//------------------------------// // Alliances // Story: Hour of Twilight // by Shining Moonlight //------------------------------// The sound of three pair of hooves echoed through the cave as three shapes appeared from the shadows. The one in the middle, a mare, stepped forward, her followers following. She stopped dead when she reached a stone throne. On the throne sat a dark grey unicorn with a black mane and red horn. He smiled to reveal fangs as he saw his visitor. He stepped down from the throne and greeted her. "So what horrifying things have you done lately?" He asked the mare. She opened her mouth and spoke with the same icy and confident voice as the mare from the night before. The guards behind were two of her dark assassins. "I did what you asked of my King of Nightmares." He went up to her and smiled. "Good." He said before he kissed the mare passionately. As she pulled out he continued, "Oh my Queen of Shadows, how did I deserve you..." He returned to his throne. "There is one more thing you can do for me though.." He continued. "I need you to send for Queen Chrysalis. If I asked her, she would't come, but if you asked she would." As the mare opened her eyes and bared her fangs she spat back. "I will not! That witch may help us, but I won't call for her! You'll have to!" As she calmed down, she said."If you're so sure she won't come. Tell her you love her... She seems to be interested in that subject..." And with that she disappeared into the shadows along with her assassins. The unicorn sighed and walked up to his throne, sat down, and started waiting for inspiration to hit him. "Ouch!" He growled as a rock out of nowhere and hit him in the head. "Aha!" He said and started writing. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Somepony knocked on Twilight's door. She called "Come in!" and kept brushing her mane. When she saw that it was Princess Celestia she stopped brushing and went up to her. "What is it Celestia? I am very busy so I don't have time for one of your lectures or small talks." Just as she was about to turn around to go back to brushing her mane Celestia spoke. "Last night, when a group of guards were patroling along the coast of the Whinnysota, they passed a small town...." Celestia shed a tear that dropped down on the marble floor. "In the report there were enough details to paint a vivid picture in my mind." "Well then the pony who wrote it must be an artist..." Twilight sarcastically muttered. Luckily Celestia either did not hear her or was too upset to react. She continued. "Let me think... you want to go to the town to investigate and see it for yourself and you want me to come with you. My answer is no!" She flared her wings out and then tucked then in and started preening them. "I have got other things to do... Like my royal duties for example, haven't you got any?" Celestia walked up to her and smiled the sweetest smile. "Pretty please..." Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine..." The two princesses went out of Twilight's chambers and went down to the courtyard where the carriage that would take them to the coast of Whinnysota, but there was somepony else waiting for them as well... _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ "Surprise!!" The five mares jumped out from behind a marble statue. Twilight gasped and two mare guards in purple uniforms tackled the mares to the ground and growled. Twilight looked the guards in the eyes and the guards stopped growling and let the mares stand up. As they did, she realized it was Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. "Girls? How dare you sneak up on me like that!!" She motioned her guards to move away and continued. "You know how sensitive my guards are." As the girls lowered their heads she added. "You aren't young mares anymore! You have families, children who look up to you. What would they think if it stood in the newspaper "Five mares snuck into the castle and was attacked by the Twilight Guards"?" They shook their heads and scratched the ground with their hooves, shame written all over them. Then Twilight smiled. "I am happy to see you though!" They all shared a group hug. Suddenly, Twilight teleported herself out of the hug and asked. "What are you doing here?" Applejack stepped forward. "We came to follow you on your trip to Whinnysota. Pinkie has some relatives there so we thought we would stop by!" Celestia spoke while shaking her head. "Do you know why we are going there dear Applejack?" As Applejack shook her head Celestia continued. "Last night a guard patrol was patrolling the coast when they passed a town. It was burned to the ground except one house that was still standing... In the town square was...." She stopped and calmed her self. "Bodies.." Pinkie raised an eyebrow. "Dead bodies?" Twilight rolled her eyes and said sarcastically. "No, bodies of water, of course it was dead bodies!" The others stared at Pinkie while she tried to shrink away into her own mane. "Pinkie... That mane is still not big enough for you to hide in..." Twilight continued. As Celestia spoke again her voice was stern and determined. "As I said, you cannot come with us... I was hesitant about taking Twilight along at first but then I decided to ask her. When she said no, I was about to force her when she agreed to following me." "Yeah because going to look at dead bodies is really a job for two." Twilight sighed. Celestia coughed and Twilight stood straight and held her head high. She closed her eyes only to open one to stare at Celestia. "Can we go now? I want to be back for dinner." At that, the two alicorns stepped into the carriage. The cushions were the color of light light yellow while the carriage itself was a white and dark lavender. The carriage was also decorated with lavender and roses - both Twilight and Celestia's favorites. The pegasi that were pulling the carriage was a white stallion with a blue mane and an orange stallion with blue mane (Flash Sentry ^-^) As Twilight stroked her hoof over the carriage door she thought to herself before signaling to the two guards who earlier wrestled Rarity and the others to the ground. Instead they now pushed the mares in front of then and shoved them into the carriage. "You are coming with us!" She declared and her friends smiled bright. Oh no!, she thought. What have I gotten myself into. She took one of the loose cushions and face planted into it. Rainbow Dash burst into laughter while the rest of the mares just snickered amusingly. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ "My Queen!" A changeling announced as he entered the throne room. He trotted through the hall and passed by portraits of many changeling Queen and Kings until he stopped in front of a tall tower. The tower was several meters high and a staircase went around it. At the top of the tower was a grand throne. On the throne was a mare sitting, but she was different from other mares, oh so different. "You have a letter. From.... King Sombra your majesty!" At that the mare looked up from her hooves to reveal Queen Chrysalis. She bared her fangs at the name and flared her insect wings out. She scream echoed through the halls and the changeling fell to his knees and but his fore hooves to his ears. When the echoing stopped, Chrysalis went down the stairs until she reached the changeling who was lying on the ground lifeless. Suddenly the changeling jumped up and yowled and ear piercing scream and Chrysalis bared her fangs. She bit the changeling and shook him like a lion would shake it's prey. When the body in her mouth went limp she spat him to the ground and hissed. As she looked down at his hooves she saw a paper. She picked it up with her magic and started to walk up the staircase. When she reached the top she sat down on the throne, opened the letter, and started reading. Dear Chrysalis, I, King Sombra, have requested that you come to the Crystal Mountains. Since it is near the Changeling Border it isn't much to ask. The reason I want you to come is that I have a problem... I have fallen in love with you! I have fallen in love with those mean and piecing eyes, the killing scream and those shiny fangs... Come to me so that we may join each other in a war against Equestria so that we may live in peace, together forever. I know what you will say, so I say this... Think of how beautiful those Crystal Changelings will look... I await your arrival my Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra Chrysalis gasped. She couldn't believe it. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ She was a young Princess changeling when King Sombra came to power. She had been ordered by her father, King Metamorphosis, to infiltrate the Crystal Empire. He thought they would have the advantage since the young King just had taken control. He was right. They succeeded. Chrysalis had stormed into the castle and caught the King by surprise. The battle went on for weeks until finally Chrysalis and King Sombra were face to face. They fought and fought until Sombra fell to his knees. Chrysalis brought out her dagger out of her armor and put it against the stallions throat. They were in a room deep inside the castle as Chrysalis had chased Sombra when he fled. Just as she was about to slash his throat, he opened his eyes. Instead of a green and blazing red with purple mist streaming from her eyes they were a soft, creamy white. His pupil was a ruby red. Chrysalis hesitated and put the dagger back in her armor. As he stood up, he looked at her with a disgusted look. "Why didn't you kill me?" He asked her. She looked him deep in the eyes. "I don't kill..." She said. She stepped towards him and Sombra stepped back. It kept going until Chrysalis accidentally teleported herself so that their muzzles touched. They blushed and backed away from each other. She had stormed out of the room and out onto the Crystal Square and had yowled the signal to retreat. Just as Sombra stormed out of the castle and ran towards her she pressed her hind legs to the ground and leapt into the air. As she started beating her wings the other changelings joined her. They set off to the Changeling Border and disappeared into the sunset. Sombra and Crystalis kept meeting in the Crystal Mountains every day right after sunset during twilight. They used to laugh, tell stories and play games. One night Chrysalis was sitting on her balcony and looking at the sun as it began disappearing behind the mountains. She sighed. That had been the most beautiful sunset she had ever seen, she had thought. This was the night, she had told herself. This was the night she was going to tell Sombra how she felt. As she fluttered off to the mountains an hour later she felt like she could just start singing. Bad idea though... Wouldn't want to tell everyone where I am at. she thought. Chrysalis had been born with the natural talent to lead her hive. Unlike her mother who hadn't. Once she was born, her father had killed her and made Chrysalis as his heir. She knew that she had been lucky. Royal changeling who aren't born with the talent to scream were either killed or tortured. The worst was that some were kept alive so that the ruling King or Queen could mate with her or him. Her mother had been that, but she had been treated even worse. Her fathered had kidnapped her from another hive so that she would give him an heir. A question popped into her head. Would she ever mate with Sombra? She decided that if she and Sombra ever mated, she would be the happiest Princess in the whole galaxy! As the cave where Sombra was waiting for her came into sight she pressed her wings to the limit and arrived at half the time it would have taken before. When she saw Sombra she saw that he had gotten his normal eye color back. She got goosebumps. He looked so handsome. As Sombra greeted her she flew into his arms and kissed him passionately. There was a scream, a blast, and everything turned black.