Tales Through the Mirror: Twilight Sparkle and the Defender of the Realm

by FancyFan

Aside 3: As the Day Ends

Canterlot Palace Throne Room

Sunset walked into the room, her head held low.

Celestia, seated on her throne going over some paper worked looked down on her student and friend in concern. "Sunset? Whats the matter?"

Sunset sighed. "It appears we've been duped."

"Duped? What do you mean?"

"I just got a message from Lieutenant Shake Spear. He, Shining Armor and the other Twilight Sparkle had gotten to the room where the elements were kept, when a squad of changelings dropped out of the sky and attacked. Rather than held Shake Spear fight them off, Twilight and Shining Armor joined the changelings, then after Shake Spear was subdued, they took the Elements and teleported away."

Celestia gasped. "What? I don't believe this. Shining Armor would never collaborate with changelings."

"I don't think he did willingly." Sunset replied. "I think he was brainwashed again. From what Shake Spear said he kept ranting about protecting his sister. And as for the other Twilight, we may have to reconsider her being a caballunculus. The way I see it, the changelings managed to get the information about Luna out of one of the thestral elders somehow. And they then came across the Elements in one of the few books you said that actually mention."

"I don't know. To many parts of that don't make sense. Why not just go after the elements directly? Why leave Shake Spear alive? Why capture Shining Armor in such a roundabout manner?"

"I don't know either Princess. What I do know is that we now have Shining Armor running around with a another pony who may be in league with the changelings, and in possession of the most powerful artifacts ever. At the very least, we need to capture them."

Celestia sighed tiredly. "This is the last thing we needed. My ambassadors to the griffins are being turned away and it looks more and more like war is on the horizon."

Sunset looked up at the Princess with a small grin. "Hey. We'll get through this just like we always do. We got through the return of Nightmare Moon and the Changeling Queen's invasion together, we'll get through this to. I'll go get the guards looking for them and get Spell Circle to whip a tracking circle to find them. I doubt the brought them back to the hive, they have to know that we have Shining Armor's magical signature on file and can find him pretty much anywhere. But if there stupid and did, well then we'll have finally found them. You go work on the griffins, and get some rest. And maybe some cake, you really need it."

Celestia smiled back. "Thank you. I honestly don't know what I'd do without you"

Both grinned wider. Times were growing dark, but so long as they had each-other, they new things would turn out ok.

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Meanwhile: The Iron Aerie, capital of the Griffin Empire

Emperor Steel Claw the Third sat on his throne, two massive armored guards standing beside him, and regarded the robed pony who stood before him with a cautious gaze. He couldn't see any part of her, and the way the hood of the cloak robe was draped prevent even the color of her eyes from showing through. "You are sure that the plan must be enacted now? You assured me we had weeks left to prepare."

The cloaked pony sighed. "Unfortunately even I can't plan for everything. I have received word that Equestria has begun gathering the Elements of Harmony, and that one, perhaps two of the six Bearers have already been located. It is only a matter of time before the rest are. We must act now if we are to succeed."

Steel Claw tapped his talons on the arm rest of his throne. "You speak of these Elements of Harmony. But I have never heard of them. What can some trinkets, which haven't even been recorded in the history books, be a threat to my army, especially when backed by the enchantments and weapons you have provided."

The pony standing before him chuckled darkly. "They have been recorded actually, though I will give you that they are not in the common books. But there effects have been, surely you know of Nightmare Moon and Discord?"

Steel Claw glared. "Of course, even chicks know there names, but, what do they....No, you cant mean that these 'Elements of Harmony' where what defeated them?"

"They were. Against such power that even Discord was cowed in a single stroke, what hope do your armies, however grand they may be, have? And that was when the Elements where wielded by only one or two ponies. When wielded by the full six Bearers, they are much more powerful. We need to move now."

Steel Claw tapped his talons again. "I have no real reason to disbelieve you. Your help is the only reason we now stand at the verge of conquering Equestria. But I remain cautious; I know next to nothing about you, only that you are a highly skilled sorceress, and that you have sources high in the Equestrian military. And to only bring up these Elements now, it raises suspicions that you are deliberately keeping me in the dark."

The robed pony stood in silence for a while, as if pondering Steel Claw's words. "A fair point Emperor Steel Claw. I regret now not mentioning the Elements, but I thought I taken sufficient steps to prevent there involvement long ago. As for who I am, well, I'm not ready to reveal that yet, but I swear to you on my magic that I would like nothing else but to see Celestia removed from the throne. I suppose you will just have to accept that."

"Very well." Steel Claw sighed. "I haven't known this long, I suppose in light of our past relationship I can remain in the dark for a while longer. But how do you propose that my troops in place at the speed you demand? Thousands of soldiers would have to be teleported, and not even you have that kind of power."

For the first time since he had began working with the mysterious pony, she raised her head. A cyan colored flash of magic went of, and in short order, two cracks of displaced air and bursts of the same cyan magic went of on either side of her as two identical robed ponies teleported into the throne room, completely bypassing the wards on the location that had been payed for by generations of Griffin Emperors. The three spoke in unison. "That's where your wrong. I do have that kind of power."

Steel Claw merely stared in shock.

