Starlight!” Discord called. “We need help!”
His voice echoed through the castle. But instead of the unicorn in question, Trixie showed up.
“Discord?” she said.
“Where is Starlight?”
“Sunburst and her went to Everfree to look for the changeling’s amulet.” Trixie then noticed Gallop and the others. “What’s happened to them?”
“Tirek took their magic!” the draconequus said.
After a short shock, Trixie nodded nervously. “Follow me!”
***
Minutes later, Gallop was seated in a chair in the castle potion wing. Trixie levitated a vial in front of him.
“Here, this should help regain your strength. Ever since Starlight learned Tirek had returned with Chrysalis and Cozy, she's been working on a potion to counter that sapping of his.”
The liquid went down Gallop’s throat. He could immediately feel his strength returning. Trixie gave a potion to River as well.
“It won’t replenish all your magic, but it will at least allow you to do a few spells.”
But before River could drink it, the door to the room burst open. Starlight and Sunburst galloped inside.
“We teleported back as soon as we heard what happened!” Starlight said, running towards Gallop. She took him by the shoulders. “Please please please tell me that Luster was not with you!”
Gallop felt tears make their way up. “Chrysalis took her!”
Starlight clenched her teeth as tears appeared in her eyes as well. Her worst nightmare… the one she’d had ever since Luster had been a baby… had come true.
“No! My little filly!” Starlight sobbed.
Sunburst looked at his wife in dread and walked over, wrapping his hooves around her. She buried her face in his chest. For a while the room filled with the cries of a mother.
“I sent her outside when she had just lost her amulet! I knew that Chrysalis had to be behind it somehow! I thought she would have been safer with Georgia… How could I have been so blind? I should have had her stay here with me! Now Chrysalis has her!”
“I’m sorry Headmare Glimmer!” Georgia said after Discord removed a strength potion from her beak. “I couldn’t do anything. Tirek… he just came out of nowhere and drained all our magic. We couldn't do anything.”
Starlight looked at the griffon with wide teary eyes. Georgia looked back at her guiltily.
“It’s… it’s not your fault… Chrysalis is a cunning foe. They all are,” Starlight said through her tears. “They attack suddenly and swiftly.”
“We’ll get her back, Starlight," Sunburst said. "No matter what it takes. She’s our daughter.”
Suddenly, Starlight clenched her teeth. A little red crackle emitted from her horn as her expression turned to one of fury. “If Chrysalis hurts her, I swear I’ll make her regret everything she’s done!”
“Um… would you please give me a strength potion first?” Diamond Tiara asked.
***
Chrysalis carried Luster Dawn in a cocoon as they finally arrived back at Grogar’s lair. Cozy Glow flew next to her as they landed on their hooves, and Tirek did so as well from his last great leap. Chrysalis set the cocoon on the ground with her magic.
"Hey, you sure she's fine in there?" Cozy asked. "She's not moving! Grogar’s gonna kill us if you hurt her!"
But Chrysalis dismissed her with her hoof. "Relax, she's fine. When you're inside a changeling's cocoon it makes you disoriented." Chrysalis grinned, licking her lips with her tongue. "It makes it easier for us to feed on you."
Cozy gulped. "Um… okay? We better get her to the boss."
They walked inside the lair with their catch. They found Grogar at the main table with Sombra and Sharp Eye.
“We have returned, Grogar!” Chrysalis said.
The ram frowned. “That is Emperor Grogar to you! Address me properly, or I shall make you suffer.”
Chrysalis shivered. “Um… as you wish… Emperor Grogar. I have Starlight Glimmer’s daughter as you commanded.”
She placed the cocoon holding Luster on the table.
Grogar looked inside at the trapped mare and smiled. “Excellent. Now… it is time I make my move at last.”
The ancient ram sorcerer lit up his horns, shooting magic into the sky. Storm clouds began to form, lightning crackled. They then began to move all across Equestria while the Legion of Doom watched with wide eyes.
***
Twilight stood outside with Spike. She had just gotten the terrible news that Chrysalis had managed to take Luster. The message was like a jab to the heart, filling her with pain and concern.
“Oh, I’m so worried, Spike!” Twilight said. “Celestia knows what Chrysalis will do to Luster now that she has her!”
