The twins crystalline doors of the throne room swung shut as the party followed closely behind Princess Cadence. They had been mostly silent since she had started leading them through the castle, and so each felt their own version of awkwardness for the situation. Trixie's awkward feeling came from her current predicament, the barrier she had recently erected around Twilight after she had fainting spell. The blue mare wasn't sure how to feel about this sort of 'help' towards Twilight, even though she had offered in the first place. She sometimes felt very prideful that it was her magic that was helping Twilight stay on her feet another step...and sometimes she felt as though she were holding a fanning leaf over Twilight, like it was only for her convenience. She knew that was not the case, but one does think of odd things during long periods of silence. Especially in a place like this, where her very thoughts seemed to echo around the shiny room.

She was so distracted in her thoughts, she did not notice the others had stopped, and walked straight into her own spell bubble. After briefly booping her nose, and the looks from the others, she regained her composure and gestured her hoof to Cadence as though to say "Yes yes I'm fine, now why did we stop". The Princess pointed ahead, causing them all to peer around her to view the room. Although nopony but Twilight seemed to recognize the place, the gasp she made was loud enough to cover for all of them. Cadence nodded and motioned for Twilight to go ahead, along with Trixie.

"Go on ahead, you should remember the way I'm sure, we'll catch up in one sec"

The two mares nodded and proceeded up the long spiral staircase that led to the top of Sombra's former tower. Although he knew the Princess probably meant to speak with him, Aecious tried to proceed ahead anyways. Cadence held her hoof out to block him, smiling as she did

"Uh uh Aecious, we need to have a talk first"

The stone expression in his face changed to one of mild curiosity

"About what, might that be your highness"

"...You weren't being truthful earlier, when you said why you were still going after Daybreak...were you?"

His eyes showed the slightest signs of shock, but it was quickly hidden behind his hood as he lowered his gaze

"What...would make you say that?"

"I can sense you emotions Aecious, I am the Princess of Love after all, reading ponies thoughts and emotions is my specialty."

That bit of knowledge was enough to elicit a reaction, a very shocking one at that. His cool voice cracked for a moment as he showed visible signs of panic.

"Please...please don't say anything to his friends...especially Twilight..."

"Why would I do that? I don't have any reason to do that to you" She smiled at him as though that should be obvious

"Then why stop me just to tell me you knew this about me...?"

"Because I want to give you some advice...hiding yourself, how you really feel and think, from the world, will never solve your issue. You should face the issue yourself, or at least tell him about it. You may be surprised if the outcome is not what you expect.."

Although he chose to take what she said with a grain of salt, Aecious still could not bare to face the facts of himself

"Where I'm from...it is not acceptable...not natural..."

"Well now that's very odd...I mean you can see it all over Equestria, heck you've probably seen it while being around Daybreak"

He brushed her statement off, that did not succeed in comforting him

"Look...Princess...I appreciate the effort...but this really isn't helping me any...we need to catch up with our companions"

Without waiting for a response he dove under her wing and took off up the stairs. Cadence sighed to herself

"If he's planning on running the whole way up, he's gonna be in for a shocker...I'd better go catch him"

She then took off, flying after him to save the Pegasi from a torturous walk up the ridiculous amount of stairs that inhabited Sombra's tower.

....

Reaching the top of the tower had taken mere moments for Twilight and Trixie, because, just like last time Twilight had cast the anti-gravity spell and sent them shooting up the to the top. Unfortunately it seemed Cadence had not thought of this, and so lagged behind, but eventually Twilight saw her head poke up along with Aecious' as the two flapped their way up to them. Once everypony was back together, Cadence led them back into the area where Sombra had formerly held the Crystal Heart. Cadence pointed to the center of the room, where the booby trap that had ensnared Twilight sat, deactivated after Sombra's defeat.

"This...is how we can get to Daybreak"

.....

Daybreak awoke to a sharp snap! He looked to his left, then right...he heard it again, the faint rustling of rubble and twigs being stepped on. He softly rolled himself to the cliff edge and looked down into the ravine below. Indeed he could see the outlines of several shapes moving down below. He rolled back to Rainbow and Daring, still asleep in one sleeping bag, lucky for him. He reached over and quietly grasped both of their muzzles in his palms, covering their mouths to keep them from squealing. They both awoke instantly and tried to struggle, but stooped the moment they saw his face. He released Daring's lips and held his finger to his own, making the "shush" motion and pointing to the cliff side.

