> The Last Hope of a Fallen Nation
>  by thehalfelf
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Prologue


We don’t have much time.  Sit down, shut up, and for Celestia’s sake listen!

I know, Celestia’s sake, such a terrible curse in such terrible times.  I hope she’s safe, wherever she is.

Look, you know as well as I do what’s going to happen soon... but just in case I don’t make it out alive, you have to know the whole story.

The wedding was a disaster.  Chrysalis had taken over.  We Elements were defeated, and scattered across Equestria.  Princess Celestia fell in battle to Chrysalis, possibly forever damaging her magical prowess.  Likewise, Luna was defeated, leading the first revolution, which lasted a grand total of ten minutes.  Shining Armor was held hostage by Chrysalis, preventing Cadence from doing anything, even if she had the energy.  She held him hostage until... Shining is no longer in any danger.

I miss him so much.

Her victory was total and absolute.  Nopony was powerful enough to question her authority.  The Royal Guard fought with everything they had, but a combination of a lack of experience and the sheer overwhelming numbers of Changelings had ended any resistance there.  The Night Guard, led by Luna fought better, but even they were defeated.  Then, theres the Wonderbolts.  They never stood a chance.  Sure, they looked awesome, but they were more for show than for actual combat.  Within a week, all resistance was gone.

As for us... In the initial chaos, most of us managed to flee. They went into hiding, but were found one by one.

Celestia was banished to the sun, her sister back to the moon.

They caught Pinkie Pie almost immediately.  She was taken to the castle, and disappeared for years.

Fluttershy managed to hide for quite awhile, with the aid of her animal friends.  She was captured in the end as well, banished to the Everfree Forest.  

Rainbow Dash was caught within a month, trying to poison Chrysalis in her sleep.  Banished somewhere.  I still don’t think she recovered fully.

Rarity, for all her fluff, managed to put together quite the resistance group.  Her and Applejack managed to avoid capture for years.  It was a bit touchy for awhile, but we managed to turn the Free Equestria Soceity into a respectable resistance.

I... I was the worst, though.  I never made it out of the castle.  I wasn’t lucky enough to be tortured or killed, oh no, not the protege of Princess Celestia.  They locked me in a tower, with books, cursed things.  I was made to research weapons of war and torture, ways to break ponies that should never have seen the light of day.  I would have fought sooner, but they had Spike locked up in a tiny cell in the top of my room, and if I did something they didn’t like, they hurt him.  I couldn’t stand to see that happen to him, not after what happened to Shining.

It is my fault that all the cities have huge walls around them, patrolled all the time by heavily armed Changelings, turning ponies into a fuel source.  The whole point was to give them a semblance of a life, so they could still live and love and be comparatively happy so the Changelings could feed off it.

This whole mess is my fault, but if everything goes as planned, tomorrow it will all be made right.

On the off chance that it isn’t, take this journal.  It chronicles every single painstaking step I took to get us to this point.  If we fail, ponies need something to hope for.  Maybe our story will inspire others to take up arms and liberate this pathetic excuse for a nation.

Hopefully, Equestria can rise again..
> The Day of the Wedding
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Day of the Wedding


Probably safe to say now that this  is the worst wedding in all of history.  I knew something was off with “Princess Cadence,” but nopony believed me.  Well, they don’t have a choice now.

Ok, ok, backtracking a bit.

So, there we were in Ponyville, about to have a picnic when we got a letter from my big brother, Shining Armor, captain of the Royal Guard, inviting us to his wedding.  I was torn.  On one hoof, I was happy.  My big brother was getting married, hooray.  On the other hoof, he didn’t tell me.  I had never heard once about the special somepony in his life, thought we hadn’t talked much recently.

We were all assigned tasks for the wedding.  I was to keep everything organized, Pinkie Pie was to plan the reception, Rarity	to make the dresses, Applejack to handle catering, Fluttershy was to organize the music, and Rainbow Dash to perform a sonic rainboom during the ceremony.

Overseeing the preparations, I couldn’t help but notice that Cadence was acting off.  I told my friends of my suspicious, but they blew it off as pre-marital stress.  I knew different.  I knew that my awesome foal sitter wouldn’t turn into the rude thing that we were planning a wedding for.  I tried to confront Shining Armor about it, but it turns out that she was controlling him too!

My last hope was to bring it to Princess Celestia.  I told her in front of everypony at the recital for the wedding the next day, and everypony stared at me like I was crazy. Even Celestia didn’t believe me.  I...I couldn’t take it.  I broke down right there on the steps, after being told I was uninvited to the wedding, and she came up to me.  For a moment, she was the Cadence I had grown up with, but then she showed her true colors.  She trapped me within a ring of evil green fire, and pulled me down into the ground.

I awoke in a cavern surrounded by crystals.  The face of not-Cadence was all around, taunting me and baiting me to chase her down.  I fired bolts of energy at the crystals, but it just bounced off, until I hit a weak crystal.  It broke down revealing the form of Cadence.  I pounced, thoughts of revenge filling my head, blocking her pleas for mercy.

This one was the real one.  As soon as she broke through the murderous haze the clouded my mind I saw that very clearly.  She told me she had been captured and locked away, while an imposter was planning on stealing her future husband,  my brother.  This was unacceptable.  We escaped, and galloped through the castle, where we confronted the faux-Cadence.

That was when things went from bad to worse.


*****


There was a flash of green light.  What everypony thought to be Princess Cadence morphed into something much more hideous.  It looked like a crude impersonation of an alicorn.  It was all black, with tattered, translucent wings.  Her coat was pitch black, from her twisted horn, to her legs, which had chunks missing as though she was eaten by some feral beast in the Northlands.  Her mane and tail shared a muted blue color.

“You are right, pony.  I am Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings!”  She exclaimed. “I have come to claim my empire.”

“This is no empire of yours!  This empire belongs to the Celestial Sisters!”  I replied, placing my hooves firmly on the white tile of the Canterlot Castle.

“Yes,” a regal voice interrupted, “it does belong to my sister and I.  I do not know why you returned, Chrysalis, but you will leave here immediately.”  The voice came from none other than Princess Celestia herself.  She had a dangerous look in her eyes, one I had never seen before.  Her wings stood fully extended, making her seem larger than she already was, and much more intimidating.

“Or what?”  The Queen of the Changelings said, turning to face her opposition, wings spread to increase her own size. “Going to banish me to the moon?”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed, magic sparking around her horn.  Without warning, she attacked, a bolt of energy flying from her horn, just to be met by a similar bolt from the horn of Chrysalis.  The golden and green beams crossed with a flash of sparks, each one vying for dominance over the other.  Sadly, it was not the gold that won in the end.

Celestia was thrown into one of the marble pillars supporting the roof, shattering it with enough force that she slid further still.  Her crown fell from her head and she lie broken on the ground, too weak to move.  She sent the girls and I after the Elements of Harmony with her last words before slipping into unconsciousness.

We raced down the streets of Canterlot, fighting countless hordes of Changelings.  In time, we made it to the Hall of the Elements.  We opened to door and rushed inside, just to find another room full of Changelings.  We prepared for another fight, but more came in behind us, blocking our escape.  Even more came from above, trapping us on all sides.  We realized the fight was lost, and gave up.

When I awoke, we were surrounded by Changelings and ponies held upside down from the ceiling by green pods of viscous goo.  Chrysalis herself stood at the front of a line of ponies, each one manacled to one another, and flanked by guards.  To my horror, I saw Shining Armor and Princess Cadence lying unconscious next to Celestia, all of their hooves and wings bound with shining silver chains.

I slowly sat up and looked around me.  We were not bound, instead there were changelings blocking all the exits.  Everypony else still seemed to be unconscious, so I slowly made my way over to Celestia.

I kneeled down beside my fallen mentor.  Though I didn’t know much about alicorn anatomy at all, I could guess that she was fine.  Her respiration did not seem strained, just slower than usual.  Her mane is what bothered me.  It did not flow on invisible winds as it usually did.  It hung limp around her broken frame, as though it too had been defeated.

I made my way over to Shining Armor and his beloved Cadence, the real one this time.  I was just beginning to take in their condition when Cadence awoke.  “T...Twilight? Is that you?”

“Shhhh Cadence,” I replied, “it’s me, Twilight.  Are you hurt?”

“How is Shining?”

I looked over at him, noting the small trickle of blood running down the side of his face.  “He is bleeding a little, but it’s a tiny cut.  As soon as we get rid of this big bug I’ll make sure he is ok.”  She gave me a nervous smile, before turning her attention to her love.  She very carefully checked him over, making sure the small cut was the only injury he had.  As she was finishing up, a changeling burst into the hall, and rushed up to Chrysalis.

“Mistress, the armies are successful.  The Royal Guard lie in ruin, and all major Equestrian cities lie firmly in our control,”  the new changeling said, standing before his Queen,  “as do the border forts.  The borders of Equestria are sealed.  The smaller towns are being converted now.” It’s voice was a menacing, grating hiss, not unlike those of snakes.

“Excellent,” the Queen replied, “I suppose it is time to deal with the pesky royalty of this country, isn’t it.”  Noticing me, she smiled menacingly.  “Ahh, Lady Twilight Sparkle.  Wait, not quite Lady, isn’t it.  Miss Sparkle, then.  Come here, child.”

I walked forward, not like I had much choice.  As soon as Chrysalis began speaking, changelings came up behind me and started pushing me forward.  She smiled, what I imagine she thought was a warm and inviting smile.  All it managed was to make my blood curdle.  

“What do you want, Chrysalis?”  I spat at her once I was at the front of the line.  Thankfully, they did not put me in hoofcuffs, apparently trusting their ability to stop me from escaping.  Hopefully I could soon prove them wrong.

“Well, at the risk of sounding cliche, I want you to join me,” she said, spreading her forehooves in a gesture of acceptance. 

I scoffed, giving her my best death glare.  She narrowed her eyes.  Her friendly demeanor remained, but it became spread taunt over the fury that obviously boiled underneath.  “Fine.  Maybe I will have to come up with a way to convince you.  Guards! Bring me... Princess Cadence.”

The guards quickly dragged the princess over to us, holding her in position beside me.  Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Shining open his eyes, quickly taking in the situation.  Big brother, please don’t do anything stupid...

“So, this is the mighty Princess Cadence.  Tell me, princess, what does it feel like being a third wheel?”  Chrysalis asked with a menacing grin.

“I’m not a third wheel!”  Cadence replied, staring the changeling queen straight in the eyes.

“Yes you are.  Celestia is the Princess of the Sun, Luna of the Moon.  What kind of all-powerful alicorn princess is the Princess of Love.”

“Well, maybe if you had a heart you might know the power of love.”  The changelings in the room gasped.  The one holding Cadence on the right reached across and smacked her.

It just went downhill from there.

Suddenly, there was a bellow from behind.  I turned quickly to see Shining Armor jump up and charge over towards us, knocking aside everything in his path.  He made it all the way up to us, spinning on his front legs to buck Chrysalis when she grabbed him with her magic.  She levitated him up to her eye level, giving him a menacing grin.

“Look at the pathetic hero, trying to save his love.”  She threw him into a wall, walking over to stand above his prone form.  “See, Cadence, this is what love gets you.”

“Shining!”  Cadence shouted.  She walked as fast as she could to the form of her fallen love, only to be stopped by Chrysalis right in front of him.

“No.  Do not touch him.  Watch instead at what his pathetic ‘love’ for you accomplished.”  She raised her hoof as she finished her sentence, preparing to bring it down on Shining’s head.  Cadence and I were both crying, pleading with her to show mercy.  She just laughed, raising her hoof a little higher before bringing it down.

Before she could strike the fatal blow on my beloved brother, the doors burst open again, and a new cry was heard.

“For Equestria!  Charge!!”  Hundreds of Night Guard burst into the room led by none other than Princess Luna herself.  The army formed into a spear point, bursting through the ranks of changelings, effectively splitting their fighting force.  Even more flew in through the windows, attacking the flanks of the changeling horde, forcing them to fight on two fronts.

Luna herself galloped over, knocking Chrysalis down with a powerful blow with the butt of a spear grasped firmly in her nimbus of magical energy.  As the battle raged all around the room, I snuck over to my friends.  I nudged each of them awake with magic as quickly as I could.  They all looked around confused, before focusing on me.

“Girls, listen,” I said, “we don’t have much time.  Very very bad things are happening, and we don’t have the elements.  We need to get out quickly, and get to them.”

“No way Twilight,” Rainbow Dash replied.  “There is no way I’m going to leave when there is an awesome fight going on around here.”

“Ah agree, Twilight.  We need ta see if we can help somehow.”  Applejack opined, shaking the cobwebs out of her head.

“No, we have to go try to find the Elements.  That is the best way we can help.” I said.

Fluttershy glanced around, completely locked up.  “Maybe, um, maybe we should just leave...?”

“No!  There is no way we are leaving!”  Rainbow stomped a hoof down.  I looked around nervously before replying.

“Rainbow, do you really think Luna or Celestia would want us to stick around and fight, and possibly get hurt or even killed, or do you think she would want us to go get the best weapon Equestria has?”

“She is right, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said from her spot next to me.  “If we must fight, let us fight with the most power we can bring.”

“Come on, Pinks, back me up here!” Rainbow looked to the pink pony, obviously hoping her pranking buddy was going to back her up.

“Dashie, maybe it would be a good idea to go.  It is super dangerous here and we aren’t exactly the best fighters without our pretty elements.”  Pinkie was looking around nervously, all semblance of her usual pep gone.

“Really Pinkie, now is the time you decide to make sense?”

We heard a loud crash behind us, effectively silencing all opposition.  I seized command, hoping everypony would just stop arguing.  We didn’t have time for arguments.

“Go.  Go go go.”  I pointed a hoof towards the door, and we charged out into the daylight.


*****


I looked around from my place hanging from the ceiling.  “Well, that went well.”

We didn’t even make it out the front door this time.  Changelings surrounded us almost from the first step.  A fight ensued, but as soon as it became apparent that we were on the losing side this time, I sprung into action.  I searched deep inside myself, calling up powerful, untamed magic from within me.  Magic so great, I had not felt it’s power since the day I got my cutie mark.  It grew stronger and stronger until it burst, obliterating everything it touched.  I quickly shut my eyes, focusing solely on the magic itself so it didn’t evaporate my friends.  Changelings dropped, as though they were puppets whose strings had been cut.

The magic disappeared as suddenly as it came.  It left me drained, like the time I stayed up for almost three days straight studying.  I collapsed on the ground, only partially conscious.  All I remember are brief flashbacks:  hooves trying to move me, distorted voices, a brief sense of rising, a scream(possibly mine), falling, then nothing but darkness.

When I awoke, I was hanging suspended from the ceiling in one of the green pods I saw earlier.  A strange liquid was holding me, but was not so restrictive that I couldn’t move.  I quickly looked to my left and right, but I was alone.  Everypony else that was hanging up here was gone.

Oh no, my friends!  I looked everywhere that I could from my vantage point, and didn’t find anypony.

“Ooh good, you’re awake,” said a voice from below me, “come, join us.”

A green glow enveloped me, pulling me out of the pod with a pop.  I took the chance to look around more, becoming more and more worried with each second I didn’t see my friends.  As soon as my hooves touched the ground, and I finally took a close look at my entire surroundings, everything went from really bad to the end of Equestria as I knew it.

All around lie bodies.  Pony bodies.  The broken bodies of the Night Guard.  The only consolation was that they had left a serious dent in the changeling forces.  At least as many of them lie dead as the Night Guard.  The worse part, however, lay straight ahead.

Lying at the hooves of Chrysalis lie the three princesses.  Celestia was up, and tending to her fallen sister, though her mane still lacked the luster and motion it usually had.  Cadence lie beside and partially on top of Shining Armor, as though she had been struck down protecting him.  I shakily walked between the fallen ponies, and looked up at Chrysalis.

“What now?”  I asked, not even bothering to hide my annoyance.

She just smiled.  “The same thing, Twilight Sparkle.  Leave your tutelage with Celestia, and join me.”

“Seriously?  You overthrow the Equestrian government, hurt me, my friends, and my family just to try and convince me to join you?  Go buck yourself.”  That surprised me.  I never talk like that  Where in Equestria did that come from?

Her calculated mask of friendliness cracked, voice rising with every word spoken.  “You stupid, insignificant brat.  How dare you insult me like that!  I will end you, and everypony you love and--”

“Enough!”  Celestia’s voice rang out. “You will not speak to my student like that!”

“Be quiet.  You have no more control here.  I defeated you, your sister, your Elements, and your army.” Hysterics tainted Chrysalis’ voice.

“I will not stand idly by and let you abuse my little ponies.”  Her face was alien to me.  It held a mixture of cold fury and what looked to be hatred, but that isn’t the Celestia I knew.  She moved over to stand next to me.  I glared at Chrysalis, trying to ignore the feeling of Celestia’s wing draped protectively over my back.

Chrysalis looked dangerously close to the breaking point.  She was almost visibly shaking  with pent up rage, but there was nothing I could do.  Princess Luna, Shining Armor, and I assumed Cadence, were all hurt.  Celestia was sticking her neck out to protect me, even though she had already been defeated once.

“Fools,” Chrysalis said, “perhaps it is time you learned your proper place in this new world.  I am the master here!  I am in control! You are nothing!”

“I am the ruler of--”

Chrysalis slammed her hoof down, cracking the hard, aged marble.  All semblance of the calm she once projected was gone.  “You were the ruler.  Maybe you need a demonstration of how the world works now.  Guards.”  She motioned with a hoof towards Shining.  

I sat frozen in terror, as Celestia put herself between the changelings and Shining’s body.  “You will not hurt my ponies.  Princess of Equestria or not, I will not allow it.”

“Enough!  Enough of your protests and your arguments!”  Chrysalis levitated over Celestia’s old crown, snapping it in two.  She seemed to have passed the breaking point, and I feared for the result.  “You see this?  The ooh-so-symbolic crown of Equestria.  Watch closely.”  She manipulated the two pieces, dunking them in an until now hidden vat of...something, I’m not sure what.  What emerged was grotesque, a cruel mockery of the glory the crown once possessed.

It was blacker than night, so black that even looking at it made my eyes hurt.  It also emitted a feeling of evil, of chances lost, of dark thoughts unacknowledged.  A feeling of fear, and animosity.  I looked over at Celestia, hoping that she would have a way out of this.  I did not expect what I saw.

“No.  No, you can’t have!”  She was...afraid.  My mentor, my idol, my l- no.  Now is not the time to be thinking about that- was afraid.

Chrysalis laughed.  “That’s right.  You try so hard to destroy all of the Taint.  Now I have it, and now, you will pay.”  Chrysalis placed the crown upon her head, and her eye color morphed into pure black.  She pointed her horn at Shining Armor.

“Don’t, Chrysalis.  You know as well as I why we destroyed that.”  Celestia said, enfolding me in her wings, blocking my vision.  I was starting to get a very very bad feeling about all of this.  “Just put down the crown, and we can figure out what--”

“No, you defied me, you and your precious student, now you will see what happens when you cross me.  And the best part?  Nothing you can do will change anything.  Equestria is mine.”  She cackled.  “And now, you’ll never forget it.  Say goodbye to your precious captain.”

My veins filled with ice.  I pushed through Celestia’s wing wall, just in time to see a bolt of energy shoot into my BBBFF.  The energy ripped through him, illuminating his skeleton, which began slowly disentigrating.  I stared, frozen in shock.  I didn’t even feel Celestia wrap her wings around me, hiding Shining’s fate.  All that mattered were his agonized screams as I spiraled down into oblivion.

Author's Note:
So, this took awhile to get started.  And to be honest, it wouldn't even be out today without the outstanding help of two fellow authors that I would like to call friends:  InsanityCorps, and TheCloudtop.  They both took the place of my editor while he is doing swim team, and they keep me company while I write, and I the same to them while they write.  Anyway, this one isn't going out as fast as In Search of Knowledge did.  I'm writing as I go here, and Chapter 2 is long.  Very long.  So long, it'll probably be split into two.  So while you wait, you should totally go check out those other guys.
I'm off to go binge on Metro 2033 for a bit before hitting GDocs again to keep writing.
Ciao!

-thehalfelf
(P.S. I have that liney cover art of Twilight, but I wish I had a better one.  Cover art is not my forte.) 
> Tribulations of the Tower - The Fall
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Tribulations of the Tower (The Fall)


Year One of the Takeover
Day One:
I came to in my bed, in the West Tower.  Light fell through the curtains, casting the room in the fading sunset.  The sunset.  Thank Celestia, it was all a bad dream.  My stomach rumbled, so I rolled out of bed and made my way over to the door.  I reached for it with my telekinesis, to find it locked.  “Huh,” I said, “Celestia hasn’t locked my door since I was a little filly... Wait..”  I rushed to the window, and almost fainted.  There was not a single pony in sight that was not chained.  Changelings were posted at every street corner.  Even the light seemed darker, though I doubt it had anything to do with the sunset..

It all came rushing back to me: the takeover, our imprisonment, escape, the fate of the Night Guard, and Shining...  I couldn’t think about it.  It was too fresh, hurt too much.

My stomach rumbled once more, remind me that I had not eaten in at least a day, likely more considering the extent of changeling control.  They can’t have locked me up here to die, would they?  I think the fact that Chrysalis didn’t kill me outright to hurt Celestia, instead turning to hurting Shining to hurt me to hurt her means that I must have something that they want...  Maybe they don’t want the risk of me dying, having the Element of Magic moving to a different pony.

I walked over to the door, knocking on it with a hoof.  After a pause, a gruff voice answered, “yes, Miss Sparkle?”

“I would like some food, please,”  I said in my best diplomatic voice.  Just like Celestia taught me.  She was so proud....

“Sorry, ma’am.  Queen Chrysalis has ordered that you shall dine with her at breakfast tomorrow, and not before.”

“Well, I haven't eaten since before the wedding, however long ago that was, and I’m hungry.”  I couldn’t stop myself from complaining. I’m just trying to see how much weight I actually hold... Totally.  Not complaining. 

“Sorry, ma’am, we have our orders.  Good night.”  After that, I faintly heard the sounds of hoofsteps, do changelings even have hooves like ponies, walking back down the corridor.

Day 2:
Today started fabulously.  I woke up to a very, very loud pounding on my door.  Apparently, I wasn’t fast enough, because before I had even managed to get out of bed a changeling was in the room, standing over me, yelling at me to get up.

So much for the good mannered guard from the day before.

“Let’s move, Sparkle.  Chrysalis wants you to clean up and meet her in the dining hall.  Right now.  Come on, you lazy mare, move!”

Without thinking I reached up with my magic and slapped him.  It was too early and I was not  in the mood for any trouble.  As far as I was concerned, every single bucking one of these changelings were the reason everypony I cared about were either dead or missing.

I didn’t even feel like myself today.  Everything was tinged with red, and everything I did just felt pointless.  It sounded like depression, judging from my studies into the pony psyche, but without the crippling sadness that should make me not want to get up.

Maybe it was part of the stages of grief.  I do recall something about anger being one of them.

I showered, the once familiar room that was my bathroom seeming alien in this dark world.  I dried myself with a quick burst of superheated steam, trying not to think about the pony who taught it to me, and walked into the hallway.  Immediately, I was surrounded on all four sides by changeling guards.

Unlike the ones who had attacked during the wedding, these changelings wore armor.  It was black, and shared the design of that accursed thing Chrysalis had made out of the Crown of the Sun.  At their sides hung swords, twisted things of metal, black as the void.

Our procession walked down the hallways, and down the grand staircase to the great hallway.  From there, they led me down a service hallway into the kitchen, and from there to an adjoining small dining room.  I took in the surroundings.  The small, cozy room where I shared many lunches with the Princess now had a much darker cast to it.  It wasn’t actually changed at all, but the presence of Chrysalis tainted everything around.

She looked the same as she had during the wedding.  Same twisted horn, same holed legs, and same evil crown.

Evil crown?

Oh yeah, Celestia’s crown that she had dipped into Taint, whatever that was.  (Noted for later research.)

“Ah, Twilight Sparkle, please come in.  Sit down and make yourself comfortable.”  Chrysalis purred from her chair opposite the door.  The chair Celestia always used to sit in.  I warily walked over, taking a seat opposite Chrysalis.  

“What do you want this time?”  I asked, irritation plain in my voice.

“I just wanted to let you know what has been going on.”  She smiled, a suspicious, overly-friendly smile.

“Ok...”  I replied, letting discretion be the better part of valor.

“Well, after you passed out, Celestia was very very upset with me.  She was so worried about you, and just wouldn’t be quiet.  So I took care of that too.”  She gave me a wolfish grin.  I gasped, tears beginning to sting the corners of my eyes.  “Oh, don’t worry.  She is much too powerful to outright kill.  No, I just banished her.  To the sun.”

I stared at Chrysalis in disbelief.  “The...sun...?”

“Yes, the sun.  She calls herself the Princess of the Sun, well let’s see how well she likes her precious charge now.”

I blinked.  I couldn’t believe...  No.  This can’t have happened.  I won’t let it.  “You’re lying!”  I shouted, jumping to my hooves.

She just chucked, an infuriatingly light chuckle.  “Now, don’t get so testy.  I’m sure everything will be fine once you start working for me.  Maybe I’ll even let you visit her sometime.”

I snapped.  I lunged for her, mentally flipping through the list of all the combat or dangerous spells I knew, as short of a list as that was.  Before I had the chance to make up a new one, I was hurled back by two changeling guards.  The held me up in front of a bemused Chrysalis.  “Well,” she said, “that’s no way to treat your ruler.”  She turned to address the guards.  “Take her back to her room.  Don’t let her out until she learns some manners.”  

The changelings saluted her with the hoof that wasn’t holding me.  I was hauled back up the stairs, and tossed unceremoniously onto my bed.  The door slammed shut, and bolted behind me.

Day 5:
Well, I guess I went and made her angry.  Nobody has come for me in the last three days.  No food, no water, no company.  The door remains locked, as do the windows, and the doorway to the balcony.  All I do is sit here and wait.  Except for about an hour, while I was re-reading all the books I kept in here as a filly (my favorite was Celestial Magical Theory, by Star Swirl the Bearded, of course.)  Oh well, guess I’ll just sit and wait.

Day 7:
Well, that wait wasn’t much.  They finally brought me some food and water today, slipping it through the door before closing it quickly.  I guess they thought I would try to slip out.

Pity.

They also slid in a book.  The Complete Reference Guide to the War of the Council.  It took me awhile to realize, but once I did it chilled me to the bone.  During the War of the Council, the Council used mass control to get the necessary ponypower to fuel a wartime economy.  For some reason, Chrysalis wanted me to study methods of mass pony control.  Not gonna happen, cheese-legs.

Come to think of it, I’m actually kind of tired.  It’s getting harder and harder to concentrate enough to hold this quill...  I think I’m going to take a nap.

I-I’ll look it up,  It...It will p-p-please Chrysalis.  I-I just want t-t-to p-p-please Chrysalis...

Day 13:
I...I don’t remember much of the last few days.  For some reason, I was possessed by an overwhelming urge to read that book, to memorize every detail of it that I could. I was studying so hard, I missed dinner last night.

I woke up with a massive headache, and my mouth dry as the Badlands.  I walked over to take a sip of water, but spit it out almost immediately.  It had a twang to it.  Just like Applejack’s accent changed how she spoke, something was changing how the water tasted, smelled, and even felt.

This explains why I was studying like that.  I was drugged.  I just fear what I’ve already told her...

Day 14:
Chrysalis called me back down for lunch today, the first time since our last visit.  Two guards came into my room, hauled me to my hooves (I had been lying in bed, trying to remember what had happened while I was drugged, still) and pushed me out the door.  Once again, we were joined by two more changelings, and marched down the hall.

Chrysalis was sitting at the table, in the exact same spot.  I walked over and sat down, just like before.  Subtle differences littered the room.  The tablecloth that had once been the of a muted gold, now sat dense and black as the demon sitting across from me.  I gave her a wary look as she took a drink from her cup before speaking.

“Good afternoon, Twilight.”  She grinned.

I rolled my eyes.  “So I’m just Twilight now, not Twilight Sparkle?”

“Well, we became such good friends I was sad when you didn’t show up yesterday.  I was really looking forward to more of your plans for controlling Las Pegasus.  After all, your ideas were invaluable in capturing Cloudsdale.”

I felt all the blood rush from my face.  I...I helped her... do what?  What did I tell her?  “What did you do?”  Out of everything, that burst through the barrier of thought to speech, making the changeling Queen laugh.

“Just as you said.  We started killing wives until the husbands submitted, foals when no husband was to be found.  All the other ponies were just killed the minute they didn’t submit.  It was rough at first, but we managed to capture the city with only about two hundred casualties.  Much better than Manehatten.”

“You... you’re terrible!  How could you hurt ponies like that?  And those you deem to call subjects at that!”

She laughed, an evil laugh that chilled the soul.  “No, I call them food.  The changelings are my children, my people.  This land is just so full of love, it makes such an excellent feeding ground.  Besides, it was your idea, not mine.  All I did was give you the book.”

“And drugged me!”  I couldn’t help it, I was beginning to get defensive.

“The ideas came from you.  All the drug did was make you more compliant.  Pity that you caught on.  Now I have to spend time coming up with another way to make you cooperative.”

I jumped to my hooves.  “I will never help you.”

As I walked out the door, pushing past the guards, I heard her reply, tainted by laughter.  “But my dear, you already did.”


***INTERMISSION***
REPORT FROM THE FRONT


CHARLEMANE
CONFIRMED LOSS OF THE SKY.  VARMINTS ACHIEVED TOTAL CONTROL AT ROUGHLY 0850 HOURS ON THE 2ND.  PLEASE CONFIRM RELOCATION TO LOST CAUSE.  NIGHT LIGHT REPORTS COTTON CANDY, BOMBER, AND SPYRO MISSING.  STILL NO SIGNS OF BUNNY OR THE SPARK.  MOONFIRE REQUESTS THAT WE HOLD OUT HOPE ON THE SPARK.  SAYS EVEN IF SHE LOOKS TO HAVE BEEN TURNED, TOTAL CONVERSION IS NOT LIKELY.  SAYS SPARK IS TOO CLEVER TO JUST GIVE IN.  PERSONALLY, I HOPE SHE IS RIGHT.  NIGHT LIGHT IS NOT SO SURE.  SAYS GIVING INTO THE DARK IS MUCH EASIER THAN DEFENDING THE LIGHT.  CANTDANCE REMINDS US THAT THE ELVES COULD MARCH FROM THE NORTH POLE WITH FULL FIGHTING FORCE WITHIN THREE TO FOUR MONTHS DEPENDING ON WEATHER.  SOURCES DISAGREE, SAYS SOMBRERO IS CAUSING PROBLEMS.  PLEASE ADVISE
FIRST LIEUTENANT:
THE FAMILY.

FAMILY
RELOCATION TO LOST CAUSE CONFIRMED.  TELL CANTDANCE THE ELVES SHOULD MARCH ON ETERNAL LIGHT BEFORE END OF YEAR.  TELL THEM TO COORDINATE WITH US ON LOST CAUSE.  ALSO REMIND THEM THAT THEY MAY HAVE A BIGGER FORCE FOR HEARTHS WARMING IF THIS GOES SOUTH.  HOPE SPARK FINDS A WAY OUT OF THIS, BECAUSE COMMAND IS NOT ENTIRELY SURE THAT OUR PLANS WILL COME TO FRUITION.  POSSIBLE THAT SHE TURNED ANYWAY?  KEEP IN TOUCH WITH MOONFIRE AND NIGHT LIGHT AS LONG AS THE MIRROR BURNS, THEY ARE OUR BEST SOURCE OF INFORMATION.
CHARLEMANE

P.S. I miss you.

***END TRANSMISSION***


Day 20:
The nice guard was back today.  I know, because he actually came in and talked to me.  He seems...different.  His eyes don’t have that same malicious stare the others have.  I don’t trust him, but he could be a good source of information.  He said he was now part of my “personal guard unit.”  Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up with events in Equestria using him.

Anyway, he brought me food and water; not poisoned, I made sure to check.  He also brought another book, Ancient Equestrian Warfare, with a note from Chrysalis inside

Twilight Sparkle.

I did not have your food drugged today, as you obviously noticed.  I did, however, have this book sent in the hope that you would be a willing ally in this venture of mine.  After all, whether you help or not may be instrumental in deciding the fate of your friends Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.  Hopefully, their punishment won’t be worse because you didn’t help.

Chrysalis

This was the first I had heard of any of the girls.  The fact that she didn’t say anything about the other three filled my heart with hope, almost enough to counteract the despair that threatened to overwhelm me at the thinly-veiled threat to Pinkie and Rainbow.

I will not help her.  Tell the others that I’m sorry.

Day 49:
At first, I resisted her.  Through the forced fasting, the sleep deprivation, the grueling forced marches through the city.  I even stood firm when she had one of her guards slice my right foreleg from shoulder to hoof.  But today... today she took me to the cell where they were holding Rainbow Dash.  She was chained to the wall--hung from her wings.

Chrysalis asked me again if I was going to help, after making sure Dash was awake of course.  I instantly said no, as I had every other time she asked me.  She then...  She nodded to one of the guards, who walked over to Rainbow, and brought the hilt of his sword down on Rainbow’s wing.

A loud crack echoed around the dungeon, followed quickly after by her blood-curdling scream.  I crammed my eyes shut at the sound, frantically listing off the exponential powers of two to try and block out the sound.

2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384, 32768, 65536, 131072, 262144, 524288, 1048576, 2097152, 4194304, 8388608, 16777216...


After what felt like eternity, the screaming stopped, Rainbow had finally passed out.  I let out a shaky breath, wiping away the few tears that managed to seep through the impenetrable walls of my eyelids.  Chrysalis was smiling smugly.  “Still wish to resist, foolish pony?”

I just stared at her, the hatred burning in my eyes being the only answer needed.

“Fine!”  she shouted.  “Take her away!”

As the guards dragged me through the hallway back up to the room, past the cages of ponies of all shapes, sizes, colors, races, and talents, I heard another crack, and another mind-numbing scream echo up and down the hallways.  As we walked, I could easily make out Dash say, “don’t give in Twi!  Stand strong against this bucking--”  and then the door slammed shut.

Day 50:
Today, we went back down into the dungeons, but this time to visit Pinkie Pie.  We went down, down into the deepest parts of the dungeons, where they used to keep the most deranged and twisted ponies.  At the end of a long, dark hallway, past two separate bastions of guards, sat a thick, steel door, with a small window crosshatched by bars.

Inside, was Pinkie Pie, but not the Pinkie Pie I knew.

Her mane was straight as a sheet of glass, and almost as reflective.  She sat, eyes wide but unseeing, in the middle of the room.  Chrysalis had the door opened, and had me thrown inside.

“T-Twilight?  Is that actually you?  Mr. Dustie said you would never come for me.  He said that I wasn’t your friend anymore.”  She launched herself at me, squeezing me in a hug more constricting than one of Lotus’ mud baths.  “I-I’m still your friend, right Twilight?”

“Of course you are Pinkie!”  I returned the hug, just happy to see my friend alive, and comparatively unharmed from the cyan pegasus still hanging from her broken wings in one of the cells above.

“But..but I’ve been down here for a long time Twilight.  A really long time.  They said you were in the castle, but that you didn’t want to see me.”  She let go and took a step back, her eyes taking on an accusative glint.  “They said you hurt Dashie.”

“Pinkie, I could never hurt one of you girls, especially Dash.  You know how much stronger she is than me!”

Her eyes softened.  “I...I’m sorry Twilight.  I...I’ve just been locked away so long...”  Then she did something I never thought I would see Pinkie do.  She started crying, tears running down her face.  I reached her and wrapped my forehooves around her, continuing the hug interrupted before.  I gently ran a hoof through her oddly-straight mane, trying to calm her down.

“It’s ok Pinkie, I’ll find a way out of this, I promise.”

“No, you won’t Twilight Sparkle.  You will be too busy.  Playtime is over fillies.  Back to work.”  A candy-coated serpentine voice slithered from the door.  One of the changelings yanked me out of the cell, and slammed the door just in time for Pinkie to slam into it, screaming about how they couldn’t leave her alone again.  Chrysalis turned to me, and posed the question she had asked every time I had seen her thus far:

My answer did not change.

“Have it your way then, we shall see what you say once you see this.”  She turned to one of the guards outside of Pinkie’s cell.  “Release her.”

I was confused, until I heard the grinding of gears, and the rumbling of stone grating against stone.  Pinkie screamed as she fell into whatever terrible trap Chrysalis had planned for her this time.

“What have you done to her?”  I practically shouted, on the knife edge of hysterics.

She gave an evil chuckle.  “Just sent her to the Crystal Mines, a place I’m sure you are familiar with after your stunt at the wedding, to live out her days.  Alone.”

I stared at her, mind completely wiped of all coherent thought.  That is two friends that I have hurt by my stubbornness, but how many more ponies would suffer if I gave in?  How could I live with myself if I caused pain and suffering to countless ponies, just to spare five?

“But wait,”  Chrysalis said in a sing-song voice as she led our procession back up the stairs from the squalid waste of the dungeon, “there’s more, little pony.”

I stewed over those words for the better part of ten minutes, the trip from the dungeons back up into the castle.  They became painfully clear as I walked into my room, with the Queen and her Celestia-damned minions following the whole way.

“Twilight!”  A familiar voice graced my ear.  No, no she couldn’t have.  “Twilight!  Up here!”  My eyes slowly, reluctantly drifted upwards, to the dome I called my ceiling.  Suspended in a cage, in the middle of the dome, was Spike.

“Twilight, thank goodness you are here.  I knew you would find a way out of...”  his voice trailed off as I was followed by Chrysalis and her entourage.  His voice dropped into an icy spear, aimed directly at me.  “No.  You did not team up with her.”

“No, not yet,”  Chrysalis said from the door, a sad inflection to her voice, “but I think I might be able to change her mind.”  With that, she shot a bolt of energy at Spike.  The power coursed through him, igniting all of the nerves in his small draconian body alight with pain.  He screamed, the fourth scream from a good friend in two days, and something inside of me broke.

As the agony worked it’s way out of his body, she laughed and exited the room, shutting and bolting the door with a bang.


*****


I thought long and hard that night, as Luna’s gift hung high in the sky, bravely trying to do it’s best in the sun’s absence.  I didn’t want to help her.  I didn’t want to have the suffering of hundreds of thousands of ponies on my consciousness, but at the same time... I already had the suffering of Pinkie, Dash, and Spike, and it hurt almost as bad, if not worse, than what I imagined Chrysalis would do.  Maybe...Maybe if I help she would come to trust me, and I could use that trust to destroy her, and bring Celestia and Luna back.  Celestia...  I could feel my mind wander at the thought of her name.  No, have to focus.  I...I don’t know what I’m going to do.  I’ll sleep on it, maybe I’ll have better luck in the morning.

Day 51:
I awoke in a state even worse than I went to sleep.  My mind was torn in half, each side vying for a different option.

“To hell with everypony else.  You have to give in, to save your friends.”  One part of my mind said, the Emotional side.

“No!  You can’t turn over the entire nation in lieu of your five measly friends.  It would not be ethical,” the other part countered, the voice of Reason.

“What does the whole nation matter!?  You don’t know all those ponies, but you know your friends and Spike.”

“Just because you know them doesn’t make them any more important than everypony else.”  

