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// VIII: Powerhouse 
// Story: The After Party 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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	It was nighttime in Ponyville and Rocket was restless. That was understandable due to the fact that he had expanded much of his magical energy earlier that day and had fallen after practicing. He needed to understand his magic and focus it without losing much of his energy in the process. So after sleeping for the majority of the day he had awoken to find the town was asleep and silent, but as he made his way out of the library he grabbed an apple.

While he walked through the quiet town he thought that there would have been somepony, anypony, busy in some sort of manner. He sighed as he remembered that Princess Luna was likely awake and checking on the sleeping ponies by entering their dreams. Rocket was hoping to meet the Night Princess one of these days, as well as actually meeting her sister Celestia and Princess Cadence. For now he was content to enjoy the night sky and gaze at the stars, though he was quite sure he saw the formation of Orion's Belt.

He heard a noise down the alley he had just passed and paused before turning around to see what had happened. It was the sound of a snake hissing, but as he peered down the dark alley he saw nothing that resembled a snake. He figured that any snake, or animal for that matter, would be found at Fluttershy's cottage and not lost in an alley in Ponyville. But as he took a step forwards a figure stepped out of the shadows, revealing the black coated changeling waiting for him.

"Rocket Sky," the Changeling said, approaching him as he backed up, "We have been waiting for you. Come along quietly and we promise we won't hurt you...much."

"You need to get your facts straight," Rocket nervously countered, trying to sound brave while he was freaked out, "there is only one of you and one of me. I am pretty sure I can take on a single Changeling all by myself."

"Whoever said I was alone?" the Changeling asked, grinning as at least a dozen more Changelings stepped out of the shadows and surrounded Rocket.

Rocket looked at the Changelings around him and carefully considered his options. He could reveal their existence to the townsponies and they'd get Twilight to reveal their true selves. He could stand and fight with whatever magic he still had left. Or he could run away and hopefully escape them long enough to return to the library.

"When you put it that way," Rocket said, taking a small step backwards, "I guess I'll..."

The Changelings never caught the rest of what he was going to say as Rocket jumped over the Changelings behind him and began running towards the edge of the town. When the Changelings regained themselves one of them, likely the one that had talked to Rocket, shouted something and they flew after him. But Rocket didn't look back as he ran past the edge of the town and entered the Everfree Forest. After a couple of minutes he stopped when he heard the Changelings hissing at each other, clearly discussing if they should follow him or not.

"Should we follow him into the cursed forest?" one of them asked, lifting a hole riddled hoof in his direction, "Who knows what we'll find while we're in there."

"There isn't much to be afraid of," another said, "Twilight Sparkle and her friends have dealt with all sorts of creatures from within these woods. Many of them are scared of ponies now and should run when they realize we're here. If worst comes to worst we can always tell Queen Chrysalis that we lost him in the forest and send her after him."

"I'd rather not involve the Queen," a third whined, "She'll punish us for losing him and exclude us from the next invasion."

"Quiet you fools," a fourth, the same that talked to Rocket and he assumed that one was the leader, "We will tell Chrysalis we are following him into the forest and do just that. If she decides to enter the forest and look for him then that is her business and nothing we have to worry about. The Queen can take care of herself without us for a while."

Rocket turned around and, despite the dangers that he knew were waiting for him, ran deeper into the forest, ignoring the sounds the Changelings were making. Now he knew that Chrysalis, the Queen of the Changelings, was looking for him and would stop at nothing to have him. Why he did not know, but he suspected that it wasn't anything good. If she wanted him that badly then he'll bait her out and take her down himself. Provided he didn't get nervous and run away like he did when the Changeling revealed themselves.

"You fools," Chrysalis said, not screaming her anger because that would awaken the whole of Ponyville, "You let him escape. I said that I needed the stallion alive and well, but instead of listening to me you decided to confront him. You could have just knocked him out with magic, but now you have made things harder for us. Be happy that I am feeling merciful and am willing to give you a second chance at finding him. Go into the trees and locate Rocket Sky before I squash ALL OF YOU."

The thirteen Changelings that had tried to ambush Rocket scrambled into the trees and soon disappeared from her sight, except for one that stayed next to her. The Changeling was number 067, the one she had sent to spy on Rocket and his weird friends. The alternate plan was to kidnap one of the three and force Rocket to surrender himself to save the one they took. From what she learned it seemed that Wisdom was a bad idea, due to his Pinkie abilities, and Tick they were actually unsure of. Peachy could be the perfect target, but they needed more information before making their move. Unless they caught Rocket now and put that plan to rest.

