Twilight woke up, confused for a moment. There were stars. She hadn’t seen stars in two damn months. Thinking, she tried to remember what had happened.
Escape. That’s what had happened. She could nearly cry with happiness.
A thought occurred to her though. What if this was another one of the Queen’s tests? What if it was, and she failed? She’d be punished! She shrunk down.
She had tried to escape before.
Once.
She had never tried again. If the transfusions hurt, then the punishment was absolute hell.
Chrysalis was a real bitch when it came to messing with Twilight’s head. Subtle mind games and tricks, all attempts of the Queen to break down her spirit and leave her hollow.
Like a tear, only there for a brief instant. Breaking at the slightest touch.
Twilight heard a gasp behind her. Turning, she saw Celestia there.
“Princess Celestia!” Twilight shouted. She was home! She was!
Wasn’t she? She suddenly remembered how she had gotten to the hive. Chrysalis had pretended to be Celestia. What if...
“Princess, what am I to you?” She asked. This would tell her.
“Depends on who you are.” Celestia said evenly.
“What do you mean? I’m Twilight!”
“You are a changeling. Where is Twilight?”
Twilight looked down at herself. She wasn’t Twilight, at least on the outside. She was that ...thing that she had become.
“Ah... damn.”
Dash decided this would be a good time to interrupt. “She is Twilight, Princess. She’s... been changed, but she is Twilight.”
Celestia was torn. Should she follow her heart, or her mind? What her mind was telling her was different from what she believed was right.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know that. And for the safety of the kingdom, I need to disarm you. If you are Twilight, then prove it and let me do this.” She said, charging up a sleep spell. Her horn lit up lightly.
Twilight was taken aback, and stepped back a little. This wasn’t how Celestia would’ve acted. Not the Celestia she knew.
“You’re not Celestia, are you! I admit, you almost had me Chrysalis, but that’s not the way Celestia would act!” Twilight yelled.
“Twilight! This is Celestia! Please calm down!” Dash cried.
“Calm down? Calm down! No! None of this is real! None of it is ever real!” She shouted at the two of them.
Celestia felt a slight anger rise in her. But she also felt a sadness even deeper. Even if this wasn’t Twilight, she was right. This wasn’t her.
But what if this was actually Twilight? She’d forever break her trust if she did this. If it wasn’t and she didn’t? She’d be letting in one of the most dangerous creatures in Equestria.
The anger won.
Twilight cast a spell at Celestia, a minor fire spell, one meant to be a major one. It came out minor because Twilight didn’t have the energy. Using all of her energy, she fainted again.
Celestia dodged the spell, anger surging. Being angry while spell-casting is never recommended, as it adds unintentional strength to the spell. A fire spell would be an inferno. A water spell would be a flood.
A sleep spell would become deadly.
Her horn lit up bright yellow, its level of luminosity rivaling the sun. She prepared to fire at the representative of the species that had taken her student.
“Wait!” A voice came, knocking out her out of her anger and thought driven stupor. It was too late though. The spell was out of Celestia’s control. It sped towards the unconcious Twilight.
“No!” Dash cried, kicking off from the dirt, flying as fast as she could to save her friend. She had just gone through hell and back, literally. She was not going to lose her again! Not now! Not ever again!
“Rainbow Dash!” Celestia called. Why would she risk her life for a changeling?
Speeding towards the dark purple mass, Dash angled her body to run into Twilight. There was no time for her to pick up Twilight . She needed to run into Twilight and use her momentum to push her friend out of the way.
Flying with all her might, Dash picked up speed at an incredible rate. Adrenaline kicked in. Everything seemed to slow down for Dash. She could see both the bolt and Twilight’s prone body on the ground.
Not enough time! Not enough!
Dash bit back a sob. She wasn’t going to make it, and she knew it.
No! Not making it isn’t good enough!
She still saw the bolt. It got closer and closer.
What about her other friends? What about her parents?
She knew what she had to do.
But what about...?
No!
Dash groaned. “Buck my life!”
She impacted into Twilight, pushing her best friend out of the way, Twilight skidding out of sight, seconds before the bolt impacted her.
She felt pain.
She felt agony.
She felt the desperation of her soul.
She felt happiness.
She felt sadness.
She felt everything.
She felt nothing.
And then essentially, Rainbow Dash died, her body not far behind.
Celestia stared, shocked. She heard a gasp behind her. Turning, she saw a guard pony, just looking at her. She looked back at the group, four of the five still breathing. The fifth...
What had she done? She hadn’t... She didn’t...
