“Cadance,” the human said, looking Twilight’s foalsitter in the eye, “I told you I knew you were coming, and that a lady in a dream told me.”

Twilight froze. ‘No, it can’t be,’ she thought, ‘Rex couldn’t be-’ Twilight’s thoughts were interrupted by Rex bursting into flames. His old form was consumed by the flames, only to be replaced by that of a monster. ‘He’s a Changeling!’ Twilight was instantly on the defensive, but relaxed ever so slightly when she realized that the creature in front of her had not moved.

“Forgive me, my ladies, for I have sinned. I am Alvarium Rex, the king of the changelings, and through me…” he paused for a moment, as if to build up the tension, “...Canterlot burns.” There was a click and a brilliant flash of light.

The next thing that Twilight saw after the spots cleared from her eyes was the city of Canterlot. Worse, it was in ruins. Fires blazed in the distance and bodies littered the streets, faces frozen in terror. Seconds later, Twilight and Cadance were both hurling on the sidewalk. Neither of them had ever seen death or destruction anywhere near this level before. In the distance, screams and the sounds of fighting could be heard, though the current street was deserted.

After a moment to compose themselves, they began to work their way back to the castle. Cadance weeped, “For pony’s sake, I trusted him, and he was the bad guy this whole bucking time! Look at this! If we had been here, we could have helped!” Twilight tried to console her friend, but needed a helping hoof just as badly.

As they approached the castle, one of the guards called out to them, “Princess Cadance! Twilight Sparkle! You’re alive! Come quick! Princess Celestia has ordered us to bring you to her the moment we had located you.” As soon as the guard saw them start towards him, he turned to lead them into the castle.

Upon entering the throne room, which was crowded with ponies trying to get the overworked princess’s attention, the guard lead them right through the crowd. As soon as she saw them, Princess Celestia’s calm mask broke as she rushed to meet them. “My niece, my most faithful student, I’m so glad to see you. I hate to do this to you as soon as you have returned to safety, but I really have no choice. Cadance, I need you here to help me keep order and lead the nation. Too many ponies have vanished in the attack and I’ve been running everything myself for the past six hours.”

“Who attacked? We never did find out,” Cadance asked.

“That’s the thing; they looked like members of various non-pony races, but wore strange armor and attacked with explosions and cursed weapons that kill in a single strike. This is hard for me to ask of you, Twilight, but you, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack need to take the Elements and find the other bearers. They went missing almost immediately and with you gone, we were down to two Elements. Some guards will escort you, for it is too dangerous to go alone, even if the fighting is winding down. We’re winning, but only just. Before you go, tell me quick, where were you?”

“Imprisoned with Cadance. We were released less than an hour ago,” Twilight said solemnly. “It seems that there is a third faction at work here. Whoever is the leader of the invaders was able to contact both the changelings here and those of a parallel world called Earth. Between them, they can capture a pony and imprison them in a completely separate world that can only be escaped from if you have permission from the changeling king.”

“Wonderful, the changelings are in on this. We’ll talk more when things have calmed down,” Princess Celestia groaned, rubbing her temple with her hoof. “Guards, escort Twilight and help her locate the remaining Element bearers. Doctor,” the solar princess said to a stallion in a lab coat that had just walked in, “what is the status of my sister?”

“Unchanged, your majesty. I’m sorry, we are trying everything that we can think of, but nothing seems to be working.”

“What’s wrong with Princess Luna?” Twilight asked.

“She won’t wake, and the moon refuses to rise.”

Minutes after Twilight left, a report had filtered in to Princess Celestia declaring that the fighting had completely ended and the last of the mysterious invading force had retreated. Though a body count had not been made official, estimates were already climbing in to the upper hundreds. Worse, that was just the count of who had died in the fighting. The initial explosions and fires had killed dozens more and the invaders had spent a large amount of setting more fires.

The fires burned through the night, despite their best efforts. Eventually, a rainstorm had been shipped from Cloudsdale in time to preserve the remainder of the city. Twilight had returned in the morning, exhausted but unsuccessful in locating any of the missing ponies, her friends included.

The only good news to arrive with the rising sun was that Luna finally broke free of her cursed sleep. “Sister, what have we missed in our sleep?” the night princess asked as she trotted into the throne room. Her sleep-deprived sister embraced her immediately.

“Luna, I am so glad to see you alright. I feared that you may never have woken. We are all grateful to see that it is not true,” Celestia said.

“That was no natural sleep; only poisons can rob a pony of their dreams. Tell us, what has become of this city.” A quick rundown of the past twenty hours’ events left the dark princess a shade paler. “‘Tis grave news, indeed.”

