Sombra ran, like he'd never ran before with Trixie close behind. He never thought he'd be so happy to see the town of Ponyville more in his life, but first he had to get there to warn them of what was coming. He didn't know exactly what he saw at the Castle of the Two Sisters but he did know it could spell trouble for just about everypony if he was a betting stallion.
"Got to... Got to warn them! Pick up the pace!" He whispered under his breath as he ran just a bit fast ignoring the pain in his legs which was rapidly starting to grow. Pain would have to be set aside, at least for the moment. He couldn't afford distractions, not right now. Little did he know, that was exactly what Sombra was going to get.
A few moments before...
As Celestia felt her newly powered Elements of Disharmony accept her offers one by one she smirked. Together, with their combined power they would free her from her sun prison and then and only then would she be able to wage war against her accursed sister who put her their in the first place. And gathered they did, right in the middle of the throne room of her old castle. No, not her old castle she corrected herself mentally. Solar Flare's castle, that was more accurate. Her light half, which even now struggled to free itself.
"You can't win... Not by a long shot. My sister will stop you." Solar snarled mentally from the back of her mind. Celestia scoffed.
"Can't win? I'd say I already have. My Elements have been chosen." Celestia retorted arrogantly.
"And what about the other Elements? The true ones?" Solar asked and once again received a scoff.
"Them? Please. My Elements of Disharmony can handle whoever gets chosen. That is, even if the Elements are gained. I don't think they'll even see me coming." Celestia replied smirking as she did so. Her other half in frustration growled to herself. Her dark counterpart was so sure of her abilities and while she did the power to back up her words more often then not Solar still maintained that this arrogance would be Celestia's downfall.
"Don't underestimate my sister. She's dangerous... Or have you forgotten why we're here?" Solar Flare retorted, and for the moment her dark half was silenced. Solar smirked, for the time being at least a minor victory had been achieved.
The Castle of the Two Sisters: Throne Room
With flashes of light, Celestia's chosen six landed in a heap together all groaning in pain and cursing at each other. None of the six knew each other, and had only even the most of minor changes occurred in the timeline they might have been friends for life. But this timeline, as proven time and time again was not the timeline for this to happen.
"Hey, get off me you ground-hogger! You're crushing my wing! I need that wing, it's important!" A raspy voice angrily exclaimed, and a southern voice replied to it in a almost equal tone of annoyance.
"What'd you call me?" Applejack yelled before her eyes widened in recognition. "Hey, ah know you. You're one of those newfangled Wonderbolts aren't you? Y'all know nothing of real importance, what with your fancy high flying stunt tricks and all!"
"Well, I must say. This place is really dirty and needs a good cleaning to make it spick and span." Rarity said, putting in her two cents. She earned a "SHUT UP!" from Applejack and Rainbow in response before Rarity muttered to herself how a lady never shouted.
In the background, almost unheard Fluttershy whispered "We... We shouldn't fight. It's wrong!"
Pinkie began hopping around while saying to herself "A new place, what fun! Anything's better then that dusty old rock farm! Yuck!"
Twilight was the last to speak after everypony had been untangled from each other and frowned. That Celestia mare had never said anything about being teleported to a castle nor had she mentioned other ponies would be included in the deal that they made. Twilight growled to herself, there was always a catch to these sort of things. She really wanted to give Celestia a piece of her mind whenever she showed up again. Twilight's wish was soon granted.
"Hello again My Little Ponies." Celestia laughed as her almost see through form appeared. "I can only hold this form for so long so we need to talk fast."
"You're right about that." Twilight growled. "You never said anything about all of this. Now why should we help you?"
Celestia smirked.
"Because if you don't, your powers won't be yours to keep. Only I can keep recharging them. Now, let's talk business."
Now...
Sombra and Trixie were still running and not even Hell nor high water could stop them. At least, that was what they thought. A long, very eerie howl cut through the forest and Sombra stopped in his tracks. He knew that sound, for it was the sound of Timberwolves. However, Sombra's grinding to a halt was a mistake as he soon found out when a wolf pounced on him from the side with a mad glint in it's eyes. No, not just that it was fear. Something had taken control over this Timberwolf and Sombra knew it, if not what it was that cast the spell. Somra blasted the wolf to splinters with a spell from his horn but five more jumped out of the darkness. Trixie and Sombra shared a look, they knew this was far too many for them to take on alone.