He rolled over to the edge, the mares following his lead and slowly peered over the cliff side. They too then saw the figures moving down below, Rainbow shot a glance at Daybreak, he shuffled his way past them, making his way down the cliff side, consistently hiding behind rubble wherever possible. He shuffled around a large boulder, attempting to get within earshot of the group. He waved to Daring, signaling her when to move. The adventurer flared her wings and grasped Rainbow's hoof, preparing for a mad dash to Daybreak. She saw his hand slash downward through the air, and she took off, pulling Rainbow with her! The sweet thrill of her adventures returned to her for a brief moment as she darted around a near boulder, pulling her lover with her. The excitement of being discovered by these unknown intruders reawakened as one broke off from the group, to investigate their out of breath panting. Daybreak flailed his arms showing for them to shush. Daring grasped hers and Rainbow's lips tightly and shut them...the investigating group member seemed to decide it was nothing, and continued after its companions. The two mares slowly inched their way over to Daybreak and eavesdropped on the creatures conversation with him.

In the dark they could not make out what these creatures were by body structure, but the voices were more than enough, for Daybreak and Rainbow would never forget those speaking patterns. It was like multiple voices overlapping each other saying the same thing at once in a machine-like voice...The Changelings. Daybreak could already feel his fists clench and his blood boil, he instantly felt a wing begin to rub his back. He could tell without looking that Rainbow was attempting to calm him, he relaxed a tiny bit and allowed her to settle his rustled fur as they listened to the changelings speak, their raspy, insect-like voices clearly agitated over something.

"We were told it came from this area, Queen and King do not lie, you should not question them" This one was clearly the leader of the group, Daybreak recognized that his voice was coming from the front of the pack

"Yes, but we have been searching for much time and still we find nothing, no magical force with the kind of power described to us, and certainly NOT the Crystal Heart..."

"We thinks that perhaps the kings obsession with that object may be clouding his mind"

"Both of you hush! Do not speak in such ways about our king, he restored our race in a matter of days, from nearly nothing, to a stronger horde than before..." again came the leaders voice, which meant either there was only three of them, or the others were just keeping silent

"Yessss King may have made us stronger than before, but we are still very thin in numbers, he has not fulfilled his full promise to our beloved Queen, we are still few, stronger yes, but not restored."

"He cannot feed our hives like Queen thought, he cannot help her breed. King holds no love within him for either task to be accomplished"

"That is why he gave us these new powers you simpletons, so that we can take the ponies that we use to breed us and feed us with their love, and if we acquire the Crystal Heart for King, he will control a whole Empire of ponies, all of whom will feed us and breed us!"

It seemed to Daybreak that Sombra was not doing a very good job as king if some of the changelings would speak this way about him. Although that was probably because the Changelings needed love to feed and breed, and Sombra had none...although the leader of this group seemed to have a good argument of his own, if what he was saying was true anyways.

"Yes yeeees, a whole Empire sounds perfect for us!"

"Yes that would be more than enough, how do we get this?!"

"First we need to find the Heart, King said he sensed it somewhere around here, it is most likely being guarded by some ponies hoping to trap us and use it as bait...but they don't know how strong we've become."

"Yes, just us three can take on any number of pony guards now..."

"And its all thanks to our King"

"Yes well, more like our kings glorious plan, he seemed especially pleased with how he dealt with that annoying Alicorn"

Daybreak's fur stood on end and prickled against Rainbow's wing. She looked at him with concern as she retracted her wing from him.

"Yessss, well fooling that brat was nothing but simple strategy for King, after all she is Celestia's student...One fool takes after the other"

Daybreak's eye twitched slightly and his fists began to crush to piece of rock he was grasping

"I recall the moment he returned and tended to his scared eye he told our whole horde what had occurred, I remember his laughter as he spoke of killing that worthless mare.."

The Changeling never got to finish his sentence, at that moment Daybreak screamed with terrifying rage and hurled over the boulder he had been behind, golden yellow flames swarmed around and up his body as he adopted Solar's form.

