Starlight was asleep along with her friends who were still trapped and locked away. The unicorn had cried herself to sleep feeling helpless. Her closest friend had turned on them in order to bring back the deceased Rainbow. Starlight knew it was impossible to bring back the dead, and even if it was possible it could have dangerous consequences.
As Starlight dreamed of being free and being with all her friends in Ponyville again, a mysterious shadow came over her. The mysterious being took a hold of the lock and opened it slowly. Starlight woke up to the sound of the lock falling on the floor and saw the mysterious tall figure opening the locks on the rest of her friends. On closer inspection the unicorn soon realized who it was. It was Spike.
"Spike? What are you-"
The teenage dragon covered her mouth and shushed her.
"Shh. We have to hurry before she comes back."
When Spike finished opening the last lock the ponies looked at him with confusion. Out of anger, Discord grabbed the dragon by the throat.
"Why did you lock us up?!"
"Quiet!" Spike said trying to break free. "We don't want to get any unwanted attention. Please, let go of me so that I can explain!"
Discord let go of him and Spike coughed trying to catch his breath again.
"Twilight has gone mad. She is not he same anymore and you must save her from that crystal. With that power she will bring Equestria to ruin! And all she needs is you, all of you."
Starlight walked up to Spike and put her hoof on his shoulder, "What do you mean?"
"She's not trying to bring back Rainbow Dash. When Twilight found that crystal and the book that was with it she started seeing and hearing things. When I went to check up on her she said for me to get out because she was having a private conversation with Rainbow Dash. Her best friend. She's crazy and you have to stop her by getting away as far as you can from her! She wants your souls so that she can gain enough power to completely change Equestria into her image! Please! You have to run away!"
Starlight saw tears pouring out of his eyes and her eyes started to water as well.
"But, Spike. We can't leave you! You have to come with us!"
"No, if I go then I'll put you all in more danger. You have to all go by yourselfs! I know Discord will protect you."
"But, where will we go?"
Spike sighed, "You have to split up. Go different directions so that you can confuse Twilight. She will never find you if your disorganized. And you know how she is..."
Spike started pouring out tears and sobbing as quietly as he could, "I just want my Twilight back."
Starlight hugged Spike as long as she could and Spike hugged her back.
"We're going to come back for you, Spike. One way or the other."
Spike smiled and remembered something. He whispered to Starlight so that no one else would hear, "Starlight. You have to promise to keep this to yourself only."
The unicorn nodded and Spike continued, "Go to the Crystal Empire! There you will meet Cadance along with secret allies that are part of the Resistance in stopping Twilight. You must go there only. You could danger the others if Twilight goes there. Please promise me that you will head there by yourself?"
Starlight slowly nodded and Spike got up, wiping the tears from his eyes.
The dragon closed his eyes and smiled, "I know that we will all be free one day, enjoying the nice summer days, having good laughs. But today, we must separate. Discord, do you think you have enough strength to teleport all of them away from this place?"
Discord nodded, "I believe I have enough for just one teleport. And I apologize for my behavior."
Spike couldn't help but chuckle, "No apology is needed. I should've guessed that you would have done that anyway."
Spike slowly turned around and walked away when Starlight stopped him, "Spike?"
The young dragon turned to his friend who smiled at him. "Please take care of yourself."
Spike smiled back, "Don't worry about me. I'll try and stall Twilight as long as I can. Goodbye my friends."
Spike then left the room.
"Discord?" Starlight said, "Are you ready?"
The draconequus nodded and snapped his fingers and teleported away. They just so happened to teleport right in the Everfree Forest. When they all calmed down Starlight suggested that they be separated with the pony the came with. Pinkie Pie went with Cheese Sandwich, Rarity with Sweetie Belle, Applejack with Apple Bloom, and Fluttershy with Discord. Starlight then told Scootaloo to go with Fluttershy and Discord.
"Why?" She asked and Starlight simply responded, "Because I have to go somewhere alone. Please stay with them, you'll be safer."
Scootaloo nodded and walked over to Fluttershy. Applejack sighed, "Well, I guess this means goodbye."
Pinkie Pie nodded and let out a smile, "No. This isn't goodbye. Let's just say, see you later."
They all then gathered around and hugged each other as if it was their last. After a few minutes they departed, each going a different way. Starlight looked behind her to see her friends leaving and gave them a small smile, "Yeah, see you later." Starlight then started heading to the Crystal Empire. It was going to be a long walk.
***
After two hours of walking, Starlight felt lost. She was still in the Everfree Forest and very tired from walking. Those chains that kept her didn't help at all, they drained her of her power to teleport and she didn't know when her magic would come back. She started feeling dizzy and her vision was getting blurred. Out of exhaustion, Starlight fainted and fell to the ground, breathing heavily. Before she blacked out she saw a figure of a pony walking towards her. The pony seemed to be wearing something on their head and a cape? The pony seemed...familiar. Before she could figure out who it was she completely passed out.
***
Starlight slowly opened her eyes and groaned feeling pain all over her body. Though in pain she felt warm, she looked down and saw a blanket over her. But, it wasn't a blanket. It's was a purple cape with blue and yellow stars on it. Starlight looked around and found that she was inside a small home. Starlight looked to her right and saw a hat that had the same design as the cape.
"Wait a minute," Starlight said finally realizing what was going on.
"Oh you're awake! I'm glad my great and powerful friend is alright."
Starlight looked up and saw the familiar face of Trixie Lulamoon.
"Trixie?"
The magician ran up to Starlight and hugged her best friend. Starlight couldn't help but laugh, "How long has it been?"
Trixie let go of her and Starlight saw her eyes water a little bit.
"It's been years, Starlight. I'm just glad I found you when I did! You would've perished without your Great and Powerful friend."