I could practically hear the other side sigh.  “Fine then, what about your family?”  My family...  “Yes, your family.  What if she has Daddy captured, and locked in the dungeon, and makes you watch her cut off his horn or something?”  Emotion... she was really starting to make sense

Tears leapt unbidden to my eyes.  Even Reason did not counter that.  No matter what happened, I couldn’t let Chrysalis hurt my family.

“Aha!”  Reason again, “what about Spike?  Isn’t he family?”

“If we help, she won’t hurt him, duh.”  Emotion was becoming more and more rational as time went on...

Day 52:
I asked to see Chrysalis today, said I had something to tell her and her alone.  They led me down to the grand entrance hall, between the two great, curved staircases to the second floor, and down the long hallway where at one time diplomats and commoners alike vied for attention from the Royal Sisters.  The first thing I noticed of the throne room: they fixed the pillar Celestia fell through.  They also hung black banners with the changeling sigil from the giant marble pylons.

We stopped before the new throne; a massive, twisted thing made of black marble with twisted spires reaching for the ceiling.  Flanking her sides were two enormous changelings, easily almost twice the size of Big Macintosh, Applejack’s older brother.  Changelings bustled around one of the windows, obviously to put up one of the stained glass monstrosities that Celestia chronicled the history of Equestria with.  I noticed it was the one of us and Nightmare Moon.

“Ah, Miss Sparkle.  What is so important that you had my guards bring you down here for?”  she asked with a self satisfied smile.  I had a feeling that she knew exactly what I was going to say.

“I’ll help you Chrysalis, but you have to promise me some things first.”

She laughed derisively, making the hair down my neck stand on end.  “I really don’t think you are in the position to name your terms of service.”

I continued, ignoring her.  “First, you will not hurt any more of my friends.  Second, you will not treat the ponies any worse than absolutely necessary.  Third, you will find some way to heal Dash’s wings.  And fourth, you give me access to the Royal Canterlot Archives.  I think if I am to research for you, I will do it better on my own discretion.”

“Yes, fine, I suppose, and no.”  I nodded.  I wasn’t really expecting the fourth one, not yet anyway.  “You will begin tomorrow.  Good day, Miss Sparkle.”

With that the guards led me out of the hallway.  Chrysalis returned to...whatever it is the dictator of an Equestrian state has to do.

I hope I haven’t made a grave mistake.
> Tribulations of the Tower - The Dark Times
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Tribulations of the Tower (The Dark Times)


First Year of the Takeover
Day 254:
        Why?  Why did I ever feel this was a good idea?  Sure, I can say I did it to save myself, to save what’s left of my family, to save Spike, or to come up with safe ways for Chrysalis to rule over the shell of Equestria, but what did I really accomplish?  Months later and I’m still in the same bucking place as I was in the beginning.

        She still doesn’t trust me, which is probably a good move on her part.  Ponies are still getting hurt, neigh, killed in the streets for no reason.  Everything is going to Tartarus, and I have no answers.  To make things worse, a rebel faction has been making raids on small towns.  Never enough to do any real damage, just enough to make Chrysalis angry.  

        Which brings me to this: Chrysalis has halted all my other projects, and has me researching what she calls “burrows;” a plan she hopes will mean she is able to lock down the cities under her power and... it’s bad.  It’s hard to explain now, because I don’t have a good grasp on it myself, maybe I’ll jot more down about it once I know more.

        No, the worst part of all this is how powerless I still am.  I said I gave in so that I could try to protect the ponies that Chrysalis is feeding off of, but it isn’t working.  She is just as crazy as ever, and it shows no signs of slowing down.

        Whatever this rebel faction is, I hope they move quickly, because they are all the hope we have left.

Day 300:
Bi-Weekly report.

Queen Chrysalis, enclosed are my findings of this two week period, on the project codenamed “burrow.”

Initial testing of build one in Dodge Junction has been a devastating failure.  Initial reports from the Changeling Resource Consolidation Bureau report that the cost of living per equine head is down, as is overall “love production.”  It seems that arbitrarily locking groups of at least six ponies (groups of three) will not induce love, as I told you in the beginning.  Total cost of experiment so far: roughly 1700 bits.

Will test build two in Hoofington within the month.

Twilight Sparkle.

I put down the quill pen, disgusted with myself.  Well, not so much myself, as the fact that after everything I said I would try, I was still unable to do any of it.  She wanted me to help with her stupid project burrow, so I researched for weeks to try and discover the best way to do that, for the ponies and the changelings.  I gave my plan to Chrysalis, told her the advantages to doing it my way, and how it would benefit both over time.  Of course, she decided it wasn’t “good enough for the changelings.”

So, I hit the books once again.  I made another plan, and she once again shot it down.  Five plans.  Five different plans before I finally gave in and just told her, “well, if none of this is good enough, why not just lock a few ponies in a room until they love each other?  Problem bucking solved.”  and stormed out of the throne room.

Apparently, she thought that was a great idea, because that is exactly what she did.  Over the course of two weeks, various statistics were sent to me for personal review.  Psychological diagnoses of the ponies involved, costs of living from before and after the new housing arrangement, any and all military reports emanating from the town, and the general amount of love produced.  (Though how they measure that is beyond me.  Maybe they have something like a wingpower meter...?)

I walked over to the door, knocking on it to call my current guard.  To my pleasant surprise, Zil walked into the room.  “Ah, hello friend.”  I said.  “I have the latest report for Chrysalis, if you would like to have it sent off for me.”

He took the scroll in his own strange facsimile of magic.  “Of course, Miss Sparkle.  Anything else I can do for you?”

I pondered for a moment.  “Zil, can you keep a secret.”

He narrowed his eyes, trying to divine my request from the look on my face.  “That depends on the secret Miss Sparkle.”

I leaned in conspiratorially.  “I want to get out of here.”  I grinned at him, only half joking.

He laughed, though it sounded forced.  He had changed from the kind changeling who brought me food when I was first captured.  “I’m afraid I don’t exactly have the authority to do that.  I will forward your request to Chrysalis, if you wish.”

I shook my head.  “No, I don’t think she would go for it.  Thanks though.”

He nodded, and slipped out of the room without another word.  He’ll deliver my report to Chrysalis, and she will expect me to start work on the next version.  I wonder if she will tell me which one she wants implemented...

Day 304:
        It...It was Shining’s birthday today.  I sealed my door with magic as powerful as I could make to prevent anything from coming in to bother me.  It may sound silly, but I threw him a party.  Not much, mind you, but I was able to convince Zil to bring me a small cake from the kitchens, and a candle or two.  It sounds strange, being friendly with a changeling, but like I said, he’s different.

        For a while now, he has been feeding me information from the outside world, such as news of the “resistance.”  It sounds less like an organized resistance, and more like ponies just using the inherent chaos to loot and raid for things they couldn’t have under the Equestrian government.

        I sat there in my room with Spike, having broken the lock on his cage a long time ago, and we celebrated what would have been Shining’s thirtieth birthday.  He was always saying that he was going to be a captain in the Royal Guard before he was thirty.  Personally, I think his goal was all too realistic.

        I think Spike is doing ok, considering he was only kidnapped, forced into a small cage, tortured, and forced to watch me get tortured.  Could have been worse.  I... sometimes I think I’m starting to slip though.  The little things that I always used to remember, the natural organization and rhythm that my life used to follow, has obviously been completely turned on it’s head.

        It is easy to forget when I’m busy working, even if it was one of Chrysalis’ twisted projects.  It’s when the lights are off, and Celestia has descended from the horizon to be replaced by the gentle light of Luna that it can be hard to cope.  I try to be strong for Spike, but I think that he sees through my facade sometimes.  It is just so difficult...  

I look at the tapestries and such in the castle, those that Chrysalis hasn’t had removed, and I’m reminded of Shining Armor and the girls.  I look at the books and things in my room, and think of my parents, whose fate Chrysalis has made sure that I don’t find out.  The fact that she doesn’t want me to know what she did to them just makes it that much harder to deal with.

And don’t even get my started on Princess Luna and Princess Celestia.  I hadn’t even seen the Lunar Princess since she visited Ponyville on Nightmare Night.  I had been hoping that she was going to be as good of a friend as Celestia, or one of the girls.  Guess that is out of the question now.

Celestia...  Celestia is where it hurts the worst.  She had been my mentor, my teacher, practically my mother since I was a small filly, and now she is gone?  Just gone?  How am I supposed to believe that?  How am I supposed to believe that Chrysalis can just take her away from me like that?  She was the most powerful pony in all of Equestria, maybe even in the whole world, and I’m just supposed to buy that Cheese Legs ran her off the bucking planet?  What’s more likely is that she just had enough.  Enough of the responsibility, enough of the stress.

Enough of me.

Day 305:
        “Miss Sparkle, Queen Chrysalis request--”

        “Yeah, yeah I heard you the first time.  Give me a moment, I’ll be out soon.”  I rolled out of bed, finally realizing that procrastinating my eventual rising was not going to work today, and attempted to tame my mane.  Valiant fight abandoned, I trotted to the door, throwing it open before walking into my customary escort of changelings.

        We marched down the corridors, now draped in liveries matching the glorious changeling empire.  Queen Cheese Legs herself was waiting for me in her personal chambers, (Celestia’s personal chambers.  This... thing... will never truly take her place.)  “Good morning Twilight Sparkle,” she said, not looking up from the papers spread across her desk.

        “Good morning, your majesty,”  I replied walking over to the desk.  On the inside, I shuddered at the honorific that Chrysalis did not deserve, but if I didn’t use it, they would lock Spike back up.  Pick your battles, Sparkle, pick your battles.

        “So, Project Burrow...” she prompted, finally looking over at me with her piercing gaze.  My eyes, however, were not drawn to her eyes.  They were drawn to her crown, the bastardized symbol of power in Equestria.

        “With all due respect,” Queen Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at the implied insult, “I sent a report to you via my personal guard at the start of the week.”

        “I’m aware of this.  I read it, but was wondering if you had any other ideas or suggestions, other than ‘it failed.’”

        I gathered my thoughts.  “As I said at the outset of this project, I believe the best way to go about this would be to simply seal each city.  On the inside, ponies are allowed to live their lives almost as they did under the rule of the Celestial Sisters, freed from the knowledge of the changelings by an illusion.  On the outside, walls.  Massive walls bastioned with changeling forces.  This way, the ponies inside are free to live their lives without the restrictive presence of the occup- sorry- the army watching over everything they do.”

        Chrysalis flinched at my insinuation that the changelings were not, in fact, the true rulers of Equestria.  Of course they aren’t.  The Royal Guard are.  You will never, ever, be the national army, just the occupying invaders.  “I suppose it has merit.”  The occupying leader of Equestria looked at her notes.  Her face adopted an evil smile as she raised her eyes to look into mine.  “Ok, I’ll give the go ahead for the project.”

        Finally.  “Thank you, Your Majesty.  I’ll go and prepare the town for-”

        “Oh no, that won’t be necessary.”  Her grin spread wider.  “You’ll run the test at Ponyville.  Dismissed.”

        What!?  My eyes shot wide as my mouth spewed forth a response, not willing to wait for my mind to catch up.  “Your Majesty, I respectfully-”

        “Dismissed!”  She waved her hoof, the signal for the guards to come and take me back to my chambers.  


*****


        “Hiya Twilight!” Spike called from within my chambers.  At first he was very unhappy about my “apprenticeship” to Chrysalis, but he came around.  I think that once he understood the circumstances he realized that he was being silly.  After all, it’s hard to be angry at somepony for something they have no choice in.

        “Hey Spike,” I replied, plopping down in front of my overcrowded desk.  I picked up three books on advanced magic, flipping through them quickly.  I had less than a day to prepare adequate spells to isolate Ponyville for Project Burrow.  I had to get it right, and it had to be perfect.

        He trundled over, putting a cup of tea on an empty part of the desk.  He probably said something else, but I wasn’t paying attention.  More and more it seemed my forced labor came before Spike, and it killed me, but for the moment there was no other way.  I had to make sure something wasn’t going to go wrong and incinerate the town I used to call home.

        Things I had never studied under my deified mentor flew through my head.  Advanced combat magicks that only the highest order of spellweavers in the Royal Army had ever had privilege to even look at flowed like water.  Architectural theory and military history was a small snack, leading up to the larger course of mass psychology, all of it culminating in a detailed architectural drawing of Ponyville, and what was going to be it’s surroundings.  Project Burrow MK II was officially underway.  Joy.

Day 315:
        The plans came back today from Ponyville.  It took some doing, but I managed to get Chrysalis to agree to my three-wall system.  The first is a small wall, surrounding the borders of the town.  Next was a medium sized wall, housing the soldiers and various defensive emplacements between the two.  The third wall is actually a dome, stretching up into the heavens before curving back and touching the secondary wall.  Various gates flanked by search towers provide entrance and exit, should anypony be granted travel visas between the towns.

        I also managed to sneak in some base structural weaknesses into the walls.  Hit the right brick in the right spot, and part of the wall may or may not fall down.  With some luck, I’ll find some way to slip this information to the resistance, and they can get the ponies out.

        I’m really worried about Spike.  This project has consumed all my attention for the last week or so, and I haven’t been able to spend any time with him.  Even going back, as Chrysalis’ tasks become more and more demanding, he suffers.  I need to find some way to make it up to him, but how?

Day 320:
        Knock- knock- knock.  I cracked open an eye, casting it across the wasteland of books and notes that was my pillow to the door.  “Come in,” I croaked, voice hoarse from lack of use.

        Zil entered the room.  “Good morning, Miss Sparkle.  I come to deliver breakfast,” he nodded to a cart behind him, “and a report.”  He pushed the cart inside, allowing me to grab a still-warm roll before proceeding.  “The foundations of the first wall around Ponyville is going according to schedule.  It, and it’s counterpart, should be finished within the month.  As per the plan, the changeling guards have been withdrawn from the streets and posted along the roads and other ways into and out of the small town.  Already, there is a marked improvement in their attitudes and outlook.”

        I nodded.  It was as I suspected.  It wasn’t the changeling disposition of our rulers that was upsetting the populace, it was the constant reminder that things were not as they used to be.  In all, the changeling takeover did not change much in most towns.  Day to day life remained unchanged for the average pony, only really affecting those whose main job was with the government, such as the mayor.

        I nodded, silenced by my roll.  He continued.  “Also, the resistance has begun launching raids on the smaller towns, obliterating all garrisons.  They fight well, and with an innate knowledge of our defenses and tactics.  Chrysalis suspects you are giving them information.  Be careful.”  With that, he left.

        The resistance are actually making strides to do something?  This was news to me.  Ever since I had first heard of them, all they had done was guerrilla tactics against convoys, and groups of changeling soldiers moving from town to town, or guarding roads.  I hope that however they are getting their information does not dry up soon, because it sounds like it might be pissing off Cheese Legs.  And what makes her mad, bodes well for me.

Day 360:
        “Twilight Sparkle!”  The loud exclamation from the door immediately drew my attention.  I looked towards the doors of the study I find myself in more than my room these days.  Queen Chrysalis was there, and she looked absolutely livid.

        “What is the meaning of this!?”  She shouted, quickly walking over to where I was currently sitting and shoving a document in my face.  I quickly skimmed it, hiding my smile at the report.  I only picked out the broad basics of the file.

        Apparently, the resistance didn’t need my help sabotaging the walls around Dodge Junction, the second city to be upgraded to the Burrow MK II.  No, instead they found it prudent just to blow a massive hole in the side of it.  Fifteen changelings were killed in the initial explosion, and over eighty killed in the fracas following.  Every single pony had been saved, and had all escaped safely.  Nopony had been found

        “Well, Your Majesty, it appears as though the resistance attacked Dodge Junction, and killed roughly one hundred of your guards there in the process of freeing all the ponies living there.”  I should have stopped there, but something egged me onward.  “Really, now you need me to read your reports for you?”

        She slapped me across the face.  Yup, definitely should have stopped.  “I will NOT put up with your insolence today, Sparkle.  I told you to design something to keep the ponies locked inside the cities and keep them happy enough to love.”

        “Which I did, and pretty well judging by my reports.”

        “Well they aren’t locked inside the city now!”  She glared at me, rearranging the books on my desk, bringing forward the ones on strategy and defense.  “Change the Burrow; make it more defensible.”

        Now I was getting upset.  “When you told me to design your stupid burrow system, you said nothing about defensive capabilities.  Nothing!  I put them in there because it helped the overall design and security.  It is your job as the supposed leader of this country and the military to defend YOUR cities, not mine.”

        “How DARE you!”  She shouted, horn sparking with magic.  Her horn glowed with a sickly, green light, lifting me into the air.  She threw me into a wall, which would have hurt if I hadn't anticipated it and formed a shield around myself.  “I will not be spoken to like this, especially from one as insignificant as you!”  I could hear the pure hatred in her words.  “Guards,”  four of the biggest changelings I had ever seen stormed into the room, quickly grabbing and subduing me.  “Lock her up somewhere.  I don’t want to see her face for a long time.”

        They took me down into the dungeon, down to where she had Pinkie held.  I noticed along the way that Rainbow wasn’t in her cell anymore.  They threw me into the cell, locking the door behind me with a loud ‘clang.’

Year Two of the Takeover
Day 38...?:
        I have been locked away for a long time now, I assume at least a month, though it is hard to tell when the only light you see is a guttering torch for a few minutes while they push your rotten food in on a tray, “accidently” knocking some onto the cold, dirty stone below.  The only way to measure time I have is when they give me food.  Two meals a day, most of the time.  Sometimes they forget, not that I’m really missing the fine cuisine they serve here.

        Around two weeks or so ago, they began bringing me books again.  Chrysalis has decided that I must still work, even though my working conditions are worse than those of the ancient crystal miners.  First, it was the revisions to Project Burrow.  Then, it was tactics against guerrilla warfare.  Right now, I am developing an armored convoy to use to transport ponies.  She didn’t say where to.

        They locked Spike back up in his cage, I can see it if I twist my head around by the window.  I hope he is doing better than I am.  I...I don’t know what to do.  I work, and work, but I’m losing what I have left of my mind.  Hallucinations are becoming more and more common, to the point that I’m trying to bring them on consciously, almost like more realistic daydreams.

        But even in my dreams, I am not free.

Day 43:
        First off, light sucks.  You get locked away underground for a long time, the only thing you want is to see the sun, right?

        Wrong.

        It hurts your eyes, really badly at first, but doesn’t truly go away for hours afterwards.  They brought me before Queen Cheese Legs.  She was sitting smugly on her throne, crown positively buzzing with power.  “Hello, Twilight Sparkle.”

        I nodded, not trusting my voice after over a month of silence.

        “You are probably wondering why I had you brought out after a month and a half of isolation.”

        I nodded once again.

        She wrinkled her brow.  “Not going to talk?”

        I shook my head.

        She sighed dramatically.  “Fine.  Well, you have been such a good worker lately I decided to let you and Spike back out.  You will continue to work from the confines of your quarters, with Spike, of course.  However, if you step out of line again.”  She raised her hoof, carefully examining it for a moment.  “I won’t be responsible for what happens.”  She motioned, and Spike was led over to me, in chains.

        I bowed, and allowed myself to be escorted back to my chambers.  It was a mess, but after a few hours cleaning, it was back to its’ old, messy self once again.

        “Twilight...?”  Spike started, walking into the room shortly after me, and shortly before the door shut and locked, a sound that was far too familiar.

        I rushed over and hugged him.  “I’m sorry.”  I said, voice raspy from lack of use.



        “For everything.  For abandoning you for Chrysalis’ work, for not being able to protect you.”  I said, hot tears starting to run down my face.  “I couldn’t save everypony...I can’t even save myself.”

        We sat there in each other’s arms/hooves for a long time.  I resolved then and there to not forget about him, and to do whatever necessary to keep him safe.

Day 65:
        Days came and went in a blur.  I drifted from project to project, making sure to never abandon Spike this time around.  Simple projects: irrigation problems, food shortages, lack of weather pegasi in smaller towns, animal attacks, they came and went as easily as the larger ones: military training, the latest revision of the Burrow project, my secret studies of combat magic, and my attempts to find out what this ‘Taint’ was that made Chrysalis so powerful.

        The Taint.  None of my books in Ponyville had ever mentioned it.  Come to think of it, none of the books in the Royal Canterlot Archives that I had laid hooves on said anything of it either.  It had been easier to get information on Nightmare Moon than the Taint, and the latter seemed much more deadly.

        “You know Twilight, if the Taint is that big of a deal, you could always go into the Royal Canterlot Archives and see if they have anything in there.”  Spike said one day after hearing me complain at my lack of information.  Again.

        “It’s not that easy Spike,” I began, “Chrysalis will never allow me free access to the archives, and even if she did I never saw anything about it when I was studying under Princess Celestia.”

        “Well, weren’t there some places you weren’t allowed when Celestia was teaching you?  And as for Queen Chrysalis not giving you access, you could always sneak in,” he said, shrugging his scaly shoulders.

        “Spike!”  I stopped what I was doing and rounded on him.  “You shouldn’t talk about breaking the law like that, especially with you-know-who in charge.”

        Spike rolled his eyes, but stayed silent.  I sent him back to help organize the tomes that Chrysalis was sending to me every few days, and sat down at my desk to dig into my latest project.  I still despised working on things like this, but at least it gave me something to do.  Whenever possible, I made sure to instil weaknesses whenever it was possible, and make sure they aren’t obvious to the trained or untrained eye.
 
        He did have a point though.  Obviously, I had studied here as a small filly, and as such Celestia had forbidden me from certains sections.  Being a good little filly, I stayed where I was told to, but I imagine there was probably something about the Taint in the areas I couldn’t go to in the past.  Maybe sneaking out to try and find something isn’t such a bad idea...

Day 68:
        Tonight's the night.  I spent the last three days pouring over maps of the castle, and I’m as ready as I think I’ll ever be.  I waited until Spike was safe and asleep, making sure to case enchantments on him so he wouldn’t wake up while I was gone, and snuck out the door, into the dark hallway beyond.

        “Where do you think you’re going, Sparkle?” Zil asked from his position next to the door.  He was standing against the wall, leaning against it far enough back from the door that I didn’t see him until I was already outside, and exposed.

        “Um, nowhere...?”  I replied.  I didn’t even make it out of the room before getting caught...  

        “Doesn’t look like nowhere.  The way you are dressed up, I would assume you’re going somewhere you know you shouldn’t be.”  The smirk on his face was visible even in the dim light of the moon.

        I hung my head, determined to charge horn first into the trouble I caused myself.  “Fine, you caught me.  Take me to Chrysalis so she can murder me, or whatever.  I don’t really care anymore.”

        His smirk widened.  “No, I’m not going to do anything like that.”

        I looked up at him.  “What?”

        “I’m coming with you.”  He plopped down on all fours and walked over to stand next to me.

        “What?”  I repeated, not quite getting what was going on.

        “Look, you are trying to sneak around without Her Majesty find out, yes?”

        I nodded.

        “Then I’m coming with you.  I know all the patrol routes, and the places most likely to get us caught.  You couldn’t make it without me, and if anyone else caught you, you would be taken to Chrysalis to be murdered,” he grinned, “or whatever.”

        Ok, so he wants to help me.  I’m cool with that.  “Why?”

        He looked to the ground, smile falling off his face.  “Because, I too want to get back at Chrysalis, and helping you is the best way to do that.”  I could tell it was a somewhat sensitive subject, so I let it slide.  For now.

        “Let’s go then, accomplice.”  I started walking down the corridor, Zil close behind.  Looks like I was right about this changeling being different.  Hope it doesn’t come back to bite me.


*****


        We snuck through the castle, sneakily avoiding every changeling patrol we would have run into.  After twenty or so tense minutes, two close calls, one bathroom break, and a couple banged hooves, we finally arrived at the enormous gilded gates that yielded access to the Royal Canterlot Archives.

        I reached out with my telekinesis, only to be stopped by Zil’s... hoof... in front of me.  I looked up at him.  “That won’t work,” he said, reaching into his saddlebag to grab a key.  “It’ll just set off alarms.”

        He put the key into a small slot on the door, one I’m almost one hundred percent positive wasn’t there before the takeover, turning the key until it audibly clicked.  Seeming satisfied, he took the door handle in his own dark aura, opening it silently.  We quickly stepped inside, closing the door with a muffled thud  behind us.

        I looked around, taking in the familiar scent of old, musty books from the childhood.  I looked over at Zil, pleased that he hadn’t led me into a trap, which I honestly had expected him to.  “Ok, we’re looking for information on the Taint.  Help me look.”  I ordered, heading over to the History section of the library.  He hesitantly followed.

        My eyes skimmed over the titles, frustration growing as each and every one was looked at, considered, and thrown out.  “Grr, this is hopeless!”  I exclaimed after the fourth shelf of worthless titles.

        “Is there some section not open to the public that we could check?”  Zil asked, returning to my side from the next set over, obviously not having found anything worthwhile either.

        “It’s the Royal Canterlot Archives.  Not just anypony can walk in here.”  I replied, annoyance in the failure of my favorite resource making me snap at my ally.  “Oh well, I should have known there wasn’t going to be much here.  I spent my foalhood locked inside these wa--”

        I was interrupted by Zil’s hoof over my mouth.  “Shhh,” he whispered.  “I don’t think we are alone in here.”

        His suspicions were confirmed when another voice pierced the darkness, with the air of stolen authority.  “Oh, Twilight!  Where are you?”

        Buck.  “Come on,” I whispered to Zil, “we have to hide.”  I took off, quietly, to a nook I had discovered as a foal, a hole behind one of the larger bookshelves.  I quickly enveloped the guardian shelf in a lavender aura, pulling it side, praying that it wasn’t visible to the other intruders into the book’s sanctuary.

        I pushed him inside quickly and followed him, silently sealing us into the niche.  I peeked one eye out of a small gap between two books, just in time to see Chrysalis herself followed by her honor guard of drugged-up changelings.

“Come on out, Twilight.  I know you are in here somewhere, and you can’t get out before I find you!”  She said in a sing-song voice.  We held our breath as she slowly stalked down the alley, hooves clicking loudly against the stones inlaid in the floor.

As she continued down the row, eventually turning into the next one, Zil turned to me, mouth pressed against my ear.  “Is...Is she gone?”  He whispered, very very softly.

“I...I think so.”  I replied, trying to calm my heart down before it beat its’ way out of my chest.

“I think not,” came the voice from the other side of the wall.  The bookcase shimmered, before being ripped--books and all--from the wall and thrown across the room with a massive crash!  Somepony screamed.  I think it was me, but I’m going to say it was Zil.

Zil screamed, a very high-pitched girly sound for a male changeling, as we were forcibly pulled out of our hiding place.  We were held suspended in the air before a very angry Chrysalis.  Her horn glowed brightly with a dark light, matching the light emitted by her crown.

“And just WHAT do you think you are all doing?”  she asked, glaring daggers at us both.

        “Well,” Zil started, “we were just out for a leisurely stroll through the gardens when we got turned around and--”

“SHUT IT ZIL!”  Chrysalis shouted, almost rivaling the Royal Canterlot Voice for volume, “I know you have been helping the resistance since day one.  Trying to find something to help them are you?”

The news about Zil being one of the resistance surprised me.  I had thought he was just a changeling that Chrysalis had wronged--and maybe he was--but I didn’t think his hatred ran that deep.

He hung his head, for he knew he was beat.  Sensing she was going to get no more out of him, she turned on me.  “And what are you doing, Miss Sparkle?  Isn’t it past your bedtime?”

I glared at her, trying subtly to break her magic hold with mind, but every time my magic touched hers, a burning sensation ripped through my horn.  Because of this mental war, I was unable to respond.

She tisked.  “Too tired to talk?  Maybe I should lock you up where you’ll be able to get your beauty sleep.”  She chained me to the back of one of her honor guard, and had him escort me out of the room.  As I left, I heard her speaking to Zil.  “And as for you, traitor...”

Day 69:
        I was out for a long time.  When I came to, I was locked in another cell, but not the one situated above the pit to the Crystal Mines.  I finally came to with two large changeling guards standing at the door to my cell.

        “Morning boys, come for some advice?  Maybe some coffee or tea?”  I looked around the spartan cell.  “Might have some biscuits lying around leftover from my massive breakfast.”

        Any further sarcastic comments I may have had were silenced when one of the guards hit me upside the head, hard enough to make my ears ring.  The other one picked me up, and proceeded to carry me through the maze of passages in the dungeon, and lower castle above.

        They took me to the throne room.  As we walked in I noticed Zil lying in the corner, either unconscious or dead, before the Changeling Queen demanded my full attention.

        “Twilight Sparkle, where did I go wrong?  You were being such a good little pony, and then you go and pull a stunt like that.  What were you thinking?”  she asked, adopting a very fack maternal air about her.

        “Well, you know how much of a voracious reader I am, Your Majesty, I just got so bored with those icky books about strategy and killing.  I just wanted to read a Daring Doo book before I got back to work is all,” I replied in a fake high-pitched voice, giving her my sweetest smile.

        “Well then, why didn’t you just ask one of your guards to bring it for you?  And to bring poor, innocent Zil into all of this,” she grinned maliciously, “I think it is high time you learned your lesson.”  Her voice took on a hard edge, losing the playfulness of the earlier banter.  “Bring him in.”

        Once again, the gilded doors to the throne room opened, and Spike was wheeled in inside of a cage.  The changelings pushing the cage bowed, and left the hall.  Chrysalis took Spike, and lifted him from the cage.  She sat him down in front of her, pulling a sword from the scabbard slung across her back.

        Realizing what was about to happen, I reached deep into myself, to the endless magic that resided there.  My eyes glowed as the power suffused through me, prompting changeling guards to charge, and try to subdue me.  As they had the day of the takeover, each and every one of them dropped, dead as stone, the second my magic touched them.  All the little bugs dispatched of, I turned the full force of my power against Chrysalis, but as soon as it touched her and that accursed crown, all the power within me just dried up, leaving me a semi-conscious husk of a pony.

        Chrysalis laughed, her crown still feeding off the newfound power.  I was stuck, helpless as she brought the blade down on my dragon companion, silencing his final scream forever.  It echoed through my head, dancing and intertwining with her evil laugh as I was dragged out of the hall, and back down into the dungeon.


*****


In the base, currently home to the Free Equestria Society, various alarms shouted over the sound of pitched battle.  Spells flied alongside pegasi armed with the finest wingblades the resistance could craft, both cutting through changelings and ponies with little to no resistance.  Over the sounds of the klaxon, an alarm blared with the familiar voice of a white unicorn

        “Attention all resistance fighters, the base has been compromised, I repeat, the base has been compromised.  Fall back into splinter cells, and wait for the call to return to duty.  And pray that this gets better fast.”

        The pitched battle continued outside of the base, but the endless changeling reinforcements eventually overwhelmed the under-supplied and smaller force of the resistance.  As the first elite changeling commandoes breached the outer portion of the Free Equestria base, the place was abandoned.  One changeling with a red cape threw down his sword, and ordered a radio be brought.

        “Your Highness, this is Commander Bane.  The base has been taken, but the resistance has scattered.  Pump the traitor for more information, specifically the ‘splinter cells.’  We will get them eventually.  Bane out.”

        He gave the radio back.  “Ok boys, burn the fucker down!”

        The changeling army gave a loud cheer, quickly followed by the fwoosh of fires being lit.  That night, Dodge Junction burned, lighting up the wilderness for miles around.

> Tribulations of the Tower - Broken
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Tribulations of the Tower - Broken


        
    I awoke sitting in a chair, a large, ornamental affair with gilded sides, and a plush velvet cushion.  On the other side of the long mahogany table sat the personification of the sun.  Her mane waved and snapped within its’ magical breeze, and her horn glowed with a soft golden light as she lifted a cup of tea to her lips.

        “If you sit there and stare Twilight, I may begin to wonder about you,” she said with a touch of a smile upon her lips.

        I blushed and looked away.  “Sorry Princess, I’m just confused.  I don’t remember how I got here.”

    She sat down her cup, and looked at me across the table with her beautiful light purple eyes.  “Well, I do not know for sure, but I would imagine you got up, got out of bed, and walked down here, yes?”

    I laughed, but still it bothered me.  I really didn’t remember how I got down here.  For that matter, I didn’t even know where I was.  I had grown up in this castle, and while I hadn’t seen every single room, I had seen enough to know this one shouldn’t be there.

        Celestia must have noticed my reservation, for she once again spoke.  “Is something wrong, my student?”

    I sighed, resigned to my fate.  “I just don’t know what’s going on.  I could have sworn that Chrysalis took over Equestria, and banished you, and killed Shining Armor and Spike, and I was her prisoner.  I just don’t understand how you are here now, and have even less of an idea of where I am.  This room isn’t like any other in the castle.”

        Celestia sighed.  “Very good, you caught on quickly,” she said with Chrysalis’ hissing tongue.  

        “W-What?”  I jumped back out of my chair, reaching for the magic inside, only to find a void of nothingness instead.

    The world twisted and warped, shattering like so many broken panes of glass.  Chunks began to fall away, stretching away into the infinity held within the mouth of a creature so foul it’s name hasn’t been spoken for centuries.  The shards of reality melted, coalescing into fantastic rainbows of liquid color, flowing freely across the planes of space and time.  Thoughts flew, becoming entities of their own before being crushed by the Beast below.  Through it all I fell, down into the maw of the waiting destruction, screaming all the way down.

Year Two of the Takeover
Day ???:
    I woke with a start, quickly giving myself a once over to ensure I was still alive.  Obviously, I was, though I wonder if it was truly a good thing or not.  I groaned, slowly rolling off the small cot, and onto my hooves.  I paced over to the door, looking out into the long, dark hallway beyond.  Nothing was out there, as usual, and not a sound could be heard save the little intricacies of life underground.

    I sighed, and took the five steps it took to reach the wall opposite the door.  The whole cell was small, obviously meant solely to annoy me.

        The sad part was, it was working.

    I have been locked down here since Chrysalis... since my stunt with the Archives.  At first, I held out hope that it was going to be another brief punishment, and I was going to go back like last time.  Then a week passed, then two, and three.  A month, two months, three months, I have no idea anymore.

    The cell doesn’t bother me anymore.  I got used to the size and the damp relatively quickly.  It is the lack of other ponies that gets to me, but judging by my dream, it isn’t that bad.  If I can’t find anypony to keep me company, I’ll just create my own.

    I sat in the middle of the floor, in a familiar position.  I opened my mind, searching for the magic that had left me after my fight with Chrysalis.  Just as I had done every day since I started waking up consistently.  As always, I felt the spark that was there, the spark that allowed me the simplest spells, but did not feel the torrent that I used to house.  That, it seemed, was still out of my reach.

    There I sat, all day, not even noticing they forgot to bring me food again.  I had some stored from the days it hurt too much to eat, and the pile will probably tide me over until they see fit to feed me again, unless they have decided to just let me die.  I’m okay with that too.

Day ???:
    Today it happened, it finally happened.  I was sitting in my customary spot when I felt something click.  Suddenly, the world was thrown into light as magic once again filled my mind.  For the first time in too long, I was no longer held in my prison.  I shall hide this, until I can use it to enact my escape.

        To where, I do not know...

Day ???:
    Once again, I find it difficult to sleep.  And since I can’t sleep, and have no reason to meditate for my magic, I must think.  I think... that thinking is painful...

    Of course, it is hard to think whenever you focus and you see the image of your brother being melted from the inside out, skin clear as the noonday sky; or one of your closest friends, a dragon, almost like a child to you, getting his head sliced off by the...the thing that also banished your l-- your favorite teacher and sovereign.

    It is hard to do sometimes, and I’m beginning to wonder if it would just be better to ignore the food that arrives sporadically and just let it all...fade.  But I know I can’t do that.  Eventually, I will escape. I will find the Element bearers, and we will take back Equestria!

        Even if I have to die trying.

Day ???:
        “Let GO of me, you bug-eyed bastard!”

        “Tough talk from a traitor.  Come on, spill.  What are the resistance’s splinter cells, and where are they based at?”

        I heard what sounded like somepony spitting.  “Like I’ll ever tell you, or that bitch of a-- AAAAAGH”

        “Well, there is always tomorrow,”a sick thud, like somepony getting hit in the side of the head.  Hard.  “Take him back to his cell...”

    A door nearby clanged open, and I hastily shut my eyes, praying they weren’t coming for me next.  The sound of hoofsteps echoed down the hallway to my cell before a door, presumably the one next to mine, was pulled open with a mighty creak, and slammed shut with a deep, reverberating boom!

        I waited for the steps to fade away before making my move.  Trotting silently over to the door, I stuck my muzzle up next to the grill.  “Psst.  Psst!  Is anypony there?”  I asked, in my best carrying whisper.

    “T-Twilight?  Twilight Sparkle?  Is that...is that you?”  I heard moments later.  The voice sounded familiar, though it was slurred and grated, as though the owner had made a habit of not speaking for a while.

        I was instantly cautious.  “Maybe.  Who is there?”

        “It...It’s Zil,” the voice replied.  “Is that really you Twilight?”

    I was stunned.  I had seen Zil lying still on the floor of the great hall when Chrysalis killed--  had me locked up down here.  How could he be alive?  “Yes!  It’s me Zil!  What is going on?  Are you ok?”  I couldn’t help myself.  I had been stuck down here for Celestia knows how long without a friendly face, and now Zil was down here with me.  While I may not be quite happy with him, mostly because I’m pretty sure he set up the ambush at the library, at least I had someone to talk to now.

    “Wait... How do I know it is really you?  I wouldn’t put it past Commander Bane or Chrysalis to have another changeling take your form to try and trick me.  YOU HEAR THAT, YOU CRAZY BITCH?!  I’M ONTO YOUR TRICKS!  YOU WON’T GET ANYTHING OUT OF ME, GOT IT?!  NOT A SINGLE! FUCKING! WORD!”  He continued shouting to the heavens for some time, but I wasn’t paying attention.

        The only friend I have here is crazy, and he doesn’t even believe that I am me.

Day ???:
        Darkness.  A pit deeper than anything I have ever seen before, and I’m falling in it.  She reached out a hoof to help me, to catch me and stop my fall, but I was too afraid to reach up and take it; too afraid that she wouldn’t care.

Day ???:
        “Hiya Twilight!  How are ya doin?”  The perky voice roused me from my uneasy slumber.  I opened my eyes and noticed that during the night Chrysalis had decided to redo my cell in pink, how kind of her.  No, wait a minute, that was Pinkie Pie!

    “P-Pinkie Pie?!  What are you doing here?”  I asked, quickly sitting up and staring at the pink party pony.  The last time I had seen her, she was locked into a cell, then supposedly dumped into the Crystal Mines below the castle.  How had she gotten up here?

    “Duh, I came to get you out, silly,” she said, gesturing to the door.  “Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash are waiting for us outside, so let’s go!”  She grabbed my hoof, and started dragging me out the door.

    I went along willing enough, but sobs coming from the cell next to me quickly drew my attention.  “Wait a minute Pinkie, I have to get someone.”

        “Twiiiliight, we need to gooo,” still, she let me go, and I rushed over to Zil’s cell.

“Zil?  Zil are you in there?”  I asked, looking into his dark cell.  I spotted a dark spot lying on the bed, and kept saying his name until he stirred, raising his head to look at me.

    “Twilight?  Is that you?”  He asked with the same raspy voice he had when he first arrived.  He looked at me, horn flashing briefly.  Whatever his spell did, it placated him, for he jumped up and rushed over to the door to look at me through the bars.  “Twilight!  Thank the heavens you’re ok!  Chrysalis told me she killed you after she caught us in the library.  They... They pumped me for information about the resistance.  I’ve held out for the most part, but it’s just getting worse..”

