> Chrysalis' Revenge
>  by ladyanaconda
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue- The Kidnapping
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a very dark night when everything began.
In one of the farthest corners of Equestria, was the territory of the Changelings, which was mostly composed of barren wastelands and a few withered trees there and there. In the middle of that seemingly-desert place, there was a chain of mountainous rocks where the Changelings had made their hive; inside, almost everything was covered in the green goo-like substance they produced. In the top of that cursed mountain, there was the Queen's chamber.
And in the Queen's chamber, something serious was happening. 
Chrysalis was in the very top of the mountain, taking power from the lightings that were falling from the sky and into her horn, her eyes were glowing a mysterious pale green, and everything around her seemed to be trying to move away from her as quick s possible.
"Spirits of the darkness," she whispered in a tone that would send chills down the bravest ponies' spine, "Hear my call. In this fateful night I command the powers of evil to part the sands of time, and make my vision clear."
She stomped her front hooves in the stone, "Summon King Sombra from the darkest depths, and bring him here!"
As she finished the sentence, more lightings fell from the sky and hit all the rocks around, turning them into ashes. Suddenly, a mysterious black smoke started to emerge from the rocky ground, and it started to expand on all the floor, except for the place Chrysalis was standing. From the smoke, a figure started to rise, but it was still covered by the dark mist; when the mist around him started to dissipate, on the rock stood a black unicorn clad with armor and a red cape, as well as a metal crown, which was contrasting against a long, red horn; his mane and tail were of the darkest black that existed. His eyes, however, were of a fiery red tone, with a purple mist emanating from them. However, he was transparent, for he no longer had a body which tied him to the world of the living. When he saw who had summoned him, a twisted smile formed in his lips, showing two prominent fangs and sharp teeth.
"Ah, Chrysalis!" He spoke with a deep voice, "My love, I've been waiting in this dreadful place for far too long!" he growled, "Have you discovered what will bring me back to Equestria?"
Chrysalis let out a sinister laugh, "Indeed, I have, Sombra," she sneered, "According to an ancient legend, there's a spell of restoration that can bring precious life into a long-dead soul. Because of the spell's power, artifacts necessary to cast if were banished into the far reaches of Equestria! But once I recover the artifacts," she Queen of the changelings placed a hoof on the spirit's cheek, longing to feel its coldness, "You shall be able to live again, and Equestria shall be ours for the taking!"
Sombra narrowed his eyes, "Don't get to excited, Chrysalis," he spoke with a foreboding tone, "Beware of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and that little traitor of Discord! I underestimated them once, and I paid it dearly."
"Ha, don't be worried, Sombra. I have a plan that will rid us of Discord, and those blasted bearers of the Elements! And now that I'm on it, perhaps I could get my revenge on that little princess who ruined my plans so many years ago."
"Perhaps, but we should be wary. I shall give you a taste of my magic, and then you'll be more powerful even than those pretty little princesses," the purple smoke coming out of Sombra's eyes suddenly took life and started flowing into the Changeling Queen's eyes, which started to change color slowly. Finally, the transference stopped and Chrysalis fell to the ground; after a few seconds she regained the strength to go back to her feet, and opened her eyes... which were now red and green, like her lover's.
"Vengeance shall be OURS!"
Saying this, the Queen of the Changelings let out a malevolent laugh that could be heard all across the land, and was soon joined by the long-deceased Sombra, causing more lightings to unless their fury on the mountain.

XOXOXO

It had been almost a year after Twilight and Cadence announced their pregnancies, and all that time, everyone was excited. Discord had insisted on making his baby's shoes, although he had a long way to go, and Screwball would often make drawing of her and her future little brother or sister. Cadence and Shining Armor had decided to return to Canterlot while her pregnancy last, they wanted everyone to meet the foal when it was born. Also, the Mane Six, Spike, Screwball and Discord decided to live in Canterlot during that time as well, Cadence and Twilight wanted their foals to be born in the same place. According to the doctors, they should enter in labor in a few more weeks, and Princess Celestia had already prepared a room for the foals in the palace. Twilight, Spike, Screwball and Discord lived separately in a house near the gates, but they always visited their friends in the palace, everyone just loved feeling the foals kicking inside their mothers' wombs. 
However, none of them was aware of the danger that was coming, even Celestia and Luna were too excited about the babies to realize that changelings had already unfiltered Canterlot, and at night, they would often sneak into the palace and brainwash all guards they encountered, without no one seeing them, of course. Most ponies simply thought the brainwashed guards were simply tired.
However, the time soon arrived for the changelings to make their move. 
That night, Cadence had been taking a walk through the corridors of the castle; her belly had grown considerably, due to the foal's presence inside her womb. The little fella would often move and kick, but she didn't mind, although she did had the feeling it would be as adventurous as its father. Shining Armor was already at home, and he had probably fallen asleep, so she decided to go back, but suddenly she felt a chill run down her spine; she felt she was being followed. However, as she turned around to see, there was nothing there, except for a few sets of armor and moonlight streaming from the windows. 
She continued on her way, but the feeling would not go away, and fear started to form inside her; the unborn foal seemed to feel it, as suddenly he started moving around in his mother's tummy. 
Suddenly, before Cadence could do something, a pair of hooves grabbed her abruptly from behind and covered her mouth when she attempted to scream. Other two figures ran next to her and the mysterious pony who was holding her, and they proceeded to bind her legs, wings and then gag her. Cadence struggled violently and let out muffled screams as she attempted to get free; her foal suddenly sensed what was happening and started moving even more than before. 
"Hurry! Take her to the carriage!" one of the figures spoke with a raspy, male voice.
"And what about the others?" another inured, this time it was a feminine voice.
"The rest will take care of them, we have to take her away now!"
Cadence became worried when she heard 'the others'. Were they planning on capturing Twilight as well? When the two who were holding her started to take her away, she started struggling again, and attempted to take the gag off. She had to warn Shining Armor! Finally, one of the ponies who was carrying her lost his patience and, with a little magic from his horn, he lifted up a sword from a nearby armor set and pointed it at the princess's belly.
"If you don't behave, I'm afraid I'll have to make you a surgery," he sneered, and his eyes flashed green.
Cadence froze in fear, her ears flattened on her skull and she slowly nodded, fearing he might actually do something to her baby.
"Those eyes..." she thought, remembering where she had last seen them, "Changelings..."

XOXOXO

Twilight Sparkle decided to take a shortcut to get home, through an alley, which seemed to be unusually dark and cold. She had passed through there various times in the past, but never had it been so... eerie. Since a few moments ago, she had thought somebody was watching her, and she just wanted to get home as quickly as possible. There were a few rats running around the alley, but right then she didn't mind. The lavender unicorn heard hoofsteps behind her, but she saw nothing behind; the hoofsteps were then heard in front of her, but again, there was no one there. Twilight decided to use her horn to lighten things up, but when her horn illuminated, she was horrified to see a changeling in front of her, with an evil grin in his face.
Suddenly, somepony else behind gagged her and started tying up her legs; unlike, Cadence's foal, her foal didn't move as much except when his father was around, but in this occasion, it started moving, wondering what was going on outside. Twilight struggled and let out muffled screams as she was taken away. Everything was dark, but she could see a black carriage in the entrance of Canterlot, and there were six pegasi awaiting to pull it away. There were also a few guards in post, but their eyes were completely empty of emotion.
Twilight muffled loudly to get their attention, but they paid her no heed; hadn't they recognized her, or were there accomplices in this atrocity? The changeling she had seen opened the carriage, and the stallion carrying her threw her inside, although luckily, nothing happened to her foal. However, before the doors of the carriage closed, she saw that all her friends were already in there, all bound and gagged. Even Cadence was in the carriage, in their same situation. Pinkie Pie was unconscious, Applejack and Rarity were attempting to undo their binds, and Fluttershy was sobbing; However, she noticed Rainbow Dash was no in there. Perhaps she had escaped and had gone to get help... or she had not been captured yet.
Just then, the doors were closed shut, but the mares inside could hear what was happening outside.
"What about the bearer of Loyalty?" they heard
"We don't need to worry about her, she's already been taken care of,"
The ponies are were frozen in shock and fear. Did they do something to Rainbow Dash? The pegasi started puling the carriage and took off into the air, disappearing into the darkness of the night.

XOXOXO

Princess Celestia walked into the throne room, sensing a dark presence was inside. She didn't bother in waking Luna up, she could take care of this herself; in fact, she had a clue of who was the pony in there.
"Come out of your hiding place," she growled, "Chrysalis!"
The Changeling Queen landed a few meters from Celestia, and set her eyes on the Sun Princess, "Well, well, we meet again, Celestia," she sneered, "Remember the last time the both of us were in this room?"
"What do you want, Chrysalis?"  Celestia's horn started to glow, to which the Changeling Queen simply started examining at her hoof
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Celestia."
"Why shouldn't I simply blast you away like last time?"
Chrysalis narrowed her eyes in malice, "You wouldn't want anything happening to your beloved student, do you?"
After hearing this, Celestia gasped in horror, "What have you done to Twilight Sparkle?!"
"Wait, I'm not done yet. There's also the bearers of the Elements, and that princes Mi Amore-whatever. I wouldn't want them to interfere in my most recent plan."
The Changeling Queen's gnarled horn started glowing green, "And now that you're here, I can't let you stop me neither!"
Celestia saw purple smoke coming out of Chrysalis's eyes, and she realized what was happening, but before she could react, the Changeling threw her green beam at her, and everything went black.
Luna was awakened by the ruckus that was king on the throne room, but when she walk inside, what she saw almost gave her a heart attack...
In the middle of the room, stood her older sister, but she was frozen, with a expression of horror upon her face; her mane and tail were not flowing anymore, and she had turned into a pale gray color.
Celestia had been turned into a statue.
Before the Moon Princess could alert the guards, the doors closed shut behind her, and the last thing she saw before everything went black for her as well was a pair of green eyes above her.
> Wanted
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun lazily loomed over the horizon, and in a matter of minutes, the sky started changing from the deepest blue to a yellowish blue color, giving the clouds a cake yellow tone. The stars were starting to disappear, given away to the light of dawn. In one of the buildings, whose window was open, there was a certain Captain of the royal guard deep into sleep, covered by a velvet blanket, and oblivious of the tragedy that had happened the night before. Little he knew he was about to find out the hard way...

Out of sudden, Discord appeared in the middle of the room, with a look that showed both worry and anger. He snapped his fingers, made a megaphone appear, and spoke through it.

"SHINY! WAKE UP!" he spoke, "COME ON, SHINY! I DON'T HAVE ALL DAY!"

Shining Armor covered his ears with his hooves and reluctantly got out of bed, stretching his muscles as he did so.

"G-Good morning, Discord." He yawned, "What's with the wake up call?"

Discord made the megaphone disappear, "How could you do this to me after all I've done for you?!" 

He pretended to be crying, "What made you do it? Wasn't that conversation we had at the cave one year ago enough for you?"

Shining Armor had obviously no idea what the spirit was talking about, and just gave him a confused stare.

"... Discord, what are you talking about?" 

"Come on, Shiny!" Discord snapped, "Open your eyes and smell the essence of a wanted colt!" The spirit snapped his fingers again, a wanted poster appeared in his eagle talon, and he unrolled it, "Take a look at this!"

In the poster there was a picture of Discord, just beneath the words WANTED, and the announcement of a reward beneath the picture. Shining Armor was even more confused than before.

"What's that?" Shining Armor asked.

"You say you're not behind this?" Discord inquired, now more calmly.

"Why would I want to print these? You haven't done nothing wrong!"

Discord thought for a moment, "Well, that explains why there were posters of you as well." He snapped his fingers and another poster came out of this air, this one with a picture of Shining Armor. The stallion snatched the poster in shock.

"There's got to be some kind of mistake!" 

"That's not the only thing that has me worried!" Discord cried, "Twilight didn't get home last night!" 

Shining looked up, "What?!" 

"I waited for her, but she didn't arrive and I fell asleep! I woke up a few hours ago and she still hadn't arrived!"

Shining Armor suddenly realized something, "Now that I think of it, Cadence didn't come home neither."

He started reading the poster.

"By royal decree of the new ruler of Equestria..." Shining gasped in shock as he read, "Chrysalis!"

"It's has to be a mistake, Shiny! I mean, when did Equestrians vote for Chrysalis?! Something must have gone wrong at the palace!" Discord's eyes widened in realization, "Oh, no! You don't think Chrysalis has something to do with Twilight and Cadence's disappearance, do you?"

Shining nodded, "We better go and find out what happened."

"But we should be careful. From the looks of this, I think the guards are going to come after us like timberwolves after bunnies!"

"The former Captain lives in here!" Suddenly, they heard a voice coming form outside, "Find him!"

"Oops." Discord blushed, "I guess I spoke too soon. We better get out of there before those guys take us to the dungeon for the rest of our lives for no reason at all."

The spirit wrapped his lion arm around the stallion, "Get a hold on to your flank, Shiny! We're out of here!"

Saying this, Discord snapped his fingers and the both of them disappeared in a flash of light.





They appeared inside an abandoned building, where no one seemed to frequent. Aside from a few rays of light filtering through the broken glass of the windows above, there was no illumination at all. Shining Armor peeked through one of the windows of the lower floor, and quickly took over as two guards passed by, and asked a nearby citizen of Canterlot if she had seen him or Discord.

"How are we going to get to the palace without being captured?" Shining inquired.

Discord rolled his eyes, "Digging a tunnel that runs underneath Canterlot. What do you think? We'll have to use disguises."

"It's not like we can simply walk into a disguise shop and say, 'Hello there, could you sell us some disguises? We're being searched by the guards.'" 

The spirit smirked, "Who said we're going into a shop?"

The spirit snapped his fingers and both he and Shining Armor were enveloped by a flash of light; when it dissipated, there were two different ponies in their places. Shining Armor looked at his hoof, and gasped when he noticed it had changed to a black color. He looked at his reflection in a broken mirror nearby, and instead of seeing a white unicorn with spiky blue mane and tail, he saw a black earth pony with a wavy, blonde mane and tail, green eyes and light yellow hooves. His Cutie Mark had changed to a hoofball ball with ice skates. 

Shining Armor looked at Discord, and was shocked to see that he was no longer a Draconequus, but a pegasus with golden coat, black spiky mane -his mane was short- and tail, black legs and purple eyes. His Cutie Mark was that of a music sheet with a violin.

"Shining Armor." the spirit grinned, "Let me introduce you to Violine Notes and Hoofballer." He pointed at himself and Shining respectively.

Shining, or Hoofballer, was impressed, "I didn't know you could do that."

"Shiny, Shiny, Shiny. There are only a very few things I can't do."

The two stallions walked out of the building, and carefully crept through the streets, doing their best not to attract unwanted attention. the guards that passed by them made them tremble in a nervous way, but were relieved when the guards simply passed by and paid them no heed. After a while, they arrived at the gates of the palace, but much to their dismay, it was heavily guarded by both changelings and brainwashed guards.

"What do we do now?" Shining inquired in worry

"One of us creates a distraction, and the other sneaks into the palace." Discord explained, but Shining shook his head.

"That would raise suspicions."

"Any better ideas?"

"You two!" 

They froze when two guards walked towards them with serious expressions on their faces.

"Excuse me, gentlemen," One of them spoke as he showed them the 'wanted' posters, "Have you seen these two dangerous outlaws?"

Shining Armor was about to reply in irritation that he was no outlaw, but Discord elbowed him hard on the sides. Just then, a plan started to form in the Draconequus' mind while pretending to be examining the pictures.

"Well, now that I think of it..." he spoke, "I think I did hear about the whereabouts of those two,"

"Where? Where are they?"

"Well... Last time I heard, they had run away from Canterlot and went into hiding in a small town called... what was its name... Ponyville!"

Discord patted Shining Armor's flank with his back leg, and the stallion understood.

"Yeah, I saw them flying towards Ponyville in the morning!"

"All units to the south gate! now!" the guards rushed south, and were soon followed by the guards patrolling the gate to the palace. 

After they were all gone, Discord and Shining Armor did a high-five with victorious grins on their faces.

"Really, Shiny!" Discord laughed, "You should teach them not to be so credulous!"

Shining grinned, "They're not usually credulous, it's just because they're brainwashed."

The stallions galloped into the palace, but suddenly Discord's head started to hurt terribly as soon as he put a foot in the palace grounds. It seemed to increase as they walked further into the palace gardens, and the Draconequus was slowing his pace, which started to worry Shining Armor.

"Discord, are you alright?" he inquired

The spirit nodded quite weakly, "Yeah, I'm fine. Let's get this over with."

However, the two stopped abruptly when they saw two familiar figures in the middle of the courtyard, completely frozen in stone. Two Alicorns, one bigger than the other, but the both of them had something in common: the look of horror upon their faces.

"P-Princess Celestia?" Shining whispered in complete astonishment, "Princess Luna?"

"I can't believe this!" Discord snarled, "I wanted to do that! When I was evil of course, now I've reformed and all that- ARGH! You know what I mean! Now this is personal, Chrysalis!"

Saying this, the two rushed into the palace gates -actually, Discord was dragging his brother-in-law- not knowing they were being watched. When they entered, they were shocked to find that almost everything was covered in the changelings' green goo, which made Discord scowl in repugnance.

"Puag!" he spat, "These guys really need to clean up in here!"

"We should head to the throne room, that's where Chrysalis must be, if I'm correct." Shining suggest, earning a sarcastically look from Discord.

"Oh, really? What makes you think that? That all rulers of Equestria usually hang around in the throne room?"

"Alright, I got the message. Let's go!"





Chrysalis ordered that the former princesses of Equestria be put outside in the courtyard, as an example for those who attempted to rise against her. With Sombra's magic, nobody could stop her... except, perhaps, Discord. That Draconequus had nearly unlimited powers and abilities, and it was not easy to strike him; however, he could not bring his wife and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony back to safety, for he did not know their location, and he was aware it. Otherwise, he and Twilight's brother wouldn't take the bother of going all the way to her to demand to know the exact location of their friends.

However, she didn't have the intention to stop them. On the contrary, it was the perfect chance to get rid of them; instead of directly going after them, it would be easier if they came to her, which was the main reason she had told her guards not to interfere. Discord could not be harmed physically, but she could toy with his emotions, especially if she spoke about Twilight. She knew that was all he wanted to know, his wife's whereabouts. His love for her would be his doom.

Speaking of which, she heard the doors of the throne room being shot open, and two stallions rushed inside. However, at the moment they put a hoof inside the throne room, crackling beams of black energy shot at them from changelings statues at the sides of the door, and their disguises wore off; they returned to their original forms, but none of the two cared about it anymore. She would have seen through their disguises, anyway. Before they could get to the throne, however, various changelings stood in the way, growling menacingly like diamond dogs.

"Well, if it isn't our guests of honor!" Chrysalis spoke with sarcasm, "I'm so glad you two could make it!"

Shining Armor snapped and his horn started to glow, "What have you done with our friends?!"

"Why, I disposed of them. Now that I'm the ruler of Equestria, their services were no longer needed," Chrysalis' eyes glowed purple and red, "And once King Sombra returns to this mortal world, you won't be either!"

"Excuse me!" Discord floated in front of the Changeling Queen with an anger expression in his face, "Did I hear you right or did I miss something? Because the King Sombra I know is dead, gone, finished,sleeping with the fishes, no longer among the living!" He made various faces and expressions to show what he meant, "You hear what I'm saying?"

Chrysalis laughed, "Don't make me laugh! How would you of all ponies know? You were pathetically turned back into a statue long before that happened."

The Draconequus started releasing smoke from his nostrils, "Now, listen here, you parasite! You better tell me where Twilight is and bring her back before I sent a chocolate hurricane into that empty head of-!"

"Ah, ah, ah," Chrysalis shook her hoof in the spirit's face, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. You wouldn't want anything to happen to her and you foal, would you?"

Discord gritted his teeth in anger. Chrysalis smirked, she had hit a sore spot, like she had planned.

"Now begone!" She blasted a green beam at Discord as her eyes flashed red and the mist came out of her eyes again; the spirit writhed around in pain before vanishing into thin air.

Shining Armor gasped in horror, "Discord?" He called, "Discord! What have you done with him?!"

"Patience! Your time will come soon enough!" Chrysalis looked at the Changeling guards, "Take this insignificant parasprite down to the dungeon!"

Then she spoke to the white stallion, who was already captured by the guards.