“I know Twilight!” Spike said. “She’ll probably want to torture her! Drain her of love and stuff! Or maybe… maybe she’ll just decide to destroy her outright!”
“Don’t say that!” Twilight said. “I couldn’t bear the thought of my student suffering!”
She looked at Ponyville within the distance from her balcony. Starlight was probably just as if not more worried than Twilight. But as she looked in that direction, Twilight saw something else. Dark clouds were forming, coming fast.
“Is that a storm coming?” Twilight asked. “We aren’t due for one! Call some pegasi!”
They did, but the pegasi were not able to stop it. It just pushed them back and proceeded to cover all of Equestria. Twilight watched it happen from her balcony. It reminded her of the day the Storm King’s forces had attacked. Was this another attack? She could feel the dark magic in the air. It seemed to be calling her, urging her to stay and watch. Down below, she saw Canterlot ponies coming out of their homes and looking up as well at the clouds.
Then suddenly, a face emerged from the clouds, the face of a ram.
“Citizens of Equestria! Hear me! I am Grogar, your rightful Emperor!”
Many ponies and creatures gasped at the sight, not only in Canterlot, but in Ponyville, Manehattan, and many other locations for all of Equestria could see the image. Twilight’s mouth fell open. She had heard the tale of the dreaded Grogar. An evil ram sorcerer who had ruled the land countless millennia ago before it had been named Equestria. Discord had impersonated him when he’d united her three worst enemies against her. But she had never thought that she would ever have to face the REAL Grogar. She’d assumed he’d long been dead. Then she remembered, Starcutter had told her that he was still around and that he’d been controlling him using the Ruby of Reign. She had not believed the sword pony as he had been a criminal who had usurped her niece at the time.
“I have a message for Princess Twilight!” Grogar said. “You will return my Bewitching Bell to me! If you do not… then your student will suffer.”
The image of the ram vanished and was replaced with Luster Dawn trapped in a green cocoon looking as though she were sleeping.
“Luster!” Twilight screamed.
The image changed back to Grogar.
“You have two days to agree! If you don’t deliver the bell, then I shall allow the changeling I freed to do as she pleases with her!” Grogar threatened. “I’m sure you know her… as well as her teammates that helped in the abduction.”
Now Twilight saw Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow.
“Is Twilight able to see us right now?” Cozy asked. “I can’t tell!”
“All of Equestria can see you!” Grogar’s deep voice sounded from out of the shown image.
“Hey! We’re back!” Tirek said with a wave and an evil chuckle.
Chrysalis gave her a wicked grin. “I told you we would always return, Twilight! Nothing short of destruction will ever stop us!”
Twilight frowned. She had harbored a deep resentment for Chrysalis ever since she’d first met her. The former Queen of the changelings had in their first meeting turned her brother and friends against her. Twilight had slightly been to blame, of course, for not gathering proper proof for her accusations towards Chrysalis when she’d been disguised as Cadence, but Chrysalis had been a master manipulator as well.
Grogar returned in the image once again. “Two days, Princess! Meet them in the place where you last defeated them. If you do not, I shall consume her lifeforce!”
The image in the sky vanished, though the clouds remained. This was bad. An ancient villain was back, and her student was captured.
***
The Council of Friendship was gathered in Canterlot. For the first time in a long time, Starlight was among them. She had made her way to the city as soon as she’d seen Grogar’s message.
“We have to give Grogar his Bell; it’s our only chance to get Luster back!” Starlight said.
“I never thought that he was actually still alive!” Discord said. “When I was posing as that ram, I said he’d been waiting, biding time, waiting for the perfect opportunity! It looks like it was all true! Oh, I’m able to copy the exact personality of the creature I transform into when I choose to use that power. Sometimes I hate it when I’m right!”
“This is really bad!” Fluttershy said.
“We had a darn hard time taking on Chrysalis and the other two by themselves,” Applejack said. “Now we have to deal with the father of all monsters?”
“Yeah, that was supposed to be our final battle for Equestria!” Rainbow Dash said.
“There will always be darkness in the world,” Twilight said, repeating something she’d told the trio before defeating them. “New villains, old villains. It's always there, just as there is light to meet it.”
“Maybe it won’t be too hard?” Pinkie Pie asked.
Everypony frowned at her.
“What? You never know!”
