Daybreak
“Alright, teleportation squads prepare to send in the first wave!” Blade shouted, having resumed his position as leader about an hour earlier. “Star, Scootaloo, you two hang back. If anything happens while we’re out, the teleportation squads will send you someplace safe.”
“But nothing bad will happen, so don’t worry.” I said, shooting a look at Blade, who had accidently caused the fillies to go into a panic.
“Sorry to worry you, just a precautionary measure.” Blade stated.
“I want to go in with the first wave.” Chrysalis approached us.
“If she’s going, then send me in too.” I said, stepping next to the changeling queen.
“Then take all of us.” Twilight said, speaking for the rest of our friends.
“Very well, I shall join you on the second wave.” Blade nodded.
One group of changelings surrounded the eight of us, and their horns flashed. We were instantly transported to the inner walls of Canterlot Castle. I hadn’t been inside of Canterlot since that whole ordeal had started. I was dreading the walk that we were about to take, dreading seeing the destruction that had surely shaken the once great city.
“Let me take the lead. I know all of the secret passageways inside of the castle. I can lead us there in a way that won’t get us caught.” I said looking back to the six other ponies and the small army of changelings and their queen.
“Alright, go ahead.” Twilight responded, stepping aside.
“This way.” I nodded, leading the group into a small tunnel beneath one of the guard towers.
We walked through the long unkempt cave-like tunnel. Rarity consistently let out whines, letting us all know that she was keeping up. Clouds of dust and dirt were brushed up each time that one of us lifted our hooves, creating a blinding screen of dirt. Despite all of the trouble with dirt that we were facing, Rarity managed to keep from shouting, although, I did hear her let out some choice words about the ponies charged with cleaning the tunnel.
I turned off into a small staircase after leading them through the tunnel for nearly a quarter of an hour. We came up into a small room in the corner of the castle. It was an older room, used only certain guests, many of whom hadn’t come by in quite some time. I slowly pushed the door open and led the army through the unused halls of the palace. Any building of that colossal size has places that nopony goes, this castle was no different.
Soon we arrived at a small door, which I quickly peeked through. The door was a rear entrance to the throne room, hidden behind the throne. I signaled for the others to hold back while I went out to see if there was anypony in the room. I was met with intense surprise when I saw two ponies lying on the ground, lifeless.
“Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!” I shouted galloping over to their sides. “Please wake up, please! I swear I’ll never take another vacation again!” I couldn’t help but blame myself for their condition.
I spun around as I heard noises behind me. The others had stepped out from behind the throne after hearing my shouting. It was then that I noticed another figure in front of the throne. It was reaching outward, toward the princesses, trying to help them. Discord had been turned back to stone after leaving us that day that he saved us.
“Let me see what I can do.” said a changeling as he flew forward landing next to the princesses.
He began casting medical magic in an attempt to heal them. They weren’t dead yet, but death was only a short step away from where they were. Twilight ran to Celestia’s side as she broke into tears.
“Twilight Sparkle, I think that you should use the Elements of Harmony to free Discord. Perhaps their healing abilities will help to aid in the princesses’ recovery.” Chrysalis suggested as her gaze followed mine, landing of the stone figure.
“Alright.” Twilight whimpered, whipping away her tears and turning to Discord. “Come on girls, let’s try it.”
The Elements activated, launching a rainbow into the statue. The stone shell began to crack, letting a light seep out. When it broke there was nothing there, Discord was gone.
“Where’d he go?” Rainbow asked instantly.
“Well hello there Fluttershy, my friend.” Discord said, his voice coming from a stained glass window to my left.
“Discord what are you doing, trying to scare us all like that?” Fluttershy asked sternly.
“Hey, I was just having a bit of fun before the two sourpusses wake up.” Discord laughed as he pointed to the princesses who were starting to move.
“Princess Celestia, are you alright?” Twilight gasped galloping to Celestia’s side.
“Princess Luna?” I asked, slowly approaching Luna.
“We are fine.” Luna said answering for herself and her sister.