"I'll go shortly to deal with you..." Her eyes released the purple smoke again, "... Personally."
> Nightmares and Break Outs
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Many hours later, two figures snuck through the many gardens and paths of the castle, trying to avoid being seen by the patrolling guards. However, the moonlight was not helping them very much, as it was illuminating everything outside the castle, and there were almost no places to hide other than bushes. After some effort, the two managed to find a small, rectangular window with bars in the castle walls that led down into the dungeons. The moonlight shone over them once more, revealing Screwball and Spike. The baby dragon tried to bend the bars, but it was no use. He peeked inside, and with the help of a torch on the opposite wall, he saw Shining Armor down below, his hooves shackled to the wall.

"Okay, Screwball, we've got to rescue Shining Armor before Chrysalis puts her her nasty hooves on him." The baby dragon whispered

"But this place is full with traps of all kinds of trouble!" Screwball replied with a little fear in her voice, "We must be careful!"

She closed shut her eyes and started to use magic -being the daughter of Discord, she could use magic despite being an Earth Pony- on the bars and these shone for a little while, but then went back to normal. Spike tried to bend the bars again, but this time, the bars were easily bended. Screwball's magic had turned them into gum bars. 

"Hey, Shining!" they both called for the stallion before hopping down to the floor by using the wooden rafts.

The shackled stallion looked up to see his two friends, "Spike! Screwball! I'm glad to see you, guys!"

"Where's daddy?" Screwball inquired, looking around for a sign of Discord.

Shining looked down, "I... I don't know. Chrysalis shot a beam of energy at him and he disappeared, I don't know where she sent him."

Screwball's eyes started to tear up, "Daddy's dead?"

"No! He's not dead, I simply don't know where he is. It's a completely different thing." Shining looked at Spike, "Anyway, I need you to find the key to unlock this shackles. It's got to be down here somewhere..."

Spike nodded, "No problem! Stay here, we'll take the matters into our hooves and claws!"

Shining Armor rolled his eyes, "Of course I'm going to stay here! I'm shackled, remember?"

Screwball used her magic to open a hold in the wall, and it closed again as soon as they had passed through. The halls of stone were dimly illuminated by torches, and there seemed to be no guards patrolling, except the ones guarding the cell Shining Armor was locked in. But their main concern were the keys to the door and the shackles.

Screwball looked around the place, "What do we do now?"

"First, we figure out who has the key and where they keep it. Second, we go and get it. And then we come back and free Shining Armor. " Spike explained.

"And how're we supposed to know who keeps the key?"

Before Spike could reply, they saw shadows coming through the hallway. However, there was nowhere to hide and if they ran towards the other corridor, they would be caught by the guards guarding Shining's cell. Spike and Screwball grew nervous and fearfully stepped back until their backs touched the cold rocks of the wall. The filly wished her daddy was there, he would be able to hide them or something, but he was gone. Just as the guards were about to turn around the corner, suddenly the wall behind them opened and they fell backwards down a small flight of stairs, and the trapdoor of the wall closed again, just as the guards passed by. The baby dragon rubbed the back of his head.

"What in Equestria was that?" he growled

Screwball shook the dust off her, "It's a secret door!" she exclaimed in excitement, "Daddy had lots of these in his castle!"

"Well, at least those guards won't find us in here, but how will we find the key now?"

"GET ME OUT OF HERE, YOU LOVE-EATING PARASITES!!!"

The sudden scream made their blood go cold, fearing it might be another of Chrysalis' minions; the screams and cursing words were coming from an opened door at the end of the secret hallway, and there was a little illumination coming from it. Spike and Screwball looked at each other with insecurity, but then they nodded at each other, and they carefully walked to the end of the corridor... what they found in there was a complete surprise.





They were alone.

Discord found himself in the middle of what seemed to be a volcano pit, and everything around was covered in lava. Shining Armor and the others are long gone, and he and Twilight were completely alone. However, she had entered labor, and they were defenseless against King Sombra and Chrysalis. He was holding her hoof, but at the same time he knew he would have to deliver his foal himself. Twilight screamed in agony, sweating heavily and breathing hard. But he could already see the baby's head, although he felt like he was about to faint. He encouraged Twilight to be strong, in one more push the baby would be out, and they would leave there quickly.

Finally, Twilight gave the final push. 

... However, suddenly all of her body went limp, and she just remained there, completely lifeless. The Draconequus attempted to wake her up, but she was already gone. As tears started to roll down his cheeks, he looked down at the baby, but to his horror, the foal was silent and motionless, still covered in blood and fluid. It had been born dead.

Before he could do anything, he was surrounded by a black mist, and he couldn't see anything. Two pair of eyes with purple smoke opened in the blacklist, and he identified Sombra's and Chrysalis eyes. Their horns materialized from the mist, and beams of dark energy shot at him. The last thing he felt was a very shape pain in his chest, and then he was attacked by jolts of pain... 

Discord opened his eyes abruptly, tears coming out and rolling... up his head? He tried to look around, but everything around him was green, and he was unable to move at all; he could shift a little, but no more. After a while, he realized he was upside down inside one of those green, goo cocoons, but he couldn't figure out where he was. The cocoon was transparent, but not enough for him to see outside. He tried to snap his fingers to transport out of there, but he couldn't even move his hands. He managed to get a look at them, and he noticed they were engulfed in the green substance as well.

"Very smart, Chrysalis..." He thought bitterly, "Very smart..."

He thought of the nightmare he just had; in it, Twilight had died at childbirth and his foal was born dead. He had not thought of that possibility before, perhaps because he was very happy about the news. What if something happened  to Twilight, or the foal? Or worse, what if something happened to the both of them? If the thought of losing Twilight made him tremble, the very thought of losing both her and the baby was unbearable. He had to prevent it! He had to stop Chrysalis and Sombra, no matter if they took his life.

He attempted to break free, but the cocoon was very thick, probably made especially for him. But that was not the only thing that got him worried, he was completely alone. Even if he broke out, he didn't know where he was or if he would see Shining Armor and the others. He guessed he would have to wait until something happened... But it was completely boring in there! He had nothing to do but sleep, and he was not precisely tired. He would have to find someways to spend his time if he wanted to keep his sanity intact.





"Rainbow Dash?!" Spike cried in surprise as he and Screwball approached the cell in which the cyan pegasus was captive.

Rainbow's eyes gained a brightness of hope and joy when she saw her friends approaching her cell, "Spike! Screwball! I'm glad to see you! Where are Shining and Discord?"

Screwball flinched at the mention of her father.

Spike spoke, "Shining is in a cell out on the corridor, but Chrysalis sent Discord away and we don't know where!"

"But how did you get here, Rainbow Dash?" Screwball inquired, regaining her cool.

"All I remember is going to Cloudsdale to bring some things for the foals, but halfway there I was attacked by a group of changelings and they captured me. Then they brought me in here, and I don't know where the others are!"

"We don't either!" 

"And how do we open this cell?" Spike tried to force the lock, but it was no use.

Screwball examined it, "It's made of black magic, we can't force it, we must use black magic to open it."

Rainbow smacked her forehead, "And where are we going to get black magic?"

"Wait! Twilight had used it in the Crystal Empire," Spike looked over at Screwball, "Do you think you can replicate black magic too?"

The cotton pink mare grew nervous, "What? Black magic? I can't! Daddy forbid me to do black magic!"

"Well, unless you want me to rot in here while Chrysalis does who knows what to our friends, you better try it!" Rainbow snapped, "Don't worry! We won't say a word to Discord!"

"You promise?"

"We Pinkie promise!" 

Screwball gulped and focused on the lock of the gate, she closed her eyes shut and started concentrating energy on the gate. The same purple smoke that came out of Chrysalis and Sombra's eyes started flowing from her eyes, and sweat started to rol down the mare's face. The lock of the door started to move as it was surrounded by a black light, and it started burning at a slow pace before it completely broke and the door of the cell opened. 

"FREE!!" Rainbow Dash flew through the door and started flying around the room, swift like a comet, and then she landed next to Spike and Screwball, who was still sweating.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" she grinned, "We have to rescue Shining and get out of here!"

"But the key-!" Spike was interrupted when Rainbow grabbed him and Screwball and flew towards the wall they had come from.

"Who needs a key when you have a super-strong pegasi with you?" she grinned, not minding their terrorized faces.

Spike and Screwball closed their eyes in terror when Rainbow Dash was about to crash against the wall, thinking she would probably break through it, but the trapdoor simply opened with great force, crushing some unfortunate guards that were investigating it. Rainbow placed Screwball and Spike on the ground and landed, but soon they were surrounded by guards pointing their spears at them. 

"Great job, Rainbow!" Screwball growled, "I think you alerted all of the guards down here!" 

Rainbow grinned as she took a fighting position, "Don't worry! We can take them on in no time! Then we'll rescue Shiny!"

Spike gulped, "But I'm not exactly good at martial arts..."

"Leave it to me!"

Back inside the cell, Shining woke up when he heard there was a ruckus in the corridor outside. There seemed to be a struggle out there, but the shackles kept him from going to peek through the door. He heard armors hitting the wall, yelps and screams of pain, and he recognized the terrified voices of Spike and Screwball. There was nothing he could do but wait until it stopped and someone came. He almost got heart attack when the door was broken open with a kick one of Twilight's friends.
After getting past his shock, he recognized her immediately.

"Rainbow Dash?" he inquired, "Where did you come from? Are the others with you?"

"Chrysalis imprisoned me in here, and if by 'others' you mean Twilight, Cadence and the rest, no, they aren't." the cyan pegasus replied while Spike and Screwball tumbled into the cell.

"Man, no wonder why daddy didn't want me to get involved in fights!" the cotton pink mare spoke dizzily, "He said that fights were for uncivilized, savage ponies!"

"Do you have the key to these shackles? My hooves are starting to ache."

"We don't need any key, just leave it to me." Rainbow took off and flew towards the ceiling. Shining Armor's terror started when she dove down towards him. 

"No! Wait a minute!" 

But there was no stopping her. He closed his eyes shut in fear as Rainbow Dash delivered a kick to his shackles; after a while, he opened his eyes and noticed that they were no longer restrained to the wall. He looked up and saw that the shackles were gone, he noticed they were in the ground, broken in two. He, Spike and Screwball shot a very proud Rainbow Dash an incredulous stare.

"What do you eat that mass you so strong?!" Spike asked in shock, which made Rainbow Dash grin even more.

"It's a secret." 

"Well, now that I'm free, how about we get out of here before Chrysalis sends her Changelings after us?" Shining inquired while standing up. His horn started to glow, made a light surround the four of them, and they they disappeared. 





Chrysalis watched through a giant black crystal -courtesy of Sombra- as Shining Armor and the others disappeared in a flash of light, along with the now free bearer of Loyalty. However, while most ponies would expect her to send her guards and Changelings after them, she didn't. She knew they may be able to find the artifacts she needed for her, without them even knowing. Ponies were so easy to deceive, after all.

Besides, now she didn't have to worry about the Elements of Harmony any longer. Sombra had come up with a better idea: even if the six Elements are actually together, they wouldn't work if they were corrupted or if one or various bearer were no longer representing their respective Element of Harmony. It had worked for some time when Discord had done it, back when he was still evil, but it lasted for a very short while. But this time, the spell would be much stronger than Discord's simple hypnosis. They wouldn't stand a chance.

If they actually managed to reunite all of the bearers, that is.
> The Frozen North
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

They were tired.
After escaping from Canterlot, Shining Armor, Spike, Screwball and Rainbow Dash had boarded a train; they didn't bother in asking where the train was going, anywhere was fine as long as there were no Changelings around. The train continued for days, day and night, with no stops. The four friends, however, were not enjoying the views. None of them were focusing on the beautiful sunsets, or the crystal-clear rivers and lakes, nor the prairies green as the leaves of the trees, or the small towns they passed by.

They were all thinking about their friends.

Shining Armor was worried about Cadence and their foal, Screwball couldn't sleep without her daddy to tuck her at night, and Spike and rainbow Dash were worried about the Mane Six who were still somewhere, probably hungry, injured and cold. Twilight and Cadence were the main subjects of worry, since they were both pregnant, and in the emotional distress they were probably in, they feared something would happen to them or their unborn foals.

The night before reaching their destination, everyone was in their cabins, sleeping... or not. 

Shining Armor couldn't sleep that night, he was too anguished about Cadence to even get drowsy; all the time he kept remembering their times together, their dates, the wedding, the honeymoon, and many other fond memories of her. If something happened to her, he wouldn't live with that. Tired of roaming around his cabin, he walked out onto the wagon. TO his surprise, he found Screwball sitting there, looking sadly at the night sky and sobbing silently. Judging by the snow falling outside, they had guessed the train was heading to the Frozen North, and the Crystal Empire. 

"Screwball?" he called out gently for her, but she didn't turn to see him.

"I miss daddy..." was all she said

He remained silent, thinking of what to say to her. She was a grown mare, but she still had the heart of a filly, and she was very devoted to her father, apparently. If something actually happened to Discord, although there were no possibilities of that since he was immortal, she would be alone in the world. Although she and Twilight had grown quite close, she would not fill the hole in Screwball's heart.

Finally, he gathered the courage to speak, "Don't worry, he will be okay, they don't call him Spirit of chaos for nothing," he assured her, but Screwball simply looked down.

"Daddy always tucks me in at night since I remember," she sobbed, "I can't sleep if he's not here."

"You and Discord are very close, aren't you?"

Screwball nodded slowly, "Yeah. It will sound weird, but... I actually remember some things since the moment I was born. Not everything, but a few things.."

Shining turned to look at her in curiosity, "Like what?"

"Well, there was the first time I made a cotton candy cloud..."

The sun was setting rather slowly today, but not because Lord Discord had decided to make everything back to normal once again, but because his was teaching his daughter how to make cotton candy clouds. He would often help her in forming them, but this particular day, she wanted to do one for herself. The filly was looking at the sunset, with her father curled up around her, but she didn't realize.

"Are you sure you are ready, my dear?" the Spirit of Chaos caressed her mane softly.

"Of course I'm ready," the filly replied, not removing her eyes of the sun.

"I could make a small one for you to practice."

"No!" Screwball removed her eyes off the setting sun and gave her father a scolding look, "You said I could do one by myself!"

Discord just smiled, "Okay, Okay."

The filly's confidence seemed to evaporate after a few seconds, "But can you get close to me? Just in case."

Her father curled up a little more around her, "Just in case."

Screwball closed her eyes and started concentrating; out of thin air, a small pink figure started forming just as the filly started to sweat. Discord simply watched as the cloud slowly became flufier and bigger, but it was still quite unstable. After a few seconds, the cloud formed completely; he had to admit, for being her first time, the cloud was quite well-formed. He looked down at Screwball, and chuckled when he saw she was covering her face with her hooves, fearing she had screwed it up.

"How is it?" she whispered, "Is it there?"

Discord patted her quarters softly, "If you uncovered those beautiful eyes of yours you'd see, my little bubble."

Screwball looked up, and to her amazement, she saw a perfectly formed cotton candy cloud. When her father tasted it, however, she guessed she had to practice the flavor.

"Uh..." Discord reluctantly swallowed the piece of candy, not wanting to hurt his daughter's feelings, "Not bad, but the next time try to do a little more sweet."

"Do I have to eat it, daddy?"

"Well, we can't let it go to waste, can we?"

"Aww."

DIscord giggled at his daughter's face, "Tell you what, I'll let you eat one of my candy clouds if you help me make chocolate rain in the morning... in a few minutes, of course."

Screwball yawned as she snuggled against her father's body, "Okay, daddy..."

When she was finished, Screwball and Shining Armor noticed Rainbow Dash and Spike had joined them and they didn't even realize it. The baby dragon and the Pegasus were staring through the window at the sky, but they had heard the story as well. They hadn't imagined Discord could be such a good father.

"Don't worry, we'll rescue him and the others," Rainbow spoke in a soft tone, which sounded quite weird in her, "As long as we remain together, nothing will stop us."

The mare turned to look at her, "You promise?"

Shining put a hoof on her shoulder assuringly, "We all promise."





The next morning, everyone awoke with an air of confidence as they were dropped off at the Crystal Empire. The crystal ponies bowed when they saw their prince pass by, and Shining greeted them as he passed by, but the group was more concentrated in looking for a clue of the Cadence, Twilight, Discord and the others' whereabouts. They decided to start by taking a peek in the library; if there wasn't something there, then there would be nothing elsewhere. Rainbow Dash recalled hearing Chrysalis speaking about some "artifacts" required to bring Sombra back, but she did not know how they was called, other than it was part of a spell to bring back the dead.

As soon as they arrived to the library, the ponies started looking around the ancient spells section, and Screwball took a peek into the forbidden spell section. They grabbed every book they found useful, and searched through the countless pages, hoping to get a clue. However, none of those books contained any actual information about the artifacts, or their whereabouts. Just as they were about to lose hope, however, Screwball was skipping the pages of a copy of Forbidden Spells and Dark Artifacts when she found a chapter about a spell to bring back the dead.

"Everyone! I found something-" before she could finish, Shining, Rainbow and Spike had already rushed to her side and set their eyes on the page she was currently reading.

"What does it say?!" Rainbow asked out loud, her voice echoing in probably all of the halls of the library.

Shining Armor read out loud, "According to legend, a scepter was created by Unicorns who desired to bring their loved ones back from the dead, but the spell backfired and they were all sent to the Underworld. The Equestrian Royal Family feared the scepter would be used for more dark purposes, and so they split it in three pieces and spread it across the farthest corners of Equestria. One in the Frozen North, another in Saddle Arabia, and the last in a lost city forgotten by everypony ages ago."

"This gives me an idea," said Spike, "How about we find the artifacts before Chrysalis does? And we'll force her to tell us where she took the others!"

Rainbow grinned, "That might just work."

Screwball gulped, "But daddy said that black magic is very dangerous, even for him."

"I'm afraid that we don't have any other choice if we want to get our friends back."

Rainbow Dash suddenly perked up her ears, hearing what seemed to be the sound of wings... insect wings. She looked up to the ceiling in suspicion, and in the dark, she spotted a pair of blue eyes and a black shape.

"Changeling!" She immediately took off, flying after the Changeling. the Changeling flew away as fast as he could, avoiding pillars and walls as he did so, looking for an open window. 

Finally, he spotted an open window, and he dove towards it with a grin... but before he could cross the window, some magic closed it, and he crashed headfirst into it, falling unconscious unto the floor. This particular changeling not only had a silvery-colored shell, but he had two fringes of hair... or whatever their equivalent of hair was called, cascading in his face. His mane was spiky and pointing a little upwards, and his tail was much longer than the rest. Rainbow turned around to look at the others, Shining Armor had a grin on his face as his horn stopped glowing. The cyan pegasus grinned as she landed next to the Changeling, and was soon joined by the others.





When the Changeling recovered consciousness, he noticed he was tied up, still in the library. He tried to get free, but it was no use; around him were the ponies who had captured him. He recognized the bearer of Loyalty, and the Captain of the Guard, but the baby dragon and the purple-maned girl were unknown to him. They didn't look very friendly.

"Alright, you better tell us where Twilight and the others are before I turn you into an empty sack of hay!" Rainbow growled before being gently pushed aside by Spike.

"Let me handle this," The baby dragon then turned to look at the Changeling menacingly, "Alright, you better tell us where Twilight and the others are before I turn you into an empty sack of hay!"

The cyan pegasus simply rolled her eyes in annoyance.

The Changeling started trembling in terror, fearing they might actually do what they said they'd do to him if he didn't comply. The mare with pink coat and swirled eyes walked closer to him, and started examining him; however, she was looking at him with a child-like curiosity, as if she didn't know what he was.

"Why does this pony have holes in his legs?" she turned to look at the others with a baby-like innocence.

"He's a Changeling!" Spike explained, "He's supposed to look like that! But he can change into the shape of somepony you love and gains power by feeding off the love you have for them!"

"I've never heard of those Changethings." Screwball simply said.

The Changeling didn't say anything for a while. Seriously? What pony didn't hear about the Changelings even in bedtime stories? Everyone gasped, the Changeling included, when the mare untied him.

"Why did you do that?!" Shining practically yelled.

"If we're mean with somepony, he'll be mean to us. If we're nice with somepony, he'll be nice to us," Screwball simply said before hugging the Changeling, "And he's so adorable!"

