Soren had no idea what went wrong or what was going on. Everything just happened so quickly. One second, he led the spirit into the main room of the palace library, then the next thing he knew, he was blown towards the wall by a sudden explosion of magic. Slowly getting to his hooves, Soren looked at the center of the circular room he was in and was soon stunned by what he saw.
"It can't be," he gasped. "Not you."
"I'm so glad you remember me. It has been awhile since the Master and I nearly destroyed you all," Queen Chrysalis said. Soren chuckled.
"The Master actually ran into me and my friends again. He's trapped on a desolate planet now. Where would you like to go?"
"Don't get confident, alicorn. You have no idea how outnumbered you truly are." Soren stood tall and stared at Chrysalis with such a serious expression that she raised an eyebrow at him.
"Try me."
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As soon as that rumble shook the castle, chaos broke loose. Princess Celestia and the seven mares looked at everything that was happening. One by one, the ponies of the Gala stood up and gave a sinister smile. Once everypony in the room was standing up, each of them became surrounded in green magic. Twilight, Celestia, and the rest of the mares stared in shock as changelings appeared one at a time.
"What have you done with my guests?" Princess Celestia demanded. "Where is Chrysalis?" The changelings obviously remained silent and began casting spells at the eight ponies. Before any spells could hit their mark, Twilight Sparkle created a shield around all eight of them. The changelings stopped their barrage as they saw the shield appear.
"Girls," Twilight started, "it looks like there is only one way out of this." Everyone but Celestia nodded. Fluttershy shrunk a bit in fear; Rainbow Dash and Applejack readied themselves; Octavia and Rarity became nervous; and Pinkie Pie stood on her hind legs, raised her front legs in an attacking sort of position, and growled. They were ready to start.
"GO!" Twilight signaled as she dropped the shield.
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Meanwhile, in the foyer of the castle, Princess Luna was still welcoming more ponies into the Gala. She had just welcomed a group of four ponies (two mares, two stallions). After that, Luna was tapped on her shoulder. Turning to her right, the princess smiled when she saw Princess Cadence and Shining Armor standing there.
"Hello, Luna," Cadence greeted. "Have you had time to enjoy the Gala yet?"
"Not very much, but 'tis fine," she answered. "I do not mind allowing my sister to see her star pupil and her friends."
"Are you sure?" Shining Armor asked. "Maybe you should take a break so you can see them too."
"I have already said it is fine, Shining Armor. You two should go enjoy the Gala yourselves instead of worrying about me." Luna welcomed another group of ponies to the Gala.
"That reminds me," Cadence said. "Shining, I don't believe you've met Twilight's new friend, Soren."
"I haven't actually," he replied. "I hear quite a lot about him from Twili and the guards. Is he here?" Cadence nodded.
"Let's go find him. Luna, do you know where Soren might be?" Before Princess Luna could answer, a rumble shook the foyer for a few seconds. Everypony in the lobby became worried.
"I recommend finding the cause of that if you want to find Soren." Shining Armor and Cadence looked at each other.
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"I hope you're not too upset about not receiving the premonition I promised," Chrysalis mocked.
"I'll be honest, I was actually looking forward to that. I really wanted to see where my roller coaster of a life will take me."
"I can already assume it will be a horrible end to a horrible start."
"Come on, my life wasn't that bad just because I had amnesia."
"Haven't you ever wondered why you were found with amnesia? I can tell you what happened." Soren's eyes widened then he quickly became serious.
"Tell me."
"Are you sure you want to know? I already said it was horrible."
"Tell. Me."
"If you insist, alicorn. By now, you have probably seen the Doctor regenerate into you." Soren nodded. "Then that means Twilight Sparkle has already transformed him into a foal. Do you remember what happens to you in your foalhood?"
"I was foalnapped."
"Exactly. Foalnapped by Nyra and her forces. Did you know it took ten years for the Nightmare Guardian to acquire her full strength, create an army, create a plan to capture Luna, then position her army in many locations? Did you also know that she needed a power source to regain all of her magical prowess?"
"Enough rhetorical questions!"
"Getting impatient, are we? Fine. As a child, you were captured by Nyra and trained as her second in command. You were brainwashed, to put it simply. When she realized that you were stronger than her, she used you for another purpose: to strengthen her own magic."
"That isn't possible, unless..."
"Unless she squeezed the magic out of you. The Master told me that when you were around 15 or 16, Nyra used you as a catalyst for magic. After siphoning you for a year, Nyra incubated you with a Quantum Frost spell, which is extremely difficult and is considered as one of the many Forbidden Spells. It freezes the pony as if they were in a time capsule. And in that capsule you stayed until Nyra's forces were strong enough to wage war on Canterlot. Once her forces were ready to kidnap Princess Luna, Nyra thawed you. As a result of your immense loss of magic, somehow you became foal sized again. We believe Twilight's spell restarted itself since it never fully ended. Nyra then dumped you in Ponyville. What she didn't plan on was your magic quickly returning. You were still able to defend Luna days later."