"NO! Daybreak don't!" Both Daring and Rainbow came out from the boulder a split second later attempting to stop him, but he was already at the group.

The three changelings yelled in surprise as he made for them, claws extended and an unending rage in his eyes. He made for the first of the three and used him to show his intent. As soon as he was within reach, he thrust his claw straight into the closest Changelings chest and pushed upward, impaling him onto his arm. Green globs of what could only be blood, dripped from the fist sized hole in its chest as Daybreak swatted it from his hand. The other two seemed terrified as Daybreak then looked to them, they both charged their horns with green fire and prepared to fight.

Rainbow and Daring halted as they saw the first Changeling fall, Rainbow gasped in shock at the hole in its chest. She could not believe what she had just seen. She held no love for such horrid creatures, but never could she have believed Daybreak would really just kill one, so quickly and without hesitation.

The other two faired no better than the first, but at least the leader seemed determined...for a moment. It sent a blast of green fire straight towards Daybreak's face, quick enough so that he had no time to dodge, but he did not have to. Daybreak reached out and grasped the fire in his right hand, then continued forward and planted it firmly into the leaders face in the form of a fist. The leader sailed back and skidded into the rock covered ground, the right side of its face severely burned. Daybreak watched as the other one attempted escape, but made it no more than three feet before he had it in his magic and slammed it into the ground repeatedly, after he finished and the creature floated in the air limp, he simply tossed it into the rubble nearby. Then he advanced on the downed leader...

The leader watched as his final companion fell, presumably dead

"good, at least now he can't find out where King is...he'll never break me...but those two, might have cracked..."

Daybreak was upon him in seconds and grasped him firmly by the neck, lifting him into the air to look him in the eyes. The leader could see the pure, utter hatred burning in his eyes like the flames surrounding his form. The leader did not fear death by him, but the sight itself was, in fact terrifying

"Where is King Sombra!?"

"Burn in Tartarus you monster!"

The leader spat at him in defiance, Daybreak merely grimaced in disgust and tightened his grip on the creature neck. He could feel his claws beginning to dig into the changelings neck, he knew it had to be in sever pain.

"I'll ask you one last time, then I'll kill you, where is King Sombra?"

"You think you've won something by killing us Chaos Prince? You've gained nothing! You've killed your chances at finding King and I'll die before I tell a monster like you anything."

Daybreaks smile was a mocking one, he lightly twitched his head over to the changeling he had smashed into the ground. The leader followed his motion and saw that he was now getting up. It looked over at them with fear and took off sprinting down the valley without hesitation. Daybreaks smile grew wider as the leader realized what had happened

"Mons-"

Daybreak squeezed tightly, and with a bone crushing crunch, the creature's word was halted before he could finish. He felt the green blood begin to drip down his claws, signaling him that it was done, he tossed the leader over to the other dead changeling and magically removed the green blood from his claws. Within seconds the yellow flames had subsided and he looked like his normal self again. He turned to Daring and Rainbow, aware that they had both just watched what he had done.

"Come on, we can follow the fleeing one to Sombra"

Daybreak turned and started to pursue in the direction it had gone. Daring began to flap her wings, but saw Rainbow was frozen stiff. She stared at the dead changelings and let out a small whimper. Daring glanced at Daybreak, who had also stopped running when he saw they had not followed. He wasn't oblivious to what was going on and Daring knew they could catch up, she waved for him to go ahead, he nodded and took off again. Meanwhile Daring lightly nuzzled Rainbow

"She must be pretty freaked out by watching him do that...I mean I've seen ponies die before in my travels...and yeah what Daybreak did was a little dark for him...I guess I just understand it more"

"Come on Rainbow, we can't fall behind, we need to catch him"

"Why..."

"What...?"

"Why...why would he do that...?"

"Oh...umm.."

Daring wasn't really sure how to answer a question like that, from what she had heard, Sombra had been obliterated right in front of her the last time and she had been completely fine with it. What made these changelings so different...maybe it was actually seeing the blood and bone crushing sounds...or maybe it was because they had never directly killed anything before. After all it was the Heart that had destroyed Sombra before, and the Elements had only trapped Discord...Luna had just been restored...and Chrysalis had just been sent flying.

