Opaline held the crystals before them as her wings and horn glowed with power. Fireforge’s likewise did the same in an orange fire of his own.
“You ready?” Opaline asked her son eagerly.
“Y-yes,” Fireforge said.
She cast her spell on the crystals to try and drain them of their power. They vibrated, trying to resist her efforts. Reluctantly, Fireforge joined as well. He could feel the magic flowing through him, and even felt some of the ponies it had come from. Specifically, he saw them in his minds eye. All of Sunny’s friends without their cutie marks and abilities, the two Pegasus princess’s fighting to make sure she and Misty got away. He saw flashes of their memories in their magic, Zipp and Pipp flying for the first time with joy. Izzy using her magic for arts and crafts, Hitch bonding with his animal friends, and Sunny smiling at them as an alicorn after she’d just transformed in a garden somewhere.
“I think I can only transform into an alicorn when I’m truly helping somepony,” she said. “Cause that’s my best self.”
Fireforge felt a tear escape his eyes. Her best self. Meanwhile his best self had been helping his mother to conquer and take all magic for them alone. Fireforge had never noticed until now just how empty life had become for him. His memories turned to his foalhood when he’d had no friends to play with. Opaline had kept him training as soon as he could walk. He’d have lessons with the soldiers she took control of over the years of hiding before they made their move on Twilight’s castle. It had not been a happy life. She’d molded him into a weapon, true she had felt love for him, but was it really genuine? Fireforge wasn’t so sure anymore.
He felt the energy in the crystals slipping out into him. It struggled to stay inside under the power of the two alicorns. Fireforge could have kept going and they probably would have taken the prisbeem once and for all. But as he kept imagining Sunny, he stopped. That left Opaline alone, and the crystals managed to repel her attempt and force her to stop as well.
“Ah!” she exclaimed as she opened her eyes with a growl. “Still too strong!”
She sighed. “Seems we’ll have to go to Bridlewood after all. No matter, one more battle and it will all be over. There’s no way Sunny and the unicorns can stand against us now. If they’d united together early on, they might have defeated us. But now Equestria is as good as ours, and then we shall construct a new kingdom for me in the middle of all three settlements. After that we shall turn our attention to lands beyond Equestria! We will conquer the entire world!”
Fireforge had once been thrilled with that idea as his mother had instilled her thirst for power in him. But now he felt dread. He knew he was at a crossroad of his destiny. Time with Sunny had seemed to open his eyes to another sort of life that could be out there waiting for him, one of friendship and love where everypony could be equal. But if he stayed with his mother and helped her, he’d rule by her side, over… miserable ponies. There were some that were happy to serve them like General Bloodheart, Right Light, and Dirty Fighter. But the rest were forced. Sunny didn’t do that to her friends.
Fireforge had to choose. He needed to find out whether it was worth staying with his mother and making the mare he’d developed feelings for lose her magic.
“Mother?” he asked.
“Yes Fire?” Opaline asked looking at him.
“Do you… really love me?” he asked.
“Of course I do!” Opaline said. “You are the only pony I can ever proudly say that of! You are an alicorn just like me and you understand what it means to be an alicorn! That we are superior over all the other pathetic little ponies!”
Fireforge wasn’t so sure of that anymore. Alicorns might be more powerful themselves but that didn’t mean they alone should have all the magic.
Everypony deserves equal opportunity.
Sunny’s words echoed in his mind again.
“So you just love me because I’m an alicorn?” he asked.
“What are you getting at?” Opaline asked, a flicker of irritance lighting in her eyes.
“What if I’d been an Earth Pony, Pegasus or unicorn?” he asked.
“I probably would have given you to your father,” Opaline said dismissively. “You would have been a part of my army but I would never have called you son.”
And with those words, Fireforge’s heart… which had recently been hard as stone and nearly cold as ice before he met Sunny… broke.
Opaline got down from her acquired throne and turned to Bloodheart.
“See to our armies preparation. We attack Bridlewood the day after tomorrow,” she said.
“Yes my queen,” Bloodheart said as he bowed his head before turning to his fellow commanders. “You two go and get some rest, we’ll all need to be at our best.”
“Yes General,” Dirty Fighter said. “I think I’ll go have some fun with our princess prisoners and their friends. Want to come Right Light?”