The Changeling felt sick in his stomach when she called him 'adorable.' She wasn't supposed to call him adorable, she was supposed to flee. But the embrace felt so warm... he hadn't felt like this since... since... remembering it brought tears to the Changeling's eyes, and he returned the hug, sobbing silently. 

Rainbow Dash, Shining Armor and Spike were staring at Screwball and the Changeling with incredulous looks. they knew Screwball was more innocent than a baby, but they didn't imagine she was this innocent. And they did not imagine Changelings could actually cry.

"What's your name?" Screwball inquired.

The Changeling sniffled a few more times before answering weakly, "... S-Stormfly..." 

"Stormfly, could you tell us where our friends are, please? My stepmommy and uncle Shining's wife are pregnant, and we don't want anything to happen to their foals."

Pregnant? He hadn't been told about that detail. He knew what was it like to expecting being a parent, but... He just couldn't let these ponies go through the same he had, no matter if they were his enemies.

"... I... I know where the bearer of... Honesty is..."

Almost immediately the other three ones exploded in questions.

"Applejack?!"

"Where is she, you parasite?!"

"Is Rarity with her?!"

The Changeling grew nervous again, but he still spoke, "Queen Chrysalis sent her to a series of caverns in the Crystal Mountains. She must be still trapped in there."

Shining Armor leaned to the Changeling menacingly, "In that case, you will take us to her right now!"

Screwball wrapped her arms around the Changeling once again, "You don't have to be so mean!"

Stormfly gulped, hoping the Queen would not find out about what he was about to do, "... Alright, I'll take you there."
> The Fortune-Teller
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The group set for the crystal mountains right away, though Stormfly had to take a different shape before going out, and Rainbow Dash and Spike were making sure he wouldn't run away. As soon as they were in the feet of the Crystal Mountains, Shining cast a spell on Stormfly; a collar of energy was formed around the Changeling's neck. It was a spell that would not allow the Changeling to go more than a few meters way from the group, in case he would attempt to escape. The Changeling accepted it, but the collar choked him a bit. He let them through narrow paths of stone through the bitter cold wind, up and up the mountain, until they were almost at the very peak of the Crystal Mountains. Even Rainbow Dash's wings were frozen, and she was unable to fly.

Finally, after almost falling off the edge of the cliffs, the ponies arrived at a cavern located at the peak of the mountain. It was very dark, and there were stalagmites blocking the entrance, surely a safety measure should Applejack actually find the entrance of the cavern. Rainbow Dash attempted shattering the stalagmites, but they were too strong and thick to be broken by a kick. Not even Shining Armor's magic was strong enough to tear them off the icy walls.

"It's useless, we can't break them," he concluded in disappointment, "We'll have to find another way in."

"No way! I almost slipped off the edge a lot of times!" Screwball whined, "I can't go back there!"

Stormfly cleared his throat, "If you want to hear my opinion, I'm afraid there's no other way in. No that I know of, at least. We'll have to figure a way to go through there."

Shining thought for a moment, "If we can't break them off, we could also... melt them."

"But how?" Spike inquired.

At the moment he spoke, the others had a realization, and all eyes were on the baby dragon. Spike seemed to realize what they were thinking, but before he could run away, Rainbow Dash grabbed him and lifted him into the air. 

"NO, NO, NO!" the baby dragon yelled while struggling to get free, "I can't do it!"

"Spike, listen!" Shining spoke firmly, "You're a dragon! A baby dragon, but a dragon nonetheless! Your fire should be hot enough to melt those stalactites!"

"But I've almost never breathed fire! I don't know how to do it properly!"

But when he saw the looks on the others' eyes, he decided to comply, "Alright, I'll try..."

Various times, he attempted to breath a flame strong enough to melt the icy spikes, but all of his breaths were small and weak and they didn't last more than a few seconds before the icy atmosphere put the green flames out. Finally, Spike ran out of breath and he panted heavily, giving the group an apologetic look.

"I told you I couldn't do it! My fire is too weak!"

Screwball grabbed him by the shoulders, "Spike! Applejack is in there! And perhaps she knows where Twilight, Cadence and the others are! But to get in there, we have to melt these stalagmites! And to melt these stalagmites, we need dragon fire! Your fire!"

Spike gulped, "Well, when you put it that way..."

The baby dragon stared at the blocked entrance for a while before closing his eyes and started to concentrate.

He thought of Twilight, the pony he considered like a big sister.  

He thought of Cadence, the sweet, friendly Alicorn that everyone loved.

He thought of the rest of the girls; Rarity, his long-time crush and one of the most generous mares he had ever known. Fluttershy, the timid but kind and compressive girl that would always help her friends in need. Pinkie Pie, who would always try to cheer them up in hard times and saw the optimistic side of things. Applejack, who was always sincere and never told a single lie. 

Discord, the Draconequus he had come to see as both a good friend and a brother, despite his habit to play innocent pranks on ponies. 

He started to sweat despite the cold wind that was blistering all around the group, and smoke started coming out of his nostrils. Spike gritted his teeth as h felt all of his throat and stomach burn intensively; finally, he let out a fire so strong and so hot, that not even the coldness around could put them out like before. The stalagmites instantly were turned into water, Spike stopped to take a breath. He and the group, however, had their eyes on the entrance, and soon they started cheering.

The path was clear.

"Alright, let's go!" Rainbow Dash was the first to fly into the icy cavern, but Stormfly soon flew after her.

"Wait a minute!" the Changeling called out for her, "We have to stick together, this caverns are like a labyrinth!"

"Guys!" Shining Armor rushed after them, Screwball and Spike following closely behind. However, as soon as they stepped inside the cave, suddenly the floor beneath them 'collapsed' and the three fell into a dark pit, losing consciousness as they did so, and the stone trapdoor on the floor flipped back into place. Before Shining Armor lost consciousness inside the darkness of the cavern, his eyes managed to spot a pair of green eyes a few steps away from him.





But Rainbow Dash and Stormfly were already deep inside the cave, and they did not realize what had happened to the others. Rainbow Dash slowly came to a stop, realizing that in her rush, she hadn't bothered to figure a way to avoid getting lost in those infinite caverns, and now she had no idea of where to go next. Stormfly accidentally bumped into her and both landed on the ice with a loud thud; the cyan pegasus frowned at the Changeling in annoyance.

"Watch where you are going, Changeling!" she snapped.

Stormfly returned the frown, "In case you forgot, I have I name! I'm Stormfly!"

"Well, my friends are all in danger in who-knows-where because of your Queen, so excuse me if I don't like you right now!"

"With that attitude, nothing's going to change!"

"Whatever, let's go back with the-"

Rainbow Dash stopped when she realized the obvious. Shining Armor and the others were nowhere to be seen, and they were deep into the cave, away from the entrance, and to make things worse all the caverns looked exactly alike. There was no way to figure out which way to go.

"Hey, Stormfly..." she gulped, "Did you leave something to mark the way back to the entrance?"

"I couldn't because somepony rushed into the caverns and didn't even give me a chance to make up a plan!" Stormfly growled, "We're lost in here! And there's no way out!"

Suddenly, Rainbow motioned him to be quiet, looked around and perked up her ears. They heard the faint sounds of hoofsteps from one of the caverns, bouncing against the walls, making it almost impossible to determine where it came from. Stormfly looked around, hearing more carefully and sensing the vibrations on the ground, an ability of Changelings a few ponies knew they had. His wings were fluttering every now and then, which started to make Rainbow Dash worry. 

"Stormfly..." She addressed him by his name this time, "What are you doing..."

Suddenly, the Changeling took off into one of the caves, barely giving the pegasus time to react and go after him. Stormfly flew into various caverns and sets of tunnels, following the source. He narrowed his eyes when he spotted somepony in the distance, and prepared to take it down, whoever it was. 

Rainbow flapped her wings faster, for some reason she couldn't keep up with the Changeling.

The mysterious pony was unaware of the danger, for it was looking for a way out, but it did catch the sound of insect wings. 

Stormfly tackled the mare into the ground. Because there was almost no light, he couldn't identify the pony, but he could fear a wave of cold, stinging fear emanating from her, and it made him shiver in discomfort. Rainbow Dash landed next to them, wiped the sweat from her face and panted heavily. She tried to get a closer look at the mare... how she wished she had a flashlight. However, when a ray of light shone for a brief instant, the two of them recognized a orange-coated jared with light yellow mane and tail, green eyes and a cowboy hat.

Rainbow Dash yelped, "Applejack?!"

Applejack quickly shot a glance of relief towards her friend, "Rainbow Dash! Help me!"

Stormfly quickly realized that he was still over her and quickly hovered off her and onto the ground aside, but now it was Applejack's turn to tackle him into submission.

"Rainbow, run! I'll hold him back!"

Rainbow Dash gulped, "Uh, Applejack... You're not going to believe this, but..." she scratched the back of her head, "That Changeling is on our side."

Applejack gave her an almost incredulous look, "Him? On our side?" She narrowed her eyes, "Are you Rainbow Dash?"

"HEY!"

"Excuse me..." Stormfly could barely talk, for Applejack was crushing his throat, "Could you... please... remove your hoof off me?"

Applejack reluctantly lifted her hoof off the Changeling's neck, and Stormfly took deep breaths, trying to regain his lost air. Rainbow wrapped her hooves around the Earth Pony.

"Applejack! You're alright! Stormfly brought us here to find you!" She let her friend go and shook her quite violently, "Do you know where Twilight and the others are?! Have you seen Shining Armor around here?!" 

"Hey, hey, hey! Calm down..." Applejack was dizzy, "But no! I haven't seen Twilight, Shining Armor or the others! But please tell me you know the way out of these damn caves!" 

Stormfly replied, "No! We are trapped here! We didn't leave a trail because Rainbow Dash rushed into the cave without giving us a chance to even come up with a plan. That's when we separated from Captain Shining Armor, Spike and..." He couldn't help but to feel a knot in his stomach when he thought of her, "... Screwball."

"What are we going to do, then?!"

Stormfly thought for a moment. He had lived inside a chain of underground caverns and caves most of his life, so it couldn't be so hard to find a way out of that place. It was almost like the underground tunnels in which he was raised and born... and where his daughter was also born... The Changeling shook the painful memory from his mind and started inspecting the rocks.

"Uh, Stormfly..." Rainbow whispered in confusion when watching the Changeling's strange behavior, "What are you doing?"

"I was born inside a cave, I know about them. Perhaps I could find the way out..."

"You sure? I want to get out of here as soon as possible!" Applejack snapped, "I've been in here for days!"

"Don't worry, let me handle this..."

The ponies decided to wait until the Changeling was done inspecting the eve, and finding a way of escaping those treacherous caverns. Rainbow Dash hoped Shining and the others were alright...





Shining Armor soon recovered consciousness, and he found strangely comfortable. When his vision cleared, he realized he was resting on a couch, and saw that Screwball and Spike were on couches a few steps away. They were inside a cave, but this cave had no stalagmites of stalactites, and there were carpets of fiery colors with golden trimming hanging from the wall. Soon, Screwball stirred and let out a yawn before awakening, soon followed by Spike. 

"Where... where are we?" Spike muttered, taking a look around.

"I don't know... But what I'm certain of is that Rainbow Dash and Stormfly are not here..." Shining Armor stood up, trying to figure out where they were.

"All I remember is Rainbow Dash flying into the cave, Stormfly went after her, and we fell into a trap when we tried to follow them," Screwball pointed out, stretching her muscles.

"You are awake," a new voice spoke and echoed through the room, sending shivers down their spines.

From an entrance on one side of the cave, a Zebra walked in. Spike thought she looked a bit like Zecora, except that this particular zebra looked more like a mare, and her hair was long and straight, barely touching the ground. Her stripes were a little more curved, and her eyes were of a soft golden. 

"Who... who are you?" Shining inquired, rubbing his head.

"My name doesn't matter, you may just call me Diviner..." the Zebra smiled warmly, "Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard and husband of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza."

The stallion was perplexed, "H-how do you know who I am?"

"Because I saw it," Diviner spoke while pointing to a crystal ball in the middle of the cave, "When the spirits speak to me, they tell me things."

Screwball gulped, "What kind of things?" 

"Things that were, things that are... and things that are yet to happen... Screwball, daughter of Discord. Now, let us speak of more important matters. You are trying to find your friends' whereabouts."

"Yeah, we are!" Spike stepped top the front with a glimpse of hope, "Do you know where they are?"

"I'm only a step on the mysteries of the unknown, it's the spirits who guide us to the truth. Let us see what they can tell us."

The zebra sat in front of the crystal ball, and motioned them to come closer. She closed her eyes and started concentrating.

"Powerful and wise spirits, speak to me! Illuminate me with the desire of these ponies' hearts!"

When the crystal ball started glowing of a red tone that illuminated the entire room with a red tone, Screwball and Spike drew closed to each other and held each other closely in fear. Shining'r ears drooped as he saw the smoke inside the crystal ball.

"I see something..." Diviner spoke with a foreboding voice, "I see a vast desert... in it, the ruins of a temple long forgotten... Your fate is to go there and look for... a Draconequus! Yes! A Draconequus! And... somepony else... a pink pony with the desire to make others smile and laugh, even when they are invaded with sadness."

Suddenly, above the crystal ball, Discord appeared. Well, it was only a transparent version of him, and he set his eyes on Shining Armor.

"Shining Armor! Chrysalis sent me to Saddle Arabia, to an abandoned temple along with Pinkie Pie! We are imprisoned in those cocoons!" He thought for a moment, "And did I tell you? For some reason, I have lost all of my power. Could you come and save us? Thank you very much."

Shining Armor and Screwball thought something was... odd about Discord. The Draconequus had the habit of making sarcastic comments and jokes when speaking to the ponies he knew, this Discord had simply asked them directly to go and save him. Also, Discord didn't usually call Shining Armor by his complete name, he always called him 'Shiny.' The illusion before them, and this was most important, didn't even acknowledge Screwball's existence, and he hadn't even looked at her.

"Discord..." Shining spoke suspiciously, "... Are you alright? Are Twilight and Cadence with you?"

However, Discord's illusion had already disappeared, and Diviner opened her eyes.

"The spirits have told us what they could, your fate lies in Saddle Arabia. There, you shall find your friends."

Spike spoke, "B-but we can't leave just yet! We came with other two! A Pegasus and a Changeling! We were separated!"

"Yeah, we need to find them, and we're also looking for an Earth pony! Her name is Applejack!" Shining explained.

Diviner shook her head,"I'm afraid I haven't seen them. But do not fear, for you shall find them once you get out of the cave. there is  a tunnel here that leads out into the Crystal Mountains"

She showed them towards the exit, "Good luck, the three of you. The fate of Equestria lies in your hooves."

The three friends looked at each other, nodded and walked out of the caverns, failing to see that Diviner's eyes glowed green for a brief moment.





"Are you sure you know where we are going?!"

Stormfly snacked his forehead with his hoof after Rainbow Dash asked him that once again, "Rainbow, for the last time... Yes! I know where we are going! now stop pestering me!"

"I'm sorry, but I never liked underground places at all."

Applejack rolled her eyes, "Come on, Rainbow Dash! A cave isn't as scary as, say,Everfree Forest!"

"Everfree Forest is not as eerily quiet as this place! Every sound makes me thing there's something following us!"

Stormfly explained, "Amateur. If there was something following us, we wouldn't hear it at all!"

"Wow, that makes me feel better!"

Stormfly simply rolled his eyes as he fluttered his wings and looked around again. He had a feeling there was something dangerous up ahead, but couldn't figure out what. All he was sure of is that the exit was close. Applejack felt a shiver run down her spine, and she grew alert; her sense of 'something bad is about to happen' never failed her, after all. 

"Guys, I think we should-"

Before she could say anything else, suddenly the floor beneath them collapsed and the three found themselves sliding down what seemed to be a giant slide. They were in quite a funny position, actually: Stormfly was in Applejack's legs, and Applejack in Rainbow Dash's. The Earth pony wondered why Stormfly and Rainbow Dash hadn't took off already, for both of them could fly, but she assumed that they were too scared to think about it right then. The three ponies were screaming in terror, sliding into the darkness below.

After three minutes, they came to a stop in the bottom of the chasm, falling over each other in the process. Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and landed next to Applejack, who shook her head to made the dizzy feeling disappear. then they noticed that a certain Changeling was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, where's Stormfly?" 

Applejack felt movement beneath her, and she looked down to see that she had landed right over the Changeling, who was kicking violently and letting out muffled yells of protest. She quickly stood up and Stormfly crawled from beneath her, panting heavily.

"Seriously, you should think on putting on a diet!" he gasped for air, ignoring the little glare Applejack gave him for commenting on her weight.

Rainbow Dash looked around and noticed that there was a tunnel ahead of them, illuminated dimly by an unknown source of light. She walked towards the entrance of the tunnel, followed by the arguing Applejack and Stormfly. When she entered, she opened her mouth agape.

Instead of rocky walls, the walls inside the chamber were made of the fines marble, with golden trimming adorning it; torches were all around the room, illuminating the way to a long altar made of gens, in which a long pole made out of pure gold laid resting. Even the arguing Changeling and Earth pony left their discussion to stare at the sudden change in scenery.

"That's it!" cried Rainbow Dash in excitement while pointing to the golden pole, "It's one of the artifacts!"

When Applejack was about to ask what she was talking about, Stormfly sighed in annoyance before she could speak and told her, "It's a long sort, they'll tell you later."

Applejack seemed to accept the answer.

"But what we waiting for, then?" she spoke, "Let's grab that thing and get out of here."

However, Rainbow Dash stopped Applejack on the spot.

"Wait a minute! If there's something that I've learned on reading Daring Do's books, is that there are always secret traps in treasure chambers like this!" she spoke, "You should let someone who has already experience handle this!2

Applejack rolled her eyes, "If I recall, you have never been in treasure chambers like this."

"But I've read Daring Do's books. It's not that hard, all I have to do is get to the other end of the room without touching the floor or the walls and everything will be alright. The most capacitated pony to do that is me!"

"Oh, really? In case you forgot, you are the reason you and Stormfly got separated from the others. Somebody who is calm and thinks before acting should go to get the pole!"

Stormfly smacked his forehead as Rainbow Dash and Applejack started arguing. Really, ponies and their silly discussions. He looked at the pole on top of the altar, gulped and took flight, carefully hovering over to the altar. The mares heard the sound of his wings fluttering and turned around to see he was about to grab the pole.

"Be careful! 

"The traps!" 

Stormfly started sweating heavily, fearing he might actually trigger a trap. The pole was still on the altar, and there seemed to be no secret traps on the pedestal. He hoped that he would not get killed... And lifted the pole off the altar...

... Nothing happened.

Stormfly sighed in relief, releasing the breath he had been holding for a while, and slowly flew away from the pedestal. However, as he hovered back to the ponies, suddenly the altar started to shrink into the ground until it disappeared, and everything around started to tremble. Stormfly quickly flew back to the ponies' side.

"Great job, Stormie!" Rainbow Dash growled while dodging a falling stalagmite, "I told you this would happen!"

Stormfly growled, "Well, the next time, you go and fetch the artifact!"

Applejack snapped, "Save that for later! We gotta get out of here!"

The ponies looked around frenetically for a way out, and the Changeling spots a hidden passageway had opened in one of the walls.

"Over there!" he cried, grabbing the pole in his fangs and pushing the mares towards the passageway.

Applejack ran into the passage, followed by Rainbow Dash and Stormfly just as the chamber collapsed, and the tunnel seemed to be collapsing as well. In the other end of the passage, they saw a light...





Shining Armor covered his eyes from the burning sunlight; Celestia and Luna may be frozen in statues, but it seemed Chrysalis didn't mind in lifting the sun and the moon by herself. Screwball and Spike emerged from the cave entrance as well, covering their eyes. However, the Diviner had said that they would find the others once they got out of the caverns, but they were not there. They were on one of the highest cliffs of the Crystal Mountains; on the horizon, Shining thought he could see Canterlot and Cloudsdale far, far away.

"Did you guys hear that?"

Spike's voice sounded in an apparent endless echo, and soon it was replaced by a faint sound of rocks crumbling. As seconds went by it seemed to become louder and louder...

"OUT OF THE WAY!!!"

Shining Armor, Screwball and Spike didn't have time to react ad Rainbow Dash, Stormfly and Applejack bumped into them, bringing them all to the ground. In fact, it took them a few seconds to realize Applejack was with them; when they did, Spike and Screwball jumped onto her and wrapped their arms around the mare's neck.

