The Reception

by sister_mike

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Rarity

"Just give me five more minutes to sleep in, Mommy..." Rarity muttered, rolling over. Her mother continued to shake her shoulder. Rarity batted her own hoof at her mother, and tried to pull the covers over her head. Except there were no covers. As a matter of fact, she felt something sticky beside her. She hadn't had an accident, had she? That would be awfully embarrassing...

"Rarity, please; wake up," whispered a hasty voice. The more and more it spoke, Rarity's ear twitched, as she came to realize it didn't sound like her mother at all. It didn't even sound like a mare. She turned her head to glance over her shoulder at the intruder, wondering why they were in her house and why they had spilled juice on her bed. A stallion with a red mustache and a striped vest was nervously glancing around as he shook her shoulder.

He wasn't the usual sort of stallion that Rarity dreamed about, but he was sort of handsome. Rarity turned over and sleepily smiled at him. Just as she did so, a female unicorn came into view behind him. She looked at Rarity curiously and placed a pinecone on Rarity's snout.

"Don't do that," the stallion said with a slight impatient tone. He pushed the pinecone off of Rarity and the blue unicorn began to cry.

Rarity sat up, now utterly confused. She looked at the two, completely bewildered.

"Rarity? Are you ok? It's me, Flam; do you remember where you are?" he asked.

Rarity sagged there for a second, but then shot up straight as everything came flooding back. She panicked for a second as she took in the room around her. She was still in the ballroom, pods hanging above.

"I—w-what happened?" Rarity asked. Her head felt a little fuzzy. She remembered Chrysalis coming towards them and then... nothing. Flam hadn't even been there at the time.

"I can't quite say what happened on your end; My group got separated by some changelings after we found Discord. I'm afraid to say that one of the buffalo didn't make it. Discord is locked up, but sedated. Chrysalis must be afraid of his power. He wants to use Discord to transform Princess Luna into a puppet or something along those lines..." Flam said, with a frown.

"Yes, I recall Twilight saying something like that," Rarity said, scratching her head.

"I happened upon the ballroom here and was surprised to see it was empty. I thought you would be in here battling it out with Chryaslis—but nopony was here. Then I saw you hanging in a pod..."

"I was in a pod?" Rarity said. She looked beside her. Remnants of the pod steamed on the floor, an icky green goo.

"Yes," Flam said.

"GREAT and POWERFUL TRIXIE!" Trixie shouted suddenly, followed by an evil cackle. She then began to bounce around the room, levitating her pinecone.

"I couldn't leave her behind," Flam explained, "As our group was getting separated, nopony seemed to be taking charge of her. Since she's in the same condition Flim is in, I just... I couldn't leave her behind."

"Understandable," Rarity said. She wiped some of the cocoon goop off of her white coat. When Twilight had done the spell, there hadn't been any cocoon remains, though really, who was she to compare Flam to Twilight. "Well, I do thank you for saving me for a second time. You seem to be turning out to be my knight in shining arm—"

Rarity froze as something caught her eye across the hall. Trixie had stopped dancing around the room, and at the moment was doing a particular jig on the spot, her pinecone twirling around her. Above Trixie was a pod that held a familiar white filly, with a pink and purple mane.

"Is something wrong?" Flam asked. Rarity walked past him and stopped underneath her sister's pod. Flam walked up beside her. "Is that...?"

"My sister," Rarity whispered, tears coming to her eyes. Even though the image of Sweetie Belle's terrified face and outstretched hoof had been burned into Rarity's mind, seeing it again in life made her remember just how horrific it really was.

"I was in a pod beside her, originally," Rarity whispered. "S-she's reaching out towards me."

"Well; we can't just leave her behind," Flam said. He straightened his hat, and Rarity saw his horn begin to glow.

"W-what are you doing? It's too dangerous for her here," Rarity whispered, as she looked back and forth between Flam and Sweetie Belle.

"Yes, but seeing that pained look on your face was terrible. We'll take care of her—I'll take care of her, as you fight Chrysalis. I already have one ward, no harm in having two," he said. Flam then hesitated and looked at Rarity. "Unless you'd rather her stay in there. It was a hard decision for me to make with Flim, but I'll understand..."

"No," Rarity said, her own horn glowing, "Let's get her out of there. Hopefully we'll find Twilight somewhere and maybe she can transport Sweetie Belle to Zecora's or something. Either way, I left her behind once and I just can't do it again."

