Celestial Tortures Book III: Changes

by Rarity Belle

The unlikely hero

Chrysalis just couldn't believe the terrible mess she had gotten herself into. But if there would be any help of not only saving herself but also her entire species, she had to team up with the stallion in order to stop the latest threat that the land had seen: Solarflare. Her mind just couldn't and perhaps wouldn't even understand the sheer risks that she was taking by doing the actions.

Of course could she double cross the only pony that also spoke their tongue. But that meant losing something she rather didn't say goodbye against. And that thing happened to be nothing else then a very worthy opponent. An opponent of whom she knew that she could beat in a duel of the horns because of her cunning schemes treacherous tricks. Two abilities that could become helpful in the upcoming fights for their lives.

Both Starswirl and Chrysalis knew that the battle that was about to be fought was something nothing the land had ever seen. Ponies were literally dying and each second they wasted on trying to come up with a strategy would only cost more and more. They needed to have a clear plan that wouldn't fail. But a thing like that was something that was truly easier said than done.

When both of the beings stood before the broken window, Starswirl was speaking his plan in the tongue of changelings while he kept on measuring the time they had until the dreaded twilight came. “So the best thing that we can do in my eyes is risky thing but if we both combine our magic’s during the twilight and blast at her until she’s knocked out, I can try to re-awake the real Celestia and all of it will be over before dawn.”

The plan itself and on its own sounded simply ridiculous in the ears of Chrysalis. She had her own input on the matter. Her own thoughts that required a little bit more of her own powers to be used but on the same end also had a much greater effect. “No, no, no, wizard of old, extracting the anger from her and feed it to me might cause a blackout, but she loses all of her anger. Then we can knock her out and you can perform your little tricks.”

“And you think I do not know your race? You feed of the emotions of others. It is your source of food and when consuming that pure anger she carries inside of her body, you won’t black out, queen, far from it even. You’ll become just as insanely angry as she is. Ending up with two ponies that ravage the land with everything they see in their eyes. And whose to tell that she can run out of her rage?” Starswirl replied while he rejected the plan. He knew Celestia, in a sense he knew Solarflare.

He saw what the queen was trying to do, she tried to get her own benefit out the whole mess of a situation. And why wouldn't she? Of course could he reason with her just what happened to be at stake for her but that didn't took away from the facts that the things they would be doing would be something terrible. One mistake, one slight miscalculation and the world would truly face two ponies of near equal power that were just unstoppable.

“Hmph, if your words speak the truth and my plan is indeed rubbish, then what is it that you purpose we do? Just a blind charge at her and pray for the best? Doesn't seem like her mind has gone that far back in time by the looks that were given to me. She’s a beast, a literal beast, but smart. How do you like them apples?”

That caused some worries to arise in the mind of the wizard. And every second they kept on bickering with one another, the twilight was getting closer to them. He needed more time on his hooves and knew only one way he could possibly do such a thing. “Hold on, this may get bumpy.”

“W-What do you mean? What are you planning, foal!” Chrysalis almost shouted before she caught the aura of his magic. She could only pray on the fact that it would be something good.

Though in case it wouldn't be, every one of her muscles happened to be ready to just go straight over into an attack. A devastating attack that would certainly end the life of the stallion almost instantly.

The charge kept on coming from his horn until it was finally released in one big pulsing circle. The powers that he irradiated was something that caused even Chrysalis to look up, as well as ending up getting her something in return. While he was casting the spell, there happened to be an oddly shaped green mist that left the body of the wizard and made its way over to the changeling queen.

The mare looked at it in a funny way before she just slurped it up like an everyday drink. It was the very stuff that managed to have kept her alive for all those years, raw emotions that came straight out of a pony. And the emotion she was fed with happened to be the happiness of Starswirl. Why he had given her that emotion specifically was something her mind couldn't wrap itself around.

After her little 'drink', the queen glanced to the world outside. There where the trees used to be waving in the wind, they remained in their bend position. At first she couldn't believe it and thus thought she had seen a ghost of some kind or the other. Though upon closer inspection was it revealed that time itself had actually stopped to continue forward. Time, had ceased to continue.