"Applejack! You're back!" Spike was crying in joy.

"I missed you!"

Shining Armor helped Rainbow Dash and Stormfly stand up, and the changeling dropped the pole in front of him.

"That's the first artifact. We found it in a cavern in that..." Before he could point at the entrance they had come from, the rocks finally collapse sand it disappeared, "... Never mind."

Shining Armor turned to look at Applejack, "Are you alright, Applejack?"

The Earth Pony nodded, "yeah, no damage done. But I spent days in those blasted caves! When I see Chrysalis i'm so going to have buck her so much i'll send her into the sun!"

"Do you know where-?"

"No, she doesn't." Rainbow Dash spoke with sadness, "She has no idea where Cadence or Twilight or the others are."

Shining Armor looked down at the ground in disappointment, and set his eyes on the pole. It had faint markings all over it, but it looked like the artifact in the book. He lifted the pole with his magic and put it on his back before looking up at the sky.

"Everyone, we're heading for Saddle Arabia."
> Memories from Yesterday
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The trip back to the Crystal Empire was quite awkward, considering that the ponies had no way down at all; indeed, it took them about five hours to get down unscratched, not to mention that Stormfly was quite nervous with Applejack around. Indeed, wherever she gave him the shortest stare, he would often scurry and hide behind Screwball. For some reason, the Changeling felt safe with her; at least she was the only pony who didn't' give him a suspicious stare. When they finally arrived at the train station in the Crystal Empire, Stormfly had already taken the form of a pony. He would have to stay like that for the entire trip, unless he wanted to be chased by a mob of angry ponies. His guise was that of a pegasus with dark gray coat, silver mane and tail and claw marks as a Cutie Mark; wherever anypony asked him about his peculiar Cutie Mark, he would simply respond that he got it 'when playing with a timberwolf.'

After being on his cabin for most of the day, considering that he didn't eat pony food -he could, but it didn't satisfy his hunger-, he didn't leave the cabin until it was nighttime. Everyone would be asleep, so he guessed no one would mind if he took his real shape. He walked out of the cabin, feelings of nostalgia washing over him all of sudden; the calm atmosphere brought him quite hurtful memories... but yet he was drawn to it. The Changeling took a seat, fluttered his wings in anxiety and looked at the moon at its full shine. He had never stopped to admire its beauty, in the Hive he couldn't even see the moon for the Hive itself was in an underground place. He heard hoofsteps.

"Why are you here in the dark all alone, Stormfly? Are you alright?" he heard the voice of the incredibly-innocent mare.

He looked down for a brief moment, "I... I wanted to be alone for a little while... I'm fine"

Screwball didn't buy it, however; she could tell the Changeling was very pained and forlorn, even if he tried to hide it, "Don't try to hide it, I know you're sad. Daddy says that it is better to tell somepony if something's bothering you, because if you don't it's going to hurt more and more until it's unbearable and your personality may be tainted with pain and bitterness."

Stormfly rolled his eyes, "In other words, if you keep a painful secret to yourself, you'll become bitter."

Screwball nodded rapidly, "Yep!"

The Changeling thought for a moment. It wouldn't hurt to tell her, would it? Besides, he felt he was going to explode, with all the pain inside his chest.

"... Just... Don't tell anypony... please..."

Screwball giggled, "I Pinkie Promise! Besides, I'd like to know what was a Changeling doing all the way at the Crystal Empire!"

Stormfly sighed sadly, "Get comfortable, it's a long story."

Screwball did as told and sat down next to Stormfly, who was still looking towards the moon.

"... the reason I was in the Crystal Empire is because... I was looking for my baby-"

"You have a baby? AWW! How cute! But how could you have a baby?"

Stormfly couldn't contain a small smile, "See, I don't actually belong to Chrysalis' Hive. Not anymore. When I did, I was on the worker caste. All we did all day was to clean up the entire Hive, tend to the Queen and care for the eggs... and then I fell in love. She was a beautiful nymph named Cupheart, and I loved her dearly; my heart ached for her, but the both of us knew that we could not be together."

"Why not? Mommy says everypony has the right to be with the one they love."

"First of all, I'm not a pony, I'm a Changeling. And second, in our society, only the Queen is supposed to lay eggs. But we still loved each other; in fact, we saw each other everyday with anypony watching us, until one day, we married in secret. We fed on the love we felt for each other."

"That's romantic... I think."

"Anyway, the point is that after a few months, we learned that we would be parents. Cupheart was pregnant! We were happy, but at the same time we knew we had committed a serious crime. And so we fled." Stormfly sighed forlornly, "We were planning to start a new life, to abandon our Changeling forms and change into normal ponies permanently to raise our baby. But we didn't take into account that our race works as a Hive-mind."

Screwball obviously didn't understand that term, so Stormfly explained it to her.

"Hive-mind means that we all work as one mentally; if one of us knows something, all of the hive will know as well, even the Queen herself. It's a defense mechanism, in case workers fall unconscious due to an enemy attack or a sickness."

Screwball connected the dots, "So... Then the Queen found out about what you guys were doing."

Stormfly closed his eyes in pain, "Yes, she did. She sent an entire army to retrieve and punish us severely. But as I just explained it, we work as a Hive-mind, so we knew they were coming, and yet we knew we would never be able to run away from them. Cupheart had an idea."

He leaned closer to Screwball to whisper into her ear, "Do not tell anypony, but there's  way to cut off our minds from the Hive-mind."

"Really?"

"But the catch is that it is very risky, and only Cupheart knew how to do it, but since she had just laid our egg, she was very weak... And our fellow Changelings were arriving."

The memory he had tried to suppress all the time was coming out again...





They had been discovered.

Since the beginning, they had known that this would surely happen, after all, there were no secrets in the Changeling species. What one knows, everyone knows. There was no privacy, and that was one of the reasons they had run away. Cupheart had spent most of her time during her pregnancy trying to find a way to cut off their minds from the Hive and earn their freedom, but the only thing she could find that had an actual chance of working was very risk. She would have to use all of her energy to cut off all ties with the Hive-mind forever. To worsen things, she had just laid her egg, making things even more risky now that she had only a part of her energy remaining, and the army Chrysalis had sent to fetch them was getting closer by the minute; they both knew. 

"Cupheart, please let me do it!" Stormfly pleaded to his wife, "You're too weak! I have more energy, I'm sure I'll-"

"I-It's alright, Stormie..." Cupheart replied, her voice fading away as she spoke, "I can handle it... Besides, you don't even know how to cast it, do you?"

Stormfly looked down in worry, "But you just laid the egg, what if something goes wrong?"

In fact, their egg, their greatest treasure, their yet-to-be-born-baby was on a cushion a few meters away; the growing embryo often reacted to the love around it. It moved constantly, even though they would not feel it until a few more weeks.

"Stormie..." Cupcake stared into her husband's eyes gray eyes, "... Promise me something..."

"What is is, my love?"

"If I... If I don't make it... I need you to promise that you'll take care of our hatchling..."

"Don't say that!" Stormfly pleaded one more time, "Please... Don't say that..."

"Promise me..."

Knowing they were running out of time, Stormfly nodded grimly, praying that his wife would survive the spell. If everything went well, his mind would be completely independent and he would be part of the Hive no more. Then Cupheart would have to cast the spell on herself...

"Come closer..."

The male Changeling did as told and leaned closer to his wife's face, their horns touching tenderly; Cupheart closed her eyes shut and started concentrating energy on her horn, which flew of a pale green. Stormfly closed them as well, and his horn started glowing of the same green color. Their horns started cackling energy around the room, intensifying every time; both Changelings gritted their fangs as they felt a sharp headache; Stormfly could feel his connection to the Hive-mind severing. Soon the thoughts of his fellow Changelings became nothing but whispers, each time more inaudible, until they disappeared completely from hie brain.

Stormfly collapsed, his brain and head aching horribly, as if he had just gotten a wound, but he no longer heard the voices of the Hive. 

It had worked.

Despite his splitting headache, he quickly stood up to check on his wife. Cupheart was panting heavily with a headache as well, but she was in a worst condition than before; she was very pale, which gave her quite a grayish tone. Stormfly grabbed her hoof in worry.

"Cupheart?" he spoke softly, "Are you okay?"

"Stormie..." she whispered, "... I think I won't make it..."

"No! Don't say that! You'll get better!"

"They're coming... There's no time... Take our egg and get out of here... Please..."

Stormfly glanced at the egg and encountered himself in a crossroad; it was either Cupheart or the egg. But he knew in the bottom of his heart that he would have to choose the egg; if the other Changelings caught up, the three of them would die. Cupheart placed her hoof on her husband's cheek for one last time.

"I love you..." was the last thing she said before her hoof fell from his cheek, and she stopped moving forever.

Tears were already rolling down Stormfly's cheeks as he caressed his wife's cheek longingly, "I love you too... I'll always love you, my Cupheart..."

However, he knew it was not the time to mourn for her yet, for he had to escape. He could already hear his former comrades' fluttering wings in the distance, and knew they were very close. It took him a lot of strength to walk away from Cupheart's limp body, but he did it; he felt daggers piercing his heart mercilessly, but he had to save the egg. He tenderly picked it up, and swore he could feel the embryo shifting inside the egg with his touch. 

And with all the pain of the world in his heart, he fled the place they had called home for so much time.





"After that, I went to Canterlot to care for my egg until it hatched, a female hatchling came into the world that night. I loved her dearly..." Stormfly started to tear up, "But Chrysalis found me two months ago, and she took my daughter away from me... I went to the Crystal Empire because I had heard she had been taken there, but..."

By the time he was done telling the story, Stormfly had already tears rolling down his cheeks; just remembering it made his heart ache. He started sobbing uncontrollably, letting his tears flow. Stormfly felt warmth around his shoulders, looked up and realized Screwball had wrapped an arm around him. For some reason, he thought she looked quite beautiful in under the pale moonlight; he could feel compassion emanating from her, like a perfume. He snuggled into her, feeling the soft warmth of her fur. 

"It's alright, Stormfly, it doesn't matter if you cry," Screwball soothed him, "I cry everytime I'm sad. Everyone does, it's nothing to be ashamed of."

"I miss her so much..." was the reply, "I need her... I want her back."

"Listen, I don't know if this will help, but... My daddy is gone too. The Diviner said he had been sent to some ruins by Chrysalis and that he's trapped there; I miss him very much."

Stormfly looked down, "It's not the same... Your father is alive, and you will see him soon, Cupheart is dead. I'll never see her again... And I don't even know if my poor baby is alive..."

"Don't say that. Someday you'll see them again."

A new voice joined them, "Exactly. That's because love never dies."

Stormfly stiffened as Shining Armor walked into the wagon, having woken up from hearing their conversation, and sat next to them. The Changeling had nothing against him, but thought the stallion was still sore about the Changeling Invasion seven years ago. Shining Armor, however, had already gotten over it after the incident at Twilight and Discord's wedding rehearsal.

"If you love her and as long as you never forget her, she'll live forever," he spoke softly, "As for your daughter, you must have faith that she is alive and well."

Stormfly couldn't help but give him a thankful glance, "Thanks... I guess," he thought for a moment. Should he tell the stallion about it? Perhaps it was for the best, "Speaking of which, there's something I should tell you..."

"Something to tell..." Shining was taken aback, "me? What is it?"

"At the Changeling Invasion, the Queen took the place of your bride and fed on your love, but... do you know how was your real bride captured?"

Shining Armor thought for a moment before shaking his head, "Not really... she never told me what had happened."

"Well... A Changeling took your shape and was to lure her away from everypony so that nopony would notice the exchange. When she was taken away from Canterlot, drones captured her and the Queen took her form, and the very Changeling who had tricked her into following him was ordered to take her to the caverns beneath Canterlot, and make sure she didn't escape." Stormfly looked down in shame, "But the Changeling felt sorry for her, because he was also in love with somepony, and he knew how it felt to be separated from her. When Celestia's student was sent down to the caves as well and she encountered with the princess, the Changeling did nothing to stop them and only watched as they escaped. And I suppose you know the rest of the story," Stormfly let out a humorless laugh.

Screwball and Shining Armor were surprised that he knew so much about the wedding.

"How do you know that?"

Stormfly closed his eyes, "Because... that Changeling was me."





	The darkness was sending shivers down his spine. But his orders were very specific; stay down in the caves and make sure the real Cadence didn't escape. That wasn't much of a problem; while she was still unconscious, he had glued her hooves to the ground with the characteristic, sticky substance his race produced. However, without any of his fellow Changelings knowing, Stormfly had been feeding the princess; after all, he didn't want to kill her of starvation. He hated ponies, that was true, but he would never go as far as killing them.

Surprisingly to the both of them, Stormfly and the princess were becoming... friends. At first, none of them spoke, the princess simply sobbed. Stormfly kept his distance as well, not wanting to associate with the race he despised the most; Alicorns. However, his curiosity had gotten the better of him, and he tried to start a conversation with her. As days passed, she started to loosen up a bit, and he had warmed up to her; eventually, he got to like her. She wasn't the spoiled, racist pony he had initially believed her to be; in fact, she was rather sweet, loving and friendly. She treated other races as equals, which surprised him quite a bit.

In one of those days (coincidentally, exactly at the time Twilight Sparkle was about to confront the disguised Queen Chrysalis in front of everypony), Stormfly had been unusually quiet. He placed Cadence's food next to her as usual, but he didn't say a word. He was looking longingly into the darkness ahead of him, as if he missed something... or somepony. Cadence could tell, because she had learned to see when a pony loved another. 

"Are you alright?" she finally asked, forgetting about her meal.

Stormfly looked away in sadness, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Look, I know we have only known each other for a few days, but I can tell that you're being bothered by something-"

"Do you love him?"

Cadence was surprised by the question, "E-Excuse me?"

Stormfly repeated his question, still not looking at her, "The Captain of the Royal Guard. Do you love him?"

This brought tears to Cadence's eyes.

"Of course I do! I love him like I've never loved anypony else. He is the love of my life, and right now he is with that... that..."

Stormfly finally looked at her, with the hurtful look still in his eyes, "How did he declare his love to you? What did he do?"

"Well... At first, we started as simply friends. We often saw each other when we were young, everytime I went to foalsit Twilight Sparkle," Cadence smiled slightly upon remembering the little filly she had come to see as a little sister, "And we hung out when she went to sleep. After Twilight left, Shining asked me to meet him in the Canterlot Royal Gardens. We spent a good time there, but after it started to rain, we had to go into a cave for shelter... then I felt an attraction to him."

"Attraction?"

"Yeah, he was so... caring, so courageous, so gentlecoltly... it was our first kiss, and I enjoyed every second of it."

Stormfly seemed to tear up after hearing this, but he fought them back, "... Wasn't he afraid you would reject him? Didn't he think you would scream at him to get lost?"

Cadence became confused by that question, "Why do you ask that?", then realization hit her, "... You're in love with somepony, aren't you?"

The Changeling couldn't hold it any longer, he gritted his teeth and started sobbing, his two single bangs still getting in the way, but he didn't care. His heart ached for her, yet she would probably never know. There was no reason for him to hide it from the princes, not anymore. She had just guessed it, anyway.

"Yes... I am in love with somepony..." Stormfly gave Cadence a quick, teary glance, "She is a nymph from my swarm... Cupheart is her name, and my heart and soul belong to her and her alone... Yet I do not have the courage to confess her of my feelings, and that's what hurts the most."

For a while, Cadence felt sorry for the tormented Changeling, but she did not know about the Changeling ways, and she wasn't even sure if the worker caste was allowed to mate, but she couldn't turn her back on somepony who needed comfort.

"... I'm sure that if you love her, you'll have the courage to talk to her, speak about your feelings and respect her decision, no matter if she may not return your feelings. True love is sacrifice; true love is allowing the pony you love to be happy, even with another pony. A stallion that truly loves allows his love to be happy with the pony she loves, whether if it's with him or with somepony else. But you're a very loyal, good-hearted Changeling. I wouldn't be surprised if she loved you back, after all, you deserve to be happy her."

By then, Stormfly was close to crying openly; he took Cadence's words by heart. Perhaps she was right... perhaps he only need to talk to her about what he felt... and if she didn't love him back, well... as long as she was happy, so would he. Suddenly, he felt a faint sound nearby; not exactly nearby, but at the other side of the rocky wall next to them. Finally, he made up his mind: he walked towards Cadence and touched the green substance that kept her on place with his horn, and in seconds the goo-like substance was gone. 

Cadence was free. 

"But..." she looked at the Changeling in shock, "... Why are you doing this?"

Stormfly smiled slightly with his back turned on her, "Consider it as my thanks for listening to me, for the advice... and my wedding gift. Speaking of which, the exit is that way," he pointed to some point in the distance Cadence couldn't see, "Goodbye, Cadence. I hope you're very happy with him."

Saying this, the Changeling disappeared into the darkness of the caves.





Nopony had words left when Stormfly was done. They hadn't expected him to know Cadence or for her to have befriended him, but that was the way of the world: sometimes things don't go as you would expect.

Stormfly sighed, blowing his bangs a little, "After that, I watched as she reunited with Celestia's student and they escaped the caves together."

Shining Armor looked at the ground in sadness, remembering the night that had happened. if his calculations were correct, what Stormfly had just told them had happened just as Twilight had rushed into the wedding rehearsal, accusing 'Cadence' of being evil, and how he had treated her after that, after all she had tried to do was to save him. It still made him feel guilty even after all these years, despite Twilight had claimed she had forgiven him.

Then there was her rehearsal; he had done exactly what she did, but in his case, he had misjudged Discord without knowing, letting himself to be influenced by what ponies said, and hurt her terribly. All because he wanted to keep his little sister for himself, all because he hadn't wanted to share her with anypony. In that case, she had every right to be angry at him. The words Stormfly had learned from Cadence, and which he had just told them, made him see that time in a new level now. 

"I..." he was speechless, "I know what do you mean. When Twiley was getting married to Discord, I thought he had brainwashed her. I crashed the rehearsal and accused him of having never changed, but that was a mistake. Now I know Discord, and I can tell he ad good intentions. But back then, I let my prejudice cloud my mind, and I hurt Twiley. She had wanted me to be her Best Colt, to be there for her in the most important day of her life, and yet I had to go and ruin it. Cadence was right when she said that 'true love is allowing the pony you love to be happy, even  with another pony,' I loved Twilight but I was blind those days. I thought that I was protecting her, but I was being selfish, I trying to separate her from true love. Luckily, Discord helped me realize that Twilight had all the right to choose who she wanted to be with, even it I didn't like it at first. And I am happy for her now, because she is very happy and she and Discord will have a family soon. That's why we must find them both!"

Screwball spoke, "Yeah! And we have to find auntie Cadence too! I want to meet her foal too! And don't worry, we will find your baby too! Then we can all be a family."

Stormfly was deeply moved by Screwball's words. She wanted him to be part of her family? She didn't mind of him being a Changeling?

"Everypony, we should go to sleep," Shining spoke again, "Tomorrow we'll have to search in Saddle Arabia, and that is one of the hottest, harshest places in Equestria, so we'll need all of our energies."

The three of them were about to return to their cabins when Screwball tapped Stormfly's flank.

"Before we go to sleep, could you tell me your daughter's name?"

Stormfly smiled a little before he answered.

"Mist Wing. Her name is Mist Wing."
> Sweet Dreams Are Made of This...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Who am I to disagree
Travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody is looking for something


Sombra was watching them at every hoof step.

He had been watching them since they escaped from Canterlot, and he had been attempting to stop them when the traitor Changeling and the Elements of Honesty and Loyalty were about to retrieve one of the three artifacts needed to bring him back. Chrysalis had already told him about her plan of letting them find the artifacts, and then she would personally snatch those from them, but still that didn't mean he would not take precautions. 

At that moment, he was in the train... well, not exactly in the train at all; as long as he was dead, he could only stay in his shadow form. He had slithered into Stormfly's cabin, and his horn was bubbling with black magic. He knew that Changelings used their horns to change their shapes and pass unnoticed, but... if he used his dark crystals on the little traitor in front of him, he wouldn't be able to use magic. In other words, he would be unable to change his shape. He silently shot a small stream of his black magic into Stormfly's horn, and bits of the infamous obsidian crystals started to grow on the tip of the Changeling's horn. He would be unable to change form now.