The two carefully levitated Sweetie Belle's pod down from the ceiling and carefully melted it around her. Sweetie Belle coughed and coughed, but remained asleep. Rarity was relieved to see she was breathing.

"We'll just have to give her a minute," Rarity said. She nervously glanced at the door. Where had Chrysalis gone? And puppet-Celestia? And Luna? What had happened to her friends?

"I'll go gather Trixie," Flam said. Trixie had wandered into a corner of the ballroom. She was fussing over something.

Sweetie Belle began to stir. She mumbled, like Rarity had, convinced she was asleep at home and that their mother was waking them. Rarity cooed and shushed Sweetie Belle, and once she saw her eyes were fully open, she put her hoof over her sister's mouth.

"Oh, my dear little sister," Rarity whispered. "You need to listen to me now, ok? There's a lot going on right now and—and it's going to be really scary looking to you. But I've come now and freed you from what you're about to see around us. I need you to try and promise me not to scream, so as not to attract attention, ok Sweetie? Can you do that for me? I promise you I will take you somewhere safe."

Tears began to brim in Sweetie Belle's eyes and she began to breathe heavily as she looked around her. Nevertheless, she nodded, and cried as quietly as she could. Rarity pulled her into a tight hug and stroked her mane.

"Apple Bloom is at Zecora's hut. We're going to go try and find Twilight and see if she can send you to be with her there. None of this bad evil can get you in the Everfree Forest," Rarity said softly.

Sweetie Belle nodded, tears still streaming down her face. Rarity pulled out of the hug, but kept her sister close, keeping her foreleg wrapped around her.

"Flam, we're ready to go," Rarity called over to the corner.

"Uh, Rarity, you'd probably better come look at this," Flam said.

Rarity frowned. They needed to leave ASAP and find somewhere safe to hide Sweetie Belle. She and Sweetie Belle walked over to the corner where Flam was standing, and amazingly, Trixie was standing still as well.

"What is i—"

Rarity's jaw dropped. Sweetie Belle gasped.

Chained, gagged and bound tighter than any criminal Rarity had ever seen, was Princess Luna. She was chained to the floor, the chains weaving over her so much that her body could barely be seen. Her legs were tied together with rope and there was a gag in her mouth and a blindfold over her eyes. She wasn't moving.

"Do you think she's alive?" Flam asked.

"She wouldn't be chained to the floor if she was dead," Rarity said, "The question is, whether she's awake or not. Princess Luna, can you hear us?"

Luna's ear twitched. Flam made a move to take the blindfold off, but Rarity stopped him. She looked up at the ceiling. No green stream was pouring into Luna. Rarity then moved her hoof away and Flam pulled off the blindfold.

Luna looked at them with relieved and terrified eyes. The princess had tears in her eyes. She said something, which was muffled by the gag. Trixie put her pinecone next to the princess's face and gave her a sad look. Flam removed the gag.

"Thank the stars," Luna said, "You're alive. Let's hope that the rest of the Element bearers are as well."

"Princess Luna! What happened?" Rarity asked.

"Celestia overpowered me and pinned me down. They tied me up and then they all ran out of the ballroom. Chrysalis has gone to Discord to find a way to turn me into a puppet as soon as possible," Luna said.

"But he can't. We had a chat with him and he said it's impossible; the dark magic that lives within you was brought upon by yourself, not by his doing," Flam said, "Chrysalis imprisons him in vain."

"I know," Luna said. This news surprised Rarity.

"She's left you unguarded," Flam said.

"She must be panicking more than I thought. She must know that her attempt to destroy the Element bearers failed then, and she is getting anxious in her actions," Luna said.

"But the Elements failed. We're not threat against her," Rarity said. She glanced down at her Element necklace, surprised to see it still resting against her neck.

"They failed against her, but I'm sure if you could use the power to transform Celestia back. With my sister back to her normal self, the two of us could fight Chrysalis," Luna said.

"But I thought Chrysalis said yours and hers magic was matched, that they couldn't affect one another," Rarity said.

"Yes; but combined with my sister's strengths, we could overpower her. Even though we can no longer wield the Elements of Harmony, there are other devices and magic tricks that we can perform together, some even to be said to be stronger than the Elements," Luna said.

"Why haven't you used them before?" Rarity asked.

"Because using the Elements is easier. The magic I speak of is of high mastery magic; plus we've never actually performed them before," Luna said. "I just know they exist. I can't explain it all now."