    “Well,” I said, unlocking the door, “it’s a good thing we’re breaking out then!  One of my friends is here to get us out, then we are meeting with the others.”

        “Really?  To my knowledge, all of your friends are gone.”

        What?  “No, Pinkie Pie is right here, come out and see.”  I swung the door open, inviting him to leave

    Pinkie gasped.  “It’s a changeling!  Look out Twilight, I’ll protect you!”  She ran in front of me, planting herself firmly between us.  “Stay back you nasty changeling.  Leave us alone!”

        “Pinkie,” I tried to interrupt.

        “I won’t let you hurt her, or take me back to that horrible, horrible cave!”

        “...Pinkie-”

        “Take this!”  She shouted, spinning onto her forehooves to attempt some kind of kick at Zil.

        “PINKIE!!”  I shouted, stopping her mid-kick and making her fall to the floor.

        “Ow...” she rubbed her head where it had hit the floor.  “What’s the matter Twilight?”

    “That’s Zil.  Yes, he is a changeling, but he is my friend.  If we are leaving, so is he.”  I said, giving Pinkie my most don’t-you-dare-argue stare.

        Zil bowed.  “Pleasure to meet you, ma’am.  I am Zil, undercover agent for the resistance.”

    Pinkie jumped up onto all four hooves, shaking off her spill like it was nothing.  “Hi!  I’m Pinkie Pie!  If Twilight says you are ok, then you are ok with-OOMF!”  Right as she was about to finish her statement, Zil tackled her, sending the pink pony back to the ground, though this time with the added weight of a changeling on top.

        “Zil!”  I cried, astonished.  “What are you doing?!”

        “Shush Twilight, this isn’t Pinkie Pie,” he said, casting a spell on her.

    “What are you talking...about...?”  My voice slowed to a halt when Zil’s magic glow encompassed my pinkest friend, making her shimmer, then turn into a changeling.  “What...?”

    ZIl grabbed the former Pinkie Pie’s head, and slammed it into the ground below with a sickening crunch.  “It was a changeling, obviously, probably sent by Chrysalis to do something to you.

    I heard a slow clapping sound from the stairs.  “Very observant of you, Zil.”  That voice, I knew that voice, but I couldn't remember from where, until Chrysalis herself walked down the stairs, adorned with her twisted accoutrements of office, stopping right before us.  “Sadly, for you and little Twilight Sparkle, it is already too late.”  With no warning, she grabbed Zil in her magic, and threw him through a wall, killing him instantly.  She turned to me, picking me up in the same draining magic aura, before launching me towards the ground.

Day ???:
        I woke with a start, screaming at the top of my lungs.  I took a quick inventory:  I was still in my bed, no Pinkie Pies were in sight, I had all of my limbs, my tail, and my horn.  Everything seemed perfectly fine.

        It must have been just another dream...  They were getting worse, and longer.

        I don’t know how much more of this I can take.

Day ???:
        As thou wishes Dearest Sister.  We shall try, for as long as we can.

I stretched, nuzzling down into the fluffy pillow under my head, trying to convince myself I just wanted to go back to sleep.  I had just about managed it when a voice called me from downstairs

    “Twilight!  Twi-light!”  the voice called, getting closer and closer as it approached.  “Come on, Twilight, you have to get up so we can go help Fluttershy with those plants she needs!”  A purple dragon poked his head into the room.  “Come on, lazy bones, let’s go.”

    I groaned, peeling my eyes open.  I raised my head, looking over at the doorway.  For some reason part of me wanted to cry when Spike walked in the room.  I’m so happy he’s ok!  Wait... Why wouldn’t he be?  He hasn’t done anything dangerous in a long time.  “I’m up, I’m up.  I’ll be down in a minute, Spike!”

    “You better, or I’ll get Rainbow Dash to come in here with a stormcloud again.”  A snicker proceeded the clink of scales on hard wood.  Yeah, definitely going to get up before he does that again.  I don’t want to spend my day airing and drying out my room, and possibly...volunteering...a certain cyan pegasus to help Rarity with her dresses.

        Wow, I’m getting mean.

    Anyway, I pulled myself out of bed, shaking my frazzled mane and tail to try and bring them under some form of control before slowly making my way downstairs, hooves falling heavily on the ground with each step.

        A clear night of sleep, and this is what she dreams of?  A normal day in Ponyville?

        Hush, if you had been through the same thing, you would dream of normalcy too.

        I did, sister, I did.

        An hour and a half later, Spike and I left the library, beginning the trek to Fluttershy’s rustic cottage on the edge of the Everfree Forest.  Along the way, we dropped off a book on the latest planting and harvest techniques to Applejack.  We stayed to chat for awhile, but our quest took us onwards, and hers led back to the fields.

    Sometimes before noon, we arrived at our destination.  Raising my hoof, I knocked on the door of the shy pegasus mare, drawing back to ensure I didn’t scare her when she opened the door.  Fluttershy cautiously opened her door, and poked her head out.  Noticing who was paying her a visit, she drew back, opening her door wider.  Her eyes sparkled as she gave us a small, warm smile.

        “Hi Twilight, hi Spike.”

        “Hi Fluttershy,” we said at the same time, before I took the reigns of the conversation.  “Ready to start?”  I asked.

        She nodded, gesturing us inside.  “Hello Twilight, hello Spikey,” came a voice from the kitchen.

        “H-Hi Rarity,” Spike said, practically melting onto the floor.

        I stifled a giggle.  “Hey Rarity, I didn’t know that you were coming to help too.”

        “Oh. darling I would love to, but I’m just so busy with the spring fashion season going on, on top of another order from Hoity Toity’s shop in Canterlot, I just don’t have the time.  I just stopped by for a quick word with Fluttershy.  She was just so devastated that I was going to miss our weekly spa date I had to pay her a surprise visit,” the whole time, Fluttershy was nodding beside me.

    “Anyway,” Rarity continued after Fluttershy finished her bobblehead impersonation, “I must be off.  Orders to fill.  Talk to you later Twilight!”  She stood up, and headed towards the door

    “Rarity, wait!” Spike called, causing the alabaster unicorn to stop and look over her shoulder.  “Um, would you... I mean... Do you need help?  With your orders, I mean?”  Spike asked, looking over at Rarity with hope-filled eyes.

    “Well, an extra pair of hooves, or hands, would be a lot of help.  Twilight...?”  she looked over at me, and to a lesser extent, Fluttershy.

        “It’ll be fine, if it’s ok with Twilight,” the pegasus said, deferring all judgement to me.

        I nodded.

        Rarity nodded back.  “Ok Spike, let’s go then.”

        “Ok!  Cya later Twilight!”  he said, bounding after my friend, spirits lifted to untold levels.  I just shook my head.

    “Don’t stay out too late!”  I shouted after them as they trotted down the path.  I looked back at Fluttershy with a smile played across my lips.  Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a shadow sprint from the front door, to the kitchen, but paid it no mind.  “Ok Fluttershy, what’s first on the list?”

    “Um,”  she looked around, eyes eventually settling on a scroll sitting on her table.  “Ah!” she exclaimed--quietly--before unrolling it with her muzzle and looking it over.  “Well, we need some Moon’s Majesty, some Sneezeroot, a teensy bit of Hayseed, and a Winking Dragoneye,” she said, bobbing her head with each item on the list.

    “Alrighty then, you know where to go, so lead the way,” I said, levitating the list with my lavender aura of magic and stashing it safely in my saddlebag.  We set off into the Everfree Forest, after gathering some basic provisions, in the direction of Zecora’s Hut, as Fluttershy had spotted some Hayseed growing along the path.

    Almost as soon as we set off the path, Fluttershy crouched down, and picked a plant from the ground.  She placed it in the other pocket of my saddlebag, she looked up at me.  “Ok, got it.”

Crossing our loot off of the list, I checked it over once again.  Looking at the pegasus’ neat mouthwriting, I divined our next target.  “Ok, next is Sneezeroot.  What do you need that for?”

        Silence answered.

    “Fluttershy?”  I asked, becoming worried as the darkness closed in.  The sounds of the Everfree intensified, adding to my anxiety.  I frantically looked around, ears drooping as I searched for any sign of my lost friend.

        Your power is waning, Luna.

        We know.  Her magic is powerful.  We do not know how much longer we can keep a safe dream for young Twilight Sparkle.

        Well...  Can you wake her up then, and let your energy return?

        Yes... Yes we can do that.


*****


    I awoke in my cell from a restful sleep for once.  Looking around, I could almost sense a presence of peace, one of familiarity.  The feeling didn’t last nearly long enough for me to discern what it was, too quickly being replaced by the cold and damp I had become accustomed to in my stay here.

        Either way, my rest has cast some clarity on my world, and I have an idea...


Day ???:
        Ok, this has to work this time.  I am a pony on a mission, and I will not be denied!  I poked my muzzle to the window of the door, looking anxiously out of it.  “Noting no guards in my immediate line of sight, I put my brilliant plan into action.  “Psst,” I whispered out the lattice of bars.  “Zil, are you there?”

        I heard nothing but the dripping of water somewhere nearby.  Always the persistent pony, I tried again.

    “Zil, please Zil if you’re there, talk to me.”  I added a little bit of whine to my voice, hoping to draw out his gentle(colt?) side.  Apparently, it worked.

    “Hello, Maybe-Twilight.  How are you today?”  came from the cell next to me.  The same voice I knew as Zil’s, mixed with the echoes of my dream...

        “I’m not Maybe-Twilight, I am Twilight,”  I replied, without thinking.

    “Well, I don’t know that.  A changeling could sound like Twilight, and it could be that crazy bitch trying to get more information out of me by using a friendly guise.  It’s one of the many tactics in the book, I’ve even done it a couple of times.”

        Ok, really didn’t want to know that my closest friend here had tortured ponies.  “How can I prove it then.”

    There was a pause before his reply came.  “Well, a changeling can’t mimic the magic aura of a unicorn.  Magic something I can see, and I shall believe you are who you say.”

    Well, great.  The fact I had rediscovered my magic is the only thing I knew that Chrysalis didn’t.  If Zil wasn’t really Zil, I would be willingly giving away the one advantage I held.  It was just a risk I would have to take.  I noticed a bucket down the hall, and called his attention to it.

        “That bucket there, Zil, do you see it?”  I asked, sweating worse than I had working the Applebucking Season with Applejack.

        “Yes,” came the skeptical reply.

    Slowly, I concentrated, quickly falling back into the role I held for years.  Reaching out with my will, I enveloped the bucket in a light sheen of lavender aura, lifting it off the ground until I heard the gasp from the next cell over.

    “Twilight!  It really is you!  Oh, gods I’m glad you’re ok.  Chrysalis told me... told me she had killed you.  I couldn’t stop blaming myself.  I should have stopped you from going to the library, Twilight.  I’m so sorry.  It’s my fault you’re down here, not yours.  If I had stopped you, you wouldn’t be rotting away in this dungeon.  I just hope they feed you somewhat better than they feed me.  Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve been fed in two or three days and I--”

    He seemed to be losing steam, so I knew I had to cut in here.  “Zil, you couldn’t have stopped me.  I’m somewhat glad I’m here, it means Chrysalis can’t use me and my ideas to hurt any more ponies.  She has already done enough...” Subconsciously, I repressed a shudder, until I remembered I was alone.  I let out a tiny sob, cutting it off before it could turn into a full waterfall of tears.

        The pause was almost heavy, holding substance in the air.  “...are you crying?”  Zil asked.

    “No,” I tried to answer between my heavy, but silent sobs.  He continued talking for awhile, probably trying to calm me down, but I didn’t hear.  I was too busy lying on my hard, uncomfortable, damp bed crying.  Crying for all the damage I had caused.  Crying for all the ponies who had died.  Crying for Celestia, and Luna, and Spike, and Shining Armor.

        I cried for the death of Equestria itself.

Day ???:
    I’m screaming.  Screaming as I tumble and fall through differing patches of dark and light.  Sometimes, I see faces in the dark, faces of friends, of family, of ponies I didn’t really know and faces of ponies I’d never seen before.  None of them noticed me, and each seemed to be busy with something.

    As time wore on, the faces became more and more scarred, showing signs of battles taking place across the nation as ponies rebel against their bug-ish oppressors.  The last thing I saw before all became pitch black was Celestia, falling from a pedestal down into the depths of nothingness.

Day ???:
    I awoke in the Everfree forest, saddlebag with the list of required flowers still strapped firmly to my back.  Clenched between my teeth were the Hayseeds, which I quickly spit out into a pocket of my saddlebag, hurrying to get the acrid taste out of my mouth.  Just as I was about to renew my search for Fluttershy, she stepped out of the bush to my left

    “Oh, sorry Twilight.  I just saw this in the bush over there, and got it as kind of a surprise...” she said around the bright rose between her teeth.  She stuck it in my mane, fixing it so it wouldn’t fall out before giving me a small smile.

        …Really Luna?

        Hush, sister, we are concentrating.

        “There,” the yellow pegasus said, “now we can keep going.  What’s next on the list?”

    “It, uh, it’s... it’s sneezeroot.  Yeah...”  I stuttered and mumbled my way through the sentence, stunned like a lovestruck filly.  Smooth, really smooth.

    “Ok,” Fluttershy replied simply before starting to walk away from me, humming a directionless tune as she meandered around, searching for our prize.

        What... What just happened?  I shook my head, clearing my mind before following the oddly perky pegasus through the forest.  We stopped at the edge of a clearing... well, I stopped, Fluttershy kind of hopped backwards and quickly darted behind me.  “Fluttershy... are you ok?”  I asked, keeping my voice down in case there was some ferocious beast in there that was scaring her, though if it was an animal Fluttershy was afraid of, I don’t think I want to tangle with it either.

        “I, um, I don’t think we should go in there...”  she replied in a very small voice, one that barely made it to my ears.

        “Ok,” I shrugged, “then we’ll go around.”

    “No, we can’t do that,” she replied in a stern voice.  “Sorry, but that is the only place sneezeroot grows outside of Las Pegasus.  We have to go in... there...”

    “Well, do you want to stay here?”  She nodded vigorously.  “Fine, wait here, I’ll take care of it.”  I strolled forward without further preamble, bursting confidently from the cover of the foliage into the bright, sunny clearing.  I don’t know what Fluttershy is talking about.  This clearing isn’t....so.....bad....?  My train of thought was forcibly derailed as shadows swarmed around me, filling the clearing with some odd bug creatures.  They had horns like unicorns, but wings like flies.  Their tails were torn and broken to match their holed legs, and they walked with unmistakable menace.

    I sprinted back towards Fluttershy, intent on getting both of us out of here alive--to Tartarus with the stupid sneezeroot-- to be stopped by a bigger one.  Aside from the size difference, he carried an aura of command, and was wearing silver armor with a broadsword strapped across his back.

        “Hello. Twilight Sparkle,”  he said in a deep voice.

    “W-Who are you and how do you know my name?”  I asked backing up until I ran into another of the bug-creatures.  I jumped back and looked around; I was surrounded on all sides, the center of a circle of malice and hate.

    He just laughed.  “All in good time, Sparkle.  Well, maybe not...”  He grinned at his soldiers as they formed a tighter circle around us.  “Sorry to say, Queen Chrysalis sent me here to kill you.”

        Luna, do something!

All the blood drained from my face.  “W-Who?  And why?  I haven’t done anything to anypony...”

        We are trying.  Chrysalis’ magic is strong.

“Well, I suppose it won’t really matter if you are dead.  I am Commander Bane, in charge of the changeling takeover of Equestria.”  As if on cue, all of the bugs--changelings--saluted him before returning their attention to me.

    I gave him another once over.  Now that I know he is a commander of something, it makes sense he has that aura of command about him.  It would also explain the armor, and the massive scar across his left eye.  “Why does she want me dead...?”  I asked, unable to keep the trembling from my voice.  I hope Fluttershy was safe, at least.

        LUNA!

“Like you don’t know.  Wait, you don’t!  This is a dream, isn’t it?  Too bad if you die in a dream,”  he drew his sword with a sick hissing sound, “you die in real life.”

    I couldn’t help it, I screamed as he released another blood-curdling laugh.  He advanced towards me, sword raised high over his head to bring it down on top of me.  I was surrounded, trapped by Bane’s soldiers.  I resigned myself to my fate as a single tear fell down my cheek.

    I could almost feel the biting cold of the blade on my neck, when something disturbed the line of the changelings.  “SCATTER!” Bane shouted, jumping back to assess the threat.  I spun my head around, fearing that whatever scared these soldiers would do worse to me.  Much to my surprise, Princess Luna stood beyond, armored in her own glistening plates of dark platemail.  She deftly stepped in front of me, squaring off with Commander Bane without a single weapon drawn.

        Magic and the nighttime are her weapons.

    “So, Commander Bane, so nice to see that Chrysalis does not value you for more than dream assassinations anymore,” Luna said, voice as cold as Nightmare Moon’s.

    “Silence, False Princess, you know not of my Queen, nor her thoughts,” he replied, beginning to circle Luna.  She stepped up, and kept pace.  The remaining changelings formed a circle around them, appearing to have lost interest in me for the time being.

    “Well, she must think badly of you to send you to kill my sister’s favorite student, and one of my closest friends.”  The two continued their slow circling, neither one breaking eye contact.

    “I said silence!  We both know that your powers are weakened by your distance from Twilight Sparkle, and that you cannot hurt me.”  He sounded smug, completely confident in his victory.

    Luna elected not to respond, simply firing a bolt of something from her horn, striking and killing a changeling where he stood.  Bane was shocked into silence.

    The dark alicorn charged, using her opponent’s lack of concentration to her advantage.  She formed a sword of living night from her horn, swinging it up to be met--almost too late--by the gleaming silver of the changeling commander’s blade.  Sparks flew as the clang of metal-on-metal echoed throughout the forest.

    The battle raged on, both sides attacking and parrying, neither able to gain the upper hoof.  Both combatants ducked and weaved, swords and magic bolts hissing through the air like angry snakes.  Finally, after what felt like hours, Luna saw her chance.

    Bane swung wide, falling to a cunning ploy and causing him to leave his guard wide open.  Luna threw aside her sword, using it to disarm her opponent.  She shot a bolt of lightning, charging Bane’s armor and causing it to jump over to his body where it was touching.

        Namely, everywhere.

    He shouted and fell to the ground in agony.  The changelings surrounding the fight disappeared in a flash of smoke, followed shortly by their leader after a cliche, “you haven’t seen the last of me, Sparkle!”

    Luna walked over to me, armor turning into bats and flying off into the forest.  She held out a friendly hoof, pulling me off of the ground.  As she was checking me over, making sure that I had not been hurt, Fluttershy re-emerged, galloping towards us as fast as her hooves could carry her.

    “Oh my goodness, Twilight are you ok?  I was so worried, but I was too afraid to come help, then Luna showed up and she fought them off and I... I just....”  the waterworks she had apparently been withholding then broke forth, wrapping me in a hug and crying into my mane.  I found myself comforting the butter pegasus as her frustrations poured out in liquid form into my hair.

    “Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle, it is not safe for you here.  Return home at once, and stay out of the forest,” Luna said, all traces of friendliness gone.  I just nodded, unable to speak.  “We must go, our powers are waning and we are unable to keep our form here much longer.”   As if to prove her point, she shimmered, turning into a shimmer of multicolored light for a moment before solidifying.  “Before we go, Sister wished us to tell you something.”

        “Yes?”  I asked, partially afraid for the answer.

    “She wanted to tell you she--” but before Luna could finished, she winked out of existence, leaving Fluttershy and I alone in the quickly-darkening clearing of the Everfree Forest.


*****


    I awoke in my cell.  Taking a quick look around revealed nothing majorly different, but a faint bloodstain in the corner said otherwise.  Raising my hoof to my head, I also noticed a faint dampness on my mane, right where Fluttershy had been crying.

Day ???:
    I raised my hoof and knocked on the heavy oaken door before me.  I had walked this route many times in my foalhood, and almost as many times since, but this time was going to be different.   This time, I was finally going to tell her.

        Right, like I hadn’t told myself that countless times before.

    Before I could lose my nerve once again, she opened the door, bestowing me with a smile that carried all the warmth of the springtime sun.  “Ah, Twilight Sparkle, my favorite student, come in,” she said in that voice that could melt a frozen-solid pond--and a certain purple unicorn.

    I walked in on shaky legs, trying my hardest not to stare at the divine form in front of me, with limited success.  She sat down at her desk, inviting me to sit across from it, on my favorite pillow.  I remained standing

        “P-Princess, I wanted to talk to you about,”  I took a deep breath to steady my nerves, “about something.”

        She gave me that amazing smile again.  “Of course, Twilight Sparkle, what do you need?”

        What I need is for you to come around that desk, wrap your hooves around me, and kiss me.  “I, uh,  I’ve been doing some, um, some thinking, and I-I think I might...”  My voice trailed off, stuttering to a halt too soon.  So close, come on Sparkle, you can do this...

        She leaned forward.  “You might...?”

    I took another deep breath, and squeezed my eyes shut.  “IthinkImightsortakindahaveacrushonyou.”  Still keeping my eyes closed, I gave her a big, cheesy grin.

    Darkness is a scary thing.  I did not see, but heard her walk around the desk, golden hoofshoes clacking loudly on the tile.  She gently rested one of her forehooves on my cheek, and moved my face to look at her.  I slowly opened my eyes, but did not expect what I saw.

    She was looking down on me with a smile, yes, but one of sympathy, not reciprocation; happiness.  It was the smile of one who was about to deliver very bad news, and knew it.  “No...”  I found myself saying.  “Princess.....?”

“Twilight,” she began in a soft, soothing tone.  But I was not listning.

“No, Princess, please...”  My voice was faint, almost unhearable.

“Listen to me Twilight.  It isn’t anything about you--”

“No!”  I shouted, pulling away from her.  “Princess Celestia, please don’t.... don’t do this to me...”  I continued, with a much quieter tone.

If the shouting bothered her, Celestia didn’t say anything about it.  “I understand Twilight, and I know it hurts, but you have to hear me out.”  I opened my mouth to speak, but she shushed me.  “Listen.  You have to realize that it really isn’t anything against you.  You are a great mare, and a great pony, but I am a Princess, and Alicorn.  I can’t bear to be in a relationship that has a definite time limit on it like that.

“And even if I wanted to, running Equestria is a lot of work.  I don’t have a lot of free time, and most of what I do have I use to sleep.  And let’s not even start on what the press would say about us.  You are a mare whose age doesn’t even come anywhere near close to mine, and I watched you grow up, Twilight.  They would think something salacious was going on and would have a field day with it.

“For those reasons, I have to say no.  Go back to your rooms, and calm down.  I shall see you tomorrow for your lesson.”  With that, she returned to her desk where she began reading files, leaving me to see myself out.

Oh, my faithful student, if only I could talk to you...

Calm yourself, sister, I’m sure you will be able to soon enough.

Day ???:
        CRASH!

        “Catch him!  He’s escaping!”

        The sounds of hooves scuffling on flagstone, and a sickening crunch of a buck finding it’s target.

        “Man down!  Man down!  We need help down-”

    Suddenly, all was silent.  I was cowering in my cell, curled up under the bed with just enough of my muzzle poking out to see the door.  The bolt clanged open, and a dark figure stepped in.  I readied my magic, bracing myself to incinerate whoever walked through the door first.

        “Twilight?  Twilight are you in here?  Please tell me I’m not too late...”  That voice, that’s Zil!

        I scrambled up from under my bed, probably scaring Zil in the process.  “Yes!  Yes I’m right here.  What’s going on?”

    He gave me a lopsided grin, showing a missing tooth still bleeding a little.  “Come on, we’re getting out of here.”  Without waiting for my reply, he turned around and walked out into the hallway, looking everywhere to make sure no changelings were coming.

    I was torn.  I’m pretty sure I had a dream like this once, and it didn’t end too well for me.  How did I know that this wasn’t a dream?  For that matter, if it wasn’t, how was I supposed to know that was really Zil, and not a changeling coming to lead me to a trap.  “How do I know you are really ZIl?”  I asked, walking out of the cell to face him.

        He looked at me.  “Because I am...?”

    I shook my head.  “You could be any changeling, it really wouldn’t be that hard to disguise yourself as one of your own kind.”

        “Changelings can’t disguise themselves as other changelings, it just doesn’t work like that.”

        “Well, that’s real convenient for you then, isn’t it?”  I asked, unable to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.

    He flinched, and took my hoof.  “Please, Twilight, trust me?  All changeling magic auras are the same so I can’t prove it that way, but if it helps, when I was first brought down here, I thought you were a changeling sent to get information out of me in your guise.  To prove you were you, you lifted a bucket, and we talked, and you cried.”  I think he said something else, but his voice was down so low I didn’t hear him.

    “Ok...” I said taking my hoof back.  I couldn’t put my hoof on it, but I trusted that it was him.  No changeling sent to kill me would show emotion like that, even if they knew.  “Let’s go.”  He nodded, and took of running.  I followed close behind, hoping that I wasn’t walking into another trap.

    We made it down the hallway, and up the tight spiral stairs, and into another dungeon corridor.  The usually loud hallway was dead silent, the first sign that something was wrong.  “Chrysalis has started killing off the prisoners.  She is sending them to the front, to fight the resistance,” Zil said, noting my unease.

    I nodded, before taking the lead to walk down the hallway.  We walked side by side, tense as a couple of coiled springs and ready to fight whoever would try to stop us.  Unfortunately, we had the chance all too soon for my liking.

    As we approached the stairs to the next floor up, Zil stopped me, holding up his hoof.  “I hear armored changelings,” he whispered in my ear.  “They know we got out.  No second chances this time, it’s escape or die.”

    I took a deep breath, and plunged myself into the geyser of magic within.  It still was not as powerful as it once was, but not using it for Celestia-knows how long did allow it to regain much more strength than I had when I first rediscovered it.  I made a conscious effort to mask the glow of my horn, only partly successful, and cast about with my magic, looking for another way out.

    Finding what I was looking for, I quickly got Zil’s attention.  “Quick, this way!”  I whispered excitedly.  Much to my dismay, Zil just shook his head.

        “You go on, I’ll catch up,” he said, avoiding my eyes.

    “No, come on.  You got me out, and I’m not leaving unless you’re next to me.”  I stood my ground, trying to remember all those texts on combat magic I had read eons ago.  Just in time too as the first changeling reinforcements tore around the staircase.  Zil was caught off guard, whereas I was ready.

    I fired a bolt of energy, hitting the first changeling.  He dropped like a bag of rocks, sword falling down to the ground.  Zil darted forward, picking up the dropped blade just in time to parry a thrust from the next changeling in line.  He jumped back, and I shot a burst of air to throw the next changeling off balance.  Zil ran him through, spilling the first drop of blood of many.

    The battle lasted for what felt like hours.  Between my magic and Zil’s prowess with a sword, we managed to turn the base of the staircase into a blood soaked mess.  Two or three of them would come down the stairs, I would disorient them with some form of spell, and Zil would cut them down.  Somewhere along the line, he picked up another weapon--a fearsome looking battleaxe-- and he duel wielded them with deadly efficiency.

    However, as time often does, it began to wear us out.  It started with small cuts and nicks on Zil, a cut on his hoof, a slash across his side, until his sword snapped from its constant battering.  With him disarmed it fell to me to defend us.  I tried my best, but I was beginning to wear out.  Figuring it was all or nothing, I prepared a spell I had only briefly read about during research for one of my projects.

    Focusing all that I possibly could into my horn, I released all of my leftover magic in one huge burst.  Lightning cascaded around the hallway, arcing from changeling to changeling in bright bursts.  Nudging Zil with my head, I attempted to shout over the sound of the carnage, but to no avail.

    Thankfully he figured it out for himself, and we both sprinted down a hallway to the left.  Neither of us knew where we were going, but we knew we were going to get out, or die trying.  Left, right, up, right, right, another left, we galloped through the dungeon, dodging groups of changelings as we darted back and forth, always working our way up.

    Finally, we came to a large spiral staircase that I knew.  “Up here!”  I shouted, drawing Zil’s attention.  “This will lead up into the main hallway, from there we can escape into the castle and...changeling.....controlled.........Canterlot.”

        Zil shook his head.  “No good.  Where will we end up if we go down?”

    “Um,”  I bit my lip, trying to remember back to my initial tour with Princess Celestia all those years ago.  “I don’t really remember, but isn’t the goal to break out.  As in, out of the castle, as in through the front door?”

    “Not if it leads to use getting captured again,” Zil said, jumping to prop the door closed with his body as our pursuers caught up and attempted to bust the door down.  “Think fAst Twilight, I don’t KNow how lOng I’ll be able to keep this cloSed!”  His voice jumped with each impact, lending his speech an odd rhythm.

    So I did what any sensible mare would do in my position.  I called upon my reserves of magical energy, and sent forth a “feeler” to report on what lurked below.  Mere fractions of a second later, I knew the layout intimately, as though I had lived there most of my life--which, technically, I sort of had.

    “Well, up just leads to the main hall, like I said, and the front doors.  Down, down leads somewhere I’ve never seen before.  I think it might be the entrance to the Crystal Mines,” I said after taking a moment to fix our location and heading on my new mental map.

Zil looked over at me, shaking every so often in time with the impacts on the door.  “Can we get out through the mines?”

“Ah, maybe...?  The only time I was down there was when Chrysalis sent me there, and I found the real Cadence.  I wasn’t paying all that much attention...”

    “Well, let’s go spelunking then,”  Zil said, almost getting thrown to the ground by another massive hit.  “Quickly, if you please.”

        I moved next to him, sifting through the list of spells that I could do drained as I was.  Well, when all else fails...  My horn began to glow, proceeding a loud crack that echoed up and down the stairs.  Part of the railing, ripped from the outside wall of the staircase, floated into position, blocking the door.  Three more bars followed, effectively sealing the door for the time being.

Zil nodded, satisfied, before taking off down the stairs.  Careful of the blood-stained battle axe still on his back, I followed as fast as I could.  We tore down the stairs, taking its soft loop quickly, to the point where it wasn’t uncommon for one of us to fall just for the other to pick up and keep going.  We must have gone around at least fifteen times before a loud CRACK was heard from above, signaling that the changeling hordes were once again on our tails.

Thankfully, a few more circuits saw us at the end, and even though I knew what it was, I was not prepared for what lie beyond the last twist.  A massive cavern, hewn from the rock bordered a hole down into the mines.  No way up, no way to tell how far of a drop into the darkness it was, not way to know of anything.  I looked over at Zil.

“Are you sure?”  A simple question, but one holding so much weight.

He simply nodded.

“Stop right there,” a familiar voice called from the base of the stairs.  I slowly turned around, and saw my nightmare come to life.

There stood Commander Bane.  Still wearing his silver armor and broadsword, though this time he was only barely reminiscent of the cocky changeling who had attacked me in my dreams.

“Zil, what a pleasure to see you again, old friend.”  Something about the way he said that gave me the impression they were not actually friends.

“Bane,” Zil replied simply, readying his axe.  He stepped in front of me, nudging me towards the hole to the mines.  “Go Twilight, I have an old score to settle with the Commander here.”

Bane laughed.  “Fool.  You couldn’t beat me before, what makes you think you can do it this time.”

“Quite simple.  Last time, I had nothing to fight for.  This time, I do.”  With that, he charged, swinging his axe high to bring down on Bane’s head.  The commander jumped back, drawing his own sword with a mighty wrench before lunging at Zil, sword aimed at his throat.

Zil caught the edge of the sword in the cusp of his axe.  Pushing the sword aside--which in turn threw Bane off balance--he spun, bucking the commander in the face.

Bane howled in pain and rage, bloodlust coloring his eyes as he lept into the air, sword spinning around him in a maelstrom of flashing steel.  Realizing his intentions, Zil dove backwards, knocking me out of the way and receiving a long, deep cut on his left wing for his trouble.

Wing clamped tightly to his side, Zil charged bodily at Bane, bellowing a savage war cry as the two collided.  They rolled on the ground, weapons forgotten, each one vying for dominance.  Bane ended up on top, reaching down to rip out Zil’s throat with his pointed teeth.  Zil bunched up under him, thrusting up with all four hooves and sending the other combatant flying into the jagged wall.

They both took their time getting back up, sore from injuries and bleeding; Bane from a broken muzzle, Zil from the gash on his wing.  Bane grinned, an evil, sadistic grin.  He launched forward, though not at his enemy.  He grabbed me, swinging me around into a headlock, both of us up on our hind legs.  Bane levitated over his sword, placing the ice cold edge against my throat.

“Let her go Bane, she isn’t the one you have quarrel with,” Zil said, slowly advancing until Bane pushed the sword tighter against my throat, the razor sharp edge cutting into the skin.

“Oh, but there you are wrong.  Queen Chrysalis has ordered Miss Sparkle killed.”  He pushed in a little further until a thin line of blood ran down his blade.  My blood.

“Then put her down and fight me.  I swear, Bane, if you kill her I will not rest until you are utterly destroyed!”  The vehemence in his voice shocked me.  Analyze later, kind of a hostage at the moment.


“But it won’t matter then, traitor, she will be dead.  Soon followed by you.”  I couldn’t see, but I could practically picture the evil smirk on his face.  “Either way, you lose.”

As fascinating as this conversation about my life was, I had better things to do than sit here and play damsel in distress.  As stealthily as I could, I bunched my hind legs up until they were as tense as they could be without my captor noticing.

I caught Zil’s attention, and looked pointedly at the entrance to the mines.  Hopefully, my message got across.

It did.

“What are you looking at, traitor?”  Bane asked, noticing Zil’s eyes drifting to the hole to the mines.  “Planning on abandoning your friend?”

Zil’s answer never came.  As fast as I could, I pushed up, using the tension in my hind legs to ram my horn into Bane’s chin.  It didn’t penetrate further than his lower jaw, but it hurt enough.  He dropped his sword, howling in pain and clutching a hoof to the hole in his jaw which was already bleeding quite badly.

I dropped to my belly on the floor, and jumped up onto my forelegs.  Channeling years of working with Applejack during apple bucking season, I pushed forward with all my might, sending my hooves crashing into Bane’s unprotected belly with a sickening crunch.  He flew backwards, slamming his head into the wall, moving no more.

Without a backwards glance, I grabbed Zil by the hoof and dove into the dark depths of the mine below.



> Intermission: The Report
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Intermission: The Report


    The small pegasus burst through the door, note clutched in his mouth.  Standing before the imposing figure in a black cloak, he saluted before spitting the letter out onto the ground.

        “First scout Fleetwing’s report, Commander,” he said, hoof still glued to his face.

    The commander chuckled, levitating over the scroll.  “Put your hoof down.  This isn’t boot camp, you don’t have to be so formal all the time.”

    The messenger put his hoof down.  “Yes ma’am, sorry ma’am.  I mean...”  He took a deep breath, trying to ignore the chuckling of the pony in black.  “That is the report from Fleetwing in Canterlot.  He has one thing to add, The Spark is gone.”

        The commander looked up, white ears perking forward.  “Explain.”

    “Uh, well, it seems that nothing has been heard of The Spark for two days.  She isn’t hanging from the castle ramparts like the other dead prisoners, so Fleetwing seems to think she has escaped.”

        “Anything else?”  the commander seemed anxious now, most likely to fill in the second in command.

        “Just that our informant also either died or escaped.  No word has been heard from him in almost a year and a half.”

    The commander looked over the message for a moment, before glancing to the corner where a dark shape loomed.  “Take your leave.”

        The messenger saluted.  “Commander.”

        As he walked out of the room, an orange earth pony walked over from the corner.  “Are we alone?”

    “I hope so,” the commander said before throwing back her hood and planting a kiss on the tip of her second in command’s muzzle.  “I would hate to have any of the soldiers see that.”

    “Ah’m not,” Applejack said, years of fighting doing nothing to her country twang.  She reached over and trapped the unicorn’s lips between her own.  The commander remained trapped in Applejack’s passionate kiss until she pulled back and said, “and Ah’d march right up ta The Big Bad Bug and do the same.  Honestly Rares, Ah just don’t see why ya are so keen on keepin’ us a secret.”

    Rarity tossed her mane.  It wasn’t up to her usual standards, but one must make sacrifices when waging war.  “I just don’t want it to ruin our reputation, darling.”  She held up her hoof, halting the earth pony’s indignant reply.  “I just don’t want ponies not trusting you in your position just because we have something on the side.  It would be even worse if they would start to question my orders.  It is terrible evil, yes, but a necessary one love.”

    Fearing her explanation wasn’t enough, Rarity leaned forward and nuzzled into the orange coat before her.  It was an underhooved move, but the fashionista knew that Applejack simple couldn’t stay mad at her if Rarity was touching her.

        Much to Rarity’s surprise, Applejack gently but firmly pushed her away.  “Sugarcube, when this is all over...”

        Rarity smiled.  “Darling, I shall proclaim it from the highest tower in Canterlot.”  She giggled at her marefriend’s blush.  “Alas, we must go back to work...”  She glanced over the report, experience leading her sapphire eyes in a dance across the page.  “Ok, there is good news and bad news.  Which would you prefer first?”

        Applejack grinned, a dangerous grin.  “Ah’m in a gamblin’ mood.  Bad news.”

    “Well, the changeling bastion in Fillydelphia seems to be working diligently on something.  My bits say that they are converting to the latest edition of that dreadful defense strategy.  Obviously, what hold we still had on the city is going to be lost sometime soon.”

        Applejack nodded.  “Ah figured as much.  Didn’t think we really had a chance there.”

    “I adore your attitude darling.”  She rolled her eyes before continuing.  “Ok, the team sent into Ponyville managed to retrieve the rest of Twilight’s metamagic books.”  Applejack caught Rarity's attention mid-sentence.  Unspoken words flew between the two.  “I know, it is a long shot, but if she does...”

        “Sugarcube, Ah hope as much as the rest of ‘em that she does, but if she did die...”

    “Hush.  If Queen Chrysalis had in fact killed her, don’t you think she would have bragged about it?  If you think about it, Twilight is the last symbol of the old regime.  She was the Princess’ prize pupil, after all.”  Rarity started to continue, then stopped again and looked up.  “She will probably want to know the news.”

        Applejack nodded.  “That’s where Ah was headed.  Anythin’ else Ah need to know about?”

    Rarity beamed.  “Just that the changeling forces in Manehatten seem to have routed, and are scattered across the countryside.”

        “Uh, what...?”  Applejack was stunned speechless.

    The white unicorn bounded forward and wrapped her marefriend in a hug, causing Applejack to bounce along with her.  “I know, it is such wonderful news.  Things are finally looking up.”

    As much as she didn’t want to, Applejack extracted herself from the iron grip of her commander.  “Well, Ah’m off to talk to the Princesses.  Keep me updated, alright?”

    Rarity put her cloak back on.  “Of course, darling.  And hurry back, we might be packing.  Wait, one more thing!”  The farmer-turned-warrior turned back to the black-clad unicorn in the room.

“Yeah?”

“Cadence and her army have made it to the border of Equestria.  She says they march on Vanhoover within the end of the month.  If Twilight is alive, pray that she makes it back before then.”

Rarity looked over at the mare in the door.  Everypony who knew her knew that she tended to over exaggerate things, but she had never looked more serious than she did now.  “She may be the only one who has a chance, because we both know that things look better now, but if we don’t get some good help soon, everything we worked so hard to achieve will be ruined.”

