As the two girls and Twilight snuck across the corridors with little to no noise whatsoever. They came to a door at the end of the corridor. It was pretty tall and had a spiky frame around it. It was painted green and dark green and had two round handles near the bottom.

"We'd better be careful." Twilight said as she wrapped her hoof around one of the handles, "Doors as big as this have a tendency to squeak or rumble. Let's just hope there's nothing on the other side."

Twilight gently pulled the door towards her slowly, so as not to attract too much attention to herself and the two humans. She poked her head out and looked left and right, so as to verify that there weren't any Changeling Grunts on the other side or just coming down the corridors.

"OK, we're all clear." Twilight whispered as she escorted Diamond and Silver through the doors, making sure to quietly close the door behind her afterwards.

There was a split in the path when they got a good glimpse of the next corridors. One corridor going left, one going right and the last one, straight forward. Each path had a red carpet with spikes coming out of the edges and seemed to go on for the entirety of each corridor.

"Now which way do we go?" Silver asked as she looked down each path carefully.

"Since there's three of us, I reckon we should each cover one path, to make sure we all see what's going on." Diamond suggested.

"No! You never split up in a dark place like this." Silver warned her, "Haven't you seen the movies where the heroes split up?"

"Sure, things start to turn their way for once. They get a look down each path, and that's about it, I always get bored and change the channel at that part."

"They usually all wind up dead or worse!" Silver slightly raised her voice.

"Girls, be quiet!" Twilight started to shush them, "Do you want to alert the guards?!"

"No." Came from both girls together.

"Let's all take the middle corridor then." Twilight quietly led them down the corridor and saw another split at the end. Left and right were the options this time.

Silver and Diamond looked down each corridor once they got to the end of the first corridor.

"We're good here." Diamond said after turning from her investigation, "What have you got, Silvs?"

"Uuuhh..." She looked down her corridor and saw two Grunts walking towards the split, "I've got guards!"

"Shush!" Twilight pulled them both back and made them invisible as the guards got closer and closer.

"Did you hear that?" A Grunt said once he stopped at the split, "It sounded like ponies."

"Oh come on, Rygax." The other Grunt said, "You hear noises like this all the time. You probably need your ears cleaning."

"Oh, you're one to talk, Grexna!" Rygax said loudly before regaining his composure, "Besides, I smell something as well."

"You smell something?" Grexna asked him as he began to sniff, "Come to think about it, I smell something as well. Something, horse-like."

Rygax and Grexna moved closer and closer to the invisible girls before stopping and smelling a little more. They knew someone was here and needed to thoroughly examine the area.

"You think a prisoner escaped?" Grexna asked as he stopped right in front of the invisible princess and teenagers.

"Not likely." Rygax reassured hum, "The walls in the cells are concrete and the bars are adamantium. Nopony can escape their cells. And if we get a unicorn in the slammer, we make sure to disable their magic completely before locking it up."

"Do you think Exordaks knows where those two, um, things came from?" Grexna asked as he started to walk down the corridor, with Rygax in close pursuit.

"She said it will only be a matter of time." Rygax told him, "We already know they appeared in the Crystal Empire. So all we need to do is find the entrance to their world within the castle and then BOOM! We'll have some new stomping ground to conquer!"

"Yeah! Eat times!" Grexna said as his horn flashed in a pattern with Rygax's.

"It's dinner time already?" Rygax said as he and Grexna now rushed down the corridor, "Wow, time flies when you're plotting to rule the world."

Once the two Grunts were out of the corridor, Twilight removed the invisibility spell and stood the two human girls back up again.

"That was too close." Twilight said as they started to walk down the corridors again, "We're in luck. The Changelings are feasting, so there's no doubt the corridors will have less guards than before now. Maybe even none if we're lucky."

"Let's go right then." Diamond said once they saw the split again, "Since guards just came down from this one, there's no doubt that we'll have a clear line out of the castle."

"I hope you're right about this, Diamond." Silver said as she and Twilight ran down the corridor with her.

_________________________________

Meanwhile, Chrysalis and Exordaks were conversating via magical interface.

"How are you faring, Commander?" Chrysalis asked first once Exordaks took a seat on the throne, "I trust you have siphoned limitless power from Luna."

"I have 89 percent of her magic, in addition to my own. Soon I will amass enough power to bend the fabric of reality to my will." Exordaks told her queen, "How are you and Sefraxus faring on your research?"

"Sefraxus has spies over at the Crystal Empire, studying the portal's works carefully." Chrysalis started, "But from what he's learned, the portal is sealed off, and is on a set time limit to opening and closing. We're gonna need something powerful to force it open."