Now that he was on it... perhaps he could also get a little fun. It had been a long time since he tampered with somepony's dreams... or their worst fears. With a malicious grin, the black unicorn charged up a small beam of black magic, but this time he targeted to Stormfly completely; the Changeling was enveloped with a green aura for a moment, and when it was gone, Stormfly started to shift between the covers, gritting his teeth and gripping on the pillows.

"No..." He was whispering between sobs, "Don't take her from me... Give me my Mist Wing back..." 

Sombra licked his teeth in pure entertainment; he had also put a spell that would unable Stormfly to wake up until sunrise. Unfortunately, he would be unable to enjoy the Changeling's torture, for he had something else to do.


Some of them want to use you
Some of them want to be used by you


He was failing.

Discord attempted to stay awake, but his weariness was starting to overcome him. Everytime he went to sleep, the same, damn nightmare returned to haunt him; Twilight dying in childbirth, the baby being born dead, Sombra killing him... but the horrible, excruciating pain he felt on his chest each time. It was just a dream, but it still hurt.

And so, the Spirit of Chaos attempted to stay awake so he would not go through that sensation of pain again, but saying it was much easier than actually doing it. He wouldn't close his eyes, not even for the slightest moment, and it was gaining on him. He had bags under his eyes, which were a little reddish due to the lack of sleep. He didn't get any rest from the sleep, anyway; not with the damn nightmare.

To keep himself entertained, he would often remember the good times in his life: Screwball's birth (figuratively), the times they had together in Equestria, when he broke out of his prison stone for the first and second times, his friendship with Fluttershy. The times he cherished the most were his dates with Twilight, their wedding -and surprisingly, Shining Armor's drama in the rehearsal and their accidental entrapment in the cave were fond memories of that time as well-, and when he learned she was pregnant.

The nine months he spent with her after that were his best memories: he remembered when they went to check the gender of the baby, and learned they would probably be getting a boy. He remembered feeling his child's kicking on Twilight's big belly, and more than one time, he could feel his little hand. He remembered cooing Twilight, and taking care of her as she attempted to go with her daily life. He remembered when she would often have her mood swings, her craving for weird food, and the magical bursts that came out of nowhere.

He would NOT let those things come to an end. 

He had to get out of there.

He had to save Twilight.

But finally his tiredness dragged him into the realm of slumber... and nightmares.


Some of them want to abuse you
Some of them want to be abused


Twilight didn't know where she was.

She had no idea of where her friends, her brother or her husband were. She had no idea of where Screwball, Spike and Cadence were. All she knew was that she was in grave danger; they all had been captured by Changelings, and she was being kept in a dark cell where she could not see anything. She was also completely unable to use magic, for Chrysalis had made obsidian crystals root on the tip of her horn, and she was not able to use magic.

But what worried her the most was the baby. SHe was only given enough food and water to keep her alive, and she had heard from Rarity that it was very dangerous to keep a pregnant mare from her food cravings. Perhaps that was true, because she felt her unborn foal was moving each time less and less; although he didn't usually move unless his father was around, after her capture, he hadn't stopped kicking. But right now, she felt he was starting to weaken.

Speaking of which, she was starting to think 'he' was actually  'them'. Wherever she felt kicks, it was usually in more than one place; one kick on the right, another on the left, and other up. They were only suspicions, but she knew a mare's intuition could sometimes be very accurate. 

How she wished she was not in that dark place, but in Ponyville. She wished she could tell her family and friends, and especially Discord, about her suspicions. The thought of having not just one, but two, or perhaps even three babies would surely bring great joy to them. 

The lavender Unicorn felt a great longing for her home and her be loved beings, but right then, all she could do was... wait. And hope nothing bad happened to her baby... her babies.


I wanna use you and abuse you
I wanna know what's inside you


> Saddle Arabia
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shining awoke as soon as his ears caught the sound of the train's wheels screeching as they came to a halt, and when he looked through the window, he realized that he was no longer staring at the template, warm landscape of Equestria, but he was instead staring at an endless desert, with dunes from different sizes and shapes scattering through the land.

They had arrived in Saddle Arabia.

Picking up the first part of the scepter, the pole, Shining walked out of his cabin to reunite with the others and was surprised to find they were not there yet; they either had overslept or were still getting ready. Mares could take very long in getting themselves ready, he knew it by experience. However, he discarded that theory when, out of sudden, Rainbow Dash crashed into him, sending them against one of the seats, luckily he did not lose consciousness. However, he did give Rainbow Dash a small glare, but the panicky look in her face showed she had no time for that. 

"Shiny, I think we may have a problem with Stormie..." she spoke

"What?! What's wrong with Stormfly?!" he didn't give her time to continue, he abruptly stood up, not minding to wait for Rainbow Dash to stand up first, "Did he run away?!"

"Nope... it's a little more complicated... You should come and see."

The pegasus led Shining to Stormfly's cabin and he noticed Applejack and Spike were there already, standing on the other side of the room; Screwball was sitting next to the Changeling... that's when he realized Stormfly still hadn't transformed. 

"Come on, Stormfly," Applejack spoke, "Try one more time."

Stormfly cloud his eyes shut and gritted his fangs, attempting to transform, but the his magic just wouldn't work for some reason; he started sweating, but he did not stop. When he finally stopped, he panted heavily and attempted to recover his breath.

"I... Can't..." he whispered, "Something's blocking my magic..."

Shining noticed something on Stormfly's horn... small black crystals that looked like...

No... It couldn't be. 

"Stormfly, could you try again?" he asked, to which the Changeling reacted with a frustrated sigh.

"Come on! Didn't you just see I couldn't do it?!"

"Please! I think I know what's wrong with you, but I won't be able to confirm it if you don't cooperate!"

Stormfly sighed in defeat and once again attempted to transform; Shining focused his attention on the Changeling's horn, and realized that the black crystals were blocking Stormfly's magic, and prevented him from changing forms.

"Stormfly, I'm afraid Sombra put a curse on your horn. He planted obsidian crystals on it, and they will prevent you from using your magic."

"That idiot! I'm so going to kick his butt when I find him!" Rainbow Dash snapped.

Screwball stared at Stormfly's horn, "Isn't there any way to remove those crystals?"

Shining shook his head, "I don't know... the las title I had I had those things on my horn, i only got rid of them when the Crystal Heart banished Sombra and his dark crystals, but I don't know if we can remove it in any other way."

Stormfly smacked his forehead, "Great! What now?! If I go out like this, the pony folk will lynch me to death!"

Spike thought for a moment before speaking.

"Guys, now that I remember, there was a wagon filled with costumes, " he said, "How about we go there and find something for him to wear?"

The Changeling's eyes snapped open, "Wait a second!"





He was not happy.

The only thing they had found his size was a dark blue trench coat and cowboy hat, courtesy of Applejack, and a long scarlet red scarf. The scarf was wrapped around his snout and he was wearing socks to hide the holes in his legs. Unfortunately, he was very hot, and was sweating heavily underneath those clothes. And to enworse things, all the ponies that passed by gave him weird glances, to which Rainbow and Spike stated that he had a sensible skin and couldn't be exposed to the sun.

"Seriously?!" he snapped ,fluttering his wings -which were hidden underneath his coat- in annoyance and adding a bit of sarcasm, "Couldn't you have picked something hotter?"

Applejack rolled her eyes, "For the last time, it was the only thing we could find your size on. Stop being such a foal!"

Screwball giggled when she heard the Changeling mutter "I'll get my revenge" under his breath. But he was right in complaining about the clothing. All of the other ponies wore no clothing at all, but light scarves or hats to protect their eyes from the scorching sun. The buildings were simple buildings made out of stone and mud, most of them one or two stories high, with one or two windows. 

"So this is Al-Coltabh? The capital of Saddle Arabia?". Spike inquired, to which Shining Armor, nodded.

"Yep, one of the most beautiful cities  in Equestria."

Rainbow Dash looked around at some of the buildings worn by time, "Oh, yeah. How pretty." 

"That's because we're in the middle-class sector of the city," Stormfly explained as he fixed his scarf, "The rich neighborhood is much more attractive than this, believe me."

"Hey, how do you know about that?"

Stormfly looked at the ground in sadness, catching a glimpse of his scarlet socks, "... Because this is one of the places Cupheart and I visited after defecting from the hive."

The ponies realized Stormfly didn't wish to talk about it, so they decided to change the subject. 

"Where do we start looking? I mean, this desert is very big, and we may take weeks in searching for this said temple," Spike pointed out, "Shouldn't we be asking for directions?"

"If we do that, we might draw treasure hunters and they might attempt to steal the artifact from us," replied Shining.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, "Seriously, why colts don't like asking for directions?"

As the ponies and Spike discussed what to do next, Stormfly took a look around the neighborhood, waves of memories returning to him. Cupheart and he had come to this place when she was pregnant, and barely managed to stay undercover. A pregnant Changeling consumed more energy than usual due to having to keep the embryo, and the egg's shell forming around it, growing inside her body alive. But the smile vanished within seconds, for the good memories also brought painful ones. The argues they had about the baby when they were still part of the hive, the times he they would feel Cupheart's growing belly, the times Cupheart was close to a miscarriage, the attempts at guessing the hatchling's gender... all came back in an instant.

'I'm pregnant, Stormie! Can you believe it? We're going to be parents!'

'I'm afraid, okay?! Afraid that the hatchling will bring nothing but trouble!'

'I can't wait! I already want to incubate the egg after I lay it!'

'Why couldn't you have just used the damn protection! I did take my pill, but you didn't, did you?!'

'I have the feeling we are getting a girl, Stormie!'

'It hurts!'

I wish there was a way to get away from everything. From the Hive, from the Queen, everything. I would like to go somewhere, far away, to a peaceful place where we could raise our hatchling peacefully. We could even remain as ponies for the rest of our lives, if we wanted to!'

"STORMFLY!" the Changeling was brought back to the present when Rainbow Dash's voice rung at its highest volume in his ears, and he took a few steps back, almost tripping over his scarf. 

"Sorry... I was thinking on something else..." he apologized, fixing his hat.

Spike coughed, "Well, I don't know you guys, but unless we want to wander the desert for yard, we should really ask for help."

"Well... actually, I know somepony who can help."

Shining immediately stepped forward and started shaking Stormfly violently, "Who?! WHO?! IT'S URGENT! CADENCE AND TWILIGHT COULD BE GIVING BIRTH RIGHT NOW AND WE DON'T EVEN KNOW IF THEY'RE ALRIGHT!!!" 

Applejack tapped on his shoulder, "Huh, Shiny. I think you should really stop doing that."

Stormfly released himself off Shining's grip and barely managed to keep his hat on his head. He shook off the dust off his coat and accommodated his hat, his icy blue eyes staring at Shining Armor.

"An old friend of mine. He lives here, and he knows this desert much more than the ponies themselves. I'm sure he'll know the location of this temple, and I'm sure he won't mind taking us there."

"Awesome! Where can we meet this friend of yours?" 

"He lives on the other side of the city, in an abandoned barn near the South Gate. I can lead you there," but before the Changeling could move, the dehydratation started to gain on him. He would have collapsed if Screwball hadn't caught him in time; he blushed as soon as he felt Screwball's warm arms around him, but this time the scarf hid it.

"But... I think I will need one of you to carry me."





The south gate of Al-colthab lead directly into the desert of Saddle arabia, but there were few ponies who actually dared to head into the endless ocean of hot sand. The desert was merciless, if you went unprepared the price was very high. 

For that reason, Stormfly suggested upon driving at the worn-down barn that while he went to fetch that 'mysterious friend of his', as Rainbow Dash had put it, the others should gather supplies for the desert. When they were done, they would meet outside the city walls, which made the ponies grow suspicious. Why didn't they just meet in the central plaza, Spike had suggested, and Stormfly replied that his friend was shy and didn't like crowded places. 

And so, while Stormfly was looking for their guide, the group went shopping. Water, food, some clothes in case they were caught in a sandstorm, and lanterns, for when nighttime came, they had been told by the shopkeeper that the desert was not only dangerous during the day, but at night as well. The temperature almost dropped below zero degrees, and there were from few to none places to spend the night. For that reason, they also had bought some tents for when night came.

When going through the South Game, Shining Armor had offered to carry the saddlebags, despite the others' insistence that they could handle it. After a quick revision from the guards of the South Gate, they were allowed to pass into the desert, and  the group walked a little longer until they were sure nopony could see them. They had already put on their desert clothing, so they had no reason to worry about the heat.

"So, how do you think Stormfly's friend looks like?" Applejack inquired.

"I wonder who would befriend a Changeling at all," Rainbow added

"Perhaps he's a pony from the region." 

Shining added, "Or maybe another Changeling."

Spike didn't take part in the conversation; he thought the heat was affecting him, he had started to heard wing beating. But not Stormfly's: this wing beating was much slower, but strong, as if the wingspan was very long. The baby dragon looked around in the sky, shielding his eyes from the scorching sun.

But when he spotted the source of the noise, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.

"I bet he's tan. After all, anypony living in this climate would have a dark coat," Screwball suggested.

Spike muttered in fear, "Perhaps he is not a pony at all..." he gulped in worry,  "Maybe he's a big, black-scaled dragon with big bat wings, a whip-like tail and a sharp fangs."

The group turned to look at him in confusion, and Rainbow spoke, "What makes you think that?"

Spike pointed at the black spot in the sky, dashing towards them, "Because I think it's him!"

Indeed, before anyone of the group could do anything, the creature Spike had spotted landed a few meters away from them. Long and sharp claws like blades dug into the sand, and he moved it's whip-like tail constantly. His neck was long and arched slightly, his body was slim, but he was extremely strong enough to carry an entire wagon, and his wingspan was of about 3 meters. The underside of his wings were a sharp lilac, his underbelly was a more darker tone of purple, and he had a spiky mohawk on his head which was almost of the same coloration. He had toxic green eyes, and his head was sleek and very lizard-like; on the sides of his head he had three pairs of silver horns. 

A Kurosidae.

Stormfly landed a steps away from the group and walked closer to them, not noticing their state of shock.

"Everypony, this is Fukkuteru," he spoke while pointing to the black dragon, until he noticed the others were frozen, "Uh... hello?"

Fukkuteru walked closer to them, his pupils dilated slightly, and inspected the ponies carefully; he had to admit, it was amusing to see them in that state.

"So, this is the group you talked me about, Stormie..." he spoke with a deep, masculine voice, "... This is going to be harder than I thought."
> Hamuneightra
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The journey to the temple was... awkward.

Most of the trip, Shining and the others were quite nervous with Fukkuteru, and the Kurosidae enjoyed teasing them; wherever they kept staring at him, he playfully told them he didn't bite... much. The black dragon always let out a hearty laugh when he saw the ponies' reaction, particularly when Spike fainted after hearing the word 'bite' come out of his fellow dragon's mouth. Besides this fact, Fukkuteru was often shrouded in mystery. Wherever the ponies asked him about his species or where he came from, the dragon would simply reply that he would rather not talk about it. Spike himself knew little about the Kurosidae species, since they were reclusive and hostile to other dragons (the baby dragon was surprised Fukkuteru was polite with him), and nopony had been capable of documenting any writings about the Kurosidae. 

Fukkuteru knew the desert much more than the inhabitants themselves, like Stormfly had previously explained to the group. Apparently, he spent more time out at the desert than in the abandoned barn he lived in. The dragon would often fly away to scout the area every now and then, and return to the group afterwards. Apparently, the temple had some sort of defense mechanism, and was invisible to the naked eye until dawn, exactly six a.m. it would appear, like a mirage. However, after that, they only had ten minutes before it disappeared again.

After three days of traveling, the exhausted group finally came to the bottom of a canyon, the apparently vast desert stretching out to the horizon. There was not a tree on sight, not a single cloud on the sky, and the sky was still a little dark; but soon, the colors started changing from the deepest blue to a hot pink, then blood red and soon fiery orange was added into the sky's colorful display. Fukkuteru lied down on the sand, stretching out his wings and moving his tail right and left (the ponies figured Kurosidae did that when they were thinking). The black dragon pressed his open wings against the soft sand, then turned towards the group. 

"Everypony, get on my back."

The entire group gave the dragon an incredulous look.

"On you back?" Applejack gulped, "Y-You mean... We're going to fly?"

"That's right, if we ran we wouldn't get to the temple in time and we would have to wait for next morning to see it again."

Rainbow Dash spoke, "What about me and Stormfly? We have wings too, I don't think we need to and besides," the pegasus dove into the air with a proud grin on her face, "I could get there before you could say 'Kurosidae!'"

Fukkuteru grinned teasingly, "Then you've yet to see how fast a Kuros can fly."

Applejack gulped as she and the non-flying ponies climbed on the black dragon's back, although Shining was not sure if Fukkuteru would be able to carry all of them at once. Spike trembled as he felt the dragon's scales on his belly, Screwball decided to climb on Fukkuteru's head, much to the dragon's annoyance, but he said nothing about it. But the ponies trembled when the dragon stood up; he was taller than he looked. Rainbow Dash elbowed the dragon's leg.

"How about a race to the temple?"

"NO!" Applejack, Shining and Spike fired out in dismay.

"Yeah! A race! Cool!" Screwball cheered from the Kuros's head, earning a few glares.

"Game on, girl," Fukkuteru gave the pegasus a toothy grin, "The last on getting there is a changeling," he quickly turned to look at Stormfly, "No offense, Stormy..."

Stormfly, who by then had taken off the coat and hat (he kept the scarf, deciding it looked cool in him) simply shrugged as he flew to the Kuros's back, "Just try not to be too rough on us, would you? The last time I rode on you, I almost lost my horn."

Fukkuteru laughed heartily, "Oh, come on, Stormie! You enjoyed it!"

Stormfly sighed in dismay and turned to look at the group, "Hang on, it's going to be the heck of a ride."

"Alright, everypony, it's almost time..." the Kuros announced as he extended his wings and prepared to take off, Rainbow Dash preparing to do so as well  a few steps away from him. Shining and the others frenetically looked for something to hold on to, but Stormfly simply produced a little slime from the holes in his hooves to remain stuck to Fukkuteru's scales. The sun was finally rising from the horizon, and the first rays of sunlight illuminated the apparently empty space far from them, but after a few minutes, suddenly a mirage started to form, and to the incredulous eyes of the ponies, a temple appeared in the middle of the desert.

"NOW!"

Shining Armor and Applejack almost fell from the Kuros's back when he dashed into the air, but barely managed to get a hold of his tail, Screwball and Spike were grabbing on his horns on the top of his head, and Stormfly was still stuck to Fukkuteru's back. Rainbow Dash was hot on Fukkuteru's heels, and the black dragon gave her a taunting grin. Rainbow Dash accepted the challenge and flapped her wings as faster as she had never flapped them before. She was racing against one of the most fast creatures in all of Equestria (Twilight had commented once in the few notes she could find about the Kuros), and she wanted to prove to him that she was as fast, or even faster, than him. 

The temple mirage was enlarging the more they got closer, and it's shape started to solidify, showing to the ponies' eyes that it was real and there. Soon, Fukkuteru were nose-to-snout, but they didn't notice the grounded ponies horrified looks, or that Shining Armor and Applejack were slipping off the dragon's tail. They got closer and closer and closer...





"Come on, Rainbow Dash!" Spike told the upset pegasus as she smashed her hooves against rocks, "It was not that bad!"

"Easy for you to say!" she yelled, smashing another rock into tiny fragments, "You didn't lose against an overgrown lizard!"

"Don't worry, Fukkuteru, she doesn't mean it," Applejack whispered into the dragon's ear, "She's just having a tantrum, she'll get over it in a few minutes. It's just that she has never liked to lose."

Fukkuteru nodded slowly, staring at Rainbow Dash nervously, "I can see that."

"So this is the temple?" Shining Armor commented as he took a look at the long-abandoned temple. Its pillars were reminiscent of those ground in the original castle of Princesses Celestia and Luna, but the city itself was like a city in ruins, "What's its history?"

"It's name was Hamuneightra, also known as the 'City of the Dead', and it held so much importance to the Ancient Ponyptians that none but the Coltjai, the personal guard of the Pharaoh, and the High Priest of Coltsiris could ever know its location. Any that found the city would be silence by the Coltjai warriors that guarded it so as not to divulge the location." Fukkuteru explained.

"Wow, you sure know a lot about Ponyptians," Screwball commented, looking up at the dragon's head, "How do you know so much about them?"

"Mostly reading scrolls and the hieroglyphs inside. The Ponyptians left lots of artifacts behind."