“I... I... It... shouldn’t have been that powerful...” She started. She cut off, horrified at her own actions. She hadn’t thought. She had just wanted her student back.
The guard snapped out of it, rushing forwards to Dash’s body, rolling it over. He started compressions on her chest, trying to get her to breathe.
“Never perform magic when you’re emotionally impaired Princess!”
One, two, three, four.
Celestia watched, breathing shakily.
Five, six, seven, eight.
He looked up at Celestia. “Go get help.”
She hesitated.
“Now! She needs a magical jolt! Go get Burning Star!” It was no longer a princess to guard relationship. It was a pony keeping another one alive to a civilian.
“GO!”
Celestia started. It had been almost a decade since anyone had yelled at her.
It had been even longer since she had deserved it.
Tears started to brim in her eyes. Turning, she ran towards the only part of the castle that she avoided with a passion. The infirmary. Her magic was among the strongest in Equestria, rivaled by only a few in history. Only one unicorn had... did have enough magic to rival her in the past decade.
But for all her power, she could barely do healing magic. Hers was at the other end of the spectrum. Instead of helping individuals, her magic helped the entirety of her subjects. She couldn’t stand the place. Even if it wasn’t a time of tragedy, it had a bad history.
Contrary to popular belief, Equestria wasn’t always the safe place it was. War. Strife. Famine. Genocide.
This castle had stood over it all. And the infirmary...
Shaking her head, Celestia noticed the stares she was getting. The Princess. Running.
They were all wondering the same thing.
What had happened?
She couldn’t tell them. She kept running.The infirmary was on the other side of the castle. It hadn’t always taken this long to get there, had it.
She stopped. Concentrated.
And teleported there.
---
“Dammit Dash! Breathe!” The guard said, continuing with the CPR. “Where the hell is Celestia!”
“Here. And I have Burning Spokes.” Celestia said, teleporting with the doctor in time to hear the guard’s complaint.
Spokes looked around and zeroed in on Dash’s body on the ground. She gasped.
“Fighting Chance! What the hell happened here!?”
“Victim has had extreme magical shock. Probably enhanced by her being in the low-magic zone of the outer-lands.”
“Clear the area. How long since shock?”
“Four minutes.”
“Damn. We need to expel the magic, and then jump start with an magical jolt. It’s dangerous, but it’s all we’ve got.”
“Then do it.” Celestia said.
Spokes nodded and started to concentrate, her horn turning flame orange. Dash’s body turned orange tinted, the orange in her hair turning vibrant while the rest of her body mellowed to a dull orange tint.
Her body now floating above the ground, magic in it’s purest form began to exit her. It seeped from every pore, forming a bubble above the heads of everyone in the area, lighting it up.
It was cyan blue magic.
Once it was finished, the bubble dispersed with a flash, and the area was bathed in darkness again.
“Time?” Spokes asked.
“Six minutes.” Chance replied tersely.
“Damn. Clear the area!”
Setting Dash back on the ground gently, Chance waved back the crowd of servants that had amassed in the short amount of time.
Charging up her horn, Spokes transferred the magic to her hooves and put them on Dash’s chest. The spell let her get a reading on Dash’s vitals, and they weren’t good.
She needed a miracle.
“Clear!” She shouted, pushing down on Dash’s chest. Her body jolted as the magic coursed through it. Chest up in the air for a few seconds, it slid back to the ground slowly.
“Not enough. Increasing magic strength.”
Charging up her hooves again, she placed it on Dash’s chest again, angling it towards her heart.
“Clear!”
Dash’s body once again jumped in the air. Wings shooting straight out due to electrical impulses going crazy in her body. A gasp escaped Dash’s lips. Stepping back, Spokes urged Chance to do the same. She had heard what a magic reviving could do to an earth pony, let alone a pegasus.
Sitting straight up, Dash’s eyes flew open. Opening her mouth a string a sounds came out of her mouth connecting into random words. Her wings shot straight out, flapping in every direction.
“What is going on Spokes?” Celestia asked. She was relieved that Rainbow Dash was alive, but this was just... weird.
“Our bodies are subjected to magic everyday. We have adapted to accept it, and it adapts to us. We had to drain Dash of her magic temporarily, otherwise the magical shock wouldn’t have worked. Her body is adapting to the magic again, and is running a self-check to make sure everything is still working.” Burning Spokes replied. “At least, that’s the most recent theory.”
“Oh.”
During Spokes explanation, Dash’s body had finished its ‘self check’ and had slumped back to the ground. Her chest rose and feel, proving to the world that she was indeed alive.