“W-What have you done!?” the queen asked the wizard in the normal pony tongue as she looked at him. Her wings flapped themselves a little bit and she jumped out of the way of the stallion. She assumed a stance to attack him right there and then as the venom was once again dripping from her teeth.

---

Once the cast of the stallion died down, the aura disappeared from the horn and Starswirl looked the changeling stern in the eyes. He wanted to have a plan at his side that would make sure nopony else would have been consumed by the fires. Though in order to get such a thing, he needed time. And that was just the thing he had created for the two of them.

“This won’t kill you except make you a few hours older at most. I placed the both of us in a timelock. Time around us stopped completely so we can actually figure this out while she doesn't burn down anything else. Because the both of our plans, do not seem to be cooperating with the other and from one side, only seem to benefit one individual. But go right ahead, bite my neck with your venom and kill me, at this moment in time, I’m the only one who can get us out of here.”

The tone of the stallion wasn't something that the queen had actually expected to come from him but inside of his eyes she could read him like an open book and saw that he wasn't lying the words that he spoke. But that didn't stop her urge of wanting to bite him so badly for the done deeds. “Fine,” growled Chrysalis with the venom still dripping, “purpose your offer foal and we shall go with that. Just make sure that we live to see another day!”

“Heh, oh how ironic that is going to be. Because missy, when the twilight falls upon us, the land will be shrouded in darkness and only the lights of our horns and magic, as well as her hellfire will be the only things visible. The twilight, I want to use to our advantage!” said Starswirl while he dared to make a step closer towards the changeling queen.

“And as a matter of fact, the lonely peak is in the east as well. If we can get her crazy enough to come there, we shall do everything in our might to stop here. Think about it, Chrysalis, it is her down, or the land covered in flames and only her being alive. How well does that fitted inside of your little revenge plan, eh!?”

There he got her cornered like a mouse. All the words that he spoke to her were like a sledgehammer on a wall. Pieces of stone were carved clean off of it and the queen simply didn't know on how to return from all of his words. There was nothing that came to that brain of hers with the exception of one little thing and that was to agree upon it. Even though she didn't wanted to it was better than ending up in flames. “Have it your way, foal,” she hissed towards the stallion as a strand of venomous saliva started to drip out of her mouth and travel down to the ground.

“Before we go, I want to have a truce between just the two of us.”

“That wasn't part of our deal!”

“I am calling the shots around here for this one time!”

Chrysalis huffed deep towards him before another terrifying hiss was being made into his direction. Which was the clue for the fire wyvern to return it just as terrifying. The only problem happened to be that it wasn't nearly as effective as hers. “Bah! Alright then, the truce last between us until she is back to her old self. Once she has reached that state, our deal will have never existed! Now get me out of here and make sure I can beat her to pulp,” she snarled to him.

Starswirl looked over to the changeling queen with a stern look before he gave her a slow nod. “And so it be. The unlikely alliance between the changeling and the pony is being forged. Nothing in history could have even suspected it from happening now could it?”

“Quit your words and lower the lock. We have a land to save,” answered Chrysalis in a saliva dripping grin as the lust for the fight was coming to her eyes. She had a debt to settle with Solarflare and she was going to make her pay double for it.

But the thing that neither of the two knew, was the fact that she had already tried to take over the elements but even with her magic was unable to do so.

---

Meanwhile over the settlement that laid far in the east, ponies were screaming for their lives as the fiery comet dropped the blue hellfire balls straight unto houses and streets. The destruction that was being caused by her ruined not just dozens of lives, it ruined and devastated hundreds. All of the ponies were evil beings that one day could be taking over the throne if she didn't watch out. Filly, mare or aged pony, it didn't matter one bit to Solarflare. Each of them were simply unworthy to even live in her eyes. Not just stallions were being killed, mares and foals equally.

Military forces set up by the settlement consisted out of a platoon of unicorns that would try their best to shoot the mare out of the skies with their magical beams. There was uncertainty on so many things surrounding the comet but one thing was sure, somepony had to be driving it as they always could vow for the shadow of a large mare hidden inside of it. But more than that, they didn't see. Or didn't want to.