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Meanwhile: Canterlot Palace Gardens

Discord was bored. This wasn't anything new. Which, as he though about it, only made being board worse. Being board every now and then was ok, cause it was a change of pace. And he rather enjoyed change. But he had been board for over a thousand years now, and boredom had gotten, well boring, really quickly. The last time he hadn't been board was when Moonbut had thrown a temper tantrum and Sunbut had used the Elements on her. The expenditure of power then had given him a split second of blessed awareness and control. But then the elements had gone idle again and it was back to rocky sameness.

He couldn't feel, he couldn't taste or smell, and he could barely see and hear. Not like there was much to see. Stupid Sunbut kept her gardens the same way, and only the season changed them. And the season were sooo slow. Who thought changing them only four times a year was a good plan? How about......forty two? Yeah, that seemed like a good number of times to have them change. At least for a little while. And of course the order would have to change. The same thing over and over again was just so boring.

While he was pondering better ways to have the season rotate, something happened. The seal weakened just a tad, an infinitesimal sliver, and just for a moment. Not as much as when Sunbut had sent Moonbut rocketing into space, though perhaps for a tad longer, but it was something. Had one of the Elements been activated? Huh. Maybe if they all got activated sometime in the near future he'd have the opportunity to test what he thought had been a weakness in the seal he'd since last time all the Elements had gotten used. It hadn't been much of a weakness, but if he could wedge something in there when it opened again perhaps he'd be able to start draining some power from the outside. He'd just have to wait and see.

Discord mentally groaned. He hated waiting. Oh hey, was that Sunbut Jr? What was she doing her? Oh yeah, reinforcing the 'Don't go near the King of Chaos' wards. Those were going to cause some trouble if he manage to crack open the seal weren't they. Hard absorb chaos from ponies if they didn't get near you. Dangit.

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Meanwhile: A clearing in the Everfree forest

Crypsis took a long breath to collect herself. She was an infiltrator, not a guard or a soldier, fighting wasn't her thing. Still, she hadn't had a choice in the matter. She had tailed Twilight Sparkle as ordered, since the Queen wanted her captured. It had gotten a bit dicey when the earth pony Nightguard seemed to notice they were being stalked. She had gotten lucky, a manticore was nearby, and she had been able to influence it enough to get it to attack the trio to deflect suspicion from her. She didn't want to think about how close that had come to going wrong, if Shining Armor hadn't deflected the stinger tail, Twilight would have died, and Crypsis then may as well just killed herself to spare the Queen the trouble. The Queen wanted Twilight, and anyling who messed that up was as good as dead.

Her panic over that was nothing to what came next. The trio had reached the castle in the middle of the forest, and Twilight and Shining Amor had gone inside. With no way to get closer without getting spotted, Crypsis had merely watched from the tree-line, relying on the fact that the Nightgaurd had stayed outside to mean that Twilight would be coming back. She hadn't been expecting him to pull out a firesending jar, a letter, and what looked to be a crystal teleport beacon designed as am aid for long range teleportation. He had stuck the letter in the jar an not a moment latter the most hated enemy of the Hive had appeared. Sunset Shimmer, she who had dared to inflict such grievous wounds on the queen.

She had followed the two in the air, glad that the castles dilapidated state allowed her to keep an eye on them through holes in the roof. In short order they had stopped at the door to a room with some large thing in the middle. When Sunset had unleashed a gout of the same hated fire that had burnt the Queen near to death at the pony the Queen wanted, Crypsis had panicked. She got into position for a dive bomb as quickly as she could, and then did her best.

It had been a blur from then on, dodging the Nightguard's swings, a sense of relief as she heard the crack of the target teleporting to safety, fear and adrenaline as the gout of flame was turned on her and she barely managed to fly away in time. Now she was safe though, or as safe as the Everfree ever got. She would tell the Queen what she had seen, and her saving the target from getting burnt to death would outweigh the fact that she had lost her.

Crypsis took another deep breath, and then teleported back to the hive in a wash of green flame.

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A little bit later: The Changeling Hive, Queen Chrysalis's quarters.

Chrysalis mulled over the information Crypsis had given her. Despite having lost Twilight, the infiltrator had performed admirable, even going up against Sunset and getting away with it despite having no prior combat experience. Better yet, Sunset had actually tried to kill Twilight. The though made her giddy, it was like they were trying drive Twilight into her hooves.

She turned to her everpresent advisor. "Tympanal, order all changeling's in the field to be on a lookout for Twilight and Shining Armor, focusing on the outskirts of the country and the less populated towns, and have a team best of our on standby to teleport to them when they are found."

Tympanal nodded. "And they are to captured once found, yes?"

"No." Chrysalis shook her head, "Or at least not as first resort. They are bound to be scared and confused, now that there so called 'Defender' had turned on them. Offer them our sanctuary and aid. We do share a common enemy know don't we? And that does make as allies. Perhaps it is best if we play this honestly."

Tympanal bowed. "As you say my queen." He then left to the room.

Author's Note:

I am on a roll! Look at that, another chapter already. And with some explanation for why Discord isn't free.

Comments

[ForSpite]

I guess I was too quick to dismiss the obvious. You're still writing "to" even when you want "too" here.

[FancyFan]

5296171
Yeah. I didn't go over these as much as I usually do. I guess I was just so relieved to finally have them finished that I posted without review. I'll probably go over them tommorow, when the intent writing is less fresh in my mind.

[SageBrony07]

Wow. I think Sunset, set some of these event in motion. Especially those with the Griffion empire. I don't know for sure though. The next chapter may help. I may suggest Derpy for a possible element of laughter though. She is nice.