The four mares approached the meteorite to find several changeling guards standing around it with some large tools - the large rock itself had been pried open to reveal a rather roomy interior.
At first the guards tried to restrain them, but Minuette came out and let them go. She… was not herself. She looked at them with a smile of course - but it was a forced smile, and she didn’t say anything beyond “Mom would like to see you.”
Rainbow Dash led the way into the meteorite, barely pausing to look around. The interior looked exactly like a cave would, except in the center there was a swirling magical glow with several displays appearing and disappearing.
Chrysalis was standing next to the swirling displays, examining them closely. “I don’t understand this tongue…” She muttered. “That’s… unheard of. I know every tongue - even Cadenza and Ancient!”
Applejack waved at Chrysalis to grab her attention. “Er… Your highness?”
“Ah yes, I had a feeling you would come here.” She sighed. “I take it the Tower has fallen because the Water Crystal has shattered?”
Rarity nodded. “I am sorry, the Crystal had too much stress put upon it. Even though we stopped the.. thing.. from destroying it, it suffered too much.”
Chrysalis and Minuette drooped, a harrowed look in their eyes. Minuette spoke up. “Waters are going to stop flowing, the sea life will stagnate and die. There will be no more flooding or tides. There will just be lifeless ocean.” Her mile was completely gone. “Our entire kingdom is going to fall - we used the water not only for our changelings, but also it is our major physical food source. Do you have any idea how much fish we eat?”
Chrysalis sighed. “The waters will provide for us a little while longer Minuette - it will take longer than a few days for the oceans to lose all their life. We have a month or two. That’s enough time to prepare.” She turned to the four mares. “And you need to get to Solamane quickly. I’d offer you my royal dragons, but Celestia has a habit of shooting them down with her fire cannons.”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “That won’t be necessary. The Crystal told us that the way to Solamane was in this meteorite.” She trotted up to the swirling displays. “…What on earth is this?”
Pinkie grinned. “Is’t it obvious? It’s a control console!” Everyone stared blankly at the pink pony as she raised her hoof and touched a few of the displays. “All we have to do is… viola!”
Suddenly, a swirling vortex of magical energy appeared in the rear of the meteorite - or ship - beckoning the mares. Pinkie grinned. “I’m betting that leads right to Solamane!”
Applejack and Rarity exchanged glances. They weren’t sure they liked what this knowledge of Pinkie’s suggested about the pink mare.
“Come on! It’ll be fun!” Pinkie said, giggling.
Chrysalis frowned. “I can’t shake the feeling I know you from somewhere Pinkie…”
Pinkie shrugged. “Eh, I don’t know. I have no memories.”
“Then how did you…”
“Silly Chrysalis, just because I have no memories doesn’t mean I don’t know how to do things.” She giggled. “Now, Warriors of Light! Let us journey onward into the great swirling portal of fun!”
There were no objections. The four mares waved goodbye as they stepped through the portal. The experience was unusual - they felt as their bodies were ripped apart molecule by molecule, and yet somehow there was no pain. They felt a strange coldness overcome them as colors flashed across their minds, imprinting them with a feeling of being rushed to a location faster than was normally possible. They walked out of the portal the same way they had entered - except a little disoriented.
Rarity shook her head. “My word that was… interesting.”
“Ah’ll say.” Applejack muttered, shaking her head.
Rainbow Dash smirked. “What’s wrong? Can’t handle a little teleporting?”
The two mares were about to respond when Pinkie charged past them and frantically looked around. “This looks exactly the same!”
Sure enough, they were in an identical interior - complete with control console and broken-open doorway. The only difference was that Chrysalis, Minuette, and the changelings were nowhere to be seen.
“So…” Applejack said as she trotted outside to see a completely different location - a large grassland with no ocean in sight. In the distance she saw a forest and what she thought might be the tip of the Solamane castle she had heard so much about. “Here we are. Ah suppose that actually worked.”
Rarity blinked. “Huh. I didn’t really expect it to.” She adjusted her crown as she got her bearings. “I know where we are… Solamane castle and Uniforge are that way. You can see the tip of the spire.”
“Well then let’s gooooo!” Pinkie said, trotting along, a skip in her step.
The other mares rolled their eyes and followed the pink bundle of energy.
Rainbow Dash dragged along behind, mind preoccupied with recent events…
~~~
Solamane Castle stood tall and powerful, daring anything to come attack it. The spires were pearly white and lit with eternal flames, and the central tower was so bright it was named the Second Sun. Around the Castle was the city of Uniforge, the largest populated area in the world. Great fiery power surged through the entire city, giving it a red glow and the power required to make the legendary Mythril armor Uniforge was known for. A great wall surrounded the city, but the gates were open at the moment since Solamane was at peace - though the gigantic fire cannons stood at the ready to incinerate any beasts that came near the city. It was the heart of an industrial nation, powered almost solely by the Fire Crystal and the machine that drew power from it.