“Squad one, I need you concentrate the beams right at the comet and take it down right now!” the captain of the platoon of unicorns shouted. He looked over to the skies and feared the worst already. “Listen up man, we have about ten minutes of moonlight left before the twilight sets in. I want it down, and I want it now! Concentrate your firepower and shoot, it, down!” The captain of the platoon was a pegasus stallion who had seen the sides of war not few had witnessed and was a truly battle-hardened veteran. Little did he sadly knew, that the battle to be fought was the last one of his life.

All of the unicorn began to prepare themselves to combine their bolts in an attempt to fire one massive bolt of magic. Six horns charged themselves up all at once in different colors of aura. From red to blue, to green and yellow, all of the colors could be seen from them. “Wait for it, wait for it,” the captain muttered to himself. He kept an eye on the comet and at the right timing he lowered his hoof down. That was the signal that they needed to fire the beam.

All six of the unicorns released their charge and a massive beam of six spiraling colors was shot into the skies. The beam went straight for the comet itself and appeared to have hit it as it lost some of it’s thought trajectory. All six of the unicorns asked every bit of energy that available in their bodies before the colors one by one disappeared out of the skies.

“Good job guys, take a rest while we continue to blast it. Next six!” the captain spoke up before he turned himself back to the comet. But what his eyes happened to be seeing was everything but something good.

High in the skies was Solarflare hit by the charge and flung off of her wanted course. Though to make matters probably even worse, she was plummeting back to the land. The mare lost some of her powers and had difficulty to get herself back under control. However, she caught the captain right in her eyes and knew that it was time for something she hadn't done since her attacks began.

While she kept on trying to regain the ever so much desired control over her body, the course of which she fell, would have her ending up in a field just outside of the settlement. Though she wouldn't just drop down, she wouldn't be defeated by a rainbow like that. She was the most powerful mare in the land and would show it to everything right there and then.

The alicorn managed to get the control back over her wings and she started to pull back up to regain her flight. She ended up in a straight line again and soared just over the land below. Nothing caught a true fire but the embers were enough to leave a trail in the grass.

The unicorns that were ordered to stand their ground and actually keep on firing against her retreated for their lives at the sheer speed she was coming at them. It wasn't something that they actually preferred. It was in the moment of their retreat that the captain made his fatal mistake.

He looked back at them in the wonder where they would be going to and to scold at them for leaving the battlefield in the manner that they did. “You are cowards! You do not have the decency to stand here and fight for your homes! I should all have you executed right on the spot!” he yelled at his men while the wings spread themselves to either side of his body. He was angry for certain, but his anger was nothing compared to the rage that was coming right at him.

It was in the corners of his eyes that he caught a light that came closer and closer to him. A light that was everything but natural. In his mind did time manage to slow down. The hooves of the captain turned his body around and his eyes widened themselves at the sight that was revealed.

The comet of fire was coming right for him and there just wasn't any way he could be jumping out of the way in time. So this, is where I die, the captain thought to himself before he made a single blink with his eyes and waited for it to happen.

While the heat of the fires became stronger and stronger with each passing heartbeat, it eventually stopped as his body was being incinerated on the spot. The heat of the fires was more than enough to do it. But the last view that was given to him was one of absolute terror, the face of an enraged Solarflare. A face that one didn't wish his worst enemy to witness.

And then it was over, with the captain being burned to nothing but ashes did the alicorn of fire shot back up into the skies. All while she released a couple more balls of blue hellfire. But none of the ponies that stood in the direct surrounding of the captain cared about it. His life came to an end so abruptly like many more that night. It wouldn't be their longest day, but their longest twilight.

All of the ponies that stood under his command removed their helmet from their head and lowered their heads as the eyes were being closed. Each of them paid a minute of respect for the fallen captain in silence.

Yet they were silent while the rage of the inferno’s that were created by Solarflare kept raging on. They fed themselves with the wood from which the buildings were created. Even one of the buildings where they had been hiding not even a minute ago was hit by one of the blue balls and completely destroyed in seconds. As the sides of the building fall down and the floors collapsed one another.

