In the middle of Ponyville, citizens went about their day with some sense of normality. Weather-ponies from Cloudsdale flew overhead, making some last minute adjustments to the evening sky, and the earth ponies and unicorns down below closed down shop for the day. Twilight Sparkle was trying her best today to keep things normal. She was sitting inside of SugarCube corner, grabbing some desert before she went home to study. The Cakes were upstairs, tending to their children. Pinkie was taking inventory of all the different baked goods, and as usual she had made it into some sort of song.
As Twilight chomped down the last of her muffin, she was pleased with the day she had so far. Though she hadn’t learned anything too major about friendship, but she knew it was good to relax and have a little fun every once in a while. Like she had planned, it had been a fairly normal day (or as normal as a day spent with Pinkie Pie can be) and she was glad it turned out the way it did. But things were about to get a lot less normal for her.
Starting with a loud bang right outside.
A flash of blue and white light immediately followed. Pinkie Pie gasped deeply, and zoomed out to see what the commotion was with Twilight. What they saw gave them even more cause to gasp.
"Oh my goodness! Princess Luna, are you alright?" Twilight stood over her, inspecting various cuts and bruises up and down the Princess' body. "What happened? Did you find the Cutie Mark Crusaders?”
Luna didn't get a chance to answer. Pinkie Pie's tail began to move of its own accord, twitching violently. Another ear-shattering bang rang throughout Ponyville, and three ponies fell out of the sky right on cue.
They landed right next to Luna. Twilight stood taken aback, dumbfounded by the turn her day had taken.
All three of the Crusaders laid in a heap, completely unconscious. They seemed unharmed, though the powerful amount of magic that Luna had just put them through obviously had caused them to pass out.
"Girls?" Twilight nudged the mass of KO’d fillies. "What happened, Princess? Where were they? How did you find them? I-"
"Silence, Twilight Sparkle." Princess Luna in a hushed tone. She stood again, brushing off her injuries with ease. She tried to compose herself in her usual regal manner, but the paranoid glances she was shooting all over the place gave away her worry.
This isn’t where I expected the spell to take me… Her head hurt from the magical exertion that that last spell had put her through. She groaned audibly. How am I going to get out of this one??
“Um…Princess?” Pinkie Pie
There wasn’t any time. More ponies would be coming outside soon, and the less that knew about this, the better. "Don’t fret, girls. I will make sure these ponies are safe.” An idea popped into her head. She didn’t like it, but it was the only option she had right now.
“But Princess, there must be some way that we can help!”
Luna frowned, knowing she would hate herself for what she was about to do. "I'm afraid there's not." Her horn lit up with concentrated magic. Her face strained, as if every last bit of energy was going into the spell she was about to cast.
Twilight stepped back a few paces back. Pinkie inhaled, preparing to let out an ear-splitting scream.
Another flash of light lit up the square, practically blinding the two ponies. Twilight blinked her eyes a few times. They were oddly hazy. She saw Pinkie Pie standing next to her with a similar expression of befuddlement and equally blank eyes. "Twilight? Um, what happened?"
They found themselves standing outside of SugarCube Corner, completely alone.
"Girls??" Mr. and Mrs. Cake bursted outside, aprons astrew. Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake could be heard crying inside, startled by the commotion. Some curious heads were popping out of windows around the square. Mrs. Cake looked around manically. "What was all that noise?"
Twilight looked down at the ground, searching her mind. "I…I don’t know.”
“I can't remember."
***
Far away from the scene in Ponyville, Princess Celestia was in Canterlot, raising the moon to its full height. Her sister would be impressed. Maybe when she gets back, we could organize an eclipse. Princess Celestia smiled. She knew how much Luna loved eclipses.
BANG!
Princess Celestia spun around in shock, losing her train of thought. Four ponies appeared out of thin air and plopped down onto her floor. Luna stood for a few minutes, trotted towards her sister, and collapsed.
“Luna! Are you alright? I’ve been worried sick, you said it would only take you a few days at the most! I mean, it was a simple task, and –is that a chip in your horn? And what happened to your wing? Is it broken?? Have you been in a fight?” She trotted around the room, for no particular reason. “I knew I shouldn’t have sent you alone, I just knew it-“
Luna brought a hoof to her sister’s mouth, halting the flow of concern spouting from it. “Sis.. Chrysalis is back.”
Princess Celestia stepped back a few feet. “Oh goodness… I-I must inform Shining Armor immediately. We must take every precaution! We will not be infiltrated again! As for the girls, I’ll be contacting their-”
“NO!” Luna gave her sister a harsh look. “You don’t know what happened to them, sis.” A tear sprouted from the corner of her eye. “You don’t know.”
