A hooded figure looked down to the sand, it’s face covered with a mask, covering the figure’s eyes as they looked downward to the silver, flat mask laying down in the sand. The figure used it’s magic to lift the mask out of the sand as several more ponies dug around in the sand, collecting several more silver pieces of metal protruding from the ground.
The figure took a long while to examine the object in silence as a zebra stallion watched her, half of his face was scarred and burned badly, his face turned to one of anger, and a smaller zebra stallion with burn marks on it’s body, blocking out it’s flank, standing next to him.
“I give you cretins a chance of a lifetime. And you let it walk right out the front door???” The figure shouted, turning to the two zebra stallions, throwing it at the smaller one.
The smaller one winced in pain as the metal mask made contact with his face, the bigger one keeping his eyes locked on the figure.
“W-Well you can’t b-b-blame u-”
“Shut it Ahmed,” the figure shouted to the smaller zebra before turning back to the bigger one, “and you! I was told that you were the best in the criminal underworld! And now, here I am, standing in the desert as we gather up pieces of machinery that your prisoner used to ESCAPE!!!!”
“How were we able to guess sh-”
“YOU SHOULD HAVE MOVED THE BUCKING CAMERA TO LOOK BEHIND THE WALL!!!!” The figure screamed, taking off it’s hood and running it’s hoof through it’s bright blue mane and sighing in exasperation.
“... Trixie. We will find her and we will force her to create the Hydra Cannon.” The bigger stallion said.
“No. She’s back in Equestria. We only had that one chance. Now that she’s back she’ll most likely be guarded by the best. And besides...” Trixie used her magic to pick the mask up again from the ground near Ahmed’s hooves, grinning as she brought it closer to her face, “we’ve got something that I think will be much better.”
“But are you sure that they will be okay with our change in plans?” The bigger stallion said.
“Don’t worry Biashara,” the light blue mare said, moving the mask from her face and throwing to Ahmed as he caught it between his hooves clumsily as Trixie grinned widely, “I’m sure the others will be okay with this new plan.”
Twilight looked up to the large, crystal castle before her, seeing the castle had never been such a beautiful sight to the mare, and she could feel her eyes watering up. But she closed her eyes and worked her best to fight back the tears that were quickly trying desperately to surface and go down her cheeks.
She could feel herself getting closer to bursting to tears as she trots closer and closer to the castle, her trotting slowly increasing to galloping to the castle, growing a large smile across her lips as she closed in on the large crystal castle.
She stopped in front of it and reached her lavender hoof out, planting it in a small circular indent in the door, waiting a second, and then turning it to open the door and reveal the inside.
The inside of the castle was the same as she had remembered, all of the lights strewn through the ceiling to illuminate it’s darkness. As she stepped inside she could still hear the echo of her steps bouncing off the walls of the halls and traveling through the crystal home.
But there was something else Twilight was hearing. Almost a... Soft pattering. She stood still and turned her head to listen closer, confirming that she was indeed hearing a soft pattering sound coming from somewhere in the castle, and the sound was coming closer.
She turned her head to look forward and saw something small and purple running to her, immediately recognizing it as-
“SPIKE!!!!” Twilight smiled widely as she ran to the small dragon, who’s eyes were filled with tears as his lips were formed to a giant smile.
The two continued running to each other until they ran into each other, both of them embracing each other into a tight hug, Twilight unable to hold back her tears anymore as she held the small dragon close and tight.
The two held onto each other for what felt like hours, Twilight knowing the little dragon wouldn’t want to let her go again. And, knowing full well why, she didn’t let him go.
After a long moment of silence Spike was the first to speak.
“I’m so glad you’re back Twilight....”
“And I’m glad to be back Spike.” Twilight said, her voice slightly breaking as she wiped tears from her eyes.
“Please don’t ever leave Equestria again....” Spike whispered, sniffing loudly as he held tighter to the lavender pony.
Twilight broke the hug and looked down to Spike, smiling softly. “Don’t worry Spike. Nothing bad will ever happen to me again. I promise.”