"He's angry Rainbow..."

Rainbow looked to into her eyes, Daring knew that was a pitiful answer, but it was truthful.

"Rainbow...for someone like him...anger is dangerous...especially with that whole split persona thing he's got now...all that power...all that anger and rage..it was bound to burst sooner or later...to be honest I think you'd better prepare for more...there's alot of changelings, and they serve Sombra. Daybreak might deal with them the same way. I know he'd never ask us to do the same, so the most we can do is help how we can...it's why we came along in the first place remember..."

"Yeah...yeah I do...I guess you're right...let's go"

Daring nodded and began flapping, she hovered there until Rainbow was in the air with her, then they both took off soaring rapidly after Daybreak.

.....

The pursuit of the changeling did not last nearly as long as Daybreak would have liked, it was a good way to build his adrenaline rush back up, unfortunately, they arrived at the apparent ending point in about twenty minutes. Daybreak and the others hid behind some boulders as the drone approached a solid rock face, looking around to check if he was followed. Once it was satisfied it pressed its hoof to the stone and took several steps back. After a brief wait, the stone began to shift outwards, opening toward the creature like an exit door rather than an entrance. The drone entered and waited inside until it had shut completely, then presumably traveled down the tunnel that Daybreak had noticed for a brief moment.

Daybreak waited for several minutes after the drone had left, checking to see if it would reappear. When it did not he came out from his hiding spot and approached the stone wall. Rainbow and Daring followed behind him, watching as he placed his palm upon the wall as though examining it. He felt around as though feeling for an entrance switch, but Daring knew what he was actually doing, she had done the same thing several times before. He was checking for traps, and that meant checking over the whole boulder, which seemed to be taking plenty of his concentration already so she did not wish to disturb him by offering her input at the moment.

After he had thoroughly molested the rock, Daybreak stepped back with a smirk, with a wave from his hand he signaled for the mares to quickly back up. As they did he poured a significant amount of his green aura into his right hand, then with a loud yell, he thrust his fist forward into the boulder and plunged into its center! He kept his hand rooted inside the rock for several seconds as though waiting or something. Right as Rainbow opened her mouth to comment, the boulder collapsed into a pile of rubble revealing the passage way down Daybreak had seen before.

"We should stick together, other than Changelings, we don't know what's down there...stay close"

Daring and Rainbow acknowledged his statement with a nod and moved closer, Daybreak then proceeded into the tunnel, his hand held aloft with a bright green glow giving them the only light they would have once they got farther down. The light of Celestia's sun faded quickly as the trio descended deeper into the dark, eventually snuffing out all outside light after a few turns in the tunnel. They strode as quickly as they could without making much sound, which was hard enough on its own considering this place seemed to magnify even the smallest sound times one hundred.

Luckily they reached an opening sooner rather than later and Daybreak was able to extinguish his light. Given that the room they were in was full of its own, eerie green light, Daybreak easily surmised that this was definitely the new Changeling hive. A few feet ahead, there was an obvious path leading to the next room, which he eagerly followed. They came upon an entrance chamber, but it seemed almost insulting to call it such, even Daybreak had to admire the artistic beauty that this hive had now. The room was filled with eerie green light that retracted off the black crystals lining the walls, the green sacks that housed the few changelings sleeping were covered in crystals as well. The whole room was the epitome of creepy beauty in Daybreaks opinion. This was actually one of the few reasons why he was planning on letting Queen Chrysalis live...at this moment, he had no problem strolling in and murdering this whole hive in a blind rage, but the queen had wanted peace. She had just bucked up and was now stuck with Sombra whether she wanted him or not. In his mind, Chrysalis would be spared, any other in his way would not, simple as that.

As the trio made their way into the "throne room" of the hive, they could make out a large number of drones gathered around two overly large thrones. Daybreak and grabbed the two mares and pulled them behind a large crystal to avoid any detection by the drones. He poked his head around the crystal hoping to get a better view of the thrones. It wasn't hard to spot the bright red cloak that adorned Sombra's armor, even in this lighting and, Daybreak was pleased to see, Sombra's left eye was still seared shut from their battle. He felt a ping of satisfaction as a smug sneer made its way across his face. He could see Sombra and Chrysalis fairly easily, enough to the point he could make out their basic expressions. King Sombra looked as he always did, pleased beyond measure with an evil smile stretched across his muzzle, Chrysalis on the other hand, did not seem to share the his mood. And it only seemed to get worse for her as the drone Daybreak had allowed to escape came running through the crowd to approach the throne.