“Where is the Void?” Celestia asked weakly.
“Sun princess, you do not need to worry about the Void, I will take care of it.” Chrysalis said approaching the princess.
“Who are you?” Celestia asked, not recognizing Chrysalis’s new form.
“I see that you have fixed yourself, and the rest of your kind.” Discord said reappearing next to Chrysalis.
“Yes, no thanks to you. You could have at least undone the damage you did when you were forced into work for the ponies.” Chrysalis glared at him.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I’d forgotten.” Discord chuckled back.
“Discord, would you mind filling me in?” Celestia demanded.
“Oh yes, how rude of me.” Discord said sarcastically. “Celestia, Chrysalis. Chrysalis Celestia. Now, Celestia, no jumping to conclusions about her this time, I had a little something to do with your last meeting. Back when Equestria was mine, I cursed them and made them into what attacked Canterlot that one time, but this here; this is what they really are. I wiped all knowledge of their past from the minds of everypony in the world. But I’m sure that you can explain the rest at a less dire moment, right Chrysalis?”
“Well, I don’t think that they’ll be able to manage that,” called a dark voice from the throne room’s main doorway, “after all, it’s hard to have a conversation when both parties are deceased.”
“Void.” I said calmly stepping forward, trying to give Chrysalis more time to use the stones.
“I know just how much you’ve been looking forward to that last star going out, so here, allow me the honor.” the Void launched a black light from his horn into the ceiling of the throne room. “No more stars.”
None of us spoke; none of us knew what to say. Did he really just take out the last stars; was the only reason that he was removing them slowly to give us false hope? I could only manage a stupefied stare at him.
“Lie.” said the calm voice of a stallion behind me.
“Worthless changeling, you ruined my fun.” Void replied playfully.
“You mean we still have time?” I looked back to see Blade.
“We always have time; now, let’s show this bucker what happens to those who brush past Equestria the wrong way. I’m personally thinking the same end result as Sombra, complete and utter obliteration.”
“I’m in agreement on this matter, Blade.” I smirked back at him.
“You just don’t get it, do you? No matter how many of you there are, no matter what weapons you have, no matter how hard you fight, your fate shall not be changed.” Void mocked.
“I believe that it is time that we put your theory to the test.” Chrysalis said, activating the stones.
The six stones began to gleam and shot out a beam that hit Chrysalis. She absorbed the power that they tried to give her, and even to a pegasus like me, her magical aura clearly grew. I could feel a clear change in the room when she took in that power.
“Ah, those useless rocks, that’s your plan?” Void held in a laugh. “There is only one who can use them properly; otherwise there is a good chance that you rip your own body apart.”
“That is a risk that I was well aware of, and am fully willing to take if it means that I have a chance to save the ponies of Equestria.” Chrysalis replied calmly.
Blade opened his mouth to raise an argument to his queen, but she shot him a glare and he shut it. She was risking her life to save us; it was obvious that she had changed for the better. I had faith that she could do it, because if she couldn’t then everything would end.
“I would appreciate it if you were to leave, just in case. All of you.” Chrysalis used her newly found powers to teleport all of us out of the throne room.
We were on a level section of one of the mountains that surrounded the city. We all stood in silence, watching for any sign of the battle that was sure to come. Without warning, a bright beam of light shot straight up into the air, followed closely by a black beam. They froze in the night sky, shooting out lights at each other. It was a spectacle to see, but it was impossible to tell which one of them held the advantage. I could faintly make out that they were both landing with at least some of their attacks. My curiousness was ended when a massive explosion brought the conflict to an end.
A dark cloud surrounded the white light, weakening it to the point that it began plummeting to the earth below. As the white light made impact with the ground, the last of the stars flickered out. We had lost.
“There aren’t any stars left! We can’t fight him anymore!” Twilight let out a cry of horror.
“No, there is one star left my faithful student. The sun itself is a star, and we still have a chance to fight back.” Celestia said lifting Twilight’s head with her hoof.
