"What do you mean he's going to die?" Rose shouted, standing hoof to hoof with the Lunar Princess and staring her straight in the eye, "He can't die after everything that he's been through."
"The Demonshade is an unpredictable killing poison," Luna answered, staring at the Changeling Queen in return, "and it is supposed to be rare. So rare that Tia and I hunted them down and burned each and every flower, bush, and tree that grew the cursed herb until none remained. The Demonshade is supposed to be extinct, yet here it is causing your husband pain and suffering."
"Can't you cure this?" Rose asked, tears already forming at the thought of losing Rocket after a year of being together, "You're the Princess of the Night, surely you know something that can save his life."
"There is only one cure for something this deadly," Luna slowly replied, looking down as she thought about it, "There is an extremely rare and potent herb known as the Angels Root that Tia and I used whenever we found ourselves tangled up with this particular poison. From what I remember it is supposed to grow on the top of mountains that have done undisturbed and can only be made into an elixir on the mountain where it was grown."
"Surely you have a bottle or two of this elixir somewhere in the Castle?" Rose inquired.
"Unfortunately I am unsure of how much of the elixir we have left," Luna replied, staring out the window now, "but rest assured that I will return to my sister's side and ask her exactly how much we have left of the elixir. With any luck we wont have to hunt down the herd and craft the elixir by hoof. If you'll excuse me."
Before Rose could reply Luna was enveloped by a dark mass and she suddenly vanished from the train carriage, heading back towards Canterlot Castle and her sister. At least that is what Rose assumed she was doing. Rose could only hope that Luna could find a bottle of the elixir and brought it back with her so she could save Rocket from his now grim fate. A fate that not even he deserved.
~Canterlot Castle~
Luna appeared back in the royal kitchen, where she expected to find her sister finishing her midnight snack and instead found only her abandoned caffeine drink. She snatched the drink and proceeded to search the nearby hallways for any signs of her sister or her piece of cake she was so intent on eating. Luna was so focused on searching the hallways for signs of Celestia that she walked right past the Spirit of Chaos, who just happened to be drinking some of his chocolate milk.
"Ah, Princess Luna," Discord said, floating above the Night Princess as she walked, "I haven't talked with you in a long time. What's with the ugly sour look on your face?"
"It is not an 'ugly sour look' as you put it Discord," Luna snapped, her patience already low as it was, "and I am searching for my sister so I can ask her a couple of questions. Just need to find Tia and get this mess straightened out before something bad happens."
"You do realize that she's in bed, sound asleep like most ponies at this time?" Discord playfully asked, "Seriously, it doesn't take being a Spirit of Chaos or an insane pony to figure out that once the moon rises your sister falls asleep like a ton of stones. Or almost like an Alicorn-sized pony turned stone after a hard days work."
"That's not funny Discord," Luna shouted, nearly causing the Spirit to fall off his cloud at her sudden outburst, "Now I must wake my sister and prevent the death of a king before mornings light."
As Luna continued on Discord settled back onto his cloud as he processed the information he had just learned from the mare. Something about the death of a king. As far as Discord cared to know there were only two kings in Equestria at the moment; Sombra, who had been reduced to shadows still, and Rocket, the current leader of the Changelings. Seeing how Sombra couldn't eat anything in his shadowy form Discord guessed it was Rocket who was going to be dying very soon. Dear Faust, he hated it when he made sense.
Luna barged into her sister's room, quite loudly if the guards had a say in it, and the Solar Princess jolted awake in mere seconds. Of course that was because she had assumed that she was under attack or there was an urgent message that needed to be examined while her sister was dealing with the Changeling message. She hadn't considered that her sister would barge into her room and awaken her from her much deserved slumber, but she was still glad she had finished the cake before Luna had returned anyway.
"I do wish you would stop doing this to me," Celestia muttered, stretching her legs as she faced her troubled sister, "So, what's the big deal with the Changelings and them not sending the message to their own rulers?"
"King Rocket has been poisoned," Luna told her, "with the Demonshade."
"Impossible," Celestia exclaimed, a look of horror appearing on her face, "We eradicated all traces of that vile leaf over a thousand years ago. We made sure not even a single bit of it remained least it grew into another dangerous plant or tree."
"We obviously didn't get them all," Luna countered, sighing slightly, "but I must ask you one question; where do we keep the Angels Root Elixir?"
"Yeah...um, about that..." Celestia sighed, knowing the truth wouldn't be good for Luna to hear, "all of the Angels Root elixirs we created are gone. Each and every last one of them have been used."
"Your joking right?" Luna asked, watching her sister shake her head, "How could you have used every single bottle of Angels Root in the last thousand years? Surely you would have found some more of the herb and made the elixir yourself so we'd have a constant supply?"
"Its not that simple Luna," her sister said, "Its not that I couldn't create the elixir, I've done that hundreds of times. It is the fact that I could not locate a single flower carrying herb anywhere in all of Equestria. I find it hard to say it, but I am afraid that King Rocket Sky is going to die and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it."