"Return to your house," Chrysalis ordered, surprising the Changeling, "I have no further use for you. Continue your mission until we obtain Rocket Sky."

"Yes my Queen," 067 said, bowing slightly before disappearing from sight.

Chrysalis smiled and looked at the trees, sighing as she took a step into the forest. In case her soldiers failed to find Rocket she wanted to make sure that he was alive and well. Maybe she'll capture him in the process and end this charade she has been playing for months. If that came to pass then the empire of Celestia would fall and the Changelings would rule all of Equestria.

Rocket was in a bind; he was lost in the Everfree forest and he had a small group of Changelings chasing him. Worse of all Chrysalis was somewhere in the forest looking for him. Oh, and the creatures that lived in the forest were awake and aware of his presence, which meant he was in trouble.

There was a snap of some twigs and he jumped to the right as he barely avoided a dart from behind. The Changelings were resorting to using knockout darts on him instead of magic. He growled and turned around, quickly taking count of the enemy before continuing on. All thirteen Changelings were right behind him and they were gaining fast.

"Catch him," one of them shouted,  "Bind his legs and present him to the Queen."

"Enslave his power," another yelled, "Bind his mind to the Hive forever."

The Changelings were freaking Rocket out until their constant talking was suddenly snuffed out and replaced with cries of agony. It made Rocket pause in mid stride and turn around. Where the Changelings should have been was an open area of earth freshly carved into the ground with thirteen bodies scattered about. The Changelings were moaning, but something didn't sit well with him. Then he heard the bone chilling roar of a certain bear that he had not expected to hear. Rocket looked up and, instead of seeing the sky above him, he saw a purple colored creature with stars in its body standing directly over him.

It wasn't the night sky, but an Ursa Major.

Chrysalis, who had been following Rocket Sky the entire time, also felt her bones chill when she saw the Ursa Major standing over the unicorn. If she wanted the power to overthrow Celestia she was going to have to wait, because there was no way that the stallion was going to defeat the Ursa Major on his own. Only one Major had ever been brought down in all of history and it was unlikely that the feat was going to be repeated.

Rocket teleported behind the Ursa Major, just far enough to be out of range, and the beast tossed him into a tree as soon as he landed. How the creature had known where he would appear was beyond him, but the pain was real. His back hurt and he could have sworn that he had several broken ribs. He coughed blood and weakly stared up at the creature that stood over him, its paw raised high above its head.

Not too far away, visiting the dreams of a certain weather captain in Ponyville, was Princess Luna. She sat on a cloud and watched over the dreams of ponies everywhere. She even decided that tonight she was going to dive into the dreams of Twilight Sparkle and see what she could learn about the unicorn Rocket Sky.

As she entered Twilight's dream she quickly realized that she was reliving a recent memory about the unicorn stallion. She, Twilight, Spike, and rainbow sat together on a mountain ridge, watching the stallion perform some basic magic skills before moving on to the more extreme spells. Such as summoning pure gemstone, a lot of it in fact, but shattering it into a thousand of tiny shards was something else. The stallion, Rocket Sky, had some powerful magic of his own and Luna could understand why her sister wanted to keep a close eye on him.

Luna removed herself from Twilight's dreams and instead searched for the dreams of Rocket Sky. But even as she tried to locate him she noticed that he was not asleep and was somewhere around Ponyville. Then she heard the roar of an Ursa Major and quickly returned to her body, her wings spread as she leapt off her cloud. Flying quickly, and forgetting Rocket Sky, she raced towards the Major to see what the trouble was. When she arrived she noticed there was a large clearing with the Major standing over a blue coated pony. The same pony Luna had been told about.

Weakling.

The word hung in the air as if somepony had spoken to everypony around, though it seemed to have an effect on Rocket. His magic woke on its own accord and began to concentrate above his horn, which quickly took the form of an orb. The Ursa Major didn't seem to care much was its paw began to descend on the poor stallion and Luna knew that even if she were to act it would likely cost her Rocket Sky's life and many broken bones for her. And just before the Ursa could strike the unicorn into the trees the orb shot forth like a beam of pure energy and pierced the right side of the Major's stomach.

In that instant the Ursa Major crumbled backwards, a hole where its heart was supposed to be. In that same instant the stallion fell to the ground, his magic spent yet again. Luna, unbelieving of the event that happened before her eyes, quickly picked up the stallion and vanished from the Everfree Forest. She reappeared in Twilight's library and set the stallion in the bed he was supposed to be using. She was surprised and shocked, but questions would have to wait for another day.

Besides, now she really had a reason to watch over the stallion then what her sister had told her.