"So we need to go inside?" Rainbow Dash inquired, finally having calmed down, "How are we getting in?"

"Over here," Fukkuteru led the ponies to a small square-shaped opening on one side of the ruins, with a shining, circular mirror sending sunlight reflections inside the darkness below. Rainbow Dash soon grow nervous.

"We're going... Underground?"

"It's the only way to go in, the main entrance is blocked from the inside and my magic is not strong enough to unlock it." Fukkuteru explained as the let his long tail hang from the edge of the opening and into the apparent darkness, "So, who's going first?"

"Me," Shining Armor lifted his hooves, "i have to make sure it's not dangerous down there."

The white stallion descended down the Kuros's tail, and noticed that the reflected light of the mirror was pointing at another circular mirror, which pointed to another, and so on, illuminating the entire room. Stone and wooden tables long forgotten and covered in dust and spiderwebs were scattered across the chamber, with unknown tools across the floor. 

"It's alright, everypony!" Shining called out, "You can come down now!"

One by one, Applejack, Spike, Screwball and Stormfly climbed down Fukkuteru's tail and looked around, amazed at the sight. Rainbow Dash hesitated at first until Fukkuteru lost his patience, wrapped his tail around her waist and placed her on the dusty ground below. Finally, the Kuros climbed down through the opening and joined the group.

"This is the preparation room, everypony," he announced.

"Preparation for what?" Spike inquired as the Kuros walked past them, giving the baby dragon a grin.

"To pass to the Other Life."

Stormfly rolled his eyes, "Mummies, Spike. This is where they made the mummies."

Shining Armor used an illumination spell, and his horn started to shine brightly, illuminating part of the tunnels Fukkuteru led them through, but Spike didn't notice when he stepped on a switch on one of the stones...





"So they opened ponies and took their organs out?" Spike spoke with repulsion as the other ponies had similar looks on their faces.

Fukkuteru nodded, "Indeed, and their brain was taken out from their head by first inserting a hot red iron in their noses, twisted it around inside and then they drained it through their nose."

"If I don't make it out of here, don't sign me up for mummification," Rainbow dash commented while looking around at the hieroglyphics in the walls.

Screwball stuck her tongue out, "Me neither."

Applejack inquired, "Only Pharaohs were buried here?"

"Yes. When a burial took place inside the Hamuneightra, only the High Priest of Coltsiris an his priests, accompanied by soldiers and slaves, could be present. The slaves were made to do the hardest work, digging graves, then they were murdered by the soldiers that were in turn murdered in turn by the priest so the tone might ever reveal the exact location. It eventually replaced the pyramids of old as the resting place of the pharaohs and their possessions. But the only bad thing is that it hosts different booby traps and deterrents of grave robbers, plunderers or, in our case, a exploration team."

"Discord is supposed to be here?" Applejack inquired.

Shining nodded, "The zebra we met on the crystal mountains told us to come here, so he must be here."

"Shouldn't we split up to explore the temple? We'll have more chances of finding Discord that way," Spike suggested

"No, it's dangerous to split in trap-filled ruins, it will be best if we stick together."

Unbetsknown to them, Screwball was examining some strange hieroglyphs on the walls which bore some resemblance to the Changelings, but suddenly a trap wall opened and she fell inside, the wall closing behind her. Similarly, Rainbow Dash and Spike were walking side by side when another trap wall in the other end activated and they were dragged inside. The others just kept walking, not noticing three members of their party had disappeared.





"Hello?! Somepony!" Screwball cried out as she smashed her hooves against the trap wall, trying to activate it again, "Uncle Shiny! Stormfly! Fukkuteru! I'm trapped in here!"

The pink pony smashed her hooves against the brick wall for a while before realizing it would not open; Screwball looked around the darkness in the secret passage, wondering what to do next. Her ears started twitching to a faint sound, coming from the depths of the tunnel. After a while, Screwball decided to follow the source of the sound, perhaps it was Spike or Applejack. As she blindly advanced through the dark passage, the sound became clearer the further she went and identified as baby sobbing. 

After a while, Screwball used her magic to lighten up the place, and noticed she had come to a secret tomb. There were no hieroglyphs in the walls, and there were unlit torches scattered across the floor. What caught the pony's attention was a small bundle of blankets in the end of the, which was letting out sobs almost every few seconds. Screwball gulped the lump in her throat as she warily walked closer to the bundle. When she finally came close enough to the bundle to take a look at the abandoned infant, she let out a small gasp.

It was a baby Changeling.

It was tiny, slightly smaller than Pumpkin Cake and Pound Cake, and she had two tiny fangs on her mouth, which would grow longer as she grew. After a while, Changeling opened her eyes, which turned out to be a shade of gray, like Stormfly's... 

Just then, realization came into her. 

This was Stormfly's daughter.

This was Misty Wing.

The Changeling infant stare up at the pony in curiosity, as if asking 'who are you?'. After a while, Misty Wing let out a giggle and held up her tiny hole.filled hooves to Screwball, who couldn't help but smile. Lifting up the Changeling and placing her on her back, Screwball walked down a tunnel on the side of the chamber.

She couldn't wait to see Stormfly's face.





"I can't believe it!" Rainbow Dash smashed her hooves against the wall in frustration, "We separated from the others! Again!"

"Come on, Rainbow Dash! it's not that bad!" Spike tried to calm her down, "All we need to do is to follow this passage, surely we'll find a way out and we'll reunite with the others."

"Easy for you to say! You're not a pegasus underground! I don't like it! It's horrible, I can't fly in here without crashing against something!"

"Instead of complaining, we should concentrate on finding the way out! The sooner we find the others, the sooner we'll get out of here!"

Rainbow Dash sighed in dismay and followed Spike through the tunnel, her ears drooped and her nerves pricked.





"This is the place?" 

"It's the sacrificial chamber, it's where the worst blasphemer Ponyptians attempted to rise from the dead, but it was a forbidden art and the punishment was to be mummified alive with meat-eating scarabs," Fukkuteru explained as the group descended a flight of stair into a large chamber, with moats of black liquified pony remains within the chamber. Unlit torches were scattered across the walls, and the sacrificial shrine was covered in both hieroglyphs and dust.

"Meat-eating... Scarabs?" Applejack gulped, "I wouldn't want to meet those things..."

Stormfly sniffed the air, catching a familiar scent, "I think Discord is near, I can smell the Queen's royal jelly."

"Royal Jelly?" All the group repeated in confusion, which made Stormfly sigh in frustration.

"The green slime we use for making cocoons."

When the group was done descending, they saw that, indeed, there were... two cocoons hanging from the ceiling. One was much larger than the other, and the group managed to identify one of the shapes...

"DISCORD!"

Discord twitched his ears when familiar voices reached his ears. A stallion, mares, and two voices unknown to him, but at least that mean he was going to be rescued at last. 

Shining Armor shot a ray from his horn at the cocoons and they fell to the ground with a loud thud, making its hosts grunt in pain. Fukkuteru immediately used his claws to cut the largest cocoon open, and everypony helped the Kuros bring the Draconequus out of the cocoon. 

"What...? Discord squinted his eyes, but his vision was still blurry, "Is it only me, or there's a Kuros in front of me?"

"Discord!" Applejack grabbed the Draconequus by the shoulders, "Do you know where Twilight and the others are?!"

"A-Applejack...?" Discord whispered, his vision clearing, "Is that you? But to answer your question, no, I don't. I was about to ask you!"

"But who's in the other cocoon, then?"

The group remained silent for a while, then after a few seconds rushed to the other cocoon and started to claw it open. A pink pony lay inside, unconscious. 

"Pinkie Pie!"

The mare let out a yawn, and suddenly stood up abruptly, her eyes snapping open, "Everypony! I had the weirdest dream ever! I dreamt the Changelings attacked and I was taken into a dark and scary temple with Discord and put inside green slime!" the Earth Pony noticed Fukkuteru and Stormfly, "And then I saw a big black dragon and a Changeling!"

"Pinkie Pie!" Applejack wrapped her hooves around Pinkie Pie's neck, "I'm so glad you're okay!"

Discord finally managed to stand up, having recovered his sight completely, and looked around searching for certain a pony,  "Speaking of which, where's my little Screwball?"

Stormfly looked back, "She's right-", he froze in place when he realized she was missing, "... I don't know where."

"WHAT?!" Discord grabbed the Changeling violently and shook him, "What did you do to my daughter, you love-sucking monster?!"

Stormfly was trembling nervously and didn't have the courage to reply, and was thankful when Shining Armor lifted him from Discord's grasp and placed him on the ground.

"It's alright, he's on our side," he explained, "But we don't know where Screwball is, she was right behind us."

"Screwball's lost!" Pinkie Pie yelped in shock, "Oh, no! She must be all lonely and cold and sad because she's on her own out there!"

Applejack then noticed somepony else was missing, "Rainbow Dash and Spike are not here neither."

Fukkuteru stared at the pink pony with a look that the others read as 'she's-completely-mad-or-what?', and winced when she started hopping in front of him to look him at the eyes, "Do you know where to find her, Mr. dragon?"

"I... I..." Fukkuteru grew nervous, and he started to sweat.

"Fukkute, are you alright?" Stormfly inquired, "You look... Well, nervous."

"Nervous?! Hahaha!" Fukkuteru spoke with a loud tone, "I'm not nervous! It's not that I don't like ponies with that type of character!"

Applejack narrowed her eyes, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"We'll deal with that later!" Shining raised his voice to call everypony's attention, "We have to find Screwball, Rainbow Dash and Spike! We can't leave them in here!"

"I-I agree c-completely..." Fukkuteru gulped the lump in his throat and stepped away from Pinkie Pie, but shuddered when she gave him an over-friendly smile and stepped towards him, thinking it was a game, "Do what you do, do not step on any block traps."

"What's a block trap?" Discord asked in confusion before stepping on a stone which sunk into the ground.

The group became alarmed when everything started to shake and tremble, like an earthquake, and stalactites started to fall from the ceiling. What scared the ponies the most was to notice that the ceiling was slowly caving into them. Discord gulped the lump in his throat.

"Uh oh."
> The Pyramid
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Screwball panicked when everything around her started to crumble and fall apart. The Changeling hatchling on her back started to cry hysterically, filling the mare's ears wit both baby shrieking and falling stone all around her. Screwball started to run, looking desperately for a way out; she had to find Stormfly! She had to give him his daughter back! 
All the possible escape routes were being blocked by the falling debris before she even had a chance to check if they led outside, and she was getting desperate by the second.
Screwball kept running through the tunnel seemingly endless tunnel, dodging rocks and stalagmites that fell from the ground. , making sure Misty Wing was not hurt by it. The mare finally spotted a light in the distance, apparently heading into the sunlight, into freedom, and away from the falling place. Screwball narrowed her eyes and ran, ran like she had never ran before, towards the light. When she was a few hoofsteps away from the light, she closed her eyes shut. fearing for the worst...





"LEFT!" Spike cried in horror as the cyan pegasus avoided another falling rock which nearly crushed them, "BE CAREFUL, RAINBOW DASH!!!"

"DON' TELL ME HOW TO FLY!!!" Rainbow Dash snapped back in frustration, not getting her eyes off the route.

When the trembling started and the tunnel started to collapse, Rainbow Dash got the baby dragon on her back quickly and flew towards a random direction, right then not caring about which way to go, but to find a way out. But she was starting to tire out, and her wings ached from flapping them so hard. Rainbow Dash looked around frenetically, with nowhere else to go, all the exits had been already blocked by the rocks. Spike looked at the ceiling and noticed a single ray of light filtering through the ceiling.

"Rainbow Dash!" the baby dragon pointed at the ceiling, "Up there! That's our only way out!" 

Rainbow Dash looked up to the ceiling and a grin appeared on her face when she spotted the hole; it seemed to be small, but it couldn't stop her. Nothing could. The pegasus dashed towards the ceiling as everything underneath was finally starting to give in to the temblors. Spike closed his eyes in fear...





"DISCORD! WE NEED TO GET OUTTA HERE!!! NOW!!!" Applejack cried out in horror as everything around them collapsed.

Discord groaned in dismay, "I wish I could help you with that, but the bug queen put a curse on me and I can't use my magic! If I could, we would already be out of here!

"GET ON MY BACK!!!" the Kuros roared, crouching to have the ponies climb onto him. Shining, Applejack and Stormfly climbed onto him, but Fukkuteru felt a shudder down his spine when Pinkie climbed onto him, but decided to save it for later and turned to look at the Draconequus, "You too!"

"What?!" Discord replied in astonishment, "In case you haven't noticed, I have wings!"

"But you're still weak from being in here for so long! You are in no condition to fly!"

Discord didn't like being ordered around by a Kuros, but knowing they had no time to argue, he complied and climbed onto the black dragon's back. Fukkuteru stretched his wings and took off almost immediately, not giving the ponies on his back time to hold on, and Applejack would have fallen hadn't Discord caught her tail just in time.

Fukkuteru flew through a passage above them that the ponies had not seen, but even that tunnel was shaking and falling apart due to the trap. Fukkuteru launched lilac-colored fireballs at any rocks that fell in front of them, or at any sudden stone trapdoors which blocked their path. Pinkie Pie seemed to be enjoying the ride, for she was stretching out her hooves and crying out in happiness, making Fukkuteru roll his eyes nervously. Stormfly looked back, being in the Kuros' rear, and his horror increased when he saw a tsunami of lava heading towards them, as if wanting to drag them back.

"Guys..." he stuttered, "I don't want to alarm you, but I think the ancient Ponyptians don't want us to leave."

In confusion, the group (minus Fukkuteru) turned around and the very sight of the lava made them tremble. Pinkie Pie, however, just laughed louder, earning a shocked stare from Fukkuteru.

"Seriously?!" he yelled, "How can she be laughing at a time like this?!"

"You haven't seen anything yet!" Applejack replied, forcing her look back to the front.

"Talk later!" Discord cried out in frustration, "First let's get the heck out of here so that I can look for my daughter!"

"Wait a minute!" Fukkuteru exclaimed, "How can she-?"

"WALL!!!" Shining screamed, pointing at the lowering gate with his hoof, alerting the Kuros. Fukkuteru reacted in time and launched a fireball, destroying the gate.

"Look where you are going!!" Stormfly cried out in terror.

"Sorry!" The Kuros apologized, "Don't worry, we should be getting out of here soon!"

Shining Armor closed his eyes shut, waiting for everything to be over...





When he opened his eyes again, he realized he was no longer in Fukkuteru's back, but on sand. He covered his eyes with his hoof until his eyes adjusted to the scorching sunlight, and wondered if he was alone, but soon realized he wasn't.

"LET ME GO BACK THERE!!!"

"FOR WHAT?! THERE'S NOTHING LEFT!! THE TEMPLE IS GONE!!!"

"I DON'T CARE!! MY DAUGHTER WAS STILL IN THERE!!!"

"IF SHE WAS, THEN THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO!!!"

Realizing the screams ringing in his ears belonged to Discord and Fukkuteru, Shining Armor looked around and was shocked to find that where once stood a temple, there was nothing but sand and sky. Discord was attempting to slip from Fukkuteru's grip, but the Kuros was much stronger. Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Stormfly were sitting a few hoofsteps from them, waiting for them to be done arguing.

"Why are they fighting?" Pinkie Pie inquired, "We should be happy! We're all together now! How about we throw a party?"

Fukkuteru froze for a second, before giving Pinkie Pie a look that obviously read 'Are you nuts?'.

"A party?!" he stated, still altered, "You want to throw a party in a moment like this?! The temple's gone, Rainbow Dash, Spike and Screwball are missing and Discord here is not cooperating!"

"Screwball!!!" Discord roared up at the sky, already feeling anguish pour over him live a bucket of cold water.

"Well, what would your reaction be if you lost your daughter?!" Applejack snapped at the Kuros.

"I understand, but come on! Who would survive something like that?!"

"You don't understand, do you?! If Rainbow Dash and Spike were there as well, if they're dead as you say, then we won't be able to use the Elements of Harmony!"

Stormfly sighed and shook his head, "Ponies..." he sighed. However, deep down, he was worried for Screwball and hoped she was still alive.

Suddenly, Discord lunged at Fukkuteru and the two started wrestling, mostly on Discord's part, who already had tears of anger rolling down his cheeks. The Kuros managed to hold against Discord, but the Draconequus's rage had no limits. 

"How could you let my daughter die?!" Discord hissed.

"Hey, cool it down!" Fukkuteru snapped, finally overcoming Discord, "Look, I'm sorry I was not able to protect your daughter, but fighting is not going to solve this!"

A new voice joined the conversation, "Very wise words, even if they're coming from a Kuros."

The group turned around to see the Diviner, the zebra which had directed them there, standing a few hoofsteps from them.

"I knew I'd find you here," she smiled, "I see the information the spirits gave you proved to be quite useful. But I must tell you, I have discovered the whereabout of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza."

At the mention of his wife, Shining Armor nearly had a hear attack, "You know where she is?!" he yelled, standing up and running towards the zebra, "Where is Cadence?! Is she alright?! How's the baby?!"

"I'm afraid the spirits cannot see for the unborn foal, for he has not yet come into the world; his fate is linked to that of his mother. Princess Cadence lies imprisoned in a pyramid, on the desert's farthest confines. Travel there and you'll find her imprisoned in its depths."

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"It is my pleasure to help you save Equestria from the horrors it faces."

"Everypony, we must find a pyramid!" Fukkuteru used his magic to lift the wingless ponies off the ground and unto his back, and flew away, soon followed by the still distraught Discord, who gave the zebra a suspicious look before flying after the Kuros.





Screwball regained consciousness when she felt licking against her face. Opening her eyes, she saw Mist Wing was attempting to wake her up, and started to giggle and hoop around when she noticed she was awake. Screwball stood up, shook the sand off her coat and looked around. The temple was gone, but luckily she was unscratched. Picking Mist Wing up and putting her on her back, the mare walked away from the spot, trying to find a sign of her friends, but to no avail. 

What was she going to do? She was completely alone, and she had no food or water to make her way back to the city, not that she even remembered how to go back, anyway. And with Mist Wing it would be harder; she didn't know how to care for a hatchling, nor how to feed them. 

"We made it!" a familiar voice reached her ears.

"But we don't know if the others made it! They may be buried under the sand right now!"

"Let's not be pessimistic. Perhaps they managed to escape before the temple disappeared."

"Rainbow Dash?" Screwball called out for the pegasus, "Spike?! Is that you, guys?!"

"SCREWBALL?!" the pegasi soon rose into the air, with Spike on her back, and descended next to the mare with a look of ecstasy in her face, "You're okay!"

Suddenly, Mist Wing's attitude changed and she started hissing at Rainbow Dash, making her step back in shock, "Screwball, why do you have a baby Changeling with you?"

"It's Stormfly's baby, Mist Wing," Screwball explained, "But she was not this aggressive when I found her."

"Girls," Spike spoke up, "I hate to interrupt, but we're stuck in the middle of the desert with no food, no water and no shelter! And we don't know where the others went!"

"I think we should go back to Ponyville," Screwball suggested, after all, the Elements of Harmony are stored in Twilight's library. They'll have to go there to get them and defeat King Sombra, right?"

Spike thought for a moment, "I suppose she's right."

"Alright," Rainbow Dash stated before looking at Mist Wing in disgust, "But try to keep her away from me as much as possible, okay?"

Saying this, the pegasi took flight and lifted Screwball in her hooves, but soon after taking off and flying in the direction of the city, she started to fatigue due to having to carry a baby dragon, a mare and a baby Changeling by herself.

She just hoped the city was not that far away.





Discord was silent the rest of the way.

He blamed the Kuros for his daughter's demise, Shining knew it, but there was nothing Fukkuteru could have done. After all,  the temple had sunk out of sudden on Discord's part, unintentionally of course. However, Discord would not give the Kuros a single glance.

After what seemed like hours of traveling, Fukkuteru landed on a canyon, and the ponies climbed down his back; Discord landed next to Fukkuteru, but he still was mourning for Screwball. Once again, the black dragon grew nervous when Pinkie Pie started hopping around him playfully. 

"This way leads to the Great Pyramid..." Fukkuteru gulped, stepping away from Pinkie Pie, and again she stepped next to him, "We must first for the entrance to the Pyramid and then we go in; but I must warn you, these Pyramids have deadlier traps than those in the temple."

"Are you nuts?!" Discord exclaimed, "I wouldn't go in there if you paid me! Who knows what lurks in there!"