"I'm not losing the King just because you couldn't find that damned herb," Luna shouted, turning to face the bedroom door, "I hope you plan on informing our fellow Princesses and Rocket's friends, because I think the majority of them are already annoyed with me. Oh, and Tia..."
Celestia looked up towards her sister, her mind already wondering how she was going to break the news to the King's friends, her niece, and her student.
"...I will find whoever did this and I will punish them," the Lunar Princess finished, "Though I have a feeling that this might be Sombra's doing."
With that said the Lunar Princess vanished in a burst of light, leaving her sister to deal with telling the others the terrible news. She was bound for the train carriage and the ponies waiting for her return, though she knew that her arrival would be met with tears and anger.
~North of the Crystal Empire~
A small figure popped out of the snow and shook itself to quickly clean itself, revealing a ordinary Changeling just standing there. The Changeling mare turned her head in the direction of the Crystal Empire and uttered a small hissing sound as she remembered the ones who had defeated her so long ago. Chrysalis, even in her lesser form, was not one to be messed with and decided that one of these days the royal pair responsible for her defeat would pay. And the included the mare who had destroyed her plans from the beginning.
Behind her sat a cave, the same cave she had spent the first month after her defeat at the hooves of King Rocket Sky, the stallion who had married her daughter and had taken over the Hive. Being close to this center of love helped keep her alive for the last year, not to mention that her ally had some unusually dark love for her to feed off of. An ally who had found the last hidden traces of a dangerous leaf that could kill anypony in existence. Plus she was sure that her dark ally had another friend that he hadn't introduced her to yet.
"Narg. Rrrrrrrrrrrrgh...crystals....slaves....rrrrrrgh..." she heard a voice from inside, one she immediately recognized as the language that King Sombra had taken to speaking. It was unbearable to listen to, but she had managed to determine what every little bit of it meant.
"Of course you would bring up that silly notion my dear friend," said a second voice, another Chrysalis recognized as Discord. What was he doing in a cave and not hanging with his friend Fluttershy? "I have told you that even if we succeeded in destroying the Crystal Heart, which I couldn't guarantee to begin with, I not entirely sure what would happen to the Empire itself."
"Rrrrrrrrrgh, rrrrrrgh, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh," came another line of Sombra's speech.
"I know you want to poison Cadence's drink and kill her in her sleep," Discord acknowledged, "but you don't understand the point I'm trying to make. While destroying and enslaving would generate Chaos for me it would alert the other Princesses of your master plan. Now drink your chocolate milk while we wait for the ex-queenie to arrive."
"...rrrrrgh..."
"I DON'T CARE IF YOU DON'T LIKE CHOCOLATE MILK." came a shout from the inside, "JUST DRINK IT BEFORE I STUFF IT DOWN YOUR THROAT."
Chrysalis was amazed that Discord could still threaten like that, but he was still the stupid Spirit of Chaos he had always been. She walked forward and came to a strange sight; Sombra, with a frown on his face, sipping from a cup as Discord leaned against a wall with his own cup.
"Now who might you be my dear?" the Spirit of Chaos asked, thought he didn't seem interested in knowing either way, "Wait, don't tell me. Your Chrysalis aren't you?"
"Rrrrrgh rrrrrrrrrrrgh rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh."
"Of course I know it was going to be her," Discord answered, turning to the shadowy stallion, "You were expecting her to arrive and I decided it was time for the three of us to meet together at long last. Though I don't care which form she chooses to wear as long as we get this meeting underway so I can cause a small amount of Chaos before returning to Ponyville."
Chrysalis sighed and returned to her natural form, becoming taller than Sombra as she faced the Spirit of Chaos.
"I merely wanted to make sure I wasn't caught in my natural form," she explained, "what with Cadence likely to recognize me after everything I put her through before her wedding."
"Honestly I don't care," Discord commented, "Your little ploy with the Demonshade has worked and now Luna's trying to figure out where she can find so much as a flower of the Angels Root. All in all I do believe you will have killed the King, and by that I don't mean you Sombra."
"Rrrgh."
"Your quite welcome," Discord continued, "So, Chrysalis, you clearly have one ally who is devoted to your cause at the promise of getting his kingdom back."
"So what?" Chrysalis asked.
"Nothing really," the Spirit commented, getting up close to her, "but if you so much as come near Canterlot or Ponyville with your army after this is over I will rain Chaos on all of you. And I promise it won't be chocolate milk."
Chrysalis stood there as Discord vanished, leaving the two former rulers alone in their cave.
"Rrrrrgh rrrrrgh rrrrrrrrrgh?"
"Yeah, I hate his guts too." Chrysalis answered, sighing, "Mind if I stay here for the night? We can talk later."
"...rrrrgh..."
"Thanks Sombra," the tired Changeling said, sitting against the wall of the cave, "Maybe this will end quickly and we can move on."
Sombra was going to reply, but seeing his guest fall asleep told him he had better wait. Maybe he could get some playing cards or something to pass the time. Being a shadowy creature really blew half the time.