Applejack solemnly nodded her head.  “Ah know, and Ah pray every night.  Fer the safety of Equestria, and fer Twi’.”


> Revisiting the Mines
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Revisiting the Mines


It wasn’t as much of a fall down a pit of death as it was a tube slide from Tartarus.  Rocks tore at my skin, ripping out little chunks of hair and just adding to my already somewhat impressive war wounds.  I heard Zil shout, “Look out Twilight!”  and just barely managed to twist myself around as a rock whizzed past me, bouncing against the walls as it fell down.

I don’t know how long we slid down, the rock never changed appearance, and I seemed to have left my watch back in my cell.  When the tunnel finally spit me out my head spun around looking everywhere, adrenaline still coursing through me.  It was a cave hewed out of solid rock with magic.  It must have been a rather skilled magician, the corners were straight, and the ceiling was well reinforced.  It was light enough to see, but not well.  There was some kind of weird fungi emitting as much light as a strong candle.

        I think I would start with the Beginner’s Guide to Equestrian Fungi, and then move on to Strange and Rare Fungi Across Equestria.  Oh!  I could probably ask Roseluck too, she might know.  And if none of that worked, I could...

        “Come on,” Zil said from my left, “we need to get moving before the Changelings reorganize.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but closed it when a rock skittered down the hole behind us and clattered to a stop next to my right forehoof.  It was hard to tell, but I was pretty sure that we hadn’t knocked that one down during our mad slide.

“Yeah, that pretty much settles it,” Zil said, taking off at a brisk canter.  I followed soon after.  “Normally, a changeling separated from its commander is sort of lost.  We generally aren’t very good without orders from the top.  So, I figured knocking out Bane would buy us time while a messenger was sent to Chrysalis for new orders, bonus if she killed him in a blind rage, but it sounds like our head start is up.”

“Wait,” I asked without breaking stride, “if changelings aren’t good without a leader, how did you come to join the resistance.  I don’t want to think that you are actually a double-double agent.”  I leveled my best glare, which considering I had just helped him slaughter more than a score of changelings and knock out their commander, could probably have scared even Rainbow Dash.

He hung his head.  “I--”  A loud crash from the tunnel behind us caused him to whip his head around.  “--Will tell you later.  We have to go!”

        “Fine,” I growled, “but you aren’t off the hook.”

Without a second glance, we both tore off down the tunnel at top speed, turning erratically through the maze of passages in an attempt to lose out pursuers.  Right, left, left, right, straight, left, right, right, straight.  On and on and on we sprinted, panting heavily, but quietly, so the changelings couldn’t hear us.

It felt like hours passed before we both collapsed in a small chamber.  It was circular, with more of that strange plant growing in recesses across the top, making it almost seem like torches in the Princess’ castle.  Of course, thinking of the castle made me think of Princess Celestia, which made me think of her current residence: the sun.

        Not good thoughts.  Not good at all.  Too painful

        “Do... do you think we lost ‘em?”  Zil asked through deep, shaking breaths.

“I sure hope so.  I don’t think I could run much more...”  I replied, equally as breathless.  “Besides, you have a story to tell.”

        Zil sighed.  “Yeah, I guess I do.  And I promise I’ll tell the whole thing when we are safe.  So let’s just say--”

        “Hold on a second!”  I shouted, interrupting him.  “You promised me the story, and that’s what I want to hear!”

“Well tough!  I’m not about to go and spout my life’s story while we’re bein’ chased and are stuck in a little cavern!  You’ll hear the story when, and only when, I’m ready to tell you!”  Zil shouted, jumping to his hooves.

“Well, I don’t know if I can travel with what could very well be an enemy!  I’ve had enough of being locked up by Queen Cheeselegs, and considering you were with me the first time I got captured, I don’t exactly fancy my chances a second time!” My temper got the best of me, and I turned my back on him, facing down one of the three passages branching off from the room, not counting the way we came in.

Noticing I was starting to leave, Zil reached out, though he stopped before actually touching me.  “Twilight, wait, don’t leave m--”  But I didn’t hear the rest; the sound of the rocks filling the passage behind me as I walked forward drowned him out.

To be honest, I didn’t want to hear it anyway.  I’d had enough trouble with changelings, and while I liked Zil and enjoyed his company, the risk was just too great.


*****


        Honestly, that was probably a mistake.  Note to self: look into books about anger management...

        And paranoia, that would probably be good too.

    Anyway, I was still stuck in the dark maze of uniform tunnels, lit by a very very strange variety of fungi, and I was alone.  To top it all off, I was starving from my magic usage earlier, and from my fasting for the last Celestia only knows how many months.  To top it all off, I was ravenously thirsty.  I probably would have drank blood at that point.

        Nevermind, blood is somewhat salty, it would have been counterproductive.

        Also: Ewwwww!

Morbid vampiric thirst aside, it really wasn’t terrible.  By sealing the passage behind me, (something I had not really intended to do, but whatever,) I had ensured two things.  One, the changelings knew exactly which way I went.  And two, I was also safe for as long as it took for them to dig away all the rubble, and find out which of the nearly infinite paths I had taken since then.

Even though they knew where I was, I doubt they could reach me.  And even if they could?  I was rested now.  I wouldn’t go down without a fight.

    Because turning my thoughts to my studies brought my mind down the bastardization of all I had strived my whole life to achieve, and thinking of my friends brought me to how ultimately this was all my fault, and thinking of the Princesses would just make everything much much worse, I locked onto one thing.

        Left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right, left, rig-- wait.  What was that?

I had just come to an intersection, another chamber like the one I had parted from Zil in, when a noise from the leftmost corridor drew my attention.  I whipped my head around at the sound of hooves striking rock, preparing a deadly beam of light in my horn.

        “Who is out there!”  I shouted my challenge down the hallway.  “Show yourself, or I’ll have to identify your body!”

        “T... Twilight?  Is... Is that really you....?”  That voice... she wasn’t supposed to sound like that...

“Pinkie Pie?”  I asked, changing my death beam to a simple ray of light.  The pale lavender bolt shot it’s way into the chamber beyond, illuminating the sad, sad shadow of the pink pony I had called friend.

It was a humbling sight.  The usually fluffy pink cotton candy mane and tail had been reduced to straight streaks of pink and gray.  Dust choked the shine out of her once gleaming coat, leaving it more ashy than pink.  Even her cutie mark had not survived the years in the darkness.  The three multicolored balloons who had once attested to the fact that this pony loved to party were now coated in dirt and dust.  If one hadn’t known her before, they never would be able to guess now that this sad pony had once been the life of every party thrown in an entire town.

But the worst was her eyes.  The orbs that once held the sparkling light of adventure and discovery at every turn now were dull and lifeless.  The color was still there, that light blue like the noonday summer sky, but all the happiness and
spontaneity were gone.  For all intent and purposes, Pinkie Pie was dead.

        Yet there stood the twisted facsimile of my friend, cowering from the light of my horn.  She took one tentative step forward, then another, and another until we stood muzzle to muzzle.  She cocked her head to the left, then, not finding what she was looking for, to the right.

        “I... I thought you were gone...”  Her voice was barely more than a hoarse whisper.  If she hadn’t been right in front of me, I wouldn’t have heard.  “They pulled you away and dumped me.  It.... It hurt.”

        “Pinkie,” I said, reaching my head forward to give her a reassuring nuzzle.

        She shot backwards.  “No.  NO!”  She galloped off down into the corridor.

        “Pinkie, wait!”  I shouted back, running after her as fast as I could.

        “No!” the reply wafted back to me.  “You’ll just get hurt again!  I’ll just get hurt again!  Just leave me alone!”

        Once again I found myself in a chase, although on the opposite end from before.  My horn glowed with dangerous energy, not for Pinkie mind you, but just in case we ran into anything not quite as friendly as her.

        Not to say she was being particularly friendly at the moment.  She was constantly yelling at me to leave her alone as we raced through the endless maze of identical passages.  However, she was steadily pulling ahead.  All the running previous, combined with the fact I still had not eaten or drank anything in what could have been days was starting to catch up.

        In a last ditch effort, I focused what was left of my energy into a spell.  I launched it forth, lacking the energy to aim it properly, and prayed to Celestia that it hit the right target.

         It did.  Pinkie skidded to a halt as the energy enveloped her.  I collapsed on the ground, drained.  Seconds passed, then minutes.  I ground my teeth together, praying that it had worked.  It was a simple spell, reminiscent of the one I used during Discord’s escape.  All it really did was remind Pinkie who she was, and who I was, and what life had been like before.

        The formerly-pink pony turned to me with tears in her once-sparkling eyes.  “It really is you...”  I opened my eyes just in time to see Pinkie rush over to me and sweep me up in a huge hug.

        “Yeah Pinkie, but I won’t be if you, ack, squeeze me to death,” I said through my crushed lungs.

        “Right, sorry...” she said, letting me down onto my hooves.  Damn, I thought to myself, that worked last time she was all depressed and crazy like this...  My stomach growled, interrupting my thoughts.

        “Uh, Pinkie?  You don’t happen to have some sort of home or something carved out down here do you?  Maybe with some food?”  I asked, letting my hopes balloon for the briefest of moments.

        “Sort of, but Betsy gets cranky when I bring strange ponies over,” she answered in her peculiar new mellow fashion.

        I arched an eyebrow.  “Betsy?  Other ponies?  Just how many others do we need to be looking out for down here?”

        Pinkie Pie looked around, counting on her hooves (which, come to think of it, really isn’t the most efficient method of counting.)  “I don’t really know Twilight.  I thought it was just me, Betsy, and Miss Fluffles, but now you are down here, and a bunch of scary changelings too.”

        My ears perked up.  Changelings, either our pursuers or Zil.  One I wanted to avoid, the other I wanted to apologize to.  “What do you mean?”

        “Well I heard some noises, and I wondered who was in my caves, so I went to see, and on the way I saw a bunch of changelings attack another changeling and drag him off.  Then I found you,” Pinkie said.  It would take awhile to get used to that subdued voice.

        Great.  I left Zil, and he got recaptured.  Though, if I had been with him, would I have been captured as well?  Celestia knows that nothing good would have happened if we had both been caught.  At least now I could try to escape, and find some way to hook up with the resistance, or if there isn't one anymore, start one.

        Though, I found Pinkie Pie, maybe I could find the other girls and reunite the Elements of Harmony.  Then, we could take on Chrysalis and the Taint. Then we could rescue the Princesses and everything could return to normal.

        Ha, normal.  Funny joke, me.

        “Ok, ok, just have to keep a calm head.  Pinkie, let’s go back to your... home, and we can start working on getting out, ok?”

        Pinkie gave me a funny look.  “Out?  We can’t get out.”

        “What?”  I shrieked.  “Why not?”

        “There’s no way.” Pinkie hung her head.  “I looked for ages and didn’t see a single way... We’re stuck down here...

        “Forever.”


*****


        After her dramatic declaration, Pinkie Pie led me through the twisting maze of the caverns to the little cave she now called home.  It was cozy, I guess, for a giant hole.  I imagine that before Pinkie had been beaten down totally, she had tried to redecorate a little bit.  Random of splashes of color decorated the walls--mostly dashes of white, gray, and red on top of the gray slate.  The white is obviously ash from fires, or maybe powder from ground rocks.  The lighter gray was probably parts of the stone itself.

        I don’t even want to think about where the red came from.

        In an effort to make it at least a little bit more comfortable, Pinkie had somehow managed to drag multiple rocks around to make crude furniture.  A mostly flat big stone sat in the middle of the room, making a sort of table.  Smaller stones sat around it, which I assume were meant to be chairs, though sitting on the floor would probably be more comfortable.  Still though, their occupants didn’t look like they minded.

        Now I understood what Pinkie had meant by other ponies.  It seemed that, in the absence of her real friends, she had decided to create her own.  Crude--almost foallike in design--effigies of clay ponies sat upon the stones.

        One was gray, the other white.  They both looked to be earth ponies, though one had a lump on its forehead that could have been a horn if you looked at it right.  The gray one was taller, and slimmer. It (she?) sat straight up, the very picture of prim and proper.  Rarity would have been pleased.

        The white one however, was a tad... off.  The whole thing was kind of squatted down, hunched over the table in a direct opposite to its companion.  The lump extended from this one, just a tad under where the horn on a unicorn would be.  It was really more of a... blob than a lump, though it could probably be a horn if you looked at it straight on.

        “So, Pinkie...”  I started, “are these two ‘ponies’ Betsy and Miss Fluffles?”  I waved my hoof in the general direction of the clay figures.

        Pinkie Pie nodded, walking slowly around the “table” until she was right behind the gray effigy.  “Betsy,” she said, “and Miss Fluffles,” she added, motioning towards the white figure, “this is my friend, Twilight Sparkle.  Don’t worry she is really smart.  She was the student of Princess Celestia even!”

        “Oh, pleasure to meet you, Miss Sparkle,” Pinkie said in a higher-pitched voice with a posh overtone.  “I am Lady Betsy, and that pony over there is my good friend Miss Fluffles.  You’ll have to excuse her, she is in a bit of a state lately.”

        “Ah shaddup,” Pinkie said in a deep, gravely voice, jumping around to stand near the white clay pony.  “I ain’t in no state, and you wouldn’t know either way, so can it!”

        “My word,” ‘Betsy’ said, “I thought we were beyond such crass and harsh language Madame Fluffles.”

        “It’s MISS Fluffles, ya bimbo.  Now shaddup and leave me t’ my drink.”  Pinkie made slurping noises, which I suppose was to be ‘Miss Fluffles’ drinking.

        Enough was enough.  I couldn’t really tell Pinkie that her ‘friends’ weren’t real, but I could at least hope to distract her.  “So Pinkie, got any food lying around?  Or at least some water?”

        “Huh?”  Pinkie turned and stared as if seeing me for the first time.  “Ohmygosh Twilight!”  She tackled me to the floor in a fierce hug.  “I... I thought I would never see you again!”  Pinkie pulled back, suspicion in her eyes.  “How did you get here?”

        “Uh, you brought me here...?  In fact, we literally just had this conversation like, half an hour ago.”  I looked at her closely, mentally running through the checklist of first-aid spells I knew.  It was possible, of course, that she had honestly forgotten.  It was Pinkie Pie after all, she didn’t have the best memory most of the time, but I don’t think she would forget somepony, especially a good friend.

        No, what was much more likely was that, in her time of isolation, something had snapped within the head of the pony.  Such a social creature, thrust down into the depths of the ground, alone.  Surely nothing good could come of it.

        Hopefully it wouldn’t be irreversible.  If Pinkie Pie didn’t go back to being, well, Pinkie Pie, Chrysalis would have hell to pay.

        Assuming I survived this whole mess.  That was a definite condition to my revenge.  It is hard to make somepony pay if you’re dead.

        “Did we?  I... I don’t remember.  I just know that the last time I saw you, they took you away and stuck me in this dark, awful place Twilight.  It was so scary until I met Betsy and Miss Fluffles.  Hey!  Have you met them yet?”

        Oh Celestia, it was worse than I thought.  Ok. let’s see here.  Could be a concussion, affecting her short term memory.  A likely option, as her long term memory seems to be unaffected.  She does remember my visit when she was locked away, after all.

    It could also be a psychological breakdown due to stress or isolation.  Even if she made friends of her own to counteract the loneliness of this cave system, something inside her knows that the ponies she talks to aren’t real.  Possibly they go through the same reinvention every so often as well?

    Could it simply be the fact that she doesn’t remember?  I did fire that spell at her, and while it didn’t do anything of the sort last time, I was somewhat rushed and stressed.  It is possible a bit of my combat magic may have mixed into the psychological feeler that the spell used to search for memories, eradicating them instead of pulling them to the surface.

    No, that can’t be it.  She remembered me right after, ergo the memories were perfectly fine.  Besides, she remembered my earlier visit while she was locked up.  Ugh, this is so confusing!  Maybe I could just get her to let me run a battery of tests or something.  That would probably be the easiest solution, after all, and the most practical.  Of course, Pinkie Pie and scientific tests don’t have the best working relationship.

        Too late, I realized I hadn’t answered Pinkie’s question, so she had gone ahead with her whole introduction spiel.

        “A pleasure to meet, you Miss Twilight.  I am Lady Betsy, and that pony over there is my good friend Miss Fluffles.  You’ll have to excuse her, she is in a bit of a state today.”

        “Not such that I would ever dream of being impolite to a guest.  Welcome, Miss Twilight, to our cozy little home.  Alas, it is not much, but consider what is ours, yours.”  I did a double take.  Instead of the crass and rude Miss Fluffles of earlier, this one spoke with an accent much more akin to her compatriot.  This learnt much more credibility to Situation Two, the worst possible one.

        “Well said, well said indeed,” Betsy said from her side of the table.  “Say Pinkie Pie, be a dear and fetch our friend some nourishment, could you?  She looks absolutely starved!”

        “Oh my gosh you’re right!”  Pinkie shouted in her new quiet tone.  She trotted over to a pile of something in the corner, pulling out some inedible-looking flowers and a clay pot of fresh, clear water.  She set them out on the place at the table nearest to me.

        The flowers were pretty unappetizing, but I was starving.  I moved over, making sure to discretely roll the rock-chair out of the way before planting my flank on the ground.  Trying my best to ignore the dying, crisping leaves I picked one flower up with my magic and hesitantly took a bite.

        And it was awful.  It was sour, and bitter, and tasted like ash.  Still, I knew I would need the energy to cast diagnostic spells on Pinkie Pie, and ultimately would need my magic to escape.  So, with invincible resolve, I scrunched my eyes shut and ate the rest of the flower, and its two companions as fast as equinely possible, chugging the water afterwards in a vain attempt to banish the taste from my mouth.

        “T-Thanks Pinkie,” I managed to choke out through gasps of air.  “That was... delicious...?”

        “No it wasn’t,” Pinkie said in a very matter-of-fact way.  “The flowers down here are never good.  Not like the Good Stuff from the Candy Place...”

        “Good Stuff?  Candy Place?  What are you going on about Pinkie?”  I asked.  This was either one of two things.  1, Pinkie was reminiscing about home, albeit with very roundabout methods, or 2, that there was a place down in the mines called the Candy Place.

        My bits are on 1.

        “Back before... Before it all... I used to work in a shop in Ponyville.  I threw parties, I made sweets, and everything was great and happy.”  She looked over at me with some form of clarity.  “You moved to town.  I knew everypony before I met you, and then I threw you that party, and we all went out to vanquish Nightmare Moon.  You became my best friend, you and the other girls.  We did so much.”

        Pinkie looked over at me.  Lifeless blue eyes coating themselves with a sheen of moisture.  “Where did we go wrong Twilight?  What happened to make us lose this one?”  Her voice softened even more, quieter than a whisper of a nighttime breeze across reeds in a stream. “What happened to us?”

        As much as it killed me to admit it, I didn’t know.


*****


        Can you tell where she is, sister?

       We are trying our best. She is still in the castle, yes, but deeper. It would appear she is in the mines below Canterlot, but we thought you shut them down years before our... departure.

        We did. Oh, little Twilight, go to sleep so we can figure out how to help you...

        Do you honestly expect to be able to aid Applejack and Rarity? Even if we find her, she is still stuck underneath the castle, assuming she is still alive.

        Don’t talk like that!

        Oh, did We strike a nerve, sister?

        You should care about her well being as much as I. After all, she saved you too.

        We know, Celestia. We are just messing with you.

        Yeah, sure. How is that spell I asked you to create coming?

        We have both good news and bad news sister. The good news is it is finished, and ready to be cast at any time.

        Then do it!

        There lies the bad news. Her personal resistance to magic prevents us from casting a spell like that on her at most times. We must wait until she is weaker than normal, or her guards are down.

        Well, what can you do?

        Let us show you...


*****        


I tossed and turned, mumbling through my uneasy sleep.  Flickering lights.  Fleeting colors and twisting landscapes. Uncertain, disfigured faces flying across the void of space. It all resolved into one white alicorn, looking down upon a small lavender unicorn from the precipice of a cliff miles and miles high, while at the same time small enough to climb with little effort.

       The alicorn looked down, the unicorn looked up. Their gazes met, and locked in place.  The alicorn opened her mouth, about to speak her edict of all time upon her small audience, but just before the words could escape their perfect prison, a bright ball of flame shot up between the two, blocking the lavender unicorn’s sight.

       She ran for days and days, trying to find her way around the ever-expanding cliff face.  She ran until she could no longer, then she began to crawl. She crawled until her hooves refused to move, and she collapsed where she lay, no closer to anything at all.

        I woke with a start, sweating all over. A groan escaped my lips, life cut short as I clamped my muzzle closed to avoid waking the other occupant of the room. Above me and slightly to my left sat the two clay mimics, in the exact same place they had been in when I arrived. No, it was I who had moved, though not far.

       No, I was simply lying on the ground, rock under my head in a makeshift pillow, blanket of moss pulled over me to try and combat the dank chill of the cavern. Stupid dreams, I thought to myself, plopping my head back down onto my rock-pillow before remembering it was a rock, and that rocks hurt.

       “Ouch!” I cried, shooting into a sitting position. Before I could do anything, a pink blur rocketed over to me, clutching a rock in her hooves.

      “Twilight! Is everything ok?” Pinkie Pie asked, eyes lighting up with concern.

      “No, just hit my head is all. Go back to sleep,” I answered, rubbing the rapidly-forming goose egg on the back of my head with a forehoof.

       Pinkie dropped her rock, eyes returning to their dull state. “Ok,” she said simply before returning to her own patch of floor. I sighed, before lying back down--mindful of the unforgiving object I called a pillow--and thought back over the events of the day.

        I had learned many things about Pinkie’s condition in the few hours we had been together. I closed my eyes, envisioning a checklist like one of the uncounted millions I had created back in Ponyville, and even before, during my tutelage under Celestia.

    1. Pinkie Pie was originally unstable in her cell. It appears that the long amount of time with no real interpersonal interaction has damaged something inside her mind.

    2. Betsy and Miss Fluffles are creations of clay, hardened in their positions as the rock Pinkie refers to as the table.  Their personalities are supplied by Pinkie herself, and are subject to change whenever Pinkie loses clarity.

    3. Pinkie often suffers from bouts of depression, though they are not very frequent, and last only a few minutes, and can sometimes forewarn of an impending loss of reality.

    4. Pinkie sometimes loses all hold on reality for a few moments.  Short term memory may or may not be erased during these episodes, but long term memory seems mostly unaffected
**Note: After episode involving memories of Sugarcube Corner, no other episodes have been observed in the last 4-5 hours.**

    5. Pinkie sometimes experiences moments of perfect clarity, often after being made aware of her surroundings.  I need to find a way to bring these out more often, make them last longer, and overall, make this her only method of thinking.  This is the first logical step to “fixing” her, and to plotting out eventual escape.

      I allowed myself a triumphant smile.  After all, I had deduced all of that within the course of a few hours, and with minimal harmful experimentation on Pinkie’s psyche.  I had also gotten her to agree to an examination tomorrow, which could be instrumental to curing her problem, long term.

     Though I dreaded what may happen, I knew sleep was necessary.  Doing my absolute best to clear my mind, I closed my eyes and fell into an uneasy slumber.


*****


      “Pinkie?  Pinkie, I need you to focus!”

      “Sorry, sorry Twilight.  I’m trying, I really am.”

      “No she isn’t, the girl is paying less attention than a beggar in Royal court!”

      “Oh, hush.  Such rude things.  I am absolutely petrified to being seen in public with you.”

    My eye twitched.  Thus was the state we had been in for almost an hour now.  I was trying to run complicated spells on Pinkie--searching for damage, but brain damage in particular, and patching up what I could--with only about a fourth of the magical power I was accustomed to.

Needless to say, it was not going perfectly, especially since Pinkie’s ‘friends’ had to keep throwing their two bits in.

“Please everypony,” I had quickly learned to treat the two clay figures as they were actually ponies to avoid upsetting Pinkie awhile ago, “be quiet.  I need to get this right to make sure nothing is wrong with Pinkie.”  I paused, waiting for the interruption I knew was probably coming.

       In all honesty, I was enjoying myself, at least a little bit.  Reimagining spells to use less power while not compromising its effect was a very interesting challenge, the likes of which I had not had the pleasure of butting heads with for a long time.

       I closed my eyes, focusing my being into nothing but my horn and my mind once again.  This was the last spell on the list that could possibly do any good. It was also the only one on the list I had much trouble reinventing to work with my limited power supply.  I had made sure to weave failsafes into the spell, so that nothing I did would inadvertently hurt Pinkie, but it might not work at all either.

      My horn glowed, spreading it’s warm light over Pinkie’s form.  She giggled a little, nothing like what she used to do, but it made me feel like maybe some of what I had done actually had some effect.  As the spell continued, a perfect representation of her appeared in my mind’s eye.  With a thought, the fur disappeared, leaving the skin below.  I had already checked that much, but it didn’t hurt to be thorough.

      Her skin was fine, I had already healed the several lacerations, burns, holes, and other assorted injuries. Satisfied that she was in as good of a condition she could be, I vanished the skin, revealing the musculature. Again, nothing there that I hadn’t already fixed. There had been several tears, a few muscles ripped earlier that hadn’t healed right that I broke apart and stitched back together.

      So I went deeper. Gone went the muscles, and up came the skeleton, and the organs held beneath. For the moment, I faded out the bones and cartilage, focusing instead on the things responsible for my pink friend’s life. Most of them were ok, the only real damage were to her heart and lungs, both could be explained by panic and the musty air of the caverns.

      Satisfied with that, I let the skeleton fade back in, fading the organs out instead.  Microfractures were healed. Stress on the ligaments and cartilage vanished with an errant thought. I couldn’t avoid it any longer, time to use this spell for what I actually meant to.

      I took a deep breath, and banished all but the brain nestled within her skull.  It expanded, filling my mind’s eye, giving me unbridled view and access.  To be honest, there really wasn’t much I could do.  If there was some scar tissue, I could remove it.  A deformed section could be shaped back, but there was no guarantee that whatever had been there would come back.

      That’s why I was immensely relieved when I found a patch of scar tissue, stretching from one side to the other.  Focusing, I repeated the damage to her brain, and used my magic to aid the healing process.  I doubt it would fix anything, but it couldn’t hurt. 

      I heaved a massive sigh, the kind that could clear your entire system.  I let the spell drop, feeling the slow ebb of energy returning after a long, tiring spell.  Before I could even open my eyes, Pinkie rushed over to my side, supporting me so I wouldn’t fall over.

     “Thanks Pinkie,” I said, accepting the pot of water she offered me.  Apparently there was a freshwater spring inside the cave itself, supplying her, and me, with as much water as we wanted.

     “Am I ok doc?”  she asked with a quirky grin on her face.

     “Physically yes.  I healed a scar on your brain tissue, but I don’t know if it’ll help at all.  Physically you’re ok, but you’re not... you.”

     Pinkie ran a hoof through her straight mane, spreading another coat of dirt and ash over it’s once vibrant pink.  “I don’t know Twilight,” she mumbled.  “Sorry.”

     I reached over and hugged Pinkie, only partly to keep from falling over.  Constant spellcasting for a couple hours had really drained me.  I still wasn’t back up to one hundred percent, and I was starting to fear I never would be.  Then what would Princess Celestia think?

    “It’s not your fault,” I whispered back, still using my pink friend for support.

    “I miss it Twilight,” she said in a voice so quiet I almost couldn’t hear.  “I remember back in Ponyville.  I remember Nightmare Moon, Discord, the Gala.  I remember the Iron Pony competition, and the Running of the Leaves.  I remember throwing parties, and making everypony so happy.

    “Everything sparkled.  Everything was bright and shiny and new and exciting.  But that cell...”  she took a deep breath, scrambling back until she knocked over one of her clay ponies, Miss Fluffles I think.  “And Dashie screaming... and it was dark all the time, and cold.  The food was awful, and the water was almost worse.”

     “Pinkie,” I said in a reassuring voice, “we can get all that back.”

     Her eyes shot up to meet mine, sparkling for a second with the boundless energy I knew she had.  “How? The Queen killed everypony, she locked us up and split us up.  She dumped me down here and there is no way out!” She rushed over to me and put her hooves on either side of my face, forcing me to look into her eyes.  “No way out Twilight!  No way out!”

     “Pinkie, there has to be a way out,” I said, voice hard with determination.  “There has to be a way out, because I have to get out. I have to get out, and I have to get everything back the way it was.”

     She cocked her head, still muzzle to muzzle with me.

    “I have to. I have to get it all back.”  I broke away from Pinkie’s grip.  I felt it coming, the tears, the sadness.  I saw the plans flash across my mind.  Saw bodies piled up in the streets.  All of it, my fault.  I pulled my way back to the room. It was too much. I had damned myself to try and stop Chrysalis, and then got caught like a fool when I tried to spin my treachery as something good.

    Because of me Spike was killed, and Zil. Because of me Rainbow Dash was either seriously hurt, possibly unable to fly again, or dead.

    I felt hooves wrap around me. I felt a gentle nuzzle on my neck.

    “Twilight?”  I couldn’t face her. Couldn’t do it. My fault, all of it. “Twilight Sparkle?” Pain. Injury. Chrysalis throwing me against the wall when my plans didn’t work right. “Come on, look at me.” Shining, being dissolved before Celestia blocked my sight. Spike’s body falling to the floor, blood chasing his head as it rolled towards his killer.  Zil, screaming as a horde of angry changelings dragged his broken body back to Chrysalis.

    The hooves on me slipped off my back.  Gently clopping noises drifted over to me until a pink blob blocked my vision.  A hoof gently raised my head up until they looked at big, blue eyes. She smiled, a gentle smile. “I believe in you.”


*****


    I didn’t even bother trying to sleep that night.  Too busy, too focused. “Pinkie, what all have you figured out about this place.  Are there any ways back to the surface other than the way through the castle?”

    “No. Well, there was a door thingy, it was locked or something though.  I couldn’t open it,” she said before taking a little bite of the terrible flowers we had to eat.

    “Hmm, well Cadence and I pretty much demolished the minecart we used to break out last time. I got down by sliding down a big hole in the bottom of the castle.  I don’t think that is a very feasible option for getting back, so it sounds like this door is the only real way out.” I rubbed my chin with a hoof.

    Going up through the castle meant we would probably encounter a lot of changeling resistance. I’m not totally sure how good of a fighter Pinkie would be, but she seemed able to hold her own when we rushed to get the Elements of Harmony, so, while she may not be as good of a fighter as Zil, at least it wouldn’t be just me against everything.

    Which was doubly good, because my magic was still not nearly as strong as I would have liked.  While I wasn’t struggling with small spells, I didn’t know how well my combat magic would work.  Though, I could always just levitate like, a brick or something to use as a bludgeon. And if it came down to that, I could always poke a changeling with my horn.

    “Do you remember where it is?”  I asked.

   “Ummm... yup, I think so.” She pondered for a second more. “Yeah, definitely.”

    “Good, then as soon as we are rested up, we are getting out of here.”

    I turned around to grab myself another drink of water, when I heard Pinkie gasp behind me. “Twilight! What about Miss Fluffles and Betsy!?”

  Buck. She hadn’t mentioned them at all since I had messed with her head--wow, that sounds a lot worse than it did in my head--and I had hoped that maybe that part of it was done.  “Well, can they move?”

    Pinkie shook her head.

    “I don’t see a way to bring them with us Pinkie, I’m sorry.” And I really was.  Pinkie had been alone for so long, she had made friends that couldn’t leave her, and now I was making her leave.

    Pinkie looked at the two clay figures. She blinked a couple of times before turning back to me.  “That’s ok.  They aren’t real.  They never really were.  They are up here,” she poked her head with a hoof, “so I’m not leaving them anywhere.”

    Ok, I was feeling pretty hopeful for a moment there.  It sounded like her odd schizophrenic thing she had going on was done for, but it turned out that it was really only just a little better.  Still though, had to start somewhere.

    “Alright, guess we should get some sleep,” I said. “When we get up, we get out.”

    Pinkie nodded, before plopping down near her moss-blanket and rolling away from me.

    I promise I’ll make this all better... I thought to myself as I slipped into sleep.
> What Dwells in the Darkness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


What Dwells in the Darkness


“Here we are,” Pinkie Pie said to me, stopping before a random section of the wall.  The odd luminescent moss that was prevalent everywhere was here as well, but it was different.  Instead of coating odd recesses in the ceiling, the vast majority of this hallway’s fungi was grouped along one wall, leaving one just the dull gray stone that the passages were carved from.

I took a closer look.  Pinkie Pie may have been crazy, (in more ways than one,) but it didn’t seem likely that she would make up something as important as our escape route.  Sure enough, closer inspection revealed a small groove running along a slab of rock barely big enough for a stallion to fit through.  The only thing I didn’t understand was the scratches the blemished the right side of the “door.”  I only knew of a few creatures strong enough to gouge out solid stone, and I didn’t want to meet any of them.

“Is... is it going to work,” Pinkie asked me as I pulled back from my inspection.

“I really don’t know.  It looks like it could be a door, or it could be the lair of some terrible monster that would eat us whole,” I replied with another nervous look to the indent.

“Would that really be so bad...?” the quiet response came.

I spun around quickly, staring my pink friend dead in her eyes.  “Don’t talk like that Pinkie, don’t even think like that!  We... we can’t give up!”  I was shouting now, desperation lending my voice a shrill edge.  “Pinkie, please, we have to fix this.  We have to make this right, because we are the only ones who can!  We have to find the girls, have to get rid of Chrysalis, have to save Equestria...”  my voice trailed off.  Have to free Celestia, I thought for a moment before quickly banishing it.  Focus.  Have to focus.

Pinkie blinked.  “Yeah, ok.  What do we do then, Miss Boss Pony?”

“Well, it’s pretty simple Pinkie.  All we have to do is--”  I blanked.  Nothing came to mind.  What do we do?

“Isssss...?”  Pinkie responded, drawing the word out, leaning forward until her muzzle poked mine.  I playfully pushed her back, causing her to fall on her haunches and smile.

I smiled back.  “Well, the plan was to use a spell I learned to burst the door open, then just run through and try to get out in one piece.”

“Huh.  Seems kind of unplanned for you,” Pinkie said, poking a hoof at the door, trying to get it to move.

“Well, there really isn’t much for me to go off of, Pinkie.  It’s better than nothing though, isn’t it?” I asked, a little bite to my tone.

“Well, yeah, but your plans are usually so... so... Twilight-y!”

She seems to be swinging back towards normal.  I couldn’t suppress a giggle.  “Twilight-y?   That isn’t a word.”

“But it works!  I mean, sure, so does ‘organized,’ but Rarity is organized too.”

“We can both be organized,” I said, fighting hard to suppress my grin.

“Well duh,” Pinkie rolled her eyes.  “But she is all... clean-organized.  You are more... everything-exactly-where-it-belongs-and-aligned-perfectly-organized.  It’s totally different, but the same thing.”

I opened my mouth to respond, then closed it a second or two later.  It really wasn’t worth the argument that would probably just end when she slipped back to the other end of her personality pendulum.  Instead, I turned my attention towards the door.

A feeler of magic pulsed out from my horn, worming against the stone seal that locked the slab of rock firmly shut.  No matter how much I pushed against it, however, the seal remained, firm and defiant.  Not so much as a small hole allowed me to see to the other side either, so even if we could get it open, we would be going in blind.


        “Twilight,” called a tiny voice from far, far away.  “Twilight?  Are you ok?”

    “Huh?”  I opened my eyes to see two bright blue orbs staring down at me.  “Waugh!”  I screamed, jumping back to the sound of giggles.

        “Jeez, Twilight, you don’t have to be so jumpy,” Pinkie Pie said between gasps of laughter.

        “That’s not funny, Pinkie!”  I said, though my smile betrayed me.

        “hehe If you say so...  What were you doing anyway?” she asked, much more calmly.

    “I was using magic to see if we could see through the door somehow,” I replied, getting back into position to take up the broken spell.

        “Well, that’s easy!  All we have to do is open it!” Pinkie said, moving towards the door.

“No, don’t!”  I shouted, but it was too late.  With a massive heave, Pinkie bucked the door, causing the rock around it to shake, and dust to rain from the ceiling.  For a moment, I thought it wasn’t going to be enough, but then, to my horror, the rock creaked and slid back on hidden joints, revealing a dark passage beyond.

The first thing I noticed was that the passage was pitch black.  The strange luminous moss apparently didn’t grow in the dark tunnel.  What little light flowed in revealed rough walls, of some strange dark stone, possibly granite or marble.  I moved closer, gently but firmly moving Pinkie Pie as I focused magic into my horn.

“Whatcha doin, Twilight?”  Pinkie asked from behind me.  Rather than ruin my concentration with an answer, I fired a bolt of energy deep into the crevasse.  The soft purple light didn’t really stay in one spot long enough to illuminate much, just a few branches off the main path, but it went on for a small eternity before it hit a wall and fizzled out. “Ooh, what was that supposed to do?  Make a portal back to the surface?”

“I wish it was that easy, Pinkie,” I replied, taking a tentative couple of steps into the dark passageway.  “It was just to put some light in, maybe show if anything else was here.  After all, if we have to walk through, do you want to share it with, say, changelings?”

        “Well, no...” she replied.  “Should I come too?”

“Unless you want to stay here, yeah.”  As soon as the pink pony took her first step into the tunnel, I started walking forward, focusing my magic like a lantern.  As Pinkie finished clearing the threshold, tail and all inside, the door shot back around and slammed shut, sealing us in.

“No, no, no, no!”  I galloped back, pushing Pinkie out of the way in my haste to get to the door.  Right before I hit, I spun and bucked the stone, just as Pinkie had done earlier, but the door did not budge.  We were trapped, in the dark, with no idea where to go.

        I took a deep breath, steadied my nerves, and started off in a random direction.


*****


        “Twilight, are we lost?”  The voice came from behind me, as quiet as always.

“No.......... maybe,” I replied, hoping Pinkie wouldn’t freak out.  Thankfully, only silence answered my admission.  When we next came to an intersection, I plopped down on my haunches, resting my hooves, and letting my dim light fade.  I felt more than saw Pinkie sit next to me.

“Are we ever going to get out?”  I didn’t reply, so Pinkie put a hoof on my shoulder, and shook me before repeating herself.  “Twiliiiight, are we ever going to get out of this place?  At least back in the mines there was light.”

        I was about to respond when something hot blew past my right ear, making it twitch.  “Pinkie, this really isn’t the time to be blowing on my ears, of all things.”

“What do you mean?  I’m not doing anything to your ears.  I’m over here, silly,” Pinkie replied, prodding my left side with a hoof.

I gulped, adrenaline flooding my system.  I didn’t want to probe the air, afraid the light from my horn would aggravate whatever ferocious beast occupied the tunnel with us.  “Pinkie,” I whispered urgently, “listen very closely to me.  On the count of three, I’m going to flood the chamber with light.  When I do, run forward, and don’t look back, okay?”

        “Uh, if you say so, Twilight,” Pinkie replied in a soft whisper matching my own.  “When do I stop?”

        “When we stop being chased.  Get ready, on three.”

        I took a deep breath.  “One,”

        I started condensing power inside of myself, without channeling it into my horn, lest the glow give us away.  “two,”

        I exhaled slowly, cleansing my system, and taking another deep breath.  “three!”