"Let's get closer, I wanna hear what they're saying" Daring nudged his ribs and pointed to several more crystal they could hide behind much closer to the throne.

Daybreak nodded and they moved up, staying hidden behind crystals as much as possible, barely coming out except to dart to another set of crystals. Luckily none of the drones seemed to take any notice, and soon the trio was within decent earshot of the thrones, they could also tell their expressions much better than before, and they did not look good. Sombra's expression seemed to be fading as the drone recounted what had happened

"...and then he grabbed up leader by his throat and crushed his neck..."

"And how did you escape?" Queen Chrysalis seemed somewhat concerned about this drones fate, while Sombra sat in silence

"I...I fled Queen...when he grasped up leader, I ran, he already thought me dead, so I took off and made it back here before he could stop me and..."

King Sombra held up his hoof to silence the drone, who fell quiet instantly. Sombra was clearly trying to keep a calm demeanor, but it was obvious to Daybreak, who had spent enough time around Cadence to read emotions like that, Sombra's anger was reaching a boiling point.

"Did it ever occur to you...that he simply allowed you escape?"

The drone looked as though he'd been slapped, clearly that was enough of an answer but Sombra waited anyways

"N-no my King...why would-"

"WHY INDEED!"

Sombra's patience had finally reached its climax, he stood from his throne and screeched at the drone. Daybreak' would have called it the 'Royal Canterlot Voice' but it was to dark and hoarse sounding, it nevertheless carried the same effect though as the drone cowered back in fear.

"WHY WOULD HE ALLOW YOU TO ESCAPE?! LET US THINK FOR A MOMENT...MAYBE BECAUSE HE KNEW YOU WOULD RUN STRIGHT BACK HERE LIKE A FRIGHTENED ANIMAL? MAYBE BECASUE I MURDERED HIS WIFE AND HE SEEKS REVENGE?! I CERTAINLY THINK THAT IS A LOGICAL ASSUMPTION! THE SCAR ON MY LEFT EYE CERTAINLY AGREES! AND NOW YOU'RE STUPIDITY MAY HAVE LED HIM STRAIGHT TO US! WELL...WHAT DO YOU AVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?"

"M-my Lord...I'm s-sorry...please forgive me.."

"I do.."

"W-what?"

"I do forgive you...I will be merciful"

The drones expression relaxed, he had been spared. King Sombra's horn ignited in a black fiery blaze, and within seconds the drone was engulfed in the same such blaze. It's scream of pain echoed across the walls as it's body became nothing but ash. The other drones seemed stunned and Chrysalis rounded on the King

"You said you'd be merciful, you said you forgave him!"

"That was merciful...I could have done much worse"

Daybreak's gave dropped, he had suspected that would happen, but it was still quite a thing to see. Rainbow Dash and Daring Do seemed much more shocked than he was. Their faces were his queue to finally end this asshole once and for all!

He ignited his body in yellow flames and tagged out!

It's your turn now Solar, let's make him pay for what he's done...but first, let me talk to him"

"Fine, your words, my body, once you little 'talk' is done I'm in control though, right?"

"Yes"

"Just remember Daybreak...don't ever say you weren't warned..by myself included"

"I know"

His body in full form, he strode out from behind the crystal to face the King. Not like he had to try hard to be noticed, he was the brightest thing in the whole damn cave. The drones noticed him instantly, but parted ways without a fight, forming ranks to allow him to pass by. King Sombra's anger seemed to vanish as he laid eyes on Daybreak, and his serious look was replaced with a smirk. Daybreak stopped at the foot of the throne and pointed at the King, staring him dead in the eyes with his fiery, soul piercing stare.

"King Sombra...It's time for you to die!"

Author's Notes:

Nearing the End here folks, but worry not, for it's still a good two or three chapters away