"Come on, Discord!" Stormfly exclaimed, "Princess Cadence is in there!"

"I'm afraid he is right," Fukkuteru sighed, "Discord and I are too big and we won't fit into the doors. I'm afraid that from here, you'll have to go into the Pyramid on your own, guys."

"Yeah, it's like a tour!" Pinkie jumped to the Kuros's head, "It's like that time we went to the zoo with Fluttershy and there was a nice pony who guided us the whole way!" 

Applejack and Stormfly laughed when Fukkuteru's eyes rolled back and he fainted on the spot, but once again wondered why he acted like that around Pinkie Pie. The pink pony landed next to him and stared at the unconscious black dragon in confusion, tapping him with her hoof to wake him up.

Discord sighed, "We'll wait for you here."

Shining Armor nodded, and he walked into the canyon, followed by Applejack, Stormfly and Pinkie Pie. The draconequus sat down next to the unconscious Kuros, waiting for him to wake up.





When they stepped into the pyramid, they found themselves in a world of darkness. The tomb had been abandoned for centuries, and so there was not a source of light when they crossed the gate. Shining Armor used the illumination spell to lighten the passage, and they were met with countless hieroglyphs depicting Ponyptians worshipping their pagan deities, or drawings or the Pharaoh walking into the Other Life with the sun god at his side. 

"Aw, look!" Pinkie pointed at the hieroglyphs, "They painted on the walls and nopony told them anything! Can I draw something too?"

Stormfly rolled his eyes, "Those are hieroglyphs... Pinkie Pie, right? Well, the point is those are not simple drawings, they are messages the Ponyptians left for those who dared to break into this tomb- PINKIE!" he yelped when he noticed Pinkie Pie had already started drawing doodles on the wall. Where had she gotten a crayon, anyway?

"Be quiet, listen!" Shining narrowed his eyes and paid attention to a sound coming from the end of the tunnel...

"Help!" a voice was calling out for somepony, "We're trapped!"

He recognized that voice instantly.

"CADENCE!!!" the stallion quickly ran down the tunnel, not giving Stormfly and Pinkie Pie time to react, and they after him, guided by his illumination spell.

The trio came to a large chamber, decorated with hieroglyphs like the passage, but this chamber, unlike the tunnel, was actually illuminated by a few torches. There was a giant statue depicting a timberwolf-like pony staring down at the ponies, as if it was staring down at the at them. But what called their attention was a force-field trapping a pregnant pink alicorn... and a yellow pegasus.

"Fluttershy!" Pinkie Pie cried out happily, running to the edge of the force field, "You've been here keeping Princess Cadence company all along? That's sweet of you!"

"I'm so glad to see you, Pinkie..." Fluttershy, "But we are trapped."

Cadence felt tears of joy coming to her eyes as Shining Armor ran to her side, although the force field prevented them from hugging each other, "Shining, you came!"

"Hey, Cadence," Stormfly said sadly, "It's nice to see you again, though I would have liked it to be under different circumstances."

"Stormfly?" Cadence put her hoof against the field wall, "Is that you?"

"Cadence!" the white unicorn thought he would cry of joy, "Are you alright? How's the baby?"

"Shining, you don't have much time!" Cadence cried out in fear, "Chrysalis's minions imprisoned us here as a gift to a Ponyptian god! I don't know how much time you have before they return!You must hurry and get us out of here!"

Shining was confused, "A Ponyptian god?"

Suddenly, Fluttershy let out a piercing scream and pointed at something behind the ponies' back. The statue of the timber-pony had started to move, and  was now slowly walking menacingly towards the cage, to examine its tribute.

Fluttershy fainted on the spot.

Cadence took a hoof to her lips in shock and horror, and her unborn foal started to shift in her womb, sensing her fear.

Shining and Stormfly got themselves in a fighting position, ready to defend the captive mares.

Pinkie Pie just said, "Awesome!"
> Reunion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discord was pacing around Fukkuteru, waiting for the Kuros to wake up, but apparently it would take a while before the black dragon woke up on his own, so he decided to sped up the process. Snapping his fingers, Discord made a bucket of chocolate milk appear floating in the air, took it in both his hands and splashed its content all over the Kuros. Fukkuteru almost instantly stood up, shaking the liquid off himself.

"What the-?!" he snapped in shock, before looking down to see a drop of chocolate milk rolling down his leg, "What is this?! I thought what was used to wake unconscious ponies up was water."

"It is," Discord muttered, "But I wanted to see your face in chocolate milk."

The Kuros looked confused, "What's chocolate milk?"

Discord's eyes snapped open in shock, "What?! Are you serious? Have you never tasted chocolate milk?"

"Not really. Where I come from, we do not even have milk."

"Explains your attitude."

Fukkuteru was offended by the last remark, "Excuse me?"

"You abandoned my daughter in the temple!"

"Wait a second!" Fukkuteru hissed, "Like I told you before, there was nothing I could do! I didn't even realize she had separated from us! Besides, if somepony hadn't stepped on the switch, we would have been able to look for her!"

"Oh, so now it is my fault?!"

Fukkuteru crossed his arms, "Technically, yes."

Discord clenched his fists at the Kuros calm behavior; did he even feel any remorse for Screwball's death at all? Or did he not even care at all? 

"Come on, Discord," Fukkuteru finally said after a while, "Look, I'm sorry I wasn't able to look after Screwball, but now's not the time to out the blame on somepony. Now we need to find the rest of your friends, and to defeat the ponies who caused this. But to do that we need to be calm and able to think clearly. You can yell at me once all of this is over."

Although still upset, Discord understood what he meant, and gave the Kuros a short nod, "Fine."

"Good," the Kuros wasn't able to contain himself any longer and licked one of the drops of chocolate milk from his wing, "Hey, this is really good! Mind if you gave me some more once all of this is over too?"

Discord couldn't help but roll his eyes at the black dragon, but felt rather amused when the black dragon started to lick whatever drops of chocolate milk were left on his body. After a while, the draconequus looked at the pyramid, wondering what was going on in there.





Stormfly yelped in pain as he was thrown against the wall by the timber-pony, but managed to get back on his hooves and throw another beam of green magic at it, just to have it deflect the beam and send it shooting at another direction. Pinkie Pie was surprisingly calm about the whole ordeal; in fact, she was avoiding magic beams from the timber-pony as if they were playing dodgeball, further annoying the timber-pony. Applejack was dong a similar thing with a rope; she was attempting to make the timber-pony trip to gain some time, but it was not working.

Cadence was tending to an unconscious Fluttershy; the pegasus had fainted on the spot after first seeing the monster whose mind was set on killing the intruders and claim its gift. Shining Armor spent every bit of strength he had to keep it away from his wife, but the timber-pony was gaining ground, and the unicorn was running low on magic. Stormfly helped as best as he could, but due to his small size there was little he could do against the much-larger beast. How he wished he could use his magic to turn into a larger creature.

"This is useless!" Stormfly cried in pain after being thrown against the wall for about the tenth time, "He's too powerful! At this rate, we'll be dead before we can even lay a hoof on him!"

"I'm afraid he's right, Shining," Cadence agreed with the Changeling, growing worried for her friends' condition, "What we need to do is escape and trap him in here!"

"And how are we supposed to do that?" The unicorn replied, firing yet another beam at the timber-pony, "I can't repel the force-field around you while keeping the thing away at the same time! I need to concentrate on he field," Shining twirled his head to look at the Changeling, "You, Applejack and Pinkie will have to keep him busy!"

Stormfly nodded rapidly, "Got it!"

"Hurry up, would you? This guy is tough!" Applejack groaned as she flung her rope at the timber-pony's legs, but it was crushed for the third time.

The timber-pony failed to strike Pinkie Pie again, and in frustration, it's tail whipped struck the wall instead, almost striking Stormfly. At least Pinkie Pie was having no trouble keeping him busy at all. After a while, Stormfly decided to leap into action and, flying to the opposite wall, called out at the beast, "Hey, you pathetic excuse for a god! I'm over here!"

The timber-pony snarled and lunged at Stormfly, but crashed against the wall when the Changeling quickly dodged his fangs; Shining Armor was almost done with the force field, which was starting to fade away. Fluttershy was already regaining consciousness, but Cadence was worried that she might faint again upon seeing what was going on outside their prison. Finally, the force-field gave away and completely disappeared, freeing Cadence and Fluttershy. 

But it was still not the time for reunions. Stormfly clenched his teeth in pain as one of the timber-pony's spines pierced deep into his exoskeleton, something which he had thought was not possible by normal standards. His right hind leg was bleeding, and every muscle in his leg was aching. Cadence was very worried for the Changeling, but couldn't do anything as  Shining Armor gently shoved her and Fluttershy towards the entrance of the pyramid. With great effort, Stormfly flapped started flapping his wings and flew towards the entrance, followed by the still playful Pinkie Pie, and Applejack.

"Hurry!" Shining shouted as he fired a beam at the tunnel, "We're almost there!" 

Pinkie Pie shoved the injured Changeling into her back and ran as all of the tunnel behind them started to collapse, and the timber-pony, despite its attempt to pass through the falling rocks, failed to do so, and soon he was crushed by the giant stone blocks. Cadence was starting to slow down, fearing that all of the effort would somehow hurt her unborn foal. Shining Armor used his magic to lift his wife off the ground and carried her all the way out, avoiding the falling debris. Finally, the group jumped out of the pyramid and unto the sand outside, with the sun glaring down on them. Cadence softly landed on the sand, Stormfly landed on his injured leg and let out a snarl of pain. Fluttershy and Applejack landed on the sand, but the timid pegasus was breathing heavily.

"Is everypony alright?" Pinkie Pie asked the others like nothing, a grin on her face.

"Owowowow...." Stormfly limped towards Cadence to check on her, "Cadence, are you alright?"

"I think so..." the pink alicorn replied softly, looking down at her belly, "I think the foal is alright too."

"CADENCE!" 

Instantly, Shining Armor was at his wife's side, and embraced her tightly, and was hugged back. Then they kissed various times.

"Shining! You came for me!" said Cadence joyfully, burying her face into the unicorn's neck.

"Of course I came for you! I love you, and I would never let anything happen to you!"

"Guys," Stormfly groaned, "I hate to interrupt, but my leg is bleeding! And not only that, we don't have the second artifact!"

"Artifact?" Pinkie Pie tilted her head, "You mean a big, round golden ring with pretty pony carvings on the sides?"

The other ponies gave her an incredulous look.

"H-How do you know that?" Applejack asked slowly.

Pinkie smiled, "Well, the big, bad pony who just attacked us had a pretty ring around its tail and I took it because I thought it would be a pretty souvenir for Twilight when we found her," saying this, Pinkie held out a golden ring, large enough to fit into the scepter, with carvings of ponies on the sides.

Fluttershy spoke, "Excuse me, everypony, but what are you talking about?"

"A long... story..." Stormfly replied through clenched teeth.

Shining Armor softly took the ring from Pinkie Pie's hoof and accommodated on the scepter's end; a golden light blinded the present ponies, and when their eyes adjusted to the light, they saw the ring and the pole had fused. Now there was only one relic left.

"Hey, everypony!" DIscord's voice called out for them, "I need some help with the Kuros here!"

The group walked (limped, in Stormfly's case) to where Discord and Fukkuteru had waited for them. When Fluttershy set her eyes on the black dragon for the first time, she nearly fainted, until she noticed he was resting on the ground, a rather dumb expression on his face, as if he was drunk.

"Cadence! Fluttershy!" Discord spoke when he noted the two newcomers, "So here you were all the time! Well, this is Fukkuteru, but I'm afraid he's quite... indisposed right now. He over drank my chocolate milk."

Applejack sighed in frustration, "What do we do now? Walk all the way back to the station?"

"I guess we don't have that much choice, unless we wait here until Fukkuteru regains his consciousness."

"Isn't Twilight Sparkle with you?" Cadence asked hopefully, looking around for the lavender unicorn.

Discord looked down in sadness, "I'm afraid not."

Fluttershy, meanwhile, had walked to the black dragon's side and was timidly examining him. It was the first time she ever saw a real, living Kuros so close, but she never thought they would be so large. Besides, perhaps where he came from, there were lots of animals she had never heard about. 

She would need to have some time with him when he woke up.

> Return to Ponyville
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ever since Chrysalis took control of Equestria, Ponyville had been quite... empty. Mayor Mare declared an estate of emergency, and a curfew was put on town. Most of the ponies living there went into hiding, and rarely walked out of their homes, in fear of being replaced by a Changeling. In fact, as soon as word came to them that Chrysalis had defeated the Princesses, the ponies stocked up their cupboards with food and closed their doors and windows shut. The Apple Family put the animals in the barn, then ran into their homes. Mr and Mrs Cupcake closed Sugar Cube Corner as long as Chrysalis' rule would last, and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were picked up by their parents and taken back to their homes.

The Ponyville Train Station was the only open place in the entire town, since there were still a few ponies who visited Ponyville.  Also, there were things that were brought into town such as orders from Sugarcube Corner or the mail, but since the curfew started they only left the bags of mail and supplies, then left, not wanting to encounter Changelings.





When the group walked out of the train, most of them had a headache. Seriously, they knew Fukkuteru had never boarded a train in his entire life, but they didn't expect him to scream obscenities in Krussian the entire way, when he didn't quake with fear. 

The Kuros zipped off the train in a blur of black and purple when the locomotive finally squealed to a halt, and it wasn't until the other stepped off the engine that they re-discovered their friends on the station.

"Sorry for that," Fukkuteru apologized, wiping sweat off his forehead, "But we have no trains where I come from, not to mention that I'm quite... claustrophobic."

"Wait a second, if you're claustrophobic how is it possible you walked into that temple with no problem at all?" Applejack inquired while raising an eyebrow in confusion

"Well, Stormfly said that the best way to overcome it was to face it, and I did." Fukkuteru shivered, "But at least that temple didn't make those awful sounds and screeches!"

"Ow, my head..." the Changeling moaned as he rubbed his temples with his hoof. Applejack and Cadence had removed the thorn from his leg and bandaged it, but he still limped wherever he walked, so he opted to fly, "Well, could we go to the library at once? My leg is killing me!"

"I can't wait to go back to the library after so much time has passed!" Pinkie hopped unto Fukkuteru's head, and looked down to meet him in the eyes, "You're going to like it! It's all cozy and comfy and pretty in there! Well, we would have to make the door bigger for you to fit!"

Cadence and Fluttershy were surprised to see that Fukkuteru acted rather... nervous around Pinkie Pie, as if she freaked him out or something. In fact, purple magic started emanating from the Kuros's horns and he gently lifted Pinkie off his head and placed her back on the ground.

"Just tell me which way to go," Fukkuteru spoke nervously.

The group started walking towards the library, noticing that everypony in town would barely peek through their curtains to see who was passing by, but quickly went back into hiding after five seconds. However, the library seemed to be intact, even after all of that time. But the group realized the lights were on. There was somepony inside.

"Oh, a party!" Pinkie cried out, excited, "I can't believe they made us a party! I bet there will be lots of balloons and gifts and cupcakes!"

Fukkuteru groaned, "Again with those cupcake things?" 

"Wait a second," Discord muttered under his breath, "Let me go in first, it may be Changelings," he gave Stormfly a small glance, "No offense."

"None taken."

Advancing slowly, the draconequus made his way towards the door, and as it creaked opened, he saw that the lights were, indeed, lit, but there was nopony seen. But before he could even enter, something hit his head hard and he fell to the ground with a loud thud, rubbing his head. When he looked up, he saw the blur of a rainbow mane.

"Discord?!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed in shock, dropping the frying pan she had just used to strike the draconequus, "What are you doing here?!"

"Rainbow Dash?" the others, waiting outside, shouted simultaneously as they ran into the library, "How did you get here!" questioned Shining Armor

"It's a long story," the pegasus sighed, but her mood lightened when she saw that Fluttershy and Cadence were back, "You found Cadence and Fluttershy! That's wonderful!"

"That doesn't answer our question, what happened back at the desert?" Fukkuteru inquired, peeking his head from outside, "We thought you, Screwball and Spike had been swallowed by the temple when it collapsed!"

"Screwball and Spike? They're okay," Rainbow Dash explained, "But since they were exhausted when we got here, I told them to go to sleep. After that, I've been looking out for the library while thinking what to do."

"SCREWBALL IS ALIVE?!" Discord flew up in shock and joy, "Where is she?! I want to see her!" 

"Didn't you just hear? She's asleep!"

"Excuse me," Fluttershy lifted her hoof, "I don't want to interrupt, but I would like to eat something. I haven't eaten eaten almost anything, and the train food didn't exactly fill my belly."

"Well, I think there's something in the fridge," Rainbow sighed, "Stormfly, by the way, Screwball found a baby Changeling on the temple, and she thinks it's your daughter."

Stormfly's heart almost stopped, "W-What?"

"She is up there with Screwball," the pegasus crossed her hooves, "Seriously, you should teach that daughter of yours some manners! She nearly bit off my hoof when I tried to pet her!"

"Sorry for that, it's just that hatchlings only want their parents to touch them, I'm surprised Screwball got to touch her at all. But I have to be sure that hatchling it's my Mist Wing, mind if I go to see her?"

"Just try not to wake her up, we had a hard time to get her to sleep."

As he Changeling flew up the stairs and Fluttershy headed for the kitchen, Fukkuteru finally asked the pink alicorn, "Hey, Cadence, before I forget, when Chrysalis's minions took you to the pyramid, did they say something about Rarity or Twilight's whereabouts?"

Cadence thought for a moment, "Well, they did mention that Rarity was taken to an ancient city in the mountains, but I think you need a map to get there."

"Great, does that mean we'll have to search all night in these books?" Rainbow Dash groaned in frustration.





The door creaked as Stormfly entered the room where Rainbow Dash had told him his daughter was sleeping. Apparently, it was Discord and Twilight's baby's room. The walls were a light yellow, decorated with flowers and animal drawings (courtesy of Fluttershy), with a purple crib on the middle of the room, and a few toys every there and there. He noticed the crib was already occupied by somepony...

A Changeling infant was nibbling on one of the bars.

Stormfly carefully approached the crib, gulping nervously. What if that hatchling was not his Mist Wing? Changeling infants were hostile towards those who did not carry their parents' scent, and he was not sure if this was his hatchling. When he was a few hoofsteps from the crib, the hatchling infant paused in the nibbling and set her gray eyes on the older Changeling. 

She started giggling and fluttered her tiny wings, holding her hooves out to the older Changeling.

That's when he was certain of it.

"MIST WING!"

The changeling scooped the infant in his hooves and held her close to him tightly, tears of joy starting to roll down his cheeks. He felt as his hatchling nuzzled against his chest, happy to see her father after all this time. 

Ane he would never leave her again.

He would be certain of that.





The next few hours were a complete headache for Rainbow Dash. They had been searching in Twilight's books for any map or clue to the ancient city's location, since Fukkuteru unfortunately was not familiar with it for he had never left Saddle Arabia until recently. Fluttershy had made something to eat for everypony, but Shining and Discord spent all of their time searching in the books. After throwing a copy of Geography of Equestria aside, Discord allowed his body to fall on the coach, a groan of frustration escaping his lips.

"I give up!" he groaned, "I don't know where Twilight put that damn book about archaeologic places in Equestria!"

"You mean this one?" Fukkuteru let out a yawn, using his magic to levitate a thick book with green cover, "I was trying to sleep when I noticed I had lied on top of it."

DIscord rolled his eyes and took the book from the Kuros, before giving it a look, "Here it is! It is located in the middle of a mountain range north of here, just before reaching the Frozen North."

Shining walked closer to the draconequus, "But it would be foolish to depart at this time of the night. We should rest, and we'll leave in the morning to rescue Rarity."

Fukkuteru sighed, "Alright, I guess she can hang in there one more night, can't she?"

or not...?
> The Forgotten City
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fukkuteru, Shining Armor and Discord departed at dawn the next day, not before Spike, who had the habit to wake up early, made them a snack. Shining Armor was reluctant to leave his wife just when they had reunited, but he knew it had to be done; Rarity might have a clue of Twilight's whereabouts. Besides, that city could be the place where the last piece of the artifact could be located. The rest of the ponies had stayed behind in Ponyville to take are of the pregnant princess; Stormfly has also been left behind due to the fact that he had already found his lost child, and they assumed he would want to spend time with her.

