//------------------------------//
// One Hell of a Night   Part 1 - Chapter 8 
// Story: The Queen Inside Of Me 
// by K.J. Cragon 
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	Celestia stood at her desk, making sure that everything was in order. She quietly went over to her dresser and, with a magical glow lifted up a crystal shard attached to a golden chain. Heaving a sigh, the Princess of the sun walked back over to the desk, and looked at the map that she had placed there. It showed the world, the world that not only held Equestria, but all of the other countries including the least explored area on the planet. Some called it Death Valley, while others called it by it's proper name; The Badlands. Home of the Changeling hive.

She looked over her shoulder to glance at all of the letters that she had tried to send Twilight in the past couple of hours. They had all been returned, unopened, so many that the royal trash can was unable to be seen through the pile. This was her last chance, and she knew it. If scrying for her faithful student didn't work, that would either mean that Twilight had been sent to another planet beyond theirs or was dead. Though if she was alive and in any country on the map, she would be found. 

She placed the crystal over the map and while casting a scrying spell, started to swing it over the map. Now came the hard part. She could be doing this for hours before it found anything. Celestia had to be patient, and more importantly, she had to be collective of her thoughts. They, while the spell was doing it's work, had to all be focused on Twilight. The way she looked, the was her voice sounded, the way she acted. 

Soon, she found herself hearing strange noises. It sounded like the rustling of leaves as they were blown into the air by the unseen force that is wind. Knowing that those sounds meant that the magic was working, and almost done, she concentrated as hard as she could on her student until finally-

Her concentration was broken by three sharp knocks at the door. The promising noises faded quickly and the crystal dropped onto the map. Celestia's eyes opened, tears starting to form on the edges. As she looked over to the door, she saw one of her sister's guard, a stallion named Balthazar, staring at her. "Um, I know that you told us not to disturb you for a while, but we have something you might want to see," he said, a proud smile creeping onto his face.

Wiping away her tears, the Solar Princess turned back to the desk and quickly folded up the map with her magic. Putting the crystal around her neck, she began to walk over to the ajar door and opened it. Then staggered backwards in alarm as she saw Rarity standing next to Chrysalis, who was being held back by the guards. Something definitely off about the situation, she could feel it. She just wasn't sure what it was yet. 

Chrysalis change that.

"Get your filthy paws off of me, you ruffians!" Chrysalis complained. Taken aback by the tone of her voice, one of the guards released her hooves until the other gave him a dirty look. "Ugh, this is almost positively the WORST, POSSIBLE, THING  in the history of worst possible things!"

Celestia blinked. "....Rarity?" 'This wasn't supposed to happen! It hasn't happened in... I don't even know how long it's been!' She turned her head to the other pony. "...And you are?"

The other pony, in Rarity's body, looked up at the Solar Princess and grimaced. "Um, hi Auntie Celestia," She said nervously. 'Cadence. Well, that explains a lot. Wait, if this really did happen to them then that means that-'

"Twilight! Where's Twilight?" Celestia quickly asked Cadence and Rarity. "Oh, and you can release her. She's not really a changeling, she's an Element of Harmony," She said to the guards, who, unsure if they were doing a good thing by releasing  who they thought for sure was an evil changeling.

"Oh, um, we're not exactly sure. We were all body switched into each other's bodies except Twilight. She just kind of vanished." 

"Then she must be trapped somewhere. Here, come inside so we can-"

"Stop right there, you big meanies!" A familiar voice broke through the princess,' gaining the attention of everypony outside of the room. The five looked around to find Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, all wearing their Elements, and Chrysalis trapped in Cadence's body standing up the hallway. "We don't know what you did to Rarity, but Cadence told us everything! Prepare to get vanquished from Equestria!"

"Yeah! You will pay for that! You probably have Applejack and Spike in the dungeons or something!" Rainbow Dash agreed with her friend.

"Nopony hurts our friends!" An enraged Fluttershy yelled as a half rainbow exploded from the three necklaces, and the other half finished by Chrysalis as she lit her horn. As the rainbow hit the ponies, a shock wave of bright light began to spread from it. By the time the light ceased, only one of the five ponies remained standing, her eyes a bright glow shaded green. Cadence, in Rarity's body, began to walk over the the four others. 

Chrysalis looked at the four little ponies and smiled triumphantly. Every one of them had glowing green eyes, ensuring her control over each and every one of them. Giving her commands to each of them; That she was and had always been their faithful and loving leader, that they were to be completely loyal to her and do everything she ordered them to do without complaint of hesitance.	

To Cadence, she gave	 orders that she was not Cadence, princess of Love, but Rarity, Element of Generosity. The spell had 	made all of the guards, housekeepers, cooks, you name it, vanish to another land, leaving the entire castle empty save for her minions, herself, a sleeping Luna, and the other Elements of Harmony. 

"Yes," she said to herself. "This is going to be one hell of a night."