Twilight sighed. “We faced our worst enemies long ago. But this is Grogar - we’ve all heard of him. His legend still lives today. Gusty the Great faced him thousands of years ago and only managed to defeat him by taking away the Bewitching Bell.”
“And he wants it now so that he can have all his power back,” Rainbow Dash said.
“But we can’t just give it to him!” Rarity said. “He’ll use its power to destroy Equestria!”
“If we don’t give it to him, he’ll hurt Luster!” Starlight said. “You can’t expect me to leave my daughter to him! Who knows what she’s going through right now!”
***
Luster lay chained in a cell in the villain’s lair. She opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. The rocks around her cell were orange.
“Where am I? How’d I get here? Wait- it's coming back to me!”
Chrysalis had abducted her!
Suddenly there was the sound of hoof falls nearby. Luster cringed; it was Chrysalis coming to torture her! She closed her eyes, not wanting to look.
“Luster!” a familiar voice called.
Luster peeked a little bit, and to her amazement, saw her mother outside the cage.
“Mom!” Luster exclaimed, walking up to the cell door. “You came!”
Starlight smiled, her loving motherly smile. Then it turned an evil grin, and she opened her mouth, Luster felt what little strength she’d managed to regain slip away, and she collapsed on the stone ground of the cell. Starlight then revealed her true form. Chrysalis grinned down at her.
“Oh, the love a child has for their parent is great. Though they say the love a parent holds for their child is the greatest of all!” the changeling said as she looked at Luster. “I wonder how it would taste if I were to turn into you and drain Starlight’s love?”
“You… stay away from my mother!” Luster threatened.
Chrysalis laughed. “You think you can stop me as you are, little pony?”
Luster didn’t reply, she knew the answer. Without her magic and being unable to move at all, she stood no chance.
“Perhaps if Tirek returned your magic, it would prove to be quite a show,” a deep voice said.
Another creature walked into Luster’s field of vision. It was a blue ram with a red collar around his neck. Behind him walked Tirek and Cozy Glow, who had been turned back to her regular peach coat.
“Who…. who are you?” Luster asked.
The ram smiled at her. “I am Emperor Grogar, father of monsters!”
Luster’s eyes widened. She’d heard of Grogar recently. The sword pony Starcutter had claimed to have been mind-controlled by him. Of course, she also knew him from the legends.
“I’ve been watching you Luster Dawn. A daughter of two gifted unicorns and the star pupil of the Ruler of Equestria!” Grogar said. “I think I could make use of a talented unicorn like you.”
“W-what?” Luster was confused.
“Would you perhaps consider defecting to my side?” Grogar asked. “I have gathered many villains together to form the commanders of my army of monsters.”
“Then it was you who freed these three!” Luster said, looking around at the three villains.
“Yes, she and her teammates have abilities that could be useful to me,” Grogar said. “You could be as well. I lost my inside pony in Starcutter. You could be a perfect candidate to replace him being close to Princess Twilight herself!”
“Not a chance,” Luster snapped. “I’ve been kicked out by my mother twice because of you! I would never serve a monster like you!”
Grogar chuckled. “It won’t be as though you have a choice.”
***
The next day at sunset, Twilight and her friends, as well as Starlight, Sunburst, Trixie, and Discord, stood in the meadow where the trio had been defeated years ago. Discord held the Bewitching Bell in his mismatched claws.
“Are you sure about this, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked.
Twilight nodded. “We can’t risk Luster’s life over the bell!”
“But if we give Grogar the bell there could be a lot more lives lost!” Rainbow Dash said.
“Grogar would probably do something even worse to get the bell back if we refused,” Twilight reasoned.
“Yes, as old as he is, I’m sure he knows quite a few things,” Discord said. “Create enough chaos like war, gather energy from that chaos and you could use it to create a portal into my realm. That would likely be his plan if we were to refuse.”
“We’ll defeat him and the others… somehow.”
Finally, a dark cloud came bearing the minions of Grogar on it arrived. Somehow it was able to support Tirek, who held Luster’s limp form. Cozy Glow grinned at them. Seeing her in this grown-up form weirded all of the other ponies out as they had not been expecting it.
“You have the Bewitching Bell?” Chrysalis asked.
Twilight nodded. Discord stepped forward.
“No funny business, Discord!” Tirek said, levitating Luster. “Or I’ll send her flying!”