"If you are telling the truth, why didn't Nyra recognize me?"
"That's the most interesting part! Not even the Master knows why. How does one forget about the pony they siphoned for a whole year?"
"Shut up!" Soren flew at Chrysalis, horn aglow. The queen of the changeling lit her own horn and clashed horns with Soren. The result was a conflict of auras, thus creating a strong spark that sent Soren and Chrysalis away from each other and slammed them against separate walls.
Soren and Chrysalis picked themselves up, and both of them instantaneously sent a stream of magic at the other. The beams impacted in the center of the library; the result was another small explosion, however this one produced a giant cloud of thick smoke. Soren tried to see through the smoke to no avail, but what he did see was a green bolt of magic pierce through the cloud. The bolt impacted Soren's body and sent him against the wall again. He noticed that everything was green and quickly discovered that he could no longer move, yet he struggled anyway. He heard Chrysalis' wicked laughter from across the room. With an evil smile, the changeling queen slowly walked up to Soren.
"Look at you now," she gloated. "The almighty Elemental Guardian trapped within a cocoon." Soren looked at himself and indeed saw that he was in a cocoon. Giving up trying to escape, Soren locked eyes with Chrysalis.
"What are you planning, Chrysalis?" Soren demanded. To her, Soren's voice sounded slightly muffled.
"I'm not planning anything. The plan is already complete; now there is only progress from here. I'm going to let you remain comfortable there while I go see what my party guests are doing to your friends in the ballroom."
"What?! What do y–" Chrysalis teleported away from the library, leaving Soren hanging on the wall in his cocoon. Soren gritted his teeth. 'I swear by the goddesses themselves, Chrysalis. If anything happens to my friends because of you, I'll finish you off myself.' Soren then started to gather magic in his horn in hopes of escaping his small prison.
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Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, and the other six mares were successfully able to defeat all of the changelings in the ballroom. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash began celebrating their victory, while Twilight walked over to her mentor.
"Princess," Twilight started, "if Chrysalis is behind this, we need to find her immediately."
"I know," Celestia responded. "Twilight, you and three of your friends search the west wing; that's the opposite side of the castle. The rest of you search the north side. I will go to my sister and ask for her help in finding the ponies that have been captured. We must hurry, I doubt Chrysalis' plan is simply a hostile takeover." Everypony nodded at their princess.
Twilight, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Octavia decided to investigate the west wing, while Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy checked the north side. Sadly, just before any of them could actually leave the ballroom, walls of green fire erupted from the ground and blocked every exit. Green fire then erupted on the ballroom stage, and Queen Chrysalis appeared before them, laughing.
"I don't think any of you will be leaving this room...that is, unless you want my children to fly your precious subjects to our home," she said while looking at Princess Celestia. The princess' expression became more serious as she spoke back to Chrysalis.
"What do you want? I do not believe for one second that the only reason you came here was to ruin the Gala."
"Right you are, princess, but what is the point of telling any of you? I didn't even tell that wretched alicorn, Soren, about my plans for tonight."
"What did you do to Soren?!" Rainbow Dash yelled. Chrysalis laughed her evil laugh once again.
"I forgot he had a sweetheart. Don't worry, I'll be sure to finish him off later, and maybe you can watch." Rainbow growled.
"What is wrong with you?" Twilight asked Chrysalis. "You're acting like the Master."
"That's what happens when friends work together. We had a common enemy, a common purpose, yet when we combined our forces, it still wasn't enough. Earlier I leaned that you all stranded him on some planet. All of you can consider what I'm doing tonight as revenge for him."
"Chrysalis, if you do not stop right now, I will not be responsible for what happens this evening," Celestia warned. "It is one thing to sabotage a wedding to feed your offspring, but it is another to purposely endanger my subjects and hold them captive. Soren is not as weak as you think he is. He has enough magic to smash houses through this castle just to stop you."
"Save me the admiration, Celestia! Now then, if any of you attempt to escape or rebel, my children will start escorting our prisoners to the Badlands, or worse." Chrysalis paused. Her voice become more calm. "I know you, Celestia; I know that you would never risk the lives of your subjects just to stop me. Changelings!" The ten changeling that were 'defeated' stood up. Three of the ten flew over to Chrysalis.
Once they were at attention, the changelings were given orders. "Go to the Royal Library and bring me the alicorn. If he somehow escaped, alert the swarm." The three changelings left, leaving seven more with Chrysalis. The insect queen looked at the eight ponies. "How does it feel to be defeated? How does it feel to–" Chrysalis stopped her gloating when she heard a peculiar noise. Once the room was quiet, everyone could hear that Rainbow Dash began to fight back laughter. When the pegasus heard the silence, she stopped holding it back and began laughing loudly. "Why are you laughing?!" Chrysalis demanded.
"It's just...It's just funny that...that you think Soren was...defeated that easily," Rainbow explained in between laughs. She calmed herself and stared straight at Chrysalis. "Soren isn't one to give up. I bet he escaped a few minutes after you left. Knowing how smart he is, that colt is most likely on his way to come stop you right this minute."