I pushed all the power I held in my being, and shoved it through my horn, closing my eyes as I did so.  Through my eyelids, the room glowed a bright, bright purple.  Something next to me roared in agony, and I took off, galloping down the passage as fast as I could.  Every so often, I felt something whip across my muzzle, letting me know Pinkie was right in front of me.

It wasn’t too long before the thing took off after us, claws scratching at the floor.  A massive bellow shook the cave around us, echoing off the walls, making it seem like we were surrounded on all sides.  Somepony screamed, probably not me, and we poured on the speed, galloping for our lives.

It briefly occurred to me that we were running blind, no idea what was coming, and no way to make enough light to facilitate quick reactions.  Pinkie must have had some idea, because when we came to a dead end, she darted over to the left, and I quickly followed, praying to her that we were going the right way.

Oh, Goddesses, it was terrifying.  Every few steps, I felt something snap at my tail, causing me to jerk forward to save myself, but I was tiring out.  Each lunge took its toll, making my jumps become shorter and shorter.  To make it all worse, the monster was panting, sending some kind of spit against my legs and hooves, causing me to slip every so often, which made my heart to skip a beat until I could regain my footing and put on a burst of speed.

        It was also gross.  Very, very gross.

But, as the chase wore on, the snaps at my haunches and legs began getting further and further apart.  The scritching began growing faint, until the only sounds to be heard were the panicked, shaky breaths of Pinkie and myself, and the quick clopping of hooves on stone.  The pony in front of me started slowing down, eventually causing us to halt, leaning against opposite walls for support.

        “Did we... did we lose it?” Pinkie asked after a while.

“I hope so, otherwise we are monster food,” I replied.  “Yeah, I think I know why this tunnel was sealed now.” I looked down the tunnel, shuddering at the thought of what would have happened. “That was probably a drake, sort of like the dragon’s baby cousin.  I heard stories of them living in the mountains before the Royal Army drove them out, but I didn’t realize the Princesses kept one as a pet.”

“You know, Twilight, it probably wasn’t the princesses,” Pinkie said calmly.  “It seems likely that Queen Chrysalis put it down here, maybe to eat me later, if she had to.  After all, a hunting beast would track down a pony easier than a squad of changelings.”

I blinked, and looked over at where the voice was coming from.  “That... that makes sense, yeah.  Are you good to go?”  I asked, reigniting my horn.

        “I’ll manage,” she replied.  “But, what’s that all over the back of your legs?  Did it get you?”

“No, just slobbered on me.  I’ll be fine.”  I bumped Pinkie’s hip with mine, flashing her a friendly smile before taking back off down the corridor.


*****


We must have been walking for hours with naught but the flickering of my magic and the sharp sound of hooves on stone before Pinkie spoke again.  “So, what happened to you before you came down to the mines, Twilight?”

“I, uh,” my mind scrambled, fruitlessly trying to come up with something to say.  Call me crazy, but I didn’t want Pinkie knowing I spent several months helping Chrysalis.  “I... I was locked in a dungeon.”  Well, it wasn’t a complete lie, anyway.  A lie of omission, though, part of me said.

“Oh, that must have been scary.  I was locked in a cell too...”  Pinkie trailed off, staring down at the floor.  I trotted closer, throwing a hoof around her shoulders in a reassuring hug, which ended up turning our walk into an awkward seven-hoof, two-pony hobble.  It worked for all of three steps before I tripped, my hoof around Pinkie’s neck pulling her down on top of me.

We stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment.  They were still dead, empty of the laughter that long characterized my pink friend, but still such a pretty shade of blue.  Suddenly, they lit up with mirth as Pinkie rolled off me, giggling like a maniac.  I joined in, our laughter joining together and bouncing off the natural walls of the tunnel, echoing back and forth, until a score of Twilights and Pinkies laughed alongside us.

        A score of Pinkies and Twilights, and one angry growl.

        The laughter died instantly.  “Did you hear that?” I asked as the last of the echoing laughter faded away.

        “Yeah,” Pinkie responded quietly.  “Is that thing back?”

“Celestia, I hope not, but then again, it could be a lot worse.”  I glanced down the tunnel, dimming my light a bit in case it hadn’t found us yet.  It was pretty likely the echoes threw it off, unless it was tracking us by scent.  Then again, it had slobbered all over me, so we might smell like drake.  “Okay Pinkie, we have to be quiet and hope that it doesn’t find us long enough for us to find the way out.  After all, they had to have a way to get it down here, right?”

        Pinkie nodded.

“So there is probably a door down here somewhere, right?”  Pinkie didn’t answer, just started tiphoofing into the tunnel.  I followed close behind, scanning anxiously for a way out.

It wasn’t too much further down the tunnel when I heard the scritch of the drake nearby.  I quickly doused the light and pushed Pinkie into a narrow crack in the wall, turning myself around to slide in in front of her.  Sensing my anxiety, the pink pony didn’t question me, instead deciding to breathe shallowly and lightly, each exhale tickling my ear.

We stayed in the crack for uncounted minutes.  Just when I thought I might have imagined it, or overreacted, I heard a sniff.  Just to be safe, I poked Pinkie’s leg, hoping she got the message to be quiet.  “It wasn’t me,” she whispered into my ear.

Suddenly, the darkness in front of me grew darker.  It rolled smoothly by, moving in a very uniform pattern.  It was searching for something; searching for us.  I held my breath, afraid even the littlest tremor would give us away.  I strained my eyes, trying to discern the beast from the black background, every second making my heart beat faster, until I was almost sure the beast could hear it, and that it was going to dig us out and eat us.

Eventually, the shadow left.  A small sigh escaped my lips and I slumped just a bit, taking some weight off my hind legs.  I was just about to turn and give Pinkie the all clear when a massive white eyeball burst into the entrance to our hiding spot.  I stood, paralyzed, unable to do so much as even breathe.  This is it, my mind kept saying.  I’m about to die, and we never even made it out of the castle.

The slit of the pupil darted around, likely unable to see into the pitch black of our hiding space, but it could smell.  Every few seconds it breathed a massive gust of air in, searching for our scent.  I felt Pinkie trembling behind me.  It wasn’t long until my body wanted to do the same, though I restrained myself.

For a terrifying second, the eye was looking right at me.  My entire body froze.  I didn’t blink, didn’t breathe, didn’t even think, lest I think too loud and be caught.  Suddenly, a noise down the hallway drew its attention.  The massive drake lumbered off, tail slithering ominously behind it.

I poked my head out, and, seeing nothing, squeezed myself out of the crack, followed shortly after by Pinkie.  “Come on,” I whispered, “before it comes back.”  She nudged into me, letting me know she understood, and we set off down the dark tunnel once again, constantly listening for the drake’s claws on the stone ground.

We walked for a few more minutes, before the worst thing happened: we hit a dead end.  “Oh now what?” Pinkie worriedly whispered from my right.  “We’re trapped!”

        “Just stay calm,” I replied, frantically looking at the dark walls for a way out.  “There’s gotta be something...”

        “Can you make some light?”

“Well, I could, but it would tell the drake exactly where we are if he is still in this part of the tunnels with us.  Its so dark that any light would carry for quite awhile.”  I moved, pressing myself against the wall and feeling around with a hoof for some sort of indent that would denote an escape.

“Twilight, please!”  I felt hooves clumsily fumble around on my coat for a moment before settling on my shoulders.  Pinkie shook me.  “I can’t stand the dark any longer!  Please, just for a moment so we can look.  If we don’t find a way out, we’re dead anyway, that thing is between us and the way back to the mines.”

She is right, part of my mind said.

Yeah, but she is also talking about suicide! another replied.

So you would rather sit in the dark and starve to death, or get mauled trying to slip past an angry drake?  Even if we do make it out, we’ll just end up rotting down here.

While my inner pessimist and optimist argued inside, the opportunist of me acted.  For the briefest of seconds, I flared my horn just bright enough for me to see... there! On the ceiling, a trapdoor!  Then we heard the roar.  The bellow shook the cave around us, briefly hiding the sound of the drake’s claws gouging at the floor; no longer a quiet scritch, now it was a thunderhead, an oncoming storm.  And we were right in its path.

“Pinkie, quick, I need to get on your back!”  I shouted, positioning her below the trap door.

“B-But, Twilight!  The monster’s coming!”  she replied, though she crouched a little so I could clamber up onto her.

“I know, I know, if I can just get this hatch open...” I muttered, more to myself than Pinkie.  My horn lit as I channeled a simple levitation spell through it.  I found the hinges with my magic.  With a simple thought, I moved the tendril of telekinesis opposite the hinge and pushed hard, causing the door to flip open with a mighty BANG!

I hazarded a glance down the tunnel, and sorely wished I hadn’t.  The drake was barreling down on us.  Its long, curved horns almost scraped the ceiling, the ridges from the base circled down into mandible-like protrusions on his lower jaw, just below his mouth of countless razor sharp teeth.  Every so often his forked tongue flicked out to taste the air, sharp with the fear of his pray.

Quickly whipping my head towards the opening above me, I reached for the power inside myself once again, levitating myself up, holding on just long enough to clear the lip before landing.  I quickly spun around and fell to my stomach, reaching a hoof back down the hole.  “Come on, Pinkie, jump!”  I shouted down at her.

I didn’t need to tell her twice.  With a mighty leap, Pinkie launched herself into the air, grabbing my hoof in the process.  I heaved, digging my back hooves into the ground and pushing with all my might until the pink pony popped from our underground prison.  We tumbled through the air, finally coming to a rest on top of the white marble, side by side.

“Did we make it?”  I asked, not opening my eyes.

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle, it would seem you have,” a voice replied.

My eyes shot open, and before I could even think, I was on my hooves, crouched low to the ground, eyes spitting fire.  Not a second later, Pinkie joined me, standing facing the other way.  Only then did I take in our surroundings; a long hallway, red carpet reaching down the middle, from a massive, gilded door to a big chair, big enough for one pony.  White marble pillars were spread out evenly, except for one which had been broken in two and now rested in a corner.

“We were just about to go looking for you, Miss Sparkle.  Thank you for saving us the trouble,” a changeling sneered from his seat by the throne.

“You... you are not Queen Chrysalis,” I said, looking it over.  “Hmmm... you all look the same to me.  Do you know this one Pinkie?”  Silence.  “Pinkie...?”

“T-Twilight...” Pinkie said, nudging my flank.  “We should go.  Now.”

I slowly turned.  “But I’m having fun... with... buck.”  Behind us, crouched over the still open trapdoor, was the drake.  “Yeah, I agree.  Run!”  We took off, followed by the roar of the monster, and the bellow of the drake.

I thrust ahead with my magic, causing the golden doors I had walked through every single day to fly open, ripped from their hinges, and clatter against the twin looping staircases leading upstairs.  We skid to a halt, blocked by the line of changling soldiers before us.  “Halt, in the name of the Empress!”

“Empress?”  I asked, “isn’t she aiming a little high now?  I mean, honestly, capitulate one nation, and suddenly she is the Great Creator.”

The lead changeling paled as the drake stomped behind us, saliva dripping from its open maw. The lead changeling shouted orders as his unit bolted. The drake roared, sending the leader running for his life.  Not to be outdone, Pinkie screamed, bolting down the hallway towards the front gate.  I charged after her, priming my horn for another blast of magic.

The door to the outside world burst open, spraying bits of stone and wood everywhere as the latch shattered and hinges burst.  We charged forward, just to be stopped by a score of changelings in full combat armor.  Knowing full well what was hot on our heels, I pushed Pinkie to the right, diving over her as the drake burst through the now-demolished gate, plowing into the changelings and through the portcullis, the last thing blocking us from the outside world.

“Go, go, go!”  I shouted, pushing Pinkie past the legs of the stunned drake and the bodies of what used to be the changelings.  We burst out of the castle, straight into High Street.  Ponies gawked, changelings drew weapons and moved towards us, and one very, very angry drake crawled up the walls, perching itself across one of the turrets spaced along the walls, and roared, shaking a bit of snow off the cap of the mountain itself.

Seizing the distraction, I charged forward, knocking a changeling hard enough that he dropped his sword.  I quickly picked it up, clumsily holding it in my magic grip as I nodded my head down the street, following Pinkie as she took off running once again.  Most ponies moved out of the way, but some joined us, a couple even taking up weapons.

What began as a two pony dash quickly turned into a full-scale riot.  As we galloped through the streets, ponies everywhere joined in, taking out changelings, breaking through barricades and checkpoints.  We were an unstoppable wave, wrecking everything in our path.  We pushed forward, breaking through one last checkpoint to reach the gate out of Canterlot, but they knew we were coming.

Changelings, outfitted in full riot gear stood between us and the gate.  A force too large to count, with more constantly pouring in from the sides.  I turned around, intent on leading us through to another gate, just to find more guards sealing us in.  No longer were we an unstoppable force, no, we were now in the center of a slaughter.

As one, the guards pushed in, weapons sharp and glinting in the noonday sun.  They caught us off guard, cutting a swathe through the ponies on the outermost edges, changelings in the back levitating the bodies out so the guards could push forward.  From there, it devolved into an all-out brawl.

Those who had stolen weapons as we charged through the city stepped up, getting in front of those without.  Inexperienced ponies fought trained soldiers, getting cut down as easily as the unarmed.  The ground quickly became slick with blood, turning the cobblestone into a sticky red mess..

I stood in the middle of the carnage with Pinkie, looking around for the one who had to be in charge.  From what Zil had told me, an operation this large had to be directed by a changeling somewhere nearby.  If I could take him out, we could escape while the troops reorganized.  I saw one changeling holding back, up on the wall.  Assuming he was in charge, I heaved my stolen sword at him, and watched as he fall down into the crowd below.

I was right.  For a second, the guards faltered, allowing the ponies to push the box out a little bit, but it wasn’t enough.  Another changeling quickly claimed the chain of command and they pushed forward, more determined than before.  The fight was drawing closer to Pinkie and I now, to the point that I started firing off spells into the crowd of guards.  Pinkie, however, wasn’t doing as well.  She was huddled up against me, cowering.

That gave me an idea.  It was a long shot, but it was better than dying silent.

“Changelings, halt!”  I shouted at the top of my lungs, praying it would work.  For a second they faltered, but quickly pushed back once again.

Damn.  “In the name of the Empress, halt!”  That caused a bit more of a stir.  The changelings pulled back, and the ponies nearby stared at me, looks ranging from curious to concerned to outright hostile.

One changeling strode forward from the groups, his silver armor denoting rank.  “And who are you, silly pony, to challenge--”  He stopped dead in his tracks and stared at me.  “Twilight...?”

Suddenly, the group of ponies gathered around me pulled back, leaving me alone with the silver-clad changelings.  “How do you know my name?”  I asked him, mind whirling.  My plan had worked, but only a little.  Now I had to figure out the best way forward.

The changeling took off his helmet.  Most changelings look alike to me, but his features were engraved in my mind.  “Zil...?”

Pinkie Pie bounced forward.  “Ooh, you know him, Twilight?  Is he a friend?”  I didn’t respond, just pushed her behind me.

“I thought you didn’t work for them,” I said, directing my words at Zil.

“Well, you abandoned me in the tunnels.  They found me, and gave me a very... convincing offer,” he replied with a smirk.

“Right...  Well, it’s nice to see you’re enjoying life.”  I stepped forward, moving to go past him.  “Now, if you’ll excuse us, my friend and I here need to get past you, so if you don’t mind...”

Zil roughly shoved me back.  “I can’t do that, Twilight.  I’m under orders to bring you to Empress Chrysalis.”

I rolled my eyes.  “Again with the Empress stuff?  I think all this power has gone to her head.”

“Silence!” Zil roared.  “You and your pink friend are coming with me, and the rest of these insignificant whelps can die by the sword!”  At his words, the changelings quickly moved in, separating Pinkie and myself from our little group, which was quickly herded away.  I calmly took note, and stored it away to freak out about later.

“Well, too bad, ZIl.  I’ve had my fill of being captured, and I’m not going back.  So you can just kill me now.”  He flinched at my words.  Hmm... interesting...

“You don’t have a choice,” Zil replied, moving forward and drawing his sword.

Oh, please trust me Pinkie... I hope this works...  “No, you’re wrong.  I do have a choice.” Zil’s eyes widened as he realized what I was going to do.  I quickly turned towards Pinkie, channeling power through my horn.  I grabbed her and myself in an aura of arcane teleportation, and flung us far outside of the city.



> Encounters
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Encounters


Here’s something you may not know: teleportation where you randomly launch yourself into the intersection of space and time (yes, with practice and a little bit of luck, teleportation can be used in both the material plane, and for time travel, but that’s another story) is not exactly the best way to travel.  As Pinkie and myself flew through the purplish-black vortex of magic, I began to count the seconds, knowing that if we were in the tunnel too long, we could end up somewhere bad.

As it was, the tunnel was unstable.  I didn’t have the time to structure the energy into a secure, stable form like I had been taught.  What we now traveled in would make any magical tutor cringe, any accomplished magi holier-than-thou, and make any Circle member strike you down without a second thought.  It wasn’t terrible, but if we were unlucky, the tunnel would collapse, throwing us out at a random location.  Given our recent luck, I was more than a little worried.

Thankfully, my worry was all for naught, for not a minute later, we were spit from the tunnel into the bright sunlight.  For the second time that day, I found myself cringing and blinking as bright light filled my eyes.  

“Twilight... what did you do?”  Pinkie Pie asked from beside me.

“I broke about, five rules of long-range teleportation, which could have killed both of us in the process,” I replied.  “But, it didn’t, and we’re out of Canterlot.”

I finally blinked back the last of the tunnel vision.  Now able to see without intense pain, I took a quick look around.  We were on train tracks, overgrown train tracks, bordered on both sides by large trees.  There was also one very angry looking pink pony.

“Could have killed us?” the angry pony asked.

“Well, yeah, in theory it could have ripped us apart and spread our molecules across space and time,” I said.  “But, it was highly unlikely,” I lied as the angry pony grew angrier.  “I have a safety weave embedded in the spell I use for teleporting.  In the event of a total collapse, it activates and kicks the traveler out of the teleport, and dispenses them wherever they may be at the time.”

Pinkie blinked.  “What...?”

“Okay, imagine travel through teleportation as a sort of train ride,” I began, switching into lecture mode.  “In the event of a collapse of the tunnel, the train, holding the teleporters, the travelers, I have a weave inside of the spell itself, like a conductor on the train, that would have pushed us out wherever we may have been, like the time you got us thrown off the Ponyville Express.”

“Oh!” Pinkie said, eyes lighting up in understanding.  “So, the conductor would have stopped the train and made us leave before something bad happened!”

“Sort of,” I replied, “but with the possibility of a lot more falling, and scraped legs.”

“So, where are we then?”

I looked around, noting the monolith of the mountain behind us.  We were far enough away to be unseen, but you could still make out tiny dots of changelings rushing too and fro on top of the walls.  What worried me more, however, was the now-visible magical bubble around the outside of the walls.

“Well, we are west of Canterlot, on the rails towards Ponyville Station, if I had to guess, but we need to go.  Now!”  Without waiting for a response, I pushed Pinkie and started running.  If my guess was correct, any minute now... yes, there they were.  A squad of changeling hunters had flown down from the castle.

As part of my last revisions of the Burrow System, I had recommended, but not modeled, a magical tracking system, so that anypony that escaped could be hunted down and brought back with minimal effort.  We had to escape, and either get far enough away the the tracking spell couldn’t be used, and would naturally dispel, or get somewhere with enough magical residue to befuddle the tracker until I could dispel it myself.

I whipped my head back and forth, searching both visibly and magically for a hotspot large enough to hide two fully grown mares long enough to unweave the spell that lit us up like fire in a dark cave.  There wasn’t anything close, but... there!  About a mile and a half down the track!

“Pinkie, no time to explain.  Follow me!”  I sprinted off down the tracks, pink friend close behind.

“There they are, get them!” came the shout from behind us.  Apparently, the changeling hunter squads had locked onto our magical signal, and now our sprint to salvation was a race for our lives.

Honestly, I’m getting sick of running.

“Okay,” I said through gasps of air.  “We’re looking for the train.  It derailed sometime during the coup, and I think the residual magical energy that used to power it should be enough to hide us from the changelings.”

“But they know where we are,” Pinkie said next to me.

“So we kill them.”

“What!” Pinkie’s eyes shot wide open.  “You can’t just kill them, Twilight!”

I shot a look over my shoulder.  “Are you kidding me?  We just got out of a slaughter!”

“I didn’t kill any,” Pinkie replied, subdued.

“Look, we can argue about this later!  Right now, we have to either kill them, or hide well enough they don’t find us!”  The train was drawing closer, but so were our pursuers.

We were quickly approaching the train.  Sometime during the coup, it appeared that something had happened, causing it to tip over.  A coupler somewhere had snapped, and now part of the train was lying on the left side of the track, and the other part on the right.

I hazarded a glance over my shoulder.  The changelings were still chasing after us, but they were starting to lag behind a little.  “Quick, in here!”  I shouted to Pinkie, pushing open the door on the train’s caboose.  The pink pony rushed inside, and I quickly followed, shutting the door.

“Do we hide?” Pinkie asked.

“Yeah, but not in here.  They saw us walk into this car.  We need to move on,” I replied.  I tip-hooved through the partially shattered windows, making my way over to the door suspended halfway in the wall.  “Come on,” I said, crouching down.  “Climb on me, and get into the next car, hurry.”

Pinkie glanced back at the door to the outside.  “But I hear them getting closer, Twilight.  What about you?”

“Don’t worry about me, just get through and hide.  I’ll be in soon, promise,” I replied with a reassuring smile, hoping my lie wasn’t too obvious.

Pinkie nodded before clambering up onto my back.  She pulled the door open, ducking as it fell down towards us, then climbed through into the next car.  As quickly as possible, I set a couple simple trap weaves in the door to the outside, and then, with a nice running start, jumped through into the next car, setting another trap on that door before pulling it closed.

True to her title as party pony, Pinkie was pretty good at playing hide and seek.  She had been in the car less than two minutes, and she was gone.  I needed to join her, and fast.  I looked around, biting my lip.

Well, as far as hiding places go, this car wasn’t good for much.  The Ponyville Express was primarily a passenger train, carrying ponies between Canterlot, Ponyville, Appleloosa, and Dodge City.  As such, this was nothing but a passenger car.  Loads of benches and windows, and no convenient hiding places.

I briefly considered hiding in the benches below my hooves, but quickly ruled it out.  It would be almost impossible to contort myself like that and slip in before the changelings were upon us.  That really only left one option: the luggage bins.

With a feat of dexterity I would have thought impossible for anypony but Rainbow Dash before my stint in the mines, I lept from the bench I was on, to the side of a bench on the ceiling, catching myself on one of the hoofrails.  A quick burst of magic opened the door and another teleported me safely into the luggage bin.  I quickly braced myself so I wouldn’t fall before reaching out with a hoof and pulling the door almost all the way closed, leaving just a small gap to see through.

I could feel myself slowing down.  I had been hyped up on adrenaline for quite some time, and its effects were starting to wear off in the relative safety of my bin.  I just had to hold on, wait for the changelings to hit the traps, kill any who were left.  Then I could find Pinkie and get out of here.

I was beginning to think that the changelings hadn’t seen us, and had lost our trail when we neared the train.  It was totally silent, the only sounds being those of my breathing and heart, and the gradual settling of the behemoth we were resting in.  I couldn’t even hear Pinkie, who I had expected to break out of hiding and run screaming by now.  Everything was still and calm.

Until the door opened.  The door on the other end of the train from my traps.  The tiny sliver from the door of the luggage bin only allowed me sight of the door to the caboose, and a very slim window at that.  Now, all I had to understand what was going on was a very limited magical sense--no point in giving myself away by the blatantly obvious glow of magic--and what I could hear.

“Come on, the pink one said she was down this way,” a strangely confident voice said.

“Do you really think it’s the Twilight Sparkle?  Man, the boss will pay us out the plot to bring her back,” a lighter, more feminine voice replied.

“Shhh!  The changelings might be near.  Let’s go ahead and blow our cover, shall we?”

“Sorry, sir.”  The female sounded subdued.

Wait?  What?  My thoughts ran rampant for a moment or two before the commanding voice spoke up again.

“Let’s move into the next car.  I don’t think she’s here.”

Okay, decision time.  I thought.  Do I let the strangers open the door and trigger the trap and probably die, or do I risk myself to see who they are and what’s going on.  After all, they don’t really talk like changelings.

Then again, it’s changelings I’m talking about.  They might have taken on pony forms to fool Pinkie Pie.  Ooh, I hate dilemmas...

“Wait, sir, is that a tail sticking out of the luggage bin?” the female voice asked.

I mentally whacked myself in the head.  Stupid. Twilight.  Stupid.

No reply came, but not a second later, a rough pounding shook the door of the luggage bin, rattling my eardrums.  “‘Allo?  Is anypony in there?” the first voice asked, followed shortly after by, “We’re armed,” and the sound of a sword being drawn.

“Okay, okay, calm down,” I said, sticking a forehoof out of the bin.  “Let’s not be hasty now.  I’m coming out.  Don’t slice my horn off.”

True to my word, I poked my head out of the luggage bin, taking a moment to reorient myself to the sideways car.  I heard a gasp behind me.  “Sir, is that really her?”  I glanced over to identify the speaker; a small yellow pegasus with strange mechanisms strapped to her wings.

“Only one way to find out,” the pegasus’ companion said.  The dark unicorn flared his horn, and I felt the tingle of a magical scan.  “By the Goddesses, it is.  Miss Twilight Sparkle, please, allow me.”  The unicorn quickly sheathed his sword before reaching out a hoof, using it to gently pull me from the bin and set me down precariously on one of the benches.

“Who are you ponies?” I asked, still somewhat wary.  Zil had told me that changelings can’t reproduce a magical aura, but given that he had turned again, I took his instruction with a grain of salt.

“Allow me,” the pegasus said.  “I am First Scout Fleetwing, and this is Sergeant Midnight of the Free Equestria Society, Canterlot Espionage Division, at your service, Miss,” she said, gesturing to herself and the dark blue unicorn balanced next to her.

“The what?”  Yeah, call me slow.  You try being locked in a dungeon for Celestia-knows how long and try to keep up with current events.

“The Free Equestria Society.  We are the resistance, led by--”  An explosion from the caboose cut her off.

“Tell me later,” I said.  “Right now, we have to get out of here.  Changelings are after us, and one just hit a trap I put on the door.”

“I thought you said she couldn’t fight,” Midnight said, turning to Fleetwing.  “That’s why you dragged me from the base, because you said she couldn’t fight, and you weren’t sure you could take the changelings on by yourself!”

“Well, we don’t know if she can!  She knows traps, and that’s all well and good, but traps aren’t much use in a brawl, especially in a closed in area like this!” Fleetwing replied.

“Look, it doesn’t matter, you’re here now, uh, sir, and we have to go!”  Another explosion rocked the car as I finished speaking.  “There’s only one trap left, and we’re right in front of it.”

“How can we trust you?” Midnight asked.  “Sure, you passed the scan, but how do we know you are the real Twilight Sparkle?”

I opened my mouth, about to defend myself, when Fleetwing spoke up.  “Of course it’s Twilight Sparkle.  How many other unicorns do you know who the changelings are after who happen to be purple, with a highlighted mane, and a six pointed star on her flank?”  She turned to me.  “In fact, I’d bet she did something totally awesome before she ran.  What’d you do, Twilight? Did ya single-hoofedly lead a revolt from the inside?”

“Look, this really isn’t the best time,” I said, but Fleetwing went on, her voice become faster with every word.

“Ooh!  I bet you took down Chrysalis yourself!  You don’t need a resistance to help, don’t need anypony backin’ you up.  Why, I bet--”

Running out of time, and unable to get Fleetwing to stop talking, Midnight reached out a hoof and whacked her on the side of the head.  “Damn it Fleetwing, get your head together!  Real Twilight or not, we have a responsibility to bring this free mare into safety.  We can quiz her later.”

Fleetwing rubbed the side of her head.  “Ow... I mean, yes sir!”  Turning to me, she continued.  “Right this way, Miss Maybe-Sparkle.”

MIdnight turned around and started moving away, leading me away towards the door they came through just as the door to the caboose flew open, triggering my last trap.  A wave of flame burst into the caboose, blowing forth a wave of heat that singed the ends of the hair of my coat.

“Fleetwing, protect the innos!” Midnight shouted to the pegasus.

“Yes, sir!” Fleetwing replied with a smirk.  She shook her wings, two blades sliding out of the mechanisms on them and clicking into place just as what was left of the changeling search force carefully entered the car, wary for more traps.

“Hey, boys!” Fleetwing shouted to the few changelings who had survived.  “Looking for me?”

“Out of the way!” the leader commanded.  “We are looking for the purple and pink ones.  You are not our concern.”

“Oh really?” Fleetwing replied with a smirk.  “Allow me to fix that.”  Almost faster than the eye could see, she darted forward, moving her wing to slice across the throat of the changeling leader.  He fell with a gurgle, blood quickly pooling below in the recesses of the windows.

One of the surviving changelings quickly thrust compacted air at Fleetwing, which blew her back into the wall.  They were on her in an instant.  The pegasus raised a wing, slicing into one of the changelings, but she was unable to get the other in time.

The lone changeling selected a dagger from a belt full of them slung across his chest.  As he raised it overhead, I blasted him with a thin bolt of fire.  His hard, black exoskeleton cracked, the force of the blow blasting him back through the closed caboose door.

“You... you saved me,” Fleetwing said, looking up at me with something suspiciously like adoration in her eyes.

“Don’t worry about it.  You guys saved me, it’s only fair I return the favor,” I replied, inexplicably embarrassed.

“Yeah, good job Miss Sparkle, but can we continue this conversation somewhere else?  We need to get back to the outpost before reinforcements arrive.”  Midnight began walking towards the door out as I helped Fleetwing to her hooves.  “Come on.”

Midnight led me deeper into the train, Fleetwing not too far behind.  Most of the fallen cars seemed to be passenger cars, which made sense.  It was pretty standard for rail companies to put luggage and the like up at the front of the train.

About four cars in, at an inconspicuous bench on the right side--what was now the bottom of the car--Midnight stopped.  He rapped a hoof on one of the bench’s supports, and the whole ensemble slid down and back, revealing a stairway down below the train itself.

“After you, Miss Sparkle,” Midnight said, gesturing down the dark shaft.

“Yeah, I’m not going down there unless one of you go first,” I replied, giving Midnight a flat stare.  “I’ve had my fill of dark spaces for a very long time.”

“So you were locked up,” Fleetwing piped up from beside me.  “Don’t worry, I’ll go down with you.”  She nudged me with her snout, pushing me towards the staircase.

“Alright, alright, but I’m warning you right now: if this is some kind of a trick, I’ll make what happened to that changeling seem like a kindness,” I said with venom in my voice as my hoof hit the first step.

Fleetwing’s eyes grew in astonishment.  “I promise, it isn’t a trick.  We are part of the resistance.  This is our Canterlot Outpost, and I imagine the Commander is going to send for you as soon as she hears you’re here.”

“Undoubtedly,” Midnight said.  He entered the stairwell as soon as there was enough room, flicking something with a hoof that slid the bench on top of us again.  He light his horn in a dark blue glow, illuminating the rest of the steps down to an unassuming wooden door.

As we approached, the door banged open and a blur rocketed towards me.  Without even thinking, I flared up a wall of magic and knocked the blur aside, into Midnight.  With one taken care of, I spun around, using a burst of air to knock Fleetwing off balance.  While she was dazed, I pounced, knocking her into the wall.

I was about to scramble Fleetwing’s brains when I felt a pair of hooves wrap around me from behind in a hug.  “Twilight!  I’m so glad you’re safe, but what did you hit me with a wall for?”

My magic slipped away as I backed up, letting the frightened Fleetwing move.  “Oh, Pinkie, it’s just you.”  I looked back over my shoulder at the pink pony, and the blue unicorn dazed beyond.  “Uh, sorry.  Guess I’m just a little tense.”

Midnight opened his mouth, likely to chew me out for attacking them, but Fleetwing jumped in front of him, facing me and beaming.  “That was awesome!  You were all, ‘don’t mess with me or I’ll kill you,’ and then the door opened and you freaked and knocked all of us over without breaking a sweat!”

“Is everything alright out here?” asked a vibrant blue unicorn, stepping through the door.  “Wait a minute, isn’t that Twilight Sparkle?”

“The one and only!” Pinkie said from beside me.

“OhmigoshIhavetotellCommand!” the unicorn spun on her back hooves and galloped back into the outpost at top speed, bright yellow mane trailing out behind her.

“I had a feeling she was going to do that,” Midnight said, taking lead of the group once again.  “Better get inside before she tells Command we just broke about every protocol there is.”  Without further preamble, he walked inside.  I followed shortly behind, side to side with Pinkie.  Fleetwing fluttered right behind us, closing the door as her tail crossed the threshold.

The outpost was... interesting.  Broken bits of wood and other building materials had been scavenged from the train where it wasn’t noticeable from the outside, lending the room a very bright but chaotic appearance.  There was no floor to speak of, it was nothing but the dirt the cave had been dug out of.  Over in the corner I could see the strange unicorn speaking into a blank mirror.

The stranger’s horn glowed, and her reflection reappeared on the mirror.  She trotted over to me and held out a hoof.  “I’m Private Sparky.  It is an honor to meet you, Miss Sparkle.”

I hesitantly reached out a hoof and took hers.  “Uh, thanks...?”

MIdnight rolled his eyes.  “Alright, if you two don’t stop swooning like schoolfillies, I’m going to send you topside.  What’d Command say?” he asked, turning to face Sparky.

“I think our mirror might be broken, sir.  As soon as I said we had Twilight Sparkle unharmed, it got very difficult to maintain the spell.  Command said they would send a flyer with orders,” Sparky replied.  “They are to stay here in the meantime.”

“Twilight Sparkle is staying here?” Fleetwing asked, practically vibrating.  “She can bunk with me.”

“What?” I asked, stunned by the Pinkie-esque level of enthusiasm.

“No, I’m bunking with her,” Pinkie asserted, sticking her muzzle right up against Fleetwing’s.  The two glared at each other.  Just before it looked like it was about to go to blows, Midnight stepped in.

“Alright you two,” he said.  “We have five bunks.  Nopony has to bunk with anypony.”

“But I want to,” Pinkie and Fleetwing said at the same time.  They turned and continued glaring.  “No, I get to.”  Pinkie pushed her nose forward, causing the other pony to scrunch back.  Fleetwing growled, causing Pinkie to pull back.  The pegasus pushed her neck forward, filling the gap.

Midnight looked over at me.  Can’t you do something? his eyes asked.

“Hey!” I shouted, trying to make myself heard over the echoing argument.  Both Fleetwing and Pinkie stopped mid-sentence and turned to face me.  “How about I’ll sleep there,” I pointed to a bed, “Pinkie sleeps there,” my hoof moved to the one to the left of mine, “and Fleetwing sleeps there,” my hoof stopped on the one to my right.  “That way, you both are near, and nopony has to be left out.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Sparky and Midnight exchange a look, but I was focused on Fleetwing and Pinkie.  They looked at me, at the beds, at each other, then back to me.  The cycle repeated several times until Pinkie raised her hoof.

“Um, can I have the bed on the right?” she asked with a sheepish grin.

I sighed and looked at Fleetwing, who grinned.  “Sure,” she said, “the bunk on the left is mine anyway.”


*****


A few hours later, everypony was settled down and sitting around a table that took up most of the middle of the large room.  I looked up from my plate, having eaten my meager portion of some unidentified rations from the outpost, and gently pushed it towards the middle with the others.

“So, what now?” I asked, looking at all the ponies around me.  Midnight was directly across from me, with Sparky on his left.  Pinkie was to my right, and Fleetwing was to my left.  There was one open spot, but none of the others wanted to so much as look at it, so I didn’t ask.

“Now, we wait,” Midnight replied, leaning back and putting his forehooves behind his head.  “Obviously, we have to get you to Command.  It’s the only place you’ll be safe.  The only problem is that our Mirror apparently can’t connect to the main relay in Manehatten.  Sparky says Command is sending a messenger with orders our way.  Really all we have to do is hang out here until he arrives.”

“And how long will that take?”

Midnight looked over at Sparky.  The unicorn stared off into space for a minute or two.  “Depending on changeling patrols and the pegasus they send, it could be anywhere from tonight to the day after tomorrow, at the latest.”

Before I could reply, a thud echoed from overhead.  Midnight quickly held a hoof to his mouth, motioning us to be quiet.  Synchronized perfectly, as though rehearsed, Fleetwing darted over to the door, placing her eye against a peephole, and Sparky shot a bolt of magic at the light, dousing it and shrouding the room in darkness.  I felt some fumbling and a scraping noise before I felt a warm body huddle against mine.

As one, all of us save Fleetwing stared at the ceiling, as though we could stare through it.  The thumps came in measured strides; whoever was up there was searching for something.  The pony huddled against me began to shake, and I put a forehoof around them to try and keep them calm.

“Twilight, I don’t like the dark, they do bad things in the dark,” the pony against me said.

“It’ll be okay, Pinkie.  The changelings can’t hurt you in the dark, not here, not anymore,” I replied.  Pinkie didn’t say anything else, but the shaking gradually abated.

I mentally mapped the train car from our short jaunt through before.  If my calculations are correct in approximately--thud--two more steps, whoever is up there will be at the passage here.

Two steps later, the sound stopped. A low-pitched scratching sound echoed through the room, followed by the dull thump of a hoof on wood.  Pinkie nestled against me even harder, burying her muzzle in the fur of my neck.  Whatever they had done to her, whatever I had done to help, it wasn’t enough.

A few minutes later, even the thud of hoof-on-wood ceased, leaving the room deathly quiet.  The thin hissing of breath was the only thing breaking up the oppressive silence, until something thumped against the door.

Thunk.  Thunk thunk.  Thinkthunkthunkthunk.... thunk.

“Open it up,” Midnight said.  “That’s the code.”  The light flared up, momentarily blinding everyone in the room.  Pinkie looked up at me with a shy smile, and I nuzzled the top of her head.

“Private Starfire, reporting,” said a small reddish-yellow pegasus from the door.  Her sky-blue mane was pulled back by a simple leather strap, causing it to cascade over the low-slung saddlebag favored by long-distance flying pegasi.  “I’ve got a message from Command for Sergeant Midnight, regarding one Twilight... Sparkle...”

Starfire trailed off as she looked from Midnight over to me.  “You’re Twilight Sparkle, yes?”

I nodded.

“One moment, please.”  The pegasus reached into her saddlebag, pulling out a scroll.  Midnight grabbed it with his magic and began reading.  Sparky quickly trotted over and stuck her head next to his, reading alongside him.  

“Here.”  While I was watching the scroll, Starfire had approached me, holding a scroll out to me.  “There’s actually two there.  They are marked for your eyes only.  Orders are to burn them when you’re done.”

As I took the double scroll from Starfire’s mouth, I felt a faint tingle of familiar magic.  On a hunch, I turned it over so I could see the seal holding it shut.  I made a noise somewhere between a gasp and a sob, causing everypony in the room to stop and look over at me.

“Are you okay over there?” somepony asked.

“Y-Yeah,” I replied, tucking away the scrolls to read later.  “What’s the plan?”

“Command wants us to escort you to Manehatten.  We’re supposed to shut down the outpost, in case it gets found while we are gone,” Midnight said.  “Starfire, help yourself to some food, if you want it.  Fleetwing, Sparky, get over here and help me go over these plans.”