Superstitious or not, each of them had to admit that the spirit of their captain was still among them. Otherwise they all would have suffered the same fate. But the plan of attack wasn't anything that they could change. There wasn't anything that they could do to stop the fires from simply going.

Then they all looked to one side of the world. All of their eyes were aimed to the west and there they saw it, the moon had lowered itself and the stars were going out one by one. “And so it begins, the longest twilight for all of us,” one of the soldiers spoke up as the light slowly disappeared and all they could see, was the comet in the skies and the fires it had created. “Let us pray for a miracle.”

---

Just before the moon had lowered itself completely had both Starswirl and Chrysalis teleported themselves into the room where the elements of harmony were being stored as the stallion was certain to find clues of what had happened to the alicorn on that very spot. It had to be, it would be the only way in his eyes.

Chrysalis on the other end found it all a waste of time and rather just went right for her. But once again had Starswirl kept her on a tight leash. Meaning that she had to be dragged along for the ride, even if she didn't wanted it. With time running short on their side, the changeling queen simply dropped her body right down on the floor as she let him do the work for her.

The horn of the stallion charged itself up as the eyes closed themselves. Little did she knew what he tried to do and even less did she actually care about it. A yawn came from her side before the forelegs were crossed over one another and the head lowered. She was trying to save her strengths for the big finale that was about to come but whether or not she would be prepared for it would be something that was another question.

“Come on, come on,” groaned Starswirl to himself. He increased the charge of his own just a little bit more, “you two never failed me before so why would you this time?” The eyes had closed themselves completely from the world as his mind started to wander into the dreamscape. The very realm in which Celestia gave her powers over to her counterpart.

And it was there, where the stallion himself felt the hoof being placed on his shoulder. It was a warm hoof that caught him off guard and his eyes opened up. He had no idea of just what he could be expecting to see but was greeted by the very thing that he wished to see. And the being the face of Celestia’s mother.

“Oh words can not express just how glad I am to see you again dear,” said Starswirl at her in a sigh of utmost relief. “I just, I just need to know what happened here when Celestia came. Every, last, detail, is what I need to be knowing. Without that knowledge, I’m going in blind.”

“That what you seek, old friend, is something to bring my daughter back, don’t you?” Mother asked him. He gave only a nod in response. It were his honest words as there wasn't any point in lying against the mare that stood before him. “Then so it be, turn around and see for yourself, the moment that changed our sweet Tia into the being devastating our land.”

He did what was asked from him and turned his body around, only to see the events played over again from the moment that Celestia had arrived there. The mental images of the alicorn, were the very things he saw. And he wasn't all too happy about it to say the least.

With a punch in the face was the stallion knocked back into the there and then. All while he rubbed his face. “I know, I know what to do!” he shouted over to the queen. His horn charged itself up again. “I hope you could locate the exact place of where she had been going to, as I do not desire to be late for this little party.” His lips curled up to a little, albeit sick, smile.

“A party we’re going to be crashing, I assume?” Chrysalis replied with a grin. She rose up from her position and charged up her jagged horn.

“Exactly.”

The caused the grin of the queen to become even bigger than it already was and she chuckled even deeply yet darkly to herself. “And don’t you worry, I found the exact location right here.” She then summoned an arcane map of the entire land before her and him while the location of where the comet seemed to be circling around was marked on the map.

The distance between the old castle and the place was big but their teleportation spells might just be having enough rage to get them there where they needed to be. “On good luck, queen. May this battle be over quickly and in our favor,” said Starswirl in words that he meant from the depths of his heart. They would be fighting alongside one another for just one time, they needed it.

Chrysalis simply gave a nod to the words and their horns kept on charging more and more. All the way up to the point to which the poofed out of their existence. Out of the fabrics of reality and started to travel through another dimension to get to their destination.

---

When the two orbs, one being a green fire and the other being a gold colored one, appeared out of thin air, both the queen and the wizard stepped out of them just in time to see the captain being incinerated. The sight was horrifying to say the least, even Chrysalis had to turn her eyes away for a second before she was able to face it all again. Though the sight of Starswirl had turned itself upwards and noticed how the ball of fire was being hurled towards the house where the soldiers had been hiding in.