“Get these ponies to the medical ward immediately. They looked half starved. Why weren’t they immediately brought there in the first place?” Spokes looked at Celestia for an answer.
“I...”
“Doesn’t matter. I count three adults, one filly, and...” Spokes looked at Twilight’s body in confusion. She’d seen one of these before a long time ago. During the...
“Ah. So that’s why.” Everything clicked. She might not know the specifics, but she could guess what happened.
“I suggest that you teleport everyone there, if you want to avoid questions I think you’d want to avoid. Chance! Get back over here. I need you to secure a guard detail for the med ward number 9.”
Fighting Chance nodded once before leaving the area.
Celestia looked down on the medic, surprised. “You’d help her?”
“I took an oath. Many call it the hypocritic oath, but I promised to help anything that needed medical attention. Including changelings.”
“I acted in haste earlier. I assume you heard of the expedition to the outer-lands?”
“Rumors.”
“Of course. They were looking for someone. If they brought back this one, then that means that it is important somehow. Please, keep it alive.”
“I can try my best. To be honest, the changeling looks worse off than the others. If the others were merely starving, and I say merely lightly, then she must be absolutely malnourished. I’d say that if she continued living in the conditions that she must have been living in to reach such a state, she would’ve died within a week.”
“What?”
“She’s close to dead. She’s probably going to be unconscious for a while, and without proper food for her, she’s not going to have the strenght to do anything.”
“Proper food?”
“She’s a changeling. She feeds on emotion as well as food. Now, can we teleport to the med ward now?”
“Of course.” Celestia said. Charging her horn again, she spread the magic out around the area, surrounding everyone there. With a blink, they teleported away, out of the eye of the public.
And, of course, as with anything private, there was an uninvited guest.
---
Shining woke with a start. Thanks to his military training, he instantly took stock of his surroundings. Bed. Walls. Medical gear.
“Hospital. Which means...” Shining slumped back into his bed, sighing in relief. “Lyra did it. We made it back with-”
He sat straight up, some machines next to him beeping and flat-lining in protest.
“Twilight!”
An intern heard the noise and entered the room. Seeing Shining trying to get off the bed, he rushed up to him and gently pushed him back into the bed.
“Captain, you must stay in bed. You don’t have the energy to do anything besides heal.” The intern said, his name tag announcing him as Helping Hoof. Shining didn’t recognize him, which meant he was new.
“Are you giving me an order Private?” Shining asked, hoping to pull rank. He needed to explain to Celestia what had happened before things turned south.
“I am. I have the authority, and you know it.” Helping Hoof said, raising an eyebrow.
Shining just sighed. He did indeed know that. “Fine. Just see if you can get the Princess down here for a meeting. Things need to be discussed, urgently.”
Helping nodded. “Of course. She has been waiting for one of you to wake up so she can discuss the, ah, company you brought back.”
“Of course. That’s the main reason--- wait, for one of us to wake up? How long have we been out?” Shining asked.
“Um...” Helping Hand shifted nervously, avoiding Shining’s eyes.
“Private. Tell me.”
“I wasn’t privy to your entry at MedCell 9, but as far as I know you’ve been unconscious for about four days. You overexerted yourself, drawing into your own magic stores. I have no idea what you did to do this, but you’ve impressed me by that alone.”
“What!? Four days!” Shining yelled, slightly startling the intern. The heart rate monitor next to the bed was getting louder and louder, the beeps coming at an increased rate.
“Captain! Calm down! I don’t want to have to sedate you.”
“Okay. Okay. What’s happened to the others?” Shining said, taking deeps breaths, training kicking in again.
“Lyra’s coming around. For a civilian, she sure packs a punch, if she teleported all the way back here. Dash is okay. Well, okayish. She’s going to hurt like hell when she wakes up-”
“What happened to her?” Shining interrupted.
“I’m not at liberty to say.”
“And-”
“Same with the changeling.”
Shining sighed. “Okay. Then what about Scoots?”
“Scootaloo is... well, Scootaloo is in a bad way. She’s in the ICU. She’s being given the best treatment in all of Equestria. But she might not make it.”
“Oh Celestia. This is my fault.” Shining whispered.
Helping Hoof gave a small smile, before walking out of the room. Once out of the room, he trotted over to the guard at the door.
“I’ll take your post. Go and take a message to the Princess. Tell her that the silenced coffin is open.”
“Of course, Captain Strike.” the guard said, nodding and swiftly turning and exiting the building.