With a thanks, Starfire sat down where Midnight had been and grabbed a plate of rations.  Pinkie sat next to her, after a reassuring nod from me, and they began chatting.  Midnight, Sparky, and Fleetwing were over by the strange mirror in the corner, going over maps and changeling movement reports.  Figuring nopony around was watching me, I picked up the scrolls and started to read.

Dearest Twilight Sparkle,

The day they told me you escaped Chrysalis’ dungeon was probably one of the best I’ve had here.  I’m so proud of you, Twilight.  

You were right about Cadence all along, and we didn’t listen to you, and I’m sorry.  Because I didn’t listen to you like I should have, your brother, Spike, and countless others are dead, and you spent three years with Chrysalis.

But now, you are out.  If you are reading this, then Starfire must have reached the outpost okay.  They will bring you back to the Free Equestria Society in Manehatten.  Doubtless, they will take you to the Mirror so we can speak, but just in case we don’t have a chance to talk alone, you must know this.

In the moment before Chrysalis banished me to the sun, I harnessed all the magic I could and bound my room shut.  Nopony but you can get in.  Once Chrysalis is disposed of, make your way alone into my private chambers, and ask Philomena to retrieve the letter I left there for you.  Follow the directions contained within.  You are the only one who can.

I look forward to speaking to you again, Twilight.  It has been too long.  Remember all I’ve taught you, Twilight, and remember who your friends are,

Celestia

My eyes shot down to the signature, then back to the top.  I read the whole thing so fast, I couldn’t recall half of it.  I read it again, slowly, trying to see if it was maybe a fake trying to buy my loyalty, but it was perfect, down to the little flourish on the C in Celestia.  Finally assured it was from Celestia, somehow, I went about committing it to memory.  As soon as I could recite it forwards and backwards, and after covertly nuzzling Celestia’s seal across from her signature, I touched my horn to the scroll, and watched it quickly burn.

Now, knowing somehow I might be able to talk to and see Celestia again, I couldn’t help but smile as the little fire burning within me got a little brighter.  Still with a silly grin on my face, I levitated over the second scroll.  My smile died the instant I read the first word.

Twilight Sparkle,

This whole business has gone pretty sideways, hasn’t it?  If only you had trusted me, and not left me alone down in that cave.  It doesn’t matter.  What’s done is done.

I hope you realize the damage you did to my reputation with Chrysalis, single handedly leading a revolt and then usurping my control of my forces?  I have at least five new scars from that.

I just want you to know that in the wake of that “riot,” almost a hundred of your kind have been put to death, including your mother.  She wasn’t part of the riot, but I made sure to find her and put her to the sword, just for you.  It’s just a matter of time before you join her.

Lieutenant Zil

I blinked back tears.  I had hoped that somewhere, my parents had survived this.  Zil didn’t say anything about my dad, and I didn’t know if that was good or bad, but no matter what, I knew my mother was gone.  Then it hit me: these letters were from the resistance.  How did Zil...

“Starfire!” I shouted.  Everypony in the room turned to look at me.

“Yeah,” Starfire replied.  “What’s up?”

“Where did you get this?”  I held up the letter from Zil.

“Is that the one from the changeling guy?”  Now, the focus had gone from me to her.  “Yeah, it was for her eyes only, but Command sent specific instruction with that one.  Apparently, it was intercepted communication from Canterlot to Vanhoover.  Someone high up read the first couple lines, and ordered it sent to you.”

I looked over at Pinkie Pie, sitting next to Starfire and doodling on the table with a hoof.  She looked up, smiled, and shrugged.  “I guess I’ll just have to ask this elusive ‘Command’ when we get to Manehatten, huh?”

“I guess,” Starfire replied.  “Sorry.  What was the other letter about, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“It...”  I was about to answer, when I remembered Celestia’s last line.  “Remember who your friends are.”  Starfire seemed okay, but I wasn’t totally certain...  “It was a message for me, from a friend.”

The resistance ponies all nodded.  “Hey, it was for your eyes only,” Midnight said, shrugging.  “What you said is more than we usually would have heard.”

“When do we leave, sir?” Sparky asked.

“First thing tomorrow.  Sparky, Fleetwing, shut it down,” Midnight replied.  The two ponies saluted, and went about their tasks.  Fleetwing was stacking food and placing it and other supplies into heavy traveling saddlebags, while Sparky was over with the mirror, horn glowing as she chanted the spell, presumably to disable it.  I made a note to ask her about it later.

Left with nothing to do, I went and sat on what I had claimed to be my bunk during the argument earlier.  Moments later, a pair of pink hooves appeared in my vision, and more weight settled on the end of my bed.

“It was Celestia,” Pinkie said.

“Yeah.”  I wanted to say more, but couldn’t bring myself to.  It wouldn’t be good to bother Pinkie with my problems.

“Did she say anything?”

“She said I’d be able to talk to her when we go to Manehatten, and she left me instructions for after we debunk Chrysalis.”  I looked over at Pinkie.  “I’m just afraid it was a fake.”

Pinkie cocked her head.  “Did it feel like a fake?”

“Well... no.”  After all, every unicorn, and Alicorn, had a unique magical signature, like a hoofprint.  Even with advanced magic, it was almost impossible to fake.

I felt a leg wrap around my side and pull me into a hug.  “Don’t worry, Twilight.  Tomorrow we head for Manehatten, and you can ask her yourself.”

I smiled at that, and my hope grew a little bit more.  “Yeah, I’ll make sure to do that.”  Ask her about the letter, and other things...

	

> ...And Through the Woods
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


...And Through the Woods


“Up and at ‘em!” shouted a voice, slicing through my uneasy dreams.  My eyes shot open and I bolted upright, eyes scanning the dimly lit room.  Midnight laughed.  “Someone is ready to go, huh?”

“Haha,” I replied.  “Funny.”

“Don’t worry about it, we’ve all been there.  Try to relax a bit, we’ll be heading out when Fleetwing gets back.”

“Ready to go?” Pinkie asked, bounding to my bedside.  “Fleetwing is up on the surface, looking out for any changelings still after us.  Midnight and Sparky spent hours dispelling the tracker they had on us.  We’re finally free, Twilight!”

I sighed and laid my head back on the curiously hard pillow, looking up at the dark roof.  “Now we just have to make it to Manehatten in one piece, find the rest of the girls, figure out that Taint stuff, take down Chrysalis, and bring back the Princesses.”

“Easy peasy,” Pinkie replied with a huge grin.  I just rolled my eyes and shook my head.  If only...

Just then, the door to the outpost opened up, and in walked Fleetwing.  “Looks good up there, boss,” she said to Midnight.  “The nearest patrol is over by the Everfree Forest.  As long as we give them a wide berth, we should be fine past Canterlot.”

Midnight just nodded before returning to the magically projected map spread over the only table.  Sparky pointed a hoof at something, muttering to Midnight, who shook his head, pointing to a different place.  The blue unicorn shook her head, yellow mane flying everywhere.

“They’re really going at it, aren’t they?” Fleetwing asked, trotting over to stand by Pinkie at my bedside.

“Well, I’m glad someone is figuring all this out..  I don’t know anything about moving while someone is trying to kill me.”  I sighed.  “I grew up in that castle, you know?  I never thought I wouldn’t be welcome.”

Fleetwing’s eyes grew wide.  “You grew up in the castle?  Are you part of the royal family?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but Pinkie beat me to it.  “No, silly.  She is the student of Princess Celestia.”  Fleetwing’s mouth followed her eyes, dropping to form a little ‘o.’

“Hey!  Are you three done gabbin, or should we wait and leave tomorrow?” Midnight called from across the room.  Fleetwing stuck out her tongue, once his back was turned, then trotted over to stand by her comrades.  Pinkie looked over at me.

“Ready to go?” she asked.

I took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.  “Yeah.  Let’s go.”


♣♣♣♣♣


We waited, clustered at the blackened, charred remains of the door to the caboose, waiting for the all clear from Fleetwing to dart out and over to the other side of the tracks, or so the plan was.  Unfortunately, we had been waiting for about ten minutes, and Midnight was getting nervous.

“Where is that damn pegasus?” he asked, rolling his shoulders to readjust the scabbard slung over his back for the thousandth time.  I could acutely feel the pressure of the short sword they had given me across my back.  I could probably use it, but, if it came to a fight, magic was infinitely preferable to a sword.

Finally, right before Midnight charged out into the clearing, horn blazing, we heard the whistle that signaled the all clear.  The tension in the crowded car evaporated like early morning mist as we filed into the green-tinted dawn light.

Fleetwing touched down atop the tracks almost as soon as we were all outside.  “What the hell took you so long?” Midnight all-but shouted.  “Take a bit of a trip to Las Pegasus to gamble away your paycheck?”  Apparently, that was a long standing joke, but personally, I didn’t think it was very funny.  Then again, I was responsible for what was going on in Las Pegasus.

“Sorry, boss,” Fleetwing said.  “A patrol of changelings was sweeping the area.  I barely got out of sight in time.”  Midnight quickly looked around, causing the small yellow pegasus to laugh.  “No, they’re gone.  We’re safe for now, but we should get moving soon.”

Midnight nodded and jerked his head, signaling us to move off.  The six of us set off across the train tracks to the other part of the wrecked cars, and past them into the trees beyond.

“According to my calculations,” Sparky said, “if we continue this way for approximately ten minutes at our current rate, then head due north-east, we should skirt the Everfree Forest and be straight on the way to Manehatten.”

Midnight eyed the blue unicorn.  “You better make sure that’s right.  I don’t fancy our chances in the Everfree Forest.  Freaky things happen ‘round there.”

“It really isn’t that bad,” Pinkie said, gathering astonished stares from everypony but me.  “Me and Twilight have been in there a bunch of times.  If you know how to get where you’re going and stay near the paths, you’re safe.”

As one, the resistance ponies turned to look at me.  “It’s true,” I confirmed.  “I used to go into the Everfree every week to visit a zebra friend who lived there.  If you know where you’re going, and look out for danger, it can be done.”

Sparky, Starfire, Fleetwing, and Midnight all shared a look.  “Not anymore,” Midnight said.  “One of the main jobs of our outpost was to investigate reports of ‘aberrations’ dumped into the Everfree Forest.”

“What?” I asked, though I was afraid of the answer.

Midnight looked over to Sparky, who said, “A little while after the resistance formed, they had agreed to not set up a Canterlot outpost, simply because of the danger it posed to the ponies stationed there.  That was until one of our scouts who was doing a routine sweep over Ponyville, we thought that was where you would go if you escaped, reported changelings leading ponies into the forest.

“We didn’t think much of it until a captured changeling told us some things under... interrogation.  He revealed that Chrysalis had been experimenting with an unknown, presumed toxic, substance known as the Taint--”

“Chrysalis used something called the Taint when she overthrew Celestia,” I said without thinking.

“Really?”  Sparky raised an eyebrow.  “You’ll have to tell Command when we get to Manehatten.  Anyway, the changeling told us that she was experimenting with it, on ponies.  He didn’t know if there were any successes, or even what the experimentation did, but the failures were dumped into the Everfree.  The Free Equestria Society flagged the forest as an area of extreme danger, and we haven’t messed with it since.”

“We have to get there first,” Midnight said.  “Let’s get moving.”  He started walking, forcing us to break into a trot to catch up.  I let the motion of my hooves take care of themselves, relegating the thuds of walking to nothing more than background noise to my thoughts.

Four days, minimum.  It would be at least four days before I could get to Manehatten, meet this mysterious “Command” and talk to the Princess.  I must admit, I did feel the slightest bit of guilt; I had not thought of Luna since her failed revolt on the very first day, not seriously anyway.  Just another thing I could add to the list of questions for Celestia when I could talk to her.

With a weary sigh, I turned my gaze towards the sky.  Small bits of blue peeked through the green canopy.  Just enough blue, in fact, that I could make out small black specks darting around.  Fearing the worst, I quickly trotted up to Midnight, pushing Fleetwing out of the way.

“Midnight, we’ve got a problem,” I whispered in his ear, ignoring the cry of a displaced pegasus.  “Look up.”  The dark unicorn looked at me, then turned his gaze skyward, as I had not but a few minutes ago.

“Gather around, quickly,” he hissed into the midday sunlight.  We all stopped and spun together, forming a tight circle.  “Miss Sparkle here noticed something flying around above us.”  Predictably, four pairs of eyes turned up to the canopy.  “Sparky, are you sure that tracker was dispelled?”

The questioned unicorn nodded.  “Yeah, I double checked this morning.  Those two are clear.”

Midnight nodded slowly.  “Fine, so they might just be routine patrols looking in the general area that Twilight and Pinkie escaped.  I think that if we stay vigilant, and quiet, we’ll be fine...”

“Three o'clock,” Starfire muttered.  Everyone quickly looked to their right.  There was a moment of collective mental facehoofs before everyone looked to Starfire’s right, over my back.  Just visible in the distance, between some low-lying bushes, a squad of changelings were skulking around, obviously searching for something.  Turning back to face the group, I saw another group behind Midnight.

“Look,” I said, quickly taking control of the conversation.  “They are after me and Pinkie, right?  If you four circle around to Ponyville--you know where that’s at?”  My question was answered by four nods.  “We’ll go through the Everfree and meet you--”

“No,” Midnight interjected, with a wave of a hoof to emphasize his point.  “There is no way we can let you go alone, especially through the Everfree Forest.  We just explained how dangerous it is, and you want to go cavorting through anyway?”

“Who said anything about cavorting?” Pinkie interjected.  “Wait, Twilight, what does ‘cavorting’ mean?”

“I’ll explain later, Pinkie,” I replied on reflex.  “Midnight, we don’t have much of a choice.  If you four go to Ponyville, we can meet up.  Both Pinkie and myself know our way through the Everfree Forest, and it’s safer in there if you know where you are going.  We need you four alive to get to Manehatten, and to the Free Equestria Society safely, so we can’t risk dragging you all through the forest.  We’ll be fine.”

The sergeant looked like he wanted to argue, but the sound of brush being trampled nearby silenced him.  “Fine.  We’ll go through, and meet you in the town square, but be careful.  I don’t want to have to explain to Command how we lost our best shot of winning the war.”

“No.”  I shook my head.  “The square will be protected.  Our friend used to live in a cottage on the edge of the Everfree Forest.  Meet us there; it’s secluded, and we can find it easily from almost anywhere in the forest.”  Without waiting for an answer, I motion towards Pinkie.  “Come on, Pinkie.  We need to go.”

We galloped off towards the west, not even looking back.  As we entered the thicker part of the treeline--the Everfree Forest proper--Pinkie spoke up.  “But, Twilight.  You never told me what cavorting is...”


♣♣♣♣♣


Midnight was right; the Everfree had changed, for the worse.  A few meters in, an oppressive darkness settled around the treetops.  Gone was the blue sky with snippets of fluffy clouds, gone was the green-tinted light filtered through uncountable leaves.  All that remained was a dingy half-light, reducing visibility to less than ten hoofsteps in any direction..

I shot a look over at Pinkie, worried the darkness would get to her, as it had before.   To my relief, she was plodding along easily enough, though her eyes darted around, seemingly unable to focus on one thing for too long.  To be honest, I was getting a little freaked out as well.  I hadn’t been afraid of the dark since I was a little filly--or at least, I always had a reading lamp on to keep it away--but there was something about the oppressive gloom just set my hackles on edge.

“Twilight... do you know where you’re going...?” Pinkie whispered in my ear.

“Well... I did.”  I looked down at the path below my hooves.  Without being able to see anything, or the sun or stars to guide me, we were becoming more and more lost by the minute.  “Okay. we’re going to have to find some sort of landmark.  Zecora’s hut, the old castle, something, because I don’t know if this is the right path anymore.”

Pinkie stopped and nodded.  Placing a hoof over her her eyes, she leaned forward, peering through the gloom.  I bit my bottom lip and moved closer to her, trying to see into the distance myself, trying to ignore the tremors in my legs.

That is, until we heard the growl.

“T-Twilight,” I heard Pinkie whisper next to me.  “Is the... is the dragon back?”

“It was a drake, not a dragon,” I replied, slowly sliding my borrowed sword from its sheath.  “And I don’t think so.  Evil and hateful as she is, I don’t think Chrysalis would let that thing survive, not when it was a direct threat to her.  But it doesn’t matter, we need to move.  I’m going to try to blind it, same plan as last time.  Pick a path, and go.  I’ll follow.”

As soon as Pinkie nodded, I began focusing energy in my horn.  Not as much as last time, I couldn’t afford to drain all of my power in one go, not this time.  Using a small bit of power, I resheathed the sword.  I didn’t want to worry about carrying it, or dropping it when we started to run.

I could feel the pressure I allocated to the spell starting to leak out.  “Run,” I hissed, before pointing my horn towards the direction of the sound.  A comet of light burst forward, setting the foliage in its path alight.  The air was rent with an animalistic scream, but we were gone long before the echoes faded.

Running while looking backwards isn’t the easiest thing ever.  Every so often, I would look forward, just to make sure I was headed in the general direction of the pink hooves in front of me, but for the most part, my gaze was straight behind, ready to fire another blinding bolt if the need arose.

I don’t know how long we ran.  Thankfully, I never had to use more magic to distract the growling monster, but I’m not entirely sure it was chasing us, either.  We didn’t stop until Pinkie stumbled, and I, looking back over my shoulder, tripped over her stationary form.  We tumbled together, eventually ending tangled up on the ground.

Slow seconds ticked by, both of us frantically looking around, worried this was it; we had been running for our lives for three days, but you can only run so long.  Finally realizing we were safe for the moment, I tried to get to my hooves only to find Pinkie sitting on three of them.

“Come on, Pinkie, we have to keep moving,” I said, trying in vain to lift my trapped hooves.

“But I’m so tired...” she mumbled in reply, nuzzling into my coat.  “Can we just... go to sleep?”

“No, we have to keep moving.”  I pulled as hard as I could, eventually managing to free one hoof.  That was when I felt the prick in my own flank.  “Get up, Pinkie, it isn’t safe to just lay here.”  Though I fought and struggled, I could feel the strength draining from my body.  As my eyelids grew heavy, ears drooping and limbs filling with lead, I managed one last move--enough to see the small dart sticking out of my flank.


♣♣♣♣♣


“Twilight, Twilight you need to get up.  Come on, you can’t lie here all day.  You’re needed, and we still haven’t had our talk yet.  Go on, to your hooves.  Get up.  Get up...”

Consciousness returned in fits and starts, reminding me of my time in the Canterlot dungeons.  At first, all I had in my command was a sense of feeling; cold stone pressed against my side.  I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t do magic, but I could feel, and that was better than nothing.

The next thing to come back was hearing, I think.  There wasn’t really anything to hear, but I could no longer feel blood rushing through my ears.  Soon after, I could twitch my tail and the tips of my hooves, though I was far from the focus needed to cast magic.

“I thought I asked you to get up.  It is unlike you to not listen like this.  You have always been such a good pony, such a good student.  Come on, rise and shine, for me...”

After that, I must have blacked out, because the next time I was conscious, there was something poking my side repeatedly.  Something about the gentle touch sparked something in my mind, something familiar, something like home.

Painful as it was, I cracked one eye open, just enough to see the sliver of canopy above me, but it wasn’t enough.  With a bit of effort, both of my eyes opened the rest of the way, pulling a small whimper from my mouth.  Finally able to see again, I scanned everything within eyesight, but to no avail.  The pokes were gone, along with whoever may have caused them.

Mystery of the phantom pokes solved, I took more stock in my surroundings.  As I realized earlier, I was lying on my side, on a cold stone floor.  At first I was confused; there were no structures in the Everfree that I could recall made of stone, at least, not around where I passed out.  But, the more I looked, the more came back to me.

I had been here before.  I was in the old castle within the forest; the original home of the Elements of Harmony.  And, I was alone.

It took a few more minutes, but eventually I was able to get into a--shaky--sitting position.  I was in the castle courtyard, but underneath an outcropping of stone.  Just in front of me, in the direction I remembered lead back to Ponyville, was the gate to the courtyard, and the bridged chasm, which mean that the door inside the ruins sat somewhere behind me, confirmed by a quick glance over my shoulder.

Getting back to my hooves took longer.  My first attempt ended with me back on the ground, too weak to stand.  I worked my forehooves under my chest and pushed, eventually getting back into a sitting position, though it left me breathless.  

There was only one plant I knew of that could leave a pony as weak and disoriented as I was.  We were in the right place, it only grows in the Everfree Forest, but everything else was wrong.  Who besides the changelings had a reason to knock both Pinkie and myself out?  There was no doubt in my mind that if they had caught me, I’d be back in Canterlot, in front of Chrysalis, or dead, so who drugged us, and who dragged me to the old castle?  And for that matter, where was Pinkie Pie?

I got one of my answers sooner than I expected, and definitely not how I would have wanted it--a scream, from inside the castle ruins.  I didn’t know who--or what--it was, but I knew I couldn’t sit there and do nothing.  So, fighting down my weariness and the dizzying fog around my head, I got up to my hooves.

Standing was easy, a simple matter of keeping my balance and not doing anything, but moving was a different challenge altogether.  My first step sent my hoof sliding out from under me.  Only quick thinking and a little bit of luck allowed me to plop down onto my flank, instead of back on my stomach.

I shook my head, vainly attempting to clear it of the crippling fog left from the dart.  I was dizzy, thirsty, tired, hungry, sore, and most of all, scared.  I was in the Everfree, perfectly fine going from Ponyville to Zecora’s hut, but I’m not sure where we entered, and now I was in a castle straight from my memories, and nightmares, one pony less than what I entered with.

At first, I thought my saddlebags and sword were gone as well, until I spied them lying in a pile, and not just tossed, either.  Something had taken the effort to strip me, and stack the items in a small pile near where I was laying.  Just on an impulse, I tried to levitate over my sword, and was pleasantly surprised when it got up and moved over towards me, though slowly, and in fits and starts.  Before I got back on my hooves, I made sure to sling the leather strap as Midnight had showed me, with the hilt over my left shoulder.

Armed and somewhat rested, I tried, and succeeded, to stand up.  Back on my hooves, the next step was to walk, which I technically accomplished.   Shaky and stumbling, I made my way over to the wall, barely managing to catch myself before falling back onto my flank.  I hit the door, somewhat harder than I intended, sending an echoing bang throughout the mossy ruin.

Before I could regain my balance, one of the old, oaken doors creaked open.  Through the crack, a face-sized slice appeared--yellow fur bordering a teal eye, with a small lock of pink across the top.  “F-Fluttershy?!” I whispered before I could stop myself.  To my surprise, instead of the quiet voice of my friend, the shout of a changeling assault force, or the strange voice of denial, all that I heard was a soft, hesitant knock against the wood of the door.

“Fluttershy, is that really you?” I asked the eye.

A hesitant knock.

“What’s going on here?  Where’s Pinkie Pie?  Who was that screaming?  How did you get here?” all rushed from my mouth before I could calm down.  To my surprise, the eye flinched, and drew back from the door.  “What’s wrong?  Don’t you recognize me?  I’m your friend, Twilight Sparkle.”

There was a small pause, then the eye seemed to grow closer, and mist up.  The door slowly opened, and out stepped the skittish yellow pegasus.  She wasn’t in as bad of shape as Pinkie was when I found her, but... she definitely wasn’t still the cheerful, kind animal-sitter who lived in the quaint cottage, outside of town.

Her once long and flowing pink mane and tail were jagged and torn, easily only a third of their original length.  Her coat was dirty, and she had patches of moss clinging to her back and wings, which looked... okay, if a little bedraggled.  She slowly walked up to me, shoulders hunched up.  Haltingly, she reached up one hoof, dragging it gently across my muzzle before prodding my horn, once.

Satisfied with whatever she found, Fluttershy jumped forward, wrapping her forehooves around my neck in a fierce hug.  Before I could even lift mine to return the hug, I felt the telltale dampness on my coat, right around where Fluttershy’s eyes were buried.  She was crying softly, body wracked in silent sobs.

“Hey, don’t cry, it’s going to be alright,” I crooned into Fluttershy’s ear.  I drew her closer, something she did not complain about, and ran a hoof through her mane.  “Come on, stop crying.  We need to get moving.”  When the pegasus stopped shaking, I pulled back far enough to look into her shining eyes.  “Pinkie Pie was with me when we both were knocked out.  I woke up here, so have you seen her nearby?”

Fluttershy nodded and pulled away.  Turning back towards the door, she motioned for me to follow with one hoof before slipping into the dark interior of the castle ruins.  Before I followed, I tried to pull the magic together to cast the spell Zil taught me to identify changelings in disguise, but I was still too tired.  So, wary for a trap, I followed slowly.

The castle was much as I remembered it, only darker.  Parts of the roof were still missing, column debris still littered the ground, and green moss--like the pieces clinging to Fluttershy--still grew rampant.  We walked into the middle of the entry chamber before my guide stopped.  She looked around for a moment before stamping her hoof three times.  The sound echoed around the room, escaping through the ruptured roof and echo around the castle’s other chambers.

A door, earlier concealed by a pillar, swung open.  I immediately tensed up, moving forward to block Fluttershy, but there was no point to it, for out of the door stepped Pinkie Pie.  “Twilight, you’re okay!” she shouted, rushing over and hugging me with the force of a slow-moving train.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I replied, gently pushing her away.  “How did we get here, and why is Fluttershy not talking?”  I looked back at the pegasus as I spoke, but she just shrunk back behind her mane.  Back in front of me, Pinkie was equally as reserved.  “Would somepony tell me what’s going on!?”

“You might want to see this,” Pinkie whispered before walking back to the door she just came from.  Fluttershy went soon after, motioning me to follow.  Slowly, with trepidation building in my chest, I followed.

As I passed through the door, unremarkable aside for the fact it was totally intact, I couldn’t help but look over my shoulder.  To the right, opposite of the main door, was the chamber that used to hold the Elements of Harmony.  Unbidden, memories of that night rose to the top of my mind, bringing with them a smile.  At the time, I was terrified, but out of it came my friends, and my life in Ponyville.

If only this ordeal could end half as well...

Back from memory lane, I took my first look at the room Pinkie had been in.  It didn’t look like much, compared to the rest of the structure.  It was a rather small room, about as big as the main floor of the Carousel Boutique.  It was what was in the middle of the room that drew my attention.

A hole, no bigger around than a kitchen pot was sunk into the ground.  Within was something I had seen only once before, but had wondered and worried about ever since; a black, vile, bubbling substance, almost projecting the feel of the evil which it had caused.  Before me sat a sample of the Taint.

For the second time that day, my hind legs gave out under me, and I ended up in a, very shaky, sitting position.  “Twilight!” Pinkie shouted, rushing over to my side, but Fluttershy got there first.  The silent pegasus took a couple short steps and nuzzled my neck before taking a seat to my right.

“Are you alright?” Pinkie asked when she reached us a few second later.  She sat down on the other side of me, facing the vat, just like myself and Fluttershy.  “And what is that... stuff?”

A few silent seconds passed.  “I’ve seen it before,” I mumbled, eyes glued to the vile substance.  “I think it’s one of the sources of Chrysalis’ power, called the Taint.  The only problem is, I’ve never heard of it.”  I finally forced my gaze away from the middle of the room, instead finding some solace in the cracked flagstones underneath us.  “Nothing I’ve ever read so much as hinted at it.  But it’s real, and it’s powerful, and I don’t know anything about it.”

“Fluttershy, is something wrong?”  The voice from my left startled me from my revere.  I looked over, to see the yellow pegasus visibly shaking next to me.

I reached a hoof around her withers, and drew her in close before leaning over towards Pinkie.  “What’s wrong with her?”

Pinkie shrugged in response.  “I don’t know.  She hasn’t said anything to me.”

“Exactly.”  Using the hoof around her withers, I started gently stroking Fluttershy’s pink mane.  “I know she has always been a little shy, but she was getting better about it.  But I haven’t heard her say one single word since she opened the door.”

She shrugged again.  “When I woke back up, after I made sure you were okay, I went to explore the castle, because I remembered how pretty it was, and we didn’t get to see much on Nightmare Night.  I found Fluttershy in here, curled up in that corner over there.”  Pinkie pointed a hoof over at a corner by the door, full of what looked like fluffy moss--a makeshift bed.  “She never said a single word, and left when you knocked on the door.”

I rubbed a temple with my unoccupied hoof.  My head was filled with the overwhelming desire to leave, and my hooves itched to be back moving, back on the road to Manehatten, to Command, to my promised talk with Celestia.  “We need to get moving.  Midnight is expecting us.”  Pinkie nodded in agreement, so I turned to the now-still pegasus still huddled against me.  “Fluttershy, are you going to be okay?”

She tentatively nodded.

“We have friends waiting for us, to take us somewhere safe.  But we need to get out of here.  Do you know a fast way back to your cottage?” I asked.

Fluttershy looked up at that, and for the first time since I woke up, she smiled.  It wasn’t much more than a small grin, but it was a start.  She didn’t give an actual answer--words or no--but she got to her hooves and walked through the door.  When we didn’t follow, she poked her head back through and motioned for us to come with her.

“Wait.”  I held up a hoof and motioned Fluttershy back in.  “When I woke up, I heard a scream.  Did you hear anything?”

“Eh-heh heh...”  Pinkie’s cheeks tinted a little darker.  “When I found Fluttershy, I might have gotten a little... carried away.”  I glanced over my shoulder just in time to catch Fluttershy’s confirming nod.

I went to leave the room, but for some reason, I was compelled to stay; a nameless feeling deep in my gut demanding that I not move.  “Go on ahead.  I’ll... I’ll meet you two in the courtyard, alright?”  Pinkie smiled and hopped through the door.  Fluttershy actually took a step into the room, obviously intending to stay with me, but a small smile and a slow nod sent her out as well.  Once the hoofsteps had faded into the distance, and the echoes vanished, I turned back to the vat of Taint.

I took a hesitant step forward, then another, and another, until I was halfway across the room.  There I stopped, for it felt like the Taint was... reaching out to me, pulling me in.  It was all I could do to stop where I was.  Ah, little Twilight Sparkle, come to say hello?  I froze where I stood, ears perked high, listening for anything.

You can listen all you want, but you won’t hear me.  The voice was deep, but smooth.  Everything was enunciated perfectly, but with the slightest hint of an accent I couldn’t identify.  No, you can’t identify it, and you never will.  Best get used to it, small filly.  Now, let’s talk.

“W-Who are you?” I asked, finally finding my voice.

My name is of no importance, nor would you probably be able to understand it, no matter how many books you’ve read.  You’re right, by the way.  You have never heard of the Taint, and only your dear, precious Princess Celestia could inform you about it.  Or, maybe I could.  Quid pro quo, as you ponies say.

Once again, I looked around the room.  The only door was the one I had come through, and it wasn’t likely anypony could have slipped in.  The room was lit rather well, courtesy of holes in the roof.  There were no hiding places, nothing that could afford any protection to anything bigger than a mouse.  Just to be sure, I extended my magical sense, looking for anything with a spark larger than the one needed to maintain life.  The only things in the room that glowed at all was myself, and the bubbling goop in front of me.

Ah, stop that.  It tickles.  Oh, well, I guess that gave it away, didn’t it?  Come closer, child, let us talk.  Against my will, I padded forward, until I was right at the edge of the hole in the floor.  Now, I understand you’re busy, and your friends are waiting for you to continue your trip, so I shall be brief.

I am this entity your thoughts refer to as “the Taint,” but that is not what I would call myself.  I am the collective consciousness created to represent us.  I opened my mouth to respond, but an outside force snapped it shut hard enough to make my teeth clack.  No, hush, I will do the talking.  All you need to know now is that Chrysalis does not control us, she controls a small sample, taken from where we actually are.  This is but another sample, a wild sample.  Before you deign us evil, know that your changeling mistress has tainted us beyond what we were.  We simply want to be left in peace.

Go now, young mare, and keep what we have told you in confidence.  Who knows, maybe we can become partners in the future.  Before I could reply, the Taint drained into the ground, leaving nothing but a barren crater behind.  Before I could do anything else, I heard a voice behind me.

“Twilight, are you alright?”  I looked back over my shoulder to see Pinkie standing in the doorway looking confused.  “We’ve been waiting, but you didn’t come out.”

“Did you hear it?” I hissed, stepping away from the crater.  “Did you hear it!?”

“Hear what?”  Pinkie cocked her head.  “Twilight, there’s nopony here, just me and Fluttershy, and neither of us said a word, promise.”

“That’s right,” I mumbled to myself.  “He said it was all in my mind...”

“Who said what?  Twilight, are you hearing voices?  Do I need to do magicaley-surgery like you did to me?”  Despite it all, I grinned.

“No, I think I’ll be alright, Pinkie.  But that... that pool of Taint talked to me, I swear it.”

Pinkie cocked her head to the other side, ears pricking forward.  “Taint?  There was Taint here?”

> Onward to Manehatten
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Onward to Manehattan


“It... It was right there.”  I pointed with one hoof to where the depression in the stone floor was.  “I swear, it was right there.”

A look passed between Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.  “If you say so, Twilight...” the pink pony spoke up, moving to stand next to me and put a hoof around my withers.  “Come on, we need to go before it gets dark.  The others are waiting for us, remember?”

I nodded, recalling the others bidding us farewell an undetermined amount of time ago.  “Y-Yeah...”  On a hunch, I took one last look at the empty hole.  “Let’s go...”

A light drizzle had started falling sometime while we were in the ruined castle.  Unafraid of some water, all three of us trotted out into the mist, instantly wetting our coats.  “But which way...” I breathed, looking up at the sky in frustration.  There was no sun to navigate by, no stars, nothing but a single rolling wave of gray cloud.

“We need to hurry, Twilight, or Midnight and the others will worry about us,” Pinkie said, moving to stand next to me.

“I don’t know the way.”

“Sure you do, we’ve been out here before.  We just have to find the way back.”  Pinkie looked over at Fluttershy, and the pegasus nodded in agreement.

I shook my head.  “It’s not that simple.  Everything has... changed.  I can’t explain it, but it’s almost like the forest is more alive than ever.  I don’t know if a simple compass spell will get us out, and if we don’t head the right way, we could be wandering in here for days, or until something bigger than us picks us off.”

Fluttershy’s eyes shot wide open, ears falling victim to gravity.  “Oh, Fluttershy, that’s not what I meant.  I’m sure we’ll--”  Before I could finish, the pegasus shot up into the air, flying faster than I ever saw her fly before, until the last wisp of her tail vanished above the cloud layer.

“Fluttershy!”  Pinkie got on her hind legs, cupping her forehooves around her mouth.  “Fluttershy!”  Before the last echoes faded into nothing, the pink pony dropped back onto her hooves.  “She’s gone...”  We both stared up into the air, captivated by the small hole Fluttershy left behind.  Pinkie only hesitated for a moment before sinking to her knees, sobbing quietly.  I waited awhile longer, unwilling to believe she would just leave like that.

It was a good thing I did, for not a minute later, Fluttershy popped back down, gliding in large circles until she touched down nearby.  Pinkie was on her hooves immediately, charging down the pegasus in order to hug her violently and demand she never disappear like that again.  Again I held back, waiting for Pinkie to back off before slowly trotting over.

“What did you see?”  I half expected Fluttershy to speak up, to just tell me and then insist I take the lead.  Much to my surprise, she just jerked her head and started walking, turning around and motioning again when she saw we weren’t following.  I looked over a Pinkie and shrugged, both of us breaking into a fast trot to catch up.

The rain let up after about an hour, though the clouds didn’t start to clear for another.  By that time, it was apparent it was about to get dark, and that we would either have to camp out for the night in the forest, or try to push on through the moon-deprived darkness.  As it was, I had already foregone my ban on magic to form a light for us to walk by, as the treetops cut out what little light snuck past the clouds.

Our party was mostly silent.  The only words that we really saw fit to trade was the occasional query on everyone’s well-being, and asking Fluttershy to fly up and check our heading.  It was a good thing she did, too, because I was right.  The forest had grown.  Before, the worst thing you had to worry about was in the depths of the forest, the uncatalogued monsters that haunted the inner treeline.  Now, though, it felt like every step out took us deeper, led us closer.  The very trees breathed malevolence.

Thankfully, we hadn't met any of the experiments that Midnight had described.  Yet.

“Girls,” I said as the cicadas began chirping in the dusk.  “I think we might have to stop.  It’s getting too late.”  The other two stopped and turned to look at me.

“But what about Midnight?” Pinkie asked.

“I guess they’ll just have to wait.  This forest is bad enough during the day, but I don’t know how much longer I can keep this light going, and it’s going to get dark very fast.”  As if to prove my point, my light flickered.  “We need to find a campsite.  Fast.”

Fluttershy poked Pinkie gently with a hoof and nodded, pantomiming sleeping.  At long last, Pinkie nodded.  “Okay, so where should we go?”

I peered through the trees, trying to find a clearing big enough for a campsite.  “There.”  I pointed with a hoof.  A short walk later found us in a small clearing, almost entirely fenced in with large trees.  I set the others to gathering kindling and logs and, as soon as I had a large enough stockpile, the fire sprang to life with a small spark from my horn.

The three of us huddled around the fire.  The sun had retracted its warmth, leaving nothing but the cold for ponies to contend with.  Before too long, we were warm enough that we started to steam, filling the air around us with rainwater from our coats.

“Girls, listen,” I said as the comforting chirp of the cicadas gave way to the creepy growls and hisses of the more nocturnal denizens of the forest.  “We need to get some sleep, but we need to set a watch.  I’m...  I’m tired.  Pinkie, can you take first watch?”

Pinkie Pie sat up straighter and nodded.  “Yup!”

“Can you?”  I raised an eyebrow.  “You have to stay awake, and make sure the fire doesn’t die, but you can’t let it get too big either.”

“Yup!”

“And you have to wake us up if something comes into the camp, or looks dangerous, okay?”

“Okey dokey lokey!”  Pinkie saluted.  “You can count on me!”

“Remember,” I said with a yawn as I tried to get comfortable on the hard ground.  Across the fire, Fluttershy was doing the same.  “Don’t sleep, shout if something comes up on us, don’t let the fire die.  Wake me up in a few hours and I’ll take last watch.”  The last thing I saw before my eyes drifted shut was Pinkie leaning back onto our stack of firewood, falling onto her back as it gave way from under her.


♣♣♣♣♣


The cliff shot up in front of me, a massive wall of white.  At the very top, I spied a figure, ponylike in shape, staring out at the horizon behind me.  As I watched, more and more ponies, armed, moved to stand beside the lone shape, all of them watching opposite the cliffs.

I turned around, with no small amount of hesitation.  I was standing atop a hill, or maybe a small mountain, looking down on a city.  It was a bustling metropolis, huge buildings rose from the center while uncountable smaller ones stretched off into the distance.  Throughout, little flecks of color went about their lives, oblivious to the dark cloud gathering at the edges of the city.

“It is a troubling sight,” said a voice next to me.  I spun quickly, ready for anything except the visage of Princess Luna staring down at the city.  She looked over at me and smiled.  “Hello, Twilight Sparkle.”

“P-Princess?  What are you doing here?” I asked, glancing down at the city.  “For that matter, where is ‘here?’”

“Your dream.  Thou art currently in the Everfree Forest, two hours outside of Ponyville.  Dear Fluttershy is asleep as well, though her dreams are much more... tumultuous.”  Luna turned to gaze back at the city.  “‘Tis a lovely town.  Is it your creation?”