"Then it's a good thing you have me absorbing Luna's life force as well as her magic." Exordaks said in a smugly tone, "Just by thinking hard enough..." She concentrated her Changeling Magic and destroyed an entire row of mountains nearby the castle, "I can do that!"

"Hmmm, impressive. But we're gonna need more than that." Chrysalis stated to her second-in-command, "Absorb all of Luna's power and then head for the Crystal Empire, I will join you shortly."

"Very well then, Your Majesty." Exordaks bowed, "It will be done."

"And don't worry about Cadence and Shining Armour. I trust with your newfound level of magic, you'll be able to overpower them in mere split seconds." Chrysalis said before the magic video screen disappeared into nothingness.

"Your Majesty!" A frenzied Grunt rushed in and bowed once he was met with Chrysalis's gaze, "It's a dire emergency!"

"Well then, speak up, Nidrax!" She spoke to her grunt, "What's the problem?"

"Princess Twilight and those two, uum, things have escaped!!!" He said as he conjured up a screen showing the cell with a gaping hole in the wall.

"WHAT?! IMPOSSIBLE!!!" Chrysalis got up from her throne pretty quickly, "HOW?!"

"Those things are more complex than we thought." Nidrax said, "They must have used some weird magic to counter our own."

"Well, I'm not about to lose my key to complete and utter conquest!" She glowed her horn vigorously, "I want all guards to hide in the front door foyer! Don't attack until I greet them and give the order!"

_______________________________

There it is!" Diamond said as she pointed to a larger door at the bottom of the stairs, "That must be the front door! We're out of here!"

"This was far too easy, something must be up." Twilight said as she descended the stairs with her two humans.

"Whatever." Silver scoffed, "The important thing is, we're getting out of this horrible place!"

The three girls got closer and closer towards the door. But as soon as they were within touching distance, a white flash of light appeared and when it vanished, the door vanished completely and in its' place, stood Queen Chrysalis, looking a little peeved yet calm.

"Twilight, Diamond, Silver." She said to them all, causing them to jump back in surprise, "I'm afraid leaving is not an option you have."

Suddenly, the three girls were surrounded by evil green eyes, which then took the shape of Changeling Grunts. There was no escape for them now, whichever direction they would try to run.

"Diamond and Silver of another world." Chrysalis began as she came closer and closer to the humans, "I admire your powers and your form. But that is precisely the reason why I must get to your world. I need to examine your entire species, up close and personal." She chuckled, "And when I say examine, I mean crush, enslave, impersonate and conquer!"

"You lay so much as one finger on the human species and you're dead!" The black aura spawned around Diamond again, "You hear me?! DEAD!!!"

"The paradoxes are just getting worse and worse." Twilight said to Silver as Diamond started spewing taunts and torments, "She's so desperate to keep the humans safe that it's filling her with protective rage."

"You sure can talk trash, little missy." Chrysalis webbed Diamond's mouth shut with a spell and the dark aura dissipated once the web vanished, calming Diamond down a little, "If you weren't pony or human, you'd make a good drill sergeant."

"Chrysalis!" Twilight spoke now, "You'll never succeed, me, my friends and even the princesses if I have to, will all come and strike you down before you even get to the portal!"

"That's not in your jurisdiction though, isn't it?" Chrysalis said as she came to Twilight now, "Celestia and Luna and being consumed by Exordaks, and you don't have those trinkets with those powers anymore. You wouldn't last ten seconds."

"That would be true, if I wasn't able to do this!" Twilight took the two humans in her hooves and lit up her horn aura.

"SEIZE THEM!!!" The Grunts all charged and flew towards Twilight, Diamond and Silver, ready to hold them down again. But as soon as they got to them all, the three girls vanished in a pink flash.

"What?!" Chrysalis moved the guards aside, only to find that the three girls had completely vanished from the castle altogether, "Sneaky as always, I see."

"What should we do, Your Majesty?" A Grunt said once Chrysalis calmed down.

"We already have all the information and power we need." She said, "I want all Changelings to travel with me to the Crystal Empire. We're gonna storm the human world with all our might!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" All the Grunts said in complete unison, "It will be done!"

"Let's see you try to stop us now, Princess Twilight." She laughed before spreading her wings and flying out the re-materialized door, with thousands upon thousands of Grunts in tow.

Author's Notes:

End Of Part 9

The end draws near. The humans are gonna have their work cut out for them if Twilight, Diamond and Silver don't defend them. Anyway, more chapters to come. Will the Changelings finally win for once? Or will Twilight and Friends be victorious against the darkness again? Only time will tell as we return to you all soon.

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