But as they braced for death, it did not come. From out of the trees came a new figure, Iron Will who grabbed a wolf and punched it skywards. He wasn't alone, for Chrysalis joined him and took down two more wolves with a spell of her own. The last two were swiftly taken out by Sombra and Trixie.
"T-thanks. But where'd you guys..." Sombra trailed off before quickly correcting himself as Chrysalis coughed. "That is, I mean guy and gal come from and how'd you know we were in trouble.
"Iron Will's super senses always alert him when others are in trouble that Iron Will needs to save." Iron Will stated proudly before striking a heroic pose.
Chrysalis groaned and facehoofed.
"Actually we were taking a balloon flyover and we heard the howls." She stated while Iron Will mumbled "Couldn't have at least let me have that one could you?"
"We need to get back to Ponyville and warn them of what's coming." Sombra stated. "From what I've seen, this is only the tip of the iceberg."
The foursome quickly rushed back to Ponyville where they found they weren't the only ones aware of the crisis. In the town center, Starlight had swiftly called a meeting and was trying to warn everyone of Celestia's rapidly approaching return. However, she wasn't having much luck on that front.
"I'm telling you, Celestia is coming back and we're all in danger!" Starlight yelled, but only receive laughter and mutterings under the breath of the ponies who were listening.
"She's just a myth! A story to scare little foals from going where they don't belong!" Mr. Cake scoffed but Starlight wasn't willing to give up just yet.
"Haven't you seen the signs?" She yelled.
"What signs?" Somepony yelled. "The ramblings of a crazed pony?"
Then, Chrysalis as she and her group walked up came to Starlight's defense.
"Then if she's crazy I'm crazy as well! We were attacked by Timberwolves inside the Everfree!"
"So what?" Thunderlane shrugged. "Ponies get attacked by Timberwolves if they go into the forest. It's just bad luck."
"Bad luck?" Sombra muttered. "Bad luck my flank. You didn't see these wolves." He added, before noting all eyes were on him and he began trying to make himself as small as he could by hiding behind Chrysalis who could only sigh.
"Trixie barely escaped with her life, she did!" Trixie yelled but still nopony was convinced. Well, almost nopony. Though the creature who spoke couldn't be really called that.
"I've seen the signs alright, what with my chaos magic seemingly going out of control and all but I never really could figure out what they were until now. But this makes some real sense now that I think about it." Discord shrugged before he looked at Starlight. "Sorry for making you float by the way."
"Gee, thanks for the instant apology." Starlight replied dryly. "But if Celestia's going to be stopped we're going to need a bit more help then you bunch. Said help should have armor and pointy spears. Like I don't know, the Royal Guard or something."
"Hey, you take what you get." Discord retorted while everypony watched the two's back and forth like it was a tennis match. Trixie whispered to Chrysalis "Hey, anypony want to lay odds?" who passed her some bits.
It was then somepony else spoke up.
"Well, I'm not quite the Royal Guard but I bet I can help." The pony who in one world was known as the Mane-Iac said. "All powerful goddess taking over the world and possibly burning some ponies to a crisp? Bad for business I say."
"Okay, so it's settled. We'll all go and defeat a madmare who can kill us with solar powers. What fun!" Discord said sarcastically.
"Listen, as much as I'd like to go with you guys, I'm staying here." Trixie said. "I gotta whip up some potions to help beef up the defenses in case everything goes sour."
As the newly formed group marched back towards the Everfree Discord called "Don't worry everypony, I'll send some postcards!" and caused Starlight to groan and facehoof with this remark.
Later, at the edges of the forest...
Once again, Sombra saw the tall and darkened trees looming over him and despite being healed with a spell from Starlight felt a distinct sense of worry. He looked around and saw everypony else, even Discord seemed to share his feelings by their expressions alone.
"Okay, anypony else think this is a real bad idea?" Chrysalis muttered.