With another charge of his horn did he try to keep the house together. Though it didn't help whatsoever. Three of the four sides still fell over while the floors collapsed. At least none of them were being hit by any debris as the still standing side had been captured by his magic.

Even though the soldiers were safe, their work had only just began. Their time had run out though. The eternal darkness of the twilight had managed to crept up with them while they were teleporting. Though while it blocked most of their view, it also gave them a clear indication of just where the comet happened to be in the skies. And much to their luck it was soaring around the lonely peak that was located a mile or two away. The exact place Starswirl wanted Solarflare to be.

Both Starswirl and Chrysalis knew what they had to do in that moment. But whether they were ready to do it was a question in and of themselves. Did they had the sheer power to actually contain the beast inside of Celestia and overmaster it? There would be only one way to find that out and that was to go head in, right into it. Whether both of the parties wanted it or not.

“Ready Chrysalis?” Starswirl asked. He gave her one last look before the battle would begin.

“Ready as can be, foal.”

“Good, stick to the plan and everything will become alright.”

“You hope..?”

Starswirl didn't go into the words that were spoken and simply poofed away and upon the peak. The changeling queen rolled with her eyes as she followed up his lead.

The two of them appeared on one of the many stone plateau’s that the peak was rich. They could feel the sheer drought that was being created by the fires of the comet. Pleasant was another thing as it felt like the two had entered a boiling pan or something. How could they be fighting the alicorn in such conditions? They both wondered to one another but that time to think wasn't there.

It was Starswirl who had looked up already and saw the formation of something that he wouldn't have even thought to be possible to create. In his eyes he caught the beginnings of a fire vortex. A tornado that was set on fire and would burn everything that came in its way. It was a manner that was a lot more effective than the blue balls of hellfire.

“Oh no, no, no, no! This was not planned at all. Words can’t speak of how glad I am that I left him at home right now,” said the wizard to himself. Chrysalis glanced over to him with a questioning gaze readable in the both of her eyes. She didn't understand a single word of what he spoke. But that soon changed as she took his advice to look up to the skies.

Even in the darkness of the twilight were the circling flames something that still could be seen clearly in the dark, together with the flaming comet itself. The driving force being the rotation was soaring fast around it. The both of them were staring at something that was physically impossible to create but yet the still looked at it. Neither of them could even understand of just how, why or when something could be created.

It was the stallion who first charged up his horn in order to speak over the gusts of wind that blew over their heads in order to lay contact with the fiery alicorn. “Solarflare! I know that you can hear me and I demand you to come down right here and right now. We have some information for you that could be of incalculable value to you,” the voice of Starswirl bellowed over the land.

“That’s your plan to lure her down here? Pretty words spoken over a megaphone? You think that she will fall for that?” Chrysalis hissed softly to the wizard. The queen had seemingly lost all of her hopes already to have good ending to the state that the land had been toppled in.

“I don’t see another way without angering her,” whispered Starswirl in return. He had a point there for certain. Neither of the two knew just what the captain had done before he was blasted out of existence so they needed to be doing it with the greatest of care there would be. The queen nodded her head towards the words after the thought had come through her mind and then she looked just back up again. Her eyes were being peeled at the comet and could only hope that everything would be going as they had planned.

Chrysalis then simply walked further up to the mountain and disappeared out of the view of the wizard. With her gone, he was faced alone to battle the mighty mare for the first round. But having a changeling on his side meant that he wasn't aiming for powerful blasts. Instead their victory would be brought through the thing that was something the changeling race had done throughout the ages. Deception.

---

The comet itself heard the words that were spoken by Starswirl himself. It had begun to make the descent down to the plateau in order to meet up with him. Hoof by hoof the distance was being shortened by the mare before she just stood on the stone and for the first time ever since she had cloaked herself in the fires again, dropped them.