Shining had rode on Discord's back this time (much to his relief, since Fukkuteru was not precisely gentle with his flight), and they headed out for the mountains. Luckily for them, according to the book the city would not be so hard to spot if the towers of its once-glorious palace were still standing. After hours of flying through the mountains, the Kuros finally spotted the ruins of a once beautiful place. The homes were worn down by the passage of time, with most lacking a roof, and the plants long withered. 

As they landed on the one of the former royal gardens in the palace's courtyard, Fukkuteru spoke, "What a pity. This place was such a powerful empire, and look how they ended up."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Discord inquired.

"A thousand years ago, this was one of Equestria's most prosperous cities, but they were soon consumed by greed. They dug deeper and deeper into their gold mines, tampering with mountain itself. One night, however, there was a mysterious fire that devastated all of the city and killed most of its citizens. The Royal family was barely able to escape, but they had nothing left. It is not known what became of them."

"How are we supposed to find Rarity in this place?" said Shining Armor looking around, "It's very big. She could be anywhere!"

Before they could do anything about it, a white-coated mare took a sharp turn at the corner, looking behind her as if she was being chased by a monster, and ran into the Kuros. She fell to the ground with a loud thud, but when she looked up to see who she had bumped into, she let out a piercing scream. Shining and Discord recognized the mare.

"Rarity!" 

"Not another monster!" the fashionista crawled away from Fukkuteru, "Stay away, you ruffian!"

The Kuros let out a sigh of frustration, "Nice to meet you, miss Rarity."

"Don't worry, honey, he's on your side," DIscord explained as he helped the mare up.

"Rarity, why are you wearing that clothing?" Shining Armor pointed out upon noticing she was wearing an outfit reminiscent of those worn by dancing mares in Saddle Arabia.

"It was horrible!" Rarity started wailing, falling to the trio's hooves, "That horrible stallion wanted to make me a concubine, can you believe it?! I was trying to runaway when I ran into you! I can't go back there! It's Tartarus!"

"Speak of the devil," Fukkuteru pointed out, looking up at the sky, "I think he's looking for you!"

A pegasus as red as blood, with iron-sharp wings, wavering black mane and saddle-Arabian attire swooped down towards the group, "I've found you!" he snarled at Rarity.

Rarity immediately tried to run away, but the pegasus wrapped his hooves around her waist and lifted her off the ground, ignoring her screams of terror. She looked down at Shining and Discord, "DON'T JUST STAND THERE!!! HELP ME!!!"

Fukkuteru outstretched his wings, threw Shining Armor on his back without asking (much to the unicorn's dismay) and, with a furious flap, was soon in the air, followed by Discord, going after the pegasus. Rarity let out screams, trying to get the pegasus holding her to drop her, not minding if she fell to her death, as long as she was no longer in that pegasus's grasp. Soon they were all flying around the ruins of the city, avoiding 

"What to we do?!" Discord cried out

"I can shoot a fireball or a beam at him," Fukkuteru suggested.

"Are you nuts?! You could hit Rarity!"

"Any better ideas, genius?"

"Discord! You follow him, Fukkuteru and I will catch up to him on the other side of the city!" Shining Armor cried out at the draconequus.

Nodding, Discord flew after the pegasus, while Fukkuteru and Shining Armor flew into a different direction. Dodging through the buildings and towers, the Kuros didn't set his eyes off the pegasus, even though he couldn't actually see him clearly due to the structure of the city.

"HEELP!!!" Rarity screamed, in horror, "I DON'T WANT HIM TO PUT A HOOF ON ME!!"

"My dear, it would help if you stopped screaming!" Discord called out to her, "All I can tell you now is 'get ready!'"

"Ready for what?!"

Before the Draconequus could reply, Fukkuteru burst through one of the windows, destroying the tower, and slamming into the blood red pegasus, knocking Rarity off his grasp. The fashionista screamed and flailed her hooves in panic, before Discord caught her on his arms and flew down to the ground to look for a place to hide while Fukkuteru and Shining Armor took care of the pegasus.

"Get ready, Shining!" the Kuros called out at the unicorn on his back, "I'll fly closer to him, and you'll have to shoot at him!"

Shining Armor narrowed his eyes and started charging a beam of magic as Fukkuteru flapped his wings and flew forward as if planning to slam into the blood pegasus; the sultan of the city snarled at the two and dove towards them.

"NOW!" 

Shining Armor fired his beam and Fukkuteru fired a purplish green fireball at the diving pegasus. Before the sultan could react, he was truck by the two opposing forces and he screamed in agony as he felt his body starting to burn. 

The sultan was destroyed by an explosion of swirling colors.

When the smoke cleared, Shining Armor noticed a falling object and quickly used his magic to levitate it closer and take a look. It was a great oval-shaped diamond, transparent as crystal, presumably the last artifact to complete the scepter. 

"Hey!" Discord called out from beneath, standing by the apparently traumatized Rarity, "WHat do we do know? Rarity doesn't know about Twilight's whereabouts!"

Fukkuteru flew down to land in front of Discord, and Shining Armor hopped from his back into the floor. Taking the scepter, which already had the giant crown-like ring on its upper top, gently levitated the diamond to the center of the ring, and he nearly dropper it when suddenly a blinding light from the diamond, no, the entire scepter took them off guard. Fukkuteru used his wings to shield his face, while Discord and rarity covered their eyes with their hooves.

When the light died down, the three pieces of the scepter where together once again after a thousand years.

"Well, we have the scepter," Fukkuteru commented, "What now? Should we destroy it?"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The quartet was taken by surprised when the Changeling Queen, with the same purple mist from before emanating from her eyes, landed a few hoofteps from them. Fukkuteru immediately recognized that mist, and those eyes, but he kept his shock to himself. His race was forbidden to speak about it to outsiders, no matter how much he trusted them.

Shining Armor and Discord immediately took a fighting stance, "Listen here, Chrissy!" Discord snarled, "Give me my wife back, and I might have mercy!"

Chrysalis simply snickered, "You think you can stop me? When I have Sombra's magic, nopony can stop me!"

"Chrysalis!" Shining Armor snapped, holding the scepter up in the air, a brilliant raspberry aura shinign on his horn. "Give us Twilight Back, or I will destroy this damn scepter once and for all!"

After remaining silent for a few minutes, Chrysalis smirked, "You're smart, you know. Very well, the Unicorn in exchange for the scepter, but..." her eyes flashed green, "Only with the three of us present!"

Black magic oozed from her horn, and in a flash, she, Shining and Discord were gone.

Fukkuteru and Rarity stare at the place where they had been standing in shock.





Shining Armor and Discord appeared in the crater of an inactive volcano, but there were a few river of lava running through the rock. Chrysalis landed about a meter in front of them, the smirk still present in her face.

"Hand over the scepter," she growled, "And I'll give you that Unicorn back."

"How do we know you will keep you word?" Discord narrowed her eyes.

The Changeling Queen snorted in annoyance, and with a flash of her horn, a lavender Unicorn with a great, swollen belly appeared in the middle of the crater, just between Chrysalis and the duo. However, her pupils were shrunk and green, she was in a trance, just like when Shining Armor had been under the changeling Queen's control. However, her pupils were colored red, and her sclera was solid lime green, like Sombra's eyes.

"TWILIGHT!"

Before they could run any further, black crystals struck from the ground, blocking their path. Just then, Sombra's familiar black mist, surrounded the duo and Twilight. Soon, Sombra's head emerged from the mist of black.

"The scepter first." He hissed.

Reluctantly, the white unicorn flung the scepter towards the Changeling Queen, and it landed just a few hooves in front of her. Sombra started to laugh, eyeing the lavender Unicorn as he did so.

"Now do whatever you want with the mare," he snickered, "Her usefulness has come to an end."

When the black Unicorn flew down to meet his Queen, Shining and Discord jumped over the obsidian crystals and ran towards Twilight Sparkle.

"Twily!" Shining was the first to speak.

"Twilight, honey, are you okay?" Discord was next, holding his wife by her shoulders.

No reply. The same emotionless expression remained on her face.

"Twily?" Shining repeated pleadingly, "It's me, your BBBFF!"

No reply.

"Twi! Please don't do this to us! Not after all we've been through, honey! You have to remember! Do it for our foal!" Discord felt his eyes swelling up with tears.

Nothing.

"You fools!" 

The pair didn't react to Chrysalis's taunting voice.

"It's too late for her!" She said, "Now, behold, the return of King Sombra!"
> Battle for Equestria
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first thing Discord and Shining Armor did when Chrysalis poured black magic into the scepter was to grab the still-hypnotized Twilight and take cover behind one of the rocks. Black magic started crackling from the scepter's diamond, and Sombra was struck by the black trendils of energy. His eyes became white, and an excruciating pain made him convulse in his shadow form. 

"This is bad," Discord said, taking a peek from behind the rock. "This is soo bad!"

"Don't tell me!" Shining Armor snapped, "Twiley is still under that bug's control and Sombra will be revived if we don't do something!"

"What can we do?! It's not like we have something to fight them with! We don't have the Elements of Harmony, and even if we did, the girls are not here!" Discord let out a groan of frustration, "For once, I wish Celestia was here! She'd put them in place in five seconds!"

Shining Amor took a peek from behind the rock as well, and watched as Sombra's shadow body started to gain a solid form. A plan started to form in his mind, but it was risky. The unicorn gave Discord a glance.

"I have an idea," he said. "We have to destroy the scepter before the ritual is complete, once they are defeated that should bring Twiley out of her trance!"

"I'm with you! What would you like me to do?"

"I'll keep Sombra and Chrysalis, you reach for the scepter and smash it into fragments!" 

Chrysalis grew alarmed when Shining Armor came out from behind the rock and galloped at full speed towards the scepter. The Changeling Queen fired beams of fire magic at him, but he was too fast for her. Sombra realized what was happening and was soon hot on Shining Armor's heels. Discord waited until they were completely distracted, then flew as fast as a bullet towards the scepter. He quickly took it in both hands and called out for the villains, "Hey, Crissy! Sombrero!"

Sombra and Chrysalis stopped and whipped their heads around to look for the Draconequus, but their anger turned to horror when they realized he was holding the scepter.

"This is for Twilight!" Discord shouted as he smashed the scepter against the ground, damaging it, tiny cracks appearing on the diamond. 

Sombra screeched in pain, and he felt his legs turning back to shadow.

"This is for Cadence!" Shining Armor fired a beam of magic at the diamond, making the cracks grow bigger.

It was Chrysalis's turn to scream, as Sombra's  black magic started oozing from her eyes, it felt as if she was shedding acid tears.

Twilight' pupils slowly started gaining their original purple color.

"And this, as unbelievable as it sounds, is for Celestia!" 

Sombra's scream of agony pierced through the air as Discord smashed the scepter against the stony ground a final time, shattering the diamond in million pieces and breaking the staff in half. The black unicorn was surrounded by fire, as Tartarus reclaimed his corrupted soul. Chrysalis fell to the ground, unconscious, but free of Sombra's influence. Discord noticed she as close to the fiery portal,  but as he dashed towards the rock Twilight was hiding in, looked around and glanced at her. 

"Discord!" Shining called out for him  from behind the rock. "What are you doing?

Discord let out a frustration groan as he flew back to the Changeling Queen, picked her up and quickly dashed towards the rock. 

Clawed, demonic hands started to emerge from the fiery portal, and grabbed unto Sombra's shadow body. Sombra desperately tried to get free of their grip, but as he was dragged out to Tartarus, he let out a final roar of anger. As the fire portal closed, Shining Armor casted a protection spell for the explosion that followed.





When the smoke cleared, Shining Armor's force field disappeared, and everything was as calm as if none of it had ever happened. He glanced at Chrysalis with disgust, then back at Discord.

"Why did you save her?"

Discord looked down, "I don't know... But when I thought of what would happen to the rest of the Changeling race if their Queen were to perish... An entire race doesn't have to pay for it's ruler's mistakes."

Twilight Sparkle blinked a few times before bringing a hoof to her head, her eyes back to normal. "Huh... Where am I...?"

"TWILIGHT!!"

The lavender unicorn was surprised when her brother and her husband wrapped their hooves around her tightly.

"Twilight, honey, you're okay!" Discord started filling his wife's face with kisses.

"What happened?"

"Sombra and Chrysalis used you as a leverage to gain the scepter from us, but it's all over now!" Shining explained.

"Now all what's left to do is to break Celestia and Lulu form their stone prison," Discord spoke. Then we can all go back to normal and wait for the foal's birth."

Twilight Sparkle gulped nervously, "Discord, I know now's not the moment for this, but..." she smiled at her husband sheepishly.

"I think we are having more than one foal."

> Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Much happened after the defeat of Sombra.

First of all, Chrysalis didn't hear the end of it when she learned she had been saved by her enemies. When inquiring why he hadn't let the clutches of Tartarus drag her to Hell along with Sombra, Discord simply told her that, unlike her, he was not vengeful. Not anymore. This moved the Changeling Queen to the point that she released every pony of the Royal guard of her control, and even freed the Royal Sisters from the stone prison, and decided to accept whatever punishment they would give her. Celestia was surprisingly mercifully, much to the ire of most pony population, the mane six included. She allowed Chrysalis and all of her Changelings, minus Stormfly and Mist Wing, who were no longer part of the Hive, to leave. After Chrysalis and her Changeling Hive left, they were never heard from again. Everypony assumed she had decided to give up on conquering Equestria, and preferred to try and live a normal life. But someponies were surprised when sometimes, new-coming neighbors had flashes of green every now and then.

Stormfly had initially wanted to leave and find someplace else to raise his daughter, but Screwball convinced him otherwise, even offering him to stay at the library, despite her parents' protests. Eventually, Screwball's puppy eyed face convinced both the Changeling to stay in Ponyville and Twilight and Discord to let him stay with them at the library. At least unit he found someplace else in Ponyville to live in.

Fukkuteru, having no reason to return to Saddle Arabia (the temple he used to study was gone, after all), decided to make his nest at a nearby cave in Everfree forest. He would visit his new pony friends every now and then, but it took a while for the citizens of Ponyville to warm up to a Kuros. However, when they came to accept his as one more member of the family, his visits became almost daily, and at times he would help wherever he could.

The mane six, Discord, Shining Armor and Cadence returned to Canterlot to wait for the so expected day. Princess Celestia pampered Twilight and Cadence as an old grandmother would and wanted them to be as comfortable as possible after all the events. Stormfly and Fukkuteru, although thanking the Princess for the invitation, politely declined it, saying that the ponies from Canterlot would not be as welcoming as the citizens of Ponyvillle. Besides, Fukkuteru wanted to taste those 'famous' cupcakes everypony often spoke about.

In other words, everything was back to he way it was...





The doors of Canterlot Hurricane Hospital burst open as Discord brought Twilight, who was sitting on a wheelchair, sweating uncontrollably and breathing heavily, followed by the rest of the mane six. Shining Armor was next as Cadence, in a similar situation as Twilight, was brought into the hospital on a wheelchair.

The mare in the reception, with a white coat and a straight pink mane with creamy steaks, was taken by surprise when Discord nearly ran Twilight against the counter.

"Her water's broke!" He cried out in a tone which would have made everypony laugh were the circumstances different. "We need help!"

The nurse quickly nodded. "I understand, but first you'll have to check in, mister-" she was interrupted abruptly when Discord took her by the shoulders.

"Check in?! Where?! At the concierge's desk?! Why are you being so mean with me?!"

Applejack rolled her eyes and addressed at the nurse. "Ignore him, he's just ah little panicky."

"Shining, it hurts!" Cadence cried out, drooping her ears and breathing heavily.

"Don't worry, Cadence! Everything will be fine!"  The white Unicorn assured her as he held her hoof. "You'll be fine!"

The nurse, after giving Applejack the papers to fill out, immediately galloped to the mares' side. "How frequent are the contractions?"

Discord whined. "Paw. Constant." Twilight was in So much pain that she did not realize she was crushing her husband's lion paw.

The nurse rushed through the white doors leading into maternity ward, and in mere seconds was back with a group of nurses who took Twilight and Cadence from their respective husbands and pushed their wheelchairs into the maternity ward. Before going through the doors, the nurse from the counter gave Discord and Shining Armor a last glance.

"In a few minutes you'll be able to accompany your wives at the birthing room, just wait."

Then she disappeared through the white doors.





Many ponies consider the waiting room to be boring, silent and an increase in anxiety.

Princess Celestia and Twilight and Shining's parents, Night Light and Twilight Velvet, arrived shortly after Twilight and Cadence were taken into the delivery room. Discord and Shining Armor soon went to accompany their wives in their hard task, but the others were told to wait. The doctor would come to see them after the foals were born and the mothers taken into their room; they had asked to be placed in the same room, for they wanted to meet each other's foals. There were also other ponies waiting, families or individuals who were waiting to hear the fate of a loved one.

After two hours of playing poker, napping and walking around the waiting room, Doctor White, whose coat was, ironically, a dark gray color, walked out from the white doors and called out, "Familiars of Twilight Sparkle and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza."

Immediately, he was surrounded by the mane six and Twilight's parents, but it was princess Celestia who spoke, "How are they, Doctor? Are the foals alright?"

Doctor White smiled warmly. "Congratulations, everypony.  Princess Mi Amore Cadenza gave birth to a healthy colt. But Miss Sparkle had a little more effort to do to birth her foals-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, there doc!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, "Foals?"

Doctor White nodded, "She had triplets. Two healthy colts and a filly. Mr. Discord fainted when the firstborn's head was crowning, but I'm not sure if he fainted out of excitement or shock."

Immediately, everypony started chattering in excitement about the foals, and laughing at Discord's antics, but Night Light addressed the doctor once more. "Can we see them?"

"Of course. Follow me, please."





The room Twilight and Cadence had been accommodated into was painted in a soft white, and the beds' sheets were colored a soft red. When the group of ponies entered the room, they all awed when they saw Cadence holding a small bundle of blue in her hooves, Shining Armor by her side. Twilight Sparkle, on the other hand, was holding three, two wrapped in blue and one wrapped in pink. Discord was staring at his triplets, his chest swollen with pride and his eyes with tears. The thing the new mothers had in common was that their manes were a mess.

"Aaawww!" Pinkie Pie was the first to react, "Four little foals for us to play with! Who hoo!"

Rarity immediately hushed her, "Pinkie Pie, the babies surely must be trying to sleep!"

Twilight smiled at her friends, "It's okay, Rarity."

The Twilight parents, the mane six and Princess Celestia walked closer to the beds to take a look at the newborns.

Cadence and Shining Armor's colt had light sapphire bluish gray coat, almost similar to his father's. His straight mane was a moderate sapphire blue, like Shining Armor's, but the streaks were colored dark violet and pale gold, no doubt from his mother's side. His big cerulean eyes were looking at the ponies around him curiously, and his hoof was entangled in his mother's messy mane.

Twilight and Discord's triplets were a completely different story.

The firstborn colt was identical to his father. He was a smaller, chubbier version of his father; he had a round head colored amber yellowish gray, and big goat-like ears, and a single fang on the left side of his snout. However, he had obvious traces of his mother's genes. He had a spiky fringe of moderate sapphire blue with moderate violet and brilliant rose streaks. The tuft of his tail, poking through the blankets, was colored the same as the fringe of hair. His eyes were moderate violet with light yellow.

The second colt looked completely normal; he was a normal unicorn foal with light mulberry coat, close to his mother's color, and his mane was a pale white, like his father' tail tuft. His eyes were a moderate violet, like Twilight's, and his horn was a little curved. It would probably have the same shape as his father's goat horn.

The filly, like her oldest brother, resembled Discord more than anything, but her head was a pale light grayish mulberry. The fringe of hair on her head and the tuft of her tail was white, and her eyes were completely like Discord's: brilliant crimson with light brilliant yellow. But the mane on the back of her head was the same color as her mother's mane. 

"So, how will you name our grandchildren?" Twilight Velvet inquired as she stroked one of Twilight's colts.

"Well, after thinking it thoroughly, Cadence and I decided to name our colt Blade Kiss." Shining replied, stroking his son's mane gingerly.

Princess Celestia walked closer to Twilight Sparkle and took a look at the triplets. "And how will you name the triplets, Twilight?" She smiled warmly.

Discord and Twilight glanced at each other before Twilight motioned to the oldest of the triplets, "This is Night Charge." She looked at the second. "This is Lavender Dusk." And finally, she muzzled her snout against the filly, "And this is Astral Aurora."

They were together.

They were a family.

And they were happy.