Strike assumed the guard’s position beside the door. He was stoic for a moment, and then smiled.
---
“Strike told you to tell me what?” Celestia asked, unsure if she had heard the guard correctly.
“Er, he said ‘The silent coffin is open’.”
Celestia hid a smile. “I see. You are to go home. Tell no one. If you see a blue flare off the highest point in the city, go and retrieve the elements of harmony.”
“Princess!?”
“You have your orders. Go.”
The guard turned and ran out of the room. Celestia chuckled. Strike was a humorous pony, that much was certain. Teleporting down to the MedCell, she approached the Captain.
“Must you always send guards to me with the most confusing messages? What does ‘the silent coffin is open’ even mean?”
“Oh. It’s just something random that I thought of. Anyway, Captain Armor is awake inside. Asked for you.”
“I see. What did he ask?”
“He asked about his team mates, the changeling, and how long he was out. The news about Scootaloo hit him pretty hard.”
“I see. Is he okay?” Celestia asked.
“I have no idea Princess. That’d be a question to ask the professionals.”
“In your opinion.”
Strike sighed and looked at Celestia. “In my opinion, it may be best to give him some time off, just to relax. He’s been through hell, and he didn’t even achieve his goal. There’s no telling if he’s going to be okay or not.”
“I see. Well, let me talk to him. It wouldn’t hurt to get a messenger to go tell Cadence that Shining Armor is back.”
“Of course. I will get her myself.” Strike said with a small salute.
“Good. Give her my best.” Celestia answered with a small smile. She turned and entered the small room that housed the unicorn.
Shining turned from the window and looked to see who had entered.
“Princess!” He exclaimed, trying to get up. The equipment next to him threatened to set off the alarm. Shining gave a sheepish grin towards Celestia. “Um, I hope you understand if I don’t stand up.”
“Oh, I don’t mind. Now, could we skip the pleasantries? I know that it’s not very regal, but I need to know what happened.” Celestia asked.
Shining blinked. He had expected some time to prepare.
“We left Ponyville about a month ago, and once we were about a week in, we discovered a little follower. Scootaloo wanted to tag along because her hero was going. I’ll be honest, she’s seen things no little filly should see. And now she’s in the hospital! I should’ve just turned around then.”
The heart rate monitor started to beep faster.
“Shining Armor. Never tell yourself that it is your fault. It was her choice. Anyway. I have it from good sources that she is going to make a full recovery.”
“Really?”
“Really. Now, what happened after that?”
“I’ll get to what happened in detail once the important parts are out of the way. Would it be alright to skip to the end?” Shining asked.
“Yes, of course you can. To be honest that’s the part that most interests me.”
Shining Armor took a shaky breath.
“I’ll be honest. I’m not quite sure what happened myself. We had finally found the changeling hive. We had decided as a team that it would be too dangerous to enter as a group, so me and Dash went in solo, leaving the marker back with Lyra and Scoots. We made it inside and found Twilight-”
Celestia stifled a gasp at this part.
“-and she looked terrible. She had bruises, but they looked self-inflicted. She was starving, and she-”
Shining cut off suddenly, ripping his gaze from Celestia.
“She was different! They took her, and they changed her. Into... them!” Shining suddenly yelled. Whipping his gaze back to the Princess, he continued. “She was one of them, but still Twilight! Don’t ask me how I know. I just do!”
“Shining Armor.”
Shining took several deep breaths, trying to calm himself.
“I’m sorry Princess. I’m sorry. She’s still her, on the inside. It’s just... the outside that’s different.”
“Can you be sure?”
“As sure as I can ever be about my little sister. Can I see her?”
“She’s being... held in a different part of the infirmary. When you are well enough to move, you may see her. I have one final question, though. Did she show you?”
“I- I’m sorry, what?”
“Did she show you what she was willingly?”
“Yes. She did.”
Celestia nodded once at the answer, before turning back to the door.
“Thank you. I’ll be back later for a full debrief. But for now, I think there’s someone here to see you.”
Opening the door, a pink blur shot past her and stopped next to Shining’s bed.
“Shining Armor! I’ve missed you!” Cadence said, grabbing Shining’s hoof.
“I missed you too love.”
The Princess quietly shut the door. They needed some time to catch up.
“Nice timing Strike.”
“Always Princess. Always. Now, about Lyra?”
“She’s being reassigned. Top priority.”
“Details?”
“I’ll be discussing them with her at a later date, when she is fully awake. But for now, all you need to know is she has a tag to follow.”