Starlight couldn't help but laugh and hugged her best friend.
"What are you doing here in the Everfree?"
"Well what were you doing alone?"
"Good point. I was going to the Crystal Empire because Spike told me there were secret allies and spies there. They could probably help me stop Twilight. What were you doing?"
Trixie had a surprised look on her face and she started laughing. Starlight was dumbfounded and asked, "What are you laughing about? What's so funny?"
Trixie stopped and smiled at her best friend.
"Oh, Starlight! I'm one of those secret spies! I came here because one of our spies told us that there was a plan on rescuing some ponies that were being held hostage in Hysteria's dungeon. When I heard that one of the ponies was you I volunteered to go and here I am!"
Starlight started laughing too, "Now isn't that something? To be honest I didn't expect you to be a spy. Not judging but you had some ups and downs when you and I first met."
"Yeah, but over the past years I've been learning more about friendship and a few magic tricks. Wanna see?"
"Sure!" Starlight said, anticipated about what her trick would be. Trixie circled her hoofs and after a few seconds pulled out a piece of paper out of nowhere. Starlight clapped her hooves together, amazed.
"You're right! You have improved both ways! But if you don't mind me asking, what is on that paper?"
Trixie gave her the paper and Starlight read the title of the spell out loud.
"Magic Regenaration Spell?"
"Well yeah, I saw that you didn't use your magic to teleport to the Crystal Empire so I figured you simply were drained of them. If you don't mind I'll do the spell for you."
Trixie took the paper and followed the spell correctly and after a few seconds Starlight felt stronger. She got up from where she sat and checked to see if her magic was back by levitating her friend.
"Hey, I guess you're right! You have improved!"
"Hey! Put me down!"
Starlight put the magician down and couldn't help but laugh. Trixie also let out a smile and started laughing too. After a minute of laughing their flanks off Starlight asked her best friend a rather important question.
"So, are we going to teleport to the Crystal Empire or walk on hoof?"
"We could teleport there easily and I'd like to save my energy. But why rush? Let's get some rest, I'm exhausted from all the traveling."
"Sure thing!" Starlight said giving Trixie her cape and hat back. "Here, you'll probably need this for tomorrow."
Trixie smiled as she took her costume back, "Thanks, the cape does really fit with your fur though."
***
Meanwhile, a very upset queen paced back and forth as Spike watched her ponder. She was just told that her friends had escaped somehow and that Spike was knocked out when it happened. Twilight, or Hysteria, kept on trotting back and forth in her beautiful purple royal robe.
"I just don't know what happened, your highness, " Spike managed to say while in fear of what the queen might do. "They just escaped without a trace! We don't have any witnesses of them escaping. And we don't know how they-"
"Silence." The queen said sharply and the teenage dragon stopped and waited for what Hysteria would say next.
"There's no need to be so hard on yourself. You were knocked out, you couldn't have possibly seen anything. But, I do know how they could've escaped. It must have been Discord or even Starlight, they've both been better at magic than I was. Perhaps I made the wrong spell for those chains? I was pretty sure that they were strong enough to hold even an alicorn, I guess I was wrong. No matter, what we need to worry about is this small-tiny issue. HOW THE TARTARUS ARE WE GOING TO FIND THEM?!" The queen turned and yelled at her second-in-command with fury in her eyes.
Spike backed up, afraid of what she could do to him.
"I don't know, your highness. But I think we're taking this too far. Do we really need souls for whatever kind of crazy plan you have?"
The queen grabbed Spike by the throat with her magic and clenched her teeth. The queen pulled him towards her so that his eyes were meeting hers, all he could see in his friend now was anger.
"Don't insult my plans again, Spike! You wouldn't want anything to happen to you now would you?"
Spike nodded and Hysteria let him go. Spike dropped to the floor holding his neck and trying to catch his breath. The queen then stopped for a moment and smiled, "Lightbulb!"
"W-what?" Spike turned to her and the queen just laughed, "I'll just form alliances all over Equestria so that I can have more ground covered in finding those idiots! Flash!"
Hearing his name being called, the orange pegasus quickly trotted towards her queen and saluted her.
"Yes your highness?"
"Flash, I need you and a couple of guards to go to the different kingdoms of and give them this decree."
Twilight a piece of paper and wrote in nice hoofwriting her order. She gave it to Flash to read and he turned to her, "What if they refuse?"
The queen simply smiled, "If they don't obey, any citizen, they'll be killed and shown no mercy!"
Flash saluted and started heading for the door when he stopped in his tracks. He turned to the queen and asked one more question, "Is there any special place you want me to go?"
The queen used her magic to create another piece of paper and wrote on it. She gave it to her trustworthy Captain and said, "Yes, the Crystal Empire. I want you to go there only and pay our dear Goddess of Love a visit. Be sure to give her the note I've given you, just say it's from Hysteria. She'll know who it's from."
Flash Sentry saluted once more and left the room. The queen turned towards her window where she could see all of Ponyville and sighed.
"Throughout my entire life I have faced many great enemies, but I never would have imagined that my greatest enemies were my closest friends. I mean, I invite them to my kingdom after ten years for what?! So they could bring me down?! No! It's them. It's their fault. It's their fault she's d...What am I supposed to do, Spike? We lost our closest friend because of those stupid ponies! They're all idiots! Princess Celestia and Princess Luna thought they knew how to rule their kingdom, well they forgot one very important thing: power! I need more."
Spike couldn't help hearing this anymore, "Listen to yourself, Twili-"
"Be still! It's Hysteria. Queen Hysteria. Princess Twilight was weak. With this power I will renew Equestria! Yes. I will build a better world!!!"
The Queen then started singing to herself, "Feel that donation. Annihilation. The power of my words, kills any nation. Sweet degradation. Politics invasion. Give me the power, to save generation!"