On the wide River Sunbeam that ran off to the side of the city there stood a giant metal ship with two large cylindrical devices attached to it. Most ponies who visited Uniforge would first ask what the heck the ship was.
Not the four heroes though - instead they had a different question.
“CAN YOU HURRY UP AND TORCH THIS BIRD???” Rainbow Dash yelled at the top of her lungs as she tossed fire spell after fire spell at the tremendous winged creature attacking them. Rainbow Dash was doing her best to keep the bird away from her friends - but it just shrugged off most of the damage she was doing to it. “YOU HAVE GIANT FIRE CANNONS!”
From the wall, a unicorn yelled through a megaphone. “YEAH, BUT WE’LL HIT YOU BIRD-BRAIN!”
“OH I’M SORRY AM I IN YOUR WAY?”
“JUST FLY AWAY FROM THE ZU AND WE’LL TAKE CARE OF IT.”
“FINE!” Rainbow Dash yelled, flapping to gain altitude. The Zu took it’s giant eyes off of Rainbow Dash and turned to the three mares running away from it on the round.
“WHYYYY DOES IT HAVE TO BE A BIIIIIIRD???” Rarity whined.
Pinkie giggled. “Because it’s fun?”
Applejack groaned. “Y’all have quite the interesting idea of fun…”
Before they could continue the conversation, the fire cannons activated. A torrent of swirling flame shot from the Uniforge wall, completely engulfing the Zu, turning even the bones of the large avian to ash.
Pinkie cheered, spreading her hooves wide. Shiva appeared next to her, as did a large albino chocobo.
Applejack slowly turned to Pinkie. “Pinkie… You can summon a chocobo?”
“Apparently!” Pinkie said, giggling.
“That would have been mighty helpful right there!”
“Yeah. It would have.” Shiva said as she began tending to her nails.
Applejack narrowed her eyes at Shiva. “What are you good for anyway? You were pretty useless against that ‘Zu’ thing.”
Shiva shrugged. “I can freeze things that aren’t that big. And provide companionship, though I don’t think any of you’d be interested in that.”
“I LIKE FRIENDS!” Pinkie said, grinning.
Shiva rolled her eyes at Pinkie’s cluelessness. “Proving my point…” She sighed. “You really need to get some guys in your little group.”
Applejack facehooved. “Yeah no. Let’s just get into town and ask to see Queen Celestia. It can’t be that hard…”
Rarity nodded. “All we have to do is get to a guard who recognizes me…”
“HEY! I RECOGNIZE YOU!”
Rarity blinked, turning around to see a guard. “Well that was oddly easy…”
To her surprise, the voice didn’t come from the guard, but some random civilian he was with. “I saw these mares crawl out of the meteorite! The same one the griffon came out of!”
The guard glared at the four of them. “Griffon sympathizers eh?”
“Don’t be absurd!” Rarity said. “Griffons are vicious creatures that should never be associated with! I would never-“
“Tell it to the judge.” The guard said, pointing his spear at them.
Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. “You really think you can take us?”
“No. But me and my thirty friends can.” The guard responded, directing them to the thirty or so guards standing around them.
Rainbow Dash looked ready to fight, but Applejack held up a hoof. “Sorry Rainbow, we should go with them and clear our names that way. If we fight our way out Celestia’s not going to like us.”
Rarity sighed. “I agree with Applejack… Where do you wish to take us sirs?”
~~~
“Well. We’re in Solamane Castle. That’s a good thing.” Applejack observed.
Rarity and Rainbow Dash glared at the farmpony with very unamused looks. Pinkie just smiled at her. “I appreciate your optimism Applejack.”
“What are we going to do?” Rarity asked. “We can’t rot in here while the Crystals are destroyed!”
Applejack pondered this. “I could try using my new strength to to break the cell bars…”
“Breaking out is a bad idea.” Rarity muttered. “We are in Solamane castle. As strong as we are, the Queen has some personal wizards and soldiers that could pound us.”
“Well you know we’ll have to face at least one of them eventually.” Pinkie observed.
“How could you possibly know that?” Rarity retorted.
“AAAAAAALIEN SUPERPOWERS!!!!”
Rarity and Applejack didn’t say anything in response, tired of this whole thing.
“So you mean to tell me we just have to wait here?” Rainbow Dash muttered. “This sucks.”