"I guess with the power from you and Princess Celestia, and the Elements, we'd surely beat Chrysalis," Rarity said.

"Definitely. Therefore, it is imperative that you get me out of this entrapment. We can meet with the army assembling in the labyrinth, and then we can—"

Luna stopped. Trixie moved forwards and moved the pinecone from beside the princess's face and onto her snout. It balanced there for a second, in which Trixie clapped ecstatically, but then it toppled over. Trixie pouted.

"What is the meaning of this?" Luna asked, a puzzled look on her face.

"The changelings did something to her; they've scrambled her magic. They saw that unicorns could free the ponies from the pods, and they've been attacking unicorns and scrambling their magic so they can no longer do so," Flam explained. "The same thing happened to my brother."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Luna said, still staring bewilderedly at Trixie. "I can fix that though."

Flam's jaw dropped and Rarity gasped.

"You can fix her?" Rarity asked.

"Yes," Luna said, wriggling in her chains. "Like you stated before, Chrysalis's magic and mine is very similar. Any dark magic performed by changelings, I can easily undo."

Luna's horn glowed and Trixie floated in the air. Trixie panicked slightly, not understanding what was going on. She cried and reached out towards the pinecone on the floor. Then suddenly, she slumped unconscious for a second. Just as quickly, she straightened up and opened her eyes. She looked around her, observed her messy mane and oddly jagged tail, the rips in her cape, and the random unicorns looking at her.

Luna carefully lowered Trixie onto the ground. Trixie gave each of them an odd and slightly aggressive look.

"Where am I?" Trixie finally asked.

"Canterlot," Sweetie Belle answered.

"And pray tell, why is the Great and Powerful Trixie in Canterlot?" she asked.

"There is no time to explain now," Luna said. Trixie jumped back slightly, as though she had not noticed the princess there. She gave Luna a little bow. "These unicorns here will explain everything to you later. For now, I need you to help them with anything they tell you to do. Ask questions later."

Trixie nodded slowly. Rarity wondered if she would actually follow up on the princess's orders.

"What do you want us to do now Princess Luna? How do we get you out of these?" Rarity asked, nudging the chains.

"They are probably bound with magic—magic that would, unfortunately, be beyond your comprehension and skills; no offense. I need you to find somepony who is more advanced in magic," Luna said.

"Twilight Sparkle?" Rarity asked.

"Ugh, Twilight Sparkle is here?" Trixie said. Rarity shot her a glare.

"You're alive and well because of Twilight. She took good care of you," she snapped.

"Unfortunately, I do not think that the type of magic Chrysalis used here can be undone by the magic of ordinary unicorns. I need you to find me an alicorn," Luna said.

"But you said you didn't know where Princess Celestia is; and she's possessed," Rarity said, as she bit her lower lip.

"There's another alicorn though! And I know where she is!" Flam piped up, "But she's in an odd crystal, different than the other cocoons."

"You just need more power to free her; the three of you should be able to do it," Luna said.

"What about me?" Sweetie Belle squeaked.

"You, my little filly, I shall send to be with your friend in the Everfree Forest," Luna said softly. Sweetie Belle looked up at Rarity. Rarity hugged her tightly.

"Thank you princess," Rarity said softly.

"Of course; now go—go get me Princess Cadance."

Comments

[sister_mike]

[Akantia]

Ohhhh Luna can de scramblify Unicorns who were gotten by the changeling magic. Now Trixie, Flam and Rarity are off to free Princess Cadence. This is all so exciting <3

[mbpony 512]

Man, even when she's saved and her mind's back to normal, Trixie's still a pain in Flank.

Nice to see Sweetie Belle okay and alive, but it makes me wonder how will she handle Scootaloo's death ?

Great spotlight on Rarity as I knew they couldn't leave Sweetie Belle behind...again.

Do keep up the good work.

[Sunset_Shimmer83]

ohh are we gonna see Sweetie belles reaction to scootaloos death?

[Sunset_Shimmer83]

also happy to see trixie back to normal, can't wait to see trixie and twilight meet again

[Cynderfall]

I will still never agree with you killing off Scootaloo.

[sister_mike]

1611560

Stuff happens.
I have another story where she is alive and well!

[Cynderfall]

1611582 It was the way you killed her off. People are way to hard on her and you could have used her and the crusaders so brilliantly if she lived.