Canterlot General hospital was experiencing a disturbing trend with their latest patients. Before noon, the flood of patients that had been brought in were injuries from burning buildings, flying shrapnel, and other dangers in the devastated city. However, the last hour had brought close to thirty patients, all injured, and all missing the last week’s worth of memories despite not having any head injuries. The last thing any of them claimed to have remembered was a ‘foul smell’ and darkness. When they had awoken, all of the unicorn victims claimed that their magic ‘hurt to use’ and refused to use their magic for anything.

Doctors were starting to suspect that some of the enemy’s gas weapons could erase memories and that the confused ponies had hurt themselves in the chaos, eventually losing consciousness. Having appeared dead, they were apparently passed over by the invaders.

Among the amnesia victims were Prince Blueblood, Captain Shining Armor, and three of the Element Bearers. The princesses were called as soon as the victims had identified themselves.

Pushing their way through the crowds within the hospital, Twilight, Cadance, and Celestia, eventually made it to the room shared by half of the amnesia victims. Shining Armor, as soon as he saw his love and his sister, worked his way off the bench and hobbled over on his three good legs. The fourth, his left-hind leg, had the lower portion bound in a cast and the upper portion bandaged with cloth strips. He winced every time his bad hoof made contact with the floor. “Cadance! Twily,” he said weakly, “it’s been so long since I saw you last. What, a year since you left for Ponyville? Agh! Dumb leg...”

Twilight began to tear up when she saw her brother. “Shiny, I saw you two days ago, remember?”

“...No. Twilight, nopony in this room or the next remembers anything that has happened within the past week. The doctors think we were hit with some sort of amnesia gas. Nopony will explain what has happened. I just came back from getting my leg set and burns treated. You are the first contact with anypony in the know that I’ve had. Princess,” Shining Armor said, “What’s going on?”

“Captain Shining Armor, one of the guards will brief you on the situation soon,” Princess Celestia answered. Her eyes narrowed as she spoke. “Unfortunately, we have reason to believe that there has been changeling activity within the city up until the attack.” The ex-pony swore internally, then mentally passed on a quick warning to the others. However, his face did not betray him. Princess Celestia continued speaking, unaware of his mental turmoil, “I’m going to need you to prove your identity, or we will need to do it by force.”

“Smarty Pants,” Shining Armor said, addressing Twilight. “I made her for your fifth birth day. Two weeks later, I caught you stealing cookies and you blamed it on Smarty Pants. I never told Mom or Dad.”

“Shiny! You’re my real B.B.B.F.F!” Twilight cheered, swiftly hugging him in the process.

“Love you, too, L.S.B.F.F.” Shining ruffled his sister’s mane as he spoke. “Now, I believe your friends are in the next room over. You wrote so much about them in your letters that I feel like I know them, even if I don’t remember ever meeting them. Your friend Rarity doesn’t seem to like Prince Blueblood very much, and he’s the same arrogant jerk as before. In fact, I think she was tempted to strangle him at first sight.”

“Well,” Celestia said, “I believe that confirms their identities, don’t you think? Why don’t we head over to see them, Twilight. Cadance, why don’t you stay with your fiancé?”

It was a happy reunion all around. After confirming that all of the amnesia victims were in fact who they said they were, the majority of them were released. Most only had superficial injuries, a group that luckily included Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie.

“Darling, it was the most dreadful thing! One moment I was in my boutique, working on my latest masterpiece when, the next thing I know, I’m somewhere foul smelling. I could not see a thing and I swear I thought I had gone blind! The next thing I know, I’m waking up in the rubble of a collapsed building, in Canterlot, of all places!” Rarity dramatically explained.

Agreeing Rarity, Fluttershy added a soft, “Me, too.”

“Oooohh! Same for me! Although, I was baking cupcakes,” said the hyperactive pink pony. She bounced up and down beside the group as they headed towards the castle, her mouth moving at a million miles per hour. The nobles and other ponies that were following them as they finally returned to the castle did their best to ignore the mare, but it was really clear that they were annoyed.

When the large group finally made it back to the castle, the nobles split off to resume their duties. Shining Armor, the Elements, and the Princesses gathered together to fill each other in with their parts of the story.

“So yer sayin’ that ya got trapped in some freaky futuristic other world and lived with a monkey-thing who took you in and gave you a pace to stay. Except that he was actually the king of the changelings? That sounds pretty far-fetched, Twi,” Applejack said.

“I know. If Cadance hadn’t been there, I would have just thought that I was imagining things. After all, you girls got hit with something that messed with your heads.”

“But darling, Princess Cadance was there,” Rarity interjected.