“I’ve never seen it before.  Is it significant in some way?”

“We cannot say.  We have only been in a scant few of your dreams, and all of those recent.”  As though anticipating my planned outrage, the princess held up a hoof.  “It was on Sister’s request.  Chrysalis was attempting to use thine dreams against you, to attempt and rupture thine sanity.  Sister asked Us to protect you as much as We could, and so We did.”

I gulped, thoughts jumping instantly to one nightmare had while locked in the Canterlot Dungeons.  “Y-You did?”

The corners of Luna’s mouth twisted up in a smile.  “We do not remember details, Twilight Sparkle, unless We were there ourselves.”  My breath whooshed out in a relieved sigh, adding the faint lilt of laughter to the princess’ next words.  “We expect thou has many things to speak to Sister about upon your arrival in Manehatten.  But be wary, Ponyville is not as safe as it once was.”

I nodded, though everything was beginning to shake.  I could just barely hear a familiar voice in the distance, though I couldn’t make out any words.  “Thank you, princess.”  The scene shook again, disguising the slow creep of the dark clouds over the city.  “Sorry, but I think I’m being called.”

“Fare thee well, Twilight Sparkle, and remember what we spoke of.”  Those were the last words from Luna’s mouth before the scene shifted one last time then dissolved into a colorless black expanse of nothing.


♣♣♣♣♣


“Good morning, Twilight!” Pinkie shouted, taking her hooves off my shoulders after I cracked my eyes open.  Across the fire, Fluttershy smiled before continuing to pile dirt onto the smouldering embers.

“Morning...?” I asked, voice cracking.

“Yup!”  Pinkie beamed.  “You looked really tired, so I let you sleep!”

“You let me sleep through my watch!?”  Pinkie was in for it now.  I was mentally preparing a large lecture on how she had endangered us all, leaving the camp unguarded like that, and in the middle of the Everfree Forest, no less!  It was ready, loaded, and properly outlined in my head, mere seconds from spilling forth when the earth pony shook her head.

“Nope!  I just didn’t sleep.”  In a quieter voice, she muttered, “I don’t always sleep well anymore..  Sometimes, it’s just easier not to...”

“Oh, Pinkie,” I slowly got up on unsteady hooves, throwing one around Pinkie’s neck in a hug.  “It’ll be alright, I promise.  Luna told me we’re a couple hours outside of Ponyville, and from there it’s only a couple of days to Manehatten.  We’ll be there and safe before you know it.”

“Luna?  Like, Princess Luna?  When did you talk to her?” Pinkie asked.  Finished covering the fire, Fluttershy slowly trotted over, the same question written across her countenance.

“She was in my dream.”

Pinkie cocked her head.  “Then how did she know how far away we were?”

I stopped and stared for a moment.  “No, she wasn’t a part of my dream, she was in it, like me, not a dream-Luna, the actual-Luna, walking through my dream.”

Another looked passed between the other two ponies, the, “Twilight’s gone crazy’ look.  My right eye twitched.  “I’m not crazy...” I muttered.  Then, a little louder.  “It doesn’t matter, let’s just get a move on.  Fluttershy, which way?”  The butter   pegasus launched into the air, returning not a minute later.  She nodded her head, and we three set off from our relatively safe clearing into the unknown.

The forest seemed different in the new dawn light, almost friendlier.  The emerald greens glistened with fresh dew, quenching the thirst of birds perched up in the lofty boughs of the canopy.  Visibility was better as well, though everything that wasn’t already green was tinted with it.  We walked quickly but surely, attempting to make as little noise as possible, just in case something was skulking around, looking for an equine breakfast.

I’m not totally certain when the edge of the forest appeared--whether it was two hours, more, or less was difficult to figure out without a clock or even a sundial.  As we passed from the shade of the last tree, I shielded my eyes with a hoof and looked around, trying to spot Fluttershy’s cottage.   A few seconds later, the pegasus herself tapped me on the shoulder.  Once she had my attention, she pointed into the distance, to where a small plume of smoke rose from an overgrown hut, set up against a dead, untended garden.

As we got close, I told Fluttershy and Pinkie to wait in a bush for my signal.  Once I was certain they were safe and out of sight, I went to the front door, readied a burst of magic, and knocked softly.  Before the door even opened, I felt the tingle of a magical scan.  I dropped my magic as the door opened, aided by a deep blue aura of magic.

Midnight poked his head out.  “Twilight,” he acknowledged, “where’s Pinkie Pie?”

“One second.”  I raised my hoof, the signal for the girls to join me.  Pinkie bounded from the bush, but turned back a few scant steps later once she realized she was short one follower.  She dove back into the hiding place, emerging pushing a wary pegasus before her.

“Who's that?” Midnight asked, narrowing his eyes.  “Did you check her?”

“It’s our friend, Fluttershy.  Yes, I checked her, and she’s coming with us to Manehatten,” I replied, putting a hoof around Fluttershy’s withers as she drew close.  “She’s another Element, and more importantly, our friend.  Is that going to be a problem?”

Midnight shook his head.  “Of course not.  Welcome aboard, Miss Fluttershy.”  He held out a hoof, which the pegasus tentatively shook.  “Everyone’s waiting.  I’ll get them, and we can--”

“No,” I said, shaking my head.  “There’s something I want to do before we leave.  Just wait here, it won’t take too long.”

“The library?”  I nodded.  “Alright, but take somepony with you.”  Midnight turned his head back into the cabin.  “Fleetwing!  Front and center!”

One yellow eye poked around the doorframe.  “Yes, sir!”

“Escort Miss Sparkle here to the library, and keep it quiet, got it?  I expect both of you back here, in one piece, in an hour.”  An orange hoof flashed by, coming to rest above the yellow eye.  Midnight stepped aside, allowing Fleetwing to exit the cottage.  She waved at Pinkie and Fluttershy, then looked over to me.

“Ready to go?” she asked, shaking her wings to make sure her wingblades were tight.

I nodded and looked over to the girls.  “Are you two going to be alright here?”

“Yup!”  Pinkie took her place next to Fluttershy, replacing my hoof when I removed it.  “Don’t worry, Fluttershy, these ponies are friends.  They’re going to take us somewhere safe as soon as Twilight gets back, okay?”

Pinkie lead the pegasus into the hut, turning to wave at me before disappearing into the depths of the room.  Midnight went to follow, turning around on the doorstep to deliver a warning before going inside.  “Don’t be late.”  Without waiting for an answer, the unicorn walked inside, and closed the door.

I set off, Fleetwing not too far behind.  We tried to stay off the road, preferring instead to stay in the bushes nearby, sacrificing speed for stealth.  Unfortunately, it only worked as long as we were on the outskirts.  Once the road from Fluttershy’s cottage joined the one to Sweet Apple Acres and headed straight to the Ponyville Town Square, everything changed.  There was a line traced into the dirt, a small depression on either side of the road.  The other side was devoid of vegetation, forcing us to move back onto the main road/

Now unable to hide, we began moving slower, searching constantly for anything that may wish to impede our progress, or worse.  The closer we got to the square, the more high-strung we became, though nothing showed its face.  Even the square itself was empty, not a changeling or monster or other pony in sight.

“Stay here,” I instructed Fleetwing once we were near the library.  “Er, not really here, but in the general area.  Just don’t follow me in, okay?”

“Why not?  We’re supposed to stick together!  How am I supposed to do that from out here?”  Fleetwing sat on her haunches and crossed her front hooves, pouting.

I trotted over and placed a hoof on her withers.  “Look, it’s nothing against you, but it’s personal.  I’d prefer some privacy, alright?”  Fleetwing bit her bottom lip, chewing on it in thought.

“Alright,” she said after a few moments.  “But be quick, okay?”

Before she even finished, I had the door halfway open.  “Yeah, I’ll be right out.”  I entered the library backwards, staring at the floor.  The door clicked shut, forcing me to turn around.  Every hoofstep raised plumes of dust, mixing with dim light filtered through the grimy windows to cloud my vision.

As soon as it cleared, I wished it hadn’t.  To be expected, the library had been ransacked, most likely by the changelings searching for information.  For the first time, I wondered if what I was looking for was still there.  It was small, and was actually rather unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but it was the last physical link I had to the Princess.

I made my way to the staircase to the upper levels, focusing my eyes on it to avoid looking at the heaps of books piled carelessly on the ground.  The wood of the stairs creaked under my weight.  Not thinking, I looked down and shushed them.  Even worse, I didn’t even realize what I had done until I was actually in my room.  My cheeks erupted in blush, almost lighting up the area around me, and I thanked Celestia nopony had been around to see it.

My room was in even more of a state then the downstairs.  Books were again strewn on the floor, my private collection, I was loathe to realize, but that was just the beginning.  Shelves were tipped over, as was my mattress and bed frame.  Drawers from my desk were tossed on the floor, a couple broken into pieces, contents scattered across the room.

I had expected the changelings to have ransacked the library, but I had never expected my home to be ravaged this bad.  Storing the thoughts and emotions for later, I flared my horn, clearing a way from the door over to the desk.

“Now... where is the latch...” I muttered, feeling around with the tip of my hoof.  Eventually, one of the places I touched depressed with a click.  Unfortunately, I didn’t remember where exactly the drawer was, because it popped out and whacked me in the head, right at the base of my horn.

I slowly rose back up, making sure not to hit my head again, grumbling about stupid secret compartments.  Mom had it made for me before I left for the castle, saying that Princess Celestia’s personal student needed a desk, and a mare needed her secrets.  I hadn’t even understood what she meant until I dropped a quill while writing a report, and hit the catch with a hoof while trying to get it.  Even once I worked out how to open it, it remained empty until just a couple of months ago.

I reached in with my magic, gently lifting the only thing that ever inhabited the secret compartment of my desk: a skinny but rather long black box.  Even months later, even knowing what was inside, I still found myself struggling to open it.  With a creak of reluctance--from me, not the box--it slowly opened, revealing a simple but elegant silver necklace.  

Princess Celestia had sent it to me on my twentieth birthday.  Rationally, I knew it was just a well-wish from her, a congratulations on surviving another year, but it was almost impossible not to dream it meant something more.  Wiping away a rebellious tear from my eye, I deftly released the necklace’s clasp, and placed it upon my neck.  The metal was cool, but I relished the comfort of the sun it brought.

Slowly, I closed the box and replaced it in the drawer, pushing it closed with one forehoof.  It wasn’t until I was almost down on the staircase that I heard it; the first stair always creaked.  Spike always bugged me about getting it fixed but, especially during one of my caffeine-fueled study binges, I always used the creak to tell when somepony was coming up the stairs.

And I had just heard it, in my ransacked home, in the deserted square of Ponyville.  I had mere seconds to decide, fight the unknown enemy, or to hide and hope it didn’t find me.  While my mind argued with itself, my body took action.  I dove under the bed, shimmying over to where a pile of fallen books obscured me.  A small crack where the opened pages of a book rested upon another provided a peephole, letting me see the monstrosity that shambled into the room.

It... may have been a pony at one point in time, though it was almost impossible to tell.  It’s coat was a sickly, dull green color, covering nothing but a twisted skeleton.  The beast hobbled in, favoring the back hooves.  It stopped right in front of the desk, snuffling the air, obviously following a scent from downstairs.

All I could see of the beast was a few scraggly tail hairs by this point.  It was following some scent around the room.  I followed it with my ears, tilting my head as well and quietly as I could, trying to make sure it didn’t surprise and eat me.  Or worse.

The beast walked around my bed, sniffing around the nightstand that used to be piled high with light night reading.  Of course, now the books were lying on the floor, along with the shattered remains of the nightstand.  Hoping that the monster wasn’t going to turn and look, I slowly made my way to the edge of the bed opposite the beast.

Once to the edge, I turned around, and cautiously poked my head out so I could see.  Moving as little as possible, I peered around, making sure the coast was clear.  Assure I was safe for the moment, I edged out from under the bed and crawled forward to the end.  The door was in sight, but before I could make a dash for my life, the sniffling on the other side of the bed stopped.

Limping hoofsteps slowly made their way around the end of the bed.  Lacking time to get my way back under the bed, I huddled under the skirt of the bed, placing my muzzle and horn under and upturned book.  It took some doing, but I eventually managed to calm myself down just as the beast rounded the corner.

The beast’s hoofsteps reverberated on the floor, shaking me.  I wedged my eyes shut, praying I would survive to escape.  I could feel the necklace pressing into my chest, mocking me for my arrogance.  We were safe, about to leave, but I just had to go and get this necklace, this... stupid string of silver.

If I die here, I’m going to kick my flank in the afterlife.

...I wonder if Spike and Shining will be there with me...

The monster sniffed closer and closer.  I could feel the breath from its nostrils ruffling my coat.  I’m not entirely sure if what happened would have been different had I not lost my cool, but it was unavoidable.  One particularly strong sniff sent slime and mucus across me.  The binds I put on my mind to attempt to keep myself calm shattered like dropped china.

I jumped to my hooves, only pausing long enough to buck the monster in the face before galloping back to the stairs.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the beast rising slowly to its hooves.  Down the stairs, two more were pulling their way from behind various piles of books, howling and groaning as their prey made its way out the door.

“Hey, Twilight, get everything you--” Fleetwing hailed as I burst through the door.

I passed by her, pushing her flank with a hoof.  “No time,” I shouted over my shoulder.  “Run!”  I could hear them now, coming from almost every direction.  The scrape as their forehooves dragged across the pavement, their growls of hunger, their cries of pain.  All of it echoed across the empty streets and alleys.  It wasn’t too long before Fleetwing caught up on wing, words spewing from her mouth.

“What the hay are those things!?  Why are they after us?  Will we be able to get away?  Do you think the others are alright in that cottage?”  The questions poured out.  I ignored them as best I could until the torrent slowed to a trickle

“Fly ahead,” I gasped between pants.  “Fly to the others, and make sure they’re ready to go when I get there.  We’re leaving, now.”

“Are you going to be alright?”  The pegasus ducked, barely avoiding a rock meant to ground her.

“Yeah, now go!”  Fleetwing nodded and poured on the speed, rocketing ahead back towards the cottage.  Too afraid to look back, I focused my gaze forward.  In the distance, I could barely make out the depression from earlier.  It shocked me to realize it was the basis of a Burrow wall.  Faintly, I remembered the information that they tested the system on Ponyville, but that was the last I heard.  Another question officially added to my list of questions for “Command.”

Once I passed the remnants of the walls, I risked a look back.  There was a line of monsters behind me, grunting and growling, but they seemed too afraid to cross the line the foundations traced in the dirt.  Even though it was probably safe, I kept up my gallop all the way to the cottage.

Midnight and the others were waiting for me, weapons drawn.  As soon as I thought I was close enough, my hooves folded under me, and I collapsed onto the dusty road.  Feeling myself lifted into the air, I peeled one eye open to see a mass of blue fur.  Midnight had adjusted his sword’s sheath and placed me upon his back.  “Come on, ladies.  Let’s head home.”  Our party set off, Midnight at the head, the others spread out around, and myself half passed out on his back, enjoying the gentle sway of his stride.
	

> Mare in the Mirror
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Mare in the Mirror


Before all of this, I considered myself a scholar.  Maps and geography were never really my thing, but I did accompany the Princess to Manehatten on business once.  We rode in a carriage, of course, but in the tedium of travel I calculated that it would take roughly eight hours by high-speed train to reach the outskirts of Manehatten from Canterlot; nine if from Ponyville.

It took us, on hoof, just over a week, which was a little longer than originally predicted.  I’m just glad it didn’t take longer.  As it was, anticipation almost ate me alive.

Almost from the beginning of our trek from Ponyville, problems arose.  The first day, I didn’t really care; I spent most of that day on Midnight’s back, too exhausted to do more than stare at my distorted reflection in the chain around my neck.  The others too, I think, didn’t spend too much time on idle thought.  Pinkie and Fluttershy had braved the forest, and Midnight and co. acted exhausted as well.  We didn’t even eat dinner that night.  One of us stopped, the others followed suit, and we all passed out on respective pieces of unremarkable grass.  Not even a watch was set.

The next day, I joined the others in walking.  Some time was passed with idle chatter, but we all knew how far we had to walk, so silence was the order of the day.

Around noon, Pinkie was the first to speak what we all were feeling.  “So... do you have any snacks?” she asked, spinning around to walk backwards in front of Midnight.  “Because we skipped dinner last night, and that means we haven’t eaten anything in almost a full day!  In Sugarcube Corner we never would... have...”  Pinkie’s voice petered out.

It was then that we learned what had happened to Midnight and the others after we separated.  They dodged the changeling force readily, but waiting for Pinkie and myself to emerge from the Everfree Forest took a bit of a toll on our food supplies.  Add that to the fact that we lost some provisions while in the forest, and that now we had to feed Fluttershy as well, and our food situation was looking decidedly grim.  Thankfully, with three unicorns water was only a simple spell away.

We got by mostly on what we could scavenge from the wilderness while on the road, and what Fluttershy could convince her animal friends to bring us; though how she managed to do so without talking was beyond me.  Dinner most nights consisted of dusty, half-dead grass, dry wildflowers, and a small hooffull of whatever we could scavenge while walking with as much freshwater as we could drink--even if it did have a faint taste of metal.

“You know,” Fleetwing said one night as we feasted around a dim fire, “after this, mineral water doesn’t quite hold the same appeal.”

I suppose the nightly fire--whenever we weren’t dodging small towns or camps which dotted the countryside-- was the exception to the golden rule of silence.  Around its faint glow it almost felt like our situation was forgotten.  Pinkie, Fluttershy, and myself weren’t three of the most important ponies in our group, Midnight, Sparky, and myself weren’t always looked at like we were in control of the whole situation.  In fact, the only thing that really remained the same was Pinkie’s on-again-off-again post-apocalypse zeal and Fleetwing’s--somewhat irritating--borderline hero worship.

Around the fire, we were just normal ponies.  As equals, we told stories from before.  Starfire was a trans-Equestria mailmare, responsible for delivering mail in-between settlements.  Much to my delight, Sparky was a researcher at one of Canterlot’s many schools of study, and we spent many nights debating abstract metaphysical and philosophical topics that usually left the rest of the group in almost instant confusion.  Midnight, unsurprisingly, was an officer at one of Equestria’s border forts.  Most of my questions he refused to answer, saying that I would be told when we arrived at Manehatten, but he did tell me that, while most of the Guard were wiped out in the initial attack, the survivors, around a fifth of the force, had a large hoof in forming the resistance.

Fleetwing, however, staunchly refused to say anything at all about her past, even when I broke the rule of silence to ask her when we were mostly alone on the road.  “Just give her time,” Midnight said after I asked him as a last resort.  “Her past is a bit of a sore spot.  She’ll tell you when she’s ready.”  Out of options and unwilling to find out by force, I dropped the subject.


♣♣♣♣♣


On our last day of travel, having just finished what meager rations we designated for a lunch, we crested a large hill we had been climbing most of the day.  I stopped at the summit and covered my eyes with a hoof, gazing off into the distance.

“There she is.”  Midnight stopped next to me.  “We’re home.”

I was frozen in place.  The longer I looked, the weaker I felt.  A massive cobblestone wall, large enough to hide all but the tallest buildings inside, stared back at me.  I recognized it almost instantly, even though I had never actually seen one.  It was a Burrow wall, my planned and recommended fortification to keep ponies inside, effectively turning the entire city into a battery of love.

My hind legs gave out under me, and I found myself scrambling into an awkward sitting position. A soft step and soft voice to my right broke through my reverie.  “Twilight,” Pinkie said, “are you alright?”  From behind her, Fluttershy eyed me, backing up our friend without words.

“I-I... No,” I muttered.  I was suddenly deathly afraid one of the freedom fighters would hear me.  “These walls, they’re part of the Burrow.  I designed this for Chrysalis while she held me captive.  Now... now I get to actually see it.”

“This is way above my pay grade...” Midnight muttered to himself.  “Look,” he continued, still whispering, “don’t tell the others, okay?  Don’t tell anypony but Command.  You are our best hope of winning, but these Burrows...  You’ve caused a lot of trouble, you know?”

“Alright, let’s move out,” Midnight said, getting the attention of everypony and shepherding them towards a reinforced wooden door in the wall.  Part of me knew that Midnight had not meant to, but his words still stung.  However, I had designed the Burrow, with the express intention of being able to get around it easily.  I closed my eyes, bringing to mind the blueprints and pointing out all of the key structural and strategic flaws I had hidden.  I would have to inform Command as soon as I could, in order to reinforce Manehatten’s defences and aid in whatever else they may be planning.

My walking was halted by a soft hoof on my chest.  I followed the appendage to see Fluttershy, pointing a wing ahead to Midnight and two guards at the gate.  From the look of things, they had been arguing for some time while I was lost in thought.

“I told you, the Canterlot Outpost is sanctioned by Command.  Just let us in to talk to them, somepony will know,” Midnight was saying.

“I’m sorry, but this gate is closed to civilians, and we have no record of any ponies being assigned to an outpost near Canterlot,” the guard replied.  Both he and his partner lacked the discipline of the Royal Guard, and the tarnish on their armor would have earned them cleaning duty, but I guess military supplies weren’t quite what they used to be.  After squelching a thought of what I must look like, I felt my judgemental side slowly wither into nothing.

“I can vouch for them,” Starfire said, moving up to stand next to Midnight.  “We have three VIPs here that need to talk to command immediately.”

The other guard spoke up.  “Those three?” he asked, looking back at Pinkie, Fluttershy--who dove behind me--and myself.

Midnight tossed a look over his shoulder.  “Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Twilight Sparkle; three of the Elements of Harmony and ponies who have had a standing rescue order since the founding of the resistance.”

Both guards shared a look, barely containing laughter.  “Well, in that case, right this way, Miss Sparkle.  We’ll see to your friends, but you need to report to Command right away.”

Before we could do anything, the gate was pulled open.  Two more guards came out, directing everypony but me deeper into the fortifications in the wall.  Pinkie looked at me with a small smile before prying Fluttershy off of my leg, seating the pegasus on her back, and heading inside.  The freedom fighters looked back at me and muttered reassuring words before following.

“Miss Sparkle?” a voice called, drawing my attention to a gold pegasus stallion standing to one side of the gate.  “My name is Dashing Cloud.  I’m here to take you to Command.  Please, follow me.”  He stood silently, patiently waiting for me to come through.

I stepped forward, tossing a suspicious glance to both chucking guards as I passed between them.  As soon as the last stray hair in my tail passed through the gateway, the wooden door was swiftly shut, leaving me alone with the strange stallion.  “Come,” he said, starting off down one of the hallways within the wall, “this way.”

Together we walked a short distance within the wall before exiting through a side door and emerging into the bright light of Manehatten, and the shadow of the Burrow.  Now freed from the gentle curve of the wall, our path became much more confusing.  We twisted and turned almost constantly, sticking mostly to the cramped back alleys much to my disappointment.  Some part of me still wanted to know how my plan had ultimately worked; it wanted to find out if the Burrow system of letting ponies live lives as unaffected as possible was truly a viable idea.  Unfortunately, lost in the secret shortcuts as we were, I didn’t see a single other soul until one alley spit us out in the middle of what was essentially Manehatten’s town square.

For one glorious second, I thought the more curious side of me would have her answer, and finally leave me alone.  Then I saw the second pair of guards in front of a second gate and wall.  My head quickly turned over my shoulder, confirming that, yes, this wall was altogether separate from the outer wall.  “What’s going on here?” I demanded, turning back to Dashing Cloud.  “Where are you taking me?”

“This is the command core,” Cloud replied.  “The town hall and surrounding park have been converted for military use.  The square houses various tents for military use--blacksmith, armory, training, etc.--while the town hall itself is used by Command for offices, dungeons, interrogation, and other things.  The wall and gate serve only to keep civilians out of the way.”

“Oh.”  I scratched behind my wilted ear with a hoof.  “Sorry.  Just a little jumpy still, I guess.  It’s hard to believe that we traveled here without a major incident.  Feels almost... wrong somehow.”

Cloud answered my comment with a noncommittal grunt before heading towards the new gate.  Unlike the last one, the guards pulled it open without raising a fuss, letting us into the repurposed town square.  I had been here once before, but after living in Ponyville for so long, the massive stone building caught me somewhat off guard.  Add to that the various assortment of massive tents in the grass and pavement in the general area, and the ponies in armor striding from place to place--I was somewhat overwhelmed.

My guide seemed to not notice my pause, for he continued straight through the camp to the open doorway of the town hall.  At first, I thought the door was propped open to facilitate easier access, but as we approached, I noticed with some measure of concern that the doors had actually been blasted open at some point in the past; currently, they rested up against a pillar in the entrance hall.

Once again, our path became hard to follow as we wound through the structure.  Signs of battle were everywhere; scorch marks on the wall, windows bricked up, wall sconces torn from their housing and lying twisted on the ground.  I pointedly ignored them as we continued deeper into the structure.  At long last -- past a wall covered in what I fervently hoped was cherry filling -- we stopped in front of an inconspicuous wooden door, different only by virtue of two ex-Royal Guards standing on either side.

“Another Twilight Sparkle to speak to Command,” Cloud said, answering the guard’s unasked question.  My ears perked up at the insinuation that I was not Twilight Sparkle, but I left it alone.

“Has she been checked?” the guard on the left asked.

“She passed through both anti-Changeling fields with no side effects.”

The guard on the right nodded and rapped the tip of his spear against the door.  “One Twilight Sparkle seeks admittance,” he said.

“Alrigh’, send ‘er in,” called a voice from the other side.  “Let’s get this over with...”  

That voice...  I charged through the door, much to the displeasure of the guards, and almost ran into an orange mare.  The second my eyes fell on her, I knew for sure, and wrapped her in a tight hug.  “Applejack!”

“Well, this certainly is one of the better attempts we’ve seen,” another voice said from deeper in the room.

I looked up at the sound and beamed wider, making the corners of my mouth hurt.  “Rarity!  You’re okay, too!”  Rarity waved a hoof and I was dragged off Applejack by the two guards.  “Hey, what are you doing?  Let go of me!”

Rarity walked over to Applejack and helped the fallen mare up, wiping down her coat with a hoof.  “Let’s get this over with, darling.”  Rarity nodded, and the guard marehandling me let me go.  I pulled away, shooting him a look over my shoulder.  “Alright then, prove to us you are who you say you are.”

“P-Prove?” I spluttered, “but it’s me!  I don’t think there are too many other lavender unicorns who look like I do, and I don’t know a single other one that is the Element of Magic!”

“You know as well as I do that disguise spells have become very common since Chrysalis took over.  You’re going to have to try harder than that,” Rarity replied.

“But, Rarity, Applejack, it’s me!  We... We met in Ponyville when Princess Celestia sent me to oversee the Summer Sun Celebration...”  The words just spilled out, powered by my desperation.  Surely other ponies hadn’t tried to impersonate me?  Obviously they had, because now two of my closest friends didn’t even believe me.  “...And I wanted to go into the forest alone, but you wouldn’t let me, and I’m glad you didn’t.  I don’t think I could have made it through without you, which made it really difficult when the Princess only sent me two tickets to the gala...”

Our story continued as I frantically outlaid every adventure we’d been on over the years we’d known each other, barely stopping to take a breath or look at my captive audience during my frantic storytelling.  I paced back and forth, motioning wildly with my hooves in an attempt to emphasize what happened and how much I had actually been there.

“...And then we ran from the castle and ate donuts, but the Princess showed up herself!  Even though I knew that it wasn’t likely, part of me was afraid she was going to yell at us, to condemn us for ruining her gala.  But of course not, because she wanted to sit and eat with us!  I couldn’t--mmfmm.”  My story was ground to a halt very unceremoniously by a hoof shoved in my mouth.

“Alrigh’”, Applejack, the owner of the hoof, said softly.  “We get it.  Ah’m convinced it’s you, Twilight, but...” she tossed a look back to Rarity, who nodded, “we gotta make sure.”

Rarity walked deeper into the room, skirting a large table topped with several large pieces of paper.  She walked over to a shelf, one of the only ones still containing books, and pulled out a rather large tome.  “Most of the books in the Ponyville Library we weren’t able to recapture,” she explained while walking back towards Applejack and myself, probably in response to the longing look on my face.  “Most of the ones we did save are in your room, assuming, of course, you pass this last test.”

This was the first time Rarity had said more than a sentence at once, and I was shocked at how different she sounded.  Unlike Applejack, who seemed almost unchanged on the surface, almost everything about Rarity seemed different somehow.  Her voice had lost its Canterlot accent and many of her speech mannerisms were gone as well.  Everything about her seemed just a little... harder.  Even her personal grooming wasn’t up to past standards; just from where I stood I could tell her mane wasn’t as shiny and probably hadn’t been combed in a couple of days.

Rarity fumbled with the book, removing a small wooden box from inside. After placing the book on the table, she gingerly sat the box down in front of me.  With two short steps back, she drew even with Applejack and sat down on the stone floor.  “Just open the box, darling.”

I cast my gaze down, noting the intricate carvings on the lid.  Slowly, I reached out and prodded it with a hoof until the lid slowly creaked open.  Inside, nestled within a cradle of fabric, was a small, magenta six-pointed star.  As if it saw me, the star flashed in greeting as the lid to the box flicked fully open.

“Is this...” I breathed, staring down at the small jewel.

“The Element of Magic, in a fashion,” Rarity replied.  “I think it’s actually the jewel from your tiara.  One of our soldiers brought it to us after a raid of Canterlot to try and rescue you.  We decided to keep it, because only the real Twilight Sparkle can use it.”  I glanced up to see her soft smile, mirrored by Applejack beside her.  “Go on, take it.”

I nodded, hesitantly reaching out with a small tendril of magic.  The two connected, and the star burst into a bright light, moving of its own accord to hover in front of me, glimmering all the while.  “Um... ta-da...?” I muttered, smiling sheepishly at my two friends.

In the flickering purple-ish light of the Element of Magic I could clearly see the wide smiles of Applejack and Rarity.  Before they could do anything, however, the captive jewel still had one trick left.  Just as Rarity rose to her hooves, the Element of Magic’s aura of light quickly expanded, before the jewel itself rocketed backwards, affixing itself to the silver necklace I recovered from Ponyville.

All three of us stared down at the jewel now dangling from my necklace as it lost its shine and settled on being just a normal star.  While the other two were staring, probably taking in my new fashion choice, or perhaps that I was still alive, I sprung my trap.  I jumped forward, wrapping one hoof around Applejack and one around Rarity, pulling them into a large hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay,”” I breathed into the tight space between them.  “I was so afraid...”

I felt the other two hooves wrap around me and pull tighter, turning us into a triangle of squished pony.  “I’m sorry about all of that, darling,” Rarity said, “but in the beginning, we had too many ponies pretending to be you.  Some were obviously fake, but as time went on and disguise spells became more and more robust...”

“We didn’ want ya to actually come back and think we’d replaced ya with a floozy,” Applejack continued.  

We stood together for some time before Applejack pulled away.  “Ah think our happy reunion is gonna have to wait.  The Princess is gonna want t’ talk t’ Twilight,” she said to Rarity.  “An’ I reckon we probably aughta see t’ the ponies who brought her here.  Supposedly, they got Pinkie and Fluttershy too.”

The reverie the words ‘talk’ and ‘princess’ put me in shattered the instant Applejack mentioned Pinkie.  “I almost forgot!” I shouted, cringing at the wave of guilt.  “We were separated at the gate of Manehatten.  I think... I think Midnight and the others from the Canterlot outpost are with them.”

“It’s alright, sugarcube, Ah’ll go find ‘em,” Applejack said, opening the door and walking through.

“And I shall take you to the Mirror,” Rarity said, stepping forward to keep the door from closing.  “Come with me.”

After a glance at Rarity’s small smile, I eagerly followed.


♣♣♣♣♣


So far, my time in the resistance headquarters had been rather stressful.  Being separated from my friends, being led through a building that had clearly been attacked recently, having my identity questioned by two of the ponies I consider my closest friends, it was all very overwhelming.

But now, being led through the rather unimpressive town hall of Manehatten--likely fortified by Chrysalis in the conversion to the Burrow--something much worse than stress began to creep into my mind.  Curiosity, anxiety, anticipation.  Fear.  A large, cold ball of fear, right in the middle of my chest.  It made it difficult to breathe, difficult to control my hooves.  For a brief second, I considered bolting as a much better alternative than facing Celestia.  After all, I let her down, I tried to resist Chrysalis and failed; I made it worse!

I quickly reread the letter she sent so long ago in my mind.  The day they told me you escaped Chrysalis’ dungeon was probably one of the best I’ve had here.  I’m so proud of you, Twilight...  I look forward to speaking to you again, Twilight.  It has been too long.  What if she knew what I had done.

What if she knew how I--

“We’re here,” Rarity said, shattering my thoughts like dropped plates.  I smiled, trying to swallow the lump of fear lodged within me.  “I’ll let you go in alone.  I’m sure you and the Princess have some private things to discuss.”

The little bit of courage I had managed to drum up to do battle with the fear evaporated in an instant.  “Well, uh, alright, but... I don’t know what to do to activate the mirror.  Do I need to, like, breathe on it and write a number, or cast a spell, or...”

“It’s all taken care of, darling,” Rarity said.  She reached out with a hoof and pushed the stout wooden door open, spilling a strange blue light into the hallway.  “I’ll be here when you’re finished.”

I slowly passed into the mostly dark room, closing the door behind me.  The only thing visible was a circle inscribed in the floor, slowly spreading its blue light around the room.  It was barely bright enough to light up the circle and the walls, most of the corners were cloaked in shadow, but none of that really registered at first.  All that mattered was the tall white alicorn standing in the middle of the circle.

“Princess...?” I whispered.  Of course she couldn’t hear me, probably couldn't see me either, not in the dim light provided by the Mirror.  At least, I thought the runic circle in the ground was the Mirror--after all, there wasn’t anything else.  I should walk over and talk to her.  It’s been so long... 

But I didn’t.  I just stood and stared, not wanting to step forward in case my intervention would destroy the magic and send my Princess back to wherever she had been the last few years.

“I heard the door, is somepony there?  Twilight?”  The princess shuffled her wings, looking towards me and the door.

Hesitantly, I stepped forward into the strange light.  “H-Hello, Princess.”

“It is you, my faithful student.”  Celestia graced me with one of her warm smiles.  “When they told me that another Twilight had surfaced, I was truthfully somewhat skeptical.  So many ponies have come to us trying to be you, and though I’ve known where you were the entire length of Chrysalis’ reign, I couldn’t help but hope Luna was wrong, and that you had returned to me.”

Slowly, I walked forward, hundreds of questions and thoughts whirling around in my head.  Why was Celestia in the circle?  Why hadn’t she come out?  What did she mean she knew where I was the whole time?  What did Princess Luna have to do with anything?  Returned to her?  What was this strange circle?  Wh--

Why couldn’t I move forward?

Forcibly removed from my thoughts, I finally began to take my surroundings in once again.  Directly in front of me stood Celestia, looking down with a slightly sadder smile than before, her alabaster coat marred by a harsh blue light.  “Oh, Twilight,” she said, kneeling down to look me in the eyes.  “I’m sorry.  The Mirror is only a projection.  I can’t physically be there in Manehatten.”  No...  “This is the best solution we could manage, without a powerful spellcaster easily accessible.”  I began to tune out my teacher, preferring instead to closely examine the runes in the Mirror.

“So what is this, exactly?” I asked, not taking my eyes from the tracing of the closest rune.

Celestia laughed softly.  “You are definitely Twilight, always looking for an answer to a puzzle.”  The passing comment stung, even if it was true.  “It is a modified Circle of Summoning.  We call it the Mirror, because it runs on the basic principle of Reflective Projection Theory, most commonly used with mirrors to channel speech and visage.”

“I thought mirror magic was very unpredictable, and that most unicorns could never quite get it right.”  The questions were going on autopilot now, as the rest of my conscious thought busied itself on retracing the first rune, further back, in lavender, careful to keep myself between the two sets.

“Yes, and it took time to repurpose the communication spell for use without a static surface, but Luna and I did not have much more to do.  Once we had it perfected, we contacted Rarity instructed her and three other unicorns how to create that circle behind you and allow it to draw latent magical energy from the user,” Celestia explained in a bemused tone.

I smiled.  She figured out my plan.  I moved onto the seventh rune, halfway around the circle.  “So, if you aren’t in Manehatten, or able to come here, where are you?”  Where am I going to end up if this works?

“Luna is, from what we can tell, back on the moon.  I’m not certain, but I... I think I may be on or in the sun, or something of the sort.  It gets rather hot, but I can’t see anything outside of the enclosure I am in.”  I briefly glanced up at the princess.  I nodded once, noting the concern evident in her gaze.  After a moment of thought, I took two steps over and slightly changed the last rune I engraved before moving forward.

“If you’re trapped somewhere apart from Princess Luna, how are you two communicating?  Do you have another Mirror?”  Not too much longer, now.  I hope this works.

Another two runes inscribed into the ground.  “No, nothing quite that elaborate.   My sister is rather gifted at dream magic, and with nothing else to do in exile...”  The princess trailed off.  “The first week or so was very relaxing.”

“A good night’s sleep always helps me,” I replied.  Another rune, only two more to go.  As I traced my way around the Mirror, inscribing my runes into the ground, I began to notice a faint glow of purple emanating from my creations.  Either a very good, or very bad, sign.

“Is that why you fell asleep so many times in my chambers as a filly... and right before your trip to Ponyville?”  My face erupted into blush, and I thanked... well, Celestia, that I was turned away from her.  Even without seeing my face, however, she still seemed to know.  An airy chuckle echoed around the empty room.  “I am glad your time with Chrysalis did not change you as I feared.”

The mention of my former captor’s name made me twitch, throwing off my trace of the last rune.  It was you, Twilight.  You caused this whole mess.  It’s all your fault.

“Or maybe it did...” Celestia continued in a much softer voice.  “Twilight--”  The rest of her sentence was lost as I completed the last rune of the circle and a howling wind ripped through the previously silent room.  An ethereal lavender light mixed with the blue from the Mirror, their combined light finally enough to light the furthest corners of the room, even if the illumination was even more distorted than before.

Just one more thing to do...  Slowly, under Celestia’s watchful eye, I walked to the original ring of runes in the Mirror.  With a single blast of magic, the rune closest to me was wiped out.  All at once, the other blue runes in the circle lost their light, and slowly faded away.

I took two measured steps forward, and embraced my princess in a hug.  Celestia wrapped her wings around my back, shrouding me in a soft cocoon of white.

> Tainted Origins
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Tainted Origins


Celestia and I stayed in our embrace for some time, neither of us wanting it to end.  We stood there, unable and unwilling to let go, but the silence could not last forever.  Slowly, the realization of what I’d done washed over me.  My alterations had worked.  Replicating the runes of the Mirror, then breaking the original circle had transferred the spell into my imitation, with me inside it, neither in Manehatten or the sun, but somewhere safer, in the middle.

All for a hug, from my--the, let’s not get possessive--the princess, Celestia.

“That was very dangerous, Twilight.  You could have been seriously hurt,” Celestia whispered over my head.a

I nuzzled into the base of Celestia’s wing.  “I don’t care,” I replied softly, watching her feathers ruffle with my breath.

“But many ponies do.”  The princess shifted back, just far enough to dislodge my head from its warm hiding place and force me to look up at her.  “What about all of your friends?  The refugees from Ponyville?  The thousands of other ponies, including Luna and myself, waiting for you to defeat Chrysalis?”