Spike turned his head upward to look up to the mare, his eyes still filled with tears as he wrapped his arms around the mare tighter, sniffing quietly as he laid his head on her and slowly nodding it.
Twilight sniffed as more tears flowed down her lavender cheeks as she did the same, hugging the small dragon as she looked down to the crystal floor.
Neither of them wanted to break the embrace, but eventually they had to as Spike’s stomach made a deep, grumbling noise, causing the two of them to end the silence in the hollow castle with small laughter as they broke away.
“I guess somebody’s hungry.” Twilight said, both of them chuckling softly before Twilight’s own stomach made a low and deep growling noise, making the two share another short lived laugh. Spike lunged forward in the air, landing on Twilight’s back stomach first, the lavender mare chuckling and rolling her eyes playfully at the small dragon.
Spike began shifting around on her back, sitting up as she began trotting to the kitchen, careful to not drop the young dragon. As soon as the two entered the kitchen Spike immediately jumped off Twilight’s back, jumping and successfully landing on the counter, the young dragon running over to multiple shelves and opening them and beginning to pull out several different gems, including rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds, etc, and also making sure to pull out hayburger patties and buns with frozen fries for Twilight.
Twilight watched Spike practically empty the shelves with excitement, smiling softly at the small dragon. She felt several things lingering at the back of her mind though, something she didn’t like thinking about. How did those murderers get their hooves on any of Twilight’s tech? Were there more groups of them out there? Did they also have Twilight’s tech? And where were they hiding?
Twilight had so many questions, and she was going to find the answer to them. She’d just have to get used to doing it completely magic-free and flightless. She picked her hoof up and softly felt the area where her horn was, but was now just slightly rough skin and fur.
She frowned softly as she felt the area, lowering her hoof down to the floor. The absence of her horn and wings didn’t seem to affect Spike at all, did he just not care about her wings and horn being gone?
“Spike?” She asked.
“Yeah? What is it Twilight?” Spike answered, turning to face her, behind him a pan of fries ready to be cooked to golden perfection.
Twilight slightly lifted her hoof to her forehead, then moved it to her back, frowning softly still and then putting her hoof back down to the floor as Spike made a small frown of his own.
“Those things don’t matter to me as much as you.” Spike said, his frown turning into a soft smile as Twilight found herself tearing up slightly, her own frown turning into a soft smile of her own.
Spike turned back to the drawers, taking out a small handful of diamonds before closing it softly as he carefully shifted his weight onto one foot, gently poking the door with the tip of his foot to shut it as he placed the several jewels on the counter.
There was a loud knock on the door as Spike jumped off the counter, placing the food on the counter he began running to the door while shouting back to Twilight, “I’ll get it!”
Twilight rolled her eyes, laughing slightly to herself as she turned to the counter, gazing upon the frozen fries bag. She used her magi-Oh... That’s right... She looked to the cabinet that held the trays and opened it, biting down on the handle and pulling back to open it, then picking up a medium sized tray with her teeth, using her back hoof to close the cabinet.
She put the tray on the counter next to the bag of frozen fries and looked back and forth between the two, wondering just how she’d be able to get the fries actually ONTO the tray. She continued trying to solve this fry puzzle before she turned her head to the sound of multiple hooves against the floor, heading to the direction of the kitchen.
Twilight instantly knew who was creating the sound and ran to the door, seeing it swing open to reveal her friends, Spike in front of them as they pushed him forward in their mini stampede to Twilight.
“Twilight!” They all cried out.
“Girls!” Twilight said back to them, smiling warmly as they all wrapped their hooves around each other, Twilight slightly saddened at the notable absence of Pinkie Pie in the group. The girls broke the hug, all with warm and soft smiles. Twilight noticed something about Rainbow, something strange. She had a weird look in her eyes, as if she had something on her mind.
“We were all wonderin if ya’ll would like ta come with us ta go to a restaurant? We can all grab a bite ta eat at yer favorite place Twi!” Applejack said, Spike nodding and smiling widely.