After a few moments of silence, Rarity’s ears perked. “I say… Does anyone hear that? It’s as if someone is shuffling around behind this wall… And a lot of magical energy too…”
All at once there was a deafening boom and the wall exploded, sanding Rarity flying. Rainbow
Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie readied themselves for anything - monster, guard, executioner.
What they did not expect to see was a purple unicorn walk into the room. She had an intelligent look about her, as well as a somewhat smaller figure. Her age seemed to be around that of Pinkie, and her cutie mark was that of a magical starburst. She looked around the cell, eyes hopeful. Then her head drooped.
“Another cell? Another cell?” She sighed. “It took a lot of magical energy to breach that wall…”
Rarity’s jaw dropped. “You… Blew it up with your magic? A wall that thick?”
The purple unicorn nodded. “Magic is my special talent - I have a lot of it to spare. Though… It’ll take me a while to prepare another spell to break another wall…” She blinked. “Who are you ponies anyway?”
Pinkie answered for everyone. “We are the Warriors of Light, heroes tasked with the protection of the Crystals! This is Princess Rarity of Trotton, Captain Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and me! Pinkie Pie the maybe-probably-an-alien-with-amnesia!”
The unicorn seemed to be taking this in. Slowly, she nodded. “I believe you. I have met Princess Rarity before… you’ve grown.” She observed.
“You’ve met me?” Rarity asked, confused. “I don’t remember you…”
“It was only briefly.” The unicorn smiled. “I was at the last diplomatic feast between Trotton and Solamane - I’m Twilight Sparkle.”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened. “Wait. You’re the one who invented these Crystal-draining machines? Do you have any idea how those devices make the Crystals vulnerable?”
Twilight drooped. “I… I only found out myself recently. I tried to get the Minister and the Queen to shut the machine off after I ran some calculations… They threw me in this cell for daring to suggest that we shut off the machine.”
“Oh.” Rarity said. “So we would have ended up in this cell anyway? Great.”
Applejack shook her head. “This can’t be the end - we have to be able to do something!”
Twilight smirked. “Well, I was planning to escape and sabotage my machine so it could never be used again. If you truly are the protectors of the Crystals… I could use some help.”
“SABOTAGE!” Rainbow Dash said, grinning. “That sounds awesome!”
Applejack smiled. “You can count on us. We can’t let any more Crystals be destroyed.”
Twilight’s eyes widened in fear. “Crystals? Multiple?”
“Yeah…” Rarity said, sighing. “The Water Crystal broke a few hours ago.”
Twilight blinked. “That’s… harrowing news. Wait. How did you get here from there so fast?”
Pinkie shrugged. “There was a portal inside the meteor that led from Morphisis to here.”
“Fascinating… I will have to study it later.” Twilight smiled. “Now, how’s about I supercharge one of you so we can escape? Who’s got the most dest-“
There was a knock at the cell door. The five mares turned to see an earth pony stallion in fancy robes. Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Minister?”
“I am sorry Twilight…” He said, head drooping. “You were right - the Fire Crystal is weakening. I was just in the room - it has a small crack. I shut down the machine at once but… Power is still being drained from somewhere!”
He opened the cell door. “Please help!”
Twilight furrowed her brow. “If the machine is turned off, then power shouldn’t even be draining unless…” Her eyes lit up. “The fire-powered ship! It has a direct conduit to the Fire Crystal!”
The Minister paled. “How… how do we turn that off?”
Twilight frowned. “Well… you could blow up the conduit, but it’s so big that it’d be hard to do… I can disable it manually from inside the ship.”
The Minister groaned. “But… the ship has been overrun with those strange dust creatures! We haven’t cleared them all out yet!”
Rainbow Dash flew out of the cell and in front of the Minister. “Well, you now have four superpowered mares offering to help you out in that regard.”
“But… you were working with the griffon…”
Twilight shook her head. “They actually came from Morphisis - there is a warp link inside the meteor to there apparently.”
“Morphisis?” The Minister narrowed his eyes. “Changelings?”
Twilight lit her horn, scanning the four mares. “No, all of them are regular ponies.”
Pinkie appeared behind the Minister. “What are we waiting for? To the fire-powered ship!”
Twilight nodded. “Come on everypony, we’ve got a Crystal to save!”
The five mares rushed out of the prison cell, rushing out of the castle’s dungeons. The Minister followed them for a while until a guard stopped him.
“The Queen is missing!”
“What?” The Minister said. “Why? Why at a time like this?”
“You take care of the Queen, Minister.” Twilight said. “We’ll take care of the ship.”
“Of course, Miss Sparkle.” The Minister left, leaving the five mares to their mission.
They left the castle and rushed to the ship, all five of them missing the griffon hiding in the shadows…