Great, no pressure then.  “But how?  We don’t have the Elements of Harmony, and even if we did, Rainbow Dash is still missing!”

“One step at a time.”  Celestia finally broke our embrace; I squelched an annoyed squeak.  “Applejack and Rarity have been fighting this war for almost as long as you were captured.  Your return to us does change things, but not so far to make us replan everything...”  She trailed off, as though to contradict her own words.  “War is a terrible, terrible thing, Twilight.  I worked very hard to keep it from the borders of Equestria, and now I am asking you to dive muzzle-first into the darkest and most scarring part of it.”

To bring back Celestia, I’d do anything.  “I won’t let you down, Princess.”

“I know you won’t.  You never have.”  She smiled down at me for a moment before her gaze hardened.  “Listen to me, Twilight.  As nice as seeing you again is, terrible things are about to happen, and there are things that I must tell you before they do.  Luna has shown me your dreams and I know you hurt, but as much as I want to help you, you must listen first.  There is time for everything else later.”

“B-But, Princess,” I stuttered.

For a moment, Celestia’s gaze softened, almost to one of sadness.  “Oh, Twilight, I’m not much of a princess now, am I?  The only charge I have left is the sun, and it can almost move on its own.”

“Don’t say that, Princess!” I shouted almost without thinking.  “It’s not true.  There’s a whole city out there willing to fight and die for you, and I would too.  You’re still our princess, and you always will be.”

Once again, the alicorn smiled.  “Then it is even more important you listen to me right now, Twilight.”  She sat down across from me before beginning.  “First and possibly most important is Chrysalis herself, and more importantly, where her power comes from.”

My ears started slowly drooping.  “P-Princess... do you, um, do you know what Chrysalis had me doing when I was... ah... with her?”

“Yes, Twilight, I do,” Celestia replied softly.  “I think you made the best of a bad situation, especially with the little weaknesses put into the... what did she call them?  Burrows?”

I slowly nodded.  “You... you’re not disappointed?”

“Are you mad at me for distrusting your instinct about Cadence?”  When I was younger, I hated when she answered a question with another question, but having used the technique myself I can at least understand the thought behind it.

“No.”  It wasn’t a lie.  Any sort of anger directed towards Celestia had faded long before Chrysalis begun her invasion in earnest.  Cheese-legs had her claws in deep, and her impersonation was good enough it took a fresh mind to see through it.

“We all must make difficult decisions in our lifetimes, Twilight.  You were held prisoner, tortured, threatened, and you resisted her until Chrysalis threatened somepony you care deeply about.  And even then, you tried to resist and compromise her plans.  I have not met many ponies who had the heart to do what you did and the courage to do it so well.”

Find out if the princess wants to smite me for what I’d done for Chrysalis, checked.  A little of the weight lifted from my shoulders, but only enough that everything else pushed down a little harder.  And she praised me for my failure on top of it.  A rush of thoughts turned to speech died in my throat as Celestia raised a hoof.  

“We’re running out of time,” she said.  A small crash shook the imperceptible darkness around me.  “Yes, love is the power and food of the changelings, but I’m talking about Chrysalis’ personal power.  The Taint.  I ask that you do not interrupt, Twilight, because if you do, I’m not certain I will be able to continue.”

Of course, the first thing I wanted to do was ask why.  What could be so terrible, I wanted to ask, that even you, Princess, couldn’t bear to tell?  Something about her expression, a small spark of pain hidden deep in her eyes, is the only reason I didn’t.  So, as the darkness around me shook once again, I nodded for her to go ahead.

Celestia took a deep breath.  “Luna and I first discovered the Taint, though we did not call it that at the time, long before the rise of Discord.  We were in a very bad situation; lost, confused, and with the expectations of hundreds on our shoulders we could not afford to make a mistake.  In desperation, we made a deal with a stallion nopony had met before, a deal we would come to regret deeply.”

Of course she started talking with probably the most question provoking statements I’d heard in awhile.  Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remembered my “conversation” with the Taint in the Everfree Forest.  Two things kept me from breaking the promise I made just a few moments ago: the somewhat worrying shaking of the darkness outside my rune circle, and the consistent sad look in her eyes.


♣♣♣♣♣


We were young, Twilight, you must keep that in mind.  Equestria had just been founded, and was little more than a small tribe.  For the sake of brevity, I would like you to assume that the events of the Hearth’s Warming play are true--please do not look at me like that, Twilight, it is a topic for another day--and that Princess Platinum, Commander Hurricane, and Chancellor Puddinghead--the very same from the Hearth’s Warming play--were in charge of this fledgeling coalition.

If my memory is correct, and that far back can be hazy, Luna and I were born to the first pegasus and unicorn couple.  At this point, we were just normal ponies, nothing special about us save for our horns and wings--neither of which actually worked as well as a unicorn or pegasus.

Even so, the ponies of this new nation rejoiced at our existence.  They saw us a sign that their venture was destined to succeed, which only increased as no other foals born shared both visible traits from the three original tribes.  We were almost deified, impotent as we were, and as such, treated with reverence second only to their leaders, and only just.  And, as the case often is with foals, all the attention slowly fed our ego, and trampled our common sense.

Then, tragedy struck.  Princess Platinum, the oldest of the three leaders, passed away, simply from old age.  Equestria carried on, though its spirit of conquest and hope was somewhat dampened.  Commander Hurricane fell next, in battle, defending our borders.  Racial tension began to rise slowly, as Chancellor Puddinghead remained, the last of the original three.  Earth ponies began to adopt a superior attitude, not unlike the unicorns of old, and often mocked the other tribes for the “incompetence of their rulers.”  The unicorns and pegasi began to point hooves at Chancellor Puddinghead, blaming her for the deaths of their rulers, claiming them to be assassinated. Within less than a year, all three tribes were at each other’s throats and civil war loomed on the horizon.

More level-headed ponies saw the anger of the common majority, and began to brainstorm solutions to prevent the shattering of Equestria.  Placing another pegasus and unicorn in power with Chancellor Puddinghead did not work, as neither of the tribes could agree on who should ascend.  Statements from Chancellor Puddinghead did nothing as well.  Even Earth Ponies criticized her for trying to deny her tribe’s superiority.

Thankfully, before open war broke out in the streets, somepony remembered Luna and myself, the forgotten idols of a lost age.  In a last desperate attempt to save Equestria, Chancellor Puddinghead removed herself from power, placing the vestments on my sister and I, remaining only as one of our many new advisors.

It was a terrible idea.  Luna and I were young, almost a decade older than you, Twilight.  We had no experience with leading, politics, or anything of the sort.  We were scapegoats, Twilight, in power only to be blamed when everything inevitably boiled over.  We knew, our “advisors” knew, but the general population didn’t seem to.  The tension did not vanish, but it hid behind curiosity as ponies waited to see what the hybrids would do.

In short, we panicked.  We didn’t know what to do, so we tried to simply restore Equestria to how it once was.  In pursuit of that goal, we alienated many ponies who felt they deserved something from us.  Slowly, and completely without help from our supposed advisors, we began to realize that the population was slowly turning against even us.

That was when he showed up.  In a town not even twice the size of Ponyville--the size of Equestria at the time--a stallion suddenly appearing that nopony knew drew enough attention that he was shepherded to the building that was serving as the house of government.

This mystery stallion came before my sister and I, looked us dead in the eyes, and offered the solution to our problems, under the terms that we would allow for his master to settle within Equestria.  We agreed, and the stallion left, saying that we would receive what we needed on the morrow.

And a strange night it was for when we rose the next day, the sky was empty, neither sun or moon in the sky.  But we could feel it, inside.  To this day, I can still feel the burning in my horn when the sun is due to rise, awake or asleep.  However, it took us three full days to understand what had happened, and as such learn to control the new most basic parts of ourselves, and the massive stores of magical power we now commanded.

During the fortnight of darkness, the waves of rebellion seemed to have stagnated as ponies drew together in scared confusion.  Rumor slowly spread that Luna and I solved the problem by taming the sun and moon themselves, and thus the legend of Princess Luna and Celestia was born.


♣♣♣♣♣


I sat still and silent through the entire story, but impatience combined with a thirst for knowledge and growing fear of the world shaking around me finally decayed my resistance.  “Princess, I don’t understand.  Why is that so terrible?”  The second the interruption slipped out, I clapped my hooves over my mouth and gave Celestia my best apologetic look.

To my surprise, she just sighed.  “Because of what happened after, Twilight.  You see, Luna and I were so busy exploring our new power, power we had been originally denied as hybrids now amplified to ludicrous levels, we never gave a second thought to the strange stallion who came before.  Idly we speculated where our ability came from, but we, as they say, did not want to look a gift horse in the mouth.”

“So you feel bad because you forgot somepony?  Surely you can’t remember everypony,” I replied, mind still not quite making the connection.

My heart froze as Celestia’s expression fell.  “I wish it was that simple.  Some years later, after a string of disappearances, our version of court at the time began hearing reports of odd creatures lurking around the outskirts of town.  Descriptions were vague, but most involved pegasus-like features, but with wings that extended past the flanks, and small points extending from the hooves.”

“Wait, you mean...”

Celestia nodded.  “It took another month before we found them.  It was in a house, deep in an arm of what would eventually be renamed Whitetail Woods.  They fought, if you’ll excuse the pun, with beak and claw, but at last the creatures were subdued.  And such, the Griffin race was born.  In the basement, we discovered a sinkhole filled with black, bubbling substance.”  She shook her head slowly.  “Another pony, one we never did catch, had foalnapped ponies, usually from the outskirts of town, and experimented on them with Taint to create a new race.  His true intentions we never discovered, and to this day, the true origins of the griffins are known only to a select few.”

I reflexively thought back to what I had first thought to be a hallucination in the Everfree Forest.  “The... The Taint talked to me, when we found Fluttershy in the forest.”

Before I could move, my vision was filled by two lavender eyes rimmed with white fur.  “When was this?” Celestia demanded, staring deep into my eyes.  My cheeks slowly started to warm up.  “How do you feel?”

“W-Why?  What’s wrong?  What’s going to happen to me!?” I blurted out, breathing starting to speed up.

“Just answer the questions please, Twilight.  I have to make sure...”  She was using the same voice that was always there to comfort me when I was younger and something had gone wrong.

“Two, maybe three weeks ago, in your old castle,” I replied on reflex.  “Since then I... I can’t really say I feel any different from normal... not that I really know what normal is anymore...” I added at the end under my breath.

Celestia withdrew, intense gaze subsiding.  “I apologize Twilight, I...”  She ran a hoof over her face, something I had learned over the years meant something was really bothering her.  “The Taint is... evil, I can think of no other way to say it.  Alone, it can’t do anything, but it is very good at working its way into ponies’ minds.  It takes your darkest thoughts, twists them, then gives you the power to make them real.”

“It took my sister from me,” she continued much softer.  “We were working constantly to try and eradicate any traces of Taint we found.  It was a losing battle to be sure, as we didn’t know what creates it, but ponies, and even other creatures twisted by Taint have done... terrible things, things we could not allow to be repeated.

“Luna had just returned from the southern border where she was hunting for almost a month when the Nightmare overcame her, and I refuse to believe my little sister turned on me by coincidence.  I will not allow it to claim you as well, Twilight.”

I closed the short gap between us before stretching out and gently wrapping my forelegs around my princess’ neck.  “I won’t let it, princess.  I never had any intention of listening to the Taint, and I definitely don’t now.”  Celestia wrapped her neck around mine, resting her head on my back.

“Just be careful, Twilight, please.  The Taint took my sister from me, I don’t want to lose such a brilliant student and good friend too.”  My heart both swelled with pride and melted in agony.  Just a friend...  Swallowing my pain, I pulled away from Celestia and nodded.

“--light!”  The sound floated through the air, just barely registering.

“Did you hear that?” I asked the princess, ears stretched as high as they could to try and find the sound again.

Celestia cocked her head slightly.  “I think somepony is calling your name, outside of the Mirror.”  She gave me another smile.  “You should go.  We can always talk later, and it sounds like you are needed.”

I really didn’t want to leave, ever.  I was perfectly content in this shaking darkness as long as Celestia was here, but she was right.  “There’s just one problem...” I laughed nervously.  “I, uh, don’t know how to leave.”

With care, Celestia moved me towards the edge of my runes before moving back to the now dull original circle.  “By the way, Twilight,” she said, catching my attention once again.  “These ponies know you, all of them.  The resistance movement was built around your return; they know who you are, they know what you are capable of, and they will look to you for guidance.”

“But what about Rarity and Applejack?” I asked.  “I don’t know how to lead a war!”

“Neither do Applejack or Rarity.  Together, however, with Luna and I behind you, I think you will succeed.”  Her horn lit up, and a golden rune sketched itself, completing the original circle of the Mirror.  “Now just remove one rune from your circle, and the spell should cancel.”

“I’ll talk to you later, princess,” I said, reaching a hoof out to erase one of the runes.

“I look forward to it.”

With the last runic circle broken, the light from the spell faded, and the now empty room was thrown into darkness.  I cast a longing glance where Celestia once stood before heading back out into the hallway.

“Bout time ya came outta there, Twi’, we were gettin’ kinda worried here,” Applejack said the second the door closed behind me.  A massive crash echoed around the building, shaking dust from the rafters onto our heads.

“What is going on out here?” I asked, flicking dust from my mane.

“That’s what we were trying to tell you,” Rarity replied, quickly tapping her hooves against the floor.  “Manehatten is under attack.”
	

> Battle Plans
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Battle Plans


“What!?”  Ignoring the cement around my hooves I dashed to the nearest window, turning my gaze across the city.  Sure enough, just over the crest of the 
outer walls I could see a wave of black steadily approaching the outer walls, complete with rock-hurling catapults.  Deep breaths, Twilight, don’t panic.  “Okay, what do we do?”

“We do have procedure for something like this,” Midnight said, stepping from the shadows.  “Seeing as how many of our soldiers are out on raids or reconnaissance, we will pull troops from the outer walls and bring them--”

“No.  That would leave all of the citizens without protection if the walls are breached.  We need a new plan,” I interrupted.

“With all due respect, Miss Sparkle,” Midnight shot, somehow managing to make the honorific sound distasteful.  “You do not have a military background, to my knowledge, nor are you in charge of our armies.  I understand you were Princess Celestia’s personal protege, and are maybe used to keeping some form of consul with her, but it works differently now.”

“I agree with her,” Rarity spoke up, cutting off my scathing reply.  “We freed this city, and they allowed us to make base here, knowing full well that it may bring Chrysalis’ ire down on them.  In return, we protect them, and last I checked retreating is not protecting.”

The dark unicorn lowered his head.  “Of course.  I was simply stating standard procedure for something like this.  What would you have us do, Commander?”  He stressed the last word, tossing a pointed glance my way.  I found myself sorely missing the unicorn I trekked across Equestria with and wondering where he’d gone in just a few short hours.

“Twilight?”  I nodded in acknowledgement of the white unicorn before casting my gaze out the window.  This is what Celestia was talking about.  Out of the Mirror room five minutes and important decisions were already hooved out to me.  Stifling a whimper, I turned my attention to the problem at hoof, reluctantly dredging the plans for Manehatten’s Burrow from its coffin in my memory.

“The outer walls are easily over two feet thick and I don’t see any siege engines powerful enough to break them down, so going through the walls isn’t likely,” I muttered to myself, though everypony else leaned in to listen.

“How does she...?” I heard Rarity ask, but Midnight hushed her.

Ignoring the conversation in the background, I continued my verbal thinking.  “Flying over the city to attack from the inside would just open them up to attack by magic from the ground, and would probably result in hundreds if not thousands of casualties before the invasion force even breached the walls.  Likewise just landing troops on the walls themselves isn’t practical.  Can’t go over, can’t go through, can’t go around, that only leaves....”

“Down,” Applejack finished for me.  She turned towards Midnight.  “Get word to the messengers.  Get all ponies off the wall tops, but leave the inner bastion garrisoned.  Also get groups of unicorns throughout the city and have them monitor movement.  The second a mole digs underground five miles outside the walls Ah want to know about it.”

Midnight saluted before taking off down the corridor at a brisk trot.  “Twilight,” Rarity said as the unicorn left the hallway.  “How do you know all of these things?  The Twilight who left Ponyville with us didn’t really strike me as one skilled in military strategy.”

“That was three years ago,” I replied softly, desperately trying to shove the Burrow plans back into my memories, along with my shame.  “A lot has changed.”

“Twilight?” Applejack began, as quiet as I was, “what happened to you, sugarcube?”  Another impact shook the keep, almost drowning out her words, but I understood clear enough.  I needed to tell them.  Even if I didn’t want to, they deserved the truth, but not now.  I had barely managed to tell Celestia, and she already knew.  How would Rarity and Applejack react when they found out that much of what they had gone through was my design?

Rarity, noticing my hesitation, leapt to the rescue.  “Maybe now isn’t the time to catch up?”

The earth pony looked like she wanted to argue, to press me for information, but at a look from Rarity, she relented.  “Yer right.  There’ll be plenty of time to catch up when things slow down here.  Ah’m goin’ to prepare interception teams in case the Changelings try anything fast.  Ah’ll see you two at dinner tonight.”  Without another word, she spun on her hooves and walked down the same hallway as Midnight.

“I suppose I can take some time to show you around, if you’d like,” Rarity said to me after Applejack’s tail disappeared around a corner.

“Sure.  I’ll need to know my way around, especially if a fight breaks out,” I replied.  “And we should probably get Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.  They must be wondering where we are by now, and all of this shelling must have Fluttershy practically catatonic.”

Rarity motioned with a hoof, and we set off deeper into the impromptu keep.


♣♣♣♣♣


Our first stop was my quarters, a room I was going to be sharing with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie; Rarity hadn’t planned on bunking all three of us so soon, and we didn’t want them in the general barracks.  It would be a tight fit with three ponies and all that the resistance recovered from my library in Ponyville, but we would make do.  It was also just a couple of halls away from the room that held the Mirror, which was a plus.

The next room over I didn’t get to see the inside of, Rarity said that there wasn’t enough time, but she told me it was her and Applejack’s quarters.

From there, the last two places we went to see physically was the armory--one of many--and then back to the office I visited first upon my arrival.  Already inside, waiting with varying degrees of patience, were Applejack, Fluttershy, and a massive pink missile that nearly took Rarity and I off our hooves.

“Twiliiiighhhht! You’re okay!  And Rarity!  Ohmigosh I thought you were all dead!  I mean, I know Twilight wasn’t dead, because she came here with me, but they took you away, and we got separated, and Fluttershy was stuck on my back because she wouldn’t move, but now you’re here and we’re all together again, and...”  Pinkie blinked and took a deep breath, looking around for possibly the first time.  “Where’s Dashie?”

Fluttershy squeaked, I lowered my gaze, Rarity and Applejack exchanged a glance.  “Where’s Dashie?” Pinkie asked again, more firmly.  Our hug dissolved, and she fixed us all with a death glare.  “Where is Dashie?”

“Pinkie, darling, Applejack and I have exhausted every spare resource, trying to find all of you.  We found Twilight easy enough, but that was it.  We... do not know where Rainbow Dash is.”

“You don’t know...”  Pinkie deflated, pulling back away from us and into herself.  “That’s okay.  At least us five are all together again...”

“It’s not like that, Pinkie,” I said, stepping forward.  “We haven’t found her yet.  But we will.  We will end this, together.  I promise.”  I turned to look at the others, planning fully to capitalize on this motivational protagonist speech.  “We’re going to end this siege, we’re going to find Dash, and then we’re going to take back Equestria.  Together.”

“Ah take it you have a plan, then,” Applejack said, “to break th’ siege?  Maybe some more information you shouldn't have?”

“Applejack!” Rarity snapped, “what is wrong with you?”

“Nothin’,” the earth pony shot back, “Ah just want t’ know how Twilight knows what she does.  The only ponies who would know that much are the ones who designed or built it.”  She turned to me, looking a lot less angry that I first thought.  “Ah mean no offense, Twi’, but if you got somethin’ in that head o’ yours that can help, we need t’ know.”

“Applejack!” Rarity practically shrieked.  “What are you saying!?  It’s Twilight! Do you think she is a spy?  A traitor?  A plant to tear us apart?”

“‘Course not!  Ah just think that it’s a mite strange, her showing up in time fer the Changelings to.”

Rarity stalked up until she was muzzle to muzzle with Applejack.  Whispers passed between the two, heated from even where I was standing.  Pinkie Pie huddled in the corner, not sure what to do.  Fluttershy padded quickly over to my side and hid her face in my mane.

After almost ten minutes, I think, of silent argument, I trotted over quickly and forcibly separated the two.  “Enough!” I shouted, easily loud enough to drown out their protests.  “I was captured by Chrysalis, okay?  I never made it out of the wedding hall.  She captured Spike too, and used him as leverage to make me work on her defense strategy.  They’re called Burrows.  I tried to defy her, so she tortured me and, when I resisted, killed Spike.”

I glared at Applejack, trying hard to keep the memories from overwhelming me.  “Happy now?”

“Twilight,” Applejack said softly.  On cue, the others began to move towards me, but at that moment, I wasn’t really in a cuddly huggy-kind of mood.  I pushed between Rarity and Fluttershy, and exited into the hallway.  I wandered the keep for a few minutes, struggling to remember how to get where I wanted to go, but at last I found it.

I walked through a nondescript wooden door, into a dark room.  Faintly I could see the outlines of two sets of runes on the floor.  I sat directly in the middle of the two rings, hunched over until my head rested on the cold stones, and finally let go.


♣♣♣♣♣


The door to my prison burst open, flipping pages in books and sending loose papers skittering all over the room.  I dove from my chair, rushing to bow as low as possible before she came.

“Twilight Sparkle! a voice exploded from the doorway.  A sheaf of papers flew through the air before bouncing off my head.  Careful to remain respectful, I waved along the floor with a hoof until I felt one.  With a little more work, I moved the papers to where I could read them.  “Do you think I am stupid?  Explain yourself, now!”

“These are the plans you wanted to convert the Burrow project into a form for Cloudsdale,” I replied.  “I did exactly what you asked for.”

“Yes, but this plan calls for it to be pulled to the ground!  What’s the point of having a floating city if we have to keep it tethered to the ground for it to work!?”  My body was enveloped in a sickly green aura and lifted into the air until I was muzzle to muzzle with my unwanted visitor.

Chrysalis glared at me through the shimmery haze of her magic.  “Well?” she demanded, shaking me like a ragdoll.  “Answer me!”

“I-It was the most practical way to make the walls.  According to my research, the secondary clouds that compose Cloudsdale’s outer layers aren’t thick enough to support material from the ground.  Primary clouds can, but those are in the middle of the city, and heavily populated by buildings.  There are just too many risks, and it would only wall half of the city,” I replied, trying to keep the acid from my voice.

“I did not tell you to give me excuses.  I told you to create a Burrow for Cloudsdale, and you failed.”  Her voice dropped to a soft whisper.  I didn’t want to listen, I knew what was coming.  “Remember, you are just a pony.  We don’t need you, Twilight Sparkle.  You are expendable.”

With a flick of her head, Chrysalis sent me flying into the opposite wall, sending books clattering down to the floor.  A burning pain erupted in my leg.  Sprained, at least, hopefully not broken.  Again.  Before I could take a closer look, a hoof pressed down on my chest, pinning me to the floor.

“You are expendable, Twilight,” Chrysalis hissed.  “And you would do well to remember it.”  I watched from the corner of my eye as she left my chamber.  “She failed again,” I heard her say to the guards outside my door.  “Please ensure she doesn’t again.”

I squeezed my eyes shut just before the guards entered the room, locking the door behind them.  Then the first blow fell,and I squeezed them tighter.

Finally, after what felt like hours, my vision cleared.  I sat up slowly, wincing in expectation of pain that had faded a long time ago.  With practiced ease and a deep breath I shoved the memories back inside.  There was no place for them here.

At least, not yet.


♣♣♣♣♣


“Hey, Twi’,” Applejack said as I entered the room.  After my retreat to the Mirror, I made my way back to the office to find a soldier waiting for me.  During my absence, the changeling army had finally reached the outer wall and set up a camp.  Rarity, Applejack and the others had moved to a location known as the ‘War Room,’ but had seen fit to leave me with an escort.

“H-Hey,” I replied after a couple of failed attempts.  Both of us looked at each other for a long, awkward hoofful of seconds.

Then Applejack spoke, and it all vanished.  “Look, Ah wanted to apologize--”

“Later,” I said, striding forward into the room and taking a good look around.  The War Room was brightly lit by torches and lanterns, to make up for the lack of windows.  Various maps hung along the walls, detailing Manehatten, the town hall, and even the walls of the Burrow, though those had much less detail.  In the middle of the room was a large table, surrounded by chairs.  One last map sat atop the table, a very detailed rendition of Equestria and surrounding area, even going as far north as the Crystal Empire.  Various colored markers adorned the map, some on cities, some towns, and some just sitting in the middle of the countryside.  Some still had arrows near them; mobile armies and the direction of their travel.

“Glad you could join us,” Rarity said.  She motioned with a hoof to the chair on her right.  “We were getting worried.”

“I needed a moment,” I took the offered seat, and gave Fluttershy on my right a smile.  “I’m fine now, what’s the situation?”

Applejack took another open seat, between Pinkie Pie and Rarity.  “The changelings have set up a camp outside of the outer walls.  Unfortunately, their siege engines aren’t close enough to do anything about them.  Thankfully, they aren’t strong enough to do any damage to the walls.”  Another shot from outside hit..  “At least, not yet.”

“As for the response forces, since they’re still armed and ready from your trip, I have Midnight and the ponies from the former Canterlot Outpost each heading their own response team of five others, evenly spaced in the civilian quarter.  More soldiers are armoring up and dispersing throughout the city.  Within an hour, we will be organized enough to field three separate shifts.”

“With all due respect,” a crisp voice interrupted, “why are we telling civilians this?”  That voice, I knew him.  I glanced across the table at the only other pony in the room, a white stallion in tarnished Guard armor, who I hadn’t seen since Shining’s graduation.  His presence here wasn’t exactly reassuring.

“Snowhoof, how... nice to see you again.”  I gave him my best half-watt smile.  “What are you doing here?”

“Major Snowhoof here is one of our best advisors.  He is the one who organized the remaining Guard after the Fall, and is essential to their cooperation.”  Rarity’s tone was pretty clear.  I don’t like this guy, but we have to put up with him or there will be problems.

Which was great.  Because I didn’t like him either.  He was always envious of Shining, who was just an all-around better soldier--sibling bias aside.

And yet, another part of my psyche reminded me, he survived, and Shining didn’t.

Now I disliked him even more.  But if he was important...

“Well, it is always good to see an old friend.  So tell us, what are your plans to lift the siege?”  I steepled my hooves, careful not to bump anything, and rested them on the map table.

“Well I don’t see how that’s any of your concern,” he spat.  “Or those two.”  He pointed to Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.  “I have a plan, but you three do not need to hear it.”

“I would like them to, and last I checked, I was in charge,” Rarity spoke up, raising a hoof to stop Applejack’s own retort.  “Please, Major, educate us.”

“We need to get word to Cadence--”  What did he just say?  “--it wouldn’t take too much more time for her to send troops here instead of Vanhoover--”  Cadence is still alive?  “--And all we need to do is hold out, sally forth troops when Cadence arrives, and then resume our initial attack plan.”

Why didn’t anypony tell me she was still alive?  I wonder if anypony else made it out of Canterlot, like my parents...  Dimly, I could hear Rarity continue the conversation under the background noise of my much more important thoughts.  “That is your master plan, then?  To wait for somepony else to come save us?  Even if we could get a flyer out of the city without being slaughtered by the changelings, it would still be at least a month for forces from the Crystal Empire to make it here.”

Focus, Twilight.  I gave myself a mental slap as Applejack joined in the strategy discussion.  “And a lot can happen in a month, Major.  More changelings are probably on the way.  Fights are gonna break out, ‘specially when food stocks start to run low, an’ that’s not even countin’ skirmishes.  The changelings are gonna get in eventually, and we’ll have to fight them off.  Ponies are gonna die, and we don’t have a lot to replace them with.”  Yeah, take that, Snowhoof.  Coward.

The white stallion in what I imagined to be purely decorative armor sniffled.  “Fine.  I take it, then, that you have a better plan?”

At that, Rarity blushed slightly and shot a look over towards me.  “Well...”

...I didn’t like the sound of that.


♣♣♣♣♣


“Psst, Twilight, are you still awake?”

I rolled my head to the left, where the hissing voice came from.  “Yes, Pinkie, I am still awake.  And I will continue being awake, until you are quiet enough to let me sleep.”

“Have you come up with a plan yet?”

We were lying in our room, hastily modified with a couple more beds for Pinkie and Fluttershy.  Everything was dark, peaceful, meant to promote sleep.  Except for the hyperactive pink pony lying just a few feet away.  “No.  Not yet.  I was going to sleep on it, remember?  Kind of hard to do that when I can’t fall asleep.”

Of course, there was no point going to sleep now.  The changelings had apparently learned that if they aimed higher, they could lob massive rocks or whatever it was they were shooting into the city itself, and it was like teaching a foal to whistle.  Every few minutes, they would hit something else.  Some close, some far, but almost every shot was followed by a flurry of movement outside of our door, if not screams and cries and loud, scary rumbles.

Which was probably why Fluttershy had decided to forego her own bed, and instead cram into mine.  I suppose it could be worse, the heat of midsummer is fading and the nights are actually getting chilly.  A pegasus wing makes a better blanket than a blanket any day.

The snores next to my head tell me that Pinkie has finally fallen asleep.  Now if I could just get those changelings to stop trying to destroy the town we forcibly took from them I could get some sleep!  With a groan, I shoved my head under my pillow, attempting to use the faux-cardboard to block out the sounds of war.  It almost worked, too, until sompony burst into our room, and pretty much ruined everything.

“Wake up!” the interloper shouted, banging his hoof against the open door.  “You three, get up!  We’ve been breached!  They need you in the War Room!”

And, of course, by the time I launched my pillow at the door, he was already gone.  “T-Twilight,” Pinkie poked my side with a shaky hoof.  “What does he mean, ‘we’ve been breached’?  Are the changelings inside the walls?”

I detached myself from the pile of ponies, making sure Fluttershy was awake and ready to go before dropping to the floor.  “Probably.  We should go see what they need from us.  Stick close, okay?”

We ran through the keep, headed towards the War Room.  Every so often I was able to glance through a window.  If we were being attacked, they hadn’t managed to breach the inner wall yet, and the thick stone the town hall was built from deadened most of the sound.  If I didn’t know better, I would say it was just a normal night.

The War Room, once we arrived, was already very lively.  Snowhoof was really going at it, and by the shade of red his face was, he had been going for awhile.  “--have planned for this, Rarity.  The Changelings are very efficient; they probably had a team working on the tunnel before they even made camp!  And after the raid of Dodge Junction, you should know that they don’t seem to suffer from magical fatigue like our unicorn magi do.”

“Well Ah didn’t hear you comin’ up with anythin’!” Applejack shot right back.  Her, Rarity, and Snowhoof were crowded around the center table, a detailed map of the streets of Manehatten haphazardly thrown across it.  There was a black mark near one of the outer walls -- possibly the changeling entry point -- along with two colored arrows: green for patrols, red for civilian evacuation.

“I had a perfectly acceptable plan, if you recall--”

Applejack snorted, shaking the loose armor she wore.  It was pretty obvious her and Rarity had just woken up as well.  “Yeah, Ah remember yer plan, hide.  But ya know what?  They still would’a attacked us if we did what you wanted.”

Snowhoof blew air out of his nose, but said nothing, for a time, until he saw the three of us at the door.  “Your guests are here, Commander,” he said to Rarity with a wave at us.  “Now maybe we can get something accomplished,” he continued under his breath, but none of us paid him any attention.

“Are you girls okay?”  Rarity turned to look at us, pushing her frazzled mane out of the way.  “They haven’t made it this far into the city, have they?”

I took a moment to direct the still half-asleep Pinkie and Fluttershy to chairs.  “No, I don’t think so.  What happened?  I thought they had just set up camp a few hours ago, how have they already got through?”

“We are not entirely sure.  A few minutes ago, we had reports of changelings in the city.  We followed the carnage back to their point of origin,” she pointed to the black spot on the map.  “There is a hole, here, that we suspect leads outside of the wall.  Troops are stationed at the entrance on our side to prevent another incursion, but we have not sent any through ourselves.”

“That’s nice, they got through, but why are we here? Not to be rude or anything, but I am tired, and I still need time to come up with an acceptable plan to break the siege,” I replied.  With a wave towards the others, I trudged onward.  “Not to mention Pinkie is terrified of even the word ‘changeling’, and Fluttershy is...”

Rarity and Applejack nod.  We know what Fluttershy is like now.

“Sorry to interrupt your beauty sleep,” Snowhoof spits from his side of the table.  Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anypony actually stand near him if they can help it.  I wonder why?  “But there are more pressing problems.  Namely: the changelings that came in, they never went out.”

For once, I think Pinkie processed something before I did.  The only warning I had was a rather shrill, “there are changelings inside the walls?” before she all-but vanished in a pink blur.  Rarity caught my eye and raised a single eyebrow.  I shrugged, and looked to Fluttershy, who nodded and slowly trotted over to a shaking pony-shaped lump of map in a corner.

We watched the mute pegasus attempt to comfort the shivering map for a few moments.  My attention was pulled away by Rarity sidling up to my side.  “What happened to those two?” she whispered in my ear.  Applejack moved over as well, forming a triangle of secrets near the door.

“Pinkie was captured,” I whispered back, “imprisoned in the dungeons beneath Canterlot, and, when I didn’t cooperate, dumped into the crystal mines.  Alone.  For two years.”  Rarity winced and shot another glance to our pink friend.  “Fluttershy... I don’t know.  I hadn’t heard anything about her at all, but we found her in the Everfree Forest, in the old castle where we found the elements.”

“Oh, dear.  And she was silent the whole time?”

I nodded.  “I don’t know if we’ll ever find out what happened to her.  She could be physically incapable of speech just as easily as she doesn’t want to talk.  I have no idea.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Snowhoof says, forcing his way over into our little pow-wow, “but there are changelings loose within the walls, and an invading army outside.  Maybe we should spend a little less time gossiping, and more time trying to win this war.”

I’d like to think I’m a patient pony, really, but this guy was almost too much.  I mean, they have a right to know what happened to their friends, not to mention fellow Elements of Harmony.  

“We are working on it,” Rarity replied, glaring the larger stallion down.  “We have teams of ponies scouring the city as we speak.  That will suffice, unless you have another plan?”

“Of course.  We just need a suitable pony to use as bait, and--”

Thankfully, for Snowhoof, a loud crash and scream cut him off.  Without thinking, I yank the sword from the sheathe across his back, pointedly ignoring his protest, and charge out into the hallway, followed closely by Applejack and Rarity.  The hallways is empty and silent--the echoes of sound long since faded away.

Confused and directionless, I reached out with my mind.  Even now, months after the return of my magic, it still felt weird to draw upon more power than a simple levitation spell.  Various points of light appeared around us, stirring sleepily as they attempted to shake off sleep.  Five of them, however, stand out.

“The Mirror!” I shouted, before racing off down the hallway.  Applejack hobbled past me on three legs, trying to tighten down her armor mid-run.  Even Rarity started to pull ahead, horn crackling with energy.  I attached the stolen sword to my back and just tried to keep up, partly thankful that I was behind.  After all, if I was in charge of leading us to the Mirror, I doubt we’d make it in time.

By the time we arrived at the mirror room, it was already too late.  Through the massive hole in the wall where the door used to be, flanked on either side by the bodies of ponies who used to guard it, five changelings scuffed their holy hooves in the ground, apparently trying to erase the runes.

“Hey!” Applejack and I shouted at the same time.  We kind of differed from there, though.  She went with, “What do y’all think yer doin’?”

I ran in and clobbered one over the head with my sword.

And it all kind of went downhill from there.

The changeling I hit dropped hard, unconscious or dead.  That drew the attention of the other four, which gave Applejack enough time to charge in and knock another out cold.  By then, though, the remaining three had recovered, and were aiming their horns directly at us.  I had just enough time to get close to Applejack and throw up a quick bubble shield before they attacked.

There was a slight problem, though.  It was a quick shield.  It had power, plenty of power, but hardly any real structure.  “Applejack!” I shouted over the hiss of magic smashing against my shield, “where’s Rarity?”

“She ain’t that good at fightin’!” Applejack replied, warily eyeing the bursts of green spraying harmlessly across my shield.  “She ran t’ get help!’

A sharp crack echoed through the inside of my barrier, halting conversation for a moment.  “I hope she hurries!  This isn’t going to last much longer!”

“If we have to, I can take the one on the right if you take the one on the left!”

“What about the one in the middle?”  I charged my horn briefly and used the energy to try and patch the growing crack in the shield wall.

Applejack shrugged.  “We’ll just have t’ make do.”

I took my eyes off our attackers for a brief moment to look through the hole in the wall.  There was no sign of Rarity, or her help.  Just to make everything a little worse, a deep hum shook the air, likely signaling the end of my poor little shield.  “Get ready!” I shouted.

Honestly, I was terrified.  The hum was just getting deeper, which means that whatever spell was charging was growing in power.  I had never been on the receiving end of something this strong, and I was beginning to wonder if my battered shield could even slow it down.

But I wasn’t going to wait and find out.  “Go!” I shouted in the instant before I dropped my shield.  Applejack dove right, I dove left, just as a massive burst of green energy shot past us, through the outer wall of the keep, and into the night beyond.  Everything fell silent for a moment, the calm in the middle of the storm, broken all too soon by the crunch of metal on scales.

Apparently, Applejack had made it to her target, and they were now rolling around on the floor.  Changeling the third, the middle one, was still exhausted from releasing his massive bolt of energy, so all that was left was me and my initial target.

I stared down my enemy, daring him to make the first move.  I hesitantly pulled my sword to the front to make a barrier of deadly metal between the two of us.  Up to this point, changelings like this had mostly only used magic, but it didn’t hurt to be careful.  Applejack rolled between us, and I used the momentary distraction to attack.

Screaming at the top of my lungs, I charged forward, sword pointed out in front of me like a lance.  The changeling tried to jump out of the way, but not fast enough.  I heard a crunch, followed by a wet, sliding sound, until I was nose to nose with my foe.  He coughed, once, before the light slowly faded from his eyes.

I just killed something.  I mean, yeah, I’ve killed before, like during my escape from Canterlot, but never... never so close.

And the worst part?  I didn’t really even care.  I’d read stories and accounts of people taking lives and being changed forever, or hating themselves, but I honestly didn’t care.  Just another thing to file away for a moment when my life wasn’t in danger, preferably in the presence of somepony who knew what the hell was wrong with me.  Besides the obvious.

“Twilight!” Applejack shouted, drawing my attention back to the outside world, “look out!”

I quickly glanced up just in time to see the last changeling, now recovered from his last attack, charging his horn again.  I moved forward to add another notch to my sword, but it held fast, stuck in the corpse of my last victim.  Focusing more energy into my horn, I tugged as hard as I could, even going as far as to wrap my hooves around the hilt to pull, but it stuck fast.

As soon as it was apparent the sword was a lost cause, I let go and dove away, but never felt the bolt pass by.  Something crashed into me, knocking me over.  A hot, sticky liquid splattered on my barrel, just before my vision went black.