“Chrysalis was smart, she slid the stones into my saddlebag when she teleported us out. We have everything that we need.” I said, trying to keep the spirits high.
“I feel that a bit of your optimism needs to be shared with all of the world, Sky Flare. The sun shall rise this morning, and it shall be under our protection.” Luna nodded.
Celestia’s horn glowed gold, pulling the sun out of hiding and brightening the world with its warm light. The royal sisters stood next to each other, like a beacon of light and hope. It told the whole world that we were still alive, and that as long as we were, we would keep fighting to save them.
“That was your best attempt at stopping me? You are more pathetic than I had thought. What hope do you have now?” the Void said, appearing in front of us.
“You know, the world has this tendency. It seems to like being put on the brink of destruction, but do you want to know a secret? It hasn’t ended yet, and this threat is no different than any other that we’ve faced before. Sure, you think that you’re this big invincible, god-like being, but you were stopped before, so you can be stopped again. These six ponies that are with me, they haven’t been stopped yet, they have overcome every obstacle that has ever been set in their path. I would say that I’m sorry, but I’d be lying, you were doomed from the moment that you picked a fight with this world.” I stepped forward, speaking in a firm, unwavering tone.
“Wow, you are quite the speaker. I only see one problem with that speech, the fact that I am different than anything that you have faced.” the Void said confidently.
“Do you want to put your theory to the test?” I asked, glaring at the giant alicorn who stood before me.
“I can kill you with a single strike, are you sure that you’re willing to die right now?”
“If you could have, you would have. You haven’t fully recovered, that’s why you didn’t just outright kill us just now. That’s why the sun is still burning bright in the sky.” I hoped that this was true.
“Do you want to put your theory to the test?” the Void began mocking me.
“I’ll test it!” Blade shouted darting ahead of me, flying straight at the Void.
“Insolence!” the Void shouted back, smacking Blade with his hoof and sending the changeling flying in the opposite direction.
The Void faded away just as quickly as he appeared. I was right, he could take us all on, not right then; he needed time to rest. The bad thing is that we did too. We needed time to come up with a new plan.
“We should head to safety as well.” Celestia suggested.
After a short moment of sighs and groans, even some outright shouts of defiance, we turned back and teleported to the changeling’s library. One teleportation squad was sent with each of the two waves, allowing us to get back without any unnecessary fuss. The squads, once the last of us arrived at the base, teleported themselves individually.
“That was quick, where is Queen Chrysalis?” Stroke said as we entered the room.
“She tried fighting him. It’s impossible to know her condition. I’ll be sending out a squad to search for her as soon as I make one.” Blade explained, a depressing overtone to his voice.
“No…” Stroke was devastated by this news.
“I’m sorry.” Luna said as she walked over to the changeling.
The next thing I knew, I was nearly knocked off of my hooves. A certain filly had seen me come back and was a little on the happy side to see that I was uninjured. She had quickly grappled onto my leg with her hooves.
“You’re alright!” she shouted happily.
“Yeah.” I muttered.
“You should have seen her kiddo, your sis told the Void off.” Rainbow approached us.
“You did?” Star gasped, stumbling back.
“I wouldn’t go that far, I mean I-” I started but was cut off by Rainbow again.
“You bet she did, she even got him to run away!”
“Exaggeration, I simply pointed out the fact that he still hadn’t fully recovered. We needed time to come up with a new plan, and he was going to kill us if I didn’t do something.” I explained.
“You’re just being modest Sky.” Twilight joined in. “Yes Star, she really did save all of us, without her, we probably wouldn’t have made it out of there.”
“Wow…” Star was in awe.
This went on for little bit, the others bragging about what I did and me trying to make it sound more like how it felt. It felt more like an instinct than a well thought plan. I said what came to mind, as it came to mind, there was no thought put into it. Everypony else kept making it sound like this spectacular speech and incredible plan. If it wasn’t me that they were talking about, and I was in Star’s place, hearing the story, I would be just as amazed as she was. The problem is, it just felt like talking normally, it didn’t feel special, no matter what they said.