Twilight replied, “For three days before I got there, yet I saw her only just that morning in Canterlot Castle. I think the changelings here had something to do with this whole thing.”

“What if it was the changelings that caused this whole thing, huh?” Dash asked. “I mean, Twilight did say that this ‘Rex” creep practically admitted that this was his fault and that the leader asked for weapons. What if it was the changeling that ordered the attack? They are shape-shifters, right? So couldn’t they be those freaks that attacked? ‘Cause that Griffin thing sure wasn’t like any griffin I know.”

“That is quite perceptive, Ms. Dash,” Princess Luna commented. “It is an eerie possibility.”

“Of course, this is all conjecture at this point. They could be just a coincidence that the changelings made a move at the same time as this group. Mass invasion does not seem like something a race that prides itself on stealth would do,” Shining Armor added in an attempt to deflect the conversation. “It is entirely possible that we are looking at three different entities here. We have no idea what the reasoning behind the attack was, nor why they retreated despite the casualties favoring their side so strongly.” Shining Armor shrugged, then continued speaking, “Either way, it comes down to the fact that we just don’t know. There was no prelude to war, no signs, no obvious enemies. Equestria had been at peace for over six hundred years. Most of the records of the last war are on degrading scrolls in the Canterlot archives.” Shining sighed. “We just don’t know.”

[YOU IDIOT!] Chrysalis screamed in my head. [Everything was going perfectly! We would have made a clean getaway had you not blown your cover at the last possible moment! Now the princesses know that we were involved!]

I cringed under the mental onslaught. [Hey, it was a little mistake! I’m still new at this whole thing! That was the first time I’ve ever experienced war! Sorry for being psychologically underprepared,] I retorted. [It’s not like you’ve lost. A little damage control, some propaganda, and *ding,* you’re good to go.]

[Why do I even bother? It’s obvious that you are incompetent as a changeling. You’ve revealed yourself to no less than four different individuals on three separate occasions in less than six months. That would be grounds for imprisonment if you were a changeling in my hive!]

[I’m sorry. And, thank you.]

[It’s not me that you should be apologizing to; it’s your own hive. And why are you thanking me?]

[Three reasons. First, you finally explained your plan to me last night. That has been bugging me for weeks. Second, you taught me the hypnosis spell. That will be useful. Most importantly, however, you called me a failure.]

[What?] Chrysalis asked, confused.

[You called me a failure and you told me why I’m a failure. Now I know what to do to not fail in the future, so thank you.]

[You’re welcome, I guess.]

Several months later, Luna dreamed an odd dream.

Normally, when the night princess dreamed, she first found herself in a timeless, white void filled with colorful bubbles. This was the world between dreams, from which all the dreams of all living things in the world could be accessed. In this dream, however, Luna found herself back on the moon she had been imprisoned on for the last thousand years. Off in the distance, she could see a blur, something that did not belong. Above her, there was not one planet, but two.

Author's Notes:

*Ding* Have a pony-centered chapter.

I hate this chapter. I really do. It feels forced.

But I had to wrap up loose ends.

Since this is not a pony-centered story, I will not focus detail much on the ponies. They only are really important when they impact both worlds.

Also, Luna sees a shadowy figure in an impossible dreamspace. Sound familiar?

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I have a Christmas bonus chapter written. I will post it Christmas day. It is not part of the main story.

Be warned, it is very suggestive (drugs/sex). It's not clop (HELL NO!), but debatably M rated. Maybe. I'm not the best judge of rating. Though, considering where this story is headed, it's probably time that I bump up the rating.

If you don't like M rated stories, then I am afraid that this may be my last chapter for you. Otherwise, I expect at least double this length for the rest of the story. I have a lot of ideas to cover.

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Stats time!

Canterlot death toll:
1249 civilians drained of energy
321 Royal Guards drained of energy
1146 ponies killed in the fires
2142 ponies injured in the attack, but alive
Total injured/dead: 4858 (>1% of the Canterlot population)

Canterlot damages: $8.1 billion Equestrian Bits (guessing: $3.13 billion USD)

Chrysalis's hive:
Total injured/dead: 64 (9% of the changelings in Canterlot at the time)
Total converts: 30 (faked injuries by shape-shifting, admitted to Canterlot General, all claimed 1 week amnesia)
Net loss: 34 changelings
Total magic gain: enough energy to feed the entire hive sparingly for 3 months on this harvest alone.

Rex's hive:
$4.2 million cash + $5.2 million in emeralds + $0.7 million in other jewels/metals
Population: 10 (9 converts + 1 hatched)

(Edited slightly on 3/2/2014)