“Really? Well that sounds like a wonderful idea!” Twi said, “I haven’t talked to your girls in forever! Now let’s go!”
Twilight turned and used her magi-Right... Right... She walked over to the tray and bit her teeth on it’s edges, carrying it over to the drawer, which Spike opened for her as he put the food away.
“Now let’s go! I’m starving!” Spike said, a big smile still on his face, Twilight rolling her eyes with a soft smile of her own.
Spike jumped up again, grabbing onto Twilight’s back and climbing up on and sitting down as she walked with the rest of the girls out of the castle.
Trixie ran a hoof through her mane as she looked at her reflection in the mirror, seeing her hoof travel through her disheveled mane that was pointing in several directions like a spiked ball. She sighed softly and used her magic to surround the purple brush in front of her with a light blue aura, picking it up and lifting it to her, straighten her mane with the brush.
She winced slightly as the brush tugged at the knots that were in her hair, pulling harder as her mane straightened out. She heard her door open as somepony entered, looking into the mirror she saw that it was Biashara walking in, looking around with that same dumb look Trixie always saw on his face, the one the she knew meant he was confused about what he was looking at.
“Trixie.” He said, the mare rolling her eyes and scoffing at the zebra stallion, looking to the mirror still as she put the brush down, her mane now back down to it’s natural state.
“What do you want Biashara? I’m busy preparing for the press conference. Twilight Sparkle comes back and all of a sudden all of the businesses in Equestria are expected to make a response about it.” Trixie said, turning her head left and right to see all sides of her, making sure everything was just right for the conference.
“I just came by to ask if you had asked the others about-”
“I’ll ask them in my own damn time Biashara!” Trixie shouted back to the stallion, “I have to get the bucking press of my flank before I can contact the others.”
“Are you sure they will be happy with waiting for a progress update?” Biashara said, raising an eyebrow with a cocky smile, to which Trixie just scoffed and rolled her eyes.
“They can all deal with waiting. I need to deal with this first before we can do anything. And I’m sure the leader of our little group will definitely be rather pissed that you let our prized asset slip right around your hooves!” Trixie spat back to Biashara.
He didn’t respond, how could he? He knew that insulting Trixie to her face would just result in him getting replaced by somepony else while he ended up dead at the bottom of the ocean. In this operation you were required to talk greatly about the higher ups. No matter how they acted.
“Besides, we have our findings.” Trixie curled her lips into a malicious grin, Biashara knew this grin. He’d seen her make this grin several times before as she discussed their previous plan.
“Are you sure our findings will help us?” Biashara asked.
“Oh yes, Twilight Sparkle herself made them. So it’s only a matter of waiting. Waiting for my team to piece her little robot suit back together, and then create more of them. Sparkle Industries will never know what hit them.” Trixie said, holding her grin as she stood from her chair, trotting to the door and opening it, looking back to the stallion.
He slowly nodded and walked to the door, giving her one last glance before trotting out, heading for the nearest exit to the building.
Trixie used her magic to take her DragonFireDroid out from her dress, scorning that she was resorted to use her enemy company’s tech to help her with her plans. She quickly swiped the screen with her hoof and entered her password, seeing her new message and opening it, grinning widely as she saw the picture message of her scientists standing in front of the finding. A giant, titanium suit. The one Twilight had used.
Trixie nodded softly, grinning still as she tucked her Droid back into her dress, walking down the hallway until she reached a pair of doors, an earth pony waiting there to open them for her, revealing a large room filled with ponies, several flashing their camera lights as rest had their notepad’s and quills ready, the unicorn’s holding them in their magical grasp as the pegasai and earth ponies used what Trixie immediately recognized as Twilight’s very own body arms.
Looking at the parts that wrapped around the body, Trixie felt her blood boil upon seeing Sparkle Industries’ very own logo of each of the destroyed Elements of Harmony.
Don’t worry, Twilight, Trixie thought, moving past the crowd to a large, wooden podium, You’ll get yours.