That was also the first time that Starswirl was given a look at the new armor and set of eyes of Celestia, but what struck him the most had to be mane and tail that were just that hellish blue fire as the balls she fired. Solarflare’s posture alone was something that struck intimidation and power. Her pose was that of a powerful warrior filled with the regalness of the princess she used to be.

Though there was something that he noticed around her chest. There were normally the mighty crest piece hung in all of its purple glory was something else that had taken the place for it. Something that shouldn't have been there and the reasons of the mare suddenly became as clear as day itself. Because on the crest piece noticed Starswirl the infamous alicorn amulet that he once placed under the glass bell in the vault of the princesses. “So that’s what happened to you, didn't it?” he whispered up to himself. Finally he saw how the new terror really looked. A deadly beauty.

And then it were the cat like eyes that laid themselves upon the stallion was puffs of black smoke were left through the nostrils of the beast. She wasn't happy with the interruption of her work but she also was willing to listen to the words that the stallion had to say. She was willing to hear just what kind of offer he could be giving her. “Speak your words before you will be eradicated and exterminated from the face of this land,” the voice of Solarflare boomed over the plateau.

That caused the stallion to chuckle and shake his head a couple of time. For some reason Solarflare threatening him was something that seemed to be highly amusing but for all the wrong reasons. “Still the same as ever. I see. But truth be told, there isn't any actual information that I had for you. I just needed you to come down here and face me. You claim to clench the land of all the evil there is yet you didn't start with the pony that had the most potential of kicking you off of the throne to begin with,” the wizard grinned to her. He had set her check. One move and it would be mate.

The white coated, amulet wearing alicorn released a deep huff through her nostrils before she spoke up again. “And whom might that pony then be?”

The wizard chuckled a bit to himself. He couldn't believe the words that she spoke to him. However, it was also impossible to see whether or not she was lying to him. If she truly had no idea who the pony was he happened to be talking about or that she was just playing a bit with him. Either way, he was still playing with fire in the literal sense of the meaning.

“Have you truly been that blind, Solarflare? Give you a hint, you’re looking at him right now,” returned Starswirl to the mare with a smirk. His horn charged itself up for something to happen.

The alicorn noticed the glow around the horn and couldn't believe the words but she had the disadvantage of having the drop behind her. Her magic would be charged on a faster rate than his so that gave her the upperhoof. More or less.

The two titans in the arcane arts kept on charging their horns. Solarflare was the first one to actually release the charge into yet another column of flames. They were heading straight over to the stallion. Starswirl simply curled one side of his lips up into a smirk and then released his charge.

What happened next wasn't a beam to counter the incoming fire. Instead he created a shield of a waterfall that went straight up. The fires made violent contact with the liquids and steam started to shoot in literally every direction. But not just steam as the embers of the fires also flung into the air and the landed on places where they shouldn't have been.

What was unknown to all three of the ponies was that the plateau was scattered with dead trees. And those burned like a charm once set ablaze. Let that just be the thing where the sparks were good for. They set the trees in fire and created something they had been missing that whole time, light. Yet the fires also provided Solarflare with a source of power that was welcome to her.

With an intensified charge had she called upon the fires in the dead trees and used that against the watershield of the stallion was well. The added fires only made it harder for the stallion to keep it up as the steam started to blow all over his face as well. It became almost impossible to keep the shield up in the powers that he possessed. Moan and groan left the wizard as he gave himself every single ounce in order to defend himself from the fires.

“You shall be, exterminated!” Solarflare yelled against him. She didn't show a sign of getting tired. The magical reservoirs that she had had to be near infinite and he could have known it. It was only one more mistake in a line of many. Though just in the moment that Starswirl was lowering himself through his legs, he gained a burst of energy that came out of seemingly nowhere.

The stallion had no real clue of where it came from but all that he knew what that it would be some somepony that had taken refuge in the shadows. It was an odd burst of energy as he suddenly felt himself happy. Happy enough to stand back right on his legs and the power of his magic became more and more intense.