“Well, depending on how the affair went with Chrysalis, they might be a little traumatized, but who better to comfort them then their own family?”
“Cele, you don’t understand…” She struggled to get her words out, bouts of pains shooting through her body. “They were in there…for much longer…than we thought.”
Celestia frowned, looking at the three fillies with dismay. “I’m afraid I don’t understand, Luna.”
Luna gathered up her last bit of strength, standing up and placing the ponies on her back. “They grew up…in a whole different world. A different set-up, different people…different parents.” She attempted to walk out of her sister’s chambers, but fell to the ground again.
Celestia sighed, levitating her sister and the exhausted ponies onto her own bed. “I suppose I’ll just to have to trust in your better judgment this time, Luna. For now, rest. We’ll talk in the morning.” She walked out into the hallway, closing the door behind her. She giggled at her little sister’s maternal instincts, and made her way towards the vacant guest room next door. “Goodnight, dear sister. Sleep tight.”
***
Oh god, my head. My head my head MY HEAD.
I got up from where I laid, and looked around. Where was I? I couldn’t remember anything. I tried to scrap together some recollection; last night, there had been some guys in suits, and a lot of shouting, and…horses?
I looked out a nearby window, trying to get my bearings. That was my backyard…and the window I was looking out of was undoubtedly the window in my bedroom. But this was definitely not my bedroom. It was far too well decorated, and looked much more expensive than I remembered it. I cleared my mind, and looked at my reflection in a nearby mirror.
My face was a mess. My hair was unkempt, and my eyes were glazed over. I felt like I had a hangover. Maybe I had gotten gotten in a drunken fight at some bar last night, and the security had kicked me out. And horses fitted in there somewhere, I was sure. All I remembered about those strange horses is that the suited men had been mistreating them somehow...and I think I came to their aid.
Examining some more bruises on my face and a black eye, I spotted a slender figure stepping into the mirror’s view.
“Why, good morning handsome,” A seductive voice called out. I turned around. A very attractive woman, looking oddly familiar, stood in the doorway, looking at me with longing eyes.
I searched my mind again. “Oh, it’s you…” I trailed off. A little jolt of pain went through my head as I remembered her. Queen Chrysalis. I viewed her with something close to indifference, and then sat back down on the edge of the bed, staring down at my feet. I had the urge to shout out in anger, but something held me back…
“Sleep well darling?” She took a few steps towards me. “I hope you don’t mind me wearing some of your clothes. My wardrobe for this form is somewhat…limited.”
“Yeah, it’s fine Chrysalis.” I muttered my compliance, still facing the floor. I rested my forehead in my palms. A dull pain throbbed in the back of my brain.
“Please honey,” she said, “Call me Chrystal.”
I remained silent. She didn’t.
“I thought you would be most, ah, comfortable if I remained in human form.” She giggled a little and bent over, her face inches from my own.
“Now that you’re awake, I think it’s time I inducted you into my little family.” She brought her hand to my face, running her fingers through my hair. I remained cold and indifferent to her touch. However, something was boiling up inside of me, some sort of repressed anger…what had happened last night? I racked my brain as Chrysalis continued on.
“It’s a very intimate process. I don’t think you’d understand, unless I showed you specifically how it works.” She leaned towards me, as if about to go in for a kiss. The corners of her mouth formed a lustful smile. “Care to find out?”
Then, in a matter of seconds, it happened. The events of last night exploded through the barrier in my mind. Where my thoughts had been blank before, my brain suddenly burst with memories of the past few years; three ponies in a cardboard box, a dusty old movie theatre, and how the time we spent together changed my life.
Those hadn’t been just horses I remembered from last night. Those had been my little girls.
I slapped Chrysalis' face away from mine. “No thank you.”
She sat there for a moment, immensely surprised. Her hand lingered over the red spot where I had made contact. She turned towards me. She seemed to be about to strike me back, but saw me trying to rub the pain away in my temples. Her face curved into a smile again.
“Oh dear,” she said playfully, “Are you getting another one of your headaches?” Her eyes emanated a sickly green light. Their glow pierced into my brain, shattering and altering my thoughts, like little shards of glass in the back of my head. “Feeling better?”
I mumbled vaguely in response.
She got up from the bed, and walked away towards the door. “I’ll just let that sink in for a while. Hope you feel better honey,” she said as she left me confused and alone, clutching my face in pain. Then, for what seemed like the millionth time, my reality slowly faded, and left me to wallow in my own subconscious.
***