Eventually, Blade assembled the recovery team to find and bring back Chrysalis. Once they had left, Blade took us into a well lit room.
“You all can rest in here; I’ll have some food brought in for you soon.” Blade told us.
“What about the planning?” I asked as Blade started to close the door.
“What planning? It’s pretty simple from my point of view, power up one of your princesses and see if they have better luck than our queen.” Blade answered, his voice lacking irritation, but keeping a dark overtone.
With that he slammed the door, presumably to continue research on how to stop the Void. No matter what he said, I knew that he had something up his sleeve. As he promised, a group of changelings entered the room with trays of food for us. Once we had finished eating, we took some time to rest that uneasy rest before you charge head first into certain doom. It was laughable, how much hope we had in our hearts despite what our minds told us. One thing that I’ve learned in my life, trust your heart, it always feels like that little thing can predict the future.
I laid my head on a pillow that was in the room. Star curled up next to me, squeezing her head on the same pillow just below my head. Star managed to fall asleep, I however, wasn’t so lucky. I climbed back to my hooves, once I was sure that I wouldn’t disturb the filly, and left the room to meet back up with Blade. Everypony else in there had managed to fall asleep, even the princesses. It was pretty obvious that they all needed their rest, but no matter how tired I was, I couldn’t just stand by and let a threat like the Void go unmatched for a single minute.
“What are you doing, still up?” Blade asked as I glided over to him gently on my wings.
“Couldn’t sleep.” I yawned back, “And believe me, I tried.”
“I understand that…” Blade whispered back, pointing down to a group of changelings sleeping on the floor below us. “I couldn’t get to sleep either. I figure that there has to be something that we missed, something that is key to putting the Void in his place.”
“Same here, I think that there is something about that last stone, the one that broke…” I replied, but was cut off by Blade.
“My thoughts exactly, something this powerful doesn’t just break, or go missing for that matter. It had to have left a trail, something that can be used to find it. All we know is that its last known use was over a thousand years ago. Starswirl must have done something with them, hidden them somewhere…”
“Maybe Princess Celestia knows then, she actually knew Starswirl, or maybe Twilight can find out where it would be likely for him to hide them. Twi is an expert on anything Starswirl related.” I explained.
“Do you mind waking them; you might just be onto something.” Blade said as hope sparked in his eyes.
“On it.” I flew back into the room where the others slept.
I lightly tapped on Twi’s shoulder, awakening her from her uneasy sleep. I told her to wait for me in the main room with Blade. Once she was up, I moved on to Celestia. I did the same maneuver to wake her to wake her and send her to the main library.
“Alright, we have a theory about the last stone…” Blade started as Celestia and I walked into the room.
“Yeah, the texts that we have say that you were the last to use it, Princess Celestia. That once it broke, you gave it to Starswirl the Bearded for safe keeping. Do you know what he did with it?” I finished Blade’s sentence.
“Are you talking about the stone that you sent me from the crash site of the meteor? That was the first time I’d ever seen one.” Celestia answered.
“But it says that you used it…” I sighed, was this all a lost cause? Did Celestia ever actually have the stone?
“If it went to Starswirl and he knew about how powerful it was, then he most likely used a spell to hide it. Using the same spell should be able to bring it back.” Twilight suggested.
“Great Twi, now do you think that you can find out what spell he used?” I asked.
“I have all of his spells in his old journal, if he did anything like that, then we can find out.” Celestia answered noticing Twilight’s hesitation.
“Can you get that journal?” Blade asked, taking a step away from the bookshelf that he had been looking through.
“I always keep it on me, just in case we need his help.” Celestia answered.
“Great, Twi, you mind taking a look?” I asked.
“Anything to stop the Void.” Twilight nodded back.
Twilight began looking through the Starswirl’s journal, but almost instantly she was interrupted. Princess Celestia let out a cry of agony and collapsed to the floor. She tried to say something, but I couldn’t hear it, so I moved slightly closer.
“He got the sun…”