The glow on his horn became brighter and brighter as the power of the waterfall became only greater. Starswirl even dared and managed to take a step forward into the direction of the alicorn. “I’m sorry princess, but it’s time that you cool off!” he shouted towards her. Then all of the energy was combined into one massive surge of power. It would have been that single surge that would be powerful enough to make the waterfall jump forward in its own and splash itself all over the alicorn. She was given a shower like she never had even seen before.

Taken by a complete surprise of the events did the hellfire that once were the mane and tail became extinguished. The alicorn dropped down to the ground. Her fires had been dimmed and she was all wet. She tried a couple of times to charge up her horn or irradiate some of her powers, but the waters all shut it down. “I think there is somepony that wants to meet you.” Starswirl spoke up as his own horn discharged itself and he did a step or two aside for whatever it was that was coming.

---

Out of the shadows then did the clacking of heavy horseshoes their turn in both of their ears. The sound of horseshoes that belonged on the hooves of a princess who once wandered the castle in Canterlot. Out of the shadows, came nopony else then the always so regal princess Celestia of Equestria. She didn't even dare to speak a word or her own nightmarish even image with the one single exception that she simply pointed over to the alicorn amulet and signaled that it should have been removed from her neck by herself otherwise she would be doing it.

Fright and fear were the two emotions that had begun to fill the beastly alicorn. She deemed it impossible for Celestia to be there. She stood powerless and the most powerful alicorn in the land stood before her. There was nothing that she could do then to give herself defeat. It was all over for her, her cause and torment would be over in that very twilight and dawn of a new day.

With a shaking hoof was the chain of the amulet unhooked from her neck and the moment that was done, the armor opened itself up to drop the necklace over to the ground. Starswirl charged up his horn and nodded in silence as he picked the thing up and almost right away started to hear the whispers it possessed.

Surprised by them, he could only do one thing and that was to return it to the place where it belonged. The amulet started to dissolve into nothingness while Solarflare’s mind was fully opened for anything.

That was the chance where Celestia had been waiting for and she allowed her own horn to be charged up inside of the golden aura. Then it was a simple matter of releasing the charge and the other white alicorn dropped down to the ground. The spell had knocked out her brain for a good set of hours. The only sound that could be heard then, was the crisping of the burning trees and the howling winds.

---

It was over, it was all over before the words could have ever become a burning reality.

Starswirl and Celestia looked over to one another and it was the stallion who gave a nod to the alicorn. Who on her own turn raised her head up and a green flash of fire changed her back into the being that she actually was. And that being was nopony else then the insectoid queen of the changelings, Chrysalis herself.

“You do realize that our truce is over now, right?” the queen mumbled to him. Though all that the wizard did was to give a nod in response. That nod alone gave her enough information on the fact that he would remain loyal to Celestia to the very end and no matter what. “Then this is where we shall part out ways. Goodbye, foal.”

The changeling queen took a leap into the air and she began to flap her wings to keep her airborne and had one last look over to the wizard who actually returned them. “I thank you, Chrysalis, without you this couldn't have been possible at all,” he spoke up to her in a tone that truly showed just how thankful he happened to be that she actually managed to keep her promises.

Then she was just gone. Off into the darkness of the dreaded twilight. She left the fires of the settlements behind her and even left Celestia just there where she was. Her time would come again, but it wouldn't be anytime soon. The wizard had one last look over into the direction in which the changeling queen flew off to and thought she would be going back to her home. As that seemed to be the most logical decision.

Starswirl on the other end just laid down next to the defeated Solarflare and charged up his horn to create the stardust wings again and laid back to keep her warm from the winds. Even with the fires of the dead trees still going, that wind was as cold as ice. His eyes fell on the amulet that she had worn. A tear was formed below his eye. He coated the thing within his magic before it vanished from reality. The alicorn amulet had disappeared, Starswirl only knew to where.

It didn't matter to him that it took hours before he would get any form of motion out of her, he would be there for her, as her beloved caretaker. His eyes looked down in the valley and notice just how the fires had done out. That alone was a sign to him that something inside of her had changed. Solarflare started to moan and groan a bit next to him as the eyes opened themselves up and revealed the regular magenta rimmed eyes. That was all that he needed to know. “Welcome back, princess.”