He looked at their newest inner circle member with a malevolent grin. Right Light returned it as he got an idea what the wicked torturer meant.
“I think I will,” Right said.
Fireforge frowned. Opaline walked off to retire for the night. Now he knew that she only ‘loved’ him because he was an alicorn. An alicorn that she’d raised to be in her image. She’d denied him friendship with other ponies growing up, and that was something Sunny had given him. True her friends and even her own mother hadn’t trusted him, but not without good reason.
Now, it was time to change that.
…
In the dungeon of Zephyr Heights, Hitch sat with Sprout and Rufus. Izzy, Jazz, and Rocky were in the cell across from them. Posey, Windy, and Dahlias next to them, and several foals and Sparky in the one across from that.
“I hope Misty’s okay,” Sprout said in concern.
“Me too,” Hitch agreed. “And Sunny as well! And Pipp and Zipp!”
His marefriend and her sister had been brought before Opaline as they were part of the royal family. Who knew what was gonna happen to them now?
Suddenly Queen Haven was escorted by a pair of brainwashed guards into a cell next to theirs.
“Queen Haven!” Hitch exclaimed.
“Oh, Hitch this is simply awful! I’m just Haven now! Not Queen Haven!” the monarch said. “That blasted usurping alicorn!”
“Quiet!” the brainwashed guards said as he stood by her door. “Nopony shall speak ill of her highness Opaline!”
“You are loyal to me!” Haven objected. “Or at least you were!”
She sighed.
“Where are Zipp and Pipp?” Hitch asked.
“I don’t know, Opaline sent me down here after she made them bow down by threatening to throw me to the ground from the throneroom!” Haven exclaimed.
They waited. Then after some time Zipp and Pipp came, but their eyes shined purple like the other brainwashed ponies.
“Pipp! No!” Hitch yelled as he saw his marefriend.
Then another pair of ponies entered the dungeon behind the sisters, and Hitch’s mouth fell open in horror as he saw it was none other than the devious pair of Dirty Fighter and Right Light. Dirty smirked at Hitch as he looked at the pony who’d become his primary archenemy in this day and age. Posey shuddered as she saw the pony who’d horrifically tortured her as well.
“Hello Sheriff,” Dirty said in a mocking voice. “This is your marefriend, right?”
He took Pipp’s chin and made her look at him with a blank purple set of eyes.
“Y-yes,” Hitch said nervously.
Dirty smirked. “Well, I thought I’d let you see her… before I steal her from you!”
“What?” Hitch exclaimed. “No!”
“She’s a very pretty mare,” Dirty said running a hoof through Pipp’s mane. “I always wanted to have my own little princess! Though she’ll be my damsel in distress!”
“You and me both!” Right Light said smirking at his fellow villain. “I’ll be taking Zipp meanwhile! Isn’t that right, my dear?”
Zipp nodded.
“As you wish, my future husband.”
Opaline must have chosen to have Zipp be engaged to Right Light in order to establish a forced alliance and further demoralize the populace.
Haven growled in her cell. “Get your hooves off my girls! I swear if you hurt them I will enact capital punishment on you both!”
“Let me be the one to carry it out!” Posey screamed in fury as she banged on the cell bars.
“I will rule as regent of Zephyr Heights under Opaline’s rule!” Right Light said.
“And I shall receive Maretime Bay!” Dirty Fighter declared.
Hitch gritted his teeth. His town was going to be ruled by that monster?
“Queen Opaline is planning to make a new kingdom for herself in the center of all lands! Opaline Prime!”
“You’ll never get away with this!” Izzy said with determination.
“Oh, but we already have,” Right Light said. “Your magic is gone and now only Bridlewood and Sunny as well as Misty and Spike remain in our way. Face it ponies, you’ve lost!”
“Yeah, and now I’m gonna take this princess for myself!” Dirty Fighter said as he grabbed Pipp by the hoof and began to lead her back the way he came.
“No! Pipp!” Hitch screamed at the thought of what he’d do to her. The same thing he’d done to poor Posey.
“Zipp! No!” Haven said in the same tone.
They were sure that they’d never see them again once they vanished from their sight. But just before the traitorous evil stallions could escort them out of sight, a shadow appeared in their path out of the dungeon.
“Stop right there!” a familiar voice said.
“Prince Fireforge,” Dirty Fighter bowed.