Discord nodded and set the bell down on the ground. Cozy Glow flew down and picked it up in her hooves before flying back up to the cloud.
“Now… give me back my daughter!” Starlight said in desperation. “Please, Chrysalis, I beg you!”
The changeling looked at her archnemesis.
“I like you begging. Bow before me, Starlight Glimmer!”
Starlight gulped and stepped forward before lowering her neck.
“Please, just give me my daughter back! Don’t harm her!”
Chrysalis smiled. “That is quite pleasing to see. You shall have your daughter back. Enjoy your time with her while you can! One day soon, we will fight again. And this time, only one or neither of us will walk out alive!”
She took Luster in her magic and levitated her down to Starlight. The unicorn took over then and set Luster down gently.
“Luster!” Starlight screamed in worry as she stood over her before glaring at Chrysalis. “What did you do?”
“Me? Why, nothing! Though I can’t speak for Grogar!” Chrysalis said before turning to her teammates. “Let’s go!”
They flew off on their clouds with the Bewitching Bell, leaving Starlight with her returned daughter.
***
Looking at the bell, Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow knew their window of opportunity was closing fast. The cloud was moving far quicker than any of them.
“We need to act fast!” Chrysalis said. “Lord Tirek!”
“Right!” Tirek said, taking hold of the bell from Cozy Glow.
He shot it with the spell they used to cause it to absorb magic and held it so that it sucked in the area directly above them. Though there was no creature there, it could still absorb any magic sent from a creature. Chrysalis gathered a powerful amount of green magic to her horn. It practically oozed as though it were liquid. This was her ultimate spell for eliminating an enemy when she needed to. She shot it into the suction; the bell hissed as it absorbed the spell.
Chrysalis grinned. “Now, when Grogar absorbs the magic into himself, he will be poisoned by my magic.”
***
Starlight looked at her daughter as Luster lay asleep in bed in the Ponyville Hospital. She stayed by her daughter’s side, keeping her hoof on Luster’s as hours seemed to roll by. Morning came, and Luster’s friends entered her room.
“Oh! She’s back!” Gallop said.
He tried to run over to her, but could only manage a light job. All of Luster’s friends were still weakened from Tirek draining their magic. Strength potions allowed them to stand and walk normally, but not much else.
“Luster?” Gallop asked.
“Is she alright?” Georgia said aloud what they all were thinking.
“She’s had her magic drained, but she seems alright according to the nurses,” Starlight informed them. “We don’t know when she-”
Suddenly, Luster took a deep breath and opened her eyes.
“Where am I?” she asked, looking around. “Mom? Guys?”
“Luster!” River Song exclaimed.
“You’re awake!” Georgia said.
“Luster, okay?” Yelena asked.
“I think so,” Luster said as her friends gathered around her.
“I’m sorry we couldn’t come for you, Luster,” Gallop said. “I wanted to go and save you but-”
“There was nothing you could do in your state. Any of you,” Starlight said. “Luster! Oh, I was so worried! How do you feel? Are you sure you’re alright?”
“I’m fine, mom,” Luster said before shuddering. “Grogar was… really scary.”
“You saw him?” Starlight asked.
“Only for a little while,” Luster said. “The last thing I remember, he shot me with a spell of some kind that was really painful.”
She tried to get up out of bed but cringed and clutched her side.
“You still need time to recover!” Starlight said, resting her daughter back into bed. “I’m just glad you’re back in one piece! Luster, I’m sorry for kicking you out… again! If I hadn’t done that, Chrysalis might not have taken you!”
For a moment, Luster’s eyes sparkled with anger and she frowned. Seeing this, Starlight expected her to yell and tell her off, but it all went away as suddenly as it appeared.
“They would have figured something out eventually regardless,” Luster said. “It’s okay mom.”
Starlight smiled. “Well, I’m never going to send you away again. You and your friends are staying here until Tirek is defeated. That alone will restore your magic completely. For now, you just get some rest. Come on every creature. We need to give Luster some space.”
Starlight led Luster’s friends out with a smile on her face. She had her daughter back safe and sound. Grogar, Chrysalis, and the others were out there. But as long as Luster was safe, that was all that mattered to her.
Luster, meanwhile, grinned evilly.
“You’ll soon feel really sorry for sending me away… mom!”