“I’d actually like to have some time with these princesses myself tonight,” Fireforge’s voice said. “Always welcomed the ones that are… still pure.”
Hitch gritted his teeth as he remembered what he and Pipp had done a couple nights ago. She wasn’t pure anymore, but at least she’d not been forced.
“Oh, I didn’t know you had an interest in that as well your highness,” Dirty Fighter grinned. “Alright, I’ll let you have them first since you’re the queen’s son.”
And Dirty Fighter as well as Right Light walked off, leaving Pipp and Zipp behind them. Fireforge came into Hitch’s view.
“Great, so now you’re gonna do that unspeakable thing to my marefriend and her sister as well?” Hitch snapped and pointed a hoof.
“No,” Fireforge shook his head. “I’m gonna help you all get away!”
Haven’s eyes widened. “You are?”
“Yes,” Fireforge said.
He turned his horn to Zipp and Pipp, it glowed and released a wave of energy at them. They gasped and shook their heads before looking around, free from Opaline’s control.
“Uh, what happened?” Zipp said rubbing her head.
“Oh girls! Thanks goodness!” Haven said. “For a moment there I was afraid you would be…”
She shivered, unable to say the words. The other ponies were silent as well. Fireforge Destiny then lit up his horn, and magic escaped from it, marks popped out of it. Hitch saw cutie marks suspended in midair, including his and those of his friends. They remained like that for a moment as Fireforge kept hold on them for some reason.
“Uh, this might be a bit preemptive and I don’t know if it will help ponies escape. Unless…”
His horn lit up brighter as he added a bit more magic to the collection above him that must have numbered in a few hundred at least. Then he spoke.
“To everyone who receives these cutie marks. I’m returning them to you so you can get out! Go to Bridlewood and reunite with Sunny! Help her defeat my mother!”
As he finished speaking, Fireforge released the magic that Opaline had given him! It flowed through Zephyr Heights and returned to the various ponies that it had been stolen from. Hitch, Zipp, Izzy, and Pipp all received their cutie marks back along with Rufus and Windy.
As his mark returned to his flank, Hitch then heard what Fireforge had just said aloud in his head.
To everyone who receives these cutie marks. I’m returning them to you so you can get out! Go to Bridlewood and reunite with Sunny! Help her defeat my mother.
Other marks traveled out of sight, hopefully to return to the ponies they belonged to. They’d also receive the message then!
Zipp and Pipp smiled as their magic returned to them and they flapped their wings and immediately went around the other cells. They used the hoof print scanners to open them.
“Oh girls!” Haven said as she emerged from her cell and hugged Zipp first.
Pipp did the same for Hitch and his cellmates. They hugged and kissed then she quickly flew to free the others along with Zipp. Unfortunately, Haven’s magic had not been returned as Opaline still had it. It took a few minutes but they soon had everypony out including Flurry Heart who had been placed on a cell to the far side. Her magic had unfortunately not returned.
“Let’s get out of here!” Sprout said.
“Not without Aunt Ember!” Flurry said weakly.
“I can help with that!” Fireforge said.
He lit up his horn and teleported them all to where she was located. Ember was trapped in a large prison bubble outside Zephyr Heights on the mountains. With the combined magic of the ponies that had it, Fireforge and Izzy each sending a powerful beam from their horns, Hitch and Rufus using plant magic, Zipp, Pipp and Windy ramming into it with their wings. Together they managed to pop the bubble and free the dragon.
“Momma!” Sparky ran over and hugged his mother.
“Oh Sparky,” Ember said in relief as she gave him a nose kiss.
“Let’s get to Bridlewood and find Sunny,” Hitch said.
Ember got the ponies she could fit on her back. Hopefully the others would be able to escape and meet them there. Things had finally turned around for them. But they knew the final confrontation was about to happen. At least now they might have a fighting chance.
…
Sunny, Misty, Spike, and Alphabittle along with a handful of unicorns marched forward.
“We’re going to save our friends!” Sunny declared. “And family! It's all or nothing today!”
Spike nodded. “I’ll catch up with you! I’m going back to the dragon lands. Hopefully by now more of them have woken up and will be able to help us fight. Ember is their Dragon Lord and as her mate I’m second in command!”
Sunny nodded. “We’ll need all the help we can get.”
Spike flapped his wings and took off while Sunny and her companions began the walk to Zephyr Heights.